Regular Meeting - Martinez Unified School Board - 09/11/2023

001foreign good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the board of education for September 11 2023. we are reconvening after closed session and we have nothing to report out from closed session we have lots of people today so we're on number seven which is our Pledge of Allegiance if I could get everyone to join where do you begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and Jefferson thank you all right thank you number eight is the approval of the agenda are there any changes to the agenda this evening there are no changes right any public comments we'll bring it back for board action I'll move to approve I all in favor aye aye opposed

002abstentions motion carries at nine we're bringing this back for the first time this school year our highlights and recognitions we have two student groups here with us today and I'll allow superintendent Rossi to introduce so tonight our first group will be the Alhambra high school girls flag football team which is a brand new team um that started this fall and I think we have Abril Gutierrez Ashlynn Doty ulyssa Islas and Jessica Blake if you would come up to the podium and tell us a little bit about what's going on hi everyone thanks for having us we're here to represent the Alhambra girls soccer ball team which we just um I'm Ashlynn Dowdy I am Jessica Blake I'm julisa Isla I'm a bro Gutierrez we are so glad that this sport has been brought to our

003school and those around us we value the fact that schools are constantly making changes to make everyone feel included and have a sport for them we've been having so much fun learning about the sport each other um playing practice like at our Gymboree had uh the Jamboree we held here at Alhambra went so well as it was very organized and everyone had a great time and thanks to our awesome athletic or uh athletic director Anthony artola it there was no confusion everything went very smoothly it was very organized it was a great way to take our first steps in learning the sport and getting a feel for how the real game will be when we go out and play because we've never played before um I think it was very helpful for improving as a

004team um and we really like that we got to play at our home field because the season we don't have a lot of home games unfortunately and a lot of our family was able to come out and see us um so it got everyone excited for the real games um at the uh at the Gymboree we played four teams that we will uh soon later play again in our league such as College Park and marimani we played them a lot we played a lot of really challenging teams but ended up winning all of them in the end it was a great experience and a really good start to for the league in the future um we're really excited and like thankful that we got this opportunity and found a coach to be willing to coach

005us even though it's like been a while since we've had this team and we've been getting donations to help us buy new we just got new Flags we're getting like teen backpacks and new uniforms and yeah and thanks for having me [Applause] okay um our second highlight group is less up quick question sorry how many other how many other schools in the area have have flag football teams okay and and are they all new this year or that's great good okay um one more question can you come back and stand up here so we can take your picture I forgot this is the first one at the start of the year so I apologize can can I ask when your games are played and can we come watch I'm trying to get our schedule our

006first game is on the 27th right it's an away game at Berean Christian it's in our home alone the 18th our first and only home game is on October 18th at six o'clock and seven o'clock versus Tampa Lindo and Los Angeles we're one varsity their schedule Anthony is it posted on the website under fall Athletics hi all right great thank you for the clarification I'm just going to reiterate a little bit of that because anyone who's watching this is not going to pick up anything that's not on the microphone so um but it sounds like the reason for the the small home schedule is the way that the flag football league is working is that multiple schools come to one site play multiple games in an evening and so each site only hosts a few

007times but you are still playing the different you said 11 teams in the league so that's what's happening and the information is available on the Athletics Tab and also on the school events calendar so people can find the schedule and thank you so much thank you very much I promise you're done great job ladies [Music] so for our next group we have the Las Montes Fun Run day um representatives from La sientes Grace Spinelli in first grade and Madeline copenhaver from fourth grade if you want to come up to the front here and you'll have to adjust the microphone a little bit for them and you're going to tell us a little bit about so you can stand right in front of the podium tell us a little bit about the Fun Run day [Music]

008um I think so I mean my name is Grace Spinelli and I had so fun when I was running in the fun run and do it let me because I like running because I love raising money for the school I like when I get to be principal for a day [Music] thank you very very much [Applause] okay Madeline yeah my name is Madeline copenhaver and I enjoyed the fun run because I ran 42 laps we raised a lot of money for our school another fun thing was cheering in the morning with the PTA my mom and some friends one thing we used with the money last year is for the field trips which was great and was really a lot of fun for me [Applause] thank you very much and feel free um I appreciate

009your coming down parents I appreciate you bringing them down and uh feel free to head on home get some homework done maybe a little sleep or dinner um and thank you again very very much for coming we have a few people leaving the boardroom so we'll go ahead and give a just a few seconds to let it quiet down and then we will have comments from our student representative at Las juntas Elementary it was a great turnout for our back to school night uh everything went so smoothly thanks thanks to the amazing support of our staff at Las juntas we had so many PTA parents volunteer for btsn we couldn't have done it without them PTA also was also able to sell Las juntas Elementary swag for our students and parents on Tuesday September 12th

010at 9 A.M they're going to have cafecito con Crespo at elac um Wednesday September 13th there's a cookie fundraiser Friday September 15th is picture make picture makeup day Friday September 22nd is Magic Show assembly um next week there will be an ice cream cookie parties for the highest earning Fun Run classes which Miss s Miss G and Miss Weldon are top two and miss a Leo aioli aioli and Miss Riley from third and fourth at John Muir Elementary second grade students were very busy studying Urban Rural and Suburban communities to demonstrate understanding students created three-dimensional communities that displayed the following properties of a community housing Transportation Goods Services people and Roads the second graders were very enthusiastic about completing their projects Miss Labrador fifth grade class place first in the Timberwolf Trot as a top

011Timberwolf they made pledges to be a role model for our school since the beginning of the kimochi curriculum implementation TK Kinder kindergartner students are using their words to share their feelings with each other John Muir Elementary had a successful Timberwolf Trot where we were able to surpass our goal of twenty thousand dollars thank you John Muir Elementary families we are celebrating Hispanic and latinx Heritage Month with activities and sign it and signage provided by our PT PTA diversity equity and inclusion committee School site council meeting is Thursday September 14th at John sweat Elementary they had a successful Roadrunner Boosterthon Dash on Friday where PTA was able to successfully raise funds for the school second grade students are creatively creatively learning about nouns and verbs through song fifth graders wrote to an author about a story

012they were reading in class and were excited to receive a response directly back from the author PTA meeting in person is on is on September 12th at 7 pm elac is on September 19th and the third grade field trip to John Muir house is on September 21st at Morello Park back to school night was on August 30th and well attended by our families there is a PTA meeting September 12th at 7 pm Hispanic Heritage Month is September September 15 through October 15th School site council is September 19th at 3 pm it's virtual fall family ice cream social and school tie-dye event is September 21st at 4 pm through 8 P.M color Wars is September 29th and coffee with the principal is September 29th at 8 30 A.M Martinez Junior High had a blasting and awesome

013back to school night thank you to all the family members who attended and to our staff for providing an engaging event a gauging evening while welcoming all back thank you to Todd Sutton from waste sleuth and New Leaf who presented to all of our bullpups around the importance of the five R's and the actions they can take each day at mjhs we have many students signed up to join the Green Team and we're looking forward and are looking forward to doing our part to help our planet our fall sports are underway with girls 7th and 8th grade volleyball teams competing and are 40 plus cross country members training for their first meet Friday September 15th is makeup picture day Tuesday September 19th is the PTSA meeting at 6 PM in the Martinez Junior High Martinez

014Junior High staff Lounge at Alhambra High School our welcome back rally this Friday was great ASB gets to sets the bar High when it comes to creating spaces where students can support each other have fun and learn we are excited that our girls golf team is set to play their first match in two years it was great to see so many families for back to school night we changed the format a bit with the presentation from Miss Collins our College and Career specialist about creating the college list we believe that all students should have access to this information as early as possible copy with the principal this past Friday was great with a nice turnout save the date for October 13th for the next meeting thank you to the new Leaf collaboration for ours for

015planning our school-wide assembly with presenter Todd the way sleuth students and staff are con conscious about their decisions when it comes to how and what they discard we are moving along with Gathering documentation collecting data for our Equity review with Ed Trust West the site visit is scheduled for Wednesday September 20th Miss emmendorfer was set sent out has sent out surveys to students and families please check parents wear and complete by no later than October 9th our first PTSA meeting of the year is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 30 Via Zoom all are welcome to attend progress reports will be available online through the parent portal on September 29th at Vicente Martinez brioni's independent study back to school night at Vicente was a huge success with the significant turnout of students and their families the

016evening was filled with opportunity to preview preview school work a chance to meet the dedicated staff and of course Refreshments Miss O'Malley kicked off the evening with a comprehensive presentation covering several important topics such as students academics and behavioral expectations information about Title 1 and most important MEF events is excited to collaborate with Community Mental Health to host a crucial event focusing on suicide awareness this event provides an excellent opportunity for students at Alhambra Briones and Vicente to contribute to their community service hours by working with organizations find your anchor during this event students and Community leaders will work together to assemble boxes filled with various support items including cards posters phone numbers and more the Box building the Box building event will be held on at Vicente on September 13th from 2 to 5

