001recording in progress good evening and welcome to this new good evening and welcome to this special meeting of the Board of Trustees the Sequoia High School District Monday December 19 2022. um as this is a special meeting we take comments only on items of the agenda um at this time I will ask if we have any comments about any of the closed session items to the chair I do have two common cards possibly three okay do we have any comments from attendees okay is there anybody else wishing to comment about closed session items okay so it sounds like we have four commenters uh Lord do you mind leading us through the comments okay I actually have two for closed session and then I just received one for of an open session comment um item yeah
002we should the comments should be for the closed session items so I think all the comments are for the closed session items yeah so now we have another now we have five comments for closed session items anybody else will get the yep so if three in person and two on Zoom commenters are there any others okay we have five com public consang we'll do three minutes for each okay first up I have Bonnie Hanson associate superintendent of that services good evening members of the board and Sequoia Union High School District Community this is in no way meant to be commentary on anything that has gone before just moving forward in just over two and a quarter years the Sequoia Union High School District has had three superintendents with that track record I don't believe there
003will be potential candidates whom the board would want to consider who will apply for the job fortunately I think we have an enviable option in the time between our last two superintendents associate superintendent Crystal Leach served as interim working simultaneously as the superintendent and the CBO during covid she was a remarkable leader Ms Leach has an uncanny ability to hear a multitude of opinions siphon out what really matters and make decisions that are best for everyone she leads with compassion fairness and a desire for every student and staff member to thrive as a fellow Cabinet member I have witnessed her loyalty and wise counsel to the superintendents we have served and find her to be a person of deep integrity she is willing to own tough decisions and her ability to manage a second to
004none Miss Leach was integral in the creation of the district's why statement to Foster consistent excellence in student outcomes not programs or tries but outcomes across race gender home language and socioeconomic status creating healthy school communities where all members Thrive and I have seen how personal that is for her I believe she is the most qualified person to bring that statement to fruition let's not allow for five months of uncertainty and risk the unknown when we have a proven entity in-house thank you foreign this evening's agenda item is titled Public Employee appointment title superintendent but it is important that the board understand that appointing a new superintendent does not put an end to this chapter in our shared experience while it is imperative that we have someone to direct the district's business it is equally
005if not more important that the board takes tangible steps toward rebuilding trust with staff and community to address the pain and Trauma that have been caused and to create opportunities for healing the board must take responsibility for its role in this lest new superintendent become the target of people's anguish and mistrust the last time a sequoia superintendent left mid-contract and sadly we are now a district where we have to specify which time we're referring to conditions among districts many stakeholders were at the most contentious they had been in my memory at that time the board turned to its relatively newly hired associate superintendent of Business Services who served admirably in her dual role as interim superintendent and CBO and who never received the appreciation that her seamless work shepherding us through the worst of the
006pandemic distance learning and community and fighting deserved she kept the district moving forward and did it miraculously in a way that made every group feel appreciated listened to and heard today we Face a similar situation one with fractured trust between the board and stakeholders and I have no doubt that she could do it again but she should not be asked to be superintendent while doing more than the full-time job she already has she should not be asked to be in charge while you engage a Headhunter to beat the bushes for someone better if you choose to offer her the position of superintendent it should be because you trust in her abilities to lead our district fairly and responsibly to listen to staff students and parents and to do what is best for everyone it should
007be because you know that she believes in and supports the work our members began before Dr Williams was hired worked with Dr Williams championed in which we will continue to do now that she is gone based on the work I have done with associate superintendent Leach and the conversations we have had I believe that to be the case but you don't have to take my word for it ask the people who worked for her the parents who met with her the students who were here we demand that the next superintendent is someone committed to working with staff and Community to build Bridges and continue the work we've undertaken thus far to keep the district's work centered on students and anti-racism I believe we already have someone with those credentials thank you thank you next we
008have Leanne strut sdta rep thank you for allowing some time for public comment tonight as you decide on a process to select a new superintendent for the district my name is Leanne strube and I have been teaching English at Menlo Atherton for 27 years I'm the English department chair and serve on sdta's Executive Board I hope you will acknowledge how destabilizing the sudden removal of the superintendent has been for our community since I tested positive for covid on Thursday December 8th the day before the first of your many closed sessions and didn't test negative again until Thursday December 15th I feel rather like Rip Van Winkle illness failed me for a week and when I awoke my whole world had changed like many of my colleagues I feel insecure bewildered and unmoored I want to
009suggest that before you begin the search for our new superintendent you look to the past and consider the successes of our previous superintendents when Bonnie Hansen and I started our career in this District Joanne Smith was superintendent she championed the idea of shared decision making and it was on her watch that we began as dmsc at Ma her desire to listen to and act on the ideas of stakeholders was the keynote of her tenure to address the needs of mas underrepresented students superintendent Pat Gemma assembled a group of M.A teachers to travel with him to Kansas City Kansas where we observed several high schools that had implemented small learning communities as the Kansas City superintendent emphasized the need to decentralize Administration Pat leaned over and told us it was time to reduce our top heavy
