001District does hereby acknowledged that the district schools and Facilities sit on the traditional lands of the Milwaukee Ohlone people and the Board of Trustees further acknowledges with respect and reverence that muichma aloni people tribe of the San Francisco Bay area for their stewardship of these lands so with that we will please rise in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge okay so we will now move to 1.02 discussion and or modifications of the agenda the board may change the order of business including but not limited to an announcement that an agenda item will be considered out of order that consideration of an item has been withdrawn postponed rescheduled or removed from the consent calendar for a separate discussion and possible actions is there a request to uh uh modify the agenda foreign okay that's fine so
002so that's just that's so there is no multiplication of the agenda okay thank you very fun thank you okay no problem uh uh so seeing no uh no call for sorry okay seeing no call for discussions or modifications of the agenda will move to item 1.03 welcome an explanation to the audience uh let's see here uh Carlos is uh will you go ahead and please uh go ahead and provide the explanation to the audience thank you yes I hear you foreign okay so with that we went to uh section two uh public members who wish to address the board on matters not agenda item 2.01 uh requests to address the board provides members of the public an opportunity to speak about any manner under the jurisdiction of the district but not on this agenda if
003the subject you wish to discuss is already on this agenda please provide your comment when that item is called during the meeting those who wish to speak on an item within the jurisdiction of the district but not on this agenda should be used to raise hand function on Zoom as described above when this agenda item 2.01 is called the brown act prevents the board from discussing any item not on this published agenda but the board May refer to staff or follow-up any formal written requests that are brought before the board at this time there is a limit of two minutes for each speaker the board has the right to limit total public comment on any agenda item to no more than 20 minutes written matters may be placed on a future meeting agenda however given
004the length of the agenda I will I will limit uh public comment to one minute per speaker tonight so uh with that uh Carlos uh do we have a public comment questioning board president currently there are seven speakers uh you have one minute please unmute yourself the moment you unmute your timer will begin there are two speakers speaking I am speaking to you all this evening as a form of communication since my request to meet with Dr Bauer has been put out until February 15th by her please allow me to share how I am feeling after being publicly humiliated at the superintendent's meeting Thursday January 26th at Adelante Academy I am still feeling utterly disappointed disregarded and humiliated I am still completely shocked two weeks later that superintendent Bauer Cesar Tarico Jesus would allow a
005member of the community to discredit a teacher in such a manner all of these individuals represent my employer the Alum Rock School District and they should have been there to support me I expect a superintendent Bauer to have rejected redirected those comments to a more appropriate time and place I expected to have been supported acknowledged and valued at the exact moment given the nature of this meeting it was an extension of my work environment and Mr tariko failed to ensure the city free of hostility I am reading this on behalf of maestro ideas this incident has left me feeling demoralized unvalued and not supported by the District administration these feelings are taking a toll on my health and on my moral unfortunately superintendent Bauer has not had the time to meet with me sooner to
006discuss my concerns from the meeting until then my work environment continues to feel hostile and unhealthy I am holding the arc District accountable for what occurred on January 26th and for enabling a hostile work environment if this happened to me directly in front of Alum Rock Administration it can happen to any of us teachers at any time this incident leaves me feeling devastated and helpless so this evening I ask all of you trustees and superintendent Bauer how do you plan on finding a resolution to this incident so that my colleagues and fellow teachers do not find themselves in this forsaken situation I currently find myself in remember actions speak louder than words thanks our next speaker is Ricardo Garcia Ricardo please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening thank
007you very much for taking my my call I'm Ricardo Garcia I'm a lifelong resident of Alum Rock I went to school in this District I've been necessary for 50 years I have two fourth grade students and my comments are specifically to the recent so not recent incidents regarding the removal of a teacher there at the school first of all I want to make a few important points I'm pro-teacher I'm a teacher myself I'm a high school teacher and and the teachers here in our district they're undervalued and they're getting attacked regarding this incident I really like to see that the district and Dr Bauer uh taking a more proactive stance to let them know how important uh an asset they are to our to our district and our community number two I want him for
008Dr Bauer and the school board to our next speaker is Veronica Talton Veronica please unmute yourself the timer will begin when you've been speaking good evening trustees superintendent Bauer and school Community my name is Veronica Talton I'm an African-American educator here in the district I speak tonight on behalf of black students and Educators who are experiencing racism discrimination and Prejudice in our schools and I'll be reading an excerpt from James Baldwin's 1963 speech a talk to teachers it is a the educational experience isn't about standardized testing and performance it's a place for students to become holistic individuals who are cared for and protected Educators must be leaders and advocates in this nation and support our students as they examine their society Educators must be proactive in dismantling white supremacy and anti-blackness in our educational institutions
009if education is just and seeks to inspire equity in the values of true democracy Educators and the students they teach will transform our country to hold liberty and justice for all and I end in honor of Tyree Nichols our next speaker is Jonathan almerido Jonathan please meet yourself the timer will begin the moment you start speaking good evening my name is Jonathan almarito and I'm a Filipino teacher here in Alum Rock I also stayed in solidarity with black community members in our district who experience that racism discrimination and Prejudice in schools that Veronica spoke of I do this because as a non-black person who's been in spaces where black community members have shared their pains and the Pains of other black people I believe them and I demand that the district work towards eradicating anti-blackness
010and in our schools and in our community um it's important for everybody to have a black person uh who's a mentor in their life because it enables them to have a sense of empathy towards people who are black as well as give some sort of mentorship opportunities to learn and grow and understand the world better I never had a black adult figure in my life and I know that my experiences as a kid would have been richer if I were able to learn from but above all black Educators in our district deserve a place in which they're loved and cared for and they deserve to be embraced by their places of work uh thank you for listening our next speaker is Toby Toby please unmute yourself the timer will begin the moment you begin speaking
011good evening my name is Toby Nielsen good evening board members and um superintendent Bauer and members of the Alum Rock Community I'm a teacher in this district and as a white identify a white person I'm also standing in solidarity with all black members of the Alum Rock Community um and I want to remind the board that on Jan on July 9th of 2020 the area um teachers brought a resolution with that asked that a-r-u-s-e-d commit to hiring and retaining additional black Educators and administrators district-wide instead of that we have lost black Educators due to racism and I am appalled I want to see the board step forward to this commitment thank you for listening to my comments our next speaker is Jose a Miranda Jose please unmute yourself the timer will begin the moment you
012begin speaking good evening my name is Jose Alejandro Miranda and I'm a current student at St Mary's College and former student and other Atlanta dual Language Academy I'd like to address this to Ms Diaz first of all I hope you are doing well about two weeks ago my parents told me in about about an incident that occurred at a meeting two weeks ago where I was told um words were directed towards you with negative connotations when I was told this I was infuriated that someone could have such bad words towards a teacher who has shaped my life I began to reflect and acknowledge the vast support and help Miss Diaz has granted me during my time in Atlanta and Beyond she is a teacher who truly cares for Student Success and pushes one of us
013to our limits you care for students more than just inside the classroom it is because of you that I am now a passionate dancer everybody for corico I'm a graduate of development College Prep I thank you for pushing you not pushing me not to reach my limit and take risk I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have done for me as it has shaped me to be a great individual I am today I truly wish that this incident would not have happened and I want you to know that yes our next speaker is Raul Adelante Raul please unmute yourself the timer will begin when you begin speaking my concern is for our student School community and for our teachers we need a strong caring leader like Gutierrez was one
014who will complement support and carry out our hopes we need to feel that our superintendent on board is going to move forward and make up for the lack of respect and transparency we also need our superintendent to support and Empower our teachers with this said I was upset and I stand out one of our teachers that myself is to take a bashing from a former student who happens to be the daughter of a school board member especially when you stated that this meeting was not going to entertain any Personnel issues yet you allowed this on a personal note yes we didn't know that could get us back or someone who is going to embrace and facilitate a healthy successful School we don't need a merry-go-round of Administrators thank you our next speaker is Maya Gonzalez
015Maya please unmute yourself the timer will begin when you begin speaking hi my name is Maya Gonzalez I am speaking on behalf of Maestra Diaz I attended from kinder until I graduated eighth grade in 2016. I am currently a junior at Sacramento State majoring in child development Maestra Diaz was my sixth and 8th grade teacher but I had her a couple times before when she was substituted Maestra Diaz was the person who inspired the young woman I am today she was the reason I decided I wanted to become a teacher when I was in sixth grade I was assigned to write an essay and my EST ideas used it to submit it to a writing competition where I was chosen as one of the finalists maested ideas is truly the reason I am who I
016am today I would reach out to her in high school so that she would read my assignments because I valued her feedback a couple years later I made my confirmation and chose my it's ideas to be my godmother I can confidently say that I would not be where I am today without her courage love and continuous support my stud ideas if you're hearing this I love you and I support you a hundred percent our next speaker is Ximena Rocha Ximena please unmute yourself the timer will begin when you begin speaking good evening Alum Rock distinguished board members and superintendent Bauer my name is Ximena Rocha and I am here to speak on my experience as an alumni of Adelante dual Language Academy I speak to you all today as a third year college student in
017the process of attaining my certification for teaching and I owe a large part of my achievements to the teachers at Adelante teachers like maestradias who provide their students with the tools to succeed in all their future endeavors and who have provided me with an outstanding example of what great teaching actually looks like I firmly believe that Adelante teachers deserve to be treated with the utmost respect not only by their students but by the entire District board because a lack of support for teachers directly translates into a disservice to the students I proudly stand with Adelante teachers and I can only hope that when I officially join the profession I am allotted the same respect for my superiors as I hold towards the amazing Educators that help shape the person I am today thank you our
018next speaker is Danielle Banderas Danielle please unmute yourself the timer will begin when you begin speaking hi my name is Danielle um and I am a teacher at Lindale Elementary for 22 years and from what I'm hearing board members and Dr Bauer that teachers in this District are undervalued and underappreciated and I just would like to say that moving into bargaining which starts Monday it's all about attracting and retaining teachers we need to start there first there is a sub shortage and we can't be having teachers during their preps filling those spots also board members and Dr Bauer it's not right that we are still in the bottom third in the county as far as salary goes and just to throw out a couple numbers our starting salary in Alum Rock is around 64 000
019which is you know common knowledge and the county average is around 67 000. so let's work together in the coming weeks to change that and let's all work together to get a fair contract our next speaker is Ingrid graciano Ingrid please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening superintendent Bauer board of directors and colleagues I am Maestro graciano and I teach at Adelante dual Language Academy one I would like to speak about the parent meeting that took place with the superintendent on January 26th I think those in the district that were present and facilitating should have followed the Roberts Rules of Order for example following the agenda to keep the group moving towards its goals and when discussions get off track gently guide the group back to the agenda
020I stand by Maestra Diaz thank you our next speaker is Maestra Mendoza Maestra Mendoza please and mute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening Dr Bauer and trustees my name is and I stand in solidarity with maestradias thank you our next speaker is Isaiah Martinez Isaiah please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin everyone I am and other uh an irony of Adelante I'm currently an 11th grader in high school my name is udofa Isaiah Martinez and I am I stand with Maser ideas my other ideas for me uh to always treat every student equal and help us to the best of our ability she's always taught me how to start and finish summaries and essays during World questions one thing I remember the most is
021after you're done reading a story in a textbook he sometimes got to start with according to the text or I got this from page number and paragraph number she's a great teacher and helped me develop a good education and English understanding over the years I spent in junior high thank you for return our next speaker is Elizabeth Guzman Elizabeth please unmute yourself the timer will begin when you've been speaking good evening Dr Bauer Board of board president and trustees my name is Elizabeth Guzman I am a teacher at Atlanta dual Language Academy and I stand in solidarity with maestradias thank you our next speaker is Judo Dave please unmute yourself the timer will begin when you begin speaking good evening board this is David Williams uh Dr Bower knows me quite well by now uh
022my only comments are this number one I still have not heard anything concerning what we're going to do with these seventh graders who are not able to do the uh English I'm sorry the Spanish uh test that they usually take in fifth grade that one I'm sure you remember I hope you could take care of that the other thing is I've been concerned over the past I don't know a couple of years now that I have heard from teachers at Adelante that they have fear of Retribution from people uh higher up whether it be the board board members or whatever it is I would hope that this is not true I'm hoping that all I'm hearing is fear because they don't want to be seen as critiquing somebody but if we are Educators part of
023what we our job is to do is to critique and to fix thank you for your time tonight I hope we could do something about all this and clear up all the stuff that's going on our next speaker is Maestra Cruz Maestra Cruz please and meet yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening my name is Wendy Cruz alcantar and I am a teacher at Adelante I am a solidar I stand in solidarity with Maestra um Diaz thank you yeah our next speaker is Joseph Joseph please unmute yourself the mom making the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin Joseph please unmute yourself hello everyone my name is Joseph Salazar I'm the alumni of Atlanta Academy I attended Atlantic Canada 8th grade with that said I'd like to hold the place
024a special place in my heart I'm here today to give credit where it is due and I liked and I like to give credit and I like to point out that Academy adapted teachers have been a big reason for my academic accomplishments I specifically would like to point out a few I like to specifically point out to Miss Diaz that helped me so much that he is last year um when I was on my lowest her positive attitude and endless words have occurred men are what we push harder to attain my goals last she she helped me suggest a high school that would be finished just for me and because of that I am I'm in my sophomore year of high school and I'm so proud to say I'm driving I haven't mentioned 4.0 GPA
025freshman and sophomore High School I stand with missed years our next speaker is Carlo Reyna Carlos Reyna please unmute yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin greetings my name is Carlo Reyna and I attended Adelante from kinder through eighth grade during my time there Miss Diaz was by most by far the most influential and caring person teacher and Mentor after hearing the of the incident the student described as Ms Diaz I was shocked because Miss Diaz is one of the best teachers I've ever had she looked out for me and even though she didn't know it she helped me through some of my toughest times at home Adelante she helped me develop my writing skills and taught me so much about my culture she always believed in me and supported me she connected
026me with the Bellarmine summer school program switch I used to later attend on full scholarship in addition she still checks in on me to this day about my experience at USC where I'm also going on full scholarship Miss Diaz cares for her students and without her I surely would not have the success I do today I stand in solidarity with Miss Diaz thank you our next speaker is erlinda Munoz erlinda please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin erlinda please unmute yourself okay I will move to the next speaker Tina Lopez Tina please unmute yourself the the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin hello my name is Tina Lopez and I stand with my Estrellas and all of other latte teachers helped my son who started in sixth grade
