001recording in progress welcome everybody to our meeting um I'd like to start with information about how to make public comment um you can comment on items not on the agenda during our public comments section and if you're in our live audience we have cards on the table that can be turned into the table and if you're part of our Zoom audience you can raise your Zoom hand you can also comment on items that are on the agenda as well I'm going to start by reading a news release that was just approved it was written with Dr darnice Williams as well as with the board it was a mutual news release and so I'm going to read it to you all now the topic is Dr Denise Williams after leading the high school district through the
002pandemic recovery decides to move on District thanks her for her service Sequoia High School District and superintendent Dr darnice Williams have mutually agreed to part ways today the board announced that the party's entered into an amicable agreement the board and superintendent Williams have reached an arrangement as board members we thank superintendent Williams for her grace dedication and Leadership during this unprecedented time we worked together during labor negotiations with the result of a multi-year contract reaching the long-standing effort of transitioning health benefits that resulted in an ongoing savings to the district reopening of schools and advancing educational outcomes and Equitable access for all students we could not have done it without her continued under superintendent William stewardship Sequoia became a Statewide leader in equity awareness as well as being recognized as an exemplary District acknowledged by
003pivot learning District ready index Dr Williams met difficult issues head on engaging in productive conversations and training about the manifestations of systemic racism in public schools and implicit bias as a board we were proud to stand side by side with superintendent Williams to raise Community awareness stated vice president Richard again School Safety and Security was another focus of Dr Williams Administration the district created and introduced a kova 19 dashboard and an automated informed K-12 incident Reporting System also the district passed measure w a 591.5 million dollar Bond used to improve security systems and remove hazards hazardous materials from District campuses our students must be safe to learn Dr Williams humbly offered I believe we met our many challenges by remaining focused on students and in ensuring the content continent continuity of teaching and learning stated
004Dr Williams I would like to express my most heartfelt appreciation to the staff board and community for supporting our programs services and initiatives during my time in Sequoia as a champion of post-secondary opportunities for all students Dr Williams spearheaded the college promise initiative in partnership with Kenyatta College's president Kim Lopez to provide expanded opportunities for students and families to achieve the goal of Civic instructional and career post-secondary opportunities the collaboration was extended to include Ravenswood City Schools Kenyatta College San Francisco State University and East Bay and Cal State University East Bay Dr Williams was over 28 years of service and public education was hired by the Board of Education in 2021 she earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern California and the masters of arts in educational Administration from California State
005University Dominguez Hills Dr Williams leadership has been recognized at the local Regional and state levels for her focus on disrupting educational inequities and that's the end of the statement it just just went out to the Press um so um next item I guess I forgot call to order roll call and I forgot roll call so we'll go ahead and do roll call now Senator trustee Rodriguez Velazquez here soon interesting here must be Stevenson here trustee Nori here trustee cool here vice president again here president Dubois okay here we have a quorum so we're not now on item four it's the annual um organizational meeting where we will elect the officers for the board and um so the I think that goes after it goes after yeah there will be public comments yeah I think is
006that correct am I doing this right okay okay so we will do the swearing in next um so this is just a ceremonial for those of you that don't watch public meetings all the time um Lynn our new board members are candidates they actually took the oath of office um they took it a second time um before a meeting on Friday so this is the third time we're doing this for the family um so this is more ceremonial um Amy's kids are here and we welcome them and her husband is here and and suffix family is here there they are okay so this is for the family and uh we also have uh cake and we have fruit so um I'm going to swear you guys in okay soft pick first hmm ings [Music] that's
007the first time I've ever done this hi saw hi stop ignoring I stopped ignoring do you solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California against all enemies against all enemies foreign and domestic foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and allegiance to the Constitution the United States and state of California of the United States and the state of California that I take this obligation freely that I take this obligation freely without intimate without any mental reservation without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I
008will well and faithfully and that I will well and Faithfully discharge the duties discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter upon which I'm about to enter and during such time as I people of the office of school tests and at such time as which I hold the office of school board member High School District I guess thank you thank you congratulations foreign and then Amy's husband is going to ceremonially she wear her in I am aye Amy Coop do you solemnly swear you solemnly swear but I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign and domestic against all enemies foreign and domestic but I
009will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States to the Constitution of the United States and the state of California and the state of California and that I take this obligation freely that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will that I will well and Faithfully discharge and that I will well and Faithfully discharge the you use upon which I am about the duties about what the degrees of fund which I am about the duties upon which I am about to enter and during such time that I'm about to enter and during such time as I hold the office um uh Sequoia Union High School District
010Board member but I hold the office of Sequoia Union High School District Board member and that's it right thank you yeah you don't have to have to say something after rotation um yeah and I want to just welcome our two new board members who are awesome um if this is now the first time Sequoia Union High School District has had a majority minority board that looks like our district we are we are thrilled to have you both um I've known Amy for a while I've met her as a delegate for the San Mateo as a delegate for the California school boards Association we've worked together at the San Mateo County School boards Association she gets involved broadly um and Suffolk I've gotten to know you as a student trustee and more recently as a candidate
011so we welcome you both do you guys have anything you would like to say I'd like to say some stuff should I get up there so it's easier whenever you're comfortable yeah I'm very honored to be uh trustee with the Sequoia Union High School District board uh and I really couldn't have gotten here without the community support uh and I really want to call out in particular my family who's here tonight because being a school board member is a huge time commitment and I know that my kids Alex and and Michael they probably don't remember a time that I wasn't a working mother who happened to be a school board member so because I've been a school board member for nine years with Belmont Redwood Shore so when they were itsy-weensy tiny tiny people and
012they're they're growing so big now they actually helped out a little bit with my events and assembling yard signs even join me with some door knocking so I really appreciate that they're getting civically engaged and really kudos to my husband I'm so grateful that he was able to do the swearing-in ceremony today because you know I I can't do anything but that I do without him being the stronghold at home and really holding down the home front and beyond that he's also a great person and we have uh amazing conversations at home he's my thought partner and I have a ton to learn from him through his social work activities and and really he's also been very influential in my my campaign and and is extremely proud of his yard sign placement strategy so uh
013he's very excited about that so why do I care about education so much um and it's really based on my North Star so I really feel that every child can be successful if we can figure out what their strengths are what they're passionate about and find ways to tap into that in order to make learning engaging and relevant to them and to support them in a safe and inclusive environment and really you know children are our future so if we don't do this well our society may be on Shaky Ground and we really need to make sure all children are doing well and my kids will do well when everyone does well um some of you may not know that I grew up in San Francisco and and went to Lowell High School and I
014remember being so excited as a freshman I went there wanting to learn World Civilization and I said finally I'll learn about my roots and then the first day of class the teacher announced to the classroom as he was going over the course outline and said you know time is limited we're not going to have time to cover every chapter in this book and so we're just going to focus on Western Europe and I was so disappointed and with just that one statement on the first day of school I felt like almost 60 percent of our high school was relegated to non-existence and that just was such a pivotal moment I I never forget that because I cared so much that I I read all the chapters on my own about Asia and I even minored
015in East Asian studies when I went to college because I was so upset and angry but it reminds us that you know curriculum has to be inclusive and it has to reflect the students in the classroom so that they find it relevant and can engage with it and when that happens then it builds this sense of belonging and without that sense of belonging it's hard for students to do well in school and also the teacher sets the tone so whether or not the teacher intentionally made to made students feel kind of sidelined or unwelcomed they do set the tone and it's very important that they have the professional development and the space to figure out what curriculum is the right curriculum to focus on so I really look forward to collaborating with all the stakeholders
016in our community to make sure that we're fostering that safe and inclusive learning environment for our children because only then will every child reach their potential and be successful and I know that the there's been a lot of concern in the community about trust and transparency so really my my first priorities as a trustee is not just to onboard and drink from a fire hose and learn everything there is to learn about Sequoia Union High School District but it's really to ensure that we have a strong governance team but because you know we're Role Models just like teachers are role models for our children as a governance team as a school board we're setting the direction and vision of the school district and people are watching us we're role models and we need to work
017together as a cohesive team and build the the trusting relationship and re repair um you know help make sure that the community is feeling good about what we're doing and bringing everyone along um so that's really my focus in the near term is making sure that our governance team is strong and I look forward to getting getting going thank you stop it foreign so like Amy I would also like to thank all my supporters firstly my parents and my brother who without them you know none of this could have ever been happened I actually remember the first time I told my parents I wanted to do this and I think they thought I was joking or something but since then I couldn't have asked for a more supportive family more supportive supporters who you know
018really believed in me when I first told people I wanted to run I thought they'd think I was crazier that you know someone you know like more traditional per School Board candidate should do it but the reason I ran really was because I think I really saw my four years at Ma how crucial those years are and really shaping students lives and that the decisions and stimulus and educational stimulus that these students receive can really be the difference between what makes a student have a successful post-secondary Life After High School and what doesn't and fundamentally I really wanted to run because I had a great experience at Ma and I know that a lot of my friends and peers had a great experience at Ma but I also know that there are a lot of
019students in the district that come out after four years and don't have such a great experience so I really want to make sure that everyone throughout the district no matter what middle school they went to no matter what their socioeconomic situation is life no matter what their family situation is home is can have a really great four years that can allow them to have academically rigorous classes have fun in high school and succeed in no in anything no matter what their post-secondary option of their choice is so I'd like to thank everyone for believing in me especially my supporters and I'm really excited for these next four years so thank you so much thank you we do have some public comments I think so again a reminder that if you have a public comment right
020now it would be on uh the swearing-in of new board members if you have a public comment on other items um you know put your hand down we're gonna have a public comment section uh later on in the agenda so I have a comment card from someone in the audience um Abby Corman hi my name is Abby Corman I'm a teacher at Menlo Atherton I was here on Monday I'm not clear what part of the board agenda the swearing-in was supposed to fill tonight that's not officially what the agenda says this was not listed on today's agenda I thought it was swearing I thought this swearing-in was rushed through during Friday's closed special session 2 p.m meeting I thought that's when the swearing-in actually happened where you were I thought your earlier swearing in was
021how you were able to hire a new lawyer for thousands of taxpayer dollars and review the evaluation that had already been done twice who was the swearing-in for tonight how tasteless to have cake on the day are superintendent has been pushed out by you I agree with you trustee coo you are Role Models I want to know what you think you're modeling for us this past week what is the district vision and goals I thought I knew what our board stood for from our board governance goals that I read and agreed with up until last week but your actions in this one week have me questioning them I wish this board would have made those Visions clear through having their own study sessions earlier and had thought through what their actions not just their words
022showed our community thank you thank you a couple more hands up in the zoom audience Balin Balin did you have a comment on this part of the agenda okay moving on Caroline Coleman hello good evening can you hear me yes yes okay I'll be brief I promise um two two things I just wanted to to share I think it would be really helpful to offer a um a couple of interpreter access uh speakers so that if um our other bipod Community needs to hear these messages that it's in a language that um that is most comfortable to them um as a former parent of McKinley School um my hope is uh that besides the rigor and the toughness of Academia for our students that we focus and emphasize the wellness of the whole student instead
023of rigor um I didn't hear anyone talking about that in really really concerns me because our students are struggling they they are crying they are not coming to school because they're not feeling it and many of them have had to take mental health days many of there's a wait list for a year and a half to get evaluated for mental health services for 504 plans and every student needs mental health and I just I really hope that that's more important than getting an A or getting into a great College because it's just really important I I think about the students and what our students deserve what they deserve every day and that is compassion to be seen to be loved to be embraced even if you don't know them you see them in the hallway
024and they've got their head down you say hey doing today you you look like you're not feeling it can we talk about it oh I gotta go to class you know what let's take care of you first did you eat today would you like some water those simple connections need to be done every day with everyone before you even talk about getting fabulous grades and getting into the greatest College please talk more about mental health it's a crisis and I will not retire until I see this Legacy lived at our district regardless of what's going on thank you and I yield my three seconds thank you Eva Tang thank you president um just wanted to give a warm welcome to trustee Inori and to trustee Koo welcome to the board although you did have a
025very rushed swearing-in on Friday so I'm glad we're taking this time to hold such ceremonies and so that you can eat cake tonight um I just really want to emphasize the words that you've said tonight trustee Koo you ran on transparency and you did address that tonight and I really really hope that we can take you at your word because right now we are not feeling so great about that and trustee Nori and I I know that you understand that there are students that have a different experience than you do and as student trustee your words to support reopening led to negative Health outcomes for my students in East Palo Alto so I will remember that throughout your term either way welcome I hope that you will remember the beginning of this term and how
026we're feeling right now and I hope that you can rebuild the trust that we need from you um or the trust that we need in you because right now we're not feeling it um but welcome I hope that you have a wonderful four years and I'm looking forward to working with you thank you I yield my time thank you um Chris beatley Hagler thank you uh can you hear me yes all right thank you yeah uh yeah I'm Chris B the high garment teacher a constituent uh uh yeah pretty concerned and confused right now um looking at the you know agenda I saw election of officers 4.1 so I'm curious um about that right you know so you know my tax dollars are uh going to this board it's paying for the salary of you
027know a lot of employees here and including myself right so I'm very invested in this um and so you know Miss coo I'm really happy that you mentioned the concern about trust and transparency so I I have a question I'm not sure you know if protocols allow you all to address this but um will you be electing president and vice president today uh can the board speak to how these elections have gone in the past because uh this seems like a very you know tenuous uh uh moment to be doing these elections and so I'm I'm concerned about the the backdrop of these elections and again just curious if those will be taking place tonight or not so hopefully hopefully you all can y'all can speak to that so that's all I have to share
028thank you thank you yeah we will be doing in elections [Music] of the election of officers is on the agenda okay thank you um for the comments and I think we will take just a short break and then come back to the agenda so we will do five minutes ten minutes okay um split in the middle I will do eight minutes in case people some people want to get going okay so we will continue on with our meeting so we are on item four um the annual organizational meeting can't hear me okay right so we are now on item let me make sure we're live again are we live um so we are now on item four of our agenda the annual organization meeting so I uh the first item is item 5.2 nominations are
029open for president of the Board of Trustees I nominate um richkin Rich again thank you Shanice thank you Suffolk um all in favor aye aye um motion passes congratulations rich I guess I turn it over to you now thank you and you can continue all right thank you I am sick it's all yours huh the bottom part two you can have the bottom part too there all right thank you Carrie and thank you for your year of service that just ended now the next item is to nominate a vice president slash Clerk of the Board of Trustees and be my pleasure to nominate Shawnee Stevenson and I second that any discussion all in favor aye aye aye aye congratulations Chinese okay the next is to nominate a representative to the San Mateo County committee on
