001and then we're going to have the advisory slide in the background and the Jenise when you're up there you will have this and because you're gonna have to be do not switch Oh I would you guys in here it's just there's so many of these different okay this is the main chord yeah that's what I'm trying to figure out as well so I connected Oh good evening it's anyone here needing to make public comment right thank you good evening when it's not just welcome to Genoa our 20th 2019 meeting of the Berkeley School Board if you want to follow along on our online agenda you can do so on your phone or you can borrow a computer from mr. Lopez I'd like to remind everyone that our board meetings broadcasts live on YouTube that means
002that our meetings and anything captured on video will be archived online and will be online forever I will not call the opposite of tonight's meeting at at 7:30 for the record closed session began at 5:45 miss Lopez will be our secretary for tonight thank you and will now prove the agenda do president leave a cuddler listen vice president Alper director Brown present director Appel here here and our student directors our student directors or absent out early Thanksgiving break okay good so now we will can we have a motion to approve the agenda or there any requested changes I move to forgive each other second move by vice president outbursts second by director Brown all those in favor aye okay so now we'll have a report from closed session vice president okay this is the report
003out from closed session in item 3.1 the superintendent's evaluation we discussed the superintendent's evaluation and item 3.2 we heard an update and provided direction and item three point three point one Oh aah case number two zero one nine zero nine zero eight eight eight there was a motion by director Appel to approve the staff recommendation second by myself vice president Alper all voted in favor and the motion passed five to zero mmm item number three point three point two claim number D SC one five zero three five nine five the board heard an update in item three point three point three case number eighteen CV sixty nine sixty eight there was a motion by myself vice president Alpert to approve the staff recommendation second by president Leyva Cutler directors Appel and Sinai voted in favor
004Director Brown voted against in the motion passed four to one item 3.3.4 case number Ciel one to zero five zero zero one zero seven there's a motion by director cyanide to approve the staff recommendation second by director Appel all voted in favor in the motion passed five to zero that concludes the report from closed session okay I'm just going to briefly say something about tonight's meeting we have a special meeting tonight we'll have we have three public hearings in four items for board approval we have a recognition will be also hearing from Willard school in highlighting it's an exciting eyes tremendous amount of work has been completed by our superintendent staff and community in three proposed tax measures they'll be on the Berkley voters ballot from March 3rd 2020 these measures will greatly benefit Berkley
005schools teachers in our district and please note that a considerable amount of thought and thinking has been put into these measures by many of our teachers or parents our union members staff and the superintendent and the board and the contribution has always held in mind that the voters of Berkley and those who support our schools excellence as a district we're fully committed to these measures being successful and I know that efforts will be forth be put forth to inform our voters who will be it'll be certainly a team effort that's coming up in these coming months we'll hear a public hearing on a approval for initial proposals for reopen errs between our district and our BCC classified on the superintendent's final recommendation for Berkeley public schools educator recruitment and retention Act of 2020 and the
006superintendent's final recommendation for a public Brooke Berkeley public schools facility safety and maintenance Act of 2020 and then we will work on approving the initial proposals for reopen errs again for BCC approve a resolution for the tax measure to impose a qualified special tax on all parcels of tax taxable real property in the districts boundaries and though the facility maintenance act of 2020 and then again our general obligation bond measure so this is an important night for voting and discussing so now I'd like to continue with our 1 we're not going to go through the whole conversation about our our public comment process because we have tonight one public comment Rachel Alpert and Alden Friedman members of the school board my name is Aden Friedman and my name is Rachel Alper we are here today
007as members of the City of Berkeley Youth Commission to speak about the issue of youth and family homelessness which greatly impacts be USD students in order to properly address this problem we need accurate and complete data on youth homelessness in Berkeley following up on a letter that the Youth Commission recently sent we urge you to contract the Institute for child poverty and homelessness the IC pH a nonprofit organization to collect data on the homeless students of Berkeley we appreciate what the district already does to combat youth homelessness and this data could be used to bring more attention to the adversity that this demographic faces and to propel policy to combat it the IC pH is an independent nonprofit which works to collect information on issues of health education and housing in a community their work
008in cities such as Seattle and New York has provided analysis of the struggles of homeless students and the effectiveness of programs which support them they also obtain demographic data to inform the policymakers and the public they do this data collection for free when contracted by the school board and city council working with local government they promised to collect accurate statistics on these underserved communities and evaluate different ways of combating the issue the need for an accurate count of homeless families in Berkeley comes from the conflict in the numbers reported by the school board and the City Council the school board's person-by-person count reported that about 200 Berkeley families are homeless or housing insecure while the city's count found only 37 the in-depth count offered by the IC ph will put certainty behind accurate data regarding
009regarding the homeless population and their demographics as well as take a deep dive into the data and provide more information on the effects of youth homelessness how can we craft effective policy without accurate data funding for services to help these kids require number numbers behind them this data could help provide guidance for allocation of measure P funds and provide reasoning for spending money to address youth and family homelessness these programs are crucial to breaking the cycle of homelessness experiencing homelessness affects kids everyday in school where it has been found that homeless students have a 2.5 times higher chance of being suspended than those with stable housing the trauma that these kids experience is carried throughout their lives the greatest predictor that someone will be homeless as an adult is that there were homeless as a
010child in order to combat youth homelessness we first need to understand the problem collecting this comprehensive data would allow the city and school district to work together to find solutions that properly address youth homelessness the Commission hopes to work more with the board in the future on this issue thank you [Applause] thank you thank you very much so now I skip something on our on our agenda so I'd like to now do the recognition of doctoral thesis at this time we'd like to honor the company like to honor the contribution of dr. Leonardo theis who has made to the district personnel Commission as he steps down from his position after five years of dedicated service the district personnel Commission established in 1943 is one of the oldest established personal commissions in Northern California it's authorized
011by the Education Code and our merit system rules and regulations the purpose of the merit system is to ensure that classify employees are selected promoted and retained on the basis of merit and fitness without favoritism or bias the work of the personnel Commission is critically critically important to the district doctoral theses raised in the cities of Oakland and Berkeley after attending college and completing his PhD he moved to Coachella Valley and served 35 years at the College of the desert where he was a faculty member as well administrator and counselor he served on numerous committees related to governance faculty issues and employee relations retiring from the College of desert doctoral theses wife Judith moved back to an old neighborhood in West Berkeley in 2014 doctoral thesis was appointed to the Berkeley Unified School District personnel
