001like to call the board meeting for Tuesday March 24th to order at 434 No public comments at this point. So we will adjourn to closed session Open session at 610 and a reminder will do Closing for public comment cards in another three minutes. All right with that Let's do our language access and ASL. Hello, we have language access. We have interpretation into Spanish available through Zoom, and also we have ASL interpretation available. Buenas tardes, tenemos interpretación al español disponible por si gustan escuchar la interpretación al español. Gracias. Thank you. All right, Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise for the pledge. All right, tonight in closed session, the board voted 4-0 to approve a one-day unpaid suspension for a classified employee. I'd also like to note tonight that Trustee Escobedo will not be in attendance this evening.
002We have a quorum of four members present. Action items will still be required to have three affirmative votes. And that will bring us to our student board member report. Carlos Tafasquez, thank you. Thank you. The Student Advisory Council met on Wednesday, March 18th. We received a presentation from Mr. Cooper, the Rector of Education Technology, where he graciously surveyed us, gathering input and information on how to disseminate information to more students. The Council was excited to share their perspectives on AI, as well as to learn about how they can participate in shaping a policy for our district. I also had the opportunity to attend the Tech Use Committee meeting last Monday. I mentioned at a previous board meeting that in February, Mr. Vence surveyed the Student Advisory Council for our EdTechUse opinions. Those notes from that
003survey were printed and shared with the Tech Use Committee group. I answered questions regarding any ambiguity surrounding the data collected and learned of the different parent and teacher opinions surrounding the effectiveness of our current levels of tech use. To give some perspective, so far I've noticed older students with a slight desire to move slightly away from the amount of technology exposure in the classroom and seeing that feeling slightly amplified as those students decrease in age. I'm excited to collect some more information and play a role in how the Tech Use Committee meetings shape EdTech in our district going forward. The student board member elections have been conducted at our high schools. I've met with most of the finalists, and they are excited for our interview process. And lastly, I plan to visit my first AVID
004class on April 7th at Santa Barbara High School, which I am very much looking forward to. That is all I have for today. Thank you. move to the superintendent's report. Dr. Maldonado. Thank you. Good afternoon everyone and I'm so excited to see so many students here today. We'll get right to you in a second. I want to start off with the board to announce that we have selected a new director of facilities, Mr. JJ Jimenez. I'm going to ask him to come up and speak. JJ is a familiar face in our school district. He's a longtime district employee and has a lot of experience here at Santa Barbara Unified. Plus in previous roles, he's held in other school districts. And again, I've invited JJ to come and say a few words to the board as
005we typically do when we select a new director. Welcome JJ. Thank you. Good evening board, President Banning, board members, Dr. Malano, and cabinet members. My name is Jose Jimenez, known by my colleagues as JJ. I previously served as a manager of maintenance and operations for the Santa Barbara Unified School District, a role that I proudly held for 11 years. I'm a California native raised in Arizona. I returned to California with 18 years of specialized experience in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration. I also have extensive management expertise with a total of 29 years dedicated to the field of education. I have a large family that I love to spend time with and enjoy camping and fishing in northern Arizona and very excited to have our very first grandbaby. I am very honored to be appointed
006as the new director of Facilities Modernization. I am committed to creating safe, modern, and equitable learning environments that support our district vision, every child, every chance, every day. Building on my experience in facilities, I will lead strategic improvements that go beyond maintenance and designing future ready spaces that enhance teaching, support student well-being, and expands opportunity for all through strong collaboration and clear communication with stakeholders and colleagues. I will ensure every project reflects shared priorities and student needs. Every project will be guided by purpose, ensuring every student has access to environments that help them succeed. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve as the Director of Facilities and Modernization. Thank you, Mr. Jimenez. I do want to say he did serve a short amount of time as an interim director when we had a retirement,
007and I'm very grateful for you to take on this added challenge. Now I'd like to let you know why we have so many incredible young people here in our boardroom today. Not that Carlos is not one of the incredible people. But this month, the DP News team from Dos Pueblos High School completed the STN National Convention in Tampa Bay. Our charges returned home with more national awards than at any time in the program's 20-year history. The students, led by teachers John Dent and Doug Keynes, who I see to my left here, balanced... and the principal, no, I thought that was Mr. Woodard, sorry. Balance championship level journalism with rigorous academics and athletics, and I'm honored to have them here tonight to share their success. Senior Michael Nuno, did I say that right? And our sophomore
008Mary Shipuli are here to share more. Welcome, you may now take the podium. Hello board members, Dr. Maldonado, and staff. My name is Michael Nuno and I am the executive producer of DP News. And I'm Mary Chapulla. Thank you for giving us the opportunity for coming here today and allowing us to share our experience at STN 2026. This year, our team traveled to the Student Television Network National Convention, where we completed against some of the best programs in the country. And we didn't just show up, we stood out. Our programs earned top national recognition, including multiple first place finishes and national awards across broadcast and film. Every day students show up early, stay late, and take full ownership of telling stories of our school. We learn how to collaborate under pressure, lead with accountability, and
009create content that reflects our community. Thank you for supporting programs like ours that give students a platform, a purpose, and a voice. In the Excellence Awards, the best programs in the country are recognized for what they do every day. Our daily news show, DP News, and our daily Instagram show, The Flash, both earned bronze medals. Our monthly magazine shows, Beyond DP and The Charger Playbook, both earned gold medals. And Beyond DP was even named the best magazine show in the entire country, a first in our program's history. Any one of you can tune in to any of our shows on our YouTube channel, DP News 805, if you'd like to see some first place material. Now at the convention we also competed in on-site events and again we came away with some pretty incredible success
010solidifying our program as one of the best in the nation. We earned multiple honorable mentions, a second place finish and two first place medals in some of the most competitive contests at the convention. This was an amazing experience and we would like to thank everyone that made it happen. This is truly career technical education at its best. Thank you. And then we have a video here that features a vlog from one of our students on the trip and then a compilation of all of our awards and recognitions. Thank you. It's never done. You just run out of time. Dos Pueblos High School. Dos Pueblos High School. Dos Pueblos High School. I don't think you guys had enough fun. That's my big takeaway. Congratulations, we are so proud of you. Thank you for putting out the
011Dos Pueblos High School brand out into the world. This is a national competition as I understand it. I want to special thanks to Doug Canes and John Dent for all the work that you do as well. We are so proud of you and I think we have one more slide, Sandra, that shows all the different. Championship Awards in first place, second place, and honorable mention, which you've already, there you go, which you've already seen. So thank you so much for all the great work and for keeping news alive and for making sure that we continue to spread the truth and that you learn from your teachers and how we do that as we all exert our rights. Thank you very much. They're they're all leaving and eventually after public comment we we say Thank you,
012but board members. We have a chance before they all go to just Congratulate them individually so I'm going to say thank you. I'm so glad you're here and got a chance to learn a little bit more about it and wanted to say thank you before we get to that spot. Yeah, thank you so much, Mr. Dent. You know what I think. And staff, and thank you all students. My daughter was one of the first ones when things were back in the dark ages. Congratulations. You obviously not only work hard, but really enjoy the process. Great job. That was amazing videography just now. I felt like I was at the conference. So thank you so much for that slice and congratulations great work Congratulations, everyone. I think this is super inspiring I mean, I think this
013is what programs and pathways at the high schools are all about so great job guys The DP news is leaving that much means there's not gonna be news tonight. We have a reporter in the room I recognize call Callie I want to move on to the next part of the presentation. At the last Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, our very own Carlos brought a proposal to change the timeline for selecting our student board member. If we can put up that slide, please. And I did check our board policy. There's nothing to preclude us from this, but I did want to make sure that the board knows that we are going to Changed the timeline slightly this year. You can see from the arrows moving it up a little bit earlier, which means that at the April
01428th meeting we'll be asking you to interview the student. finalists, which thank you to Carlos who brought to my attention when he transitioned, it doesn't give them enough time to learn the job and talk to each other. And so you can see in this new timeline that we'll be making those changes. We did have some of the finalists come to our last superintendent student advisory council meeting, which we highly recommend as part of the work that Carlos does is we convene students every month. and that's where we also get a lot of information on what students care about and wanna see in our school district. So I wanted to make sure Carlos knew and the board knows this change is now made and this is how we're going to move forward. Next, I am proud
015to announce that Santa Barbara Unified not only receives awards for our students, our very own Edza Kelly was recognized in the 2026 Excellence in Communication Award from the California School Public Relations Association. The statewide honor given to Mr. Zuckelli recognizes our culture of care initiative, which was driven by three years of student advisory council meetings and advocacy. So it lasted through three student board members. The campaign delivered life-saving suicide prevention signage along rail corridors, a redesigned mental health portal. and student design wellness centers across our secondary schools. And it confirms that when we listen to our students and lead with a culture of care, we set the standard for the entire state. So congratulations to Mr. Zocali and everybody else that contributed to this campaign. But more importantly, for the students who benefit from us
016having a very well-defined mental health support system. Last week, the Educational Services team hosted a Solution Tree Professional Development Session focused on strengthening our professional learning communities, otherwise known as PLCs. PLCs bring educators together in purposeful, ongoing collaboration centered on the four critical questions. to strengthen instruction and improve outcomes for every student. This training brought together 51 participants, 41 teachers and 10 administrators from both elementary and secondary levels to deepen alignment and refine our collaborative practices. The key focus is what we call loose and tight leadership. The session centered on identifying the essential non-negotiables, which are the tight, leadership moves that we want that ensure student success while allowing teams flexibility otherwise known as loose protocols to respond to student needs and innovate. The key outcomes of this training included strengthening guiding coalitions to better
017support teacher teams, implementing consistent data protocols to ensure rigorous analysis of student learning, Utilizing artifact calendars to make collaborative work visible, focused, and measurable. For parents in our audience or at home who are watching this meeting, this is the time that is either known as late start or early release for your children, and this is what we have teachers doing in teams. As a result of this training, sites will immediately begin implementing standardized data protocols, strengthening the guiding coalitions, and teams have also begun developing artifact calendars for 26-27 school year to ensure its coherence, sustainability, and a continued focus on high-quality instruction. This work is directly connected to the Board's priority on aligning academics, assessment, and achievement. And lastly, our Collaborative Spirit Award goes to a team that embodies dedication and seamless teamwork, the office
018support staff at Adams Elementary. Please join me in recognizing Virginia Rizzo, Lily Sasueta, Kenya Catalan, and Jeanette Perdomo. And in the photo, you'll notice that we have the principal, Ms. Allison Quijano. And we hear you in the back clapping. Yes, we can clap in the front, too. Thank you. This dedicated team serves as a vital anchor, offering deep knowledge, behavioral and social emotional support as trusted adults for students, and a steady compresses during hectic times. Through constant communication and seamless teamwork, they leverage their unique roles to ensure Adams functions smoothly and that every student, staff member, and family feels genuinely cared for. That is all for my report. Thank you, dr. Maldonado, we'll move to public comments on non-agenda matters Before we begin the public comment portion of tonight's meeting the board would like to
