001meeting to order. It's 6:05 04. Um, sorry we're a couple minutes late here. Um, oh, thank you. So uh we are we do have a report um on close session and that that is a student matter. Um our close session item was student discipline and other confidential matters education section um and 48915B2. The board action on a motion by trustee hirs and seconded by trustee Miselli to approve stack staff recommendation of expulsion of student number 25-034 by the following vote eyes three nos one sorry oh one absent Sorry. Oh, and I thought I had it all down. Okay, so um this meeting is recorded for live streaming and archiving on the district YouTube channel. Um uh Mr. Slater, would you like to lead us in the pledge, please? I aliance to the flag of the
002United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mr. Slater. So we come to um item nine item seven approval of the agenda. I move that we approve the agenda as written. I'll second. All those in favor? I I. Any opposed? And tonight we are going to highlight our board members. Dr. Wright. All right. Good evening. We have three outstanding student representatives uh from Liberty High School and Benicia High School who served as our student uh representatives throughout this school year. And we just want to thank you for your dedication and your commitment to working with us. I've got to tell you, you've all been excellent. Uh I look forward to your reports. You keep this up to date,
003help us make decisions on behalf of our students in the district, and uh it's just been a pleasure working with the three of you. and I'm sure you're going to move on and do some outstanding things um post high school. And um as on behalf of the school board, we would like to recognize you with some certificates and we'll take a picture. So, thank you. Oh, thanks. I want to thank Victoria Blackman, Bella Cannon, and Isabella Reteria. [Applause] Are we standing? Everybody. Thank you. Good evening, President Grubs, Superintendent Dr. Wright, fellow trustees and cabinet members. Last week, Liberty High School welcomed representatives from the Salano County District Attorney's Office for an important assembly focus on student safety. They shared valuable information about the dangers of fentanyl and the serious risk of impaired driving. Speakers included
004members of the district attorney's team, a deputy district attorney, the California Highway Patrol, Benicia and Vakavville Police Departments, in the Solano Crime Lab. These professionals answered students questions and offered real life perspectives to help us better understand how to make safe and responsible choices. Yesterday, Mr. Lobo took students to the USS Hornet and Alamita. Students were able to explore various areas of the ship, including the flight deck, engine room, and bridge, learning about its history, naval technology, and its role in the Apollo missions. We are starting to enroll students to Solano Community College summer and fall classes. The most popular classes are art, welding, and life planning. We are now gearing up for the graduation. We are proud that we have had over 18 early graduates this year, and nearly all of them are returning
005to participate in the ceremony. Finally, we want to give a shout out to BHS for putting on such a wonderful prom in spite of the drizzly weather. Several Liberty students attended and they had a great time. On behalf of Liberty High School, thank you. [Music] Okay. Good evening, President Grubs and fellow trustee members. Last week, leadership worked on planning events such as the winter rally, um the senior banquet, and Panther Bowl. Last Saturday was prom, and this year it was hosted at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco with the theme being Royal Sakura. Um it received a lot of high praise. Um, last Wednesday was the start of signups for the Panther Bowl and um, on Fridays there was the boys signup and then the BHS swim team had their senior night. Also last
006week was the DUI court that the senior class attended. Um, it was a an um, it was a real court it was a real court case that the um that the seniors had to attend. Um, this week leadership has been working on planning many upcoming events. Last night was the um, senior versus staff basketball game. And then tonight the boys volleyball team has their senior night. And then in the upcoming weeks there will be the Panther Bowl game which I personally will be participating in. So wish me luck for that. Um the girls will be playing football and the boys will be cheerleading. So that's going to be very exciting. It's fun. I'm just very scared as I'm very clumsy. So thank you. I hope so. And then leadership is continuing to plan staff appreciation.
