001[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] he [Music] yeah [Music] yeah [Music] you [Music] you [Music] he to order um Miss Daniel can you have a roll call for us please thank you president Mrs SE president vice president Mr Nishi present clerk Mr noola present board member Mr Mr Beach present board member Dr yeno here board member Dr Rios board member Mrs U here thank you thank you Miss Westman uh at this time we'll begin our ethnic study board study section and Dr cro can you the floor is yours now thank you thank you president SE good evening tonight we'll be conducting a study session on the ethnic studies requirement from the state of California in October of 2021 state adopted into law that one semester minimum of a course requirement for all
002graduating students in high schools in California I'm very proud of the work that ABC has done to achieve towards this goal and I'm proud to introduce our secondary curriculum team led by our director Dr chrisha Weise who is going to give you an overview some historical context and kind of let you know where we are today and some of the next steps that we will be taking in order to make sure that we cre we are meeting this uh basically Ed code law in ABC unified Dr Wise good evening good evening I want to first thank our Board of Education our district executive cabinet our superintendent Dr zlo for this opportunity to share about our board study session about the work that ABC has completed for the California Assembly Bill 101 one requirements for high
003school graduation so we'll wait for our screen to come down so tonight in our learning we thought we make it a little bit interactive so we're looking forward to a couple of activities tonight as we think about ethex studies and its impact for our students and the learning community that we have at our schools tonight's agenda includes ethnic studies in California requirement as well as our intended goals and impact to the community we will review the work of our ethnic studies committees including the the work of our staff our parents and our students we will also review the development and implementation of that plan what we have moving forward and last but not least leave a space for some questions that we may not answer but we hope to answer all questions at the end
004of our session today so let's start learning a little bit about one another so as board members I'd like for you to make eye contact with someone on the board other than [Laughter] yourself and then in our audience as well we would love for you to make a connection with someone that you don't know um so that we can learn a little bit about one another so make eye contact with someone please and here is what we're going to do for 2 minutes per person we are going to learn something about your name so you're going to tell them the story of your name how your name came to be who named you and any historical perspective about your name so whoever that person you picked please turn to that person and we're going to
005start our timer for 2 minutes per person and then I'll give us a little indicator when we need to switch for the next so please tell us your name where did your name come from okay all right yeah college teacher uhuh okay o okay what's the Chinese uh Pearl in [Music] house okay yeah oh yeah that makes sense I I thought about that okay okay so my first name is uh harunobu is a combination of two friends names my dad's best friend's names it probably means spring spring something and uh all SM yeah all right if you haven't done so already it's time to switch and have someone else [Applause] share if you have not switched please consider switching you have about a minute left we should start finishing up our thoughts we'll finish up
006our thoughts in the last five 2 names are so significant I am the only chrisha in the whole United States of America so how did my name come to be my parents both lived in mtgy Alabama in a time where there was definitely segregation my uncle went to the air forces and he married a white lady and my mother loved her her name was Gretchen and my name is cret after a derivative of her name and so it was the first time that there was an ethnic exchange for my mother and so that I stand in that space of love and a change time for Montgomery Alabama and I am her I also met Danielle today and her mother Lov French names she's a Spanish speaker and her name is Danielle IET how did she
007get that because her mother loves France but what did I learn and what did she learn about me different cultures different places but origins of me and so what if we took the time in education to learn about each other's names I think it would change the cultures in which we have in schools when there have been some places of divide so names are significant making a partner by just asking a simple question as your name we learn so much about one another about our place of origin about our locations and our culture and it is that learning that makes us great Americans we hope in this activity you received a chance to learn about one another and an opportunity to share about yourself by learning about one another it helps humanize create a culture
008of Tolerance and respect for our diverse community that we call ABC so I was thinking what are you wondering about so in front of you there should be a sticky we want to give this time for our board to take a couple minutes and think about what are you wondering about ethnic studies so we'll go ahead and start that timer for now as we move into our last minute of thinking about your wanderings my team will come by and pick up um your wonderings it is our Hope by the end of the presentation that we have answered most of your questions but are there any other questions we would love to be able to answer those for you today now finish up our thoughts in the last seconds and we'll go ahead and move to
009our next slide so understanding ethnic studies goes impact and a requirement for California we'll go to our next slide assembly Bill 101 was passed in 2021 and it requires at least one semester course or embedded content of ethnic studies to the graduating class of 2926 it states that the district must offer a course by 2526 and the state directive our educational quality commission which we call iqc to create and develop a model curriculum which guides the implementation of the curriculum and the secondary course so what is ethnic what is ethnic studies ethnic studies is an interdisciplinary field of s field centered on the experiences and stories that allow students to explore their own and others cultures of students around them to foster a more inclusive and understanding of the school environment we spent some time
010looking at research articles regarding ethnic studies we not only looked at our framework but we also in research move the slide were able to look at some information from Stanford and other disciplinary other courses that wel come to this framework and we reviewed literature as a conversation to how we were going to implement or think about our schools and how we wanted to support ethnic studies in our research of multiple articles literature supports ethnic studies and suggests positive correlations inclusive learning environments students have improved gpas or grade point averages Improvement in attendance as well as academic engagement and improved College enrollment and that's what the research is suggesting or supporting next I'm going to have Dana Coleman come and share with you about our work in ABC as we have prepared for the 25 deadline
011of making sure we are supporting ethic CTIC courses in ABC Dana colan good evening let's examine the demographics of the students at ABC we have 45.4% of Hispanic Latino Latina Latina students 23.4 Asian students 11.77 Filipino students 7.3 African-American students and 5% white students and2 American Indian students and about 2.5% were not reported you can see we have a diverse group of students and families and these numbers are almost identical at our high schools our efforts have been deliberate in prioritizing these students and their families let's consider the feedback from parents and Guardians gathered through the annual California School parent survey one statement assess says the school emphasizes the importance of respecting diverse cultural beliefs and practices amongst our elementary families 89% followed by 80 86% of our middle schools and 81% of our high
012school families agreed with that statement although these presentes are relatively High we can see a slight decrease occurring another statement of valuated was the school provides instructional materials that reflect my child's culture ethnicity and identity this yielded lower percentages with 78% of our elementary families 72% of our Middle School families and 61% of our high schools families in agreement notably there's a decline at each level and the fact that nearly 40% of our high school families feel that their instructional materials do not adequately reflect their culture ethnicity and identity really underscores the importance of our efforts to address this in our ethnic studies courses Sor go let's now consider the findings from our students on the California healthy kids survey regarding School connectedness 69% of sixth graders 58% of seventh graders and 56% of our
013ninth graders and 53% of our 11th graders Express feeling connected to school we can see a consistent downward Trend again additionally in terms of academic motivation 82% of our sixth graders 64% of our seventh and nth graders and 62% of our 11th graders reported being academically motivated these declining Trends are significant and cannot be overlooked as Dr Wise highlighted in reference of the research on the impact of ethnic studies is imp parent it is imperative that we enhance school connectedness and academic motivation for our students and families fostering a more inclusive environment where all students are feel seen and valued in their classroom now you're going to see a timeline this timeline doesn't really represent all the work but it highlights a lot of the work that our committee has been doing over the last
014several years so looking back at 2020 ethnic studies became a mandatory high school graduate requirement around this time our ethnic studies committee English language arts diversity and Equity committee and state seal of Civic engagement committee were formed the following year Aria high school and cito's high school introduced our ethnic studies course although Aria high school has offered this course since 2019 it was adapted to align with the model curriculum simultaneously the ELA diversity and Equity committee began incorporating culturally relevant texts into their classrooms continuing professional development has been ongoing since the formation of these committees last school year the Committees collaborated with Los Angeles County of Ed uh during their three-day Institute where they provided information and resources on cho cho Chana CH X Latino Latina latinx Afric African-American Native American and Asian-American Pacific Islanders
015studies additionally our committee participated in a course at the Harvard graduate of education and receiving training from Facing History this focused on anti-bias training and relevant a culturally relevant pedagogy this year we introduced ethnic studies course at gar the same one that is being offered at citos in Aria they began developing uh their course their alignment and we also began to establish our other coures offerings and develop those assessments and Alignment looking ahead our plans next year include piloting embedded ethnic studies courses enhancing our teacher capacity through professional develop and collaboration and continually reflecting and refining on our curriculum part of the professional learning that was done with Leo at this 3-day Institute was what they labeled bright spot districts different districts came together and they shared how they've been incorporating ethnic studies and the
016model curriculum into their schools along with the districts and the others uh that you see here on this map our committee spent a lot of time reviewing how other schools and districts were implementing and following that model curriculum as you can see here we also took a look at several other neighboring districts currently Long Beach Unified relies on their dual enrollment program where students have a choice in different ethnic specific courses Norwalk larada has ethnic studies embedded into their graphic art literature his history social soci science and their design courses Los Angeles Unified has a range of courses that are ethnic specific primarily in their English and history social science departments elrancho has a standalone ethnic studies course but also has it embedded in their English and their math department currently like us here at
017ABC Los Alamitos has a one Standalone ethnic studies course with their 11th and 12th grade students so what does our course look like in alignment with our District's Mission Vision and our Equity plan our ethnic studies cultural studies course aims to educate students to civically socially and economically conscious about their personal connections to local and Global histories by studying the histories of race ethnicity and nationality and culture students will develop respect and empathy for individuals and groups of people locally nationally and globally to build awareness empathy and Foster active social engagement as mentioned earlier our state seale of Civic engagement complements the objectives of the model curriculum students enrolled in these courses are provided dedicated class time to engage in the Civic Action project of the choice aligning with a broader goal of encouraging Civic
018engagement and Community involvement with our community involvement we've also had the opportunity to host the day of remembrance event for the last several years where we have survivors of our Japanese incarceration camps come speak to our students having these Community involvements have been very impactful for our students in terms of the curriculum and what the units look like the community has remained committed to adhering to the guidance provided by the model curriculum utilizing it not only for implementation but also for our curriculum development I would like to note that while the model curriculum states are four major cultural groups to study are black African-American Native American Hispanic Latino Latina latinx an Asian-American Pacific eyeliner it also underscores the significance of reflecting the local community within the curriculum so who is in the schools is who
019should be represented in the curriculum we're going to take a look at some of the units guiding questions so our school year starts off with unit one what is ethnic studies here the students begin to reflect on different perspectives and experiences within their classroom their community and the United States in unit two they think about ethnic and identity studies they continue to reflect on themselves on their families and they begin to bring connectedness to their students in the classroom in this student students even complete a project where they interview an elder about their childhood and their experiences growing up what whether this is a grandparent a Thea a family friend a neighbor students are encouraged to ask questions and learn about this Elder's experiences in their childhood the following unit migration immigration and movement usually
020begins around second semester students uh here begin discussing what does it mean um to live on this land who may become an American which leads to discussions on different immigration and migration experiences besides looking at the entire country as a whole students are are spending more time reflecting on their own experiences their family experiences and what's Happening Here locally in their Community during this unit uh the students when they begin to spend more time on the state C of Civic engagement so when they're looking at issues going around the world around their Community they could have time to determine what action they may want to take and lastly unit four is the systems of power at this time the students explore how individuals interact with Society how Society grows people how Society groups people and
021explore how different factors have shaped the experiences of ethnic communities in the US during migration and other movements at this point I would like us to take a second and look at our questions and see maybe how you would have to answer these questions for your family your experience or your situation and I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to our Equity officer Blaine Watson thank you all right all right good evening uh good evening I am very happy to be here tonight to talk about how we've been engaging our Ed partners and also our community um in this ethnic studies initiative so there have been several groups have been that have been engaged in the work to collect feedback and input on the work that we're doing on our curriculum and specifically
022the representation of our students to name a few we've been working with the black Family Circle um to collect their input and ideas around how black families and students are representing the curriculum uh we've been we've engaged the diversity unity and Equity committee as well to talk about how the issues and pillars of diversity show up in the curriculum um also we've been working with our teachers who've been piloting the courses at our high schools um to collect input about how the work is happening on the ground and how what the work looks like in terms of perspectives and perceptions from students and so we've been working I want to say we've had a conservative effort to work with our community to make sure that various perspectives are represented in the curriculum that we're proposing
023so um we I'd be remiss if we don't recognize the wonderful work of our ethnic studies committee so I would ask if members of our ethnic studies committee could please stand so we can recognize you here in the community so please stand and going to give a round of applause for the wonderful work so committee comp uh composition 18 teachers St uh total uh they represent our middle and high schools um across several core subjects um including special education and ELD uh English language development administrators five total including Middle High School um and counselors as well have been involved in that work and also District Personnel secondary curriculum special programs and of course the equity office so the work is really about our students so we want to take some time to have us listen
024to the the perceptions of this work and the impressions of the experiences that our students are having in the classroom so we'll take a couple minutes to listen to the video do I need to push play I do I'm sorry Scot yeah you I think it's you and this just a special button here here we go yeah thank [Music] you oh with my new understandings of other cultures I became really more respectful and thought about what I said before speaking out my mind cuz I didn't really want to offend my friends and uh classmates so I have always had a strong connection with my identity and Heritage but through the ethnic studies course it has taught me to be more open and more proud of who I am I've always been very closed off with