010District he was true to his word and removed some of the needless layers of bureaucracy in the district office neither of those superintendents was perfect nor were they universally liked but both were effective leaders they pursued a focused vision they listened to stakeholders they implemented change and they pushed back on the idea that someone in an office has a better idea of how to educate students than someone in a classroom I want to suggest that before you make this important decision you consult not just your constituents but also your employees get out to schools and really talk to teachers counselors IAS campus aides and yes our administrators we have our fingers on the pulse of the community and can offer our wisdom on what is needed in our next leader thank you thank you our
011first is zoom comment is by Jenny bloom hello can you hear me today yes ma'am hi my name is Jenny varghese Bloom I am a resident of East Palo Alto and also board member of the Ravenswood City School District I am here to speak on the superintendent search I would like to be very clear again that our community is still reeling like everybody said um about the decisions that this board has made in such extreme quick fashion many of our community members are still hearing the news and do not even know that there is a superintendent search that will be happening or has happened or should happen um so I do believe that this board has a responsibility to engage all stakeholders not just constituents not just teachers not just administrators but also parents parents
012and yes we can say those are constituents but if parents don't even know that they're super that they don't have a superintendent right now how can you make a decision on what is best for the students if they haven't even engaged in conversation on what their student needs so I do believe that there needs to be a process that re-engages all of these communities as you make this this decision that this decision shouldn't just be somebody that is currently in the cabinet but it should be somebody that the whole Community knows has had conversations with understands that they will represent and continue the work of equity that was started that's one of my main concerns is how will you continue the work of equity and I believe how you engage in this process will be
013a very clear statement of how you plan to do that so to choose who your next leader is going to be for the long term after just making a decision in the last 10 days and causing such upheaval I believe would be would continue to create fractured relationships within our community so I hope to continue to engage with this board continue to engage in the way that you choose to to find your next superintendent so that we can talk about again what our community needs what our community would like to see and how we could continue the work of equity together to rebuild relationships and rebuild trust thank you our final Zoom comment is Antonio Lopez foreign High School District board I feel like it is a small hobby of mine at this point making
014public comment to this board in such rapid succession I'm sure you all are enjoying it as much as I am no but um it's all love I look I I know that politics is inseparable to everything we do right school board's not immune to one person like this person or one person have an issue with that right I understand that I understand personality understand Antonio we can't hear you hear me oh we're here now hold on let me try one second that's a shame can you hear me now yes hello is that better yes Antonio that's better okay that's fine I was just I don't know how much I heard but I was just saying that I understand that it's inevitable the politics and the situation that there will inevitably be trustees or council members
015who have certain proclivities to certain Executives and vice versa I understand that it's impossible to do that to separate the two I I do think I want to Echo the sentiments from the previous speakers that I think it is a bit too Brash to advocate for particular individuals I don't think that this really is about saying getting one person or the other right in the same way that it it was it was beyond Dr Williams it was about what she stood for the valley she represented and so I want to Echo the sentiments expressed here tonight that we really want to make sure that the community understands for one what's going on and how much how much work that we do and he's Palo Alto you know I'm sure that um Shanice and Jenny 9
016and others have said you know we have to do a lot of work to inform the community of what's going going on that there are communities of color and just communities in general in this District they don't have the luxury of going to public comment five times a week six times a week to figure out the different uh decisions that are made and so it really is a labor that we're doing out of love out of struggle but also out of trust and it's a two-way street that you will all in that position are making decisions that are going to reflect the richness and values of the students that you serve and I do believe it is so important that whatever decision you all make in closed session which we don't truly know that that
017you also engage the community you engage students you engage our parents you engage folks who don't know what the school who the five district trustees are right because we just had a recent change of the tide it's really important that y'all really get out there and explain to folks what happened what is happening and what your future is for the for for this District in terms of your superintendent and also I just want to be a bit Frank with you all because I feel like we developed a relationship these past several weeks with all the turmoil that we can share that is you know what motivation does a superintendent have when their contract is renewed to two months later getting the boot right and so I want to make sure that what whatever decision is
018made in the end it is done with trust it is done with dialogue and it is done with a sincere effort to be transparent to our community thank you so much thank you okay is that concludes public comment we're going to recess into closed session um the board agenda has us coming back at 6 30 for open that's just an estimate um we could very likely be longer um so I just give that as a heads up I'm not sure how long we'll be okay um board met in closed session and I have a report out from closed session oh before that oh you're right approval yeah my mistake roll call First um student trustee Rodriguez Velazquez didn't just say swarm or nothing that's it just the Nori trustee coo here trustee Dubois vice president