027at Adelante and struggled um for you know a couple of years um and in eighth grade you know she really structured him into um you know getting his education and supporting me as a parent to be a better mother and uh you know to support his education um coming this year he's a junior currently receiving many awards um and appreciate you know and I appreciate the teachers from Adelante for structuring him into a man that he's going to become um I stand with Adelante in my estadillas thank you our next speaker is Maestro Gonzalez Maestro Gonzalez please unmute yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening my name is Marie Cruz Gonzalez and I am a teacher at Adelante one an apparent of students at Adelante and former student of Adelante I
028stand I stand strong in solidarity with my estradias thank you our next speaker is graviola Ortega graviela please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin my name is Gabrielle Ortega and I was Mrs Diaz this was an incredibly helpful and never and made sure that she answered my text messages whenever I needed extra help on something I was still adjusting to online school and I got all the help I needed from her when I reached out and expressed my academic words and She always reminded me that she was there for me if I ever needed her and always stuck by her word she was an incredible light and went above and beyond to support me in my application process to the current private school I go to I asked her for
029help in my application essays and she was nothing short of incredible help I benefited from her support and to this day I have so much gratitude for her Mrs Diaz also gave the entire class of 2021 her phone number to contact her about any issues or extension requests and would take the time out of her day to make sure every one of her students was okay I stand by Mrs Diaz our next speaker is Jose Miranda Jose please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin uh good evening my name is Jose Miranda and I stand with my Esther Diaz and I want to share something that I wrote for her um I just wanted to reach out to you to see how you're feeling after last night's meeting at the school
030as for me I was disappointed that someone can go up there and say these things about you and nothing was done to stop it you are one of the best teachers at Adelante there you have done so much for our kids Jose and Victoria that Victoria even wants to be a teacher now students that have have you have been so lucky you are so dedicated to your job and always wants best was for the kids that was totally uncalled for for that girl to go up there and speak bad things about you the superintendent should just stopped that girl from Talking the meeting was for the parents to talk to the superintendent but it's funny how a parent right after it goes up there to talk good things about you and she was and the
031superintendent stopped that parent from talking that makes no sense I just want it I just want you to know that you have your our next speaker is Laura Fuentes Laura please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening my name is Laura Fuentes I'm a teacher at Adelante one I stand in solidarity with maestradias I am also a mother of two former students that Miss Diaz hat as students there at Adelante I can only speak great things about maestradias and how supportive what an amazing teacher she was to both of my sons unfortunately we've all been sick at home and they couldn't be here to talk about her but they did leave a couple words for her and I'm just gonna read a little portion of what one of my
032oldest um wrote to her and it says I am thankful for everything you've done for me from day one you've been there for me all the time I can't express how much I care about you and when I heard what someone went up there and talked those things unnecessary and it was uncalled for I want you to know that you have our next speaker is Nadia Miranda Nadia please unmute yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin hello my name is student and a former student I stand for my estradias and all Adelante teachers our next speaker is Israel Stone Israel please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin good afternoon everybody my name is Israel Stone I am the parent of uh two students are currently enrolled in Adelante
033and I want to tell everybody in the board and everybody listening that adelante's greatest asset are their teachers uh I sent both of my kids and I commute from Campbell specifically for this reason so I would like to express uh my gratitude with all the teaching staff at Adelante especially maestradias um we have the fortune of uh having uh one of my uh my sons uh go um be in one of her classes and she is nothing short of caring uh very professional very clear uh and that's I think what we should focus on is personal accountability uh rather than um accusations and such thank you everybody for your time our next speaker is Maestra belman Maestro belman please unmute yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin Maestra Bellman please unmute yourself our
034next speaker is Ellen arneson Ellen please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening my name is Ellen arneson and I am a teacher at atlante academy uh first I just want to say that it's been extremely beautiful to hear so many former students coming to speak out in support of their teacher and I would like to say that I stand in solidarity with Maya shadias thank you our next speaker is Mrs Tanner Miss Tanner please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin hello uh thank you for listening my name is uh Miss Tanner I work at Cureton and the Cureton teachers across the board stand in solidarity with the Adelante teachers thank you our next speaker is Patricia sarkes Patricia please unmute yourself the moment
035you begin speaking the timer will begin oh hello I'm Patricia Sarkis I work at Adelante Academy and I had my two kids or former students in Adelante and I just have nice words for my studies she always support them and I have one kid that gave her a lot of trouble and I also remember all the things that she's doing and also going for ambition going taking the kids to Washington to have more experiences thank you Mr maestradias for all your hard work this is not fair what are they doing um we're going to circle back to our last speaker Miss erlinda moves erlinda please unmute yourself when you begin speaking the timer will begin to hear me hear me but if you can my name is elinda Munoz and I am a teacher at
036Adelante and I stand in solidarity with my Estrellas and the teachers at Adelante thank you our next speaker is Nancy Garza Nancy please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening everyone my name is Maestra Garza and I stand in solidarity with Michael Legas thank you our next speaker is adelantic Plaza Atalanta que pasa please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin hello I am a Community member of alevante and I'm very frustrated with the lack of communication from the district on the status of our Adidas Gutierrez she was too amazing to have been thrown out I am disgusted with the district person now who did not even Flinch when my husband's name was being trashed at the meeting with superintendent Bauer trustee Quintero you should
037step down for all the troubles you have caused at Adelante Dr Bauer you too should be reconsidered as superintendent thank you Lord president there is no more public comment no for the public comment we'll move to section three special presentation discussion consideration in action uh item 3.01 PSS will provide an update of the DSA closeout process uh superintendent you have the floor yes thank you I want to ask Mr Chang to be promoted to a panelist please good evening can you hear me yes yes thank you good evening uh board president members of the board and superintendent Dr Bauer um so tonight uh we're inviting Miss Natasha Knutson with PSS who will be providing an update of the DSA close-up process um if we can promote Miss Natasha Knutson um that'd be great is it
038Natasha melendris I believe so she might have a different let me check it's it's Natasha melendra's Knutson I've I kept my last name but I say Knutson to keep my husband happy you know what we do so yes Hello nice to meet everyone thank you Miss Knutson um for being here tonight um when you're ready please uh proceed with the presentation and update okay perfect so I'm going to share my screen because I want to be able to give a presentation so um hello my name is Natasha melenders Knutson I've been doing DSA closeout and certifications in the state of California now for about 16 years we've assisted over 50 districts um I call myself you know the Michael Phelps the Beyonce of getting projects certified with the state now I do not want to
039waste your time so I would first love to ask just really quick how familiar you as the board are you with the DSA closeout in Project certification because if you're like we're pretty familiar then I can move quick to some other slides if you're like no we don't understand this I do want to hit a couple key points for you if he would go over to uh the presentation as planned that would be best thank you thank you perfect all right so every time a project is built with a division estate architect it needs to be constructed per exactly the plans and here's a lot of language in here I'm going to provide the district with a copy but if you don't build those projects per plan like you told the State Fire life structural
040and access they're going to issue a non-certified report what we do is we come in and figure out what the issues are so I'm going to move ahead to the closeout types now why is the closeout and certification really important two things number one if you have future construction that your District needs to proceed with and your architect submits plans DSA is going to say nope your projects weren't certified get those closed out first and then we'll let you move forward because they they want to make sure if there's a fire nothing that the fire department and the alarms are going to go off they want to make sure if anyone has Ada issues wheelchair they're blind they're deaf that they know where the classrooms are at and last but not least if there's an
041earthquake they want to make sure that these buildings will withstand and nothing's going to happen so that's why there's a due diligence also last but not least I don't like saying it but it is very important for you to know as the board is you are personally liable if anything happens so if a Project's not certified and Lord forbid there's an earthquake and something happens and it wasn't certified with the state the board members are liable that is extremely important to the district that they get these closed out so that you're not and then all your projects move forward with their programs um any questions yet no not in the moment okay perfect so I wanna I wanna explain to you let's talk about your status what's going on with your District that's really important
042so before PSS was hired you had a total of 52 non-certified projects 52 is a lot but um we came in with our cape on and we said how can we get this number down immediately so we worked with um we worked with covira we worked with the CM firm and off the bat last year when we were contracted we have 18 projects that were certified very quick and we actually found a project that wasn't constructed so guess what you got a 54 600 refund check that's supposed to be coming into the mail to you from the state keep in mind that is the largest largest refund check I've ever been able to get a client so I do take a lot of pride in that because the state always collects their money they never
043give money now where are you at today that's the most important part you have 38 non-certified projects we are currently contracted 16 because how do you eat an elephant it's one bite at a time we can't do this all at one point so we agreed as a team let's focus on the projects that are gonna hold up projects from plan approval and let's focus on the easy ones to get them out and then we'll deal with those really difficult ones that aren't affecting anything later so currently we have 16 projects contracted and great news of those 16 we have seven ready to go to the state so out of those 16 we're solely focusing on nine of those projects any questions so far so good okay now Closeouts like a game there you're probably wondering
044man we see pss's contract coming a couple times and there's two reasons why so when I started my business off about 15 years ago we would send one contract and we would start working on the projects but then we'd find all these issues AKA scope creep so we'd have to go to the board again and request a change order knowing board members coming to you twice is not a good thing so if we come to you once and say Here's what we're doing and then we come to you again and you're prepared for it it builds trust with you so in our first contract we we do investigative work we review the files we read the plans we do a site survey our goal is to do everything we can to get it certified in
045a contract one like many of those projects we did however sometimes the projects are so complex like Ada wasn't done a lot of your projects Ada was not done at all so we have to send someone out to do a site survey and then we have to end up making sure that work gets constructed or else the state won't sign off so after that point we then create a phase two scope of work plan of action and we negotiate with the state we want to make sure that they're not going to want more than what we're proposing it's like we go to court with them after the the program is approved then we move forward with the district and we get the projects certified once they are done so those um remaining nine projects that
046I was talking to you about they're in this middle phase right here and our goal is to get them across to get them certified at Milestone 16. so you have been getting some proposals where we get them done in phase one which we've done a lot and then we have some that we can't do that because we have to do construction still so does anyone have questions about this process nope not at the moment okay perfect and that pretty much leads to the conclusion of I explained to you why this is important to get the projects closed out why we were brought on um why we do this in two phases where you're at today where you want to be as a district and what we're doing as a company to get you there and
047that's pretty much the conclusion end of my presentation okay thank you so much Natasha and all right I'd like to open this to a public comment at this time uh is there any comment from the public on item 3.01 board president there's currently no public income okay see no further public comment I'll move to questions and comments from members of the board is there are there any okay okay trustee Chavez so I know if anything happens is liable the ones the current board because the current board in seat right now they're the ones that are aware they're the ones that know of this and you don't really know that time's going on but that's what the guide and the regulations say so um us working with kovara and the construction management firm we are making
048sure none of these would ever put you at risk and we are closing them out as fast as possible and after reviewing them many of them don't put you at risk we they just need to get the construction scope completed which is Ada thank you okay any for questions from members uh questions or comments from members of the board okay I just have one question uh you mentioned personal risk uh what what what type of the risk is entail is it some sort of individual risk or you know a collective risk as a as a legislative body okay so when I say risk there's a certain type of project called a number four with a state and those are not good projects and they're they're really risky projects because something is structurally wrong with them
049the building is not safe and kids shouldn't be in there that's the first thing I do when I work with the district I make sure you have no number four as they're called and your district has zero so that's why I was like okay we're safe there for the district oh thanks all right uh trustee Chavez I would say those are called number fours and then the next one what are they called those are called number threes and those are closed without certification due to exceptions of documentation or scope of work that was not constructed or constructed differently per plan how many of those currently do we have you have a total of 38 right now and then keep in mind seven are going to come off that list because we have seven ready to
050be certified and we're focusing on nine right now thank you you're welcome all righty well staying there for questions and comments from the board I thank you Natasha for uh presenting this informative report for us and that we're making uh good progress on closing out these projects thank you and thank you thank you for hiring a small woman minority owned business I beyond appreciate the work and we promise not to let you down thank you so much all righty uh moving on to item 3.02 LPA and Arc Alternatives will provide an update of the facilities Master planning process uh superintendent you have the floor I'm going to turn it over to Mr Chen thank you Dr Bauer uh for this next presentation we would like to invite Miss um Andrea Pippen from LPA Miss Mariana
051lavezzo from LPA and Mr Russell driver from our alternatives to provide an update on the facility Master planning process um so we can Elevate those three individuals that would be great thank you what were the other names Culver I don't see Russell um Russell driver yeah I don't see him and what were the other two you mentioned C uh uh Mariana laveso is there Marion okay I see her um Arc alternative the name Arc alternative Maribel I see Mark no arc Arc oh he's Brett's got it yeah and Andrea Pippen she's the first one on the list foreign would you like to begin I'll share my screen here right thank you good evening Board of Trustees thank you for having us I'll begin by uh we're here to share with you an update of the
052work that we've done so far on the Strategic District Master Plan so this is a road map of the things that we're going to highlight we're going to explain what our scope is and and a bit about the process and the schedule then we'll share with you um how the facility condition assessments are being done and an example of how we'll synthesize that for you and then we'll talk about the work we've done with the Educators we started first uh with the design guidelines so we met with Educators and then we went to all the campuses so we'll share our findings in those two realms and then Andrea will share um how we're using data visualization for well-informed decisions and then Russell will wrap it up with the energy master plan and then we'll have
053time for Q a as we go along we'll just pause and ask if anybody has questions um but there will be time at the end for questions as well Okay so go to the next slide it's showing schedule on my screen just the blue blue slide is showing right now might be a little lag there we go okay so just to kind of run through what are all the different scope categories I'm not going to go into any detail you have a PDF of this but um there's a lot of moving parts and pieces one thing that is continuous is community outreach in different forms all throughout the process from start to finish so we're in the process of uh getting a survey translated for the community and the staff and teachers um the one
054for the community will be translated into Spanish and Vietnamese so that'll be coming out soon it'll be on SurveyMonkey we'll definitely get a high percentage of respondents because we'll have students do it in class and then we'll have site admin have staff and teachers do it on site and so our our energy will be focused on really getting the community to engage um so just starting with uh what's been done data collection and facility assessments we'll go over that that's where we have a team Bureau very test that specializes in this work they're going they went through every campus did a very comprehensive report about the condition of uh the site and the buildings then we have another consultant working with us on the capacity and funding analysis that's CL Consulting that also has an