025my culture because I always felt like I was going to be discriminated against but with the ethnic studies course I learned that it is okay to be proud of who you are and it brought me more in touch with my culture with my Heritage and who I am as a person as a non-mexican Hispanic living in California uh Hispanic culture here is essentially a Mexican adjacent culture so it's very difficult to celebrate my culture and my traditions without having uh everyone else around have Mexican cultures so I identify as a Mexican American female and I do believe that this course the ethnic studies course has affected the way I see my culture and how I identify as a Mexican-American female because recently I have actually bought a book at Barnes & nobl that talks about
026the revolutions that mexican-americans have um had in order to overthrow you know dictatorships or fight for what they believe is right we did an assignment where we all lined up and we got asked many questions many which were similar and I saw a lot of different cultures um have the same answers as me step up to the same answers and it just made me realize that well we are all more alike than we think the course really influenced me in providing the more engagement to the community as as a child I always had this fuel inside of me getting like just a little bit more it would be ignited but through ethnic studies it really ignited the fire inside me which because of the fact that this course has made me so much more open
027and proud of my Heritage I have been a part of the South Asian networks and More in touch with South Asian community services for instance one of the key things we do is when we have religious festivals teenagers are invited to work to work at those festivals to help others and I have been a part of that for the past couple of months um kind of learned through this course that it was encouraged that I didn't speak Spanish in my community which is upsetting that it actually ended up happening with my family but um I I interviewed um my grandma both of them um for the interview on Elder um it's very difficult for me to communicate with them because one of them only speaks Spanish and it was hard but I think I've talked
028with her because of this class more than probably ever which is really sad but um we're actually closer now and like so I feel that if we can continue to bolster this that people will have a better understanding of each other and that like people there will be more camaraderie overall like in the whole like school system I think anyone who has an open mind and is willing to hear out others ideas regarding race ethnicity origin nationality should join the course it has now affected me really positively I see the change in my ideas and perspectives I see all of us differently and I like to see that we all share some of the same similarities because it has now helped me create bonds with others I would have never expected and you get to
029hear from your peers and other students about their experiences and their views on their own history which is really nice so I definitely recommend it to a bunch of different students to see how the world works and how other people work around you let's give our students a round of applause thank you and our teachers for inspiring such greatness our kids are much more Ready for the World um there's several themes that come through in this video but to name a few um definitely a theme around inclusion human connection and empathy those are very strong themes in terms of character and the experiences we want our students to have as they move into the world uh at this moment we have two of our wonderful teachers Mr D scorsa and Mr Miguel Canales who are
030going to talk with us about their experience and and what this means right what the work has meant for them so we're going to start off with Mr D scorsa um from Aria high school and the first question Mr scorsa is can you share examples of how students engage with the course uh it's it's very similar hello everyone sorry about that how you doing it's very similar to what what you see in the video I mean the way we open up our classrooms is to begin to search inward for the students history we want to approach them learning about themselves as as the main part of this course if you look into yourself and you celebrate yourself then it's much easier to have confidence and learn about everyone else too and when you get that
031confidence you begin to engage with others in a way that is much more connected than it would be if you didn't have set of confidence loving who you are learning about your grandparents your parents where you come from the things that the people that you come from may have created invented uh it just changes your perspective on who you are and then when you sit next to someone else and you realize all of those beautiful things about yourself you realize that person next to you has a similar story it may not be the same but it's something beautiful about them and their their past and their history that you can connect to as well and when you do that then you are more willing to engage and what happens is our students are much more
032ready to engage with one another when they're in these classes on my campus often times the students get into small groups and segregate themselves but what I see in my classrooms is that pretty much evaporates after month one or two and everybody's interacting with everybody everybody's talking to everybody they're learning they're willing to listen they're willing to hear and it just changes the environment greatly thank you Mr scorsa Mr Canales what impact do you believe this course has had on the broader School culture and Community First of all a good afternoon or good evening to board president vice president trustees and and everybody my superintendent um it's a pleasure to be up here in front of you and and to answer the question I I teach gar High School gar High School is a selected
033again a distinguished School uh a best school in America and on paper uh we like to talk about the diversity but this course uh actually acknowledges that diversity uh it allows the individuals to focus on their multi-layered identities tries to get rid of The Narrative of the just the the single narrative uh we try to make sure that our environment uh is empathetic is respectful and we have great conversations where we're genuine and open and so the way that translates into our campus is in that similar fashion that by acknowledging who we are as individuals by respecting each other in a classroom we're able to translate that into our school and then later on we'll talk more about what they do in the community thank you Mr Canales I like what you said about identifying
034multiple identities and intersectionality of our of our population thank you uh back to Mr scors what changes in in understanding or perspective Did You observe in your students over the year uh I mean there's various changes in their understanding I think the overarching change in understanding is what race is what ethnicity is what nationality is and how they differ I try to focus them on understanding the importance of togetherness uh I am a United States Navy veteran and I love my country and I teach my students that they should do the same and the only way that you can really make this country a better place is by realizing that you are an American but you must also love who you are and where you come from because that is a part of what makes
035America great right if we are thinking about what makes America great we're thinking about all the cultures the food the Heritage that comes through and makes us one country and when you put that connectiveness together what you have is a country that's strong and can protect itself and that's what I want us to understand I want us to understand that race is a social construct and that there's really only one race the human race and we all belong to that race and yes we have different ethnicities and different cultures and different traditions and they should be celebrated loved and respect and brought in together to culminate what is the American culture and that is ultimately what we're searching for at least in my point of view Mr scorsa thank you for your service and our
036students are very lucky to have you Mr Canales last question can you share any specific instances where this impact was evident absolutely part of what you saw in the presentation was that uh one of the requirements or at least for the third unit is that our students start thinking about the state St of Civic engagement and one of the most proud moments that I have is just seeing the outcomes of those projects and part of my what my ethnic students ethnic study students have been doing is they've collaborated and found Partners in the community uh whether it was the city of Norwalk and the tap program or um sahas a South Asian organization in of Aria that focuses on specifically uh issues dealing with the South asan Community but not necessarily talking about the taboos
037of mental health some of my students have taken it upon themselves and addressing that issue with the community and and as part of their program uh State specific engagement another component that I appreciated is the teaming up with the Special Olympics and my students went to Ross Middle School and talked about disability that we can't see and they talked about how that creates self-esteem issues and so in combination with that partnership they were able to provide a magnificent presentation at Ross Middle School with Special Olympics and with the at gar high school and lastly just very recently we've had students that have teamed up with Ross as well to discuss issues of mental health so I'm very proud of that Community consistent engagement that my students are learning with this particular subject thank you for
038your leadership Mr Canales our students are lucky to have you as well so we've heard a little bit from our teachers in terms of their p p perspectives on the work and I to to finish my section before I pass it on to Mr Glock we want to talk about some of the what perceptions our committee members have communicated to us so um kind of in line with the kwl chart that you're doing what I what I know and what I want to know what I've learned in this process so what I used to think ethnic studies was was only a history topic but now I know it is a discussion on cultural differences and similarities because the course Fosters conversations staff member but now I know it is more than a class and is
039rather a safe space it's more about learning about yourself and others and finally it's a way to promote Civic engagement like Mr Canales was mentioning and that it can be incorporated in art math and literature across the curriculum thank you for the time I'm pass it now to Mr glan chock all right good evening I get to speak with you a little bit about our development and implementation plan going forward over these next couple of years and so I'd like to begin with uh as Dana described ABC is ahead of the state timeline at this point because we already have ethnic studies on three of our campuses um however we do need to scale up obviously we've got these next two years to really begin to scale this up to the point where all of
040our freshmen who enter 9th grade in 2026 will have ethnic studies courses available to them um by the time that they graduate in order to meet the requirements so our ethnic studies committee um to do that work has really considered several different um options in terms of how these courses will uh be developed and land at our schools and so some of the questions that we wrestled with were should this be a standalone course just ethnic studies as its own topic or embedded into other topics of History Ela World Language Art what have you should it be a year-long course or a semester course should it fall early or late in the students High School careers um should it be one course for everybody everybody takes the same thing one option or should we offer
041varied offerings and options um to our our students and so the result of all of this as we considered these things and considered our own schools knowing the amazing programs and things that we have already running in our schools one of the considerations is we did not want ethnic studies to push anything out that it becomes a requirement that takes the place of something else and so you'll see that our ethnic studies committee took a vote after studying all of this and 90% agreed that we should develop a variety of both Standalone and embedded courses so that students have options for completing the ethnic studies requirement and it's not going to push a student to not be able to do something that they had set in their academic plan but they we want to give
042them different ways to accomplish this and so to demonstrate this I'm going to show you three different academic plans just as samples um and ways that ethnic studies could fit into that plan uh differently and so our first sample student here is a student who loves English and research and writing and so you can see they're taking the AP seminar and Capstone courses that we're going to be soon offering at our campuses AP English Language AP Psychology this is a student who in their last year wants to do journalism and maybe be a four-year athlete and so for this student to do all of that maybe the best place for ethnic studies to be taken care of would be in their 11th grade US History course for to be embedded there our second student here
043is a little different this is a student who maybe loves um science and math you can see they're in the accelerated math program they're in green they're taking a lot of their electives are AP science AP math courses this is a student who may complete a CTE course pathway in let's say engineering or computer science those two courses and so for this student to fit all of that in maybe the best place for ethnic studies to fall is in their 10th grade English course and the third student I'll demonstrate here this is an English learner student so this is a student who you can see in nth and tth grade is taking their English language development Support classes um let's just say that that gets the student to reclassify by the end of 10th grade
044opening up their schedule a little bit so this student can now fit in a CTE multimedia pathway and maybe for this student ethnic studies lands as an elective in their 12th grade year you know possibly if the student's taking Heritage Spanish and AP Spanish maybe it's a Cho Latino uh you know Heritage type of course so different types of courses that we want to you know offer this to students so that our schools also have different options that they can select from and our students then can design a pathway that fits in all of their college and career goals along with ethnic studies this also fits with dual enrollment as you know our our early college programs are expanding in our district they're now at two schools and soon to be three so some of
045our um our partnership with seros college right now has us offering sociology 210 uh which is also an ethnic studies ethnic relations course that would fulfill this requirement uh going forward and we may explore the courses here at the bottom of the slide in the future um we don't currently offer them but things that are options for us uh that are offered through seros college and so how we're going to sort of arrive at this is to Pilot courses over the next couple of years and so you can see we've got a two-year plan here for things that we're going to Pilot as we scale up our ethnic studies offerings so for next year in 2425 we're going to continue to offer the ethnic stud course that these two gentlemen teach along with our teacher
046at SOS High School to continue to further develop that course as a standalone one-year elective the two new courses we're going to Pilot one is a 10th grade English honors course where we're going to be embedding the ethnic studies content and we've got teachers from gar and Whitney working together on that course for next year and then uh the last one there is an 11th grade US History ethnic studies course that is going to be piloted with teachers at Aria andgar so we're going to be working with those teachers to really um support them and they're going to collaborate to develop those courses and definitely get student feedback as we go forward on um how that course is landing for students two years out we'll do a little more exploration possibly even ethnic studies semester
047course that could fit into nth grade to back up the semester of Health that is required we need need to look at um ethnic studies courses for Tracy and for special ed students who um also um are subject to this requirement and then potentially explore some focused ethnic studies electives such as African-American studies Chico Latino uh La next studies or Asian-American Pacific Islander studies and so with all of these courses the pilot process is really about our teachers collaborating to look at the model curriculum from the state and begin to implement it into different content areas um and we will be working with them through that process um to ensure that um all of these courses comply with that model curriculum and that they are all um something that fits and can be models to
048be um implemented at at other schools and so with that said I'm going to turn it back over to Dr Wise to talk about our next steps here in ABC so we do have some next steps as we continue to work with our teachers um and really building capacity and so we know that as of now of the data reports that we have nearly 80 teachers that are interested in learning more about the program we have nearly 30 teachers that are willing to teach the course and so we will continue to provide professional development opportunities for teachers in terms of community we will continue to engage our communities in activities like our parent leadership academy so that they are also aware build a website and a fax page so that parents have questions they'll be
049able to access our website from that we'll go to the next one just for the sake of time so I wanted to directly answer some of the questions can any teacher teacher teach ethnic um ethnic studies and the answer is yes California requires a teacher credential and we know that we require professional development and support for teachers that are interested in the course number two which is a large question for us what is the difference between critical race Theory and ethnic studies and so critical PR critical race theory is a law class that really speaks about race law and power ethnic studies is different because it works on the uplifting of communities from a historical perspective and really looking at how other cultures have highlighted and added to our community so it's adding perspective to
050our history and the history of America we'll go to the next one last but not least is there an option for my child to opt out California is specific and our board policy supports that our nth grade class will be the class that we entering the requirements in 2026 for our graduation requirement that will be for the class of 2030 move on to the next one and so I want to make sure that um we say a couple of things ethnic studies is not exclusionary or designed to create division or conflict in the community it is not a platform for political advocacy or promotion of specific ideologies it is not to Foster hate or negative attitudes towards any particular ethnic group or perspective it is not biased nor does it reflect the primary primarily viewpoints