030School District organization not even sure who the current one is it was me you want to say anything you understand it what it's about um I just went to like two meetings um when they did reorganization of the county I think it has to do with voting and um so that's kind of what I did it wasn't a heavy lift um but they do need representation and did you want to stay on it or do you want to pass it on to someone else it's okay if someone else wants to do it oh okay is there somebody that would like interested in this at all Amy you'll do it yeah to serve as the representative for this to the San Mateo County committee on School District organization I'll second that all in favor hi okay
031next we have the board um actually before we move on from 4.1 I'll just say that um the governance handbook is attached and we'll be referring to this a little later in the agenda but it's attached here in this section um the next item is 4.2 the board committee participations Laura do we have any comment does anybody want to make a comment about board community participations I do not have any comment cards okay can I can I there was an email that was written to us just for people to know the sustainability committee that a student requested a board member to be on there I didn't ask for approval from the whole board but um they have sent an email requesting that a board member sits on the sustainability committee okay great and I we
032have a draft um board committee participation with last year's names on it which I think everyone has in front Amy do you have a copy of it too yep so there is a line for sustainability committee on there which we could um choose to fill should we choose to fill it um I guess I'll ask for discussion first if you guys if you see a processor film this you want to just go from top to bottom or have people select and kind of it was a request from the public from a student that we have someone so I'm not for sure if we need to vote on that that it become a committee of ours or what's the process I think if we have someone interested to serve we can have them serve oh because
033of the resolution it's fine to have it as a committee okay thank you I was just clarifying so I guess first we'll just discuss if any of you see a process for how we feel this we could just have people select their top choices one at a time we could just kind of talk through them all and then cycle back through and fill them yeah I'm hoping any thoughts I mean I'd be interested in understanding you know which committees are truly active and and which ones because before we start assigning it would make sense if there's committees that are not active or not a priority anymore that we remove them from the list but I don't know which ones are active or inactive it's okay we could do then is maybe we'll go through and
034um for those of us are on each committee we can comment about how that committee was in the last year and maybe what our expectations you're we'll go through and talk about each one before we put names on them yes yes okay so just at the top the benefits committee was Chris Thompson and me for the last year we would meet a few maybe once every month or two this year but it was a probably a more heavy year this year because we were switching benefits providers and I I'm going to look over at Crystal and say is it going to be maybe a meeting a quarter going forward or is it going to be more than that do you think the benefits okay and that was is that different than like an HR committee
035or I'm looking at Todd I don't know if we have I know we talk about benefits all the time but wondering if there's an HR committee where we give input around HR issues and things of that sort related to benefits to my understanding we currently have no such committee it was just specific uh because there were some changes going on with the benefits that was a a shared interest between the board the district and the unions that we we had a a group with representation of all those with from members of all those that would meet okay and so the board had representatives for that okay um and there isn't a similar type HR thing currently and I would say that if we felt a need to create a new committee during the year we
036we can we can okay great and we could change who's in it that there's a requirement I guess someone asked a question earlier about reorganization there's a requirement for the board to do a reorganization in a window of time in December that is something like between December 9 and December 23. so there's a requirement that we do have a this reorganization meeting but we can't there's no prohibition from creating a committee if we decide later on correct okay so board policy committee Allen was the lead on this I was the ultimate what was never called so I know Alan since you're here if you want to comment how often you had to do something I actually I don't believe there were any meetings of the policy committee while I was on it so is it
037a requirement to have one as part of our because since we have so many policies that we need to review yes I mean it's been a long-standing uh effort to to be reviewing the policies and and two board members are supposed to be part of that effort and does that policy also include HR or is that acceptable all policies all policies okay thank you okay um the next one is the brssd two by twos Carrie do you want to comment on your frequency your microphone we meet about correct me Ellen if I'm wrong about four or five times a year it's an hour-long meeting okay thank you uh budget committee was Chris and me and we would meet probably four times a year before three or four times a year um to pre-review um reports
038coming to the board about budget um to see that the presentation met what the board was expecting the next is the one we've already filled with Amy digital Wellness committee Kerry I don't believe it's any longer meeting is that correct Alan is that different than is that under Liz Chacon um no it was under uh Jack West of Sequoia so it's no longer meeting is that right yeah I believe uh the work that it was scheduled to do has been completed that Shanice you're on the equity and diversity council is that the one that they sent me it's four times a year I'm tired I'm looking at Taja we're going to be moving our meetings to once a quarter correct for three hours for like retreats to go more in depth versus wide so it
039is um three times four times a year I would be interested in that but I do want to defer to newer board members yeah we'll pick people after oh okay yep sorry I'm so anxious for that that's okay um the the next is the district English learner advisory committee the d-lac Shawnee well um that was a committee that wasn't a committee so I'm looking at Miss Hanson to help me understand is that a committee it is not a committee the d-lac is a committee and so there would usually abort be a board representative who participated in dlac yes but the committee that was once the El committee was while we were updating the English master plan El master plan okay so it's the d-lac committee and how often do the d-lac come once a month
040once a month yep thank you foreign two by two by two and I believe that we met zero times in the last year zero times however I was at csba conference um a week and a half ago and they want to meet so I think my recommendation would be put the two by two and the two by two by two together yes and I'd be the same people for both um for Menlo Park unless there's a reason to split it and I would say the same for Ravenswood did Ravenswood meet at all in the last year we met one time but they're interested in meeting more often they want a separate meeting with the two by two and the two by two by two because you know they want to have more uh School District
041focus and then things that cross over into the community okay great um so I I it can be the same people but I would say there really are two different functions okay sure and I'd say so the uh Redwood City that one when I say we met maybe once a quarter about um between the Redwood City school district and the City of Redwood City uh the Redwood City together is uh collaborative that the district's part of for Suffolk and Amy you may not know about that one so Rapid City together is a coalition formed between I may not get all of the entities but it's the two school districts the city of Redwood City the Sequoia healthcare district the county um Stanford participates with the research center Facebook is a sponsor and it's um it's
042a collaborative it's a collaborative effort it all comes for healthy outcomes for the city as well as our kids it can be a bigger commitment I think they have various sub groups so there's the at a minimum if the people who are on this would go to the um the What's called the leadership committee meetings which are maybe once a quarter about maybe once every four months and then there's uh executive which are one there's a group of electives there and then there's a group of uh the like the city managers in it and then City councils in it the superintendent or designee is in it and school boards are in it so there's in two different groups of leaders and sometimes everyone's together and sometimes it's one group and sometimes it's the other group
043and then they have various um initiatives that you could choose to participate whether or not you were signed up to be part of this if anybody who was interested could participate in the in the various um initiatives I don't care you want to name some of them yeah so I'm on the welcoming Redwood City so it's definitely much more Hands-On where you actually if you attend the subcommittees you leave with stuff to do so like the OAA conference um I I really enjoy it um I put on some events in Redwood City to help do commit community building so things like that also every four or five years Sequoia Union High School District needs to actually lead the meetings themselves um so that's why it's a bigger commitment than some of these other things foreign
044is the SEL task force carry that we should ask is in process right now yes that is actually now called the mtss committee um that chain has sent out invites about it's probably I would say it's going to meet four times this year although some of that depends what's coming through the pipeline for what's been developed through the with counselors and hatchings as far as referrals Etc so that that's what that is but it's now instead of SEL task force the mtss committee and a bigger commitment because the meetings are like four or five hours right no they're not that long anymore no they they're they're down to two hours for the meetings about four times a year yes that was very difficult yes I knew we had taken the feedback on the SEO task
045force and that's why it was dissolved and and recalibrated for mtss work and Dr Chacon uh the wellness committee is that a different committee are you folding that that is different those are that is different two different yeah so I can talk about that when we when we come to the okay gotcha thank you index of sustainability that you mentioned Shanice do you want to say a few words about I'm actually on it oh right yeah is that the one that yeah Ellen and I have been on it I've enjoyed it that's the one that's student-led let me uh once a month for an hour there's also subcommittees um so could be a little bit more work I've enjoyed it because the students are so inspirational but if some of the new newer trustees want
046to do it I can also back away and I I believe the students sent uh something I'm not for sure for the same I just want to make sure because there was a couple of sustainability committee um it was Daisy young do you know her she's a student science instructional coach and our district professional development department yes um I'm looking at the Via Crystal because I was like is this the same I know there was a couple of sustainability committees so I just want to make sure we're on the right sustainability committee yeah this is the one that's we're talking about the one in this District this is what the person says supporting the efforts of a student-run sustainability committee foreign teachers as well okay I just want to make sure because there's a couple
047of sustainability committees this is one the student ran sustainability committee is the one that we want to this is the one we want to be on okay unless Ellen was and I didn't know we weren't on that okay yeah just want to make sure and its expectation is about one hour per month yes but there's also subcommittee work all right Shanice you can just keep going the wellness committee yes so this is also separate from the mtss we have the wellness advisory committee that has not met yet this semester because we just uh got Celeste Luke Rich has now taken Javier's place as our mental health and wellness coordinator and so she is working with Jessica Colvin the contractor from swell schools to develop a plan for that committee to meet but yes it will
048be meeting um it will be meeting as the wellness advisory committee is she a temporary staff Celeste is Javier is on leave of absence okay so she's filling in for him while he's on leave okay thank you then the workforce housing this is the one I kept bringing back every meeting because I was the committee how'd you do there do you have some meetings we met we talked we went to conferences um we talked at the meetings we did a great job thanks Alan for being here Barbara is that in addition to the county meeting um primarily joining in the county meetings is to keep Sequoia in the conversation yes so there's an overall County Workforce housing I was never invited they haven't had any meetings okay I think they've had I don't think they
049have they've had one okay um since then and I don't think we had anybody on that I think it was before just before your time okay so um I would have we should we should um choose board members to ice it also on that committee as staff um and we'll make sure we go when when they start up again so it could be something a lot or a little it's I would say it's a it's a little no specified schedule okay and I guess I'll just ask I think the answer is no but are there any other committees not listed that anybody thinks we should have um we can revisit later but just so I'd ask since you're doing it now yeah so I'm open to discussion on this but I propose that we let
050our new trustees elect if they have a Top Choice um that we let them pick and unless others see a different I agree um and then so I'd like to be on both the Menlo Park ones and so would I um I I'd be interested in being on the brssd Sequoia one as well as the Redwood City two by two by two the three two by two by two or two by two well I guess for Rapid City there's no two by two and two by two by two there's a single Two by Two by Two it's correct because we would see them at the um okay we crossed over at the the triple two and at the Redwood City together because there's also those are two separate things they're totally separate things but um
051there's a lot of all the people on the two by two by two are also on Redwood City together but Road City together includes a lot of other people okay so you want to do the two by two yeah I I don't know that I have the bandwidth to do Redwood City together as a new trustee because I think I want to dedicate time to onboarding okay um barrier seanice do you guys want to have a top one that you want to stay stay on or do I can do the two by two with Amy for Redwood City I don't think I can do Redwood City together I'm happy to stand Redwood City together you're going to stay there I'm happy to please do you still want to join me anybody else agree I guess
052I should ask okay speak up if you guys I think we're just kind of free-falling at this point want to make sure you got your first pick Carrie which ones do you feel strongly about that you'd like to be a part of from the whole list right so anywhere you want to go I feel uh strongest about real estate together I'd love that um but still you and me then I think no one else and um Wellness committee oh so I'm happy to take over for Chris from the budget the budget committee and I think for me I would like to do the policy committee and I would like to continue as Taja will still have me her and Pablo to be on the EDC does that feel comfortable to you okay and the d-lac
053committee since there's no yet elac committee or whatever it was okay carry any others you want to I'm interested in um the equity and diversity but again I like what Shawnee said if that's what the committee wants so Amy or topic are you good at Shanice and Kerry are the EDC yeah that's fine um I'd be interested in the d-lac committee okay so Shanice and Amy so maybe we just start at the top I'm happy to stay on benefits does anyone care to join anybody else care to join us it's okay so me and Sophie I guess I could stay on Belmont River Shores unless somebody else wants it since my area okay and does anybody want to be the backup for board policy I think Alan said it wasn't a very heavy lift last
054year and I was never called as the backup and I'm happy to serve continue serving as backup I have someone else would like to be it's fine okay I'll be back up um I'm happy to stay on budget with sophic now instead of Chris but if someone else wants to be on budget Amy did you want to be on budget um I mean it would be a good way to learn the budget too and deep dive into it you want to do that yeah I think that makes sense you'd be good at budget okay um the next one we've picked email ready for County Community School District organization digital Wellness committee we have struck EDC is Shanice and Kerry dlac has Shanice and Amy the two memo parks are sopic and Shanice uh the ravened
055wood we have a two by two and a triple two which I think we should probably have be the same people unless there's a reason to split it we should have the same people for continuity that's an okay so we're going to merge those two together wait those are already filled or no no Ravenswood we currently no one has I would be interested in that um unless you guys want to be topic even it's fine so the two Ravenswood ones will be um Shanice and Kerry and I wouldn't want to do the Dr Chacon if it feels comfortable to you mtss it's an exciting committee I'm glad you're starting it anybody else um I think so I've been having trouble though I think Liz what is there a regular time for that meeting I think
056I've been having trouble making okay I'll have Shayna send invites to both of you there are times laid out although like I said that may shift um because we're waiting for some work to come forward that can be reviewed by the committee and so we're we're trying to time it out with the work that's being done with hatching results yeah I'd be happy to be on it okay I hope I can make the times okay and if not anything carry sustainability nice we answered that one you brought it up or you just brought it up brought up because it was a request are you interested in our mou Amy savik sustainability committee topic do you think you would be interested yeah I'll be happy to do it did somebody else want to do it or
057should I is it two people or one person for that one two did somebody else want to be on it and I'm looking at the next meeting it is on Tuesday January 17th 7 P.M on Zoom do you want to do it no okay I'll do it then okay Wellness is currently carry anybody else want to do Wellness oh Shanice Are You On Wellness again no I think mtss is enough okay you're already on it Kerry's on it stop picker Amy um if not I can do it if you don't mind because it hasn't met yet so correct if it starts meeting what's the if it starts meeting it I would say maybe four times a year um but it it wasn't the semester because we were still starting off with our our new temporary
058mental health and wellness coordinator um I'd I'd be interested in that committee and Workforce housing committee do you think we should continue having that committee well as a committee of one it wasn't that difficult you want to keep being the committee I can meet with myself I love me I'm happy to do it too so now we got a committee of two okay so um Crystal are buying while I share these notes with you one of the two of you is tracking sir Laura who who's you've got it okay great I believe that concludes our reorganization is there anything else that we need to reorganize [Music] um okay so now we move on to approval of the agenda do we have any comments from the public about the agenda yes we I do have a
