May 21, 2026 SDUHSD Regular Board Meeting

001Test. One, two, three. Test. 3 2 1. The meeting of the San Diego Union High School District Board of Trustees is now called to order. The meeting was posted with a teleconference location in London to accommodate Trustee Almond's participation. We have since learned that Trusty Alman is not able to attend. Therefore, we will not be providing a teleconference location and we will not need to have roll call votes this evening. Note for the record that we have a quorum. I board president Jane Lee Smith and trustees Remga Viscant, Jodi Williams, and Fawn Anderson are participating in person at 710 Insidus Boulevard and Cenus, California. Trustee Michael Alman is absent. I understand that we do not have public comments for closed session. So, the board will now convene to close session to discuss close session agenda

002items 2 A, 2B, which is regarding threatened litigation by an employee, 2 C, 2D, and 2 E. And we'll reconvene to open session following discussion of those items. Good evening. The meeting is now reconvened. Welcome to the May 21st, 2026 San Diego Union High School District board meeting. This meeting is being conducted in person at 710 and Sneas Boulevard in Snas, California 92024. The meeting was posted with a teleconference location in London to accommodate Trustee Almond's participation. We have since learned that Trusty Alman is not able to attend. Therefore, we will not be providing a teleconference location and we will not need to have roll call votes. Note for the record that we have a quorum. I board president Jane Lee Smith and trustees Remga Visgant, Jodie Williams and Fawn Anderson are participating in person

003at 710 and Snas Boulevard in Snasus, California. Trustee Michael Alman is absent. Before we begin, I would like to start with the observation of a moment of silence for the victims who died protecting the students and staff of Bright Horizon Academy at the Islamic Center of San Diego earlier this week. Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. And now, Canyon Crest Academy student board member Ben Du will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag 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. I would like to take this opportunity to remind our community that this meeting is the board's meeting held in public and the board's meetings are subject to

004the Ralph M. Brown Act. The purpose of the Brown Act is to facilitate open and public deliberations to allow meaningful public access to observe and participate in local government decisions. The board appreciates the input from all voices in the community. As a reminder, not all speech is free from consequence. And since this is the board's business meeting in public, we encourage all observers and participants to abide by the same decorum expected of our students who are also present with us this evening. I do have some items from close session to report out about. In closed session, on motion of board member Viscant, seconded by board member Williams, the board took action to appoint Cameron Martin to serve as assistant principal of Earl Warren Middle School and Pacific Trails Middle School effective July 1st, 2026. The

005vote was four in favor, zero nos, four yeses, zero nos, one absent. Uh, also in closed session, on motion of board member Viscant, seconded by board member Williams, the board took action to appoint Charles Adams to serve as assistant principal of Lacosta Canyon High School effective July 1st, 2026. The vote was four yes, zero nos, one absent. In close session on motion of board member Viscant, seconded by board member Williams, the board took action to appoint Rebecca Gallow to serve as assistant principal of San Diego High School Academy effective July 1st, 2026. The vote was four yes, zero no absent. Also in closed session, on motion of board member Viscant, seconded by board member Williams, the board took action to appoint Scott Wild to serve as assistant principal of San Diego High School Academy effective

006July 1st, 2026. The vote was four yes, zero no, one absent. In closed session on board on motion of board member Viscant, seconded by board member Williams, the board took action to appoint Briana Castanos to serve as assistant principal of Tory Pines High School effective July 1st, 2026. The vote was four yes, zero no, one absent. And finally, in closed session, on motion of board member Anderson, seconded by board member Viscant, the board took action to appoint Jeremy Min to serve as assistant principal of Tory Pines High School, effective July 1st, 2026. The vote was four yes, zero no, one absent. We are now at item 3D, approval of the minutes of the April 23rd, 2026 regular board meeting. Dr. Shaferry, do we have any public comments? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve

007the minutes of the April 23rd, 2026 regular board meeting as presented? >> So move. Viscantto. >> Second. Williams. >> Any questions or comments? Student board members. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed. And governing board members, all those in favor indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. The next item is 3E, the approval of the agenda. Dr. Stfy, do we have any changes to the agenda? >> Okay. Uh, any public comments for that? >> Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda for the May 21st, 2026 board meeting of the San Diego Union High School District Board of Trustees? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? Uh I will just make a note here since it is

008related to the agenda that for non-aggenda public comments we have a lot of people who have signed up. We have 26 total and uh so for those uh and I will explain the public comment later but just so you can prepare each of those 26 people will have one minute for their public comment. So, this gives you time to make adjustments as needed. Um, that comes up a bit later in the agenda. Um, no other questions or comments from the board. Okay. Student board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Governing board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. We are now moving on to recognition and presentations. So, first we are honored to recognize 64

009students from our district who qualified as National Merit Scholarship semi finalists. So, we have an introduction of the item. >> Yes. So, we'll just kind of wait until the agenda item comes up so we can share with the board. Uh the National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for high school students that recognize the awards scholarship for those that demonstrate exceptional academic abilities as determined by their performance on the preliminary SAT national merit scholarship qualifying test. For the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program, approximately 1.3 million entrance entered the competition by taking the PSAT NMSQT as juniors. The semi-finalists here are part of a nationwide pool of semi-finalists representing less than 1% of the US school seniors and indicated the highest scoring entrance in the state. Uh please help me in recognizing and we'll pull

010up the image in one second the amazing individuals representing San Diego Union High School District tonight. It's coming. >> I'll do a drum roll, but here we go. There. Thank you very much for that. Do we have any public comments on this item? >> We do not. Thank you for making it larger. >> Yeah. Wonderful. Uh any questions or comments from the board? >> Oh, I'm sorry. We have two comments. >> Oh, we do. We do have two public comments. We'll hear those first. >> Comments. Um thank you. We do have two public comments. And the first This is uh I apologize. We are on 4 A right now. >> We are on 4 A. >> Okay. It looks like these are actually for 4B. So, we will wait. No comments on this item. >>

011Okay. So, no public comments. Any questions or comments from the board? >> Just a heartfelt congratulations to all of our National Merit Scholars. That's wonderful. >> Yeah. And I just would like to, you know, echo that and um just a huge congratulations to those students and to the teachers and staff who were an essential part of helping them along their journey. Okay. So we will then move on to item 4B. We're happy to welcome Principal Robert Copo to provide an annual update presentation on Tory Pines High School. Thank you very much. Uh I'd uh really like to thank the board for uh creating this opportunity for me to talk about one of the best schools in the country. Uh, I also want to thank our district leadership for their support and most of all I

012want to uh thank our student board reps for your incredible dedication to your school and our district. Uh, we all really appreciate and respect you. Um, so I'm Rob Copo, the very proud principal of Tory Pines High School who was immediately winded after this photo was taken. Um, but it's a lot of fun. If you've ever been to a football game, come on by. So Tory Pines has been around for uh over 52 years, but we've got some new things happening and in particular uh what's new is going to be our mission and vision. We spent the last three years uh working on a brand new mission and vision. We'll have new student learning outcomes as part of our WAS process next year. As you can see, our new mission is going to be Tory

013Pines High School cultivates an inclusive, innovative, and empowering environment uh that prepares students for a dynamic world. We foster academic excellence, personal growth, and social and individual responsibility in all students. And our vision for the next 50 years of Tory Pines is that Tory Pines envisions a dynamic learning community where all students thrive as curious, compassionate, and empowered individuals. We inspire academic excellence, encourage personal growth, cultivate inclusivity, and champion social responsibility, preparing students to lead with integrity as forwardthinking global citizens. You were all the first people to see this final uh draft of it. So, congratulations and thank you to all of the staff members and parents and students who helped us work on this the last few years. All right. So, uh, we are, uh, obviously intimately tied with our, uh, goals here with

014the district office. So, we have an SPSA goal directly tied to access. And I'm really happy to say that Tory Pines has a wide variety of things to offer that we create access for our students here. And our theme around that access is harmony. Uh we talk a lot about balance in our students life, but what we really like to see with our students is how being on the soccer team dovetales into being an AP chem. How do they harmonize with each other rather than just build on each other? As you know, we have uh year-long classes that foster strong connections between our uh teachers and students, a seven period schedule that gives them lots of opportunities over their four years. I'm proud to say we have uh 10 CTE pathways. We've added two this

015year. I'm a huge believer in CTE and its impact on our students. We've added professional theater and the class that's blowing up on campus and that's sports medicine. Um we are also proud to be a destination school for the entire world. We have students from all over the world and we have a very strong MLL program for our multilingual learners uh with support classes and dedicated staff. Our AVID program is growing which is very very exciting for uh students looking to go to college. Uh we have 30 AP classes and 30 CIF varsity sports offered to our students. And one of the amazing uh um statistics we got out of our healthy kids survey recently is that 90% of our students value school. I think that's an amazing uh number uh in in these times.

016And as proof of this, we have increased enrollment for the past 10 years. We're going to be over 2700, probably close to 2,800 for the 26 27 school year. And we've increased enrollment for the last 10 years in a row. I'm very proud of that. All right. So, for our belonging goal, uh, we have ASB and our peer assistance leaders who create campus culture and leadership opportunities. You're going to hear a little bit from PALS in a minute. We have an incredible link crew program because it's a large site. We want to make sure our middle school students transition well into high school. So, we have uh um student leaders who help them make that transition before school even starts, seven counselors, three school psychologists. I'm sorry if I'm going too fast. Um uh college

017and career counseling, social worker, and very active pals program. And then I'm really proud of our uh SC time, which is uh school connect or student connectedness time that promotes wellness, school culture, and of course the most important thing, student voice. And that has allowed us to create um an increased presence for our heritage clubs on campus. They can um uh broadcast live from my office with me and it's a lot of fun to bring those kids in. They can get into every classroom out on campus. And I think that's why you see that 91% of our students are happy to be at Tory Pines. 94% of our students feel connected to a trusted adult, which is an incredible number. That is a protective factor for our students. And that's why 94% of our students

018feel safe on campus. All right. So, for achieve, I know we're all focused on achievement. So are we. And I'm very proud that uh our college and career numbers are really through the roof. A 98.6 graduation rate. 90.4 of our students are prepared for college and career beyond high school. That's up 10% from 2019. And we have an 89% pass rate on AP exams, which is 5% over our target in our WASK uh report. So we are crushing it. All right, so that's where we are. What's next for us? So student connection is going to continue to be a focus. It's it helps them achieve, helps them feel safe, and helps them enjoy school even more. So we're going to continue to emphasize student voice for all of our students. Uh we're also working uh

019on staff capacity building. Our teachers have never been asked to do more uh than they are right now. And so we want to make sure we empower them with the skills and tools they need to continue to serve our kids the best way they can. Um we're going to focus on motivation and value. We were very happy to see that the value of school went up. What we're seeing in some of the statistics is that motivation for high school students has dropped a little bit because they're not quite sure why they're doing what we're doing. So we want to increase that motivation. Um, and finally, uh, we really need to focus on growth because Tory Pines keeps getting bigger because it's just so amazing. But, uh, good news, this is a little bit for Steve.

020We have solved the parking problem at Tory Pines because today we opened, uh, a senior lot in the quad. So, thank you to the seniors who a very harmless senior prank today. They did a great job. They focused on safety. They met with me. I talked to them, which is why I took a nice picture with some of them. Um, so very creative, nice work, and so I gave him a shout out tonight. So yeah, don't worry, this isn't actually a senior lot. Uh, it was u, so nice job seniors. Um, okay. So one of the we have a uh TP pledge and it has three very simple tenants. I'm going to present on one of them. We have two students are going to talk about the other two. So I'm going to take we

021take pride in ourselves. very very proud that we have the SDOHSD teacher of the year this year, Katherine Mintz, who's been there for decades serving students. She's one of the best educators and more importantly, one of the best people I know. We are the number one public school for athletics in California. Number one public school for athletics in California. Uh and we have been for 10 years in a row. That happens because we have scholar athletes. These are kids who aren't just good on the field or on the court, they're good in the classroom, and they create that harmony between these uh different passions. And that happens because of our award-winning coaches. And I'm also incredibly proud of our award-winning arts and publications. That's a picture of me with the yearbook crew right now. And

022yes, I'm wearing a Nick sweatshirt. And please don't anybody ruin the score because I'm going to watch it when I get home. Um and uh one of the big things we've been focused on thanks to the support of our foundation is honoring our alumni. We've had some incredible people, two of whom are in the room right now that have gone through uh Tory Pines High School and been very successful in life. And so we're promoting this at football games, uh creating plaques to put up and highlight so our kids have some models of what's possible after and we're celebrating the diversity of their successes. So without further ado, I'm going to give it up to the more important voice and that's our students. So uh please welcome PAL's President Madison Harrell. >> Hi everyone. Thank

023you for having me today. Um my name is Madison Herrell. I'm the PALS president at Tory Pines High School and it stands for peer assistant listeners. Um so we really focus on supporting students social and emotional wellness. Um and we really want to focus in on mental health awareness. So, we both educate ourselves and students about what's out there, how they can help themselves and other people. Um, we really want to create a safe space on campus um where me mental health can be talked about not only within classrooms but openly with your friends as well. We want to break the stigma and create a supportive and inclusive environment on Tory Pines's campus. Um, through peer support, we strive to cultivate a culture of compassion and understanding within our school community. And a big thing

024that we do is mental health training. So with our support from our foundation and teachers, we were able to actually get like um professionally trained in mental health. So we were able to deal with if a student was having suicidal thoughts, if someone was actively overdosing, we know how to deal in those situations and hopefully we can get that back next year. And some events we do is welcome Wednesday for any new students or kids that just want to have a safe space to eat at lunch. We do red ribbon week for drug and substance abuse awareness, yellow ribbon week for suicide prevention, our net walk and just as you are week which is for body positivity and eating disorders, men's mental health stress less week. And our biggest one is challenge days which really

025just brings all of our students, staff, parents, teachers, just all together. Um, and we have amazing leaders that do that day and it's really just a really good way for students to connect. Um, and now I'm going to pass it on to Xander and ASB. Thank you. Hi everyone. Thank you for having me today. I'm Xander Ovius, the spirit commissioner at Tory Pines High School and I'm a part of ASB. Wanted to go over some personal and ASB goals we have. One thing that I really strive for is building comfort not between just the student in the school but between students themselves. I think it's so important for the school for the student not only to love their school but the people they're around with and they graduate with as well. Some opportunities we do

026is football games, outside events outside of school like dances, um couple different pep rallies as well. I think it's important for students to bond with one another and have the opportunity to connect with each other. Some highlights this year that were my favorite were the homecoming glow rally that we had. We had the opportunity to pack everybody into the gym and turn all the lights off and we were able to have neon glow lights shine onto the court. Up there on the right, you could see some bubble soccer that we had going on. I'll be honest, there was not a lot of goals scored right there. Um, another thing right there that I love is our football games. See, we had the opportunity to implement a push-up board this year. So every time we scored,

