001I call this meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Um, we'll start with item number two, which is our close session. Is there any public comment on close session agenda items? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now. Okay. Seeing none, the board will adjourn to close session or recess to close session. Good evening and welcome to this Wednesday, May 7th meeting of the governing board of the Sequoia Union High School District. Um we'll start with item number three, which is our reconvene to public session. Um just some general reminders for public protocol. Members of the public who wish to remotely provide comments during the meeting can use the raise hand feature during the agenda item they're interested in. Speakers must raise their hand during agenda item 8.1, the public
002comment portion of the meeting, in order to comment on topics not included on the approved agenda. To speak about an item on the agenda in person, please fill out a speaker card and indicate the agenda item and hand the card to Laura at the dis. When the requested agenda item comes before the board, the speaker will be called forward. Um, after that, we'll start with roll call. Trusty Cruz here. Trusty Thompson here. Trusty Gin here. Vice President Coup here. President Nory here. A quorum is present. Um, next we have item number five which is approval of the agenda. Do we have any changes to the agenda? Should we approve? Um, other than Yes. We're still getting used to this. I have an adjustment for uh let's see here. 15.1 first reading of revised board policies
003pulling board policy 6142.93. Okay. Any other changes? Okay. Um, motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I I I. All right. Motion passes. Next we have item number six, which is um report out of close session on uh Uh okay. On a vote of five in favor and zero opposed, the board approved the settlement number 2024-2025- oh seven. Okay. And then um that's the only item we have to report out of close session. Um, next is item number seven, special recognitions. And I'll turn it over to Superintendent Leech. Thank you. So, we must have some special recognitions because we have a packed house tonight. So, two separate groups of recognitions. I am going to flip them and I would like to um turn over the post Diana Wilmont for a recognition of our bilingual resource
004teachers and our newly reclassified students. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll be presenting tonight with Janelle Bugarini, our coordinator of English learners and literacy. and I'll be uh in speaking in English and Janelle will be speaking in Spanish. And I don't know if they want to change the uh slide or not, but okay. Good evening, President Nory, Board of Trustees, Superintendent Leech, families, and most importantly, our honored students and bilingual resource teachers. [Music] Over the past few years, the importance of reclassification has emerged as a central focus in the work we do to support English learners. Recognizing its impact on student achievement and long-term success, we have taken intentional steps to elevate and refine our approach. [Music] Reclassification has been elevated as a goal in our LCAP, local control accountability plan, underscoring our district's commitment
005to multilingual learners. In alignment with this priority, we have articulated board policy through a district bulletin to guide and structure our efforts of our multilingual program. [Music] Multilingu. These coordinated actions combined with collaboration across departments have led to measurable progress, most notably an increase in our reclassification rates. [Music] Together we gather to celebrate a tremendous achievement, one that represents perseverance, courage, and the power of education. We are here to recognize our students who have been officially reclassified as fluent in English as well as the bilingual resource teachers at each of our high schools. [Music] This milestone is more than just a change in status. It reflects years of hard work learning a new new language while mastering academic content often in new culture and sometimes while supporting younger siblings or even translating for their families.
006These students have shown us what determination and resilience truly look like. Perseverencia. We will first take a moment to recognize a group of educators whose work is absolutely vital. Our bilingual resource teachers at each of our high schools. These dedicated professionals have walked alongside our students on their journey to English fluency. They are mentors, advocates, and steady guides, often the quiet champions behind every reclassification success. classific. Their support goes far beyond language instruction. They build confidence, nurture potential, and create bridges between languages, between cultures, and between p people. Through their care and expertise, they make sure every student knows they are seen, supported, and capable of achieving great things. While tonight we celebrate our students accomplishments, we also honor you, our bilingual resource teachers, for making those accomplishments possible. Your impact is real and it
007is lasting. Thank you for everything you do. We deeply appreciate you. BRTs, please come up to the front and face the audience as we call your name. Steven Ready. Menlo Aton High School. Evelyn Valencia, Redwood High [Applause] School. Allison Hyde, Sequoia High School. Jesus Cvantes, Woodside High School. Jennifer Lord, Carmont High School. I don't believe they're present here. Maria Gutierrez Perez from Tide Academy and Andrea Rea from East Palo Alto Academy. We also recognize you stay for because we will have the kids join you for the photo op very soon. Okay. Finally, we turn to our students. Your journey to English fluency was not easy, but you met every challenge with grit and grace. You've added a new language to your lives and with it new possibilities. You have now more tools to tell your
008stories, pursue your dreams, and contribute your voices clearly, powerfully, and proudly to the world. Tonight, we don't just celebrate language proficiency. We celebrate the future. These students are ready to thrive, not just in the classroom, but in life. [Music] On behalf of all of our staff, we want to thank you, our families, for your unwavering support. You stood behind your children with love, hope, and belief in their potential. Now, back to our students. Congratulations to each of you. We are so proud. Please come to the front of the room to be recognized and stand next to the bilingual resource teachers, BRTs, and students. Please stay up front for the photo op with us, the board of trustees, and the superintendent. students, please come up. Bring your certificates and your medals. biggest group. Such a big
009deal. Guys, I'm going to speak right that way. Going that [Music] way. Congratulations. There you go. [Music] Okay, let's take a five minute recess to help would like to recognize two tide clubs that have been remarkable in both enhancing the experiences of tide students and in service to the larger community. First, I would like you to tell you about our TIE Astrobots who have worked hard for the last three years to now be a competitive team. I'm going to invite our advisor who's here this evening, Bill McFarland, and our students, David and Jackson, to come on up so they can be next to me while I talk about them. So, we are grateful to have our co-advisors Kamala Umbau and Bill McFarland. They've been there for robotics practice two to four times a week, sometimes
010staying until the campus closes and for all weekend meets. Their progress has been remarkable. Last year, they won their first judges award. And in November, I attended a meet and when the Astrobots got the robot on one of the highest rungs, it was so exciting. This year, they made it into the league playoff rounds, winning one of their playoff matches after overcoming a great deal of bad luck and adversity at the meet. They had a strong engineering portfolio and gave a good judges interview. One of the judges told Bill that of the four teams they interviewed, they placed the Astrobots second in every category behind Aragon, which won the top prize in the judging category. They now run two robots, have 40 students on the roster, and including female students for which we're always looking
011to uh for more representation, and following the competition season have had successful outreach to middle schools. We are very proud of what the Astrobots have accomplished. Thank you, Bill, Kamla, and our students uh who are represented here tonight by Jackson and David. [Applause] Yes. Yeah. So, I just wanted to say a few words. I'll try to make it very quick, but I think when you're trying to grow something, you want to make a fertile environment. And I wanted to thank the Sequoia Union High School District for making a very fertile environment. We have a great u mixeduse space at Tide which is filled with maker tools which is the perfect place to have robotics. We've had tremendous support from the entire staff there from the very top through all the all the teachers everyone. Uh
012we have paid mentorship for the club. We got some money this year to go along with the money we raised from private companies to pay for robot parts and tournament registrations. Um, and of course we have great support from the students. I have two students with me today. Jackson represents one end of the spectrum. He's a senior. He programmed did a lot of the software programming on the robot. And David is a ninth grader. He was actually one of our robot drivers this year. Uh, so I really want to thank you for that. I will end with an observation. This observation was actually made by Dean Commonmen who was the person who founded the nationwide first robotics organization that we are part of. He observed that many students in high school play sports hoping to
013be a professional later in their life, professional athlete. And of course we know that's very rare, very hard, very unusual for someone to do that. But what he observed is that the students that participate in robotics and think of going on to do engineering as a profession, every single one can do that. And so I think that makes something special about robotics and I hope that you will continue to support it throughout the entire high school district. Can we do folklor? Take one group picture. Okay. Great. We'll take a group picture as soon as we do folklorico as well. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Uh Tides Ballet Folklorico Club has had an extensive reach in our community and this evening advisor Ramon Pledo is joining us via Zoom. But I would love to invite our founding
014students Daniela Denelli and Abigail to come on up here to the podium. So as I talk about them, they can be here with me. Uh Ramon has been a committed adviser for the last three years, helping us start the club and supporting students every step of the way. Danielle said they are so glad they got Mr. Pledo as their adviser and teacher. He has helped them learn dances from new regions like Halisco, uh Sinaloa, Baja, and Veraracruz. Not only was he there for them after school once a week, he is a teacher at Woodside and present for school events, but he wrote grants for their outfits and shoes. He also conducted a research study to introduce topics that will help students with transformations in geometry and dance compos composition. Imagine that you get to dance
015and learn math and dance. They have not that I'm biased or anything, but they are fabulous. Sorry. Uh, in January they performed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service sponsored by Youth Community Service and made it on the front page of the PaloAlto weekly. They have performed at many tied events, 8th grade information night, celebration of learning, senior solstice, and just this Monday for our Cinco de Mayo celebration at lunch. Last month they went to their first Danzantis unidos festival conference where they joined groups from other schools and learned from an instructor who taught them regional dances from Barer Cruz for which they have had an opportunity to perform. Thank you Ramon and our students and graduating seniors Danelli, Daniela, and Abigail and Kimberly who will be a senior next year. So we're
016looking to grow the club. On a final note, I am so proud of the clubs at Tide. We also look forward to celebrating our first graduating class. I'll be sending some invites for some events to the trustees and cabinet and superintendent and uh Tide seniors are going to be presenting their capstone projects for graphic design and computer science. And I've had a glimpse of a few and they're fantastic. One just might be a 9- foot trebushe that will be on the campus, but it won't be used. Don't worry. Anyway, thank you so much. Congratulations, Tide Astrobots and Ballet Folklorico. [Applause] Congratulations again. Moving on to item number 8.1, public comment. Um, just some quick reminders. The board does not act upon any matter that has not been agendaized except under limited circumstances as permitted by
017law. 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 times to be devoted to any single agenda topic to 10 minutes and individual speakers are ordinarily limited to 3 minutes. If the board decides to expand the amount of time to be allocated to a particular agenda item before many because many speakers wish to address that item, the board may reduce the time allocated to individual speakers to 2 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 begins. We ask all speakers to keep within the time limits. And um
018one more reminder before we begin public comment. I want to take a moment to remind everyone on the importance of maintaining respectful and constructive dialogue. Members of the public have the right to express concerns and offer feedback on district policies, procedures, programs, services, and the individuals responsible for carrying them out. We have urged comments to focus on the professional conduct or performance of individuals in their public roles and not on personal characteristics or private matters. We ask that all speakers keep their remarks appropriate and centered on issues relevant to the work of the district. So with that, are there any public comment? No. Okay. Sorry about that. Um we do have five in person and I see two hands online. I think I have four on four. Oh no. Oh, sorry. Okay. Four. So, nine
019total. Okay. Um, two or one. Okay. I think we can do two minutes each. Let's start with the in person ones. All right. First up is Tiara Louie. That's fine. Is that okay? I was sorry. So, this [Music] is Daniel Levy. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Uh, good evening members of the Sequoia Union High School District and School Board. Um, my name is Danielle Levy and I am a junior at Carlman High School and a leader of the clean energy subcommittee in the Sequoia Union High School District sustainability committee. I am here to discuss an overview of our sustainability committee goals on waste and transportation as well as to propose a revised climate resolution. But first, I would like to start us off with my personal story. My house is on the edge of a ravine in
020Belmont in a highly flammable chaperel habitat where I've often observed gusty winds that pose a significant fire hazard to my house and others in the local community. In fact, not long ago, a fire had started about a mile from my house, and it could have jeopardized our safety. Fire season is approaching. Global warming has exacerbated extreme weather patterns and has already put many of our communities within this district in immediate danger. As many of you are aware, the vast majority of SUSD members commute by car, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. In light of that, my clean energy subcommittee and I would like to emphasize the urgency to address the need for certain actions such as increasing drop off curbs by reducing idling issues and creating a climate dashboard on the Seoia Union High School
021District website to provide clear and transparent data on the environmental status. Furthermore, our zero waste subcommittee is advocating for using non-toxic reusables for school meals, implementing milk dispensers across all schools to reduce waste while reducing uh student expenses, and using organic cereals in bulk to improve the health of our community. These are just a few of the actions that can be taken. I want our district to be a part of this growing movement for a sustainable and climate resilient future. Thus, we are in great need of adopting a revised climate resolution to help I'm sorry, your time is up. Thank you. So, Jaria, are you going next? Jaria Louie. Hi everyone. My name is Kiara Louie and I'm a current junior at Crystal Springs Upland School. I serve as a youth representative for Peninsula Clean
022Energy and I'm a member of the SUHSD sustainability committee's clean energy team. I also live with betalosmia which is a rare blood disorder affecting only 3% of the world which makes it hard for me to handle extreme temperatures and so therefore I rely on air conditioning to stay safe. But I also know that AC's are a major source of emissions. And so I've lived with the contradiction that needing something from relief from something that contributes to the problem. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, each term of natural gas produces about 11.7 pounds of carbon emissions, meaning that our district emits over 1.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year from gas alone. And most comes from outdated heating systems that not only cost more to operate, but accelerate our carbon footprint. So, what can we
023do about this? We need a sustainability resolution right now, specifically one for zero waste and clean energy. For example, like Daniel mentioned, launching a climate dashboard, a public platform where students, staff, and the community can track energy usage. Peninsula Clean Energy, the organization that I represent, has been working with districts across the region to set bold and achievable goals for carbon reduction. and I've seen what's possible when institutions take the first step. We're not asking for perfection. We're asking for a simple commitment. Starting now with the sustainability resolution. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, we have Ben Schifer. Hello. My name is Ben Schlifer. Uh I am the green and clean purchasing uh coordinator at the Center for Environmental Health. It's a nonprofit based out of Oakland. I've been working with the sustainability
