001um I'll call this meeting to order at 50:1 PM um are there any comment on closed session agenda items item number 2.1 2.2 or 2.3 there are no comments okay with that the board will recess to close session good evening and welcome to this meeting of the governing board of the seoa Union High School District um we'll start with item number four or reconvening to public session um just some explanations for the audience members of the public who [Music] wish members of the public who wish to remotely provide comment during the meeting use the raise hand feature during agenda item speakers must raise their hand during agenda item 8.1 the public comment portion of the meeting in order to comment on topics not included on the approved agenda to speak about an item on the
002agenda in person please fill out a speaker card 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 so let's move on to item number four which is the roll call trusty Cruz here trusty Thompson here trusty gin here vice president coup believe is online Chu are you [Music] there okay um president president M here okay okay aor is President okay great next is item number five which is approval of the agenda so can I get a motion to approve the agenda motion to approve second all in favor I I that passes four to zero uh now we have item number six which is the report out of closed session um during closed session the held
003earlier tonight the board adopted a resolution pursuant to California Education Code section 44954 and authorized by the district superintendent or her design to notify the probationary certified employees listed on the resolution of their nonre employment for the 20125 2026 school year and that passed unanimously and then um also during close session held earlier tonight the board adopted a resolution pursuant to California Education Code section 44954 and authorized by the district superintendent or her design to notify the temporary certificated employees listed on the resolution of their non-employment for the 2025 d226 school year and that also passed unanimously um now we'll move on to item number seven which is special recognitions and I'll turn it over to superintendent leech good evening tonight we have the privilege of honoring some truly incredible staff members who have gone
004above and beyond one very much in particular um in supporting the meno Aon High School Community through some challenging times this year their dedication compassion and unwavering commitment have made a meaningful impact on the well-being of students and staff I have been the recipient of this team and I thank them as well it is to introduce principal Carl looot who will share more about his in outstanding mental health support team okay thank you superintendent leech thank you president Nory um trustees cabinet members student trustees I'm really happy to see um three of you two of you being from ma um and and audience members but I really I just want to say I appreciate that this is consistently an effort to um recognize some aspect of our schools community so it's just really fun and
005it's really fun to think about it's really fun to honor folks and I just appreciate the the opportunity to do so uh in the past couple of visits I've had the joy of recognizing several amazing student groups on campus which is always really fun but today I'd like to Circle back to some of our schools um and districts quieter staff members staff members who' have done a remarkable job supporting the ma Community through two tragic losses the loss of our student Dylan skuro at the start of the school year and more recently through the loss of one of our staff members Sam Harris it's been a remarkably challenging year this evening I'd like to honor the heart of our social emotional support services at Ma the half of our wellness center pause or peace and
006Wellness Center which was a name um created by our students um and the the staff of that Center are here tonight we have Joanna Sanchez contas in the back um Shonda Shonda Nickerson um Edith Bennett and ginger you might be able to see Ginger down there I'm gonna say and then um we have Stephen Emmy also as our staff and I want to point out that emotionally again I've said it once but I'll say it again because it it Bears repeating emotionally these are incredibly challenging moments um and these staff members have consistently shown up to support the rest of us um in particular me so that's why we're here thanking you um we don't always know what to do as a team um but with this team um we've been able to brainstorm hear
007each other out express frustrations and develop a plan whether that plan involved calling all water poloo families both girls and boys the day before school started showing up at parent meetings in order to talk about next steps pulling in small groups of individual staff members in order to communicate tragic news figuring out a plan for what and how to communicate or bringing in resources from the community or figuring out which classes needed one of us to visit or figuring out who we needed to follow up with no matter the task or problem presented this team has shown up ready to support and provide what is needed I'm going to say just a brief word about each individual person Johanna um I want to thank you for your consistent and calming presence and being the face
008of pause um you welcome everyone into pause listen to what emotions or challenges they are coming in with and work to find support for everyone who enters you have created an inviting warm welcoming and supportive environment for everyone so thank you I'm just to give you an image if you walk in and pause on a busy day there's often support providers there's sometimes parents and their students all of which have to filter through J and and are welcomed by her and she kind of guides them into the next step I'm Edith and ginger if you don't know if you can't see if you're online Ginger is our part-time therapy um dog um and briefly I am not a dog person and so there was quite a campaign on the part of Shonda and ginger to