055amazing track record like nastassia was saying she does for DSA closeout so I feel like we have a nice dream team here I didn't know that's last year was part of this um or working with the district and then for Ed specs those that's simply the California Department of education's lingo to say design guidelines so that's really important that we work with the Educators to get that Vision so that we translate that into the design guidelines that future Architects and Engineers will use when they execute projects that are in this strategic plan so we'll go over that and then of course we mentioned Arc Alternatives is doing the energy decarbonization plan uh we're in the process of doing a universal TK analysis so we want to see which campuses have the capacity to move to
056a full-time TK um and then I'll go through the schedule and explain when the cost estimate and dashboard preparation comes into play and what that means exactly as far as dashboards and wrap bringing it all together is the master planning and prioritization so I'll explain that a bit more that's where the rubber really hits the road and we need to make some decisions about um which projects to prioritize to have the most impact to the next slide so I just wanted to say the process is data driven and synergistic in that the built environment data is uh where we're doing the quantitative analysis of getting the condition just the physical condition of the building is not how effective they are for education and that comes from working with the Educators when we see what do
057we need to do to meet the mission and vision of the district and and transform these environments to be um preparing students to thrive and succeed in the 21st century so we know um in America most of our our public school buildings are lagging behind um the how education is being delivered in a different way where it's more student-centered and we're recognizing that that all humans um think and work in different ways and so we need our environments to support them finding out how they can be expert Learners and learn in the ways they learn best while not making this difficult for the teacher to be in this new role of facilitating learning instead of like spoon feeding lecture based learning only as was done in the past when we were preparing students for industrial
058industrial society back then and then the equity framework is simply saying the whole point of this strategic plan is that we want to get Equity district-wide so one school might have something that another school doesn't have and that's an example of lack of equity but even on a campus there might be for example one campus might have a steam lab or a science lab and it depends on which teacher you get if you get the old one or the new one right so within a campus we want to make sure that learning is also equitable to the next slide and so then just adding another layer showing like it's also people oriented so we're um working with um at the and at the center of it like I said the Common Thread is community so
059um I'll go over the different types of community outreach that we're doing so far I've only mentioned the survey that's coming out but tonight we're going to share with you what we've done so far next slide so as far as a schedule uh we'll be finishing this strategic plan by October 2023 and where we are today is I'm still in the thick of the community outreach so I'll share with you um what we've done with the Educators what we've done with the campuses and we'll share um how how the facility condition assessments work so what I wanted to point out is when we do that estimate of probable costs that's like May through July after we've had Town Hall meetings where the whole Community is invited to see the site designs for every campus so
060they can give input and so those will be costed out in what's called a rough order of magnitude estimate so it goes a little bit High to make sure that then when you roll out these projects you're set up to succeed and you're not finding that um the projects are over budget so there's a little cushion built in there to be conservative and once we get those costs then we're able to do the project prioritization exercise which is where we give you the data in a way that's easy to digest so you can make the most well-informed decision so we'll talk about that more at the end all right now I'll jump in with the facility condition assessments so in any process we like to start off with what are we working with and we've
061partnered with a contract a second Contracting firm Bureau Veritas who really know these nuts and bolts type of systems and as Mariana mentioned have walked every single campus taken a look inside every classroom been walked on all of your roofs to take a look at each and every building system component finish Furniture piece of equipment to to produce these reports their reports that are 100 plus pages long but we try to distill that information down into something that is more consumable when it's put out on this planning website what we've noticed so far from these reports are they've listed some immediate needs the reports then go on to identify things that will need to be replaced or repaired over the life of this facilities plan and Beyond we're actually looking out about 20 years according
062to their facility condition assessments there's lots of tables and charts that show based on when a system or finish or piece of equipment whatever it is was installed what is its life expectancy and what is that year that the district can expect it to need to be replaced so that's the whole broad broader piece they've also identified some immediate needs across all campuses this is just uh some common themes that we've seen pop up in these immediate needs it's not to say that every site has all of these issues but these are the most common themes that we've seen occurring at multiple sites so additional studies being needed for accessibility or underground systems such as Plumbing mechanical features mechanical components like the hva systems that are currently in disrepair possibly at few campuses restroom components
063toilet sinks Etc you can read the list there so we're identifying immediate needs um because those will of course become a high priority when we look at the whole picture the facility condition for each campus as I said it's a 100 plus page very heavy technical report we'll try to break it down into something that's more digestible so as we look at all of the systems and and you everything that that has been assessed each site will get a report card here's a there's a sample report card from Cureton we can see the costs you know broken out and analyzed in this numerical form that new numerical form is then converted into a grade so the higher the number the better the grade in this case cureton's numerical rating translates into a B minus when
064we're looking at giving it a grade so we're we'll be turning each of these facility condition assessments into something that is more manageable that is very quick and easy to see and can be um can be placed in a line with all of the other school sites this will feed into a site ratings analysis that will be developing rolling in multiple factors that I'll get into towards the end of this presentation um so we're looking at for that site ratings looking at the facility condition and also other ratings for example the age of the school this is using Woodland Joint USD as a sample but in this case Woodland their schools were built between 1912 and 2022 so taking that range dividing it into five different categories you can see how we developed these grades
065for each of the factors that we consider when we look at including it in a site ratings analysis so depending on the date it was constructed to fall into one of these five categories just due to that spread of the data foreign you're cutting out a little bit but let's see hopefully I'm not so um I'm going to talk to you a bit about the work that we did with the educators initially as soon as we started so next slide so uh we started with a kickoff meeting and had two afternoon workshops um where we did some visioning and we the vehicle we did it was having five child personas described that were in the um most challenging circumstances outside of school so we know that uh the children bring that with them to school
066and that's part of what we have to factor in supporting them and so if we can design the learning environment to support kids that have the most challenging circumstances then it it'll work for everybody so it's really um about an empathetic design exercise putting yourselves in yourself in the shoes of that child today and walking through what is their life like today how do they spend their time at school and how are they feeling and then we did some more visioning in between that where we came back to the same exercise at the very end and we had them walk through what is that child's life going to be like in 15 years if we can make all these changes to make the school experience better for them so next slide so um you know
067in the PDF that we sent out at the end you have links to all the reports if you want to dig deeper we're just going through and giving you um kind of the the highlights and the scoop so the result of those two days was um these lists came from them so we we took all the notes that we were scribing and we categorized them into four categories empowering students to become expert Learners higher collaboration equity for students and their families and mind body and spirit so you can see how most of the comments were really about empowering students to become expert Learners that was a very strong theme that children should feel like school is where they have control of their lives a lot of children don't have that outside of school they're in
068circumstances that they didn't choose to be in and so here's a place where they can really take ownership of their learning and feel empowered and not feel like school is something that's being done to them so the main gist of that is like you know pulling out some words from there it's about mind body and spirit helping students find their spark help them keep that Curiosity they were born with become expert lifelong Learners and everybody gets an equal chance to thrive next slide so then from that we put together this first draft and it it will probably be Wordsmith a little bit but for now um I'll I'll read it in case anybody's on their phone and it's too small so arusd's learning environments will support students development of mind body and spirit they will
069be empowered with the opportunity to try different ways of learning to discover how they learn best find their spark and to keep the Curiosity they were born with to become expert lifelong Learners arusd will work to give students and families who need additional support to have an equal chance to thrive meeting all their needs next slide so after we had the two afternoons of workshops I think we had about 20 educators then we saw the emerging patterns from that of what are the areas that we really need to focus on so we we have a lot of expertise and and K-12 design and we've done over 75 Master plans in California and Ed specs but every school is different so this is where we can really tailor what would be considered you know standard for
070meeting the California Department of Ed requirements is it just about meeting the requirements but it's really giving you a document that you can work with future Architects and Engineers so they can use these as design guidelines to have parameters so that your schools have consistency but then they're not cookie cutter where we're applying the same solutions to every school and every school looks looks the same so we had three student focus groups we had what the district felt was kind of a good cross-section we weren't um working on their specific campus and we were when we worked with them we told them this isn't about your campus specifically um you're working on district-wide like what does the whole campus need and then um the other subjects were just the focus group topics that we drilled
071down in to get more detail on so yeah here are some pictures of us working with the students we all had a great time there are a lot of great ideas I think one big nugget that I took away was that middle schoolers are really a lot of them big still big kids they're on some of them on campuses where there's elementary school and they wish they could play on the play structure and they could be doing gardening so um that's one Insight that we have we had from working with the students but they're very specific about a lot of things that they love and and would like to have more of so it was great they're all very positive next slide so in those focus group interviews we had a dozen focus group interviews
072on different topics um I'm sharing with you an example of the English um the emerging bilingual students known as English language Learners focus group and so we asked them a set of of questions um to kick kick it off so we explained to them what a master plan and what ad specs are design guidelines but then we structure the interview around these questions and we describe their input and then we put together a report so we always start with asking them is there anything that you've seen maybe in professional development or you have colleagues that work somewhere else or it could be something you know and it could be in your District outside of your District in California or you know somewhere in the world like what is something exemplary that you've seen so we
073always start with that question and then the other questions are just tailored to really understand how can we give you some guidelines that are going to help you be able to facilitate learning and and translate that that Vision into the environment so that it's supporting um the the vision for education delivery that that you have that your district has next slide so um overall a comment thread that we saw out of all these aspects focus groups interviews is we want spaces that engage students and support a sense of belonging where Learners feel safe and ready to learn so four components are that I was like we really need flexibility we need that furniture and technology and space to be able to reconfigure things or allow students to do different activities simultaneously in one space or
074extend the space out to expand the footprint to the outdoors or to a shared area um spaces to collaborate more highly both indoors and Outdoors and then um working to support the inquiry-based Learning Cycle came up where you need a variety of spaces that are going to support that and then environments that are culturally responsive and can also be shared with the community next slide so I pulled together just some imagery to illustrate what we mean by those words so different ways of learning in the upper left you can see a play area that's got loose Parts it's not a traditional Play Apparatus that becomes predictable but instead you know this is these materials are stored in an outdoor um container that's weatherproof and it's also something that can be used to learn about science
075and then having a variety of seating like giving Learners a choice to sit and what suits them best depending on the activity that they're doing and then having a range of stimulation some areas where you can go and be with the larger group or some areas where you can get away and be by yourself because you need to work independently or or maybe you're more of an introvert or you're just processing new knowledge so giving students that that power to choose where they need to be and what what kind of seating or environment they need to be in slide so then uh for the part of mind body and spirit for body is designing for movement and embodied cognition so students children are exploring space with their bodies and that's how they learn um so
076it's important to have these elements so again on the upper left you can see these aren't traditional play structures that are become predictable but there are things that these children are using to learn about space and proprio reception like how their bodies work in space um and even you know really like making the most out of the outdoors there's a lot of opportunities that was a Common Thread we saw after we did the educational visioning workshops that going to each campus it reaffirmed um that we can use the outdoors in many ways and it doesn't have to be something um necessarily really Grand and elaborate there's just like a lot of lost opportunities right now a lot of small moves we can make with this outdoor space that we have um and then making sure
077that indoor spaces we're getting students to move their bodies because oxygen goes to the brain when you get up out of your chair we don't want kids all sitting in a row the whole time um facing the front we want them to get up and get out of their chairs and interact and collaborate next slide and for Spirit really engaging the community that's such an important part of what the district is about to really support their families um especially families in need so really changing uh or transforming the built environment to support what the district is about so the district has some very robust programs it does a lot to support families but the buildings don't express that or support that very easily even though that's still being done so finding it to finding ways
078to make the environment more explicitly welcoming from the moment you arrive at the campus and walk in into the admin and um like I was saying before having these different types of spaces that allow for um a different different ranges of privacy but still with supervision by adults so this is just the cover of that report um that we had for English language Learners that is in the PDF at the end there's a link that takes you to all 12 reports next slide so we're going to jump now to after we got through getting the qualitative data from our workshops and our focus group interviews then we went and visited each campus and we did more interviews and walking through the campuses to learn on the campuses uh what are the gaps if we brought
079we brought to them what we had gleaned thus far so the design guidelines aren't finished yet but we have enough information to say here's what we want to have at every campus so that you have Equity so where are the gaps on your campus what are you missing what do you not have and so this is um what we have gleaned so far out of those workshops both with the Educators and then with each campus um there's definitely patterns that emerge in the district and those are on the left I won't go through all of them but just a few of them like admin needs to be more welcoming and supporting families so then what's the design strategy for that let's call it a welcome center now instead of just admin and let's put all
080those programs that are kind of shoehorned into Portables and different spaces and give them spaces that are very intentional like a space a parent Resource Center or some campuses already have a Family Resource Center maybe that could be in there too um a community Hub that can be used for parent University and different things and the Welcome Center can be different at different campuses but we have kind of the ingredients of what could be in a Welcome Center to really reimagine the admin to be a very welcoming place for families um another one is intentional space for student support services so that could be adjacent or even part of the Welcome Center a wellness center and a learning center for um academic support and any other kind of support that students need um I'll jump
081to age-appropriate learning environments so that will come into play in the Ed specs you won't see that um things about furniture and technology and the drawings when you come to the town hall that'll be living inside of the Ed specs document but things like play areas and all the site design will show how we create those different zones to make age-appropriate learning environments like I said what we got most out of the student workshops uh was the the middle schooler needs that we really need to tailor things for them so there's some um other ingredients like they need locker rooms that work well and they need gyms and they need places to connect and play especially um at lunch time a lot of a lot of times these days middle schoolers are just like on