024committee for almost three years now. I hosted two of them as summer interns and uh they also went to uh Sacramento to lobby on two bills that passed. AB 2515 which bans PAS and menstrual products and also AB418 which bans toxic food dyes from the school lunches. I just want to strongly advocate for this committee and getting another resolution across the board for them. I know a resolution formed the committee some years ago and now they need a little bit more commitment from the board to start instituting some of these uh re um these green initiatives. In particular, I am concerned about the foodear that we are finding at uh Sequoia Union District. Uh this stuff tested high for PA FAFS uh back in 2022. I I've been working with Sandra uh to try to
025make sure we are phasing out any toxic food wares from the school lunches, but it is a heavy burden and a heavy lift for uh someone who's preparing hundreds of meals per day that needs to get served in 20 minute time frame. We have a lot of success working with districts all over the Bay Area. I've plugged in this committee with districts uh in Dublin and also Fremont so that they could have studentled uh kind of collab uh co- uh collabs to talk about certain initiatives and how to get it passed. Fremont Unified in particular passed a zero waste resolution which I would advocate for. But any of the resolutions that uh these students want I am very much excited about and want to get uh over the finish line. So just very much imploring
026you all to consider uh taking on another sustainability or climate resolution that is studentled and coming from the student body. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next we have Somaya Norris. Hi my Hi. Hi, my name is Somaya Norris and I'm a current senior at East Palatoto Academy. As someone who joined East Palatoto Academy in my junior year, I often find myself wishing I had the complete chance to have the bulldog journey. The sense of belonging at East Palto Academy from the Sorry, exc um so I think this comment's actually about an agenda item that we have later on. So why don't we Sorry about that. Why don't we come back when that item's on the agenda? I think there was some mixup. So sorry, we'll hear your comments soon. [Applause] Is it the same
027for Abraham? Okay. Right. That concludes comments in person. We'll switch to Zoom. First up is uh Danny Molier. Hi Dan. Are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. Good evening board. Um and good evening all. Um first I just want to really quickly address um president um the president's comment. I think that's a great idea that you said and I welcome you to please with all these important families that have done an amazing job with their children and everything when you talk about not making comments that are not professional and stuff. I urge you to please post what you did to that child um two years ago and let everybody read what how you do things. Anyway, so we'll stick to important things. Um, I had a
028different agenda today, but based on what I saw, I'm so happy to see so many successful minority families, Hispanic, all others. It's amazing. What I asked you all to do is continue to be smart, continue to move forward, continue to do what you need to do. Um, being a minority, um, it's a really sometimes uphill battle, but there's good in every race because I have friends in every race, white, Caucasian, Asian, doesn't make a difference. um the Hispanic Committee and everyone else who has more importantly what I just want to refer to are IEPs or 504s. Please make sure you don't sign anything, do anything without getting all your rights because you're all out there and those are your children to protect because you have a very disturbing administration led by Crystal Leech. They're using
029a term called legal legally defensible IEPs. That's dangerous because they're what they're doing is checking boxes instead of serving your children. So, I'm not going to say anything more other than this is your guys's night. My my stuff with my lawyers and everything will be dealt with later and all of you continue to be successful in this world and congratulation to you all. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Charlotte Downey. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. Okay. I just wanted to take a minute to thank my former co-workers at Woodside High School for thinking of me during my breast cancer surgery last month. Um, hearing from them during a very difficult time, scary time, um, meant the world to me and I just wanted to um give a special
030shout out to all of them. Eli Thornton, retiree Nancy Stavves, Francisco Negri, JJ Cortez, retiree Moren Campbell, Darina Mavival, Penny Amari, and special shout out to Katrina, who actually was one of the first people that I uh disclosed my diagnosis to. Um I love you all and I appreciate you. Thank you for your thoughts and um I'm healing well. And also a special shout out to Eli for always making me feel included even the last three years. Um I love you and God bless you. Thank you. Next we have Isha Jane. Hello. Good evening. I had a question more so than an an agenda item. Uh I'm from a neighboring school and we're curious about what the plans are for the building that is currently being used by Everest High School on 455th Avenue in
031Redwood City. Our school is interested in being able to use that building. So I'm wondering uh how do I who do I talk to and who can I connect with regarding that? Um thank you. Thank you. Uh last um our last speaker is Cara Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, perfect. Good evening everyone. My name is Cara and I'm a senior at Carmont High School and the current director of the SHSD sustainability committee or SSC for short. I've been a student at Carmmont for four years now and part of the SSC leadership team for three. And although my time on the committee has been extremely rewarding and we've seen success in some of our sustainability initiatives, I've also personally noticed many things at Karma that I think are harmful toward the environment,
032also our health, which you know, the same issues that did inspire me to enjoy the committee as a sophomore. And just to list a few, so currently um many breakfast options are often heated up in plastic. Tribins are never sorted and often hard to access. And most of our hot meals are served in compostable trays sealed tightly with plastic which do defeat the purpose of the trays to begin with. And a lot of my friends and myself included often feel uncomfortable when we want a free meal because of the chemicals that we know have leeched into the food. This is also an equity concern since students who may depend on these meals are not getting the healthy food that they deserve. And in the mornings and after school, um, as my team members have mentioned
033already, vehicles end up iding by the curb or parking lots waiting for students, which not only smells bad and and is unnecessarily wasteful of energy, but also contributes to atmospheric pollution and harms our lungs. And even though I'm a graduating senior, I have a younger sister and three younger cousins planning to attend or currently at Cormalt. It is imperative that the district becomes more conscious about students health because it serves so many families. Uh that's why we believe that we should start by passing a new resolution that focuses on specific goals such as energy first policies, better waste management and management and reusable options for meal packaging to address these issues more effectively. I truly believe that this is an opportunity to come together and show that our district doesn't just talk about the future.
034We build it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. That concludes public comic on non-aggenda items. Thank you. Um, next is item number nine, which is board or yeah, board of trustees correspondence. I don't think we have any correspondence. So, next is item number 10, which is board of trustees, superintendent comments and committee reports. Okay. Um, yeah, why don't we start with the board trustees comments? Um I just wanted to report out um Trusty Coup and I attended the wellness um committee month monthly by quarterly not sure how many times we meet but we met um and I thoroughly enjoyed um the activity that was prepared. We did an asset map trying to really figure out um the different parts of wellness. Um what does health mean, sexual health, mental health, physical health, um nutrition,
035and and that asset map kind of gave us a great idea of where we are and in those different categories and where we could possibly go. Um so I don't know if Trustee wants to add to it, but I thought that was I thoroughly enjoyed that committee meeting. Um and I just wanted to share that out. Yeah, just to add on to that, I thought it was very interactive and got the juices flowing. So, I'm really excited uh that we're following on with the wellness update because I think one of the activities was on the presentation already. So, it's almost in real time. Um, and then I did want to share that um, President Norian and I had a chance to advocate in Washington DC along with 325 other school board members and superintendents from
036across the state. Um, this was sponsored by the California School Boards Association and AXA, what's AXA? Association of California School Administrators. Okay. Um, so I think that was a a very effective way to make sure that um people in Congress as well as their staffers actually understand what's happening on the ground because as all of us know um there's a lot of excitement and crazy things going on in DC right now. And so um just making sure people understand the impact to the day-to-day and the people that are their constituents is really important. [Music] I have no comments. I'll turn over to Superintendent. Well, I want to thank um President Nory and Vice President Coup for uh attending the Sanonteo County School Boards Association Kent Awards last Friday night uh when we won an award
037for our STAR program, which was fabulous. and um all of our sped team uh was there and Dr. Shicone. So, thank you so much for attending and being able to celebrate such a wonderful and beneficial program for our students. And then let's see how many of these comments I can steal from Edith. This week, I got a smile and a side eye. So, this week is staff appreciation week. It's like the week of classified member. It's like teachers and so we turned this into a whole celebration of a week. Today was cookie day. So cabinet along with our fabulous administrative assistants yesterday stuffed probably I don't know 1,400 cookies. Uh we wore gloves so I just wanted you to know that and put stickers on and then cabinet delivered today. And it was just so
038nice to see so many smiling faces and to receive messages that you enjoyed the sweet treat cuz we enjoy giving you the sweet treat. And so just a big thank you um for all educational staff uh this week of staff appreciation. Thank you. Great. And um next we have item number 11, which is student trustee comments. Okay. Um hi, I'm Ashlin. I'm a Carmont sophomore. Um, hi, I'm Sakina. I'm a freshman at Carmont. Hi, I'm Julie. I am a senior at Woodside. We're here representing um SACE this month. However, um we unfortunately didn't have a meeting, so we're just going to go over some positives and some concerns that we have at some mer school sites. So, at Carlmont, as many of you guys might know, um AP testing just started on Monday, and it
039seems to be going pretty smoothly with all teachers um being very accommodating for any absences. Um as well as two Fridays ago, prom went really well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Um our DECA club recently went to ICDC, which is the international um competition, and they uh brought home many awards, as well as our green tech and engineering club, who won a lot at the competition at Berkeley. Um and then our Scott scoop Scott scoop which is our online publication at Carmont um won an online pacemaker and first place in as best of snow. Yeah. And then in terms of sports at CarMont uh we had track and swimming which had JV PAL championships last week and then we're cheering on varsity this weekend and we're also looking forward to Scotsland which is our club's
040fair. Um and then just a few concerns for Crommont. um due to APs and finals and things like SATs as well. Um I've seen that a lot of mental health and there's there's just like a lot of really high stress levels at Carmon. So um we just wanted to address that there should be a little bit more um mental health support for students who need it during this time period. Um as well as raised awareness of the counselors and therapists that we know are available. Um but a lot of students just feel like they don't have access to these um resources. Yeah. And then um for the school tide, a couple positives. They had prom on Friday uh May 9th at the Los Altos History Museum and the Tide Troopers, which is their drama club,
041performed their original play, Wandle's Wagon of Wonder at Carrington Hall at Sequoia High this past weekend. And students also had some discussions and reviewed school events that they enjoyed this year and started to plan for next year, which a lot of students are looking forward to. Um, in terms of concerns, they have a couple suggestions for the bus stops in the routes that Tide has. And they would also like to buy food off campus during lunch. And they say the cafeteria food is pretty good, but would like a variety of salads. Okay. As for Woodside, some positives we have is that prom went really well. Students really love the DJ that we have this year. We didn't we haven't really had any good ones. the past years. Sorry. Um, students really like the Friday quad
042activities we have, such as music in the quad, and on any spirit days we have, we also have things that correlate to it. So, I really enjoy that, too. Um, they really like the Wildcat Olympics we did three weeks ago for prom. That went really well. We had a lot of great performances from Bloorico. We had some great um we added student sing. She did really well as well. And then students really like that we added more sports such as the boys volleyball team. One of my friends isn't is on it. So he really enjoys it and it's happy that we have that. Finally, students enjoy the variety of classes we offer. There might be a few more that they like, but we we really enjoy the ones we have. uh students are more confident,
043feel more comfortable in school. I noticed that a lot and specifically with how I feel. I am Latina, so a lot of us have felt more comfortable voicing how we feel and what we believe in. And I think that's really important as students is to join together and do things that we believe in, but also make it like appropriate, of course. Um students also like our spirit table for spirit days that we have. Okay. Some concerns we have is to increase mental health support for the students. So AP testing a lot of students have been stressed. SATs everything that deals with the test the big tests have been really huge that we need to increase. And also for me, I think we need to support mental health more with the students of color. I think
044it's really important to help them reach out cuz if we don't really help them reach out to us, they're not really going to come, you know. And I think it's important to also just have those students give them more resource resources to um help them like realize that there's so much we could also do and push them a little more to do better and realize oh there's so much more to school and there's everything and we could als that they could go to college as well. So I'm really nervous right now. Um, also after school tutoring support for students. One student mentioned to me that we did stop the den and a lot of students would really like that back because for me I went to it a lot and it has helped really huge
045being able to get help in a lot of classes that I had that have just been really difficult for me. And then students are just really stressed out about AP testing pretty much. Um, that's all. Thank you. Um, next is item number 12 which is comments from SDTA and ASME. Good evening. I did want to say I did make sure that I got to the um mail room and I got a cookie so that I could comment on it since I saw the email that it was cookie day. Um very cute stickers. I will be more impressed if everybody applied the stickers while also wearing gloves because that is a trick. Um it is uh teacher appreciation week and as I said at the last meeting um I think it's really important that we um
046we think about what we mean when we say teacher. We use the term educator a lot sort of internally. Um but there is absolutely no reason that when you think of a teacher, you aren't also thinking of your counselor. you're not also thinking of your librarian, the school psychologist, the instructional aid, the secretary at the desk who made sure that you got to class on time and maybe had something to eat on your way. Um so we are all working together and we um uh we are happy to celebrate that this week and again next Wednesday uh Wednesday for California's day of the teacher because California has to be different. Um you guys did an awesome job through the nerves and I just wanted to echo some of the things that students were saying there.
047there is a somewhat predictable wellness uh eb and flow for students and um May can be a particularly stressful time for students who are about to leave us and are unsure of their next steps for students who are doing their eighth year IB testing. Um for students who are ready for it to be June and realize that there are four long weeks until it is. Um it's also a stressful time for um our teachers and all of the people that that word encompasses. And so I'm looking forward to the wellness presentation today and um to expanding our work on wellness to um include how we treat um employee wellness um so that we can all be the best that um possible and give our best to our students. Thank you. Thank you. Um, next we'll
048um, is there anyone from ask me first? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to item number 13, which is approval of the consent agenda. Board action to approve the following items is taken simultaneously with one motion, which is not debatable and requires a unanimous roll call vote for passage. The actions indicated on each item is deemed to have been considered in full and action taken is 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 board members or the superintendent to remove an item for further discussion. Um is there any public comments on the consent agenda? There are none. Okay. And then do any board members or superintendent wish to?
