001Welcome everyone. This meeting is being transcribed and summarized >> at 6:07 p.m. and there was no action taken in close session. We will start with the pledge of allegiance le by assistance. Please stand also. And first we have our recognition for the AAN HBI knowledge bowl winners with Alicia Casey, Director of Student Equity Outcomes Act. Thank you. Good evening board members, superintendent, assistant superintendent, and audience here today. Today we are going to recognize our schools and winning teams that participated in our first Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander knowledge. I am Alicia Casey. I'm the director of student equity access and outcome. And I here have here with me today Javal Brown. He is a local historian and he also is raised in the Hill Valley area and is a creator of the AHPI knowledge bowl
002and calendar. And so first we're gonna hear a few words from you all >> once again. So it's a pleasure and honor to be here. Uh real quick, super quick story. It's 2005. It's one year out of college and I went to Egypt and got bit by the proverbial travel bug. not just been in terms of I need to go and take full Facebook photos, but learning about history and culture and food and dance, people, and unique ways of doing things. That has now led me to 16 countries uh at six o'clock in the morning tomorrow. I'll be going country number 17, 18, and 19 of our scheduled. I'm hoping to eclipse 21 by the end of this year. And what what I do with that is bring back all this knowledge and information and
003experiences and conversations and pour them into the bowl. And I'm happy that school district sees the value in that, you know, continues to allow me to be value partner and bring bring those things to the bowl. Uh things that aren't necessarily always captured in the curriculum about food and dance and people is what I like to share and shine a spotlight on. So, uh, this third null vote in the A and NPBI along with the Latino and African-American bowls again truly makes my heart smile. Judging by people in this room, it makes folks happy to experience these things as well. Great. Thank you. So it would not be possible without Jamal Brown, but then also our student equity team, which is Army, our HFS tote, and Brandy, our district community and family ambassador. And so
004just like our Latino knowledge bowl and our black 365 knowledge bowl, the AA and HPI knowledge bowl is a cahoot style game where our students get to show their knowledge and their understanding of history in the past and present. This school year we had 10 schools participate in grades four through eight. The schools are Discovery, Endeavor, Jack Northrup, Joshua, Lava, Weekend, Gender Birdie, Mariposa, Monav Vista, and New Vista. So, we want to say thank you to all of the school sites that participated. We thank the admin for their still encouragement and making sure that our students are there available to participate and to study. And of course our coaches who week after week provide the time, the space and the knowledge also to help them study and prepare for the competition. So we also continue
005to partner with our expanded learning opportunities because again it can't happen without their funding of the afterchool program and all of our coaches all of our students they practice after school and it's because of our expanded learning opportunities program. So please let's give them a hand. So we're not going to labor this anymore. We're going to go ahead and hand out the trophy. And so we're going to call up our MC's, which is Sam Yume and Todd Pulman. Todd Powman. Both Sam and Todd Pulman. Graciously were our MC's for the night and they're going to help us hand out the trophies right over there. And so when I call your name, school, if any students that are here, coaches that are here, administrators that are here from that site, if you'll come up forward and
006you're going to all stand up here because then we're going to ask our superintendent as well as our cabinet and our board members to come and take a picture with them also. Okay, so without further ado, our team that competed in fourth through eighth place, we have our second place team with our second place trophy, school trophy is Endeavor Middle School. And then our first place team is Lava. Lava, come on. Lava was a powerful team of three. And so they'll be taking that sh back to them. Three students. It was three students. All right. So, from our from our school that competed in the competition of fourth through six, our second place team is Linda Birdie. Linda Birdie. want to point out the wonderful shirt as we then call up our first place team.
