001Okay, we're almost there, folks. If you could begin slowly wrapping up these conversations and making your way towards your tables, we'll get started. We appreciate everyone's adapting to this lovely space. Come on in. All right. If you can hear my voice, clap once. If you can hear my voice, clap twice. If you can hear my voice, clap three times. Oh my gosh, it works every every time. So, in just a few moments, we're going to begin as soon as people have a seat. Okay. ITS, are we recording? Are we good? Okay. Okay, welcome. The time is now 9:33. Welcome to this special meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. Um we have what's called a board retreat, the development of the district's revised strategic plan, and another and another resolution. Uh
002we'll take roll. And if the board members could be ready on the mic for the roll call, uh Ms. Newbill. Present. Dr. Rivas. Present. Mr. Melvoin. Here. Ms. Griego. Ms. Gomez. Present. Ms. Ortiz Franklin. Present. I heard a present. Board President Schmerelson. Present. Okay, that's six of seven. The order of operations today will be we did the roll call. We're going to take all the public comment that we have and then we will go to item two, Ms. Gomez's resolution and Dr. Rivas's resolution. So, without further ado Um, public commenters are all here in person. You'll have 2 minutes to speak when called upon. I'm going to use a very advanced technique with my phone. When you hear the beep, your time your time is up and I can actually stand near you so you
003can see how much time you have left so that we can make this a little bit easier on you. Okay. The first speaker, this is to tab one is Mr. David Tokofsky. I see you're in the room, sir. I'm going to give you the mic and you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Yes, right in here. Thank you. Your 2 minutes has begun. Feel like I'm at the LA Zoo or something. Um Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. First of all, I brought a couple of books for Mr. Schmerelson on the history of the American labor movement. I know you commented that there's no benefit to anybody in strikes and of course you guys still are on the 16-hour day, but most people live under the 8-hour day which is
004of course a result of the American labor movement. I recommend a book by Leon Litwack, Pulitzer Prize winner, American labor movement. It would help anybody who's thinking about teaching civics which ought to be as you know a state goal. It's a state goal right now, civics and so you do not have that. Mr. Schmerelson did bring that up as a really good idea. It fell on deaf ears and I think that you should align yourself a lot more with the state goals particularly you don't have a goal on safety. The most fundamental social emotional piece is the feeling of being safe, not just general social emotional which you have without any metrics on your goal. It's a good goal, but safety is very clear in the case of bullying, in the case of anti-Semitism, in
005the case of all sorts of discrimination. This is the topic of one of your resolutions that resolutions tend to occur when the board has no idea what the budget is or what's going to happen with the strike. Those are two important issues. Also, you have no goal on the arts. The arts, of course, you're being sued by former superintendent and others with respect to the arts. It would be a very good idea to have the arts as part of either your social emotional, which is fundamental, or as part of your curricular goals. And lastly, I might say that you congratulations on bringing safe science to the forefront. The goals from the last strategic plan, none of which were met by the previous team in the last 4 years. You're changing the goals entirely, which I
006respect if you have better metrics, but you need to connect yourselves to the actual goals being set at the state of California, not just simply be islands on the on the issues. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time, sir. All right, the next speaker is Juan Jose Magaña. Please come on up, sir. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Mr. Magaña's going to speak in Spanish. So, if you'd like to hear what he's saying in English, please put on these headsets that you have in front of you or put your hand up and we'll get them to you so you can experience simultaneous translation. Okay, and then just one more at the outer edge there. Thanks for your patience, everybody. Well, good morning. I think it's interesting to see who are
007defining what the educational standards are and who the responsible people are for the classes education and to map out the resources that based on discrimination. We're here to support the privileged schools where the best income children with the parents with careers are but our Latin community and all African-American communities are worse and worse. You are the culpable ones. And our educational model is bad things to you. It's important that you start to think that you are the responsible ones and the culpable ones for the future and this is due to the safety we have in schools, the quality of teachers and the privileges that these these unions have just like the members on this board who are politicians this strategic plan should reflect the true needs and alternatives and solutions so that the education improves
008and our kids have a future not train them so they can just be donkeys and followers and lemmings. They need a quality education. This needs to be improved and it's important that you listen to us teachers and not cornered to scream on the streets because you have a sicario that is preventing parent voices to have their voice to speak for education. That's why we have all these scandals because you're not transparent and you're only here to speak about educational models that if they had worked we would be in paradise but you're culpable and responsible for us being worse and worse. I hope you forget about your salaries and think about education. Thank you and have a great day. Okay, come on in. Please uh Okay. Mr. Rasolis going to speak in Spanish, so please continue
009to use the headsets and I have a timer. My name is Monica Rasolis. Monica Rasolis. I'm a mom of two students. I'm here to ask you to please um not increase the teacher salaries because they have not demonstrated anything academically since 2% is nothing and our kids need more. I was a mom who supported teachers in the rain in 2013. I was disillusioned because they just left. And now I'm not in agreement for their increase in in money since they can be providing better results for our kids. And if they did, I would. So in this moment, I please ask that you not increase their salaries. And we have a lot of contacts with other parents to tell them we're in favor of the district and not the teachers. Thank you very much. If anyone
010needs one, please put your hands up. Okay, listo. Gracias. So, good morning. My name is Diana Guillen. I represent the parent network for school safety. I'm glad to see Mr. Salcedo because I thought he was going to take the superintendent's post since he was the secondary there and I'm not sure why he's not there. But then I saw an article where very clearly it describes why Mr. Schmerelson was chosen. He has a lot of conflicts of interest because his wife is a teacher. His uh family members one of the UTLA leaders, Mr. Orozco. And also the wife of Mr. Orozco is a leader of in UTLA. So, here supposedly it says that the ethics code of the employees establishes that they have to abstain from making decisions that could provide a benefit a direct benefit
011to a relative. And here his Mr. Schmerelson's wife will be um getting something out of these salary increases. And us parents are willing to have our kids 7 days at home, but they should not be able to have these increases with such low results. And if you're going to go about these contracts, you have to you have to commit to something where they're not going to have a mediocre-based results. So, the board members are in cahoots with UTLA because they've been paid for with these campaigns. It looks like he is also roped in. And Mr. Salcedo, who is more independent, would not be taking the place. So, it makes sense. So, Mr. Carvahlo now looks like a saint because with what you guys are doing, you're compromising our children's future. Us parents are here to
012defend them. And at the very least speak out loud to what all this is all that's happening. And you know that Mr. Schmerelson has conflicts of interest, and even then you're continuing. Thank you. Thank you for your time. We have two more speakers to this item. Is Roman here? Roman? I do not see Roman. Is Kiana Selena here? Kiana C? No. And that concludes public comment on item one and we do not have any public comment on item two. This would bring us to the resolution. Can I have a move and a second for the rule 72 waiver? Move it. Move by Ms. Gonez. Second. Seconded by Dr. Rivas. Okay. So, vote on the rule 72. Ms. Newbill. Yes. Dr. Rivas. Yes. Mr. Melvoin. Yes. Ms. Griego. Ms. Gonez. Yes. Ms. Ortiz Franklin. Yes. And
013board president Schmerelson. >> Yes. Okay. So, the rule 72 has been approved and then we go to the resolution. Can I have a motion and a second for the resolution? I'm going to move an amended version of the resolution that's being circulated to board members. Okay. Moving so, can we call this version two? Yes. Okay. So, moving version two. And second. Seconded by Dr. Rivas. Okay. I will now turn it over to the board members for discussion. Thank you so much. Well, good morning and I appreciate the opportunity to bring this resolution on an urgent matter that is affecting our families, our schools, and our broader community. Like many throughout California and the nation, I was horrified to read the New York Times investigation published last week and learn of the repeated abuse of girls
014and women by Cesar Chavez. Just last April we honored Dolores Huerta in our board room and to learn of the burden that she has carried in silence for six decades has been devastating. I am so grateful for the bravery of the survivors. I'm sorry. I'm so grateful for the bravery of survivors who have openly shared their stories despite the repercussions that they may face. These heart-wrenching stories represent a betrayal for so many of us and and yet they resonate with many survivors and many women who have experienced this as girls and in our adulthood, including myself. This resolution has rightly prompted a reckoning at all levels of government and across our educational institutions and this resolution is about speaking with one voice that we stand with survivors and we condemn all forms of sexual violence,
015that we speak out against the cycle that consistently leads to the abuse of children and of women which we read in the news every day with the Epstein files and now with someone who has been a hero for so many of us. This is about demanding something different and better for the children and women who are part of the system that we serve. We continue to celebrate and champion the collective work of many people, working people to advance workers' rights, labor rights and human rights for farm workers and many others, not the achievements of any single individual. Now is the time to begin a process to ensure that our instructional program, our school calendar, the names of our schools and the murals on our walls reflect our values as a system of safety, dignity and
016truth for our families and our students. I appreciate the swift action the district has already taken to provide guidance and lessons that focus on the broader farm worker movement and justice for our communities. This resolution will continue that work to turn a new page and work with our communities to recast our schools towards our continued goal of a safe, inclusive environment for all students and families. Um with that, I would love to turn to my co-sponsors, Dr. Rivas and board member Ruthie Franklin, for any words that they would like to share. Thank you, Ms. Gomez. Let me share. So, I am um honored to be introducing this resolution with um my colleague my colleagues and hoping that um the rest of the board joins us as well. I want to be clear that this is
017not an easy moment, but it's a necessary one. We begin where we must, with survivors. Girls and women who were harmed, silenced, and made to carry the that pain for a decades. Survivors like Dolores Huerta, Anna Murguia, Debra Rojas, Esmeralda Lopez, whose courage and coming forward demands not just acknowledgement, but action. Let me say this plainly, we believe you and all of the survivors. We stand with you and we will not look away, not anymore. And I also want to acknowledge that for many in our school community, students, staff, and families, this mo- moment may be deeply triggering. It may bring up personal experiences, fear, or pain that is real. And we have a responsibility to respond with care, with urgency, and with support. Because what this moment reveals is not isolated, it happens too
