10.23.25 Board Meeting

001Ready. Okay. Welcome, everyone. Good morning. This is the October 23 meeting Board of Education, the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District, and it is 902 am as president, I'm going to call this meeting to order a reminder that our meetings are broadcast over zoom to provide the opportunity for a community to observe in real time. And video recordings of board meetings are posted on our website typically 72 hours after each meeting. Also that all actions approved in closed session must be reported out in open session, and we're going to begin with our flag salute, and we're going to invite Mrs Garza if she would come lead us in the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with

002liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Gibson, are there any changes to the agenda. No. Okay. We're going to move on to our employees association reports I see that we have some in the audience not sure. Okay, come on up. La President, Amy Thompson. Coming up as a reference our CSC representative. President is Mamie Christovich. Her Vice President is Victoria Storti, SEIU President is Kirsty Governor, our representative for CMC is Sarah DeGroote and our LMA President is Jeremy Wilkins. Thank you. Good morning, Board President Pruso members of the board Superintendent Gibson and cabinet, I'm Amy Thompson president of Livermore Education Association, representing teachers nurses counselors, psychologists speech pathologists social workers and teachers on special assignment. I would like to thank President Pruso for responding to my formal board correspondence from October 14

003clarifying that while the contract language for assistant superintendents is similar to that of the superintendent. The district does not pay the full cost of their health and welfare benefits. They are provided with the same benefits as the members of LMA, and as such to have out of pocket costs for their premiums. I would like to thank Dr. Gibson for allowing le a an extended period of time to review the board policy updates. A team of le a members is working on reading the suggested policy updates, side by side with the current policies. This has not been an easy task, given the way the policy update is presented the presentation on the district website is a comparison of the California School Board Association recommended language to the proposed district language. To find to find a comparison

004to current policies you have to go to the current policy board policies posted on the assembly website. There is not a strike through underlined to indicate changes from current policies, making it difficult to discern if the policy is being changed or staying the same. And it requires the reading of every single policy side by side with current policy. Dr. Gibson did provide to us a list of the policies that needed updating as of last year, which I thought was going to make the process easier. But then when I started going through, I discovered there's some entirely new policies that aren't included on that list, which means we're back to kind of square one where we have to go through every single one one by one. It's understandable that CSBA is an organization that keeps up

005with the legislative updates and recommends policy updates to school districts throughout the state. However, not all of the recommended policy updates are legally required. Some are suggestions for practice. And I'm wondering if there is intention to discern between the two and set aside the updates that are not legally required for the board to discuss and the public to provide input so we can decide what Livermore really wants for our policies. LEA members are concerned with this process because we will want to negotiate the implementation of board policies that impact working conditions. If the board policy is updated and we don't request to negotiate it, it is understood that we agree to that policy. We need to be able to clearly understand what is being changed to understand if there are impacts to our working conditions.

006I'm going to close with an example of one policy update that I believe has impacts, not just to our members, but most members of our organization that we believe needs further discussion. And this is board policy E4040-E1. And the piece of it that is concerning, it says, quote, all passwords created for or used on any district technology are the sole property of the district. I don't think that's a legally required thing. And just thinking about what does that mean? I don't think it impacts our board members because you're not employees, but everyone else that works here that is an employee, they are employees. So if I happen to log into my personal email at lunchtime to check my personal email, or if I'm outside work but on a district device and I log into my

007email, now the district is the sole owner of my email password. And I keep going back to this because I'm like, it can't say that. Read the written thing, walk away from it, think about it. No, no, that's not what it says. And I come back and read it again. And those are the words it says, all passwords created for or used on any district technology are the sole property of the district. I think that needs further consideration. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. Okay, we're going to move on. I don't think we have any other reports from our other bargaining units. So we're going to move on to our public comments. I do have one. And so I would like to invite Jamie Morton to come forward. Good morning, Jamie. So we'll put up a

008timer for three minutes. There you go. I'll just remind you as you get close to the end just so you're aware. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, push the button. There we go. Good morning trustees, Superintendent Gibson and the members of our community. My name is Jamie Morton. I'm a proud and very active parent in our district. I'm Maryland Avenue STEAM Academy. And I stand proudly with our teachers and staff. I also have the amazing opportunity to serve on the district's Community Budget Advisory Committee. That experience has given me insight on how complex it is to balance and maintain the school district's budget. I don't envy your guys' jobs. It's challenging. I appreciate the time and effort that goes into it to ensuring that our district remains financially responsible and compliant with the state and federal requirements.

009However, as both a committee perspective and as a parent, I can't ignore what I've seen over the past year. While our district makes painful staffing cuts and tightening resources and services, many to our most vulnerable populations in the name of being fiscally responsible. Yet we are witnessing spending decisions made by the administration that left many of us questioning priorities and what is best interest for our students. The rebranding efforts, the painting of the district offices, the leadership retreat to Pismo Beach that was recently brought to light, and the new office furniture. These may have explanations, but to the community, to the parents who are on the outside, it's sending conflicting messages. If we are truly in a period of being fiscally restrained, why are these expenses being made? At a time when we are being

010told that we must tighten the budget, these choices feel unnecessary at this time. What I'm hearing and seeing at my son's school is that morale is low. Teachers and staff are tired. They're feeling unheard, undervalued, and upset. Many are working second and third jobs just to make ends meet to live in this community that they serve. That shouldn't be a case in a district that prides itself on community and excellence. Our teachers are the heart of our schools. They create the experiences and relationships that help our children grow and thrive. When they are struggling, our students feel that impact. I asked the board to listen, to truly listen to the people in our classrooms and our campuses every day. I ask you to question some of these decisions. Stand with our teachers and staff. Ensure

011that our financial decisions reflect the respect and the support they deserve. That's your time. Thank you. That was it. Now we have Ali Felker. Okay, come on up, Ali. If you want to just push the button there to make sure that turned on. Okay. There you go. Hi, my name is Ali Felker. I'm a Livermore resident and a parent. Our oldest child just started TK at Rancho and we've been incredibly happy with our experience there. I was very saddened to learn that many of our teachers are working two to three jobs as the last speaker just noted, in order to meet their financial needs. I truly don't believe that that should happen, especially not in this district. We need to prioritize teacher pay and ensure transparency for parents and the community members. I appreciate seeing

012the acknowledgement to this in the superintendent's recent spotlight. However, I think we need more than just a brief acknowledgement at this point in time. We deserve we deserve more than a few sentences in a newsletter. What we need to see is an action plan. I would like to point out some of the core values that were set in the superintendent's August spotlight. Those core values were integrity, innovation, collaboration, and inclusion. I hope that this board will seek to uphold the value of integrity and publish transparent reports on the current financial situation. If there is a reason why teachers are forced to work these multiple jobs, we deserve to know what that reason is. And after hearing from the community and from our teachers, I hope that you would revisit whatever decisions have been made to

013put us at that point. What we need to see, sorry, we need to move forward with plans that honor another core value that was established, and that is the value of collaboration. We need to see an action plan that collaborates with the teachers, setting meeting times that they can attend is a very good first step. The superintendent established five focus areas which were academic achievement, student wellness and safety, communication and engagement, leadership development, employee success, and fiscal and facility resources. None of these goals can be achieved without teachers who feel seen, heard, and supported. If teachers are not adequately paid, these goals will not be reached. We need the board, the superintendent, and the staff to promote a collaborative environment, not a hostile one. We have to address the optics of certain decisions in the

014light of teachers feeling not underappreciated and school buildings in need of repair. I believe addressing this issue head on will create a culture of collaboration. Lastly, I want to thank Superintendent Gibson for the transparency and the swift response regarding the letter that was received from the OCR. I don't know if this letter was the result of someone actually like reporting us to that, to that office, and I sincerely hope that this was not prompted by anyone within our district. The fact that some of our amazing programs are at risk from scrutiny from the federal administration is truly heartbreaking, and if it comes to it, I offer my support in gathering parent signatures to support those programs maintaining. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. We're going to move on to our formal written correspondence.