019Stevenson here president president again here requirements present I mean next is approval of the agenda I need a motion to approve the agenda I move to approve the agenda by second everybody in favor of passing the agenda hi okay you can ask like if the agenda is passed okay now we get to the report out of closed session sorry I was trying to jump the gun earlier um but unanimous vote in favor the board decided the following dependent upon successful negotiation of an interim superintendent employment agreement and approval by the board in Open session at the next regular board meeting the board will offer Crystal leech the position of District interim superintendent crystal is the Acting Superintendent effective immediately foreign next item is item 7.1 uh process for hiring a new superintendent we have some
020public comment are there any public comment cards live or just on Zoom um they're just some for now okay um if everyone who's interested in making a comment could please raise their Zoom hand we'll get account and then um let's see what we've got 10 Johnny's if you want to get those 10 let me know when you have them I will make sure that there are no more and then we'll set the time sure okay so we have 10 public comment I I'm fine with going 30 minutes if the rest of the board is we'll do three minutes per person just Aaron do you want to say the last round let's say 30 minutes maybe we have 10 people so it's three minutes yeah if there's anybody else who wants to comment please raise your
021hand now because we'll do these 10 and not anymore if anybody else wants to comment please raise your hand now I'm just wondering some people may not know we're back in open and if we should give a little again maybe another five minutes or something just if that's too much I understand okay so let's do these the 10 people that have raised their hand and we'll do three minutes per person uh Laura if you could walk us through that'd be great thank you I'll read them you want me to read them and you okay you got it okay cool beans thank you okay first up by I see Russia Rocha hi can everyone hear me okay yes thank you I am ready when you are my name is Karen Rocha and I'm a teacher at
022Woodside High School I have been in this district for three years I cannot tell you the level of excitement I had when joining the district and finding the push towards Equity when I met Dr Williams I finally thought my experience as a latinx person was listened to heard and respected I am heartbroken that she has gone so abruptly without transparency there was genuine Grassroots advocacy with the push for an equity diversity committee and Dr Williams was ensuring these processes were being followed with the removal of Dr Williams the board has removed this trust from stakeholders especially with a conference with legal counsel as we move forward we need a superintendent who is unapologetically anti-racist our students need someone who looks like them and who has a similar background someone who represents them we need a
023superintendent who continues Equity work in the district while spearheading program centering Equity Dr Williams held meetings at Woodside to meet with both classified and certificated to have conversations in the district I want the board to have a conversation with the community about why a black leader in this district is suddenly gone thank you thank you next is Carol Ann Coleman [Music] I think we Caroline are you there yes I'm here I just have really slow internet so just the button just came up so hi good evening I am Caroline Coleman stakeholder parent teacher um and I have a lot of things I want to say but I'm sticking to the agenda I first wanted to know um refer to something that Shanice suggested which I love and that is to include the student trustees in
024the middle of the circle or in the middle of the Paradigm that you guys have because I think those are the voices that need to be heard um most importantly because that's that's why we're here so please um pay attention to that um so I'm going to try and get through this as fast as I can I'm very very concerned that what I'm about to say will will not matter um last week I was saddened to hear about um the quote-unquote separate ways statement of Dr Williams um and how she was exited let me mention that um I'm grieving um in in many ways um grief is not something that one can get over in a week or in two weeks or in three weeks grief one can get over on their own time you
025cannot Rush grief it has to be honored in one's own space I recently lost a loved one two weeks ago but to be honest with you I feel like I've lost two people in my life Dr Williams felt like a family member to me and she was giving so many hope that they too could also become inspiring leaders people that look like them Dr Williams's Legacy gave me the courage to be my very best to dismantle white culture and to discuss our biases in a variety of conversations many members are grieving like me but they don't feel comfortable saying it because it's too painful for them so I am their voice tonight the rushing to all the changes at least in this two-week time um it can't be rushed I know I keep saying that
026but I you know Christmas break is gonna or winter break is Gonna Come and when we come back we're still going to be grieving so please have Grace with us um please listen to us listen to the black women as Trevor Noah says um Dr Williams built a bridge that gave many many hope so let's try and keep that Legacy at least for the 10 percent of black teacher black women that are not represented in our school district thank you thank you Chris beatley Hagler hi there huh Can You Hear Me yes thank you all right thanks um well yeah let's see I was just uh putting my kids to bed so I appreciate y'all uh having me um yeah you know I'm I'm really upset and concerned confused really not sure how to move
027forward honestly feeling some betrayal um you know over the past few years there was a perception that our board was moving in an important Direction responding to public and popular pressure to work to implement anti-racist policies and make changes that Center the needs of bipoc students and staff we thought there was a growing consensus that felt change needed to happen because it was clear that maintaining the status quo provides a significant advantage to White students and prioritize the interest interests of White staff but now the pushing out of Dr Williams is a clear departure from this perceived movement it seemed Dr Williams Williams came to the superintendent position with a mandate to begin a long overdue process of centering a commitment to equity this meant she'd be leading a shift to allocate our District's vast