018many times. It is about power, about systems that protect individuals over people, and about the ways abuse is too often enabled by trust and proximity. And if we are serious about our responsibility as a school district, then our response must go beyond words. This resolution commits us to that. To ensuring real trauma in for informed supports for students. To clear and confidential reporting pathways at every school site. To educating our students on consent, boundaries, and recognizing grooming behaviors. And to making sure every student knows they are not alone. Or any woman or girl that they are not alone that and that help is available. We can and we must hold truth. The farm workers movement is a movement of the people. Rooted in collective struggle and dignity. And leaders like Dolores Huerta represent the values
019we uplift. Courage, justice, and community power. But we will not protect a narrative at the expense of people. We will not celebrate harm. Because our students are watching. They are learning not just from what we say, but from what we choose to do. So today the board is making a choice. A choice to stand on the side of truth. A choice to stand on the side of accountability. And a choice to say without hesitation or condition, in this district, we will always choose survivors. Thank you. And I want to thank my colleagues for bringing the resolution. And thank you Ms. Gonzalez for your bravery today and always. When we heard of the news last week, my small team of seven women, the majority of us had stories to tell. And I know in rooms across
020the country, rooms across our classrooms, girls and women were telling their stories, too. Dr. Rivas is right, we cannot uphold a system that perpetuates silence, that elevates men and leaders who commit these violations against girls and women, and today this district says no more. By changing the name of the schools, by changing murals and likenesses of Cesar Chavez and any others, we are standing up for survivors always. I walked by a school yesterday where his face was on the wall, and I thought, how many girls, how many women are walking around holding their stories? I invite my colleagues to stand together to be with survivors always as we voted unanimously in October that we have these trainings Dr. Rivas lifted up just this month. Staff will be engaging in training and families and students about
021grooming behaviors that we learned decades ago through this New York Times investigation were already showing in girls as young as eight and nine. Thank you, colleagues, for standing with us today and making sure that we are doing everything we can to prevent violence in all forms. We invite you to vote yes on this resolution. May we speak, yeah? Oh, go ahead. Oh, okay. Well, thank you for bringing this um resolution so quickly. Um you know, it's it's very hard. It's a very hard and sad moment. Um and frankly, it just makes me feel very icky. Right? But it is a reminder that monumental fights such as the farm workers fights, the fight to have restrooms, the fight to have water, simple basic things. The fight for health care and pensions are driven by a movement
022of people experiencing the suffering. And yes, sometimes a movement has a face. But we must remember that it is the people who are experiencing that drive that. This is a reminder that movements, of all movements, have to make space for all of their members and communities and stakeholders so that their members can feel safe and ultimately the safety of their members supersedes any movement. You cannot have a successful fight if the fighters in the movement are not feeling safe. And you cannot be a good leader if you are causing harm and making people feel unsafe. And we're also reminded that whenever we're trying to dismantle systems of oppression and changing systems, you do it from a place of love. And everyone should be feeling that love. The way that this has unfolded with Cesar Chavez
023demonstrates and reminds us that we cannot be complacent or sit idle when we witness, when we hear, or even when we just feel that something is not right. We should be able to feel safe to speak up and stand up for those who cannot, to call out when injustice is done, and most importantly, believe people and give them space to share their suffering. People right now come to us on a regular basis. We are here. We are elected leaders. People elected us because they believed in what we said we were going to do. They believed in our promises. And so to me this is a call out for us. This is a moment for us to grow and to learn that even us as people who are considered leaders and held up, but we must
024check ourselves on a regular basis. What are we moving? Who is behind this? Who are we centering? Who do we uphold? Who do we prioritize? And it's got to be our students and our families and our communities and frankly our most vulnerable students. And so I see this as a moment for us to to model reflection, to model self-assessment, and to bring this forth to our students, to our school communities, to invest like Dr. Rivas said, in making sure that all of our LAUSD staff is trained and has space to be able to learn about this, to grow from this, because we need every single space in our district to be a safe space. The cafeteria, the bathroom, the playing field, the classroom. And the only way that's going to happen is if we invest
025in making sure that everyone has this awareness. We should become the leader and the model in this. And so I see this as a moment of reckoning, as a moment of awakening, as a reminder that we need to do this work for our students, and that there isn't one person who matters in any movement, that it is the people. It is the students who come and speak up. It is the parents and the families. They are the ones driving it. And just as a farm workers union it was a farm workers who led that fight. And Cesar Chavez has now added to that history. I don't think we should erase him. This is now part of the history. And it should be something that we should learn from and we should grow from and we
026should continue to hold people accountable. Thank you. Other board members? Okay. I have a comment I'd like to make. I have a comment I also would like to make. Um so I I want to commend the bravery of Dolores Huerta, Debra Rojas, and Anna Munguia, and so solidify that Los Angeles Unified stands with them. While the news concerning Cesar Chavez may have been difficult for many, the movement goes beyond any one person. As you said, absolutely true. Thousands of people protested, boycotted, and made a difference for better working conditions and better living conditions. I think that is more than fitting that we take this stage to reflect on their work and recognize the collective contribution of farm workers. I also support renaming any LAUSD building that bears Cesar Chavez's name, allowing the community to identify
027better with a district that serves them. And let this also serve as a message that survivors' words do make a difference. And if you are a survivor of assault, please reach out to a trusted adult at LAUSD, and we will have resources ready for you. Thank you. Mr. Melvoin. Thank you, and Board President Ms. Smalls, I appreciate you saying something as well, because I want our colleagues to know that this isn't just their burden to bear. And this is not just their issue, and that the the the the men of this board and of this district stand with the women of LA Unified, our employees, our students and families being united in this effort to end this culture, systemic culture, not just in this country, but internationally, of abuse, and work work with you. I
028unfortunately, I would love to be added as a co-sponsor. I appreciate my colleagues bringing this so quickly, and I do apologize that this always falls on women to have to come forward, and I appreciate my colleagues, and I know our acting superintendent and the men of LA Unified who are standing united in this effort. I appreciate how swiftly the district acted. I appreciate how swiftly legislative leaders have acted, but as Ms. Gonez alluded to and mentioned the Epstein files, there are far too many powerful men in this world who are walking unaffected by a culture of abuse, and that is one of the reasons that it takes people decades to come and be vocal about what happened to them. And so, I appreciate not only the quick action to rename schools and murals, and put
029this context, as Ms. Grego said, in the broader constellation of what happens, but also hope that the district's efforts around our trainings can encourage folks to come out as early as possible, not only to prevent this in the first place, but to make sure that their trauma is not compounded, and that we do have to hold those in power accountable. So, thank you. I'd I'd appreciate to be added as a co-sponsor, and uh want you to all my colleagues on this board, the women in this room, and again the girls and families uh of LA Unified to know they're not alone and we stand 100% with you. So, thank you. And next we'd like to hear from uh board member Newbill, followed by uh Superintendent Chat. Can you activate your microphone? I don't think we
030can Um wanting to say thank you. Um this is very triggering, so the fact that our district has been so pronounced in protecting and being a safe space for our students and our families and that we continue to do that and we continue to exercise it through example. Um I am so proud to be here, to be a part of this, because as we transition in to be that that district that continues to move forward um to continues to be the example for so many. Um I am so proud. I can't say it enough because it is such a hard thing and I think of decades of how women have carried uh self-included of things that have happened in your life that you had no control over felt you had no control over and could
031not say anything in fear of some retaliation, in fear of something happening to your family. And I hope that our schools are leaders in spaces that as mentioned every space within our schools is safe. That our students can trust someone in our schools to be able to speak up. That this has happened at a time to be able to transform how things were to how things can be. And so I too would like to be a co-sponsor as we have done this work in October. Um and that it continues to shed light for our families, for our students to be able to know that here in LAUSD we see you. Thank you. I didn't say but can I be a co-sponsor as well? And I also, please. Mr. Chat. I'd like to start obviously by
032by thanking, commending, and praising the board frankly for their leadership and their swift action in this space. I want to build on a couple of comments made by board member Griego and by board member Ortiz Franklin in terms of the the training and the supports that we offer at schools. You know, we've we've offered training for the adults on campus for many many many years around grooming awareness and and and what that that looks like. What we took on a few years ago is offering that same level of training for our students. It's not something that we had really done at least systemically up until about 3 years ago. But we needed students and I hate to put it this way but frankly particularly girls to be aware of the behaviors that are not okay,
033that are not appropriate even from folks that sometimes they may look to you know, with the respect and and trust. Where where this most hits home for me though is you know, I I I talk about my my girls probably way too much. You know, I'm a dad of 11-year-old twin girls. I don't want them to grow up in a world where they have to constantly kind of have this pervasive fear, apprehension, awareness that again folks that they look to as as figures of trust could one day not act in a way that that builds on that trust. I think we can do we can and will do better. I'll close there, but again I just really wanted to thank you all for your leadership. Thank you very much, Ms. Gonez. I I don't have
034any more remarks. I I just appreciate the entire board and um you know, we we bear responsibility in ensuring that we're protecting the young people of our city and I I trust and believe in the work that we are doing and making space for survivors on our sites, providing those resources and I appreciate everyone's support today. Thank you so much. Okay, so we have voted on the amended resolution. We have all your co-sponsors who have wished to be co-sponsors and now we'd like to vote. All right, Ms. Grego, can I return to you for your rule 72 vote? That's the rule 72 waiver. Yes. That's a yes. Okay, having been moved by Ms. Gonez and seconded by Dr. Rivas, now the vote on version two of the resolution. Ms. Nubel. Yes. Dr. Rivas. Yes. Mr.