015This is, this will be acknowledged if received if received by the board or in the superintendent's office by 2pm the day before the meeting. Formal, formal written correspondence can be accessed by going to the website and clicking on the formal written correspondence to the Board of Education link with all fields completed and verified. So I'd ask the clerk if you could summarize our board correspondence. Yes, Alexis. I just want to acknowledge for those who are here as well as those watching that trustee Vanden Heuvel is with us, we can see his face on the screen. In the board packet we posted that he would be remoting into this meeting so I just wanted to make that acknowledgement. Thank you. Yeah, go ahead. And just a reminder for people who are writing in correspondence. It's essential

016if you want it to be included, and the board president says it is part of the preamble there. It's in the script that we so we covered every time that you come through the district portal. We continue to get email from people in the public. And in the past, if a few board members got it we would try to give it back to the superintendent, that process been formalized where it's not going to be part of the public report. So I probably get the equal amount of email coming to me individually, sometimes with another or two board members on it sometimes with all of us, but if it's not coming through the portal, it won't be included as part of this correspondence report. So it's essential that you go through that route. Thank you. Okay,

017we're going to move on to our discussion action items. Today we have two discussion items were super excited to have our site reports from two of our favorite some of our favorite I guess two of our favorite schools junction and Maryland Avenue. We're going to invite Mrs Jeanette Garza, the principal of junction Avenue TK through eight to come forward. At this time, welcome Mrs Garza. Thank you so much. Just testing. It certainly works. Okay, I have to print this out to keep me honest to keep me on time and on task. Good morning Board President Pruso members of the board superintendent Dr Gibson cabinet and community. I am Jeanette Garza, the very proud principal of junction Avenue TK eight school. And you really understand why as I present our report this morning, looking at our

018demographics page junction serves an extraordinary community. Nearly one third of our students are English learners, almost have have social economically disadvantaged backgrounds. And what this does is it reminds us of why our work is intentional. We are building the school community we're bilingualism and by literacy, create greater academic opportunities and success. The California dashboard shows a promising trend. English learners progress is rising suspensions are low and academics are improving strong PBIS practices and our work on academic language are driving this growth. And we are excited to see continuous growth. Our scoreboard for school success data for elementary are ela rose six points and math nine, reflecting students learning to think critically, and in two languages. We are using syntactic mapping to show how language carries meaning, shifting students from simple recall to deeper analysis tendencies

019up and data shows that students are feeling safe to express curiosity, and even confusion. Our scoreboard school success data for middle. We are seeing an encouraging rebound in the LA scores. They aren't just students, just, they're not just learning language, they're beginning to use it to lead as they grow to argue with evidence and empathy they're finding confidence in their voices, significant gains in math, which is a testament to our interventions and our targeted math. This is, excuse me, we're seeing significant gains in our math, which is a testament to our interventions and our targeted math instructional strategies. We've increased rigor. And so that has led to fewer passing grades, but we are proactive proactively prioritizing targeted support to ensure students success. We reached our overall core SEO of 71% the successful transition, excuse me

020transition to the core SEO tool has provided us with a dedicated and focused measure for tracking our social emotional success. Back to middle, excuse me back to elementary school. We are very proud to report a 27% increase in the percentage of English learners progressing at least one LPAC level. This growth reflects targeted staff training regarding language acquisition, strategic use of assessments instructional practices that deepen language understanding our proactive PBIS framework continues to show results with an 8.7 reduction. In the number of two or more major referrals, because students are understanding expectations and articulating their thinking. While the change in easy CBM you see that negative number there appears distressing this data point reflects our transition from a 5050 model to a 9010 model, and I will in a future slide, I will be presenting the

021corresponding Spanish phonics assessment data to fully illustrate student progress. Okay for middle school. We saw a 14% increase in EL progressing at least one LPAC level, and an 11.6% increase in students proficient on the math final. This growth reflects intentional language instruction students increasing confidence and expressing complex ideas shows our emphasis on structured reasoning, and that academic discourse is translating into stronger analytical thinking and problem solving. While we saw a slight increase in behavior incidents. Suspensions rates do remain low overall, but we are starting to see a positive shift that I'll actually be also discussing in a future slide. Oh, here's another slide we're very proud of. So scoreboard data for EL and students with disabilities. So these numbers are showing that inclusive design helps our students succeed. Our teachers adjust language thoughtfully to keep

022all students engaged in grade level learning. This is an approach that reflects both research on instructional equity and strong classroom practices. Here's an example of how improving language use prevents misunderstandings if you look our overall students suspended at least once. It's 22 and then there's the percentages, and with the total number of suspensions, and as of the time of submitting our report we've had zero suspensions. This year. So, students are learning to self advocate. They're using language instead of this. Our staff is guiding restorative conversations. In addition, our responsibility center provide students with a structured space to reflect to learn to correct behavior, where accountability is supported, but we're still keeping them connected to our school community. So some other pertinent data. The easy CBM that this is the Spanish the easy CBM in kindergarten,

023when we looked at the 2223 2324 we were under the 5050 model and 34% of our students were at low risk, but changing to the 9010 9010 model 78% are now at low risk, that is a improvement of 44%. Our 9010 model is thriving teachers are integrating Spanish language grammar morphology and vocabulary in the same ways that English is taught. I do want to, I wanted to point this out, particularly that the percentage of promoting eighth graders that are eligible for Spanish to or higher. We were very proud in the last few years to per to present 100% were prepared. Reflecting. And so this change this negative 27 here reflects our intentional work with both high schools to vertically align and develop a more rigorous and relevant assessment that better reflects the skills of the

024students need to be successful once they get to the high school level. Celebrations and programs. We are celebrating our fourth consecutive year of applying for and receiving the California gold implementation award for PBIS. I do want to state, again I say this, that we want to be the first school for LVJ USD to apply for and receive the platinum level. So we're actively working on that. The magnet school assistance program grant. This has really given us some incredible opportunities. We've enhanced the school garden, and it is utilized to increase opportunities for community engagement and create an outdoor classroom that supports authentic project based learning for students, it's incredible, where before it was oh here's a seed you add water now the conversations that are happening there. Okay, well what seeds do we plant, what do

025we need. How does this support our community how does it support our parents center, and how what is the relationship the the relationship between what we plan and what we don't plan, we have a beautiful orchard as well. We have the space back there. And so, it has been a wonderful outdoor classroom and many of our PBL projects have been directly tied to this garden. In addition to that the other highlight I like to point out is our tier one instructional support. So, this grant has afforded us the ability to have not one but two tosas teachers on the special assignment that they are instructional coaches focused on bilingual and second language acquisition through context questioning and what we have is the high impact principles of instruction. This is changing the way that the teachers

