001yet. >> Okay. Close the public hearing. >> All right. >> Move to approve the Summit Chassa charter renewal petition. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I >> this class. >> Thank you. making progress. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> You're welcome to stay, but you >> It is very exciting with those. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Bye. >> You're welcome. >> Bye you guys. >> I forgot to >> the public hearing probably missed that little note. >> Oh yeah, he's locked in. Yeah. >> All right. Crowd got a little smaller. Okay. Uh so we're moving uh items 16 A, B, C, and D up. And we'll start with our communications board report. Uh there are no student advisories here with us tonight. They're all studying hard. Yeah, it's
002finals week. >> It's finals week. So, we gave him the the night off. Uh we'll start with our own board report with Andy. >> Sure. So, I'll just make it pretty quick. A couple weeks ago, I think we were all we were all at the uh California School Boards Association annual education conference. I was also there a couple days earlier for their delegated assembly. U I think there was I think we would agree there were a lot of good sessions that we all attended. uh couple that jumped out for me was I think that final general session with Dr. Rumman Chowry who spoke about the use of AI and she's an AI expert and she really at least for me really debunked any fears I have about AI and and and basically reminding us that
003it is a tool that we need to learn how to use wisely as with any other technological change that we've all experienced in our lifetimes over these past uh several years. So that was really good. It was also good to see a gubernatorial and sup state superintendent candidate forum. Good to see hear from the different candidates about where they stand especially on education issues. If you have any questions about any of them, I'm certainly happy to speak to anybody who might be interested in in hearing hear at least some of my impressions of what some of these candidates had to say. But a lot of good a lot of good networking amongst um amongst our fellow board members across the state and certainly within the county and in the larger Bay Area. Thank you, Andy.
004Mark. >> Yeah, go ahead, Mark. >> Um, yeah, so for uh I also attended CSBA. Um, but um one of the sessions that really stood out to me uh was uh by Sarah Garcia, uh who's a managing partner with Lozano Smiths. Um and one of the things that she really highlighted in her talk um was the language that we use especially in our policies around discipline like specific specifically the word discipline especially uh around special education uh special needs kids minority kids um and so just being cognizant of using that word uh and the negative um connotation has already been associated with the word itself and I actually noticed on our policy on the website. If somebody went to our website, we actually have the word discipline or disciplinary exactly about 26 times. So that
005to me was like, oh yeah, I I need to bring this back to our district. So that was kind of like the big aha moment for me that just certain words like that can really be profound. Um so that was that's just the the tip of the iceberg, but I do have a few other words to share with the district. Um, and let me just confer with my colleague here. All right. Sorry about that. Thank you. Um, so first I want to start off by recognizing that this week our district experienced a profound tragedy. Uh our hearts go out to the family, friends and loved ones of the student we lost. Um we hold them in our thoughts and we recommmit ourselves to caring for our students not only as learners but as whole human
006beings. And I would just like to take a few seconds for a moment of silence to appreciate Thank you. Now, um with that, uh this is going to be very difficult. Um I did prepare something um to to read out and I'm just going to read. Um try not to tear up a little bit. I'm a very emotional person. My family's here and they they know this. Um, okay. So, here it goes. Our colleagues, staff, students, and members of the Jeff Union High School District community. Uh, today I formally stepped down from my role as a trustee on this board. Uh, this decision is not one I take uh or make lightly, but it is a necessary one as I'm moving out of the district and by law I legally have to resign. Um, although
007my tenure has been shorter than I really hoped, it's been deeply meaningful. Uh, I'm incredibly proud of what this board and this district have accomplished together at a time when schools um around the state are are closing. Uh, we actually are able to balance our budget actually um in a surplus. We're actually able to provide um, you know, a raise to our teachers. Um even more importantly, you know, we continue to really advocate for for what we believe in. That is not a small achievement. Uh it reflects discipline and leadership uh shared priorities uh and a commitment to valuing the people who make our schools run. One of the most important lessons I take from this experience is a deeper appreciation for how much teachers, school administrators, um, and staff do every single day, often
008quietly, often under immense pressure in order to keep our schools functioning, supportive, and moving forward. The work is very complex. Um, this one year has literally been like drinking uh water out of a hose. Um, and I could not I I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. It's demanding. It's frequently unrecognized, but serving alongside you all um has really given me a new level of respect um and gratitude. I'm also particularly proud of the progress this district has made around equity. Um while there is still much work to be done and there always will be, I believe we have laid important groundwork. Equity is not a destination. It is a continuous practice and I am encouraged by the seriousness and care with which this board approaches it. What I will miss most
009however is the people. Um, I'll miss the sense of camaraderie that exists on this board. The laughter that we've shared during long meetings, the joy of celebrating student of the month awards, uh, the presentations highlighting each school's growth, challenges, and successes, and above all, the passion, the genuine unwavering commitment each of you brings to this work on behalf of our students. This experience has given me both the drive and the insight to continue serving in meaningful ways. I'll leave this role more committed than ever to contributing to systems that uplift communities, support educators, and center students. Thank you for the trust you placed in me. Thank you for the work you do and thank you for allowing me to be part of this team even for a short while. It has truly been an honor.
010That's it. Mic drop. Yeah. >> Thank you, Marie. Um, so I will reserve my remarks about you for later. Although, um, I loved everything you had to say. Um, I wasn't, since you brought up the loss of a student, it it's really heartbreaking. And uh I want to thank our district staff, our wellness counselors who um and our and everyone who helped come together to provide um grievance services um because it's very difficult um and I want to support our our adults who have to go through this and who supports them when they've done everything they can. Um, so I this just makes me want to work harder for our students and for our staff because especially our wellness counselors, they carry a lot and they helped my daughter when she was going through something
011and um who holds them up. I want I'll be there as much as I can for you. See, so um I agree with everything Mr. Lee said about the CSB conference. It was a great time for all of us to be together. um to um to have solidarity, to uh enjoy our time together as people uh and and to really I I loved how we would go to different workshops and really discuss what we liked or what we could take away from it or what we sometimes we felt like, well, we're not really getting much out of this workshop as that happens sometimes. Um but it still created um time created conversations. Um and then as soon as I got back I really wanted to I I attended the adult transition program culminating exhibit at
012uh the creativity explored um location in the mission. Um and it was just so gratifying to see our students um sharing their works and after spending so much time in the program and presenting you know their works to us. So I would love to I want to thank Mr. his staff, the paras who put a lot of work into the program and helping our students and our our teachers, our um students especially and their parents cuz their guardians. It was just a lovely lovely event. And um with that, I turn it over to Mr. Walker. >> Thank you, Rosie. I too attended the uh CSBA conference for the annual education conference in Sacramento and I too would like to share a few words about it. It's um refreshing, renewing and inspirational to go and share
013this time with other people involved in supporting the educational e efforts of our districts. um you make a few connections maybe um you hope to be inspired by the speakers um and I heard someone describe our board's time and superintendent's time together as a team building and um I I agree that's a good description. And I think another description might be um maybe if you go on a go on a trip with your family and the time you spend together um just builds relationships. So um that's how I'm going to describe it. Um I saw a particularly for me motivating session on middle college. Um, I'm glad that we have a a program with Skyline that's working out. It is it at all the high schools now? >> Federal College. It's a good um um
014we get a little presentation on that every year. So, I'm looking forward to that this year. Um because I think that's a pretty solid program. Uh, in other news, I uh I got out and saw the uh Teranova JV soccer team, JV and varsity soccer teams play. I think in the next few years I'll be seeing a lot of that. But it was my first experience and um I think you should get out there too and just see what our students are doing, whether it's soccer or robotics or music. Um and I know that mock trials coming up in February. um you know take a chance to support our students. Um I'm glad I did and I'm glad I get to again and again. Uh Miss Tahara mentioned you know the strategy of our uh
015of one of our students and I hope that you know if anyone needs me to be a resource that you can reach out to me. I don't know that there's much I can do except for be supportive but I can do that. Um so please please feel free to ask. Hope I can add value. I'm really proud of our staff. You know a lot has happened in about six years and well maybe maybe now it's 10 years. You know uh the world is the United States is different politically. The world is different politically. Um we had co um which is I think not done changing us. Um and so they keep rolling with all the punches, you know, to keep our students going. Uh and I'm very proud of that. Thank you. >> Thank you,