027we would do the amount of push-ups that we had on the scoreboard. Up there on the right, we were able to win 2025 San Diego CIF fan favorite award, which I take a lot of pride in, especially competing with schools like Carl'sbad, San Pasqual, and a lot more northern schools as well. Some dances we had this year were the Park Nightclub, which was my favorite. We were able to have that for homecoming, which was a wonderful event. I thought the school did a wonderful job in ASB as well. The Natural History Museum was another one of my favorites which was our prom venue. Never been to Baloa Park personally and I thought it was a wonderful event. They did a great job and I'm extremely proud of ASP for what they have done. I think

028it's important to take pride in not just our school but in ourselves as well and the people around us. I love being a Falcon and I know a lot of my peers do as well. I don't know if this video is able to play on the bottom left. >> Uh You saw it. Yeah. Well, that was one of my favorite moments this year. So, I'll toss it back to Mr. Copo and Maddie as well. >> Nice job, Xander. So, this all culminates in, of course, our WE RTP spirit. And as I shared with families this week at our awards night ceremony, in light of recent events in San Diego, the WE RTP spirit has never meant more to me. It's not just a school model. It's more than words. It's a deeply held belief that

029reminds us every day to take pride in ourselves, take pride in each other, and take pride in our school. It's something that unites our diverse community behind a common ethos. The WERTP motto was born out of tragedy, but over the last 10 years, it has lifted us to new heights. We continue to grow, evolve, and inspire because we emphasize the we in WERTP. It works because our students and staff embrace and celebrate the WERTP culture. Our Falcon family believes it, they feel it, and they demonstrate it in everything they do. They show unflinching spirit in the face of adversity, and they show endless spirit when supporting students. When we chant we are TP, we are all reminding everyone that our Falcon family is stronger because of our differences and we stand together no matter what

030the world throws at us. So, as I close out my time at the school that shaped me both personally as a student and professionally as a leader, I'd like to the students to join me one last time. I practiced this so many times so I wouldn't do this. The gratitude I feel for the kids this year and what they've shown me, can't put it in words. So, let's just do this. Our chant goes like this. I say we are and everyone else says TP. Kids are going to help me in this. Anybody else who wants to join? We got a big tent. Come on in. Okay. I'm going to say we are and you get to say TP. Ready? We are >> TP. >> We are >> TP. >> We are >> TP. >> Let's

031go Falcons. Nice job. With that, are there any questions? >> We will first go to public comment and then I think there probably will be some questions or comments from the board. >> Okay. >> So, um I think we have two public comments. Uh so, give me just one moment. Um just a second. I have a little something to read about public comments now that we're now that we have them. Okay. The board will hear public comments for the board meeting tonight as stated in our board bylaw 9323 meeting conduct. To review, individual speakers shall be allowed three minutes to address the board on each agenda or non-aggenda item. The board shall limit total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. In the event there are more speakers than time allotted for

032any public comment period, the board president may have the option to do the following. One, decrease the time allowed per person for public comment, thus allowing time for more speakers. or two, take a poll of speakers for or against a particular issue and ask that additional persons speak only if they have something new to add. The board president will announce the time allowed for each speaker prior to the relevant comment period. Members of the public who submit requests for public comment will be called in the order the request was received. For public comments related to an item on the agenda, the board will hear those comments directly following staff presentation for each item. Public comments not related to an agenda item will be shared during the public comment non-aggenda section. As a reminder, under by

033board bylaw 9323, meeting conduct, board members are not to take action or discussion on any item not appearing on the posted agenda except as authorized by law. So now we will move on to public comments for this item. Uh please come to the podium when your name is called. >> The first speaker for this item is Brian Howworth. And just to be clear, three minutes per speaker for this particular item. Hello. Thank you for allowing me to participate in this meeting and to make comments. Um I I was really moved by the presentation for about Tory Pines. It's really exciting actually as a parent with two kids in high school to see how energized uh teachers or members of the you know community can get about the kids and their experience in school. So that

034was really something for me. So thank you very much. Um my comment today is that I'm just confused about the uh boys varsity lacrosse situation. Um, specifically the 2026 letter from Coach Zissi to the San Diego Union School District. Um, it was agreed upon that there were violations of the CIF bylaws and district board policies. So there there is a an agreement that actions were violated and they were violated in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and we're in 2026 that if I did the math right, and Tory Pines has been around for 52 years, we've been dealing with the same coach for 12% of the time that Tory Pines has been in exist. distance. The letter states that there's direct and problematic conflict of interest with the coach and that there's agreement to give

035it one more chance, which I can't help but think of the saying, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Thank you. >> The second and final speaker for this item is Aaron Buchek. Hi, I'm Aaron Bek and uh was also inspired by the principal of Tory Pines. I actually went to Tory Pines High School. Uh my speaking about I'm talking about the lacrosse situation. My father's one of the founders of that program. He was a coach. I played in that lacrosse program. and my brother played in that lacrosse program and my sister and brother were pretty high-profile athletes there and we had a great experience going to Tory Pines High School and since in light of what's come out against coach ZZ it's it's um and I talked to my

036father about this recently who's still living here in San Diego and still fathers goes to lacrosse games and it's almost like uh when Tory Pines is the number one public school in the country they're treating treating it like a transfer portal. And so I really don't think it's fair that the teams are competing against a team that's basically transferring in students from out of state using the same addresses. There was a number of infractions that I've seen. And to say with pride that we're the number one public school in the country, I think does that program a disservice? And so the fact that Tory Pines elected not to take Zezy back and Jono Zezy said he was going to sue the school board members individually and then the board just caved and let him come

037back. To me, that just seems it just seems not fair. It's like having a uh public students trying to compete against a club team. So the um it's just doesn't really seem to be fair. um it kind of goes against the whole uh definition of what sport is. It should be fair. So we made the CIF finals and lost to Crawford. The same thing happened to my brother and we took it gracefully because we know this was sort of evenly matched. So, I also would say that I really think that this is doing the community a disservice. And from someone who had an amazing experience at Tory Pines and loved playing lacrosse there and my sister was female athlete of the year across San Diego. She went there. We had an amazing experience. I just

038think it's wrong that you're allowing a coach like that to also say that what what what are we teaching our young athletes? That it's okay to cheat. as long as you win, you're it's not fair. And we're teaching them that the way to cut corners in life is to do what he's doing. And I think it's incredibly e egregious that the board has allowed him to take his position back. And um as someone who went to Tory Pines, I'm I'm really upset by that situation. So um I think the board ought to consider why things would be any different now when they were the same this year as they were all those other years. So you have eight years in a row. Winning the lacrosse championship was something to be very proud of. But if

039it's not really fair for the students and also for the students who live around here and didn't didn't get to play, I think it's really unfair. So something to consider in the future. Thank you. >> Okay, I think we have concluded our public comments. Um, so we will move on to questions and comments from the board regarding the presentation uh about Tory Pines High School. Um, presented by Principal Copo and the students. >> Just I I don't have a question, just a comment that thank you so much for your years of leadership at that school. I think that every time a falcon or Tory Pines is up here, there is this energy, this strength, this pride, that chant you all said and that comes from you with that first image of you just charging with

040that flag is just is just ideal. So, thank you for what you've done for the energy and that school. >> I appreciate that. It's been my honor. >> Um I I was going to say the same thing and I mean that that says it all and thank you for your service. Thank you for your leadership. I'm so glad you're staying with our district just in a different capacity. Um and Tori Pine's family, I look forward to hearing about next year's update. Principal Copo is leaving the school in a great place. Um and I'm sure his legacy will be honored and will continue. >> Thank you. Um so thank you for your service and um you know with the um increase in enrollment the last 10 years which is evidence with I mean you know having

041Tory Pines is actually has about a thousand students more than the other high schools in our district and it does show that Tory Pine is the destination school for our district. So, thank you for your hard work. >> Thank you. >> Dedication. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh, Mr. Copo, thank you for the excellent presentation. Maddie and Xander, great work. And I'd just like to say for the record that I'm disappointed we didn't get to hear the full um ferocity that you give and your chances. I'll do it again right now. >> It'll blow this mic out. >> I wish we could do that, but thank you, Mr. Copelo. >> Thank you, Henry. Yes. And I mean, it's the same thing, but I'm just gonna say it, too. Just thank you so much for

042all those years of dedicated service to Tory Pines. Just um it it's a fantastic school and uh your your leadership has made such a difference for our students. So, thank you very much and um happy you're going to continue on with the district. >> Me, too. And it's it's a great school because of the students who go there and the families we serve. So I hope I represented them well because I really tried. >> We appreciate you. >> Thanks. >> And thank you students for your contributions. Okay. So we will now move on to public comment for non-aggenda items. As a reminder, the Brown Act prohibits any board action or discussion regarding any item that does not appear on the posted agenda for tonight's meeting. Public comments not related to an item on the agenda

043will be shared during this section. As a reminder for anyone who may be voicing a question or complaint during this section, to ensure that all concerns are appropriately addressed in a timely manner, we invite you to contact our director of community resolution and compliance, Dr. Evelyn Medina who works out of the superintendent's office at 7607536491 extension 5630. This information is also available at the back table for additional reference. Members of the public who submit requests for public comment will be called in the order the request was received. Tonight, each speaker will have one minute to provide their public comment and there will be a total of 26 minutes of public comment for non-aggenda items this evening. I have decreased the time allow for public uh presentation as uh per board bylaw. Um okay, so let's

044go ahead and call our first speaker. All right, the first speaker will be uh Bridget and John Alexander, followed by Erica Schultz. Foot fell asleep. All right, thank you everybody. Um had a nice Gemini speech prepared, but it just timed out on me. So, in the interest of time, we'll keep it really quickly. Um and we actually have kind of a short window because school is is about to end. And what we're trying to get is a review and an exception to a test retake policy for our son Jack who is uh an 11th grader at SDA and he has known uh disabilities with ADHD and anxiety. So we have a lot of this documented in emails. We have run this from the teacher to the principles and vice principles up to superintendence. So there's

045a trail if anybody wants to get into those things. But essentially um you know we don't have time for details but the long and the short of it is is in mid-March Jack had uh a collection of events from doctor prescribing different medication which created a lot of anxiety bad highs and lows um to the 504 plan was changing >> what >> thank you for your comment your time is up >> I'm sorry >> is there anyone that we I will so and I will just let everyone know as a reminder that um our director of community resolution and outreach is available and contact information is on the back uh table. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker is Erica Schulz followed by Grayson Scholes. >> Good evening. Erica Scholes um al proud alum of sandyo

046of 1994 been in Incinus for many many years a small business owner my family for 45 years um we live in initus and we have chosen insinus as the school of choice because of the dual language program that they offer at Capri um my daughter uh came and spoke about deno and she loved deno and my son who's behind me will also be going to deno My daughter is at San Diego right now living her dream, living her high school dream of doing all the drama that she can. Um, and I say this as background because uh I think that our kids don't uh we can't choose what our kids like to do. They choose it or it's choses chooses them. Um, two years ago, we asked our son if he wanted to do band

047and asked him to do something in band and he chose strings. He chose violin because that was what he wanted to do and he's here to ask you to help bring that program to DO and Oakrest. >> Okay. >> Hello. As you know, I'm Grayson and I will be talking about well the importance of having strings. As you may know that all the schools that in are in middle school and high school do not have strings programs. And I asked why. Why do we have band but not strings? Sure it may be harder, but I know a second grader that plays violin. Plus money. Well, if you guys can afford like really big drums in high school, why can't you pay for like a couple of violins or cellos? Just saying. Anyways, I'm trying to

048make a point here about if it's unfair if you're crushing a bunch of kids dreams that want to go and do strings. Thank you. Next, next speaker is Millie Lars and following Millie will be Sierra Lars. >> Okay, let me know when it's time. I have to speak fast. So, good evening. Um, uh, so I am the proud parent of a 12-year-old daughter who has been doing incredible with four years of commitment to EF and violin. It is her dream. She loves it. It has been transformative. Um, but we don't have a string program and we really could use one at SDHSD as a feather in the cap. Um, we've already have an incredible band program, but it's really disservice that these kids have nowhere to go. There's at least 10 violinists. I have a

049petition of 65 parents who want to see strings at um at San Diego, at LCC, at Oakrest, at Deo. We have it at some other places, Tory Pines High School, Carmemell Valley, Canyon Crest. We need consistency across the district. Um, and I would love to send a follow-up email um to meet with someone um so we can continue this discussion because our kids deserve choices and um you know they they love this instrument. They shouldn't have to be forced to change to another instrument just to continue with their love of music. Einstein said that violin was the thing that brought him the most joy. Um and they say that music is the language of humankind universal. Um hello, my name is Sierra Loris. Um I've been playing violin since third grade. And so for me,

050this is a big part of my life and my especially with school, this has been involved in my schedule. So for me, it's hard for me to believe that I won't be able to play violin in middle school, maybe even high school. And so that's why I want to get this into the program. Not only for me, but also for I know many I have many friends in the violin program. There's a lot of violin people who I know want to further go through it until high school, even possibly as a profession. And I feel like not giving us this opportunity when there's drums, there's xylophones. I mean, going to where all the other instruments are there, I feel like for violin, violin is a big part of music. You notice it a lot. And

051so I'm kind of surprised it's not involved. Anyway, I'd like to play a little bit. >> Next speaker is Katya Sudio Sudico followed by Victoria Sudico. What message are we sending to our children when we tell them that after years of dedication, discipline, and passion for music, there's no place for them to continue playing the instrument they love? My daughter Victoria has played violin since third grade through the Insane's Educational Foundation program. She has spent countless hours practicing, performing, and growing as a musician. Yet, when she entered sixth grade, she was forced to switch instruments simply because this district offers no meaningful pathway for string students to continue through middle and high school music programs. No student should have to abandon years of hard work just to stay involved in music. Victoria is not alone.