049Okay, seeing none, the motion is to wave the reading of the consent agenda, accept the reports, adopt the resolutions, and approve other items. I move approval of the consent agenda. Seconded. Roll call. Student trustee Robas. Yes. Yes. Yes. Student Trustee Ohashi, yes. Student Trustee Wong, yes. Trusty Cruz, yes. Trustee Thompson, yes. Trusty Gin, yes. Vice President Nori, I mean, excuse me, Vice President Coupe, yes. President Nori, yes. Motion passes. 5-0. Um, great. Now, we'll move on to the information item period of our night. Um, first we have the Sequoia Union High School District wellness update and I'll turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Shone. Good evening, uh, members of the board, student trustee, Superintendent Leech, and Cabinet. I am pleased to welcome this evening Steven Emmy who is our wellness coordinator along with Jessica Kovven
050who has been working with us on the development of our wellness centers and how to spread wellness and mental health within our district. They have the report from the work done this year as they've done every year for the board. Um, so we want to hear from them and welcome your questions after the presentation, but I will not belabor it because I know from the student trustees and from our SDTA president that people are eager to hear what we've been doing for wellness this year and they're here to present that to us. Good evening. Um we're excited to be here tonight to share with you um all the work we've done um continuing to reimagine wellness here at SUHSD. Um I'm Stephen Emmy. I'm the wellness programs coordinator. This is Jessica Coven. She is from
051Swell School as well, a consultant we work with um uh providing um input on wellness development. Um I'm often on the ground um with our site staff and so Jessica has been an invaluable partner in big picture thinking and planning um and um I'm excited to have her here tonight to share also. So just a quick overview um today's wellness presentation um we will try to get not be too long on you um our SUHSD wellness um update including some MTSS um student wellness program data um we'll share some highlights about our program development and we will share um some celebrations and then some plans for upcoming um developments. So why wellness? Um I think we're all aware of that a really um high need um among our students especially postcoid um students are coming
052to school with more than books in their backpack as that graphic up there says. So students accessing SUHSD wellness are reporting the following stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness. You can read the rest. Um there's a lot of need and we recognize that and we are working to develop better um tier one and tier 2 interventions to support students. So we're not funneling everyone to tier three. And again, as we talked about and Trusty Coup and Thompson had mentioned, um we really are focusing on four areas that we want to um work on and um support students in, which is physical health, mental health, sexual health, and substance misuse. And and like we obviously want to support all of our students wellness, but also with the idea as an educational institution, students who have increased wellness are
053going to have higher and better outcomes. So, um, thanks for having me. Um, so I've been with the district for this is my second full year involved in the development of the wellness center and I've really when I first came to the district, not all, but the majority of services were really tier three. So, we had we have amazing mental health support specialists, counselors, community partners. Um, and our vision was to expand tier one and tier two. Because, as you know, if every student is coming to school with more than books in their backpack, there's going to be a neverending need for tier three, which is that onetoone support, which is incredibly expensive for schools, and there's no way to cap it. It'll just keep increasing. I'm hearing from students and from staff. The needs
054just keep rising. So, we're trying to build out systems and structures to support all students, some students, and then the highest need students. Um and then our um audiences which you'll see in our presentation today were really focusing on students primarily but also staff and also parents and caregivers um with all those three tiers. So I am going to move into some data. Um this will be um data based on um this year's um services provided. And the data we pulled from IC that I used for this was from August uh through the end of March in order for me to be able to pull it. So it's not totally current, but it's through um March. And we used um data obviously in the IC wellness tab and data request um form that we used
055in the wellness. Yeah. Okay. Um so the my hope in today's presentation is you can the the goal is to reduce the number of students at the top not because they don't need a service but to hope that we can serve more students um not behind closed doors. So um our number has decreased a bit from last year. It's 1,772. Um and those are unique student served. Those could be receiving onetoone or in groups I believe. Um, it could also be students who are case managed and maybe don't receive ongoing services with us but have gotten face-toface behind closed door support. Um, students that did receive those direct services, these were the referral pathways that um, got them there. Um, and obviously we have the teacher referrals, admin referrals, there are referrals coming in from
056community partners. Um, counselors are referral sources. Um, students are seen onetoone. um as a result of being involved in a group um others, friends, other concerned staff um parent referrals. But what I did want to highlight is we have um significantly increased our self referral which is was a goal we had set for ourselves last year. And really I feel like this is due to the increased outreach um campaigns, wellness youth councils and promotional um um activities that we've done around kind of dstigmatizing destigmatizing wellness and inviting students into the wellness space. So when that they do need the support, they know where to go and get it. And that for me that's a measure that says a lot like it's doubled in one year. Students are starting to really understand what supports are available
057which is huge because our students know themselves and their peers best. So quick question before you move on. What was ATS? Um alternative to suspension. Oh okay. Thanks. So if the student is referred when if they're in u through uh disciplinary action um that that is a referral source as well. So, students serve by wellness uh districtwide. Um again, we've reduced a little bit at this time last year, but I do attribute that to um we still have a pretty high number at 20% of our students accessing wellness services, but I do attribute that slight decrease to um us pushing more tier one universal supports for students and not having everyone um being pushed just right into tier three um direct counseling services. students. Um this is representative of our um students served by race
058and ethnicity. Uh it very much aligns with our demographic for our stu our district which is a good sign again that in general students across all sites are accessing wellness um in equal manner by school site. Um so the 17 uh72 students that receive direct services those are unduplicated services um and these are the sites that they receive those services at um and again there is some variance here um and there uh some of it's due to population um and some of it's uh due to uh student need. Um, of those 1772 students who did receive direct services, they received a total of 11,579 services. Meaning they receive they so they saw a multiple times or they saw went to group multiple times. And of those 11,579 direct services, 8,189 were individual counseling. Um 1,766
059were case management and consultation and 1,624 were group services. Okay. So, this next part I feel really excited about because this was not I don't think this was in our presentation last year. This is something we did a lot of training on with some of the folks who are sitting here today around how do we build out tier one and tier 2 and encourage not students just dropping in and hanging out in our spaces but getting a tier one or tier 2 intervention. And so now we have um what I like to call wellness outreach specialists staff at many of our spaces who are trained who participated in 18 hours of training with me hopefully around how do you triage students and how can you support students and not send everyone behind closed doors for
060onetoone. And so our numbers are pretty significant. These are duplicated, but we now have our staff um tracking students dropping in. And this is not this is during class time and we keep a time we have a very structured um space for them to practice coping techniques and emotional regulation to get back to class. But we had over 4,000 students use that service. And I think I mean that's exactly what we want. We want to keep kids back in class. If they're with us in tier three, they're gone for the full hour. if they're with us in tier one or tier two, they might be with us for 10 to 15 minutes. And we do something called well, here we go. You can see um the different numbers of and and some of these schools,
061it matches up with them opening up these dropin spaces and staffing these spaces. And then if you go to the next one, this is what all of your mental health support specialists and outreach um uh wellness outreach specialists and or office assistants have been trained in, which is called the wellness toolbox where we're actually hopefully teaching students to name to figure out what they're feeling, where they're feeling it, have they felt it before, what has worked. So it's called the name it to tame it approach and then picking a tool. So instead of just sitting down on their phone, we really do not encourage phone use in the wellness spaces. We are encouraging students to work on emotionally regulating with time set and then head back to class. Some students obviously need a higher level
062of care, but over 4,000 students use this kind of service. Next, I'm going to move on to um our wellness support and empowerment groups. Um so we provide group work for our students um group counseling services and this year the total number of unique students who received that were 179 total student contacts through those groups repeated sessions were 1624 um and total group sessions held 136 total minutes of group sessions 8,160 um was the and the average time in that group was 60 minutes um the focus of those groups varied um summer stress management. Um we did provide a large number of um MEL newcomer um support groups this year. Um and uh you can see some of the other ones that we uh offered as well. A lot of this is site based and
063based on the need of the community and uh the mental health support special are consistently um providing what their own sites and communities are needing at that time. And I'm going to keep going with the tears. So the group we consider tier two and the nice thing about a group is one of our clinicians can work with you know anywhere from six to 12 to 15 students in one hour versus one student and of course some students need one to one but it allows us to serve more students. So, uh, yep. Okay. So, now we're going to jump in. So, that, so now we've gone from tier three to tier two. Now, we're talking tier one. And I've been amazed. I keep looking back. I'm looking for our mental health support specialists. How open they've
064been to doing. They've already been doing some schoolwide events, but even being more strategic so that all students know that there's wellness center, all students are learning about important topics that um, we need to make sure everyone has the resources and information. So just to show you so you can kind of see it right these these are the numbers you want to see. So now it went from like a smaller number to a little bit bigger your biggest base your tier one which is universal right now we showed that almost 10,000 of your students received some type of universal health education or promotion um and participated in a wellness event this year. There was 110 student wellness events and we're going to share some examples of those shortly. So, um these are examples of the
065uh education outreach events that took place across our district. Um many of them overlapped at certain sites. Some of them um were unique to different sites. But again, this was these are education and outreach events that are targeted based on this uh community and schools need. And something that's really um great about this is that often these events were student driven. our mental health support specialists all have done the hard amazing work of cultivating wellness youth arms or wellness youth councils that are involved in making these decisions and these presentations and so their voice is often heard and um provided um and they're providing education for their peers. Um we also were able to provide staff wellness um in the form of PD for staff um often that focused on supporting students um and mental
066health needs um as well as um opportunities to take care of their own mental health and wellness. Um some of the examples here um are suicide prevention academics um wellness 101 which is huge um making sure all staff know um how to refer to the wellness center. But one thing that I did want to particularly highlight was um our mindfulness integrative wellness challenge. We partnered um we we always partner with Sequoia Healthcare District who has also partnered um with the center for wellness and adjustment in education. I'm sorry, achievement in education. And we have brought um the wellness um mindfulness integrated wellness challenge to two sites this year um MA and um now Carlmont is currently doing it and it is very it's staff focused. It's 10 sessions. It's focused on um mindfulness, exercise, diet
067um and sleep. Um, so it's really a tool that it's given to the staff with no expectation of them going and delivering it to their students, but something that will help them hopefully um be more prepared um to support their students. Um, I hear it's pretty competitive at Kroma right now. Um, parent caregiver wellness education. Um, our our big partner is parent ventures and we've continued that um partnership again this year. um they are primarily um provided on Zoom. There's a wealth of topics and we've worked with them to make sure that the topics are representative based of the need of our community and our larger school district community and we continue to work to do that. Uh we have also had parent caregiver education outreach activities at the school sites that were produced by
068the school sites, some by the mental health support specialists who are here tonight. Um and there are 300 parents and 15 wellness that they participated in. Some of those examples are there. Um teen mental health, substance use, body image, suicide prevention. Again, understanding grief and loss with teens. Again, topics that are relevant um to us and also based on site need. So I want to do a spotlight on Carrot and Tide Wellness Centers. So last year we highlighted PAUSE which is peace and wellness space at MA. Um this year we're going to highlight Carlott and Tide wellness centers. Um in the past year we've given extra support to those sites to promote and um improve their wellness offerings. Um but before I do that um I do want to give a general um I want
069to take a moment and acknowledge the hard work of our mental health support specialists at all of our sites. Um, some of them are here tonight. Um, the data that you just saw is the work of these amazing people. They are where the rubber meets the road. They work to coordinate the support of all of our students, managing case loads of our CBO mental health providers, providing direct service to students, coordinating wellness youth groups, helping our school staff support their students, and providing safe spaces for our students to seek help. Many of them have dealt with some extraordinary situations and circumstances this year and have done so with grace and a commitment to the students and our parents and our families. I want to recognize each mental health support specialist by name and ask them
070to stand if they are here. Um Shelley Bamonte Carl High School, Marco Calderon, East Palo Alto Academy. I don't think he was able to join us tonight, but we can give him a round of applause. Shondaanda Nickerson, Menlo Athetherton High School. Judy Romero, Sequoia High [Applause] School, Lauren Riser, Tide, Casey Ry, Casey Arabia at Tide as well, and not last but not least, Kathy Holmes at Woodside High School. Again, without these individuals, um, our wellness reimagined would not be a reality. So, I appreciate you all. um spotlight on Carlmont and so um Carmont and uh Shel's hard work, Gay Buckland Murray's hard work has [Music] um resulted in an amazing space that students are feeling really welcome to come to. Um I had a million quotes that I got from Shelley and of people saying
071how wonderful the space is and how needed it was. Um and so they've done a lot of hard work. Uh the school actually put a lot of work in creating that space. Um and so we're very thankful uh spotlight on Tide Wellness Center. Um again, students are very thankful to have that space and in collaboration with principal Simone Kennel and the amazing counseling staff there. We created the wellness center within that counseling space. Given the limited space, they've really made it work. And I just want to take a minute also to acknowledge these incredible humans that I've had the honor of working with. They are all up to learn and grow and expand and um it's a big deal, right? Like they what I've seen the shifts in like the spaces have been transformed the
072thinking is keeps being reimagined and um they've been just up for growth and expansion. It's been really impressive. Well, thank you. Great questions and engaged always. Um this year health and safety has um been come part of our work um in wellness or it has been part of our work but we kind of combined forces. Um and I want to provide some highlights. It really makes sense that uh health and safety is connected with wellness. Um there is a lot of of overlap. Um uh I want to give a shout out to Andre Scetta who is our health and safety coordinator and is an amazing um manager and has done some amazing things for our district. Um some of the highlights are here um vision and screening vision screening and hearing screening uh dental. Um
073we also have uh the Stanford Health Man that he's helped coordinate and um make sure is providing services to all of our students. He's done amazing training for our staff. Uh these trainings included that list there. One of the ones that I want to highlight is we've under um Andre's work really augmented our work in Narcan training, fentinel education um and CPR work. And so I think it's huge and important. we've kind of like led the way in that and has been a big factor in that. Okay, we're almost done. Couple more slides. So, other growth that we wanted to highlight. Last year when we were standing here, one of the biggest issues that came forward from the board was what are we doing around um student substance use and misuse. And so, um, Stephen
074and I met many times to think about how to start the year strong with training for our mental health support specialists and for our teams and ultimately figure out how we can expand in this work. Um, I won't go over all the data, but you you know, there are there's work to do, right? Our students um are using um drugs and alcohol. We want them to be as safe as possible. So, the first thing that we did um first right at the beginning of the school year, I think it was during staff professional development day, we had Stanford's reach lab who focuses on teen um drug and alcohol use come and do a big training for the staff. Um later, Stephen um continues to work with the mental health support specialist and did a bunch
075of asset mapping. And you can see see here the yellow is what we have and the blue is what we need and want and started to really think about this topic and how to expand um these services on campus. I'm going to move real fast. Um just wanted to highlight um not only did they get trained by um Stanford's reach lab. Um several of our mental health support specialists and staff went to the teens tackle tobacco conference and um the alcohol and drug conference. We then um I ran some trainings around uh planning a schoolwide event um when it comes to substances and we um prepared staff with two events. One was um just say no which kind of um kn which is different than the way I grew up right was no n o
076which obviously it's illegal right we don't want students using substances but saying no doesn't work is what the research says so we say kn and um the team kind of decided on safety first with wellness and we did a poster campaign and lunchtime activities that focused on harm reduction for all substances um and then we also just put out a fentinel um event that also has three lunchtime events, a poster campaign, and each of them have a workshop as well that um staff can sign students up for. So, that's a little bit about our work. Um these are just pictures of different events. Um okay, we'll keep keep going. So, we have uh reconvened our wellness advisory council. Uh Trusty Coup and Trusty Thompson mentioned um we will continue that work. We um at our
077last meeting did ISF mapping and are revisiting our outcomes at our next um but we will continue to meet and we have a broad um scope of people who are joining us community members parents teachers um staff and um who will help us make informed choices moving forward. You've met twice, right? Yes, we met twice. We're going to plan we'll meet quarterly moving forward. Um, so something new and exciting that we're working on this year and continuing through next year is building a new SUSD wellness internship program for mental health um, masters level um, and higher to um, provide services at our school sites. Um, I want to give a big shout out to Christina who's been instrumental in this and supporting [Applause] it amongst amongst many other things that she helps with. Um, but
078she's really taken the lead on this and I appreciate that and and we hope to continue to grow this moving forward. Yeah, I just want to share this is so significant and every year this program will grow. One is it it's a much less expensive model to support mental health services tier 2 and tier three and you have some great universities close by. So already you're bringing in new interns for next year. Um and we are looking at masters in social work, masters in clinical psychology, um masters in mental health counseling and there it's a um a give take, right? They're going to get a great internship experience. We get amazing interns um that re unfortunately receive small stipens um but get a great experience and it really matches up with school-based counseling model which
079is not long term, right? So I think some people are worried if you bring an intern in is it too short term? That's actually what we're hoping for is short-term counseling in schools and ultimately getting kids connected in their community for summer, winter break, and after school hours. So, thank you, Christina. This it's very exciting where this program can go. And we, you know, we've been doing all kinds of things. We're almost done, but we also decided to create a wellness logo that we're going to share. This was created in conversation with the mental health support specialist. We had many choices. They took that they took all the choices to the students and um I think it was Christina's idea for a sapling a sapling of a sequoia tree and so the students voted on
080this and you'll start to see this around um each site is going to get their name underneath and there is a reason it's not about like having a cool logo. It's about students knowing where to go and how we're all connected and we hope that that will increase the number of students knowing the types of services and programs we offer. And then back to like our events, when you put a logo, they know where to go for more information. So, we're excited. Um, and I think this is our last section. We're going to celebrate our wellness community partners. These are our community partners without whom we would not be able to do all the work we do. The other, um, really important factor in all of this. Um, a lot of these partners are our
081mental health providers, but also come in and provide additional support in youth development and other um, community service. um and parent education. So, we really are thankful to them. I do want to specifically again give um thanks to Sequoia Healthcare District for being our partner and supporting us and our thought partner as well. So, our next steps, our plans for next year, again, growing the wellness advisory council to engage um the SUSD community, um expanding free and lowcost mental health services through Sequoia um high school district's wellness partnership, um internship partnership, um enhanced wellness centers and health service collaboration, um really again focusing on some of our um sexual health needs as well. uh professional development, expanding our wellness and PD collaboration with ED services department and coordinating more specific trainings for wellness counseling staff
082seal um and expanding and continuing to expand SUSD mental uh MTSS wellness center model districtwide. Um and again uh streamlining our wellness data collection, continue work on that. And then most importantly, navigating our funding changes with creativity and collaboration. Um and hoping to continue that work next year to make sure that the essential services that we are providing still get to be. [Music] So thank you so much for that presentation. Um before we turn to board members questions and comments, um I think we forgot to do public comment for this item. I don't have any public comments. No. Okay. Um, with that, I'll turn it over to my colleagues for comments or questions. I just want to say thank you so much for all the work that you're doing. I know it's the beginning and
083I can't wait to see more. Um, and it's just beautiful the way that you are teaching our young folks how to really communicate, right? It's it's about communication and being able to communicate in a healthy way. So, I'm just really grateful that this program started and it's going forward and um just thank you. Thank you to everybody who's worked so hard on this. Thank you. Yeah. Um I two questions popped up as you you all were talking. One of them has to do with um both what the students were saying and the facult staff faculty were saying. Um I'm wondering if you are thinking about just that the eb and flow I think was the term that was used in terms of what one mental health seems to rise perhaps around holidays perhaps around testing.
