Chico Unified School District Special Board of Education Meeting 4/5/2023

001foreign ER the April 5th 2023 special Board of Education meeting and workshop we will be going into closed session and we'll return to convene Open session at 5 pm okay okay good evening I will now call to order uh Open session we have been in closed session and during closed session no action was taken with Open Session called to order let's please stand for the flag salute absolute pledge foreign Ty and justice for all agenda item four is announcements um does the board have any announcements regarding upcoming student events um Awards accomplishments they would like to make not on that but I do have an announcement okay um I've decided it falls on me to make known what I think is an important development in our ongoing court case of Regina versus Staley this is

002a case in which I myself am named as a defendant in my official capacity when legal action is taken against the school district like ours we have an insurance policy that covers a portion of the legal defense the coverage on this Regino lawsuit was a hundred thousand dollars I'm informed that as of April 1st we have exceeded that amount this means it has taken about two and a half months to spend a hundred thousand dollars against the plaintiff in support of our position and actions if Chico Unified allows this case to go to trial I feel it is likely to cost much much more and could last for years I am now of the strong opinion that is not in the interest of our district or the community to continue to pursue a defense in

003this case against Ms Regino it is apparent to me that current laws are ambiguous to say the least and we should now make whatever concessions we can to avoid a lengthy trial we should come to terms with Ms Regino and find Middle Ground so that we can put precious School resources where they are needed most Chapman Rosedale Citrus Hooker Oak Inspire etc etc etc what is the point in our continuing to Shell out hundred thousand dollar paychecks to attorneys and Consultants trying to defend a cloak and dagger secrecy policy that keeps parents and families people we are supposed to be serving and partnering with in the dark about their own children school districts up and down the state will be watching the outcome of this case and will benefit from any rulings that come from

004it there is no good reason for Chico Unified to be a test case for the legality of these internal procedures on Parental secrecy which I believe have become relatively standard but are not actually codified as law additionally I feel that further advocacy against Ms Regino is totally inappropriate given the nature of her claims she wants responsible parents to be notified in the event that their child's school has acted upon a change to that child's gender identity she objects to an apparent practice of intervening publicly on a child's behalf altering their identification and treatment by staff and fellow students while at school but keeping those interventions a secret from the child's parents I like to think Chico Unified has always had a culture of transparency when it comes to informing responsible parents and legal Guardians about

005what happens with their own children in the classroom I've always felt this has been the case with my own four kids but now I'm not so sure we are apparently saying we will not be transparent with parents when it comes to gender Transitions and identities parents will not be told a thing even if the entire rest of the school is in on the secret needless to say I see this as morally reprehensible and will oppose any further expenditure of funds toward this cause fighting to keep secrets from responsible parents about their own kids is an expensive luxury we shall have to forgo as far as I'm concerned thank you [Applause] do we need additional announcements moving on to item five consent calendar do we have public comment on consent calendar in a public comment uh

006would anybody like to pull an item for further discussion on consent I need to move this away from my face it's too loud for me um okay I've been seeing no changes desired I will ask for a motion set calendar you need to make sure your microphone's on please I move approval of the consent calendar we have a motion second Ed by uh member konkin we'll do a Voice vote is there any discussion on consent okay well starting with member Lando tennis eye Dobby I Robinson I honk and I it passes five two none moving on to item 6.1 we are um in a board Workshop this is an informational item for a presentation on the multi-tiered system of support mtss overview presented by Tina Keen good evening board good evening everybody I'm happy to

007have the pleasure to introduce the multi-tiered system of supports for tonight the overview that focuses on what mtss is as a whole and then a little more focus on the gifted and talented education piece or gate as we call it Junior High honors and advanced placement AP academic programs we'll also look at counseling and positive behavioral intervention and supports that we have through our mtss framework we had two board Liaisons oh oh next slide slide please look at it sorry about that we've got the clicker now so our board Liaisons on this uh presentation today were Caitlin dalby and Tom Lando so we thank them for their attention to this and good questions that came our way to make a a presentation that hopefully answers questions and provides information I have worked with a great

008team of people here at Tim Carris Jenn Scala Christie bankson Chase Chevalier and we have some other guests that we'll be talking about the programs that I'll be highlighting in this presentation tonight as well so a little background as we all know our community has gone through its share of some some interesting things and times uh starting with a campfire we have experienced some tremendous loss and Trauma in our own Community the pandemic shortly followed which created some enormous challenges but I also highlighted a lot of resilience during the unprecedented times that came with that in response to the recovery from both of these big big things that happened the multi-tiered system of supports or mtss became the framework in which we support our school communities with the learning recovery and wellness that we knew

009would come So based on this need and framework mtss framework reflects the three goals that we represent in our local control and accountability plan that's our lcap the first one is academic achievement the second is social emotional well-being and third is behavioral supports these are for each and every student in our district and the action services and expenditures Based on data are used to meet our students needs as we continue to heal with our focus on academic achievement for each and every student and additionally we look for every possible way to fund this work including grants which continue to come our way in in these in the spirit of solving the learning recovery programs that we have in place multi-tiered system of supports mtss this is a definition that encompasses what it is in the

010spirit of it it's a district-wide data driven framework for improving learning outcomes for every student in our district it's a layered Continuum full of evidence-based practices with intentional design and redesign if necessary of services and supports that identify and meet the needs of our students I know the board has seen this graphic uh before we use it quite often we look at every student every day and mtss does provide a whole child framework as I mentioned with those three pieces it does align systems and initiatives a lot of a lot of positive things that have been happening for years and Chico Unified are now pulled together and aligned in a more systematic way to work it does include collaboration and teamwork and it is proactive and preventative which is probably my personal favorite part of

011it this is a graph that does support all of what we've just said and what the program is designed on the framework is designed on and and tier one you see in there all students that's Universal support those are the things that we all do to support all of our kids and that's teachers it's it's everybody that works in our schools we are all tier one teachers and all of our students are have tier one services some students may need a little bit more Based on data at various times and those come in turn in the in the form of what we call tier two and then tier three interventions are used and supports if if needed for more support and again these come at different times we never know what things come our way

012where there are ups and downs with academics or other pieces that we need some support on for our students if you are interested to learn more about our mtss program after tonight we do have a pretty comprehensive website already on our district website that is continuing to be added to obviously as we we refine and learn more and more about this so I wanted to point that out to folks if they wanted to find out more information please look onto our website and search mtss and tonight as I mentioned we do have a lot of our team here and I'm going to hand this off to Tim Carris to talk about demographics good evening to build on what Tina mentioned earlier about the increased needs for our Chico Unified students over the past five years

013or so we have seen an increase in socioeconomically disadvantaged or other another term for that would be unduplicated students so for the last nine over the last nine years we've seen a low of 45.1 percent unduplicated percentage in Chico Unified so these are students that are Foster homeless English Learners or are receiving free and reduced uh lunch at school we are now up to 57.4 down a little bit from our high of above 58 percent uh last year so we've seen a significant uh increase in students in this category and across the board all of our measures on social emotional well-being academic achievement Behavior we've seen students that are socioeconomically disadvantaged achieve lower so what this really points to is an increased need for services for our students just to put a little real number

014on on that about 10 percent increase 12 percent increase is that's about 1200 students and for reference you know our Bidwell junior high is a little under a thousand so that's that's a lot of students um bringing with them higher needs to our district so I just wanted to give a little context to the um changing demographics in Chico Unified so when we think about mtss it is a very large a very very large topic and as evidenced by tonight all the different staff and some students that we have here to speak it is a very large topic and so last year sorry as you have new speakers come up can you please introduce yourselves so the crowd everybody knows who who you all are thank you yes sorry about that I'm Christy bankson I

015am the mtss coordinator for the district and I'm Chase Chevalier I am working with um Christy as a 0.2 tosa coordinator with her so when we think about mtss this very broad topic last year Chase and I worked with our ed services team some teachers some administrators a lot of staff to kind of identify what is going to be our focal point and so we have a three-year plan that we've put together really focusing on these main components of data based decision making tiered interventions and evidence-based practices professional development and coaching and a high quality curriculum and instruction and you'll see that woven out woven through the presentation this evening and then um the way that we've also set up aligning to our lcap goals are you'll hear some academic supports um and things happening

016at our elementary junior highs and High School in terms of advanced placement the gifted and talented and honors courses behavioral and social emotional I hate to be critical bottoms to those backpacks look like the diapers I put on grandchildren something a little different we can always look at updating those Graphics absolutely absolutely yep yep so with that being said I'm going to turn it Chase and I will be back later to talk about how we're looking at all of this data at our school sites and with some of our teams I'm going to turn it over to Ted Sullivan who will be introducing our speakers for the gifted and talented education piece hi good evening I'm Ted Solomon I'm the elementary director and I guess I'm healing clicker so one of the first three areas

017we really kind of started looking at a couple years ago related to mtss kind of meeting these of all of our kids at kind of that extended end kids are ready for some acceleration with our GATE program and we looked at the kids that were going into our GATE program we did some self-reflection and we really saw they were coming from a very small handful of schools so we kind of looked at our process we changed it before the gate process used to be teacher or parent referral and they would get pulled and assessed so we did a flip-flop we actually assessed every third grader now in all of our schools we give them an nna T3 it's called it's kind of an online IQ test for lack of a better term and that gives

018us a starting point to look and see who may be eligible and who may benefit from this opportunity and we pull them in and we've seen a pretty significant change with kind of the makeup and composition it gives in our gate class now we actually have this this year we actually have kids from every all 12 elementary schools are in our gate class with it by kind of broadening that look and seeing who may benefit from that opportunity so it serves for and fifth grade students over at Parkview one classroom for each of those grades and I'm going to invite up Heather safuentes the principal and Tammy Janos and they're going to talk a little bit about like what kind of experience the kids are getting when they go into that gate class talking good

019evening everybody I'm Heather sufuentes principal at Parkview Elementary School and I have Tammy Janos I'm a fifth grade gate teacher at Parkview so we just wanted to share she's going to give some insight into the classroom I just want to share a little overview of the program so the gate program is really designed to encourage students to grow and accelerate in their academics as well as their social emotional and behaviors are all part they're still fourth and fifth graders so that's all included at our school they are given though more opportunities to dive deeper into their standards we have a big emphasis on project-based learning they are encouraged to support one another there's a lot of team building that goes on and it really is an environment of differentiation and they are working hard and

020become part of our school Community immediately it is a really neat thing to have 12 elementary schools represented on August 16th when we start and see the relationships that the kids build immediately they are accelerating and moving quickly through curriculum and totally engaged every single day so I'm going to pass it off to Tammy to give you a little more insight to the day-to-day classroom research shows that gate students have a surprisingly high high school dropout rate and there are many reasons why but gate students show characteristics that differ in numerous areas of functioning including cognitive physical and social emotional Gates a special opportunity for Unique students to find a peer group that can be challenging to find in a typical classroom setting meeting the various needs of gate students when they're in elementary school

021can help them to create positive feelings about school that they can carry on through their education gate students students can often feel bored within the traditional classroom and pick up basic learning quickly this program allows students to move past the basic knowledge and apply analyze evaluate and create although there's always a transitional period of adjustment adjustment when students come into our gate classrooms from other schools students find a safe community of Learners within the classrooms many students that have struggled in regular classroom settings find themselves challenged and engaged rather than bored many behavioral issues that are in the traditional classrooms are often eliminated and reduced because of this gate students are often the first to finish in their previous classrooms the regular curriculum may not have provided them enough challenge in the gate classrooms we're

022teaching students grade level standards but we're going much deeper in our GATE program we do this all with a focus in the growth mindset to teach them that um they have the ability to continue learning through those challenges when we look at Bloom's taxonomy which gives a hierarchy of cognitive levels from lower level cognition skills at the bottom of the pyramid which would be recalling facts and basic concepts and higher level level cognitive skills at the top such as analyzing information evaluating learning and creating new and original works we see that the gay classes are able to move their way up that pyramid for students to spend their time in the classroom focused on the higher order of cognitive skills this is achieved through projects with great with content and grade level standards but with

023this focus in the top levels of Bloom's taxonomy I have questions about the gate program just one actually um so in my experience as a gate teacher when I taught at Marsh I was a gate teacher for four years three or four years um it was really common to see students that were in that program that experienced high levels of anxiety and stress and perfectionism and I'm just wondering if that is something that you also have acknowledged and and have have have processes in place to mitigate uh so I think that's part of that growth mindset like she mentioned oftentimes they're familiar with being the first one done and now you're in the classroom environment where that is everybody's kind of at that same level so we work through that social emotional aspect too of

024it's okay to make mistakes and we're learning and that we help support strategies within their day to help ease that and there is a little extra added because they transition to a new school in fourth grade but for the most part we are able to provide them the correct tools that they need to work through those and set them up hopefully for success in junior high and high school yeah and I would I would add also that we we also didn't continue the gate program at the middle school program so obviously that was in the past because it's been a little while since I've been there but um I just was curious about that as we have talked more and more about that social emotional Wellness um I was I'm happy to hear that that

025is at the Forefront of the of the program that that really should be addressed you know at the core of of the program um and not just academics because um it was something that was very prevalent and in in the Middle School level when we when we get to honors which we'll talk about in a minute um it continues and so to make sure that for those higher achieving students as well as any student that we are addressing those um those students who tend to over exert themselves put too much pressure on themselves or maybe experiencing too much pressure outside of the classroom and are providing them the tools to mitigate that within themselves so they're not experiencing high levels of anxiety and and um I was going to add one more piece that I

026think our our classroom teachers do extremely well is their communication with parents so right as elementary kids we're all learning what's the best for our kids so they support parents too with hey these are strategies and we work really collaboratively outside of the classroom as well to make sure that there's cohesiveness for all of their needs great thank you okay we're playing the microphone dance here a little bit I also want to just why we're staying on this slide to point out that the all the elementary schools have counseling assistance and having that resource for those elementary students is really important so students who are in need of some additional support uh they're there for them so I think it would be remiss while the title of the original board Workshop was about gate and

027about AP we felt like we needed to talk about what we could probably all agree is the most awkward portion of our educational experience and that's Middle School so we wanted to talk a little bit tonight about specifically that track of Junior High honors and accelerated math we wanted to point out that about six or seven years ago at least seven years ago we made a transition for the metrics for students to move from fifth grade into honors level coursework and the major shift in the metrics was from just using grades and just using teacher recommendation as you can see here that we're really focusing on the uh the the S back scores smarter balanced test scores and our our local our local measurements so we just wanted to highlight that tonight even though originally

028it wasn't included because we feel like that's a major transition for those students going from fifth grade all the way up to ninth grade I would like now to invite our Chico hi folks to come on up while I talk about our advanced placement program as you can see here it's really important for people to understand that as AP students when they take a course not only does it earn them college credit but it also prepares them for those work skills that they're going to need in college and I know some of our students will be will be talking about that rigor here in just a second um just some really quick data if you look to the left of the slide you'll see we have 21 current courses and if you remember you already

029voted in as a board an additional course so be we can't say we're offering it right now but it will be the there will be enrollment next year I think it's also important to point out that we had a dip in our enrollment and we can all blame different things I think the idea of online AP coursework during the pandemic was difficult for students to to to capture like how am I going to get get help with that so our numbers went down a little bit but as you can see they're skywriting skyrocketing back up as importantly that pest that pass rate is incredibly um exceptional for our students we look at the state level we have some kids here and I'm going to have principal Doug Williams come on up and introduce them and

030they're going to talk a little bit about their experience as an AP student in our program thank you Mr Shepard hello I'm Doug Williams the principal of Chico high school and which is the beauty of having my AP students here is they speak much better about themselves than I do so I'm just going to introduce them and have you guys ask them questions as you would need to I have Ashland fortino as our first student I have Summer Sun who's our second student and I have Jackson Tomlinson who's our third student and I would like them to just come to the microphone and you guys can ask them whatever questions you would like about our AP classes nice to see you back summer yes nice to see you um do you each want to share

031just your brief kind of experience or journey to get to the point where you felt confident to a b classes and and how you're feeling like your your success is in in those courses like I don't know 30 seconds I'm gonna let Summer process that summer was a student of mine as was Jackson yeah sure so um like before high school I actually Jackson and I were both in the gate program so that was really cool um and then I took honors classes in middle school and I know that because you were my teacher in middle school and uh that took me to high school my sophomore year I took one AP class my junior year I took two and this year I'm taking four and I feel like that actually makes sense because I

032started off more on the light side and getting progressively heavier each year has actually helped me manage my course load and also all the other things I do outside of school thank you um basically my experience is very similar to Summers um obviously both starting the gate program and I took honors programs at Marsh Junior High which was very joyful um as I progressed into High School my sophomore year I took one AP my junior year I took four and this year I'm taking three I would say that through the progression it the course load has been significantly more than if I were to not take an APS but I definitely think that prior schooling prepared me and a lot of it was just having the confidence to take those AP classes thank you yeah

033my experience for like the course load was basically the same as summers in terms of taking like one two and then four this year but I went to Chico Junior so I transferred in as a seventh grader so going in I took honors classes for English and history but I did not end up taking the like advanced math so going into like AP calc this year it was a whole different ball game I had never been in like an accelerated math before so yep I have a question for anybody that wants to jump in it's obvious that it takes a lot of time management and a attention to what your goals are what do you think and where did it happen did you get the most help from the schools to begin to help you

034organize those thought processes and and get yourself in a position where you could handle the kind of AP load that you have now um I think that it's the most helpful when the teachers are the one who ones who are the most supportive so um like for example in my AP statistics class right now which is one of my harder AP classes um my teacher is offering to have a full-length practice exam on the weekend so he's literally offering to take time out of his own weekend to administer a test to us which I think is really great so I think that if like more teachers did that and like did that even outside of school I think that you're going to find a large group of students who are actually going to want to

035show up on the weekend to to take those practice tests and to get the extra help um I guess for me I think that something that was really helpful for me and getting motivated to do all this work was uh my first AP teacher that I had um she was really she was very kind and she was very not like oh my God you have to do great on this test she was like I want to support you because I know you care as an AP student like you're putting yourself out here for a reason because you already care so I think that just having that form of experience at AP is not just about being a smart kid or a good test taker it's about being articulate and becoming like a more educated person

036I'm so glad you said that yeah because um sorry you go ahead first that's fine no I was just gonna I was just gonna acknowledge that taking an AP class really is a demonstration of your personal willingness to go on that Journey it's um it's not something that has a firm requirement to get into it or you know maybe parents are pushing for for you to go that route too and supporting you in that way and so maybe they're not but I think that to to stay the course and take the load that you all are talking about doing you have to really um uh want to be there and your your teacher's showing up for you is because you're showing up it's reciprocal I guarantee it so they're they're excited that you're there and

037want to put the work in so they want to be there to put the work in for you sorry I didn't mean to cut you off no you're good all I was gonna say was that a big draw for me was the idea that you could transfer your credits if you end up passing and like getting a four or three or four or five on the tests to college credit and then it can help like accelerate that experience as well as thing you're like it helps your transcript which then helps your college experience it is either I'm not using it properly or it's not working okay um we're lucky to have a lot of uh parents of students from elementary middle school here as well tonight I was wondering uh if maybe you could do

038a little pitch for them if a middle school student or an upper elementary student came to you and said hey I'm thinking about doing AP in high school what would you say to them what's the experience actually like I I am a big advocate of AP classes um although my mom will say that like I spent a lot of very late hours studying for them um I feel like that doesn't Encompass like the actual draw of taking an AP class which is that you get to explore really specific interests that you would not be able to explore otherwise so like I know Chico High doesn't have AP Computer Science but I know a lot of people who would be interested in taking that and like there's really no other class like that in some other

039high schools um so for example this year I'm taking AP environmental science and that's another very specific class that I really think that if you start that interest in high school um realizing that you maybe really love that class will help you pursue that major that career in college so it can really help introduce new specific interests especially to like young people like if you're 13 or 12 around that age and um I think that one that's like if you're in junior high if you're in elementary school and you're thinking about taking AP um a lot of times I know that I certainly was you're very uncertain about your future but being able to take an AP course or just taking these AP courses is honestly a stepping stone into a more like a higher

040education so seeking to take these AP courses even if you're not sure what you want to do or where you want to go in your future you always have these options now versus if you don't take those courses sometimes your options can become limited so I just definitely just encourage students to take them because I think that a lot of times they have a stigma of being too hard or I'm not smart enough for that but I definitely think that any student is definitely capable um it just takes some work and obviously if you can't dedicate the time to that that's totally understandable but I think that it's worth trying to fit into your schedule and seeing how it works for you and AP classes definitely help you with your time management skills because I

041know that like uh last year I was taking two AP classes and I was also on two cheer teams at the same time which was an insane schedule and insane hours for studying and doing homework on top of all of those practices but it's manageable and it eventually manifests in having a pretty good schedule and you have pretty much everything planned out as well as helping you just it kind of leads you into your path for like what's happening next and what's happening next and getting ready for your college applications and just getting everything going and it taking like higher level classes help you for I mean I guess I'm not really sure because I've been taking college level classes yet but it's hopefully going to help transition to where it's not quite as terrible

042going through to the higher level speaking from experience they those are you are taking College Longwood classes speaking from both as the student of AP class and as a teacher of AP class like you're in it so you got it thank you I just want to give a thank you to the students but also to Chico Unified because there's always a balance between making AP classes rigorous but also making them available to all students so all the programs that you've seen before are prepping students coming from different schools honors gate but all AP courses are open within Chico Unified so it's important to have prerequisites so kids aren't overwhelmed but it's also equally important to be balanced there's a duplicity that we have to follow and The Duality in allowing as many kids to take

043on that challenge that are willing to but also making sure that they they have the economic ability to do it and I think we're doing a pretty good job of that and these three students are great examples thank you for your time I have one sorry I have one question on that or I guess clarification or just emphasis um you saying that it's open to all students which is I'm just confirming that is true and I love it because that's the way this it's supposed to be um and that it's from my understanding sections get added as the interest grows is that pretty accurate or at least in some circumstances that's been accurate so it's extremely accurate so I just sat with my math um Department chairs today and we looked at obviously we have

044what the kids want but when the numbers crank out that means they want 12.3 classes or 5.6 classes and then as adults we have to step in and think are we going to have five math threes and two calculus are we going to go with three calculus and four because ftes are ftes but it starts with what the kids want and then from there we try to make it happen and thank you guys so much for being here really appreciate it [Applause] so as our next speakers are coming up they're going to focus on social emotional learning it'll be Jen Scala and Joanna Ming and I just want to encourage people to consider that block schedule having an impact on the ability for AP students to also take drama and also take welding and all

045those things that they may not have been able to do while they were just in the sixth grade day all right we're all yours good evening I'm Jennifer Scala and I'm Joanna Meng we are both special education coordinators so tonight we're just going to go through with you social emotional learning hopefully to clarify some of that it's um can be a little bit different let me see I go that way oh look at that okay so I'm in around 2018 the California social emotional learning framework was introduced to schools and it really was intended to provide that direct instruction and support to students to teach them a few skills necessary for life because what we know about students being successful in the workforce is how many soft skills you have in getting along with others

046and encouraging and growing as a community so that's what the SEL or social emotional learning framework is intended for and we also know that when students feel socially and emotionally connected to their school their academic growth and achievement grows significantly so there's a lot of evidence as to why we provide direct lessons and activities that help students work together that help build their sense of community and connection to everybody around them we also know that our community our world has changed significantly post covid the CDC released some very new data for us just in December of 2022 um some of it was a longitudinal study from 2009 to 2019 that showed over 10 years our students had experienced over 40 percent increase in those feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness amongst our high school youth

047so that really directly correlates with a number of our students who are having ideation and thoughts of suicide and self-harm in addition it's higher for female students 50 percent of our female students in high school experiencing feelings of hopelessness and then 66 percent of our students who are lgbtq youth so on the good side of that however is that we know when we provide protective factors and we build in those resilient skills so 60 percent of our students are less likely to engage in those Health risky behaviors once they are connected so the social emotional learning that is woven into everything we do every day throughout schools is really intended to build those protective factors for our students so here is this year's data because we're hearing across the board everybody that our students are

048really struggling in our community and we're not alone it's not like Chico's having an issue that everybody else isn't but this is real-time information from our school counselors who as part of their positions gather data and monitor what we are doing and whether that's working or not and this data shows you from August of this year through February so we cut it off gathered the date of the beginning of March what this shows you is that 170 of our students have reached out in crisis to their counselors on campuses so that is a significant number of our students who are at the highest level of need on campus the 362 number tells you those are the number of contacts so when we just count the number of times students come in and identify that they

049are in immediate crisis so thoughts of suicide thoughts of self-harm 362 contacts up to March 1st for our students so roughly in the elementary years you can see it's one to one so one student coming in having one experience and we were able to make connection help them find support resolution Etc unfortunately what the graph shows you is that as the grades go up so do the number of contacts for students so our students who are in distress who are having these challenges are having them more frequently than just the one-time and and being supported yes um so just to clarify when it says count of contacts that's not individuals that's that's actual con like number of times that the contact occurred we've got both for you the bottom line is a student so Jen

050walks in the counseling office I'm counted once I'm on I represent the bottom line the top line is the number of contacts so you might see me five times so I've got five contacts so you can see the difference there okay and then another question that I have that um it I mean it's not necessarily important it kind of comes more into play Maybe in the next slide um but uh do we know what kind of correlation there is if any or maybe based on Research exclusively about um the accessibility being represented in the data so as as these counseling sessions have become more accessible students have been able to engage in them more leading to more contacts and and so that we have that data so that's that's a good question and I think

051we're going to reflect that in the next slide what this is for you is our counselors are are really diligent in gathering specific data so we can piece apart this is a contact with a student versus this is a student coming in in crisis which in our world means we are engaging in some level of assessment and that that's um can be a little difficult to understand we're not testing the kids but we're having those really specific questions asked we're following a specific protocol and then making immediate contact with family members with additional Mental Health Providers with crisis line so that's what we're referring to here that's the level of students that we're connecting to outside care to ensure safety for that night okay our next slide shows you over the course of time exactly

052what you are referring to Caitlyn so what we're finding is I think impossible to figure out the chicken versus the egg so we built it and they are coming so are they continuing to access services and is it because we continue to offer more and more that they continue to come forward or are we responding it I think it's impossible to tell what we can see from the first graph and really over the course of all three graphs is this is five years worth of data looking at the number of students who are receiving social emotional contacts with counselors so this isn't somebody coming in asking for assistance with class changes or challenges with a teacher this is a student coming in asking for some sort of emotional or social difficulty so numbers of students

