NVUSD Board Of Education Meeting - April 22, 2021

001we're calling the meeting to order this is uh opening our virtual meeting at uh five o'clock the nbusd board of education is holding a regular virtual board meeting tonight that all can participate in remotely you can join the assume specific directions on how to participate are located on the board of education webpage on the district's website nvusd.org board 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 is there any public comment on closed session items mysteries there are no public comments at this time president gonzalez mars thank you mysteries seeing that there are none the napa valley unified school district will now adjourn into close session see you all at seven o'clock thank you good

002evening my name is elba gonzalez-mares and this is the napa valley unified school district board of education the nvusd board of education is holding a regular board meeting tonight all can participate in remotely you can join via zoom when as noches my name is herba gonzalez in english interpretation in spanish is available for tonight's virtual board meeting to access interpretation from a computer click on the interpretation icon on the bottom of your screen from within the zoom application on a mobile device click on the more button on the bottom of your screen and choose language interpretation from within the zoom application this is a separate channel that will allow you to hear english to spanish translation concurrently please note interpretation services are not available when you join our meeting by calling in our interpreters for

003tonight's meetings are paul huertas and claudia lindgren may we have one of the interpreters please translate this instructions on our english channel so our spanish-speaking families can hear the instructions interpretations gracias specific instructions on how to participate in the meeting are located on the board of education webpage on the district's website nbusd.org board can we please start with attendance roll call from vera morales executive assistant yes stu student board member magana present trustee gonzalez mares president trustee jankowicz president trustee gracia president trustee reisser present trustee water president trustee shu president trustee dooley here quorum present thank you thank you vera thank you for joining us tonight for our napa valley unified school district board meeting public participation remains virtual online only due to the kova 19 shelter in place order we continue in uncharted territory

004as we deal with the cloven 19 pandemic as trustees we have returned to the boardroom in solidarity with our staff given that our school campuses are now reopened for our students however in order to ensure access to our meetings without any limitations during the persistent pandemic we are continuing with online remote access via zoom for the public and guests i would like to thank our employees our families and the entire nvusd community for how you have supported each other and come together during these unprecedented times this meeting tonight is in accordance with the open meeting rules in the state of california for the governor's order i am going to start tonight with some basic instructions on how we are going to be using zoom and involve the members of the community all board of the

005trustees and the superintendent are in video throughout the entire board meeting from here in the boardroom other staff members are present by video by video members of the community will not be on video and will be muted except during public comment any member of the community that wishes to speak must raise their hand using the raised hand feature in zoom you will be unmuted and will be provided three minutes to speak there are two ways to make a public comment within the time allotted for public comment on an eligible agenda item the comment by video conference click the raise your hand button to request to speak when public comment is being taken on the eligible agenda item when it is your turn to speak your name will be called out you will then be unmuted

006during your turn and allowed to make public comments after the allotted time you will then be remuted instructions on how to raise your hand are available on the district's website at nbusd.org board to comment by phone you will be prompted to raise your hand by pressing star 9 to request to speak when public comment is being taken on the eligible agenda item when it is returned to speak the last four digits of your phone number will be called out you will then be unmuted during your turn and allowed to make public comments after the allotted time you will then be remuted instructions on how to raise your hand by phone are available on the district's website at nvusd.org board in addition community members were allowed to submit comments via email at publiccomment nvusd.org up until

0078 am this morning public comment received after 8 a.m the day of the schedule meeting will not be read into the record however the public comment will be announced as received after the deadline and it will be and it will become part of the meeting archive as long as it is received before the meeting is officially called to order for every agenda item i will prompt the meeting participants who have joined us via zoom for public comment please follow the instructions just provided when you would like to comment on an item we have been called to order and conducted our attendance roll call we will go forward with our agenda i will um now ask trustee uh graciat to report on closed session items yes uh in closed session the board took action to approve

008the following staff recommendations effective july 1 2021 the following administrative appointments have been made amy warhol to the position of assistant principal for american canyon middle school and that is all that i have to report thank you tristi graciam we will now go to our next item or flag salute on that same note let me ask you trustee gracia to lead us on the flag salute please be happy to everyone would please stand and join me in uh the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the plight of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all our announcement is that this media is recorded for live streaming and archiving on the district youtube channel for a detailed review of

009any item any meeting agenda item the archive video can be referenced located on the district's web webpage at nvusd.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 webpage moving to our next item which is approval of agenda i will prior to doing that as that we move item k1b after item g all right i'll move to approve with the amendment to move the item well second i have a first by trustee gracia in a second by trustee dooley student board rep hi all those in favor all right why do you pose or abstain great thank you we'll now go to approval of our minutes um i'll move to approve the march 24th 2021 minutes a second first by

010trustee gracias second by trustee dooley student board rep hi all those in favor thank you approved march 25th 2021 minutes second first by trustee gracias seconded by trustee dooley student board rep hi all those in favor aye aye anybody oppose or abstain mainly abstain but we've all been here move to approve the april 8th minutes second first by trustee gracias second by trustee dooley student board rep aye aye all those in favor aye aye aye anybody need to abstain or oppose right thank you dr masseni do we have any recognition of visitors and employee organizations tonight yeah i believe that all three of our union presidents are present tonight so i'm going to ask mr ruiz if you can please unmute them um i see mr hector gallegos here from cse welcome mr gallegos thanks

011for being here this evening miss leslie walder from naps can you please unmute her mr release good evening um president gonzalez mares um dr musetti and members of the board of education thank you for being here miss walder and miss gail young president of nvea good evening you have a big job tonight and thank you for representing all of our students within this this whole group i represent the teachers counselors and nurses within this thanks have a good night thank you miss young for being here this evening thank you and and welcome to our meeting okay we are now going to item f which is recognition of students of the month uh we will start with uh we have tonight napa valley adult education and new technology high school so i would like to invite

012principal jones to present the naga valley adult education students of the month please good evening everyone i'm not principal jones my name is chuck peck and paul is i'm sorry thank you chuck is a napa valley adult education going first that is correct okay i'm sorry about that thank you chuck my name is laurel leonard broell i'm the career and technical education supervisor at napa valley adult education and i'm happy to introduce two excellent instructors who will introduce our students of the month our esl instructor catherine gooch will begin and she'll introduce the office assistant student and our building and construction instructor chuck peckham paul will introduce our construction student i'd like to ask permission to let mosh k in our student of the month uh sit lally has a different name on her screen

013and it's mosh k c a y e if you could permit her in she'll say a few words after katherine gooch catherine can you unmute yourself and begin thank you laurel good evening to everyone i am in a classroom so i will be keeping my mask on i am with students so i hope that you can all hear me we'd like to thank the board for giving us the time for you to meet one of our excellent students at napa valley adult education and you get to see the exciting work that your public funds are accomplishing i'm kathryn and i'm honored to be here to introduce it lali as our student of the month she's currently taking three classes with us and i'm in two different classes with her she's in an el civics class

014with me that focuses on employability skills and she's also a student in our office assistant tech skills class that is a collaboration between our esl department and our cte department that wally is really the type of student who makes our job especially rewarding because she is highly motivated and she's truly taking advantage of the great opportunities that we have here at nbae we're so impressed with her commitment her desire to excel in her education and her wisdom in making a plan for the present that will allow her to obtain her goals in the future we appreciate her positive presence in class and also her willingness to assist her fellow students perhaps one day we'll even see her as an employee in our district and maybe she'll be in one of these meetings and now she's

015going to share with you a little bit more about herself and her goals so sit lolly if you're ready you can unmute yourself good evening everyone i would like to thank the school board for inviting me to speak tonight i would also like to introduce my husband david and my daughter camila who are here supporting me i am the proud daughter of mexican immigrants i was born in the us but i have lived in in mexico for most of my life i have a bachelor's degree in physical education from escuela superior in mexico city i am thinking at mba and places sorry at mbae because i want to improve my skills with communication in general learn new computer skills and get a good job i want to continue my education possibly earn a master's degree

016so i am taking online classes with the hope of completing an online program in the future my goal is to be a bilingual physical education teacher and personal trainer and help other people learn the importance and benefits of moving their body and being healthy i love i love to learn about everything an mbae help helps me and other others to continue with their education the teachers are very helpful they make the classes interesting and easy to understand i am grateful to them for they great your great job in closing i would like to restate that nelson mandela said education is the first step for people to gain the knowledge critical thinking empowerment and skills they need to make this world a better place thank you thank you thank you okay check would you like to

017introduce your student yes i'd like to say uh thank you laurel thank you to the board for giving us a chance to honor a student of the month jorge ortiz my name is chuck peckinpaw and i teach building and construction at napa valley adult education been holding our classes on zoom up until late february when we began to meet in person on saturdays and that was the day i got to meet jorge during our first class uh on our break jorge spoke to me about how much he and his father love baseball and uh since i've been a big baseball fan all of my life he and i really hit it off so that first saturday i had forgotten some of my supplies and jorge provided me with much-needed dry erase markers that he just

018happened to have in his vehicle he then offered to bring his projector and sound system to class so we could watch videos and now we are watching videos and projecting images onto the whiteboard which is extremely extremely valuable with the presentation of lessons jorge is a graduate of napa high school class of 2001 and he has completed some coursework out at napa valley college he experienced some major major health issues during his time at nbc and which forced him to take a hiatus from academics but i'm happy to say he's much better now he excels with his academic work he has perfect attendance and he makes a consistent effort to assist with translations from english to spanish and spanish to english for everyone in our class he is highly engaged in the study of the

019material and is supportive and is supportive of the sense of community that exists in our unique classroom setting both virtually and in person so without further ado my nomination for student of the month goes to jorge ortiz okay good evening everyone my name is jorge ortiz thanks to my family that is here with me but they just didn't want to be on camera i'm attending the building and construction class thank you to my teacher mr beckham park the school board and the napa valley education napa valley adult education for selecting me as the student of the money it is such an honor after being diagnosed with kidney failure back in 2005 i was in dialysis treatment for about a year in june of 2006 i had a kidney transplant thanks to my father that donated

020me one of his thank you dad for the second chance to live after the kidney transplant i kind of didn't care about my education anymore because i thought i will have a very short life since then i have taken some college classes here and there trying to find a spark that would like my passion for education again but that didn't happen until i started attending the building and construction class my wife and the willingness to learn more about the construction trade motivate me to take the class this class has motivated me to continue my education and currently attending and i'm currently attending napa valley college pursuing a business and an accounting major no matter what my life expectancy is i'm also planning on taking the quickbooks class that the adult school offers in the future

021i want to be part of the management of an organization in the construction field i'm very grateful that the adult school exists here in our community thank you for all the support and guidance through my education journey the napa valley adult education has given me the second chance to education like the second chance my dad gave me to life thank you everyone thank you very much it's a pleasure to present our students this evening thank you the pleasure i think is it's definitely all ours here thank you so much okay so now i would like to welcome a new technology high school if principal susan miller would like to come to the mic please yeah good evening um president gonzalez morris dr mercedes and school board trustees thank you for the opportunity tonight to celebrate

022some of the amazing students at new tech high i'm happy tonight to be able to introduce you to two of them and these both of these students have continued to really thrive um in the last year despite the challenges of hybrid learning the resilience that they've shown is has really been remarkable so our student of the month for january is eric toscano eric is a junior at new tech high and he's really emerged at our school as a standout leader he has an exceptional academic record and at the end of this semester he will have successfully completed our cte digital media pathway and next year he'll be on track to also complete our cte computer science pathway his teacher shared that he's a strong leader with his peers and in his classes he's very confident

023and he really does go above and beyond in everything that he does because of eric's hard work in digital media um he's become a very skilled and talented graphic designer and i'm very proud to have a student like eric represent new takai so i'm very happy to introduce you to eric toscano hello thank you um i would like to start off by saying thank you to all the teachers principals and school board members i've had in my nvusd journey in skyrim snow elementary river school and new technology high school the schools that had shaped my academic learning in a positive way as well as thank you for working your best getting as students engaged during this pandemic being in river and newtek where project-based learning comes into play has helped me gain more collaborative and

024communicative skills it used to always be hard for me to speak up during class because but because of the experience i've had in both of these schools has helped me tremendously to become less nervous and more confident when i speak and thank you for the opportunities that has been given to me beyond the cast rooms such as the napa letter art festival and napa learns virtual learning and a special thanks to ms gottfried for going above and beyond for students and has helped me steer in a direction where i want to take my career there's definitely a lot more thanks to give but i want to end up by saying to my peers if they're listening take opportunities of interest thrown at you don't be hesitant go forward with confidence and be thankful thank you

025eric um our student of the month for february is malachite mcavoy malachi is a senior at new tech high and she's also a dedicated choir student at vintage high malachite hem has had a perfect academic record both in her class her classes at new tech at vintage and in her classes at napa valley college and in fact when she graduates from high school this year she'll have completed at least a full semester of uc transferable college coursework she has exciting plans for her life after high school that i hope she will share with you malachite's teachers describe her as creative outgoing confident malachite has been an absolute pleasure to have as a student at new takai and i'm very proud of her and the wonderful young woman that she has become i'm happy to introduce

026you to malachite mcboy that picture is from uh is from last year because because i wasn't able to get a picture for my senior year it's so funny i haven't seen it in a while sorry um okay i wrote a thing so i'm just gonna read that i used to tell myself stories at 10 years old about why cherry blossoms bloomed as i walked past my dream school they're signs i imagined left by the goddess of spring so that i won't lose my way i never could tell the difference between dreams and reality you see i grew up in the bay area and we used to walk across the uc berkeley campus on our way home my mom would point up to the tower and say make sure you work hard in school and someday

027you'll be going here as well school always motivated me as a storyteller after all stories shaped who i am if i can dream it maybe it can come true i moved to napa right after fifth grade and since then every story i've been proudest of has been one i wrote in my classes my schools have challenged me to expand my skills as a writer as well as a student in freshman year we were asked to apply for the napa valley college jessamine west high school writing contest with a and with every finished draft my teachers pushed me to refine my use of language and imagery after months of writing and rewriting i was chosen by the college for first place without my high school i never would have even applied in sophomore year my school

028hosted attention napa a student filmmaking club with a short film screened at the napa valley film festival that year we found ourselves mentored by masters most most notably francis ford coppola through the club i was encouraged to start my journey in screenwriting which has led me to take classes through ucla extension where i've been taught directly by members of the academy since then i've written my first three screenplays and i plan to major in college in film when i got my letters from colleges this spring the one i was most nervous about was from uc berkeley i had worked my entire high school career i had worked hard my entire high school career but i didn't know if that meant that i was good enough my heart started racing as i opened the letter up

029and i was happy to find that i had gotten in and for as much as i've pushed myself these past four years i know that it wouldn't have been possible without the dedication of not only myself but the teachers who pushed me harder than i thought was possible to achieve and for the lessons that i've learned from my schools i know because over the course of these past four years i've learned that the power of schools is to turn dreams into reality thank you malkite thank you to both napa valley adult education and new technology high school for enjoy uh joining us tonight and for presenting your students of the month okay we are now going to go to item g which this is the portion of public comments on non-agenda items members of the

030audience audience may address the board on any school-related matter that is not on the agenda the board will not take any 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 mr reese do we have any public comments on non-agenda items oh um [Music] trustee gracia if you can report on my public comment on non-attendant items first apologize no problem uh public comments were received by email at publiccomment indusd.org these comments received by electronic written format have been forwarded and reviewed by the nvusd board of education trustees there were two that were received for public comment uh susan bell non-agenda public comment for the april 22nd board meeting received

031421-21 and kevin west non-agenda public comment uh in the usd board meeting 4221 received 421-21 and those are the only public comments on non-agenda items thank you trustee gracia okay now mr reese do we have any members of the public in the zoom um that would have raised their hand to speak on non-public on non-agenda items we do have uh several hands up uh president gonzalez myers we'll start with matt clancy we don't hear anything mysteries mr cleansing he has to unmute his mic mr clancy can you unmute your mic to speak on a public comment on a non-agenda item just to remind everybody on the call if you raised your hand and you're here to speak on item k1b in regards to school closure you want to raise your hand when that item comes

032this is not the item to raise your hand on so again if mr clancy um we can't hear you if you don't i mean uh mike so mr reese can we go over the next uh person please yes let's go with nancy albaron hello nancy good evening president gonzalez mares trustees and dr masetti my name is nancy alvarez and i'm the superintendent of san jose unified the largest district in santa clara county i'm here today on behalf of my organization and the more than 3 000 employees that that work here and most importantly the three thousand students that we serve to thank you profusely for paving the way for the districts for many districts in the state of california including mine on how to safely return students to in-person instruction at scale your courageous leadership

033and commitment as a board and that of your superintendent dr masetti and all of your employees have served as a bright spot and a role model for organizations like mine to believe it is possible you probably already know this but i really wanted to take the opportunity to tell you your employees are incredible dr massetti for example has shared countless resources and lessons learned not just with san jose unified but with districts across the the state as i've seen on several panels that she has participated on and that i in webinars that i have joined by collaboratively putting students first and safety at the forefront of the decision making it's been possible i'd also like to thank chief business officer raj mankwala for taking the time to share a wealth of information and resources not

034just with me but with my team principal monica reddy and her incredible admin team teachers and classified staff hosted a team of high school principals there not too long ago and shared with us what is possible it made an incredible difference in our successful opening yesterday we returned 10 000 students and finally i really want to thank the napa valley educators association our san jose teachers association worked with president gail young who organized an incredible panel that that consisted of elaine balayan mike willmoth courtney garcia kristen pruitt uh who participated and and just did an incredible job this this panel was recorded and shared across my organization our teachers were so grateful to hear from practitioners who've been doing this for as long as your teachers have it was clear that this is hard work

035but most importantly that it could be done if you believe please know that in san jose unified we are deeply appreciative of your willingness to share and to collaborate and know that the impact that you had goes way beyond the students in napa you have impacted the lives of the students in my system more than 10 000 that are in person and i know i can confidently say that i'm sure that impact uh is across the state so again thank you and if san jose unified can ever be a resource to napa valley please know you can count on us um and again thank you thank you so much superintendent next comment mr reese yes lisa lombardi good evening my name is lisa lombardi and i would like to speak again about the browns valley