052There are many talented young musicians in this district who play viola, violin, cello, and bass at a high level. These students already know how to site readad, perform challenging music, and play in ensembles. They're ready. They simply need the opportunity. I urge the board to consider creating and supporting string pathways within the district so these students are not forced to >> Thank you for your comment. Um, as my mom just said, I'd like to show that um, many other schools have the opportunity to play the violin, the viola, the cello, the bass, um, all of the string instruments. Um, and many of us, me and my friends that just came up, we've been playing for quite a while, and we have developed a very large passion, and it's basically part of our life now. So

053abandoning it will leave us basically heartbroken. Um if the problem is finding the music, there are many parent volunteers and student volunteers that can help you with that. So if that is what you need to do, then you can ask the school. But we really need a strings program because it does show in studies that it does help them with all of their education, not just in music. Thank you. Next speaker is Melissa McCollins Downey. And following Melissa will be Emily Mcllins Downey. >> Good evening. Um I just want to point out a few other um examples. LCC had a marching band that started with 11 12 kids. Mr. McCallion spent his afternoons teach these kids. Now the marching band's up to 80. There was never a program in the entire district with something like

054that. He's even done um the rock band. There's five maybe eight kids in that right now, but there's interest. So we're just here to push to get string ensemble as small as it can be to start, but it will grow because kids love the sound of orchestra. Even um the kids rock bands have violinists in it. She has an electric violin that she plays all the pop songs with. And so just they want the opportunity to have a chance to continue it throughout middle school and high school and show their talents. Thank you. >> Okay. Hello. My name is Emily Dans. I unfortunately broke my hand and if we don't get in this um and I couldn't play in the concert and if we don't get the strings in the local middle school and high

055schools that will definitely be my last concert with my friends playing violin. I have been part of the EF strings ensembles in second grade and I'm in sixth grade now and about to go into middle school and I would love to play continue the violin for six more years but local middle schools do not have a program for it. Kids in the band at EF District get to play in advanced band while people who play violin bass viola and cello have to drop all the progress we have made and relearn um instruments and get stuck in beginner band. I think that is really unfair for someone like me that has played an instrument for six years. If this doesn't change and I and I don't play a new instrument, I will have to quit band

056and the thing that has connected me to so many new people and has taught me so much. Thank you. >> Next speaker is Greg Brener and following Greg will be Dr. Mingu. >> Hello. So, good evening board members. Uh, I'm here tonight to ask whether there's been any meaningful oversight or continued review of the Tory Pines boys lacrosse program following the public emissions and CIF findings that were outlined in the agreement and release that was made public earlier this year. According to those public records, there was documented history of CIF violations, multiple warnings, sanctions, probation, and concerns regarding pre-enrollment contact and compliance with CIF bylaws. My question to the board is simple. What safeguards are now in place? Has there been any independent review by district administrators, registars, or compliance personnel regarding new players entering

057the program? Has the district reviewed whether the same issues that led to prior sanctions could still be occurring today? The situation also has a broader impact across the community. Multiple Avocado League programs, including Del Norte, San Marcos, and Carlsbad, reportedly forfeited games against Tory Pines in protest over concerns regarding fairness and competitive integrity. Whether people agree with those decisions or not, that level of concern from peer programs should matter. >> Thank you for your comment. Your time is up. >> Dr. Mingu and following Dr. Mingu is Nadia Sar. Dear board member and Dr. Ferry. Um well, we appreciate the board passing and signing theou which took effect for CCA foundation on February 1st, 2026 due to the gym misusing scandal. How does the district plan to enforce this agreement? If a foundation fail to comply,

058will it lose its school associate status and privilege? Accountability is crucial. Serious compliance compliance issue remains for CCA foundation. Excessive fees under theou admission fee should be dropped to 10% and restrictive donation must include donor op out and op in however on the website is still mandate that 20% and it's neither 10% or not not option this is not aligned with theou requirement the the board the board is not open to public they it's donation from the parents it should be open to public for a vote. Thank you. >> Nadia Sarwar followed by Marcy Strange. >> I'm Dr. Nadia Sarwar. I am a pediatrician and the parent of two SDUHSD students. As a Muslim American, I am grieving the horrific offense events at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Hate in any form is deplorable.

059Anti-Muslim hate is one of the most normalized and mainstream forms of hate in our country. During my son's years at CCA, he was called a terrorist so often that he became numb to it. I do not blame the children. I blame the adults who fail to teach them better. Parents hold this responsibilities and schools share it. So I ask you, please ensure that our Muslim students know they are seen, valued, and supported. Please push for the requirement of ethnic studies to help students understand one another's histories, cultures, and shared humanity. And finally, words matter. Words have the power to heal. They also have the power to harm. The young men who committed this act were not born hating. They learned it. The words we adults use matter. I have heard statements in these meetings associating

060symbols of Palestinian identity with terrorism and statements suggesting that hate speech does not exist or that we should simply make our children more resilient. Resilience is important, but resilience does not make hate. >> Thank you for your comment. Your time is up. Thank you for your comment. >> Marcy Strange followed by Jeff Ladman. First, I want to commend all of you ASB students. Uh, these meetings may feel like a drama series at times, but you're really learning about power, how decisions are made, and who gets a voice. Uh, you showed up, you stood up, and I want you to keep it up. Thank you. As chair of taxpayers oversight for parents and students of San Diego Union High School District, I also look at where the money goes. Um, and right now something isn't right.

061Reportedly this week, 25 to 50% of Canyon Crest Academy Foundation donations are not reaching our athletics, arts, and STEM clubs. Uh, could be due to the 20% fee with no opt out. This contradicts the district's that caps out at 10%. Um, lastly, voting this election is as important as voting for the president. Why? Because >> Thank you for your comment. Your time is up. Thank you, >> Jeff Ladman. And following Jeff is Carmen Nichols. >> Oh man. Okay, the shootings in San Diego have impacted us all. It's a shame it takes something like this to bring us together with our Muslim and Arab neighbors. My heartbreaks for their for the victims, their loved ones, and families. All houses of worship are sacred sanctuaries of peace. No one should ever fear for their life because of

062how or where they pray. Islamophobia and hate have no place in our schools, communities, California, or anywhere in America. We must stand united against intolerance. I appreciated Dr. Stafar's letter. We need to combat hateful rhetoric and miseducation. Ethnic studies and civics are a start, but we need to teach students diverse cultures and experiences. We can't teach them when we don't model the same sort of inclusion practices in our schools and communities. Again, San Diego, be proactive, not reactive. And you >> Carmen Nicholls followed by Nadia Swanson. Nadia Swanson is going to go first. Good evening, superintendent and board trustees. I come with an exceptionally heavy heart tonight because what me and my community have been working to prevent from occurring took place on Monday at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Three men were murdered

063and hundreds of children permanently scarred by two teenagers consumed by hate. We've been pleading for two years now to extend ethnic studies to include MINA because we've been watching the hateful rhetoric spewed from the top down. When students are denied opportunities to engage with the rich diversity of the world beyond their homes and social media loops, schools may become the only place where they can encounter perspectives different from their own through meaningful interactions with peers and ideally through a balanced and inclusive curriculum. I once again urged the district and board to expand our ethnic studies program to include Mina communities and to fulfill its original intent by making ethnic studies a graduation requirement. Carmen Nichols followed by Melissa Fishell. Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Education is at a pivotal moment. You can

064choose to continue to succumb to threats or frivolous lawsuits, or you can take a stand for what is right. We are lucky enough to live in a country that boasts how free we are, and yet we are censoring and punishing teachers for teaching about the genocide in Gaza or anything about Palestine. Teachers in our district have been reprimmended for teaching about Palestine. And because of that, other teachers are afraid to talk about Palestine. This is not a free country if we cannot teach what the rest of the world is learning about. Censorship. Censorship has no place in this country. So I implore you to stand with educators for justice and support them and academic freedom of your students. I've experienced it myself. My daughter was told in fourth grade that she can't be a princess

065cuz her skin is brown. This must stop. Thank you. Melissa Fishell followed by Kathy Stanger. Melissa Fishell, Kumi, Salana Beach. Thank you to the board, the staff, the students, and everyone else that I'm trying to squeeze into this minute. I was struck by uh President Jane Lee Smith's comment that not all speech is free from consequence. And yet, time and time again, we see from this DAS that that is not exactly true. I echo my friend's comments, and it is with a heavy heart that I am here tonight. We have seen from here multiple times that rhetoric is brought and there are consequences and the community saw it this week. 94% of students feel safe at school and yet there are 6% who do not. We are allowed rhetoric to the debate and fear went

066out. We need Mina. We need ethnic studies and we need to know that all students feel safe and that board members cannot continue with the rhetoric that is inciting anger and fear and mistrust in this community. Please, I can't come here again. I don't know how everybody does. It is with a heavy heart we have to stop this. Thank you. Kathy Stanger followed by Beth Taylor. At last month's board meeting, Superintendent Stfairy confronted the fabricated controversy over a video of a teacher, imploring our community not to fall victim to online false narratives, noting that deliberate deliberately taking images or statements out of context provokes the community, resulting in real and potentially dangerous consequences. Just minutes after her statement, Trusty Alman doubled down on the false narrative she had just corrected and condemned. He revived the

067lie that the video was made with harmful intent and falsely equated the Palestinian flag with anti-semitism, committing the very politicization he reminded us to is prohibited by po board policy. As the student representative accurately corrected Mr. Alman, the Palestinian flag represents not a single political stance, but a people as diverse and human as the people represented by any flag. to equate Palestinian flag with Hamas and to insinuate that to be Palestinian is to be anti-Semitic is ignorant and denies an entire people a full identity at a time when they were suffering a genocide sends a message to Palestinian students in our district that they are not seen as equally deserving of the full humanity of other groups. Thank you for your comment. Your time is up. Beth Taylor, followed by Michael Walstrom. >> Okay. Um,

068I'm Beth Taylor and I'm a parent of biracial children in this district. Today, my daughter came home with a Snapchat video filmed by another student. In it, he records her, turns the camera on himself, gives a thumbs down, and says stupid nword. That is what my child walked out of your district with today, out of your school today. a deliberate act of racism recorded and shared for entertainment. This is not an isolated incident. It is the environment students are navigating and it is why I'm here. California law requires schools to address discrimination and hostile environments that interfere with a student's education. That responsibility belongs to this board as much as anyone else. When incidents like this are minimized or handled inconsistently, students learn exactly what this district is willing to tolerate and whose safety is

069negotiable. And leadership matters. When board members make dismissive or ill-informed comments about marginalized communities, students and families hear that, too. You cannot ask schools to create inclusive campuses while modeling. Anyway, >> Mike Walstrom, followed by Lacy Suvok. >> Good evening. Uh, my name is Mike Walstrom. I've been in this district for 26 years. I was a math teacher at Tory Pines for 10 years, a coach of baseball, football, and softball for 13 years, from varsity all the way down to the freshman. I've taught math and PE these past 16 years at Sunset High School and summer school off and on for about 23 years. The past uh 12 being dedicated to credit recovery. Throughout these many opportunities, the one common denominator that I truly respect in this district is the students. Um, I love working

070with them. Um, taking their math to the next level or um or spending time with them, just getting to know them. My years at Tory Pines were great and I love the teachers and the admin administration that I got to work with, but these last several years and just have come have been the most rewarding. My time at Sunset has been one of the greatest things that I've ever accomplished. I have a lot more. This is really good for a math teacher, but I just want to thank you for allowing me to work with these students uh all around the district in summer school and everything else. Thank you so much for everything that you guys have done for these students. Lacy Sovoc followed by Paulina Nelson. >> Hi, my name is Lacy Sovocal and

071I'm the sports medicine career technical education teacher at Tory Pines High School. I would like to begin by thanking the board for the opportunity to speak about the pathway and the personal and academic growth of the students. The sports medicine pathway is in its first year at Tory Pines. We currently have three sections of sports medicine 1 and in its second year we will be offering five sections with 164 students currently enrolled. Throughout the year, students have engaged with industry leaders representing the field of sports medicine. Our most impactful speaker was Mr. Dr. Hector Pedes from the EP Save a Life Foundation who spoke about his son Eric who passed away from sudden cardiac arrest in 2009. To quote Mr. Poretus, "It was truly a privilege to speak to your sports medicine classes. I was

072very impressed with their interest in preventing sudden cardiac arrest, which is certainly a testament to your instruction and influence. You are creating what we say is the next generation of lifesavers. It is truly an honor to teach this class, and I absolutely love what I do. Thank you so much. Paulina Nelson, followed by Christopher Black. >> Good evening. Um, I'm Paulina Nelson. I teach English 8 honors and EL3 at Carmel Valley Middle School. And I was asked to come spotlight some things that are going on in our classrooms. Um, and yes, I brought props. Uh during our World War II unit, uh which includes the book thief and Frank and Elie Weisel, students learn about the groundwork that led up to the Holocaust, including how public opinion was shaped far earlier than the extermination campaigns

073began. Included in that is the pyramid of hate theory, which shows how thought escalates into behavior. In the spirit of cultivating an enlightened and empathetic population, students created the pyramid of tolerance, highlighting what thoughts and actions were central to creating a more inclusive and humane world. Here are a few examples from our class which the representatives from the butterfly project uh particularly enjoyed. And you can see some themes of peace, inclusion, empathy, tolerance, and I'm just incredibly proud of our kids and the energy that they put into this. I think our world needs a little bit more. >> Thank you for your comment. Your time is up. >> Christopher Bla Black followed by Mark Bredney. >> Shout out to Lacy who taught me how to save lives uh not too far back at a training

074for CPR and first aid. And so, thank you for that. Um, welcome guys. Thank you so much for having me. I am Christopher Black, 29-year teacher and coach in the in the Santo Union High School District. For 22 years, I've taught at bothmies and I've learned that there's a narrative out there that only the exceptional athletes go to Tory Pines and Lacosta Canyon. So, I'm here to tell you that we've got some exceptional athletes at themies as well. I've taught state champions at CCA. We've had national champions at at the the academy. And I want to prove it to you on Tuesday night when we host the Mustang Athletic Awards, affectionately known as the Manny's, named after our venerable mascot, Manny the Mustang. Um, I'd like to invite all of you uh fine people on

075the board to come and see just how exceptional the academy athletes uh can be as well. We're not just artists and thespians and sculptors. We've got some exceptional ones of those, but there are exceptional ones at Tory Pines and LCC as well. So, please come see how incredible our student athletes are on Tuesday night. I'll send you. >> Thank you for your comment. Your time is >> Mark Bre followed by Brian Brady. Good evening. My name is Mark Bredney. I am a teacher at LCC. I teach ASL levels 1 through 4 and honors ASL. I am honored to be in the school district. I am the only dev teacher in our district. I stand proud today because of the accessibility rights and services that allow me to do my job successfully. For example, you are

076currently listening to the sign language interpreter right now. That is accessibility in action. It allows me to communicate effectively. I use interpreting services for staff and department meetings, parent conferences, back to school night, and informational meetings for incoming eighth grade families. I just recently our ASL program hosted our fifth annual ASL show and it was an incredible success. Parents, students, and community all benefited from the experience. Most importantly, students gain valuable opportunities to use sign language outside of the classroom and deepen their understanding of deaf culture. I love my job because of the support I received from my administration team and colleagues, including comment. Your time is up. Thank you. Brian Brady followed by the final speaker who is uh Ari Arya Ari Far. >> Good evening board. Um I presented in front of you

077guys a few times in the fall, but uh I was in town and I or in the in the neighborhood, so I figured I would just stop in and say thank you. Um, it's been quite a year and I just wanted to appre appreciate you all and what you do and uh, shout out to Henry and and all his uh, service for the board. So, that's all I had tonight. Thank you very much. Really positive meeting. I was really moved by um, the Tory presentation and by Principal Copo and all his service. So, thank you very much. >> Hi, my name is Ari and I'm a senior at Tori Bines High School and one of Miss Socical sports med students. As someone who hopes to pursue a career in medicine in the future, I am