051of an instructor any one or any group but what it is meant to do is to be academic study and discourse on diverse cultural histories experiences and contributions to the United States of America it is meant to be comprehensive and inclusive of various ethnics groups and fosters understanding but most importantly respect for all it is meant to represent multiple points of view and fairly objectively focus on historical fact and as you've heard from our great teachers to Al have our students engage in Civic assignments that make our communities all better for us all when we understand each other we understand ourselves we build better communities for our communities I have to give a special shout out Dr Castro started this work back in 2018 and we have some parent communities that came to support this
052Vision so I'd like to say hello to our members for the black Family Circle imp parist advisory committee that's here I'd also like to represent our doe committee that's here du committee Clark niola and bla Watson and also to our families from the day of remembrance they have been nothing but a inspiration but a point to show that when we learn about different perspectives I our students have been overwhelmed with the day of a remembrance and learning about that experience so that it never happens to a community again and so how do we do that by telling the stories of our community so I'd like to have our parent groups please stand please stand thank you very much that's you that's you and my friends here and thank you for your leadership but pouring into
053our students we have learned so much thank you very much so we're going to look last at our last question question that we have and hopefully we will address most of the questions from the board so Dana and Brian if you don't mind coming up and we'll take a look at the questions to see if we have any questions that we have not answered tonight you guys have any questions question this is time to ask questions so I think we did a fairly good job answering many of the questions on the board here um one of them was what options will student have students have I got to speak a little bit about that different courses are being um developed and when will the requirement uh take effect it will take effect for the Freshman
054entering in 2026 the graduating class of 2030 I want to know who will be teaching the course and so right now we have as we said 30 teachers as we surveyed that were interested in potentially teaching ethnic studies 80 that were interested in just finding out more they want more information um so from across subject areas and so we'll be developing those along with our Pilot Course what does the research say I think that was something that uh Dr Weise spoke to about the research saying that it is Raising students attendance rates college goinging rates and engagement with school some of the other ones that were here I think several of them talked about you know will this include students learning about each other developing empathy those types of things um we absolutely believe that
055and that's definitely why we wanted to have the teachers here to to share that impact and to share the student voice video with you so um at this Point those were the the questions that you put on the posted so we wanted to open it up if you have additional questions for us okay um do we have my U my cat colleague do you have anyone yeah push a button number one will be board member missu next one will be uh board member Dr ogario well thank you so much Dr Christian I wise and the staff uh and the committee thank you very much for this uh very important uh topic you know because I grew up in La immigrated at 8 years old so I didn't know that uh we were going to be
056faced with this and the title is great ethnic study and I was part of the committee when it first began for the Asian studies because the Asian in the Korean Community Korean teachers were they were just so excited but I had to leave because of the um the gender ideology came into being that gender uh was part of a ethnic study so I wanted to ask uh I know that while I have the highest respect for our District staff to keep the politics out to really uh educate our students to to benefit our kids and I know that I have the highest respect for our ABC district and I know that we will do well we will continue to thrive you know while the neighboring districts are struggling are struggling but I think that it's
057very important to Define and to be clear about what is what is ethnic studies and what is not can you answer what's happening with a gender ideology because that is a huge topic to many many parents and many families one of the questions we ask and so if you look from some of the activities that we have is for students to be able to identify themselves or to find themselves and so that we don't necessarily teach about any other gender identities we do recognize that students come in all forms and shapes and have all different perspectives and so they're allowed to talk about their identities but not in ways to engage other people but just to more to defining themselves Dr CER would you like to add anything to that yes if we uh examine
058the PowerPoint presentation where uh the team talked about the units that are covered from the model curriculum you'll see that there's major cultural group study that's why it's in the term ethnic studies and not gender studies so the emphasis is on the major cultural groups and so that is what we emphasize in ethnic studies is the cultural groups that are existent within our community and in California absolutely because we have like 45% Latinos absolutely 20 only 5% white in this District right so it's so important to cover all those and where I'm from I love to learn about my roots and the early immigrants and their contribution to this wonderful fantastic you know country that I love and call myself proud American now in this page right here M what is not biased reflecting primarily
059the viewpoints of the instructor anyone person or group correct you know during that whole you know movement of a black lives matter I know there was one teacher who always talked about the liberal agenda and that was a big problem to many families but that it was just not addressed but it says right here bias reflecting primarily the viewpoints of the instructor any one person or group now does our district have a plan when we have individual teacher who constantly talk about it in the classroom so we have try to address the issue of bias and one of the ways that we do that is through professional development so we actually have professional development to talk about being n bias but I thought it was really important for you to meet the faces of the
060teachers tonight and hear their perspective because they're really the Pioneers in leading this work in terms of their perspective now not all teachers will be teaching this course I know based on our informational to teachers that they will have to decide whether or not they're going to be able to make those requirements or be interested in teaching those courses for the most part from the committee I see teachers that love students and want to their goals and you heard it from both of them is really to build on the cultures of their schools and so though that was one incident we always have spaces where we guide and help our teachers to make the best instructional decisions for our te for our students and ABC Prides itself and hiring the best and so we would
061have to continue to work with any teacher that would do any work that is any contrary to what our main philosophy or vision is for abcm for our students our goal is to create School communities and anything divisive from that would not reflect be reflective of our philosophy or our vision of our school district thank you so much I really enjoy the video and the students testimonies I mean that's what we would like to see absolutely you know appreciating their own culture and loving their parents and their sacrifices that these ethnic studies will help family come together for the children to respect their tradition and their parents and to love this nation thank you very much thank you um next one will be board member Dr real please thank you um I'm a huge proponent
062of ethnic studies I think I was at an nsba conference in 2018 also when there was a lot of talk and and we got to see data from other states and how promising it was uh you know we talk a lot about um student centered learning and everything tells us that this is what's good for kids um so I like that we're being responsive to our community I like that you cited data that tells us that our parents here at ABC um want this and are looking for it um for themselves and to to to have the curriculum reflect their their fact amilies um relevance we're at a time where engagement is is hard our kids are tuning out and motivation is is low sometimes and so this um I think is going to be
063um another way that we address that um I like that the research cited that this improves things like GPA graduation and attendance we know that attendance is a huge issue for a lot of um our schools and so again giving kids one more reason to to show up it is wonderful um you know I'm a product of ethnic studies and I know how this um is so big for your self-identity how this um positively impacts who you are as a person in a global Society you know collaboration is one of those 21st century skills that once we get out of our bubbles we're going to interact with people that are different from us and ethnic studies allows you to respect yourself and who you are but more importantly respect who other people are um so
064you know I know there are a lot of biases I know there are a lot of um or some misinformation but I'm very very happy to hear that you know we have allies here on our board that that are really looking to see this program be successful for the sake of our students and for the sake of our society so thank you thank you very much the next one is Vice President Mish thank you madam president thank you madam president yes I want to I really enjoyed the uh presentation I I like uh thank you Dr Weiss and Dr Castro and and Dr Watson actually Mr Watson and the entire committee um talking about not only our difference and thank you for your service by the way um talking about our differences and our similarities
065to create empathy across all of our communities will help us be academically more successful I think the Studies have shown that I'm glad how you've gone to the various conferences to understand from csba that it's not just one course one thing one oh we gotta we got to fill this slot this is a cultural change where we really do not just have a one-day seminar and we we've checked the Box we're really going to understand and this probably reduce hopefully some of the violence that we've seen some of the bullying and maybe change the political discourse in terms of the Civic engagement aspect that you're adding to this I'm I'm really uh happy that it's not just an isolated part of our school curriculum and that's the end of it but it's also part of
066our families it's also part of our political culture not in terms of activism in terms of Left Right Center or whatever it's it's more in terms of being engaged with our specific communities uh I do have some questions though in terms of the logistics of it um I noticed that some of it will be uh elected so it's afroamerican Cho so if you're taking those particular specific areas you won't actually get exposed to the other cultures in terms of the pil plan 25 2016 right or 2025 2026 those are some of our dual enrollment courses and so during the summertime or within the school year students actually choose to take those courses at their as on their own so our jobs are really to make sure that they know aren't aware of those opportunities got
067it got it so also in terms of some of the uh things hopefully there's some grants I know there's an award out there for a successful imple implementation of ethnic studies so hopefully our district can apply for that and some grants to uh Implement then I think there is something in the legislature about uh providing that sort sort of support to us whether or not that makes it through the budget in this year I don't know um have you talk there was one I noticed in Anaheim Union School District where they did korean-american studies as an online course um and also UCLA seems to have some curriculum uh usages there so if you can collaborate with them I would be greatly appreciative to see what kind of results we see from those uh collaborations so
068all those that are listed there we actually met at with Leo and all of those school districts were there and we were able to exchange ideas and so everyone that you see there we have met with them to see what their programs look like yeah okay great and Anaheim unions won on them on that list great because that was an unusually interesting one where they actually made it an honors course so before they were not having very much success because it's hard to find that many people who are going to be that interested but then they turned into an honors course and suddenly everybody wanted to take that class it's it's actually pretty full and maybe can we is it possible to do cross District uh uh classes like let's say Anaheim Union is providing
069a class online regarding particular thing we normally would do that via dual enrollment so many kids even in dual enrollment although we have some classes that are specific to ABC schools in dual enrollment it's kind of an open opportunity for other schools to kind of exchange B B on their whoever's in that region of that school so we would some of our classes where our kids are in the Dual en R Park they may be in with some Downey students or Bellflower students so there is some Cross polonization of this work um at the community college oh at the vice president I'm sorry for interrupting I will let you no no no we're going to come back around again let's um finish it the last question you have then we go to the next one
070then you know I just you know there's so many more member has some question too course and so understood I know I'm kind of taking up all our time and it's almost done just so I know that's going vertical up to the Community College level I'm talking about lateral to the other school districts that have implemented pretty interesting programs if they're online it it might be an interesting consideration I don't know how you'd pay the teacher or whatnot but that was always my question I was going to look at Dr Frasier to say can we send our students over to Anaheim online through the computer Wes online interesting thank you um next one will be our board member Mr Beach thank you madam president I'd like to first thank and commend the staff and all
071of our committees for their hard work on this we really got out in front of the programming and I think it's going to pay off for us I did want to ask were there any mandates from the state of California that has to be in this curriculum or do we have complete freedom to design the classes there is a model framework and so it's all based on the four questions that were there so there is a state mandate to what should be addressed in that course okay I was also going to ask about the identity studies you answered my question thank you I think if we stick with ethnic identity uh will be fine uh but it can get very political and a lot of parents have reached out to me about what that is
072so thank you for explaining it my recommendation would be that we do one course uh the same class one semester Standalone and early in high school and the reason I suggest that is you'll have all the students from a diverse background in one class they would share early in high school learn about each other and then that would carry all through the high school years rather than offering one class maybe that would be taken by only people in that ethnic group and they wouldn't get the diversity so my opinion is that it should be that one class everybody get the same class and I think that would celebrate our ethnicities uh and not be divisive and then finally I really like to slide what is ethnic studies I think if we follow that and keep
073the politics and bias out of it have the kids share like the testimonials we we saw they'll learn about each other and it'll make our district a lot better so thank you thank you Mr Beach thank you Mr Beach and next one will be our Bo CLK Mr niola uh thank you madam president uh I just wanted to start by thanking Mr Canales and uh Mr scoro for being here and sharing what it what it's like uh actually to have these classes already uh I I I remember Mr Canalis when I went to Gar high school that his class was always very popular because not only did he he very passionate about teaching but also you know giving students a voice so now I'm glad to see that with ethnic studies he's able to embed
074curriculum into his passion you know sparking that passion in student so and Mr SCA thank you for your service as well my question is I know there's data on on GPA attendance but looking at our our school engagement support and looking at the connectedness and and students uh instruction material that reflect uh the child's culture ethnicity how it declines in high school and and later on in in high school uh is there any data that shows that ethnic studies can can help bring a a community or a class or a school together absolutely even if we did we selected these four items to focus on in our research um but there's research to absolutely support exactly what you're saying especially the school connectedness I mean if you think if we think about that in a
075story form I remember back in the day when I was at tsof middle school I had a black and brown student having a conflict and if I was able to show the black student that there was pyramids built in Egypt in Africa and pyramids in South America that there's more that we have alike than we have indifference and so being able to make those correlations for students in that way helps build us in communities and so that's always our thought is how do we continue to build communities by learning more about one another thank you thank you next one will be our board member Dr yino thank you madam president uh thank you for all for the presentation as well um I I represent uh trusty Area 1 Aria which is heavily populated with uh
076Indians Pakistani and nepales on the demographic chart where are they represented they're I believe they're tied with our Asian South Southeast Asian group will you be teaching their cultures as part of the aapi so that's one of the things that we do when we meet as a group we look at the data of our schools because all of our schools are different gar is very different and so asking our teachers to help us guide that work and what is going to be important to bring to those stories that we share so absolutely we look at the data to determine what's going to be the best stories for those schools thank you that's all I have thank you I want to thank you so much the cab all you did a great job and I want
077to thank you the two two teacher came over tonight and and give you a testimony about the the class that you taught and I really appreciate I remember ethnic study that was really it was a headline on the EP pisma which is Asian Pacific Islander we were there and we were study with the Berkeley one of the professor there talking about ating study what do we need to focus on teaching Asian student and there was a group of for Hispanic and there was a group for the those country not popular but still there six there so they were put in the one category so there was a lot of expert there involved to trying to find out what the best interest to teach exposed to our student this is really great I love it and