009um have me accept Ginger a part of Edith and Shonda to have me accept Ginger and there had to be a small kind of uh negotiated facilitated date so that we could meet and make sure that I was okay yes it hopefully um and so you you the two of you um Edith and ginger have been a refreshing and calming addition to the center and I'm glad you convinced me um to accept ginger as our new part-time staff member I've enjoyed watching the two of you walk around classrooms engage students bringing calm or taking an individual student on a walk and giving that student an opportunity to grieve take some space and feel supported so thank you um Sean Stephen Emmy uh now a district office staff member has been an incredible resource in these
010moments I'm usually taking several days to be at the school site so something happens and and Emmy I've just appreciated that you're there um shows up that morning and often camps out in my office um and is there to just be to help navigate and be a resource so incredibly grateful for that um he has helped coordinate support from District staff um local agencies such as Cara grief or Children's Health Council he has worked to connect us to experts in the field of grief and helped us navigate how and what to communicate in general he has helped guide our response and support and I want to thank you for your leadership um and then Shonda Nickerson it's hard to capture what Shonda has meant to our community day in and day out um but she
011has continued to respond to students staff and parent needs continue to think thoughtfully about how to address needs and to focus on what students are asking for as a means of providing support that is ultimately aimed at helping students and staff be healthy and stay engaged in the school Community um just yesterday she was describing a student who had come to us and she was reminding me that oh yes I went back I stopped the student at the hall I said like what are you really after what do you need from us and that's kind of the approach she takes with everybody um I just want to point out that you were not asked if you could do more but you have consistently shown up and done more and so we are all grateful gratefully
012thank you sorry I choke up a little bit but they mean a lot to us um again thank you to each of you and I'm glad you are a part of the ma Community I think we'd like to invite you up so we could take a group [Applause] photo for e I must say this team has a very far reach um most of them are are very well known through um out all of our school sites and it's really nice to see everyone come together tonight and be recognized because it's a very very special group of of people um that come together and bring us through unmentionable times thank you um next we have item number eight which is public comment um just some quick reminders the board does not oh yeah feel free to
013leave if you want to take off now or stay for our meeting okay next is item 8.1 public comment so just some quick reminders the board does not act upon any matter that has not been agendized except under limited circumstances permitted by law it is a policy of the board to refer matters raised in this forum to staff for investigation and or action when appropriate board policy ordinarily limits the time to be devoted to any single agenda topic to 10 minutes and individual speakers are ordinarily limited to 3 minutes if the board decides to expand the amount of time to be allocated to a particular agenda item because many speakers wish to address that item the board May reduce the time allocated to individual speakers to two minutes or to one minute as appropriate in
014order 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 with in the time limits okay so last call for speakers um I don't see any on Zoom we have none in person okay are there any on Zoom please raise your hand now these are for comments on non okay seeing none let's move on to item number nine which is Board of trustee correspondents um so we don't there's no Corr okay so there's no Board of Trustees correspondence so we can move on to item number 10 which is Board of Trustees or superintendent comments and committee's reports okay um I guess I just have one question because I'm I'm looking
015forward to a legislative action week with the csba but I I think we were limited to two trustees per District or something like that so I was just curious who who was participating and I I got an invite for assembly woman popping and that's that's it so I also was invited to the breakfast with Poppin as well and I did say yes so I will be going to that but the other no I don't think I'll be attending that one just I think she's was this legislative action week or is this a breakfast yeah the breakfast is different so csba is hosting a legislative action week next week where we Advocate uh on behalf of csba um on their big issues right so there's training on Monday evening and then uh if you participate in
016that then they're setting up virtual meetings with our legislators I'm not going to that person the legislation one but I am going to the breakfast okay okay I'm not going to the pin one Amy okay were you invited to any other one or I didn't sign up for the legislative action didn't okay Amy you have no conflicts okay sounds good yeah so just everyone's education this happens every year so it used to be in person in Sacramento and starting with the pandemic they switched to Virtual because they got higher attendance from virtual yeah um and just a quickly out on on vice president cp's Point more generally there are a lot of education related bills that are going through the State Assembly and state senate this year that would have an impact on some of
017our core functions when it comes to teaching so I'm sure we as a board will be interested in tracking some of that legislation to know if it's going to go into law and how it might affect us and also sharing that with our constituents um if there's nothing else there we can move on to item number 11 which is student trustee [Music] comments hello all right so first off uh my name is Mohan Gupta I'm a senior at Menlo Atherton High School I like to start off by saying academically things are going very well at our school we have a 94% pass rate on AP tests in 2024 that's with 796 students taking AP tests we had 54 National Merit Scholars 92% of the class of 2024 had a passing or 2.0 and above GPA
