001Let's call the meeting to order at 9:08 a.m. Um, can get a adoption of the agenda? >> Move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> None opposed. >> There's no public public comment. Um, oh, let's uh I'll rise for a moment of silence. Right hand over your heart. Ready to begin. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. Now it's to the governing board organizational meeting. Um election of the president of the governing board. Does anyone have any input? >> Yes. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I you can. Okay. So, it looks like Steve's the next president Christa. Congratulations and election of the clerk of the governing board. >>
002Is that my second? >> Yes. >> I second. All in favor? >> I surprised. You're not opposed. uh appointment of the secretary. That's uh Manny. Um >> I secretary you >> all in favor? >> I all >> none oppose. Election of a representative to the county committee on school district organization. That's currently Kathy, right? >> Um I don't think so. I I think it's I thought it was always the president because this is different from the >> No, the one I think I think it's what you're already doing. I do believe >> Okay. >> Would you like to continue? >> One meeting a year. >> Yeah. >> I'd like to nominate C. >> Second. All in favor? >> None opposed. >> All right. Resolution 2526-11 regular board meeting workshop calendar. Does anyone have any comments
003or reservations about calendar? >> I can understand the structure calendar structure. >> It is the Wednesday board meetings in the afternoon with the exception of some in December and >> Oh, okay. >> the usual. >> Yes. I thought maybe Approval. >> All in favor or no? We need a second. Sorry. >> Second. >> Kathy second. All in favor? >> Oppos. We have any suggestions for future board meetings? We can talk about those at the next meeting. Uh we'll adjourn the meeting at 9:11 a.m. That's pretty good. Three minutes. all the open sessions order at 10:42. Sorry we're late. Um the close session went over. Um we don't have a report of action taken on close session because we didn't finish. Um so we're going to go back into close session after session. Item eight is
004the uh hearing section. And I'm sorry I'm slow reader. So, but I have to read the script. Um, we will now open the public comment period for the president me invites anyone wishing to address the governing board on any item that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the governing board to do so at this time. We value your input and welcome your comments. Please keep the following guidelines in mind during this portion of the meeting. First, each speaker will be allotted three minutes to speak with a total of 20 minutes allocated for the item. Please note that under the Brown Act, the board cannot take action on items not on the agenda, unless specific conditions are met, such as urgent matters or the need for immediate action. Three, uh, public comments are an opportunity
005to share your views with the board, not to engage in a debate or question answer session. Board members uh will not directly this respond to individual comments during this period, but will carefully consider all input and could ask clarifying questions. To maintain a respectful environment, please refrain from using offensive or discriminatory language. Personal attacks against individuals including board members, staff, or members of the public are critical. Uh these pro procedures are not designed to restrict public criticism of policies, procedures, programs or services of the district or acts emissions or acts or emissions of the governing board. The legal references education code section and 7212. All right. Does anyone have a like burning desire to go first? Otherwise, You want me to pick one? >> Yeah. >> All right. Pick one. >> Here we go. >>
006All right. Cord North. >> Sit here. >> Yeah. Sit or stand. Whatever you want. Whatever you're comfortable. Okay. Um I don't know what to say. Uh I uh I just want to talk about the um this library review book thing. Um do I have a time? Do you guys have time? Thank you. Um, so, uh, I think what I want to say is, uh, that I know where this goes. First of all, we all do. We all knows where this goes. And this is not I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad at anybody. And I'm not mad I'm mad at the situation. We know exactly where this goes. And this uh and it doesn't stop with whatever these books are. The librarians already uh that's our job is to curate the library. And this
007whole thing I don't want to get too far into it, but this whole thing is just meant to restrict what our students can learn. And the thing about learning and the thing about teaching students is that at some point you have to let them go off on their own and then bring something back to you and then you can guide them from there. They need to be willing to you need to be willing to trust them to do something like that by restricting the books, you know, in the ways that we are talking about and ways that have happened all over the country. Uh they're not going to come back to you. They're just going to go off. They're going to find the book somewhere else and you can't guide them. You're cutting yourself off.
008You're putting a wall between you and the student. Um, besides that, uh, no, I think that's the best point I can make is that you have to be able to trust the students and, um, and make sure that you are there to catch them if they fall. Does that make sense? Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. See Pat. Um, I just want to lend my voice against any type of book banning. I believe banning books does more harm than good. Books addressing so-called difficult topics can open discussions between kids and adults and we want to encourage that. Kids are exposed to difficult topics through friends and social media. We can't pretend that isn't true. Kids are very perceptive. I think it's more harmful that they would not have access to books because kids need
009this knowledge and quite frankly the adults who are banning these books who want to ban books need that knowledge also. Thank you. >> All right. And Kyle, is it Ethan? >> Yes. >> I lived in Germany so I got the pronunciation. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um, according to the group PEN America, 6,970 instances of book bans occurred in the 2024 2025 school year alone. There's been nearly 23,000 cases since July of 2021. These bans are prominent, increasing pace. The American Library Association has said that over 72% vote pans nationally are initiated and pushed vote forward by small wellorganized groups without majority support. And that's what's happening here. Again, once again, a handful of concerned citizens who have made the argument that they want to protect children from access to books they
010deem harmful are trying to ban books in this district. However, when these bans are place. The actual results have been shown time and time again across the country to not only fail to protect children but to result in harm. In 2023, the group first book research and insights conducted a survey of more than 1500 educators around the country with a focus on lowincome in rural areas. That short survey showed that among other things, 87% of educators believe that book bans are never or rarely justified. 65% said banning books is having a negative impact on their ability to teach their classes. 72% said that restricting access to books is decreasing their students engagement in reading. It is also a fact that when these bans take place, a disproportionate amount of silencing of authors and characters from
011minority groups, leaving those within those groups lacking representation and less engaged in reading. It also reduces exposure to diverse perspectives for others not in those targeted groups missing opportunity for them to gain empathy through that literature. Here at a recent school board meeting there was a presentation from all tilt children's thrive where the students spoke about ACE's adverse childhood experiences. Their information showed the risk and challenges students mental health. Reading is not creating these adverse experiences, but can be an outlet for those who have had them, helping them feel seen and aiding them in untangling their own thoughts. Both bands are a suppression of intellectual freedom, critical thinking, and silencing marginalized voices that ties teachers hands on what and how they can teach as well as hinders the ability and willingness to learn and navigate
012the complexities of the world to the students. Please don't take any actions out of good intentions that will ban or strict reading for students in district. >> That was very helpful. >> That's all we have. >> All right. Next consent. Kelly, >> I'll make a motion to approve. All in favor? >> There are no items removed from consent calendar. Mr. Marquez, are there employee announcements? >> Yes, sir. I have one. Uh, thank you. Or a classified staff member, um, cafeteria worker, floater, uh, Julie Whitaker. Uh, Judy has a track record of excellence, having served as a local business owner and a team member at Bear Valley Community Healthcare District. consistently recognized with our community for her ability uh reliability and performance. She is a quick learner and an immediate asset to our child nutrition department.