007Come on down. If you're here, you can come on down and take pictures with our superintendent board members if you would like to come. Also, we're going to bunch you up a little bit. Let's give them one more round of applause. This applause is also for the family. Thank you so much for bringing your students out tonight and for making sure that they practiced and participated in the AA NHI knowledge. So, our last thank you to our school board. Thank you to our superintendent, Dr. Marrietti, for supporting our first annual AsianAmerican, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander knowledge bowl. And we hope to see you at the Latino Knowledge Bowl in September, October. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. out. We can acknowledge Alicia for all the work she does for all of our knowledge. Now
008it's time to get some ice cream and celebrate. All right. Next on our items, we have enrollment report. Total UTK through 8th grade 14,571 total early learning department non UTK7 or a total of 13,928 students out of the 13,928. We have, 219 homeless, 315 foster, 719 that have family in the armed forces, which is a loss of 40 students since our last board, and a loss of 349 from the state last year. Uh, thank you. Next, we have the EAC update. Giovana or a multilingual learner programs coordinator and Good evening board members and tonight we're sharing an update from the district English learner advisory committee better known as DAC presented by the multilingual learners programs department. I'm Yanao the multilingual learner program for you. Today we'll also have our uh DAC secretary Marian go. They
009say they can't advance the slides. >> I'll do it. >> Hi, my name is Marian Gomez. Uh California, we're going to start off what be elected since the California law that requires any district with 51 or more English learners to have a which gives parents voice in the district decisions affecting English learner program. The committee meets throughout the year and guides need assessments, monitors performance and makes recommendations. sorry connected to our LCAP and district matching plan. For example, we voted in updating reclassification criteria to align the Department of Education to provide more pathways for students to demonstrate their their English proficiency. As a result, we currently have 189 students request signing this year. Um, and we're still counting, right? And in fact, tomorrow we'll be celebrating these important milestones in their educational journey. Reclassification moves
010students from English learners to a reclassified fluent English proficient. Students must meet four criteria which is the ELPAC assessment, teacher evaluation, parent complication, and basic skill benchmark. DAC conducts an annual survey for EL families drive program decisions. Um so some of the key findings that we have from 2024 to 2025 and the 2025 to 2026 trend report slide is the ELB curriculum understanding that grew from 45.2% 2% to 56.3%. An 11% improvement and the 83 81.3 of parents have found reclassification information helpful. 87 87.5% are expecting more language development resources barriers are impacted by participation from 95.8% to 75 including schedule conflicts that need more interpreter support. Additionally, parents report difficulty using parents square empower school to track student programs. And while parents perceptions of being well welcomed as partners at a site level decrease
011from 75% to 50%. The MLP department is coordinating with MLP chairs to expand the family engagement efforts by providing resources and supported a stronger partnership of students with family. Here's what we accomplished this past year. Over 100% increase in DAC participation, tremendous growth in family engagement. We hosted family workshop and ESL classes for adults and updated reclassification criteria for our EL students. We distributed emergent bilingual backpacks, formerly referred to as newcomer, for year one student and summer curriculum materials for year 2 and year three students. We launched Summit K12 language supports for grades K through 8 and language power ELD in middle school. And we held the first Saturday ELPAC Academy districtwide for K2 students with many of those kinder attendees reclassifying this year. collaboration with Summit K12, a platform that assists our EL students,
012which brought additional resources to families created stronger homeschool partnerships. built parent capacity to provide academic support at home and boost student motivation and attendance. We trained 14 test examiners to support with initial and summitive ELPAC testing. We offered a district-wide Saturday ELPAC Academy for K through 2 grade students designed to help students build confidence and familiarity with the assessment format. Here's a video showcasing student learning in action at the ELAC Pen. So as the secretary on and behalf like I'm asking the board to consider for recommendations technology workshops for parents school ELB ELA and math resources to strengthen our student skills at home yearroundmies including after school Saturday options, expanded workshop topics such as homework support, emotional learning, adult education, and school safety to increase family participation. Additional program highlights include the traveling alpac testing
013team who administered 1086 plus test in wave 1 for grades through third through 8 and 286 plus test in wave two for K through second and all four domain slide. We have bilingual pair of professionals that serve as vital links between school staff and non-English-speaking families supporting instruction reclassification and progress tracking. Thank you to them for your support. ESL courses for adults were offered at two Lancaster locations by Carla Chinia and Michelle Ramirez with child care provided offering beginner and advanced levels available. With that, we would like to introduce our district interpreter translator to share a parent testimony. Hello, good evening. I wanted to share an experience I had with a parent a few weeks ago during a night. I began interpreting and a few sentences in mom looks at me and gently places her
014hand on my arm. She smiled at me and said, "Thank you. Um, I'm understanding." I nodded and let her know that I was there just in case she needed me. Throughout the meeting, I kept checking in with her to make sure there were no gaps in communication, but she confidently kept her eyes on the team, discussing concerns, strengths, and problems regarding. She enthusiastically shared that she had been taking ESL class, really wonderful teachers. She said she saw flourish and added how important this program. She added that there's even childcare provided which removes even more barriers. Her enthusiasm moves me to hear. She ended by saying his experience has empowered her to be more independent has allowed her to be more involved with child education and she encourages everyone she knows who participates in the program.