012Commission bringing his experience inside in thoughtfulness to it to its continuing efforts to maintain a fully functioning and infective merit system doctoral thesis herbed as the chair of the personal commission from 2015-16 and again in 2018 19 according to his colleague and vice chair the personnel Commission Timothy carton Timothy Carter here he is here Thank You mr. pritter dr. Turner Dorothy has contributed so much to the personal Commission including his experience and insight from his career in education his willingness to take on the word work at hand his consummate professionalism thoroughness and his ability to be a calming voice as he did the Commission's work dr. Danada Ortiz presence on the personal Commission will be greatly missed we will be giving you recognition dr. theis whereas dr. arnaldo thesis made a significant important contribution to
013this success of the Berkeley Unified School District personnel commission from 2014 to 2019 whereas dr. Dorothy's was consistently thorough passionate and careful by getting to the root of causes of issues before the Personnel Committee and whereas dr. Raymond Dorothy's was an exemplary listener always being mindful to the needs of the district's classify employees and consistently making them feel that they were heard and dr. Danada thesis was exemplified one of the district's core values and beliefs that we treat each other with respect and act with dignity in his service to the personnel Commission now there therefore be it resolved that Berkeley Unified School District along with the superintendent District staff do hereby honor and recognize the outstanding accomplishments of dr. tena Dorothy's as a distinguished member of the district's personal Commission muchas gracias thank you so
014much for your service I'd like to thank the board for the recognition and for the time that I had with it with the Commission it is a very important vital group and it serves you as well as the administration and the staff and particularly the classified staff so hopefully the next person appointed in my place will carry forth your vision as well as a vision of the classified staff as a neutral party to be able to voice the needs and support what is needed in the district okay thank you very much thank you thank you dr. theis so now we'll hear a snapshot our school is a Willard middle school so good evening board members superintendents Stevens district office staff parents guardians and community members I want to thank you for giving Albert Willard the
015opportunity to be in the spotlight tonight as the principal of Willard for the past six years I come to you with pride in appreciation for our Willard community over the past five years we've seen our SBA scores rise as well as our school student population we're now 700 students strong our SBA scores viewed in isolation do not tell our story tonight we would like to invite you into alerts world so you can have a glimpse of the community that is created where all students can achieve and thrive hearing from students about our advisory program and support classes our teacher miss Milner about the mindset of teachers at Willard and our vice principal mr. all back about the gains and math scores will help you to experience life at Willard you can begin to understand how
016we are able to continue to make annual gains on our standards-based assessments I'd like you to introduce you to Farrah and Azariah right now hello my name is Farah and I am a seventh grader at Willard hi my name is Azaria and I am also a seventh grader at Willard our school day at Willard starts off with advisory an advisory we learn how to better prepare ourselves for the challenges that middle school students will likely face advisory helps us learn about topics such as developing study skills how to be an ally LGBTQ awareness and anti-bullying and empathy some highlights that happened this year during advisory or when we played a game where the teacher would ask a yes-or-no question about a social cause and each student would pick a side of the room for how
017they answered that question left for now and right for yes this way each student could voice their opinion and interact with each other while learning about social causes that impact our school advisory helps improve school culture because we discuss topics that are affecting us and the people around us that we might not have known about before advisory gives us the opportunity to learn about challenges facing adolescents in our school and different circumstances that we might be experiencing an advisory we also learned about the people on campus that you can go to if you are struggling advisory helps prepare students by learning for learning by helping us create good habits that will make learning efficient and easier like helping us clean out our binders teaching us the right way to study for quizzes and tests and
018reminding us to use our planners daily if they can do it I can do it good evening members of the board superintendent Stevens and community members my name is Denise Milner and I've been a teacher at Willard since 2004 it's hard to believe that I'm a veteran teacher but it happens and I'm so lucky to have served all these years at Willard I speak tonight on behalf of our teachers and I feel really honored to to represent them the thing that makes our staff so unique as far as I can tell from talking with other teachers and other cities is our commitment to our students and to collaboration we are a staff that works together to solve problems when they arise and we take challenges and create solutions we don't ever think that we are
019done learning so I think that's what makes our school work so well being part of the school culture team for many many years we decided last year thought it was time to really focus on something that we kept struggling with which was how to reach the students that are the most under achieving we felt like this was just this is just constantly an issue that is really hard for teachers to face and we felt like together we could do that so we took a goal that we each decided ourselves to take on and with that we decided to work on that goal through the lens of looking at a focal student and you can see some of the categories we considered on the slide for choosing the focal student and then we really carefully looked
020at the student as as a whole person we talked with families we looked at their educational history we talked with other teachers and maybe I emailed a fifth-grade teacher you know we just gathered all this data and we just knew we could better our practice by really considering one specific goal and through the eyes of the student so many of us made an action plan and the team the school culture team kind of guided this work on our collaboration time so we planned for our goal determined whether it would be we had regular check-ins during collaboration time with each other first does small groups and we paired our groups by having the student and in common and then we would share out as a staff so we would hear what other folks were working on
021we had time to ask questions we had time to research the goal that we were working on and time to share some of the positive outcomes from this work as reported by the teachers was positive relationships built with these students in particular the self critique of our teaching practice really helped us make change that we felt would benefit all students that shared knowledge and a look at our practice and a non evaluative way really helped teachers improve because you can relax and you can really look at something that you've determined you need to work on that will better things for every student so I could go on and on about this but I think that's my time call thank you good evening so as principal Dean stated we are very proud of our results over
022the past five years but the story is not the results the story is the social-emotional systems that we have in place to make our students feel very safe the systems are the teacher learning that we constantly push to have innovative thinking and reflective practice needed to push students and the results are what we want we want students to be learning at high levels the slide that you see currently is a data presentation that ironically we sat here two years ago and presented we were asked to present a data presentation that reflected our school and in that presentation we talked about the use of SBA data and other data and how we're using it to make instructional choices and Grammatik decisions at our school and when we were presenting this two years ago we use the