007We're doing some different things this year, which I won't reveal yet just because it's going to be a surprise. The step down rally and fair will week are coming up. So we're continuing to plan those. And then next week is AP testing. So students are studying really hard as the next two weeks, excuse me, will be AP testing. So and then next Friday, the senior class will be having taking a day trip to Great America on behalf of Benishia High School. Thank you. All right. Good evening. I want to start my report by congratulating Benicia High School and Liberty High School. We talked about the Wasque visits. They both uh earned a six-year accreditation with no visit. Um it's extremely challenging to get and I think that's a reflection of their leadership. um it's a
008reflection of their staff and their students all following that plan, taking a look at some of those recommendations and implementing them. And um I want to thank again Brianna Kleinmid, um Kim Lewis, and also Iona Morgan and staff for their hard work and dedication being through some of those was visits. It's a grueling process, and to come out with a sixth year with no visit is outstanding, and it's a reflection of the great work that we're doing in this district. I want to thank um Valero um our crossing guards. Let's start with our crossing guards. They you could drive by the school sites in the rain, sleet, snow, and they're out there smiling, getting our students crossing the street safely, and I think Valero recognizes that. Um they have donated $400, $40 of uh Benicia
009dollars for each crossing guard to spend downtown. So, um, we want to thank our crossing guards, but we also want to thank Valero for their generosity, um, in recognizing them. Liberty High School, um, just last weekend, we had an opportunity to celebrate Liberty High School, um, on a USS Midway for Model Continuation High School. Um, excellent event and again, it was just nice to be able to celebrate their greatness. Um, thank Kim Lewis again. uh they have an outstanding volunteer program and their learning through interest program is being recognized and uh I'm sure that they're going to continue in an upward trajectory. We have some observances this month. Uh I want to start off with our school principles who are here today. Um it's happy school principles day. Thank you for all the hard work
010that you do to run your school communities. We really appreciate you and we understand that U Benicia Unified School District would not be where we were without where we are without you. Um the first full week of May is teacher appreciation week and again same thing. We thank our teachers doing classroom walkthroughs and seeing the great work that our teachers are doing with our students and the learning that's taking place. It's invaluable and uh we will be celebrating all staff on May 7th um with some treats. uh more information to come out um shortly. Um the second week of May is National Nurses Week. We have an outstanding nurse here in our district, Michelle DLO, who manages seven school sites. Um she does an excellent job and we're going to acknowledge her. Third week of
011May is National Women's Health uh week. And uh last uh Monday in May is Memorial Day. And I think I skipped something. Second Sunday in May is Mother's Day. How can I skip Mother's Day? Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, um, everyone that's playing that role. So, u, we do want to thank all of our mothers for all the great work that they do and in in help raising our our children. And the month of May is mental health awareness month. Um, I think I mentioned women's uh, health month. It's AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Jewish American Heritage Month as well. So, um, we honor, we recognize, and that concludes my report. Now we come to board reports. Okay. Um I had the opportunity to attend the fourth and fifth
012grade um band concert. So a huge shout out to to Mr. G for for inspiring those kids. And I hope a lot of many of those fifth graders uh go to the middle school and participate in band. Um and the Henderson harmonizers also performed. Um, so shout out to to Mr. Stamps for leading that group. And I just want to acknowledge it was great to see Principal Fleming and Principal Slater and thanks to Principal Slater for hosting at Matthew Turner. That was really great. Um, always wonderful to see a room an NPR full of participants all across the all across the town. Um, and then I participated as a parent volunteer at the Joe Henderson fourth grade um outdoor ed trip to Col. That was a two-day, one night um trip which was really fun.
