001Where? We have no report from close. We're going to go to item seven, approval of the agenda and consent agenda. >> I'd like to turn your mic up. >> I'd like to pull something for uh review or name it. It's the one on attendance entardy. >> All right. Uh board policy 5113. So we'll pull board policy 5113 for discussion. >> You >> are we able to put it up on the >> for later? Oh pull it for later. Discussion. >> Uh so uh we'll remove that from the consent agenda. the board can determine uh whether or not to approve the agenda and consent agenda. Then we'll return to the policy uh approve if needed or table and then move forward with the agenda. >> Okay, that makes sense. >> Yes. >> Okay. With all of
002that considered, uh is there a motion to approve the agenda and consent agenda minus that policy? >> Minus the absences and excuses. >> Correct. May I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Appreciate it. Uh all in favor please say I. >> I. >> Seeing as there are no nays. The uh agenda consent agenda is approved. Minus said uh by law. >> And uh Miss Ellinger if you can pull up uh board policy 5113. Um, absences and excused and excuses. Yeah. Uh, from the PDF list, please. Trusty justice item is open for discussion. >> Okay, great. So when I was looking at this um I looked I was looking at it the the one where it says education code students absence for uh religious
003instruction. Um and I was curious as to language wise why it wasn't put in with the other ones where it says um absence from school shall be excused only for health reasons, family emergencies and justify personal reasons. So this is kind of listed under personal reasons. I realize this is part of ED code. So that can't be combined or merged. But my question my my suggestion for the trustees is that because this has to also do with absences and I think it's really important as parents when they go to this since religious instruction and practices whatever the religion is is important to know if it is an excuse or may be excused certainly it'd be really good to have that section that that line right underneath where the other absences are referenced. So in other
004words, you move student absence for religious instruction and you put it before when a student's absence. So it would go right in that spot exactly because then it then folds into nicely the flow goes into then when a student's absence from a school is excused. But if you know all the absences up front and I think as a parent when we're trying to find excused absences, it makes logical sense that those that it's all like right one after another. That was my my suggestion. So, we're not changing language. We're just kind of putting putting the importance to location. >> So, uh in terms of order, um I I the board can consider um the change. Uh if uh the change want if somebody wants to make a a motion to make the change, we make
005the change and we can vote on it. >> Sure. So I would make a motion that we move one of the sections having to do with religious instruction or participation. Uh the one where in parenthesis education code 46014 and we move it to be right after the section in accordance with law, board policy and administrative regulation, etc. >> Second. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Thinking as though there are no nays or abstensions, uh, motion is approved and paragraph four become paragraph three. >> Yeah, it's a better way to say it. >> All right. Perfect. >> There we go. Thank you. Um, okay. On to item number eight on the agenda. Speakers wishing to address the board. The board appreciates and supports stakeholder input at our meetings. Engagement by members of the
006public in civic matters is a cornerstone of our democracy. The board has established guidelines for its meetings so that we are able to conduct meetings effectively and efficiently. Within those guidelines, members of the public have the opportunity to address the board. To submit a question or comment, speakers are asked to complete the speaker card at the start of the open session at 6:15. If you have not already done so, you may see Miss Ellinger for a speaker card at this time. During the meeting, speakers will be called upon to make their comment. If you're addressing the board on an agenda item, we will call on you to provide your comment before the board discusses that item on the agenda. If you're addressing the board on a non-aggenda item, we'll take those comments at this time.
007Please be aware that the provisions of the Brown Act prohibit the board from acting on or discussing non-aggenda matters at this time. Public comment is limited to three minutes per person or topic. Uh the time will be on the screen. Um if it gets to three minutes, I may have to interrupt you. know that I do. So with respect, Miss Ellinger, are there speakers wishing to address the board? >> Yes, there are. The first speaker we have is Ferris Alassen on San Piper Middle School. >> Hello. Um I'm sorry. Um board of trustees. Uh, Miss >> You can just Yeah, I can. >> There you go. >> Board of Trustees, um, Mr. Deuara, um, attendees. Um, my name is Ferris Hassan. I'm a parent of a seventh grader at Sam Piper and also a fourth
008fifth grader at Redwood Shores Elementary. I'm very proud to have my children in this district and I've really valued the education they've gotten over, I don't know, maybe seven, eight years at this point. And I I just um I did not time this uh comment with the middle the Sand Piper presentation later on the agenda, but I did want to say I really value what you know, Sire Middle Schools offer my child and there were things I didn't expect that I just wanted to share. Um you know, we live in Redwood Shores and I really appreciate that my son can walk to school on his own and I know many students that go to Redwood Chores Elementary or San Piper that are elementary school do that as well. But um I appreciate having the option
009to do that in our district. I know, you know, parents have different choices they can, we have, you know, three wonderful middle schools that they can choose from right now. And I really vowed that he can walk there and he enjoys the freedom and the the time he, you know, we're fortunate to live maybe just 10 minutes walking from San Piper. And so with that, you know, the extra time not spending commuting, he's been able he gets up very early um and does lots of his projects during the morning like he does right now. He's um there was a a special project that the students in seventh grade were doing called Questcon and he was been working on a novel on the environment and he's been getting up like I I'm up at 6:00 and
010he's there writing his novel and then he gets at 7:00 and he starts getting ready after my got to get ready for school. Um and so it's really I really and then in the afternoon he can come back early and also work on his he does art as well. And I really appreciate again that we that you know we have these options in our community for students who are so motivated. And I also value the other thing I want one more thing I want to add to is I you know I attended the open house uh maybe maybe a month or so ago at at Sar Middle School and I was um and I know I'm the teacher or here um but I was pushing when I watched the room I was like this looks
011like an anthropology showroom like there was like nice couches inspirational quotes I felt like wow this is not the middle school I remembered >> I remember going like I I had took the one-hour bus I'm from Southern California to my middle school back and forth it the atmosphere was completely different. And I was like, "Wow, I'm so I'm so fortunate that we have, you know, these teachers that have such a wonderful educational environment." And my son tells me how much he loves I he likes Redwood Shores as well, but he also we love Sandpiper and he loves also um you know, making friends not just, you know, in seventh grade um but also with the other with other students from younger grades. And he um so I I really appreciate that opportunity. I I went
012to a middle school was only seventh and eighth grade. and I appreciate that he you know he can make uh friends with other other students as well. Anyway, that's all I wanted to share. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> And next we'll have Lisa Fehee from BRSFA. Hello. Well, it finally feels like fall. The sun is now setting. Sometimes right after lunch, it feels like the rain has arrived. And this week, many of us discover just how much greeting we can get done by flashlight. Nothing boosts productivity like a power outage and the fur laptop battery only has 3% left. But even with the early sunset, rainstorms, and surprise off the grid teaching adventures this week that I experienced, um we've had a real highlight this week. Our first official parent conferences have
013started. It's truly been a glow. Getting to share students growth with families remind us why we do this work. These conversations really strengthen the partnership between home and school and it's rewarding to show what our achieve students have achieved so far. Of course, this year the schedule's added its own twist of fun. Our early dismissal that isn't very early has made um it fun fitting 30 conferences into a very short time frame. It's like fitting a community event in time of snack. Um, and as teachers are doing this while wrapping up report cards, it's a busy season. Teachers are doing it all and they're doing it with care and with purpose. And part of that purpose is reflecting. As teachers, we look closely at our students progress. And we also look at our class as
014a whole. More and more. We're hearing about an increasing need, behavior challenges in a growing number of students that require our intense support. We've shared before that some students need regulating emotions and may become unsafe in the classroom. Those students absolutely deserve all the support. Beyond these few extreme cases, we're also seeing a rise in students with IEPs and 504 plans. Some classes now have somewhat of 20 to 30% of students with documented needs. And that doesn't even include students who need the help but don't qualify for services. When teachers spend that much of a day managing behaviors and providing intense individual support, it becomes harder to teach and harder for students to learn, including those who don't acquire accommodations. We know that student placement is delicate work every year. It's like building a tower
015out of playing cards and one adjustment can change everything or fall apart. But we um when the needs are high and the and our numbers are high, spreading students into fewer classes create a major imbalance. Teachers continue to ask, "When a grade level has a high number of students needing support, how do we reduce class sizes or increase the number of classes?" This isn't really about the convenience for the teachers. It's really what's best for students. When class compositions, not just class size, as a part of planning, we create classroom where students can truly thrive. We encourage the district to continue not to continue to consider not only how many students are in each grade level, but what those students demographics and needs are. Thoughtful student placements allow teachers to teach, students to learn, and