036elementary becoming a tk-8 school this is my third time speaking i'm a parent of a fourth grader and second grader twins at browns valley we have a strong interest in the decisions being made this year with regards to our middle schools i am also the parent club president we appreciate everyone involved with this process and the difficulty of the decision that will need to be made my comments tonight are really about this very very important issue speaking for many parents we would like to seek an amendment to resolution number 21-23 to include the addition of a tk8 school at browns valley elementary school nick lombardi valencia marty tk my apologies for having to interrupt you but this your comment is related to item k1b we welcome you back for that item it is related but

037it is not uh is lombardi it is related thank you so much next comment mr reece yes bells 6mb it's a new it's a i'm sorry mr ruiz did you say a name yes it's bells underscore 6mbf can you hear me now yes okay thank you so much um i am going to reiterate some comments i made uh regarding last thursday's uh crescendo equity grading presentation and i still would like to reiterate the questions that i brought up after that meeting and they're kind of as follows i'm still wondering have there been complaints or a survey of parents and teachers stating that the grading system at napa valley unified is insufficient and if so does community have the access to this information or the results of any surveys i'm wondering who wants this equity grading

038and did the ceo of crescendo contact napa valley unified and if not who requested the information on that program and does the community know equity grading is being considered and who would participate in deciding whether to adopt this concept for grading would it be prudent to add yet another potentially costly and controversial program and why not consider hiring more instructional assistants to support teachers and students in reaching their goals and then lastly is this the first covert step towards critical race theory after watching mr feldman's presentation on crescendo equity i survive the following mr feldman promotes the theory of equity grading based on pre-judgment one-sided perspective and compartmentalization of students based on skin color and income mr feldman also makes a number of condescending assumptions that our teachers are unable to assess a student fairly

039and individually equity grading presumes that a child is automatically at a disadvantage because of his or her income and skin color this promotes the false notion that it is indeed the color of our skin that matters rather than the content of our character mr feldman the ceo of crescendo uses a phrase implicit bias to describe others i submit that he is quite the epitome of his own implicit bias i hope this item will come to discussion soon and that we will be adequately informed of what what it is as well as the compute it is the community at large and in closing i'd like to say god bless our teachers and our students and especially jenny burke lou kenwood and aaron soper they're in poor health at the moment but god bless them and and

040once again god bless dr mussetti's continued recovery and good health and thank you for allowing me to express my observations and ask questions thank you for your comment next speaker mr reese yes mark seislov i'm going to address the river school issue which i believe is later in the agenda yes that's item k1b um once i call that item you can raise your hand then thank you next speaker mr reese yes nancy are you there nancy you have to unmute your mic all right okay let's go to us sylvia regolato zuck load hi good evening my name is sylvia regalado zaklar i am a parent at acms and canyon oaks in american canyon and i also serve as the president of the accms pto um currently and i know this is a very heavy night

041and i'd like us to just pause for a moment and look beyond uh um this pertains to middle school redesign work that's for 51b no what my comment is more about the forward movement um as we move forward i'd like the board to consider a realignment and reinvestment in secondary curriculum that starts in middle school with strong pathways into high school that ensure that achievement gaps are addressed while accelerated students are given the opportunity to further thrive on their campuses the return to a seventh seventh period day a plethora of student driven elective choices at each campus expanded after school enrichment programs college readiness campus cultures that nurture social emotional learning are just some of them i'm going to also as i did with previous comment um it is a related item so thank you

042please return for item k1b k1b please um next speaker mr reese this concludes um our public comments at this time president gonzalez modest okay thank you miss ruiz that concludes public comment on non-agenda items so we will now move forward to our next agenda item as we had made changes to our item to move item k1b before we get started on item k1b i will ask christine gracia to please report on any public comment made to our um sent to our email address yes public comments were received by email at publiccomment nvusd.org these public comments received by electronic written format have been forwarded and reviewed by the mvusd board of education trustees izzy wizzy title was river middle school poem received 417-21 debbie alterstar middle school equity includes geography ses ethnicity and more receive for

04321 21. jenny vanta protect harvest exclamation point seek harvest alternative solutions item k-1b receive 4-21-21 melissa hillman sequa fair argument public comment submittal for agenda item k1b adoption of resolution number 21-23 approving closure of harvest middle school and reconfiguration of middle school into a language academy campus determining that the project is exempt from california environmental quality act received for 21-21 carl freisinger save river vote no ask why public comment for receive 421-21 catherine fleming square fair argument public school comment submittal for agenda item k-1b adoption of resolution number 21-23 approving closure of harvest middle school and reconfiguration of river middle school into a language academy campus determining that the project is exempt from the california environmental quality act received for 2121. zack hillman against resolution number 21-23 received 421-21 wendy bell trammy middle school redesign

044do the work needed to find another solution received for 22-21 deidre wheeler public statement regarding nvusd should not close or reconfigure river middle school to redistribute its social emotional learning program uh receive 422-21 brooke item k1b adoption of resolution number 21-23 uh received for 2221. uh deidre wheeler public statement regarding nvusd 4221 board meeting agenda item k1b adoption of resolution 21-23 received 422-21 will daily the board is our voice in the middle school redesign decision received 4221 and lauren daly a vote of yes is not a financially sound decision received for 22 21. president gonzalez and trustee gracia i'd also like for the record to say that we receive the following public comment after today's deadline these public comments will be forwarded to the school board for review and will become part of the meeting

045archive the senders included mr chuck mayber whitney hahn john hannaford and lisa lombardi thank you trustee russo and dr masseni okay um now we will address item k 1b before we get started i do want to remind um our fellow trustees especially our new trustees here in the room and um and the public in regards to um direction that we have through our bylaws when it comes to public comment individual speakers shall be allowed three minutes to address the board on each agenda or non-agenda item the board should limit the total time for public comment on each item to 20 minutes with board consent the board president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation depending on the topic and the number of persons listening wishing to be heard the president may take

046a poll of speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask the additional persons to speak only if they have something new to add so i want us to have that to um take into consideration for tonight's comments i know we held a special meeting for this particular item and we have also engaged with the community for several months in ways and um and so with that uh we will look at how many hands are raised tonight so i will ask the public um to um now those whoever joining us earlier thank you for your understanding of patience um to raise your hand for item k1b um and um and now i will ask um maybe um mr reese if he could tell us the number of hands raised at this point uh the

047number of hands raised at this point is seventeen okay then um i think um seeing that 17 hands are raised we will um that's for approximately an hour um of time and then we can i will um encourage that we go ahead and do that because that i've seen a lot of nodding heads that we are okay with that okay so let's um have our 17 speakers i'll be ready to to do that but before we get started um did you want to say something dr masseni yes um thank you president gonzalez madison nvusd trustees i do have some information that i'd like to share with the board to introduce this agenda item before you listen to public comment deliberate and take action tonight regarding [Music] resolution 21-23 the information i'm going to share in

048advance of public comment in your deliberation and decision making is regarding the transition plan and immediate next steps that i'll be asking my staff to take if indeed the school board votes to approve this resolution which does articulate our staff recommendation for school closure and consolidation at the middle school level for the 22-23 school year if resolution 21-23 passes the state this evening i will be directing staff to work on the following immediate next steps to support the best transition possible through these challenging circumstances and i thought it would be in the best interest of the board for you to sort of hear our transition plan in advance of again your deliberation and decision making these are not the only actions staff will take but i think they are some of the most important and

049the most relevant to inform your decision tonight as trustees we want you to have knowledge of the most critical next step the next steps my staff will be taking beyond just the phase two programmatic planning that assistant superintendent pat andrew jennings presented at last week's special board meeting if indeed you vote to approve the staff recommendation to close harvest middle school and reconfigure river middle school so what are the next steps for staff this is a a lengthy list so i want to thank everyone in advance for their patients and the first is around immediate transition support meetings and support for staff and students my staff will be holding informational meetings with both the harvest and river staff in order to lay out expectations around student placement and transitions into new schools and some of

050the information that will be critical to understanding potential staffing reassignments and options for the 2022-2023 school year which is the proposed implementation year for the school closure and reconfiguration proposal you have before you this evening in addition we'll be providing staff with talking points and suggestions to support them in discussing school closure matters with students in the classroom as we know that this difficult decision will impact students lastly staff at harvest and river will be receiving support from our student services team in response to the emotional impacts of school closure on employees these same socio-emotional supports led by our student services department will be made available to students as needed next is support for families information and communication will be provided to the potentially impacted families over the course of the next few weeks if

051you vote to pass this resolution this evening the communication will be focused on our student placement and transition plans for students as we know this decision will bring forth anxiety for families at the impacted schools parents will be made aware of their enrollment options for the upcoming 21 22 school year in case they want to change any of their enrollment plans for next year and they will learn about their options for 22 for the 2022-2023 school year i will allude to some of the options we're committed to providing we will also be sharing these you know in writing with staff and parents in upcoming scheduled communications for the river middle school community i want to let the community staff and our school board know that if the resolution passes the current sixth and seventh grade

052families will learn that they will be able to finish their middle school experience at river if they choose the current seventh graders which would be next year's eighth graders we would propose that they finish at river middle school in the current river configuration the current sixth graders which would be next year's seventh graders will also be allowed to stay but will experience the programmatic shift vis-a-vis the new language academy program model in their eighth grade year what does this mean details are still to be worked out but at minimum they will be provided the opportunity to jump start their language learning in spanish before transitioning to high school current fifth grade families which would be next year's sixth graders who open enrolled inter river middle school for the 21 22 school year will be allowed

053to stay for their sixth grade year given that the implementation year is the following however they will not be able to stay automatically for their seventh or eighth grade year unless they open and enroll into the new language academy for seventh and eighth grade and are granted a spot based on space and availability these fifth grade families will be and that's again rising into sixth grade next year will be contacted in the next couple of weeks by our enrollment department staff they will be given the option to remain at river for their sixth grade year if they wish or will be provided the opportunity to reconsider their decision and enroll into another school given the impacts of the potential decision this evening please remember that these options are unique to students and families in the

054river middle school community because the campus on salvador in our proposal is remaining open and undergoing a programmatic reconfiguration to a language academy for the harvest middle school community these circumstances are slightly different for harvest the camp because the app campus in our proposal is actually closing in the 22-23 school year we will be redrawing the middle school boundaries in the next coming months harvest families will learn what their home school option is and then they can determine if they'd like to open enroll into other middle schools in the district for the 22-23 school year again the implementation year of the proposed resolution in addition our 6th and 7th grade families who would like to consider another enrollment option given the school closure decision if you all vote yes on the resolution will be provided

055the opportunity to transfer to another school of their choice if they wish for the upcoming 21 22 school year as well to the greatest extent possible our next year 6th and 7th grade dual immersion students who will be our 7th and 8th grade dual immersion students in the 22-23 school year will be automatically given placement and enrollment priority at the new language academy dli parents will be given the opportunity to let us know if they do not want the automatic placement at the new language academy at the river campus in the 22-23 school year most importantly i want to share that we will need to provide on-the-ground enrollment support for harvest resident families and we are deeply committed to doing that our harvest resident families will be provided with access to an enrollment session between

056the summer and early fall we will hold these enrollment support meetings at the harvest campus essentially taking our enrollment office into the field we will ensure spanish-speaking staff is available to work with the families our parent engagement office led by miss viviana loera will be working in partnership with the enrollment team under the direction of director chris gross to provide support to our spanish-speaking latinx families during these sessions parents will learn about their student placement options the transportation services that will be available to them and about before and after school programming services we plan to keep and before and after school program option at the harvest campus in the 22 23 school year if the demand is there and we may be all able to offer this option at the harvest middle school campus beyond

0572223 but the feasibility of this will be of course impacted by our property disposition strategy and timeline for the dual language immersion program and the new language academy i'd like to also highlight a couple of critical next steps first the instructional services division staff and principals ms alejandra uribe and miss helen roca will also be asked to hold informational meetings with our napa valley language academy and pueblo vista families in the next few weeks our dli families will learn about the vision of the language academy that you find in the proposed resolution and our commitment to the dual immersion middle school years program and all of the associated improvements again nbla and pv families will learn that they have priority enrollment and automatic placement at the new language academy unless they want to choose another

058option in addition assistant superintendent dana page announced this last week but i'd just like to reiterate it as a critical step we will be hiring and appointing the new language academy principal who will not technically start in their new role as principal in the until the 2022-2023 school year but we will appoint and name that principle in the immediate near future because we need that principle to begin working closely with the instructional devel the instructional division on the task of program development immediately after their appointment on the topic of small learning environment options and social emotional learning these both these topics have come up repeatedly through all of the community input we've received up until tonight first and foremost we want the board to know that we are committed to creating a strong sense of

059community safety and inclusiveness at our middle schools even as they get potentially larger and involve the merger of various school populations through all of the opportunities for community input during town hall meetings last week special board meeting and in writing we've heard concerns that larger middle schools are not for everyone so for this reason and in response to community input i'm directing assistant superintendent pat andrew jennings and her team to explore and research the viability of a k-8 program model as we engage in this transformation of our middle school landscape i've personally reached out to school districts who have both succeeded and failed with k-8 models to learn about how to deploy a k-8 strategy successfully our team plans to tour and meet with these districts and schools as we consider implementing this new model

060in nbusd we will be engaging in a feasibility analysis again if you pass this resolution this evening for pilot k-8 models to be implemented in the 2022-2023 school year at both sheer elementary and browns valley elementary many students who will be impacted by the harvest middle school closure might benefit if the k-8 option is made available to them since we have students who live in the harvest attendance resident area attending both of these elementary schools browns valley and sheer parents will be surveyed immediately at both elementary schools to first assess demand and interest the survey results and feasibility study will determine if we start implementation of the pilots with our current fifth graders who are rising sixth graders next year sixth graders at both of these sites or if we need to wait until the

0612022-2023 school year to have more time for recruitment of interested families after learning from the implementation of these pilots for a couple years as we redesign our middle school landscape we will determine if the k-8 model in nvusd is sustained and scaled the k-8 work will be led by our director of elementary curriculum instruction and english learner services mr matt manning we want to also recognize that there is a need to systematize our social emotional learning approach at the middle school level especially again as our schools get larger in size we heard repeatedly about the success and positive impact of the model river has implemented over the last couple of decades the river educational model can be viewed as an overlay or student support approach which can be incorporated into an educational program we believe

062that every middle school student should experience the benefits of social emotional learning the signature structures and practices at river which include a more personalized learning approach an advisory structure strategic teacher teaming and a laser-like focus on social emotional learning are incredibly valuable we all know that these structures and practices have been implemented in the small school setting the smaller middle school setting at river school our instructional services team is confident based on both research and practice that these structures can be implemented at larger comprehensive middle schools and we look forward to scaling and implementing in the new larger settings if you indeed pass the resolution again we look forward to bringing some of the elements of the river educational model to our large comprehensive middle schools the phase 2 middle school redesign work group will

063be studying designing and preparing for consistent implementation of social emotional learning curriculum at the middle school and a standardization of structures that create a smaller learning comm community at our larger comprehensive campuses which will include structures like advisory periods and team teaching models so more to be learned there this critical work in the middle school redesign process will be led by our new director of secondary curriculum instruction in english learner services miss monica reddy in partnership in collaboration with miss sarah knox our director of intervention and prevention services in closing as the board listens to more public comment this evening and then deliberates and prepares for a very difficult decision i once again want to recognize the challenging nature of the work we are doing it's very difficult work if the board approves the proposed

064scenario and staff recommendation we know tonight's decision will impact the lives and the educational journey of our children students families staff and communities at large will experience loss pain and disappointment however as the superintendent of schools i also know that if the district works hard and handles this potential transition with lots of support care attention and empathy that new opportunities will lie ahead and these changes if implemented successfully can actually ensure improvements in the educational experiences of our students at the middle school level sustainably and with equity i want the board to know that i have the utmost confidence in my staff and team to implement the transition successfully for nvusd community if you do indeed approve resolution 21-23 this evening lastly as you all know we've received lots of input about saving our schools

065is exactly what we're doing even though it doesn't feel like it none of our schools exist in a vacuum each of our campuses depends on the viability of all the district schools we must have the ability to reorganize and improve the district's campuses and programs before the burden becomes too great in response to the external factors that are putting this pressure on the district the only way we can continue to succeed through all we have been through is to adapt develop and renew our commitment to our students and families the only way we made it to the greatest threat in the history of education this last year where schools were literally shut down by the pandemic was to develop and adapt unimaginable models of education which included both virtual and hybrid classrooms the educational success

066for our children depends on improvement and evolution not just maintaining the status quo we must have the ability to adapt and develop our assets when faced with problems and challenges that require problem solving we have to be responsible and forward-looking we can't just hope for a better future we must make changes to develop a better future for all of the children in the napa valley unified school district so i support the board as you engage in this difficult decision tonight thank you thank you dr masetti okay mr reese let's go um and start with our first public comment right uh ashley all right can you hear me there we okay um well well first i wanted to just say i was beyond inspired by the students of the month um that was they were amazing

067um and just cheers to all of them um second um i'm going to change my comment a little bit based on um what dr mussetti just addressed in the transition plan um and i want to commend the task force for for the difficult work they they had to do i i personally work in transformation and i know it's very hard um i'm speaking to propose that you that you include an amendment to include browns valley um as k through eight as a part of the resolution number 2123 um i think dr mussetti outlined the reasons nicely and i um i propose that the pilot starts this coming school year um you know i think that piloting this program at both shearer and browns valley would enable to create accessibility for the community um browns valley

068students primarily attend harvest and river and and and those options it sounds like may be eliminated if the proposal is adopted by turning both of those schools into a k-8 program um it would at least give students an option closer to home as well as provide a small smaller learning environment um for those students um we have a wonderful principal bronze valley is ready to go and welcome and we have a very supportive parent community that would i think help ease the transition as well and i know a lot of people want to speak so i am going to stop there and give some time back thank you very much for allowing me to speak thank you for your comment next speaker yes uh nicole clancy hi um thank you for the chance to speak

069to the trustees and and also to the members of our community um the district is really just systematically stripping our children of the educational diversity they've shut down mount george yawnville elementary's gone down they're trying to shut down river and harvest they've limited the legacy youth projects slash ethnic studies as well as international baccalaureate programs in our district now they're coming after the social emotional learning prague program and i mean make no mistake i i believe stone bridge will be next i believe new tech will be next i believe ap high school forces could be next and i i just see this as a racing our proud napa legacy of educational diversity um trustees you have heard the resounding and united voice of this community stand up and do what's right do what's being demanded