059com card from um Greg's grazinski from sdta for I'm sorry this is for the consent I'll wait okay this is just about the agenda itself um does any board member have any comment about the agenda okay do you have a motion to prove the agenda you have a motion to approve the agenda I I gave it and then Amy gave the motion right I gave the emotion sheet the second okay all in favor of approving the agenda all right okay next is the consent agenda do we have any comments about the consent agenda we do have one comma card um from Greg grazinski from scta it's on item 6.4 6.5 and 6.6 6.5 6.6.4 6.5 and 6.6 hello to the the board my name is Greg grazinski I am the bargaining chair of the Sequoia
060District Teachers Association I wanted to um just make a couple comments about item 6.4 6.5 and 6.6 on the consent agenda and um that the all of these items um have to do with uh uh approving new contracts for um uh different School psychologists or marriage and family therapists now the school psychologists are in our bargaining unit and um and I think we are as sdta we are very happy that um the board is seeing fit to um put some resources into assisting our school psychologists we've spent a lot of time trying to give information to the board to let you know about exactly how difficult it is uh the job of the school psychologist and how hard it is for our district to retain School psychologists so we're not opposed to these items per
061se but where I want to bring up the process of this happening that um that these items were put on the board consent agenda without the sdta ever being um without ever Consulting with sdta since um more recently we have received um some information um from Ilia Von lard explaining where this money is going and what it's for but at the time it was placed on the board agenda there was absolutely no clarity about these items and simply put that if I if money is going to be paid to contract out with private companies and be put on the school board we expect as a process in transparency that sdta be informed of why um that this is the process to contract out with private the companies as opposed to Simply hiring within our bargaining
062unit so this is our concern the concern is about process and communication and we hope that in the future that hires like this happen through the regular process of hiring into our bargaining unit thank you am I allowed to ask a clarifying question on a comment since it was on an item on here I just want to make sure I understand what he was saying is that proper I believe if we want to discuss we have to pull them so we can pull so I guess we have no other comments so if you want to talk about it you can pull them and then we can talk about them okay I just have questions for him so anyone like to pull any items from the consent agenda yes I just want to ask him a
063couple more questions for clarification is there one particular one that I would I mean I could do 6.4 6.5 and I think he had questions around 6.6 is that correct you want to pull just one of them to ask your question yeah we could just do one of them which one would you like to pull 6.4 let's do that okay 6.4 is pulled Okay so we're just going to act on the rest of the consent agenda then move back to the ones but you can wait it'll be it should be pretty quick so we act on the consent agenda in one motion that approves everything currently the consent agenda is everything here except for item 6.4 um this is approved by a roll call vote we've already taken comment and pulled one item so this
064time I'd like a motion to approve the consent agenda absent item 6.4 I moved to approve the consent agenda uh not including item 6.4 and I'll second that a roll call vote please it's an interesting Rodriguez Velazquez yes student trustee swaminathan trustee Stevenson yes trustee Nori yes trustee coo yes yes vice president Stevenson yes president again yes okay now we'll move to item 6.4 and we have a question from trustee Stevenson what is your name again I apologize yeah no it's fine Greg grazinski okay Greg I wasn't quite understanding some of the information that you were sharing you were saying you're not up you're not opposing to the actual positions but the process correct and what the process is you're saying that the process should go through stda okay I wasn't quite understanding I apologize
065well as the exclusive bargaining agent of um all of the certificated staff of the district that um when work is going to be contracted out so it's not in our bargaining unit although um School psychologists are in fact in our bargaining unit um it is our belief that yes we should be consulted okay and so I'm looking at Miss Hansen can you help me to understand what the typical process is I know this has to do with special education it sounds like it does so I just I'm trying to understand not necessarily a question as if something's wrong but just yeah yeah I understand it's no problem for us to make sure that we consult every time with sdta about it on this particular issue it's been a revolving door with all of the extra
066psychologists that we have been trying to hire to cover our increased need we've had a Perpetual posting for psychologists we would love to fill them with teachers from or members for our own bargaining unit but point is taken that every time we do it we should run it by sdta first and so we'll make sure that we do so okay and then I think there was a lot and just a small pitch for the possibility of finders fees and signing bonuses for psychologist positions drop the mic [Laughter] um I had a question I lost my train I thought I apologize like give myself a minute um so it typically should go through stda so they can they really want to hire their own psychologists versus Contracting out which makes sense um but at this time
067there's a gap in psychologists currently there's a big gap but Mr grazinski makes an excellent point that there's still members of their bargaining unit and it's no problem for us to consult with them before we actually put this on the consent agendas in the future so in the future but today you need us to I don't whatever Mr grazinski needs I'm hoping he'll approve this going through um just because we are in desperate need of these people well maybe that's not protocol I'm sorry yeah what I understood was a question about process not a suggestion that we not approve and it's the board's decision whether to prove it or not I would love it if sdta had veto power over some of these things but I don't believe we do have that um but um
068um but our position as sdta is not to oppose this particular um item or these three items okay um at this time we understand that it's just a one year there these are one-year contracts and you know that this is maybe you know we're not in disagreement with it it's just the process the way that this is unfolded okay so what I you know just want to make sure that any of our contracts I don't know what the policy is or if we have a policy on this that maybe that's something the new policy committee could develop something related to making sure our stda has input to the contracts before we go out to the community with that said I know we have had an increase in 504 plans and IEPs and we do want
069to service those individuals with high quality and with efficiency so I propose that we will go ahead and approve the contracts 6.4 I'll take that as a motion do we have a second thank you so much but could we have a direction to create a policy around this so that that doesn't happen again I think maybe we should complete get more input from profession I think we should probably discuss with the administration whether we need a policy on it or not before we do that um so any discussion about approval of item 6.4 would you have a motion in a second consent usually okay roll call though please yes Justine Nori yes trustee Co yes uh trustee Dubois yes vice president Stevenson yes president again yes okay the next time motion passes thank you the
070next item seven comments from Sequoia districts Teachers Association sdta would you like to make additional comments foreign so once again I'm Greg rosinski I am a teacher at Woodside High School and I'm also the bargaining chair of the Sequoia District teaching Teachers Association or president Ida Salvatore couldn't be here today and so I wanted to um address an issue I have a letter that our president Ida Salvatore had written an address to the board after this the Spate of meetings so after Monday's meeting and um uh so I want to read the letter and then um I'll let you know what has changed in terms of the board complying with some of our requests um so on behalf of the members of Sequoia District Teachers Association I'm hereby demanding that the board provide a copy
071of the contract signed between the Sequoia Union High School District Board of Trustees and legal counsel Eugene Whitlock and that this agreement be discussed and voted upon in an open session meeting of the board so um the next part of this letter that was dated yesterday so after Monday's meeting but um was that the board had not provided us with a copy of this contract but now as of now we have received a copy of of this documentation um and in the report out of the 12-9 special meeting of closed session the board announced that it had engaged the services of Mr Whitlock a move that had not previously been disclosed as a topic of the closed session uh violation of the brown act president then president Du Bois then announced at the report out
072of the closed session of the 12 12 22 special meeting that the decision to engage Mr Whitlock Services was based upon a vote of four in favor and one opposed the the letter goes on to say the public deserves the right to know the terms of this agreement and who cast the votes in favor this decision should be made in the light of Open Session and not furtively behind closed doors additionally this is not in the original letter that we request and demand that the board disclose any prior relationships on the part of board president then president DuBois and then vice president uh trustee Ginn to Mr Whitlock prior to his hiring um our members in our constituents depend on you to set an example for our students do not let them and us down
073by hiding your actions and refusing to take responsibility for them so we have received a copy of the contract but there is still more that we are requesting right we are demanding right that the board um uh provide the basis of this vote in a public session so that we can know who voted um for this Council right in these events this Whirlwind of events that have happened since the new board has been sworn in thank you okay next are any comments from the American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees afscme is anybody here to make comments from that organization today okay next we have the student trustee comments hey can we all can you all hear me can you all speak up because your voices are kind of quiet can you hear me
074yes we can hear you now okay great um good evening everyone um I'm sorry avantica and I couldn't be there with you today um because I'm in middle college I've got finals about a week early so I'm in the midst of it all right now um so quick update for you today um yesterday we had our third meeting and spent some time with USC who interviewed us on our experiences um of equity and diversity in the district uh we touched a lot on the experiences of our students in active lockdown situations and lack of transparency some students felt from the schools and the district once again we hope to implement more drill and informational efforts to help our students feel safe at school we did not have extra time to discuss Solutions but some of
075our members agreed that there should be some direction that moves Beyond you know Google slide presentations and into active practice although drills kind of vary through each School site's yearly schedule we hope to have some sort of standardized practice um as gun related incidents increase in this district and districts across the country next SAC meeting we will guide our members to create solutions they think could be helpful but also effective and push suhsd to be safety Pioneers however with the news of this week the sac is a little unsure where we stand and wonder how exactly we are supported wonder how we might Define equity in A Storm of inequity last week when Dr Williams looked at me in the eye and told me her heart broke I did not realize the weight of her
076words and her absence today and for the rest of this year will continually break my heart I share my personal comments concerning Equity last week and I do not wish for any patterns of dismissal we've discovered this week to continue um I speak on behalf of avantika and I um and our members were correct in pointing out the lack of transparency so far this year and students feel not only disappointed but insecure and trusting our role models I think all the commenters we have so far for their words that inspire me continually I welcome trustee norian trustee coup to their terms and look forward to our discussions in the future I hope that everyone stays safe healthy and happy during our winter break thank you thank you next is public comment um Laura how many
077cards do we have for public comment we we currently have four cards to save more cards okay and do we have um let's get a show of Zoom hands and let's get a total count of how many total commenters we have and then we'll decide how much time to give to each commenter um we have anybody who's interested in making a public comment about item not on the agenda Jan do you want me to manage the honor I think uh Laura and Rick so anyone who's interested in making public comment about an item not on the agenda please raise your hand now we're going to get a list of all of the names and then we'll decide amount of time for each person and go from there president again do you want to start with
078physical cards first and then and this is one of the number total number of both in person or on Zoom attendees and then we'll go from there so we currently have eight on zoom and then four physical okay can you record those eight names and we'll have those so we have 12 total commenters eight on Zoom if you can keep track of who those eight are and four so that's uh 12 total cards if we do three eight minutes each per our normal packs would be 36 minutes which I'm inclined to give everyone the normal three minutes but I left my colleagues see if you are interested in shortening or per board policy if the total is more than 10 minutes we can reduce and say people get less in the full three minutes but
079we could choose to just extend to 36 minutes keep it three minutes I think I I think it's important to keep that yeah okay I agree I agree okay so we're going to have each person three minutes um Rick and Laura if you could lead us through the public these tall public comments thank you perfect uh our first public comment card is from Tasha foreign good trouble necessary trouble while continuing the fight of my ancestors to eradicate racism and expose white supremacy culture I am Taja Henderson I am a proud product of East Palo Alto I have worked in this district for over 20 years this year due to my own advocacy and Dr Williams Vision I stepped into the role as the equity diversity and inclusion partner last Wednesday I gave a well-received and
080appreciated presentation about what's been going on related to equity efforts and what's to come with the departure of Chris Thompson and Alan Sarver from the board six days ago I am now left wondering what are this board's commitments to equity with the pushing out of Dr Williams but it honestly feels like a termination I've never been so disgusted I've never been so sick to my stomach about the state of our district I knew when she was hired that a Target was put on her back as a black woman in America as a black woman in San Mateo County I have first-hand experiences with the double standards with unrealistic expectations of perfection with the realities of being invisible and replaceable I was naive to think that our district would give her a fair chance to do
081the job that she was hired to do I never thought that her departure would happen in less than two years however this is exactly how white supremacy culture works Harry you commented on the board's appearance of racial and cultural diversity however we all swim in this water called white supremacy culture it permeates all spaces especially public education it impacts us differently however it takes a critical Consciousness to realize how internalized racism manifests in by POC bodies a few weeks ago the board opted not to take the advice of Dr Williams and hire Travis Bristol as your Equity coach the board wanted to wait until the new board was seated well now you're seated and it is clear to me how anti-blackness has influenced your decisions I encourage you to hire an equity coach immediately because
082your actions show that you have a lack of understanding of what Equity especially racial Equity diversity and as well cultural inclusion really mean without having a basic understanding of what those concepts are you are going to inflict more harm that you do not have the human capabilities to repair this board should be recalled and I stand with Dr darnice Williams our next card is Rachel Andres or Rochelle on this uh good evening I would actually like to start uh by noticing noticing that this is the second meeting in a row where there is no live translation service for a board that uh has talked about transparency equity and inclusion you are blocking that access for many of our uh community members as I mentioned in my email to you on Monday I am still trying
083to approach with curiosity and assume positive intentions I noticed that there was nothing on the agenda regarding superintendent Williams this evening and I wondered why when there was such haste to swear in trust youth uh KU and Nori there was not uh similar haste to communicate your positive intentions you parents Guardians students staff or community members that you represent um as a as an employee and a resident of this District I do not feel reassured at this point I noticed a lack of transparency in the board's actions over the last week and I wonder how that aligns with your understanding of how you serve the members of our district community and how it impacts them I am not sure how we hope to attract quality candidates for superintendent or any other positions uh in our
084district now I noticed that the press release read tonight mentioned equity and anti-bias work several times I wonder why I do not see evidence of the collaborative and community-based Leadership that I would expect to see in an organization rooted in anti-racist work we will be bargaining for a new certificated contract in the spring and the events of the last week do not help me as a member of that bargaining unit feel that our negotiations will be in good faith our next speaker will be Alan good evening uh Alan Sarver former board member uh resident of Belmont uh this is the meeting that uh Chris Thompson and I uh were looking forward to coming to um to welcome two new board members to the Sequoia Union High School District board and uh Chris told me he
085would Echo what I said so I better not screw up uh but uh welcome to the board uh we are glad to see a full compliment and a board team ready to take the district forward I wanted to um very much congratulate you and welcome you here but I also wanted to talk about um I have spoken up and Chris Thompson has spoken up at the last couple of meetings uh and I think both of us spoke with more passion and a radiation of anger that has been either of our style over the years and I wanted to uh Begin by apologizing to the board for uh bringing that kind of a tone it is not the way I like to operate I don't think it is the way that helps get messages through and
086uh and move things forward productively um and so all of my interest is in doing everything we can or the best operation of this District or the best outcome of our students the best working environment for our staff and the best service to our community and the board has all of that responsibility that Authority that power and opportunity and so with that I very much wish the board the governance team the district the very best of luck moving forward and I want to continue to offer that I am in the community and I am happy to be tapped on in any way I can be of service with historical information perspective or any any uh anything you would like of me anyway you asked me to help I do recognize that we are entered now
087into a time of healing we are hearing from the community a lot of concern and disrupt distrust clearly the news at the beginning of this evening's meeting is among the most disruptive news and events that District Operations can absorb and so I encourage you to be very engaged with the community very carefully listening very carefully leaning on the advice and great services that staff has to offer and again good luck moving the district forward well our last physical card will be Abby hi this public comment is truly for the public I call on community members teachers students and their families to pay attention right now and for the next two years to these board meetings until we vote again in November elections to hold your elected officials accountable to know that we have the that
