001I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is the Monday, October 20th, 2025 meeting of the Elmani City School District Board of Education. Thank you all for being here. I'll begin with roll call. Mrs. Kobian, >> present. >> Mr. Peralta, >> present. >> Mrs. Mendes Garcia, >> present. >> Mr. Seagrist, >> present. >> And Rivas, present as well. Uh for our roll call today, we have a student who will be leading us. I'd like to invite Cecilia Deep forward from New Lexington School. As she comes forward, I will share a little bit about her. Cecilia Deep is a fourth grader in the Mandarin dual language immersion program at New Lexington. Cecilia is on the student lighthouse team and has done a great job with morning announcements and our flag salute along with her peers.
002Cecilia speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, which is a wonderful asset to have as an empowered communicator. Thank you, Cecilia. Please stand and join me. Place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republics for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. That was wonderful. Um for our strategic plan, we have the district administration reports. Dr. Garcia. >> Thank you, Mrs. Rivas. Good evening, uh governing board members and Almani City School District. Uh this evening, we have a robust update on all things EMCSD under the framework of our strategic plan. Um as you can see there, the first picture is is a reflection of the great shakeout that took place last Thursday.
003Happy to say that all of our schools uh participated in the great shakeout. And as everything, you know, we just continue to build to uh and add to our safety plans across the district. Um we're going to begin with priority area number one, ensuring academic excellence for all. And I'll turn it over to Dr. Pinedto, who will talk a little bit about the PD that we recently had. >> Good evening, President Rivas, governing board, community members. Um for priority one, uh this past week on Friday for our student free day, we actually had another professional development day. our TK through second grade teachers, counselors, instructional assistants, and social workers um attended a a second part of a training um for conscious discipline uh which uh provides teachers with um some strategies to work with students
004and help with co-regulation strategies coming from a place of relationships first, a place of providing safety in the classroom um and helping to understand um the brain state model both where uh the the adult brain is and where the the student brain is during certain behaviors um as a way to help with um deescalating certain situations and again just providing a safe environment for students. Um and so they lot they learned a lot of fun activities to to do with students um to make the classroom an engaging and safe place. Our third through sixth grade teachers um uh were provided with the training by our teachers on special assignment uh leveraging language to achieve grade level literacy and writing. Um one thing that we know about um language is that um oracy precedes literacy. And
005so uh we want our students to be talking um and engaging in academic language and discourse. Um, and that is important before students begin reading and writing. And so, um, our TTOS, uh, walked our teachers through some strategies using GLAD strategies, um, to integrate into their, um, academic day, uh, to have students engage in, um, academic discourse uh, before they they do any writing. And so, um, it was a great day of of learning, um, and using some wonderful grad strategies. Um, and then our seventh and eighth grade content teachers actually had part of that training already, um, uh, at our last student free day. So, they received a part, too, uh, which is really great. Um, and it's really encouraging integrated EL in our content areas, um, science and social studies and language arts.
006Um and then our seventh and eighth grade math teachers uh were in um professional development for understanding academic language and mathematical discourse. So again focusing on language acquisition and the importance of that discourse having students talk more um so that they are engaged in their learning as well. >> Can I add to that Dr. Pedo and and I'm I just want to say that we had a preview to this PD and it was 100% done within the school district. So, our TOSAs led the the the PD. It was just it was fantastic. Um, but so exciting to see just, you know, the the level of commitment and the knowledge that that's here within the district um across EMCSD. So, just thank you to the TOSAs for leading this very very valuable PD. >> And today
007actually ends our first quarter. It's hard to believe it went by very quickly. We've been so busy with so many wonderful things happening throughout the district. And so our parent conferences are taking place um beginning in November. Um and it's just a good time for our um teachers to meet with um with our parents and to discuss academic prog um proc progress, sorry. Um and to you know go over um areas for growth and just look o look over you know um our students progress reports. um share any observations that teachers have um and then collaborate with our families to support student success um so that they um you know um have a a good rest of the first trimester >> and this past month uh marked our attendance awareness initiative month, right? Um usually
008it's the start of the uh school year, right? To build good habits and carry them on throughout the school year. uh presented before you is uh some information for the past school year across the state of California. Right? We know academic excellence for all doesn't happen if students are not attending uh regularly um school. So happy to report that our attendance rate went up by a similar percent from what you see across the state. Uh elementary districts you can see increased uh from two years ago to last year by 0.2% and so did we, right? Um, and our attendance rate for last year was 96.17%. Uh, which is well above the statewide average for elementary school districts of 93.96%. And our schools do a wonderful job to make sure that they incentivize school uh, kids
009to to come to school, have fun raffles and barbecues and, you know, all the great things that are happening, right? Uh, spirit, you know, weeks and things like that to make sure that kids uh, are always looking forward to coming to school, right? We want to make sure that kids learn um and have fun learning and and also attend school, right? And have positive experiences there. Um when you think about what that percentage translates in a school year in the Monte City School District, the attendance rate translates to about seven absences. Um per year for a student, um the district average for elementary age students is about 11, right? So we continue to hopefully decrease that. I know our goal in our LCAP is looking for five or less absences in the year. Something that
010is new this year is our ability to recover attendance with after school programming, summer programming, spring break programming, and things like that. So I think when you see this information presented next year for the 25 26 year, you're going to see a boost in attendance rates across the state of California because schools can now recapture attendance days uh for students that attend after school programming, summer school programming, spring break programming, any enrichment programming um where there's a certificate staff member present there. Right? So uh I'm sure that 2% uh increase that we're above the the average will continue. Hopefully we can boost it up to 100% and everyone else will be at 98%. So great things continue to happen in Monte City School District as a result of the strong attendance within the community. >>
011And our next uh slide here is a celebratory slide uh that recognizes five of our schools and the school district uh for receiving the 2025 honoral list. Uh so ERP is educational results partnerships and they are a national organization that highlights schools that are closing achievement gaps and making uh high gains. And so Almani City School District as a district was recognized uh just in the last few weeks as well as the five schools there Clemenson Dery Gidley and Rio Vista. So congratulations to our schools Elmani City School District for this accolade. Moving on to priority area number two, deliver diverse experiences and opportunities that prepare students for future success. So, our planning for outdoor science school is underway. Um, our sixth graders are preparing uh to go to outdoor science school. Um, six of
012our sites will be attending in um November and then another six in January. Um and then we have two schools that will go in um February and March. So our students are excited um as we prepare. Hopefully they have some really nice weather weather and um enjoy the time to use the outside as their classroom. And our current enrichment programs that are being offered at our sites include our mariachi academy at our six TK through 8 sites. Uh we have fall sports taking place. We brought golf back and students are really enjoying that. Um, flag football, soccer, and cheer. Um, hopefully uh you were able to see our cheer students uh during our children's day parade. They led the way. Um, our Sauté Culinary Academy uh for the fall is taking place at Colombia, Cherry