028resources and tools to address systemic inequalities we even believe that this District was interested in pursuing a social justice agenda where we would work to change a system that creates these inequitable outcomes including lower graduation rates for English Learners higher suspension rates for black boys and girls or a disproportionate percentage of latinx teachers with three or more classes to plan for there's numerous examples my colleagues and I could list that exist in our education system in general and within suhsd specifically I think it's appropriate to read our District's lcap goal number two or the second governance goal at this time which states the district recognizes the equity is a behavior we believe in meeting the needs of individual students we commit to identify and Design Systems to allow all students to succeed by overcoming institutional
029and instructional practices that perpetuate inequalities and student outcomes so many of my colleagues support this goal and we're thrilled that when we saw the district adopt it as a guiding principle we are excited by the specific interventions that aligned with it including supporting the racial affinity group Fellowship creating professional develop opportunities that centered racial Equity work but now it's impossible not to have this feeling that that what happened was Dr Williams was pushed or excuse me that Dr Williams was pushing for increased quantity quality and commitment to these programs from the board and the members of this board told that this did not align with their vision for the district I live in area C missed again I voted for you in the last election our Union endorsed you we believe you'd be a support
030for these necessary policies but now I'm only left to believe that you've been complicit in pushing out the superintendent who is working towards an explicit District commitment to serve all students and this is not in line with serving our district students or representing your constituents so I think I think I'm out of time but um I don't think that the board is working towards El Capitol number two and I think y'all really need to reconsider that and how you're going to be doing so moving forward thank you next up is Rachel Richards good evening my name is Rachel Richards and I am both a teacher and a resident and first and foremost I just want to say that I love my students and I love my community and that is why I feel compelled to
031speak tonight I was actually on the fence about speaking tonight but so much time was spent in closed session uh three and a half hours in fact when the time allotted was won that it got me to thinking so I feel compelled to speak again tonight because of all of the disturbing secrecy with which the board has been acting I am outraged that the new board members elected on a platform of transparency has had so many impromptu secret meetings there has been no proper report accounting of what's happening in these meetings which is a violation of the brown act you have an obligation to report what's going on in these closed sessions to the community I'm not sure what could possibly have taken three and a half hours the superintendent has already been dismissed what
032is going to happen next what is it you're trying to accomplish here in addition I would like to point out that you were supposed to be acting in the best interest of our community and our students where are your supporters I have been to all of these public meetings and I haven't heard one supporter speaking in support of the board or these decisions that have been made finally why are you using taxpayer money for outside legal counsel when one is already provided for by the board these questions need to be answered we have no idea what your goals are or what your plan for this district is the secrecy by which you've been acting makes us think the worst all we've seen you do in public something is eat cake that is not how a
033public school system is run if transparency and accountability are not your goals it may be time for us to renew our options thank you next we have Eva Tang foreign Zoom is a little slow on the unmute tonight um well I had planned on a very quiet evening tonight in preparation for finals you know plan on going to the gym which by the way Shawnee is still waiting on you to become my squat partner um have a quiet evening dinner with my partner but then closed session came and it got to be 6 30 and I was at the gym at six and I was like everybody make long comments because I'm gonna I need you to uh hold time for me so um I can comment at seven but then seven rolled around now
034it's uh what time is it it's 9 18 so here's another thing to add to making um doing well at this job unsustainable um and I want to note that many of us want to speak tonight but can't be here because closed session took so long and we I might I remind you we have finals this week um many of us can't speak and aren't ready to because of the hurt that's in this community there's a lot of grief here and they can't put um their own feelings into words but we have met together and there are many other teachers that want to say something but just can't just so you know there are 10 of us that are in this Zoom line but there are many more that have feelings about this um there's
035a lot of mistrust in the community because of the sudden ousting and uh they're not ready to provide input on a new superintendent when they're still reeling from grief at the ousting very sudden ousting of the last one nevertheless um Sequoia Union High School District is not one person and we need someone moving forward of course um so I need to tell you about the priorities uh that you should be looking at When selecting a new superintendent Equity of course is number one because all of my students all of my students are people of color so they are number one to me they ought to be number one to you uh we definitely need Wellness measures for students and staff Beyond suggestions of holding a circle and uh holding hands and saying Kumbaya around that
036Circle we definitely need wraparound Services they are very they're very much key we came back from uh from distance learning without enough counselors to support everyone many more students are suffering and need evaluation and support for IEPs I need someone who's going to ensure that my room is above the 61 degrees Fahrenheit it has been this week and we need a superintendent that's not just going to listen to us but act on what they hear we need a lot more well first of all we need a lot more talking from you guys because we have not heard anything from you but we need more than just lip service as well and we need somebody who's going to put action to what we need thank you I'll yield my time thank you Eva next up we