053is in the first one you can see that increases significantly in the past two years then the total of number of contacts with students so again numbers of students and then you have numbers of contacts right there next to it and then um the number of contacts combining over the course of five years yeah I think I just it would be good to acknowledge that that um that 20 21 to 20 22 years the year that we added so many more counselors yeah and I I think that that was the best decision that we could have made and it is something that we continue to hear in every parent meeting that we are in part of so whether it's lcap or otherwise parents students they're asking for more social emotional support and so um responding

054to that and being able to engage in nearly 30 000 contacts with students for social emotional support in a year is huge and then I want to also just real quickly remind it may look like we kind of dip for this year but I want to remind you we still had three months left of data for this year that's not reflected in that last data point so there's really not a dip at this point any other questions about our data so what we're hoping to talk about with you tonight is kind of give you an idea of the the counseling history in our district where we are currently our counselors all follow the American school counselor Association we've attached the link to their website here so we follow their standards for preparedness their ethics their

055professional guidelines we do have multiple tiers within our counseling systems at every single School level so at the elementary level we have counseling assistants doing different fun activities with students everything from award nights to Promotions you'll see character of the month all of those activities follow into social emotional learning we clubs site activities and programs fall into what we would consider that tier one where all students have that support and then from there we have additional support that are provided at the tier two or the next level and so that might be friendship clubs or maybe students or um struggling with managing conflicts with their peers or something like that so there's some a special group that's put together for a short amount of time to support those needs and then we have all the

056way up through tier three which is our most extensive needs and we're really providing that individual service and it's intended to be short-term again my name is Joanna Ming I'm one of the special education coordinators for the district this slide and the following slide look a little wordy there's a lot on these and that's because these were developed as a potential pamphlet to give to parents to explain are the role of our school counselors and what they do so that's why there's a lot of content here highlighted here on this page are our school counselor qualifications our school counselors have master's degrees and a PPS credential which is pupil Services credential or people personnel Services credential um and they must also meet California state certification and licensor requirements they also must fulfill continuing education requirements

057to maintain their credential our School counseling support team does include our school counselors including our Wellness counselors also includes classified staff including our targeted case managers and counseling assistants my favorite quote on this page is in that that top right corner where students who have greater access to school counselors and comprehensive School counseling programs are more likely to succeed academically and behaviorally at school um so this is the second page of that potential parent brochure um and as Jen said our school counselors are really um the key staff members that monitor the implementation of programs that support the whole child in terms of academic success behavioral success and social emotional learning our school counselors as Jen said again serve students at all three tiers of mtss so they're providing that tier one instruction and social

058emotional learning or possibly positive behavior supports through PBIS instruction they're also providing supports for available to all students and again this is more so at the secondary level in terms of individual student academic planning individual student academic goal setting and then tier two supports are going to include some again clubs groups friendship groups um that again are operating on a short term and then our tier three are is going to be that individual support for our most our students with most intense needs so our our counselors do small group counseling they do referrals to long-term support through Community providers and Community agencies for our students with the greatest needs they collaborate with families teachers administrators and that happens at all tiers in terms of tier one supports available to all students and then tier two

059supports for some and then tier three for of the few they also look at data to analyze student issues and needs on this site each of our school sites is unique with unique challenges and our school counselors are really key employees to look at the data and identify site specific needs our school counselors don't assign discipline consequences they're not transporting students to community appointments they don't provide long-term Psychotherapy or clinical therapy and they don't do formal student testing like in the same way that our school psychologists would for a special education assessment I have a question I feel like I have a question for everybody I'm sorry to hold it up um do you do all students have access to all counselors um automatically uh yes is the short answer yes and um and that's

060why you know we say our counselors are mtss providers they a tier one all of our students have access to our school counselors in some way like on an elementary campus that might look like a school counselor doing classroom lessons or you know the counseling assistant under the direction of the school counselor doing a social emotional Learning lesson for the classroom it might look like facilitating recess play or organizing recess games that are again available for all of our students to access it might look like a Wellness Center that's open for drop-in appointments for any student can drop in hang out in the wellness center and the school counselor is facilitating that interaction so that's more at the elementary level at the secondary level Junior High and high school all of our students have an

061assigned school counselor typically based on their alphabet last name and um and so and that is designated it's in Aries and so um if parents are wondering who's the school counselor assigned to my child they can check that in their students Aries profile thank you any other questions great thank you before I introduce Jessica Capen to come up I do want to thank all the folks that have been here presenting information to you tonight I hope it's informative to the board and to the public that's here behind us um thank you to the board we you can see we've built quite a comprehensive counseling program that is serving hundreds of students when they need it so thank you to the board members that were at that time that voted this in Mr Lando Mr tennis

062Miss Dolby and Mrs Robinson it has made a significant difference in students lives and I sometimes think we will not know the impact actually that you have made the positive impact so uh with that I will introduce Jessica Capen hello there my name is Jessica Keepin and I'm the assistant principal at Chico Junior and I also have the privilege of serving as the PBIS coordinator for the district um I usually is kind of little disclaimer I usually use many activities to introduce all these Concepts um when I'm doing presentations so just imagine that we were doing lots of interactive um things and um just to give you kind of an idea about what what PBIS is with that said I'm going to be focusing in on many of the Essential Elements for PBIS um do

063I use this little clicker I guess yes okay all right awesome so what um the first essential element of PBIS is teaching students how we want them to behave just like we would teach them math just like we would teach them any other subject matter content we want our students to come to our school and learn about our our expectations for Behavior our rules all those things because let's just face it everybody comes from a different diverse background and so we don't we cannot make the assumption that our students are coming to us knowing all of our rules that they got sat down at the dinner table and taught our rules before they got to our school so it really levels the playing field for all of our students from diverse backgrounds and different family

064situations um so one of the other key aspects when we talked about social emotional learning about infused into PBIS is making sure that our students are available for the lessons just like we would want them to be available for any other lesson so are they are their needs being met do they know how to self-regulate in a classroom are they able to take those deep breaths when they're feeling you know not not focused and be able to focus back in on the lesson when we're teaching expectations about Behavior just like we would with math and I think that's the important piece here is just realizing that behavior needs to be taught so the other thing we want to do is also make sure that our lessons are very diverse so that all of our students

065can see in our lessons like if we're doing a PowerPoint or we're doing a video um they can see themselves in that lesson because we have such a broad diverse amount of students we want them to be able to go oh yeah that's me that's me and and they're they're showing somebody that looks like me or talks like me um and and they can see their backgrounds in our lessons and this is also something that set um when we look at our um our when we look at PBIS and we reflect on our be on our practices this is something that we need to reflect on are we really encompassing those cultural backgrounds so um another key component is using data to inform our decisions about what Behavior seem to be popping we can definitely

066say hey the cafeteria is just a mess and all these kids are misbehaving in the cafeteria but we do we really know that if we don't look at the data and have it be captured in our minors and our majors and the data that we're inputting into edu climber and or Aries we really don't know that that's an actual issue so when we come together as a team all of our schools have teams and our PBIS tier one team looks at that data and says oh no the issue is that it's on the playground and they're throwing you know dirt at each other that's the issue we need to think about and then we re-teach those lessons we put more campus supervisors out there and then we have clear consequences for students who don't meet

067our behavioral expectations that's another essential element um so the other thing is that we have diverse Learners right so we have kinesthetic Learners we have students who do better audio visual we have to make sure our lessons are also approachable for those students um so what do we do if a student's not responding to our tier one stuff right so they keep misbehaving well we have all of our schools have tier two teams and so our tier two teams that just kind of we up up our intervention strategy so we look at the student what are their thresholds that they're meeting maybe it's that their attendances is poor maybe it's at their academics are falling maybe it's that they're they're way ramping up in all their behaviors and getting lots of referrals so then we

068look at those students and we assign um interventions that would meet those students needs our our tier two teams are generally called teams and do you need me no you're good okay um so anyway the other um the other people that are there so the counselors the school psyches they are all helping us to assign these interventions when we have students who have interventions we look about four to six weeks for that intervention to take to take place and we want to see if they're responding they respond great if we start a fade plan if they don't respond then we might have to up the ante and and go to tier three tier three actually consists of behavior plans just like you would see in an IEP um we have student Behavior contracts we have

069intensive counseling just like they spoke about with their Wellness counselors who are doing therapeutic counseling and then sometimes we do have to refer out to different agencies or have a behaviorist come in and perhaps go to different alternative education sites as well that's the last thing we want to do but it is something that sometimes we have to but hopefully we've made a huge impact on some of the interventions and all along the way we're including our families in these conversations so that their key players in our interventions and they are getting the feedback too as to how the student's doing with the interventions taking place I would like to introduce Miss Jennifer Scala again she's going to talk about what do we do when we we as the comprehensive site cannot reach a student

070and have maxed out our intervention possibilities okay so one of the things that we have heard overwhelmingly at all schools is we have had a significant increase in behavior that is disruptive in some way and so like Mrs Capen was saying we're doing all of these things prior and there are some students that continue to struggle despite everything that we're doing this year and ongoing we have Gina Payton who has created this really amazing program for us that we're just in the infancy stages of developing and we're currently calling it The behavior intervention team and so I would really love to talk about that with you Gina really wishes she could be here unfortunately she's homesick rather than me really do no service to explaining what that program is I'd like to bring Gina back

071and have her walk that through that with you it's I think a really exciting opportunity because it's a lot of coaching and supporting teams to really address these really difficult behaviors rather than putting students away from their General Ed peers or away from their home schools and those kinds of things so I'll bring back Gina and she can explain the program to you thank you any questions okay moving along here uh we're going to show you quickly how we look at all the data that comes in how we organize it to serve students all right so we first wanted to touch on some of the overarching theme that you've heard from all of our different speakers when we think of the different levels that we're servicing and supporting students we have this tier one level

072and that's all of our students receiving the Core Curriculum the coursework at the various levels and it's the day-to-day accommodations and supports that teachers are doing in classrooms every single day as you've also heard every school has a team that meets very regularly to look at student data and that might be our s-back assessments that might be our local assessments and looking at that data to determine which students are in need of additional supports and then that's when we look at the supports we have at our school sites and or in the district to offer that additional support in addition to that tier one their classroom or grade level work and then that team continuously working together to look at the data some students even need more specialized focused instruction and again we're looking at

073what do we have available on our campuses what do we have available across the school district that we can pull in to really support all of those students and then if as uh as was mentioned sometimes that might be an outside a person from our school site or it might we might pull in some of our special education teachers and say you know do we recommend or what are our next steps with this student I thought you mentioned um you know the parents are very involved with with the communication on what's happening in my experience um when the when the the interventions at the school was trying in the beginning don't seem to be clicking that quite often there's some kind of an emergency at home somebody's lost a job somebody's you know um it

074are the parents do they have available from the school somebody that can help with them to deal with with their own at-home crises because that's probably what's behind the difficulties the students having at school what what kind of support for parents are we able to provide so I think on our school sites our our Administration administrative helps our Administration team helps support parents I think our targeted case managers are really that connection to support families given the variety of circumstances that may you know be happening but our targeted case managers are really those who can support families and kind of connect them and with things that we might have available at our school to support any additional ones I I would just add too that having been at a school site it's a lot of

075people on that site that kids can go to or people discover that somebody's having a rough time with something so it can really come it's in my experience come from anybody on the School site staff wise to bring attention to the fact that as students needing some support some help what we can do to go forward with that with the family so it's really when we say it takes a village it really does so you've heard this term a couple of times edu climber is an online uh like a platform where we have all of this data so you know as a teacher I've you know we've got the reading platform at our students use we've got Aries where we have student you know where we take attendance and um last year we started using

076edu climber and what edu climber does is it takes all of this academic data local state assessment data our social emotional data and our behavioral data that Jessica touched upon and it puts it all into this one spot so we can and when I say we cite teams Chase and I as mtss coordinators can look at it and look for what are the patterns that we're seeing you can pull up a student and see how are they doing academically maybe they need some more social emotional support maybe their amazing academically but are um you know in need of more behavioral support so it's a it's a platform that really allows us to pull all these different data pieces together in one spot and so one example would be for those positive behavior interventions and supports

077so when Jessica was mentioning entering minors and major incidents last year Chase and I worked with our mtss site leads to identify the process because all of our school sites have different needs and are have different processes in place but all of our sites enter their minor incidents into this platform called edu climber and a minor incident are those things that happen you know in the classroom on the playground that don't that don't make it to at the office level it's just kind of a little note this happened today and so when that data is entered in edu climber this is an example from one of our school sites for the month of February the team can sit down and say okay we've been hearing all these things about you know issues on the playground

078but in in February it looks like um the the graph to the right is broken down by weekday so we can say oh Thursday was the day that these These are minor incidents these things were happening and then it will also show oh what hour of the day so this one I think is the third one over is 9 A.M and 11 A.M so what's happening at nine o'clock I need 11 o'clock and then the last one is the location so in this particular School site it was in the classroom so what 9 A.M on a Thursday in the classroom what can we do and that would be a conversation that the team can have they can go back to their their staff and say hey what's you know how can we help problem solve

079this how can we put more supports or you know change something to see that decrease in the next month so that's one piece that we've been using as you climber for and then the other piece that we've just really started utilizing this year which is really exciting I'm going to let Chase explain because he's been spearheading some of this over at his site thanks Christy so one of the beautiful things that's let me address this um one of the more beautiful things that's come out of our mtss initiatives has been the um the ability for us to collaborate across grade levels um not a lot of times do you get people from an elementary world in the Middle School world in the high school world all sitting together to solve problems for kids and so

080one of the cool things about the thresholds is um I kind of like to think of it as an early warning system so I teach at Fairview so that's our alternative education high school and so a lot of the times kids are coming to us well most of the time they're coming credit deficient and so a lot of the times kids are exhibiting behaviors of good attendance but poor grades and a lot of the times we want to figure out who those students are as quick as possible so a threshold for in many ways basically allows us to set parameters that once a student meets that so say a student is attending 90 or more of the time but they are now failing for classes the moment that third or fourth class triggers it mines

081the system and sends off a an email or notification to counselors and admins so that we are aware very quickly who what students are kind of falling through the cracks because we tend to think of students failing as students that aren't at school but that's not always the case and so our thresholds are really cool in that concept because you can apply that to pretty much anything that edgy climber can mine from Aries in our other Data Systems and so what you guys are looking at right now is um kind of based off of what we do at Fairview called the academically disengaged process where just like I described student is coming to school often but they are failing multiple classes at Fairview we use a minor intervention tag in there so we would input

082that as a behavior that's not always the easiest thing to do when you have 38 students and six classes at a comprehensive site so we've kind of adapted that idea and we're trying to work with the high schools to figure out ways that we can continue to monitor students so they're not falling through the cracks and one of those things would be say at PB High School a student is attending 90 95 of the class time um that would we'd set that up so their their academic counselor would be notified that we are now um failing a class and so that we're not waiting till uh progress reports to identify those students and communicate home we're now able to have that early warning system to really kind of Target that communicate with home and make

083sure that students receiving the services they need to be successful at school so as always we we've got a lot of great things that we continue to work on and that K-12 system but we always have additional pieces that we continue to work on so as we continue to move forward with mtss and our district really looking at our espit process at our Comprehensive High Schools that's going to be a big um a big task for us next year and we already have a lot of that started especially with those thresholds and looking at students with through edu climber continuing to evaluate is what we're doing working and are we supporting the students with what they need in any one or multiple of those areas of academic behavioral and social emotional and as always receiving

084and getting feedback from our partners from our families because ultimately we are here to support our students and make sure that our our students are successful and can be as successful as they can be by the time they leave us in Chico UniFi side thank you so much for your time I'm going to turn it back over to Tina and we're happy to answer any questions that that you may have thank you again board members and public for your attention tonight we were hoping that we could share some information about the mtss framework for you we're happy to continue to talk to it if anybody in the room has any more questions or or wants to know more about something you know where to find us and I want to thank the whole team that

085was here there were quite a few folks that that joined in on this as you saw from our students to our counselors that we have over there as well and our staff here and uh thank you again we love what we do and we love it it's supporting kids I I just thought of something the Fairview person Mr thank you Mr Fairview yeah um how long have you been working with the threshold um uh status looking at at Fairview well um quite some time the threshold just allowed us to have a mechanism for which to do it but back in the old days it was all paper at Fairview um and so we've been we've adapted this process and again I will mention that whole idea of getting all of these mines in a room

086has really been wonderful to be able to um really Target and help students out so that's something we've adapted that Fairview and the alternative education campuses I've been doing for quite some time it's just now we're trying to really streamline it develop it into something that can actually be working at all School sites I I do remember back in the days when I was one of those office people running um failure notices came out and you could you could tell immediately okay there's a problem there's a problem and you identifying them early while they still had time to look at not getting that F or that D minus at a probable failure thing was huge because they they don't give up if they think there's hope they tend not to give up quite so readily

087oh I absolutely agree with you and like the last thing we want students to be doing is filing into a pit that they feel they cannot crawl out of and the more that we can do to ensure that everybody all stakeholders involved know that that student is struggling whether it's behavioral social emotional or academic that's that's our number one priority thank you um does oh sorry you're adding okay I just wanted to say a quick housekeeping item for anybody that is wondering at restroom facilities are outside these doors and around to the left so just wanted people to know that as the evening goes on thank you that is important information um does the board have any additional technical questions for clarification purposes I don't have questions but I I do have a just thank

088you for bringing all of the alphabet soup things more into Focus it's important you know for me at least as a board member to understand what's happening below the surface and I see so many wonderful things to support kids at all level and I am so thankful that we instituted mtss it's just it's going it's going to get us through what we've been through these last few years and I thank everyone that's working in support of it we appreciate it thank you very much do we have any public comment for 6.1 multi-tiered system of a support mtss overview okay seeing none this is informational only and no action is needed with that we will move on to item seven this is our discussion action calendar the first order of business is 7.1.1 an informational presentation

089about the facility master plan overview yeah and we are getting a presentation by Julie Kissel good evening thank you for allowing us here tonight to work on the planning for our exciting update of the facilities master plan tonight we have Laura Nas with linakis Architects here to walk us through the presentation I'll go ahead and let Laura take over thank you Julie oops I'm gonna make a mess here great [Music] hello everyone and thank you for having us here again today uh last month we presented a very long presentation on the progress on the facilities master plan and today we're here with several action items um we left you with a little homework at the last meeting and that was a list of those action items we'd be looking at today how to address our

090Surplus capacity interim housing options our approach to the Inspire campus size school size and capacity issues the master plan Elementary School prioritization process and what to do with the remaining bond funds of your current available Bond so item by item we do have the lead sheets in here do you want to introduce them Julie yeah just one quick thing I wanted to clarify we did plan on um working through the action items one by one while presenting on each item if that's allowable yeah sorry I'm just processing that request um because this is uh on here as a separate item informational with the overview and then the next which is just informational the next item on the agenda is discussion action for item one so it are you envisioning that it will be more cohesive

091of a conversation and and efficient if we just kind of Chunk it out and go kind of one piece at a time yes please okay um then in that case I think that we do have some direction well we do have a speaker who has requested to speak to 7.1.1 so we will need to go to that then when we come back if we're going to do it separately let me just I apologize my apologies um okay so I would say then if if we're gonna do that then um the way that this reads to me is 7.1.1 is informational and is really just those first two slides and so in that case we would go through our our Rules of Order which is to ask if the board has any questions for clarification at

092this time seeing none I can call for public comment on 7.1.1 we do have one that has signed up which is Audrey Bakke hi I'm um was a little confused as to how to sign up and make sure I could speak tonight so I'm kind of just talking about all of the things that are happening sorry can I just question of clarification um will you is your comment just addressing the facilities master plan it's addressing hooker up possibly closing or repurposing do you would it be okay if we moved you to the Hooker Oak item that is totally fine okay I like I said it was confusing on the Google it happens it happens we we try to be clear but it just is challenging so I would I will definitely call you back up

093when um when that item comes up thank you [Applause] okay so since this is informational only it doesn't look like we have any additional public comment now I'm going to introduce item 7.1.2 which is a discussion action item this is called item number one facilities master plan identify Elementary Surplus capacity and now I will ask you to make your presentation on this item okay we have put the lead sheets in for reference and specifically the district we are looking for a recommendation that the Board of Education designate an elementary campus to be repurposed so we have some information to share with you before that decision the first is at our last meeting we talked about model capacities and a lot of that was triggered by our discussion around transitional kindergarten and the number of kindergartens

094and making sure we could have a consistent cohort of students through all their grade levels at their campus and we developed a small mid-size and large scaled campus for each of the district's elementary schools those start with either two three or four kindergartens and are agreed upon transitional kindergarten of a capture rate of 65 percent of those kindergarten classrooms there are some other new nuances regarding special education two at each campus and some campuses designated for moderate to severe students but generally these these models hold when we look at the projections for student enrollment between now and 2030 you can look at the bottom line there and see when we apply the model capacity we generate a capacity of about 6 100 students or spaces for students at the district which is a surplus capacity

095of 581. and so when we apply that kind of piece of information we have a couple we have options right the options are taking those demographic enrollment projections and looking at repurposing that capacity generally and the ways we can look at repurposing that capacity we can use it as interim housing for example we talked last time a lot about trying to accelerate the improvements at the existing elementary schools if we can find a location for interim housing of those schools we can move faster the second was is there any District support facilities or under housed District facilities that could be looked at for that interim capacity and then the third was a new location for inspire all of those things remain on the table but this is kind of the options for the district to

096look at its Surplus capacity we have options though we can continue in the status quo and address a surplus cap capacity on a site-by-side basis and by that we mean as they come up for renovation replacement or improvements we acknowledge the Surplus at that capacity or at that school and keep making them smaller to address that it changes the model capacity Model A little bit but that's an option that still exists the other is to repurpose an existing School reclaiming that capacity at one particular site and redistributing the remaining students in order to make that space available for other uses and the two that we had identified initially were Citrus hope Citrus and Hooker Oak so this map if you recall is just a bit of a density heat map if you will the the

097schools in red are the ones that are currently under their capacity by at least 10 percent or more and you can see by their location it's a pretty dense amount of student capacity in one location again so when we look at that choosing one of the schools in red as a potential for that repurposing makes a lot of sense with the overlap two of those McManus and Neil Dao are recently or currently in the process of being made like new and so on those quickly came off the table for this discussion we also looked at the engineering team architectural team went out to every campus this condition assessment map is organized by kind of best condition and by that I just mean physical condition as Architects we're not evaluating the educational condition we're evaluating the

098physical condition Marigold McManus assuming we're complete with the work there and Neil Dao are all good to go yellow means there's things here and there right they might be due for a systems upgrade or something like that the oranges are all as you can see a mix of red which puts you close to replacement value for the improvements that would be needed and orange which is about 75 percent of replacement value and then of course in red Citrus and Hooker Oak the oldest of the district schools we did however look at other assessment factors such as the um uh unduplicated student count the English language learner percentages as I mentioned the condition assessment and how the capacity currently aligns with its um with its current enrollment and sorted them differently this particular map sorts them

099by condition assessment so um from best condition physically to worse condition physically but we also have sorted by population the number of students served but and by unduplicated student count or percentages and by El percentages on the campus Because all of these factors do matter in your decision making about how to move forward we did however um come to a recommendation and that was to Repro repurpose the Hooker Oak Elementary School site as potential interim housing or other future uses I mentioned the central dense location I mentioned the condition assessment at sort of the the lowest level of the of the schools there would be need to be a lot of careful planning between now and whenever this happens how do you relocate an educational program that's popular and perhaps merge it with another site

100that's again above my pay grade as an architect but certainly There's an opportunity there but also just how to phase in the students from that campus and how they transition no boundary adjustment would be required as that's an open enrollment school and if the program moves and merges it could remain an open enrollment school and that the enrollment in the long-range projections is shown as declining so the board action is to get feedback from the board and to take action on the repurposing of an elementary school campus I just want to mention that the Hooker Oak program is a very important program to the district and that careful consideration and planning will need to take place if the board decides to repurpose the campus buildings that doesn't mean that the program will be going away

101we would be working hard to create a transition plan that's beneficial to students and families and the program yeah we're we can ask questions of clarification okay uh Julie and Laura thank you um I too value that Hooker Oak program that has been um yeah don't don't need to say anything other than it's been amazing still is it's not a bin it's it is an amazing program um I was sitting in on a committee meeting and the questions were being asked about is there um a school that's not on the got to do something with it list that could house that program because I don't want to see that program Disturbed dismantled whatever but if we can take that program in you know in whole and put it on another campus as as a separate

102program but on a you know do we have that other campus this is a loaded question because I know the answer where would it go we don't have an answer to that question right now let the board decide on this point and then we go to work on the how and the when and the where and we bring it back in the floor in the form of draft master plan in early May for the board to evaluate the plan for consideration in the incorporation into the facilities master plan so this is an action so if the board said we two things we want to repurpose Hooker Oak and we also want to see that program maintain program would that be a direction that would fit your request for Direction yes I'm I'm going to move

103okay will you let us know when it's okay she's so good Mr Linda did you have a question for clarification I suspect others will say it better okay um I have a question for for clarification for myself [Music] um I feel like it might be beneficial to understand better um or to be able to grasp the long-term need to scale back because of our Surplus and if we have a if we have a um like a cost benefit that goes with that so that we can understand better why this is a critical decision to make so there likely are a number of financial impacts to the district regarding the operation of a School site however from my perspective it removes an elementary campus from our implementation plan so we're we're running 60 million dollars at

104campus around for our elementary school renovations right now so that would mean that if we did not renovate Hooker Oak campus that money would flow down to the next campus in line in the implementation plan so in a way saving money for the schools that we you know are continuing to serve so it would consolidate future monies that become available for facilities updates to those other school sites because of the Surplus capacity and then the second point or the first point technically you made was that just the long-term costs of maintaining a school would be a savings in that regard and then the third point that I don't think was addressed yet that I remember from the presentation last time I think and please correct me if I'm wrong obviously is that um that there