017PM he sent this Briones is proudly showcased on the bulletin board in the musd boardroom for the entire month of September this is a great opportunity for students and for teachers and students to display outstanding work and highlight the impressive learning and dedication that defines Vicente embryonis at Martinez adult education students paid internships continue with martinez Chamber of Commerce a second intern will support the chamber in a variety of administrative duties over the next two months all classes have started at Martinez adult education that have have welcomed a record number of new students across all program areas attendance is high and students are engaged in their classes Tuesday September 12th from 12 30 to 2 30 PM w-i-o-a Services Workshop adult students will learn about wioa and how they how they can apply to receive

018up to seven thousand dollars in grant funding for Career Training Wednesday September 13th Diablo Valley College Representatives will be at the adult school to present the benefit to present the benefits of college Saturday September 16th High set testing for students completing their high school equivalency all right thank you we will follow that up with any employee organization reports do we have any this evening okay seeing then we will go to item 12 comments from 50 ta thank you all right perfect all right thank you 13 as correspondence do we have correspondence this evening we have no correspondence all right we'll stick with you staff reports we have your superintendent report okay so um tonight I have a gonna talk about a couple of things uh address some of the things that we're doing that um

019are founded in not only my goals but the lcap goals because obviously my goals are based upon the lcap goals just to give everyone an idea of what direction we're going in and what we've been working on um we have our two tosas our teachers on special assignments we have one for Math and one for English language arts and they're beginning their work on creating District three to five year literacy plans for both Ela tk3 math four through nine the district has also offered a Collaborative Learning Experience or opportunity for grade level and Department teams district-wide to participate in modules focused on reading instruction and intervention and this work aligns with our our the musd focus on literacy and our ongoing work with udl support is provided by site Administration toses and the Contra Costa

020County Office of Ed's literacy coach this is a paid opportunity for all teachers and an invitation inside up has been sent out the district has also begun modeling the science of improvement with all administrators by modeling a problem of practice using our 2223 attendance data these processes will be used by all sites to solve their own specific problems of practice um in their Wednesday meetings right now as we speak the year is a team of three teachers and the Middle School principal um at a restorative practice or a transforming traditional consequences into meaningful accountability conference um they're going to be spending they spent today and all day tomorrow talking about alternatives to suspension partnering with parents to hold students accountable the Art and Science of changing Behavior traditional consequences accountability projects and looking at discipline

021from all different perspectives rather than you know just your traditional or your new to find a balance of how they're going to help change help students with their behavior in the Middle School and hopefully moving forward I had a good meeting with I had a couple of good meetings with the Ed Trust um people who are in charge of our Equity audit or Equity review one was interviewed me as the superintendent in my thoughts about the district and another is is I've been meeting with Keisha and the Ed trust in terms of planning and things are moving along pretty smoothly um reminder that the groups for parents are on the 20th and the groups for staff and parents are on the 20th look at the Alhambra event calendar for more details the MEF run is

022on the 30th with the family fun night on the 29th and I believe tickets are ten dollars but if you have a student with you the student gets in for free for the family fun night we'll have some food and some games and a raffle for um prizes so that's it any questions on that all right 15 is public comments and I didn't mention at the beginning of the meeting but any member of the public wishing to speak address the board on any agenda topic you can find comment cards in the back of the room they can be filled out and then put in the basket next to superintendent yet at the end over there so public comments under government code 54954.3 members of the public have the right to address the board on any

023matter within the board's jurisdiction however the board may not take action on any non-agenda item individual speakers will be allowed three minutes to address the board 20 minutes have been allocated for this portion of the agenda additional time is allowed at the end of the meeting if there is not enough time to speak during public comments please see Google meet public comment protocols listed above if you wish to speak from from Google meet to comply with the brown act the board May listen to comments from the speakers but can neither discuss nor take action on the issues presented members of the board are very limited in their response to statements or questions by persons commenting on items not on the agenda board members or staff may one ask clarifying questions to make a brief announcement

024three make a brief report on his or her own activities four refer a matter to staff or other resources for information five requests that staff report back on a matter at a subsequent meeting or six direct staff to place the matter on a future agenda with that do we have any public comments this evening all right see and then we'll move to the consent calendar approval of the consent calendar means that all items listed here under are adopted by a single motion unless a member of the board or the superintendent request that any such item be removed from the consent calendar and voted upon separately we have any changes to the consent calendar no we do not are there any public comments or actually board questions or discussions okay any public comments on the consent

025calendar okay and bring it back for action move to approve the consent calendar [Music] student vote aye [Music] okay sorry all in favor aye opposed abstentions motion carries 17 these are discussion and information items 17.1 is contract for services student-led anti-racism movement also known as slam this is presented by Yadira Zapata [Music] hi good evening um so my name is and I am the coordinator of ed services I'm here tonight to share a little bit about bringing a new program but really the overall picture is setting our diversity equity and inclusion plan that was waterproof in the spring in motion um so let's go ahead and jump in um so just you know grounding us again we refreshing our commitments with musd we're committed to ensuring that we honor include and lift all voices in

026our school Community we will continue to build out resources and provide opportunities to engage staff students families and community members to have the tools to identify and interrupt racism and social injustice again our guiding questions is how do we each all show up every day where students feel a sense of belonging how do inequity show up in our district how do we address these inequities and how do we disrupt our current and Equitable practices so again right I think you've seen this a few times as I've been on giving updates throughout the years um and so framing our work in these guiding questions um as a reminder we do have El capful number five which reads that all members of musd will develop supportive Relationships by providing positive learning environments this development includes fostering anti-racist

027and social justice policies and procedures to ensure all students have access to resources and opportunities available within musd um the in addition to our L Capital every site has developed a sipsa or School plan for student achievement goal that also mirrors goal number five and so giving that a little bit of um a personalized notion for their site specific and so this example comes from Alhambra sipsa where it's very similar so again developing supportive relationships providing positive learning environments develops this development includes fostering anti-racist Equitable practices and procedures to ensure that all students have access to resources and opportunities available within Alhambra I mean you will see a similar goal in each one of our school sites sipsas that again mirrors all capital number and that's just so that we are in alignment across the

028board and that we're all working towards um the same overall goals so um as a reminder you've seen this before as well so the work that's been done over the last several years to Center equity and all that we do um so starting in 2020 the board resolution um working down through breeding and professional development upgrading classroom libraries and that development of el Capital number five moving on to 2122 deepening that professional development um that was initiated the year before um more curriculum considerations updating interview practices and then the draft of our Dei plan initiated that year um and then last year again um alignment to the lcap with all Sites developing a sipsable um a Dei newsletter um I believe there was one edition that came out and that's a plan that will continue

029to be built out expansion of the equity team more um staff members across the district and um some families also joining for official development more looking at texts um and then of course um the uh approved the board approved Dei plan um the Alhambra plan for the equity review and then continuing to research Partnerships for student training and really exciting as we learned in the late winter early spring was that our application for the anti-bias grant was accepted and that we were awarded two hundred thousand dollars to do this work so the anti-bias grant just as a reminder was launched in July a really quick turnaround with the turn in um of applications in August our plan was written to highlight three areas so developing a student leadership program addressing gender identity and sexual orientation

030biases and monitoring and implementing our Dei plan so making sure that we have a system in place so that plan is not just something that lives in the internet but that it is actionable and then things are um you know the goals are being addressed um the grant was posted or awardees were posted in February 75 leas were selected and we were one of them in March we had a technical assistance webinar to learn about um you know what kind of reports were going to have to be submitting um what uh support was going to be available and so the first one was available in May um the anti-bias grant through the CDE as a partnership with the national Equity project and so in may they launched a webinar kind of founding and brooding people

031and the work and actually earlier this afternoon was the second one and they had an opportunity to join that but they are recorded and our team will be looking at those moving forward as well so looking at the anti-bias grant we had to submit a budget and so you can see kind of the breakdown here it is two hundred thousand dollars to be used over the next um essentially three years at this point um the first year the timeline um with the grant being awarded was shifted and so that's why you see that year one says zero um the grant was posted in February and then the um the what's the letter called like when you get the promise to be given the funds um came out later at that point and so the team

032really decided Well it's May and so we don't want to rush into anything so we're gonna readjust um just so you know anytime that we make an adjustment that's over 10 in any um category we have to submit a revision um the guidance that we've been given is as long as the work is staying true to the spirit of the grant that those revisions will generally be approved no problem you just need to have that communication piece this one um is already a revised um that was uh submitted because of the shuffling of things and the um Grant being awarded late um so picking you know really thinking about where are we going to start then so we have this Dei plan that has five um overarching categories with multiple Focus areas and action plans