018uh one thing though that we're working on is diversifying our more advanced classes We believe We can do this through encouraging more students of color to take these classes and uh having these allowing these students to receive more clarity from from uh their academic advisers and uh counselors in regard to the difficulty of the classes and more trust into believing these students that they're they can take these classes as for Student Life overall we've had pretty good attendance at events this year for example we average over a thousand students which is about half our grade at uh our homecoming dance and about a third of our students at our annual prom dance and our can food drive this year received about 250,000 pounds of food thank you [Music] um good evening everyone my name is
019Tula Basta also a student at Menlo Atherton High School um this fits very well with the recognitions of tonight but I would also like to talk a little bit about how we've bounced back from um some of the harder times at Ma this year with the loss of two of our community members uh the big one is our peace and Wellness Center that Center has made it incredibly easy for students looking for help to get the help that they're seeking um along with that we've had trained grief counselors and professional therapists as well as our therapy dog Ginger on campus um so so overall students have been able to students and staff actually have been able to find help to work through these difficult times which I think has made a very large difference in
020how our campus has responded uh to these two issues and then moving on from that General campus safety discussions the first one is uh we recently have gotten conflict mediators on our campus and since their arrival we haven't had any major conflict so it's clear that they're helping to mitigate those issues and then moving on one major concern um of a vast amount of our student body right now is the current situation with ice and their immigration status um our student population is we have a very diverse student population to say the least and a lot of our student body is worried about themselves and their family being um put in a dangerous situation they're concerned about their rights as well as their family's rights so there was a school walk out actually in relation
021to this recently a few weeks ago and our clubs like Luma which is um a Latin American Club essentially have been notifying students by their rights and trying to inform people of how they can respond to these issues if ice were to um come into the area um aside from that I know some students have had experiences where their families recently have been deported so it's just a general concern it's buzzing on campus um so I think that's something that our student body is concerned about and would like either a little bit more clarification on or um some way to feel more safe going to school hello my name's T shab I'm also a senior at Melo Aon high school and I'd like to thank the board for allowing us this time to speak about
022our school some more notes on General campus safety um this ma as many other public schools in the SE Union district uh use the Sam trans public bus as the main way of school provided transportation for students so the bus comes and goes to East PA Alto Meno Park Aon Redwood City and more and some issues of student safety on this bus um are that it's overcrowded most of the time unreliable when it comes to its schedule and potentially stressful for many students um in a survey that the ma Chronicles sent out over two-thirds of Juniors who take the bus reported that it caused them to be late to school at least twice a week um so we want we it's an issue to kind of reduce treny and excuse the absences caused by the
023bus for many students I know that Ma Chronicles putting out an editorial soon about the bus and all the issues um and strategies proposals to improve the system also another thing about the bus is the clipper cards some students don't qualify for the school provided free card and are unaware of how to appeal to get one so they have to pay every day or sometimes when they're unable to they get kicked off the bus and have no transportation to school so that's an issue on General campus safety our clubs and organizations on campus are very much thriving we just had a great Club rush today with all of our clubs that represent the diverse interests of our student population um our sports are our sports teams are doing great and their leads very successful and
024I our our journalism program is also thriving in informing and representing our community very well one thing to improve on that we have been working on is to get a little more administrative support for Affinity clubs because they're more than just a club and they kind of advocate and represent a demographic on the campus um but we are very much in the works of that meeting with the administration and Administration has been great to understand the needs of these Affinity groups and to help support them overall ma is looking great and has a very optimistic future yes yes and then uh one last thing that I think I would like to add is um pertaining to especially the three of us we are seniors this year at Ma and the College and Career Center um
025which is one of our programs on campus to help the Junior and senior class prepare for college applications has been outstanding in providing students Resources with saay help scholarship help finding scholarships and figuring out how to apply for financial aid so I think that they make a very large difference in sending um our senior class to college or into trade school or whatever their next um pathway looks like so I just wanted to put that out there as well thank you so much for your comments um next is item number 12 comments from seoa District Teachers Association and American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees yes I have a cheering section today um I uh I hate to be a a broken record but I um my comments tonight are on the theme of