070by the people of napa i still have faith that you have seen this process for what it is it's flawed and rushed it has a self-serving agenda and i just want to mention on um on tuesday the napa police showed up at my home and stated that a board member sorry um felt unsafe because of my husband's email uh the officer said that the board member was threatened by the term personal liability my 12 year old daughter was home when it happened and she was terrified so we can add that as another trauma to her growing list um i was in disbelief and just let me add that my daughter molly had a speech prepared tonight asking the board to think about her four r's a river when making your decision and um now she

071doesn't want to speak in front of a grown-ups um that had called the police on our family so this intimidation tactic is not going to stop me from speaking up uh we'll keep writing letters to everyone who'll listen we'll keep climbing the administrative ladder and um we're gonna just march down any and every avenue to write these wrongs thank you very much for your time thank you for your comment next speaker mysteries yes sarah hello i'm at a loss especially now considering it sounds like dr masetti is expecting your vote tonight it sounds like this is a done deal i spent weeks trying to understand how a school board tasked with maintaining quality education for an entire town children can so easily discard hundreds of those children in favor of a small program you're hoping

072will grow it's very clear that you want that particular program to grow at any cost and the kicker is i hope it grows too we have several very good friends with kids in that program and ironically it's funny none of them knew that this was going down nor do they support it i've i've sent the board multiple emails and some and to some of your credit you've responded some of you at length the problem with your response is the tone it's very clear that you're trying to convince yourself that this is the right decision the problem is that it is fundamentally and unequivocally wrong it is a blatant disposal of our children in favor of a few it feels like you're trying to create a divide in our program versus their program division and i

073can tell you without question or hesitation that won't happen in our house there will not be a divide i will love my friends kids just as much tomorrow as i do today and i will continue to enjoy watching them grow and thrive and i will always do anything and everything i can to help them in that process however if you if you vote to close both river and harvest tonight the message you're sending will be blatantly clear that message is that you are not willing to work harder to find an equitable solution for all children and since i don't have a voice in that decision or at least one that matters to you i will spend the next one to three years and i've noted that three of you will be up for re-election in

0742022 and the next three and 24. i will spend that time actively campaigning to get you off this board you have no business sitting in those seats when it is so clear how disposable children are to you you need to know that i will spend every day for the next one to three years talking to every neighbor i see at every play date that we go to every ball game we attend every dance recital back to school night every backyard bbq i will actively campaign to get you out of office if 2020 has taught us anything it's the power of voting i am asking you no i'm actually begging you and i realize time is of the essence but you have to get this right all of these kids need you we need you to

075find a better solution thank you for your comment next speaker mr ruiz jody hi thank you for hearing my comment um i'd first like to say thank you to dr macetti and to the board um your comments this evening dr masetti with regard to the changes that are happening uh potentially um you know brought near tears to my eyes i hearing the those parents of students at river and harvest um you know it must it must be hard i have a child at browns valley he's in fourth grade um i'm on to advocate for the tk through eight program at our school um but i can't imagine the heartache of your school closing at school closing so i can't you know i wish there was a better way i have to um trust that decisions

076are made because there isn't a better way and if that's the case and those schools are closing uh that brings up you know making browns valley uh and shearer uh as a pilot programs an amazing opportunity to see if a tk through eight is indeed a good solution um i know personally that um you know river river would have been our choice you know um and harvest would have been our school that we went to if we didn't get uh into river and so knowing that um my son would go into you know a bigger pool you know a bigger ocean of fish you know it's hard because you know it's hard when you're when your child is is uh put into such a big i don't know a big environment um that and i

077think sixth grade is is young to be in middle school and so i guess those things together the sixth grade and then the the big middle schools and not having a small school option and um again the closing of harvest i think that opening a k-8 at bv is a good way of giving the harvest families another option as well um maybe addressing the declining enrollment uh people will be more potentially inclined to stay in um the public school program knowing that they had a k-8 program or tk-8 program as a viable option so i just wanted to express my support for that program and thank you guys all for your hard work and that's all thank you thank you for your comment next speaker mr ruiz kobus dunison hi sorry about that can you

078hear me yes great thank you um i'm kobus jennison i'm a parent of two boys who went to river and uh i just wanted to share that you know the life lessons they learned there were incredibly valuable um i won't go into all the details why the river program would work so well for them but i have to say listening to the call last week also it became more and more apparent that um you know there were many families that had similar experiences and um i just felt i wanted to share that losing this choice in napa uh just seems like a very sad decision and i feel we really must take a pause to reevaluate this um you know it's a major destructive decision uh you know it reminds me of that of the

079saying measure twice cut once you know this just it feels like the type of decision that needs another measure i'm sure that i i've only heard a fraction of what you all have heard and considered already but there seems to be compelling evidence to suggest that voting to close two middle schools this evening is not a sound financial decision um there has not been adequate analysis of the associated costs and loss of revenue to the district as far as i could see and you know i'm also very afraid that there are uncalculated new costs that will really come from consolidating to the three model schools and i have to wonder how much of that savings of closing river and harvest would would really be realized versus just you know dumping it into into trying to

080fix what we broke um of course there's you know other costs that i was wondering about like busing and other transportation related costs that will increase um you know and then what i've heard from a lot of a lot of families is the very real potential loss of revenue for for families who who leave nvusd um i know it's a question whether people would really do that but i've heard a lot of people mention that they would um and uh you know i just feel like this is such a big decision i i i'll just go back to my my feeling like this is a measure twice cut once type situation and my my ask is that the board decides to take another look at this take another month convene a new task force you

081know it can run independently but with the cooperation of the school district and and really look at what do all the middle school families really want get a balanced view from that and include some of the experts from city planning finance and education um and that's like a real plan that that doesn't get us back into the same problem in two years i realize that sounds idealistic but cutting cutting these two schools without really giving it another another shot giving it another another look just feels wrong thank you for your comment next speaker mr royce mysteries next speaker yes maria lorena casares just unmute her mic hi now you can hear me yes okay thank you for giving me the opportunity last time i was waiting and i don't know what happened but i'm agree

082with sarah and the last lady she said the police show to her house but now we need to be we need to speak up like one community we need to fight for our schools it's no okay the way that you guys deciding what's the best for our children's you guys thinking about money you guys thinking about buildings please please i begging you don't close river don't close harvest don't put those two programs together please listen to us thank you thank you for your comment next speaker mysteries yes mark seislov hello yes how are you good um i had two sons go through uh river school one's gone on to get three engineering degrees another one's become a very successful artist and then tonight i hear that eric toscano attributes some of his success to river

083school and for that reason i think it'd be a shame to close that by looking at the superintendent it looks like the decision has been made already which i think is sad but i think we have an extraordinary school there and um one of the reasons i know that is i was on the board of river school with land inlay while patrick sweeney was a part of the was the superintendent and it was just extraordinary and the district has invested in this school i mean if you think about it you drive by salvador now i mean it's extraordinary so why would you walk away from that investment i mean it's just extraordinary what they've done from river school being this little tiny place in a building to what it is today i mean i just

084from a business standpoint i just think it's it's a bad move um but anyway i look at uh return on investment that's how i look at things and i also look at all the work that we put into this school parents kids the community and it would be just a shame to close that down thank you for your comment speaker mr ruiz yes lisa lombardi hi again i hope i can finish my comments this time thank you very much um thank you dr mussetti for your comments regarding um your immediate next steps it's great to hear that the district is seriously considering our bv tk through eight proposal but speaking for many parents we would really like to seek an amendment to resolution number 21-23 to include the addition of a tk8 school of browns

085valley elementary school for the vote tonight making browns valley a tk8 school is part of the solution this isn't just about browns valley this is about preparing our school district for the future we strongly believe a successful tk8 model at browns valley will open the possibility for similar models at other elementary campuses as a solution to the reality of ongoing declining enrollment and it is also great to hear that sheer is also being considered aside from the well-known positive research of k-8 school environments there are other benefits to opening a kate school each year browns valley loses 12 to 15 students to private schools that is a loss totaling 120 to 150 000 per year to napa private schools it is important for us to consider how we attract retain and reclaim families that are

086choosing between mbusd and private schools especially now if this proposal or resolution is voted on tonight the solution of a tk8 school would broaden the product base of mbusd's offerings we think most of you are in favor of this proposal and we appreciate your thoughtful consideration but if you do have an objection to our request to move forward tonight on adding a tk8 school to browns valley we would like to hear your thoughts so we can have a conversation this is the end of my prepared comments and i just do want to say thank you again to everyone and i know tonight is definitely one of the tougher ones for you and i do appreciate all that you do for our community and for our school district thank you thank you for your comment next

087speaker mr reece yes sarah w hi can you hear me yes uh hello my name is sarah witt and i am a browns valley parent i would like to voice my support of converting browns valley to a tk through eighth school we would love to help pilot a public k-8 option along with sheer for the napa valley unified school district with hopes that it could expand to other campuses in the district we're ready and excited to take sixth graders this august which could provide for some continuity continuity of education for students facing possible middle school closures in another year we have a strong leadership and a wonderful school community that could provide another option for many students that might not thrive in a large middle school setting and we could possibly retain students that might

088opt for a private k through eighth for their middle school years i thank you for your time and consideration thank you for your comment next speaker mysteries dr tanya mahaphan hello can you hear me yes thank you thank you dr masetti the napa valley unified school district board of trustees parents and community members i am dr tanya mahapan a pediatric optometrist as health care providers of the children of the napa valley we are requesting that you delay any closures of the napa valley unified school district schools until the school year of 2023 to 2024 instead of the next projected date of 2022 to 2023 the following reasons are stated below many students will be returning back to the napa valley unified school district when five-day in-class learning resumes this will allow more accurate and up-to-date

089enrollment numbers to use for middle school redesign announcing this closure of a middle school just as students are returning to school for the year of 2021 to 2022 has already caused additional stress to students we are requesting that someone from pediatric healthcare be involved with the task force and planning of a middle school redesign we understand that the napa valley unified school district needs to downsize and school closures will need to be made we are requesting that we be involved in this whole restructuring of the napa valley unified school district pre-k through 12th grade our input can be um can help with a systematic and long-term approach to the health the children of napa valley at the best educational experience for many years to come this letter was supported by dr greg beach optometrist and

090his wife robin beach dr matani from eye care specialist elaine gomez nurse practitioner from napa valley pediatrics the other pediatricians would have supported this letter but they are lacking information and that is where i would like to ask the board to abstain from any votes until we get more information the information that we would like to have is how is this these two school closures going to affect the mental health of our students of napa valley we do not want them to end up at valley oak or camille creek those are the people that students that have behavioral and substance abuse we can help these children before that happens what percentage of children in napa valley have they attend private school have you surveyed these parents why have they left have we exhausted all other

091funding options this is new with the idea of the k through eight how did these schools how did you choose these schools this is a totally new option these decisions and this feasibility study needs to be done before any decisions need to be made there should be no amendments to this proposition i strongly encourage you guys to please please think of the children of napa valley these are students now and for the futures to come thank you so much for listening to my comment thank you for your comment next speaker mr ruiz yes matt clancy yes hello um can you hear guys hear me yes yeah thank you for allowing me to speak um you know mbusd has been losing students since 2014. uh 1382 over six years does look like a trend uh the

092board and superintendent are using the king report that further suggests that we're going to lose 4 000 students by 2028. if you believe this trend will continue indefinitely mvusd will have no students by 2068. it it sounds ridiculous right but it's it's how you analyze these numbers that makes them powerful i don't believe it because i live here a sacramento consulting firm and dr missetti wouldn't understand what occurred during these times to properly analyze this information so why are we losing students in 2014 nava was rocked by a 6.0 earthquake it was terrifying people lost their homes and moved 2017 we were surrounded by fire people lost their homes and moved an another fire in 2020 people lost their homes and moved covid many lost their jobs and moved we only lost 1400 students in

093these six years and that seems small these are not trends these are a series of consecutive life events that change napa's landscape and community forever without tragedy we will not keep losing students the king report points out that we will gain 965 new students with ongoing construction that's encouraging napa city and county are working to create affordable housing what is mvus2 doing to create more students cutting mount george and yonko now cutting river and harvest what message does it send to families of moving to the district or or those who already live here we're scared of napa's future under people who don't understand what napa is and what we've gone through more importantly how we feel about our schools and its legacy i don't i believe in napa to rebound i know we will i

094asked the board to believe in napa valley as well with their vote remember we where we've been and what these numbers really mean the board of trustees should understand this there's opportunity here that's being overlooked river has a waiting list and is a top performing academic middle school in napa valley river is costly but sel meets the needs of the students and should be expanded to draw in families it's in high demand equally expensive is a dli program that has been losing students and will replace river it's a fantastic program but when we can't maintain the numbers another report by someone outside the area will suggest that we cut that as well the board needs to have more depth and creativity in finding solutions and make better more well-informed decisions stand up napa strong or

095stand aside without all the information looked out by every single angle you must vote no thank you very much thank you for your comment next speaker mr ruiz uh will daily hello can you hear me yes all right uh hello ford and dr masetti and napa uh thanks for the opportunity to speak you know i think if we look at the outcome just on paper of uh what the proposal is what we're essentially saying is we're going to close two popular programs replace it with a program that's needed but never has been particularly popular and not as popular as the ones we're eliminating it's a great program absolutely but napa hasn't chose it over the other ones um it's it's an odd proposal um especially when you say that it's to save money and the

096actual amount of money it saves is one not huge and two is is subject to debate uh you know it's the proposal has raised a lot of questions that we haven't answered um there's a lot of wishful thinking of well then we're going to do this and it's going to be great we're going to add 400 students to silverado and redwood and it's going to be great and we're going to move doi to the river campus and it's going to be great but we've done no real research to do that right to say that and then you know dr has has explained what the plan is uh for the administration but again there there's no there there yet right it's just we we intended to investigate these things we really don't have a good plan

097we have an idea but it's not a plan and it's not something that really we can vote on at this point right we know that the demographic data that the city is using is different from the demographic data that the district is using they're hidden costs we haven't really taken into account yet we already know that people are attributing from from the district just because of the threat of this plan i mean it is happening already it's been kind of brushed off and and swept into the rug but it is already happening so there's a lot of questions that we have out here that we haven't answered we've got an idea but not a plan um really you know i mean with all due respect to dr mossetti she could leave at any time right

098she's an employee but the rest of us aren't we live here and if this goes wrong we are the ones who have to fix it right we are the ones that have to fix this we got to get it right as kobus said earlier you know this is a metroplex and cut once sort of thing we have to get it right and so you know for the board i just say look think about what a personal threshold for you to vote no to this proposal would be what would you not want to lose and understand that's what other people are thinking right now okay and whether or not your yes vote is actually required right now because as far as i can tell the district can proceed with its planning while we re-evaluate this proposal

099so i just encourage the board to think about what is their threshold for no and do we actually have to say yes right now or can we say we'll proceed as though we're saying yes but we'll continue to investigate the problem thank you very much for your time thank you for your comment next speaker mr ruiz yes robbie gamble holly we're not hearing anything mr reese you there robbie i am here can you hear me yes thank you very much my name is robin gamble hawley thank you to the task force dr masetti and the trustees although there's a very difficult decision in front of you i've really come to realize that the board and dr masetti you guys are trying to do what you believe is best for kids while also being mindful of

100the district's budget i have a fifth grader who in order to meet his social emotional needs is enrolled in river middle school for the next academic year and then i also have a third grader um who would be a better fit at our neighborhood school which is harvest so with this proposal my family is being hit on both ends for our options for middle school i don't want these campuses to close because they are of value to our community with their proposed closures i feel that the public school options for my children and many others will be eliminated so i was very very pleased to hear the proposal of adding two tka campuses to the district i request that the resolution 21-23 be amended tonight to specifically include having tk eights at shear and browns

101valley elementary school in the resolution and if an amendment cannot be made tonight and resolution 2123 passes as is i request that the implementation plan presented by dr musetti be formalized and included in the minutes for tonight's meeting thank you thank you for your comment next speaker is reese yes jolene yee good evening can you hear me yes thank you for your time this evening um you are facing mounting overwhelming public opposition to the proposal before you this evening this opposition includes well-documented data that directly contradicts the data provided by the district in support of the proposal understandably this puts you the trustees in a very difficult position just a few examples several task force members have written publicly that dr missetti failed to answer requests for additional data needed to verify the district's proposals

102and you should be concerned that the district was unwilling or unable to provide that requested data in response to a question by trustee dooley at the last board meeting dr masetti indicated that she did not know how many families leave the district to pursue private school education generally speaking the district ceo shouldn't know why and how many customers leave for the competition but it's alarming that no studies or research was conducted to understand the impact of closing the two middle schools on nvasd enrollment an informal survey conducted on the river middle school community shows that a distressing number of families would leave the district either by choosing to home school moving to private school or by leaving napa altogether if you choose to close river an even larger number of families would be interested in

103leaving to attend an independent charter school utilizing the river program and culture data regarding the cost of business resulting from the closure of harvest provided to you and to the public by lorraine richardson is alarming and the demographic information presented by dr mercedes to the board last week presents a different picture than data presented to the city council on april 20th this discrepancy and data needs to be reviewed and considered if the reason you are closing to school is because you need to save money then it's imperative when making that decision to understand the full cost impact of that closure it is very clear from the questions being asked and the answers being given that you do not have all the information necessary to make an informed decision and the consequences of a wrong decision

104are dire not just for the hundreds of harvest and river families but for the 17 000 of the usd students the 2223 budget shows a reserve of 3.3 percent it would not take much for us to drop below 3 triggering a state takeover the district document shown 11.7 million deficit if our survey is correct and more families leave the district because you close river then i think a lot more families better be prepared because dr mussetti is not done and she is going to have to close a lot more schools to prevent the district from going into receivership you need to be much more concerned than you have expressed to us in your emails and in conversations about the lack of data and the failure to fully validate the numbers in the proposal provided by

105dr masetti you should be very nervous about approving a proposal that is not accompanied by a detailed plan of implementation including a thorough outline of associated costs a state takeover would be devastating for all of us your management of the district will be intensely scrutinized please postpone the decision for 90 days and take the time to fully vet a comprehensive proposal that won't put our district into receivership thank you thank you for your comment next speaker mr mr royce melissa hillman hi my name is melissa hillman and i recently moved to napa in the summer of 2020. i submitted a letter last night to the board that had a detailed review of of the implications of not evaluating the environmental impacts that will occur as a result of closing harvest and river and i'd encourage