033and now we have this Grant and so what are where are we going to go with it um and so as you've seen in the previous slide um that launching of a student program has been in consideration for many years and so really highlighting goal um the school that's on the screen out of a Dei theme that focuses on providing opportunities for student boys student partnership and student training um to support deeper understanding of equity inclusion and diversity this is also the thread of our initial you know work was done around staff development and staff support we had a parent series and so now we're building in that student opportunity and voice so that we're hitting multiple educational partners and the students themselves so thinking about what does this look like then how do we

034make this goal a reality and launch a program thank you so a couple of considerations so we really identified as a team what were some priorities and some priorities were that this work that the student um training and learning would be facilitated in person that it would be for the students um that it is there's a piece of continuity what does that look like it doesn't we don't want it to be one and done that sustainability piece as well so how are we building a sustainable system and how are we building a comprehensive and multi-year plan um the Dei plant or the DI team as a whole we meet on a monthly basis and then from there and I will say that some of this work was done while I was out on maternity leave

035so I was caught up on it but the DI team also um last year broke out into subgroups to kind of look a little deeper and do a little more research um on their own as you know once a month is awesome but also more time is needed during that time so there were a team of teachers that looked at um who's out there who's out there to partner with us what can we look at what can we bring in um who is going to help us get the student on program launch and so as you can see on the right there are different organizations programs that were considered and really what was found is that what we were looking for many of these organizations that we were finding were not not checking the boxes

036that we were looking for a lot of these organizations have wonderful and amazing tools but a lot of them are geared towards the staff so staff development staff training staff PD and some of the um student resources were really online so it was like um online resources or lesson plans that then a teacher would have to um you know take on and unpack and develop and Implement um and so really the one that has the more comprehensive plan that will come in person is multi-year is built in that way already is raceworks um program which is slam um so slam as you have uh heard earlier tonight is the student leader anti-racist movement it is a three-year program designed not to just engage students in conversation about race but to empower and mobilize them as

037catalysts for change the mission is to amplify voice student voice in action it was developed and facilitated by Dr Laurie Watson who we've had a partnership with in the past and the goal is to um have this program both at our high school and um at our Junior High um and so we're looking at about ideally we're looking at 60 students total across the board 30 or so at each but upwards of a hundred and this question we um really looked at multiple times and thought about you know what's the magic number you want to have a good showing and a good representation of your students but also you don't sorry there's a button um you also don't want to have so many students that then the impact is getting lost in the crowd um

038so the guidance here is um well actually I'll save that for the next one um so again so serving 60 to about 100 students um and then growing from there so the scope of the work is the multi-year plan with the purpose of developing and elevating um student racial Equity leadership and then all sessions and seminars will be done in person at school sites um see here you can see the three-year model year one is about the learning building that understanding shared language identifying your two is articulating so what is this learning that we've engaged in what does that look like here on our campus at our school and our district in our community and then working in year three so how are we now taking action what can we do as a student group

039to influence positive change both at our school site and ideally Beyond as well um you can see the cost breakdown there in addition to what's included so every year um initiates with an advisor seminar and so if there are any new advisors coming on then that's where the time would be to ground them in that work again ensure that um all of our advisors are rooted in the same language and that they have the capacity to support this program um from there there are three full day seminars with the high school students and three half day seminars with the junior high students and there's also coaching and Consulting sessions with the advisors that are already built in um there's an option to seek more of that and get more services in the coaching area and

040then any inter-session meetings or work so in between the seminars our advisors would be continuing the thread meeting with students doing more work and just continuing that thread so it's not just when the facilitator is there that's when it's done but the advisors are continuing to threaten that's where that support will be for them [Music] here are just a couple of sample topics of year one I'll let you read those um but essentially each year we'll have um it'll be two pieces so each year there will be some growth and development of new topics and new ideas but also re-grounding and reframing where they've all been so students are able to come in at year two year three um also the beauty of Martinez is that all our junior high students go into one high

041school and so the thread will be able to continue and so really um you know while it's going to be open to all grade levels so 6 through 12 we know that after one year our 12th graders are moving on and graduating their voice is essential their voice is important and so they are also um of course always welcome but also really looking at our sixth graders through our 10th graders who will be here for the full three years and even beyond that to see that work all the way through um and that's that really nice continuity thread that we see because we are such a small District [Music] um um a couple of notes about why slam is needed on the left side you can see some quotes and on the right side you

042can see some of our healthy kids survey data around school connectedness students feeling that they have adults um on campuses that they that you know caring adult relationships whether school is perceived as safe or very safe and students who experience harassment or bullying of any kind these are the overarching if you've ever looked at the healthy kids survey these are the overarching them either sub um I didn't want to get too in the weeds of everything all of that is public record though but um these are the overall breakdowns as you can see some pretty heavy comments um and some pretty um you know area for growth in our healthy kid survey yes are these quotes are from uh from our school these School these quotes are from resources that were provided to me but

043I have quotes from our students that I'm going to read that were given after the um slideshow was prepared so I'll read those um now um so this quote right here is from a sixth grader it says I think it would be important to learn more about the end result of people making racist comments and the comment and the impact it has on the school and other people from a seventh reader this student wrote for me as a person of color to be in a school where people are staring at me and saying stuff because of my race and how I learn look makes me feel a type of way and this last one is also from a seventh grade student for me to be a young black woman I feel like I shouldn't have

044to go through this at a young age but as I walk around the school every day I hear racial slurs come out of people's mouth I want this to get cleared up now or this problem is only going to get bigger um so kind of tying us back into these um you know metrics and looking at these healthy kids survey our team is still working out on the metrics like if we're bringing in Slam what is it you know I think of course there is anecdotal data that we will always be able to see and students will be able to share from their own perspective what it means for them but also how does that translate into helping us measure our lcap goals our overall goals our steps of goals and so some areas that

045um again will will Define the specific metrics but some areas where I think we will be able to get tangible um you know information and data is looking at Future healthy kids survey this is given every year to all fifth 5th 7th 9th and 11th grade students um an interesting fact I was at the County office on Friday and they shared that across the board seventh grade has seen a really significant like decrease in positive results in the healthy kid survey so more and more students are feeling less connected at the seventh grade level so looking at our healthy kids survey data will be a data point moving forward looking at our suspension rates if students are feeling more connected that will increase attendance that will increase student performance and achievement and that will also

046hopefully decrease our suspension rates and students reporting you know incidences where they are experiencing this type of behavior on campuses so there's some areas that we can look at and set some metrics and set some goals in that in and monitor as we move forward this is the tenet of schedule for slam um so these are all the facilitated dates and then intercession work will be facilitated by the advisors um one note is that December 12th for Alhambra is right before finals week so we actually just confirmed to move that to November 29th so that we are not right on top of finals and the students on staff um won't be feeling that pressure and again remember that the high school is full day and that the junior high is um half days and those

047are looking like they'll be in the afternoon from 12 to about 3 o'clock and that's it all right thank you lots of information I'm guessing we hi how about the questions so if anyone feel like jumping in so I probably am going to have a million questions but I'll start with the first one who's our student rep not to put you on the spot but I think I am about to put you on the spot what do you think of this coming into your school good idea bad idea is it needed so as a student voice I can and as a minority as a Latina I can definitely attest to saying that I feel the same way as the seventh and sixth graders like I feel like I am being stared at most of the

048time and I feel outed um and I think it's important to bring attention to this problem um especially in our community um as but my question is how is this going to be introduced to the students because I know Middle School in high school it's hard to keep attention to them and hard to keep them pulled into something so I'm wondering what are you gonna do to make sure that the students are wanting to be in this program and like have their attention at all times to actually create a change I love that thank you for that question so that is something that we are working on with our um uh principals on the sites so they're going to be working on informational materials and additional surveys to capture that interest um some of the

049guidance has also been consider you know whether you want teachers to make recommendations or how do you sustain that so it's not just coming from the principal so they are still developing their plan as you see our timeline is approaching um but that's been um sorry Keisha not to put you on the spot um but we have been talking about like what is the initial introduction and I also know that um at the junior high at least there has already been some efforts in work around addressing these types of interviews and um or these types of issues and so it's almost like a jumping off platform for that too sorry I have a question would this be some type of Club per se or would this be some program work a selective number of students

050that have to apply to it okay so sorry go ahead no go ahead so so the application is not like for sure it's just you know what does it look like for students to participate the the number we're looking at is hopefully 60 students so about 30 percent upwards of 50 but it's open to any student that would be interested in participating I think the question about it becoming a club would be for your site and so it would be this like you know um learning opportunity that students would be engaged in but through that work with the advisor that continues throughout the year if that is the idea is that to build more capacity and then have more students involved in various ways if they can't attend the seminars then that would be a

051site-based decision which is kind of the nice thing about this program is there's a lot of opportunity for individualizing it to your site and your community so that what the students are feeling is the need is able to happen it's not like this is the plan and that's it education last question I I would be interested in being an observer during these tentative trainings is there flexibility in me coming and observing what happens during the advisors and advisor student uh orientation sessions I would have to ask so I'm going to write that down and I can get back to you on that one yeah either thank you um and congratulations actually on on the Grant I think that's a it's great great for the for the district and and a great opportunity um I do