019thank everyone who has joined us to share their Perspectives your voice is a vital part of our districts governance Under the provisions of the California Brown Act, the board is legally prohibited from engaging in a back and forth dialogue or taking immediate action on items not specifically listed on tonight's agenda. Because of this, we will not be responding directly to your comments this evening. However, please know that silence does not mean indifference. We value your input and take your concerns seriously. Following this meeting, the board will work closely with the superintendent and district staff to ensure all comments are reviewed and that appropriate follow-up or research is conducted. We ask that you please adhere to our time limits so that everyone has an opportunity to be heard. Thank you for your partnership in supporting our
020students. Tonight we have 15 non-agenda comments. As a result, we'll limit the comment time to 90 minutes. At the end of our 20-minute period, I will ask the board if they would like to extend the time if the comments are not complete. To assist in time management, we also request that the next two speakers from the one on the podium be in the room and come to the podium promptly upon being called. Vice President Munoz, will you please call the first three speakers? Okay, the first three speakers are Carolyn Abate, Kate Lambert, and Sabrina Toy. Oh, the time is one and a half minutes, 90 seconds. Okay, good evening. And regarding Board Bylaw 9323. Individual speakers will be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on agenda or non-agenda items. And the board
021will limit the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. So as we can see, at the last five board meetings, all of January, February, March 10th, and of course this meeting, speakers had only two minutes instead of three minutes. as stated in the first part of the bylaw and of course tonight it's only 90 seconds could the board please extend the time for public comment to at least 30 minutes and this is with respect to the entire board bylaw Please understand the importance of the important voice of taxpaying voting members and the public parents and concerned community members Public comment time is essential to exercise our right to freedom of speech and to question the status quo For example the current use of teen taught curriculum teaches abortion However, we know
022that the reality of our conscience tells us that the small size of an unborn baby does not take away their right to life. So why do our schools continue to teach abortion? What are the consequences? It must be carefully analyzed and to explain these reasons takes more than two minutes or 90 seconds. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. I just wanted to come in and talk about the fact that the Santa Barbara High elevators are not working. It's been two weeks. We have multiple elevators that cannot be used safely. And so I have students who, I have two students very specifically in wheelchairs who have not accessed their classrooms. And it's not a matter of let's drive them to the bottom of the hill and drive them to the top. These are not, they're supposed
023to have access to their classrooms. It is a part that needs to be replaced, which makes it a facilities issue that should be regularly checked on before it gets to the point where all of the elevators now need to be fixed. And we've also had card issues with them. When you go to scan, it's a key to use the elevator. Those have not always worked. Rain often stops that, which means they're definitely staying in my office and doing their class from there. An idea was let's zoom them into their room from there. No, we're not going to put a screen in their classroom and have them watch other kids take class. So if we could please fix the elevators, put that in a high priority. And home hospital really needs guidelines. If you didn't know,
024you can ask HR, and they won't be able to tell you whether or not you will get paid or won't get paid for a specific case of a student. Home hospital if like they don't show up to the meeting things that you do work for you may not get paid for So there are no guidelines that we can ask for and get a hard copy of and I really love would love that for the teachers So, thank you very much. Thank you Okay, and then after this speaker we're going to have Jason Diaz Bianca Aguilera and Rich Lashua Hi, my name is Sabrina Toy. In my middle school, we had a class called social-emotional learning, or SEL. Sometimes the class would talk about some uncomfortable topics, and some of the kids would be over it,
025but I was really disappointed to learn that the class didn't exist at all in my high school. Social-emotional learning goes beyond a class. It's experiences, and AHA, which I'm an alumni of, offers these experiences to kids who are eager to have them. As an alumni of AHA, I also go to UCSB and I take all of the experiences and all of the confidence that I gained through that experience into my time at UCSB and I'm sure beyond that. My only regret is that I wish I would have been encouraged to join sooner or I had other options similar to it in my high school. I was a participant in Sing It Out last year and I have not seen myself, Sing It Out is one of the offerings of AHA, I have not seen myself
026the same way since. It was an incredible confidence building experience and it wasn't just the performance itself, it was everything leading up to it, all of the meetings as I learned, me and my fellow participants learned to communicate with each other and to encourage each other in an effective and healthy way. I do believe that social emotional learning is a non-negotiable in all young kids' education, but especially in high school, as it is such an important part of the young adult learning. Learning how to, learning how to, oh my gosh, I'm sorry. Go ahead and finish your thought. Okay. Yes. Learning how to regulate your emotions and how to understand them, how to understand the emotions of others is a priceless gift that social emotional learning services like AHA provide. Thank you very much. I'm
027Jason Diaz. I'm a freshman at San Marcos High School, and AHA is a program that really helped me growing up. Growing up, I was around a lot of ex-gang members. around a lot of people who were in the prison system. And around seventh grade, I was heading down the same path. I got into a fight, and I got into a lot of trouble. Around the midway of seventh grade, AHA presented during my class. And in all honesty, I was completely uninterested. I had no intent to join. My mom... After the incident, she said that I couldn't have, I wasn't trusted to have free time on my hands because I could have done worse. She enrolled me into this program called AHA, and it really turned my life around. I've been in it ever since seventh
028grade, and honestly, I haven't gotten into a single problem at school, outside of school. at all ever since I joined. It's really opened me to an audience, to a demographic that I really wouldn't have even been acquainted with otherwise. And I feel like a lot of other people should take the opportunity that they're offering to all of us teens. Thank you. Now we're going to have, okay, Bianca Aguilera, Rich Lashua, and Stephen Hughes. Hello, everybody. My name is Bianca Aguilera. I've been a part of AHA since seventh grade. At Goleta Valley Junior High, and I've now graduated from Dos Pueblos, and I have become an alumni at the Youth Advisory Board, and I'm also now a staff at AHA. Students deserve the opportunity to learn about why mental health is important. And they deserve the
029opportunity to understand why their emotions are happening and what causes them. You also deserve the support from your peers, your adults, and trusted people in your life. AHA provides so much support, offering students and even adults six free sessions of therapy. AHA was there for me when I hit my absolute rock bottom, noticing I wasn't okay when the people closest to me couldn't notice. And honestly, if it wasn't for them, I don't think I would have the second chance at life that I do now. AHA should be an opportunity for all students and adults. And I hope that I can give the students that are now taking the AHA programs the support and safety that AHA provided for me when I needed it most. Thank you. Thank you. Guiding question for a moment. Would you
030want to work here? Experts call these students the anxious generation. There's no relief for counselors, despite more students needing help. How does this affect not just the needy students, but the rest of the class? How does that affect teachers? Or imagine you're a new teacher. You witness a colleague make his classes the best in the department. Test scores prove it. Your principal gives glowing evaluations, but he's overridden by the district office. Several colleagues protest at a board meeting, and the teacher's eliminated, no questions asked. Would you feel supported to boldly prepare students for a world that is yet to be created in that work environment? It's evident your anxious, neediest, most marginalized students operate at a deficit directly tied to their access to arts classes. Some dude starts making speeches at board meetings and district
031committees for arts access and bell schedules, and sure enough, he wins teacher of the year. His programs are immediately slashed. He persists for three years and the union gives it support. The matter is formally brought to the board. All four principals of affected schools answered direct questions confirming a proposed change would not harm their schools by giving all kids arts access. The board decides to put it off for another year, 20 and counting. Would you believe anyone who says this is still about the kids? Would you want to work here? Thank you. Okay, Stephen Hughes, followed by Catherine Burge and Autumn McFarlane. Good evening. About a month ago, we hosted our honor band program. The music departments hosted their honor band program over at La Cumbre Junior High, and I wanted to make sure that
032the board and everyone here knew that next month, well, actually, the week after spring break, we're hosting Honor Orchestra. over at La Colina. That's Thursday, April 9th at 6.30 p.m. free over at La Colina. Now, I know you're not allowed to respond or anything, but everyone take a second and guess how many string programs do we have in the secondary? Guess. You can have the number in your head. It's okay. There's seven schools. We have three and we have so many elementary schools involved in coming, right? This seems to me like both a huge problem and a wide open opportunity to begin using, I don't see Steve, Prop 28 money to enhance those classes, offer those classes during the school days at the schools that don't yet have them. And hopefully... you know, create those
033pathways for more students to participate. Thank you, that's all. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Catherine Birch. I'm a parent in this district and thankful, so thankful to be engaging with changing how our kids are using devices in the classroom and at home to one of intentional tech, where technology is used as a tool when it's impartially proven to provide learning transfer in ways other modalities of learning, such as paper and pen, cannot. DP News is a great example of this. Intentional tech is way, sorry, tech. Technology that serves, intentional tech is technology that serves, it does not lead. The board should intend for educators to use technology where it is proven to increase and support focus, deepen learning, support human connection, and ensure equity of education. Technology should demonstrably advance the overall goals
034that the district has committed to, to maximize learning and overall student well-being for all students, while avoiding known harms and keeping them safe. As it stands, the iPads are actively hindering these goals. If students aren't learning as well as they used to, their overall health is suffering, and they are clearly not safe because of a device the district has given them, we are failing them. To all the board members and Superintendent Maldonado here, changing how our kids use technology cannot and must not wait. As you will hear from parents this evening, this is only a small subset of harms, loss of learning and well-being that occurs every day in a ubiquitous manner. Less time on devices. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. After Autumn McFarland, we're going to have Ashley Griffin and Esmed Deprez. Thank you
035and good evening. My name is Autumn McFarland. I am the parent of a seventh grader at La Colina and a first grader at Hope Elementary. My husband and I have approached technology with deliberate intention since our oldest daughter was roughly two years old. We are not a household that stumbled into concern. We arrived here very informed. When the district recently gave parents access to screen time monitoring, My husband and I discovered that our daughter had been using her school issued iPad to access YouTube shorts, a platform functionally identical to TikTok or Instagram Reels in its psychological design. We do not permit access to these applications in our home. The research on this harm on the harm caused by algorithmic short form content to developing minds, especially adolescent girls, is not ambiguous. It was deeply alarming
036to learn that the school had handed our daughter a device with no meaningful guardrails or content on access. Or sorry, yeah, on content access. Technology is both a tool and a weapon. Distributing weaponized tools to children without proper safeguards is not a neutral act. It is a failure and duty of care and the district must own this. I want to quickly mention three things. One is handwriting has been directly placed to learning and development. Textbooks have been replaced by iPads and the fundamental teaching that children should be staring at screens rather than their teacher's face is developing and very concerning. I have a master's degree in educational psychology. My husband has worked for NASA for 20 years. Our children deserve better than this, as do we as the parents trying to raise them right. Thank
037you and have a wonderful evening. Thank you. Hello, my name is Ashley Griffin. I'm the parent of three kids aged 20, 11, and 8, and I am an elementary school teacher in Goleta. I'm here to share my concerns about the district's current tech policy, specifically about its over-reliance on iPads at the junior high level in the classroom and at home for homework. We have all certainly experienced the distractions available to us when the internet is at our fingertips. When children are at school, they should be able to focus on the learning objectives without the temptation of a device. Last night, I asked my son, who's in fifth grade in Goleta, if he thought getting an iPad in seventh grade would create any problems for him. No, he replied. I don't see how that would be
038different from my Chromebook, unless YouTube isn't blocked. Then I'd be trying to watch YouTube all day at school. Of course he would. How could we possibly ask seventh and eighth graders to stay... focused on a challenging assignment when it's just so easy to click on a new tab and escape to YouTube. Many school districts, including Goleta, have blocked YouTube for students. This seems like a very simple step towards keeping students on task. But the real question is, why are students on iPads so much at school? Students should be talking to each other, problem solving with humans, and paying attention to their teacher during class time, not looking at their district-issued iPad. There are many proven alternatives to online curriculum. At last week's technology task force meeting, the student representative shared that his statistics class this
