SUHSD Board Meeting Dec 7, 2022

001morning in progress Ive where are you [Music] interested we haven't gotten going um I'll go ahead and open this meeting uh Shanice just stepped out to help a family in our parking lot that was nice of her so um opening this meeting before the board moves into closed session to see if there is any public comment I have no comic artists no cards and I don't see anybody in our Zoom audience so the board will move to closed session and we will be back at six o'clock thank you welcome everybody to this meeting of the Board of Trustees we appreciate all the people in the audience as we have a special celebration uh scheduled for two of our very esteemed colleagues so thank you for being here um start with just some comments um about

002our public comments if you would like to make public comments on items not on the agenda please fill out a card they're located on the table over there and turn them in the end of the table if you're part of our Zoom audience um just raise your Zoom hand and I will call on you we give three minutes for public comments um we also have a number of other interesting items on our agenda so you're welcome to make public comments during those times also with the same roles so with that can I have a roll call please student trustee Rodriguez Velasquez here it's an interesting here trustee Thompson here trustee Stevenson trustee Sarver here vice president again here president Dubois here a quorum is present thank you Laura next um on our agenda is approval

003of our agenda are there any changes yes I'd like to suggest to my colleagues that we pulled items 14 1 and 15 one uh both of these deal with the conduct to board meetings and it seemed to me in deference to the new board members coming in it would be appropriate for them in those cases to have that discussion and take that action rather than the old board doing the same okay I have no objections it's okay with that all right thank you okay so um can I have a motion to appreciate approval with amendments proposed by trustee Thompson I'll second that all in favor aye the the number again the ones that you pulled 14 1 and 15 one fourteen one fifteen one yeah okay thank you and it's not because I want to

004get out of here thank you rich and I do have some things to report out um on closed session unfortunately the board had to vote to expel one of our students um with a vote of five in favor and zero against uh we expelled it's case number 2022 Dash 2023-2 we also approved two settlement agreements by a vote of five in favor zero against the board approved the settlement agreement case number 2022-2023-9 by a vote of five in favor zero against the Board of Trustees approved the settlement agreement 2022-23-10 so that is the report out from closed session we are now on item seven um approval of the consent calendar and for those of you who don't always watch our board meetings this is a long list of items that we approve with one motion

005um and it's a lot it's usually contracts or things that we have already discussed I I would like to uh pull for further discussion item 7.10 oh anything else no okay thank you second thank you for that um roll call please student trustee Rodriguez Velazquez yeah it's an interesting yes trustee Thompson yes trustee Stevenson yes trustee Sarver yes vice president again yes president Dubois yes motion carried thank you okay item 710 okay uh so item 710 is the approval of the contract with ABM Building Solutions for mechanical upgrades and air conditioning installation project um and uh everything I understand about this is a lot of work that was put in uh by our District staff led by Crystal Leach to make sure that uh the critical uh not only air conditioning needs across our district

006would be as rapidly as possible addressed but that the district would move strongly in the direction of sustainability uh in uh improving our carbon footprint in managing the health and safety of our students and our staff and make sure that everything was in place that that work could be launched not only as soon as the bond was passed and uh and certified but also that the critical work would be done even in the event that we did not get passage of the bond the result being what we see before us tonight of a contract to be approved to get all of that work going and misleach if you would kind of say a little bit about that to the board I'd really like to make sure that we we all have a good a good

007sense of what we're being presented with for approval tonight absolutely well I think we are all aware that during usually the fall for us we experience over there experience some very hot classrooms and although we have air conditioning in some locations across our sites we do not have air conditioning in several of our classrooms and several of our offices throughout the sites the equipment that we do have is old it's aged it draws a lot of electricity and it is not efficient we were trying to mitigate the hot air in the classrooms by looking at temporary solutions that just didn't line up for sustainability and really for feasibility of how we were spending the dollars at a price tag near what it would cost us to put in air conditioning and around the same timeline

008so as we were working with ADM on other sustainability measures we started discussing how we can move forward with installing permanent air conditioning that could also be used during modernization and so forth so we reduced the amount of waste we're not wasting money we're not paying paying for things twice so it's a very exciting project a project project that has been very long in the making as well as long in the waiting for the teachers and staff that do not have air conditioning well I would say this is something that certainly there is sense in it being on the consent calendar in that it is something that we have been aware of and that is uh completely appropriate and something that the leadership of the district has wanted to see happen but I also did

009want to pull it out for this kind of discussion to recognize the the Innovative work the hard work that has been done and the very comprehensive solution that has been reached where we are we are avoiding waste we are avoiding redundancy we are cutting costs in the long term we are making our school district not only safer and healthier but more sustainable with the work that we're doing and we're doing it on an aggressive accelerated timeline to bring the relief that we need on all of those fronts as rapidly as possible and I personally very much want to thank you and the staff for the hard work of making that happen this is definitely a project in the making when I think back to 2020 when we started all of our ventilation projects that we

010would eventually end up here and so we're so grateful um obviously to our community for passing measure W and just continuing to make our classrooms more efficient so we do have a public comment as well um Salvatore um I want to be respectful of time and not and not repeat all of the wonderful things that trustee starver said though I do want to Echo them definitely climate control for our classrooms has been an issue for my entire presidency I'm in my 12th year now we've discussed it and I don't want to say it was sort of a third rail for the district but nobody you know it was always going to cost too much and take too long and and maybe we can look at it next year and when Crystal came on board she

011really said no we need to do that if that's something that needs to be done and then as she accumulated her um you know credits towards her Masters in HVAC um during the pandemic she also added the need to make sure that we have good ventilation so that our classrooms are as you said healthy and comfortable and also reminding us that there are going to be times throughout the next many decades that we need to shut down shut our rooms to the outside world because we have smoke days and we want to keep the particulates out and then we need updated HVAC in order to be able to do that and still breathe in our classrooms so our members are really really grateful that this was included in the bond but more than that that

012it wasn't included as an afterthought for just the new rooms that we can really bring Equity to all of our classrooms so that it's not some students who have the benefit of air conditioning in the afternoon While others are suffering and unable to focus so we really appreciate it thanks so much thank you for your comment so I think now I'm ready for a motion uh I do check I notice there is one hand up among the attendees okay um Rebecca Perlman did you want to speak on this item unmute oh here we go can you hear me anyway I just want to say thank you to Crystal Leach and I want to emphasize that the urgency of getting air conditioning as I had a um student pass out about two months ago uh in

013a six period class and most of us as we get older we're pretty good about hydrating but teenagers are not and it's really not just about being comfortable it's about being safe so I really appreciate everybody's hard work thank you thank you for your comment okay now we're ready for it with that I uh move approval of this item thank you I second it okay and all in favor hi motion passes thank you okay now for the very special special recognition I will turn it over to our superintendent Dr Williams good evening everyone we are so excited this evening we have the opportunity to recognize some very very important individuals to Sequoia Union High School District over this past year and a half we've gone through superintendent recognition and we had an opportunity to highlight

014all of the wonderful uh talent that we have throughout the district and that Talent is able to succeed and to focus on children due to the support and vision and Direction given by uh two very important people along with the board and they've been a part of the board for some time now I won't say how many years yet but in recognition we have something special for both of you our two board members who are outgoing and so it is with sincere gratitude and appreciation the Sequoia Union High School District will be saying good luck goodbye and then hello again because we know you will come back to trustees Alan Sarver and Chris Thompson at the conclusion of our meeting today we are thankful for the 13 years both trustees have served and they're all

015individual right so recognition balance Arbor trustee Sarver has been a Trailblazer board member since his arrival On The Board of Trustees in 2009 as an advocate for students and staff his passion and love for public education has always shined bright through his effective decision making and the articulate feedback he provides also he's a grammarian trustee Sauber always wants to ensure the community is being supported by Sequoia Union High School District therefore he strives to attend as many events as possible and builds relationships with members of our community in addition as a lifelong learner he understands that being well prepared significantly impacts success for all trustee sarber is constantly researching and learning and is always well prepared for in-depth conversations regarding every single agenda item presented during each board member I mean meeting his presence feedback

016and guidance are deeply appreciated and valued by all trustee sarber we cannot thank you enough and express our appreciation for your 13 years of service your presence and Leadership will be missed yet we know you'll be back at the concerned Citizen and we wish you all the best in the future with that I'd like to just have us all just acknowledge with a hand clap if that's allowed with a hand clap and Applause uh the service 13 years of service may I direct your attention to our screens guilty one of the things I value as a person not as a trustee is taking responsibility or whether you misunderstandings all right [Music] thank you [Music] one of the things I value as a person not as a trustee is taking responsibility whether you've made a mistake

017or whether you misinterpreted something or a blind spot or you forgot to do something I really honor and respect folks who take responsibility you know all board members come prepared to board meetings but Alan Sarver becomes extra prepared he reads all the material and he comes ready with notes all board members attend school functions but none attend more than Alex Harbor foreign ER is the board member who is always there with the light-heartedness and the laughter and we can always count on him to give us recommendations for Productions at schools or sports teams and we always see him engaged in the community Ellen is passionate about public education he works really hard and he loves the Sequoia Union High School District so trustee Sarver is awesome and when I came to the district as superintendent

018my first year he was like a guide and for me moving from Southern California to Northern California which was huge he made sure that I was okay not only in a sense of being his employee but also just as a person and I think uh the time that he took and the care that he took to make sure that I was adjusting well was what was needed in order to help me smoothly transition into my new role as superintendent [Music] Alan Sarver brings passion to his board member comments like no other especially when he's talking about District initiatives just like to thank Allen for the many years of dedicated service that he's given to the Sequoia Union High School District so much for being who you are and being your authentic self also the same

019a similar message that I sent to trustee Thompson we have given you the gift of time so that means as a concerned citizen you have so much more time it's been with us in terms of serving on committees giving us feedback and ways that you weren't up you weren't able to do as a trustee so I look forward to that and also be kind to yourself take care of yourself enjoy your family and continue to love this great District thank you [Music] fun fact Alan Sarver earned a VA in sociology and his teaching credential from UC San Diego in 1976 then worked as an elementary school teacher he later entered a high-tech career leading projects in developing software products for local and Global Youth and retired as a director of project management at Oracle Corporation

020in 2002. Allen has served as a trustee for Sequoia Union High School again since 2009 and continues to run the music Mentor program at Carlmont High School and the Belmont Redwood Shore School District in addition he also chairs to save the music festival in Belmont Allen lives in Belmont with his wife Emily their dirty daughter Arielle is a high school English teacher in the Campbell Union High School District and their daughter Hannah is a software engineer at Apple both daughters are graduates of none other than Carlmont High School thank you Alan trustee Tom has also been a trailblazing member of the high school district since its arrival to the board again in 2009. trustee Thompson is a strategic thinker whose passion and excitement for secondary education are a parent through his critical thinking and focus

021on solution-based decision making his ability to ask strategic questions and think outside the box is incredible his focus on the support and development of students and staff is unwavering trustee Thompson's intellect dedication and support to Sequoia Union High School Districts Community will always be valued appreciated and greatly missed trustee Thompson thank you for your 13 years of service your presence and Leadership will be missed and we wish you all the best in the future fun facts trustee Thompson has been the executive director of Stanford University Institute for research in the social sciences since its founding year in 2004. the Institute is the home to research centers on poverty and inequality immigration democracy philanthropy and civil society and other domains where social science can have an impact on global change prior to that trustee Thompson was

022appointed by the Stanford Provost to be the director of the president's Commission on technology teaching and learning in this role from 1995 to 2000 he provided an Institutional plan focused on understanding how technology should serve the core mission of the University he continued his work on educational technology during his sabbatical leave in 1999 receiving his first appointment as the trans visiting professor at the University in Netherlands in addition to institutional planning efforts trustee Thompson is widely recognized within the Stanford Community for the decade he served as director of Stanford Sierra Camp though it was many years ago he left Stanford briefly during 2000 to 2003 to head a biotech startup where he was co-founder and president Chris Thompson joined the sequoian High School District Board of Trustees and haven't looked back since once again we

023thank you for your service and we have a surprise for you too all right thank you [Music] he comes in with a very strategic mind he is he thinks about overseeing and and really directing and really working in partnership with the the leadership that we have here at the school so that we can support them in order to support our students Chris and I both should share a wonky interest in school board campaigns and local elections we also both enjoy getting out for bike rides which is a nice way to chat have a conversation while also getting some exercise I think he's a great intellect right I think people who know him believe that he brings a lot to the board conversation [Music] thank you Chris Thompson has a special knack for asking just the

024right question at just the right time sometimes the board can get overly detailed in some discussions and he always knows how to bring us back to the governance level that will be missed he always makes efforts to understand every issue from each perspective and side and he asks questions very deliberately which is really great to see the amazing work that's being done he's an incredible mind as a person a critical thinker one who seeks to solve conflict one who seeks to think about being unimaginable when it comes to our school district and also supporting our students and staff members [Music] what I will miss and still appreciate about trustee Thompson is this invitation his invitation to be at the table authentically the invitation to solicit my voice and my ideas [Music] and for his time

025on the board and commitment to asking the right questions and undeniable dedication for the position I'd like to recognize and thank Chris for the many years of dedicated service that he's given to public education and Sequoia Union High School District you have given us the gift of time and now we give it back to you and so for that you have earned it we are grateful have some fun but don't forget about us I wish you many happy travels now you can take your vacations at any time during the year it doesn't have to be just July [Music] foreign trustees have accomplished much during their time on our board most notable accomplishments would be the realignment of attendance boundaries to provide a true neighborhood high school for all students successful passage and administration of the

026measure a bond resulting in additional classroom space modernization and critical new facilities across the district the establishment of Tide Academy with the with its first graduating class next spring we'll see you both there complete rebuilding and reimagining of Redwood High School early implementation of ethnic studies as a graduation requirement broadening and increasing participation in AP and ID classes with improved GPA and test passage rates percentage rates growth and continuous Improvement of career Pathways across the district we send best wishes and many thanks to Alan and Chris Trustees for their hard work countless hours founded vision making and guidance for the past 13 years they both will be greatly missed almost almost and if you both will come forward a resignation um foreign [Music] thank you foreign special recognition for these two um so we are

027proud to have um Joan dentler um from Senator Josh Becker's office with a presentation for both trustees welcome thank you Dr Williams and president Dubois uh good evening everyone I'm very pleased to be here this evening to honor uh these two outstanding board members we knew this day was coming um I've had the pleasure of working with both of these gentlemen for the past nine years and my role as a legislative field representative for first Senator Jerry Hill and now Senator Josh Becker the senator asked me to be here this evening on his behalf he's traveling and can't be here but he sends his best wishes and in a moment I will present what the state legislature has prepared for you but he did ask me to relay uh you know his particular thanks in

028in the work that you both have done in the past two years during the some of the darkest days in public education in the state of California and guiding our high school district through the pandemic and bringing it back stronger than ever was something that can't be said of all of all districts across the state and certainly across the country so it's a special uh Testament to your commitment to our students and to the community at large and that's another point that the senator asked me to make is that the work that you two have done here it doesn't just touch this High School District it goes well beyond its boundaries and throughout the Bay Area in fact and obviously folks have taken note in Sacramento therefore I I would I will not read this