016Shre. All right. A little order of business before I start with my board report. Um, Miss Pa, the board and I would like to direct you um at this time to begin the process of appointing a provisional appointment um on behalf of Marty's announcement. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, you know, just kind of speaking about um supporting each other. Yeah, I know we had something happen in our district, but more than that, I just I just kind of want to just make sure that everybody's reaching out to the people that they love, especially around the holidays. Um, this is kind of one of those times where people really get into their heads and, uh, it's tough, you know, people that are lonely and don't have families and support. So, whoever's listening out there, you
017just know that you're you're supported and you're loved and, um, there's there's places to go and people to talk to. So, um, you know, you're not alone. So, just want to offer that to to everybody that's listening, to everybody that's here watching. Um, as far as what I was up to, of course, I was with my colleagues here at the CSBA uh conference, and it was awesome. Just like they all said, it's um it's kind of interesting to to meet with all these other districts and and people around the state and kind of hear what their stories are and how things are working in their districts and you kind of take for granted, you know, how good we actually have it here in our area with our district, the things that are going on. It's,
018you know, things are going pretty smooth considering everything that's going on in the world and in our country. Um, I'm proud of all the work that's going on in our state, uh, with these school boards and with the, you know, CSBA and how they're trying to bring us all together to to, you know, divide and conquer this this big task of educating our our children. Um, it is monumental, you know, uh, the the things that you got to do to to care for our kids, you know. So, it's just it's really cool to be a part of that. And you know, I every time I go down there, I learn a lot more and I've grown a lot closer with these guys and it's um it's been fun. Um, last Tuesday, um, I was at
019Daily City City Hall, um, and we had a couple of our schools that were presented by the mayor of Daily City with the Freedom Fighter Award for their work on um, our our uh, our ethics studies. So, I thought that was really cool, too, to have them um, you know, rewarded for all their hard work and and everything in front of their communities and and to show that, you know, we're really trying to, you know, put forth the effort and educating our kids on on things like that. Um, I was also Saturday I went to Jefferson High School's um, music band recital. Um, it was called The Gifts and it was kind of like a play slashmusical. Re the music was amazing. Um, really, really well done. The kids were doing so many things. They
020were they were playing instruments, running around offstage, changing into costume, acting, and then running back on stage, moving things around to try to make room for everything else. It was it was a lot of work, but they did a great job and I was really proud of them and I wanted to write down one of the songs that I really liked, but I can't remember it. So, >> anyways, it was really cool to be be there and and see all the hard work that went into that. So, um yeah, I think that's it for me. Um I'll turn it on over to Miss Tony Presto. >> Thank you. Um, I'm going to start with happy stuff. I uh am I wish that I could be in more places than I physically can be because I
021think like all of our schools have musical performances and just so many things happening right now. And it's at a time when I know I'm crazy busy trying to get ready for holidays, etc. So, I'm not I try to really show up in our community for everything and then and then I end up at a lot of things. I don't go to every but at this time of year I can't go to everything. And so thank you to all of the staff members who make it possible for our students to have these wonderful experiences cuz while you know I'm I was a teacher and very focused on academics, school is a lot more than academics. You know it's it's the arts and it's music and it's sports and it's all of that. So thank you
022for bringing that joy to to our kids. Um, I won't say more about CSBA, but ditto to what was said. It was a good experience and I want to thank um, Principal Basher and the staff at ATP because the creativity explored the culminating exhibition is one of my highlights. It was it was awesome. And Stephanie Phillips was there. There were several of us there. Um, uh, Lee Medvidov was there. I'm trying to think anybody else. And there were many people there to to be there for the kids on a Saturday morning. So, it was really nice. I also want to thank um the mayor, mayor Rod Dasmagal, who recognized all of our schools for their ethnic studies programs. Um he called it the mayor's freedom fighter award and I think many of us were there
023that night too after getting back from CSB. So, thank you to the board for showing up um to acknowledge uh the hard work that we're doing and um and there are districts who are kind of going under the radar when it comes to their equity work and their ethnic studies work and we have made the choice not to do that and so I'm proud of us. Um and then I guess I'm going to and I'm going to save my Marty remarks for later. Um, and I'm I just want to say that it's a funny time of year um because it's very joyful and there's families and friends and it's also as um President Ggo said it it can be a very uh a difficult time for many people around the holidays. So, I want to
024acknowledge that. And this past weekend was particularly tragic on many levels. Brown University, um, Bondi Beach, anti-Semitic shootings, Rob Reiner, you know, like it was just like we were sort of hit, hit, hit, and then we came back and we had a loss of a student. So, it's been particularly hard. Um, and I don't want to get choked up, it's been particularly hard and um, it kind of for many of us it was just sort of too much, you know, too much, too much. And so, um, I just want to acknowledge that and really thank I'm so very grateful to work in this district and I'm grateful to all of the people who work here and support our students and I hope that everyone I think most of executive cabinet's taking the next two weeks
025off which we don't normally do and I hope that most of us in this district have enough time, whether it's the full two weeks or not, have some time to kind of rest and feed um feed our souls so that we can get back to it in January for our students. >> Thank you, Miss Presto. All right, Laura, moving on. 16C. Are there any um board subcommittee reports this evening? >> Just just one real quick. Mr. Walker and I were both at the EHC Educational Housing Corporation board meeting on Thursday. Not a whole lot discussed there other than just a quick budget update for the first half of the year. And then also uh just that was also the re the restructure of that board's officers. So we now have Brianna Phelps as the president,
026Michelle Fortonado Kuan is the vice president and Gene Enriquez is the treasurer/ secretary. >> Wonderful. Who is the president? Sorry. >> Uh Briani Phelps. She's been on She's been on since inception. >> Yeah. Great. >> Cool. Thank you, Andy. Okay. 16D, our AFT Local 1481 report. Monica Casey. >> Good evening, board. Um, I just have two things. Um, one, we're still trying to organize ourselves to support um, ICE. uh you know the I know that downtown San Francisco they had some people um show up this morning super early. I didn't get the information information till later and um so I'm still sending out that information. So check our website. It hasn't been updated lately, but I think this week we're probably going to update it um if you want to support. And um last week
027I attended the ECTK12 um council for CFT and I brought two of our members um with me, two of my board members um with me and it was nice to have um more people kind of see what it is that we're doing um and what the president and our union does. So um interesting you brought up AI. I think that we were thinking about it in some other ways as well. So maybe we can come together and and talk about the things we need to make sure are either in board policy or in um our our contracts. So that's about it. >> Thank you. >> Happy holidays to everybody. >> Happy holidays. >> All right, moving on. And so we are now at 11A which is uh time well 11 is a governing board annual
028reorg and we'll start with item A which is the election of a new board president and my last task as current board president. >> All right move to move to elect um Sheret Walker as board president. >> Second. All those in favor >> I bud haste >> move. Can't have my jacket though. What a commute. That was fast. He passed. Item 11B is to elect a board vice president. Uh, >> I nominate Rosie Tahada for vice president. >> I second. All in favor? I >> moving on up. Did you find yet? >> I'm sure. Item 11 C is to elect a board clerk. All right. I'd like to nominate Andy Lee. >> Second. All in favor? >> I I'll move all those things after the break. >> Yeah, >> item it's actually 16, isn't it?
029Oh, no. It's It is 11. Item 11D is to appoint a board secretary. move to appoint uh Tony Press as her board secretary. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> uh item 12, recognitions and commendations. A, we will have the honoring of Jerome Ggo's past JUHSD board president. Um, Mr. Cho, would you like to begin with some remarks? >> Oh, absolutely. Um, Joe, I think you took the presidency right on my first um year on the board. And um it was just really good to have somebody that can go like as I use a sounding board and be like, "This is a lot." and you just look at me like it's a lot too. It's like literally drinking water out of a hose. I actually think I got that term from you.
030Um but to watch how much you've just been able to just catch up and just get into it, like it's really um it's amazing, man. Like I'm truly inspired by you and your leadership and just the grace and the way you just do all that with still like such humility for being such a big terrifying dude, but you still have this ability to like be cool, calm, and collected. Um, and just it speaks that you are rooted to the community, right? The fact that you went to a high school here, your kids uh gone to school here. Like to me, I'm just like, yeah, that's the kind of community member I really want to be. Well, thank you for that inspiration. I really, really have enjoyed serving with you, >> Jerome. Heck of a job
031this year. Really, really nice job. You really came into your own. Um, I know I know that it's the first couple of meetings are never that easy. I I know what that's like. And so, you really took to it quite well. Your leadership was was great. Um and you really just you you led you led with grace and humility and and that is uh those are traits that we all need to carry um as board members and you carried it exceptionally well this year and you really you know it's your third year on the board. You're just completed your third year on the board. you've really settled in as a board member and I'm it's really been fun to see your growth over these past couple of years, but most particularly this year. Incredible job.