037have Jenny bloom good evening trustees my name is Jenny varghese Gloom I am a board member of the Ravenswood City School District and a citizen of East Palo Alto I'm here with you again uh during Open Session I just also want to say that the public is now being asked to comment on the Open Session item of the superintendent search when we just heard that in closed session the thing that you have decided is to move forward with an interim superintendent with a contract um it is unclear the length of that contract is unclear what you guys want to do for the superintendent search we have not heard from you what you would like in this idea of a superintendent search are you guys going to be looking for a new superintendent or are you
038trying to go back to what you have always done I will say that this board has been a board that has a choice to make you could either be a high school district that continues to move forward in equity for all of our students of color and as you move forward in that work of equity for all students of color that actually moves forward students of privilege or you can be the same board that I've been hearing about even though I've only been in this area for 10 years I've heard that people my age from 30 years ago and even older 40 years ago we heard a gentleman said that he laid in front of a bus for equity he laid in front of a bus so a bus could come to East Palo Alto
039to take kids to your school district so you have a choice to make are you going to be people who move Equity forward or are you going to go back to the same old same old that we have expected students of color and I can't even say wheat that students of color that I represent in my district have experienced for over 40 years 50 years what are we going to do are we going to continue to give students who have immense privilege more privilege and continue to stomp on students who do not have that privilege because you want to go back to make sure that every student gets a chance while ignoring the same students that you've always ignored which are students of color so I will say again as a representative of my community
040my community needs time to process my community needs time to even hear what has been happening that you guys have been moving at warp speed doing my community needs time to hear it so that they can make comment on what type of leader they want to see what type of leader they want and I feel like we've been loud and clear but you're just not listening so we'd like to have an opportunity to have you guys listen again to try to make the right choice again so I hope that whatever comments you make in the in the open session is so that you do a search and you have our voice included thank you thank you next we have Sushin okay hello can you hear me okay yes okay great hey my name is Sue
041Shin um this is my 10th year at East Palo Alto Academy in my ninth year in the district in my time here I've never been as incandescently angry as I was last week when I was notified that Dr Williams would no longer be our superintendent a decision that was made by the board behind closed doors over infuriating the Hasty time frame if you're asking what I am looking for in a superintendent I'm asking you what your plan is to regain our trust and rebuild what you have shattered for our staff our families and our students I Echo the sentiments of many of my fellow teachers as you've already heard many of us are grieving the loss of an inspiring powerful individual who is bringing about a much needed change and hope in our communities particularly
042in school leaderships others are anxious worried and tired of the constant transitions that our district has experienced over the last few years I myself am wondering what possible reason there could be for your actions if you are claiming to represent and work with us and for us to serve our families for our newer board members I wonder what message you're trying to send us by making this decision behind closed doors despite running campaign platforms on the basis of transparency I want to make it abundantly clear that it will be impossible to move forward with you until you take the necessary steps to heal the damage you have caused and that any actions that address anything but a reflection and understanding of your impact will be ineffectual and insulting at best so I ask again before
043you ask us about what we look for in a superintendent what reason do we have to trust you with our hopes and dreams for the future I'd also like to share some of the words of my colleague Alan Eaton you are all elected officials with an expiry in the books who have counter-mannered the trajectory of an entire district for students and faculty alike who are you and whatever choices you made advocating for or helping to feel seen no one I teach and no one I work with or for the district had been making progress in essential work organically and independently over the last seven years with the hiring of Dr Williams we've received a knowledgeable facilitator and guide this work was in response as always to the work we do with students who feel and
044see race and identify an identity differently than prior Generations the work we do is in response to that this new action aims to stop a flow that's already in motion the dissolution of the relationship that Dr Williams or of our relationship with Dr Williams who you let go makes our district less appealing for future hires and less secure for those of us who are here now so we improve equity and instruction across the board whatever happened is a disgrace unless the board can explain how it is not given the lack of transparency from this board and its failure to attend to the pulse of the district itself I can only say that I hope you will account for yourselves and acknowledge that the district at large use your actions as secret deliberations with mistrusts and
045you're having lost Dr Williams as an heir and a discrete disgrace you can counter these sentiments but only with transparency and accountability the basic features that we the basic virtues that we expect from all elected officials I yield my time thank you John de Ferris de Gomez uh yes thank you can you hear me yes thank you so um I apologize in advance for the passion of my speech but um as the time ticked by my patients grew thinner and thinner um I'm first of all shocked three and a half hours if I hang closed doors to make a five minute decision I mean Crystal leech is an obvious choice given the disastrous position that you put the district in um and she has served us well in the past and I'm sure that she