029entire resolution but I will read the highlights but before I do that I on a personal level as a staff member uh and someone who works day in and day out with our school districts I want to thank both of you for making my job and my colleague Antonio Lopez is here this evening making our jobs so much uh easy is not the right word but understand we you helped us understand and you you guided us through and anytime I would see one of you at an event I knew we I knew we were in good hands we'd have good questions hard questions asked of us Allen Sarver but important questions from California School Board Association meetings to community coffees you name it there are a variety of events where you two would be there

030and and help direct us and help guide our state legislators so I'm not just here representing Senator Becker I'm also here on behalf of assembly member Mark Berman and assembly member slash Congressman Kevin Mullen who couldn't be here this evening either so on behalf of them I will read uh just to sort of the Highlight at the at the end of this and then you can take it home and read the rest of it as a result of their there I will I will go with the plural since this is directed at both of you at the result of their tireless efforts and unwavering commitment to the students of Sequoia Union High School District Alan Sarver and and Chris Thompson have succeeded in compiling an illustrious record of career and Civic achievements a record that

031has earned for them the admiration and respect of those persons who have had the privilege of associating with them now therefore be it resolved by assembly members Kevin Mullen and Mark Berman and Senator Josh Becker that they take great pleasure in honoring Alan and Chris for their outstanding record of leadership and Service as members of the Board of Trustees of the Sequoia Union High School District and for their Myriad of efforts toward the enhancement of public education throughout the state of California and extends sincere best wishes for their continued success in all of your future endeavors and it is signed by all three members of the San Mateo County delegation so congratulations and we will we will certainly miss you both thank you it looks like wonderful my friend you're gonna hold on here we're

032not exactly okay and so we have another special thing let's clap first people so the next special item for our special recognition was sent to me this week by one of the most eloquent writers in our area his name is Alan weiner he's a former trustee he really wanted to be here but he's traveling so he asked me to read this so message of appreciation for Alan Sarver and Chris Thompson at their final Sequoia Union High School District board meeting I had hoped to be able to attend tonight's board meeting in person to convey my deep appreciation for the service that both Alan sarber and Chris Thompson have given to the Sequoia Union High School District each for more than a decade but I am traveling for work and cannot be there tonight mindful of

033the rules about the time limits the public comment I will keep my farewell message brief which means it will be inadequate recognition of their contribution and achievements Ellen and Chris were both incumbents on the board when I arrived as a new board member in 2011 and they served then and for the next nine years as models of exemplary board service both Alan and Chris were always fully prepared during during our meetings notwithstanding the thickness of the board packages we received ready to ask questions about even detailed points if they were important they were always incredibly attentive to the information conveyed during board meetings whether it was information offered by members of the school Community presentations by staff or views expressed by their fellow board members Chris and Ellen also both gave liberally of their time

034to participate in Sequoia High School District activities outside of our regular board meetings whether it was to serve on a board committee on Career and Technical education the district's budget committee to meet with site leaders or to attend the Sequoia Woodside football game under the Friday Night Lights during our board meetings Ellen and Chris always demonstrated the ability to ask the most important questions behind the information presented to the board they conveyed their own views thoughtfully with conviction but always in a measured and respectful manner they always were critical in helping to transition to board the board to a more data-driven approach to evap to evaluating our progress so that we could more critically assess what was working and what was not and although they were supportive of Staff they were always simultaneously demanding and

035assessing the achievement of our district in meeting our policy goals they helped contribute to the creation of a culture of high expectations in our district Chris and Alan each of course made their Mark in individual ways reflecting their individual strengths Allen's comments during our board meetings were always incredibly thoughtful and thorough reflecting his deeply deliberative approach to decision making Chris had a unique ability to reflect constantly on the role of the board on our theory of change and to reflect constantly on how the board might effectively serve the district its leadership teachers other staff members and above all the community as a whole above all both Alan and Chris shared a deep commitment to the notion that the board's effort should constantly be focused on doing what is best for children in our school district

036I was honored to serve on the board with Chris and Allen for nine years and I wish you publicly thanked them for giving so much of their time energy passion Brilliance and wisdom to the Sequoia High School District the children who come through our district had a better experience in our schools and our community is better off for your service thank you and congratulations on a job well done foreign special part of this meeting is to see if anybody I'll do this like a funeral if anybody in the audience wants to go to the podium because I think there's a couple people trying to get out of their seats so you're welcome to say a few words are you out of practice especially from this vantage point I always had the other vantage point but

037anyway I'm Jim Lenny this the former superintendent of the high school district and I was one of a few people in this room that was here in 2009 when both of you got elected at that time my role was uh assistant superintendent of administrative services and and then it was not too long afterwards where two of you along with the three other board members had to make a big decision and I came out on the fortunate uh either the smallest thing however it was but anyway the fortunate side and we worked together very very well for the seven years that I was superintendent of the district we faced numerous challenges uh we mentioned about the boundary changes and passing measure a and those were two very big things they actually had a you know happen

038in concert with each other to make it all work and and your support and contribution you know sitting through and helping to meet with audiences and communities all of that made that very very possible because it was a very big idea at the time and really want to thank you for those years and working together and I wish you both the very very best in in the future and I know that your people that will stay very active and I think they're already trying to recruit to you guys back in some capacity and and uh be like me and work hard and try to keep a little distance but uh anyway the community really thanks you for your role in this District over 13 years and all the changes that you guys have seen and

039you hand off the district in good shape and and that's the the greatest honor to to have so again thank you very much for the support you gave me during my time thank you good to have a former superintendent go because he is a perfect example of what I'm about to expect from the two of you if you do come back as with all retirees you must come back looking at least 10 years younger than you were did when you left I don't know how it happens but it happens with everyone and see that's how you stay looking young as you just leave when you're done um I have been this is my 12th year as president of sdta and before that I had three years as vice president so I have been at this

040Podium as long as Alan and Chris have been in those seats um or actually I think you've sat in all of the seats across the Deus except maybe the one that shawnice isn't over there um and we have definitely not agreed at all times but I think that over the course of those 15 years we've definitely come to a lot of joint understandings and we have always been fighting for the same goal which is the best possible education for our students in the community and you know the best possible experience for the the people who work here and who go to school here and so I really I credit and thank you for your contributions most of all your dedication you know you don't have to be a school board member I remember asking my

041father once when I was in high school why he was on all these committees and why he went to all these meetings because I said to him like you already got into college right like what do you what do you build in a resume for and he told me this is what you do if you want things to get better you get involved and so thank you for getting involved I've told you about this already but I already miss you um Alan you have been a full-time board member for this District the number of hours that you give every week are beyond measure you walk your talk you care so deeply about all of the students and all of the staff and all of the people who send them to school and love them so

042much you have taken years off my life with your into board meeting comments empty rooms but you have given far more years back in all of your support and Assumption of the best and working for positive outcomes for everyone and you will be dearly missed Chris the first time I met you we disagreed and you were running for the board and we didn't see eye to eye on a topic you were at Sequoia High School and we were in my office and it was such an enjoyable hour and I just left you left and I was in awe and so hopeful that you would win the seat that you are now in and your intellect coupled with your intense compassion um your fairness and all the banter that we've enjoyed um your friendship what your

043wife has chosen to do with her life I think you guys are an incredible model and I will I will dearly dearly miss that to both of you literally after 13 years tens of thousands of young people in our community walk by you and they don't know that their lives are better because you believed all of them could meet high expectations and you believed all of them deserve the very best that we could give them and I hope you carry that um with you for the rest of your lives and enjoy these post-covered post-board years well done foreign I would also like to talk about the first time I met both of you Chris you may or may not even remember this because this was a very long time ago the wonderful thing about both

044of you is that you are in my classroom a lot and so the very first time I met you I didn't even realize as a teacher that you were our new board member and that you were coming to watch me teach with the group of people who were coming to watch me teach and I walked in after lunch to my classroom and there was a gentleman looking at the back wall in my classroom and I said pops what are you doing here and you turned around and you're like I am not your father and I thought oh boy and then Alan leaned over to me and said Newport member so um you did not hold that against me and in fact came back to my class many times um over the years and then as

045I became an administrator and um participated more with board and in board meetings I got to really see your passion come out so not only did I feel you as a classroom and your presence in the classroom and how much you cared about the teachers and the staff and the students but then I also got to see your passion so thank you Alan you and I have also a little bit of a special relationship you trusted me with teaching your children thank you very much um and then when I did make that difficult decision that I wanted to leave the classroom and become and admit join the Dark Side um sorry no offense administrators in the room um you asked to have a meeting with me and said can I take you to lunch and

046I went okay sure what what did I do and the the the meeting was wonderful and you mapped out this entire Vision you had for how CTE can go for the whole County and how your vision included how I could help with CTE spreading through the whole County because I first started from I went from Carlmont to San Mateo County Office of Education and I remember leaving that meeting thinking oh my God this man has wonderful vision and oh my God how can I possibly live up to his vision right so I tried I tried to meet up to your vision but it's a huge kudos to you at just the way you view education the way you push Educators and the way you continue to fight similarly when I decided I could not stand

047not being at a school site with all the buzz and the hum of of students and I transitioned back to tide you also reached out to me and said can we meet and discuss this so I was a little more prepared for our second meeting in this regards and you talked a lot about your vision for tide how it's going um and how CTE and how I could continue to push CTE at that District level and so once again I was reminded and honored with just your amazing vision for the district your amazing dedication to CTE and all things education and for that I thank you okay I want to thank you both um uh you have been on the board during my entire tenure as an administrator in this district and I'll never forget

048my first time addressing the board as principal of Menlo Atherton presenting our site plan and being completely completely nervous but looking and just seeing the eye contact and the reassurance from both of you and I was prepared because I knew I would get some tough questions and definitely look back on that and uh have has have evolved over the years I even look back and laugh at myself at that right when I was told if you can make it there you can make it anywhere it was a little daunting so uh I thank you for the support um in that role and also in the world's transitioning to uh tide which has been very exciting um and just always your Insight your thought in discussing um you know things that are important uh to move

049student student progress forward really appreciate that and uh Chris thank you I remember when Sean Ralph and I were in the Stanford principal fellows and we would see you because your office was there um and uh you know you were very supportive of the program and what we were doing there as well and Alan I don't know of another board member who would run alongside a principal at a foot Championship football game um rooting on the team to make it to the state championship so thank you both for all of your dedication and support foreign comment and then this will be our last one so I actually met both Chris and Allen two and a half years ago on Zoom when I logged onto the board meeting because my friend said that something called the

050school board was considering getting rid of our grades so you know even right from the start when I met Alan and Chris you know I didn't always see eye to eye on them in a lot of issues but when I was a student trustee I couldn't have been more grateful for all the support and growth that they gave to me whether it was talking to me and explaining District policies or giving me advice about college or you know my future job prospects and I couldn't be more grateful I'm sure you know Chris didn't expect he's to hear from me so soon after I stopped being the student trustee but you know from the beginning when I told him in May that I was interested in running he was nothing but supportive and really helped me

051throughout these past couple of months you know I learned so much from him and I'm really grateful and honored to be taking over his seat and I couldn't be more grateful for all the help he's provided me so thank you so much for all your help and service okay okay so now is our last special item uh we have cake so we're gonna take a break for you know Mary Allen and I have a chance to respond to this huh oh yeah Alan do you want to go first second okay I'm Gonna Come to the podium because Alan and I have to get used to presenting as in public comments um we'll get used to filling out the card um it's going to take a while for us to get used to the three-minute clock

052and please don't put it on um but we'll script things um and I scripted things today so I can be a little shorter I realize the program has gone on a long time I think Alan and I have loved it more than you all have conceivably um Carrie asked me before the meeting started with us recognized whether we were retiring and I said no and it really wasn't until I listened to Bonnie when it struck can I need to take a big deep breath foreign years ago Al and I competed against one another for the School Board Race the newspapers pitted us one against the other on issues that Bonnie is aware of and there were six others in this race in spite of the battle Alan and I quickly realized that we shared the

053same vision for Sequoia and deep commitment to public education like so many of us in the room we fundamentally believe education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world that's quote from somebody else and and you get 10 bonus points if you can identify that to me later on um so Alan there's been no better partner in this journey no one I admire more as a school board member than you no one who has done more for Sequoia no better colleague I'm grateful that our friendship will continue past our board service now Alan and I on occasion have different on our policy preferences but it's been pretty rare it's only in one area related to public speaking where Alan and I differ and that is and this is going to

054be for you to fill in the blank I believe that lasts is more Alan believes more isn't poor hopefully you can do that with friends who you just complimented beforehand um sticking with the Morris less approach I want to say just two things a word of thanks and a word of Hope here's here's my thanks thanks of course first to Carol um since we've gone on a long a long time I'm not going to share I'll share a story with you afterwards related to that and what we owe to our spouses but but I recognize among the two greatest blessings in my life are a great education and a supportive loving spouse thank you Carol um thanks to Joan for being here it's been great to work with you I also shared with our state

055senator and note him and wants you to be aware of I think Josh has surpassed my high expectations for what a state senator can do for the community really has been great and and I salute you because it's been really great working for you um also want to thank Jim leonides who left I guess I'll see you around still he's not here so I'm not going to thank him to my board colleagues from whom I've learned so much thank you and thanks to the district leadership team and especially to those who with whom we've worked so closely to Laura Laura the crystal the Bonnie the Dr Williams to spend Wednesday evenings with such a wonderful wonderful community of Educators is a gift it's a learning opportunity every day it's an inspiration now I want to

056confess to a bias I have a bias towards enjoying working with former English teachers and sometimes former philosophy grads who become principals um because not only are they wise and analytically smart and articulate but also from time to time they share these great quotes from literature so it seems so appropriate that I should share one with you all it's just 11 words that describe my experience as a board member this is a book that's often taught in high school it's found in the Canon of literature of the American West one of my and I'm a big fan of that it's Willa Cather and my Antonia who writes that is happiness to be dissolved into something complete and great dissolved into something complete and great I cannot imagine anything greater than work with really smart people

057who share a fundamental belief in public education it's also my hope for the board that you all have the chance to realize the joy of being dissolved into something complete and great so as I step away from the role as a board member I also want to be a little more specific in my hope for the district and for my colleagues on the board sequoia's mission is to engage and prepare all students to excel in a global Society Sequoia did a wonderful job at that for Carols and my two sons we also have another great example in scotic of what Sequoia did for him and they're literally thousands and thousands of these Sequoia success stories but as the s-backs report is going to evidence for us this evening we do some things very well at

058Sequoia we've made progress in certain areas but there are still critical challenges ahead here I think the words of FDR are at the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little and repeat it's not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much but whether we provide enough for those who have too little what gives me hope now more than ever is that alongside a superb teaching staff throughout Sequoia we have a leadership team in Edith from the sdta our principles in Todd and Liz and Crystal in Bonnie and most importantly in our superintendent Dr Williams that is better qualified than ever before to take on the challenge of providing

059an excellent education for all of all the achievements during my time on the board the one of which I am most pleased the one that gives me the greatest hope for this district is that we have a rare superintendent and cabinet who can move this District forward on our toughest challenges for my hopes for the board are quite simple one is that you come together to work as a team and two that you respect and appreciate the professional Excellence of that staff if you can't do that the district will not move forward if you can there is great reason to be hopeful about serving all the students of our community thank you for this opportunity to serve the school district so for 13 years this district has been Afflicted with listening to me talk too