016families to continue feeling that strong school home participation and partnership that we need, and we're showing this week. Thank you for your guys' time. >> And that's all the speakers. >> Thank you. Uh item nine, our board trustee report. Would anyone like to get us started? >> Sure, I'll go first. Thank you, President Bruno. Um, yeah, I wrote my stuff down this month because I did a lot of things and I I keep forgetting to Yeah, I know. Thank you. Um, so a couple of them I did with Trusty C as well. So, I'm going to let him cover some of that and then I'll cover cover some of the other ones. Um, so Trusty CS and I were able to attend the advisory council at Redwood Shores Elementary. Um, that was put on by
017their school counselor, Miss Doss. So, um, it was great to hear her, um, presentation. She, uh, went through all of her goals and, um, kind of had a specific goal that we focused on. Um, which was, uh, great to hear and really nice to see other, um, members of the community. So there were some PTA members and also some parents of students from Redwood Shores that were also in attendance. Um then I also went to Redwood Shores again later. Um they had a fifth grade theme day which was really really fun for me to go to. So um a little background, I did not attend a public school so I um I didn't know about a lot of the things like uh Sisters Grim. So apparently it's like everyone knows about this sister's grim. I
018had no idea. So it was really fun for the fifth graders to actually educate me on what they were doing. So I had absolutely no idea what it was about and um they were all in little groups doing separate projects. Um some of them were very excited to talk to me about what they were doing. Other um fifth graders were really just interested and wanted to know whose mom I was. So that was also really fun. >> Um I also attended the coffee with the principal at Central Elementary. Um the principal there did a very good presentation on PBIS and um yeah she had a a handout for us at the end which um I thought was really great and it had just all these examples of how to be more positive at home and
019I was like I need this. This is perfect. Um, so I thought that was really good and just wanted to recommend to everyone um to parents if you can go to those princ coffee with the principles I know a lot of of the sites are doing that um I definitely would recommend I think it's um just beneficial. And then lastly um I just finished up a uh leadership uh uh ethics and leadership course um at the University of Notre Dame and um just very excited to use some of those strategies in the work that I'm doing with the board. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next. Go for it. >> Just wanted to piggyback on the coffee chat. I was I was given the opportunity to go to a coffee chat with um
020Principal Adler over at Rston and she did this amazing presentation on AI and how her staff is working to integrate AI into the classroom thoughtfully and really with a focus on how the students and how the teachers are using it. So, I thought that that was really educational. And she sent out she sent out um an email with the presentation link. So, if any of our parents are out there from Brson Middle School, I highly recommend clicking on that link, taking a look at what they're doing. Um I also went to the theme day that Ann went to and it was fantastic. It was just so much fun. Um, and last thing was parent teacher conferences that Lisa was talking about. I went to my um my child's parent teacher conference today and Ching Pay,
021I don't know where you are. There you are. My teacher was just raving about the MC class and she was telling me about all the little data points and all the little things that my child needs to do. So, thank you so much for your very hard work on getting that through and I appreciate all of you and thank you so much. >> Thank you, >> Trusty North, Trusty Tank, sir. >> So, to piggyback off of what Trusty Deng said, um, one of the things that we both attended was a kind of quarterly two by two by two. So the two stands for two trustees from from the school district, two trustees from the city council or city council members, not trustees, from Belmont and Redwood City. Uh and then other other uh officials such
022as our own CBO Masamoto and and other city managers, etc. So, I always look at it as a great way to keep collaboration going um as well as just to see what all the cities are up to and how that might uh impact the school district or just to kind of keep a breast of of of what if other what's what's the happenings. So, CBO Masamoto uh shared a little bit more on the middle school study that has been that just recently came to completion about the district office to going through some renovation and so where the temporary office is being held some more bond update information. So, thank you for that. Uh it was I think the city of Belmont one of the highlights was they went through some developmental development initiatives, some um
023housing projects happening as well as a little bit of update on the Barrett Community Center. Um and then uh a little plug for the upcoming Belmont Centennial 100 years in Belmont. Let me just see if So that's going to be at Twin Pines Park next year. Pretty impressive. and then Redwood City gave their updates kind of along similar things around developmental development and housing initiatives and other parts. So, uh it's just again a way for us to kind of keep informed and work in collaboration and have some thought partners as we as we discuss relevant agendas to relevant topics to all of us. And then finally, I will just add that I always love going to the brown bag lunches. This past month I attended Rston's brown bag lunch and San Piper and so it's
024just really thrilling to just you know we appreciate the turnout um and just what what is happening in the community and what is on the thoughts of teachers minds and what do they kind of want to discuss. And so some things came up just, you know, around enrollment trends declining and and the middle school survey for sure. and you know just some very interesting projects that are happening both at San Piper and Rston that really kind of get me inspired and I want to thank everybody for doing that and you know hopefully there's some best practices that are being shared which I think they are across all school sites but you guys are doing great work and I really thank the warmness of of the of the rston and San Piper welcome uh so thank
025you I always look forward to it it's a highlight to do a brown bag lunch >> thank address anyone out there. I don't have um a lot to report um but I'm just thinking of um I did go to the school force uh board meeting um along with CBO Matsumoto and um just really appreciate CBO Matsumoto for explaining uh our financial situation to um some of our most involved parents who are on the school force board and also uh appreciation to those parents on the school force board for everything they do um to help raise funds so that we can continue providing uh the wonderful education that we do and uh thanks of course to our teachers and staff for everything they do. >> Thank you. Um for my report I will use most of
026it just for appreciations and recognition. Um, I went to a multicultural night uh at at Nazette and it just kind of reminds me of my PTA days and just appreciation in general for PTA parents and the things they do kind of at all the schools. Um, I was foolish and and volunteered my own time to support the event which was great but like that means I was in the web of the email trails and watching them set it up and remembering how much goes into you know these like hour and a half events. Um, so it was it was great times, but yeah, I really do appreciate what our parents put into community to give to our communities. Um, I've been to a few brown bags now and just really appreciate the time and cander
027of of of all of our teachers. Um, and the opportunity to listen and hear directly from. Uh, that same thing. Uh, I had conferences this week for my kids and and again just appreciating how hard those days must be for um our teachers. I hope that it's maybe easier days for administrators. Maybe I can imagine people find ways to make it not that. Um but also maybe there's less of kids headbutting each other because they have less hours to do it. Um yeah. Yeah. Uh it's Indigenous People's Heritage Month. Just going to put that out there for for those that that's important to. Thanksgiving is coming up. That's really exciting. I hope everyone enjoys some time uh on Appreciate our veterans. It was Veterans Day a while ago. Um, yeah, I really do. I I
028appreciate everything they do and did and and are doing. Um, a few days ago it was Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day and uh some things happened years ago and then we're recognizing it now. I appreciate that. And also, you heard about the 2 by twos and the two x two x2s and other things. Um, this is my I think my last full uh board meetings as president. Um, I'm heavily appreciating the board. Uh, I was supposed to be at those things and I had conflicts and and you all stepped up knowing that uh you have things going on in your life where either you're doing something very thoughtful or you're going through tough times or big changes. Um, but I I do feel like you all came through for me in ways that I
029really do appreciate. Thank you for for all the things you do. That's the board report. Now, superintendent report. >> Thank you, President Bruno. Uh, two quick things I'll just uh foreshadow. Uh, trustees, uh, beginning of December is always the California School Board's annual education conference. I'm really excited to be attending that uh, the first week of December uh, with you all, learning side by side, and um, always always revisiting how we um, engage in our work and continue to make um, our systems better. So, I thank you in advance for attending that. Um, and I'll just say, uh, November is is really the time for giving thanks. Um, I'm super appreciative to be a part of an amazing district, uh, full of parents, uh, who entrust us, uh, with their pre precious little ones each
030and every day. Uh, to be part of an amazing, uh, staff um, who show up uh, do all the things plus uh, more. uh to work with an amazing group of of administrators and a fantastic board um that uh really shows that there's alignment um across the system even when we have those ups and downs um we are all moving uh directionally in the same same manner. So um I'm just very appreciative and I'm uh really uh blessed to be uh a leader in in our district. So thank you. >> Thank you. Um, okay. The reason we're all here, item number 11, uh, school spotlight. Let's hear it. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> We can do without the end, I think. Uh, good evening, board of trustees, superintendent Duara, uh, President Bruno. Um, just to answer
031your question, the work is hard and the work is good. We uh we find um great joy in doing it, but it's not any easier any week of the year. So, >> it's all good work. It's all good work. >> It is my pleasure to be here. I think this is my sixth time in front of you in various forms, sometimes starting with Zoom. And I'm really proud to be here tonight as the principal of San Piper School, Gloria Higgins, in case you don't know me, with a fantastic team um behind us. If you could just go on to the next slide. Oh, actually, I have the clicker. Never mind. I have that. I got to find the on button though. It's on the side. There we go. Look at that. Works like a charm.
