4/10/12 Board of Education Meeting

001Okay, good afternoon. Let's begin with non-agenda public testimony before our meeting. When I call your name for non-agenda public testimony, please come forward, and you can stand to the right while you wait for the other people to speak, and speak in any order as long as your name is called. Casey Gwynn, David Pletner Saunders, and Ann Steinberger. Three minutes. So there will be a, there's a light right here, a green light. When it turns yellow, please wrap up your comments so we don't have to cut you off mid-sentence when it becomes red. Go ahead, Mr. Gwynn. Hi, Mr. Evans and members of the board. My name is Casey Gwynn. I serve as the president of the National Family Justice Center Alliance, and just wanted to take a couple of minutes to thank you in advance

002for your support and brief you on some work we're doing with the career counseling and guidance folks and the peer mediator program around teen relationship violence. As many of you may be aware, in 2002 we opened the first family justice center in the United States to bring 20 agencies together to provide services to victims of child abuse and domestic violence and sexual assault and human trafficking. More recently, the San Diego Police Department has taken over the lead role in running the San Diego Family Justice Center. We've also replicated that model now in 80 centers around the country, but one of the areas that's clearly missing is services for teenagers exposed to dating violence and relationship violence. Thank you. So in partnership with the Verizon Foundation this year, we've been gathering information, meeting with peer mediators,

003we've been meeting with pregnant and parenting teens in the city schools, working with Nancy Regas and her team, and we're now trying to develop an outreach effort to make sure that the San Diego Family Justice Center, which is located at 11th and Broadway in downtown, is a better resource to the city schools. We know from the research that about one in three adolescent girls is a victim. Of dating violence. One in three. In the national research we just found with CDC, that one in five women who are victims of domestic violence as adults were first victims when they were teenagers, and nobody did anything about it. So we wanted you to be aware that we're in the process right now of developing an outreach effort to really get the word out to students in the

004city schools about the resources of the center. We've already had multiple focus groups, and it's really interesting. The teens have told us they want a teen justice center, and they were happy to come to the San Diego Family Justice Center, but only if there's a teen coordinator that they can talk to first, and not an adult. So we're going to do that. We're going to develop a teen coordinator model. We'll have that position inside the Family Justice Center. Probably a young college student that will serve in that role to be the first liaison person for teenagers coming forward for help when they're in a dating relationship, when there's violence and abuse. So I just wanted to let you know about it. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your support. You're going to be

005getting some research information about it from the Verizon Foundation in the coming weeks. And we look forward to providing more information as we roll this out over the next couple of months, and then use this to help develop services in Family Justice Centers across America, modeled on what we're doing here with city schools and the San Diego Family Justice Center. So thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Gwynn. Good evening. I'm Ann Steinberger, and I'm the parent of a sophomore at San Diego High School. I'm joined here tonight by a number of parents, teachers, and students. And we're here tonight from the School of International Studies and the School of Arts to show you how concerned we are about the successful academic operation of our schools. I have for you petitions signed by

006more than 250 parents and students requesting that the superintendent's office expedite the resolution of the personnel action with Dr. Kirk Ankeny, the principal of our schools. It is imperative that we have a qualified principal present to ensure the continuing and successful operation of the schools. In your packet also is a letter from the IAS Governance Committee, and you'll hear from others expressing support for Dr. Ankeny. Our two schools are missing our principal at a critical time when budgets are shrinking and our programs are threatened. Who is advocating for IAS and arts during the budget process? We want to know what is being done to ensure the continuity of the programs at IAS and arts. Dr. Ankeny provides the leadership and dedication that our schools need. Our principal is advancing a number of important initiatives. The

007arts school is applying for a grant. The IB program has membership requirements that must be maintained so the students can receive their diplomas. Whom has the district appointed to take responsibility for these activities in his absence? We parents, students, and teachers have received little, if any, communication about our principal's absence. While we understand your inability to discuss personnel issues, we should have been informed that our principal was on leave. This is the second time. And we request that you share with us the plan for running the schools in his absence. We parents are committed to maintaining the quality of the programs at IAS and arts. Tomorrow we are meeting with Area Superintendent Gutierrez and Operations Principal Roberson. In your packet is the agenda with the questions we have asked them to address. Thank you, Mr.

008Barrera, for joining us at the meeting. And Superintendent Coba and Deputy Superintendent Meyer, you're welcome to join us as well. We will stay engaged and we will be involved in our students' success, but we need your help. We ask that you move forward with a swift resolution to the personnel action. We ask that you communicate the plan for running IAS and arts while our principal is out. And we ask that you confirm the district's commitment to maintaining the quality of the academic programs at IAS and arts. Thank you. Okay, David is not here. Stephanie Barnes, Steven Greenwald, and Kai Pedersen. Stephanie? Thank you for this opportunity. I'm also speaking on behalf of the San Diego Educational Complex and Dr. Kirk Ankeny. There are three sets of stakeholders affected by Dr. Ankeny's presence or current lack

009thereof. Students, parents, and teachers. All three of us are vocal fans of him. He supports a brilliant staff. He supports the students. He supports the staff. He fosters real relationships with students and holds the widespread admiration of the parent community. I'm here to express our overwhelming support for him, as you can see from the petitions you have. I know that Mr. Koba and Mr. Barrera have seen firsthand Dr. Ankeny's meaningful interactions with students and staff. And we thank you both for your support on site at our school. IAS has survived and flourished due to the brilliant and passionate leadership of Dr. Ankeny. He oversees the two schools which account for more than one-third of the students at the complex. The students benefit from instructional leadership from him, but mostly from his ability to personalize his

010acknowledgment of each student's accomplishments. Now, for the second time this academic year, Dr. Ankeny has been removed from his post with no explanation or notice. What infraction could warrant the suspension and possible dismissal of a prominent and successful teacher from what is indisputably one of the best high schools in the United States? Number 88, as a matter of fact. We recognize there are legal rights to privacy regarding details of disciplinary action. That said, we found that faced with administrative silence, it is very difficult to keep from filling the vacuum with all manner of rumors and speculation. This reflects poorly on the board and our schools. It creates an unhealthy environment for our students who miss their principal tremendously and are frustrated by his disappearance. It is our hope and expectation that should the board find

011irrefutable evidence of an administrative infraction by a Dr. Ankeny that the consequence meted out to him will be the same as has been and will be handed out to others in his position who have been disciplined for the same infraction. We trust that there are no other agendas at play in this issue. All three groups have a list of concerns regarding the fulfillment of duties in his absence. You've just heard some of them from Ann, so I will skip them. He's also, at the behest of this board, fostered complex, wide unity and spirit through the sharing of classes between schools and developing student leaders in the arts program. We expect that his accomplishments will continue and fervently hope that it will be here. Please consider that with Dr. Ankeny at the helm, IS is a

012top 100 school. All of you know the wonderful awards that our school has earned. This year, he's been able to expand his vision to raise up arts as well and to grow the population at IS. Under his tenure, the school has strengthened its IB for all students' philosophy, greater access, and more. The future, in our eyes, is to access greater equity. Dr. Ankeny's motto is, learning is the main thing. Let him come back so our kids can get back to learning. Our school staff needs its leader. Our students need their principal. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Your name, please? My name is Kai Peterson. I am a senior student at the school of San Diego High School International Studies and I was recently accepted to Point Loma Nazarene University with a

013$7000 Provost Scholarship. And Dr. Ankeny was one of the first people to congratulate me personally about it. And I miss him a lot. He's been crucial in the operations at San Diego High School. He's been personally involved with each and every student, including myself. I have a personal relationship with Dr. Ankeny that extends beyond the mere student-principal relationship. He's a very good friend of mine. And I don't see that changing anytime soon. And it would be really nice if we could have him back as our principal. He is nothing short of the best of the best at what he does. And my brother, my 12-year-old brother, Soren, will be coming to Point Loma. Excuse me. Will be coming to San Diego High School. And... I really want Dr. Ankeny to still be his principal. Thank

014you very much for your time. Thank you. Good afternoon, board members. Thank you again for allowing me to speak. My name is Stephen Greenwald. I'm a writing candidate for mayor of the city of San Diego. And I'm here to talk about a few things. Number one is there's... First of all, I think you're all doing a terrific job within the parameters that you have available to yourselves. Number two is that we may not be able to increase the salaries of teachers. But on the other hand, today I was speaking to someone at lunch. And her mother's leaving because the cost of living is too high for teachers here. And so I'd like to suggest to the board that any empty land that we have available, that perhaps affordable housing, affordable transportation, and also to set

015up a medical clinic. A primary medical clinic for all the employees, past and present, for all teachers and members of the school board. As a mayor, I would not recommend anything to do with teaching. Strictly providing financing and more financing. We have to increase the GNP of the state of California and here in their city. In order to provide more funds so that you can provide the terrific education that you do. The second point I'd like to bring up is that I'm very disturbed about the number of drug incidents that are related to car accidents. And this past week we had a couple of teenagers who were racing on the 52nd Highway. I think it was 52nd. So Highway 52. My point is that we have to have more awareness and education from middle school

016right through every two to three months. Even the senior students teaching the younger students about the aspects of drugs and distracted driving. We can't have any distracted drivers. We had 8,500 DUIs last year and 11,000 the year before from alcohol. And there's more and more young women that are going to the penitentiary. Including one 23-year-old from Vista last week. And there's an 18-year-old who's heading that way as well. So we have to have more awareness and education regarding alcohol and distracted driving. And also reckless driving. If we can teach our kids and protect our kids from themselves by basically giving them as much as we can by every two to three months. The other thing I'm asking the board is to get in touch with the state of California. The teenage driving course. In that

017teenage driving course they're not giving enough emphasis for the prevention of distracted and driving-out-of-the-way driving. The third point I'd like to talk about is a little bit more controversial. But I think that we want to prevent any kind of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine use in any of our schools. And I think it's reasonable to suggest that the San Diego Police Department get in touch with their canine unit. And be able to walk around all the units when the kids are in the classroom. And they can sniff to see if any of those, cocaine, heroin, or meth, are in the classroom. And that person should be notified and parents notified that that's not allowed in our school system. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day. Thank you. Okay, Sarah. The Marine Corps JROTC color guard

018from Mission Bay High School will now present the colors. Please stand. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. And to the republic for which it stands. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation. Under God. Indivisible. With liberty and justice for all. Order. Ready, cut. You may be seated. Okay, I would like to welcome everyone present today and those watching on the broadcast. To the, to welcome you to the opening of the April 10th, 2012 regular meeting of the San Diego Unified Board of Education. With all board members present today. Thank you. Now, if you wish to address the board today and your name is not on the blue sheet located both ends of the auditorium. If you

019haven't already submitted a request, please go to Ms. Villarato to my right and turn in your form. When we come to an agenda item, the speakers on that agenda item will be called. And once the discussion begins on an item, no additional public speaker requests will be accepted. If there's any more non-agenda public testimony, which we heard before the meeting, that will be heard at the end of the meeting. So, to start with, I would like to thank the board for their support. So, to start off, I'd like to ask the ASB representatives to the board to please introduce yourselves and tell us a little about what's going on at your various high schools. Hello, my name is Samantha Anton and I am ASB president at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts.

