001um welcome everybody I am going to call us back from closed session it is now 7 p.m and we have nothing to report out from closed session this evening um this I'm just going to read this this meeting is recorded for live streaming And archiving on the district YouTube channel for your convenience if I could have everybody join me in the pledge please reply of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you be seated okay um approval of the agenda so there is one change right that we have to amend okay so um let's um should we amend that first okay so there's a change on item number eight it's a date change from uh March 7th
0022023 to April 11th 2023. on item number eight so can I get a motion to approve the agenda as written I'll move to approve the agenda with the correction thank you can I get a second also all right thank you real call please president Zeta yes um trustee ferrucci trustee Miceli yes and trustee Groves yes thank you okay um we're gonna go on to number item eight installation of trustees and admin oath of office um go ahead and talk to Wright good evening I just want to give the community an update where we are with feeling our trusty seats um our Trustees for area one four and five uh were scheduled to term in December 2022 which prompted a general election on November 8th 2022. um our trusty area one and four ran unopposed and
003will retain their respective seats I also want to share that the Solano County Registrar voters and notified the Benicia Unified School District that no candidate had applied to serve area five for the November 8th general election in response the district's governing board held interviews and provisionally appointed a candidate to fill the seat at the November 3rd 2022 regular governing board meeting in accordance with Education Code 5092 members of the community have petitioned this provisional appointment and the registrar voters in our County Superintendent of Schools has verified the signatures and based on the verification of the petition signatures or County Superintendent of Schools terminated the appointment on December 12 2022. and the special election has been called on April 11 2023. okay at this time I would now like to welcome Lisette Estrella Henderson our superintendent
004of schools for Solano County to administer the oath of office for Miss Sherry Zeta trustee for area one and Mr Mark Maselli trustee for area four [Music] at the same time okay oh yeah the first reason is here against all enemies foreign whenever I go well with the authority again [Applause] foreign remember foreign at this time so thank you Mark for taking on another four years and and I'm happy to be here to do the same um at this time um we were hoping guess how many Moss was going to be here this evening and unfortunately she got stuck at a meeting in Sacramento so she can't make it this evening but she has a proclamation for you Mrs furucci um that we were going to present to you and um I'm sorry that it's
005not here because it's with her so we didn't know all this was going to happen so it will be here waiting for you at the office I'll make sure that um one of us somebody contacts you and lets you know when you can come and pick it up thank you in the meantime thank you so much for everything you know thank you so much and I think Dr Wright would like to say a few words Jesse farucci I also want to thank you and you know my short time working with you I've appreciated our conversation your depth and breadth of knowledge of public education um I enjoy our conversations and the perspective that you bring to the table and just want to just thank you for your service um I know whatever you decide to
006do next you're going to make an impact and again I just want to thank you for your service and everything that you do for the Benicia Unified School District thank you I'll go up to you I just wanted to say um thank you we've been on the working together for a long time and you've sat on many many of my committees and so I very much appreciated your perspective and your support and your and your help so thank you for everything you've done on behalf of all the students here I want to say I really appreciate Diane cares deeply about this community and she cares even about the schools and she put her money where her mouth is she's on a lot of committees she spent a lot of hours uh meeting with people in
007a lot of different groups and not everyone does that some people get on a you know like on a board and they just you know do with that but she went to everything and she dug deep and she was very You Know instrumental in helping out with a lot of stuff and I really appreciate her heart for the community and for the schools the fact that she spent her whole life in education you know very commendable respect thank you yeah I'd like to say just a big thank you to you Diane you have been so helpful to me you have so much knowledge such good ideas um your history here in Benicia is um formidable it's you are really you're gonna be missed I want to thank you so much for your mentorship for you
008for you always had an ear you were wonderful um kind of schooling me and the role of a board member and and I just appreciate it so much you'll be missed and thank you Diane for all of your work on the school facility committees and master plan uh we're building some great school facilities that will last for generations to come here in Benicia thank you very much you're welcome it's I foreign I really just want to say thank you to everyone I think the the new relationships and the new friends that I have formed over all this time um it's pretty daunting when I think about SEC said how long I've been in education um I think I did my 51st opening of school this past September so do the math guys it's it's been
009a while but you know what it is it's amazing that it's still as exciting and as fresh as it has been since my first day of school um I I love the children and I love my community and I am feel I feel honored and I feel privileged that you allowed me to serve this time and to serve the children in so many different capacities um and I just want to let you know I'm in town always happy to come stop by and visit and I'll let you know what the next chapter is shortly but I will tell you right now immediately it includes five little people oh nice which I am really looking forward to spending more time with and not having to say no Grandma's got to do this instead so I'm just
010gonna play Grandma for a while I want to present you with this club okay [Music] we can yep um you know [Applause] foreign cherry because we have a long agenda ahead of us foreign yeah she's oh she's thank you again Diane bye foreign okay thank you so much for coming back so orderly I appreciate it and this is a little too close to my mouth um so we're going to reconvene and go 724. um at this time we're going to do some reorganization of the board it's our our annual meeting that we do this at and I am going to pull up um now we can see that we're missing Dr Moss so we're not um we're going to go forward with this as much as we can um and fill in the positions as
011best we can um so I'm the first item up is the um at this time there are not are there nominations for the president oh I'm sorry is there anybody here that would like to take the role of the president no okay so hearing none and with Dr Moss not being here usually she would be the next person to take over um but so if no trustee responds or expresses interest I'm willing to continue serving in this role but in order to do so we need to revise our board bylaws to allow a board member to serve more than two consecutive terms when another member is unable to serve that role would someone like to make a motion to amend board bylaw 9100. I would like to make a motion to amend board by law
0129100. thank you can I get a second a second roll call please yes okay so then at this point and I apologize there's just a lot of steps to this right now um are there nominations for the office of president of the Board of Trustees I'd like to nominate uh Sherry Zeta for president of the board like to second that thank you thank you um all in a roll call please yes I didn't say that yes yes okay then we're gonna go on to our second portion which is for Clerk which is currently Dr Moss's position um at this time or oh and then we have to do the same thing I think we have to amend it I think you can ask the other two trustees if there's an interest there and if there's
013not then you would need to amend a bylaw I hope there's interest okay oh that's good okay so at this time are there nominations for the office of clerk of the Board of Trustees I nominate CeCe Grubbs as a clerk for the Board of Trustees thank you and I will second that yes okay thank you now we're going to move on to representative to the Solano count we're looking at all those groups that you have in front of you um representative to the Solano County School Board Association oh I'm sorry I'm sorry that's right okay um at this time do we have a motion to appoint the superintendent as secretary to the Board of Education um and that would be Dr Damon bright superintendent as Secretary of the Board of Education [Music] secretary to the
014Board of Education thank you do I have a second second thank you real call yes all right now um the adoption of the board of Education regular board meeting calendar for the 23-24 school year do I have a motion to approve the USD regular governing board meeting calendar as written have you seen it it's not foreign technical difficulty moment please bear with us I'm sorry yeah um and while they're looking for the the calendar for next year um there is a change that we were thinking could be beneficial to everybody and that would be to start our um our closed session at five o'clock and then start our Open session at 6 00 PM so that's in there as well I the only question I have on that is how would it affect the public
015I mean would they be able to get here well that would be 6 p.m so at the best I mean they would hopefully be able to get home from work at that time or they can tune in I would think at home if that's their choice but certainly at 6 PM I would think we would be able to have folks here is there discussion let's talk about it I I like the idea I I think it's a it's a great idea um if we're ready for a motion I'll also move I just uh I'm not against anything I don't know I mean does it maximize the public I you know Public Access for time wise I'm just curious if it if if the current thing is better or if that actually would help more people
016be able to because I get it you're finishing earlier most likely because you're starting earlier does that benefit people who want to be here you know public wise to get out earlier or is it too hard to get here but I guess that's really not someone can answer tonight or anything that was just the first thing I can't because I didn't know no I I understand what you're saying um I think I mean I I like the idea as well but if you have reservations you can one of the things we might need to consider is um would that be a hardship for you mark getting here at all I get could we vote um yes and then um if there's any public dissatisfaction with the concert later maybe revisit it that's a good idea
017we can amend amend it if people come and say Hey you know you've made it difficult yeah okay okay I'm good with it okay so can I get a motion with that Amendment included in it I'd like to make the motion that um the the regular governing board um meets at 6 00 PM going forward with with uh no it would be closed session closed session at five and six six o'clock for the Open Session okay with the lithium with the amendment that if we hear from the public that it is a hardship uh that we reevaluate I'll second what she said excellent that was a good point and I think that gives us an out if if that runs if we run into a problem that's awesome thank you real call please yes thank
018you yes [Music] okay now we're talking about um the positions and representatives as Liaisons to different groups in our community um I'm just going to get to my other sheet here foreign okay so the first one that we have is the representative to Solano County School boards Association yeah that for me would work because it's at night obviously I can't do things that are during the day okay so um at this time are there nominations for the representative Solana County School boards Association I I know to um for the uh rep to be the representative to the Solano County School boards Association excellent and I will second that roll call please yes okay our next item is representative to the district and City liaison there we need two people in that role um and are
