001So, we will call this meeting to order at 5:00 pm. And um are there any public comments for close session? >> There are no public comments. >> Okay. All right. So, then we will go to close session also at 5:00 pm. Good evening everyone. Um I'm Amy Coup, board president and we are going to um resume our meeting and reconvene to public session. So it is currently 6:06 um p.m. [snorts] And uh let's see. Did did you want to also repeat the translation thing? So, we'll do that. >> Uh, good evening, uh, President Coup, honorable members of the board, as well as student board, uh, members, Superintendent Leech, uh, Miss Laos, Miss Hunter, all district staff and members of the public, Victor Hernandez, Spanish interpreter, for particip instruction. Thank you very much. >> All right.
002Thank you. Um, and so as we kick off our May 6 board meeting, um, I just wanted to review our protocol. So members of the public who wish to remotely provide comment during the meeting, use the raise hand feature during agenda item uh, the agenda item. So speakers must raise their hand during agenda item 8.1, the public comment portion of the meeting, in order to comment on topics not included on the approved agenda. And to speak about an item on the agenda in person, please fill out a speaker card, indicate the agenda item, and then hand the card to Laura at the dis. When the requested agenda item comes before the board, the speaker will be called forward. Uh, and then with that we will do our roll call. >> Student trustee Wong >> here.
003>> Student trustee Lynn >> here. >> Trustee Nory >> here. >> Trusty Cruz >> here. >> Trusty Thompson >> here. >> Vice President Gin >> here. >> President Coup >> here. Aquam is present. >> Right. Great. Um, so moving next to item five, approval of the agenda. And I believe Superintendent Leech. >> Yes. I would like to pull 15.2. >> So that one is okay. That's the first reading. >> First read board policies and administrative regulations. We will bring back at a future board meeting. >> Move with approval of agenda as amended. >> Seconded. >> Okay. Uh, all in favor? >> I. >> All right. And then we will move to special recognitions. >> Oh, yeah. I forgot the report out on close session. We do have one thing to report out on closed session.
004Um, item six. So by a unanimous vote of 50, the board of trustees approved the expulsion of student case number 2025 for one calendar year. Uh the board further established March 6, 2027 as the date the student may apply for readmission. All right. And then next we have special recognitions. [clears throat] Yes, I'm going to start. Um, we are pleased to recognize Carlmont Technical Theater Association or CTTA. Got to love the acronyms. This outstanding group of students plays an essential role in supporting their performing arts center and the many events that it hosts. At this time, I'd like to invite Principal Gay Buckland Murray to share more about their contributions and formally recognize these students. Thank you. Uh, good evening, Superintendent Leech, Board President Coup, Trustees, Cabinet, and Assorted Staff, students, friends, and family. My
005name is Gabe Buckland Murray, principal of Carlmont High School. These board meetings when I get to introduce you to some of the wonderful people and programs at Carlmont are some of the proudest moments in my role as a school leader. And tonight I am putting the spotlight on a particular group of students and their adviser who are usually the ones shining the spotlight quite literally rather than standing in it. At Carlmont this year we put on over 67 events in our performing arts center. When we host those events, someone has to be there to turn on the lights, then to move the lights around, to open the curtains, to close the curtains, to be sure the mics are working, the stage is set up, the sets are built, the live stream is working, and oh
006so much more. That someone who manages our theater, those ones who make it all happen, who create the magic, so our presenters, performers, dancers, musicians, singers, actors, and even me on occasion look good. Those someone's are the Carlott Technical Theater Association, CTTA, and that is who I am asking you to recognize this evening. CTTA is a student club on campus that focuses on technical theater. Our full-time, thanks to Prop 28, theater manager, Jillian Yang, works with the students on training, support, organization, and basically teaching them all how a theater works. CTTA puts in more than 8,000 volunteer hours every year. That is equivalent to 11 theater managers. So when we have an event, rather than hiring 10 more Jillians, we have the CTTA provide the skills and services. Their training and service also has legs.
007They compete. For the past two years, the CTTA has taken first place honors for scenic design at the state thespian festival. Shout out to our amazing drama teacher, Miss Elizabeth Berg, for getting the students to the festival. In 2025, our first place winner was Ta Schul. And this year, the honor went to Tanya N, who I think is here tonight. Congratulations to Tanya. Not only does the CTTA compete, they also continue their studies in technical theater. One of the most competitive programs in the nation in technical theater is at UCLA. They only admit about 15 students annually. CTTA has had three students in the past four years be accepted to and enroll in the program. This year, Elizabeth Hoffman, who I think is also here, is off to UCLA. We also have other students heading
008off to study technical theater. Congrats to Stella VA, who will be doing that very thing at San Jose State this year. where they go next or what awards they win are nice to talk about, but what always impresses me the most about CTTA is the sense of community and belonging that they have created. Miss Yang and the students in the CTTA have carved out a place at Carlmont. I love seeing them in the foyer at lunch or after school getting ready for events, being together and getting things done. When we go to shows, we applaud usually for the folks on stage. At Carlmont, we make an extra effort to always applaud those behind and under and over and around. And I feel like I'm channeling Grover from Sesame Street right now. Uh over and around
009the stage and that is our CTTA. Uh they are an amazing group of people and in the service of magic and stage craft, I am happy to shine a light on them tonight. So, I'm going to read their names and I'd like them to come up front and they'll do a big stage bow and then we can do the photo, I guess. Yeah. So, um to the stage, please. And I apologize if I mispronounced names. Alyssa Ruma, Ben Mangafiko, Brilan Matthews, Briana Zarzar, Charlie Fine, Elelliana Schwarz, Elizabeth Hoffman, Emerson Elliot, Emmy Pahario, Emma Cooper, Giselle, Eio, Jax Jwitt, Kate Bagby, Katherine Ericoli, Kavon Mie, Zade, Kellen Wang, Lily Le, Maline Condo, Molly Davis, Rory Cloud, Samantha Gazal, Shosana Malone, Sophia Salet, Stella Vabrosa, and Tanya Nair. And I think Jillian, are you here too? Jillian,
010can you come up too, please? Emma. We'll get this together. Y figure it out. Yeah, congratulations again to the Claremont Technical Theater Association. And uh feel free to leave um because I know it's also AP exams and all that fun stuff right now. Um, >> all right. I have All right. I will introduce the next recognition of our newly reclassified students. So, tonight we are celebrating our reclassification success. Reclassification is a significant milestone in a student's academic journey, marking the transition from English learner status to reclassified fluent English proficient. This achievement reflects not only English proficiency, but also students perseverance, dedication, and academic growth. We congratulate our newly reclassified students and extend our appreciation to staff including our bi bilingual resource teachers for their continued support of student success. Like to introduce uh Dr. Diana
011Wilma and Janelle Bugarini. >> Thank you. Good evening, President Coup, Superintendent Leech, distinguished guests, proud families, dedicated educators, and most importantly, our incredible honores. Today, we gather to celebrate our 100 extraordinary students who have done something truly remarkable. They have mastered not one but two languages, and in doing so, they have unlocked a gift that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. President, this moment is also a reflection of our district's deep and sustained commitment ment to our English learners. Reclassification has been a priority, not just a number on the report, but a goal we have worked toward together year after year. And the results speak for themselves. In 2018-19, our reclassification rate was 2%. Last year reached 10% more than four times higher, five times higher, sorry. In 2223 we
012saw a high of 15% reclassifying 205 students in a single year. That growth did not happen by accident. It happened because our educators, our families, and our students refused to settle for anything less than their full potential. apprentices. Max. Being multilingual is not simply a skill. It's a superpower. It opens doors that are invisible to others. It allows you to connect with more people, understand more of the world, and think in ways that most people never will. Research tells us that multilingual individuals are are more creative problem solvers, stronger critical thinkers, and more adaptable in an everchanging world. You have all of that, and you earned it. Multilingu to the families, the teachers, and the staff here today. Thank you for your support, your encouragement, and your belief in our students making this moment possible.
013You are part of this achievement, too. And to our honores, carry your languages with you proudly. The world needs your voice in English and in every language you speak. You are multilingual. You are brilliant. And today we celebrate you. >> [laughter] >> So before we have everybody come up for a picture, we do have um a student who will speak on behalf of all the honores. We would like to introduce you to Diana Mandanda, a senior from Sequoia High School to speak on behalf of all of the students. Good evening everyone. Um, as an ELD student, I'm proud to share my journey. I came to the United States in fifth grade with little to no English. In middle school, I was placed in ELD classes and at time it was difficult to express myself and
014keep up. But I never gave up. When I came to Sequoia High School, I continue 3 and I decided to challenge myself by enrolling in IB English class. It wasn't easy, but I was deter determinated to grow, improve, and push beyond my limits. Along the way, I also became the co-president of the club dedicated to supporting indocoming students and I joined the health careers academy. Today, I'm proud to say that I have successfully incomp completed the ELPAC test. This achievement represents not only my progress in learning English, but also my perseverance and dedication. I'm especially thankful for the support environment around me. My teachers who were always dedicating to helping me and opportunities I was given to improve my English. I know that many students here today share this honor. On behalf of all of
015us receiving this reconnection, I want to say that our journeys show that with support, hard work, and confidence, growth is always possible. I also believe that becoming reclassificated will help us in the future goals and plans. Finally, I want to thank my teachers, my mom, and everyone who supported me along the way. Thank you. High school. President Salute. Professor Second. Mama gracias. Can everyone please join Diana for the picture? That's the all the honores honores and the teachers that are here um that for the students the BRTs [clears throat] [applause] Figure it out. Thank you. >> Congratulations. [cheering and applause] Oh yeah. >> Yeah. Congrat again to all the students. Um and you you can leave. Um, we will take a short break if you want to leave and then we will continue with the
016rest of the meeting. You can use the All right. >> That's true. >> All right. Okay. So, it's always great to start out with all those joyous occasions first and then now it's a much smaller audience, you know, for the actual meeting. All right, so we're up to item 8.1, which is public comment. Um, as a reminder, the board does not act upon any manner that has not been agendaized except under limited circumstances as permitted by law. It is the policy of the board to refer matters raised in this forum to staff for investigation and or action where appropriate. Board policy ordinarily limits the time to be devoted to any single agenda topic to 10 minutes and individual speakers are ordinarily limited to three minutes. If the board decides to expand the amount of time
017to be allocated to a particular agenda item because many speakers wish to address that item, the board may reduce the time allocated to individual speakers to two minutes or to one minute as appropriate in order to permit more speakers to comment. The board will announce the amount of time to be allocated to each speaker before public comment on each particular agenda item. as it begins. [clears throat] We ask all speakers to keep within the time limits. Uh are there any public comments? We do have four in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. Okay. I think we lost one. I see one hand online. So that's five total. >> Okay. Um yeah, we could keep >> I just had one that dropped. >> Oh, one that dropped from online. So four in
018person and one online. >> Yes. >> Okay. Are people comfortable with three minutes? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Three minutes per person. Our first speaker is Marilyn Travis. Good evening everybody. Um I wanted to share a concern that has come to my attention about some district practices. Um we've been hearing from our future families at EPA that they are being denied enrollment at our school because they have IEPs and they're instead being um told to go to their school of residence. And um this is not just one family, but in our conversations with the community, it appears to be um over 10 families. And this is very concerning and frustrating. As a school, we've done a lot to connect with our community and provide a space where our students can be successful. I think our community
019and families recognize the impact that our school has on students, their families, and the EPA community in general. um in the district. We are the best school in educating students from the 94303 zip code. And we also provide um opportunities for our students to not only make it to college, but make it through college with our 10-year promise and the support of our East Palato Academy Foundation that provides scholarships to our students. And so I think our families recognize that and are attracted to our school. Um so when we started hearing that they had uh applied with the intent of enrolling and then gotten a letter back from the district, we became really concerned and started um talking a little bit more to understand what was happening. And from what I understand, I think the
020district is trying to avoid EPA from falling into a significant disproportionality when it comes to special education. Um, so in that regard, I think that intent is honorable, but I think it's the wrong solution to deny families with students that have IEPs admittance into our charter school. And my ask tonight is that we work together to find a better, more sustainable, long-term solution to support our special education program at EPA and our students with um, special needs. I also want to point out that I've heard a lot of um misinformation or like yeah misinformation around what would happen if we are significantly disproportionate for a third year. I've heard things like we'll get fined or there'll be a penalty. And the reality is is that we would have 15% of our special education idea um
021budget uh that would need to be reserved. And so I also want to call attention to that because I feel like using words like fine or penalty are misleading and are overstating a possible fiscal impact and that is you know um influencing the way that people are thinking about this. So um I appreciate all of you listening and I hope that we can come together to make a better solution for our families and include our students with IEPs. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Rosil Baka. uh uh through the chair. Uh Miss Rosio will provide all of her comment and what I will do is I will provide the board with a site translation after she's finished. participant. IP forigun. Good afternoon. My name is Rosiovaka and I'm part of this uh
022parent leader group uh from the EPA academic uh academy. I'm here uh before you all today because I want to talk to you about this topic that is very concerning, deeply concerning uh the equitable access to education for students with an IEP. Um within our community, we've listened to many stories of families which uh their kids were rejected um not because they weren't capable, but um they just didn't give them an IEP. And the argument was that there's no resources available. This doesn't just affect these families, but also infringes on the right of every student to receive an all-inclusive education. The lay the law is very clear. All students have the right to be treated with dignity and equality. And for this, my ask is that the district uh guarantee that no student, whether they
023have an IEP, would be excluded to this. Um so in instead of closing doors for them, let's all work together to find these resources and supports that are necessary because each and every child or kid with an with or without an IEP uh deserves an education that allows them to develop and grow. And really the the reality of all of this is um if if you can see it on my face or not um there is a mom here, a family from a family uh whose uh daughter uh is going to also share uh a testimony. So they received a letter and they were denied um a uh being able to go to their uh school that which they selected. and the argument was that they didn't have the resources for an IEP. Um, so
024they are here and it's very important that we change this reality uh assuring that there are no students that are excluded from any of these supports. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Jocelyn Alvarado. Um, hi, my name is Jocelyn Alvarado. I am a parent of a student in Cesar Chavez. Um, a bit nervous, but I came here to share a little bit of the experience that I had with my daughter getting denied from the East Palo Alto Academy. um she got denied because we received a letter that uh they didn't have the resources for her to for her accommodation in her IEP. It was pretty devastating for her because um she couldn't attend the school that she always wanted to high school with all her friends that she grew up with. Um, and you
025know, now she h she's she got already used to the idea that she's not going to be able to attend this school, but it was pretty sad um seeing that uh she was denied and it just gave me the courage to come here and, you know, speak up at least for other other students in the future. Um especially since I have a son that also has an IEP that's in kinder and who knows if in the future um you know he could be one of the kids getting denied as well. It would be very nice if something could get done regarding this situation. you know, it affects our kids and the fact that they they grow up with certain dreams and it's it's sad to see certain these type of situations happening to our kiddos.
026Just wanted to share that with you guys. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Edith Salvatore. Superintendent Leech, members of the board, student trustees, and everyone else with you. I am here today not as you normally know me but as um the staff adviser to the Jewish student union at Sequoia High School. And I wanted to share that last Monday we hosted um Holocaust survivor Herb Katz Barish who gave his testimony of his experience as a hidden child in Belgium in World War II to our entire sophomore class. We filled the first floor of Carrington Hall and um it would not have been possible uh without assistance through the organization that um we partnered with the Jewish Family and Children's Services Holocaust Center, Powell Foundation and Miss Alisa Nino Sears who provided a
027grant to um bring Herb to Sequoia. all the Sequoia um high school world history teachers who prepared the students and all the students who asked amazing uh questions during the Q&A period and other teachers who joined us outside of the um sophomore class with as much room as we could fill. [snorts] And I also want to thank the superintendent and Naomi Hunter for helping us to arrange to have um the entire presentation recorded so that we can use it in the future as well. So it was a really amazing experience and thank you to everyone who helped us make it and bring it to um Sequoia students. >> Thank you to the chair. We have two public comics online. The original drop call had returned. Okay. So, our first caller on Zoom is Lucinda D.
028Tinsman. >> Can people hear me? >> Go ahead. >> Hear me? >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Good evening. My name is Lucinda Tinsman. I'm a constituent with two children with IEPs who are also gifted and will be served by the Menlo Athetherton High School. I have learned that the board has been debating and ultimately moving towards eliminating honors courses. I am here to address a critical hole in the data I understand the board is using to justify this decision. I speak from a perspective rooted in the foundations of our national education system. My father served on the steering committee under the Carter administration that founded the department of education and he was a primary architect of the IEP framework. That framework was built on the realization that one sizefits-all is a structural failure for any
029child with special needs. My training with a certificate in gifted education from UC Irvine reinforces this. Giftedness was categorized and presented by the program I attended not as a bonus but as a subcategory of special needs because of the extreme risks involved when these needs go unmet. The handover research spreadsheets I believe you're reviewing are misleading. They show that high potential students can get by in standard courses with good grades, but they fail to track the attrition of engagement. When a student with high capabilities is not met with appropriate challenge, they don't just coast. They develop a lifelong learned disengagement. They learn that school is a place where their effort is irrelevant, where the world does not meet their pace. This is not just boredom. It is a fundamental break in the relationship between the
030student not only the educational process with their developing uh but their developing relationship with the world. Challenge is quite literally a gifted child's only defense against this downward spiral. The consequences of this disengagement are documented and severe. Students of unusually high IQ are a high risk category for school abandonment. Research supports that they face a dropout risk of 25% or higher which is considerably higher than most of their peers driven by this chronic lack of engagement and rigor. When the students get disengaged from the classroom, they eventually disengage from the world. This trajectory leads to the dropping out of college because they never learned to struggle and ultimately it places this demographic at an extraordinarily high risk of long-term instability and homelessness. By removing honors pathways, you are removing the safety net that prevents this
031specific type of social collapse. Every child deserves the challenge they need to thrive. If the board removes these courses based on spreadsheets that only measure output, you are organ ignoring the human cost of a system that incentivizes disengagement. I urge you to consider, are we providing the depth and complexity these children need to stay tethered to their education, or are we building a ceiling that Thank you. I'm sorry. Your time is up. Our last speaker is Dan Maleri. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Okay. Thank you, Laura. Um, so hearing these these new uh problems that are have occurred, I haven't got those phone calls yet. Um, first I want to go to the tide parents, but all you uh Hispanic uh individuals with the no IEPs and that what all
032you need to quickly do is make sure you get a hold of me. I'll be more than happy to advocate you, but more importantly show you what the district must do. And I'll say it publicly right now so that you can pass the word quickly. All of you just write a letter to the superintendent demanding that your child be fully assessed in all academic and and psychological areas at the county's expense. Then you're going to get an unbiased report that when the district doesn't follow through and we compare it to what they have right now in IEP in their files, you'll get plenty of assistance from the state of California because they've already had to pay close to a million dollars for two children that we saved their lives. So, I'm shifting it to those
033parents and that you guys all stand up for your children. Unfortunately, you have a very corrupt, dysfunctional board that's led and then put in place a very bad administration that is do anything at at all means on taxpayers money to waste time to hurt kids like D. I hear more children are being hurt, which even brings more fire into us. My hope is as time keeps going on, as it's getting closer and closer, I can develop the rest of I need because most of this information should head to a district attorney because many of you should up there should be prosecuted. I read your new article that came out from Jennifer today. It was great to hear that you, Mr. Gan, who actually I didn't know was as bad as you were because I thought
034Nori was the only idiot and a but you're a disgrace. So is all your whole board is a disgrace. You're facing as you have been told by the petition out against you that you should resign. You're an embarrassment not only to this whole community but to your entire family. If you if I had your name, I would do everything to do everything to get that name off my name because you're ruining your any family member who's related to all you board members. You guys don't have the right to continue to hurt children. You're going again like I told you into two battles that these battles will disclose the rest of your skeletons and in these battles you're facing adults that are not afraid with you. You're facing firms with that. I already spoken to Mr.