032Thank you. >> You've seen this a bazillion times, so I'm not going to talk about this except to say that we work really hard at Sandpiper, like all the other schools, um, for cohesion and alignment to our strategic plan and to our learner profile. And what you're looking at now is the Sandpiper approach to our learner profile. And the folks behind me are going to share individual pieces of that. And my small job in this presentation is just to talk about how we try to integrate all of those components together and um bring cohesion, coherence across our um programming for all of our student. So with that, I'm going to get us started right away with Kristen Aorio. Hi, I'm Chris Noor. I'm a seventh grade math and science teacher at Sam Piper. So, a
033few years ago, um we realized that seventh graders, well, all students need executive functioning skills, but that is a learn skill. So, we realized that teaching executive functioning directly connects to how we want students to think by planning, reflecting, and setting goals. They're not just completing assignments. They're analyzing how they learn, identifying obstacles, and making adjustments. This metaccognitive process is what helps them deepen understanding and become thoughtful, self-directed learners. In our classes, we intentionally teach executive functioning as a way to help students think, one of our BRSSD learner profile traits. During all time, students plan out their work, estimate how long tasks will take, and reflect afterward on how well they manage their time and focus. They also set smart goals, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time um due dates, that kind
034of stuff. Um they set these goals to build their own ownership and direction in their own learning. One favorite activity is called Eat the Frog, which is inspired by a Mark a quote by Mark Twain, which is about doing the hardest thing first. Students identify their biggest challenge, break it into steps, or we say dissect the frog. Um, and build the mindset of getting things done instead of putting them off. Um, we found that with these executive functioning skills, the students are becoming more responsible with their learning as well as not necessarily having to come to me or other teachers and being like, I know what I need to do. I'm going to go do it. Thank you. And now Margaret Watson about the kinder garden. Hi, Margaret Watson. This is my teammate, Jen Schultz.
035Jennifer Schultz >> get to talk about um a project born with the opportunity of space to use which is unusual in our area. um the kindergarten. Um I am driven by a quote a lot of times by Albert Einstein saying that play is the highest form of research and this um project is driven with that that our youngest learners need more space um and areas to play and be inspired and generate um curiosity and get a little dirty. I think that's what's missing a lot in in our area, in our time, in our space, in in our school. So, we um had this idea to um create a garden area that's more than a garden. It's more of a play space and a um outdoor classroom in in the area behind our classrooms. And to
036do that, it takes community. So we um were fortunate enough to first to get support from our school administrators and then reached out to PTA and they were very much on board. Love the idea of the project. So, not only funding um was provided to buy a shed and build some of the materials, but um hours were donated to paint and to build the shed and to help us plant and kind of um inspire the project. Do you think I could do this? And um and then we thought we can even go bigger and in include more of the community and use some of those brilliant minds from our middle schoolers um to innovate and really think about what imagine what types of um uses we can have in the space, what types of areas
037would be great and the flow how how the garden might be. Um you're looking at a couple of the winning designs. Um they include some rock sensory areas, a butterfly area, bird watching. They had some great ideas of how to move through the spaces and incorporate it. They came out and measured and you know their innovation really drove us forward and um we incorporated or incorporating many of the design aspects. So thanks to them as um it takes a community and it takes a lot of things, a lot of um people to make something like this happen and so we're just in the beginning steps and very excited about it. Yeah. >> Who's next? >> There's another really cute picture. Did I go backwards? Did you want to show them that adorable? Look how cute
038we are. They're adorable >> um well um I'm Caroline Baldonado. my seventh grade teacher at San Piper and my other one. >> So this year our um seventh grade leadership students have been partnering with the intensive needs SDC program to create something that we call allin for all abilities. Um each week students work sidebyside with their peers. They created even this this the leadership students created this logo. Um but they work on uh with their peers and they're really focusing on building relationships, supporting one another and learning uh to see the world through a different perspective. Uh together our students are learning really cool things like American Sign Language and non-verbal communication. And we're able to do that by pulling in uh Mrs. Vanlar who's our interventionist and language specialist. So we can use some
039of her resources. Uh some of the fun activities that actually the leadership students have been planning are things like art, music, scavenger hunts. They also attend adaptive PE with coach Jeff. And uh my students are really seeing firsthand what leadership is like through service, compassion, and building community. Uh this work was all uh directly reflected from our work as a sorry let me start again. This work directly reflects our profile of an empowered learner and our school site plan. Uh the idea was sparked last year. We went to the scaling student success summit down in San Diego and through that we were able to hear a little bit about their graduate profile and then we had time to reflect as a team and say like what is our students need at Sandpiper and how could
040we make this come to life for us and for our kids. Uh and one goal that we saw that came out of it was really strengthening our inclusive practices and coming together as one solid community. Uh so to make allin for all abilities we really connect to that goal and we wanted this experience to be intentional. So we say things like advocacy. What we talk about as a district all the time and the way we are doing that is realizing that advocacy focuses more on just relationships. This is not about kids just hanging out doing an art project together. It's so much more. It has to be grounded in the core educational skills and reflection. It means that our students in the leadership class really need specific lessons. Um learning about things like neurodeiversity. They
041have to have a place where they can reflect and have honest conversations and and have qu ask me questions about things that maybe they're afraid to ask in a setting all the time. So, we are really teaching these advocacy skills specifically and focusing on things like communication. Uh, so another way that we're really making this work is I'm pulling in as many resources from the entire district. So, another awesome person that came and spoke with our class was Melanie Henderson and she's part of our behaviorist team and she was phenomenal. She sat with us. She explained maybe some behaviors that students had been seeing, why they are seeing it, and again tying it back to having our kids become advocates. She gave them the language. So, she g taught them words like uh maybe stmming
042or self-regulation. She explained what positive reinforcement is. She talked about dysregulation and these are all words that we really want these student leaders to start using, to start saying when they see behaviors that they maybe are not so familiar with seeing in the past. Um a hugest like shining stars that I really like to talk about was one of them is uh the seventh grade leaders were they plan all the activities. So one student was planning activity and she said my partner really likes music. I was like well that is not my expertise but what do you want to do about that? How are you going to do that? And she's like well let's make moracas. I was like wonderful. Well maracas when kids make them their two cups put together they have like beads
043inside. Could be a choking hazard. And they've been in the classrooms. they've been getting to know these kids. They know that we need to be careful about some materials that we bring into that room. And so I was like, well, problem solve. What are we going to do? And so instead, she had them make maracas with ping pong balls that were not choking hazards. So it's really like thinking outside the box and how they can really support their partners. Um, another huge highlight was um and really focusing on this goal of coming together as one community. The leadership students did a post survey as we're wrapping up this trimester. And one of my students in the post survey, it was anonymous, but I think I know who wrote it. He said um uh he said
044that this experience has helped him build confidence around sharing about his own disability and realizing that many kids with disabilities actually have hidden superpowers. Oh, I've also noticed leadership students increasing um advocating their skills uh advocating for their own needs. For example, I have a picture of our uh therapy dog that comes in, Garrett, through Kayman Companions. Um, and so they're starting to say a little bit more about their own needs and and noticing that um, and having the courage to speak to it. Overall, this program gives students the opportunity to connect learning to humanity and that extends expands their understanding of what it means to belong and to lead. When you we unite our diverse perspectives and think beyond traditional boundaries, we prepare our students for not only school but for life. Yeah. >>
045So, I'm I'm excited to also share along with Caroline some of the great things happening at San Piper that all our students uh they are feeling more and more included and connected um from as an SDC teacher. I get to see every day how these moments truly matter. Uh not just for my students but for this the whole school. And I've seen this more this year than ever before. This by the way is my second year as an intern student sorry well uh intern teacher. Um but one of our biggest wins uh that we started last year was uh our monthly stingray families and uh these groups mix uh students as you know from uh different grades including our SDC students and are led by an eighth grade student the Puma families. The activities are
046designed so everyone can jump in and have fun and it gives my students a chance to be part of something new in a way that works for them to be able to go to a new setting uh to be with students from all grades, something that they don't normally get to do. Um and another highlight this year is our star cart. This is our second year of our star cart and it's set up and monitored by our speech team um and also myself as classroom teacher um and uh also uh AAC as well from the county. Um in elementary students earn star cards and they're getting those for positive behavior and they come to trade them and on Mondays um a after our assemblies and then um our star card is run by the middle
047school SDC students. Um it's something that's very powerful because it gives my students real practice in communication and interacting with uh other uh gened students across campus so they feel a little more comfortable. It just at least in uh just small small interactions whether it's just saying just saying hi but in in those interactions they're learning to uh do a whole dialogue with them um with support from you know the teachers and um also uh uh other other uh the students sometimes as well uh we'll look at uh the the list of things that they could use to uh respond with and honestly Uh the impact shows up everywhere around campus after all of these different types of programs that we have. So you'll see the seventh grade peer buddies uh from a leadership class.