013Lee, Gidley, our opportunity program and Frank Wright, and our youth cinema project at Petro and Wright. Um, musical theater has kicked off at um, four of our sites, Columbia, Cortata, Dery, and Sherpser, but all of our sites will be participating again this year. And this past Saturday, our Vietnamese culture club, which started last year and was a was a a big hit and success, um, started again. And so this serves our TK through eight um, students. And we had over a hundred families that were very, um, interested and excited about this program who signed up for it. Um teachers from Westminster dual immersion schools are providing the programming for this and it'll take place over 14 Saturdays this year. And something new that we introduced this year was uh bringing the barbecue experience to every
014school um regardless of whether the request is there. Right? So in the spirit of having equity across of our schools, we changed the program up this year. So every school will get at least three barbecues, right? Uh throughout the year. So, so far we've hit Sherper, Columbia, Cortado, Frank, Ryan, and Clemenson schools. Um, and it's been a positive um experience so far. Rain or shine. The ladies, our nutrition service staff is out there barbecuing and um you know, nurturing young minds. Uh academic excellence for all on those days. I mean, the kids may not be, you know, they may smell the burgers, right? So, they may get a little distracted when they're in the classroom, but I'm hearing the participation rates are are uh um very high, right, those days, right? When our intrusion service
015staff is out there, right? So, uh, this lines nicely with the nurturing young minds and and making sure that that kids have positive experiences regardless of of, you know, what's on the menu that day. And the students sometimes know it's coming, sometimes they don't, right? Um, and we we structure them on days. So, it's a it's a surprise that's I think a pleasant surprise for the kids when they come onto campus and our staff is out there barbecuing. The kids can smell the food and, you know, before you know it, they're walking through the lunch line and it's uh, so far we've gotten some positive feedback. so far and and the rest of the schools hopefully in the next few weeks I believe the way this the schedule um maps out they should get their
016first barbecue and then we bring them back uh every few months they get one in the winter and one in the fall right so uh great adjustment and and tweak to the uh the feeding experience and um we uh we'll get we'll gather feedback from the students and and the staff and hopefully if it if it goes well we'll continue going forward into future years. Priority area number three, preparing students to thrive in an interconnected world. So, we're really excited to um have started utilizing um Pathful. Uh Pathfall is a program that um connects students with um learning about different careers um and perhaps uh aligning their skill sets with potential careers that they might want to look into for themselves. And so, um, our students in grades 3 through eight actually are currently taking
017a a survey, Pathful Junior, um, in 3 through 5 and a Pathful Lifestyle and Interest Profile Survey for our sixth through 8th grade students. Um, and so these surveys um are used to help elementary to junior high students explore their interests, their strengths, and potential career pathways because it's important for them to start thinking about this now. Um these results will help to guide future programming for us. Um both for teachers to know so that they can integrate that into the classroom but also for us to know um as we develop exploratory classrooms uh classes for our students in seventh and eighth grade and then in our afterchool programming as well. Um so far the big hit um that students are really exploring um are the arts, audiovisisual and communications um careers. Um and then
018our K through2 students will also take this survey that'll happen during our first five days of instruction in January when they return from winter break. >> And last week all of our schools participated in the Great Shakeout earthquake drill. uh we joined more than 20 million uh folks across the country that that participated in the drill. Um and it was a good opportunity to test our emergency uh response plans. Um and and the the schools did a a great job executing the drill. Um they will need brief after the fact, see what went well, what areas need to be improved upon. Um and it was a a wonderful drill that um helps to teach some life skills to to students in the event that um an earthquake comes right at um knock on wood hopefully
019it doesn't come anytime soon. Um, and it's a great experience to see the the the teachers as well when they take the kids out, right? The learning doesn't stop, right? Think of it as the classroom just gets transported to outdoor learning, right? Um, while the search and rescue team is doing their their thing and the incident command gets set up, right? The the kids are still learning out there and reading books and doing all that, right? So, the learning never stops in Monte. And this past Saturday, our child development um department hosted a steam male role model and family engagement event. Um so we had over 50 adults in attendance and um students and f and their um and their families engaged in steam activities. Uh this is a way to engage our families, but
020also to um provide information for potential families and register some uh families into our Head Start programming. Um uh while it's a family engagement um event, we also really are promoting um male role models to be part of their child's education. And um mark your calendars. On November 19th, we will host our big sing um for our um elementary choirs. I see Mr. um Ching over there. Thank you for being here. And um so our students from our school choirs and honor choirs will showcase their beautiful voices for us with performances of songs they've been learning since the beginning of the school year. Um that'll take place at Dery School at 6 PM. And our fourth priority area aligning leadership staffing and resources to student centered priorities. >> So during the month of October all
021districts across the state are required to take a snapshot of students and enrolled as of the first Wednesday of October. It's called census day, right? So, this year fell on October 1st. Um, although we did experience a decline as we've shared in previous updates to the board and the community, I just want to give some uh background information as to why the state uh requires that information. So, uh the way that the funding model works in the state of California, it's very equity focused, equity driven. Um providing resources to where the most need is. Uh and they define that need as unduplicated pupils, right? uh children from um households that are designated as lowincome or students that are classified as English learners, students that are either foster youth or homeless. Um and so that drives
022a sign signific significant amount of funding in public schools across California. In El Monte School District, uh we generate uh $30 million of additional funding in our LCFF funding formula via the supplemental concentration grant formula. And that's funding that is generated by students designated as uh falling into one of those categories. And so you can see what our percentage is there um from last year. We're still certifying the current year. Um you can see that um every school uh for the most part is in the 80s% some a little bit higher, some a little bit lower, right? Um and what does that mean for our funding? So it could generate another5 to $7,000 a year uh worth of additional funding per student if they are designated in one of those categories. Um and just to
023put it in context, those are the updated uh annual income limits based on the household size for the current school year. So you can see there a household size of four that makes less than $59,000 would be designated as low income. So, we're sharing that information just so we have an updated um uh look at what the demographics are uh in the communities that we serve. Well, good evening. We just want to provide the uh board with an update in regards to staffing. And so, as I've shared since uh our August board meeting, uh we are 100% uh staff in regards to our certificated positions. Um, we're proud of that because I know that there's still a few districts out there that are struggling to to uh fill some vacancies. And so, uh, that's one
024thing that's great about our district, um, is our ability to, uh, staff 100% within our certificated areas. Um, from the start of the year, we've onboarded 23 new certificated substitute teachers. You'll see a few of those on, uh, tonight's monthly routine. Um, and we'll continue to uh, onboard as as we go out through uh, through the year. Uh, we know that our our subs usually work in multiple districts, right? So, while we have a healthy pool on paper, sometimes um they're committed to other districts, um so we like to have a good pool of people just to ensure that we can cover uh any of our trainings and and and our absences or leaves and so on. Uh in our classified, um staffing, we're looking at a targeted recruitment. Um I believe um in August