035Beal. It's glad that Mr. Beal's kind of seeing the light. So, it's good to see that Todd's doing well in Merced and he's glad he's away. But he's also been very good seeing in law enforcement. We used to get rats and they would get a piece of cheese and they would roll on the people that did it. That's what you're about to face. And good luck with your next wars. >> Thank you. That concludes public comments for items not on the agenda. >> Thank you. Um and then moving on to the next agenda item. It's uh board of trustees correspondence. and we did not receive any and then yeah and then we will move to item 10 which is board of trustees superintendent comments and committee reports. So do any of my fellow trustees want
036to make a comment? >> Yes. Okay. So recently we went to uh Carmont High School um and it was amazing to see the classes. It was uh trustee Amy Ku and also our lovely wonderful trustee here um and um Leech right our superintendent Leech and it was amazing to see all the classes that we visited. We visited jazz ensemble. Uh was the biotech, GT, bio, CT, biotech, um journalism, marketing, um and also AVID. And I loved all the classes the students did. They're amazing. They're doing amazing work and they're ready for college. [laughter] And that's what I saw in AVID. What I really I think I wanted to highlight at AVID because I think a lot of the students that were there were coming from different countries. Some of them were coming from different countries
037and in that space I saw students that were really shy at one point that weren't sure about how to advocate for themselves and were sharing with us how they felt like this space was family and they created community in this one space. And so for me that was amazing to see so and and and and um to go to college and so um there's very what I saw was the growth in them and and them being able to speak up and advocate for themselves in regards to what they need and and getting help right so I was really happy to see that a lot of the majority I think of that class was first generation students because we did ask well how many of you are first gen right first generation to go to college
038and it was the majority of them So, I was really happy to see the students um ready for college and ready to uh advocate for themselves in college. They're they are college ready. Um and that goes for all all the students in all the classes because we saw some amazing uh work that you all did in marketing and journalism and I'm excited for the next generation to be in college and and seeing the work that they're going to be doing in the future. So, thank you for having us. I'll follow up on that um and some of the other antidotes or tidbits that came from that wonderful day. Um but first I have a complaint that we did not get to see the theater >> because now after that the CTTA did their um we
039did the special recognition. I want to go see the theater. So that's got to be next on the list. Okay. Um but no, it was just absolutely fabulous sitting in the jazz ensemble. I just like the fact that they had only rehearsed that for like a week or two. I thought I was at the club like it like a jazz club. Like it was so good. I was so impressed. Um I think one of one of the pieces that was really near to my heart was talking to the journalism and marketing talking um to the two young ladies who were working on the AI policy. I' I've said this before many many times. This is something I'm very in the district talking about more on a broader level. um in order. And when I was
040talking to those ladies, it was clear that they were putting in a place because they they want guidelines and they want expectations um and they they want to make sure that there's there's integrity and clarity built in. So, I was very inspired that that's coming straight from the student. Cannot wait to see that continue districtwide. Um, and I just want to do a special shout out well to all of the admin and staff who put that all together, for feeding us, for organizing it. That is not an easy lift to to host us. So, thank you. Um, and then on a totally different note, just um it's teacher appreciation week. So, a huge shout out to our increders in every school. Um, they it May is 100 days and we're not there yet. And so,
041I just want to express my extreme appreciation to those teachers um as well as all of the parents who just survived prom season. >> Anyone else? Okay. Um, yeah. I I also wanted to uh share my highlights on on the call school site visit. Um you know to add on to what has already been said uh I did enjoy hearing from the AVID students. Um and it was also interesting that uh there there were students from different middle schools. So they kind of shared their experience of transitioning. Um and actually you know one student was not from a standard feeder middle school and so her journey was quite different from the small middle schools that feed into Carlmont. Um but I think the common theme um one one student highlighted her key learnings at Carlmont
042uh the best I she said you know I realized that being shy will get me nowhere and I needed to do something about it. Um, and I think a lot of the students that were in that AVID class, um, were either unfamiliar with the school system or they were transitioning from a sk small small school to a big school or they didn't have friends or whatever the case may be. But uh that agency and that ability to self- advocate was what was most challenging. And you know made me wonder well these students have figured out as by the time they got to seniors how to self- advocate but what about the students who didn't figure it out? like what can we do to make that transition a little smoother and to make sure every student
043can advocate for themselves and raise their hand and ask questions, seek help um because that will really serve them well in their next step. Um, and then the other meeting, um, because we were had just finished talking about facilities upgrades, it was also nice to see during the campus tour. Well, which building is the one that's being torn down? Like, because sometimes you look at it on the map, you can't really visualize it, but when you're walking through, it's like, oh, [clears throat] that one. Okay. And then seeing how it all fits together. Where's the the parking lot that's going to be the holding, you know? seeing it in person makes it more real. Um, and then lastly, uh, we also met with all the department heads and I think that was a very interesting
044discussion because some of what a lot of time was spent talking about AI and its impact on on curriculum learning and and how the school system is going to really run in the future. Um and there was also some discussion about uh the AP exams because we were leading into that, right? So um it was kind of amazing the growth in the number of AP exams being taken by Carl Mont students. Um but at the same time um it also made it more real that that there's not necessarily any SAT prep um sponsored through the school. Um and that was something that the superintendent advisory council the the students there are trying to come up with ideas on how to make that access uh [clears throat] improved and then uh finally there was also some
045feedback about um phone policies which is very relevant to today's meeting. Um so all of that was discussed and I feel like it was a very worthwhile trip. So appreciate the Carlmont community for putting that all together. >> And then Superintendent Leech. >> Thank you. It's the night of Carlmont. Fun fact, Dr. Cruz went to Carlmont. She says there have been just only a few changes since she was there. I think it was like five or seven years ago, you said. That's what I thought. Okay. So, as was mentioned earlier, um this week we are celebrating staff appreciation week. Hopefully I will get to um steal some of Edith's comments. It is my greatest pleasure to take a moment to recognize the many extra special people who make our work for students possible. It's not
046I may I definitely am biased but we do have the finest group of employees on the peninsula. We are truly blessed to have nearly 1500 dedicated individuals who show up every day to pour their hearts and souls into giving our students a great experience while we prepare them for the life beyond high school. I want to be very clear, every single job in this district serves our students one way or another. Whether it be working directly with students in our classrooms, managing our front offices, preparing our serving our food in our cafeterias, maintaining our beautiful campuses, or making sure that everyone gets paid. That barely scratches the surface of the work that gets done every day. Each employee matters and our students are better because of every one of our employees. The commitment to their
047hard work and the care that this team brings is something we never take for granted. So, we are very, very thankful to each and every one of our employees. Um, AI feedback sessions are underway. We've begun our community listening sessions to gather input as we prepare for our AI working group that will convene this fall. The goal is to understand how students, staff, and families feel about bringing AI into our schools, what they see as the benefits, concerns, and how it is currently being used. So far, over 60 people have participated in the focus group, and we've received about 138 survey responses. We will continue holding sessions with staff and students over the next few weeks. Um, and all of this input will shape the policies and guidance of our working group um, that's going
048to develop next fall. On the same vein of AI and also related to Carl Mont, senior Kevin Lee Lee and sophomore Dennis Yang, get this, have been selected as finalists in the top 30 nationally for the USA AI Olympiad National Camp. We probably should get them on our committee. Dr. Shakome and are now competing to represent the USA and Carl Monaco Scots at the International Olympiad in artificial intelligence. >> That's pretty that's pretty intense. Um, on the same vein of Carl, Caramel Chamber singers were recognized for the best required piece and placed third overall at the California Golden State Coral Competition. They are very, very happy with their third place. I think we were told why. Um, an invitationon event for top California high school choirs to showcase coral excellence among high schools. So just
049um kudos to Carl Mont and the community um that they have created um and it was very much a pleasure Gay for hosting us last Friday. So thank you. >> Thank you everyone. Uh and then now we're moving on to item 11, student trustee comments. >> Um good evening everyone. I'm Ashlin. I'm a junior from Carlmont. I'm May and I'm also a junior at Karma. Okay, so the first thing I want to talk about is um AP testing that's going on. So it's begun and it started on Monday and it's going to be lasting until through the next two weeks until Friday, May 15th. And this has caused as we've seen a lot of student stress and um so there have been solutions throughout our campus such as stress toys that have been provided by
050Carmon's Associated Student Body or ASB as well as our wellness center being readily available for all our students. Um, however, this is also causing many students to miss class. However, this has however this has been counteracted by many teachers introducing a lot of study periods um during these weeks. So, that's been really helpful for us. And then the next thing we want to talk about goes back to Trusty Coup's comment about the student advisory council. So, we did find that SAT, ACT, and standardized testing resources are unevenly distributed amongst the school specifically with there being a lack of resources at Carmont. So, our council is working to through a series of solutions in order to make these testing resources more accessible to everyone. And that includes conducting a survey through the superintendent's newsletter to gauge
051general interests and needs, which we've already received a lot of responses from, creating a SUSD specific website/database with resources that have worked for past test takers, as well as registration instructions and general information about the different types of tests as well as hosting a mock SAT day at individual school sites for people who want to practice in a simulated environment. and then all of us are working to advertise and build these different materials and make sure that they get to the students and parents who need them. Thank you. >> All right, thank you for that update. Um, great to see that you have a lot of ideas for the SAT prep. Awesome. Um, let's see with item 12 is next. Uh, we have comments from Sequoia District Teachers Association, SDTA. Thank you. As the superintendent
052mentioned, it is uh school teacher appreciation week. It uh got kicked off in my house as it was apparently discussed at my children's school and I got a text from my child saying, "Hey, mom, way to go teacher appreciation week." And then he paused and then he said, "Of course, next week is Max Salvatore appreciation week, just so you know." So, we'll have to figure out if I can bring him a cookie or something and wrapped in some little foil. Um, I I do want to um take this opportunity to shout out all of our educators. Um this week, uh teachers are working hard and have we have turned that corner where we realize it's not that there's the light at the end of the tunnel, but that the tunnel there isn't enough room left
053in the tunnel um to do all of the work we have on the train. and um making sure that everyone is getting everything done without feeling the stress of the last four weeks is a balancing act that everyone's working on. I also was going through my calendar today and noted that May 18th is on my calendar as a speech and language pathologist recognition day. Um that I always remind myself to send a note to the SLPs. So that will happen before our next board meeting. And uh thank you to all of them who um help our students. And I I just I really loved seeing the reclassified students here being celebrated. And I think more of that that we can do to celebrate the variety of ways that our students show up and achieve in
054schools is great because it not just it doesn't only celebrate them, but also the people who helped get them there. Thank you. Yes, thank you Miss Salvatore for the um making sure we remember uh our special recognition day. So um definitely appreciate all the teachers and everything that they do. Um did not know that there was a special day on May 18th. [laughter] >> Superintendent day. >> There is a school board member month. [laughter] Okay, let's see. Is there any representative from ASME here today? >> No. Okay. Uh, with that we will move to item 13, approval of the consent agenda. Is there any comment for the consent agenda? I have none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. I see none on mine. >> Okay. Now, the board action to
055approve the following items on the consent agenda is taken simultaneously with one motion which is not debatable and requires a unanimous roll call vote for passage. The action indicated on each item is deemed to have been considered in full and action taken as worded therein. Only members of the board and the superintendent may remove items from the consent agenda. Members of the public may provide comments at the start of the consent agenda item which may convince a board member or the superintendent to remove an item for further discussion. Um, so do we have a motion or no one wants to pull anything? Right. Okay. >> I move approval of the consent agenda. >> I second. We have a roll call vote. >> Trusty Nory, >> yes. >> Jesse Cruz, >> yes. >> Trusty Thompson, >>
056yes. >> Vice President Gin, >> yes. >> President Co, >> yes. >> Motion carries 5. >> Okay. Uh, and then moving on to our information items, we have item 14.1, Tide Academy Transition Update. >> Yes. Thank you, President Kua. I would like to invite Naomi Hunter to the podium to provide um the Tide Academy transition update. Okay, this will be a brief report, but I want to let you know that students have all selected their classes and counselors have worked closely with the students to make sure that everything is lined up for successful transition. I checked with Principal Simone this afternoon to find out if there was anything else she wanted me to share with you and she told me, "I promised our students that they would have the best semester ever and that is
057happening." She reported that it's been very, very busy on the Tide campus the last few weeks with field trips. This weekend they have their prom coming up. Next week they have a celebration of the future lunch. And meanwhile, the TIDE staff um is working very hard to make sure that all students finish the year academically strong. All I have to report. Okay. Thank you. Was was the mic on for that one or >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. Then was there any public comment on the uh item 14.1? There were none in person. I can ask uh are there any um comments online? Please raise your hand for item 14.1. >> All right. And then moving on to item 14.2, Sequoia Union High School District Wellness Update. Um so are there any
058public comments for this item? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. I see one hand online. Is there someone Okay. So, there's one online for 14.2. Okay. >> All right. Our our speaker is Carol and Coleman. >> Mute. Can Can y'all hear me? >> Yes. Hi, Carolyn. Go ahead. >> Hi. Thank you so much. this evening for showing so much recognition for so many. Um, thank you for acknowledging Wellness Wednesdays. I remember right after the pandemic, there was such a need to have Wellness Wednesdays. Um, and uh, I remember many teachers doing it informally. Um, just wanted to say continue doing it if we can, if we have the resources. I've noticed a significant um difference in students that I interact with making a point of acknowledging their
059social emotional wellness and just showing kind regard. Um, on that note, um, I think I think it's really important when people do public comment that they show kind regard. Uh, regardless of how they feel about the board, I think you can be kind in the words that you say and the intentions that you have. Calling out people by name calling is not a wellness thing to do. it doesn't help it doesn't help us to get along and I know we can we can come together. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And um I'm going to I'm going to bounce. Love you guys. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. All right. who is presenting. Okay. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us for this report
060this evening. It is my pleasure to introduce to you Stephen Enmi. He's our wellness program coordinator. And if you feel a calm and a peace in the room, it's because he has supporting him in the audience this evening our site wellness center coordinators who do an incredible job of making sure that there are resources for our um students um when they need them. So Steve, come on up and tell us about this past year. >> Uh good evening, Superintendent Leech and members of the board. Um, I'm incredibly proud uh to the growth and um expansion of our wellness centers and programs and I'm especially grateful to the board in our administration for supporting this innovative and important work. Thank you. Um, so I'm going to share with you a snapshot tonight of the work that's
061been happening across our district wellness programs. Um, and more importantly the impact it's having on our students. Um, so tonight when and you'll see the agenda shortly, I'll walk us through how our wellness work has grown this year um, and what we're seeing in the data and where we're headed next. Before I jump into the details, I do want to ground us in why this work really matters. When we talk with students, we hear the same themes over and over. stress, social media, peer pressure. And those experiences don't sit outside of school. They directly impact learning, attendance, and relationships. So, when we talk about wellness, we're really talking about removing barriers so students can learn and thrive. At SUSD, we've been really intentional about building this into our system through our MTSS framework. So, health,
062mental health, and substance misuse and use supports exist at every level from prevention to more intensive interventions. I'm going to share with you some areas that we have grown um and expanded this year. Um first I want to share with you um the growth that we've seen with our wellness advisory council and foundation. Um this group consists of board members, district staff, uh site admin, teachers, counselors, and community members. The WAC has helped us step back and identify outcomes that align our work especially around tier one supports. We've done extensive asset mapping and our action planning um has been focused on tier one interventions across wellness priorities. This group has helped guide the work that I will be presenting tonight. Another major area of growth that we've had in the district this year with wellness
063is our social emotional learning implementation plan. While we adopted Wayfinder as our curriculum and platform at the beginning of the year, we wanted to find a way to increase utilization. This year, we launched site leads at each school site, a community practice, and a series of professional development opportunities for staff. Hundreds of lessons have been taught, thousands of student interactions, and expanded professional development focused on belonging, connection, and culturally responsive practices. This is really about making every making sure every classroom is part of our wellness system. Another significant area of expansion in Sequoia Union High School District's wellness this year has been the building and launching of our SUSD internship program. This year we piloted with six graduate level interns from three universities and were able to provide over 2100 hours of direct student support
064that included onetoone counseling groups, interventions and services for students with 504 plans. So this is a huge expansion of access for our students. Next year we plan to have two additional university partnerships and so far seven graduate interns who have been willing to join us in our internship program next year. Um, our internship program would not be possible without the support and vision of Christina Ierson and Mari Bellarosco who are overseeing our interns and providing clinical supervision for them. Under their guidance and our under their guidance, our interns have received robust training and orientation to school-based mental health. We hope to continue to grow this program and our ability to serve our students. This is one of the ways we're thinking creatively about both capacity and sustainability. We've [clears throat] also continued to strengthen the
065connection between wellness and health services. That includes partnerships like the Stanford Teen Van um which bring services directly onto our campuses. And we've made a big investment in staff training, CPR, AED, and Narcan. Over the last two years, two years, we've trained over 200 staff. that really increases our overall readiness and ensures students are safe and supported on our campuses. So with that foundation in place, I'm going to want I'm going to shift into what we're seeing in the data and how this work is translating into the impact for our students. This year, uh we served 1,866 unique students through direct wellness services. That includes over 13,000 individual services. Those are things like counseling, case management, group support. So, we're reaching a significant portion of our student population. And at the same time, it reflects
066the level of need that we're seeing. I wanted to clarify that some of these services are considered tier three while others are in groups tier 2. Um, using this MTSS model, we ultimately want less students funneled up into more intensive services, tier three, and we want to meet more student need in by supporting them in tier 1 and tier 2 services, which is exactly how our data is tracking. We've seen over 7,600 students dropins into our wellness centers. That's doubling from last year. Um, this shows us how much students are using these spaces for dayto-day self-regulation and support. And these students are accessing regularly tier one and tier tier 2 services and seeing that our outreach events are working as well. [snorts] Students are utilizing our resources and self-reerring and referring their friends and getting
067support when they feel they need it. Um these more informal brain breaks that the students are dropping in for also um serve as a way of uh heading off any issues before things escalate for students or things become more complicated. Our students are learning coping skills, emotional regulation, and self-care tools that they can use outside of the wellness center. Sorry, I do want to um and beyond that, um we have uh reached over 12,000 students with wellness, education, outreach, and events across the school year. Um this this is tier one intervention at its best. Um, and this is not counting the number of students now participating in Wayfinder activities during our wellness Wednesdays activities. So, we're reaching a lot of students right now. [gasps] So, when you look at this data as a whole, we're
068reaching students across all tiers from prevention to intensive support and our numbers reflect the MTSS model. Most of our students are receiving tier one and tier 2 and we are receiving we have less receiving tier three. This model works and it's much more cost-effective than putting everything into a tier three resources. Additionally, um our wellness work has extended beyond students. We've served staff. We've um provided uh outreach and education to over 1,000 staff this year. Um and including and including social emotional uh professional development, helping build their capacity to support students every day and in class. We've also partnered with families with over 40 events offered in partnership with parent ventures and over 800 plus um parents have participated in SUSD wellness staff um sponsored um parent workshops and events including topics like mental health,
069substance abuse and stress. None of this work happens in isolation. Um our sitebased wellness teams are incredible. Those are mental health support specialists, our wellness assistants, our wellness interns, our wellness community partners, um, and community providers, um, and wellness youth councils, all who make this work possible. I know we have a few people here tonight who are mental health support specialists. I'd love for them to stand. Judy Romero, Kathy Holmes, Shelley Bamanti, um, at, uh, Sequoia, Carmont, um, Woodside and Carmont, respectively, sorry. and uh Lauren Riser is at Tide. Uh Shauna Nickerson is at MA and uh Marco Calderon is at EPAA. And so I just want to thank them for all their hard work. They are the feet on the ground doing this work. Um in addition to the new university partnerships we've built,
070we have incredible community partnerships as well that make our programs possible. They help us expand services, bring in uh specialized expertise, and ensure that students and families have access to support on and off campus. Um, in particular, I would love to recognize the Sequoia Healthcare District whose partnership has allowed us to build out wellness supports to help us ensure that all students are ready to learn. [gasps] Looking forward to next year, um, and looking ahead, our focus is really on sustaining and growing this work. Um, we are navigating funding changes, exploring new funding streams like CYBHI, um, that's California youth behavioral initiative, it's California's fee schedule, um, and billing opportunity with, um, private insurance and medical. Um, and we're continuing to expand key areas like SEAL and our internship program. We're also working to strengthen
