001good evening we are calling the meeting to order at 504 the nvisd board of education is holding a regular board meeting tonight that all can participate remotely via Zoom or in person here in the boardroom directions on how to participate via Zoom are available at nbusd.org the Open Session part of the meeting agenda begins at 7 pm before going into closed session the board is available for public comment on closed session agenda items Ms Green is there any public comment on closed session items there is no comment on closed session items thank you trustee water did you receive any public comment on closed session items I did not receive any public any comments on public comments on closed session items I'm a little look thank you seeing that there are none the Napa Valley Unified
002School District will now adjourn into closed session we will see you at all at 7 pm good evening we are reconvening to open session at 7 13. Banquets and this is the Napa Valley Unified School District Board of Education the nvusd board of education is holding a regular board meeting tonight that all can participate remotely via Zoom or in person here in the boardroom interpretation in Spanish is available for tonight's virtual board meeting as it always is our interpreters are Paul hertas and Francisco Meza may we have one of the interpreters translate the directions on our English Channel so our Spanish-speaking families can hear the instructions but what I noticed is the uh reunions process may we please start with an attendance roll call from Julie pressie executive assistant yes student board member Gomez present
003trustee jankowitz I didn't trustee Gracia present trustee water Pleasant trustee riser present Christy Gonzalez Morris present trusty Chu present Quorum present thank you Julie thank you for joining us tonight for our Napa Valley Unified School District board meeting public participation tonight and moving forward will be both virtual online and in person here in the boardroom directions on how to participate via Zoom are available at nbusd.org the trusty water would you please report out on closed session items yeah there are three I'll do um I'll do expulsions first um D1 A1 the board recommended for the expulsion for student one two zero eight two zero two two a maybe to excel first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee Riser um Miss Prezi roll call vote please Christy jankowitz yes Tracy Gracia hi trusty water hi
004Christy Reiser Chrissy Gonzalez Morris hi Christy Chu hi thank you all right all right and then there's d1a2 the board recommended for the expulsion for student one two zero eight two zero two two B group two expel first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee Chu Miss pressie may we please have another roll call vote Chrissy jankowitz Chrissy Gracia hi trustee water did did we get an eye yes yes okay trustee Reiser Christy Gonzalez Morris I'm Tracy Chu hi thank you thank you also in closed session the board approved an agreement to resolve a student's educational claims and this was on a motion by trustee Gracia and second by trustee Weiser the board voted 6-0 thank you trustee water you're welcome and we move on to the flag salute um student board rep Gomez will
005you please oh well sort me this without license which it stands one nation under God thank you this meeting is live streamed and recorded via zoom and will be archived on the district YouTube channel for a detailed review of any meeting agenda item the archive video can be referenced and located on the District web page at nvisd.org the public can join the virtual board meeting remotely via Zoom participation instructions and the process for public comment can be found on the District web page I'd like a motion for approval of the agenda so moved first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee two all in favor aye motion passes moving on to approval of the minutes may I get a motion on November 10th you want to approve worked by trustee Gracia second second by trustee
006Chu all in favor and we have uh I believe um you need to abstain um for November 10th that was yes you are correct okay thank you very much and approval of the minutes for November 17th so moved first by trustee Garcia second by trustee two all in favor aye I will abstain motion passes and now we're on to recognition of visitors and employee organizations I do not see I'm gonna make sure I'm not missing anybody I don't see um any of our um leaders of our employee organizations this evening so I think we're good okay wonderful um we are moving on to recognition of students of the month I'd like to express our continued gratitude to the Napa Valley Ed foundation and Jennifer Stewart and her team for their support of our student of
007the month program and I'd like to welcome principal Lopez are you ready to present your November and December students of the month yes thank you good evening Board of Trustees Dr mussetti thank you for this opportunity once again to recognize some of our outstanding students at American Canyon High School our first student of the month for November is Ava Acosta Ava Acosta was nominated by her Drama teacher Miss Hart Ava is an outstanding student but more importantly she is a compassionate and involved participant in school and community activities she's a student athlete swimming year round with the club and achs teams as a natural leader and Community servant Ava serves as an officer for the Key Club and is co-president for the thespians drama club this is her second year as a link crew leader
008but has been taking her role seriously as a role model since her sophomore year Ava organizes events has a passionately inclusive heart and has a genuine interest in making the world a better place she hopes to pursue a career as an attorney utilizing her passion for performance writing and social justice she plans to become an environmental lawyer working to fight climate change as well as food insecurity and national disasters that disproportionately affects the socio-economically disadvantaged Ava is one of the most deserving students first student of the month and she also was a student participant in The District student advisory committee last year so congratulations Ava thank you so much Miss Lopez for reading that out I had no idea that's exactly what you wrote so that's really nice of her hi everyone my name is
009Eva Casa as Miss Lopez mentioned and I'm a senior at American Canyon High I will admit when I was first called into Miss Lopez's office last week I was really worried that I did something wrong and I had no idea what it could have been but you can't imagine how shocked I was to find out that that was the furthest thing from the truth firstly I want to thank Dr massetti and the entire district school board for recognizing me I'm incredibly honored to represent American Canyon High as their November student of the month and to miss Hart I couldn't thank you enough my amazing genre teacher who made all of this possible with her heartwarming nomination and a big thank you to my family who with their constant loving support have encouraged me to push
010my ambitions and achieve anything I set my mind to coming to American Canyon High my first year of high school I was most definitely intimidated by the sheer size of the campus and even more so the students but through the years I've come to realize just how lucky I am to attend a school just like this from the active leadership team that plans activities throughout the year to the custodians who tirelessly work to keep our campus clean is a harmonious relationship that I am great to have one that offers so many enticing electives including our outstanding drama Department Sports programs and student-led clubs where I have been grateful to meet so many amazing people that I can now call my friends and family holding officer positions in drama and Key Club in Lincoln just to
011name a few have allowed me to develop strong leadership skills such as delegation and organization as well as personal development such as caring kindness and empathy spending well over two years in these clubs has allowed me to for higher education programs [Music] am I back oh okay I'm sorry we're back um I'm so sorry for students to academically challenging sales through a wide variety of honors courses advanced placement and even dual enrollment through NVC some of my favorite classes to take include AP environmental science AP World and Spanish honors 3 because I found them incredibly interesting immersive and rewarding as I close out my few months of my high school career I will forever cherish the unforgettable experiences Everlasting memories and meaningful relationships that I've been able to accumulate during my time here at American
012Canyon High they've enabled me to succeed and Thrive socially and academically and while we sat to graduate in June I can rest assured knowing that I'll be properly prepared for all my future endeavors and I don't have a particular University that I want to pretend uh attend but I am interested in studying at us USC or Cal Berkeley majoring in political science with hopes of advancing to graduate uh graduate school for law I also wish to continue serving my community and engaging with campus organizations words cannot express just how appreciative I am to win this award and truly it demonstrates that hard work doesn't go unnoticed and I hope by staying involved in my community I can also influence others to do the same leaving my legacy here on campus thank you all again for
013your time and consideration and allowing me to speak here today have a great rest of your night uh thank you very much principal Lopez did she principal Lopez are you possibly on mute looks like she fell off can't see okay you know what until she gets back um principal Hutchinson are you available to introduce your two students of the month I am can you all hear me I'll start now yeah yes thank you great I want to thank Dr nusetti and our Board of Trustees for the opportunity to recognize Our Vintage students this evening first I will introduce Noah ewig one of our vintage seniors these past four years Noah has taken almost every single AP and honors course that our school has offered and Noah's interests are in math and sciences and his favorite
014class being AP Computer Science and AP calculus NOAA has also appreciated AP English very much which demonstrates that he is a well-rounded student he is graduating in the top one percent of his graduating class which is amazing outside of his academic Excellence Noah has been a part of our water polo team and our swim team during his time at vintage and in addition he is also the president of a Vintage High chess club Noah really likes building things and his experience and our woodworking classes was a place where he could explore this interest he plans to attend a four-year University after graduating from vintage and he plans to major in mechanical engineering congratulations to Noah uh thank you Mrs Hutchinson hi everyone my name is Noah ewig I'm a senior at Vintage High um I'd
015first like to thank Dr mercedi and the board for recognizing me today and I'd like to acknowledge a couple of teachers who have been especially influential for me and made my academic Journey that much more special and their names are Mr merkner and Mrs Lamont they're two of my more recent academic influences but their genuine enthusiasm for teaching has in both math and English respectively has had a really significant positive impact on my education and I wouldn't be where I am without them and many teachers like them as I move through my senior year and look towards attending a four-year University where I plan to study mechanical engineering I'm especially grateful for the support of my family throughout my education they've been a huge part of my academic Journey every step of the way I've
016been really honored to be a part of vintage I've really had a great experience at Vintage High with the academics and on the water polo and swim teams and with student-led clubs it's all been a great experience and I'm grateful for it and it's gonna I think be very helpful moving forward in whatever the next chapter is so once again thank you to miss Hutchinson thank you to my counselor Miss Magdaleno and thank you to Dr massetti and the board thank you very much should I continue or yes and we'll we'll go back to principal Lopez okay we'll do the next student of the month that we are recognizing for vintage high is Laura Ortiz Ortiz also a senior in our class of 2023 Laura is determined generous and kind and she loves giving back
017to her community Laura has spent multiple hours volunteering at the elementary school where she attended at Pueblo Vista and in addition she's currently completing an internship at a local hotel restaurant where she's learning about the culinary worlds and learning about and enjoying baking but also learning business and management skills as well Laura has been a part of our AVID program for all four years at vintage high school and she's also been a part of the program at Redwood Middle School where she attended previously and Avid has helped her tremendously to prepare for college she will be the first in her family to attend college and she's eager and excited to start this journey and to be an example to her younger siblings Laura plans to attend a four-year University after she graduates to him vintage
018and she has very broad interests and can see herself exploring various Fields including biochemical engineering business management astrophysics and culinary arts we're excited to see the decision you make and what you do in your future endeavors Laura and congratulations foreign thank you Miss Hutchinson um I'm Laura Ortiz and I would like to take the opportunity during this time to everyone who has contributed to or influenced both my success and the person I am today um I would first like to take thank the board and Dr machete for recognizing me for Vintage High School sports student of the month and for this opportunity to speak with all of you today I would also like to take to thank my teachers who have helped me not only throughout the college application process but throughout these past four
019years of my high school experience I would like to thank my Avid teacher Miss Pastula who has been my teacher for four years and has taught me a lot about myself and the world around me she has helped me for she has helped me find colleges prepare for them and be able to condense my interests so I was able to narrow down my career interests I would also like to thank my current English teacher Ms McGrath who helped me honestly and effectively revise and edit my college essays and for ensuring that I share my story with colleges too I would also like to thank my cousin Martha Calderon for informing me of opportunities that not only helped educate myself about things like FAFSA but also inform me about the reality of college costs and more
020finally I would like to thank my family for being my foundation and inspiration to succeed and move forward in life I look forward to later attending either Sonoma State or UC Davis in biochem iCal engineering or business management once again I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to my success recognize my work in gratitude me the opportunity to have the honor of being Vintage High School sports student of the month foreign principal Lopez yes okay great there you go I'm sorry thank you sorry about that thank you and congratulations again Ava and Laura and Noah our next student of the month for American Canyon High School is Gabriel Cueva Gabe was nominated by his counselor Miss Hernandez and Miss Hernandez and our leadership teacher had a few comments about Gabe that I would
021like to share not only is he a straight A student Gabriel has taken several courses at Solano Community College during his tenure at achs he's part of the leadership program and a student athlete he's always willing to help others in class and has a calm overall demeanor and he was a valuable asset last year as a junior escort in the graduation of 2022. Miss Harris had to say that Gabe is new to our leadership family this year while some students are hesitant or don't get involved right away this has not been the case for Gabe he has successfully provided ideas and hours of support and has only been one semester he is very contributive member of his current Committee in preparation for our holiday breakfast and upcoming Spirit Week his committee leader appreciates his ideas
022willingness to volunteer and joy that he brings to class every day in addition he volunteers to do things outside of his committee proving himself reliable and considerate there's only one thing I would change about Gabe I wish he would have joined our leadership family before his senior year congratulations Gabe thank you Miss Lopez all right uh good evening everyone my name is Gabriel Cueva uh to start off I would like to thank Dr massetti and this district school board for recognizing me as December student of the month uh I would also like to show my sincerest gratitude to my counselor Mrs Hernandez and my leadership teacher Mrs Harris for believing that I deserve this honor and to my friends and family for supporting me along the way um before coming to American Canyon High School
023I was afraid of not fitting in and being lost in high school in general uh transitioning from a small private school to from another city with only 36 kids in my eighth grade class to a large public school with over 400 freshmen came as an overwhelming experience however the moment that I stepped foot onto campus I felt at home instantly throughout my four years in American Canyon I was able to excel academically and build good relationships with my teachers and classmates whether it be taking AP classes or joining my choice of clubs achs has provided it all I would especially like to highlight the opportunity to take dual enrollment courses in order to prepare myself for college Mrs Hernandez presented uh it to our class to take the chance to take dual enrollment courses after
024our freshman year and I didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity achs doesn't only provide students good education but also the chance to experience Sports at a competitive level I've been a part of two teams at achs swimming and water polo in water polo we may not have never been the best but our team has always had a good time in the water and was able to build an indestructible bond that kept us going then in swimming I'm proud to be a part of the team who are League Champs during my junior year and also being the solo finalists at NCS uh championships I plan on continuing swimming into college as has been as it hit at his as it has been a sport that I've been involved in my whole entire life the countless opportunities
025that I'm presented here at achs has truly been a blessing as they grant me uh the luxuries to prepare myself for a brighter future after my time here at achs I plan on majoring in biology at a four-year University I would like to attain my Bachelor's of science within four years and then apply for medical school after that I intend on pursuing a specialty in oncology I know it's a lot of years to invest but I believe that achs has has prepared me well enough to shoot for the stars again my sincerest appreciation to all of you for this honor and for taking the time to recognize me as the student of the month for December thank you Gabe and a warm um congratulations to all of our deserving students we are now moving on
026to public comment on non-agenda items members of the audience May address the board on any school-related matter that is not on the agenda the board will not take action on any issue raised during this section of the agenda in as much as board action is limited to posted agenda items speakers are requested to limit their comments to a maximum of three minutes I do not have any cards here on file Ms Green do I have any public comment on non-agenda items there is no public comment thank you very much and trustee water do you have any public comment on non-agenda items received via email at public comment at nvisd.org I do not thank you very much okay Board of Education and student board representative reports student board member Gomez would you like to start us
027off yes thank you so this past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend the annual csba training for student board members there were about 100 other students in attendance who represented their respective districts and I was able to pick up a few things from them as well as the reputable guest speakers who spoke to us throughout the training it was a great opportunity and I learned so much about effective governing practices and how I can better carry out the duties of my position next I would like to promote a few events happening this month at the Napa County Library the first is an nvisd student Spotlight which will showcase two pieces of artwork for each of 12 different students it's a little bit of a short notice but this will be tomorrow evening from 6
02815 to 7 30. if you're able to attend you can meet The Talented students who created the art and hear the stories behind each piece additionally There's an opportunity to have your own Christmas gifts wrapped which is really popular you can bring a maximum of three gifts and they will be wrapped for you for free on Friday December 16th from two to four and Saturday December 17th from 10 to 12. and finally the monthly meeting for the teen book club which features lgbtq themes authors and characters is next Thursday December 15th the book currently being read is called check Please by gozi ukaza even if you haven't read the book the club would appreciate you dropping in because they'll be starting a new book which will then be discussed in next month's meeting and that