026are getting direct instruction from our coaches in real time. Our dual immersion program, we have successfully aligned not only the, the assessment, but the curricula with high school Spanish teachers, both high schools by the way, not just one both creating a vertically articulated Spanish program that supports student language development from elementary through secondary schools. We've implemented professional development for Spanish teachers on research based vertically aligned instructional methods to strengthen Spanish language development, and to provide intentional bridges to English for continuity across grade levels. You know, I remember when I was a Spanish teacher, my non educator friends would say, Oh, you speak Spanish, it must be easy for you to teach Spanish. And then I would look at them and I say, Well, you speak English, can you teach English and they look and they,

027Oh, we have to teach how to teach. Our science program is so happy to report that our fifth graders increased in a six by 6% in proficiency, and our eighth grade or eighth graders increased by 9% in proficiency. This reflects how inquiry lessons that include explicit language scaffolds help students express evidence and reasoning. And of course our English learner learner improvement 52.7% of our students school wide improved on the LPAC and increase, which is an increase of 20% from the year before 11% of our heels progress to LPAC levels, and 1% of our heels progress, three These celebrations belong to our teachers, our support staff, our families and students, they are proof that with unity of purpose produces results. So our priorities now. Number one is our professional learning community. The data that's informing our

028priority is that 34% cast proficient in on ELA and 26.5% proficient on CASP and math. While we are seeing gains, we still have work to do. So our tier one instruction and tier two interventions will be targeted towards academic needs, based on site and district assessments. Our actions, we have grade level and or department alike teams meet regularly and engage in the PLC process. Our CFAs are created and administered and the data is analyzed in order to inform instruction and interventions. Elementary and middle school math teachers are participating in district led PLC PD. Elementary PLCs were using Dibble's assessments to incorporate Spanish and English supplemental curricula, providing differentiated data driven instruction. And then our TOSAs are supporting tier one instruction and department PLC meetings. Our teams are aligning assessments to not just measure what students

029know, but how they communicate understanding that elevates tier one instruction, which of course directly connects to our CIPSA goal of having all students will increase proficiency on state assessments by 5%, such as in CASP and LPAC through improved tier one instruction. Our second priority is English language acquisition. The data informing our priority is actually that 52.7% of our English learners are progressing at least one LPAC level. Our goal, an additional 5% of English learners will progress at least one LPAC level through improved tier one instruction. Our actions are ongoing professional development opportunities such as Clark Consulting and ELG to increase language and discourse. Also, the TOSAs providing performance based coaching to staff, real time feedback, lesson demonstrations, instructional planning sessions, structured coaching cycles for all teachers. And this is in both languages. This is really

030a key. This is a key for us because the teachers on special assignments are going into the classrooms. And helping the teachers. Our PD in this district is phenomenal, both district led as well as what is being brought onto the site. But we've stepped it up and we've been able to go into classrooms and see it being implemented and give real time feedback on, oh, well, they'll model a lesson. They'll sit down and do lesson planning with them. It is very powerful and impactful. This connection is to our CIPSA goal is that all students will increase proficiency on state assessments by 5%, such as in CASP and LPAC through improved tier one instruction. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to share the incredible work happening at Junction. I'm deeply proud of our students. Oh,

031I wasn't going to do that. Sorry, I'm grateful for the board. Sorry. Oh, my goodness. I am grateful for the board's continued support as we build on this momentum to ensure every student thrives. Any questions or discussions? I'm happy to be here today. Thank you. Do not apologize for being emotional. That is just how we are humans. Thank you. I have no blue cards on this. I'm going to close public comment and then go to board. Maybe we'll start with Stephen and then Christian. You'll be next. Okay. I think mainly just comments. I wanted to acknowledge the switch to the 90 10 model. So for our earliest learners, it's 90% in Spanish 10% in English and then over time that slides towards a 50 50 model. And I think that it's important for the community

032as well as us, the board to recognize the complexity, the nuance of that work to meet the diverse needs of those students. I think it's important. I'm pleased to see you pointing out the difference between because the goal here is by literacy. And if you're just looking at English proficiency, you're missing the picture and the charge of the entire, you know, school. So I'm pleased to have the other pertinent data and I look forward to seeing to seeing where it goes from here. I think one of the things that we know about by literacy and bilingual education is that it's a long term process. And, you know, we as a board, like we want to, you know, we want to see 10 years of data and where we are now. But research suggests that those

033those kinder kids that are in the 90 10 model. If, if you're doing the work that you're doing, which I know that you are in part because you're reaching out to professional organizations. What's the name of the conference? Oh, copy copy. I was like, it's not see I have too many acronyms. Copy is the so doing that professional learning to try to, again, do that complex nuanced work is going to pay out in the long run for those students that students that go that have a robust by literate education. Learn language deeper and more meaningfully, but you don't see those benefits until later because again, if you look at that, if you look at the first grade, they've had 10%, you know, like that you're assessing them on. Anyways, I think what I'm saying, but

034I just wanted to appreciate the work that you're doing. And I, you know, I recognize the complexity of it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Christian, you ready? Hello, Miss Garza. I hope you can hear me. Yes, I can. Thank you. All right. Thanks for the for the really positive report. I, I want to highlight especially some of these 79% improvements that you saw. I mean, if that keeps going. Holy moly. That's those are just some incredible numbers and I'm really excited about that. My question is, what, what is your team's assessment as you sit around the table for the reason that the drop in middle school, the passing classes, middle school, the 52% that you have on one of your slides there. What would you feel is behind that, when everything else seems to

035be so positive. I'm sorry, on the middle school, do you can you. Yes, it is. It is the. Let me look at that. Oh, 20. No, sorry, that must be. The passing of the classes is a negative 6.4%. And as rigor has increased. You know that that's we're going to see that but one of the things that we have done this year, we changed to where we have a homeroom schedule every Wednesday so the very first half hour of every Wednesday, we are addressing these needs and other needs. We've put what's called an academic behavior contract we actually piloted this last year for the eighth graders, and now we have rolled it out for all middle school, so they always have that homeroom teacher, and there is time specifically to check in with students Okay,

036what's going on, how can we help you, and they're looking at not just the class they're in but the kids are learning to take a look at Schoology, and, and we're teaching them responsibility as well to take a look because a lot of the times the kids are like, Oh, I did it but I just didn't turn it in. So it's another moment to teach them that that that part's important too. So that's what our focus is on this, this year. And piggybacking on trustee drew in this question, how does the, the going from 5050 to 9010 you said hey there's there's this 24% decline in the first grade reading scores right there, but that can be explained by the going from 5050 to 9010 Can you quickly, you know, for those of us at

037home. Literally, can you make that I'm happy to, I'm happy to, because going from a 5050 model you're teaching 50% in Spanish 50% in English. When you go to a 9010 model you're teaching 90% in Spanish, and 10% in English. So, naturally, the Spanish scores are supposed to go up, and the English scores at that level will not be as high because the trajectory is different and they catch up and they actually surpass later on. So we're really comparing apples to oranges here from year to year. In your last slide you mentioned some 52% percentage number that I couldn't see on the last slide right before the question and what is it was it's also in another slide where it's overall 52% of our students. 52.7% of our English learners progressed at least one LPAC

038level. Yes, that's just, that's a typo that 41%. Okay, got it. Perfect. Thank you then. Thank you so much for what you do and keep it up and tell your team they're, they're, they're amazing. Thank you, I will definitely relay that to them. Okay. Thank you for your presentation. And as usual you do a great job on this. A lot, a lot of times we focus on some of these numbers, because on the negative side, but many of these most of these are on the positive side, and that's due to good work collaboration by you and the teachers on site. I know this has been a focus of the district for a few years now, but the positive teacher student relationship, you know, middle school is up 22 and a quarter, and the elementary is

