November 18, 2015 Berkeley Unified Board Meeting

001Our intention is to allow a longer public comment tonight knowing that there were people coming. So I just wanted to let you know that. We're anticipating probably an hour of public comment. Oh, good evening. Good evening. Before, well, it's good because you're all here. Happy to see you. Before I call the open session of today's meeting to order, I want to ask everyone in the room to please pull out your cell phones or devices or other things that you use to communicate on social media. And what I'm going to ask is for you to put it on silent. We used to ask people to turn off your phones. I'm not going to ask you to turn off your phone. If you do get a call, I'm going to ask you to please step outside and

002take the call out there. But we now, the district this year moved to an online agenda. So for those of you who are interested in following our agenda and all the items that we're going to be discussing online, you can do so. So let me know if you want to follow us online. Okay. Well. If you do, in case you change your mind, you can go to berkeleyschools.net. And then at the top, you'll see there's a tab for the school board. You can go to the school board tab. And then if you go down from there, you can go to board meeting information and scroll down to the November 18th meeting and you'll see there's an online agenda there. So if you don't have a phone or another way to access the internet here in

003the chambers, we do have some Chromebooks available for you to borrow and you can get those from our board recorder, board reporter. Liz. And then if you have any problems at all getting online or reaching, finding the agenda, please just ask her and she will help us out, help you out and help us out. So with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and call today, tonight's meeting to order at 845. And for the record, 7.45, I'm so sorry. And for the record, the closed session began at 5.35. I also want to remind everyone in addition to being able to follow our agenda online you can also access the broadcast for this. It's currently live streaming on YouTube and it's also being aired on channel 33 on TV on cable channel 33 and then

00489.3 FM. So there's a lot of ways for people to see and then participate in the proceedings tonight and you can even Go watch yourself on YouTube later if you want. Okay, so I'm going to ask Liz if you can please make an announcement about translation. Okay, so for those of you who didn't understand, we provide translation for members of the public who are Spanish speakers, and they can go talk to Liz, and we will provide translation into Spanish. Okay, will the board recorder please take roll? Director Alonso-Keith? Here. Director Ty Alper. Here. Director Josh Daniels. Here. Director Angelo Paraiso Arroyo. Present. Director Karen Hemphill. Here. Vice President Beatriz Leyva Cutler. Present. President Judy Appel. Here. Liz, do you have another copy of the agenda for me to use? Thanks. Okay. So now I'm going

005to go ahead and report out on our closed session items. We had several, we had a packed agenda, which is why we started so early. And we started by considering a workers' compensation claim, case number 10BSD0001. And we, Director Daniels made a motion to accept recommendation of staff. I seconded that, and it was passed, I believe, were we all there at that time? No, it was 3-0 with Vice President Leyva-Cutler. And then we had an employee discipline item for employee number 9900. The motion was made by Director Leyva Cutler and seconded by myself to modify staff recommendation to suspend the employee. And Director Daniels and Director Hemphill voted in favor of that motion and Director Alper opposed the motion. And then we worked collectively to approve the superintendent evaluation tool for the 15-16 school year.

006That motion was made by Director Alper and seconded by Director Hemphill and approved unanimously. We received an update on negotiations, on labor negotiations for three of our units, of our labor negotiating units, BCC-E, BFT, and Local 21. And then we had a conference with real property negotiators regarding the use of the boardroom by the Berkeley City Council and provided direction to the staff and legal counsel. And then we had a conference with real property, around real property negotiations in relation to the Realm Charter School at 1222 University under negotiations of the charter renewal. So that was our very full and packed closed session. Go back to my, oop, hang on one second. Lost my screen. Okay. Now we're going to go ahead and approve the agenda. Are there any changes that anyone wants to make

007to the agenda? Judge, uh, judge. I'm prophetic. Director Daniels? I would like to move action item number one to consent. OKAY. ACTION ITEM ONE, MOVE TO CONSENT. IS THERE ANYONE WHO OBJECTS TO THAT? OKAY. DO I HAVE ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS, CHANGES OR MODIFICATIONS TO THE AGENDA? OKAY. DO I HAVE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE AGENDA AS AMENDED? I'LL MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE AGENDA AS AMENDED. SECOND. MOTION BY VICE PRESIDENT LAVA-CUTLER, SECONDED BY DIRECTOR HEMPEL. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ANYONE OPPOSED? OKAY. WE HAVE AN AGENDA. So we have a lot going on tonight. We're going to have, as I mentioned a moment ago, we're next going to have our extended public comment. I notice a lot of you who want to speak, so I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment.

008And then we're going to have union comments. I think actually before we have union comments this evening. Excuse me. Excuse me. We're gonna hear from our superintendent and I think our principal And then we'll have Union comments and the board comments so I really want to thank all of you for coming out tonight and The next item on the agenda is going to be public comment so I'm going to organize, we have speaking requests on actually a variety of different items. So I'm going to probably, I'm going to rotate the items based on pretty much on the people who are here and the kind of the number of comments we have. I'm really going to try my hardest to see, to get as many of you in as possible. And in order to do that,

009we are going to have everybody speak for two minutes so that we can hear as many voices as possible. If your name is called, you can cede your time to another speaker. To do so, please rise when it's your turn to speak, state your name, and indicate to whom you're ceding your time. By ceding your time, you forgo the opportunity to speak at tonight's board meeting on that issue, and no one can later cede their time to you to speak on that issue. In addition, it's generally the board's practice. to first hear from students, which we will do. I think we have one student who wants to speak tonight on a particular issue. As I said, speakers tonight are going to be limited to two minutes. And at the president's discretion, extra time can be

010given to anyone who needs translation or any special speech needs just to make it equitable for them. You'll notice when you come up to the podium that when you have one minute left, there will be a yellow light. And when your time is up, there will be a red light. And if I can ask you to just finish your sentence and please step aside again to make sure that there's time for as many people as possible. In order to be fair to all speakers, I'll cut you off if you don't stop, if you don't finish your comments. pretty soon after that just because I want to make sure that everyone who as many people as possible have a chance to speak. So I'm going to call probably three names at once and what we found

011has worked out best is when I call your name the first speaker come up to the mic. I'm just going to say now it's really helpful to make sure the mic is directed like just like adjust it to so that it's going it's speaking pointed directly at your so you're speaking because it's like a direct mic so you have to speak directly into it. And I'll call your name and then if the other two people can line up kind of by the board recorder that ends up working out really well then you can just step up. And then finally, just so that everybody understands, other than thanking each member of the public for speaking, we don't generally respond directly to comments or questions made during public comment. So please don't take that personally. If we're

012writing, we are writing notes about what you've said so that we can both remember and possibly comment on them at a later time or reach out to you depending on what you're talking about. I want to make sure everybody here knows that all of us have office hours, which we will announce. And we want to encourage each of you, if you're interested in having further comments, to come speak to us at our office hours. And finally, I do apologize in advance if I pronounce anyone's name incorrectly. So with that being said we're gonna go ahead and move forward with with our public comment I appreciate your patience in my while I explained all that We're going to start with Is it telly Mon Cooper? I hope I said your name. Oops. Excuse me superintendent and

013then Patricia Middleton and Terry Crona T. We wait on the clock until she starts Hi, I'm Talima Cooper. I'm actually not speaking. I want to cede my time to Chris. Chris? Chris Jordan? Yeah. You can reset the clock. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board, faculty, staff, members of the village. I'm going to read a letter from Ms. Kelly Navies, the daughter of Mr. Richard Navies, the head of the African American Studies Department. To the BSD superintendents and board I write this letter in support of students and parents who have organized to advocate the dignity safety and educational progress of the African American students on the campus of Berkeley High School. I am a 1985 graduate of Berkeley High School and my father Richard D. Navies the first was the coordinator of the African

014American Studies Department from 1969 until his untimely demise in 1991. Our society is in the midst of social upheaval. Not seen since the protests of the 1960s and 70s, our young people are rallying across the country to cries of Black Lives Matter, demanding an end to institutionalized racism. These protests echo the cause of black power in the late 60s, which led to the launching of Berkeley High School's African American Studies program in 1968. It was a first of its kind then, and to this day, I don't think there is another one on a high school campus quite like it, if at all. The curriculum developed by my father and others such as Robert McKnight, Mr. Osi Austin, and Anisa Rashid included African American literature, history, dance, drama, and more. From the start of his tenure,

015my father called these courses to be mandatory. Unfortunately, that call was never heeded. And instead of what has occurred is a steady erosion of the program that has brought us to this very point. It is unimaginable to me. More time? Do I have more time? Or is it just those two minutes? Just two minutes. Okay. Thank you. Next. There is more. I understand, but there's just two minutes for each person. When you see your time, you don't. So let me ask you this. I put in a card to speak earlier. You know what? So I have two minutes. Go for it. Thank you so much. It is unimaginable to me that in 2015, students at my alma mater have been threatened with racial violence and that the perpetrator has, at the time of this writing,

016suffered no consequences. I can only wonder if an African American studies program had been expanded and strengthened in the last 20 years, would we be discussing this issue today? Would... Okay, thank you. I'm sorry. I feel like I'm at a basketball game. I'm sorry. Would students be staging walkouts and protests demanding accountability from a superintendent and an administrative that seemed unresponsive to the need to feel safe and validated as members of an exclusive community? I stand with those who call not only for the continuation of African American Studies Department, but also for it to become a mandatory requirement for all students to take at least one African American Studies course. When I graduated from Berkeley High School, I had taken several African American studies courses as a part of a college prep curriculum. When I

017arrived at UCLA and later at Cal Berkeley, I was prepared for courses in the humanities and social sciences in a way that other students who had not had such an opportunity in their secondary schools were not. Currently, I work as a special collections librarian in the Black Studies Center of Washingtonian Division of DC Public Library System. I am always distressed when college students from Surrounding universities come to me seeking guidance because they have not been exposed to African American studies or literature. Finally, the issues at hand need to be resolved immediately. The perpetrators of the offense threat to students at Berkeley High School and be brought to justice in an appropriate manner. In addition... There should be a series of public forums to educate the entire community, including staff, faculty, students, and parents, addressing the

018issues of racial and educational justice and the importance of creating a safe and equitable space for all. Berkeley has historically been on the cutting edge of social and political progress. Let's continue the tradition. In the spirit of Richard D. Navies I, Kelly Elaine Navies, Washington, D.C. Thank you. So whoever else it was who said that they would cede their time, I'm gonna ask you later. But next we have Patricia Middleton and Terry Cronaty. And then following Terry will be Orlando Williams. I'm appalled at what's going on here. I feel like I'm a little girl back in 1960. I feel appalled by what's going on with these racist things that's going on and the demise of the African Black Studies Department. I grew up in Berkeley. I was born in 1962. My parents and my siblings

019grew up in the Jim Crow South, so we take any threat seriously, seeing all the lynchings and things, seeing all the violence that's going on. Now, this is not a joke to us, and we are appalled that no action has been taken. We feel threatened. Why shouldn't we feel safe in the community we helped to build? And as far as the black studies programs go, we don't have very many things that want to teach us of our history. It's not in mainstream, even though we built America. We don't have... This is all we have. This is all that teaches us. When I came to Berkeley High, I was fortunate enough to have had a father that taught me of my African history and my African ancestry, as well as my Native American and European history,

020because that is a part of who my family is. But my black history has always been most important to me because it is what has been denied to us. I want to stand for this. I'm fresh out the hospital. I have a heart condition, but I wouldn't have missed this meeting for the world because something has... to be done. As it was said, if we stand for nothing, we'll fall for anything. Thank you, Ms. Middleton. Next, we're going to hear from Terry Crunity. Is it Crunity? Yeah. Ms. Crunity? Hello, my name is Terry Coonerty. I want to talk about paper trail and what I mean by that. Our African American children are getting write-ups and the parents don't know anything about it. I want to know how can we stop this because it's another form

021of genocide. For example, I have brought something about my son. He has a paper trail. I have a handout for you. if you want me to bring it to you. You can just give it to Mark. I think that this is very serious and someone needs to take note of this and take action of it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Puniti. Next we'll hear from Orlando Williams and then Emma Fuentes and Alex German. Good evening. My name is Orlando Williams. I'm a parent of Berkeley High Junior. I have two... incoming freshmen next year, Berkeley High alumni, class of 85, and also the current president of Berkeley High's PTSA. I'm just gonna read a quote from a yearbook, Berkeley High's yearbook, from 1969. It was taken from the Black Student Union. This year Berkeley High School

022has observed one of the most dramatic cultural and academic changes in its history motivated by the newly formed black student union. The BSU went to the Board of Education last October to have its 14 demands implemented. I'm going to read some of those demands. Curriculum committee. excuse me, a black curriculum committee, student initiated courses, the hiring of black curriculum associates, implementation of various black courses, teachers, staff, it goes on and on. And as I sat in the BSU meetings the past couple of weeks, some of these things are being asked again. And so I challenge the board and the community to not only find out how we lost them, but how can we get them back? So I speak as the voice of a student. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Williams, and thank you for

023your service to the high school. Next we'll hear from Emma Fuentes. Is Ms. Fuentes here? And then Alex German, and then Robert Rubin. If I can ask the next speakers to please... to stand by the board reporter so that we can move quickly through speakers. Hi, my name's Emma Fuentes. I'm gonna share my time with Laura Rivas and she's gonna start. Good evening, everyone. We are parents, staff, and teachers from Thousand Oaks, and we are here to advocate for our bilingual program. However, in light of the disturbing racist incident at Berkeley High, we would like to show our solidarity with African American families here by giving up our time to them. And we will be submitting our statement to you all via email, and we will return on December 9th to further discuss our advocacy

024for the program. Thank you. Thank you. We're just going to finish our time. We also want to let you all know that we plan to be at every board meeting until February with the objective of... presenting to the board a really clear definition of what our program is, our culturally sustaining bilingual model that we feel that the board doesn't necessarily know about. We also want you to know clearly the community that this program has served and is serving, and we want to urge you to commit to maintaining this program. We feel it's a shame that teachers that work so hard and staff at this school have to come and fight for a program that in Berkeley, California should not even be on the table. So thank you. Thank you. Next we'll hear from Alex German.