088we have the right to vote for these five people and they're meant to guide our district on our behalf you have a right Community to email them at any time at board seq.org to ask them questions give them your feedback and to speak on the record at board meetings anytime as I have modeled frequently your vote actually matters most on local issues like your school board based on this past November's election we have a new board that pushed our first black woman superintendent out in less than one week behind closed doors in a special Friday and then special Monday meeting based on nothing that they will disclose to us at the special closed session board meeting on Monday where this new board reviewed the superintendent's evaluation a hundred people more than usual signed on to
089listen to the board share their thoughts and at least 20 people spoke in public comment at the end of it the board chose to report out nothing after their closed session so what could possibly have warranted this push out what could possibly have warranted the upheaval this now causes to our assistant superintendents our principals our teachers and our school and our students after multiple positive reviews from the previous board and only positive first-hand experiences what could possibly have warranted this urgent pushing out if this is warranted the public deserves to know what happened if the board will not share what they've discussed in closed session or their concerns around our superintendent that led them to review her evaluation again I want the public to assume that this was not warranted I want the public to
090hear that no staff in suhsd was aware or a part of these decisions many of our colleagues are texting us right now shocked alarmed and worried I want the public to listen to the equity diversity and inclusion Partners who tonight and on Monday night are the only ones who've given us a reason for this push out anti-blackness I stand with Taja and Dr darnice Williams and many suhsd community and staff members this is not what any of us need right now public your voice needs to be heard and you need to be paying attention get on the email list to find out when board meetings happen it's the only way many of us even knew these special meetings were happening they aren't on the website we are now moving into our Zoom public comments Ellen
091Jacobson Ellen Jacobson okay next would be Jeremy array foreign hello to hear you okay um thank you for the time and space to speak I'm glad that inclusive learning environments were brought up by our new board member Amy and I'm glad that satvik brought up educational stimulus part of both things is first realizing that before we can challenge students we need to meet them with culturally relevant education that helps them to form a solid identity and be confident in who they are culturally no schools doing enough in that area and a lack of solid identity is what we what I see affecting a student's passion and drive towards education the most and part of an inclusive learning environment is budgeting more for paid roles and Equity beyond the bare minimum inclusive learning environments also means
092retaining staff of color who represent our student body help with their identity and connection to education and also show the bypoc staff in our district a basic level of respect as far as how the board makes decisions the recent actions of the board have created an environment where many staff do not feel welcome safe appreciated or that the board can be trusted and what I find personally disturbing is that the district propped up Dr Williams is the first black email superintendent who was here to do work of equity and Champion that decision and welcomed all the praise for it however they removed her in a secretive way that we saw with many Equity projects pending in the limbo and it was completely dismissive of the feelings of many people in our district particularly those of
093the black community among our staff black females in education already have enough to shoulder so much of a burden and the actions of the board show distinct lack of respect because it leaves people to wonder if she did something wrong and why should that be associated with her if that's not the case and trying to keep an open mind and not attack people maybe there was a good reason and maybe there wasn't but the problem is we still don't know so that's why we need Clarity and transparency by not being transparent the board is contributing to harmful gossip racial traumas and contributing to a hostile work environment without taking corrective action after many people have brought the issue to their attention the communication from our staff and Community as well as the lack of responses
094all being documented and there's now a paper trail so please know that if I told one single black person looking to work in education at this District what happened with our superintendent not a single one would be attracted to working here I would hate to think that maybe that is the goal or the message that's trying to be sent and if it isn't then put some action behind it and I strongly suggest that you issue an apology to the district to the black community to the entire community and provide more explanation for your actions so that you can support your lcap goal of hiring and retaining staff of color yeah next is Jenny Ortiz hi it's Jenny Ortez my name is Jenny Ortez social studies chair at Woodside High School ethnic studies teacher I have
095been with this district for 24 years and I grew up in the north Fair Oaks area I have three questions the first is why Have you shared a long list of accomplishments reasons why Dr Williams should still be with us but no evidence as to why she left the district my second question is if the superintendent left the district under an amicable agreement this would indicate that the board was displeased with her performance in the interest of transparency when will you share your concerns with the public my third question is why was Dr stretchley's leave handled vastly different from Dr Williams this decision has re-traumatized it has angered is it has upset many students Educators parents and community members we will not forget this decision I will leave you with a well-known quote heard around
096the world let them eat cake board members I hope you enjoyed that cake just minutes after you gave the public such devastating news I've been left with a bad taste in my mouth and a loss of Hope with this District I have loved for over 20 years next is Eva Tang good evening board first of all I'd like to Echo Rachel's comments earlier the fact that we have so many Spanish-speaking families yet no translation for tonight or many of our other meetings is just another symptom of the racism that exists in this District barring barring Dr Darius Williams's gender and race you don't lose somebody with her amount of experience and education without there being a toxic and hostile work environment there are questions that the public has that need to be answered and somehow
097some way we are going to find out why Dr darnice Williams really left you can either tell us with transparency or we can find out ourselves anybody worth their weight in teaching understands that when you're not transparent with your students they can smell it on you and we as your staff can smell it on you too we were hoping as bypoc staff that having a bipac administrator would be helpful in getting these diversity and Equity initiatives that we need in order to serve our students done and that somehow are bored and our other administrators would be supportive in these initiatives that would increase positive outcomes for both our bipod students and also our white students because when you have retention of bypoc staff and by POC teachers positive outcomes increase for bypass students and also
098for white students however I'm not so sure that with the abrupt departure of Dr Darius Williams that you will be able to retain staff of color and I'm tired of seeing my bipod colleagues leave year after year and if you can't retain and hire teachers of color and staff of color what does that mean for our bipoc students and when you when you say that you want positive outcomes for all of your students how much do you really mean them because with the departure of Dr Darius Williams it doesn't show me that you think that black lives matter what am I supposed to do when I go into my advisory class tomorrow and I look at my two black female students what hope do you have for them if you can't retain a black female
099superintendent for even more than a year and a half there are questions and we're going to find those next is Mallory Byrne hi can everyone hear me thank you yes just a heads up that um Alan Jacobson um did not receive the unmute uh button um so I'm Mallory Byrne I teach ethnic studies and U.S history at Menlo Atherton and I want to share the Board of Trustees purpose which is posted on the Sequoia Union website quote according to the California school boards Association the role of the school board is to ensure that school districts are responsive to the values beliefs and priorities of their communities boards fulfilled this role by performing five major responsibilities one setting Direction two establishing an effective and efficient structure three providing support four ensuring accountability five providing Community leadership
100as advocates for children the school district and public schools end quote as of right now many staff members that work for this school district do not believe that this new board is fulfilling its Democratic duties that they were voted in to accomplish it feels as though this board has already become an oligarchy conducting incredibly important business behind closed doors that will impact the thousands of people that belong to this District what direction is this board taking our district in is it one of inclusivity and equity I truly hope so but there are many individuals who are frightened to continue working in this District based on the real fears that they have based on the last unprecedented closed session meetings conducted by this school board why did you all let go of Dr Williams right at
101this moment why was a trusted highly valued leader that according to the article that was just released who has made positive and needed changes in this District pushed out of her position there are many members of this community who don't know what is going on who are taking time out of their busy schedules when we should be preparing our students for their final exams indeed you all are steering the vision and direction of this school district but you also have constituents that you should be engaged with and staff members who you should be working with and caring for where are we going please make it clear just like many teachers post their objectives for their lessons every day on their boards it would be a good idea for the board to post the five objectives
102that I stated in the beginning of my message somewhere visible to themselves and reflect on whether or not you all are serving Us in the best possible way that you can I yield my time next is Pablo Aguilera hi can you all hear me we can and Rick if you could let people know when if they ask if we can hear them that'd be great I mean anyone can answer it with quick not of the hand that's fine uh hi I'm Pablo Aguilera and uh as I mentioned before on Monday I am the equity diversity inclusion partner along with Taja who so powerfully and wanted police spoke um I'm also a long time teacher and Community member um and grew up in this area I just like to mention I spent a day working on
103the damages that you've caused I spent the day talking to Consultants speakers that were coming to PD partners and collaborators with District who weren't sure if they actually wanted to continue with us because of the anti-blackness going on a lot of those relationships happen because of Dr Williams so I had to spend a day telling them what happened when they were asking questions and then I'm not necessarily telling them to continue like why would I want to invite them into this space so I just kept it real with them but I don't think you understand the level of damage and pain that you have inflicted and the long lasting effects of that I mean did you listen to the student trustee talking about the effects on students like did you listen and did that like
104you talk about like mental health Wellness you know you care about students but did you listen to what she said your own colleague like she's literally your own colleague and she was talking about that pain like do you care like honestly like does it care enough I mean to answer Jenny's questions like the reasons why is because Dr Williams is black and she's a woman different set of expectations listen to what Tasha said right like the effect of that the pain of the black staff Tanja had to hold space today for black staff across a district because they're not well right they're holding space for black students because they're not well like do you understand the level of pain the level of damage that you have caused like that's something you have to understand but
105the reality is I don't think you care on the same level that you care about other students and don't tell me you do your actions has spoken louder than your words there is no mutual agreement of Separation we're not dumb we all know she was pushed out right and why would she ever want to come back even if he did invite her that is just wrong and I just also wanted to update that you know we thank Chinese for participating in the eec as a board member um but the second seat for that Carrie we're gonna pause on that because we need some healing to occur and we all don't necessarily feel that you are welcome in that space after orchestrating this so we're taking a pause on that thank you next is Carol Ann
106Coleman okay can you hear me okay yes okay uh Caroline Pullman um teacher at Sequoia High School of 20 years a parent of a student that's actually going there right now to Sequoia High School and a mother and uh part of the Affinity groups that um Dr Williams was fundamental in creating um I Echo to the 10th maybe the 20th degree of everything that's been stated and what resonates with me is our student trustees and their voices saying that their hearts are broken I'm still in shock I I I just can't I can't get through this and I was thinking Dr Williams must have done something incredibly devastating to make this um mutually agreed upon um thing to happen what I've noticed traditionally in the past when someone retires or someone moves on there's usually
107some kind of celebration wishing them success um and they probably have cake too and I I just think that Dr Williams should be here I was like so surprised to at least not see her in in the audience she she needs to be here to know that that a lot of people appreciate her and appreciate the the building of bridges that she has done my fear is is that the bridges seem to be uh being shattered or blown up um I want to go back to our students um I I totally understand if anyone um would not want to continue in our in our district but I'm just thinking about the kids and the students and how um we need to have more people thinking of our students and ultimately what example are is being
108represented to our students especially our bipoc students again I I asked don't don't our students deserve the most honest transparency the most compassion so that they can also do better in this world I'm not sure that they're feeling that at this moment I do stand behind Edith Salvage for his letter I I was also very hopeful that there would be some information of the reasons why um Dr Williams was um I'm gonna call it sidelined um because I I think being honest is really next is Ronda can you hear me yes yes thank you for your nod appreciate it good evening my name is Rhonda white and I am a product of the East Palo Alto and a resident I'm also a parent of a student at one of the high schools in your District
109I am concerned by the heinous and unprofessional actions of this board since you began these clandestine meetings in violation of the brown act prior to swearing in the two new board meetings the two new board members on Friday at 2 pm it continues to show the community that you are not for us you are not about our students you are not for Equity you are not for diversity these actions are unethical and illegal and that is noted because in your board agenda for Friday December 2nd at December 9th at two o'clock item number 3.1 in closed session says conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation pursuant to subdivision D2 of section 54956.9 which means prior to coming in this meeting and swearing in the two board members you were well aware some
110of you of what your actions were going to be which was to fire Dr darnice Williams since this board refuses to talk themselves off the ledge and reverse this unwarranted let go release firing whatever y'all want to call it I want to serve this board notice that I my community we are watching you diligently more so than ever because of this lack of transparency lack of distrust and we are waiting until the next campaign comes so we can vote you guys out if a recall is not done sooner the damage you have done is just ridiculous and um and and and just a mountain as you can see I'm at a loss for words and I'm stumbling simply ridiculous utterly embarrassing thank you president again we will go back to Ellen Jacobson because of her
111meeting issues so Ellen Jacobson yay it worked okay hi thank you so much nod your head if you can hear me fantastic thank you um I just want to say thank you for your time I want to thank everybody who's already spoken you've taken some of my words so I don't feel the need to repeat what has been so eloquently and passionately said um there is a lot of hurt in our district right now there's a lot of anger there's a lot of mistrust and there needs to be some healing um there needs to be transparency there are rumors still swirling and that needs to be cleared up as a soon-to-be parent as an Alum as a teacher and as a taxpayer I'm wondering what the board will be doing to help the healing process
112and I can understand right now that there may need to be some space for that healing to even begin but what are you going to do to squash rumors that are flying around what will be the new process to hire a new superintendent I am hoping that our community at large will be invited to the table this is two superintendents that have I don't even know what the word they have not left on their own free will Dr Williams allegedly has according to the newspaper but what will be the process to hire a new superintendent where is the leadership there is absolutely no leadership right now and as as somebody who thrives on structure the structure is breaking um I implore the board to to soothe and and and and be transparent and find a
113way to make amends my colleagues and I we are just all at there there's absolutely no words everybody has spoken what I needed to say it's it's just horrific and if there is something that that that needs to be said to to help us understand why what has happened has happened please let us know so we can begin to heal thank you very much for your time and I appreciate you coming back to me thank you [Music] president again um we had five additional people who raised their hands after we recorded the eight speakers so um it's up to you on how do we randomly approach that it looks like I actually see six more at the moment so now additional six now I think it's important to hear people I do too I think
114it helps with the okay so why don't we take the next six and then we'll call it at that unless people want to go beyond six more of that so yeah it looks like Adrian Perkins is the last one if like we can just give them 30 seconds if there is anyone else that needs to speak please raise your hand and unfortunately after Adrian we should be done and then give our Board address Adrian I saw that you put your hand down do you still want to speak we would give you okay okay so let's take these six more and then that'll be the end of public comment okay our first um speaker will be Jenny bloom Jenny Jenny um okay next we'll have omega good evening Board of Trustees and cabinet I just feel