025and September, I shared that we were probably at about 15 positions uh that we were looking to fill. We're down to five. Um and those five are are pro probably some of our more critical hard to fill. And so uh we're going to be looking at um some intensive recruitment um strategies and and utilizing some other resources out there. Um but we're also addressing the domino effect where uh it's wonderful that we have promotions uh with our internal employees, but then of course that creates a vacancy then that we have to fill as well. So, uh, but I'm pleased that, uh, we're down to about five positions left that we're tr still trying to fill. And some of that is that domino effect. And about two of two, maybe three of them are are those
026hard to fill where we're we're looking to see what other resources out there um that are available to help fill them. And then finally, uh, just building that support pip uh, pipeline. just looking at how we can bring on more um uh administrative and instructional support substitutes um to help ensure that we have vacancies. Uh but also how do we utilize our current employees as well um to support and also to develop that internal talent um as we give them tools to help uh them potentially promote uh when future vacancies come up. under the threat of alignment. Uh in the last two weeks, we have had um some uh celebratory receptions with our labor partners, two out of the three, so we're still coordinating the third one. Uh but we had the opportunity to meet
027with EMA and CSEA. And this is an opportunity for site reps, site administrators to come together and have uh just begin the conversation for the things that we want to do and work collaboratively towards this year. Another uh save the date. Uh the grand opening of our early Head Start learning space is uh right around the corner. That's on October the 28th at 3:30. Please join us in celebrating uh one of many projects where we um are using our bond dollars and making sure that our facilities stay up to date. Uh the facilities at Cortata look fantastic and really looking forward to opening up those spaces to our youngest learners. I think you will all be pleased and I hope the community can join us. This concludes our presentation for this evening. >> Thank you
028very much to the cabinet for the great updates as always. Uh and now it's time for board reports. Mrs. Kobon, nothing tonight. Thank you, Mr. Patha. >> I had the pleasure of participating in the uh children's parade in two different capacities. I walked with the Columbia school uh students for about halfway and then I walked the second half with the uh Monte Phillies uh softball organization as well. It was a great turnout. I think there were a lot of people out there and um and the route was changed and I think it really uh uh just gave it a fresher approach and and it it was a fantastic experience. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Mrs. Mendes Garcia. >> None at this time. And Mr. Seagrist, >> I have a question about activities on our campuses. Do
029our children have swings, teeter totters, and things like that, or we don't have them anymore? >> The there's different uh facilities, different playgrounds at different school sites. Happy to provide the board with an update. >> The reason I mentioned, I remember Mrs. Nickel, I taught her kindergarteners how to count using the using the swings. They'd have to count on Sundays before they get off. So, none of our schools have swings. >> We do have a few school sites with swings. Yes. >> I'm glad. >> Okay. Well, we'll move on to items of interest. And this is the moment that our students have been waiting for. We have a school presentation um from New Lexington School. Our student presenters are Aiker Vargas, Santiago Pedrasa, and Cecilia Deep. Please come forward. Press the wrong button. Good evening
030everyone. I'm Helen Wilpare as the proud principal of New Lexington School. On behalf of the students, staff, and uh families uh of the new Lexington community, I want to thank you for having us here this evening. Uh you already had a chance to hear a little bit about Cecilia. I do want to take a moment to um introduce Eker Vargas Mahia. He's a fifth grader at New Lexington. Uh, Ekker is a student rep on our community schools committee as well as a junior educator who does service learning by giving up some of his recess time to help some of our younger students. Uh, Santiago Padza is one of our fourth graders and he has been a role model and a uh support to some of his fellow classmates. He demonstrates lots of empathies for others
031and tries to help others when they're having a bad day. He enjoys all of our after-school programs and he's actively represents our school in programs such as kids play uh with flag football. Uh all three of them have been a huge uh big asset to our musical theater program at New Lexington as well. So I'm going to have turn it over to them to share a few great things happening at our school. Oops. Hello, my name is Eker and I want to share the importance of attendance. So, you need your notes. >> I'm just a little nervous. >> Yeah, it's okay. >> Okay. >> Our district goal is 98% and last year we had 97.84%. Our staff and our teachers and our staff share us and teach us the importance of being in school on
032time every day and they're really nice and try to get to know us and know our interests. In September, we did the attendance campaign with our counselor, Miss Contreases. And we celebrate sharing and finding our attendance schools with our classroom and friends, especially with our outreach consultant, Mr. Hansen. We are going to have an attendance barbecue later this month, as well as our Dolphin Dollar store as our Dolphin Dollar store where we can purchase items with the money we're able to get by being here on time. Hi, my name is Santiago. >> We just finished our PTA jarathon a few weeks ago. >> It was fun. It was >> our parents >> with our parents >> cheering us on. >> We helped >> raise almost >> $12,000. This helps. >> This helps >> PG. >>
033Put on >> fun events. >> Like the glow stick dance party >> and the upcoming >> carnival. In the past, >> they brought >> a mad science >> assembly >> and a BMX >> bike show >> for all of us >> of us >> to enjoy. >> It was a lot of fun. Hi, I am Cecilia. There are lots of leaderships opportunities like the student lighthouse for students in second through sixth grade. We also have junior coaches and junior educators. So, there are lots of places for us to show our leadership. We even have students lead our leader of the month assemblies. All of these opportunities help us build our confidence and help us become thriving leaders here in New Lexington. We have we have visual and performing art opportunities. We have band, choir, musical
034theater, and conga for fifth grade. and computer science coding for third to sixth graders. I got to do conga every Wednesday. So before Santiago gets uh goes to the next section, I want to um just share with everyone here that being up here uh even for a principal like me is very nerve-wracking. Um Dr. Garcia knows that I do not really like to speak in front of a lot of people. So, uh, we really appreciate and and, um, Santio, I want you just to speak. You don't have to read everything from there, but just speak to what we talked about and what you are sharing with with us about our school. Okay. What makes our school unique is that everyone has a different background. >> We speak different languages. We have different different cultures, >>
035but we share them >> and learn >> from one another >> especially >> through art >> and learning. >> We just learned >> about >> the lunar festival. Hispanic >> and Hispanic >> heritage >> month. Finally, one more special thing about our school is that we have the measure and do language immersion program at our school. I get to learn all subjects in both Mandarin and English. It is. It's not easy, but I know that it makes me smarter and ready for my f future. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you students from New Lexington School. We really appreciate you being here and leading us. And it really is a big deal to uh speak in front um speak in a microphone in front of an audience. And um every time we do it, it makes
036it easier for the next time we do it. So, thank you for being here. We appreciate you. >> Okay. And then, um, next under items of interest, we have a presentation on assessment and performance. Uh, Dr. Rudy Torres. President Rivas, governing board, community members, and my pleasure to um have our director of instruction and assessment, Dr. Dr. Rudy Torres to present on our latest uh student performance and assessment data. Good evening, Board of Education Cabinet. Thank you for having me tonight. What I would like to do is uh share an update on our assessment and performance, but specifically as it relates to our strategic plan. So, what I'd like to do is is briefly revisit priority area one of our strategic plan um and frame tonight's discussion around these two areas. In many respects, the