019there any nominations for the representative for the district City liaison committee um it is let's see I can actually read it to you um representatives of the city of Benicia and the Benicia Unified School District meet two to four times a year to collaborate and discuss issues that impact both agencies in an effort to improve services and coordination of efforts for our community stakeholders I do not it's okay all right so um I'm okay with doing it for one of the people Mrs Grubbs are are you interested in doing that um and and it's okay if you are not because we can also add Gethsemane and they meet once a month three or four times a year two to four times a year yeah I can do that okay so do I have a nomination
020um for the representative to the district and the City Liaisons to the district City and I don't know if we can second our own can we suck it okay I'll second yes yes okay moving on uh representative to the Valero advisory panel and it's a request to have two people are there any nominations for the representative yes I can um okay representatives from the city school district and Refinery meet four times a year to keep all informed of the workings and safety of the refinery um okay so that's that's the what it is but timing um Mrs Martinez what's the is that during the day also you know that one one that I gave you of course Tuesdays at 4 30. on that and so February 8th March 8th April 12th oh oh oh sorry
021sorry sorry sorry it's this last year it was up for in-person meetings one two once a month it looks like without May and without July without September and without November so about half of the time one two three four five six seven meetings and they're at 4 30. so it is after work she currently sits on it now so it can roll over to the following year okay I'm sure she'd be fine with it if she we can revisit it if if she's not you know but we need two people we will have a district five yes not particularly just okay I don't want to just take on too much at one time okay so do we have a nomination please I would like to nominate Dr Moss for the community advisory panel and do
022we have a second I'll second okay thank you uh roll call please yes okay thank you okay next item representative to the board policy committee up to two representatives and the board the board policy committee uh needs to review and update board policies to ensure alignment with current mandates and state and federal requirements the work of this committee ensures that the district policies remain current and updates are ongoing this committee also considers new policies being proposed at the local level the committee meets quarterly like to do that again okay and is there any other interest Mrs Grubbs no okay let me um we're just gonna put you in there for right now um so do we have a nomination Mark Maselli for the um board policy committee okay thank you all second president yes yes
023thank you okay representative to the district curriculum Council up to two and a primary goal of the board of education is to support student achievement by continuing to expand curriculum development assessment systems professional development opportunities and programs that students success for the org that support Student Success for the organization this committee Works to ensure actions taken by District staff support the vision for student achievement and high quality teaching and learning and uh it doesn't say on here when it meets let me see if it says on here we meet um typically around 3 30 3 30 to 4 30 or 3 30 to 5 uh either on a Tuesday or Wednesdays once a month okay is there a nomination on the floor no sorry um I I've been on the committee I can I can
024step up and do that so now do we have a nomination for the district curriculum Council one second thank you on uh roll call yes it's confused I have like so many papers going here um okay so you got me um next up is the representative to the facility steering committee and that is let's see um this committee meets to review Bond construction needs and next steps and has representatives from multiple District departments School sites and the board the main priority is to make recommendations to the board and meets as needed and that one meets it's once or twice a year so okay we get a nomination can I make CC grubs from Philadelphia steering committee okay uh I'll second that and um roll call please yes okay next well this is the last one
025guys you've been hanging in there representative to the California School Board Association delegate Assembly election and we need one person what is it entailing it entails let me let you know okay it um let's see each year remember member boards elect representatives to the csba so uh delegate assembly the delegate assembly is a vital Link in the association's governance and sets the general policy Direction working with member boards the board of directors in the executive committee delegates um the delegates with terms that end in 2023 are up for election uh delegates elected in 2023 will serve a two-year term beginning April 2023 through March of 2025. there are two required delegate assembly meetings each year the dates are in May and in November it May 12th on here it states May 20th and 21st I
026these are probably accurate dates okay and then November 28th and 29th foreign and 21 . okay um that's the one that we can kind of come back to it we have to this is like reorganization meeting we can't we're and that's the last one can we split people on that you cannot split people okay um it's it's one night two days one night okay um is there a way to uh see if Gethsemane wants to take that on or I'm sorry yes Cece um May 20 and 21. and then November 28th and 29th I wish like awesome we can talk about can we bring this back we'll bring it back we'll talk to her and we'll talk to Dr Moss and see if she's interested and if not okay well we're in a pickle foreign
027if if she is not interested I can do it I would if she's not interested and again we're going to have a fourth but we start this committee this thing earlier so we need to do it so um can you put that is there a way to put that if you know put her in first an alternate isn't and then I would be the alternate so do we have a motion us California School Board Association delegate assembly and if not and Sherry Zeta is the alternate okay thank you is there a second thank you roll call yes yes okay so now thank you and you got it all um Mrs Martinez I do and it's recorded as it is okay thanks okay all right so thanks for that thanks for stepping up and we're gonna
028move back to our regular part of the meeting um it is student reports are up next and I would like to invite Navia Avalos who I saw yesterday um from Liberty High School to make her let us know what's going on at Liberty uh good evening president Zeta superintendent Dr Wright fellow trustees and cabinet members for the last month we have been working on projects that express our gratitude and appreciation for example we have received a Solano Food Bank donation Barrel we hope to break our last year's 280 pound record we want to thank all the parents and families that came out and joined us for our fall festival we want to say a special thank you to the families that donated food snacks and especially the cotton candy machine advisors had a great time
029competing against each other where Mr lobo's advisor my advisory one we hope to have another family Festival this spring we had our first basketball buddies meet up with Robert Semple LHS students along with their advisors went to Robert Semple to hoop with some younger students this program helps Foster cooperative play with positive relationships and gain the sense of pride of giving back to the community we had several LTI field trips a group of students visited Solano Solano Community College's welding program we had students meet with the owners of brickspace some students Went to went to benicia's water treatment plan and finally another group went mountain biking in Marin we look forward to our next round of LTI trips we want to thank Solana Community College for coming and assisting several student signups for spring college
030classes we hope to establish a college quiet room where students can attend their virtual classes without having to leave Liberty's campus we are currently having a door decorating contest and this year's theme is Winter Wonderland voting closes Friday afternoon and I'd like to invite all of you to come by and cast your vote and thank you to all those who have already voted to those who haven't room to my door just just putting it out there mine so but lastly we want to thank Dr Wright for going sailing with us we had a great opportunity to sail on the bay on a replica of the Matthew Turner ship we have another sale planned in April on behalf of Liberty High School we'd like to wish everyone a safe and joyful holiday break thank you it's
031delightful and I have to say you know Cece and I Mrs Grubbs and I were at the school yesterday and those doors are incredible so much thought and I voted I voted not gonna say who but I did vote um so yeah if anybody takes time to go over there and see it it's really something special so okay thank you so much okay and then we have jinjin GAO from Benicia High School the ASB vice president and Brianna binick benick obiniak sorry uh ASB president so whoever would like to go first good evening president Zeta superintendent Mr Wright fellow trustees and cabinet members my name is Brianna biniak the ASP president and my name is jinjin GAO the ASB vice president for Benicia High School on Thursday November 10th we have a veteran day ceremony
032in the quad during lunch time to honor the veterans who serve in our country Ruby Bridges walk to school day was on following Monday the 14th and we begin on 7 50 a.m before school starts and we have few student speakers bringing attention to the Ruby Bridges Foundation we hosted intramural volleyball tournaments over lunch a week before Thanksgiving break the November 14th through the 18th on Sunday December for December 4th students came in early in the morning and decorated with school with decorations and ornaments okay okay and this week we are holding our Wellness week activities during lunch to help students feel less stressed about their upcoming finals on Monday it was pajama day and we played a movie Home Alone on Tuesday we provide students with scones and tea and on Wednesday we planned
033an intramural dodgeball tournament during lunch and today we provided students with hot cocoa and tomorrow we are having holiday karaoke and there is also a student and teacher designed wreath contest that students will vote on at lunch tomorrow and also we are wearing ugly sweaters or holiday sweaters tomorrow so that will be super fun and next week is our finals week and following that is a two-week break so we are all very excited thank you I bet you are it's gonna be a well-deserved break for all our students and all our staff um and thank you for sharing that information about phenicia high school um Ruby Bridges I wasn't you know that was a great day and you mentioned a couple other things that I have taken part in so it's wonderful so thank you
034so much for the update appreciate it so much now young man and Ladies If you would like to leave to go take care of homework or whatever else you would like to do you are free to do so at this time so thank you you guys have a great holiday have a good break okay next up it will be Dr Wright with the superintendent report good evening we have uh great Partners in our community and tonight I want to acknowledge uh two of many uh I want to thank the Lions Club of Benicia and also Valero for their generosity and supporting our students within our community the Lions Club donated 500 to the Benicia High speech and debate club and Bolero donated 75 000 to be used for our elementary steam wheel and also to
035support our Benicia reads program so we're very grateful for their donations and we really appreciate it I also want to acknowledge Dr beatson for introducing the parent speaker series we had our first session uh Thursday December 3rd the topic was ending ending the silence which focused on the symptoms of mental health conditions and the resources available in our community um our next session will take place on January 25th from 6 30 to 7 30 and the topic is planning early for college choice and research so please visit our website and look at the upcoming sessions that we have planned and also if there's some other topics that you would like us to to bring forward please feel free to contact Dr beatson and share your ideas and we'll see what we can do to put
036those topics for our community had an opportunity to spend some time at csba with our governing board and and executive cabinet I was grateful for the opportunity uh to connect with our team but also network with Educators up and down the state learn about some of the celebrations and challenging challenges that that are being faced throughout the state um the workshops that I attended really focused on things that were really relevant in our community things that we're focusing on Equity inclusions with student with special needs governing during challenging times and really building Community Partnerships I like many other school leaders seem to really have a focus on unifying our community as we as we so that we could provide optimal learning conditions for our students regardless of the national political climate the local political climate