071how we measure impact and improve our data systems. uh we have implemented um an exit survey and evaluation tool that all students who've received direct services this year will be filling out and providing us with information that I will be happy to share. Um and this goal is to make sure that the system that we are um creating continues to meet student needs just not just now but long term as well. Um I'm grateful for the time. I appreciate all of you. uh my appreciate administration and our student services staff um including our school counselors, school psychologists and wellness staff who partner together to make this work thrive. Um thank you for your time. >> Thank you Mr. Emmy. Um any [laughter] a round of applause for all the great work. Um trustees have questions
072or comments? Um I was just curious if you'd speak more about the intern program with local colleges and how it works. >> So we have done recruitment fairs. Um last year we uh we had anticipated to start with three. There was um a community organization that closed. We ended up with six which was great for us. Um and we um we provide clinical supervision and guidance and they gain hours that they need for experience and they provide services for our students. It's at a le it's at a little more limited capacity than someone who has an associates or a license. Um they have they require a unit of supervision for every five hours of direct service they provide. So they're not um able to do as much as some of the others. >> And you
073said you had six like you had six different partner schools and you're going to increase it to two more. So it's going to be eight. >> Yes. >> Oh great. That's awesome. It's good to hear. Um so that was one of my questions. The other question is when students come in, do you count them? Say I'm a student, I come in one time that day. Do you count them as one visit if they come twice that day or do you guys come every time they come? I was wondering about the numbers like how >> um I it's it's when they sign in for those brain breaks. Yes. So So just to clarify, when a student takes a brain break from class, we want to make sure that we're being very mindful of students leaving class
074and so they do have to sign in and out and so those are very structured. those tend. And so they are monitoring them and there could be someone who's coming in more than once, but if they are, it's more likely that they'll be referred for more um um individual services. >> Okay. I was wondering about the count and how that worked. >> Additionally, they have um we have no signin time during brunch, lunch, and before and after school. So, we get a ton of students who are also coming in at those times which we aren't tracking. >> Oh, okay. >> Thank you. I was wondering if you can comment on what you're seeing in terms of the volume of services needed and how it's maybe to the extent you've been in the role for a
075while how it's been if it's been trending in one direction or another. >> Um yeah, I think we have definitely seen utilization increase. Um I think it it's twofold. I think part of it what's happening nationally is happening here too. the kid, our students are experiencing social media, peer pressure, um lots of um factors including substance use. And I think um additionally um we're getting more referrals because we are raising our um the awareness of our existence and the wellness cent's existence and I think students are actually feeling comfortable um to reach out and ask for help. I think I think those all all those things play into the increased volume that we're seeing. >> Well, I'll separate things. I'll comment that um I appreciate the way you phrase it as I think ready to
076learn. Maybe you can tell me exactly what you said, but something like the focus of the wellness center is helping students be ready to learn because I sense sometimes that the community broadly expects schools to kind of do everything and at some point it becomes a medical service and not getting students ready to learn. And I know there's a a line there. I don't know if you have any if that's difficult to kind of draw that line of when it's getting ready to learn and when it is getting beyond that. And really it's more of a of a >> and I I mean like as educators and as people who practice mental health in education. I think that the goal is consistently to be able to support that student so that they can access their
077education. So the managing the symptoms of anxiety for example and and helping them adapt coping skills so that they can be successful in the school setting. >> I just appreciate that the wellness center has that focus on on the learning and tying it back because that fits with this the mission of the school. So I like that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for all the great work. I did have a a question about um the the staff and parents who are using the services. Um do you see that growing or changing or >> um well typically the staff and the parents that are utilizing the services are they're getting education around um uh wellness. We've been lucky this year in particular for our staff. We've partnered with the center for wellness and advancement and education
078and they have come into all of our um comprehensive sites and run wellness challenges with our staff. Our staffs are very competitive FY even for wellness but um they've done amazing things and it's built um and taught um the staff um healthy coping skills for themselves because the other reality too is um regulated staff in a classroom promote regulated children in the classroom >> and then do you see any seasonality in terms of beginning of the year or different times of the year where services are needed the most? Um I we do see trends. I think um preh holidays can you can definitely see some trends. Obviously during finals um we see trends and um but the great thing is that students are reaching out and asking for help. >> Okay. And then I know
079Wayfinder is still pretty new but um do you see any big differences between Wayfinder and what we were doing before? And maybe go through a little bit more about the wellness Wednesdays. kind of incorporated. Yeah, we so we've been implementing wellness Wednesdays this semester and in order and in an effort to get staff to um uh use them as an opener for class, we I have been um working with the site leads to create an email to send out to the entire staff picking like some low-level like um capacity building or community building exercises that they can do in the classroom with their students just to show them that like you know SEAL can be very like um common things. Um, and it doesn't have to be getting into deep thoughts and talking about your
080feelings at depth, but um, just really building people's capacity to see in every day. >> Okay. And any big uh, changes uh, between Wayfinder and what we were doing before? Um there's been a lot of utilization after we we in partnership with the ed services department um um built out a whole um uh learning strand for our staff because it's now um there's a lot of language in there that includes SEAL in the um California standards for teaching profession. Um and so there's been a uptick in use of the wayfinder. I don't have the data with me tonight, but I we have definitely increased. There have been like thousands of lessons accessed on Wayfinder, which is a good sign. >> Okay, awesome. Thank you. And I know uh the we have two trustees, Mary, Trusty
081Thompson and myself, that are liaison with the wellness committee. So, we always look forward to that and and it's great to see all the community partners engaged in those efforts in addition to our school staff. So yeah, thank you for your efforts. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Actually, that reminds me, Trusty Coup, one of your community partners, um, Parent Venture. I just I want to use this opportunity to plug because this is a particularly stressful time of year and everything that Parent Venture has done for us um or has put on is all recorded in their library that we can always access even if it's [snorts] not a live webinar. So, when we think about seasonal upticks and we think of AP exams and and such and stress of end of the years, just going
082to throw that plug out there. >> Awesome. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, nextformational item is 14.3 presentation on phone free schools AB 3216. Uh, do we have any public comments? I have nine in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. This is for item 14.3. What was that? >> All right. And we have three online. Okay. So, 12. Okay. Um, so that you said nine in person. Okay. You want to do two minutes? Okay. Um, let's do two minutes a person. All right. Two minutes. Our first speaker is Bit Roth Tran. Thank you so much. Um, I'm here today as a parent and as an expert. I have a PhD in economics. I have expertise in statistical analysis and in policy evaluation. And the views that I'm
083going to be expressing today are my own and don't represent any institution. Um, there have been mounting concerns in recent years about the impact of cell phones on young people. We heard about it in the wellness presentation just now about social media. And it's unsurprising given this that there has been a push for cell phone bans around the [clears throat] world, not just the United States. Um, it's hard to understand how this will affect students because in the past we've studies have looked at correlations in countries of cell phone use and various outcomes, but those are just correlation. They're not causation. There have been studies looking in labs doing experiments, but those are just individuals. And it's the peer effects that are really important in this question. The good news for us is that because
084there have been real life bands implemented, there have been now multiple studies that do really high quality causal policy analysis that have looked at this question in the real world in real high schools and they have and there's an emerging consensus coming out of this. Using my expertise to examine that research, I have found that the consensus shows that there is a firstear adjustment period. Um, sometimes there are an effect, sometimes there's an increase in disciplinary actions. After that, there are gains to to student well-being. There are improvements like an attendance and bullying reduction. There are gains academically, particularly in math for whatever reason. Um, but the interesting thing is that the academic gains are strongest to the lowest performing students and to the least advantaged students. Comparisons of bell-to-bell bands versus just classroom show
085bell-to-bell bands are better. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Edith Salvatore. Good evening. I know the board has a decision that they have to make on this issue. Um, and you will get some information today, you will discuss it and make a decision later in June. Um, I encourage you as you watch this presentation, especially when you look at the input from students, from parents, and from staff, you will see percentages. I urge you to look at the denominator there. I don't believe our district has done the best job in reaching out to get people's full input, and the numbers show that. Um, and I I don't come equipped with um with research. I don't come equipped with um with I I don't feel it's appropriate necessarily to give my personal opinion.
086I do hope that we look at as a district at what we are trying to teach students with whatever policy we choose. If we teach students that there is a time and a place that they can interact and there's a time and a place when it's inappropriate to interact on their phones. Or if we teach them that when you walk in certain buildings, phones are okay and you walk in other buildings and they're not. And um they don't have to make the decision for themselves about what's appropriate and what's not. They just have to follow the rules of that building the same way we used to 70 years ago take our hats off in certain buildings and leave them on in others. And we didn't have to think about why. It was just the way
087it was done. [snorts] >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Anni Chickenov. Good evening board members. Uh I'm speaking as a parent of a car student and I wanted to kind of give it a thought for the parents as well because there's a lot under the proposal and especially option A and option B. Now recently there was a lockdown event in school. there was a fire and the limited communication that we as parents received are frankly speaking shocking. I'm get nervous. I get a panic attack every time we receive a phone call uh saying, "Oh, something is happening in the school." Now, there's limited information typically within those communications. They're extremely limited. No full disclosure, no understanding what is going on. And the only way that I understand that my daughter is safe is actually
088her being able to be reached on her cell phone. So if we take that option away, we as parents have zero visibility. So we place the trust in the district, in the school, in the police to make sure our kids are safe. But what we're also receiving is limited information. And how can we know that they're truly safe? So at this point, if you go with option A, number one, I can see that the actual interesting side effect is going to be the bullying is going to be increasing again because people, let's put it this way, bullies are distracted by their phones. So if they don't have any phones, the bullying will come back. I kid you not on that subject. And the kids will also find a way to get around the restrictions. I
089can see people carrying multiple cell phones. I'll give one over here to the teacher. I'm going to have another one sitting over here somewhere. So people are still going to be using this. So you need to take the human psychology and the teen psychology in effect as well. Because if you restrict the options, the natural instinct for people is to go around especially with teenagers. So the better option is to educate them, place the trust in the students and say option B, okay, you walk in the classroom, here's the pouch, make it easy, keep it there, but it is reachable. If an emergency happens, they can contact their parents, the parents can contact them. You lower the stress for everybody. And this is the option that I urge you to seriously consider going with option
090B rather than option A. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Katya Chikov. Good evening board members. My name is Kati Chanov and I'm a freshman at Carlmont High School. I'm an active member of the Carl debate team, the Turkish club, and I practice tennis every week for north of four hours so that I can make the girls tennis team next year. I want to give you a snapshot of at least one day I have had each week since I started the school year. It's 10:20 a.m. and I've just gotten out of PE. And today I've had or will have at least two tests and a quiz. And I was up most of the evening studying. As I walk to my Spanish class, I turn on my phone and check
091my Saturn app. I have 3 minutes to get to class on time. And from where I'm walking, I don't hear any of the bells. I quickly pull up a photo of my Spanish notes. Right before I enter the classroom, I pause for a moment. I scan my notes and make sure that the material is still fresh inside of my mind. And for me, that has become a part of my routine. Some students have difficult home situations, long commutes, jobs, or responsibilities outside of school. And being able to submit work or communicate during the school day matters more than people realize. And honestly, Carlmont High School already shows that a balanced policy still works. In most classrooms, when teachers ask students to put their phones away into a phone pouch, students still do it. And teachers
092are still maintaining control over their classrooms while students retain access to the tools that they genuinely use. Phones are not just a distraction anymore. They are calendars. They are study guides. They are communication tools. They are cameras to submit assignments. And they are academic resources all in one. So Carlman's current system is already a model of compromise that keeps both students and teachers satisfied and I strongly urge that the district keep using this policy and not replace it with an inefficient one. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Stacy Wenszel. >> Hello. Thank you so much to the board, to Crystal Leech, to Jared Douly, and to Bonnie Hansen for your incredible work on this topic. Um, I am a teacher um at Sequoia High School, and I'm also the parent of a
093Sequoia High School student, and I am a strong support of the full day ban. Um, I really appreciate the other comments. I have a different perspective. And um I feel that um basically banning phones for the whole day and giving students a and a break a 7-hour break from their cell phones is a highly coste effective way to address the mental health challenges that many students have due to social media and other issues as well as to build community. So um I'm really hoping that the board will consider this. Um, I want to say that I also think that schools are uniquely equipped to provide this opportunity for students to find community um, during the schools because the students have each other. It's something that parents can't always do after school. And um, I actually
094find it almost heartbreaking for me when I see my students the minute they walk out of my class putting their phones um, directly um, and their faces directly into their phones. And I would love to see a school where that's not happening. I acknowledge that there are the safety issues. We actually don't want students using um their phones during an emergency because it can clog up the lines and and for a lot of different reasons. Um so I'm hoping we can find other ways to address that concern. Um if we do decide to go for the full day ban, which I'm hoping the school district will consider. Um, I'm really hoping that the school board will consider the kind of resources that the administrators might need to feel fully equipped to do this so that
095they are not themselves stressed out, you know, so that we don't kind of create a situation where we are supporting students and their mental health and creating something that's hard for um administrators. So um or and and and teachers and other staff members. So, I'm just hoping that if we go for it, we can commit the necessary resources. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Brook Sibi. >> Hello. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Brooke Sibi. I'm a teacher in the San Carlos School District. I've been in elementary education for 20ome years. I'm also a parent. I have a freshman in the Sequoia Union School District and I I am not going to come up here and tell you about the research because it's it's in all the slides and we've
096all read it. So, I did want to just share a little vignette about uh a time that I had with my son a couple months ago. We were sitting on the couch on our phones as usual and I said, "You know what? It's not our fault that we're all addicted to these things." And I explained to him about how the the um social media companies are purposefully trying to addict us by all the little dings and the notifications. And it was the first time you can imagine a 15-year-old boy. He sat down his phone and he looked me in the eye and he said, "What can I do?" And I was kind of like, "Oh my gosh, you're actually not rolling your eyes at me and you're not grunting at me. What can I do?"
097he said. And I said, "Oh my gosh." Then I start started to think, "Well, what can I do?" And then I thought, "It's not what you can do, it's not what I can do. This is a community effort. There's nothing I can do on my own." Um, so I'm here today in support of a full day ban on cell phones because, as Stacy said, I think we need to give them the opportunity to be at school, to socialize, and to not watch Tik Toks during lunch. That's not what they need. They don't need more of that. They need to socialize. They need to bond. They need to look around. They're not doing that. So, thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Emily Everheard. >> Hi there. Um, I have two children. One at um
098one at Sequoia and then another one that will be there in a couple of years. I wasn't going to speak tonight because my younger child was prepared and ready to deliver a speech at the meeting tonight. Um, they're 12 and it was genuinely impressive, honest, and personal, but they mentioned it to a friend and based on the feedback they got, they decided not to deliver it because they were afraid that all the kids at Sequoia would hate them. They were worried their friends would be upset with them for publicly supporting a full day ban. I want you to sit with that for a moment. They couldn't speak speak freely at a schoolboard meeting on a question about their own education because they were afraid of social consequences from their peers. That's how powerful the pressure
099is for these kids. It doesn't stop at the school door. It doesn't stop at the classroom. It is constant. It is everywhere and our children are navigating it alone. And that is exactly why a full day cell phone ban is something that the school decides. So it's not on any one kid to resist at a schoolboard meeting or try to resist in the hallway at school or maybe even with a sneaky peek in their backpack while a class is happening. Trust our teachers. If you looked at the surveys, which you'll see if you didn't pre-eread them, a majority of them support a full day ban. They see our kids at halls at lunch and the break. And my kids tell me the same thing. Their heads are down. They're staring at screens. And during the
100exact moments they should be talking, laughing, connecting, feeling less lonely. They're not. They also see their peers sneaking looks at devices in class. And they see kids playing one teacher's strict policy against another one's lacks one. because in practice an in in-class cell phone ban. >> I'm sorry. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Marta Lopez. Hi, I help for okay Lopez. My name is Martha Lopez. Seoa. I'm a student that goes to Sequoa. >> I'm here because um I think it's a good idea. and would really help our kids a lot. telephone >> during class time. >> Because sometimes the kids are distracted a lot with their telephones. And so for us parents, it would be a great help >> that uh to have it become a reality that so that when they're in
101class to have like a box. So that way during the entire class they can put away their phone. because it would really help them kind of interact with friends during class. maybe have more communication amongst themselves >> so they can socialize more and not be so timid. So because the phone is really essential to us because it helps us talk and really obtain information for us. [snorts] So, but with our kids, it's on the other side of the spectrum where they're a lot more distracted. For example, with my kids at home, So, I work a lot. So, when I get home, I really want to spend more time with them, but I don't know if he uses his phone a lot at home or not, but he's just always on it. >> Yeah. A >>
102I'm sorry the time is up. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Mercedes Nord. >> Good afternoon board members and thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today. I came came here today to talk to all of you about um about considering the support of the of the full day um cell phone bank. We are right now raising a generation of teenagers and children actually who are socially inept. They are depressed. They are lonely and they are isolated because their life are actually being um ruled by Tik Tok, by Instagram and video games and for the other hundreds of um apps that they now exist for teenagers and apps that the parents are not even aware of. Um, we actually I'm a real believer that we actually need to encourage students to sp
103to spend less time scrolling, looking at the screen and actually living in real life. Um scrolling had actually taken over reading has taken over talking, playing like kids and teenagers used to do uh at during recess time and and sometimes still during classroom. The students are are always now alone and they are either scrolling and if they are in a group if you just observe them just even in the streets you just observe them they are all scrolling and around a cell phone and that's just not good. This is not good for this generation of students that we are raising. Um, according to the um 2024 report of the National Center for um health statistics, half of the teenagers are now spending four or more hours looking at the screens every day. Uh so [clears
104throat] thank you for considering and thank you very much for for listening. >> Thank you. We'll shift to our online audience. Our first speaker is DLD Uh, hello. I'm Drake Dedricch. I'm a parent of one kid in Sequoia Union and another about to start. And I'm going to let Jackie give her um information. >> My name is Jackie. I'm in eighth grade and I go to CCRMS. And the reason why I think phones shouldn't be banned is for student safety. There was um I think around two years ago, one of the staff members was um arrested for having glued acts with a child that went to our school and he was a teacher or not a teacher but a staff member for a very long time. And I feel like the only reason he actually
105got caught was because they had their phones to find evidence. And I feel like for school, I heard many people talking about socialization, but socialization is not the number one priority. It is actually the student safety, which is why I think bunk shouldn't be banned. And I will just add in my own information. I went looking when we had a a complete cell phone ban for the middle school here into where did this come from? All these anecdotes and references to there being so much data. I went through five pages of anecdotes from Reddit and places like that with exactly the same statements we just heard from many of your teachers. And when I finally got to an academic study, it was from the University of Southern Florida. They had just started it. It was
106a 25-year study with thousands of participants. And their initial conclusions were that it had actually improved some of the academic results. Now that it's had a little more time, I would just want to read the quick summary from one of the authors. We went into this study expecting to find what many researchers, teachers, and other observers assume, smartphone ownership is harmful to students. Not only was that not the case, most of the time we found the opposite, that owning smartphone was associated with positive outcomes, said Justin D. Martin, lead researcher on the project. I don't believe your data. Thank you. Our next speaker is Brendan Visit. Hi. Um, can you hear me? >> Yes, I can. Thanks. >> Thanks. So, um, I'm not going to reiterate a lot of the things that have been said,
107but I did want to highlight that the evidence is mounting. I don't know what the exact right solution is for the these schools. I have a daughter at MA and another one who'll be coming there in a year. Um, the but we should be looking at the data. Today by coincidence in the Stanford report was highlighted in an article published as a joint research project multi-disiplinary that I think the economist who spoke first actually probably was alluding to a study by Stanford Duke Michigan um of 43,000 students looking at self-reported uh wellness of students using cell phone tower pings to confirm if these bands were actually working in these schools. So, an incredibly intensive study um showing that at the three-year mark, it improves students self-reported wellness and that reductions did occur. But I think
108what is really important and this is is data that is quite literally just now available and could be shared. It's published in the National Bureau of Economic Research. But it did take three years for the benefits to be manifest. So I think one of the things that's important is whatever the exact decision is made because there's initially some implementation hiccups and there are some um challenges with enforcement that initially those things are are not seen and that it took 3 years on average for the for the students wellness to improve. So, if the decision is made to dial back access to phones, I think it's one that will the the school district will need to stick with for a while to to see those benefits in student social engagement and self-reported wellness. >> Thank you.