025Is German, am I saying your name right? And then Robert Rubin and then Ralph Walker. Thank you. I'll try to make this short too in view of what is happening. I'm a parent of a student at Thousand Oaks, so I follow from this. My student, my son is bilingual. We weren't even aware that Thousand Oaks was a possibility for my son until late in the process. I ask the board to think about the future of this program. It's a critical program for this community. And think about the outreach and transparency of how we can embrace bilingual students in this community. There are many of them. There's a possibility that we can capture so many more to make this program thrive. There is a difference between the immersion program and the bilingual program and I think

026it's important that everyone acknowledges that and understands that these students have a rare ability to command both a mastery of a culture and a language. So it's not both a community thing, but it's also an academic thing. And as a school, I think it's really important that the board embraces this opportunity and also embraces the current moment of so many young children being able to embrace so many languages. So I just want you to think about that. And it's not so much about a program that's flailing because we have 14 kids. It's thriving. It's diverse. And I think it's about. understanding the evolution of this program and the diversity that it brings and just looking to the future. It's really important. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Robert Rubin and then

027Ralph Walker and then Rose Flippen. You know, at this point, are you speaking instead, Mr. Gunnison? Because I'm going to have one speaker at a time. Okay, well, we've allowed that up till now, so you can go ahead and take the four minutes. Thank you. President DePelle and members of the board, my name is Robert Rubin. I've been a civil rights attorney in the Bay Area for the last 35 years. Can you hear me now? Okay. I am here tonight to talk to you about a very serious matter that's going on at Berkeley High School. I represent six individuals who are players on the high school basketball team. And we allege serious verbal abuse and other allegations against two of the coaches there, Coach DeLuca and Coach Hawkins, who have really engaged in just unacceptable

028behavior. One of the allegations is that at one point... Coach Hawkins went up to some of the players and told them that if they cooperated in an ongoing investigation into their conduct, that they could forget about their high school basketball career. They took that to mean that if they cooperated with the investigation, that they would certainly not be allowed to play. Well, true to his word, Hawkins followed through on his threat. And just last week, during tryouts, Niles Malone, who is... An all-league player last year, and if not the best, one of the top two or three best players on the team was cut. Niles, just coincidentally, happens to be the person who initiated the first complaint about these coaches' behavior. So in this site of freedom of speech in Berkeley, we have an instance

029of someone's free speech rights. That is their right to... complain about the behavior of their coaches, which is essentially their right to petition their government for redress, have been rewarded for that assertion of constitutional rights with retaliation for having asserted those constitutional rights. This should not be accepted, and I urge you to take action to reinstate Niles Malone where he belongs, which is on the Berkeley High School basketball team. and to address the misconduct of these two coaches and remove them from their positions if you find that so appropriate, which we would urge you to do. I've never seen in my career, I've never seen people who complain about an issue treated with such blatant retaliatory action. The message that these students get... It's just the opposite of what they ought to get. These coaches

030ought to be role models. These coaches ought to be leading them in knowing what the right thing to do in certain circumstances. These coaches should be teaching them not to retaliate against people who assert their legal rights, but that instead they're being taught that bullying is okay, that calling people pussies and bitches is okay. We don't think it's okay. And we think that this board needs to address it and address it in a serious matter. Don't cut off the dreams of Niles Malone. Don't cut off the dreams of these other kids who have had perhaps their last opportunity to play basketball. Okay, next we have Ralph Walker and then Rose Flippen and then Dorothea Duvall. Hello everyone, my name is Ralph Walker. I'm a 1971 graduate of Berkeley High School. I'd like to see Donald

031Evans removed and the principal removed. How can the principal cut out black history over the superintendent? Tell me that. How can the principal cut out black history over all of y'all? Y'all are supposed to be the leaders of the school district. I'd like to see Donald, if I have to go on a hunger strike, I'm going to see you removed. You don't deal with personnel issues. We are paying you good money for nothing. I'd like to see you removed. I'm going to do everything I can to get you out of your seat. You're indispensable. You're indispensable. Rose Flippen. Okay, and I just want to explain that in the beginning, generally when people cede their time, you get the amount of time, the two minutes. So if you want to speak as well, but everybody who

032comes to the mic, if, you know, I'm letting people go long, but if you can keep that in mind, because I have a big stack of people who want to speak. And so I just want to make sure I'm going to be consistent with what I've been doing. If you want to. Double it up, that's fine, but I'm just saying that that's gonna mean other people won't have the same opportunity. So Ms. Flippen, who were you sending your time to? Okay, Moni Law. Good evening, board. Good evening. Good evening. Members of the community, my name is Moni T. Law. I'm here at the request of the Berkeley NAACP as the NAACP Youth Council co-advisor to lodge a complaint against the Berkeley United School District with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the

033U.S. Department of Education on behalf of black students K-12. Education is a precious gift that we are all guaranteed by state and federal law. Despite these rights, Berkeley NAACP chapter has received multiple complaints from parents and students regarding racial harassment, threats, disciplinary treatment that's disparate, discrimination against black teachers. racial threats at the high school without response or corrective action and this is unacceptable. I graduated from UC Berkeley in 1982, the number one public university in the United States, and USF Law School in 1986. I practiced law for 25 years. Today I'm here as a concerned member of the Berkeley community. The NAACP will be assisting any parent or student who wants to file a complaint against BUSD with the US Department of Justice. I have an email address where they can go online to file

034online, and I have a phone number that I will report for the record. By telephone, 202-514-4092. You can also fax your complaint to 202-514-8337. Tonight, we are filing a complaint. It is here. The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice, discrimination complaint form for Terry Crinnity and her 7-year-old son, who has been written up... written up for behavior to the point where you're marking a child from its earliest age as you're developing as a youth. How does that mark that child for the future? One has to have a better way to handle our students, and it's unacceptable. Unacceptable, and we would like a full investigation by the federal agencies at hand. Thank you. Thank you. Next we'll hear from Doritha Duvall. I was a little unclear. So there's a bunch

035of folks here from the bilingual to speak on the bilingual issue. Do you want to speak or are you going to come back? Okay, great. Thank you. So Doritha Duvall, Ray Evans, and then Mansoor Edeen. Hi, Dean. All right, Uncle Bobby Graham. So right before we actually start the time, I just want to get the time schedule right. So that's two minutes. Myself is four minutes. The actress want to give me two minutes. You got to feed your time to me. No, I'm only right now, sir. Our general policy is that when you seed your time, you don't get extra time. So I'm allowing up to four minutes. I'm not going to allow more than that because we're already extending public comments. So you can have four minutes like everybody else has had. Oh, you

036said nobody can see you. Yeah, I know. It's just generally when you cede your time, you don't get extra time, but I've been allowing it tonight given the importance of this issue, and four minutes is as much as I can do. I'm not changing the rules. Four minutes is what everyone else has gotten. Okay. Well, I am affectionately known to the community as Uncle Bobby. I am the uncle of Oscar Grant. You know, I am first a parent, of course a father. and an uncle, but I'm also a person, a parent, a father, an uncle that love students, especially when they're excelling, but those that are struggling, I love them too. But anytime I hear of an incident of such that happened here at Berkeley with these students, I become extremely appalled. I also become

037angry. And so I want to make this clear. These students have a right to have that individual held accountable. We're speaking about accountability. Too many lives around this country is being killed and no accountability is being held. And so this community is not going to tolerate it here in Berkeley. So I'm putting all of you on notice. As a community, we can have these board members removed if they fail to work for the community. I've traveled all around this country. This system is hemorrhaging on Black Lives Matter, institutionalized racism, and white supremacy. Anyone's failure to not address that issue can have a situation like Daylon Roof in South Carolina happen on their watch. This is your watch. You are responsible for these students. It becomes extremely critical that you address this issue in a proper

038way. Make sure that these students know that you will help anyone that is in direct wrong accountable for their wrong. That student was wrong. He should not be in this school, and I want you to know you're risking his life, because there could be an individual out here just as angry as I am and as willing to take his life. So you have a responsibility to protect him, but definitely to protect these students who he threatened. This is a race crime, a hate crime, and it has to be addressed. My nephew would be living today had Barth took responsibility to hold Johannes Messerly accountable for the crimes he committed before he murdered Oscar. He had a history. Daylon Roof had a history. He wrote a manifesto talking about race. And he walks up into a

039church and killed nine innocent people. And people know about his history. We know about this person's history. And you haven't taken any responsibility to make sure that these students are protected. You are unnoticed. You are all unnoticed. And I'm appalled. I'm appalled at a principal, a black man. Listen, I'm going to read some stats to you because it is shameful for you to want to get rid of an African American Studies program when these children here find identity in themselves and begin to excel when they're taught about themselves. I got 30 seconds, so I'm going to try to do this quickly because we're talking about a very serious matter here. African American Male Achievement, that's a program initiative in Oakland. has discovered it was first conceived in 2010. The dismal graduation rate of 6,500 African

040American young boys has risen from 42% to 57%. The rate of high school... sophomores who have passed the exit exam increased from 28% to 38%. Their literacy placement program scores has gone up by 10%. I'm telling you all this because the reason why they're doing it, they have found identity within themselves through a program that speaks specifically about who they are. Do not get rid of that African American program because you become just as culpable as sending these boys and girls to prison. You all know this. Thank you. So next I have Ray Evans and Mansoor Aideen and then Bart Lowe. Good evening. Darrell Bart Lowe. Okay. Just says Bart Lowe. Good evening to the board and to the citizens of Berkeley and to the Bay Area. I'm Ray Evans from Vifonix Technology and Intermix

041Global Solutions Technology. My partner and CEO, which sits in Little Rock, Arkansas, just received and just returned back, and we were discussing all what's taking place with the concern of the parents and of the students. I'm a parent. I'm a grandfather. My partner is a parent. And the concern of the safety of our children here. So what has happened, we put our strategies together, and us being a technology and a development company, of not only just software and development, also of the hardware also. We're in seven different countries. We have already settled the solution we would like to schedule a meeting with the board and the superintendent and with the NAACP so we could be able to present the solution to this problem that has happened not only just in Berkeley but across the nation.

042So we're reaching out in all the different parts of the world where we are and what we do the problem and the solution is here. So it's up to the board and the organization to reach out to us. We'll reach out to you to see how we can be able to schedule some type of a meeting and get the NAACP involved and the attorneys and be able to show you what we have for you. We have the project. It's done. And the safety could be available here. And I would love to use Berkeley as a prototype. Berkeley High School could be the first model, could be the prototype. So it's a prototype of the school, so they'll have two ends. We have a... But our platform is a marketing platform. But on the back end

043of our platform is a safety program. So we put the safety first, and we're going to put the marketing on the back end of it. So you have two. So you have a seamless program and platform that can deliver you and give you everything that you need for the students and for the parents. So that's where we are. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next we'll hear from Mantura Dean, and then from Mr. Bartlow, and then from Magdalene Kingori. Good evening. First of all, I want to thank Dr. Evans, Ms. Appel, and Ms. Hemphill for meeting with me today. We discussed 17 issue areas, and we are happy to move forward with you, with partner organizations here, to find solutions to those areas. However, it's one area that I think that we need immediate attention

044to. and that's the issue of the complaints from the BUSD employees. I'm here tonight to ask that you consider, as what was requested today, that you appoint an outside investigator to review the complaints of over 20 BUSD employees. These are your employees, and I think it's extremely important that this issue be dealt with. In addition to that, I'm just a little concerned. I found out today that the Black Studies Department instructor being represented by two extraordinary UC Berkeley students. And I think that we have an instructor that have applied for the position. And we'd like to know why that person have not been given an opportunity. to teach that class. She's highly qualified. I think you guys know Ms. Valerie Trahan. She spoke here at the last board meeting. And the importance of that program

045to our community is immensely. And we would like to get Ms. Trahan an opportunity to get interviewed to teach that class. Thank you. Mr. Bartlow, then Ms. King-Ori, and then Karina Grandison, followed by Lynette Robinson. Dr. Evans and all board members, administrators, teachers, auxiliary help, I acknowledge all of you and say thank you for your service, dedication, and diligent work. My name is Darrell Bartlow, a proud BHS graduate of 65. I love Berkeley High with a passion. If you cut me open, I'll probably bleed red and gold. I stand behind you representing the Berkeley chapter of the NAACP. I want what most, if not all people... that have children that they be given a quality education because all lives matter. No one doubts that you are working hard. The question is who are you working

046hard for in the community? I think that your efforts are not sufficient and improvement is needed and necessary. This is evidenced by the many people hear the voice of complaint in hopes that their voices will be heard. We want and demand efforts be made to make a difference between a success and a failure in the lives of our children. Meredith Moran, who wrote a book, Class Dismissed in 2000, she chronicled three students at Berkeley High. She gives clear and chilling examples of how white and black children are treated differently by school administrators and police, bringing to light the dirty little secret of racial inequality. The NAACP wants to see BHS, a multiracial educational institution, operate as one school with a common objective, quality education for all. We concern locals want to know how some are

047Howard. Harvard and Cal bound while others are illiterate or at the lower end of the proficiency scale. What is the BOS doing to remedy this disparity? Moran documented that in 2000, 85% of the students went to a college, 14% African Americans. We're scared because African Americans boys got a better chance of going to the prison than to... Thank you. Ms. King-Ori, Karina Grandison, and then Lynette Robinson. Can you speak a little closer into the microphone, please? Thank you. Okay, good evening, everybody. Thank you, the board and everyone who is here today. I have four, right? No? Okay, thank you for everyone who is here today. I'm a parent of a Longfellow student. His name is Ishmael. My son is a black boy. And I'm here to speak for the future. And what I want to

048talk about is silence. When you keep quiet, that says a lot. It has taken two weeks. since the fourth to get a letter from superintendent. We can't tell you what to do, but we don't want to be part of the silence. We are here to tell you we are not going to be in the silence movement. We are going to talk. Because if you talk about, if you look at the word silence, this is what it means. Stillness, muteness, omission of mention. You are forgotten, powerless, silenced. still, quiet. In the military, it says to steal enemy's guns by more effective fire, to inject. So we are here to say we are going to speak as allies. of this community because we don't want to have silence. If something happened, we cannot behave like it never

049happened. We cannot ignore it because we want to wait for the holidays. There is no holidays for us. We are fearful for our children. Our children are fearful. We need to know. Whatever it is, this is a teaching moment for all of us, for the community, for yourselves, for ourselves, for our children. How do you address issues with everything going on in this community, in the whole country? How can we forget? We don't wait until someone is mandat before we do something. Waiting and actually the date the superintendent put here is unacceptable. We need more action. This is not enough. Thank you. Ms. Lynette Robinson, Manny Lightfoot, and Michelle M. I want to say thank you because they're not saying anything that you have not been hearing. I worked for Berkeley Unified, and you guys

050know it. You guys have gotten complaints. You have one sitting on your desk right now from me because I was attacked, and you guys are not doing anything. Bigger issue is the Black Studies Department. Because see, I was privileged enough to be there with my cousins when they tried to take it away in the 70s. Didn't know what I was a part of. Then I was privileged enough to be a part of it. It wasn't a discriminatory thing. I learned about self. I learned to love self. That's why I can stand in front of you and face you. Something that you can't do to me. That's what we want our children to do. I've said it before. I'm tired of seeing them going to the grave or going to jail. That's your responsibility to give

051them what they need. You're supposed to be giving them the tools. You have been denying and denying and denying. People flew in to tell you that you're denying our children. Purposely. Without purpose. That is wrong. And I keep saying, shame on you. You sit there quietly because that's what you want to do. You don't want to face truth. If the NAACP had not contacted you, he would not have sent out anything. I worked there. See, not only the students were threatened that day, he said African Americans. That meant anybody that was African American. Yes, I am mad. I have come in here, I begged and I pleaded. You give us lip service about the achievement gap. Lip service. You do studies. And then you start all over again. Action. Action. Action. It is time for

