001good evening sorry for the short delay um it is 603 and I'm going to call the Venetian Unified School District's governing board meeting to order um we're coming out of closed session and the um only thing I need to say regarding our closed session is that we're going to have to table one of the items to our next meeting which will be on March 2nd I believe um and that's regarding the superintendent evaluation so we will have to we're postponing because we have so many other things to go over and we didn't want to keep you folks waiting so we're just tabling that till next meeting so um okay this meeting is being recorded live for live streaming And archiving on a district YouTube channel um and I already just reported out regarding closed session
002we're going to do a pledge of allegiance and who who was I gonna I'll just I'll just do it today [Music] thank you okay um can I get an approval of the agenda as written I hope that we approved the agenda is written thank you can I get a second thank you roll call please yes yes and trustee macelli yes thank you thank you moving on to our highlights this evening high school and Mr Thompson I'm going to call you up got some great introductions here this evening so thank you so much good evening yeah my name is Sean Thompson one of the vice principal to be honors today I'm introducing uh two teams from our school the first one is going to be our debate team we have two students here along with Ms
003Sarah Martin who's our English an English teacher and our speech into speech and debate teacher at the high school so they have a very impressive record at some recent tournaments and then last week they also did a really cool debate week where they had some cool themes and invited some students in to compete and debate in the room so I'll let Miss Martin and her students come up and tell you a little bit about that thank you vice principal Thompson thank you all for having us tonight so I'm just here to introduce you to two of the smartest humans I know first is Connor Bush who is a senior at Benicia High School he is maybe our club president or a little unsure and also we have Gabriel Stockwell who is a junior both have
004impressive competition records and they're a delight so with that hello I'm so I'm Connor Bush I've been on the team for four years actually I started my freshman year and I just loved the team like last week as Sean as taught Mr Thompson said we had a debate week and it was really cool to like see everybody come in the room people who wouldn't necessarily be on the team or like want to participate they were interested in like the resolutions which is a topic that we debate we had everything ranging from like football to dressing football in schools to like toxic masculinity and it was interesting like people were really you could see that they were engaged people were like shouting a little bit at when somebody said something else and like it was a
005lot of back and forth which is kind of the point of debate and that's why I like it it's also been super helpful like academically obviously like you learn all skills but like more than that it's taught me about like the world like thinking about like politics and geopolitical Arenas between NATO and Russia and things like that so it's really interesting as like a student to be able to have a place where you actually can engage in that kind of discussion and so that's why I love it also it's good for colleges so that's also like a notable reason to do it in the first place and it's really important for the school I think to have that environment where students can like engage with each other and actually Clash because I think that's where
006debate gets its value from so I'm debate um Gabe you wanna this is Gabriel Stockwell he's also available too thank you Connor uh Miss Martin just informed me that we average 80 students every day at debate week wow yeah yeah for toxic masculinity over 100 I've been informed again wow so yeah um and you know I've just I it's my second year in debate I really enjoyed it um me and my partner we went to Nationals last year um we got 25th at Nationals and that Drew and a bunch of people our team has grown from like three people that like middle of last year to you know over 15 or 10 or something like that um like you know across the board novice JV and varsity it's been really cool to see the team
007grow having that community of you know individuals who are looking to think about certain topics you know Wonder um during practice earlier today we talked about um uh if but we talked about Canada but we also talked the novices talked about whether or not you know transgender miners should have access to hormones that would change things so you know it's really fun to talk about these really complicated topics and also some more fun topics you know such as the stuff that happened to Bay week it's been really cool to see that community and um and also do well and then get good grades and do well at college so that's always fun too thank you thank you thank you [Applause] for our next highlight I'm excited to announce our BHS wrestling team representative students and
008coaches are here head head coach Alyssa Gonzalez um who's the head coach of our girls team is here um she's a former student athlete makes me feel old she was also one of my former students before I became a vice principal um and uh here to talk about uh the recent competition at North Coast dual championships where they won the title by one point over Los Columbus High School so in a very exciting fashion they're now moving on to individual championships and I'll let Coach Gonzalez and the wrestlers come up and tell you about that foreign [Applause] hi everyone my name is Alyssa Gonzalez and as Mr Thompson said I was his student in I graduated 2014 but I don't know what year I had you um I had the privilege of coming back because