109Our last speaker is Lisa Nadiv. >> Can you hear me? Well, thank you for letting us speak and thank you so >> Hi. I'm sorry. We We can We can barely hear you. You sound a little muffled. >> It's It's very staticky. >> Yeah, it's staticky, too. >> [music] >> We we cannot hear you well. I think she might be dropping off and trying to log back in. Okay, then here's locked off. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Can we just uh give her a chance to come back on? I think that's what she's trying to do. Oh. Um, yeah, I guess we could do that, too. >> Yeah. Do you do you have a record of her name? Okay. All right. So, we could start with the the presentation first. Okay. Good evening, board superintendent Leachch,
110staff, and members of the audience for your compelling comments on all sides of the continuum. Um, this is not an easy one. This is not a slam dunk by any stretch of the imagination. I will tell you that I personally would love a full school day ban and that I say that from an ivory tower because I don't have to try to enforce it. And that we have parents trying to enforce cell phone usage at home with their children, two or three children, one child. And we are talking about asking four administrators or five administrators with some support staff to enforce it for 150 to 200 students. And we've got teachers who opinions change on whether or not we should have a cell phone ban based on whether or not they're going to have to
111help enforce it. They're going to have to help enforce it. It's just impossible any other way. It's not as simple as putting it in a pouch and then you're done. So what I would ask of you even though I agree that the data is very compelling about what is good for the mental health of students to remember during this discussion that there are people who feel like high school students need a gradual release of freedom and that there are people who feel the full day van very personally and emphatically and that there are also a lot of variables to enforcing this effectively. So when you consider this decision, this is not stick it in a yonder patch and call it a day. We need to know how much of a priority this is for folks
112if we are going to go for a full day ban. And now I want to introduce to you the gentleman who has figured out cell phone usage across the universe and will speak very clearly about exactly what we need to do as a district, a society and the human race. Jared Douly, [clears throat] >> come back tomorrow, please. >> That was not part of the rehearsal. [gasps] President Coup, trustees of the board, Superintendent Leech, uh staff and community members joining us tonight. Welcome. Um I have the pleasure I do have the pleasure of presenting um the district's presentation on the California Assembly Bill 3216, otherwise so famously coined the Phone Free Schools Act. Uh that was signed into legislation by Governor Nuomo. Uh tonight I'm going to give I'm trying to be brief because there's
113there's a lot of information. Um a lot of it is here in the slides and I think it's most important to to hold dialogue. Um so we'll have a a brief overview of assembly bill timeline and looking at the road map taking a look at um our two surveys that we implemented. Um so two data sets looking at um policy as well as implications of what type uh of policy options um that will be part of the recommendation and eventual adoption and then looking at um considerations and next steps. So just a brief overview. Um Assembly Bill 3216 requires every California school district school uh um [clears throat] office of county office of education charter school. So basically all of our education um system in the state to um outside of private to adopt a
114policy that limits student smartphone and device usage during the school day. That's a summary. Um if you've read the assembly bill, if you haven't, I encourage you to do so because there's a lot of great research um that the legislation used to um adopt this. Um so that's just a summary and most importantly that we incorporate um in developing said policy stakeholder input which is our students, staff and parents. Um and additionally that that policy must be reviewed or updated every five years uh within five years. Um a lot of feedback that we've heard and and comment is trying to as well as in the assembly bill to reduce screen time of our students during school hours. reducing incidents of cyber bullying um uh student behaviors uh you know through the use of the phones
115and technology limiting distractions in the classroom um ultimately improving focus academics um social emotional well-being and and positive mental health um coping strategies of our students. That's the goal of this assembly bill. There are exceptions included in the assembly bill as far as um exceptions for students uh to whatever option is presented and ultimately adopted um to not be included in um either um blanket or case by case depending on the exception which are for emergencies or safety threats. um staff permission, medical ne uh necessity which would which does require per the assembly bill um documentation from a doctor or physician and for students with IEPs and or 504s for communication or accessibility. Um this is just a snapshot cuz there is so much re research out there. Multiple studies coming out this week, multiple
116articles being um published this week which didn't have a chance to review those in preparation for for this slide deck um as we got ready for the presentation but we can look through those um as well and provide more information. Just a couple of highlights. Uh, I think the first one really is an interesting takeaway from a 2023 study that um students take an average of 20 minutes to refocus after receiving a notification on their device during class time. That's I think that's true for me. Maybe not 20 minutes for me. I heard a live 360 alert go off and I panicked as a parent myself and then I had to refocus. So even even myself um just hearing not even my phone um somebody else's notification um uh 59% of teens experiencing cyber bullying
117uh or online harassment which is uh a 2020 study. Social media use heavily linked to um increased feelings of uh inadequacy andor depression. [gasps] And teens who use social media over three hours a day are twice more at risk for having negative mental health outcomes over uh or sorry including depression and anxiety. And so those are just some simple um statistics that we see from research studies as to why are we here talking about this um because it's important and we want to try and address uh all all of the things that the legislation is saying and we know what's good for kids. This is just a timeline and road mapap of uh the work as it's begun uh about a year ago in beginning our planning developing um stakeholder surveys. We work very closely
118with the Sanonteo County Office of Ed and developing our initial survey. Uh we updated handbooks at the school sites with current policies being implemented um across the district and then we we went into summer and fall uh finalizing the survey and administering the first survey. Um, we received feedback from stakeholders on the surveys and quickly learned um through multiple conversations as some of the data started to go back to um subgroups uh and being presented, we quickly realized we had inconsistencies in in that initial survey. And so we quickly well tried to quickly pivot to an additional survey in the spring which was revised a much clearer focused um survey across all stakeholder groups for consistent data purposes. So then that was administered and here we are presenting um the the data sets uh more
119importantly from the second because we have consistent data across all subgroups but I want to highlight some key takeaways from the first survey as well [clears throat] and then from here out um looking at policy recommendation and adoption first and second readings of that policy which is 5131.8 8. I'm talking about implementation procedures and what does it look like depending on the board's decision handbook revisions yet again, district communication and full implementation of that policy by July 1. But we know it doesn't just stop there because then we have to have a rollout plan and a lot of other steps as uh a lot of public comment and um associate superintendent Hansen was referring to. So, just a couple key highlights from our initial student survey. Um, how students feel about the current school policies
120of um cell phones during school hours. 57% of them think the rule should be uh more flexible and then uh uh a mix of no opinion, don't think there should be any restrictions or a support uh uh policies that do limit. And you can see overwhelmingly the 97% of students um do acknowledge that there already are limits placed on their cell phone usage at school. Our staff um were asked a couple of extra questions. Uh specifically on the left, what challenges do you face with um cell phones in the classroom? And you can see overwhelmingly um staff report distractions from lessons and decreased student interaction or focus um as as we heard as well in public comment. Um, teachers also were asked if they thought uh that cell phone use in the classroom on campus
121has a positive impact to student learning and just under 68% um responded no it is a distraction and uh 20% much smaller percent replied sometimes but dependent upon the task. Um our parents uh were asked if they thought current policy was working well and a little split but 37% the m uh the the majority of responses felt that it was effective but 32% said no it needs improvement and another 24% are unsure. [gasps] Uh when asked do they think cell phone use in schools helps or hinders student learning 63% stated or or responded with it does hinder um student learning and is a distraction in class. So kind of interesting kind of competing responses. So as we as I mentioned we did a follow-up stakeholder survey um a few months back in uh February and
122March. And here's just some response rates uh to our uh three stakeholder surveys. These were administered slightly differently than the fall. The falls went out um in multiple newsletters with multiple reminders. These uh surveys here in the spring went as direct messaging through parent square uh with uh additional reminders prior to surveys closing. So we really tried to get uh an increased response and you can see our our response numbers here. As I mentioned that that second survey we administered was a a single question. We included a uh a tremendous amount of the research. We tried to be brief but linked in our district website which has a lot more information, many more resources um additional research and and key takeaways. But we tried to summarize in our communication that was sent out so that
123when they went to the um the survey link that they had the information right in front of them what are the two options and these are the two options here on the screen. Option A uh full full day school band bell to bell from beginning of the day all the way to the end. So phones away all day which could be yonder pouch could be a different um pouch could be the honor system. Put them away. We don't want to see them. Allah 2005 when right all students started to get devices and zero tolerance um uh days. I remember those days as administrator. They were fun. Um but option B on the other hand is more or less what is happening across uh school sites right now in the majority of classrooms um where there
124are pockets or some sort of organizer. um not quite widespread across the district, but that's what uh assistant principles uh in our AP council discussed uh late last year and going to trying to get to option B with uh more focus on that through this year knowing that we were going to be at a point to possibly expand maybe depending on the board's direction. And so option B is just class uh classroom or class time instructional time restriction and that the devices can be accessible out at breaks, lunch, etc. So how did our stakeholders respond? Students responded 93% for option B. You don't have to memorize this because I do have a slide where we put everything lined up. Um staff responded with just under 60% for option A. full school uh full school day
12538% for option B. [clears throat] Parents a little more split but leaned to option B 52% to 46% option A. And then here's a slide that uh summarizes all the stakeholders on the left with their responses uh for preference under option A or option B. And it's a nice way to kind of see all the stakeholders together on one slide. We also put response rates there. Um, just want to point out the parents. We we have 13,227 parent square accounts that this was sent to. Uh, we know we don't have 13,000 students. Um, so, you know, obviously it was sent to uh multiple parents within the same household and we didn't say you each household gets one response. It's not it. we just send it to all um parents and parents square. I wanted to
126highlight that um considerations for the board to uh you know discuss and try to make a determination on which way to go. Obviously understanding the differences between option A and option B. Um also though that there could be depending upon um the desires there could be options within the options dare I say. What are those? I don't know it can be discussed and um there are different types of systems if there say as just as an example if there's a decision to move to option A does not mean we have to use uh say yonder pouches just as an example we could could not we could do like I mentioned honor system uh there's a couple of variances there but also research that comes with those um uh examples as well uh I want to
127point out as I said earlier from from the assembly bill that this is inclusive of smartphones and devices. So the legislation is clear. It says restricting student use of smartphones and devices. And so when we started talking amongst uh administrators uh our administrative vice principles, the idea is all devices, headphones, phones, watches that that's the way the legislation is written. So again, more to discuss within each option. So that we can drill down on that. And yeah, it's it's it's we already have some board policy that talks about just electronic devices in general. Um and and so this assembly bill got a little more specific and we can drill into that because I see some some uh like aha faces, which is okay because I had that too when when I read it. um additional
128considerations for including the perspectives of students, staff and parents, our stakeholder groups. Um as well as how do we implement and this is where a lot of the considerations are procedures um the development of uh the logistics and and how do we accomplish what is um being decided upon as far as which option. There are costs potentially associated. Um there is a link in here in the slide deck and we made sure that the uh cost spreadsheet which just has some generalized um estimates for what we could be looking at for option A or option B doesn't mean that's uh has to be decided but I wanted to provide a little bit understanding of costs. also got to consider we're not the only ones in this. Uh you know all districts, some districts have already
129made decisions maybe years ago. Some are currently working through like we are. There are others that are even probably late. Um so we may have delay in purchasing goods. Um the responsibility for ensuring compliance that's a strong consideration as well. We heard um some of that in public comment as well. um how to develop progressive supports for students that aren't quite getting with the program. And and as uh was highlighted in the public comment, we've seen it as well in a couple other studies about initially student behavior incidents um come up in in order to you know start to educate students on what that um cell phone uh restriction is dependent upon option. um communication and updating handbooks and the roll out really have to be strategic as well. So considerations to be made for
130that and [clears throat] and in in our timing because it is May but we are prepared to do what we need to do to support the school sites. And then ultimate consideration is the development of board policy 5131.8 um for first and second reading. just a snapshot of what some of the local districts I tried to focus on high school only even though there are some unified um districts here or neighbors to the north and Sanonteo Union um they just voted the the board just voted to go uh full day ban so they're included at the top although they have not um developed their policy yet unified Santa Clara Unified has um been doing this for a few years and they have a lot of resources um which you'll see in one of my final
131slides as well as DTEK High School um local to us has been doing this for several years as well. Um PaloAlto Unified and San Raone Valley were two examples of um continuing with instructional or class time restrictions on um student devices. And I talked to a colleague in um uh north of us up at Jefferson Union and they are still undetermined although they do have Pteranova um that went full uh day ban just this year. So, just some examples. Not an inclusive list. There's a lot of school districts local, but these were some that I felt um would would be good to highlight. So, where do we go from here? So, again, analyzing um with our options and looking at costs, trying to discuss what type of system, whether it's strict storage, pouches, caddies, organizers,
132whether they're just off and away or we don't want to see them. um developing our procedures with progressive supports for our students, getting to our June 10th board meeting to draft a policy of 51 uh 45131.8 for the board's um decision and review [gasps and sighs] because then that gets us to June 17th board meeting for the second reading and ultimate approval so that we can get working on um how to implement devise a implementation plan. We've started some of that work with our administrators over this year. So, we have like a starting point where we've already developed some of the progressive supports. We've uh already started working on definitions and what an implementation plan can look like depending on which way we go. So, we're not completely behind. And then communication, revising handbooks, as
133you've heard me say, and and communicating with um all stakeholder groups. Um before I stop one uh just note here I copied in some of the additional resources and research studies and then I realized there's a PDF so you can't get the links but all of these are uh linked in our district website at www.seq.org under student services and cell phone policy and that Florida study is highlighted first right there. So that's all I have as far as a presentation. Thank you. >> Okay. Um I guess do we [snorts] want to take that one public comment? Did they come back? >> There's a hand raised. I don't know if it's that person. >> No, it's not the same name. >> Yeah. Okay. So, any any questions then? If it if it is the same name,
134they should rename themselves to whatever their name was before. >> Okay. >> I said maybe two clarifying questions. I'm more potentially later, but is this all devices or just phones? Because like we just bought a whole bunch of Chromebooks. So, we now going to say we can't use them. the the if I could go look it up and I can get back to you, but I think it's personal uh smart smartphones and personal devices. >> So school supplied Chromebook they can use >> correct on the school supplied Chromebook. >> Sorry. Um >> because they could still go to social media sites, right? Or is that blocked in some way? >> Part of the implementation plan would be and this was highlighted in our um administrator group and some feedback from um stakeholders as well. I
135I have a eighth grader and a graduating senior myself who are experiencing the same thing and they know what to do. So I'm getting like the inside information for my own kids which is great. um as we all do and and so that has already been highlighted as well uh that we will have to be working with um our technology department as well for you know additional filters and trying to find uh ways to stop the workarounds of our ever so creative students. >> One other clarification on students with 504s get special access to their devices. So would this potentially increase demand for 504s? um students with a 504 or an IEP could have access and it would be for very specific reasons uh that either an IEP team or a section 504 team could
136agree to. So that also has been brought up a as a as a comment or a question um as we've been discussing this and so we're well aware in um how to as part of our implementation plan work through if we do see an influx of 504 requests specifically for phones um to have guidance for our 504 teams and we work very closely with um with our 504 coordinator, our MTSS coordinator who is in ED services used and student services and so we collaborate um pretty consistently so we'll we'll be doing that as well but good comment >> quickly should um I think the person renamed themselves should go back and do the public comment first >> yeah we can do the public comment finish that okay our public comment online is from Lisa Nadiv
137if you can unmute Hi, can you hear me? >> Yes, much better. Thank you. >> Oh, great. Great. I am a pediatrician at Kaiser in Daily City and I have solicited my health care colleagues um and we have written a joint statement of clinical support for a bell-to-bell phoneree policy. Um, and so I just wanted to read that to you. And I do believe I'm going to have more um, professional endorsements. As healthc care providers serving the children and adolescence of Sequoia Union High School District, we are writing to formally endorse the adoption of a bell-to-bell all day phone-free policy. In our daily clinical practice, we are witnessing an unprecedented rise in pediatric mental health crises, chronic sleep deprivation, and social emotional delays. It is our professional opinion that the constant presence of smartphones in