037you know the Benicia Unified School District will continue to be focused on Steam literacy social emotional health and equity a students administrators teachers community members really appreciate your Partnerships we recognize the challenges that we're facing post pandemic and we'll continue to work together to make sure that we provide those optimal learning opportunities for our students lastly I just want to say happy holidays we have a lot to celebrate I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year I hope you find some time to spend with your loved ones especially and enjoy this special time of the year and we'll come back in January and continue forward thank you thank you Dr Wright and now we're at board reports and this is me oh no you guys can
038start but it doesn't matter I uh trustee fruit she asked me to share for her because she had to go she was at Liberty and the club the seroptimus club there um raised over 1700 for uh families of need an outstanding job and very proud of that I want to say what a great job they did we all really appreciate it and it's new there this year at Liberty yeah Liberty it's a new program there so that's wonderful Mrs Grubbs I um had just a wonderful time going through uh Liberty uh yesterday the other day yesterday right right um I think it was yes um the program there is is so compelling so engaging and so forward thinking we are so lucky to have a principal like Mrs Lewis who is um kind of all
039encompassing she really thinks out of the box and those kids are so engaged the one thing that I found just um so interesting was the that students want to come to Liberty because of the the way that education takes place there and it is outstanding the other thing I wanted to mention was that I was also at the csba annual conference and um I tended to go more towards the um the political climate session so it was very I find it very interesting um what's going on in Sacramento and in the country uh politically and also um I went to a number of sessions uh regarding the financial issues facing the public schools in California so um it was uh very meaningful to me not only as a board member not only as an educator
040but as a person living in California it was it was quite a interesting thank you and I'll just piggyback on what Mrs Grubbs said the csba conference was amazing um it's always up to date with current things that are happening in districts up and down the state of California and it it's it gives you new ideas and and some really valuable information that we can bring back to our district and it's I it's just an invaluable opportunity and I thank the district so much for sending us to that um and it see Mrs Grubbs and I did go to Liberty and that was wonderful as well and then they had a uh yesterday was a meal like you broke bread and they had tables set up all throughout the the hallway and chairs some people
041even brought in placemats for their table it was adorable and each teacher brought in like mashed potatoes turkey it was all different kinds of foods like a Thanksgiving meal and and we got to break bread with them and it was just a lovely lovely time the kids were so engaged and so happy to be helping and working together so it was a really nice nice thing to see and with that I'm gonna move on to comments from members of the public all functions of the board meeting including public comments will take place in person members of the public May address the board at a regular meeting on any item within the board's jurisdiction speaker cards are available on the entrance table please note the item you wish to speak to and submit a card to
042the board board secretary the board president will call an open session General comments government code section 54954 period three during the public comment item 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 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 the public comment periods and matters may be referred to staff replacement 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 and with that um Mrs Martinez do you know which one came in first was it Miss Martinez or it was
043okay so the first person that I would like to call up to the podium is Mrs or Miss Alina Martinez if you would come up please I'm actually going to read her statement because it means a lot to her and so I am the youngest of three girls my parents worked long and hard to provide us with the education they felt we deserved we all learned and created a bond with education in our own ways but my eldest sister well let's just say education became her she is and always has been one of the smartest people I've ever known this goes far beyond a younger sister admiring her older sibling she is the embodiment of education and all it can do to benefit the world she is passionate motivated and resilient when it comes to
044education she attended UCI for her bachelor's degree in Psychology and went on to get her Master's in social work from USC she utilized her MSW as a social worker for Contra Costa County Child Protective Services for three years though the job was hard and I can see the impact it had on her I also saw how much she grew through her experiences and how passionate she remained in protecting the children on her caseload my sister is resilient she is strong powerful and intelligent Latina woman and I admire her for that she helped coach me through my college Years and though I know graduating was an accomplishment of my own her support meant the world to me as a former student of the Benicia Unified School District I can say without a shadow of doubt that
045this board means more this Board needs more women like my sister she will always stand up for what is right for the students in this community no matter the consequences she will place their needs as the priority isn't that what the school board should represent the students she earned her right to be on this board she was elected to be on this board she faced every trial and tribulation that all the other candidates face yet she prevailed she deserves to be a member of this board to continue using her Knowledge and Skills to help busd better serve the students within our community I am deeply saddened and disappointed with what has transpired and the cost it will have for our students and at the top it says education is the most powerful weapon which you
046can use to change the world Nelson Mandela and she's speaking on her sister Ariana and um just from my point of view I feel it's a a shame that somebody has questioned the Integrity of the people that did the interviewing um and I would really myself would like to know why somebody didn't run earlier and Save The District 60 to 80 thousand dollars thank you okay next I have been asked if I have David Nicholson and Amy Hirsch and I've been asked or if I was going to be able to allow you to each take the three minutes to one person and I will allow that today and we've not done that ever I don't believe that I will allow that and so I believe David Nicholson you're going to speak on behalf of you
047and Amy uh good evening thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to appear here this evening and speak um I have a statement that I would like to read into the record but before I get to that I would just like to say that I was very impressed with Ariana myself I thought she was a fine candidate she seemed to be uh superb frankly and this is not about Ariana at all foreign dear busd Board of Trustees and members of the public as you know by now a special election has been ordered for busd trustee area five I was one of the principals behind the petition calling for the special election and would like to explain why it is necessary on November 3rd busd interviewed four candidates for an open trustee vacancy in area
048five three of the candidates have children in Benicia schools myself included the fourth candidate whom the board selected does not have children in our school system the four sitting board members also do not currently have children in our school system given that the principal stakeholder group of busd are the parents of current students we were rather stunned that the board openly disregarded this primary stakeholder group and rejected all three candidates all qualified parents who have volunteered for the position foreign what is particularly galling about this was the fact that the parents who were interviewed were simply civic-minded volunteers who had responded to a letter from the district sent to all the parents of busd students asking for someone to step up and to serve on the board that and the fact that the board openly
049admitted during its deliberations that it lacked parental representation and paid lip service to the to the notion that not having parents on the board was a deficiency yet despite inviting parents to apply despite the fact that three well-qualified professional-level people accepted the invitation and stepped up the board shockingly chose the only candidate with no kids initiate Benicia schools and who incidentally was not even the highest scoring candidate that led to some serious head scratching naturally but then after the appointment we discovered a possible explanation the board's chosen appointee as the daughter of the executive secretary to the board and chief assistant to the superintendent the board knew of this material fact before appointing her and failed to disclose it This is highly significant because the board's chosen candidate would possibly have to recuse herself from
050various votes such as those involving salaries and working conditions of busd employees effectively disenfranchising area 5 voters on these topics the board's decision not to disclose this fact coupled with its selection of someone with comparatively minimal ties to the district and who also was not even the highest rated candidate raised serious concerns about the legitimacy of the entire appointment process in fact we have submitted a request for information and documents under the California public records Act in an effort to gain more insight into the board's decision-making process and we may take appropriate action depending on the results of that inquiry in the interim the law provides only one method to challenge the board's formal appointment a special election at The District's expense we have children in the schools and do not take the cost of
051the special election lightly in hopes of avoiding all of this we met with the superintendent and board president before starting the petition process and we urge the board to vacate its appointment decision before it became finalized citing the conflict of interest issue as a valid basis for reconsideration we were direct and specific in raising the concerns regarding the total exclusion of parents the failure to disclose the relationship between the appointee and the board secretary and the potential conflict of interest it raised and the related disenfranchisement of area 5 voters that would result we also explained that a special election would cost the district approximately sixty thousand dollars and that it was in the best interest of our students teachers and school Community to vacate the appointment in the ensuing conversation it became clear that the
052board and the superintendent were not particularly receptive to our position and in a days following the meeting there was total silence indicating that the board did not intend to take corrective action and thus forcing us to move forward with the petition process we quickly discovered that we have tremendous support from the voters in area five and in short order gathered over twice the number of signatures needed to trigger the special election we could have collected many times that number of signatures given the reaction we received particularly from area 5 parents who heard the facts the special election is a vital part of the democratic process and is available for exactly the type of situation that has arisen in this case given the serious concerns regarding the board's deliberate exclusion of Benicia parents as well as
053the trust and legitimacy issues raised by the appointment process applied in this case the voters of trustee area 5 should decide who best represents them hence the special election is necessary thank you and I'd like to submit this into the record for tonight's meeting and Raul Martinez I'm Raul Martinez uh Ariana's father and I just found out tonight that she was you know that she was removed from this position and very disappointed obviously they don't understand you know that she stands on her own two feet ahead I mean as far as my wife being part of this the school you know being with the superintendent I mean I think she stood on her own two feet it sounded like you guys voted on her because of her knowledge I mean nobody's really seen the things