013We welcome uh welcome her to Bear Valley Unified when she's in the office, but that's the only one. Welcome to Still with the Superintendent comments. >> Absolutely. Um just wanted to highlight a couple things. Um there was one day when um Miss Herrick sent me a clip of a ukulele performance on it and she says we need this and I was I agree with 100% and I just want to let the board know that tomorrow night the fifth grade students at Northshore um we'll be performing their first performance with ukuleles because of all the work that's been done with our music program. They have a Christmas performance tomorrow make sure to go make sure you have time. I want to try to make sure to go for a minute because I'm really excited to see.
014>> Is it at North? >> It's at five o'clock at 5 o'clock, I believe. Is that um >> there's another performance as well like with high school kids. Is that the same time and place or >> No, that's probably that's a different time >> because Jane was talking to me about >> Yeah, we have a few conflicting this time of year is so challenging um where we do start having conflicting things. This is just exciting with all the with all the work that's gone on into the elementary music program bringing it back. I got to watch it when I was walking around the other day at Northshore um as a instructional leadership team. To watch to watch her was just something impressive. To watch our music teacher to watch her her skill and her gift
015is just something amazing. And to see the kids interacting and it's something they learned within two minutes that she was doing with plates, making rhythm and sounds of plates. You know, we haven't seen that in a lot of years here within our district and what it does and how that brings kids to school. Um, it teaches them a whole new skill to be hopefully be interested in music, hopefully go into strings or or band or whatever it might be. I think that we're just want to make clear that we're having ukulele performance. We're going to be doing two ukulele songs, two ukulele Christmas songs. So, we're very excited about that. Um, also want to thank the board the board who board members who attended CSPA taking time away from their family and their and their
016lives to go to Sacramento for the school board associations conference. Um, I know it's a it's it's a lot. we're all learning new laws, but the fact that you take the time to make sure you're keeping up on everything for our district and understanding the current trends, what other schools are doing, what other districts are doing is so important. I know I got a lot of it out of it. I always enjoy talking to different superintendents, different board members to see making sure we're doing everything we can. I appreciate the board's feedback. When we get back, I know Dr. Folks gave me a bunch of things he wanted to make sure we followed up on, and I really do appreciate that. the things that maybe I didn't see that may have sparked your interest as
017what other districts are doing. Um, a lot of good things were there. So, thank you for that. Um, last thing, just want to make sure if it was live, but on our last meeting, which was about an hour ago. Um, Dr. Folks, I want to congratulate Dr. Folks. He will be our new board president for 2026. Congratulations. I'm And then we'll have Thank you very much. U Mr. Zamoya will be our our clerk for that. I'm excited about moving forward and looking and working with everyone. I think that's going to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to that. Congratulations to you both. I also want to take a minute. I probably going to this more. Um getting me through the first two years was no easy task for our board president. So
018I wanted to make sure to thank Mr. Roberts for what he did for the last um two years. you know, he was there through my entire transition from the moment I started even transitioning in January is the same time he was elected as board president and all of his knowledge and everything he did and all of his heart that goes into this district I believe has truly made us better. Um, and I want to thank him for all that dedication and the fact that his the constant I can call him at any time to discuss issues that we might be having within the district. He would call me at any time and I appreciated that relationship. I am very very thankful that that that's how I came into this district as superintendent to have somebody
019who is not only a student in Bear Valley but also had children in Bear Valley have a vested interest in Bear Valley and I think that makes us better and I want to thank you for being a >> for one alumni to another because Dr. was also an alumni just a few years before >> just a few years. >> A couple just a couple. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Opening board member reports. I think we're going to have a lot of this. So, let's start with Dr. FS. You want to start with me? >> Yes. >> Um I gave it was a great conference. Okay. I mean, my my experience is that if you get two or three good things out of a conference, it was a successful conference. I've been to
020some where I walked away and went. This was not the case. Okay. Um and some of them are really specific and I gave mainly the the brochures and stuff that I got print. One of them just blew me away. Okay. And I came to lunch with you guys and I said, "I'm depressed." Um because Compton Unified School District had just made a presentation and pretty much the president of the board went on the same time their board as I came on this board and they were saying they made all this fabulous progress they were you know transformed the school and I was depressed because I didn't feel like we transformed I think we've done a good job but it wasn't anyway um and I got home and I went well wait a minute I mean
021you can say we've made great progress but you know maybe that can be overstated, whatever. So, I wanted to actually look and if if if you'll indulge me a bit, um I spent some time on ED data, okay? So, I could look I wanted to look at us between the earliest I could get was 1617. Our data is really bad before 17 before 16. And so, I went from 201617 to 2023 24. The latest data was 2324. I was hoping to get 25, but it wasn't there. Um, and I do want to take a take a second that Compton's enrollment in 2016 was 25,000 students. Okay, now it's 21,000 students. They've lost four 4,000 students. Same period of time, we went from 2730 to 23. So, we've lost 400, they've lost 4,000. Everything is about
02210 to one. They're 10 times bigger. Their budget is 10 times bigger. their number of students attended. So they're a huge district. Their ADA was 82% in 1617 had dropped to 74%. Which surprised me. Uh the unduplicated count was 78% in in 16. Now it's 88%. And ours is about 84% in this inventory comment con. Um the unduplicated um I gave you the unduplicated I wouldn't give you the 88. Anyway, there was 824. Unduplicated was 78 going to 88. Our unduplicated is 68 and 69 for those years. It's up a little bit I think now. Um English learners, they had 33% of their students were English learners in 1617. Now it's dropped to 22%. But it's still pretty high. Our English learners have been pretty constant around 12 13%. Okay. The the ethnicity, they're pretty
023constant at 78% Latino, 20% black, 2% mother. Now they're 79% Latino, and 19% pretty constant. Ours has changed dramatically. Okay, I didn't even realize this. Caucasian was 59%, Latino was 70 35% in 2016 17. It's changed. Caucasian is now 48%. And Latino is now 45%. We're very close. So, so that gives you a picture of the two districts. Okay. Um, in terms of their graduation rate, they went from 79% in 1617 to 92%. >> Okay. Their A to G completion rate went from 32% to 63%. They almost doubled. That was the number that blew me away. Their CAS scores met and exceeds ELA was 31% in 1617. It's 43%. Okay, significant improvements. Math went from 25% to 35%. Uh chronic absenteeism went from 18 to 23, but that's just CO was in the middle. And
024they jumped up to 35. They're back down to 23. Ours also jumped up to 35. Anyway, our graduation rate is relatively constant. 89 to 92. Okay. So, we're in the same ballpark with that. Didn't really go up. A to G completion was 40% in 1617. It's listed as 18% for 23 24. Um I specifically recall Dr. Wer sitting next to me saying that there was a data issue with that with that year. I think it was probably closer to 30 35%. Okay. But it it's listed as as 18. Didn't improve. Probably went down a little. Um our cast scores 41% ELA 43% now 28% the math 30% now improvement but a couple of percentage points improvement versus 10 and 13 percentage point our chronic aptitism was 17%. Okay roughly comparable with theirs is 28 uh
025it went up to 35 and is now back down and I think it's down further. I checked theirs. It's down to 15. Anyway, the bottom line is they didn't lie. Okay. I mean, there was a major turnaround at Compton. And when I think of Compton, I don't think of schools and outstanding schools, okay? Um, I think of gang violence and and all of that. And so, for them to turn it around, I think, was pretty amazing. the president of the school board was there and superintendent and they made this big presentation and their big push was steam. Okay. And that that was the transformation and they talked about it and in the middle of it the president of the board who was kind of a character, okay, um interrupted this with no we're he's being