015I feel really proud of her. I'm really proud to be a part of the department with everything they've done for us. In closing, we are proud of the growth we've seen in DAC participation and student reclassification this year. The data and community feedback are guiding us towards more equitable and effective support for every English learner in Lancaster School District. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Uh that's a lot of great growth this year and a lot of great programs we see that you're uh in working on in the district. We'll definitely take a look at the recommendations. Uh hopefully we can get those all in as well. Thank you so much. Uh next we have the early learning uh self evaluation by Dr. Kelly Faline, director early learning. >> Good evening board. What an
016honor it is for me to present to you two board meetings. Tonight we're going to have our self-ealuation. It's a requirement from the state peaceful school program. And I want to talk to you a little bit about uh we won't go through this whole self-evaluation today because that's a lot of information, but I have something very exciting that I want to highlight for you. But first, I want to remind you and everyone else that we serve uh the state preschool program as a bridge between the early learning and care system and the school district. And we are a combined program of both preschool, full and partday preschool. We have two year olds and we also run 26 uh TK classes with two dual language immersion TK classes. One of the unique things about our program,
017which has become a model for the state, is the way that we've leveraged funding and blended together to make sure we can provide a high quality program for children from two years old to the age of five and support staff with what they need to make sure they're successful in the classroom with children each day. These are the components of the state preschool self-evaluation. Um we are going to talk today about the program quality component. But first I want to talk to you a little bit about how the trends for our enrollment has changed since um UTK became a fully implemented program. We've seen the growth of our UTK program go from 15 classes to 26. Next year we're adding our 27th. So we have around 618 children enrolled in our UTK program. Those are
018children that turn four by September 1st. And our partday preschool program has declined in enrollment because children are more more children are in four year olds here or enrolled. State allows families to have a choice between a part preschool or UTK. Um and then our full day preschool programs steady around 70 children. We work to fill that every year with families. They have to meet a need requirement in in addition to the eligibility be working, going to school, looking for a job, but we do have always in that program. So when you're out and about kids, so we're going to go over program quality. A couple of things in program quality that we're pretty proud of. The desired results, which is the assessment that's observation based for our children in the classroom. We taught all
019the teachers in UTK. They have been amazing at coming along with us and doing observational based assessment. I pulled the data for you for our four-year-olds because this is what measures that they're ready for kindergarten. So the first uh the data is broken down by the domains of learning. Alt regulation, social emotion development, language and literacy, cognition includes math and science. Um PDH is PD health and then ELD is our English language development. The the line on the left hand side is the fall DRP. The line on the right hand side is the spring dart fe. So you can see what great gains the four-year-olds are making in our program. That is 100% attributed to the teachers and the team that is working in that classroom quality for those children each day. Our goal is
020to make sure that the children are at 80% or higher building middle or late later um by by spring and you can see that in cognition which is math and science they are far exceeding that 80%. We still have a little work to do with English language development and supporting children in building English language development skills. As we transition into the new DRDP, those skills will be broken out into foundational language uh learning and then English language. The next area we I want to just highlight quickly is the classroom assessment scoring system. This is an outside evaluator that comes in and looks at all of our classrooms. This year we evaluated 46 classrooms. You can see at the bottom our scores from 2025 have increased significantly in the areas of um emotional support and classroom
021organization and we did increase in instructional support which is the most challenging nationwide. The average there is three will continue to work in the class next year. We hired a coach and that would be she will be doing but today I really want to highlight our uh social emotional learning. We have created an MTSS early learning MTSS if you will where we have three tiers of support for children. In tier one we are setting up high quality classrooms which includes things like uh schedules that we have for kids, job charts, um visual things for children like center tech. They have autonomy when they pick jobs that they want to do and what centers in the room they want to go to. That's across every classroom, two-year-olds all the way up to TK. As children progress
022through the day, there are some children that need a little bit more. And so, we've worked with two different agencies to support. The first one is the California teaching pyramid, which is based on PBIS framework. They work with our teachers to make sure that they are um using strategies that are proactive with children and building relationship based practices, working on positive behavior supports and strategies that promote healthy relationships. This year they coached 37 classrooms. We had 12 different sessions of learning with them uh with TK and PK and they we also established the first ever early learning leadership team. that once a month to look at things we're doing in the program and putting some practices in place around our vision and mission and what we want to see as we go forward in the
023program. So they are a part of our tier one system, but when we see children that are not responding to those tier one supports, they do support staff to use some of strategies more intentionally. And then in our tier 2 system, we've been working with this agency called Autism Spectrum Therapies, which is part of a parent company called Learn Behavioral. And Haley Pier, she I met Haley when she was nine months pregnant and her son is nine years old. We've been using autism spectrum therapies in our program in a very limited way. And over the years, we have grown to use them in a more purposeful um way. And this year we really did dig into using the staff in that program to support children who were in the tier 2 range that were not