054she's gone through as far as being a social worker I mean I've I've witnessed the things she does for her kids that she she helps I mean I personally went to the Goodwill and went with her to pick out a suitcase for a child that was 15 years old that had all his stuff in in bags and had no suitcase so we went out and bought her bought him a suitcase and she put all his stuff inside the suitcase so that way he'd have a suitcase to take from home to home where he was you know being moved and I mean you know this my daughter is is someone that uh you know like I said she stands on her own two feet everything she's done she's done on her own and you know just
055because she doesn't have a child that doesn't mean that she you know doesn't have a heart and doesn't have a heart for children and for for the students of this community so to me I was I was a bit disappointed that you know she would she was appointed and then you know I I feel you guys have the power to point I'm I'm a local 1173 president so I mean I know how if someone is appointed you know usually they stand behind their appointment and I don't know if she was asked to relieve her appointment under duress or what have you but like I said I'm just finding out this tonight I I didn't prepare any kind of a speech because I didn't I didn't know that she you know I thought you'd be being
056uh sworn in today but obviously you know this it's just a disappointment to me that's that's you know my say in the soul matter thank you and um did we have another person speaking oh there we go okay I am going to call Lori grundman up to speak oh just just quickly um I'm a little bit disappointed by some of the comments uh about non-parents um I think that people don't have to be parents to apply for a position with the board I think that sends a terrible message for people in our community and I support Miss Martinez in this role I think she's highly qualified I think um that we should support her I think I think it's I think it's terrible that we're that we're saying that you have to have a child
057in our school system to to serve on our board I think I think it's terrible that people are saying that thank you I just want to let everybody know we don't communicate back and forth with the speakers that come up and do public comments so we're quiet but we're hearing you all we just can't interact um thank you for the all the comments um at this point we are going to move on to item number 14 approval of the consent calendar background information on these items is provided to the board prior to a meeting a common motion takes place without discussion on roll call vote unless discussion of items is requested by the board member or members so um and then on there's a couple things I'll have to pull out and we'll put back
058um we've got to vote separate on but at this time do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar as written foreign moved to approve the consent calendar is written thank you do I have a second thank you roll call please president Satan yes okay thank you um and now at this time we have some uh resolutions that will require a separate roll call vote um item d uh resolution number 22-23-07 do I have a motion oh okay excellent okay and then we have approval of resolution number 22-23-08 and finally approval of resolution number 22-23-09 can we get a motion yes thank you yes yes contrasting Moss excuse me grab something I'm gonna keep doing that all night crab sorry okay and then Eve yes 22 2308 president Sada yes and trustee Grubbs and
059one more foreign yes thank you so now we are going to move on to public hearing and action so I am going to adjourn this meeting we're going to turn this over to Mr Ray Hill our CBO and we're going to adjourn this meeting to a public 8 19. great good evening good evening um yeah I'll go ahead and present the information as part of the public hearing um take uh go ahead and take any public comments if there are any and then you can go back into uh the regular to um consider approval of the justification report us yes uh so uh state law gives school districts uh these the authority to charge school facility fees on new residential and commercial industrial developments and the government code authorizes school districts to collect that facility
060fee on future development development of no more than 4.79 cents per square foot for residential and 78 cents for commercial um that's considered a level one fee and that uh level one fee is adjusted every two years according to the um inflation rate as determined by the state of California so we have conducted the justifi justification report and attached it here in the board packet and it shows that our district does meet the requirements of state law regarding the collection of the school facility fees so that has been included here as part of this public hearing and the board will then be asked to approve uh the attached resolution to establish the facility fees of 4.79 cents per square foot for residential construction and 78 cents per square foot for commercial industrial Construction okay or
061I I don't see any comments from members of the public but um is there any discussion do you have any questions no okay so I'm gonna bring us back to our meeting 8 20 and at this point I would like to know if there's a motion to approve resolution 22-23-05 to establish school facility fees I move that we approve resolution 22 23 over 5. thank you roll call yes excellent thank you guys um now we're on item 16 presentations and communication um first I would like to invite Dr beatson to speak on the human growth development and sexual health and I do see that I have two members of the public that do want to speak on this item would you like I can call you up at this point um Eunice Eunice Eunice Eunice
062please please come on up to the podium oh you're 16b okay and then Heather Graves are you on this item okay please please join us foreign hi I'm Heather I haven't had a chance to hear your take on this I've only seen what was published on your website I found some of it alarming disconcerting I have three grandchildren in Benicia Unified School District elementary middle and high school I raised my children here they all went through the school system and I understand that you're under the gun of the State of California that they dictate in many ways what you have to teach what the curriculum has to include how it has to be phrased I also understand that as far as and I'm just going to call it sex ed because come on that's what
063it is um that doing um the beginning course of that in fifth grade is a city option you guys get to decide whether that happens to my granddaughter whether she gets to hear about gender reassignment whether she gets to have an agenda shove down her throat that she's far too young to hear or if you're just gonna let that go then we go on to the high school and I understand those are mandatory I don't have to like them but they're mandatory if my daughter doesn't want them she can opt her kids out we can talk to them at home about it but for a 10 year old to be subject to this they're not even close to puberty I mean can we let them be children just for a while longer before we start
064all this nonsense I don't understand the push that I'm seeing in not just our school district but multiple school districts the gender identity push when we've got Math Science and English scores that are at the bottom of the United States Heap we're looking pretty good in California benicia's you know up there in California but California is down at the bottom of the Heap so we can't be patting ourselves on the back that we're doing a fabulous job on academics because we're not and I think to divert all this attention to this Equity when this should be a personal discussion between a child and their parent or a child in their therapist or a child in their doctor but not a child and their teacher and certainly not something that they are made to feel less
065than my high school and my middle school students report to me that they are made to feel wrong because they don't have a pronoun because I don't care about a pronoun they love their friends that are lgbtq the problem is there's a division being created and it's being created by the school the more you fracture these kids into groups whether it's racial economic political sexual the more you create a divide you're sitting behind the American flag you swore to hold up that standard I'm almost done that is the flag that all of us are united under not the lgbtq flag that's the flag that our kids need to have a reference to thank you for your comment um and then I am going to invite Dr beatson to speak on this item please thank you
066thank you very much uh president Zeta trustees Dr Wright um Miss rice sends her apologies she had something come up and couldn't be here this evening she and I were going to do this presentation together so I'm going to try my best to live up to her standards um I have several presentations on the agenda this evening and I just want to let you know I'm going to go through them relatively quickly but stop me at any time if you have questions these are all uh meant to be contextual and Frameworks for work that we're going to engage in this spring and we'll be bringing back uh for you in more depth foreign so tonight really what I wanted to do around human growth development and sexual health is to shed some light on what
067the state Ed code Frameworks and standards require of us as a school district both in sexual health and in broader contexts talk with you a little bit more about what our current practice is what um and I want to address some of the concerns that we've heard over time from our community and we have a couple teachers here that are going to get up to speak about some things that they see in here in the classroom and then talk with you about next steps wow okay um as in everything that we do we ground our work in our mission and our vision and our beliefs and I just want to point out a couple that I think are pretty relevant to this conversation and one is that every student has a voice that deserves to
068be heard and that we want to create safe and welcoming schools to help students and staff uh reach their full potential and I think that those two uh points really speak to the the conversation we're going to have this evening and then again also grounding us and and helping us um uh direct and guide our work is the equity statement that we've brought before you earlier this year really talking about um making sure that we're taking a close look at our practices our instructional practices our policies to make sure that we can lift all the students in our community up so um the next few slides really are going to just highlight some of the text in the Ed code this one is California Education Code section 51 930 and it is called the California
069healthy youth act or Chaya for short it was brought forth in 2016. there's really Five Points you're going to see them on this slide in the next slide and um they're talking about Knowledge and Skills and medically accurate and age-appropriate is really the context of Chaya and it's around reproductive Health HIV um healthy attitudes adolescent growth identity body image sexual orientation marriage family um and also um talking about a a thing that's really shifted from the last uh standards and Edco that we had was really this idea about medically accurate and so in all of the documentation from the standards to the Frameworks to the health curriculum that the state is is recommending has been vetted and developed with health professionals and so it was in conjunction with Educators and health professionals to get to
070that medically accurate portion um but it's all about giving kids Knowledge and Skills so that they can make their own healthy informed decisions um another big change that we have in the Chaya which is instructional materials shall be age-appropriate medically accurate as I said and then there is a piece in here that no matter what curriculum we use they must align and support the purposes of this act and not be in conflict with them and the piece I have bolded here is instructional materials shall affirmatively recognize that people have different sexual orientations and when discussing or providing examples of relationships and couples shall be inclusive of same-sex relationships because we know that students in our schools come from all different family types and so we want to make sure that they're all valued and seen