078I didn't have a problem when I was because I was bought raised in Ling College Mary College over Oakland area so for a while and I love it you know I and I came here and I wore San Francis the area for 30 years my life was exposed to Hispanic and then I'm teach Community College now comeon college so but I do see there's an issue there and how can we imp to improve that so I see this the way comes to us I mean this is not just only our elementary school Community College is requireed right now I have student complain that before they graduate this just happened the last semester all student have to complete within one month get exing study done before they graduate and my nursing student why do I need
079to do that professor said and I said you need to know because you serve the patient with all kind of patient and you need to know them and that was one of the sticker I put it down I want all student know each others I thought I know him very well until he told me who how what Nishi is about what is earning coming from I realized wow that's a brave name I didn't know ER so brave he was I didn't know that it's a lot of and then he even told me about this word and said I can write I said I can write that word there's a similarity from Japanese and Chinese which he say spring I said I know how to write that word but we are so much alike but there
080were so many different and our kids need to know each others and respect each others and carry and compassion I think that's what ethnic study about we not divide them out some people say e study you want divide M africanamerican Chinese a Korean no we're not we want them put it together unify them together know each each others and care about each others and I think the further one like we just mentioned the crime will be less and this is going to be a safe pieces National country here and I think that's a last final goal there so I really love this class you know but like a board member Nish I mean board member m you just mentioned about well it is true though staff is one of the thing that we do need
081a pair attention monitor them and that's one of the that's why we have a superintendent we have a director to monitor our teacher when I I know Miguel I call him Miguel I'm sorry I know him personally very very well we know each others almost back I think 15 years ago 1520 probably even and I know who he is I know the high school kid loves him I know when they told me about oh we love him they say that you know but but we see the thing that he came out and take the lead of this class and we do know I do see it for myself there is a change and let's be positive look forward and do the best we can and take care them they are our future we don't do
082that and there's no future for us and I was telling is a Paton a race pass Paton to the next person thank you so much appreciate it thank you so much thank you so much so I just want at the end to this point I want to say this will conclude our study section on want to thank you all uh to par today this uh study section I really sincerely appreciate my colleague want to say thank you thank you very much and we're looking forward to see some exciting things coming out thank [Applause] you this evening we will be discussing the this evening we'll be discussing the following item in close section Public Employee discipline dismissal release evaluation three Mets governance code 54957 conference with labor negotiator up on negotiation with abcf afscme CSA government
083code number 54957.6 Public Employee appointment serus High School principal and Nixon Elementary School principal Government code number 54957 do you have any public comment on close section item I do not see okay so we're going to move to our close section I have a motion and second so mve second the all in favor place a i motion pass 7 Z okay now okay let's [Music] go [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] a [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Applause] [Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] he [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] yeah [Music] [Applause]
084[Music] got [Music] yeah [Music] he [Music] yeah [Music] a [Music] pap [Music] a [Music] a [Music] I'm [Music] a [Music] y [Music] a [Music] a [Music] n [Music] he [Music] n [Music] he [Music] the [Music] he [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] he [Music] n [Music] n [Music] he [Music] he w he a [Music] he [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] a [Music] n [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] a [Music] he [Music] I he [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh I he
085[Music] to open section I have a motion in a second all in favor please say I I the motion passes 70 please silence your cell phone uh tonight in close section in board discussed Public Employee discipline dismissal release evaluation three matters under government code number 54957 conference within labor negotiat update and negotiations with ABC ft AFS CME CSA under government code number 54957.6 and next one is a Public Employee appointment Ser High School principal and Nixon Elementary School principal Government code number 54957 okay now I know today we have a student from Lon Elementary School to lead us the pledge of Legend thank you thank you and good evening president Mrs SE vice president Mr nishii clerk Mr noyola honorable board superintendent Dr zlo superintendent's cabinet and honored guests my name is Cynthia Santos I'm
086the interim principal at Nixon Academy and I'm pleased to have our student council with us tonight to lead the Pledge of Allegiance along with their mentors and to share some information on their leadership on our campus good evening and welcome president miss say vice president Mr Nishi e clerk Mr noola honorable board superintendent Dr zlo superintendent's cabinet and honored guest my name is Carlos Castro and I'm a student council officer at Nixon Academy I'd like to introduce the other two officers Noah guadian and kaito Jenkins as well as our advisor Miss Larin our assistant principal Miss shakon and our assistant prin or our principal Miss Cynthia Santos I will now Lead You In The Pledge of Allegiance please stand put your right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge allegience to the flag of
087the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible for liberty and justice for all thank you hello my name is no Guan and I'm a student council officer at Nixon Academy I'm excited to be here to share with you a couple of things that we are proud of at Nixon Academy a couple of weeks ago we held our annual jagathon on Friday our theme this year was there's no place like n it was a day of fun and exercise that helped us raise money for our school Foundation all the money raised goes directly to our Nixon Education Foundation that supports our technology our dance programs field trips safety and more we are excited to share with you that this year we collected more donations than we
088ever have raising over $50,000 I can't even imagine all the great things we can do with that money can you hi my name is K Jenkins Nixon Academy celebrated great kindness week which promotes kindness social emotional health and bullying prevention to kick off kindness week on February 11th through 17th we had students participate in spirit week they were able to wear different outfits in order the Shel support for kindness week we held multiple activities during lunch for students to participate and led by our student council advisor and student council members students were able to write complim to classmates or staff members and they were delivered at the end of the week students were also able to particip to contribute to a kindest paper chain that did kind acts they plan to do throughout the week
089in addition all students received a list of 100 acts of kindness that they can participate in a week and the goal was for them to complete and check off as many as they can during that week it was amazing to see how many active kindness our classmates did way to go Jaguars a couple of weeks ago on the week of March 4th through 8th for read Across America week we created a video to share with students and staff about our favorite books by like reading and by reading in Portland we also had a book cover activity to for students to complete students received a book cover template to decorate a scene from their favorite book to conclude read Across America week students schoolwide in grades TK through 6 participated in reading on the grass for
090the last 30 minutes of the day students were able to R act and bring a blanket or towel to read on the grass with their classmates and their peers it was a great way to celebrate while reading we hope you enjoyed hearing about the fun activities that are happening at Nixon thank you and have a good [Applause] evening well we do have a comment from our colleague here board members I have an uh board member Mr beachy Miss Beach Nicks and jaguars I just want to commend you for your speeches tonight thank you for representing your school so well my daughters Addison and mckeny go there so I've seen a lot of you as I've been a watchdog and thanks for representing so well go Jaguars woohoo next one is our board Clark Mr noola
091uh thank you president say I just wanted to uh thank uh the student counselor for coming out and bringing the energy thank you Carlos for for getting us pumped for the school board meeting uh I I I actually had the the privilege today of of touring Nixon uh and I want to thank you guys for taking it easy on me on dodgeball today it was a great great time and uh thank you Miss Santos for showing me around you guys are uh tremendous students thank you thank you um okay I have no more um thank you so much m s Sanchez yes the students do have a token of appreciation for for all of the continued support by the board that they would like to share with you if they can approach sure wow thank
092you oh thank you wow you Jers one of the car I wish I have I love to have that car but oh someone else didn't H you look familiar to me Mr Castro I will not say anything but I saw you I will pick one of the our staff here so I said huh I know him thank you though very much thank you for having us and I also want to before you your folks leave is your parents here your parent can parents stand up [Music] please we want to thank you very much much bring your child here and leading us tonight we sincerely appreciate and we also have your teacher here right I know we know Miss CES already now but we have uh our teachers here right yes okay oh wow and thank
093you and we also have a lady yeah as the principal right yeah I know you I we met you over there yeah thank you Miss Miss uh Chong right sorry about that thank you very much and know this is the time it's supposed to be with your family and we sincerely appreciate it take a time out and and have your student our student do presentation today appreciate everything you done and thank you parent for you come tonight and share your time with us appreciate you have a good night okay thank you go home [Applause] study I see you Mr Castro col m okay next one's our recognation school to watch uh resonation uh fatty Middle School redesigning redesigning sorry Dr Z thank you so we're going to take a few minutes here and recognize our
094fety Middle School team for being redesignated as the schools to watch U miss masas our principal is here with a team from fety to share a little bit and then we'll get you we'll do a picture out front here perfect thank you I'm Sorry Miss spell the words it's okay good evening po president SE vice president ERI berd clerk Francisco noola board members superintendent Dr zlo and cabinet members and honored guests thank you so much for this acknowledgement it's an honor for my team and I to be here with um tonight being a former Fetti student I think this and being raised born and raised in in Hawaiian Gardens I I be I believe and I feel like this recognition is extra special um it's a testament to the dedication of my staff teachers students
095and our parents um I think this award belongs to all of us um it also fuels our energy and drive to keep um striving for more and higher so thank you so much for this recognition oh now I have my col make some comment first before we start present CER certificate to folks thank you go ahead I have uh for Clark Mr naola uh thank you president say I on top of uh you know the recognition for fetty Academy there's also a special recognition I would like to give to uh principal msia last night he was actually uh designated women with distinction by Michelle Steel in Congress so that's just another Testament of thank you uh you know personally working with principal msia she's Beyond dedicated to not just her school but her community uh
096you know being women history month she is a leader in hwan gardens and she's a absolute role model somebody I even look up to so thank you oh thank you making me blush next one's our board member Dr o ogario I just wanted to publicly say congratulations um I I love that our schools get to Showcase like the potential and the fact that you were a product of ABC and are now in a leadership role hopefully reminds us all that there is that potential in every one of our students and hopefully they see that in you so thank you and congratulations to your entire team thank you Dr dios next thank you next one is our vice president Mr Nish yeah thank thank you madam president yes I've been to your school and it is
097amazing what you're doing and making changes to really improve using our BB Bonds in an effective way for our kids so um you did a great job with the day of remembrance making it very intentional and and uh um and everything else that you've done it just uh commend you for your actions that this thing called uh re recognition red redesignation go why am I having the problem uh no I mean it's an important thing it's not easy not everybody gets this it's not a easy thing to do and based on lots of challenges out there for you to be able to do it it's it's estimate to leadership thank you thank you Mr Nishi I just want to say um thank you so much and I also like to have you introduce your uh
098staff which is our staff work together and would you please recognize the name please of course I have Mr I who is our MTH teacher Miss fettis who's our eel counselor Miss Allan who's our Dean and Mr Velasco who is our assistant principal thank you uh mer you are wonderful really make us so proud you know receiving a woman of the month of the year we really appreciate and you know that's just another honor to to your school to Fed school also to us as a board member here you make us look good thank you because we were told by other people already you know your principal over there of b i okay yeah we know that already thank you very much thank it was an honor our pass certificate first then we'll have my
099colleague come down to take picture with us okay thank you con we okay thank you Miss maras and your staff appreciate the next one will be uh curriculum and learning experiences of for student and disabilities Dr relle Chavis our sepa director Dr G casil did he no Dr Castro by the way the guys the little the boys are very handsome thank you I believe he takes after his mother any oh wow uh good evening um tonight we are uh pleased to provide you with information regarding disabilities awareness month or differing abilities awareness month as we also like to call it so I'd like to bring forward Dr relle Chavez oura director and our special director Dr Soo verdusco who are going to provide you with an overview regarding the importance of this month and the
100importance of inclusivity for all of our students of varying abilities in ABC thank you please note that the Orange is for a purpose okay I know it's not than as it's not Halloween so okay okay thank you good evening president SE vice president nii clerk noola distinguished members of the board superintendent Dr zlo and community members my name is Dr verdusco and I am the director of special education pupil Support Services March is the developmental disabilities Awareness Month California and ABC UniFi School District are joining other states to raise awareness on the contributions of people with disabilities the theme for 2024 is a world of opportunities when we think of about disabilities what comes to mind are physical and cognitive disabilities other disabilities that are not visible are speech impairment learning and emotional disabilities just
101to name a few the history of disabilities Awareness Month dates back to 194 5 when Congress designated the first week of October as the nationally employed physically handicap week to raise awareness about disability and employment then in 1987 president uh Ronald Reagan declared March the national development disabilities Awareness Month highlighting the importance of providing support and opportunities for um people with disability every year the National Association of councils on developmental disabilities um ra seeks to raise awareness about the importance of inclusion and creating a world without obstacles for people with disabilities the history of free uh appropriate public education dates back to 1973 with the Rehabilitation Act preventing discrimination of people with disabilities in 1974 California adopted a master plan ensuring education for all children regardless regardless of their disability in 1975 the education of
102handicapped children known as the individuals with disabilities Education Act Ida or idea ensures a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment in 1977 the law changed ensuring services for all children with disabilities in 1982 California changed the funding model to be based on service also the responsible local agencies became the special education local plan areas known as salus abcusd ensures that all students with disabilities are included in District activities um districtwide activities tlof Middle School recognizes students with disabilities who transition from the more restrictive environment to at least restrictive environment dur uh during their Awards nights here are some outstanding par Educators classified staff at Cabrio Lane who support our students through the workability program students in the workability program earned a paycheck and learn responsibility organization and the value of employment Mrs
103Parker goodon a teacher at citos high school assists moderate to severe students and co-organizes the UN me prom and un me Club the UN me prom offers a traditional prom experience in a supportive environment reflecting the club's aim of promoting social opportunities and inclusivity for all students the curriculum used for students with disabilities aligns with um the state standards starting in the least restrictive environment in general education general education with accommodations and modifications and then specialized academic instruction the alternative curriculum which is a more restrictive environment in our moderate severe classes in previous slides we recognize schools pair Educators classified and certificated staff here are other staff members who also support our students with special needs good evening good evening president miss SE um vice president Mr Nishi clerk Mr noola distinguished members of the
104board superintendent Dr zlo and community members my name is relle Chavez and I am the special education local plan area selpa director for ABC Simon cynic an author and inspirational speaker discovered what gives leaders the ability to inspire others is to know their why the more organizations and people who learn to start with the why the more people are fulfilled in the work that they do we wanted to take this opportunity to share with you our special education leaders and their why of why they went into the field of special education so we'll start with cherelle ston she cultivates joy in learning for all students Vanessa Smith wants to achieve equity for students with disabilities by identifying individual supports and resources Marisol Leo alos works in the field to eliminate barriers and to create opportunities