037data that's being shared tonight specifically speaks to these two areas. But I think it's very important that we frame our discussion around the notion that we want to ensure that every student meets or exceeds grade level standards in ELA, math, science, and social studies, and increase language proficiency and reclassification rates for long-term English learners. So specifically around academic achievement and specifically around our English language learners. The other piece I want to to frame our discussion around this evening is the is the idea of actionable data and and the idea that what we're going to be discussing this evening or sharing with you this evening for that matter is the idea that we're looking at largecale satellite data. We're going to bring it down to district level data. Probably the most important component of tonight's presentation
038are is the classroom level data that's going to allow us to take action specifically around learning standards and essential standards. And I wanted to to to to just revisit the notion of essential standards. the idea that our essential standards which was a collective effort uh bringing bringing our colleagues in from our classrooms our classroom teachers coming to consensus around essential standards really brings us to the the idea of a guaranteed and viable curriculum. So what does that entail? What does that mean? What we are saying is and we know in education that at every grade level in any subject there are multiple standards that are used to establish the criteria for that particular subject for that particular grade. What we have done is we have chosen essential standards that represent Elmani city's guaranteed and viable
039curriculum. What that guarantee means is that we are going to ensure that students in Almani city know these standards at a proficient level. to guarantee as students martriculate into other grades or the the the grades that are hired martriculate to the next grade for that matter a degree of success. So that's the idea of and that's the reason why we chose the essential standards because that those essential standards establish our guaranteed and viable curriculum. So let's take a look at the data. So specifically this is this is the overall uh two-year uh ELA standard or ELA performance levels for for two years looking at the top bands which are meeting or exceeding grade level standards. Um you'll notice you'll notice that for two years things are relatively stable um suggesting a degree of predictability with
040respect to our classrooms. If we take a deeper look and we we want to look between at grade levels, we will see in grades in ELA in grades four, five, and six, specifically around fifth and sixth grade, we're seeing an increase in student performance um in those particular areas. When we start looking at standardized tests, what we want to do, and I'll speak to this in a little while, is how we're able to go deeper in order to create action to create change and disrupt this the continuity that we're seeing with student performance in this in this area. If we take a look at the math scores over two years, you'll you'll notice that they are identical. Um very very stable in terms of uh student performance. One way to look at this is to
041is to consider that what we are doing is reached a maximum appreciable benefit. That is to say that the classroom that that the uh instructional strategies the practices have reached a a benefit a total benefit which is giving us these performance levels. If we break it down a little bit further, we'll notice again, we'll notice again that we have performance levels that are increasing in the latter part of the elementary segment. So, specifically in fifth and sixth grade. And as you might recall early on, uh, we had a number of schools, three in particular, that did relative really well compared to their previous year, which speaks to the increase in fifth and sixth grade in the math ESPback area. This is the science test, right? So, the two-year comparison of science. This is clearly a
042focus an area of focus for us both in terms of curriculum and teacher support um in the area of science. Now what I would like to do is is share with you as we get into ALPAC or the English language proficiency test. I wanted to frame this particular test and student achievement around the idea of equity. When we look at the the the reason why you take this test is that title three affords all students the opportunity or the necessity for that matter to become English proficient in order to access standards high levels of of teaching and learning in the classroom. Quite frankly the title three is affording students access and equity. And so the measure of that the measure of that is the ELPAC test. And so I wanted to share with you the
043results from from the ELPAC test. And so when we look at ALPAC the top number on on the left is 2018 that that refers to 2018 English language learners or students whose language is other than l English in the district. The Englishonly students represent 480 or 400 400 4,856 students. So you can see that we are approximately 29% of our students are English learners in our district. This is concentrated this is concentrated in the elementary segment. I if you can walk into almost any classroom in our elementary second in particular in K3 K4 just just because it takes four to six years for students to reclassify you'll notice that the n the majority of our students or more than in some cases half of our students are English learners when we look at the reclassification
044rate total K8 you'll see out of 2018 stu 2018 students we reclassified last year 243 students for 12%. Long-term English learners and these are students who we are focused as part of our priority area represent 236 students predominantly in grades uh 678. They rechange the class criteria. So it's in grades seven and eight represent about 11% of our students in our district. When we break it down and we look at the different levels on the alpac you can see that we can off to the side here on the left you can see the number four 17% represents welldeveloped or students who are scoring the highest. So one way to look at this is that of four represents students who have command of the language command of English are able to uh engage in higher levels
045of academic discourse in the classroom. As we move over, you can see level three about 37%, level two about 20 uh about 27% and level one about 19%. But it's important to note that when students are in level one and level two, students are how do I say they're they're they're coming into the language, right? These are students who are coming into the public school system speaking another language other than English. And so moving towards language proficiency, we would expect students to progress across the the continuum. These are the different domains as it was it was mentioned earlier or precedes literacy. And so when we focus when we when we focus on language proficiency for English language learners or emergent bilingual students, you can see the distribution of scores across. Now, interestingly, when we break
046up the scores this way, the state of California only provides us with three different levels. 1 2 and three, where three is is the highest, two is approaching, and one is minimal. And so, you can see for listening students are about 59 26%, speaking 38 42%, reading is 49 10%, and then writing 62 and 15%. But you can see where our focus is on needs to be reading and writing which is part of our professional development on October 17th. >> And so to that point, part of the strategic plan is is taking very careful note of the data, right? Looking at the data, looking at the needs, identifying and aligning resources specifically to what the data is is steering us in that particular direction. So on October 17th, it was as it was shared earlier
047with the the uh board reports that uh we we spent the day working with teachers at different levels of uh integrated ELD specifically the notion that oracy precedes literacy the idea that that speaking and listening is tethered with writing and so it was a very very very productive day very engaging day I have to say it was uh really really exciting and to Dr. uh Garcia's point um all internal soartosis did an incredible job. So on our I Ready I Ready is our next level of data. So this is our district level data. This is speaking to um a diagnostic that is given three times a year. The data is going to show the D1 reporting over three years so that it's apples to apples. And so with respect to ELA, you can see uh
048on on the left you have three years of data relatively stable in terms of student performance given at the same year at the same time. So this is D1 reporting or fall reporting over three years. On the right you can see that we have math three-year reporting again relatively stable um three-year reporting same time fall beginning of the year. So the question the question is how do we disrupt what what what exactly do we need to do to disrupt or for that matter create the greatest impact to elevate to elevate learning. And so this is where we look at the strategic plan specifically at the bottom of priority area one. We talk about different strategies two that uh I'll speak to this evening. Uh one of which is common formative assessments specifically that work in