020And currently, we are having our dance concert, which will be for the next two weeks. And it, yeah, that'll be going on. And we'll be having our SCST testing starting next week. Hello. I'm Donner Good, the ASB president. I'm Patrick Henry High School. Like everyone else, we just got back from spring break, so things are kind of moving along slowly. As of right now, we're just working on Paws for Pennies, a fundraiser we put on throughout the school to raise money for leukemia research. Thank you. Hello. My name is Zara Bouillot, ASB president of Morris High School. Right now, we're working on our, or we are having our culture fair throughout the whole week. And we're also getting ready for the CSTs happening later on in the month. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, usually at

021this point, we have a student presentation. We don't have one scheduled for today, so we'll have a song and dance from the three ASB presidents. If you want to just, improvisational. Just come right up here. We always have good entertainment. Okay. Don't ask Mr. Stover. Okay. Okay, let's start off, Mr. Superintendent, for administrative assignments and then your information report. Thank you, President Evans. Personnel announcements we have today. One, Kevin Martin to vice principal at Mann Middle School. Moving on to my comments, I certainly want to start off with a really positive success story. And I think that's reflected by the folks sitting in the front row in front of us. Today, I'd like to recognize that just before the spring break, 29th of March, State Superintendent Tom Torlakson announced the 2012 California Distinguished Schools. This

022is a cycle that alternates between years where the elementary schools are recognized and the odd years, the opposite years, I should say, is the secondary, middle, high schools. And it so happens that 387 schools, elementary schools, were recognized. And we have 11 California Distinguished Schools and 9 out of the 11 principals are with us today. Those absent are Kathy Wolf from Hardy Elementary and Jonathan Sape from Holmes Elementary. But let me now recognize all of you wonderful educators in the front there. And I'll go in alphabetical order so as not to disadvantage anybody. By school, Benchley Weinberger, MC Patton, Doyle. There's our entertainment. And I'll go in alphabetical order so as not to disadvantage anybody. Doyle Elementary, Kimberly Moore. Marvin Matters Elementary, E.J. Doye. Kumeyaay Elementary, Maria Montgomery. La Jolla Elementary, Donna Trippi. Dingman Elementary,

023Kimmy Lockfield. Terra Santa Elementary, Lorelei Olson. Toller Elementary, Peggy Lewis. And Torrey Pines Elementary, Jim Solo. Congratulations and your reward is you don't have to sit through the rest of this meeting. We don't desire it. Where can I go? Where can I go? To follow on to some, please. Your call. Thank you, guys. This was a compressed or shortened timeframe between our last board meeting in March and our first board meeting of April. Largely due to the spring break that we just completed for the traditional schools. So I had one opportunity for a school visit and that was with Angier Elementary. This is one of the schools where in mid-year we changed out principals. Andrew Grigorich is there now. And I'm pretty impressed with what he's been doing over the last few months. And that's

024all he's been there in terms of widening parent engagement in a school with a significant military population, which means deployed adult parents that are not always available, but he's making a great effort for outreach there. We did have another wonderful philanthropic alignment partnership. And I want to remind you, we're going to be doing that. We're going to be doing that. And I want to recognize the fact that we had a second raising a reader donation ceremony. This time it was with the Walmart Foundation. I reported previously that the Masons of California had provided some funding and support for schools in the district. And this time around it was $50,000 presented to support three of our high-need schools. While the ceremony was at Sherman Academy. It is an alignment for funding support for not only Sherman,

025but Rodriguez Elementary and Perkins K-8. To remind everyone, this is a literacy program whereby there is access to books for kindergarteners to take them home after school on the weekends for a shared reading experience with parents. There's actually a little training for parents to do the modeling to encourage the young people here to read. And also a follow-on arrangement with the Masons of California. And I want to recognize the support that you've been giving to the Masons of California. I'm in the same arrangement with the San Diego public libraries to have ready access for the kindergarteners. So that was a second donation from another highly regarded organization. Another very big positive I did mention just before the break, that we were one of only 11 school districts statewide and the only large urban to be

026recognized for our attendance improvement drop-out prevention program. We're doing that again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And fast forward from that announcement that occurred in late March, we had the great honor to have our state superintendent, Tom Torlakson, available here last week for a press conference where he recognized this program and identified San Diego Unified as a key model for others to follow. We talked about a collaboration, a broad-based team effort of everyone engaged from the central office, the IT people, the pupil accounting folks, down through the entire campus leadership team with the administrators, teaching staff, support personnel, all playing a part in clearly engaging parents and students, so a big team effort. And so he was available to share his perspective on that and to acknowledge the achievement, the milestone. And

027then as a sad note, but one of mixed feelings, our district police chief, Don Braun, retired at the very end of March. After many years of great service to this district, went out in style with the lineup of the officers, the flashing lights on the car, it was quite an honor, as was deserving of what all that Don has done over time. Currently we have an interim police chief. Lieutenant Reuben Littlejohn was temporarily promoted to chief, and we are ongoing with our recruitment for a permanent appointment. So just a few things to highlight in the last 14 days. Good news on the press conference. Press conference and the California Distinguished Schools. That's all I have today. Okay, thank you, Mr. Coba. And now for board information reports, we'll start this time with Mr. Beiser. Nothing

028to report. And Mr. Barnett. I'll skip. Pass. Mr. Barrera. Yeah, the Friday right before the break, Kevin Beiser and Superintendent Coba and Bernie Ronerson and I were able to attend the annual Caesar Chavez Club breakfast. We are over at the Jacobs Center. There are over 800 people in attendance, including chavistas, young people, students in our school district from 14 different schools who have formed over 20 different Chavez clubs. The Chavez clubs are organizations run by the students themselves, where they learn the values of Caesar Chavez and then put those values to work with community service projects. And Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers, there delivering the keynote address. So it was great to see the Chavistas and all the incredible work that they're doing and the community support for the work that

029they're doing. So again, thank you to Mr. Bosner and Superintendent Koba and Mr. Reinerson for attending that event. Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. President Evans. I pass. Thank you. Okay. I just want to make a couple of brief comments. This morning when I was talking to a TV reporter, one of the issues that came up about the budget was the fact that we have a lot of suggestions by people in terms of budget cuts as opposed that are not including teacher layoffs and increased class size. And I told them that that is always our last resort. And some of the suggestions by parents and others, just to let them know that we have taken them into consideration and have been implementing one. A big one is in the area of transportation. The last few years

030we've saved millions and millions. Billions of dollars by consolidating routes, by increasing the ridership on the buses and so forth. Which really allows, you know, that's probably at least 150 or more teachers in the classroom. We have another area that people have suggested is central administration. And we have for the past few years continued to cut central administration at a much faster rate than at the schools and in the classroom. And anybody that was here when I started a few years ago, the halls and the rooms and so forth in this building, we've been much more crowded. You can see very visibly the difference in terms of how we've scaled down the central office so that we can keep as many teachers in the classroom as possible. We've, in terms of supplies, if we were

031able to delay textbooks because there wasn't a big difference, we've certainly delayed on that to keep our class sizes down. Even in terms of property, some people don't realize that we get several million dollars a year in terms of leasing out properties, which is going into our general fund. We're also looking at working with a real estate expert who will help us leverage even better the excess properties that we currently have. Everything is looked at from the printers and the copiers in the central office to the things that are at the school sites. You can notice here with the different water bottles the water is not provided by the district. We all have different brands up here. And as the superintendent pointed out, with our improved attendance over the last few years, we've gone from

032about 95.2 to 95.7 to 96.2%. Half percent each year represents about $3 million more in funds for our schools. What a lot of people don't realize is that we hire our teachers and our staff according to how many students are enrolled, but then the state only pays us for those students that are in class. So that's a big budget gain, but it's also a huge academic gain because what we're really doing, most kids are in school, most of the time, so what we're really doing is looking at the chronic absentees and finding out what their problems are and what can be done to help them and in that way to reduce the dropout rate. And finally, one other event we were able to attend during the past week or so was a public forum by

033the candidates for mayor talking about education. And I'm very happy that people across the city are beginning to pay attention. to what's going on in our schools and the importance of the schools to our city. I think all the candidates are finding out that they need to get much more educated themselves on what's going on in our schools so that they can look and see what sort of support they can provide to us as we're trying to educate the kids of this community. So with that, we will move forward. Motion to adopt the agenda, please. So moved. Okay, please vote. Okay, that passes unanimously. We will now go to the superintendent's consent agenda. Do any board members wish to pull any items? Yes, I'd like to pull items E11 and E17. E11 and E17. Sounds

034like bingo. Okay. Any other board members? And let me see here, Ms. Villarata, do we have any public comment on consent agenda items? Okay. So is there a motion to approve the consent agenda other than E11 and E17? Okay. Moved and seconded. Please vote. Okay, we will take the two additional items at the end of the meeting. And now we will turn to our ASB President's report. Donner Good, let us know what the ASB President's Council is doing. Thank you, Mr. Evans. As you guys know, on November 16th, our San Diego Unified School District Council of ASB Presidents, held a student congress where students could come and speak on anything that they saw fit to be discussed that was going on around the various campuses. One of the main topics that we discussed was bowling

035on campuses. So the council took it upon themselves to format a week that we would spend each day would be focused on different activities to spread the awareness of how the different types of bowling are affecting the students on campus. For example, in our proposal, we had a pre-written draft of what we wanted each school to do. But there were also exceptions to where different schools could do different things or extra activities if they saw that it would fit their campus better. For my school, Patrick Henry High School, we started the week off with balloons that had facts about bowling so kids could walk up and be like, why do you have the balloon? And we would tell them the fact about the upcoming week and the different activities. And then Tuesday was exclusion day

036where we focused on having kids sit with different social groups and talk to kids. We challenged the kids to talk to kids that they had never even spoken to before. Wednesday was the LGBTQ day. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer. Questioning day. And we passed out us and SCPA passed out M&Ms and basically spread the image or the message that we may all be different on the outside, but we're all the same on the inside. But kids were all pumped to get free M&Ms and so that really helped spread the awareness throughout the school. And then Thursday was anti-physical bowling day where we attempted to have a giant trust fall in the middle of the Quad. But we didn't have the expected outcome that we all hoped for. And then Friday was the day that wrapped

037it all up. And for my school we had a giant school picnic in the middle of our Quad area. But is there anything I missed? But also we have a video of the anti-bullying week. Unfortunately we don't have all the pictures and videos from all the campuses. But this is... a good majority of what happened. Thank you. Thank you to participate in this year's Anti-Bullying Awareness Week. Each day this week will be focused on discouraging different types of bullying. Throughout the rest of the week, feel free to contact any ASB member if you wish to play a bigger role in this year's Anti-Bullying Week. And please make the decision to trace your hand on the Anti-Bullying Week wall. It's going to be out in the quad today. And I say thank you. If your fellow

038ASB members and classmates are wearing purple in support of LGBTQ, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, then questioning day, look for any ASB member and they will acknowledge you with a pack of M&Ms symbolizing that you are all different on the outside, we're all the same on the inside. We challenge you to share this pack of M&Ms with strangers and friends to spread this movement. Get back, so we fight the time The bar closes and you feel like falling down, I'll carry you home Tonight Please wear red to support the movement against physical bullying. In the quad during lunch we will have one giant line of chest falls and learn to trust one another and protect rather than harm one another. Uh-huh, listen to me, ahhh The final steps, please wear yellow to support the movement against

039all types of forms of bullying. Drop your worries, you are gonna turn out fine. Oh-oh, you'll turn out fine. Fine. Oh-oh, you'll turn out fine. But you gotta keep your head up. Oh-oh, you can let your hair down. Oh-oh, you gotta keep your head up. Oh-oh, you can let your hair down. Oh-oh, I know it's hard. Sometime, you can let your hair down. Oh-oh, I got my hands in my pockets, kicking these rocks, it's kinda hard to watch. Thank you. Um, one other thing was that, uh, at our following congress, uh, we played this video for all the students to show them how the week went, and for those of them who brought it up last time. And, uh, one of the topics brought up were our next steps in the, uh, movement of anti-bullying

040around our campuses. Um, we decided to make, uh, videos that were more personal to each campus, for maybe certain students who have been, um, affected by bullying, speak out and be put on a video that, so then kids could see all of it. And, uh, we also had other fellow classmates, like, oh, I know that kid. I didn't know he was affected that way. So then that way, it was more of a personal connection. But, um, we're really hoping and we're really, uh, looking forward to putting this on next year. Thank you. Yes. Uh, Mr. President, I had the, uh, opportunity to attend the last, um, meeting they had here for a little while. And I must say, I was incredibly impressed with the issues that were being discussed, and the suggestions, and, um, the

041brain power that we could certainly use, um, uh, to assist us in dealing with these issues. And one particular issue that I came out of that meeting when I heard was the condition of a lot of our restrooms on the school sites are, um, subpar to say the least. And so it's, it's, I appreciate all the hard work and leadership that you've shown, um, from the student level. Thank you. Thank you. I want to echo that, too. I think it's a great job that the students are doing. I was talking with some members of the San Diego Psychological Association who are setting up a, uh, a seminar on, on, on bullying in the schools. And, and I said one of the most important things to do is to include these students. I mean, we have

042a district and community task force that is working on anti-bullying projects. And yet we've seen spontaneously from the students a lot of really great things come up in terms of what they're able to do in terms of dealing with this issue on their campuses. And we really appreciate the ASB president and, and the leadership that they're really taking in terms of really pushing this mission forward and, and really making some changes on, on their campuses. It's very incredible. I mean, I know there are a lot of adults who, who tend to say, well, bullying is inevitable. It's part of growing up and so forth and so on. And, and, and these kids are really, uh, really disproving that. So once again, thank you very much. Okay. We're now going to move to item F2, which

043is amendment of the graduation requirements of the career readiness component of the class of 2016 and beyond. Now, um, we had this item on the agenda, uh, four weeks ago. We decided that we wanted some more time for communication and, uh, public input. And so now this is being brought back, uh, to this meeting. Mr. President, before the staff report, I'd like to put a motion. On the floor that to make sure there's no misunderstanding of the board's position that the board rescind the previously mandated career technical requirement as a man, mandatory requirement for the schools. And, um, that's what I'm. I, I think that's in the staff recommendation, isn't it? Well, the staff recommendation, I think a lot of people feel it's unclear because it's, it's because we are not actually. Uh, I think

044the, the action was not to rescind the action that was taken last year, which, unless the recommendation was changed from what I saw, it's to say that it will be optional. Which would be a proactive action, but by rescinding the action last year left that we took last year that I voted for, um, then it will make clear to the parents that have concerns that this will not be a additional requirement. However, we do continue to support. Um, CTE programs and expanding them across our campuses. Anyhow, that's my motion. And if there's not a second, then that's fine. Well, I don't think that according to Robert's rules of orders, I'm in any position to make a motion or second it since I voted against the CTE requirement when it came up before the board, uh,