060much I went out for one of my Wednesday morning walks for about three and a half hours this morning and had the opportunity to think through and rehearse a whole bunch of different kinds of speeches that I might give this evening and first off I want to thank Chris Thompson for saying most of the meat of anything I could have come up with uh when he talks about the ways that we think similarly and we we work together well it's reflected in how clearly he went straight to the heart of what has been great about the experience in this district and what is great and critical to look forward to as the district continues in the post Thompson Sarver era and so really what I want to focus on uh more briefly this evening is

061in thanks um and there are three or four areas I want to turn my thanks and first of all it is to those two extraordinary women at the back of the room as Chris has been supported and inspired by his wife Carol I have been supported and inspired endlessly by my wife Emily most of the work in education I've tried to do over the past 20 years has been barely trying to to race behind her and keep up in some tiny measure with the commitment and hard work and incredible benefit she has brought to students the schools educational leaders she had trouble carving out time this evening to be here around the vast mountain of PTA responsibility she has as she's currently holding down about three jobs at the county level because the work needs

062to be done and that's how this woman operates and this has inspired me at all times to just do my bit to not let the family down with what a fabulous model I live with all the time the second thanks I really want to give is to the phenomenal community that has given me the opportunity to serve in this way for the past 13 years by collecting me on three separate occasions for four years sometimes five if you get lucky um and or continuing to support the operation of the district not only with high property values that make this be a well-funded district within the California model Never Enough never nearly enough but so much better than what so many other districts have to struggle to get by with and gives us a chance to

063fund and and resource and support the kind of greatness that we know all of our students and our staff deserve and need also to support So convincingly again and again the bond measures that have allowed us to move our facilities forward in the district in a way that matches the educational vision and really lets us provide an environment in which our students and our staff can Thrive and can achieve more greatly all the time and most importantly of all thanks to this community for continuing to entrust us with the care of your children your most precious precious life possessions for the four years that we help shape their future it gives all of us the work that resounds within us as the holy Guiding Light of why we get up out of bed in the

064morning and go do what we do and then finally I want to thank the district or giving me this place to spend this time for the last 13 years to work with a district whose culture is so clearly student-centered is so profoundly and strategically aimed at all times at delivering the greatest quality of opportunity the appropriate supports and the highest rigorous standards and expectations to ensure that our students move forward a district whose people are bought into that so deeply and so greatly and where we have been so effective at continuing to bring on board brilliant educators who are not only great at the work that they do in the classrooms on the sites but are deeply philosophically and strategically committed to the betterment of the Enterprise the Improvement of student outcomes continuously taking on

065the big challenges doing the hard work holding themselves accountable to very high standards to make sure that the district is always delivering quality and a quality opportunity for a great future to our students and to the entire community that we support there has been very few times where the functioning of our board has felt like a period of conflict it has been a matter of working out the details of how we can pull together as a team to keep making that future brighter and better and continuing to see each step of the way be successful talk tonight about thousands of students passing before us and one of the Great privileges that comes to you as a board member is that every year in the spring you get to attend this block of graduation ceremonies and

066for a few hours let your ego take this little bath of saying Gene look at all the good stuff I did it's not true there's not a bit of it true you've got students who have dedicated 13 years of their lives to prepare themselves academically to take those steps across that stage you have got this huge range of educators who have spent their professional lives preparing a school environment and each of those students for that success just to be able to join in on this Enterprise and have that sense of contribution and support and that Pride of all the good that is done has been such great compensation Beyond any measure of work put in over the last 13 years and so to all of you within this District who have attended this District who

067pay the taxes and supports this District thank you for the privilege and the opportunity okay so now we will thank you both for your very beautiful remarks so we're going to break for cake um and we'll spend someone said five minutes I wonder if that's a little too rushed they're saying yes is that a little too rushed it's not too rushed it's fresh for you guys probably five minutes so you you're welcome to leave after you get your cake or you can stick around and eat your cake and observe the rest of our board meeting I know some of you have to be here so we'll try to move the rest of the agenda along thank you so we thank you everyone everyone back all right so if you've lost track of where we are

068in our agenda we are now no no we're on item nine [Laughter] um so student trustee comments are next thank you hello hello I want to give a huge thank you to trustee Sarver and trustee Thompson for their service in the district thank you so much for your hard work and dedication to this district and its students thank you thank you thank you yeah so hello everyone else um I hope you've been staying healthy and warm um today I wanted to talk about flu season people getting sick and how that's affecting attendance a student brought her concern to me today about that kids are feeling stressed about school and aren't staying home when they notice signs of sickness um maybe they feel like they can't leave because they can't afford to miss a math test

069or some other assignment um that would be difficult to make up and I know this feeling as well however uh people might come to school sick when they aren't well which could get others sick and then obviously prolong their sickness if they end up going home and when they're a lot sicker um I think providing some clarity on protocol for students or who may need to miss school will be helpful so they know that they can prioritize their health and as a result prioritize school and how they can succeed in class so thank you for listening I hope this perspective provides some insight in how students are feeling this flu season yeah hello good evening everyone um we have a larger audience today um we made it it's finally the home stretch of the year

070I'm so excited um our third SAC meeting takes place next week and we want to continue our conversation on communication with students and I would personally like to gather some Intel on Mental Health possibly operationalizing what mental health and wellness is from the student perspective um at middle college our new mental health counselor talked to my classmates and I about stress and the Spectrum from stress to anxiety during this time of the year it can be especially difficult for students to get through all of their finals and for seniors finishing up their applications I was reminded that self-forgiveness self-care and patience is imperative in coping with stress and facing our overwhelming calendars as the year concludes and avantika and I reflect on what we've learned this past semester um we've realized that you know we've

071been working to navigate the intricacies of advocacy and strategies for communicating with our student body we are excited to jump into the next year with a little bit more courage and a lot more knowledge the atmosphere of school this year is unlike anything students and teachers have come together to consider one another with respect and compassion in my government class at middle college we have been working on a semester-long action group project um we got into groups of three or four and we go out into the community and just be humans of action my group and I created an organization called bookshelf for success and over the semester we've collected books and this past week we donated about 3 200 worth of books roughly 211 books in total for the Hillcrest juvenile hall to help

072combat the 84 literacy challenge in juvenile incarceration others in my class collected kids clothing um from our school site campuses and another group worked to register and pre-register students to vote I'm ever inspired by my peers curiosity and dedication to change in our community I have immense gratitude for my community and my school because they help they all help me feel joyfully connected and integral to the future of us and once again I think you trustee Thompson and trustee Sarver for your dedication your compassion and your allyship to the community that we all call home thank you thank you all right next item is comments from the Sequoia District Teachers Association oh ask me first go ahead [Music] um I thank you so much for the time uh for those of you that don't know

073me my name is Renee Alvarez I am the afscme chapter president and as the calendar year and the fall semester come to a close I just wanted to take some time to update you all on the progress that asks me and the district have made and continue to make on our contract um earlier this year we formed a contract cleanup committee which consists of ask me chapter officers our business agent Tina eckery and Human Resources staff Freedom Siam and Becky Hayes the goal is to review the contract language some of which has not been updated for about 30 years which I was told we also merged both classified contracts and we edited the entire format of the contract this work has been tedious but for the most part it's been Pleasant and I do have

074to say that it's in large part due to the impeccable team that Dr Williams has put in place so we thank you and we are truly appreciative of the time and the effort spent to get this contract into what we say get it into the 21st century um this is a lot of you know a lot of time and a lot of effort that's spent on both parties and Dr Williams executive team and the human resources department they have listened to us they've heard our concerns they're available to us they have been a pleasure to work with and so we're truly grateful and um we look forward to bringing you our final contract in the new year and so I just wanted to give a quick update into trustees Arbor and trustee Thompson I haven't

075had too much time to work with you but I am aware that I myself have benefited as well as my two boys in this district from your contribution so thank you so much thank you and Now comments from the Sequoia District Teachers Association thank you well ask me has been working on cleaning up their contract we have been working with HR on job descriptions you we would like to thank you for just approving the new job description for speech and language uh professionals that talk about bringing them into the 21st century I was in first grade when the last version of that was approved you don't have to laugh that much it was only 20 years ago um in working on those job descriptions and looking at it one of the things one of the

076themes that we keep coming back to this year when we're talking about student burnout we're talking about teacher burnout is sustainability sdta is a real concern that none of the jobs in education currently are sustainable it is not sustainable to be a high school teacher it's not sustainable to be a counselor it's not sustainable to be a high school principal it's not sustainable to work at the district office there's too much work um and we're concerned about that and we hope that we can make improvements through this process that will help to keep the Professionals in our district and working with students we are working to support students academic and mental health needs and as you no doubt are aware there's been a drastic increase in recommendations and requests for assessment for special education and

077wider 504 net for those who don't qualify for special ed services this results in an increased workload for our psychologists our intervention counselors and other Specialists who work with those populations so we need to work together to make those jobs sustainable it does not serve our community or our students to have those be a revolving door as people burn out and search for other employment where they can manage their work-life balance better so we want to continue to serve and support our students and we're hopeful that we can make strides in those areas as well as many others thank you foreign thank you so now moving on to item 11. finally thank you for your patience uh public comment this is for items not on the agenda I do have a speaker's card from council

078member Antonio Lopez uh good evening honorable trustees I want to Echo first by giving my deep thanks to this team gentleman here uh Sarver and Thompson I look at you guys and I look at role models for what we're trying to do um as the next generation of elected officials so I thank you both gentlemen for your service haven't had the opportunity to be in much camaraderie with you but I Echo the sentiments and saying my uh my whole family went to Sequoia and so I know you guys have been double impact in my family's life so I want to extend the Praises this evening my name is Antonio Lopez I'm on the city council of East Palo Alto and in particular to our superintendent Dr Williams um I think it's not safe I think

079it's safe to say that I represent East Paul to and as a multi-ethnic working class Community for a long time our history is about education when you look at the dissolution of Ravenswood the the busing movement um I remember as a kid seeing a lot of my uh my generation on the corners waiting for the bus to get take them all to Belmont to Karma at 6 30 in the morning it was chilly and so uh make sure I'm enough time at any rate I want to say that we we have fell out of the table historically neglected and so when I saw that the board decided to vote in Dr Williams I felt for me there was a new chapter turned in Sequoia and I felt affirmed and appreciated and seen and so I

080want to appreciate the board's decision and for understanding that Dr Williams is coming at came at a time when there was a global pandemic we were all struggling to figure out how we're going to do this thing called education with Equity making sure that kids that don't have Wi-Fi that live in cramped corners and apartments are able to have the same education as somebody who has a pot in their backyard how do you do that work and so we have an individual who came in who knew that work met with State closed at all levels and so I was so pleased to see her hitting the ground running Woodside principal Karen Van puten said of the current superintendent she has embraced the school district and is supportive of site principles I don't believe I'm misquoting

081um Miss Salvatore who said at a paper she has an ambitious vision for the district but I think she has given her given herself time to get to know our history so more importantly I wish to remind the boy that Dr Williams came at a time at a district of great uncertainty not just for Sequoia but for the whole country right we are and were and continue to be in the midst of a racial Reckoning we saw the murder of George Floyd we saw black lives matter protest we had our own students blocking freeways and blocking exits saying enough is enough we need to listen to our majority minority majority District our concerns and our needs the marching on the streets and so that was the time to listen to make sure that our community

082is reflected by the leaders by leadership that looks like us that works for us and so I just want to say on behalf of the city the people I serve that we are aligned with the superintendent's goal to ensure promote diversity to incorporate inclusive practices in the classroom one that best positions our students for academic and professional success and I want to continue to just say she's the best person for the job and I just want to appreciate you Dr Williams for all that you do and the staff that support her as well as our outgoing trustees it is not lost upon me the historical how historic this district is and I have all the faith in the world that we're going to continue to be a leader not just for the bay area but

083for the whole state of California we have that blessing we have that leadership we have the talent and let's continue to cultivate it so thank you very much thank you um next speaker um council member newly elected council member Maurice Goodman he's also a trustee for the Community College District and president have I done all your titles there's probably more thank you for coming to our board meeting and thank you Antonio for coming toward me yes good evening um and thank you both for your service and I wish you all well um but you know we do this all together and that's what I want to start off my um statement off with the word together um good evening I'm here as a friend as Stewart and advocate of the Sequoia Union High School District

084and the greater San Mateo County Educational Community I want to First give credit where credit is due and congratulate you on your many tremendous Endeavors over the past few years including hiring Dr Williams and after what must have been a stellar evaluation that you gave her an extension which is why so many are here tonight wondering or being perplexed at the thought of derailing the work that has been done to make Sequoia Union a district truly for all what they focus on improving learning outcomes and providing students with early access to free college courses allowing them to change the trajectory of their lives I personally want to thank and extend an appreciation of all the work the superintendent Williams has done for the Sequoia students teachers and Families for her work to guide the district

085through the challenging times of covet and the recovery that followed co-authoring with this board a resolution that re that resulted in receiving PPE from the support of Senator Becker and becoming a model for other districts throughout the county Dr Williams heard the voices of students teachers staff and families that challenged the district to do more to improve Equity across the district and understood the assignment before her by Leading The District in two Equity audits working with USC race and equity center to conduct a climate study to identify opportunities challenges and successes of the district and much closer to home for me as an educational access advocate I am in awe at the speed in which Dr Williams was able to do more in a year than many high school districts were able to do in

086decades for under-resourced high potential students here in the district from the very successful College and Career Signing Day and creating the College and Career Guide to the groundbreaking access expanding Middle College partnership with Kenyatta College and the collaboration among Ravenswood schools Kenyatta San Francisco State and Cal State East Bay in the midst of a racial Reckoning as we just heard in an environment throughout our country where education was under attack along with our most vulnerable members of our communities and our communities demanded a leader that represents the voice of our community a steady voice of experience and educational leadership we found all that and more in Dr Williams and she has done nothing but unapologetically execute the visions and goals of the board here before you and I look forward to continue serving and working

087alongside um Dr Williams for this District for her successes are your successes and vice versa thank you all thank you well clearly um I think that's oh I have one hand up sorry pardon me I can see it um Jeremy array hello can you hear me yes we can okay thank you my name is Jeremy Airy and I'm a paraprofessional in the Stars department at Menlo Atherton High School I also work as a black student union advisor student voice and advocacy Club advisor and a Writing Center tutor after school thank you for the space to make a comment um two recent incidents at Ma related to guns were something we never want to see in schools and now also give the district a unique chance to be aware of a problem confront the issue and

088do everything that is necessary to respond in efforts to prevent future incidents while Ma has handled the two incidents in the response very well the school is one of the biggest in the county with the diverse community of life experiences and cultures needs more support from the district to be proactive I believe everyone in our community should be able to say and feel confident that our district is collecting data and coming up with measurable goals staying accountable and making progress on this issue in order to keep families students and staff safe this includes data on gun ownership possession and access safety and transportation methods for students and loss and Trauma related to gun violence and violence in general so my question is is the district making efforts to collect data on the reality of guns

089and violence so that these measurable goals can be set and solutions can be created that are effective accountable and all-encompassing yeah thank you Nick speaker Mallory Byrne hi can everyone hear me yes great um now we can't hear you cannot hear you sorry oh wait a minute oh call on the other speakers and then come back to you Mallory or um Jenny bloom hello I think you guys can hear me we can't my name is Jenny varghese Bloom I am a trustee of the Ravenswood City School District and I'm here to first of all thank the two board members for their service um trustee Thompson and trustee Sarver thank you for being a part of this iteration of the board um I will make some observations that before this iteration of the board there were

