001[Music] finally I want to just close off by saying that although Women's History Month has concluded last month, um I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to honor an extraordinary woman whose legacy continues to inspire us. uh and that is uh Miss Lois Tinsson. So, Miss Tinsson was a trailblazer in education. She was the first African-American and first person of color to serve as president of the California Teachers Association. Uh she was a fierce advocate for smaller class sizes, increased school funding, and equity in education. She believed deeply in the power of education to transform lives. as she once said, and I quote her, "The game, my friend, is not over. It's just begun. And in the name of human decency and dignity, and for the sake of our students, we are
002going to win." Miss Tensson is also the sister of our very own board president, Miss Lily Campbell. Ah, who herself who herself, Miss Lily is a trailblazer. Also, uh, Miss Lily was, uh, the first woman of color to serve as the Association of California School Administrators president. So, the AXA president for the entire state. And so we're honored to share both of these sisters story uh today and their legacy uh within our community. And so for Miss Tensson, her life reminds us that the fight for equality and opportunity and education is far from over. And for our own Miss Lily, uh the fight continues every day. And so to these two trailblazing women, we want to say congratulations and thank you. And that is my report. Did I make you cry? Yes, you did. He
003made me cry because my sister's no longer with us. She died about three or four years after she resigned as she finished her year as president. She was coming going out as I was coming in. So they said it was again book of records that two African-American women headed the major or education organizations at the same time. Anyway, thank you. Okay, let's see if we can continue with all of the good news for tonight and board members. Um, I want to move an item. Um, and that's item 101 where we approve the student uh, council recognition resolution. We'll be moving it to the front after the students speak. So, it will be coming up front. So, I wanted to let you know that we're going to be moving 110 up to the front. Okay. All
004right. Good. So, with that, we will continue with our board meeting. Um, and the next item, if I'm still on task, Superintendent Student Advisor Council update. That's you. That's me. Okay. All right. So, Madame President, I'm going to ask our uh communication specialist, Miss Julia Jimenez Yamamoto, to come up. uh this group of young people that you're going to hear from uh tonight is truly uh an inspiration to me. I have learned so much from them this school year uh as well as last year and so I think the board will appreciate the time that they're going to spend. So, Miss Julia. Yeah. Good evening, Superintendent Sample and board members. So, today we have a few members of our Superintendent Student Advisory Council. Um can we flip to the next slide? Um, so you can
005see all of their names are there, but here we have uh Frankie Cortez. Frankie, do you want to stand up and say hi? Hi, I'm Frankie Cortez. Nice to meet you. And then we have Ricardo Vega. Hi, I'm Ricardo Vega. Nice to meet you guys. Millie Palis. Hi. Wisdom Phillips next to her. Hi, Emil Chesto. Chesto. Okay. And Alice Pratzuk. Did I say that right? Yeah. Okay, cool. So, these are our members of the Superintendent Student Advisory Council that are going to be presenting for you tonight and just sharing some of the great work that they've been doing throughout the year. Um, they've met with super superintendent sample on a monthly basis to basically share their voice and be the voice for students across Gateway and um everything that um the students want to see
006improved at our school. So with that, I'll go ahead and invite Emil and Alice to come on up and kick off our presentation. Good evening, Superintendent Sample and board members. My name is Emil Shastapal, as you've heard, and I currently serve as the president for the Superintendent uh Superintendent Student Advisory Council, also known as ESAC. This group brings together high school students from across Gateway schools and we share our experiences there to lift up student voices and we also work on ideas that can make our schools even better. This year we focused on topics that really matter to us as students. Things like leadership opportunities, building stronger school communities, and policies that affect our daily lives. We are excited to share what we have been working on together and some recommendations that we hope you'll
007consider. To kick things off, I'd like to invite my classmate Alice to help me talk about our first topic. One of our first topics we focused on this year was student leadership. As a council, we saw a big opportunity to expand leadership opportunities across all of our gateway schools, especially at campuses like CCCS and Sava. ESAC members from those schools shared that because their campuses aren't traditional like Futures High School, they don't always get to experience things like rallies, yearbooks, or student led events. And while we know great things are always already happening, students are really excited about growing leadership in ways that include more of those fun schoolwide traditions. As leadership students at Futures High School, we've experienced just how powerful these roles can be. They give us a real sense of purpose and
008motivation and help us build real world skills like communication, teamwork, public speaking, and planning. Through leadership, we get to plan events, bring people together, and create a positive environment that makes school feel more meaningful, exciting, and a place where we truly belong. Leadership also supports our mental health. When students feel seen, trusted, and heard, school becomes a place where we feel like we actually belong. That's why we're recommending a few ideas to help expand leadership across all gateway schools. Organize more studentled events like rallies, clubs, and spirit weeks. Create leadership classes classes at schools that don't currently offer them. Send students to leadership conferences like KATA and Castle to bring back new ideas to school that can help them make leadership classes. Encourage teachers and staff to help lead and support leadership programs. Provide opportunities
009for schools to visit and observe other leadership activities and host a gateway wide student leadership conference where students from all schools can connect, share ideas, and grow as leaders together. Now, we're going to shift to another topic that has been a big discussion lately, not just in our schools, but at the state level, too. I'd like to invite Ricardo and Frankie to the front to talk about the Phone Free School Act. Thank you, Alice. Another topic that we spent time on this year were the phone use policy, especially with the new phone free act that goes into effect in 2026. This new law requires students to create policies that limit student use during school days. Since this directly impacts us, we believe it's really important that our students voices are a part of this conversation.