035Melvoin. >> Yes. Ms. Grego. >> Yes. Ms. Gonez. >> Yes. Mr. Ortiz Franklin. Yes. And Board President Sherman Olsen. Yes. Okay, that's seven eyes. All right, now moving on to the board retreat section of today's program. I will hand it over to the district to take it away. Thank you. Just creating a little space for our transition here. Good morning again, board members. Good morning again to all staff that that are here with us this morning. We're we're again uh here today to build on the work that that began in January, obviously I I would say probably well before January, but really came together, coalesced in January uh when we started looking at our district goals for our next iteration of our strategic plan. Um as as someone who was a practitioner of the pillars,
036the priorities that were captured in the last plan, I I've seen the guidance that the goals can create for all of us as staff and for our communities and how again that can lead to outcomes for students because again, the most important thing of the work that we do in terms of our strategic plan is the outcomes that it creates for students. I want to mark that. Plans are excellent, but it really comes down to execution. Plans though are driven by goals. So, I want to commend the board for their leadership so far and again, I know that today the hope is that we will finalize our goals, literacy, numeracy, college and career readiness, graduation, social emotional education and awareness, which I think for me personally is something that's close to heart. I look to
037us to have honest, vulnerable, and engaging dialogue today that leads us to a place where we create North Stars that will serve us well for at least the next three or four years to come. With that, I do want to turn it over to Board President Schmarlson for some opening remarks as well. And I thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chace. So, good morning to everyone and welcome colleagues to our second board retreat of 2026. If you remember at our first retreat in January, we began our work to develop the district's next strategic plan for 2026 to 2030. We updated the district's core beliefs, vision, and mission statements, and and discussed district-wide goals and targets. Today, our goal is to complete the work we began in January. As board members, we will focus on finalizing the
038targets for the district goals, which will be the anchor for the rest of the strategic plan. Once we have agreed on these important tenants, Mr. Chace and his team will draft the updated strategic plan and develop operational implementation implementation plans. I am excited for today and look forward to a productive and engaging discussion with all of you. And now, Miss Miss Bate. Good morning. Um so, I will just spend a couple of minutes grounding us in what we did last time, what we've done since last time, what we're doing today, and then what we'll do after today. So, um as Mr. Chace and Mr. Schmarlson mentioned, last time was quite successful. I mean, it was a you know, I've done this with a lot of different organizations, and it was in the top probably 5%
039of successful retreats because you all came you left the day with a finalized vision, mission, core values, and uh two out of the the goals were almost completed in terms of targets. So, the ELA and math goal um had um almost agreement. So, we will touch on those briefly this time. And then we also added science last time, if you recall, and then had a lot of discussion on SEL, social emotional learning, and on post secondary. Um and then we as staff had a lot of to-dos from the board about those three left goals left. So, science, SEL, and post secondary. So, since last time, what we've done is the we've worked very hard. The departments, cross department. So, um instruction, operations, data, we have our strategic planning, we have all been meeting to do
040the work on the science, SEL, and post secondary goals to bring you all options that we do have data for that we think would be um good goals for this board, given what we heard from you and what we've heard from the community, because we've started, I'm going to show you, you know, all the community members that we're speaking to in groups, but we um have started getting feedback from them as well. So, today what we'll do is we had more activities. Um board member Ortiz Franklin, we had a few activities planned, but now we have one. So, we do have an activity after lunch. Uh board member Newbill, we had more breaks built in, but those kind of got squeezed out, too. But, please take the breaks as needed. Um but we are going
041to focus on primarily SEL, post secondary, and science. We'll have breakout groups so that we can get So, and we'll have the data at the table so you can see where we've gone um and then what it would be if we have certain targets between now and 2030. And we're hoping, so that's what what this is. We'll touch on the literacy and numeracy quickly. We'll review the targets before lunch, and then we will after lunch um finalize them, hopefully. And before lunch is when we'll have the breakout groups. And we did mix the board members up a bit, so you have different people in your group. Um and then after today, the staff will begin the very hard work of using the goals that you've outlined, cascading down, and creating operations plans around all of
042those. And that's where we will have things like the arts, and we'll have all the operation and the budget and all the pieces that will then, you know, roll up to what is, as board member McGregor said, what is our center? And our center, and you can tell from the goals, are truly our our students. Um so, I will now turn it over um to Oh, you know what? Let me tell you real quickly. I know you've all seen this um slide, and I know we met with each of you individually since our last strategic plan, but I just I've had a few questions, so I wanted to mention one more time all of the engagements that we're going through. So, you'll see, I mean, this is you'll see all the different We're going to
043break out the the focus groups for staff in a moment, but we are truly touching all of our stakeholder groups. We've already started that, and we will continue. Um so, and then this is breaking out the by region. We'll be talking to parents, students, teachers, classified staff, administrators, and um and then the region leadership. So, you will see this is about as extensive as I have ever seen, and what we'll be doing with this information is taking it and incorporate it particularly in our operations plans. What we're asking the the community groups is what's working, very simply. What's working, what's not working, and what is your priority. And we want to put that as we create the operations plans as a base um from the strategic plan that you were going to finalize the goals
044for today. So, I will hand it over to Dr. John John Fullerton from USC. He helped us last time and was very excited to come back and help us again. So, um thank you, Dr. Fullerton. Okay, well, it's it's um good to see everyone again, and uh uh as Ms. Bott said, we're going to be um uh finalizing the five goals uh today uh in terms of the target. So, you selected the five goals last time, but uh we're going to try to finalize the literacy, numeracy, science, post-secondary readiness, and SEL targets. Four of those will actually aim to end up with sort of specific numbers on. One of those will be more of a agreement on an approach to move forward cuz we don't quite have specific numbers yet. Um with that You have
045the clicker. That's what I mean. Yeah. So, this is the strategic plan goals that are coming uh to an end this year. And these are the strategic plan draft goals for the next plan, the next 5 years. Staff has pulled together recommendations for each of these goals. You are of course the board. You get to decide what you want the goals to be, but sort of these are sort of at the least preliminary preliminary starts and preliminary recommendations. As noted, we were very close last time on literacy and numeracy. So, that's where we're hoping to begin. And then we will move um uh uh after that to sort of discuss in smaller groups the last three goals. That makes sense to everyone. And please also if you have questions any stop me. So. Okay. So,
046in literacy, we the the original goal was 30 points moving up 30 points distance from standard. Um or that was the '22 to '26 goal. The proposals in the January 14th discussion, basically the thought was to get to standard get on students on average to standard by the end of the next strategic plan. But there was some discussion about whether or not we could go above standard um for third through fifth literacy as well. Um the staff recommendation was uh at this point is to sort of try to get both grades three through five and six through eight to standard. As opposed to having them one being above standard and one being below. Uh what would that look like? So uh to get to standard that would mean growing about three points a year uh
047for the next five years uh in grades three through five. And um that is actually a pretty aggressive target. So I think what's the Yes. So what what what what we did here was we looked at other districts around the state. Any district that except any district that had at least a thousand third through fifth graders testing over the past three years and uh to see how many districts around the state have done that level of improvement in a in one year or two years or three years running cuz what we were proposing right here is 2.9 points per year for the next five years consecutive to get to this goal of of um you know all students at standard on average. And there were only 11 districts out of 290 some that have done
048this. And so what we are proposing puts us in the top single digits percentiles in in rate of improvement district um statewide. And in fact um doing something unprecedented that we've seen from other districts. So So we do see this as you know this blue option this this middle middle option in the current plot as as being truly ambitious. Uh similar to the grade six through eight. And then for grade six through eight uh the proposal is again to get at standard. Uh and the the uh number of districts who have gone up at this rate for the for three uh years in a row is even fewer. Um I believe it is. Yes. So, it looks like uh three have gone up at that at that level of at that level for 3 years
049in a row. So, those are both those are both ambitious targets, uh but uh but also I think they get you sort of in a good place in 5 years. So, so uh in a place to grow from uh there again. So, uh so, with that, that's kind of that's the information about the literacy goal. Let me ask the board, is this is this is the literacy goal of getting on standard in both 3 through 5 and 6 through 8 seem right? Any objections to that? It's good. All right. Seeing none, moving on to numeracy. Uh so, here uh same it was the same issue uh as before. Uh the the thought was to sort of move towards getting to uh at standard uh an average at standard uh in both third through fifth and
050sixth through eighth. And there was some question of could we go above at standard in third through fifth? The uh again, the staff recommends going to at standard. Uh that would be an increase of 4.6 points per year over the next 5 years. Uh and uh about 13 districts have done 3 years in a row of that level of growth so far. Uh and then in terms of sixth through eighth, uh that's quite uh an ambitious target. That's growing at 11.8 uh uh um 11.8 uh points per year. Uh I don't believe six districts have done that two times, but none have actually done that um more than that. So, that's a that's a very ambitious target, but that takes takes us both up top. Yes. I'm just wondering, can we have the districts that