029concludes my report can you please repeat the um time at the library for the Art Exhibit what 6 15 to 7 30 tomorrow 6 15 7 30. thank you so much okay trustee too so last week I also attended the csba meeting um this time my second time going in person I was much more targeted and not so overwhelmed while still overwhelming because there's a lot of great topics but I did Focus um the talks that I went to on two subjects one is on ethnic studies as we're developing the course and also on dual enrollment and what that looks like for the future and it's very interesting um the two different Pathways that people are looking at and um the ethnic studies you know I think that's very relevant to what we're going to
030talk about today so I won't discuss that further um except to say that yesterday I had an opportunity to listen to a talk at the congregation best Shalom on ethnic studies in public schools what it means for the Jewish Community by Dr Michael Harris and that was very informative for me so I'm really happy to get out over here to the Napa Community to see that and hear people's voices thank you very much trustee Gonzalez Morris yeah I too attended um gosh now my my sixth um uh California School Board Association conference um and every time we go it's it's it's um a lot of learning and um and this is one of the um gosh I think the last few ones really where I've attended the conference and I'm sitting there and just feeling
031really I'm just proud because a lot of what's been saying is it's a best practice we're doing that we've established that so um I think at some point we were um not complaining but just like okay I just want to learn something you know what else is new what's going on and so I'm just trying to pick some of those sessions um and absolutely um learning you know having to um tap into the the sessions on regards to equity and opportunity um so um took a session in regards to um um disabilities and discipline and how do those two intersect um as well as TK expansion which that's really exciting that that's coming um soon and we'll have a presentation about that later today and then um also in regards to Charter author authorization and
032oversight um and then my last session was about ethnic studies particularly in the community of Coachella just getting a snapshot of a school district that has implemented actually the program prior to to the change that are coming up so it's really just a really good opportunity to hear from someone and and in the panel um sharing their experience of the program so lots of learning so looking forward to more thank you very much trustee riser thank you I also had the opportunity to attend the annual education Conference of csba I'm really grateful for that opportunity there's just such a wide array of offerings um and just really grateful to be able to dive into you know governance learning like that um for an extended period of time I think the for me the most impactful
033session was that was the first one on uh Thursday morning which was uh from anti-asian hate to solidarity how schools can combat racial bullying through ethnic studies so there were many many around the topic of ethnic studies but that was one that um just had a really impressive panel Professor from San Francisco State who started the hashtag stop AAP I hate was part of the panel um and there was just one line from one of the speakers where he said something about the act of strength a human active strength is to stand up for the rights of a group to which you do not belong and I just found that really powerful and I think that when we talk about ethnic studies um you know that's what we're what we want to do is educate
034um and and raise empathic citizens that are willing to do that because I think that's what being a good citizen and a good human is um standing up for other people's rights um as well as your own the keynote speakers were amazing Brandon Fleming uh Tara Westover um and an exceptionally interesting panel in on the General Session with the entire assembled sort of State leadership of csba and AXA um talking about uh pressing issues uh in the state of California education um so I was really grateful for that opportunity um also looking at a session on dual enrollment um special education considerations legal considerations so it was a real that ran the gamut and I um came out hopefully smarter for it um I want to thank Samuel for highlighting uh the event at the
035Napa County Library I will be there because my daughter Maya is one of the 12 featured artists so a very very excited to go and see her present her two pieces and then we're gonna rush over to the to the next thing which I'm going to share which is that Napa High's winter choir concert is tomorrow night so even if you aren't in Napa High choir parent like I am I can guarantee you a great show um and so I hope some people in the community can join us at both of those events this concludes my report thank you very much trustee water I think I'll be seeing you at some of those events yes uh well let's see I was doing a lot of uh post-election community the engagement on November 29th I checked
036into the ncoe's Zoom meeting but it was mostly closed session so you know that was that and um uh last uh on 12 4 December 4th I was at an event up Valley and I heard the Napa High School singers performing Christmas carols and everyone was terribly impressed it was at The Culinary Institute for the Arts I too went to the congregation Beth Shalom I'm actually a member so I went over to hear the discussion about ethnic studies and um it was uh you know quite interesting uh today I um went to see went to Phillips school where I sat with a parents group visited several classes and learned that they have captured several skunks that had decided to hold salons at Phillips school and um disrupting disrupting the education that was going on but
037it was it was really a great visit and the children were really adorable and one little girl ran up to me afterwards and told me that she hadn't just written three sentences she'd written four sentences so I congratulated her and um yeah and I too went to the csba [Music] um um it it's hyper stimulating um I attended we attended some of the same uh meetings but the room was so big that I didn't see you all there but yeah the ethnic study is very interesting very interesting and um Coachella Coachella used uh University of Michigan as their consultants and um they've been at it for a long time they have an extremely they have 97 percent Latino student populations so their ethnic studies just certainly slanted towards their uh Community but I was struck
038by some of the comments from audience members and it occurred to me that you know we're really ahead of the game you know try we want to get this fine-tuned for um so thank you for your work over there we want to get this um director director ready um we want to get this fine-tuned um and you know before we have to be up and running and another one I attended was on contentious meetings and we haven't had such contentious meetings I think we've had some contentious parking lots but um they did show us that that we were um that you know we're on the right track because you know if you have if you haven't organized agenda you know an organized agenda so people know what to expect um things can go much more
039smoothly so I I thought that was um really really good uh to to attend and I too attended the csba second General Session where all the um the leadership of csba was there including some of our some of um our people who do lobbying for us at the state level and I was really uh felt Vindicated by the shout out that our school district got um that uh our hard work has been noticed and you know approved of and that's it thank you trustee water trustee Gracia yes so I attended the delegate assembly meeting where I represented the interests of Napa County uh and then I attended the California school districts Association conference in San Diego where I learned many interesting things and then I attended part one of the district's new trustee orientation with
040our soon to be new trustee and then I attended the finance committee meeting I too attended the conference um I went a day early to go to the legal Symposium with my few of my fellow trustees and again there was um phenomenal sessions I attended the house schools can combat racial bullying ethnic studies legislative advocacy a really interesting one on alcap and the dashboard and models on practices for equity center decision making meeting the TK challenge um it is every year it is relevant it is thoughtful the sessions allow for interaction it's a valuable tool that csba provides for school boards to make them high-functioning school boards to make the appropriate decisions and have the tools to make appropriate decisions and I too attended the finance committee meeting so that concludes that portion board representative
041reports special education Community advisory committee we have not met city of American Canyon we also have not met city of Napa we have not met and the town of we have not met superintendent and executive staff Dr missing great thank you president jankwitz good evening nvusd trustees and Community you've heard a lot about the California school boards association annual education conference it's always a pleasure and a great opportunity for learning for the governance team along with the executive team to attend this conference as we learn about what school boards and District leadership at in school districts across the state will be facing um in the next one to two years and we heard a lot about a lot about topics that nbusd has been addressing over the course the last few years I had the
042pleasure of attending the new trustee orientation with our future trustee Julianna Hart who's here in the audience tonight so it was a pleasure to engage in learning with her I always appreciate the new trustee orientation that they provide there I also was invited to speak the AXA attends as sort of as an attendee and particip at the csba annual conference and I was invited to speak to the AXA superintendent advisory Council regarding our work on Charter Schools I also was able to present it was standing room only um around um effectively using superintendent performance evaluation to advance the work of the district by tethering superintendent's performance evaluation to board annual priorities and we've got a lot of follow-up and demand for that so it was great and I appreciate trustee Gonzalez Maris I'm sitting alongside
043me and giving sort of the the trustee testimonial around that we both experienced the fact that many many school board members and superintendents found this to be an area of need and saw our model as a potential exemplary model for them to put into practice like trustee water stated I was invited to also present and serve on a panel around governing during challenging times um and we were able to highlight our work around how we use our agenda as a framework um to make sure that there's transparency and Clarity for the public which again uh helps and assists as we govern around difficult and challenging topics um and I'm really was really really proud of our team that presented on compensation and salary formulas during a declining enrollment again a topic that we've been versed
044in the entire State of California is dealing with this topic at this time I was standing room only in that room as well and I know assistant superintendent Rob manguala received a lot of follow-up requests on the design and methodology that he uses to ensure that we are keeping the district the right size in response to the continuous declining enrollment so I want to thank the team who presented there and then I want to Echo it was greatly appreciated that the Napa Valley Unified School District during the General Session did get recognition by the California School Board Association and acts I think it's been stated by some of the trustees regarding our work related to Charter authorization so um that was very affirming I do want to take just a couple minutes to this is
045the the latest board meeting since the election results have been kind of official for our two school bond measures we did receive the final results for measure A1 and measure A2 and based on these results as many of you know measure A2 past and American Canyon at 65.68 the measure was supported overwhelmingly by the American Canyon community so I want to congratulate them and thank the community for all of their efforts around that and I'm that's going to render 25 million dollars for American Canyon schools the five schools that we have in American Canyon and it also appears that while measure A1 was supported by the majority of Napa borders 54.62 voted yes in order to pass a local school bond measure and you need to have have over 55 percent of the vote so
046we just fell a few votes short of the super majority needed to pass that school bond and that will present challenges for us as we address the Aging schools within the city of Napa but um despite that I want to say that we are extremely proud of the effort so many put forth to support our schools over the course of the campaigns the campaigns were made up of volunteers um you know it included parents teachers support staff administrators and even Napa and American Canyon students suited up and showed up for the campaign and the campaigns always present an opportunity to educate thousands of people about the needs of our aging schools about the lack of facilities funding from the state of California and it presented opportunities for us to answer lots of questions about how
047the money would be spent we tried to have a very transparent and clear plan around that the comp the campaign reached out to voters throughout the district and this was especially important as a small percentage of Voters have their children in the schools I think a lot of the times people think that parents are the primary voters it's actually not true they are less than five percent of the vote so it's important to be able to connect with people who are not currently connected to the school system and make sure that they have an understanding around how School Finance works and how California expects local school districts to solve their facilities issues with local Bond measures we're very proud of the work that we've done we still have a lot more work to do all
048of our students in the nvisd community every single child deserves a quality facility and we look forward to beginning beginning the work needed to continue the upgrades of American Canyon schools that will be possible there the community made it possible there through the passage of A2 and we're going to have to continue to use our limited resources to make essential uh repairs to Napa schools as they arise and as we are able uh we will continue our planning we will make adjustments as necessary and we will continue informing and educating the community about the need to support local school bonds for the children in the community because this is about the children so my last Point here is I just this is our last business meeting we have one more organizational meeting but it is
049our last last business meeting we will say goodbyes to our current board president at the organizational meeting on December 15th but it is the last final meeting formal business meeting that President jankowitz will will preside over and we want to thank her for all of her leadership and we'll give you your formal goodbye next Thursday but thank you again because Sam this is a nice chunky agenda for you to um for you to preside over in this last meeting and then lastly I just want to say happy holidays to all of the families in nvusd and to all of our staff um it's great that our our community has a three-week break ahead and I really hope that they have the opportunity to rest relax and enjoy time with family and friends with that I'm
050going to prompt my assistant superintendents to provide reports regarding the work that's happening in their respective divisions and we're going to start with assistant superintendent Dana page who oversees human resources right thank you good evening members uh Board of Trustees Dr massetti and student board representative Gomez so tonight I'm excited to highlight the expansion of our onboarding activities which is an element of board priority number six we have always held employee meetings for classified employees monthly as they're hired throughout the year these meetings typically focus on completing hiring paperwork benefits reviewing board policies and employee handbook kinds of things CSEA is also present to speak about representation by the union due to time constraints we've always been unable to go kind of deeper than that it's a lot of kind of compliance and paperwork oriented
051kinds of things but next week we will be hosting our first classified employee orientation part two where we will get to expand on what it means to be part of the nbusd team including understanding The District's strategic plan the priorities and their part in it we'll share more information about professional development and promotional opportunities as well as answer questions that may have come up in the first few months on the job which they probably didn't occur to them within just the first few weeks of their employment we recognize the significant impact of our classified employees on the district and this extended time with them in their first year is not only essential in and of itself but it also brings us closer to the priority of the amount of time we spend onboarding our new
052certificated employees in addition our in-person mid-year check-ins with all new employees are well underway as of today we've completed 30 one-on-one visits and we wanted to share some of the common themes we heard from our new employees overall our new employees are very positive and appreciative of the welcome they've received by HR and at their school sites or their departments the majority have expressed being well supported our new staff member one new staff member reported they've gotten so much support from others that they have felt inspired to give back and support wherever it's been needed by them most staff members understand nbusd's Mission and they have no problem seeing how their work supports that mission nearly all employees have said their favorite part of their work is being around students and working on their behalf
053which means our new hires truly embody an important part of the ideal ndusd employee profile which is to be motivated by purpose specifically the purpose of serving students most employees reported having the tools they needed for success but also gave us some ideas for additional training that would be helpful particularly with technology tools and programs these visits have given us an incredible opportunity to connect with employees gain insight to our organization through fresh eyes and help troubleshoot any barriers to their success in onboarding much quicker so I want to thank Elizabeth Gonzalez and Gina DeLuca for their incredible work in this area and we look forward to continuing these visits when we return from winter break and finally please check out our last staff spot our latest staff Spotlight the last month of 2022 on
054Oscar caceres who is a maintenance worker 3 Carpenter he's dedicated and talented he's a phenomenal Tradesman who was nominated because of his pride of work and attention to detail we're so happy to have people like Oscar as part of our maintenance team who use their skill every day to help keep our aging facilities in the best shape possible this concludes my report thank you thank you miss Page next we'll hear from assistant superintendent Mike Pearson who oversees operational Services good evening president jankowitz mbhd Board of Education trustees Dr mussetti student board Representative Sam Gomez and members of the mbst community uh I want to thank you for the opportunity to give you a brief update on operational services and tonight my comments are going to be limited to our facilities so under facilities with measure
055A1 and measure A2 I would like to also thank everyone who supported either measure I'm very appreciative of the time and effort I know many of you all spent and so in the support of both these measures uh specifically I do want to thank kasamali and Barb Franco who each ran amazing campaigns and dedicated countless hours to each one of the campaigns my staff and I have already begun to Loosely start the planning and timing of projects to complete in American Canyon you can never start soon enough on these projects so uh it's exciting to start that process um in addition I wanted to bring up to discuss which I don't don't normally discuss much about as our measure H citizens Bond oversight committee and the reason I'd like to bring this up is that
056last night we had one of our six measure age cboc meetings and at this meeting we recognize the following individuals who were terming out after serving six years on the measure H cboc which is an extraordinary long period of time for members to be on a cboc but in fact a few members have served on a number have served a number of times on previous Bond oversight committees as well too so specifically I'd like to thank the following individuals for the commitment and dedication to serving in this very important committee which is completely voluntary so thank you to Jason granlich from American Canyon who served for six years Scott Warren who also who served for six years but also on two more years so a total of eight years under two cbocs Richard Beck for
057a total of eight years under two cbocs skip Kaiser for a total of 10 years under three cbocs and then and lastly Kevin Brooks who was under for six years under measure age but he served as the chair and just did an amazing job but bleeding and guiding the measure h cboc of the last six years so thank you to all five of those individuals who recently turned out and did an extraordinary job of serving their time and helping us out and making sure that the oversight of our of our bonds was looked after marvelously um if Also if anyone in the audience or anyone listening is interested in serving in the on this committee please consider applying uh to to be on a bond oversight to be a bond oversight Committee Member we are