078so grateful that I've had the opportunity to take sport medicine this year. It has truly confirmed my passion for a healthcare career. This class is truly so special and unique in a in in a unique way. I've never taken a class like this before. Um, it's incredibly engaging and hands-on in ways I didn't think was possible for a high school class. Through Miss Sovical's instruction, we've been able to work with splints, spine boards, CPR equipment, taping, and so many other materials that made learning feel real and immersive. But what truly makes this program amazing is Miss Sovical herself. She's genuinely one of the best teachers I've ever had throughout my high school experience. You can tell how much she cares not just about sports medicine, but about her students. She's put so much thought and

079effort into this part into this class and program. Thank you so much, Thank you all very much for your comments. We will now be moving on to our uh student board member reports and our students will be sharing their final reports for the year. As our LCAP goals demonstrate, we're committed to increasing enh and enhancing access, belonging, and achievement for all students. Additionally, I will remind everyone of our unity of purpose, which is to provide a highquality education for each and every student to demonstrate academic growth and optimize individual potential. Tonight, we're looking forward to hearing from each of our five student board members representing Canyon Crest Academy, Lacosta Canyon High School, Santoo Academy, Sunset High School, and Tory Pines High School. So, I'll leave it to you guys to choose your order, and you

080have the floor. >> Good evening, everyone. For Sunset's final board report of the school year, I am excited to share some of the accomplishments and events that wrapped up an incredible year at our school. Sunset's graduation rate has reached 97.3%. Which is an amazing achievement for a continuation alternative school. We are very proud of all of our students and staff for making that possible. Shout out Mr. Walsham and Miss Horsley and Miss Olsen in the audience. Our final fun Friday of the school year took place on April 24th and our last club day was held on May 8th. These events continued to build school spirit and create positive experiences for students throughout the year. Yesterday we held our annual awards and scholarship night where students were recognized for their hard work, achievements, and accomplishments with

081their families in attendance. Senior breakfast will take place on May 28th at 8:30 in the morning in the multi-purpose room, followed by graduation rehearsal at 9:30, which is mandatory for all graduates. Sunset's graduation ceremony will be held on May 29th at 5:00 p.m. in the school courtyard. Additionally, the online learning program recently completed state testing for 11th grade students. Our coast program also held its special uh our so its social spotlight dance on May 8th and Coast graduation ceremony will take place on May 29th at 12:30 in the multi-purpose room. Before I finish, I would also like to share that unlike our fellow student board representatives, I am a junior and I will not be graduating this year. Serving as Sunset's student representative has been a truly unique experience and I'm incredibly grateful for this

082opportunity to represent to represent our school and students this year. My time at Sunset has been unforgettable and next year I will be transitioning in from Sunset to Tory Pines as part of my plans moving forward. I want to thank the board for giving me the opportunity to serve as student representative and a special thank you to Mr. Marcus for all the help and support through this experience. Thank you. And I would like to thank Romeo for letting me use his computer because mine has decided to fail on me. President Smith, trustees, Dr. Stafieri, I come to you tonight with a final compilation on the last night I get to sit on this dice of the happenings of San Diego Academy for the school year 202526. And it has been an absolutely phenomenal school year

083at that. I am truly grateful truly to have been given this opportunity to share my school and the community that we have fostered there. So with that being said, I will start us off with some of the ASB activities that we have planned for this last week or day in my case. Tomorrow is exhibition day and this is probably the number one most exciting thing at SDA probably ever. Um we have 75 stands exhibiting creativity and passion projects of our students. 30 of those are for food, 15 of them are art, two are student bands, and the rest are all just ex exhibits of student passions. We have culture groups, we have clubs. It is truly the most amazing exposition of our student body possible. If you're interested in engaging, the most active times are

084going to be from 9:30 to 10:00 and from 10 to 10:45. So, if you'd like to be there, I would love to see you at my stand. We also have senior week coming up which is the week following um after Memorial Day with senior sunset being tomorrow. Uh the following week will be a fun list of activities for myself and my class with our farewell assembly, senior slideshow at La Paloma and a senior beach day on Tuesday. Uh Disneyland trip on Wednesday. Yes, Disneyland. Um Thursday is our graduation rehearsal, caps and gowns and a senior picnic. And finally on Friday, I will unfortunately have to say goodbye to this district and go and move on to the next journey. As for non-ASB activities, we have air bands which was today. I think I brought this

085up in our last meeting, but it's a capstone project for our all our world language classes. That is Spanish, French, Japanese, and ASL. Um, we had all four periods of amazing dances from students. We also recently had our K9 unwind to finish up finish off our AP testing. Uh thank you to the Santo Alliance for providing their dogs. That was absolutely phenomenal. And it's already been brought up by one of our community members, but also we had an ASL end of year performance, which is the first year we've had that as a pilot course capstone for ASL 4, which is I believe a new class. Yearbook distribution began and for student forum was held today at lunch. So things are slowly starting to wind down, but they're still happening regardless. In terms of athletics, this

086was also brought up. We had our many awards or sorry, we we will be having our many awards with each team getting an award and a few of them are the athlete of the year and Todd Volstead award for our most inspirational player. Our baseball team additionally is number one seed for CIF playoffs in their division. Um I was told not to mention this, but I will anyways. We are D4. Um we have two and we have two pole vters going to a state meet which is extremely exciting for us. Um we also have we have more awards apparently hoofbeat awards. Uh these are for our 9th and 11th graders. Today was at lunch um with parents invited to a lunchon and teachers giving students awards from every um class something like that. Uh we

087also had our academy awards. This was last night. Uh this was an award ceremony for our seniors and this was for honors within departments, scholarships from the community and it was an absolute amazing time. Um and we have finally our arts like to end on this because we have an amazing amazing update for our theater department. Anything goes the performance we put on earlier this year is a finalist for the Broadway San Diego awards and they will be playing at the Balboa theater this Sunday. I believe that is at Oh, I don't have the time for that, but check it out if you can. Pride and Prejudice though is I do have the time for that is playing today, tomorrow, and on Saturday at 7:00. So, if you have time in your schedule, it is

088an amazing show and I highly recommend. From our music department, we have our jazz concert and bingo night on May 8th and a spring concert tonight, which I am unfortunately missing. um where they're giving out three national awards and that is the happenings of SDA. So once more, thank you so much for providing me with this wonderful, wonderful opportunity to give be a student voice in this community and for allowing me to share the love and passion which I feel deeply towards my school. And as for myself, I will be going for co to Colgate University next year to pursue a liberal arts education um and hopefully bring some school spirit over there. So thank you so much Madame President, trustees and Dr. Stfairy, good evening. My name is Henry Tangy and I'm proud of

089having the honor of representing Tory Pines High School. I'm grateful to be on this DAS one final time tonight. I'd like to begin and unfortunately they are no longer here. I don't blame them, but I'd like to thank Mr. Copo, Maddie, and Xander for their stellar presentation tonight and representing all that makes TP great. push-ups for Xander included. Um, I'm also equally excited to give a shout out to my successor on the board who's here tonight, Skyler Beats. I cannot wait to see how you advocate for our student body this next year. And although our school year may be winding down, our Falcons are certainly still taking flight. I have a few I have a few quick updates, which is surprising coming from me for the board tonight. So, beginning with our academics, our ASB

090is currently preparing for our senior week festivities, which include a trip to Disneyland and our graduation attire/mortarboard handouts. One could say that our graduation guard will ensure our seniors cap off their final chapter at TP on a high note. We are also eager to welcome district officials and trustee Anderson to our graduation ceremony next Friday. I'm equally excited to cover the last set of wins from our athletics department. This spring, the Falcons absolutely cleaned up in CIF competition, bringing home numerous championships. It's safe to say that we served up a storm in boys tennis and girls beach volleyball and made waves with CIF wins in girls swim, boys swim, and boys lacrosse. At this point, our CIF trophy case may need some load management. I'd also like to quickly shout out the Falcons who competed

091hard in the other spring sports, and all of them showed grit, resilience, and growth through numerous hard-fought wins. I'd like to give a final encore to our arts department and thank everyone who attended our performance of the outsiders attended our artsfest and the Falcon finale. Now, I would like to transition from my role of acting as the TPHS duckboat operator to a more serious note of the importance of student voice on this board. A Pew Research poll found that last year just 17% of Americans trusted in their national government. It's unclear what the numbers are for local governance, but we've seen how an incredibly polarized society has impacted our board. Amidst national dysfunction, it is local institutions like this one that are the first step to rebuilding trust and engagement. Having student board members like

092myself has opened the door for what I hope has been meaningful feedback, more diverse dialogue, and stronger connections between district leadership and the students you serve every day. It has allowed students like myself not only to feel heard, but to feel invested in the success of this district. In one of my favorite books, Profiles and Courage, President and then Senator John F. Kennedy wrote that democracy must and can face its problems and that it must show patience, restraint, compassion, as well as wisdom in the struggle for solutions, which are rar rarely easy to find. So, while the news may only like to cover disagreement and dysfunction, I implore the board to continue to strive for good governance. Um, although our society may encourage divisions across dozens of unimportant lines that we could draw for ourselves,

093I have seen this board function best when we choose to embody what Kennedy said, working together in service of the credible staff, parents, and students that make up this district. I believe the role of the student board member plays an integral part in fostering district unity and the necessary values for good governance. It is my sincere hope that you will continue to support the engagement of this position going forward. In closing, I'm honored to have had the privilege of speaking on behalf of such a diverse, talented, and passionate student body this year. From our PAC to Ed Stadium and now this year to our pool, Tory Pines is a symbol of how an inclusive campus culture can bring together thousands of students from across all backgrounds and interests. Concludingly, thank you all again for your

094support of all 2,650 Falcons on our campus. I look forward to hopefully all seeing you again one more time before the year ends. Good evening, Madame President, Dr. Stfairy, members of the board, and executive cabinet. I am honored to represent Lacosta Canyon for the last time on this DAS. As we approach the end of the school year, our campus has continued to reflect a strong sense of achievement, involvement, and community. I'm excited to share with you for one last time a couple brief snapshots of what has been happening at LCC. Over the past few weeks, students have completed AP and IB exams and many are now concluding their final assessments and projects. Beyond the classroom, students have participated in several meaningful campus events. Earlier this month, LCC students attended prom at Malibu Farms with the

095theme of sunset in Seapport. Additionally, our school recognized Yellow Ribbon Week through activities centered around encouragement, connection, and student wellness. Students distributed ribbons, participated in spirit days, and wrote supportive messages around campus to foster a positive environment during a particularly demanding time of year. Our arts program have also had an exciting and successful season. For the rest of the school year, our school learning commons is hosting a student art showcase featuring a gallery style display of beautiful student work. While the performing arts center welcomed families and community members for the spring band concert last night, as graduation approaches, seniors are beginning final preparations for checkout, graduation rehearsal, and commencement activities. Senior awards night also recently celebrated students for their academic achievements, leadership, and contributions to campus life. Lastly, on a personal note, I would like

096to share my gratitude for all of the opportunities I've had throughout my time in this district that have led me to here. I am so thrilled for the next four years for where I will be attending University of California, Santa Barbara to study political science. I'm incredibly appreciative of the support, mentorship from teachers, administration, and faculty, and all of the experiences that have helped me prepare for this next chapter. That being said, I'm incredibly proud to announce the new LCC board rep, Stella Norwood. And although unfortunately she could not be here tonight, I know that she is beyond excited to represent LCC starting this fall. Thank you to the board for your continued commitment to supporting, caring for, and uplifting each and every student and creating opportunities for us to grow both academically and personally.

097Thank you. >> Good evening, Madam President, board of trustees, superintendent Safiieri, and my exe and the executive cabinet. My name is Ben Du from Cany Academy, and it is my pleasure to give you my last board report. I've thoroughly enjoyed sharing all that CCA has to offer in the world of arts, sports, academics, and student life. So, without further ado, let's get into arts. On May 12th, the Envision Instrumental Music Conservatory and Envision Vocal Conservatory collaborated to perform an opera DTO and Anias. The next day, our band programs invited PTMS musicians to perform alongside them in our spring concert. Last Friday, the Envision Cinema Conservatory hosted their annual film festival. These student directed films included some emotional narratives, gory action sequences, documentaries, and public service announcements. You can check all out all of these amazing

098films on the CCTV YouTube channel. The Envision The Envision Theater Conservatory hosted three senior thesis shows last week featuring themes such as grief and healing. And one of my personal favorites was centered around a biblical train robbery. And tonight, the Envision Visual Arts program and our arts classes will be hosting an exhibition to show off all of our extraordinary extraordinary artists. Now, on to sports. So, boys tennis placed second at CIF Championships versus Tory Pines. Don't worry, Henry, we'll get you back next year. Um, and boys volleyball placed second at CIF championship championships as well, making their first division 1 championship exper appearance in program history. On to academics. The CCA academic team won the North County Academic League Championship last I mean on Tuesday over Tory Pines with a final score of 94 to

09963. In April, four CCA students were also named state champions in the presidential AI challenge for their app resource which uses camera data and AI to help homeless individuals with location specific navigation. On to student life. Last weekend CCA hosted its prom at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Hoya. With over 850 students in attendance, the student the student students enjoyed thoughtprovoking art, an excellent beach view, and a chaotic dance floor. This week, ASB and Pals are collaborating to host staff appreciation week. Students had the opportunity to write notes and make bouquets for their teacher, while teachers had the opportunity to pie students in the face um and dunk dump water on them. Tomorrow, we'll be hosting a barbecue for our staff and a raffle basket drawing for these amazing teachers and staff. Senior

100week kicks off tomorrow as well where seniors will enjoy a senior sunset bonfire and on Tuesday our our class will travel to Disneyland. On Wednesday they will go to Belmont Park and then on Friday we'll graduate. Um I'm looking forward to seeing whichever representative of the board um and the executive cabinet uh who will attend. Finally, I really want to congratulate Mr. Min on his appointment to the role of assistant principal at Tory Pines. Although I'm extremely sad that we'll be losing my Mr. Min, my awesome statistics teacher um who also pied me on Tuesday. Um, I'm excited to see how his professionalism, humility, and teaching expertise will benefit Tory Pines. As I end this board report, I want to give a special thank you to Mr. Marcus and Miss Olivia uh Fairclaw and Superintendent

101Safiieri for guiding me through um this wonderful role as board representative. Thanks to Miss Pisagna for the wonderful food each meeting, and thank you to Mr. Mendoza for his immaculate photography throughout the year. It's been an eye- openening experience serving as board representative. And this experience has shown me that there's so much more to my education than just the boundary of my high school campus. I've had the chance to speak to so many district personnel, school faculty, and students on new policies and issues within our schools. Through this, I've learned how to better represent a multitude of interests and construct my own stances. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity uh this opportunity, and I hope to apply my experiences to future roles. Finally, I would like to let everyone here know that despite