105would be some benefit for using that for interim housing possibly because if we can use that while we're rebuilding a whole new school or two or three that would also be a cost savings allowing us to use those dollars for even more work to get done on the other schools yeah says Laura mentioned in the presentation utilizing a surplus campus for interim housing would allow us to move more swiftly through the elementary school Renovations and being able to accomplish them quicker saves money so that would mean saves money that goes back into the project absolutely it gets pushed down to the next project so we get further in our implementation with those dollars if we can tackle the elementary schools more swiftly which we're presenting on very shortly on the interim housing item as well

106are there any other questions for clarification I do now thank you um even if we choose to designate the Hooker Oak site to be repurposed we still own it we're still using it for something how is this not just kicking the can down the road or I mean is it [Applause] we think that thank you we think that um we would not be kicking the can down the road Hooker Oak is a campus that would be very difficult to transform to the standard of that we have been renovating to for Equity with our elementary students and we do not intend to have to spend those kinds of dollars on Hooker Oak it would be very difficult to do so so no I don't believe you're kicking the can down the road does that mean that

107we should expect not to see hook Rook as a site for students at all in the future I mean at some point if we're going to use it for students again we're gonna have to fix it up right right so it would it would need to accommodate the interim housing of students from other elementary schools for a period of time and then it would be repurposed for something else in the future as Laura mentioned it could be District uses or it could be potential site for inspire High School in the future foreign I'm not trying to be difficult here um given any of those we will still need to make some some renovations right I mean if it's in um that red category for condition it's still going to be so I mean just taking

108a saying we're not going to spend money on it doesn't magically make it fit for some other group of people to to use it right correct [Applause] yeah so um this isn't something that we're asking the board for direction on but it has been kicked around the idea that Inspire will need a home in the future and they do have their own funding source both through State funding for School construction and measure K dollars that are allocated to Charter Schools so improvements that may be needed if it were to become a high school campus for inspire there are funds available for those renovations big if let me chew on for a little bit I'm not hearing any additional questions for clarification from the board so at this time we'll open it up for public comment

109thank you for your presentation um I have a feeling we may have further questions for clarification so of course be on the ready um so I'm going to call up actually before I start calling anybody up um uh just a reminder about our civility policy and just to make sure that we're being respectful of everybody's uh place and and perspectives and that that this is should be a space where we should be able to feel that we can share our perspectives and our experiences and respect those of each other um and so with that also a reminder that you get three minutes for public comment you will hear a bell at the 32nd Mark I always question myself if it's 30 seconds or not 30 second Mark um that is just your indication that you

110need to wrap up your statement and when the second Bell goes off I will interrupt you just by saying thank you and um that is your cue to finish up your sentence and take your leave and we'll move on to the next person so that was the longest explanation I've ever given for public comment but I have a feeling that that it's necessary tonight so uh we will start with Jessica hunt on a public comment for this item I just feel like there's probably several people here who are new to giving a public comment which is why I felt the need to give a little deeper explanation [Applause] we'll call her too yeah they're on my list hi most of you know me my name is Jessica hunt and I am a proud former hugger

111Oak parent all three of my kids were in attendance at Hooker Oak I am really concerned about this possible plan of moving Hooker Oak space to another campus as a former parent of Hooker Oak when I look back at our time at Hooker Oak it is with great happiness I'm not going to lie leaving Hooker Oak to go to Bidwell was really scary but there's no doubt in my mind that the open structure program gave my boys a leg up the key to that program success is the students the families and the highly dedicated staff the staff at Hooker Oak want to be there and that family feeling continues long after a family has transitioned to Junior High Urban structure is successful because they are together Under One Roof moving the program to another site

112to share space with a school that is not an open structure opens the door to a whole lot of other issues and it saddens me to think that the Integrity of the program could be put at risk because there's no guarantee that every staff member and not to mention the highly involved Administration will move with that program to the other site and rumor has it that Ho's current principle is a former Hooker Oak student how great is that has the board talked to the families have they talked to the staff have you taken a tour of Hooker Oak and seen it in action if you haven't I highly suggest you do that before you make your decision and I'm proud to say there is one person on this board that knows the good things that

113Hooker Oak has done and that's Tom Lando who was my daughter's student teacher at Hooker Oak and he's seen it in action and I'm begging you to not make this decision right now you have to put this off you have to do more research on what damage could be done to this program because if you lose this program you're losing a lot more than a program you're losing families and students that's all thank you thank you now we have Audrey Baki [Applause] all right hello again I'm Audrey Bakke I'm the parent of three current students at Hooker Oak and I'm here to tell you why you shouldn't repurpose our school and try to move a program first of all it's not a program it's an alternative school of choice School of Choice and it offers

114more than what most neighborhood schools can because of its focus on integrated instruction looping classes and thematic learning the parents of students in Hooker Oak actively chose this school for our children because we knew it would meet our children's needs and would Foster the kind of love and passion for learning that traditional schools simply can't we make the commitment to drive across town in morning School drop-off traffic through multiple neighborhood schools to ensure our kids get a quality education because it's worth it we are willing to meet the volunteer requirements some of us volunteering well above that requirement so that our children can participate in multiple enrichment opportunities and receive the best instructional program they deserve we do this because we love this school and what it offers our students you may say the traditional

115neighborhood schools can offer these same things to our students but I'm here to tell you it's not the same our students thrive in their academic and social emotional learning because of the looping classes that they have for those who don't know what looping is it's when the class stays with the same teacher for two years in a row this enables teachers to truly get to know the students their needs their wishes their desires their challenges their successes their family life their learning preferences so many things when teachers have the same students for a second year they have the opportunity to start real teaching so much sooner because they can skip the typical getting to know you stuff it means our students ultimately have more time dedicated to teaching and learning and let's not forget the

116positive effects that looping has on our social emotional health of our students which is in dire need right now a second year with the same teacher gives our students a sense of normalcy structure and routine that simply doesn't happen in our traditional schools when students feel loved and know they can trust their teacher they are able to better focus on their learning the traditional schools in our district don't offer as much as the active Hands-On thematic-based learning that Hooker Oak Prides itself on traditional schools focus more on math and English because of State Testing which leads to curriculum and teaching that is disjointed and unexciting at Hooker Oak kids are actively engaged in their learning through projects field trips and instruction that purposefully connects across the subjects my children come home excited and passionate about

117what they are learning in school I know other parents in the district can't say the same thing about their kids reactions when coming home from the traditional neighborhood schools I can't tell you how important School choices for our students in this community alternative schools exist because they feel a need that other schools can't if you take away this amazing School of Choice you are pushing parents to make another Choice do we stay in Chico Unified a district that has shown us They Don't Care About Us or our school as evidenced by the poor planning for our facility updates and desire to close her Crooke or do we look at charges that's your neighboring districts for enrollment for our kids [Applause] thank you [Applause] Stacy Bono also please before you start I have to give the

118little speech that I don't like getting people's names wrong so please correct me it's for now it's fine thank you sorry it's okay good evening my name is Stacy Benoit I'm a special education teacher at Hooker Oak as well as a mother of three Hooker Oak alumni as someone who is involved in many aspects of our school I would like to share some of the amazing things happening at our campus Beth geise was just named outstanding social studies educator of the year for the State of California she and Katie Yancey brought their fourth grade classes to Sacramento yesterday to tour the capitol building and visit the California Museum our fifth grade teachers are busy planning the annual ship trip in May their students will set sail in the San Francisco Bay visit the Marine Mammal

119sanctuary and tour the bay model this month all students are participating in the Royal Dance Academy tomorrow is their performance second graders just presented their positive Heroes Museum and our NPR our principal Emily Mullins is an amazing leader and our school is an example in this District in many ways we initiated the math pacing guide that is now used by the district we have implemented the number sense math screener that multiple schools are picking up we have a PBIS Platinum Status we have a robust Garden where students receive weekly instruction we have a nature center in the middle of our school we have a sensory room we have a wellness team that meets every week in a Wellness Center available to every student I encourage you to please visit our campus and see all the

120good work we are doing and how important it is to our community my heart is so heavy knowing that all we have worked so hard to build and create is under threat now and honestly it doesn't make sense we're in exemplary School in Chico Unified we offer an alternative program that keeps students in Ada funding in the district closing Hooker Oak will mean more students leaving for Charter Schools yes our enrollment is down but that is mostly due to covid in 2020 we had 365 students enrolled at Hooker Oak you're projecting decreasing enrollment based on post-covet numbers but is the School of Choice our enrollment is driven by the quality of our program and we have families new families interested again we are in the brink of recovering and our enrollment will go back up

121to pre-coveted numbers it's really the lack of improvement to our facilities that is holding us back I know there is a plan to merge with another school but we all know that's not going to resemble the school or program we currently have you can't just pick cooker Hooker Oak up and put it down somewhere else if you make this decision it will have an immediate negative impact on our current enrollment and tie our hands behind our backs if I were a kindergarten parent I certainly wouldn't enroll in a school with such an uncertain future I would choose one of the many charter schools in three or so years when it's time to move it's hard to say what our program will look like I know that closing Hooker Oak checks a lot of boxes in

122your Innovation plan but it discards a school that has thrived in this community since 1948. I implore you to reconsider your plan to repurpose Hooker Oak and stay with the status quo please value Hooker Oak for the amazing school that it has been and will continue to be if you allow it thank you thank you do we have additional public comment at this time just also a reminder that our public comment policy is 30 minutes we have a public commenter coming up sorry Julie uh it is 30 minutes so um I signed up for a speaker card but I think I signed up under the wrong section okay can you tell me your name please yeah Michelle Conquest I'll check it out okay can I start thank you hi I'm Michelle Palmquist I have a

123kindergartner at Hooker Oak and an incoming tker for next year in case you don't remember me from the last meeting I ended up at Hooker Oak by chance and we choose to stay at Hooker Oak by choice last month I sat through a very long meeting and listened to each person tell you the reasons why their school needs funding and updates we heard a lot of the same things it appears that our school and our program are now at risk not just our buildings but our whole program I'm back tonight to share with you what is unique and special about Hooker Oak I'm sure you know that we're a choice school no one is owned to go to Hooker Oak but each family applies to get in and chooses to be there we host many

124families throughout the district Hooker Oak is a great option for families interested in the charter like School environment but we're able to keep them in the district our our program I hate talking to you guys I'm sorry our program focuses on somatic learning and Community involvement our units are all broken out with the theme and Hands-On learning for each of these units the kids are never sitting at a desk but always learning and growing with their own creativity our school offers electives for all the grades music art garden and the kids really love them our kids are encouraged to share ideas and teachers support the creative minds of these young children I sat in a PTO meeting in October and one mom expressed that some fifth graders had an idea of doing a holiday store

125it was crazy because before I knew it the PTO ramped up an entirely new event that never existed before just because a few kids mentioned they were interested in selling their own products I was shocked that kids K through fifth grade had to apply for a space budget for their supplies and then execute their ideas one Saturday morning in December we had our very first sprouty business market and I wish you could have seen the Amazing Ideas these young entrepreneurs came up with Hooker Oak encourages parent involvement it's great for us to get into the classrooms and get to know the kids and the families I've only been at Hooker Oak for two years but I've already found my people we have play dates and Mom nights outside of school we're a community and it

126feels really good to be a part of it we also have looping classes the kids have the same classmates and the same teachers for two years giving students and families a great opportunity to really Bond and get to know each other this really helps the kids feel comfortable and learn to grow we would love to see some funding come our way but most importantly we want to stress the impact of our unique program that offers to this community and our children thank you [Applause] thank you [Applause] get up here hi I have some friends here my name is Beth geise and here are a few of my students Gwen and Evelyn and Gwen's sister who is in second grade at Hooker Oak good evening board members thank you for having us and thank you for

127letting us share our concerns tonight Hooker Oak has nurtured students as Stacy said since 1948 and we are a Cornerstone in our community our school benefits Chico by providing an alternative well-rounded education in an enriching Hands-On environment because of this style of teaching as Stacy pointed out I was it's a long it's a long one here I was recently honored with the California Council for social studies outstanding Elementary educator of the Year award and and because of that because of the way we teach I really think that was a big part of me receiving that award keeping our school open is the best way to ensure that the continued success of one of only one of two alternative programs left in this District let's talk about what makes Hooker Oak special shall we we are

128an integrated thematic Learning Community as others have said we include opportunities for our Learners to choose theme-based projects that tie into our standards and the curriculum this student-centered approach helps kids develop ownership of their learning responsibility and strong time management skills through family and Community involvement along with field trips our students develop a strong sense of their place in our community did you know that I have taken this fourth grade class on 17 field trips this year and I have three more to go three more to go and maybe four if one comes up that relates to what we are learning about this is an example of an integrated and thematic learning community and it is very powerful at Hooker Oak we loop as you've heard where I get to keep these two kids for

129a whole other year and hopefully someday I'll get this one in a year and a half or two years so we do loop I love looping I love connecting with these kids I know that I get to just start right off when they are in fifth grade and just hit the ground running right even after 26 years I still keep in touch with some of my former kids and I follow their successes such as we have a hooker Oak alumni teaching a first year writing seminar at Northwestern we have another currently studying Harvard at Harvard Divinity School another former student who is a Princeton graduate is now running his own company and my very first class at Hooker Oak we now have a sweet kid teaching at Chico State living here in Chico that is

130what a lasting impact is that is exactly a lasting an example of a lasting impact here students build confidence they reach beyond their capabilities family involvement and Community connections are made my own three kids attended Hooker Oak they're all very successful living in Philadelphia thank you that's your time I know what do we say do we say thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you let's go I'm seeing no additional public comment well there was one hand I'm sorry I didn't see it I can't see anything sorry thank you um yeah I just am we we have do we have a district person addressing whatever is happening in the back I have to wait for my time here to come back thank you and I do want to say thank you

131for letting us know we don't always see the everything that happens especially in the back thank you for letting us very difficult to see anything beyond the speaker for me so thank you um okay uh let's uh Mr Hanlon are you prepared for the next speaker okay thank you yes so thank you for letting me speak tonight I'm a current parent of a one hook Rogue student I have four older children who went to Hooker Oak as well um in fact actually my oldest son was in uh kindergarten first second third and fourth grade with best oldest daughter um Jennifer rosavich who is Educator of the Year this year was my oldest son's kindergarten teacher who's in attendance here today these are amazing Educators this isn't a program you can take and put on a

132different campus this is a community it's a home it's not just a school I lost my house up in Paradise Hooker Oak took us in I never have looked back since then and I'm supposed to be sending my TK student who unfortunately because of IEP limitations was not able to go to Hooker Oak this year he is scheduled to go to kindergarten there and it's scary to think that it's going to close and he's going to have to adjust and be sent somewhere else I don't know what else to say other than that that I'm just so happy to be a part of that community and I'm happy that I was able to get back to that family and I'm so thankful every day to be able to Traverse the miles to the school through

133other neighborhood schools to get there to drop my son off and he loves his school he loves his teachers and he's so glad to see everybody every day the older kids students the younger students that are there my goddaughter goes to school there we are a family and a community not just a school so I hope that you take the chance to do a walkthrough of our school and to see the amazing program that these amazing people have built for us please thank you [Applause] all right oh there is still time left I'm just making sure that there's no additional comments okay [Applause] I sent my public comment in via email but is there anything we can do for historical preservation for the school it's old that's all I got foreign [Applause] I already sent

134you guys a letter I am a teacher at Hooker Oak I have a TK student and two more that hopefully will be coming through the program after hearing all the comments tonight personally I ask you guys not to take action because if you take action to repurpose us where are we going to go there's no plan right now I would rather see a plan that shows we stay together as a program because we are a family and I worry that if you make the decision tonight then it's going to be well where are we going to put them we'll be scattered and just thrown anywhere that has space because looking at your numbers who has space for our entire program who at this point I don't see anybody so please do more research figure out

135what is your plan to do with us before you make the decision to get rid of our building for us thank you [Applause] are there any additional public comments okay thank you um I know I'm very stoic but I do always appreciate our public commenters um it's my job to keep a poker face I think uh but I could smile um okay so that being said sorry I'm getting a little uh Yancey um let's uh move to the portion where we we um call for a motion but I before I actually am calling for a motion um Julie Kissel was approaching the podium and I just wasn't sure if there was additional things that you had to say and and like I said there's there will likely be additional questions um so we do have

136a discussion portion once there's a motion on the table may I ask an additional question of clarification before we even absolutely I think that that's appropriate we could definitely ask continual questions for clarification for from staff I appreciate uh one of the last speakers because I did see the email about historic preservation question and I didn't bring it up I apologize for that and perhaps this is for Miss Kissel I'm not sure who else might be able to answer it um have We examined the possibility of historic preservation or any sort of uh historic status for the building and if not what's the process for finding out if it's eligible for such status I don't have an answer for that question it as far as I know has not been I did identified as a

137historical building for our town a new community we can research and get back to you on that information on how how that is achieved and what the criteria is for that thank you I would appreciate that I'm sorry that I didn't bring it up or what I don't mean to do a gotcha I just glad to slip my mind and I apologize to all of you for that I have a question for Miss Kissel um the Inspire High School idea populating Hooker Oak from Winston does that idea originate and do we have any idea if they have an opinion about Hooker Oak School and whether they would like to be there um the first question is how how did that originate so um Inspire School of Arts and Sciences is currently housed on the chico

138high school campus it has been for the last 10 years I believe under our facilities use agreement with Chico Unified School District um that facility does not meet the needs of inspire it lacks student dining it lacks storage it lacks many privacy student privacy issues and counseling and administrative services to the students um the district had decided on the board approved its use of portion of our property out on Bruce Road at our future Canyon View High School site and Inspire had plans developed plans and specifications developed and approved by the state of California to build their future school on that property however there is not enough funding available for them to implement their plan and it does not appear that they will have enough many with combined resources that they have to implement that

139plan anytime in the foreseeable future Chico High School in the meanwhile has facilities needs and a master plan of its own which intrudes on that property that inspires currently housed on so it is in Chico High School's interest Chico unified's interest and inspires interest to find an alternative location for them to be housed in the long term so that's how the conversation was generated would they like to go to Hooker Oak School I don't know if they would like to go to Hooker Oak School or not we have not had that conversation with them get would anyone from Inspire like to speak at this time in two more things so we'll be able to deal with that question of what to do with Inspire in a couple minutes I just thought I'd offer since we're

140making a decision that could affect them if they had anything to say it sounds like they don't I'm sorry Matt was this second part of your question you've given me enough information thanks okay thank you I have a question about how essential it is to or what is the level of essential wisdom that's not probably another word is it to make this decision right now tonight rather than if we were to ask you to go back to to bring more information to us in the future in a near future meeting um it's always of course possible for us to take your questions and bring back further information we are in the middle of planning our facilities master plan to bring back to the board in early May for consideration and approval so if this decision

141is put off until a later date and we're sent to do more homework and come back it just means that that date will be extended that will bring us into the summer break where we don't have as much staff and public participation so likely it will push everything into the fall would this affect drastically any of the further action items that we have on the agenda for facilities Master planning tonight some of them yes the prioritization of the elementary campuses for renovation will be affected you'll just be um having more schools to prioritize I'd like to get clarity when is Inspire going to opine whether they want to go to Hooker Oak School or not on the agenda tonight regarding inspires ability to build permanent structures on the chico high school campus or not so

142that could be an opportunity for inspire to weigh in on this topic if you wanted to wait until then I personally would like to do that this very much affects them and um you know I I respect the staff recommendations I think that you're dealing with real dollars and cents if you say that we've got too many elementary schools in the middle of the town and we're over capacity and can't afford to to fix every school to the degree that it needs to I'm inclined to think that you're probably speaking truth but um it's not fun to stand out here all alone you know as being the person who you know didn't go to hook a rogue I'm not feeling it the way that these parents are because I haven't experienced it the way that

143they have and I need to know who I need to know who's in favor of closing this in our community and um since Inspire High School seems to be a potential beneficiary to that I think that they should State an opinion so I'd like to hear that you know before I vote on it I just I'm I have a little concern about putting Inspire in that sort of position so I just want to in in to ask Inspire to come up here and state that they would like to take your school is not very fair at this time I think that what it would be fair sorry I would like you to please allow us to have our question and answer time and deliberation um yeah I think that um I don't I I have

144questions still but I don't know that they can be answered in this space right now um may I actually miss Robinson okay okay put me in line well I I would um is now a time when I can attempt emotion no ma'am because we still have whoa we still have board members who have questions of our staff so I've not called for a motion yet okay okay so my question is actually not a question for us staff um somebody that's a question for you um who's you you oh I'm not taking questions at this time yeah thank you well I'll take questions once there's a motion on the table um and I'm not called do you have a question for staff or clarification I guess where I'd like to see more clarity is um and

145maybe this would involve just making a motion to suspend action on this because wanting to more information about maintaining the Integrity of the open structure program and what that's going to look like if moved to an alternative location and um are they going to be considered a separate entity at the school location I just I feel like that would provide more clarity from for my decision so the question for staff is would we be able to ask for a draft plan uh for transition more clarity on some of these questions it sounds like there's a lot more questions from the board that probably are going to require a bit of research to bring back for not just the board but also the whole community um if it is that is that something that is something

146that you know there there's more information that could be provided if we can give that direction yes the facilities Department doesn't make uh educational decisions and implementation for the education side so we will partner with ed services to discuss different options of the how and the when and the where and report back to the board we could do that yes are there any more questions for stuff Julie you mentioned are delaying a decision pushing back other decisions and processing into next year if we delay a decision on that is is the question that was just asked for more information part of what would create that delay yes okay I call a motion may I yes thank you um because we all seem to want a little more clarification about this I recognize it on the

147current agenda this is broken down into six different action items um I would like to move that we temporarily suspend the rules hear all of the presentations on each of these items and then address them in order to presented four motions so that we kind of have a bigger picture of exactly what might go where second additional discussion so sorry let me repeat that the the motion is to suspend the rules and move through all of our items without taking action uh to hear the full scale of of what's being asked of us for decisions this evening we will take all the public comment on each item and then revisit them for Action um after we go through those seven one seven okay after 7.7 thank you and we have a second from um from

148uh member konkin any other input from the board before I call the vote okay seeing none I will do a Voice vote again because it's been a while so I'm going to start with member tennis dollby I Robinson I konk and I land away okay and with that I'm actually going to ask for a brief 10 minute break and then we'll come back and we'll move through that presentation um and those of you who gave public comment um about Hooker Oak we have had public comment for that item so you know we will take our public comment for the additional items after after the presentations thank you I call the meeting back to order we were on a brief recess Julie okay just just so we're clear we're going through the entire presentation at this

149time and then we will come back to 7.1.3 great uh will make some apology because the order assumes some action was being made on the previous items so there may be some assumptions in the ass that we have interim housing was brought up a number of times as one of the motivations for some of the recommendations we have the opportunity as we look at renovating the elementary schools to renovate them in multiple phases we're about to embark on that at McManus Elementary School and it's probably going to take about two and a half years to get through that because of the moving of students from newly renovated spaces and out of those spaces we're going to we've investigated briefly the ability to build on existing adjacent land I.E build on the fields while the remaining

150School remains operational as a way to shorten the timeline we heard loud and clear throughout our community meetings that the work that's been done has been great but it hasn't happened quickly enough and we discussed that last month as well to some to some length and wanted to bring back recommendations that would accelerate any kind of renovation or replacement and then the other was to um uh use alternative housing or interim housing to make that happen so replace or renovate if you recall we had four schools we called the quadruplets Parkview Rosedale Sierra View and Chapman because they are a similar existing buildings around the same era same the same bones if you will and so in the category of replace or renovate again taking two to three years to renovate in phases one to

151two years to rent to work on available land with maybe one building that needs to wait and the other is to relocate students together to an alternative location so our recommendation for interim housing was to replace versus renovate Chapman Parkview Rosedale and Sierra View and utilize Surplus capacity at Hooker Oak for interim housing and or building on that Surplus property or the field space where it's available to accelerate even potentially two schools at once to move in parallel and together and the other was to renovate Citrus and using the Surplus capacity at Hooker Oak for that renovation as well I have a question um when you say and or the or build on Surplus property for all or most of the campus buildings do we or do you already have an idea of which campuses

152those would be where the that could take place on site without extending the project time uh to too much we've done some preliminary test in fit and Rosedale Parkview and Chapman can get most of the way they are there might be a kindergarten building or a small building that would have to wait and Rosedale has that opportunity too it's just going to be in maybe a quicker phases to make that happen again the master plan just sets out a framework but early test and fits would indicate that obviously if we went to denser buildings or you know multi two-story buildings you could do it more quickly but we're using a traditional campus style similar to the work you have for the buildings you have here in campus Sierra View Chapman Parkview and Rosedale are the

153four we're recommending for replacement versus that two to three or more year renovation of existing buildings and that if you recall is because the cost of renovation of those facilities because of the code mandates is starting to approach the cost of replacement and with the ex the extension of the schedule starts to bump it over that replacement value I don't I just want to ask I don't think that that was her question if I interpreted it right yeah no I think her question was was a repeat of what the answer was to my question which is which campuses have the space to to build on site while maintaining the students on site so all four campuses have the space I won't say they're all equal in terms of how that space meets the future needs

154of the school so I would say that all four of them can do most of that work on the fields there might be one building that would have to be phased after some of the campus buildings are brought down there are other factors like I said density of the campus and other things so what I'm hearing is that without interim housing that those campuses if we were going to be building them in a shorter period of time the buildings would have to be built on already vacant land and so that really restricts the planning for the planning options for those campuses as far as entry and parking and streets Street facing type situations and everything you can also build interim housing like an interim portable campus if you will but I have a one of

155those projects right now going on and that's about six million dollars of investment that isn't going to the permanent solution is just going to a temporary solution your numbers might be different but it is something that does take away from the ultimate and permanent solution yeah I don't know if it would be helpful it would be a big ask up front for all schools but to to just take one of those schools as an example and say with option one a by building Surplus occupancy on-site to then bulldoze the current building and and rebuild there or close to there or over that footprint somewhat it would be this to just completely build the new school on that vacant land on that site which would be 1B would be this would basically be this cost on

156this timeline versus you know option two which is to relocate that that school for the 18 months to an alternative off-campus site those are sounds like the three options that we really are facing for each of these schools that are basically these six schools that are on this list if we're you know taking it all into consideration so um is that would you like us to I think it was I personally feel like it's asking too much to do to that for each site but it may be helpful to see an example to understand the numbers that are attached to those decisions because it's timeline wise right how long are we disrupting a school for us in terms of construction or moving them or you know temporary housing as well as the cost that the