058in need of new members obviously because we have this people terming out and all the necessary information can be found on the School District web page in that conclusion report thank you thank you Mr Pearson next we have assistant superintendent Pat Andrew Jennings who oversees the instructional services division uh good evening president dinkowitz board trustees Dr massetti and student representative Gomez and the nvuc community um last week I had the pleasure of participating in the learning walk at Phillips Elementary School with a group of Elementary principals we were using an observation tool and rotated through multiple classrooms to observe high quality interaction throughout the district on last Thursday Elementary principals gathered at different elementary schools to identify the elements of high quality student and teacher interaction that were present in the classrooms following the class
059visits principals discussed how to further implement the items on the observation tool at their individual School sites this work supports a board and priority number two also in support of board annual priority number two over the last six weeks the middle middle and high school English and math teachers engage in their first round of learning sprints sounds tiring but it's not the purpose of learning Sprints is to grow our expertise in implementing high quality tier one instruction the learning Sprints is a structure to examine which instructional practice or strategies are working and for which students as nvsd teachers engage in the good work and their good work with students in the classroom they discuss the impact of small doable strategies together so that they can build their Collective ability and grow as educators in preparation
060for the second round of learning Sprints after winter break the secondary instructional Support Services team and site administrators will be responsive to some of the feedback they received from our English and math teachers um so that we can develop common language and protocols to build connections with instructional practice and um and the impact it has on student learning and we want to thank the English and math teachers who participated we also want to thank the principals assistant principals and District academic Specialists for their targeted strategic focus on effective instructional practices and measuring our impact on student learning later this evening you will hear an update from director Matt Manning and the executive director of special education Terry Lynn Rossetti about our Early Learning Program um process a progress which is aligned with board annual priority
061number three we are eager to share with you our progress on implementing an excellent Early Learning Program you will also hear from director Monica Reddy who will present on the board policy recommendations related to high school graduation requirements and lastly I want to provide a brief update on our progress towards implementing the 5 million dollar California Community Schools partnership program grant that we received in Partnership and collaboration with two local non-profit organizations the Napa Valley Education Foundation and on the move our focus is on blending school and Community Resources into a unified comprehensive system of interventions and supports that will transform the school communities communities for students and families of Phillips Shear McPherson and snow these four elementary schools will complete A needs assessment in the coming months as part of this process a steering
062committee has met to develop the job description for the position that will lead this work at each site I want to thank director Sarah Knox and student support and wellness coordinator Kristen Nelson for their ongoing effort to launch this work that will provide critical resources for these four schools before I conclude my report I just want to wish everyone a warm and wonderful holiday season thank you to everyone have a good evening thank you miss Andrew Jennings and we have assistant superintendent Rob manguala Who's online this evening Mr manguala would you like to provide a report he oversees the business services division good evening since I will be presenting later this evening about our first interim budget update and the new Arts funding under prophecy 28 I will not provide my regular report update tonight
063thank you thank you Mr manguala that concludes staff reports president jankowitz thank you very much we move on to the consent agenda background information on these items is provided to the board prior to the meeting a common motion takes action without discussion on a roll call vote unless discussion of item or items is requested by the board member or members may I please get a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll I'd like to um also move but I would like to um pull uh item C just for a brief discussion okay which one um what number I see by one addendum to agreement between um Napa Valley Unified School District and Crescendo education I think you see I'm sorry I wrote on it so I can't see it I'll second the motion okay uh
064first by trustee water second by trustee Gracia um before we take our roll call vote right now well okay so let's take uh Missy can we get a roll call vote please yes student board member Gomez hi Christy jankiewicz I Tracy Gracia hi Christy water aye Christy Reiser I trustee Gonzalez Morris aye trustee Chu hi thank you thank you Miss pressie trustee water okay well I guess a couple of years ago when um grading for Equity first came up and we got the books and um it was you know the height of the pandemic and people were out of sorts and we got some we had some um public comments via Zoom uh that were quite critical of it and one of the commenters um I gave I gave her my book grading for Equity
065I never got it back and um and she still didn't like it but we went to American Canyon Middle School and I just wanted to say that we went to a math class and I saw the best example of grading for Equity where they were using grades to help students understand the lesson understand how they you know where they needed to improve there wasn't any of this you know this it was uh it was very relaxed everybody was feeling comfortable about the process and I thought this is the way it's supposed to be because not everyone is going to get the top score in fact those are the people who probably don't even need to take the class um the people who are you know it's it's really looking at how you can progress I
066thought I thought it was an encouraging way to grade our students it was a great book um I didn't borrow yours I had my own and I would agree but I'm I'm happy to lend mine to you okay you know how I am about losing books I do but okay I just wanted to say that no I appreciate that it's always nice to have validation of some of those well and some of these things you know fly out and it's um and we oh Crescendo and you know and but it's it's fun to sort of look back at the um you know some of the fear and uncertainty and it's it's working out I appreciate your share thank you very much so you know I'm prepared to make a motion second uh first by trustee
067Waters second by trustee Gracia and we will need a role called vote MS pressie press a student board member Gomez aye Christy jankowitz aye Chrissy Gracia hi Christy water hi Christy Reiser aye Christy Gonzalez Morris hi Christy Chu hi thank you thank you presentations and discussion items we will start with General Services High School graduation requirement policy update presentation and executive summary and I would like to welcome assistant superintendent Pat Andrew Jennings and director Monica ready good evening again um good evening presidents for trustees Dr masetti and student board representative Gomez and the MUSC Community oh can you bring up the slides please thank you so much every three to four months this California school boards Association or csba its fourth policy recommendations based on changes in state law there are policy recommendations on the
068agenda for later on this evening due to the significance of the changes in policy regarding graduation requirements we are presenting specific information on board policy 6146.1 which is focused on the graduation requirement policy and the instructional division's recommendation for the implementation of that policy next slide please given the importance of high school graduation requirements and the impact on our students High School experience we are presenting an overview of the recent changes in educational code due to assembly Bill one-on-one and the resulting changes in board policy our director of curriculum instruction and English learner Services um Monica Reddy will share how this policy implementation aligns with our strategic and Dei plans and addresses identified student needs lastly she will outline the planning implica implications and timelines for this change in policy director ready will continue with
069the net with the rest of the presentation next slide please thank you assistant superintendent Andrew Jennings and good evening president jankowitz Board of Trustees Dr massetti and uh the Napa Valley Unified School District Community both virtually and in person on October 8th 2021 the state of California passed ab101 which adds the completion of a one semester course in ethnic studies to the graduation requirements beginning with the students graduating in the 2029-2030 school year additionally ab101 requires local educational agencies to offer an ethnic studies course starting with the 2025-2026 school year there are various course models that the state has put forth to meet this requirement a course based on the model curriculum and ethnic studies developed by the commission second option is an existing ethnic studies course in the district a third option is an
070ethnic studies course taught as a part of a course that has been approved as meeting the UC CSU a to G requirements and finally a locally developed ethnic studies course approved by the Board of Education although there is flexibility to integrate into a UC a to G approved course I want to read directly from the language of the bill the bill prohibits a course that does not use ethnic studies content as the primary content through which the subject is taught from being used to satisfy the ethnic studies course requirement additionally I'd like to highlight that this is a funded mandate from the state next slide please although this is a new policy the formation of this legislation dates back to the early 1960s when students taught the inclusion of courses pedagogy and instructional materials that
071offer diverse history culture and struggles of racial and ethnic groups this student movement has continued and increased with time as students and Educators joined with legislators to bring forth this bill as shared by you all in your reports there are districts who have adopted and implemented ethnic studies in their high schools the early research on these districts that offer ethnic studies as a course have demonstrated that students enrolled in ethnic studies show higher attendance rates lower disciplinary incidents and improved academic achievement this is especially true for those we consider to be our at promise youth next slide please in addition to ab101 the graduation policy update presented to you this evening in the policy packet includes a recommendation for the addition of a local graduation requirement this is a standalone one semester Health course given
072that recommendation it is important to understand the educational codes as they apply to health education as well first the addition of a health course is aimed at improving mvusd's ability to implement the California state requirements for health education the California healthy youth act or ab329 which took effect in January 2016. we cry our school districts throughout the state to provide students with Comprehensive sexual health education along with information about HIV prevention at least once in high school and once in Middle School when a school district has a standalone health class as we are recommending this evening they must adhere to Senate Bill 224 which requires all school districts include mental health as a part of the curriculum the California Department of Education has given has until January 2023 just right around the corner to incorporate
073mental health into the state standards and districts have until January 1st 2024 to begin teaching this new material when implementing a standalone Health course next slide please this next section of the presentation will provide an overview of the current mvoc board policy for graduation how ab101 impacts Ford policy 6146.1 and the staff recommendation grounded in the mbusd goals student data and student Voice next slide please I want to highlight three important components of the high school graduation requirements I want to walk through the UCA to G California and local requirements second I want to celebrate our Student Success with the graduation requirements and lastly I want to build our understanding of where ab101 sits Within These requirements first our students meet rigorous expectations when they walk the graduation stage currently those requirements are three parts
074students complete coursework as required by the UC CSU to graduate from high school the UC adg requirements include two years of History social science four years of English three years of math two years of science two years of World Language one year of Visual and Performing Arts and one year or two semesters of a college preparatory elective not only are these requirements rigorous graduation requirements that position our students for College and Career Readiness they also speak to the whole child enabling our students to engage in interests and Passions in addition to these requirements California has State requirements which are one year of government and economics and two years of physical education in addition to the UC and California state requirements the local requirements add 40 credits for four years of electives in totality these requirements
075add up to 220 credits you might ask yourself what's a credit every semester that a student successfully passes a course with a D or hire they earn five credits now what does that mean for our students let's celebrate our current High School graduation rate with these rigorous UC CSU state and local graduation requirements is 93.8 percent wow congratulations to our students as well as the staff and families who support them now that we have an understanding of our current requirements what does this policy update mean the passage of ab101 requires an addition of one semester of ethnic studies to the California graduation requirements as shown on the screen next slide please I'm going to give a general overview of the staff recommendation then I'm going to break it down into more specific Parts over the
076next few slides since November of 2021 Napa Valley Unified School District instructional Support Services Division has engaged in the sense making of ab101 with our staff students and community the health and ethnic studies steering committees have reviewed the educational codes for both ethnic studies and health review the goals and priorities of Napa Valley Unified School District analyze the model curriculum and engage with the community based on our learning and the current implementation of an integrated model for health our staff recommendation is the addition of one semester stand-alone ethnic studies course paired with a one semester Standalone Health course based on our learning our preliminary recommendation is that this course would be scheduled in the ninth grade year the ninth grade year is an important transitional year for students as identified by staff a course that
077focuses on their identity and well-being will support their transition to high school and provide a foundation for future exploration in later years as we work on school culture and connectedness this class affords us the opportunity to part to provide students signature experiences at a grade level think of going on a field trip to a museum or physical activities in nature and other content related experiences by including listening speaking reading and writing which we've heard lately as we've reviewed our test scores implementing these in a consistent manner early in a child's High School Journey we are positioning students to be successful in meeting the rigorous graduation requirements I previously outlined additionally there's more flexibility in a 9th grade student's course schedule although the final recommendation regarding the grade level will be presented later this year after
078the four-year planning committee has the opportunity to conduct course mapping and the ethnic studies and health committees have the time to flesh out the course of study instructional materials and assessments we will provide more information about this process later in the presentation before doing so it's important to walk our community Through why and how the staff have come to this recommendation next slide please we as a school district that is focused on meeting the Strategic goals Center our students over the next two slides I will show you how this living plan developed in 2018 aligns to our staff recommendation first providing students a course sequence that grounds them in their identity and Community as well as supports their mental physical and emotional well-being aligns with key tactics outlined in the Strategic plan specifically goal number
079one a student who has a strong connection to school and self is better positioned for success in all content areas as they prepare for College and Career readiness these courses also afford our students the opportunity to engage in responsive and engaging pedagogy that helps them explore not only their own identity but their identity as it relates to those around them next slide please secondly nvisd strategic plan goal number five calls for the creation of an inclusive organization this includes the adults the inclusion of courses focused on culture identity and wellness requires a level of professional development that meets the intended outcomes of goal number five by engaging in professional learning experiences staff gain Knowledge and Skills and practices that value and Center diversity equity and inclusion as well as promote high standards in these areas
080as they engage in teaching and learning in the classroom with our students these courses pair nicely with the groundwork we are establishing system-wide with ecosystem of cranium next slide please part of the Strategic plan is diversity equity and inclusion we went deeper with this plan in adopting a diversity and equity and inclusion plan and created specific guidelines within this for student practices I'm highlighting three student practices that align to the staff recommendation this evening 7B calls for the examination and broadening of the curriculum to include ethnic studies and ethnic studies units calls for the development of guidelines Clarity around process for staff Innovation and engagement and lastly it provides comprehensive cohesive and continuous training which will happen through this process next slide please at the center of our staff recommendation students I'm going to take
081a few moments to dive into the bigger picture data and bring our student voices into the room this evening yearly students in 5th 7th 9th and 11th grade are given the California healthy kids survey often referred to as checks the survey is anonymous confidential survey of school climate and safety student wellness and their resiliency in considering the needs of our students staff reviewed the components of the healthy kids survey and the data although there is a plethora of data points that are reflective of our students well-being in the healthy kids survey the following directly speaks to the needs of our students to engage in targeted and supportive prevention in the area of Health when assessed on their meaningful participation in schools 23 percent of 9th grade's ninth graders strongly agreed or agreed that they have
082meaningful participation in school this percentage is similar for 11th grade students After experiencing two years of high school at 20 percent who strongly agree or agree that they have meaningful participation in school 53 of ninth graders expressed that they feel connected to school by 11th grade there's a slight drop to 51 percent thirty percent of ninth grade and 36 percent of 11th grade reported they experience social emotional distress with similar rates of chronic sadness and lastly nine percent of ninth graders and 23 percent of 11th grade students reported regular use of alcohol and or drugs we will process these numbers a little bit deeper after sharing the voices of students Behind These numbers next slide please as we engage in instructional work it's a priority of the instructional Support Services team to hear from our
083students during the 2020-2021 school year assistant superintendent Andrew Jennings facilitated the mbusd student advisory which was a cohort of Juniors and seniors who worked with Dr Victor Rios site principles and the instructional services staff to identify the current needs of high school students and make recommendations to staff regarding how we can address their needs and support their academic success and well-being additionally throughout the spring of 2021 the ethnic studies committee and the instructional support services staff engage students in both American Canyon and Napa through small student-focused groups the following feedback shared on this slide and recommendations reflect the voices of students engaged in this work if you look on the left they're feedback shares that they feel there's not enough emphasis on student well-being within their school day they express social anxiety returning from covid