051have accomplished that those goals? If you can send them to us, that would be helpful. >> Yep. So, the proposal is to sort of for numeracy to move to make a target of having students on average being at standard in both grades 3 through 5 and 6 through 8. Are there any any any disagreements or does that sound like a like the goal? I have a different question, but sounds like the goal. What is the number of students? Do we have like an average number of students that we're seeing reach this? Uh Do you know about that? Well, this this goal of being on average, you know, at a distance from standard equaling zero could could come from different It could be various numbers of students that are that are at, you know, at DFS
052above zero. You know, this is the average of all, so you know, I mean, if we were to say, you know, the hope is that at least 50% of our students are at zero or above, and you know, the thought would be, you know, on average we would be at zero. That And so, to have that kind of articulation, we're really switching over to the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standard. And you know, that is that that has been a consideration to to use for our district goal instead of focusing on distance from standard as the metric. Um you know, we've been advising that the doing doing so really places the emphasis just at that threshold. And then students who are already above it and growing, you don't we we don't really see you
053don't track that anymore. Students who are very are below standard improve a lot, but they don't jump that threshold. But you know, you we also don't get to account for those students. And so, having it be about the average distance from standard being zero, we do see all students are accounted for in that calculation, whether you're already 10 above and you go to 30 above. You're in you're in our math. If you're 30 below and you go to 10 below, you're in our math. You know, it's not just the kids that go from 10 below to 10 above. You know what I mean? So, so that's the idea of of looking at distance trainer and and it's not a direct correspondence. You know, we could have an average distance from standard being zero, but only
054you know, 35% of our students are at standard because those who are above are so far above the average gets pulled up. So, we would get obviously with the numbers that we already have our current goals, we would be able to see that though as far as who have who are above it, who are right there, who are making it and be able to correlate those numbers. Okay. Yeah, and these none of these goals are sort of what all will be reported. I mean, these are the goals for the for the district, the big goals for the district, but sort of but but the more detailed information about sort of who's above, who's below and sort of in progress across groups would be um also reported. Okay, so everyone's agreement on this numeracy goal. Great.
055Okay, so now we're actually going to break out into into groups to talk about the targets for the next three goals. These were These were science was a brand new goal. So, there was no So, we didn't There was no discussion of possibilities there. Um people wanted to add more on career to the post secondary readiness goal. So, that and and staff has thoughts and and suggestions there. And then the social emotional learning goal also needed some work in terms of sort of thinking about what was actually going to be the process and approach. Um so, what we're going to do now is break up into three uh three tables. You'll go to a table and then folks will rotate the sort of the different goals will rotate around you and then we will come
056back. We'll do that for about an hour. We'll come back. We'll have lunch. We'll come back after lunch and we'll sort of discuss and try to sort of nail down those last three goals. Um Yes, and uh as far as your table assignments, so on table eight, we have board uh President Schmelson. Table eight is that one there, I think. Um uh board member Rivis and uh board member Melvoin. Uh for table nine, we have board member Newbill, board member Ortiz-Franklin. For table 10, we have uh board member Goñaz and board member Griego. 10 is that one. Can you say 10, yeah. >> Okay, hi. Again, we're going to really quick slight change. We have lunch being set up now. So, after we do this activity, we will then go to lunch in 30 minutes
057for lunch and come back together and we will you all will talk as a group about what you talked about and what you want to do and hopefully we'll come to some consensus on the three remaining goals. So, I am going I'm going it over to Eric Hanson who has uh an activity for everybody. All right, thank you. Uh coming from an elementary teacher background and elementary principal background, and this is good for any level any level of student. So, we have a quick mood activity. So, you can do have a couple options. One, you can scan this QR code or on your device you can type in www.classmoodupf.edu. classmood upf.edu. Either one of those will work. So, please take a moment as you do a class mood together. Again, as we worked on uh
058one of our district goals today, SEL. So, once you go to the website I'll switch over you can see the website, but once you go to the website the at the very top there is a code here in the gray box. So, once you get to the website, at the very top you'll see a box and the invite code is at the very top here and I'll read it off. m a e z s3y This invite code you'll need to enter at the very top and then once you enter that and you click then you're able to go in and uh we're going to see we're not going to see anyone this is it's anonymous we're not going to see anybody's mood, but we'll see the entire group. So, at the very top under lesson
059code you're going to enter m a e z s 3 y and then enter it into the enter lesson code and then send. And I'm going to go to the computer to switch over, but before I go to switch over, just raise your hand if you need some help, I'll come by to to give you a hand. It's loading slow. Is the Wi-Fi It's not Wi-Fi. I'm not even connected to Wi-Fi. Yeah, I've got the same thing here. It's probably too much at once. Too much at once, okay. Technology. There we go. Bill just got it, okay. You'll There we go. Thank you, Pedro. It It just may be taking a minute to load if you're on your uh on your phone. I don't want it to change your mood. But, you know, we'll we'll
060we'll take whatever your authentic mood is. So, let me if you need help, I'll come by and give you a hand. Bill, your your your your mood is Submitted? Excellent. Superintendents, how we doing? Need any help, Bill? So, if it take a little bit to load, Yeah. Yeah, both devices Both devices are Okay. They're working on it. Just like in the classroom, Dr. Bob. Okay, is it about to pause and giveaway time, right? Yes, please. You guys are doing an excellent job. I know it's taking a little bit of patience as it takes a minute to load, but that's okay. Thank you for helping. Should be right here, Superintendent. Should be He's put it in, okay. It's just Yeah, I think everybody's on right now. Maybe it's taking a minute to load up. Taking a
061minute to load. So. You know, it worked with my team yesterday. That's what it is now. Maybe it's just taking a moment to load up. No, no, I can do you the login. Yeah, okay. Well, All right. It's taking a while. It's It's uh lagging right now. It's just not going through. It worked It did work on the team yesterday. Yeah. How you doing, board member? Sorry, it's Oh, yeah, there it is right there. Yeah. And then it's a m a b z s 3 y. Board member Franklin, I think you could just do one. I I know I think it's just You You were asking if you could do a couple. I Sorry, I was giving up the directions, but I think it's just one. Yeah, perfect. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, you you
062got it right. Yeah. Sorry about that. It worked I did it yesterday. It did work. I was the teacher. I was the teacher, right? It's just taking a while. Technology. Technology. Well, it'll be It'll It'll be really cool once I Hopefully everybody's able to get in in a minute, and then I'll show the video. Yeah, you won't see like anybody's entry, but you'll you'll see the You'll kind of see the code. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got it, Mr. It's just right right there. That's where you put the code in. So, I I can read it to you. m a e e z Uh S 3 Y So M A E Z S 3 Y. Uh I don't know. M Uh mark Yeah, it's just a wrong mark So I have to go back a little
063bit. Just look Okay. All right. Well, let me see what I can I can see here. Okay, we're almost there. I know it's lagging and logging in. 2 minutes? Here it is. Okay, so I want to go to How do I How do I like refresh this? And I want you to put this on the screen. Well, let me let me refresh the screen. Sites of school Okay. Okay, so I want to go I want to share my screen. Okay. Just like any classroom, we have to plan for technology and and that's okay. But you know what your mood is. And I think I know what one of your moods are. The mood that you have is hungry. So for the next Let's take a second. Let's take a look at where we are. I
064see we have about 60 people in the room, and it'll register as it comes through, but we see some happiness, we see some calm. Oh, I look at that. Excited. I see a sleepy. Who needs a cappuccino? Starbucks is coming over. But, as an instructor, I can kind of see where uh if I was in the classroom, I could see where a class is, kind of just as a check-in, right? And so, thank you for taking part uh with this quick class mood. We wanted to check in see where everybody is. And again, I apologize for the lag with the uh technology, but you can kind of see uh the power of the tool to check in um with those that you serve. So, with that, I'm going to uh excuse everybody to lunch. So,
065please, lunch is ready. Please enjoy, board members. We will follow you. Please start us off. Thank you. Till 12:30. Lunch until 12:30. >> Okay, welcome back. Hope lunch everybody had a good lunch. Um So now we we spent an hour learning about the different goals and asking questions and so now our job is to over the next 60 minutes plus or minus uh land this plane for these three three remaining goals. And the three goals are science post secondary readiness and social emotional learning. And we'll go through them in that order. So start with science and then go to post secondary readiness and then go to SEL. And what we'll do for each of them is we'll first start with the report out from the tables. And then we will discuss each goal and hopefully
066come to consensus on what those what those targets might be. So with that let's go to the science goal in which the recommendation was at standard on average in grades five and eight. Every students will be at standard on average in grades five and eight. So so science table report out. Thank you John. Yes, for the for the science rotations that we had to the to the to the question at hand of the setting the district goal. There was I believe general agreement and comfort with with the goal as being recommended here. The conversations were actually more focused on how the how do we get there and what does this mean for for the work moving forward and how we organize the work and prioritize the work and make sure science is getting the attention