023data to describe our initiation of what's considered the math support class we have a fancy name for math studio at Willard and this came out of the data and we're really proud of the results of the data but it's not the data it's the testimonials and I have a fantastic student here to speak about math support my name is Siobhan Reid I'm 13 years old and eighth grade and I go to Willard middle school as a student my relationship with math has had its ups and downs in fourth grade math was confusing for me and in sixth grade math got a lot more challenging I was too shy to raise my hand in class because I was afraid I would be judged should've made fun of and I did not have confidence in my math
024skills so I never got any answers when I was confused when I was in seventh grade I started going to math support math support was great because miss Shaw my teacher was friendly and so is everybody in the class I thought this class was going to be difficult or make my understanding of math more complicated however it did quite the opposite the class had fewer students than most classes so miss Shaw could focus on us more and I wasn't afraid to raise my hand in class because in that class because everybody in the class is struggling just like me and they wouldn't judge me a lot of the stuff that we did in math support was a review of what we were learning in our general math class and extra help for the stuff that
025we didn't understand taking math support made me feel more confident in my math skills and that made the SBA easier to understand and complete after taking math support I went from earning a 2 on the SBA to a 3 which represents grade level proficiency taking math support made me happy to have extra time to work in a subject area I did not understand Ward math support provided the extra time and attention I needed as a mathematical thinker and went above and beyond to support my specific learning needs thank you and with that the data that we are very proud of is the math support data that she should have in front of you now I believe the data shows I can't see it here but when students came into math support the students that sat
026in those classes at the beginning of last year 9% of them demonstrated proficiency on the state math exam and at the end of the year those same students who had been in math support all year left at 64 percent proficient so thank you these are students that have been struggling with math for a long time and these are students that we are able to get to proficiency and that's the work that really Willard really prides itself on so thank you and I have to say running a school is easier than talking to you I don't know what's up with that but as we conclude tonight please remember that it will eart we strive to make a heart connection with each of our students we then it's still confidence in our students so that they can
027learn and grow because of the positive educational environment that is created we have a clear vision and that is academic success the process is innovative and creative based on individual student needs so thank you so much for supporting our work thank you for that presentation whether it in for your students - thank you we don't we just do that you just do the presentation there's no questions in her answer thank you Thank You students so now we'll go to Union comments do we have any was there no public comment Wow good evening dr. Stephens and members of the school board I wanted to thank both negotiating teams the superintendent and the school board for all the hard work that went into this round of contract negotiations we met for 11 sessions and negotiated from last
028March until the end of October both sides collectively worked over six months towards solving many issues that directly impact our students after not coming to an agreement in May we were anxious because of all the transitions at the district office that were going to occur over the summer I have to say that Samantha Tobias Espinosa the assistant superintendent of Human Resources jumped right in and made sure that no detail got left behind in the transition she led the district team and prepared them for each session and was integral in working with us on our special education proposal dr. Stephens made sure that coming to an agreement was a district priority and was not only accessible but supportive throughout the process you the school board held two special sessions to make sure the district could keep
029two tight timelines and I know that takes a lot of work to meet on Sunday mornings the two special taxes and bond being considered tonight could not have happened without the work hard work of Natasha Barry Jon Kelis and Brent Stevens I watched John break down both the bond and the maintenance tax at the Town Hall in a way that voters could understand Natasha and Brandt both were able to work in a detailed way on the new educator measure with a short timeline engaging the community bft and the board in order to make sure our district has the revenue it needs to best educate our students we know that the new educator recruitment and retention act will make a big difference in our ability to keep serving the Berkley community and for us to retain
030our great educators I have to mention my members our teachers our teachers were motivated speaking at board meeting after board meeting about how they of their jobs they're students and want to be able to make careers here in Berkeley our special education case manager spoke about the struggles to meet the needs of their students given the high caseloads and assessments these teachers made themselves vulnerable putting their very real economic circumstances and struggles into the public arena they organized their sights their parents and the wider community I want to let you know that our teachers feel heard we passed our contract with 93% support of our membership and with record high numbers of our membership voting bft members were engaged in a way I've never seen before and we look forward to working on statewide initiatives
031to bring more revenue to our schools as well as pass much-needed local measures that will support teaching and learning in our district I look forward to our committed work together in providing the best education possible for our students thank you any other Union comments committee do we have committees ok comments a few quick ones I want to thank the Willard community for coming out and I really liked the way that the presentation around the classroom orientation was around really looking at the student at the center and what they can learn from the student so I appreciate all the work that they've been doing and I also really appreciate how they use data to inform instruction so it's not just data for data sake but they really demonstrated that analyzing the data really helped in developing
032better outcomes for kids I want to also thank BFT and both negotiating teams for coming to a ratified agreement yes and you know I really want to extend appreciation to all the teachers who came out night after night over the course of a couple of years you know to really inform the community about what they were facing and I continue to talk to people and be flabbergasted by the data that came out that had Berkeley teachers at 16 of 18 in the in the you know in the area and so I hope through the ratification of the contract and through the work that we do on the on the measures will really be able to get our teachers and our staff up to a much higher level within that ranking I want to I'm sorry
033that our youth commissioners left but I think there's a message messenger that can help get information out the state just did an audit of homeless reporting across the state and it was scathing about how school districts are not adequately counting our homeless students and they highlighted a few districts in particular not Berkeley and there's recommendations of districts that are doing best practices around really reaching their homeless students so I'd really like to go back to that report and study the districts that are doing well and I encourage the youth Commission to not only ask the school district to work with the organization to get a better account but to make an appeal to the City Council as well and because the Youth Commission is jointly appointed by the City Council in the school board there's