045a few months back. I can second it. Okay. Okay. We have a motion on the floor and now we will proceed with staff information. Absolutely. Thank you. Um. Briefly, we're going to go over the, um, the proposed change to the current CTE recommendation. And the goal is to ask for action, uh, toward expanding the options of college and career readiness. So, I'll briefly report and certainly we'll see where it falls into, to, uh, to the motion on the floor. Um. If I could go to the first slide. The second. The next. Yes. Um. First of all, I wanted to just, for one, um, demystify A through G. And for two, just do a brief overview of what we have, um, agreed to and what we're working from as a staff. Uh. In March 29th, 2011,

046um, the board voted at the time to align the district graduation requirements with the UC CSU A through G requirements. And that was a vote of yes. And that was a vote of yes in March. Then the next step was taken on June 14th. And that was to add the career readiness requirement. And that was, um, received a, a yes vote, uh, majority. Um, not unanimous. On June 14th, 2011. And then, um, one other point. And to requi- we required new graduation requirements with the incoming ninth grade class. The class of 2011. And then, um, the board also, within that requirement, asked that, um, or supported the need for extra support for earning D's and F's. For those students who have been placed in the classes but are not succeeding or, and not passing the

047class. Um. You can go ahead, Josefina. Thank you. To let you know just briefly what A through G means, I think a lot of people sometimes think it's every single course at the school. But it really is 15 courses. It's a, it's a handful of the courses that you take when you're in the high school course of study. So just briefly, um, I think the more we say it, the more we understand it. It includes two social studies classes. The A through G. And our current graduation requirement requires three, um, social studies classes. Uh, in English, the A through G, um, UC, um, requirement requires four years of English. Three years of mathematics. Two years of la, of science. And we currently in San Diego Unified require three years. One year above, um, what the

048UC requirement is. And then in language, uh, we ask for two years of the same language. And currently that is not, um, a requirement, a graduation requirement. So with the incoming class of 2016, that would be a new requirement. And it would be aligned with A through G. And then for the visual and performing arts. I know there were some concerns that, that some of this might boot out the visual and performing arts. There is a one year requirement of a visual and performing art. So it's, it's one, you know, there are many choices within that. And then lastly, the college preparatory elective. So this could include, um, uh, another science course. It could include another social studies course. There are many different electives that are A through G. And a lot of them are

049also the college career, technical education. And then there are technical education courses. We have about 55 of those courses that are A through G as well. So it's 15 classes and it, in some cases, is less than we currently require. And in, in two cases, it's more. Okay, thank you. Okay, the next, um, what we did, we had a lot of feedback. And one of the first things that, that was recognized is that this was designed to be something that would open doors for students. And so, as you see, we have IB, um, represented in the audience. And that was one pathway in particular that immediately jumped out. So did AP. In that it, it could be something that might have some, um, some conflicts. Or it could have overlap with the college and career

050technical education pathway. But we didn't want to exclude students who were already on a pathway that was successful and was a college preparation pathway. So we looked at some of the expanded pathways that, that were available. And as we went through, mentioning APIB, um, we also looked at the possibility of having JROTC as something that a student takes multiple years as, as a pathway. Um, CCTE, project-based learning, we have some campuses right now, particularly our small high school campuses, who have this pathway as part of their school path. And then we also have it within our large comprehensive schools as well. And performance. Um, performing arts is another pathway. AVID, certainly, as you take multiple years of AVID, is a pathway. Journalism and yearbook is something that colleges are looking for in particular. As is

051ASB student government. So, for example, um, Donner as president at Patrick Henry, um, when he's applying for college, the colleges look and they give points for being president of the ASB. They give points for being president of, or the editor of the paper. So these are all things that we recognize were pathways as well. And as you can see, once we did this, we saw, well, we really have covered nearly all of the pathways. And we really want to look to the things that, that didn't give students successive, um, experience. And, and through that, we recognize that CCTE as a mandate could possibly conflict with, uh, with some of these other pathways. Um, but it certainly is a very positive pathway. Um, alone, as well. And then also, as I noted before, there are 55

052UC approved, um, A through G college and career technical courses. Um, at, um, I'm using Patrick Henry again. They have an engineering course that has advanced entrance into SDSU. And it is counted as a, um, it's certainly a career pathway course. So, our goal as a district, really, is to work to include and to expand our colleges. And to expand our college and career options. But also to keep those options that we already had that worked. I don't know who's clicking for me. Okay. Um, why is college and career readiness important? Um, we had, we had this conversation, uh, in my office again today. Um, if we choose for students at the age of 12 or 13 a pathway that does not include some of these A through G offerings. And give them that advance,

053those advanced courses. Um, that's a good point. Um, we're not making decisions for those courses early on in their career. We're making a decision for a student early on in their career that could negatively impact the rest of their life. So, our goal is to provide A through G options for all students. And support them if they're not succeeding on the way, on the way through. So, other, other ideas and things that we recognize is that it aligns with our district mission statement. It aligns with our vision 2020 that emphasizes language. And all of the other courses. And then it also aligns with our academic goals that we've created as a district. And certainly, um, the Secretary of Education, Torlakson, has this as one of his, his major concerns and issues. And he's visited our

054campuses to look at our strong, um, programs in college and career readiness. And so, for that reason, we want to ensure that, that students have a marketable skill. That they're able to have the courses that will help open doors for them. As they apply for college. Now, now the, the last slide we, we pointed out just briefly leads into the next presentation that will be by Dr. Salazar. But briefly, we wanted to share that, um, the cost for this next year, this first year of implementation is 2 point, approximately 2.8 million dollars. And as we look at it, it's less than 1% of our entire cost. Okay. And it's less than 1% of our entire budget. And the current proposal is that this be a part of our program improvement funds that we have as

055a result of being in year three program improvement. And really the goal of program improvement, as we discussed in a workshop this morning, is to close that achievement gap. And, and where we're seeing the achievement gap are both in the students who are not placed in the right courses. And in the students who are placed in the right courses. Where they have the support they need to succeed. So this will help us target the students to, to close that gap. And then we, we know that these funds can and, and must be used for professional development and also part of our communication in outreach in this, in this effort. And, and just lastly, um, to circle back to the proposal on, on the table, um, the goal is to no longer have the college and

056career technical education courses. And as it was voted on with this board, to have two courses in that pathway will now be an option for students, not a mandate for students. So as it stands, this is amended to expand the college and career pathways to include many of those that were presented. So Nellie, if we could kind of draw a line of distinction, what Mr. Barnett is doing or proposing is to rescind the requirement. I think if I review our discussions and our analysis to this point and the outreach you had with the community, you're basically doing the same thing by recommending that we move from a requirement to a recommendation. To me, that's also rescinding, but I don't want to equivocate over the words either. But that would be to enhance the flexibility just

057to, I guess, set the table and see where that goes with the conversation with the board. Right. So to answer that question, whether the wording is rescind or amend, the idea is that there would no longer be a CCTE requirement, but the courses would be available. Our staff recommendation is to no longer require. Okay. And have... Okay. However, that needs to be... Okay. So just so we're very, very clear, the staff recommendation is to end the CCTE graduation requirement. Correct. Okay. Okay. We have some public speakers on this item. And Ms. Virato, could you just give me one? It's all that you gave me here. Okay. And then the other one's on the sheet. Okay. Anne-Marie Haney, Debbie O'Toole, Dean Hickman, and Shauna Smith. If you would... Come forward. And since we have several speakers

058on this particular agenda item, we're going to limit it to two minutes. So you'll have the green light. And when the yellow light comes on, please start wrapping up so we can get to the next speaker. Good evening. I strongly support the staff proposal to designate CCTE courses as optional rather than required for high school graduation. Many of you have shared the astonishing accomplishments of our students. We've all marveled at the remarkable discipline that the students have demonstrated, as well as their dedication to their common goal of mastering very difficult music. The high school level of achievement, the high level of the achievement of these students has been possible because of the consistent instruction that they have received, many of them since fourth grade. This proposal, the staff proposal, gives students the opportunity to continue

059to participate in the CCTE program. And the students will be able to participate in their school bands and orchestras and choirs without interruption. And I strongly hope that you will support the recommendation. And thank you for your wonderful, very thorough presentation. All of the people who have worked on this, a lot of work. Thank you. First, I would like to thank Superintendent Koba, Deputy Superintendent Myers, and Assistant Superintendent Salazar for listening to parents' concerns and making tonight's proposal possible. Communication is very important when making changes. that affect every child in the district. We wouldn't be here tonight if it wasn't for parents finally realizing the ramifications of the new graduation requirements and begin to ask questions. There were no meetings with parents until several months after the vote passed to mandate CTE. And once those

060meetings started, it was the parents who started asking the questions. Most of the parents in the district have no idea this has actually been taking place. The district needs to do a better job of engaging parents, especially when it's about something so important. We could have saved a lot of time if this would have been vetted by principals, counselors, and parents first. If we were to have a true community-based school reform, we, the community, need to be included before these big decisions are made. I joined parents yesterday afternoon at a CTE community meeting. They had just received a presentation by Mr. Salazar about the proposal. They allowed parents to speak. Following the speakers, one member of the committee made the comment that there were things that parents said that they had not taken into consideration.

061And I think that's the true issue here. The problems associated with mandating two consecutive CTE courses could have been brought to the forefront early on. Mr. Beiser brought these up at the issue the night of the vote last June, but I don't think the implications resonated with the rest of the board. On paper, it looks like a great plan, but once the implementation began, the flaws were quickly becoming evident. The good news is the problem can be solved tonight. Give career choices back. The only way to solve this problem is to vote to where they belong, and that's to our kids. Please vote to rescind the CTE graduation mandate. On another note, we did an online survey, or not survey, a petition, and we had over 1,300 parents sign it in just like two hours,

062excuse me, in two days. So I wanted to bring that tonight, but it was 135 pages, and we didn't want to kill a tree. So I can send that to you if you like it. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I'm here today to voice my support that the college government has made a commitment to us, to make sure that the college career technical courses, CCTEs, be made a recommended or optional course for the career readiness component of the graduation requirements. As a longtime supporter of arts inclusion in education, I feel that making CTE a required course or required courses would force students into abandoning other courses that would be just as legitimate in preparing them for future careers. It would also break up any continuity that these students had put into place to pursue

063those interests. The CTE courses, no doubt, have value in preparing students for very worthwhile careers. I certainly support their existence, but not at the expense of interrupting other courses of study, such as the arts, that are just as worthwhile. Thank you. My name is Shawna Smith, and I want to start with verbiage is important. And the word recommend does not mean the same as the word rescind, and I'm standing here in support of rescinding the CTE graduation requirement. Because my kids are in high school already, the new requirement doesn't affect my daughters. But I can look at their experience and I can clearly see the problems future students will have. As approved of in June, seventh graders and younger are now required to take two years of the same subject of CTE. My daughters have

064flexibility and choice. My seventh grade neighbor, has lost that. My daughters can explore many different career courses as they want in any subject. And my seventh grade neighbor will be recommended to take the CTE class. Are you also going to recommend that they take ASB or recommend journalism and yearbook and give those same classes the same balance and power? I'm not against CTE classes. I really think that they are an important option, and they've been a great path that all high school students have been able to explore. But the verbiage is important because future generations will turn to that to give them guidance on what they need to do. And so I've kind of gotten off my speech, but basically I just want to say please vote to rescind the CTE requirement as opposed to

065keeping it in as a recommendation. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. Linda Dowley, Sherry Wang, Jacob Todd, Tamara Hurley, and Judith Westling. Good evening. Dr. Evans, board members, Mr. Koba, thank you for allowing us to speak. My name is Linda Dowley. I'm the mother of three children who all attended San Diego schools. The youngest graduated from high school last spring. I'm also an independent college admission counselor. I'm here tonight to speak against district mandates, specifically on the issue of the augmentation of graduation requirements as it was first presented or first voted on in June 2011. The idea of mandating any course of study recalls for me the very worst of the Burson era when the superintendent and his academic experts came up with requirements for all students. They did not offer choices. There was that one size

066fits all mantra that still chills many of us. I have three children. I can tell you they all took very different array of courses in high school. So one size doesn't fit all in a single family, let alone for 130,000 plus students in our district. That was a device of time, and I'm glad that you all are giving us some options now and listening to the feedback from the community. I thank you all for that very much. What students need are choices, and they currently have very worthwhile choices. Under the current rules where students can take both AP and CTE courses, those paths are not mutually exclusive, and I think that's really important. My children took 16 AP courses and 6 CTE courses because they had time in their schedules and they had the opportunity

067to make those choices. However, if they had been required to take two years of a single CTE course, they would have missed jazz ensemble, they would have missed the Mesa College classes that are taught on the high school campuses. Those things would have been squeezed out and made them less attractive to colleges. And to put on my college counselor hat, college admissions personnel tell us they do not want a well-rounded student. They want a well-rounded student body. They're looking to admit individual students who have identified their passion and pursue that. So I urge you to allow each student to pursue their passion. ASB, yearbook, allow them to get that final moment. Thank you. Thank you all very much for your time tonight. Good evening, board members. Many of us here today, are here to appeal