026too modest. we're doing great and the only way to make change is through conflict. Okay? And the superintendent immediately tried to walk that back. Okay? Um and he the president wouldn't let him went on that the teachers union was so opposed to what they were trying to do. They ran four candidates. It's a seven member board. They ran four candidates against the secret school board. uh and the president um and replaced three. So they didn't get a majority, but they were because they were very upset. And he said that those three board members came on and within a year they realized what they were doing and there are seven they're 70 board now board. So I wanted to see what it is that they did. Okay. Um and there's one slide I could share with
027you. Um, and I didn't recognize most of the programs, but one of them was PLTW. And I kind of looked and squinted at the screen. There's little print. Project Lead the Way. Okay. Um, we do Project Lead the Way, or we did, and I think we're back one semester, right? Um, it's just like, okay, well, how did they make all these big changes? And I looked more closely at Project. I went on their website. They have a kindergarten through through fifth grade program. I didn't know that. They have a sixth through 8th grade program. Their high school programs are way beyond engineering. I mean, they've got medical, they've got um math. There's only one section there. And they've got I think coding and some other things. So, it's a much much bigger program. But I
028also remember talking to Dr. Suzuki when she we got that program going with one teacher um and she told me that they had a lot of other ones and I went hey this is successful why don't we do more and the answer was we can't get a teacher to do it when no teacher would agree to do it and it's a it's a significant investment because I looked at the train some of it I think our current teacher had to go to a two week onsite training to teach it. Now it's all virtual but some of them are 80 hours of training over 20 weeks. Okay, it's not an incident. Okay, but the results are unbelievable. Okay, if there if Compton is is any indication. So I concluded, okay, um and I use physics analogies
029and I realize nobody in the room likes that, but I'm going to do it anyway. Okay, when thinking about the president's comments and and they pushed and and the union pushed back and and it became a conflict, my opinion, that's the last thing you want to do. Okay. I mean, his view of that's the only way it can be changed, I think, is just wrong. But Newton's first law is as a a body in motion tends to stay in motion in a straight line. Okay? And a body at rest and state rest. And the only way to change that is Newton's second law. You have to push. Okay? You have to push in a different direction to make change. So that is true. And Newton's third law is for every action there's an equal and
030opposite reaction. And so that's what happened with them. They got strong push back and that makes change more difficult. But a moderate force, okay, over a period of time can make great change. And I think that's kind of the direction I would like to see the district going. Clearly, they've got they have made significant changes. If you saw the video of their steam night, it it almost made me cry. I mean they were just doing all kinds of things and they're they've got huge robotics program and the whole other side of the screen was their afterchool programs and that was substantial as well and so I learned a lot um I think Bear Valley Unified can learn some things from confident okay and do it right rather than maybe what they do anyway thank you
031for being patient Didn't you mention they've gotten grants? I just looked up. They got a $10 million grant >> from the Department of Education that they put into 1,800 students in middle school >> and that money followed them through and they partnered with local college where they're going to be able to interact with college students at the same time. >> They've got partners at the Wu. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, there's challenges that we always have to come up here. Doesn't mean you don't try, >> but you know the biggest thing because I was leading this charge on project lead before you were on the board. We went down. >> Were you with me, Randy? We went down for the CAD design stuff at Bernie Kavanagh's old school. >> No, I was not. >> He was
032principal. >> It was awesome. >> But you had all state-of-the-art computers in the class. You had to have someone trained and that person had enough sections where they got to teach that section the entire day. So that was their So there's there's hurdles that we have here locally. I'm all for moving forward and getting momentum going, but to compare ourselves to Compton would be doing us a disfavor, I think. >> I'd love to I'd love to do better than they did. Well, I mean there the thing that blew me away is we have talked over the years that poverty is a is a real issue. Okay, lowincome families tend to struggle more, right? They are 88% unduplicated. Okay, and so they had a much bigger hurdle. We are also a poor district. I mean our
033our our unduplicated is pretty high and we get extra money. they get a lot more actually not just the the grants and they've got partnerships with multiple I think it's Boeing I mean Verizon I mean they showed all this all the stuff that they got um free from from Verizon Boeing and a variety of their other partner uh we won't get that probably um but yeah maybe it's not fair but I expected them to have bigger hurdles to overcome coming again. Um, and I don't expect necessarily to duplicate their results, but the direction I think is clear. >> It's interesting because of the fact that I just recently before I went to this conference I was at that one day one with with the SSCA small district was a small district that presented on that
034exact topic on project lead K through eight. Okay, the K through8 district. Now, what it took is an individual teacher running the whole program. Now, just talked about the music program. I just talked about the music program. >> It's amazing. And because we have a dedicated teacher because we have Prop 28 money now, >> but can we do that for project? >> Exact. That's where I'm going with that. Is is it a matter of being creative and how we find the funding because it has to be a dedicated person because once you're all the training that goes involved in that, yes, >> it's you have to get somebody to lead it. You have to be somebody to guide it. It takes a unique special person. I watched this guy just magic. You know the kind
035of teacher he was present not an administrator that presented teacher uncomfortable presenting that he was just a wonderful teacher. Uh but he ran the whole program. He ran it for kindergarteners. He would go in however many days we were kindergarters. He go to eighth graders. He ran the whole program for his small district. Um so yes I agree you would say it's hard to compare us apples to apples here. But when I look at that I go okay that small district did it. They're smaller than we are. >> Who initiated the program? >> I'm trying to remember the name of that. I'll find I'll get I'll email the name of the if I can find the name and remember who presented and get a conversation going with them on how they started to fund it,
036how they funded it themselves because it's going to take them. >> But was it the district saying they wanted to do that or was it the teachers coming to the district saying, "Hey, we're excited about this program." >> It was really more district initiated and then finding the right person to do it. And that any of our programs through the years, we've been here a lot of years, is always based off of the teacher that has the inspiration and that we can inspire to do something. Organization is all about people. >> Yes. >> And it's run off, it's run off of that, you know, teachers. Asking the teacher that's teaching all day, third grade, to go run this program as well is not an effective model, >> right? Having somebody run a program like that
037that inspires kids to be in school, like the music program, like the different things we're doing. And I believe we're making strides in our last two arts people that we hired and all those things. I agree with putting project lead the way back in the high school. I walked through that and it was just something impressive. Just even just talking to Joe Brandon is excited. >> You realize the difference. It's going to take creativity with funding to see where do we get the funding to do something about that. and they had a slide with what their core programs were and that's Project Lead the Way and a whole bunch of after school programs and we're looking for I mean ELOP is geared towards extended learning opportunities and so I'm sure they're funding most of their
038after school programs in robotics and all the other things they were doing esports huge okay that's all we've got money for that it's there we have to figure out >> and those things are in place at both schools esports is supposed to place at the Midland the high school back in place. >> I think it'd be cool on that topic to have the middle schoolers battle the high school. >> You know, we talked about that. Hunter and I talked about that a little bit about getting maybe helping to inspire it uh to try to do something a little bit different. >> I think it'd be cool if you know middle schoolers just completely obliterate. >> They probably could if possible. >> And that was funded by Verizon. Verizon serves up here. Have we ever asked?