138the school environment is a significant contributing factor to these public health challenges. We strongly urge the bird board to implement a policy that requires phones to be stored away from the first bell to the last including lunch and passing periods based on the following clinical evidence. One, mitigation of the digital dopamine loop. Constant notifications create a state of continuous partial attention for the adolescent brain which is still developing the preffrontal cortex responsible for impo impulse control. Resisting the urge to check a phone is a significant physiological burden. A bell-to-bell band removes this cognitive load allowing the brain to enter the deep work state necessary for effective learning and information retention. Number two, protection of social emotional development. Social emotional learning occurs primarily during unstructured times such as lunch and passing periods. When students retreat into
139screens during these intervals, they lose critical opportunities to practice vital life skills, reading non-verbal cues, navigating interpersonal conflict in real time, and building authentic empathy through face-to-face interaction. Number three, reducing the reach of cyber bullying. Clinical data indicates that a substantial portion of student anxiety stems from social media. >> Sorry, your time is up. Thank you for your comment. Yes. And and if you email your um to us the complete statement if you weren't able to finish. >> And then sorry I just want to quickly follow up on one of Trustee Gin's questions. So if we talk about banning personal devices, I remember I would do this in high school and a lot of my friends would bring their own computers. So I wonder like what we're doing because I could see that being a
140huge problem cuz it's not like I guess like those computers were used in like either for after school clubs for you know not wanting to use a Chromebook. So be concerned of like inadvertently preventing students from doing that. >> Yeah, that um kind of goes back to my comment back to um vice president again on working with our technology department, but you sound like my senior right now. Same thing. >> So I had a question or a comment about [clears throat] the IEP and 504s. So if we do the all day band, right, and only the students with IEP and 504s are walking around and using those devices, how are we protecting, you know, how are we protecting their yeah, their confidentiality of of being IEP 504? That's one of the things that I've been
141thinking about. I'm like, wait a minute. So yeah, students are walking around their >> I'm not sure anybody [clears throat] sent that to the legislators as a concern before it was this was signed. Um but uh that is a concern and I've heard that raised um a number of times as well. And what immediately come like jumps to the forefront of of my mind is we already handle um very few but they are out there students that do have access to uh say a cell phone. say a student with diabetes and having to check insulin and or glucose levels on an app on their device, which already is not allowed in class. And so we already have somewhat of uh I wouldn't say process because I don't think there's process. Um but that is a
142real concern depending on what option um uh is proceeds because there's going to be some there's going to be some there has there's going to have to be some consideration on how that is handled discreetly so as to protect those students because it it just because a student would have a device out it could be for any of those exceptions medically IEP 504 staff um approve approval or a doctor's note. Um I think the doctor's note is the one that's an interesting one. But um I think we can develop uh stronger protocols for supporting the students in that regard. But it's going to take um again communication and um training and and working through those teams to make sure when we are reviewing those conversations in a a 504 plan uh team meeting or an
143IEP meeting that we address that >> and that we have like steps for the students to be able to you know guide process because probably should be very discreet whether they leave class on a pass and do it like there's a lot considerations, a lot of things bouncing around in my mind. Um, so I appreciate that comment because it's a concern >> and I wonder how the other high schools that do have pool band, how are they dealing with like if you have information on how they're dealing with this specific um IEP and 504s and how they're dealing with it just to give us an idea of like >> what's happening. >> Add to the list. >> Thank you. [laughter] Oh [snorts] yes. Um I have been in contact with a couple vendors. I haven't
144received any specific uh estimates on on because the cost sheet is just generalized from what I was able to um find from some colleagues and or on the internets as they say. Um, but I have been talking with Yonder, who does have uh a specific pouch for that type of um accommodation, which is Velcro. So, it's not one of their magnetic must be unlocked by a um device, but that's Velcro. Like, I can just imagine in class the quietness of Velcro [laughter] outing a student with a 504 and IPA. But at least the idea is there for accessibility given um the exemption and just finding a way to make sure that that can uh that the student has access per the approved exemption in a discrete manner I think would be key >> since this
145is I had another question but this is since we're on the topic of accommodations one thing that I'm thinking about too. And I I don't know. I think that perhaps it'd be interesting to speak um or to to hear directly um from from some of those from some of our team members who are writing these IEPs directly and putting in the accommodations. I'm thinking of, for example, if a student has an accommodation that they get breaks in a classroom or breaks during the school day. That's a very common accommodation. But if that student is taking 25 breaks during one class period, that is not what that accommodation is for. And so I do want to >> again I'm just listening to comments, but I I that would be very interesting to me to hear from
146someone who is doing this on a like writing these accommodations and and monitoring these accommodations in terms of like what does that mean? Um, and I I'd be curious to see like how many if if we already and I just saw Carlmont, so way to go Carlmont because I didn't those phones were in those pouches. Um, I did not see that all the I all the time in passing periods was um but I am curious too about those who if those accommodations are then already in place in our district like what do those look like as they're written in the IP? How are they monitored? Um, and are there actually that many of them would be something I'd be quite curious to find out more about. I will I have other questions. >> So, I
147I sort of would go back to is the goal to stop access of social media in which case we need to buy in a whole bunch of different devices, anything with any internet connection and even if you have a phone with you, it can tether to a device. So like if that's our goal and then phones are also valuable tools. Maybe half the people come up to speak to us are using their phone to give us their comment. Um I use my phone to learn all the time. Um so yeah there's social media bad but there's learning valable tool good and it's a tool that they'll use in college and career. So if we don't have students learning to use electronic devices as valuable tools, are we preparing them to be successful contributors in a
148global society where technology is key by locking up the technology and expecting to be technology savvy? So I think there's some trade-offs between our mission of preparing students for the future and then having them in an environment at school that's not like the future they're going to be in. So I'm I'm sort of torn on those things. And I appreciate the comment about the denominator because I did note that 3.5% of parents and the 13% of staff responded. So I think that it's hard to know whether the people who responded were significantly different than the people who didn't respond. So not sure on that, but I think the student survey was very clear even with the sample size where our students feel on it. So um anyway, just I I did appreciate pointing out the
149denominators. I may probably would have missed the low response rate. um from some of the categories. >> Yeah. So, um I I did have some questions. Um I I know people have brought up uh emergency usage and that's actually one of the exclusions as well. Um, so what what what do we currently do when there's an emergency and and phones are in pouches and then what's u the potential outlook if there was a bellto bell ban like how would that roll out if there was an emergency? >> Yeah. Um what let me answer or address the first question with what should be happening. >> Mhm. >> Because we followed the Sanonteo County Coalition for Safe Schools and Communities Big Five and according to the Big Five during any type of emergency, the guidance is uh
150for students to not be accessing their their devices, their phones. Um there could be some trouble and and the reason why that coalition included that guidance is for the comment that you heard earlier of um communication and cell phone towers in a real emergency those will those will get uh impeded traffic and so there is a real concern there. Um but also in certain types of emergencies, we want to follow the response to set emergency under the big five, which often um gets to a more and more restrictive response of being in a classroom um in like the the most severe incident and responding to being quiet and in a lockdown. We we don't want students rushing for a phone. Uh the guidance is get safe first. Like that's the guidance. Um you know, securing
151the door, you know, trying to pull um curtains and or blinds closed and and turning off the lights and and being quiet out of view from from doors and windows. That's the those are the steps of guidance. And then barricade if we can. That's a real um uh heightened response to a worst case scenario. And there's variations of responses to emergencies where say it's in an earthquake and and we're in a drop, cover, and hold. Uh is that the worst place to notify a parent and grab the phone? No. But in a in a significant earthquake, we will have downlines. We will have cell towers not connecting and more people that are trying to connect will get in the way of emergency services. And so what we should be doing is no one should be
152communicating with the outside. I understand I'm a parent myself. I would love to hear from my child in that moment. So I'm very conflicted. Um and so I don't know a real good answer yet because we haven't worked through every type of scenario. But um I guarantee that we will have an appropriate response if that is the option that we go with. Uh cuz your second part there was a bell to bell and how do we how do we accommodate that exception? I think that's going to be a question for our coalition to also address and revise guidance. Um I'm on that steering committee for that coalition. We have a meeting coming up which I'm planning on bringing that up. So um hopefully we we we can receive um countywide um input or feedback on
153that as well. I did mention it before, but um in terms of the mi our what we as an organization think we want our students to learn knowing about using technology and how what we do here affects that if at all would be something I'd want to hear more about. And I'd also want to hear more about thoughts on if the relationship between the students and the administrators or potentially the students and the teachers would be affected by our choice here and if so how those are two big questions. Um so the first one um there's there >> I mean I can I can just you know hit it a bit but we can prepare um uh a larger response but um the first question remind me again was I lost my thought. >> What
154we as an organization want our students to know about you know using technology and being ready for you know lifelong learners and contributing members of society and how >> this would impact that. >> Yeah. So depending on what type of option is selected um there are additional like I said options within the option which could um not to volunteer writing new curriculum but there there could be digital citizenship lessons there could be ways to educate as you're saying our students in making positive decisions. There's there's a lot to respond there that that can be done um and maybe not by the first day of the school year but definitely considerations to build out. you like to answer that one, too? >> I think Jared's trying to give answers to some questions that he really can't
155answer because he's trying to do his job, but some things like what's going to happen to what do people in our district think is going to happen? I'm picking on you, Rich, cuz Rich cuz you're rich cuz I I feel like we have I feel like I can do that because you talk data back and forth and you enjoy it and I'm not trying to be insulting with this comment whatsoever. Mad props and respect. Um, but what do what what do we think is going to happen to the student administrator relationship if there's a tug-of-war about cell phones? I'm not sure how to get that piece of information. I think it's as you it will be a different answer from a different administrator that you ask and that we won't necessarily know that now or
156what's going to happen with the different individual variables. You guys are asking great questions that show just how nuanced and complicated this is. I don't see us coming back to you with a bunch of very clear answers going to allow you to make a more informed decision next time. So, I just want to set that expectation that we'll do our darnest, but some of what you're asking is people are going to be figuring out while we're flying the plane and trial and error. And the analogy that came to my mind when I was thinking about these, and it may not be the right analogy, but I think that college RAS who are supposed to enforce alcohol policies have very different relationships with the students on their floor than college RAS who don't. And it just
157changes the whole tone of the dorm. Um, I went to school where the RA did not have that job and the RA was like part of the community. And I visited friends where the RA was and they were like isolated like the person you avoided. It was a completely different relationship in the dorm because of the role. >> Yes. >> And I to me like this starts to feel somewhat like that. And I >> I don't know if I'm if that if that would be some like is that a remotely close analogy or is it completely different for some reason that I'm not aware. >> So I think it's going to vary from administrator to administrator and kid to kid. But yes, that is going to be a factor. When we ask people to do
158things they don't want to do, it changes the relationship. Sometimes it makes it stronger cuz in eventually after all this push and pull, they say that we still like them as a human and that we still ask about their weak and that we're not judging them because we're we took their cell phone away and they were not very cooperative about it. But that's a lot of time and energy every time you're having one of those, right? Um, I mean, why is it so hard for parents to just tell their kids at home, get off your cell phone and stay off your cell phone until tomorrow? Because it's exhausting, right? And they want their kids to have downtime and they don't want them to be alienated from their friend group and like all these reasons. But
159yeah, it's going to be hard to enforce it and it is going to change relationships and it is going to be more work. Maybe it'll change relationships for the better in the long run because kids finally are talking more to each other or they got to work through this hard scenario with an administrator and go full circle. But yes, there's going to be I can say safely without knowing for sure what's going to happen in the long run of relationships with students and administrators in the district. It's going to cause more friction at least initially. So um just curious are we looking for any sort of like board or like our thoughts on like where we are between options today or not? >> Yeah. >> So yes >> high level >> um yes because the
160next time that this comes back is with staff's recommendation on what we will have as the policy moving forward July 1st. um since it is a board policy and then there will be a second adoption at the last board meeting in June. >> Yes, >> that does make me sorry. >> Oh no, you can >> I just the thank you for the reminder of the timeline. Um I think one thing that I am thinking about though and this is something from my own personal experience is students often leave in June expecting to come back to the school that they left in June. So they come back in August thinking. So I just whatever we choose option A or B I I do want to like definitely be plugging that we've like the message like the
161survey data is not like yes do not everyone is knowing about this and I really think that if we just hit this in August whichever option we do is going to plop plop is that a fail fall I don't know. So, I just want to make sure that we are really focusing on like the messaging and letting students know and having whatever that might look like on the different school sites of like expect change one way or another because I I do agree that I I I saw great things at Carlmont, but I know that I wasn't in every classroom and I know that that's not not the emails that we're getting is not consistent with every classroom and every teacher. So I think regardless we have to make sure that we are messaging right
162now that something is changing whether that's A or B. So I just want to put a pin in that >> clarifying question. If we pick B is that mean something's changing. I'm >> slightly hard to say. I would but I I one question that feeds into that is I wanted to understand like each school kind of has an option B sort of but it's not mandatory right and so I just wanted to understand how well is the current implementation for kind of like a volunteer option B and do we have a sense of the percentage of classrooms that are actually following the the plan B or option B because that would give us a sense of how drastic the change is. >> That would be tough to evaluate because I mean you we'd literally have
163to audit walking into every classroom which is in and of itself to do that is a little um you know we communication to do that and evaluate. Um, in talking with administrators and hearing feedback that we heard through the surveys, it's pretty clear uh because we had narrative responses in our first survey, it was very evident that it it's not uh being enforced across every school site uh even within the school site. Um because there was, you know, it takes enforcement. And so initially in moving into uh this focus for this school year, there was communication at the school sites to the students knowing that um this was coming as far as another conversation as to we continuing and making it schoolwide and districtwide with our current plan in place or will it become um
164a full day? So I know that that but that was also a year ago and that is only for current 9 through 11 that are returning. So, um, consideration there, too. >> But I just also like to remind we do not have a current board policy that enforces um, and for us to plan in work tour, whether that be option A or B. So, this would be right. The regulation requires us to memorialize and to have have that. And we have been talking on if it was option B, what that looks like, how can we do that better, right? That would be the mandatory expectation because it is board policy that that would be our practice through at the minimum that would be our practice throughout all of our school sites. >> Okay. >> Um
165the the all of the sites said at the beginning of the year that they were going to try the put don't have your phones out during class. So kids at all of our sites heard in their classes at the beginning of the year, you're not to have your cell phones out during fast during class. That won't be new. If it's more enforced, that will be new in in in some places. And like Jared said, we don't know the percentile. I walk into lot of lots of classrooms and I see kids slipping them in like slipping them in, but I also know their teachers are like, "N whatever, you can use it in here." Right? So the message is already out that you're not supposed to have your cell phones in class. Are we enforcing it
166completely? Definitely not. So that's it'll be much less of a shocker if you guys choose that. I will also say just to muddy the waters further that you could say we'd like to for for this year we're going to do one option and then we're going to look at it again next spring or we're going to work towards the second one for next year. Um just to muddy things further. >> This doesn't muddy. I was going to ask you >> have to wait five years. >> I was going to ask the same question like can we change it later? So thank you for answering that. >> Um >> is there a survey of just the principles? >> Uh we cannot disclose because that would release you know yeah [laughter] personally identifiable information would be released.