024responding to those tier one supports. So the team at autism spectrum therapies have been in 10 different schools. They have worked with all of the classrooms from PK and TK in 25 of the 40 of the 27 classrooms. They provide ABA support for children as well in a way that's directed through the teachers. So they're providing strategies for teachers to help them support children to respond to uh strategies. They work directly with staff to build their confidence to use the strategies in the classroom each day. And they support teachers um really just building up their ability to say here's uh the function this kiddo is having the struggles. What is the function of that struggle and let's find a strategy that works for them. They use really three basic anticedant behavior strategies which are environmental
025arrangements. So helping the teacher team look at the classroom and say there's something in the classroom we could change to support your kiddo. Priming making sure that they are giving kids strategies before a direction is given and then providing some intentional visual support. So, while the classroom might have visual schedule on the wall, they might make one that's specifically targeted for a particular kiddo that needs something more hands-on or center. They worked with 47 kids direct support. Of the 47, 36 of those kids were able to regulate and and go back to not having that direct support. 106 different educators were supported in using those babies shut which is pretty amazing considering um some of the most disregulated children entering the school system come in at three and four years old when we're asking them
026to do things they haven't been told to do before because they've been at home and at home there's not 23 other so with our system looks like this we have tier one tier two and tier three we're working on in the next couple of years the data that we have that shows this is working. Our SSTs 94 meetings were held in 2425 were on 57 kids and 38 of those ended up in a full team assessment whereas in 2526 the number of meetings were held was 63 for a total of 41 students and 26 of those ended in a full assessment. Uh what I'm not reporting is how many of those kids were made eligible for or were eligible for IEP services, but more highlighting the strategies that we're using in the classroom are supporting
027more children to not have to go through that SST process and to not eventually be um made eligible or considered for eligibility in special education. We still see that there are some children that are needing a little bit more. So next year we're working on our tier three system on board. Tonight you have a presentation or a proposal for Joar Innovations. This is a company that supports San Francisco Unified School District to create what's called Sho Strings Children's Center. and children's center at in San Francisco shoings is really built around a tier three intervention to support children who are not responding to tier one or tier two in a very unique model where interventions are used in this space while the child is concurrently enrolled in the district and then children are moved between the
028program in a 10-week cohort with the support and involvement of their parents. Um but in whatever fashion that looks like depending on you know parents schedule and availability of work schedule we are um presenting this idea of uh keeping straight to the idea of sho strings and calling this tier three model cases. We're excited to be able to provide this to our district and to support children. Children in this program at Shoings have a 3% um expulsion rate or suspension rate, sorry, not expulsion rate after they've attended this place program, the first cohort has gone into high school this year. So from the very first cohort, preschool all the way to high school, only 3% of those children have ever been suspended and less than 3% have ever been made eligible for special education. So
029it's a system that works to support children. the earlier we support them better and to support the families working on this model as we forward to next year. And then just a reminder that in the early learning program we are educating the whole child which includes the family and as the child first teacher and we're working to make sure that we are supporting their physical health or social emotional regulation and the public as they are learning based environment. questions. >> Yeah, looks like a lot of great work, great accomplishments this year. Very, very nice. Um, the shoe string of that successful or the laces program. Is that something that could be lined to other schools as well >> in like each year in Lancaster? Well, we're going to start with early learning. We're going to
030see how it goes and then we will definitely if we are ready to move into different grade levels, we'll definitely bring that back to you. But our plan is to start with preschool, TK, and K. >> Any more questions? >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, next we have individual action items business approval of amendment number one inspection services agreement for the Discovery Elementary School permanent shade structure project. We have a motion by second discussion. All in favor? Motion carries. 4 Z. Item 12B, approval of 2026 27 terminal fiscal stabilization budget management plan disclosure requirements by Mr. W. Any discussion? All in favor zero. Item C adoption of resolution 20252647 patient protection requirements for 2067 school year by Mr. W discussion. >> Can I uh verify these are authority requirements that that a resident
031should be approved by the board designated extensions that we have vehicle. It's different from the environmental All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries 40. Item D, adoption of resolution 2025 2648 designating certain general funds as starlson. Discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries 40. And E, adoption of resolution 2649, moving the uncommitted fund balance. Discussion favor. opposed. Motion carries 4 Z. Item 13, individual action items, human resources, approval of principal second also second by Mr. W discussion. >> Yes. Um, for the past two years, Jane Nestali has served as assistant principal at Desert View, where she worked alongside principal Sibi to drive positive growth on the California dashboard and helped close equity gra gaps for students. One of her proudest accomplishments has been contributing to the school attendance team efforts which led to a 9.9