013Um over 80 students um participated and it was just it was educational. It was the kids paid attention. The kids were really engaged um and I many of the adults were as well which is really fun and exciting. So um a shout out to Miss Harms, Mr. Stamps, and Miss Miss Ala Shields for leading that effort. Yep. Okay. Um, I attended the BMS Viking Runathon and I'm very pleased to say that they met their they exceeded their goal. They didn't just meet it, they exceeded it. Um, and all of that money will go towards books and classrooms and and different items that the school needs. Um, I also was fortunate enough to attend the AP research presentation with Mrs. Thompson's AP research class and this was an opportunity for students to speak about their research
014projects and um there were 20-minute speeches that that's a difficult class. The students have spent all year researching a topic, writing a paper on the topic and then they deliver a presentation and I learned about everything from alipcia to water bottles to um Disney princesses. So, it's fascinating. There was a lot there was a lot there. Um, I was very impressed. Uh, and then last but definitely not least, I spent the last five days as a chaperone on the BMS band Disneyland trip. I'm very tired, but it was very, very worth it. We went down to Disneyland. The the band marched down Main Street on Saturday. They had the rest of the of the day in the park. The It was so It was so amazing. It was just so cool to see the Benanishia,
015the color guard, come out with the Benicia letters. And I will send out some pictures that maybe we can put on the website or something. Um, I want to just thank the band director, Paul Hannah. He's a terrific teacher. Um, he's he was in a great mood the whole time. I don't know how he did it. Uh, he was so fun and funny. And the BMS Viking music boosters for organizing the trip, which was a huge effort. We had 90 students on the trip. We had parent chaperones. Um, and it didn't just end with Disneyland. On the third day there, Mr. Hannah has a friend at Torrance. Um, there's a a Jefferson Middle School in Torrance and we went over to Jefferson. The two bands played for each other and then the bands played together
016because they had been practicing the same song. And then we drove back across town and we went to CSU Fullerton and toured the music department there. And then we saw a pirate show. So it was a it was very it was very very fun, memorable trip. So thank you to everybody. It was great. Oh, that sounds awesome. I don't have anything to um it's been such a busy two weeks and I have nothing to report. So we'll go on to publics from uh comments from the public. Um, Miss Martinez, do we have any? Oh, yes. All functions of the board meeting, including public comments, will take place in person. Members of the public may address the board at regular meeting or on any item within the board's jurisdiction. Speaker cards are available on the entrance
017table. Please note the item you wish to speak to and submit a card to the board secretary. The board president will call all the open session general comments government code section 54954.3 during the public comment items. Comments for items on the agenda will be called out during that specific item. Comments are limited to no more than three minutes per speaker or the board may limit the total time to 20 minutes per item with the timer displayed on the monitors. By law, no action may be taken on any item raised during public comment periods and matters may be referred to staff for placement on a future agenda of the governing board. Please be reminded to keep your comments respectful as students may be watching the board meeting. Thank you. So now we come to um item
018level 11 approval of of the uh consent calendar and background information on these items is provided to the board prior to the meeting. A common motion takes action without discussion on roll call votes unless discussion of items is requested by the board members. So, I move that we approve the consent calendar as written. I'll second. This is a roll call vote. So, President Grubs, yes. Trusty Hirsch, yes. Trusty Melli, yes. Yes. And so t tonight um we want to acknowledge an just an incredible uh gift to the district um football uh equipment from for the Benicia High School football team with an estimated value of $40,000 from UC Berkeley uh football program as listed on the attached document. And and I just want to say to um UC Berkeley football that we so appreciate this
019extraordinary gift. Um the kids will will really benefit from your generosity and so we uh sincerely thank you for this wonderful gift. And then we have let's see do we do do I go to G? We have a resolution res. So, um item G, uh approval of resolution number 24-25-32, declaration of obsolete books from Matthew Turner Elementary. Can we have a first? Actually, that's the same. Um Oh, is it the same? Second. So, we just need a roll call. So, President Grebs, yes. Trusty Hirs, yes. Trusty Miselli, yes. And Trusty Manasi, yes. Thank you. And I think um I have to say how surprising I am that under item 12 we have no presentations first time. So we will go on to um item 13 and action items. Um uh Miss Egan you are up.