032You got it. >> Hi, Jerome. >> Um, you're an outstanding board president, really great leader. Um, it was so nice to sit back and watch you take over and in such a um an unassuming but strong way. And espeing your comments whenever we had the students come up. your questions were always insightful, but you know, I think I some you and Marty reminded me of um what it's like to have to be new newish on the board and to see things through that lens. And um in working together, I felt like we grew together, too, because I'm learning from both of you always. And um and so I have, you know, four brothers on this board and it's been fantastic. Um I'm the big sister so you all do what I say. No, but I
033love you and you know can I'm really looking forward to continue working together and just hearing your words. Thank you. Jerome, thanks so much uh for your leadership and um teaching us so much about loyalty. Um we start at the same time. So I think uh I have the best perspective on the progress that you've made, especially since I don't think I've made the same progress. So congratulations. Um, you know, I've come to see through our agenda planning meetings how organized you are. Um, how careful you are with process and I've seen how well it served us all. Hoping that I can uh become more organized and trust process so that can be as successful. Um, I think along the way you've done a great job of identifying our goals, uh, which are all about
034supporting the students. Um, one way that we support the students is to, sorry, students and families and staff. I wrote that down. I didn't say it. Um, and I I think that the way you've been able to do that has made our goals really clear. Um, and I always come back to this. My first annual education conference, the first speaker talked about you, your job as a as a governing board member is to uh is to love as hard as you can. So, um, I think you've achieved that. And uh I might say this more than once tonight, we will miss your love. >> Thank you, Shred. And I think uh maybe maybe one day we'll find out who that Brady Air truck belongs to out out there that you've been wondering about all these
035years. >> Uh Miss Prea, >> thank you. Um Jerome, thank you. I have had I've been lucky enough to know Trusty Gyos for many years because I was principal of the school that his eldest daughter went to. And um so I knew when you started that you have you are filled with integrity. You're filled with um love and compassion and kindness and strength. So I knew these things but this is very new to you. this whole idea of being a trustee and so you know I certainly can't get into your head or your emotions but I think you know it was you were like oh wait what is it you know this was a lot and um I just have to say that you know uh I've shared this with you personally but I kind
036of want to say it publicly you have done an outstanding job as board president this year and I'm so grateful for your leadership because we've encountered many challenges and we will continue to encounter challenges and um you know the the relationship between a superintendent and their board is very important and I I trust all of you. I I believe you trust me. It's very important and um I'm just really grateful and I want to echo what Trusty Walker said, what President Walker said that um you were really really organized, really really organized and um that's really important, you know. Um and I also want to echo what um Vice President Tahadus said that I really love listening to the comments that you make. you're very insightful and you like winging it, you know, you're like
037listening and you hone in on the important aspects and you're encouraging of the students and um you will continue to be that person on the board, but it's been really great to have you as as our leader. So, thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, I this is uh I'll make it quick, but this has been a hell of an experience. Um, now I wrote I wrote a few things down so I didn't forget, you know, to to thank certain people, but you know, I do I do want to thank my my beautiful wife, Carla, and my my three amazing children, English, Jersey, and and Jerome, for sharing me and and the time that I've spent with you guys. Um, and my commitment to serving our community and the district. um their patience and and encouragement
038really helped me get through this cuz it's it's a lot, you know, it's more than I thought it was going to be, but it's it's been really rewarding for me um to be up here with all of you guys and I'm super thankful for for this current board, Andy, Rosie, Sheret, Marty, KMA, you know, um you know, you guys giving me your guidance and the trust and and and the space to just learn and grow how to do this with you guys and just serving alongside you guys. Um, you know, it's reinforced in me that that leadership isn't just one person. It's a it's teamwork and um you know it's our shared purpose and and you know our shared purpose and that the one thing that I told all of you guys when you interviewed
039me to you know just to see if I was willing to take part in in joining the board was was it was all about the kids and that's the one thing that always stood out to me. That's the one thing will continue to stand out to me is just how much I love my children and and the children in my community and how much I want to see them do well. means the most to me. Um, it's also been I want to thank uh Miss our president, I mean our superintendent, Miss Presa, and her her amazing cabinet. You guys have been awesome to work alongside you. You know, the strong partnership and all the hard work that we've all done together is is is just truly appreciated. And um, you know, I just I can
040when I see that commitment to our students and I see how much work you guys all put into this, it really makes me proud to be part of this. Um, and I want to thank our schools and all the administrators and the teachers um, for all the care and all the energy and all the heart they put into to all their students every day, all that work that that they do, it it really matters and it shows. And just in the few years that I've been here, just seeing the growth in our schools and and everything that we've accomplished in in a short amount of time and what we're trying to do is it's inspiring. Um, and then finally, I just want to thank our our community uh for for trusting in all of us
041and and in our schools um with their children um and allowing us the opportunity to grow alongside them. You know, it's been an honor and it's been a privilege to serve with you guys and um I'll definitely be always be grateful for that experience. So, I appreciate it very much. Thank you guys. Uh, item 12B is the honoring of Martinine Cho. Oh, >> 12 A1. Mistake number one. >> Item 12 A1 are the acknowledgments from local and state legislative offices for President Gyos. Sorry. Uh, President Emmeritus >> to be exact. Um, and so Denise Shrie is not here tonight. So what I'm going to do is read off the acknowledgements from the legislators and you've got um a gavvel that you can take home with you um that the district that we we have for
042you so that you can he can bang the gavvel when he needs attention at home. Carla. Um, and and then what I'm thinking is then maybe after we do this and we acknowledge Marty, then one of us can take a couple pictures after. Okay. So, first off, um there's a commendation from the board of supervisors of Sanonteo County for your dedicated service to the Jefferson Union High School District and exceptional leadership as board president and for your steadfast commitment to civic engagement and the well-being of all Pacifica residents, although they accidentally left out the other cities. We also have Daily City and Brisbane and Broadmore and KMA, particularly our youth and underrepresented communities. The board hereby extends its sincere gratitude and looks forward to your continued service and advocacy on the Jefferson Union High School
043District board from the county. Okay. Then we've got from Congressman Kevin Mullen's office a certificate of recognition presented to Jerome Gyos in recognition for your leadership and commitment to students as the board president board vice president and a trustee for the Jefferson Union High School District. As an alumni and graduate of JUHSD, your dedication to supporting your community is valued and an inspiration to others. Your time working with the student advisory and coaching soccer has made a lasting impact. We've got from Senator Scott Weiner's office, uh, Jerome Gyos, 2025 board president, Jefferson Union High School. I hereby award this certificate of recognition in honor of your leadership and dedicated service to the Jefferson Union High School District. Your commitment as trustee, vice president, and 2025 board president has not gone unnoticed. Congratulations on your recognition
044and thank you for your service. Couple more. Senator Josh Becker, on behalf of the residents of the 13th Senate District, thank you for your dedicated service on the Jefferson Union High School District governing board. Your leadership and commitment have strengthened the district and supported the success of its students, families, and staff. We are grateful for the lasting impact of your service and extend our best wishes as you continue your work as a trustee and embark on future endeavors. From Katherine Stephanie, Assembly Member Katherine Stephanie. On behalf of the California State Assembly, I'm honored to recognize your service as board president of the Jefferson Union High School District. Your continued hard work, dedication, and passion for serving the students in your district is admirable. Thank you for your leadership and vision for the diverse student and
045staff population of this learning community. I wish you all the best and may your work continue to bring everlasting change to the JUHSD for years to come. And finally, Assembly Member um Mark Burman, on behalf of the 23rd Assembly District, thank you for your dedicated service as president of the Jefferson Union High School District Board of Trustees. Your time as board president of the Jefferson Union High School District represents your lasting commitment to investing in our students, teachers, and their families. Your thoughtful and responsive contributions towards students demonstrate strong leadership that will continue to impact our community for years to come. I extend my best wishes as you continue your work as a trustee and embark on future endeavors. And then >> Oh, you can't actually. It's attached. >> See, we know that. >> I
046didn't know that. >> So, from on behalf of the Jefferson Union High School District, Jerome, um this plaque just signifies your your term as 2025 President Board of Trustees and our thanks to you. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Okay. Can I hand them to you when we get up? Okay. Beautiful. Item 12B, it's the honoring of Martinine Cho, uh, Jefferson Union High School District Board Trustee. All right, I'll start off. Um, well, Marty, congratulations first of all on a new family and on potentially a new home. We won't keep it right there. We know what's happening. So, um, uh, not not going to lie, I'm a little bummed out that that you have to leave us. Um, you were definitely a good fit fit here with us. Um, you brought, you know,
047a different aspect to to our board that we needed, I think. You know, and I think you're the way you emphasized your um uh your love for mental health and and and physical health and and all that. I mean, I think that really went well with a lot of what we're trying to accomplish here with our our students and our schools. And it was, you know, really fun getting to know you obviously and chitchatting here and there and getting to know your personality and hearing your story a little bit, you know, of how how you got to where you're at now and learning about your cool app that you have and >> all kinds of stuff. I mean, yeah. I mean in a we learned a lot in a short amount of time and um