082their phones and screens and so we we want to give them what they need besides a soccer field but things that help them connect to each other and play with each other um elevating the student dining experience so um maybe instead of calling those cafeterias call it a cafe because you think of more of like a place where you would go out to eat where you have some different options and different uh types of seating variety nice colors and graphics and more space so that the district could have longer lunch periods so they have more time to eat connect with each other in just a very fun child friendly environment reimagining the library so we know a lot of those um they're really not being used we don't have the staff at the moment but
083if this is a plan for the future uh reimagining those spaces as a media resource center and there's lots of ideas that came of what we could do in there including um using it for reading again so currently we have satellite libraries and then it's a book cart with books in every classroom and that's great so it's right there but teachers are really wanting to also use that space again for reading um and then the last one I'll mention is just a shared resource space for specialized programs so we found you know one campus might have a steam lab or an innovation lab and something else but across the board there's really a lack of dedicated space for for arts and after school programs and enrichment so we we have um some solutions like a
084flex lab that could be used to do all those things so that way when you build something new you make sure that it's being used all day and after school next slide so again this is the cover of a report which you can find at the end of this PDF all the links to all the reports um we're in the thick of finalizing the draft so here's uh some excerpts from an example one at Renaissance at Matson so we ask a different set of questions at those those are pretty much the same questions at every campus Because it's about the campus not a specific topic um so we have a lot of questions um related to the overall impression of the campus both the staff and the community outside of the campus we ask about
085traffic patterns Safety and Security how are outdoor areas being used are they being optimized or some opportunities there we ask about the play areas and um we ask about assembly we find that a lot of these schools in California they were designed for larger populations and or sorry smaller populations and so they don't have spaces where the whole school can get together um and a lot of the spaces even for smaller groupings are just not enough so we get a lot out of asking that question about assembly spaces indoors and Outdoors and then we ask about more the things that we saw from the Educators media resource center and other spaces like Makerspace and steam labs and spaces for Art and Science and after school um we ask about PE and Athletics are those being
086supported and then we ask them to take all those notes that we've described and reflect quickly and think if if you had to prioritize some things what are your most immediate concerns and then they pull out of those lists for the other eight questions and they come out with their their immediate concerns in the next slide so these are just the reports that um are done just show some photos that we took of different things to support what the words are saying um so this one is just yeah you can go through these pretty quickly um yep and then here's an example of traffic patterns so we just document where the problems Safety and Security uh what needs to be done to make the campuses even safer make it easy for site supervision and then
087there's a set of a couple diagrams for each campus and these are the ones that we'll bring to the town hall that just very succinctly show from the outside in and the inside out um outside in meaning everything that's on the site and arriving to the site what um do we need to be aware of when we're designing these new master plans so here it's about the congestion we need higher fencing we need more lighting and the roof um needs to be updated in one area next slide and then this one's more about outside in there's a lot of potential for using the field that isn't being used right now um adding shading and seating and and then we ask also if there's anything that's sacrosanct like there's a Zen Garden on this campus that
088we want to um preserve and make even better next slide so inside out Simply means just the bill we're looking from the inside of the buildings out more focused on the interior so for admin I'm saying it's not it's not welcoming enough we want to make it more welcoming students have to exit the campus and then come back in through the front door so there's something to rework there Gathering spaces are lacking and we need better school spaces for after school programs and specialized programs and then inside out um we need better resources like flexible furniture and more fluid technology so that we can support students learning in different styles at the same time in the same Zone um and then locker rooms need updating on this campus for some details of the gym that
089need to be edited and more staff restrooms are needed due to the long distances that need to travel in the short break times next slide so then from all of that and we'll bring this to at the at the Town Hall so when we have the town hall we're gonna give a little brief 20 minute kickoff about the vision and show some inspiring images like I showed earlier and then everybody will break out and just go to the different stations for the different campuses so we're having uh three town halls organized by Middle School attendance area the schools that feed into it so it'll be multiple schools so at the station there'll be the drawing of the new design proposed with the outside in Inside Out diagrams and then this list that shows what are
090the key goals for this campus so they'll understand why we've done the design that we have and they can give their input all right back to me so it at the end of the day all of the proposed Solutions you know filling that Gap from the existing condition to bringing that campus up to meeting the district's vision of educational delivery translated to facilities there's going to be you know that once that gets uh going through the cost estimate there's going to be a price associated with that in order to implement the projects within this plan it's going to be approached strategically because you won't be able to to fund the entire thing in one go so we'll look towards data to drive these decisions in prioritizing projects and also how the master or the excuse
091me the sites are are planned in the first place the capacities for the sites and working with your existing demographics demographic projection for the 2027-2028 school year um so any decision made really using data as that driver and we'll come back to these um drivers of social social justice that was set at the very onset of this project at our kickoff with District leadership so again at the very top bullet using data to make those well-informed decisions for project prioritization and site plan approach we're supporting the communities and families of Alum Rock and engaging them throughout the process we're rolling in teacher and staff Workforce housing so supporting the teachers and staff within the district we all know the the cost of housing in the areas can be um a deterrent to maintain good staff
092and teachers so uh Alum Rock recognizing this and offering uh this Workforce housing component rolled into this long-range strategic plan and supporting the cognitive development of all Learners so that all Learners can thrive in this environment no matter where you're coming from the baggage that you're you're bringing with you into your school day the schools should be supporting you as you're throughout your educational Journey that we're supporting the connections between children and adults positive connections so that children have a safe place to go not only the environment but the the people that they're around um improving how we support our middle schoolers you know recognizing Athletics is a very strong component to a middle school so how are these facilities supporting that middle schooler's Journey as they prepare um for high school we're engaged in
093the community for culturally responsive decision making and holding ourselves in the district accountable for executing the projects as we roll out through phases and that ties back to project prioritization and having professional development for successful implementation we can have these great facilities that indicate all of these shifts in the way school is being taught um but the teachers need to be brought on board what this is this as well through strong professional development so that they know how to use this engaging Furniture how to use the technology so just continuing to implement that through professional development so using Equity as our overarching goal um we're using uh strategic specific data points as we approach our site ratings analysis we have this as a question here because we use this to engage with our um our
094facilities Planning Group earlier but we're looking at the age of the or excuse me the condition of the facilities as well as the people who inhabit your school facilities um so I mentioned earlier when I went through the facility condition assessments we've got that data the age of the facilities the immediate concerns identified items related to Safety and Security through those facility condition assessments these we can quantify because there are dollar values attached to them or age so we can wrap that into a site ratings analysis and then we'll also roll in again that human component your student body and your vulnerable population so that as we talk about equity and making decisions based on Equity we're making decisions um using a site rating system that rolls in the percentage of your student population who
095are socioeconomically disadvantaged at each campus who are English Learners and those newcomers to the district your Foster youth populations homeless populations and your special education students so making sure that every student thrives the site rating system will look something like this I'm actually these are a little bit reverse order so I'll go to this one first this is another sample again taking from another District but it is an example of how we use that site rating system so we did a similar analysis with Woodland Joint Unified School District you see the vulnerable population statistics here this is looking at the entire district schools district-wide we see up at the top they went with a numbering system in this case one two three four five one being kind of your a grade campuses five being your
096f grade campuses and we can see the the differences from campus to campus when we look at those factors I mentioned earlier the condition of the facility age of the facility and your vulnerable populations so now when we think about prioritizing projects you can start to see which campuses may need the most help and improvement from an equity lens so that and I'll just mention these two slides that I'm kind of toggling back and forth between this is an online tool power bi it's an app that we create and we can manipulate it organize it different ways um but you can set filters to it so in this case this is that site ratings analysis being combined with the cost estimate so we see you know there's an expanded portion at the bottom that is
097not being shown right now but we can see the entire cost estimate organized by sight rating category so that as again as we approach prioritization later on in the process we can we can pick and choose which category of sites or which specific site if you wanted to Target a specific one but which sites would be prioritized and which category of project would be prioritized so um it's a very powerful tool we know not every project will be able to be funded initially so we have a running total of the cost in the corner as you select projects you can see kind of where we're hitting this will help set up a kind of we call it Priority One project list that will be designed to remain within the structure of x existing funding and
098then we can set a kind of priority level two project list when additional funding is able to be achieved these will be your next projects and a powerful tool that this power bi affords us is at the bottom left you see this escalation years so that next round of funding well let's see we have an idea of when this these projects may be able to be rolled out so let's apply an escalation to that year so that we have a more realistic number that we're working with and that the district needs to set aside to be able to implement these projects or at least plan for let's see all right and now Russell I'll be passing it over to you thank you Andrea um next slide please I'm going to talk uh just a little
099bit tonight about uh our scope of work related to the energy master plan um and then and then discuss uh how that fits in with the broader um uh Master planning exercise so as you all recall we were brought on board to uh develop uh an energy plan district-wide and the the kinds of things we'll be covering include Energy Efficiency renewable energy and storage projects um we run a process that's pretty data driven and data intensive and starts with a lot of data collection and benchmarking of all your facilities and we've done that already um from the utility perspective um the second thing we do is is a phase of project identification which uh comes from the the data analysis as well as some degree of auditing and the the opportunity we have here here
100at Alum Rock is to coordinate that effort with the work going on in the master plan we don't often get to do that and and there's a real benefit in that um much of what we need to understand about the sites is already being uh discovered and documented for us so in an Ideal World we'd sort of Trail along a little bit behind the master planning effort uh and then fold our effort into it uh as as the master plan is coming together uh the other two important aspects of of what we're going to be doing for the district is developing a a series of models to estimate the costs and savings related to the energy component of the program energy projects are kind of neat in the sense that if they are structured correctly
101and implemented right um they can actually save the district money over time in addition to the environmental benefit it's that the district would see from those projects so it's always a goal of the effort to make sure that um the paybacks from those Energy savings projects or renewable generation projects are reasonable um and and result in in um Revenue to the to the district's general fund and then the last thing that we're going to be doing is implementation planning we'll be talking about um how to phase projects and in particular how to fold that into um the implementation elements of of your master plan next slide please um so so the key inputs to what we're doing are making sure we're aligned with energy and environmental goals um of the district and and your priorities
102as we go forward um we are going to be looking at decarbonization opportunities which is a little bit different than just strict Energy savings uh if you look at a portfolio of projects that's put together with the idea of maximizing carbon reductions that's a little bit different a thing than maximizing Energy savings and so you can think about it as an example in terms of swapping out existing uh HVAC equipment and gas-fired space heaters with electrified heat pumps um those can be more expensive they can be a little bit more complicated to implement um and what you're doing in effect is switching fuels from natural gas to electricity and so and so it's not strictly a savings project and so that can be a little more subtle and little more sophisticated the way that we
103would model that and and even implement it in terms of how that might be coordinated with um uh Rehabilitation or modernization of existing facilities as I mentioned before our our scope will include um some significant financial analysis and that will be built on on different sets of scenarios where we'll look at options of different measures or groups of measures um even looking at different assumptions around costs and savings depending on what's going on with the utilities and implementation timing and then we'll also quantify the environmental impacts most notably in terms of uh greenhouse gas savings um and then lastly the implementation planning is going to be an interesting component of this project as well because there is a real opportunity to look at different implementation Pathways one of which would certainly include integration into your
104master planning exercise and sort of long-term and even medium-term plans for new facilities and facility modernization along with stand-alone energy initiatives um so oftentimes when we work with school districts there's still a lot of uh infrastructure at the school that won't necessarily be touched in a major way um through a through a bond measure or Master planning exercise and so it may make sense for some measures or some groups of measures to implement those as stand-alone district-wide kinds of projects and not allows implications on Contracting and procurement next slide so I'll just finish up with a word on solar um as many of you may have heard net energy metering policy change in December of last year and it has imposed some deadlines on us to move forward with solar projects in order to maximize
105the savings that the district would achieve from those projects uh the deadline essentially is April 14th of this year uh in the action that needs to be taken is submitting a series of what they call interconnection applications with your utility PG e um we when we first came on board were hoping that we could move quickly enough to maybe run a procurement and have a solar vendor in position and time to do that but with the cpuc decision that doesn't look like it's going to be possible and so we want to make sure that those interconnection applications get submitted so that you have sort of Maximum flexibility and maximum savings should you choose ultimately to to install solar around the district so I wanted to let you know that that sort of came out of
106the process I was talking about before and it's sort of been fast-tracked on its own its own pathway um if we do get the interconnection applications in one real benefit of that is we can slow down a little bit on the procurement and implementation of the solar system to make sure we're working with LPA and coordinating with that larger effort you've been hearing so much about to make sure that the the systems are cited in the right places and so if if we get those applications in it'll essentially buy us three years to figure out um how to do this how to bring a vendor on board and and to get them built I believe oh there's just one more slide I'm not going to cover all this I'm certainly happy to answer questions about
107it but there there are a whole host of citing considerations related to solar projects they're on the slide here the bottom line is that it's very difficult to put solar on existing grooves it's a little easier with new roofs but but you really our recommendation is to bundle the solar component of the project into the rest of the building construction when you do that as much as we love the concept of solar ready if you build a new building that's solar ready and then try to do solar on it a year or two later it creates a series of challenges so um that's kind of the main thing we avoid cutting down trees you have to stay at least 20 feet away from existing buildings and so if you've driven around neighboring communities well I'm