068to you to hear our voices, the voices of your district parents on the decision to either rescind or change the recommendations for the CTE requirements. I have served as an interviewer for high school students here in San Diego applying to my alumni, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the last 18 years. Over this time, I have seen the MIT acceptance rate of San Diego County high school students go from 11% in San Diego to this year's current all-time high of 16%, while the national acceptance rate has dropped from 15% to just 8%. This is indeed evidence that San Diego is doing something right in the way we educate our kids for entry into such elite colleges such as MIT. What is reflected in these competitive applicants is the commitment to a quality education that is

069innovative as it is aggressive. Some of my accepted students were able to take 12 AP courses. Some only took two. Reflective of an ability to cultivate their academic talents using the resources at their schools. Creating a rigid requirement mandating fixed units of CTE on top of the already rigorous A to G requirements will ensure that San Diego Unified students will have less rigor, less competitive GPA, be less innovative, and make them overall less competitive even to our sister districts in the county for elite schools such as MIT. Moreover, I serve as the associate professor and director of residency training for our pediatrics program here at UCSD School of Medicine and annually review over 800 quality medical students. The National Council for Graduate Medical Education has spearheaded training community to allow training programs to be more

070innovative and independent of rigid curriculums. To create a program that mandates CTE education on all learners would poorly align our students for higher education standards that have purposely steered towards learner specific goals. Please hear our voices today and rethink this mandate. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Jake Todd and my address is on record with the district. I'm a sophomore at Scripps Ranch High School and in February I spoke about the negative impact that the CTE requirement will have on high achieving kids. Today I would like to address another reason why the CTE requirements should be rescinded. The impact these requirements have on middle schoolers like my little brother Justin. In a document entitled Frequently Asked Questions about New Graduation Requirements the district highly recommended that middle school students begin taking world language courses.

071Solely as a result of this new CTE requirement a significant number of current sixth and seventh grade kids and their parents are already feeling pressured to forego the opportunity to participate in electives such as visual and performing arts as well as others. In order to take world language courses in middle school so they can free up space in their high school schedules to have time to take these CTE courses. As a student I strongly believe that advocating that 12 and 13 year olds sign up for high school level courses is wrong for a whole host of reasons. A number of educators acknowledge that many children that age are simply not ready for high school level courses and thus highly recommending that all middle school students take a world language course is doing these kids a

072disservice. Middle school should be a time of exploration not a time to knock a class out to free up more time in high school. I spent my three years in middle school playing trombone in Mr. Steinberg's band program. Although I wouldn't want to have given up that fantastic experience I definitely would have if the district had told me or recommended that I take a language course in middle school so I could take all of the courses I wanted in high school. Kids should not be pressured to forego the opportunity to take elective courses in middle school just to free up time in high school for CTE classes that they may not want or even need to take. Many of my little brother's friends have already elected to opt out of band next year in order

073to take Spanish only because of the CTE requirement. If many 7th and 8th graders feel pressured to take world language courses in middle school it will have a serious negative impact on all students. Thank you. Alright. You want to just wrap it up? See you. Thank you. CTE courses should merely be an option not a recommendation and not a requirement. Please vote to rescind the CTE requirements. Thank you. Good evening. We thank the district for listening to its stakeholders finally Your name please. Sorry. Tamara Hurley. I'm on file. And that you agree that CTE courses should not be a graduation requirement. CTE courses are of value but the two year CTE graduation requirement must go. When choosing to rescind this requirement CTE graduation requirement or to change it to a recommendation, please recognize that every

074student's career path is unique. So don't pigeonhole students into prescribed pathways. You can do better by informing them of their options and what is really required of them to succeed in their goals, and then let them choose. And let's make sure the CTE courses the district offers at the school sites really meet the career goals of their students. Screen printing CTE classes at Scripps Ranch High School make no sense. Additionally, has the district considered how it will help 14-year-olds find their career pathways, whether this be for a career directly out of high school or one that requires post-secondary education? And when considering career education, why not consider global career education using linked learning and project-based learning within the required A to G courses? This would not only provide opportunities for all students to have exposure

075to possible careers, but also help all students recognize that these rigorous courses have real-world career applications. Sadly, the CTE program is not the only one that has been used to provide career pathways. The CTE program is the only one that has been used to provide career pathways. The CTE program will make consumed for EACH child more successful. Broadly, this district has a long history of poor communication and a failure to engage its true stakeholders, students and their parents, in its decisions. You have cluster organizations, school site councils, site governance teams and associated student bodies across the districts. Use them! Bounce ideas before implementing new policies to get feedback from the stakeholders when it is most useful, not late in the game, like we are doing now. Let's work together to find a way to help

076students find their passion, whether no longer it is nuclear physics or arc welding, and then inform and direct them to courses that will help them use this passion to reach their career goals. Thank you. Thank you. We write these out so we can try to adhere to two minutes, and I apologize. I may have one copy for you, but I'll read it and you can consult that later. My name is Judith Wessling. I have four grandsons in the district. And I'm working, and you will see in my talk, I am working from documents. I'm working from the amendment that was given to us. It's dated March 29, 2012. The language of that, and I'm working from the minutes. Please vote to rescind the motion of June 14, 2011. This was a recommendation of the CTE,

077you know what that is, Advisory Committee, to add career readiness graduation requirements. From the CCTE. And it's on all meeting attachments. It's clear that this refers to adding a mandated two CTE courses of four credits to district graduation requirements. I object to the motion as bad for college-bound students, which you've already heard about. I object to the mandated requirement for struggling students, as there is no money available in the district for this proposal without rating program improvement funds. Such funds are presently used for tutoring that helps kids graduate from high school. Let all students continue to have a choice. It's a process. We have to improve the quality and quality of the school courses, academic and career technical education as they do today. The Education Trust West Audit Report states that 95% of the students

078are already taking one CTE course, and there are CTE courses in every high school. I did a lot of work working from here backwards to find out all about the CTE. This is only 1⁄3 of the stuff that I have read and tried to absorb. I object to the proposed amendment. presented today it is vague and burdensome on the few counselors we have left in our high schools the amendment is still encouraging pathways for graduation with an expanded notion of what pathways could or might be who determines if a student has fitted in a pathway before graduation if there are all kinds of pathways and if they are not mandated then why have this motion at all when a program that affects thousands of students such as CTE and AG is proposed we deserve the

079most clear records this may be my most important thing and I'm okay give me this the time to do it we need clear records of what our elected school district trustees decide on behalf of our children one of the trustees did not believe that the board had voted on such a CTE mandated program and so insisted it could not be rescinded one of the five recommendations from the March 29th meeting to increase the number of graduation credits and required from 44 to 48 was never voted on according to the minutes the minutes record that trustee Barnett appeared to make a motion to try to amend the recommendation to ask staff to provide a detailed analysis of the cost of this recommendation but this proposed amendment to the motion did not receive a second please wrap

080it up the motion to increase credits for graduation was never presented or recorded properly and was not voted on the bylaws of the board section 1029 say that the minutes are the only official records of the proceedings please reject this vague amendment and then please move second and vote to rescind the motion of June 14 2011 and I quote it and you have it thank you okay that concludes the public testimony we have the motion on the floor comments by board members miss Jackson certainly I want to thank the parents and people coming to speak on this item this evening. I'll speak up. I'm sorry. Certainly I want to thank the people that have come to speak this evening and the comments that we should engage our stakeholders before we make decisions is certainly a

081very valid one. Sometimes we do get information. People are working here all the time and they make suggestions and they're right. It does sound good on paper and it looks good on paper, but we forget what it really looks like when it gets down to the school level. So I second the motion. I support the motion to rescind. I think words are very important. As someone mentioned earlier, there's a difference between recommending and rescinding. So I support rescinding it all together. Thank you. Okay. Any other board comments? One comment. Everyone up here supports expanded CTE options for our kids. My daughters right now are both taking CTE classes as well as taking AP and honors and other things. And I, given our financial problems, it's going to be hard to expand these in the next

082few years. But obviously our goal is every student be successful. They graduate high school and if they want to go to college of their choice, they should be able to. Or if they want a career of their choice, they'd be able to. We all share that goal. Obviously the devil is in the details of a lot of these issues. I appreciate the staff's effort to reflect on the genuine concerns out there with their recommendation. And the fact that they've met with parents. I had a meeting with representatives from a number of clusters last week where Mr. Salazar came. And I appreciate all those efforts but I think we need to be clear what we are doing and what we're not doing. And by rescinding this, then we've made it clear it is no longer a

083requirement. It doesn't mean that we still will not support expanding opportunities. Which I think we all will. So I would urge support for this motion. Thank you. Comments? I would just say that I think certainly the consensus on the board that we want to keep options open for our students. And this was part of the initial push behind the whole A to G, which is related to this, which was to make sure that students didn't get to the end of high school and find out that they had missed one or two courses that they would need in terms of, being admitted into college. I think that we, and we all support both college prep and career tech courses. I think the great example I always use is that some of the high schools at Madison

084High School, for example, with the state of the art auto tech center, students can take that class and the classes in that center and they can graduate from high school and get a job immediately as a mechanic. Or they can go to one of the vocational schools of Volvo or Toyota or someone from the state of the art auto tech center for one or two years and become an expert and get certification there. Or the other students in that same class can go on and take courses in mechanical engineering in the university. So this is the whole point, is to keep all these options open. And I think the whole issue of communication is very well taken and it's certainly important to this board in terms of how we are communicating. I think that's one

085of the reasons we said a few weeks ago, let's not take action on the issue of communication. And I think that's one of the reasons we said, let's not take action on the issue of communication. And I think that's one of the reasons we said, let's not take action on the issue of communication. So that we can really stop and look and listen and get some more feedback on this, which we have at this time, but I agree that that needs to be done on all of these ventures from the very beginning. And I think because of the confusion that there's been, that it needs to be absolutely clear to everybody that these CTE courses are being offered but they are not a requirement that impairs the content of the courses that they want and

086need. Mr. Beiser. You know, for me this is very interesting because I didn't support the CTE graduation requirement when it came up for a vote several months ago because our children only have a finite number of classes that they can take. So I will, this evening, vote the same way that I voted before and not require this as a graduation requirement for our students. But I do want to be very clear that I do support A-G graduation requirements and funding the resources to help students succeed. And the third point that I'd like to make is I was also very glad to vote a few weeks ago to delay decision so that we as a board could go to the communities and get input and try to make sure that whatever decision we do make as

087a board affecting 100,000 kids and what kind of requirements we're putting upon them. And I'm grateful, grateful that people in the community had the courage to speak up and explain with reason in a professional manner the realities that they're facing when they're doing the four year plan for their children in high school. And so I really appreciate the board reconsidering and the staff reevaluating this specific graduation requirement. I do not support CTE classes for students that want to take them. But I do not support making it a graduation requirement. Okay. No further comments? Please vote on the motion on the floor. Read the motion, please. Mr. Barnett, you made the motion. There's a request in the audience. The motion that passed was to rescind the CTE requirement action that we took last year. And it

088just passed 5-0. Well, he was making a prediction. That's why I'm looking at it. 5 green and 5 red. Now it is. He's prescient. He was able to He was 10 seconds ahead of us. Okay. That passes and we'll move on to item F3. President Evans, I'd like to move approval of the motion on item F3. Okay. The A-G implementation funding request. Motion to approve and seconded. Ms. Villarato, do we have any public comments on this item? Okay. First, I will ask Superintendent Koba in terms of is there a staff presentation on this or... Yes. We did have a presentation. Do you want to proceed with the presentation or with the testimony? Do you have a presentation? Yes. Okay. I want to make sure. We had a first reading last time. Go ahead, Dr. Salinger.

089Let me kick this off for our assistant superintendent. This is a follow-up from a conversation now we've had and a very good exchange between the board, staff, and the community over...this is the third of recent meetings we've had and Sid will walk you through a very brief PowerPoint. Intent here is to seek your approval on funding for the third year of A-G for all. And I want to note that it was a good couple of years ago that after a vigorous community outreach program with large task force of parents and staff that Sid led multi-prong, I think four task force rolled into a...four subcommittees rolled into a large task force, we all agreed that A-G default curriculum for high school but as a broader K-12 strategy was the right thing to do for our kids.