071and heard and the instruction and material shall teach pupils about gender gender expression and and so forth but again it's all at an age-appropriate level um this next uh Ed code is called I'm sorry hold my back out and so every once in a while I tweak it a little funny um the fair Education Act and this came out in actually 2011 and this is if you think about sexual health um that sits inside of this Ed code as well because this is broader and this talks about any curriculum and materials that we use must fit in this Education Code social content statute and that talks about portrayal and proportion so repres the materials we use should be accurate representations and portrayals of the kids and families that we have in front of us they
072we have to make sure that we are representing and demonstrating the contributions of all groups of people and that includes people who have different sexual orientations males females different genders different um uh uh I'm sorry my brain just went um all different diverse groups and then of course we can't uh have references to brand names and so forth so that's just a broader act than the Chaya So currently um we have uh human growth and development in fifth grade it used to be called family life in seventh grade in taught in science and in 10th grade in biology all of our curriculum is quite out of date and it's not in alignment with the Chaya requirements last year the high school piloted a new curriculum called rights respect and responsibility they will continue to Pilot
073it this year before we bring it to you for adoption the elementary and middle school teachers reviewed a new curriculum last year but we have not yet piloted or implemented it um before uh the pilot happened at the high school last year we had a parent evening with a trainer we trained our teachers with a trainer so one of the requirements in the Chaya is that our teachers are well trained and there's actually an independent trainer that trains in all the recommended curriculum from the state it they did an amazing job our teachers felt very confident in teaching that and the parents that came on the call learned about the curriculum things they could do to support their children at home and that was very well received and we would do that again so I'm
074at the point where I really want to just talk about some of the things that we've heard some of the concerns one of the things that's come up um in past board meetings is this idea of indoctrination and what I want to really reassure all of you is that we are not um forcing ideas on people but instead we are giving people Knowledge and Skills and wanting them to make their own decisions but to be ensured that we are valuing and seeing all of our community and all of the kids that are in front of us and their families another thing I want to remind everyone is that sexual health does have an opt-out Clause so families who prefer to do that on their own can opt out to all or part of sexual health
075all of the lessons and all of the work inside of these documents really encourage thinking and decision making so we're not telling kids what to think but we are providing information so that they can make their own decisions knowing that their family values may be different than some of the information that's presented and that's okay and their families are super important in this whole role in this whole Prospect and then at this point I would like to invite up two of our esteemed fifth grade teachers Miss Harley and Mr Birkin and they're going to share just a snippet of some of the information and ideas that they're hearing in the classroom and things that their teachers in fifth grade are requesting hi everybody I'm Melissa thanks for having us hail Burkey Melissa Harley Hill Birkin
076we're both fifth grade teachers and actually um you know we have historically taught this in fifth grade and we're sort of here to give you that um the sort of perspective from that end right so we both have taught that um the subject that we euphemistically called family life and we call Health um human health and development right that's what the focus is we're pretty clear that fifth grade has a uh has um an age-appropriate Focus to the conversations that we would have in fifth grade would be really different I want to say that up front um as a fifth grade team we feel pretty really strongly um about how important it is for us to have some medically accurate information um so it isn't um you know it just sort of keeps us all
077aligned and heading in a direction um that's just solid and accurate and that feels pretty important to us and we're also um as a team concerned that we're so kind of far out of compliance for what the standards are right now um and our I want to say the curriculum-ish thing that we're using at this time is about 20 years old I think so um we'd feel really strongly that the kids deserve this because not having the information in the vacuum is really um alarming disturbing for us if you want to add to that hail yeah so I just want to say I've been teaching family life was what we used to call it um for gosh about 20 years now and um it is one of the true privileges of my career to be
078able to teach kids about something that they are honestly dying to know about they really want to discuss it and they are discussing it it's being discussed out on the playground it's being discussed on the yard and that's where you get into trouble um we want to give them accurate medical information we use scientific language when we're talking about these things and we're very clear on what we're teaching um honestly the idea of I know one of the things that is a concern is should we teach this in fifth grade and my answer is no we should teach it in fourth grade because honestly most of the girls coming into our classrooms are either on have already had their periods or or are going to start very soon and so fifth grade in some ways
079is too late but at least it's being dealt with and I think it's very important for them to get accurate information about what's happening in their own bodies and they're curious they want to know and um and they're worried right so there's a way to be able to offer just like I said very clear age-appropriate informations to relieve some of their worry and the other piece that we all feel strongly about that's always been a really big part of um the opt-out piece because of course I want to be respectful of families too and we come from a whole range of um of experiences and cultures and I respect that and um and we the term that we've used forever is every kid needs to develop their board of directors their their trusted adults preferably
080your family your parents your you know your grown-ups that you trust that you can get accurate information from so that that like school and their teacher is not the only place to get information but making a distinction of what information you can trust so it's not your cousin it's not your neighbor right and that those conversations about your family's value system and what the expectations are as you go forward um that that is that resides at home and will often say like hold on a minute that's the question you're asking is through outside the range of what we talk about in you know human development in fifth grade so it's a really good question for someone on your board of directors that's a really good question to go home and have a conversation at home
081so there is no um assumption that we're sort of taking that part over it's it's just we're able to offer in um in a setting that is um is safe with um um teachers that are respectfully trying to give accurate scientific information yeah and I totally agree I think that opt-out option is very important for families who just aren't comfortable with it they have that option um but for the kids who are there it's an opportunity for them to hear accurate information and in fifth grade we are very clear that it is about your changing bodies we're not talking it's not about Behavior Behavior right we're not talking about that's not the thrust of fifth grade education at all it's about your bodies and the bodies of everybody around you and so in a lot
082of ways it creates empathy for hate this is what some of your classmates are experiencing right now and allows them to understand it and with kind of with the benefit of that being look we have um really specific ways that are reasonable for us to have conversations about that and here's all the ways that you need to be respectful of the other people in your life that are you're going through things you feel uncomfortable other people are too it's not appropriate to comment on that it's not appropriate to go out and have these conversations out on the playground who are the people you can trust to give you accurate information what is your family's you know beliefs and value systems around the topic because like I said it's super complex um so we over time
083even with the limited curriculum that we've had been able to like in a really respectful way just give information and I think um the other piece that you know we want to be um you know the other ship that's happened in the last 20 years is that um our understanding that we need to honor the the wide range of humanity that we live around you know human beings are complex um and all of the I know there's a lot of hubbub about gender this that the other thing like the truth of the matter is the kids come to us their families are here with us and there's a whole range of experiences that people have and a whole range of feelings and identity and all sorts of things and there's a way in our little
084fifth grade land to give kids a safe place to understand have empathy feel comfortable ask questions connect with their families and I just feel like that opportunity would be um is it's a really powerful opportunity it'd be sad if it were lost in fifth grade honesty I think it would be a disservice to our children thank you can I say one thing about that piece if we don't offer them that information respectfully with all those right understandings they'll look for it elsewhere and where they look for it in my opinion is terrifying that's online for my kids to have questions and then they'll look there instead of have a whole range of people they can ask that's frightening and I think they deserve better from us so thank you both so much so in summary
085they they took my in summary slide which is uh just a reminder that all curricular materials must have that diverse representation and there isn't opt out for that however in the sexual health there is and so families that have concern around that can and use that option so next steps um we will review and adopt a sexual health curricula provide training for staff and parents we will do a pilot before we do that our recommendation is continue with fifth grade human growth and development and sexual health and then in seventh and 10th grade of course it's required we'll continue to have a robust con curriculum adoption process I've we've linked the evaluation tool here before Mrs Rice has brought that to you before we base it off of what the requirements are for the State
086of California and we will be bringing forward recommendations for curriculum adoption in January thank you questions or any questions thank you but don't go far because you're next again um we're going to be discussing uh consideration wait a minute grading for equity and I do have a speaker uh Eunice Eunice I I apologize I'm sorry come on up you don't mind me hi thank you for the opportunity to speak um I want to speak about uh grading for Equity um I'm not an expert on this but I've done a fair amount of reading on critical race Theory and um equity um and from my reading I've come to believe that excuse me equity and education will not raise standards um it will lower them high achieving students will be encouraged to come down to the
087low achieving level [Music] um I assume that all of you have children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews or whatever who are school age um and just think about this if they don't work to receive a good grade um and they won't work they may not work hard at much of anything in life um and they'll be on a path to being practically failures I don't think you want that for the children in your life um and just think of in the future once these kids grow up and you know they run for political office or they're they're running Banks they're you know doing whatever um there they will be the low Achievers who will be running all these institutions what will our life like be then um do you really want low Achievers to
088to be in those positions so I really would ask you to reconsider thinking about Equity programs whatever they may be and I'm sure you're going to discuss that and think about the long-term impacts of implementing them thank you thank you Eunice got it um okay Dr beatson you can continue with the um grading for Equity excellent well thank you very much again this is a a beginning of a conversation that we will continue through the spring and hopefully for through next year so it's really just setting some context um I want to let you know that we started talking about grading and Grading practices and um what was working and what wasn't working pre-pandemic when we took a team of teachers and administrators to the county office to hear Rick wormelli talk about grading and