009my niece was actually a freshman last year and I signed up to be a volunteer and that responsibility moved on to head coach this year so it's been a lot it's been a big transition but I'm lucky to have these amazing kids on the team even if they show up late they're here they will be trickling in um I only brought six four currently here um but yeah next uh tomorrow the girls will be competing at Albany High School for individual sections and boys will be competing at James Logan High School in Union City for their sections for the girls top four will make it to the state tournament in Bakersfield which will be next weekend and for the boys top two make it and yeah it's the most exciting part of the season so
010forward to it first I'll introduce Nick Trujillo he's a sophomore he's our one 15 pounder and he is the sticks I brought today all one League last week and they will be competing at the section tournament [Applause] um I'm Nick and I've been wrestling for about eight years now and it's really fun and I'm pretty excited for this weekend [Applause] I'm Sonoma I'm a senior this is my technically fifth year wrestling I had uh I was out two years for a knee surgery and I'm really um grateful to be back and I'm grateful for Coach Alyssa to be able to coach us this year and yeah I'm excited for this weekend and hopefully next weekend foreign for 12 years now uh uh last week the team did pretty good and we wrestled well um just
011thankful for all the coaches and uh everybody who's uh helped all of the team get to where we are thank you [Applause] uh hi I'm Vicente Rodarte I've been wrestling for around four years and I'm grateful for Alyssa and all that she's provided for us and I'm excited for this season and next season [Applause] well my dad was actually I had the privilege of having my dad as my coach and since this is my first year I decided to bring him back and help me with this so make it a family affair so thank you for having the wrestling team uh I was coach Holden's assistant coach when my daughter was wrestling so I've been coaching I start at Vallejo high school and I've had the privilege of coaching numerous State and national champions and
012just got my first world champion this year so it's been a great honor to be around the sport and passing my knowledge on to these kids thank you very much for having the team out here and honoring them for their accomplishments I know there was two other students that came in would they like to talk so they uh my granddaughter so it's a three generation oh uh hi my name is Savannah Gonzalez I'm a sophomore congratulations oh wow [Applause] um I'm Chloe Sola I'm a junior and my biggest accomplishment is making it to State my first year wrestling [Applause] Mr Thompson thanks for bringing these students forward thanks to the coaches uh with wrestling I appreciate everything that you guys do and to all our students whether it's debate or it's wrestling or as we're
013going to start seeing more um student accomplishments uh at this section of our meetings we decided to add this so that we can do that with all our students you know schools different various things whether it's Arts drama music uh Sports Etc so I think it's worth noting so they pinned a male opponent in the final uh match to win by that one point excellent thank you so much for being here you guys [Applause] all right we're gonna move on to um the reports and the first uh are our student reports and I've got two of you guys here right two of you guys who wants to go first this is Benicia High School okay this is our associate body the student body president um where am I Brianna biniak please still yours so I'm
014going to be reading for Nevaeh from Liberty today oh this is the airport yeah good evening president Zeta superintendent Dr Wright fellow trustees and cabinet members on Valentine's Day our leadership class delivered cards and goodie bags for the residents living at Casa de villarasa we hope to partner with them for more fun events last week we traveled to the Sacramento River to work with UC Davis's spinning salmon project we gathered more data and released our hatchlings yesterday UC Davis came to our school and shared with us their findings in how Liberty High School contributed to their research we look forward to participating in this program again next year we want to wish our classmate Michael Espinosa good luck tonight he is competing at the Solano poetry out loud located at Fairfield Civic Center Library he
015has been working hard in hopes to proudly represent Liberty we want to thank Benicia High for inviting us to participate in their open house we were able to talk with families and share all the great things we have going on at Liberty High as we get ready to submit our art pieces to the Benicia library student art show we have a couple events planned to gain inspiration on Tuesday we went to the SF Museum of Modern Art we saw works from Diego Rivera San Francisco's Mission District in the 1980s in photography influenced by industrial architecture our art classes will follow up with a trip to Arts Benicia gallery and talk with local artists and see how they found their artist path lastly we want to thank Mo and the local Master Gardeners for working with
016us in our garden and Greenhouse we have been pruning and planting we look forward to Spring we invite you all to see how much our garden has grown on behalf of Liberty High School thank you you now do you want to speak on behalf of Benicia High School Jin Jin Zhao sorry um good evening president zaida superintendent Dr Wright fellow trustees and cabinet members my name is jinjin the ASB vice president for Benicia High School on this week Tuesday leadership delivered Valentine groces to students that purchased them for our for their friends it was great to see students walking around campus with their roses and chocolates we had our open house and elected fair in the four upcoming students for on Thursday February 9th and students and parents came to check out our AP courses