167>> They talked about everything. They talked about everything you guys talked and and that the audience talked about tonight, >> but it's very complicated. >> Okay. >> Um, >> so if if we're going to start sharing our thoughts, I'm happy to go first. So, >> I have some additional questions, too. Um, so I I think the other thing I I had a question about is do we know what our feeder district policies are? I believe if I'm not mistaken, Superintendent Leech, they all currently have an all day >> all day have a full day ban. Not all pouches. Some have the honor system, but there are consequences. And yeah. Okay. which I had like Bonnie and I had a very interesting conversation early because I said because like [clears throat] when we were talking about
168this a couple weeks ago, I was like, "Oh, well, if I didn't think that they all had a full day ban and and so I was surprised when I heard that they had had a full day ban and that most of them have had this for a while." I was I was thinking, "Oh, well, if they do a full day ban and then we go to this is going to be easier for us." And then when I found out that they've had a full day ban for longer than just recently, I said, "Okay, that's not changing it." Because then I was like, "Okay, how do we scale this in to reduce the conflict and everything?" And then Bonnie had a completely different analysis than than I did, then if they have an all day band,
169then why isn't it already like easy? And so, yeah, there's that. every with every incoming 9th grade class. It was supposed to be easier. That's what you >> That's what that was like. I was kind of holding on to that as a little bit like um like of a hope um Yeah. So, but it is definitely Yeah. >> Okay. >> But they our feeders do have full full day ban. >> Okay. And then also um you know we're talking a lot about students, but what's the policy uh for staff and campus visitors during the school day? >> That's a good question. Uh to I don't know the answer to that one. Um this legislation is specific for students. Um so I'm not prepared to answer that. >> Okay. So any policy related to employees would
170likely be negotiated as well as if this um is if we do go to a full day ban we will that will be a change of working conditions um for teachers in classrooms with their students and that will also have to be negotiated. >> Okay. I just feel like as adults we always have to role model the behavior of it. [laughter] >> My phone is in my backpack actually. It's not on my table today. Um, okay. And then I uh one last question is I know we're we're really trying to prevent addictive behavior. Um, so how do we currently do that? Like how do we identify a student who might be addicted to uh devices or social media? And would anything change with a bell-to-bell ban or would it stay the same? Um that that's
171tough to answer and the entire wellness team left for me to stand here and address that. Awesome. Shout out to them again. But um I I think in our wellness centers and and with our staff, they certainly um hear from students and work with students and you know their their brief sessions um in support. But as it relates to, as you heard um Stephen Emmy speaking about, as Vice President Gin pointed out, uh working in a shortterm um uh working through shortterm support of students to get them back to learning in the classroom. And so the focus out of our wellness centers really is that to address um the barriers to their education whatever that might be including potential um you know phone andor social media addiction. um we we have had um our neuroscience
172of addiction um curriculum and life skills and so there has been components of education um with students and and so potentially that that could get expanded depending on um you know what the board would like to decide. >> Okay. Yeah, those were all the questions I had. Yeah, if you want to start talking about your current thinking. >> Yeah. So, um, firstly, I mean, it wasn't too long ago that I still remember being in high school. And I can say like I probably multiple times on my phone during class when I was bored. And but more importantly, I feel like I remember like during times at lunch, we even though people would use their phone like if you know you were relatively social and you had friends, people would still be chatting at lunch. And
173I think broader level, even if we banned phones at lunch, unless we were going to sit there and enforce every single type of device ban, we'd run the same problem kids ran into in my middle school, which was, you know, phones weren't allowed at lunch, but we had a one-on-one iPad program, and no one would really stop you from using your iPad. So, you know, people who are kids who maybe were more socially isolated and need more help. It's not like banning phones helped them. They just probably used their iPads, you know, to do it. So I I think broader level there are bigger social issues at play that would need to be addressed that I just think simply banning phones wouldn't necessarily do that in terms of a ban during lunch. I do think
174middle school and elementary school are relatively different and I think if if we included them I would completely support a full day ban cuz I don't think so that it's productive at that age to give them access to stuff like this. But at a higher level, I think what drives my thinking is it's important for us to be able to teach students to develop their own form of discipline and self-control. Cuz in all honesty, when you go to college or when you go to the real world, no one's going to like ban cell your use of cell phones during time. They might notice that you're doing it and it'll come out in other ways. So if like in a college lecture, like I know professor is going to tell you to get off your phone,
175but you they're not >> sorry. But I mean like [clears throat] for any big lecture hall like they're not they're not going to police individually. But you know if you don't pay attention, you don't learn the content, they're not going to come help you when you fail your test. So if a student can't develop at least some of that self-control themselves, I do believe we're not setting them up for success post post um career. And I think it is very hard. Like even I still probably struggle to today in terms of a reduced attention span probably due to social media and phone usage. And it does take probably more self-control to not be able to respond to pings right away when I get them. But I think higher level a policy of unified support among
176teachers that has buyin saying that phones should not be used in class and enforcing it that way. but also having appropriate acknowledgement of the fact that we can't be police, we can't police students throughout an 8 hour school day and that fundamentally enforcing some sort of ban across eight eight hours of the day would probably involve in a lot more work than it's worth. I'd be more in favor of some sort of hybrid approach, more like option B, the like classroom ban. And I wouldn't even totally oppose necessarily trying to ban phones at lunch and seeing what happens there. And you know, maybe letting students use them in breaks or like passing periods between class, but I think forcing students to develop some of that self-control their own will completely not be achieved by just
177a wall-to-wall phone ban. And I really wonder what would happen when that same student goes to college and no one's taking away their phone for 8 hours a day. like would it would we truly be helping them set um set up for success? And at the end of the day, if a student wants to be distracted or doesn't want to pay attention, there are tons of ways to do that. And then when we went to site visits, like we always do notice like certain students who are less checked in and others who are. I think you know naturally some students might be more tempted to use certain devices and it is definitely hard on teachers to you know be in a classroom where students are not paying attention or using their phones dayto-day but I
178think uh simply banning it won't necessarily have in my opinion the effects that we think it might have and I'm more interested in focusing on ways to help students develop that self-control themselves which I think is a hundred times harder of a problem but would actually address some of the root causes of the issues here. But that's just where my initial thoughts are. >> Yeah. Okay. For me, [clears throat] for me growing up without of home and then going into the age of phone has been a really huge shift. And then I also teach, right? I'm a professor and I have students in class who don't have access maybe to laptops, right? Or have the money to buy those laptops. So they use their phones. So I at the beginning I didn't let them use
179their phones, right? When when this first came out, I was like, "No, no, no." But then I saw this need right for for the academic u access and I I saw that at Carmont the academic access that some of our students needed to do their marketing and to do their t they did have to do a Tik Tok they did a Tik Tok to you know share their their work their academic work actually and then to and to look at their articles right that writing the articles they utilize these phones for academic purposes and so I am torn about this whole day ban versus the non you know A&B B 88 you know the bell I mean but I am right now I'm I'm more on the side of B only because I think that
180um we could start slowly and and implement it across I think it's a good idea to implement just the review across all campuses start somewhere right start there um and then like you said look at the options within the options right as we move along as we move forward to see what's working how it's um what we could do better, what we could adjust in in regards to policy. Um so that's where I am right now. I feel uh yes conflicted also because I know that phones are are safety, right? I I have a child who was in high school who was at Memo Athetherton. They are enforcing the the phone policy. He does put his phone into that little pocket every day and there is a huge improvement in in his academic success. And
181I I've seen it. I'm like, "Wow, okay. you're actually putting your phone. I I asked him, I go, "How do you guys do? Do you guys put your phones in those little pockets?" He's like, "Yeah, well, when we come in, we put our phones in those little pockets." And sometimes some of the teachers u actually use that as attendance as what from what I heard. That some students I mean some teachers that use that as a tends, right? If the phone's not there, where's the kid? Right. So, they put their phones in. He's focused 100% on what he has to do. Um, and I do think also, yeah, about safety. You know, none of our schools are are gated, right? We're very open campuses. And so I often think about my son being in some
182hor, you know, situation that I hope it never happens. Um, and I think about safety and I think about that access and if they're in pockets, great. They they could have access after, right, or at some point. But, um, so those are my thoughts and just the things that I've been thinking. are really more prone to be and and seeing where we could take that and maybe change it to A in the future, you know, as we as we go forward. So, thank you. That's where I'm at. >> Okay. Um, I think where I am is I'm trying to balance a lot of hats of being um being the representative for my constituents. I have gotten many many emails prior to this even showing up on the agenda. Um I'm trying but I also have
183to remember that like one of the reasons I assume one of the reasons I was elected was I do have 15 plus years of experience in on school sites. Um so I'm definitely like going into that. Um I currently am at a middle school that is completely bell or I'm bell to bell. Um and it is be I know it's middle school. It's not high school, but it's beautiful to like watch kids be kids. Um to play pingpong in the middle of the day, to like go seek out friends, to just be outside, dare I say, touch grass. Um like it's it's it is it's it's really pleasant to see that. Um, I was also the principal that went like, "Okay, guys, let's have a lot of teacher autonomy and try it for a year
184and watch it fail miserably because all I I love teachers, but all you need is one teacher who refuses to take those phones and it sabotages the whole thing." And I saw that firsthand with my eyes and and then I and I remember going on like the moms of St. Carlos and being like, "Can anybody give me board game donations so we have like things to do at lunchtime when I when I needed to shift the next year and go top down and say no, no more like classroom choice because it didn't work? We're putting in no phones." And was August and September very hard for my administration and myself? 100% yes. Was October better? 100% yes. because at some point and I it's I feel like there's this idea of like when you do
185the pouches in or you do whatever you do like there's that piece of it that yeah there's going to be push back for a lot of times and to answer your question I can specifically remember a conversation where I was like student a I'm sorry if you do not give me your phone I'm going to have to call your mom to come get you because this like I'm not going to have a back and forth and then I had to call mom and then I had mom say Well, if he's not going to give to you, that's on him. And then had to have mom come in and like and that was lots of work. Like I remember that. And the next day he turned in his phone. Like that day stunk, but the next
186day he turned in his phone. Like so I I I'm like super super torn. To go with your comment, Trusty Nory, I think I I 100% agree that like students need to have this self-awareness and have this discipline and have self-control, but putting like a bowl of candy in front of them and saying, "Okay, practice your self-control. Don't eat that candy. We I I taught you all the reasons why the sugar is bad for you." Is not the same as providing a scaffold to allow them to learn that self-control. And so like I agree with you, but until we start like really like focusing our time on digital literacy classes, like I I I don't I'm not sure that we are ready to just hand students this tool or continue I shouldn't say hand, they've
187already been doing continue letting students use a tool that we know research has said has harmed has caused real harm. Um I know you're like what is she doing? What is she choosing? Um I am also like my comment before concerned about this concept of like gradually going into this because students also need time to practice this. Um and I don't think we've given them enough necessarily time because we're not making this decision until it's June. I I mean if I had my ideal what I would want is like we we basically ideally I want a um but I think we need to scaffold them and our administration and our teachers and let them have like I don't know even just like for the first semester lunch is is open like you could like you
188could potentially do lunch for the first semester because that's the biggest amount of time your 20 minute get back into attention like five minute of passing period you don't have you can't get back into attention you're focused on that text you you're distracted going into class but like maybe lunch is the time where you're like I'm going to we're going to ease into this and then second semester rroll it out so I I that I'm not I I choose a hybrid between A and B um with the hopes that we can get to A and my leniency is more Okay. >> Uh, quickly adding on, I guess like I think the broader question we should also kind of consider is like what level of discipline choices are we willing to place behind this because I
189do think a lot of these restrictions can be toothless if students find like oh someone just tells them to put their phone away. Like I wouldn't I wouldn't mind a policy that says if you're caught with your phone when you're not supposed to like we will take it and only give it back to you at the end of the day. But like you said it needs to be consistently enforced. And I feel like right now there is no clear disciplinary policy. I think even between option A and B, having a clear vision for that is probably just as important for ensuring that it's successful. So like I think you could choose either of them, but we're not very clear like what is the enforcement mechanism and not necessarily on like how we're going to like
190have teacher staff to go tell them, but what will the consequences be if you catch someone not on their phone? I think, you know, that's something just important to consider. >> It's definitely important to consider, but remember we're the how, not the what. Did I say that right? what not the how. >> What always mix it up as the board where the what not the how. And so I agree and we need to make sure that that how would Yeah. You can't you can't have that enforcement without some type of consequence but that's that's that would have to be at the school site. Ideally, there wouldn't be social media use during the school day, but phones for learning purposes would be like there'd be a way to balance that. Maybe that's just not possible in
191the real world. Um, if there's any technology, then students have access to stuff. So, either we're banning all technology or they still have access to stuff. Um, some thoughts. I'd be very influenced by what the principles wanted to do because they're the ones who ultimately have to enforce all of this. So, if the principles all said they really want to lock up the phones all day because that's what best in the campuses, I'd probably lean that way. If the principal said some just because those are the people who actually have to enforce this. Um, and it's hard for me. I know I can't possibly think of all the things that the people who have to enforce this will have to deal with. So I want to hear more about that when when a policy comes
192back about what do the people who are going to actually have to deal with it where the r is going to meet the road think is the right approach. Um to the extent that the phase in approach is doable to start with trying to have option B work and then see what it can be. It'd be great if there's a culture on our whole district that phones are for emergency use during breaks or, you know, family coordination, but not to watch videos. If if that would be something that could be a cultural thing that most students did or many students did, that'd be great. I don't know if that's possible. Um, so I I I I could kind of support either one. I lean toward B if I had to pick, but I'd be very
193influenced by what the people who actually have to enforce it think would be most effective. Okay. Um and then for myself, um you know, I I I do feel that addiction and and making sure that our kids are not addicted is is my primary focus. And it it is kind of true that if if it's all out there and up to each student to self-regulate, sometimes it's overwhelming. Um so, um I I kind of see that high school could be an opportunity to start learning and testing the waters of how much they can handle, especially if we assume that all of the feeder districts have bell-to-bell bands. Um, you know, in some sense I'd want to know how effective those bands are. Um, because my I I was a parent as as well as on
194a school board as we were trying to implement some things, but it was all sight specific. It was not a a district-wide policy. And I know actually for the the younger grade levels, the biggest fear was from the parents. So, we would definitely need to make sure um whatever path forward that the parents are on board because the parents are the ones who want access to their kids at all times. Um I even had an argument within my own family saying like, "No, the kid needs a cell phone cuz we're not dropping them off at school anymore. Something could happen in the one mile when they're biking to school." And I said, "Dude, there's so many people on the street biking back and forth, driving back and forth. like if something happens, someone's going to
195notice, you know, [laughter] like it's only one mile. Okay. Um but you know, that's the types of conversations that are happening in the households, too, because there's a lot of fear about safety. So, personally, um, you know, I' I'd like to strive to option A because, you know, I'm the type of person who sees when we go camping and all devices are off, like it's so magical because everyone's just stuck on their phones and it's not just the kids, it's the adults. That's why I ask about what's the expectation of adults because it's kind of not fair if the students are not allowed to use phones and then the adults in front of them are using it all day long. So um but I am as an operations person concerned that this is a very
196short lead time to actually implement something like option A because uh by the time we approve the policies it's already June and do we really have enough time to roll everything out? Um cuz because if we already have experience somewhat with option B, then at least we could start with actually fully implementing option B and making it a requirement across all schools, all classrooms, not up to the teacher and start with that and then kind of work towards option A. And maybe we don't need to if things actually are working really well with option B. Um, but if we're still seeing like, hey, there there isn't as much improvement or things are still happening in passing periods and lunch periods where uh students are not um developing relationships and they're still glued to their phones
197or whatever the case may be, then we then implement something like option A further down the line. But I'm I'm just concerned there's not enough lead time to fully implement this. And I want it to be done well, not doing it while flying the plane. Like that's we don't have to do it that way. Like sometimes there are emergencies where you have to make it up while flying the plane. Um, but we do have the time to try and make sure the implementation goes smoothly and everyone's clear about expectations, roles, and responsibilities and um kind of ease into it because I I think it may be easier for the eighth graders going into the ninth grade. It's really the students that have already experienced that freedom [laughter] that may have a little bit of a
198rough time with the transition. Um, so if we can do like a a phase one, phase two, I'd be more on board with that. Um, >> can I ask a clarifying? Do we have to wait a year to get to phase two? Like like >> Well, I know we can change our policies anytime, but I but I just want to make sure that like as we're talking about phasing and all this, like the law says we only have to review it in five years. Often times schools do things in year cycles. Mhm. >> This is so important. If we are phase if we were even talking about phasing, I don't I I want I would be curious if everybody would be open and be like, okay, we're lean we're using first semester and then we
199are phasing into a or something. I just I I want to be really careful of just phasing and then it just gets oh we'll talk about it in a year from now. >> Yeah. I think >> what about try be and then have a report how it went after the first semester's over. That's what I was going to say and I was kind of saying that like let's try B and then gradually go into A like little by little and like President Cruz said to implement it well that is the way to do it. We cannot I don't feel like it would be a great policy to just rush in and do it all and you know make everybody do it all at one time and I don't think it would roll out too well.
200But that also doesn't change anything. Like what you're saying is if we try at A and then we get the data and then we report back and then we make a decision in February, we're back to a year where next year we would not be doing A at all. And I just am curious, does anyone see a possibility besides me who would like to see some version of A next year? Well, I think changing something would be I don't know if this is also bargainable, but saying like, you know, we have a district policy that you cannot use phones in class and like trying to make it consistent with teachers saying like we have other devices, so if you need something that needs a device, the option shouldn't be okay students, it's okay, you can
201go on your phone like and you know, you know, I think like there's some classes naturally where people are more comfortable doing that. Like I remember and especially some elective courses it was really considered you know like whatever like if you want to use your phone to do something like it's all chill but I think those kind of really are bad and set the precedent like a I can get away with it here like why can't I get away with it in English too. So I don't know if that's more along the lines of like keeping it option B but being very very firm that you know phones that are district policies like you should never ask a student to use their phone inside a classroom. >> Yeah, I think I think you're right. But
202I think also like what I witnessed at Carmont students in marketing and um and literature, right? Like the writing and they're using like they they need their phones like to do some of the work that they're doing to see how it looks in format like you know all that kind of stuff. So I have to think about like those things. >> I see that. But I would I think we need some specific like when you'd specifically need a phone that a laptop wouldn't work or solve most of the needs. I'd be curious to hear when that might actually be cuz in my opinion and granted I could be completely wrong 99.9% of those cases you should be able to use some combination of a laptop or a camera if you need a photo app to
203solve your >> and I I believe either option still allows uh students to use their devices with educator permission. So that's one of the details the one of the hows that needs to be worked out. It's not saying that they can't use their phones ever, right? It has to be with teacher approval. >> And then you just have to be very then that's where we need to like be super strict with this policy because teacher approval of >> marketing for your journalism class is very different than teacher approval of, oh, you all finished your lesson 20 minutes early. Yeah, go for it. Get on your phone. Because that's also teacher approval and I am not for that. >> [laughter] >> repercussion for teachers. You know what I mean? Like what is that? What is that
204polic you know that's going back to policy on teaching which is a whole other thing. So I think in terms of me for option A I I think it's it may be confusing to try and implement it in semester two. Right. >> I don't know. Is it? >> I'm just trying to think. Or is it like I don't I'm not an educator so I don't know midyear transitions how that works. >> Here's what I would propose. If you decide that we are going to go with option A and do it with fidelity >> and that option B is >> um an aspirational goal. >> You mean I do. I mean reverse. I mean reverse. Sorry. I saw you all leaning forward like you wanted to say something to me. Um that maybe what we come
205back with is a timeline, right? Like so over the summer we have to figure out what's the policy. Well, we've got to bring a draft of the policy itself. We have to figure out what are the consequences going to be for the cell phones and and level those out and be ready to work with teachers when they get back and have the training for them about this is what we're doing. Then we're going to need to be clear with kids about these are the consequences. That's September, right? So then we're looking at, okay, if we did decide that we were going to go with a full day ban, how would we do that? Would we use pouches? Would it be the honor system? Edith comes to me and says, you just change teaching conditions. That's
206a demand to bargain. So I've got to get that done with the teachers before we can really roll out. So what I'm saying is maybe we say we're not going to put a timeline on it, whether it's going to be the semester or the end of the year. At first, we're just going to start rolling through what we think needs to get done to be in the best place possible to do the full day if we decide we want to go that way next spring for the coming year and maybe it would only take until December. I think it's hard to change mid year after kids are in the same classes and have had certain routines. I think it is easier when it's chunk. But that's is it impossible? No. >> But have we come
207to a consensus as a board then that our ideal scenario is option A? cuz it wasn't my understanding that we did that at all. Right. Like I thought the majority of us felt that we should do option B. >> No, I it was more of me trying to phase the water or test the water to see if one is option A the ideal thing that we're working towards and B two I don't remember if I did one or two or A or B. The next thing is I was asking is if people the timeline so curious of where the board stood on that. >> So maybe we can have just a a review of whether option A is kind of our aspirational goal or um if you implement B and it's working you just want
208to stick with that. I mean, I'm not like totally opposed to option A as like an aspirational goal. Like in the short term, I think the realistic case of like what we could do that would see benefits to students is some version of option B with more strict. But like I said before, I I do kind of believe there's a little bit of a difference, especially when you're a senior and you're 18, you know, getting ready to go to college or getting ready to do your next thing than, you know, a middle schooler in terms of like how much freedom we need to give them. And I just, you know, pedagogically struggled a little bit to kind of see how like banning phones completely at school would turn into a gigantic cat-and- mouse game that
209would just make everyone's lives more painful. And I think it is aspirationally good the goals that a lot of us share that we want to pursue here in terms of, you know, increasing socio um well-being like reducing addiction to social media, you know, and I not exactly convinced that simply banning phones will solve those problems. And I think there are a lot larger issues at play that will kind of manifest in other ways which is why I'm a little more skeptical of a full day ban versus but I do believe that and not to get into the how but we do need to be a lot more consistent when it comes to option B in terms of what the consequences are and how it's enforced. And I do think things like that would have a
210dramatic shift in increase because you know my biggest thing would be when students are learning they shouldn't be on their phones or they're supposed to learn they shouldn't be on their phones. Like if you know a student really wants to go on their phone at lunch yeah it's not ideal but it probably has happened and people do it every single day at work. I see it and you know it's probably way harder to police and stop that. But the most we can do to like emphasize during you know the hours someone's in class that they're not on their phone. we take that really seriously. I think that would be my biggest priority. So, yeah. Sorry, long-waited answer, but I'd probably lean no on eventual goal of A just for now, but totally could change. >>
211Yeah, for me, I'm I'm more geared towards B right now with some of A, right? Like I like the mental health and wellness part of A that yes, our students are addicted like even us sometimes are addicted, right, to these phones and looking at it and being distracted. But for now, I I'm more geared towards B so that we can get to some versions of A. Not total A, but some versions of A. I'd like to incorporate. So, and I want to see and I want to make sure that it's implemented well. Like President G said, you know, I don't want it to be just flying the plane and [snorts] seeing what happens. So, yeah, I'm more inclined to do it that way. see what and see what we could do better and how we
212could do it better and see how it works with B and yeah that's where I stand right now I think I'm pretty close to where what Safik said I think our policy at the June 17 meeting should be B and then some sort of a review at some point um considering whether or not A is the right thing and it could that A is easier than B and that B is too hard to enforce and A would actually be easier to enforce, but I don't know. And so I I keep looking at the one principal in the room because you're the one prince in the room, but you're not you're just I'd be interested to hear from the sites how it's going and if the sites said we really need A because B is not
213doable because you know if if one or two people aren't supporting it, then the whole thing breaks down and you have to go with A because that's the only like I'm not opposed to A. My sense is that for the reasons I said earlier about lifelong learners and using technology and all that that B is maybe the the better approach, but maybe it's not doable. And I think it's going this going to come down to what's what's like operationally doable. But I think the very near-term decision would be B at the June June like the policy I think we're approving in June is B and then what we do from there I think we're we're open to hearing how it's going and considering a change. >> Yeah. And for me I I mean I think
214I I actually agree with Mary Beth that aspirationally I'd like it to be option A. Um, I think that's probably healthier in the long term. Um, but I I don't know that we're ready to move to a just yet because there's still a lot of details to be worked out. Like we don't even know what solution we're going with. Like we need time to put those things into place. Um, so I think for for the June time frame, we're better off implementing option B with full fidelity because this past year has been a trial period. But, uh, we we should roll it out completely so that there's consistency from school to school and classroom to classroom and then, um, monitor what's going on and then have plans for option A if that's if that's necessary.