020Good evening. Um, tonight we have before you is a it's a resolution to adopt a actually it's a public hearing to um declare the I'm sorry to convey the temporary easement for the Mary Farmer Elementary School um pedestrian bridge to the city of Benicia. So this is you previously approved a permanent easement just in the vicinity of the pier and this is a larger area that allows them a temporary easement to build the bridge. So um the recommended motion is to approve the easement so that the city can replace the Mary Farmer pedestrian bridge. Is there a motion or questions? Are there questions? Move that we approve resolution 24-25-34. I'll second. Was a second. I'm sorry. And this is a resolution. So, roll call. President Gross. Yes. Trusty Hirs. Yes. Trusty Melli. Yes. And Trusty
021Manasi. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And then we come to item B. Uh Dr. Jennings. Yes. Um good evening, President Grubs, board of trustees, and the Benicia community. for your consideration and approval is resolution number 242535, the final classified layoff resolution due to lack of work and/or lack of funds for the 2526 school year. Um we recommend approval of this item. This is the second part of what um action you took in February. And is there a motion? I'll make a motion that we approve resolution number 242535. I'll second that. President Gres. Yes. Trusty Hirs. Yes. Trusty Miselli. Yes. Trusty Manoski. Yes. And consideration of resolution number 24-25-20 36. Sorry. Dr. Jenny. Thank you. Good evening again. um for your consideration is the resolution as um President Grubs mentioned 20 number 242536 the
022final certificate layoff resolution and we recommend approval of this item. It is the again the second part of the layoff process that started in February. Is there a motion? I move that we approve resolution 24-25-36. I'll second. President Gross. Yes. It's a roll call. Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Mr. Melli. Yes. And trust. And we come to item E. Consideration and approval of the school plans for student achievement. Oh, sorry. Did I skip it? Sorry. D. Um consideration approval of memorandum of understanding for Benia Middle School advisory. Again, Dr. Jennings. Good evening. Again, this uh MLOU between the Benicia teachers association and the Venetian Unified School District clarifies the expectations um and responsibilities during advisory period at the middle school. Um the advisory period provides uh extra support for students um and gives time
023for counselors and other support personnel to work with students. And again, we recommend the approval of this item. Motion. I'll make a motion that we approve the memorandum of understanding for Venetian Middle School Advisory. I'll second. All those in favor? I. Any oppose? Thank you. And then item E, consideration and approval of the school plans for student achievement. Dr. Beatson. Good evening, President Grubs and board trustees. Uh, it is my great pleasure to bring to you tonight our um school plans for student achievement. Each year, each of our school sites writes a plan that have goals and metrics and actions based on our California dashboard and our local uh metric indicators. And these are the steering documents, if you will, that will lead them through the work next year. So, the plan that we're um
024bringing before you tonight would be for next school year. And this is something that we do each year. And so, um let's turn this on. Here we go. Um the the development process is really focusing on raising student achievement and mental health uh for all students. They are in consistent formats. It is um the format that we need to use for the state. But you will also find very consistent language across all seven of our sites. It's something that we've been working on and they're very much in alignment with our LCAP. Uh so the LCAP comes out, they know where the goals are are heading and they build their plans based on that, but personalize them based on their own data and their own needs. Um they're developed jointly with their site councils. That's one
025of the main functions of a school site council and their staff. One of the things that you will notice as our principles get up to share their slide um is that I've asked them to pick one area and one um high lever strategy to focus on instead of going through uh the entire plan with you. You all of the entire plans are attached for your review. Um, so they're going to work on that and you will also hear a lot of alignment because the work is in those same areas that we're working on as a district and that's a really good thing. So, um the other uh thing to consider that has to be called out in these uh school plans is um any schools that are identified for additional targeted support and improvement which
026is ATSI. That is the federal program improvement if you will or TSI. So, as a district, we get into differentiated assistance. I've brought that to you before. That's the state level. the federal level does the school level which is ATSI or TSI. In previous years, we've had four or five schools in this and um I'm pleased to say with the hard work of our site leaders and our staff, most schools have moved through that and even if they haven't, so we have two schools that are still in ATSI, they've made significant improvement. Okay, so that's what this is. Um, and so with that, I would like to call up our principles if you want to just kind of line up. And I've asked them to keep it relatively brief, but we can expand on any