052have a few questions and I'm trying to I'll kind of go through them I guess you kind of touched on it and um so what what was the metric that for the selection of this consultant for this effort and and I guess I'm I'm from what you've been describing it doesn't sound like they're uh there's many deliverables included in this and there's a lot of deliverables being put on staff or survey information you talked about and doing reports and kind of getting that out and I don't know if that's coming from the consultant and but comparatively for like the equity audit it was you know a little bit more money than how you know that they provided all the data and results I'm I'm question what were your metrics for this this particular consultant yeah

053joke am I able to go back no thank you um so just kind of to put that same side back up um and I'll and I'll ask you a clarifying question too to make sure I'm addressing yours um so again looking at you know really the goal of launching a student program is bringing in a sustainable feature for students learning and student action and voice and so when we were diving into seeing who else is out there again what we're finding is a lot of these other programs had training and professional development and these learning opportunities for the adults but not for the students and so that was kind of one area that we were looking at so that it was really built for students um that we had it in person um that it

054was going to be sustainable and a comprehensive plan A lot of these other organizations you could build out something in that way a lot of them seemed like you bring them in for a year and then you know what's the what's the give from there um I have a quote what do you mean by deliverables what what do we what do we walk away with at the end of the day or is it just listen to the consultant talk yeah and so I um let me think about that for a second but the reason being is you know as you pointed out this is this information is going to be lost as kids graduate out of the program or move on and so is it's is there some of the takeaway to kind of use

055this money as an asset for future use and not have it walk out the door okay um Grant I understand it's supposed to be Community Based and help that but there's you know is there is there a tangible at the end of the day I feel like it's a little challenging to answer that question because a lot of it is as you mentioned it is that that learning and then identifying in our own Community what that is and so I could create you know I could make some guesses on what students would want to change but it's going to come from the students and so I think in this year one it's going to be a lot of fleshing that out and then from there building you know what it what are the tangibles I

056think we're going to see um you know I think all of the data really shows that when students are connected they perform better and they come to school right and so we're going to see improved um attendance improved student achievement I think those are all we've done throughout our lcap and so that is kind of the work of the Dei team in monitoring our plan is what or what are the things that are being changed and so part of it it's like yes that's coming from us but it's our district you know and it's our plan that we're monitoring um and I also like I said I think because a lot of it is going to be driven by the students I can't see what are the deliverables right now because a lot of those

057are going to come from the student voice and building that out does that make sense I guess with that we've obviously had uh experience with Dr Watson facilitating has there been takeaways from those instances that that you can speak to yeah I would say the two biggest takeaways from those well I think well at three so the first is that um you know our our initial work with her was a district-wide training and so that was something that was accessible to all staff um so I think that was a big takeaway that it was everyone was on that um another thing that I think is a very big takeaway is our Dei team grew out of that and so the people that are um continue to bring these ideas and find these resources were born

058out of that training and out of that work and we continue to meet Beyond um those trainings that we are no longer participating in and I would say you know for all of us in this room the biggest thing that came out of that is our Dei plan um you know that was through um you know Dr Watson help us identify other districts in the area that had some and were able was able to connect us with those um and our di plan was born out of all of that and I think that that is an incredibly big takeaway from that work and then how do as far as the selection of students and staff to participate um so this is this is not during class time this is like on the short days on

059Wednesdays it would be it would be during um so the high school days I think they're I'm forgetting what days of the week they fall on but they are school days so it's three full days through spread throughout the year for the high school and then three half days for the junior high during class time and and how how are those students how are the students Chosen and or you said it's an application process or we're still flushing out those details but it is going to be open to students that are wanting to participate in this work and and wanting to engage in it so the actual like application or referral or sign up process is still being flushed out by the school sites and how do we prevent this from becoming an echo chamber

060to implement this is Dr Watson has provided us sorry Dr Watson has provided us with some names of schools and locally that she's worked with and so we have some people like that are digging in talking to their principals like how what how did you do these things and what's worked for you what are some pitfalls that we need to try to avoid in that sort of thing and so those are the discussions that we're preparing and how does this um I guess integrate or complement our our Equity audit that that's underway so um I will say that I'm not very well versed in what all the equity audit entails to be able to answer that question full on so I can get back to you once I learn more but that was a question

061that um I did ask Dr Watson like we are engaging in this Equity review is that something that once we kind of see the data and the results of that is that something that would then inform your work with us and she said absolutely so it would help guide any findings that are uncovered any areas of growth that would be come out of that exact review could also help inform the work that's being done with the students through swim okay and then with the um you talked about having the ideally you know 60 to 70 students or 60 to 100 students I think about 30 to 40 or so per site what's the I guess their minimum participation what's what's the Fail-Safe on that so we haven't really we haven't really discussed that only because

062you know I think we could say we want 30 but if we have 25 and they're amazing and they're awesome and they're ready you know what does that look like and so that's more of a once we get the sign ups and that's an extended conversation that we'll need to happen site-wide district-wide in terms of do we proceed with this or not I guess what would the cancellation policy be if we decide to and then if we do what's the what's this alternative what's the second what's the backup yeah so I would say uh I for an exact cancellation policy I will have to get back to you on that um at this time we don't have obviously nothing's like locked in no there's no official um I know this contract generally is upon receipt

063of services right it's paid um so I would need to look at the exact cancellation policy in all of my experiences with Dr Watson she is really flexible with us and has been um throughout the years um but I'll look at into an exact cancellation policy in terms of a backup as you heard there's not a lot of backups out there for programs would be back to the drawing board to try to find um another program another organization um to bring forward and and take into consideration um I guess no sorry one other last question in the um obviously this seems to be focused on on racism but they know the focus the Dei and the grant is uh all it's like underrepresented is is is the structure is it just focus on racism is

064my assessment correct or is it actually uh is is the curriculum multifaceted so this initial program so the title of it is anti-racist movement right student-led um and so I think that is the focus and at least like the initial grounding of like how do we identify a problem what are we looking at what are the tools to help combat it but I also think again that student voice and addressing what are we seeing around our campus that is missing will also guide that work then um yeah so I was just wondering um so let's say you get 200 200 students that want to do it um how and let's say you have I don't know 30 of that is 12th graders and you know they're not going to be coming the following year um

065you know how are you going to handle that and then also um so if you have some 11th and 12th graders and they're leaving um you said that each year they're going to do like a review so that if they leave we have someone else that same we can bring them up to speed pretty quickly yeah yeah exactly so each year right there's re-grounding reframing making sure that you know it's there's still like a threat of understanding and continuing to build um I was going to say something else about your question and now I was talking about if you had like 200 students or something wouldn't that be amazing I'm just curious yeah because it's just her so were you thinking of doing it successful I guess you just have the 200 000 though so

066you're not wanting to um and is it driven by students attending or um I mean she said you said 30 to 100 I mean 60 to 100 so if there were 200 and you still have the same day long could you accommodate them all I guess is my question I would think so I think especially um as the advisors would also be present for that time um there's you know and if you've ever proceeded in some of Dr Watson work there's like some like grounding and some information and then there's time to digest that and talk it through with other people and so I think that's where having the additional advisors present will help facilitate if they're is a big group that will be there I just want to make sure that if we have

067a big group that we wouldn't yeah yeah that we would be able to sustain it absolutely just how flexible is she to have more students if that yeah oh yeah I think especially you know what she always says and when I because I asked that question like what are what you know what is there a magic number we're looking for and she said you know I've seen it be really successful with 30 to 50 students she said but I've also seen to be successful with 15 who were so dedicated and then it grew from there and so I think um you don't think there's there's growth on either way or like flexibility on either side hmm this is in person correct yes I have oh okay I have a quick question yeah as a 12th

068grader if uh any 12th grader or 11th grader wanted to join is it possible that next year once we are graduating like per se in college could we be like an alumni or something during the days and because it still goes on throughout the next year yeah that would be awesome and they would also defer then to like visitor like policy of just signing in through the office and that that side of the like safety piece right as a visitor on campus but I think that would be an amazing opportunity to bring the student that continuing thread I also think this is a really good opportunity at Alhambra I feel like you'll have a really good number of students joining thank you Madison right I have some questions too if we're okay and I want

069to preface this because I know you've gotten a lot of questions and you've been up here for a while and given us lots of information so I want to preface that I think this work is so important and I've been really happy to be sitting in some of these Equity committee meetings I think this is really great moving forward so I don't want my questions to be interpreted in any way that I think it's not important but from a board member you know putting my board member hat on in from the fiscal responsibility side of it I do have some questions so uh I would say at this point my biggest trepidation is that we don't really have any gauge of how many students are interested and this starts really soon as you mentioned we're