039I mean that was one of the things that that they asked the panel and said have you asked okay the big companies want to help you know struggling districts and I think we could kind of call struggle >> so want the name on something issue too >> well even local resources I know bear valley electric for years and years has tried to be skewing as a nonprofit >> so you have organizations like that that might be willing They're donating to us for the lot of the programs. >> Yeah. And also the background. >> Yeah. For undocated STE students. Yes. >> Perfect. >> Thanks, Dr. F. Miss. >> That was inspiring. >> Miss, >> um, I enjoyed the conference and it was nice to spend time with the board and Mr. Marquez and Mr. Um probably
040the liveliest um session that I went to and Mr. Williams there as well was on book gaming and um at the end where it was getting it was getting heated with um with the board members and people that were there and the staff. Um so it's definitely a um it's a hot topic. It's something that's being discussed at these uh schoolboard conferences. So, it's very timely for our presentation today with Mr. Williams on our procedures and policies because I think it's a good time for us to review all that. >> That's all. >> Uh, I focused on all the AI stuff and left very frustrated because everyone keeps talking about it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, you're not going to believe how much change is going to happen. This is a literally a once in
041the lifetime of human beings type of change that's going to occur. But no one seems to know exactly in what way and how and any of the details. So a lot of the conferences weren't very detailed. A lot of it was more philosophical or warnings of both exuberance and of fear of what this might become. And I think there was one interaction where they had a college professor for AI and then they had the school district person CSBA person for AI and the college teacher is like the truth is you shouldn't be teaching kids how to read. It's it's all going to be dictated and it's going to be AI and that's how you're going to create things which if you look in the future is correct if you think enough far in the future
042and you're thinking maybe 20 30 years it's probably more like 8 to 12. Um it's kind of like typing instead of doing calligraphy and then handwriting. I mean this big shift is going to happen and the answer from the person in the school district is wait we don't have a test for that yet. still testing with the the ESback which then showed that schools will move at the pace of testing which once again was you know we're not going to think about what's best for kids to prepare for their future. We really got to think about what they're being tested on right now. So there's this that conflict has never seemed more separate to me. Uh and I've never been more excited about the future. But I've also tempered with I hope we don't hold
043back some of the cool things we can be doing it in a positive realm. Um, and that hopefully soon we'll start seeing some more of the concrete things that are being done to help students learn and prepare for their futures. Uh, not what we think their futures are going to be. So, so it was it was it was neat, but it was frustrating because you're like, "This is great, but what does it look like?" And and no one really knows. So, the good news is that I guess the testing contract is up and the state board is taking AI into consideration and they're trying to do some thinking as far as what skills kids are going to really need to know uh moving forward and you know textbooks the same thing are going to be
044moving in that direction. Even to say the word books I think uh shows how antiquated uh my thought process is but uh you know AI's coming but what it looks like nobody really knows yet. >> I got to say something. at that point because I went to several AI2. In fact, we were in Kathy and I were in the same room with you all. The only one that I saw that was really really good was Anaheim Union High School and I >> Yeah. They were the only ones who said this is how it this is how it looks. These are the tools that we presented. This is what >> That's what I was looking for. >> Yes. >> I went to the wrong ones. I mean, and I I really think since I agree with
045everything you said, um, that we should talk to Anaheim because everybody else was just what Paul said. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Anaheim was showing this little dog thing that they got that's a tutor and how it worked. Um the one thing they didn't say is whether if it actually improved um results. Okay. In terms of test anyway, Anaheim Union High School District. Is that all you got? I It was a great conference. Uh it was good to uh uh go and see. I spent um time in a couple duo enrollment ones and the last one I went to was on legal issues and it was it was good because there's the MMU decision from Supreme Court and there were several other cases. So it was just really nice to see um legal perspective and I
046enjoyed it. And with regard to dual enrollment, I saw some really cool stuff that some other districts are doing. And one of the things that I thought was really neat was every year, if not every term, kids that are in dual enrollment, they do a trip to their college, which is easier for folks down the hill, obviously, but they do a day where the kids uh do a campus tour so they know where things are if they end up taking any classes there. um but also get their student ID from the college and um they said what it does is it really gives them a a sense of belonging that hey they're legit taking college classes and they fit there. So I thought that was really neat. Um when I got back, I got back
047about halfway through the strings program on Friday at the um at the pack that was primarily the um the kids in the elementary middle school program and it was great. As we all know, Sharon does a great job, but kind of the the shining star for me was Caitlyn. Um I don't know if you remember when she was in the program, but when she was a senior just graduating, Jesse, my uh youngest son, was finishing his first year of violin. And Caitlyn got up there and performed. And uh as like her her senior project, if you will, for strings and and my son said, "I want to be like her." and now she's back at the district after getting a bachelor's degree and teaching our kids and and she just did such a great job.
048You can see the the kids love learning from her. Um, you know, I know there's the general music program at the school, but she also handles the elementary level strings. Um, and she just does a great job and and I'm I'm proud that she came through the program and and was brought up in our district and is now giving back. So, she's really cool. >> She's a gift. >> I went to high school with your dad. >> Yes. >> Welcome to my world, Jack. >> Yeah. >> Uh, thanks for that. Next is uh curriculum and instruction report presentation on library book procedures and policies. I think that you >> that is me. All right. Um so we just wanted to take a moment to kind of share with the board the steps that we've been
049taking um around libraries. Um like Miss Eric said, it's a hot topic out there in the world. It was certainly it seems to be it was certainly a a very heated session that we were in life made us very grateful for our community here in Bear Valley that weren't like screaming or throwing at anything at us or anything. So it was great. Um but this stems from um we received some concerns about books in the spring of 2024. Uh we did a book study on them at that time and we took some uh actions within the libraries of how we approach these sorts of things. So this is kind of a culmination of that and and formalizing those processes from that book review. Um there were no books that were completely removed from the library.
050Um there were a couple of books that we pulled from the middle school and moved to the high school based off of age appropriateness. Um but to date we have not banned um any book. So ultimately when we're looking at our libraries we're looking to meet some common objectives and this is across all of the libraries. Some of these are values that we have here at Fair Valley. Some of these are mandated by state law. U but ultimately we want to make sure that the books in the library are supporting the curriculum and academic goals, right? Ideally, and even if that's just a love for reading, we're becoming more reading more fluent in our reading, that's still a curricular and academic goal, right? Even if it's a a uh graphic novel, a comic book, right?