048They'll be in PE uh won't be a PE time that we may have and they'll call over the SDC buddies and have them come over and start throwing baskets or they'll say hi in the mornings or around campus. And then also PE coach uh Vanlar uh who also has certification in adaptive PE uh he will support the interactions and when we're on breaks or uh and maybe at recess he'll he'll call them over and now they've gotten used to interacting like on the basketball court. Um and then some of the students are so used to them as peer buddies from her class that now um our students u are participating in PE classes with them. So furthermore, the families of my SDC students, they're they tell us how excited they are after we've described and
049sent them pictures of how their child is showing their child experiencing joy and u and also the confidence uh from being included in those interactions. So these m these moments remind us of how much inclusion matters for our school and how how much San Piper is doing for our school. And so it truly makes our school stronger for everyone. So we're building a place at San Piper where every student is feeling included and every student belong feeling like they're belong belongs and a chance more for all of us to thrive. Okay, floor. Okay. Hi, I'm Franchesca Karoski. I'm the sixth grade math and science teacher at Sam Piper and um I'm here to talk about wind time. Um, wind time is a program we've implemented at Sandpiper this year. It stands for what I need
050and the idea is that teachers use data to identify student need and then they create targeted lessons and activities that address those needs. Um, one-time practice we've been using for a long time is math centers. Um, not just in my class, across the whole school. Um, and how I get my data for my math centers is through concept quizzes. So, these quizzes are like back in the day pop quizzes, but they're only five questions um that target one specific concept. So, you can see my students log up there that says area of parallelograms and they filled it out all the way to the star. That means they got a five out of five on that quiz. Um, basically these quizzes allow two things. First, I can see um what students are doing really well with.
051Oh my gosh, it's my own phone is >> I'm so sorry about that. >> Um but basically, it allows me to see what students are struggling with and what they're doing really well on just off the bat without them studying. And two, it allows them to see that information. So they're in charge of their own learning. They're tracking their progress. They're seeing what they need to work on. And they can take these quizzes, retake them as much as possible as like a growth mindset practice. They're working for learning and mastery, not just getting the points the first time. But so I use these quizzes to determine what to do for my math centers. um what students are struggling with the most. I make sure that I'm working at that center with them. Um in the
052top left corner you could see that was the center I was at with those kids. They were working on surface area and um we had physical manipulatives that they could measure and find the surface area of um to really make sure they had a concrete understanding before moving on to the next station or to the next unit. Um the other stations contained either math extension um challenges and puzzles on um concepts that they were really good at and needed more of a challenge. And you can see that in the top right corner. And then there were other lessons that were additional practice and review of concepts already learned in class. And really the goal of these math centers is before they move on to the next unit to have a very solid understanding before new
053concepts are introduced. And that's it. >> Oh, I already have it. >> And there's me. >> All right. >> So, you've heard so many fantastic things that we're doing at Sandpiper. I know you must have the question, how how are we able to do these wonderful things? And that is our PLC's, our professional learning communities that help us build our collective efficacy at school. Um we're able to collaborate together through time with um grade level time through the district, through time in staff meetings, through our professional developments together, and just a joy of working together that we're able to do all these really cool things and work across grades and able to bring win to the whole entire um school that every single grade level is getting what they need in their form and version
054that they need in the subject that they need it most. Um, and we wouldn't be able to do that if we weren't able to have these professional learning communities and continue our education, get in each other's classrooms, get in other classrooms in the district and even outside of the district and get ideas and try new things and be willing to um work with each other and have a safe space where we can do that. So, we can do amazing things for our students. And one guiding light for us is scaling student success. And we will talk a little bit more about that. Thank you. >> So yes indeed. Um one of the things that we do at Sandpiper are our instructional rounds and teachers have been able to go on rounds and visit each other's
055classrooms to make that um kind of uh invisible mysterious thing that happens in a classroom a little more open and visible across classrooms. And we always learn the most from each other. Um, and I think they would agree that they appreciate that opportunity. And of course they will right now because I told them they have. >> Um, when I first came uh to the district and and I think my first presentation to the board, none of you were on the board. I think Dan, you're the only person who was here in that that night. Um, we talked about a learner profile that we were just embarking on at Sandpiper. And I remember using the words it's aspirational, it's inspirational at that point. And now almost, you know, five and a half years later, you are
056seeing that it's operational at San Piper. And it's a journey. It's certainly never done. And we continue to work to improve. But thanks to the people that you see behind me, we have truly begun to operationalize that. Scaling student success uses a phrase called from poster to practice. And we see it in practice at San Piper. and you're all welcome to come and visit that anytime you would like to. Um, Miss Galla mentioned and some others mentioned having been on study tours with Scaling Student Success, we're going on another one January 26th through Winters of Sparta. It's drivable. So, we're excited about being able to do that um and continue to develop the instructional playbook that we've built through scaling student success with metaccognition, with our inclusion practices, and with design thinking. um and take
057that further with learning progressions that we're doing now. There it is again. This is kind of the visual representation of what um you might have heard of as a theory of action. This is how we're putting that poster, that aspirational profile of a learner into operation at Sandpiper. And I will leave it um there and open it up to any questions that you would like to ask. Thank you very much. Thank you. Double trick questions. >> Okay, I'll go first. I don't actually have a question. Um, just a comment, but I uh just wanted to let you all know, first of all, thank you. Thank you all so much for the work that you're doing. You could stay there, too. Yeah. Um, this was very impressive. I'm like super impressed. Um all of the slides
058were I was just like wow that's so great. That's such a great idea. Um the executive functioning like yes that's so great. I love it. The the kindergarten like it's so great. Like as a parent of a kindergarter I know that my son would just be overjoyed to be in that space. Um so yeah not really any questions from me. just um just super impressed by the work that you're doing and thank you all so much. Keep it up. >> Hi guys. >> Hi. >> Great work. Love it. Thank you so much. I did have a question about the design for the kindergarten. You said that it was um like you had pulled in the eighth graders to go and Can you tell me a little bit more about that entire process? like just what
059they were doing to >> so at the beginning of the year the eighth graders usually start out with a design thinking challenge. So we decided to um with the idea of growing together and this prospect of building the kindergarten reached out to the eighth grade teachers and said would you like to have them design the space that we're going to start building? We hadn't broken ground on anything or started to create yet. So they got to come and measure and look and um imagine what could become of this space. It was just asphalt and fences and kind of trash around right time. So um so they got to draw up and use whatever tools they wanted to come up with either spaces or the whole the garden design. And the winning designs had a um
060a drawing using the entire space that we have with little um we could go back to the slide, but they had like a drawing out the rock sensory pool, the butterfly garden, the >> um mud kitchen and um well, we couldn't make it exactly the way they had, but you see like the drawing with the pathway. We said, you know, that's a great idea to make that organic pathway to lead you to different spaces. Um we love the idea of having a shaded space from the second drawing, putting the plants in one place and and the real creative um interactive play spaces in another. So they came and presented to um Miss Schultz and I after they after presenting to their classmates and deciding on two winning plans that could come and present and it's
061guided guided our design. They were our architects in initially. >> That's so awesome. I I can't imagine how how fulfilling it is for them to see their work come and become like something real. So I I really appreciate that. >> Hi >> teacher very excited and for sure that a water is going to be an option. We need to have a little bit of scaling in our financial consideration too. They were they were super >> I actually also still had a question about the win quizzes. Miss K, you were saying how they did the win quizzes and they're allowed to take them as many times as they want and do they have like a new quiz each time? How >> Well, that part is a lot of work on me because I am changing up
062questions every time. But they are kind of the more simpler versions of the questions. I think I go through about four versions >> and I mix them up enough so it looks new every time. Um but yeah, we are getting into the pattern of retaking those on Thursdays and Fridays so that the students advocate for themselves and ask if they want to retake. Helps their grade move up and helps them track how they're doing and feel successful. That's not exactly a win-time practice. Um, it is considered best practices with teaching math. Um, to really I mean it could be a win-time practice because they can see what I need right in front of their eyes. >> So, is it like at the end of every unit that they do this or is it just randomly
063throughout the unit? >> I sprinkle it out because a unit has several concepts, right? So, I try and divide it up as much as possible. So, we have a whole unit on ratios, but they had one concept quiz on equivalent ratios, um, solving problems of equivalent ratios, and another one of just solving problems with ratios. So, it's really to look at one thing at a time. So, they're not just getting a whole unit test back and being like, I'm bad at math. They can get it back and be like, oh, I'm really good at finding area. I'm forgetting to divide by two for the triangles. Um, yeah. >> I love that. I love that it's visual and that you can see it. >> So many times it's just, oh, a number, right? Yeah, >> break