084Um and so I'm thinking in the future is that something that's on your radar about like maybe those are when internships are really big or increased services or how does that fit in? Um we we do um monitor that and supposed of the year typically before breaks and before the winter or summer break um and also during times of the year and so we are trying to provide additional support and we do talk about as mental health support specialists as a group um we would love to continue to augment those services and provide more I think that's the um there's non-stop opportunity to be creative in this work right and so each year I work with lots of schools and they try different things. Um I having a senior myself right now, there is so
085much stress for seniors. There's stress around testing. We have we've started doing stress less events in your schools before finals for each semester. Um there is um relationship and communication information that needs to go out around Valentine's Day. There's like there could be a calendar of the entire year, right? Our wellness 101 workshops really need to happen at the beginning of the year so every student has access. But yes, right. And each year prom, right? We tried to do the just say they know around prom time. So yes, it I think it's really helpful to align with what teenagers are doing and going through in high school and try to pre provide that tier one um education and that's an area of growth for sure. Thank you from that. Um I think the other question
086comes from from the activity when when we did the asset mapping. One of the things that I was as I am as I am delving into the institutional knowledge um what surprised me a little bit is the for lack of better words inconsistency across different school sites. Um and I was talking to some people in the committee and one of them said well part of that is just a budget. We had it one year we didn't have it the next and part of it b is people. they get really into a passion project, they bring it forward and then that person might leave or or change their mind. And so I'm wondering what do you see as the board, the district to support consistency in wellness. Yeah, that is the key, right? And so already
087I have to say, you know, I don't work directly for you all, but I've seen significant shifts in seeing things that are more I see much more consistency in the past two years and I've seen it a long time. I think or since I started, I think Stephen meeting with a mental health support specialist every week provides consistency. I feel like we're in phase one slash two, right, of this work ultimately. And I know some of our next steps are consistency. How do we make sure everyone's collecting the same data? everyone's offering something for students who are stressed about AAPs. How can we centralize the work and our that just say no event was an example of how do we create something centrally and share with all sites? How do we so that it's less
088work? We're not reinventing the wheel. Some things need to be unique to sites, but some things really need to get centralized. And I know that that's Steven's goal. Um, so I we definitely hear a lot about the need. We heard it from the students. We heard it from the teachers. Um, we've been hearing it for years. I think a lot more when the pandemic started and continuing since. So, it's great that we're addressing a clear need and I like the alignment with tears because it aligns with the other work that we're doing around counseling and to to fit it together. Um are there I guess sort of two questions together connected but are are there specific goals and then you presented a lot of data about usage rates but how do you judge whether it's
089achieving the goals like just because people attended a session how do you know if the session worked or do you so like what's what are the goals and how do you assess with data or is there any data to assess whether you're achieving the goals Um so we we are working with um in our larger group with the healthy schools initiative to actually create some kind of data um like recordkeeping or kind of um getting some data that will tell us what what's working, what's not. I know we're working to administer surveys for students like who are receiving services. So it's like qualitative data that they're self-reflecting and saying yes this did help or this didn't help. Um but uh I anecdote like on a smaller level yes you can see at a site if
090I'm looking at a kid and they're like accessing wellness then and we can is there a correlation to like are grades getting better? Are they attending better? Typically the answer is yes. But are we pulling that data right now and looking at it for every student who's accessing wellness? No. Um, and I don't know what that looks like, especially around like um, BAPE and like confidentiality stuff, but like definitely looking into improving uh, data out. Two things. One, I just wrote down great thing for the um, wellness advisory council to focus in on on all four areas. Um, in working in wellness centers for 25 years, I've worked with outside evaluators. I've never seen and this is not a great thing the data get past satisfaction surveys which is self-reported satisfaction surveys. So that is
091definitely something we can start next year. We have lots of samples of them from an outside agency called evaluation training and research and UCSF came together. They created satisfaction surveys. We have tried for years in different schools to connect it on the student information system like a student went to wellness six times. Are their grades in you know improving? Are is their attendance improving? And we've run into a lot of barriers which I can explain um one around confidentiality and two it depends on the kid right so if you have a really high achieving kid it's not necessarily evaluating you know them coming to they already come to school they're already they're coming for the stress of school so the grades they're already getting a you know not for every kid so it's complicated and
092there are groups that are working on it um and I think it's a great phase two really important to make sure that what we're doing is working yeah agree I mean, in general, I think we're looking at programs throughout the district and then trying to use data to assess the programs to determine if they're effective and should continue. And usage is obviously one metric, but um and then another there's vastly different usage patterns between the different schools in terms of the percentage of students using the services. I think at some schools it's double or triple the number of students like it was threex the number of students where the number that I guess you're doing unduplicated. But I think for some schools it was like half the number of access compared to the population and
093others it was 3x the population. Can you kind of explain why we're seeing that and what that might mean? I think um some of the smaller schools um students who are opting out of a larger comprehensive high school because of whatever anxiety or etc. So you're getting a a concentration of students who sometimes are having higher um rates of 504 IEPs and so like generally if you looked at that same data for some of those schools too that they would have um higher numbers and so I think that kind of drives some of the usage around those like those bigger those really big swings between you okay so that the small one was one at the very high usage but then the even the large sites I think one was like 100% the other was
094like 50%. It's interesting because really the goal of the MTSS model, my understanding is really 10 to 20% at tier three, although currently the way you're pulling data includes some tier 2. Um, and it varies by site, right? And so some like the alternative schools might meet with every kid on campus. So that is a contact and I think that we need to do we're just getting everybody to use our data management like systems and there's been huge changes in what we're asking them to collect. So, I'm not sure our numbers are exactly like we have work to do to make it consistent across all sites. And I think that like our goal is actually to have less students. I know that's weird, but I actually would like to see the the tier three significantly
095drop and then larger at tier one, which is also a whole new way of collecting data, which is pretty new. We're now asking for them to collect tier 2 and tier three data. Does that make sense? So we're like on our way and I don't know that it's completely consistent across all sites and the services and the providers are not necessarily from my understanding it varies by site. So some sites might have access to significantly more mental health providers or community partners. Thank you. Um I had a well first off thank you for everything you um all are doing. It's really exciting to see all the wellness centers um grow their their services and number of visits. Um it's it's definitely meeting a need. I do have a question more on the parents and caregivers.
096Um because I feel like wellness really is a school home collaboration and it um I don't know what metrics you have. Um I think there was 300 plus parents or caregivers attended 15. Um I assume those are in-person events at the schools. Um but do we have any data on who's participating in parent venture and um you know if we're really trying to reach out to more students that may be flying under the radar. I I think like parent observations if they can learn what to look for um and what to notice in their kids which I think you know when the children are young they're much more involved um but as they get to middle school it's less involved when they get to high school it's completely detached and the students don't really tell
097their parents what's going on either um so there might be an opportunity right to increase more awareness uh amongst parent populations. so that they can also be uh referring to to s their child to services and things. Okay. What I was going to say is something that we probably could break out next time is a lot of those unduplicated counts are actually parent caregiver consultation. So like a parent or caregiver, you can tell me if this is true, that those count, right? So um we I I think you might have seen like case management and consultation. Many of those are conversations we're having. A kid gets referred to one of our mental health support specialists, we're meeting with the parent, maybe not in person, but consulting with them and giving them strategies and um kind
098of communicating so that what we're doing in the wellness center is, you know, also being reinforced at home and vice versa. So, I think that's something we could pull out next time so you can see how many of those consultations we're doing. And then I know you've been working with parent venture for a long time. But I also have to say I'm really impressed that you all have started doing your own parent caregiver ed that's more specific to each site because I do think every site is different and every experience is different and it does feel different when it's coming from the school or the district than an outside agency. Want to add to that? Um, no. And yes, and at Parent Venture also I I requested data from them as well, but it's a
099little hard because they provide services not just for us, but for through other um uh neighboring districts and so with Zoom being the primary mode, it's hard to capture the data a little bit more specific to us and our parents. But it's something I can bring back in hopefully. I think I recall like when you register for a parent venture, they ask you what school district you are part of. So, they should be able to break it down by school district, I think. Um, I'd also like to echo all my colleagues on the board and thanking you for your great work in your presentation. Um, I just had one question. It kind of came up when I guess you talked about how we want to reduce the number of students who are getting tier three
100supports and increase tier one. Do you find that in some of our wellness centers maybe there are students who kind of use it a little more like a crutch and you know kind of maybe use it when they might not necessarily need it per se to like miss class and if so you know what tools do we have right now to try to avoid I don't I don't know that that's necessarily happening currently I'm sure every student would love like to take a break from class and and you know have a moment away sometimes um but the kind of the guardrails and the agreements that we've made as a team in the mental health sport specialist is really structuring that time And really like unless a student's in crisis and needs like to not be
101in class, then the goal is to have that 105 minute break, do a self-regulating activity and then go back to class and hopefully have a self-regulating activity they can use in the future. I know some of our wellness centers actually we bought these like little glowing orbs that like will glow for like the time set and we usually set them for 10 to 15 minutes. They get a 10-minute. They check in. Are you good? Okay, you need five more minutes. Five more minutes. And then the goal again is please, you know, we'd love to get you back to class. Um, so yeah, but if there's a student in need or in crisis, obviously they're gonna, you know, get the support they need. That's a really good question. I think it definitely happens, right? It happens
102at all schools and we know those kids, right, who are constantly the frequent flyers and we have to go upstream and figure out what's going on. And we really focus on high expectations and high support in our wellness centers. How do you have both so that what kids want to come in and feel cared for but you're you have really high expectations which is they need to be in class right and there are reasons why some kids can't be in class but really that is our ultimate goal is our we're trying to support the health well-being and educational outcomes of kids not just the health and wellbeing you know so we are at a school and I think as a team we've really I think the expectations have really shifted and keep everyone across the
103board is trying to hold that high expectation and high support Thank you so much once again on behalf of the whole board. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Applause] Right. Um, we'll take a two-minut break, come back. Okay. Um, let's return to our board meeting. Okay. Um, so quick change since we do have students waiting. Um, I'd ask my colleagues if you can have a motion to move item 16 to before 14.2, which is the public hearing on the petition for the renewal of the East Pala Academy Charter. I move approval of of the agenda change as suggested by President Nory. Second. All in favor? I. I. Okay, that motion passes. Um, so we'll turn to item 16, which is a public hearing. Uh, okay. So, I call this public hearing to order at 6
104or 8:06 p.m. And then where's Assistant Superintendent Hansen? Okay. Um, yeah, why don't we start with public comments? Okay. Yeah, let's just start with public comment. Okay. We have six comments in person. Are there any online for item 16.1 public hearing? I see no hands online. So, we'll go with the in person. Yeah, let's do two minutes each to be consistent. Okay, two minutes. First up is Somaya Norris. Hi, my name is Somaya and I'm a current senior at East Palto Academy. As someone who joined East Palatoto Academy my junior year, I often find myself wishing I had the chance to experience the complete Bulldog journey. The sense of belonging at East Palto Academy, from the dedicated staff to the vibrant student body to the engaging classes is something truly special. My journey at East
105Palatoto Academy began having had academic challenges at my previous school, but the support system here is amazing. My counselor, Miss Don, and the teachers were always there for me, offering their time and guidance. The on-ampus tutoring and advisories provided a much needed breather in my busy schedule, allowing me to recharge and focus on assignments. Not only did I get help, but the teachers were happy and willing to help me. As a student, it can be intimidating to ask for help, but the staff alleviate those feelings. The unwavering support of my peers and mentors have instilled in me a newfound confidence and a sense of value that is truly rare. Additionally, I learned valuable skills like time management and soft skills as I joined clubs like East Palatoto Academyy's recruitment team where I got to share
106my experience, get closer to my peers, and bond with Miss Pinkney and Miss O, which have been wonderful. Additionally, I am in the student council, which has allowed me to advocate for other students on campus and be heard, which I appreciate because it further shows that East Palato Academy uh cares about their students. With classes like advisory, I had time to partner with community service organizations like YCS and be more involved with my community. This sense this fostered a sense of self sense of self as I met amazing people like Mora and Evelyn an opportunity that would have remained closed if I didn't have help to complete my work throughout the day. As I prepare as I prepare for college as a pre- N nursing major in an honors program I am grateful for East
107Palatoto Academy. The school has equipped me with excellent academic skills and a confidence and provided me with opportunities to connect with my community. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Sorry about the confusion earlier. Next we have Abraham Pac. Uh hello, good afternoon. My name is Abraham Pacheco. I'm a senior at East Palo Alto Academy. And as someone who loves sports and always being active, I believe that coming to a school like East Palo Alto Academy was a dream come true. Being able to play multiple sports, some all at once, like being able to play soccer and basketball at once, and being able to do volleyball and track at the same time, um, really helped me find my place at East Pala Academy. One of my biggest motivations to playing all these sports was seeing
108just how welcoming all of the coaches and the players were. um some of the sports I've never played before and just being able to get their support and for them to be so um patient with me and helping me through learning everything that I had to learn. Um as a freshman I was nervous. Uh I at first I didn't know who I would become friends with at school and who would become the people I would hang out with. But with advisory it was a big help as the first couple of days we would start having ice breakers until we were comfortable with everybody in the class and we weren't afraid to talk with anybody and create uh special bonds. The teachers as well also um help create special bonds with us um making us feel
109like we can talk to them about anything and they really support you and want to see you succeed and help you with anything. Um some of my best friends are in my advisory. I feel um excited to go to advisory almost every day because I feel like I it's just a space where I can communicate with them and be able to just have a nice relaxing time while also doing my work. Um I will be with the help of my adviserss um I will be attending CSU Fullerton studying kinesiology to be able to pursue my career aspirations as a certified athletic Thank you. Next up is Kate Hiley. Do I have to start it or do you start it? Okay. Hi. Um I'm Kate H. I'm the executive director of the East Palto Academy Foundation.