115compelled to share that I know all of us um as principals I guess I can only speak for myself are looking forward to Direction and Teamwork because the healing that we need to do is profound I have been working with superintendents since 1990 five I have lost count of how many superintendents I've worked for and I do want to publicly state that darnice Williams has coached me in ways that were far superior to anything that I've experienced before her ability to help me problem solve help me get to the answer not by telling me what to do but coaching me in a way that I just was I was in awe of what she did at Dr Chacon was there when it happened and she can tell you all about it so I publicly wanted
116to State what um the loss of leadership will feel for for me personally I also want to urge you to please think very strategically and carefully about the healing now we not only have to heal from the pandemic and black lives matter all the work that came with that and the work that still needs to be done we now have to heal for ourselves as a community and please know that we're here for that because our team is leaning on us and we need your direction because we haven't had any and I I just I have to have faith that we can get everyone through this because it is I I hope you understand the the the the hurt that has come from this on so many levels throughout the community and and for the
117work that we are um going to have to engage in and just please know that we are your team we want to help and you please need to engage us any way that you can because if we are not part of the healing we are left you know I don't know it's just it just seems like a lost opportunity so thank you for for making this time especially because I came in late um but please know that my publicly I'm going to deeply miss Dr Williams thank you next is going to be Danny Bliss Denny next would be Antonio Lopez wow I've been even Trustees for I believe it's the third time this week in a week I've lost count I'd like to come to y'all with more positive disposition I'd like to praise and
118appreciate the work they all do I'd like to come to you all with hope and vigor and appreciation for us coming together for fighting for Equity providing for diversity for fighting for our black latino bipoc students I want to believe the best intentions in you guys I want to believe that you guys are for communities like East Paul to like Belhaven like North frogs like Redwood City as well as Woodside and Atherton and yet this past week in the middle of finals in the middle of teachers trying to teach their students we see the the lack thereof we see us rolling back in history I think back of Miss Rhonda white and our African-American elders and the things they lived through of seeing this District be better of believing that we can come together I
119don't care what color we are and put people in positions to help and to raise the profile and make as Sarver and Thompson said make this District be a leader in the in the state and even the country and you know what I'm left with I'm left with this pernicious gnawing feeling as an EPA kid of as people of color we get to a position we break a glass ceiling we get to a position we can truly truly be stewards of our community and we try to shake things up to really be Equitable to truly be levers of power and levers of influence and really make sure that our kids feel seen and heard and excited right so when Miss Coleman says we come back to the table with our you know I hope we
120can get a new superintendent why would we why would we trust that this District when they surveyed us last time would put someone that reflects our interests when with the resignation of Dr Williams we had that opportunity there hasn't been any reason given to the public so how are we supposed to trust how am I supposed to tell my my residents my the kids who look up to us that this district is one that is gonna fight for you when the person who was doing that di work is gonna leave I feel ashamed I feel disappointed because I look at this board and I look at the promise it has the diversity it has the range of experiences and this is the first impression you're making on our community I want to invite dialogue I
121want to believe that there's better hope for our students and yet this moment doesn't prove that for us we have to heal you have to come together thank you next is Lucas mcgaggin Lucas what name are you saying Lucas Lucas um next is Adrian Perkins hi can you guys hear me yes I just want to say thank you to everyone who spoke tonight and you know like I'm hearing parents I'm hearing the students I'm hearing my staff members and I just want to say at the end of all of this if we believe in doctors Williams work how do we come together back as a community strong because in the end we are the adults our kids need us more than ever we need to Rally up and do what's expected and continue to lead
122the way I want to say this with my chest I feel our district is strong our school sites are strong we have strong leaders so we come together we pick ourselves up and we continue the work that needs to be done for our students because they need us so regardless of how we feel we put that to the side and we come together and we get the work done Sequoia Union East Palo Alto East Menlo Park Redwood City Atherton who's ever on here we come together and we do what's expected and we do it we know how to do we hold our heads up we're one we're united front and I like to say we have a lot of powerful people in our district and our community so after tonight we should leave empowered we
123should stand together we should go into that classroom and we should come out doing what we do together and show our kids this is how you move in the face of adversity so I want to leave here tonight saying we are going to be okay because we are all coming together and that shows everyone of all backgrounds because that is what we stand for so it doesn't have to stop here let's keep going together stronger than ever and we see it so let's lead with our hearts and continue to do the work it does not stop let that fire lead us thank you and we have Jenny Bloom back um Jenny Boom hi can you hear me now yes okay hi Jenny varghese Bloom um member of the Ravenswood City School District um this is
124my fourth time in the last seven days to be speaking in front of this board I've heard a lot about how people are feeling I hear anger I hear disappointment I hear people wanting to move forward I fall in the category of anger and disappointment because as much as we want to move forward and as much as the community that I represent the community of Pacific Islanders the community of black students the community of Latino students we will move forward because we are resilient we are people who do pick ourselves up who are empowered who will move forward but I will say the same thing that I said in the last board meeting I want to hear from every trustee why our first female black superintendent is no longer in this District so I will
125not move forward with people who will not speak to us publicly about what they did and why they did it because what you have shown me by pushing out Dr Williams is that you do not care about equality and inclusivity Dr Williams made strides in that Dr Williams included our district in in things that I hope continue to go forward and happen for our children because if they don't happen through this District we'll figure out a way to make it happen for us but she shook things up and she made things happen she brought in equity she brought that conversation here and all I can think about is the reason she is not here is because she was doing that work so what that tells me is the majority of this board does not want
126to do that work so how can I as a board member who represents communities continue to come to the table and want to pursue healing with people who continue to harm and hurt us and you guys need to answer to that because we will be resilient we will work through this we will be strong but you know what we're tired of being resilient and we are tired of working through this but don't count us out because we will still be here but if you really want healing if you really want to move forward then what I need to hear is I need to hear repentance I need to hear cutting off things that are dead and sucking life out of this District that we cut those things out instead of cutting out the things that
127bring life into this District our community members and our kids will still continue to come to this District because this is the Community School the question is is how will you treat them I do believe the teachers and the people who care about students of color will be there 100 but I don't see that from this board and I am disappointed very disappointed I hope to move forward but you know what I need and you know what we need Rick thank you for um posting a public comment that was all of them because we said we said that was the last six right you got everybody from the second six I I think we said that would be the last that group of six so we're going to stick with that um so in proposed
128we take a short break um and come back at when this clock says 8 30. anybody sees the restroom we get a drink or something and then we'll move on starting at 8 30. okay we're returning from a short break and moving on to information item uh 10.1 new legislation of status of teleconferencing meetings foreign there is a slide deck that goes along with this if we want to put that up thank you Josue so this item is for the new legislation um the status of remote teleconferencing at meetings and specifically board meetings the governor signed assembly Bill 2449 in September of 2022 the purpose of this bill was in part to ensure minimum standards for public participation and notice requirements allowing for greater public participation in teleconference meetings including board meetings and to accomplish
129this objective ab2449 adds a slew of requirements related to access to the meeting notice agendas and cause for remote participation to the existing Brown act requirements distinct from assembly Bill 361 which we were all very familiar with over the last year boards do not have to make any findings including the findings required every 30 days by ab361 related to state of emergency to use this option so in short we can Sunset ab361 and having to decide every 30 days if we want to continue with that and just move forward with the requirements of assembly Bill 2449 which I will cover right now I think trustee Jin was really in favor of that 30 days I I read it all over his face I did look at president Kim when I said that when he was
130trying not to make eye contact um so essentially board members in this case can participate remotely for two reasons either for just cause or to consider and take action on a request from a member to participate remotely in a meeting due to emergency circumstances this goes into a law into this law goes into effect on January 1st 2023 so you all will be able to partake of it so we'll talk a little bit about what is Just Cause so a board member may elect to participate via teleconference for Just Cause just causes anything having to do with child care or caregiving having to do with if anyone has a contagious illness not necessarily coveted but can be coveted can be RSV flu all the other things that we know are going around that prevents them
131from participating in person it can be a need related to anything physical mental disability that may not otherwise be accommodated or if a board member is traveling while on official business of the legislative body or another state or local agency is very specific with that one um which just cause the member unilaterally notifies the other board members at the earliest opportunity possible including at the start of a regular meeting which that it can be if that's the earliest possible notification of the board members need to participate participate remotely for just cause this includes a general description of the circumstances relating to their need to appear remotely at the given meeting so you can say I am out ill I will need to use my just cause um just know that just cause circumstances can be
132unilaterally exercised by a board member it does not require board consent or approval however it's limited to two meetings per calendar year so each board member can use Just cause two times for teleconferencing into a board meeting then there are emergency circumstances this is a physical or Family Medical Emergency preventing a member from attending in person the legislative body so the board again requests a 20-word general description of the circumstances relating to their need to appear remotely at the given meeting the request can be made and acted upon at the beginning of the meeting to which the request applies the prohibition on taking action on items not appearing on a timely posted agenda is suspended for purposes of approving a request so if it comes up last minute the members request the legislative body to
133allow them to participate in a particular meeting remotely due to emergency circumstances and again that comes with the 20-ish word description and this one does require a majority vote of the board at the beginning of the meeting so everyone would need to consent to that particular request that particular board meeting member saying that they're not going to be there due to emergency circumstances neither of the new grounds for remote attendance require that it has to be about covet 19. it could be again family emergencies mental health and wellness it could be the flu it could be traveling from work etc all the all the ones I mentioned earlier and both Provisions require that at least a quorum of the board be physically present in the same room where the public May attend and give comment
134so there still has to be a quorum present for the board meeting because the one teleconferencing end doesn't count as a quorum physically there um and also permits remote public participation including public comment the member who is using just cause or emergency purposes must publicly disclose at the meeting before any action is taken whether any other individuals 18 years of or of age or older are present in the room at the remote location with the member and the general nature of the members relationship with any such example so for example I am here heading home sick with my 18 year old son or would be the way to disclose that and the member must participate through both audio and visual technology and what that means in checking with legal it was having your camera on
135having your you know being able to mute and unmute you to participate and obviously you know uh cameras can go off every once in a while if there's distractions or movement but as votes are being taken as comments are being made to actually have the visual and the camera on um remote participation can't serve as a means for any member of a legislative body to participate in meetings of the board solely by teleconference for a period of more than three consecutive months so essentially 20 of the regular meetings within a calendar year so it can be used but not just as an ongoing teleconferencing into board meetings and any brown act body that wishes to retain the option to allow members to participate must also allow remote public comment which we already do so we
136need that one ab361 remains into effect until January 1st at that point it will sunset and we will move on to ab2449 which is a bigger umbrella of reasons to tell a conference into a board meeting that is the gist of it this is just an information item it is not something that needs to be voted on this will go into effect January 1st and it is the right of all the board to decide if you will need to teleconference in for just cause or emergency reasons okay thank you I know I have some questions but I'll let others go first so um coach onise I'll go last oh I have a question um because all the laws have changed a little bit because of covet and I want to make sure I understand this
137is definitely allow people for emergency or just cause or anything like that and that replaces the other one that we used to do every 30 days yes so that's wonderful um and we don't only have to approve that once correct we don't it's not you don't have to approve it at all it's an assembly Bill saying this is what boards will now do in order to meet Brown act requirements instead of doing ab361 every 30 days so it's it this is just information this is just information yep starting January first year covered by this and can utilize this okay then my other question what if you're it's not a just cause maybe you're on vacation and you still want to call in how does that typically work so it says the only one it gives
138is travel on official business or another state local agency business so according to the the assembly bill being on vacation would not count the second is one of my questions as well because it was before that if you gave notice it was on the agenda and you posted the agenda at the alternate location that you could do it like before before covet before everything right is that rule changed or does that remain that if you know you're going to be gone you give notice before the agenda is posted it's on the agenda at the office or has that gone away I can check in with that and get back to you via by the way I mean the main mistake and should have gotten public comment before going to board member questions um so no
139my mistake um Laura be a public comment yes we do have one comment card from Abby Corman on item 10.1 okay but I'll check back with legal on that last question and get to you foreign thank you I think maybe shanice's question answered mine but I'm still going to say this um please publicly correct me if I'm wrong of after I finish speaking of course but I believe legislation AB uh 2449 is not only for our board members but also the legislation for our community to join in and be a part of board meetings remotely we've seen since the zooming in option for board meetings began that our community has consistently engaged in this method of communication and we've heard from more stakeholders than ever whom this board serves on behalf of and is beholden
140to this engagement of our community is an indication that zooming into board meetings should continue as an option allowing the community to zoom in is working it works because our district serves such a large geographic region and we live in the Bay Area where it can take an hour to go just a few miles because covid's still a thing because we've seen more engagement than ever through Zoom because we all have things going on in our lives outside of board meetings the remote Zoom option must stay I think I'm hearing that legislation ab2449 does not take away the public Zoom option but my public comment is just to urge the board to make sure that this option stays I urge the board to think about what it looks like to keep and maintain this option
141to hear from the community if through any action the board chooses to take this option away it will only cement in the community's mind this board's commitment to secrecy over transparency and again we'll let your actions not your words show us who you are thank you any other comments okay uh Shawnee sorry if you want to have any more questions go ahead I I think um I'm listening to Abby I don't think this prohibit us from doing teleconferencing it actually allows us to do that it actually says that with 2449 if any board member is allowed to tell conference in it's also in the it has to do tell the community needs to be able to make public comments and our board has already been very supportive the former board and the current I didn't
142ask the current members but uh um we were supportive of that just because I know living in these Palo Alto our families typically can't get over here during rush hour so hopefully that's still the case that that I'm glad that's part of this my only thing is the vacation because I do remember I think we had graduations and taking people to college I mean right for those of us who are parents on the board like that flexibility was very helpful okay I will I will check in with County Council on that thank you so much thank you any other questions Amy yeah I just had one clarification um if you are remote um joining the meeting it said you needed to disclose anyone who was 18 and over that's that's only if they're in the
143same room so if you close the door and they're in a different room then you're good in the location where you were publicly working active in this board meeting okay right hmm anybody else have questions okay so I'll just say um Abby Corman I was part of pushing to have this approach and I really like it I heard Shawnee say she wants to keep it exactly like we have it I think being able to have people participate remotely we have 62 people attending remotely right now that it's um very important and it makes a lot easier I know when I was a board candidate being able to watch from home made participation much much much easier um does any board member have any alternate feelings on this because I think we're okay so no no