064it down by that category is really >> And I think too I like setting up students for my tests a lot with study guides and then they study really hard and then they do great but which is awesome but I like seeing oh what are they actually getting um with these pop quizzes in a safe way that they know you know it's not a big deal I can retake it later. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, lots of wonderful things happening at CN Piper. Um, I just wanted to comment and ask a little bit more about the um, the all-in for all abilities which seems amazing. Um, just if you could uh, let us know a little bit more of the like logistics. Um, I was just looking back at the slide for
065it. Thank you. Um so um it says it's the thrive elective. So for the uh the students who are not in the SDC um how many students participate? Um is it year round? If you could just give us more info. >> So it is part of our leadership class. It's a seventh grade elective. And the way our electives works is we have three trimesters at Sandpiper. So um for seventh grade they we split the seventh graders in half and half of the seventh graders are in a leadership class with me while they're also in a journalism class with my partner Christina Zoro. So um and then that's for the first trimester that the second trimester they're going to flip. So if they didn't experience um the leadership class and didn't participate with allin for all
066abilities I mean they already know about it because we talk about all the time uh but they get to do that in like starting next week. So um and the logistics of it is that it's during my elective time. So, it's it's really a leadership class, but once a week they get to spend uh 30 minutes and we head um into the SEC classes. However, a goal of ours is to really be all around campus. So, we started out mostly in those two classrooms where um some of our students with higher needs felt a little more comfortable. And another goal that we have set is to really be more visible around campus. So, the leadership kids know to try to plan activities like a scavenger hunt where they're walking around campus and being more visible.
067Another goal is to start moving into like our elective space and have different things like that. Um but it's something that we're working towards. So that's about um 30 minutes every Wednesday. You're welcome to come. We have a lot of fun. Uh and then another cool thing is once the adaptive PE teacher found out about this, he was like, "Hey, I want some of your students to come help me." Uh and so they also started joining adaptive PE. uh which so it's nice because all in for all abilities takes up about half an hour sometimes more each week but then I also have time for the rest of the elective. I teach an hour and 50 minute block twice a week u so we can use other leadership skills so we can be talking about
068like communication skills and how to have a difficult conversation with someone and and and so many other components of leadership too. >> Yeah, of course. Sorry, I just wanted to comment. I I love the fact that it's a one one uh an hour and 50 minute block where you can really dig into the meat of what you're doing and also the having the SDC students manage the PBIS cart is a stellar idea that like is amazing. So, I just thought I would I just wanted to to say that >> you have to speak too. >> Yes. But they're um generating devices and they're getting real life skills, you know, with the other students on campus and they don't always have these opportunities. So that'll it'll give them a little more confidence and I'm like I
069said we was already seeing that with just them saying hi or feeling more confident to do that with other students on campus. >> But it's so it's so it's such so brilliant because there's that trans that um transactional script so that it's easy to oh this is what I'm supposed to do and being able to go from there bridging over into more natural conversation is brilliant. I don't know who came up with the idea, but whoever it is, kudos to you. >> And you see Jod here, and she came up with some other like they have they have little cheat sheets so they can look at it if they need to, but now they know flow more so and so they're getting the flow of conversation in a natural flow. That's so awesome >> functional
070experience for them. >> If I could watch this in action, one of the things we observe is that while our students are using that neurotypical student a little natural for them to see that. Oh, they needed some realized. >> I'll just say thank you very much. Uh it's very impressive the breadth and depth of what you're doing at San Piper and the commitment that you have and and just the ability to be able to differentiate within so that the students are kind of getting some age appropriate things but also trying some new things and and trying to rethink some things in different ways and continue what you're doing well in the same way. So thank you for your innovation and creativity. I got some pretty equ I know now I don't know. Um two little
071ones maybe Home Depot grant. How'd you do that? Who did that? >> Yeah. Awesome. >> Cool. >> There we go. And in uh instructional rounds, is that a yearly thing? Is that new? >> It's based in like how long how how much time do you have? >> Right. >> Ignore over. Thank you for your time. Um it's based in the medical field and so going on rounds to learn from each other and so um we did it twice last year. Twice or three times last year. Twice maybe. Yeah. Um we haven't done it yet this year, but um each grade level or department has a release day um or two um where we spend some time planning how we're going to operationalize our learner profile strategies and we walk through classrooms um mostly looking for
072positives kind of just get us going and say what can I take away from this classroom and what can I see that's happening here. Um and yeah, I think they find a lot of value. >> Sure. >> Cool. Great job all around. Thank you. >> If I could uh just add a couple words. Um I just want to say thank you. Uh we talk about um moving our profile of a learner from uh poster to practice and that takes a long time and I will just say um you all have really accelerated that I think at San Piper um and are clearly internalizing it and operationalizing it. Um, and we started the year talking about agency and engagement. And everything that was up on that screen screams agency and engagement and how you are involving
073students in different ways and empowering them to make choices and own the trajectory of their learning um makes a huge difference and and that goes just so far. So um thank you for that. Um I want to piggyback on um what uh Gloria was sharing about uh scaling student success. Um it's an organization that we're part of that um really looks at how agency and engagement and profiles of learners uh graduate profiles and whatnot um move from poster to practice in schools and how we have the potential uh to really shift uh the way we look at teaching and learning in our organization. So uh we're happy to be part of that. Uh she talked about um a visit uh in San Diego. The next one isn't so glamorous. Uh it's in Winters uh just
074north of Sacramento, I think. Uh but in tomorrow's board update, I will be sharing that as an opportunity uh for board to participate if you're interested in going as well. Um it's a formal yet informal um uh trip and conversation. I think you learn by experiencing and pulling an idea from here and an idea from there and making sense of different things in different ways and it's a great opportunity for staff to connect as well. So, >> exactly. Exactly. So, I'll be sharing that in the board update. Uh uh we plan to drive up in the morning and drive back at night. So, it's a long day. Um but, uh it should be a good opportunity. So, thank you Sam Piper. >> Thank you. for mass exodus. >> Probably >> we'll give you some time
075to leave. >> It's okay. >> We we uh >> drive safe. >> Folks who are presenting in a little bit would love for you to stay, but we understand. All right, on to item 12. Approval of the tenative agreement between the Belmont Red Faculty Association and Belmont Red School District for the 2025 through 2028 collective bargaining agreement with director. >> These next two items um are my very favorite thing to do. >> Yeah. as part of my job. Um, I first want to thank uh bargaining team members for BRSFA. A couple are here tonight. U Travis Whitebred who is the bargaining chair. >> Lisa Fehee and Susan Nichols who are David Picket and Maya Bramberg. um really truly enjoyed nine months I think that we bargain together and when I say together we really did
076bargain together we don't pass papers across the table we work together on a common document have conversations sometimes they get a little spicy um but it's fun you know we really trust each other we trust each other to work on a on one document ment and um we came up with a really great agreement. Thank you to the members all of you that are here tonight members of the RSFA who ratified um the agreement. So for item 12, I wholeheartedly encourage you to approve the uh financial projections and salary new salary schedules and the tenative agreement presented for uh the TA between Belmont Redwood Shore School District and BRSFA. I moved that we approve the tenative agreement between Belmont Redwood Shores Faculty Association and Belmont Redwood Shores School District for the 20 2025 through 2028
077collective bargaining agreement. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh all in favor please say I. >> I. >> Seeing as there are no nays or abstensions, item 12 is approved. on to item. >> Uh I just want to extend my appreciation uh to both bargaining teams as well. Uh it started nine months a I'll trust you with the nine months ago. It was long time ago uh with our board and our union membership uh participating in interestpace bargaining kind of refresh training uh really putting forth the commitment uh to work in collaboration with one another. And uh echoing what what Julie shared, um I saw that um I saw that each and every time the teams came together, whether it was working on a joint statement, whether it was knocking on each other's door during caucus
078to ask a clarifying question, uh to uh saying, "Hey, let's just talk about this in concept. What would it look like? What if?" Um I really appreciate that kind of conversation. And that wouldn't have happened without the team that was at the table. um all those that uh Julie mentioned as well as on the district side, Julian Ree. Uh so huge thank you to you as well. Um and I just appreciate that collaboration uh that hard work um and the agreement that was just approved. So thank you. >> That feel like a 10 month. I feel like a 10 month. All right. Um on to item number 13. That's why it's my favorite thing to do. >> Um, >> so item number 13 is CSEA's uh >> That's right. >> tenative agreement and accompanying uh
079financial projections. First, I want to thank Linda Fana, the bargaining chair and president of CSEA, Claudia Velasquez, Agnosio Martinez, and Selia Benzada. Um, I don't believe it took nine months. Um but it it was a great process. Always enjoy working with them. Um we do not do interestbased bargaining per se, but we have come a long way. We pass less paper across the table and have more conversations every time we have um a new bargaining session. So um before I present the item, I also want to thank my team members Reese Matsumoto who is with me for both BRSFA and CSEA and Sabrina Adler who is on the team for the district for BRSFA. Um, with that, I again wholeheartedly encourage you to approve the TA and supporting documents for the CSEA collective bargaining agreement.