106you to read that in detail as there are there are issues that need to be fully vetted not only as we've heard tonight from a number of families on a number of issues from the financial sides of things to the impacts that our children will have emotionally as a result of these closures but there also will be impacts environmentally that will impact our community i believe that like a number of people we've heard about heard from tonight that this decision to close these middle schools has been incredibly rushed and needs further evaluation in california there's an act called the california environmental quality act in my letter i put forth a fair argument demonstrating that there's substantial evidence that this project will have a significant adverse effect on the environment due to the increases in transportation

107the increases in air quality and greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the transportation and because a number of our community members have also expressed concerns about these environmental impacts the district has an obligation to conduct a thorough review to determine if those impacts are significant and if those environmental impacts are significant then an environmental impact report would need to be prepared before moving forward on this project what those that evaluation would include would be looking at each of the end of in three large individual schools to evaluate evaluate the number of students that actually walk and the number of students that are driven and which will result in the least impact to the environment and that should be taken into consideration when determining which school to close now if napa valley unified school district

108does not do their due diligence and ensure that the impact of this project is not significant then the school district will be opening themselves up to very costly litigation that will delay any project that would move forward with respect to closing a middle school so given that fact it seems that we shouldn't vote on this resolution tonight and we should do the research that's necessary to make sure that we're covering our bases with respect to sequa because of this fact i encourage the board to either vote against this resolution or delay voting until the proper evaluation has been done thank you for your time and good luck with making the right decision thank you for your comment next speaker mysteries good evening my name is tony parise and i was not going to speak this

109evening because i sent plenty of emails to the board members as well as participated speaking at other meetings i must speak tonight to tell you that enough is enough turmoil is enough taking a slightly different tact this evening this is very personal for me i have a sixth grader at river middle school tonight i heard dr mercede talk about the sel program at river in more minutes then she's spoken the entire time of the process for evaluating it's closure for river and harvest there is no plan there there's just an idea as other statements have been made i think it's shameful the board is considering this bulldozed singular recommendation the turmoil is enough for my family and my friends will be sad to hear that despite whatever decision you make this evening i will be

110removing my child from the district whatever decision you make this evening it's just not worth it for my sixth grader to go through the disaster that will take place over the next several years you have created a self-fulfilling prophecy even before making the decision because of the lousy way that this process has been handled as trustees for our children where are you pushing back asking questions asking for more recommendations or creative recommendations why aren't you demanding more i urge you to vote no but i'm sorry to say it's too late for my family we will be leaving the district thank you for your comment next speaker mr reese yes tracy mosquitt hi my name is tracy moskowite i've spoken at i don't know how many of these now and my comments today are slightly different

111i am a teacher at river middle school i am a homeowner in american canyon i have a daughter tk at pueblo vista so i'm i'm all in here i'm fifth generation napa but in short i feel that there has been nothing but back door deals for all of this i've made these comments fully hoping that i'm using the system appropriately when clearly there was already an answer before there was even public comment which i want to point out there was only public comment there was never a single time where i got to ask a question and to get an answer which is ridiculous i as an employee do not feel heard i feel stepped on as a parent i don't feel heard i don't feel that i'm being given information not just to do with

112the middle school redesign task force but the dual immersion program i had no idea it went to middle school in high school i signed my daughter up for it and i had no idea that that even happened there is lack of communication in all ways there is lack of transparency and those are your goals your goals are transparency to employees to the community and none of that is happening we're hearing from so many parents from pueblo or from browns valley about a tk through eight because through rumors if they spoke up they get it that that is inconceivably wrong to be told by somebody at the district if you speak up at these meetings we'll make sure it happens as long as this happens that's a back door deal so as an employee i'm a

113great math teacher fantastic and my students are beyond my highest priority but i'm stepped on as a teacher and that's not okay thank you for your comment um if my tally is correct um we're at 17 comments um mr reese can you tell me um how many more hands are up we have 11 hands up because it's all smartest okay um i know we usually take a time for a break around this so let's pause here before um the next um individuals make their comments so let's do that um so we're going to take a five minute break and return to resume public comment thank you everyone for your patience and letting us take a bathroom break and stretch our backs um mr ruiz can you um let me know how many hands are raised

114we have 13 hands raised president was osmotis okay um what i'm going to propose is that we close it at 13 hands 13 comments um and allowing three minutes for each to comment and at that point um we will close for public comment okay all right next comment next speaker mr reese okay carl yes thank you board of trustees dr masetti and the community um i have written letters uh before so thank you for taking the time to to read those uh trustees uh these comments are based off of the opening remarks of dr musetti and ties into one of my earlier points that there doesn't seem to be due process in making this decision one is where you're voting for a decision that is going to repurpose a school river middle school but there's

115no plan of what repurposing means so how can the board vote on something that has not even been evaluated to how that school is going to be repurposed and then more directly to the points today about a transition plan or a transition idea that dr masetti laid out i echo that those could be great ideas but what is the plan has the financial analysis been done on the plan for the comprehensive work to be done with to transition the students over the um now the new plan with having kids stay on at river school has how does that affect the budget that's been laid out for the for the savings so that takes away from those potential savings an analysis has not been done further there's an idea about a tk through 8 program how

116does that affect the decision to have the dli at river how will that supplant it or replace it and then what happens to river again we have a lot of ideas but no plan about how to move forward in what the school projects or the school board projects as a declining enrollment also it's been said at other times but also in the plan how we're going to make a robust sel program at the larger middle schools river has been a school for i believe 26 years why wasn't this done prior to a motion or a resolution to shut down the school how can it be said that we are going to do this when we're 26 years in and it really hasn't been done and if it wanted to be done why wasn't this done

117prior prior to even this motion or resolution be uh coming up and lastly to reference the the king study um there was two recommendations out of there and one was to consolidate at least temporarily um schools and there was a recommendation for middle schools well we're not consolidating we're closing down we have tried to at least have the 200 kids for the dli and on and then river remain and there's nothing temporary about this so the only the own study and conclusions are not being followed by the study that the school board and or district put on i urge you to vote no we do not have a plan and um thank you very much thank you for your comment next speaker mysteries lorena munoz um hi um can you guys hear me yes okay

118perfect so i just want to start by saying a saying um when they say when the you hear the river sound more likely has water in it when you hear all these parents worry about their school either river or harvest and everybody when you hear the four test members complaining about how they were treated and how they plan everything they're not uncomfortable they're really uncomfortable with the decisions they were not allowed to make decisions to give new scenarios because all the scenarios were given by the district they were not given by the four tax members um that has to be that means something for you it has to be mean something for you guys you guys have to listen to them because it's impossible that you guys are only listening to one person but not

119the fourth task not the parents the people that is really being affected by all this uh second of all um i just want to say there's no plan and i think if you guys looking for an option why not like i said before why not ask for more money to the state why that is not an option why can i get the parents together and go to the state the state to sacramento and us for an increasement of money for the students why that's not an option i mean if you guys are really looking to our kids and are worried and you guys want to be like you guys want to have a better future for your kids and you want to look after them that's one option because closing schools is not an option

120because if we keep closing schools we're gonna get less money and less money and less money and that's not an option because more kids are leaving the district in that way or if we or if you guys are god by the way um saying that we're going to lose a lot of the students why cannot we if we're really losing a lot of students why can we not be like saint helena's school district i mean they don't have a problem with enrollment they don't have a problem with the money why cannot be like that he's just wondering the other option it was like in the first task um some of the options were given it was closed redwood middle school but that was not an option i think when they said this is an ocean

121option but not really an option then it's like they're cutting our hands they're cutting our voices i think you guys have to pay attention to that and i think we all support necklace in any schools for now because two million dollars is not going to help our students in any way not even the district because at the end you're going to lose more money by closing schools than by now that's it thank you for your comment next speaker mr reese yes samantha holland good evening can you hear me yes thank you so i appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight i have unfortunately been here before as my family was affected by previous school closures i have to say that it was shocking to me to hear this conversation begin tonight with next steps when you

122have not even voted on this what does that tell us it tells me that the decision has obviously already been made adding the k-8 item in the mix that was not recommended or reviewed by in the process and asking for an amendment of that proportion is seriously adverse to good public policy and decision making this process was flawed and the recommendation and plan presented are seriously underdeveloped there are lots of ideas being presented but where is the analysis of the cost and savings of all of this how does it affect your bottom line which is what we're really addressing here you're making a decision and we're talking about money you're making a decision to save money all of these ideas they come at a cost what is the what is the cost of all of

123that there are conversations and promises being made outside of the public meeting process they were even discussed tonight in dr mussetti's opening comments and these should not weigh into your decision tonight a possibility of analyzing to try a k-8 is not a solution to assist those students who thrive in a smaller environment and will be displaced by this closure if this is the best solution we have to this issue i am shocked and i am saddened as a parent and as a citizen i encourage you to vote no thank you for your comment next speaker mysteries yes norma ortiz can you hear me yes following my public comment of april 15 2021 of 10 36 pm is as follows whichever the decision to date it will bring change and impact in the lives of many

124students families and the community we don't want to see the closure of schools i feel that one town hall meeting in spanish and another in english to address this highly important matters was simply not enough envy usc sending an email the same day of the previous board meeting of april 15 at 11 a.m to join with an octopus i recall the time when nbusd felt rushed with the pre-litigation of the redistricting matter and at that time or now president elba gonzalez marries said it was disrespectful to the latino community perhaps some reflection needs to be noted compared to what we are currently facing with the harvest issue mostly regarding the platform of information data communication civil engagement and other fundamental and valuable aspects worthy of listening because there was enough time to do so as

125a district we face obstacles that we can overcome but if we continue to stay united and respect all of our contributions with integrity we can successfully move forward in my opinion demographically speaking closing harvest is not the best option solution i feel that the information was not presented in a full transparent manner and that was disappointing the redesigned task force at first with pre-selected scenarios and the district's lack of effort to invest in harvest made everything more than evident the closure of harvest there was a lot of disagreement within such task force committee in the attempt to make the decision that is expected more so seem official but that is being opposed rejected by many families for various reasons it is well known that the dual immersion pipeline continues at harvest in my opinion what

126will be done in river could have been further implemented and invested at harvest with the current proposal of scenario g instead of neglect in my opinion i feel that the district needs to work more on inclusivity equity and education another we are united we speak our voices but we need to start with ourselves acknowledge the realities that our district is facing with experience and informed decisions taking into account all the factors not just some if you can eat live peacefully feel pleasant about what you will do and create and do the right thing directed towards our students the president of cupping envy usc generation generations then perhaps you have done the right thing students have the right to be bilingual illiterate and culturally linguistic a right to receive quality of instruction to further support especially

127those economic social disadvantaged students or harvest ones it would be a double harmful effect for those students that attend harvest to see that their school is being closed where they could have where they have to will have to be bus monday through friday around town both ways on top of the covet 19 trauma how do we move forward with such realities is an important question but it shouldn't be done at the expense of having to close harvest and no miss chu you're not naive i have faith that you continue to ask questions on behalf of our community education is not a business dr masetti you mentioned in our conversation yesterday regarding a possible proposed future bond it is risky but i feel the closure is indeed much more finishing thank you for your comments next

128speaker mr ruiz yes green yes good evening i i would like to raise an american canyon voice we have the largest comprehensive middle school in the county it provides an excellent education to its students to our students to our kids and we have a stake in district solvency as decisions made about schools in napa city have an effect on kids in american canyon i am in support of the proposal because fiscal solvency is imperative to retain our kids excellent education i'm also disappointed with the tone of some comments tonight there were multiple and transparent meetings leading the recommendation deliberations were no surprise hints of legal action strike me as counterproductive unless those objecting to the proposal can deliver funding through bonds and parcel taxes that eliminate the difference between what the state provides and what

129is desired then we must all recognize that we have to live within a budget even if that means we are disappointed just like we in the ac were when we couldn't get another middle school and ours is very very full to the gills it's also important to remind ourselves again that had 35 million dollars been spent on harvest redwood and silverado instead of salvador we wouldn't be having this conversation so we're stuck there just aren't enough students for all the campuses so which one's going to close in the aca as i said we were disappointed for the same demographic reasons we had to realize that excellent programming needs to be available to all of our children and that is way more important than bricks and mortar so i can only encourage everyone please come together

130as a community and work together as a community to make the best of what we have right now and and take ourselves and put ourselves the position of our kids and say what do i want for them when it comes to programming and let's let's focus on the programming being available to all our children across all the schools thank you thank you for your comment next speaker mr reese yes marissa roars hello um i this is the first time that i've spoken up and i know that this is a really difficult decision for for all of us and i went to river school and it was still on south children both go to nba la and i must admit that the idea of them being in a brand new school um that is wall to

131wall middle school d.i is appealing and exciting um however i do [Music] i do have to say that i was very shocked and and surprised hearing about um browns valley you know offering up this proposition of well we'll just become a k-8 when nbla has been trying to become k-8 for years uh most of us really as parents there rally for a k-8 um at nbla so i'm just confused as to why this is even being brought up as an option but it's not an option for nbla um you know there's a lot of weird quality things happening here i also think it's a shame to close river at the same time it's a unique program and it's small and it's needed and you know if we want to draw families in if we want

132people to come here for education then we can't have schools that all look exactly the same we can't have schools that the programs are all exactly the same one size doesn't fit all and if it's all the same then people are going to leave and you know the other reason people are going to leave people are going to leave because they're scared that every single year more schools are going to close that's why people are one of the reasons that people are leaving because it's unstable now you have to have an exit plan you have to you know live within your budget as the previous speakers have mentioned but there needs to be so much more creativity here and you know acknowledgement of these special programs and not false promises of well we're going to

133make this better oh we're going to do this we're going to do that because it hasn't been done it's not going to be and if it is it's all going to look exactly the same it's just really disappointing so while there are pros and there are cons and the decisions seem to almost already have been made i just i think it's really devastating for our community and it's going to continue to be because this isn't going to be the last closure that happens elementary schools will be back on the docket and middle schools too thank you for your comment next speaker mr reese yes danielle m evening numbers can tell stories from any presenter's perspective because that's what you can do with data manipulate it to tell your story at the task force and during

134the board meetings raw numbers of students were given in many cases and the problem with raw numbers is that it gives no context for its relationship to the whole i want to ensure you realize the scenario will impact every community each an integral piece of the larger napa community the choice to close the harvest campus harvest program and river program is the largest disruption to our community out of all the scenarios presented at the task force there are three big questions i want you to consider is a middle school language academy really the best choice how many dual immersion elementary families were surveyed to actually determine the academy's viability zero how many dual immersion teachers were surveyed to determine the academy's viability zero how many prior dual immersion parents who did not continue in middle

135school were surveyed to find out the reason why zero a proposed middle school language academy sounds appealing however enrollment numbers in the dual immersion elementary schools are not large enough to fill the potential new language academy site dr mussetti originally stated the large kindergarten cohort is a driving factor that will eventually fill the language academy to be wall to wall but how can those students be guaranteed to enroll at the middle school language academy i wanted to find out so i conducted a survey of of 20 dual immersion kindergarten families only two said they would absolutely go to the dual immersion or language academy six said they possibly would seven said they would not and five did not respond for those families who said they may be or no their reasoning was as follows proximity

136to home electives fluency by fifth grade extracurricular commitments and lack of environmental change from elementary granted this is a small sample size but if there is little demand for actually having a standalone language academy what's the point of opening one why were dual immersion families not even spoken to when developing this idea the next question is what was the task force recommendation the middle school redesigned task force was made up of roughly 50 50 people in the board meeting agenda for tonight it says that the task of force approved the final recommendation of scenario g but the entire task force did not approve this recommendation door nor did any of them improve it as it was presented and has even morphed into tonight's remarks even those groups that said there was a consensus for g

137actually wondered if it could be a different mood of school other than harvest had questions stipulations and reservations three people voted to close river one abstained entirely one voted for river one harvest one voted not river and two people stated it would be detrimental to the harvest community again why was the k-8 at shearer just added on to tonight's idea does this have to do with the latinx community the affluent white technology-able browns valley parents have spoken up that they want a k-8 but all of a sudden tonight is added to the idea i urge you to look at thank you for your comments danielle next speaker mr reese williams c hello can you hear me yes all right um hi i'm a parent of a browns valley kindergartner who is obviously new to the

138district being a kindergartner um and so far you know obviously covet has changed a lot as far as the schooling system and everything else like that um as well as the district budgets and just the future and outlook of the whole district um as being a business owner i completely understand having a uh you know positive profit loss sheet and everything else like that um you know living within your means all that kind of stuff as well as making sure we have a future for napa that is um bright and good for everybody um i myself you know grew up in napa and i went through a k through eighth kind of system that was a private school um but that's kind of where my background is um for my daughter i want you know

139the best for education you know looking at napa's schooling um initially you know thinking of where she would go you know she probably would have gone the browns valley river school kind of track knowing that the school district is you know having to make some tough decisions and uh find ways to keep things afloat um you know being able to keep those smaller class sizes if possible sounds appealing being able to assist in lessening any sort of overcrowding at any of the other middle schools with any potential school closures you know browns valley has a pretty large campus with extra classrooms they have a principle that is i think the right leader in place to potentially take on that task i think being able to pilot a k-8 at browns valley sounds great i'm so

140happy to hear that you know they're looking to roll that out to other elementary schools i think that's the right move to look at the schools that are currently going into harvest or really any other school that's being looking at when you start closure and somehow seeing the school campus seeing the facilities seeing if there's a way to get those elementary schools that are going into a current middle school and seeing if they can be turned into a k through eighth get space or stopping and what have you that way those students can remain in their schools still have a positive middle school experience um and not have to you know worry so much about the shuffle that's going on right now i'm happy to hear that you know there is a plan in place

141to keep the current uh students that are currently enrolled to these middle schools and keeping them there at least through the remainder of their time and then obviously any other new students they'll have some options on their plate of where they can go or potentially you know in the case for my daughter uh hopefully k through eighth in the future um i really appreciate all that you're doing i know it's been you know several months of planning and lots of these meetings but um i wish you guys luck thank you bye thank you for your comment next speaker mysteries aisha yes hi uh good evening and thank you for letting me make a comment i am an ex-river board member let me tell you river school is a unique place who sees value in its