032reduction in chronic absenteeis values strong relationships and the trust she has built with staff students community members connections she believes are essential to lasting academic success. Before joining Lancaster school district two years ago, she spent 20 years as a classroom teacher serving deaf and heart of hearing students. Outside of work, Mrs. Nostalia enjoys painting, camping, playing golf, and spending time with her family. With that, all in favor? Motion carries. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Thank you. It is an incredible honor and I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve our community in this as here in the audience. I'd like my family in the audience tonight. I have my husband Stephen and my son Taylor who are with me and who have supported me every step of the way in
033my career. And so like as well also I would be remiss about honoring also for the incredible training um that she offered me as I thought my hand busy there at Desert View. So thank you very much for the opportunity. I look forward to serving the students at Next we have removal of assistant principal >> David we have a motion motion by Mr. Win by Musler discussion. >> Kayla David has served in public education for 24 years with 20 of those years as a classroom teacher. She also serves as a professor of literacy and methods at Claremont Graduate University teacher education program. She currently serves as a middle school English teacher and ASP director at New Vista Middle School where she has spent the past decade in the Lancaster School District. She has served on
034a variety of professional committees including PBIS, ILT, standardsbased report card committee, community schools committee, >> design team, equity team, and work 11 seasons as a girls run coach. She was voted teacher of the year for Nista in 2020. She has served as the president of the Palmdale City Library board for the past decade. She is proud of centering student voice through her work with student leaders across the district in conjunction with other ASB directors and the equity team. Outside of school, she enjoys gardening, hiking, cooking, dancing, traveling, spending time with loved ones, and serving the community through volunteer and activism work. She's >> motion carries. Congratulations. Two weeks. I've been so excited. Um, thank you Lancaster School District board for your vote of confidence and appointing me as the assistant principal of new vista for
035the coming school year. Saying that out loud feels surreal. Um, 10 years ago I started out in this district as a sixth grade teacher. I came here to have opportunities to grow professionally and have a greater impact. I've had so many professional opportunities here and I've also grown as a person. Special thank you to Miss Moya, Mr. Salivar, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Thank you for being my professional mentoring on this journey. Tonight I have my family in the room and my colleagues who are also part of my tiger family. My sisters and baby nieces are watching online because it's their bedtime and my daughter is watching from Long Beach. My daughter Fiona actually one of my very first students at Nissa 10 years. And also my godaughter patient she's defender. My is also a new tiger
036and my godson Nehemiah is a monster bank. Maybe he'll be a When Mike called to congratulate me and offer the position of new vista. I was completely surprised. I'd already made peace with the grace that I would likely be leaving my site. And I'd even set all my Tiger Spirit gear in a pile to donate. I'm so thankful that instead of writing a goodbye letter, I get to write an acceptance. Starting my administrative journey at New Vista is such an incredible gift and an immense opportunity. I love our students and families and I love our team. I'm looking forward to working with Mr. Salavar and Dr. Dafus to further the work we've been doing at our school. I promise to show up every day turning struggles into opportunities, fostering positive relationships between staff, students, and
037family, and pouring my entire heart into the work every single day so our collective freedom dreams can come true. To my students, I promise to always keep your best interest at the center of my decision for my reason. And it's a new day in Vista. >> Congratulations. Uh, next we have approval of assistant principal Christian Sandaval. Do we have a motion? >> Motion by M. Second discussion >> sir Christian Sandival has worked in education since 2012. He has held various roles in public schools throughout the past 14 years. For the last seven years, he's been the 11th grade math teacher at Valor Valor Academy High School in North Hills. He's proven himself to be a leader at his site by creating schoolwide impact in the role of mentor teacher, induction mentor, department chair, grade level
038chair, teacher leader, and summer school administrator. Christian's craft classroom was facilitated through student discourse and was used as a resource for teachers within his district to do the same. He is also the proud new proud father of his 10-month old son, Rome. Christian is excited for the opportunities and challenges that are to come and is ready to make a positive impact at Amarosa Creek for the students, staff, and parents. And he's with us in the >> car. Congratulations. Thank you to the board for your approval and to the staff and students who make me feel welcome to go preach today. And while I'm not here today, all of the educators I've worked with to prepare me for this moment. I understand the weight of the role and the numerous families counting on me and trusting
039me to do right for their children. I will not let them down. Thank you again. This opportunity Okay, with that, um, we'll take a short break. Anyone needs to to leave or take a little time, you can go get some ice cream as well. And, uh, have a great evening, everyone. Congratulations. We're really excited for this coming year. Take care. This is the apple. Okay, go ahead and get started here with addressing the board. >> Okay. Anyone uh individuals who wish to address the board may complete a speaker card and present it and any supporting documents to the superintendent's assistant or other district official prior to the start of the meeting. personal information such as student, parent, guardian name, address, phone number, date of birth, email address, or other directory information as defined in code