089Grading practices and some helping us think a little bit differently about what what how to calculate a grade what goes into a grade all of those things we continued it last year with a book club we read with a team of teachers grading a book called grading for Equity by Joe Feldman and again helping us think a little bit differently about how do we grade students how do we how do we report on what they know and are able to do and so this presentation again is just to give you some foundational information about a conversation that we will continue with our staff in the spring and into the future um again I want to have everyone understand what our current practice is and the current context and I want to talk a little bit
090about problems of practice with traditional grading systems and that is National it's not just here in Benicia but some things that are arising with traditional grading systems and then talk about some potential next steps I won't go through all of this again but again we ground everything that we do in our mission and vision it is our Guiding Light and um uh so all of these are are what we are striving for in this district and our Equity statement really talking about taking a deep and close look at our practices and our procedures and our policies and how do we remove barriers so that all students can succeed at high levels because that is what we want um so our current practice in Benicia unified is that our elementary schools use a standards brace standards
091based grading scale of one to four one being far from standard and for exceeding standards so they've identified essential standards and students are reported on their Mastery level on those standards and our secondary schools use a traditional grading system of a zero to a hundred a to F system and you can see that grade scale there last June we brought forth an updated board policy on grading and I've pulled out just a few elements um to uh remind you of what's in there one is that grades are an impartial consistent observation of a student's academic work and Mastery of course content that's the purpose of grading um we are not supposed to be grading or putting into a student's academic grade elements that aren't direct measures of course content so work habits conduct attendance can
092be marked elsewhere but they shouldn't be mixed in with the content grade and that all assignments shall be available for makeup with full credit foreign facts and data what we know is that we have a lot of students at our secondary level that are receiving D's and F's in courses and um in in uh major on many teachers classrooms we have 20 to 50 percent of students getting D's and F's and I put a D in there because at the secondary level in order to be have a course um uh be accepted for UC or CSU admission it needs to be a c or above and so I want you to keep thinking about that as we go through this presentation a d will get you through graduation but it will not be accepted at
093a c a uccsu and so if one of the things that we're trying to do is increase the number of students who are uccsu eligible we need to be thinking about that the the purple box um really just talks about some some inconsistencies and these are very typical inconsistencies that happen all across the country some teachers allow redos and retakes for work that's not done well others do not some people accept late work others do not some people have extra credit others do not so when a student moves through six classes a day there's lots of differences in what makes up a grade the next several slides and I'm not going to go through all of them but they're just interesting ways to rethink a traditional grading system and so the blue box on the
094left is really the effect of a zero so if you have a student in a class you've given 10 uh six tests over the course of a semester they've received a perfect score on five of them got a zero on another because maybe they were not in school that day never made up the test whatever and then the overall average grade is an 83 and and the question raised is does that 83 um an accurate per tail of what the Content Mastery is for that student um in the green box um you have all the things that were taught in in English class a high school English class per se in a quarter main idea theme thesis uh close reading annotating tests text cultivating writer's voice and the student walks away with a B with
095no other marks on and my question is does that tell us what the student's proficiency level is with those topics and those standards and I remember when we moved at the elementary school at the Upper Elementary from raids to standard space we got to be very specific because a student might be really great at one of those but not great at another and it helps us understand better what the student can know and be able to do um I like the purple box here uh which is imagine the reverse and so remember we have a zero to a hundred scale um a 90 to 100 is an a an 80 to an 89 is a b right a 70 to a 79 is a c a 60 to a 69 is a d and a
096zero to a 59 is an F so it is on a mathematical ruler scale it counts a whole lot more to get an f and this just again in in helping people think differently if that was reversed and an F was a zero to a nine a d was a 10 to a 19 a c was a 20 to a 29 a b a 30 to a 39 and an a of 40 to 100 so that same sort of range of scale um that that proportional influence of those grades would be very different and so it's just helping you think if that was flipped what would that mean okay I think I hit this little thing with me um uh the blue box here is it's just another it's kind of silly but if you
097take the average temperatures of a city in Virginia 85 87 88 84 all very close on the fifth day they forgot to take the reading and so the average is 68.8 doesn't really match what the average true temperature there is and so it's just it's again helping us question some of the practices which is what when we think about how we want to create an equitable system for students the first thing we have to do is start to just examine our own system and ask some questions the AP board scores for AP tests on a one to five scale not on a zero to a hundred scale and all of that gets to this box on green so when we have uh potentially inconsistent or misaligned practices here are some of the impacts that may
098occur on Equity you may have students whose scholarships are at risk they may not be eligible for sports they may their car insurance rates could be different what colleges they may get accepted to because teacher a b c d all has different practices that go into those grades and so um though that's the equity piece of grading that I think we're going to have to really have some hard conversation around is how when we grade are we consistent enough so that students have Equitable opportunities for their next step in Life or or any of these types of activities this one I thought was pretty interesting these are just um two students you have student a and student B there you have the categories that a teacher likely will have in their grade book and they're
099weighted very they're weighted the same in the blue box and in the green box however the student scores very differently so student a gets high scores on homework lower scores on tests high scores on Class work and really high score and participation but the tests where we're measuring content knowledge is low they get a 76. the student in the green box doesn't do all their homework or participate that much in class and their classwork is not great but gets a really high score on tests what's measuring the content and they have the same score and so again it's just two examples of how two teachers can score work differently and how a student or how students can participate in class differently and come out with the same grade but are two very different students foreign
100one of the the concepts that we will grapple with in our in our study of grading is um really that grades the purpose of grades are a way to report what students know and able to do um at the end of The Journey but not necessarily the path that you took to get there because it may take some students longer they may not learn on that first day but they may learn on the fifth day and at the end the learning occurred so how do we show that and represent that with our current grading system and so then here what I have mapped out is proposed next steps they're pretty aggressive they're probably going to take longer than this but the idea is that we would put some teams of teachers and administrators together to
101study our practice what uh let's do some new learning around what's out there let's look at what our current practice is take an audit of what that is we may reach out to some experts in the field to help us think differently we will try some small shifts that people are interested in trying and then hopefully hopefully next spring but it may have to get pushed out that we may be looking at revising our grading policy but it would be done walking alongside teachers bringing them into the room having those conversations together and so really the purpose of tonight was just to start to talk with you about the conversations that we will continue to have with our our staff and our um our administrators and by the way I should have said this earlier
102but we've had some teachers come forward from our secondary level that said we need to do something about this this parents are confused we're not we're not able to um clearly articulate what students can know and be able to do especially as we go from middle to Elementary to middle and then middle to high and class to class and so they're really asking for having this conversation so any questions I can take a drink thank you um next up is the lcap update um Dr beatson yeah take a drink of water Miss Martinez can you flip my slide back to the beginning oh I could do that I have the clicker I got it I know you all get nervous when I put slides on here because there's so many of them but I'm trying
103to go fast um so again thank you this again this is something I typically do around this time of year just to give you an update as to where we are with implementation with our local control accountability plan um and it will roll right into Mr uh Ray Hill's budget presentation so we try to tag team this a little bit um as you know last may you approved and adopted our lcap it got approved by the state of California and I just want to let you know where we are in its implementation foreign I won't say this slide again or this one [Music] but both of those the mission and our Equity statement are really grounded in our four lcap goals just to remind you we have four lcap goals we are in the second
104uh year of implementation of a three-year lcap and um we have two academic focused goals literacy Humanities and math and steam one that's focused primarily on social emotional learning and one on equity and opportunity but I do want to say if you read through those goals carefully equity and opportunity is laced and interwoven in all of them because when we can create opportunities for all students to succeed and remove barriers so that all students have access we do better by everyone this slide is sort of a cheat sheet of the actions and services that are inside all four goals of the lcap I need to remind you that the items in bold are the big ticket items that we've been paying for with one-time funds so if you remember about a year and a half
105ago we started getting um very generous grants from the state of California in one-time buckets and so Mr Ray Hill and I and our lcap team have done a very good job of laying those grants side by side to stretch out those dollars for multiple years so we've been able to continue the one-time nature over several years okay that won't go on forever and we've known from the beginning that we're going to have to have some hard conversations about what do what are we able to build into a general fund what are we what do we need to end and so one of the things that we've tried to do very deliberately over the last couple of years is collect some local data on each of these items so that we could see their impact
106because everything that goes into the lcap really needs to be grounded in data is it working is it uh is it having the intended outcome so I know there's a lot of data slides on here and I will I will say that I'm not going to go through all of them yes sir I'm in social emotional learning what is care Solace is um we we call it it's like a concierge service if you will so if a student or their any member of their family is in crisis and they don't have the capacity or ability at that moment to try to navigate their own Health Care system to get a counselor to get a therapist to get someone on the other end to help they can call and connect with care Solace and carasalis will