142students and making them leaders for tomorrow and my son and daughter they both went to river school and my son he taught coding their programming there for three years because his teachers and principals saw that talent in him and like my son there were there were so many other students who were able to show their talent and all these teachers and principals were so encouraging to these kids so uh because it's a smaller school so all of the school staff teachers principal they know their kids uh positives uh their strengths and weakness and they are always working with the kids to improve their strengths and uh weakness so uh the thing is and um so the thing is sorry uh um and nbst i live in american canyon and nvust was supposed to build a

143second middle school in american canyon which they cancelled so not all parents can afford to send their kids to private schools so it's our right to have alternate options where we can send our schools to smaller school settings thank you for your comment next speaker reese yes gina griggs hi thank you um can you hear me yes okay good evening dr musetti board members and trustees thank you for sticking in there listening to all of our comments taking everything into consideration this is not an easy thing to have to have in front of us not an easy problem to solve um i want to start by saying that i was a part of the middle school redesign task force um there was a process that we went through and i appreciated that process i'm also

144a parent of a river school alum she is 21 now and a parent of a sixth grader at river school i believe in the program and so many great things have been said about the program that i don't need to repeat them what i'd like to talk about is numbers uh numbers and enrollment is the reason that we're here the reason that we're in this difficult position because we do have to be fiscally solvent so there are currently 685 enrolled students at harvest 291 students are currently in the dual language immersion program 6th through 8th the river campus capacity is 630. there are currently 469 students at the river school campus 172 of those sixth graders 167 7th graders 130 8th graders showing growth in the grades since they've moved to the new campus with

145higher capacity this proposal is contingent upon doubling our current dli numbers and mitigating the matriculation out of the dli program in the middle school years to fill the river school campus the river the dli program numbers in the middle school would literally have to double to fill the river school campus however currently river school is projected to increase in enrollment if left as river school taking it to 82 percent of 514 students this needs to be considered because enrollment is the reason that we're here dli might do better with a wall to wall but it currently does not have a wall-to-wall there's a strand at napa high and there could be a strand at redwood or silverado river is a sought-after program which encourages enrollment and keeps kids in our district it is important to

146keep students in the district that's why we're here this decision is also not equitable because it is stating loud and clear that the dli program is more valuable than the sle program that's not okay and it's not equitable it's not fiscally sound because it's not utilizing a brand new campus to capacity it's not responsible facility management because the district just spent 35 million on the new river campus and it does not support program excellence thank you for your comment next speaker mr reece yes claire silver hello i'm actually nicole i'm speaking for my mom's computer i'm a seventh grader at rare very and you might remember the emails i sent to you i now would like to respond to what you said back to me so that you can hear me i live in the

147middle school community i think that we're moving too fast i care a lot about this is the decision that you're making because it affects my life my peers life and my family for multiple years if i didn't care i would say nothing but i'm scared to death right now in the long run creating a k through a at browns valley and shearer seems to separate and segregate us more if i as a seventh grader can understand the faults in these plans then you should be able to be able to too i hope you vote no i know you'll vote yes but i still think you should reconsider and i urge you not to disgrace your our neighborhood was hasty and bad decisions thank you for hearing me thank you for your comment [Music] next speaker

148mysteries that was our 13th speaker president gonzalez mothers okay thank you mr reece [Music] we are now closing public comment on this item um will now ask um for board comment and um we'll start with you mr um with trustee gracia thank you i would like to start by commending the hard work put in by all the folks on the task force they did the difficult work of analyzing over 11 scenarios weighing each one against a set of four important criteria and ultimately recommending a single scenario to the board the recommendation was near unanimous from the task force the task force represented a cross-section of the community and had invested parents from all of the middle schools in napa i cannot thank them enough for all the hard work that they put in i do

149feel it's necessary to rehash how we arrived at this point there are two main pieces driving the decision we are being asked to make here today the first is finances if you look back at second interim you can see in year three which is the 2223 school year that our current reserve is slated to plummet back to the minimum required by the state of california the travesty is that the 2223 budget already includes the cost savings of closing a middle school campus thus even with the shuttering of a middle school already accounted for we are just barely able to keep our reserves above the minimum necessary to avoid state receivership we may also need to consider the closure of another small elementary school in order to increase the cost savings for the 2223 school year

150the financial situation of the district is dire when staff presented second interim in march my fellow trustees and i expressed our dissatisfaction with the proposed deficit spending in year two which is the upcoming 21-22 school year even now staff is hard at work attempting to find places to make stronger cuts to the 2122 budget to avoid deficit spending and the catastrophic results currently projected in budget year three these cuts continue to be hard to come by but are necessary to preserve the financial health of the district staff will succeed in shoring up the 2122 budget by the time we reach budget adoption in june but they cannot deliver enough cuts to prevent year three from continuing to be a very serious problem the second issue that has brought this decision before us today is declining

151enrollment the population inside the district has been declining for the last 10 years and is expected to continue to decline for at least the next seven years we have already lost 1 300 students in the district from our highest peak and are on pace to lose several thousand more dropping to approximately 14 000 students by the 27-28 school year at present we have already have 1 500 empty seats at the middle school level and with declining enrollment the number of empty seats is only going to continue to grow reaching over 2 000 empty seats by the 27-28 school year despite what will end up being nearly two decades of declining enrollment previous administrations decided to continue to build new schools and new facilities despite the declining enrollment the district under previous leadership chose to build

152a new middle school campus on the old salvador site is not a large site and can only accommodate a small middle school in the space available building this campus was a mistake we would have been far better served by shuttering the salvador campus and using the money to make our other district campuses warm safe and dry unfortunately that money was spent and cannot be gotten back due to the actions of previous administrations we are stuck with an out of place small middle school campus that is in pristine shape the buildings are all brand new and look amazing at the end of the day we cannot afford to keep this campus empty thus the question has become what is the best use for this campus we have heard from many at the harvest campus about how

153their middle school has unique programming that is worth preserving harvest was home to both the ib and dli middle school programs in the district the community members who have fought to preserve those programs are correct in asserting that they are both valuable and important those programs are very much worth preserving thus any solution that includes the closure of harvest must include a discussion of what happens to those programs the choice about what to do with the salvador campus isn't particularly difficult once you realize that there is only a single program that we have in our entire district that covers students from kindergarten through 12th grade we have heard multiple times during task force deliberations that parents want pathways and that pathways are important to them here we have an opportunity to strengthen the only pathway

154currently available in k-12 in the district and really give it a dedicated opportunity to flourish by placing the dli program on the salvador campus we have a way to facilitate the continuation of this pathway that is highly valued in our community having a dedicated middle school campus will only strengthen the dli program throughout the district knowing how much demand there is for educational pathways that cover k-12 we need to explore the opportunity to bring more pathways to the district i believe we need to look to the ib program for our second district pathway ib was a second partial pathway we had in the district like the dli program it had some weaknesses and needs strengthening by removing harvest from the mix we have foreclosed a pre-existing partial ib pathway rather than eliminate such a path

155i would see us strengthen it by converting a remaining middle school to the ib program the ultimate end goal would be to offer a full k-12 pathway for iv which would eventually necessitate an ib high school as well i see space in the district for a strong elementary through high school ib pathway in addition to the ib and dli paths i anticipate we one day could also develop a third path steam to the river folks i am sorry that you are being forced to give up your program it feels like we had only just welcomed you back into the district and established you at that shiny new campus i understand it feels terrible to finally have gotten everything you wanted only to have it taken away your program however is a one-off in the district

156and has no other pathway integration at either elementary or high school unfortunately in this instance your program must yield to the only k-12 pathway that exists in the district as we must maintain that pathway for the students who are already invested in the 13-year dli experience a few short years ago i was excited to welcome you back into the district so it is with a heavy heart that i must now support the pulling of your program while i know it is slim consolation the district has committed to implementing some of the social emotional overlay developed at river into the other middle schools to the to those who call us out as ignoring the disadvantaged youth attending harvest the numbers do not back up your claims the fact is all three of our large middle schools

157in the city of napa have similar numbers of disadvantaged youth all three have similar numbers of latinx youth all three have similar numbers of english language learners where they are not the same however is all three do not have a high percentage of students who attend in the boundary area a significantly higher portion of harvest students don't reside in the boundary area of the school more harvest parents and students are already traveling to attend harvest than either of the other two middle schools in our district harvest also has the smallest student population of the three large middle schools and thus would impact the least number of students in its closure harvest is also the school with the least equitable facilities and the most in need of repair and improvements from a financial perspective it also

158makes the most sense to close harvest as i pondered this decision i kept returning to the words of mike wilmarth on 415-21 he said and i quote middle schools unlike elementary schools are not designed to be neighborhood schools and this is a strength middle schools bring together students from a number of different neighborhoods mike is right middle schools are a combination of multiple neighborhood schools they are designed to expand students horizons through exposure to the broader student community the opportunity for students to mingle with peers from all over the city on a single campus is a important component in their social development for all the foregoing reasons i will be supporting the task force recommendation to adopt option g i want to take careful note of the additional recommendations provided by the task force after

159settling on option g specifically the emphasis that was put on communication task force members stressed that we as a district need to do an exceptional job in communicating this decision and the impacts they're from to the community the task force asked that our communications be robust and thorough i want to make sure we give extra attention to communicating the closure and subsequent open enrollment process out to our families we must strive to ensure that current families gets lots of information about the various options and supports that will be made available to them we must be very transparent in communicating everything from transportation options to after school care clear and frequent communication will ensure parents understand their options and that students can successfully attend their new schools while the communication that the task force was concerned

160about was parent communication that is not the only communication that i am concerned about i would like to see us do a much better job of communicating with our staff around this process staff needs to hear more often from the district and be better supported than they were the last time the district had school closure i expect it will be a little bit easier this time just from the simple fact that staff will not be forced to move during a pandemic that doesn't mean moving around this many staff members isn't going to be difficult because it will be difficult moving many years of accumulated material to a new school site is not easy all staff will go through a period of adjustment at their new location and will need additional time and support to integrate

161with their new learning community i see this as an opportunity for growth for nvusd after having observed our last school closure process i don't like having to close schools but the financial pressures cannot be remedied without school closure since i have been on the board we have had to take repeated urgent action in order to maintain the district's fiscal solvency and unfortunately that includes having to close another school tonight the decision-making process of closing and redesigning middle schools is complex emotional and arduous the process necessitated stakeholder input and it inspired activism i want to say thank you to the task force for your time and commitment to positive outcomes for our students thank you to all who advocated on behalf of their children in the belief that their education is worth fighting for thank you

162to dr masetti and staff for supporting community input and for providing forums for voices to be heard i have read every email received including submitted public comment i have received emails from parents students and community members affiliated with all four schools as well as elementary schools the representation in public comment and the special board meeting were focused on harvest and river school but i want to acknowledge the magnitude of advocacy on behalf of breadwood silverado nbla browns valley and pueblo vista the purpose of the task force in community input has been to determine the best path forward what is the best way to address declining enrollment operating too many middle schools and the maximization of district resources for our students one of the stated goals of the task force was to improve instructional programming for

163all middle school students i acknowledge the extreme difficulty placed on task force members not allowing personal bias emotion or adjunct issues to clout to cloud the decision-making process why are we here we are here to discuss the privileges that will be lost for our students if we do not make fiscally prudent decisions we will not have the privilege of discussing educational options the privilege of implementing programmatic enhancements or the privilege of school choice if we are in state receivership the conversation around school closure is taking place because we as a district are committed to providing the highest quality education we can given our budget constraints the framework includes the realities of our financial situation declining enrollment as you have heard underutilized facilities underfunded pensions low cash reserves and yes the need to close schools purpose

164and change are not always considered congruent but purposeful work is about improvement and embedded in that work is change this process comes with expectations without which we will retain the status quo and in order to break that stalemate we must integrate the two our purpose is to provide a clear and shared vision for conducive learning environments at all schools the strategy is to execute on quality programming enhancements and social emotional support for the holistic well-being of our students implementation can only be generated by committing financial resources to a project for families making difficult decisions that include change requires confronting some unknowns such as a new campus or a larger campus this change can create apprehension the work ahead is to understand the needs of our students so that we can ensure that our students needs

165are met by meeting our students needs we will should be able to lessen if not eliminate the apprehension caused by this change the district needs to implement strategies to buffer the impact of declining enrollment continued decline will result in significant decreases in state funding which reinforces the need to downsize if we delay action as many of you have requested we add financial strain to an already fragile system in order to deliver program upgrades we need to approach the school closure decision from a perspective of fiscal prudence we need to close a middle class middle school and assess site efficiency operating fewer schools is the appropriate response to a projected seven-year declining trajectory despite second interim including a school closure for budget year 20 20 22 we still show an operating deficit our cash reserve projection

166three years out is approximately 3.4 percent barely above the state minimum declining enrollment trends have us losing approximately 330 students on average for the next seven years at ten thousand dollars per child that is approximately 3.3 million per year i would argue that our cost savings is still much too short of where we need to be and i would task dr mussetti with analyzing capacity and enrollment projections at the elementary level nobody enjoys this work but two issues motivate my request first if in receivership we lose control of the district there is no superintendent just a provided administrator that comes in and takes over what happens to your child's education then and secondly even though we would be in financial distress it is expensive the state is forced to keep the district solvent through the

167use of a state loan which must be repaid with interest meaning cuts under state receivership would have to be even deeper in order to afford the loan payment in addition to covering normal operations i would like to clarify a few statements that were on repeat in emails received and at the mic it is important that we work with accurate information correction the 2.2 is a mere 1 to 1.2 percent of the budget that calculation is skewed 85 percent of our budget is spent on salaries and benefits remains to address the rest of the budgets priorities and needs 1.2 percent of the overall budget is significant when the reserve is down to 3.4 percent if the 1.2 cost savings is not realized then our reserves would dip to the 2.1 percent which is below the state

168mandated minimum of 3 percent correction the elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund and learning loss mitigation funding both have timelines and restrictions on use of those funds this is one-time money and cannot be used to address our structural budget deficits correction each year we submit to the county office of education at least five finance documents for review that are then submitted to the state superintendent of public instruction these documents include the july 1st preliminary budget first and second interim reports an unaudited financial at the end of the budget year and then the district's annual audit the inter-relationship of spending student need complex laws and regulations intersect to determine how we approach the budget the budget reflects how we serve our 16 797 students to preserve and enhance programs the budget deficit has to be

169addressed we must structure capital costs effectively the baseline of safe warm and dry has been established but to understand true facilities impact you have to assess the baseline intermediate and long-term needs and we have to include include programmatic equity from a facility's lens correction edcode limits how proceeds from a school district's sale of surplus property can be expended generally restricting the expenditure to capital outlay purposes these funds cannot be used to address structural budget deficits equity is making sure every student has support has the support they need to be successful and an equal chance for success we look at it from both a systems perspective which is what we are doing through this process and the student perspective which is the benefit of additional quality programming this addresses outcomes resources funding and support achieving equity

170is dependent on understanding the needs of the student population designing educational opportunities to meet those needs and having the support and scaffolding they need to optimize success we are not ignoring the needs of students with socioeconomic challenges we are working to provide high quality programming because education is intertwined with equity many of our families in socioeconomically challenged areas are already leveraging choice that choice might be motivated by employment convenience or educational preference our job as a school district is to recognize that change that change in demographic and to identify that public perception might be working under a false paradigm under our current open enrollment policy school migration is the right of any family and their actions should speak as loudly as somebody else's words i have not heard any comments about the correlation between declining

171enrollment and low-income affordable housing the external factors that contribute to the difficult decisions that are being made this evening demand a conversation is anyone speaking about the potential gentrification of the impacted neighborhoods the average value of a home in napa went up 13.6 percent to 780 thousand dollars in february of this year according to an article in the chronicle housing costs are the most likely culprit to drive the move of households out of neighborhoods the economic reverberations are just starting to echo of closing a middle school and repurposing river requires us to consider how previous administration scaled innovation from the margin to the center under the current administration the district is undertaking a transformation of our middle school system we seek to implement a holistic approach to support and sustain innovations that address academic achievement

172social and emotional learning and well-being and the interconnectedness that provides all young people with the skills to build a future an er enriched middle school system can and will emerge the social emotional learning approach will be a component in the re-engagement and reacclimation to in-person learning environments and will help children connect with themselves and their peers we all want our children to navigate their world with social emotional emotional competence and experience experience moments of mindfulness throughout their school day the development of self-confidence empathy and self-worth should be experienced by every child and not be defined by the school they attend but by the mere fact they attend an nbusd school scl is not a programmatic element of a k-12 pathway and while i agree it is a needed curricular overlay a dedicated facility is not

173critical to its implementation we need to strengthen our only k-12 pathway in this district and this site provides us the opportunity to do so the district has been investing in dual immersion in different iterations for over 15 years this is the latest extension in incremental rollout of what has been a work in progress for well over a decade the introduction of a wall-to-wall language academy might be new but the concept is not this program will reflect the world around us the full language comprehension does not happen without exposure to culture intercultural competence developing fluent bilingualism gives children a variety of cultural cognitive and economic advantages this is a dedicated pathway and it requires program dedication to to achieve the status of exemplary practice having a wall-to-wall program will allow the academy to have systems in

174place to ensure alignment as the program evolves it is the district's belief that one of the root causes of decline in matriculation from elementary to middle is due to the strand approach it is programmatically reasonable to focus on a dedicated program as opposed to offering a dedicated school to a philosophy that can be absorbed at another campus we no longer have true neighborhood schools declining enrollment has created availability open enrollment has allowed for choice despite open enrollment harvest is the smallest of the three middle schools it has the least number of children in its attendance area and has capacity for 1500 students with a 45.6 45.65 occupancy rate capacity has a direct impact on financial efficiency there are 667 students that attend harvest only 467 of the 684 that live in boundary chose to attend

175which means 200 choose to attend a school out of boundary families are leveraging choice including the latinx community of the 467 inboundry students 375 80 percent are latinx 82 18 percent are white and nine two percent are other of the 200 students that leave harvest to attend other schools 83 are latinx percent are white and seven three percent are other silverado has the highest socio-economically disadvantaged count at 498. redwood at 449 horse to 435. all of our schools have children from marginalized communities this decision is not driven by socioeconomics i understand that if we analyze these numbers as a percent of population they would look different but we have been asked to take action that impacts the smallest number of students so raw numbers are important to my analysis while percentages are less subtle my