027parts that you have questions about. Okay. So, I think Mrs. Moore from Robert Simple is going to kick us off. It's a little floppy. Good evening, distinguished um, district folks. President CC Grubs. Good evening, distinguished district dignitaries. President Grubs, trustees, Georgina. At the elementary level, the single plans for student achievement focus on four key goals: ELA, math, social emotional learning, and equity. Each elementary principal, as you learned, um will share highlights from one goal. Um Kathy Balante will speak on equity. Steve Phillips will speak on SEAL. Rhonda will cover uh or report on math and I'll begin with ELA. At Simple, we're excited to share that our data shows meaningful growth in the number of students meeting or exceeding ELA standards. As we reflect, we always ask, what do we do when students get it
028and what do we do when they don't? When they get it, we keep doing what works. using our curriculum with fidelity, differentiating for learners who need challenge or support, and continuing to use data to guide our instruction. When they don't, we turn to our high lever strategies. One of those is our continued focused on first best instructional practices, specifically setting targeted class goals and supporting students in setting setting and managing their own goals. We found that this empowers the students to take ownership of their learning, celebrating success or learning how to adjust when needed. It builds self- advocacy and strengthens the studenttoteer partnership. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development notes that around 20% of students experience significant reading difficulties. I'd like to highlight a promising trend. Since implementing our new ELA curriculum,
029we've reduced the number of students in reading intervention from 84 at the beginning of the year to 74 now. And that's just 14% of our population below the 20% average. what our teachers are doing is working and we're proud of the progress our students are making and look forward to their continued growth and achievement. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good evening board. Uh our superintendent Dr. Wright Trustee uh President Grubs and uh our cabinet members. As Mrs. Moore shared, I will be talking about our our site's mass goal. Uh, all of our sites are aligned. This past year, we've delved really deep into analyzing student data, not going off of our opinions, but really listening to student voice and what they're showing us that they understand and what they don't. Uh our site has
030also focused on purposeful academic conversations as a part of a problem of practice that we've approached it through that lens this year of looking at how does deepening and creating more intentional not random opportunities for academic conversations. How does that deepen student learning and engagement? And we've also focused on students being a part of goal setting. So for the 2526 school year, we don't throw that away and start with something new. It's about how do we go deeper with that work to improve the outcomes as we continue to work towards each and every student uh meeting those goals. You can see the percentages uh of where we are where how many students that were met and exceeded standard. But our continuous goal is for each and every uh so I just want to share that
031this year with uh looking at student data our teachers have worked really hard. Uh we've looked at a lot of NWA data throughout the school year for math where we look at who's meeting the benchmarks and who's not. That's just as important. It's not just about this is the number of students who is. what do we know about those students and what are they doing that are students that have not yet meet uh meet met those benchmarks. So really unpacking that data and coming up with intentional uh next steps. And the the piece that I'm really proud of is that our teachers have brought our students into a part of that process. They are supposed to be the drivers of their own learning. So setting goals with them and letting them be a partner in
032their own learning. And I've seen our teachers this year share the different ways that they have been doing that. And that's a real positive impact to me that we as the educators are the chief learners in the building and sharing the practices that are actually moving our students forward. uh I've had a chance to visit classrooms where students have made really tremendous growth in growth and achievement because both are important and some of the feedback from our students in those classrooms have been that having opportunities for extra practice including using our imagine math uh being able to work through uh problems with their partners and also getting support from their teachers whether if it's in small group or onetoone one. So that's their voice. Uh in education, we always talk about it student being student
033driven. And so I really wanted to take a step this year to listen more to our students. Let us tell them what's actually moving them forward. Uh the last piece I'll talk about is you can see in my goal we've talked about intentional academic conversations and we have focused on that as a staff because our data for multilingual learners across many different areas shows a very clear need uh to create more equitable opportunities to improve the way that they are performing. It's not a gap that they have. It's a gap that we have in making sure we're creating those opportunities for them to use the language that is required to show mastery of grade level standards. And I see a shift with more students doing the talking in class and we know whoever is doing