039year was the first one that has offered him a paper or digital option for every assignment. I applaud this teacher for finding a way to support offline learning, but I question why this isn't universally available for math. Many students prefer using paper and pencil for math, and this paper option should be the norm. Please consider reevaluating the district's iPad policy, and please block YouTube for students. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, after, let's see, Esme, we're going to have Simon Bentley, Wendy, and I apologize, Manard, and Rhonda DeParr, I believe. Good evening. My name is Esme Deprez and I'm an investigative reporter by profession and a product of public education and a great champion of its value to not just our students but to society as a whole. I'm speaking tonight as someone who believes in
040the power of data and evidence and as the mom of a first grader at Roosevelt and a kindergartner there come this fall. My family's philosophy from day one has been to raise our girls to be curious and creative, to think critically and solve hard problems and fall in love with the outside world. This means using as little technology as possible, like letting them watch TV while flying on airplanes and little else. You know, the same philosophy like the wealthy billionaires who created this tech in the first place have adopted when raising their own kids. And then, last year, my now first grader entered kindergarten and got handed a school-issued iPad in the classroom to use for, quote, learning tasks and in her free time. This public institution that had sworn to protect our kids and
041teach them to be good citizens was just handing her a device and normalizing its rampant use, despite the data and evidence showing repeatedly and for years that it's actively harmful to mental health, physical health, learning outcomes, and is addictive by design. I felt deceived and my trust betrayed. I hadn't even considered the possibility that devices built for adults would be forced upon kids in the classroom, unable to even tie their own shoes, let alone without my informed consent. We'd not been given the opportunity to opt in or opt out. As Jonathan Haidt puts it so well in his book, The Anxious Generation, we have overprotected our kids in the real world and underprotected them online. And apparently now that's true in the classroom. What's true for kids and smartphones and social media is true for
042ed tech in the classroom SBUSD has taken some admirable first steps and I'm here to say thank you deeply. Thank you Thank you for taking action Let's keep working to drastically reduce the overall over reliance on ed tech as in eliminating it wherever necessary and being truly intentional intentional About when and where to use it based on independent research and proof. This work is just beginning It will continue past this year our kids our society and our democracy are worth it Thank you. Thank you We have reached our 20-minute limit there are four more comments with the board Entertained continuing with those comments. Okay We'll call the next ones Okay, so it's um, yes, Simon Bentley Wendy Menard Ronda Dupar and Meg Nom. Good evening. My name is Simon Bentley. I'm a parent in the
043district, and I run an IT consultancy specializing in cybersecurity. I also hold a certified ethical hacking certification, which means identifying vulnerabilities in systems is literally what I'm paid to do. I want to talk to you specifically about the technical state of your network, not the philosophy of screen time, but the concrete security failures that exist right now on the students' iPads that they're carrying. First, your content filtering has gaps that a motivated student can bypass in under 15 minutes using nothing more than a Google account. These gaps are not theoretical. Students already know about them. Second, your Jamf MDM configuration currently allows students to log into school-issued iPads using personal Apple IDs. That loophole enables unauthorized app installations, including apps that have no place in schools. This is a standard configuration control that should have
044been locked down at deployment. I have replicated this issue on a school-issued iPad tonight. This is the app that terrified a 10-year-old girl two weeks ago. Third, there is an active student email thread with over 100 district students containing photos of students and bullying content. Your own email domain controls prevent messages from going outside the district. That part works, but web-based platforms accessible on those same devices provide workarounds that have not been evaluated or closed. This is not hypothetical. In January of this year, AI tools were used globally to generate explicit images of miners at scale. The methods bypass your skills content filters to access these tools are publicly available on TikTok right now. The California NDPA requires districts to have a signed data privacy agreement with every provider that touches student data. I can
045confirm from direct observation that students are accessing AI platforms on school-issued devices under district email accounts. None of the data privacy laws apply to these platforms because none have made those platforms sign anything. I personally witnessed students use district Google accounts to create free chat GBT and Sora accounts. Both platforms are on the free tier and use activity and uploaded content as training. for their data. Without parental consent, without district authorization, these students' data are now feeding AI models. It is not blocked or monitored. Your IT department should know what tools are accessible on your network and whether your students are using them right now. The fact that I'm sitting here in this room tonight and those questions have not been answered, that is a problem. My professional recommendation is this. AI has no place
046in your students' hands right now, not without strict supervised guardrails and defined educational purpose. The only appropriate use of AI in this district at this moment is building those guardrails. Use it to protect your students and not to educate them. Not yet. Mr. Bentley, you've exceeded the amount of time. I want to leave you with one final thought. When parents enroll their children in this district, they are forced to sign a form accepting use and liability for school-issued iPads. Regardless, they are consenting to a device. They are not consenting to unmonitored access to AI platforms that harvest their child's data. They are not consenting to a content filter with known gaps. inappropriate apps, email threads, and cyberbullying from inside the district's own network. They are not consenting to any of the risks I have described
047tonight. I will leave this so you can see the app. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Wendy Mannard, and I'm the parent of a high school junior. My son is a good, kind kid. He's... full of potential, but he also has ADHD and he struggles with something many of our kids are facing today, an addiction technology. After COVID, iPads and screens became a staple in our schools across the country. I understand why they were necessary at the time, but what was once a temporary solution has now become the default. And for some students, including my son, it's creating real challenges. I tried very hard to find a school that didn't rely so heavily on iPads. It was nearly impossible. My son even attended military school for a few years where structure helped
048him. But now that he's back in a traditional high school setting, the issue has resurfaced in a significant way. Year after year, his teachers tell me the same thing. He's regularly distracted in class by his iPad, using it for non-school related activities. It's a constant battle for them to redirect him and keep him focused. And the problem is everything he needs to do his work is also on that same device. home, it's no different. Unless I'm personally sitting there monitoring him, I cannot trust that he will stay focused on his assignments. I've had to go so far as to buy a safe just to lock the iPad away and limit his access. As a parent, that shouldn't be necessary just to help my child succeed in school. This isn't about blaming teachers or resisting progress.
049It's about recognizing that not all students can thrive in a system that depends so heavily on devices that are designed to distract. Thank you so much. Thank you So we have ran Rhonda to part and Meg Nam to wrap up the public comment Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Rhonda Dupar I am a parent of a neurodiverse 15 year old high school student as Well as an incoming seventh grader and I'm here to express concern about the one-to-one iPad use for our students While I recognize the value of technology in education, I observe that the constant individual iPad use is not supporting my students' learning effectively. It often leads to increased distraction, reduced attention span, less meaningful engagement with instructional content, and the inability to push through difficult moments
050to deep understanding of the content. When things get difficult, of course it is easier to change tabs, go over, look at some interesting fact on the internet, or watch 17 YouTube shorts in a row. My neurodivergent child benefits more in classes that utilize hands-on learning, paper assignments, and more structured, low-distraction environments. These approaches better support attention, comprehension, and meaningful participation. At home, my child will spend hours... doing her homework, spending much of the time on streaming media. As a parent, when I attempt to create boundaries for these programs using our district provided tools of Jamf and Custodio, there is always a battle and these programs do not work as designed. For example, blocking access to Safari blocks Duolingo, Desmos, and other legitimate educational uses. I applaud the district for their recent policy changes for elementary
051students, and I recognize the desire to grow in improving the policies for when and why technology is used at all levels, but it is not enough. Please consider our policy and block YouTube. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Meg Nam and I'm a parent and licensed mental health provider for children and adults. First I want to thank the board for supporting the balance learning and technology task force and immediate actions following our meeting last week. It's wonderful to be in a district focused on implementing inclusive responsive and data informed systems of support for the well-being and academic progress for all students. Tonight I want to encourage the board to consider recent data in those two areas. First with academic progress, we're in an interesting bind. The very tool that teachers feel pressured
052to use for testing is potentially harming students' learning and decreasing test scores. We want to fully support teachers as they feel the stress of testing. And although it's counterintuitive, support them in spending less time on devices if research suggests that would improve learning outcomes. Second, with well-being and congratulations on the recognition of culture of care, research suggests that device use can negatively impact mental health. Many parents are delaying devices at home for this reason. While I recognize that I am responsible for my children's behavior at home, I believe this research is relevant to the district's default of giving each student in seventh grade and above iPads that have the same potential for harm. I am daily at work. I encounter video game and pornography addiction, anxiety and depression impacted by childhood device use. If devices
053remain at school, we may limit this potential harm. I recognize the benefits of technology and it's complicated to consider changing tech use. If we're really trying to provide responsive data informed support, this should not stop us from implementing change. We are here to support you and we appreciate your help. Thank you. Thank you. That completes our public comment on non agenda items we will move to board comments and correspondence at this point Board members who would like to be the first one tonight trustee Munoz vice president Good evening. Yes, I had the pleasure of attending the spring musical at La Colina Junior High along with Superintendent Maldonado. They presented the play of the Mean Girls, the spring musical, and it was amazing how talented they are, how coordinated they were, and how also their fellow
054classmates cheered them on. You know, they did an amazing job. I also was asked by a student at San Marcos High School to speak to the Health Careers Academy where there was a group of about 30 students who I I spoke with about my career in social work and also my experience in the medical field. I have been a clinical social worker in a hospital setting and also presently a case manager for adults. Emily Stokes, the academy coordinator, was there to greet me and introduce the students and myself. So I had a great experience with that. Thank you. Dr. Beal. So I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I read about the award for the culture of care in the district and I certainly applaud Edzu Kelly for facilitating this award and I wanted to
055make some comments about the idea of culture of care. As you know we have a student board member which is an initiative that was started by Superintendent Maldonado and all of our student board members starting with Dawson Kelly then Kaveh Suresh, Anastasia Lee Eric Gonzalez Ramirez and Carlos Tafasquez, our current student board member, have actually promoted this culture of care through their their advisory councils. And what I really want to say here is a lot of these changes we made in the district did come out as grassroots movements, starting from our students, our parents and our teachers. And really, this award is their award, too. And more recently, as you all heard, we're talking about intentional tech use. And this is also a grassroots movement coming from our parents. And so I think it's important
056that we pay attention and that we hear the message that is being said because everybody is really, we talk about student outcomes. And in our younger students, the parents talk about it. And in our older students, it's the students and the parents. And so I want to appreciate all these grassroots movements that have led to this culture of care. and this award really which goes to everybody. So thank you. Thank you. Trustee Kaffrey. Thank you. So I also want to start with a celebration of Mr. Jimenez. Congratulations. Our facilities are so important and maintaining beautiful, safe facilities. So thank you very much for taking on this job. And then also Mr. Zucali for your award. Then I will just Mentioned that I'm also on the device committee as a board member and on the special