176decision tonight is not based on one set of statistics but on the examination of the aforementioned and following data redwood with 534 latinx harvest 525 and silverado 502 the numbers are very comparable harvest has many children that walk across the street but we have many students numbers that i cannot quantify whom attend the other two comprehensive middle schools and also walk to school while the proximity might be different students continue to walk to all of our middle schools i mentioned this out of respect for the great number of families that contacted me with this rebuttal we would have to bust 738 kids if we close redwood 91 of redwood is in boundary we would have to bust 485 kids if we close harvest 71 of harvest is in boundary i know this is a much

177maligned point of discussion but i do believe the facilities intermediate and long-term programmatic needs at harvest must be considered the reality is we have economically marginalized neighborhoods within every school boundary with different concentrations of economic disparity the standard measurement metric to determine the socioeconomic status of our student population is a percentage of students receiving free and reduced lunch it is a proxy measure for the percentage of children living in poverty we have high poverty areas attached to the majority of our schools an issue our city has yet to resolve and the school district cannot control free and reduced is the education de facto measure of students at risk and it is a predictive component in the socioeconomic decisions that impact our district that consistency is woven throughout our system and we cannot arbitrarily change the

178tool we use to determine statistically relevant data we have an aspiration and a responsibility to create as establish and sustain programmatic improvement for our middle school students we as a district have a decision to make should we ignore our fiscal responsibility and keep the status quo or should we make tough decisions allowing us to provide transformational programming support the emotional well-being of our students provide a positive school climate and develop program options that are not intentionally designed for a narrow segment of the population but reflect the community that we live and learn in this is purposeful work and it must be sustainable and it must be scalable our job is to make the most thoughtful decision possible within a very specific set of constraints for the reasons that i have outlined i will approve the

179middle school task force recommendation of scenario g with this decision comes responsibility we must take care with this transition we must have conscious property disposition we must provide support we must communicate to our families we must be present in this process and we will thank you trustee jacox trustee riser to begin tonight i just want to thank dr masetti and her staff my fellow trustees the members of the middle school redesign task force and every community member who's taken the time to share their opinions and their passion about the choice that we're facing we are all in this together working hard thinking hard striving to do what is best for the students in our district it's not easy and it's not for the faint of heart i've tried and failed to keep my comments brief

180but please bear with me this is such a complicated proposal and i tried to structure my comments around the questions and opinions that i've heard directly from stakeholders as well as in the public space first of all i've heard a lot of comments about how dr masetti is quote just looking out for her job this is her job exactly this dr masetti was hired by the previous school board to right the ship she inherited challenging conditions and had more piled on including wildfires and a global pandemic our previous superintendent and his team ignored the clear data about declining enrollment and rather than tightening the budget they unwisely spent down our reserves until we were on the brink of a state takeover enrollment statewide has been declining for years and yet the previous leadership did a

181grave disservice to our schools by planning and spending as if this were not actually happening pivoting away from difficult unpopular decisions may feel better in the moment and it may get voters to support you but it's not fulfilling our obligation as a governance team i've also heard a repeated message that the district has broken its trust with the community i actually agree that the district broke trust with the community but with actions taken before dr macedy's work here began and before any of the current governance team sat on this board wittingly or unwittingly the previous administration over-promised and under-delivered on measure h by using a master list of those maintenance and modernization projects they determined that school sites needed as if it represented an encompassing list of the projects the district would be able to

182accomplish if measure h passed these actions by the previous administration left the community feeling disappointed resentful and mistrustful of the way nvusd allocates our resources and manages our funds inheriting a trail of broken promises from your predecessor is not exactly what you'd hoped for when you're already trying to tackle the fiscal mess they left behind but this is what our current superintendent and her team has faced with grace clarity and transparency this is also the landscape this current board of trustees has inherited i want to quickly address some baffling comments i've seen in the public space about welcoming state conservatorship as a way to quote straighten things out i taught in vallejo city unified school district when that district went bankrupt and was taken over by the state a state-appointed conservator will only concern him

183or herself with cost savings not the nuances of community impact not the strengthening of our programs just the bottom line for anyone who thinks entering receivership is a positive solution or a way to hold dr masetti or our board accountable it's just absurd another point that has been repeated in emails and conversations and public comment is that the governance team and the district leadership staff don't seem to really care about equity and i disagree wholeheartedly talk is cheap but this team walks the walk we see it in their professional experience we see it in the decision to work with promise 54 to examine our organizational practices and center diversity equity and inclusion in their work we see it in the long overdue focus on grading and looking at grading through an equity lens we see

184it in our new partnership with west ed a leading education nonprofit research center which is meant to help us in closing the unacceptable achievement gap between our english learners and our native english speakers in the district this achievement gap is not new but it has not been broadly addressed across the k-12 grade span until dr macetti and her team sought to evaluate our curriculum and services for all of our english learners and for those who would accuse the district of turning their backs on the most vulnerable of our children please consider the incredible number of free meals our district has distributed to students and their families during the pandemic i could go on but these are just a few examples that speak to this district's commitment to equity and to supporting our traditionally marginalized student

185populations i've also heard a lot of commentary about how the board of trustees is just here to rubber stamp the district proposal without question i take my oversight role as a member of this governance team very seriously and though i'm relatively new to this work and to this team i'm confident that my fellow trustees have undertaken this decision with diligence and a heartfelt commitment to best serving our students i have read every email and public comment on this topic and personally responded to as many as i could i've met with more than a dozen stakeholders in person for an hour or two at a time on zoom or on the phone and listen with an open mind to their concerns i have interrogated the proposed scenario in private conversations with dr masetti and her staff

186i am not here to rubber stamp without questioning and neither are my fellow trustees there's been a lot of pushback about members community members saying that the middle school redesign task force was flawed last october as a district parent and neighborhood resident i was taken aback by the sudden recommendation to close harvest middle school and i supported the decision made by the governance team at that time to press pause the district recalibrated and approached the necessary step of closing at least one comprehensive middle school again involving a large number of community stakeholders to study the matter closely and make a recommendation offering numerous opportunities for public input in other words as several commenters tonight have recommended the district is measuring twice and cutting once it's an understandable response to attack the process if you do

187not reach the outcome you hope for especially when there is such painful loss around the outcome and while i do think the process could have been structured in a way that allowed for a more free-flowing exchange of ideas there were many limiting factors including the public health considerations the constraints of meeting virtually and respecting the time demand on our task force volunteers i completely reject the notion that there has been unethical distortion of data to achieve a certain end or that anyone here has an agenda beyond making the best possible choice in a difficult situation while some in the community are lobbying for more time delaying this decision will not change the programmatic demographic or financial landscape of this puzzle that we have all been charged to solve and although there was a handful of

188vocal dissenters on the task force the truth is that the majority of task force members found the proposal we're considering tonight to be the best way forward out of a difficult situation there has been a lot of pushback from the harvest community saying if you have to close a large middle school it shouldn't be harvest we've heard the rationale the district has presented we've heard the pushback from affected stakeholders and for many reasons the number of students residing in each school boundary area the number of unduplicated pupils which is the umbrella term we use to represent economically disadvantaged students english learners and foster and homeless youth that are served by each school the enrollment trends for each area the current conditions of each facility the work required to bring them each up to minimum required

189standard of warm safe and dry and the actual number of students impacted by the closure i have come to the conclusion that given that we must close one of our large middle schools since we have 1500 empty seats right now in our middle schools that the site that we must choose is harvest there has been a lot of really wrenching testimony and comments saying that we can't inflict this irreparable harm to the vulnerable community around the harvest middle school as i've mentioned many times i came to this seat as a public school educator with years of experiencing serving experience serving economically disadvantaged students and our and english language learners and i have lived the reality that our society has increasingly leaned on our teachers and our schools to fill needs well beyond the complex and

190challenging work of educating children teachers are social workers counselors school nurses advocates for support services cheerleaders confidants parental figures fundraisers many community members have shared real concerns about neighborhood blight that will threaten the safety of the area or its opposite gentrification that will further squeeze out our vulnerable community members i cannot discount the sadness and pain that this closure will bring to residents in this area but it's unfair and unrealistic to ask our schools to be responsible for the health of a neighborhood nvusd like most of the state of california is facing declining enrollment compounding the difficulty of our dismal per pupil spending rate in the state it's not that i'm not concerned about this neighborhood i absolutely am but concerns about the health of our neighborhoods must be addressed by our local government schools

191just can't shoulder that burden or let it dominate their decision-making our obligation is to focus on our mission of delivering the highest quality education to all of our students this doesn't mean that our school district doesn't have a role to play and i've had multiple discussions with dr masetti about the role the district can play in supporting the neighborhood of southwest napa if the closure of harvest proceeds she has committed to engaging in a community conscious property disposition which includes securing the property's safety for the interim period while keeping this transition time as short as possible it also includes a goal an attainable goal of supporting a community use space at the former harvest site whether through a partnership with the city of napa local non-profits a public private partnership that drives the choice of

192potential developer or some combination of the three to that end i met this week with councilwoman beth painter who represents this area on the napa city council she shares our goal of protecting and preserving the well-being of the community in southwest napa and is ready to collaborate i will do everything i can in my role as a trustee and a community member to advocate for and participate in productive partnerships with local government officials and agencies to benefit the residents of this area and mitigate the negative impact this decision will have on the neighborhood switching gears i would like to respond to all of the comments saying that it is the wrong choice to end a successful program like river i know if the board votes tonight to approve this path forward it will be incredibly

193painful to the current river community and all of its many supporters across our valley if the district chooses to repurpose this campus to strengthen the k-12 dli pathway but it will not mean that the heart-centered whole child approach river has developed has to end right now i'm feeling some pretty deep pain about this aspect of the proposal because i know that many of the wonderful dedicated educators and staff who supported and cared for my own two daughters are likely listening knowing that they might think i don't value them or find their pro or that i find their program disposable breaks my heart river was ahead of the curve in so many ways amplifying the importance of social emotional learning and demonstrating to the community its profound impact on creating positive school culture long before social

194emotional learning was an education buzzword the hawala whole child philosophy instills important skills and traits in students and helps them become self-directed empathic collaborative creative confident and compassionate learners however i have to agree with the district's assessment that what river offers is not an academic program in the same way our dli program is rather it is a set of structures and supports that add value to the experience students have and contribute to a school culture of positivity respect and safety many parents have reached out with powerful stories of why they chose river for their children many of them focused on kids who in their words don't quite fit in which i take to mean they don't fit the bill of a neurotypical heteronormative child these stories have surfaced such a difficult truth that some parents

195and children feel they will not be emotionally safe at our larger traditional middle schools fair or not real or perceived this is a problem we must address district-wide while there is nothing i can say to discount the loss that the river community will feel i believe it's an appropriate choice to use the river campus to strengthen the dli pathway we have in our district all of our children deserve to benefit from the powerful approach river has developed and that is the district's plan i've heard a lot of pushback saying that rivers program cannot be replicated at other sites as a long time teacher i'm well aware of what it takes to change school culture what it takes to successfully implement a new program and the difference between offering a workshop and a binder of materials

196and what happens when teachers and staff are truly supported with time and resources necessary to implement a school-wide shift and the support of setting aside and earmarking valuable instructional time to implement the program regularly as we've heard from representatives from other middle schools parts of the river approach are already part of their school culture i have explored this issue of implementation and its potential challenges at length with dr masetti and ms andrew jennings raising my healthy skepticism about this transition and i have their repeated and emphatic assurances that the district staff is committed and capable of a successful programmatic rollout across our remaining middle schools i know the sel approach and its structures evolved over time at river that's the nature of education trying things seeing what works what students respond to what resonates what

197sticks i urge the district staff to seek to partner with river teachers and staff in sharing their knowledge of their program and the structures activities and lessons that they have been fine-tuning over the many years of their program as we learn more details about plans for a strong rollout and successful implementation of this district-wide emphasis on social-emotional learning i will continue to advocate for this and monitor the progress in planning and i am excited about the potential for the meaningful positive impact as we expand this program to benefit all our students educating the children in a community is a profound obligation it is an endeavor built on trust and commitment to educating and caring for children i was a teacher for a full decade before i became a parent and the day that i walked

198out of the kindergarten classroom on the first day of school leaving behind my sweet beautiful firstborn daughter in the care of her wonderful teacher i understood that trust in a new and deep way and now here i sit on the board of education as a trustee it's right in the title the community has entrusted me with all of the district's children i have committed to using my experience my analysis my judgment and my compassion to make the best decisions in the interests of each and every student in the district not just my two daughters not just my neighbors sons and daughters not just the students at harvest and river every single student for me this has been wrenching this decision about school closures and program redesign has been the last thing swirling around in my

199mind as i lay my head on the pillow at night and on most days for the past several weeks the first fully formed thought upon waking as i said it comes down to trust in the end i trust dr masetti and her team not blindly not unquestioningly but based on my observation and my experience i trust their integrity their passion for excellence their commitment to the students of our community this is a difficult decision and there is no perfect solution to the challenges we face there is no joy in closing schools but i ask the community to trust me when i say that difficult as this is i believe this is the best most equitable path forward in honoring our obligation to our students and their families and therefore for i will support the task

200force recommendation of scenario g thank you trustee riser trustee water thank you and thank you i too spoke to uh beth painter this week she's getting around that's good um okay i too would like to thank the uh the the um speakers tonight and last week and all the people who wrote to me and yes indeed i read every one of your letters i tried to answer them all some of you i told some of you all i wrote and said that i couldn't write much because i had a hand issue and a stupid accident but i enjoyed hearing from all of you um and i went out with some people for coffee different different folks and um you know they're going to disagree with um my vote tonight but i enjoyed meeting you very

201much and i hope to see you again i guess what i'd first like to do is address something that one of our speakers said earlier we had a speaker who said she doesn't want her children to end up in a place like camille creek or valley oak and i can only assume that well she's not uh familiar with um with those young people camille creek is the county office of education school it's a place it's a court school it's a place where young people who have made foolish choices go and many of them return to our school system and do well they're just kids everyone's entitled a few chances when they're young and the last time i checked miss caroline wilson ran the place and she is a superior educator and one of the finest

202people i've ever met um valley oak is our continuation school it's the napa valley unified continuation school i i began my career here teaching at the old temescal out at harvest where harvest was um before it was harvest and uh and um our principal is maria cisneros i worked with her at napa high she is again a fantastic person we are so lucky to have her and the school has received all sorts of recognition for being a superior a top-notch continuation school and if you've met the students who came and were recognized for student of the month you would say that they're the sort of people you'd be just fine with your own children associating with so i just want to make that very clear okay now i've got my audio visual aid i will

203hold it up you know i'm very low tech okay this newspaper is a let's see friday march 26 2021 not very long ago this is a 999 thousand dollar house in what used to be a working class neighborhood it actually went for 13 percent over there were 12 days between the listing and the offer and about a week after it closed it was being advertised as an eight-way time share for 184 thousand dollars per share that's almost a half million dollar profit this is on top this is on top of an apartment house in my neighborhood that became a bed and breakfast recently and uh the vacation rentals that pop up in residential neighborhoods um you know it all adds up pretty soon you're losing housing stock and by the way the the headline in

204tomorrow's register will be napa home sales soar multiple offers the new normal and ladies and gentlemen the question is is napa a town or is it a brand we have a fatal proximity to the golden gate bridge and just past it live some of the richest people in the world billionaires until recently half of the top 10 richest people of all lived in northern california a couple moved recently to escape taxes one of them actually went got new zealand citizenship a couple of them live in seattle because you know it's a cool place and there was no corporate or personal income tax that's right i'm talking microsoft and amazon and i'll bet you thought it was all because jeff bezos liked to eat salmon several billionaires paid no federal income tax at all i learned

205that by uh reading about reading oxfam's work on that and lots of very rich people paying nothing in taxes and there was the cry is always but they're so philanthropic and i guess i could find a billionaire i mean people have suggested this and try to get a donation but you can't run public schools on private charity we can't and we shouldn't have to everybody should pay his or her fair share of taxes and we all know many wealthy people have second or third or fourth homes in our very in our very own county and it's disconcerting and confusing to see that and then read about how the schools are in financial straits i can tell i can tell because of the letters i've been getting but this is why young families can't afford to

206come to napa and this is why we're talking about shutting down schools it's not for fun and it's not a great plot housing is expensive and we don't have enough students to fill our buildings previous speakers have said this it's true did you know that next to santa cruz napa has the biggest this thing keeps sliding down sorry but i am vaccinated kids napa has to be and it's okay because i'm 70 years old nava has the biggest disconnect between housing costs and local salaries this has been true for several years during normal times our roads are clogged with workers who commute to napa because they can't afford to live here i remember a previous board member talked about how her farm workers were driving the farm workers she knew were driving for hours to

207come here they were coming from yuba um i received a couple of letters who suggested that the california environmental quality statutes might affect whether or not a school bus can go from harvest to north napa because of open enrollment we have cars running all over town in addition to our out-of-county labor force and sequa has allowed that secret as that's fine is help on the way i am told that there will be new housing developments coming on board my questions are for whom will this housing be built and when we've all been waiting for napa pipe also known as costco for quite a while and i listened to the city council's general plan meetings all the time and i listened to planning commission meetings i listened to one the other night i'm told that there

208will be housing built out by foster road i drove out to by there recently and ice there are signs there's a complete row of signs protesting any new development this neighborhood wants its green belt too people are resistant to change and i have a suggestion to our citizens get involved follow the planning commissioners both city and county the city council the board of supervisors call them up they're listed they are not stuffy people they're friendly they're accessible but they are the land use decision makers we aren't and as previous speakers have said we have many functions that aren't strictly educational food food delivery we're really good at that mental health come to mind and we've got other interventions too but other other governmental interests do land use and i was on the city council as

209some of you know and every so often i drive past an affordable housing project that i helped get approved it was a 3-2 vote they were never 5-0 votes it wasn't unanimous it's tough there was lots of neighborhood resistance to this i see another property that magically became storage units not affordable family housing after neighbor complaints that was in west napa and an apartment a site that was down zoned single-family housing that was in north napa neighbors protested another development in southeast napa it was stalled for years years when it finally was built it was transformed into senior housing all right i am a senior and i say we need housing for young families i think more citizens need to be involved but i will tell you the very qualities that make life so pleasant