034the talking is doing the learning. But the shift is really in them using the academic language. Not your basic survival language, but academic language. And that is key for multilingual learners. It's actually essential, but it's actually good for all students. If you can explain what you're thinking, you understand it. So our work next year is a deeper focus with these three areas to shift the outcomes and really create a more continue this growth with a collaborative culture amongst our staff of educators. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, President Grubs, our our board members, Superintendent Wright, our cabinet. Thank you for everything that you do. I'm here to speak about um our social emotional learning goals that we have and we were one of the schools in the orange in in one of those in our
035suspensions. And so hopefully this will cover some of um some of our imple implementation that we we've put in place. Um, one of our goals is, um, all students will fall within low yellow or very low green bands as measured on the California dashboard and suspension rates. Last year, our rate was at 2.6%. Um, and our goal is to get under 1% so far. Knock on wood. Um, we're there and we want to keep that going from now to the end of the year. Um, also with this goal, some of our datadriven tiered supports. Um, we're going to continue to maximize our MTSS tier 2 care team to monitor student progress and attendance. This has been um we got it going last year, really got into got it into gear this year, and it's exciting
036because it's continuing to expand. And one of the things we're going to do with this, so we were talk you know in in these meetings talking about um you know different behavior channel challenges some students academic and now we're going to tie in attendance and looking at our attendance reports instead of having uh you know just a meeting with office manager myself and then you know the other team we're going to kind of combine everything together and put it onto one u Google sheet. Um, we're going to use this data to drive tiered interventions with focus on student groups in the lowest performing categories on the California dashboard. And here are some of our supports for implementation. Uh, universal SEAL practices embedded schoolwide. Again, our class uh class meetings, our SEAL time in the morning,
037including our res uh restorative circles as well. Um, also tier two, tier two targeted supports are check-in, checkout. Um, I'm a big fan of that. Um, and that is where, you know, have a student that's experiencing some difficulty and they experience uh they check in uh with another staff member multiple times throughout the day to just kind of keep them on point. Um, and some of our restorative approaches to discipline. you know, our suspensions were up there pretty high the previous year and um you know, happy to say uh we've cut those significantly this year. And um some of the things that we're we're looking at is we've implemented the other means of of correction. And um you know, that's simply where you know, we're reflecting on specific action plans for students. uh you know,
038for example, um you know, apology letters helping in a younger grade classroom, uh community service align with the impact of their actions and not just picking up trash. Don't do that, but but things that can can impact their skills. And also one things you know we're finding is that instead of just me taking that on with with discipline is that you know having other staff members step in. It could be a previous teacher could be a teacher um you know in a grade coming up. We're we're approaching it in strength and numbers and we've we've made an impact. So um you know I'm really proud of our staff. So thank you everyone. Can I with these alternative ways outside are you seeing a change in the behavior? I mean are these alternative ways working to
039get the kids to change hair? Absolutely. And a lot of it way I look at it is um it's not just handing out discipline. It's improving the conduct. That's the out outcome that we want. Yeah. You want to teach them the proper way to learn. I just was wondering if it you know if those alternative uh consequences were changing the outcome feel it it does and and sometimes with students is it's a oneoff you know they do something and then we you can correct that it's when you see the pattern and you know frequent flyers yes pardon me frequent flyers the word yeah yeah and you know we you don't have too many but we work really hard um with with everyone to get that down but but Yes, it's been and we're going to
040continue to grow in that area. Thank you for the question. It's my first time. Good evening, President Grips, Dr. Wright, board members, and community members. As this is my first year in Benicia, I want to begin by expressing my gratitude for the opportunity to serve as principal at Joe Henderson Elementary. I'm really proud to be part of a district that not only deeply values its community and knows its community well, but also has a clear collective vision centered on equity and inclusivity. And this evening, I'd like to highlight our goal number four, which is equity and opportunity at Joe Henderson. This mirrors our district's commitment to ensuring all students, especially those historically underserved, have access to and feel included in every aspect of learning. Our approach at Joe Henderson focuses on two core areas: academics
041and a strong sense of belonging. So on the academic side this year uh teaching teams started to engage in datadriven instructional planning. Teachers collect and analyze student learning data together collaboratively collaboratively as a team to form targeted small groups based on student need. And this is a practice shown to effectively close achievement gaps. We're looking forward to continuing to strengthen this work next year and beyond. And in fact, next week there's a professional development supporting this work. And it's exciting that we have a team of teachers that will be joining me at that professional development opportunity. The second core area for equity and opportunity is fostering a sense of belonging. And across the campus, we're working on elevating student voice. This includes building school spirit. We actually unearthed a decades old school song and uh