049a PLC. Now, as we talk about the implementation of the strategic plan and the implementation of common formative assessments, I do I do want to pause for just a minute and and speak to this particular project. When we talk about the strategic plan, what we're what we're talking about is implementing an architecture and a blueprint, right? specifically the architecture of what this looks like across 14 schools in and I would argue more than 400 classrooms. So what does this look like in terms of rolling something like this out? I want to say that we are all doing the job of approximation. That is to say that we're we are working collaboratively to understand each other in terms of how this can roll out to the betterment of students. So I say that because with any
050project of this size, it requires feedback in real time from our teachers. So, I do want to share with you that as we as we talk about common formative assessments this evening, we have had the the good fortune to be walking classrooms, checking in with our educators, checking in with our students and and receiving feedback. And as we're getting feedback, we're getting ready to make adjustments for quarter two. As Dr. Penator show uh demonstrated earlier or shared earlier for that matter that we today is the beginning of quarter two and so with quarter two we're getting ready to pivot put into action a lot of the feedback that we've received from our educators in order to make the practice of common formative assessments more effective to elevate that student learning and as the data showed
051to disrupt and impact student learning. And so the assessment platform that we are using for common formative assessments is pair assessment. And so par assessment like other assessment platforms um like similar to i ready for example is an incredibly powerful tool. So we met during the summer in some cases during the spring to choose common formative assessments and to write tests and we put these tests into pair for students uh and our teachers to use. You'll notice right here, this is a snapshot of that dashboard. So, what you can see at the top is the idea that a teacher can look at to see how how their students did question one, question two, question three. They can specifically look at the standard that that question addressed, how the students did. So you can see that
052we anomatized our students with some uh nice names like pink and violet book and in and those different names. But ideally those would be students and you would be able to to um look at the performance of those students to be able to support those students to be able to make determinations for actionable next steps. So let's take a look at what this data actually looks like. So if we look at the most current reporting, so this is uh common formative assessments up until the last segment for grades for math grades three and four. So you might be asking is this common formative assessment one, number two or number three? Pair tracks the standard. So this is a a totality of how students are doing with respect to the standards up to this point. So
053the green is meeting or exceeding. Uh I believe that's like a yellow or orange. Yeah, that's that's like a yellow. So that is approaching and then red is not approaching. This is not a a meant to uh be a student deficit view, but rather it's an instructional view letting us know where we need to focus in terms of instruction. So when we go back to those earlier slides and we look at the stability of those test scores, what we're actually doing with the CFAs is we're in a position now to disrupt and impact learning in very very very specific ways. Um here's an example of ELA grades three, a different presentation or a different uh representation, but again we're looking at very very specific standards. And as the the the course of the quarter goes
054on, these standards were measured throughout the um throughout the first quarter. And you can see where students are performing, where students could be underperforming. You know, I stand corrected. It's not necessarily a student piece. It's an instructional piece. And so this is going to allow us to adjust instruction to meet the needs of where students are at. This is grade four. And so in summary, in summary, what I would like to share is tonight's presentation captured state level data. It's really a starting point, right? When we think of strategic plan, the state data allows us to take action, align resources to create um to align to align resources to support teachers to create professional developments in order to support higher levels of learning. District level data gives us a sense of how our students are
055doing year-to-year. But most importantly is the CFA CFA data. the idea of taking CFA data, adjusting instruction in very real time. Tonight was the first time that we're able to take a look and see how students are doing in fall quarter 1. In in previous in previous presentations, we've only had diagnostic data three times a year. That gives us a wide birth, but we don't have the ability to take real-time action as we were able to demonstrate this evening. And so with that, um, any questions? Thank you. That concludes my my presentation, but >> thank you. Any questions? Um, I I have a question. Um, wondering if you could speak to I Ready and then the CFAs and how the kind of information that they're giving and how those interact together because I know they
056kind of serve different purposes. >> That's a great question. Thank you for that question. I ready as a diagnostic is measuring all standards and is an adaptive test. So I myself as a student if I were to be taking that test and I begin with certain questions maybe I don't I don't get the questions right or I continue to get them incorrect is going to place me and ask me different questions that may or may not be on grade level and it's going to place me on a learning path but it's also going to be able to inform um our administrators and our teachers an idea of where they're at and it's not necessarily at grade level CFAs are all written at grade level to the rigor of the California state assessments. And so being
057that they're all at grade level, the data that you saw just a little while ago is informing, let's say, for example, if we reference the third grade slide, it is telling us exactly where students landed in third in quarter in quarter 1 in third grade with grade level standards, which allows us as educators to be able to take action on exactly what needs to be addressed in that short window. >> Great. Thank you very much. >> I have a question. Yes. What's the So, say for quarter one, what what was that timeline looking like? So, when students took I ready versus when they took the CFAs. >> So, I don't have those exact dates, but I can say that I Ready occurred the week after our first five. Um, so I want to say it's
058the week of August 28th. Um, I know I'm on the record, so I'm I'm going to say I'm I'm pretty sure it's it's August 28th. And so it's a five-day window in order to to capture the current state of of student learning as it's captured by I Ready. Our CFAs began we began the uh the calendaring of CFAs to the week after what is that September 17th we started the the cadence of CFAs. >> And then what what was the cycle? They take it they do the CFAs Like what's that cycle that timeline cycle? Is it every few weeks? >> In in an I in an ideal it is every two weeks or a 10day instructional cycle >> per subject area. >> Yeah. Per subject area. So in an in an ideal situation, we would
059be instructing uh for nine days and assess on the 10th day in order to inform instruction and make adjustments in the PLC the following week so that instruction reflects those those 10 days. >> So math would be one week and ELA would be the following week. So they're not on the same week. >> Okay. And then the students are because I you said with I Ready I know that the testing window is a fiveday window and I know some students can finish like what's the typical like um time like students spend like on I Ready testing like say two hours like that they're able to complete it and then what's the um the amount of time for the that you've guys found for this first cycle for the CFA is like I know there's like
060they have that whole window >> but how long does a test take pretty much. So the guidance from I ready is 90 minutes. Okay. >> Now I do I and I I do want to recognize that there are some students that take longer >> uh for a lot of different reasons. You know students can can take longer but the guidance from my ready s uh asserts that it's a 90 minute take >> and that's in grades uh all the way up to eighth grade. >> Is that per subject or total? >> Uh per subject. >> Per subject. Okay. >> And then for CFAs um it's it's something new right. So kids are getting used to the platform. Teachers getting used to the platform. Um some students can take a very short succinct amount of time