034every reason for them to make the same ask at the City Council level and right now on December 10th the City Council is going to be considering the measure P dollars and the Commission approved a decent amount of funding I think close to half a million dollars that would go to homeless families and the recommendation that came back from the city manager was to knock that down because according to the point-in-time count there aren't that many homeless families in Berkeley and that's where I think our youth commissioners talked about the disconnect between the district's numbers and the city's numbers and the city uses the county point-in-time count so I encourage the youth commissioners to actually go to the city council meeting on December 10th and talk to them about the importance of serving our homeless
035youth they need to hear the voices of our community and the last thing I want is the message along is that we're in really crazy times right now you know between listening to the impeachment hearings there's a presidential debate going on as we speak which I'm sure that's where everybody is home watching instead of watching us and I just want to extend my appreciation to the board and to our district leadership and to all of our staff for really being a public agency that represents the integrity of what our democratic values are and I think right now you know it's hard to find that hope and I think we can see it here locally and so I just wanted to extend that appreciation thank you on the heels of the hope that we do have
036here within our district I would just like to offer an appreciation to Willard definitely the students who came out tonight spoke so eloquently and their stories really resonated with me so I'm so appreciative to Willard for their presentation and during the time where we have major achievement gaps I am interested to hear however what type of gains the school had specifically for our african-american students around math and English language arts and if they could share that information and maybe we could all take a page out of their book and they could help us lead the way to close some of those achievement gaps for african-american students thank you I also in absentia I want to thank the Willard community for this presentation as well as our our Berkeley Federation of Teachers I know that you've
037been working really hard also with us and our staff to reach this contract which we hope will pass tonight what I want to talk about tonight is that if you will remember on October 23rd we passed a resolution in support of United against hate week which I think really just reinforces what this district hopes to stand for which is really bringing our school communities together to support our students in their difference and in just like celebrating difference and I think we do a pretty good job of talking about that and in many times I think in many ways also teaching it and realizing it and I just I want to make sure that we are also holding ourselves accountable to having that same commitment to addressing educational equity because they're not they're not separate and
038distinct but I am very proud of how our district is embracing the unite against hate week this week many schools are doing activities I don't know if you were going to talk about this but super event your superintendent Stevens went to an event that was held at Malcolm X last night and I think many schools are doing things our high school has been doing some activities and then they're also joining with the Berkley Business Association tomorrow after school to present like to do to participate in the presentations that are going on for our community to celebrate United against hate so oh actually you know I have a bunch of posters in my car so if you want one afterwards I was going to bring them in today but I didn't anyway so I am really
039I'm proud of our district I'm proud I'm really proud of the superintendent has really taken this on and you know this sends an important message not just to our students but also to our community about the importance of being united against hate and so I'm I'm really happy that the teachers and the principals have embraced this and kind of going along the same I think it along the same vein in the same vein I was really distressed this past week by the shootings in Santa Clara Santa Clarita and I wanted to just mention that I feel like that you know I don't know very much about the shooter but I know that he must have been very you know really kind of angry and a disturbed way to come in with a gun into his
040school and then shoot some people then shoot themselves himself and it's one of the reasons why I feel like it's important to have united against hate and you know it's true like our high school we have to be we're balancing different things and we decide how we're gonna do the security of our high school I think I think that we have come up with a good you know a good a good balance and I just I don't know my heart goes out to the parents in Santa Clarita I think for everybody it's created some level of instability if you're in this in the school community and now I immediately thought about Berkeley High and how we're supporting our kids and their families and just because this you know no one expects a tap and that
041principal didn't expect it to happen it just sometimes because we have a lack of gun you know proper gun regulations in our country we have we have this kind of shooting and so I don't know I just wanted to bring that up because I feel like the more work we do to try to make create loving school environments and accepting school environments at least the least likely it is that there's going to be one of our school community members conduct the kind of act that that student did in Santa Clarita thank you Thank You Julie thank you board members for your comments I think remember for your comments on the students and homelessness I think there is something there that we can do and we should be involved with and we have a homeless coordinator
042here in a district that should also be part of that presentation that's on the 10th and if you can forward that that study also that you saw to the to the board and the superintendent that would be great in you know I think that's this is something that we've spoken before about in terms of taking some of those things that are happening in our district and how we can you know there's something good happening at Willard how can we other how can we amplify that to the other so just doesn't sit with one school but how do we also model that in our other schools and I'm sure everybody's doing some great jobs but there's something there to to to amplify I agree with it united against hate this is our first year and I
043look forward to this being part of our regular calendar and that all more schools be able to also join us in district-wide so I also will be having office hours on the 10th and I Castle Athena and that's a Tuesday from 6:30 to 7:30 this evening the relatively quiet Chambers Bowl I I think the significance of tonight's meeting Matt Meyer president BFT has already signaled that there's a number of important decisions that the board will undertake this evening among them is the ratification of an agreement with Berkeley Federation of Teachers so like Matt I want to hold up the work of Samantha Tobias Espinosa who stepped into this process midstream I got herself acclimated very very quickly to a complicated set of circumstances but was able to immediately provide leadership to the district negotiations team
044and so I want to express my gratitude for your role in all of that work and then also want to acknowledge that it means a lot to me and to us that you're here with us this evening and that we continue to hold you and your husband Albert in our hearts I also there's a number of other people I want to thank for their work and other aspects of tonight's meeting so Matt Meyer also acknowledged that tonight the board will approve three tax measures so one of them is the bond the general obligation bond and Berkeley is now on on its third essentially renewal and over the course of better than 20 years has provided millions of dollars for the renovation of absolutely gorgeous facilities here in Berkeley so john has worked very very hard