067it deserves across grade levels here and and and so on. So as far as the the question of the goal what I heard at least in the in the in the in in the rotations was agreement with the recommended target. So but I happy to discuss and have leave it at that for the board to discuss. Okay, so opening up to the board for discussion. Any questions, thoughts other reactions to the goal or does that sound correct everyone? >> That's the That's 91. Okay. So, I Yeah, I agree that the how was very important to us, particularly in elementary school, is how How can we um ensure that uh teachers have enough time in the day to be able to teach math, and it's also um not only to be able to I mean, did
068I say math? I meant science. Okay, thank you. Um not only um that they are able to read about science, but also to be able to engage in it, right? Um and we had some ideas that uh I heard that DOI has created some sample schedules that they might share with um uh elementary school teachers, that some schools actually doesn't designate a room as the science room, talked about potential um uh ways that we can have teachers who can either receive a micro-credential in science and become the science teacher at a school, or have science lead teachers at schools. We have some, you know, displaced teachers, maybe they can take on this job. So, how can we make this happen because it's very important to us. The goal is very important, but then also making
069sure that we're working toward that how piece was very important. Board president. Okay, we uh differentiated between fifth grade and eighth grade science. Now, in in eighth grade, you have a designated period of science, but in fifth grade, you have to make time, and that's the key, making time during elementary teachers' uh busy day. Right. Great. So, from both of these, it's basically the science goal as a goal is great, but the strategic plan really needs to have some how are we going to get there, and and what's going to what's going to move us to it. Okay? Other thoughts? All right. Yes, Kelly. Yeah, I agree with both of those points and and one thing I raised was just as we are uplifting science to the level of priority as reading and math just
070a desire to ensure that our instruction continues to be focused on hands-on kind of experiential learning for science, the type of science instruction that's engaging and rather than getting to a place where wrote test prep is more of a focus because I think when the standardized assessment becomes such a priority that that can can lead to some unintended consequences. So just a desire to ensure that we teach science the way that it that is most effective, which is through hands-on learning. Great. Anyone else on science? All right. Thumbs up for people who think this is for the science goal? All right. Science goal is done. All right, next goal post-secondary readiness. The staff recommendation is that 85% of students in the graduating 9th 12th grade cohort will be college and or career ready with at
071least 70% being college ready by which is meant A-G um completing A-G D A-G all A-G requirements and then career ready is completing either a CTE CTE pathway or JROTC. So, that's the that's the proposal. You all had conversations with with the staff. I want to sort of open it up now for I'm sorry, I want you to report out. Um all right, so similar to science, I think there was kind of implicit approval of the staff recommended goal. There was a lot of discussion about the need for including some sort of career measure and a lot of talk around again the how piece in terms of making sure that CTE is widely available to students who might want it. Um talking about the elements of the college and career indicator that the state offers
072um that we don't. So like pre-apprenticeship programs. There was a lot of talk about that. Have at it. All right. So with that, let me open it up to the board again about questions, comments, thoughts on this on this goal. Um no, I think we we had a robust discussion in our group about this one and just this the um well, one I will say for the record again, I think we should call it college and career readiness. Post-secondary readiness is better than it was last time, but if that's what we're going for, we should just say what we mean and call it college and career readiness cuz I think that's how we talk about it colloquially like out there. I also think I mean we were just, you know, I didn't love areas where
073the state would be more rigorous than us. And so when we were really we spent a lot of our time discussing the sub goal the or I guess if you go to the three suggestions, um and for example, like on the JROTC, this in the CCI framework, if you do two years, you are um like almost prepared or you're getting right. But in our goal, you would be prepared and I don't love that we're less rigorous there, but I understand that we wanted to kind of call out and elevate the career piece. So I still lean towards the CCI as the best indicator. Um and but that's that's me. So but that So this one I still think needs some flushing out when it comes to what we're we're trying to say, I think. Um
074it seems like Tanya wants to chime in, too, but but I uh yeah, so so that one was I mean we had we spent a good amount of time discussing and I appreciated the team um for helping us understand kind of the pros and cons of well, if you just do C or better, you're maybe there's no test scores and there's no pathways and if you do CC CCI you are also not allowing folks to who just have C or better, but that's also an interesting point and then I'll pause. Like the fact that the state's own framework says that if you're through GC or better, you're also not college prepared, you are approaching preparation is just interesting and like maybe warrants a further conversation if the state is now acknowledging that their own requirements
075to get in aren't rigorous enough. That's a whole 'nother can of worms, I guess. Right. Thanks. I'll support the college career readiness. Um, we had some time talking about the and/or. I feel really strongly we should not use or because we have a history in this district and this country of tracking kids into one or the other. Um, so if you just take out the and/or and just say college/career, then you know, you you get rid of that. Um, but I I agree that um that's how we talk about it. We never say postsecondary. I don't know if your family's ever talk about postsecondary, but that that term never comes up in my community. Um, and I I like the idea of just continuing to learn about it because if the state is using CCI
076and we're using it for um potential benchmarks for charters, um that might be one something we want to hold ourselves to as well. Um, but whatever we do, I'm in support of making sure that kids have access to all options and one of the things that came up in our group is that still dozens of our secondary schools don't have a CTE pathway available yet. And so maybe similar to the SEL goal last go around, we put out this big goal and we didn't have all the tools in place to get there. Once we put this goal out, we're going to get the tools in place to get there so that all of our kids can earn a a CTA pathway and that's I think super important to us. Great. I'm going about college /
077careers because for years and years and years it was all college. I don't care what anybody says, it was always college and career was an add-on. So, it's really important to have both separate in my opinion. Mr. Schmelzen, would you say college and career? Would you be okay with that? Yes, but no slashes. So, so let me push on this this a little bit because I think it's it's it's it's important. So, college and career might mean, well, you need to both have a college readiness and career readiness in order for that it to count. Is that Is that what you're thinking about or are you Well, because um then the number would be much lower for the number of students who are both as an individual, but as a district, I think we can
078say the number of students who are college and the number of students who are career, some of which may have overlap, some of which may not, would keep us in the, you know, high 70s getting to 80s percentage. So, um I think we can think about the the way that we understand what and means without, you know, lowering our um like collective understanding of of the kids' readiness. Agreed. Okay. Now, going back to this, so so college / career somewhat means the same. So, would college / career be okay? The the idea not being that sort of you that where you everyone has to be has to go to college and >> to have career counselors and college counselors. >> Right. And I don't know where I don't see them anymore. I just see college
079counselors and I talk to them and they're excellent about college advisement, but not so excellent about career advisement in my opinion. In my opinion. Great. Other? Yes. No, you have to use that one. Okay. Okay, great. Um and I think this and I I I agree on both sides. Um and I think for me when I think of college and career that's exactly what dual enrollment is aiming for. Our students are going taking advantage of taking a college course at a community colleges which are preparing them both for the college and they they can also take certificate a certificate in different industries. So they're getting prepared for both, right? And it's ultimately is the student who's going to decide I'm college ready, I can go to college but I also want to work and I'm
080also work ready. So it's just amplifying those both of those opportunities. But from what I see, I see our students preparing for both. Getting their certificates, getting an AA. So you know, when the decision comes of going to college or career, they can make either one. So I think getting them ready for college and career should be the goal, right? But then how do we use those metrics? So I think that's something we still need to sort of flush out. I will just I mean I I actually like post-secondary readiness. I think when I talk to community members, there's a what what we know from the research is that the folks who are most you know economically successful who can support their families especially in this economy have some sort of post-secondary training and it
081doesn't always mean college. And so I appreciate that post-secondary is inclusive and doesn't necessarily make it sound as though like an apprenticeship pathway is less than a college degree because I think for many people that that is a great pathway to be able to support their family, pursue their interests and have a stable middle-class livelihood. So I think that was part of the reason why post-secondary readiness was appealing to me. Um I also think like I don't in 4 years I I don't I think there are questions around like the the viability of some college degrees with the a way that technology is rapidly changing the workforce. And so I think that a broader term um might in hindsight 4 years from now like might be better and prescient of what what is to come