051If we're if we're inreasing the fluency of reading, now we're we're reaching our academic goals. We want to foster literacy and reading engagement. Number three, we want to promote multiple perspectives. First off, we do want to do this. However, this is one thing that's mandated by state law is that we have representation of all of our communities, including um all of our protected classes, um uh students with disabilities, um LGBTQ, um the different um ethnicities, that is under AB1078. that is an expectation of what occurs in our curriculum that um we want to obviously assure that there's age appropriateness and it's safe for the things in the libraries are going to look very different at Northshore Elementary than they are at Big High School because we're serving a different population. We want to maintain quality
052and credibility. We want to make sure that what they're reading is accurate and fair and balanced. We want to support critical thinking and encourage lifelong learning and personal growth. Ultimately, we want our libraries to be a resource for our students where we're able to provide them with a whole world that they're not able to get at home. Ultimately, when we're looking at book acquisition, we have general guidelines that we follow at each level. The these are very general. We'll get into more specifics in a minute, but just if we're trying to put an umbrella under each of them, ultimately at our K5 schools, our TK5 schools, we want our themes to remain age innocent. We're trying to get them exposed to reading. We're trying to get them um excited about reading. And so, we don't
053see a need to push the envelope at the elementaryaries, you know, whatsoever. um at middle school since that's an interesting time of life for all of our students. Um, you know, this is where we do get into a little bit more complex emotions. Identity exploration, mild profanity, romance, non-graphic, historical or fantasy violence. Kind of like that, if you want to think of it like the movies, right? Like a PG sort of thing where it still meets our common objectives. We're not just putting it in there for shock value or for anything like that, but ultimately we are, you know, they're becoming more complex humans. So we have more complex resources in the middle school and then ultimately at high school uh we do allow mature themes if it's tied to that literary educational value. We're
054we're not putting something in just to be gratuitous, right? We are actually doing something to make sure we're always tying back to those objectives. And so we try or we don't try, we do with all of our different books, we don't judge them by an excerpt. If we're reviewing a book, we have the panel read the book, right? And we take the book on its whole face value, not a simple excerpt out of one sentence or one paragraph. And that's where this really comes into at the high school level. Most of the um most of any concerns that would come up would come up something that was in the high school. But through our review process, which I'll explain in a minute, um we have found that um to the public comment earlier, our librarians
055done a really good job of, you know, selecting those books, acquiring books that are age appropriate and, you know, we're always on the lookout. It is important policy that if there's a concern that the the community can always bring forward, you know, another book that's in there. Um and we're prepared to do that. So anytime we review a book for um we have an appropriate age range is what we determine. Okay. And based off of the age range which we'll talk about in a minute how we determine that um we do the following practices for circulation. If we determine that it's age appropriate for the entire student body right so if I what we're talking about is 5 years old for the elementary roughly 12 years old for the middle school roughly 14 years old
056for the high school. so that it's allowed for the entire student population. It's in general circulation. It's just on the shelves, right? We do have some books um within our libraries that might be a little bit pushing the envelope for some of our younger kids within a particular school. So, we have a cut off of 14 um at the middle school and 16 at the high school to go into one of our protected areas. protected area makes it sound like it's a safe in the back room and only five people know it's a it's a shelf behind the librarian right but they they have to go through the library to make sure that they're they meet the requirements of this and this allows us to have a little bit more of those complex themes maybe
057I don't want an entering freshman at 14 to be reading something but it's completely appropriate for a senior who's about to go out into the world to read and maybe they even need it for a project or a paper or something like that and so we do have these protected areas that if we determine, okay, it's okay for part of the population, either goes on the eighth grade shelf or the junior senior shelf um at the high school, um that allows us to expand our offerings a little bit further. If the book is not deemed age appropriate for the school um at all, and we did have a couple in the book review where um they we said, "Okay, it's not really great for a middle school," we just we removed it from circulation at
058that school. And in the case of those books, we just place them at the high school um so that the students still have access to them, but we're being intentional about the age appropriateness that we have. So, who does this, right? We've uh this year we started a library committee. We for the first time ever have a point to teacher librarians, Janet Hston at the middle school, as well as all of our library clerks from all the sites. Um we meet quarterly. We just met a couple of weeks ago and ultimately our job is to refine the policies and practices to cons ensure we have consistency across the site so that we know particularly at the elementary what's happening at Northshore is what's happening at Baldwin, right? Um that what's happening at the middle school
059complements what's happening at the high school even though it may not be um may not be exact. Ultimately they look at book acquisition procedures. Um the book surplus and obsolete procedures. This is actually a problem at a couple of the schools just because there's a lot of antiquated books. No one wants to throw away a book, but it hasn't been checked out in 20 years, right? So, we're putting in actual policies for okay, you know, but if a book is x years old and hasn't been checked out in x amount of time, then we can go ahead and surplus that book and get rid of it. Not based off of content, but just based off it's not being used. And we're always trying to circulate a new material for the students to maintain their interest.
060The middle school in particular is heavily impacted with books. Um, and so that's going to be a big focus of going through it and getting rid of obsolete books as they're trying to cycle in. You know, if they have encyclopedias with the USSR in them, maybe that's something we can cycle out, right? And so that >> use encyclopedias, but yet THEY'RE SITTING AT MIDDLE SCHOOL. UM, as well as library usage procedures, you know, how they have classrooms come in. Are we maximizing this tool that we have at every single site? You know, what are we doing with the core curriculum? Um how are the are the teachers bringing their classes in? What about research projects at the high school? What is the role of the library when the kids have the internet in their pocket
061all the time? Right? Um and so these are all the things that we're looking at which will be a long process over time and probably never ending. We refining practices as we go. Um but uh this is the first time in a while since the district's um had a district librarian in the past now bring this back on. Um it's allowing that space for us to kind of revive that and get consistency across the sites again. So ultimately if the a book is placed up for review uh this is what happens. We give the book to our committee. Everybody reads the book. I have the basic grade band guidelines and then basically we get we rank in different areas right we rank the content right uh violence sexual contents profanity substance use social emotional intensity
062we examine the educational and literary value to it because if there is no value to it in the school then what does it need to be there for particularly if it's you know pushing the limits does it support the curriculum does it promote empathy perspective ive taking of critical thinking. Uh are mature elements necessary for theme or character developments? Could controversial elements be reasonably explained or contextualized in an academic setting? Right? So is there a purpose for all this? Uh step three is age rating by outside source. There are few reliable outside sources that uh we can use. Um there is a state adopted book list of books. We uh use common sense media which is a pretty popular one which I felt like I was you know cheating and just searching online but the
063at the session that Merrick and I went to it was Oceanside I believe it was was also using common sense media so that me feel good. We had um so with common sense media they kind of give three scores. One is what do does common sense media think? one's what the students think which is always a little bit the age is always a little bit higher right what's the parents think which the age is always a little bit lower right and so that provides a good guidance so in our little bubble in our library we're not just saying oh yeah it's great or oh no it's terrible you know we're getting some it is you know research based what that's looking like and then ultimately we provide a recommendation right do we allow it in
064the elementary grades um and we don't have a protected area in the elementary so it's for K5 or it's not right. Um, middle school entire in its entirety or just middle school grade 8, high school in its entirety or high school 11 12 or not appropriate. It doesn't belong in our libraries, right? And then we decide this and then based off of that a determination is made for the book. Um, and this is very much similar to the process that we went through in the spring. We just kind of formalized it so we have an actual system that we can follow what happens and that's basically it. So if there's any questions from the board happy to >> Yeah, I have questions. So the original book study a concern was made and then you did
065the book study with the librarians. What did that entail? >> That so that entailed them pulling the the librarians pulled books. They pulled all the information they could possibly find on the books. They even read some of the books. So librarian for an excessive amount of time. >> No, this is a list of books >> that a group found object objection. >> How many how many books are on there approximately? Do you know? >> It was about a dozen. It wasn't as many as you think. And then when we went through it, >> most of the books, not all the books, like you said, the only one book we found that was not appropriate for middle, we moved to high. Even off the age level, probably should admit it. We moved to high. Not a
066big deal. the other ones due to the content of what was in it that small excerpt there was still the powerful message that we found in the books that was still we looked at the all the they went through parent reviews they went through they spent time on looking at parent reviews looking at things like common sense looking at all these different resources to feel like they felt comfortable the middle school and the high school I ran really hats off to them for the work they did put into that making sure that they felt good about it that they read the book if they didn't have One would read one book if they didn't have time. So then one would read the other book just to make sure we felt we were in a good
067place with it because uh he made the point that that's constantly was being done is excerpts are being but the context and its value to the story or the lessons it's teaching is what we need to look at as a whole and that's what we examine. Was the content of the book and was it did it have value to our students? Whether it's lifelong lessons, whether it's things there's no reason to hide that from students. They know these things already. It was no. we still found value to our students with the content of of >> sounds like a great process to me. >> I agree. >> I just have a quick comment. Sorry. As a as a parent, my sixth grader recently brought home a note from school saying that she was interested in one
068of the books on the protected eighth grade shelf. So, when it comes to those protected books, there is a level of parent input as well. That that was one one of my questions on the in the protected section. If a kid wants access to that if they're below grade level, >> do you allow access with Yes, there's permission that the parents can sign and then they have access to both the 11 12th grade shelf as well as the eighth grade shelf at the middle school. So there is a process in place. The default is no, but there is a a actual form that exists that Mr. at the middle school created. And that high school as well >> because you know every kid's different but like my current 10th grader who's 14 is very mature.