108very local to the district office right there there is a School site um where you see those elevated carport structures and so that's kind of the default assumption about how you do solar in a cost-effective way in a school setting benefit is you get a lot of shade out of that too so um anyway I won't dwell anymore on that but there there are a lot of um sort of trade-offs in those considerations and and again it's a kind of a unique opportunity here to be partnering with LPA um to make progress on that uh as as the master planning exercise unfold that's all I had thank you very much great so I just wanted to share uh what our next steps are we're going to promote the town hall meetings um there will be
109three campus groupings as I mentioned so um there we'll we'll share in a bit uh a flyer that we're making that we've made for each campus I'll be translated um we'll have a steering committee meeting to discuss the capacity study data and where we are on that analysis um well we are working with Arc right now and incorporating the solar layouts so in fact uh today we were working on site design and looking at those and overlaying them and see how how that's working with uh what we've gleaned from all of our deep engagement and then the week of the 13th we'll be rolling out the community surveys in class and teacher professional development meetings and through the district website and this is just to show you the flyers we've made so we have a
110digital version and a print version so the district will be blasting these out and printing some and putting them around and the closer we get to it we'll ramp that up to make sure we have a really high engagement that's really important to get the community to be involved in these we really need to hear everyone's voice to make um this master plan equitable and for our facility master plan committee we've completed two and we have our next one March 16th so that's where we're going to share the demographic Trends the capacity studies analysis review and we would have already done the town hall for the first group of schools so we'll do a debrief on that and then the next meetings we just keep giving updates on the process until we get to like
111I said where the rubber hits the road we need to prioritize which projects need to be done first the ones that will have the most impact so that's uh what we have as our update on what we've done that we wanted to share with you uh does anybody have any questions or comments all right well hang on thank you so much for the presentation uh before I move open into the board I'm going to open item 3.02 for public comment uh is there any public comment on item 3.02 board president there are currently no public comment actually sorry there is a Mr Ed please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timer will begin uh thank you uh this is Eddie from Adelante I just want to understand I believe that uh there is
112supposed to be some type of information gathering session uh to be held at Adelante in the fall and it was uh postponed and that it was supposed to happen later on to get uh parent input on site is that still happening I'm just looking for clarification because it's one of the middle schools who um needs a lot of attention thank you so Andrea that's one that was on your list I believe that was scheduled for December and it was done in January right yes we did have that site meeting um those if if I may respond to the public comment um those um the first round of of you can't uh okay uh you know uh you know uh can't directly respond to the uh public on that one but uh if a board member
113would like to ask it we can respond but if a board member yes so is there any quality information um but uh is there any further public comment board president there's currently no more further public comment okay seeing no further public comment questions or comments by members of the board vice president Herrera loera thank you for president uh and um that was a part of my question so um yeah I guess we'll I'll ask all of my questions and then just go through um I think it's actually one for each of you to respond to um so we'll go ahead and start with uh the question in regards to Adelante if you can clarify that and then I also have a question Andrea and I think that's for you in regards to I know you
114showed us a list of the grading um and you showed us an example of another district and their total schools in the different grades um I guess just to understand in the timeline would we as a board get that at some point and where more or less you know because I know things shift for different reasons we're more like or less would we see a list like that um and then Mariana in regards to and I think this has to do also with the Adelante um you know I say here as a also a parent of a of a middle schooler right where she's like Mom I you know I wish I had my locker or you know things like that right and other needs um so in regards to um recommendations such as right
115because I think of some of our schools that might be k through eight maybe that should have never been or you know and and I'm not saying that that's what we have I'm just saying that that might be something that comes up as you all uh continue to look at our schools and provide feedback is that something that you would come to us as well you know as uh somebody that are looking at our schools as experts and how to best use right all of our all of our schools to the best abilities for our children staff and communities um and would that be a part of that uh report back and then in regards to the Strategic uh plan that you mentioned um is that something that and just to clarify we will receive
116on October 23rd with kind of something that we would pass as a board but also would it be kind of like this is our next steps based on all the um information that you've gathered and sorry to I just want to put it out there so that you won't know where I'm thinking and some of my questions as we're going um and then the last but not least for Russell in regards to the energy efficient um the solar power um is there an action that that we would do today and is that where is this right now where we would take action where we would make a recommendation because I'm thinking the April deadline um which I more or less kind of heard about in the last month so I'm glad you're bringing it to
117us um do we need to take action whether it's today's meeting or next meeting in order to benefit from some of those um cost and savings that you talked about so hopefully you didn't get confused and I'm here to clarify your make my questions more clear thank you yeah no that was good I I it's a four-part question took notes um yeah so thank you um as far as the site ratings uh we are working on translating the reports are like 100 pages so we have to make that jump to make it nice and easy for it to be digested by a lay person so those will be um part of the Town Hall we'll we'll bring those and you're going to see um a bar chart like Andrea was showing that shows every campus
118what grade it got so we're always thinking holistically about the district but then in each campus report it'll show for that campus the six categories to show the math of why it gets the grade that it gets um so yes at our next board meeting you'll definitely have that in in your package um and then your comment about K8 versus Middle School learn just like helping the middle schoolers that is baked into our design guidelines which are what's driving um the site plans for each um campus so there are definitely things that we have in there that are going to help with um helping the middle schoolers it's a you know the most awkward um time of transition in childhood like have what they need especially where we're seeing those gaps and we heard from
119them directly what they wish they had so that'll be both in the design guidelines the Ed specs and in the campuses um and as far as uh our strategic plans so um that will be done by October 2023 but we'll be meeting with the board again I believe we have two more meetings uh one of them will be a special board Workshop where we're going to do that project uh prioritization exercise with you after we do it with the facility master plan committee so that will be in person and we'll bring the tools that you need and all the information and the data and dashboards it's like really easy to understand um so that you can use that data to make a well-informed decision about which projects now that we have pricing what it would
120cost like which are the ones that need to go first once we establish what is the budget what should the budget be for like the first round of projects and Andrea if you want to add anything oh I was just going to say we did meet with Adelante so while that one was postponed that was completed as part of our campus visioning workshops so that will be complete um as we wrap up those reports that will be included and I think Russell you're part four yes and in reference to the solar um that that's uh I should have pointed that out more directly before there is an item uh later on in your agenda under the action item section to authorize uh budget for Arc to develop and and submit those interconnection applications which which
121was not part of the original plan um when our contract was awarded last time so yes that is an important action that the deadline is is real and uh we we would be able to uh to get those applications in by the deadline and make sure that uh that that is secure for the district thank you okay uh for questions or comments hi members of the board uh trustee beharano yes thank you um first of all thank you for the like explosion thank you for the a very thorough report um to everybody on the team and uh my question is couple questions specifically um to Mr driver with regards to solar um just already covered one of them but one of my questions is um if indeed the action passes later in the agenda how
122what does that say or or does it say anything about the district's kind of uh with how do I firm commitment to kind of firmly move forward in this process I know we're we've been moving in this direction we're exploring we're looking at Alternatives but if and when this action does get approved does that increase indeed the level of commitment to moving forward with this or is it just kind of procedural to make sure we meet those deadlines um I mean it represents I think a commitment um from that perspective it doesn't obligate the district to do anything I just wanted to make that distinction but um you know your district is not alone in racing towards this deadline and so a lot of districts are confronting the same kind of decision point where they're
123having to commit a little bit earlier you know some resource to get that the the the current net energy metering secured than they otherwise would have um and and so it is a little bit of a commitment clearly from a from a budget point of view um but but you know the payback in terms of additional savings is many times what it's going to take for us to get those nem applications together um but just to be clear it does not mean you have to implement solar if market conditions change or something happens or the facilities Master planning exercise suggests a different approach um you you can always do it differently later but the cost to the district will be some loss of the savings um that you would have otherwise secured under the current
124policy okay is that does that answer the question a quick follow-up I'm sorry a quick follow-up to what you just said Mr driver um the I think I heard you say something about savings and the savings that we would get are we at a point now where we've determined that moving forward in this way would indeed result in some level of savings obviously it would vary depending on you know site locations and structure types all that kind of stuff you know how we pay for it how we structure all of the financial Parts but are we at a point where we've determined that this would be beneficial financially for the district our analysis on that front is not complete it's our assumption going into it that the answer will be yes because it is for
125all the other clients that we work with um but as you correctly point out the degree of those savings or whether you find savings at all will come down at least in part to how the solar is implemented um and how that affects the cost structure essentially but you know we will lay out those options for you and we'll be working with LPA on on some of those citing issues which Drive costs a little bit but if you take the assumption that you would do a district-wide solar deployment at that kind of scale um we're seeing the costs come in in other procurements that we're running right now that would certainly result in savings for the district but I can't be more specific than that because we haven't finished the sizing of the systems and
126done the the sort of production simulation on what those systems would generate in the economic analysis around found it that would be one of our next steps okay thank you and then based on um you know some of the demographic information that we've received recently and trends that we've been following for a while now um you know are obviously along with many many many other districts our um student population continues to be an issue for the district in terms of just managing sites and resources and in my estimation it's the reality of the closure of schools still is a reality a potential reality for the district going forward and so if and when that does indeed occur is that possibility factored into the planning that we may you know plan for something but then that
127site may end up being you know closed as a as a um a School site so is that kind of factored into how we're planning this foreign yes as we we're doing our Capacity Analysis and working with the districts uh as they've been you know we're working very closely with folks like colvera and other District leaders um we're getting those ideal operating capacities from them and running our just site planning Capacity Analysis um trying to gain the most efficiency for the district um but also staying mindful to Unique programs or locations of schools opportunities um for you know the students within your District so that is all part of the conversation yes okay thank you for that um you know I think I I appreciate your mindfulness with that I think that is according to
128what I've uh information that I've received I will be a reality that this board will need to confront this district and and it's important that you are being mindful of that as we move forward in the process um you know just so I don't have to say that the next item I'll also be supportive of the action with regards to the solar later and the agenda um you know as I mentioned before we've come a long way um and we've you know it's my only regret in this whole process is that you know we I would have wished we would have started earlier because we'd be like a year year and a half ahead and closer to potential savings but that being said I'm glad that we are here now um and I'm glad that
129this team is here helping us to get to where we want to be as a district so thank you everyone uh for continuing to move forward with this and I look forward to um what's to come for us thank you other questions or further questions or comments by members of the board saying that now just wrap up I I think uh LPA and Arc alternatives for uh presenting to us tonight I appreciate the detail as well as the uh layout of the future of what's uh to come with our facilities Master planning process uh on that note I want to encourage uh all our families to to attend these forums this is an opportunity to have your your a say in the future of our district the future of our schools uh you know this
130is an exciting moment in time uh you know well what is it they say uh you know our educational needs are changing and this is an opportunity for us to uh reimagine our our school sites in you know in uh in over their you know in some cases three generations so again thank you so much for the presentation and I look forward to uh the deliberations to come and uh hopefully we you know we begin the process of renewing our sites for the uh next generation of kids thank you so much okay thank you very much so with that we move on to section four comments and Communications I am 4.01 Alum Rock administrators Association okay yes okay uh Jesus you are recognized hello can you hear me yes we hear you loud and clear
131perfect thank you good evening Board of Trustees Dr Bauer arusd staff and the Alamo Community my name is Jesus and I am here this evening representing araa it is a privilege to speak to you tonight to represent a group of vibrant Educators administrators who work tremendously hard in service to our schools and community um there's exciting developments taking place across arusd and our administrators continue to work to serve their prospective sites and departments so I'm going to provide a few updates of the amazing things happening across the district uh Russo mcentee Academy had an exciting January um students are diving into birds and insect units science from scientists work with students and separating physical matter expanding the students knowledge base on concepts of recycling and reusing materials our fourth and fifth grade students enjoyed participating
132in class and school spelling bee next week our third grade students teachers and parents chaperones will be heading to Henry Cowell State Park at Ryan steam Academy we started building our new steam lab in partnership with RAF all students had the opportunity to build and be part of this experience we held our spelling bee and are ready for District spelling bee we continue to serve our students and the entire Community with the research partnership with Loaves and Fishes we plan to distribute about 200 cook meals to our community members every Tuesday San Antonio we had our our school sites spelling bee it ran very smoothly we're ready for Alpac testing this week we had our first week of Los detos last week all parent volunteers were wonderful students and teachers really loved having those details
133come come into their classrooms and read books and do activities with them at Renaissance Academy um Renaissance Academy at Fisher is most appreciative of their partnership with Bay Area women's sports initiative bossy um has partnered with our physical education teachers and has run programming into engaging and inspiring female students participation in sports the number of female students engaging in athletic activities has noticeably increased thanks to the collaboration between the bossy staff our PE teachers and our after school Athletics program coaches Adelante one we have been busy at Adelante hosting wonderful educational opportunities such as Behavior assemblies having uh Happy Hollow do assembly with our first graders wrath stopping by uh to do Hands-On activities with their students and celebrating a wonderful mid-year parent volunteer breakfast from the Department side we had a successful vapa winner
134showcase on January 26th that highlighted the art and music performances from our vapa cluster Puritan Elementary Lindo Elementary Linda Vista Elementary and George Middle School we are preparing for our students our Spring Showcase as well the March Madness Tournament with the middle schools in the district will be held at James Lake High School from March 3rd through March 5th the summer Alpac testing window is now open for our English Learners across the district thank you for your time okay thank you Jesus I am 4.02 Teamsters I'm not sure that they're gonna have somebody tonight okay uh that's like no one from Teamsters uh moving on 4.03 California School Employees Association Sharon wanted to connect but she was having connectivity issues I don't know if she's on the on in the audience uh Carlos or Luis
135is a Sharon in the audience no we don't see sharing regards okay very well uh 4.04 Alum Rock Educators Association uh Jocelyn I see you Jocelyn you have four hello uh Jocelyn you have the floor Jocelyn you are recognized uh can you hear us oh okay okay I think I'm unmuted now I I can you hear me yes loud and clear okay because I didn't get the typical little unmute yourself thing anyway good evening um good evening board president fam trustees and the Alum Rock Community I would like to start out by expressing my sincere gratitude to board president Pham and board clerk Quintero for attending the CTA School Board dinner last week with myself and Sandra Rivera our area vice president it was a great and long overdue in-person event that was well attended