048I really enjoyed that and I really enjoyed making friends with you and I hope you know looking forward to continuing that friendship and uh you know good luck. >> Thank you and yes we will stay friends. All right, Marty. Um, we went together to sign up to, uh, for me to reup as, you know, my paperwork for to be a board trustee and for you to sign up for the first time. >> So, we drove down together and and, uh, took the oath of office together and and all of that. And so, and here we are, >> bummed that you are heading out, but grateful to have become friends with you over the past year plus, year and a half. Um, and and also just the excitement I know for me knowing that we had
049a a a medical professional, a health care professional on the board, which we haven't had, at least not in my time on the board. So, that was really it was really great to have your perspective and through and being able to see education through your healthcare lens. um you've learned a lot and I've learned a lot from you because it's the diverse perspectives that we all each bring and you brought a very necessary one and I and I am very appreciative of that and I'm and I'm very proud and happy to call you a friend. >> Oh, don't make me cry. >> Thanks. >> Hello Liam's daddy. >> Yeah. Um, this is a really bittersweet moment because I really enjoyed having you on the board. Like Mr. Lee, like Andy Lee said, Andy said, um,
050you know, we we've formed such a great friendship on this board and uh the the different perspectives that you um you offered, especially as a medical professional as and as an immigrant to this country. um you're able to provide you're so relatable to um our community and I just think it is so great for like our students to see that you know I did it you can do it too and um and you're so positive so positive and I I continually learn from you um even when you know during our meetings um just even just the questions you asked because you had a different insight and I would so many times when that's a great question. I wish I thought of it but I'm glad he did and that he asked it and um I'm
051going to miss that. U but we are lifelong friends and um I I'm going to be part of your pilot program. You're you're as you're you're going to help me with my health. >> Yes. And um I've really uh I love you and uh you're a beautiful family and um we'll see each other a lot. >> But thank you again. So grateful for you. >> Thank you. >> Uh I spent three years on the board now. The first year I sat on Ros's left and I might have to run again just so I can sit on Ros's left again so I don't have to follow her. Uh, well said. Well said. Uh, Marty, um, I'm going to echo our colleagues a little bit. I really want to commend you for your commitment to wellness. Um,
052which I really think is all about um what I like to talk about all that love. Um, so thank you. Um, I also I'm going to miss your unique perspectives. Um, I don't know if you put it this way, but you've always been education first, or perhaps it's education most important, if not first. >> It might be health first. Um, you know, you come with a perspective of someone who's not from California, which I think is important. Uh, you come with a perspective of someone who's lived in a different country, uh, which is important. and you uh come with a perspective of someone of a relative youth. >> Um >> he called me a senior citizen earlier. >> The AARP's coming for me. Um I don't remember who said it also. I think I think
053uh Vice President Tahada said it all very very much so positive. uh and I think you've in in different ways been helpful to all of us personally as well as professionally. Uh thank you very much. Um I'm certain there is a school board in the place where you're going to uh perhaps you have some health pers health perspective for them. >> Yeah. Um, so, uh, I don't think you'll be far, but even when you are long gone, we will miss your love. Uh, thank you. >> Thank you, Sharon. Miss Prea, >> thank you. Um, Marty, I will miss you. I have I was so grateful. I'm not sure that everyone knows how hard it is to find really good board members, but let me tell you, it's very hard. And it's a commitment. So, not
054everybody has the time and space to make that commitment. And um Marty, you you didn't have a child in the district. You didn't have a child at that point. Now you do who's a long way from high school. But um I'm so grateful that you took on this challenge. um because it's oftentimes parents, which is is great, but it was, as has been said multiple times, it's it's really nice to have somebody with a different perspective that brings some fresh eyes to to schooling. Um and it made me, you know, think a lot about in in a board meeting like not using acronyms and explaining ourselves and then I'm reminded that there's a lot of people watching this board meeting who maybe don't know all the acronyms and everything that we're talking about. So that
055was um good for me to remember. Um but mostly I um I've been grateful for your very positive um attitude and demeanor and that really from the get-go you you were like yes okay yes yes and that's just so refreshing. Um you came at this job um with a with a learner lens with a learning lens. So, you know, a year ago at CSBA, you spent a whole day at the new board member workshop, and there's a lot of learning. It is like drinking from a fire hose. It's a it's a whole new language. Um, and there's a lot to learn in that first year. So, I'm sorry that we're losing you after year one because I just know that, you know, you're just going to get better and better. So, there are school boards
056everywhere and I do hope that you go back to it so that you benefit another school district, but I know that you're not far at all and I'm looking forward to seeing I was very happy that we were able to meet the baby. I'm sorry that they had it sounds I guess this was bedtime, but I'm glad that your wife and and child were here earlier. Um, but we'll miss you and um and as has also been said, I I'm consider you a friend and look forward to seeing you and watching your son grow. >> But we will miss you. >> Thank you. Thank you all so much. Uh very heartwarming. Um without a doubt, I've made lifelong friends. Big brothers, big sisters. See what I did there? And little sisters. And you don't get
057to talk much, but I know I want you to know I see you. And I recognize all the hard work you do, your 3,000 emails and reminders like Marty, don't forget this, this. So, I'm really, really grateful. Um, and for what it is worth, oh, I'm going to keep watching you guys. >> You have a YouTube channel for a reason. I know there's a lot of work in the pipeline. So, I'm going to be watching to see how those are being, you know, achieved and hopefully bring it to wherever I am and say, "Hey, by the way, Jefferson up the street. this amazing things they're doing. So, yeah, the seed has been planted and I could not be happy you all were the ones that did the planting. So, thank you. >> And Marty, we
058have a we didn't we were not so eloquent. We just made a beautiful certificate for you, but we didn't write a lot of acknowledgements, I'm now realizing. So, there's not much to read out other than a certificate of appreciation uh presented to you for your dedication to the Jefferson Union High School District Board of Trustees. Thank you so much for your service. >> Thank you. All right. We're going to take a recess um for our honores and I think we'll have a little refreshment out in the hallway. >> Yeah. >> Do I need to go? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Let's have Chelsea take This next item calls for an approval of minutes from board meetings from November 15th and November 18th. >> Move to approve the minutes from November 15th and November 18th.
059>> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> uh please uh peruse the information and correspondence section. Sorry. Feel free to peruse >> not a command. Um, next item is the consent agenda. Does anyone have >> move to approve consent? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> We will not be removing anything from the consent agenda. Um, public comment. Do we have any public comment? No, we don't. >> No public comment. >> Yeah. No, we don't. No public comment this evening. >> Sorry. Uh discussion items uh 201 uh involves a board leazison assignments for 2026. Is that Miss Prea? over to me. >> I'm going to turn it over to Miss Presto. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, um the board we need to assign liaison representatives to various committees for the duration
060of January 1st, 2026 through December 30th, 2026. So, the attached document is from 2025. We can use it as a reference guide um when you are volunteering for new roles. We only have four people to divide these between. You know, I want to actually give a plug, Marty. You can you will not be the the representative of the school board for Daily City Youth Health Center, but as a person who is also on that board, you I'm I know you can continue as a board member. I'm sure just talk with Anya Shapiro. But I know that they would be thrilled to still have you as a board member. We would be thrilled to have you as a board member. You just wouldn't be the representative of the district. Cool. >> Okay. Um Okay. So, uh
061if we start off with the chamber of commerce. So, many of these liaison assignments. Um some of them are assignments where you are meeting bi-weekly or monthly and there's many meetings as you know and then some it's really just as needed. Um another thing that I learned this year is that the county committee on school district organization we're not supposed to have an alternate. You're only supposed to have the one. So, we only need to um elect one person for the coming year. So, you can take a look at who was assigned last year, what you did last year, and if you are so moved to volunteer to re to do it again or if you want to take on a new role, you can do that. So, I'm just going to start at the
062top. So, the Chamber of Commerce um if we liaz with the Chamber of Commerce of Daily City, Kulma, Brisbane or Pacifica. The board members who did this last year were Jerome and Andy. These are asneeded meetings. I don't even think we had any last year, but um is anyone interested in doing that in the coming year? >> I'll continue to I'll stay on. >> Great. Andy, >> do you want to stay on that? >> Do we only need one though or is it >> um No, I think we need two. >> Okay, so we do. Yeah, I can stay on it. Yeah. >> Okay, wonderful. Thank you. All right. Um the liaison for the city of Daily City and the Jefferson Elementary School District. >> I'll stay on that. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um the
063city of Brisbane and the Brisbane School District. Jerome did it last. >> I'll stick with it. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh city of Daily City and Beayshore School District. >> Sure. I'll stay I'll stay on it. >> Thank you. Is >> that something you really really really want to do? >> Oh, I'm happy to do it. >> Good. Did you want to do it? Is that why you're asking or you >> No, that was you. I'm not going to take that bait. >> Okay. City of Pacifica and Pacifica School District. Sharet, you did it last year. Are you interested or does somebody else is somebody else interested? >> Uh, I'll do it actually because my son's in the school district. >> Awesome. Okay. Thanks, Jerome. >> Yep. >> All right. uh the liaison for Summit
064Shasta. >> I volunteer. >> Okay. You good with that, Jerome? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Awesome. All right. The district advisory committee. Um these are meetings that happen um that Karine leads at the end of the year typically. Uh Jerome and Andy have have been on this. Are you interested in continuing or is anybody else interested? >> I'll stay. >> Yeah. If nobody else is is interested, I mean, it's as needed. Okay. >> Okay. >> Awesome. The representative for career technical education, this is there's meetings that are um countywide twice a year that you're supposed to attend. Sheret did it before. Is somebody >> for two years straight? >> Is somebody else interested in taking on CTE? >> When are when are the meetings typically? >> There's one in the fall and one in the spring.