144changes um and then I was wondering um Dr cicone if you can make if I'm not sure I understand and we can maybe talk offline but what the difference is between an emergency and just cause because it seemed like Health was a just cause but health is also an emergency so I wasn't sure yes the biggest difference is one you can use the emergency as as many times as you want just cause only twice however emergency has to be voted on and agreed by the board that you can use that emergency meeting whereas just cause does not got it okay thank you and it is all in the in this slide but I I will I can forward you um a memo about it as well that may that outlines it all okay so we
145we need to put that in our in our policies or anything like that or is it just it's state law because it's an assembly bill it just is okay right thank you okay the next item is item 10.2 the measure a Citizens Bond oversight committee report foreign good evening I would like to invite John Violet our measure a bond oversight uh committee chair to share with you the last and final report of measure a thank you Crystal and yes I was thinking about this afternoon in this month March the 8th anniversary of the existence of this committee since the bond was passed in June of 2014 and the bond sales began and the committee was formed and had our first meeting in December of 2014. and over that time over those eight years we have
146met at least when we started meeting on a quarterly basis then it was three times a year and as projects slowed down twice and then during covet yeah we we all know that ouch um but I was here in August I presented a report to the board in August at that point in time we were kind of catching up we had two years of audits and fill in on the meetings it was transpired over that in the covert period and this year we met in June and now we have met in December and you have then what is the outcome of that of those meetings is the final three reports that were attachments to your um information memo that was put together by staff the first item in the report is the annual report which
147lists the committee members and on the second page discusses the two meetings and the highlights from the meetings and I think the important thing on that is in both cases where it says unsold measure a and bond Authority Zero so it's done uh the second report was the uh report to the community and the Highlight on the reports of the community is highlighting the major projects that were done over the course using the bond funds that were that were acquired at that time and then the final report is a statement of compliance which is signed by myself as the chair of the committee so it's been all spent under separate cover I believe you have received the audit report that is the final audit report on measure a and with that we consider our work
148done and uh guess what get to start with measure w ow price is large twice as much money plus as much many things to to deal with and I would be remiss without first also thanking it very much the committee members who stuck with this over the the uh the uh eight years uh Jazz Hart Jerry Carlson Lisa Costa Sanders uh Ernesto Jasco and Susie Payton they were all very patient and um working to to that and likewise [Music] uh Enrique Navas who was the former Finance person along with um Matt Zito who was the former project manager and Luis Pacheco who of course now we have Crystal and Jay Newman um their diligence they they were the workhorses behind putting the reports together and helping the committee understand what was going on so with
149that if there's any questions happy to answer them if I can otherwise the committee Bond oversight committee or measure a committee's work is finished thank you John I'll first ask Lord if there's any public comment on this item okay um then I'll ask there's any board member questions or comments Amy no no questions no okay stop it oh I just like to say thank you so much for your work it's really great to have citizen oversight over how we spend our money and I look forward to more work on measure W so thank you so much you're welcome first of all and secondly I think that's one of the things that is good when you go to the public asking them to give their approval is knowing that they that there will be this oversight
150committee but more importantly is having the regular reports so the community could access it and look and have the reassurance foreign okay thank you yes thank you so much I just wanna thank you very eight years of service on a bond oversight committee can I say something I just want to say my my children really benefit from the work that you have done um I know I got kind of choked up knowing that um trustee Sarver his we knew he was going to retire retire from the board at that time we didn't know Chris and I actually got teary-eyed going through Thai saying this is the fruit of your vote and so it there's something about loading um and being able to contribute to the Quality education and as a mom I want to say
151thank you I know I kind of I got a lot on my mind so it's not you um but when I hear students say that they like tide or they like the Performing Arts Center or the new maker space or whatever it is that it it is because of your service foreign it is because of your service is because of our vote but it is because of your service so thank you okay thanks so much the next item is a discussion item that I actually asked to have on here um so this is the protocols for in-person attendance if you all turn to the first page of this agenda the very first page it says how to participate and then it says for in-person attendance and it has the address of the room we're in
152I propose keeping all of that but what follows are rules relating to covid which are no longer rules that we follow and I would propose striking that from future agendas um since no one board member can act alone one and have to see if any board member had any so the words I would propose strike yeah the very front page the words I propose striking are all in-person meetings attendees including District staff members presenters participants and those witching to observe must do the following provide proof of vaccination or negative result of a covid-19 test taken within the previous three days we don't do that anymore so I wonder if we should just say um it's not required but we definitely want to promote safety um just you know to be honest I don't want anybody
153coming in if they have Covey but I can't tell them not to come but I you know we want to make sure that they know that the testing I think some of this we need the testing piece of it I'm not for sure if we're going to continue um I know we can't require masks of course and the physical distancing but I just wonder about we're not asking proof of actual effects I'm sorry vaccination but the testing I'm not for sure if we're going to still offer that might be something we want to have the staff talk about and then get back to us so whether or not we offer testing it is I guess we have that as an option on here yeah yeah have at least have it as an option until we
154know I think the staff need to talk about okay so your proposal would be to wait my proposal would be to strike it but I don't mind if it's if we there's discussion we had on Amy or Slavic do you have opinions about this language on the agenda well I I'm I think we should strike it because honestly a lot of people ask me and I'm kind of surprised where it came from now I'm trying to realize they're like do you need to have where's do you have to bring my vaccination card to come to the board meeting so I think it's causing more confusion among the public so I don't see there any reason to keep it Draco and I can add one thought you're right we don't we're not requiring the six feet
155the the mass or the vaccinations and testing will be available for the remainder of this till at least June 30th so what what we could say as a way of promoting Health if you feel that you are sick or anything like that we recommend that you wear a mask right something like that and that testing is available if you have concerns with your health I think that would help I'm looking at the HR person Todd what do you think about that I'm sorry I got caught you off guard thinking about like some of our staff just saying that some of that the mask is recommended if you're sick or like saying that testing is available if you need it um I don't think we can mandate anyone but I do think we could say recommend
156it considering we got RSV RSV pneumonia flu and covet in the news but we can't require people to do it but I like some type of language that was nice I think it's really be a discussion among the board to decide what we want on our agenda yeah but I'm looking at Todd because I'm wondering if there's anything that we say for staff or anything you don't okay okay so it's so if we could have some type of language of like just recommended basically my interest would be in having what's in here reflect the actual rules whatever they actually are Gary do you have any thoughts on this yeah I was kind of thinking that it should be consistent with whatever the the practice is across the district that different buildings and Facilities so if
157there's a recommendation um we can be consistent with that I feel if if you're having symptoms you shouldn't be coming here at all you think you have symptoms and you wear a mask that doesn't sound right because we tell our students if you're feeling sick you don't come to school right you tell the staff if you're feeling sick you don't you don't go to work so I think we should be consistent with that you know if you're feeling sick stay home participate remotely and if you do come you're welcome to yeah testing is available you're welcome to wear a mask but you don't you know I don't required okay so whatever's consistent I think makes the most sense so I can't I just can't see you because of the screen we have to hope to
158figure this out I know um are you comfortable with I think the board directions have whatever is on the agenda be consistent with District policy yes yes does that work for you everybody yeah so it works for me whatever is consistent with District policy so that it what we're actually doing is what it says on the agenda for people who are going to attend okay I'll craft something and send it to Laura okay thanks so much thank you to the chair we do have one comment card for item 11.1 okay uh it is Abby Carmen hi uh I'm speaking in regards to the wording that was on the agenda which read that your group tonight was talking about the removal of the six feet distancing and masking for the board not the removal of what's
159said on the consent agenda so that's what my comment is about yesterday the San Francisco Chronicle posted an article that says quote in the Bay Area Santa Clara County became the first in the region to slip back into the high tier for which the CDC recommends people wear a high quality mask or respirator in public spaces and counsels those who are high risk to consider avoiding non-essential indoor public activities while I know we all want covid to be done it is not and we are neighbors with Santa Clara County when we talk specifically about wording for audience members at Warden meetings at school we say and all of our signs say we strongly recommend instead of require masking I believe we should do the same it's what I think I just heard you all say
160you also recommend but in regards to you all and what you do it is flu season and cold season many students and staff that I know have been out sick and this is because I believe most of us have become much more relaxed with our mask wearing and it's that time of the year when it's common for community members to gather in large groups for holiday parties and family time during breaks and as trustee named you are all role models please model for our community and our students that we need to be vigilant and safe we still need to wear our masks and I believe you do still need to stay six feet apart or however you are right now it models safety for our community at least through 2022 through our winter breaks and
161through this time of year where we have seen for three years now a pattern of people consistently becoming sick at this time please maintain your high level standards for safety through this time as role models for our community thank you thank you okay the next item is a 12.2 discussion of the board retreat do we have any comment cards about this item I have no common cards okay so I asked to have this item on the agenda so we could all discuss our plans for our Retreat which I believe we currently have one on the calendar for February 1st um one thing we could consider is if we want to have an alternate date but I think I'm inclined to stick with that date and then I have a sort of an idea of how
162that Retreat will run and so I want to have this discussion on this agenda today discuss the board retreat again at our next meeting which is on January 18th and then we'll have the board retreat on February 1st um so in the past every board retreat has been since I've been on the board there's been a facilitator that has led much of the discussion I would say the facilitator has tended to do more than 50 and perhaps more than 80 percent of the talking and I'm interested in us getting to know each other and work together so that my idea for retreat which I want to share and get feedback on is that we will be the facilitator so each person will facilitate an equal portion of the time of the retreat we can discuss
163how long we want the retreat to be that we will be facilitating among ourselves I have two things that I think we should have as the retreat topics one is our governance handbook and everything related they're in and that's an attachment to this agenda overall I mentioned it earlier in the meeting having to do with um you know the role the president how the president serves in the role as president has to do with visiting School sites um those are things that have been of some amount of issue with our Collective body in the past not with you two on it but in the past at the visiting of school sites and and notice periods and the way that the president performs the role of President um so those are two things that I want
164to talk about but then anything else in there so my goal for at the end of the meeting we would have a subcommittee of two who will edit and then we'll adopt a new governance handbook effective after that meeting which hopefully all five of us agree is how we want to operate and then we operate accordingly um you know law would allow us to potentially do more or different things but this would be how we all collectively agreed so governance handbook broadly would be one area and anything within the governance handbook that anybody so between now and if everyone read it see if there's something that you think should be different than it is or what you like how it is and then we'll talk yes through the governance handbook and any issues they're in
165and so maybe in January we might divvy up like who will facilitate what section or what we want to talk about within the governance handbook so that sort of prepare an agenda for the February treat and knowing who's going to facilitate which parts or lead what part of which discussion what the goal being a revised governance handbook and let me and then the second thing I was pitching for the treat is um each of us sharing you know we all have a passion for public education we all have perhaps lists of ideas of things we'd be interested in implementing or trying this I've heard each each of us express different ideas of different things there's more ideas than we could possibly all do you know that they could all be done at the same time
166but it's kind of I think it would be a good discussion help us get to know each other discussing our shared interests in public schools and public education and then at the end the goal would be um to if there's any priorities for us as a governance team that we want to put a special emphasis on for say through the end of the academic year yeah so that was my idea so just because that was my idea overall for the retreat with those two topics we could add topics if you don't like those ideas we could remove them but I just want to kind of share that with my thought and get get thoughts Carrie go ahead this is discussion I do worry I mean I like your idea but I worry about not having
167a facilitator and you know taking the feedback from the community and continuing the work so what I wanted to do this year um as I I mean one topic is this idea of allyship right um really digging deep into that um and as part of the healing and modeling um I think that's something we can't teach ourselves right um and we as as part of every action we do I think this year we have to model healing and we have to model learning um and I know there's a lot of pain right now in the community um and you know people are mad at us [Music] we can't speak completely you know and so and actions speak louder the words we've been told that several times um so I I don't know if everybody agrees
168but I think our retreats weren't as effective as they could have been this last year from just speaking for myself right I don't know if they work for everybody um but I think that there's stuff we can't teach ourselves and so every I think every every opportunity we have we have to show that we're going to heal and that we're going to continue to learn yeah I I agree with you first of all rich I like the idea of all of taking a portion I do think it needs to be time bound that we get through the handbook quickly I'm just saying because it takes us a long time to have certain conversation and then we don't finish um so if we could time bound it and do pre-work and send it to each other
169that way we have a timely conversation that would be helpful and I would be willing to work on the handbook with somebody so I'll just put that out there for myself this other piece that you know I have I'm going to say today was tough for me so I'll lay my saved my comments for later um and it's been tough to sit here um to be in this place two times um so what I am thinking is that we do need some level of facility even if the person is just sitting in the room to remind us of our why as a governance board um I personally think there are there's this huge piece of healing around racial Justice racial trauma that people have been talking about and I don't think it's just what this
170board has done I think it's the things that this district has done over the years that has culminated into what people are talking about right now the only presenter that I think resonated with a lot of us was Travis Bristol I'm just gonna put that name out there I think he just met us where we were maybe not everybody else but I've been through a lot of di trainees and I actually thought we had a good year I just think some of us was really ready to engage and some of us were like hey this is new you know there's all different places in which we come from when we have to start dealing with Equity because is looking at the ugliness it's looking at the ugliness and leaning in saying it's okay to be
171ugly and I'm going to lean in anyway and so I think we're at different places of how we deal with that ugliness um and and the authenticity of being able to look at ourselves in that process so that we can transform the system not tear it up and blow it up but to transform the system so it works for everybody so when I think about that I am thinking about this whole piece of healing allyship I'm not for sure Carrie I have to kind of think about that it's too quick for me but I do think there is some type of healing that needs to happen and I know it sounds a little hokey it doesn't feel like it's business but if we don't deal with the healing just like we didn't deal with covet
172really nobody wanted to really talk about it and what it did to us and the four big things that happened during those times we just moved on and I don't think we really ever healed from that based off what I heard from parents saying please don't talk about that again my stomach is turning because you're talking about Wednesdays like all these kinds of things that means we needed to talk about the trauma um so I am with Carrie in this way that we do need the healing what that looks like I don't know Travis is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the handbook I think of Angelina because there were times she just was was say stuff that I was like oh I didn't think about that oh I you
173know we walked away I know I took notes and was like I'm gonna bring it up when we do our handbook right whether or not we'll do it that's a different story but there is this piece of healing that needs to start first we can't get to business unless we deal with the elephant in the room and we may not be able to talk about in closed session which is a shame right it is a shame as a community person I'm like right but there are things that we cannot talk about and we still need to start stand flat-footed and look our people in the community and say we're going to do the healing and I think it's extremely important to have a half day that's just about that because I don't think the handbook