080Um, the agreement stretches from June 2024 to June 2027. I move that we approve the tenative agreement between CSEA and BRSSD for the 2024 through 2027 collective bargaining agreement. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Seeing as there are no nays or abstensions, item 13 is also approved. >> Thank you. >> And I'm just going to equally extend my appreciation. Linda Fana, Claudia Vasquez, Ignasio Martinez, and Celia Benzada for their work. Um, and I should mention that every time negotiations happen, uh, the teams put their normal work aside for the day, whether that's lesson plans or working uh, in HR or calculating the budget, that all gets put on hold. So, um, thank you to the teams for doing that. Thank you. All right. Uh, item number
08114. Looks like we're only going to hear from you once this evening, CBO Matsumoto. Uh, thank you very much. Uh, we wanted to provide the board with a quick nutrition update. Um, we have a very special guest with us today. Uh, it is our business service specialist, uh, Katherine Reese. Uh, Katherine oversees basically our entire food program on a day-to-day basis. Um, whenever the power goes out um or you know, let's say something doesn't look up to par, Katherine is the one who gets on it immediately in the morning to make sure that everything happens. uh when we were figuring out how to make our food program more efficient. Catherine woke up at 6:00 a.m. to go and ride with the delivery driver to make sure that everything that was happening was, you know, all
082in service of getting everything done as efficiently as possible. So, um with the utmost gratitude, I'd like to bring Katherine up uh to the podium to to give our nutrition update today. >> Thank you. Um and good evening everyone. Uh I'm very excited to share more about our meals program this year. Um first wanting to just root us in the fact that we are really focused on making sure that we are approaching it with an equity lens and making sure that we're prioritizing students getting food to students who need it the most, especially on days maybe where we do have power outages and things like that. Um but overall um beyond really aiming to address food insecurity in the Belmont and Redwood chores communities uh we see California's universal meals requirement as an amazing opportunity
083to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students at all of our sites. And so um also a way to res remove stigma around what's historically been free meals. Um, I'm very happy to be presenting this the same day as San Piper because I think uh they are a great example of how our program really uh focuses on the profile of a learner and uh thanks to students at Sam Piper and other schools um who have really thought and advocated for themselves. Um as you may recall at the end of last school year we uh ended up going out for RFP for a new meals provider based on feedback from students saying that they wanted change. And so we really appreciate um trying to be responsive to student, parent, staff feedback as much as possible.
084And ultimately, we also care about compliance um and protecting the district from any financial um risks related to um not being compliant. I first wanted to take a moment to share um more about our amazing team of nutrition clerks. Each site has one or two nutrition clerks who are really the ones packing breakfast for our students in the morning, reheating meals. Uh they know our students preferences. They know our students allergies. They are the ones greeting our students with a smile. And we could not operate such a smooth and efficient program without them and the care that they put into their roles. Here we have Blanca at Central and Stefania at Sandpiper. Daniel at Rston, Olivia at Fox, Nyla at Nesbbit, Shauna at Cypriyani, Marishelle at Redwood Shores, and Brandon at Nesbbit. And we're so
085grateful to all of them as well as the parent volunteers who make our meals program work. Um especially um given that a lot of them are current uh parents of current BRSSD students or parents of students who've graduated through our district. Uh I won't talk too much about compliance, but I think it's important to note that we are operating a fully compliant program. Um state, federal, and local regulations shape how we operate our program, and we take that into consideration as a way of making sure that um we don't end up having to pay back any funds to the state at a later date if we're found to be out of compliance. But we also see um a new regulation on this uh landscape is the Edible Food Recovery Act. And so this is really
086around making sure that we're not throwing out good usable food. And so on days when we do have leftover meals, we are really grateful to parent volunteers, the parent sustainability group um for Belmont Redwood Shores as well um and Peninsula Food Runners because they'll often take donations to Samaritan House and other community organizations. We're really excited excited to share that since switching to lunch masters, we've seen a lot more participation in our meals program across all schools, which um we we really were just astounded by the increase in participation. And one of the statistics that really sticks out to me is that we're also um serving a greater portion of students who do qualify for free and reduced price meals. Even though breakfast is breakfast and lunch are offered to all students um at no
087cost, we still um find it really valuable to be uh helping students access free and reduced price meals benefits because it can unlock other opportunities both inside the district and outside the district. Um and we're really excited to see that um that population in particular has been eating more, especially lunch at our sites this year. As a whole, we have around 11% of students in our district who qualify for free or reducedpric meals. And over the last four years, we've seen this slightly increase over time because uh free and reduced price meals benefits unlocks things like extended learning opportunities program that the district operates with free after-school programming for these students. Uh we're really excited that we've launched an online application system so that families can continue to submit paper applications or they can apply
088online. Um which has also allowed us to offer the application in more languages for families. Along with that, as much as it's wonderful, we're serving great uh more meals, we've experienced some operational challenges just um because we couldn't have anticipated how folks how excited folks were um for the beautiful lunches that we're getting from lunch masters. So, uh we were able to use state grant funds to purchase uh more refrigerators um which has helped because we're also offering refrigerated milk this year, which students tend to say they prefer the taste of. Um, and then we've also been in conversations with the union about how to potentially permanently explore um, longer shifts for our nutrition clerks given that there is more food that needs to be packed for breakfast and more food that needs to be
089reheated every day. Um, as well as for compliance reasons, we're calculating numbers of leftovers and our nutrition clerks are really thoughtful about making sure that they're ordering what students like um, in the quantities that that will meet demand. Looking ahead, we're really excited to continue um collaborating with lunch masters um on the program and then as well as with the parent sustainability group um who's been really involved in also thinking about other parts of our meals program such as um what happens with the wrapping that is associated with our meals. Um, and I think one opportunity uh that we welcome parent feedback, um, we always welcome parent feedback, but there will be a new district wellness committee meeting in early in 2026, and that will be another opportunity for folks to join over Zoom to
090share more feedback on the new meals provider and the program as a whole. And then lastly, I think it's important to just recognize that we're continuing to evaluate the feasibility of a central kitchen. um something that we know has been put forth as part of the facilities master plan and I think um it's promising to see the increased participation with lunch lunch masters this year but we've also been reaching out and making connections with folks operating meals programs at other local districts to understand how they're operating um their meals programs um and seeing what we can learn from them as we continue to explore the feasibility of a potential kitchen. Um, all in all, just want to reiterate that if you have anything to take away from today, we're operating a compliant program, but beyond
091that, we're really um offering meals to students every day that they're excited about. And it's really wonderful to visit sites and to hear from students and from staff how much more um students are participating in our meals program this year. So just appreciate everyone in here um especially those members who were able to participate in our uh food taste test that helped us select um lunch masters as our um current meals providers. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Then maybe questions comments. >> Yeah, I had I had a comment. Does anyone have questions first? Do you want me to go first? I always have a question. I'm sorry. Um I I know this is you mentioned that you're working with the parent sustainability group and they had been talking I don't know in the
092background of my WhatsApp. It's in the background about like milk and is there a way to to get milk out of the cartons and into like a you know like a you know like a little >> milk dispenser milk dispenser thingies, right? to save to save on packaging and all that stuff. I was just wondering has there have they brought that up? Have they talked about that? Like >> yes, we have been exploring that. I think um one of the constraints right now is our facilities. So not even all of our sites have um three compartment sinks, which are some of the requirements that go with once you have a milk dispenser, you need ways to give out the milk. So, you either have to use disposable cups or um have reusable ones that you