039up five and three quarters already usually pretty high at the elementary level. That's astonishing. You know to have that kind of connectivity and that goes to leadership and collaboration as kids relate to the teachers that we entrust with their, you know, with the, with the community's kids. That's a, to me that the key component of that is trust in relationships and conversations. The elementary and English, the English stuff at elementary and middle of 27 and 14%. Again, great. The suspensions though. My kids went through a district here, having coached in the city for 30 years. Sometimes, you know you get a, you get a rap at Junction like a lot of kids get suspended there to go to zero. Not that it's my expectation that it's zero, but to be able to say at this

040point. You know I'm not I'm not saying something as seventh inning of a no no but it's to go as zero at this point from what you were. That's, again, collaboration it's you it's your teachers it's everyone working together with the community. I feel firsthand to come over and I really appreciate the summer engagement with your teachers with CSC a le a members community members going over to the school to address some of the conditions that you worked on, and I know that put you at risk. You know, I know it's good for the parents who are bringing these things up, but it kind of puts you in the crosshairs and I understand that. And I understand the stress that that puts you under a little bit, not being in your shoes, and I appreciate

041you taking those risks on behalf of our students on behalf of the parents on behalf of the teachers who work there. And I'd like to ask you, how is that going. Because we met, and we all went over and we walked through your school and there were some conditions are that were unacceptable and you know we tried to really work to get those things taken care of. And are we doing pretty good at that. We are. I'm by nature. I like to look at the positive. I like to move forward, and we have moved forward our mo f department was very, very responsive. Dr Gibson yourself. Trustee drew and were very, very responsive our families really appreciated that I know we're an older school 1951 was when we're built so we still have some structural

042things that need to be addressed but we, we definitely the small things, the the bigger things mo f has been really collaborative and poor Glenn, I will help out this can we do this and have you thought about this and he's like yes, yes. Okay. But then people appear, and the work gets done. So that the, there has been significant improvement in the work order process and the response. And it's always a work in process and we're always learning, but it is a very collaborative effort. Glenn Sherman is one of the best people we have and so it's, it's, it's not a surprise that he's doing good work. And just in close I just like to say that I think it's your it's your interpersonal skills combined with your language skills, combined with your caring

043for kids that's made the improvements, you're unique individual, you do a great job there you're a great fit. And I appreciate what you're doing a junction. Thank you very much. Good morning Miss Garza. Good morning. I just wanted to take a minute to congratulate you on the improvements of your scoreboard success both on the elementary and middle school levels. I'm really proud of the math proficiency and the LPAC achievements. I'm excited to see the kindergarten Spanish improvements and happy to see the adjustments that have been made to ensure the academic and Spanish success and secondary school and beyond. I just wanted to thank you and your entire staff and the community at junction as a whole to your dedication and serving the students at junction. And just a quick testament to the 9010 model, and

044just a few months of being at junction. I find that even my Spanish has improved. And so, it's encouraging to see the foundation that has been laid for the younger students in their Spanish acquisition, as well as learning their core subjects. But it's just fun to see all the learning that's taking place at junction so really happy for all the success that's been going on. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I just, I do have one question and then just a comment and that is given the exceptional I think LPAC progress. What, what, could you pinpoint exactly what that was or how is that something that we could replicate across the district, I guess, you know, like, do you, do you know what, obviously you know what you did but do you

045have, could you could you give us a little bit more detail on that. Absolutely, I'm happy to. First of all, when I was sitting back there last year in the same spot. And I heard. Say all the things he did. I said well that would be silly if we didn't do the same things. And so we did. We had our teachers trained to give the LPAC, the kids respond better to teachers than to people they don't know. We use the IAB interims to show the kids how to take the test, which also made a lot of sense. And then we also taught the teachers, how to give the test not just the fundamentals but really what is the test looking for so that the students recognize what it is, it's being So those were the

046basic things and I do believe that that was a big adjustment. But the other thing is the work that we're doing with Clark consulting and student discourse. We have these six principles of instruction right now our focus is on student voice students to learn a language you have to be able to speak the language how many of you speak a second language. My first language is much more comfortable because until you speak it constantly it it doesn't all connect. You have to be able to think critically in both languages. And so I think that the work that we're doing there and we've just really started that work. There's still a lot more to do but even that piece of it has been instrumental when you walk our halls and by the way you're all invited

047to come anytime when you walk our halls, it's no longer. By the way, the entire staff, not just teachers, you'll, you'll ask a student a question, but you're not just asking a yes or no question you start digging a little deeper. How was your weekend, it was great, or usually it's great. Fantastic. What was great about it. Oh well I went to so and so and so that's great. Would you do that again would you give that information to somebody else you you have conversations, and those little changes are having impact because the kids as I mentioned, they're feeling more confident. They're, they're hearing their own voices but that takes a concerted effort, and it's a very strategic effort as well. So you make it comfortable for kids to speak in either language. Thank you.

048Thank you for sharing that as well because I think it's nice to see us learning from each other. You know, it's good to have experts come in but sometimes we are the experts right. And so to have learned from Mr mania I think that's really fantastic. And it kind of goes along with the comment that I want to make, and that is just that I feel like the gains that you of a concerted effort by our, our learning community to use evidence to drive change, and we're seeing that happen at all the schools and I just want to congratulate you and for the work that you've done, you've, you've looked, you've looked at the data. You looked at the data last year and you were like this isn't okay, let's see what we can do

049to fix it and you've made some changes. And we're looking at it now and it's just really fascinating and exciting for for us to see. Thank you. I just want to acknowledge. Last, I'm going to say it was probably in the winter that Miss Garza and I had a conversation really. I'm going to call it a personal deep conversation about junction, and what was and what wasn't and what the perceptions were in different things, and the one thing I vividly remember is her having the conversation and her own frustration with the system. And how she was determined I think is the best word to change the system for the students at junction. And she said to me, at the end of this year, if things don't go up. I don't know what else to do.

050And she was at that point of really digging in digging deep they had been digging deep, and finally had that breakthrough. And I think it's just a true testament for us as human beings to remember that throwing the towel in is the easy way out. And you really stuck with it and your teacher stuck with it and I know you've had some just really difficult conversations in such positive ways that truly has made a difference, and I'm a firm believer in, hey, if something's working somewhere else let's see if that works for another And you were willing, you were humble and willing to go and have those conversations and so congratulations to you and your staff truly is a testament I also want to acknowledge for both of these sites today, just the weight that

051they have had at these schools both last year and this year, it's just one thing after another if it's not the fear of ice that we are experiencing as of today even to the magnet grant, you know, situation that we are currently in. And I think the biggest component of this that we put out in the letter back to the feds last week is really around the efforts that have been made, thanks to the funding that they have provided us that the gains that we are having for these students and staff are just insurmountable there's nothing that compares and we will continue to fight the fight and we will figure it out together, so that these programs do not get get dismantled. And I know that's hard and I so much appreciate both of these

052principles, because they keep it on track and it's easy to get off track when you have all this noise in the background that we don't get to control. And so kudos to both you and Mr mania as well just for really sticking sticking to the course and being that voice of reason and being that positive support for your families. Even today you're here and I know, you know, I'm sure your phones are ringing off the hook at your sites today so thank you for your leadership and for what both of you do, and Jenna I'm really proud of you. Thank you. I'm proud of us. Thank you so much please, please go back and congratulate your whole staff for for the work that they've been doing as well I absolutely will. Thank you. Okay, now