052action because you're not ready for what's next. Thank you, Ms. Robinson. You're not ready for this. Ms. Crandison. Mrs. Crandison. Hello again. I have been here before. I was here in June, and I'm bringing the board the same message. My name is Corina Grandison. I am the mother of a senior here at Berkeley High. He is a basketball player. However, he is not playing on the team right now. We have spoken to you before. We've spoken to many of you individually. We have come to your office hours. We have sent you emails. And yet, as of today, the Berkeley High basketball team is being coached by the very same people that we have complained about. The reason we have complained about them is that they are using what my son calls feminizing language of the

053boys. The boys are the black boys. I'm the mother of a black boy. My son has been told to grow a vagina. Yes, my son has been told that girls have pussies and boys have dicks. What do you have? Do you have a vagina or do you have a dick? Step up to it. This happens in the context of the kind of practice that these boys have been through, which is called war, when they are told to attack each other and to hurt each other. You all know this and you are aware of it and you have done absolutely nothing. I am here as a very upset mother. And when I was here in June to speak to you, I was on the VMO board and all of that. However, the notes that you took

054on what I said was a parent was here to thank the board for the hard work that they have done. Do you guys not have ears? Do you guys not have eyes to read what we write to you, to hear what we say to you? My son is actually suffering from impact of the fact that he now does not want to participate in the basketball team this year, even though he already has a college spot to play basketball. The reason he doesn't want to play is that it is humiliating to be asked if you want to grow a vagina when you are a 17-year-old boy. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Crennison. Manny Lightfoot and Michelle M. And then Barbara White. Are you Ms. Lightfoot? And who was this other person? Okay. Will you

055introduce yourself? So four minutes is the, yeah. Thank you, my people. Good to feel the love, though. Good evening. My name is Laura Babbitt, and I am the Director of Parents of Children of African Descent. And we are here today because in partnership with community organizations such as the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter, because we are outraged that we have not had a community meeting to address the lynching threat and the safety of our students. In addition, we have constantly been before you regarding our African American Studies Department. But tonight at this school board meeting, we want to inform you that we want a community town hall meeting specifically for African American and black families because we need to know that our kids are safe. Emails are clearly not enough. You need to come

056and talk to us. And as I look at this letter, I see all of this communication regarding Berkeley High. Berkeley High. Berkeley High. My kid is that long fellow. I am just as upset, just as afraid, and just as in need of information as to how my kid is going to be safe as every other resident of Berkeley Unified School District. Next, we want an assurance that the City of Berkeley Family, Youth, and Children's Services can have ample access and opportunity to work with our African American students in the process of healing and that the detailed information for this service will reach all of our students and our families. I see in this letter that they were there today, but do you know that they were only there because of constant advocacy? Because we had

057to push, we had to make room, we had to not... walk away and say they are going to come and talk to our students. And then in the middle of that, you all had a lockdown. A lockdown. So we're already dealing with students who are terrified, family members who are traumatized, and you go the next step with a lockdown? This is why we want licensed people, and you guys need to be collaborating with licensed people, because that only reinforces trauma for several students. That was another bad decision, that had you talked with the community first, we could have enlightened you and said, hey, let's think about that. This is why this is not a 30-minute discussion. This is why this is not a public comment discussion. And this is why we are outraged that it

058would take this long to get a letter, to get an email, and not a real sit-down about the safety of our students. I'm even outraged that I haven't heard from the mayor. I'm even outraged I haven't heard from the city council members. Because I live in Berkeley, and that's it, all African Americans. So why is this a Berkeley High School incident? And as board of directors, you all need to be communicating with the city of Berkeley because we need to know that we're going to be safe everywhere in Berkeley, every day. Lastly, we want you to put a plan in place that will make sure that school administrators, teachers, and staff are actually trained. This is the third incident and all I hear from teachers all the time is, we don't know what to do.

059Well, what do we do? How do we talk about this? We're not capable of talking about this with our students. Why isn't there a plan in place so that number one, you know, the robocall goes out just like it did when you thought there was a threat that a student was going to be kidnapped. We should have heard about this as long as a Longfellow parent, as a Rosa Parks parent, as a Thousand Oaks parent, as a Willard parent. We should have known about this threat, not through the media, but because we heard from our leaders who we've elected and have entrusted to make sure that our kids are going to be safe. and well educated. So I'm here today to say get on it. Thank you, Ms. Babbitt. So we have about 10 more

060minutes of public comments and I have more than five cards left. So I'm going to keep going through them and we're doing the best we can to hear from as many people as we can. But if you can keep that in mind when you're speaking. So Barbara White, you're next. And then, oh, she did? Barbara White did? No, she didn't. Okay, and then who are you seating to? Okay, and then sis Beatrice? Okay. Good evening. What's your name? William Gray. Mr. Gray. I live in Berkeley. My kids go to Berkeley. Y'all Berkeley schools. I feel like this was unfair to us as a whole community. We letting principals just say what we can and can't. We letting principals just say we can throw out African American studies. We letting... Young kids today just say, hey,

061look, we can hang people now. And that ain't never been cool. And I don't agree with none of that. I think y'all should stand up as a whole and come on and talk to us, say something, do something. What are we here for? And I feel like even the mom, what she's going through. And y'all just going to throw it out the window. Come on, stand up for us. We've been here. We've been giving you our money. Come on. That's how I feel. Step up. Step up. Thank you. Naomi Drow? Oh, I'm sorry. Are you going to speak on behalf of Mrs. Petrie? What's your name? Okay. You can have four minutes. Yeah, I ain't got no greetings for y'all. I mean, I'm hearing something that's disturbing. I came all the way from Ferguson, Missouri.

062You know, I would say a place that you don't want Berkeley to look like. If y'all keep tripping, you know, I was trying to refrain from calling what I what I see I see these two young brothers I Appreciate you engaging in the political system. I Preach appreciate you trying to stand up and take a seat at these tables what I'm telling you man is a person who? People in my organization we've been to the UN we've been to the White House We've been in the Oval Office with Barack Obama. We said it means with Attorney General Hogan What we telling you, man, you might want to just go and raise up out there a seat. Because you on the board, you know, I'm going to keep it real. You on the board with somebody

063who laughing while people up here pouring out their heart, and you sitting up there with a house negro. I'm going to keep it real with you, brother. And so some of these people, and I'm going to tell the other people, if you're not a house Negro, if you really are here for the people, you might want to just stand up with the people. You should have signed one of these green cards and testified about this district, about this racist principal who won't get this student out of here. So if you, you know, I understand what you're trying to do, man. But I march with people that's younger than you. You know, I stood in the streets for over a year and we still in the streets with nine-year-old girls that got tear gas to the

064face, pepper sprayed, maced. I ain't talking about one day. I'm talking about for a year straight, man. We're talking about Mike Brown. We're talking about cases where in Ferguson, the students couldn't even say Mike Brown or Ferguson in the school. Just like here, they didn't have no counselors. They don't have no psychiatrists coming for young black and brown boys in the street, young black and brown girls. This is what we're facing right here. We're talking about a school-to-prison pipeline that's being sanctioned by this board right now. Nobody cares about these people. I can see it because if you got to, I'm going to reach out to you. If you want to send your son to St. Louis, Missouri, I went to the oldest black high school west of the Mississippi. He can come play ball

065for Al Thomas right now. Because we got to have some solutions outside of whatever this is. Whatever this apparatus is, it ain't working for the people. You can tell if we're talking about a year, we're talking about years, we got people who testifying for stuff that was last year. This last semester people talking about bringing up yearbooks from 30 and 40 years ago You you can't huh? It's still the same vibe. So we can't vote this out. It's looking like something different So all your checks It's not signed by nobody that's really important. Your check is signed by these students and so if you it The parents are here. They supporting the students not hurt cuz they don't care about it You know why cuz they know this ain't the right form It's been people

066young people younger than me. I'm 30 now I went to a board meeting 15 years ago when we lost our accreditation in st Louis City We got it back because of a charter school. I got my high school I got we give out fourth. We gave out 4,000 books in Ferguson That's more books in the oldest black high school west of the Mississippi. I go to elementary schools. They don't have no library We give our more black books in a books and breakfast program You know why? Because it's always somebody sitting in one of these chairs that's willing to sell our souls and sell our curriculum down the river. So what I'm telling you right now, this is not no game. This is not no joke. So if you really stand with the people, don't

067sit in that chair no more. Because you're going to go down on the wrong side of history. Naomi Dioff, she's already spoken. No, we only, you can speak one time, so if you. I'm sorry, we have the, as I clarified in the beginning, you can speak, each speaker can speak once. So if you would like to, we would love to hear from you. So if you, we want to hear from you. My name is Naomi Joof. I am the chair of the African American Studies Department at Berkeley High School. And I came here actually to hear what other people had to say. And I'm really proud of everyone. It is really rejuvenating to know there's a strong belief in what I believe in and educating our children about who they are. And that is why

068I have such a strong belief in the viable program that we have at Brooklyn High School in the African American Studies Department. And where it is today, I would say that, all right, it has pained me every moment in the 90s when I saw the program go down. And my fight is always, and I've said it to everyone, the program should come alive because we have so many babies that do not know who they are. When a child says to me, when I say, you know, Africa, and they say to me, oh, the country, where is it? I get concerned. These are black babies. I'm saying that in elementary school, need to have African American studies, black studies. It needs to be in BUSD as it was back in the 70s. You had it. It

069was a strong program. So by the time our students got to high school, they knew who they were. You would not have the problems you are having today because there's a strong sense of identity. So everything that was said today as a department head and my colleagues, we talked about it. We support strongly, so it's something for the board to really take a listen and take action. Words are no good, action is more. Thank you. Genia Scott, and then I'm gonna go ahead and just let the folks who are here who put in cards speak, so I hope that's okay with the rest of the board. Two minutes each. Genia, and I'm just gonna ask everyone to speak two minutes because we're already at over an hour of public, or about an hour of public

070testimony. So we have Genia Scott, Willie Phillips, and Norris Cooper. No, there's more. Those are the next three. So I'm calling three at a time. Genia Scott, Willie Phillips, and Norris Cooper. I just said, sir, there's more. I'm calling the next three names, which are Genia Scott, Willie Phillips. Mr. Phillips, why don't you come on up? And then if Ms. Scott comes, and then Willie Phillips, and then Norris Cooper, and then next after that is Loba Yates. I think that he already is a different person. Okay. You got it. Good evening. Hello, board members, audience. I just wanted to be very brief because I don't think it takes two minutes. Be accountable. Thank you. That was brief, Mr. Phillips. Okay. Norris Cooper. Oh, genius guy. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Okay. I think you ceded your

071time. Didn't Ms. Middleton cede her time earlier? Go ahead. It's fine. It's fine. Go ahead and I'll bend the rules. Go ahead. No, I know she was called earlier and ceded her time. Oh, different Middleton, different Middleton. Got it. Okay. Got it. Go ahead. Yeah, I guess we do. Hi, my name is Ruth Middleton, and I am the mother of Kamal Middleton, who was murdered in Berkeley on December 29th of last year. And he was murdered by three young black men. And if those black men had been given the education, I believe, to do... to get educated, to learn about their history, they wouldn't be out doing what they're doing. The pipeline starts at what, third or fourth grade? Young black boys and girls, especially boys, are already put in a record to where by

072the time they reach high school, they reach prison. I grew up in Berkeley and I know of so many young black men in Berkeley who all they did was meet each other in jail. They should not be meeting each other in jail. They should be meeting each other in high school and getting an education. I don't know how many black boys, before they even reach Berkeley High, drop out. But I know the Berkeley liberals are so concerned with everybody overseas, they should be concerned with the boys and girls right here. Thank you, Ms. Middleton. I apologize for that confusion. Norris Cooper and then Loba Yates. Okay. And then Daryl Muhammad. Good afternoon, Dr. Evans, President of Pell, members of the board. I'm here as a community member and a parent. I have two kids that

073are in LeConte Elementary School, but I'm concerned about the Black Studies program because it's a self-esteem, cultural self-esteem that's built when kids get that education. And without it... Kids kind of just develop and they don't have a sense of self or a strong confidence or anything and it's kind of hard to get to have access to The things you need when you don't even know who you are. So I think you have to kind of consider Saving a program that's actually built around a community came together civil rights action and it kind of helped people along the way and then it's been kind of taken away over time, little bits and pieces here and there, and it's nothing for the students. The second thing... is the student safety at Berkeley High. It's not really being

074taken seriously. I didn't really hear about it through any mass text or anything like that. And it kind of concerns me that the statement went out saying somebody was going to get lynched, and then nothing happened. And I understand you guys are busy and doing other things, but the safety of African-Americans in the community is serious, especially at the national level with all the police violence. all the radicals going in the churches, killing people, and so forth and so on, is something that needs to be taken serious. Especially when we consider the disciplinary actions taken against African American kids and then there's nothing being done against a kid of another nationality. I'm for all kids. I want to make that clear. All kids that have equitable education, but we can't apply discipline against one group

075in one way and then another group disproportionately. That's unfair. That's why I'm here this evening. Thank you. Loba Yates. Okay. And so, Daryl, you're next. So you have four minutes under the rules of this evening's meeting. I want to start off by saying that to not have a program that goes against us being robbed of 450 years of our own self-hate that has been put on us by other people. wrong. We need to get that knowledge back. So we need to have programs set up to where we can have that in our children now. Next off, I want to get to you, Superintendent, sir. I was reading this letter that you, I guess, I don't know if you wrote it or if somebody else wrote it on your behalf, because I felt as if you

076should have said something, which you should have said something a lot sooner. There's a paragraph here where it talks about how I guess they had nigger go home on your college door. That's what it seems like in his letter. Is that what you said, sir? Okay. And I have an issue because still it seems as if you have no testicular fortitude to do anything to help the people here in Berkeley, especially the students and black students, especially if you've been through something like that. You should be really backing this whole entire situation. Is that what I'm talking about? Now next let me say for the when I first heard of the situation that happened at Berkeley I stood in solidarity. Now I'm standing in support and I'm standing as a servant to the students and

077to the parents because this is wrong. I am actually one. who in San Francisco at my job, Recology San Francisco, which is the garbage company in San Francisco, they hung up a noose. The exact same thing that you all are doing here by trying to pass it off as a joke is the exact same thing that happened to me. And it seems as if it's a blueprint that everyone seems to follow throughout the entire country and it needs to stop immediately. Anytime, unfortunately, it happened to the adults on jobs. Now it's being pushed on to our children and that is totally unacceptable. I stand with Uncle Bobby, what he just said. I stand with my brother over here from Ferguson. You all are on notice. This is a community issue. I'm being honest. You all