090vast portions of the school district that did not have a voice at the table so I appreciate that this iteration of the board has brought in transparency and has brought in voices from the least heard and I represent one of those communities as a trustee of the Ravenswood City School District there have been multiple conversations that I've had with students not only as a trustee and as a resident of East Palo Alto but also as a college admissions advisor that students have told me what their experience has been at the Sequoia Union High School District of not being heard a feeling that they are in a different School than their their white and Asian peers and I brought those concerns to the table when you guys searched for a new superintendent and I appreciated the

091transparency that was shown to us as members of a community whose voice wasn't always heard to be able to be heard in the selection of this superintendent of Dr darnice Williams my experience with Dr darnice Williams is one of partnership and is one of awe because of how much she's taken on in her first year and a little bit more of serving here at Sequoia Union High School District as a Ravenswood parent as a future parent of the Sequoia Union High School District I appreciate that she has uplifted the path for diversity equity and making sure every voice is heard um I think the board for giving all communities the space to speak to have a say and have have um have an ability to talk about the stakes that they hold in this district

092and I hope to continue that partnership moving forward and so I would like to thank this iteration of the board I would like to thank the superintendent for the work that she has done and we hope to continue to see being done in the future and I hope as the new board comes in that our community the communities that are the least heard continue to have a seat at the table and continue to be heard because we all know that when we serve the least of any Community we are serving all of every community so I really hope that this board and all boards continue to do that so thank you Dr Williams for your service with this board and we hope to continue to partner with you in the future thank you thank you

093trustee bloom Chris uh beatley Hagley foreign thank you uh y'all can hear me yes cool appreciate it um well I just wanted to First appreciate the voters the board and especially Crystal leech for prioritizing the uh you know HVAC needs of our classrooms and other facilities these are uh super essential upgrades to create learning environments that our students deserve and So speaking of that you know the learning environments our students deserve I also wanted to share um a couple of things first uh how important the the Affinity groups the support on site at Redwood High School and the leadership of the EDI Partners have been and working to achieve governance goal number two which which states we commit to design and Implement structures systems and policies that achieve equity and are instructional uh institutional and

094Employment Practices uh in the affinity group Fellowship I had the incredible opportunity to learn from a multicultural group of suhsuhsd employees who all came from different places in terms of experiencing racism learning about his legacy and how we can show up in our current roles to work for racial Justice I learned an incredible amount in a short period of time about so much but the biggest takeaway was I still have so much more to learn I'm hopeful that suhsd will continue to support my colleagues and me as we continuously recommit to this work because we have not received adequate adequate training previously in our professional Pursuits to Center anti-racism or Equitable practices I teach at Redwood High School and I'm proud that our principal Stephanie Ogden has demonstrated a financial commitment that Echoes this need

095specifically she's allocated staff collaboration time for racial Affinity groups and hired the incredible consultant Mar Benitez from design for Equity so to support whole staff small group and facilitator coaching we've been doing this work for several years now but again the more we commit to entering and holding these Brave spaces the more apparent it is the incredible amount of work still to be done to truly provide our students access to the Quality education our school district our school districts strive to offer this we this must Center anti-racism and equity especially at Redwood which serves students who've been most underserved by our education system in general and our school district as a result we must continuously recommit to centering the needs of our racialized students without specific allocation of time and resources to changing the way

096we teach and create learning environments we will continue to get inequitable educational outcomes that reflect racial privilege I also wanted to voice support for the creation of the EDI partner positions recognizing the leadership of current sqhst employees validating their experience and insight and entrusting them with creating the roadmap 4 is essential to centering the needs of racialized employees and students the more the leadership of Taja Henderson and Pablo Aguilera can inform our practices the more likely we can realize governance goal number two lastly I must say suhsd students need more teachers and counselors who look like them who can support them in navigating an educational system that reproduces inequitable outcomes and so I hope our district will continue to listen to validate and collaborate with the bypoc leaders already in our district and work to

097support White staff and our necessary growth as anti-racist Educators to collaboratively create an environment where racialized students and adults can feel a sense of belonging and thriving thanks so much thank you Carol Ann Coleman hi good evening everyone can you hear me yes okay make sure you save some cake for me as well um [Laughter] so I've heard a lot of really amazing things this evening uh Caroline Coleman's High School teacher also parent and advocate of um social justice I've heard about mental health I've heard Praises for the board members um fantasies some of them leaving but I I'm sure we'll see many of them come back Dr Williams I was getting a little nervous when people were giving you all these Praises like she's not leaving us I hope um thank you for setting

098the table um most importantly I just wanted to share in this again always comes from a place of love something that I've experienced I'd like to just remind let's let's choose macro love over the daily microaggressions that are um bipart community that includes staff and students experience on a daily basis um I learned um that I can always do better in all ways every day I'm grateful I had the opportunity to also participate in the racial Equity Fellowship last year as a sith's white female and an uplifter for our our babies our students and our and our staffers my personal area of growth um comes from being aware of my own biases daily and realizing how easy it is um for me to stay in that comfort zone of my whiteness but instead I need

099I need to to lean into that discomfort every day of doing the right thing my my wish my hope is that my other white allies um will walk maybe even run through a daily uh task of of of of Leaning into the messy work around social justice uh dismantling the structures that uh discriminate against our bipop community um marginalizing our bypoc staff and students I do need to remind myself that I'm running out of time um my privilege gives me the choice to try this to get things right in our school but persons of color can't choose I've experienced that through my own intentionality I stepped something sorry I hate to okay in the right direction we have sorry Carolyn we've got we've got to start our meeting so um thank you for your comments

100I um there's three more hands up and so I'm gonna have to end the public comments after those three hands um so Jenny Ortiz or Ortiz sorry hi everybody I'm Jenny Ortez I'm a teacher at Woodside I'm also head of the social studies Department I've been at Woodside for about 24 years and I was uh in the cohort last year for racial Affinity groups I want to add on to what Chris and Carol Ann said about these groups I want to share why they're so special and important to me I can remember when I was one of two Latina teachers at Woodside and for many reasons that was very very lonely um in 2019 it was the first staff meeting of the year I can remember meeting four Latina educators and my jaw dropped uh

101it was there was a a party in my head in my heart with reggaeton salsa cumbia I was so happy uh to see more Latinas at Woodside I didn't feel so alone anymore and I felt very seen and so I'm here to ask the board to continue their support for the racial Affinity groups so that we Educators can continue the work at each of our sites thank you next is uh council member Cecilia Taylor from Menlo Park she may have taken her hand down she's back okay go ahead Cecilia yes oh thank you good evening good evening everyone good evening board president um Board of Trustees Educators students and the superintendent I am Cecilia Taylor I am the founder of Belhaven action and I am also on the Menlo Park City Council I want to

102thank the board members for their 13 years of Public Service without volunteers there's a lot of work that would not be done I also wanted to invite everyone in this room especially those who live specifically in the Belhaven neighborhood to a community health fair that's happening this Sunday December 11th from 10 a.m to 2 p.m at Ivy Plaza 415 Ivy Drive this actually was spearheaded by the first health fair that we did in in February which we did in partnership with the Sequoia High School District Ravenswood School District Ravenswood Health Network and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District my biggest concern has been not just since covet but since I have been active are the social determinants for health for all of our community members especially our youth it has been difficult for folks

103to learn in environments that have bad air quality that have a low tree canopy and actually don't really have access to to infrastructure I also am calling to say to support um what Jeremy stated I wanted to talk to you about why it's important to find out why students are coming to school with guns not just to expel them and think that the situation is over but to look at the mental health the data as to why that they're coming the last thing that I wanted to share with you is that a lot of what I have been able to do is through leadership from the board and also the superintendent it is very important for me and for my community to be connected to be communicated with and also to be acknowledged and with

104your leadership that has happened and I'm calling to say thank you and good night thank you very much okay last speaker Maui Mallory Byrne all right let's try this one more time can y'all hear me okay um all right so um my name is Mallory Byrne uh I'm a social studies teacher at Ma and I would like to make a couple of comments and bring up some questions that relate to the two incidents um on our school campus in which guns were found in the possession of students many members of our school Community are extremely concerned about these recent events and to quote our awesome principal Carl lusco guns have no place in schools I commend Carl and our school and District leaders for meeting together and inviting Atherton PD Menlo Park PD epapd members

105of our Union and PTA together for a meeting this Friday and I look forward to hearing what comes out of that as a district we need to make sure that the emotional and physical needs of staff and students are also taken care of in times like this this would be a great opportunity to ask the staff and students of the school district what they need right now can the district provide training on how to have conversations with staff and students around events like this and about trauma and PTSD some of our students family members have experienced the loss of family members due to gun violence when events like this happen at school it's essential that we hold space for those that may have been impacted by gun violence and for those of us that have

106anxiety and real fear about guns being on our campus we need training to adequately hold those community community circles one of my colleagues stated that we also need voluntary training to help staff increase preparedness and learn de-escalation skills is this something that the district can offer I appreciate the time and space to share these comments and questions and I'm happy to email the school board with a list of these questions thank you so much for your time and for the space thank you and I didn't want to make a correction the ma PTA meeting is on Tuesday seven o'clock to 8 30 at Ma in the pack yeah so I think originally it was supposed to be Friday but they moved it into Tuesday to accommodate panelists okay so uh we are finished with public

107comment thank you all um moving on to item 12. um 12-1 uh the review of the smarter balanced assessment thank you we have with us this evening Diana Wilmot who is going to go over our s back results with you my thanks to Carrie DuBois and Rich again who a year ago were appointed by their colleagues to review data presentations before they came to you and I think they gave us some really good suggestions so you will see 52 slides in this deck and have no fear we are not presenting all of them we are going to hone in at their suggestion on two takeaways that we think are of Great Value to share with you and I do want to remind folks that um uh these I think these results matter they're important but

108I also think it's important to say that this is one test that kids take one time in high school so I offered this to you with both a feeling that they matter and holding it Loosely that it is one in many measures that we look at when we look at student achievement with no further Ado Diana thank you Bonnie good evening president Dubois Board of Trustees and Dr Williams thank you for the opportunity to present to you this evening about the smarter balanced assessments State Testing results this year's seniors the class of 2023 were administered the tests in math and literacy last spring between March and may the results were sent home in the summer and they're also available for each student in the parent portal on Infinite Campus the state first released this aggregate

109data publicly on October 24 2022. also forthcoming is the data from the California state dashboard which I'll share with you in February as it's still under preview and embargoed uh the state dashboard includes the accountability tied back to some of these results so we'll revisit some of it later and it also includes other data points such as graduation rates English learner progress and College and Career Readiness indicators but we'll save that one for February there will be you could see two more presentations coming your way one in January one in February so I share this assessment data with you tonight not in a vacuum but in context to the important work we have been doing as an institution the smarter balanced assessments are seen as a measure of collagen career Readiness and the results from

110junior year in fact can be used by the California State University system to determine Readiness for college-level courses during freshman year we use the smarter balance assessments as a metric in our annual local control accountability plan or lcap to check progress on every subgroup and monitor our performance in meeting the state standards across many of these goals here on the wall as you are well aware this is the first time we have seen State Testing results in literacy and math since 2019. the California assessment of student and performance and progress known as Casp was suspended in the spring of 2020 due to the shutdown and given as an optional test in Spring 2021 when we were in the middle of distance learning since we are a high school district and only required to test Juniors

111each year in 2021 we opted to use the SAT instead of Smarter Balance Assessments in a remote setting so while we haven't seen results since 2019 I do caution the use of comparison from this given year as these groups of students have had very different experiences and are different cohorts of students that said I know in the media people are remarking on the Statewide decline in literacy and math from 2019 to 2022 and while students across the state did show a decline in both areas juniors in particular showed a significant decline in math across the state dropping six percentage points and juniors also across the state declined in Literacy By three percentage points our students showed more promising results than that they went up by one percent in literacy and decline in math by only

112three percentage points some of those slides are in the appendix our Juniors com compared to Juniors across the state nearly doubled the percent of students who met or exceeded in math and in literacy our Juniors outperformed the state by nearly 17 percentage points the overall percentage of our district students our Juniors who met our exceeded centers was 71 in literacy as you'll see on this slide and 50 in math you also notice on these two slides the number of students tested and the number of students with scores just want to point out um that our participation rate um was high but not 95 percent as the state expects so we will see some of that I'm foreshadowing some of what we might see in the California state dashboard regarding our participation right some people might

113ask first ask us were you surprised by these results and the answer is quite frankly no why because because we have been administering an interim comprehensive assessment that measures the same focal priority standards as the S back and literacy and math for the last four years we have conducted an in-depth analysis of these assessments and have found them to be highly correlated with the results on the S back and we give these assessments to students across all four grades despite the fact that the S back only tests once a year so that we can monitor the progress of our students throughout their time at Sequoia some people might also ask so what is your greatest area of improvement so I'm going to put the slide on but I'm going to talk a little bit about

114what's in the appendix uh in case you didn't have a chance to review all 54 slides so very quick rundown the students who outperformed the county in the state by subgroup included the rfep students our students with disabilities our Asian students our white students our students who identify as two or more races and students who are not socioeconomically disadvantaged in addition parental education is a significant determinant of student achievement for the state county and our district for parents with post-secondary experiences in college and grad school San Mateo County outperformed the state and our district outperforms the county however on the flip side our economically disadvantaged students slightly underperformed the state and County and our Hispanic latinx students perform about equivalently to the state and County are African-American students slightly underperform the state in the county

115as do our Filipino students and our English learner students which is what I have here on this slide we dug a little bit into the data for the standards specifically around English language arts and are looking and found that sorry um our El students struggled the most in writing and reading you could see the percent below standard for our El students there uh while we know our literacy Intervention Program focuses on reading and we have seen some gains in these areas students moving up from below to near standard for example it's in writing where we see the greatest opportunity for growth and Improvement this will take on some instructional implications and we will be working with our teachers on this for example the performance task in English language arts on the S back requires students

116to both read and write in response to two mediums we will offer further professional development in this area when we have spent a great deal of time working on instructional strategies for listening and speaking and we can see that they're doing much better in these domains and with time we will continue to monitor our students performance in writing and see if training and focus on these standards can help support our students growth in addition we have been exerting a huge effort in working with our staff to identify English learners for reclassification and to align with our feeder districts around the metrics for reclassifying our English learners so what difference does reclassifying in high school make for English Learners um all of the data suggests that outcomes for English Learners are greater if they become reclassified

117this includes graduation a through G results and yes even performance on the S back in analyzing our assessment data in partnership with Sanford Graduate School of Education we found that students who we classified during High School outperformed our long-term English Learners on the S back we found that reclassifying even during High School shows a positive outcome on the S back compared to staying a long-term English learner as a college readiness measure the smarter balance assessment is a predictor of Student Success post high school and we want to give our English Learners the greatest chance at this success putting our effort into reclassification processes can help this cause and you will hear more about this in January when we present more data on English learners some people might also ask why do our Juniors do so