017offering and other electives as well BHS will be hosting the student-run and student performing 24-hour play on Saturday February 18th at 7 pm in the auditorium there also is a college and career field trip on Wednesday February 22nd to St Mary's College and to Cal State Eastman uh the Lantern Festival Winter Dance will be held on Saturday February 25th from 7 to 10 pm and also we want to congratulate to all of our winter sport teams that make to CIF playoffs and also the effort done by our debate team as well tomorrow the boys varsity soccer team has a home playoff against Sonoma Valley High School at 7 pm this Saturday February 18th the boys varsity basketball also have a playoff at empanito at 7 pm that's all thank you you did everything for Benicia
018High okay don't confuse me like that okay all right thanks for being here and you know the drill you guys are welcome to leave thanks see you next time all right we're gonna move on to our next uh to our superintendent report Dr Wright you're up all right good evening everyone um I want to start by just thanking our Community Partners as you know we have great Partners I want to start with Kiwanis um they replaced our AED machine over at BHS football field and we very much appreciate them for their support also want to thank Benicia rotary who've approved the second AED machine that will go through BMS so we definitely appreciate their support uh I want to thank the Benicia Police Officers Association for their generous donation to our girls soccer team at
019BHS 500 dollars um VHS we're hiring we do have some open positions for this current school year but we're also gearing up for next year as well we have a recruitment Fair scheduled for February 23rd at 3 30 to 7 30 here at the district office that's 350 East K Street we're hiring teachers administrators uh classified support positions so if you're curious or just want to come and inquire about some of our openings please join us we'll be happy to talk with you about joining our team I also want to again thank everyone for their patience with the pedestrian bridge that was damaged a couple of weeks ago I want to thank the staff who's volunteered their time essentially to go out there and service crossing guards to make sure that our our students and
020families are able to cross military West safely I do want to thank the city of Benicia as well and the police department they're out there in their presence as well um our city they're actually engaging our community in dialogue regarding the pedestrian bridge if you have any suggestions hardships concerns they were out there today from two to three o'clock and they're also scheduled to be out it's at 9th Street Park they have a pop-up tent and they'll be out there Tuesday February 21st at 7 30 a.m to 8 30 a.m and just engaging with the public and answering any questions or addressing any concerns that you may have so if you do have some questions I do encourage you to to stop by and and have a conversation and thank you and that's all I
021have for today um sure Mr macelli no okay um I have a few things uh I attended the lcap meeting with Dr beatson um last week um and I'm telling you there are some amazing folks on you that team and I'm looking forward to hearing all the ways that we can try to spend our money and like what kind of programs and stuff so it's really it was really great so thank you for doing that um and let's see um last Saturday um all our some of our debate and speech kids left but there was a Lions Club speech contest at the Benicia High School multi multi-purpose room it's the PAB the PAB building and um I was asked to be a judge and I was one of three and we had five students that
022participated that day and the speeches were on the topic was social media connects us or isolates us and they all had such unique ways of sharing those uh their speeches it was it was wonderful to watch them shine and I so uh appreciated being a part of that so keep it at Benicia High School um and let's see um today I attended um an open conversation that Dr Wright was referring to that was held over by the 9th Street Park under some white tents there were some parents that were um that were there sharing their concerns about the pedestrian bridge and there were several city leaders there that were giving us some updates of what they knew at this point um was happening and I can say that um they said that sometime next week
023there's going to be a stop sign kind of something or other at that intersection to help students and families cross right there by the school and also that they're providing which I think is really great some crossing guards for us on a temporary but permanent kind of basis at this point until we can get this rectified so I I want to thank the city for for all that they're doing and trying to help us create safety for our families and that's all I have to share can I ask yes yes the bridge is under the auspices of the city not us we're in no control I I don't know that everybody remembers that I just want to thank you yeah I have a question as well so since it was a uh a garbage truck
024that took the took the bridge the overpass out are they working with the city or is the city finding them to be um uh responsible and yeah my understanding it was a garbage truck and they are working closely with that company to make sure that they are putting some things in place for instance the crossing guards my understanding is that they're help funding the crossing guards to make sure that our students get the school safely as a district until everything gets in place we want to make sure so we're making sure our staff's out there as well and we're presents as long as our as long as as well as our police officers and uh public works department right now it's all hands on deck and it's a team effort but yeah my understanding is