110Um the foundation that supports the school. And you know, you're going to hear from the important people today, the students and the families. So, um, I'll just keep it short by saying that EPA was founded, um, when it was founded, it was the first public high school option in EPA in 25 years. It's kind of crazy to think that the kids of East Palto didn't have a place to access quality public education um, for that 25-y year period. Um and now they have for the last almost 25 years. Um because we have been able to work together as a district, the community, the school. Um I'm honored to be part of it as part of the foundation. Um we've all been able to work together to sustain that option. And of course, it's not the
111only public education option now. Um but it is still a vital one. And it's incredibly important for kids to be able to access a quality public public education in their town. And we have got to keep working together to make sure that that continues to be an option for um for this community, for this wonderful, beautiful, vibrant community. Um our kids deserve it. And so I just um really hope that you all vote to continue um to offer this um vital option for our kids and our families and that we get to keep all working together to um offer this great educational experience for EPA. So thank you. Thank you. Next we have Amaha Vyam. Hello, Superintendent Leech, cabinet and board. I'm Mikom, proud former principal of East Palto Academy here to recognize just like
112Kate mentioned 1976 they closed our public high school. EPA was founded in 2001 and when I started 10 years ago, they thought we were just, they said, "Are you just the EPA continuation school?" And the work we put in together to make sure people understood we're a collegegoing school. We're a school dedicated to our firstgen low-income students to reach ambitious goals. We went from 10 years ago 23% persistence for our kids in college to 87%. Persistence because of the work this team did to create the Bulldog way to start teaching in 8th grade summer to summer bridge and to be persistent throughout their four years of high school focused on that goal. We have community collaborations that are the envy of places all around a space that we bring together our community colleges and technical
113schools because of the 45% of our students who don't go to four-year universities. We wanted to make sure they also were registered in something and we do it for the entire San Monteo County and we host those meetings every two months because we saw a need. We made out a call and Kate continues that work and it's huge. We also have celebrations that the mayor of East Palto said rival the city celebrations which I'm personally very proud of because our space is so welcoming and vibrant. And I'm most proud of the educators who during the pandemic when everyone was just giving up, we were a national model of making lemonade from lemons. The Bulldog buzzcut challenge 50K by the end of May was 130K by the end of May. For every 10K we shaved our
114heads or dyed our hair and we were on national news. I know because my friends kept sending me screenshots from Boston, from New York. Is this you? We're also a model school by Nova School of Choice School of Thank you. Next is Miltail. Um, good afternoon. It's probably now evening. Um, but um, my name is Matteo Vano Fakundo. I'm a ninth grade student currently attending East Palanta Academy and I am here today to share with you how important it is for me and my colleagues to ask for you to please consider the renewal of the contract for our school. Um, our school is a small, vibrant, tight-knit community where everybody kind of knows each other at least to like a certain point. And I personally think that the teachers are always trying to do their
115best to teach us and make everybody a better person. They're always trying their best to teach us everything they can. Like as example, my physics teacher, Mr. Nadau, he's very kind and he's always trying he's always um forget how to say it. he's always um uh looking out for all of the students and making sure that they're passing his class. And it um and it's also um greatly appreciated how our school helps us prepare for um jobs in the future and um applying for colleges with uh classes such as advisory and senior seminar. And I also appreciate the resources that um East Alto Academy provides to parents and guardians. uh to um supervise and look after our grades to help keep us in check and please allow us uh this renewal to keep impro to
116let us keep improving as a school. Thank you. Thank you. Our last speaker is Carla Vindo. We may not be found just in case. Academy High School. classes emotional. [Music] Academy. All right. Good afternoon, members of the board of directors. My name is Carla Fakundo. I am the mom of a ninth grader student and today I am here to support all the students who attend East Palo Alto Academy High School and I know how important it is for them and for us parents that our school keeps the its doors open and continues instructing all its students. East Palo Alto Academy is a school that not only supports students academically by providing them with their A throughG classes that prepares them for college but also supports them socially and emotionally so that they can be successful
117and fulfill their life their life goals. Their foundation accompanies them for 10 years. Oh, sorry. The foundation that foundation accompanies them for 10 years to empower them and become people of change, not only in their lives, but in those of their families and community. Please approve the renewal of the East Palo Alto Academy contract. Thank you. Thank you. And um with that, I'll close the public hearing at 8:20 p.m. Um okay, now we're going to move back to item 14.2, which is the hatching results presentation. Oh yeah. Um why don't we start with public comment first on this item? I have none no com no comments. Thank you. All right. Good evening members of the board. Superintendent Leech. cabinet. Um, good to see you all again this evening for our second presentation. This is going
118to be about the work that our counselors have done over the course of the year. Again, just like the mental health and wellness presentation, we saw that we saw a presentation last May and you could see what they had accomplished during the year and the ongoing work that they do. And we will be doing the same thing to highlight what our counselors have been doing. And so we have our amazing counselors here this evening. Uh, I know that they were here long before 8 am today because when I arrived, the projector was up, the food was out, the tables were ready. They were ready to engage in a full day of professional learning, which they have done. And now they are still here over 12 hours later. Thank you. And we will be back again
119tomorrow morning early um with the head counselors group and with Whitney and Josh also to debrief the work that we did today to talk about next year and continue to plan um the work. So it is going well and I want you all to hear about that. Um with us this evening as always we have our counselor on special assignment Glenda Tescolan who will be leading the presentation right after me. I also wanted to highlight that we have four of our school counselors here. Uh Jimmy Ernnandez is here from Woodside, Karina Escovar is here from MA, Laura Sandor from Tide, and Millie Fues from Sequoia. So we are excited again after a full day of professional learning. Thank you for taking the time to be with us this evening as well. With that, I will
120turn it over to Glenda. Good evening, Buenosardes. Uh my name is Glenda Ortiz Galan and I'm the a little bit. Oh, okay. I'm the uh KOSA or counselor on special assignment uh for our Siguian High School District, former head counselor at Sequoia High School and East Palm. So, happy to see Mi Mi here presenting and Dr. Takone had introduced our school counselors that are actually going to present um in a few minutes. So, I'm going to just move on with the presentation. Uh so I'm going to talk a little bit about our journey so far with the hatching results organization. We have been uh truly emphasizing multi-ter multi-dommain system of support which includes that college and career domain. Um through this partnership that we've had for the last four years. Um we are currently still
121working on a uh creating a shared vision for a comprehensive school counseling program in uh SUSD that's aligned across all school sites. So shifting from uh guidance counseling model to a truly a CSCP or comprehensive school counseling program. Uh we have uh we're implementing innovative highquality tier one school counseling lessons that include pre and post tests um with fidelity and we offer all of those um lesson plans to all students of SUHSD across all grade levels. So we have um currently we have eight tier one lesson plans that all school counselors um uh present to to students again across the district. Uh we're very proud of the fact that these are aligned to district goals. Um their standards and competency based so according to the um ASA or American school counsel Association student mindset and
122behavior standards and counselors are able to demonstrate that students really are learning. They're um how are students different as a result of the work? Um that's because we are shifting attitude, skills and knowledge for our students and we can we're able to prove that with the data that we are collecting for our tier one lesson plans. Uh we've also we've moved on to um tier 2 plan do study act cycles um with fidelity and explaining how different interventions are impacting student achievement, behavior and attendance. Uh these tier 2 interventions are evidence-based and student centered and um our and we continuously are working you know to evaluating um these tier 2 interventions uh deciding should we adopt or abandon um these interventions and um so we've been we've been counselors have been doing these for the
123last couple years. Uh also we have uh school counselors all school counselors in our district have been conducting um high quality counselor time studies. Um so for the last two years our school counselors have been tracking their time once uh for a week three times in the school year. And what that's done is helped us look at our time. How are school counselors spending their time in direct service, indirect service, program planning and school support? um also looking at how are where are students where are counselors um spending their time in in non-counselor duties. So collecting this data and synthesizing the data and sharing the data and and looking at really um sort of diving deep into this data has allowed us to shift some of our practices and and yeah shift some of our
124practices. Uh we've our work is also supporting LCAP goal number three around college and career readiness um which is absolutely contributing to outcome data movement. Uh the partnership also includes um professional learning for school counselors, administrative uh and key district staff uh providing u support to um district leaders like myself and um also we are uh we collaborate u with the head and lead counselors. So yes, tomorrow we will be here bright and early to debrief our professional development day that we had today. Um and then think and uh planning for next school year on on you know more professional development. All right. So what are counselors saying about the the PD? Um our counselors are continuously rating the professional development experience really high indicating that uh it's helped them learn um or gain attitude
125skills and knowledge. um feeling that they have additional tools, strategies and ideas to improve their practice which is really important. Um why we advocated for um this partnership with hatching results from the very beginning. Um definitely uh our our facilitator is very knowledgeable about the topics covered and what's most important uh I think uh when I'm look reading you know quotes from counselors is that um they helped us break down silos and feel like a district counseling team. So again, right, so shifting from um siloed guidance counselors, uh we we really do feel like SUHSD school counseling, which is really really amazing for us. And because we uh we we're doing this amazing work, we are now um represented nationally uh in February, uh Laura Sandor, Francisco Negrii from Woodside, myself, we presented at National
126School Counseling Leadership Conference. Um our workshop was titled from guidance counseling to a district district data div school counseling program comprehensive school counseling program. Uh Whitney and I um presented at the evidence-based school counseling conference in in March and um in July Lara Sandor and I are going to present at the American school counselor association a very similar presentation that we presented at national school counseling leadership conference. So, we have so much to share um with other counseling teams, with other districts that we're very proud of and um and and are really inspiring other um district counseling teams to to do some of this work. So, we're very proud of the work that we've done and it's obviously we're able to um share that at nationwide conferences. All right. And so, now I'm going to
127turn it over to our facilitators Whitney Triplet and Josh. Thank you, Glenda. Good evening, trustees. It's great to see you all again. Um, we've come and present presented to you every year, I think, now for this is the fourth year that we've presented. Next year is the last year of our partnership. Um, and I just want to start our my remarks by just acknowledging the fabulous professionalism of your school counselors, the fact that you have such a great dedicated and passionate group of school counselors who are willing to change their own practice. Um, that's hard as an adult, like you get into this is what I like to do and what brings me joy. Your counselors are really trying to figure out how do we change our practice? How do we do things better in
128order to better meet student needs and meet them where they are? So, they're doing a fabulous job. My name is Winnie Triplet, vice president, Hatching Results. I'm a former school counselor. Um, I am a co-founder and co-chair of the National School Counseling Leadership Conference. I've written a couple of textbooks. um uh school counseling textbooks and I'm writing one right now on tier two tier three supports and really excited to maybe feature y'all and your one pagers in our book. I haven't mentioned that yet but I really want to. So that's coming surprise. Um because your counselors are doing a really great job with not just the grind and doing the work but measuring the impact of the work. Um really really proud of that because that's hard to do figuring out what metrics do you
129use and how what's the process and it takes time. Like sometimes counselors want to intervene with students more and more and more, but they're actually now pausing the work to think about how are we doing the work intentionally. Are we spending our time effectively and are we making a difference? Yeah. Good evening and thank you superintendent, board president, board trustees and cabinet. You know, and I really want to say it has been a pleasure the last four years spending time and thank you assistant superintendent Hansen for starting the journey with us and Dr. Jacone for continuing the journey with us. And really, uh, my name is Josh Codinas. Let me back up just a little bit just in case I haven't met some of you. Um, I was the 2019 California School Counselor of the
130Year. Um, I sit as a board director for the California Association of School Counselors. I also chair government relations for school counseling in the state of California through the professional organization. And um, I am a past president. So there's a little bit about myself, but I really want to focus on the dynamic work that your school counselors are doing because we talk a lot in generalizations assuming people understand when we say attitude, knowledge, and skills. What I want to explain to those that are listening is that when we walk in and you have 30 kids come into a room, I can say I delivered a lesson to 30 kids. But if I haven't measured the impact, then what have I done? So attitude is is there a change in their belief system. Knowledge is do
131they understand something that's right or wrong that they didn't get before? Okay. And skill is can they do something because of what we've done as school counselors presenting to them. Today we focused our work around the uh profile of a graduate for Sequoia Union. Your counselors really dive deep into it because what we understand as datadriven school counselors is that drives all of the work that drives our strategic plans. Our strategic plans drives our goals. Our goals drives our investments. and our investments drive our priorities as your school counselors to help you develop those graduates. And you have a dynamic team doing that. And I want to thank you humbly from the bottom of my heart because I get excited. we both do when we know it's almost like a homecoming for us to come
132spend time with them because they truly are not only leaders in California but leaders across the nation now as you see as they're being asked to present some of the great work they're doing here. All right, I will turn it back over to Whitney. All right, so just a little bit about what we've done this year and then we're going to turn it over to the counselors to share their results of their tier one lessons and their tier 2 PDSA cycles. Um so so far this year we've completed a comprehensive program implementation fidelity inventory. So we're really looking at what are all the main uh aspects of a comprehensive school counseling program and how would they self-rate on a scale. Um they had to be able to kind of provide evidence around it. So it's
133not just a self-report but do we have evidence that we're actually doing these things. So we have the results of that and now we're using that to strategically plan for next year. So, in our last year of this partnership, we want to make sure that we're delivering uh professional learning consultation around the topics that they need most as they uh self-reported on this implementation fidelity inventory. We also engaged in professional learning across a wide variety of topics. We did spend uh time today talking about college and care readiness advising strategies and systems um and not overintervening with students when it's a systems issue. Um if there's a systems issue, we need to advocate to change the system. Um, and we don't want to just jump to student intervention and support if it is a systems
134issue. And so that's where counselors put on their advocacy hat and really think about how can we change systems, processes, structures in our buildings to better support our kiddos. Uh, we also learned about solution focused brief counseling techniques earlier in the year so that when students are when counselors are spending time with students one-on-one, they're able to do it quickly, get the students back to class, but still have an impact with that student. And then we did a one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 10 one 101 crash course on requirements for national program recogni rec recognition um because after next year you will have a couple of sites at least that will be prepared and ready if they want to go for
135national accreditation they'll be able to do that. We also have engaged in leadership development so everybody has been practicing sharing the results of their program with the school community. every site created one-pagers that are visual, have graphs on them, and show how students are different as a result of the program and the supports they're providing. Um, head and lead counselors have been participating in a PLC and so we work with them throughout the school year around leadership development. How can they support their teams um towards impact and towards outcome and then uh consultancy with uh with Glenda the KOSA assistant soup um Liz around strengthening systems. So what are some of the systems at the district office? What are expectations that can be put in place to further support this alignment between and among the