069I would be okay with their reading. >> Right. >> And we do want that level of parenting. Absolutely. >> That should be >> Yeah. And then the other question I have is as you were talking and you alluded to it a little, do you know what the like the checkout rate of books has been over time, maybe the last 10 years, has there been a significant decline in how many books are being checked out by students because they have access to information other ways? My s my sense of that is it's a little hard to judge, but it varies from sight to sight based off of how the procedures at the site are working. If the library is just sitting there and is a resource to the kids, then those checkout rates are pretty low
070where if uh there are systems in place to get kids through the libraries um like the middle school, you have whatever it happens to be or even just library time where they come in then those checkout rates maintain. Have they dropped? Yeah, they dropped but there's it's still a valuable resource. I feel like >> kids are reading more online. they're reading more more um that's their main source is reading is their devices. And what we found when we did do we did one of the things the library did the librarians did give us they let us know exactly how many times that book has been checked out since its inception here since whenever we had it some of books we may have had in our circulation for seven years or whatever and it's been checked
071out twice. You know it's it's that that kind of perspective and some of them haven't even been checked out that often. Some of we we had to look and go to remove that just because of the fact that it has been looked at sless based it would that should have been on an obsolete list. >> You you touched on something I think is important to note that that kids having access to objectionable material according to parents or or some groups isn't through our libraries. >> It's through their devices and And that is a serious issue in all senses. And that's what that's what even when we talk to different people or different uh community members like help us with this. Help us encourage parents to put some kind of parent controls on their children's devices.
072That's the biggest concern and that's where all the energy needs to go is into our parents looking at what their kids are looking at on their phones. Just like we discussed the Australia rule to ban anyone under 16 social media um because of their level of ability to deal with it. That's our greatest concern because I've in my own experience and I'm sure the other administrators in the room in our own experiences what we've seen and the damage it does. Yes, it does do damage when they're looking at certain materials at a very early age. It's scarring and it's hard to get out of their minds even when they accidentally come across it in all the innocent manner possible. parents don't take a greater interest in what their kids are doing online even accidentally what
073pops up when they hit a button those are the that is the greatest lever for all families and schools >> yeah I just want to say I'm glad we went through the process you know especially in today's day and age like Cord mentioned with things that are going on and like Kathy mentioned uh at CSBA which is usually a very quiet forum to you go too and professional uh that even that can can get the the best of some people that we had we responded we came up with a great process that has predictability and there's a great understanding now of what we do to curate books through the school district because a lot of the times when I talk to people or see the stuff on TV or look at board meetings um a
074lot of it is that that they have no idea what's going on they didn't make clear like oh this is how we make those decisions these are the committees that we This is what we do with books. So, >> and we did take the time to meet with any community members that wanted to discuss it. Leanne and I took the time to meet with them. We sat in my office more than once and explain things to them and show them things and explain the process. There's nothing, we have nothing to hide as a district and are very comfortable with the processes we have in place. So, opening up our doors or me as a superintendent or either one of my executive directors going and having those conversations, that's what needs to happen. So there isn't
075that misinformation like we're hid like something's being hidden. >> It's it's it would be nice to go to CSBA, you know, when you go down there and you talk to a lot of other board members. >> Other boards do not get along and they're suing each other and it's a mess. They're like, well, we we might not, you know, be on the same page with everything, but we're functional. You know, I would love to go back and say, "Oh, well, we had people come and they in a very positive and concerning way approached us appropriately about their concerns and we went through the correct process and other people came and spoke to us about their thoughts of the other side of the argument and we went through this process and you know, it's one of
076those times where I'm I'm proud of Big Bear in the way that everything was handled here and that uh um it seems that everything's clear on how we do things now." And and and the nice part is is now that that presentation is available that if we ever have to do this again for another group coming in, we'd be happy to sit in my office and discuss it again. You know, we've done it for the board, we've done it for the community, this is on, you know, YouTube, you know, it's there if anybody wants to watch it, but we'd be happy to review with somebody again if that's necessary. >> How many books were removed from the libraries? >> One was moved up, one was moved out due to the fact that when we looked
077at it, it hadn't been checked out in years anyways. should have gone on the obsolete list. >> Well, it's important to note that no books were banned. >> No books were banned, sir. No. >> All right. Does anyone have any comments? I know you presented on it earlier, but if you if you have anything to add. >> No, my whole point was I want the decision with people trained librarians and with school board, not with small organized groups that are trying to push agendas. So, I'm happy. I think it's great. I have a concern. >> One second. So specifically, you think the process that Mr. Williams presented on is a fair process for police? >> I I think it's still like it it comes down to whoever's in charge of it at that point. But
078I would much rather trust somebody who's an educated librarian than a public concerned citizen with the process. So, >> as long as it's in the final hands of educators, I think it's a nothing's perfect, but I think it's a better system than anything else that I can see. >> I agree with that. But my concern is that you know the reality of of being a child in our society is that bad things happen to us. And literature, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, is a great way for those people who experience those things to be able to deal with it. Especially certain very bad things. uh when you don't know who you can trust, the book isn't going to hit you if it doesn't like what you're saying. The book isn't gonna, you know, take
079you out behind behind the woodshed. But some of us have grown up with abusive parents and having that part of the process, I understand it sounds very uh reasonable. sounds reasonable to have it's five each grade and have everyone, you know, uh, oh, well, that's too high for you. Go home and ask mom or dad or whoever's a guardian. And I don't know if I have a patch for that, but I'm just trying to suggest that this sounds good. It sounds good on paper. There's going to be kids who slip through the cracks and not allowing again, you know, obviously I'm not saying that we let the fifth graders or the kindergarteners try to read Ulyses or something, but having it be hard and fast rules like that, even as attempted at nuance as this
080is is still potentially harmful and that's and I I don't have a solution. I don't have a good solution for that, but that's just something I feel like the need to voice with what I do. >> Very well. I hear what you're saying and I appreciate you uh voicing your opinion, but until we have, you know, like a better way forward, I think >> what the district has come up with is best case scenario. Um, you know, not all kids are mature enough to read some of these things. And and I hear your concern about asking for permission, but sometimes that's just going to be I'm sorry, you're just gonna have to wait till next year or whatever the case may be for that. >> Well, and I totally agree, but people are involved here,
081right? I mean, and if a student's got a unique problem, I would hope that they would go to a librarian or go to a counselor or go to somebody and say, "Okay, and and we our people would have the ability, I believe, to help them, right, and say, "Hey, you know, you might benefit from reading this book even though it's maybe okay. Um, >> that's why we have people in the system. It's not just rigid and bureaucratic and and all that. >> And I think that's a point I was going to make and and it's a great point you made because you're absolutely right. We don't we don't want any kids falling through the cracks. Couple things here. One, the district as a whole has made a hyperfocus on on mental health with CCSP individually