084and being away from school they shared a lack of understanding of student hardships by adults in our organization and they're leading to burnout students want to talk about ethnicity and identity they shared that relationships and listening skills with staff resonate more with students than expert knowledge and sometimes important or difficult conversations within the context of a classroom where content is prioritized or dismissed or lost but being students with grand ideas they also have recommendations I think you'll see that their recommendations are in line with ours tonight a program or class focused on preparation for adulthood and I always wonder what adulthood means to our students and students to get to know each other within their classes they want more mental health awareness and support they want extended time for social emotional learning coping with their
085anxiety and building Community within their schools and lastly they want training for ethnic studies teachers and all teachers so we know how to talk about this not just ethnic studies identity but how to share power and listen the following feedback and recommendations reflect the voices behind the numbers shared previously the California healthy kids survey data along with these voices surface and need in our schools their recommendations are clear that they need coursework that supports their well-being and allows them to explore their identity and how they relate to the world around them our students need coursework where they feel seen and heard in school the pairing of health and ethnic studies provides staff a consistent opportunity to address these areas early in a student's High School Journey on their path to graduation next slide please making
086changes to the graduation policy is no small task and it's no small ask one that we are taking seriously as we support students through their culminating years of tk12 education and mvsd there are significant and important implications when making this policy change that I will walk you through next slide please let me share where we have been where we are now and where we are going this slide provides an overview of more details will be provided when I share in later slides regarding the work of the Committees last semester we started the process by learning the ethnic studies steering committee spent time reading and analyzing the California state model framework for ethnic studies we listen to focus groups composed of students staff and community members we reconvenes the health committee to look backward at our
087previous work and conducted A needs assessment based on our current implementation of Health as we moved into the 2022-2023 school year we began the professional Learning and Development of courses as you will see shortly this process will continue throughout the school year and the board will review the recommendations in the spring pending the board's decision on this policy recommendation we will be ready to engage in a four-year planning committee during the 2023-2024 school year we will launch a pilot of the ethnic studies and health courses in ninth grade students will opt into these courses as an elective this pilot allows us to implement gather feedback and make adjustments overall this timeline allows for us to develop the course staff and our higher provide professional learning adopt curriculum train counseling teams on four-year planning update board
088policy and support families and students with a transition like I said no small ask no small tasks you may be asking at this point why are we going in advance as a state first when reviewing the goals data and voices of our community there is an urgency and readiness the urgency is connected to our desire to respond to the needs of our student and staff our current implementation of the California healthy youth act which is an integrated model is not meeting the needs of our students given that we need to review and revise how we address and support our students with their health secondly there is a Readiness due to the prevention and intervention work that mbusd has implemented and that is a long list of wellness centers mtss social emotional learning that starts as
089early as TK next slide please with our commitment to supporting multiple Pathways for students in musd at the Forefront of this process we are including key stakeholders in the four-year planning process the committee will meet to develop a four-year planning scope and sequence for the class of 2028 and those classes that follow in addition we will consider implications for other course offerings and a plan for supporting students and continuing Pathways we'll look at student profiles students who want to engage in Avid continue their journey in dual immersion play the an instrument in the band and pursue other interests through other rigorous course sequences and electives and model what that will look like and plan for those implications additionally these this group will consider the master schedule and the Staffing implications as well as training for
090counselors and communication for our middle school students and Families foreign the ethnic studies committee is composed of site administrators middle and high school English and social science teachers you might wonder why Middle School's in there we can't drop a course in high school without onboarding our students so I want to express the Gratitude to our Middle School folks who are joining us in this journey to help onboarder students as we meet this requirement in high school this committee has partnered with Dr Dale allender professor at California State University Sacramento he was recommended by the California school boards Association Dr allender is providing professional learning and support with the course development based on the ethnic studies model curriculum picture you see as our teachers highly engaged in this process in August of 2022. next slide please
091similarly the health committee is engaged in professional learning and the development of the course this work will be grounded in and guided by the California State Health framework and standards the state has also provided support in the form of an evaluation tool to review instructional materials which we will use as a guide when putting forth a recommendation to the board next slide please tonight's presentation focuses on the policy our staff will return in the spring once the Committees have more time to finish the course description pending the decision of the board on this policy and provide with you provide to you a recommendation for the course and the instructional materials as well as finalize the year in which students will take the course next slide please I want to close this evening by centering our
092students as I listen to the students of the month earlier this evening and then as an alumna of Napa High School I share the many interests and passions they pursued over their four years I heard leadership performing arts career tech ed Athletics advanced placement courses that have engaged to them and push them as they speak of what they want to do next on their Journey after they walk across the stage and leave us I want to assure the board and community that those interests and passions will be an integral part of our design and although we can't do everything we will make sure that we design around the student profiles and their passions and interests that I had the opportunity to experience and have put me in front of you this evening and have put
093those students in front of you as I shared with earlier this evening additionally those students myself and the students in musd also deserve us to focus on the health and well-being and help them to develop their identity and Community as they walk through our campuses and leave us and go out into the world next slide please thank you for the opportunity to bring this policy update forward and highlight the policy our staff recommendation and the implications of moving forward with this work we look forward to returning to the board with updates throughout the process I look forward to bringing the amazing folks who join with us in this work our staff who are learning and engaging for and with our students and at this time we'll open it up for discussion and questions uh thank
094you director Reddy um before we move to board comment Miss green do we have any public comment yes the first speaker is Johanna meckel thank you or speaker hello can you hear me we can hi hi my name is Johanna Michael and I live in Napa with my husband and two children one of which will begin in the nvs nvusd in the fall while I am in agreement ethnic studies being taught as the district develops a curriculum and selects educational materials for ethnic studies I'd like you to consider these three points from Stan with us the educational organization based in Los Angeles which fights anti-Semitism around the world I was in attendance last night at Congregation Beth Shalom along with some of your board members as this was all discussed any curriculum and instructional materials
095on ethnic studies should be able to have these three questions answered affirmatively one does it keep anti-israel anti-zionists and anti-semitic bias out of ethnic studies courses two Does it include accurate and constructive education about Jews and anti-semitism and three does it have strong guidelines about fostering critical thinking and not promoting one-sided political agendas or advocacy of any kind in the classroom I urge you to use these questions to ask to assess any ethnic studies curriculum and educational materials that will be used with Napa Valley Unified School District and to reject any that cannot meet these standards thank you so much thank you very much Miss green next speaker please the next speaker is Kim Whipple thank you good evening I've spoken at numerous board meetings over the last seven to ten years in regards to
096health education I'm a PE teacher at Napa High and once was the health tosa I'm so incredibly hopeful about what is taking place and the potential of adding health education to our high schools the wellness programs have been very effective but also are a very reactive in their approach our schools were not teaching adequate health for the last many years adding health education courses is a necessary excuse me necessary addition to being a thoughtful and proactive district and educating our students about current health crises it is my belief that health is the single most important subject that can be taught in our schools we followed the cdc's covid guidelines line by line in word for word here's the cdc's beliefs on health education it says research shows that the school health programs reduce the prevalence
097of health risk behaviors among Youth and have a positive effect on academic performance also from the CDC they say evidence-based effectively coordinated and strategically planned school health programs and services are also necessary for closing the academic achievement Gap in promoting Health Equity let us also listen line by line in word for word on those CDC beliefs we are a data-driven district we care about our scores and we Implement programs and interventions when we see scores are not adequate but teaching involves the whole child not just the academic child success also means learning about who you are and being happy with who you are it's about feeling safe and it's about building skills to navigate this often difficult world we have data about our students failing in areas of emotional physical and social health this is
098our intervention during National crisis that can help benefit all students every single student will become a better human because of these classes we desperately needed to implement this course for all schools to be truthfully honorably and adequately teach what our board policy states is K-12 Comprehensive Health education topics that the healthy kids survey results show that our students are debilitated by implementing these programs now allows nvusd to truly be proactive the things we are teachers the things we as teachers worry about every day can finally be taught we will teach all the students about violence prevention nutrition disease prevention human sexuality coping skills Suicide Prevention the list goes on and on we now get to say that our administrators are actively being responsible for ensuring that health education instruction is provided by appropriately credentialed teachers
099in particular teachers with credential and health whereas for years it was piece mailed together if even taught at all we can now ensure that every student that enters school will become literate in the world of health and that they have the tools to practice Healthy Lifestyles thank you so much thank you very much Miss green do we have additional speakers foreign yes the next speaker speaker is Justin Hamilton whole go ahead Mr Hall are you muted yeah I'm here okay well first thing is that Merry Christmas you all and I know I know this school a lot is I've been a lot of school I think this teacher the staff person a class working very hard and I hope gonna keep this open um spirits so Merry Christmas you all thank you Miss green next
100speaker please the next speaker is Heidi zippay go ahead please um hello everybody Heidi zippay um parent in American Canyon schools um just wanted to take a moment to refocus our attention on the connections to schools that many of our students already have through Visual and Performing Arts classes and the particularly in our American Canyon schools as you know we have a seven year track of America of Heidi we lost you for a moment sorry about that you sure did you're you guys outdated me or muted me again sorry about that anyway um we have been trying desperately to maintain our visual Performing Arts tracks on American Canyon through the ups and downs over the last several years and I just wanted to make the point that the strong connection to schools is not only
101via an identity class or socio and emotional learning while those things are important and I think health class and ethic studies is important for many of our students currently their electives are their connection to school are there reason that they go to school and it is their meaningful participation and gets them to school so I just want to make sure we are not you know paying Peter to pay what's the thing we're not stealing from here to pay Paul here because if we're going to start moving um kids and not having the opportunities for them to be in their Visual and Performing Arts classes and then forcing them to take these requirements we've all we've done is you know traded one group of unhappy kids for another group of unhappy kids do you know what
102I mean so I guess at the end of of the day well I understand this requirement and I appreciate um all of you know Monica's aware making work around this issue we really are concerned that we don't want the implementation to adversely affect students access to their visual performing arts and other electives so please please do everything we can to make sure the kids still have access every year our freshmen through senior year to continue the Visual and Performing Arts and other electives if so choose Thank you thank you Miss Green there is no more public comment on this item thank you very much okay we are moving to board public comment board comment anybody as T2 so I wanted to share my interactions at achs um this happened last year when I was able
103to visit a an after-school program called flag this is the Filipino life and generations group and in that space I saw them basically touch upon ethnic studies and health all together it was quite an interesting Dynamic so I'm really I really think that it is a needed class there was a lot of participation and and this is after school this is not something that our kids had to do and they were just happy to be able to have this space to talk about those two topic and mental health is a big issue and you know this is something that I I'm really supportive of having mental health embedded way more than I remember taking in health class when I went through high school and this is the time to do it I mean the pandemic
104really has hit our students hard and they need support and if they probably needed support before um it was just so much more obvious now so I'm glad we're going in this direction um ethnic studies I mean what can I say I come I represent the most diverse community in Napa Valley Unified and we don't discuss much of what our community actually looks like in our schools and I I you know one of the things I keep on thinking is why didn't we not offer Tagalog as a class well maybe it's not a 80g requirement whatever it is no AP Tagalog I don't know um I don't know enough about the the class offerings um that would meet the requirements are rigorous requirements that you know I'm very appreciative it's really you know heartening that
10593 of our over 93 percent of our students graduate with this degree of of um you know preparation for for their future so I'd like to I I love the fact that we do have ethnic studies that will be a standalone course very fully supportive of that I wish would have come a little earlier um but I do also want to bring about something that I I had brought up when I first joined a board which was um during that time in the middle of the pandemic there was a lot of anti-asian sentiments in the in a lot of places and I had a discussion with then president uh Gonzalez Morris and uh the superintendent Dr massetti about we need to bring a resolution on just some sort of anti-hate message that this is what
106our board stands for we will stand up to anti and I think this is something that one of our commenters uh Miss meckel also talked about with the some of the dialogue that has kind of surfaced well it's actually always been there right the antis anti-semitic messaging that we're hearing more now it's been there so I I think I would like to see us be proactive and bring back a resolution of anti-hate I know we have a resolution on anti-asian hate but I would love to see our school board just say we need a resolution and anti-hate anti-bias all of that that supports our students because we are talking about ethnic studies that supports them in understanding themselves and supports the community and understanding them so if we can consider something like that going forward
107to help support our students in addition to having the ethnic studies curriculum having the health curriculum I think that will send a strong message to our students that we will we are there to support them thank you very much and we can talk about that under future agenda items I trustee Gonzalez Mars we're going down the line no we aren't a trustee water I saw you nod so please okay uh thank you um I agree with you completely uh you know trustee trustee choo and we should and I did attend the um meeting at CBS last night and I listened to um I listened to uh Johanna mechel talk about some um some experiences personal experiences um with anti-Semitism that she had ex you know that she'd been through at college and she's my daughter's
108age and they attended the same University so um I guess I guess I want I'd like to read something from um from about the law about the class from ad 101 okay our class our ethnic studies class should be appropriate for use with pupils of all Races religions nationalities genders sexual orientations and diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds peoples with disabilities and English Learners in other words all of our students not reflect or promote directly or indirectly any bias bigotry or discrimination against any person or group of persons on the basis of any category protected by section 220. not teach or promote religious Doctrine it's there in black and white That's the Law we um we and it's and I am thrilled that um we are bound by this law because I taught it I taught
109at Nampa High School and Monica when you were talking about your students and your experiences in high school um I was thinking about you know some of my students and their experiences in high school and some of the great conversations we had or you know around the books we read books about all kinds of people um the things they learned um particularly reading books like um beloved um and um Invisible Man you can you can learn a lot about American history from American literature and um I kind of miss those days and last night um the speaker Dr Michael Harris um very educated intelligent person um said that he did support ethnic studies and he mentioned that when um President Biden memorialized 100th anniversary of the Tulsa the elimination of the um Black Wall Street
110100 years ago in riots and who knows how much death that's never been completely determined and he said that it was embarrassing that he had not known about that and this is a person who is um quite educated and so he said that we should have ethnic studies and we should all know about this it's it's just our history and um and uh I think it's what through it we can learn uh what has made our country what has made our country great it's it is it's I do believe it is it's diversity and it's the different people and um I'm speaking um I'm speaking as a person who's uh husband his family came over they were Jews they came over uh on a boat at the turn of the century his grandmother actually lived