057education committee and what I really would like to say is to echo what trustee bill is saying that I Am excited by all of the committed people who are on both of these committees and what we can do together because these are our schools and we are representatives of you all and I really believe that we can create the schools that we imagine for our kids. So I look forward to making a lot of progress on the device and the special education committees. All right, I just have a few few comments first of all I want to echo the the congratulations the culture of care award welcome Mr. Jimenez to your new role and and mr. Zuckelli also DP There's always so many things were being recognized and good work that's going on and I
058don't ever want to miss any of that and now now I'm going to uh do a mea culpa one of our rules is no surprises um and so we're you know we try to do things in the district and be places and you know several months ago i got an email from a teacher that asked me to come and visit a classroom and i don't know that the superintendent knew that i was going to do that i don't know that the i don't know that the principal at the school knew that i was going to do that but i did and I'm going to share that I visited with Nicole Tiazza and both the seventh and eighth grade AVID classes at La Cumbra. That was particularly meaningful for me in my tenure as a junior
059high school principal. Our school adopted AVID school wide and became an AVID demonstration school and it is an amazing program made more amazing by the quality of the kids and the interest and the teachers that do that and I just I was there for an hour and a half and got a chance to see kids in action and tell them a little bit about career pathways and what to look for. It was remarkable and I just today received from her in a one of the things that AVID does is they use a note-taking system that came out of Cornell University. It's called Cornell Notes and it's a particular kind of form and while I was speaking to them I watched them taking their notes and they were told that you know try not to chunk
060them or this and that and so today I have in my email a PowerPoint presentation of their notes. about what I was saying and man I was good I guess but point being it was a remarkable opportunity as I checked out I ran into Dr. Brock who said oh I didn't know you were here and and we had a nice chance to to talk and so mea culpa it was a great thing I promise I won't do it again without letting people know yeah that's that's it for me thank you which will bring us to our report discussion agenda and our first item on that is the transportation plan report it's a mandated annual report about the district's transportation plan dr. Maldonado will you please introduce our staff today presenters to bring up our annual
061transportation report our assistant superintendent of business services mr. Conrad Tedeschi good evening president Banning members of the board dr. Maldonado I have some slides for this hopefully we can oh there we go And this evening I bring you the annual update to the transportation plan as required by the state of California. Back in March of 2023, the board here adopted the first version of this plan, and that was in line with the state finally started funding transportation a little bit. And so as a requirement to receive the funding, districts had to put together a detailed plan of their transportation operation and how it works and make sure that it was in compliance. And each year, by April 1st, every district is supposed to bring an update to the plan. Now the plan may not change
062at all, but we still have to come to the board and say, we're just renewing our plan. And it doesn't require any action, it's just presenting the plan. And for those that are interested, our board policy 3540 and administrative regulation 3541 also cover the details of transportation. Bless you. So for our elementary grades, we offer home to school transportation for general ed students at three of our schools, Adam, Monroe, and Washington. And the only change to the plan that was incorporated this year was due to cost reduction and the low ridership on the route, the Roosevelt route was eliminated. And our general education buses are provided by our contractor Zoom, which is in their second year of service. And I have to say, for the most part, the feedback that I've gotten is Zoom is
063very responsive and proactive and have been really good to work with. Students in special education programs also receive transportation from Zoom as required by their individualized educational program. And that is more of a door-to-door service. Also, in elementary school, the students and families do not have to pay for this transportation. And the transportation that's provided is normally on the big buses and based on our policy, it's to keep students from having to that have to cross the freeway or large busy streets. We try to plan routes around that and more information can be found about our version of transportation and what we do as well as the plan on the website. You see there's a link here on the online version as well. And Zoom also provides the best that they can. transportation for field
064trips and I have regular conversations with the general manager assumed to keep updated on any issues that come up and he told me about two weeks ago two or three weeks ago they had 56 field trips in one week to try to find drivers for and buses and they do the best that they can to accommodate all sites all the time And for our secondary schools, we rely, which we've talked about here before, the Metropolitan Transit District, MTD, who provides public bus transportation services for the whole city. and they have set up what we call booster routes, which are routes that are specifically for students at our junior high and high schools that operate in the mornings and the afternoons. And these are basically to focus the students on the student-centered bus rides so they're
065not mixed in with all of the general public routes because there's a lot of students that take these routes. bus passes for MTD can be purchased at their schools and if students qualify under various criteria they can receive free bus passes and I did a little research and I found that we go through about 28,000 bus passes a year for all of our schools And it's a great service that they provide. And for information on their routes, their times, where they go, where the pickups are, I have a link here to the MTD website. You can always just go to their website and search for booster routes. You can just Google MTD booster routes and it'll take you to the page. For each school, there's a route and it lists all the times. And then
066also, for the most part, any of the students that receive transportation through Zoom, as stated in their IEPs, receive that bus service at no cost to students. And like I had mentioned, here are some of the criteria for students that can receive free bus passes from their schools. We purchase them here at the district office, and then we send them out to the school so they have them all in the school's office. We also provide bus services for under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. It's a federal law that requires us to provide transportation services for students that are unhoused. There's a lot of challenges for those families. They may live in one shelter one day and another shelter the next, so that transportation can change and vary, and we're happy to provide those services to
067make sure those students get to school. And all of those students receive free bus service from Zoom under that McKinney-Vento Act. And so Zoom is the one that provides the transportation services for the unhoused students. So with that, I'll take any questions or comments. The actual report is attached to the agenda item and is very similar to the one, very similar except for the removal of Roosevelt. to the one we did last year and the year before. But this is something I have ongoing conversations with Zoom. I have yet to. have discussions with MTD, but it's on my list to get to know someone over there to have conversations to keep our interaction open. There are some daily things that come up, especially with buses. If they get in an accident, they call me right
068away. Or if I have a concern from a site, they can contact me. I serve as the liaison, especially with Zoom. And I meet with them regularly to make sure that I can keep up on all of the things that are going on. Some of the other things that have come up. with Zoom is they are looking at purchasing more vans and providing some of the special education services using vans which are at a less cost. for the district and they don't hold as many students but on those routes we don't have as many students hopefully in one bus at one time and the vans will handle wheelchairs and be able to service all the students as needed so i work with them regularly to try to reduce costs to try to be as efficient
069as possible analyze routes look at ridership all of those things it's an ongoing conversation that i do have with them so with that i'll take any questions or comments board members questions Do you have some yeah, okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Are there any public comments? I don't see any cards Yes, no public comments on this item. Good. Thanks for the reminder Thank you, my one question is basically about oh Transportation routes related to our boundaries and when we last looked at our boundaries and if perhaps During our April 25th special meeting we could have some transportation data. So as we assess walkability and things for each of our schools I think would be helpful to also understand like the distance students are traveling on the bus how much time they're spending on it the cost
070per route things like that I think that could help inform the discussion so that's a I guess a question for a future comment or a question I guess that's more of a comment okay of asking for data for the future we'll keep that we'll keep that in mind as we're developing the agendas thank you Other questions? Dr. Beal? No? Okay. Carlos? Could you just explain a little bit more about why those are the elementaries selected and then why not Roosevelt? Is it just like demand kind of thing? Sure. There's a couple pieces to that. And like Board Member Caffrey had mentioned, the attendance area is really determined. those schools still maintaining those routes. For instance, Adams has some kids that live on the other side of the freeway, down Las Positas on the other side
071of the freeway. Monroe and Washington, some of their attendance boundaries are here downtown on the Lower East Side. So they cross the freeway and cross some larger streets. Those are the reasons why those schools are selected. And from what I understand, Roosevelt, I don't know if Dr. Maldonado might be able to answer that. I can speak to that. We did not see as much enrollment for students who needed a bus for crossing major streets at Roosevelt. There wasn't as much need for ridership. So a lot of this is determined by people who have children in the homes that are in that attendance area. And we didn't find that to be a need at Roosevelt. So that just brings a clarifying question to me. I just want to make sure I understand this properly. When we're
072busing kids at particular schools, it's only within the attendance area, right? So if there are students that are doing an intra-district transfer from some other area, are they... Part of that busing for general education I can say yes all of the routes run through those attendance areas for special education. It's a totally different right But in general education, it's just within the area for those schools. So that is correct. Thank you Any other questions comments? No. All right. Well, thank you for the presentation. We appreciate it That brings us to e to the report and discussion of special education student and family outcomes Miss Kenya Edison will come up and introduce. We actually have some guests tonight that are also joining our presentation to miss Edison Good evening board. I'm excited to bring the second
073report for special education up We have been embarking on creating the conditions for our young people to thrive in our school district and some of the work you're going to hear back here about tonight is directly from the content experts and And the things that they've been able to create and we'll have some results for you if you can go to the next Oh, here we go. This has become the Kenya slide, but I'm glad everyone could do it i do want to just put in context tonight how this slide implies what we should be doing in special education there was a time when our students that had disabilities were not included in public education we moved towards closer towards equity but we created special programs for them within the school so they were still
074separate from their their peers and separate programs like sdc special day class and other classes we are moving closer to equity and we are moving towards a more inclusive model for how we serve all students in the general education setting unless otherwise needed based on disability. We are looking at how the conditions of our current system and how it operates does not meet the needs of students and taking a step back and saying how do we create the conditions that really do create just environments for students. I'm proud of the work that's happening in special education. They've been focused for three years now on four priority areas that is moving the work forward. We are tapping into the content experts who are closest to the students who know the system and the community that we
075serve in Santa Barbara Unified and use that information, knowledge and skills to create programs that best serve our kids and our community. So I'm excited to introduce Dr. Curry, who will highlight some of that work, as well as our teachers and some of our students that you'll hear for you and for a real treat. Thank you, Kenya. Good evening, Dr. Maldonado, President Banning, and board members. Again, I'm Dr. Carla Curry, Special Education Director for Santa Barbara Unified. So my presentation tonight, as you know, we have four priorities for special education. I'm going to be focusing on two of those, high-quality instruction and family engagement. So tonight we're going to be looking at outcome data. the areas of CAS proficiency and growth for students with IEPs our individualized instruction math one small test to change IEP
076family participation survey outcome results and then we're going to finish up tonight with an example of high quality instruction at the secondary at the post-secondary level and the student work samples that go along with that All right, so first we're going to take a look at CASP proficiency data for ELA and math for students with disabilities in Santa Barbara Unified. But before I begin, I just want to remind the board how a student qualifies for an IEP. So first the student has to have a disability. And then that disability has to adversely affect the student's ability to learn and access the grade level curriculum, which requires specialized instruction or services to make adequate progress for that student. So again, the disability has to adversely affect the student's ability to learn and access grade level curriculum.