174will take that long to be honest but I do believe this healing will it's going to take us a while I like how you said that I mean because we can't talk about everything um and people want us to talk about it I mean I think again showing the action that's what you're saying right showing the action and but not being humble just for them but that also yeah the action for us I'm hurt right I'm sad I'm grieving um and you know I'm not looking at the audience I'm looking at us I'm sitting here crying because I'm hurt is grief his grief so I thank you for bringing up the allyship I'm not quite sure what you mean by that we can talk about that offline so I'm not disagreeing I'm just saying healing
175name your topic do you want to share anything uh I think I really like Rich's idea um I I really you know do agree I think it'd be better for the board to do a lot of the talking but you know I kind of do see the also the thing in having a facilitator to have some of those discussions so you know I think we should talk to a couple facilitators first and figure out which one's the best fit for the board but yeah I'm I'm fine with whatever you guys think is best but I am excited you know to maybe get to know each other more through present presenting some of our own ideas for things that could improve in this District yeah I mean I I do want to understand like from a
176past facilitator standpoint um if they were doing too much of the talking and us not enough you know how much guidance or or framework that we align on ahead of time right so if we are searching for a facilitator we should say hey we want the majority of the time the board is doing the talking and you're just asking the questions and taking the notes because sometimes it's hard to speak and try and capture notes at the same time and if the facilitator could actually be doing some of that and helping us capture thoughts or provide some structure on how to capture our thoughts my interest as a new board member is really getting a sense of the team of uh coming out of that Retreat we should feel like we're more connected as a
177team and and you can't really do that just through a governance handbook review and and you can't I mean you get a little sense of what people's interests are through putting up our ideas for education but the way you really connect with people is through emotions and I think having a facilitator go through that healing process um I mean I'm I'm in a like emotional Whirlwind right now but you know that's how people connect us through emotions and we need to share what's really on our mind and connect together as people and then we'll be stronger as a team so that's my interest Amy remember you talked it really stuck with me when you talked about reflective listening you know so you're not trying to talk over and you're really listening and then responding with
178fillings did you have a person that you said you have you did some training in that area do you know of a facility I mean if that's what others would have interest in yeah I don't know if that's the necessarily the right thing for for healing that's that's more how to communicate with people without um going over the net right and and that way there's more respectful communication I don't know that that's that's not really the same thing as facilitating a healing process so we really need to do that research on on who the right facilitator could be I think that's why I was trying to I also think for me we have three people who've been here before and to be honest if I'm going to be frank and and transparent um when Rich
179and I came in Rich doesn't have to agree of course um it it was a different board and there was um disagreements right and different perspectives and it was hard I don't know about you rich it's my first time being on a board it was hard being on the board not in a difficult way like not liking people that kind of stuff but just getting on the same page um and I think a lot of that had to do with processing what had happened before and we and that's hard to do in public so I wouldn't want to hash out all of that but I do think we can talk about the underbelly the feeling the things that are when you have an iceberg there's things that are under the iceberg anger frustration um communication
180irritants celebrations those kinds of things that are under the iceberg under that level that no one else can see and I'm not trying to have a big therapy session but I'm just saying just to name some of those things would be helpful um I do think based off what I'm hearing today from our audience of how they see us right it's not necessarily how I see myself but how they see us which is a strong indication of a broken trust that we need to talk about some level of healing racial healing in our community um because they're they're broken they're broken because of us right and I own that um and I don't know how to get to that I I know I need to talk to you all privately some ideas that I have
181had that we could talk about some of this stuff in a different way um I have to think through it a little bit more maybe I can make a suggestion that maybe if the rest of the board agrees that the two of us be a subcommittee to work on the retreat and bring back our ideas do you like working with me don't you it's just because I'm vice president isn't it no seriously I look forward to working with you on this does that work for the rest of you we come up with some ideas and present them yes I trust you guys to come up with something that we will all love maybe we align on desired outcomes from our yes I love that a line on desired outcomes and then you guys can come
182up with ideas and and things like that yeah we'll find a way to get do we want to do the desire outcomes now that way when we meet as two people and then can I define my allyship idea to you if you have time in the next week or so so I love this idea of connecting with each other because we say the same thing for our students our students don't when we ask the children are you well actually are they connected do they have relationships right so maybe that we walk out of this um better understanding each other's style for appreciation and for like um working out you know someone help me with us with a smart goal that I mean we're adding people in IEP y'all know the smart goals I'm looking at
183buddy Hanson um so what's a smart goal that we can have I like the connection piece well let's find a way to get feedback um that doesn't violate the brand act and then we'll work on some ideas for okay and bring it back at the January meeting or or we may book something depending on okay cool beings okay yeah and I think um like the desired outcome of connectedness I don't know if we want to even take and take that a step further and identify like one action we could do to start the healing process with the community maybe that's like a goal we could have so we we heal amongst ourselves build that connection and then what's one thing we could do to start the process with the community and maybe that's that's the
184desired outcome from our retreat okay anybody else we're good okay so the next item is the uh our only action of the night approval of the first interim financial report for fiscal year 2022 2023. woohoo [Music] energize in advance to trustee Nori and trustee coo uh I'm not very energetic right now so um hopefully the numbers won't be boring like you know people usually say but they are good evening uh tonight I am here to present to you first interim for the 22-23 school year um in accordance with Ed code uh school districts are required to prepare and submit several Financial interim reports and financial reports uh throughout each fiscal year uh to the governing body so along with the two interim Financial reports we also uh have a lot of different reports that cross
185over uh fiscal years okay let's go so this is a timeline um that I often uh share while I'm presenting so you can kind of see how we are operating in multiple fiscal years at one time um the only time we're actually operating in one Singleton year is usually during Second interim So currently we are in December I am presenting the first interim budget uh the audit report was just complete um and we are working through that draft and the Auditors will be presenting that to the board in January so there are three certifications for interim reports there's a positive certification which indicates that the district will be able to meet our financial obligations uh for the current fiscal year and then the two of subsequent years and there is a qualified certification which indicates
186that we will meet it for the current year um but maybe not in one of the two out years and then a negative certification indicates that we will not be able to meet our financial obligations in any of the three years so I am pleased to offer a positive certification for the 22-23 fiscal year for first interim so I wanted um to kind of bring it back to a high level these reports can often be long if you look at the sax reports there are often several hundred pages so I wanted to bring in a first interim at a glance so it kind of lifts the large cost centers and highlights um where we are at with our projections uh for the current year so our projection projected revenues overall are about 233 million um
187projected expenses 245 so obviously when we look at those two items we do see some deficit we'll talk about that a little bit later uh fund balance is projected at just slightly over 30 million um our projected revenues from lcff sources which are our property taxes are uh just above 180 million uh Federal 11 projected revenues from state and local which is kind of like a cash-all is about 41 and then we have some expenses down here salaries and benefits for both classified certificated and management is roughly 188 million 54 million for all other expenses and then some transfers out we'll also talk about that is at 3.2 million so when we look at our overall revenues by Source uh we I I have um offered here so we can have a comparison the 2122
188actuals that were presented to the board in September what we project uh to be our revenues in 2223 there's a slight typo on here for that first out year it should be 23.24 um and then 24.25. so with revenues we usually do five percent over prior year we find that's conservative enough um we have been uh steadily unfortunately getting closer to coming in at that five percent um over prior year for property taxes and that five percent is only on secured so there's several different types of property taxes that we receive revenue on but the five percent that we always talk about with the tracker is related um specifically to the secured amount so you can see um from this chart that the majority of our Revenue comes from property taxes so another way to
189look at it um if you're a visual person again 77 percent of our overall Revenue in the general fund which is fun oh one uh 77 is uh our property taxes so when we talk about property taxes it's roughly 237 assessments each year again as I stated at budget adoption uh we budget five percent um over prior year and then we receive our first notification um usually October November which we're able to capture in first interim and so right now our current letter we're projected to be at 5.26 percent um of that five percent so we're slightly higher I do expect it to grow we do not get that final notification until June so we watch a Tracker throughout the year um chances are we'll probably finish slightly above six uh we did have a
190higher secured property tax uh obviously it came in higher than that five percent at first interim and then our RDA Revenue represents about a 10 million dollar increase um from budget adoption um I know we think of budget adoption as June but um although that's when budget adoption occurs the actual numbers happen in April and May so it's actually a significant time period from April and May to December when we are presenting on first in one so when we look at other revenues of federal revenue sources increased about 2.5 million due to additional carryover being able to be booked from coveted relief funds um learning losses we've mentioned before and the remaining amount recognizes an addition in idea funds and title III and title IV carryover since we are talking about the titles I did
191get notification a few weeks ago of a decrease in our funding for Title One roughly three hundred thousand dollars we are still investigating why we have that it's it's very easy to claim that that number is because of universal feeding because the formulas are tied to free and reduced applications but I'm not seeing that Trend carry over to other districts and so we're making sure that there's not an error in our funding calculations for other state revenue sources we have again an increase of 11.8 this is two significant revisions to the governor's proposed budget um 5.3 million and 3.16 million for the Arts and music and learning recovery block grant carryover of CTE and other one-time funding uh represent the remaining 3 million in the multi-year projection the passage of prop 28 that just happened
192in November is not reflected in our out years at this time other or the transportation money is not in there we have to provide the board of Transportation uh plan and then we'll we'll try to add that in at second interim if timing permits those are for the out years for local Revenue sources this is our leases and rentals um we had an adopt a budget of 2.3 million we had site carryover first dinner and that's when those are those tend to be booked um and a donation from some of our partners again Kathy Quan thank you so much County San Mateo and a new Grant to support our middle college program represent an increase of 741 thousand uh contributions to restricted programs uh that's our special education funds have increased by approximately 2.1 million
193uh from adopted budget and increase uh that is due to special education settlements NPS placements non-public school placements represent the majority of that increase so when we look at expenses um we can see that the majority of our expenses occur in salaries and benefits so that's going to be your blue and your orange account for most of our benefits I'm sorry our expenses and then we have our supplies and then other services and other operating costs again if you look at the Circle you would look at the light blue the orange and the gray for um total amount of expenses related to salaries and health and benefits so uh certificated salaries increased 3.9 million from adopted budget this increase represents various positions funded really with one-time dollars to address the learning loss so these are
194all the plans that you approved last year with these student-facing positions hiring them getting them in place that's why we start to see those increases it's important to also remember that when when I'm presenting the budget there are certain uh regulations that I have to present around right so some funds require that you book a budget with the an expense with the revenue so you'll see in the multi-year projection as in the out years it looks like oh well what are you doing with all these positions you're spending less and so when we get closer to budget season those would roll over into the out years uh classified salaries have increased 1.5 million from adopted budget substitute costs are in there and then again we are increasing the supports and resources for summer school employee
195benefits increase 4.1 million this increase um is correlated to the additional Staffing benefits um aren't just health and benefits right that's our also our stirs and purrs so that's a percentage of salaries is how that so if your salaries go up your benefits are going to go up books and supplies increased just about 9 million again this is the art to music Grant so we we see that grant money come in and one of the requirements so we don't get what's called a technical review check is we have to insert an expense even though we don't have currently a plan to spend those dollars at this time um so we'll be figuring that out close to Second interim as well uh carryover funds um were calculated and they're also inserted in the report services and
196other operating expenditures are up just under 8 million again this increases due to uh the learning recovery grant carryover funding and one other one-time related expenses a capital outlay is up about 78 000. this was some additional equipment that was purchased for the Woodside engineering program we will evaluate um the uh Capital outlay purchases its second interim oftentimes they could be moved to other funds and so that would occur during estimated actuals that you're in so we do have other funds outside of the general fund fund a weight um is the Student Activity special Revenue fund um this is a fairly new fund it's required for us to report it's just ending balances fundo9 is our charter school so that's epaa they do sit uh within our funds we do monitor uh their finances and
197their revenues and expenditures are projected at just just over seven million dollars I would like to note at this time there is a I would call a fairly significant transfer into Fondo 9 and so the business staff will be working with EPA staff to make sure that we are spending down Federal monies and so that we can reduce that contribution from the general fund fund 11 is Adult Ed pretty healthy revenues are projected at 2.35 million expenditures just under three they'll be using their beginning fund balance for anything that's different uh fund 13 is our food service fund um they did have a prior year carryover they are currently projected to have a um contribution as well but we did finish on it at actuals in for the first time for the first time in
198the green and not in the red and food service so I'm excited to see how those numbers change throughout the year uh as a district we do still operate fund 14 which is our deferred maintenance fund revenues are predicted at 840 000 and expenditures just under 3 million again that fund has a healthy reserve and so we spend that down you're going to see a little bit of a Slowdown to this fun as we get going with measure W in the future fund 21 zero balance that's what Mr Violet had presented on earlier this is where the activity for measure W will take place fun25 currently revenue is projected at 2.55 this is uh developer fees um so when we get that money from meta it will go um into fund 25. uh fund 35
199is our state matching funds that's where the deposits from all the qualifiers for some of our construction projects for the state have gone um currently revenue is projected at 376 000 just really from interest um and expenditures at 2.14 this is primarily the fund that I'm using to pay for the air conditioning currently and uh I did just receive notification that we received uh partial funding for the Woodside solar project and that our tide application was also approved which is fabulous so I don't have the amounts of what we may be getting as a reimbursement but that is also good news for us bun 40 is a Special Reserve capital outlay Revenue again is generated from interest expenses at 2 million healthy Reserve we use this for like copiers forklifts carts those types of smaller
200Capital purchases fund 71 is our pastor account for retiree benefits and then if we go down uh to the multi-year projection also known as the myp um you can see the total total revenues and the expenses it's important to remember that you're going to see deficit spending that's numbers um that are negative um throughout there you're going to see that any time your revenues um are are less than your expenses so and it's revenues that are that come in that year so unfortunately it doesn't take into account carryover so your carryover is actually sitting um at that ending fund balance so um that's where we're going to see that but for current year for the new board members um this this board really focuses on trying to meet at least an eight percent Reserve uh
201right now projected for 22.23 it's 8.66 for 23.24 it's nine and a half and for 24.25 um it's just shy it's 11.49 so just shy of 11 and a half percent and then we can also see the difference um you know I really like to since I've been at the district um I really try to focus on how tight our projections are it can be a little difficult to do that on the revenue side especially in a basic Aid District um and we just kind of watch for Trends we know where our hot spots are in special ed and then also in some of our transfers out that was the the food service and also that contribution to fundonide now what is not shown in here but it's shown on the sax form and it