111in um three different centuries you know she lived to be over 100 years old and um and uh my husband's family kind of met the boat my my father grew up on um on a reservation in Dakota he grew up on the Standing Rock he was half Indian and um oddly his father was the native that's not the usual that's not the usual so um this is uh this uh this is important to me personally but I also think that we are with a good class and I really welcome the community I think we should have an open house where people can see what we're doing um because I think it's uh I think there's you know some fear and some uncertainty we are not in the business of making anyone feel bad about any
112group to which they belong that is not what we do and um I think it will uh equip our students for the modern world and I think all of us um old folks can learn something from it too I also think students Sam I also think um a lot of you are ahead of the game I've noticed uh how I I noticed Through The Years how much more tolerant my students were of um differences in people than a lot of the adults who had them in charge so um I've always I've felt that we can learn from our students we have to learn from our students and it's a state law but after attending the csba I really think we have it in our power with our community to create the best course the best
113course for our students and uh thank you for Tim Ripple for calling in I know how concerned she is about um about uh health education and Kim I want to thank you for a lot of the things you've done for our students you know to promote their mental health like driving one of my kids to college when she was the first person to go to college I mean you know we do have teachers who go to who go the extra mile and um thank you also for uh to Justin for the holiday wishes and I'll wish you a happy Hanukkah and for um Heidi um thanks for everything you do in American Canyon and thanks for calling in thank you trustee water anybody else trustee riser uh I'll try to be brief um the the
114words that came to mind for me when I was reading this presentation at home and preparing for the meeting you said no small task no small ask and the words that came to my mind were big shift big lift so um that's what this is and thank you for the work you've done thus far and I know the great amount of work that is to come um this is a long time in coming I think both pieces of this presentation are really um welcome to me um I'm really grateful that we've chosen to do this the standing courses I think Ms Whipple is right my experience through my children as Napa students is that the Integrated Health model has not been effective it's not been consistent and I think what we owe our students on
115both of these incredibly important topics is Effectiveness effective instruction and consistent instruction um I really like the way I mean it just seems like a natural pairing the identity and well-being it just makes so much sense it's a very um elegant approach and I I think the impact the potential impact of doing this with our ninth graders is huge um just you know not to say that a health class and an ethnic studies class will dispel all social anxiety and mental health struggles for our high schoolers but there's incredible power in identifying that many people have those struggles um because I think so there's such a huge component of that that is the feeling of isolation that I'm struggling but I'm the only one everyone else clearly has it together right and so I think
116if we can meet those ninth graders and and give them that um sort of view and understanding and connectedness and hopefully also some tools to identify those mental health struggles and and you know uh address them a little bit you know not to say again you can't teach away depression but you can identify and give give tools to kids to say oh I think this may be what I have or oh I heard about this and it kind of sounds like my best friend and I'm you know I just think we can't even really articulate all of the all of the ripples that that this shift can have for our students in their identity and well-being and then it's fascinating to me to see the data about the districts that have already done this class
117and just the positive data about you know engagement and discipline and attendance and achievement I mean that's the ball game right there so so it's very encouraging um I think that we can we really have the potential to empower as well as educate our kids here and I wanted to highlight one more thing from the presentation which I thought it was so interesting with the student feedback that's saying um they they want teachers that are trained to do this and I think that that asks speaks volumes and it and it spoke to me also it reminded me of again I I'm not sure which panel it was in but uh at the csba but one of the administrators spoke to that about the fear that adults have about starting conversations and I think that that
118panel discussion was about ethnic studies but I think it applies equally to conversations with students about human sexuality and you know the other things that will be covered by the health course um it can be paralyzing because you're afraid you're going to say the wrong thing and then in the age of you know oh look this kid got a video of it in the back from the back of class or you know whatever you might I don't know I just think um it was so interesting to me that the students are aware that adults need real scaffolding and support and training about how to be smart about this because and and the last thing I'll say is it connects to our broader District work on um high quality interactions because what we're talking about is
119we have to get our kids talking and having high quality interactions and meaningful interactions and if these two courses are not just fertile ground for high quality interactions and fertile testing ground for our teachers on how to facilitate high quality interactions where we're not running the teacher's not running the show we are facilitating and allowing the students to bring their voices their experiences and most importantly their questions in a safe environment so I think that the potential is enormous here for this to be hugely successful and most importantly I think it the potential is really there and I have great faith in our team um to get us there uh the potential is really huge to to positively impact these kids lives for the rest of their lives so I'm on board and I thank
120you for this presentation thank you trustee Riser hold on it's like uh trustee Gonzalez Morris um you know all that's going through my mind it's just like it's about time right um and now we have the the law to support it um and um and I know that we're creating that culture within the organization that culture of garino because it is about creating uh safe spaces for our students to have these uh key dialogues because as I also was was pondering about preparation for adulthood um you know couldn't help but do some self-reflection right and um your identity is also is also about your adulthood um that also is about your mental health too um and I think when you're um when you're when you're going through that at high school what a what a
121what a great time to do that um and not have to wait till College to do that for the students who do choose that path but what if you don't choose that path uh when are you going to get that opportunity to do that and unfortunately a lot of our students are learning a lot of that through social media and we know that's not that's not the pathway for um for our students to be getting some you know information when you can be in a room in person with your fellow students to talk about a particular topic whether it's ethnic studies and in health and I think I agree they go they both go hand in hand but I think our students might be more ready than uh our adults because it's taken this long
122right and I think um to what trustee water was saying um our our I think that you know the new generations and um our our scene I feel like just much more and and sooner and maybe the pandemic just allowed you know had a lot of them have to grow up a little quicker or maybe didn't have the connections and didn't grow up as as how it should have been so it's a little bit of both but um but I guess what I want to say there is just my my focus on a lot of this is is mainly our our teachers right our staff and how are we uh because that was part of a lot of the sessions and discussions with the workshops that I was part of it's it wasn't so much
123about the students Readiness it was about the the faculty and also having the ability to hire The Faculty it's a challenge it's not going to be easy it's a challenge um but I think we are ready for that and I think we can do that and just looking forward to when uh we'll be talking about curriculum and materials for that because I know it's it's much more than just um the reflection of your community um and I know a majority depend on what area yes you can have your uh multilingual Latina Community but also our African-American our our Asian American um and I know and are indigenous and that was a curriculum that I was really excited to to learn about that others are doing and so looking forward to when that time comes thank
124you very much trustee Gracia do you have a comment yes and several questions as well so in Independent Health class is not a new idea in fact it is a very old idea we previously had this class in our district I know because I experienced it last time it was here I'm product of this district and my health class offered zero value either in rigor life skills or relevant information it was a colossal waste of time that I could have spent doing literally anything else and it would have been more productive watching paint dry might have actually been a better use of my time than attending the district offered health class that I took at Vintage High School my concern is that students will similarly not find Value in this class but will be mandated
125to suffer through it so as not to subject future students to the torture of taking a class that is less useful than watching paint dry I continue to support the integrated model that we are currently using where this subject gets taught as part of PE if we need to improve our PE instruction then we should do that if you say we can't improve our PE instruction then I don't have faith that we can offer a standalone class successfully at the curriculum meaning I asked if this class could have academic rigor and was told that this was not that type of class and then it was all subjective I reject that idea because if we don't have rigor then there is no method to tell if these classes are effective or if we are just checking
126a box to meet a state requirement with no actual learning happening I have heard nothing tonight which would reassure me that this class won't eventually devolve into a standard list morass with no academic value or measurement for Success if you can't measure it you can't monitor it and if you can't monitor it you have no way to evaluate if it's being effectively taught I want to be able to check in and one two three or even 10 years from now and be able to know if this class is meeting our objective standards or if it is a complete failure like my health class was what are the objective measurements of success for this health class so that we can objectively measure its success or failure thank you for sharing your experience um I'll start off
127with there are standards that are the California state standards for health education in 2008 those standards were approved in 2019 the framework was redesigned in order to provide an updated framework for health at that time um curriculum was not approved however an evaluation tool an instructional evaluation tool for reviewing curriculum that aligns to those standards and aligns to that framework are provided to us and that is the those are the three specific documents from the state of California that we'll be using to guide this process the other piece that we'll be looking at in terms of accountability is looking at our California healthy kids data to see if there's improvements especially around students like drug and alcohol use students connections to school those kind of in their own well-being those are the things that we'll
128look at to monitor our progress and that's done every year so we'll be able to use that as a tool to monitor particularly if it's done in ninth grade we'll be able to assess it based on those ninth the ninth grade data year over year it appears we have an opportunity to have an ethnic studies class that could be integrated would it not just be easier to integrate this class into 9th grade English instead of creating an entirely new program so one of the challenges that's outlined in the bill is it appears that there's flexibility however later in the bill it states that there is it needs to be the main core content in order to meet the state's requirement so it would require complete revamping of an English course at the expense of some
129of the content that already exists in that course and so it is allowable but there is a loss of something else in that process through whatever course that may be whether it's a social studies course or an English course and so we experience that challenge of having four options but knowing that the one option that allows us to integrate still requires that the core components of the course are grounded and rooted in mainly ethnic studies and so that would be at the expense of other components that are already existing and valued within the courses that we have I think direct I think that's an important Point trustee Gracia director Reddy is outlining that there would be a dramatic shift a dramatic shift in order to adhere to that more flexible option in the bill that
130would render a dramatic shift in the two content courses of English and or social studies where the ethnic studies content would have to be more the driver of the course and and that would have tremendous impact on the work of the Departments across the the district at the respective high schools and in in the course development if we choose to have two classes as Standalone classes how can we continue to provide elective opportunities for 9th grade students so that they can take band or other music classes without having to go to early flight or late flight thank you um one and we do we value those um so one of the things that the you know we don't want to come in advance of the board and this recommendation and in your final um approval
131and moving forward so we haven't put together the four-year planning committee yet as we wait for that process to unfold and so depending upon your decision we will put together that committee to really look at like and um you know as we spoke to multilingual Learners what comes up for me in this is looking at the students who have ELD or newcomers who really need that class um to support their entry into our schools and their language development our students who have IEPs or students who want to play in the bands and so really looking at what does this mean by adding that in we have English we have math we have PE in ninth grade by adding health and ethnic studies you know what does that mean for a student who wants to take
132Performing Arts what does it mean for a student who who also has a two-way immersion class in there there is more room in the ninth grade um and so there provides more flexibility but then when you make that change in the ninth grade we want to look at how does that play out across the four years um and as we bring those courses back to you that's part of why the preliminary recommendation as a grade level because it's really important to sit down and look at student profiles hearing some of the interests of our students and looking at those Maps out across and then maybe putting some of those in front of our students to say if you're interested in this here's what your four-year Journey would look like give us some feedback on that
133process we're just not we're not there yet until um we hear from until this process moves forward with the board but we will definitely dive into that um I think it's important part of the design of that committee is to include our stakeholders and so we do have Avid ELD two-way immersion and Performing Arts staff involved in that our goal has been to be transparent and open in this process and evolve our community in it they have knowledge and expertise in these areas that they can bring to us when a student engages in something that is a four-year pathway and so how do we how do we engage our staff in this process too and having their voices in the room is partly how we're going to do that as well as our counselors who
134really are the ones who are sitting down with our students and communicating with them and walking them through this and making sure that they're in the room as well so we have those staff identified they're just waiting for us to begin that committee and I look forward to working with them I know they're very thoughtful knowledgeable folks in their expertise that they'll bring to the table and then I'm concerned about our decision to mandate the class ahead of the state requirement could we not benefit from offering it as an elective and further piloting the class in order to better refine it and end up with a better class quality so I it really goes back to that urgency and responsiveness and that desire to it pair it with the health piece and make sure that
135our we're meeting those standards and we're meeting those standards and also being responsive to the demands that our students are making and not demands but the feedback that they're sharing um it has been a long time coming as far as our health committee was engaged in this work for a long time and it was put on pause and so we although the state is new to this and adopting it we have a history of being engaged in this work and not moving it forward and so um we we could wait for the state but we feel like we're positioned to go ahead and move forward with it if we engage in this process and realize that we're not yet ready we also have the benefit of slowing it down because we are ahead okay and
136we would consider that um I I think it was shared this evening and I think it's really really important and something that we're also keeping our focus on as staff and our department is that it does require professional learning and we have to be really thoughtful about that and how we support our staff and so um if we move forward with this recommendation for 27.28 and get into this work we really um will be mindful and thoughtful and make an adjustment if we need to and that to be clear that's the graduating class of 27-28 foreign and then uh if we were to keep health class taught in PE um would we be able to extend the ethnic studies to a year-long course it is an option to have an ethnic studies as a year-long
137course um that's not the model that we're recommending to the board but we do have the option to have a year-long ethnic studies course and continue to integrate Health um considering the challenges that we've had with integrating health and the additional needs of our students regarding health including the addition of mental health I2 experienced Health like you and there have been many changes that that have developed in the needs of our society and our students and so I hope to present to you with our staff of course that is um that is that not only speaks to their well-being but also speaks to their understanding of of the science and components behind health and well-being so um we can to answer your question have a year-long course however that's not the recommendation we're making that's
138all of my questions thank you thank you trustee Gracia many comprehensive questions um I appreciate that an individual may not have had a positive experience in a specific class decades ago but in my opinion that's not a rationale for not addressing the needs of our students with a revised updated thoughtful curriculum that addresses much different current needs we are not approving Health curriculum this evening we are approving policy it is important to understand that approving policy opens the door to the real Gateway of this work it gives staff the charge to do the work within the context of the approved policy so I just wanted to give kind of context to what we were doing here this evening but I do want to add the Comprehensive Health education is critical to a child's overall well-being
139I want to thank the group of Educators including Ms Whipple and Miss Franco that made this a priority schools are a key place to holistically promote and improve the mental and physical health of our students and to allow a safe place for important information and dialogue that will impact lives exposures behaviors and habits impact the short and long-term health of our students social emotional social emotional and physical being health class is a critical stepping stone to assist our students maintain restore and learn how to acquire fire Functional Health knowledge as well as adopt and practice skills needed for healthy behaviors that will serve them well one of the best ways to prevent ill health in any form is to educate and expose our students to healthy behaviors and coping skills the capacity of our students
140to obtain process understand health information and services available are needed to make appropriate and safe Health decisions and ultimately provide the foundation of how to advocate for their own well-being now and throughout their lives so when considering the complex impact of covet on our students and independent health class is a needed tool for their continued support in my opinion so I support the policy recommendation and I would just as a reminder we are only approving the graduation requirement policy this evening and the presentation was given for both ethnic studies and health to provide context to that policy until actual curriculum teachers and content has you know been determined as stated by director ready but given the content of the presentation provided you all have said so eloquently so much of what I would have said