025the city is working with that company to rectify what happened thank you okay so um any other questions on that okay so we're going to move on to our comments from members of the public members of the public May address the board at a regular meeting on any item within the board's jurisdiction speaker cards are available at the entrance table please note an item you wish to speak to and submit a card to the board secretary the board president will call an open session General comments during public comment time comments for items on the agenda will be called during a specific item comments are limited to no more than three minutes per speaker or the board May limit the uh the total time to 20 minutes per item with the timer displayed on our monitors
026by law no action may be taken on any item raised during the public comment periods matters may be referred to 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 and we do have a couple of comments this evening so our first person Janet Roberson if you come up to the mic thank you hello hi Janet Roberson and I have three children in the district I have a third grader at Mary farmer a sixth grader at the middle school and a ninth grader in the high school so we're all over the place I'm here tonight because of a flyer that was put out and actually some events that are are being encouraged by the school district that
027came out last week and I know I had sent an email so I appreciate those of you that replied especially Dr Moss and Ms Zeta did reply and Dr Wright as well so last week the school district at least from our schools it came out and it was said that it was busd approved and that these are wonderful opportunities for the children to attend two events one is a scavenger hunt and the other is a movie screening sponsored by Benicia black lives matter so the concern that I and some other parents have is that black lives matter and Benicia black lives matter have publicly stated and it's clear on their websites published on the websites that they support practices such as defunding the police eliminating Darren our schools disrupting the nuclear family supporting Marxism teaching
028the 1619 project and hiring based on skin color and so I I brought this up earlier in the week I reached out to Benicia black lives matter I actually use the contact information that's on the flyer for the kids to get in touch with them for the scavenger hunt and I reached out to them three times didn't get any replies Dr Wright I do appreciate that you did reply at a certain point and said that it's an outside entity and you couldn't comment on it and I appreciate that today you pointed me toward the board policy 1325 which I then went and read the board policy 1325 States and numbers two three and five under the criteria for approval that there's a Prohibition of materials that incite unlawful acts promote political interests and position the
029district on any side of a controversial issue and based on statements made and published by Benicia black lives matter and Benicia or black lives matter at large it is apparent that they are an inflammatory political group that supports unlawful acts such as hiring based on skin color so I would posit that that violates board policy 1325. um so I'm concerned about that and I know that the the flyer does have a blanket disclaimer on it but it was shared with Children and Families um the email again was encouraging it said these are wonderful opportunities that it's busd approved and so it appears obvious that the board and the school district should disavow any sort of black Benicia black lives matter events until there's some sort of clarification that they don't support these destructive practices and
030that's just very concerning to me so thank you and I wanted to point out that I do see Dr Wright every morning out there at the crosswalk doing the things and you didn't mention what you're doing so thank you for participating in that and thanks again to Dr Moss and to mizada for replying to my email thank you okay and Andrew Miller is our next speaker hi my name is Andrew Miller I'm the parent of two children in the Benicia High or the Benicia School District um and I wasn't going to come tonight I'm tired and I'm hungry but when I get home I usually turn on the news and the first thing I saw tonight was the hand was the headline that I've handed out to you guys Ohio police probe report black students
031assaulted and fourth white student to say black lives matter I also do not like the fact that the district is promoting black lives matter because I personally feel as do many other people but I'm here speaking for myself that they're a hate group and I don't think they belong the the school belongs pushing this group uh or publicizing it um I made this decision about this group from hundreds of days of burning and looting and causing Mayhem all over the country and it makes me sick them and any other hate group I don't want my kids school pushed it any of them it doesn't belong and if any of you don't understand what I'm talking about you can look it up on YouTube it's hundreds and hundreds and thousands of hours of mayhem and that's
032why I'm here tonight to ask you please not to do that with any hate crew I appreciate it thank you both for your comments um we are now going to move on to our consent calendar background information on these items is provided to the board prior to our meeting the emotion sorry a common motion takes action without discussion on a roll call vote unless discussion of items is requested by the board board members um can I get a motion to approve the consent calendar as written I move that we approve the consent calendar is written thank you may I get a second was there any discussion I you know there's nothing on this do we have to it will be it's gifts to the district do we do so removed which one let me not