046will service well again um but that it should take three and a half hours to take a to make a five-minute decision is shocking at the last Open Session I reminded the board about procedure that board procedure is not a suggestion it is a firm expectation and that also goes for just basic respect in the conduction of Business by the board the fact that we spent two and a half hours waiting with no word as to what we were waiting for or if you would even come back out of closed session it's just unforgivable especially in light of all that's happened in the past couple of weeks I also want to touch on the topic that so many of my other stakeholders fellow stakeholders have commented on which is what we're looking for in a
047new superintendent um I want to remind you guys about other criteria that I don't hear off mentioned often enough but that also speak directly to so many of our students and that is that guys in being able to identify with your leaders goes beyond the color of their skin we need somebody who like our students so many of our students at least half of our students have known hunger and housing instability they have known a direct Trauma from violence they have suffered personal and professional harm from discrimination in some form they have suffered generational poverty and they unfortunately are forced into a dependency on leaders who are more often than not failing to both act in good faith and keep their word words that aren't forced in their mouths such as our newest trustees who
048made very different presentations of themselves in their campaigns compared to what their actions have been in these first two weeks on duty as members of this board so I just want to remind you guys that this is not a game these decisions affect real people in real ways right and so if this is honestly the best that our board can do then I request humbly that you all consider following Dr Williams uh forced example and consider leaving the district because if this is the only way you can serve our district we are better off without one than with thank you thank you Jenny Ortez thank you for pronouncing my last name correctly good evening I'm uh Jenny Ortez social studies chair at Woodside High School I'm an ethnic studies teacher I have worked with this
049district for 24 years and I was a student at Taft Elementary Kennedy middle and Menlo Atherton High School I am a product of this District I'm here to share a list of questions from my students and colleagues suggestions on how to begin repairing the mistrust felt by many and who I would like to see as a superintendent questions from students why won't the board share reasons why Dr Williams has left the district what can we do to persuade the board to share why Dr Williams left what can we do to have the board bring Dr Williams back Ms Ortez you're always asking us to provide evidence why won't the board do the same this one hurt the most questions from colleagues Dr Williams came and moved our district to have critical conversations around inequities within
050our district racial cultural social when will you state your commitments to support your second governance goal around equity how will the board build Bridges Beyond Atherton Woodside Hills Belmont and San Carlos with so many community members upset about the decision when will The Board address these concerns your decision has left many angry hopeless and upset what is your plan to rebuild Trust I would like to see you create space for people to share their concerns and give them an answer to their questions not via email but time to meet you in person I also ask that you take the time to listen to different stakeholders across the district and what they would like to see in a superintendent recruit stakeholders ensure that you include students from different programs such as newcomers the Academy's Avid and
051Leadership community members and parents from all neighborhoods especially East Palo Alto and North Fair Oaks Educators from across the district administrators certificated and classified who do I want as a superintendent I want Dr Williams back I'd like to read a bit of Trevor Noah's quote which has stayed with me if you truly want to know what to do or how to do it or maybe the best way or the most Equitable way talk to black women because unlike everybody else black women can't afford to [ __ ] around and find out thank you Abby Corman hi I'm glad you're working and thinking about how we need a process for selecting the next superintendent but as you've heard there's so much that's painful about this we're beginning the process for hiring a new superintendent mid-year after pushing out
052the superintendent that we had for reasons that still are not yet clear our district and site leadership seemed surprised last week by your press release so it seems there was little process in the pushing out of our superintendent we feel unheard the Swift removal of the superintendent makes us wonder if you really value the work we've been doing and voicing constant support for staying up until 10 o'clock at night when we have to go in and teach the next day we're worried we're now on our third special closed session in one week we're tired we're literally giving finals this week and celebrating Hanukkah and preparing for Christmas in Kwanzaa we don't trust you we were told the only time we could comment on tonight's agenda was during action item 7.1 it was highlighted and we've
053waited two and a half hours after 6 30 to have our voices heard your community has some basic questions that you have left unanswered while you may be limited in what you can share I think there's more that you could clarify for us that you haven't yet whether that's now or in the near future I believe in order to restore some trust it would be helpful to hear as much as possible about the answers to the following questions I've heard from my colleagues in the community what was your new legal counsel for will you be using this new legal counsel in the future if so in what cases or are you already done with them was there a criminal or civil charge against Dr Williams are we paying off Dr Williams's contract through 2025 are
054we still paying off Dr stretchley's contract are we hiring a firm to help with search again In Sum what has just the first one and a half weeks of this new board cost this District in taxpayer money are we planning on including the EDC and the hiring process when does that begin will Crystal be required to take on two jobs again what's our expected timeline I have about 10 more in another paragraph to share but I see I have five seconds left so I'll follow in an email thank you to the chair we have two two more hands after the okay let's do those two okay next we have Glenda Ortez gallan good evening members of the board when I started and I'm the District Council on special assignment I've been working in this district