077So when students become eligible for an IEP, they're typically... They're not at grade level, otherwise they wouldn't need an IEP because their disability wouldn't be impacting their ability to perform at grade level. So they typically come to us one, two years, sometimes three years below grade level by the time they get to us. So when we talk about CAS proficiency scores, we're talking about a standardized test that was designed for neurotypical students in a one-size-fits-all format. And as we know, students with IEPs and disabilities, this type of testing isn't going to be reflective of what they know. Because again, they come to us when they qualify one year, two years, three years below grade level. So providing a student who's in fifth grade taking an ELA CAS assessment, who's reading at the second grade level,
078it's one measure of how the student's performing, but it's not going to really show us what the student knows and how the student's growing. So again, as we're speaking to CAF's proficiency scores, you can see across the three years in Santa Barbara Unified, we have made progress. So we went from 14% in 2022 to 18% proficiency for students with IEPs and ELA. So again, this is one measure. When a student becomes eligible for special education-related services, we create an individualized education plan. And from that plan, it's personalized and it defines how we measure student progress that is meaningful for each individual learner. And so we look at progress on IEP goals as a way to measure that growth over time. Again, that's another measure. I just want to remind the board there's many measures to
079look at how a district's doing in regards to special education and how students are performing. CAS might be one way, but in the special education world, we look at IEP goals and how students progress each year. When it comes to math, again, making steady progress in 2022, 10% of our students were proficient in math and 2024, last school year, 24, 25, 15% proficiency. So we're making growth, but again, it's one measure. Now when it comes to student growth on CAFs testing, we had 532 students who took the integrated test last school year. Of those 532 students, 63% of those students improved their score from the prior school year. So this indicates that a majority of our students are making and demonstrating academic growth over time, which is one indicator of how our educational programs and
080supports are moving students in the right direction. Speaking of moving students in the right direction, I'm thinking about grassroots efforts to look at our students in our district and what's working and what's not working. We're gonna speak a little bit today and I've got Christine Ditton with me here tonight to talk more about it, but the progression of individualized instruction at the high school level. So this is kind of a progression of how it's evolved since 22, 23 and where we are now and where we're moving forward next school year. But individualized instruction is a course that students take at high school, grades 9 through 12. It's a special day class taught by a special education teacher. And it was originally designed to provide instructional supports for those students across multiple subject areas. So imagine
081one teacher. 15 to 20 students with a variety of ability levels that need help and support in a variety of subjects on their schedule. So it's that one-room schoolhouse kind of model. So with that model, yes, students are able to come and get homework done, but there was no targeted instruction provided to students, and that's what they need. It was setting up our teachers to do something that's impossible and also our students as well. So we needed to change the model. So looking at board priorities and English language arts and math and through We decided to say let's let's break it up instead of all subject areas. Let's do individualized instructional Support for math and for English language arts. So last school year We took II in some cases and made a math II support
082class and ELA math i support class so again bringing students together in a ii math support class grades 9 through 12 with one teacher 15 to 20 students and that teacher trying to support students across math 1 math 2 math 3 and other math courses students are taking so again it was too much it wasn't setting teachers up for success or students and their the instruction wasn't aligned in that ii class to the instruction that was happening in the general education classrooms so again not setting teachers and students up for success. So through results-based leadership, the training that I went through last year, we have other admin going through this year, a small test of change is a strategy that we implemented this past school year. And so what we decided to do was narrow
083it down even more. So go from, we're gonna do one subject, one course, that was math one. And see how see what our results are so the adoption of amplified Desmos last school year for math one Really set us up in a perfect position to train our special education teachers on amplified Desmos the curriculum and also a gen ed teacher So they went through that training hand in hand and through that we were able to intentionally align instruction Content and learning goals between the individualized instruction math course and the co-taught math course So with that being said, we're we're adapting math to curriculum next year. We'll do that same type of model. But I want to bring up Miss Christine Denton from San Marcos High School. She's going to share her learnings in regards to
084high quality instruction as a result of this small test to change and I math one and also share some student outcome data at San Marcos High School. Hi, everyone. How are you? So I was given the wonderful opportunity to take the I.I. class and turn it into a specific math intervention class for our neurodiverse students. So we wrote the curriculum, we used a lot of the resources from Desmos, and we collaborated greatly with our GE counterparts. And the decision that we made was that we were going to make sure we were doing small group explicit instruction. and we were going to do pre-teaching. So we were front-loading, so our kids had an opportunity to hear the vocabulary, the concepts, and all of the ideas first in a small setting when they could feel comfortable asking
085questions and interacting with their peers before they would walk into the GE classroom and then hear it there and need that extra time. They would already kind of be pre-prepared, right, for the lesson. We collaborated, as I said, with our GE teachers. I co-taught in the classes with the GE teachers as well. We utilized different modalities of instructions to meet all the student accommodations, right? So there was a lot of paper and pencil. There was a lot of collaboration between students. There was a lot of small groups, stations, moving around. It was student-led, not teacher-led, not a lot of me talking. a lot of them talking and asking questions, a lot of struggle on their part and failing and getting the chance to learn from that failure. In this way, we really felt we were
086bridging the gap to grade level curriculum to support access for all of the students that were there in that room. And these were specific targeted interventions. And we were able to use a lot of the Amplify and Desmos resources. And we use them in different ways. And they have a wide variety of resources that help you when you see a student, if they struggle with this area, then move. over here and would lead you in a way to help you support those students. So this is some of the results. If you want to take a second to... look at this but what we kind of gathered from this is I'll look at some of the data the students that were in attendance very continuously consistently were passing and consistently passing we only had three students
087that were attending that did not pass and those were students who were not in a co-taught math one class so that's one of the learning steps you know as we're trying this out as this is our pilot program that we really want to make sure moving forward that the students that are in the intervention class are also in the co-taught class they need both of those resources and those together paired together seem to work very very well the ixl growth is what we were really excited about i think total it was over a hundred points for the class which was very high for them so it was it was really really good even for some of the students that did not end up passing their math one class the growth in their math education and
088their skill set was really really strong which was wonderful And then you can see too that we had a number of students who had tried math one a number of times before and they had been unable to pass. And so this was the ticket. This was the combination that worked for them. There's a lot of growth we still want to do and changes. I'm a perfectionist so in the classroom we still want to get better and reach and make sure we're hitting a hundred percent of our students and getting them if they're there in the classroom but this these are the results that we have so far it's been very promising and it's definitely reaching those kids that we didn't think would be passing or we know would be struggling quite a bit and helping
089make sure that they do So Santa Barbara High School a little bit different model part of the small test of change But the difference was at San Marcos High School The students took the individualized instruction math one while there they were taking the co-taught math one class for semester So it's in a Barbara high school a little different model. They took the individualized instruction math one first semester So they're currently in a co-taught all of them in a co-taught math Course this semester there is a mistake on the slide. It should say term three progress support but of the 20 students that were in the individualized instruction math one course first semester at Santa Barbara High School 15 of those 20 students at term three progress report are passing math one and again all those
090students are in a co-taught class this is preliminary data they haven't finished the course yet we'll be coming back at the end of the school year to give our final data and our final outcomes for this small test to change in our special education department Moving on to family participation survey. I'm going to introduce our SEEK chair, Mayra Gabriela Chavez, to the podium. And hopefully I didn't butcher your name too much. And she's going to talk a little bit about our family participation survey, the evolution of it, and where we are now. Gracias. Buenas noches a todos. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Pues otra vez, mi nombre es Mayra Oseguera. Good evening, my name is Mayra Oseguera and currently I am in the role of representative for the Sikh Committee at Santa Barbara High School
091and I am also the co-chair for the District Sikh Committee. los padres que estamos familiarizados con la hoja de consentimiento sabemos que solo hay una pregunta que se refiere a si los padres creen que se facilitó la junta So we the parents that are familiar with the consent form for the IEP we know that there's only one question that asks parents if they felt that the staff facilitated their participation in the meeting. So the group of parents who are representatives were in agreement that there should be more questions and more opportunities so that parents can share more information about their experience during the IEP. So the members of SEEK, we worked on creating a questionnaire so that parents could go back to their home or their own space and they could answer questions without feeling
092any pressure in that moment while they're at the meeting. So parents can choose to take the questionnaire either digitally or they can fill out a paper survey. And if they choose to fill out a paper survey, they can turn in their answers directly to the special education department here at the district office. And this work started in August of 2024 until December of 2025. And so in September of 2025, we had a training where we talked about the process of how to implement this new survey for parents. This training was provided directly for the principals and the staff members. So we currently have a completion rate of 23% and we're looking to have a goal of 50% for or by 2026. So families receive this survey through the designated administrator at the meeting and also
093from the special education department. And the goal is to have all families receive this survey. And I think this is an example of the commitment that our parents who are volunteers with the SEE Committee have for this special education service. And it also shows the commitment of our special education department and staff to listen to the feedback after the IEP meeting takes place. Thank you. So this is from October 20th when we implemented the survey. We've got 16 questions. We had, like Mayra said, 23 response rate, which I'll talk a little bit about how we're going to get up to 50, if not more. But out of the 16 questions, we had a 92% satisfaction rate. the majority of our families are feeling like they're active participants in their IEP meetings, they're being heard, they're
094being shared their rights, and all the other things that go along with being a parent and a participant in an IEP meeting. There were two questions that were below 92%. Number seven, it's hard to read from here, but I felt like I could disagree. I feel like I can disagree with my child's special education program or services without negative consequences for myself or my child. So 75% of the respondents felt like they could, but we have 25% that feel like they could not. We did hold a training at the beginning of the school year that was entitled, What Do I Do When I Disagree with the IEP Meeting? Great training. It was in collaboration with the Alpha Family Empowerment Center, but the attendance was really low. So what we're going to do moving forward is
095video that training, put it on our website, and we even talked about providing a link in the survey that they could immediately access that training if they felt like that. they couldn't disagree. So that's just kind of moving forward into next year. So, and Myra, did you want to speak? And so like Dr. Curry mentioned, Alpha Resource Center put on a training for our community here for special ed. And so this training is called ADR, which is the Resolution of Student Disputes. And so the goal of this training was to provide information to families and the tools so that they could understand what are the steps that they can take when they disagree with things that are included in the IEP. And so like Dr. Curry just mentioned, we were thinking of offering this training
096again and also recording it and adding it to the survey so that parents can have the information right then and there of knowing what to do in case they disagree with certain parts of the IEP. And I'm also going to speak to number 13. And this question asks if the children participate in their own IEP meeting. And if we look at the number associated with that question, it has a 36.7. And so that's a small percentage of the students that have an IEP that actually attend their own IEP meeting. And this is related to the fact that parents have an option of whether they want their students to be present at the meeting or not. So it is recommended that once students are about 14 years of age that they should be attending their meetings
097but once again parents have the educational rights and they decide whether the student should attend or not. For example, my student is 17 years old and he attends the part of the meeting where we talk about strengths and successes. Pero cuando vamos a hablar de las partes más complejas y más complicadas, él se retira de la junta. But when we start getting into the more complicated and difficult and challenging topics, then he leaves the meeting. Entonces, por eso en esta pregunta tenemos un resultado más bajo en la asistencia de los estudiantes a la junta. So that's why in this question we have a much lower rate. Gracias. Thank you. So question number 17, is there anything you'd like to share with the special education leadership team? And so this is some of the quotes that
098came back from the survey, the positive quotes. We did receive some feedback from families, and what we do with that is there was no trend we saw across the district or at a certain school, but for individual... Concerns we address those with the individual school sites. So So that's how we're addressing those at this moment. So we're pleased again 23% Participation rate isn't what we're shooting for. It's 50% if not more Right now. It's not a practice like we we provide Parental safeguards. That's a practice in IEP meetings. It's not a practice to give the family the survey yet so a backup is what I did last week was I found we gathered all the emails from all the families who had IEPs from October 20th until now. And so I sent out a mass
099email. you know, blind copy the families and ask them to participate in the survey. And since last Wednesday, we've had over 45 responses. So that's going to kind of be our backup. And also it gives a chance for me to reach out to families and share, hey, we want to hear your voice. So we probably will continue that. But I really want our admin designees to share with our families at the end of IEPs, your participation is important. We want to know how you're feeling as a participant in IEP meetings. So I want it to come from our admin designees and also from myself. So when we come back in June, hopefully we'll have over a 50% participation rate. It is new, it's a new practice for us, but I do feel like this tool
100is gonna be really helpful for us, ensuring that our families feel like they're active participants in their IEP meetings. All right, so like I promised, I have brought Kelly Flores and Polly Pelly from our post-secondary WIN program, which is housed at Shoreline Community Church. So we're off a school campus. We're out in the community where these students spend the majority of their school day. They're going to come and talk about their program and the high-quality instruction they're providing to their students, along with student work samples, which really seals the deal as far as this presentation goes. Good evening, board members and Dr. Maldonado. My name is Kelly Flores. I'm one of the teachers at the WIN program, and it stands for Work and Independence Now. Hi, I'm Polly Pelley, and I also serve as a
101teacher in the WIN program. Our mission is to empower our adult transition students to become active, valued members of our community, individuals with strengths, talents, and contributions that enrich the world around them. To support this vision, we introduced a new instructional project this year, video resumes. This tool allows our students to present themselves with confidence, showcasing their skills, personalities, and potential in a way that a traditional resume cannot. Tonight we are honored to share the voices of our students. Two of them are here to present their video resumes representing not only their hard work but what is possible when we invest in their independence and their future. So come on up Joseph Ramirez. Hi my name is Joseph Ramirez and I am a student in the WINT transition program. For the month of January while
102we are waiting for SBCC classes to begin our WINT program worked on creating video resumes. We made these videos to use for our future employers as we continue to grow in our jobs and careers. We found that the process of making our video resumes was both empowering and confidence building. It helped us reflect on our strengths, our goals, and what we are proud of. We would love for you to take a look at our work. My name is Joso from U.S. I'm interested in photography and my dream job is to be a photographer. I worked at Miss Daisy's consignment. cleaning, dirty dog wash, taking photos and cleaning. I currently work in the cafeteria at Monroe Elementary. I'm responsible, kind, and respectful. I show up on time, follow directions, work well with others, and do my
103best. I'm good at helping people, cleaning, organizing, and communicating clearly. I enjoy working, learning new skills, being a part of a team, and feeling proud of myself. I'm proud of learning photography and having a growth mindset. Thank you for watching. I look forward to new opportunities. Lydia, can you please come up and present your video resume? My name is Lydia. I currently work at Moroni Medical School. Last semester, I worked in a taffy carrier. This semester, I'm helping in a classroom. To make this video, I use this tool. cool tool that my wonderful teachers made for me. First, I had to write about my job experience and what I am good at. Next, I wrote my script. Then I collected pictures and my videos of me working at my job site. The last step was
104putting it all together. into a short film. I have really enjoyed both of my jobs and more on a medley. Maria in the tech here is so nice and I also like helping students with special needs in the classroom. I hope this video resume will help me get more jobs opportunity in the future. Here is my video. I hope you like it. My name is Lydia. I love being with kids because I truly enjoy caring and helping children. I am currently working at Morrone Elementary School as a teacher assistant. I support third through sixth grade students with special needs. I also work in the school cafeteria at Morrone, helping preparing food and working in the kitchen. My dream job is to be a babysitter and a caretaker. I am responsible, kind. respectful and very proud
105of how well i take care of children thank you for taking the time to learn more about me in closing we like to leave you with this quote because when someone finally sees themselves at their best everything begins to change we uh we do have one public comment on this yes i have a um a speaker slip from mayra oseguera i wasn't sure yeah okay yay Go my dad. Once again, good evening. My name is Myra. I want to appreciate Sunita and Celeste for joining us at our last meeting on March 11th. And I also want to thank the principal at La Cumbre Junior High for allowing us to use his space for our meeting on March 11th. And also because he gave us a presentation about the programs that are offered at his school.