105Emily Williams creates Equitable and inclusive practices Dr Soo vusco is passionate about providing support and accommodations to improve education for students with disabilities and finally this is a picture of me with Michelle Mendoza we met um at muscular distrophy Association Camp when I was in high school I was a volunteer and um I learned about um how she was treated when we left Camp so when we were at camp she was like any other child any other student there but when we left camp and we did activities outside of camp out in the community she was treated differently and I didn't like that she was treated differently through no fault of her own and I decided I wanted to go into a field that would help people like Michelle be treated in an equitable way
106and inclusive way so ABC supports families beyond their educational experience and we do that through the community advisory committee this is a picture of our CAC board which um our co-chairs Katherine Patel and clar Kim unfortunately Katherine wasn't in this photo but I don't I do want to acknowledge that she is a founding member of our CAC and she is a tremendous asset to our board um our vice chair Kathy Chang is new to our board this year our sec secretary Winnie Lee is a special education um program specialist and our member at large who's also a new member is T griggsby so one of the most impactful activities that our CAC participates in every year is called legislative sharing day and this takes place in May and so these are photos from um last
107year's legislative sharing day when we traveled to Sacramento to meet with our legislators to advocate for funding and for legislation to improve outcomes for students with disabilities our cic provides a variety of workshops for families so that families can learn um what the resources are available to them and learn how to work with their child at home this is all of the workshops that we've done recently all of these presentations are available on our website at abc. us and then um we have all of our future date presentations that are also available there if you're interested we have strong Community Partnerships to help our students so the family Empowerment Center offers workshops and resources um Partnerships for parents um the harbor Regional Center actually provides services for the entire lifespan and so we want to
108make sure we connect families with those resources because once they leave the educational system they need resources they turn 22 some of them are with us till they're 22 years old and they need jobs they need um experiences that will help them participate in their community so we make sure to connect them with Harbor Regional Center and then the department of rehab and um workability and our partnership with this with the city of Aria help helps us to place students in jobs where they can earn paychecks and so recently the city of Aria did acknowledge our partnership in a city council meeting um and they've done an amazing job placing our kids in meaningful jobs that they can do beyond their High School experience so what are some ways that you can celebrate um disabilities
109month and one of them is you can wear orange um you can listen to the lived experiences of people with disabilities and some of the things that they've had to overcome you can view things through the lens of a person with a disability and look for those barriers and say how can I be part of the solution what are some things that I can come up with that might help people to have more access um there's a really good documentary it is for adults only it is rated R but it's called CP camp and it is a is in a tremendous documentary on how people with disabilities have had to fight for their rights to have to to be a part of of our community and then you can learn about significant contributions um of
110people with disabilities and I've listed some here but one of the things I want to point out on this slide is the use of people first language or person first language so we want to make sure that we're acknowledging the person first and then their disability so for example Stevie Wonder is a musician with a visual impairment right Freda KO is an artist with spinabifida and polio so we acknowledge the person first and their talent and then that they also have a disability so avoid saying things like special education students or those dis abled people right they are students who receive special education services or people with disabilities we interviewed some parents and we asked them what would you like people to know about autism so we'd like to show you a brief video of
111what they had to say I would want them to know that they're just like you and they love just like you they like toys just like other children they like to watch TV they like to do the same things even though it might be difficult or they do it a little differently they're just like you and I would like people to give it give them a chance and challenge themselves to make friends with them or um just learn patience and um understanding Don't Be Afraid uh they can they they can be different you and it's okay and they can be amazing so I just want people to know first that there's a spectrum of emotions that they feel just like you um and what you say what you don't say how you respond and how
112you don't respond um has an influence I think they have something to offer us and I hope people will remain compassionately curious to find out what that what that can be for each and every one of [Music] us and finally I would like to quot uh close with a quote from Temple grandon a scientist with autism who said the world needs different kinds of Minds to work together thank you [Applause] U once again I want to introduce you our director of P super uh super services and Dr rusco I I apologize I didn't mention your name in the first and then um okay we do have a board member vice president Mr Nishi has some comment yeah I'll be really quick I didn't mean to comment but your mission of treating the kids the same
113way in that picture there I mean I saw your you and me prom and it was an amazing thing where it they had classic cars they weren't separated out and other kids uh participated in that particular activity uh a lot of things you even try to do field trips and that's usually hard to do right but uh um you that was the first thing I remember being called to help with in terms of uh being on the board to help with the field trip so uh um the work that you're doing is is important so I I thank you for that thank you um I want to thank you so much one thing I do have commment on the regional harpp um and also the CCS California children services from that two area the state
114area does refer a lot of a special need child I used to say they're disabled or handicapped um people used to tell me handicapped now I say no they're not handicapped you know because they're just like you and me and I used to when I was high school college here I volunteer work in a special needs children center and this is what kid told me I'm better than you guys that's what he said to me I said you're right so from that and about 5 years later and the word has been changing we don't call them disabled or handicap we call them special needs child and that or student with special needs yeah Special Needs they they have they have something that we don't have it and you but there must be reason so that's
115how I work with them right now when I see them no I don't see them different than me sometimes I think they're smarter because they don't have to work so hard like I am right now but they do work hard they they do have job after like 22 18 a lot of places I accept them now so that's a good thing about it I want to thank you so much um for oh so now I see the people who apologize for that um so I want to thank you so much for coming today but I have another caller here I some tips to say I have a Board member Miss Mr U first of all um I want to say thank you to Dr relle Chavis and Dr sooko uh verdusco for your compassion in
116working with families and children with um developmental disabilities it could be you know physical or mental but I know that um some of the people that you mentioned in this presentation I mean they're Geniuses so I think that um it's very important to identify when they're young and um many families with they raise one or two kids average and um many parents are not aware whether their children are gifted or have a learning disability or development of disability uh and uh getting those um uh services that there are this Services out there is very important can you just one more time reiterate how can these families access that oh there if my child is a little different how can I access these uh services so if if they're wanting services for the school from the
117school so they want to know if their child has a disability um they would contact their their home school they would um they could talk with their school psychologist or they could talk with the principal and say I'm concerned I think my child might have a disability um as far as you know any of these other resources um if they want help in in reaching out because they don't know how to access those resources they can come to the Sela office we have staff available to answer questions or help parents navigate resources or they can come to a community advisory committee workshop and meet with us and say you know I have some questions I want to know how to access these services and are you uh familiar with asger yes and those are very
118tough because they are high functioning autism MH but and that's uh the spectrum is so broad but um a couple of ones told me both are kind of Asperger and he said you know the world uh the history is run by people who have Asperger and that is quite true you know most of our high-tech uh Geniuses are I would have to say asberg right and uh you know what you're doing is very important because we can identify some of these uh they're actually Geniuses right there's some students who have disabilities but they also have an a special talent a special ability to memorize things or learn things very quickly or imagine realtime things in their heads um that's Temple grandon who's a scientist with autism actually because of her ability to develop things in
119her mind was the reason she was be able to to become such a successful scientist so thank you very much for your compassion thank you next is our board clerk Mr NAA uh thank you president State I just wanted to start by thanking Dr CES and Dr rco for coming out and educating us on on you know some of the things that you know we don't always notice and especially uh using people first language uh you know not just with people with uh experiencing disabilities but also we we tend to use like uh homeless people yeah but that's the same thing uh we shouldn't say that they're homeless but also people experiencing homelessness so I I appreciate that and you know I do get to spend time uh with Mr Carter at the adult school
120he his adult transition class is amazing what he's doing helping them um learn to ride the bus uh recycling learning how to find jobs it's an amazing thing and also wanted to put out there that ABC isn't the the last step that there is more opportunities uh at community colleges and CAL States and even uc's where they have the same resources we have here so there is more uh support out there there's more steps in their educational Journey so thank you thank you uh I have one more thing to say um I right actually a long time ago I we we were in the medical field uh there's all the UC and Stanford we had brought this attention to the school but I don't know have we made the change or not the change we
121hoping the changes put in the Highlight are you premature baby will you pre- turn baby that was one of the things that that I I was the coordinator for high-risk infant followup Clinic which is I was under the California children services when we identified Steven Wonder was one of the the medical uh evidence that proved to us how we manage use oxygen to the baby especially premature kids because we overuse or underuse oxygen so that's why at that period of time the people got eye damage impaired can see it so but medical has been changing but we also Identify say hey this is a group of kids may need a special focus on them and we hope we can not just go TK we want to go preschool we accept those students so I think
122I mean this is just open our staff eyes I I just want to know if you can follow up that that'll be really great on one of the admission colum are you premature baby are you 35 weers those is are highrisk patient gear towards the Cal policy we have other issues Iceberg all the thing could lead into that person born early so if we can add it that in we can save a lot of child and they can be ahead of again can go back to school just like you and I thanks sorry about that thank you and thank you again for both both of you came [Applause] tonight I have motion to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of March 19 and 2024 so moved second all in favor please say I motion
123pass 7 Z next one's approved minutes I have motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting March 6 2024 motion a second please so moved second all in favor please say I 7 to Z Now is my report um first I want to thank you Dr Zillo and her cabinet for taking time to meet with the staff and elect officials from the cities that we served yesterday when I became a president I said I want to improve communication with our city partners and that's what we're doing recently I spoke at city council meeting then I asked Dr Zillow to invite our city Partners to meeting where we could give them an update about the great work that we are doing for our students I would like to thank staff and elect official from Atia
124citos Hawaii Garden Lakewood and Norwalk I first want to say thank you for HR person Dr FR and I want Dr Zillow and Dr Castro and again T and our and Mr Scot Smith was there leading the meeting and give him the data that what we have and those people who attending our uh Council uh meeting with our partnership uh District the entire AA city council city manager and Deputy city manager Hawaiian Garden Mr Mayor Mr farfan Mayor poting M Dan POA council member Mr vas and city manager Miss Maris city serito manager Mr Lopez legu vice mayor Mr Rogers and Deputy City man manager Mr belon and also we have no city manager Mr Gomez and president of norwak NADA School brought Mr real for all attending the meeting that really made me made
125our district so honor have them to join with us and be patient listen to our issue and what we going to be facing it and at the end the meeting Atia mayor proin Ali Tash say thank us to holding the meeting and sharing that he learned so much he also say we need to have more every once a year in and we say yes we will holding host hosting this in the future to improve not communication like I always say not one way has to be both way I want to thank you Dr Zill again and your cabinets for presenting to our CD partners and you did an excellent job I call that's what call partnership the same morning I invited uh s Foundation join the superintendent Dr Zillow and Heather Summers the president of
126ABC Education Foundation to meet with the c found Foundation the foundation does many great things in a community and looking forward to partner with them to bring service to community that we serve I like I like that they have a focus on green projects and especially like the book they share called jining and that book actually is like a Citizens ship book I remember when I was small I have we have special class just for that say Hey what is the proper manner and then what is you how I mean the love you country and how you behave how you talk to parents how you talk to principal all this little tiny thing it's like the book teaching things we were fifth I mean things were kindergarten all the way to the high school and
127those and I read the book has not no religions there and that that book has a all different kind of language has Spanish English uh Korean Chinese and uh definite Spanish so they offered and they offer donate a copy those to our school library so I will continue work with them through the superintendent and de developing a relationship with organization like this to serve our student they're not just helping her they can also read a lot with our student and they can um what else they do and donate a scholarship for our high school students um so those are the thing like I said the very beginning when I elect to be a president I like to do ni a bridge to connect the donor bring some more money to help our children and to
128our help our teacher they they needed on March 8 attended SOS High School D varsity football banquet I want to uh thank a teacher council member Renee trino and serus council member Linda Johnson for their constant support of the serto high school football and I want to say again congratulations on a great year of seros high school on March 12th attend Sero High School open house event I was pleased to see so many family at on the campus learn more about gring their children children are learning the couple things U my colleague uh our vice president Mr Nishi we went to see with the career pathway right I we we were shocked that one of the pharmacology program right they have all the medication they have there I say even me and nurse practition I
129haven't seen that many medications in there and student learning that from there and some students starting uh work as a farm technician if you starting from that rout after you find high school graduate you can go get your license you can work the pharmacies and then from there easy to get you another rout to go into the uh pharmacology program so those kind of things are has so many again not just only service High we have our teacher high school and we have uh G high school and wi high school we all have different kind of program there um stay tuned I know we have some student here go online go visit our abcusd you know that way. us and look for program that you would like to and looking forward to go to high
130school that you want to go so as you know I'm a nurse practitioner and you are all like me you have allergy right now I want to I want to remind all of our students family and staff to take good care of yourself as we move move through the last part of the school year like you can't hear my voice low and had a upper congestion here I'm trying to take medication and but as a board president here I cannot so the only thing I can have to tea and keep myself alert as much I can but I want to thank you so much for staying here listen to our um report and listen to our com agenda so next one I will pass to our superintendent Dr Zill thank you good evening everyone um
131just a little bit going on as we hit in the spring March is always busy um when you go to a site they like to talk about March Madness and they're not talking about football I mean basketball excuse me so um um we've done a number of things working with staff um I think a key piece has been our El Cap review and input meetings we've met with parents students staff um most recently we met with all of our employee groups um taking input on what we've been doing where we are currently and where we're going for the future to develop a new three-year plan um I was able to also meet with our student board reps to review the agenda um that's always a a good meeting where I'm trying to gauge things that