061in order to to test on the 10 questions. Other students much like our I Ready students who are really invested in ensuring that everything is correct. They even have scratch paper and they're demonstrating an answer might take a little bit longer. But this is on an adjustment per uh period for us. And so, um, I I wouldn't say it takes as long as I ready, but we're we're getting used to using the platform. >> Okay. >> The wonderful thing about pair is it actually tells you, you know, students take a certain amount of minutes per um question, >> so we can monitor and see which questions took longer as well. And and one thing I want to point out with our I Ready data at the beginning of the year, it's our baseline data to
062start off with. So, I just wanted to point that out as well. >> Thank you, Dr. Pedo, >> I have a question. Do our students memorize math facts anymore? Addition and subtraction, times tables, is that part of the curriculum to memorize? I'm going to say that I would I would like to think with the new mathematical framework and the work that Almani City has done is that there's a greater emphasis on conceptual thinking and understanding and having a greater sense of number sense. And so that's not something that is explicitly taught to memorize, but that's not to say that students wouldn't memorize. >> The reason I'm asking is that many high school students I'm aware of do not know their math facts because they didn't learn them early on. So maybe we should push for
063that because it used to be expected every child would have to learn the times tables, addition and subtraction, the math facts to to build on and not try to rely on a calculator. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Well, thank you very much. Wonderful presentation. >> Thank you. >> It's now time for communications and we have four who would like to participate in public comment. Um, and I'll call you forward one by one. And just a reminder to those who are speaking this evening, although the board doesn't respond to you at this time, we do listen carefully and take all of your words into consideration. Um, first up we have Mary Esther Espinosa. Good evening everyone. As you know, Almani City School District has received $19 million in community schools funding. Before money can be
064allocated, district and school sites must conduct what is known as a comprehensive school ne needs and assets assessment to understand where the funding can and should be invested. Funding for community schools should be spent based on the results of these needs and assessments with the mechanism for sharing governance. In other words, funding must be allocated with a governing structure, the committee, where there is equal voice and representation of pupils, families, educators, and community-based organizations. It is our position, EMTA's position, that EMCSD has not conducted the proper comprehensive school and needs assessments at the district or site level as it is required by EDC code. We have learned of specific examples where it is clear that the district is using community schools money to fund pre-existing district priorities such as but not limited to hiring education
065consultants. Our association has requested to negotiate the parameters for community schools, but we've only met once with no followup. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, next I'd like to invite Margarita Henderson. Good evening everyone. On I'm going to be talking about our workload and then I'll share some experience of my own as well. Um, on average, more than 80% of EM members report working between six to six to 15 hours each week outside the instructional day. This represents an additional four and to eight and a half hours of work that takes place be beyond the typical 40hour work week. Every year, our members adapt to the ever growing list of initiatives, mandated assessments, trainings, programs, platforms, and assign assignment changes with no little with little guidance or support. Additionally, with teachers being subbed out for
066frequent frequent training, some lasting five consecutive uh days, the time it takes to plan substitute lesson plans can easily double the typical workload for a given week. Last year, some members were subbed out for a total 25 days, representing more than 10% of the school year. This year, the added pressure of having to adhere to rigid pacing plans with frequent district district mandate assessments has further amplified the workload and stress on EM members. Teachers working conditions are being affected which lead to a negative impact on student learning. I myself last week, the week of October 13, we had the pathful survey to administer. We had the CFA math um number three, we had the CGI story word problems. Those are three we have to assess. We had the great shake out on Thursday and on
067Friday we had the PD Friday. So that only gave us two days to do the CFA assessment and then I was out. So that's another day that cut it out for my week. So that affected my working conditions and it affected the way that I taught my students and administer the CFA. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have Sabrina Cruz. Hello and good evening everyone. Um, I'm going to be speaking on work workplace violence prevention plan. As of July of 2024, Elmani City School District is legally required to have a workplace violence prevention plan to address the growing instances of workplace violence across all workplaces in the state of California, which includes harassment, verbal abuse, direct and indirect threats from any person, including students. Once in place, uh, Almani City School District has a
068legal obligation to provide annual trainings to all of its employees on the workplace violence and prevention plan. Such trainings would include showing how any staff member can anonym anonymously report any incident of violence that occurs. Any incident um incident log must be reviewed by the employer and the employer must take steps to address the incidents of violence that are reported. Any employee can request to view the incident log. EMTA is looking forward to participating on the district safety committee with our first meeting scheduled for November 18th. Together with CSEA and the district, we are looking forward to creating workplace violence prevention plan. Thank you. Thank you. And last, we have Oscar Pinto. Uh good evening board and cabinet. I just wanted to share um some of the minutes from our first community school meeting on
069October 3rd at Paternal School. Uh so I'd like to share that uh our students and parents and and staff were well attended in our committee in our committee and um but um and on a positive note um I I love the engagement from parents and students. Um there were two proposals in which the students uh made their voices really loud and clear. The first one that I prop was one of my own proposals that they voted down which was a proposal to um conduct the meetings during the morning uh as I find the afternoons a little hard for myself personally and other teachers that expressed the same concerns. But uh our students voiced uh that they wanted their instructional minutes protected. uh on on the same topic of instructional minutes, uh they voted down a
070proposal for solution tree subout. So there was a proposal to sub out teachers for 8 days. Um and again, our students were not okay with that. Um the student uh committee members composed of right now sixth, seventh, and eighth graders uh were adamant that they want their teachers in the classroom. Uh it is uh I'm sad to report though that today our teachers got an email uh from the principal saying that they will be subbed out for 4 days uh that we know of right now. So, um I think this is like an opportunity to that speaks to the transformation transformational work that is occurring uh in our community schools committee and even though we're still in early stages and still need to conduct our comprehensive needs assessment. I think it's uh the fact that
071our parents and students are um see the importance of the instructional time and especially now after this uh report from Mr. Torres in regards to where our scores are at and the importance of staying on top of this CFA schedule. How are we going to do that when we're subbing out, you know, our teachers for eight days? Um, so I don't know. Um, uh, it's concerning to me that also we're trying to pass proposals without a proper needs assessment. So, uh, we're putting the cart in front of the horse. Um and last before I conclude here, I want to invite uh our board members to go uh attend uh some of our community um community school committees coming up. So I know Sherpser is having one in October 3rd uh 30th uh from 10 to
07212. Uh there's another one at Lor October 23rd uh from 12 to 2 and Petro will have theirs at uh November 3rd from 3:00 to 5:00. So hopefully one of those dates works for you. I would love to see uh you there and I would love to for you to see part part of the process and seeing our our students and parents and staff engaged in this you know transformational work which will be you know I hope um you know lead to some positive changes for our district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much all of you for coming. We appreciate you coming and sharing all of these ideas with us. Um Dr. Garcia, do we have any written communications? >> No written communication has come forward. >> Okay. Um then it's time