082trying to make sure there's more of that mental health support, counselors, everything, the investment that's made. But on top of that, libraries aren't quite what they used to be. What I mean by that, they become a safe haven in a lot of ways because of our librarians um at both especially at the middle and the high school. They open those libraries during lunches. The kids that don't want to go out and don't want to do things. They go into there, they feel like it's a safe place with that library um and to have those conversation. The librarian has come to has had to go to the council. Hey, you need to pull this kid in. You know what? There's a little bit of an issue. They become another angle for us to support those students
083that might fall through the cracks. We don't want to see somebody fall through, but they might fall through. It's a little different world. It's not that library where we have to be quiet, sit, and read. If you saw a library during lunchtime, it is not the libraries we grew up with. It's very different. It is now a little bit more of a protected space for students that don't want to be out in the general public with students. Sometimes they want to be there. Sometimes they might be looking at a game. They might be doing different things and getting homework done. something, but it's a little bit different than what it used to. It's not that quiet place anymore. There's open conversations and that librarians in the middle of it listening to all of it. >>
084Thank you. >> I have a question. Who makes up the how does someone get on a library committee who makes up that committee? >> I it's it's our library personnel in the district as well as myself. But just back to your comment um about in our middle schools in particular, you know, some of the concerns that were brought up were, you know, not necessarily about a partic particular protected class. It was about experiences that went through. And there are books um that exist at both the middle school and the high school that that do provide some of that of what you're speaking to. And so just just at an age appropriate >> at an age appropriate in an age program that >> I guess my point was not because we all understand middle school, high
085school, that's a weird time, but even into elementary school, I I you know, back when I was here, it was sixth grade, but even at fifth grade, I mean, things happen. Things happen to kids and they need to be allowed to read things because I I don't know if Treasure Island is in the in the in the not that's particularly relevant, but I remember reading Treasure Island and Jack London at a much longer younger age. And it's can be kind of graphic. It can be kind of violent and again not necessarily topical, but being able to read those things at a younger age, especially if I had been through serious things in my life, I think would have been helpful. And that's that's kind of what I'm targeting because you talk about age innocence and
086for children they have there are certain children out there who have their innocence taken from them. And so having that available and then on the other side of it, you know, children don't have that can then empathize with those folks if they are have access to some of that material. And that that was my bigger concern. All right. Item 14, discussion of the school district calendar and bell schedule. >> Okay. His we just wanted to make sure that we coming because coming on the next board meeting then come in January, we're going to bring bell schedules forward and bell schedules will include the increase of of the late starts. No more early outs, the increase of late starts. The calendar has already been approved with that. Okay. But we have to start really letting our
087public know. >> It's been approved by the not >> No, you guys approved the calendar. >> Okay. >> You guys did approve. >> The one it was like last. >> Yeah. The board before that or something. The calendar has been approved. Yes. The only thing that has not been approved by the board yet is the bell schedule. Bell schedules for the following years. When we're talking about um going back to the earlier start times because of we didn't see any improvement. We did it. We were not required to do the early to when we after that whole push that later start. We were not required because we were a real community. We decided to make a shot of it to see what it did. See what it did to attendance and and to attendance and
088to tardies all those things. It didn't have an impact. Most of staff feels like if anything it hurt more because then kids are gone more for sports. Um later starts forced us into because of our bus schedule. I had first grade. We have first graders at Baldwin getting home near dark at certain times in the year. >> It wasn't good. Now, I know the flip side to that is the argument that okay, but we're going to have some of our teenagers trying to catch a bus in the dark in the morning. We understand that. There's always a >> safer for a teenager to be in the dark than >> than a first grader who their parent may have forgot to pick them up. You know, we want to make sure and it really became an
089issue and it really hurt her programs at Baldwin too. even there they couldn't do certain programs after school because there was no way they could do it cuz then their kids were even getting home later. So it hurts. EOP it hurts all those things. Everybody universally I was attacked last year. They wanted me to do the move this year like no we need to make sure we think about this. Look at all the schedules and make sure it's right. Um we just wanted to make sure if the board had any other thoughts on it that we will have the early the late starts every Monday districtwide. Elementary will no longer be >> Every week elementary will no longer have early outs. it'll be on late drives with everybody else to that program. Other districts have
090gone to that type of process as well. It's more effective for professional development. It puts everybody on the same schedule as far as families. It creates a little bit more consistency within the district. It gives us an opportunity as a district to meet the needs of our staff, not just our teachers, but also our classified staff who need to have the same trainings, who need to have all those things. It gives us that opportunity. Like I said, it may increase consistency within our district. So, those two major changes coming for next year. Once we have have the bell schedules approved, that's when we'll start communicating with our public a little bit more to know exactly. So, we're telling them 8 months in advance, letting them know this will be your new start time. This will
091be the start times on Mondays for our elementary kids. You know, our middle school and high school already kind of know that that's when they'll start. We really have to inform the elementary schools. have already been in contact and had more than one meeting already with Beyond the Bell who will be supporting us on those on those mornings and is prepared as they need to add. We're going to try to encourage families as much as possible to sign up early that way if we have to add staffing for the earlier starts or the uh the late starts on Mondays, whatever that might be to make sure we're covered way in advance. Uh the park district has been and Oscar has been very supportive of this process. We have also already informed or let know the
092the local childcare facilities to see if there's any adjustments they can make. We're trying to hit every avenue to make sure we support. Yes, changes like this will be there will be difficulties for some people, some families, staff members. Uh we believe it's the right move at this point. Like I said, the both unions, both U negotiating parties really support this. Going back to the earlier start times of the impact has had overall, it just didn't do what we thought it would do. >> Having the late start every week at the high school more than doubles. >> Yes, it does sit utilizing that time. That is our job and that's something Leanne and me and and uh Brian will sit down and plan out basically a year in advance okay and be able to say
093okay this is when we're doing these things and that way because there are things in contract as per that we're currently negotiating things in contract is okay the teachers have to have so many free days we're also going to be put in there you have to be on campus okay there's things like that that says on the late start you have to be on campus unless you're going to call in a sick day for some reason so Yeah, we're addressing all those issues. Now that now that's where we go to our next step. Okay, let's look at it as a professional development calendar. What are we going to do for classified staff? What are we going to do for certificated staff to make sure we're doing the actual PLC's, professional learning communities as they originally
094designed to be. We have moved a little bit too far for that and we need to get back on that where teachers can truly start collaborating again. meeting for all fourth grade teachers can get together. All first grade teachers. The only way we were able to do it before is to pull them out of classrooms. It was getting too challenging. Then there was not enough time for staff meetings. That starts to hurt culture. There was a lot of pieces that were not met because of there was some language in the contracts that made it challenging because teachers had to have so much free time and a certain amount of over a certain amount of days. I'm not understanding that because at the elementary level they had an early out every week. >> Yes. >> So