157probable cost differences associated with those options what we were asking for tonight was the opportunity to utilize any and all of these options in the development of the long-range master plan so having these options in our toolbox then we're talking about the exact work that you're describing we'll be digging in to each campus and further exploring how can the renovations occur where are the footprints of the new buildings to occur what can be done within what timelines when we bring it back to you in May for review you would see which options were applied to which schools and why so tonight we were asking for the opportunity to use any and all of the options provided in our development of the master planning and we could potentially approve all of these options if they are

158available or come available without the assumption that we would actually vacate a campus we could say if there is a campus that is that becomes vacant that would be a big if so don't don't don't get upset about that but if then then the board has already approved that as a potential option and therefore here are the details I just asked for correct thank you so so the last item we were talking about is not dependent on this one but that one is that that option wouldn't pan out if we said Oh no just option one and two not option three correct it's very complex shall we keep going um are there any other questions about this this item yes of staff um so if if what I'm getting the answer to Caitlyn's question is

159if we give you a framework a global framework within which to do the the next step of planning that frees you to have to keep coming back to us for approving the next look and what it um if if we say okay take these four schools our our four that are the the top ranked and do what you can to give us a plan to get them built within the 18 months which is preferable that saves US money and doesn't disrupt the programs for as long um that would be a parameter within which you could work and come back to us in May yes okay thank you please the next one is the approach the approach to inspire the board has been asked by inspire if they will allow the construction of their permanent school

160at Chico High School in order to facilitate planning for their facility they ask is for the board to give direction on that Julie mentioned this earlier but as a reminder that area circled in red where the pointer is located is where the current Inspire campus is on Chico's campus and the building you see there in Orange hatched is the future master plan for Chico high school so it is the first Domino if you will to any kind of implementation of the master plan at Chico High School is Mr Williams still here he is not okay I'll just throw the question out there and anybody can answer that feels like it we have been investing a lot of grant money and uh Bond money and stuff in in doing something that has brought us some amazing

161CTE programs I've been visiting unbelievable what our kids now have available in the way of CTE options I've also visited at Chico High where some of those CTE programs both present and existing and planned are just kind of um two-thirds implemented because they don't have the facility that would make the program like you know some others that I visited recently so what what this area could be used for if Inspire isn't there is the build out of the buildings that are necessary to enhance the CTE programs at Chico high that are desperately waiting for space I see your head nodding Julie yes so we've had many discussions with Chico high school regarding the housing of their CTE programs off the top of my head the medical program is one that is undersized and they are

162not able to purchase the specialized equipment for instruction because they have nowhere to put it so that's one program also the sports medicine program the AG and natural resources program and several of the Digital Arts programs that are Career and Technical education at Chico high would be part of our our planning for the chico high school campus in hopes that we could leverage our bond dollars with State CTE grants in the future to expand those facilities and provide adequate education space for those programs thank you would that also open up it for improvements for our special education program at Chico High not under their career in education Career and Technical education grant program but yes the special ed program would be reviewed and accommodated as part of the implementation of their master plan I think

163my question was just if if we know yet or if this is a question that comes up down the line if opening excuse me expanding space for our CTE program out into that area where Inspire currently is housed opens up housing or ability to to improve um because is it my understanding that our special education housing at Chico high is a little bit um not not the most ideal or a little tight yes um in the J and K building the two-story buildings there's two classrooms that were specially constructed for special ed but as you know the program has grown over the years right now the sh program is currently housed in the I.T building and I had a phone call about that earlier this week we're meeting in early May to discuss accommodating especially

164one student that needs a lot of special equipment that equipment is is large and it's hard to accommodate in the space so we'll be brainstorming on how to accommodate um that program when uh in early May and can't wait until the master plan yeah and yeah right you have to master plan decisions have to be made and so is it also so it's it's also my understanding that inspires is seeking Direction essentially from decisions that this board makes um and what you're asking us to to do here is to determine if inspire would be allowed to move forward with building permanent a permanent School site on the chico High campus yes that's what we're asking and if we made that decision or when we make that decision one way or the other that will then

165give Inspire some guidance to move in a Direction well they will know that that um you know how that direction is provided they could either start their planning putting their resources together and their funding resources together to build at Chico high school or knowing that they need to find an alternate location to put those resources into okay thank you any other questions okay I think we can move on the next um piece is the impacts on school size confirming the special education assumptions we heard from your Special Education team but specifically focused on transitional kindergarten at the right sizing of the school sites and especially at Shasta Elementary School so confirmation a special education at the elementary school will have two special education rooms at each Elementary School and the campus and eight campuses will

166have additional space for the mod severe programs and that's what we're planning around right now for the master plan when we look at back at the model right sizing loading scenarios you could see that each of the campuses has transitional kindergarten indicated one less typically than the kindergarten for that 65 percent capture rate we were looking at the issue is if you recall from our last meeting we did a very complicated map of Shasta elementary school but it doesn't have space to add the transitional kindergarten that it needs for either its current population or a projected population there so we have two options at Shasta the first is to not add transitional kindergarten and let that campus rise to the large model of 672 students which is a little higher than where it is but

167the numbers align with that and the other is to add the TK which would in order to maintain that cohort through the um through the entire time would mean a smaller campus or a smaller population at Shasta so we're asking the board specifically on the issue of Shasta whether we want to go forward with a TK program there and understanding its impacts on model capacity I think we can move on okay and then this is just shows in red what they currently have at the site so you can see they're already pushing on the large size it's just that transitional kindergarten piece uh the prioritization um the board has saw at our last meeting the implementation plan from the 2019 master plan that if you recall was focused a lot on growth and dealing with

168growth especially at the elementary school level as you've heard over the course of these last two meetings things have changed demographically and so we're looking for changes to there's likely going to be changes in the implementation plan for the facilities master plan so this is the facilities master plan 2019 implementation schedule and that red arrow is right where we are right now which is McManus is going out to bid as the bar two above that arrow and the implementation plan had listed Hooker Oak as the next facility to be um to be handled I I will point out for the next item since we're not taking action on these there isn't enough current Bond money to do the Hooker Oak campus even if it was up in line so we'll be asking you for different

169um feedback on the remaining Bond dollars but you can see why the timeliness of this issue is important to the board we did want to bring back the prioritization categories that we showed earlier this happens to be the one sorted by condition assessment but we can go back to the ones sorted otherwise if if appropriate just to clarify what you just said the previous board that approved this facilities master plan timeline had prioritized based on need handling growth growth okay projected growth projected and some of those things those some of those projections have changed many of those projections have changed okay thank you keep going okay are there any questions about prioritization um the last issue is the one I just tinted at and that is understanding that um there is uh some remaining Bond

170dollars currently and uh as we [Music] gotta figure that out you awake I am there's about 50 million dollars remaining in this in the bond dollars right now five five zero uh five zero and the board has asked for I mentioned that Hooker Oak next up on the implementation plan there are aren't enough dollars to tackle that or any of the priority um elementary schools and so uh the board asked that we bring back recommendations uh those recommendations are to complete uh Safety and Security initiatives many of those are in process across the district but there's still remaining uh initiatives there you saw the student and staff surveys uh in our last meeting our restrooms always rise to the top in terms of what's needed on campuses so that recommendation that if we're going to

171wait some period of time to tackle schools can we at least go in and do some upgrades to restrooms implementing transitional kindergarten campuses that are not slated for replacement can we begin the process of transitional kindergarten expansion on those campuses addressing smaller renovation projects up to the board we we mentioned Citrus and we can talk about the reasons for that um but we wouldn't be investing that 60 70 80 million dollars at the Citrus campus and then um we would recommend you we defer the next phases of implementation as I mentioned to a future bond with perhaps allocating some funding to planning and design of those next up facilities sorry Caitlin um we would just be asking the board similar to the other item to evaluate those recommended options um and provide Direction on whether

172we could use any and all of those as recommendations for using utilizing the remaining 50 million dollars of measure e funds would this be something similar to when we had a menu to choose from with the SR dollars and said here's this chunk of money here's the estimated cost to do these items let's as a board we need to pick and choose you know from that menu list of items what to utilize those funds for or are you asking us I wasn't exactly asking for it that way I was more of a yes or no um allowing our Master planners to assist us in the allocation of those funds into all of those important items given the constraint of the 50 million dollars how far could we get on implementing those recommended priorities for those

173remaining dollars but it seems like we would need to know what the priorities of these five items are for as a board right if you were going to go that route rather than giving us a cost assessment to basically like like I had mentioned because it's fifty thousand fifty million sorry 50 million is is a fixed amount you know we can't just say yes please do all of those things because there's not enough money to do all of those things and so we will you will have to bring it back to us to determine which of those items gets done with that 50 million right yes in the draft master plan it would be brought back to you okay and so today would be this decision this action would be just about uh saying yes

174to explore all of those options or know take this off the table correct okay interesting okay that is it thank you it was very helpful to hear it all at the same time all right so that is my cue actually to pull it back around uh I'm gonna ask for any other further questions for clarification on the presentation I'm sure that it will also come back with further questions of clarification if we hit here anymore as we hear additional public comment Ms Robinson um presentations there was mention of if inspire accepts an offer to move to the Hooker Oak campus they have the ability because it's it's one of our facilities and our land to utilize money that is not available for them out at Canyon View did I hear something wrong only partially um

175the prop 51 dollars that Inspire has been lucky um to be approved the current the grant dollars do need to do need to be utilized on a field act site which would mean they need to be on a Chico Unified site or an approved California by the California Department of Ed as a School site both Canyon View and any of our campuses are yes ma'am grades that it's any upgrades that Inspire made to theoretically hookaroke would need to be that what you just said yes I.E more expensive right yes but they don't have the dollars to fund them without without it so okay hearing no further questions from the board um uh I need actually some input how we want to do public comment do we want to go item by item or just go

176through them all at the same time I I I'm stuttering okay um I think that I think that what I had originally said is that we would just hear the whole presentation open up for additional public comment um beyond the Hooker Oak discussion because we did hear the public comment for that um and so I'm gonna go through our list for um uh action item request number two which is 7.1 Point interim housing option approval um and then see if there's any remaining yeah 7.1.6 7.1.7 and some of those folks have spoken already um but I can also ask for additional public comment in this time so um for the sake of brevity unless the board decides to move against me and and roll me back uh I would like to set this at a

177limit of 30 minutes just like any other item um and uh go with who has already pre-signed up for public comment um so I have Olivia Phillips that signed up for the item 7.1.3 interim housing option approval is Olivia here to speak oh did you speak already okay um and then Beth spoke at the last for Hooker Oak no sorry very clever you must work with students with those smart workarounds um Emily um I'm gonna say it wrong weissner and the Michelle Palmquist spoke um and and those were all our sign ups so are there any additional folks who signed up on those items to speak to facility Master Plan update action items now is your time to step to the microphone okay seeing none um at this time I think I am looking for

178a motion of some sort on how to proceed for taking action um sure Mr Orlando Paul sorry guys um I'm gonna annoy everybody probably Julie the most sorry Julie um but this is a a big discussion there's seven action items here with a lot of different moving pieces um I would like to move that we schedule a special meeting to address only the facilities master plan topic and that we invite um both representatives from the elementary schools and Inspire as well as someone to talk about my one of our bond advisors to talk about planning for future funding so we can have all this facility stuff in just one place and not have to worry about it while we're trying to get through a bunch of other things as well I think that's uh yeah

179that's a motion special meeting for these seven items I'm gonna second your motion for discussion um so I just seconded it oh I second it Dolby seconds the motion um and I I don't know that yet I have a a specific way I want to vote but um I think I want to just hear um some information from staff about how that might look timeline wise and availability on the calendar so we do have a another board meeting scheduled for um mid-april I don't have the date in front of me um and then the 15th I thought it was the 15th but that's doesn't sound right thank you um for April 19th I don't know yet really all of that looks all of that agenda looks like if there would be even time to just

180put it there um or to maybe pick and choose actions to take tonight that we may feel more prepared to take and then the the lengthier ones to then ask to be brought back at the next board meeting if there's time to allow for that or if it would make more sense to have a special meeting and what time frame the staff would would need or would request for that tell you that your microphone okay the April 19th board meeting is a packed one as well so I think we'd be back in the same situation if we added this to that so we would be looking at the 12th is next week so that's probably a little too soon um although we do have all the information ready to go or the 26th if we

181wanted to do it in April would we be able to fit anywhere from one to three items about facilities onto that meeting if we were to make take some action on some of the items tonight and um and ask to postpone action on a few of the other I'd have no idea how that would go or if the board would even agree with that but just curious if that would be possible or if that really is just too packed to consider for on the April 19th this is a I mean obviously this is a big agenda item and we do have a full agenda but it it depends on if the board wants to start early and be committed to staying late again we can do that an alternative would be to find a special

182date to do a standalone special meeting as Mr Orlando has requested correct another discussion or questions from the rest of the board sure um these are all tough decisions however um staff has given us decisions that um have parameters so that they can come back and and work within the decisions that they have brought to us tonight and come back more ready for the next step of final approvals which is what we need to do to keep our timelines going so that if we decide to try and go for funding obviously we can't do this without funding means we have to go back to the public for another Bond there are timelines for doing that which are pushing us out into 2024. I feel we ought to be ready tonight to make some decisions within

183the parameters that we've been presented I think it's time we Fisher you know so that people know what the heck they need to do moving forward and um that's my position I agree with that Julie um from the from the questions that have come up particularly surrounding the girl decision and or that that process how much time would you need or your staff need to be able to respond to some of those more direct questions about what does what does a plan for the hook rope program look like if the board were to to take action on on that campus um for example I know that was one thing I'm pretty sure I saw you jotting down notes on some of the questions we felt like we need some more information about um I am

184sure there are at least some board members who feel like there's um and definitely what we've heard from public comment tonight that there are some questions surrounding that particular action item that that do need just a little bit more context for what the next steps or what that what that decision will look like moving forward um because it does feel fairly um intangible right now if that makes sense so I don't think there's any doubt in the chico Community about the value of the open structure educational program that's provided here in Chico I heard a lot of fantastic people up here talking about the teachers and the curriculum and there's no doubt that that's all very very true I can only stand up here in front of you and say that the district would make

185the best choices possible about where to place that important program for its future viability for families and for students and for the teachers and principal and staff at the school um I don't know how long it would take to bring back a plan because the plan isn't up to me to decide we would need to work with ed services to discuss you know how how that would happen I do know that everyone that has discussed this topic has mirrored that same sentiment that I just stated about it being an important program I think we heard at the last meeting from several of the representatives from all of those elementary schools that are still needing upgrades some of them said well just just tear our school down let's you know tear it down and build us

186something new that it really speaks to the condition of some of these schools in bringing that that item to the board for discussion I had asked the master planners to help us to come up with a way to spend the bond dollars more swiftly to support our promise to the voters the taxpayers of the community and our ability to implement facilities upgrades for all of our students and have equity district-wide for all of our elementary school students so that all the students have the same opportunity to learn in a new clean environment so I'm the culprit I ask them to come up with a way that we could Implement these projects in a Swifter way so that we're Implement we're impacting more students in our district faster so that's where the idea came from may

187not be a question for you Julie I'm sorry we've been talking a lot about the timeline for a new Bond does anybody know it when the heart next heart deadline is in terms of like when would we have to have a master plan that we all felt comfortable with that was approved in order to go out for a bond in 24. I see our financial Wizkid is not here yes Declan is not with us tonight and she would have the answer to that I know that our goal was to go out in November of 2024 but backtracking that to when we would have to have a decision I do believe we should have a strong Master facility Plan before we go out so the public knows how we are going to spend our dollars and

188so that's kind of why Julie is pushing now for us to have that plan but I do not know what the current deadline is look we need that plan and I'm definitely in favor of every every student in an equitable and excellent facility but we are talking about closing a school that's big people are upset about it and they should be at least concerned I don't think it's too much to ask that we take a completely separate meeting to really get into this and have a plan hey where are they going to go because the concern is real we say hey this place is Surplus and we'll decide what to do with the kids later that if if those were I mean my kid I would be really upset with that plan I think we

189need to have a good plan and to do that we need to have a time to sit down and just talk facilities I wouldn't I guess what I'm saying is the idea that we're asking that we would ask the public to trust us with another Bond without really planning what we're doing with the money we have currently I struck me as a Hard Sell um the questions that I had written down earlier that I would feel more comfortable making a decision on this request for Action are the question that came up about historic preservation I think it would be nice to have an answer about that just to explore that option or that what that means what that even means what guarantee can we make that a new site for Hooker Oak will be sustained

190I think that that would be very important to be able to express out front for the Hooker Oak community that to demonstrate that there is a um a deep desire to sustain the program of Hooker Oak and that that will lead to developing a robust plan to um to essentially look at other school sites to transition to adopt that model onto an entire campus possibly or or you know what does that even look like what is that what is an even a framework of that plan look like I don't think that it's reasonable to say can you come up with a plan for that in three weeks but at least some ability to allow us to visualize how that transition might look uh which leads to another question what would be the soonest the transition

191would or took could take place what does the timeline look like when we do something like that I think those are answers that our families really need before I personally feel comfortable taking a stance one way or another um and so I don't I don't exactly feel like we need to wait to take action on all seven items I think that there are a few that we could take action on tonight um I don't know um if there's any other thoughts or feelings about that from the rest of the board or from Julie so I do need I feel like I need to speak up here can you go back to slide eight um because it did say in I feel like we've maybe glossed over this a little bit stay status quo and address

192Surplus capacity site by site as the modernizations and we know that's going to take longer and cost more but that is an option um and then the other option was to repurpose I don't think that there's enough this is my personal opinion I don't think that there's enough information for us to choose between those two items those two choices without knowing the questions that I've posed tonight between the cost variations between if you do a site you know when I ask for a sample School site if we took Parkview for example and if we did this if we did parkview's renovation this way versus this way versus this way what are the cost differentials what's the timeline differentials I know that that that information will be forthcoming but I don't know that I feel like

193I'm making an informed decision without at least seeing an example of how the status quo versus utilizing a a separate campus could really benefit the community as a whole when it comes to utilizing these public funds to upgrade our our school facilities for several schools that are very much in need I just think that the community would have more confidence in Us in making that decision if we're feeling a little bit more informed based on those questions so a question originally was what kind of timeline could we could we bring some of these choices back he said this discussion back at a special meeting April 26th for example or would that be too soon would it need to be between the would it be could it be the May Workshop or between those you know

194I don't I I need some I need some sense from the staff what that looks like or I say I should say we probably need some sense what that looks like I think we're going to need at least two or three weeks to do that and part of it is going to be working with our facility master plan part and part of it is working with our ed services to look at what the program transition could possibly look like and I know that there are some um you know Staffing things happening this month that might also extend that some some key stuff that I think might be going on a vacation or something along those lines and so I just yeah wanna I wanna make sure that we're being mindful of a timeline but also

195making sure that we're getting the answers that we need to make an informed decision Julie do you have a sense of of that and and I maybe the rest of the board will vote this down anyway but I just need a better idea of what timeline we should be aiming for I would say a minimum of three weeks from now which would put us at April 26th so I was just checking uh the May board Workshop is grading philosophy practices homework philosophy policies and local assessments so there's always the possibility if the board wants to make a switch and postpone that to later they could do that as well that'd be the May third board Workshop because now that you remind me I do recall that we may have somebody out of the country a

196key person Julie I feel confident that we could be we could be ready for a May third date I would really much appreciate any other input from the board regarding the the concept of making some decisions tonight and postponing others but because these are all separate action items decisions tonight or the majority of decisions tonight and maybe revisiting Hooker Oak I know it kind of makes it complicated with this slide but if we can at all um yeah I like that I think we could probably and I mean this is just we could probably move on items uh like two three and uh well sorry not two three and seven the other ones four five and seven without kicking too many Hornet's nests at once so sorry I say that again so I've been uh

197four or five and seven I think are you you're talking the item number the agenda item numbers yes the questions of uh whether Inspire can build permanently um whether we put TK at Shasta and uh what to do with the remaining bond funds that aren't enough to redo a school with those three I think probably we can dispatch fairly quickly Maybe I'm Wrong um and I I was also thinking 7.1.3 which is the interim housing option approval which is just asking if if that option were available to have a separate interim housing site that we would we approve the use of that site um and that's just if that doesn't that's not dependent on us actually having an interim housing site okay so 7.1.3 7.1.4 0.5 and 0.7 um so given that can I am

198in my motion yes please oh good um I would like to amend the motion such that we move item 712 and 716 to the May 3rd Special meeting Workshop 712 is he wants to just move those two items and take action on the other four items tonight 716 the list of prioritization when we're surplusing if any we don't know how to uh 7.1.4 is inspire D yes okay um so to repeat in fewer words probably the motion is to postpone action on item 7.1.2 and 7.1.6 until the may I didn't write the date down May 3rd the May 3rd meeting um and then take action on the other four items this evening second I think that that's totally appropriate so I think I will just call that a new motion instead of a we'll just

199call it sure yeah okay okay thank you you rescinded your original motion made a new motion and uh yep remember conking let's do this all right um okay so we'll uh do a Voice vote starting with member Robinson Robinson I konk and I land away question passes um four to one and we will move on item 7.1.3 which is reread this uh action on item number two facilities master plan let me rephrase so I just so clarification we just moved to the Hooker Oak decision to be made for May 3rd so I just wanted to reiterate that for everybody in the audience because I'm gonna start going hyperspeed um facilities master plan interim housing option is 7.1.3 um and so I'm going to call for a motion okay I move that we um adopt the

200recommendation to okay all possible options for further study in the draft plan I'll second that okay we have a motion in a second are we clear on our motion no okay the motion is to um to accept the record seven 1.3 marked easily on here oh that was a great slide that was on there I liked that slide that was on there who moved that someone's moving that because that's it right there on the screen so the the motion is to approve all three options as potential options When developing the the master plan you can you can renovate in a school in multiple phases you can build a new one so we have a motion in a second all right um this time I'll just call for Voice vote all those in favor signifies by

201saying aye aye aye opposed neither thank you sorry dang it uh just kidding we're gonna start with uh member konkin aye aye Lando Channel all right moving on to seven we're good unanimous that time all right 7.1.4 this is the decision about Inspire permanent build of inspire School of Arts and Sciences at Chico High um this uh action that's being asked of us tonight is to determine whether or not we approve um Inspire to build permanent housing on the chico High campus do I have a motion yep I mean terminals can move I've been hogging the microphone he has been hogging the microphone go foreign that's okay um I move that we deny inspire continuing to occupy the land at Chico High Beyond there let's see has we extended their agreement one more year um

202just point of clarification the request was to take action on whether or not we will allow them to build permanent permanent facilities yes that's keep it simple is that you're moving to um I say I'm I'm moving that that answer is no okay so simple yes so to decline the request to build permanent structures permanent housing for Inspire on the chico High campus is there a second I'll second that um do we have discussion briefly um I will say that I think that Inspire is a special Institution for Chico it occupies a unique and generally positive niche and so I'm I'm going to vote with Ms Robinson on this I don't think that Chico high is a good place for inspire to be long-term but I do wish them all the best in a similar

203way and I remain optimistic we can find a long-term or permanent home for inspire but it's not on the Chicago eye campus Inspire also feels like they have outgrown their their space at the chico High campus and I think it would benefit everybody if Inspire and win Inspire and I think that we all are um invested in in seeing Inspire succeed and Thrive with their own site and we will continue to hopefully work with them in in exploring options any other input can I move the vote for voice unanimous last time okay um so the motion is to we already asked for public comment um I did it all at once okay okay um so do we have sorry now you threw me off okay I know um okay I was repeating the motion so

204the motion is to decline inspires requests to put permanent housing on the Chicago eye campus all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed none it's unanimous it's a big decision you guys um okay 7.1.5 is the direction on impacts to elementary school size capacity the decision that is being asked of us to make at this time is whether or not Shasta Elementary School will have a TK program do we have a motion I'll make a motion that Shasta not have a TK program just that I will be voting the opposite way and that I would like to see TK on every campus I think it makes sense to keep families in the same space and to keep all of our schools with Equitable programming so I definitely have been torn on this one

205and flip-flopped a bit in my own head about the pros and cons and the the long-term impacts and what would be required if we did um make sure that TK was on every campus including Shasta and I think that what really impacted my decision that I'll be making is the input that we got from the folks from Shasta at the last meeting when we had this discussion and and the sense that I got from them because I definitely was leaning the other way in the sense that I got from them was that they would prefer to um to stay status quo and not have TK on their campus was was the impression that I got and so Shasta folks if I'm wrong I apologize that that is um the sense that I got so um

206if there's no further discussion I'll move the vote that's my same impression I got um both from when they spoke at our last meeting and City members I have spoken to members who feel both ways about it and I'm I think this is one that a lot of people are split on yeah because I mean people with more than one student who already have a student there who have a TK eligible kid who are excited about the idea yes and I would say that was my that was my trepidation too is that you know if I had two children and one was already at Shasta and I had a tker coming in I would really want them there but there are some great alternative sites that are relatively close um so um you know we'll

207make do with what we have and revisit this probably in the future as our population continues to fluctuate um okay so uh were we ready to vote was it unanimous last time I lost track nope oh yeah yes it was last time it was unanimous there's one before that you voted against I think oh that doesn't make sense either sorry everybody I'm losing steam all right so uh we were unanimous last time so all those in favor um of uh approving no tkb at Shasta uh please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed nay we have four to one with um Lando declining uh next item is 7.1.7 that is the designation of remaining bond funds and just for my clarification what you're asking of us right now is just whether or not we approve

208exploration of any and all of these options with those remaining Bond dollars yes got it another option would be to say no slash bullet number three okay um do we have a motion we give them all the options I'll second that motion we have a motion by member tennis and a second by member Robinson um our mics are kind of cutting in and out I apologize for that they can attest that his mic was on but it was not working um okay the last bit was oh let's discussion on this yes please yes um briefly um we've heard repeatedly from different School sites about uh roof leaks and I don't know if that counts as possibly smaller renovation repairs but I'd like to have some kind of idea about yeah I know um how much