107take their information and go connect them with a therapist and um the there's there's a couple of things that happens one is they can help direct them and two is they'll they'll do something called a warm handoff as they will actually stay sort of on the line with the person until they can connect them with someone absolutely um did you want me to go through any of the other items on this slide or are you pretty familiar okay um so again one of the charges that we have to have in in the l l cap I must have the elephant development the lcap development is to um really pay attention to data on how things are working and so there's many data slides after this one and there's a bunch of links that have more
108data slides in there this is kind of our summary so what we've noticed in our data our local data is that we have an increase in elementary counselor Wellness Center visits and our mental health we have an additional mental health clinician this year and we had one last year's well they're able to service more students and so that's all really great news um uh our Wellness Center um the students when they enter the wellness center and then when they leave they take a survey and so we have the data on how many students are visiting and then the other really impactful is not that we're only serving a lot of students is that at least 87 percent of them at every single site say they feel better after they leave the wellness center and so
109we have that data it gets sent to us from the county every month so we can track how that service is working another piece of data that you'll see in the next upcoming slides is that we have an increase in services for our elementary students and academics for K5 we've been able to increase those Services go up from just first through third grade was what we are serving before and we've started to be able to do some mathematics uh support as well so we see more students which is great and they're doing really well and we're seeing growth in their data the other place that's new is in we're doing some direct service with our multi-language Learners and so we've had classes at our sections of ELD at our middle and high school but in
110addition this year with our tosa Brenda streisner who was a former Matthew Turner teacher she is doing direct service to our uh number our ones and twos El students and that's having a great impact we're seeing academic growth on the nwea assessment in every grade and so that's a growth data doesn't mean everybody's meeting standard but they're all growing which is what we want um and that surpassed our the projected growth what they say we should be growing we're growing more than that um another piece this is uh Statewide and National I just read something from uh superintendent Tony Thurman Thurman chronic absenteeism remains really really high and that is post pandemic and so we're talking about why is that what is keeping kids from coming to school our suspension rates at this point in
111the year are down significantly that's good news for us and another real point of Celebration is that on our reach survey which is given to all 6th through 12th graders we have seen a significant increase in response in student sense of belonging and feeling like their classrooms are culturally affirming and that data is on one of these upcoming slides and you know that's been a focus for us for the last couple of years and so we're seeing that pay off in that survey so unless you would like me to um I can talk about any of the data on these slides but they're there for your review this is like I said this is our local data we identified what data we wanted to collect with our lcap group which is made up of BTA
112executive board members and um uh appearance and so we went through every single action and started to pull what kind of data do we want to be looking at year after year and so that's what all of these next slides are here and I'm happy to pause and go through anything that you would like me to um no okay but here you can see sense of belonging in 2019 we're at 19 and uh last year spring 52 and so that's a huge a huge jump in so we're really proud of the work our teachers are doing in creating that sense of belonging in the classrooms um these slides the progress monitoring slides for the nwea and Casp I did a presentation on I think it was the last meeting we had so this is the
113same information I just put it in here for you to review again the other piece in this presentation um is to just update you on a few actions that are built into one of the grants which is called the sr3 Grant and we're required by law to bring it back to you every six months to update you you approved the plan uh October 29 2021 we revised it in May I brought it back to you then and then um I'm sharing with you that we are on track we've kept those actions and services and we're on track for spending and services uh with what's written in the sr3 as of right now which are our elementary counselor our Wellness Center staff we were able to increase Wellness Center Staffing using these fundings we have it
114also pays for our lower class size or no combination classes at the elementary schools and some professional learning and so we're on track with all of that nothing has changed since I brought it to you last and time for the good news and then I'm going to hand the mic over to my friend here Mr Ray Hill but we've just received um two more grants or they're one grants that comes in two parts a learning recovery Grant and a discretionary instructional Grant it's going to be about 5.2 million dollars um the good news is uh with the work of Mr Ray Hill if we decide as an lcap team and a board that the actions and services that are in our current lcap are working and we want to continue them we will be able
115to continue them all for at least one more year with this new money coming in so that's good news is and again it's just sort of mapping out how we expend these one-time grants um we will be starting our lcap stakeholder engagement when we come back uh from winter break all right thanks moving on to item 17 are action items uh first item I'm going to introduce Mr Ray Hill for um some financial information please thanks we have this um item for your action tonight to review and approve the first interim financial report for the district um it's kind of a check-in Point uh we do another second interim financial report in March um before we start wrapping up the year uh towards June um so it's a check-in um things are going according to
116budget we just presented um this uh same financial information as part of the unaudited actuals at one of the last school board meetings and so we're using the information from the state approved 2223 budget and current information from the state um this financial report does provide for the state's reserve for economic uncertainties and our local board policy Reserve um so in that case the district does provide a positive certification for this 2223 first interim financial report so um in the packet it it does have the um pie charts which break out um our revenues and expenditures and we've added some additional documentation in there with um our our employee counts our full-time equivalencies otherwise known as FTE so right at about 469 which is what it was at the last um reporting cycle um we've
117added a few um additional pieces in the packet in regards to technology needs deferred maintenance and book adoptions and so um I just wanted to check in with the board and ask for your direction if you want me to just kind of go through each slide or do you want me to highlight some of the new information that's included highlight okay so if we can go to um we'll just go to that first page the summary of um FTE and if I can bring it up here there's a tab that says Staffing summary excuse me and it's probably about five or six in yes there we go and so we've included over the last um five years uh with our current 2223 um budget of FTE full-time equivalency basically our number of Staff we have
118um some of our staff are part-time um so we add them together to come with the equivalent of one full-time employee so you notice that in the earlier years it was floating around uh 430 and more recently it's um above 460 closer to 470 and that's due to the state's ability to pass on all the coveted relief funds which are turning into the stimulus funds which um as Dr beatson mentioned in the lcap we've put together our rolling three-year plan on programs and services tapping into those funds um that are we're using to provide some additional Staffing and so as she mentioned in her presentation the good news is with the last round of um State one-time funds that if the district chooses through this lcap process over the next um six months that if
119we wanted to continue doing what we're doing now we would be able to do that um if we wanted to change things or add things we'd have to take a look at that and see if there's some prioritizing that we would need to do so that gives you an idea of the different Staffing levels um the the next several Tabs go into detail of all the different types of Staffing and after that what we've done is we've provided individual pie charts for more detail of our expenditure expenditure categories and we'll just look at one maybe the first one on employee benefits um it is right after all of the FTE tabs at the bottom probably about halfway through the document and be able to scroll over uh yes perfect yeah so um our employee benefits
120that we pay for all of our employees it's about 15.8 million and so this tab kind of breaks that down I mean um to all the different levels of what what those are biggest biggest pieces are retirement plans um for our employees Then followed by health benefits um so those are the biggest chunks uh there are other types of um benefits that are provided not to every employee but at least to some some social security and Medicare first um for classified folks Medicare applies to both Dental workers comp and some life insurance so kind of brings a big giant number like 15.8 million gives it a little bit more detail as to what what makes up of that that number we've done that um for the other expenditures and so that's in your pocket in
121your packet um so that is some good detail to take a look at services yes Professional Services I would assume a chunk of that is legal yeah so what we did there is we're um the way that this the state requires us to code things is on that first one um and Miss Martinez if you can go to the one that says services and capital outlay it's a few over there you go so we have another chunk at 6.4 million and um you can see you know utilities Insurance solar loans the very top one at Professional Services what we've done is we've kind of peeled the onion for you and on the very next tab we've split out that Professional Services of 3.3 million so um it gets better um because I knew you would
122ask and um but it there is another chunk that that is categorized as school program services at you know 2 million which is still a question which we have another slide for um so you can see on that page there's software there's your legal costs um transportation and other so if we go to the very next tab um this kind of takes all of those services and stuff down to the more understandable level uh and half of that goes towards special ed services at just over a million dollars especially to be correct yeah um no busing would was on the other page um these are um more of um specialized contracted services that aren't provided by employed staff um there are some uh non-public school costs as well and what we have um provided new
123in the packet is we've done a little bit of Outreach with our directors and um some of their staff at the school sites and so at the technology Tech refresh plan um is we wanted to start to to put together some documentation about what our needs are both currently and in the long term and so we have a couple guests with us tonight and actually um Bruce if you would like to just come up and say a couple um highlights on our district Tech refresh ing president Zeta Dr Wright board members um so we kind of put this together I worked with my team uh to put together roughly what we have out there what we what's going on right now for like the top one is just sustaining what we have currently uh in
124technology I talked you know we reached out the team I'd have a tech committee made up of teachers one from each site kind of get their input and talk to them what's going on what's working what's not so that's where that's at and then the bottom one is mostly what we need to get every classroom to a standard well we need to you know get everybody on the same device teachers have the same projectors same uh everything in the classroom Plus speakers and clock you know things that are end of life that need to be replaced so um but that's pretty rough numbers but um good numbers at the same time there's everything on there that we need yeah yeah and so um kind of again gives some level of detail to all the different