090And that came after a very large research baselining that was done by Ed Trust West again, a number of years ago. We became only the third district in the county of 42 and the ninth in the state of a thousand to recognize that we had to bring rigor and relevance to our curriculum. If you all recall the time the baselining identified that we had an incredibly imbalanced set of curriculum offerings across our various high school campuses. We recognized that by moving to A-G we were going to achieve equity in excess for all students, particularly high needs kids that simply were disadvantaged by not having that consistency of the curriculum across the district. So in order to get there we began this journey and in the first couple of years we tried to do all we

091could to bring together requirements to support A-G that were either cost neutral or no cost. Recognizing that while we're in this deep prolonged budget crisis that we would reach a intersection where funding is required. So this is the first time and Sid and his team on the academic side have done innumerable reviews and refinements to manage the limited funding that's available the reality of where we are today. What Sid will highlight for you is a three year window that looks out at the most immediate next year is using some one time PI funds to bridge to getting to our 2016 class ready to be fully A-G. The two years that follow would be a combination of some general fund and categorical funds. Let me be clear here is that we have a year out to

092determine how we're going to align. What we're saying here is for $4.5 million are there abouts on an annual basis two years out and consistently we're bringing A-G rigor relevance, access and equity. We think that in the next year we'll have a way of working with our high schools. Sid has already been with the high school principals a number of times to clarify A-G, to demystify it and to proceed with how we would do that funding. I'd like to have Sid now highlight what we want to do and why we want to do it and where that need will be. Thank you Superintendent Koba, Board President Dr. Evans, Board Members, Deputy Superintendents Meyer and Stover. Before I begin my brief presentation, I also want to acknowledge the hard work of the A-G Task Force that

093has been meeting on a number of occasions throughout the months for the last two years. So I would like for all the members who are out sitting if you could please stand. Those of you who are here, if you participated in any way please stand. In addition to that I would also like to along with Board Member Jackson acknowledge the parents who presented today and Dr. Meyer and I have been diligently meeting with parent groups throughout the last four weeks to ensure that we have demystified and worked with them and taken their suggestions into consideration so I could have a round of applause for those parents that were here. That being said, as you can see with the first slide our initiative is now called UC A-G for All. So that is going to be

094the focus of my presentation today. This is the third time that I present for the $2.8 million funding for the third year of implementation. Please keep in mind that over a year ago in March I presented an implementation plan which included a year by year actions that needed to be implemented for successful full implementation of the initiative within the next four to five years. Within that implementation plan you were also given preliminary dollar figures that were going to kick in year three. Year three is next year 2012- 2013. The first two years were cost neutral. That was our agreement with the Board that we would focus on those tasks and actions that were cost neutral. This slide gives you just the exact figure and making sure that all of you understand that for UC A-G

095for All funding for next year there will be no impact on general fund unrestricted. As Dr. Meyer alluded earlier we felt it was very important for the Board to acknowledge and for all of us to acknowledge how UC A-G for All aligns to all of our current district initiatives. As you can see on the slide it is in accordance with our vision 2020, our community based reform model, our strategic process in creating quality neighborhoods. And as Superintendent Kova mentioned earlier the whole notion of equity and access for all of our students is critical as the initiative rolls out. In terms of our communications update that was a huge task throughout the two years but a more targeted task with good feedback from our parent groups in regards to how we are communicating with the public

096in terms of the initiative. In that case it was the CRCP now we have gotten some lessons in terms of what our perhaps our mistakes were in the past of not communicating on an ongoing basis and communicating perhaps every other month publicly with the Board may be a strategy as we continue to roll out the initiative. But we currently have and have been working with Linda Zintz in the communications department in developing a live website that is now in Spanish and we are trying to make it as user friendly and easy access for all of our parents along with links to the UC and CSU systems the University of California and California State University systems. And Linda is going to demo that on click and there it is. That's what it looks like. It's on

097our district website and just wanted to give you that information. In terms of community engagement we have been working diligently, Dr. Meyer and I have been working diligently along with the area superintendents in promoting cluster information, working with parent groups in particular as you can see on the slide, the La Jolla Cluster. Dr. Meyer met with the PTSA presidents about two weeks ago and I most recently met with the CTE Advisory Committee to make sure that they understood what our amendment or was going to be for this evening. Mr. Salazar, besides these groups that you met with in the last few weeks, have there been any other formal presentations on A to G to the other high school clusters in the district? My understanding is that the area superintendents presented information at their clusters. I

098don't know if it was at every cluster. This slide is our first slide in terms of revenue sources and what we will need in terms of successful implementation for 2012- 2013. This has not changed from my previous presentation and as you can see a good chunk of the money is for counselor hourly for those counselors who will be on board with perhaps a higher caseload number and to help alleviate that additional number of students per caseload. Professional development targeted to mathematics, world languages and AVID. AVID as would be like I said before, our goal is to AVIDize our entire district systemically over the next several years to ensure that we have research based strategies that we know work with students across the curriculum areas. In addition to that, all of these items that you see

099up here are items that are to help school sites. We can clearly understand that school sites in the future will have fewer dollars so we want to enhance that as we continue to roll out the initiative knowing that there is going to be add-ons to support the successful implementation of the initiative. Instructional materials will be coming from lottery funds. Lottery funds are specific and appropriate for instructional materials and then we will continue working with the Office of Language Acquisition specifically EIA funding to help continue our work that's already started in terms of world language proficiency testing. So as you can see the request here for 1213 is for approximately 2.3 from the one time program improvement funds about 2 million dollars from that and then the rest would come from the lottery funds and economic

100EIA. I will give you a summary in a subsequent slide in terms of what those costs will be, what will be coming from the one time program improvement funds and what will be coming from general fund unrestricted in future years. For 1314 as I have said before this is an incremental expenditure which means the five items that you saw in the slide before carry on now to 2013-14. So the first five items are pretty much the same. Some dollars have been added in terms of professional development as the hourly increments go up for teachers on a year by year basis. We added that on there. The two add-ons for 1314 is parent workshops and we will work with Title I, the Title I office and the school principals to help them target what parent workshops

101would be successful in implementing the A-G initiative. The 1.9 million dollars that you see up here in terms of FTE for mathematics and world languages is our first possible possible impact on general fund unrestricted. And I say possible because what I want all of you to understand is that we are trying to think based on and project based on current information which could potentially change. In a perfect world it would be an even wash in terms of mathematics and world languages teachers in terms of the need. But we know we don't live in a perfect world. So that being said in terms of mathematics and world languages depending on when students get to intermediate algebra because now all students are required to take intermediate algebra and students get to that class at different times there

102may or may not be a need for teachers. So those are the kinds of different factors that come into play as these decisions are going to be made in the future. We will have a much better idea as we continue to work with the human resources department and identify and we have identified the teachers who have multiple subject credentials or multiple single subject credentials I should say that could perhaps teach a world language or could perhaps teach a higher level mathematics course. So that total for 2013- 14 comes to 4.8 million dollars. There's a slight difference because I lowered the hours for professional development so there's a slight difference from what you were given four weeks ago. In terms of 2014 again it's an incremental cost here so those previous expenditures carry to 14-15 with

103the adding on of examining the grading policy and then continuing or working target in a target manner with the special education department in terms of providing extra support other than what currently is already being presented for those students with special needs and ensuring that there are safety nets and interventions that are targeted for those students as they currently are but perhaps looking at the current information that we have after one year of implementation and seeing what needs to be modified. That grant total comes out to 4.6 million again that is 200,000 dollars less than the previous year. This is just a three year budget overview for three years the total cost for the initiative will be 12.2 million dollars almost 12.3 and it gives you the breakdown year by year as a synopsis of what

104I just presented. Year one we have no impact to general fund unrestricted. Year two it's a 4.8 million dollar expenditure which includes the 1.7 for GFU plus the potential FTE for that will impact the general fund unrestricted in 2013-14 or could impact the general fund unrestricted. In 2014-15 we have a 4.6 million dollar cost and then you have the GFU breakdown. What we did is we looked at the funding impact and what I want to reiterate from my previous conversation with you is that we will be working with principals, side councils revisiting the DAC to ensure that we are working with schools and helping them as they are making decisions about their Title I dollars and making sure that there's a priority given to the initiative as we continue. We need to remember that we

105espouse this and believe that this initiative is a pre-K-12 initiative and therefore every single segment of our district has a responsibility in successfully implementing this. So we will continue working with the side councils focusing on struggling students and making sure that we help inform site plans as they continue to be developed in the future. Our request this evening is to vote to approve the 2.8 million dollars that will have no impact on GFU for the 2012-2013 school year. Thank you. Do you have any questions for Dr. Salazar? I will get to the speakers. Okay, let's go to the speakers. Thank you Dr. Salazar. We will come to comments and questions after that. The following speakers, we have several speakers again for this item so it will be two minutes. Please observe the green light. When

106it turns yellow, please wrap up. Please come forward when I call your name. David Page, Andrea Guerrero, and Matthew, I always mispronounce your name, Yagi Yagan. Good evening board members and superintendent. My name is David Page. I have concerns over this budget proposal for a program that is already in place. I would ask that you give the same consideration to the technical school bound students that you were doing for the A-G students in that they should have the same choices and not have the same conflicts in their schedules by being required to do A-G as a requirement, not as an option. But first of all, I want to take care of some issues that seem to be some smoke and mirrors. The 2.3 million dollars that comes from Title I becomes now 4-5 million dollars.

107And I thought we learned from the budget promises for pay raises that we shouldn't be promising money we don't have. And yet we're about to do that without knowing what the cost is to school site councils and to Title I and other compensatory education budgets. But these are program improvement funds and they're meant for just that, for program improvement. We met our graduation requirement this year, so why are we spending a third of our program improvement funding on something that we met as opposed to using that for closing an achievement gap. This board's spent a year trying to force money of Title I to the 75% students and above. And this money came to you, $100,000 per program improvement school, and you're willing to give away a third of it for something that we already

108met as a target that is only going to make it more difficult to graduate for some students. You, um, this year, you want us to keep our students, but we're not giving them a way out. There's not a safety net for those that don't meet this need. And it's almost like No Child Left Behind that made you require students to be 60% proficient in English language arts and mathematics. And yet in 10 years with $400 million we didn't manage to do that. And now with no money on the table, you want to require kids to work harder to pass graduation rates when 50% of our students are failing to be proficient at this time. And there's no magic way to make that happen. Thank you. Good evening, Superintendent Kolba, Board President, Dr. Evans, members of

109the board. My name is Matt Yagyagan and I'm with the Equality Alliance of San Diego. And a community of A-G supporters. We are here today to remind you why a broad cross-section of communities in San Diego supports the alignment of A-G with the district's graduation requirements. We have been here before you multiple times before to discuss this subject and will continue to be here to ensure that the implementation of the A-G curriculum into the graduation requirements is properly funded and placed into our district budget. Whereas the Board of Education of San Diego Unified Schools District is committed to ensuring that all San Diego students graduate with the skills, motivation, curiosity, and resilience to succeed in their choice of college and career in order to lead and participate in the society of tomorrow. Whereas the Board

110is further committed to eliminating the achievement and opportunity gap, increasing high school graduation rates, and reducing dropout rates, and a college preparatory course sequence has been shown to promote the attainment of these goals. My name is David Morales. I'm a recent graduate of Mission Bay High School and a current student at UCSD. Whereas the college preparatory course sequence embodied in the University of California A-G requirements is a high quality life readiness curriculum that does not guarantee college admission, but rather is made up of rigorous courses teaching core skills that prepare students not only to enter college, but also to become lifelong learners in a changing economy and a changing world. Whereas the Board believes that all students can be successful in a college career preparatory curriculum. Whereas less than 42% of district high school graduates

111currently complete the course work, I'm Danelle Scarborough, Executive Director of the City of San Diego's Human Relations Commission, and support the ongoing Staying the Course and funding this implementation plan. Okay, we had three different people, so go ahead and take the floor. And your name is? My name is Leslie Martinez, and I am a current senior at Mission Bay High School. And are you Fran? Okay, fine. Whereas low A-G completion rates in the district undermine our local and state economy, which depend on a well prepared workforce and undermine our democracy, which depends on a well informed and engaged students in REIT. Whereas enrollment rates of low income students, students of color, special needs students, and English learner students in the A-G course work are lower than enrollment rates for other groups of students, which negatively

112impacts a disproportionate number of these students. Whereas all district students do not currently have the opportunity to pursue an array of options, including college after high school, because they do not have the necessary foundational skills and are not enrolled in rigorous preparatory course work that ensures college readiness. Whereas the completion of a UC A-G college preparatory sequence in conjunction with rigorous and relevant career and technical education courses provides a pathway that will allow San Diego Unified School District students a full array of post-secondary options. My name is Fnock Fleski. I'm an alum of Mira Mesa High School and I just graduated from UC San Diego and I currently work as an academic coordinator as an outreach program at UC San Diego. And Andrea Guerrero. These are the reasons that you approve of the resolution. We

113approved unanimously the resolution to incorporate the A-G requirements into the new graduation requirements. These are the reasons why we keep coming back to you. We, a cross section of community members that have included the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Council, civil rights organizations, community groups, parents, students, and the like. We come again and again because this is that important. The proposal before you is to approve funding of $2.8 million. That is a fraction of 1% of your nearly $1 billion budget. It is such a small price to pay to fulfill the core mission of this institution. The core mission of this institution. It's a reasonable request and it makes real your promise. The promise you made us. The promise we just read back to you. That you will provide all students in this district