093can dishwash yourselves. And so, right now um I think it would really just be displacing some of the waste rather than it being the milk. Um we would still be dealing with paper cups until we had had dishwashing facilities that could help us put that into action. So, we're continuing to evaluate it. It's just one of those things that right now we don't really have the physical facilities for until we have more sink capacity. >> Thank you. >> I I'll go. Um thank you so much. That was a really uh great presentation. Well thought out. Thought it was very um very clear. Um I I have a a comment first. So, I have a a special needs student who is now in kindergarten and he had a ton of difficulty around food and sensory with
094issues with food and didn't eat a lot and um it was a little bit concerning for us as parents. And once he got into the school system and was eating his breakfast and lunch at school um around his peers and his friends, he really just started um opening up and just deciding he wanted to try new foods and getting excited to eat food. And um he's now at the point that he like can come home and tell me what he ate for lunch at school. So um you know just wanted to share it's it's important to have these things not just for um you know it is obviously important to have it for for people who need it like uh you know uh low-income families who need that but I think it's also important to
095have the option for other kids who maybe are struggling with you know eating at home or whatever. Um so anyway just wanted to share that. Um looking at the graphs I I just find it interesting. I I love that there's, you know, a lot more people are eating. I think that's great. I'm super interested if something happened at Rston. Um because there's just like a huge uh you know spike there is is there any reason do you think? Okay. >> A great observation and first I want to say I really appreciate your comment. Um I it's great to hear how it impacts different families and I really appreciate that. Another way that I've also heard um it impacting our families in the district is uh single parents who especially don't know if they can rely
096on um when a lunch is being packed for their student. And so I just really appreciate you drawing out that yes, we approach the meals program with an equity lens, but we also really appreciate that it can support families and students in other ways. Thank you on that. And then yes, to the point about Rston, one of the pieces of feedback we heard a lot from staff and students last year was just that the serving sizes with the last provider were not significant enough for a middle schooler. And so that was one of the reasons when we shaped the RFP um we included on our taste test meals specifically to see what the serving sizes would be. And so we've just been really excited that Lunch Masters offers larger serving sizes that um tend to
097be more appropriate. I think some of the feedback anecdotally for the middle schoolers was why bother before and now it's like oh I can actually plan on coming to lunch and having that meal. >> That's great. Thank you for sharing that. >> So thank you again. This was great. Anecdotally, I hear from my kids who uh who love Lunch Master. They're so happy with back. I thought the stats could have been reaffirmed by my son Ryan who's a sixth grader that maybe he's just eating three lunches. But I'm not really sure. Although I do know that he's come back even from day one and said it's really tasty. Like they're really happy for the change. Um so with the operational uh challenges would you say so you mentioned one of the the pain points just
098in terms of you know coming up with the the physical equipment to kind of support uh what we really were hoping for right more meals. But is there anything that um can you talk a little bit about what Lunchmaster is doing well this iterate this round versus maybe a few years ago when we tried them? And is there any other pain points that you just want to bring to our attention for us to consider? >> That is a great question. Thank you. I will say I was not here last time we had lunch masters, but I think one of the things I've heard that's contributing to their success is that they've opened a larger oper uh uh operation. So now they used to be based in San Carlos, which was slightly closer to us, but
099they have much more capacity at their new warehouse in Hayward, which is still relatively close to us. >> Um, and so I think with that, we've been able to see that they just have the they have the experience and operations to um meet the demand that our district is is making. And to the piece about feedback on Lunchmasters, um I I I think one thing to note is that uh Lunchmasters was recent recently um acquired and so it is under new leadership that we've been able to meet with um and they've been really receptive to the feedback both under uh the former and current leadership. And so I think that's one of the things where it's just a little bit of it's too early to tell. Um but I think we are optimistic that we
100will continue to have um great partnership with lunch masters. I think one of the pieces of feedback that we pay attention to is around um we would love more diverse and healthier breakfast options. Um and I think that is just something that we've we've been honest with lunch masters about. Um we would be excited for them to offer moving forward. And is there any other pain points um that maybe is still kind of ongoing? >> Not operationally with lunch masters. I think um opportun any opportunities to just um formalize some of our kitchens right now just because our our nutrition clerks make it work the way it is. But we do have ovens and refrigerators out in our multi-use facilities rather than in an enclosed kitchen just because um I know that not all sites
101have had that um facility space to support it. So I think that would just be really helpful to our nutrition clerks in terms of um giving them more support um because they they're able to make a lot work um with the resources they have. But I think that could help bring it to the next level. >> If I may add very quickly, um, one of the the challenges of working with Lunch Masters per se versus our previous vendor is given that they serve a lot more districts than our prior vendor, they are a little less flexible perhaps in the past than we may have been used to. Um, for example, one of the the thing the one of the feedback that we received earlier in the year is that some of the the cereal that
102they were serving was a little too sugary, right? >> Um, and only recently they've been kind of able to help us change that a little bit. Uh, sourcing maybe a different cereal, but in the beginning it's hard because that's the cereal they have for every single district that they serve. So until kind of the resounding voices of all of their clients start saying, "Well, this is way too sugary." It's hard for them necessarily necessarily to change just for us. Um, you know, the other thing that we think about is, you know, we we meet with the sustainability groups across the district and I think they're always looking for better containers that are, you know, compostable um or more easily turned into something else, right? Uh and unfortunately even though we have brought that up multiple
103times, you know, it's kind of on them and until more people, you know, they're hearing it from multiple people, but until it kind of reaches um kind of a tipping point of all the districts that they serve asking for it, it's hard for us really to, you know, get the ball moving on some of those fronts. So um while we are really happy with a lot of the uh consistency and um you know some of the organizational you know economies of scale out there >> um definitely some of those you know the ability to change quickly on things that you know we identify is a little bit slower. >> Thank you. The um the last question I had was on the nutrition clerks. I think it's great to be able to extend their hours and
104that they were willing to do it. what what was their kind of what were their hours before and and what what's the extension to like what's their shift? >> So their current hours this is still sort of in negotiation but um their current hours were five hours and um sort of tracking it several points throughout the beginning of the school year. We just recognized it was not enough especially since this year um nutrition clerks are packing breakfast um versus before lunch master or chefables would be um prepackaging it for us. So um the shift would go up an hour and a half in total and uh really we see that the nutrition clerks need another hour but by requirement after working five hours you also are entitled to a 30 minute lunch and so that
105was is where we are hoping the conversation will go. >> So so it hasn't happened yet but you're hoping you're kind of in talks >> on ongoing >> an ongoing basis paying nutrition clerks for the work that they're doing. It's fluctuating, but in order to just formalize it permanently, that's where it hasn't been formalized. >> Great. Thank you for all your hard work. Thank you. >> Um, on your goals, uh, on the goals slide, uh, you mentioned, um, one of your goals be to dstigmatize free meals. Um, I don't know if you have like is it is that kind of a testimonial goal or is there data like have you asked and has it worked? I appreciate it. I think it's more aspirational. I think anecdotally uh we've been extrapolating from just seeing increased participation
106at all of the sites that we see that as an indicator that we are sort of making progress there um as everyone is more excited to participate this year. >> Yeah. >> Um thank you. And then uh I just I can't wrap my head around on slide eight. Yeah. I'm just curious why you think that exist that why is that >> the same thing maybe like is that the proof? >> Uh yes I think this is part of it. We did expect that uh lunch would be the biggest jump. Um right >> I think >> uh sorry will you repeat your question? >> Say Reese might have an answer before I >> repeat I I think I can answer this one. So um regardless so we so first of all the breakfast from our previous
107vendor were actually pretty good. That was the feedback that we're receiving and breakfasts are served every day in the classroom to all students. So >> as part of the whole destigmatizing you know part of this >> because we're serving breakfast to everyone at the same time. >> That hasn't changed. As long as the breakfasts are within the same realm of tastiness if you will right those kids are going to eat. Um but the big change uh at least from the feedback we received during the initial tastings and even now when we walk through the school sites are the lunches are a lot more tastier. You know enough food. So that's very likely why most of it is happening with lunch and not necessarily with breakfast. >> Gotcha. I just I think my my understanding of