078better start doing something because for you all not to do anything or to deny that racism exists shows that you really are racist yourself. So you all might want to get with the time. Go home, look in the mirror, and think about what it is that you all are going to start doing and start doing something to help. Don't stand on the wrong side of history. That would be very bad for you. Really would be. Because there may come a time that, you know, the white folks don't accept you and you want to come back to us and we ain't going to accept you. Let's be honest. Let's just be honest, okay? So... So, and it's not a joke. You know, I'm being serious. I might say it in a jokey manner, but let's be

079honest. Anytime something that is that vulgar that is put up, it's really a terrorist attack. It's a terrorist attack. And unfortunately, through history, over 450 some odd years, black people here in America, red people here in America, have been terrorized. And enough is enough. This is 2015. This is not 1950. What the hell is going on? And why is nobody, why are everybody moving so damn slow? Why do we got to have a damn meeting to try to make things change? Just change it. Is that not what you all were elected to do? Or are you guys just elected to sit up there and look nice, pretty, and cute? Or sit here and tell us that we only have two minutes to speak at a meeting or four minutes? Do something about it. Because if

080you don't, Then you're gonna leave it to these people right here to remove you all and I'm pretty sure you all like your high-paying positions I'm pretty sure of that but do something about it. That's all that I got to say. Thank you. Okay, we have Whitney Jordan Keith Carlisle Are you still here? Mr. Carlisle? You're speaking on a different notice a different item Melanie Perry and Gary Wade And those are all the cards that I have Whitney Jordan is next Okay, Keith Carlyle is next then. Out of relative obscurity, each generation must identify its mission, fulfill it or betray it. Frantz Fanon, interestingly, a French expatriate. So, having said that, Dr. King said, some people would rather switch than fight. You know, and we want to fight. We don't want to switch. So, what

081I'm saying here is that Dr. Evans and... Board, I'm here to address what you, Dr. Evans, has characterized as systemic and institutionalized practices, and these are your words, sir, that are perpetrated and end up negatively impacting students and families of color. And I say this, these are my words, in the... Berkeley Unified School District Schools and Properties and I'm here to speak to you about the blight on Ward and Martin Luther King. This is a teaching moment as someone said earlier. Why is it that by BTEC on Ward and Martin Luther King there's an empty lot that's owned by the school board that looks like it's going to take a truckload of bureaucracy to get you guys to move on. Why is it growing? Hershey's Papers and Nabisco products and garbage and debris and dogs

082and feces and all that. And this is right next to your school that you send the students to from the regular high school that you call disruptive. I see a lot of children walking by with ankle bracelets on from that school particularly. And that's troublesome to me. I walk around that lot that's next door where the basketball courts are and I see homeless people sleeping there. I see homeless people. Defecating on the ground and I don't see anybody coming to clean that up I've talked to some of the people with a property management and they told me that they can't touch it They don't have the right to do that. This is not a part of the school districts property I don't understand that when I choose to walk by and they see this kind

083of thing and they don't see any kind of Cleanliness that that that to them is like we're we're no matter. This is not important for us So you have two or three gardens there and I see raccoons and all that eating. Well you know, and possums and that kind of thing, but you don't seem to want to abate that. When I go in other parts of Berkeley and other high schools, I mean, excuse me, other school areas, I don't see that where higher income people are living. So these are my concerns. And so I wanted to bring that to you tonight, and I wanted to join that to this issue about why children feel that they can come to the schools and say disparaging things about other children and get away with it. So that

084was my, that's my point. And it's time left for somebody else. If they have something else to say. Thank you, miss Mr. Carlisle. We have Melanie Perry and then we're going to end up. I can't remember if Mr. Wade already. Okay. Okay. So Mr. Way, you are going to wrap us up this evening. Well, not the whole meeting, but the public comment period. Good evening board. Good evening community. I'm alumni from class of 1981, and I was a part of that protest when the black studies went out in protest against the fact that they're going to take it out the schools. I was on that march. I was right there when it happened. In fact, I'm a student of Dr. Navy's. I'm a student of Dr. Austin. I do them very well. They taught me

085a lot about my culture. that I wouldn't have gotten nowhere else. And I appreciated them for everything that I learned, even down to Swahili, which I never would have learned anywhere else. And it's very important that we have kept, keep our black studies in the schools. I have daughters that have graduated from Berkeley. I have a granddaughter that's trying to come through school. I don't want to have to be in fear of my granddaughter being attacked. We shouldn't have to go through this. We should not have to go through this. And it's sad. As a people, as a culture, we should not have to go through this. And I'm also here for another reason. My partner, Mr. Ray Evans. with bufonics. We're ready to put in some communication for safety for our children and our

086parents because we need effective communication when there's something going on. We need to let our families know. We need to let our families know how much is it going to take before you get to the point of understanding we need effective communication when there's an emergency. You know, this is not acceptable. I'm a Paul as well, and we need to do something about it. Thank you. Thank you. So next we're going to wrap up with Mr. Wade. Hello, Mr. Wade. And then I'm going to, our superintendent has a few words, so I'm going to ask that, I'm going to ask him to speak after Mr. Wade concludes. Thank you. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Gary Wade. I'm a graduate of Merritt College and Laney. And I just want to put a word in for

087Black Studies and also a word in about the gentleman that... Spoke his mind the other day. As far as black studies, 40 years ago when I was in high school and I went to my first black history class, over the series of the class, I found out that black people were doctors, builders, when white people were sucking ice. I found out that my people were building buildings. And I'm a contractor now because I want to be. Because it's in my blood. I found out it's in my blood. My daddy's a contractor. My daddy's daddy was a contractor. My daddy's daddy built buildings, tall buildings, when white people were sucking ice. You understand what I'm saying? I found that out. And I'm a contractor because I want to be, because I love it. And I found

088out in black studies that I loved it. You understand what I'm saying? Everybody's not cut out to go to college and go to work for IBM. Some of us can do our own thing our own way. You understand that? And the only way a black man's going to get that is if a black man tells him in black study. Or a black woman. The second part about your student. I spent 12 years in Littleton, Colorado. My son could have been that lone black boy in that school. You understand what I'm saying? That one black boy could have been my son. And that little white boy that shot up all those people had a problem that nobody dealt with. Everybody in the community knew he had a problem, but he was white. They went up in

089the hills of Colorado. They shot their little guns. They played their little games. You can finish your sentence. I guess that was it. All right. I want to really thank all of you for coming out and speaking and speaking with us. To us and I'm gonna ask Miss Superintendent Evans. I know you have some words to share with the community I'm gonna ask the I'm gonna ask everyone to have the same respect for our superintendent that we've all had for you Good evening. I was not laughing That was a statement that was given to me had nothing to do with that and I apologize up hear me out and if it appeared that way I apologize and I'm sorry. First of all, I come down from the dais. Yes, I did write this. I am

090speaking to this. I wrote down everything that I wanted to say so that I would not miss anything. I stand before you because I'm proud to be the superintendent of Berkeley. I want you all to know that before I start reading my letter. There's a lot that I have to say. And I want you to hear me out. First of all, I did come down from the dais to address the board and the community because of the seriousness of all of this. A racial incident. I will address that. Let me speak first. The racial incident. of November the 4th at BHS. And because of the urgent need to address the feelings and the experiences of our African American students in our schools. I have heard from many students and concerned parents regarding the nature of

091the events and the real experiences in our schools. I want to start by stating that student safety equity are our highest priorities and we are absolutely committed to ensuring that all of our students are safe and receive a quality education. Our community has come out tonight because a message threatened the lives of African American students was found in the library of our high school on a computer on November the 4th. It is important that we listen to our African American students and our families and validate what they are feeling and we must recognize the difficult fact that our students continue to fear what might happen on December the 9th. While the investigation of this incident has led us to believe that the student who posted The hateful language had no intent or capacity to do

092physical harm. The pain, the pain that this action caused is real. That's real. And the steps that are currently being taken to turn the date of November the 9th into a day of affirmation for our students is powerful. While the Berkeley High School principal has communicated the information and details related to this specific event to the Berkeley High community, I just want to reiterate a few points. A fact. On November the 4th, the message was found by a parent volunteer in the library computer lab on one computer. An immediate investigation took place. including several interviews with the student who admitted later, admitted to writing the message, as well as witnesses and other students who may have acknowledged about the student's intent. The Berkeley Police Department was notified on the day of the incident. Following the

093initial investigation, an email and phone message was sent by the principal to the entire BH community on the evening of that incident, and there have been several follow-up communications. On November the 5th, our African American students led a peaceful and a very powerful protest, a march, and were joined by allies in the community. I had the opportunity to speak to the students, and I know members of the board were there marching along with the students, as well as the teachers. Education code and laws. student privacy do not allow us to provide any information about the student who admitted to creating the racist and hateful message know what the consequences for his behavior will be and I can assure you he is not on the campus. While I understand, while I understand that many of you

094are interested in knowing more about the student responsibility and the consequences I ask that we respect the privacy that we have to afford to all of our students, even ones who are accused of committing serious violations of our rules and our values. There have been several immediate actions that have taken place in the days since the student march. Principal Passereau has held multiple meetings with the leaders of the Black Student Union. and supported the student-led blackout day on November 13th, and continues to work with BSU and other student groups to address both their concerns about the details of the November the 4th racial incident, and allow African American students to lead efforts for a school-wide program on December the 9th. The BHS administration is also working with faculty and staff. to support the students' ideas

095and address their concerns. The Professional Development Day on Friday, November the 6th, provided an opportunity for the high school faculty, staff, and several African American parents who were already participating in a previously planned cultural competency workshop that day to start a conversation about the issues facing our students. parents, and staff of color. Today, as you heard earlier, during second and third period at Berkeley High, therapists of color from the City of Berkeley's Family, Youth, and Children's Services team were on campus to meet African American students and to provide cultural appropriate mental health services in order to address trauma-related concerns that have been expressed by many of them. And then we will continue to make these services available. to our students. And we do appreciate the cities providing these services to our students. Over the last

09610 days, our teachers have worked to create safe spaces for our students to discuss and talk about the effects of the racial incidents on their sense of safety and community. And teachers and staff are working together to develop lesson plans and continue leading discussions with their students. I want to take some time to address you. In addition to these and other specific actions taken by the high school, I also want to make sure that you know that the board and I are reaching out to involve our African American leaders in our community and the students as well. For example, today, two of my board members and I met with Mansu, Ida Dean. from the Berkeley chapter of NAACP. You're right, we could have done it sooner, but we did it today. We started that conversation

097and we will continue that conversation. I'm looking to create a stronger relationship with NAACP, the students, to hear what they have to say so that we can move forward. Within the next week, I plan to meet with PCAD, I'm gonna get to that as well. Good night. Can I ask you to please give him the opportunity to finish? I'm gonna work with PCAD, which is the parents of children of African descent, to set up a meeting. This is a superintendent comment, sir. To set up a meeting so that we can have that community forum. At that time, there will be a dialogue. We will talk short term. long-term and I do want to say there is no intentions on the board or myself to dismantle the African American Studies Department. Let me put that out

098there because I heard that mentioned tonight. As the December 9th date draws near I want to assure you that we will ensure the safety of your students, your child. the school. We are working. We have worked with the police department as well as other community folks to ensure the safety of the school and the students. Counselors will be on hand as well to address some of the needs of the students. As I reflect on some of the feelings and emotions and perspectives that I'm hearing from the African-American community, yes you're right. I do think about what I went through at University of Delaware. And I know you mentioned that and you said things to me that made me really think about my own experiences at the University of Delaware, having the KKK on my door

099and the N-word on my door, not once a month, but every day. I know what that's like. I don't want the students to feel what I felt that day. And I want them to be able to go back to a place and say, this was a great experience for me. I can't say that right now. And I do take that personally. I want to say that you are on the right side of this board because we are trying to do something about this. And if I can't do something about this, yes, I have no problem resigning. So you say action. That's what we're about. Action. I want to start this dialogue. I want to start this dialogue. And you will see some action. With that being said, I'm going to turn it over to the

100principal to fill in some details that I, excuse me. One thing about me, I will respect you, but I want you to respect me and give me the opportunity to address the community, but I also have staff here that needs to be respected as well. In Berkeley, you know, I didn't say this, I wouldn't just say this. This is a place where social justice, equity, and diversity is important. That's who we are, were, and will be. Principal Passero, can you speak on some of the incidents? I'm gonna ask people, we really, I completely understand that there is a lot of anger and I'm just gonna ask people to not boo people here because it's, I don't know, because we wanna respect the people who are at the mic. Thank you for giving me the opportunity

101to share a brief summary of the incident and my role in both managing the investigation of the incident and communicating with the community. On Wednesday, November 4th at approximately 1230 in the afternoon, a parent volunteer in the library noticed an altered computer screen in the lab with racist threats written on it. And the volunteer brought it to the attention of staff who informed the administration. At that point, the investigation began. While I'm unable to discuss the details due to confidentiality, I can tell you that the student who eventually provided a statement taking responsibility for the incident was in our control from the moment that the document was discovered on the computer. I understand that there are questions about whether there could have been a risk to our students because I did not notify the community

102of the incident immediately. In consultation with the police department and my staff, there was no evidence of any immediate threat or danger. Therefore, I felt there was no reason to frighten the community. Unfortunately, an image of the computer screen was leaked later in the day, and that leak and subsequent sharing of the image via social media caused a lot of fear and pain. I greatly regret that as a result, students felt frightened and anxious. In retrospect, I wish that I had stopped the investigation for a minute to send out a short announcement that would have addressed the fears and concerns of our African American students and their families. In terms of ensuring students' safety, here is a brief summary of what steps we did take. First, with support from district officials, safety team members, and

103technology specialists, we identified the student responsible for the hate crime within a 24-hour period. Next, we interviewed additional students to ensure that the individual student acted alone. We ensured that the Berkeley Police Department had contact with the student and their guardian. Berkeley Police Department conducted a welfare visit to determine that the student who made the threats was incapable of and did not intend to act on the threats left on the computer. We've conferred with district officials and legal counsel as determinations are being made now around consequences and next steps for the student who made the threats. I regret deeply that our African American students and families are experiencing such pain and fear from having seen this hateful image due to it being leaked and spread on social media. I myself would never foster a haters

104intent by spreading and sharing this kind of message. I'm really grateful for the leadership of our students and the support shown by parents, staff, and teachers and our community in their responses. I am here tonight and I have listened very deeply and I'm humbly looking forward to learn from students, from our parent community, and from this incident as we go forward to build a stronger and healthier community. Thank you, Dr. Evans, and thank you, board. Thank you, Mr. Passerell, and thank you particularly to the parents. And I know there are staff who came here tonight as well as community members. So I wanted to thank everyone again. And now we're going to move on to some board comments. I'm going to ask the board members, although I know we all have a lot of thoughts