045to prepare all of the materials for this evening the relative simplistic look of tonight's presentation just doesn't do justice to the amount of work that he's done and that's also true for the maintenance tax so these are two big bodies of work I want to extend to you my personal gratitude for all of that work can thank your family for the extra hours as well on our behalf and then Natasha Beria's mad also rightly pointed out has been absolutely instrumental in the creation and and potential passage of a new measure related to educator recruitment and retention without her expertise or depth of knowledge the the really fast tedious research that she's put into crafting the language tonight's tonight would not be possible so thank you very much for all of that none of these accomplishments
046will be with would be possible without the leadership of the Board of Education since I've come on board in July the board has been absolutely steadfast and holding to the value that educators and students are at the center of our endeavor and that we cannot serve families and kids unless whereas of serving our educators as well so they've reinforced that message time and time again in their public comments and their private deeds so I want to recognize that your leadership has really been essential to getting to all of these decisions that we're undertaking tonight so thank you don't shrug I have a number of other things that I just sort of love to hold out so I also want to thank our schools for all of the efforts that they're making this week to celebrate
047the the board's recently passed resolution around United against hate I was able to attend an event that Malcolm X the family heritage night which is now in its tenth year but it was given special significance by the reading of the resolution in front of all the children and families of Malcolm X last night and so it was a very special event and then I also want to acknowledge November 20th is transgender day of awareness and so I actually have pulled up a quote that I would like to read and I'll tell you the source of the quote in only a moment it says we are committed to protecting all students including transgender students from discrimination bullying and harassment in 2013 our school board the Berkley school board passed one of the first policies in the
048state to protect transgender students moreover transgender students in California have the right under state law to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity state law also expressly prohibits discrimination in schools on the basis of gender identity we will protect and provide equal rights to our transgender students whether federal law requires it or not we are deeply concerned that the students in other states who may not be protected but the federal order will have no effect the recent federal order in 2017 will have no effect in our Berkeley public schools I was very proud to be able to find that statement on our Berkeley Unified website no and it felt very fitting to me today on transgender day of awareness to read again the 2017 words of this school board thank you
049very much that we have to approve the consent calendar okay so we are exactly 8 12 o'clock 8 o'clock for the public hearing upon the public hearing of a tennis recommendation for approval for initial proposals for reopen earth between the district and Berkeley Council of classified employees so we have included in our board agenda for this evening essentially the reopener proposals from both BC CC BCC E and Berkeley Unified we're required by law to hold a public hearing solicit public comment on those two proposals and and so now I think it's the moment when we'll invite the public up to offer comment if there is any and then will be later in the board agenda be approving the the superintendent's proposal to move forward with our negotiations okay do you have any comments close it
050we'll revisit this and we have to keep to our time 8:15 so we'll take the taking three minutes to set up the projector okay so we'll reopen again and we'll take a 3-4 minute break board nerves [Applause] yeah there's No okay so thank you now we'll open up for the public hearing the super-dense recommendation for the measure educate educate a recruiting retention thank you very much so what we thought we'd do mostly for the benefit of the public is to offer a brief presentation yes again we'll offer a brief presentation on the substance of this new measure this is called the Berkeley educator recruitment and retention act of 2020 a new acronym for all of us to get used to Berra and so we'll run through about six slides that just present an overview of
051the measure and then again similar to the last public hearing an action item will follow this public hearing as Lopez if you don't mind queuing up this dis light here we go so I am joined by my colleague Natasha berry the director of B SEP and community relations again this is meant as an overview to the new tax measure that will be putting before Berkeley voters in March 2020 as a summary of the rationale which we've presented over the course of many board meetings in many community forums it has been the conclusion of this board and senior leadership in the district that we have reached a moment of crisis with recruitment and retention here in Berkeley in the 1920 school year we experienced an unprecedented number of openings across a variety of positions we felt
052that a crisis most acutely in the area of special education we've also been discussing over the course of many months the competitiveness of Berkeley salaries as compared to our counterparts in Alameda County and around the Bay Area we learned over the course of these discussions that we are currently ranked at 16 of the 18 Alameda districts sorry districts in Alameda County we also have been discussing that relative to some of our neighbors who were at a competitive disadvantage in that we're not able to use what are called concentration dollars that come from the state to apply towards salary and then unlike some of our competitors districts we also don't have a local tax that's devoted to compensation we do enjoy the benefits from be SEP which provide many excellent programs for our youth we have
053excellent facilities low class size but haven't so far had a local revenue source that we can apply to the purpose of compensation we know as well that Berkeley voters are very supportive of our public school system this is true despite the fact that we're now ranked as 37th in the in the country our state is ranked 37th and that there through multiple polls we've seen that there's very strong commitment and strong polling data to the idea of a local tax measure that would support our educators and as well we want a designated funding that will strengthen salaries and professional pathways that were envisioning that we need general compensation increases and then targeted solutions for some of our hard to staff positions the measure has a number of important components by way of revenue we anticipate
054that there will be approximately ten million dollars of tax collected per year with a nine point five million dollar yield what we're referring to as the available revenue that's projected after the first year and after we calculate for county and city tax collection fees audit expenses and some required set asides both for rebates and for reserves to generate this much revenue each year we're anticipating a twelve point four per square foot per year tax on developed property this is equivalent to about a hundred and eighty six dollars per year for a fifteen hundred square foot at home here in Berkley and then a tan as well at $25 per year tax on undeveloped parcels the structure of the tax that we're proposing this evening is essentially a 95 percent of all available revenue again that's
055revenue after those those sort of set asides will be directed towards educator compensation we're defining educator that asterisk there as all of our salaried staff so that's per certificated and classified staff with the exception of contracted employees such as myself and other senior leaders and then there are a few other categories that are also accepted from this particular revenue source five percent of the available revenues would then be set aside for the development of specialized programs that would target our hardest staff areas so we know again that that includes special education but also could include stem areas as well as bilingual education now we're proposing this evening a twelve year term for this tax and then we've included a variety of exemptions in the language of the tax as well this includes very low income