010As students, we know phones can definitely be distract distraction, but we also know there are situations where having access is important. Some students use their phones to manage their health, handle emergencies or communication with family members throughout the day as at the same time. We know that phones that having phones out all the time can make it harder to focus or connect to people in real life. So, this is a chance to find a balance that actually works. We also know that every school is different and so are the ways phones are used and the rules that come with them. That's why we're recommending the following. Continue to include student voices when talking about how to implement the new phone policy. Look at what's working and what's not because every school is different. Make sure
011any consequences are clear, fair, and consistent. Give students a chance to help come up with creative solutions that support learning and respect students needs. Now, we'd like to shift our last topic, community schools. These schools are more about than just academics. They're about bringing students, families, and the community together. To tell you more about what this looks like and how we can grow it, I'd like to invite uh Millie and W up and wisdom. Thank you, Ricardo. The last topic we want to talk about tonight is community schools and how they can really make a difference for students and families. To us, a community school isn't just where you go to class. It's a place where you feel supported, where families feel included, and where there are resources to help with whatever you might be
012going through inside or outside of school. When schools are connected to the community, it helps everyone. It means students and families have access to things that make life a little easier. Whether that's meal distributions, mental health support, or help with everyday challenges. When schools offer these kinds of resources, it shows they care about more than just what happens in the classroom. And when we feel that care, it's easier to show up, stay motivated, and feel like school is a place we belong. That's why we put together a few ideas to help our community schools grow and m keep making an impact. We recommend host more events that bring students, families, and staff together to build stronger school communities. Make sure families know about available support like meal distributions, coun counseling services, and more. Ask students
013what kinds of supports would help them most like tutoring, access to mental health resources, or connections to mentorship, internships, and career pathways. We also want to thank Miss Pelina and Mr. Ramon for meeting with us and asking for our input on community schools. It means a lot to be included in this that conversation. And now I'd like to invite our ESAC president email to close us out. Goodness. Thank you guys so much for having us and giving us the opportunity to share what we've been working on for the stu superintendent super uh student advisory council. We're proud to represent students from across Gateway and to have a voice in shaping the future of our schools. We if you guys have any questions, we we'd be happy to answer them. All right. Thank you. Thank you
014board members. Do we have comments or questions or any comments at all for our students who have done a marvelous job? Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for the year you have given to the superintendent and the ideas that you've come up with are just wonderful and very much needed. Yes, board members. Congratulations students. You did a wonderful job in presenting and as Miss Lily had said um the information that you share is very relevant and I really like the idea of community schools and and getting getting everybody in the in the family involved u in what you do on campus. So that uh resonates very clearly with me as well. So congratulations again on your presentation. you all did an outstanding job. Any other comments from anyone? Again, we
015really do appreciate the hard work that you have done all year with the superintendent and we want you to continue with work. How many of you are seniors this year? We have one, two seniors. So, we have four of you now here that are ongoing. I want to also recognize the parents who are here with you. I know we have a few parents. Parents, would you please stand so we can thank you if you're here with this group? All right. Yeah. Thank you for your hard work with the students and for letting us have them for a while to do the things that the superintendent and they are talking about and looking at. So, thank you. Now, board members, we Yes, I'm sorry, Superintendent. No problem, Madam President. I I just want to again personally
016and publicly thank uh this phenomenal group of young people. They represent students from all GCC high schools. So, they come from different uh places and they have been invaluable. their recommendations are their recommendations and so really proud of the work that they have done this year and looking forward to great things. So personally guys, thank you so much. I appreciate you. We we really do appreciate you. Thank you Alice. All right, Miss Mandri. Yes. Yeah, I think some of those recommendations are really good. And for those of you who that are not seniors, your work is now beginning to make sure that those recommendations are followed through. So I would really encourage you to continue to work uh with superintendent, with your principles, with staff and whatever and see those recommendations through so that they
017don't just land up on a shelf somewhere. So thank you very much for being here. And the phone issue is a big one across the state. So, we really do want to see what you guys come up with and how it impacts the students here that we service. So, keep at it. Keep on with it. Um, we have uh board members, we have recognition resolutions and they're in the back there for the students, but they will be given at a different time. But we just need to have a motion to approve the student advisory council recognition resolution. Yes. Move approval. Move approval. Second. Second. All right. We have any other discussion or questions, comments on that. They will be given out at a later time at a lunchon for the students. Okay. Roll call. Mr.
018Mark Anderson. Yes. Mr. Harry Block. Yes. Mr. Bruce Mandrech. Yes. Mr. Jack Turner. Yes. And Lily Campbell. Yes. So, your resolutions, you can see them there. We have them, but we're going to give them to you at your lunch. And so, they will be given at at a lunch time. Okay. All right. So, we would like to take a picture with the students and the board. If you will uh indulge us for a minute. I saw Right. We will continue with our board agenda. And students and parents, whenever you want to leave, we know you got to get back and get ready with your homework for tomorrow. Right. Right. Uh-huh. So, when you're ready to leave, you may gladly do so. We understand. So, thank you again for being here with us. And parents, thank
019you so much for coming and bringing the students. We appreciate you and we love you. Bye-bye. So, okay, we have another student recognition, Futures High School. Okay, who's going to talk about that? So, uh, Assistant Superintendent Elliot. Well, good evening, President Campbell, Superintendent Sample, and board. Uh, tonight I am here to recognize a number of students from Futures High School. On March 19th, this group took uh participated in the Sacramento Junior Achievement Stock Market Challenge. And it is good to be a winner. And this group of four students behind us took first place throughout all of the Sacramento region building the biggest stock market portfolio for the event. So to talk a little more about the event, I'm going to ask that our counselor, Tatiana Palachio, come on up. And we also have a board
020member from Sacramento Junior Achievement. Uh let's see, uh Jim Canerys. Sorry, missed the name there. But Jim Canerys from Junior Achievement can also come up and able to talk more about the students and maybe allow one or two of them to speak as well. Sure. All right. I'm a bit nervous. I'm not going to lie. This is the first time I'm addressing the board and the superintendent, so it's such an honor to be here. But like Miss Lily Campbell already said, we're here for students of course and this is my third year um representing Futures High School on the stock market challenge market challenge. The first time we were in 2019 brought the first place. Last year we brought the first place and this year we brought the first place and we brought our students