065I don't know. >> Is it daytime, evening? >> No, they're they're early early evening. Good evening. Uh, I'll do it. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. So, we need a new representative for the Daily City Youth Health Center Advisory Board. >> Um, when do they meet? >> They meet >> in the morning. >> It's not in the morning now. It's in the afternoon. I don't know the day of the week. >> How often? >> Once a month. >> Yeah. It's usually once a month. Most Monday. Like on a Monday. >> Mondays. Like a 400 p.m. sort of. >> Yeah. Um, I can do that. >> Can you? Awesome. Thank you, Rosie. They're most of the time >> online, but sometimes they're in person. So, um, okay. The county committee on school district organization. This is
066an annual meeting. >> Yep. I I'll do it. >> Thank you, Andy. Student advisory council. So, this has been Jerome and Sheret because Andy had another commitment. Andy started the year, but then Sheret has ended the year. This is one of the biggest commitments because it's the um first and third Mondays of the month. Who is interested in doing that? >> Uh I've enjoyed it. I will >> going to continue. Thank you. Is anybody else interested in taking that second seat? >> Oh, see you're not you can't do it. >> Andy can't. Jerome, are you going to take a break? I'm looking at you. I don't want to apply pressure. >> I was just waiting to see if anybody else Yeah. Yeah, I'll stick with it. >> Do you want to stick with Okay. I
067wasn't sure if you were hoping to have a break, but you're good. >> I Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's I could Yeah. figure it out. >> Okay. All right. Good. Um, facility subcommittee. So, um, it has been Andy and Rosie. Is anybody interested in that? Or Andy and Rosie? Are you >> I'll stay on. >> Okay. Thank you. Educational Housing Corporation has been Andy and Sheret. Are you interested in continuing or Yes, I'll stay on. >> Andy will stay on. >> I'll stay on. >> Okay, awesome. Thank you. Um the sustainability committee. Um Tina, can you It says as needed here, but is that don't you meet more frequently than as needed? >> Right now, we're meeting twice a month. Twice a month. Board liaison is really more of someone uh if the committee has
068questions that they would like to have a board member representative. Um so you would invite them. >> Exactly. That's what we've done. We've invited them usually uh like twice a year once at the kickoff meeting and then um usually like at the towards the end of the year when we're getting ready for our board presentations. >> Okay, good. So this is really as needed but kind of twice a year. So it was Marty. Is anybody interested in doing that? Rosie, thank you. All right. And then um as needed, if we have a meeting with the Daily City Police Department um and or the Pacifica Police Department, it has been Rosie and Jerome. I don't even actually think we've had one of these meetings in the last few years. >> Haven't But I'll stay on. >>
069I I'll volunteer. >> You volunteer? Okay. Rosie and Sheret. I think that's it. Look how easy that was. Thank you for your service. All right. All right. >> Nothing's happening. That usually means I'm supposed to do something. >> It's um >> 282 board policy update. Sorry, I don't have this pulled up. >> It's okay. >> On the electronic copy. >> You want just turn it over to me? >> There it is. Board policy update 282. Oh, Miss Prea. >> Mhm. Thank you. So, the reason why I'm bringing this is that we've had a couple of inquiries about naming of uh facilities um lately. And so, we took a look at the board policy because this isn't something that we do very frequently. And um we I want to update the policy. I did a little
070research and the board policy is verbatim what CSBA recommends. Um, and so most school districts just have this policy, but we aren't really complying with it. And so, um, the only change is um, currently it reads, "The board encourages community participation in the process of selecting names." I suggest that re that remain. Um, and I'm suggesting that we take out the line. A citizen advisory committee shall be appointed to review name suggestions and submit recommendations for the board's consideration. I don't think it's necessary to have a standing committee that is sort of always there kind of looking for names to name around the district. I think it um it we've never actually done that. So, we just really want to make this match our practice. So, it's my suggestion that we just take that line
071out. And so, this is the discussion this month. And if you um don't have suggestions, it'll come on next month as a consent item. >> Any discussion board? >> Okay. >> Um I am I should have reviewed this more closely than I have. Um uh it says the governing board shall uh name schools and other districtowned facilities. Um so I guess my question is what if we don't want to name it anything? >> Yeah. >> May. >> Why don't we just change that to May? I think that's a great suggestion actually. >> Yeah. >> Is the board good with changing that to May? I agree with that. >> Best. Yep. >> Wonderful. >> So, a question about the naming rights. Um, >> so this seems so kind of odd to me. The board may grant
072to any person or entity the right to name any district building or facility. In doing so, the board shall enter into a written agreement. Um, so if we grant to any person or entity the right to name a district building, what would that look? You know, my sorry, were you going to say something? My um assumption is that this just >> holds the possibility open. I think that some school districts actually charge and make money by naming it, you know, >> Pepsi Cola Field or, you know what I mean? Something like that. We can take away that. You know, we can we can amend this. This is simply CSBA's recommended language. And so I think it's just open in the event the board would wish to. >> Okay, then I'm fine with it. >> Yeah.
073Yeah, I'm good. I'm good with this as as it is. >> Okay. So I will bring it back next month with the additional change of changing the shall in that first paragraph to may. Okay. Thank you. Uh 20B1 um is our school spotlight of Thornton High School. Uh and Dr. Moreno, the principal of Thornton High School, will have the mic. >> Welcome. >> Good evening, everyone. Appreciate you all having us here. Uh before I get started, there's a couple of folks I'd like to first honor and acknowledge that they're here. First, our our outstanding Thornton staff that is here to the right. And as part of our presentation today, we also have a representative of of our school student body, specifically our remote independent study program, Miss Erica WMI and her her mother and board
074of trustees, Miss Pa, executive cabinet, Miss Johnson. Thank you. Appreciate it. It's always an honor to be here with you all to share highlights about Thornton High School. And uh spoiler alert, it's about relevance. >> There's a lot of words that go into our vision and mission as a school. And specifically when we talk about um our school um how do I >> you want button? >> Sorry. >> Okay. Next slide. All right. So, a lot of words go into our vision and mission. If we could sum it up into three, you're looking at them now. It's so four. It's a equity, growth, and and community engagement. We pride ourselves on creating a culture and a community where we want to provide students what they need. And knowing that our community is in constant evolution,
075it's more about the process than than the result. And a part of the process is being mindful and grateful for the growth. And for community engagement, we like to consider ourselves a place where not only do we pay back, but we also pay beside and and and pay forward for those that have assisted us in creating a culture that allows students to continue and move on into post-secondary goals. Next slide. So for today's presentation, there are four areas that I'd like to just highlight. They include student voice. We'd like to touch upon the recent data from the California school dashboard, which essentially is providing what progress schools have made in in the last year. We want to touch upon social and emotional learning and what that looks like at Thornton High School. And as part
076of our remote independent study presentation, there's a bit of an anecdotal that Erica will share with us as to what her experience has been like. Next slide. So in the area of student voice, a big part of our growth as a school community has a lot to do with how we continuously seek and request and create systems for getting students to share out and what students need and what they want. And a lot of the changes that we made as a school has a lot to do with our student voice. Uh part of that was the construction and the design of a mural that you see now as you enter campus. And the mural was a complete design of our students. The vision, the the the images, all student driven, an example of student voice.
077Social and emotional learning is also a big part of student voice. The focus of our social and emotional learning for this particular quarter was focused on healthy decision-m and that was by design and that was by surveying our students locating from their perspective what are those things that were most important to them. So in order for us to then provide them what they needed, we were able to get feedback from the students and then through our social and emotional learning, professional learning community, construct ways for students to then discuss and reflect on their own versions of healthy decision-m. And then the third one here related to student voice is grading. An example of grading that I'd like to give you is in one of our classes, we have a process where the teacher and the
078student meet to reflect on their grade. There is a conversation about grading and it's an opportunity where the teacher and the student talk about what the grade is, why the grade has been achieved, what are some moments that have been successful, what are some areas of growth. And what it what it creates is it creates more camaraderie. It creates more collaboration and it creates more opportunities where the students feel like their grade is something that they have earned, that they've invested in, and that they own. Next slide. The second area that I'd like to highlight is the recent data from our California dashboard. Overall, it's pretty good. We've made strides in English language arts or ELA. We've made strides in mathematics and in the area of English language learners, science as well as our graduation
079rates. And those all are areas to celebrate. At the same time, those are all areas that we can certainly improve upon. And those areas that we can improve upon have been reflected in our single plan for student achievement or school plan for student achievement. The grows include reduction in suspension rates as well as an area that we're now paying additional attention to which is the college and career indicators. Ways that we are addressing both includes the reliance on social and emotional learning and ways that we could continue to educate rather than focus simply on disciplinary action. make it more of a collaborative effort working with as opposed to two and four. And with regards to the college and career indicator, there's additional information that I'll provide towards the tail end of our presentation. Next slide.