210here the protected ag land and the slow growth have helped drive up housing costs that and supply and demand and a certain type of capitalism very hard boiled capitalism bare knuckles in fact really i think the greatest danger facing westwood which others have said is not the possible closing of harvest but gentrification and i'm also going to point out that should harvest close down it's not going to be an educational desert there we have napa valley language academy that's very popular and we have a beautiful new school snow school by the way let me segue into someone wrote to me and wanted to know what we spent all the school bond money on okay we can't use school bond money for our operating expenses that's been addressed all right we built river school a lot

211of new construction there we um collapsed two schools and created willow school new school uh we're almost done with napa junction and we built snow school we uh did um we're constructing a new multi-purpose room at american canyon middle school we put in a new central kitchen we have several satellite kitchens chromebooks for every child no one else did that nobody else did that and you know odds and ends like new turf at american canyon high school and you know that does add up i don't relish clothing's closing schools i like to make people happy but to repeat we have room for twice as many middle school students as are enrolled we are paid by the state based on enrollment i want all of our students to have access to an enriched curriculum i don't

212want us to go into receivership yes uh other people have um have referenced it parents i've had parents who are i'm sure otherwise very sensible people suggest that a state takeover is a viable option well just look how well that turned out for the oakland community oakland lost control of its schools and i know we've been through several commun community traumas and the whole world has suffered through covet except for the billionaire class who are richer than ever one thing we've learned from the pandemic if we didn't learn it in 2005 with katrina in 2008 with the wall street collapse is that many of us have lived precarious lives look at what happened to our hospitality and winery workers when we got shut down remember how the food bank needed to call in the national

213guard because it was so busy and i yet i keep hearing people say we are napa valley well all due respect we are that but we're also a community with haves and have-nots um and parents know this which is why many are jockeying for every advantage possible for their child to keep from sliding down the socioeconomic ladder as i said it is human nature another way to help children rise all of our children is to improve the programming at our schools this is where we get our social mobility and as it is even with the work that still needs to be done i taught at next door at napa high for 15 years and i've seen so many students from relatively uneducated backgrounds go on in life and become very successful they're running non-profits they're

214going to grad school at some top universities they're going to law school medical school going into trade unions going into politics writing painting acting farming cooking even teaching doing high-end construction you know they're doing the whole gamut and it all started with public education it is easy to focus on the negative it's great isn't it to be sarcastic and um and put down somebody's best efforts um someone who's trying his or her best but you know what i'm not gonna do that i don't i'm not gonna do that there's enough negativity in the world i would like to see some of the famous our legendary napa can-do spirit after we make our decision whatever it is instead of throwing each under the butt each other under the bus or threatening to go to um private

215school why not work together why not work together to create the best schools in california we have a lot of talent here we do why not we can do it and um i remember when the man who held the seat before i did tom kensack and believe me uh his daughter spoke uh she's a teacher at um puebla vista uh she spoke at the last meeting um tom kensak and i had many very friendly disagreements many of them but he said something that i return i remember at the i mean i used to come just like the speakers i used to come to the podium when we had a podium and um you know um whale on the school board and now you know they're all having their revenge because i'm here and but he

216said at the end of his last term and you know you really get people speaking from from the heart when you know the journey's over he said really all he'd ever wanted to do is make the schools better and that's what i want to that's what i want to that's what we all want and i really believe we can do this if we work together and um i am going to um i am going to support the committees measure g um uh i do welcome the idea by the way of um browns valley k-8 and those of you who got letters from me last month who wrote to me about it know that i wasn't such an enthusiast at first so um i didn't have my mind made up and i'm glad that we're going

217to try that at at um shira school because um perhaps uh some of the uh students from the westwood neighborhood would like to come over there um it's a great place and it's only a couple blocks from my house so um thank you all for listening to me and um let's let's move forward let's let's be the the community that everybody thinks we are thank you thank you trustee water before we continue i do need to um didn't want to interrupt you um that we extend our meeting i'll move to extend need to pick a time to extend 1am recommendation 1am just to have plenty of time hope we never get there we do like to spend our friday mornings together in this room okay all right can you second that motion so first by

218trustee gracias second by trustee jankowicz student board rep hi all those in favor hi hi screen replace that okay thank you hi would you like to go next sure um so i want to also thank all of the community members who participated on the task force and who communicated with me by email and by phone and in-person meetings um i i really appreciate the the advocacy that that you all had for your students and the passions that you gave because this is what we need of our parents to advocate for our students i also like to thank the staff for preparing a lot of information for everybody and to take the time to answer our questions so i approach this process by looking at the guiding principles that were given to the task force members

219because i think they're sound those are very good um principles to go by so the four principles in case you forgot which i don't think anybody forgot program excellence fiscal solvency responsible facilities management and equity and i i did go through the process that all of the task force members did to rank each of those for each of the scenarios and i'll say that the hardest one that for me to rank was equity and i i it was very hard for me to see any of those scenarios being equitable for actually anybody um everyone is impacted by school closures and i couldn't really get my hands or thoughts around why was that it was so difficult until i took um so last friday and saturday um me and a couple of other new trustees took

220the in governance finance class and we really got a deep dive into what it means to be in school finance and school finance is not equitable school finance does not give us enough funds to be equitable and in a declining enrollment environment it becomes even less so and so that is why it was so difficult for many of the task force members to really you know say a hundred percent that they stand behind anyone and although we do have some you know i know i know um scenario g was the one that came out on top i don't think that everyone was completely comfortable with it and i think it's a lot of that equity piece because i struggled with that equity piece and so what am i left with i'm left with the other

221three that don't really i mean there's some equity in there but it really doesn't it's not where we want to go and you know that is one of our our strategic goals is to have equity in everything we do and i struggle because i'm not able to in this instance um and i i think one of the task force members uh orlando carrion said you know that equity needs to be everywhere and i totally agree i i i'm trying my best to think about every one of those through an equity lens but it is not equitable to close a school in a high needs neighborhood it is not a you know a any other scenario it is not equitable to have to bus or or you know move 800 kids from redwood to another campus

222um i'll go back to my hometown it is not equitable for a thousand kids to be on a 10 acre campus when all the other middle schools are on 30 acre campus so none of this is equitable so it made a really difficult decision unfortunately easier by just looking at numbers which i really hate and i know i'm a scientist and i look at numbers to drive my decisions but this is the one time that i really didn't want to have to do that because i thought that you know this equity piece is going to be reshaping the way i'm looking at things but i wasn't able to and so i it's with a very heavy heart that i i feel like i need to support the scenario that was is presented in the resolution

223um but i do i do recognize that a lot of parents have spoken out about how great small middle schools are so i i need to share this very personal experience of mine and my my it's about my eldest son who is a seventh grader at acms acms has a thousand over a thousand kids on a 10 10 acre campus when i first i and i shared that i got into understand you know wanting to learn more about school board functions when acms 2 was being considered to be built and i was i was on board with a smaller school i really felt like that was going be great for my son because my son is not neurotypical he has adhd he will be the first to tell you by the way so i'm not

224disclosing anything that he doesn't want me to disclose he um is is he has a brilliant mind but that comes at a cost it came at a cost of him not developing his ability to have a very strong social emotional um capabilities um i mean he he's not completely you know not he's not completely you know off the charts but he does have problems having social meaningful social interactions with his peers and he will also tell you that too so this is not something i am disclosing without his knowledge um and i really worried about him and when uh the idea that maybe we could have a small middle school in american canyon i was i was all for it because i thought oh you know i and i knew about the river program so

225i thought well maybe a smaller school would help him and and really be able to do that for him uh to to really you know build on his social emotional learning um of course you know because of fiscal solvency issues at the time we had i think the school district made the right choice in in canceling that project um and so he is now in the 1000 student school on a small footprint but i'll tell you something that i learned from my son in the first week that he went into this large middle school which i thought was humongous um i mean he did come from canyon oaks which is the largest elementary school at about at that time it was over 700 kids and i thought oh well it's still you know several hundred

226more you go to a thousand students but at the middle school he reconnected with a friend that he had not seen since third grade i had no idea that he still even remembered um his friend um and he realized that hey there's there's still you know some some meaning to his relationship and he still remembered it his friend also remembered him and they started talking and they they found a common interest in uh dungeons and dragons he'll tell you about dundin and dragons forever if you just talk to him so he he actually took the courage and said you know what i i think i would like to start a club and so he he himself reached out to his teacher and said can i start a club maybe once a week we can meet

227and i'll open it up to um whoever wants to join and he did i was very very proud of him that he even took that first step of course i was afraid you know is anyone going to join his club it turned out that there were over 10 kids that wanted to join his club and these 10 kids came from all of the different elementary schools in american canyon and had he gone to a small school that's within walking distance to my house he would have gone to a school that was smaller than his elementary i think the the pool of kids that might even have interest of what he has interested would be smaller and so i want to say that you know as much as we think you know small schools are great

228i i was that parents as well i think there's something to be said about going into a larger school where you can find the the possibilities of you finding people who are um you know more more similar to you and where you can make a connection is greater and so i i do want to and i'm not saying that this happens to everybody but i do want to share a personal story that it did happen and i was very shocked when it happened um and very pleasantly surprised and i will say that the faculty the the staff at the middle school it's great and i know there's you know there's concerns about whether or not we can expand certain programs into larger middle schools you're the the teachers are wonderful they love their students they

229will do everything in their power to make sure that whatever situation that they're in in terms of you know teaching at a small school or a big school they will try their best to make it happen and i see that at american canyon middle school so i don't want to discount the fact that you know not yes not every child you know that the big middle school fits for every child but it does work and it has worked for my non-neurotypical child so i just want to put it out there because i i think we don't give credit to our teachers and some of the benefits of having large middle schools enough so thank you for listening thank you tristi chu um we are reaching our um two hour mark where we take a break

230so why don't we go and do that and then we'll finish with board comment so let's take a five minute break okay welcome everybody okay um trustee dooley go ahead thank you president gonzalez morris i have the privilege of going after many of you which is helpful for me before i participate in today's discussion i would like to address the fact that i my wife is a staff member at river middle school and my daughter attends the school there while it hasn't been raised as an issue i do want to make sure that the record is clear that these facts do not raise a conflict of interest that would prevent or prohibit me from participating in the discussion and voting on this agenda item in consultation with district council i have examined both board policy

2319270 and the fair political practices act and concluded that i have no disqualifying conflict of interest key to that conclusion is that there is no financial impact on my family as a result of this decision whether or not the schools are closed or repurposed my wife will still have a job with the district and my daughter will still be a student in the district uh she actually will be out of middle school in the implementation year second any impact on my family is not unique to me or my family it would be the same impact that many families will will experience should the the resolution pass and since there's no financial impact or unique impact i am not prohibited from participating unless i i believe that i am so biased for personal reasons that i

232cannot be objective and that i cannot make a decision that is in the best interest of the district as a whole i am confirming that that is not the case i take seriously my charge to represent the entire district and it's over 16 000 students and nearly 1500 staff members and have analyzed this proposal in that light as i would have any other school being considered [Music] with that said i um this has been an agonizing decision for me um i in my non-school board life i observe a lot of boards and agencies make tough decisions i've seen the process that goes into that and i've seen from behind the scenes how much work that staff puts into [Music] any agenda item but most importantly difficult ones so i i must commend the staff then

233dr musetti for preparing a an agenda item that is very difficult to write very difficult to um to present and that represents many many dozens of hours of work um that is necessary just to get it to our board meeting i also want to thank the members of the task force and the many members of the public who have contacted us or spoken at these meetings it's vital to our process to have public input it's it's important that we hear from people not necessarily to um because our decisions are are are influenced by the changing winds of of public sentiment but because that's the those are the the constituents that we represent um the this decision as i said has been agonizing i for me there are no easy parts to it there's no low-hanging

234fruit that we can say this is you know a simple decision it has required an immense amount of work i know that every one of us here has done a lot to get to a point where we make this this extremely difficult decision it's also a decision that is not one of judgment of the quality of schools that are on the uh that are represented in the in the resolution we're not um deciding based on any failures at these schools this is a decision that as trustees we are responsible for managing and we have a duty to manage the resources of the district to provide the best educational opportunity for each and every student the it's not a responsible thing for us to have facilities that have over 1500 vacancies at the middle school level

235it's not a responsible use of our resources to allow that number to grow annually to the point where we have more than two schools worth of vacancies so this isn't just about money um either this is this is a holistic decision to address the the the proper use and management of our resources one of the reasons i think that this was so difficult for me was i kept breaking down the decision into pieces thinking that that would be a a better way to to look at it [Music] when i did that i found the value in each part of the of of what we are considering today the value in each school that we that we are addressing um i have you know visited the campuses i have spoken with staff and and with the

236site principles i it's it can't be broken down into its constituent parts the reason is because this proposal is is the first step in a vision for our middle school landscape this isn't a a reactionary decision despite the fact that we are addressing a budgetary need this is an opportunity to [Music] holistically address the middle school programming in a way that is both fiscally responsible and with the goal of providing academic excellence and uh with it with an eye toward the whole student for each and every student the dli program as others have mentioned is the only k-12 pathway program that the district currently has the dli program is designed for english learners it's it celebrates bilingualism and by culturalism in a way that is is intended to support english learners and and develop academic

237excellence in two languages moving to a new dedicated campus is not a shot in the dark we know that many dli students come from outside of the current harvest boundaries and they already commute to the program we also know that it's it's that the current enrollment at the the lower elementary grades is much larger than the current middle school enrollment it it there's a projection of filling the salvador campus in the next five years with the dli program in the meantime we have the opportunity to focus uh on on language to have a consistency in the programming at that campus um that to to support the the dli program while it grows um as for rivers socio emotional learning program i um it i'm sad to see that um the the i'm sad to see

238that go uh as a stand-alone program i'm i i have grown to to i know my daughter's experience there has been enriching and i have no doubt uh about the experiences of any of the families who have spoken about river um the teachers that uh we've we've encountered have are excellent um and i know that it's very difficult to implement uh an sel program at a large scale from the top down but i do believe that the benefits of that for that model uh are are beneficial to everybody there's no reason that somebody at a larger school should not be supported uh should not be provided the the um the self should not be provided the opportunity to develop as an individual person this proposal includes a commitment to program excellence at the middle school

239that i believe must include a consideration of social emotional learning at the large middle schools [Music] i hope that [Music] that despite the grieving that we all will go through as we transition through following this decision that we can roll up our sleeves and make this work for all students students children [Music] see how adults respond to difficulties they feel that and and that's their experience i hope that we can be positive examples for students as we um make this this transition and as we try to uh and and strive to achieve the vision that this plan represents i also agonized over the impact that this decision will have on the community surrounding harvest and i i can't add much more than what other trustees have about um you know our role as an educational

240agency um compared to to the other local agencies um and if i didn't have a confidence in this board's commitment to the conscious disposition of the harvest site to the um focus on what what role we might play in this community i would [Music] have trouble supporting this if i had any concern that this decision really was a divestment of the district in that community i wouldn't support it i am confident that we as a board will direct and and staff uh will enact um a plan for that site that will bring um what will support that community and in the ways that that that are needed and ways that we can control um i think you know consistent with our role of representing each and every student across the district [Music] this proposal needs

241to be viewed from that that that step back from that that broader perspective of of um the vision that that we have for for uh the district and for middle schools in particular [Music] um the the financial aspects are obviously necessary um as many have said but this isn't a decision purely reacting to to our financial situation and for that reason i i support the resolution as presented and i am ready to roll up my sleeves uh to address the second part uh and third part and fourth part of this vision that we have and i invite the the the public to be a part of that as they have in this process and you know as as i expect they will in our future decisions so thank you trustee dooley our student board rep

242carla magana yes all right so i want to start off by saying thank you to everyone that invested their time into this proposal uh whether it was in favor or against um dr musetti your whole team all the trustees uh all the advocates and just everyone in the community um i always enjoy being here on the board along with everyone else i feel like i learned something new every time i'm here which is really nice feels rewarding um i think for all of us it's been a really difficult process to decide what to vote um and just looking at all the different information that's been kind of laid out for everyone i've tried to use my perspective as a student the most i can in order to find what's most equitable for all students in

243the district after hearing all the public comments from past meetings it had driven me to solely focus on the emotional aspect of closing a school but realistically um i realized that we have to focus on the facts and like trustee shu said earlier um in this case it feels dreadful to do that i had to learn to ground myself and look at the proposal from all kinds of angles and perspectives after having many conversations with family friends and trustees it became more clear to me that looking at the facts and data would lead to a more equitable outcome for not just middle school students but for all of musd in the coming years although closing harvest and reinventing reinventing river would divide a portion of our middle school students it would give musd a chance

244to invest in more programs and enhance learning for all students and i believe that is the equity we should be we should all be focusing on i think that this is a difficult yet necessary opportunity for students to receive a richer education and become become more prepared for challenging high school courses with that being said i'm saddened by the fact that another campus needs to close but excited to see where learning goes in each classroom so i'm in favor of the proposal thank you to our student board rep um i had a whole uh speech prepared but um i think all the words have been said tonight and i um i find myself in in this position of completely agreeing with all of you and um and just really um reflecting on that sense of

245how um our own board is diverse with their perspective and their expertise and knowledge we have scientists we have educators we have lawyers we have and um experience and finance we have various stories to share and and you know and i think i'm i'm left with a lot of um just feeling thankful for all the hard work that's been put into place and all the um the emotions that has um carried us along the way i think i'm now left with and i think i'm when you're in this position as board president and you hear of everything else it's been so new for me um because i i am left with then tapping into the human emotion of things and um and that's the piece of me that i i do have to you know

246make sure that i um and sharing what i'm going through what were as you know in this role but definitely um as a board that all of you have shared um in terms of the impact that this um can can have especially to our vulnerable populations and i sometimes have a hard time with that word and disadvantaged and misrepresented and and um because i think um especially having been raised in that kind of um environment and being raised in a in a home where when we moved here and immigrated here we were we were faced with poverty we were faced with food insecurity um we were faced with um lots of challenges housing even back then um very difficult and um and just that's where i'm feeling most connected with is especially with our populations

247that i know are surviving right now and you've heard me say that many times and the thought of causing any additional pain to that is something that we all share here and we feel that but we're being very strategic and i trust of the processes we've put in place i have in faith in our in our administrators and all of you and everybody who's also commented in that we care very deeply about our kids and that's something no one can argue um with us and although some have argued and i think that's the part that um um i'm trying to convey here is that we do care we aren't we are we are a group of people who are from the community and we're here to represent our community and the voices that we have