021here with us as well coming up and I'm going to have them speak a little bit more about their experiences. But this has been such an awesome privilege to have our students compete on a regional kind of level. And now because we have a first place, we're going to go to national competition which is in um it's going to be June 9 through 12 in Atlanta, Georgia. So we would really need your support to bring our students and hopefully win another first place. I'm going to have Jim speak a little bit more about the program as well. And then we have Oleg, our one of the leaders from the team going to speak as well. Thank you so much. Thank you. [Applause] Uh nice to meet all of you. My name is Jim Canerys. I'm
022the board member for Junior Achievement. I'm their coach. I'm also a volunteer and I'm the incoming board chair for Junior Achievement of Sacramento. Um, Junior Achievement is a nonprofit that teaches kids workforce readiness and financial literacy, which we all know is very necessary now more than ever. Um, especially with the stock market, me being a financial adviser popping. It's not a fun time. Um, but I'm especially proud of these kids. I was tasked to coach them back in 2019 for the first time. Um they blew everybody away the first year in 2019 which was thought of as probably a fluke. Uh we had the pandemic. We couldn't do this competition again uh until 2024 where this team won last year. Um and most proud um the more proud I um say this best. This year
023made me the most proud because out of 44 teams, I coached three of them, three teams from this school. And in the top five, they were three of the five teams. In the top three, they were two of the top teams. And this is your winner right here. So, I'm especially proud of the work that Junior Achievement does. I'm especially proud of these guys because as much as I'm the coach, I give these guys all the credit for being so intelligent and being so coachable. Um, and so it's, you know, it's my wish that that they get to go to Atlanta, Georgia, represent Sacramento area, and uh, make us all proud. Hello, my name is Ol. I'm u leader of the group that got a first place uh, this year and last year. So this
024year we made out of million uh, dollars, we made two and three uh, million dollars. uh compared to the last uh compared to the second uh team uh they got just 2 million. So we had a really good advantage. So I want to talk a bit about the uh competition itself. How what does it look like? So this is the simulated stock market competition where uh high school students compete against each other. um we have one hour which is 60 minutes which is um 60 days on the simulated stock market and we need to make as much money as possible compared to other groups. Uh and we do this based on the analysis based on the risk and money management and so uh I believe our strategy was beneficial and fruitful because again of this
025two years um I can say that I enjoyed each step of this competition of this process. uh from gaining and uh gathering the team um to weekly practices and to being uh on that event and essentially winning it. And I think the thing that I liked the most um is the teamwork that was so prominent and visible um especially at the event uh when everything was so chaotic and we were literally surrounded with people yelling and we still u stayed calm and we're working as the one organism. So I'm honored to be here. Thank you for inviting and we're looking forward to uh compete in Georgia Atlanta. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Uh gentlemen, congratulations. Let's step up here and let's take a picture real quick together with the board. And I want to say thank
026you. Thank you for all of I don't understand it, but thank you. It is wonderful. There is one other thing I want to say. They look so professional in their ties and in their coats and jackets. Gentlemen, young young men, thank you. You look so professional and you look so well put together. So, I just wanted to compliment you on how nice you looked when you were working. Thank you so much. Do we have any parents? We're going to give these to your principal to uh present to the students. Yeah, they took off. Well, we still have a couple of students here. They're gonna they're gonna they're going to hand them out after. Okay. Thank you. Any other parents here? We see the principal is here from futures. Anyone else here? Anyone else? Okay. Thank
027you so much for being here with us and thank you young. I thought I had it on. I must turn it off. Thank you. And now we're moving to Empowering Possibilities International Epic Annual School Report. And I know the principal has been here waiting for this moment. So, thank you, sir, for being here with us and we're ready for your report. All right. Thank you. Feels like old times here. So, uh, board president Campbell, board members, Mr. sample cabinet guests. Tonight, I'm here to present about one of my favorite topics, the excellence of EPIC. I'm going to do my best to keep this presentation to 10 minutes, which is going to be difficult because there's so many great things for me to share. But before I get started, we have a couple important members of
028my team here tonight. Um, first I'd like to introduce our vi one of our vice principles, Miss Nina Seamuk. Miss Nina. She also serves as our PYP coordinator at Epic. He does a great job. And our wonderful counselor, Miss Reena Police. Miss Reena. Unfortunately, our other vice principal, Mr. Hancock, well, fortunately, he had a son two days ago and he's home with his new son. Um, and uh he'll be back with us in a couple weeks. So, I'm sure he's enjoying that. All right. So, we'll get started with good things. Oh. Oh, I'm clicker. All right. So, of course, we're going to get started with good things about Epic. So, this year we were nominated and I'm expecting to receive the Capturing Kids Hearts National Showcase School Honor for the seventh time. Our enrollment uh
029has rebounded strong since the pandemic and we're up to 425 students and uh have potential to grow for a few more which you'll hear about later in the presentation. We've made one of the things I'm most proud about is the strides we've made in career exploration this year uh with largely due to our counselor Miss Reena. And in this picture here you see a picture of our vice principal Mr. Hancock performing knee surgery with some virtual reality goggles which uh we've implemented in middle school and there's probably about 20 different uh careers they can explore that way and it's been a lot of fun for them. Also, we've teamed up with Sava. We visited Sava and learned about career pathways and we have some unique field trips this year to the aerospace museum to learn
030about uh aerospace careers as well as a place called Lawson Mechanical which is which is they're going to learn about plumbing and electrical careers tomorrow or Thursday. So, and uh last but not least, we uh we've done great work in IB and we implemented IB assessment reports for my for the first time in addition to our regular report cards uh as we move into evaluation next year. All right. Next, we're going to talk a little bit about learning. And uh so in terms of the GCC portrait of a graduate, ex Epic is excellent at creating academically ready students. And I'm going to speak to our data in terms of CASP from last year. And um as it's it's no secret that many of our students taking CASP are newcomers in their first and second year
031at Epic. So most of EPIC's growth to be honest is going to be among the lower levels of CASP from ones to twos. U but the state still wants to talk about CASP in terms of meeting or exceeding the standard and that's what I'm going to do. There's another term called distance from standard that I'm hoping the state embraces more that talks about it's a growth model that includes growth amongst the lower levels too. So um I'm going to talk in terms because this is the way the data is most publicized now. So, um, we had some strong growth in ELA and math and in English language arts. Our, um, I'm going to speak to the English learner subgroup, which composes about 75% of our students. And they grow by two by 2.2% in meeting
032and exceeding the standard. And, uh, so just so you know, that went up to 11.11%, which is above the state average. Um, which is something that we're very proud of. And another data point for English language arts that we're proud of is the growth of our Hispanic Latino students. They doubled their growth in language arts. They went from 17% to 33% meeting and exceeding the standard. And I know that's a group we've been focusing a great deal on at Epic. So, we're really proud of that. Math, the news is good pretty much all across the board. uh we we scoot we grew schoolwide to third 31% meeting and exceeding our English learners. Now look at this number. We grew 9.1% to 23% meeting and exceeding the standard. The state average is 10%. So we're like