053I would like to invite Mr Joe mania, the principal of the Maryland Academy, Maryland Avenue Steam Academy. So please come forward. The front of the chair there. It's a little chair. All right, good morning. Morning Board President Pruso trustees Superintendent Gibson cabinet community families everybody at home watching and abroad, it seems. It's wonderful to be here today my name is Joe mania and I am like Miss Garza said I am another proud principal here in town just very pleased to come meet with you all and share what's happening with our school, and where we are today and where we want to be next year at this time so this is actually something that I look forward to each year. As I always ask, can I go first, I want to be first, because I just

054really itching to share all the work from last year. So, before I get started I just want to appreciate Miss Garza, Mr Wilkins and miss greater from over at junction Avenue TK eight, I just am so impressed and their sister school of ours, and we do have, while they're dual emerging school and we're. We are not that we share so many things in common, and they've just done an absolutely remarkable job, and I'm very proud to follow her presentation but also for our community as a community member here myself with my family, so it's awesome to hear and I'm just excited for them. So, we're going to get started today. Like I said Maryland Avenue Steam Academy, it's been a huge year for us. First we'll talk a little bit about our demographics for this

055year, our attendance is up a little bit we're at 442 students. I think when we started this with the magnet program. A few years ago we were at about 356. We've got a decent increase in our student population that we're very excited about. Just a couple of things to note on our demographics page or that we still have a large portion of our population are identified as emergent bilingual or English language learners are population of students with disabilities continues to be a huge part of the programming at our school. And we love it. And it's amazing, and it's going very well and I've got some things to celebrate and talk about. I know that I introduced my, my brand new exceptional sports needs team. Last week at the board meeting. We're just very proud of

056the work that's being done and the support provided by Miss Manke and the team in the special ed office it's, it's been a great start to the year. And then, we would be remiss to not acknowledge that 68% of our population is socioeconomically disadvantaged, which plays an immense role on so many aspects of the teaching and learning process, and our, our access to our students, emotionally and intellectually are dramatically influenced by this socioeconomic disadvantaged number. So, it's just something to kind of keep in mind. California dashboard. What jumps out to me is anything in blue, I'm excited about our suspension rate is fabulous, and we're going to talk a little bit about that later, a lot of work goes into ensuring that we're keeping kids safe and on campus, because that's where the learning is

057getting done. Our English language learners continue to do amazing work, and it's one of the most exciting things and it's something that I in my career in the last few years have learned and studied so much on something that I'm very excited about, and something that we as a site are very proud of the teachers work incredibly hard to ensure that our kiddos are making that progress. You'll see there that our absenteeism is has. It's continues to be a challenge we'll talk about that and we have a plan and some things that we're doing around that. And then, our, our English language arts and our math tend to be kind of in the same spot, but I'll go through that in a moment. So, looking at our school success data, our English language arts, we're

058up 3% I will say that can one of the biggest contributing factors to that is our proficiency in CASP. When we look at our scores school wide across third, fourth and fifth grade, we noticed a trend that we were struggling the area of writing, and that was the piece that was pulling it our students down. So we implemented a new program put together by our doses, and all of our teachers have been utilizing a new program and we have been participating in. As a district we we perform one district right that is turned in for scores each year, but as a school site my staff participate in three more of them throughout the year to track progress in the different genre genres of writing and support the students So we're making progress there so that

059anything that we can do to catch early and retrain and reteach to meet the differentiated need of the of the student or the writer were able to help with that so very proud of that. Our math scores did drop 5% this year, they went up 5% the last year then they went down 5% this year. So that's one of the things that we are doing differently this year based on that, and I'm going to go over that in a slide coming up, and then you'll see our attendance so our attendance right now, or last year was 92.83. So what I what I struggle with with attendance is that we have a very different population student population. At our school site, and it's actually of our students that are have the lowest attendance have to have

060the chronic absenteeism identifier. And 96% of them are medically fragile students within our ESN programming. Right. And so, while I see our attendance is potentially seen as a problem right it seems like that we have kids that aren't coming to school. And I'm also a very aware and very comfortable with our attendance, because it's the reality like we've every day we cherish the fact that some of these kids can even be with us here, not just at school here. And so, so I just, I want you to know that that's a reality and we're talking about humans, and what's it what is really important. Right. So we have special things that we've put together we have different plans and we, you know, this make me and Miss Christmas and on the student services side work

061very diligently to make sure that we have all of these kids set up with the right programming and supports to provide them with access to education. But, but at the end of the day, I just want to be very realistic with everyone that we're talking about kids that have very significant medical needs that are very good the impact is significant. So, just want to make sure that that said because I feel good about what what we have here. And then our core SEO, we had a drop in our SEO we changed our SEO assessment this year. The year before we went up 15 this year we went down 15. And so we've got a plan, and we're going to talk a little bit about that in the coming slides. And progress data. So, the first

062I would like you to see and I'm very proud that our percent of English language learners progressing one LPAC level. It's actually if you look at the ratios. It's actually a flat line. We have less English language learners this year than we had the year before because we reclassified so many kids right so the number went down. And so we actually had the same amount of kids make one level but it looks like it went down it's only because we have less kids. Fabulous work super proud of the kids the goal setting that the kids are making the understanding of the assessment, the understanding by the staff about what we're working on and why we're doing what we're doing. It's incredible I've never had more kids in my office have the scores come back in

063yet have the scores come back in yet because they want to know they are personally invested in this are number of students with two or more major referrals. Those numbers went down. I will tell you that a big appreciation goes to the curriculum side of the house and especially Mr. Connor and the team and everybody involved in setting up the math PLC process from the district level because the articulation that we had last year. If you see here in our fourth grade unit three unit three is identified as the most challenging unit for our fourth graders. What we did was Mr. Connor called all of the fourth grade teachers together. We took our standards that we have identified as the most important standards that are now on the report card. And then we looked at

064that unit, and all of the fourth grade teachers in the district work together and articulated how are we going to do this differently. What, how are we going to plan the unit together as a group. How long is it going to take. What are we going to do throughout the process to check for understanding. What are we going to do when we have a student that's struggling that needs to be retaught or shown a component of this concept or standard. And then, how's it going to look at the end of the unit. And so a 14% gain is absolutely tremendous. And so I'm so proud of that work. Okay, and we're replicating it now it's just like the scars was so sweet to you talk about me and her presentation but I will say that

065I'm going to talk about Mr. Connor, so now he's replicating this out for third grade fourth grade and fifth grade, and I think that we're going to see big gains and I'm excited about it's one of the most important things that we're doing this year. So, very excited about that. And then, our easy CBM, it's pretty flat with our first graders. We had a huge first grade class with part of the magnet grant and the increase of all of our students we have a huge, we had a huge group last year. And so we're, we're proud of the progress that we're making there. Looking at students with disabilities and our emergent bilingual kiddos. I would consider those scores to be relatively flat from a year to year basis based on our students coming in, and

066then also moving out of the school. Our average daily attendance stayed similar. This year from last year was down less than 1% overall. English language learners progressing at least one L pack level again that that is a flat line. And I will say that this year we are celebrating that once again we are reclassifying 24 students as multilingual. So that's two years in a row with 24 kiddos so we're finding that our level three, two and three L pack learners are in a position where we're reclassifying so many kids that now our bank of kiddos that we're really focusing on our level ones and our newcomers, because everybody else were able to make it through the So very exciting that investigations unit three grade 4% proficient if you see that 39% increase for our students