026the rest of the evening I really wanted to take this opportunity to um thank the District staff and most importantly our Sequoia staff and all the wellness staff for um being out and um at campus last week which is an especially hard week for our campus and being there for our students and helping them move forward in um ways that are productive and meaningful for them and um helping them to process loss um as DTA is pushing through towards the end of the year we worked our bargaining team worked all day today putting together the outline of our um bargaining proposal we'll have our initial proposal for you or our Sunshine proposal for you at the next board meeting so we look forward to a productive process um this spring and um we will be
027our equity and human rights committee will be hosting a training an CTA Cadre training um next Friday on um identifying and combating white supremacy ideology in schools and um we are planning a tgim for uh a little blow off a little seam on St Patrick's Day after the uh big uh PD day at Woodside so we're looking forward to that thank you very much thank you is there anyone from asme seeing none um let's 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 action indicated on each item is deemed to have been considered in full and action taken as worded therein only members of
028the board and the superintendent May remove items from the consent agenda members of the public May provide comment at the start of the consent agenda item which may convince a board member or the super intending to remove an item for further discussion so are there any Publics on the consent agenda I do have two in person for item 13.1 and 13.4 okay I think we can do three minutes each okay first we have theana thank you good evening esteem board members it's an honor to speak with you today about someone who has truly made an outstanding impact within our school Community our vice principal Selita okunuga I am here to share with you how her leadership and dedication have positively influenc influenced our staff students and the broader Community this year first and foremost Selita
029has demonstrated unwavering commitment to active listening whether she's engaging with staff during team meetings meeting with students to address their concerns or communicating with parents she takes the time to genuinely hear and understand their perspectives her approach has for fostered an environment where individuals feel valued heard and respected this active listening builds trust which is essential to creating a collaborative atmosphere that drives our Collective success in addition to her ability to listen Selita is a leader who leads with empathy she approaches every situ with a heart full of understanding and compassion whether it's navigating a challenge with a struggling student or supporting a staff member during a particularly tough time selita's empathy has proven to be guiding a guiding force she always seeks to understand the human aspect of every issue ensuring that her Solutions
030are not only effective but also considerate of the emotional and personal context involved her ability to lead with empathy has created a culture of support and care that has had a lasting positive impact on everyone within our school Community lastly Selita is solution oriented and every situation she approaches challenges with the mindset focus on finding practical effective Solutions rather than dwelling on problems she works diligently to resolve them always seeking out ways to improve and move forward her solution oriented mindset has helped to create a school environment where obstacles are seen as opportunities for growth and where progress is not not just possible but inevitable together these attributes active listening leading with empathy and being solution oriented which of course are just a few of our amazing skills have allowed Selita to not only lead
031our school with Grace and Effectiveness but also to create an environment that encourages growth understanding and envir and achievement for everyone involved furthermore if you were to survey our students staff and families you would hear the immense love respect and value they all share with our vice principal this year and I know you would not receive one negative comment selita's work has made a lasting positive impact on our staff students in the entire East paloalto Academy community and I do not doubt that if she continued with us as a leader we would continue to see even more remarkable progress in the years to come Selita thank you for being so genuine and bringing bringing your authentic self every single day to work you are such a great leader you are are such a great leader
032and board members thank you for listening and thank you for your time thank you our last speaker is Marilyn Travis good evening I agree with everything that our previous speaker has said and wanted to add uh my my own thoughts on the issue I'm a union rep with sdta and um around this time of the month when we know or the year when we know that um teachers might not get reelected um I usually look at board agendas to see what's up um while I was anticipating maybe seeing a teacher name on there what I was not anticipating was seeing our vice principal's name on there listed as a resignation and um while all of me wants to believe that it was entirely her choice to move on knowing this district and the failure to
033retain black administrators black teachers it really creates a lot of Doubt for me as to what has happened um sitaa even though she has only been at our school uh for a semester and a half has demonstrated creative and Innovative leadership that I think if we had more administrators like her at our district schools would be um incredible places of love and learning for our family amilies and I'm very sad to know that um she will not be with us for the next year um she I think serves as a mentor for so many people and I want to name that it's just sad to have a leader that um demonstrates so much competence and capacity um to begin to build a relationship with an administrator in that way and for them to not be