082um because we can't necessarily assume that it's going to look the same in 2030 as it does right now. >> Right. And the broader term being the post-secondary readiness. Yes, that is what I'm saying. I also I um not like I have some questions about feasibility as well um because I think if students were to to take a really rigorous CTA pathway like I think there's some scheduling challenges um even and I think we've seen that with the focus on A-G which I which I agree is completely right. We want all of our students to have that eligibility and that choice. There is some crowding out um in high school schedules that make it difficult for students to be able to pursue both. So um I guess my point there is like the and maybe
083challenging in in practice if we are to do a really rigorous job in both areas. Right. Okay. I'm not sure if I think I might have contradicted myself there but hopefully you understand what I'm saying. Okay. Yes. Board member Noble. Go. I I agree with the post-secondary readiness. I I do believe that as we move forward we are preparing them as a baseline for what's happening after high school, right? And we're doing that with dual enrollment, we're doing it with career technical education and pathways. And so and hope that we can grow them in our schools that every school has each because like as we mentioned we don't. We have 108 and whether you know, students pick those and hopefully that they can grow. But I do believe as we move into 2030 it's going
084to be a little different but preparing our students to take advantage of the opportunities that are there because I think part of our concern is that many of our families didn't know that they even existed in our district that they could achieve an associate's degree and be prepared to go to work >> Mhm. with a certification right when they were done after senior high school. And so I think if we keep it the broader term it does help us to be able to to meet that goal and as we move into 2030 and beyond um families will learn that post-secondary and what that means because you're being ready for what happens after high school. So Okay. To that point. Um something that we also talked about in our group was about the fact that not
085all schools have a CTE pathway. And um so some ideas that came up were that perhaps in some um school complexes like say RFK that has about five or six different small schools, maybe they could be a hub for CTE. Um also having our um options schools uh access the base classes. That could be another option. Uh in creating these hubs for other school communities that don't have CTE. Um and we were talking about can we make this happen by the time we start with these goals. So we said that if we don't set the goal then we won't work toward the goal. So if we set the goal then at least we're beginning to work on that. Great. Okay. So I see uh two questions here. So one is what's the name of the
086goal? And then the second is Do we agree on Do we agree on the goal once we get the name down? So, So in terms of postsecondary readiness versus college {slash} career readiness. No slash. College {dash} career? All right. Uh readiness. Like who sort of thumbs up for postsecondary readiness? 1 2 3 All right. And then college and career college {dash} career readiness. College career 1 2 College space career. Yeah, college and career readiness. All right. College and career readiness. All right. So, 1 2 We're three and three. And and and one one abstain. It's all here. Time to Carla. Did you all hear me? I don't have I don't have an opinion honestly on either postsecondary or college and career indicator. I I can go either way. Okay, if I had to choose one,
087I think I would go with a college and career. It's just more accessible language to everybody. Okay. So, we will provisionally go with college and career. And now let's talk about the the the goal that's Let's talk about the goal itself, which is the using A-G and CTE pathways and JROTC. So, thumbs up or down on the goal as as proposed. All right. 1 2 3 4 5 I saw a thumb over here, but now it's gone. 4 5 6 7. All right. All right, we have we have broad consensus on the goal, though there's a little bit of of little wavering. Um Right? So that is goal two. I just I'll just say that the right the reason for my hesitation was just cuz I think so much of it is implicit in how
088we measure it. Because like one of the option one for how we measure this goal is just percent of students in four-year cohort with C or better in A-G courses. So, if we're going to choose that, it doesn't the 85% of the Oh, yeah. So, this So, this is the this is I think this is option two in that thing, which is the A-G But, there I don't think those are I think those are two separate questions. Maybe Bill can That's why I was a little hesitant. Let's Let's go to I think the slide you're talking about here, Nick, is Oh, you know what? Have we chosen It's way back It's Oh, it's This is 527 is the Okay, let me go way back. Oh, boy. Everyone, hang hang tight. There it is. Here we
089go. Yes. So, so the goal as proposed is option two. And And so again, that is And again, it would be two numbers. So, And And this is where we're heading for, you know, the other three goals we've done so far as well, you know. So, we're going to have two numbers for literacy, numeracy, and science cuz you know, there's elementary. And And so similarly, we'd have two numbers. The first number would be this percentage of students who completed a career a CTE pathway or ROP JROP courses. That That'd be one number. Um um And then But, it would be it would be the both number. And I and I can show that and then the second would be just the A to G. And so then what the numbers would be as proposed are
090actually the two numbers that we would we would be doing are the blue line and the green line. So it would and so and again the goal would be the hope, you know, and you know, the concern is that when we do the or are we just funneling students to to the non, you know, the non-college options. So obviously if that happened this green line would just flat would end up being flat or maybe getting worse, right? As we're DM you know, if we were to deemphasize college readiness. And so the hope is that both elevate. Both get to 85 that would you know, that these would be the two numbers we track and then the two targets we we shoot for. One of the questions we had in our group that would be interesting
091empirically is just so how inclusive is the college and career ready of the college ready? So you basically the only if you're college ready C or better you're college ready. The other two mechanisms are JROTC which is I think 2% of students are in those pathways. Or the the CTE pathway and the one of the questions or discussions we had is like most of those CTE I would most but you could tell me of those CTE pathway students are also the C or better students. That's correct. >> Trying to figure out like how many students are we actually talking about in that 15%? >> Yeah, you can see yeah, so the the amount of students that are basically all of the above are are the um are it's about 20% you know, maybe of the
092students and so there's only so the gap between the blue and the green those are students who are all um essentially JROTC or CTE pathway but not A to G. Yeah, it's about 7% of our students and and that's right. And now remember to be to to get the CTE or the JROTC you also have to earn a diploma. So these are students who who earning a diploma but they're not getting all the A-G C's or better. Yeah. Okay. Oh, here's that. So, I might need to skip ahead. I might need to skip ahead. All right. So, we are done with um uh college college and career ready. Um now on to social emotional learning. Um and the proposal here was uh to create a diagnostic assessment or the the the district will create a
093diagnostic assessment uh that will be given at the beginning and end of school years uh to examine um uh the the students' SEL competencies. Go ahead, Elmer. Sorry. Yeah. Just wanted to report out on the social emotional learning. Uh we There was an acknowledgement for sure on the complexity around this metric on measuring social emotional learning. Uh and because it was a board goal uh in the previous strategic plan, there were a lot of um teacher trainings, right? Portfolios, work around portfolios. We also took the recommendation of looking at elementary marks from our last board retreat. And so uh with all that information, we thought about how do we measure truly uh teachers' report cards or teachers' uh marking whether students are demonstrating social emotional learning competencies in their classrooms or at school. And so
094uh we landed on um a pre and post diagnostic. And we explained that to the board, and uh they had some questions about that and when it would be administered and so it would be pre and post and to whom. And so these would be schools that adopted with 91% of our schools adopted a social emotional learning curriculum and so we would uh next year uh administer a pre and post uh diagnostic to then gather data, collect data, and then create a baseline uh from from that data to then create a new goal uh next year after a pilot year of administering administering the diagnostic. Right. Thoughts? Please. Um well, I I appreciate the team's creative thinking. Um there might be a little bit of a pause because we struggled I think with this one
095last go around. We had put out a goal and then um had a hard time figuring out the portfolio and the rubric and it had a small amount of implementation and so again with creating something there might just be some hesitation with how quickly can we um you know, envision and realize the timeline that we've drafted and then scale that and ask staff to do it and train everyone up on it and get the data and use it in a way that in the next 4 years we're not in the same position that we were with the 2026 strategic plan. I don't know if my colleagues are feeling that, but I'm I'm feeling a little bit of that. Um I will say I don't love the title um and maybe the team is not going
096to call it a competency application survey moving forward. Um if it's a diagnostic or an assessment like let's call it what it is. Um and honestly I I think this might be an opening to revisit the report card itself. I think a couple of us had the idea last go around to use the report cards um and if the report cards aren't measuring what we want them to measure, like let's change the report card rather than making a separate tool. And I realize that is uh implying or implicating, you know, several other processes and I don't know that we're ready to address that today. Um but that would be my recommendation a year from now. If we're going to pilot this and have some information, let's also have some information about what it would take
097to change the report cards to truly reflect the SEL how we want our kids to have. Interesting. Good. Other thoughts? Uh I I agree with board member Ortiz-Franklin. Um I I don't I know that the team has done a lot of work and it's it's been a challenging process to to create something entirely new because I think that was the charge 4 years ago and we've seen that that that that can be challenging. Um I think the uh opportunity to leverage an existing system like I think that that has promise. Um but I certainly take the team's recommendation under advisement and I maybe there's a way to to be able to really explore both options. Um and I think there there can be benefits to uh updating the report card anyways um because it it