118much better in literacy compared to math anyway so the answer is relatively straightforward the tests have shown the same discrepancy between subjects year after year so this isn't a new issue it's the same across the state county and comparable districts if I had to take a guess as to why students seem to have greater evidence of proficiency in literacy my best guess would be that the standard students learn and literacy are cumulative and similar in terms of reading informational texts and literature speaking and listening and writing year after year the mathematics on standards while also shared prac in practice year after year in terms of procedural fluency and applications problem solving communicating reasoning can be a bit more dependent on the context of the type of math that they are learning and they are experiencing

119in school for example if a junior is enrolled in Geometry or even in algebra during s-back testing they will likely have a harder time demonstrating proficiency if the math problems they are seeing are pretty new to them so that brings up a good question how did our students in the master initiative do this is the first time it's the first class the class of 2023 that experienced the math initiative and once we saw our math results the first question that came to mind was so how did our Juniors perform who participated in the math initiative so we spoke with our colleagues at Stanford of course again about augmenting the study that they had conducted to see if assignment into the algebra one initiative made a difference they found a substantial positive effect of the math

120initiative on the achievement of students who otherwise would have been placed in algebra readiness Stanford believes this is likely because these students have been able to pursue a more advanced course progression throughout High School in addition the groups all groups enrolled in the algebra one initiative had a higher average s-back results than peers not assigned to the initiative therefore they did not detect any evidence of harm from assignment to this initiative on the higher achieving students in our randomized sample and I have that statement right here from soon to be Dr huffiger Who is also in the audience should you have any questions about this particular analysis so what and then now what so let me go with the so what our findings suggests that student achievement results at Sequoia have been and remain inequitable

121however through efforts such as the math initiative efforts to increase reclassification of our English Learners and the implementation of the El master plan our district is focusing more attention and resources on Equity this focus is showing greater positive impact on the historically low achieving groups and is not resulting in lower achievement for the historically High achieving groups this indicates a meaningful opportunity to close the achievement Gap now what but we're in the process of creating a pilot template to send home to families about the fall 2022 ICA results and building training modules for the teachers to examine the ICA and the S back results and identify areas to focus on during classroom instruction as stated earlier we have a laser-like district-wide focused on reclassification for a long-term English learners and we are working hard to

122ensure our duly classified students that is our El students with disability have the best opportunities to reach their full text their full potential for reclassification as well the El and spread departments are strongly collaborating to bring this to fruition further we have been undergoing a review of our literacy intervention and support programs and evaluating our current offerings for long-term English Learners as well as students with disabilities to assess their access to a broad course of study we are in the process of a robust implementation of the El master plan approved last year including ELD and LEP curriculum development and instructional support for our newcomers and lastly in alignment with the latest addition to our lcap we are investigating new data platforms to engage in real-time analysis to support all of our efforts and meet our

123goals in summary we plan to continue our focus and attention on equity and to monitor our progress along the way um well then thank God thank you very much any comments and questions from board members Rich I'll take you up on your offer of a little more explanation about how to read that chart that had the lines and the circles and I wasn't sure about the X and Y axis so just a little more about what that's showing us sure I'll advice to explain it she was the name oh okay yeah sure sure so um each of these points uh represents a uh coefficient from the regression that we ran to analyze the results of assignment to the initiative versus assignment to the control group on this s back outcome so um there were three

124different groups that students could have been assigned to if they weren't in the initiative right they would have been students who were already going to be in algebra 1. so if you look along the x-axis right there that distinguishes these three comparison groups right and this would have been in their freshman year and then they could have been in that algebra one group with support and they could have been an algebra Readiness but instead we have all these students who are grouped together into just the initiative sections so this is giving us the coefficient on the treatment indicator interacted with each of those groups so for the first two points right here we don't see a statistically distinct effect of assignment to the initiative versus the control group so if we look or we could

125oh sure point would um nope I'm going to point over here okay so for these two groups uh we don't see a statistically different um outcome on the s-pac versus students who were in just south Iran or Algebra 1 of support but not in the initiative uh and the bars here are indicating a 95 confidence interval so when we do uh when we do a test for significance we want to be uh 95 confident that there is no overlap between these two distributions we don't see this for those two groups but we also don't see that at this point right here which is just the mean difference in achievement so just controlling for some important features like college students were randomized within each campus which is something that we do in our analysis and why

126this doesn't look exactly the same as just looking at the raw scores between the two groups of students after we've done that we get that the coefficient is in this case looks like about eight points on the scale score I also did a version that had standardized that F back score and we end up with uh the same interpretation it's just that this is maybe more interpretable since we've already been looking at the stores in terms of the Salesforce so neither this nor this are different from zero which means that the students in the control group the students the treatment group uh did about the same there was no harm done but for our third group over a year which of those students who would have been placed in algebra Readiness in ninth grade but

127we're in such placed in the initiative um we see that they did about uh 28 which is about a 28 scale Four Points uh effect size in terms of the difference between these immunities versus the students not in the initiative and because there's no overlap in those confidence card right here it's specifically distinction um if you standardize this it's about Point communicated equations and if you think about it in terms of the Statewide distribution of achievement on the S back uh it's like moving a student from about the 20th percentile which is where on average visit 28th percentile which is in terms of the Statewide distribution kind of represents the least frogging in terms of student learning of quite a few things within the states and the two groups you're comparing are the 2019 test

128and the 2022 tests or different students who were all here in 2022 but and how did you pick because were there some students that were not put in the program and then were they randomly chosen okay literally randomly chosen the first year that we started the math on athletes who are interested in part of it and so then we completely randomly assigned students who would have been placed into algebra Readiness as well as algebra with support and then just plain algebra across the sections that were both a part of the math initiative that year and not a part of a math initiative that year so these are all students who were in that freshman class and it's comparing how kids who were part of the math initiative fared compared to students who were not part

129of the math initiative that's it anyone else thank you nothing else just commented one grateful for the board's work on that I think that's helpful too thankful for the report because in spite of what Bonnie said about not over Reliance upon one test measure I I think there are lessons here that are useful for the board to see and the final comment and I want to make was thank you for the collaboration with Stanford um because that represents a lot of work that's that we might have been able to do internally um but it was great to have that support thank you thank you thank you Chris I I had a fair amount of email conversation with Bonnie and Diana and um that was strongly reflected in the way the presentation was made so I

130appreciate the way that um you you use my my thoughts and perspectives on this and uh and I think my comments have been taken well thank you sorry sorry I called you Chris I know you're Alan I've worked with you a while okay anything else no thank you very much for that presentation all right moving down you're done right uh 12.2 Kip all right first of all I want to thank our guests who are with us from Kip this evening they have now been with us for the last two and a half hours so sorry sorry multiple laps okay I am not sure at this point if Chris has had more sheet cake or soft pick it's pretty close so we were supposed to have with us this evening Joel Petrillo who's at Portillo excuse

131me who's the head of schools the school leader for KIPP but he is out this week with an unforeseen event and so he is being um represented by three of Kip's own so I want to welcome to learn from them through their report Kris coppolilo who is the managing director Thomas Ryan who's the school leader manager and Melissa Salgado director of community engagement thanks so much board members for having us uh just a quick administrative note the school leader at Kip Esperanza High School is now Dr Christian Miley um who we are filling in for because he is unexpectedly absent um my name is Chris kobalillo I'm the managing director of growth advocacy and Community engagement at KIPP Northern California um and we are pleased to tell you tonight about the kip Esperanza high school

132story about our students about our team our approach to this challenging and worthy work and the community we're building at Esperanza um just a note in the lead-up to this meeting we sent you both the slides that are will be projected here oh maybe not we sent you a set of slides um are those able uh board members to be rejected even if it's just a PDF that would be helpful as we're investigating I'll um wow this is fascinating it just shows up in front of you that's really cool um fantastic um and as we're pulling those up thank you very much um we sent you both these slides and our Kip Northern California Impact report um we will speak to the work solely at Esperanza tonight um but offer the report for contacts on

133our work in the broader region and of course welcome your questions to that end okay fantastic wow okay I won't even touch it uh or should I okay I can fantastic thank you this is great um so here here's our overview um so who are we Kip Esperanza High School is as a public charter school free public and open to all students our school opened our doors in Fall 2020 following a unanimous approval of our petition from this board in September 2019. we pursued the kip Esperanza High School petition largely in response to the wishes of our families at Kip Valiant and Kip excellencia to K-8 charter schools in Menlo Park and uh part of me in Menlo Park and Redwood City respectively so that our high school so that our students could continue their

134learning experience at a kip School through their high school years Central to that experience is our Educators unwavering belief that all students can succeed in college when provided with rigorous college preparatory education and a wide range of supports and as we will describe Esperanza is doing just that we've come a long way in the last two and a half years I'm from working with students virtually to developing an on-site academic culture to the creation of clubs and Community spaces and we're certainly on a growth trajectory growing in academic proficiency growing our grade level offerings growing our school culture so who are our students a little bit here our Scholars are overwhelmingly as you see categorized as socioeconomically disadvantaged meaning that they receive free or reduced lunch or neither of their parents graduated from college 20

135of Esperanza students have an IEP and accordingly qualify for special education services 39 of our Scholars are currently multilingual Learners 53 have reclassified and all of our students identify as students of color overwhelmingly uh being latinx at 93 of our students as well identify a language other than English as their primary language uh these percentages of students with disabilities socioeconomically disadvantaged students and multilingual Learners exceed both district and state averages which I mentioned not to invite a value judgment but solely to provide context on where we are in the community our student demographic data demonstrates that we're living out the commitment that we refer to in our Charter to provide opportunities for traditionally underserved students of our one of our five School values board members is identity we know that part of developing an excellent

136School climate is enabling our students to see shared identities with faculty members and I want to tell you a little bit about our team because to that end over half of our teachers are people of color and the same goes for our administrative team uh in an encouraging early data point for the school Esperanza last year scored in the 98th percentile Nationwide on instructional culture index a metric Kip uses to gauge teacher confidence in the vision expectations and commitment to instructional Excellence at a school site ICI is a strong predictor um teacher retention and improved student outcomes so in the absence of State assessment data we are encouraged by this data point just as a reminder we have yet to test a cohort of our students because we grow year over year I'll turn it

137over to my colleague Tom Ryan and to talk a little bit about our instructional culture foreign thank you Chris um again my name is Tom Ryan I'm the school leader manager for Kip Esperanza which means I um work pretty closely with Dr Miley who is the school leader and prior to this I served as the principal of the KIPP San Jose high school for 10 years so in terms of how our staff work with our students the core ingredients are listed up here but just to name them providing a rigorous curriculum instruction uh college for all model supports through mental health Staffing along with electives and clubs and sports that round out our students academic experience I'm going to speak more to the College and Career for all approach on the next slide so I'm

138first going to focus on the socio-emotional learning that we provide on campus all of our students are enrolled in advisory it's a class that's built in into the daily schedule and it's here where teachers really Foster relationships deeper relationships with students through both academic and SEL check-ins we do have an SEO curriculum that's called sewn to grow and that curriculum is grounded in the five SEO competencies in addition to that we do have a full-time College I'm sorry full-time mental health counselor on campus to provide supports for students um given that we are only in our third year we do not have state assessments this will be the first year that our students will be taking the S back um but I would like to share more about the ways that we support our students

139um so in terms of our support for our multilingual Learners we do offer um two ELD classes one is designed specifically for newcomers and then a second course is provided for students who have taken at least a year of ELD but we've identified as that would definitely continue to benefit from explicit language instruction um in terms of our staffing uh over 50 percent of our staff are bilingual in English and Spanish um which uh definitely helps during instruction as needed um and we do offer multiple levels of Spanish um to help our students to con continually develop um their Proficiency in Spanish language as well um in terms of our support for students with disabilities as Chris mentioned 20 of our students do have IEPs we have an inclusion model with a co-teaching approach so

140all of our math and English courses do have a co-teaching model that's LED both by the Gen educator as well as an education specialist um in addition to that we offer a math and reading lab for identified 9th and 10th graders who need additional supports in those subjects uh and then separate from that um for students who fall on the moderate severe on the autism spectrum we offer a specialized teaching program and this year we have two students in ninth grade that are participating in that to speak specifically to our push around college career and beyond all of our English math history and science classes use what we call the AP for all curriculum which has been created through the kip Foundation by some of our highest performing teachers throughout the entire network and really

141the purpose of this curriculum is to prepare students that if if they so choose to to matriculate into AP courses as they advance in grade levels last year was the first year that we offered AP course with AP World History and 30 percent of students took it last year uh this year in our third year now we are offering uh English language world history Studio Art and U.S history in the AP a pre courses and that will continue to expand next year as we grow to a full School um the last piece I wanted to speak to is our Kip forward support which essentially this is the college career and Beyond arm of our organization and this lives out on our on our campus and that all of our 11th graders take a course entitled

142Junior seminar which is really grounded in Career College and other post-secondary path exploration uh and then as 12th graders next year there's a course specifically um it's called senior seminar and it's really designed to provide our seniors guidance in the college application process financial aid process whatever post-secondary path they're choosing to take that they have that support with a a teacher and that's built into the daily schedule and then upon graduation all of our students who graduate from a KIPP High School are assigned a counselor who follows them through their first two years of their post-secondary path and then beyond that that resource is available if choose if if students choose to continue to um want it so at this point I'll hand it over to Melissa who will talk more about community on campus

143sorry they're very tall so my name is Melissa Salgado I'm the director of advocacy and Community engagement so I work really closely with our families specifically and our partners at KIPP Esperanza so in addition to the rigorous academic culture at Esperanza we have found ways to bring our community on campus so we're really proud sorry let me move this a little bit very proud there it is to work uh with locally based Community organizations who support student learning and parent engagement so two of our school values as mentioned earlier one of them was mentioned earlier are identity and community and the organizations that we have partnered with uh really do support and are very much aligned with that um with both values our partners regularly engage with our students during lunch uh boys and girls

144club has been there almost like three times a week since we opened up back in person so it's been really really great to see all of our partners during lunch and also during our weekly assemblies for students that we host every I think it's a change from Thursday to Wednesday now but we also engage they also engage our family during copy with the principal and our kit Family Association meeting which is sort of like a PTA meeting um a few examples of our Partnerships that I want to highlight today is epicenter they host enrichment programming for our kids students at their facilities once a week which includes music production photography yearbook art and cooking which is super exciting um all of the content is code delivered not only by epicenter stuff but in collaboration with

145our Kip stuff so that has been a really exciting partnership that is new this year um another example I want to just highlight is job training we have a formal partnership with job train so together we built a referral system to support kid families in accessing available programs and resources that job train is able to provide and last but not least and again this is these are just three examples of many we've also partnered with Nuestra Casa which they have been really encouraging our students in a Civic engagement and they they've conducted presentations during our leadership class and have also driven nonpartisan voter registration drives to pre-register our students who are 16 and over and are eligible to register so again these are just a few examples and I'm happy to share more information on

146the other Partnerships that we have via maybe send you an email with that information um so I have worked firsthand with our founding families and students in designing kippus bronza and three year this was three years ago as you all remember um the design included events so families really chose like what events they wanted to host on campus students events students wanted to hold host on campus so we're really excited that we were able to do some of that in person this year um just because of you know the pandemic happened right as we were opening um and so some of these are just pictures of the events that we've hosted including sporting events we were able to open those up to our families which is really exciting and on the side you see a