042our students and staff have been learning the song this year and I was the one doing the teaching which um I am not a singer but we got there and we're still learning it. We had our student council design and develop a school cheer and I really believe that songs and cheers really bond communities together and really will bond us together as the hounds. We will continue increasing visibility of our student council and host studentled assemblies where students lead and learn from one another. We plan to create more of a collaboration with the PTG to support schoolwide diversity and inclusion efforts. And we will also be launching a homeschool survey through our school site council early next year to gather valuable family feedback. Uh so as you can see at Joe Henderson we have two
043big priorities as part of our equity goal and that's helping every student grow academically with the right support and making sure every child and family feels like they truly belong. Thank you. Thank you. So next is Benisha Middle School and Mr. Nelson could not be here this evening so I'm going to do a report for him. Um uh just as you heard at the elementary school, the middle school goals are also focused on sense of belonging, teaching and learning and equity and inclusion. Um a few things he wanted me to really share is um their um reinforcement of the work that they started this year around PBIS and their framework. So, uh, several years ago, a team of middle school students, uh, started to participate in the Association of Middle Educators, AMLY, and they went
044to, uh, several conferences, and they wrote a student statement together about who they were as BMS. And this past year, they, um, revamped that and included much more student voice and came up with Viking values. Um, and I have a a copy of it here. And so they really will be working on what does this look like? Having themes and examples of what that looks like to be a Viking who is valued, inspired, kind, impactful, noble, genuine, and supportive. And so that's going to be a big focus for their sense of belonging. In addition, um he uh has started uh with one and plans on continuing um Viking rallies, which haven't happened for years uh in the middle school. He said they were um he's going to do them quarterly next year and really bring
045that sense of school spirit and pride together. In terms of teaching and learning, um as you heard from our elementary principles and I'm assuming we'll probably hear from our secondary principles as well, a real focus on datadriven uh conversation and instruction and that has been a focus districtwide. So um the team at Benicia Middle School will continue that as well and really focusing on their uh best first instructional practices. And then finally around equity and inclusion is um really refining and um going more intentional and deeper with their MTSS tier 2 care meetings and really starting to document and work with staff to document those early interventions before um they get to like a level two or a level three. when we have a strong um tiered system of MTSS, hopefully we have fewer students
046who need more intensive support because we intervene early on. And so that is a report from Phoenicia Middle School. Thank you. Good evening, President um President Grubs, um Superintendent Dr. Wright, and fellow dignitaries. Um, Liberty High School is very proud of our single plan as we continue to look at um, looking at the whole child. We wanted to, we've made great strides in the past couple years of looking at growth mindset. Are we moving the needle once they come to Liberty High School, regardless of either academic or social emotional trauma? We wanted to continue to look at the data to see if we are making a difference in their lives. We will continue to work with our parents and our guardians to foster their input, look at their data, what they were looking for, how
047can we support them. We're also going to be looking at different several um professional development for our teachers under universal design for learning and really understand how students get into the curriculum and very different many different ways and very different facets. And while we're very proud of the fact that we use data um to guide our instructing instruction to look at our decision- making um data is a universal thread throughout our single plan but the true power lies on how we're using it. We see and support the whole child behind each number. So there is a child behind those numbers. Our efforts remain focused on ensuring academic growth, maintaining a high graduation rate, which we're very proud of, and fostering a strong sense of belonging. By grounding our strategies in both evidence and empathy, we
048will continue to strive to create a supportive environment where every student feels seen, valued, and empowered to graduate, ready for life, past history, b past liberty. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone. All right, so for Benanishia High School um our main goals continue and with our recent was uh visit and accreditation, we really have clarity of focus in terms of what's going to push uh Bisha High School forward during the next few years. So we have our continued growth areas that really situate within our three continuing goals and I'm going to highlight two of those for us tonight. One is staff collaboration to identify essential standards in all core classes to ensure equitable access to a guaranteed aligned and viable curriculum. We started that work earlier this week. Not wasting time waiting till next