073now for the board to go into closed session. Um we will uh discuss one item. Close session item number one pursuant to government code 54957.6 conference with labor negotiators MTA CSEA 10 and CSEA 356. Uh we will resume the open meeting shortly. >> Okay, we I'd like to resume the open meeting. It's 6:53. We were previously in close session and no action was taken. It's time for the approval of the minutes. Um for the consideration of approval of the September 29th, 2025 board retreat meeting minutes. Do I hear a motion to approve? >> I'll make the motion. >> Motion made by Mrs. Cobian. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Mr. Peralta. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? I >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. And item two, consideration of approval of the
074September 15, 2025 board meeting minutes. Do I hear a motion? >> I'll make the motion. >> Motion to approve by Mrs. Kobian. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Mrs. Mendes Garcia. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. 5-0. >> For reports, we have the EMCSD Williams uniform complaint policy 2025 to 2026 quarter 1 report. >> Thank you. Uh each year districts are required to submit a quarterly report to Los Angeles County Office of Education um regarding the Williams uh uniform complaint process. Specifically, the Williams Uniform Complaint Process uh oversees instructional materials, uh facilities, and uh teacher credentiing. And so for the first quarter, which was July 1 to September 30th, uh we had zero um complaints filed. Uh this is just a report item. There's
075no voting that needs to be done. >> Thank you. For the action consent calendar, I'd like to pull item 12 for separate consideration. Are there any other items a board member would like to pull to consider separately? Okay, hearing none. Um, do I hear motion to approve the consent item without item 12? >> Motion to approve. >> Motion made by Mr. Paralta. Any uh is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Mrs. Kobian. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? I >> I opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. And for item 12, we have consideration of approval of classified CSEA chapter 10, chapter 356, and confidential personnel matters. >> Uh thank you. Um the uh item that was pulled is normally a routine item that's part of action consent, but tonight because of uh one
076of the individuals that's on there, uh we've wanted to pull it and vote on it separately, but also to highlight it as well. And so tonight on that um is our um recommendation for uh Eddie Monarees to uh be promoted uh to Jerry. What's the title again? Because I don't want to look it up. >> Maintenance operation managers. I was trying to pull it up really fast in between, but I figured I'd just ask Jerry and so on. Um so that's why we wanted it pulled separately for a separate vote. >> All right. Thank you. Do I hear a motion to approve item 12? >> I'll make the motion. >> Motion made by Mrs. Kobon. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Mr. Peralta. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >>
077opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. Congratulations, Mr. Monitis. Would you like to say a few words and introduce your family? over here, buddy. >> Well, first of all, good evening to everyone. Thank you for all coming. It's been a long journey. I want to thank the all the board members. I've known you guys for a while, especially opening every Saturday at Clemenson. Have I got to know you very well. Dr. Garcia, thank you for all all the guidance you gave me. Edna, Steve, Teresa, Jose, thank you for the opportunity. I won't I will never let you guys down. Jerry, thank you. You've been a good leader and like I said, you're a good coach. I'm that quarterback and each one of you guys, thank you guys for support. I think I've this is not something that I
078accomplished by myself. I think we did it together and we'll still keep doing it. Um, example, I did that walk with the wheelings inspection. I've been here so long and this is the first year we get 100%. Now I look back to those schools and this is this is the effort, the hard work we did together. I see these ladies from the kitchen here and it gets me it get it get it it makes me happy that they're here because they work on the summer with the with me and so they get to know me uh Roy got to know me very well the person that I am the worker uh Maria Morgan got to know me so each each person that are here uh play a big part in in my heart and I'm
079here for the kids you know I'm it it's just me Um, my family, uh, my parents, my mom, uh, and a big part in my career, my wife, uh, like they say, um, a suexual man, you have to have a a wife that supports you, and she's been the support. I have I've been through a lot here at this district, and she's never let me down, and that's my success there >> as well with my kids. Amen. And thank you guys. I just keep going and growing. And I always learn, like I said it to Jerry, I I love making mistakes. Why? Because that makes me greater. And my parents are immigrants and so I am. I wasn't born here. And that's what I tell my kids. You know, I was brought to this country
080and you guys are born here. So I want you guys to be better than me. And this is what I tell my custodians. Like I want you guys to be better than me. So if I'm doing good, I want you better than me. And that's the lesson that Jerry always teach me. Like he's not afraid for me to learn his job. And I'm I'm not afraid to teach him what I know. So that's my goal here and to teach everyone what I know. So that way when we're ready to go, there's people ready to take our positions. And thank you for guys being a good leaders. You guys are good leaders. our board members a good example for our kids. I appreciate the hard work you guys do. Thank you. Congratulations, Eddie. Looking forward to
081your uh continued successful career with the district. >> Congratulations and thank you for bringing your family and all your fans. >> We'll move on to action items. We have um item one, consideration of approval to adopt resolution 252611, celebration of Native American Heritage Month, November 2025. Let's see if I can talk after that. Um uh for your consideration this evening is a resolution for Native American Heritage Month, which recognizes the beautiful culture, contributions, and history of our Native American communities. This resolution aims to promote awareness of Native American history and traditions while emphasizing the importance of respecting and preserving their culture. >> Thank you. Do I hear a motion to approve item one? >> Motion to approve. >> Motion made by Mr. Peralta. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Mrs. Menddees
082Garcia. Any discussion? >> Uh, yes. This inspired me to do some research about Native Americans. I didn't know that certain words we have came from that particular culture. Raccoon, moose, chocolate, coffee, and the word caucus when you're going to have a meeting. So, thank you for the inspiration. >> Thank you. Um, let's see. All those in favor? I >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. 5-0. Item two, consideration of approval to adopt resolution 252612, celebration of Veterans Day, November 11th. >> Thank you for your consideration is a resolution celebrating Veterans Day on November 11th to honor and express gratitude to the men and women who have served in the armed who have served and are serving um in the armed forces of the United States. This resolution acknowledges the sacrifices, dedication, and bravery of veterans in
083defending our nation and upholding its values. >> Thank you. Do I hear a motion to approve item two? I'll make the motion. >> Motion made by Mrs. Koban. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Mrs. Menddees Garcia. Any discussion? >> Yes. I appreciate this. As a veteran, when we came back from Vietnam, we were not received very nicely. Thank you for remembering us. >> Thank you, Mr. Seagris. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. Item three, consideration of approval of annual um and five-year developer fee report resolution 252612. >> This is required under government code, an annual report along with the five-year report to always ensure that we're never out of compliance with the five-year report. We bring it every year alongside the annual report. Uh we collect about
084a little over $3 per square foot. Uh developer fees, any developments in excess of 500 square f feet. Uh for commercial industrial, it's about 54 cents per square foot. The high school district collects the fee and they share it with the elementary feeders uh districts. We have accumulated close to about $5 million in our developer fee account. Uh with with known um use of those funds in the past years, but now with the master plan and more facility improvement projects kicking off, in the near future, we'll be implementing the use of the funds going forward. This report is quite important. A few years ago, the city of San Clemente had to return tens of millions of dollars back to developer because they're found to be out of complaint. So before you is the annual and