102all these late night meetings and never- ending agendas, I had a ton of fun. So, thank you. Next year I will be studying electrical engineering at UCLA. And I want to thank all of my teachers from K Valley Middle School and Canyon Crest Academy who've helped me get here over the past six years. Now enough about me. Um I'd like to invite you to welcome my successor to this board, Elon Mace. Elon, please stand up. Wait, stay up. Wait, I have more to say about you. Um she will also be succeeding me as the executive president of CCA ASB. She's very energetic and dedicated, evidently, as she drove over half an hour to watch a board meeting. Um, and I'm I'm excited to see the new perspective she brings. Um, and with that being said,

103this concludes my board report. Thank you so much. Thanks so much to all of you for your final board reports. Um, any comments from boards? >> I just I don't know. We've Every now and then I'll go out in the public and someone will make a comment about teenagers or something in a way that suggests that maybe teenagers need more help or guidance and I'm like you don't understand these um students. You have taught me a lot about how you carry yourselves and how you speak. So thank you so much for being part of this. Um you five are exceptional. Thank you for all of your hard work this past year. It has been some long nights. It has been some tough issues. I so enjoy how each one of you were not shy when

104you had an opinion. You made it heard. You participated. Um you each have contributed so much to every single one of our meetings, to your communities. You're all off to wonderful things. Even if you're not graduating, you're still off to wonderful things next year. Um please don't be shy. Don't be strangers. Let us know how you're doing and best of luck next year. I just wish you guys success in your future endeavors, whatever it is. >> I just want to thank all of you for bringing your perspective and your individual unique personalities to the position and for your service in the district. And I made a little brainstorm because I was thinking about how much I appreciated you all of you as a group. So just a brainstorm of some characteristics that I think um

105stood out to me over the course of the year. I have found you to be respectful, engaged from the very beginning, conscientious, humorous, compassionate, intelligent, collaborative, and competitive. Uh articulate. And then I added this one because somebody said it tonight. One of you said it. Patient. So, thank you so much for representing your sites with integrity and dedication. Really appreciate all of you. >> But wait, there's more. >> What's that? >> I said, but wait, there's more. >> There is more. At this time, we would like to invite all of our student board members to join us in front of the DAS for a recognition and photo opportunity. All right. Well, now we'll move on to some of the business. Up next is the consent agenda, which is items marked with an asterisk. And for

106this evening, that includes items 8 A, 8 B, 9 A, 9B, 9 C, 10 A, 10B, 10 C, and 10 D. Do we have any public comments? >> Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Items on the agenda marked with an asterisk which are 8 A, 8 B, 9A, 9B, 9 C, 10 A, 10B, 10 C, and 10 D. So moved. >> Second. Any questions or comments? All right. Student board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And governing board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. >> I. And I didn't see any opposition. Motion passes unanimously. We are now in section 8, educational services. Items 8A and 8B were on consent. So we're moving on to item 8C.

107That's anformational item on special education. So Mr. Marcus, will you please introduce the item for us? >> Yes. So as we share tonight's strategic special ed update, our work remains firmly committed and anchored in the 2024 FICMAT study. I want to extend a sincere thank you to Dr. Orletto Win, senior director, Kelly Maul, our coordinator of special education, for their leadership and ensuring that the FIMMAC recommendations remain a living ongoing roadmap for our district's continuous improvement. This vital work is a true collaboration effort while also recognizing our broader special education coordinators, department chairs and teachers and related service team members whose dedication on the ground makes this progress possible every day. With that, I'd like to introduce Dr. Nuin. >> Thank you board of trustees u Dr. Stferi executive cabinet and student um board members

108for this opportunity. I will have to say I don't know how I follow the student. Um, and spoiler alert, there is no cheer at the end of my presentation. So, yeah. So, give me some grace. So, I'm really excited to be here today to share with you the momentum of special education and how we are serving our students with um exceptional needs. Okay. Um, and with that momentum, I do want to share the celebrations that we've had for 2026. We are part of the North Coastal Consortium for Special Education which is constitutes 14 North Coastal Districts and every year they recognize um recipients of excellence in special education and this year we had three uh recipients. Um the first is Christina Falia out of Canyon Crest Academy for her excellence as a related service provider.

109She also is identified as the teacher of the year for CCA. So that's very exciting for CCA. We have an entire instructional team out of Lac Costa Canyon who was recognized for their excellence and collaboration. These individuals are our instructional assistants who serve our most um impacted youth in our exceptional support needs programs. They are touted by the community, by the by their colleagues, by the teachers, and by the students themselves. A very very exciting recognition is the excellence in supportive student award. Payton Blakeley is recognized out of La Costa Canyon High School. She is truly what we embody and we want for all of our students of creating this inclusive belonging culture in all of our schools. She serves at a as a bridge um as a peer for bringing in our students um

110who who may not have been included before and she has been instrumental under the guidance of Casey Gaelic. If you don't know her, she's our AP uh teacher out of La Costa Canyon in helping students be included in Stampede Squad. So, I know Rima has seen the Stamps Key Squad, but if any of you have not seen it, please go to a game. They are amazing. They cheer on and and this is just a testament to all of the good things that's are happening right now in special education. So, hearkening back to 2024, as you recall, there was a um FICMAT study. there was it's quite robust. Um in order to truly strategically address some of those recommendations that the FICMAT study provided, we wanted to focus on three areas and those three areas are

111the district organization, service options, and due process. Okay, so I want to start with the district organization. Part of the FIKMAT study was how are we supporting our sites? What are we doing in terms of human resources, fiscal resources to ensure that our sites are supported? And what that means is how are our students supported? And so we took a good look at this and we looked at our program supervisors who are administrators over special education as well as our related service providers. And what we did was a concerted effort of moving services away from district types of supports to actual on-site supports. For the program supervisors, this meant that it was about training. It was about giving direct supports and services to our teachers by increasing their time on school sites. For our related

112service providers, it was about increasing the human resources to meet student needs. For example, this year we have an additional allocation of speech and language pathologists. This has not been done in several years prior to my tenure or prior to the tenure before me. So, it's an exciting thing that you know the board is here and Dr. Shaperryi and everybody's here supporting what we need to do to provide services in terms of our district organizations. So, that's what we've moved forward with um for the 26 27. The other area of the FICMAT study was how are we providing services? How are we providing services with fidelity? One of the foundational tenants of the individuals with disabilities education act is the ability for students with disabilities are are sub students with exceptional needs. How are you

113being included with your peers that do not have disabilities? It is a goal of IDEIDA to create a world of inclusivity. And so we have taken that charge as well um using that Fikmat vision of how do we build that continuum of services to increase access and we took a look at really four areas over the last couple of years. The first is accommodations. Accommodations for some for many is to remove the barriers. what barriers are in the general education setting that we need to look at to remove them um so that students have access. And so we've provided trainings on accommodations. We've taken a look at how students accommodations in their 5044 plans and their IEPs are implemented within the general education setting so that students have access to their non-disabled peers. They are

114for more included. The second area is targeted academic instruction. We had a beautiful model prior to me coming where we wanted to use TAI strategically to address three general areas that a lot of students with exceptional needs have which is executive functioning deficits in math and weaknesses in English reading right reading and writing. So in a response to that San Diego provided three different classes that targeted that. Okay. What we found though is that some students, as you may know, may have weaknesses in multiple areas. So for those students, were we inadvertently keeping them away from inclusionary options by scheduling them for two to three classes to target these three areas of weakness? That was the question that we had. So we took a look at our models and we said we need to take

115a look at how many kids are affected and we want to pilot something where it's one TAI class. Instead of having three classes differentiating by their areas of need, why not one class where within the classroom setting, teachers are using instructional models that are designed to target IEP goals and then free up other areas so that students can take electives, can take CTE courses. So, our pilot just finished its first year. It's being piloted out of Carmel Valley for the middle school levels and LCC for the high school levels. We're super excited um because the teachers have gotten the training. There's still more work to be done. So, we're moving into our second year of piloting. I want to thank our TOSAs, our teachers, our schools that have welcomed this pilot and our families who

116have said, "Okay, I want to try this." Because they're used to a different model who have been brought up in in San Diego, especially at the high school. So they have exhibited incredible patience, the entire community, our teachers, staff, administrators in wanting to strive to get kids more included by giving them more opportunities to do so. So I we'll be really excited to see how year two pans out. The third area is really taking a look at our alternative pathway to diploma. If you're not familiar with the alternative pathway to diploma, this was this affects the the the students who were in the ninth grade in the 2022 to 2023 school year and all the classes prior to that. There was amazing work done by my predecessor um and as well as Dr. Maul and

117her team. They laid an amazing groundwork where I I am confident to say that Santo is progressive in this area. Again, do we have room to grow? 100%. So, for the alternative pathway to diploma, this is for students who are the most impacted who they are eligible for our California alternative assessment. And what it does is that it allows those students, our students, our extensive support need students most impacted a pathway to get a state diploma. And so we'll be seeing the first graduates coming out this year which is very very exciting. Um again there's still room to grow but this is something that we are very excited about. Similarly is our access plans. Again my predecessor Dr. Maul her team all everyone who came before me had put us in a beautiful position to

118be the most progressive district I would say in the county if not the state. The access plans is our our intention is to include students who may not meet the academic criteria, but they have IEP goals that say you can work on these IEP goals and be with your non-disabled peers, with your your typical neurotypical peers. And what the the access plans do is it's a collaboration between general education, special education teachers, administrators, instructional assistants, and families to craft a plan that is focused on the student being able to access that opportunity in general education. So we are doing that as well. So, it's really really exciting and the proof is in the pudding because the state is also interested in how much we have our students in the least restrictive environment aka included. They

119have state targets and I'm happy to report that we have met our state targets in LRE. The target keeps moving. So, again, we will continue to strive to meet those targets every year. So, that's what we've been working on with service options. Um now in order to continue this cycle of improvement because everything when you work in special education when you work in education we're working with human beings right every single person is different. So we have to continually work on pivoting evolving being flexible and that comes with learning. And so we have intentionally infused professional development to focus on instructional practice guiding kids, guiding teachers, guiding teams towards the ultimate LRE, the ultimate inclusion, which is the real world, right? And so we have had professional learning on universal design for learning. If you're

120not familiar with universal design for learning, uh it's UDL, which is basically a um a model of how we plan for instruction prior to providing instruction. And it is a proactive way to think about all of your students and all of the entry points they come to in the classroom in order to enter and access the curriculum. So, our teachers, our general education teachers, our special education teachers have been involved in that all year long. The second thing that um we have been been really um looking forward to and utilizing is the intentional use of Technology allows us to provide access for students that normally would not have access. A classic example is the student that maybe has some fine motor challenges and can't physically write. So you have them typing or their typing is

121slow. I know my typing is slow. it's not it's not the where it should be and they can use speechto text options so that that impediment is removed that barrier is removed so that they can have access to that curriculum with their neurotypical peers. Okay. On the special education specific side we are focused on the development of a quality individualized education program. Our teams have been amazing. This is one of the best district. I've been a lot of districts and I'm so proud to be part of this district because I walk in and I look at these plans and they are absolutely amazing. Having said that, again, the targets always moving, right? So, how do we get better? And so, our um educators, our education specialists have been involved in quality assessment training because everything

122starts with data and interpreting it. How does that translate into a quality IEP? The second area is the individual transition planning. In the law, we have students AB432 438 that says incoming students from 8th grade entering the ninth grade should could have an ITP. An ITP is the plan for after high school. How are we preparing students for the future? Because high school's just a stop. It's just a space and time six years that we have when really we are preparing them for the ultimate LRE the ultimate inclusion opportunity which is the real world. So all of our um educators, our education specialists have been studying transition planning, how to gather data about it, how to develop these plans based on students dreams and goals. It starts with the student. They're part of the planning

123first. We take that plan and we work backwards to create a longitudinal guide so to speak, a vision board, a journey map in our IEPs to help students reach their post secondary goals. So, we're very proud of our professional development. Again, ongoing, we're going to keep visiting it. The third area that we focused on was due process. So, as you know, due process is the students and the parents right to resolve conflict on special education topics, namely FATE, the free and appropriate public education. And so, conflict will always happen. But how do we get to a space where we don't have to get to the conflict, where there is a feelings of insurmountable impass? Well, we have to start from the beginning, which is strengthening our family partnerships. And so this has been far-reaching across

124our teams from staff to IAS to district staff. We open those lines of communication. We welcome creative problem solving. And the idea is over time we build trust. We we are in it together. We have the same vision. We have the same goals. We may disagree on how to get to those goals, but finding that common ground to create a creative solution to get to that ultimate goal. Um and so we have been working really hard to strengthen family partnerships. This is inclusive of increasing communication with families. Um like I just showed you the CAC awards. That's a huge family engagement thing. Um we have the parent strategic plan and in the last couple of years we have instituted the dialogue with the director which is a two-way communication um event where parents can come

125learn about the district but also ask questions ask the hard-hitting questions that maybe they don't feel they're getting the answers to. And this is our proactive way to avoid that conflict as much as possible. If it doesn't need to be a conflict does need to be a conflict right but as we know human nature conflict will happen right so should conflict happen one of the things we have been very intentional about is how do we look at these conflicts as a trend what is the data telling us about these conflicts if you have three four conflicts that are very similar we have to look within ourselves to see what is the root cause and how do we address it? And so this has been work with crossdisciplinary teams. It's not just special education. I'm working

126with Dr. Weatherford's team, Leysa's team, Joel's team, business services to look at what is the barrier that is causing this conflict that we aren't able to resolve at a site level. Is this a systems issue? And we have been working very very strongly about this. And so that hearkens back to the staffing issues, right? So if we don't have enough staff, that's a systems issue where it requires all disciplinary support in order to address that. And so that's what we've been doing. So all good things again, no cheer, but I will tell you it's an iterative process. Are all of these things that we're going to be doing in the 2627 school year focus on basically what are our site needs? How do we monitor those site needs? What are the trends of those sites?