080Social and emotional learning. It happens schoolwide. Examples of it happening schoolwide includes our weekly circles with the entire school. They include quarterly themes such as healthy decision-m as I've shared earlier and they include the accessibility and utilization of our district resource which is wayfinder. Wayfinder provides lessons that are short and longer lessons so students can engage in activities as well as reflection on a variety of different social and emotional learning topics. The other is a way for students to then reflect on healthy decision-m through weekly journaling and prompts that we create through the social and emotional professional learning community. Next slide. In the area remote independent study, we have a variety of reasons why students choose RAIS, short for remote independent study. And the most common denominator is it's it's a need. It's a need
081that our district has been supportive of for the last four years since we had returned from distance learning. And over that time, we've served close to 500 students. And we have very strong graduation rates in excess of 80%. So the majority of the students that are attending and finish off with us are graduating. and those that don't in most cases are because they have completed enough credits to then return back to in-person learning and to their home schools. Ironically and interestingly enough, in the surveys that we have conducted related to remote independent study, you would think that the experiences would create some form of isolation and distancing from the school community. The complete opposite. We've created systems where students are connected to us at minimum one day a week in person and through surveys we
082have learned from our students that there is a connection that they have with us because of that ability to connect with us not just in person but also through the check-ins that our counseling department does with students as well as the teachers. So is it effective? Absolutely. It's had impacts on reductions in chronic absentee rates as well as the increase of students that are college and career ready. So with that, we have the honor of hearing from one of our remote independent study students, Miss Erica, who will share a couple of minutes on her experience. Come on up, Erica. >> Good evening. I'm Erica, a senior at Thornton High School. I've been there for two years now. And I would like to share a little bit about my story, a little background on my education
083and how I got to this point. So my co years were uh at sixth and seventh grade. And unfortunately, like many of my fellow students, I've gone downhill since then. And this is where I would also like to touch on the topic of disciplinary action as well. I found that a lot of teachers and some of my fellow students were subject to just not wanting to be heard out by teachers, staff and others which resulted in a lot of anxiety and other unfortunate feelings within myself at a very young age. So year after year, I found myself to be in kind of a dead zone, I would say, in my education. I couldn't find myself. I couldn't find where I stood mentally or emotionally, which is why I very much sympathize with any school board
084staff that really like to touch on mental health. So, when it came to my junior year, I had a talk with my my mother and said, "I want to take a different route to my education. I'm tired of being put in harsh environments where I don't feel heard and I don't feel like I can grow," which is where we did some research and found Thornton High School, specifically their RAIS program. And I came to them still in that dead zone, in that sort of dead mental headsp space. And I'm very happy to say that they helped me grow and they helped me advance to something more than I thought I could get to. I have felt nothing short of absolute support um with my decision to start my career early on ecoin therapy and the
085ecoin industry as a whole. I've also gotten much support on my decision to take a different route to college that being a gap year after I graduate in May. Uh, I would like to also give special recognition to my lovely teachers, counselors, and more at Thornton High School that were able to get me to such a point. Thank you, >> Erica. Thank you again. And thank you, Miss Milmi, for your support. Thank you. Our next slide. We have needs and we have challenges. And a couple of the needs and a couple of the challenges are the ones that we'd like to highlight today. The the needs include increasing resources to address this whole student. And often times you hear about the whole student in in in our community and at Thornton High School. uh because
086we do the very best to individualize the educational experience of our students is why we use the word this versus the whole student. And it's also in parallel with many of the continuation high schools in California where much of the focus is this whole student versus the whole student. Additional needs include community partnerships to boost college and career indicators. And again, the word relevance, what we're finding with our students is the rigor is the relevance is and if we can create relevant and meaningful educational experiences, then the rigor will will soon follow. The challenges include assessing fits for 9th grade students in RA. more specifically is what we're finding is as students are transitioning from middle school to 9th grade, looking more closely at what in-person learning could look like to begin with before transitioning
087to RA is something that we want to have extended conversations with families about to discuss the advantages and disadvantages. The second challenge is addressing the disproportionate needs across diverse student groups. And what my mean what we mean by that is we have students that have many diverse needs. Though if we see a high concentration of needs being met in one area, continuing to evaluate and assess all areas to make sure that all students needs are met equitably. And then another challenge that we are embracing is while seep in its current form will be suns setting at the end of the 2526 school year. I'm happy to share with you all that the DNA the DNA of SEEP will live on in a variety of different forms. most notably our conversations with the district office as
088well as our colleagues looking at ways that SEEP's program can be continuously embedded in how students are learning here at Thornton High School. So, more to come on that. Next slide. Planned improvements. There are other ways to improve college and career indicators and one of which I teased earlier there. One area that we are looking at is access and opportunities for students in pre-apprenticeship programs. So that includes community partnerships with not not only Skylight College, which we have a growing and strong partnership with, but also other industries to provide students a variety of different pathways towards career readiness. Another plan improvement includes ongoing assessment to enhance the relevance in learning. Continuing to seek student feedback so that that rigor can emerge based on the relevancy of what they're learning. Student Thornton High School, our survival
089depends greatly on interdisciplinary work which we believe is central to educational experiences. So that also includes increasingly focus on cross-curricular experiences so that elements of humanities, science, and mathematics can be experienced at a variety of different places on our campus. the expansion of partnerships. Not only strengthening our current partnerships that we have in our school, but also looking at other ways that we can improve and seek other partnerships to strengthen the services that that we provide our students. And again, building upon the legacy of SEP or the community environmental education program, continuing to put the C in our community, continuing to make sure that students are experiencing learning where they can learn from each other, they can learn collaboratively, and they can continue to understand what they're learning, what they're learning, how that learning matters
090in terms of their impact on their communities. And then before I end, next slide. Um, and then before I end and say thank you, um, a couple of things that I'd like to remind you all. The first is, uh, there's been an invitation recently for you all to, if you're available, attend our feast of resistance, which is a culminating event that we have at on Friday, December 19th, starting at 10:45. It was a it was a pilot program that we started this quarter combining all of our of our home room teachers to construct one course that is rooted in ethnic studies. And part of that part of that event is a celebration of our culture of foods. So, uh, come hungry because we'll have lots of different foods that honor our history, our voices, and
091our communities. Thank you. >> I think after such presentations, we do a little discussion. >> Like to start, Trustee Gagos. >> Yeah. Um, Dr. Marco, thank you. Um, Erica, thank you for sharing your story. Um, I just I I want to start off by saying I've always been a little partial since I've been up here on this das to to Thornton because I graduated from Thornton myself. Um, that was 30 years ago now. So, education has changed a lot in that time and it really makes me proud to see how far it's come and how, you know, how how much work, you know, we're putting into making this a student first approach and how we emphasize that in every little thing that we're doing. and you're just kind of bulletpointing all those really important things
092that I think that were just not considered, you know, back in my day as far as um um really kind of focusing in on the students individuality and and their needs. Um and it's super important. Obviously, we know that and I didn't experience a pandemic, Erica. So, I don't I can't say that I I know your experience from that standpoint, but I was um a student that didn't have a lot. I was a student that struggled um you know, figuring out how to get to school um figuring out, you know, how my grandmother was going to feed us. I mean, so we didn't have a lot either, you know. So I I do have some experience with that and I know how it's hard to focus on education when you're living that life and um
093how difficult that can be. So uh the fact that you know we have adults and people and a school board and and um a district that takes this so seriously the way we do. Um it just really makes me happy to see that and I I really appreciate all your hard work that's going into that and everybody at Thornton. Um, keep up the great work. >> Amazing. Um, and thank you for being brave, Erica. I see you. I recognize you and have a lot of respect. And I also want to just echo that the pandemic, I think, just unmask something that always existed, right? Not every student is naturally going to study in the same conventional system that we have. It might not necessarily be even motivated by hardship, right? Some kids just want a
094different lens, different time schedule. Um, I speak for myself, not a morning person. So I actually worked most mornings and I went in college I would actually took most of my classes in the evening. Um I find I could focus more. I've kind of run around all day. I'll go play soccer and then when I go to class I'm a lot more alert. Um and my BSN actually was online. So I'm a testament to that. that yes and I couldn't be more prouder that we are in a school district that recognizes this and is working to adapt and really listen and work with our students. Um, one thing I would like to ask principal Dr. Morango, sorry, I'm like I know it's very um is uh just like some specifics, specific numbers um you know
095like the percentage of chronic absenteeism which is something that was a really big highlight um even during a CSBA conference was like you know this this is something that's really affecting schools um and you know they highlight oh like remote learning students like well what are the actual numbers right so I would have been curious to just see like some of those numbers especially um during the pandemic, post pandemic kind of you know four or five years out now what that kind of looks like. Um but honestly without a doubt the fact that you have a student here this at this late at night to testify to a program I have no doubt um ecoin therapy I didn't even know what that was so I learned something new today and so thank you for that.