033double the state average in math. U and that includes all of our newcomers also. So something we're very proud of. And also in math, the Hispanic Latino subgroup agreed to 33.34% meeting the standard and the state average is 24%. So they're almost 10% above the state average. Also, as far as the science test, uh I mean the data statewide isn't really all that great as far as uh school performance goes. Epic grew by 5% on CASP to to 19% meeting the standard. English learners grew to 11% meeting the standard. But when you look at the state average of 2% that is tremendous um compared to the state average and you know there's still room for growth but obviously Epic is on the right track um as far as the data points go. In this picture
034we do something we celebrate CASP at Epic. This picture is of a CASP raffle and drawing that we do of all students who improve one level or meet or exceed the standard in both math or language arts go into a raffle and they get to pick a prize and it's a big deal. And there's our CASP coord coordinator, Mr. Hancock with this group. Oh, and one last thing. I'm going to talk more about this in another slide, but EPIC's English learner progress indicator is green. And that's that's the number one thing that I'm the most proud of of all of our data. Because when your English learner progress is green, you'd think everything else is going to come into play. And it shows that you're definitely on the right track. And I'm going to talk
035about why I think it's green on another slide. School learning plan. So for the past few years we've done what is called a school learning plan and surprise surprise EPICS is focused on integrated EL strategies. So last year we chose two called CCD and uh and and then we this year we're doing structured no last year we did structured partner discussions as part of our school learning plan and this year we picked two new strategies. One's called word mapping and one's called pictorial with smart cards. And in this picture here, you see a sample of a word map. So basically a 100% of our teachers are doing these word maps with grade level vocabulary once a week. And then they're sharing best practices. There's different ways of doing it. It talks about synonyms and antonyms
036and drawing a picture and all the great things um that you would want to see in a graphic organizer for English learners. So 100% are doing them. We collected them. We're analyzing them regularly and talking about best practices. And I think this is a strategy that's probably going to stick um because teachers are starting to value it. Our learning cycles, they involve observing our lead teachers, training, goal setting, coaching, collaborating, and reflecting. Uh so we have very skillful lead teachers in EL strategies and it's largely around you know other teachers observing them learning the strategies and then going out and implementing them and getting coached and then re-implementing them based on feedback. So it's all about growth growth mindset here. Um, and then EPICS and then EPICS California school dashboard indicator improved to green. And
037this is just one of many reasons why we believe that we were able to do that. All right. So, Epic also prides itself in how we build capacity of all staff members. Uh so first of all we're I have the pleasure of working with two vice principles who are we are hopefully grooming to be future GCC principles which is my goal. Uh and then also there's been a lot of talk about leading from the middle which we really do at Epic um due to the skills of our teachers. We have a low turnover rate and many of our teachers have been there many many years and have had tremendous amounts of glad training and other e training. U but here you see a picture in the lefthand corner. We've been using our process champions a
038little differently this year and we've been analyzing our CKH data and then the process champions pick a topic for our staff meeting and we have collaborative discussions. Here you see them discussing best practices and social contracts and they're I'm not telling them what to pick. They're they're choosing. So we're leading in the middle there. And then another example is in the bottom right hand picture you see our IBM lead teacher Mr. Roberts working with Mr. Hancock on the community project um which is pretty cool. And actually he's going to GIS tomorrow because they've graciously invited all the my coordinators to come watch community projects and then he's going to go and learn some new ideas and how to make ours better. Um also another thing that's great about Epic is professional development has been sustained.
039We're not jumping from one thing to the next each year. are we focus on building thinking classrooms which is our math training which we attribute to our great math data we of course international balorate and then it's all EL designated integrated EL um we're an ELD machine at Epic and I'll talk more about that on another slide one other thing we do to build capacity is we have talent teams for our school events like the spelling bee the multicultural festival and teachers get to sign up for which one they want to do and I want to affirm Miss Nina because Miss Nenah actually pioneered that idea and brought it to Epic. Um so u it's really it's really worked out well. Moving on to special population support. Uh we go to great lengths to promote
040equity and to support our special populations. And like all of these steps people always say, "Well, Jerry, why is EPIC's English learner progress indicator green?" And I say, well, I don't know exactly which of these strategies is doing it. I think it's a combination of all of them. And I think uh some of them are actually highly underrated that I talk about every year. Um our school learning plan focuses on them. We have designated differentiated EL meaning there's a time every day where we break the students into three different groups and we really do designated ELD. Um we and this this is the one that I think is key. the primary language instruction and I mention this every year you know it's if you look at it you know we're an IB world school and
041you know our stu many of our students native language is Russian and their world language I mean I guess you could say it's English but so we're a very unique school I guess just to say the least and the the better the research shows the better students can read and write their primary language which many of our Russian speakers just speak it where they're getting the reading and the writing it helps them learn English better. So I consider our world language to be key to their EL also as well. We use I ready to differentiate. We've we invite students to afterchool tutoring programs EL students and then also in a picture here downstairs we created a specialized EL classroom. Um, so that's one of our different well actually that's one of our different differentiated groups,
042but in another slide there's a picture of a new classroom we created to address the needs of middle school newcomer students. And then down here we have our wonderful RSP teacher, Miss Long, who's pushing into a classroom. Um, I'm really proud um that our special ed uh there's no findings at Epic. Um, and you know, I mean, that's just a compliance piece. There's the educational piece, but that our special ed program at Epic is tight. A lot of it's due to Miss Long, our wonderful teacher. And we've also expanded in interventions um such as hiring a counselor, using I Ready, SIP, Sundai, and we've done some essential standards work as well. Let me trying to keep it to 10 minutes. I'm going I'll go quick here. All right. So, well-being um supports for staff and
043students. So, of course, we're always trying to link the learner profile, uh, the IB learner profile and the portrait of a graduate and finding parallels between the two. Um, because they're both an important part of how our school runs and who we are. We uh, we our counselor has incorporated some castle model based lessons uh, in middle school classrooms. Um, by home room, we always do the recognitions. Here you see learner profile award winners in a slide. You see Owl Buck Store, we focus on positive incentives. You'll see that our suspension rate is green also because it's all positive and it's led to very few if any discipline problems at Epic. So, here you see our Albu store. It's amazing what a bunch of little toys will do to motivate elementary school students to behave.