215But I do feel that um you know kind of as as trustee Nory mentioned in the work world there are also expect expectations about phone use and when it's appropriate and when it's not. And so when you create that code of conduct right and everyone's on board this is the expectation during class time or during meeting times. Thou shalt not use your phones. Um, you know, I I remember facilitating a couple meetings where people started using their phones. I said, "We're having a meeting. Please put your phones away." And people were so scared of me because [laughter] like because they knew they were in the wrong, but they didn't realize that I would come out and say that because I usually am a very nice person. And I just went boom, you are not following
216protocol. And then they all like they never ever did it again. >> [laughter] >> So, I mean, I think when you set that code of conduct and teachers enforce it, um, you know, it it really is effective. Um, I think over the lunch hour it might be harder to control. Uh, but we'll we'll see. But, um, I think we should give option B a a full implementation and see see how that goes. Um, and it it may be that option A is better in the long run, but we haven't really given option B the the real beta test if you want to call it that. And that uh >> I just want to say like I hear my colleagues and I and I and I there's a lot of logic that is being said. I
217just want to I'm going to say it is what is best for students like we have to ground ourselves in that option A could be harder and operationally harder but just whatever we decide just just ground ourselves in which option is best for students that's that's the only thing at this point that's moving me forward >> okay so I think we have our direction. >> Okay. [snorts] >> Oh, yeah. I was just going to say I think we should take a break before >> Yeah. Yeah. I was I was going to recommend that too before we move on to take a short break. >> All right. Is everyone back? Okay. >> All right. >> [laughter] >> All right, I think everyone is back and then we will resume our meeting at 9:41. All right, so
218um should we vote on the the 10 o'clock now or? >> Yeah, might as well. Yeah. Um can we have a motion to extend the >> meeting past 10 o'clock? >> Oh, you just past 10 o'clock or do you have to pick a new time? >> No, just past 10. >> [laughter] >> until we fold. >> I'm going to make a motion to >> extend this meeting past 10 p.m. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Okay. [laughter] >> Yeah. Go until one. No. No. Please don't. All right. [laughter] >> All right. Item 14.4. 4. So we have our overview. Hello. Hello. Hello. Meeting has resumed. All right. Item 14.4. Overview of school litics implementation and public data dashboard. Uh do we have any public comments? We have one in person. Are there
219any online? Please raise your hand. >> There are none online. So when >> I it is Salvatore. Sorry for assuming it was me. Um I am I I am sorry to lengthen the meeting. I just wanted to say I'm really excited about the capability that school litics brings and um mostly for uh training for not just how to use the tool but how to use the information to inform instruction. We've been discussing um the standards for the teaching profession and where our teachers who are being evaluated um have the most areas for growth which are the highest frequency um standards and key elements. And um quite a few of the ones that people are struggling with could be informed by having easier access to data about where students struggle. But the data alone is not
220going to help those teachers and help those students. We really need also the training and how to use that data. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. And then is it uh Miss Wilmont that's presenting [snorts] or oh Dr. Shone's gonna >> Yes. Good evening. It is going to be Diana Wilmont presenting. I'm just opening the item for her. So, thank you all for still being here. Um, I know you all have to, but everyone else [laughter] who also has to know. Um, but we are we are a database district in the sense that you know all the questions that you're asking this evening are like what's the data on that? that comes up again and again with LCAP when this we're working on strategic plan when we have our tenants presentations our mental
221health presentations uh requests from SDTA and ASME staff just saying we want to learn how to do this ourselves and use it we know this is key and we wanted to invite Diana to do just a quick instructional for you all this evening to say like hey here's how you step one we have many data platforms but is a great one we really built out and we want her to show you how you can always go dig some data yourself. It's a very useful tool and always more professional development we can do with that as well. But we're opening it up with you all tonight. Okay. Good evening, President Couprystal Le. >> It says, "I love data." >> And I weren't for you guys. It was just part of my prop. um because I know
222you all live data. Um tonight, um I'm going to take a few minutes to walk you through our public facing dashboard. Um it's live and it's the same thing that any community member, parent or student can access right now directly from the homepage of our district website. No login required. Okay. So, I'm going to show you how to get there. If you have a laptop and you want to join me on this journey, you are welcome to open or your phone, [laughter] but I have to admit it looks a lot better on a laptop. [laughter] So, I go to this website many times a day. Um, we have in the bottom right corner our very easy to access SUHSD data platform. And I want to say this is it's it's not a static report in
223that it is interactive. It is it can um we can filter and we can explore the data however we want. Um, I update it once a year in October, and that date is up here, October 8th, 2025. As closely to census day as, uh, the CDE, to try to mirror as much as I can some of the same data around enrollment and, uh, data reports that come from DataQuest. It's not the exact same data as it's in data quest um because there's some um nuances as far as how we report data to the CDE and calpads and updates and all that kind of stuff. But it's something that we can use as a community to really kind of look at trends. It lives here on this web website, easy to find, not buried. Thank you,
224Naomi. We're putting it on the very front of the page. Um, and when you first land on the dashboard, I just want to show talk to you about um the categories in the bottom left hand corner here. If you open it, you'll see all the different dashboards that we have. And one of the things that is also available to us, if you were, let's say, a school administrator or a parent of a particular school and you wanted to just look at this whole dashboard for your school only, you could do a global filter on this very front page and just look at every page for that school. And you know, for I I look at it districtwide. Um, and this all the data that's presented is districtwide. And it's big picture, all schools combined. So
225if you think of this kind of as our district's, you know, kind of public report card, if you will, but you can actually interact with it. So instead of it being a kind of a just a brochure of data, it's a a a data platform where you can click and look at the interesting data that you want to see yourself, not just read. So this global filter just want to point out to you. So you can click and say I just want to look at Carlmont throughout the whole dashboard and everything changes for Carlmont going forward. Right? So here now it's just Carlmont. And I click all the way down. I'm not going to keep it there. I'm going to I'm going to go back to looking at us as a whole district. So the
226very first page just break down by race and ethnicity um as well as our enrollment of our schools. I think it's you know it's interesting to see and it's this year's data. The real heart of this dashboard is the filters. The filters start on the second dashboard and enrollment and then go all the way down. So if you look at this little filter menu that's up here, it exists on every single page. So we're now looking at eight years of data for enrollment. And you'll notice that the the filters allow us to, you know, if we want to change the year, we could change a year. We want to look at our partner district data, meaning who's enrolled that's from a particular partner district. And I have used this um data to share with other
227other uh school districts and actually presented this data at their own board meeting um to show them how to use it so they could look at their data. Um we also have EML which is our emerging multilingual learners and we have it categorized in four groups. 03y is our newcomers our eels who are here 0 to three years. EL45Y are E English learners who are here four to five years and usually referred to as at risk of becoming a long-term English learner and EL6Y typically is our long-term English learners. And then we have the nonML category if we wanted to just say just show me everyone who's not an English learner. We also have our race and ethnicity categories. We have parent education level. And so when you filter and you want to look at
228I just want to see who in our community how many college graduate parents are there over the course of time then you could look at that right it's just interesting to see um we also have on here uh socioeconomically disadvantaged true or false we have RFP which is on or off students with disabilities we could look at 504 IEPs or none And then we have program filters such as AVID, Academy, Middle College, SAP, Boys and Girls Club, Build, Compass if we want to explore those programs. >> Quick question. Could you just show one school? Pick any school right there because I I was trying it the other day and I had a weird result. Just any school. Just do just one school. any school, >> right? >> What's that? What's it say below total enrollment?
229Carlmont and then two plus years. What is that? >> That's a good question, Rich. Rich, I um I I I know it's Carlmont's enrollment. Um it just over the years I don't know what the two plus part means to be honest. That's a factor in the uh what's being written, but it's just what was Carlman's enrollment all the years. >> I do see that two plus. >> I looked at a different school and it said, >> well, can you pull up Tide because Tide was one I was looking at. >> Sure. >> Just Tide and see if it says something different. Yeah, that heading. Two plus years non-avid. >> Two plus races. That's what it said before. And I didn't know why it said that. >> I wonder if it's um that's a good question.
230I'm going to let me look at that. Um they don't have an AVID program, so I think it's acknowledging that, but like that's the the filter. If you look at Avid, there's not a filter option of AVID and not Avid. um race and ethnicity. Um I'm guessing this is everybody included, but if I remembered correctly, when we did the Tide um report, we couldn't drill down the summaries because they were less than 11. So, I mean, I could I mean, if I >> I was just wondering what it those words meant below the name of the school. Like, what does that mean? That that was my question, but maybe you can answer it later. Well, I think it might be just like printing whatever the filter is because I assume the way this works, right,
231is it's taking whatever filters you put in. >> I didn't do that was normal races. >> I think but I think by default it takes those filters. So I think all that is is like printing cuz when there are more than two or plus races selected by default if you're looking at a school site only and it's a total enrollment. So I think I think even like even if you don't put any filters the way it's querying the data is like taking whatever filters are set by default and like generating that table. So I think whatever it is it's just printing those default like parameters that are there like I don't Yeah. >> Yeah. I know. I I think the idea behind it was to be like a breadcrumb kind of like what filters have
232you pressed? But I think your your point is is that these sort of um defaults that are coming in here are trying to let the let the user know um what filters are are being applied. I I don't I don't know. I think I need to talk to my friends at Schooly and ask them. Um I love data. Um, no. Um, I think I it I have noticed that before and I've kind of just been not as um keen to not not that I'm not paying attention to it, but I know I know what filters I press so I know what I'm looking at. Um, but we know how many students are enrolled in Tide. It's not um and it is two or more races, but why it doesn't show other filters that we didn't
233press, I don't know. It's a good question. Um, so every figure, I mean, since we did press TI, every figure on this page is reflective of Tide. Um, so it shows you, we we've already I've been through some of this data already with Tide, but the point is that when the filter, it includes everybody in Tide when you pull that school. I think um the other way to I'm going to just put click Carmont again just so that we can see it. Um we know Carlmont's uh enrollment, you know, has been steadily climbing. Um, and one of the things that I've noticed and looking at it was this is also helpful for me when I'm wondering where our students are coming from in terms of the partner schools um where where they're growing, where it's
234coming from. Belmont Redwood Shores um you know appears to be where a lot of the growth is coming from. Um, and I think that's not surprising, at least to me. Um, the other piece that, you know, the year-over-year trend is interesting, we also have the percentages. Um, in student demographics, when you change the page, the filters go away again. So, you have to select them each time. But yeah, I mean, it says here total enrollment two plus years. I'll have to talk to um Courtney and and uh understand a little bit more about how we can make it more user friendly um so that people aren't confused um by that. This uh total enrollment for the district uh shows that uh we have an increase of uh students um percentage of students in color. Um
235and and we could see uh over time our our white student population going down and our um other subgroups going up. Some going up, some of them staying flat. But that percentage-wise um has has changed with the largest group I think being our Asian population increasing. Can also see some changes around um uh parents with graduate degrees as a percentage of the population increasing over time. If you look at this blue, you know, you guys just proportionally. Um, we could also look at the English learners. Um, uh, this is going to be interesting to see over time. uh particularly around looking at our newcomer population um as it's changing and if we wanted to say like look at this particular group of English multil- language learners and maybe kind of remove the non-English learners from
236it and say well I just want to see the English learners all by themselves you can click on that and just remove that checkbox to just see the English learners. And then you could really kind of see more or less the reduction of long-term English learners here. Okay. And the reduction of long-term English learners here is a result of our reclassification that we just celebrated. Um the reduction of in these uh this 0 to3 Y 322 410 in the students in the in the 2324 school year 470 in the 2425 school year and then 622 I'm sorry and then sorry uh 360 going down and then this year is going to be even smaller and that's from policies immigration policies have been really impacting our newcomer population. So the overall number of EL students has
237gone down both from the top and the bottom. Yeah, this kind of gives us a window into our special programs. And then we um one of the things that we bring in here um I I want to point this out is that our data dashboard is pulling data in from multiple sources. So I'm sure you're not surprised enrollment and demographics is all from IC from our student information services student information system. Our attendance also comes from our student information system and it's when we query it discipline as well graduation A through G AP and IB and then APL all students as an example this one here is coming from the it it's coming from us but it's coming directly from the college board right so we pull in data from the college board the CASP
238and ELPAC we're pulling data from sources from the CDE and TOMS which is our test management system and then our college going and college graduation is pulling data from the national student clearing house. So it all does filter in through infinite campus but it is bringing some some data to be on the same platform so that we can analyze the students together. Um, one of the things I wanted to point out here around specifically AP tests, I know I think we were talking about earlier today because so many students are taking the AP exams this week. Um, is the number of students um, increasing in taking AP tests. Um we're you could see that growth over time AP test per student and how many more tests just all students are taking. And one of the
239things that I found interesting was looking at the sophomores who are taking um AP participation and that seems to be where most of the growth is happening. looking at that chart there. And if you want to look at it by school, you can look at it by school. >> You have a question. >> I don't know. >> There a bunch. >> AP world competite principles or like a language. >> AP Spanish. Yeah. >> Or like some even take calculus. Thank you this topic. I'm really late, very tired. Sorry. Um, you know, it's it's interesting and um if you wanted to look at it for a particular school, for those grades, you can also select on here and look at that school. Or you can look at, well, I want to see if our our socioeconomically
240disadvantaged students are taking AP exams. And you can click on there and see if they are. And I and these are, you know, topics and discussions we've had over time. I mean, here's that that sophomore increase for 10th graders is also going up [snorts] even for our socioeconomically disadvantaged students. So this is where I go regularly and hopefully you do too. Um the CASP it um you know this is data that is we can access this in multiple places. The California dashboard looks at things in lots of different ways. It's, you know, the distance from standard and the colors and the red and the yellow and it's how, you know, change over time. This is just pretty straight like what percent met or exceeded standard. Um, so [clears throat] it's a pretty basic one. And
241you know what's nice about working with a company like Schooly is if we want to change it, we could just change it. Um, we have the flexibility uh to customize things how we want to customize it. What I would love to see is a two by is a grid that shows what students did in the prior CASP test like in seventh or eighth grade and then what they did in 11th and we can see >> how many of them were in whatever the same box versus different boxes >> if we can do whatever that be I'm interested in. >> I'll work on it. Um, now that we're past I think there we were, uh, yeah, the 2020 2021 7th and eighth grade scores that were like our seniors this year were who took the the
242CASP last year, their seventh grade scores were in COVID. So, we're we're almost there. We're almost at the place where we could start doing some of that analysis. But what we can do is we can look at, you know, a partner district and see what part where they came from and how they did. But that's not a student by student kind of individual growth. Um, which is what you're talking about. Um, >> I feel that's how we should measure ourselves, right? Is the students how they progress compared to where they were when they arrived. >> Yeah. And you know, I mean, the state does have a growth model, but they just don't do it in in they don't do it for our high schools, but they do they have been pushing towards doing it for
243our K to8s for third through 8th grade and providing um academic growth models for those students and talking that that's coming, but it's K8. But we can we could be on the cutting edge and we can do it. It would be interesting to study now that we're going to have more at least a baseline data to start with. Um the ALPAC result is also in here. We haven't really um done it uh we haven't really presented it before uh publicly. It's been uh something that is kind of lived I don't know in the shadows a little bit and I felt like it's so important that we talk about the LPAC especially around reclassification especially since the LP the English learner proficiency indicator progress indicator is on the dashboard um I thought it would be important
244for us to include it here and then we have talked before about college going and college graduation and looking at this we talked about that at the beginning of the year about threequarters of our students going on to college. So that I hope is a helpful overview of this uh public dashboard that what I want to um acknowledge obviously is that this does not go down to the student level and what we do have with what Eith was referring to as far as trainings is with working with our administrators, our counselors and we've been starting to roll out more slowly to the teachers a teacher dashboard an administrator dashboard and a counselor dashboard is identifying the students um who are with us right now. So we call it kind of our active student dashboard. And
245so it's not about going backwards or forwards or you know necessarily looking at their their growth although we can probably put it on each student's profile. Um but it is about trying to identify the kids where they're at now D's and Fs. Um we look at behavior attendance um building out cost analysis. And so I've been working very closely with uh Shaina Karima in when she was in student services and now in her role here in ed services and we've been anyway and um we've been working together to make sure that all of the data is coming into the same system so that we could uh track the whole child and not just the academics but also the behavior and the attendance and and you know been also trying to build out ideally uh thinking
246about what are the students future college plans and where do they end up going so that really we can um think about in one in one platform um how the student comes in, how we support them and then where they end up going. And that's that's the uh that's kind of the the model that we're working towards. and that student data is is accessible uh by the teachers. We we've done trainings with them. Uh but we're just in the beginning phases of that implementation and there's definitely more to come for 2627. We're working on building in uh some of the Canvas data into there as well so that teachers can see kind of some of the Canvas dash data that's in this teacher dashboard. Um, and yeah, I think it's uh it's been a really
247helpful tool. >> Awesome. >> Any question? >> Can I can I ask one clarifying question that I had >> on the on the star the college graduation >> when you go like college graduation by year and it says for example Carl Mont 67.8 eight. Is that um 67% of their graduates in 2021 who attended college graduated college or is that >> where which this one here >> uh go down one more I think that one? Yeah. Or like for Sequoia is a is you know about is about 50%. What is that saying? That 50% of the Sequoia graduated class of 2021 graduated college as well or is that saying 50% of those who from Sequoia attended college graduated? >> The what I believe this is saying is how the graduation year of high school. So
248the class of 21 for Carlmont at as of October 25 67.8% had graduated. >> Got it. Okay. >> Um so uh whether that's two-year or four year, but they have graduated and um >> then we would want to go like but then using this school analytics, you could go back and see well how many went to a two-year or fouryear >> to begin with. >> Yeah. >> And see how if they're prepared beyond >> not just to get into college but to graduate college. Yeah. Okay. And I think there's there's a lot of work I think with the National Student Clearing House also trying to look at um some of the Navvian data that we have and there's there's multiple again multiple sources of data that I feel like we need to pull together um
249to try to identify the trajectory of our students through uh through college in college and then out. Yeah. But the the intention of building it out this way and building out the partner districts in there was back in from when we had a we had an LCAP goal around data data that's focused on starting all the way from uh kindergarten all the way to you know with the community colleges and the feeder colleges. And so we are really, you know, this is this has been in play for like three years, this public dashboard, and I I just see more and more people using it um and wanting wanting to get more training on it. So I'm glad that you gave me the opportunity tonight to come here and talk to you about it. >> Yeah.