136school sites? Um again, we're moving from these siloed guidance counseling kind of practices towards an aligned unified district-wide comprehensive school counseling program. Um and then separate from this partnership is a different contract in which we're doing some work around um school counselor job descriptions. um how can we bring some consistency there and that work is being done in collaboration with the district and the union. Some growth that we have seen in your school counselors and their programs this year. So definitely strengthening systems for district oversight and support of comprehensive school counseling programs. Talking about what is the district offic's role in creating the conditions necessary for the sites to be able to support students efficiently and effectively. What are the things the district office can do versus what are the things that school sites can
137do. Um, Glenda is working on creation of a district-wide school counseling program handbook which has guidelines, policies on the school counselor's day-to-day support to students across sites. That'll be we're hoping to be able to present that to you sometime next year um for approval. Also looking at uh standardsbased district-wide CSP calendar with PD PDSA cycles, trying to ensure that some of these practices are consistent. Uh they've also learned strategies for sharing their impact with others because it's not just important that we're doing the work. It's important that we share the work with others so that they know the impact that the school counseling program is having with students. That includes their staff, uh their families, administrators, and others. And then shifting mindsets and contributing to decision- making. Um so this belief that we can have
138a greater impact if we strengthen communication and collaboration structures among the adults in the building. Um so school counselors already are great collaborators. They're in all these spaces with other adults that they need to be in. Um but when we did a crosswalk or and when we did a crosswalk recently, there was this light bulb moment where they uh counselors were like, well, we are collaborating with everyone. We are meeting with them regularly, but we found a couple of inefficiencies here and there, which really led to the district decision to adopt the cost model. And so the head counselors are really being these leaders that are helping us understand how does this theory that we're talking about really work in kind of an imperfect school environment which all of our schools are imperfect kind of
139environments. We want to make them um have the conditions for student success but really they've been they've been leaders and change agents in that process. And so it's been uh really amazing being able to work with your head counselors uh around and for them to contribute to decision- making. So just overall this team has made significant progress over the last four years and we're so proud of them. I hope they're proud of theirelves as well. They've done such great work. So that is it from us. Uh the rest of the presentation we want to um give time for the school sites to present their data reports to you. So first up is Woodside. Good evening all. Uh I want to start off by saying that um us at Woodside we have found that our tier
140one lessons have been extremely impactful. Uh we appreciate all the efforts from Hashings and um we're just being more intentional with the work that we're doing and identifying the universal information and knowledge that um each student at each grade level should access and be aware of. Um, we're also being intentional with vertical alignment so that uh we create a baseline capacity for ninth graders and in each semester each school year we're building off from each previous semester or previous school year. Um, now focusing with this tier that we have in front of us uh this is the high school introduction 101. Uh for our current 9th graders uh they are the class of 2028. Um we uh delivered this lesson um at the end of August. So this is two weeks after the start of
141the school year. Uh we were very intentional with this um as we wanted to support the transition from middle school to high school. Um, our objectives included, um, creating a baseline of information and knowledge, um, such as school resources, uh, understanding the, uh, high school uh, graduation requirements, A throughG college eligibility requirements, and then setting them up for success, right? Just not in nth grade, but throughout high school. Um, the other thing we wanted to do uh for our freshmen is we wanted to make sure that they knew who their school counselor is and um making them aware that we are a trusted adult on campus that we're going to help them navigate high school. Moving on to the three graphs that we have in front of us. Um I particularly want to highlight the
142graph about how many credits are required from high school to graduate. Any member want to answer that question? I don't want to put anyone on the spot, but um in our pre uh survey uh we had 54% of our students that answer this correctly, which is relatively low. However, um in our post data, we had 96% of students who answered this correctly. So now you all know that to graduate from Sequoia Union, we need 220 credits, uh which is what we want our students to know. This was a 77% growth. Um so once again we're using our pre and post data to really gauge that student learning that's happening within the parameters that we have. We have 50 to 90 minutes uh for our lessons. Um so we're really proud of that um that we
143are focusing on that. Um the other thing that we're part of is what we do uh with our follow-up as our next steps. So once we deliver a lesson, we create a one-pager. I know that the font may be a little bit too small to see. Um but um we do have a one pager that we send to our families. Um in this one pager, we include a summary of the lesson. We include uh key takeaways and then um we also pose some questions for the parents that they could uh continue the learning at home right so whether that's reviewing the graduation requirements um the grades necessary to pass a course etc right um we also do this in both in English and Spanish so that we could access um those families that needed in
144in Spanish um lastly I want end by thanking our teachers who are great collaborators on campus for allowing us to come into the classroom and use their um educational time to give our lessons. So, we are collaborating. We're working as a unit. Um and we can't do the work without them. Thank you. Hello, my name is Karina Escobar Weaver and I'm a counselor at MA. This is my 29th year as a counselor. I've been at MA 23 years and tier 2 interventions is something that I think all 29 years of my career we've tried we tried different methods different groups and I'm going to go back as when Simone was her school principal and said we need to work on our ninth graders all need to have at least 30 credits by their first semester
145and know the importance of having those credits. So when we started doing the tier 2 intervention, we're like, okay, what are we going to work on? Attendance, grades, and we're like, what's something we can do more with that we have here? Attendance, there's many factors for us. At least that's how we viewed it. So we looked at all the students, all ninth graders after the first progress report who had two or three Fs that were not in AVID or were not in special education. And those were our targeted kids. of those students. One of the things we've learned from Hatchings is surveys, the importance of surveys. But the way I took it is when students take a survey and then you call them back with interventions, they've already bought in because you tell them I
146I did these presentations with my kids, all the kids, and I said, "Remember when I met with you and I asked you questions about we want to figure out how we can best support you. instead of telling you how what you need to do to be successful, I want to know what you need. So after the survey and we broke down what was their need, I brought them in and I said, "Okay, this is what you guys told me you you needed to be successful at." So by just doing that, they were already buying in on that intervention. Um, and I think that's one of the things the takeaway from Hatchings, right, the import of the client buying in. And so we started with that. We meet in the library for those kids that said,"I
147need more help with academics to be successful in academics." We meet in the library. We collaborated with our librarian because that's where we have our peer tutors. So we talk about graduation requirements. We talk about the importance of passing your classes, what you need. So some of the tools were study habits. And so in the library, the place where our afterchool tutoring happens during flex time, that's when pre-art tutoring exists. We made more flex appointments to be in the library. And our librarian then also presented these are our tutors. These are the tools. I will open these windows just for you so you can make an appointment with the tutor that you need help with. So once again, we show them here are the tools. This is what you wanted. That was our first intervention.
148Another intervention we did with them was uh depending on their what they said they needed. I had several kids that said it's stress. I feel overwhelmed. So I intentionally took them to pause. That's our wellness center. And I took them on Tuesday when Ginger is visiting. So why? Because I needed them to actually see the room. They knew about PAS. But interestingly enough, none of them had gone inside. So, not only did I take them and I show them, but it wasn't just to see. They got to sit down and experience ginger. So, all of a sudden, it wasn't so scary because the dog was the focus, right? So, it was to them show them here is a place you can go when you're feeling anxious and overwhelmed. I didn't have to talk about this
149is what you put on your on the results of the survey. It was just this is one of the many tools you have to be successful at MA when you're feeling overwhelmed. Guess what? It's not all about academics. You can come here. So, we did that and we also did when I met with them in the library, one of the and you have access to the links. One of the things in the worksheets is write down the classes you have, what grades do you have, what are some changes you can do. And I wanted them to see how can we improve our grades because by then I've already talked to them about the importance of credits and passing your classes. And I didn't just want to say, okay, let's all we need to get a
150C or better. No, I went down to just basics. I just want to see you improve 10%. We baby steps. There is actually true magic to those baby steps because if we improve 10% and we do it, we will keep doing it because it's pretty overwhelming if you have 40% trying to get to a 60 or even 70%. But if you see that you improve, what happens is they start working on those skills to be successful and then it spreads and it gets better. So we actually saw an improvement of individual students in the reduction of their how many D's and Fs and had we started with 35 students four of them moved out of MA. Of the 31 students 15% 15 of them improved their grades. Now, if you look in there, it's gonna
151say, "Did we meet our goal?" And we're going to tell you no, because our original goal was to reduce the amount of D's and I mean the amounts of FS. But as a result, what we saw is students themselves were being successful and so therefore they will continue being successful. When I met with them again at the end of the semester, it was before finals. I wanted to one make sure they knew what finals were. What did it mean those two-hour tests? Yes, the teacher's going to give you a two full hour test, right? Some of them are like, "Are you for real?" I'm like, "Yeah, even PE it there is a final in there." But it was nice to see them at the end because one, they knew me. They knew most of the
152counselors, but they were talking openly on how they had improved and that is a success. Um, the other thing we did halfway through the point was if we saw that when I gave them that goal, I just need 10% improvement. I said on two classes, right? Not all of them. I said, "I just need two because I knew what would happen." We invited them back and we had a pizza party for those that met that goal. But we It wasn't just pizza. You know, we got to do some work. So, they had a worksheet, but it was more about self-reflection. This is what I did. And I think the most important question that worksheet, and you can see it in there, too, is did anyone notice your improvement? And it was awesome for them to
153say yes my mom did, my teacher did because it's a reassurance that you are doing something great. You are making improvement and so it motivates them to keep doing what they're doing. Uh for the kids that didn't meet the goal, it was okay. We still send them a candy bar because there's some kids that did one and I'm like, you know what, that's improvement. Maybe not enough for the pizza party, but we still send them a candy bar and we created a bookmark with a motivational quote, right? Like you're still being acknowledged for some. And I can keep talking, so I'm gonna I'm gonna quit. I just want to say um you know, we're very proud of the work we're doing. It's um we're just kind of reviewing our tools, but we're using the tools
154that we've been given by Hatchings. Thank you. Hi everyone. and Laura Sandor currently at Tide Academy. Um like Karina, I have been in public high schools. Um this is my 27th year, including 12 at MA. Um which is why I was able to come up and nudge my former colleague very gently away from the podium. So I will say I will say that um just to add to to what my colleagues have already shared, I'll add some small school lenses to this. Um one of them is to say that the four years that I've been at Tide have coincided with the four years that we've been with Hatching Results. and I mis uh understood how potentially lonely um a small school counseling team can be. Um so I am very grateful for the district-wide collaborative
155that we have formed and I think that that actually is making these small school jobs much more sustainable because we have um other people to go to right like I'm the only per this lesson that I'm sharing here again in the microscopic font. the links are coming. Um, but the the this lesson I'm the only person at my school who did, but I can turn to my district team and find dozens of people who did it. And so that's really helpful for me because otherwise I would be in a position where I'm not only siloed by the building, but just by the work that I'm doing. So I would like to just say that that um that that overlap has been um something I've been quite grateful for. Um and the other piece circling back
156even to the pre previous presentation on wellness about tier one is that I am exceptionally grateful that we have an advisory program at tide academy and there is one at EPA as well and that advisory program is the source the home of tier one interventions. Full stop. So um we can talk around it but I would like to make it clear that that is the vehicle for tier one interventions at our small schools and um I think it is um a huge reason that we can get good results and really um connect with our students in in a in a different way. So thank you. Hello board. My name is Amelia Flores or Millie Flores how my colleagues call me. Um I am representing Seoia and we uh like MA decided to go with a
157tier 2 intervention. Um it was our PDSA so plan do you study act. Uh we focused again also on ninth grade students. So our main focus was students um nth grade students that had two or more Fs at the quarter 1 grades. Um after we got that data, we're like okay let's see how many students it is. It turned out to be uh 60 students that we were able to target which was uh 12 about 12% of our 9th grade population. Um and then our from those 60 students then 28 students actually attended our so we had multiple interventions and we had two inschool interventions and 28 students attended both of those interventions. 16 attended at least one intervention. Um, and then the others, we had some that moved out of the of the district
158and then due to attendance, they weren't attending their classes and they didn't attend our flex sessions. Um, but a brief um overview is our so some of the things that I would like to highlight is that we did out of the students that did attend both interventions, we had a 38.46 four six decrease in the number of Fs. So we were trying to target those number of Fs that the students had and we were checked at the semester grades. So in their semester grades there was a decrease for those students. And even the students that just attended one intervention there was a 21% decrease in their number of Fs. In comparison to the students that did not attend any of our interventions, there was actually like a 30% increase in Fs that they had. So
159the quarter one grades and then at their semester grades there was an increase. We feel like this is validating that our interventions did work. Um we also did like MA we did a root cost survey. So we wanted to know what do they want to learn? what do they need from their school counselors and how can we provide that for them? So, we we did um they they said they wanted to know more about Canvas, they wanted to know how to communicate with their teachers and we implemented that into the lessons and we actually had them type out an email and practice how to formally send an email which a lot of them didn't even know they had a Sequoia email address. Um so that was great to see. Uh there was some knowledge questions
160that we had. We also showed them the tutoring resources. So, one of the um graphs here shows that there was an increase in their knowledge about the tutoring online tutoring resources that we have. Um the other thing I would like to point out is that we als we even though this is already a tier 2 intervention, we didn't want to exclude our EL or ELEL students. So, we also provided the exact same interventions in Spanish. So we had the English ones and the Spanish ones and we even had an Arabic speaking student. So we also had an interpreter for our Arabic speaking student who fell in that targeted group. So we wanted we didn't want language to be a barrier in our interventions. So another thing with um Sequoia is that we this is oh
161how do I go to the next page? Sorry. I know it's not [Music] going. Oh, okay. Oops. Sorry. Is it that one? Okay. So, we actually used our Hatchings intervention um guide for evaluating our interventions. Uh and this is some of our results. Like we said, we do believe that our interventions work. So, we plan to adopt it. It did ask who did it not work for. And we noticed that the attendance was a big v bar barrier also behavior. So students with behavior attendance and any health issues um we were not able to access those students. So that is one one of the things that we noticed what we it didn't work for those students. Um and then the next one is so as you can see there um but Sequoia does plan and
162then we we did this in November and then we did this again in um the spring. So we are happy to continue to do these tier 2 interventions and we do feel like it is sustainable and um we are so grateful for Hatchings and we um I hope that the board has seen the work that we're doing and the impact that we're doing for the students. Um, and thank you everyone. So, it's a great testament. I don't know if you've ever heard, but um, if you call a school uh school counselor a guidance counselor, you get a side eye. And there's a reason for that. Yes. It's because the the guidance counselor of 30, 40 years ago, we know that we have studies, we hear the stories, you know, they would tell people what they