136by many school board trustees throughout the county one of the realizations that I remember from that evening was the number of CTA members and teachers who are increasing their commitment to education by serving as school board members as well it's exciting to see the value they bring as an educator to the decision-making level in fact the two CTA board of directors from our region who attended and spoke at the event are not only classroom teachers themselves but also serve on the school boards in the districts with where they reside thank you again for taking the time from your busy schedules and families to share in some candid conversation and an enjoyable evening with the month of February being recognized as Black History Month I would like this school board and District administration to reflect back
137to July 2020 when area brought forth the black lives matter at school resolution that was mentioned earlier in the evening by several of our area members and um equity and human rights committee the black lives matter at school resolution was approved by the then board majority and by the the current seated trustees Quintero Herrera lawera and bajarano trustee Chavez was present at that meeting however she was absent when the vote was taken to approve the resolution one part of that resolution that was passed was that air USD committed to hiring and retaining black Educators and administrators district-wide however the area equity and human rights committee has witnessed a decline in the number of black black Educators within the district some due to retirement some have left for higher paying districts however others have left as
138a result of racist remarks and actions that they have been subjected to in the workplace I am asking in support of the area human rights and Equity committee that a purposeful and intentional Digi diligent effort be made to recruit and retain qualified black Educators and administrators to the Alum Rock School District our students deserve it our Educators deserve it and our community deserves it moving on to the next topic of major importance in our district is the desperate immediate need for help support and guidance for our Educators in dealing with the most important issue that is prohibiting our teachers from from providing the best educational program for all students and that is the extreme unacceptable Behavior by particular students across all grade levels and across our campuses I am daily receiving desperate pleas from teachers
139asking what rights they have when they are attacked literally hit kicked punched bit and have had furniture and sharp objects thrown at them they have received threats of physical violence from both students and parents leaving them scared and helpless aside from doing an in-school class suspension as outlined in the California Ed code or filling out endless amounts of paperwork to initiate an SST process which may take weeks and months to complete or notifying the police if the threat Rises to that level exactly what rights and resources does a teacher have to defend and protect the safety of the other students as well as themselves in the classroom where do we turn who has our backs and what guidelines steps and processes does the district have in place to address this used to happen only on
140occasion it was the exception but that has now changed it is happening consistently and frequently and it is also a cause of Educators leaving the profession this is my desperate plea to you the administration and the school board to please provide our Educators with the necessary skills and resources needed now more than ever to help us deal with this situation lastly I would like to address an item you all must deal with tonight and that's the issue of non-relex of our probationary teachers I sent an email to you last week expressing my shock that this was being dealt with a month earlier than any other school year in the past as you may or may not know the California Ed code allows the district to non-reelect a teacher on probationary status up until March 15th
141of their second year and this may be done without giving a reason or cause however through the years that I have been area president I have had many conversations with the various superintendents and assistant superintendents of HR that taking such action should not be arbitrary in other words it shouldn't be simply because one administrator didn't like something that was said to them one day by a teacher so they decided to exercise their power and let them go I think the typical standards were standard words that have been used are you're not a good fit which means absolutely nothing to someone who has put in years of college to explore their passion of teaching and receives glowing evaluations from their current administrators and much praise from their students and parents only to be blindsided by receiving
142a letter saying you are being non-reelected for no cause oh yeah by the way you can make that choice to resign however you need to do so within the next 15 hours if you want but you must still carry out your duties for the next four and a half months with a positive attitude that is not what the intent of that Ed code is no one should be blindsided by such action especially if they receive no support or guidance from their administrator to improve those first few months on the job I don't deny that there are certain situations we're taking such Extreme Action maybe Justified however this year there were very few cases where it was I feel a lot of empathy for those who have been done a disservice however I know in the
143big picture other districts will profit from our losses and those teachers will be appreciated at their next stop along the way it does make me very sad though that Alum Rock is letting some really valuable Educators get away in fact area just recently surveyed our members to get feedback on what it will take for them to stay in Alum Rock and the results were really disheartening to what the future holds for this District to sum up that topic please don't ever take such action of non-reelecting Educators without first looking at substantial justifiable support to back it up and don't take that action so early in the school year it just isn't necessary it serves no Positive Purpose and it adds an extra month of lower morale think about that when you go into closed session
144tonight thank you okay thank you Jocelyn item 4.05 superintendent Bauer thank you board president I want to thank Andrea B and Scarlett tripodi uh these are two students from Linda Vista who sent me a very sweet message that I was not expecting in in a very appropriate Manner and so Andrea B uh fourth grader in Linda Vista and Scarlett tripodi fifth grader in Linda Vista thank you very much for your notes that I was not expecting and it was a real um joy in my day um a few days ago I want to wish everybody a happy black three months uh I want to thank Miss Dalton for reaching out to us and having a very candid generous and genuine conversation around some of the kinds of things that we need to improve um one
145of them is certainly the way sometimes um people talk around and use certain terms around the district and you know we had we talked about that and how sometimes our own culture music allows for certain words that are very inappropriate and cause a lot of pain to be just thrown around and we are looking very um formally around some solutions to really help our students and our staff to be very mindful about the way we talk to each other I think that that also carries out throughout the district and how we see each other and how we talk to each each other is very important so thank you Miss Dalton for bringing that to us personally and I really we are really looking forward to hiring more black administrators staff members and teachers in Alum
146Rock I also want to highlight that March Madness begins on March 3rd so I hope to see everybody there it's a great opportunity for our students and our parents and our staff to see our kids doing some wonderful um things around our community and I also want to thank the what I call the spark Plus we have a number of parents in addition to the the spark parents going through uh professional development for parents once a month with project Cornerstone we have about 40 parents joining us virtually in these lessons I also want to recall uh highlight our after a school program plus the some of the wonderful opportunities that now we're providing to our students in addition to tutoring and intervention we now have culinary arts classes in arts uh in creativity throughout the
147district and I'm looking forward to a wonderful another wonderful season of a spring camp so Alum Rock we have a lot of wonderful things coming our way thank you okay thank you so much uh so I'm 4.06 uh Communications and comments from members of the board okay I see trusted beharana yes thank you president Ben uh first I just wanted to start with um I don't know how much people have been paying attention to this particular thing recently but it's been at the Forefront of news and and popular culture or whatever recently which is kind of the kind of an explosion of artificial intelligence AI specifically right now chat GPT is a phrase you might have heard and so because of the implications of that technology um you know on all aspects of life really
148but particularly for in this case for with regards to school districts and our school I did um submit to Dr Bauer a resolution that I think she wisely um said that we should take a look at and look at it from an Educator's perspective and and really think it through um but my position on it just um to get ahead of it a little bit is that this is a technology some of you as Educators or as parents might already be experiencing your children using it um for whatever it may be fun or or school work or whatever and it this stuff is happening super fast like if if you pay any attention at all it's being integrated into like search engines and everything and so my opinion that I would strongly encourage my colleagues
149if and when this resolution does come to the board um would be to really consider the resolution to approving because what it does is put some guidelines some structure some expectations around the proper ethical legal safe way to use chat gbt and AI because although it is it can be a challenge early in its kind of evolution here there's a lot of opportunity I believe to use it as a tool for education for a tool especially for kids that don't have access to a lot of resources like maybe some in our district to be able to have access to a wealth of knowledge perspectives and and different ways of learning and if we're you know going to say in our mission statement that we're preparing our students for a 21st century to be you know
150competitive in the 21st century this is a skill set that I believe they absolutely need to have so I think you know it's wise to take our time up with this kind of thing and make sure that we are thoughtful in it but I do think that time is of the essence as well on the flip side of that so I look forward to that um Coming forward um and then the second thing I wanted to say just in terms of kind of climate of the district I guess um you know there's been a lot of talk about solidarity tonight and I too stand in solidarity in solidarity with our students and their families all of them I make absolutely no apologies for my stance that our students and families are who I serve as
151a board member first and foremost the desires of each one of us as board members or our District staff and even teachers in my estimation are secondary to what our students need and and I'm speaking you know as an individual board member right now so that my comments do not reflect necessarily those of the board but in my opinion I'm extremely disappointed that we have members of our our community teachers know less who have specifically called out a minor and a former student publicly after they spoke their mind I'm an advocate of empowering our youth including those who spoke so eloquently tonight in support of one of our staff I'm I'm super impressed by those students they and I welcome and I encourage that kind of participation um I find it inexcusable that a segment
152of adults particularly Educators would actively seek to disempower our youth for simply for offending them personally to me that's a behavior that's inexcusable to to try to disempower our own Alum Rock youth I would hope that educators are familiar with stages of human development particularly Youth Development as they might then be able to recognize that the actions taken by the youth that they've spoken out against are completely in line with what we'd be expected for a teenager your courage and Leadership is really about saying what you believe even when you know that the possible consequences may be negative just as I commend those former students who voice their opinions tonight in support of their teacher I love that but also wholeheartedly commend the former student referred to in the comments made by some of our
153teachers just for speaking their mind the student there I know there's going to be some who say that I'm saying this because I I know trustee can fiddle which obviously I know all of my colleagues on the board but regardless of who we're talking about here me trustee infero trustee Chavez whoever it may be my position is the same with regards to prioritizing students students well-being their families well-being above anyone on this board above anyone in the administration and even above teachers at the end of the day my service here is to students and families of Alum Rock period I make no apologies for that my own daughters in fact spoke out against the district during their time as students here and I would have been absolutely appalled if adults teachers had responded to my
154daughter's advocacy by seeking to silence them and diminish them as young women because that didn't happen they're now able to navigate in the world as young women and you know that I think that speaks to what we want out there as Alum Rock alumni the ability for our students to have the confidence to know that they can go out into the world and bring the perspective of our community to those who may not be aware of you know what happens in communities like ours and the resources that we need the opportunities that we need only those students who we Empower to have a voice will be able to go out and make things better for the next generation I talked a lot about accountability recently in this District as a board member my expectation is
155that board members the superintendent and staff operate with professionalism and respect towards all members of our community all members of our community and my expectation is that every adult in the Alum Rock Family keep the interest of all of our students in mind first and foremost before their own personal opinions or perspectives something that I'm not sure is happening in some specific instances in my mind that's inexcusable again going back to the thought that the end of the day I'm here to serve students and you know I think those kinds of behaviors when we're not doing that whether it's me I always I start with myself whether it's me to anyone else in the district when we are not demonstrating those behaviors of keeping the end goal in mind success of our students above our
156own personal needs wants or desires then I think it's going to be challenging for us to get where we want to be as a district but if we can obviously we all have things that we want and we all need and realities of this world this community this you know Financial reaction there's things that we all need and want and those definitely should be part of a conversation a respectful conversation from both sides any side of the table but I think at the end of the day I guess what I'm getting to is that um again my personal opinion is that the expectation for any one of us as adults in this District should be the priority is our students not our own personal needs wants or desires um so those are my comments for
157tonight thank you okay thank you trustee biharano uh in our trustees with the questions or comments okay uh vice president Herrera loera thank you trustee I know you said it a lot more better than I was thinking um but with that I'll follow up in that as a board member I will always stand for the safety of our children first and foremost um so I'll just reiterate that and thank our staff member Norma Flores who uh sent out on Friday our mandate mandating reporting policies um highlighting what we go by as an entire District um please if you have any questions you know whether you're a parent a staff member thinks aren't clear you still might not understand it or you you know there's a gray area please make sure to ask and if you
158don't get the question answered go above send us emails to ensure that we all understand what our mandating reporting States and something I want to highlight is that the policy defines the standards um and including the fact that all students should be treated with respect and dignity at all times which means that even as adults we might not agree with how they're behaving or what they're doing um which is one of the hardest things you know some of the roles that I've had as an adult in many children's lives in our community it gets hard I understand um but ensuring that all of our children regardless regardless are treated with respect and dignity at all times with that as well um you know we thank each and every one of you for ensuring the safety
159and know that as a board member I will do um what's in my capacity um to ensure this uh regardless of what you know somebody may or may not like um but that is my responsibility um just in addition to what trustee beggarano mentioned earlier and uh moving on to fun things I'm looking forward to visiting some of our schools hopefully I did talk to uh our superintendent to um get me on the calendar to visit some of the schools um so looking forward to seeing you all uh in the near future and um also very excited for the many activities and staff and advocacy in our district for the Black History Month um as an ally you know in supporting um and knowing that there's always more to do I look forward to the
160many more uh uh things and Report backs and ways to improve our district um so I look forward in having those conversations um thank you for all the emails that I've received um I've been reading them and um you know I look forward thank you for being uh even if you don't have children in our district um for caring enough to take the time to send us those messages um and obviously being a part of a district that honors all children as I mentioned all ethnicities I also want to invite everybody to mark their calendars March 10 11 and 12 we'll be celebrating again the Aztec Michigan New Year Emma push Park here in our community one of the largest Ceremonies for our indigenous Nations we start on Friday with Cali native night where the
161indigenous people of this land open up and we will be having vendors and workshops and activities for the children so I look forward to seeing you all there and with that thank you so much sport president okay and press the Quintero trustee Chavez and um [Laughter] [Music] okay uh I'll just wrap up with you know a busy busy month uh yes I I do thank Jocelyn for inviting me to the CTA board members dinner very very nice dinner and got a chance to uh meet with my counterpart board presidents uh uh in the room uh you know or these events are always a nice way to do uh exchange diplomatic messages uh but I want to focus on you know uh I have the opportunity to open the winter vapa showcase at George Middle School