114with the A-G courses they need in order to be able to have the full array of post-secondary options available to them so that they can succeed as your mission statement says in their choice of college and career to lead and participate in the society of tomorrow. We congratulate you for taking that first visionary step. We urge you to fund it and continue to raise the expectations to meet the demands of the modern day world. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Ms. Jackson. Okay, Mr. Salazar. And while he's coming up, could we go back to the last slide presentation and go to page three of the previous slide which says access and equity success for all. So in the last two years, so first of all let me say I support A-G. I was on the board

115then and I advocate for it. So I don't have a problem with our A-G requirements. My concern right now is the funding of this. So first of all, in the last two years, what have we accomplished? You said that there was no funding for the last two years required. And my question is what did you accomplish in the last two years? I didn't bring the implementation plan with me in terms of giving you the specifics. But I can give you some highlights in terms of what we did. First of all, we have been working diligently with counselors. I have been myself very involved to the point of conducting myself some of the professional development activities in terms of A-G, what that would entail, and what that would look like perhaps as at that time when

116we were beginning the conversations, having some knowledge from them that there would potentially be fewer. What he's talking, page three please. We've also been working in looking at aligning what we are now looking at common core. Knowing and working with the finance department that we were going to have fewer dollars in the very near future. Looking at what will be required by the state of California in terms of common core and the advent of the new assessments in 2015. Really looking at how this initiative aligns to that. On this page, the reason I wanted you to start that out, on this page it talks about what A-G means. And the problem I have with your budget is this. So certainly if this motion fails then I have another one to make. You don't put the

117parent component in until 13-14. And I would have thought, certainly advocated when we had the momentum in 2009 when we did this that the parent piece would still continue, the parent workshops. You don't put in the additional staff for the courses that are needed until 14-15. And when we did the study about this, it identified what schools had the courses that we need and what schools didn't have the courses that we need. And so my concern is that, not saying I don't want to fund A-G, what I'm saying is that the budget that you have presented to me does not make sense. It would make more sense to me if we were looking at what we got from Ed Trust West. And I'll just use one school. Let's just use Crawford. And according to Ed

118Trust West, Crawford needed six more courses in order to offer all the courses that a student would need to go to A-G. I would feel better if over the last couple of years you've worked to say, okay, we found a way to offer the additional history course or science course or world language course at Crawford to ensure that this graduating class that's going there now can get those courses. Okay? Maybe I'm not seeing this correctly here, but that's not what I'm seeing here. What I'm seeing here is you're working with the counselors and everyone in the counselors and supports to tell them what A-G should look like, which I think they know. I mean, it's not that... I'm sorry. But according to this, you're saying it's only these 30 credits, and we did this huge

119study, so I'm not quite sure why we need another million dollars to work with the counselors about how to actually tell them to tell students how to take A-G courses. I agree this is a pre-K issue. And I'm not understanding the cost because from grade all the way up, we should be telling kids they're going to college. And in the middle school, we often do calendars. And we always say, you're going to need this in high school. You're going to need this in high school. So I'm not understanding why there's not more emphasis put on funding to provide the courses than funding here for a counselor hourly support. Because for this board, I'm a member who really believes in A-G, I think the most important thing we can do is get the students in the

120A-G courses. And according to what you're saying here, I'm just trying to understand your budget, is that you're doing counseling, 11-12, 12-13, then you have a little bit of mathematics support using some PI funds, but then in 12-13 is when you finally start looking at parent workshops FTEs for mathematics and world languages. And I would have hoped that over the last two years you would have looked at the report that we received and had determined those things. And this budget should to me be reflecting those things. Is it not? Yes it is. It's exactly from the implementation plan. And the implementation plan that we developed over a year ago that we presented to you was directly from the report. So I'm going to give it more courses at the schools. They don't have enough. So

121what courses are going to be implemented at Crawford next year? That level of detail is not provided in the budget. And if I could just share. To me that's important for board members to know because I can't support something that's telling me that you're working with some more adults. I can support something that says, okay we identified that there's six courses short. We have made sure that next year that they have the teaching staff and the course work that the kids can take. I don't, I mean certainly, I'm sorry. I'm taking the time to a time as the president. I just don't quite understand that. Okay. Some of the actions that we've been taking are supporting this report but not necessarily part of the discrete A through G effort. So for example much of the

122work that we've done with Crawford High School over the last two years has been in an effort to broaden the curriculum at Crawford. With the four discrete schools, and the very small campuses, it was very difficult to give all of to have all of the offerings. So I know you've been very involved in redefining Crawford High School. So that's one example. In the Ed Trust report as well we found that at our alternative schools they did not have the language support. And not ironically, but something that we do not capitalize on are the second language skills of many of our students who are within the alternative schools. So some of the effort within the English language the OLA office, Office of Language Acquisition, has been in support of this effort because they have been working

123towards giving students credit for the language that they currently possess. Now some of that is in this budget, but much of that has been a parallel path that is leading to the support of some of these efforts. So many of the things that have happened that you're alluding to that were highlighted in the Ed Trust report, we've taken action on such as Math Task Force. They've had many different they've killed many birds with the same stone so to speak. So they may not be written discreetly in this, but it really is all part of the effort of raising the level of education. Okay, so certainly it's difficult and I'm again, I'm sorry Board President, it's difficult for me to understand the amount of money that we need to implement A through G that is if

124we're not adding additional courses. So when you say to me, okay, what you said to us earlier, A through G is taking these 15 rigorous year long courses, these courses, 30 credits. And so the question, you know, so for me, if our high schools are offering these courses now, and I know Ed Trust West said that some of them didn't have those courses, your first line here, and I'll apologize because as I said today to the superintendent, I just read too much, it says, parent, students, counselor, UC, AG planning meetings. So you have 1.3 million of program improvement money that's just spent on planning meetings. And as a board member, I cannot fathom in my head how you can spend that much money just on planning meetings. Okay, so if you were telling me that,

125you know, we need to add another history teacher over at the med or someplace else or wherever else, that I could understand and that I could get on board with. I can't, and you're speaking for me, I can't get on board with spending 1.3 million dollars for planning meetings. So I can't support the budget. I do support A through G, but I think the budget, how the money is going to be spent, we really need to look at how we're spending budget money. And I think we're spending those dollars given the economic time that we're in. And I heard you say, again, that, you know, and the superintendent said that next year when we go into having to look at using other funds, Title I and general unrestricted funds, that we'll cross that road when

126we get there. But I think that we need to look at all those pieces now. Because it's important that I don't want us planning and not having classes for students that need to have them, and then we're in the same boat that we are right now. Saying that the students aren't having rigorous classes. And we spent, you know, at least a million dollars or more here on planning sessions. Okay, Mr. Burrow. Yeah, just, no, actually, I think Ms. Jackson's asking a lot of important questions, but my understanding of that line item is that the planning meeting is a counselor sitting down with a parent and a student planning what courses they're going to take in high school. And because I know your task force and what I think Ms. Jackson is asking, or you know,

127what I think is the important question is, are these the most important priorities to ensure that the students who are entering high school in the 12-13 year will have access and success in the A to G program? And it seems like the first place, I mean there are a lot of important, the classes have to be there obviously, but it seems like the first step is making sure that students understand that why it's important that they take the A to G sequence so that they don't then go and they're, you know, in their junior year of high school and suddenly they look up and they're, you know, they might be on course to graduate but they're not on course to qualify for UC or CSU admission. I think it was clear as well from the

128speakers tonight that there are many both within our staff, within our schools, and the within our communities who do not understand A through G. So much of this is to work on that confusion to move towards clarity but it also does include ensuring that students, parents, and site staff are aware of what the requirements are. And too often in the senior year we have students who we find out have missed a credit and we're very concerned when that happens if they've missed a course that we should have provided for them. And I think a very important point of clarification to Ms. Jackson's point is that definitely as we look at the lack of equity from the ETW report that is certainly a priority and that is part of what is occurring in those planning meetings.

129Looking at the master schedules, working with the counselors, working with the principals. Today I met with an area superintendent in terms of what the next steps are going to be in terms of her entire area in terms of making sure that there's accountability and monitoring within her area of the A-G initiative. What are the counselors' responsibilities now? Mr. Barnett just said that part of this planning meeting was probably where the counselors and the parents met and my question is aren't they doing that now? I mean, I thought that's what their job is currently. I'm trying... As I said before, our current thinking was knowing that there was going to be a drastic cut in the number of counselors. We know that their caseload number is going to increase and we were trying to be sensitive

130to the fact that we wanted to make sure that nobody felt through the safety net in terms of getting the information and making sure that we had the right courses at all the different schools being offered. So that was our thinking. I'm just kind of wondering about the counselor hours, hourly support. So we're spending $1.3 million to pay counselors to stay after duty hours? It was three additional hours per week for each counselor. Instead of that, could we just spend the $1.3 million on more counselors? We could. That would translate to roughly, I believe, 14 counselors. Isn't that about one more counselor per high school roughly? Roughly. That's certainly an option. It may be helpful if you were to take page six and walk through each of the boxes because you need to be able

131to explain. The board needs to understand that this is a transition prepping graduation year 2016. So we're building to that is the first class being prepared. So along the way, the counseling and the courses are being added. Adjustments are being made to provide the appropriate balanced emphasis for the new need in world languages and math. So why don't you take a moment to explain what is involved in each of these lines and try to project out what a Crawford or another high school would look like. So, for counselor hourly here, as we looked at it, as I said before, this includes three hours per counselor and we estimated at the time 200 counselors at the district next year. At the time that this was done. And we put their parent student counselor UC A to

132G planning. Again, for the sake of brevity, we didn't provide any detail in the summary slide. But when we do that and we work with the planning counselor hourly, the intent is to meet with the counselor hourly and then we can get the counselors. And then that's not going to be part of this cost. Their cost, as Mr. Barrera said, is going to be in working with families and working with parents and ensuring because that's going to be part of our communication in terms of how large the initiative is and how big it is for every, how important it is for everybody to understand it. In addition to that, my staff has been working in conjunction with Dr. Fulcher's staff in terms of informing and participating and sometimes coordinating the professional development for counselors specifically.

133Now that typically is embedded within their work day and that's not an additional cost. So what we do there is we look at the ETW report to ensure that those master schedules are right on target, Ms. Jackson, in terms of ensuring that there's equity and what are those changes on the master schedule that must be occurring for there to be alignment with A to G. And that's a very important piece. The professional development that we see up here is specific to mathematics, world languages, and AVID. And we're looking at mathematics and world languages because those are the areas that were the two major changes in terms of the alignment to A to G from the ETW report. AVID, as I said in my previous presentation, we felt that that was some particular strategy or program

134that could work throughout the entire district. Some of our schools already have it, but it's not throughout the entire system. It's something that's based on successful teaching strategies, strategies that are student-based, students engage in, that they have responsibility for, and they're also taught the habits of mind of a college-going culture. So we felt that in terms of what has been proven out there, what many of our schools or some of our schools have been very successful, we have several AVID demonstration schools, we thought that that would be a good area to focus. That's why AVID is on there. Just to say, Dr. Salazar, so the professional development for mathematics, and world languages, we have the teachers who are currently teaching the math and world languages courses. So what is this professional development? The mathematics professional

135development right now, we're currently, what we're looking at for the future is looking at what we call more of the cognition and cognitive thinking in terms of mathematics. And a lot of the problems the students are having is because of a level of literacy to make sure that they do better in the higher, more advanced math courses. So we are currently working with a grant through UCSD, and we're working at two particular schools, Mira Mesa High School and Morris High School. Their entire math departments are going through this training with a UCSD professor to help us systematize this concept throughout the district because now many more students are going to be, all of our students actually, are going to be entering the intermediate algebra level. So we're trying to look at where the gaps have

136been in terms of students performing to get to the level of intermediate math and working backwards to make sure that we have the correct professional development. So the reason for this professional development is students that traditionally did not go into these courses may have some deficits or something that they need and this is to prepare the teachers for working with this broader range of student backgrounds? Absolutely, and addressing the needs of those students and their own pedagogical skills to make sure that we are providing the support for the teachers in terms of their teaching skills and their teaching practice. Also, if I might chime in to answer your question, Dr. Evans, AVID has specific curriculum supports for math teachers so that you can have math teachers learn the AVID strategies and implement them in their

137courses. In some schools that have become AVIDized and AVIDized their math classroom student levels of learning have improved dramatically. Thank you, I appreciate that. In terms of world languages we're looking, as I said before, in the personnel area teachers have multiple credentials in different languages. They may be perhaps teaching French when they were only teaching Spanish if that's the need and providing that particular professional development for those teachers to ensure that if they haven't been teaching a particular subject area that they haven't taught in several years that we provide that support for them because they're going to be engaged in teaching one, perhaps multiple periods of a world language that they haven't taught before in a while. So that was the thinking there. In terms of the $480,000 we felt that it was important to