096Um and then you mentioned that students keep engagement by checking in with staff. How do students engage with each other on like that student to that interaction is very different, right? Like that you know I run into you in the hallway and we bump shoulders or we banter. How do you get how do you achieve that with these students in this setting? >> Thank you for asking that. We recently had conversations about that dynamic and what we kept going back to was how do we create conditions where this the in-person experience can can can be seen and and and felt in the remote experience. And one strategy that we've used recently is part of what we create is our Google classroom. And there was a time where the in-person experience and the remote experience and
097those students were separated. >> Mhm. We it was a very it was a transition where we ended up integrating the two and the communication towards in-person students remote students were all in the same and what that has resulted in is it's resulted in RA students participating in in-person events >> which includes our ropes courses. It includes visits to different community- based instruction or what used to be called field trips and then also even community service projects where we had some students in our RAIS program sign up and then socialize and participate with our in-person students. So what the takeaway for us was yes we started out separate but wanting to make sure that we provided an equitable experience for RI students led us into integrating and the use of technology to then bring us together
098and communicating information as if we were all one family. >> Got it. >> Yeah, >> it's really cool. Thank you. >> Thank you for that presentation Dr. Moreno. Um it's pretty evident that equity is just just the overarching theme of the work that you do at the school. Um and really the f and the focus on mental wellness which I which is really clear. I mean we can't take care of the children's um their mindset and their mental health. They're not going to be able to learn. And so the fact that everything is done through that lens is powerful. Can you tell me a little bit about you know the whole meeting teacher student meeting about their grades and the reflections? What typically happens? How much time does that take? When and when does that
099happen? We have part of part of what we needed to do is we needed to create the the system to ensure that students and teachers were able to to meet. And we made some changes to the schedule to allow teachers to have a period during the day where they would schedule these meetings with students. In a lot of cases, those meetings happen individually and there are some cases where a teacher is able to coordinate a time for small groupoup sessions. And it's during those sessions where a variety of different things happen. Uh for one, it's a it's it's a a wellness check-in. How are you doing? What's going on? Similar to when a the teacher greets a student at the door. How was your day? Or I noticed this about you. Good job on this.
100So, it's it's a personal check-in and then from there, it's a transition into here's where you're making progress and things are looking great based on the color coding system that the system we use shares with us. And then if we're slightly off track or falling off track, we talk about what's getting in the way and then what are some strategies that we go about improving upon those. There's progress reports that the RA students also receive similar to our in-person students and we don't wait very long to then have those critical meetings with families be it in person or virtual where if we are struggling or there's some changes that we're hoping to see that we're moving slower than we expected and then then we talk about what are some other ways that we can support
101before we then start having conversations about an inerson experience. >> Okay. >> And again, we don't wait very long for that to happen because we want to make sure that the students are served efficiently and because we have a we we have a certain time frame so that a student can earn a grade that then we talk about what are some options for them to to to explore. >> That's really great. I really like that. The fact that you you're able to spend that time one-on-one time with the student. I think that's really powerful and it really works well in your smaller school setting. >> And it wasn't like that to start. I mean, we did start with just they were online, >> but we meet our RAIS team meets bi-weekly. >> Mhm. >> And
102we're constantly looking to improve. And one of the conversations was, well, let's try this, >> right? >> And you know, it's the cliche, but we're building the plane in midair. >> Yeah. And we're seeing the plane fly higher and higher because of these these these structures that we're putting in place and we're seeing the results in terms of the students that are that are showing up based on the attendance and then them earning grades >> y that are passing. Well, well, I'm I'm excited for this because I would imagine that we're going to see some your dashboard scores and everything else will show improvement, but most importantly, the students themselves are learning and they're gaining confidence in what they're learning and being able to succeed and move forward. And so, kudos to you and and
103the whole team for for doing this incredible work with our students. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you for your great presentation and to our Thornon family here once again showing up. You always show up and um always supporting and uh you know Thornton I I grew up right in that neighborhood. So um uh so I also have a uh a spot in my heart for you guys. Um, uh, how many res students do we have right now? >> 66. >> Really amazing. And I I love the analogy that you gave us that you're building an airplane in midair because it's um, but the success rate seems really awesome. I'd love to see the data from that uh, in the future. And I want to commend Erica um for taking I you came
104up here without any notes, you know, so confident. I didn't think you were a student when you were sitting here. I thought you were a community member. I was waiting for you to speak up public comment or maybe you're a, you know, a vendor. Uh you wanted to share something with us and then when he told me in the hallway that you have a student here, I went where is the student? And then I realized it was you. Um, so confident, so eloquent, came up here, no notes, speaking from the heart. Um, you really gave us a strong picture of what you're what you're getting out of this program and that you took as a junior, you took control of your education and you sought out a program that was going to work better for
105you. that says a lot about your character and I think if you continue with that you're going to go far. Um and you really are, you know, a model of what um what we can do in this district and what Thornon can offer. And uh I really thank you and thank Dr. Moreno for having you here. Um because uh this is how we this is how we learn um by uh hearing directly from you. And I also want to thank um Thornton for providing us with some great student trustees and over the last two years and they also are they offer perspective that you know all of our students need to hear and they're always so um they speak from the heart and and they all graduate early. That is the thing. I mean, I've
106like at Thornton graduation, I see students who I hadn't seen since they were little in elementary school and I see the parents and I think, "Oh my god." And then I went, "Wait, he's here?" You know, and then I and you know, he's six feet tall. He's no longer the little third grader I used to know. And uh but they all say, you know, if it weren't for Thornon, we we wouldn't know he um he has a deep respect for education. He has a future now because now he believes in himself. And that's the thing is that Thornton doesn't they try so hard and they're so successful. You're so successful and not letting kids slip through the cracks. And um whenever we hear from our students at Thornton, it always it it reminds me of
107why I'm I'm a schoolboard member because usually their heartfelt stories about how for whatever reason they weren't engaging in the um in a different school and they came to Thornon and they they enjoyed coming to school every day and connecting with people who know them and won't let them fail. So, um, and I know that leadership comes from you as well. You know, everyone there, you walk onto the campus and it's like a family. So, um, I I really appreciate that. Um, and I love how you zero in on social and emotional learning because I think that's something especially for the students going there really need that. Um, let's see when and I love how you say glows and grows. I love that. I love that's the way we should all look at things. Um,
108and I love the grading. um the conversations so that the student gets is invested in their future and understanding and then that's how they also learn advocacy because so many times you know if you're in a large classroom and um you know how many times have I heard a a teacher say well you need to advocate better you need to advocate for yourself well here it's the natural course of things this is let's go over the grading and uh and they it's it's not always easy to speak to an adult, but here you're having your conversation about your future, which I think is fantastic. Um let's see, and I will be attending the Feast of Resistance. I love that name. And um I just want to thank you again for everything you do for our
109students and our community. Thank you very much, Thornon. >> Uh, thanks Dr. Marino for your presentation. Uh, thanks to everyone from the community who showed up, Erica, staff. Um, you spoke a lot about a lot of things that I'm trying to summarize. Um I think that you know what you're talking about here is um facing these challenges uh a few of them are traditional um uh serving students who who need some service. you know what whatever reason not being served somewhere else and what you're doing is meeting all those traditional challenges that take place also see you meeting new challenges uh a big one starting to age a little bit um is uh is co I'm get on my soap box for a second so I think that what happened during co is evident of
110other things that happen in our society. It's a little bit different to us. We haven't seen it before, but you know, all kinds of challenges with equity um uh with service um you know, mental health questions are are bigger than COVID and it just amplified what kind of needs we have and I think it's um very daring to take on these challenges and to answer them for our students. Um, and I think that, you know, Lauren's had some success with this, um, by building two-way trust with, you know, the students and families, with the community. Um, so congratulations and thank you very much, >> Brea. >> Thank you. I'm going to be kind of brief because it's now 9:04. Dr. Moreno, thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you so much, Thornton staff, for
111being here. Um, as has already already been mentioned. You guys always show up in solidarity and it is noticed. Um, it means a lot to us and to your students and the community. So, thank you. Um, a couple things I want to say that I think haven't already been said. I'm super proud of Thornton and I'm I'm really excited and looking forward to hearing about your model continuation school application. Um there were evaluators who came from the state and met with many of us and I know that they were very impressed with your program. Um, and I just know from being on your site, that you are um, seeing your students, that you all see your students every day that you have relationships with your students. They know that you care about them. And honestly,
112I think in in every school, that's the that's the it factor. That's the secret sauce that if students know that that there are the adults and the other people on their campus, the students, the staff care about them, it makes all the difference in the world. And there's no question in my mind when I walk on to Thornon and you know, Miss Liz is sitting with the students and I walk around, I see all of you outside with them. when I've been to your um is it called community circle? Yeah. It's it's it's wonderful. They are seen and they know that they are important and they know that they matter and they know that they have bright futures. So, I just want to thank you for that because you make the you make a big