044Um, then that you also see here uh Mr. Hancock doing cop being good, playing video games, and having donuts with a bunch of middle school students. We have an active school council that you see a picture of them here. They helped run our think kindness challenge that was organized by Miss Reena this year. Um she did a great job with that and said our 3.2 suspension rate is is something to be proud of. Okay. Program offerings. So, our program offerings at Epic make many connections to creating productive citizens based on the portrait of a graduate. We have a very popular 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm before after school program with 72% of our students participating. We've in the last few years it has really grown to excellence. We have over 20 clubs and activities. You
045see a picture of some young ladies here cooking in the cooking club. Um, we've added STEM and we've also added a Ukrainian club. Uh, the parents, they're they asked for it and we responded and we created a Ukrainian club um after school um for our Ukrainian students and our our music program is well known. Students can choose from five different instruments to learn. We have over 80 students participating in music. Um, our our afterchool program, Mr. Victor, has done a great job. I can't say enough how how wonderful he's done. And then our world language programs unique. In elementary they get choose between Russian or Spanish, but in middle school they get Russian and Spanish. So something that's epic people like, you know, they don't think about, but our Russian teacher in middle school actually
046has the skills to differentiate to students who don't know a word. And technology helps with that. But the parents are happy and and they're very thankful that we do both and they get introduced to Spanish. Our hope is by the time they finish three years of middle school Spanish two days a week that they can test out of a Spanish one class at whatever high school they go to. And then of course I I never want to like neglect mentioning our art programs. We're well known for our art and design programs. our middle school teach uh design teacher teaches Photoshop as part of his program which is pretty cool. I talked about that a lot last year. Moving on to engagement. So, I already mentioned the growth in the and that our enrollment has sustained
047um the last year and hopefully with the addition of another TK class, we'll be able to grow our enrollment even more more even more. Our California school dashboard chronic absenteeism, we reduced our rate, so we got our dashboard color to yellow, which is a quite an accomplishment. Uh our partnership with Yolo County Food Bank has has been going on for I believe four years now. This is the fourth year where they provide $10,000 of produce to our families once a month. And uh here you see our team getting the produce off the truck and getting it ready for students. It's something they look forward to. I look forward to it now that the rain has stopped because we had the last couple have been in the rain. Um which was thankful for our new uh
048our new part of the building downstairs for that. We have had a partnership with YMCA to provide free 11-hour a day summer programming for our students. So, um we do a hybrid model with our teachers and paras and YMCA and it turns out to work out really well. And something very unique you probably didn't know about Epic is we partner with the California Department of Fishing Game. Our fourth graders, they got steel head eggs. They were doing salmon before, but they raised steel head eggs. They learn about the how they protect the environment and then they go release them into the Sacramento River afterwards. It's really a great learning experience for them and then what's next. So of course we're going to sustain our excellence as an IB world school. We have evaluation coming up
049next year. Mr. Hancock's doing a great job getting us ready for that. Our program development plan focuses on fostering agency and engagement, which all of our teachers have been trained in. So, it's just sustaining excellence in that. Of course, we're going to maintain our excellent school culture with positive incentives based on capturing kids hearts. And we're going to keep moving. The data is showing we're going in the right direction with our math training. We just sent eight teachers to see a math guru named Graham Fletcher and they learned about three-step problem solving. So, we're doing all kinds of cool things with math at Epic uh instruction uh integrated and designated EL and coaching and using our lead teachers because they sure they know a lot at Epic. Um creation of a TK learning center. So,
050uh, we're in the process of trying to move our TKers downstairs, which I'll let GCC explain more of the details on how that is going to work, but that's something that we're really excited about is uh, creating a special space for them. And then, uh, enhancing our library, expanding it into a true inquiry center, enhanced integration of college and career exploration, led by our wonderful Miss Rea, has all kinds of great ideas for the next step. and then working with Sergey uh on the community schools grant and and moving that to excellence. So that is it for my presentation. Uh and I'm open to any questions about Epic board members. Any questions? Any comments at this time? Well, oh, you have one. Okay. Are they still writing in cursy? They're using Chromebooks. They're not they're
051not overtly teaching cursive that I have seen. I I don't see that anywhere anymore. Yeah. No, they're they're all they're not they don't even want to write anymore. They want to type on their Chromebooks. Okay. But that's a new one though. I mean, you know, you know that you know fundamental literacy, you need to write and form the letters. But I mean, I see adults that don't want to write anymore either within type. So, I mean, it's an uphill battle. It's an uphill battle, but it's going to be one that's coming. We're going to have to start teaching cursor writing again in third grade. So, that's going to be a state demand. I believe it's coming soon. Yes. That's great. Um, I was over to your school. Oh, you did you have comments? Oh, you
052got to talk. Well, I'll let you talk first. Uh, both Miss Lily and I had an opportunity to go to your science fair. Very impressive. Uh, in fact, I was going to ask a question because you said science is a challenge for you. What what is the approach that you're taking um to kind of enhance that? Is it project-based learning? Is that what you're doing primarily to to address the science area or what? Well, EPIC, so for the so this year was actually our first year. We've always had curriculum, but due to Williams audits and and having the funding, we were able to upgrade our curriculum in science and social studies to a a more it's it's it's totally geared for English learners and and designed on multiple intelligences and learning styles, but also that
053combined with IB and the projectbased type learning that goes along with it. um you know it learning about what you're interested in within the standards and then researching it rather than the teacher saying we're going to learn about this dog you know Google types of dogs and tell me which one you're interested in to learn about right it's a whole different kind of teaching and learning but yeah it's a lot of project based learning and yeah I I just want to say the the student I was very impressed with the students uh engagement and knowledge of the topic that they were talking about when they were discussing their their uh their project. So, it was it was really outstanding. Well, that's good. And and I think pro those kinds of projects are perfect because what