04049061 may be excluded from the minutes of the meeting by submitting a written request to the superintendent. Board president shall recognize individuals wish to speak. Individuals wishing to present testimony to the board concerning specific items on the agenda may do so once that item has been moved seconded and is on the floor for discussion. Time limits of 3 minutes per person and 20 minutes per item shall be allowed according to board bylaws 9322. Board members may ask questions for clarification purposes. However, no action may be taken and no discussion may take place on an item not on a posted agenda for the Brown Act. Comments from the audience. Yeah, we have a speaker card for Adriana Garansa. >> Good evening. My name student over at Sierra Elementary. Today I wanted to come over concerned with
041the shooting on May 8th. I'm when I learned about it, I actually learned from someone completely disconnected from this from our school district um that uh you know other parents were not notified and not concerned or not told what happened that day. I myself learned more from Facebook and the community group than I did from our school leadership. It aggravates me how there's no accountability within the school district for parents to be notified. A year ago, the same thing happened where there was a lockdown while it was not it was accidental and not at all a public safety concern, right? It's still happening a year later where there is no protocol to the parents. A year ago, parents weren't even notified that a a lockdown happened in the first place. I understand while there was
042a an immediate threat to students and it was an accident. I myself wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't gone to pick up my daughter earlier and overheard administrators talking about it to the staff while waiting for my daughter to be removed from her classroom a year ago. We're here a year later and still in the same boat where I'm learning more from Facebook than I am from our administrators. I'm also here for a second safety concern which involved my daughter being harassed and um just made to feel like she wasn't welcome on school campus. I reached by another another adult that is a guardian. While I've reached out to our administrative our administrators, I have not gotten a response back immediate or caring. My daughter still it it's been a month and my
043daughter still doesn't feel comfortable going to her school. We need to do better for students. Thank you. Did it say here the district of the good evening chair members of the I'm here to write serious concerns that have been consistently members of our community regarding the use of mandated reporting systems in our school and the disproportionate impact these practices appears to be having black students and their families. Families have reported pattern in which the detine is being utilized in response to behavior concern attendance issues or perceived indicators that are closely tied to socioeconomic hardship particularly poverty related circumstances. There is a growing concern that these calls are at times being made without sufficient sufficient exploration of contact for consideration of cultural, racial or economic vi. The result is that families experiencing hardships are too often
044being interpreted through a lens of neglected black rather than support. Whether intentional or not, the perception and lived experience in many communities is that this system is being used in a way that can feel punitive leading to unnecessary investigation and in some cases the removal of children from classrooms or home environments without clear substantial substantiated cases. This emotional impact of being action is sign students experience distress, disruption, stigma and trauma. All of which directly interfere with their s with their sense of safety, belonging and ability to learn. Families in turn experience erosion of distrust in the education system. It is it is critical that we acknowledge the broader harm that can that can occur when mandated reporting is not applied with precision, cultural awareness and strong professional judgment. Over reporting or over or or biased
045reporting does not strengthen child. It can instead undermine by diverting resources from children who are truly in need potentially damaging relationship between schools and the communities they serve. For these three, I respectfully urging the board to take immediate and proactive steps. First, require all school staff, not only initial initial onboarding participants, but on a recurring basis to complete enhanced training and advice by cultural responses and discrimination prevention. Second, strengthen mandated reporting trainings to ensure 30 seconds practical distinctions between poverty, cultural differences, neglect, and actual indicators of abuse and endanger staff must be equipped to make informed equitable decisions grounded in contact rather than function. First, finally, I ask the board to examine per current reporting practices and accountability structures to ensure that families are not being disproportionately subjected to investigations that cause harm without sufficient
046justification. Our children deserve to be protected, but they also deserve to be protected. >> Thank you. And we have our last um even trustee and superintendent. I'm Raquel Darker with camp contract here at special education advocate. I'm here to bring attention to a serious safety concern that occurred at Sierra Elementary School that was previously referenced by a parent whose child actually goes there. I actually learned of this incident during a town hall meeting I attended last week hosted by the principal at Sierra. It was their end of the year gathering where parents could share successes and challenges face to face with the principal. Parent was very vocal in their concerns about schools and in the end the principal's response to a shooting that occurred on Friday, May 8th. Mayo fired into the school while children
047were pregnant. There were several allegations including the school was not immediately put into a full lockdown. Instead, a modified lockdown was issued. It would also alleged that when students ran to shelter in the closest classroom, they were told to go to their own classes. This means that students were allowed to be out in the open after shots had been fired. Bullets were also alleged to have been found watched in two windshields of cars that were in the school parking lot as well as rolling being seen on school grounds. These all point to shots being fired into the school and not just in the neighborhood. This should have immediately triggered a full lockdown until law enforcement arrived and had cleared the school and the surrounding area. None of this was done and the children at that