056seniors which is calculated at fifty percent of the area median this is a forty nine thousand six hundred dollar per year annual income for two people and then also we are including tax payers who receive Social Security disability insurance and we're also including tax payers with Supplemental Security income at any age and then the cola as its described in the language of the measure is calculated at the Bay Area Consumer Price Index this is a representation of the revenue that we would anticipate through the collection of this tax in twenty twenty twenty-one so you can see again a representation of the numbers that I just described starting with the total tax collection at just over ten million dollars the deduction of rebates and reserves for a total projected revenue of nine point six million we
057then would pay some fees both to the city and the county we have auditing expenses and then we would also take one percent of that revenue for planning and oversight and then the remainder is the 95 percent devoted to compensation five percent devoted to the establishment of specialized programs so thank you very much that is the substance of the measure that will be putting before the board this evening thank you thank you very much board members questions comments are you wanting the discussion now and during the action item I just fine what we want to make sure we do is invite any public comment if there is any discussion could be at either point in the agenda so the board members can have questions right now or should we wait for the act for it
058as an action item well why don't we take it during the action item okay so gather your thoughts all right do you is there any public comment we'll close it then thank you and now we need to take an eight minute break why don't we do okay but we publicly notice today there is maybe some of the old walk it okay questions this will have the questions board members to have any questions comments can you superintendent asked statements could you remind me what the planning and oversight includes yes so currently we're envisioning a planning an oversight structure that's very similar to be sup if it's not the actual be SEP planning an oversight committee itself in fact that is our best thinking right now is that we would solicit the same oversight function from that
059committee for both of these revenue sources so in general that committee is charged with the oversight of the expenses of all of that revenue that includes reviewing an annual audit and then it also includes making recommendations on program features related to either of the two revenue sources so with this new tax measure only the 5% would be considered among the program sort of that the program elements of the tax and the ninety five percent is very clearly defined is going directly to compensation nom and essentially is defined through the lead through the measure no it would not be subject to change by that Oversight Committee the ninety four thousand dollars the one percent what does that go toward yes so the ninety four thousand dollars were contemplating essentially as the overall evaluation for the entirety
060of the some so that's a valuation both for the specialized programs that we create and then could be applied at our discretion to the evaluation of the overall package I had a question in terms of the exemption it's the city's responsibility or the district's responsibility in terms of how the exemption process happens and it does about measure explained that also in terms of how exemption happens thanks for the question the city is in charge of collecting the tax and so they also process the exemptions I'll be working with the city to adopt the form that they currently use which only takes into account very low income seniors to help them expand as the this board requested to the additional exemptions and that what they'll do is forward those on after they've assessed that the proper
061documentation has been provided for each of those exemption categories they would forward it to us and we would approve the check that would be issued as a as the rebate for that cost that was expended prior as far as the measure itself the measure doesn't explicitly say exactly how each step happens but it does clarify that it is the responsibility of the city to do this so it's a city's responsibility to communicate this to the homeowners and it's is it does it lay any place in just currently we have an exemption for another bond measure also correct so yeah so it does it also you know are in our website any place it will be yes absolutely and I think that both the city and our website could be improved for clarity to make it
062even more evident that it's possible to apply each tax bill has next to every item a phone number there's a phone number for the beset one that you can contact if you have a concern so that will continue to be the case and then both on our website on the city website I think we can enhance it to ensure that it's much clearer that people have multiple ways to apply for this exemption thank you just I think that's a really good point and you know there are some questions about how the evaluation money money is going to be spent and I think this is just an informal request or whatever that the that that be included in our evaluation of how we've successfully implemented this because I really you know people are gonna have to
063self-identify and I still don't know where they are they gonna do that at the city clerk are they getting you know I'm not sure exactly how they do that so we have to get that information out there and you know particularly to the I think the need to the places are worth to the people who need to hear it so I don't know I don't actually don't know how to do that but since I think that levels are slightly different than other taxes I think people need to be aware and then they'll decide if they want to like go after this I will say that we staff have heard very strongly the desire of the board that the exemptions that sort of opportunities for rebates are made very clear and that we don't by way
064of this measure want to create additional pressures on any Berkeley family that would qualify for these rebates I want to echo the thanks to the incredible work that went into not just this measure but all three victor Barry or I guess dr. Stephens we can you just say a little bit about the timing of the collection of the funds and and when so when we first get when we first get the revenue and when it's applied and how that works yes we so what we'll do is it'll be a little different because in the past of course we've usually had things on in November but it's not until July anyway that the city starts working on their tax rolls so they asked me actually to provide for them some indication of how this measure might
065be structured so they could at least start to queue things up but it really won't be put onto tax rolls until July and go to the next bill which will be October and then the collections themselves often go until December so we won't be seeing that revenue until then but we're applying it yes starting in the fall starting in - yes the first tax in the fall so we'll essentially are we gonna be borrowing from the general fund I'll ask director sorry assistant superintendent follansby about that so the gapping in funding will be covered by the general fund and possibly fund 20 as well any other questions comments we have one minute can you just explain the auditing provisions that will be that will be one of the expenses that will cover be covered under
066yes and we we have a contract with Crowe Horwath which is who we use for for visa they provide a regular audit and every year for the B sub funds that are provided to the to the piano committee performance on it they check to ensure that the expenditures that are made that are charged to any specific special resource such as this one are actually in accordance with the purposes that are outlined in the measure that actually we heard some testimony from our city auditor Jenny Wong came last time I divided her with the wording of how we do this and she said that it met with the the best practices so we'll continue to do that that you'll see that that's actually one of the expenditures that we are including and it's in the measure
067language itself that that audit is required we're excited okay and so now on time we have a public hearing that were open the public hearing on the superintendent's final recommendation for Berkeley public schools facility safety and maintenance act of 2020 do you have an acronym for that one - too much of a brain twist for me right now I'm sorry okay we're just going to take a moment to get ourselves set up here with the projection as john cleese our executive director of facilities comes up and joins me [Music] what's that he does he actually does and he loves the fact that he's on camera very much so so good evening so we're here tonight to talk about the facility safety maintenance Act of 2020 and basically it's just sort of to go back over