033pull it but like do we do that separately the gifts to the district I I seem to remember that we used to do the like say those individually and highlight it oh he highlighted it as a superintendent report oh okay you can do it you could do that no that's fine I'm sorry all right so can I get a motion Mark you made the motion to approve as written a man get a second second thank you roll call please president Saida yes trustee Grubbs yes trustee moss and trustee Miceli yes all right thank you we're moving on to item number 12. presentations and they're oh well we can ignore item number 12 because there is nothing that we're talking about this evening so let's move on to item 13 our action items and um the
034first item of is um our site district and safety plans um Mr Thompson from Venetian high school thank you all right some shifting hats from VP to safety coordinator for this next presentation um as always I have a pretty concise and brief presentation for you to go over a few things um so uh two parts to today's uh presentation the first is to review some of the changes in the aspects of our comprehensive school safety plans as well as the district emergency operation plan and then of course provide a brief update as to some of the safety work and progress we've had in the district since I last presented in February of last year I always like to include this slide just to kind of visually represent the unity within our district to making sure
035that our plans are synchronized and have the same protocols as our students go up through different schools or as employees might leave one site and go to work on another site they are training and understanding the same protocols not only for emergency response but now with our audition last year for our response to any traumatically uh you know traumatic emotional incidents that we might need to support staff or students with it is a very quick update this year there weren't any major changes we had a lot of overhaul last year and going through a lot of what the county and the state puts out to kind of check our plans we're actually in compliance um and up to date with all of our Ed code um and uh really the only change you're going to
036find in each of these plans is an addition of a data and Analysis section so each site uh their safe school or their site Council or their safe school committee looked at expulsion data suspension data and referral data and really asked the question of did the data you know show anything that would require us to add any changes to the plan and so the good news is all the data was within what what we'd expected no changes were needed within the plan and that data and the analysis from each site is included on each individual plan foreign ly for the safety updates I always want to point out our excellent partnership with Benicia fire Benicia police Manisha City Dr Wright did that earlier I know a few others did with the response with the bridge
037it was great to see both the district jumping in to to support and then the kind of response from the city I also want to tip my hat to Benicia fire department you know they worked on a grant that got us hundreds of air purifiers that are now you know with help from maintenance operations in the rooms of the schools so you know luckily we got through this season without any you know huge air contamination but you know should something like that happen again then we have these purifiers which are a lot better for our staff and our students um uh we're Back to Basics uh in a good way covet as we know really kind of changed things up and and messed us up with what we want to do this is the first
038year that all Sites have been able to execute all uh drills that we want them to do so at this point in the year all Sites have done a fire drill earthquake drill a lockdown drill and then some aspect of a you know active shooter or Intruder drill so really proud to be able to say that and want to be able to continue that work going forward and then infrastructure structurally as we know Mary Farmers going through a bunch of changes which will result in a lot of you know safer situations for that site and in addition uh the district with help from a vendor completed a fencing project we've been working on you know and asking for for a while which has not only added crash Gates and bars to a lot of our
039sites so if there's an emergency staff and students can evacuate more safely but also have plugged a lot of gaps and other things that we were able to identify that just make our campuses safer so that's kind of what I have for you for the safety update um really appreciate your support and I would ask for obviously approval of those seven plans in the emergency operation plan for the district any discussion or questions but I do just want to say thank you for always creating just a cohesive plan um and the fact that all of our all of our school all of our school sites are you know in unison that's so important so I really do appreciate that it's so important so thank you I agree thank you um okay so at this time
040can I get a motion on um consideration approval of the site and safety District safety plans the move that we approve the site in District City on a second uh roll call please what is that noise is that the computer oh that's okay sorry um I was like what is that can I get a roll call vote please yes president said yes yes that's demos yes and trustee Masali yes thank you thank you Mr Thompson appreciate you being here this evening um next up is consideration and approval of the curriculum adoption of the curriculum for the 9th and 10th grade English courses and um this is going I'm going to call it Mrs Rice she's hiding behind the podium and there she is you're going to be up here for a little while so get