105and probably. came in with ideas of what we want to say in responses as well to what we heard. I'm going to ask the board members also to keep it short as we ask the community to do. And I'm going to start with our students. So I'm going to start with a representative from Berkeley High School, Angelo Paraiso Arroyo, if you want to go first. And then Alonte Keys, you can follow up and then we'll come down the line. I might have missed this. Are we not doing union? Oh, my gosh. Thank you. I was going to do the board comments first, but we can. Thank you for reminding me. Do we have a union? The next thing on the agenda is union comments. So, you know what? Actually, yeah. Do you want? I was

106going to actually was going to let our BHS representative speak, but why don't we. Yeah, well, I'm gonna go ahead and let the students speak since we've heard from from parents and the and the staff so You can pass if you want but I'm gonna go ahead and start with the VHS representative and then our BTA rep. Alrighty Okay, so this is coming from me a student a leader a member of the community a friend a too many very diverse school Over 2,000 kids were in the walkout. I was one of them. Passerow was one of them. Mr. Evans was also one of them. Dr. Evans was there. He did speak at the walkout while it was at Berkeley High. Teachers, staff, our principal, everybody who is involved with the school district has taken this

107into utmost consideration, are treating it with the highest form and taking initiative. I've seen it in my classroom. We have stopped all of our common curriculum in all of my classes to address this matter. I might not know where this comes from as deeply as many of you, but I do come from a place of empathy, knowing that I do have friends that have been affected by this. I consider them my family. We are doing the best we possibly can. We are addressing this with utmost concern and it is of our highest priority currently at this time. Thank you for everybody coming out. It's very great to see active members of the community taking initiative for the youth that is going to follow in your footsteps. Thank you, Mr. Parizo-Arroyo. And now I'd like to

108ask Mr. Keyes if you'd like to speak. I just want to thank everybody for coming out and speaking. That was definitely not what I was in for today. But just to be real, I see school as a learning environment and a safe haven. And if I can't come to school feeling safe, then why should I come to school? And it's like... I'm truly hurt because I can feel my heart beating outside my chest. I'm truly hurt around this situation. Nothing has been done. People of my color have been put down for years. And you know this school year we've been put down for petty things and it seemed like petty real pay to think and it's like that situation It wasn't handled as it should have been as with much punishment as it should have

109been as any other Petty punishment that we usually get for things that don't deserve that much of a big punishment but I'm like I'm like real distraught about it. It's like I don't I want to say I feel bad for Evans and Passer, but I truly don't. Y'all handled it in a different way that it should have, that's definitely not how it should have went. Definitely not how it should have went. And I can't even get my words out. Thank you, Mr. Keyes. Okay. Thank you, both of the students. So we're going out of order. to this evening. So I'm gonna now give our unions a chance to speak. They each have allotted five minutes and we have, I see Paula Phillips is coming up from BCCI and I'm not sure if our, I see

110our BFT president, are you also hoping to speak? Okay, so Paula are you? Okay, Ms. Phillips I mean. Good afternoon. Good evening. Yeah, you guys keep me busy. Good evening, school board members, Dr. Evans, and to our listening public. My name is Paula Phillips. I'm the president of the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees. I represent the district's classified employees, whom of which a majority are African-American employees for the district. I represent the classified employees at Berkeley High School. And on the day of the student protest against the hate crime, and I'm going to repeat it again, against the hate crime, because it was a hate crime, many of my members said they don't feel safe on campus either. And the reality of the situation is that that message was not directed at students. It did

111not say a public lynching against students. It could be a community member, it could be a staff, it could be a student. Someone could be snatched from the street, they could be hung, and it could be the appearance of a suicide could be made. So we don't know what the intent was of that student. And while the police say, and you all are saying that there's no way that student could have... or had any malicious intent of committing a crime, we don't know. The only person that knows that is the man above. So what we want to bring, what I want to bring to your attention is that while there's a lot of focus on the students, and we do, and I do applaud you for that, the African American staff, my members, have not

112been, their concerns have not been addressed. You've provided counseling for the students, and I applaud you for that. But my members who don't feel safe have not been approached. The union has not been contacted by the principal to discuss any concerns. No one has approached the union at all, at least not the BCC. As stewards of this district, not only are you charged with educating our students, you're also charged with keeping the students and the staff safe. I've always, I've brought it to the attention of this district before. There are a lot of holes in the system. There are a lot of processes that aren't being followed according to the district's safety plans. If there is one at Berkeley High School, I don't know. All I do know is that, but what I do know

113is that in every classroom there is a safety procedure document. It's bright green. It's red. It has red and bright green on it. I don't know. All I do know is that that document is outdated. That's what I do know. And my question to you is, were the procedures followed when it came to reporting a crime that's listed on that document? I do know that we have a lot of work to do. There's a lot of healing that needs to take place over this hate crime. And we want everyone, all of our African American students and staff, to feel safe, whether it be at Berkeley High School, whether it be at LeConte, whether it be at any other school, but in addition to the schools in the community. No one should be afraid to walk

114down the street on December 9th. No one should be afraid to come to work or come to school on December 9th. And the district needs to take every precautionary measure to make sure and to ensure that there's security on campus. And I want to start by having the parent volunteers removed from Berkeley High School, whose charge is to check. the gatekeepers, exactly, the gatekeepers, whose charge is to sign in visitors. That should not take place. That should be a district employee's responsibility. And that has been going on for far too long, along with other policies, practices at Berkeley High School. Berkeley High School has been known to be an island in and of itself. Well, it's time to rein Berkeley High School in to make sure that everyone is safe. in the school environment, and

115in the work environment. You have a fiduciary responsibility as stewards of this district to ensure the safety of everyone, teachers, classified employees, students, and all staff alike, and everyone who comes to visit that site as well. So thank you. Thank you, Miss Phillips. Next, it looks like we're going to hear from the president of our teachers union. Good evening, board members. My name is Kathy Campbell. I'm the president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. I just want to say a few brief things. One is I really commend the board for the public comment. you know, extension this evening and for the real embracing of our community here tonight. I think that that helps us in these times of struggle and difficulty. Speaking of struggle, I want to say that I really heard a speaker recently

116talk about how... There may not be answers to these truths in our life right now in the United States with regards to racism, instructional racism, institutional racism, and our history. What may only be available to us is struggle. That is this particular writer's point of view. And I found that very inspiring, actually. I found that much more realistic than many things that I read and see that want to give sort of quick and easy answers to this. It may be that really all there is for us and what we can model for our students is struggle. And I think that you hear some of that this evening. I really do think that a series of community... conversations would be helpful and I would certainly be active in having teachers participate that and that and support

117that. I think that December 9th, I think there are already efforts underway. Mr. Passereau was at a meeting today. BFT was at a meeting today. December 9th needs to be a day that's not business as usual. We really have an opportunity on that day, a sad opportunity, to make a statement to our students and our families of solidarity, of unity, and of struggle, and of our principles and the values we uphold. So I hope that everyone here tonight... and many groups in our community, and certainly teachers and staff are participating, that we come together and do the best we possibly can for our students on December 9th. And then the last thing I would just say is I want to echo my classified sister in the sense of healing. You've heard me speak to you

118many times before about restorative justice. I believe in that concept, and I believe that it may have useful... landmarks and signposts for us as an institution and as employees as we navigate this on behalf of our students and families, which is our focus. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Campbell. Are there any representatives from any other unions here? Okay, how about any of the committees that are listed on the agenda? Okay, so now we thank you director Alper for your for reminding me to do that and now I'm going to turn to the board for comments and again ask given the late hour and If I can ask everyone to keep it brief So I want to thank everybody for coming out. I Appreciate it And I also appreciate greatly the leadership of Dr. Evans and

119Principal Passero. I want to, and I'm grateful to have heard from two of our students tonight. And on one hand, I wish more of them were here tonight. On the other hand, I guess it's a good thing that they're home studying. But I... I think that the student voice that we heard tonight from our two student members and the student voice that we heard on November 5th is a critical one for us to embrace. Our students, I wanted to say a word about what I heard. at Sproul Plaza and at the Campanile on November 5th. Our students spoke loudly, clearly, and eloquently about institutional racism at Berkeley High and in BUSD, and we need to hear that. This is about a terrible, hateful, threatening message that a student wrote on a computer in the Berkeley

120High Library. But it is not only about that. This is about what that kid did. and our administration's response to it, and what will happen to him, and how our response could have been better. But it's not only about those things. And that's what I heard from the students on November 5th. I don't believe that we would have seen such a response from the students in the absence of truly and deeply felt pain and anger. about structural racism, not just individual, overt, personal racism, but structural racism to which students, and yes, our classified staff and our certificated teachers of color, to which they've been subjected over the course of their lives as people and as students. And what I heard from the students was pain. I didn't agree with every word that was said about

121the district. But I don't dismiss the existence of structural systemic racism, nor do I underestimate the impacts of white privilege. I firmly believe that this board and Dr. Evans and our senior staff and our teachers and our classified staff are committed to equity in combating racism. And we're moving forward in a number of critical areas. But this is a wake-up call, and I think we can do more. One last thing. I know that schools can't fix all of our problems, especially in a state like California that has disinvested from its public schools at an alarming rate. But we can do our part, and I'd like to see us try. And I'm proud to be part of a team that is so clearly committed to doing so. Thank you. Ty, I'm really sorry, but can you

122also tell people when your office hours are? My office hours are the last Sunday of every month from 3 to 4 30 at Casa Latina on San Pablo And I would welcome the opportunity to discuss any of these issues more. I'm sorry. I'm a little bit sick. So if I've Been blowing my nose. It's Just because I have been uncomfortable Thank you all for coming I Over the course of the last two weeks. I've had the opportunity to speak with teachers and staff and students, family members and colleagues about this. And what I've heard consistently, what I heard tonight from everyone who spoke, what I heard from the folks who I spoke with, what I, is as Director Apple mentioned, the hurt and the pain of this particular experience as well as the history in

123Berkeley and this country and then a demand and a call for action and I We are committed to making that happen and right now obviously it's just me saying this but I the Despite our best efforts as a district as a school We clearly were not able to live up To the needs of our community And we will, as I think you heard tonight from Dr. Evans' statements, from the principal's statements, if you talk to any staff member at Berkeley High, staff members here in the audience, we are committed to making sure that our students are safe and feel safe. My office hours are this Saturday. If you have ideas or thoughts or criticisms, I encourage you to come. Take 5 Cafe 3130 Sacramento Street. The cross street is 67th Street. I think the time

124is 1 30 to 3. If you can't make that time, you can email me joshdaniels at berkeley.net. You can call me at area code 510-213-8683. And I know that this is the continuation of a decades-long effort. The start of this particular conversation and I just sort of want to end with some of the quotes that that resonated for me in terms of what was said and the expectations of us as a District and us as a community is to get on it to step up We have work to do and as miss Phillips said there's a lot of healing that needs to take place. So thank you again for coming director Hempel I agree that we can do a lot of talking about what the district did, what the district didn't do, what the district

125should have done in relating to the specific events that happened on November 4th. I have my own questions about some of the communication or lack thereof and when it happened and how it happened and with whom it happened that I've shared with the superintendent and follow up on. But I think what I want to spend my talking about is and I appreciate Dr. Alper's observation that students there was a trigger for the walkout which was that incident but what supported that walkout and fueled the rage Was the everyday small cuts that our students experience at Berkeley High? It's being it's the acronyms for those of you who know our small schools. There is the amps which is Health medical I always forget it's a long acronym. Thank you in public service But there's another acronym

126that I won't repeat here that some students at Berkeley High use for amps, which is quite derogatory. And certainly any student who would do a screenshot like what was done, regardless of whether he thought it was funny or not. It bothers me that we have a school community in which any student could think that such a thing was funny. And I think it's fertile ground. That's why that could happen. Students see when black students are not treated the same as white students. They see when adults have low expectations of some and high expectations of others. Parents see... who's treated well when they come out through the front door to check on their kid or to talk to a parent and who's not. They see who is called upon in class. They see the positive interactions

127that sometimes staff have with some students and the almost always negative interactions that the same staff have with other students. This is what fuels the kind of incident that happened because it doesn't happen in a vacuum. So my efforts really are to use this incident. One, our students have to feel safe. That's number one. And the message that that type of behavior is not tolerated has to be done. But that's just the beginning because we have had other incidents. And since that time, since the screenshot incidents, we've had incidents. You know, we have had students who, let's just say, have continued this idea that everything's a joke and have made comments through social media that perpetuated this sense that it's all a big yuck-yuck. Which is highly degrading and so again, I think that while

128I am NOT going to sugarcoat or under or or Make less of what did happen. That's just An isolated incident that's been supported by a whole lot more that's going on in our schools. And that's where we have to address. That's what we have to address. I've had two sons that have gone through the Berkeley School District myself. I've talked about this before, but like all of you, I can rattle off easily 10 incidents of absolute racism that they've experienced. I can rattle off incidents in which there have been staff. that did not treat me with the due respect that I deserved as a parent or guardian of my child. So I've experienced what you're saying and do stand up with you. And have met with NAACP. I am a member of the Berkeley NAACP.