127What is happening on the ground so that we can address them? And the only way to do that is having people on the ground gathering the data, talking to everybody involved, students, trustees, parents, and teachers and staff, right? Once we identify that, how do we address it? A lot of it might be learning. Maybe we need to learn something new. So continuing professional development based on those trends and chances are it's not a isolated issue. So how are we collaborating across everyone our discip all our disciplinary teams as well as our family partnerships? How are we inviting families in to tell us what's going on and work not to complain necessarily. they can complain all they want and they can vent because that's there's some truth right that we have to listen to and that's

128okay is you're telling me your concern how do we fix it together that's building the partnership so those are our next steps for 2627 um and I leave you with this so this is something that under underlies everything that we do this was developed um in a brainstorm with my program supervisors. We talked about this and we said, "What is the goal of special education?" And the goal of special education is the ultimate LRE. It's the real world. We're preparing kids for the real world. What does that preparation look like? And so, we have this statement to cultivate confident, empowered, globally minded individuals who thrive in their own diverse communities. the communities that they choose and actively engage in their adult journeys. That's what we want for our young people, disability or not, right? We

129want it for all of our students. So, this underlying, I guess, moral imperative for us has been shared with staff. It's been shared with communities in our dialogues. And I don't think anybody disagrees with it. I I think that's our charge is high school secondary is part of the journey and how are we preparing students for their next part of their journey which is life and so no cheer but I will go like this so thank you thank you very much for your presentation before we get to comments from the dis and questions we have a couple of public comments three minutes each and uh Dr. Stferi. >> Yes. The first public speaker for this item is Amy Flicker and following Amy will be Jeff Ladman. Good evening. I'm Amy Flicker and I am a

130parent of a neurode divergent student, Jack, who graduated from LCC and is currently stressing out about his finals at San Diego State. First and foremost, Jack would not be where he is today without the dedicated staff, teachers, both SPED and general ed. And I want to give a special shout out to the aids from Deano through LCC. He couldn't be where he is without you guys. Thank you. It's not every day that us parents, especially as sped parents, get to get up and talk about historic levels of our state budget spending going directly to special education. But that is what is currently being proposed in Sacramento and is being considered. TW uh 2.4 I wish it was 24 $2.4 billion dollars is being discussed directly for special ed. This is wonderful news and it is

131much needed. I served on the executive board for our Nixie Sulpa and I also served on our district's sped task force. I bring that up because I wanted to pose two basic questions tonight. Number one, what is the strategic planning process regarding evaluating the priority areas for our sped students and staff in our budget allocations? And two, what is the avenue or planned mechanism the district is offering to our students and families to contribute their voices and experiences to that process? So much change is coming or is already here for our public education experience and I hope we capture this moment effectively together. Thank you >> Jeff Ladman. >> Uh hello again. Three minutes I can relax. Um, a couple things. I too, uh, uh, Loretta, Lorraetta and Amy took a lot of my thunder

132out here, so I'm going to probably go off the regation here pretty quick, but I too am currently the CAC chair of Nixie, a fine organization, 14 U North County districts, and there were over 400 applications and nominations for the awards. So, us getting three was a real big deal. And, uh, you know, once again, most of the staff here are pretty great. Um, I wanted to give a shout out to a couple things that Orlando touched on. We've been having spring and uh fall and spring meetings now that this was our third one that came up. Uh, basically a town hall where we get together with a lot of the staff and uh get to air our grievances and also share you know some strengths which is pretty great. I hope that keeps up.

133Um, some really great stuff that's going on that you've already heard about that I was going to talk about a little more eloquently. The Stampede Squad and the inclusion program at LLC right now is amazing. The expanded transition programs are a huge boon. Uh I talked last time about maybe I didn't I talked at the uh uh board of governors for Nixie, but there was a young man who went to uh Deano and from sixth grade and uh he's got some issues and he was able to go and tour the class and play basketball and see the facilities. And when he came back to my school, I too am an instructional aid. Uh not for the money but for the uh the rewards. At any rate, uh he told me he was no longer scared

134and that's huge. And these are small programs that do a lot of good things, people on people stuff. Um it was just amazing. I also want to really uh commend uh San Diego for exploring the alternative pathways to diplomas program. It's a huge thing. It's the wave of the future. You should check it out. Look, um you're going to find a great group of stakeholders in special education parents and family members. We want to collaborate to make special education programs the best they can be. By taking care of all marginalized groups and giving each student value, you're going to have a healthy, vibrant garden where all things can grow. And you know, I love data. It's all great, but it does not compare to one-on-one interactivities. We all need to be brutally honest and trust

135each other and know that we're all here for the right reasons to help our kids in the most efficient way we can. And I don't want to look at budgets. I want to look at success. And success to me is a welladjusted child or student or young man or woman as the case may be. I thank you for your time. I thank Orletta. I thank her and her staff for doing some really good things. There is room for improvement, but you know, I'm a realist, too. We're luckier than most, but I still want more. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for your comments. Uh, so this item is for information, but we might have some questions or comments from the board. >> I do have a couple and I just want to thank the

136sped parents. I always say like if you ever need to go into battle or win a fight, um, bring the sped parents because they know how to fight advocate harder than anyone. Um, and I think that one of the public comments was a good question. And I I I don't know if if now's the time or in a board report, but I think if there is more money coming to the program, I think that's a valid question of how to update the strategic plan, um how to best use those resources and how the parents will input to that plan. So, um I guess that's not a question. I don't know if we've thought about that yet or if that's something we can put on the table. >> I think we always want community input. Um

137I think it's valuable. our our parents know more about our our students than we do. Yeah. Right. And so I think it would remiss of us to not seek out that information. >> Okay. >> That would be great to see. Um and I just wanted to say um uh I was going to say three highlights of what I've really noticed. Um but then I then there was also a fourth one. What I really appreciate um and this is a process to to get us to a better place to be number one in special ed as we um talked about previously and that's like the unifying across the school sites. I think there used to be different experiences at different school sites. So, thank you for trying to create a more uniform experience for all. Um

138I also appreciate the systemic look at it all the way uh did in your presentation. Um, and I appreciate too, I know when you speak to the to us, the board or we talk about things, um, I always feel that you also are, um, open and in defense of the parents, um, like you really value that not as a conflict but as information. You always say it's a starting point for a conversation. And so I think that makes a difference and I really appreciate that. And then finally, um um as um Jeff was saying too about that transition, just those little touches for the elementary school students to get a stronger um handshake, warm warm hand handoff into our district, I think um makes a world of difference to parents, I've heard. So, I just

139think it's all good stuff and a good direction. So, thank >> you so much. >> Yeah, I I don't have any questions. Um and I just want to thank you. you have shown since I've joined the board a comprehensive approach to special education and to the issues that we um we face as a district and uh one of the commenters was framing success in terms of how our students respond and that seems to be your north star. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> We're fortunate to have you in our district. >> Thank you. Um, and I've recognized that you show you care for these kids and that's why it's easy easier to work with parents to accomplish goals for their kids. So, thank you. >> U, any comments from our students? Uh, I'd just

140like to I I really appreciate that your slide deck. I think it was right at the very beginning started with the celebration of the staff who uh received those awards. I think that too often uh special education staff can be overlooked. Their work is sometimes really thankless. Sometimes doing it the best is just blending helping the child to blend in and be a part of their peer group. And so I just really appreciate that. And also um I remember a parent in a past meeting using the term radical inclusion to to speak to lots of different things. Um and uh I just I think that that really um came across in what you're talking about for uh for our um special education services and and approach. And so just really appreciate it and I'm excited.

141>> Thank you so much. I mean, I think the entire district is we want to eradicate the word inclusion because we just want it to be it just is. And so hopefully we get to that point. But thank you. >> Super well said. >> Thank you for your support um these fast past few years. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you. So happy but a little bit emotional talking about these things. U okay so uh now we are moving on to item 8D the core subject instructional materials update for 2026 2027. Mr. Marcus. >> Yeah. Just quickly I want to introduce Dr. Brie Weatherford our executive director of curriculum instruction. uh her leadership along with our department coordinators, department chairs, classroom teachers, and our current content focused uh teachers on special assignments. Uh tonight's educational services

142presentation is just anformational item and will be brought back to the board in June for recommendation. >> Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Marcus. And good evening, board president Smith, board of trustees, Dr. Stfairi, executive cabinet members, student board reps, and Andrea. Thank you for the opportunity to provide our annual update on our recommended core subject instructional materials for the 202627 school year. This update represents our continued commitment to ensuring highquality relevant standards aligned instructional materials for all students by renewing or updating these materials roughly every eight years. This is to ensure alignment with our California core content standards as well as our framework um and also any updates by college board for our AP courses. Tonight's brief presentation will include an overview of our guiding policies supporting that 8-year cycle, our annual timeline here in Sano,

143um and information about the recommendations for the upcoming school year. There are two major policies that guide the work that we do to ensure highquality relevant standards align instructional materials for all of our San Diego Union High School District students. Um, at the state level, there's a process for updates to content area standards. That's the what we teach and to frameworks which guides the how we teach in our classrooms. These updates roughly come from the state every eight years, which aligns with our adoption cycle. Within our district, we have policies to guide our particular review and selection process. Um, and anything that we bring forward for recommendations goes through those processes. Again, as a district, we continue to work towards alignment with that 8-year cycle with the California content standards frameworks and CEDs or course

144exam descriptions, which comes from college board for our AP classes. Um, and our state board of education identifies core subjects as language arts or English, math, history, social science, and science, and also recognizes materials for the arts, health, and world languages. We're going to see those tonight in our material recommendations. Uh, our next slide is a visual representation of our board policy that guides this work. Um, but it really it all starts with our amazing amazing excuse me, professional educators who are our content area experts who engage in months and months of review professional learning um, prior to piloting or recommending any resources in our classrooms. We also annually offer a public review opportunity for both in-person and online access um for our public and our community to review, provide feedback, ask questions about any

145of the materials we bring forward. We share these recommendations with our district advisory committee which consists of a parent from each of our school sites as well as coordinating council members and those are our district academic coordinators or again our content area experts. And then ultimately we bring these recommendations to you for review and consideration. So when does this all happen? During our school year, uh typically during the months of August through March, we are doing a deep dive professional learning related to anything at the state level that's changed with our standards, our frameworks or again with College Board with those CEDs. Um we're learning about any options for new materials and then we're piloting or trying those on in our classrooms. We like to provide a pilot update in January and again that update

146goes to our professional educators. It goes to our district advisory committees and our coordinating council. In April as I mentioned before we do our public review that gives that opportunity for our public our community uh to come into this boardroom or engage digitally to look at textbooks ask questions and provide feedback on those resources. In May, we come forward withformational um items for you and those hardcore resources for you to look at. And then again, we'll be back in June um where we seek approval for any of the recommended materials as we move forward. And that's for use and implementation in our new school year starting in August. So this evening we have two materials being brought forward. Um, we have a material gateways to art for our AP or advanced placement art history course

147and our American Sign Language course. And I'm so sorry that Mark had to leave. He was such a huge part of this recommendation along with our other ASL teachers in the district. Um, within these materials, you'll see there is an intentional combination of both hard copy and digital resources. And this is to ensure a few things. First and foremost, it ensures continued support for our teaching environments to ensure that they are flexible. And they offer options for our teachers and students to best meet the needs of our students. They offer targeted student resources to further engage and support student learning, which could include adaptive and interactive learning tools such as simulations or videos, accessibility tools, as mentioned in our prior presentation by Dr. to win speech to text adjustable font sizes on demand dictionaries which

148you'll see in one of our resources tonight um as well as translation translation supports for multilingual learners and test and exam preparations for our advanced placement courses. So this combination of resources also supports our professional educators with tools to differentiate instruction or to meet the needs of all learners as well as providing a centralized hub for lesson planning resources um and other materials that are used in our classrooms. So we have these two resources. Uh the first one we'll talk about tonight is uh gateways to art which is again is for our AP art history class. Publishing date on this text is 2023. Um, which we're recommending to replace our current text titled art history with a publishing date of 2008. Um, this is due to the course exam description updates from College Board that

149happened in 2020. And the recommendation for this book aligns much better with College Board. Um, and feedback from our committee. They really appreciated as well as our students the strong connections with the required 250 and that's the images that students uh will be tested on in that AP exam. Uh there's also a very strong correlation between the digital access here and student prep for that AP exam. Um our students had a lot to say about this book actually. they preferred the narrative style of this text um compared to the one we currently have, which is a more historical approach to teaching art. And so our students said they like this one better. Um, last but not least, the great news about this publisher is if we move forward with an adoption, um, not only are

150they giving us access to this textbook and digital resources, but there is a second digital resource which will increase our students access to those, uh, required 250 even more uh, in preparation for that AP exam. All right, with our world language courses, um the recommendation for American Sign Language, and this is for um ASL 1 through four honors, uh is a product called Trueway American Sign Language. Currently, we use a text called Signing Naturally, which again has a publishing date of 2008. And this change is in response to our California content standards which were updated in 2019 and our California new framework for world language which was adopted or updated in 20120. Um so committee and students who reviewed these texts uh they gave some really great feedback that I want to share with you

151this evening. Um the students and teachers commented on the extremely rich video library um that provided content to students with a variety of signing styles and that's very hard to do with just a textbook. There are guided questions involved in this resource to support deeper critical thinking and engagement in the materials. There's accessibility to both digital and hard copy resources. Um and this was very special. We had some collaboration with our ASL teachers in the Carlsbad Unified District um to help us review uh this material as well. So, I did want to share tonight we did review an updated edition of the currently adopted textbook. Um however, as ASL is a visual spatial language, the digital format of this resource provides an incredibly dynamic interactive multimedia platform that perfectly aligns with the needs of a

152signing classroom. Um, some other exciting pieces about this resource, it was actually created by deaf ASL teachers for the ASL classroom, and it is the only curriculum currently on the market that um offers a what's this sign searchable dictionary, which is a huge asset to our students and teachers. Last but not least, in the pilot, teachers noted that uh there was much stronger expressive language development when using Trueway as compared to the prior resources. And again, um, immense gratitude. Mark was here tonight. We have a handful of other ASL teachers that were very instrumental in this recommendation. Um, and to our AP art history teachers who were involved in that recommendation as well. So, thank you again for the annual opportunity for me to be here to provide this update. Um, we encourage you to

153read, to review, um, and to study the materials that were provided to you and please ask questions over the next month to ensure you have as much information to make that informed decision in June. Uh, we look forward to coming back in June again with that recommendation for approval of these selections. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board? Okay. Thanks so much. We're now on to item 8E, screen time and Chromebook usage during the instructional day. And Mr. Marcus, an introduction. >> Yes. Uh we get to put on the ed services department uh see from so many different people. So tonight we're excited to have Lysa and Joel help with this presentation. Tonight's presentation kind of outlines San Diego Union High School District's balance between digital tools

154to support professional educators, parents, guardians, and also as we continue to offer for our students a broad course of study uh that not only aligns with graduation requirements but allows kids post-secary opportunities. So, uh, we also understand that there are questions that are coming up, not only on a national level, but here locally around Chromebook and screen time usage. So, tonight I'm really excited for Alicia and Joel to kind of share some of the questions that we often get, which is why are devices necessary for learning in grades 7 through 12? What are students actually doing on screens during class time? And then uh kind of the other question is why can't students do that work you know in SDUsd without computers. So some of these questions we really hope tonight that we'll be able