106I also want to thank the special education teachers that took the time to be there at that meeting with us that evening. and answered a lot of questions that parents had about special education. And also to the family engagement liaison at that school who was also present. So our committee needs for the principal and the family engagement liaison to work together in order to really help families. So our SEEK committee has four meetings per year and I believe that All schools should be able to coordinate to host these meetings with the right amount of support. They should be able to coordinate well to host these meetings. So just like how we spoke about the survey a little bit earlier, these meetings require coordination from the liaisons and the rest of the staff to be able
107to really engage families. And I also want to thank Maria Rivera, who is the rep from McKinley. for inviting me to their meeting on March 9th. And at that meeting, the principal provided all families a guide about parents' rights. They had childcare and dinner. And the family engagement liaison was also present. And I think that should be the expectation for all schools, for the administrators to be able to coordinate that kind of meeting. Thank you. Thank you. No other public comments. We'll go to board questions. Do we have any questions from the board? Trustee Beal? This is a question for Dr. Curry. So I understand that CAF scores are kind of everything. We look at them all the time. But it's clear that it's not maybe the best way to assess our students with IEPs.
108So how does the... the people in charge of IEPs and special education turn around and assess how these students are advancing is there a different system in place that involves sort of I mean this is kind of the question what is the system in place is there like a family satisfaction score that they made advances because this scoring system the calf scoring is a bit arbitrary it doesn't really take into account individual differences and and issues that students might have so how do we look at the district students and know that they're advancing every year not just relying on calf scores which look very problematic Well, we're looking primarily at the individualized education plan. We set goals. The students set goals each year. So if they have deficiencies in reading, there's goals in reading and
109services and then also in math and also in writing. So annual goals are set each year, and every report card period, we report on progress. So the goal is to teachers. Case managers write goals for students to reach within one school year. So that's we're expecting that growth within a year, from year to year for students. And as students meet goals, we set new goals and we continue on through that. So that's one way to measure how students are performing on their IEP goals. If students aren't meeting IEP goals, that's opportunity for the team to come together, look at the goals, readjust the goals, and then work towards meeting that goal moving forward. So that's also a practice that if they're not meeting it, let's come together and find out what's going on. Do they
110need additional supports, additional time, specialized academic instruction time? What do they need to help them reach this goal? So teens come together to problem solve. And then you're also looking at how the student's performing in the classroom. You have those curriculum assessments that are provided throughout the school year to see how students are doing, how they're performing. it's anything but a standardized test is going to show you how a student's growing and performing it's just really hard when you're providing an assessment to a student that's way above their level so there's so imagine again if you're in fifth if you're in fifth grade and you're reading at the second grade level to give you a standardized test you know most a lot of students shut down and so then they then they show a score
111of one but what does that one tell us it doesn't tell us what the student knows what what we know the student knows is how what they're the work they're doing in their classrooms how they're performing on those assessments how they're performing on their iep goals teacher up you know teacher observation data is is really important so just multiple measures we look at ixl we saw through the small test to change that some students that you know scored a one on their cast they weren't able to pass math one but that one student made two years and seven months gross in a semester time so that's another measure that we look at so there's multiple measures um but it's hard to to if i were When I was a special education teacher, really the last
112thing I looked at to guide my instruction was a CAASPP score because majority of my students scored a one, so it didn't show me what they know. So I had to go back and look at goals, look at instruction, and then measure growth based on how they're performing and the instruction that's being provided. And that's how you plan your instruction based on how students are performing. I mean, the reason I ask this question is because this is what we see at a board meeting, and this is what I see at LCAP meetings, which are these CASP scores. There really isn't a discussion about how our students, as a group or even as individuals, are progressing towards their goals, because that really seems to me what we really should be monitoring, exactly what you're saying. So
113I guess really it's a question, a comment. How do we reflect? that our students are progressing. You know, at board meetings we also, I'm just kind of going into comment mode right now, but we get people speaking to us and they say, my student's not progressing. And I think that's where we want to pay attention. And so I guess really it's a theoretical question. How do we change a conversation if we're going to talk about student outcomes and say, are our students progressing? because that seems to be really what we're trying to follow. And when students are progressing, that's the time where the IEP team comes together to find out why and make those adjustments to the IEP based on how the student's performing. There are other states, like Vermont, they have portfolio-based assessments. And
114really, best practice in assessments for students with disabilities is a portfolio assessment because you're able to measure growth over time and the work that they're working on. Portfolio assessments are very costly to implement. You have to have people, you know, you could... you know you throw your scantron into you know for cast scores and it spits out a score but for portfolio assessment it does take a team of people to come and review the portfolios not many states do it because it is costly but that really is the best way to measure student growth is through portfolio based assessments when it comes to looking at long-term growth but when a student when families come and say my two students isn't progressing the best piece of advice i feel like you could give as a board
115member is the need to call an iep meeting If a student isn't making progress, that's the time when the IEP team needs to come together to find out why, and then they can put in additional supports and services to help ensure that student does make progress. Other questions can I just oh yes, I'm sued at the end of a school year or I'm not sure if there's like a final or a meeting at the beginning of the next school year is There's some not it sounds like this portfolio thing is complex But does a family get a sense that there's their student progressed in XYZ areas. Do they get that final report? They do. So when we come together, so four times a year, so every time report cards come out, they get an IEP
116progress report that tells how their students are performing in those goals. And then at the annual IEP, that's when they come together to see, did the student meet the goal or not? And from there, they determine next goals for the following school year. And if you're interested in IEP goal, how students are doing as far as meeting goals, that's something I can bring back in June. At the end of the school year, we can take a look and see how many students met their IEP goals in ELA and math. That's something the board would like to see. Right trustee Kaffrey. Thank you very much for the presentation. I just quickly want to also say thank you to the students for their visual Resumes, I've never seen a visual resume before and I thought they were
117really Compelling and yeah, it was great to learn about each of your interests. So thank you and then I just have a quick question and I just want to start with the students and First of all, thank you very much for all of this work my first question so I actually have a different question about casp scores because It looks to me like my for the casp scores are maybe useful for different segments of our special education students. And when we look at the California dashboard, it's one of the subgroups, like one of the accountability subgroups is special education students. So I definitely understand, I hear you saying that it's not the only measure. I guess what I'm asking is... to really understand our program and where we're successful, where we still need to grow,
118have we done any benchmarking with school districts that are outliers in terms of their CASP scores? No, that hasn't been an area that I've pursued looking into. I'm just curious. About kind of how we learn about best practices based on high-performing districts in special ed Yeah Yeah, so through our small test of change what I've been looking at in our district for our Programs is to look within our district to see what high quality instruction is working in our district for our students So our math my I was a perfect example of how we changed a course that wasn't didn't produce student outcomes and now we have a chance to change that course and also not only for students with IEPs but also students in gen ed who struggle for math one. It's a hard
119course coming in your ninth grade year and taking math one. So not just students with IEPs struggle but also students in general education without disabilities. So I think as a result of this small test of change moving forward i think it's going to produce interventions and lesson planning for students in gen ed and outside of special education so i've been really focused on what we have here in our district and for the students that we serve and trying to improve what we have in our district further our community okay i think we're going to check on others and we'll come back around carlos do you have questions yeah i do First of all though, thank you so much for the presentation really appreciated it My first question is just a smaller one regarding the cast
120data when it says whatever X amount of points below the standard is that standard for Students within special education or is just this overall grade level? That's but yeah under proficiency. So that's looking at where so for I believe math 92 points below the standard so where this For all students, yeah. So that's three would be proficient. So we're 92 points under that. Great. Thank you. And my next question is you talked about students coming to you one, two, three years behind in these classes. And I'm wondering if there's any sort of... Don't know any efforts or ideas around catching students before they are that far behind and then just you know then you know Afterwards giving them support to try to catch up or we're trying to help them out Yes, so that's something
121that our district's been focused on for the past several years through our MTSS Process so yes students initially when they start to struggle they're referred to provide additional interventions inside the classroom And then they collect and monitor progress change interventions and continue on trying to support the student at the tier one level so inside the classroom and then also if those interventions aren't working they go to a tier two support which is higher intensity level of support and then to a tier three if we're still not seeing the results we want then we move on to a special education referral so yes we do have our MTSS in place across all of our schools and we are seeing it a reduced number of referrals for students because we're putting we have high quality tier one
122instruction and then we're also providing interventions to those students so the first before mtss students were struggling they were just referred for special education assessment so now through tier one instruction or tier two interventions tier three interventions that's kind of they try to get the students there and remediate so they don't need to move on forward to special education thanks very much all right yeah rose do you have a question I have a comment. Okay. I have a quick question. Do you know if the math one curriculum how it correlates with the ninth grade standards for for the the state standards in other words is mouth one a course that is on grade level for standard with the way that the the standards move up every year. I don't know if I'm expressing myself. It
123is correlated so that if a student were achieving at standard or above in Math 1, it would correlate with being there on the CASP testing. Okay, that's all I needed, thank you. For some reason I had a sense that it was a remedial kind of course that was lower than the standards, that you would get to that level and still not be at standard. No, not for math, not for the math one. Perfect, okay. Yes, so the math I.I. course, which is the intervention course, would be to support the math one course, which would be grade level standards. Perfect. Reflective on CASP scores. All right, thank you. That clears up a confusion I had. All right. Well, and to answer your question, that's why in the classroom we had both students who were taking Math
1241 for the first time and students who were taking it who had failed it for the third time to see how well the Math 1 intervention course worked. Because our goal is ultimately right to get all of them the first time around. And so that's where we want to get is to get them into that math intervention, the ones that need it, so they'll pass Math 1 the first time through. Can I share one more nuance though? Sure. It's important to remember that our students in high school test CASP in the 11th grade. So the 11th grade assessment would be building on the standards for Math 1, Math 2, Math 3. Got it. Thank you. Trustee Caffrey, do you have another question? Okay. Thank you. So we've heard from a lot of math teachers that
125it would be helpful to have a year-long math course, and I'm curious, is Math 1 a year-long, and is the intervention a year-long course? No, the math, the individualized instruction, Math 1, it's a semester course. But the students can take it over the course of two semesters, but it's a semester-long course. Yes. So, oh, yes. And then I do want to acknowledge what you've shared is we do have some Math 1 extended time courses at each school site. There are several in the Math 1 space and typically at least one in the Math 2 space as well. But not all of our Math 1 courses are extended time. One thing I've been wondering is basically, oh, about year-long math courses. And we've talked about this before, but what is the process? Are we thinking about