070on a tight timeline so when I look at like okay what we we just don't know I mean that for me there's like this huge unknown of we could get 200 people to apply which would be fantastic we could get 30. and there's a really big difference in cost per student if we only have 30 versus if we have 200 and I know that sometimes small and mighty groups can do a lot of really wonderful work but it's also asking a lot for a potentially small group to do this so I and also hearing that maybe it's not quite fleshed out how if it's going to be an application if it's going to be a volunteer it concerns me just a little bit knowing how close we are to the timeline and still having this

071much of an unknown because as soon as this contract goes through then we're in it and I just I guess I would feel a lot more comfortable and maybe this is information we'll this will come back for a vote in two weeks maybe at that time I know principals are actively working on it you would have a better sense of the interest from students and maybe I'm not looking for like an exact number I think that's totally unreasonable but I just think I would feel better knowing okay we're it's going to be between like 40 and 60 that's where we kind of think our numbers are um so that's kind of my my biggest just it just feels like a huge unknown at this point um I also I want to really honor that this

072will be student-led work and I think that's so fantastic but knowing that this grant is one-time money and hopefully we will be fortunate and there will be other grants that come about that we can apply for and and continue the work but I would like to see and this isn't something that I think you need to like turn around and do in the next two weeks but I think it would be in the best interest of um the public and the board to see the ongoing work and so if we could get maybe a plan I I'm sure that there will be as the Dei committee was born out of Dr Watson's initial workshops I'm sure there will be a plan that students come up with for continuing the work beyond the three years and

073I think that would be really important for the public to know and know kind of how this is continuing Beyond if we you know run out of these funds and they're not renewable is there going to be something that we can do without having these the in-person facilitation is something that advisors can carry on you know Recruit new students that kind of thing and then um this one's just should be simple but are there are when you showed the budget or the travel costs for the presenter included in the price or are there travel costs for the presenter so that is a line item but for Dr Watson there that is not a separate okay charge that's it's part of that yeah that's part of that number um but that is a line item in

074the idea that we will be bringing in additional training and resources focused on various topics that are within our um our anti-bias Grant application okay I have just written a bunch of notes and you kind of answered a lot throughout and then other people had them I just want to make sure you've got it all um maybe you touched on this but so if a student say even if they just maybe they just don't want to participate they really this isn't for me or maybe it's too much with their schoolwork or whatever so you feel that there will be an opportunity to refill those spots or even maybe if it's a lower number in the first year and feel like you could take on more students that it would be something that we could add

075yes in subsequent years okay okay thank you um are there any public comments do you want to fill out a public you can fill one out after but just make sure you do it oh you already have it okay okay perfect [Music] yeah so I'm going to kind of echo board member Melendez and Martin's comments around the cost so I know that so Dr Wilson did the PD Watson did the PD for the staff I think it was last year did it's rhetorical because they know I don't think anyone can respond to me do we have any feedback from the staff I understand what was born out of it but two 300 people that went through a PD I would love to get some feedback when we're talking about a consultant that's somewhere between 900

076and a thousand dollars an hour that's a lot of money it's almost 60 percent of the Grant and she's local um so I I believe the work is extremely important but it is it that's a lot of money um and I Echo maricel's comments too about ensuring that students stay engaged how do we ensure continuity this thing that's sustainability of the work and I think the work if I can encapsulate what Carlos was saying how does the work get memorialized right it that it's part of ongoing plans and that we're keeping it alive it's not just kind of a one and done over the next two or three years and then we hope it survives and maintains a life here thanks thank you any other public comments on this okay so this is this was

077for discussion information tonight so we will see this again in two weeks and thank you so much for all of did you have another did you have anything else okay [Laughter] well thank you for I mean this ended up being a really long presentation for for you and lots of questions so thank you so much for answering all of those for us and we will see you back here in two weeks thank you okay 17.2 is the musd board self-evaluation uh so this is just some information coming out of our workshop and I'll let Helen present so um I want to thank we did the first one in June the first board Workshop in June on self-evaluation and it continued to August and at the August um Workshop it was brought to uh the question

078came up as to whether or not we would uh be sharing this out in an evening meeting just what the results of the two workshops were and the board self-evaluation so I put together a very brief um uh PowerPoint just talking about what the what goals came out of the work that was done and out of the self-evaluation itself which was done by uh by our five board members and compiled by csba okay so the first thing to note is that there are five key responsibilities of effective boards and it was on these five key responsibilities that the evaluation was done and each board member answered questions uh pertaining to their thoughts and perceptions about these five key responsibilities in terms of themselves and in terms of them their work as a board together okay

079the results um were tallied and this slide came directly from Janelle ayat's work I believe with one little addition um nope I think it's exact no I added in a percentage as rated so for instance if you look at the chart the ones that are coded like an orangey red those were um the high areas indicated by the board that where they need growth and it goes across so the process was they answered the questions and then we came back together as a group and then the board each board member was given five dots and those five dots they were able to place on any of the growth areas that they felt were high priority that they wanted to focus on and so you can see for instance in the first condition in board Unity

080there were six dots placed on board Unity um it was rated as an area of growth three out of six by three out of six or fifty percent of of the questions were rated as needing um growth in that area so the highest growth earner let's say or the highest area of need indicated by the board was Community leadership so they started with Community leadership and came together and created a goal in our first session in June and after a quick session on smart goals um and what they were and how to create them uh we uh with the assistance from Janelle they came up with a smart goal for Community leadership the other areas that were higher in indication of growth needed were roles and responsibilities where three out of the five questions came

081in as needing as low as they as needing Improvement board Unity where 50 and then board culture at 35 percent the reason that I have uh highlighted three of the conditions in blue is because I believe either prior work or so for instance in board development it came in at 50 but we just created a redid or revised a board policy in terms of board professional development so the issue of board development might have been ranked low but with the new policy should be uh it should be covered underneath that revision same thing with setting Direction and accountability it's either in a new policy a revised policy or combined in one of the orange or reddish-colored goals so go ahead and flip okay so here's where what we taught them about smart goals is what

082every teacher goes through training and administrator here almost each year um the goal has to be specific and measurable has to be achievable realistic has to be time uh has to be realistic or relevant and it has to be time bound you need to have a start and end date with our goals the start and end dates are really good because they're self-evaluation happens each year so it starts at the beginning of the school year and it ends in June we will have two progress checks on on our goals in October and March March flip the slide please okay so goal number one this had to do um with uh demonstrating support and board culture um during the 23 24 school year board members will commit to being informed on District issues prior to a

083meeting for instance ask questions read the update participate in schedule calls with the superintendent and More in order to participate meaningfully in the governance process as measured by superintendent records and so this goal was meant to make sure that everybody came to the board meetings prepared asked the questions they needed to ask prior to coming even though those questions can be repeated in public just questions to show that they truly understand what's on the agenda and what we're covering goal number two oh I'm sorry so the success indicators for goal number one there's uh the uh everything sent out by email and there are read receipts on the email so we keep the documentation for the board's reference that will be given back to them in October and again in March there's evidence of of

084the updates of scheduled calls of reviewing board agendas because all of that is sent out the action items are the board members are going to review ensure that they review the weekly update um they are going to participate in twice monthly calls with the superintendent to review agenda items in other District issues which they may have questions on board members may choose to participate in twice monthly calls to review issues that have come up at the previous Night board meeting so for instance after tonight's board meeting and every board meeting on Tuesday I have blocked off time where board members can call and ask for clarifying questions or maybe details that they might have missed um and if they don't have any there's no need to engage and that each board member will be prepared

085for every meeting by thoroughly reading the agenda and all attachments and asking pertinent questions of the superintendent and they'll read and respond to um if called for in a timely fashion all emails from the superintendent goal number two has to do with setting Direction each year or during the year the board is going to hold the study session in October 23rd and March 24th and we're going to take a look at reviewing and revising and updating the governance handbook which was given to each board member last year and then again this year in hard copy and electronic copy at the meeting the study session they'll become familiar with the governance handbook in advance and everyone will come prepared to talk about issues in that handbook that they might have an issue with or want to

086see updated or revised so successive dictators are the agendas and the notes and the revisions obviously and each board member will Ascend the attend the two study sessions and each section of the handbook will be reviewed and revised and agreed upon by a majority and then documentations of examples on non-examples of how roles were fulfilled engaging the community which was the highest ranking um area that the board thought they needed Improvement in was uh so each during the year we're going to provide board members with the list of community events monthly and how we've done that is we have a district event calendar that Joe has so eloquently put together which they can click on the website and it lists all of the opportunities at every single site on the same calendar or by list

087and I've set directions in the weekly update on how to access that both by calendar and by listing and then each month at the last board meeting two members will sign up to present their findings or talk about the the um the event that they went to so for instance if Annie decided to go to the Morello Park principal with the coffee to listen to the parents there and find out how everything's running at Morello Park she would then say Oh that's in uh first of October so I'll sign up for at the end of October and put principal with the coffee at Morello Park and she will have fulfilled one of the two times um to come and talk about just to get make sure that they're getting themselves out there to talk to