162uh our first uh waffle showcase since the pandemic it was a a wonderful two thumbs up performance I also wanted to congratulate the painter at different tabling at the Tet festival at uh Eastridge mall we had a great turnout we signed up more than 60 interested parents who are interested in our Vietnamese immersion dual language I mean Vietnamese language dual immersion program and uh you know uh we're growing uh painters growing to third grade and I'm very very thrilled at the funeral for the future of painter and the special thanks to uh principal man lucco his wife and Mr pran for uh and Mr tin fan for uh you know spending their weekend to you know promote our signature Vietnamese uh dual immersion program uh I am look certainly well first of all looking forward
163to the uh District spelling bee to be held at San Antonio on February 28th and yes the March Madness the district basketball tournament uh March uh third through the 5th and it certainly was my my an honor and a pleasure to be able to open those events uh in my capacity as board president Ben lastly I wanted to you know um wish every uh you know uh Happy Black History Month I too did meet with uh you know uh Ms Talton and we had a very productive conversation about what we can do you know to start the process of what we can do to uh honor our commitments to a you know uh diverse multi-ethnic Alum Rock uh you know we've been multi-ethnic from the beginning and uh we you know we are greater than
164the sum of our parts so I am you know uh I am committed to an inclusive Alum Rock that serves all you know the fullness of our community so uh with that we'll move to uh part five public hearing special order of business uh in 5.01 public hearing regarding bonding capacity waiver requests uh superintendent Bauer you have the floor I'm gonna ask Mr Chang and maybe it's appropriate to open the hearing okay because that item it comes uh next okay uh he's ready okay uh yes Mr Chang you have the floor thank you board president um for this item I would like to invite Mr Joe Crump with Dale Scott Maribel Joe is um calling in with the number one 805. if you can promote him to the panel he'll be able to write some
165background on this item and also promote Miss Courtney Jenkins uh she is with Jones Hall and she is our bond Council yes Mr Krupp if you can allow him to speak but not to um show his screen because he's calling me yeah yeah he's dialing in so yeah yeah this is this is Joe Crump um yeah sorry about the inconvenience I was having connection issues so just dialed in right now um but yeah just to give the board a little bit of background um so going back to you know over the past 30 years the district has had uh five successful Bond elections and for the most recent in June of 2016 and November of 2022 those elections measure I and measure s both have um unissued authorization so measure s or sorry measure I
166from 2016. has a 100 million dollars of unissued authorization and then November measure s from November 2022 has um 71.5 million dollars of unissued authorization um and there is a limit um just based on the California legal code for elementary school districts that at any given time they can only have 1.25 percent of their total assessed valuation of bond outstanding so if you take the total assessed valuation of the District of all the taxable property in the district multiply that by 1.25 percent then that that gives you the debt limit for an elementary school district like Alum Rock and so um currently under that debt limit the district only has roughly 19 million dollars in available capacity and there is a way to get around that limit um and it's fairly common so the method
167is to send a waiver request to the California State Board of Education and typically they approve these requests I don't think Dale or I have ever seen a case where a request is not approved as long as we provide the necessary information and once this waiver request is approved which will likely happen in May of this year um the Department of Education will assign a higher percentage limit and that will enable the district to issue um the initiated authorization authorization for measures I and measure s um so you know the resolution before the District board tonight is just to um approve the process of actually applying for that waiver so so I hope that makes sense but happy to answer any questions about that okay thank you um oh but do we need to oh
168oh okay I don't need to pick public no because that's that's the hearing okay very good so with that I hereby declare the uh public here in school bonding capacity waiver request open okay uh Louise is there any members of the public wishing to comment board president there's currently no public comment okay seeing no further public comment I will go ahead and close the uh public hearing regarding School bonding capacity waiver request okay so moving on to item six superintendent slash board business 6.01 approved resolution number three okay move to approve okay so I have a motion from Quintero second by a vice president Herrera whoever uh missed Mr Chang would you like to knowing uh was it present the resolution yes Mr board president um the resolution um was just explained by Mr Joe
169Crump in terms of the waiver that we're requesting to the state of California in order to increase our um debt limit um to be able to issue the outstanding bonds okay very well uh Luis is there any I'll open the public comment on 6.1 is there any public comment on item 6.01 board president there is no public comment okay saying no further comments by the public questions and comments by members of the board okay seeing none I will move to a vote you know how uh okay oh okay trustee Chavez you have the floor okay um I know that the voters did you know approve to you know with the bonds but this waiver it's kind of like attacking from 13. so um because a lot of the taxpayers don't know that they're going to
170be taxed more and we're kind of like this is kind of just like brushing things through I'll be voting down today thank you and her comments by uh well I'll make one comment before we move to the phone I just said I you know I I will say I just said you know disagree trustee Chavez I mean again uh Pro you know I think that Prop 13 and this are two different issues one is a uh one is a cap on property tax rates this is you know this is a waiver for an increase in the uh bonding limit and again uh you know there is prop 39 which which gives the the local school districts to write the past bonds at 55 and the public has approved these bonds so you know it's not
171Nest you know uh you know we are not increasing tax rates this is some you know this is uh rather uh a bonding issue and not a you know not necessarily a clear you know not necessarily an increase in probably taxes uh so I respectfully disagree with that care you know but that comparison so with that I'll move to devote I'll call you as I see you uh trustee Chavez no uh vice president Herrera aye Quintero all right uh trustee herrano aye and myself voting eye the motion passes uh four to one with trustee Chavez dissenting uh moving to item 6.02 the ballot for csda delicate assembly uh promotion okay motion to motion to approve I move that we support uh board member Ryan Lee and we write in uh board member George Sanchez and
172at whatever time it's appropriate I would like to make a comments okay okay very good and second and I also have an additional Amendment um or something to add yeah apparently also Jorge Pacheco we received an email yeah to also include his name on the list is that acceptable to the uh the maker of production I would like to speak to them okay foreign okay okay I think just adding it not necessarily going for the name so adding George and adding uh um Jorge Pacheco to the options but not necessarily voting for anyone in specific yet oh my motion was to for to move approval for wrongly and and uh writing for for sure extensions right so I'm not going against it I'm just asking if we can add and write in Jorge Pacheco as
173well yeah but uh I guess so let me let me okay okay at what point in time can I explain of course of course so I have a motion in a second um yes yes please so this is going around by the entire County and it's not just on rock or or an East Side thing it's the old Johnny votes on the representatives that we get and we've been losing uh representation on delegate assembly which is a policy making body is the ESPN so it's a very very non uh it's important to have people um reflect our community in this body because when you go to the meetings and it's not reflected on the makeup of the State of California due to the fact that there's so many rural districts around 1056 districts of them
174and so um the way in which this works is that everybody votes yes and uh if you go ahead and you kind of all six books you may want to do lending support to somebody from another district and be wind up bouncing or bumping up a a potential um individual that might be able to take the perspective of you say truly done uh the reason I I move forward I've asked for for us to vote for violently and Georgetown because George is very um uh well uh regarded in deleism is all the people who are already there have served with them for a long time I think he's gonna have a best shot at getting elected uh as a writing candidate I'm not not anybody anybody else I'm just looking at the reality and I
175think that it would be it would be who was to narrow down our votes so that we made sure that the people we send off um are able to get in we don't really unwittedly run off buying support team somebody else so that's a project okay okay of course uh vice president Herrera so I'm in full support of uh voting for them um I was just requested if we could write in Jorge Pacheco as um so maybe I'm a misunderstanding if we write him yeah oh God the whole idea so we can only write in one all right in as many as you want up to six but we vote for just two right the the that's the motion to vote to limit our vote to achieve from our area of accounting so that we
176can give them the best shot they have so I'm in support of that and maybe trust me I don't know might be able to explain it's also kind of a question but maybe a clarification but I think I'm hearing I'm understanding is that um the you know for the reason that you said um trustee Sanchez has a higher or a decent likelihood of actually getting onto that body and the unintended consequence of potential of also including trustee Pacheco would be diminishing the possibility of Mr Sanchez getting on the board so it's like we would be or I'll say I would be supportive of both of them but according to what you're saying I believe is that supporting one or the other in this case including trusty Pacheco diminishes actually the possibility of either of them
177being put onto that body but specifically Mr Sanchez and yours I might have made it more it's confusing oh I think just a technical just a technical note marabelle did ask trustee quinteroda uh going forward to speak up a bit more so that yeah yes okay uh okay but okay so before I get to Mike I will open it up to public comment uh Luis is there any come comments from the public for item 6.02 foreign president there is currently no public comment okay so see now and move to questions and comments from the board so uh I just have one question for trustee you know given your a tour Quintero for giving his experience so I guess that I guess it almost sounds like um we can vote for up to six right but
178I guess the problem is that based upon how the votes are counted you know if we voted for if we used our full allotment of six you know we you know the problem is you know it may end up you know adding a vote to say a uh candidate that is not representative of our region and therefore you know with this tilting the uh you know as I said soaking the balance uh at least that's that's my understanding what happens they may have already collected a bunch of votes in other places uh-huh and they'll wind up bumping up okay um people from our our neck of the woods uh take a look at the list yeah nice we have one person on bullets from Martin how you know oh so it's important to figure out
179how do we bring a path for more voices bro our neck go was to to get up there and to speak up okay thank you for that clarification uh trustee Chavez so since one is on the list and if you incorporate more you're watering down that procedure you want to go with one they have the best chance of winning okay but uh did you uh trust me um you know I as I'm thinking about it I I you know know fairly well both of these individuals and I I do think that Krusty Pacheco has done um a good job of establishing himself of building his credibility as a trustee but I do at the same and the same with trustee Sanchez and but I do think that at least in my experience having observed kind
180of how how the whole body works I think that what trustee quivero is suggesting um makes sense for me and I'm I I'm leaning towards supporting that approach with the the statement that I really do believe both both of the gentlemen are qualified or established our credible candidate but just strategically um I'm leaning towards supporting what uh trustee Federal is proposing uh for questions or comments my numbers in the board just uh clarify yeah I understood that if we were to write in what if I take of them were actually voting with questions so it's a um thank you for clarifying that and I will be supporting uh okay it's a very good seeing no further questions or comments uh from the board I'll move to a vote and we have a motion from Claire
181Quintero second by vice president herreras so I'll call you as I see you uh trustee Chavez uh give me a second to think about this okay I'll come back to you vice president Herrera lawera aye Clarke Quintero all right uh trustee hirano aye crusty Chavez no okay and myself voting I the motion passes uh four to one what trustee shot is dissenting uh okay moving to SEC uh I am 6.03 discussion consideration to approve resolution number 22 22-23 authorizing uh remote virtual teleconference meetings uh superintendent you have the floor uh yes and I have invited Rogelio to join us tonight just so that he can highlight some of the changes in the brown act um and also just so that everybody knows there's a minor uh typo on the resolution and I'm gonna see Maribel
182can you please uh promote uh Mr Ruiz he alerted me about this and I'm trying to find it should read a it's less than 30 days now because it's still February the 20th if the board approves right so there he is okay uh Mr Ruiz you have the floor yes so the resolution before you is is a resolution that you have passed uh consistently um every board meeting to extend the opportunity to hold uh board meetings virtually uh the governor has uh signed an order revoking the Declaration of the covid-19 emergency uh effective at the end of February 28th and so um from and after March 1st of this year uh the board board meetings will have to revert back to in-person meetings um with uh specific exceptions for uh remote appearances by individual board
183members under specific circumstances and I sent an update to the board and the superintendent about that earlier this week but this resolution will uh in in case there is a need for more board meetings this month only this resolution will allow the board to hold those board meetings virtually as you are now as you are meeting now uh but again that would only be through February 28th okay very well uh we'll approval okay second a little approval okay uh we have a motion by Quintero second by uh trustee Chavez I will open this item to public comment uh okay uh Louise is there any comment from the public on this item board president there's currently no public comment okay seeing no further public comment I'll move to com questions and comments by members of the
184board okay any comments or questions by members from the board okay it doesn't look like that uh just like making sure okay so seeing now move to the vote uh seeing no further comments or questions uh from the board I'll move to the road I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez hi okay uh vice president Herrera loera aye uh Kirk Quintero uh trustee bejarano no okay and myself voting I the item passes for the one with trustee bejarano dissenting uh moving to section seven bonds uh I am 7.01 approval okay uh motion by uh clerk Quintero second by vice president Herrera loevera on 7.01 uh is there anything to present not really who you the board has been okay very well uh okay open the item to public comment uh Luis is there
185any comments from members of the public or president there is no public comment okay seeing no further comments from the public any comments some questions by members of the board okay seeing then I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez hi uh vice president Herrero aye Quintero aye trustee bejarano aye and myself for an imotion passes unanimously five to zero uh item 7.02 okay okay motion by clerk Quintero second by uh trustee Chavez uh let's see here I will open the item to uh comments from the public board president there is no public comment being none questions or comments by members of the board seeing none I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trusty Chavez aye uh vice president Herrera loera aye Quintero aye
186trustee Bay hurano aye and myself building I motion path is unanimously five to zero uh item 7.03 question motion by trustee Chavez a second by Quintero uh so uh do I have a uh I'll move the I'll open the item for comments from the public board president there is no public comment okay seeing no for Republic comment I'll open it to questions and comments by members of the board seeing none um call the vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez hi uh vice president Herrera loera aye uh Clark Quintero all right uh trustee baharano aye and myself voting I item passes unanimous unanimously five to zero uh item 7.04 motion okay I did hear uh motion by uh Quintero do I have a second second second by trustee Chavez I'll open the
187item to uh public comment Louise is there any public comment on item 7.04 or president there is no public comment okay seeing none questions and comments by members of the board saying no no to vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye uh vice president Herrera aye Quintero aye trustee bejarano aye and myself building I item passes five to zero unanimously a number item 7.05 okay motion by trustee Chavez second second by vice president Herrera lawera uh open to public comment is there any public comment on item 7.05 foreign there is no public comment okay okay saying no further comments by uh from the public any comments and questions by members of the board seeing that I'll call you as I see I'll move to we'll call you as I see you
188trusty Chavez aye vice president Herrera aye carpentero uh trustee bejarano aye and myself voting eye item passes unanimously five to zero uh go moving to item 7.06 I need a trusty shout motion by trustee Chavez second by Kirk Quintero uh uh I'll open the item to public comment board president there is no public comment I'll be seeing a further comment from the public questions comments by members of the board seeing then I'll move the vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye vice president and myself voting I uh item passes unanimously five to zero moving to Section 8 instructional Services uh item 8.01 uh I did hear uh uh Kirk pintero some motions second by trustee chamez uh I'll open the item to comments and questions by the public seeing uh or
189president there's no public comment questions or comments by members of the board saying none now move to the vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye vice president Herrero loera aye uh clerk Quintero aye trustee bejarano uh and myself building I item passes unanimously five to zero item 8.02 okay motion by Christy Chavez second by uh vice president opened the item to public comment is there any public comment on this Louise report present there is no public comment uh seeing no for a comment by the from the public questions and comments by members of the board uh vice president Herrera loera I just want to highlight um that you know we don't just pass resolutions but we actually follow up with actions and uh when we started Natasha Melendez you know talked