034um you know continuing their time at our scho school because I think our school is desperately in need of competent leadership that is system minded and responsive to the needs of our community um in my time working at susd I have only worked at epaa and she is the best vice principal that I have ever had the privilege of working under and so I say that um as a point of feedback for both the cabinet and this board for when it comes to um the way that we support administrators um and EPA this year has a um Vice a principal search committee that is underway of being created and um I expect for there to be a similar search committee for a vice principal because our school our family ours our families our students our
035staff deserve a leader who is um both competent and carrying in all the ways that CA has demonstrated thank you thank you all right thank you so if the board wishes to pull any agenda items for the superintendent if not 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 second in um roll call student trustee Basta here that's a vote Yes or No was roll call um I vote Yes okay thank you s Gupta I vote Yes so sorry uh just to clarify this is for action item 16.3 this is for um C agenda item number 13 oh yes thank you just yes trusty Thompson yes trusty gin yes trusty C uh vice president c yeah
036yes president Nory yes motion pass 5 Z great um next is item number 14 which is a presentation of American Federation of state and County and Municipal Employees local 829 supervisors of the 2025 d226 initial Bing proposal to the SEO Union High School District hi I'm Aubrey tff I'm a steward for asme for the supervisors unit and I'm going to be presenting the asme supervisors Federation Sunshine proposal for the 2025 2026 the asme supervisors Federation negotiating team and asme business agent submit the following Sunshine proposal to negotiate the successor collective bargaining agreement with seoa Union High School District for the 2025 2026 school year we look forward to working collaboratively with the district negotiating team to problem solve and have positive resolutions we strive to continue to build trust and positive relationships while affording asme
037supervisors the support and representation needed to achieve the best standards working conditions and services provided to the students staff in our community we reserve the right to negotiate on there's a list but I'm going to sum up it's essentially all articles within the contract as this is a successor agreement thank you um before we go on is there any public comment on this agenda item [Music] there okay if um thank you so much for that presentation um now we'll move on to item number 15.1 which is a public hearing on resolution number 010 approval material approving material revisions of the summit Preparatory Charter High School and I'll turn it over to assistant superintendent Hansen good evening everyone I am grateful to be before you this evening and equally grateful that we have some representation with
038us um from the summit school system um should you have any questions that I cannot answer you will find in your board packet the materials of course that we are have in question this evening and um what is being requested is that the current uh Lottery preferences for students wishing to attend Summit that we go ahead and revise them now even though the new Lottery preferences will not take effect until 202 June 2025 um and then run through uh June of 2030 um in short those summary preferences are they are taking out that founding families should have Lottery preference because founding families are long long moved on not gone but moved on um and that siblings um um uh have uh preference uh for enrollment of current students and graduates um those residing within School
039borders have preference um and um those teachers people who are otherwise connected um for instance teachers a summit that their students have preference uh we are recommending that the board approve this change um to our agreement with uh Summit and the you for 2025 through 30 will be before you in completion later this spring this is just this one section of that as they will most likely have some changes um before their board tomorrow evening is a motion to close one of their other schools Everest which means that there will be more movement than was anticipated before June of 2025 when the new resolution would take effect how did I do Mar Beth [Laughter] okay thank you so um I'll open the public hearing at 6:48 or 6:47 pm. are there any public comment on
040this agenda item I have none in person and I don't see any online so I'll close this public hearing at 6:48 next is item number 16 which is 16.1 one adoption of a resolution number 010 approving material revisions of the summit Preparatory Charter High School charter um are there any public comments or do we not there are not okay and then I'll turn it over to our board if there's any discussion or if we just like to approve this nothing to discuss thanks okay if not could I get a motion to approve I Mo approval okay okay roll call student trusty Basta I vote Yes student trusty Gupta yes student trusty so so shab shab thank you good yes yes juste Cruz yes juste Thompson yes justy gen yes justy C vice president cou yes
041president Nori yes motion carried 5 Z next we have item 16.2 which is approval of Redwood High Schools Western Association of schools and College Plan was plan um I'll turn it over to principal Octon good evening hope you can hear me hope you are well uh you've had the report for a few weeks and so I'm hoping that you've at least take a look at it um hope you read it that would be really great I don't have a fancy slideshow because we're not a fancy slideshow kind of school uh we're actually a do it school so we do everything we need to do and more and if you read the report I think that you could agree we've had a fantastic six years we've achieved a lot we went from a packet school to