163thought they were going to do and very often people would far exceed that, right? People have stories. There were great guidance counselors, but there also were guidance counselors that just evaluated transcripts and predicted what somebody was going to be. We have had an identity shift since 2003. And what you have before you are specialized school counselors who are the one specialist in the building that focuses on academics, college and career and post-secary, social emotional learning and mental health. And that is what I hope that you heard exhibited here tonight was that they are that link and they are able to speak teacher. They are able to speak college and career. they are able to speak to our wellness center and they are that link to address the whole child and you have some of the
164best. You really really do. Today the one thing we didn't mention is not only did we look at the profile they also dove into the California dashboard and we couldn't get them out of it because again they are also MTSS specialists. They are also data analysts now. The the list goes on and on and thank you. It has been my humble honor to work with them the last four years. So, I'm going to turn it over to Whitney to wrap us up here. Last slide, I believe. So, just uh continuing our plans for year five, which is the last year of our partnership together. Um we are going to be using that imple implementation uh fidelity inventory to identify the topics for our PD for next year and to drive those decisions. We're focusing on
165systems for strengthening accountability and sustainability. since we're kind of coming out, we want to make sure that you all don't need us anymore moving forward. And we're about at that point. Um, which is kind of sad, but also really a good a good feeling, too. Um, we also want to work on collecting representative feedback from students and families to inform the CSP. So, what is working according to students and families and making sure that the feedback we're soliciting from them are coming from populations that look like our students. So making sure that the feedback we get is consistent um with the populations that we serve. Uh making changes to systems to help free up more time to intervene with students because I think counselors would agree that they want to intervene more with students. If
166they had more time to do that, they would do that. So we are trying to figure out what are the areas where they could improve their efficiency. Um where are the areas where there's tasks they're assigned that need to come off still. We're still working on uh through some of that. We also want to create a vision mission statement for the comprehensive school counseling program once the official job description is approved. We're also continuing our work on the LCAP uh aligned work. Um engaging with site administrators developing a district-wide menu of tier 2 interventions. So based on all the plan do study act cycles they've been running, they've found now a group of interventions that are working that they've had success with. And I want to mention too when they piloted their PDSA cycles the
167first time, every school site had positive results and you don't usually see that from a pilot and that those results have continued moving forward. So we're going to compile all that together in this menu of tier 2 interventions that all the schools can pull from the brilliance of each other and what's working at different school sites. Finalizing our district-wide handbook. And then that is about it. So, we are happy to hear any feedback from you all, considerations, uh, things you want us to consider and any questions that you might have. Thank you so much for your time and investment in your comprehensive school counseling programs. [Applause] All right. So, I'll turn it over to my board colleagues for questions or comments. I just want to say thank you so much. My son has benefited from
168pause and um flex and all of that and thank you so much for doing that work. Um uh I had a question in regards to like in in the future. I know you mentioned some things in regards to um I'm thinking about reaching out to the students that weren't able to be part of some of these um evaluations, right? or the evaluations that were set. So, how are you guys thinking of doing that and adding more students to these evaluations, right? So that we have more success stories as we just heard for Sequoia. So, some of the things that we did do for the students that didn't access it due to behavior or attendance or health, uh we did do uh referrals. So we have an a community leaison which is focused on the attendance
169piece. So we uh followed up with referrals for those and AP referrals for the behavior. So working with the admin team to address those and reaching out to any like our um nurses uh to make sure that all students are at least getting that contact person. Uh so that was one of the things that we want to make sure if it's not coming from us that they are getting getting that need met and then we can hopefully uh provide an intervention for them. Just grateful for the work and this is more of a comment for Naomi is how do we get more people knowing about this? Um cuz this these one pagers are really cool and I'm and I'm just thinking about how do we get more of our community aware of of what counselors
170are and do. Um because you're right, I don't think I think it's a rebranding that we should take advantage of. Thank you. I'll say I appreciate the consistency with the pillars and the tears. We heard the presentation before in wellness and they have the tiers and you have the pillars and the tiers and the way that it all works together. It's kind of the consistency in the programs and between the sites and everything. I think that's a great part of it that'll hopefully lead to systemic u you know part of the system and staying part of the system. I think your collaboration ends a year from now or maybe 14 months from now but that what'll been put in place will be something that can carry forward. So I think that's great. Thank you. Yeah,
171and I appreciate the datadriven approach to this and and plan, do, study, act. Um, I I did have one question. Um, I know the call out was for I think it's two D's and Fs, right? Um, and I or Oh, two to three Fs. So, I'm just kind of curious how that um qualifier is selected. Is that like a industrywide approach or no? No. Um so a lot of the school site it depends on the PDSA cycle. Some one of the cycles all the school sites chose the same metric. Um other cycles they chose their own metric looked at their own data and they had the autonomy to determine what were the parameters that made sense. So some of those decisions were made based on how many students do we have the resources to serve.
172um because if we have 300 kids in tier 2 intervention, there's not enough staffing or time or resources for that. So, we tried to look at targeted groups. Um if you look at the LCAP, it's all around closing uh gaps, opportunity gaps with students um and between student groups. And so, uh most sites, if not all of them, did choose uh how to ch how to close some of those equity gaps. And so they had the freedom to make those decisions based on their population, what made the most sense, staffing, resources, time, um, and then whatever else was related to their school priorities and the district-wide priorities as well. Would you add? Yep. And I would add too that was part of the work that we did today because what we did was start very
173structured so that we learned how to do it. Now bringing in looking at the profile of a graduate, the strategic plan, looking at California dashboard, they are now going to be able to figure out the priorities on their own because the priorities may be different to meet the needs of the district so that you're able to deliver to the community graduates, you know, that are meeting all of the benchmarks and the goals that you set as a board. So, thank you once again. Um, I also had a quick question kind of related to what Trusty Coup brought up, but you know, I wonder I know we talked about the limited resources, but when I saw especially the one from MA, which was very interesting to me. I wondered like, you know, we probably also have
174a significant portion of 9th graders who might not be failing classes, right, but might be getting D's and C's who I'm sure if they had similar targeted intervention would be able to push their grades up to A's and B. So I wondered if there was any way like or what tools you might have in the future to kind of generalize this more to apply it to larger subsets of groups. I think those groups of students too would benefit a lot from this type of intervention. Yeah, absolutely. We've had um a lot of training around the post-secary advising part of it. One thing that we started dipping our toes into today was freshman on track as a predictor of future success. So we know that one college advising strategy is reaching students during that transition from
1758th grade to 9th grade. We know that an on-track freshman is three and a half times more likely to graduate with their peers than an offtrack freshman. And if we want our students to get to and through college or to get to a post-secary pathway of their choice, we have to engage them in freshman year. Um, so there were some freshman on track toolkits, some resources this morning that we just kind of looked at for a minute. We're going to be diving into that a lot more in the upcoming year. Um, and the whole purpose of this is to scale it. So, uh, counselors are learning these new strategies and learning how, you can see how in depth they're going with their evaluations for what student groups is this working and what is it not?
176Why is it not working? Is it due to student factors, systems factors, is it adult factors? Maybe the timing of the intervention was off or maybe we didn't have the right collaborators. So, they're really getting into all the intricacies of how to do this work and they're practicing over and over again. in the future as they get stronger around this, they'll be able to do more PDSA cycles and scale to other grades, scale to other student groups. So, that is part of that's part of the trajectory. And I would add too, um, when we look at tier one, right, uh, that is something if you asked any of these school counselors up here, they could give you tier one lessons around strategies that they embed when they're going into the classrooms with our teacher partners
177to make sure that we're also delivering skills to those kids in the masses. Because you're right, we do have limited resources and that is the beauty of the MTSS model, right? Is making sure that we are focusing our priority uh at tier one with what everybody gets because they breathe. Tier two who needs a little bit more and tier three who needs a lot more and the counselors are figuring that out as we move along. One more thing I just happen to remember related to the tiers. Um, and we heard the wellness presentation earlier and you're right, there is a lot of alignment between what we're doing and they're collaborating a lot with the wellness um, coordinators as well. Um, I think one thing that's important to remember is that uh, when we talk about
178we want to see less students getting service at tier three and more students at tier one, it's not because we're removing service, it's because we're serving them better at tier one. So there's not a need for tier two, tier three. That's what the school counselors have been working on the last couple of years is how can we create a stronger foundation on tier one. So we guarantee that all students get a certain set of interventions or supports at tier one which is going to lessen the need for them to access to need to access tier 2 and tier three later on. Um so we've spent the first couple years with a really strong foundation around tier one. We're now working on tier two. Um, and so hopefully that helps with just a quick add-on too
179because when we talk about like on track, like would a freshman who has like all C's in all their classes be considered on track. Well, what's interesting is that uh so we can talk about the the metrics are different in every district. But what's interesting is that there has been some research that students that are at a C or C minus kind of level are just as likely to fall off track as students who have Fs and D's in freshman year. That's why freshman year is so critically important. Once a kid fails, they're much less likely to get back on track later on. They start to see themselves as not being able to do the work. That's where they're doing this root cause analysis and saying, "What supports do you need? Here are some interventions
180that have worked with kids in the past that have had the same struggles you've had. Which one might you want to try?" Versus a professional coming in and going, "I'm going to do with this intervention with you." Because these are whole human beings, right? And they have opinions and they we're working on that buyin piece of it, too. So, that's another thing I would mention. I hear what you're saying and your concerns, but that's where tier one is. That's where we're actually targeting those kids that might maybe have one or D or getting C's is that tier one because we are giving them that support in tier one. And then those kids that maybe had more than three, you know, four Fs, that's where the tier three came. Those are the kids we had parent
181meetings, SST meetings, more intense interventions. So we took the middle group and I'll be honest you like for us that was our second year doing it. We came up with more interventions. The more you do it the better the services will be the better interventions will be and it'll be easier for us to do it. It is very time consuming and exhausting but the more we do it the better we get. Um but yeah we are not ignoring those kids. It's just we are approaching them in a different manner. All right, thank you again once for the presentation and all the great [Music] work. Okay, so um moving on to item 15. Um 15.1 was pulled. So 15.2 is the Oh, okay. Sorry. 15.1. Good evening, uh, Superintendent Leech and board members. Oh, sorry. Quickly,
182let Why don't we wait for public comment? Is there any public comment? Yeah, no worries. My fault. There are no public comments. Are there any online? Please raise your hand now for item 15.1. There are no hands. I have three board policies and their partner administrative regulations for you this evening. They all come from language updates from CSBA and um they are all um EDC code and things that we are already doing. So let me proceed. The first one is updates on policy 6174 which is about education for English learners and there were a couple of different changes that were made. The first was to update the verbiage in board policy so that it reflects the same language that is being used in the EL California roadmap. the EL California roadmap is going to have
183more accountability um give and teeth given to it in the next year and so they're making sure that um we are using the same terms um when we are talking about the students that we are hoping to really help with that roadmap and its corresponding expectations. So, newcomers, it um clarifies that they are students who have been here for three or fewer years. And it clarifies that ELTELS are students who have not been redesated as fully English proficient after when they were seven years after they were first designated as an EL student. Um and then underneath that, it's the um reclassification or re designation language um from the AR. So, if you look, you'll see, wow, there's a whole bunch of red font, which means additions to this board policy. And then if you look
184at the corresponding AR, you will see that there's a lot of crossout. But that's just because they realized that some of the AR language actually belonged in the board policy. It's the same language. It's just been moved from one to the other. The other change that is important to note and we've talked about it already is that ELTELS has now become a group that is being tracked on the state dashboard for progress. So moving on to the administrative regulation. It's all the same changes for all the same reasons. The next set is indivi individualized education program or plan. And this is um again just getting more specific in um language. So the first one is some um verbiage that's been changed. For instance, changing the term students with disabilities to students with exceptional needs. He
185she to student and regular education. That's my favorite. regular education to general education. They also side note in other places have changed it from um regular teacher to general teacher which I thought was a massive improvement as well. So the other change that you will find in this board policy is that it specifies in it that students have a right to a free and appropriate public education. that is elsewhere in our board policy and in ed code, but they have re-emphasized it by adding it here where I think it's appropriate. And then you will find, sorry, this is a little bit wonky. I apologize. Um, reflect reflects new laws for individualized learning plans when you're planning for a student's um path after they leave us. Um, it spells out that IEPs need to take into
186consideration the language needs when inter when determining the least restrictive environment for students who are deaf, heart of hearing or deaf blind. It updates the same terms as I just shared with you in the board policy. It requires, and I think this is a really interesting one, that IEPs have provisions for how we will provide services to students in an emergency situation, COVID leftover. And then it specifies that when assessing students um we need to for the tools that they need to be um successful in the least restrictive environment that we then need to provide the assisted technology that we say that they need. And then the last pairing has to do with students who are in non-public schools um and those are sometimes called NPSA. So it updates again the term here students with
187disabilities to students with exceptional needs. It provides that for foster youth, their um their school, if they're in a private placement, they have the right to stay in that private placement as their homeschool, just like a foster youth who's in public school has the right to stay put in their home school if they move to another location. and it um updates language to include that if the status of a a non-public um school or agency changes that when as when we find out whenever it is that we find out we have 14 days to notify the parents of the change and what that change means. Usually that happens when a school goes from being accredited to not being accredited or vice versa. So, we're letting parents know that so that they can still make really
188informed decisions for their students. And then with that, you'll see that there it specifies further the master contract agreement between the district and the NPSA. There's not really anything new there. It's just spelled out more clearly. Um, and then I just have a note for you that in my board background, I had a a language about the alternative diploma and that was just me getting excited. That's actually a completely different board policy that you will see on June 4th. So now you have a reason to come back. That's it. Any questions from the board? If not, we can probably bring these back on consent. Okay. Next, we have item 15.2, two, which is discussion of the board of trustees regular board meeting schedule for the 2025-2026 year. Um um are these dates fine with everyone?