054better way when you start talking about agency and giving students the choice of what to do. They, you know, they all were given guidelines on how to do it, but they got to go in the direction that they wanted to. And that's, you know, that's a lot about how IB type of learning works. One last question and um so parental engagement, where do you feel you're at with that, Jerry? So it it it kind of es and flows. I I would say, you know, we we have strong parent engagement at activities that you know, it's it's the same type of thing, right? You you want to you you want to get them there. You provide food and entertainment and then have an educational piece to get them there. And that's you know, that's that's how
055it is at Epic. I think that's how it is at everywhere. But I think, you know, the challenge is is I mean, it's no secret that Epic has a large amount of newcomers and refugees and a lot of them are, you know, they need assimilation help and English classes and things like that that I know we're working on with the community schools grant. So, we're working with Sergey on ways that we can meet the specific needs of of that that population. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And I just want to say what a day I enjoyed very much. Miss Joy and Mr. Anderson at the science fair walking and talking with students and just walking through your school. It's a very very nice facility and I asked for that to be passed on to your
056staff. I thoroughly enjoyed just seeing the artwork, seeing the ambiance, seeing the students working and they were all very very cordial to us and asking questions. Who are we? What are we doing? And explaining to them. So, you're doing a wonderful job. You and your staff, your secretary, your counselor. And I see her there. I told her make sure she comes tonight. So, she I feel fortunate. I mean, I wake up at 4 in the morning looking forward to going to work. So, I don't know if everyone can say that, but I mean, it's a testament to our shows. It's a testament to our staff and it's a testament to our wonderful students and and it's every it shows what you can do when you work as a team for the best interest of of
057the students that are at your school. I agree with you 100%. And you can see it. You know, if we've been there, we can see what you're do, what the staff is doing, and how you guys are working towards student success. Well, that's good. That's some of the best feedback we get are from visitor visitors. I really really want to thank all of you for the hard work and the work that you're doing. And for this report, I mean, it shows that you're very proud of what's happening at that school. I am. 10 minutes is hard. So, if I went over a couple of minutes, I That's all right. That's okay. And we I'm probably going over too with the accolades or what have you, but please express our thanks to the staff and to
058the staff that's here, two of you. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here with us tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Welcome anytime. Just shoot me an email and I'm glad to take you around on a tour. I know. Okay. Thank you. [Applause] All right, I think I've lost where I'm supposed to be, but let me find my way back. Thank you. This is the only report we have tonight. Anything else? Do you have anything to say, mister? Uh, just again want to publicly uh affirm Dr. Kosh and his team for the great work that they're doing. They are definitely fulfilling a need in the West Sacramento community. and um you go to Yolo County Office of Education and they really only speak positives of what's happening at Epic. So, just
059want to say to Dr. Kosh and his team, great job. Keep up the good work. Thank you. All right, moving on uh to the California School Dashboards update. Good evening, Miss Campbell, board directors, and superintendent sample. Tonight, Miss Ashley Cow, our director of academics, will be pres presenting to you our California school dashboard update for 2024 based on the data from last school year. So I just want to take a quick minute to affirm her for her work um for monitoring the dashboard for supporting schools with dashboard and our department of data and accountability. Uh director VVA uh Shaun Dean and Rohan and thank them for their work for supporting schools related to the dashboard. Miss Miss Kell feel like I'm a little too small for this podium. Hey, good evening, President Campbell, board of
060directors, and Superintendent Sample. Thank you for this opportunity to share the California dashboard with you. I hope you'll find this overview insightful and informative. See if I can figure out the clicker. There we go. The California dashboard provides parents and community members with meaningful information regarding a school's progress for the purpose of participating in decision-making to improve student learning. Due to Senate Bill 114, the CDE's timeline for releasing the dashboard is slowly getting earlier in the year with the 2025 dashboard set to release by November 15th and the 2026 dashboard and all future dashboards set to release by October 15th. This is important information because the earlier we have access to our accountability metrics, the sooner we can adjust our school plans to ensure we're meeting the needs of our students. I wanted to take
061a moment to point out some of the changes that came with the release of the 2024 dashboard. Um there was a new indicator added. It was talked about for many years and it is here now and that's the science indicator. Um it was forformational purposes only. This year we have a new subgroup long-term English learners that came to the dashboard. This year, growth measures were released for grades fourth through 8th in ELA and mathematics. And finally, the college and career indicator, it's back in full color for the first time since the pandemic. Um, I also wanted to share with you guys that the state board of education at their last meeting in March voted on what's called cut scores for science. So what this means is they now have the um baseline, the metrics to
062bring all um science indicators into full color next year. On the dashboard you have state measures which are calculated by the state and local indicators which are narratives and information reported by the LEA. For state measures, eleas receive a color or status for seven different areas on the California dashboard, including indicators such as the academic indicators, the English learner progress indicator, commonly referred to as LP, and the graduate graduation, excuse me, rate indicator, just to name a few. Each indicator on the dashboard has its own unique rules for calculation utilizing a specific data set. For example, the ELA and mathematic academic indicators are calculated utilizing the average distance from standard from the CASP assessments. Whereas the graduation rate indicator is calculated using the 2023 24 combined four and 5-year graduation rates. You can see the
063um all the different data sets outlined there for you on the slide for each of the indicators. Sorry. Now we talked about the data sets but you might be wondering how does this data translate to a color. So the performance color on the dashboard is determined by using what is called the 5x5 colored tables which are approved by the state board of education. On the screen before you is an example from English language arts grades 3rd through 8th. Um the way a color is determined is by factoring in the LEA's current status or current performance level which you see there on the rows and the LEA's change from the prior year which you see along the top of the columns. Just like with the old Thomas guide maps you follow the line from each side