042an incredible instructional focused school we take attendance from basic 62% to 86% we moved our dashboard incredibly this year uh on almost every aspect that we could do and I think that we had the best year last year that we've had so far so super exciting and a super great way to leave sorry I didn't say that I will take you through sorry I'm retiring um I'll take you through a few things I'd like to to Really point out for you um one of the things we we are all about the was action plan and our school plan everything we do is centered around that and one of the things that we've done is combine those but we've been having the same four school goals for last six years and they Encompass everything that we
043do and it's basically that we look at AC academic achievement uh we look at attendance because our kids can't achieve if they're not there we look at College and Career preparation for our students and then we look at having a healthy and safe environment for our school and the really great thing that we do and it's been given feedback to us many times is that our sub goals are constantly changing but they all fit under those goals and so we don't ever have to change the Northstar we're always just changing how we get to the Northstar so that's an amazing thing for our school and highly suggest it whenever I do was visits because you get schools that have a thousand different goals and how can you achieve that so we have very measurable very
044specific goals um and that we're proud of them and they're constantly our Focus um I'm going to let Mike talk about our priorities this year and then I can come back through the well through the wasque self-study process we've identified three areas for for improvement uh you can read them on page 77 of the report uh the first one is to deepen uh academic and career opportunities for our students uh the second one is to enhance decision uh data data driven decision for and reflection excuse me uh and the third one is to strengthen commun communication and engagement with families and all stakeholders putting it to you guys you have any questions yay yes um thank you so much um I know how long these reports take to write um and it was very thorough
045so thank you um one question I just had was I I was hoping that you could just explain it and your own words the growth of e um where it says develop a system to assess impact of all training and implemented supports including Equity initiatives or structural practices I think that was the one that I just wanted to sort of see what I was missing as I was reading sort of the the why behind that and so I was just hoping to hear that in your own words let me back up a little bit on data so you know that alternative programs have a difficult time really identifying data that fits for us and so our big goal is to really identify data that works for us when you look at something like Equity we've
046been employing uh Equity training since 2019 um and I will tell you that that came from when one of my staff said oh you know those kids and we don't work with those kids we work with amazing kids and so it just really hit us that maybe we really need to address the elephant in the room and looking at how people really feel about our students even some of our great teachers you know what I mean and so we started really doing that but then we're thinking we're spending all this time on it but what are we doing how do we know that we're doing is having any impact what do we really want for students what do we want for our staff so really what we're looking at and I'm hoping this is answering
047your questions is we really need to get formulas for how are we doing stuff how are we measuring it and how do we know it's really happening it's kind of like well how do you know kids are learning well we want to know that kids are learning too so we're really looking at some kind of structures that will help us really determine all of the extra stuff as well as the academics we have incredible wraparound services for our students um and we make decisions about what we want for those you know in our sypsa we've get given additional monies for things like um achieving uh higher graduation rates so we achieve that but how do we really achieve that and really identifying so we can keep it going um we know one of the reasons
048that we're doing that but we really want to document and hopefully even be a model for other alternative programs like we really need to identify what works why and what the impact is so not specific to your question but everything we do really needs to be looked at no that was very helpful thank you yeah no problem any other questions from the board um I had um just a two questions I guess one I saw there was an on-site learning option called Evergreen um that aren't able to participate in the full day program and I was just wondering like what what type of students or how many students are actually in that program and and um how how how does it work in comparison to the typical days student well you may or may not
049know that uh continuation high school students only need to have 180 minutes of instruction which is ridiculous because they need much more than the maybe normal student or average student so we have much more time spent with our kids but it's really evolved after the pandemic where some students were just really traumatized and not ready to go back into a classroom so we developed a program that was a 4-Hour program that kids could come to and just do independent studies on site so they would stay with our study hall teacher and do a genuity with support and then as soon as they were ready they could you know take elective credits if they wanted to so it's really kind of a that's move them on when they're ready to take on more classes um it's