147picture of our events that we recently hosted Dia de los Muertos where we opened the our doors to our community students and families um and to celebrate a very important tradition for many of the families that we have on campus um stuff also hosted students for movie evenings and pictured here on the bike is one of our students making a milkshake on a bike blender which is very fun um and uh this was during one of our movie nights so so these again are just a few examples of the way Esperanza has been able to bring their Community together on campus and invite others so we cannot wait to continue to host more where of course we'd love to host all of you and that is all for today thank you thank you board members

148and superintendent we welcome your questions and we didn't leave with this so uh just congratulations once again uh on on getting your Wednesday night back Wednesday nights back or those that you so choose yeah because we've heard heard you'll be here again we welcome your questions okay thank you so much and you're lucky to be here on the night we have cake right I hope I'm waiting for any questions Chris I think they may have paid for the cake and having to wait through all that those tributes and things like that um thank you for the report it's great to hear hear from Kim um the original petition to us suggested that there you showed enrollment projections of approximately 180 in the entering class and at this point you would have over 500 students I

149think in your slides you show us you currently have 200 in something um what's have your projections or your projections changing now what's your and let me also preface it by saying I know opening new schools is hard and getting your first students in there is very hard I think you come in with the advantage of Kip Awareness on a national level but it's still hard but I think it's good for us to know what's what's happening with the student enrollment projections yeah absolutely I'll take this one unless my colleagues would like to speak it so um so the direct answer your question is yes projections um will change somewhat um we opened our school in a pandemic and so in the in the in the heart of the pandemic and so some of the

150recruitment activities you would typically take take on we were simply unable to do um the the foundation for the school is really um enrollment that results from matriculation from our existing middle schools and uh and that's that really Remains the focus our um our current enrollment is um is almost entirely made up of students that have matriculated from either kept Valley Edge or kippax Valencia um and and on to Kip Esperanza um and our Focus there is is really to continue um I think as much as we want to continue to develop Partnerships with other with other schools and members of the community our Focus will remain on ensuring that our students can matriculate um into our school and so we have some internal work to improve our matriculation processes um and our matriculation numbers

151quite frankly but um but the core of who makes up our school um is I think exactly what is what we what we committed to in our Charter if not numerically uh where we would hope it was and you know to be honest like that we as you all well know we're funded on Ada it's our it's our goal to grow our enrollment I guess the the point for me is the communication is going to be important because the numbers you have affect the numbers that we're serving in the district and and so I I would think our district is interested in knowing the change in your projections might be helpful to us in our planning process the only other point I wanted to make was about Communication in general and wondering even though you

152operate with huge amount of Independence as defined by Charter law there are times when I think it's probably important for our district to contact you or for you to contact us and so I wanted to be assured that we have those points of contact in place and that that's accessible on both sides certainly well first of all we look forward to working with staff around enrollment projections that's certainly something that we can do um points of current point of contact at the school site is Dr Christian Miley um I will we'll also leave our contact information with board members this evening we did have some difficult quality our previous School leader matriculated or matriculated from our previous School leader transitioned out after last year so we're operating with a new school leader um in this

153in this school year uh but we'll be certain to leave you with the accurate contact information of course um I just want to also add like we are definitely I do a lot of our matriculation work at least this year I haven't started so we are very much in contact with uh folks during like address verification ensuring that we are um you know really working together with the district to make sure that we are following the processes that are expected of us and so there's multiple contact people uh persons at uh kiv that are definitely in contact with different members of the board I mean sorry of the district nothing the board wants the contact thank you very much I appreciated your report which there's some sort of following up on Chris's line can you

154just comment how how many students could you fit in the facility that you have now that's a great question I actually don't know that I can answer that do you think you could yeah um currently it would be right around 400 um at the you have 400 students so the earlier projection was assuming additional facilities there would there would need to be some adjustment to the building um in terms of yeah the 400 with the yeah I um we are actually planning on construction during the summer to be able to expand that number so there's construction happening on campus the summer of 2023 in order to fit more students which it would be fitting the projected number that was in the initial well just a note to new board colleagues I believe we have an

155agreement in place a sort of complicated nature but essentially that Aspire covers its own facility needs okay yes I'm sorry it's okay yeah and it goes back to Aspire yeah yeah because we partnered with the building that Aspire you and so while we have a direct interest in understanding how many students in the community are at Kip um we don't have a financial interest in the facilities requirements they have to meet that but we're still happy to share information if that's helpful no I wasn't I was thank you I was that's like going there I was just curious about the capacity yeah and the number so and then so you mentioned that almost all the students that you have at the site were at your K-8 sites can you kind of comment on what percent

156of your K-8 sites is it almost all of them that continue through or some portion of your k-8s coming to various of our schools or or do you have any insight into that can you can you just clarify your question so it sounds like all of the students are almost all the students at your high school were in your k-8s correct what percent of your k-8s go to other places um those two kids specifically or the ones that would feed this High School yeah um I could I could not name that number for you right now we would be happy to do that almost all or is like half or no idea it is not almost all uh at this point a significant number of our students at KIPP Valiant and KIPP Excellency to choose

157other options at this point I'm just curious what is your pitch to them as to why they should stay in kit versus come to our schools yeah I think definitely one of the strengths of the program is the call the support that students get regardless of their post post-secondary pathway um so we essentially have to call next year we'll have two College counselors on that campus um so if we're looking at ratio of students to College counselors It's really it's excellent um and the communication with families in terms of that whole process is really strong as well so I think in terms of the level of support knowing that we're committed for students to have the choice of what they want to do when they graduate with us I I'm confident saying that they will

158not be better supported anywhere else within a public school just in terms of that one-on-one support um so I think that's definitely a draw and then I know that's what what families uh are looking for as well and you comment how do you how do you logistically do I think you're right that you track students through their first two years of college and how do you do that do you they commit to send you data or something yeah so there's prior to students leaving graduating they meet their advisors before they leave to establish an initial relationship and they do then provide what their contact information is going to be it's like the advisor's job they keep that student on their yeah three years correct okay thank you Chinese thank you for your presentation I have

159a couple of questions um I wanted to know some Charters don't actually have students that live in our serving area um and so that's my question for you all for the number of students that you have how many actually live in our serving area we can hold a specific numbers for you I can um I have a mental picture of of this via zip code um the the answer is like the vast vast majority of our students attend school within the service area at least within at the immediate surrounding zip code our enrollment is in the low 220s I would put the number [Music] um at 160 uh in the immediate area with most uh in in uh proximal zip codes as well very few coming from um significantly outside that area I would love

160those numbers and if you could give me the ZIP codes that would be helpful um the next thing I had a question about um was and I think our equity and diversity committee would would appreciate this question but you have 98 Latino which is great and you had or 97 something like that but only like three percent other there's lots of data out there about when that's a very small percentage how kids feel not included whether you're doing it or not they may not feel included tell me a little bit more about how you help kids feel included when they're not the majority The Advisory class that all students all students are enrolled into an advisory class and that really serves as the family for students on campus it's also the direct point of contact

161with families that that teacher is really working to establish those relationships for students to have that close-knitive classmates that they really get to know well and that group of students stays together over their four years [Music] um so speaking from experience very much by the time those kids are seniors they really feel a connection with each other um and ideally that count that teacher has also stayed with them for those four years to be able to create those relationships to to real to feel a sense of belonging on campus the other thing that we do um they're called pulse surveys we do them once a month with all of our schools and the topics rotate but belonging is one of the topics of questions that we pull students with and then I look at that

162data with with Dr Miley um and then we often then work with a one of the assistant principals who oversees culture on campus to think about what can we shift within the advisory curriculum um to continue to grow and whatever the data is telling us okay um I have two more questions and I'll be I'll be done um you do something called AP for all you said it's your curriculum that you develop the uh the kip Foundation um which is kind of the national body for KIPP Schools um they identify they've identified teachers over the years that have helped build this curriculum out so at this point nearly every course subject there is a line curriculum uh including the regular AP courses as well okay and how do you manage kids um students being able

163to take some of your AP how do you encourage them to do so so they may not come from your Elementary School they may come from other elementary schools so they may not be used to the kip way or whatever the case may be so how do you encourage kids to take the AP classes and how do you support them I mean the messaging definitely is that the courses that that let's say the ninth grade English 10th grade English we essentially call them pre-ap AP AP for all courses and their backs backwards mapped so that the skills that they're going to need to take let's say an AP English Language are going to be spiraled up from 9th to 10th and then into the 11th grade year and in terms of investment we do we

164also do um inner in interim assessments uh on a quarterly basis that are tied to the highest stake standards um that eventually then show up in the AP courses um and it's just it's it's the messaging from staff that everyone can do this um and regardless of whether college is your ultimate Choice uh you know we know that these skills are going to be helpful regardless of what your next PATH is okay um one last question well first of all I'd like to come for a visit who do I talk to about that uh doc okay so if you can give me your cart thank you I'd love to come see you all sooner than later um the next thing is Judy Lai used to work with you all um and I know she's moved

165on to UCSF doing some work um and she shared with me that she's been doing a project with you all around mental health with your teachers yes I'm actually part of the working group too yes please tell me more about that and how because she tried to explain it to me and I was like my best how does that make a difference okay if her explanation was not I don't know if mine is any better um well we uh are partnering with Lira who is providing um 12 sessions for free to all staff and teachers um all in our in our region um and so what we're doing at a core a core group of us are really leaning into peer-to-peer support groups so really encouraging like as a regional staff member really supporting our

166other Regional staff members to like ask questions um even like visit the site talk to someone at Lira just to explore options of um any Mental Health Services and supports that they might be able to access it's an amazing benefit as someone who like tried looking for the therapists two years ago through Kaiser I think I wish this would have been an option back then so I'm happy to share more and I have the slide deck and all the things that that would be helpful but it's a really a big Initiative for us especially as like as we saw like the pandemic really highlighted a lot of mental health issues and and just inequities within our student population and our staff and so this is an effort to support her stuff further um because if

167we're good we can be there for our babies yeah a lot extended question I really like the the Lira program I know I have them as part of my my husband's benefits and I know that they recruit it by Pac buypac therapists specifically and they were one of the only EAP programs that were able to do that so I was very excited yeah I heard that you guys were partnering with them the last thing is um thinking about that that particular project I know you're not Judy so I don't feel like you need to present all this was there a change I'm not for sure if retention was an issue kind of what has been the outcome of that particular project so this is the first year that we are kicking that off so we

168the only data point I can like tell you right now is at one of our schools that we're piloting this the peer-to-peer group support um is uh kid bridge and 50 of our stuff has already engaged and are looking whether to receive services or not um uh the peer-to-peer support group is to really encourage stuff to just learn from other folks who are going through similar things and and really accessing the information I have other data points that I can't remember I'm happy to share it with you um but we don't have the full scope of how this program has impacted our staff yet yeah so one thing I I hope our our new board will do is that we will hopefully um like I would like to have a learning a learning community to

169talk about some of these issues because our cure kids are marrying the same kids everywhere and I'm reading data that my current trustee friend had provided Chris around some of the pandemic and mental health and some of the long-term issues and so it's not a one-time just do this and everything will be okay it's going to take us a while to get out of that and because we were responding to a public health issue um that we know that this wasn't our fault that it just happened to us and now we need just need to be responsible and take responsibility for ourselves and figure out how to respond in a very open way so I'd love for us to have some type of learning circle um to be able to share how we are supporting

170our staff um because kids aren't going to be well unless our staff are well exactly yeah regardless of where you are where you're classified or where your credentialed it really doesn't matter yeah exactly no thank you for for sharing that and Judy Lee is actually still with us oh good yeah in that in that capacity so she I will let her know that we need to connect further with with all of you to share more information and really talk through how we can support our staff and for my colleagues Julie Lee is a public health health expert and she is running a clinic out of UCSF around health and education and social determinants of health and how to really support the people on the front line so thank you thank you for your questions we

171do have one public comment from South Lake Nori um in terms of the course subjects um the AP for all curriculum is what nearly all of our high schools at this point have adopted um outside of that there is like when we talk about electives those are largely uh teacher-created curriculum um so depending on the course really dictates the degree of teacher creativity over that curriculum with that said even with the apoc curriculum um I mean we definitely emphasize for teachers to make it their own um it's not just a canned curriculum um but there's definitely certain things that we're driving towards with that okay thank you very much I think that's probably it so we appreciate your presentation thank you for being here we do want to visit so we look forward to that

172you're all you're all invited yeah yeah we're open yeah you're all invited please come by thank you very much I'll tell Dr Miley uh later not tonight it might be too late so much thank you all right so now moving on to item 12.3 update from the equity diversity and inclusion partners and thank you guys for being so patient oh yes thank you and uh I think Bonnie forgot to include me in that cake contest so I just wanted to kick this off mostly uh Taja Henderson our Equity diversity and inclusion coach alongside Pablo Aguilera who won't be with us this evening she's going to be presenting on the work that's being done so far and the reason we wanted this presentation to be this board meeting was actually for you trustee Thompson and for

173you trustee Sarver just knowing that this has been a Cornerstone of the work that both of you have brought through to to and through the district over many many years and wanted to make sure that before you left even though I'm sure you'll be tuned in next week in incoming board members that you do get a chance to hear where we are with the work where we are with the plan for this year because it has been so close to both of your hearts and and we thank you for that so with no further Ado I will present Taja Henderson to present where we are with the equity and diversity and inclusion work greetings thank you um so Grace Lee Boggs credited for her work with the Asian American movement she says we need to

174discern Who We Are and expand our humanness and sacredness that's how we change the world which happens because we will be the change I know those of us who are still here tonight truly believe that we will be the change and I appreciate you for your perseverance and for being here I indeed am Taja Henderson um and I am so thankful that I have a partner in this work Pablo Aguilera um because there are many districts where they have only one person who is championing the work of equity diversity and inclusion and Dr Williams had the foresight to make sure that it was both Pablo and I um continuing the work that we had started in this District when she created the space um and there are many districts that don't even have anyone um

175in this space to Champion the efforts of equity diversity and inclusion before I fully begin I am going to just take a pause and do a land acknowledgment as a black woman I hold on to the African saying of Saint Kofa Sankofa means that I look back and I remember what my ancestors have been through to guide and Lead my steps forward as an non-indigenous woman I must honor the land and the people of the ramatash aloni tribe always remembering that it is their land and it is their tribal ancestry land that I live and work on always remembering that when I push forward Equity diversity and inclusion practices and policies that I have to remember that it is my responsibility to uplift all communities and make sure that I do not um cause any

176harm so I keep that and hold that intention and I encourage you as you move through your daily lives how will you remember and honor the land that we are on and the rheumatoch alone people I'll give you a quick rundown of what I'll present some of it will be about coherence and communication and then I will do an equity update and what that Equity update it will be about what's been going on and then also to present to use some Equity initiative initiatives that are going to lead our work this year so in terms of coherence and communication when Dr Williams created the space for Pablo and I um oh and I forgot a little bit of backstory about Pablo um so the last week I've been out um dealing with my daughter who

177had covid um and currently Pablo has been able to avoid covid but he caught the flu um and so he has been on zoom and everyone has been checking in with me like Taja Pablo's here is he presenting the Pablo's here is he presenting and I told him I was like Pablo get off the Doom and rest and then he finally sent me a text message and he was like the NyQuil kicked in um so he finally logged off soon um so thanks for letting me add that little piece in that I forgot um just to give you some backstory while right now it is truly only me doing this um but there are all of us doing this work so the governance goal recognizes that Equity requires strategic and sustainable action in our work