189Because this is our chance to move things around if we foresee any vacations or conflicts. Okay. Um, let me just check one more time. But yeah, it looks good for me, too. So, I think we can bring this back on consent, too. Okay. Um, so we're done with item number 16. Um, I guess we can move to item number 17. 17.1, adoption of the resolution number 012, approving the petition for the renewal of charter for East Palo Alto Academy. I don't know if you noticed, but when we um were listening to public comment about this item, uh principal Veronica Miranda Pinky had her cell phone out and she was uh recording all of the presenters and that is who she is as a leader. Um she doesn't take center stage, but she is so very
190very supportive um and thorough in her leadership. And for that reason, it has been my absolute pleasure to work with her this year. She took over East Palo Alto Academy in a most enviable year. It was the year that the school was up for Wasque accreditation and it was the year that it was up for charter renewal. And she never once complained about it and she put up with all of our thorowness. She followed with fidelity the process for input. She took every suggestion that I or the attorney gave to her about what needed to be clarified in this um proposal and it is um with full confidence that I recommend to the board that we adopt it for a renewal of a term that they are qualified for based on their dashboard results which
191is from July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2030. And with no further ado, I bring to you the hardworking, articulate, very good writer and um shy of kudos Veronica Miranda Pinky. Thank you for all you've done this year. Good evening. Well, she stole my favorite line. I sound like a broken record, but you know, lucky me. As interim principal, I get the WASK and the charter renewal. And I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for some very important people. And I'm going to take this opportunity because Bonnie said, "It's your time. You do what you want up there." And so I need to make sure that I thank the person who wasn't here last time that really helped us with our Wasque um process. Mr. Philip Wong, an amazing teacher. So I have
192to make sure to thank him. and what you read in that charter renewal, the mastermind, the person who's been behind it all. I'm so happy that she's here tonight, our former principal, Ama, who led the charge and who is responsible for where we are today. So, thank you for all your hard work, too. Um, I now realize, even though I keep bringing it up, right, lucky me, that, you know, that it's actually a great thing that happened to me having to be responsible for these two monumental tasks because I learned a lot, right? And so it was a process that allowed me to learn. My motto was together we grow. And boy have I grown. And I have learned a whole lot through this process. Um through this I've been in awe that commitment from
193our staff to really dig deep and self-reflect on who we are, what we do, what we've accomplished, and what we can do better. This year we focused on self-reflection and was pretty much all year. And soon after that we took a look at our charter and then we reflected of who we really are and what we value. And so it was a collaborative process to go through the charter renewal and to update it and give feedback so that it really reflected on who we are um and what we need to improve on. So, as our W wasp um growth areas let us know that we need to make sure that we develop and maintain systems to improve datadriven decisions and have a long-term progress monitoring. That's very important to continued success. We also needed to
194make sure to implement targeted support and resources and to close achievement gap between our English learners and our English only peers. Looking at the data, some of the things I really want to highlight that in math, even though we were in the red, we maintained 2.8 points compared to the state that maintained only 1.5. In ELA, EPA students increased 6.7 points compared to only .04 points at the state level. English learner progress, we surpassed the state significantly. Our students increased 15.5% compared to state decline of 3%. Our progress toward the completion of A throughG requirements. Students from EPA at the four comprehensive schools completing A throughG requirements was 23.9. Our students had 55.6%. The graduation rate at EPAA is 98.4%. Sequoia is 90.7 and the state is 86.7. Students admitted to a four-year college went
195from 30% with the first graduating class to nearly doubling in 2024 to 57%. This data reflects the hard work of our staff. After looking at all this data and the programs that we offer, I respectfully request the renewal of our charter petition for East Palo Alto Academy. As the interim principal this year and the VP for the two years before this, I've had the privilege of witnessing the profound and positive impact our school has had on the lives of our students and the broader community. EPA is more than a school. It is a place of hope and opportunity for young people who are often underestimated. Our students are supported by a dedicated and passionate staff that consistently go above and beyond to help them push past barriers and achieve their goals. We believe in the
196potential of every student and we work hard every day to help them believe in it, too. At EPA, we are committed to ensuring that every student completes the A throughG requirements because we believe in their potential and want them to graduate with real choices for their future. By holding all students to college eligibility standards, we are sending a clear message. They are capable. They are worthy and their options should never be limited by low expectations. We provide the support, guidance, and rigor necessary to help them meet these requirements, opening the doors not only to college admission, but to a wide range of postsecary opportunities. We need small schools like EPA, schools that see, know, and nurture every individual. Our model works. Not only are we helping students get to college, we are also helping them
197succeed once they are there. This long-term commitment to student success is what sets EPA apart. The WAS accreditation and staffwide reflection on our shared values and priorities will guide our work in the coming years. The energy, thoughtfulness, and commitment expressed during those conversations left me deeply inspired and optimistic. We are a team that is constantly striving to improve and to better serve our students and families. I'm proud of what EPA has accomplished and even more excited about what lies ahead. With your support and that from our foundation, we will continue to provide a transformative education to the students of East PaloAlto. We have a lot to be proud of and a lot to do to continue to ensure success. We look forward to your support as we continue to push the belief that C seue,
198yes, you can for every single student. Thank you. Thank you. Um, now I'll turn it over to my board colleagues for questions or comments. Hello. Hello. I won't ask you all the questions I have. Um, but you were able to answer some of them. Um, one I I do want to acknowledge the incredible work that the dashboard shows from this year to last year. Um, there there's I that dashboard is not easy to move those colors. And I I think I I do want to definitely draw the fact that um you you were able to go for graduation rates from orange to blue, from EL progress, from yellow to blue. I mean that those aren't just like little leaps, those are huge leaps. Um college and career went from low to green since we know
199they change your standards. Those are huge leaps. I think one of my questions then um is what specific governance or oversight structures have you are you putting in place to ensure that this year's gain um are sustained and and not anomalous. But I think the important thing is right continuing to do looking at reflection has been the big piece right looking at what's working and I think our commitment to making sure that we have a counseling department that focuses right on college and career readiness and then investing and having a senior seminar teacher I think is a real key to that. I'm totally committed to providing those opportunities for the students, having the lessons that the counselors go in and do for all of our students, having adviserss focus on that. And so that is
200a real commitment that we have. And I think from the foundation as well as making sure that um we partner up and they provide the staffing and support to support students there now and beyond. I think the tenure promise is the key to that. There's total commitment um on the foundation's behalf to support us with that. Speaking of the foundation, thank you. Um, I know that you you have the EPA Foundation. I know you you work you have a Stanford partnership as well. Um, I really want to know as a dependent charter. Can you define your working relationship with the district, not necessarily with the foundation or Stanford, but what how do you define that relationship with the district? Not just in compliance, but collaboration. Um, where do you see alignment? Where do you see
201tensions since you are dependent? I think um I think it's a very positive one. I used to work at a dependent charter and one of the reasons like my school voted to go against it was because the D we were not in alignment and so as a dependent charter you're supposed to have autonomy especially with curriculum and then our district we had them breathing down our necks about you're supposed to be doing this and you're supposed to be doing that and here I feel that they're very supportive and that they allow us to do what we want to do. our department chairs, right? Come to the meetings, then they get the information, but then they go back and they do what they feel is best for our school. And I feel that as long as
202our data is showing improvement, the district has been very supportive with that. Um, and so I feel it's been a very positive relationship. And I feel sometimes where some of there's been some um I think you called it area of contention or different things. I feel it comes around like budgeting that there's just um some concern about budgeting and I feel it's because some staff doesn't really understand the way the budget works and that we have our own resources and funding and we decide how our funding is spent and I think that's where there's some issues sometimes but as far as the collaboration very supportive our teachers are entitled to come to all of the district training um we're really a part of the district we're not made to feel like you know we're different
203and we can't participate in certain things. Which leads me to my last question. Um, and you started to you started to talk about this and I'm I'm also aware that the other schools in the district can also improve our math on the dashboard as well. Um, but you did see significant growth in certain categories. You are still remaining um in the red and orange when it comes to math and and when we break down by demographic. So, I'm I'm wondering I know it's part of goals. I know it was in your LCAP, but what specific strategies are you planning to implement in order to yield that better student engagement and see that same growth mimic an EL progress into the math world as well? So I think in math one of the things to take
204into account we've had major turnover in math and the math department is really excited that actually right as of right now all four teachers are returning and so that's definitely impacted their work and their collaboration and they're really excited in as far as that they've been working um together collaborating more having vertical alignment they've been looking at data right since we got the visit and actually deciding what is the data that they're going to use and planning for that vertical alignment and going to professional development together and they're excited to all be attending the constructing meaning focused on math specifically for next year and then having the systems because one thing the math department chair had mentioned was we use the calf data right and that only measures your junior year but I think one
205thing that's often overlooked is the students that we get when we're compared with other districts right our students come in a lot lower and we're expected to be at the same level as everybody else and I mean our teachers work two three times as hard because our students come in much lower and we need measures we need assessments that's something that the department is looking at what are those assessments that we can do locally so that we can see that growth and measure it and not wait until their junior year to measure their success. Thank you. Just wonder if you can talk about your enrollment goals and then your strategies to achieve your enrollment goals. Yes, that that's a big one. definitely especially right now enrollment's down low and so we did start a little
206bit earlier in going over to visit RMS and having a better partnership with them um and so our recruitment team has um included visits that the schools come to visit us and going out in the community like we had a team out at the parade local parade this weekend um reaching the community and that's something that we hope to expand and I know we're having Monday a primary school is closing and so we have a group coming over on Monday to start exposing them to our school because they're going to have eighth graders next year. And so those are some of the things that um we're thinking of doing, reaching out more into the community, especially things like that as school is closing. So reaching out to the families and having more family meetings um
207to bring them over to our site. And then we do have, you know, foundation has some staff that's really helping with that as well that they've been very supportive to support us in going to these events as well. Thank you. Um I had one additional question. Um, since we were talking about wellness earlier tonight and I know that PE is waved uh for the for EPA. Um, so it was good to hear that there are students that are able to try multiple sports, but uh how how do you monitor the physical wellness of your students and are they getting that? I think uh PE has a um like a health unit or something like that in PE1. So how does that get? So our students are encouraged to participate in sports, right? We have eight
208sports and then we do offer a dance class that's been a new elective to get some physical movement and then um we do encourage a lot of participation at the Boys and Girls Club next door, you know, as enrichment after school since we don't offer it during the school hours. And then part of our road to legendary with partnerships has also included having students go over to the YMCA um and take on sports there, take on swimming and other activities. And we're looking at a partnership next year to get our students to get memberships to find a donor to get memberships to the YMCA so that they can have that physical activity over there. Is there like a health unit then? Um because that that was my understanding for my understanding is I believe that
209they're do they do come I'm not sure what the name of is because I just had to sign off on something. They have to plan out they plan out the week and they come over uh to the biology department and they do lessons with our students. Yes, it's part of their curriculum that they do it every year. Awesome. Thanks. Thank you. Um I don't have any questions, but thank you so much for your presentation, all your hard work. I don't have any questions either, but just thank you for all the hard work and all the leaps and bounds that you have made in the past year. So, congratulations on the staff. the staff and everybody. So yeah, thank you. So um could I get a motion? I move approval of resolution number 12. Any second?
210Second. Roll call. Trusty Cruz. Yes. Trusty Thompson. Yes. Trusty Gin. Yes. Vice President Coup. Yes. President Nori. Yes. Motion carried 50. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Okay, almost done. Um, next we have item 17.2. So, I'll turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Beiel. All right. Uh, well, good evening, uh, President Nor. Sorry, once again, I forgot. But are there any public comments on 17? There are none in person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. I see no hands online. My bad. All right. Well, good evening everybody. Um, I'm coming uh up to you with a resolution regarding our layoff. We only have one uh position that's up for layoff. There are two key dates throughout a year when we look at a layoff notice regarding a lack of funds or a lack of
211work. The first one is March 15th in which we have to notify an individual uh before then uh that they have been selected for a layoff. The second part of that is uh May 15th. we have to give a final notification. Uh reason for that is an individual has an opportunity to um challenge or contest the layoff. Um so that gives them that time frame to do so. Uh the individual that you see on here in the position did not challenge uh the layoff notice. And so we're here for the final uh recommendation of the board to again uphold the layoff for lack of funds and lack of work. Any questions from board members? If not, could I get a motion to approve? Make a motion to approve um the board of trustees adopt resolution
212number 13, final resolution and decision to terminate classified employees. Second. Roll call. Trustee Cruz. Yes. Trustee Thompson. Yes. Trusty Gin. Yes. Vice President Nori. Vice President Coup. Yes. President Nori. Yes. Motion carried 50-0. And then one more item 17.3 adopting resolution number 11 intention to levy annual assessment. Um is there any public comment on this item? There are none on person. Are there any online? Please raise your hand. None online. Seeing none. Um is there any board discussion on the item? I think Superintendent Leech can answer any questions. Okay. If not, can we get a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Seconded. Roll call. Trusty Chris. Yes. Trusty Thompson. Yes. Trusty Gen. Yes. Vice President Coup. Yes. President Nori. Yes. Motion carried. Sarah. Okay. Um, and then one more. Item number 18, future agenda items.
213Is there anything from the board? She really wants us to come up with stuff. I can tell. Okay. Um, if not, we can move on to item number 19, adjournment. Could I get a motion to adjurnn our meeting? Motion to adjurnn. I second. Second. All in favor? I. Meetings adjourned at 9:38 p.m.