141about ethnic studies but I I just want to share a snippet from a Stanford study that was released this fall on September 6th a ninth grade ethnic studies class has a remarkably prolonged and strong positive impact on students increasing their overall engagement in schools I'm sorry the type is so small and my eyes are engagement in schools probability of graduating and likelihood of enrolling in college according to a new study of curriculum offered at the San Francisco Unified School District the findings which follow up on an earlier research by two of the authors indicating short-term academic benefits of the course appeared in the proceedings of the national academic of Science Academy of Sciences the study provides compelling and credible evidence on the power of this course to change students life trajectories said Thomas KD professor
142of Stanford Graduate School of Education and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for economic policy research I am looking forward to the development and introduction of the ethnic studies class curriculum I support this policy recommendation and as a supportive comment to those that um spoke this evening it is incumbent on all of us as individuals learning communities and AS Global Citizens not to denigrate anyone we as an educational Community continue to support diversity equity and inclusion this has been and will continue to be the framework within which we teach [Music] yeah thank you so much um for those summarizing comments um I just uh uh I I and I appreciate all the contributions from the board I appreciate um the work of the instructional services division you're seeing um this item just to be
143clear I just want to be very explicit on timeline next steps they've all alluded to it but I want to be really really explicit um this the school uh board well the the staff receives from the California school boards Association quarterly policy updates they happen four to six times a year and they come to us from the California school boards Association um the the most recent policy update that was considered and reviewed by members of our policy committee um just recently included the graduation high school graduation requirement policy revision um recommended by csba right because csba ensures that school districts maintain their policies up to date and are in compliance with any new and changing laws so um csba included the ethnic studies graduation requirement as a recommended change in this latest quarterly update because
144if school boards do not approve that recommended policy update in alignment with the new assembly bill then why would staff proceed with course development curriculum development professional learning plans if they don't have the assurance that the school board has approved that new revised policy so I just kind of want to frame why this is coming to us tonight by you approving in alignment with the csba recommendation which is in alignment with the new law the policy around graduation requirements you now position the staff to advance the work that that is the design for the implementation that will move forward so um in the next item I'm kind of front Lloyd front law building the next item yeah before you uh because you're not voting tonight that's the other thing so going back to explicit timeline
145as with all policies our protocol is policy goes to the uh policy policy revisions changes new policies go to the policy committee that just recently happened then it comes to the full board for review introduction and presentation and then at the subsequent board meeting it is then taken for Action tonight the board is not taking action on the graduation a high school graduation requirements tonight we are introducing the item in item j1b that full policy packet is being presented to the public and to the school board but given the importance of high school graduation requirements I requested that staff we Elevate that element of this quarterly update and that we give an explicit presentation on high school graduation requirements because it's not for us us being transparent and explicit in our work we did not
146feel like we just wanted to include it in the general packet which without elevating the dialogue that was just presented by assistant superintendent Andrew Jennings director ready in providing the board to ask the specific questions and provide the comments that you have just recently provided so um that's that's the sequence of events assuming the board takes action on January 19th and approving this policy update which will come as a full packet you're not going to hear another presentation it will be embedded in that policy packet then that again positions the instructional division to continue to advance with the work and what will come before you in in future subsequent meetings and between February May up and prop maybe up until June depending on the pace of the work is all the discussion around the course
147development the discussion around the curriculum the discussion around the professional development plan and how we're going about Staffing uh teachers to be able to deliver on these courses as well so so that's the plan and we are consistently communicating about the planned uh internally right now with our staff and we look forward to bringing all that work forward assuming you approved this uh preliminary recommendation or not the the the recommendation around policy is not preliminary the graduation that is the recommendation as reviewed by the policy committee um but it is Tethered to these potential recommendations that will come down the road and we wanted to Sunshine them with you in relation to the policy recommendation that we're bringing for thank you Dr massetti for that clarification I have been asked by a fellow trustee to
148take a five-minute break so um we will see you in about five minutes thank you very much for your patience we are now um moving on under General services to 1B introduction to California school board associations csba recommended policy updates September 2022. this is just an introduction of the packet they'll be brought for Action at the January meeting okay thank you very much that's all we have reviewed those policy updates within the board agenda thank you very much we move on to business services assistant superintendent mongwala are you with us I am thank you um uh Mr Jordan can you please bring up the presentation thank you good evening thank you for the opportunity to update the board and the community about our first update to our budget which is also referred to as first
149interim next slide please there's definitely a storm brewing in the economy the economic outlook for the next 12 months looks nothing like it did for the prior 12 months even though a full recession is not likely in the next 12 months the economy will look dramatically different than the previous 12 months we've had unprecedented Revenue growth over the last two years California's big three taxes personal income corporate and sales tax grew 30 and 20 percent over the last two years next slide please at budget adoption we spoke about the spectacular growth of prop 98 revenues and that revenues would likely return to the historic Trend this is clearly occurring right now the question is how far below the trend will we go if we use the 2008 recession as a guide revenues will drop far
150below the trend in the next couple of years and stay there for some time next slide please while the California economy is one of the largest economies in the world at last check it was about number five policy at the national level will try as much of our economic engine the labor market is very strong especially in education potential gross domestic product is 1.9 percent the biggest challenge is inflation hopefully over the next year or so will drop down to low signal digits the Federal Reserve is currently still very aggressively raising interest rates at a historic rate the FED usually has a really bad history of overshooting their target which means that there will likely be at a recession that happens when they're done next slide bead please so the again the most significant risk
151for the economy right now will continue to be inflation um it is showing some signs of slowing down a little bit but again there's a lot of things that are outside of our everyone's control the Federal Reserve is trying to manage it with the tool they have which is interest rates um but this has the negative impact of decreasing the value of assets such as stocks real estate business earnings as a result again revenues at the state federal level will have to return to Historic growth rates and even contract below historic growth rate next slide since the primary funding for lcff districts like Napa come from State revenues we must understand that the fiscal conditions and the budget Outlook revenues are coming in significantly lower than projections revenues for the next three-year budget is anticipated
152to come in at about negative 42 billion for 23.24 alone we're looking at 24 billion the major risk again to the economy continue to be inflation Global Supply Chain issues tight labor market negative impact of Federal Reserve monetary policy and the Ukraine Russian war next slide the big question is will there be will there be cuts to the State education budget if the revenue shortfall is less than 24 billion dollars um they're not likely to be large Cuts as a matter of fact there's a pretty good chance that the state will be able to fund a cola in the eight percent range but we're watching this very closely again revenues right now are currently coming in at about negative 2.2 billion dollars per month next slide so the state budget it currently has what's referred
153to as a crumple Zone a crumple Zone essentially a buffer in the budget due to all of the one-time programs and one-time money that will disappear over the next year they have a little wiggle room so even the revenues for the the State education budget will come in much lower than anticipated these these one-time programs was simple crumple or go away which will lead to much less cuts under prop 98. next slide so if revenues come in where we anticipate the K-12 budget for 2023 will not be able to fund any new programs other than the voter approved prop 28 Arts Grant um I will be speaking about that additionally later tonight there will be a separate presentation about it but again the big question is is how much of the cola will we be
154able to fund so we'll be eight percent will be less we know that inflation will still likely be for the next fiscal year be somewhere between eight and ten percent eight is probably the low end so again the goal is to fund as much of the of the inflationary Factor as possible next slide this side summarizes some of the the challenges that we spoke about in budget adoption so again the biggest challenge is our inflation supply chain bottlenecks volatility in the stock market and the real estate market also which we're seeing a pretty significant downward Trend uh the Russian Ukraine war and and labor shortages which I will talk about on the next slide next slide please so we know that one of the primary drivers of the success of our students are high quality
155employees which is why the labor shortage in education will be an enormous hurdle that we need to address we'll need to put significant effort into attracting and retaining employees while job stability and pensions worked in the past we are finding that employees are more interested in very competitive compensation health care and greater work flexibility next slide please while the population in California is anticipated to increase the labor force will not when you examine the California population by age you can see that our future pool of employees is flat or even shrinking however the 64 plus age group which typically is not in the labor force is growing this means that employers in California will need to be more flexible recruit from out of state and also offer more remote work where possible next slide like
156the labor market shortage the housing market shortage is being driven by factors that are out that are largely outside of the control of school districts the housing shortage in California is a primary driver of declining enrollment when you examine the number of housing units needed California builds far less than what is needed to sustain the population next slide the enrollment decline is anticipated to be about a half a million students or almost nine percent this does vary by county foreign decline is a Statewide problem according to the California Department of Finance um enrollment has declined for five consecutive years um through 2122 the Department of Finance also predicts over the next 10 years a decline of almost a half a million students enrollment decline is expected to decrease from 5.8 million students to 5.3 Million
157by 2030 31. that's fine this slide shows counties in California with the top 10 enrollment declines the county with the largest decline is LA County a unfortunately Napa County is rejected to have the ninth largest decline over the next 10 years this is definitely a list that you don't want to be on so again Napa has lots of challenges going forward with this anticipated enrollment decline next slide when you examine enrollment in Napa unified from 2016-17 you can see that we'll lose over 3 000 students by 26 27 and so this is this is well underway right now next slide the summary of our unrestrialed budget is depicted in this slide some of the highlights include a balanced budget for the current year but projected deficit spending for year two and year three we will
158need to watch this trend and make adjustments it's also important to note that while we'll see growth in revenues between the base year into year two there is projected to be an actual decline in revenues for year three this is due to declining enrollment had the budget not included new legislation that allows us to use an average daily attendance calculator over three years this drop in revenues would be much much worse foreign the following side to talk about our assumptions so um in terms of assumptions uh we're there's a little bit of uncertainty about whether TK will be funded at 24 to per classroom or 20 per classroom um we'll need to watch that one a little bit closely um the cola where we are we are assuming right now will be 6.56 percent 5.3
159percent and four percent we'll find out more about that when the governor announces his budget proposal in January again the big question is how much of the inflationary Factor will they fund at this point we've heard language around eight percent even though inflation is sitting between 8 and 10. um lcf funding is calculated based on a three year average step and calm is assumed to be equal to two percent and we've also put aside some funding for our musd compensation formula next slide our recommendations and next steps include approving a positive certification both certificated and classified Cuts will need to occur however these Cuts will likely match our natural level attrition if you look at the number of teachers we have in our system and and you adjust it for declining enrollment we anticipate that
160we'll need about 10 to 15 less teachers for next year most likely this will just occur through attrition there's some shifting that goes on too but we will be watching that very closely as we watch enroll into the year um we'll also number will need to continue to make sure that the number of our facilities matches the number of students and so another component here where we're um advocating to slow down and look slowly is that we really need to understand the increased enrollment of TK students and the impact it will have on our facilities so as we need less facilities for the upper grade levels in elementary we'll need more for TK and K for at least the next four years after that time period TK enrollment and K enrollment will max out so
161it'll be less of an impact um we need to continue to be fiscally conservative the new Ada calculation will just simply give districts more time to respond to define the enrollment but it will not eliminate the issue lcff districts are using a three-year average Ada that is also inflated due to the pandemic hold harmless Ada as you recall prior to the pandemic or I should say during the pandemic all school districts were given a fixed average daily attendance when they went to a three-year average essentially locked in an average of three years of the same year which is why school districts over the next next couple of years will see an inflated Ada but then we'll have to make large adjustments in 24 25 24 25 will be the first year we're not funded on
162the pandemic Ada and with that I go to questions I have a question about our budget assumptions on page 96 we see an increase in number for Ada from uh the budget adoption and the current year and then in the subsequent year and I appreciate that this increase is well explained in the report however in year three we are projecting those increases to get entirely wiped out with a massive decline going from positive five percent to a negative two percent is a seven percent swing in Ada the seven percent swing is not explained on page ninety six only the two years of increases are explained so my question is why is the Ada decline in year three so bad well this has to uh very good question trustee Garcia so this has to do with
163the way averages are calculated over a period of time so you know again in the past when you looked at average daily attendance we were able to use the higher of the current year or the prior year so you would expect when you do an enrollment projection essentially or in this case an ADA projection the rate of enrollment declined pretty much matched the rate of ADA decrease meaning if you're 88 percentage held held the same at 95 percent if your enrollment is dropping by by three percent then your Ada should drop by three percent also over time but what we have here is we have an inflated Ada that was locked at a three-year average a pre-pandemic level where it's dropping off year by year one third every year one third the following year and
164so what you're seeing is this large Ada Cliff which everyone is talking about where in 24 25 there will be a reckoning for school districts as is pre-pen endemic level 88 completely drops off does that mean that if we had projected to year four it would be even worse yes it would trust across here so I'm deeply concerned about this fiscal cliff we are facing in year three as that is the year it sounds like the majority of our coveted hold harmless expires even with the benefits of this three-year averaging the effects we see are devastating to our budget we deficit spend in 24 25 by nearly 20 million dollars I would like to focus on what can be done to ameliorate that fiscal cliff so we are not so far upside down uh thank
165you very much for your suggestion we will be watching that closely making adjustments and and bringing recommendations to the board as we progress Through Time thank you that's all I have uh thank you for your comprehensive overview of the economic landscape and its impact on first interim it's important to remember it's important for the community to remember that one time funds are just that and some that were under consideration for continuation will be limited or revoked as the state grapples with as of now a 24 billion dollar projected deficit education test deficit the reality is we have continually stated is one-time monies were critically helpful but one-time monies do not fix long-term issues it cannot be ignored that we are ranked ninth in enrollment decline in the state those numbers are dynamic um it is
166difficult to assess impact impact while we wait for the feds there's one more meeting this year but as Rob stated whether it's 50 basis points or 75 remains in the balance inflation has been running ahead of the fed's goals so we shall see and a gentle reminder to the community members that have recently contacted me regarding one-time Monies I'd like to remind everyone they are and were restricted they have specificity they cannot be used on facilities and should not be used to create long-term programs that are not financially sustainable without continued State funding 85 of our budget is allocated to Personnel retention and support of our teachers as Rob stated is critical especially within the context of existing Staffing shortages we have fixed costs and the importance of a healthy cash Reserve has never been
167as evident as it is now we are not flirting with solvency issues and we've addressed many of the financial Financial issues within our control that we're plaguing the district districts across the state that were not responsive to the realities of declining enrollment are now having to be responsive could not effectively use their coveted dollars and are now closing schools in this post-pandemic environment our strategic approach in addressing enrollment and Facilities capacity allows allowed us to effectively leverage our covet funding yet we are still looking at potential operating deficits in year two and three even with a positive impact of TK we have declining Kinder enrollment and I know as we always continually State overall declining enrollment no facilities dollars from the state No A1 Bond dollars we will need to continually actively exercise Financial stewardship
168as we navigate economic and funding uncertainties 2024-25 is when declining enrollment intersects with the termination of hold of harmless Ada and has real budget impact there are prices we are well positioned to do the educational work we have a solid cash reserve and we are financially positioned to be able to proactively make decisions rather than where many districts sit having to be reactive and that was validated through many of the csbs yes mm-hmm sorry do you have any public comment on this item Miss Green yes uh Norma Ortiz please go ahead thank you hello um I also want to say something regarding the health and ethnic studies I tried I tried to talk yeah I'm gonna talk about this item too but can I also address the the health and ethnic studies portion in the