129Have already reached out to our black ministers about how we can make this a community issue, not just a school district issue, because it is a community issue. And while I know that... Many of you are upset about the school administration and with dr Evans believe you me from the day that we found out about that incident I know the depth of how he has felt about this issue and I will say that came immediately to the high school to be in solidarity with the students who walked out and has spent a lot of time with the high school, including with the Black Student Union organization and other black students, to really start the process that I am talking about, which is a deep, not just discussion, but confronting the kind of culture that would

130allow anyone to think that, A, they can threaten our children, threaten us, or get away with anything. even if it's in their mind and that anyone could think that this was not a serious act. There is something that led that student to believe that this was something that could be done without quote ill intent. And that's what I think we need to focus on as much as anything else that has risen out of this incident. So thank you. Thank you, Director Hemphill. And could you tell us when your office hours are? Yes, and my office hours are the last Saturday of the month which unfortunately this month is the Saturday after Thanksgiving I will be there I would have switched them to the week after that but it's the California School Board Association and It's

131the one event that I think most of us here on the board really tried to attend I'll be going to the black school board association luncheon which takes place also And it is an opportunity to talk about issues like this with other black school board members, as well as there's a wealth of information that happens at the conference around black achievement and about restorative justice and all of those things that we are acting upon to put into place. So it will be this it will be it's usually the last Saturday of the month and unfortunately it is the Saturday after Thanksgiving But I will be there at 10 o'clock at cafe Lila, which is San Pablo Avenue, and I believe it's Delaware It's right across from the adult school and I do buy a cup

132of coffee for anyone who attends Vice president leave a color I do one at I want to thank all the parents, the students, our teachers, our unions. I listened very carefully and I feel very much the pain that of our students and our whole district community. I think it was well pointed out that this message of how we want to keep our children safe should be more broadly. communicated to all of our community in not just our school but in our city also because they are also equally involved in helping us to get a message out there of safety. And we all well know that if our children do not feel safe, they can't learn. And it starts from the very young age. When I've been thinking about this I I actually went back to

133I went to a governance Conference this weekend and I looked for what is our pollock district policy on hate bias and bigotry and a district doesn't have one We need a policy on hate bias and bigotry. We need to put that at the top of the list and also what is our protocol? What are our plans when incidents like this happen? We need to know we don't want them to happen But we need to be prepared to how we respond as a district This this can easily this can be addressed in through our policy committee through also, we have several community members and teachers that would definitely want to be part of a commission to be able to address how we can address this in a way that's inclusive, that also addresses, first of all,

134the safety of our students. and how we can start this process of teaching from our preschools program to our elementary school program and throughout our district. I think it's something that I felt, I sensed that we definitely need because it's something that's missing and we need to be able to respond to incidents in a way that everyone knows, both our parents and our students and our community. So for me, I think this is something that I would like to make sure that we put forth as sooner than later. I believe the support, I support a series of community discussions also that can inform this policy and these plans because we need to know how to, in our city, in our district, in our community, how to silence. This hatred and bias and bigotry if we

135can't for the world we can at least do it for our city our schools in our and protecting our children and Work towards healing the power of healing Our children because that's very important to I know to all of us and I know to our superintendent who was there with the students I Also have to say that I saw those students demonstrate such maturity in peacefulness. There is this one time when I saw the speakers that were up on on the steps and everybody said we're moving to Campanile and then magically the students just opened up like a sea and quietly opened up and the others came down. And there was such power in that because they did it peacefully, they did it cooperatively, the crowd was very diverse. And there's more power in all

136of us than that one person who created this one incident that is hateful, that has no place here in our schools. I look forward to working with all of us and together to address this and hopefully that we can. This district will lead the way in creating a policy of hate, bias, and bigotry has no place in our schools. My office hours are, oh, I wanted to say on December 9th, I think it would be great to also disseminate more publicly what are some of the plans and things that might be happening so our community will also know. My officers are on Thursday, Casa Latina from 4 o'clock to 6, from 4.30 to 6 o'clock. I also want to thank the Thousand Oaks community of teachers who showed their solidarity and gave space and time.

137Thank you. So I agree with everything all of my colleagues have said. I, so I. I can't put myself in your shoes or feel the pain that the African American community, all of the African American community is feeling as a result of this act. And it's not just this act, as I think Karen so eloquently put it, but all of the acts that led up to what happened on November 4th. So I can't... put myself in your shoes, but I really was listening and hearing all of the pain and anger that came here tonight and then all of the people who you're representing. It's really a gift for us to have you come and talk with us and share with us that experience because We don't always get to have that conversation. And one of

138the things that I'm really looking forward to is more of a conversation and not this kind of odd dynamic where we're sitting up here and you're sitting there and we don't actually get to have a conversation. And what I really want to do is to have a dialogue that leads to action. The school district together with NAACP and PCAD and our other... our parent community and our community. So I'm really looking forward to that. And I want you to know that I do stand as an ally to the best of my ability. I mess up sometimes like we all do as allies, but that is where I stand. So one of the things that I'm really proud of is I was really, really proud of our students. I was really proud of our black leadership

139at school. And I was also really proud of the non-black students in the school because one of the things that I noticed was that we, Um... You know we also have created Justice I mean it's like these dualities just as we've created this environment where there are all of these you know you're talking about like the gauntlet of Microaggressions that kids experience you know we want to create a safe space for our kids and a safe space for our kids doesn't just mean You come to school, and you know you're not going to be physically harmed It means coming to school and know that knowing that you're going to be embraced And you're going to be held up and the adults in your life are going to believe in you and you're you're not going

140to experience Exclusion so all that is a part of safety and we're not We're not obviously not doing that. This is, some people mentioned this is the third incident in 18 months, and I take that really seriously. So that's one part of what exists here. And the other part of what exists here is that we've created, that we're educating and creating this community of students that do take leadership in this incredibly mature way, and that the white and non-black students. recognize that leadership and the need to step back, which isn't always the case when you live in a world where there's white privilege and white supremacy. So I was really proud of that. And I'm proud of everything that's come from that because they're also not just letting us let it go. There's a continuation

141of leadership that's coming from the Black Students Union. I mean, I think the heads of the Black Students Union, some of them are 10th graders. I mean, it's really... incredible and I'm incredibly proud of them and incredibly proud of my kids who walked out and then came back to class like most of the kids did. Some of the teachers didn't make them come back to class but a lot of kids they took this seriously they weren't just getting out of class they went because they believed in the in the wrongness of this and the and the the the kind of the impact that this has on our African American community. So I'm really sorry. I don't, I mean, I know that doesn't really mean much. I feel responsible. I think we all feel responsible both

142for the fact that this happened and that I think as somebody said that whoever did this, the student who did this felt like they could do it, that it even seemed like a possibility on our school site. And I am really proud. I'm proud to sit up here with you guys. I really wanted to say I'm really proud of our staff. I think that the school handled it well. I think they continue to handle it well. I think our principal has been on the job a month and a half and it's a tough situation to come, you know, to have to deal with a school of 3,200 kids. So I wanted to thank you and Superintendent. Dean Evans for your incredible leadership, Assistant Superintendent Scaredary has been spending countless hours working with the tech staff,

143working with others to try to figure out what's going on and respond. responsibly with this student and take it very seriously. So, you know, both can be true. We can be outraged and it's not okay. And there's a lot of hope and potential and healing as a community as we move forward and using this as an opportunity. And I feel really lucky, like our students here tonight, both of them just so eloquent and... I don't know, mature for high school students. So that's all to say I have hope. I really look forward to working with you as a community. Thank you for staying to hear us out, those of you who stayed. And I know that we're talking about not just a series of conversations where we're having a forum like this, but like I

144said, a dialogue, a real dialogue so that we can figure out. where we're heading. Oh, I also, I'm sorry, I also meant to mention that I've also been very proud of our teachers. So the leadership, the teacher leadership at Berkeley High has taken this very, very seriously and been incredible leaders. I know each of my kids, one of them's a ninth grader, one's a 12th grader, and they both have had conversations, really in-depth, nuanced conversations about race and racism, not just in the last two weeks, but in the last. several, I would say in the last year. And so I'm, um, yeah, I'm, I want to, I want to move forward with hope that we are gonna, that we're going to continue to heal. And I really hope that we will work together to do

145that. Not against one another. Thank you. Okay. Pardon me. Oh. Thank you. My office hours are this Saturday on the same day as Josh's, but mine are 1 to 3. And I am at Mojo, which is on Sacramento and West Berkeley. And, you know, I got the address and then I forgot. It's like one block before Dwight. South of Dwight. Before, because you come south. On Blake? Yeah, on Blake and Sacramento. And I will also buy you a cup of coffee if you come. And a scone. I'm just kidding. I'll get you water. All right. So thank you all again. And so we are at about 10.05. And the next item on our agenda is to pass the consent. Oh, what? A five-minute break? Is that what you're saying? Five minutes for what? Oh, you

146want a break? Well, since I just was calling for the consent calendar, why don't we take the consent calendar and then we can get the staff up here. So motion to, was that a motion from Director Daniels? Second from Director Alper. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. So the consent calendar is passed. Afterwards, we're going to hear about the math curriculum adoption. You don't want to leave for that because it's a... So it is actually a really exciting item. And then we're going to hear some of the plans for the future. So if you want to stick around, we are going to hear a green paper from our assistant superintendent and the other items that are on the agenda. So we're going to take a five-minute break and then come back at 1010. Oh, an

147evaluation. That's what we're doing, a self-evaluation. I knew there was another item. We're so awesome. All right. I'm going to ask my fellow board members to wrap up your conversations with the community. So, okay. Now we're going to hear about our math adoption. It's an action item tonight. So the hope is that we will, and the request from staff, is that we will adopt our K-8 curriculum. So I'm going to hand this over. I have to say that I'm really excited for this item. So I know that sounds kind of wonky, but I'm going to pass this over to our superintendent to kick us off. I'm actually just going to turn it over to you guys for the sake of time so that you can have more time to present. So I know you're going

148to frame it as you are presenting. Pasquale, did you have anything to add? I'm going to take direction here. President Powell, could I make a suggestion? given the hour that we have either no or a very short presentation and that we just ask questions if we have them. You know what? I am going to say that maybe we can do that with the next item, but I know that these math teachers prepared this presentation, and it's really important that we, you know, it's our math curriculum for K through 8. So I think you're keeping your presentation relatively short. So if it gets over 10 minutes, I'm going to. I'm gonna stop you. Hi, my name is Michelle Sinclair. I'm the coordinator of professional development. With me is Ana Delgado. She is our K-5 math coach

149and Rebecca Burke who is our secondary math coach. I'm gonna give you a quick This is a review of, we presented back in February, and it was about the math adoption process. We weren't quite finished yet. We have concluded, we concluded last year, and so this is, I'm gonna kind of go over what we did, but it will be very brief, I promise. First, I just want to acknowledge this part, which is the paradigm shift, and I won't go into every step of it, but the publishers were faced with a task with all brand new Common Core. math standards and that meant that we needed all new curriculum and so publishers responded to that in a variety of ways and one of the ways was to create bridge materials and another way was to use

150what they currently had and just rearrange it and then another way was to build a brand new curriculum from the ground up. So I just want to keep that frame of mind. There was also a new trend that emerged and that was that that curriculum was starting to be offered online downloadable customized and and free um com i want to just really acknowledge and understand that common core math materials are still even now in their infancy we had a math adoption committee last fall we started it there were 17 teachers there were coaches and principals and there was district office personnel We started off by looking at the California math adoption list. There were 20 curricula on that list. We filtered that list. We were tasked with looking at curriculum that was K-8 to have

151a consistency for students from kindergarten through eighth grade. So we were able to filter that list down to... the four that you're seeing on the PowerPoint there. We'll go into the details. We also wanted to look at the math that had influenced the Common Core standards, which was Singapore math, and then we also wanted to look at any new curricula that was built based on the Common Core, which was Eureka math, and then the Pearson system of courses, which is a tablet-based curricula. The tool we used was the IMED, and we went over that last time, but I'm going to just kind of briefly say that the reason we selected that tool was because it really aligned to the Common Core. It looked at the curriculum and said, is this following the architecture of the

152Common Core? Does this have the focus, coherence, and rigor that the Common Core asks for? And it did that in a very, very detailed and methodical way, and we felt like that was really... honest and true to the common core. The toolkit has many components. We focused on the IMET, which I'll break down a little bit more into two parts. Well, I'm gonna start first of all with with our timeline in October and November we had some meetings to sort of set the stage We decided on the tools we recruited people we set a timeline and then in November we had our first meeting With the whole committee we introduced the tool and then in at the end of November we started the analysis we started with a a subcommittee just looking at the first

153part of the tool which are called the non-negotiables and that's simply are the standards in the right place is the architecture of the curriculum correct so we went through that process and after that process we came down I think in that last slide I had there we came down to our outcome was that there were three curricula that did meet the non-negotiables so we moved from there with those three In January, we came back to whole committee and then we looked at what are called the alignment criteria. There are three alignment criteria. And the alignment criteria look at the rigorous expectations. It addresses the standards for mathematical practice as well as the content standards. And then it also looks at the English language learners and special populations. This is a brief overview of the results.

154So each, there are many, many components to the IMET and they each have a rubric score and just this is a basic, the number of points that's scored out of the number possible are your percentages. And as you can see, Eureka math though it wasn't perfect, it did come above others. So our recommendation after that evaluation process was that Eureka math it did come out with the highest ranking and our recommendation was to continue using Eureka math K-8 curriculum so that meant a story of units and a story of ratios through 2017-18 school year. The Curriculum Evaluation Committee, we are suggesting that the committee meet again in the spring of 2017 to look again to see if there's anything new out there. We want to acknowledge, though, this curriculum is not perfect. The teachers did

155all we had. We voted, and the teachers did overwhelmingly want to continue. They didn't want to start off with something new again. We want to acknowledge that there's work to be done, and we are doing that work, but that's ongoing work. And so these are some of the things, and I won't take you through every single one, but you can kind of get an idea. I want to acknowledge that we've written assessments. And they all will have been administered by the winter break. Sixth grade is doing it right now. They're our last ones. But our first trimester, not all of them. And they're almost nearly completed in writing. So the results are in Illuminate. We can already see those. Another, what else we feel like we need to do is develop systems of support for

156differentiation. And we know that's a big one here and that's something we are talking about every day. We know that that we need to provide training for teachers on instructional strategies support for English language learners We're developing a bank of materials to support differentiation again challenges and support materials We need to build teacher capacity for teaching the common core math standards the content and really the mathematical practices and again for differentiating and also We are looking at developing math aligned Eureka math aligned interventions. So what do teachers need for support? Teachers need time to work collaboratively. Overwhelmingly, that's what teachers tell us. They need to discuss the content the math practice the math practices. They need to discuss their back best practices and share and We feel like they need to do less than analysis.

157What's essential? What can be read it weeded out? We spoke to this before that this curriculum is really really loaded and it's 180 days. So we've paced it we need to revisit the pacing regularly Figure out what the essential standards are to be taught So there's pacing Look at it in comparison to the SBA and the blueprints. Strengthen our formative assessments. And then also continue with math coach support. And that is it. I love that. Seven minutes. Thank you all. Are there questions? Okay, just for the benefit of accent, asking a question. Can you just give an example of what a system for supporting differentiating looks like? What would one system look like? Briefly, quickly. I would say if I could say English language learners. So when teachers differentiate, you have to have some sort

158of system in your classroom. And I'll give you an example of a teacher that I know. Well, several teachers use what is called a help desk. And so after they've given their exit tickets and they know that there are students that didn't necessarily get what the lesson was, then they have an opportunity to do some reteaching. And sometimes, you know, that's a very simple thing. It's just they made some common errors. And sometimes they have to go deeper into that. And so how is that going to work in your class? If you're working with some students, what's everybody else doing? There's a lot of different ways to do that. I think the other piece is that there are students that get something and you find, you know, they're the ones that know what do they

159do next and providing challenges for them that are kind of related to the curriculum or doing other kinds of recreational math. Do you want it more specific than that? I think comments a little bit on ELs too. I mean, we talk a lot about structured talk, structured conversations, and there's something to be said for having structured talk with content vocabulary words, but there's also something to be said to have structured talk that's embedded in instruction regardless of the content. So having structured talk that teachers can have available for students posted all the time so that they can say things like... for this problem I tried blank. And I agree with so and so when they blank. So structured talk sort of phrases and opportunities for ELs and other students to participate in a way that

160doesn't have to always be lesson specific, but it can be in general structured talk, but very specific and targeted. Are there other questions? Because if not, I want to go ahead and make a motion to adopt the math curriculum K through eight. Engage New York. No, I just made the motion. I really want to make the motion. I want to make this motion. But are there questions? Okay, so we have a motion. I made a motion by me, a seconded by Director Hemphill. Josh, I can't tell, are you interested in, it looks like you kind of almost maybe want to ask a question. It's just so late. I want to talk about some of the awesome standards because I love math, but it's late, so I'll have to just imagine it or dream about it.