178and our vision we're saying that to enhance the district's goal of equity we're striving to build Brave spaces and in these Brave spaces it's our responsibility to examine the root causes of all forms of racism in our district and in our schools in order to do that we are taking a multi-prong approach um again this isn't the work of just one person this is the work of our entire community and for our entire community that means all of the district office departments that means all of the school sites and communities and working together our focus is on culturally and Community affirming practices in order to improve student learning and outcomes and I believe that's the ultimate goals within Equity is that we want to make sure that students are learning and that outcomes increase especially

179after seeing our aspect results um so then it highlights the need of this work so let me talk to you a little bit about what's been going on um since we started the work we initiated district-wide Equity diversity and inclusion councils I believe these councils that every High School's campus there is some level of a committee that is in operation alongside of that we hold monthly Gatherings with Dr Williams with trustee Thompson and with trustee Stevenson um and with those meetings the school of Representatives just come in and give a report about the initiatives that they are carrying on at their school sites and when we talk about challenges and also do a lot of thought partnering um in order to change practices and policies that happen at schools and then also across the district

180we previously were meeting after work when everyone was tired low energy levels so we changed the practice up this year and in changing the practice we are going to have quarterly Retreats um and actually there is a quarterly Retreat that will be held tomorrow for this quarter where we will call in again the superintendent um trustee Stevenson that means that we have one opening and we are going to talk about um who would like to be the next trustee to come in um into this space with us and into the community in order to deal with issues relating directly with Equity diversity and inclusion we launched the affinity group fellowship and you heard several people call in for the public comments um in order to talk about the benefits of the Affinity groups and I'll

181talk about that in the next slide we know that our district passed the resolution centering equity in which we committed to the practice of continually examining itself to ensure that remake we remain in open and inclusive community that was the commitment that our district made the commitment to carry on this work we have increased by pop leadership with our efforts you can see that there is an overall increase in bypoc representation at all levels in our district we've hired more bypoc Educators more bypoc teachers we have more bipack school leaders if you look at Kenyatta Middle College if you look at the new hiring of the vice principal at epaa if you look at the principal at website so we know that we've got increased by pop representation even with our superintendent but that doesn't

182mean that the work is done that we need to continually increase by pop representation to make sure that it meets the population of our students and I'll talk about that more because that's some of our initiatives these are the initiatives and they're embedded within the slides so I'm just going to skip this one one of our first initiatives carrying on is the use um of affinity groups when kit made their presentation and they were talking about what they do for that three percent of students in order for them to feel supported and involved in their school an affinity group is a safe special place for those students to come together to talk about their experiences of what they have and what they truly need to create that space in our district we are also creating

183that in the use of affinity groups so with affinity groups it we are building the capacity of educators to affirm and to celebrate our lived experiences and the unique part is that all of this is built in to eradicate racism in our school um so regardless of which affinity group I'm gonna go here that um Educators Take A Part in it's all about eradicating racism so that we can make sure that student learning is happening in culturally affirming ways and Community sustainable ways in classes um and then also for educators themselves so we have the affinity group spaces for both bypoc Educators and then also for a white anti-racist groups so you heard Chris and you've heard Caroline Coleman talking about the need for all of us to take space in working to eradicate racism

184so it's not just the work of biopathic Educators but it's also the work of our white co-conspirators or white allies in this work to understand how can we all collectively eradicate racism which then creates the barriers where students often feel that they don't belong in schools where implicit biases come in and it labels and categorizes students in a way which inhibits their ability to be successful in schools some of the overall benefits of these Affinity groups is to increase morale and a sense of belonging and retention you heard Jenny Ortiz talked about that increased sense of morale because the racial Affinity groups are working at Woodside and the other piece about the purpose of these Affinity groups is that when building the capacity of Educators to carry and to hold these spaces you're also building

185the capacity of Educators to do this work this work is not easy this work takes it's a journey this work takes skill this work takes will and by Educators going through this fellowship and gaining this capacity um it lifts our entire Community up in terms of Recruitment and Retention I'm just going to share a little bit of information so bypop Educators make up only about 38 of our teaching staff here in the district whereas students make up 65 percent our certificated staff composition does not represent our Collective student body this phenomena didn't happen overnight it has deep historical Roots but we all have a responsibility to close that racialized Gap um and that is a goal that our board and our district has adopted realizing that we need to find ways in order to close

186that racialized Gap So within our strategies we do have that multi-prong approach in order to close the racialized gap so with that we have the bypoc student teacher pipeline more bypoc student teachers have been requesting to be placed intentionally with bipoc cooperating teachers the problem is however is that there are not enough current bipop cooperating teachers in order for the placements to exist or to happen so we are going to work on building a pool of bipok cooperating teachers um we've been in communication with teachers within our district bypoc Educators um who were saying that they are interested um in having more strategies to be successful cooperating teachers um often when the teacher preparation programs look for cooperating teachers it's not intentional so we are going to intentionally attract bipop Educators in order to close

187that gap of cooperating teachers who are bipod to make sure that bipoc student teachers coming into our district have that mentorship knowing that when bypoc student teachers come in or student teachers in general they often get hired first before anyone else coming in so this is one strategy in order to close that racialized gap between bypop Educators and students or to make sure that it represents I'm going to come back to that one because I'm going to do everything for retention and then come back and talk about the cultural grad celebration because Pablo and I had it set up that we were going to alternate so it wasn't one person talking the entire time but since it's just me I'm gonna do all of the pieces that relate to retention and then go back to

188that piece so with that um once we have bypoc student teachers and bipop teachers working within our district it's also important that we think about the way that our tips program the teacher induction program it presents its curriculum to be more culturally affirming and creating a space for bipok new teachers coming into our district to be seen to be valued oftentimes new teachers coming into our district they feel like they don't have space to speak up they feel like they don't have all of the necessary supports and tools when they come into the teacher Reduction Program so one thing that we are going to do is we are going to look at a an asset model where when teachers come in it's not about the deficit-based thinking about success for bypoc students it's not about

189putting the blame on the families putting the blame on the community um it's about really looking to see what are things that we can change structurally in order to support all students um and so we've been working with Bonnie um the other part about this multi-pronged approach is that we have been building relationships with the Departments and the districts so we've been working with ed services and we've been working with Human Resources we are student services and when we talk about coherence it's also about communication and things that we can all do collectively because we know that when we help the most marginalized students everyone will succeed I think there's one more then here's another initiative relating to the bipop recruitment um oftentimes this is what I hear a lot the reason why we don't

190have black teachers per se at karma is because nobody completed the survey or nobody did the application on edgewing we're saying that's not good enough that's not a good enough reason to say why we don't have bipoc Educators because no one is going on to Edge wine and filling out the application we need to be intentional we need to be intentional about the Partnerships we have with teacher preparation programs we need to be intentional about where those programs are located at we need to intentionally go out and recruit biopath Educators to come into our district um so when we talk about some of our initiatives and our strategies we are being very strategic about ways to increase the number of bypoc Educators in our district now I will go back and talk about the cultural

191Grand celebrations um I think the best Testament to the cultural grad celebrations um our folks right here with us now um so for the last 20 years our district um has had a black graduation ceremony previously it was called the black or Baccalaureate for black students it was initiated first by Demi Moore Washington and Dorothy Burnside um right that's how long it's been here for once they left the district um I stepped in and took it over if you have attended one of the black graduation celebrations I want you to just give a head nod you can put your hand up in the air as a testament to the joy and to the celebration of lived experiences for students who come from marginalized communities um especially for black students black students often survey after survey

192say that they experience the highest amount of racialized trauma and the lowest scores or lowest academic performance in our district and the cultural grad celebrations it changes the narrative the students have graduated from high school those 13 years this is an accomplishment it is something to be celebrated and something to be cherished it visibilizes students who are often unseen in our communities so our goal is to expand this our goal is not only to just have this for black students in our district but to make sure that all cultures are seen and so in order to do this we are going to create committees and give a blueprint of what's been done for the last 20 years with the black grad in order to build up that community-based in community celebration of academics and achievement

193and the other part that's really interesting and unique for the black bread it's centered on culture and it's centered on culturally affirming ways in which students have the opportunity to tell their story where families are seen and the community is able to come together so we are trying to enhance um things that are already happening in our district through expanding the cultural grad celebrations and I believe there are just two more four professional development um and a collab series intentionally we are trying to find ways um to have some differentiated PD especially for bypoc staff one example that I can bring to us is that we are going to have USC is going to do I think their last Workshop which is titled anti-blackness in our schools when the presentation about anti-blackness in the schools

194happens I feel that black staff should have a separate space in order to have that conversation about what anti-blackness looks like and so when we are talking about collaborating with the professional development department it is about trying to find new ways in order to support bypoc staff as a way to keep retention um and then we're also looking at ways for sustainable self-care when we talk about racialized trauma and making sure that teachers are centered and teachers needs are taken care of and then just to go back to the first one that I started with when I talked about what's going on um is that we are continuing these leadership Retreats um with a retreat happening tomorrow where our focus is to make sure that we are aligned with our Equity goals um in talking

195about the coherence and communication it provides that opportunity for sites representatives to come together um and to thought partner and to be strategic about the ways in which they are going to make sure that they have Equitable practices and policies and that is it thank you thank you very much for that very informative presentation I'm sure we have comments and questions Chinese thank you um I'm very excited to um see this project um as a parent of a six-month graduate of Menlo Atherton High School Hallelujah um that I um when I came to ma um actually my eighth grade year and Chris was President I came to the meeting where um you all were deciding that East Palo Alto would be coming to Ma um it wasn't the greatest meeting although all the administrators argued

196over us and said we want East Palo Alto here we didn't always have community members who wanted us at the school so coming into this Camp into the school I realized not growing up here I couldn't believe it and so I had hopes and love for Sequoia because I heard so many great things about it but then I saw this other side um and actually started seeing it not because of the principle not because of the teachers but to start to see some things that bothered me um particularly around inclusion um especially going to a non-segregated school um and also having to deal with those issues myself being in the suburbs of Cincinnati so when I heard about this it actually um Simone and I have sat down to start to talk about how can

197students be more integrated into the school how can they have more friends across different neighborhoods how can their identity be cultivated their cultural identity how can we remove language like at risk most vulnerable marginalized those kinds of terms that actually reinforces negativity in kids so when I hear affirming when I hear go from a positive perspective um I think it's really important as far as like the Staffing piece of it it's important for kids to see others of all different levels doing great great work and we've heard it throughout throughout all the graduations no matter who you are um rather even talking to some of our new trustees about their own culture and really wanting to see themselves um or correct culture things that are in the book um and so I am happy to

198see that this is happening um for our community um especially after covet which was not only a medical condition it also was systems responding to a public health but there also was political polarization and conflict and some cultures got really impacted a little bit more than others what resulted in George Floyd and um Asian hate um and so this um calling to our district was really important because there is some historical um issues historical experiences I always call it as like having Graves with no no stones on them to name what has happened not to go back and say you know it didn't happen but to really say it happened let's name it let's move on and let's be better people better Community better better Educators better teachers whomever so when I think about what

199you all are trying to do um it actually warms my heart when I hear that um and think that it's very important for students to know others see them and the power of being seen the power of a voice um even as young people um and just wanted to thank you for that work um the last thing I wanted to ask a question about is I hope y'all are cluing the counselors and particularly bilingual Spanish-speaking therapists given some of the safety issues that are happening given some of um some of the things that are happening in our environment because it's not just in our school we actually have seen a couple of violent things that have happened in Redwood City and I'm looking at Carrie I'm San Carlos and in real the city so I

200I think our what's happening in our schools are possibly happening is just a response to the environment that's around us as well and so love for us to continue to think about our psychologists our speech there our speech maybe our speech there maybe that's our job description I don't know counselors so that we can better respond to those young young people so that all our kids are safe and we actually have some students who are dealing with stuff at home and you would never know in their AP kit and um and they're taking these AP courses and they're dealing with stress they're dealing with how am I going to bring honor to my child to my family how I'm going to continue my path to whatever College my family and I have identified how am

201I going to keep my mental health together show up every day and so I think it's important that we could that we think of also this as how do we support the mental health of our students through affirming who they are so thank you thank you trustee Stevenson and Glenda is here with us and the counseling I believe have the most by pop representation um across our district and so that is one area of growth and achievement is the representation that happens with our counseling departments we do have a community comment so I'm going to go to that and I'll come back to the trustees uh Jeremy Ray hello can you hear me yes yes thank you for letting me sneak in I'm actually here as a result of being recruited um by a black

202teacher who unfortunately I have to say is no longer a request because of the stress and um weight of some of the things that happen in real terms of equity so I just wanted to make a comment on what Equity means to me and I think we have fantastic sentiments and efforts towards Equity yet we still in many ways operate within systems and structures that have already existed and this places the mentally taxing burden of unpaid that didn't work on existing roles that are already pushed to the limit in attempts to get the work done without significant economic investment and that reality leads to disappointments resentments stress and lower retention of very qualified and genuine staff for example if we want to improve sales in an organization to be successful we would improve operational efficiency

203the speed of how things get done and look at objective metrics and data to change core systems and policies is an organization and for a district we all understand that funds aren't unlimited so looking at those things um and having accountability maybe saving money and time and increasing morale and creating new Pathways for investment we could have couldn't have imagined before so I believe we can create a new branch in our district populated by people who have fresh ideas unique and diverse work experience both inside and outside of the school system and that group of people should have authority to change the structure of the school system apart but equal to the traditional top level departments and roles in terms of power and that would equate to more paid roles of authority and pairs the

204efforts of equity with necessary economic solution for those who do the work um as long as our goals of equity are framed and sent Within These existing systems delayed by the traditional operations policies and influence and without that adequate investment there's always going to be significant obstacles to implementing changes that lead to better outcomes for every everyone there's going to be difficulty in recruiting and retaining bypoc staff and representing bipod communities and paying for the work of equity and creating an environment where things get done quickly and efficiently is what attracts and retains Talent so and also as long as those roles remain limited within the district we create the rarely discussed problem of pitting bypoc staff against one another for those limited roles we approach solutions from The Limited perspective with fewer voices of

205diverse backgrounds when we actually need to expand the level of contribution and participation for example we wouldn't ask the sales for person will run the HR department or an accountant to design the marketing campaign or an HR person to manage the finances so I'd like to see the district Express that we value and want to invest in equity by paying more people in the district to do the work and then giving them true power and authority in the organizational hierarchy to recreate and transform the structure of our school system this would then allow staff and students in our system the true meaning of equity which is the ability to Simply exist in their roles and identities without additional burdens so that they can be their full best self thank you Abby Korman hi can you

206hear me yes hi thank you tonight's agenda spoke to the importance of equity work um in support of our students in so many ways I really appreciate Diana wilmot's presentation on our s back results and the commitment that I heard her make for our district um about having a focused attention on equity and monitoring its progress um that aligns with what Chris beatley Hagler spoke earlier about governance goal two of the board from this last iteration of the board thank you board members particularly trustee Sarver um and trustee Thompson thank you for your 13 years of commitment um Chris spoke earlier about governing school too from this board about analyzing our systems in terms of equity um and I am so dying I have a lot to say Diana wilmont's presentation spoke about equity for