169same comment I'm so sorry to be such a rural follower but we we really cannot do that but you can address okay you can't address the budget I just um I was raising my hand but I didn't get called okay um so let's see okay in terms of the shortages and the hiring process in attracting and retaining new employees pay is low in some positions not necessarily at the upper level um uh up early leadership level but compared to the the cost of living and also to other districts that's something that I think is important to consider and of course more competitive pay um with this the scenario that has been brought up by um uh the department regarding the budget and um all these items would this bring the possibility of a future School
170closure that's something that I would that I would like to know I mean it's probably um very premature to anticipate but um I would like more information in that context if possible and also um the layout in terms of the increase in intra-district transfers like the numbers and enrollment and how all of that um can support uh the conversations that are being uh held in terms of the Ada thank you Ms Green do we have any additional public comments there is no additional comment on this item thank you very much assistant I'm sorry go ahead oh there you are welcome back moving on to prop 28 arts program presentation Ms Green can you please uh pull up a presentation thank you so much uh next slide please according to a recent Ed Source article Arts
171education in California has been floundering since the late 1970s when Proposition 13 decimated funding for public schools for decades Arts programs were among the first programs that were cut as cash wrap districts struggled to balance our budgets an order addresses prop 28 was placed on the November ballot and overwhelmingly passed prop 28 will provide a historic investment in the Arts and Music on an ongoing basis with permanent funding so that this is a permanent funding change next slide please proposition 28 sets aside one percent of the general fund budget specifically for arts and music education these are restricted funds um it will require it will result in a re-benchmarking of prop 98 which guarantees K-12 and Community College funding a minimum of 40 percent so we should essentially move up to 41 percent of the
172general fund fund for education and uh and other educational programs should not be cut to funded this is something separate next slide um allocation of prop 28 funds at the district level is based on both enrollment and free and reduced lunch counts at the district level our total funding is estimated to exceed 2.5 million dollars but this again this will vary based on the state budget because it will always be one percent of the state budget so it will vary year to year funds will be allocated at the site level and will require site plans which we will bring to the board initial allocation amounts again they'll vary quite a bit anywhere from about forty thousand dollars to a hundred thousand dollars at the elementary level and close to three hundred thousand dollars or large
173high schools these are ongoing funds um if you do have a preliminary estimate it is based on old data and even does reference schools that were closed because they were using data from last year's calpads so the governor's budget we will get more accurate numbers uh and so again these are just estimates at this point in time next slide please prop 28 funds are highly restricted or intended to be spent on art programs examples of eligible programs include expenditures for a variety of Arts related to subjects including dance media Music Theater and various types of Visual Arts including photography crafts computer coding graphics and Robotics funds are intended to be spent on new expenditures the term that we use in in the business offices supplement and not existing expenditures were supplant for arts and music
174and used primarily to hire new new art staff new staff include both certificated and classified Personnel next slide expenditures of these funds require the development of a plan by the school principal the district will work with sites to encourage alignment and economies of scale smaller School sites will need to share Human Resources due to the allocation amounts the language specifically says it and I I personally think this is a mistake I can't prove it but it says for local education associations with greater with greater than 500 students 80 percent of the funds must be used to employ certificated or classified employees in my mind it probably would have made more sense if it said not leas but schools with greater than 500 students it will be very challenging for schools to spend 80 percent of
175their money I.E 40 80 percent of forty thousand dollars which is about thirty thousand dollars on employees take a high level of coordination between the business office human resources and the site funding will be received annually but can be spent up to three years so there's there's no rule that we have to start spending next year we're going to work towards that and make sure that we have everything put in place but the funds do roll over this is a restricted fund that does roll over no more than one percent may be spent on administrators expenses um an annual report is required to be submitted to the board along with posting on the district websites next slide so again this is a great opportunity for our community we're all very excited about this this new
176proposition executive cabinet has started to meet all already to pre-plan um with the information we know right now and then we will we will meet much more after we know additional details after the governor's budget which is at the end of January again some of the considerations these are site develop plans they're highly restricted um what we're looking at doing is ensuring alignment with our arts master plan instruction will be working very closely with with the principles to make sure that this occurs the requirement to spend 80 of the money employees and annual update to the board and the website and then we will likely need or we will need to share Human Resources across sites um next slide I think that's the final side and with that I opened the questions is uh trustee
177Reiser do you have a question yeah um I I was wondering about the timing are we talking about next school year that we can start implementing this additional funding is that is it going to roll in yes well it's typical like like other refrigerator programs we'll have eligibility to spend next year for the next fiscal year the money will likely land with our with our with our normal allocations we'll just lend the money to the program like we do with other programs and then my other I don't I don't know if it's really a question but just a concern um it's just about managing the expectations because this is such a feel-good win this this uh prop 28 and I and we need it and the kids deserve it and I'm thrilled that it passed
178but I just um wonder about the reality of filling all those positions if we have to spend 80 of the money on personnel and this is a Statewide proposition I can only imagine that the market for um for employees is going to be pretty competitive so I don't know if you can speak to that yet or if it's too premature or uh yes director pay assistant to bring in a page but I just more wanted to kind of surface that for the community that might be listening that this is not going to be I'm imagining like a wave the wand and now there's you know we we've tripled the Arts in all of our schools and all the teachers are trained and the kids are thrilled you know it's it's a process so I just
179wanted to kind of give the um Team a chance to speak to that a little bit to illuminate it for the community miss page no I I don't have any solutions to offer that yet um you're right it will be a challenge to find these teachers at particularly as the entire state will be looking for them um this is happening in a number of areas TK barrier where this is also happening so um we're monitoring it we're hoping to get plans from schools as quickly as possible so that we can be at the the front end of hiring and um but it will be a challenge thank you for Illuminating that thank you trustee riser um okay we are moving on now to instructional services oh do we have any public comment on uh prop
18028 um Miss green there is no public comment on this item thank you very much and moving on to instructional Services The Early Learning programs presentation and we welcome director Manning and assistant superintendent uh Pat Andrew Jennings and director executive director um Rossetti good evening again miss green can you uh please put up the slide presentation um good evening again um the instructional support services division is excited to present information about our early learning program director Matt Manning um the elementary director of curriculum instruction and English learner services will begin the presentation and with that I'm going to toss to him and he and uh director executive director Rosetti will will take the lead thank you very much assistant superintendent Andrew Jennings uh next slide please thank you good evening president jankowitz Board of Trustees
181Dr mussetti student board member Gomez in the nvst community our objective with this presentation is to share our progress toward meeting the success criteria outlined in annual board priority 3 focused on strengthening Early Learning programs I will share information about the transitional kindergarten expansion and Ms Rossetti will present on the special education program transition that she and her team have been leading next slide please we continue to make progress toward achieving the success criteria set forth in annual board priority three we will address the success success indicators however the elementary team provided a comprehensive presentation on the 26 success criteria related to K2 phonics instruction and diagnostic assessments at the recent Elementary literacy programs board study session so tonight I will speak to those as they relate to the program we are building for transitional
182kindergarten next slide please I have shared this image previously and want to provide a reminder of the context in which we are expanding our TK program in nvusd Universal pre-kindergarten is an umbrella term that includes the California state preschool program transitional kindergarten as well as head start community-based preschool programs Early Learning services for students with disabilities and private preschools transitional kindergarten is a free program for age eligible four-year-old children that will be available to all four-year-old children by the 2025-26 school year parents may choose to enroll their children in a TK program or another pre-kindergarten program TK is not mandatory for children but it is an excellent option for families because it provides Us in the tk12 school system with an opportunity to welcome our children into our schools early and begin to build a
183solid foundation for success in kindergarten and Beyond next slide please so the California Department of Education has articulated a very compelling rationale for the state's significantly increased investment in transitional kindergarten through assembly Bill 22. the goal is to to ensure that every four-year-old child regardless of background race zip code immigration status or income level has access to a high quality learning experience the year before kindergarten next slide please this slide provides an overview of the implementation schedule you'll see that we are currently serving students who turn five by February 2nd 2023 and for next year we are now enrolling students who turn five by April 2nd 2024. as we build our TK program we are preparing to serve students who will enter our schools at a younger age with different developmental needs than the students
184we have historically served we look forward to ultimately welcoming many more four-year-old children into our schools next slide please we thought a lot about the developmental as well as academic needs of this new age group when we created our nvsd vision for transitional kindergarten last year this vision and the core tenets of our program that I will share next serve as an anchor for the program development process unfolding this year I want to note that we are fortunate to be building from on a solid foundation that the nvst of the nvsdtk program that has already been in place since 2012. next slide please the TK program is standards-based developmentally appropriate with a structure that incorporates multiple learning modalities the program supports all aspects of the California preschool Learning Foundation which are the standards that are
185currently used at the TK level in California not only do to our teachers provide a strong foundation for kindergarten but we are intentional in aligning to our K5 system it is essential for both our four and five-year-olds that we provide developmentally appropriate experiences and instruction teachers achieve this through play-based learning that allows students to explore and make meaning of academic content we provide a mixture of whole group small group and individ individualized instruction in all modalities visual auditory kinesthetic and tactile next slide please this year a TK leadership team has been established and the team is working together to operationalize our TK vision and program tenants the leadership team is Guided by three driving questions what do we want our TK program to stand for in nvusd how can we provide consistent and aligned experiences
186and instruction across this growing program and how can we convey the program structure and tenants to our current and prospective parents next slide please so far this year we have reviewed the California preschool learning foundations and identified priority standards for each section these standards address social emotional development language and literacy where we are placing a strong emphasis on oral language development English language development mathematics and Foundations in physical development we are evaluating our current curriculum and additional curriculum options with a focus on determining the best resources to support teaching the identified nvisd priority standards our next steps this year are to align grading practices revise the current progress report to reflect the TK priority standards that we're selecting now and to provide parents with a more holistic view of their TK learner we are building
187a TK assessment system and we'll adopt a professional learning plan for the coming years next slide please as we move into next year and Beyond we will implement the TK curriculum scope and sequence that we are designing this year and continue to refine as we differentiate from multiple developmental levels we look forward to having a consistent curriculum and set of resources for all TK classrooms we will need to continue to calibrate around TK grading practices as that work will be ongoing teacher Recruitment and preparation will remain a key area of focus in partnership with the human resources department and we will provide ongoing professional learning for our TK teachers next slide please I think I forgot no there we go okay um Mike Pearson and the operational Services team have conducted a facilities audit this
188year to determine where space exists to expand the TK program next year we currently have TK classrooms at the site slips listed on the left and TK kindergarten combination classrooms at the sites listed on the right this total of 13 classrooms represents an increase over last year when we only had seven classrooms with TK students next slide please we have some important expansion Milestones that we were working toward the first of which is again the facilities audit that is now complete we are currently working on The Five-Year Plan that involves multiple departments the expansion is enrollment driven so we are using demographer projections to an open enrollment Trends to plan for next year and the years ahead there is a projected next slide please thank you there is a projected need for 260 TK seats
189in Napa and 95 in American Canyon next year the anticipated TK class size for next year is 20 students per classroom resulting in 13 classrooms in Napa and five classrooms in American Canyon and as assistant superintendent manual mentioned we don't know what the class size will be yet but we need to plan for the smaller class size we anticipate the need for at least one TK classroom at all elementary schools however the enrollment team is still monitoring enrollment Trend Trends and will determine exact classroom placement next slide please another important success indicator in the TK expansion is the recruitment of TK students through an enrollment marketing campaign the communications team has done a phenomenal job developing marketing materials to inform parents of the TK option available to them the marketing campaign is grounded in developing
190awareness of the program generating interest among families and supporting families and taking action to enroll their children in TK next slide please the communications team is leveraging digital advertising and social media as is reflected here and video next slide please and video messaging in both Spanish and English has been developed to inform and encourage families to enroll in TK this video here features our own superintendent Dr mussetti and we'll play that now to uh for all of us to watch together you want to go ahead and play the English version please the adventure begins in transitional kindergarten our four-year-old TK program provides our youngest Learners with a nurturing safe classroom environment that encourages curiosity creativity critical thinking in a lifelong love of learning a credential teacher and Aid support each student as they become capable
191competent Learners before and Aftercare is also available at most School sites learn more and see for yourself visit nvusd.org to find your school and enroll today [Music] thank you for the great welcoming explanation of our TK programs it's awesome um next slide please all in 30 seconds right all in 30 seconds there is also a TK back one slide there's also a TK webpage a direct link on our nvsd homepage and radio advertisement again I appreciate all that the communications team has done to spread the word about transitional kindergarten and so beautifully capture the sense of immense Pride that we feel in this expanding program with that I will pass to executive director Rossetti who will share information about the special education principle transition thank you thank you director Manning next slide please so prior
192to this school year the Napa Valley Unified School District contracted with Napa County Office of Education to provide special education students for special education services for students age three to five this included the assessment determination of Eligibility and all services for students who were determined to be eligible this past year we completed an in-depth study on the special education department a recommendation was made to the board for Napa Valley Unified School District to provide those Services directly to our students this decision was well timed as it fell into alignment with the expansion of the universal transition kindergarten the director Manning just described it creates an opportunity for a smoother transition for students who require additional supports from transition to preschool to transition kindergarten to kindergarten as it allows nvusd's special education teams the opportunity to
193get to know our students and their needs from the very first day next slide please this school year began our transition year we have set systems in place to reach out to families who will be impacted by these changes a presentation was made to the community advisory committee on May 16th nvisd held a listening session for families on August 29th and returned for a follow-up discussion with the CAC on September 19th as a follow-up for the feedback that we received from both that listening session and the CAC meetings nvusd began a special education parent advisory committee we've met in September October November and continue to have meetings for next year in order to have a voice a preschool parent of a student who just turned three has been a part of those parent advisory committee
194meetings in addition nvsd has initiated our preschool assessment team as of October 3rd nvusd is now completing all of the initial assessments for students who are referred for special education services been a great opportunity for our teams because we are really getting the opportunity to work out this process with through the assessment team before we begin to operationalize our services and we are getting to know our future families from the beginning referrals are received from the Napa infant program North Bay Regional Center pediatric offices as well as from Individual parents through the end of June students who are found to be eligible are still receiving their services through Napa County Office of Education next slide please so beginning July 1st we will be providing all of our services to all of our students age three