132interest them and um the direction you are moving as a board and the items that we bring forward um it was really great to celebrate um the national schools to watch with fety um as we went to the conference um a lot of learning there around ways to engage middle school students and then um just in terms of family collaboration and connections that way um I was able to do the read aloud with with families from nemis which was a lot of fun um joining and enjoying the District Band Festival um that's where there's an adjudication of the music being pro promote uh excuse me the music that is being played by the students not from a perspective of this is just fun to listen to but from a technical perspective with people from the
133University level giving feedback to our students um that kind of work in feedback um makes it so that they're really highly successful in the spring I mean in the fall excuse me when they are doing their big shows um I've been really excited to um see that our uh promotion of reading is underway with our elementary school students all getting to pick a book um that they get to take and read for this spring and summer um the kids are very excited when they get to pick their own book I think what most of them say is I get to take one yes and we let them put their name in it as it's theirs so that's been a great promotion we've been able to do um for all of our elementary students um I
134think probably most recently uh at the end of last week um I was able to participate in a leadership collaborative through the LA County Office of Ed with other superintendant just looking at different things that we're doing to make sure leading in our schools is making the best options for our students and helping our staff to achieve that and then um was able to participate at gar High School um in a visitation by America's best schools um through the national Center for Urban School transformation with San Diego State University and um we don't know yet but gar is being considered as a top school in the nation for work with students over time um and making progress so it was a really good visitation and that is my report thank you Dr Zillow and next
135one will be our a student board representative we have a Mika a pis and sabet varara Ramirez and Holly Bryce from Tracy High School I apologize if I Mison oh there's baby there back that's okay um all right good evening president of the board Miss say vice president Mr Nishi Clerk of the board Mr noola distinguished board members superintendent Dr zlo and cabinet members and good evening to everyone else uh we would first like to start off by saying a little something about ourselves um first up iset hello everyone um I actually lost my speech so um um my name is um saas and I was going to introduce myself and I did okay sorry um first I'll start off with the reason why I went to um Tracy High School and the reason why
136I went to Tracy High School was only one reason which was because during um at the end of my sophomore year I had gotten pregnant so gar High School which was the school I was attended the school I my home school that I attended before going to Tracy didn't have the resources I needed there um when I went to my experience in Tracy High School um was actually and as a senior right now it's actually really really good um Tracy High School has the teen parent program which helped me a lot educated me on parenting um when my son was born and then um it educated me on labor and delivery and prenatal while I was pregnant they gave me a lot of resources that um gar High School couldn't offer me um they also
137had to do enrollment Pro program which I had started when I was um pregnant um because of that I am going to be graduating um with 10 um sud college credits are transferable to um for uc's and C CS CSUS um and yeah that's it thank you my name is Michaela Alazar and I currently have have a 3.8 GPA and 10 college credits currently um I am planning to keep on teing college classes until I graduate in 2025 uh I'm hoping to graduate from Tracy with at least 25 credits for um 25 transferable uh credits for Sero College um I plan to take classes one class in the summer one in the fall two in the spring and finally won again in the summer uh I tend to I plan to attend to Sero College
138as a sophomore and then I plan to transfer to a UC I'm very thankful for my teacher Mr Oda who is the head of the dual enrollment program for pushing me to achieve something I never thought I could hello my name is Haley rise I have a 3.5 GPA in college and I have seven credits done I first attended the afternoon program that Tracy has at Aria high school I went at I went to the program for about a month before Mr Justin a teacher that runs the program um suggested me going to Tracy to get more credits um that influenced me to enroll there since being at Tracy I went from being a student who had bad grades and doesn't attend school to A A and B student who has perfect attendance I also
139started classes uh college classes with the help of Mr Oda I'm currently taking a college class after this one I will have completed and passed pre- college classes I'm sorry I'm just going to say a quick few things that I actually had remembered um I'm aware that um like gar high school and I believe seros College um I mean seros High School um provide do enrollment but um Tracy High School does it differently which is something I really appreciate they um provide the classes on the school campus which helps a lot of students who don't have transportation to go to s's College physically um that's one thing that really helped me um not only that but I also want to thank all the teachers and all the staff that um are in Tracy high school
140because they've really you know they've pushed me cuz as you know I'm sure to the ones who have kids it's like it's pretty difficult but at the end of the day I appreciate every everyone at the school who's really pushed me to accomplish things that I also thought I couldn't do while having a [Applause] kid okay since our last report in October much has been going on at JC high school we are excited to be here to share some of our campus of our campus highlights as well as upcoming events in February we welcome our new senior camp councelor Miss Priscilla Rodriguez and also a new project kinship counselor Miss Jasmine gal I can't I'm so sorry I can't say that right Miss Rodriguez has been working with our seniors to help further them on
141their Jour Journeys towards graduation Miss Jasmine has been working to support students on campus through counseling and restorative intervention practices Miss Jasmine is also a former Tracy High School Stu student both Miss Rodriguez and miss J Jasmine have made a positive impact on campus on campus already and we are grateful for their help enrollment at Tracy is currently at 198 students Tracy is a school whose enrollment is primarily built on referrals from our sister comprehensive schools yesterday Tracy welcomed 20 new students from Aria gar and SOS High School it is desired it is the desire of our administrators and teachers to help them get back on track to earn a high school deploy diploma and and earn it on time recovering the necessary credits returning to their home school being successful and graduating on time
142is the mission of a student enrolled at Tracy High School like our sister comprehensive schools Tracy High School High School fa faculty and staff strive to provide a rich High School experience that in includes curricular opportunities Beyond credit recovery increasing numbers of student at Tracy are participating in dual enrollment this proog program under the supervision of teacher Anthony Oda has been in place since the 2020 school year its growth is the result of strong collaboration among citos and Long Beach city colleges and Tracy staff with the full support of the district in 2020 students finished approximately 50 college credits and in 2023 that number almost doubled to 99 this year Tracy High School is proud to announce that we are on track to complete 130 plus CSU and use transferable college credits and in the
143fall of 2024 we will be piloting the first ever college level Math course at Tracy Campus Life campus life is flourishing this year Tracy Red Cross under the supervision of teacher Heather Calderone and peace Club under the advisement of retired teacher Pat Alviso each have 20 to 25 students who actively participate this year two additional clubs are added they are ASB Club under the advisement of Mr Pablo Vega siia and goal-getters under the supervision of Miss Erica heartley RCC MHP students in these clubs have enhanced have enhanced the total campus experience by facilitating Spirit weeks and multiple community events such as the beach Cleanup in Seal Beach toy drive and Valentine and GI for an elderly care facility both groups are planning more activities during the second semester that include the Red Cross blood drive
144and SEC second annual proam cornhole tournament which is now in its final round staff and faculty continue to demonstrate the importance of positive student recognition through students of the month when every teacher nominates a student stained Spotlight which showcases individual students with regard to personal achievements talents or Hobbies money Monday acknowledges perfect attendance for the previous week and Saints reward tickets recognizes students who discip display the designated character traits of the month additionally the entire campus was rewarded with this special potato bar lunch courtesy of our interim principal Mr Sergio Garcia for improvement with the dress code standards the fourth quarter is always the busy the busiest on a high school campus and Tracy is no different Tracy's 2024 open house will be held on April 11th at 5:30 p.m. and will include barbecue and
145music in the quad prior to the classroom visitations Tracy's promt theme this year is Fred carpet and will be held at nottsbury Farm Hotel in bu Park on Friday April 19th at 600 p.m. grad bash for our graduating seniors will once again be at Universal Studios on Friday May 24th and graduation for our great class of 2024 will be on May 29th at 1:30 p.m. at G high school that's our report for this evening on behalf of our fellow students and staff we sin sincerely thank you for this opportunity to share the many wonderful things that make up Tracy High School we invite you to come over to Tracy and feel the positive energy many things to everyone as as always go [Applause] Saints okay uh we have we do have a few four member
146Miss You Yes uh first of all thank you so much ladies and where's Mr Soo or no Garcia Mr Garcia yeah Mr Garcia and then of course thank you Mr Garcia hello and then who is the uh the teacher that you guys were referring to that helped you oh yeah okay okay okay can we have them stand up for all their great work yay yeah they're the ones who made it happen right thank you okay the next one will be a board Clark Mr noola uh thank you president say I just wanted to acknowledge uh you know our our our Tracy uh student council thank you guys for being here and sharing those updates and and also sharing your guys' personal story you know that that makes a big difference to to how we see
147how we can support Tracy students and I I know Mr Oda works very hard to make Tracy a special place and especially with the dual enrollment but I know everybody at Tracy who works there wears a lot of hats because they care about the students there so thank you guys thanks to the staff and go Saints next is our vice president Mr Nish I'll be quick your report could have just ended with your personal statements and that is The Testament of what this school is about success for for the students so thank you next one our Bo member Dr RS thank you I think um we all always really appreciate hearing stories from uh Tracy they're very heartwarming um stories and I want to acknowledge your courage know that all of us get nervous speaking
148and I could tell that some of you did but the minute you started talking I mean like you were wonderful so really really um look forward to your continued success know that the greatest people in our history have faced much adversity and I heard um I Heard the that coming from from some of you and so I'm you know thank you again for being here for sharing your stories and really look forward to great things I I I love that you're all on the College Bound track and so stick with it and hope you know you have great leadership at your school um that are giving you the support you may need thank you thank you and once again miss alala and Miss Ramirez and Miss rice I want to you three to go home
149you did the best you can today and you did a wonderful job today and don't go home and feel bad about it no you did even better than me I want to say thank you so much and thank you for Tracy High School um Team appreciate it and have a good night be careful excellent okay we got to continue next one is our employee representative report Mr Reger our ABC F president and you can stick around if you want let him go home they need so hard to follow up right that's why we're here good evening president say board members superintendent Dr zlo administrative cabinet parents students and ABC Community uh my name is Ray gar president of the ABC Federation teachers um I wasn't here last uh last meeting but uh I was in
150DC and I'll get to that um but I just wanted to thank you individually and as a group um for supporting um what I believe is a reasonable uh agreement for salary and compensation for uh ABC teachers and nurses um I you know the fact that 91% of the teachers and nurses voted in approval of this uh says that they were well informed about what we Face going forward um and what we've done with the money that we've you know we've had over the past few years um it's it's how much information you have uh sometimes you spend when you get the money and you have that information that it's okay to spend but really when uh money starts to get tight that's when you that's when having a full picture and all the information
151is really important to make those decisions and when to be conservative and when to be frugal right and so um um I appreciate your support for that agreement I think it's it sets us up in for uh what's going to H you know it might be tight next couple years but we have a number of things that we learned from 2007 and we're going to take that that experience and that trust we used attrition and we used uh trust in our bargaining process to make sure that whatever is happening on the outside doesn't impact what's happening for our students we kept it away from students and that's the main thing right and we're going to do that again and uh so I appreciate that we're going to see unfortunately aot lot of districts that'll be
152in turmoil and that won't allow them to have the really important conversations uh like you're hearing today about all the wonderful programs that we have and the supports that we're doing for for students and parents and for teachers and nurses and and classified everybody is supported in this District because it's a team effort um when you are fighting about funds or you're fighting about layoffs those are all distractions that hurt your main thing which is your goal to have conversations about how you can do things better um you know you don't have conversations of of like Dr Castro and myself going to uh Math teachers across the district last year and this year to find out why fifth grade you know we have a dip just as everybody does in the state of California and
153getting to the heart of that and we're currently talking to secondary teachers in math about how we can improve what are the strengths of students what are the strengths of their their uh teaching strategies how can we improve the delivery and the comprehension of our students right so that they can take those uh to college to uh Tech um and and to uh other jobs in the future so I I I just think it's really important that we're not distracted by the noise outside um when I was in DC some of the things of I was at the what they call the program policy committee for the national um American Federation of teachers is something I've been on for 13 years where um I'm sitting in a room with 60 other presidents from Cincinnati Ohio
154uh all of the Ohio you know you can all the big cities right Denver Houston New York they're all there and ABC is one of the few people that are actually looking at how can we use uh AI to create um uh to ease the workload for all all of our employees how can we streamline processes how can we use student input to better what we do in in the classroom um Dr Castro started with last year or earlier this year with uh student forums where we're getting input from students about their metacognition how they learn what do what sticks with them what do they want to see more of um because that's really key and in our conversations with uh teachers across the district over the last uh two years um and this is
155true in all of Education there isn't a lot of conversation between uh typically in other districts uh between the district office and the principal and the district office and the teachers and the teachers and the students you would think that we would all have conversations about how we can make things better and how we how we would have ownership of it but those are not typical in education as they are in most businesses they're not typical either so the strength of ABC has always been the communication and we're looking at it differently we're getting feedback from teachers from students so we can really get into how our craft can work for work for everybody um just not personal I went to career day uh at Palm this week and uh it was a great experience
156uh I didn't have any promps the the firefighter had two two arms full of prompts but it was such a rich experience there was probably I would say over 40 uh adults there from different careers across the Spectrum who were sharing with those students uh that is such a great experience it shows them that you can do all kinds of things you know um you name it it was being represented there and so uh I'm just glad that we have those kinds of activities for kids we're making changes here in ABC the last two years have been they've been pretty magical and that's something that you have fostered and I like to think of it as okay so you know how you get a orchid and then you take it home and it dies right
157and you're like ah those are beautiful flowers and so the last six months I worked really hard uh to be not water too much water when I need it uh put it in the right light give it the right attention and be patient and so I think that's what we're doing here is eventually this Orchid is going to be spectacular and so it's already great but I think um you know the patience that you've shown about how we've this is a new era for ABC it's a new era in education and I want to thank you for your support for that and for supporting the employees of ABC so thanks thank you thank you I also want to um brought attention to everyone here um our superintendent Dr Gina Zillo was Woman of the Year