068the need and the purpose for this as we've discussed the purpose of this is really to provide essential maintenance to the buildings in classrooms and grounds throughout the district this special tax has for the past nearly 20 years actually funded all of the maintenance and grounds activities within the district which allows us to maintain our schools it allows us to maintain and protect the investments that we've made and that the community has made through general obligation bonds and it also relieves some of the stresses that it would have created otherwise on the general fund allowing those dollars to go directly back to classrooms and first instruction so those dollars where where you look at is this is an overall capital planning budget for it the annual revenue projections with the new tax beginning in July
069of 2020 would be roughly seven point three million dollars that cost per square foot works out to be right about nine cents per square foot the breakdown that you see below is really how that how that works out roughly 65% of that goes to salary and benefits supplies and materials and then so on and so forth at the bottom you see indirect costs which we pay as well the renewal of the maintenance tax why now and this was a conversation that we did have at the last meeting as well as over several meetings leading up to this this tax will actually fund maintenance and grounds leading through till 2030 the early sunset of measure H and the renewal of the maintenance tax addresses increased costs without a cut to services some of those increased costs
070but not all include the dissolution of the split role which in the past we would charge commercial property owners and higher rate versus residential property owners there was a law passed that no longer allows for that there's been increased costs to pers and then also Cola and other items with that that's really the end of the presentation okay we've opened our trip we've opened we opened it up for public comment and now we'll close it for comment and we'll open it up again for questions because we were on time so we're now going to we opened it close and then I would go to the action items the approval of the initial proposal for reopen errs between the district and the Berbick Council of classified ECCE so these are action items that we're going to
071vote on I'll move that director syenite a second first and second bite vice president Alfred all those in favor aye here we have the berkeley approval of the resolution 2007 teen Berkeley Public Schools educator recruitment retention act of 2020 calling on in an election on March 3rd to impose qualify special tax on all parcel of taxable real property in the district boundaries I'm happy to move that one from the teacher do you think it board member Brown can we have a second second by director Sinai all those in favor aye we're all very happy I'm I'm I but I really I really want to reiterate again that the state should be paying us more money to pay our teachers and I'm doing this reluctantly I mean wholeheartedly but reluctantly if you can be both of
072those at the same time and I think that message needs to continue to get sent to the community as well as to the state well I think so I just want it I just want to make sure that that well that's we're clear with folks that you know we need to pay our teachers better and we need to bring our teachers up on the ranking in the Alameda County and we're forced to do it this way because the state refuses to fully fair to to fund to fully and fair fund public education I'm gonna piggyback on that and and and and I will work with you if you would like to write a letter to our elected officials that tonight we pass this resolution because we understand how important it is to retain and recruit
073our teachers and the salaries but I also we also recognize that this is going to create a lot of inequities throughout California in terms of school districts not able to have a tax measure that will support their teachers and you know and this will happen district-wide and in all district I can see districts are going to be suffering tremendously for this because unable to get the voters to pay but because there isn't that so I think it's something that we need to say loud loud you know we don't have the audience of people here but I think we should use the power of our voices board members to call out our legislators to advocate for fair and full funding and that we want them to be out there loud and clear with us as our
074teachers and our board will be out there I really appreciate your bringing this up I wasn't gonna say anything tonight but I do really I mean honestly this is what California the state government should be paying for should become be giving us the funds that we need to fairly compensate our excellent educators and you know we already supplement the budget through B sap and we do that for a specific reason and you know I just I was hesitant to say anything cuz I do totally support doing this because our quality teachers make our schools like you can you know we have programs we have things but what makes our school special is our teachers and our other educators our BCC staff our principals but I will you know I I'm glad if you could to
075are going to do that I'll tell hardly or that and I think we can talk separately about how we're really gonna be working on the state to prepare teachers even more yeah okay not just our teachers that's the other thing that I want to make sure that we're careful about because people like kind of shorthand to teacher compensation and this this measure is going to be to compensate all of our educators including our classified staff thank you I would not to belabor this conversation but I would agree I think we all would benefit from working on that letter together and I just want to take this opportunity to say I completely agree with everything that my colleagues have said however I'm proud of us in Berkeley for taking the first step to do this and
076I'm also proud of the community that we come from and I'm proud that our community will support this and continue to support our teachers and so although the state does need to do more I have a lot of faith in our community and our taxpayers that they will continue to support and help our schools just a process do we want to make an amendment to the motion that we move the language and that we want to send a letter or I think that honestly I think that can complicate it could complicate things along the line and I think this is so important this is that is something else we discuss as a board full to this but we so we have direct assignment because I think we should do a roll call vote actually on
077this because it's all three of these because they're so important no we're just voting we're just voting I know I'm just after the conversation forget who was the first so director Brad Brown director found I was director second yeah then all those in favor to the local president leave a cuddler yes vice president Alper yes director Brown yes director up hell yes director Sinai yes thank you passes so now we'll do the approval of resolution 20 0 18 Berkeley public schools for silly safety and maintenance act of 2020 calling an election on March 3rd 2020 to impose a qualified special tax on all parcels of taxable real property in the district boundaries did we have any questions we didn't we vice-president upward second second it director Preston leave a cuddler yes vice president Alper yes
078it's retro Brown yes director uphill yes director Sinai yes so now we'll do the approval resolution 2016 for the general obligations bond measure I'll move this okay please John the mission is it just say you're kidding oh man so what you have before you tonight is what you've seen before and I will try to be brief in the interest of time this is talking about our 2020 general obligation bond what you have in front of you right now is the capital planning budget this was developed out of our facilities master plan and divided defining the needs as well as over a year long the subcommittee that was taken care of as far as our superintendent's workgroup to look at the bonds and really try to identify not only projects but more specifically the types of