161But there's some very cool math standards in here, and as someone who's... I appreciate your saying that because it's getting kind of, but we have actually, I feel like we've done our job because we have heard a lot from you and we've really examined this. I mean, the teachers have been teaching it and it's this continuation through Math 1 and it's, I was really impressed when I went online. Thank you for sending those links because the development versus the first time we saw this curriculum two or three years ago. when there was handouts that were printed funny. Now having all that information online, it's pretty amazing. Can I just say, please don't take my suggestion that we make this shorter or my lack of questions. Is there any lack of interest in this issue or

162appreciation for what you all have done in vetting this curriculum? I think we all really appreciate it. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Anyone opposed? Just don't give us an exit because I don't think any of us would have passed. Except maybe Josh. Josh. So at least not the seventh grade. I was like, maybe they should just try a third grade problem. Thank you so much for all of your work and bringing this to us and staying late. So we're good. Thank you. Thank you, guys. We'll see you again in 2017, I guess. We'll see you before then, I'm kidding. So next we have two discussion items. We had a green paper from Assistant Superintendent Scuderi, and this is a place where I think that we have the green paper

163online, and so unless you feel like you need to go over it again with us, do you want to give any highlights? So can you just, I was wondering if maybe Superintendent Evans, maybe you or... Yeah, I can actually just open up in Pasquale. You can finish it. So I just want to say this is the third paper, the third green paper, and this is part of a series of green papers. And this particular third paper really talks about the components of BSEP. And so I'll turn it over to Pasquale. Okay. Josh, I'm Josh. Why, thank you. I'm looking good today. I got hair. Pascual, if you can just give an overview of what's covered in the paper. We don't have to go through it piece by piece. Essentially, I think the two things that

164we were going to cover in the presentation, which we won't, that I'll just summarize, is... I just have to click all of this stuff off. Can you put your email back up there? I think that was more interesting. I think the main things that we were going to cover tonight were just really, again, appreciating the support from the community in developing our teaching staff. The paper covers support for teaching and learning, and that was sort of the... the big themes that we were looking for or that we were talking about and also with program evaluation. We had a really good meeting with the principals this morning and so I don't feel entirely cheated because I was able to share the presentation with the K-5 principals this morning and really just talking about the the incredibly

165complex profession that teaching is and what it takes for us to provide commensurate supports for teachers to do the things we want them to do. We heard a lot of that, a lot of impassioned discussion tonight, and I think that comes into classrooms. We want our teachers to be culturally competent. We want them to be able to manage the climate of the classroom. and be experts in multiple subjects. So one of the things that we're really working on and another thing that will be coming back to you soon is a far more coherently staged professional development plan. So taking the resources that we have at BSAP and putting things together in a far more staged and doable way so that our investment in professional learning communities, which the superintendent's talked about since he's got here

166and that we're really digging deeper into now so that those structures that we're building will give teachers actually some time to go deeper. into some of the subjects in a much more rational and paced way, a way that I think will yield really good outcomes for teachers and in turn pass those on to kids. The second part of our paper was about program evaluation. Debbie and I are talking about similar ways to make that aspect of our work. More effective and some of that might be saying instead of just having Every request that comes through the door for data and information We might have to sort of focus a little better on the things that we want to measure and the ways that we want to direct that departments division under I'm sorry, I'm tired

167too. That we might direct that work in that department towards fewer goals and a deeper way to really start using information formatively in the classroom. So those were our two major themes. The paper is online. I'm sure it's had several downloads already. It's kind of my version of your thousands of washing at home. It's the best I could do. So I encourage people to read it. We've spent a lot of time putting it together and we mean every word of it. Thank you any comments on this ice why don't we go down the line starting with director Alper? I thought all three of these papers have been really excellent. I thought this was the best The best of the series Return of the Jedi of the BSD green papers no, but I It was I

168mean I the description of what? particularly goes into good teacher learning, was just so well written and so rich. And when you said, I have two questions, one general and one specific. When you said we meant every word, I guess my question is, it's so, this is my general question. My specific question is, what are we doing in cross-grade collaboration with teachers? Not across a single grade, but what are, yeah, what do we call it, vertical? Vertical. Vertical. So third grade teachers talking to fourth grade teachers. So that's my specific question. But my general question is, where would you say we are most not currently meeting the aspiration that is written in this document? I mean, this document. depicts the ideal, I think. Like I said, in a really brilliant, I think, articulate way. So

169where are we not yet there? Where are we farthest from there? I think it's the general way in which we're structuring professional learning district-wide. We're trying to do too much simultaneously, and I think that's a problem. I think it's difficult to do. Like I said, we're trying to construct a model where we'd have... alternating years you'd have a focus and then you'd have maintenance where you're holding on to things but i think that's the biggest i think that's the biggest structural issue that we need to change we need to sort of pare down what we're doing so that teachers have time to go deeper vertical articulation is part of what we don't have time to do right now because at the k-5 level alone if you're trying to learn the math curriculum you're trying to

170develop better EL supports. We want you to go through your cultural competency training. We want you to have explicit equity strategies that you're using in the classroom. All of those things now, and there's a few that I've left out, all of those things now mean you may be talking about those subjects once or twice a month. You also need to look at the the time and spaces that we have for people to do professional learning too. We've got Wednesdays. I'm just speaking K-5 right now just as an example, but you can, there's a version of this for every level. You've got your Wednesdays. The district gets to direct five of those Wednesdays. We have the two full days in professional learning. We want to make better use out of summer. We want to start talking

171about, particularly with some of the funding for the Educators Effectiveness Grants, we want to start talking about front-loading the things we're going to be focusing on in the summer so that we can get like three or four days of really ramped up training before people kind of go deep. So I think it's really about changing just a simple, but I think somewhat profound change to what our aspiration is annually with professional learning. And I think the principals are really in support of this. I've already started to have conversations with BFT and we're going to work on a K5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 4 to 5 year plan for PD which we hope to have done by the end of January. Anyone else? Yeah. Not so much a question, just more of a comment I guess.

172You know, the measure just says 9% or whatever it is for PD. It gives no direction on what that PD looks like, and I don't think it should. I think we want to maintain that flexibility because what we think makes sense today may change in two years or five years or ten years. So I just want to sort of put that out there that when speaking of the measure, there's a lot of things that the measure allows us to that isn't in the measure. The second thing is to sort of highlight your point, Josh. Excuse me, Pasquale. It's becoming a thing. Yeah. You know the amount about focusing our attention and focusing our resources on what we want to improve most on we can't do everything even though we want to and I and I

173want to use as an example the $200,000 or so we spent on Berkeley high math to really support that department and that effort in what they're trying to do and so as we Again, I don't think we should change the measure to make it more specific, but as we think about your PD plan and moving forward as a district around PD, remembering, you know, what you're telling us in terms of how we can use our limited resources effectively so that we're not spreading ourselves too thin and we are actually changing the metrics that we care most about. Anybody else? Director Humpel, do you have anything? No. I suppose. I'm going to say that in the context of what we just heard today, and I think I don't know how we support our teachers to be

174also understanding that sometimes the curriculum is going to change. So how do we support teachers to use teachable moments to talk about things like what we've seen happening in our schools? and use it as an English lesson? How do we look at it through the lens of math or what? But I know, how can we support teachers to have those conversations? Yesterday I met with a teacher who said, you know, some teachers, I don't want to talk about it because I don't know how to talk about this. And so how do we support teachers to use these kinds of moments also for the things that are happening right now in our community that we need to stop, take a moment, reflect, that we can use it as an opportunity to journal? to talk to each

175other, have conversations. So if anything, I would say taking it into context of the things that our students really experience and that's happening in the world, in our community, how can we use sometimes a stop? You know and engage with our students with what's happening and gives teachers the support and the that that is okay also to do For we have this curriculum we have this plan, but also sometimes we need to stop and check in with our students Yeah, no, it's a great observation. I just would point out that one of one of the four Explicit equity strategies that that Maggie and Michelle have been working on developing with our teacher leaders includes bringing the real world and the lives of our students into the classroom on a daily basis. So one of the

176explicit equity strategies that we're working on, a lot of this stuff that we got from the Montgomery County work that they did, Leading for Equity is a great book. It just is about teaching teachers or training teachers to be open to the idea to do that. Now, on the other hand, you mentioned teachers not feeling comfortable all the time with those topics, and that's why I think the We've paired the whole concept of cultural competency with equity strategies. If you look at our draft plan, those things are a topic together because if you don't feel comfortable talking about that, even if you have the pedagogical chops to like amend a lesson or revise a lesson to reflect something that's happening in the real world or in your life, it's harder to do that. So I

177think it's a great point and I would say that that's why we've paired those two things together in our plan. I thought it was great. It was my favorite too. Yeah, it was my favorite. So thank you, Pasquale. I know how hard you worked with them. Can you just tell us a little bit about the plan for getting these out to the community? Natasha and I are still sort of discussing that. I mean, we're going to have a series of community meetings, you know, involved with the measure, and so they'll be available to folks there. You know, we've talked as things go, as the new measure gets written that, you know, there's going to be opportunities out there where people will want to hear about instruction and using them as sort of a backdrop for

178some of those engagements, if you will. I wonder if we might want to do some kind of infographic on this that links to the papers, because I think a lot of effort went into them and helps frame where we want to focus our resources. So I'm all about infographics. Yeah, of course. Yes, so yeah, I really appreciate the work that you're doing. My comment is that I think that a lot of the work that we produce out of this district is really great work, but it's really, it's. It's written in a way that's only going to resonate with parts of our community and not all of our community. And even for someone who has a lot of formal education, say is college educated, that doesn't mean that reading something that's written at a college level

179is something that you are going to kind of choose to read for pleasure. Most people have a comfort zone that is... a couple of levels beyond what they actually can comprehend. And so I think a lot of these papers are great if you're in the business of education or you're an education geek, as we all are. I mean, common for you, Debbie. But I think we... I know when we actually have our BSEP campaign, there'll be things that are written for our campaign, but I think that we are not capturing sometimes all the community that should be part of the development of BSEP when some of the major kinds of papers that we have are really written in a more academic kind of style. And it's not a criticism because it's great work. It's just

180I think we need something... that kind of goes along with that. So it is something that's easy to digest because when I go to movies, I watch like... I will be accused of being sexist if I say that. But I like action movies. I'll be blunt. I like action movies. I like science fiction. I like escapism. And it's because I don't tend to go to these intellectual movies. It's not that I don't enjoy it. If someone took me, it's not that I don't. like it, I just don't choose to do that. And that's what I'm saying is that I think we need to have ways to communicate in this process which is very accessible in a way that it's a low threshold to access it and that the threshold isn't here to access it. Great.

181Thank you so much. Thanks for putting it together and look forward to seeing them, you know, hit the... New York Times top My dad has a good way of summarizing your sentiment. He says you like films. I like movies. I Bet Richie likes films though. I bet he likes real too. Okay. So now we are going to move to our Board evaluation and I think we've done such a great job. I'm gonna require I'm gonna make a motion that we extend the meeting till 1115 Does you guys feel like that's enough time to do a brief board evaluation? So I'm gonna, did you second it? Do we have all in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? I think that might be the first time that. I know I was going to say that, but it's the first

182time that Josh ever did an opposed motion. It's because it was only 15 minutes. Karen seconded it, yeah. Okay, so Josh started this, Director Daniels started this tradition last year, and I thought it was a really good one just to have a moment to reflect. I did want to say that I have really... loved being the president for the last year. I really enjoyed working with the superintendent and the leadership and all of you. So you're just really, I'm very lucky. I feel very lucky. Not like I'm going anywhere, but. Getting away, but I'm gonna get to sit next to Donald anymore So I wanted to just say I'm not gonna go through there's a lot of things that have happened this year I did want to just Liz helped me put together a couple

183of things and I did want to just Remind us of some of the things that we've accomplished It's just a few and then maybe just go I don't know like to go down the line But maybe just I'll spend a couple minutes just reflecting on maybe what you felt really was worked well and what we could do better. And actually, Beatrice, I'm gonna actually, when I'm done, I'm gonna ask you to remind me of the question that you learned in the Masters of Governments class. Oh, you don't ask me. So this year. I just wanted to mention that we remind everyone that we've had a lot of big issues in front of us. In addition to continuing to look at our capacity issues, we've also passed several policies. We've been very productive in our policy

184committee. We ended up passing our interim sexual harassment policy and our uniform complaint procedure policy. We passed the paid sick leave for temporary, non-regular, and substitute employees. a policy on document retention. We're renewing our admissions policy and we're going to be bringing the second part of that to you probably in two meetings. We also have started our work on kind of revamping our discipline policy and I feel really proud of being involved in that. We've also made some In addition to our policies, we've made some really important hires. So just in this past year, we hired our executive director of facilities, Tim White, a new program supervisor for VAPA, Peter Gidland. We chose our new principal for Berkeley High and principal. of Washington. And also I would be remiss if I didn't mention the excellent

185hire we made after much kind of process to bring on our new board executive assistant to the Board of Education and board recorder Liz Charez who is really. Brilliant. I really have to just thank you because you are a great support. You've been a great support to me. I know sometimes I have these really, I send these very brief and difficult to understand emails saying, can you do this? And she always gets it in with such grace. So really appreciate that. We also approved, some of the other highlights are we approved our class and compensation study, although we have not yet. Of course, it is not yet. in effect because we're still in negotiations around that. We have reached tentative agreement with our teachers, which was very, I think we all felt good about. A

186TA, right, right, not a TA, an agreement, right. And then we. I felt like our work on the LCAP was really great. We had some really good conversations, although the process wasn't. There were some questions about the process. I think the outcome was very positive. I'm particularly proud of our investment in family engagement. making permanent the position for the hiring and retention of teachers of color our investment in equity strategies and The investment that we made in professional learning communities RTI we also We're really thoughtful about our investment in Common Core. And I think that one of the highlights of the year has been this Math 1 adoption in Berkeley High. It's amazing. Internally, we have transitioned to the online agenda, which was one of my goals for the year, and we made that happen.