050not uh for everyone uh it is a program that we use when it's needed and so just recently um we had a student that started with us and just wasn't ready because our kids come from you know schools and have a lot of history and I would say a lot of history that's based on not really being seen at the schools are seeing being seen in a different way that they really are and so this student ended up spending four hours with the study hall teacher until she was ready to come out and do regular classes with other students um and she self-regulated in that class I think that the most successful student that we've had was in there probably almost six months before she really wanted to venture out ended up taking a full
051class course you know course load and graduating but had not had that program probably would not graduate so maybe a couple of year it was more right after the pandemic but it's less but we are still seeing kids with a lot of trauma that really just want a small space I personally don't believe in independent studies where kids go for a day or an hour a week um I don't know that that Services obviously there's a place for that but what I see is kids need to be integrated back into schools into classrooms so that's where it came [Music] from great thank you that's that's really great trying to meet every kid's need you know yes um and then I I also I know you mentioned earlier that you've contracted with an equity coach for
052quite some time now um I guess I just want to hear some more examples of of what is that um being explicit with anti-racist pedagogical practices and um kind of the failing forward do you have some more examples of that and and is that the same thing as kind of anti-bias type things or what is it yeah you know in 2019 it was really all pretty fresh uh and on everybody's minds and so it's certainly evolved we started with one coach we did Equity hacks where we really did a lot of interviews with kids um talking about their experiences in schools you can come up and participate in this um but we've had a coach for since that time uh and what we've done is certainly look at our own biases um we have Affinity
053groups on campus uh some people do the Affinity work and other people are working on a climate you know survey for students so we have different versions of what the work looks like and so the work is really evolved uh we have another coach well we have Milton who's amazing and everybody knows well you might not know but Milton is a really great uh Equity person who works for the district sometimes into those workshops here so he's fabulous too why don't you sure some yeah but add a a big focus of the equity work we've been doing this year has really focused on uh the impact of stereotype threat and how to mitigate it uh and the sorts of instructional practices that will help us do that uh so it's really been focused in on
054on the instruction in the classroom uh on a on a little bit of a meta level do you want more info I mean one of the things that we did is we the first thing we did was eliminate the dress code um and that was the most impactful thing we could do by a request of the kids and so it gives students voice it gives teachers voice um and it also really forms good working groups on campus that really enjoy working together thanks for that example I mean what was the the dress code policy before I I wasn't really aware that there was a dress code policy well when I first started it was pretty strict no red no blue it was all Gang Related it was ah okay I got it we felt that
055you know that doesn't define a person um and so we restricted that I mean we we still don't let vulgar inappropriate things on campus um but mostly it's just like you can wear you know there was things like your shorts had to be a certain length you know what I mean serious pretty heavy duty dress code uh and so we relaxed that um and that isn't the focus of our work with our students I appreciate that that example so I guess it's really being more intentional like looking at policies and class instruction yeah exactly yeah it also goes into our whole policy about like restorative justice you know we do everything we can to keep Kids on Campus okay great thanks feel like I'm talking to the sky yeah there's a voice coming out from
056somewhere so we do have one public comment on Zoom so let's before we go with that let's see if there are any more if not um we can go with the one public comment for three minutes okay um on Zoom Chris beatley Haggler hey what's going on everybody uh Stephanie Mike appreciate yall presenting for us uh trustees how we doing um yeah no I appreciate the the question um and you know I think uh y'all saw it in the first few pages um about the equity work I know it's uh definitely a topic that you know y'all have heard from me about before and I think it's you know I'm really proud of the work that um that we've been done uh that we are excited to show off and and talk about to the
057visiting committee um you know we mentioned the equity hacks Stephan you mentioned the um the uh dress code I think it's a really interesting example right because uh you know I know like you know on the on one level we don't think about a dress code as being discriminatory or like uh coming from uh or or biases being uh built into those right and I think the the more we thought about it the more we reflected on the ways that students were getting referred for wearing a hood or wearing a hat uh we were aware that you know there were like you know uh access to beautyy product inequalities right there were um different cultural uh like norms and like um things that we were projecting onto our student body that we're interested in getting
058away from right um we drafted like a list of educator qualities that we wanted to see right and it was really uh you know good to hold that mirror up to ourselves um you know again some I've said before and I know a lot of us are aware of right our our certificated staff is is really disproportionately overrepresented with whitebody folks classified staff is open represented with people of color right and at Redwood specifically the the student body is you know overwhelmingly students of color right so what does that mean when you have uh White Educators uh um educating predominantly students of color right so you know I think what we decided is like it's it's really imperative that we're explicit about the fact that we want we want to address those in inequitable outcomes