079projects that we would look at on the left you have a column of the planned expenditures and you'll see in the bottom line that over 10 years what we're looking at is roughly 421 million dollars on the right side the assumed revenue what we show is the general obligation bond funding nearly through earth and funding 380 million state facilities program we kept relatively low at ten million dollars developer fees various CTE grants and that puts us in the negative about eighteen nine ten million dollars primarily that negative number I'm not too worried about right now because one the state facilities program we really don't know what we will get from that there are some changes to that with a be 48 which will make it significantly more difficult for Berkeley to qualify for those funds
080but that being said these are very broad numbers on the left for the total planned expenditures which is why we are where we are on the red Capitol facilities program as we've talked about and I'm not going to read them all off individually again but this was the project considerations what we looked at were types of projects those types of projects were developed through guiding principles and then they were further vetted through really we we had a specific set of criteria that we looked at to improve to include teaching and learning opportunities safety welcoming environments so on and so forth so with that we also looked at our project list ensuring well again I don't want to read this verbatim everyone has heard it so many times at this point but it was really just
081about improving the overall facilities as well as the services that we can offer to our students project list we've given samples it's everything from seismic upgrades and finishing of projects that have begun over the last two decades such as the completion of Berkeley High School two new classrooms new classroom buildings solar electricity specifically as it pertains to sustainability and relieving the general fund furnishings and then CTE the general obligation bond measure what that looks like is for three hundred and eighty million dollars the average cost would be $45 and 21 cents per hundred thousand dollars of assessed value so if we take it look at the average single-family residence assessed value not necessarily value but the assessed value that's 250 306 if all 380 million dollars were to be issued at once which it would
082not be understanding that there was a commitment made sometime in the 90s from what I could tell by the Berkeley Unified School District Board that all bond measures combined would never exceed 172 eighty per hundred thousand dollars of assessed value we are meeting and beating commitment the highest that it would be is the first year of issuance would be at 158 97 per hundred thousand we would see those costs significantly decrease thereafter and by 2030 the cost per hundred thousand dollars of assessed value would be well under $100 and with that I will take any questions director sir I my question is related to modernization and in seismic which we talked a little bit and just trying to get clarification with the way that under Section B construction of new projects and acquisition of needed
083equipment we talked about constructing new classroom and buildings to accommodate growth and then we talked about seismic renovate or replace the maintenance yard foodservice do we need any language in there that actually talks about seismic renovation or size or modernisation of the school buildings no it is covered three different and I don't have the document in front of me I apologize but the seismic renovations is covered for all district properties that are currently owned or to be future owned as well okay I just wanted to make sure cuz seismic is identified for the maintenance and food but not for the school building no it is covered for the school buildings so yes okay I didn't know really have a question but I just wanted to extend another thank you to you mr. Cleese you how
084long have you been in history but last week was a year okay it's been about a year and to come in to to take on you know this job which is a big job in any district but to immediately have to start actually to come into an already started planning process master planning process and then a bond planning process with where there'd been recent turnover in that position and and and and a lot of history with facilities in the district and a lot of great community members who have a lot of experience and former facilities director has a lot of experience and a lot of board members a lot and to come in and sort of navigate all of that and on a short time a shorter timeframe by about like six months then you
085thought it was going to be on the ballot and to get us to this point where we have you know nobody in the audience complaining or concerned about where we've landed because you've done such a thorough job leading this process of going to every school site going to the district sites getting input working with the consultant talking to staff talking to the board it's really a testament to your leadership and it's such an important this is such an important event for the for the long term history of the district and I just wanted to call out you know my appreciation or appreciation for everything you've done in that role so thank you thank you thank you thank you say that I do appreciate the support of the board superintendent Stephens our prior superintendent my colleagues
086and really my staff as well and the engagement that we've gotten from our community it's just been really positive to hear the feedback and to actually work on items that we need to work on and address those so thank you I want to say to dr. director kelis that I in the many documents there's one document that stands out in terms of the history of where school districts are in terms of facility maintenance and how literally districts are on their own in terms of the maintenance of their facilities and I think that that's a piece of history that you know is very important for voters to know that school districts literally rely on their voters in the community to support their their schools that we didn't have that if there's no way that our budgets
087would obviously be able to support the needs of our facilities for our students now or into the future so thank you I want to echo everything that vice-president alper said and I also wanted to add just a professionalism has been really clear and I think has really helped us you know move our facilities Department to the next step so I appreciate that I appreciate all of your hard work and I'd like to move this motion move this move whatever this make this motion second the second by director Albert row co-president leave a cuddler yes vice president Alper yes director Brown yes director Appel yes director Sinai yes thank you so thank you very much thank you so now we'll move to the approval resolution 20 0 16 for the general obligation bond measure well we
088did that we just said with the approval tentative agreement with Berkeley Federation of Teachers EFT for the successor agreement for 2019 21 we have a we did the presentation no we don't have a presentation on this but I would like to just call out the to attach documents just for the notice of the public so the the all of the collected set of tentative agreements that have been reached between be USD and BFT are included in this evening's board packet so interested members of the public can see exactly what the two parties have agreed to and then it's also important to note that under state law a be 1200 districts are required to disclose the financial implications of all of their settled agreements with labor partners so the full set of that a B 1200
089paperwork is also included in tonight's boards at at board attachments which is well we're thinking people I want to thank assistant superintendent Collins before you know all of your work not only on the on the disagreement that we're voting on now but all your work on the financials for these measures - it's been you know really appreciate it and thank you Sam for your work - yes especially so we have a lot of appreciation for our staff we've really prepared and it actually helps us helps the board very much make its associations - we didn't understand the decisions that we have to make so thank you very much I'll move this they'll move the approval with the tentative agreement with the FTA motion by direct I'll for a second by I'll second I don't have
090a second decree okay roll call president Leyva Cutler yes vice president Alper yes director Braun yes director of hell yes director Sinai absolutely so we have any other public comment before we adjourn I just need to make a quick correction from my comments earlier I thought that the City Council meeting on December 10th was when they were going to entertain the measure P and it's actually the City Council meeting on December 3rd [Music]