088the people that voted them into office and to involve themselves into the school community board reports are the indicators and board members will sign up on the Google Doc in order to assure two members will report each month they will use District event calendar and they'll provide a brief report of their event at the last boarding board meeting and I think that's it so that's just a review recap of what the board's goals are for themselves in order to improve on the areas that were shown needing Improvement in the evaluation self-evaluation process any public comments so this is the third time I'm speaking on this topic as you might have guessed I've got a lot of passion around this and I've got a lot of passion around it because I too have to go through

089these types of evaluations at work I facilitate sessions with my own team across my peers and even with with my management um in the special sessions I wasn't able to make any real comments um and get any feedback but I I will say and I want to try to remain positive I have a lot of concerns around the action plan I think it um bodes a lot of opportunity around things that are to your roles as trustees a lot deeper and more actionable I would argue that goals one and three are simply core to your responsibilities to your constituents and to this school district for just coming to a meeting to be prepared I I that one I'm really struck on was um I struggled with it during covid many of you are here for

090that but coming to meetings it was like there were board members that were you questioned what environment they were work that they were living in that they didn't have core knowledge of what was going on in the community and how our students were being impacted um in goal one Helen provided feedback during the special meeting around where she felt there were gaps because she's the one putting all the time into preparing time for all of you all and one of the action items isn't even to ask go back and ask for her feedback on how she feels you all are prepared with the work that she's doing it's a lot of documentation but I'm gonna I would request just ask her ask her how she feels based off of the work that she's doing that

091her team is doing how prepared you all are when you come into a board meeting um in some of the success measurements I would argue not that I'm questioning Janelle from us from a smart perspective smart statements don't don't include the word may they include the word will right things that you will do things that you will make happen not that you may make happen I understand for all of you that this is secondary to probably a full-time job but you all chose these roles you all just wanted to be part of this it it takes work and I if you're going to be talking about taking action to come together and be United as a board and be United for our community and most importantly United for our students it I would look to

092putting a little more meat in the action plan that you've created thanks all right thank you any other public comments okay so this is an ongoing I there's no there's no action on this particular agenda item this evening but this is ongoing throughout the year so we will have another Workshop in October to review our handbook and I think at that time we certainly can look at any of our goals and and it's they can sort of work as a check-in as well um but this is you know ongoing and this is the first year that to my knowledge any board has ever done this so I do really appreciate the feedback Todd and I think it's something that we're you know a board member brought this up board member yamas felt that this would

093be a really important thing and so we were really kind of digging into this work and I think we will see it evolve and I certainly think that there's room to improve our process and I think we will also continue to grow as the year goes on and in in our Direction and solidifying what we want to accomplish here but so we'll have these updates throughout the year after our Workshop so the community can know what we're doing and those workshops are open to the public they won't be on Zoom but they are open to the public so people can come and um not participate but watch so that's kind of the way that they work so that will be published in the meeting as well so thank you for that anything else on that

094all right we I we have our action items and I'm thinking this might be a good time to take a break if we want to do a five minute break then we'll get back for our action items so we'll go ahead and adjourn for five minutes we'll return at eight o'clock welcome back we are going to reconvene and we're on item 18 action items 18.1 is approval of exhibit 9124-e for attorneys and this is presented by Helen Rossi um a few meetings back it was brought to my attention um the board by law that called for evaluation of attorneys before renewing contracts and in order to keep things consistent um in the years to come we created a tool in which to evaluate the attorneys a very simple tool and I'd like to requested that

095the Board review it two weeks ago and tonight uh approve adding that to the bylaws as an exhibit to bylaw 9124 so that everyone uses the same for form moving forward any board questions or discussions we click on the sample form that was attached to it so that's the form that we're going to use or like who you are going to use it we're all going to use it staff evaluates um and fills it out according to so for instance this one is with aalr that is an attorney used primarily by student services and special education and in order to renew the contract we needed to review the services Janelle gave the review and the comments as she's the one who primarily uses that so if it was dwk for negotiations it would be um

096Dr Dan or my Dr Dan's scadero or myself depending on who was available or maybe the both of us combined Andy would use dwk he uses them for uh facilities and for construction so he would probably put that in also with my checking it over before it comes can I also ask how many separate contracts we have with different law firms at one time depends on what firm we're most comfortable using but for right now we have to we have dwk and aalr so the reason that I ask is other districts I've spoken to have shared that they have anywhere from 8 to 15 different law firms that have contracts with them at one time not that they use them all at the same time but they have them available for different things so I

097don't know why I mean why are we not why are we only limited to two why do we not have we're not limited to two we choose to use two many of the larger districts have in-house legal counsel like Mount Diablo Antioch I'm not sure about Pittsburgh we have become familiar use with and have no issue using dwk at for negotiations we used to have F cubed we switched over to dwk we used to have um F Cube for special ed as well and moved over to aalr so we don't necessarily stick with the same one but these are the ones we're finding meet our needs right now we don't wear small District we don't have a lot of legal needs I better knock on some wood and um these two firms seem to be

098meeting our needs at this time it's also for continuance with cases that we have if we come up with a problem and find that hey you know we're really not getting what we need we have the opportunity at that time to go out for an RFP and look for another firm that might meet our needs better so when we do go out for these rfps what is it that the district one would want to look for or find in these proposals it depends on how we write the RFP whatever we are looking for in an RFP in a legal firm we include in the RFP and it depends right now we're not looking for one but should we need to find a different one for let's say facilities because we want one that is more

099knowledgeable in a certain type of construction or at least lease back or a different you know we would write that in the RFP and then put it out for the public to respond to but it's it what your needs are goes into that RFP thank you any other questions public comment and bring this back for action I'll go ahead and move to approve exhibit 9124-e a second student vote I all in favor aye aye aye aye opposed extensions motion carries 18.2 is Consolidated application for funding presented by Andy Cannon this is our annual application for funding it's not exhaustive in terms of an application and so you'll see this every year but it is inclusive of our major title funds that we get through the federal government so what you have before you tonight is

100the document out of our Consolidated application program that the state uses for us to log information about our title funds and we are asking the board tonight to approve the application for the use of Title One title 2 title 3 and title four funding foreign questions public comment and you can go ahead and take action I'll move to approve the application for funding thank you student vote I all in paper hi hi opposed abstentions motion carries 18.3 is approval of the 2022-2023 unaudited actuals also presented by Andy Cannon thank you for the opportunity to report back on our budget situation I know some of you it's the highlight of of a board meeting to hear me talk about dollars and cents um so tonight when we look at our unaudited actual we are looking at

101the time period from July 1st of last year 2022 all the way until June 30th so we are essentially closing our books and this is the report that we're providing to you to show what those financial situations are based on closing the books um we have identified unspent funds and we're looking at carrying those over and that's part of the report you're going to see tonight um and we're going to end up comparing what our unauded actuals our ending balances are with what we estimated they would be when we did the budget so this is not comparing it to the 2324 budget this is comparing it to what we thought we were going to close the books at in June to what we actually closed it at now in September so the most of the

102slides you're going to see in front of you are regarding our fundo one our general fund and we'll talk about a few of the other funds when we get to the end here so when we look at our fundo one we categorize our funding sources in two ways mostly our restricted funds and our unrestricted funds so if you're looking at the first slide here you'll notice that our lcff sources which is our unrestricted sources here we are looking at right about 44 million dollars is what we received in Revenue last year and based on our estimated actuals it's about eighty one thousand dollars off so really close to the mark there um as we go down into our other state categories you'll notice there's a about a 740 dollar difference in what we projected for

103there and the reason for that mostly is because of our transportation reimbursement we received we knew that we were going to get reimbursement for transportation which is roughly about 60 percent of our transportation cost but the state kind of delayed on when they were going to give it to us so they actually gave it to us last year but they gave it to us at the end of June after we had already prepared the budget after we had already done all this work so most of that figure of the difference is really related to Transportation because we could not accurately claim it during that budget time and so now we're claiming it in this process the other local amounts 151 thousand dollars is about adjustments in local tax base so that's just the offset between

104lcff funds that we get from the state that state aid and with our property tax values looking at our restricted Revenue um you're going to notice that really quickly you see a one million dollar difference in our federal funds and that's because our federal funds are unearned dollars so we report all of it as Revenue in that year but whatever we don't spend we actually carry it over into next year so because we did not receive those funds we actually reduce our revenue for it so that one million dollars isn't an actual loss it's a carry over into this year and so our sr3 funds that we still have remaining are now reported into this next year's budget other state cost you'll notice there's a difference there of nine hundred twenty six thousand dollars at