207us in terms of our El reclassified students in particular um and as many of you know I'm an English teacher at Menlo Atherton but I teach English language Learners um meliss fed which I learned are duly classified students um and I heard trustee Stevenson you asked about bilingual Spanish-speaking therapists and that's something that we would love but I spoke to our mental health support specialist and she's understaffed we need more mental health supports in general and she has half the amount of space that she needs and so I think my main point tonight I mean I've saved all my comments for the end even though I had something to say after each person's presentation um is I'm really trying to Echo Jeremy's sentiments tonight about I really appreciate our verbal commitments to equity and I

208commend our district on everything we've done so far and superintendent Williams work and I'm asking us as Jeremy is and Tasha is and so many of us at our district are to now move financially in that direction as well what does it look like to change our systems and our structures and I believe that that's our next step I'm going to ask us to focus on investing internally as we have a lot of contracts and um we have a growing number of district office staff and I believe there's a way for us to be working together because we're in silos something that's uh this will be my last point something that's quite frustrating to me um as this teacher um in this classroom I I have English language Learners I have special education um students

209I have students who've suffered from the pandemic as I really appreciate everything trustee Stevenson said about around mental health and how we need to take responsibility for it even though it wasn't our fault I want these students this these are this is one student in my classroom who needs our financial resources investing in our current people to skill them up and really provide direct service to our students cutting you off I have to do it because I cut somebody else off today so I have to do it I'm so sorry Abby ah a really hard [Laughter] yes please and Abby send let me send your last thought to us tomorrow I'm so sorry to cut you off okay okay hopefully oh it's working today I'm so happy um yeah I would also like to agree

210with everyone else um I believe that equity and inclusion work is extremely important and as a student who has experienced um directly a lot of what we've been discussing um I would also like to address kind of the educator retention rate as well I've seen a lot of my bipoc Educators walk out um from stress and just from this overwhelming feeling of loneliness that I also feel in the classroom at times um and so kind of just helping them anticipate varying degrees of entitlement I would also say is important and I've faced that challenge coming to class every day throughout my school experience um and I would also kind of want to figure out a way to you know by highlighting culture affirming culture we're also putting a spotlight on it and helping students feel

211like they're not being examined and pulled apart and you know there's not a flashlight um and it's it's an overhead light and we're all looking on it on our papers together and just coming together in the classroom and not necessarily looking at the the one bypoc student in the classroom at least going to call a lot it can be kind of hard at times so yeah but I would just like to say I'd also appreciate the work that's been done so far thank you for your comments appreciate it okay Ellen so I want to thank you for this presentation it's very exciting to see concrete progress being made and new work structures and Personnel put in place to formally do the work and move things forward there's been comments about the talk of equity and

212the talk of equity has been there for a long long time before the 13 years ago that Chris and I came on this board um and what you showed us tonight was evidence of real structures and real work and real commitment and real resources going into making a difference and to me this is a time to really recognize that tension that we're always under of the recognition of urgency and The Continuous dissatisfaction that there is so much work to be done and in such a small sense of progress and yet at this point we're looking at concrete steps being put in place and and to me what I take out of it is is the need to have the the patients combined with the sense of urgency to see that yes we are making Headway

213and yes this work is taking us in a Direction to make big differences and we're seeing the places where we can measure our progress showing progress and also showing us how much more there is to do ahead and so I think the main thing I want to focus on at this point is to acknowledge and appreciate and congratulate you and the team on the work that is being done and the way that we are moving forward and to hope that I can help instill that sense of confidence that progress is going to continue and accelerate with with the work continuing to be done the right things are happening and what's critical is that we remain committed to them we continue to Resource them we've heard uh in some of the comments that there's there's much

214more need out there and we want to continue to be considering how we can meet more and more of it and keep making that difference uh but to me I really really appreciate this um confirmation that the wheels are in motion and progress is being made and the good talk is being converted into the walk and the work and I appreciate that very much so thank you you know you may I or Chris yes are you waiting for me to call on someone I actually will be briefing I have just two things uh I think Tasha indicated there's an opening for board member um serving with this group I want to provide encouragement to new board members Amy to board members who haven't had the chance of the past to carry into Rich to participate

215with this group um from personal experience I will tell you that it it just it builds awareness of this these issues in ways that are real and important and are learning for us and the the other wonderful thing is is it's an incredibly cons and this tribute to you and Pablo it's an incredibly constructive environment it's constructive and affirming um and so you go so board members I think will go away and sunny knows this with a sense of challenges in the district but the commitment of people willing to work on this in the promise so one wanted to provide encouragement to the new board to participate to Vive for participation in this the other is just to say thanks to Liz and to you Taj effort for giving the presentation you're right um I

216think both Al and I are grateful that it comes as the last report and last agenda item for this meeting so thank you you talked to that actually reminds me of something with Chris's comments we had talked before to board meeting that it's such an important committee it really should be the rotation of board members right because I feel that unless you think that's not a good fit it's something you guys can think about because you know so I've done a lot of personal training but I don't know as a group that we've had really profound training but being part of your the work you're doing would be profound training for us all um so anyway just something to think about yes I would so part of the work also is being in community and

217having relationships so rather than it being something like a quarterly rotation I could see a rotation being like a year commitment and then moving someone right so like if we had near commitments um to fully understand what's happening because you can't get it in just a three-hour session right that it takes time so and also a rotation could be disruptive I get that with some groups you want to have that consistency and people really get to know each other and we do ask for the the site representatives to do a two-year commitment yeah coming in because we do have rotation as well because hopefully they told you I really wanted to go I want to really be a part of it when can I be a part of it so I'll reach out but there's

218five new board members and well two of our newborn I mean five board members two new ones we'll talk together we'll all want to be on it how often and for how long do you guys meet we moved it to a quarterly system so it's every once every quarter and it's for three hours three or four times a year yes four times four times a year I'd like to just one applaud both you and Pablo for your work this is bold work and it takes courage to continue the course you started this work uh some years ago upon my arrival different folk came and said Dr Williams we need someone to lead Equity we need a director initially with a director and so as I observed both you and Pablo and then also your heart

219your commitment your knowledge to children to kids to staff to the work ideally it was the two of you who were naturally selected to lead this charge and I do know how both of you have wrestled with the work this year in a good space you have created a space for individuals to come in you have pushed you have challenged in the right way and I just want to say publicly that I appreciate you staying the course with this critical work and not allowing naysayers to distract you but continuing to focus on what is right for kids and what is right for the district that's going to make me transition to trustee uh Samantha what I want to say is that you broke my heart this evening you enlightened me but you also broke my

220heart when I hear a student say that they are challenged in the classroom and they have had to deal with what I call potential barriers to success and find ways to navigate through our instructional program I'm not necessarily in Partnership uh but what support possibly from home um because I do know you uh possibly from I know you have a strong support system but just being in an environment where you're not feeling connected or not feeling seen and not feeling heard and still showing up every day and achieving Beyond expectation on one end is great and on another end it reminds us of where we have much work to do and so I commend you Samantha and on behalf of Sequoia Union High School District I formally apologize to you and each and every student

221who comes to school every day and they feel disconnected unseen and unheard because that means we have not done our job well and so for that it has outlined that this Equity work wow sometimes it may get messy sometimes folks don't agree with it we have different perceptions and um ideas about what it is and what is to do we are not finished until each and every individual in this district has been elevated in community with respect and also great regard for the contributions that they make to our great district and so for that this evening I am proud conflicted fattened but also hopeful thank you okay anything else that's very well said um thank you thank you for being here and thank you for waiting around for such a while okay so two things

222have been two items have been eliminated from our agenda thank you who did that Chris yes so we're going to give closing comments I think closing we're done except for somebody might they might want to do closing comments I do okay I just want to um let you all know I went to the csba conference myself and Dr Williams sorry other folks couldn't go I didn't see Amy Amy's there Amy hey uh but she was representing brssd though so um but she was probably learning about high school stuff honorary suhsd person um starting on Friday um so I just wanted to give you all an idea of the csba conference the first year I went it was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone I was in a whirlwind didn't know anything all these

223people talking to me I'm like I was like overwhelmed time I kind of knew where the bathroom was I knew where the rooms were all that kind of stuff so I felt a little bit more comfortable as an introvert itself um and so I was able and people don't believe me but I am but I went to all these workshops um and I just didn't do what was interesting to me or fun I actually went to kind of what I think I we need um to grow as a governance team to get ideas from other people so I sent you all this information I sent it to the um the new board members as well there are these workshops called rounds two-way communication it is a tool that's used to instead of we you know

224continue to do all the Bonnie stuff the surveys the focus groups all that kind of stuff yes all right but two two round communication is a particular process where you go deeper versus wide around an issue um and each board member interview I'm so excited y'all just don't know y'all might have to I'm gonna cut out don't flip the lights let me hurry up so um so you go around and you ask questions um and you all take two people or three people superintend blah blah blah right and then what you do and you ask what what the problem is and you ask what the solution is not what your solution is what their solution is and you come back and as part of our report out you give the information as part of um

225a trustee and it really was around Community leadership and hearing from people more deeply versus why it was a powerful powerful thing um and that the group um they're bored that this um around facilities and some other things they use it as part of student advisory committee the parent advisory committee and pairing people together and they find that it has transformed their communication it has flipped their communication they report it out like the next day after their board meeting so the community gets it as well and it's just a really powerful tool it's almost like a short and key key informant interview if you were doing research the other thing I went to was learnings from special education settlements that was fun um so it was it was great I know I'm the only one

226in the room but it was awesome um it was a very much I'm into reflection so it was great I went to the president's workshop and I said I'm going to be the president but I wanted to know what a president what president do because I've had you know I've been Shepherd under Alan doing the craziest time of the board and just watch him you know calm cool collect and keep a civil and then I saw Kerry facilitate the most efficient meeting getting us out on time um so I wanted to know what else everybody else is doing and so that was a fantastic time learned a lot about leadership and the board and in the presidents and nuances of the bylaws and all this kind of stuff so I'm excited about that um but

227many workshops had governance team presentations on how to build trust working together as one voice for Community with the superintendent be with the superintendent being the face of the district and the board being the voice of the community so it was really really good um and so nobody here but y'all could take my little quote that I took from them um here Dr Williams so there's a quote that came out of the president's Workshop I'm not gonna read it y'all read it for yourselves maybe tape it to your thing whatever you want on it's long a novel I was like you know it's early childhood why think about governance everyone else's children and I I kind of was thinking about what's been happening in our community each of us come to care about everyone else's

228children we must recognize that the welfare of our children and grandchildren is ultimately linked to the welfare of all people's children after all when one of our children's needs a life-saging saving surgery someone else child will perform it if one child children is threatened or harmed by violence someone else's child will be responsible for the violent act the good life for our children can be secure for all others children I almost cried when I saw that y'all um anyhow I'm hurrying up so I want to let y'all know that I visited Gateway um it was a very enlightening experience I actually told president Dubois glad we are working together to figure out what's going to be best for our kids there's some elements there that I think we can continue and some elements that I

229think we can enhance um but I talked to I went also to to the juvenile hall talked to students there taking college courses college courses real Rehabilitation and opportunity and seeing their opportunity they're elevating the student voices at Gateway as well as Hillcrest juvenile hall where they're making decisions and coordinating things wouldn't it be nice if we had a student from Gateway on our student advisory Council I'm looking at oh they go so I'm looking at you so I thought for Redwood which I've been really I've only been saying that for 11 years yeah I agree I agree um and then I talked to two parents one said praises to Sean he's gone let me tell you what they said about you Sean um see it was worth waiting I know I'm gonna bring the

230house down um this person um talks about that their student was IBS and also see how the um particularly Shawn priests and the staff there invite all students to be part of the school and it is feels no difference and it feels like an inclusive school I was like I didn't even ask for that Sean um I talked to another I talked to another parent from Carmine and I never hear anything about Special Ed I love y'all but you know I worked a special ed sometimes y'all you hear about his problems but I heard something good this time um that Karma staff and psychologists and special education they feel I'm gonna say they facilitated a supportive IEP 504 plan I'm not going to tell you which ones so y'all don't know who the family is

231um and was really pleased as a new family to the school that it made a difference um I also emailed two students at carmont I read in the Daily Journal a student word wrote an article from our school and they talked about a different approach to don't do drugs by Grace Wu November 19th featured in The Daily Journal a different approach um and featured another student Grace Wu who started an organization by Cherise Wu um and it's called youth drug and addiction education initiative I'm looking at Elizabeth um and she's training other peers to go out and talk about fentanyl education because what she said in an article I didn't know it was a problem until it came to my school and I think we need to know before it hits our door that there's

232a problem there so I was just wanted to honor their leadership um and just just I really appreciate student leadership and Civic action of students as a person who has a child who got up one day and led a protest without my permission um it's wonderful what our kids can do when they get a little bit of bothersome and they get agitated in a good way um they can do all things so thank you all thank you Ellen so uh I want to go out the way I usually do um for uh for future agenda items I would like to congratulate the two new board members who will be certified tomorrow and who will join the board and become active on Friday um I think this evening was this uh good reminder of what a

233great environment this is and how much work there is to do and I don't think you'll be bored up here um I look forward to your work on behalf of the district and keeping things moving forward uh I've had a chance to go to a handful of different Performing Arts events at this time of the year and I did want to comment in particular about uh the production of Beauty and the Beast that I saw at Sequoia it was to me a giant leap forward um in the scope of what the performing arts program at Sequoia is undertaking um there was a Visionary decision by the Drama teacher based on the huge number of students that came to try out for that performance to bring on two full casts and run them alternating throughout the

234program and this is a huge production with amazing chorus and choreography work the um spoken Parts the lead performers were strong throughout the crew is included as a truly major part of the production and the enthusiasm from the audience and from the members of that production team from every corner of the building was the strongest I've ever seen in Carrington Hall it was an inspirational night it's running again this weekend I strongly recommend it to anybody in this room or out there in the audience who's still listening get there for a production and it doesn't matter whether it's the rose or the mirror cast that you attend you're going to be well entertained and and deeply deeply impressed it was great the other one I'll mention um my first private citizen opportunity tomorrow is I'm

235going to be attending the Carlmont High School um symphonic band and Symphony Orchestra performance and um as as you know I I have always tried to be very interested and fair-handed and involved in the Arts and Athletics at all of our schools uh but I've had a long and deep connection with the Carlmont program and there is a particular spot in my heart for the symphony orchestra there um that was established during the time that I was uh the parent um chair of the the booster organization and that group year in and year out at their concerts sounds astoundingly like walking into Davies Hall and and hearing the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra um so last I saw there are still tickets available I would strongly recommend that tomorrow evening as an opportunity to truly be

236blown away by the professionalism that the students in our district can can achieve and um just the the beauty of the of the music um the the beauty of the environment the pride of the program um it's it's just tremendous so I um I am looking forward to it deeply and I hope that many others will get a chance to go in and enjoy that as well and uh I'll let that be my last word so a few people on this side of the room told me that we're past 10 and I should get permission to go longer I was I was willing to go longer I'm okay but I should ask other people and not make the decision by myself five minutes Rich what do you say I'm not I'm going to save time

237tonight I'm not going to say a thing Chris do you want to say something yeah no so maybe we're done I won't it's rich I'm not going to ask if he wants to say anything well wait until we leave the room to do that all right hey it's been fun thank you very much I'd like to make a motion to adjourn oh wow is there a oh my you're too fast okay goodbye yeah I need the time thing let me