195through five in order to do this we are utilizing the existing preschool classrooms at Phillips shear and Napa Junction elementary schools there are excellent facilities and we look forward to serving our students there preschool classes will be offered three hours per day five days a week they will be staffed by an early childhood special education teacher along with two instructional support staff the maximum class size would be 14 students four of those students would be typically developing peers from the community so that we increase our ability to offer an inclusive education environment for all students the maximum number of students in each class would be 10 with IEPs next slide please in addition to this we are anticipating the need for a self-contained transition kindergarten classroom this classroom would again be staffed by an a
196teacher with an early childhood special education credential although an education specialist could also teach that class the maximum size for this class would be 14 students with two instructional support staff we are not sure where this class will be because our interest is to make sure it is at a site that has a general education transition kindergarten class so that the two classes can team together for an inclusive education environment so we're waiting for those numbers from enrollment to find out exactly where those classes will be in addition we allow students that are enrolled in general education transition kindergarten classrooms who require the support from an early childhood education Early Childhood this is a mouthful Early Childhood special education Specialist or an education specialist throughout the district next slide please we will also find the
197need to support students who are in community preschool programs or not yet enrolled in a preschool program who have additional service needs like speech and language alone or students who require less academic support these will be these will be addressed through small Pro small play group sessions um and also with integrated support with our partners through child start and state preschool programs we'll Point our next slide please sorry I got a little off topic so looking at the numbers of students that are eligible right now gives us an idea of what's to come so these are the numbers as of November 29th so it's a snapshot of students at that moment there are a total of 191 students right now eligible in age as age three through five living within the Napa Valley Unified School
198District boundaries the top box talks about the students who are eligible for speech and language only services I want to share that our current speech therapists have told us very clearly that the pandemic had a huge impact on students articulation development so we are seeing an increase of students who are eligible for only speech and language Services the wearing of masks during those critical developmental years students have not learned how to correctly form their sounds and we can see this in this number because there are 96 students currently age three through five eligible for speech and language services the good news is that these students are easily being targeted and remedied and able to return to the general education environment currently there are 95 students who are eligible for additional Services Beyond speech and language
199what we are seeing at this time of the year is the majority of those will be kindergarten age at the beginning of next school year and that's the trend I would expect to see because one of the differences that we will find with preschool is that students become eligible throughout the year in a TK through 12 environment students enroll in August and you kind of know who you have for the remainder of the school year in a preschool environment as students turn three we offer an IEP to them on their third birthday so you are constantly enrolling students as the year progresses next slide please to support our parents and families in making the move to Napa Valley Unified School District we held a matriculation support meeting on October 11th this meeting was offered both
200virtually and in person and it was recorded So that families could access it either way on the night and also have access to it ongoing it was offered in English and Spanish so that all families have access to the maximum extent that we can the recording has been shared with the administrators at the current preschool program in addition the enrollment center was here that night and began enrolling families during the matriculation night it was really exciting to watch our families become begin to join Napa Valley Unified School District we'll continue to outreach to Our Community Partners to help with the enrollment and currently Napa Valley Unified School District leadership staff from the special education department are attending every single preschool IEP meeting that is happening so that we can encourage enrollment at that time and
201so that we can meet our families and know more about our students before they come to us next slide please we are going to need staff to support these students as they come and staff recruitment has already begun for this program Napa Valley Unified leadership Dana page Pat Andrew Jennings and I have met with the Napa County Office of Education current preschool staff on September 30th and October 31st we posted the positions for the current County Office of Education staff to apply to work with nvusd and we have already extended offers of employment to all of the Early Childhood special education teachers that we believe that we will need and to three speech therapists are hard to find we will continue to recruit for more of them we've already reposted the position and I recruit
202in every conversation that I have everywhere that I am um in addition we will need to continue to recruit for psychologists as the one psychologist currently working for Napa County Office of Education has relocation plans for next year next slide please so in the months to come we will continue to meet with the current preschool staff to ensure a smooth transition to our new classroom settings we have many matriculation IEP meetings planned between February and June so that families have the opportunity to meet with us and ask questions about the move into Napa Valley Unified School District spring is the time where we lead many tours for many families so that they and their children feel very comfortable coming to our sites we will continue to work with human resources to actively recruit for the
203psychologists the speech-language pathologist interpreters and instructional support staff those are all hard to fill positions and we'll find them if you know of anybody and finally we will be working to prepare our facilities for our new students and our new employees next slide please thank you we are welcoming questions we have to make a motion to extend the meeting it's now 10 30. second first by trustee water second by trustee Gracia all in favor all right thank you very much I apologize that's okay I just wanted to make a few quick comments I just one want to thank and appreciate our preschool assessment team that launched in um October so Shannon Church Talia Yates Gigi Castro and Debbie Duplantis they have been critical in getting the preschool assessment team off the ground and um they
204are located at McPherson school so they have a nice welcoming space for our families that they're assessing so I want to thank them I also want to thank our our TK leadership team that Matt Manning has put together to help and support our TK expansion and then also I just want to thank Joanne Murphy and Jackie Kirk Martinez who have been our Consultants that we've worked with especially on the preschool transition they've been providing a lot of support to us and we just are grateful for their help so and then also of course executive director Terry Lynn Rossetti and if I'm not Manning for their work on these new programs so thank you so much thank you thank you for the presentation Matt I do have one quick question what is a TK grading practice
205um a TK grading practice so it looks different than a kindergarten through fifth grade grading practice so there are standards so we evaluate student progress based against those standards that come from the preschool learning foundations but with the TK program we want to assess students more holistically to look at how they're progressing developmentally their social interactions with other students their ability to cross the midline all these things that are that we think about in in the much lower grades so the grading practices are really around aligning and calibrating around that so that TK teachers across our system are evaluating students in the same way and using the same measures thank you you're welcome trusted him so I have to say that for the first time uh Canyon Oaks has PK students they're so cute but
206I I did hear it's a little difficult with um having a mixed TK and Kinder classroom so is the plan to have TK classrooms just TK classrooms and not have that because I know it's a difficult age group I'm even K1 combo classes are difficult so is the idea then to have just Standalone TK classrooms across the board or what what is the what what are you hoping that we can I mean I know it's depend on enrollment but so that's absolutely Our Hope and what we're planning for and building for um so as the as TK students enroll then our goal is to the enrollment team's goal in partnership with the instructional Services team is to open up whole TK classrooms um that isn't always going to be possible as students can enroll throughout
207the throughout the school year and as the school year begins so I can't say that there won't be any TK combination classrooms TK Kinder combination classrooms but our goal with Enrollment Center there's a commitment to reduce that number and and keep that in at an absolute minimum great and my next question is actually for the special ed services um I know that McPherson is a site for the evaluations is there any plans to have maybe like uh every once in a while to come down to American Canyon to make it accessible for some of those families yes I've thought about that um and and as we continue to move forward if we can identify a space it could be something we look at in order to make that a little bit easier for families when
208it comes to Services that's that is the point that is why we have Napa Junction as one of the identified sites in addition to having a speech therapist who is located in American Canyon so that families don't have the travel time and for the TK self-contained classrooms you said location to be determined are you anticipating only one side or multiple sites or how what what's the Thought on that based on the numbers that I've seen historically and and what we've seen as the need I would think that we would probably only have one the need for one TK special day class that is self-contained um and I know that we've tried to move that to American Canyon in the past and we found that we were transporting more students down to the classroom than we
209would have been transporting students to Napa so it will likely be in Napa but you never know every year to look at where the children live and and will Transportation be involved or how does I don't know how that works for transportation I know parents are usually you know more involved in transporting kids at that age so what's the how do we deal with that transportation is always a consideration we look at eligibility based under Ed code and the law with regards to transportation to access special education services but I do know that our transportation department does currently provide some of those services for County Office of Education students in the preschool program great thank you you're welcome thank you trustee thank you very much excuse me one moment uh trustee Gracie yeah so I
210wanted to recognize the academic focus of our TK plan but wanted to ask if we're in danger of indexing too hard into academics and not supplying sufficient play time in DK if you feel like that's a concern uh I think it I think we're we if we were to continue with the same program that we that we've had in place our our curriculum really does lean towards the academic um component but we're building a program that's very much play based and really leaning into the the preschool foundational standards is going to ensure that we have more of that play-based environment we're actually purchasing materials that really look and feel like that play-based environment is coming to life for students so we're we're conscious of that as we're building the program thank you I appreciate the
211district's efforts to standardize the TK experience across the district um so I think that will be a really great uh situation once it comes to fruition um I'm also pleased to hear about the good progress the district is making on our transition to being the preschool special education provider so that sounds very possible thanks I agree with that um I celebrate the goal and vision uh from the CD Early Education Division I I love that slide and I celebrate our commitment to the rollout of these programs and the benefits that will be provided to our children it is an opportunity for strong foundational success in the development of tools needed for their educational Journey all good things on the heels of first interim I um I just must acknowledge the very complicated relationship between the
212state and school districts the introduction and Mandate of universal TK is wonderful and welcomed but this is a semi-funded mandate and the state did not allow for a timeline for districts that supports facility reviews nor the funds for facility Transformations nor were districts afforded uh the gift of time one of the Dr Mercedes favorite terms so given these constraints I want to thank the committee instruction and facilities for their work on creating a comprehensive student-centric plan within the difficult framework that you were given in Timeline so thank you and director ready and director Eddie director of study and we had ready earlier all of you people oh yeah all of you director of study um director Manning I thank you so much for your hard work I think this is a prime example of when
213the board sets an annual priority this is annual priority three around Early Learning programs you just see how much lift there has been since that priority was set this summer to the mid-year Point here in January in December as we close up sort of the first semester of the year how much work has been accomplished so thank you for working with such diligence and such focus on getting those progress indicators clearly accomplished we're clearly on track so thank you and I do need to ask um Ms Green if there was any public comment on this item there is no public comment on this item thank you very much we are now moving on to action items first being General and services resolution resolution 2316 authorizing continued use of remote World marketing Provisions pursuant ab361 government
214code protection 54953 move to approve first by trustee cross second second by trusty two minutes green um do we have any public comment on this item there is no public comment on this item especially we need a roll call vote please student board member Gomez I'm Christy jankowitz aye Christy Gracia hi Christy water hi Christy Reiser I Christy Gonzalez Morris aye Chrissy Chu hi thank you thank you very much I just want to let everyone know this is the last time that we will be approving um this resolution we've been approving it every 30 days there was a change in the assembly bill that's going to be effective January 1st and so um the rules of the game have changed so it will no longer require the approval of this so I'll send a memo
215to the board so you're aware of the legislative adjustments um but um this this is the last time okay thank you very much onto Business Services first interim 22 23. move to a person first by trustee gracio second by trustee two Ms Green do we have any public comment there is no public comment on this item thank you student board rep ly hi all in favor aye motion passes data sharing agreement between mbusd and foundation for California community colleges first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee Chu Miss Green there is no public comment on this item thank you student board rep I'm all in favor aye motion passes Aries conversion of Legacy databases first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee Chu Ms Green there is no public comment on this item thank you
216student board wrap aye all in favor um motion passes moving on to Human Resources local assignment options for Teacher assignments 2022-23 first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee two Miss green there is no public comment on this item thank you student board rep aye all in favor aye motion passes request to hire educator less than bully credentialed move to approve first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee two Miss green there is no public comment on this item thank you student board rep um all in favor aye motion passes moving on to instructional Services agreement between Pat help me Elio and nvisd move to approve first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee Chu Miss green there is no public comment on this item thank you student board rep aye all in favor aye
217motion passes agreement between efficiency and nvusd I'd like some discussion but I'll move to approve uh first by trustee Gracia well second second by trustee two Miss green there is no public comment on this item thank you I had a question about why Napa High School and American Canyon High School were not included uh in this item how did they handle the issue of assigning Flex periods so they have a different design when it comes to flex that doesn't necessitate an educational tool like this so for example vintage will be using this to um as they have periods that are in that are within the day that students move to and so having an educational tool that helps with um determining where a student should be and then ensuring that they they end up in
218those spots and receive the responsive Services is a need whereas at Napa High School the uh support is integrated they have a modified block so on Thursdays and Fridays they have longer periods that are 120 minutes and every period 30 minutes of that is designated for intervention so students aren't moving they're receiving it within the class period and so it doesn't require that educational tool similarly with American Canyon High School their advisory advisory periods connected to their third period class and so the tool isn't needed there although um there are other schools middle schools new Tech High School that use this that we'll look to explore and see how it works and see if there's potential for other schools that have the model similar advantage so with regard then to the Napa High model do
219they have been just a couple of classes on Thursday and then they rest on Fridays that that works yeah they have they so on a modified block you have all your classes the way they have it set up they have all their classes Monday Tuesday Wednesday and then on Thursday they have three classes and on Friday they have three classes and so they meet their instructional minutes they just meet them in a different format and those extended blocks allow for them to integrate the responsive intervention within the period without having with students okay got it no further questions okay thank you student board rep uh all in favor aye motion passes agreement between turnitin LLC and Napa Valley Unified School District second first by trustee Waters second by trustee Gracia Ms Green there is no
220public comment on this item thank you student board rep aye all in favor aye motion passes core instructional material adoption for high schools to approve first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee Chu oh come on now that wasn't enough Ms Green there is no public comment on this item thank you student board rep uh all in favor aye motion passes moving on to school planning and construction SVC number 1.6.23 request for updated implementation plan move to approved by trustee Gracia second second by trustee Chu Ms Green there is no public comment on this item thank you student board rep I'm all in favor bye motion passes SPC number 1.7-23 request for consulting services with Verde design for assessment of natural grass fields first by trustee Gracia second by trustee two Ms Green there is
221no public comment on this item thank you student board rep uh all in favor aye motion passes SBC number 11.1-23 request a call for bids for preparers to the special edwing Windows Endo move to approve first by trustee Gracia second second by trustee Chu Ms Green there is no public comment on this item thank you student board rep uh all in favor all right motion passes we move on to the informational section of the evening General Services there were only notes attached to one committee meeting facilities and Technology review it your leisure additional suggestions and comments from board members and superintendent I believe we took under advisement your desire for a resolution to be discussed trusty too any future agenda items so under future agenda items so the protocol for Resolutions would be that first
222it would go to that would go to the policy committee for discussion and then be brought to the full board um I am totally happy to agendize that for the upcoming policy committee meeting um however I just for the record want to remind everyone that we did do um a significant revision to board policy and administrative regulation 5145.3 which was anti-discrimination and harassment when we were advancing the work around the pride Flags so I just want to remind everyone that I know resolutions uh signal you know messages to the community but it is what the most powerful tools that we have are ongoing board policies and administrative regulations but we'll bring that to discussion at the next policy committee thank you for the clarification and we are now um at adjournment move to adjourn foreign
223thank you very much meeting adjourned thank you all