105the time when we were talking about the budget the state legislature and the governor were kind of at odds with how they were going to pay for the loss of state revenue to fund education so the governor wanted to reduce the block grants to cover it the legislator wanted the legislature wanted to reduce other programs so what happened here is that we did not report most of the one point one one point two million dollars we were going to receive from the Arts music and instructional materials block grant um at the time in June when the when the budget was fully signed they actually didn't cut nearly as much as we thought we did so this amount here of 926 mostly reflects that block grant that we were able to put back into last year

106um other local amounts um which is in that fourth or fifth line there is increases in donations rent and a small amount of our special ed property taxes now the special ed property taxes again that's offset by other by your lcff sources for restricted so it's not that we had more it's just we got more in taxes versus state aid for the program when you look at the combined revenue this is where you're going to see both the restricted and restricted put together and the difference here is about a million dollars that we're going to carry forward and we'll talk a little bit more about how that relates to an ending balance when we look at expenditures but again the other state that you see here of 1.6 million dollars is a combination of the

107transportation reimbursement and also the learning block grants moving into the unrestricted expenditures certificated salaries which are our teachers our counselors and other staff we see that we were about one percent higher than what we expected which when you consider you know 19 million dollars um not a not a sizable difference there overall um classified salaries were 1.6 different so really small and then our benefits projection was less than one percent overall services for unrestricted um I'm decreased by three hundred thousand dollars and our indirect costs were also reduced by 300. the indirect cost is because the less we spend the less we charge for indirect cost and a few other um certain contracts we can't charge indirect costs to so that's the difference in that value overall we're looking at less than a one percent

108variance for our unrestricted expenditures so I think we did a pretty good job of of really tracking and monitoring unrestricted dollars as we look into the restricted expenditures you're going to see a little bit more of a difference here um our books and Supply contracts decreased substantially and this is the way in which we report those dollars that we essentially know we're going to carry over into future years we put them into accounts that sometimes make it look like we're going to spend those dollars because we have to have that funding available and then when we don't spend it it gets carried over into future years so the the total of that 1.5 million and the 640 000 almost in book supplies and services really represents that those restricted dollars that we intend to carry

109over for the next few years that will pay for lots of different programs and which could also pay for extended services with our counseling which we'll talk a little bit later as we go through here um just to note the the two block grants that we've talked about quite a few times the Arts music instructional materials block grant ends in 2026 and the learning recovery block grant ends in 2029. so there's a real chance that if we try to extend these dollars and kind of stretch them over the next few years you may be seeing something similar to this variance in your restricted expenditures when we look at the combined expenditures overall we're going to see that there's less than one percent variance in our certificated salaries there's less than two percent in both our

110classified and our benefits and you see an overall Savings in our books and supplies so we've we've talked a little bit about what that restricted fund balance is from the in terms of Revenue and also from expenditures here's a more direct look at each of those accounts by resource that you look here so the first one resource 2600 is our expanded learning opportunities program most of you know that we use right at school as a provider for after school programming so the bulk of these funds are are put towards that and they're able to carry over so we are carrying over quite a large balance and this is partly true because of two years ago we were just getting started and so we were slow we had a full amount allocated to us but we

111really didn't spend it this last year we spent a good portion of it and we've continued to add services in this year so we've increased those services that will start chipping away at that balance and the hope is that over the next few years we'll continue to draw that down as we increase those services for students at each of the schools um and there will be a point in time somewhere in the next few months we'll look at those programming numbers and then make a decision on how do we adjust some of that allocation um one of the things before Amy got here was we were looking at how we'd grow it at Los juntas and see what those numbers would look like because they were a little bit smaller in terms of parent interest

112initially as we move down the educator Effectiveness Grant currently we're using these funds to pay for the two ptosas for Math and for English that superintendent Rossi spoke about and so we have enough funding to do that for some time now we've also used different professional development trainings and we put funding or use this funding for those purposes 6300 is our restricted Lottery mostly right now we're using that for textbooks and curriculum the anti-bias education grant you heard a presentation about that and so those funds will be used as you saw in the budget report from Yadira special education I don't know that we'll ever have any money left over in 6500 at the end of the year and that's because the cost of special education is so significant that we have to put a

113very sizable contribution from our general fund into the program well spent but very expensive um we do have one of our our special education preschool grants and so we were drawing that down year over year um that should be down to zero next year it's an ongoing amount um we just had a carryover for this last year um again with the Arts music and instructional materials block grant you see that that is a a healthy balance of 1.7 and again we have until 2026 to spend that down the next couple are small grants that we received for the cafeteria and those are being spent slowly I believe we have until next year to get the rest of those spent down and we'll continue to use the the training funds for various different programs we have

114through there uh going on to the next slide we have more restricted fund balances 7032 is our kit Grant we received that last year and we are already starting to put that money to use uh we will be buying new kitchen equipment for um for John sweat Morello Park and a lot of other items smaller items for the other schools because we've done such extensive work with construction we don't have as great of a need as maybe some other schools districts do so we're looking to find ways to to use the funds in combination with our bond money to be able to get the maximum output of that knowing that we can stretch that Bond money a little bit further in other ways so this has been a real blessing for the district to be

115able to use the funds in that way and we do have I think in a couple more years was it 26 or 28 for that for the kit Grant I know you sent that to me the other day so at either 28 or 29 so we'll draw down quite a bit of it now for the the two construction progress projects that Morello and John sweat and then we'll use the rest of it um over time as as needs arise for us at the same time of using these funds we do have a healthy fund 13 which is our cafeteria fund and the idea behind it is These funds expire sooner than what we can do with our fun 13 cafeteria funds so right now it's a it's a good way to use those funds as

116we go down through you'll see some smaller amounts I'll highlight the next largest amount which is the learning recovery emergency block grant and we had 2.4 million dollars almost that came over with that and then our last one 90 10 is our donations funds and so this includes School site donations it includes scholarship funds and others there in a total our restricted balance is 7.8 million dollars and that is a healthy and sizable restricted amount it's important to notice that these because they're restricted they can only be used for certain things and they are not ongoing cost so over the next few years as these funds start to expire we will be spending those down as we head to the fundo One summary we've spent a lot of time with fundo1 but this is the

117way to kind of congeal it all together and you can see this from an overall view of how all of our revenues and expenditures kind of mash together and then we'll look at the ending balance down there and see what that looks like for us so again you see the differences in revenues for fiscal year 23. we've increased our fund balance by 2.77 million dollars that equates to 1.4 million in restricted and 1.4 million approximately in unrestricted dollars now of that unrestricted 1.4 million dollars a little less than half of it is because of that Transportation so when people use terms like the money fell down or you know that this is what's left over with that um what we're really looking at is about a little less than eight hundred thousand dollars of savings

118that we saw out of a budget of of um 45 50 million dollars that's that's not a huge amount so I think we did a pretty good job about estimating what our costs and expenditures are going to be and this is a nice windfall for us that we project forward so this dollar amount ends up being part of our beginning balance for 23.24. what you will see as we get to December when we do the first interim report we will include the updated beginning balance from that and then we'll be able to see what our what our financial situation is that time for the current fiscal year which is 23 24. but staying on 2223 and ending the year overall we see 5.3 million dollars is what our ending balance is of that 1.8 million

119is our statutory minimum Reserve so we have to keep three percent for economic uncertainty and that ends up being the almost 1.8 million dollars when we end the year we are projecting that we have a total unrestricted reserve of 9.4 percent and that is just short of the 10 threshold that we're allowed to carry over because of our financial situation over the last two years so all leas of our size and larger were not allowed to carry more than 10 percent of their funds over and so we've met both that restriction but yet also close enough to the line that we can still project that we have a healthy balance we have talked about fundo one and so I want to make sure that we do give some attention to the rest of our funding

120sources and that's what you see on this slide here so fund 08 is our ASB funds and so they've got quite a bit of fun quite a bit of money left over there and that's student ran and organized on how they use those funding sources or that amount of money fund 11 is adult education they have a large balance part of the reason they have such a large balance is the way their program works it concludes later in the year than us and so a lot of their reimbursements we have to provide we have to pay those invoices starting now so they don't necessarily get reflected in last year's budget um fund 13 almost 800 000 in money there the one of the contracts that you approved tonight was increasing spending on food so we

121are trying to roll over the additional funds that we're saving through fund 13 and put them to good use which is increasing the quality of the food that we provide and having more scratch cooking um and so we'll see that that balance will will be spent down slowly over time because of that increase um fund 14 we did not spend but just about two thousand dollars of our 150 000 that the board approved through a resolution for deferred maintenance we will in this current fiscal year add another 150 000 to that and that will be used for all sorts of Maintenance projects as they come and are needed that's kind of our extra fund for that purpose um opeb fund 20 is for our retirees and benefits fund 21 looks large but that will go