125techniques that go on in the district I think um when when covid came and we all all the kids learned from home and we taught from home and we did everything from home technology use and needs just went way up and now that we are back in the classroom those needs really have not declined and you know maybe a little bit but they're still there so you know this is a first attempt to to put together a plan if we want to maintain that what we need to do um on the next on the next tab um another big kind of annual need is a curriculum adoption cycle uh which Dr beatson would like to say a few words sure um Miss rice uh was here um at the last meeting I believe or the
126two meetings ago maybe um and talked with you about our projected curriculum adoption and needs and so this is the the same presentation pretty much and basically um we have a lot of adoptions that will be coming up this is all tentative based on the rollout from the state but in addition to new adoptions which can go from 200 000 to 400 000 depending on what it is we also have ongoing costs and so for instance an example of that is that our elementary math curriculum the adoption cycle is over so typically when you adopt a new curriculum it comes uh paid if you will for X number of years maybe five years or seven years you pay up front your four hundred thousand dollars you may have to buy a little something but it's
127paid that has expired we we have been waiting for the new math framework so we haven't adopted a new math curriculum but we have to pay now every year to the company so there's these ongoing costs that occur so there's the new Adoption costs there's some ongoing costs and then we have um subscriptions and supplemental materials uh you know um online online programs and things that have a yearly subscription and so over the course of the next several years we have quite a bit of adoption work to do as well okay um and kind of a an introduction into [Music] um how the district um maintains its school facilities is we wanted to do this slide on the status of our bond in our state facility construction projects and so as you guys know the
128community several years ago passed a local facility bond that provided us 49.6 million dollars to build a classroom and school facilities and so since then we've had a few other grants and interest earnings um to contribute towards State Facility construction prog projects and so that actually has brought it up to about 51.5 million that's on that first line over in the total column the other really big addition into our local school facility funding for school facilities is that a state Proposition 51 those facility funds that um our director of of bond facility projects has been working with the consultant to go after and so those are real dollars that um the district has gone and applied for at the state and have we have brought those in there in our state facility um account that
129we can use towards our school facility projects and so the total of those two together it's about 63 million dollars and um what we did um right about the same time that the community considered a school facility Bond as we did our school facility master plan which we will be forwarding to our new member on our facility steering committee um and for you will be getting one of these um and in this document so you know it's been it's been six or seven years so it needs to be freshened up a little bit but for the most part um it's still pretty accurate and in this document um we've documented the needs for 136 million so we knew um we we went after and asked the community for what we what they would support and
130we got what we could so we have to prioritize what those projects are and so um we still have a lot to do we'll be discussing uh what we have and what our needs are in that facility steering committee but um fortunately for our district for our community uh we had that local Bond pass um and we're towards the end of um spending those funds um any the remaining funds that we have left in the bond those are fully committed for the farmer project um the campus project there and then um a bunch of other projects at all the other school sites too so it's fully committed out and um so we'll be talking about what the remaining needs are and what the next steps are with that so without that um the facility construction
131proc projects are very difficult to accomplish in um using the general fund because if you absent those funds it would be a big drain on that so that's the importance of trying to go after State Facility funds which are separate than the general fund and then the last [Music] um summary page um in the packet is uh what school districts refer to as a five-year deferred maintenance plan so when a district does a bond and when we get State construction funds the bond funds are for construction of things you with the district still must maintain those ourselves so maybe our uh director of Maintenance Mr Romero can come up and and say a few words um about our maintenance plan um which was uh just put together by um our district architect Hy architect so
132this is really hot off the press and the full document is a separate attachment in your board packet good evening president Ada um board members Dr Wright in this cabinet um good evening I'm Alfredo Romero I have eight pages of documents I'll read to you tonight um really we created this five-year uh deferred maintenance plan with collaboration from rcbo Tim Ray Hill our bond director uh Roxanne Egan Hy Architects and myself together we compiled a list of outstanding items and forecasted items um in maintenance which we added a range of proposed repairs and if you look at the report you can see that a lot of the items are similar from school site to School site some schools needing more attention than others and those are noted in the report um on the summary page
133that we're viewing now you get a bird's eye view of the maintenance needs district-wide and as we plan every year for these items we prioritize by many factors including obviously the need um available availability of capital labor material supplies and time please feel free to review this at your leisure and if you have any questions maintenance I'm always available okay thank you yeah if you were to um if you were op if you were to open up The Five-Year Plan in that you have in your packet um kind of the big categories it's like asbestos it's lighting electrical floors HVAC painting Paving Plumbing Roofing playground Wall Systems uh some furniture and Equipment classroom Furniture fencing Fields the list goes on and on and so that's um what are the different types of works that um
134Mr Romero and and his crew are tasked with taking care of and there's an annual budget it does not come close to addressing all of the needs that are in the plan but we didn't want that the funding limitations to hold back on you know this document so if we need to prioritize that something that we can do um and so those are just some added level of detail um to kind of bring the needs to Life we'll be bringing these forward with the lcap process again um to use that as a resource as we take a look at that over the next six months um and so with that um I think I'll just I'll I'll stop there um like I said earlier this is an interim report just reporting out on our finances
135we do have um the required reserves um it's a positive certification um once approved we submit and file this report with the county office and the state of California and then we come back uh to the board in March with the second interim financial report thank you any questions okay can I get a motion to go ahead [Music] thank you may I get a second real call yes thank you Mr rayjo and thank you gentlemen for presenting next up is 17b consideration and approval of the updated course outline for the ngss Integrated Science Mrs Rice is not here so we're going to push it over to Dr beatson hello again um so several years ago quite a few years ago actually our high school science department had to update all of their courses to be
136in alignment with the new Next Generation science standards the ngss and since then we've the science team at the high school is amazing and done a great job but they have updated their ninth grade course it was called or it currently is called ngss physics it's taught at the ninth grade it's really an integrated science class it is integrated with chemistry earth science and a little bit of physics and so they've updated it to reflect more of what the standards are saying now that we know more about those standards and it will continue to be a d lab they've moved a few things around but are have updated the course outline and are asking for it to be called ngss Integrated Science because it's more accurately reflective of what's taught and also will help alleviate
137we're hoping some confusion because oftentimes parents think that the students have gotten a true full-on Physics course at ninth grade and that's really not what it is and so students that are interested in that should still take the Physics course later on this course um has is already this our Benicia unified course hasn't been adopted by the UC system yet but there is a course that mirrors this that has been adopted so we have no doubt that this one will go through fine so tonight I'm bringing this to you for your consideration and approval which is an adjustment of the ninth grade course from ngss physics to ngss Integrated Science is there any discussion questions okay um can I get a motion please I'll um uh move to approve the updated course outline for ngss
138Integrated Science 9. I'll second that thank you roll call please president Zeta yes trustee gross yes thank you we're going to move on to numbers or letter C and consideration and approval of the appointment of community advisory committee Representatives um yes and I'm going to turn it back over to Dr beatson so this is something that's done yearly which is we appoint and ask for your approval of a staff to be um the uh person that sits on The Advisory board for uh Solano Community advisory committee the CAC the purpose of that board is it's made up of parents Educators and community members and it provides input to the the selpa the special ed um uh group on special education and related services and we were very excited and pleased to have Miss Aaron Bieber
139who is our teacher on special assignment working in special education participate on that group on behalf of our district and so we're just looking for your approval on that thank you can I any discussion okay can I can I prove the appointment of Aaron Bieber to the community advisory uh committee thank you can I get a second please one second roll call yes okay uh moving down the line to item D consideration and approval of the intent to employ with a provisional internship permit and I'm going to turn this over to Dr Wright we're seeking a consideration and approval for Miss koslick to serve as a science third grade science teacher at Henderson she's completed all of her coursework and is just finishing up an exam so in order for us to employ from January
140to June we would need to the provisional internship permit any questions okay can I get a motion please thank you can I get a second last second thank you roll call please yes thank you okay um item e consideration and approval of the revised 2023 2024 calendar and um Dr Wright you're up again yes when we developed the calendar it was a clerical error made on the 2324 calendar April 26 did not get counted as an instructional day or a student day so we would need to add April 26 as an instructional day and in doing that we would need to remove Another Day from the second semester to ensure we'd have the inappropriate number of student days throughout the year so our human resources department they met with our unions and they agreed that
141March 11 to remove March 11th as that student day and at April 26 as that student day I'm just curious why March 11 was there some special deal to it or I think I you know I I don't know I think they just looked at the calendar and just felt that that was just a good break for the students and looking at the calendar it had to be second semester because uh second semester is typically a little bit longer yeah okay I'll move that we uh approve the corrected 2023-24 calendar what the correct number of games okay and um roll call please yes so that brings us to the end of our meeting thank you everybody um happy holidays enjoy your time with family and friends uh over these next few weeks um Good Luck
142on on finals next week guys and uh let's see each other in 2023 the next meeting date is January 19th um so we'll see you then thank you