113difference in the lives of of our young people. And I also want to say that I thought Erica was like a visiting adult from and I was like, "Hi, are you here to represent Thorn, you know, to support them?" And she's like, "Yeah, I'm a student." I'm like, "Wow, you are so mature." So, thank you so much and um I'm excited to to hear about your ecquin more about your ecquin therapy. I think that's wonderful. Thank you very much. >> Thank you all. >> Student services. We have a board policy update uh about emergency schedules. Um, Ms. Basuino. >> Good evening, President Walker. >> Good evening, >> members of the board. Um, BP 3516.5 emergency schedules is being updated to include that our instructional continuity plans are in our school safety plans. As a reminder,
114instructional continuity plans refer to a protocol for how the LEA will engage with pupils and their families as soon as practical, but no later than five calendar days following an emergency. >> Uh any discussion? >> Is this a matter that will appear? >> Let's read and then next if there's nothing then it'll go on consent next. >> Thank you. Will you please tell us about BP5113? >> Yes. Uh board policy 5113 absences and excuses is being updated to include language regarding teachers providing equivalent assignments and/or tests to students for full credit for an excused absence. >> Questions, discussion? You miss Bino. Um 21A1 uh classified longevity clarification side letter. Ms. Luhan. >> Good evening everyone. The district and the American Federation of Teachers Local 1481 entered into a side letter agreement. The purpose of this
115side letter is to provide clarification as to the actual compensation amounts for uh longevity that classified employees receive at certain points after they've been with us for after 8 years, after 12 years, 16, so on and so forth. This came up because the public employee retirement system uh the retirement system for our classified employees uh said that our our longevity compensation was not clear enough. So, we tried to make it as clear as possible and I welcome any questions. >> Um, you need an action from us, right? Move to approve the longevity clarification side letter. >> Second. All in favor? >> I I >> uh 21B1. Uh we have the first interim budget report for 2526. Uh Miss Van Raphorst. >> Thank you, President Walker. Good evening, board members. Before you tonight is the 2526
116first interim report submitted for your approval. I will provide a highle overview of the documents that you have received. Please feel free to ask questions along the way or at the end. Um, like I said, I am going to be very brief because you've had these documents and I haven't received any questions. So, I think that um, you know, I'm happy to answer any questions, but I won't spend a lot of time on the documents today. Um, EDC code requires that we provide uh an update to the board every uh quarter and this is the update that is for July 1st through October 31st. The board is required to certify in one of three ways. either a positive certification indicating that the district will be able to meet its financial obligations, qualified certification where their
117ability to meet those obligations is unclear, or a negative certification where the ability to meet those fi financial obligations is um that they won't be able to. uh as outlined in the report that I've provided, I'm recommending that you certify us as a positive certification for the first interim report because indications are that we will be able to meet our financial obligations. Um this is the time of year when I try to explain to you a little bit about how uh this report compares to our projections at budget adoption. and it compares almost exactly in all of these key indicators. Um at June budget compared to first interim report our average daily attendance um is very similar. The property tax increase is exactly the same. Our supplemental funds are almost the same. the minimum proportionality
118which is how much of those um the supplemental funds contribute to our population is the same and the retirement system has finally stabilized so we aren't seeing big variations for uh either stirs or pers one change I did make is when we had our adopted budget uh I had both 2627 and 2728 as 4% increases and I've reduced 2728 because the um state the county assessor's office has um revised those projections lower but that is pretty far out. So um it could change. We will remain community funded which means we are receiving more in property taxes than our LCFF formula indicates that we need to um educate our students. The orange bar shows what we would receive if we were LCFF funded. And as you can see that is a pretty much flat line. are
119the blue bar shows what is projected for us to receive in property taxes as a community funded district and the gap between uh those two bars continues to grow. So for this year it's projected that we will get 28% more funding than our formula dictates. As I've explained before that this does create a lot of uncertainty cuz taxes um are unpredictable and can be volatile. So, we need to make sure that we're being careful and um keeping a close eye on how the markets change. Also, it means that enrollment is not part of our equation. If we get more students, we will not get more funding. if we lose students, we will not lose funding. So, um it's just something that I like to remind people of every time I get a chance. This is
120a closer look at um some more components of our budget compared to when we adopted it versus now in first interim. In our revenue, the biggest changes were in the other state revenue. Um the state did give us a $1.1 million onetime discretionary grant. That was a grant that goes to all school districts. Um that's our share of it is 1.1 million based on our enrollment. And we also had some additional grant funds that were received for CTE. Um the increases in the certificated and classified salaries is because I failed to budget for substitutes in those areas. Uh as you know we had a financial system change um over the past year and I did not realize that those were not included in our original budget. Those are the major changes. Um we did have
121better than expected revenue in the previous year in 2425 which allowed us to have um a better starting balance than we projected. But we also had more carryover in our restricted funds than was expected. So our overall unrestricted reserve actually went down by 1.2 2 million even though our um ending fund balance went up because of the restricted fund. So we are looking at 12.4% of um reserves. Uh let's see what else I want to highlight. So the multi-year projection um I'd like to go over the assumptions real quick. Uh we did have a 4% salary increase for 24 or sorry 2526 but there are no other salary increases in this multi-year projection. There is uh an acknowledgement that we're covering 100% of increases to district paid health benefits for all but the highest cost
122plan. Um and in the out years those will be negotiated and what I budgeted for were increases that matched inflation. We all know that healthc care costs have been going up faster than inflation. So um if if we don't negotiate a higher rate then the employees will have to pick up some in the outy years 2627 and 2728. um contributions to fund 11 and fund 13. Uh as we went over during the actuals report for 2425, those two programs are uh running over budget. So, our adult school and our food service program will need to make reductions and we have been working with our labor partners to discuss potential layoffs in those programs. Uh, I have put into the budget $180,000 to contribute from the general fund to adults education, which is fund 11, and
123$160,000 to contribute to the school nutrition program. And those numbers are uh less conservative than I typically, if I'm being conservative, those numbers might be higher. Uh, but I didn't want to blow our budget all the way out of the water while we're watching, we're monitoring. Um, and then we have contributions to fund 17 continuing. Uh, our board policy recommends that we keep 1% in reserves, sorry, uh, 3% in reserves for fund 17. And so, um, right now we're at one 1.6 six almost reserves in fund 17 and we will be looking to continue to increase that. And then the last uh assumption that I'd like to point out is that we are budgeting in 2627 to expand opportunities for students at Oceanana and Terteranova uh by hopefully um increasing staff for a seven period
124day or at least some other bell schedule that might uh increase opportunities for students the way we have at Jefferson at Westmore. With that, you can see that we still have reserves well above the required minimum. We are required to keep 3% reserves in our general fund and we have 12.4 for the current year, 8.15 and 5.52 in the general fund for um the two outy years. Uh and when you include fund 17, that becomes 13.99, 10.03 and 7.42. I would point out that we have a structural deficit. Uh you can see the deficit for the current year is projected to be 4.3 million and for the next two years to stay over 4 million. Um and so we need to make sure we're keeping a close eye on that to make sure that our
125reserve funds will be able to carry us through until we can balance the budget. And then the last page here just uh goes over the timeline for our budget adoptions and revisions. The next time I will bring an update to you is in March showing um the actual spending through January. Are there any questions? And if not uh or either way, this is an action item. >> No. >> Any questions? >> Just a just a quick comment. It is actually kind of crazy to look at us being 128%. >> Yeah. >> And looking at one over 130 in the out years. That's I still just can't wrap my head around that considering we were, you know, where we came from and being a flipper for so long. So that and thank you for this. Uh
126I feel I feel better about where we're at for right now. But I know there are some some ch potential challenges ahead and and I know we've got some other discussions coming up. So, thank you so much. >> Yeah, Tina, thank you for always helping us understand um this really kind of uh overwhelming budget that you have to deal with and and figure out and and your predictions were pretty damn good. So, >> I would say yeah, you're doing you're doing something right over there. So, um, we really appreciate that. Um, yeah. So, it's it's a lot. It's still always a lot and it'll always be a lot, I think. So, it's just, you know, uh, hopefully we'll figure out a way to get some more money so we don't have to make cuts. >>
127And definitely, thank you again for putting together for taking care of business. Um, >> with you at the helm, I do not worry about this. >> Does she do that every day? every way, >> every day. Um, >> thank you. >> This is a year of this. >> We have so um but I the executive summary always, you know, really really helpful. Thank you again for that. >> You're welcome. >> Yeah, I echo that. Thank you for always being so patient, first of all, especially with me and getting these numbers to that we can make sense of it. And I'm like, "Oh, okay. The negatives in there. Don't freak out. Tina, Tina's got it." Like, you know, I'm like, "Can I borrow your magic wand?" Like, just being able to, you know, the projection was
128like really It's like staring staring the ship. uh and uh into the bay on a nice Carl dominated day. You just know where the bridge is and know how to avoid it. So, compliments. >> Uh I'd like to thank you too. Uh especially um describing deficit spending enough times that I actually understand it. Mhm. >> Um and and seriously not uh to advise us that uh what what it means for our planning. I I really appreciate that. Um thank you. >> So this is an action item. >> Move to approve the first interim budget. Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Thanks. Uh any future agenda items to consider? >> No. >> Uh you know what time it is. Move to >> second. >> All in favor? >> I post. >> Uh we'rejourned
129at 9:23. >> Thanks Marty.