048school were in legitimate danger. It has also been alleged that parents who ask the principal what actually happened were not given accurate information. Parents have the right to expect that their children will be safe when they leave them at school and students should feel safe and secure when on campus. I would also like to bring attention to the fact that this district paid in a conservative estimate more than $650,000 per year to the county for its school resource deputy contract. Where was the school resource deputy that day? According to a person who lived a block away from the school, the police response time was so slow that the suspect got away and were only apprehended at a later date by the standard police work done of deputies who work in the community, not the school
049resource deputy. This district stresses the need for deputies specifically assigned to schools because it means safety for students due to a faster response time. This incident at Sierra shows this not to be true. It also exposed a serious failure by a school administrator tasked with keeping our children safe. Thank you. >> That's the last speaker. Thank you. And next we have comments from PTA CSA. And that brings us to the consent agenda items superintendent items 15 A and 15 C. Do we have a motion? Charleston second. Any discussion on the donation of the food hygienic hygiene boxes school received from these are going to a worthy cause. are many of uh people within our district that benefit from these uh donations. Never want to see it come to our giveaway. And uh just witness the
050number of people that have that drive up to the uh food giveaway. I've seen it wrap around That just proves needed in this district. But just to say thank you for welcoming all the rose and s them all they can. That all in favor? Opposed? There is 4 Z. Next item 16 consent agenda items business. We have a motion. Motion. Motion by Musler. Second by W. Any discussion? uh um not the school energy coalition but I just wondered how that work. We'll get you the information on that. I don't have all the details on that right now. Get that for you. Any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries 4 Z. Next we have item 17, consent agenda items and services items 17A to 17J. We have a motion by M. Charson. Any discussion? All
051in favor? Opposed? Carries. 4 Z. Item 18, consent agenda items, human resources, items 18A and 189. Do we have a motion? Motion by Mr. Second by any discussion. All in favor? Opposed? Motion 4 zero. Item 19, consent agenda item student and family services items 198 and 198. Mr. Wayne discussion. All favor motion carries 4 zero. Uh next we have the legislative and policy discussion input readings. I just I just want to mention that the school energy coalition is a fee $260 fee and it's a district membership to with a group of other districts who get access to legislative information and networking with school and others seeking to learn more about how to successfully move school energy project. small fee to join the newsletter that talks about. >> Okay, great. Thank you. I know we were
052one of the first schools to start the solar and the battery program, so really helped a lot. >> Yeah, I was um pleasantly surprised when I came to Lancaster and saw the solar and then I realized it was 120 degrees at the time. side. >> Shade in our parking lot. >> Very good. All right. um comments from the board and let's start with Mr. Stson. >> Good evening every um thank you for enduring our wonderful celebration of our AAHPI um participants as well as our top winners. They really did a fabulous job. If you missed it, you missed something really awesome and great. So, the good thing is that you get three new opportunities this upcoming school year. Um, excellent work um for the DAC report. Thank you for the updates on everything that you
053have to offer. It's looking really good and I look forward to seeing the additional uh pages and work on. So, uh thank you very much for that as well. Um thank you Dr. Fountain for uh not only for your report but as well as the personal tour that you took of me on having the opportunity to really see up close and personal at Sierra Elementary School was a really great experience to see how that program was working at in real life with the kids with the um with the teachers and the instructors and everything. So, thank you so much. Um, congratulations um, for all of our Lancaster School District on our family engagement event that took place. It was just so wonderful seeing all the parents celebrated that come out, all the volunteers that come
054out, seeing all the staff and the different programs that we have here at the district working collectively to show them just how much they're valued at a really great time. and thank you for the invitation opportunity to speak with our parents. And um last but not least, it was Nub's 30th year anniversary. So they had a really good event there as well. So if you missed it, um I guess you have to do year 31. So other than that, um thank you, Miss Cley. Thank you all for attending tonight and congratulations on almost making thank you Alicia and Jamal for presenting. I really enjoyed um I wasn't able to attend but love hearing how many schools actually just make the elab presentation. It was great to see all the families kids to see the ESL
055is offering to the parents and families. I think that's a really really important service that you know we can provide for our families which is really understanding having someone there for them in that transition period. Um learning Dr. Thank you so much. I love hearing about all of the academic just trying to teach them. There's lots of things they have many of them. And um also being all of our new administrators. Um I think that that's really exciting to see people coming in and especially people that have already been in our district that are um kind of working out. So that'll be exciting to see in the next school year. So much. So thank you again. And um you know again for those that are making it through school, hang in there. There's only a
056few more days. Thank you. Next we have Mr. W. Thank you all for attending. Um, thank you for the attendance report. Even though it's down, it's uh still 13,000 students. not losing that. Um, I've seen some districts that are down thousands of students. So, I think Lancaster School District has a lot to offer. That's that's part of the the knowledge pool that Alicia brings. You and Sam did a good job from what I hear in the MC's of the event. It's good to know that you're there doing it and uh we're happy that it went so well. Um DAC what I understand is the number of reclassification students is very very high which is great because a lot of these students have to understand that their A to G requirements at the high schools count