138allow flexibility for the different clusters and for the different areas. By that I mean looking at the different areas throughout the district the six areas and providing an $80,000 figure to each of the areas in the event that they needed support that was specific to their site which is entirely possible that we would have that flexibility with that funding to provide those dollars to those particular schools. And again that would be working with the area superintendent and Dr. Meyer. Let me get this straight. We spent money having Ed Trust West provide us a report that told us what schools needed so I'm saying that we're doing things because sometimes we just divide money equally in this district. Okay? But we got a report that identified which schools need to have more courses for their students

139to be able to access A through G. So I have a concern when you say, and I'm thinking about I got Crawford, I got Morris you know parts of San Diego High I mean so in those areas you know we get $80,000 which is equivalent to what some other areas are getting that are already miles ahead in having all of these courses that we need and so that doesn't make... Well, let me make sure that I mentioned to you that I firmly believe and know the difference between equity and equality. And as we continue to look at those dollar figures and as I ran this through our finance department it's very important that as we engage in this that we don't supplant in any way and that we have a lot of funding. I mean

140there are students who are suffering in different areas of the district clearly there are some that are suffering more in different areas and the numbers are there and it's very clear. That work will be the work that Dr. Meyer and I will be engaged in in working with the area superintendents to ensure that there's an equitable distribution of those funds as we continue. All I'm saying is how we came up with the $480,000 so there are six areas and we looked at $80,000. I think it's also significant that at the end of the year as we look at year 12-13 the ninth grade year that is the year where the schedule is pretty solid. It's already been established and as they move up into 10th and 11th we will then be able to have a

141better view of the disparity in who is succeeding and who is not, who has been placed in the course that is appropriate and who is not. And so at that point in 13-14 and 15-16 the FTEs or the courses that you're alluding to Ms. Jackson will come into play and they are in future slides. Mr. President? Yes. A couple of comments. You know as I said earlier I think all of us want every student in this district to have the opportunity to hopefully they'll graduate and if they want to go to college in the UC college they'll be able to and if they want to get a career that will pay them well then they should be able to and I want all these opportunities for all of our students. I also want to not

142have a thousand employees that we're going to be laying off next year be laid off. Teachers, nurses, counselors. I've met with counselors and nurses recently and I saw people who literally were angry and bitter and in tears because of the workload they were going to have some counselors saying well I have 300 students now I'm going to have 700 next year and paying them an extra whatever is not going to solve that level of stress level. The process is important here too as the speakers pointed out a resolution was passed in 2009 before Mr. Beiser and I were on the board and a lot of work has been done by a lot of people and a lot of visions and effort and it was mentioned the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corporation but

143unfortunately and I am surprised to have learned this is that what work wasn't done is this even though we talk about community based reform this was not sent out to the clusters. The clusters were not asked for their input, their feedback, their review, their critique now yes in the last month there's been some meetings thank you Dr. Salazar and Ms. Meyer for that effort it was mostly focused on CTE but when we talk about community based reform is it real or are we going to once September starts and we have high school classes with 50 kids in them and we have a lack of understanding and then a lack of understanding because we haven't done the work as a district in going out and getting feedback from these clusters this is if I may say

144is very burson-esque approach to setting policy and it doesn't mean this plan isn't visionary and correct but their devil is in the details as we were with the CTE and this plan The impact will be different at La Jolla High than at Lincoln, and the need is greater at Lincoln than La Jolla High, and the need is greater at Morse than it is at UC High, and the need is greater at Crawford than it is at Scripps Ranch. And we're trying to say we want a one-size-fits-all mandatory plan which hasn't been vetted by the parents and the teachers who will be impacted and give feedback and get feedback. We're facing, you all know, next year $120 million shortfall and then $80 million the following year. When we were just in Washington, we learned that it's

145very likely Title I may be cut. Five, seven million. Five, seven million dollars in 13-14, and they may start taking two million next year in the middle of our budget year, taking more of that money away. So the issue is, how do we make this work so it will actually be effective and work and affect the kids who need it most? I believe, and secondly, the source of the funding. If this board, whether it's majority or not, decides to go ahead with this, this is a multi-year plan. That is going to have to use general fund dollars. To kind of say, oh, well, we're not using general fund dollars, like, well, it doesn't cost anything, is dishonest. If this is going to be a core element of the district's policy, then there should be a

146carve-out of the general fund and say, yes, you're carving this out. You're not going to do something else. But the issue is, I believe the best approach is to pick five or six schools starting next year. And. And. And have pilot programs. And yes, okay, if the staff says you can't mandate different classes at different schools, you can go to those high schools, Lincoln, Crawford, Morris, San Diego High, and others. And we can direct resources, extra resources to those schools that will make up the shortfall of the classes that are needed for the kids that need it the most. We can monitor it. We can test the results and then have a five-year plan and see. What works, what doesn't. Do drop-hour rates go up, as one person suggested, or are they not? Instead of

147this half-baked approach here. We're not ready for this. And then the issue is, of course, using the program improvement dollars as well. So I want it to succeed. We're going to have so much chaos in September, as it is, that let's find a plan that we can actually model. And show that it works at certain sites. And then we'll know what our funding is and expand it to other sites. So I think we can get feedback from the parents and the teachers, which has not occurred up to this point. Is it? Mr. Brewer. Sheila, did you want to go first? I was just going to say, is it possible to move the parent workshops up? I really, I very strongly feel that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

148Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. When we passed this resolution, it was a citywide movement. And we were out, you know, in communities, we were educating communities. And I guess we kind of lost that momentum, which is why we had to go back out there and re-educate everybody. But I think that it is so important that we really get that energy, that synergy back. I don't think it would take all this money, which is why I keep hopping on the money part. I don't agree with your budget. I believe the concept of A through G can be done with a lot less than what you're saying here. But I think the most important part of that is the parent

149workshops. And I think the parent workshops should have started two years ago. And if not two years ago, then that should be, if we have to prioritize things, that should be number one on our list is to, because if we educate the parents, they educate, they're educated enough, and so then between them and the schools, we're getting the children to understand the importance of A through G. I just, so I'm just asking, when you look at this 12, 13 budget here, I just think there's some shifting that really needs to be done. Because I think the parents really, the workshop for parents shouldn't be a few years down the road. I think just as important as this hourly counseling with the students, it needs to be with the parents. And then we should also have

150a rule that says that students can't change their courses. Because what happens is sometimes the parents, we educate them, which is what causes A through G push. We tell the parents, your children need to have X courses. And the kids go in, and then some counselor or somebody else says, well, no, kids say, I don't want to take Algebra 2. I want to take something else. And they say, okay, they don't check with the parent, because the parent may have told them you have to, because the parent knows. The answer is yes, we could change that to 12, 13. And our parent center and the Equality Alliance actually has been, they've been very active since the inception in educating parents throughout the various communities in our district. Yeah, and I just want to say I

151agree with that particular point of Ms. Jackson as far as the parent workshops. And I think even, however you would do it, even incorporating it up into counselor hourly support. Because basically if you're working with large groups of parents, you're spending less time individually with some of the people. I think that's a pretty important part. And I think along with what Mr. Barnett was saying, part of the issue here is, and the reason for using one time funds is there's a certain cost in terms of getting this going. And in terms of making the transition. I mean, my thinking is in terms of on the FTEs and so forth that come up in later years is, we have theoretically the same number of students in high school, and students in X number of classes with

152X number of students. And there's going to be shifting in the schedule because as people are required to take the two years of languages, that's going to mean they're taking it instead of something else. It's not like you're going to keep, you're going to add on this language teacher, and then you're going to keep this other class there with no students with a teacher. I mean, there is an effect, I mean, in terms of on the electives when you're requiring. I understand. It's not extreme because we're talking about 15 courses out of 24 through the high school years. But still, there's going to be some shifting. I know that there's an adjustment, and I think that's what the money is in there for. Yeah, I would just, again, I made the motion and I support

153this going forward. I think we need to have this go forward. I think it's, you know, it's I think the ultimate equity issue in our district that we would have students who graduate who are not prepared to go forward in their lives. And I think we've been talking about this, and the board has been talking about this for a couple of years. I respect the work that the committees and that the task force, which has been a broad community effort, have put into identifying the highest priority, in terms of來, uses of resources in terms of helping the students who are going into their freshman year, next year, 1213. What we might want to do is the $480,000 that's identified as flexible, rather than just sort of identifying it, dividing it equally between the six. Maybe

154that's where we just have some flexibility with the deputy superintendent that could include. You know, the, the acceleration of the parent workshops next year. But so I think we need to do this. I think we need to move forward. I think that we have to continue to look to Dr. Meyer and Dr. Salazar and the community that's been working on this to identify where, you know, we need to put resources first as we move forward into next year. So not hold you rigidly, you know, to maybe the line items as described in this budget, but to move forward as you have, you know, with identifying what's the best way to implement this for the kids who are coming into high school in 12-13. Mr. Koba, I wanted to kind of add to the context here.

155We were going to apply the funding where it is needed. These are broad categories. Sid did say, okay, six area superintendents. But that doesn't mean that school A that was graded much lower by Ed Trust West in terms of equity and access is going to get the same money as a school that had the highest number of A to G courses. Okay, that's just a mechanism. Let me also remind us that we had multiple, town hall meetings as well as task force that talked about this. And that this came back every year. I mean, Sid's already reminded us that he's been before the board, you know, updating where he was last year, where he was the year before, where he is this year. And I think we have to understand we're in a fluid environment.

156He is going to be and has been working with the principals. You know, next year there are certain adjustments made, but we will be. On a timeline to change out courses over the next couple of years. In doing so, either the teachers or the students need to, and or both, need to be ready for it. So if what we're doing in math and world language next year is to get teachers and students ready and kids counseled, well, then the course shifts or the adjustments are made. And when Sid was saying, well, we may need the money or we may not be, that's because if we have the right staff, we're just going to flip from one math course into another perhaps. Okay? So the thinking is there. We have clearly identified that we will need

157to move to general fund monies by the time we get to 13-14. And when I said earlier, maybe I was too brief in what I was saying, next year as we prepare for the 13-14 budget, we will have to sit down with each high school principal and their school site council and say, you know, you were teaching. You're going to be doing math courses one, two, three. But in the next year, we're going to flip to courses three, four, and five. And we're going to have to work closely between the curriculum staff with Sid and with Nellie, and the principal and site council to start moving that adjustment. But this is a, for the class of 2016, this is a four year journey that we're going to be moving them through. Okay. And I have

158one final question. Sure. Okay. The finding, I mean, I'm not sure if this is a good question, but I'm not sure if this is a good question. I'm not sure if this is a good question. I'm not sure if this is a good question. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I have a problem with the 2.3 million that is for program improvement because this morning, as you shared with us, we were told that this money comes from our being in program improvement, and it is the institute in Philly implementing a new curriculum that would help our subgroups that are in program improvement. Okay. So how does this plan, how does this help the subgroups that we identify, For failing program improvement. So you guys see what I'm asking you? Okay, very good.

159You have an answer now? Please. Okay. First of all, we're looking at the $480,000 for intervention. That's going to be huge in terms of adding resources to potentially schools. They may already have categorical funding at higher levels. You're going to add that to them? Okay. Absolutely, that would be one way. Secondly, as we're looking at rolling out the initiative and the professional development, it's going to be critical that we target those schools that perhaps some schools may have many new teachers. Many new teachers perhaps to the site and really target the professional development and the areas of literacy and numeracy and math and English language arts. So I think I want to go back to the comment that I made earlier in regards to how we're trying to dovetail this initiative to common core. And

160as we met with WestEd this morning, it was clear to us that the common core is a big piece of what this money should be allocated for. And so we're trying to dovetail that ELA component and the math component with what we need to do with the common core. Because regardless of this initiative, the common core is here and it's here to stay. And the level of rigor, as we all know, is going to be much higher in terms of how the students are going to be tested. Mm-hm. And in terms of how the students are going to be tested. And in terms of what the actual content and how the content that the students need to learn. So it's going to be a shift, a cultural shift, and a shift in thinking, not only

161for our students, but for our teachers. So that would be how we would focus in terms of improving our program improvement and clearly targeting our program improvement schools. I would also like to add that it's very clear when you look to see who is not achieving A through G, these are the students in our subgroups. These are our Hispanic students, our African American students, our students who have disabilities, our second language students. So it's critical, it's very clear when you look and see at all of our campuses that the students within the subgroups are those who are not fulfilling the A through G requirements at this time. So these funds are there designed to support them all the way up through the years. So they have the skills, so by the time they get to

162that high school graduation requirement, they are able to take an Algebra II course, and they're not put in a course that is an easier course that gets them very much of what they've already had. And students with special needs, $95,000 that you don't have projected until 14, 15. I think we have some of those in our ninth grade class. I'm surprised that you would leave them out. Well, no, we would never leave them out. We've been working with- Sorry. Sorry. With the Student Services Department, and we are cognizant of the kinds of interventions that they're using specific for students with special needs. Many of them obviously based on their IEPs, and then following the district's inclusion model that we have instituted throughout our district. So I feel working with that department and making sure that