190about her appreciativeness of us hiring her um as a woman owner of her business so I look forward to doing you know more of that uh especially supporting women-owned businesses um being a woman you know I think sometimes like what's a big deal it's a big deal because uh you know we've um we haven't been there many years so just uh really proud of our district um you know and making sure that any opportunity that we get of course ensuring that the uh business that is provided um is quality which we know it has been so really happy um with that and I'm sure other examples that we have throughout our district so thank you okay or questions or comments by members of the board uh saying no further questions in our comments I'll move
191to a vote I'll call you say see you Christy Chavez aye uh vice president Herrera aye um Quintero uh trustee Bay huranu aye and my second eye item passes unanimously five to zero uh item uh 8.03 motion by trustee Chavez second by Clint Montero I'll open the item to uh public comment Louise is there any uh members of the public wishing to comment foreign there is no public comment okay uh okay seeing no further comments from the public uh questions and comments by members of the board uh trustee I mean vice president Herrera loera and I just uh mentioned on this one I'm really proud as a mother who has a child who is into the Arts and education um with theater you know I'm really proud of our district for investing and ensuring that
192we highlight this within our district and I truly believe that it saves lives so thank you how many burgers and questions and comments by members of the board well I'll just say one thing and that I went to our winter vapa showcase and I look forward to our Spring Vapor showcase uh the Arts are an important part of the educational experience uh you know it makes you know ensures the well-roundedness of our children and it helps you know what even though we don't necessarily draw the correlation at you know Lessons Learned in in the Visual and Performing Arts uh work to help our students in English language arts social studies and math and science so you know I am completely in favor of this resolution and always in in support of our uh Arts education
193program so with that I will move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye vice president Herrero loera hi Puerto Quintero aye trustee bejarano all right and myself voting eye item passes unanimously five to zero moving on to 8.04 ah I heard clerk a motion by Kirk Quintero second second by trustee Chavez uh question uh moved public comment Louise is there any members of the public wishing to comment or president there's no public comment okay questions and comments by members of the board uh okay well I will wrap up by saying bon voyage and with that I'll move to the vote uh uh I'll call you as I see you trusty Chavez aye vice president Herrera lawera aye uh Quintero all right uh trustee B hurano aye and my cell
194phone and I item passes unanimously five to zero uh move to it item 8.05 okay I have emotions by trustee Chavez uh second by Quintero I'll open the item to public comment uh is there any members of the public wishing comment Louise board president there is no public comment okay uh let's see uh with that I'll open it uh questions and comments by members of the board saying no further comments or questions by members of the board I'll call to a vote I'll call you as I see you Christy Chavez aye vice president Herrera aye or Quintero aye Christie bajarano abstain okay and my self-loading I the vote is uh uh the vote is for in favor zero nay zero knows and one extension uh move to item 8.06 uh California parks and record to
195approve uh it's informational oh there's a so uh superintendent Bowers and anything to present uh no okay okay so with that I uh open I 8.06 public comment any members of the public wishing to come in and items eight point on 8.06 word present there is no public comment seeing that for Republican thing is uh you know I encourage members of the board to read this at their pleasure uh moving to Ida section uh nine Human Resources item 9.01 resignations this item is designated information only uh it will open I am 9.01 to uh public comment board president there is no public comment acnan any questions and or comments by members of the board okay seeing then I'll say is uh you know you may uh members of the board may lead at their own
196pleasure move to item 9.0 motion by trustee Chavez uh here a second 9.02 yes uh second second via trustee uh the gerano I will open uh item 9.02 to public comment Lord president there is no public comment in the comment any comments and questions by members of the board okay saying no further questions uh no further comments or questions by members of the board I'll move the vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez vice president Herrera loera aye Clark quinteros all right uh trustee B jarano aye and myself voting High item passes unanimously five to zero uh section 10 contracts over a hundred thousand dollars okay item item 10.01 do I mean is that a motion and I okay motion by trustee Chavez and I am 10.01 second by uh vice president
197Herrera loera I'll open the uh uh item the public comment is there any public comment on item 10.01 board president there is no public comment do you know for Republic comment I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you uh trustee Chavez aye uh vice president gerardoira aye Mr puntero aye trustee harano aye and myself learning eye item passes five to zero unanimously uh moving to item 10.02 motion motion by trustee second by Clark Montero I'll open to uh public comment vote president there's no public comment okay seeing no further public comment uh uh questions and comments by members of the board saying then I'll move to a word I'll call you as I see you trusty Chavez bye uh vice president Herrero I am Quintero all right uh trustee behrano and
198my cell phone and eye item passes unanimously by the zero moved to item 10.03 okay motion by trustee Chavez second by clerk Quintero I'll open the public comment uh Louise is there any public comment in item 10.03 or president there is no public comment see you know for the public comment questions or comments by members of the board seeing then I'll move to a vote uh call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye uh vice president aye and myself voting eye item passes unanimously five to zero moving to a section 11 consent calendar all right earlier I had pulled something okay just to talk about which one and number three it was it was 1109 to talk about okay so eleven at night so do I have a motion on the remainder of the
199so okay motion okay motion by clerk Quintero to approve items 11.01 through 08 and second by trustee Chavez uh do I have I'll open it to public comment uh do I have uh is there any uh public comment on items 11.01 through 08. report president there is no public comment okay Cena for public comment comments or questions by members of the board saying then I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you Christy Chavez say it again vice president Herrera loera hi Carl Quintero all right Professor bejarano aye okay and my self-loading I items 11.01 through 08 are approved uh unanimous unanimously five to zero so moving to item 11.09 uh so I will open first open the public comment is there any public comment on item 11.09 Ford president there is
200no public comment comments from the public questions or comments from the board regarding item 11.09 Rusty Chavez um I guess I'm objecting again the Cesar Chavez knowledge and uh Chavez is probably best remembered as a labor and civil rights uh organizer but he was very anti-mexican sentiment against the migrant workers whose only desires was to to provide for their family and he looked at Mexicans as interior and as a nuisance and the ugly truth about Cesar's Chavez is if he's deeply hostile towards what he called in his own words what that's like and he and others called them relentlessly he was active in pursuing the deportation of the ones that were already here and he made a lot of enemies and a lot of people did not agree with this tactics and even his allies
201didn't agree with him and because of his stubbornness there was a lot of Fallout in that organization especially in 1907 but his tactics towards the people and the wet line that they used to call it on the border and the way he called immigration on them was horrible and a lot of the times they um basically beat up people who were only trying to Make a Better Living for themselves so I ask you is this who we really want to look as a role model for the kids um his actions and I heard one trustee uh you several years ago saying that's the way that they acted at the time it wasn't acceptable then it's not acceptable now and I'm just asking to reconsider that and that's all thank you okay uh for of course
202LP vice president Herrera loera um I just want to clarify that I was here at that meeting and I don't remember any of my colleagues saying um those words that she just mentioned um and okay in any Behavior like that and I will reiterate as a daughter of a farm worker who benefited from Cesar Chavez his leadership and many other leaders that worked alongside and also being a resident in one of the communities that he resided in and met with and organized with and many of us continue to benefit from I am proud of Cesar Chavez I'm sure just like any one of us there's many areas that you know he was healing through I wasn't um an adult during that time and uh I am sorry if uh trustee Chavez experienced anything like that
203to directly or indirectly by anybody um but I know Cesar Chavez did a lot of work that we I continue to benefit from and my daughter and my children's children will continue to benefit from um so I am very proud of Cesar Chavez and I will support um this resolution and um I'm glad that our children will get to experience that day I know I've been out there and it's a beautiful day where our children are proud and happy and smiling so I'm so excited to come back together in person to have that event there at this I'm sorry at the school of school of arts and culture excuse me um I'm really excited to to be supporting this and that our district is organizing um and that our children will have all that they
204need in order to have a successful March and celebration that day thank you just a quick correct it's a contract not a resolution oh thank you so much that will double pointing the money and actually I do want to highlight the fact that we'll be um that the school of arts and culture has um you know cut this cut the cost of it and we're saving over six thousand dollars and only paying um 2170 250 cents uh so um thank you staff there at the school of arts and culture and our staff were uh you know ensuring that our district uh has savings um also incurs savings um in this contract thank you uh president fam okay for questions and comments and members the board I trusted beharano yeah um I would just like to
205say that you know when we look at any individual anybody that we consider a leader or an exceptional human being throughout the course of history I I would venture to say that none of them are perfect in their time or in our time or in their time before them we're humans and we're fallible and we you know we live within the context of our life our present time when we live and so you know I don't disagree according to my understanding of History some of the things that trustee Chavez has said are accurate but I think to characterize them in a you know two-minute speech as a complete encapsulation of who Caesar Chavez was as an individual is does it um you know it's not accurate enough it's it's too small there's much more context
206with regards to the times what he accomplished what his challenges were who he worked with all those kinds of things it's very contextual and so I actually think that um you know I will definitely be supportive of this because I think our community our youth are in desperate need of role models to look to look up to and Cesar Chavez Dolores Huerta we have individuals who have established themselves as such and our community sees them as of pillars of what we aspire to in many ways um but I would say that I would not be opposed to in some way um incorporating into what we present and a discussion about historical context and and maybe introducing some of what Cesar Chavez was challenged it with and and how he dealt with those challenges because I
207think we learned from the past certainly there are things that I could say as a student or uh you know as a as a second grader a Ryan or a fifth grader a McComb or an eighth grader at Joseph George 30 years ago that nobody would bat an eye at and if they were to be said now it's it's gonna we know now we know different I as Oprah or someone who says oh no I'm sorry not Oprah I saw it I saw Oprah talk about it but it's I believe it's um uh I I know it's on the tip of my tongue a famous poet who said when you know better you do better right my angel I knew it was it was on the tip of my tongue and I heard Oprah talking
208about it recently um but I think that's the case for this too and so I do think that with you know as we talk about our um racial Equity ethnic studies all those things it's important to include the obvious leaders of our communities in those discussions but I also think that it's important to have discussions about what that past looked like and the implications on the present because you know our students will um you know potentially be able to transfer some of the learning from them to the realities of the present and move forward with that so just wanted to share that um but I'll be supporting this item okay for comments question trustee pantero I'm Claire Quintero yeah um dad to the point uh to just go back to the point that if we
209dig in and we look at people and uh individuals that are you know high profile we always find the things that we're not cool granddaddy of the GOP for example Abraham Lincoln we don't see the nasty stuff that he's had me believed in inscribed in the memorial we do acknowledge the fact that he nevertheless well regardless of the little little things that were in his mind that were not cool um he did he accomplished a lot of great stuff and so um I myself I have family members who are conflicted uh not you know I have some phone numbers of you so that Chavez says um an evil person who did harm and then he come down and pulled them down by the ladder it hurt them others um viewed the ufw and the work
210that it did as uh as a great thing and so you know within the same family you have different different experiences so I think it's a good exercise that we're engaging in um because it sheds light from this complexity that there is out there and you're not we're not going to take away the fact that um you know there's a lot of things that were done based upon the work that he either and others did and begin such as uh you're charging people for the water uh the farm that was just a common thing back then um you know the fact that uh the the it was brought to light that pesticides were being thrown on on top of Farm Workers all that type of stuff is in large part the the fact that those
211things are not allowed to happen uh in the large part due to the work that uh Chavez the ufw learned what all of them did and so we we that also must be acknowledged if we're going to acknowledge the the negative stuff so yeah trustee Chavez um it's well documented and he actually that is my experience because some people read about it I was there I experienced it my husband experienced it his brothers so there's this hero but yes people do good in that and I just would like that all sides would be reflected so give the facts but give all of the facts not just one side and because we're all human we all Air which I think that it would be also good for the kids to see hey this guy did great
212things but at the same time you know as Joseph said you know you can improve on it you can teach the kids don't do this don't do that but um thank you very much all for your time okay well seeing no further comments by uh from members of the board I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez it's a real small vote so it's no secret you know uh vice president Herrera loera hi uh clerk Quintero hi uh trustee Verano aye and my self building I the item passes four to one with trustee shot is dissenting so with that we move to section 12 12 session item 12.1 we will recess the closed session the board will recess the closed session at approximately 9 pm Open Session will resume
213at the conclusion of closed session and I know we are slightly early actually um trusty fam can you I didn't uh capture who made the motion and who seconded can you please send it the Lord will recess to closed session and approximately no I'm asking about the item 1109 oh okay they needed an emotion in a second all right motion by uh for uh Quintero second by vice president yeah yes okay again no okay Rusty Chavez no vice president Herrera aye Clark Quintero aye uh trustee bejarano aye okay motion passes uh item passes uh four to one with uh trustee Chavez dissenting so section 12 uh 12.01 where he says to closed session your board will recess the post session at approximately 9 pm Open Session will resume at the conclusion of closed session uh
214so we'll go to item 12.2 announcement and public comments regarding items to be discussed in closed session superintendent Bauer we'll give you one public comments oh you want me to read the items I'll read the audience person so uh 1203 conference with legal council um for potential cases uh this is anticipated litigation 12 of uh 12.04 um those uh existing litigation cases as listed on the agenda 4.05 conference with labor negotiators employee organization area 1206 Public Employee appointment employment director of facilities bonds and leases and 1207 Public Employee discipline dismissal release non-re-election okay I will open it up to public comments so is there any comments from the public regarding item 12.02 report president there is currently no public comment okay very well so with that uh the uh board will resist the closed session
215and we'll take a 10 minute break and we will the board will meet in closed session at 909 pm thank you so much we'll see you back in Open Session Emily he asked me now perform so with that we moved to item 13.01 report of action taken in closed session uh Mr Ruiz would you please report yes um closed session item 12.01 the board by a vote of four to zero with President bam abstaining approved resolution number 38-22 33 authorizing the not notice of non-reelection of four certificated probationary employees and directing the superintendent to serve those employees was written notice of their non-reelection no later than March 15 2023. also item 2.0 I'm sorry 12.07 the board unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the release of one certificated administrator I'm sorry two certificated administrators resolution number
21637-22 slash 23 and authorizing and directing the superintendent to provide those employees uh with written notice of their release by March 15 2023. also item 12.07 the board unanimously approved a statement of charges and notice of intent to dismiss for one certificated employee item 12.06 the board unanimously approved the appointment and employment of Mark fracas as director of facilities bonds and leases for the district and again that was a unanimous vote there are no further actions to report okay thank you so much Mr Ruiz no uh so we moved on the 14th future board of gender request request from the Board of Trustees and or from the public requests shall be submitted in writing to the superintendent or designee with supporting documents and information if any at least one week before the scheduled meeting date
217items submitted less than a week before the schedule mean maybe postponed to a later meeting in order to allow sufficient time for consideration research of the issue move to part 15 adjournment so I adjourned this meeting at 1102 PM we'll see you on the 9th of March thank you so much have a good night