041comfortable good evening board and good evening cabinet my name is Stephanie Rice I'm Director of Education Services and I am bringing forward a curriculum for 9th and 10th grade English it is known as ERWC which is the expository reading and writing project curriculum I had the privilege to work with bhs's English Department and I do say privilege they really work together as a tight team whereas I'm bringing forth curriculum for 9th and 10th grade we've already adopted ERWC for 11th and 12th grade that are our non-ap classes so our AP teachers and our 10th 11 or excuse me 11th and 12th grade teachers also came to the table to reflect on the lessons and give their input on how it aligns with obviously the ERWC but more so How It prepares our students to go
042into AP courses if they so choose some of the highlights from this curriculum I'll start with student engagement one of our ninth grade teachers along with Sarah Martin that was here presenting on the debate team shared that they've had the most engagement from their ninth graders that they've had in teaching curriculum another teacher shared the writing that she's gotten from her students this year has surpassed anything that she has seen um they all come back and attribute it to a couple things one that this curriculum not only gets the kids thinking critically but it engages them in current topics so it takes current topics that align through their different subject matter such as it connects with psychology it connects with history social science um government and health were some of the areas that they pointed
043out and that they can connect to they're not only reading novels which they respond to or coming from a diverse range of cultures genders and backgrounds um and with that said they added they have the capability where they follow this framework and they have these modules but they can also um bring in additional articles to reflect the kids that they have before them each year so that was definitely a positive um and then the other piece is it provides um student choice so yes teachers can always make student Choice activities but this also provides the teachers with ideas of how things can be presented in different ways it aligns with the state standards for ELA and our English language Learners ELD it has support as well so I am here on behalf of ed services
044and our English Department to ask you for the approval of the adoption of the ERWC um curriculum for 9th and 10th grade at badisha High School thank you is there any discussion any questions nope okay so can I get a motion please I moved it we approved the curriculum for the 9th and 10th grade English courses thank you Mega second can we get a real president Saida yes trustee Grubbs trustee moss and trustee myself yes and now you're gonna switch hats to a different subject Middle School human growth development and sexual health thank you so yes I'm bringing that forward this is um for our Sexual Health that will be taught in seventh grade at Benicia Middle School um just to give you some background um of how we got to the curriculum which is
045positive prevention plus also known as P3 because that is a mouthful um we first as a as a system when we were going to adopt we worked with our health department our school nurse Terry Dean and they did research along with us because we wanted to make sure that what we were looking at was medically accurate they are a health department linked us up with cardea Services which is a service that is not um affiliated with a particular curriculum but they do train teachers in teaching sexual health and they can train in curriculum as well but there's no money exchange with the curriculum companies so we also utilize them to dig into that and then with their help as well we looked at the California Department of Education recommended curriculum list and we only chose
046curriculums to review from the approved list we narrowed it down to three curriculums and we followed our procedure as I share with you time and time again um the difference this time though is we took our adoption protocol and we added some of the protocol that CDE the California Department of Education recommends that you look for when you are adopting human growth development and Sexual Health curriculum so we added some more to our three-page robust adoption protocol um my seventh grade team along with uh teachers from the other science department as they sometimes teach different grade levels they all came to the table they looked at the curriculum and narrowed it down to two we then got presentations from those two curriculums and the teachers dug deep into both I will tell you curriculums are
047very similar um there wasn't uh what we looked at um they were all positive uh curriculums what set positive prevention plus aside from middle school was the um accessibility for students and teachers as well as the engagement piece so they have young teenage avatars that talk in the videos each lesson starts with a video that you play with the Avatar that introduces the concept it also wraps it up at the end and links with questions another reason why we chose this curriculum is it also starts out before teaching and identifies that the students um excuse me identify their their adult that they're going to connect with so we're trying to have our curriculum connect with families so that what is happening in the classroom is also has an Avenue to be discussed at home there's
048homework that goes with this but it's not homework that will be graded it's something that can be sent home so parents are aware of what's being taught each day so those were some of the things that set it apart for our seventh grade teachers um also to add to this um to be transparent we did um have parent information nights um and we will continue doing that once curriculum is adopted so you know um we had parent information nights though for our entire District since we're looking at curriculum to adopt um and from that we had question and answers at the apparent nights and then we had the opportunity for parents to reach out to view the curriculum further I had about 25 families reach out to either come in or get the digital versions