202was also shown um at a year in close is I have six million dollars set away which Edith made sure to talk to me about she didn't want me to forget about that 6 million um so that 6 million is because we have added a lot of positions with one-time funding we know we are not getting rid of those positions when we no longer have one-time money these are student-facing positions these are mental health facing positions And We are continuing to add resources um for our students now right now there seems to be an ongoing one-time money right but so we're trying to to see like how quickly that one-time money is going to end um you know we we saw so much one-time money for several years throughout the state and then it went
203away and we said it wasn't coming back and now it's coming back and so we just need to be mindful um the general fund currently uh if we did not set aside money would not be able to support the positions that we have added if we do not identify Revenue so that is important to remember you will hear more about that in the spring and then when we as you're turning the pages where were you looking at it was flipping while you were talking oh sorry well I was just I was just looking right here I'm sorry I was like where is she scrolling while I was talking okay yes sorry so I'm like where is she talking you said positions and then you yeah so I was talking in general oh um I'm sorry
204I was talking in general I don't I was talking about that six million that I don't have identified on here I was looking at Greg because I know it's going to come up at the table um so I was multitasking okay um you slow that down where's the Six Million thank you okay and so then when we look at enrollment I must you know like projections sometimes it's like throwing a Dart in the air but um you know I'm pretty proud of our uh enrollment projections I must say so thank you staff um who who gives me these numbers um so you can see uh where we were at at budget adoption uh total um 88.87 and at first interim we're at 89.06 so we're pretty close um but you can see the differences uh
205Mendel Atherton has has dropped in Carlmont um has dropped slightly I know it doesn't always feel that way I know Carl want is bursting at the same uh Woodside has a little bit of room and um and so we I don't I still don't see this drastic uh Mass Exodus that we've been hearing since covid just not seeing that quite yet uh we still see pretty stable numbers uh through Karma through the next few years we do know that Redwood City um Elementary District is declining so that will continue to affect um Sequoia uh Woodside will probably it could potentially get a tad bit smaller but it should stay status quo from there and so we're still working on a deeper dive into our enrollment projections so what's next uh in January the governor will
206release um kind of like an intro uh budget for next year we were Bonnie and staff is working on the local control accountability plans um again I remind you that those the plans that you approve whether that be the effectiveness Grant um the um all of the other coven monies the local control accountability plans those are the plans that drive the budget so when I present the numbers to you it's numbers it's regulatory but you have approved these expenses through the plans um through your goals and so that is uh why it's ever most important for us for staff to have clear idea of what the goals are so we can develop initiatives um and create a budget around to continue to move that needle so any questions sorry could you repeat what you were
207talking about I think after the six million dollars you're talking about how our current budget without extra one-time funds wouldn't support the extra stop we've hired is that what I understood [Music] and those one-time funds aren't going to continue it's hard to say so it's it's it is it is not a good business practice to create ongoing expenses with one-time dollars however these one-time dollars seem to be ongoing for right now because of covid um this art blocks Grant um we're still trying to understand that a little bit more because it talks about arts and it talks about art but yet you can use it on anything but then there's a maintenance of effort that a certain percentage of it has to be used within the Arts programs um and so there is some still
208some flexibility with that and what I'm hearing is that we will still be receiving one-time money at least for a couple more years the amount I'm unsure of where is it on the line item I'm sure you flip through it it's a little late tonight um and you flip so fast I could not figure out the line where it was the one-time funding or was it just a comment I was still confused um so there is so there is one time there is one-time money that is loaded into these numbers here all the numbers yeah it's important so what will happen as we get closer to the negotiation season and I'm going to try to do it um Christine gong who I'm so excited about she is our new controller she starts tomorrow um so
209I am extremely excited about that um when she gets settled her her laundry list of things to do are already growing we need to make sure that we're identifying any one-time funding that's sitting in that ending fund balance and pull that out because it's going to inflate the reserves [Music] um looks like that's your question Amy no and she had proactively answered the question about the 6 million so my ears kind of perked up because I was gonna wonder how are we paying for the one-time funded positions looks like you've answered all of our questions thank you very much are there any public comment on this item okay thank you so I need a motion to approve the first in financial report for fiscal year 2022-2023 so moved second all in favor aye yeah I
210think okay we have 18 minutes until 10 o'clock um we now have Board of Trustees comments committee report and agenda setting what's okay Carrie I see you go ahead Gary he's been going that way all night um first of all I wanted to let you know um I sort of started a tradition several years ago because Redwood didn't have a PTA and they didn't have really A holiday event and so um I started like a cookie thing in the morning it's too early for cookies I think it's 7 30 in the morning on the 21st um and I'll double check the time but I would love all trustees to maybe stop by it's really fun to um what's the name pardon me is that right the 21st is that the what's the last day of
211school the 21st that would be the yeah so it's the 21st I think it's really early like 7 30 but so I can kind of get the time to you guys but I would love for you to come um and then the other thing I wanted to say I know there's no words you know because people are hurt people are angry and people are confused um I have what we said earlier we're not going to be able to answer all questions um and uh but I have offered to meet with people who are angry and I know that they probably need more time um so I think I want to make some comments to my colleagues rather than the community because I know people are are upset and I am committed to Healing but to
212my colleagues I want to say something to you um although we look bad to many people I'm truly excited about this group up here um what I've seen with this group of people um I have seen in the last week and I know that they have lost sleep some have lost weight and some have lost friends what I've seen I've seen anger that's turned to compassion and forgiveness I've seen grief and tears I've seen courage like I've never seen before I've seen kindness I've seen ideas on moving forward I've seen wisdom Beyond years I'm not bragging about me at all I'm bragging about you and you know how I don't like it when the sometimes people up here brag about the board I'm not talking about myself but I want to brag about you which
213might not be the right thing this might sound terrible I know when there's anger um but I wanna I wanna you know that I admire you um and I want to say that publicly I admire you it's not for something that was done it's because I saw your character um each of you and um I just want to say that and again I hope that might not it's so hard to talk right now and it might hit so that might hit somebody in the wrong way if it looks like we don't care and we don't feel that is not true this week has been filled with sorrow and pain I hope that comes across okay thanks Shanice all right welcome to your first week and a half of Sequoia Union High School District we're happy
214to have you on board um it's been a whirlwind I asked my husband to bring cards he said I don't have time I've just been all over the place and so you guys didn't get a warm welcome from me um and so I just want to say thank you for being on board um I know some people say you're too young let's put it out there you're 19. but that's all right you're smart you're inquisitive um and I pray and hope um that you listen with your ears um and be slow to speak and quick to hear Amy I'm very happy you're on board um just your wisdom here has just shown me um you know I'm always about learning from others and I like to sit at people's feet as our elders would say
215and I think there's some things that I can sit at your feet and just learn and so I'm happy that you're here I'm happy that you brought your boys and your social worker husband uh benefit s um so joking aside I'm happy that you're here um I was proud about the board that I was on before but we opened the doors for new people Rich I'm looking forward to working with you already um and Carrie we have a lot to talk about but I'm looking forward to being with you so I with that said um I want to go into what I've been feeling if I'm going to be transparent um and I'm going to try not to cry y'all I am heard um and there's nothing I can talk about the emails the texts
216the accusations the empathy the sympathy all of those pieces um it has been extremely extremely difficult and um I know I have something that I wanted to read but we know that we must learn from the endurance of everything so that we'll be completely mature and never lacking anything so this is a time to face and to do things with endurance so that we may lack nothing um and I think it's time for our district to have endurance and to face the things that have been hurtful to communities not just from this last week um but from years things that are Beyond us sitting here of decisions actions practices procedures that is it's not all about bipoc but bypoc is filling it right now um but there's children with special needs there's children who've done
217well in school but have mental health issues um and the gone off to Ivy League schools and still struggling with their mental health and and trying to recognize that in a system that doesn't always Embrace how that shows up at school um so with that said I went to the EDC on 12 8. it was a great meeting I wish Taja was here in Pablo and they are working really hard at each and every site to think about how to elevate the work not for themselves not for it's not adult work it's actually for kids and so the kids feel comfortable being where they are um and I I want them still to feel the love and support um and I'm I'm thinking about how to support that I'm very concerned that they don't that
218they're holding themselves and we need to be holding them and when I say that it's providing that that support of an outside person who can just hold the space uh because they're coordinating and they're holding people's grief um and so that's one of the things that I wanted to share um the other thing that I wanted to share is that the M.A form went really well I was very excited that it was officers from across the different cities that feed to the school I think they did an excellent job and I'm very happy about Heather Starnes leadership at live in peace and wanting to schedule something I don't have the date right on the top of my head but our community in East Palo altoonville Haven needs to have it at a different place um
219with um with people who have street cred um to pull it together and to be able to again to think about how do we help keep our schools safe as well but it has to be in a different way because the parent our parents weren't all in the room although um Lily keones had a lot of families who from the Welcome Center I want to um I'm looking at Bonnie's saying thank you for that I think that's an improvement from two years ago we're starting to get parents out in spaces where other parents are I think that's important um one of the things that I wanted to talk about to give it what I learned at csva conference was one of the things that they talked about in the president's Workshop I'm not telling you
220what to do president June um but one of the things that they talked about was like how do you put bring the student voice to the table what does it physically look like I'm a facilitator actual space is setting things up tells us whether or not we'll welcome at the table this is kind of awkward to have this big long table and I gotta scoot over to see you and I gotta look this way oh yeah I don't I I don't I'm okay where I am I like sitting at the spot where I can see people coming in and out um but what they said that was interesting is that you put the students at the Deus in the middle and the adults are around them and so there's something about having Samantha and um
221I have to see the spelling of the name I'm so sorry trustee um thank you I want to pronounce your name correctly because your name's important that we put them in the middle and so I would like for us to think about that and I will bring it up again and ask that it's on the agenda to think about how to set up our space so that we put the students in the middle so it reminds us of who we're here for um and I've done that for IEPs I put pictures on my desk say it's not a piece of paper it's a person and I think that's the same thing that I walked away with the last thing that I wanted um to talk about is really getting our board and I heard it
222through our group that we really do as a board needed Equity coach to make sure where our stuff is taken care of so it doesn't get in the way um of seeing things that we're seeing things with with multiple perspectives because I have my blind spots too but Amy has hers but but together those blind spots are covered and so I do think the connection piece but I also think that the equity coach and then the last thing um Miss Sledge um one of my um favorite people in the world because she's just so um encouraging as a person whose daughter looked up to her because she wore gym shoes and had pretty hair and she kind of showed up and she's excited and when my daughter was down she would say she would remind
223her of who she was and gave encouragement out the Wazoo that will lift my daughter's spirit so when she said we get up in the face of adversity we get up um I am asking the community to join me in getting up in adversity sometimes we get tired of resilience and yet we still need to get up because this board really does care it doesn't feel like it it's not clear um it's hurtful and yet we can get up and we can face another day for 9 000 kids of all different backgrounds social economics different homes um with different motivations are worth it and so I commit to being on this board in the face of adversity and I thank you Adrian for reminding us to face that adversity thank you I just like to
224quickly think you know my three Borden board colleagues for really welcoming me onto the sport ever since you know the results of the election were clear really extending out their arms and asking me if there was anything I need and honestly everyone else in the district to all the cabinet staff and any other employees even all the teachers who reached out to congratulate me I really like to thank them for making me feel welcome coming back to the district it meant a lot and I like to Echo what seanice and Kerry said that I know that every single board member here and every single person in this District really does everything that we do because we think it's what's best for our students and that's all our students so I'd like to thank everyone just
225for that and you know I'm excited like I said before I'm excited to start these four years I'd also um like to Echo what Shawnee said it was really great to go that made candidates for him I really like to thank my colleague on the Los lomitas board and PTA president Paige winikoff for putting it together I I think I kind of saw how she started it from almost nothing to getting so many parents to come and getting so many speakers and it was really cool and I'm really grateful for her and other parents who helped put it together it was really fun to be at yeah I I like to thank the current board members as well as pass board members for really meeting with me since the election and giving me the lowdown
226on on the things that are going on with the district and I did have a chance to be in San Diego for the not just the aec but also the csba board of directors meeting and delegate assembly meeting and uh had a chance to really connect with trustee Stevenson as well as Dr Williams while we were down there you know I I am stepping down from the csba board of directors so my two-year term as the Director at large API is over so that was a little bit Bittersweet but I've built a lot of connections and hopefully that is useful as you know we navigate in the coming year um because I I I was really focused and working closely with other director at Large and there's one for Hispanic African-American American American Indian and
227also County Board of Education where their focus is more on the special populations such as special ed and actually we organized a workshop that was pretty well received at the AAC called mental health supporting diverse populations so I'll send that the the presentations to you um and and the other group that I'm closely involved with is the API school board members Association and they also organized a very well received Workshop called anti-asian hate to solidarity how schools can combat racial bullying through ethnic studies so I am really excited that Sequoia has ethnic studies way ahead of the requirement from the state in ninth grade because it is a good time to build those connections as freshmen and and to understand it and appreciate cultures and perspectives different from their own and and being able to
228do that analysis but that Workshop was uh very very interesting going from um you know statistics to how a strategic plan or student voice is important to to have the Strategic plan behind you so that when the road gets difficult you have something to back you up because you know different stakeholders all contribute to that strategic plan so even if there are naysayers or difficult moments you say no no no everyone's aligned on this strategic plan so it was very informative and I'll forward that um information to you as well but to conclude uh I I am stepping down from all the csba stuff but I am staying on the board of the API school board members Association and in order to do that I either need to be an individual member of that Association
229or the district could be a member so I'd like to encourage us to be a district member because once you become a member then you get notices for different workshops all related to either a cross-cultural understanding of the API community and and student staff needs School Board needs and even beyond that there's two other organizations one is clsba the California Latino School Board Association as well as CABC California Association of black school board members and Educators I think is is the acronym so that's something to consider um obviously if we join multiple organizations we probably need to identify one or two people who are going to be really active in them because we probably can't attend everything but if we split up and maybe each choose an organization to be involved with and report back
230to the rest of the board that that will help with some of the understanding of different perspectives so okay thank you it's 10 o'clock I'm gonna make in under a minute say just that for future agenda setting we typically do a rotation where the board president meets with one other person for each meeting given that we are now the the February first meeting if sophic is the January 18th meeting because we usually go in alphabetical orders we'd be d e and then Amy you'll be the first meeting after the retreat so be January 18 February 1 whatever the next meeting ended and then you'd be the one after that since you and I have planned this one and we're going to finish at 10 uh to have a motion to adjourn the meaning so moved
231sure go ahead I wanted to thank Laura thank you for all you do for us she works really really hard to take care of the board and so you guys might not know you bought her a little thank you gift the board bought her that dog so she got a gift from the old board and the newborn so anyway thank you Laura thank you Carrie thank you aboard stop or make a motion to adjourn say there's a second hi second Amy seconds all in favor Journey all right okay adjourn