250Thank you. Um very excited to have this dashboard. I know a lot of the feeder districts are super excited as well. and we hear it all the time and I've had a chance to play around. I guess uh some of us have played around quite a [gasps] bit. Um but it it is very interesting so that if we have a question we could come here and take a look ourselves without uh reaching out to all of the administrators and peppering them with questions. So it's kind of that self-s served model. Um, and hopefully that has also helped reduce some of the requests for data because people can find it themselves. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> I love data. [laughter] >> Woohoo. All right. Agenda item 14.5, presentation of the
251hatching results. Do we have any public comments? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. Lion. I see none online. >> Okay. All right. Well, it is bittersweet that I'm here introducing this item because after many years of a partnership with Hatchings's results, we are in the last year of our contract as we announced I believe at last year's board meeting saying we're going into our last year, this was it. And so um while I know we will be keeping in touch for other reasons, the bigger broader work that has been done with counselors and all the efforts they've been putting in for the many years have come to fruition in the goals and the vision that we've had for our counseling departments. And so this presentation is to
252allow our group of um both counselor Glenn Tescalan um our counseling coordinator and then Whitney Triplet and Josh from Hatching Results to come one final time and put a bow on all of the work that they have done with our counselors. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. It's um fascinating to think how uh 15 years ago I was I was at a board meeting around this time uh advocating for um our district to not cut counseling positions. Um and here we are right 15 years later and especially in the last five years how we've done this transformative work and have outcomes and have data to show that counseling school counseling is essential. So um it's just fascinating to think about that where we are now. So um good evening again. Thank you for the opportunity
253to be able to present to you. Uh it's always an honor to present SUHSD school counseling and speak to the journey and the transformative work that they've done the past 5 years with the guidance from our facilitators, partners and friends uh from Hatching Results, Whitney Triplet and Josh Cabinas who will state some um final thoughts at the end. Um so today uh SUHSD counseling h hel held their uh last PD through our professional learning series uh with hatching results and we've officially been hatched right [laughter] um >> they got certificates that say they've been hatched um so the investment that you made has been very worthwhile and and I'll tell you why. Um, uh, systems is the word I would use to describe what we've accomplished these last five years. Uh, during the 1920, uh,
254school year, our district planned to roll out MTSS and school counselors found a a window of opportunity to advocate for professional learning that would create systems and alignment across our district. And of course, we know that MTSS includes everyone in our school and district buildings. Um, we know that also know that SUHSD is continuing it its commitment to creating these systems for students that experience challenges and these needs exist across all three domains, right, which are um academic, college, career and social emotional. And so what's changed um in the last five years? Uh we went from inconsistent practice to a coherent system. Five years ago, we saw sitebased and counselor based variation with limited district-wide expectations and accountability. And today, we have district-wide expectations and accountability alignment amongst our counseling team. Our activities did not
255have measurable outcomes, and our interventions were oftentimes based on either referral or anecdotal evidence. And now, school counselors provide tiered supports based on datadriven indicators. So, we we love data, right? uh the majority of their interventions are now matched to root cause. So um last year we talked about root cause analysis and we're still still doing that. Um counselors went from guidance presentations with limited teaching practices and as a practicing counselor at two of our schools, I felt unethical for me to present to a group of students and not know if they truly learned from my presentation. So now we have a tier one curriculum and can use pre and post assessment data to identify areas for lesson revision during our scheduled PLC's which we didn't have before and now now we have scheduled PLC's
256and counselors are aligning their interventions to goals mentioned in their school sites improvement plans and you have a PPS credential administrator who can guide and oversee this work. [laughter] All [snorts] right. So, and so we built what we built our systems practices and capacity amongst our school counseling team through cross-sight collaboration. We have strengthened both our capacity and our systems for working together, which is a very beautiful thing. Um, today counselors are connected right across sites. So, when a counselor from Sequoia reaches out to a counselor, reaches out to a Carmont, they know exactly who's on on the other end. So we we really are a truly feel like SEUSD school counseling. And now we have infrastructure. We have three tangible items that show evidence of how this district's investment has paid off. The first
257one is through our counseling committee. Uh we are hopefully we'll be bringing three aligned job descriptions for board approval and each role is interconnected and collectively provides a clear role definition. And that's one thing we struggled with in the past was with role clarity and that's why we have to submit them all at once because one cannot exist without the other now. So hopefully next board meeting uh we're also developing the second item here is a um handbook grounded in the American school counselor association model. It answers the question, what do school counselors do? By outlining how counselors define their comprehensive school counseling program through a vision and mission aligned to our districts, how services are delivered through an MTMDS fra MTMDSS frame framework, how the program is managed through documentation, and how outcomes are
258assessed. And that's the most important part is uh where school counseling teams at the end of the semester, at the end of the school year are assessing their program. And finally, we have a CSP template that all sites submit annually. Uh this ensures accountability to comprehensive school counseling programming. At the district level, um we have a parallel template to monitor implementation and provide targeted support to site teams as they continue to strengthen their programs. And so what I'll say about this work is that students are experiencing measurable change. They are acquiring the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that help them attain life readiness. For example, our lesson plans resulted in a 92% improvement in understanding graduation requirements and a 77% improvement in familiarity with post-secondary pathways. And the next few slides are uh some examples of
259tier 2 interventions that school counselors provided to students this past fall. Um you've seen similar documents before in the past um and now you have access to the links for for better viewing. Um so we have example from East Palo Alto Academy, Sequoia High School, Memoathton and Woodside. Okay. And while it's true that our 5-year contract concludes on June 30th, the work of ensuring sustainability remains crucial. um pending the approval of our PD proposal. Uh our plan is to transition into a phase of sustainability support via virtual consultation. Um this will be especially vital once our new job descriptions are approved uh hopefully and we'll need some guidance to refine and strengthen our workflows in alignment with these defined roles. Uh we will continue to utilize our past program assessment results as a primary driver
260for the decisions we make and the support that we provide to school site teams within our programming and our con our counselors also will have an ongoing need for specialized professional learning. Right count the our profession evolves and we will continue to need that professional learning those opportunities. And while our initial focus was on establishing MTMDSS supports, we are now eager to deepen our expertise in college and career readiness and continue our work in alignment with LCAP goals. And finally, we we have um some sites that are now let me go back to that slide. Um they're now aiming for national recognition um which is called um ramp or rec to become a recognized ask a model program and they'll require some ramp coaching to reach that milestone that we have some sites that will
261be ready to to attain ramp status and so we definitely want to support our sites um to reach that milestone and I want to thank you again for supporting the work of our school counseling team and this gratitude is extended to a superintendent uh cabinet uh Dr. Liz Chakon who has been um leading helping us lead this work um and past administrators who helped launch this work forward um particularly Jared Douly and Shaina Karashima who were with us at from the very beginning. So now I'll turn it over to Whitney and Josh for some final words and then um answer some questions that you might have. >> Good evening Superintendent Leech and board of trustees. Thank you so much. I the last 5 years in this district has really been a gift because you have
262such a talented group of school counselors and your vision for addressing the whole child even tonight and I know last year we presented as well you know with our community-based partners and that is the pandemic while unfortunate there were some unintended benefits and one was recognizing that student mental health and academ ademic achievement go hand in hand and the the vision of this district I think is a pioneering vision in making sure that that happens and how fitting that next week is California student mental health week and the community-based partners and the school-based partners in mental health have figured out in the last 5 years how we work hand inand to support our children in California and I really want to send a special shout out to these wonderful two assistant superintendent right here who
263have been by our side every step of the way. So, thank you to you both for believing in the work and for advocating for us and allowing us to make this our second home. So, I I will turn it over to Whitney. I know it's late. I don't want to keep you much longer, but thank you. >> It's bittersweet standing here. Um having trouble regulating my emotions. I'm tired and it's been a bittersweet day. Um we started PD this morning and it was just the last one and so it's been a day of not goodbyes but see you later. Um I think the biggest thing I just wanted to communicate well two things is just thank you so much for this opportunity um and for investing bless you and bless uh investing in your school
264counseling program and in your school counselors. Uh before we uh came five years ago, they hadn't met as a district-wide team. They had they didn't meet together regularly. They hadn't met each other at all. um and a lot of siloed programs and strong personalities and opinions about what really needs to happen in order to support kids. And I just want to really just have provide kudos to your school counseling team because it's really hard for ex for to trust external people coming in and trusting the process and they did. um they trusted the process, they were trusting each other, they were willing to be vulnerable, transparent, try things that they weren't sure would work, measure what they did, and so we're just really proud of them. Um I appreciate the time that you and your
265investment in school counseling, and just uh thank you for allowing us to be part of this amazing transformation journey. It's been beautiful to walk beside Glenda and Liz and Bonnie and um so many others that have been invested in this work, too. So, thank you all so much. Any questions? >> I have a question. >> I just want to say thank you for all the work you've done. Um, I wasn't here from the beginning, but I got to see the last year and a half. So, it's been great to see it um, you know, progress and see what the results are. And I'm happy for the counselors and happy for the students, right? They're getting better counselors. So, thank you again. >> Interesting. Have this presentation follow the one before uh with the data. And
266I'm wondering if there's something you you showed about um tier one support lean to students better understanding graduation requirements and something about secondary or secondary pathways. Um would we expect to see some change in the data for future years based on that or like what what might we see that we might point to and say look the hatching results the counseling did blank and will we see something in the student outcomes in those in the databases as a result of like what what what should we look for? course when people ask us about what did it do we can say look this changed whatever that would be >> right and I can lead us off here so one thing that we really hone in on is that you can have 30 kids in a classroom
267and I can tell you that you have 30 kids in a classroom and I presented to 30 but exactly what you're saying we really hone in on what is the impact right how have attitudes changed beliefs changed how has their knowledge what's right and wrong change. We have things that have right and wrong answers, you know, and how has my contribution as a school counselor in your classroom help to increase your knowledge? All right. And skill, right? Can you calculate a GPA? So, those are the things that school counselors are now tasked to measure. Not just how many students did you see, but what is the impact? and that impact needs to be clear and reportable to you as a board support your district-wide initiatives. So they they really understand the process for how data
268develops to be able to share that moving forward. Um one thing that we always point to is attendance, behavior and academic achievement. Those are the three core fundamental contributions that counselors should be making with that data in that impact and they should be able to speak. it might not be a direct correlation but it should be a contributing factor to what it is that you are working on as a district. >> So like should we see improved graduation rates or >> more students going to college or like what would we see in the data based on that? >> Yeah, I would say definitely graduation rates. One of the things that all of the school sites have been working on is creating smarty goals that are in alignment with your LCAP. So they've been creating smarty
269goals for the last two years around college and readiness career readiness indicators. So I would look at your LCAP goal three. They're going to probably continue their close the gap projects around that. So in in general they haven't been trying to improve overall rates. They've been trying to to close equity gaps, opportunity gaps between groups of students. So what they do is they look at their data like different levels of data and see what group of students are not um where are are certain groups of students showing up disproportionately in the data and where the gaps exist and then the interventions they're putting together are to close those gaps. So those four different um uh one pagers that are in the presentation are all around equity gaps. So I would say like that's one of
270the main things that they've been focusing on and we haven't really mandated one specific area across the district because we wanted the sites to have autonomy to look at the equity gaps for their specific population but we have required this the goals to be around equity gaps related to LCAP goal 3. >> So we should see improvements in equity gaps. >> Great. Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate the the great work and um really like the plan do steady act [laughter] continuous improvement that's part of our strategic plan and uh I know the counseling team has been modeling that effort and hopefully it spreads across the district. So >> one more thing we should have mentioned earlier we have had your results has a new textbook coming out in June and your district is highlighted
271in the textbook for piloting a couple of our tools. So, one of them is a guide for evaluating intervention effectiveness. Um, and so they get a shout out for that. One of their board presentations is in our book as well. Um, and then for doing their PDSA cycles. So, I just wanted to like let you all know too that your counselors are really phenomenal. And when Glenda says they're ready to to ramp, a few of them are ready to ramp, they are. And so, we're excited about that, too. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. And then quickly add on also thank you so much for um all the great work and I'm really excited to see how this progresses as a district. I think at a broader level and this is something
272more for district. I wonder in more broader what ways we could kind of replicate the work we've done with hatching the past 5 years and other parts of our district. Like I imagine like how productive was to you know bring as much cross- site collaboration for counselors if the same you know kind of model might be applied to more um specific like subject site collaboration across districts to kind of drive some similar results cuz I really see that there's huge value in this and I wonder if you can take the lessons you know from this program and apply that same type of mindset to how we approach you know other cross academic department development if you get what I mean. I just when is the book coming out? [laughter] >> Next month. >> Okay. Next
273month. Okay. Thank you. That's what I want to know. Thank you. >> It's going to print as we speak. >> I think that'll work for a lot of people. Yeah. And and keep sustain the work you've already done. So, thank you. >> Well, appreciate you all and have a good night. I know it's getting very late. [laughter] We're almost there. Almost there. Thank you. All right. So, now we're moving on to our discussion items. So, hopefully this is quick. 15.1 is discussion of the board of trustees regular board meeting schedule for 2627. Any public comments? >> There are no public comments in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> There are none online. All right. Okay. So, before you have before you a draft calendar for board meetings for the 2627 school
274year. So, for the most part, they follow similar meeting patterns um that we had this year. Um I do kind of want to walk you through um um kind of some of my thinking around this. Um this year um in October we had one regular board meeting and then we had one study session board meeting. I would likely see that same model uh for October for the 26 27th school year likely the 28th being a study session. Um that would still likely start at 6 p.m. Um and then something that's a little different for us because it's an election year is the December 16th meeting. So because we have two trustee seats open, the board meeting has to be held after December >> the second >> 11th, like the second Friday. And so that that
275week is a rough week. We obviously have CSBA the first week. Like December is a very busy month. That's the week of finals. Um but because we have two seats open that really is our opportunity uh for our December meeting. So that meeting would be uh swearing in of any potential new trustees um our uh governance reorg um as well as district business which includes first interim um and then one minor change I believe it's noted um for the April meeting do you show April 7th on your Okay so you have that noted one so April 7th um spring break um is a a little bit later this year and then we continue with um oh we're going to have um a meeting on single day mile and then um we have the study session
276for the school site plans on uh for Wednesday May 19th and then the two required board meetings that we have backtoback in June. Does anyone have any conflicts every >> No, I just have one question. >> Okay. >> In January, early January, is there a conference, a CBSA or C? >> That's in December. The first week in December. >> Okay. So, that's what I was wondering like. Okay. So, just thinking we should be >> So, if we had two meetings in December, we would be spending three weeks together. >> Okay. Just clarifying. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Wanted to be clear on that. my tone had an infection that I thought there was a problem with that. But thank you just thank you [laughter] for clarifying. >> Just curiosity. Um the So if the October
277one's going to be a special or a study session is are we just we don't mark that because >> No, I just want you to reserve the date. >> We may start a little earlier. um potentially, but we just reserve the date. >> So, yeah, I guess we haven't really defined which ones might be retreats or would those be add-on? >> No retreats in the uh regular meeting schedule calendar. So, we would we would uh do a doodle poll and then we would book retreats. >> Okay. >> Do we still do retreats once a year or twice a year? >> I'm sorry, what was that? >> Do we is our normal cadence retreats twice a year or once a year? There has not been a cadence. >> Oh, >> my opinion would be if if
278anybody changes out that we would want to have one shortly after getting a new person to go over the board norms, >> the governance and the govern Yeah. governance handbook. >> Make sure one's aligned on like >> the various things. >> I think that's what Yeah. What we did last time. >> Usually, we want to have one somewhere where it's more centered around goals for the year. So I think typically there's two but um I don't think we actually define that number in the governance handbook or anything. >> Well when we when we move to the strap plan our goals that um are in the STRA plan are um driving somewhat superintendent goals and then also piecing together um LCAP goals. >> Yep. Yeah. Um, you said any conflicts there. I mean, there is a
279possibility that I with the moving of the April 21st to the 7th that I might not be able to, but I I don't know. It's that that's my break. >> Oh, okay. >> So, I can always, you know, take it from a hotel room. I'll see. I'll ask what that's like. I've never done it, so, you know. >> So, I'm just throwing that out there, okay? >> So, no one can be like, "You didn't tell us." I'm telling you. >> Okay. [laughter] Okay. So, I think this should be good to go then. Yeah. >> All right. Yeah, that was a discussion. All right. Moving to our action items. So, first one is 16.1 approval of agreement with ISI Inspection Services Inc. for special inspection and material testing services for the bleacher replacement project at Menllo
280Athetherton High School project 200 W001. Any public comments? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> Move approval of 16.1. >> Seconded. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. 16.2. Approval of agreement with Cornerstone Earth Group, Inc. for geotechnical observation and testing services for the bleacher replacement project at Menllo Atherton High School project 200-W001. Any public comments? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. I >> see none online. >> I move approval of item 16.2. >> Seconded. >> All in favor? I >> I >> All right. [clears throat] And then 16.3 is approval of amendment number one to the agreement with Green Cab Peninsula for the transportation of special education students. Do we have any public comment? >> There are none
281in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. >> There are none online. >> I move approval of item 16.3. >> Seconded. All in favor? I >> I. >> And then item 16.4, approval of agreement with Sam's refrigeration for the central kitchen main freezer upgrade project 25-1047M. There are no public comments in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> I see none online. >> I move approval of item 16.4. >> Seconded. All in favor? I >> I. >> Okay. And then 16.5, approval of amendment number one to the agreement with Stepping Stones Group for Mental Health Services. Any public comments? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. I see none online. >> I move approval of item 16.5. >> Seconded. All in
282favor? >> I. All right. Uh, moving right along. 16.6, approval of amendment number two to the agreement with Valley Oil for as needed bulk fuel services. Do we have any public comments? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. There are none online. >> I move approval of item 16.6. >> Seconded. >> Okay. All in favor? I >> I >> Okay. Item 16.7, approval of the mitigated negative declaration, the association associated mitigation monitoring and reporting program resolution number 202526 school year. adopting the initial study mitigated negative declaration squa findings mitigation measures and mitigation monitoring and reporting program MMRP and facilities master plan projects for Menllo Athetherton high school any public comments there in person are there any online please raise your hand now seeing none online and this
283is roll call after motion >> I move approval of item 16.7 Seven >> seconded. >> Okay. And I think what this is a resolution so I need to do roll call. Okay. So roll call vote. >> Trusty Nory. >> Yes. >> Trusty Cruz. >> Yes. >> Trusty Thompson. >> Yes. >> Vice President Gin. >> Yes. >> President Coup. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 50-0. >> Okay. Great. Okay. Item 16.8. Adoption of resolution number 18 from 2526 school year. intention to levy annual assessment preliminary approving engineers report and scheduling a public hearing for SUSD maintenance assessment district for 2026 to 27. >> There are no public comments in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. >> There are none online. >> I move approval of item 16.8. >> Seconded. >> Okay. And this is
284also a roll call vote. >> Trusty Nory. >> Yes. Trusty Cruz. >> Yes. >> Trustee Thompson, >> yes. >> Vice President Gin, >> yes. >> President Co, >> yes. >> Motion carries. 50-0. >> All right. Uh, and then 16.9, adoption of resolution number 19, 2526 school year. Final resolution and decision to terminate classified employees due to lack of work and/or lack of funds. Education Code sections 45101, 45114, 4517, 45298, and 43508. Any public comments? >> There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. I see none online. Okay. >> I move approval of item 16.9. >> Seconded. >> All right. And then I think this is also a resolution. So, roll call, folks. >> Yep. Trustee Nory, >> yes. >> Trusty Cruz, >> yes. >> Trusty Thompson, >> yes. >>
285Vice President Gin, >> yes. >> President Coup, >> yes. >> Motion carries 5 Z. >> All right, we are finally at item 17, future agenda items. >> I don't have this not future agenda item, but a request that there was the resources about the cell phones that were in the PDF that he had linked. Can you put that in our update? Thank you. Please. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? All right. And with that, can we get a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> All right. So we are closing the meeting or adjourning the meeting at 10:44.