055for the past 17 years as a school counselor at Sequoia High School in East Palo Alto Academy my roots run deeper than my tenure as I'm also an M.A Alum and grew up in North Fair Oaks as my sister Jenny Ortez mentioned I we are products of this District I've been quiet the last week struggling with Dr Williams dismissal and had a really hard time putting my feelings into words today I'm here to express how much Dr Williams means to me my colleagues and most importantly our students prior to the hiring of Dr Williams at suhsd did not feel like home for me and many staff members of color I saw an increase in the hiring of white administrators and at the same time bypoc staff and administrators being pushed out the racism and misogyny
056that my black and brown colleagues and I experience was causing mental and physical exhaustion it was making us sick and yet no one complained because we didn't feel it was safe to do so for fear or retaliation or lack of support thus we remain silent finally during the Spring of 2020 I joined my colleagues Taja Henderson Elisa nosedal Amy Hansen and Pablo Aguilera and formed the original EDC almost three years later I've seen progress I was part of the racial Affinity Fellowship in a year and a half Dr Williams began her Legacy by beginning the process of moving us from the oppressive forces of white supremacy culture to True equity for suhsd if you were to ask me what type of leader I want for suhsd my response would be simple Dr darnies Williams Dr
057Williams brought back Humanity to suhsd through her beautiful speeches at graduations College Signing Day acknowledgments of students and staff at board meetings Dr Williams is the first superintendent that publicly acknowledged counselors and invested in our work because she understands the combined need for academic college career and social emotional work she goes out of her way to acknowledge her staff at schools in the district office the increase of bypoc Administrators administrative hirings has felt like a breath of fresh air and gave many hope to pursue leadership because there are leaders that finally look like us she holds the highest of expectations for all students many had shared how they felt seen by Dr Williams I know how they feel I'm not ready to talk about what I want to see a new leader because Dr Williams
058is no longer with us tonight we have heard the word grief repeatedly and if you know about the stages of grief you'll know that there are multiple stages such as denial anger Etc and the final stage is acceptance please understand that many of us are not there yet or aren't even close to it thank you council member Antonio Lopez good evening everybody hope you can hear from the start um I want to First just acknowledge the faculty and the teachers and the counseling administrators tonight for taking time out of finals week to talk about their priorities their Vision their their needs as members of this district and I think and I wish to remind the board that this is day 10 of this iteration um I'm someone who walks the world through a lot of
059faith a lot of trust I say that a lot prior to individually to who you bought when I've met you all individually um and yet I think part of what is emanating from the community right now is this enormous warp speed someone said of one getting rich get you know getting rid of Dr Williams and putting someone in the interim and it has this perception of that was the plan all along um it's certainly not something that I would like to feel or want to believe is true but I think with so much of the community grieving processing maybe someone under even unaware of what's happening I just want to underscore the sense of the impact and the hurt and the loss that folks have and one question that bears in my mind isn't even
060about who's there who's not there I would love to know how this board is going to demonstrate that it is listening that it is tending to the needs that have been so eloquently articulated by faculty by administrator by counselors in other words I would love to see tangible action that demonstrates from this District that you are listening to your constituents listening to the folks that carry out your vision every single day because right now it just feels like we're doing this ceremonial public comment but no actual impact is being made and I want to also emphasize to this board that there are faculty there are Ministry there are folks who've shared with me and I'll just be respectful of their names or Danny who've said that the loss of Dr Williams has really epitomized their
061experience of feeling marginalized in this District of not feeling taken seriously I'm feeling discriminated and so um I I said this in the closed session portion of my comment I'll say it again yes this is the the loss of Dr Williams is is a very um it's something we're still reeling from but it also went beyond Dr Williams it is about who someone who we felt that for decades as members of East Palo Alto North for Oaks Belhaven we had an experience in Sequoia we grew up with sort of the other side of Sequoia District if you will and with her removal however we want to call it it has felt like we're creeping back into that time period and so I I wish the board luck in restoring trust it's only day 10 we
062have the four years to go and we'll certainly do our part to try to shed light thank you thank you this concludes public comments okay thank you Laura yes we are so in this case um the item on the agenda is processed for hiring a superintendent so we can comment about the process for hiring a superintendent um anybody want to start us off um thank you all for our meeting I know it was two and a half hours um for the outside you all have been waiting a long time for us that was in that meeting it wasn't an easy meeting and I can't talk about what was in the meeting but it wasn't an easy meeting um and so for that I'm grateful people say why are you grateful for a challenging meeting is
063because we actually talked um and so I wanted to share that publicly with you all but also for our audience to know that it wasn't an easy meeting um decisions don't take five minutes unfortunately um and so I wanted to thank you all for that um because I'd rather be transparent and really talk than just to make an easy decision I think it's important to wrestle I'm watching Carrie it's important to wrestle we always talk about that um in love um as far as the superintendent and hiring um I think you reported out president Jen didn't you what our process is I can't remember the discussion now is about the process moving forward so the other thing I want to share is I know the community is hurting um and so there is this grief