067with disabilities from last year. That's a tremendous score for a student in resource class we have 26 kiddos in resource, or we had 26 kiddos in resource last year, and they those 26 kids in grades three, four and five, not all of them are three, four and five. But for the ones that were in there at 39% increase it's tremendous. So math is really we're starting to really kind of get our feet on the ground there. Very proud of the work that our school staff are participating in. Over the course of last year, we began a professional development series that ended or culminated with two days. The first few days of summer, our staff did two days of restorative practice training. So while everybody was off our, our teams, both as cars as and ours

068were together, working on restorative practice and we're really trying to understand how to better support kids that need behavior support and and that are living with trauma, you know, maybe not just one incident but on a daily basis right and how can we support them better when they do come to school what sort of expectations should we have for those kids. And I, this is, this is a small testament to it. It's the daily operation if you hung out with us in the office and around campus I think that's where you really see it. Is that the kids that are coming to the office are coming to share some good news, they're not coming to the office because they're in trouble for something they're coming up to check in on something. Right. Rather than what

069maybe in your mind might be like oh you're going to the office, right, that's, it's kind of a thing of the past. Now it's like oh I get to go to the office. So that's kind of the value and core feeling that we're trying to create for our kids. Important data that we're seeing over the course of the year. Our students writing scores and CASP are up 5%, which we're very proud of it based on the work that our teachers put in and professional development that are Tosa and title one teacher that we put in to support the staff over the course of last year that works continued this year we anticipate an increase from there, but if you if you see 2324 was pre implementation of this new programming model to to then last

070year, and then we'll see what what we have next fall. And then our percent of merger bilingual students scoring a four on LPAC. So, there you go 5% so I know that it said minus 7% on the others on the other slide but this is the actual is a 5% improvement for our kiddos in the multilingual assessment celebrations, I love to celebrate. As you know, I know we've been together for quite a few activities this year and you guys have all been great to come to the site and join us for different things. Our link English language learner progress with 101 students 22% of emerging bilingual students scored a level four. So those 22% all of those level fours. We then use another screener a local screener based on the expectations by the state to

071reclassify as multilingual. We then take a local screener and once they pass the local screener which is our new devil screener. Once they have a passing score in that then they are reclassified as multilingual. Okay, so it's not enough just to get a level four on LPAC, then they have to manage a proficient score in a local screener. So 48% of emerging bilingual students made at least one level increase 69% of our students scoring a level four attended our language lab. I will tell you that one of one of the best parts of my job is, is sitting and talking with highly intelligent staff members at my site and saying okay what is something creative that we can do differently to meet the needs of these kids. It's actually my favorite part of the job

072outside of running around with kids all day, but, and I know you guys know that but I, I like trying to come up with like what is a different more creative way to do this that will make traction for a larger portion of the kids right like if we see these flat lines, what is it that we can do differently. So this language lab was something that was created. And what we do is we have, we invite all of our students that are identified as level threes right so these are kids that are essentially on the bubble right they're so close. And we provide free after school language development literacy classes directly at their level with goals they start with goals at the beginning of the program. And then they come twice a week for

073an extra hour of school so from three to four, my staff stays there's five or six teachers to stay, plus a toaster Tosa and title one teacher, and they run a class specific it's a small group instruction with on literacy. And I truly believe that's the difference between taking a kid and finishing the job and get getting from that three to a four. I truly believe it. Those kids in the in that group are spoken to about why they're here, what the goal is what does it mean what once you make it. And we have kids that are like when is it starting again once it's starting in, they love it, they love the idea of it, and they want, they want to reclass they want to see this happen themselves so it's turned into

074into a bit of a competition on campus kids will be like, No, no, no, you didn't reclass yet. I reclassed right and they talk, that's, that's part of it. And so it's good healthy competition on site. So 69% of those kids and I, and that's a thank you to the staff for for doing that dedicated work. This is the other piece that buys us, I want to say buys us it in the amount of time and effort that it takes to do this next piece. It is paying off on a significant level, our students that are identified as newcomers that come to the school, or into our community these are students that have been in the United States for less than three years, and some of them fresh from out of the country some of

075them brand new straight to Livermore, or some of them. Another state could be across halfway across the country, or Southern California, wherever they may show up they're still identified as newcomers. These newcomers get access to designated language development programming. 30 minutes. They get four times a week in a newcomer ELD group. They also get four times a week, 40 minutes of a reading universal universal access time which is based on newcomer ELD standards. And then their classroom teachers. In a specific group, and five times a week they get another 30 minutes of designated ELD that is based at their newcomer level. So if you think about all of those minutes that are spent with a student that is has no English understanding listening writing reading and speaking. If they can't, they come in with none

076of that. By the time we get them through a year of that level of intervention. They have already gone up at not just one level, most of them will jump a second level. And until we do that work. All of the math, the reading comprehension, all of those expectations. We can't have those expectations until our kids can do this until they can read, write, listen and speak in English, because this is not dual immersion, this is an English programming. So, I'm very proud of our staff, I'm very proud of our team that delivers this material, because they're highly dedicated and super focused. And it's a an appreciation, frankly to the magnet for affording us the funding and the group of people that do this work. Next, I have the bond project completion. It's just a

077thank you. I just wanted to reiterate how much I appreciate the bond team, the construction company that's been on site. I said it at the ribbon cutting ceremony that we're going to miss having the team on campus, the contractors and the foreman there, they've been great, the kids adore these guys. You know, people driving around in tractors on your elementary school campus are heroes, just an FYI, you want to ever be overshadowed, walk next to a tractor, no one's looking at you. It is, it's been a wonderful experience, and just so thankful that the kids, the community, we have many, many, many families that are second and third generation living in the same house. Their parents went to Maryland, their parents' parents went to Maryland when it opened, and they're just, people are blown away

078by the commitment and dedication to funds to support our school. And my hope, and I know it's your goal as well, is that we can do this to other schools in town and have that opportunity just like our kids in our community do, because it's truly a blessing and we appreciate it. So just every day. Let's see, and then last year we were awarded, we're one of just a few schools in the state of California that were awarded the California Green Ribbon Award and at the gold level. We have aspirations this year of, here I thought gold level should be the highest, there's green achiever, so we're going for it. And so we're working very hard with our teaching instruction, and we're in the application process right now to apply for the California Green Ribbon

079Award again this year. It was an honor to meet with the state superintendent and receive the award. Our students work very hard on their green status. We just spent the week with the Stop Waste group, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week. Stop Waste was here from Livermore Sanitation, leading classes in our STEAM labs, working on projects and project-based learning, along with also some things around recycling and sorting to support the community. Those are all great programs. I think, I think often about, I had a leader that I worked for years ago tell me not to come to him with problems, unless I had ways that I'm going to fix the problems. And that really resonated with me and I think about it in lots of different scenarios in my life. And not that we have problems,

080but we have challenges, and we want to make sure that we always have a plan, and we're always thinking creatively about how are we going to move forward in a better way and do it better tomorrow, right, or do it differently tomorrow. So math, obviously, sure we're disappointed that we have on a scoreboard we dropped five points, and because we're not really in the business we these are kids that we're talking about that have technically dropped five points on a scoreboard. Right. And so, what can we do differently, and I want you to know that we fully anticipate to get those points back next year. We've done some things differently with our universal access time. We've done some really exciting things actually with our Saturday math tutoring program, I know I've celebrated the sale organization