209that would cost and where we're at in terms of which roofs need the most attention right away if we could add that to the list then I'd be happy to vote with this four when it comes to prioritization if we say we need to endure some of the roof leaks for a little bit longer because they're going to get a whole new school for example I just want to make sure it's in the discussion we're talking about how to spend the money yes thank you right so roof replacement for maintenance sites uh scheduled Replacements that isn't typically done through Bond dollars and facility master plan that doesn't mean it can be identified as a as a topic for discussion to investigate which roofs are experiencing significant leaking and we could bring that back um as

210a recommendation for implementation with these remaining Bond dollars but typically that is not the way roof's replacement of roofs are tackled what what pool of money does usually fund those projects routine restricted maintenance dollars so that's three percent a minimum of three percent of the general fund needs to be allocated to routine restricted maintenance annually for those types of projects are there any other pools of funding that come in that are not those two bonds and the three percent maintenance fund not professionality no not that I'm aware I don't remember every budget income line item sorry um okay any other questions for clarification no uh we were not unanimous last time so I'll call the vote starting with a member konkin oh sorry could you clarify uh exactly what we're voting on is that to

211add our RM the projects we're giving Julie Kissel and her awesome team the option to go through and look at all these possible uses the ones that come back and make and then come back and make specific recommendations to us on which ones I think what's up here on the screen yes so if you hated one of those options up there you might vote against this motion now I'm clear number pumpkin I Robinson I oh Dolby aye we're going back Lando eye all right thank you same thank you that was unanimous all right um and so with that uh that it concludes our facilities master plan decisions to make this evening I appreciate everybody's patience through that entire process it was a massive undertaking just now in my poor tired brain we're going to move

212on to item 7.2.1 which is a discussion action on resolution number 1600-23 a resolution calling for school and family Partnerships and I'll open it to staff for presentation sorry okay we're bringing forward um that was Come To Us by board member um tennis a few weeks back about possibly we're doing the resolution one correct yes yes thank you so um came to us with um a nearby District that came through with a resolution um and he asked us to take a look at that resolution to see if we could come forward with a resolution to the board so we're coming through with resolution number 1600-2-3 it's a resolution to affirm the commitment of Chief Unified School District to a strong school and Family Partnership fundamental to the education of students I think I'm going to

213have here that we had a lot of input um and I'm green okay there we go we had a lot of input from the board over the past year really encouraging us to reach out to families to hold meetings to listen to different groups and Jay will have to clarify but I think we've had over 20 meetings with different members of our community this year really trying to make sure that we're listening to all segments of our community and of course we're also now getting into lcap season which is yet another opportunity to hear from our families on our Chico Unified goals so this reaffirms that a point of order I guess a a procedural question point of order um I feel that that between this agenda item and the next one item number six

214that generally speaking are our constituents are here um with the same issues in mind I don't particularly like the draft resolution and I've heard from parents that don't really like the draft resolution either and we wrote this draft resolution for them kind of and and the ones I'm hearing from don't particularly like it have we had much positive feedback on the draft that you're aware of Madame superintendent I'm not aware of much feedback on it one way or the other the intent was really to demonstrate that at least as a staff and as a district we value our Partnerships with parents and we strive to have those whether or not that does that I think is up to the individual reader and whether or not there is one issue I would ask that we looked

215at the district as a whole and all of the Outreach that we have done but that said it is a board resolution it is completely up to the board you can table this you can change it you can discard it you could I mean I'd like to bear with me for a second I'm trying to maybe tighten the meeting up a little bit if I if I'm if I can is there anyone out there in the audience who has reviewed the draft resolution and is in favor of it maybe those are two questions um is there anyone out there who's reviewed the resolution giraffe resolution you can put your hands down thank you so I don't know if I need to ask for a waiver of the rules for this I there were speaker cards

216presented for the resolution and I think those people want to be heard tonight I think they might like to be heard on the next agenda item just the same as they might have liked to have been heard on the resolution so I move for a waiver of the rules you help me out here Madam president because because you've sat through those csba meetings about how to do all this um I think we should just erase agenda item number six or Amalgamated if you will in with number seven to the extent that we allow those speakers you know that 30 minutes allotted time if you will to to comment under item seven and I think that'll just shorten the meeting up and and put our focus on where I think it kind of is so would

217that mean pull this item we will not be discussing or voting on this item this evening but take the speaker time allotted to this which would be 30 minutes and add that to the next digit item that is my suggestion yes I'll second that motion I um well we have a discussion time because we have a motion in a second um I just um just to one two three four five six seven eight nine so there are nine speaker cards submitted for this item and for the next item 35. um with a little bit of overlap um there are some um actually many that overlap um from from both so um just for awareness of how many speaker cards there are signed ups for for the next item as well so I think it probably

218will bump us up somewhere near uh 40 or slightly over 40 speakers in total um however my other question would probably be um well I guess if this were to come back the speakers that sign up for this item um just wouldn't be heard tonight on this item they would be speaking to if they signed up for the next item they'd be speaking toward that item I'm suggesting as part of my motion that we give them a chance to speak on the next side yes yes basically doubling the amount of time allotted well many of them are also signed up on the next item well then I I I'm just going to go out on a limb here and suggest that he'll be content to to only speak on the one item thank you that's

219what I was kind of addressing was that some of those folks may not feel content about that otherwise they'd be speaking twice on the same item does anyone here I mean are we gonna people are does anybody have an opportunity to to comment on my proposal that we basically get rid of item number six and and move all the speakers down to item number seven or am I basically proposing that we overrule in the objection with this procedurally you've complicated it um and so I'm just processing um did you have input Mr Lindo okay looked like you were gonna mute yourself I mean I just feel like I'm now speaking to the audience if no one favors the resolution I'm proposing we pull the resolution and move all this give all the speakers who are

220in that category the opportunity to speak on on item number seven below that which is the actual policy that that many of you are interested in commenting on so yeah so yeah okay so really the motion is just to pull the item the motions and move all the speakers to the following item sure so instead we're not doubling the ones that signed up we're allowing the ones that signed up for this item to then go first on the next item just so I'm clear um sure yeah okay I guess raise your hand if you want to speak on the resolution which nobody likes but you don't want to speak on the policy change right they only get once thank you I'll just withdraw my motion madam yes uh I move that we table the resolution

2211600-23 to a future meeting um do you have any other direction for staff with that uh no because um if it hold on sorry um I'll second it for discussion I just didn't know if you had any further clarification for why why we are tabling it uh well I'm tabling it because I believe there were two different intents and bringing forward the resolution 1600-23 because it restates a you know 40 years worth of policy on the behalf of Chico Unified School District and I don't want to see that get mixed up with the issues of the next item okay I understand um so if we table this to another meeting we would be tabling all of the speakers with it as well yes that doesn't however prevent the speakers that were signed up for speaking

222at the end of the other one because you can speak um so so my um just for clarity I think that there's nothing wrong with this resolution I think it's a nice resolution um I I don't quite understand what prompted the need for this resolution because there was no board member request to agenda as an item that we took action on I don't remember did we take action on that as a as a like in a board member request to agenda as an item okay Mr tennis just came to staff and said can you write this resolution actually this was something that I put on to reinforce what we have been working on at the direction of the board based off a resolution in a another neighboring District okay um okay so the motion is

223to table this uh item to a future date I didn't have a date certain because I can't see what our agendas look like over the next number of months and it looks like we're very full so I did not intend to table to uh you know a date certain if at the end of every meeting board members are asked about things they want to agendize if they get to a point where a board member wants to say okay let's agendize resolution 1600-23 then it's appropriate to bring it back at that time or we can add it to the lcap discussion because it also ties in very nicely I was gonna I was gonna say that also so let's um let's so the so the motion is to table this to an undetermined future date yes

224yes okay and there's a and there's a second I'd like to offer a friendly Amendment um would you be willing to um allow the parents to in some way or or other people besides the district to to supply a draft their version of a resolution so we have a draft resolution before us right I don't I I don't think that's not necessarily that that is I'm asking her she would decide if it was a friendly Amendment right yeah I I don't consider that a friendly amendment I also don't consider it in order to as a parliamentary thing that you know members of the public have can um write us letters you know can can petition for things you brought forward and then that's up to the board to decide and we do have a history

225of that we've had resolutions submitted in the past I believe we had some during covid that were attached as public comment to our agenda and then were discussed by the board so there is a process to do that and following that past procedure from the recent past what came of that typically seems it had been um board direction or request at least to agendaize an item to incorporate aspects of those draft resolutions or to even request to work with staff to draft a resolution um and and we could do that at a future date during the board member request to agenda as an item yeah yeah all right how about a alternative draft provided by a board member such as myself you you have the right to do that at the end of every meeting

226as a part of the agenda item though this would be something that would be in the agenda packet something that was a viable option you know under that action item to vote for my my resolution Mr tennis that would be part of what you would do when you say you want to agendize an item you do the topic you do the stuff and and then you know if it's approved it gets done this is an item that's already going to be on the agenda so no I wouldn't bring this up for a new agenda item this would be whenever this this is rescheduled I'm asking you know can I Supply my own draft agenda that would be supplied alongside the district agenda is there a history of that you've done that so again that could

227be something that is submitted or look at whatever when we get we have that agenda item come up again modifications that you would want to make to the existing resolution um and submit those as well all right so there's a couple of ways to do it thank you forward without I'm going to start you guys for 10 seconds he's out of order yeah no sorry thank you we're ready to vote yeah I think we have a motion on the floor is that correct and the motion is to table this to a future meeting can you just do that are you allowed to just say oh it was on the agenda it's an action item yes do you need to ask for like some kind of rule waiver or something like that no it's it is

228to vote to table an item it's an appropriate parliamentary procedure to to table an item and so people who came and signed up to speak on this item they will not have the opportunity to speak on the next one we're basically telling them that they just came here for nothing they can speak on the next one I'm not making the motion at this point I think we should move forward I went through and I think we should talk about it let's go ahead and get back on track here and take a vote on the motion that is on the floor Dolby I Robinson I concur night landawi Tennessee okay all right so we're gonna move on to item number 7.3.1 this is the discussion action on cusd board policy number 5145.3 non-discrimination and harassment okay

229I'm going to go ahead and kick this off and um we can get the PowerPoint presentation up here I'm going to ask everybody to bear with me I am getting over a cold so my voice kind of comes and goes so I may sound like a teenage boy at times but I'll get through this uh District staff clearly now we've heard from hundreds of people on board policy 5145.3 which is non-discrimination and harassment and in particular how it applies to transgender and gender non-conforming students and really at the core of this issue is philosophical differences between student privacy rights and increased parental inclusion so it's very clear that there is a division in our community and in fact there's a division in our nation over this issue so for Chico Unified over the past few

230months we've listened and we've identified three possible options for consideration by the board and I recognize there may be many other options as well so one option would be to retain the existing board policy and admin administrative regulation 5145.3 another option would be to adopt a brand new board policy an administrative regulation to go with it focused on student privacy rights a third option would be adopt a new board policy and administrative regulation focused on increased parental inclusion and I believe there's also a fourth option and that's wait for either case law or the judge in our current matter or legislative action to take school districts off the hook of getting sued on a decision because it's going to continue to help in school district after school school district and we heard earlier it's costing

231hundreds of thousands of dollars that ultimately come away from our schools and our students so I know I know we all know there's strong emotions surrounding this topic so we're going to go through first I'm going to just start with some definitions so if we can go to that I won't go back one so board policies cover all aspects of our district we have board policies for business and facilities for education and if you click down at the bottom there you can see they start with the zeros the 1000s and go all the way through the nine thousands so there are lots and lots of board policies and the board policies keep us in the light in alignment with law they keep us in alignment with California Department of Education guidelines they keep us in

232alignment with everyone's region case law so when we go down to next slide please there we go what is board policy board policy is determined by the board and it is the what we do and the why we do it where our administrative regulations are set by staff and that is the process that follows once the board sets a policy so I included just a very small example there and we don't need to click on it but if we have a board policy on work permits and basically it says the board believes that our students should have the right to apply for jobs and work even while they're students and then in the administrative regulation it goes into the steps that we have to do to be legally compliant in allowing our students to have

233work permits so just wanted to clarify for everyone the difference between board policy and administrative regulations so for Chico Unified there's 90 mandated policies for all districts probably over that by now and for Chico Unified we have over 350 board policies so with ever-changing laws with ever-changing cases going to court and setting precedence with um guidance from our state changing we don't have the ability to in-house to stay current on all of those legal implications for all 350 board policies so we contract with the California school boards Association or csba and their legal team to draft board policies and draft administrative regulations and I will tell you the vast majority of districts in California use csba because it is the school boards Association to draft School Board policies so in Chico Unified our process is

234when we get policies from csba we bring those forward to the board the board revises them as necessary and then approves the board policies and it's usually at least two are typically at least two board meetings where the public has the opportunity to have input before they're adopted once they're adopted the staff goes back and looks at the associated regulations the administrative regulations that go with that board policy and we make sure they align with the direction we are given by the board and then have policy or have procedures that follow that so again that's our process for going through this I just want to take on to the next slide in reviewing the board policy in AR 5145.3 Educational Services team received input from the following educational partners again we've heard from a lot

235of parents at previous board meetings we've received emails from parents we've seen the public input on our board meeting so we've taken every one of those comments into consideration we've talked to students and we've heard students at board meetings we've talked to students at lcap meetings we've we've listened to community members that have spoke here about the board meetings and also looked at their public input John has done a great job with meeting with classified Mr Shepard here has done a great job of meeting with classified staff including counseling assistants and office assistance we've met with certificate certificated staff including counselors and teachers we've met with all the elementary counselors and all we've had meetings with our secondary counselors our counseling DLC our district Leadership Council for counselors we've met with all of our district

236Leadership Council teachers at the elementary level and the secondary level to get input from them we've met with our elementary principals and assistant principals and we've met again John has done a lot of this leg work so I want to make sure he's getting he's put a lot of time in me with all these groups he's met with all the site principles and assistant principals from the secondary schools and against and he's also talked with all of us at services and all the different departments inside the district office so we got a lot of input moving forward with these um the the board policy and the administrative regulations let me go to the next one and this is really just a visual of what I always I already talked about with uh just some options

237that we were able to come with up with looking and listening to what we're seeing from our community and the first one is to retain the current board policy and administrative regulations on board policies uh the 514 5.3 the reason again we're looking at bringing two different um uh two board policies because at 51.45.3 does not specifically the board policy itself why most of the people are here tonight on the process of transgender so what we brought on which again and then AR the administrative regulations really doesn't even address it until page four of the of that AR so what we're bringing to you guys tonight is two different board policies that just goes along with just that situation of transgender so we wanted this to have we've heard from all those different community members

238and staff and we wanted to bring you two two different options to take a look at to make it its own board policy and its own AR to you guys tonight as an option okay here we have the links of if we want to pull up the first our current on board policy again it's a short on board policy and again it does not address transgender itself as okay then then administrative if you can link on the next one and again if you scroll through it and I'm not going to read through every one of it but it again it doesn't address it until we get to page four right there again so again if we bought the other two to you would specifically deal with that or we can again we're asking the board

239tonight if we wanted to stick with our current onboard policy in our current AR or the two um options for 0.4 I'm just going to go with 0.4 so I'll say all of it again but it's 0.4 would give you an option where it's just as a new board policy and a new AR and I'm going to have John kind of go over that okay so what I really want to focus again on this is mainly for audience members just to be sure we understand we're talking about board policy the what and the why and then the administrative regulation AR which is probably how I'll refer to these as we go as the process it's really important that people distinguish those those two definitions as we're working our way through these because as was described

240earlier if and when the board makes decisions adopts board policy then we go back as a team and develop AR that appropriately identifies process all right so I want to make sure we clarify that for tonight so we're going to start with what we have done we've deemed the student privacy right board policy and administrative regulation so I'm going to try to do tonight is really call your attention to specific language within those to to adequately Define the differences between the four documents that I'm going to describe so starting with the board policy 5145.4 student privacy rights and you'll see in the first paragraph gender status shared by a student 11 year 11 years of age or under will not be disclosed without student permission so that's the key language in that first paragraph however

241we want to be sure anytime we're dealing with kids that if if there's a as we have with all of our trained professionals and I think it's important to point out right now that going back to the wellness excuse me the mtss presentation when you saw all the credentials that our counselors need to provide that when they're in a position to have these conversations with students it's really important to remember that we still have the Cal the California child abuse Reporting Act in place all right as we're going through these so I want to make sure I I highlighted that so that's the board policy these policies are linked and the ARs are linked in the presentation everybody needs to look them up okay so administrative regulation that would then support and I want to

242reiterate I'm going to keep saying it that these ARS would be developed you know based on what the board decides okay so the key language here that the staff shall in the following order and it's really important that this order is followed because in number one you're going to see that the staff will initiate the completion of our gender intake form all right now that gender intake form is a document that essentially will guide the conversation with staff and the student we know that gender intake form will change based on Direction okay so I want to make sure we understand that's a guiding document to facilitate the conversation between the student and the staff member all right so Mr Shepard yep is that gender indict form brand new or has it been in circulation for

243a while I seem to recall seeing a version of that from 2022 yes yeah we've been used staff have been using it to guide that conversation thank you so I think it's important to highlight in this paragraph that um and this is going to be become more important we talk about the the other direction the board can take that the conversation will include a discussion with the student to share the student's gender status to the student's parent and guardian so that would still be a requirement within that process so the staff member would have a conversation with the student about disclosing with parents and Guardians so it's important to highlight in in number two that if the student grants consent right then as soon as that student grants consent that the communication will be suspended

244and then include the parent and the guardian okay any questions so far all right and finally under the administrative regulation number three I think it's really important to highlight that this whole section should the student decline to Grant consent for disclosure the staff person still has an obvious obligation to determine why not what's going on what are the reasons for the the students um declining that that consent and really if you look at the last couple of bullets the focus there is ensuring that that the student will be safe from self-harm okay student privacy BP and AR Ray we're going to shift gears here to another Direction the board can take and this has been labeled increased parental inclusion again I want to reiterate multiple opportunities for input from the varying groups that that Mr

245Marchant referred to in the key language here it's uh it's bolded and italicized that the the information will be disclosed to the student parent and guardian it's not an option and then again and you can stay there just to highlight that if if any time the staff member feels like there's a reason to consider the um the Reporting Act that the staff member can do that all right and we're going to shift now to the increased parental inclusion AR and I want to reiterate the importance of the language here initiate the completion of with the assistance of the student so the students involved again that District gender intake form and that there's a discussion of the plan not an option for a plan so it's very clear that there will be a plan to disclose

246to parents and Guardians all right and then as soon as that conversation is held the staff member will will suspend communication until that conversation with the parents takes place except where a situation where suspending it could cause harm to that student in any mental or physical safety or well-being all right and then number three under thank you for for going to the next slide is very similar to the student privacy AR what you'll see here though is there's an additional number four we want to be really clear about a timeline for staff when that communication will be initiated so I'll give an example it's a Friday afternoon a student comes in talks with the staff member that within three school days there'll be initiation of communication with the parent and guardian if this AR BP

247and AR are adopted then a staff member would have three days to initiate communication I think we would all agree that that kind of conversation should not happen over the phone so we'd want that conversation to take place in person but the initiation to set the meeting to have the conversation needs to happen within three school days we'd also want to be really sure that the initiation of the communication is documented so the staff members protected um for that for those timelines so that's my walk through and I know we have another conversation about next steps what about can you go back to the part about 12 and older please this these two BPS and ARS are strictly about 11 and younger so what is the situation then with uh parent information or parent secrecy

248with regard to students 12 and older so our our current VP and AR are very clear that 12 and under they are protected 12 and 12 and over sorry how's that can you can you explain that please well we have federal law we have Ed code and I'm not being facetious those are that's what's guiding our what are the federal laws that say that parents can't be informed that their student is in a similar way to what we're talking about for 11 and under I'm going to defer to Mr Gantt to be sure we get the exact language because I don't want to mislead anybody I want to learn about that law um so so we do have FERPA the federal educational records protection act which has limitations of disclosure of private educational information we

249also have the uh from parents California Education Code which uh limits the disclosure of information shared with counselors uh for students who are 12 and older if they don't Grant consent and we have numerous other areas in both particularly state law that do allow students that are 12 and older to withhold consent for their private educational information to parents so that's the theory or the philosophy in developing at least the potential for dividing the student population based on those students who would be under the age of 12 versus those that would be 12 and older which is that it is at least theoretically possible that you can derive legislative intent from these other similar statutes that would indicate an intent by the legislature to view students that are 11 and under to be more vulnerable

250less mature and therefore more in need of perhaps parental input than those that are 12 and older so FERPA I'm pretty sure would not preclude the school district from informing a parent that we were going to start treating a child according to uh a different gender identity do you disagree with that do you think that FERPA does preclude the school district from telling parents about how their student is being treated in class um if if if if the question is does it appear that the law provides students particularly those that are 12 and older greater protection and privacy over their educational privacy I would say that I think that there that is it clearly does in several areas but every every teacher is going to should share with the parent how their child is treated

251in class I feel like maybe you're telling me that FERPA precludes teachers from telling parents responsible parents of their minor children how their child is is addressed and treated in class and I just don't agree with that I I think I think what staff tried to do here in developing at least an option for the board was to provide an option and not necessarily recommend but to provide an option that the board could consider that may be legally defensible although I would say that there is significant uncertainty on that point um and that the division between students that are 12 and older versus those that might be 11 and younger is a division that has been recognized in other similar areas of law and that therefore that that could be a defensible um distinction to

252make that it would be harder to defend the disclosure of information for students that are 12 and older that they have asked to um have privacy over so this is not really a clear legal mandate this is actually your Council this is legal counsel that we're being given here based on it's risk management it's saying you you are of the opinion that this is a safer course from a from a from a lawsuit or litigation standpoint then then a clear law I would say that it's an option the board can consider that may be more legally defensible we don't know yet because we simply do not have statutes or case law directly on point as the superintendent indicated so what what I believe staff tried to do was to present an option for board consideration

253on the requests of the board to bring back options to look at and so um it is it is in fact another conversation as to whether there's any guarantee that even the approach with 11 and other under students would be legally defensible so are there any lawsuits that you're aware of where a school district or a teacher has been sued because they shared information with a responsible parent about how their child was treated in class well I think there are there are many many lawsuits over over the disclosure of educational information um in violation of for example FERPA or other laws is as far as the issue if the question relates specifically to transgender privacy there is very limited case law on that particular limited issue but we do have a wealth of case law

254both at the federal and state level that indicates that um that there is a zone of privacy surrounding the issue of transgender status and gender issues that that both the federal government in its enforcement and the state in its enforcement view the privacy of of students who have identified as a gender that is different from that that they were assigned at Birth or based on their birth certificate that they view those issues as being covered by discrimination laws we have statutes that confirm that um and we have a number of cases that came up in the employment area that have clearly identified a zone of privacy and protection around gender issues what we don't have to my knowledge is a specific case on point as you describe where there was a disclosure over a student's

255objection of their transgender status to a parent um that resulted in a lawsuit that has led to a reported case at this point I suspect that those are issues yet to come because these are fairly new issues um so do I do I do I suspect that if that were to occur that there would be lawsuits I I believe that there would in fact I I can State quite firmly based on what I've read from groups that support uh those who identify as transgender that they feel strongly that the Privacy interests that's been identified over transgender identification extends to students at school it just seems that um the way a child is treated publicly in class you know is is certainly something that you would think it would be their responsible legal guardian or their

256parents you know right to understand from a teacher or from an administrator how this child is being is being treated and to keep parents in the dark seems very deceptive on the part of the school district so I I can't I can't imagine any Improvement to this administrative regulation or board policy that would lay out a plan and codify for our purposes a plan for keeping and training our the school communities to keep secrets from Individual parents that pertain to their children and I'm not convinced by any any legal evidence that you've presented Mr Gantt or anyone else that there is a lawsuit waiting to happen pertaining to this do you have additional questions for clarification on the presentation from the board thank you I have teacher ears I can hear a lot not always

257but sometimes um okay that moves us to the next step in our order which is public comment [Music] um so I have taken a just I think a benign request really to look at the speaker list from the previous item that we did table just to honor people who are here to speak and added them to the list and I think I counted I counted twice but I still could have counted wrong I think it's 39 on the list and so yeah we're at 9 30 and our rules are to allow for 30 minutes of public comment on an agenda item with our public commenters speaking at three minutes a piece and so with that um same spielas earlier please um do respect the comments made by your fellow community members and um we will

258open the floor starting with oh and just a reminder of the 30 second Bell um we will start the uh the public comment period sorry with um Jackson straws straws bow I'm so sorry if I put your names I'm so sorry [Applause] good evening I am a current Chico Unified School District student I'm also a transgender male I came out when I was nine years old the best decision for me was to have my name and gender change within the school system without the notification of my parents five years later I still go by these names and pronouns but me doing this was never influenced by my teachers I was never forced into being trans the secrecy of policy allowed me to come to my parents on my own time I'm lucky to have extremely

259supportive parents many students who are slash war in my situation are not as lucky the secrecy policy helps protect many students who could not tell their parents these students keep secrets because they're afraid they're afraid of parents like many here in Chico who do not support their child people come up here and ask why would my child not want to tell me that they are trans before telling their school and let me tell you it's because you follow up statements like these with vile hate speech if you want to take action if you want to take action against policy 5145.3 then you should think about real children like me who are affected by your decision we deserve protection too and we deserve to feel safe in our schools you are not protecting children you're putting

260children in danger by keeping the secrecy policy in place you'll you hope the 45 of lgbtq Youth in California from becoming part of the 14 that did attempt suicide please allow our schools to become and remain a safe space for queer and trans children I request from the bottom of my heart no action be made on board policy 5145 uh dot three thank you [Applause] thank you um next up um I'll call Adrian giannola Adrian who's a student it's gotten really late so I apologize for just the longevity of of this um for folks who have been waiting to speak and maybe couldn't hold out as late as it's gotten hmm okay um uh next up we have Laureen Johnson [Applause] hello my name is Lauren Johnson I am a parent of two students in

261the Chico Unified School District and I'm coming here tonight because I am concerned I'm not concerned for my own two children or for their children of people here tonight I'm here for the kids who don't have parents here tonight the kids every parent here is concerned about the welfare of their own children and it's proven it by their willingness to get involved in their child's educational process by coming here your kids are not the kids that this policy is for this policy was written for the kids who come home to be yelled at belittled or bullied by their own parents they're kids who don't know if their parents will still love them if they come out to them they're kids who may well find themselves homeless if they come out to their parents the kids