064from the rows and the columns and where they meet. That's your color for that year for that indicator. Before you is an overview showing how all of the GCC LEAs performed on the 2024 California dashboard. Please note the gray boxes that say NPC means no performance color indicating that either the area doesn't apply to that school site, such as graduation rate for an elementary school, or the population for that indicator didn't meet the minimum threshold of 30 students for a color to be provided. Um because of course the state wants to respect confidentiality of those students if the group is too small. We did include the current science scores for all of our schools, but since the indicator is umformational purposes only this year, there are no colors, but we wanted to show that it
065is still important. Earlier this year, you tasked GCC leadership in school sites to address the issue that is chronic absenteeism. For that reason, we wanted to essentially zoom in on the chronic absenteeism indicator to show you the progress our schools have made thus far. We recognized this challenge early on after the pandemic, and we have been working diligently to support sites and students in this area. As you can see, all but one school has successfully lowered absenteeism. And we're optimistic that this downward trend will continue based on the extensive interventions our schools have put into place to support students and families in engaging in their learning. The dashboard also supports eleas with ensuring equity in their school programs by providing what is called the equity report. This report allows eleas to not only see the
066overall performance on an indicator but also how each subgroup performed. Thus ensuring eleas can create school plans that support the learning and progress of all students. On the screen before you, you see an example of this from futures where you see the overall score for ELA and then a zoomed in picture of the equity report breaking it down into different subgroups. Okay, on to charter performance categories. As you know, charter schools are now eligible for renewal based on their charter performance category, which is determined by the CDE using the results from the California dashboard. Schools are categorized as either high performing, middle performing, or low performing. A high-erforming charter school can qualify for a five, six, or even seven-year renewal term. Middle performing charters are eligible for a five-year renewal term, while low performing charter
067schools are limited to a two-year renewal term. Charter schools can qualify as high-erforming or low performing by meeting one of two of the established criteria. Criterion one for high-erforming schools requires that the school has consistently achieved blue and or green indicators across all indicators for 2 years. Criterion two involves surpassing the state average in both English language arts and math for overall performance and the majority of the school's student groups must outperform their respective state student groups. On the other hand, low performing charter schools are essentially the opposite in term of criteria. Criterion one for low performing schools means the school has all red andor orange indicators for two years. While criterion 2 requires that the school performs performs, excuse me, below the state average in both ELA and math with the majority of the
068school student groups performing lower than the state's respective student groups. Of course, our goal is for all GCC schools to achieve high performing status, allowing their eligibility for a five, six, or even a seven-year renewal. You might be asking, what about middle? Um, a middle performing charter are those schools that they just are in the middle. They don't meet the qualifications or criteria for high or low. They are simply in the middle. The chart before you shows the current charter performance category for our seatbased programs as DOSS schools are not assigned a performance category. These category assignments are based on the 2024 dashboard. COA, Epic, Futures, and GIS are all considered middle performing while Higher Learning Academy is currently low performing based on that criterion number two. We wanted to also share some additional information
069around our DOS schools since they don't get assigned a charter performance category. Each of our DOS schools has an agreement with their authorizers detailing their alternative measures. Before you you'll see a snapshot of snapshot of all of our DOS school's progress from 2023 to 2024 in the areas of the one-year graduation rate and the college and career indicator. We're very proud of our school's hard work and their primarily upward trends observed in their data before you. Thank you very much for your attention tonight and I hope you enjoyed the presentation. I'll now entertain any questions. I think we're all just kind of looking at the information. Yes, Jack. Mr. Turner, thank you. U extremely informative and and probably could spend a lot of time talking about it. The number of colors and the shades. I
070I would really like to focus on the chronic absenteeism. it it's still extremely high and although it's moving in the right direction do you have suggest is can you tell me in a little more detail what are we doing to move that that number even down to a lower level absolutely and I agree it was a lot of information in a short time but like Dr. Kash I was told 10 minutes um we've implemented a lot of changes as you see before you the changes from last year were successful but we still need to continue that downward trend so this year um for our seatbased schools I believe assistant superintendent talked about attend a little bit at the board retreat we adopted this program um that's streamlining our communications because studies show that just communicating
071with families around absenteeism is an extremely effective approach. So those letters are going out automatically every Friday. So I think that is going to see um positive gains in improving our attendance there. Just that communication piece. Another part of attend is positive communication that goes out to all students not just those with um absence issues um around the importance of attendance. Uh we are also working um interdep departmentally. the um community engagement department is really stepping in as an intervention for attendance in connecting sites with different supports that they may may need those barriers that are prohibiting the students from getting to school. We're helping to break those barriers down and so I think that will be um I think we'll see good results from those efforts. Oh, thank you. Right. Do you go so
072far as you do you do phone follow-ups or and even home visits if if you have a chronic absentee? We absolutely do. So before moving from truency letter 2 to truency letter letter 3, it is required that our sites do a conference. This can be an inperson zoom or a telephone call. Um all the sites are participating in this. It's usually the administration parent leaison are really stepping up and helping with this as well. Um after the site has exhausted their tier one interventions which will include a home visit then it goes to our tier 2 interventions which includes a home visit with a member of the community engagement department again showing how the central office and the sites are teaming up to work together on this issue. Well, thank you and keep up the