248to share um [Music] but it does it does um paint me to see that i had a um a lot of reflection and especially um my mother comes to mind right um having her [Music] raise us and um and i think some of you have heard my story um of of how um we didn't have a car and um i had to walk to take the bus and rain or shine right and um my mother because we didn't have a car she would have to ride her bike to work and coincidentally her path to work was the same path to my school which is silverado middle school and rain or shine um my bus would and it was always i always knew it i always knew to look over and i always sit on the

249right side of the bus because i knew that i would run into my mom riding her bicycle to work i just knew it and i would have my classmates you know be like yeah and be like that's my mom you're like that's your mom it's like it's raining i'm like she's going to work um she's making it happen and so and i want to share that human side of of me and i know many of you have shared your human side of of what you have shared because at the end of the day we we do care and it's real it's very real for us i know you're not in the boardroom and i know it's late and i know you're listening and i know you you know our public has been following what we're

250doing but this is this is very real and i and i take that very very seriously and we all take that very very seriously because i thought of closing a campus um like harvest it's like closing the doors on my mom it feels that way and um nobody wants to do that i don't want to do that but i wish we've been asked to to vote with our hearts and i wish i could vote with my heart but i cannot ignore the data and i can't ignore the finances and i can't ignore the 17 000 kids we have in our care so that being said why don't we take the next step as we have now um reached a point and um and do that so now in addressing our item k1b which is the

251adoption of the resolution number 21-23 approving closure of harvest middle school and reconfiguration of river middle school into a language academy campus determining that the project is exempt from the california environmental quality act this is a resolution so i will ask vera to please take roll call student board member magana aye trustee gonzalez aye trustee jingle woods aye trustee gracia aye trustee reisser aye trustee water aye mr shu hi rusty dooley hi thank you okay all right thank you all and thank you everybody and please continue to join us um and stay with us and think of nbusd and we look forward to having you as we move forward with our next steps okay let us now scroll back up to our agenda okay all right so we are now um returning to agenda um

252h which is the reports this is now um time for a board of education and student board representative to provide reports so um nothing for me tonight uh happy earth day everyone the last 30 minutes of it [Laughter] that's true happy earth day to you too um would you like to start to see gracia okay so on april 1st my term officially started as the csba representative for napa county on the 6th i attended the napa county office of education board meeting on the 6th i also attended the middle school design task force meeting on the 8th i visited harvest middle school also on the 8th we had the celebration of school special board meeting on the 9th i met with some parents who were concerned about the state of band and nvosd on the

25312th i attended the calistoga school board meeting and on the 13th the facilities and techconology meeting i too attended the middle school redesign and task force meeting the celebration of school's board meeting the facilities and tech and i think like all of us have dedicated our last few weeks to community engagement thank you trustee gracie and jacobix jesse reiser um as trustee jankowitz mentioned i also have spent the last several weeks engaging with stakeholders um regarding the proposed school closure um last weekend i attended the third course in the masters in governance training which was focused on school finance that was um friday and saturday morning and on the 19th i attended the special education community advisory committee meeting thank you trustee riser um would you like to go next rusty water just going down

254the line here um i too you know met with uh various people in in the community concerned people um today i went to the uh stu the the students uh climate group uh they had an earth earth day um art show virtual art show they had a 17 17 finalists and one of them is my fellow trustee's daughter i was talking to a delightful young woman with a different last name from you and i didn't put it together until she said oh you're going into a board meeting oh well you'll see my mother there it was very funny and um it was great a variety of different different art pieces and these children just did such a fabulous job organizing it prizes and everything and um let's see i did have um i did go

255to the uh we had a policy committee meeting but um i shoved uh shoved it off on lisa or jason to do the report so that's good that was a good move and um boy i did a lot of uh studying up on k-8 schools and i did learn something else which is chuck gray chuck drazel over at redwood middle school runs a blog for teachers called tips for teachers in a hurry and ways to spiff up your your um virtual lessons but it's something that can be used anytime so i had fun looking at that yes go ahead trusty too so on march 26th i joined congressman mike thompson's anti-asian violence roundtable where we talked about with um over 20 community members and in his district on what it was like to be asian

256pacific islander in in california and some of the uh racial tensions that we we see we experience and um i represented mvusd of course and i talked about how there's a lot of work that we're doing at the schools and schools are one of the first places where our children experience society but you know a lot of this work about needing to change um our social structures and and to have equity and and to have understanding of different cultures needs funding because we cannot just put that on our teachers and the staff so i did advocate for funding there on april 6th i attended the middle school redesign task force last session and i also um connected with many community members so thank you for um for reaching out on the 15th i joined my

257fellow trustees in the policy advisory committee which i'll report out later and um last friday on the 16th and saturday the 17th i attended the mastering covenants class on school finance and that's it for me trustee dooley so i um i've done a couple site visits uh on in march 25th the day after our last business meeting i toured redwood middle school and river middle school and then recently i toured harvest i also attend uh observed the middle school redesign task force um i last week i had the facilities and technology committee meeting and the policy committee meeting and i'm grateful that i don't have to report out on both i also attended the masters in governance course on school finance a very timely course and very well developed i do want to say that

258i really appreciate assistant superintendent manguala who in our new trustee orientation process met with us one-on-one i felt more prepared than i think a lot of the the board members uh from other districts and uh it was very very helpful um to have known a lot of that terminology and and have a primer from from uh mr manguala so thank you for that um and then i too have engaged in a lot of community outreach and uh emails meetings uh phone calls and that sort of thing um and that's my report thank you trustee dooley um i attended them in addition to a lot of the other meetings i've attended with all of you uh the d-loc meeting last night and um um just i was really impressed by my fellow her name is elma

259as well so i was really impressed by president elba of the d-lock you know just running running um the the group and so many of the count the sites elac members were there and uh participating and just um really wonderful to see that that process and growing and seeing the representation from all the schools so i look forward to um continuing to to hear from them and and um you know and as a process that uh dr mercedes mentioned that we are wanting to embrace more and have it be um working you know as it should be um so yeah that was really really good okay so let's continue with board representative reports curriculum and student support committee we have not yet met facilities and technology committee we met uh last tuesday at the 13th

260um and it was a very uh action-packed meeting so i will try to keep this brief um without speaking like the micro machines guy so we had we got an update from technology including new radio systems which are operational and we're working on training and deployment to sites possibly starting with a pilot site before full deployment we learned about a worldwide chip shortage which impacts tech projects especially the kind of length of time that it takes to to complete the projects and we also got an update on the new napa junction site the network uh is was set to come online i believe it that date has passed they were doing testing but it's a complex process that um to ensure that all the systems are online from facilities we got an update regarding the

261acms student commons project which is currently in the design approval stage we are waiting for approval from the department of state architect which is expected in mid-may the design is spacious and versatile with a reasonable amount of purple the school color the uh there are temporary facilities in use right now which is required a minimal amount of improvements but a very creative use of the small campus space at the site demolition is currently underway of the old structures with fencing in place for student state safety and then construction on the project will begin after approval of course from the dsa and there's working on planning for uh construction through august of 2022. there are a lot of site constraints that have made it difficult but there's been a very collaborative relationship between the district maintenance

262and operations and the design build contractor which has made that go smoothly and then the commons will serve many functions from at a central location on the campus including a library a maker space performance spaces outdoor seating and of course dining facilities we also received a [Music] an update or a a presentation about the maintenance and operations department uh including the kind of structures and roles as well as the work that the department does uh we welcomed albert d'souza uh who leads the maintenance and gloria aguilar who leads operations maintenance includes many different skilled shops including carpentry glazing plumbing and electrical to name a few and then operations includes nearly 100 custodians serving all the district campuses and other facilities um in different capacities maintenance and operations has developed a high level of communication collaboration

263and leadership by creating a culture that is focused on the pivotal role that they play in the district's vision we also learned about work orders and how they're managed uh with light maintenance being done by custodians complex more complex skill intensive work being assigned to maintenance staff in their respective shops and then larger more complex work contracted out for for work additionally work orders are prioritized based on uh kind of the emergent nature of the work the department reviews work order counts weekly with staff to encourage that work orders be closed out and to work on prioritizing the the uh needed work as of the meeting on april 13th there had been 798 work orders submitted this year um and that was on top of a backlog of a lot more work orders so the

264amount of uh of work that that staff has has been doing is is kind of staggering we also talked about the summer maintenance work that will be underway once schools close for the summer they use all of the seven to eight weeks of summer to do deep cleaning to replace carpet to reseal gym floors and perform a lot of the work orders that couldn't be done while students are in classrooms this year will be a little bit harder with more district summer programs so there is a need to kind of work around those schedules so and that concludes my report thank you finance committee we have not met not man policy committee so on uh april 15th we met um on zoom and we had several items on the agenda the first item was grading

265for equity presentation by joe feldman from crescendo and that was a real enlightening presentation where equitable grading is based on accuracy bias being bias resistant and motivational for both students and ended up being for teachers as well some of this work has been ongoing in higher education and also in some school districts so we won't be the first to be the guinea pigs but what they have seen is that there are positive qualitative and quantitative outcomes such as reducing grade inflation and deflation you reduce achievement disparities and there are correlations between grades and standardized tests so um i we did ask about the timeline how long does it take to implement and it was between two and four years depending on how much training and uh uptake and and actual implementation from the teachers so

266it does take time to implement but i think we were interested in in seeing that work um and i know we had a public comment about that today earlier um the second item was um policy updates recommended by the california school board association from december 2020 which will be an agenda item j1a so i won't go into detail since we will talk about it later then we have a couple of items that were related to safety issues one was food service delivery and we were concerned that you know if we have these outside vendors delivering on campus what does that mean when we have people who are not suppo who are not fingerprinted and and being on our campus and so we were very concerned about that also we discussed open and closed campus for

267the high school i know that many of you know at american canyon high school there was an incident of of a couple of students that went on off campus and they basically got mugged on the way back to campus and it was very concerning and i was actually there when it happened i was happy i happened to drive by it was very scary it was happened right next to our elementary school too so it becomes not just a high school issue but a more neighborhood issue then and so we were we were uh for maybe limiting ninth and tenth graders um and that actually also aligns with the the laws about who you can take as a new driver um as a teenage new driver um we also discussed and um wanted to bring forth

268a resolution against asian and pacific islander hate which will be agenda item k1a we also discussed safe firearm storage and discussed the resolution example from the alameda school district which actually aligns with the california department of education recommended memorandum about gun safety and so we will bring that to the board in the future and we did discuss what some of the future work on policy we would like to see and one was following up to the resolution against aapi hate that we will be looking at today work on relating to inclusion and equity for all i think that that's our goal and that is our one of our strategic plans and so i we thought it was all very important to work on a policy on that as well so that will come on the

269later date and that concludes my report thank you for that update special education community advisory committee yes we met this monday uh the 19th um the selpa director jenny may maywall sorry um praised all of the local education agencies for getting through this year with creativity communication and articulation of goals and referenced again the parent education and professional development series that they offer through the selpa this year they offered a diagnostic seminar for parents in the fall and then a focus on mental health and wellness with a psychologist and they're starting to look um and welcome input and suggestions to line up next year's trainings for example like a parent education on the iep process how it works what the chain of command is um the director reiterated that the financial situation for our selpa

270is excellent we have stable funding and excellent compliance which is always good to hear um the parent chairperson of the committee darcy storms reported about the inclusion awards the annual inclusion awards that are coming along there will be multiple people honored at our may 27th board meeting and then also we will uh see the uh entries for the multimedia creativity challenge for the theme be the one um terri lynn rossetti gave her director's report for our district and said that they are looking at the extended school year to serve the special ed students mostly with moderate and severe disabilities who are eligible for an extended school year which is different than the extended learning opportunities that are offered by the district but they're really focused on those students who are really likely to experience regression

271in their progress with a long break over the summer uh our assistant superintendent pat andrew jennings gave the committee a summary of the nvusd extended learning options for this summer and sort of explained how that information was going out the transition program which serves those uh those special ed students that are transitioning out of high school that have hired a director and that program is in progress the development um the parent chair darcy storms again spoke to the importance this was in rel relative to raising this middle school uh redesign issue and she sort of asked about well what where are the special education students going to fit into that once the decision has been made and she just surfaced again the importance of the inclusion of special education students in general education settings and

272amplified the idea that special ed students teach as much as they learn and they add value wherever they are placed in our district i couldn't agree more i don't know if anyone from the community is listening at this point but the um the committee is looking for help from the community in two ways they're really seeking to have a bilingual parent to serve on the committee so if anybody knows of a bilingual parent of a special ed child student in the district or in the county actually that would uh be willing to serve and meet um on the committee please uh let uh let jenny maywald know and then also we're looking for donated items for prizes for the inclusion awards local businesses that might donate goods or gift certificates would be most appreciated and

273again you can reach out to jennie maywald at the county office of education and last we were introduced to a new member of the committee from um an lea called matrix parent network um and that this is a non-profit that used to serve four counties and now serves 18 counties in northern california the director's name is juana madris they have a parent training center in that offers services in english and spanish offering support for families of students with special needs to support them in understanding and accessing services getting trainings on ieps how to help parents review assessments and ieps how to access support groups and i want to share both their website it's called matrix parent network so it's just it's a www.matrixparents.org and they also have a help line which is 800 578 and

274that concludes that committee report and i forgot to add in my report that i too attended the final session of the middle school redesign task course it just was it's been so long since our last gen war meeting i forgot to add it to my report but that concludes my thank you trustee riser um city of american canyon liaison representatives we will meet next month okay thank you city of napa liaison representatives okay town of bianco liaison representatives we have not yet met okay thank you okay superintendent and executive staff president gonzalez modest tonight we will not have staff reports all right we will now move into approval of consent agenda second i have a first and a second uh first by trustee jenkins in a second by tracy gracia um we'll need a role

275call for this vera yes student board member magana hi christy dooley hi thank you thank you vera okay we're now going on to item j1a this is um just the introduction to the california school board association's recommended policy updates that trustee chu referred to earlier so i just had a quick comment wanted to highlight that board policy prevents the presentation of viewpoints on particular candidates or ballot measures in the classroom without giving equal time to the presentation of all perspectives which includes opposing perspectives any other comment these will be wrapped back for action on may 6. thank you okay so we're now going to um item k1a this is the resolution 21-22 supporting people there's religion 21-22 are supporting people of asian ancestry and condemning harassment violence and hatred toward people of asian descent move

276to approve i'll definitely second and i i want to make a comment and i want to thank the board for taking this up i think it's important for especially american canyon where we have the largest population of aapi students and it sends a strong message to our students that we do support them in going against thank you you're welcome first by trustee gracia in a second by trustee chu um vera we you could do roll call please yes student board member magana hi gonzalez rusty dooley hi thank you everybody um i know we had moved um the next agenda k1b but in the midst of my emotions i lost track of the actual official process of having a resolution so i'm going to have you um request to revisit that and um because we didn't

277do a first or second we went straight to roll call so my apologies to have you go through that one more time but move to approve second i have a first bite trustee gracia a second by trustee dooley vr if you could do roll call now yes student board member magana hi gonzalez hi christy jenker woods aye mr gracia aye rusty reisser aye trustee water aye rusty shoe hi christy dooley hi thank you thank you we will now go to item k to a resolution 21-21 to issue tax and revenue anticipation notes so moved it first by trustee gracias seconded by trustee jankowicz lear if you could do roll call please student board member magana rusty reiser aye rusty water aye rusty shoe hi christy dooley aye thank you thank you we're now into item

278k3a declaration of need of fully qualified educators it's all moved second first by trustee gracia is second by trustee water all those um uh student board rep aye all those in favor aye aye anybody opposed abstain mission passes thank you k3b proposed sca and the usd collective bargaining agreement effective january 1st 2021 through december 31st 2023 so moved second first by trustee gracia is second by trustee dooley student board rep hi all those in favor aye aye anybody opposed or abstain motion passes thank you k4a ratification of migrant education program district service agreement so moved second perspective grass is second by trustee dooley student board rep aye all those in favor aye aye you pose or abstain motion passes thank you school plan for student achievement item k4b so moved second first by trustee gracia

279uh second by trustee dooley student board rep i all those in favor all right what do you pose or abstain okay thank you k4c renewal mou between city of american canyon and nbusd so moved i'll second our first by trustee gracias second by trustee chu student board rep i all those in favor aye hi anybody oppose or abstain okay thank you item k5 a temporary emergency facilities used agreement between nava valley unified school district and napa county so moved second first by trustee gracias second by trustee dooley student board rep hi all those in favor hi hi anybody opposed motion passes thank you now on to item l1 um l1a with enrollment report just feel the need to highlight that it's more bad news we've lost more students the enrollment decline continues thank you trustee

280crosstown item l1b final demographic analysis and facility capacity report this is um just a report for us comments i'll just um do a quick orientation this is the uh official report that accompanied the presentation that we received from um king consulting the last last board meeting regular business meeting that the regular business meeting no we heard from king at the special board meeting and then saw them the week a board meeting in march yes i can't remember which one maybe it was the last one in march he made a presentation this is the this is the official report that's now complete yes and i think notably uh comments came up about the city of napa's planning uh documents the build-out projections uh in a general plan context are completely different from a demographic analysis of

281this sort they are for regional planning purposes and they represent if buildings are actually built um this is what how we would plan for it not these are these are being built and so the these projections demographic analysis is more on the ground than a general plan demo analysis so thank you are there any additional suggestions and comments from board members or superintendent um i do just want to quickly comment um at the last board meeting we talked about adding to the informational items a monthly report on chronic absenteeism that was requested by trustee gracia i want to let you know that i have um staff at mr drew herron still in the meeting with us and mr mike mansway who oversees student services and child welfare and attendance we will start that practice next

282month and then carry it through next year and it'll be added for the last board meeting of the month every month just wanted to welcome everybody to friday i wanted to say that first trustee gracia i was looking at my phone too okay um all right any future agenda items if you have one i knew it so we approved a lot of programs last june that we needed for our distance learning and so now we're coming up on a year that we've been using those programs and i'm interested to see which if any we will need in uh actual in-person learning uh and which ones were maybe effective and which ones were less so i would love to hear uh where we are as far as evaluating all of those programs actually that's a good

283idea yeah i agree okay i think that's been that's been noted anything else all right so someone would like to adjourn you know i'll second our first by trustee gracia a second by christy dooley student board rep hi all those in favor oppose rip stain all right no i want to stay another hour yeah good morning everybody this has been fun this concludes our meeting