262this was written for find their main source of stability and adult support from the school system whether we like it or not there's a lot of kids out there who fit this profile and Social Services is willfully underfunded understaffed and under equipped to help them all this leads me to my next concern there's a great deal of confusion around the different types of transitions for a transgender individual there are two important transition types the first is social transition in Social transition the trans individual May Begin by asking for different pronouns and a different name to be used they may also begin dressing or wearing their hair in a way that more closely resembles the gender that they identify with none of these changes are medical permanent or non-reversible in nature let me repeat that social

263transition is not MediCal permanent or irreversible the second type of transition medical involves the taking of puberty blocker and hormonal medications this is not the type of transition that the school has anything to do with whatsoever you have heard other experts better qualified than myself speak about the very real dangers that transgender for youth based based from society their peers and in some cases even their parents these kids have no other caring adults to protect them guide them and care for them other than through the school system it is their last chance at finding the one adult that resilience research has taught us to make or break a child's life please don't take that adult from them by forcing them to notify a child's parents about their gender identity without that child's consent that consent

264is important if your child is unwilling to share with you what their gender identity is I would suggest that you think about why that is children are unlikely to refuse to give dissent consent for a counselor to speak to their parents without legitimate reason while it is true that the brain doesn't finish forming until 25 or so we wouldn't expect a kid who loves baseball to decide they don't love baseball till they're 25 years old thank you thank you I'm going to call up Sean MossMan Sean MossMan seems to me that the what the mortgage decide is what the position they're going to take concerning this idea of secrecy up front incisely that you insisted that there was no secrecy policy the superintendent said an email insisting that there was no secrecy policy and yet

265we can see it is abundantly clear that we were lied to then that there is in fact secrecy policy and guidelines in place at our practice and have been for years my daughter has been violated and compromised in this school system girls and boys were violated and compromised today in this school system and now you're talking about excluding parents from their most natural right our constitution guarantees that that that those rights that are given by nature and Nature's God are to be protected can I please have orders please have orders the the rudeness the rudeness and the mocking I was sat quietly and I listened to you respectfully and I expect the same the idea of Parental secrecy is is is is kind of silly because the parents gonna find out what position do you

266want to be in when the parent finds out that you have lied to them and deceived them and manipulated their child without their knowledge that you have undermined their Authority that you have increased the animosity between that child and their and their parent you've increased the animosity between that parent and you you have created an animosity and and an adversarial relationship with that parent and I've heard over and over as I sat down there through this whole meeting that it is the desire of this this school district to work in partnership with parents parents going to find out now there's a there's a there's a case right now that's already costing hundreds of thousands of dollars it may cost millions of dollars you want to have a difficult conversation with a parent up front or

267do you want to deal with a really pissed off angry parent because you went behind their back for perhaps months and months before they finally find out what you've been doing behind their back you violated their rights you violated their trust you've been you violated their family you violated their family their their their children the most basic of righteous parents I understand there's cases there's difficult cases there are in every facet of life and I'm not against any trans student I saw a flyer that said we need to protect trans students trans uh uh uh children I'm here tonight not because these children are trans but because they're children and Men protect children as a man I'm a lilish I'm a little ashamed that we've got Mama Bear after Mama Bear coming up and you

268husbands and fathers stand back there behind your wives and let them fight this battle for you there's a battle to be father thank you [Applause] up next I'll call Aurora Ridge you know [Applause] just to acknowledge that you had signed up for the previous um item but I wanted to I moved all of those two to under this item thank you I appreciate it um hi for those that don't know me my name is Aurora Regino and I am the mother that filed a lawsuit in federal court against Chico Unified for transitioning my daughter without my knowledge I'm here today to tell my story so parents in the public know what is going on in our schools last year my 11 year old daughter was in elementary school here at Chico Unified in her Elementary

269School transitioned her from female to male behind my back shortly before this happened my father had recently passed away and I was diagnosed with breast cancer my daughter was distressed and began questioning her sexuality so she decided to reach out to a wellness counselor at her Elementary School the day my daughter shared her guide shared with her guidance counselor that she felt like a boy the counselor immediately affirmed this new identity from then on the counselor continued to have one-on-one meetings with my daughter without my knowledge during one of those one-on-one meetings my daughter told the counselor she wanted to tell me about her new identity the counselor ignored her request and did nothing to support her in letting me know what was going on at school throughout her transition my daughter changed very quickly

270was bullied and as a result was very unhappy and because her school kept this transition a secret for me she was on her own I'm a busy working mother just like the rest of you before this happened to our family I would have not believed this was going on in our schools especially at the elementary level I want everyone to know I understand that I I want everyone to understand that I want a space for our lgbtq and trans community members to feel safe and supported but the policy currently in place at Chico Unified has been damaging to our family and I am not up here talking about what could happen if you continue this policy I am up here telling you what did happen to our family this was a time when she needed

271me the most and you kept it a secret from me I understand that you are trying to find ways to create a safe environment for all children within our district by keeping secrets from parents is not the way to do it treating every parent as a potential threat to their kids is wrong I know it's easy to make up a narrative when it comes to my case I know it's easy for people to judge and say my daughter must have not felt safe or supported and that's the reason for telling her counselor but regardless of what people say I love my children and there isn't anything they could ever do to change that I wouldn't it wouldn't have mattered to me whether my daughter continue to identify as a male I would love her the

272same it's a slippery slope to allow any adult in our schools to keep secrets from parents for any reason the actions the School Board District took to immediately exclude me from supporting my daughter was very damaging to her and her family she was very young and didn't understand what being transgender really meant or the obstacle she would face going through a transition the school transitioned her and left her to figure it out on her own it seems to me the district is getting it wrong on both sides you don't know how to handle these very serious and sensitive situations because once you transitioned her you left her to handle it all by herself the bullying and the staff even outing her thank you [Applause] Olivia Phillips good evening as an educator I believe it is

273my duty to educate based on the whole child approach this approach values the development of every aspect of a child and understands that a student's education and life outcomes are dependent upon their access to safe and welcoming learning environments and Rich learning experiences inside and outside of the school setting in order to reach their full potential all students need to feel safe and valued as individuals for this to happen we as Educators and service providers need to cultivate an environment where students feel trust safety and acceptance necessary to be unapologetically themselves without repercussions or backlash as professionals working within the public school setting we are automatically considered mandated reporters for those who are unfamiliar with this term this means we are required by California state law to report if we suspect or know a child

274is being abused neglected or whether a child intends to hurt themselves or others those are the only acceptable and required reasons for bridging a student's right to privacy everything else outside of the safety of a child of the child should remain confidential especially a student's identity according to an article from 2021 by the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute 30 percent of trans youth have attempted suicide and just this past year I repeat 30 percent of trans youth have attempted suicide in just that past year exposing an individual's sexual orientation and or gender identity before they're ready otherwise known as outing is a known risk factor for self-harm and suicide people who are outed feel blindsided and forced to reveal a deeply personal part of their identity without their consent and under someone else's terms

275which is why it is vital for us to focus on nurturing the whole child with unconditional acceptance and empowering with them with the knowledge that they have the right to choose if when and how much they want to reveal about their identity this is why we need to protect our youth and continue to support the confidentiality of gender questioning non-conforming and trans youth in our district I'll end by quoting a thought-provoking statement I came across online if your kid comes out at school but not to you don't ask why didn't the school tell me ask why didn't my kid feel like they could tell me thank you Tom iorso [Applause] [Music] hello there I'm here today as a future teacher a current educator and a human being to voice my deep concern for this prospective

276legislation when I chose the vocation of educator when I decided that I would commit my life to this field I chose to do so because of an alarming Trend I myself had seen during my time at public education here in the North State far too many kids with different socioeconomic situations racial and cultural backgrounds and different gender and sexuality identities did not fit whatever ascribed Norm was in place at the time and far too often those kids ended up falling through the cracks I'm sick of seeing bright and talented kids who have so much to offer their Community pushed down because of how they dress or identify I'm sick of seeing kids and even peers discriminated against and assaulted because they look or act differently differently quite frankly I'm sick of discrimination against my queer

277and transgender friends forcing staff members to inform on students compromises everything beneficial about having school mental health support for those who would be discriminated against this sets an extremely dangerous precedent for access to these Resources by our most vulnerable students who in case you all missed the data from the beginning of the night are unequivocally lgbtq plus students we need to ask ourselves what comes next should staff inform family on other hot button issues like religious choice on student relationships revoking any sense of privacy for our students is only going to discourage them from seeking help as it would for every single person in this room what is left for these kids when suicide rates are skyrocketing and when they're taking a risk just stepping foot on school grounds yeah I brought it up look

278deep inside yourself and ask is this issue really about parental information or is it about stopping something that we all already know is coming to deny the rights of trans people is deny the rights of human beings and as the wise man once said you better start swimming you'll sink Like a Stone Loretta Ann Torres [Applause] I said uh Loretta and Torres it's okay your time doesn't start until you approach the microphone okay I'm Loretta Torres and Tori's I'm a grandmother I'm 80 years old I love my grandchildren I have two of them in your school system at this time and I have some comments last month you heard from a very caring mother who'd gone the extra mile to ease her nine-year-old child through this very confusing time the most important statement she made

279last month was with the school's help either she was informed or she did the informing when issues arose with her child parental information this is all we really are asking for your schools and teachers have taken it upon themselves to purposely skip parents in this issue the state would like school board members like you to think it's okay because they passed a b 1266 and 2014. no it's been massaged into leading school boards to interfere with parental rights there are only one to two percent of transgender adults in our nation who are influencing and confusing our children I know you worry about bullying and of transgender youth we all should we all do there are scary things out there in this big world and you want all of your children to be to feel safe

280but to leave the majority of your students who are not in distress in order to Shield the few is wrong if you're thinking but there's more than one to two percentage transgender students in our schools I believe you're fooling yourselves because Studies have shown that more than 70 percent of children go back to their original sex when experiencing gender dysphoria studies are also showing that the incidence of suicide in transgender youth goes down when parents are their guiding support here's an idea here's an idea set up and encourage parental support groups for parents of children who are going through gender confusion places where parents places where parents can come together to talk about how they can support their kids through this very chaotic time I truly believe that the state of California is using the

281transgender issue to come between parents and their children don't let this happen change your policy parental participation and no secrets from parents is the best way to go [Applause] Silas zelling [Applause] good evening members of the Chico Unified School District board my name is Silas zelney and I'm here today as a member of the chico community and a transgender person I am here to express my opinion on item bpar 145145.3 and argue for increased privacy rights for transgender students as a transgender adult and I apologize I'm going to talk about some hard subjects as a transgender adult I have personally experienced discrimination isolation shame abuse and sexual assault due to my gender non-conforming nature as early as nine years old unfortunately my story is not unique transgender adolescents experience home violence and sexual assault at

282nearly twice the likelihood than cisgender children according to the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2021. it is common for transgender individuals to experience harm at home and seek a found family elsewhere while hiding and not fully understanding their identity even children in good or normal families can face these challenges as administrators responsible for writing policy you cannot assume what happens behind closed doors in a student's home is safe for them however you can determine what is safe on school grounds in the non-discrimination policy the district prohibits unlawful discrimination and provides detailed descriptions of what constitutes discrimination for example the policy even addresses discrimination based on the texture of a student's hair this demonstrates the district's commitment to accommodating the diverse needs of its students however the current policy does not adequately address the Privacy rights

283of transgender students disclosing their identity to their parents May pose a risk to their emotional well-being at home and can reasonably affect the student's educational performance and ability to see to succeed at worst disclosing their identity when they are not ready can pose a higher risk for potential physical abuse and sexual harm than for cisgender students I urge the board to expand the non-discrimination policy to add the safety needs of this minority group also groups of students including transgender students should feel safe supported engaged and meaningfully challenged in the district schools to prioritize parental involvement without considering the unique needs of students with alternative gender identities would be to ignore the factors that contribute to the discrimination and harm of this minority therefore I urge the board to seek policy that supports the students right

284to privacy and support the student's power in deciding if it is safe to be out to their parents it would be beneficial for the district to draft policies and workflows that support transgender students such as preparing documents and policies for secure document storage that allow students to decide whether to disclose their identities to their families or not for appropriate parental involvement the district can draft policy to support the student's decision for guidled Parental involvement only if the transgender student provides explicit and verified consent to share their identity in conclusion I hope the board recognizes the the importance of increased privacy rights for transgender students in the district schools by doing so Chico Unified can better achieve its goals of increasing parental involvement and improving School climate for all of its student subgroups thank you for

285your time thank you thank you I have an office of Congressman Doug lamaltha [Applause] I am going to preface this with a request for the the audience to please stay in order thank you thank you board members for allowing me to address you here tonight um I am this is a this is a grave situation we're facing here and how we've gotten to a place where we can interpret State policy as such in Chico California that keeping secrets from parents about their children's involvement at school about their children's decisions that are so grave remember these are minors who are making lifetime life-changing decisions in a particular case that we know about here after just a few minutes of time with a counselor and so you want to talk about privacy as we just heard about

286when after a short counseling session the child was marched allegedly right out into the classroom and said this child has decided to transition to a different sex with a new name and this is what parents who have whether they're holding down two jobs or a single parent or the other struggles we're facing especially these days have to contemplate that's what's going on with our kids at school is that we don't have a right to hear and know ahead of time what my child might be thinking when basically coerced by non-stop assault on media on the internet was somehow thinking that your choices are fluid no it's either XX or it's x y the proof is in the DNA all right now we can please retain order folks we can contemplate these things as adults but

287for the school to be helping to coerce children as minors who have so many other lifetime decisions they have to make after they're 18 years old key decisions that are not allowed to make until they're 18 years old in some cases 21 years old and we want this to happen at a ripe young age of 11 12 10 9. schools have really overstepped their bounds overstepped their responsibilities when they're doing this when they're contemplating this when they're pushing their pun and you're breaking the trust that you have with parents here in Chico and all over the state so I stand with folks like Aurora Regino and all the Aurora Reginos and her daughter all over this state and all over this country and so we will soon your time thank you okay [Applause] I didn't

288see a timer [Applause] Michelle Cooper is the next speaker I did not see a timer we don't therefore there's ramifications fiscal ramifications [Music] calm down I've called the next speaker is Michelle Cooper please Michelle Cooper there's no doubt that the current policy needs to be changed you've been hearing for three months now from parents who are opposed to the secrecy policy that you have in place a policy that was developed on guidance and not law I personally have talked to people from all sides of the aisle which includes teachers and therapists who agree that keeping parents in the dark is wrong telling kids to lie to their parents is wrong and the age of the child does not matter any child under the age of 18 deserves and is entitled to the protection that only

289their parents can give them I cannot support a policy that includes language that would remove a parent from any conversation for me the answer is simple adopt a policy that does not exclude parents period for some however this has become an issue of spreading false narratives that all parents are abusive and that no parent will accept their child that only adults who are not their parents can understand them these accusations are not only false but are dangerous since when does it become okay for adults to tell children to keep secrets from their parents if you're doing that you're doing something wrong I think this topic is far too important to be placed at the end of an agenda on a late school night like the resolution item this should be tabled for a special meeting

290invite presenters to give insight as to what the laws really are why this issue is so important to parents and hear and have discussion that is Meaningful if you're under this you are under the spotlight here locally and nationally and you need to get this right and further I want to add that the reason that we are awarded the freedom to speak here tonight is because of our U.S Constitution and the brave men and women who fight for our freedoms I am a mother of a military veteran who and he attended Pleasant Valley I'm very proud of my children while it's voluntary to participate in the flag salute I find it rude and offensive when board members and others Here Tonight Show complete disrespect for it thank you [Applause] so that is the end of

291our 30 minutes time allotted for public comment how many speakers are left on the list please extend it I am I'm in a mood to extend the time to hear all speakers [Applause] thank you I'll second that um we'll do a roll call about starting uh with me uh Dobby I we're oh sorry let me just repeat we are moving to suspend the rules to hear all speakers at the three minutes however I will not be asking for additional public comment at the end um it's who submitted a speaker card that I have on my list right here just um that's for clarification so the motion is to suspend the rules to hear all the speakers I'm better on the list that are on the list thank you yes and we have a motion in

292a second and I vote I Robinson I if the speaker's already on the list konk and I landed by Tennessee all right um our next speaker is Deanna Lindstrom [Applause] thank you board members one of my children's when my children started school never in my life did I think I would be fighting the school yes yes yes it is this person has spoken here almost every meeting thank you when my children started school never in my life did I think I would be fighting the school district to keep me informed of what my children may be experiencing during their time at school let me be clear that this isn't a transgender coming out issue this is simply about keeping parents in the dark we have had our fair share of experiences from my children eating

293an x-ray being stabbed being bullied being punished being pulled out of class for a social emotional learning Council session and being given surveys and not being allowed to do his schoolwork unless he answers those surveys this is just a small list of what we have dealt with with the district keeping parents in the dark before I was placed in foster homes I was in a family that sexually abused me mentally and physically you know what I was always told don't tell anyone here you're saying you won't tell parents when it comes to issues a child may be experienced and take it upon yourselves to make judgment calls I have worked extremely hard to not repeat family history and here you have labeled me as an abusive and neglectful parent that I am guilty until proven

294innocent and that I cannot be trusted based on my past I have taught my children that I love them and support them no matter what though we are a team and we will get through anything together I have taught my children that anyone who tells them it is okay to keep secrets from me or their dad they are the enemy and that they have something nefarious to hide themselves if I am deemed fit to love care support be financially responsible and house my children then I am deemed fit to care for my children regarding any issue that may arise while at school the ones wanting to keep secrets regardless of what it entails are the ones that cannot be trusted thank you uh the next person I'm calling up is Brandy McCann thank you no

295you're okay and you are another rollover from the previous item that I wanted to give you the opportunity to to speak yeah yeah okay uh let me know when I can start right now okay my name is Randy McCann thank you for having me I have two children that attend schools here I want to talk about this resolution um I do not think as it stands it's functioning properly to meet the expectations of parents it's vague your primary focus as Educators should be education when you say that you will serve families within the parameters of state and federal law why are you not providing information for families that they may need regarding which state and federal laws you have left out of this resolution when you say you will uphold this partnership between teachers students

296and parents by providing opportunities to communicate and participate in the education of their children do you mean fundraisers drivers for field trips or when our children are the problem and it's really vague as as vague as the terrorist threats emailed parents received just recently without any follow-up of whether our kids were safe to return to school um I want to say this on a positive note since we're appreciating Educators soon anyways always the teachers who help provide my children the most excellent education were the ones who took the time to communicate with myself and partnered with me regarding any areas my children may have been struggling with and were able to provide each other Insight on home and school and collaborate ideas and plans for the success of my children you know I would like

297to know what the opportunities that you're going to be providing for parents is I want to know what that's going to look like what instances will you not include parents in accordance to the law as listed in that resolution and um information in the current resolution for parents is vague it provides loopholes and a lot is left unsaid and I understand that Educators and staff all play a role in our children's lives let's not use those very same folks to bring divisiveness into the homes between children and their parents we the parents want to support our children schools the staff and the children in our communities please reflect before you appease either side if Educators truly feel that us parents are unsafe then we will see shortly the road going forward please create a resolution

298that reflects the expectations of parents and not only guidance that you interpret as law thank you [Applause] Virginia Thomas oh sorry Virginia Thomas smelley my name is actually Maddie Hinckley I am reading on behalf of Virginia because she couldn't be here tonight because she has covid so Virginia is a seventh and eighth grade teacher at Marsh junior high school and proud to be an educator within Chico Unified School District the following is her message I know those of you who are demanding the revocation of our school district's policies regarding children's privacy at school think you are protecting children but the statistics don't lie according to the Trevor Project fewer than one in three transgender and non-binary youth found their home to be gender affirming nearly one in five transgender non-binary youth attempted suicide an lgbtq

299youth who found their school to be lgbtq affirming reported lower rates of attempting suicide your demanding children not be who they are while schools are trying to keep them alive do you fear your child being indoctrinated at school or do you feel that your child or schoolmates of a child you know may be transgender being transgender is not a flaw it is not a pathology it is a fact of the world trans people's existence has never been safe or celebrated in recent history in this country because of fear and bigotry but in many societies before hours trans people were accepted and celebrated supported trans children can grow up into Happy trans adults do you hear this so-called social engineering or do you fear being out of touch both with the times and with your own

300child if you fear your children would keep this from you focus on healing your relationship with them build trust with them don't scapegoat some of the most vulnerable by attacking their right to privacy trans children are not the boogeyman they are young people learning about themselves how they might live happily in this world who should be able to be seen fully as who they know themselves to be they are working to form positive self-images around their identity and grow their self-advocacy substitute any other protected group for the word Trans in the statements you're hearing tonight and you reveal the cracks in these anti-transgender arguments the tone and logic is the same as racist sexist segregationist and separationist propaganda foreign sect that does not represent the majority of the country is waging a two-pronged attack to

301legislate trans youth out of existence and dismantle public education this is the Civil Rights issue of our time those of you who are opposing our school's current policy will one day wake up and realize that your stance is no different than white parents fighting School integration during the Civil Rights era to not see these issues as being similar and these oppressions is intertwined is to be lost in your own fear and hatred thank you Suzanne King [Applause] to the board thank you for allowing me to speak tonight to everyone here and listening from home while I teach in front of a group of 30 plus students five times a day tonight is definitely outside of my comfort zone thank you for listening to what I have to say with openness and kindness for the rest

302of my message I will be speaking to the students of Chico Unified my name is Suzanne King and I use the pronoun she her I've been teaching for 16 years the past six as a science teacher at Marsh Junior High School I have focused my adult life my meaning on teaching middle schoolers because it's a tough time for many students as if puberty weren't enough middle school students could be mean heck humans can be mean but you students are surrounded by teachers admin campus supervisors counselors and other students who have your back seek them out support one another Spread spread positivity and acceptance and make your campuses better to all students listening no matter your level of academic achievement your gender your race your age your sexuality your social status or any other piece of

303your identity my message is this I care about you your teachers care while we may get caught up in the subject that we teach know that most of us teach because we enjoy helping students grow and develop into good people science is just a vessel through which I teach I care more about your whole being than just teaching you about photosynthesis I care about how you feel I care that you experience success inside and outside of the classroom I care that you learn to work hard and give your best effort always I care that you are proud of Who You Are I care that you know that you're not alone I care that you feel supported I will not coerce you I will listen to you I care that you are free to be the

304person that you are without judgment with outside out without outside pressure to be something that you are not and that is why I will continue to show up for my job for my students day after day I care about you come and find me if you need an ear to listen a high five or a hug or someone to help with your math homework and if you aren't on Marsh campus find another teacher that cares about you we are on every campus in the district and we will continue to support you because you are awesome exactly the way that you are thank you um next up is Rob Berry [Applause] I suppose it's my turn now to be heckled so here we go I guess I could talk to you as a former teacher a

305former board member and a parent but I think there's plenty of emotions that you've heard in testimony tonight so tonight I'm going to talk to you as an attorney the question that Mr tennis asked was about case law and and how uh how this comes down in terms of case law and statutes my message to you is that you are wading into extremely risky territory legally and that you're if you're looking to avoid a lawsuit in litigation the more that you involve yourself in trying to resolve this this dilemma the deeper you're going to be in your own legal risk so let me give you an example in your own administrative regulations you have taken that the basically the Title IX concept turned it into an anti-harassment policy and then Define what harassment is under

306penalty of disciplinary action for parents staff students and administrators and you list the kinds of things that constitute harassment the number one thing on your list is refusing to use the pronouns dictated by a child who who identifies with a gender different than their natal sex that becomes grounds for disciplinary action in this school district that is compelled speech it is exactly against the First Amendment and you are subject to constitutional challenge the first time that you try to discipline a teacher for using refusing to use the the pronouns dictated by a student so that's just one example I'm not going to talk to you about Title IX and what the the confusion of natal gender has done to the intention of Title IX which is to create an equal playing field for girls and

307boys sports and now by confusing gender you are now putting boys on the playing field and in the locker rooms of girls that was never the intention of Title IX and so and you also have the degendering cases I think the one thing that I want to bring to your attention is a district one case that has to do with social transition and in that case the court found that social transition is a mental health intervention and as such it is required to be subject to the diagnostic procedure which hits five diagnostic points before any intervention is possible also you've talked about the over 12 age there is an enumerated list of Rights of 12 year olds there are things like abortion birth control pills and so forth and so on it's an enumerated list

308you get down to the bottom of the list and it deals with a very vague issue of professional time thank you thank you [Applause] up next is Julie Anderson Nelson good evening my name is Julie Anderson Nelson I am a retired cusd teacher and Community member I've been here before I want to thank and honor the youth that are here tonight their voices are the ones we need to listen to my three children now adults attended cus teach the schools and my youngest daughter as I've mentioned in the past is transgender she is not gender non-conforming she wholeheartedly lives as a female and identifies as a female she grew up in a gender affirming family it's important for me to express again that cusd was supportive and communicative during the years of my daughter's attendance

309at cusd schools and during her social transition I trust cusd the current School Board policy 5145.3 that follows our state law ab1266 that has was implemented 10 years ago is thorough and protects trans and non-binary students right to privacy Educators and counselors are already mandated reporters the policy also prevents them from being outed without their consent and allow School Employees to help and protect them without negative consequences it's working the gender intake form is already in action the policy's intent is to protect students it does not take away parents rights as a parent of a transgender female I never experienced any of my rights taken away from me or denied me I am requesting that no action be made on the current board policy it's clear that an important next step for our community is

310continued education with education comes understanding and with understanding comes compassion and reason in raising a transgender child I cannot communicate how much I've learned and I'm still learning about being transgender so much of our Lives is gendered dominated by male female blue pink the binary of gender it's ingrained in us since birth to be transgender or gender non-conforming and experience living in a body that is not the gender you identify with not that gen not the gender that everyone is convinced you are and should be is complicated it's confusing and it's scary we need to listen to them this period of time reveals that we especially as cisgender need more information more training and how to be better at listening it's our duty as humans to ensure our youth who are transgender or gender non-conforming