122away really fast uh so as John sweat reaches or nears conclusion and I don't want to throw it too much out there but we are looking to be in the building end of October beginning in November superintendent Rossi is excited about her schedule that she's putting together for that we'll see that go and then most of you are aware that Morello Park just concluded the parking lot project and they are now going to start working on the the base for the new Kinder Wing the admin ring and the cafeteria and so we're excited to see all of that play out through uh you know the grace of our community Through the bond measure that they supported in the past years ago um fund 25 is part of our developer where we put all our developer

123fees and so we've spent most of that down we'll look at how to utilize this 184 000 in the future fund 35 is from the state when we submit these construction projects they will give money back to us based on what those projects are we are hopeful here shortly to receive communication about John Muir and see how much the state has awarded us or that should come through within the month we should have a final resolution on what amount of money we're going to receive for that project fund 40 is from the sale of property that we had a few years ago before my time I believe and so that's been there and then we have our bond interest to help us pay down the debt that we incurred because of the construction projects we're

124almost there folks let me make sure I get my last slide oh I lost track let me get it here all right our annual fiscal reports I'm gonna probably put some iteration of this slide in every presentation just so you know the structure that we get on the uh the cycle of how we do these reports so today you are seeing the 2022-23 unaudited actuals um we've spoken about it but just to reiterate in December you will see the first interim report which will show what our actual expenditures are through the end of October based on what we projected in June it will be followed in March by our second interim and then we will get back to budget planning and ready to go in June and if needed we will get another 45 day

125revise as we go through that and so that is our our fiscal cycle and I am happy and open to answer any questions you may have about this exciting opportunity to close the books for 2020 to 23. I have a question Andy um thank you if I know there's luck that goes into this and it's it's really easy and it's small dollars by comparison and everything I'm just kind of curious uh two two aspects um we voted on a year year and a half ago facilitron and utilizing our our facilities and have we seen any variation or uptick in that small Revenue stream there's question number one yeah we have um what we've noticed is it's become way more efficient for our community members to be able to rent properties there's been small little bumps

126um you know because it's an adjustment period folks who just want to work with you directly and hand you the check um they they stress a little bit about it um I believe within a six month time period the last time I checked we were um we were about seventy thousand dollars that we had actually taken in so that's from January until June um and so we were looking really good there remember that our contract said that it was 10 or 10 000 was our fee that we paid for this so we are tracking to easily be able to recuperate those costs um we are not yet at the point where they projected we should be somewhere around 250 to 300 000 in rentals but it seems like almost every day I'm getting some type

127of rental request that's coming in and looking at so right now I think we're doing really well uh I believe maybe sometime late winter or early spring next year we'll be looking at our structure for fees and making sure it's comparable to other districts um so that we're not overcharging we're not under charging I think we've I mentioned that just briefly at the other one there but right now it's working out really well and you know I wish you know the A.D artola was still here but I think he's doing really well with it as well and so is our custodial supervisor it's been able to allow them to sync communication and provide services in a really positive way there's there's not as much unknown as there was before and then the other question um

128obviously with the Dutch Brothers doing so well and you know it's District doing property um and I know we won't see a revenue for them for some while as part of the lease but when does that when where does that show up as far as um is it unrestricted yeah it's unrestricted local okay um and we've actually already received our first check from them well uh yeah the lease was as soon as they opened so it was the first month of them opening they would give us a check the payment structure is beneficial for them in the first few years and then it has an escalator so it just keeps escalating up over the year time frame so right now the rent checks are good but they will be even better as we move into

129the future and so far I've only had small interactions with them but they are really excited about the location um the conversation had two days ago or maybe Friday was that it's exceeded their expectations in terms of traffic and flow in there to the point where they have a hard time finding parking for their employees in their own in the parking area so we'll be we'll be talking about how to support them um you know locally there to be able to help the business out which helps our community the out and helps our kids out right yep great great thank you Andy [Music] questions all right so this is up for approval tonight thank you for all the hard work on that I'll move to approve oh second student vote aye all in favor aye

130aye opposed abstentions motion carries we'll stick with you for one more we're almost done uh review and Adoption of resolution number 2024-05 regarding the Gan limit for 2023 24. another one of the yearly resolutions that we put forward and the intent here is is going back sometime almost before my time in the state of California um and it's it's designed to make sure that the state is maintaining expenditures in education and it dates back to 1978 1979 school year it does have escalators for inflation and for other factors there but essentially what it's saying is that the state at that time said we want to make sure that we're not lessening um spending for education so what we have to do each year is we have to be able to show our estimated and our

131actual expenditures and show what that we did not reduce based on all those inflationary things that go back what 40 some years ago what's interesting and I don't know enough about all this is if we don't spend enough then we can borrow from the state who spent more or other leas can share with the state so it because it's an overall State expenditure it's not just the Lea so we all make a part of it but we can borrow from someone who didn't spend enough or someone who spent too much to get that all that is to say is we met the Gan limit so yay right and this resolution establishes that we did so and the document that's also with it is part of our Sac submission so when I do any of our

132budget reports I have to submit this so you have this resolution that we're looking to approve tonight and then we have the supporting documentation that shows all the figures go along with it on assembly so again we're asking for you to approve this resolution 2020 2024-05 [Music] yeah public comments okay we'll bring that back for action I'll move to improve resolution 2024-05. yeah I'll second okay student vote I all in favor I I opposed abstentions motion carries 18.5 is approval of board policy 5116. School attendance boundaries presented by janelliott good evening um tonight I'm bringing back um revision to language and board policy 5116 which is related to School attendance boundaries it's a small revision which would allow siblings of students who are subject to overload due to lack of space at their home school

133to also be granted an overload in order to maintain families in the same Elementary School of enrollment um for to the extent possible and also based on space so I'm asking the board to consider this addition to the policy any questions is this um I'm sorry I don't know if we covered this before is this retroactive no it'd be going forward so at this point um it really would apply to students who are enrolling for the 24-25 school year any public comment on this all right we'll bring it back for an action I moved to approve board policy 5116. [Music] second student vote I all in favor aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries 18.6 is board policy administrative regulations 6172 gifted and talented student program presented by Amy Espinoza good evening um tonight I'm bringing

134back to you board policy and administrative regulation 6172 gifted and talented student programs as you recall at the last meeting I talked about prior to 2008 where we tested to determine eligibility I shared that at that point in time elementary students had after school programs middle school students had gate history and advanced math high school students had AP and honors and to get into those types of programs you were tested to determine your eligibility and or at the high school level you also needed teacher recommendation to participate and then currently participation is not based on test scores or program status we offer differentiated instruction across all three levels and including accelerated math advanced math at the middle school and then AP honors and dual enrollment at the high school and to participate currently we are

135not requiring any tests or teacher recommendation to participate in those programs and so tonight I'm asking for approval to remove the BP and AR 6172 ensuring that our policy and practices are in alignment thank you and thank you for I think this is really nice and succinct and I really appreciate that based on all of our questions last time so thank you for presenting again but are there any additional questions any public comments right we'll bring that back for action I make a motion to approve board policy administrative regulations 6172 um to remove that second student vote I all in favor aye opposed abstentions motion carries and that brings us to approval of board policy it's this is an exhibit being added to 13 12.2 and Dr escudero will present so I'm bringing back uh

136for your approval exhibit 131 2.3 uh community relations and specifically this is an update to the uniform complaint procedure to make it more user-friendly and understandable for our parents and I would ask for the board's approval on this update yeah any questions on that public comment bringing it back for approval and I'll go ahead and move to approve the update of board policy exhibit 1312.3 seconded student vote aye all in favor aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries 19 we don't need because we did not run out of time for public comment 20 is comments from the superintendent board members and future agenda items and things I don't remember where I started last time but I think it was over here so Marathon do you have anything to add tonight all right uh just wanted to

137share or share that uh Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15th through October 15th and I want to thank the schools that are actually uh doing events to recognize Hispanic heritage in our district um I heard in the student comments that there are several schools that are doing things to celebrate that this month um and I also wanted to thank um Helen and the board in the in the cabinet for the transparency in the parent Square the websites I'm sorry the emails from the principles of all the information that has been going out I've been reading about job positions all the events coming up so the information is very easy to access and I'm really loving how user-friendly and how much information we're able to deliver to our families and students so thank you for that

138[Music] just wanted to say um 22nd anniversary of September 11th attack so it's just um remember that day nothing for me come on I'm just gonna say two things with the influx of parent Square information and transparency I told Annie today I'm having a hard time writing the superintendent's newsletter because as soon as I blast them put something in there that says Las Fuentes did this or Morello parked that this their principal's putting it out and I'm like delete delete so it's taken me about five days and I still have nothing so I'm going to try to put a new Twist on the superintendent's newsletter and um today we had a um our first negotiation session with mea um bargaining team and I think overall things went well and um looking forward to moving forward

139and getting things settled and wrapped up during the next few months or so well with that I think if it's okay with everyone per Tanya's comment we can adjourn in honor of all those lights lost on September 11th and we will see you back in two weeks