163we continue to assess those interventions to ensure that they are making an impact on students, especially as they're going to progress in the higher level. And the higher levels of math, per se, it's going to be important that we really target that. And those particular interventions are instituted currently. It's now a matter of assessing to ensure that those interventions are having a positive impact on student achievement. So I just would like to include that in your next year's stuff as well. I mean- I will do that. I think your special needs students should not be left until year 14, 15. And it's only 95,000, which is, if 2.8 million is only less than 1%, 95,000. I mean, sure that you can find that going upstairs right around. I'm sorry. And I think that the goal

164here is to, in the future, give you specific detail for the expenditures in terms of what actions have been taken that correspond to those dollars and the students. Okay, we have a copy of the resolution which we passed in June 9th, 2009. And this has been. That's nearly three years ago. There's been a lot of work and preparation done on this. I think it's been one of the more successful initiatives because of the fact that it was both a district and community initiative rather than just on one side or the other. And as Mr. Koba mentioned at the beginning, there was a lot of public outreach in terms of at the town halls and so forth. I know there's always concern about are the students going to be able to match up? And are they

165going? Are they going? Are they going? Are they going to be able to perform? And yet we have every day kids going into physical education class who are not coordinated naturally. We have kids who have difficulty with music. We have kids who English language is not their strong suit. And yet we still have had all of these requirements that you have to have certain courses to graduate from high school. All we're doing is just adjusting it a little bit to make sure that those courses graduate from high school also allow for the student to go on to college if they want to. And this is very much in line with our indicators of quality schools of high expectations for our students, but not just blindly holding high expectations, but with some of these interventions that

166you've mentioned here. Because I do agree that if we weren't even spending this amount of money in terms of with the counselors and the professional development that it could be something of an empty promise. And I'm interpreting the motion by Mr. Barrera. To include some flexibility that we have these are approximations in each box in terms of making sure that it's done in an equitable manner. Where most needed, where basically you're going to get the most bang for the buck in terms of success of the first year of the program. And we will continue adjusting every year as we go along. We're certainly going to find some problems we didn't expect. I think we're also going to find some successes. Yes. Thank you. And some successes that we didn't expect because we weren't expecting it.

167So without, how's that for a profound statement? It's getting late. We don't know what we don't know. Okay. And that motion included accelerating the parent fees. Yes. And especially student fees. Got it. Okay, yes. And also possibly considering instead of just giving all the counselors three more hours a week, hiring another counselor. Another counselor per high school with the money. Depending on. To lower class size. Right. I think we should put that out there and talk about that. Or some combination of that. Sure. Depending on the school size. Right. Depending on the student ratio and needs of the schools. Sure. So there's this flexibility that the board is giving with approving this $2.8 million. Before, could you clear that I voted incorrectly. I didn't think they were going to do the right thing. How long

168ago did you vote? Okay. With that and no further comments, please vote. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I'll just vote on this motion and that passes 4-1. Thank you for your support. Thank you. And again, thank you to all the people who worked so long on this initiative. Okay, we'll now move to authorization to excuse Board Member Absence. Is there a motion? So moved. When was that? Is there a second? We're excusing apparently. Oh, Board Member Absence, yeah. Okay, I will second it. I second it, I'm sorry. Okay, please vote. Excuse Board Member. Okay, and on that we have a 5-0. Now we come to the item to direct the superintendent to establish a task

169force to ensure ethical safeguards in the district's contracting process. Mr. Barrera? I move. Move for approval. Ms. Jackson? Second. No comments. Please vote. That passes 5-0. H2 for the schedule of meetings. It's just what we've already decided. Move for approval. Please vote. Yes, I just have one quick modification, and that was on the December 4th. Usually December, since this is an election year, you're sitting new board members, board member, something like that. But usually you have to make sure because what happens is you kind of schedule an extra board meeting or something else. And so I would just say that we made that modification now. Because it usually is the first Tuesday that we see new board members, and we always try to have something. So I'm not sure we have charter schools. I know

170it's usually scheduled, but I think that that should just be a special board meeting to do your officers and your new board members. That date is? December 4th. Having that as the time to see the new members. New officer elections. Okay. And officer elections. Larry is, yes. The only issue I have with that is that. The term doesn't begin until the first Friday in December, which would be after that day. Okay. So I think they're going to have to do on December 11th. Yeah, which is one of the issues that have happened in the past. Okay. So then the meeting would be on the 11th, correct? Okay. Because of not being able to be seated. Right. The organizational meeting would be on December 11th. Okay. And does it say on the form there that it's

171not on the 11th? I'll put it down now. Organization 11th is. Okay. Okay. Okay. So that's the, that's clarified that 11th would be the organizational meeting. Okay. Please vote on the calendar. And a motion for items H3 and H4. So moved. Second. Okay. Please vote. And item H5, endorsing the education initiatives. So moved. Second. Second. Any comments? Basically, we have initiatives here that are being, being done sponsored by the PTA and sponsored by the governor of the people due to the lack of action by the legislature. So please vote on this item. And that passes 5-0. Okay. And one approval. One question. Yes. Question. I don't have objection to the proposal, but the board, you changed the bylaws on first readings of new items. So does that, not on resolutions or exempted, but the previous.

172You're not required to read them on setting up a ethics task force. You required a first and second reading of every item that one board member themselves has on the agenda. So I think you need to clarify your bylaws change and determine whether you have to bring that back again. I thought that if a board member got a timely manner. In a timely manner, it wasn't required. Well, we should check to make sure it was done properly. We'll verify that. If necessary. Okay. Thank you. So we'll make a note of that. Which I don't think, but if necessary, bring it back. But we'll make a note of that. All right. Okay. Item I-1. Back in. Okay. Continue with Ipton High School. And Item I-2 is the resolution on the matter of the sale of bonds,

173which we had previously discussed for Proposition S. Of approval. Okay. Mr. President, I am voting against this because not that I don't want to sell more bonds, but once again, I think the board has taken the. Okay. Thank you. The most extreme course of action on our finances as opposed to a more prudent one, and I can't support this, especially given our financial condition. So, I will vote no on this measure. So you're talking about the. The bonds. The extension. The $150 million bond sale. The changing from the 40 years to 25, is that? Well, the 150 is the, this is the new, yes, the $150 million at the 40 years. Right. The way that we talked about financing it. Correct. Okay. All right. Please vote on this item. And that passes 4-1. And now

174we go to items on the consent agenda. Ms. Jackson. It was E. 11. 11 and 17. Okay. Item 11, I would ask that we bring it back with the annual report of how our Apex is going and how many kids are being enrolled and taking Apex courses. That's the report. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the report. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the report and how many kids are being enrolled and taking courses. That's a renewal of the Apex and... So could we just do it one at a time? Yes. I think... And I think that it is important for us to... I've been around for a while, I understand what Apex is, but I

175think it's important for us to get some kind of report as to the students that are taking it, how many of them, that type of thing, before we just blanketly continue to press the button and say yes, approve it. So it's not against anything, it's against Apex. I think the board should have some kind of report as to what is going on with it. We have some challenges. Mr. Loggins, do you want to comment on that? Yeah, I can address that. We did include a report in the attachment, but I'd like to summarize a couple of things that are in the report that are pretty impressive. Over the three and a half years that we've been using APEX now for both our online learning and credit recovery, about 9,600 students have made up over 19,000

176courses. This is truly incredibly successful. Over what period of time? Three years. In three years. Okay. Of these students, 7,878 were seniors that made up over 3,200 courses. Okay. These are students that likely would have been casualties of either our dropout or our dropout. Or certainly would have affected our graduation rates. These are high-level numbers, but they're truly a testament to the success of this. There's a detailed report that breaks down each year how we're doing that's been included in this. Yeah, we're looking at it right now. Do we have any data on the students' performance on CST assessments after completing the course with APEX? I don't have any. On proficiency rates? I don't have any data on it to present here. I'm sure we can. We can pull that information. And then there was

177a question about the A through G being getting, I mean, not A through G, but I'm sorry, but getting college, was it A through G, but they were... Who credit? No? Are you talking about athletics? No, I'm talking about APEX courses. There was a question whether or not they were... So if you can scroll all the way to the bottom of this, this slide actually is all of the courses that are UC A to G. Approved all the way to the last slide. It's page seven. There you go. So these are all the courses that have received the A to G approval. Good deal. And you can see that we only have three left that are in the pending. Good deal. We've complemented our online learning where we see fit by adding programs from National

178University, UCCOP, as well as K-12. But APEX has clearly been the leader in this. As far as having this... They've had so many courses approved. They're already working on the Common Core realignment of their content. They're just the leaders in this. Okay. And it's been a good product. If I could add, Daryl has really been capturing the data as that is shown here. This is, we believe, has a very strong positive correlation to our graduation rate and, of course, our dropout prevention. And I think if you remember a couple years ago when we talked about this, we wanted to make very, very certain that we had authorization UC, A to G authorization, whether it was for going to the virtual high school or through APEX. So... That's not an easy task. Yes. And we talked

179about how we struggled early on a couple years ago with all of this. I remember this. I was asking the question. Okay. So I'm going to approve of this item. Does anyone else want to try to stump Mr. Larkin? He's got a lot of data. Just going forward, I would really like to see data on how students that complete this APEX course then perform on CST assessments. Which wouldn't apply to the seniors who are doing their last minute courses. The best source would probably be IHI. So we can certainly look to that and provide that for you. We'll bring it. Thank you. Okay. Please vote. Okay. That passes 5-0. On item E17, I have please explain the budget report. These are developmental fees and they're saying there's no budget impact. But it looks like we're

180going from 47 to 51. Right. So. Even though it's only pennies, it looks like we would get some money. I guess the budget impact is positive in the sense that we'll be getting more money from developer fees if you approve this. Right. That's what I was thinking. But there's no cost to us. But as a board. Okay. Maybe I said it the wrong way. Negative budget impact. Okay. There's a positive budget impact. I think that where it says physical impact. I mean, it says no, but it should say yes and we'll get money. So that we are. I mean, I knew it was yes. Yes. But you're saying no. I'm like, but it is a physical impact. It means we're going to get more money. It's positive. How much money? So we're looking for money

181right now. Yes. And this will do it if you approve. Okay. How much money are we going to get? You know? I don't have it calculated. I don't want to know. Okay. That was all I really wanted to know was that I wanted us to know that we will be. We'll see if we can calculate something from you. Receiving some money. Yes. It will be a positive impact. Thank you very much. I move the item. Second. Okay. Okay. That passes 5-0. And at this time, we do not have any other. Yes, we do. We do have some. Okay. We have some non-agenda. Okay. This is non-agenda public testimony. We have Alejandra Villaseñor, Maria Garcia, and Hector Monta. No están aquí. Are they here? Nobody is here? I'll give them 10 minutes. Give them 10 minutes.

182Okay. So with that. Oh, we do have one person. Go ahead. Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Hector Monta. I'm recorded through the district. I'm a parent at San Diego High School. And first, I wanted to thank the entire board for since 2009 and all the members of the previous board for appointing Dr. Ankeny as a principal of international studies. So I just wanted to have that chance. Dr. Ankeny is clearly and unequivocally the best person, the best administrator to lead international studies. And currently, the School of Arts provide the best hope and the best future for our students. Our stakeholders are currently demotivated. And I'll get to that point. I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'm just going to go on. But the reason why I'm up here

183speaking before you is not just to request the immediate return of Dr. Ankeny, but to bring back his leadership that he has proven time and again. When he came in and filled the big empty shoes of Ms. Robleski before him, one statement that stood out the first time we met him was, I'm not going to come in here and try to fix something that's not broken. I'm going to try to make it better. And he's done that every year, time and again. I could go on, but I think all those accolades have been positively given earlier from Stephanie and also from Ann. So with that in mind, for the past seven years in my experience with San Diego High, it's taught our kids to be challenged, it's taught our kids to practice this critical thinking.

184And to draw from themselves a conclusion that considers all facts wide and far. And it's a model that we know about, that we love, which provides, sustains, and ensures our future for the place in the world. And tell you that Dr. Ankeny, throughout our continuing budget crisis, displays a rare eagerness and passion in his position. If I can go on since the other two speakers are not here. We'll give you, for waiting, we'll give you 60 more seconds. Okay, thank you. What I want to get to is never in my seven years at International Studies have I seen the staff and the student in the community demoralized. And there's things behind that. We just want to. Clear the air. And I plead for you to take a good look and to delve one layer down

185and find out what is the root cause of what we need to do to find out why Dr. Ankeny is not with us. I understand and respect the choices whether it's personnel or personnel. But we don't know anything. We're completely in the dark. We want the board and the administration to be clearly transparent so we could determine why. You know. The situation is at hand. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Take a good look. Okay. Thank you. We're now going to adjourn this meeting as far as debriefing. What we will do is the board member requests that we all go upstairs. We will go upstairs after that person is tracked by everybody else. And if you have any comments about anything positive or negative about the meeting, hand it to me on this green

186sheet. Not in person.