081with you all here at a board meeting. Last year last knows a year before, and the sale organization is we've currently taken our whole universal access process for grouping students with like abilities and in areas that they need differentiated instruction. We've got 45 to 55 kids going every Saturday to this tutoring group, and they're placed now instead of being in a general grade level group working on the skills from from class. They're now in leveled groups on Saturdays. I have a second member of my staff there as well, helping to support the group and the kids are working on materials that are differentiated to their level in that small group, each week, my teachers and Tosa staff report to the sale group that this is what we need you working on explicitly and they they're

082giving like page this to page this in the textbook. This is the standard this is how we want it talked about and taught, and the kids are getting to another two and a half hours, 830 to 11 every Saturday. It's amazing. And it's open to everybody in grades three, four and five, and and it's packed and out and we've starting last spring we started inviting over we now have kids from junction that are now joining us and getting that same support. So, that's why we've got growing numbers is because we're increasing and trying to bring the umbrella out a little bit wider. The work with our math professional development and the vertical alignment across the district, and then also the process for pacing and understanding what the expectations are about teaching and reteaching skills in

083math, I do, and our scores show it. I do believe that we're on a run with this and we've come up, you know this is not this is Mr Connors idea this Joe's idea but I do believe very strongly that we're going to see great results across the district I think that I anticipate you'll hear from a lot of principles that they're excited about this because we're all looking for some new way to break through. And then, again, our connection to my single plan would be to have a 5% increase over this next year. And then our second priority is in writing writings the hardest component in the cast assessment process and so our team working very diligently to support the writing process, and we anticipate seeing an increase for students in cast but most

084importantly, overall, we want kids to be able to write proficiently. proficiently, and so we're developing their language, they need to be able to take their language and put it on paper. And so, this is our plan for writing. How can I answer any questions for you. Thank you for the opportunity and appreciate it. Thank you. So we have no blue cards on this one to close public comment. Sure, let's start with trustee why no, and then. Thank you, Mr. May appreciate your, your presentation. I know you have to be excited you know we've seen you over there at the school with the improvements and that's a big collective effort. Yep, there was some really good work by our bond department, and that's on the back of the community support of the bond, because that was

085done a lot of it with matching money off the support of the $242 million bond that we passed. It's incredible yeah and that's why we just, we keep trying to pull as many of the community and still come see this right yeah it's incredible, it has to be exciting for people especially you know when you went to Smith or you went to, you know when you went there this community is comprised of a lot of people who went to school here, and their grandparents went to school here and a lot of our teachers went to school here so when you come back to Maryland and you see these vast, not just capital changes but the, the programmatic you know that we've changed program there with the steam academy it's got to be really exciting I

086know you're really front and center on that, and I appreciate that. One of the things to me that's really impressive is that the school has, you know, it just looks like a static number going from I think he said 350 to 440 to 356 to 440 or something. I think that's a 24% increase I mean to increase the population of a school, you know by 24% and still have goals, and that you're able to attain is pretty remarkable. While you're implementing a steam academy while you're going through construction. There's a lot of moving parts there, so it's a good leadership, and I appreciate that. Another significant hurdle to overcome is that what it appears as a one in five students at the school is identified as a student with disabilities. And I know you made

087reference to that slightly as in terms of your attendance so I know you have your eye on that. That's a very difficult thing and for those in the community. Some of our surrounding districts the normal number for students that are identified in that categories around 9% and surrounding districts, so to have one in five at your school. That presents you with some significant challenges that you're still dealing with as long as as along with socio economic and English language learning challenges, and we don't get money for each of those. We get money for one of those. And so some of these kids have all three of those. And so to be able to navigate that and see change in a positive is very difficult. The biggest change is and you mentioned it that that unit

088three grade five grade four. So like that's a big hurdle. And we're looking at. I don't know it was a pretty significant change that you had that up 14% I think still concerned about the overall math, but I know you have some overall challenges, you know 34% proficiency and overall math is is not acceptable I know you don't think that's I'm working on that. And I'm certain that the district is going to continue with a lot of support in that endeavor. Strong work on the language arts, the language lab, you know, and I, I'm glad to see we're doing it continue to do the Saturday stuff. That if you know we used to have issues with science, and we brought in science labs of your having problems with the language stuff you bring in a

089language lab, you know, math labs, you know just takes more time it takes more time it's just it has to be a focus. My main concern, because I know it's a it's a concern across all platforms all this all campuses is the teacher student connection, and that ours is down nearly 16%. And so I know that you're an engaging guy, and I would hope that that could be a continuing focus. It absolutely is it's a, it was a shock to us. We had some grade level conversations pre that based on some behaviors that came up last spring right before the kids actually participated in that survey. And so we're just kind of adjusting and and talking about what can we make sure that we're doing throughout the course of the year to ensure that the

090kids are feeling good and supported and loved in a safe learning environment. I, I would love to, you know, we, we, with all of the politics and all of the different variables that affect our daily lives as people, I think that we can either be in a tough spot or in a great spot on any given day, and we want to make sure that we have we have more of the great spots. Each day for our kids right and that's that's kind of our goal. It's not. It's not acceptable to drop that many points we recognize that and so there's some targeted plans with our PBS work like Jeanette said, she thinks she's going to be first to platinum with her PBS work but I'm going to have her by a day or two. Thank

091you. I appreciate the competitive this the kind of playfulness goes back and forth but more importantly I appreciate when Miss Garza came up and she mentioned that you know that, you know, working with you, you working with her that it's true collaboration, you know someone figuring something out and then telling you afterwards not collaboration, but people being able to look at things that are working and, and, and to be able to collaborate that piece. That's really appreciate that's how we're going to get our best products in my belief. And so I appreciate how you guys are working together, I would be curious to see, given the two different models, how, if we have data that would show how our kids hit sixth grade, being in a K eight is one thing, because you're able to,

092it's a direct bridge, but to see the kids from around some of the challenge almost identical to the English language learners socio economic stuff. It's almost identical school to school, but hitting sixth grade. How are those kids received in, you know, the English language on the transformation, you know, one has dual immersion one does not. And how are those kids making that gap and how are the sixth grade teachers in the, whatever middle school that the Maryland kids could end up going to, how are they received and how are they performing at that level it'd be interesting to see that, because that could be an additional collaboration piece to maybe help make that bridge if it's consistent, then they're both working side by side. Sure. That's a great question. And I'll, Mr. Hart, and I

093will sit down and work through that and try and pull some data for you. Thank you again. Thank you. Trustee Kapanes, and then we'll have a trustee Vanden Heuvel. I remember sitting here like a year ago and celebrating with you and all the achievements that were going on. And so, I remember thinking I want my own children to be able to take part in this, especially the Saturday things are the Saturday math tutoring. I know it's offered as free tutoring and I'm thankful that junction is able to collaborate with it but I know it is nothing like free about it it's so valuable for the students and getting some feedback from the parents and the kids and they are saying it's fun, fun to do math on an early Saturday morning, I think that's so

094cool how you've made learning fun at your school site, and your dedication to reaching out to the English, second learners, offering the language labs and the newcomer program that you have. I just, I just applaud you for your dedication to that as well as your staff and your toes as a lot of learning taking place again at your school site. And I celebrate with you on all the achievements but I also want to thank you for taking the time to really explain the reality of the dips and some of your stats. I know each school site is significant, but it really like personalizes the things that you have to, you know, manage at your school site. And I'm excited to see all the good that's coming out of the hard work that's being done so

095thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Meunier, I love seeing a principal who really loves data, and then takes in and uses that to be better and I see you doing that on top of or kind of balancing that with really seeing every student as for this for the human that they are. And so I really appreciated your, when you start off talking about attendance, how that's really super important but also, you know, I sometimes think if we had a drone, or, you know, cameras in the homes of many of the students, especially who are social economically disadvantaged, to see what happens to get them to school. And when you have an older brother or an older sister or an aunt or a neighbor dropping the kids off at who knows what hour, sometimes, you

096know, half hour, 45 minutes late. And so it really, I love that you see that and that you just go, we're just so glad that you're here. Because we know that we can make a difference and you are changing the culture there. I think one of the things I wrote down is that you change the culture just with the approach to the LPAC, the way that students now are take are adopting responsibility there and and pushing each other and I think that that that kind of cultural change is exactly what's, what's needed and you do that. I think you have a really important, I don't know, the sense of that, seeing not just the student but everybody behind that, their, their, their family, their home, the people in their home, and I really, really appreciate

097that. And I think that's so much about why you're, that's so much of the reason behind why you're seeing some success there and I love that you have action plans for every piece of data that you don't love or that you, you know, that's disappointing maybe to the whole team. And so I would just want to, you know, give kudos to the places where things are going well, the 14% that that trustee Bueno mentioned and of course huge kudos especially to your resource team. Come on, that's huge. And then also I, I love to focus on the writing. I've been, you know, confronted with how this affects all the students that are in our system all the way through high school into college, that the lack of reading and the lack of writing and critical

098thinking is just, it's astounding and I'm so glad that you're, and we as a district are taking that, that data and going, we need to, we need to do better here for the good of everybody in in the future. So I think you're an incredible principal and I just want to say keep it up and let your team know they did, they're doing a great job. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. I think both presentations today are a testament to numbers don't lie but context is important. And so I sincerely appreciate the information about ESN regarding attendance to help contextualize those numbers. And then also the emerging bilingual reclassification numbers to recognize that number is static and says something but there's a story behind it that I think is important for us to know as

099well as the community. And then secondly, I think, thinking about you as a leader, and the creativity and resourcefulness that you bring to your practice is phenomenal. I think that you're, I was trying to think. I have colleagues that talk about you're able to see the forest and the tree, and I think you're able to see like the pebble the forest, the tree and the continent, and you're constantly thinking about how these interacts. And leveraging that creativity and resourcefulness. And then lastly, just echoing what trustee van and who will said, I appreciate that you have recognized some areas of concern and that you've created plans to try to address those. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I have a few comments as well a lot of a lot of them were already touched

100on. I do appreciate you explaining the nuances of LPAC we we know that it's challenging to look at those numbers year to year because students change, it's not the same students. It's not the same numbers you know some schools have might have three students and some schools like you have, you know, 112. So, just appreciate you explaining the nuances of LPAC we always know that that's sort of an imperfect number and but what's more important I think is what's happening with your LPAC level for gains which is really impressive and getting those students to be multilingual. And then as, as trustee drew and said, I, as always love how you as a leader, think outside the box and you utilize whatever supports you can, including the math on Saturdays, which has been fantastic and I'm

101glad that we're the junction is being able to be a part of that And then also the language lab that's just really incredible that you have toses there who can also think outside of the box and be creative, and that they can feel support from you and support from from the other teachers is just really incredible and also the newcomer support that you're also putting in there I know that if I were coming to a country and not be able to speak the language, I would be so appreciative of that extra newcomer support. And then just one more thing I wanted to touch on and that's the writing initiative, I, I applaud you digging into that I know that writing is challenging especially for students learning English as a second language, but I can see

102obviously it's really important skill but also for critical thinking it's one of the most important things we can do and it's something that's probably one of the most important things is that our students can have those skills if they're going to go on to college. And I can see that, too, I was going to ask you, working on that have you seen like an increased instructional coherence across the grade levels because you're doing this together, as opposed to, I'm sure I'm sure you are, but you can see that Absolutely. So, we are working across grade levels in this area. In fact, tomorrow we have a professional development day and there will be time where they will, our teams will be working together talking about the writing assessment and the planning for that. That'll be the

103first part of our afternoon tomorrow and so it's we're seeing progress across the board and we're collecting data frequently enough that we can stop and and reteach or or push in more tier one support from our Tosa team to provide to, you know, provide whatever type of support, it might be whether it's the instructional piece, whether it's a different way to deliver content or see the way it's put together for the kids, or whether it's specifically on a project with project based learning, where we want to have a writing component and we want it to lend to whatever we're doing in technology, right. So, we have all kinds of folks that are there and ready to run in and provide just great ideas. And, and I think that people, our staff get excited about it

104right the opportunities to try something new or see a new, new way to implement. Well, I think, I think it's great I really appreciate it appreciate you coming today and presenting, both of you for coming. Again, this is something that we really enjoy and I know our community enjoys it as well. So thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on. We're, we have no public comments on closed session and we are now going to adjourn. Just a clarifying question. We had a comment that came up on the board policies and trying to look at it, as others have I think, is there a way that we can get a strike through underline. No way. It's just, it's so extensive. It doesn't exist. Unfortunately, CSBA their platform that they use, they, they

105do not do that for this particular manual. And we have tried everything and it doesn't exist. So, we have agreed as this Thompson stated we've, you know fully agreed to just extend when we bring it to the board and we'll take whatever time we need as we go through them. Okay, so we will be going through them individually not as a block then the board will not know. I mean, you can choose to do that if you would like to but I mean that we're going to extend the time that we have before we bring it back to the board. Okay, it's just in looking at it. And we can't comment on comments that are made that aren't on the agenda, but just from my personal perspective, it's, it is overwhelming that how many board

106policies, because we were behind in some many. But when trying to review them, it's one of the primary responsibilities of the board to do board policy, but yet the board doesn't agendize them. And so we got behind. And so, my question is, is there a way. I don't know. It seems like we're saying that we're taking our responsibility as a board. We've passed it off when using the assistance to CSP, who was usually the agency that helped us with the boilerplate language. I just don't want in light of the comment that was made relative to an unintended consequence so to speak, like we do something that might impact bargaining or we do something that might. Are we able to find it, I've tried to navigate it was just really difficult but if there's no other

107way. I guess we're, we're kind of stuck. I mean you've extended it by 30 days. It will extend it as again if needed we have a system in place. Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right, without we will adjourn to close session and it is 1042 am. There he is. Yeah, we're ready. Okay. All right. We are reconvening now to open session. All actions approved in closed session must be reported out in open session and we have no actions to to report. Thank you. We are actually going to table agenda item 12.0 which is the discussion of the governance handbook just due to timing. That's something that we can discuss at a later date. And then we will all we have is our consent motions, which is a personal recommendation so I would entertain a motion

108on that. I move to support the superintendent's recommendation and improve all personnel recommendations. I second. I have a motion by trustee drew and seconded by trustee Kaplanis. Any discussion on emotion. Okay, I'd ask our clerk to take role. Trustee Vanden Heuvel. Aye. Trustee Kaplanis. Aye. Myself. Aye. President Pruso. Aye. That motion carries for zero with the absence of trustee Bueno. Our next meeting will be our next regularly scheduled meeting is Wednesday, November 12. And just to note that this is a different day than usual we had to change the day to due to some, some conflicts, the meeting now will be adjourned at six at 206pm.