057on them being reclassified at the elementary middle school level. So glad to see that. One other thing is that the uh Ka 2 that we're starting to look at class that is great. these students need that we uh so I'm happy Lincoln's a great got three new members for your uh principal assistant principal and uh assistant that are going to help out Mr. to place the uh the honor roll sixth grade. I was there for that and uh it it it went very well. Students, although a little noisy at times, they're sixth graders and they've got a less than three days left. So, I think they did very well. new playground was that all of them all case that new padding grow Oklahoma bruise dude it's great and on upper mat so thank you very
058much thank you Mr. W Dr. Okay. So, I want to um acknowledge our multilingual learner program and our our DAC and all the work they did throughout the year both with um our students and also with our parents. And you know, we have an early uh we have a newcomer program over at Linda that think we're going to change the name, but um the work is the same. It's really creating a great environment for students that are new to the United States to come and feel welcome and feel celebrated and to begin their journey of acquiring that new language. So, I just have nothing but good things to say about the program and and about the work we do in Lancaster School District around multilingual learners. Remember, the name is not English learner, it's multilingual
059learner. It's not a deficit. It's it's really a gift to be able to speak two languages in them during these times, right? This is this is something that is is something that they can take with them and it'll be help them to be successful in their future. So, I also want to acknowledge our early learning program. I am a converted uh early learning program celebrator because you know a lot of my career I felt like early learning was the other program. It was the state program in the back of the school that nobody really talked about but um I would say that our early learning program as it is now and as it's growing is probably a model for the state of California. Dr. Fountain, PhD, is on many many state um committees and state
060boards. Um and she's really helping to shape um the future of early learning. So, we're very lucky to have her and her team in our district. And you know what I've realized in the course of my education um is that when you are successful in your early learning program that really translate into success in your elementary schools and onto your high schools and onto life. So we have to um really work hard to make sure that we see early learning as part of our our continuum of grade levels throughout the district and not as something separate. So I really acknowledge that. I'd also like to encourage um and celebrate the promotions that are going on tomorrow and Thursday over at the fairgrounds. We have um promotions all day tomorrow and promotions all day on Thursday.
061So, if you have a student uh we want to see you out there uh celebrating our students as we wish them well and send them off to high school. And um two last things. One is we strongly imp uh we strongly encourage all of our parents to join parent square. I cannot emphasize this enough. Lancaster school district communicates with our community with our parents through Parent Square. If a if a parent is not on Parent Square, they are not getting the information so necessary for them to know what is going on at their child's school. So, for parents who who haven't um gotten on to Parent Square, and there's many ways to get the information. You can get it um through a text, you can get it through an email, you can get it on
062the website. Um we strongly encourage you to register. It's a very simple QR code that they can find on our website. So, please go in there, register for parent square. It can deliver messages in real time. It can deliver messages at the end of the day, but it can all also be overridden to push out messages immediately. So that's how we communicate with our our families. That's what we desperately need all of our families to be on Parent Square. Okay, almost done. And then um I want everybody to get out and vote, of course, because today is Tuesday. It's uh we've got um elections and it doesn't matter what party uh you're in or what your beliefs are. Get out there and vote. It is the American way. And finally, I would just like to
063acknowledge the work of Bard Hoffman, our assistant superintendent of educational services, who is going to ride off into the sunset um in the next couple of weeks. He is um ending his educational journey. Uh I don't think it's over, but it's going to be changing. It's going to be a little bit of a different journey, but um and he's going to be ending 10 almost 10 years with the Lancaster School District in which time he has grown and developed our education service department. He has been um a a wonderful leader in the school district and a great mentor to all of our directors. Um, you know, the thing I said the other day was when I came to Lancaster School District, what I found was a very effective, efficient, um, wellorganized and well-run school district.
064And a large part of that was because of Bart Hoffman. And so, we want to just acknowledge all the great work he's done over the past decade. We want to wish him well in retirement. We want to see him around once in a while. And we want to provide him with a clock, which I guess is the traditional gift. You guys look, you work for 30 years in education. You are gonna get a clock, man. That's all I got. >> Thank you, Dr. Maretti. And, you know, thank you board. Uh, I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to work in Lancaster School District for both the superintendents I worked for. you look forward to the opportunities you provided. You gave me a place to call home and I'll forever be grateful for that.
065I'm also thankful for all the staff I've encountered over the years in Lancaster. We've got amazing people and just the opportunities to work with such amazing directors was just a blessing for me. Thank you to Kelly, Lea, Cindy, Bev, Costa, Melissa, Jordan, Rosemary, Julie, and my incredible admin secretaries, Janette, Beth, Sarah, Christine, and Tiffany made working in service is such a joy over the years. I thank you all, and I appreciate my time. Thank you very well. Uh great meeting everyone. Uh congratulations to our new uh leaders uh that have been promoted in the district and thank you for the fantastic presentations tonight, all the hard work everyone is doing and we're super excited. Just a few days left and so we're looking forward to great promotions with the students and the fantastic summer. So
066thank you all. Have a great evening. With that, uh we're going to journ at 7:24. We have a motion motion by Mr. W second by M. Charlson. All in favor? Motion carried. Good night.