085five-year developer fee report as required under government code. >> Thank you. Do I hear a motion to approve item three? >> Motion to approve. >> Motion made by Mr. Peralta. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Mrs. Kobian. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion carries 5. And uh lastly for um for our voting we have the board policy updates which is a collection of 18 second readings. Um am I correct in saying that second readings? Okay. Um so we'll we'll consider them all as a unit unless um a board member would like to pull any for separate consideration. Okay. Okay. Then do I hear a motion to approve these 18 board policy updates? >> I'll make the motion. >> Motion made by Mrs. Cobian. Is there a
086second? >> I'd like to second it. >> Seconded by Mr. Seagris. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. Uh last on our agenda here, we have our discussion session. Uh first up is the board governance calendar. Thank you, President Rivas, uh, governing board members, I had the opportunity to meet with the board subcommittee that comprised of Mrs. Kobian and Mrs. Mendes Garcia to continue the discussions that we started at the board retreat. Uh, one of the things that we um began with was to review the governance calendar. Uh, I know at the time the board gave us feedback on how to improve the governance calendar for the 2526 school year. And so before you this evening, it's not something that we're voting on, but before you are is the updated
087governance calendar. And uh this is an opportunity for you to take a look at it and see if there's any additional feedback that you would like to provide to include in the governance calendar for the 2526 school year. >> Thank you for your work on that uh to the subcommittee. Uh it looks very good. I was able to review that on the agenda. >> Thank you. And some of the changes we made um specifically were um adding a couple of dates that were missing. Um I think we we highlighted some district events and then we also consolidated the district and community events into one section. Um and then again just going back and making sure that the calendar reflects the activities and happenings that are happening throughout the school year. At this time I'll invite
088Mrs. Koban or Mrs. Mendes Garcia if there's anything they want to highlight from the update or the draft. >> Um, nothing specific, only just to say that I feel like we we covered a lot and I think it's going to be very useful going forward just so we can, you know, kind of regularly check in and make sure that we're on track and and what we expect in the next month. >> No. Yeah. And if um if I can ask I know if we can have this governance calendar printed out as part of our our binders. Yes. that way too we can just have a hard copy to like refer to it when we need it. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, it looks really great. Thank you so much for doing that. Any
089other comments from the board? Okay, then we'll move on to board governance goals. Dr. Garcia. >> Thank you, President Rivas. Um, also at the board retreat, the board had an opportunity to complete a self-evaluation. And at that time, um, there was an indication that we wanted to create some governance goals for the board to work to. And so tonight, um, before you is a draft of those board goals and I'd like to present them to you. Uh, this is an opportunity for you to give feedback and then we can bring them back to formally adopt um, at the next board meeting. Uh the first goal is a reflection of one of the items uh regarding representation at district and community events. And so the draft goal is for the board of education will strengthen its
090presence at key district and community events to deepen meaningful connections with students, families, and staff and to celebrate the accomplishments of the school community. Um and and so there is an opportunity to add a metric. I think that was something that we discussed, but I'd like to open that up for discussion here for the board. The second goal is related to the strategic plan. The board of education will provide governance and oversight for the implementation of its strategic plan. The board will regularly review progress, engage in strategic discussions, and communicate a clear unified commitment to advancing the plan across the district and community. Um, I'll just say I feel like these reflect um what our discussion was a few weeks ago. And so I do like the idea of a metric. Um I don't know
091if maybe um Mrs. Rivas and Dr. Garcia kind of work on what that would look like in in practice with the agenda or you know maybe there's check-ins or setting some kind of goals. Um, or if you want additional feedback of of, you know, are we talking about specific like for the first one, are we are we committing to a certain number of events or certain events that we make sure that we're represented at and kind of what that looks like going forward. But I like that discussion idea. That's great. We can do that. Any other feedback or ideas? >> Yeah. One idea I had especially for the first one with key district events. I know we use Google calendar right where um Edna's so great with populating it with the different events but maybe
092if it's sent out as a calendar invite because then that would be a way for us because typically we do is email Edna back to say oh we're going to attend the event but then that way we would just RSVP to the event. Um, and then that would be able to show and we'd all have access. I think I mentioned that before, like a way to see like, oh, okay, Miss Cobian's already attending this event and Miss Rivas, right? So then let me make um maybe I'm going to attend this next event, right? Since there's already two board members there. So then that would be a really easy way for all of us to see that and then also respond to um those invites >> and maybe we do like a check-in maybe every quarter
093or something. Then we say, okay, did we, you know, were we, you know, we had so many events that we attended or we had this, you know, these kind of engagement things. So, were we because I know we share about them when we're doing our board comments, but maybe something to quantify it so that we can understand, you know, because I may not be at the same things that everyone else is. Um, so we kind of understand where we're covering and where we're not. >> So, like as a as a whole, right? >> Yeah. Yeah, I don't think we need to single out individuals, but just as a board making sure that we're, you know, connecting within the community. >> That's great. And we can we can take note of that because I know that
094you all do a wonderful job of attending events outside of the district as well. And so we can include that just just I wouldn't say keep telly, but just include the our participation and our presence in communitywide events so that we can also share that as part of our comprehensive reporting. It can even be almost like a self-evaluation like how did we feel like we did this um >> this semester this quarter with attending um school or community events and from it we may say like oh you know what we did really good with district events maybe we want to expand with community events like that >> great any other feedback these are very good ideas thank you okay and last under discussion session are future discussion items items. Do does any board member have
095any items that you would like um to put on the agenda for in the future? >> Oh yeah, >> I would like us to start looking into AI, artificial intelligence. I ran across schools in Texas called Alpha Schools. Very interesting to share with the audience. I had a task the other day to write a poem. I went online. I found the poem AI generator in five seconds. I had a wonderful poem. All of you need to look into that because that's the future that's coming more than ever. Artificial intelligence just but be careful with it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other items? I think just something I'd like to um and it may be a part of the next presentation, but the next data presentation, I would be really interested to see um maybe
096just a broad view of what the grade grades look like for students because I know we evaluate, you know, the quarterly or in progress reports and things like that, but you know, maybe after that and and seeing, you know, how those metrics are aligning with our CFAs and with our because I know um grades are a really strong indicator of future student success. test um more than test scores and things like that. And so I would, you know, in some form kind of like to see where we are with that. >> Sorry, I'm just noting noting it. Any other items? >> I'll just mention this publicly. I know we um already requested a a samples of the CFAs so that we can get also get going to get eyes when we're hearing about um feedback
097from students and from staff. We're able to have a visual of what that looks like. You know, a sample from lower elementary, maybe a third or fourth grade, and then um a middle school. >> Thank you. Any other items? Okay. Um, with that we have concluded our meeting. So we adjourn at 7:14. Thank you again for being here.