158appointed by um Michelle still the congresswoman in California I want to congratulation to you and she's supposed to go to their receiving her word and she did not because she think her Duty in here AB more important so she stayed here with me to do the presentation with all the city council appointed people thank you Dr zero appreciate so next one is our public common Clark noola do we have any uh yes persons wishing to address the board should out a card located on the table by the door and place it in the Silver T speakers will be caught in sequence during public comment section which is limited to 1 hour and each speaker to one presentation of 5 minutes unless the board wishes to wave the time limit those who have a group concern
159are encouraged to select a spokesperson to address the board please remember that the board is unable to directly respond made uh two comments made during the public comment section and neither the board nor the District staff verify the accuracy of the statements made during public comments persons wishing to address the board on a specific agenda item at the time the item is under discussion are limited to 5 minutes each and will be called to speak following the staff comments and prior to the board discussion and taking action adverse remarks about a person's race ancestry ethnic groups like identification religion color national origin sex sexual orientation gender mental physical disability or age may not be made please avoid remarks or charges which reflect upon the character motives qualifications or ability of any school district employee concerns
160presented to the board will be followed up and addressed by the appropriate s the first up we have uh Margaret Sao saoo uh followed by Julie Kim uh my name is Margaret Saito uh president say members of the board members of the staff here from the district community members um I I understand that 873,000 is the amount that a school takes in terms the cost for a year now we get a certain amount from the state so per per student so if we take that amount per student we divide it into that 873,000 we're going to get a break even number the number of students that would we'd have to have to support that school to support a school so what I suggest we start developing contingency plans um have each School that is at
161or below the break even number start meeting with parents perhaps in a town hall to have develop you know we need to attract families to come to our schools okay so that means we need to increase we need to raise the academic achievement and therefore we're going to raise the enrollment okay so we need to start now okay and by start talking and they these parents that went to the meetings they think oh we're out of the woods no you're not out of the woods we have to start working at increasing the academic achievement of the school students we got to do something about enrollment we have to make our schools more attractive so that more people will want to come into the district okay and along that side we need to have the board
162start talking with the union on how we can be flexible in the coming years in terms of positions if we need to move positions so they're not just tied to a particular school okay along with attracting schools people to our school why not offer courses in in uh uh see entrepreneurship such as Plumbing uh Electric entrepreneurship that would give uh culinary in terms we have one of the best restaurants one of the top 100 restaurants in Aria you know so let's use these resources to give students a look into these careers as a possibility with this small business you know you're going to have to have the reading and math skills you're going to have to need to know what's the difference between a so proprietor and a corporation you're know going to have to
163do the math how to keep an inventory how to read a contract how to do a tax return these are just some of the things we can get them a glimpse into but these professions you can buy a house within 3 or four years here in California you can actually buy a house you know and you're not going to have the debt that you would if you go to college but for some of the students this may be a possibility so I think we really need to take a hard look at at this you know cuz we have a lot of people that we could bring into the school use them as resources to develop these kinds of courses because I think that you know might be attractive to some students this is an option
164that they can consider we want them to have have the knowledge that comes with college but we also want to have them skills we don't want them to go to college and find no this is not for me but if we give them a glimpse into a small business through developing entrepreneurship with a so proprietor uh Corporation we can give them a glimpse of what small businesses do because small businesses these are the heart of the middle class you can have entry into the middle class you can own a home here in Southern California you don't have to go out State okay that's all I'd like you Bo to consider that thank you up next we have Julie Kim followed by Steven STS I do want to say um I'm grateful and I want to
165to extend a thank you I don't know who um heard our request um but some somewhere between the board and the administrators um a small change was made and I think one class was is very very happy so I do want to say thank you um I know you you often toil in in the background to make the changes that that help smooth things out and run run the district and so U whoever it was I I do appreciate that a great deal um in Greater detail our daughter at Carver is now able to sit uh within her class table with other friends and is able to socialize to truly relax to get the full measure of the fresh air and the outside and to uh lower stress which is especially important for special education
166children and it's it's a very very nice change at the school um and the first thing that happened actually when that class got to sit at their seats of their choosing was the entire table started to smile and they were genuinely uh delighted to have their break uh the second thing that happened is uh every other fifth and sixth grader asked how can we get that and I guess you know uh no good deed goes unpunished I suppose but uh they asked said how come you get to sit that like that and what about us so I think I want to say in sincere gratitude that you did make these changes happen um and I think it's something that could be considered for all other students Carver for them to have um the full measure
167of their break to get relieved from stress from um the very intense learning process for which they have uh tested so well so I really sincerely appreciate that help um but as a small incident I want to blow blow it into like a larger view because um things like this are relatively minor and reasonable requests and they were made at school site councils and they were made at PTA meetings uh unfortunately some interion on High made these things uh made these policies get implemented for one class but that is possibly the narrowest way that a policy could be implemented and so it would be good to consider why a policy is only implemented for one class and not for other classes especially since it's not controversial we're not talking about things that will get blow
168back from parents I think we're talking about something that inherently seems fair for any any of us when we sat when we go to lunch that we get to it with the people that we truly enjoy and can relax with before we go back to do the stressful things that we all need to do um the the last thing I would like to say is um reading club at Carver still does not have the full complement of 12 students on the team and two alternates is still restricted which is um against the law of free and equal Act access of education for all students including special education students including other students who may be socioeconomically more disadvantaged and so I would like to say that I hope that this policy could also be changed to
169allow not just some select number that's actually still less than 14 that others other all other teams have but that um it could be publ ized because there are still children who expressed desire and from having participated last year and they do not get to participate this year so um with that in mind I would just like to say thank you so much for for listening and for taking our appeal so seriously thank you up next we have Steven solders members of the board thank you so much for being here um it's good to see all of you again and it looks like we might get out of here like I'm going to keep it short on my end and we might get out of here early that would be nice um my my thoughts
170are in three different places and we'll try to take it take you to each one on the first I I wanted to just uh second misso there were two ideas she mentioned there that I thought were just wonderful one is uh engaging the parents at the school site level at the schools that were you know most uh at risk of closure the the parents we met uniformly had passion and ideas and engagement and I think if you engage him at the school site level one you'll get good ideas and buy in but also it you know if unfortunately at the end in whatever time when we've tried different things like I hope this never comes to our district but if it ever did having thoroughly engaged those schools in a yearslong process would mean that
171like it would be more there would be more understanding I think in the community if such a change ever had to happen if it was preceded by years of like sincere engagement so I want to like second misito on that that was a really good thought you had and the other one I wanted to share second was the idea of really beefing up our career in technical education I my own brother went to high school in rural New Hampshire and he said he would not have graduated uh if it hadn't been for being able to spend half his day uh at Career and Technical education I'm about to try to fly him from new sure to California because I have to do some electrical work at my house and I did not do any CTE
172in high school so I'm going to I'm going to get the guy who knows what he's doing to move the plumbing move the gas lines and the electricity um but he was able to do that because that was an option and it really uh again echoing myo it really that will not only you know making those Pathways you know even clearer in terms of like connecting those students with those career paths I think would strengthen the educational opportunities for them but would also I think strengthen the district I just I can never never you know honor like really robust CTE and I know we do I know we do and I'm not trying to imply that we don't I'm just saying doubling down on that uh I think is always a good idea um the
173other thing I wanted to um address is that I'd gone to the Aria city council meeting it was really really awesome it was good to good to see folks there and so I'm addressing you now um as board members but also as just you know engaged citizens in our community You Are by sitting on the board really engaged people who are connected to the community as a whole um there will be on March 26th a meeting to consider the site of an old uh Wendy's that could be considered for new housing and if you haven't seen it on Aria Boulevard there's already almost complete a series of town homes that have gone in next to East West Ice Palace and there are other projects like that I I think that I hope that the one
174happen as soon as they can because I think that addressing the affordability you know issue in in our cities in terms of people being able to afford housing here would go a long way towards families being able to stay and also in order and also um bringing new families in as we've been doing uh our home renovation we spent a little time with my mother-in-law she's got like 2 and half thousand square ft from a house built in the 70s and and as other people said there's no way we could have afforded we could not afford to buy the house that she bought in the 9s we've been living with her and it's been nice um but we can't we can't our sanity will not permit us to stay there with the current legal structure
175as it exists and let me tell you this way if it were allowed to be subdivided into a duplex where we could each have our own like separate places to really be we could live together on that property in peace and Harmony as it is now uh you know we're we're there together and uh you know we we're you know we just we need our separate spaces we love her dearly she's awesome she makes like um you know all the amazing things for us I'm addressing you just for this I think that if you can engage in the community uh you know beyond here uh in ways that allow for a 2 and a half thousand foot place to become a duplex in order to allow for the Redevelopment of spaces if we could make
176it so that families who want to stay together could if they would if we could allow families to be together for you know multigenerational households to be you know more of a thing um if we could allow for the building of new housing it could be more affordable for families to begin in our cities and to stay in our cities and I think the more that we do that um the better it'll be for ABC unified so I just engage you as engaged community members and hope that you can bring that that message you know to the people that you know in the community to try to make it so that families can stay in ABC thank you so much are there any other public comments uh seeing none thank you um board clerk by
177motion to approve this conent calendar so moved second is anyone uh wishes to remove any item to be considered separately if none all those in favor please say I I okay say 7 Z so next one is um timing item of following consent item I have a motion to accept the measure BB General obligation Bond annual report of fiscal year 2022 to 2023 as presented by the member of Citizen oversight committee I have that my motion a second please second Mr TW how we doing hi kind of interesting haven't been at one of these meetings in quite a few years all right job as an BB oversight committee outside of you guys is we are separate totally from you uh you have a great staff uh do a great job I've been around uh I
178was an educator for 41 years and a coach so looking at what's going on with us them giving us information look at the millions of dollars that we are spending through the vote by the public and through the audits going to we were at seros high I've been to a couple elementary schools I've been and met with them because I had some concerns they're very open and that's what the BB Bond our group is supposed to be about so uh as we looked at the schools near completion we look at Schools starting I live by fa Ross so we see everything that's supposed to be happening and the main thing that we had is we had a meeting and we have an outside auditor group and they found nothing wrong and on behalf of the
179BB committee we went over all the numbers we had to make some changes we had some things that we questioned and we also as a group as of this point right now trying to the ABC to be in complete compliance with the BB agenda and the vote by the public we have found nothing that would be a question for us to come after and ask board to clarify so you guys are in compliance from an outside auditor and us as individuals so that's my report thank you sir do we have any public comment here um clerk NAA I do not see any okay uh B table any questions here okay we have vice president miss Nish just thank you for your work thank you guys thank you for your work too thank you so much
180appreciate is so the motion pass are in favor please say I I the motion pass 7 next one action item I have a motion to approve request of contract with a patching consultant LLC to provide two inperson workshops and one study assembly title PA before you post for District administration one middle school and one evening parent event for 2023 to 2024 school year I have a motion and second so moved you on your second thank you Mr R thank you so much for the question um or for uh we are trying this uh contract out um pause before you post we are going to train all the seven graders at uh pasal Middle School we're going to train secondary administrators and the teachers there uh to see if this is beneficial for our students and
181then we will move forward and full implementation next year should the feedback come back positive so uh we are looking to uh do this to bring awareness uh to students um you know to be they could be more conscious they could be what we would like to call positive social engagement or social media engagement if you will so uh there is there's thing they can learn from to protect thems mainly just to protect themselves so uh we asking the board for this approval for $5,500 three trainings total thank you sir B clerk do we have any common public comment I do not see any if no if none all this in favor place a I oh sorry we have one here uh vice president miss so really quick the they're going to have one at
182the uh Middle School uh is it going to be after school it's going to be half scho depends on on on the train three trainings right the one with parents will be after school the one with the students is going to be during the school day so it will only be open to the students at that school it's going to be open right correct this is just at the high school middle just at high school correct all right okay um all in favor please say I I I motion pass 7 Z have a motion to approve revised board policy 1112 media relations a motion a second please so move you're your second thank you Dr frer thank you madam president um as you know monthly we meet with our legislative policy uh board advisory committee
183to review um any new uh proposed um administrative regul ations or board policies that might need to be updated and so we are bringing forward uh revised board policy 1112 media relations um and we're bringing that forward as presented thank you thank you um do we have any public comment I do not see any any discussion my colleague if none all those in favor place a I I I 35-8 may have a motion to approve the request your contract with the Galo learning to provide approximately 924 K to sixth grade students with the 10 1hour Hands-On stem enrichment classes class Supply kits and in-person teaching training for the 2023 to 2024 school year and for the 20124 elementary summer enrichment program motion a second please so move Nishi second Dr Castro thank you uh this
184item is in reference to the summer school enrichment program that we're offering our students although the content of our summer programs focuses on English and math skills we do want to make sure we're engaging students with Hands-On activities that focus on science technology engineering art and math and so Galileo uh provides all of that support for our students um providing them an enrichment experience at the school site during summer school which then they can take home um once they are done thank you Dr ker do we have any public comments I do not see any we do have one member uh vice president miss Nish thank you madam president U thank you for the excellent report by the way the details are very important the way you put that out there uh really quick though
185what is the metric for success for this particular uh program to continue for this particular program we're looking at engaging students so we are looking at attendance metrics which are the important piece of our lcap uh support program so we are looking at making sure that students want to continue to come to summer school and feel engaged in the summer school program so attendance is the metric yes and they'll also be conducting a self- rating about um how students see themselves as problem solvers and overcoming challenges because that's one of the big components of this um structured seminar that they'll be experiencing so when this program comes up for a vote next year potentially then we'll have the metrics to show that it was successful yes thank you okay allers in favor place a i