187I think our data, I thought a lot about how one of the things, this isn't really us as much as our staff, but how our... We're really keeping ourselves accountable by keeping good data and then sun shining it so for example the data that we presented about disproportionality in my experience with other districts they don't Keep the data that that well and so the we're I feel like we have been not afraid to talk about what's going on and then talk about how we're going to confront it. So I think that that's a really important thing instead of trying to hide behind the rosy story, which is what I used to see a lot. And then tonight we get to finish with the math adoption for K-8, which is a big and important issue. Those

188are some of the highlights. I'm sure there's more. And with that, I just, I'm very much looking forward to hearing from all of you what you feel like how we did. There are some guiding questions in the board packet, but how you felt we did, and then maybe some things that might be helpful for the next president and vice president who we're going to elect at our next meeting. With that, I don't know if you want to add anything, or if you want to wrap up this one? Okay. So does anyone have anything to add? Ty, our newest seated member? Not actually our newest member, the student member is our newest member, but our newest elected member. Well, thank you for this opportunity to have this discussion. I wanted to... First, thank you, Judy, for

189your leadership this year and for everything you've done to make me feel comfortable. And, like, I kind of know what I'm doing in this year as the newbie. They always said that... Justice Ginsburg used to refer to Chief Justice Rehnquist affectionately as my chief. So I think you will always be my president, even though we'll be switching presidents. I really appreciate your support this year. It's really meant a lot to me. I think you've been a great president. And I'm sure this is true for all of you. When I ran for school board, the most common thing people said to me was, are you crazy? Why would you ever want to do that job? And this is so much fun. I love working with you all. Even in difficult moments and difficult nights like tonight.

190I mean, this is true of any team that anybody's on. When you're on a really good team, it's just so invigorating. And I just love this team. And all of my fellow board members, Dr. Evans, Jovetta, Pasquale, Delia, Tim, Pat, Maggie, all of the senior staff, all of our teachers, classified staff, I really feel like I'm a part of something that's moving forward. And this goes, I think, to your point about... Not hiding from the realities of the problems that we have I don't you know, I don't think any of us ran to be cheerleaders for the district and and so I appreciate that about our conversations that we were proud of the strides we've made and we're proud of the strides our students have made but One thing I think we do well is

191not sugarcoat You know the things we're not doing that well or the problems that we have to address and Yeah, I don't think that's true of every governing body, so I appreciate that every night, at least every night that we're here. You know, Beatrice mentioned this to me the other day, and I haven't done it yet, but looking at, but I know from watching some of the other governing boards in our city, not every school board or governing board sort of treats each other with the kind of respect and civility that I think we... treat each other with. Yeah. And that's, you know, we don't always agree, but I think that's really important. And I very much appreciate it. I think there's some systems that we could improve that would make us all better prepared

192for the meetings. I don't need to go into the details now, but I'm looking forward to continuing to improve. I think that I've actually seen them improve over the course of just the year that I've been on the board. I think some of the details is what this is for. Unless you don't want to give them, I guess. I'm sort of too tired to come to, it's not that I'm trying to hide the ball or anything. I just think that there's some of the pre-meeting work that could be made more productive so that we're all. Even better able to do our jobs. So I have some ideas. I'll share them with dr. Evans, but I Just I mean I just want to say to to Donald that it really is a real privilege to work

193with you and our weekly meetings I look I mean I look forward to everything having to do with this job, but I particularly look forward to those Those weekly meetings we have I'm gonna be a little bit briefer than I'd like because I'm not I'm fading And also I can say more about this next board meeting but I just want to acknowledge that somebody said this that President Appel your first board meeting on December 10th had 200 people in it because of the adult school issue and this meeting had maybe 150 so And I think that if you were to add up all of the attendees and public comment during the 2015 year and compared to 2014, it would be like three times as much. And so I, you know, your policies and your systems

194are only so as good as you implement them. And I thought that you handled the process of a public meeting incredibly well. in very difficult meetings over a course of a variety of issues. So I think that as a board and particularly as a president, you should feel quite good about that. Because I think that's really important. I mean, to be able to have a meeting where most people feel like they've had an opportunity to be treated fairly in public is part of what legitimizes local government. Karen you can talk about it. You know as a city clerk So I think I mean if I was to sort of focus on one thing that I thought went really well this year I would focus on that in terms of things to sort of build on

195for next year You know, we're not as bad as many districts out there, but I still think we we you know And I think this year's better than last year, but I still think finding ways to really focus our conversation on key areas so that, you know, if we have a decision to make and we're ready to vote on it, we just vote on it. And unless there's something that we want the public and the thousands who are watching to hear that, you know, we can just vote. We don't have to always, you know, offer our thoughts. And again, I think that was... better this year than when I was president. But I think that for next year, who's ever president, I think there's room to improve. And I think to some extent it also,

196it relays or builds on what Director Alper said. And hopefully I'm not stealing your thunder on this. But I think the way in which items are presented. So, sort of the write-up has been basically the same for many, many, many, many years. And we're doing it this year because that's what we did last year. But does the write-up really focus the attention of the board and of the public in terms of what decision we have to make? I think there are many good things about the write-up, but there may be things that, you know, oftentimes we end up asking, well, what has come before, right? And sometimes the background includes that, but it doesn't explicitly ask for that in the format. So thinking for next year about, you know, I'm sure we could approach many

197different key areas, but one area I think we are ready to approach is sort of the format of our agenda items to sort of facilitate helping staff present the board with information that is most helpful for us to make the decision that staff needs us to make. So that's true not only for action items, but also for discussion items. When there's a discussion item, what is the purpose of that discussion item? Where do we want to end up at the end of it? And I think that that's one specific area where I think we are sort of primed. I think your presidency has sort of primed us to really step up on the next level and really make that even more effective. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say. Angelo? So this being

198my first time on the school board, What Director Alpert said was probably the, I get it probably just as much or even more at school, the position of student director is a lot of people are afraid to go for it. I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I... When I was running for it, but it's it's better than what I thought it was gonna be I I don't think these meeting I think these meetings are very important and being at them I don't I'm careless of however I don't care how much time it takes the fact that I get to see what we're deciding on and I have a voice for what my peers want is very empowering and it makes me feel happy to see the changes that come into the

199school with such as restorative justice or what Common Core is doing. And I understand that I'm here till 11 and I still have four more hours of homework to do tonight. Yeah, gotta figure that out. But still, I'm very happy to be here. This is a part of my every other week that I look forward to very much. And I wanna be here next year to hopefully continue in a second term of this position. That'd be the first. Thank you. Thank you. Can we uh we can excuse your homework Okay, Karen Yeah, I I also want to thank president DePelle for your leadership on the board and particularly how well you have respected the communities that have come here with a variety of issues and on one hand certainly been facilitated their voice being heard

200but at the same time also insisting on decorum and respect and I think that that is that's a talent And so I appreciate that. I also, in looking at the past year, I mean, you cited a whole bunch of things that we've done, so I won't. do those again. I share what Professor, oh, Professor, I'm getting, and I said doctor before, right? Well, at least Professor Alper is correct, right? So, yeah, so Director Alper. I'd like to be known as Josh Daniels Esquire from now on. Josh Daniels Esquire did around, I think, staff reports and agenda. I think, I think, the format has been the same for many years for many years predating your superintendency dr evans and i and i think that um one thing that i do in my day job is one

201of my major responsibilities is reviewing all the staff reports that go to our city council and it strikes me kind of the difference Not just I would say here versus there but when I go to other cities there's there's a lot of variety of what can what what is included in staff reports and in how they're framed in a way so things for example like sometimes that's things that we do when it's more of a discussion item as opposed to we're asking you to pass a resolution kind of item is having like a series of questions that you want us to answer for direction. That helps structure the discussion. Because if it's, you know, it's kind of like the difference with a student. If you give an essay and the prompt is discuss, as opposed

202to discuss, and then your discussion cover, you know, X, Y, and Z, that helps the student structure their essay. And I think that doing some of that would help us structure our discussions. I also, and I know that staff will groan because... we groaned when this happened to us but if we could get our agenda packets a couple of days earlier i know i would truly appreciate it uh in emeryville we're now doing 11 day noticing that is a real hardship for staff because we're then you're in a you're in continual agenda mode but if we could get it a day or two earlier i think it would um for this board member it's it's hard to kind of rely upon my weekend as the time that I'm going to read the packet and then

203if I don't get it till Monday then I feel yeah I feel rushed in terms of being able to ask questions or as you know I'm asking you questions on Tuesday or Wednesday morning which you know is not ideal either so you know if we could get you know so if if staff could if cabinet could think about whether it'd be possible to get them let's say on the Wednesday let's say so you know we had a little bit more time I would appreciate that I think those are my major, oh, I would say that I do think this issue that was brought up today about communication is something that as a district we have improved immeasurably since I first came on the board nine years ago, but there's still more work to be done.

204I think what came up in terms of the focus of being on the high school in terms of the incident that happened as opposed to seeing it as a community issue was a very good point. And I know that if I was sounding hard on staff, I would say that those things that I had questions about were not because I thought that staff had malintent. I think staff did what they thought was right with the best intentions. Having said that, I think certainly we heard that we maybe looked narrowly at a situation that should have been looked at more fully. And that could be for good intentions, and it also could be because of not recognizing the breadth of the pain that the incident caused, as opposed to just seeing it. the Berkeley High community.

205So I think that that to me was a good reminder that we have to continually work on communication and thinking the big picture and thinking more strategically. And I will end by saying it also relating to what I said about the green paper is remembering that we need to... have the same information in varying formats, various venues, in various levels of complexity. So we make as much as easily accessible as possible. And then those that want to go deeper can go deeper, but don't expect that everyone's going to go deep. And just because you don't want to go deep doesn't mean that you shouldn't have access. I'll stop there. Thank you director. Hambo director level color. We have eight minutes left and I know the superintendent I just I want to thank you also for

206your leadership and also in support me as your vice president I think you know you you handled a lot of this the situations that we've had Come to the board and you're also very witty and you're funny. So that helps So I want to thank want to thank you for your leadership in that and also improving I mean I use my agenda online. I have a lot of recommendations I would like to make that screen a little bit bigger where we take our notes, please So that has really been I think a plus we don't have staff dropping them off We're saving some trees, so I think that that's really commendable that we made this huge step for us. So, you know, I definitely agree. I think we can definitely improve upon our agenda. I

207think, you know, how we arrange it, you know. I think that those are certainly things that are doable. Having gone to Mastering Governance and Sit-Around, and I think Ty was also at another room, I think we spoke, speaking to other board members, you say, you look at our board and I say, well, we have a really good board. We can talk, we meet with our, we have a good superintendent. We enjoy working with our superintendent. So there's a lot to be said in terms of our structure. We have a lot of work ahead, but we're all willing to be there and to support our staff and our superintendent in the work ahead. A day ahead would be nice. I don't know how much more that would mean, how much more work that would mean, but

208maybe just pushing one day and then we'll see work towards, we'll walk to the Wednesday. I don't know what that would mean for our staff, but certainly something to think about. I don't have anything else. Thank you. I just had a couple of little specific things that I wanted to say. First of all, I did want to make sure to thank Josh because I feel like a lot of the systems that you put in place really helped. they were great for me because I'm not as organized as you are. So it was really helpful. Like the master calendar, we still keep it up. We use it all the time. It really helps. It helps track everything. We now have tabs by year. And so, and also having the president and the vice president meet together

209with the superintendent to do the agenda building has been, we've kept that up. And I think you put that in place and it's, I felt like that's been great. That way we both know what's going on. It relieves if I'm not around for some reason, Beatrice can meet with, you know, or we switch. I really do think you're all brilliant. Like one of the things I love about this is that we all get to find out the different skills that each of us bring. And we're kind of, it's a good toolkit. I felt, for some self-reflection, I felt like I could have prepared with staff more beforehand. Sometimes I just felt rushed or I'd get, you know, life, my other job, my other job. You know, sometimes. takes up a lot of time and so

210i feel like some of the things some of the times when things didn't go smoothly here i could see that it was those were the times that we didn't have enough time to prepare so i really wanted to appreciate that you've really the work that staff did to put together the calendar for this year um i think is that's one of the things that's really i think helping keep our meetings at a reasonable time and I've just seen incredible growth and in your leadership and meeting with everybody and getting everybody in line and that one time when I can't remember what that vote was when we if you got everybody on board then I would had to take you out to lunch and I ended up having to take you out to lunch. Oh that's

211right. And so then the only other thing I want to say is I feel like I want to just publicly apologize for the times when I got frustrated. I think sometimes that was targeted specifically at Director Daniels and so I want to have a public I'm sure there's something about you that triggers me culturally. He deserved it. What? He deserved it. Regardless, I just wanted to publicly apologize because I know sometimes I really try to control that, but every once in a while it pops out. We all get tired. So I wanted to make sure to do that publicly, and I will pass it over with four more minutes. Thank you. It's good being last. I've always appreciated my board. And after the governance class, I really appreciate my board. When I hear the stories

212of other superintendents, and of course some of the stories I have of my own, I want to say that it's such a pleasure to work with all of you, to be able to... Get you the information that you need so that you can make the best decision in terms of what we need to move this district forward I know there's a lot of things that we can definitely add to To our agenda. I do like the questions We'll try to look at how we can possibly get these packets out a day early I think that's going to be really tough, but it's not impossible. I just got to figure out how to do it. Right, Liz? Okay. I can't thank you enough for your leadership. There are two things that I want to mention that

213I've noticed with Judy is that you're a great facilitator. As everyone said tonight, you definitely know how to handle a crowd. But what they don't know is how you mediate behind the scenes. And I think that's something you added to this role. You're an excellent mediator as well as a facilitator. The two things that I want to focus on that you helped in terms of moving the work forward is the work around restorative justice and practices. that we were lagging and you pushed that to the forefront as well as the work that we've done around sexual harassment. I think we've done a lot with sexual harassment and I know there's probably more that we we definitely can do. In all of these things there was a certain amount of passion. as well as sensitivity to

214these issues. And it definitely helped us move the district forward in making some differences in the lives of our students. Josh said it best, and I'm gonna end with this. You came in with a bang, and you're leaving with a bang. Thanks. Thank you. Do you two have anything you want, any feedback you wanna give? Not the Judy's great part, but the part about this. The part about anything you would, any suggestions you have for the board? No? About the possibility of getting the packet out? No, no, no, just in general, any feedback. This is a chance to give us feedback of what you, you know, feedback for the board about our operations and the meetings and the pre-meetings. all of our interactions and... I mean, I think I'm in a similar place to Director

215Alpert. It's been a year and a half now, and I've been learning quite a bit. It's been great working with everybody. I've really appreciated your skills and your handling of tonight, which was one of the most intense sort of public meetings I've ever been a part of, so I really appreciate that. It's been great working with all of you. Got a cool boss, I can't complain. It continues to be a pleasure to work with such a brilliant and collaborative board. I think you are a great role model as far as what a district needs to be able to handle difficult challenges because when you're seen at the top and you're respectful and you do your homework and you're very knowledgeable before you make decisions, then that's... YOU'RE ALWAYS VERY RESPECTFUL AND YOU'RE ALL VERY, VERY,

216VERY, VERY GOOD IN ALL YOUR ROLES INCLUDING OUR STUDENT BOARD MEMBER. I'M VERY IMPRESSED. LOOKS LIKE THERE'S NO ONE HERE FOR EXTENDED PUBLIC COMMENT. SO MEETING ADJOURNED AT 1115.