049year. Um and we will have essential standards on all course syllabi in the fall when those go out to students and parents as well as published on our website for anyone to review. The next step of that work will be the development of common uh formative assessments and summitive assessments. While we have those now, we're going to do the work to make sure that those are aligned with those essential standards that we're developing. And among the feedback from our was visiting committee, they repeatedly made note of the considerable expertise of our staff uh multiple times during their visit and when they present presented to our staff, saying what a tool that was that we could make use of in this work. And so we definitely want to take advantage of that to make sure that
050all of our staff have access to best practices, our existing as well as any new and incoming staff. When we have essential standards in place, uh common assessments in place makes it much easier to bring in a new staff member and share those resources. The second is continued work around making the most of our access period by developing a system of accountability to ensure that students are using the time effectively, especially students who are falling behind or failing. We initiated a pilot intervention program this semester working with Dr. Beaton uh and we're starting a program focused on student athletes with our football team with the help of coach CJ Anderson uh this week next week um and teachers who've participated volunteered to participate so that we can gather information on what might work best on
051a larger scale before we create this new system. Access cannot be a time to opt in or opt out but must be used to support learning. So, with that, um, I do want to take the opportunity to, uh, thank all of our staff, especially since teacher appreciation week begins on Monday. We're extremely grateful for all of the work that you do to support us and for all of our staff and what they do with students. Thank you. I uh I'm curious when you guys come back on the developing a system of accountability to ensure that atrisisk students use the access period because I know people you know we where I teach we had it for a while and we got rid of it because there was a the teachers felt like the kids that needed
052it the most weren't using it effectively. So, if you get a good program, that's probably something you could sell and retire on because well, I don't know about that, but the the work that we've already piloted, I've actually had one of our Wasque visiting members reach back out to come and visit. They want to see it uh in action and possibly model it at their own school. So, we're going to keep a lot of schools who would really, you know, and we when we first created access period many years ago, we went and visited other schools with a similar model and at that time found things that worked, didn't work. And so I think probably most schools have the same struggle. The students who will make the best use of that time are already making
053really good use of their time. Exactly. Right. And so a lot of times it's in the grouping also. I know that we initially were worried about having nth graders in with 12th graders. I actually find that it's really beneficial for those nth graders to have positive academic role models and access with them um for behaviors as well as for study habits. So we just we'll just keep pushing on it. Best of luck. Thank you. At at this point, I I just wanted to say sorry. Um I'd like um all of us to give our high school principles um a round of applause and appreciation for their their um sixyear was accreditation without a visit. That is such an amazing accomplishment. [Applause] So congratulations to both of you and to the hard work that you do.
054We thank you very much. Okay, here we go. Um a memorandum of understanding what's need to take action. Oh, I'm sorry. We need um a a motion, please. I move that we approve the individual school plans for student achievement that we just heard. I'll second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? So now to 13F, memoranding of memorandum of understanding with the right institute and Dr. Jennings, your backup. Yes. Good evening again, President Grubs, um, board trustees, uh, superintendent right and the Venetian unified community. This agreement is between Venetian Unified School District and the Wright Institute to describe and confirm the expectations and responsibilities for Wright Institute students who are enrolled in the internship field placement program so that they gain experience in public school settings. They provide mental health um support and services as
055they complete their training as mental health clinicians. And can does anybody have any questions? Can I have a motion? make a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding for the right institute and second I'll second all those in favor I oppose and snow amazingly we come to the end of our of our session except that um we have we do have a change in the calendar that I want to make you all aware of and um the next meeting will um I cannot read that but our next meeting will be on May 29th. Um and I want you also to know that uh we are working on um attaining a a interim superintendent. Um and uh we will get back to you hopefully by the 29th. So, can I can I add to the change
056in calendar? Yes. We originally had the uh meeting scheduled on May 29th and I think it was at 3:00 as a study session. Uh it's a regularly it's going to be in a regularly scheduled board meeting. We adopted it with the calendar back in January. So, we're able to do that. We'll give 72 hours notice to the community, but we just want to just note the time change. So, we're going to do it at 5:00 close session, 6:00 open session on the 29th, regularly scheduled board meeting. And so, I'm going to adjourn the meeting at 6:57 and we're done.