108free and reduced priced meals or or like that population is that like that is the group that would eat free lunch. And I think what you're saying is that last year less of them were because it didn't taste as good. >> So the way it works is we have to provide a meal for every student that wants it and we get reimbursed different rates depending on their their levels, >> right? So, it's not necessarily that um per say we like a student says, "Oh, I I get a free lunch kind of thing." It's they choose whether or not they would like to take a lunch and then we get reimbursed to the point where the meal is essentially free, >> if that makes sense. >> And so, ultimately, it's up to this the students choice
109if they would like to take the lunch or not. >> Right. So, the tastier the option is, the more likely they are to take. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. That's it. Thank you. >> So, I'm just going to share a little quick story you've heard about three or four times tonight about the power going out. Uh, it happened on Monday all day at Fox and on Monday at three other sites as well. Um, but in the morning when we hear powers out, we go into kind of a little bit of scramble mode because lunches are arriving, ovens are getting fired up, we're putting meals, getting them ready to serve, right? Right. As school's starting, right? So, um, Katherine is always that first line of defense, um, in touch with our vendor, making sure that our
110meals, our delivery routes are being adjusted or whatever we need to do to make it happen. Whether that's moving cold meals from one site to another, or making sure that we have Papa John's pizza in an emergency, uh, where kids are going to eat, um, that's what she's troubleshooting in the morning. So, uh, goes a lot far and beyond, uh, by what you see here. Um, and just thank you to Katherine for all your work and organization and um, effort to make sure that our program is successful. >> And if I may have the very very last last last word here. Um, you know, again, thank you very much to Katherine. A huge shout out to all of our nutrition clerk staff. Again, it is very often a thankless job. You know, that's it's a
111lot of lifting. It's a lot of moving. They're on their feet for pretty much all the day. Um, so if you ever see one of them, please tell them thank you for all of their hard work. It really is a labor of love and we are really privileged that our nut clerks a care so much about our kids. We even had a nut clerk who was peeling oranges, for example, even during the small amounts of off time that she had to make sure that kids didn't have to peel the oranges for themselves, right? Like that's how thoughtful they are. >> Um, and very lastly, I'd also like to thank our our school staff as well. You know, we've been to all the the lunchlines. We see the teachers who help guide the kids through, you
112know, for the younger grades, if they have the little cards, we see the teachers help them get their cards and get in line and tell them, "Oh, make sure you scan, make sure you're taking this." So, um, again, it's a little bit of a part of all of us. And I just like to make sure that we appropriately thank everyone for all their efforts across the district. >> All right. Um we heard a bit about the debriefs earlier. We're at item 15 starting with the 2 by two. Um Superintendent Duara. >> Yes. Uh so the next two items are the 2 by 2 uh debrief with Sequoia and BRSSD. Uh we were happy to to meet with Sequoia uh was it last week? Everything's um blending together. Uh, Trustee Northrup was part of that and
113Trustee CS U was part of that. Uh, Trustee CS, I think you talked a little bit, but do you want to go ahead and kick off that conversation and update for the board? >> Yeah, it was it was my first one. It was really very interesting to see how what some of the issues uh points were from the high school perspective. I think um one of the interesting things that they brought up and just wanted to kind of check alignment with us was use of of AI and if that was kind of being used and in what places um you know that digital AI experience um among our students and among our staff and teachers and so it was kind of a very interest they also kind of think through what that could mean in
114a high school setting. So I think that was very interesting. Um and I was just also asking them a question around the IB because Sequoia has an IB high school and I wanted to to see like what you know what that experience was was like and if it's been you know wellreceived at the high school level as much as it has for for Nesbbit at the middle school level. And it was interesting because uh she you know it wasn't um correct it wasn't a cohort. It was a they kind they they called it a a special like a >> a school is a school. >> Yeah. >> For the IB. Yeah. >> Yeah. Anyway, it was a very good back and forth and I really appreciated um the conversation and kind of again just making
115sure that that we set up our students for success so that they can thrive in whatever high school environment they pick. >> Item 16 by two. Uh so for our 2 by 2 by two debrief uh uh CBO Matsumoto actually subbed in for myself. Uh we had trustee CS and trustee Deng. Uh so I'll turn it over to you guys. >> I'm happy to go. Um so for additional context um to those who don't know the 2x2 x2 as trusty cost mentioned earlier is between us uh city of Belmont city of redwood city which is a fun tongue twister um and also the Belmont Police Department. Um so it's really a two by two by two by one. Uh we meet quarterly every few months uh in order to talk about what is top of
116mind, what's happening in each of our respective communities. Um, city of Belmont again brought up their centennial. Um, they're also uh bringing up some of the the transportation um things that they're thinking about um in terms of traffic. Uh, city of Redwood City is talking about um any potential uh residential upgrades happening um in kind of that San Carlos Belmont corridor area as well. Um so we had a quick discussion about that. the district um talked about uh our bond projects um where we're going with that as well. Um the main takeaway from all of this is this meeting is a really good place for all of the individual parties to see if there are ways that maybe we can help each other, right? Um ultimately we're in this together and given our unique situation
117that we straddle two different cities, it's really helpful to have all of us in the same room. um we're all working on different things all day long. So, it's nice to take a little bit of a breather and see, oh, very helpful that you're doing this, this actually affects us in this way, or you know, you're doing this, maybe we can help in in XYZ way. So, um Trusty Dan, Trusty Cost, anything to add? >> Um just one thing to add. Um I know in the past there was a little bit of difficulty getting that 2x2 by two on the on the calendar. Um, and it was actually verbalized in the room by several people that they appreciated having a regular cadence set. Um, so I thought that was really good to hear that hopefully
118we won't have trouble scheduling those meetings in the future. Um and it was just it's great to come together with other leaders in our community and hear that they are also interested and um you know they think that the school district is really important and so they want to work closely with us when they're doing things that will affect the school district and then of course when we are doing things we will also you know want to involve them but hearing that from them is um I think a big win for us. Thank you. Uh item 17, um communication information on board organization meetings. >> Yes. Uh this item is simply that uh a notification to our community that our board our annual board organizational meeting will be held on December 11th, 2025. Uh that's
119when we uh renew all of our commitments, shift uh leadership roles in the board for the upcoming year. Uh while some boards um elect their next president, vice president and and such, um our board has a tradition of um moving everybody up one seat. So literally everybody will assuming the board approves that uh will shift uh one seat uh to their left uh and we'll um reorganize our board so to speak. So that will happen on December 11th. >> All in favor? >> Not before Jackie to sit next to Reese. >> All right. Uh item 18, future board meeting agenda items. >> Uh yeah, future board meeting agendas. Uh next one is like I said, December 11th, that's our organizational meeting. Uh we anticipate a couple of big things happening there. Uh one is uh
120hopefully the adoption of the 2627 calendar. Uh will happen at that meeting. Uh our teams are working on it. Sequoia just adopted theirs. Uh we'll take their calendar and um work around that since our families metriculate into Sequoia. uh we'll have board uh recognition reorganization uh and we will be presenting as the big item our middle school survey results from the survey that we did. Um I want to take a moment to um also acknowledge that in January we'll have two meetings special board meetings um uh um town halls uh for listening sessions. We'll do a little bit of an overview of the survey results again at each of those meetings, some of our rationale for why we're looking into uh potential shifts at the middle school level um and and start those conversations with
121our community. Um January 15th is our regular board meeting. Uh spotlight will be NESBIT uh strategic plan update. We'll pick an element there. um measure I and P bond oversight committee um as well as more board policy for street um and uh that's that >> questions comments concerns. So >> listening session town hall is right now for January 8th and January 21st. >> Uh that is correct. Um I did have a request to look at one of those dates um one more time. So I am going to do that. Um uh yeah. So yes and okay >> we're going to look at a couple options. >> All right. On that note we are not reconvening to close. I'm going to call this meeting to end at 8:02.