073activity. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any other comments or statements? Thank you so much for this information. Like I say, we appreciate it and it's good information to know how the dashboard works and we shall continue to study it and see what we need to do. Thank you. If there's any further questions, you guys are able to reach out to me. I'm happy to help. Thanks. Thank you so very much. All right. Okay, we are down board members to uh the consent agenda items. Adoption GC board meeting minutes from 31125 approve personnel consent agenda purchases over 30,000 disposal and surplus technology school field trips uh Sava Point Reyes approve Miranda andou uh school link partnership and capacity grant and number seven approve board policy revised these These are the items under consent agenda. I will
074entertain a motion. I'll move approval of the consent agenda. Move approval. Second. Second. Any comments? Any questions? Any discussion on any of the items hearing or seeing? No questions or comments. Roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson. Yes. Miss Harry Block. Yes. Mr. Bruce Mandrek, yes. Mr. Jack Turner, yes. Lily Campbell, yes. The uh consent agenda items have been approved by the board members. All right, we are now in curriculum instruction. Approve solvers uh curriculum and we have received information in your backup. So, uh entertain a motion for approval. So move. So move second. Any discussion, questions, comments? Hearing none. Seeing none. Okay. Uh all roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson. Yes. Mr. Harry Block. Yes. Mr. Bruce Mandrich. Yes. Jack Turner. Yes. Lily Campbell. Yes. So that item has been approved. The SA curriculum under facilities. Item
075one, approve purchase option agreement for COA Middle School property, 38 Boulevard Avenue, North Highlands, California. Uh, we will entertain any discussion on that item. Any? Yes. Move approval. Move approval. Second. Second. Any other questions, discussions, comments on that item? Board members hearing none. Seeing none, I will end uh roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson, yes. Harry Block, yes. Bruce Mandrech, yes. Jack Turner, yes. Lily Campbell, yes. That item has been approved. Item two, approve memorandum of understanding between GCC and Twin Rivers Unified School District Facilities Modernization Project. Any may I entertain a motion first? So moved. So moved. Second. Second. Any comments, questions, discussions on that item? Hearing none. Seeing none, roll call. Mark Anderson, yes. Harry Block, yes. Bruce Mandre, yes. Jack Turner, yes. Lily Campbell, yes. So those items have been approved under facilities.
076Moving now to central administration. Approve. Superintendent student. We've done that. Okay. Now we move into item two. GCC bylaws and articles of incorporation revision. I will entertain a motion. So move. So move. Second. Second. Any comments, questions? Now hearing none. Seeing none, roll call. Mark Anderson, yes. Harry Block, yes. Bruce Mandrech, yes. Jack Turner, yes. Lily Campbell, yes. All right, that item has been approved. Um, what's was that? Approved two bylaws and articles of incorporation revision. Okay. And we have done item three. Now we're into personnel. Uh, we need to do item three, Madam President. Public hearing, adopt board policy. Okay. Revision, I'm sorry. Um, and that is an open hearing. Public hearing and adopt board policy revision C1 C158 independent study. This is a policy on independent study. I will open the hearing. The
077board will now open the public hearing on independent study policy for all GCC schools. Are there any members of the public who would like to comment comment on this item? We have no public comments. We have no public comments. Okay. Is there any other information um to go over this item? Anything? Uh no information. This is just again uh updating our independent study uh board policy as we get ready to move into next school year and staff is more than happy to answer any questions um that you may have. Do we have any questions any comments on this item for staff or anyone? It was in our backup. All right. Then hearing none, I will entertain a motion. I will close the public hearing and entertain a motion. Move approval. Move approval. Second. Second. We've
078asked for comments or questions. Hearing none. Uh, roll call. Mr. Mark Anderson. Yes. Mr. Harry Block. Yes. Mr. Bruce Mandre. Yes. Mr. Jack Turner. Yes. Lily Campbell. Yes. So, that item has been unanimously approved. All right. Okay. Now, we enter personnel. approve the 2025 2026 salary schedule and positions. All right, I will need a motion. Move approval. Move approval. Second. Second. Any comments, questions? Yes, Mr. Turner. I really want to uh compliment all of the staff uh who worked on this item. I know it was appears to be rather a simple board item, but it really wasn't. It was very complex. Yeah, it took a lot of work. Yes. And and I think it's probably a little bit over overdue, but I really support it and again appreciate the effort on it. Thank you so
079much for those comments and to all of the minister staff, thank you for your hard work in making this happen. So with that, we will have roll call on this item. Uh approving the 202526 salary schedule and positions. Mr. Mark Anderson, yes. Mr. Harry Block, yes. Mr. Bruce Mandre, yes. Mr. Jack Turner, yes. And Lily Campbell, yes. So this item under personnel has been approved. Congratulations. We are glad to do that. Thank you. you. Okay. Uh thank you, Madam President, members of the board for your support in this item. I just want to publicly affirm our director of human resources and our chief business uh official for the work that they put in to uh I will tell you it was countless numerous of late nights and so I want to thank our HR department.
080I think also our coordinator is here too. Yes. Uh for their work to to help get this. So, thank you so much uh for the team for your hard work to to make this happen. Thank you. Thank all of you because that's how we maintain and keep good staff members. We try to do what we can to support you as you do for the students. So, thank you. All right. And with that, board comments. Do we have any board comments at this time before we break for close session? Anything at this point? Yes, Mr. Block. It's too cold in here. You didn't bring a jacket. You didn't bring a jacket. You want my jacket? All right, we're going to move. We will be moving in just a second to go into close session. So, hopefully
081it'll be warmer where wherever we go again. So, we are going to take a break now for close session. um anticipated litigation government code section 54956.9 and the closed session litigation pursuant to paragraph two or three of subdivision D of government code 54956.9 uh Klesc and versus Gateway International School Sacramento County Superior Code case number 24 CV V 023389. Anyway, we will be going into close sessions on these two items and we will be coming back letting you know the results. So, thank you [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] Okay, we are back in session from close session and no action was taken just information only. So for the good of the organization, is there anything else board members? Any other comments that we need to have to make at this point? Hearing none, seeing none, I will
082announce the next board. Uh next board meeting. Yes, it's going to be May 13th. May 13th, next board meeting. Yes. All right. Anything else for the good of the organization? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion for adjournment. So moved. So moved. May I have a second? Second. Second. All in favor of the meeting being adjourned? I meetings adjourned. Thank you. [Music]