186i motion pass 7 z i um item 3.6 a I have a motion to approve request to contract with Daydream LLC DBA the coder School Surs to provide two twoe coding program one in April 2024 and one in June 2024 by motion and second second thank you Dr Castro thank you again these are programs that are specific to our summer this is in particular to our migrant education program there's two components to this which is a twoe program at Ferguson in Hawaiian which happens during the school year particularly at those School sites because we have a larger migrant population and then another twoe program being held in the summer program that is going to be located at Ferguson Elementary so that students can continue their enrichment and learning as part of this uh migrant education
187summer program thank you do we have any public comment I do not see any I do see one board member vice president Mishi so I've seen the coder school foros being approved for other contracts other schools correct not just always Ferguson not this particular one but I know yes yes they have been used by other uh schools in our district yes thank you see no more all those in favor place it I I I motion pass 70 item 3.7 d8 my a motion to approve request to contract with wing tree education incorporation to provide first to sixth grader migrant education students a two we stem program in June and July 2024 I need a motion and second some approve second thank you Dr gestro back to you again again as previously described this program is
188to support our summer programming for migrant education there are specific requirements that we must provide enrichment opportunities in addition to what the District offers and so this is uh intended to extend student learning beyond the additional summer programs that are being offered through our traditional programs thank you Dr kasu I do know you and I have same problem with the signage issue here and I thank you stay so long with us and to present all the thing you supposed to present appreciate it any public comments we have here I do not see any okay do we have any seeing now please say all in favor please say I I I motion pass seven 3.8 d a i have a motion to approve request to contract with cyber forward Academy LLC future and focus DBA dream
189catcher key Cod media Josh Fryman db8 on one Z digital media oh that was a lot that's good things here we have here offered to our student the regions of the University of California to provide summer Career Technical education we call CTE enrichment program for student in grade 7 to 10 for the 2023 to 2024 summer school and I have motion a second all moved second Dr Castro again these are uh summer programs to extend and enrich the uh learning by students as you know our secondary schools middle and high schools have extensive Career Technical education programs um but we know learning does not stop because the school year ends and so this is an opportunity for students to experience CTE many of the students that are part of this program are typically part of
190a CTE pathway either in the middle school or at the high school level and typically we focus on students who may not uh have the experience so in other words our unduplicated student groups or in addition to that making sure we're uh targeting students who may be underrepresented in the field itself so for example film making we may be looking more at um making sure that we have a large representation of females because females are typically underrepresented in the film industry thank you Dr Castro do we have any public comments okay I do see we have a one Bo vice president m m Nishi the floor is yours yes thank you madam president so um it's 15,000 per program so this is 1 2 3 4 five programs correct so that's uh 45,000 or much
191that is s correct oh actually that's 15 15 15 75 75,000 yes okay and this will be offered at all schools but we're targeting under represented correct correct so it'll be at all schools in our district but specifically targeting underrepresented no it is located the the school uh the programs are located specific to the area so for example one of our CTE film camps is going to be held at a film studio students will be transported there um some of most of these programs will actually be located at Whitney High School and we will provide transportation to students only so we can centralize pieces since our other campuses are either under construction or because of the current summer school program happening there so they're centralized but they're offered to all the schools so not existing
192at every School site they come together I mean what I mean by that is that it's going to be offered for the schools for the kids at SOS Leo Ferguson Hawaiian all all of our elementary schools will be offered this but it's targeting um a particular population group correct so it's only for secondary not Elementary secondary right so it's middle and high school M so it's it'll be all of our middle and high schools right and it is uh specific to those middle and high schools that are offer the CTE program so most of them do offer for example film or broadcasting so that is one that yes that would be across the board but if there's a school that for example for the music program um there may not be a CTE pathway because
193as you recall digital music is a little different than participation in band or other vapa programs and so it's just dependent on the CTE program offerings for each School site but we're trying to provide these broad offerings so students can have experiences and see if they are even interested in these programs most students have taken at least an introductory course either at the middle school or the high school level thank you thank you Dr Cas all in favor place a i i i motion pass 7 Z next one is 3.9 d a i have a motion to approve new vapa C CTE courses titled introduction of performance music and life events and intermediate stage and event technology advanced Ag and event technology intermediate CTE the and advanced CT theater Studio Art one and Studio Art
1942 to begin the fall of the 2024 to 2025 year motion and second please motion second Dr Castro thank you I'm pretty sure you can see that there's a theme Here of expanding services and support around Career Technical education so these are courses that are said to be implemented starting in the fall of 2024 thank you any public comment that we have here I do not see any any discussion for my board see none all those in favor say I I I 7 to Z now I'm sorry oh 620 sorry yeah thank you for remind me three uh itent number 3 10-8 I have a motion to approve through request to adopt the following textbook title T speni Dirk roof and AP Japanese preparation course Compass Japanese intermediate Resource Book quote tro a AP Spanish
195prepare for the exam reading in Chinese culture volume one the sky is bright with STS and we have um anos is that right how you say anidas I'm sorry can't see things one anymore an adotas init intial ver viia aada you see this is the culture things I need to learn more better on that cult um cultas Cura level three and um and Doos V VA folks can help me on Spanish when I okay I'm going to have um Dr R help me read that please I would love uh the musicians guy to the Musicians guy to Theory and Analysis oh those are in English man president the other one wasas and level one and two thank you so much I appreciate it happy to help I I I thought I learned some CH Spanish
196when I work in s Francis now real how poor I am but I would learn more from now on and I U I did prepare before um tonight's meeting but again when I get to the poding here I get nervous just like the student um so the music musicians Guide to the theory and uh analysis workbook and uh year training guide to Aura skills sence scene fourth edition and the musicians guide to Theory and Analysis Force AP Edition digital student asset for the 2024 to 2025 school year motion a second please motion approve you Handel second Dr Castro yes thank you again we're trying to make sure that we are continuingly updating our instructional curriculum particularly in the area of our advanced placement programs here we present you with our music options as well as
197a variety of world languages and our heritage programs for update for the 2425 school year thank you any public comments see none any oh we have a a vice do you have a comments public comments sorry about that uh any uh oh okay uh all those in favor go okay because I know you read the book already and I no that's that's what I need to let let you know I read it and only the Chinese one wasn't there and that were the in the office here I I I I'm just read the title in the beginning and I see that really good very rich uh book for our children to learn yeah I I think the most the Spanish one I'm sorry I I don't but um I want to appreciate the staff proide
198provide a textbook from there for us to review appreciate so um if none all in play favor place the I I I'll abstain because I didn't actually read these there's a lot to read so we will have five um five then zero and then one abent one absent right yeah okay thank you 3-11 d a may have a motion to approve request to submit an application to the California Department of Education for the College and Career assets pathway Grant motion second please motion second Dr Castro thank you I'm bringing this item forward as presented thank you any public comments no discussion from board all those in favor please say I I I seven um 60 item number 312- a may have a motion to approve request to submit an application to California Department of Education
199for the middle college and early early college grant motion second please approve youel thank you Dr C again I'm going to bring this item forward as presented with one note and that is that anytime we apply for Grants um and we work towards implementing once we are awarded we make sure that we partner with all of our educational Partners parents students staff particularly you're going to help us in implementing these programs um to make sure that uh all Community Voices are heard in this process thank you Dr CER do you have water there I know you You' been talking thank you though appreciate okay we do have one which our board member Dr reals well I I think today when um Tracy students spoke to us I I I know that sometimes we have an
200idea of who is destined to go to college and um I I'm glad that they shared with us they that we're all taking college credit classes and so I hope that that helps to remind us that we don't get to make decisions for kids about whether or not they have what it takes that we just need to believe that they all do so I'm glad that this is going to expand those Services thank you thank you Dr real all about motivation here we're talking about and I appreciate the staff you have done for our school and also student too um so see no one all those in favor please say I I so motion pass 6 Z my motion to approve 4.6 d8 my motion to approve bit World War abc1 1643 e rate unit
201price data cable to AMS net and lowest respon and responsible beer with option to renew annually up to four additional year motion second please so moved second thank you Mr Len your turn now thank you president say as required by the E rate program we are required to go out to bid for the ca data cabling um system at the districts or drops if you will or throughout this District um the eate program provides 80% of the funding for the cost of the project the district will pay up to 20% so we are fortunate to receive five um competitive biders in that um for the bid and we are recommending ams.net at the lowest responsive and the responsible bidder it is anticipated that we will spend about 621,000 per year on data cabling and the
202district share would be 20% of that or about 124,000 thank you sir any do we have any public comment I do not see any I see one vice president Mr Nish I think uh Twan knows what the question is going to be what is the explanation for the difference in the bid between the number one and number two in term of the bidder or in terms of the quality of the bid or what whatever because it's more than 20% correct so they have all have a chance to conduct job to attend a job walk with us they understand the scope of the work ams.net has been working with us and for us in the past so they understand you know the district um at times depends on the operation like I've always said right uh
203their capacity their Avail availability and and and their expertise in the field um they know that they have to put in a good competitive bit that would you know uh for their organization and for the district and that's how they're confident enough to have the low bid here yes correct thank you all the in favor please say I I I motion pass 6 Z 4.7 d8 by motion to approve contract with the KRON Castro fiber for internet services for 3 years motion second please approve your annual second thank you Mr no thank you again we are required by the eate program to go out to bid for internet services and we happy to report that uh Crow U cast Crow Castle Fiers l bidder with um $626 a month uh the district share of that
204is about 10% or $626 for internet services for the entire District thank you s see none all those in favor please say I I I motion pass six so next one our board member um reports I have uh Dr Hu thank you madam president I just want to give an early greeting for a happy Easter to everyone and I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing spring break may God bless you all and keep you well Madam president thank you sir and next one our Board member Miss Beach thank you madam President also have a quick uh report I attended a Nixon Watchdog meeting met with a representative from the community Family Guidance Center and I also wanted to wish all of our students and families a happy Easter enjoy your spring break thank you
205uh next one will be our board clerk Mr noola uh thank you president say uh like I mentioned earlier today I did get to visit uh Nixon Academy academy uh where I got to uh tour the school play a little bit dodgeball and also meet uh some of the dads from The Watch doog program it was very very insightful and actually some of the kids were very excited to see the dads on campus so that's a a big plus um yesterday I was able to visit Leo Elementary and and witness firstand the parent involvement and parent engagement uh I I Now understand how how involved and what it takes to really really um make a PTA PTA group you know shine and also they Performing Arts room I got to visit and see where the
206see where the magic happens uh last Friday I got to visit La Elementary I got a personal tour from the sixth and fifth grade student council uh I've learned that Elliot Elementary is one of the most diverse schools if not the most diverse Elementary School at ABC so that was a a very great I learned a little bit of Japanese Kwa Kwa thank you so much you know I think you compete our board member Mr Beach 29 days or something he's doing really fast than us now I do outside the city council things and he just go one school to another school and we really appreciate your participation and really um so the next one our so a little bit more a little bit more I was I was able to take a week off
207so I got through a lot of schools uh Thursday I was able to visit uh cito's Elementary I got to learn about all their family nights and cultural events so that's very very you know I was fortunate to learn about that and maybe get to participate myself on Wednesday I was able to attend the Head Start parent policy committee and that evening uh give uh update to the HD city council Hawaii Garden City Council on the Tuesday I visited carminita Middle School got the tour their Fitness lab got to see their electives uh their large selection of electives and see how principal Casas is you know giving everybody opportunities to try a little bit of everything uh on last Monday finally I was able to visit brag Elementary and also learn a little bit more
208about how what makes them special at the multigenerational school where they have you know grandparents parents and and Grand kids uh attending that school and Dr heik uh shared with me a little bit behind the scenes on how they're using data to uh help kids get ready to graduate promote and get them to the State and State Standards so that is my report wow thank you so much appreciate next one it will be our vice president Mr n thank you madam President we you try quick uh serus Elementary art contest was a lot of fun uh I got to peel some oranges at the Fon at Leo 60 volunteers that's a lot of parents to to try to coordinate uh Ser High School open house Ross I got to see some volunteers do uh um
209this great program with uh Mr Smith and it was they had a catapult to send things to space and can you guess what they're sending out to space to to the Sun to burn um so they got to do that um if people want to go see a little uh play Peter Pan is playing by Le Elementary it's also an awesome School uh I think we're having a Earth Day contest April 20th if you have a kid that does art then please sign up and draw some art and you can contact me for that information it's through uh the S Optimus club and everybody else there's also an Optimus club meeting and finally we're going to have a a uh Holocaust Survivor talk to uh Aria gar and seros high school and hopefully um our
210kids will get to learn about firsthand how privilege they are to live in a great country that we have where we have rights and people really do pay attention to um Civic engagement and they didn't do that way back when and this person was running across Europe freezing hungry cold and uh um so I think our kids will get to experience that and uh hopefully understand deeply what it means to empathize with people who are uh running away from attorney so thank you thank you we I also made aware weie high school has special film things it's a district film oh yeah that's the tomorrow right at the Grade School auditorium yes forgot to mention that thank you U so announcements next regular boo meeting will be on Tuesday April 16th 2024 at 7 p.m.
211district office boardroom here committee meetings School of facility capacity and decline en rollment we still have that committee at Hawk um Wednesday March 20 2024 6 p.m. at the district office boardroom diversity Unity equity board advisory committee will be on Thursday March 21st 2024 6 p.m. at district office boardroom and we have a strategic planning board advisory committee Tuesday March 26 202 2024 5:30 p.m. IT Tech Lab and we had legislative policy board advisory committee Wednesday March 27 2024 at 6:30 p.m. at our district conference room finance and audit board advisory committee on Thursday March 28 2024 6:00 p.m. at our district conference room dat to remember the local holidays our school closed March 29th and 2024 we all board wish everyone have a safe spring break and this is a school closer at April
212I'm sorry that's local holiday for school close now we have a spring break which is the school Clos April 1st to 5th on 2024 we wish our staff our teacher and the teacher staff and uh students and parents and my colleague here have a safe holidays on March 29th and April 1st to the 5th uh do I have a say public comments I do not so I'm asking motion to move adj the meeting for tonight so moved all in favor say I I closed meeting for tonight thank you very much all [Music] right [Music] n [Music] n [Music] you