064process um and we're not going to be a perfect board in dealing with this but we're going to be a conscientious board and a diligent board um and so I'm looking at all you all because it's not really about the audience and so um I heard that commitment from you all and that settles my soul it doesn't mean I'm not grieving it doesn't mean I'm not hurting and hurting because my community is hurting our community is hurting um and so um for that I am grateful even in this process so I just wanted to speak to that okay um I heard some I'm gonna get a few things that I heard that we heard a lot during the public comment but some things that I heard that that resonated um with what I think our
065whole board is committed to moving forward some key words were transparency accountability needing time getting feedback on a process regaining trust and making people feel heard these are hard things to do in a school board setting where we have agendas and meetings and things but um our plan is to schedule a study session sometime the new year to consider all of the alternative methods for how a superintendent search might go to get feedback from the community we haven't discussed the full breadth of exactly how we will get that feedback but to get feedback on a process um that as much as possible helps us achieve as many of those um call them goals as possible again transparency and accountability needing some time so we wanted to schedule something not right now but schedule something a
066little later so people have time to process and to come I assumed January but we didn't we haven't set a date there's no date set yet but we'll be communicating a date once we set one getting feedback on the process we're gaining trust making people feel heard so um probably we're looking at scheduling a study session um sometime in the new year to work on this process and the process is for hiring a new superintendent and if any of my colleagues want to make any comments but um we heard a lot from the community if you want to respond to anything otherwise um I guess I'll see if anybody has anything they want to say I did want to say something um in terms of the other thing I heard a lot about was improved
067communication to the public and this district has the privilege of having a public information officer which I have not had the experience in the past of having that and I I think it makes sense that as we figure out what date that study session is going to be that in parallel we're coming up with a Communications plan of how to make sure the community is aware of what's going on has enough advanced notice um of when that study session is and what the process is going to be because we do want the there to be Community input um ahead of that discussion right um and so I I think before we final or as we figure out like a date and things like that we should also be working towards some sort of communication strategy
068as someone new to the board I'm actually not as familiar with the overall communication strategy but we really should have one and I don't know if that's led by the who that's led by um if it's a subset of the board or if it's the board together um yeah I wonder if we could um I'm glad you said that because when I went to csba one of the things around the two-way communication the round strategy that one of the districts used in um I forgot what community but it's on the peninsula one of the ways they talked about using that strategy was also this after-year board meetings when you report out is that actually similar to what our border supervisors do we send out a blast saying what the actions you know what came out
069of the meeting not necessarily all the minutes and stuff like that because we have to give you some time but just the action steps and that's sent out automatically and I think during this time especially I heard teachers and others folks that you know they're putting kids to bed and they've been waiting that's one way of like communicating back out and I know we we talked about this my first year when we talked about Union negotiations and things that are sort how we can send more information out um when appropriate so it might be something we want to direct our new interim superintendent to be able to send out an email with the talking points from today right excuse me action steps would love to give the some Direction so that we know what the
070next step is for tomorrow yeah and I really appreciate everyone saying on the line um waiting for us to come back into Open Session I think that is some of the uh the board Norms that we need to discuss as well to be respectful of the Public's time is you know we we should be conscientious of how much time we're allocating to closed session is there a way of going back into Open Session and then going back into closed session obviously it depends on the topic um but we we should be really conscientious of people's time so I go back around is there a point where we can give direction to the interim I see a shaking our head but I'm I'm at I'm looking at our president to see if we can send something
071out tomorrow even if it's not a whole letter but to say we had our meeting yesterday these are the three things we talked about these are the action steps or what what is it called like the outcome of those discussions I mean I can certainly talk with our public information officer and with our interim superintendent about communication strategy I I know there is a communication strategy so I don't would want to talk with them about it before I made changes to it yeah I think this part is not on there um but I think even if it's not part of the plan um I I can send it you all to it but our Board of Supervisors just sends out what is it called care did they just say the action steps was this approved
072and not approved yay or nay it's not a it's not the minutes yet the minutes come later but yeah but this would just be a synopsis basically foreign yeah I mean that there's that component and then there's just making sure that when we have upcoming board meetings I mean we already send something automated to people who sign up to get updates on upcoming board meetings um but maybe beyond that because this is a superintendent search process there should be something that's more a narrative right explanatory than just the agenda so I think in particular we do want to have a communication strategy around the study session and the search process that may be different than around other items throughout the year yes the special item which definitely we want to have a a strategy to
073get as many people um to engage in the process as have interest in engaging in the process yeah hey there are no other comments I have a motion to adjourn if there are feel free to make any other comments foreign make a motion to adjourn may carry move to adjourn Shawnee second it all in favor okay meetings adjourned