049and then I had about six families share some some of their feedback their feedback um is twofold one was concerns that gender and identity are brought into being taught in the sexual health curriculum and I did share with them that that is part of the California healthy youth act and that is what we follow um and um there's you know further questions that we went back and forth as parents have the right with this curriculum to either opt out of the entire curriculum or part of the curriculum so we shared that um I'll ship I'll wait I'll save the other one for the next curriculum Miss they're kind of the same um and the other on the other side it was um what if this curriculum isn't adopted where can I get it so that
050I can make sure my child has it so we've had uh both sides and we want to acknowledge that all kids are at different spaces in their development you know we as a district have decided to teach this to our fifth seventh and I'll come back later for 10th grade um but we also acknowledge that parents have the right to decide whether their kids are ready to get it or not so um with that said and to add on one last thing like I said if we adopt the curriculum each year we'll have a parent information night so that they can be presented with all the materials have time for question and answers and then make that decision on what's best for their child and their family so I'm bringing forward to you um the
051hope of approval of positive prevention Plus for our Middle School human growth development and Sexual Health teaching any questions thank you any questions to reiterate what I believe I heard you say this is not just something randomly that we decided to do this is a state mandate State mandate yes for seventh grade right or state mandate for Middle School right State mandate for high school the state mandate we're choosing as an Lea to teach it I'll talk about fifth grade next but the state mandate is that we follow their guidelines so for this curriculum yes statement it seems look in the comments that some people just thought we just randomly decided to do this I just wanted that out there that this absolutely not comes from the state we have to do it we have
052yes this curriculum that I'm bringing forward to you right at this moment we have to do in Middle School not this curriculum but this guideline thank you you're welcome I can't I don't recall offhand but this it's taught through um is it is it still through PE or is it through their thank you for asking this is through science so seventh grade science teacher will teach this and then is it going to be both um male and female students in this in the classroom at the same time yes okay seventh grade it will be their science class that they are with and that is the recommended way to teach it can I also just add not only do we provide um and Mrs Rice sets up the training for parents the teachers will also have
053thank you maybe we're going to say that on the next one I'm sorry but the teachers also have training from cardia services in how to teach this and that will be each teacher that's new to that will have a full training and that is required by law as well as we'll do um follow-up trainings each year with some q a test to that being the person in my district that has to teach it at my school there is substantial training now I was just wondering like um you know um Mr macelli had brought up a good point about just knowing that we're you know you're following we're following the guidelines what the law for the California Department of Education states that our California K-12 schools are supposed to be doing so I'm just wondering do
054we provide I know we probably sure we do but maybe like sometimes when these new things come into place or new policies or changes do we have an opportunity for people they kind of come in so that they know or they're just kind of kept in the loop so they don't feel like it's a surprise or or anything like that so and I am open to feedback I've sent out several Communications through parent Square about how we got here um and and the process that we are going through and then having the parent night where it wasn't just um a sit and get but where parents could ask questions now um with the seventh grade they were able to ask questions back and forth with the fifth grade that I'll present they were as well
055but as through a chat and I am giving feedback to that company as well as I would prefer to be able to have that dialogue back and forth right in the moment but from there I also shared with parents that they can reach out to me to share their feedback and I've talked to parents on phone I've emailed and we've had parents in person as well and additionally if information will go out I think it's 14 days before it's taught again where parents can opt out yes and all that will be explained again when we set the date after training the teachers of when it will actually be taught so the parents will get the information on what it is their rights about opting and opting out and Etc sorry that just made me think
056of another question so so say that they decide to opt out um how was that going to impact their grade or because you know it's kind of part of their curriculum and it's not it won't it won't okay no no okay this is this is yes it's not graded it's it's it's informative but not graded so and parents can go and come to the district office and preview um the books the curriculum Etc correct and or they can also ask for a link that we can send them virtually if that's more convenient but yes so thank you for sending those notices out that was important absolutely thank you foreign just making sure okay thank you Mrs Rice um can I get a motion please I move that we approve the curriculum for Middle School human