095why wouldn't for them it should be just a shift from early out to a late start, but they should be able to accomplish everything. They should they should be able to eat uh meet as all fourth grade teachers now because they have the early out every week. >> They don't. So here's what happens. If we do it earlier though and their start times we can make their start times when they start on a Monday they leave because the bus schedules is at a different time by the time those buses start running and then all of a sudden we're trying to get all the teachers north teachers over Bald because Baldwin leaves later it creates an issue >> the lake started well if it was late start >> the yeah so yeah so it's this puts
096us on a little bit more level playing field for everyone and it gives us that flexibility to do that not only that we're talking about vertical articulation as well where finally we can get fifth grade and sixth grade in the room to start talking together to do that vertical articulation a little bit more to be able to have art to be able to have those pieces is really important all those pieces I think is going to make a difference in the long run of what we're trying to accomplish here with PLC with making us more cohesive we have more cohesive team between our two elementary principles we than we had in a long time. They are working so well together working so well as a team. This is a good time to do that especially
097as we have two new administrators in um and even Shannon and bringing up. It's going to make it I will say it's going to make it challenging for fall to be able to get up here. That's the piece that might be a hard for them. They'll have to join us by Zoom. >> I think it's also a good time to make sure our bus schedules are small. >> And that he's been a huge part of this process. Reed has been a part of this process. uh nothing. We couldn't even bring it forward to anybody until the conversations happened with bus services and radio to make sure they can accommodate all these changes and making sure we just want to make sure right now that we're communicating with families on the changes for the following school
098year that they have time or concerns and we can share their concerns and that way we have an option to because no matter how many minds are in the room there might be something that could get missed. I don't want to miss anything and I want to give that time to families. That way we can try to adjust to it if necessary. Any comments or questions from the board? >> Do you have an idea of like earliest start time for next year? >> Brian have that in front of >> Sorry. >> Are we going back to the like the 7:05 for high school? High school's the earliest one has NCT and first period starts at 7:15. And then end of the day is end of the day for high school is 210. So it's uh
09925 minute earlier but 20 20 minutes earlier out. So you gain five minutes every day to to pay for those extras. >> Right. >> Correct. And this mirrors the schedule that was there before. So it's not that we didn't have to build a new schedule. we effectively just stole the old one which we had up until 2122. Uh so it's something that the staff with. >> Was all of your data on the impact of the later starts at high school anecdotal? >> And no it was not just anecdotal. It was looking at actually looking at the data from attendance data and lates data. They were still walking in. They were just walking in late with Starbucks now. You know what I mean? that it was still it was still walking in late. They decided time
100to get to Starbucks now. So, it didn't really help with tardies or anything like that. The once it happened the especially at the high school, they were adamant like no, this is not working. This is not what we thought this would be. >> I with my own kids is they're just staying up later. >> Yeah. Well, now the whole idea behind it was to get more sleep. Didn't have to do a tardiness or anything. not getting more sleep >> is and the thought process was that kids are going to go to sleep whenever they go to sleep. There might be some some very particular ones who are going to say, "Okay, well, we're starting 32 minutes later, so I'm going to go to bed 13." I mean, they go to you go to bed when
101you go to bed when you're at that age, right? But you wake up when you have to wake up. So, if you can force that time when they have to wake up later, they'll get that much more sleep. And those were the benefits, which is hard to track. >> Yeah. >> Which they did in Seattle for years and scientifically could do it. But now you have to counter that with all the problems that created with >> on the back end >> from sports and clubs to ineffective or or less effective uh teacher training and and PLC's and >> and the biggest thing is the dark >> the safety issue with the >> that honestly that's what that was the cap is the is the dark of the safety of the little kids for Baldwin that
102was just too hard for Baldwin wasn't fair we'll make Make sure though that you have those far before as far as Brian will send those out or we'll send those out to Laura all of the the duty the val schedule so you can really look at them because they're on different like Brian said they had before but I know it takes time to look at that stuff and making sure you have that ahead of time before that next board meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Uh next is suggestions for future future meeting agendas. Anyone >> I have a question. What when do we do our planning meetings again >> for the whole year? our vision meetings >> over this summer >> because you know if if someone's excited about doing things and the
103board does want to look at moving forward you know >> we should look at doing them in January because we have the CSBA every December >> I mean or or have smaller intermediate intermittent ones where we can talk about if we're inspired you know >> I like the idea of doing or just like the whole thing of learning of how to do it shifted to really be able to plan for the following here. June doesn't seem effective at that point, but for we already have that year planned out. >> Given a full year, but the other thing too is I mean we have that one meeting, but to me it's almost helpful to have maybe a few smaller ones leading up to it. I mean I don't know if you have two one year at
104one sitting. >> I actually like the idea what he's saying and maybe you're right doing it splitting it up maybe doing one in January February. So you start looking at the I mean beginning of February maybe looking at the 26 27 school year and then doing the other one in July. Maybe not as long. I I give you a better I think is a better rationale and if we do something in January we're not giving you time frames we're giving you ideas. Yeah, that's what I'm talking we brainstorm. >> We have one meeting where we start to brainstorm and then that we decide to go with it or not. But >> and then I go to my cabinet and then has your board. >> That's a long discussion. >> I I would say the beauty
105of our relationship the board administration is I feel pretty free to bring something up at any >> time. >> Yeah. But I also want to discuss it because you might have seen that I had a little uh PTSD from 2010 when board members come excited. We have great ideas. We talked about it was we had we're going to have the uh the steam school elementary school and then and and you know we went through this before and it was one of those first things. So it becomes an eye openening event of how difficult it is to to try to implement something like that and it needs to be well thought through and you know and and incubated over time and grown before it becomes actionable items otherwise it just you do all this work and
106then it falls apart and it is really nice when you have people you know like you know like you know who have experience from other districts things like that you know even just yesterday we were in a meeting the first we're talking topic and I'm going to Chris Casino and I'm looking at Brian. I'm looking at people that have been okay do we look crazy? I mean, as a district, I want to make sure of those things and to make sure, okay, no, no, no, this is norm and what does this look like for everybody else and I think that's a good discussion to have as a board as well and to be able to have every two small means like Paul suggested. >> Yes. >> I and yeah, because I want to talk about
107the Mississippi miracle, too. So, I won't get into it now, but that wasn't the first school district to do that. And it was brought up many years ago in this district. >> Yeah. I think I like the idea of meeting if you guys are willing if the board is willing to um Laura can find a date for us. I'm thinking January might be hard but maybe early February seeing if we can fit uh are we talking about a morning session in the morning >> couple hours? >> Okay, I like it. Okay, perfect. We'll get that figured out. >> So that was my suggestion for future board meetings that we have future board meetings. Uh, we're not adjourning this meeting. We're going back into close session. >> Sorry, you said that out loud, Steve. That was
108voice.