059and part of that is is being real and and having the uncomfortable conversations I know I know it's a term that a lot of us maybe are not sure what it means or how to address but when we talk about white supremacist culture what we mean is Educators that where implicit bias or their actions are influenced by ideologies that are reproducing these inequalities and over the past few years I think we're really excited to share with was that we've been uh really explicit about how can we address this right so uh the equity coaches that Stephanie has hired have been really instrumental to giving us the language and the tools to reflect on that hold the hold the mirror up to ourselves and then really you know to use Mod's analogy like look out the
060window and hopefully fail forward with those hacks so we would welcome further conversations about what that means I think um you know we could really be a model uh moving forward with the with the Affinity groups with the equity coaches that we've had and um so wanted to give give our admin the props for that and and our whole staff the uh the EXC the props for being involved in that appreciate you all thank you thank you and before we conclude the item I would I think there's a lot of great work in the report that I read and I'd really like to appreciate principal Ogden for all her hard work over the years during the school and I'm sure your presence will be greatly missed next year and I wish you the best on
061behalf of the board and your retir thanks I'll probably be in the garden if I'm in town that's the Redwood garden thank you Chris by the way that was awesome to expand on that um you're welcome anytime you're welcome anytime always love having people come out to the school thanks Mike for coming and representing um so now I'll take a vote to approve yeah the item so could I get a motion to approve the report motion to approve second roll call student try Basta yes student try Gupta yes student truste shab yes truste Cruz yes Thompson yes juste gin yes vice president cou yes president nor yes motion carried 5 Z and our last action item is item 16.3 adoption of resolution number 009 intention to terminate classified employees due to lack of work and
062or lack of funds um are there any public comments on this agenda item I have none in person are there any online seeing none um I'll turn it over to assistant superintendent Beal all right well uh good evening uh president Nory superintendent leech board members and members of the audience uh I am tonight presenting resolution 009 related to classified layoffs also known as a reduction and force uh per various education codes uh it authorizes the Board of Trustees of the district uh to lay off or reduce classified employees for lack of work or a lack of funds part of the education code related to reduction of force or layoff is the timing uh the board has to act um and the so has to act on the resolution and we must present to the individuals
063that are named on for a layoff or reduction of force on or before March 15 um and so we're here tonight uh to present this resolution um and notify those that may be impacted under the uh for this reduction in force we do have three positions that are here uh one is the chief technology officer or CTO uh we have the Director of Human Resources and we have a senior administrative uh secretary non-confidential uh this position is currently vacant we're not filling it we're here just to um do a reduction of force of the position itself so we don't have to actually provide an individual notice thank you um are there any board questions or comments yes um just to clarify I know my vote's only symbolic but I just want to be fully informed
064before does this include uh epa's vice principal CA okunuga does that include it does not no okay gotcha okay if could I get a motion to approve this agenda item motion to approve I'll second um roll call just B yes sty Gupta yesy shab shab you got it you got it yes trusty Cruz yes trusty Thompson yes trusty gin yes vice president coup yes president nor yes motion Carri 5 Z thank you um now we have item 17 future agenda items is there any discussion from the board feel like this makes you all nervous um I do uh I just have a couple quick follow-ups uh regarding a future agenda items so at the last board meeting we did discuss um a potential study session on graduation requirements um uh we had a little bit
065of follow-up discussion at a retreat doing a deeper dive and engaging um I made the suggestion of I'm sorry doing deeper dive and engaging with Handover research um to look at the following I've had a brief conversation with them regarding these are just like a couple bullet points uh what high school factors contribute most to producing College and Career ready students which High School grad requirements correlate with the highest College and Career Readiness rates which courses lead to the most successful post postsecondary outcomes for students how do our students outcomes both academic and non-academic meaning social emotional Wellness career preparedness compared to similar districts um in districts with comparable demographics what key factors influence Student Success or contribute to challenges and conducting a gap analysis to assess the alignment between our current programs and the
066goals outlined in our portrait of a graduate from our strategic plan so this is a pretty intensive um report that will be prepared with several like review um areas and I Look to having this presented to the board um early fall in add that um at the April 23rd meeting staff will be presenting uh regarding ethnic studies uh curriculum enhancements that have been made um um and that are planning to be made that uh staff has been working on this [Music] year thank you um any other discussion from the board okay if not um we can move on to item 18 which is adjournment so could I get a motion to adjourn this meeting so moved second second all in favor I I I this meeting is adjourned um SA