311are not discriminated against but rather receive the support they need to live full healthy lives thank you Rylan moribito Rylan [Applause] [Music] hi my name is Rylan and I'm here as a parent of an 11 year old at Parkview Elementary a graduate of the Chico Unified School District in a transgender Community member for some of you sitting board members I have been your neighbor I have made you coffee at the coffee shop my partner and I opened in 2018. I was able to find success and happiness in Chico as a direct result of my identity and privacy being honored and respected by my teachers and peers with that in mind I'm strongly calling for no action on Chico board policy 5145.3 I believe in every child's right to privacy and validation from their school system

312a child questioning their identity is significantly more likely to survive with a strong support system in place outing them without their consent canned and will put young questioning Kids In Harm's Way unfortunately for many transgender individuals the support we need and thrive on doesn't exist within our own homes speaking personally that pain is something I will never be able to overcome as the trans child of a parent who is here tonight speaking loudly in favor of the opposing stance I knew exactly why I needed to keep my identity private while growing up that parents present here tonight is proof that I was right to conceal my identity and protect myself I am alive and thriving today not due to parental support but because my friends became my family and out of necessity some of my

313family became strangers I am alive today because I was given the opportunity to figure out my identity on my own terms and come out when I was no longer dependent on unsupportive family and parents to parents who don't believe in their child's right to privacy on this matter I challenge you to look within if your child is hiding who they are from you it is a reflection of you not them it is certainly not a fault of the school but rather a fracture in your own home I encourage you to sincerely ask yourself why your child might not feel safe with you queer individuals often leave us too soon and in tragically predictable ways due to a lack of familial support unconditional love and validation and make no mistake someone you love is trans or

314queer the last thing we need is to put more queer or questioning kids in unsafe environments where they'll be harmed by others or will harm themselves a trans kid is better than a dead kid it is not too late it is not too late for you to learn how to love your child the way they deserve to be loved I implore you to learn before it's too late please Chico Unified School District vote no action and let your love and dedication for the students be louder than the bigots thank you [Applause] James Bishop [Applause] I wanted to bring up something um that I'd like I think we could all work together toward and that is stopping misdiagnosis um to start I'd like to talk about Tavis the dog so Tavistock is a sensory old psych

315Hospital in the United Kingdom around 2020 they set up jid's services which is to treat gender dysphoria and they began recommending puberty blockers and hormones this was set up it originally as a what they called an experimental service Marcus Evans was a Tavistock director and his wife joined jids and worked um in that service they became concerned about the changing diagnostic culture what they said was that it used to be a very discussion and debate oriented culture whether it be a lot of pushback and in order to get the best diagnosis for children and Dr Evans said that this changed to quote shutting down any dissent or wish to examine what was going on beneath the surface of a child's diagnosis why would they do that well Dr Evans goes on to say there was

316a politicization of the whole area an unusually close relationship with stakeholders like mermaids and gender intelligence and a breakdown of the traditional boundary between donors and the clinical practice It produced what he described as not a clinical environment that I would want to work in meanwhile Michael Brit Biggs an Oxford's sociologist who was a well-known Ally of the gay and lesbian community at Harvard heard that Tavistock had done research including effects on puberty blockers so he requested copies of these reports and these studies and he didn't get a response so he became a little suspicious and he fired filed a foia and he received these documents and he found that the results of their studies had been that they found that actually some of the girls were worse off and the boys did not were

317not better off and so they never published them now he said you know this is not really unusual to not publish studies that don't support what you're doing but what he did think was scandalous was the continuation of the clinical practices that were leading to misdiagnosis and the effort to make it national policy so meanwhile while all this is going on over the past two decades there were a thousand lawsuits against have a stock out of 6 000 patients that's quite a high ratio and that they were not properly assessed and it led to grave harm to them was their claim and so these facts among many others were presented to the high court in UK and to quote Marcus Evans again quote when you read the evidence against Tavistock there's no comparison we're talking

318about people with very high profiles in the profession giving their considered opinion backed up by a wealth of research against on the other side basically political belief the court shut down Tavistock you could read in the times London which is a left-wing publication this entire ordeal and so the question I have is is Stonewall playing a similar or analogous role to what the stakeholders did there if they're not then I'd ask them to join us in trying to stop this misdiagnosis because it's greatly confusing this issue I think we could all agree that's your time thank you [Applause] Kirsten's Adam I might have said your name wrong sorry hi um hello board Administration my name is Kirsten Schultz southam I was born in Chico four generations of Schultz kids have graduated from Chico schools I

319worked during college as a yard duty at Chico Junior where my mom worked I was an aide at Loma Vista finally begin I began teaching Elementary School in 1992 for Chico Unified and I retired last June when I dropped my first son off to kindergarten on his first day of school I had a knot in my stomach worrying about if he'd love school but also wondering if his teacher would care for him like I did it also made me realize just how much parents entrusted me when I taught their children each day that feeling of being an extension of their family and making sure to protect their child like they were my own while teaching them it changed me that day I was always conscientious but it made me even more aware during my teaching

320day I would often pause and remind kids to be kids to release the stress they may be feeling from Friends home whatever to let learning be fun let the grown-ups handle the hard stuff there was nothing for them to worry about life is hard enough but being a kid should be easy or we should at least help make it easier during the school day children's world are like the legs on a chair one leg is them one is their family one is their friends one is school that's it that's all they worry about if you pull away one leg with worry or fear their seat will be unsteady two legs and they will fall we need we need to carry the big loads for them schools should always be a steady leg one that provides

321knowledge and nurturing helps them make friends to play with at recess and lunch when life is hard sometimes at home we reach out to the parents to be a team to study all four legs on the chair I know many of you up front Jay and Jim you coached my boys when they were young and I know you all began your careers teaching and caring for caring for little people I challenge you to please remember to let kids be kids keep the grown-up stuff for them to decide when they graduate from Chico schools be an advocate for the kids and the parents let the teachers teach the fundamental subjects by making learning fun without outside distractions and make sure to teach PE every day because I always did therefore I'm asking that we do not

322keep secrets about minor children from their parents and I thank you all for your time Kathy Dahlstrom [Applause] hi my name is Kathy Dahlstrom I am a therapist who specializes in working with transgender kids I have a unique experience I think here because I have seen hundreds of transgender kids and their families and if you know a trans youth or a young adult from the area that has gone to therapy there's a good chance they saw me now I'm not going to speak tonight to safety because I feel like that's been fairly well covered I'm going to speak to something that no one has brought up and how much this hurts supportive families too I have heard hundreds of coming out stories where a child went to their parent and their imperfect parent responded lovingly

323but imperfectly and that experience has been a bond between the two of them for the rest of their life and being trans is hard as you can see you know there's the emotion here is because it's a hard life it's not hard because there's something hard about being trans but because the society we live in so when you force a kid to come out to their family and you take away that feeling of control you have robbed every family of the opportunity to have this beautiful experience that they could have that will be powerful for their children for the rest of their lives I'm not up here because I think I'm not tucked up here because parents aren't important I'm not up here because families aren't important I'm up here precisely because families are important

324and parents are important speaking to you as someone who's speaking to who've spoken to hundreds of them and that is not an exaggeration they are so important that you need to not interrupt this precious moment and let the children come out to their parents about something very personal about them and who they are when they are ready for it instead of the robbing the opportunity for everyone and that's all they want to say except you guys I really feel for you and I'm really sorry you're hearing some of this really hard stuff [Applause] thank you Dr Christine leisner [Applause] I love you okay greetings on the human sexuality research and educator you know that I'm also a parent I want to speak tonight about the anti-discrimination policy about transgender kids first I would like to

325communicate that all major professional entities that work with children's physical and mental health support gender affirming services in medical care schools homes in the community including the rights of privacy this includes the American Medical Association the American Psychological Association the American Academy of Pediatrics according to the recent publication from the American Academy of Pediatrics prominent pediatricians state that quote children who are pre-puberty and assert an identity as transgender or gender diverse know their gender as clearly and as consistently as their developmentally equivalent peers who identify as cisgender and benefit from the same level of social acceptance this means that children as young as three who understand themselves to be transgender are the same as those who are cisgender and recognize themselves to be a boy or a girl a recent study published by the Journal

326of Pediatrics in 2022 followed over 317 transgender youth over time with an average age of eight at the beginning of the study they found that 94 still identified as transgender five years later this longitudinal research unique in its design demonstrates that transgender youth who socially transitioned to early ages continue to identify that way years later this is important because a news said a new report from the Trevor Project that was just put out in March highlights that 11 percent of transgender and gender expansive youth come out before the age of 13. only one in three transgender and gender expansive youth have gender affirming home environments this means that 66 percent do not have gender affirming home environments not having a gender affirming home environment is damaging for youth mentally emotionally and physically research shows that

327families reject their children because of their gender identities and these kids are much higher likelihood of becoming homeless and committing suicide due to this rejection the American Academy of Pediatrics States research increasingly quote suggests that familial acceptance or rejection ultimately has little influence on the gender identity of Youth however it may profoundly affect young people's ability to openly discuss or disclose concerns about their identity this is why all students no matter their age deserve the right to privacy this need for autonomy to decide when and how to communicate information about themselves to their parents is for their own safety this is also why the ACLU the department the California Department of Education the U.S Department of Education and the White House have all put statements out about the importance of transgender Youth and individuals right

328to privacy keep the policy in act the way it is don't mess with the age this policy is supported by the most updated science on transgender youth the best way to move forward thank you Lyle Hayden Lyle yeah Lyle Hayden [Applause] I wasn't sure if I got onto the ticket so thank you um I just want to talk about uh sort of if I could adjust that uh since this is a school meeting let's do a little history lesson uh is anyone familiar with a moral panic maybe the satanic Panic of the 80s um there's a pretty direct line between that and these folks in the back over here they're they a moral Panic relies on exaggerated and lurid stories of members of a social Fringe um corrupting or harming Youth and members of the

329in-group punishing them and making their lives worse and persecuting them this has happened throughout history a bunch of times there's been witch hunts there's been red scares and now there's these people Alicia trider foreign as an educator and parent here in Chico I am really disappointed in the actions of Matt tennis and Rebecca konkin for creating such divisiveness in our community in regards to our students right to privacy and safety if a student has sought out a safe adult at school to talk to about their gender identity that's usually because they can't find a safe adult at home to do so with in Butte County we have the 6th Street Center for Youth that provides services to homeless and runaway youths apparently we have so many youth homeless youth in Butte County that we need

330a service organization to support them that's the first horrifying fact second according to the Sixth Street website California has the highest number of homeless use youth in the country forty percent of all homeless and runaway youth identify as lesbian bisexual gay transgender or queer with family rejection being a contributing factor to their homelessness this means that we have children coming out to their parents as gay or transgender and then those parents are throwing their own children out onto the streets what kind of a monster does that to their own flesh and blood what kind of indoctrination are these parents going through to learn to hate and reject their own children policy 5145.3 protects children from these parents who put their conservative religious idealities and political agendas before their own children's safety and well-being it is

331these parents who were the Catalyst for the creation of this policy if you want this policy to go away then you need to address those problematic parents and not be those problematic parents [Applause] if you want your children to talk to you about their gender identity then start the conversation with them and create a safe space where they know they can trust you and be honest with you claiming that you don't believe in gender identity and refusing to think beyond the gender binary will push your children away from you because they're smart and they're curious and they know how to find information if they need it so they will turn to their teachers and their friends or strangers on the internet for the information they can't get from you again I want to reiterate that

332our children's privacy and safety are not up for debate I don't support any changes to the current policy as it stands and I would also like to point out a problem with 5145.4 the increased parental rights you didn't talk about what would happen if required parental disclosure leads to child abuse at home or to suicidal children whose parents won't accept them when they find out about their gender identity or their questioning or force them into conversion therapy or whatever that's not addressed in the new policy and that's another reason why I don't support it thank you thank you Carrie Krueger [Music] this is simple individuals that manipulate the conversation regarding schools secretly transitioning children by diverting attention to trans ideology and trans rights do so for political gain and personal validation this is simple this

333conversation is about whether this school district will recognize and honor constitutionally protected and god-given parental rights and Authority can I call Port of order I I can't even talk because there's so much walking this conversation is about whether the school district will recognize and honor constitutionally protected and god-given parental rights and Authority or continue to disrupt the parent-child relationship causing irreparable harm this is simple you are gambling with losing Federal funding and as a community we will not stand by and allow you to undermine parents there is a counter movement taking place in this city the state and all over this country schools are being created as we speak to give parents options we will do what is necessary to support these families who will pull their children and seek alternative education because that's what

334community looks like it takes a village and we are ready we aren't backing down this is simple you won't come between us and our children [Applause] Morgan Dietz you said it right um I have been Morgan Deets for the last 20 years but when I was a Chico Unified student from K-12 I was known as Morgan verzie in I believe it was 1990 I was eight years old I started dressing like a boy I was pretty cute um plaid collared shirts neckties had my hair cut so I fit in with all the other little boys um I had a less than idyllic childhood and had a lot of things going on and when I was in third grade it was obvious by the way I was expressing myself and Chico Unified cared a lot and

335I really appreciated it what they did was contact my parents and say that they noticed something was different about me confirmed with them that things were going on at home and I offered counseling the counseling I received was basically space to um share what I wanted to share there were no suggestions offered um it was just space offered for me to talk about anything I wanted to and to process however I wanted and that was very freeing for me freeing so I could process and grow and develop to what I am today um a fiercely independent and critically thinking woman and and as such I'm here and I'm seeing science back here there are signs that say let kids be kids trust kids mind your own business one of the other ones they're all pretty

336good protect kids um that kids are truthful I agree with them all and but but the debate that I'm hearing is that it's either one side or the other can only be correct and it even seems like what is being debated is not even what is on the agenda it seems like the debate is either we respect parents or we respect trans kids and again as a as a fiercely critical thinker I encourage you to to to think that through to think that to know um to maybe I would like to challenge you to know that there's more than just either or um options I think these all can be right and all people can be respected and loved because of how I was raised in the Chico Unified School District um I call myself

337the world is a rainbow generation and that is a song by Greg and Steve that I hope many of you know the Greg and Steve guys um they're still my faves but this song that guided me um and still does and has inspired a deep love of all people of all kinds I'm sorry that's your time okay listen to it Nicole Nava so I just walk up here and I'm sorry it's going to be hard for me to get through this so I hope you can bear with me apologies um as you can probably tell I apparently am I bigot um that is how my child um feels I've always um respected my child's uh desire to keep things private and if I truly was who my child thought I would have capitalized on things

338um over time I'm sorry again um this bigot loves or child dearly and this child was raised in a home that felt great love um I'm sorry this bigot recognize their child's marriage a very dear special grandchild we were not invited to the wedding because there was an elopement and I understand they really wanted the privacy and due to the sensitive things I'm sure there was a lot considered and apparently maybe the feeling that I'm a bigot and so I shouldn't have been there and I'll never see my child child be married I'm trying to speak about how bigoted this household was we were very accepting and I want to say to all the children that I love hello for you and I do not want you to feel afraid of parents it breaks my

339heart that we are here in this type of space where we are assumed to be horrible people my place oh my God oh my God please please come to order please come to order you all can address whatever you want outside those doors please come to order right now when I walked in these doors I hadn't even spoken to anyone yet and tried to take my seat in a gentleman verbally attacked me and I'm sorry and then he proceeded to do it to somebody else just sitting there and this is what happens and I wouldn't understand we're so nice and we just sit here and take it and yeah um I I don't even know what to say I I'm crushed and I have to go home to my husband spend the Mexican bigot and

340describe that this is I'm sorry that's your time yeah I would have liked to have had my other opportunity too you'll have an opportunity when it comes back up on the promise that I would ask if my friend Pollock could really is this Paula hair I'm sorry is this Paula hair I have Paula on the list to speak yes yes thank you um up next is Lindsey Briggs thank you [Applause] my name is Riggs I'm a local educator a mom of children you love me hold on I'm sorry is is your microphone working it doesn't sound like it to me hi thank you hi okay uh my name is Dr Lindsey Briggs I'm a local educator a mom of children who love me uh a queer woman and I am exhausted to the Bone activists

341I am sick and tired of waking up every morning awaiting to see what fresh hell awaits me and my community I brace myself to read the latest ridiculous lie uh that some ignorant group is spreading about the people that I love I look at my calendar and see what stinking meeting I have to show up to in order to make sure that some hysterical group of paranoid citizens doesn't legislate my rights away y'all I am tired as a college human sexuality Professor I have the joy of receiving The Battered and bruised young adults who make it through a school system that's been warped by well-meaning but completely out of touch citizens who have butchered our education system because they're afraid of a changing Society I listen compassionately as students tell me the horrifying things that

342they've lived through by being bullied from close-minded children to the realization that their parents are low-key bigots they've grown up in homes with toxic messages about the people who are different from them who the stories they tell me about y'all yikes is all I can say lastly I'm here to make a couple of plain very straightforward statements trans people exist get over it no one can make somebody trans it's ludicrous I even have to say that uh contrary to our absolutely Bonkers Congressman some people are not born male or female that's a biological fact [Applause] I'm sorry many of you including our Congressman did not learn that in school that's embarrassing uh everyone deserves the right to privacy yes even children they are not an extension of their parents bodies they are whole human beings

343all on their own no one is telling your children to keep secrets from you if you are your children is keeping a secret from you there is definitely a reason school should be a place of unconditional love support and safety for all kids if you don't like what publication public education teaches absolutely you're invited to go elsewhere uh find a private school that aligns with your values the United States was founded on the basis of separation of church and state you have every right to believe whatever you want according to your religious beliefs however your religious beliefs have no place in dictating policy any arguments based on your personally held beliefs have no place in our Public Schools again refer to my previous point about moving your child to a private place finally I urge

344you to keep the policy as it is which is in accordance with State Assembly Bill ab1266 thank you thank you up next is Andrea Mox good evening uh my name is Andrea Mox and I am the executive director for Stonewall Alliance of Chico I'm here today in reference to agenda item 7.3.1 for more than 30 years Stonewall has provided lgbtq focused Services advocacy training and support to North State schools Youth and Families the following statistics from a 2022's Trevor Project survey of California lgbtq youth youth demonstrates why stonewalls is sadly busier than ever 70 percent of lgbtq Youth experience discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity only 30 percent of lgbtq Youth identified home as an lgbtq affirming place for them fortunately 50 percent of lgbtq Youth identified school as an lgbtq affirming space

345for them and 54 of California transgender and non-binary Youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year lgbtq youth are not inherently prone to Suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather they are placed at risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society social stigma is real and sometimes it feeds into family Dynamics some kids aren't ready to face their parents or Guardians with their deeply personal information just yet knowing that they could risk their life support system in doing so all right I came out when I was 35. and you know I was a successful I.T manager at Chica State I owned a home I had two kids and I was still terrified to come out to my parents who were actually open and very liberal as

346open as they were after I came out it still took them a month before they could speak to me I experienced fear guilt and self-questioning during that long month and it was gut-wrenching to think I might lose my parents and their love and their support imagine trying to navigate this situation as a school-aged child whose parents are not supportive the truth is that some kids aren't sure that their families will be ready and willing to support them and forced outing to parents could be devastating stonewallen schools are there to fill gaps for kids who may not have a safe family or while they build their personal skills to advocate for themselves to their families Stonewall finds that neither of the proposed policy changes are acceptable the school district should strive to be a place that

347affirms the safety and confidentiality of transgender and gender non-conforming students knowingly changing this board policy which could be a life or death decision for a Chico Unified student and their family is reprehensible we recommend no change to board policy 5145.3 thank you Aaron Whitney [Applause] hello good evening and thank you for allowing us all to speak our minds my name is Aaron Whitney I'm a Community member parent and professor of education at Chico State and I am in support of retaining the current policy 5143-514-5.3 and in protection of student privacy and I want to speak a little bit about um the perspective of teachers as a teacher educator this is really important to me I co-facilitated a workshop just last week with teachers in conjunction with Stonewall on supporting transgender Youth and a comment that

348came up on behalf of teachers was I'm trying to support all of my students but I'm so afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing and these are committed Educators who've been tasked by their school districts to establish maintain and monitor inclusive learning environments that are healthy and safe to enable all students to learn and that comes directly from the California teaching performance expectations that beginning teachers are required to demonstrate Mastery of now my concern if if a parental inclusion policy is enacted aside from the risks to students I believe it could create more fear for teachers as they're placed in positions of having to police gender in the classroom for example if a kindergartner named Michael chooses to wear princess dresses in the play area does the teacher have to call the parent or

349can they encourage all children to explore gender through play and Imagination this is an example of typical behavior that teachers know does not necessarily indicate a child is transgender but is experimenting with gender expression and roles as they should be so what if Michael the student then asked to be called Michelle but says please don't tell my mom she'll be mad at me if the parental inclusion policy is in place the teacher would then be required to disregard the Privacy request of the child which could result in negative consequences for the child at home as well as shutting down any further conversation between teacher and student it also puts the teacher in a position of having to choose whether to follow the parents rules or state law on gender-based harassment ultimately the teacher must follow

350the law but to avoid conflict they may just put the dress-up clothes away which thereby has a negative impact on the whole classroom community I had a little more here but I'm gonna I heard the bell and I know people are tired I just want to say I support student uh privacy student privacy policy it protects trans kids allows teachers to create and support inclusive learning environments and it enables staff to communicate with families as children are ready thank you Sierra Hall [Applause] y'all gotta do jumping jacks to keep the lights on well it's past time they're shutting us down there we go that's usually true sorry if it didn't work all right hi my name is Sierra Hall thanks for letting us speak a little longer today um first of all um I just

351wanted to say I'm a concerned Community member I'm a protective big sibling and I just wanted to say that all students in the Chico Unified School District deserve dignity and privacy students should have the freedom to express themselves without fear of being spied on most importantly lgbtq plus students have the right to come out on their own terms parents have a conversation with your child at home get to know them one-on-one if you have to get information about your own child through the school you should consider whether you've created a safe space for your child to be their authentic self at home I'm requesting no action be made on Chico board policy 51453 protect trans kids trans rights are human rights thank you very much [Applause] Dr Tom mount well I think it's clear that

352there are two highly motivated constituencies represented in the audience tonight both of whom have legitimate concerns on the one hand are those who want to ensure that trans and gender non-conforming students are not harassed or bullied in any way and treated with the same dignity and honor as other students I would hope that no one in this audience would disagree with that goal understandably this group is happy with the way the policy currently reads and see no need to alter it in any material way in fact they're afraid that changing the policy might expose these vulnerable students to her harassment and harm and again I think their fears are legitimate on the other hand our parents and others who are deeply concerned about the district's current policy which effectively usurps a parent's right to be

353involved in this area which is so Central to their child's well-being they take their parental responsibilities very seriously and can't help but feel disenfranchised by the district whose policy essentially drives a wedge between parent and child at the very moment when the child is most in need of loving nurture and wise guidance understandably this group is unhappy with the current policy and is asking that the board revise it in a way that continues to safeguard students but also encourages parental involvement I think there's a way around this impasse and it was suggested by Paul Gantt the district's legal counsel at the board's February 15th meeting Mr Gantt proposed four possible courses of action that the board might take in moving ahead the third of these was to revise the current policy making it the normative

354practice for district Personnel to inform students excuse me to inform parents of their child's gender-related struggles unless there are compelling reasons not to do so as in the case where a history of child abuse in the home for example might put the child at risk I respectfully ask that the board discuss and adopt this approach which would continue to afford protections for vulnerable students but with the added benefit of re-enfranchising the parents of the district you don't want to be in an adversarial role with the parents and up to this point that is pretty much the position you have taken in a in a recent court filing the district argued that parents have no legally recognized right to be informed of their their child's gender issues guys this can be fixed that's your time thank

355you thank you Eric Nelson good evening Eric Nelson uh my wife Julie who spoke earlier and I have three children all who attended cusd schools I'm also a retired principal of inspire School of Arts and Sciences and was an administrator and teacher in at cusd as an ally and advocate for the lgbtq community I urge cusd board to leave the current policy in place current policy in concert with California law ab1266 provides protection to lgbtq students protection from discrimination harassment and bullying ab1266 was not written to deprive parents of their rights it was written to provide a necessary layer of protection when kids don't feel safe it has been law for a decade now and has worked well in cases where a young person who is transgender and or gender non-conforming is trying to find

356their way in an often hostile environment where they feel threatened simply for being themselves efforts to deny them this protective layer are based in large part in fear of the unknown but that fear pales in comparison to the fear of being criticized dismissed rejected and hurt emotionally and physically simply because of who you are I am a straight cisgender white male born and raised in the Midwest I understand this fear of the unknown when my daughter who is transgender transgender began her transition at the age of three I might add I was scared for her and for myself what did this mean what would it look like how is she going to be treated when she went shopping in a dress how would that reflect on me following my daughter's lead my wife and I

357began to educate ourselves to understand our daughter's experience to be there for what in what many don't understand is a sometimes Indescribable challenge to be your authentic self in the face of a harsh and judgmental world that education came from compassionate organizations like Stonewall Chico the UCSF gender Clinic gender spectrum and local members of the lgbtq community I am deeply deeply grateful to everyone who supported our daughter and our family the courage and integrity of the lgbtq community is a beacon for us all for justice and kindness truth and love all antidotes to that fear of the unknown unknown that I experienced when what we need is continued and deliberate education Stonewall Chico along with the Chico State pride student organization and the queer Resource Center at Butte College are leading the work in our

358community building compassion and deepening understanding this is the direction we we need not divisive litigation as parents our most critical job is to provide an environment at home where our children feel that they can be who they are without fear of judgment or reprisal or rejection our job is to understand them and support them in their identity our job is to confront our own fear and move to empathy and support in some homes this doesn't happen in fact there is rejection and retro reprisal and judgment thank you and this this and that's your turn thank you Canyon Williams [Applause] hi my name is Canyon I've been living in Chico for coming up on 10 years here my parents are both Educators my mom is a special education teacher and my dad was a Elementary School

359principal and then later an assistant superintendent so there's a lot of nights growing up when I was waiting for my dad to get home from really late board meetings I relate to what you guys are going through and I appreciate the work that you're putting in to make the right choice for our kids I know that uh we're all here all of us because we care a lot about children and we want the best for them going forward um I know that's what we're working together to accomplish and I appreciate it thank you as a trans adult I am happy to say that being trans is legitimately one of my favorite things about life I am so privileged to be a part of a community made up of some of the most kind supportive perseverant