126your long math courses? Is that in the cards? And I'm curious also what the secondary scheduling Academy I'm gonna pull this back. No, not really directly related to the special education One second. I think this happened previously and it is not fair to pull back on Math 1 which is a special ed intervention course and does not have a special ed Intervention course intervention is an intervention course. This is not aligned with the topic we're discussing So all I'm saying is that we have heard over and over again that kids don't have enough time in math, including special ed kids, for the amount of content that is covered. And that is directly related to math outcomes for special education students. So I'm wondering, is there a plan around that or not? We don't need to
127respond to this. This is not a question. May I ask Joanna, please, to weigh in about whether My question is loud. Under the Brown Act, I would like to know, because we're talking about they have a math one small test of change and we're related to special education outcomes. Why is it, I cannot ask, when we've heard repeatedly that we need a year-long math course, whether or not that would help our special education students? I don't think this answer is going to satisfy you, but under the board bylaws, it's really up to the president to decide if the conversation has exceeded the scope of the topic. I don't disagree that this is a question that we could be discussing. However, it does not fall under the intervention planning. That's the way I see this. Okay,
128I will accept your reasoning and I guess ask my other question which is so basically I am curious about growth for kids who are many years behind and if we have in junior high this kind of math intervention course for students. So next year we will be focusing on junior high as well. We'll be expanding into math two for the individualized instruction math two course and then we are going we're actually doing some pilot studies at La Colina right now with an intervention course with some really good outcome data. So yes we'll be moving into our junior high schools next year. Yes. Are there comments? Vice President Munoz. Yes. I'd like to just compliment the group and the presentation include, you know, very inclusive with the participation of students. I know you've been sitting here
129patiently throughout our meeting. So thank you so much, first of all. And also, you know, the facilitation of parent input and inclusion so that, you know, the survey, the plan to improve parents participating in the survey. In addition to that the teacher, you know sharing her first-hand experience with us in and being here This evening and also having the win program staff the presentation was very very Understandable and I just want to give you know kudos on that. Thank you Dr. Bill did you have comments? So thank you. Thank you very much. Oh, thank you very much for this presentation. I feel like This pilot with Math 1 showed a lot of great progress. So thank you very much for all of this work. My comment would be about benchmarking and CASP scores and getting
130information from... districts outside of Santa Barbara Unified. I think to understand the success of our program, we really need to benchmark and also what we can continue to do to improve. And looking at best practices for special education improvement of programs, looking at outcome data is really important and actually test scores are a large component for. segments of student population. So basically my real question is how we continue to learn about best practices and really integrating that into our future planning. So I guess that's my comment that I would really like to see as we go forward with the special education committee. How we can benchmark against kind of aspirational districts so that we always continue to improve. And we are the best of the best. So, yeah. Carlos, do you have a comment? I
131have a comment on more specific aspect of the presentation, which was about the math co-taught classes. As I understand it, those are combining students in gen ed and also special ed. Okay. Got it. Yeah, I just want to emphasize the kind of, I don't know, the importance of that integration. I mean, I'm sure this is, you know, already well known, but the integration and socialization between, you know, these gen ed students and special education students, because I think these, like, relationships can be so, so powerful that are made. I, unfortunately, have only had, I think I can, you know, if I remember correctly, one class, you know, where I was at a table with a student. a student with an IEP, but I also know from my own experience, but then also I remember one
132student older than me who wrote their college essay about a relationship that they made with a student who had, a special education student, how much they learned from it and how much it changed them. And so, yeah, I just wanted to emphasize those and that's super important wherever that can, broadening that wherever we can. Thank you. Dr. Maldenado. Thank you. I just want to thank, and I know they're not here anymore, Kelly Flores, Polly Pelly, and I apologize to our San Marcos teacher because I didn't catch your name when Carla introduced you. Christine Denson, thank you so much for being here very late tonight and for sharing all your wisdom with us. I know that working with students with special needs is a special talent that teachers have, and it's something that we want to
133make sure we always recognize. The needs that our students bring are varied, and there's a reason we have individualized. education plans for them because we know that they're going to learn at a different rate and pace and they have other talents that maybe our standardized average tests don't capture and I want to recognize that and we saw it tonight. Joseph, great presentation. Thank you for working at Monroe and all that you do for our students. I want to thank Lydia. I know she's working at our school because I recognize the sign on the picture. And great job putting yourself out there with a video resume. I have never done one, but you guys did an amazing job. And I want to recognize that work. Of course, Dr. Curry and your staff for putting together this
134great presentation. I don't want us to lose sight. of the fact that we are our goal is to continuously improve using our information that we have mayra also mr segura for your um presentation on what we're doing with our family survey. I want to commend this department for doing a family survey that is basically asking how are we doing and then putting ourselves out there with here are the results and here's what we're going to continue to do better so that our parents know that we're committed to all of these actions and we're going to measure ourselves against it and then continue to improve and then finding the workaround. Let me email them the surveys. It's just brilliant and I want to thank you so much for that. And I will make sure that I
135remember your quote, Joseph, when somebody sees themselves at their best, everything begins to change. Thank you. I just have a couple of comments. First of all, when we talk about qualification for special education, you mentioned that it has to do with... the disability impacting their ability to achieve at grade level. So by definition, special education students are struggling to achieve at grade level, right? And we also talk about an individual education plan being for an individual, designed for an individual with goals for an individual. What better kind of program? It would be wonderful if every student could have an individual education program. The problem is that when you try to take a boatload of individuals and put them in together and put a single cast number on it, it's absolutely meaningless. And I want to
136be careful with this, again, that from the beginning of standardized testing, when you take a group of students... that because of learning disabilities, because of learning differences and neurological differences are not achieving at grade level and say that the measure of their success is getting them to grade level. What we're really saying is that. ideally we could move them up to not being in special education and in many cases that can happen particularly when it's caught young but there are lots of other times when it just can't happen and so while I don't have objections to seeking best practices or comparing to other districts and those kind of things it's really hard to compare a group of individuals one setting to a group of individuals in another setting and and and get anywhere with it
137Best practices that's a different story. I think that we can learn a lot from best practices and see where growth is happening And so I want to first of all honor Dr. Beals comments about Understanding what growth looks like and when an individual IEP meeting happens on an annual basis first maybe a clarification is that they happen all year long it has to do with the timing of when they're first qualified so the annual IEP can happen at any point in the year and it typically kind of stays there from year to year so the these measures of growth are going to happen at different time but I would say that that among the greatest things that we could see and I wish we could compare that kind of thing to what happens elsewhere is
138how are our students doing on the goals that have been set for their growth in any given period or year what percentage of them are there I was astounded to see the number of 63% of students that made growth on the casp What I'd like to see is a number of how many students met or exceeded the growth that were given on their annual IEP. And I think that's a fair measure. But I also want to caution again about CASP scores for individual subgroups that it may mean different things for. Those are really just my general comments about the subject. I will say thank you very much, Dr. Curry. I've seen some really great work since you've been in the position. I want to thank you for what you're doing and the practices that you're
139bringing into place. We're seeing improvements. And to the entire team, to the teacher to here, the student, everyone that's doing this. I wonder what other districts are looking like. I'm again astounded at the quality of what we're seeing. 92% satisfaction from families in special education. And that includes a 37% number that's in there because the younger kids may not go or the parents may not want them to. There is a plethora of things to celebrate in what you've given us. And I don't want tonight's meeting and disagreements at the board table or anything like that to to take away from the presentation of the outstanding work that's going on. I appreciate it greatly. Yes, thank you. Yes, thank you both. I've been, you know, I am... A social worker I have sat in on many
140IEP meetings and even though here, you know, we're looking at the scores, right? What the group effort has been, you know, et cetera, et cetera, a lot of the scores and so forth. Behind the scenes is, you know, just to tag on. Our president banning's comments are the the medical issues, you know I was in child welfare many times the living situation sometimes abuse, you know Etc etc injuries during that time when a child has an IEP that's already open and so forth So there's so much it is such a complex situation with every single student So I want to also celebrate and applaud all the efforts and all the improvement that has been made and where we can go as a district. So thank you. So I just want to mention that I'm doing
141a book study this week, Six Shifts to Improve Special Education and Other Interventions, and it's free. And all you have to do is buy the book. I think it's worth... I've invited other people on the special education committee to be a part of the book study, but I think one of the key pieces is focusing on results. And like also if you look at the best practices for special education, number one, top ten best practices focus on student outcomes, not inputs. So basically I think that it is helpful. for all of us to get on the same page about what is possible for special education programs. And that just talking about that each child has an individual plan does not mean that we cannot improve the entire system. Yeah, if the if the current approach
142is in achieving great outcomes current practices must be reviewed and modified the districts that have successfully raised achievement for students with special needs and other students who struggle are the districts that keep a focus on results, so I really feel like it is possible and we can see that districts can do it so That that is all and I really would love to have more people join in in this book study and see what is happening outside of Santa Barbara Unified and how our districts raising results for Kids who struggle and kids who are in our in special education programs? All right. Thank you We have one more report item but I think it's time for us to do a break we've been here for a couple hours two and a half hours so we'll
143take a ten minute break and be back at 840 we're waiting for our student board member we're about to move into item e3 which is the reading and discussion on board policy 3312 I think we'll go ahead and get started dr. Maldonado will you introduce our presenter Yes, for this item we have a general counsel Joanna Powell bringing an item for a change in board policy Thank you, so this is a first reading of some revisions to board policy three three one two this board policy establishes the monetary thresholds within which the superintendent or designated administrators may Administrators may execute contracts with our without board approval current policy sets the threshold at ten thousand dollars and the proposed changes would increase that delegation threshold to $50,000 to bring it in line with comparable districts and
144improve administrative efficiency. And the policy revision also incorporates some minor changes recommended by CSBA, just adding some of the citations that you see in green. Are there any questions from the board? And no public comment. Oh, okay. Thank you. No public comment. No questions? Oh, you do. Okay. Dr. Beal? So I appreciate the cleaning up of the contracts I think that has been something that has been necessary and makes things more uniform the question I have is is I guess, you know, I will admit that I have a level of discomfort to go to five times what we normally approve. If I understand the process correctly, this is allowing for contracts under $50,000 to be approved prior to board seeing the cost. But those costs, will they be brought to the board to review soon
145after? Like, you know, how do we get informed as to high-ticket items? Let's put it that way. Yeah, well, I think the board policy is sort of redefining high ticket, you know, what counts as a high ticket item. And so, you know, that's the question that you all will have to answer is if you want to redefine that. I think what I can say is that I did try to do sort of like a broad survey looking at different BP3312s throughout the state. Most districts actually don't set a limit at all. And of those that do, I didn't find any that were lower than 50K. I found one that was 50K that was Oceanside. So 10K was the lowest I saw. It hasn't been updated for us since 2012, I think it was. I think