057growth development in sexual health thank you may get a second I'll second thank you roll call please Mrs Martinez yes trusty grubs yes trustee moss and trustee Miceli yes thank you we're going to move on to the next item which you're here for um I'm gonna let you take it away thank you so this is for the consideration and approval of the adoption for our fifth grade human growth development and Sexual Health curriculum this curriculum is puberty talk is the title I've already shared the background of how we got there the only difference in our process was it wasn't Middle School Sciences we had fifth grade all teachers could participate not all teachers participated but they sent representation from all elementary sites we went through the same process of getting our curriculum from the California
058Department of Education we did the same process of narrowing it down to three we had presentations from three different curriculums and then we narrowed it down to two and the teachers dug in deep and the way they did it was they looked over the entire curriculum and then they partnered in pairs and dug deep into the lessons and then presented those out to the teachers and were able to ask questions and kind of push and pull on what would work best for our fifth graders you may ask why we didn't end up with positive prevention Plus for our fifth grade and why we have that for Middle School both curriculums were excellent in our ratings the difference with puberty talk excuse me was it came down to the engagement piece that our teachers felt for
059our students instead of having teenage avatars in the slides Etc it's not um human forums it's more these cute kind of little Blobby creatures that introduce things and is more animated um with that said though when things are taught um the the they're not photos or pictures but there are diagrams that are medically accurate so it's not made to be silly but there's just more engagement pieces they felt for fifth grade versus what we're doing for our seventh graders um and again we had the parent information night we had several families I believe we were up to around 70 families attending for our fifth grade information night we had like I said 25 families follow back up to see the curriculum further um some of the same comments uh one of the other comments that
060came from parents in regard to fifth grade was could we have um different pictures or photos my answer and I explained one um and not to correct but they're not pictures or photos or diagrams and they're medically accurate diagrams so there aren't different diagrams that we could so choose um So to that answer it was no um there was a another answer you know was there other curriculum I explained the process that we went through and that the other curriculums also have these medically accurate diagrams in them as well you know there's very little nuances that really set them apart from each other because they're on the recommended list and they follow the standards and the California healthy youth Act so again I follow up with the parents on um we are a partnership we
061respect our families and um the same thing follows with uh puberty talk in that they identify um their trusted adult that sets the stage that they should be talking to their families that they can talk to doctors about these questions and they should be getting medically accurate information versus just what's out there on social media and that's identified um they do have homework in this as well again not graded there aren't points this is just informative but to connect every lesson uh with the families at home because um the number one teacher of our students are their families so we want them to have those conversations and follow up so if you would have any questions because I kind of shared it all in the first one please feel free are there any questions you
062guys no you did a good job sharing thank you can I get a motion please approved the fifth grade human growth development and Sexual Health curriculum can I get a second roll call vote please yes trustee Grubbs trustee moss and trustee macelli yes yes thank you thank you okay finally um the last uh thing that tonight that we're gonna go over if I'm going to call Dr Gill on Dr Gail not call Dr Gill but I'm going to call on Dr Gill to explain this for us thank you madam president uh trustees Dr Wright Cameron community members so this is our annual type of drill that we do um we hire several part-time not part-time temporary position teaching Physicians every year uh or other certificates temporary positions either to fill in uh for teachers who
063are performing other duties such as trosa or to fill in for teachers who might be on Willie Brown Stars reduce workload assignment or if we created a position by using any one-time funding so this is the per ad code we have to release these teachers uh temporary release and then based on the plans for next year we will advertise some of these positions and and they certain people will reapply and we will refill the petitions as needed thank you can I get a motion please I move that we approve resolution 22-23-10 release of temporary certificated employees thank you can I get a second thank you roll call please yes trustee Grubbs trustee moss and trustee macelli yes great so that brings us to the close of our meeting I I want to put a special
064thank you out to the rest of the board for dealing with all the stuff that we deal with on a day-to-day basis and and um and working together and and I I just want to thank everybody that sits on this panel or this group with me I it's it's not always easy but I just really appreciate everybody thank you for being president yes I wasn't fishing but um so um and also um our next meeting is going to be on March 2nd and I hope all of you have an amazing three-day weekend coming up thanks good night