098may not be fully in alignment with what are now our stated priorities are as a district via our goals. Um so I I I welcome that and um I just I I I want to ensure that uh that we that we get somewhere in this space. Like I think on the curriculum side in terms of teaching and learning like there's been a lot of progress, but we don't want to end up in a in a similar place, you know, 4 years from now. Um the last thing I'll say and I've said it several times is just like a concern about testing overall and you know, how exclusively we are relying on tests as the way that we're measuring progress towards our goals. So I do think that there is a con to this as it
099is a pre and post assessment um that it is adding another test. Thank you. Others, any? No? And I also I think Kelly brought up in our conversation that um this pre and post would not necessarily show us that students can apply. They they'll show us that they understand and they knowledge of that competency, but are they able to apply it? And so I suggest that could we use other forms of metrics that we could bring in, either referrals or I stars, whatever it is that can give us an indication of how students are actually doing in the school, but also I I see this as a as a metric for us as well for each school to measure themselves and also us as a district, how are we um supporting our students and our
100community. So uh when we start to apply these SEL lessons, I want us to not rely on technology to do the the teaching, but rather that it's other humans doing the teaching on SEL so that um we there's more engagement. I mean, kids are actually practicing uh these uh tools and these these uh competencies. Right. Yeah, you mentioned uh changing the report card possibly. That would be monumental and earth-shattering, but a good idea, but a good idea. Ruben Rubas Um I'm I'm wondering if there's an another opportunity to maybe revisit this. Um I don't know. I'm trying to gather my thoughts just on the conversations if there would be another opportunity to maybe think this through a little bit more on SEL. Um I mean, I understand right now it's, you know, collecting the baseline
101data, but as was mentioned, you know, how is it being the curriculum side and the schools also assessing themselves. Um I'm also thinking about our parents as well, how do we, you know, um, incorporate, um um, social emotional learning also at home. I don't know, I just I'm not sure about how this is going to pan out. Right. >> social emotional learning. Anyway. >> So, I don't have any comments, but a few thoughts. >> more assessments or, you know, more testing. But, yeah, I don't know. I guess we I didn't ask the question when we were talking about the diagnostic, the length of it as we talk about Right. >> um, having it post uh, pre and post, we didn't discuss how long it would be or, you know, what and how much time it
102would take for to be administered. Is that taken into account or that can be given to us as well? >> So, thank you so much for these questions. Um, it this measurement that we're uh, proposing is uh, it it measures application. So, the prompts are developed to assess students in real life situations at different grade spans. So, it takes the learning that they've had through their curriculum and then it asks prompts that are specifically designed to assess where they are and how they would apply it in their lives. So, uh, it does assess application and time-wise, we're we're looking at 10-15 minutes. It is not a lengthy, it's in in in in by terms of defining it, it's not really an assessment. However, it's a diagnostic, it has assessment value. It is a partial survey,
103partial diagnostic. So, it takes uh, an understanding in all the competencies of how students are applying in real life situations, uh, how they're applying their learning to their lives, which I think, and uh board member uh Dr. Rivas asked about parents, so we plan on using this data to inform um how we uh provide professional development or workshops for parents based on the learning that we get from these. So, there's a lot of different uh things that we could take from the data that we receive on these uh application diagnostics. Thank you. So, there's the question about length. Um so, let me suggest a couple things just to to try to bring this in a little bit. Um so, one would be uh that over the next year, sort of So, the next that we
104have to uh the the team would have to develop the assessment, and then we'll be piloting it and sort of getting results next uh spring, I assume, is when you'd have the sort of the final results that could be used as a baseline. Um at that same time, you could also sort of have more in-depth stuff on uh thinking about using grades and the challenges and or possibilities of that and alignment. So, that'd be kind of one part to sort of say, "Well, this is, you know, we're making a decision to move forward on this, but sort of also sort of make sure we want to make sure it happens, one, and then two, we want to make sure the sort of the alternative is better than the alternatives." And then, the other worry I
105hear is, "Okay, so some the diagnostics assessments whatever, sort of these paper pen things are I guess keyboard things uh uh don't necessarily reflect uh what kids are actually doing uh learning and sort of their actual sort of social emotional skills. And so, there uh board member Riego had a great idea, I think, to to to do kind of an audit of sort of not just sort of look at this test and say, "Oh, look, everybody took the test, we got scores, and it assume the scores are necessarily what you think they are, but also looking relating those scores to things like absenteeism, referrals, and then you can even do more in-depth type studies about sort of looking at for behaviors from a small selection of you know small sample of kids to sort of
106make sure that the the actual tool is measuring what you think it's measuring and it's not just I've learned how to say yes, I'm ready in all situations and whatnot. And I'll just piggyback on that. You know when not to get too nerdy about it, but you know when looking at any kind of measurement of something, you want to look at validity and reliability. And reliability is is the is the tool a good measurement? Is it measuring the thing it's purporting to measure? Is it Is it a solid? Is it in doing that thing? Does it Or is everyone just getting the same score and it's useless? You know, everyone gets an 85% and then tells you nothing. You know, we don't want anything like that. And then on the validity side is is what
107you're suggesting board member Griego. Like we need to see is this Is there You know, we you think of face validity. Like does this pass the sniff test and so on in terms of are the schools that are that are you know claim seeming to be really strong in this we know from using our eyeballs that that's not the case. You know, or other other pieces of information. And so for something as comprehensive and consequential and and and complicated as this, we would make sure to to to do both of those things in an ongoing manner at least in the early years of it. All right. Any other thoughts? Before we get to our complex voting. All right. So, in terms of going forward with this approach, recognizing again that sort of in a year
108you will have more data to A develop a baseline on and then B if you don't like the way everything's gone, you can obviously shift, but um but does this uh does this seem like the the place to to go? So, a thumbs up, thumbs down. Or maybe thumbs sideways, but hopefully up or down is best. Sideways would mean needs more discussion. Okay. It's not like a commitment. Sideways, a lot of sideways, one thumbs up. So, so what what else do you want to know uh sort of for more discussion or what's what how do how do you want to move that forward? I too, like many others, want to avoid any additional assessments that the teacher has to give in class. Uh I guess I'm just wondering um did we consider just administering the
109DESSA or the CASEL as an assessment that's already out there and aligned to these competencies rather than creating our own? We didn't talk about this today, so. Yeah, um I can and and feel free to jump in, DOI folks, but I think that's that is sort of I think job number one of of this work now and and and looking at you what are some solid off-the-shelf, if you will, a you know, diagnostic tools that are out there um to see you know, that for this to work, it has to accomplish a couple things. One, it's got to be agnostic to to to curricula. You know, again, this is going to be you know, the idea is that this would be coherently linked to what schools are going to be using with district-approved, district-funded SEL
110programs. Um so, that agnostic to those and then a vertical alignment so that it's appropriate for obvious for grade levels. And so, I think these pieces we call these pieces out cuz these may you know, what we do may be maybe wholesale implementation of DESSA as is, but there you know, I'm I'm I'm going to defer to the experts perhaps on if there's a reason why we're not just already saying today we're not using DESSA, but I think that that is in the realm of possibility that we could. I might back chair, I think. I think there was. >> Yes. Uh so uh thank you so much for that. Uh ADESSA survey uh is similar to what we do with the school experience survey. So, it is a survey. It is it it it measures
111mindsets and skills. This idea of what was missing in our district is measuring application, measuring those executive functioning skills. See where they take their learning and social emotional learning and then are they applying it? So, that was the idea behind this. We can certainly take a look at those things, but we we as far as we know, this doesn't exist. Um we talked to Castle and they're very interested in this because Castle is now looking at application. For our district, we've been very successful with SEL integration, integrating it across the the school um uh in various ways. So, measuring the application of it in real-life situations is something that really isn't exist other in in a in a form of some type of a diagnostic because it's again, it's not an assessment. I hear you
112on assessments. We're very sensitive to that. Uh but this is similar to that if Second Step has their own diagnostic before their curriculum and after their curriculum that they already give. So, what we would say is we would um create a diagnostic similar to that is a diagnostic that measures again all those different and differentiates for all the spans. That is not in existence as well with ADESSA. Um so, this is something brand new and I I think it's groundbreaking in our district. Um I think we could do some great things with this with this type of a measurement. Well, maybe just given that it is so new and the hour is after lunch, um that possibly like revisit this when we're fresh and um can see some examples because I think even just for
113us to understand like I was asking, you know, can I look at the report card right now? Can I look at a sample question and um for us to all be able to kind of dig in on that level. Uh I I will say I have a little bit of worry about us creating something that hasn't yet been done before. Um I feel like this was the conversation 4 years ago and um I would appreciate if the team could, you know, double-check and I'm sure Castle is up and up on who's doing the you know, most recent work. Um but if this is something we take on, you know, I I appreciate ODA weighing in because we would tell a school or ask them, you know, do an IAB rather than a teacher-created interim, right?