146that was the earliest we could find, and it may have even predated that. So all that is to say, the amount hasn't increased in a long time, and I think that it does create difficulty because right now, the way the system works is for contracts that are over the 10K, THE WORK CANNOT START AND WE CANNOT ISSUE PAYMENT UNTIL AFTER THOSE COME THROUGH THE WHOLE BOARD PROCESS AND GET APPROVED. THAT CAUSES A DELAY IN THE PROCESSING OF THE CONTRACTS. SO THE THOUGHT WOULD BE TO Make the process more efficient. The work would be able to start once the relevant or I guess it always would be Conrad Mr. Tedeschi after the contract is approved by his department The work would be able to start for those contracts under 50k and then it would come to
147the board afterwards for ratification So that's the current process that happens for under 10k and so it would just be happening for under 50k and so my related question to that is I guess being a board member and not being part of the district staff. Let me give like a really imaginary egregious example. $40,000 worth of gold-plated doors. So, I mean, I'm hoping that Conrad Tedeschi would say no to that. So what I really am talking about is if something is underneath that threshold but is really kind of out of line with our budget that we've planned, I mean, again, you know, we're trying to build a culture of trust. And so I guess I would, my question is, is... I kind of asked this question separately in a different way in other circumstances. What
148sort of guardrails do we have in our budget? Because I could see $50,000 here and $50,000 there adding up, not to like spending that is inappropriate, but maybe is going to quickly get us above what we had budgeted for that year. And then we already have things that are budgeted, so we can't say no to spending those. And then all of a sudden we're a couple hundred thousand above. Which impacts us right so so just curious about that process. So that's really my question I can say I can give part of an answer and then it looks like mr. Tedeschi had something to add But we are designing the system so that contracts cannot move through the DMS contract approval system unless there is budget for that Expenditure so this is something that we're inserting
149into the current process so it's one of our proposed changes is to require that people put a requisition into munis which checks against the existence of the budget for that item before they can actually submit the contract through the DMS process and we're gonna have a blank they have to fill in with the requisition number to show that they actually did that part of the process so that's one of the checks that we're trying to build in to make sure because I think THE BIGGER POINT IS THAT THE BOARD'S MOST POWERFUL TOOL TO ENSURING THAT WE AREN'T BUYING GOLD PLATED DOORS IS THROUGH SETTING THE BUDGET AND THE BUDGET PRIORITIES. AND SO THEN THAT, YOU KNOW, THE BUDGET THAT IS SET GOES INTO MUNIS AND THEN WE WILL MAKE SURE THE CONTRACTS ARE BEING COMPARED
150AGAINST THAT BEFORE THEY CAN GO THROUGH THE PROCESS. BUT ANYTHING ELSE? It's not only that but it's also that we're using the right funding lines whether it's restricted or unrestricted federal or state compliance issues come up depending on what they're buying so I think that's part of the checks and balances because what I hear you asking is what are the controls and checks and balances and who is doing that and I think you're building some of it into the system but overall we all Look at them and sometimes other people catch things on the way through the approval line Sometimes towards the end we catch it. So there is several approval lines coming through Yes, and so that does answer my question because we're staying within our budgetary constraints. But I think the other question
151that won't be able to be answered at this podium is how do extraordinary expenses align with our priorities, right? And so that, I mean, like I said, that's not really a question that can be answered at this podium. Oops, unless you think you can. I can't. Okay, okay, let's not try it. Think the reason I say it can't be answered is it's just really asking one person to commit to saying yes We'll spend within our priorities. That's really a district-wide effort. I would I do want to say that there will be a significant review of these. Like, I won't take these lightly. I don't just sign things. I read everything that I sign. And I think if something comes to me that's under $50,000 that I would question as a, for whatever reason, I may
152bring it to Dr. Maldonado for that conversation to say, okay, this has been brought to me. I don't necessarily think this is something. you know, we should be getting into. Let's have a conversation. We may bring in the cabinet member that it came from. So I think we are going to take this level of review very seriously. So the budget is the one part and appropriateness and compliance is another. And all of those pieces will be part. They're already part of that review process before they get all the way through. But even more so now, if my responsibility is going to be raised as far as, you know, how much we can sign for, it's. important that you can trust my judgment in in reviewing these with my cabinet members and i agree with that
153i mean i think that um uh basically um you know we have like the finance committee and the finance committee is trying to align our priorities. So if something crossed your desk and you said, well, you know, we're thinking about reducing our spending in that area, maybe we can't commit to spending this, even though it's like $49,000, right? Because anything else would come to us. So yeah, I think, again, the culture of trust, yeah. I think this is the moment where we have to talk about ratification because it's not going to not get spent until it comes to the board. do you want to speak to that and explain that very distinct difference thank you for bringing that up yes so um under our current board policy contracts under 10k Right now are approved by
154Conrad and supposed to come to the board for ratification What I found in my review of our contract process is that we actually haven't distinguished in any sort of helpful way the process of ratification versus the process of approval By which I mean we send the entire same contract packet to board for ratification as we do for approval and that takes a lot of staff time and effort to put those packages together and that's not really what ratification means. Ratification means a streamlined process where you get information about the important elements of the contract, so the vendor, the purpose, the amount, the funding source, the staff or students that are gonna be served by it, but not necessarily needing to review the terms of the actual contract because I would assume that's probably not something
155you guys are spending a lot of time doing. Anyway, and so the hope is that, again, by increasing the limit of what comes for ratification, it would still all be coming for ratification. It would just be coming in a more streamlined package that actually creates more administrative efficiency. Trustee Caffrey. So I am all for administrative efficiency. I think we talk about that all the time in the Finance Committee. I think this sounds like it makes a lot of sense. My one question is basically about the board setting parameters for the budget. So for example, like I know a contract came to us about iPads for TK and that was 10k but you know it was pulled from the agenda so how does the board and maybe this is a question for president banning but how
156do we set parameters for the budget as a board that are very clear so that there's the guardrails that trustee Beals talking about I would almost contend that that particular contract was not necessarily pulled for budget reasons per se as it was for the why are we doing this reason? So there's the budget side of it, which we can numbers control, but I think it gets to the conversation about budget priorities, which we kind of go back to. It's like, is that part of our priority that we do that? So that particular example was not necessarily a budget issue as more of a, but it goes into the budget priority piece of how are we spending our money? But it was like, you know, do we want to be giving iPads to TK students was
157the bigger. was the bigger point yes but that that is my point is basically that if uh the contracts are approved that are under 50k that would have been approved right we wouldn't have had the conversation about whether or not to have or this process does not change it's not related in that way uh we're just Streamlining the amounts were not necessarily we wouldn't have we would have still brought it to you either way So that it's not the same So there there may be some under 50,000 that we will bring to you anyway I think where this is really going to help when we start to get to the beginning of the school year and a school wants an added enrichment vendor for their after school program, but they just missed the DMS deadline,
158which then is two weeks before the board deadline, which is another two weeks. So it would be four to six weeks before they could start. And so it could be a $500 contract for an enrichment class, a chess class or something. So it'll help, you know, because we've heard about the frustrations. about how long the process takes and I think I will use all of the judgment I have. Joanna will be reviewing these as far as what are some of those items that may not need to that shouldn't go that faster track route through that should go a different direction and and get more eyes on it although I think you know efficiency and you all having the expertise is also really strong goal yeah yeah I have a suggestion I think it could help
159because this change in policy has helped clarify for me the difference between approval and ratification and it's something that I'm understanding in a different way. So what my suggestion would be is as we put this into place, which we won't be able to do until after a second reading and approval at the next meeting, the first time we're bringing something through that is a ratification for these purposes, that perhaps that we use that as an opportunity to... To train ourselves to train the board about what's different and why this is happening and then the first time that something that is in the under 50,000 range that comes for approval instead of ratification that we could point out and say what is the impact from the change that we had in policy and why is this
160happening that it helped us on all understand better what it means I think Yeah, I think we can definitely do that I think also as we've talked about there's some other overhauls to the contract process and maybe we should figure out some other metrics for gauging Success are people satisfied our vendors satisfied? What's the amount of time that things are taking to get this? You know, I think we can come up with what some metrics are and even do a bigger report than that I'm not necessarily asking for a report just to hey, here's an example, you know You'll find in the consent agenda this example this time I think another piece of information that we're not sharing with you here is that in the allocation of budgets, this is the season where we're allocating
161our budgets to our school sites, and they go through the school single plan for student achievement, where they meet with their school councils and they figure out what they're going to spend their money on. Put people both school side and department leaders through a process of tell us what you're going to spend your money on How is that related to our priorities? Obviously, there's business things like graduation, you know renting chairs or whatever we need for graduations, but The money that's allocated there's already processes in place to tell us what you're going to buy. What you're getting are things that are more of the one-offs and then they would have to tell us, I was going to buy gold doors, but now I'm going to buy silver doors, whatever that is. And that's what, those
162are some of the things you're seeing, or we just forgot to buy this, we need to buy it. So I do want to make sure the board understands that we don't just give the money or just have open lines of budgets. We actually require people to have plans for what they're going to use. And I wanted to give one more example of a good improvement in efficiency. For instance, Santa Barbara Airbus, almost every board meeting, we may have three or four or five separate contracts for Santa Barbara Airbus. And I would propose, let's do one contract with Santa Barbara Airbus at the beginning of the year. And then each time a site uses it, they put in a purchase order, which is also an authority, a contract for us to pay. So we're not burdened
163by all of the, I mean, it's every field trip, every bus, you know, that's just one example. So we've talked about what can be a purchase order. and we bring the purchase order listing and what is actually a contract. So we're trying to gain efficiencies in all areas of this, and this is one step. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on this item? No? All right. This will bring us to our action agenda, item F1. Do we have any comment cards on this? No, we don't. All right. Dr. Maldonado, would you introduce this item, please? Our consent our action sorry acceptance of donations, right? No, this is the this is the resolution the approval of resolution 2520 Our action agenda item will be presented by dr. Wilson. I apologize for being off task Good
164evening tonight. I am proud to introduce a resolution designating April as our bilingual multilingual learner Advocacy month our district is defined by its diversity and by adopting this we are honoring the rich heritage of our students and ensuring that their Multilingualism is celebrated as a profound academic and cultural asset to our community We have comments or questions from the board No, I was just gonna say no public comment. Oh, okay No public comment any questions or comments from the board? All right. Do I have a motion for approving the resolution? Okay, I make a motion to approve the resolution 2025 2026 30 proclaiming April as national bilingual multicultural Multilingual learner advocacy month. Is there a second I second the motion all in favor. Oh advisory vote from our student board member and board members I
165passes unanimously with four members thank you and I want to recognize their student board member is bilingual as well so we will recognize him I've seen him in action let's advocate for him getting of getting a advisory vote All right, that will move us to item g1 the acceptance of donations Do I have an emotion for that? Okay, nice president Munoz. Yes, I make a motion to accept donations for March 24 2026 with gratitude Is there a second I second the motion? All right Are there any public comments? No Would the student member please provide an advisory vote on this item, acceptance of donations? Aye. Board members, all in favor? Aye. Motion passes 4-0. Thank you. That will bring us to our consent agenda. Are there any items requested to be pulled from the agenda
166tonight? All right. Are there any public comments? No. Hearing none, is there a motion to approve consent agenda as presented? I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. And a second. Moved and seconded. Student board member? Aye. Board members, all in favor? Aye. All right, that passes unanimously. And that brings us to the remaining sections. We're not, we have... No consent items that have been pulled coming against events future agenda items Anything on those items? Our next board meeting is scheduled to regular board meeting. We do have spring break next week. Ah Okay, our next board meeting is scheduled then three weeks from now on April 14th and with that will adjourn at 9 o 2 Thank you