360resourceful creative and inspiring human beings that I've ever known being trans doesn't make my life difficult or scary in fact I think my day today would look really familiar to everyone here I go to work I pay my bills I chat with my neighbors I love spending time with my friends and my dog you know I have to mention my dog uh I'm just like you and so are the lgbtq plus kids whose rights we're discussing today there is nothing wrong with these young people wanting to explore who they are and who they could be the thing that makes trans life dangerous is people who are afraid of us because we're different and who dedicate their time and energy to trying to stop us from existing we're not going to stop existing can't stop kids

361from being trans by putting obstacles in their way by choosing to not support your children you can make their lives harder you can cause them a lot of pain you can alienate and destroy your own relationships with them and the adults that they will become but you cannot change who someone is California state law protects miners rights to privacy it is so important to make sure that lgbtq plus youth have control over their own Journey with identity and disclosure forcing them to come out before they're ready can put them in incredibly unsafe situations I think we've seen plenty of evidence that there are adults who have no problem causing harm to kids they don't properly understand it's our job to make sure that all the children in our community trans gay straight are safe and

362supported protecting their privacy is a huge part of that to the lgbtq people here today we see you we love you we want you here I am so so sorry you have to deal with this struggle and I'm here to tell you that your community has your back stay strong there's a whole world of beauty and freedom waiting for you on the other side of all this trans rights forever thank you for your time Mona Kazemi good evening and thank you for allowing us all the chance to speak my name is Mona I am the board secretary for Stonewall Alliance of Chico I wanted to start by sharing some of the most recent data that I found on kidsdata.org which is Butte County specific 20 percent of children have two or more Aces which is

363adverse childhood experiences which um is a problem children with reports of abuse or neglect are 50 percent higher than the Statewide average in Butte County which unfortunately illustrates that not all parents in Butte County are responsible parents meanwhile sixty percent of lgbtq plus students reported being bullied at school and then specifically within Chico Unified School District 52.3 percent of lgbtq plus students seriously considered suicide and instead of using this time to figure out better ways to further support and help children we have to be here at 11 something just to demand a most basic right for them the right to express themselves in a confidential Manner and their right to safety I encourage you to think about the potential consequences if action were taken to reverse this right lgbtq plus children might be forcefully outed

364to their families when they may not be in a safe environment those serious thoughts that I referenced earlier may become serious actions um those safe adults in schools whom they might consider speaking with at such a critical point in their life may get taken away from them and they may choose not to seek support at all when they need it the most it's time we do more to support lgbtq plus children instead of taking away the very very bare minimum in addition and in closing I encourage this governing body to look at federal and state law and adhere to statues and guidances set forth by California Ed code Title IX the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution and specifically California Assembly Bill 1266 which as referenced on the California Department of education's website establishes that

365and this is a quote from their website the right of transgender students to keep their transgender status private is grounded in California's anti-discrimination laws as well as federal and state laws I urge you all to do the right thing this evening and protect the lives of children within the Chico Unified School District by maintaining students privacy thank you so much squeaky Saint Francis [Applause] I will speak loud for those who cannot speak I am a proud he she they them whatever I am a boyfriend to a beautiful woman I am a girlfriend to a handsome trans man and I am also a girlfriend to an incredibly beautiful woman um growing up in this town my mother always told me to love myself for who I am not what I am not all as can be

366as lucky and have a supporter like that in fact I knew friends in school who would bring an entire change of clothes with them so they could dress the way that they felt inside and be free of persecution that they would feel at home or the sideways glances one of the first things we learn in a healthy family is trust and unfortunately some parents don't trust their children when they say this is me and they make that decision for them that may make the child fearful for from the people that claim to be trying to protect them these children may see the hate and Prejudice at home for people just like them and feel the only place they can truly be themselves is at school every child needs to control when they out themselves I

367never had to out myself everyone always knew that I was just different I was just Joey but if you take away this ability this control from these children to out themselves you are forcefully putting them into a possibly violent household where their parents could kick them out force them into conversion camps or relinquish their their parental rights and put them into the system and God forbid they might consider suicide changing this policy would create a very slippery slope and Texas just recently passed bills that require every citizen apparently to um report that um if if a child is getting any kind of trans affirming care those parents and or doctors can be arrested and it's creating political refugees already and we cannot stand by and let this happen in Chico that's your time thank you

368thank you Connor Wenzel [Music] [Applause] thank you for the time to speak my name is Connor Wenzel I've been here before and I've come here as a trans Community member in regards to agenda item 737.3.1 the non-discrimination harassment policy you should all all of you should have already read the written comment I submitted it like the 27 other when I counted this afternoon um comments submitted stated um the um request for no action concerning transfer gender non-conforming students rights to privacy I don't want to share more facts or figures with you because if you can't see all the supporting information as to why this should be a no action then you're never going to choose to do so I instead would like to ask you to imagine imagine what it would feel like to have

369this experience go through your brain as somebody that that has not even come out to anybody may not have even said it verbally that strands are gender non-conforming identity I worry everyone will know my secret have everyone using a nickname that I hate no matter how much I tell them the importance uh the important people in my life that that I don't like it all the time I worry everyone will know my secret I wish you could tell me I wish I could tell someone what my name is but I worry everyone will know my secret what if the only clothes I get to wear are the colors that I don't like in the style that make me uncomfortable to wear which happens every day and I worry everyone will know my secret I want

370to wear what your class my classmates are wearing but I worry everyone will know my secret I want to understand why my classmates want me to act just like them and and why I'm constantly afraid of them teasing and harassing me because I don't which happens all the time I worry everyone will know my secret I want to be able to play with a group of kids that I like to be around but I worry everyone will know my secret all of the presents I get I get them because people say that that's the type of toy I'm supposed to have even if it's not on my list no matter how often I say every time I would like to have the right to actually use my name on classwork I worry everyone will know

371my secret I worry not I won't be able to share all my likes and and interests with anybody which happens all the time and I worry everyone will know my secret I want to be able to tell my favorite teacher what my name my name is and everyone will know my secret thank you that's your time Paula hair my name is Paula hair I'm a combat veteran my brother died for this country I am transgender I am the real thing I had my sex change at McGee Women's Hospital play a few years back I fought Michelle Bachmann in the state of Minnesota for glbt rights transgender rights but I could be who I am but what I hear here today isn't about really transgender rights it's about a teacher giving another child a binder which

372is wrong David parents bring their children to school to learn now for a teacher to play doctor now if a child wants to you know says they're transgender or whatever to a teacher announce to ask questions about it that's a good thing but for the teacher to come in between the child and the parent that's a bad thing because then you don't have the parent-child relationship anymore what you have as a teacher tearing a family apart and destroying it so then you might as well take and have the people not get married just have a kid bring it to school say here change its diaper and we'll pay the bills and you raise it but you're not raising the child you're teaching the child stick to teaching myself I fought for transgender rights I fought

373to you blue and white cab company I won and transgenders gays lesbians and arrests drunks people bring their bottles on the airplane could ride in a taxi but all I've heard here today isn't what this has been about like I said it's been about a teacher giving a child 11 year old a binder playing doctor teachers need to stop playing doctor teach when a secret is kept from a parent my parents were drunks I mean drunks I went to my parents told them that I was a girl I was beaten so I understand what's going on here I finally left my home and went in the military because they said they'd make a man out of me but they didn't do that so that's your time thank you that's your time thank you thank you

374for listening to me um the next person on our list is Arwen Funk but I think I saw Arwen leave the room of um that's the end of our speaker list um with that and everybody's sigh of relief I apologize but I really do need to take a break um and so I'm asking for a point of privilege and to take a really brief five can we do it in five minutes break well let's do it as quick as we can ideally five minutes thank you so much take a break we will return to order thank you for the break um all right so I also ate during the break this time instead of while I'm trying to run this meeting so you're welcome um Okay so we've heard our public comment I'm in our

375Rules of Order I would uh bring us to the point where um I will ask if there's any emotions associated with this item I have a question of clarification for staff okay um the board policy didn't say anything about over 12 and older is that right but I'm digging deeper and confirming on the administrative regulation it does go into pretty significant detail on that I mean it says that uh it has an entire section of it devoted to students 12 years of age and older so what's the relationship if if we approve one of the board policies is this necessarily the administrative regulation that follows no at this point we would take input from the board and actually go back and develop a board policy these are drafts my guess would be that there would

376be recommendations for changes to the drafts would bring them back to the board for a second reading and for adoption okay that's the will of the board and then after the board adopts a policy we would adopt administrative regulations okay so in that vein then I I would move the proposed draft 5145.4 the one that emphasizes what is the what is the phrase use parents rights parent inclusion but I would change it so that it does not exclude 12 and older I would write it so that it includes 12 and older would be treated the same as as 11 and younger so I move that I second okay will you emotion in a second we can open the floor for discussion among board members yeah um first actually I think the desktop request question of

377clarification um from Mr Gantt would such a wood compelling counselor specifically uh be in direct violation of California law that's Mr Gantt thanks well I I hesitate to give legal advice in in on general terms normally we give legal advice on specific cases so first of all I I'll make that comment what I can say is that there are legal protections for students that are 12 and older who seek counseling School counseling that allows them to express and claim a right to privacy and refuse consent for the topic of the subjects in the counseling from being disclosed so arguably depending on the circumstances in other words if there weren't overwhelming factors due to health or safety that require disclosure for example that could violate that student's rights under that Education Code section if the topics

378of for example Mental Health care were at issue if topics related to reproductive Health advice was also in the mix for a student that is 12 or older that such disclosure could conceivably also raise serious legal concerns and that's under those existing statutes I would also says being a law excuse me statutes being law yes thank you yes um the uh the reason that the well I'll leave it at that and see if there's any further questions thank you I guess I would just reconnoiter that we're just talking about informing parents about what is transpiring with their child in class that's it so no one's no one's forcing a child to come out to their parents they're already coming out in class and in school so it is only fair in the relationship that we

379the school district want to have with parents that parents would be at least informed of what is happening foreign so what I understand is you respect information that's shared in Council and privacy um however once a child makes the decision to take action publicly at school that's when the information should be available also to the parents and I think the child would have open eyes at that point too they would they would they would be told that you know it's just not our policy to keep secrets from parents and so if we're all gonna in your classes you know start using your preferred pronoun your preferred name that's just not something that we can keep from parents you know I mean who's ever called your child's teacher and had them strategically you know kind of

380keeping details from you about what happened in class you know um that's not cool that is the school Community keeping a secret from a otherwise totally responsible parent so basically intolerable so where do we draw the line if um is it does it become a responsibility to decide if a student wears too much pink that's worth reporting to parents if a student I mean at what point does behavior that you deem abnormal become something that we have to force people to contact the kids where's the line for exacting things onto me that I never said no I'm perfectly happy to draw the line and names and pronouns perfectly happy so so no problem well no I mean we're a school district we're a government agency we have to make decisions so yeah it is my

381line to draw you know I do not have to keep secrets from parents when I was a teacher in this District every year at the beginning of the year the way I got to know my students was to um first of all you all have experienced how much anxiety I have over saying names wrong um and uh so my first my first day was to ask students if they had a name that was often mispronounced and to share with me how to say it phonetically before I said it wrong so that I could take notes the second question was always if there were students who went by a different name than what was probably on my roster very benign question and I just would write that down and I would I would call them that

382name it wasn't my business why that student chose to be called that name sometimes it was a very simple um you know nickname I Matthew being called Matt or whatever it might be um and I can think of circumstances where that student might have been questioning their gender and that wasn't my business that wasn't my business until the student decided to make it my business if they did and usually that didn't even happen until I taught comprehensive Sexual Health at the end of their seventh grade year as required by law I would add that if this suggestion were to come to play um where a school is required to to share with the household of a student that the student has expressed a need or a desire to explore alternative identity then as a teacher

383does that mean that I would have to make it my business to find out why a student wants to be called a different name or to uh stay away from the conversation of pronouns in fear that I will have to report a student's pronouns to their household rather than being an inclusive classroom it creates a system where we are forced as Educators to execute a very restrictive environment and I think that we heard a lot of input tonight and in our public comments and in previous public comments that this isn't a US versus them a this or that issue this really is getting to the heart of doing what it is that we are here to do which is support students growth [Applause] and that is our responsibility here and to ensure that we're following

384the law [Applause] thank you um for anyone who has been um either because of a role in school I I was spent almost 30 years as a school supporter person for students and um I was a person who occasionally a student shared um something that was you know hard for them eating at them either they were gay or trans or they they thought they they had been in a situation where they had been identified and they were about to be outed at school and they were you know in a state of suicidal ideation and then as I um moved along in years um I had a family member who after two and a half years of not being able to say I'm she not he did disclose to me who she was she had been

385two and a half years struggling with that um knowledge and when she finally disclosed to me her first request was to help with school it was between junior high and high school it was summer break she wanted to start school as she as who she was knew that all of the kids that she had just gone to Junior High School with were going to be at the senior high school it didn't matter it was so important to her to be her that that was all she could think of and it was fortunately a Chico Unified School District school so when she went to the school and said call me she X you know and they said oh okay um you know and it went in not as an official record but as the student's request

386so that when she got to class the teachers identified her by her chosen identity I still remember watching the transition of this person within weeks just Blossom and become this you know I I had no idea what was going to happen and I reached I reached out to Stonewall because you know I'm I'm grandma and I don't know what I'm dealing with here um and I found family support groups as you mentioned other parents well I wasn't the parent this is this was not my child who were going through similar things and shared experiences and shared you know the the family dynamics that fell apart or you know it it was a lot of information that I had no idea I needed until I needed it um in this subject coming before the board I

387heard heard a lot of communication came to me as a board member and I heard from people who were still not able to disclose their authentic self um I also had another role in this community as a board member for the Torres shelter and as a board member there I dealt with the number of lgbtq Youth and adults who were homeless because of the reasons that people have indicated um I know the pain I've also seen the joy and I also want to reiterate what one of the speakers said here tonight I am not anti-parent that's why I you know before had the resolution that we uh table come up at any other point in this school district's history it would not have been questioned it would I mean that's been our philosophy is the

388kids that are successful are the ones that have the successful strong parent support I believe that I also know because of what my role was with the school district that everybody doesn't have that kind of parent household waiting for them and I also understand if we're going to prevent the suicides the drug addiction the you know we have to empower our youth now having said that I also am not in favor of taking parental rights away I I think parents need to know number one that an automatic disclosure isn't gonna happen so if they are truly interested in knowing their child knowing what's going on establish a relationship in your home not only with your child but with your environment don't make a comment about a news article that you know what Texas just did

389or what another you know make your home A Home of acceptance I believe that my role as a board member is to protect our kiddos that may not yet have a way of protecting themselves and and to inform our parents that if they feel they need help where to reach out to my God I needed help when when my family member disclosed it was like oh okay now what do I do we have a lot of parents believe me you've been in the same spot this is this is not something that we've come up through our society knowing how to um deal with we also have been sent so many negative messages about people that we don't understand that we don't um you know we are not an inclusive Society I'm sorry but we're not

390we've discriminated against people because of color because of sexual identity because of disability because of you know any number of things we just aren't an open loving Society we have a lot a very open loving people who are speaking out and saying enough is enough we are not going to perpetuate hate hate speech hate activity so when this comes to a vote I I will do there are several things I'm concerned about one is I don't think we have the policy on student privacy rights written quite where it should be I'm also concerned because we are being sued and that there are some legal parameters that we need to be aware of so that we are not financially um risking hundreds of thousands of time we've already spent the hundred thousand that was covered by

391our insurance we're there now every penny that goes out the door now it comes out of some classroom so I want to be absolutely certain that whatever we do with 5145.4 we do it so we're not jeopardizing not only the health and safety of our kids but the financial health of the school district and also doing a big job of educating our parents and families to let them know these are issues folks if you don't feel comfortable that you know enough to have established the kind of relationship where you feel comfortable that your child will come to you and that maybe they don't and it's not your fault but here's a way to work through finding a way to to get that support with your child that I would vote for I'm not ready to

392vote yet on this Mr Lindo thanks um first of all really a huge thank you to everybody uh who came out to speak today a lot of people took some Really Brave steps to come out and tell us about their personal experience and that was awesome and I'm sure to those watching at home or who were here we're not sure about whether it was safe to do so seeing this community come out like this has been really reassuring and it's powerful it's awesome um thank you um so I've been this issue we've all been thinking about it for you know months now um I keep thinking there's got to be some kind of a common ground there could be some kind of a way where we can stop because one group is talking about one

393thing and one group is talking about something different and then they yell at each other um I heard a couple people mention today about um like these false neighbors going around and I'm curious about that because I hear this repeated claim that we are as a school district engaged in some kind of Act of coercion that by acknowledging the truth that non-binary trans lgbtq people live among us we are somehow encouraging students to partake in that lifestyle and just like choose right they're going to go oh you have to try to try this for a little bit yeah um and I wish we could figure out where why that is such a persistent idea um and of course first of all um it's clearly not true right let's just get that out there no one

394is in a classroom telling anybody student who they ought to be right that and it's such a ridiculous idea that it took me a while to wrap my head around having to need to say that out loud um I can't believe I um okay so that's what you said we do need to do something about education um because 95.99 most most of the people who spoke here today really truly are doing their best by their kids and their community and they want they want to love their kids well so I think later we'll talk about it as some other options about how we can maybe um build that partnership in a way that helps educate parents who might not know how to have those conversations well I think that's something that we can do to

395strengthen that that partnership in a real way um but the other thing I noticed as we had speakers um the speakers who asked for no change to be made were of a group who feared that they or people like them could be harmed the people who spoke on the other side um by and large were not going to be harmed if they got their way and um so you guys know I'm a history teacher or I have been in the past any time I think it's a really safe statement to make any time people with no skin in the game legislate something that affects other people it turns out badly like that is just so uh continuing to say things that don't need to be said but apparently do um we do not believe parents

396are bad um there are parents on both sides of this issue it turns out there's not like one group of parents who get to claim the mantle of all parents okay um we don't hate parents we don't try to keep secrets from parents we want parents involved in every possible safe way four of us up here are or have been mandated reporters we understand that there are times rare times but very real times when informing a parent about something going on in a child's life at school is dangerous we are legally responsible to have that knowledge to act not appropriately and this just seems to fly in the face of that um then I'm gonna keep coming back to us uh seven percent I'm not seven percent sorry um if I was doing some digging

397um seven out of every one thousand students in California have at some point a substantiated claim of neglect or abuse that has to be reported under camera I mean that's seven seven space you know it's small but it's real those are people who are being harmed and I just don't understand how anybody can hear all this testimony that if you do this people will be harmed and not be moved by that um we had an interesting well let me see sorry let me collect my thoughts for a second um if we were to adopt a policy which required School staff to out students under any circumstances and a student was harmed because of that we would both likely be liable and we would carry that with us forever and that is not a thing that

398Isis that I'm willing to live with Rebecca did you want to land [Applause] yes we're all speaking tonight is that okay okay um I went ahead and wrote down some of my thoughts because I'm not as eloquent as all they experience board members so bear with me here as I read them um first of all I'd like to express my appreciation for the outpouring of emails and messages that we have all received over the past couple of weeks I read all of them and I had the opportunity to personally respond to some of them and one thing that is evident regardless of what your position is on the matter appear it appears that we all have the physical physical and emotional well-being of our students as our primary goal I know that's my priority I

399absolutely support a non-discrimination environment for all students and in no way am I suggesting anything otherwise in my profession I clearly understand the purpose and the importance of confidentiality um and as many have already pointed out this evening highly involved loving and supportive parents will likely already be in the loop and aware of feelings that are shared with counselors or teachers at school but the scenario that I always just keep coming back to and I've spent so many moments and nights awake thinking about this is the scenario where a child of any age determines that they are going to take action at school and um come out as a transgender individual and they're and they are choosing to keep that a secret from their family I much more fear the potentially harmful scenario once this

400unsupportive parent discovers what everyone may already know and I saw I say once because I I think it's not a matter um of if but it's a matter of once this happens if teachers staff administrators and friends on campus all know of the child's gender transition it's um seems naive to assume that the child will be able to keep this secret from parents for very long and I can only imagine the magnitude and frustrations of a less supportive potentially abusive parent once they discover what everybody else already knows I just think that there's um possibly a strategy or a better practice where we could collaborate and the school could facilitate the communication with the parents and allow for a safe place where the child can share this information perhaps for the first time with their

401parent a place where both the child and parent can access Support Services to help with the transition I know this already goes on at Chico Unified with children who agree to it but I believe that this should be our standard in our policy for all students um like all of us I think my greatest concern is for the vulnerable child who has the less supportive family environment and the potentially harmful situation we are placing the child in when their secrets are discovered foreign broad input at the moment um the motion on the floor is to adopt a new board policy that follows the parental inclusion um model that we were presented with earlier uh with the the change that it would include students that are I'm assuming you meant 17 years and younger minor students

402yes um I would throw out maybe um you know they're they're not Wards of the state and also that wasn't your original emotion so I don't know if you want them I mean Award of the state doesn't doesn't have any you know oh sure I see what you're saying caveats um to that if they are not if they're basically if they're emancipated I don't think we need an amendment for that though um I'm going to move to the vote uh we don't need to do that because then we'll have to vote on that oh yep okay I thought you asked me nope nope nope I'm just I'm just I'm just walking through the process making sure that making sure that everybody's being heard um and I'll just go ahead and um we'll do Voice vote

403individually starting with Mr tennis since he made the motion tennis I am Dolby nay Robinson no konk and I Lando no [Applause] three two three three two um let's see if we have any additional options for emotions is there another motion for the member Robinson yes um I would like to move that the um board prepare a slightly modified new um not not the administrative regulation but the policy uh five one four five three or is that the one that we've just voted on five one four five point three is the current to clarify any Mr Robinson would you like us to put up the we had one slide it had the three different um choices that might be helpful yeah this the VP and AR 5145-4 they're both four point four they're both 0.4

404so that's the original at the top that's what we currently have in place and then another option is the 5145.4 student privacy rights or five one four five point four increased parental inclusion yeah no it's the one on the left uh board policy um 5145.4 and um I don't I I don't see that we need to make any significant changes but there are some wording things that I believe because they flow into an AR that the district might bring back to us um in the board policy I don't want I'm not suggesting major change I just want to make sure that whatever we do flows easily into the development of the AR that's going to implement it and right now I don't think that language does does that make sense no so your your emotion

405is sorry I just want to clarify it simply so your motion is to approve on the board policy 5145.4 student privacy rights yes with with direction to staff to make changes to make minor changes to make it easier to develop the AR that goes with it you know the board approves the policy I don't think we have a second no no we don't I'm going to make a motion unless Mr Orlando wanted to make a motion um I move that we retain the current policy board policy 5145.3 um unless or until so we will retain the current policy as it's written unless or until we are provided with further direction from case law or legislative action a second member Robinson seconded my motion I'm going to make a substitute motion okay that's fine and that

406is that we approve the some very close version of the draft five one four five point four the increase parental inclusion but leave it as it has been drafted for us without what I said before which was to um make it apply to 12 and older as well this would just apply to 11 and under okay my second this is permissible um but it is not a friendly it's not a friendly it's a substitute motion so he's putting a second motion on the table a second okay according to what I was just reading do mine real quick told you I'm super prepped for this meeting should I make a big speech about this we're here is there discussion on on the second motion that's on the table two adopt 5145.4 parental inclusion at this time

407it was like a yes by member konk and I was wondering if there's discussion before we go to the vote are we ready to vote okay um I'll start with you again since you made the motion thank you tennis I had Dolby no Robinson no no Kunk and I Lando no foreign to our original motion on the table which is to retain the current policy 5145.3 as it's currently written I'm unless or until case law or legislative act sorry legislative action provides further Direction for changes any other discussion okay well I made the motion I'm going to start so Dolby I Robinson I can't do I tennis nay [Applause] [Music] thank you all so much for being here and staying through that your input needs to be heard over and over and it is exhausting

408and I am so sorry that you have to face that on a daily basis and to our parents who are also parents that are trans or non-binary or CIS or anything in between um we're all we're all parents right and it is important that students are safe and feel that they are in an environment that is conducive for their learning and their growth in a positive way and so I feel like this this direction is is right for us for right now and we will continue to share our stories and to educate each other and to reach out and to connect and to emphasize the importance of a healthy home environment and developing those relationships with our kids to make sure they feel safe to talk to us about hard things all right um with

409that we're gonna move to item number eight which is board member request to agenda as an item yes I would like to agenda is a discussion about what sort of offerings we might be able to create to help parents learn how to have those conversations on I'm Stonewall is an amazing organization and I'm thank you so much for being here by the way um but there are a bunch out there but I know some people would really like to see something at the school specifically we have in the past run like the All-Star parent program which taught parenting skills and helped parents who maybe weren't sure what to do to navigate some of those things it'll be interesting to see if anybody would be willing to attend so I'd just like to hear a proposed

410of something like that what it might look like or at least agenda is a discussion about whether we want to do that step one I'll second that question is to agenda is a discussion centered on the idea of parent education and how to be better parents with the partners partners with parents I'm so tired how the district can be can improve our partnership with parents how's that okay all right um we'll start with Mr land oh wait sorry discussion there's a second I'm sorry discussion sounds like a great idea I would agree okay I support that we'll start with Mr Lando land away Tennessee that's unanimous thank you are there additional items to request to agendaize I have one okay I will was contacted this past week by a parent who's concerned because their child

411was in a class an AP class actually where um they're aware that their fellow students are using artificial intelligence to write papers and and so forth and the parent actually reached out to staff and had a good conversation a productive conversation with a principal where it seems that people are already working on it so I move that we put that on a future agenda for discussion you just kind of be uh updates you know an update second dude so to clarify we're um the the action to take is to request um information on an update on how artificial intelligence may be impacting our classrooms I'm sorry if I changed the words okay okay yeah just want to make sure we're clear specifically with regards to possibility of cheating okay thank you um and it's been

412seconded by Mr Lando I'll start with any further discussion sounds fascinating I'm into it um all right uh there are some it is creepy by the way like the artwork especially can be really weird um AR okay yep getting really into the weeds here uh uh we'll start Mr tennis MSI it's all b i Robinson I How can I Lando eye all right um any further items I moved to adjourn somebody stuck at me thank you land a second in where adjourned