155to answer and provide a little bit more of an understanding of how we balance digital technology in the classroom. So with that I'd like to introduce Licia Bernesh our coordinator of instructional technology and online learning and the one and only Joel Vanhuser our director of technology. >> Thank you Mr. Marcus. Good evening, members of the board and community. Tonight, as Mr. Marcus referenced, we're going to present an update on screen time and Chromebook usage in our district. Our presentation will define the effective use of digital engagement. It's going to share examples of intentional use and what that looks like in the classroom. And we'll also detail the systems and guard rails that we have in place currently to support our community. But before we get begin, we also want to credit our talented SDHSD professional

156educators if there's any left in the room. Um they remain the center of instruction and their expertise daily to balance the digital tools and also traditional teaching methods um is really commendable and we're really appreciative of the work that they do. Thank you. Uh so when we talk about screen time, it's really easy to lump it all into one bucket, but in fact it's very different um in our classrooms. We have active use of technology on one side of this graphic here and passive use on the other side. Active use means using the screen um in an active way to support specific goals or purposes. So, you may see students collaborating digitally on a writing assignment, or maybe they're creating a digital piece of multimedia to show what they know. You might see real- time

157feedback from teachers or programs that they're using or access to embedded learning supports um that some of my other colleagues have talked about extensively in their presentations. On the other hand, passive use is what we're trying to limit in our classrooms. That type of use is characterized by screen tabs that are open without being used, distracting, unstructured video content or scrolling social media. So when we evaluate screen time, it's really important that we consider the quality of the engagement and and recognize that our goal is not maximizing screen time. Our goal is really maximizing learning. So how do we do that? Um equally important as the quality of the screen time is the intention behind its use. So intentional use means making deliberate choices about how when we're using digital tools and supports in the

158classroom. As you look at this slide, you might start to see how we intentionally use technology to support our LCAP goals of access, belong, and achieve. First, we provide access. We support learning beyond the school day by providing digital access to textbooks at home. And these provide additional supports like interactive search tools, clickable glossery terms, hyperl multimedia explanations, and also automatic updates that keep those instructional materials current. Next, we intentionally use technology to support achievement. We are a large consumer of advanced placement exams and we have one of the highest pass rates in the nation. Um, and we use our devices to prepare students to take high stakes digital exams. Not only are the exams on the devices, but a lot of the preparation resources and practice tests that we have access to are also

159offered through devices as well. Finally, we cultivate belonging. We intentionally select digital resources that support all learners. We ensure our multilingual learners, students, and those with exceptional needs have immediate built-in accommodations so that they feel included and supported. Students can do things like increase increase font sizes or use text to speech or access real-time language translations right on their screen, allowing them to engage with the same curriculum alongside their peers without barriers. Finally, an overarching goal of device use is to create digitally literate students. By ensuring technology is used intentionally, we fulfill our mission for our students to be prepared for what's beyond and to be digitally literate citizens in our society. So, to support this vision of intentional use, we rely on like a three-pronged approach, if you will. So, we're going to talk

160through each of these layers in the rest of this presentation. Layer one is layered security. That's the safety net that we use uh to reduce those opportunities for passive use and distraction. Maybe some smiles over here from our student board reps. Layer number two is data privacy and tool evaluation. So, we evaluate all of our digital tools internally to ensure they comply with all federal and state data privacy regulations and that they align with our goals. So, we require that any tool signs the California data privacy student agreement with us. That's a non-negotiable and that offers protections to our students. Third, we evaluate professional learning needs on an ongoing basis and we provide opportunities for our educators. This empowers teachers to design instruction that leverages technology effectively and gives them the skills to use management

161tools like GoG Guardian or to use anything they want to oversee those devices in their classroom. So in the next portion of this presentation, I'll pass it over to Mr. Vanhuser who's going to talk a little more deeply about the layered security prong and how GoG Guardian supports our intentional use of technology. If I switch over, so thank you. So we can go to our next slide here. So our first line of defense is our GOG guardian internet filter that was mentioned earlier and that's what filters all the traffic across devices and includes that SIPA compliance. That's the children's internet protection act. Um and that the different compliance and safety rules around that. So in response to that board uh interest in usage and data, we've expanded our controls. We have access to our dashboard

162reports and top activity summaries and that allows us to see where students are spending time and identify any trends that might need any sorts of interventions or support. Individualized student data is also available on a student by student basis allowing parents and administrators to have uh the student support needs on this individualized basis. So while student report level or high or high level trends, individualized student data is also available as needed as parents reach out to can reach out to school site administrators. Restrictions are also set specifically to age appropriate levels at middle schools and high schools. So inside the classroom, go G GoG Guardian is available with a feature to monitor and support the digital environment in the classroom through a feature that's called scenes. A teacher can limit a student's device to only

163the websites that are needed for that specific lesson. And then also based on feedback and working with collaboration in our school site administrators and our families, we launched the GoG Guardian parent app. A collaborative partnership between San Diego and our parent community to manage screen time outside of school hours. This hands that pause button directly to parents. They can set usage schedules, view browsing activity, and even pause the internet on their district devices at home, ensuring digital wellness outside school hours. Information was sent to families with primary guardians and parents designated an Aries in May 11th, 2026. We encourage families to visit the tech hub for families page linked in this presentation for further information on this new app and then I'll hand it back to Licia. >> Thank you. So a little bit more

164about the next prong of this. So our instructionally instructional technology review process. Um, so GoG Guardian provides that safety net for us and controls the internet at large, but we also have a process for vetting websites and digital tools before approving them for student and staff use. We don't approve or purchase new technology tools because they're new or engaging. We we really evaluate whether they meaningfully support instruction and student learning. So, in order for a tool to be approved, it has to kind of meet these three criteria. First, we want to make sure it meets and supports a curricular need. It aligns clearly with our district goals. Second, non-negotiable is compliance with student data privacy regulations. If something doesn't comply with those regulations, it's an automatic no on our on our watch. Third, we wanted

165to enhance or extend learning in a way that traditional instruction could not, such as providing personalized pacing or integrated support tools. So, we're really looking at these requests critically to evaluate what we do approve, purchase, and recommend for our teachers and students. Because technology evolves constantly, um, technology and educational services teams collaborate regularly to evaluate new requests that come from our teachers and we gather feedback continuously to ensure educators have safe, highquality resources that they need. So the third component of this is ongoing needs in professional learning. We're committed to continuously listening to our community, to our staff, and to our students. This year, several key priorities emerge from our educators regarding intentional use of technology. These include assessment and intervention, inclusive scaffolding and design, instructional effectiveness of technology, and managing digital distractions. So to

166address these priorities, our professional learning plan for the upcoming school year includes targeted sessions and resources focused on the strategic use of technology in a one-to-one classroom. We're hoping to provide our teachers with direct support in classroom management, digital balance, and strategies to leverage that active intentional learning. Thank you. On behalf of ED services and technology, we appreciate the opportunity to present to the board regarding the intentional use of technology that is aligned to our LCAP goals of access, belong, and achieve. Thank you very much for your presentation. I understand that we have no more public comments this evening. So, uh, we'll move right on here to any questions or comments from the board. >> Um, couple comments. Thank you for that. That's great. And I, we are hearing a lot in the community about

167um, digital platforms and use of technology in the classroom. So, this was very timely. Um, couple thoughts. One thing, and not necessarily for the board, but something for us to keep in mind, um, we didn't dive too deeply into how we're using technology to supplement classroom teaching as opposed to replacing our classroom teaching. And I think that's a concern that has been it's a narrative that's floating around in the nationwide conversation around education technology. Um, and I think it would be good for us as a district to be a little more uh forthcoming with our community, maybe an outreach session about how we're using technology effectively to supplement learning and to reach all of our students as opposed to a replacement technology. Um, I think that something along those lines might go a long way

168in clearing up how we're using technology in the classroom. Um, you you mentioned uh managing the digital classroom and I think that's great. Um technology is so important for our students to have access to. Um you know, we're talking about our seniors tonight and everybody leaving our doors and going out into the world in their next capacity and um it's our job as a district to prepare our students for that next step out into the world um wherever that may be. And technology is going to be a part of that. But I think we also need to recognize that what these seniors need um in terms of access to technology and use is going to be very different from our 12-year-olds who are incoming seventh graders. And so I really think it's important for our

169teachers and our student and our staff to be able to manage that classroom so that they can effectively use technology but also tell their students to put it away. Um it's not necessary. It's not needed for this classroom. Um, so having our teachers feel empowered to be able to manage that digital technology I think will be very helpful. Um, yeah. And then just lastly, uh, the Go Guardian parent app. I've already heard a lot of praise for that in the community. Um, some parents are already saying how happy they are that they can shut the Chromebooks down when their students come home. Thank you. >> Ben, do you have a comment? Uh yeah, I just want to say I really appreciate you guys talking about like the privacy aspect of that. Uh for a lot

170of students, uh you might not know, but they actually do they care a lot about the privacy. Um sometimes they get a little bit worried about um all those extensions watching them. Um but as a student, I can say firsthand u systems are very secure. Um although sometimes I wish it was a little bit less secure um just because I do sometimes want to watch Netflix after I finish my assignments. So yeah, thank you. >> Do you want to comment? Well, >> thank you. >> I I do want to comment on that. If you want that to do that, you just need to learn how to hack it. >> So, and um so I mean I I I as far as you mentioned about supplement using technology to supplement teaching, I I think we are

171already doing that, aren't we? I mean, >> yeah, >> we are. And that's we are. And my comment was more that's how we're using technology and I feel like making sure our community is aware that that is how we are using our technology that might be a a good outreach to our community um to try to dispel some of these narratives. >> Yeah. I mean I I I know that um families teachers are directing kids to Khan's Academy in learning how to solve problems and all that. So that's that's great. Yeah, thank you. Um, I appreciate this discussion because to echo Trusty Williams, I think, um, as trustees, I get aneidcotes from, you know, anecdotes from here and there. And one of the things that parents are concerned about is less about in the classroom.

172I think there's a lot of trust with teachers and how teachers use the technology, but sometimes in the lower grades, it's um, having that technology always in their hands. And I think we've done a good job now with our cell phone policy of just like put it away. Um, and I just wonder with with Chromebooks in middle school if that might be something we examine as well. So when the student is going in the hallway or at recess, um, do they need their Chromebook at that time? Um, and I think that again, these are things I hear just anecdotally, and I know that before the pandemic, we had one kind of um, process with technology and Chromebooks. We had caddies in the classrooms, and then pandemic happened and we went straight to one-on-one and then

173the pandemic ended, but we didn't really shift or go back or we just kind of stuck with it. And so, just making sure that it's still still the right approach, um, I think is worth a look. I think a lot of the concerns I used to hear was use of the Chromebooks at home and I think thank goodness for this new GoG Guardian technology because I think that takes care of a lot of that. The parents just didn't know their kids' usernames and passwords. They'd say their kids are like, "I'm doing my homework and they had no way to really know." So, I'm glad that the GoG Guardian is going to take care of that concern. Um, but I think it's that um just assessing are we using it? How are the um and maybe

174it's different at high school and middle school, but just keeping that dialogue conversation open with our community just to make sure um that all the technology use is only intentional. I think that would be great. And when people are bored, when you're done, you can open a book and read it. Henry, >> um I wanted to thank you both for the presentation. And I remember at the last DAC meeting, we spoke a lot about the new GoG Guardian filter. Um, and I've really appreciated how you mentioned like the streamlining of the process for getting a blocked website unblocked. I know that's been really appreciated by my classmates. Um, I was speaking with our student senate about it and they've really appreciated how they can report it, but then also how that quickly gets resolved whereas

175in the past things like that wouldn't have happened. Um, and I'm also incredibly grateful for our district for giving us at for high schoolers at least, CTE classes that offer education that isn't digitally based. Like my automotive technology class that's all hands-on work and I think that's great and speaks to what you said with the digital balance. Um, and so I'm grateful for having things like that and I hope that kind of more CTE classes can come to the middle school level too to keep kids off their Chromebooks as opposed to just sitting in the corner class and using them and doing whatever things like Netflix like that. So >> that's blocked now. >> Yeah, I think that's that's a great point about having you know recognizing that some some classes are just we they

176just don't need to be digital maybe in any way or maybe there's just a piece of it and and so I appreciate that that is you highlighted it specifically Henry. Um, and I also just appreciate the agenda item and your explanation of um the specific things, the targeted approach that that we're taking to make sure that whatever screen time students have in our classrooms is adding value to their educational experience. seems like that's just fundamental and and it came across that that's fundamentally the question that we we want to be considering as technology is used and and I appreciate the collaboration between your departments to understand what's what's out there what's available not just jumping at the latest thing and and figuring out h how it really figures into the overall educational experience. So, um,

177that came through in the presentation. I know there's lots of work to do. It's the landscape is ever changing, uh, more rapidly than ever probably. And, um, so I I really appreciate your work on the task. So, >> thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions? >> Okay, then. Thank you very much and we'll move on. >> Okay. Thank you. Just to close out that item, one more thing that I think is important is as we are welcoming our rising seventh graders, it's a great opportunity for us to look at how we are um providing opportunities for parents to learn more about the Chromebooks. Uh how we are kind of bringing them up to speed on the GoG Guardian app that's available to them to pause this. So, uh, I

178want to thank Leicia and Joel who spend a lot of time kind of looking at this, but the communication was purposeful that went out on May 11th because we really wanted our community to see that we are moving in this direction, but then also we wanted to see how it was received from our community so we can make any adjustments as we onboard a new group of students coming into our class. So, it's another opportunity for us to refine and reflect and support our students, staff, and community. Thank you. We are now going to move on to item 8F, which is the adoption of resolution R2025-202648 authorizing entering into NPS NPA RTC contracts at the rates and terms negotiated by N by Nixie during the 2627 fiscal year. That's a mouthful. That's what the item

179is. would staff like to introduce that. >> This is just a matter of routine that we bring to the board um every year as an adoption and a resolution uh just to look at our uh agreements with uh all of these wonderful agencies that we work with. >> All right. Uh let's say it all again. Do I have a motion that the board adopt resolution R2025-202648 authorizing the administration to enter into NPS, NPA, and RTC contracts at the rates, associated costs and terms and conditions negotiated by NIX and the NPS's, NPA, and RTC's and to complete the contract documents as prescribed by each student's individual service agreements, ISAs. >> Motion. Oh, >> motion Anderson. >> I'll second. >> I didn't know what to do. >> Any uh any questions or comments? >> Yes. >> Can

180you say all that one more time? >> Has a lot of uh acronyms here. Um okay. Student board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. and governing board members. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Motion passes unanimously. We're now on item 8G, approval of student expulsion case number 2026-255 SD. As a reminder, this item was agendaized earlier this evening in closed session for discussion and is before us now as an action item. Any uh do I have a motion that the board approve the student expulsion case number 2026-255 SD? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Governing board members. All those in favor, please Oh. Uh yeah, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Uh motion passes unanimously. We're now on item 8H, approval