114Cuz you want to make sure it's valid and measured against like the the standard at such a high level. Um so, maybe I would ask if we could revisit this at a time when we've got some more information um and are a little bit fresher to examine. Yeah, I would even ask like can we have an options menu of like the options and pro cons of of different um of the different uh uh tools that are available to us. So, like we've got portfolio rubric, we know what the pros are that we've seen, we know what the cons are. Um we have this idea of a new diagnostic, there's existing assessments, there's the report card marks. Um I will also ask if you all could look at the DRDP. I know it's an early childhood
115measure. It does go through grade three and it is a it's a teacher up it's it's reliant on teacher observation, but it is about students practice of socioemotional competencies and it is growth-focused. So, maybe maybe that's an option we would consider for pre-K through three and or maybe there's a way to build off of it for a few like for the development of a new report card, for example. So, if you all could look at that in your in your research as well, I think that might be a helpful tool. I would be open to to doing that, coming back to revisit as long as we schedule it soon enough because I don't want to lose sight of this. But the other thing is I would ask some of our folks who are already using
116the tools that are out there and what they would suggest um could be used to assess SEL competencies, right? We We have about 90% of our schools who are using at least some form of program for SEL. I've spoken to teachers and they've said that you know, what's worked for them is when they had uh an RJ teacher who actually did this work with the teachers first or the adults at the school first and then they self-reflected on their own competencies so that they were able to they understood and they owned it and they felt it and then they were then it was taught to the students and there were some um me- some uh target some learning targets around what it is that they were going to achieve and accomplish by the end of
117say that semester or that year. So, this is from one educator who had a great program when they had a great RJ teacher and um but if we can get more info from the field from folks who are prac- practicing this, that would be great. Yes, totally agree. That's what I said I wanted us to come back and revisit um because there's so many thoughts and there's so many areas that I think still need to be sort of fleshed out. Um Yeah, my other comment was going to be on can we hear from schools? Can we identify some schools at three level elementary, middle school, and high school that have really been successful in uh social emotional learning and I don't mean the application in the school, but overall in in entire school community. Um
118that would be great to hear from them as well. Um Yeah, I don't I I feel like maybe this is a topic just in and of itself that we can revisit. So I was going to offer the committee of the whole maybe just having just just okay, I hear that that's up. Yeah. Um just to have just this this conversation where we can hear all the different um diagnostics or or applications that we can use hearing from schools and then just having a real well-rounded conversation so we can just leave from that meeting. It's okay, this is where we're going to go. Right. Right? Cuz there's a lot of things Yeah, I would love to see um the the report card or maybe the some questions from the survey. So yeah, I think there's a
119lot more that we need to really analyze and and think about before we set a a goal goal. Thank you. Others? Go Kelly I saw something see you. So sorry, just one last thing. I also wonder if we could think about a goal like sort of similar to the English language progress of the LP at the state level that looks at individual growth rather than cuz I think what I hear in some of the feedback is that we don't want to penalize or stigmatize um students who aren't yet developing these competencies like well that would actually be contrary to the competencies themselves. Um but instead we want to look at you know how our schools helping our students grow in these areas. So I wonder if there's like a the the measure is more about
120students making progress towards achieving these competencies rather than being at any particular level um so that we are focused on that growth mindset. Which is which it sounds like the diagnostic is intended in that way to sort of look at growth over time but doesn't it's not here obviously so Done. Superintendent No, I'm sorry. Superintendent be there. So very much hear the feedback. We'll certainly look at committee of the whole right in the next I there is a fair amount of urgency here so probably look at the next committee of the whole and see how we can really just focus on this one item. I heard about four or five different you know, taking another look at the progress report option, right? And and and again, acknowledging that that is What was your word, Scott?
121Earth-shattering. Potentially earth-shattering for many of our educators to change the progress reports. Um but we can certainly take a look at it and even look at what prospectively what it would look like to try to capture some of these competencies there. Looking at again, existing assessments. If there is one that we can It doesn't sound based on what Bill said and and Justin that there's one that's a good fit, but maybe there's something we can at least build from. Um also looking at internal assessments in the existing programs. As we all learned, basically about 90% of our schools are currently using you know, one curriculum essentially for SEL or another. So maybe there's something that we can glean from there. So we'll put together I wouldn't call it a menu, but we'll put together four
122or five sort of curated options, bring them forth for further recommendation, and hopefully land this at the next Committee of the Whole. Right. All right, everyone, with that with that resolution, thumbs up or thumbs down. All right. All right. Well, that is the end of our uh going through the goals. I think we have Lunch again? I don't know. Yeah. Have another lunch? Probably some breakfast back there, too. That does sound like food. Um we have the closing. So Microphone is still here. Uh so really just want to close with gratitude, just like we began the work today. You heard a lot of really obviously great discourse at the the breakout sessions and then here at the the collective table. Uh no one is taking these goals lightly, right? We know that they're basically going
123to be our North Stars now for another four years. So there's a lot of thought both from obviously leadership and also from staff around how we accomplish these. There's a sweet spot between aspirational and achievable that also honors the ability of our staff and our students, right? We don't want it to be such a slam dunk that 2 years from now we're like, "Wow, we already met all our goals." Because then frankly we didn't set our goals high enough. We also don't want to go to a place I think it was a board member Ortiz Franklin that took us back to a place where we used to say, "100% of this, 100% of that." It sounds lovely, right? And it really obviously is what we should all be striving for and we do every day.
124But we have to combine that with what we can actually accomplish in this 4-year span of time. So thank you for the work. The work continues. We will come back around the SEL goal. That is a nut that still needs to be cracked. I I have every confidence that we can do it in short order. Thank you. Yeah, I also would like to thank Dr. Fullerton and Mr. Chait and the wonderful staff we have for a a robust and engaging discussion. And thank you, board member Rivas, for offering the committee of the whole. I mean, we really that's going to solve a lot of problems. Thank you. And I look forward to the team's presentation of the 26th to 30 strategic plan to the board and LAUSD community in June. And you know, to have
125the committee of the whole, you already have things I know that you want to present. So you're letting us come in and we appreciate that. Yeah. That was good. Thank you. Good conversation. Good con- >> Mhm.