181of student expulsion case number 2026-256 SD. Do I have a motion that the board approve student expulsion case number 2026-256 SD? >> So moved. Second. Governing board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. >> I. Motion passes unanimously. And now we're into the human resources section. Items 9A, 9B, and 9 C were on consent. So, we're moving on to item 9D, adoption of initial proposal from the San Diego Union High School District to the San Diego Faculty Association. Would staff like to introduce this? >> Yeah, you might recall that last month we held the public hearing to sunshine the district's initial proposal to the San Diego Faculty Association regarding bargaining for the 2627 school year. This month we are asking the board to adopt this proposal which opens article 9.01 wages

182and article 10.01 fringe benefits. Okay. Do I have a motion that the board adopt the initial proposal from the district to the San Diego faculty association for the 2627 contract year negotiations. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? Governing board members. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Motion passes unanimously. Item 9E is the approval of the memorandum of understanding between San Diego Union High School District and San Diego Faculty Association. Would you like to introduce this item? >> Yeah. This proposed between the district and the San Diego faculty association continues the terms and conditions of the 2526 SDUsd induction program agreement for the 2627 school year. Okay. Thank you. For some reason my watch thinks I'm working out. I don't really get um Okay. Uh, sorry

183that was a bit random. Um, do I have a motion that the board approved the memorandum of understanding between San Diego Union High School District and San Diego Faculty Association for the San Diego induction program for the 2026 to 2027 school year. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? Governing board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. Motion passes unanimously. We're now in section 10, business services. Items 10, 10 A, 10B, 10 C, and 10 D were on consent. Item 10E is the public hearing regarding developer fee justification study February 2026. I'm going to bang the gavvel, so don't freak out. The hearing is now open at 8:49 p.m. We will now hear from members of the public on item 10E regarding the developer fee justification study

184of February 2026. Any members of the public may form a line at the podium and take their turn to speak. Do we have any individuals of the public that wish to speak at this public hearing now? I don't see anyone looking to speak at this public hearing. Uh, and so the public hearing is now closed at 8:50 p.m. We're now on item 10F, adoption of resolution R2025-2026-46 to accept and adopt the develop developer fee justification study and resolution R2025-202647 to accept and adopt statutory school fee increases. Do I have a motion that the board adopt two resolutions R2025-2646 accepting and adopting the developer fee justification study February 2026 and R2025-2647 levying fees on development projects becoming effective in 60 days as shown in the attached supplements. >> So moved. Second. >> Any questions or comments

185from the board? Governing board members. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. I. >> Motion passes unanimously. Item 10G is the approval of the final guaranteed maximum price for San Diego High School Academy athletic fields upgrade project CB2026-01. Do I have a motion that the board approve the final GMP for the San Diego High School Academy Athletic Fields Upgrade Project authorizing Steven Dickinson to execute all necessary documents? >> So, second. Any questions or comments? Okay. Uh, excuse me. Um, student board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying, "I." >> I. >> And governing board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying, "I." >> I. Motion passes unanimously. On to section 11, district operations. Item 11 A is the review of SDUHSD revised board policies and administrative regulations.

186This is a first read for board information only. Uh any presentation? >> I don't have a presentation. Just uh reiterating again these are allformational items. But I do want to point out there's quite a number of them and uh certainly it's for information and then for the board to review. It will come back again in January. But this is the policy for mobile communication devices. So student cell phone uh that complies with the law mandated law beginning in July. the the policy to have limit or prohibit use of smart smartphones while on campus for students. And there's also a number of policies that refer to access of district records. And then there's also a board policy uh proposed amendment in here pertaining to facilities master plan. So um I'm happy to answer any questions tonight

187or also at a future meeting in June when these come back again for action. >> Okay. And just uh for the record, these will come back in June. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um any >> so question regarding the uh smartphone policy uh the date was July 1st 2026 to have that implemented. >> So the phone policies for this past year we didn't have to use a phone caddy for legally. >> Well that was our district practice and so now the law is requiring to put the practice into a comp comprehensive policy. >> Curious. Thank you. said like an exiting senior. Haha. >> Any uh any other comments or questions? >> I just love our student board reps. Okay. >> I just wonder um too at a later time maybe at the middle school level

188we could consider like the Chromebooks to be treated the same as the phones. Like just meaning like to check them in. Yeah. away for the or not for the day, but in the hallways and the Okay. And uh so now item 11B is the adoption of SDHSD revised board bylaws and administrative regulations. Any presentation on this one, Dr. Spar? >> Again, no presentation. These were brought to you for a first read in April and that I do not have any changes from the April uhformational item and what you have before you are second read. There's a few board bylaws there and inventories and happy to answer any questions otherwise it's recommended for board approval. Do I have a motion that the board adopt the revised board bylaws and administrative regulations as shown in the attached

189supplement? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Student board members, all those in favor indicate by saying I. >> I. >> And governing board members, all those in favor, please indicate by saying I. >> I. >> Motion passes unanimously. And we are now on to Dr. Stfer's superintendent report. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Um, I want to start off my my comments this evening just taking a moment uh and Joel's going to be queuing up a slide for me, but I want to acknowledge the passing uh of Bill Barrier earlier this month. And um many of you know that for over 29 years from 1972 to 2001, Bill served as the superintendent of this district. And um during this time, our district grew from 3,500 students to nearly 10,000. And we added two new

190high schools and also two new middle middle schools. And on a personal note, and I see a lot of heads nodding, I know many of us knew Bill well and held him in very very high regard. On a personal note, he was my superintendent when I graduated from Tory Pines High School in 1986. And I will never forget um as superintendent here a surprise visit that he I had from Bill last last school year and I was in my office and I think it was um just a rare moment where I was having some time there in my office to work and I looked I looked up and Bill was in the doorway and he had made it from um he kind of chuckled and said I've I've escaped the retirement at home and I

191left my wife briefly and I don't think she knows I'm here and he but he came and he um we just had such a inspiring beautiful conversation that I will never forget and I I just wanted to acknowledge him and the significant contribution that he has made to our district and um even his leadership even in his retirement years and I know we've all we've all felt that in some way shape or form. I understand I I interacted with his son briefly and I understand that his family will be holding a memorial service for him in uh his home state of Missouri. I just wanted to publicly express appreciation to Bill and his family for decades of dedication and service to our district that has had a longl lasting positive impact. we are who we

192are today in large part because of 29 years as a superintendent. And uh I I know next year, our upcoming school year is going to be our 90th anniversary of the school district. And so I look forward to sharing with the board our plans for this commemoration of 90 years. And these plans will involve a specific honor in uh Bill Barrier's name as appropriately as it should. So I I I I just I couldn't let this meeting go by without acknowledging him and his contribution. And Joel, thank you for those slides. Very much appreciate it. Um, I also wanted to uh I know everyone received the message I shared earlier this week from the district community following the tragic events at the Islamic Center of San Diego. We are all uh incredibly um saddened and

193impacted by this. And I I just want to reiterate as superintendent here that we collectively stand against united against hate in all of its forms. Um, every student, every uh, family and community member deserves to feel safe and protected. And um, this week I had the opportunity to meet with members of the Muslim community. And I want to thank them for their time and their council on how we can work together to support our Muslim students in our schools. I do really feel it's so important that we continue to connect with all of our uh students and communities and recognize the shared humanity that we have and be able to hear one another's stories and learn from one another. very pleased to report to all of you uh as board members that this month we

194successfully held two parent engagement nights for our uh black students and their families as well as a engagement night meeting for our families of students receiving special education services. And throughout these I continue to share that we need to remain focused on excellence for all of our students. Every single one of our students deserves an excellent experience. And there are students in our schools whose experience in our district requires our specific attention because currently it's not excellent. It's just adequate for them. And even if there's just one student saying that, that deserves our special attention because I believe strongly that our schools are the center of our community. And I want to invite all of us to recommmit and refocus our efforts to work together in building a stronger community and one that in contains

195greater compassion and greater empathy and greater understanding and that comes from a greater recognition of one another. And um that's that's a strong invitation that I have here. I wanted to include that in my comments. We know next year is our final week and uh a lot of wonderful opportunities. I just remain very appreciative of the dedicated staff we have across our district and the care they bring to students every day. Uh many of our teachers, teacher leaders are here with us tonight. Thank you teachers for your comments tonight, for adding to our meeting. And most importantly, I always like to remember that our district is the uh unit of organization. Our sites are the unit of implementation, but the classrooms are the units of impact. And that impact comes from each and every one

196of our teachers day in and day out making connections with our students and supporting our students no matter what. And that is a lot of heavy lifting and sometimes can feel more heavy than others. And I just want to really acknowledge their work and their impact that continues to take place in our district. So thank you. We have about 2100 students coming to receive diplomas across the district next week. And whether our students are going to college or the workforce, I want to congratulate them. I want to recognize we have some incredible student board members this year. I think you took it to the next level and I appreciate all of you so much for your impact, for your comments, for what you've taught me and for the examples that you've shown to all of

197us. And I appreciate you introducing many of you introducing your successors. They have big shoes to fill in the coming year and I know they'll they'll measure up to that. Finally, uh let me just say uh thank you to the individuals here to my right because they are as an extension of our my superintendent's cabinet are working tirelessly to make sure that all of our divisions are operating the most effectively. Thank you to uh Andy who's my executive assistant and Edwin in the comm's department who I I don't believe he's with us now but these individuals work very tirelessly to make sure that everything is running smoothly and it appears to be very smooth but for each and every one of these things there's a lot of work that goes behind the scenes and and

198we are who we are because of their hard work. Um, let's not forget Monday. We have a long weekend ahead of us. And Monday, our schools and our district offices are closed for Memorial Day. And I always know that we look forward to Memorial Day because a lot of people are thinking, "Okay, great. This is one more day off of work. Maybe we can have some time for a little relaxation, maybe some getting together with uh gatherings and some rest. But I just also want to remind us all that Memorial Day serves as a really meaningful opportunity for us to remember the courageous individuals that gave their lives for our nation and we owe them a debt of gratitude as heroes. They're they are heroes and their loved ones for protecting the liberties that we

199cherish here in our nation. And um I'd like to just leave that thought and conclude my report. Thank you. So, we'll move on to board member reports. Gosh, I just all of that that you said, thank you for capturing uh so many important topics. This just seems like a very poignant time with a lot going on and you just really beautifully spoke about that and appreciate the commitment of the district on that. Um, just one quick thing, I attended at one of the facilities master planning sessions and that was amazing at SDA. a lot of community input, a lot of members of the robotics team um really wanting for their robotics program to have a space. That was really exciting. Um I also um uh thank you to the students again. And I think we've

200we've said a lot so I won't repeat everything but I did appreciate that appreciate the reminder of the good governance and and having different voices and um just remembering what our country was about the diversity of opinion, the diversity of people and and being able to uh coexist with all of that and got to attend the mayor's prayer breakfast um with with Mr. Marcus and it was filled with stories of just heroes in our community that just quietly do such good work from firefighters who go this extra mile um to check on people after a call um different uh denominations um speaking about just the good they do and it was just so uplifting. I know um Brian felt the same way. It was really moving and it honored that type of individual and what

201we need so much more in this real world like let's get off our phones and go do good in the real world. Um and I got to um know Bill Barrier too. make it devotional. But um he was one of those guys that when I was running for um this seat, he took the time. I got to go to the retirement home and he was still passionate about this district and I got to meet his wife um who he just cherished. Um and so I just appreciate that he took that time and and shared his love of this district and what he hoped for it still. And so yeah, just here's for all the the good quiet people doing good stuff. Um, I I don't have much. I think you all have heard enough from

202me tonight. Uh, I do want to congratulate all of our seniors. Good luck on whatever comes next across the district. Um, we have thanked these five sitting right here a lot tonight and we need to do it one more time because you really are all that exceptional. Good luck. And also to the one that's not up there but has been coming to every single board meeting even though he doesn't have to. Um, you all have shown up every single month, brought your best selves, uh, contributed in ways that showed us, um, what we're here for and gives us hope for the next generation. Thank you. >> Um, thank you for bringing up the Memorial Day weekend holiday. Um, whenever Memorial Weekend comes around, I always remember the phrase home of the free because of the

203brave. And um, this is what's great about America. And that's why everyone wanted to come here. Um, so I want to personally wish you success at UCLA and you success at UC Santa Barbara and you, Henry, success at your, uh, gap year, whatever you want to do. Um, and yes, uh, Kate, your success at Kgate and you successful year at Tory Pines as your senior year. and I look forward to uh um Tory Pine graduation in a next week. So, thank you. Um I I've got a little bit to share, but I just I just like to thank you, Dr. Sperry, for for everything that you covered in your report. you just said so much of what was on my mind and of course so much more and I think so much more eloquently than

204it ever could have come out of my mouth. So I I just really appreciate it. Um and uh I have a little bit of a report I did have and also just honoring Bill Barrier just calling that out. Really appreciate that. Um I have one thing to report. I attended delegate assembly for CSBA in Sacramento last weekend and um I have a little bit of uh some updates that I thought might be of interest to you. We learned a lot and it's a place where we hear about um updates on legislation and updates on CSBA's advocacy efforts, what they're working towards, and we also help to shape what that legislative um advocacy agenda looks like. Uh we got a little bit of an update on the report on reporting. Uh the fact that uh California

205administrators spend 20 hours per week on reporting. So that's time away from students. Yeah, I'm sure in some cases that's more than 20. Um and that's not collectively, that's each administrator. Uh and I so there's still more to do in that place or in that space. So CSBA is continuing to support legislative efforts that are targeted at reducing the reporting burden on staff. Specifically, they're working on duplicative and obsolete reporting or obsolete reports and um reports that have just infinite timelines. They have no there's no end to it um for no particular reason. So they we just keep reporting on that stuff and nothing happens to it. Um, so those are some of the things that uh that are continuing. There's so much more. Um but also there's bipartisan legislation that's um passed unanimously in

206the Assembly Education Committee and this is that SOS for student achievement initiative. uh the uh related to the resolution that that we talked about last month um that I I fully understood we didn't pass but there is work that they are doing and I wanted to give you my take on some of the areas of focus that um that they're thinking about in that legislation and uh because I think it would resonate with our district. Number one, the primary um uh primary driving force is to advocate for and maintain local control. That is a a primary piece of that work. Also to provide support from the state, not mandates so that they can truly enable that local control. Uh, I think that resonates for us and then have more of a customer service approach to

207help LEAs to meet and respond to laws that actually do pass. So, that's just my key takeaway. I'm sure someone could go much more in depth into it, but you can look on their website if you want more details about that. Just um, appreciate the support of being able to be there and represent our voice in the room. So, thank you. And oh that's right I'm running the meeting here. Okay so uh that is it and the meeting is now adjourned and we have no other meetings tonight. Yay.