001it's my microphone okay just want to welcome everybody back to our meeting i want to apologize to the folks who are watching [Music] of closed ship session a closed session on a motion by members of buenza being taken by martin board voted for zero caroline to the position and with that we will move on to the pledge of allegiance [Applause] i pledge allegiance to the heart of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice [Applause] um that will move on to approval of the agenda i don't think there are anything for our agenda um [Music] regular meeting of october uh [Music] passes the school reports for the october 25th 2021 regular board meeting are as follows last week [Music] upcoming events
002the halloween parade is at 8 30 a.m on october 29th john muirs highlights a big thank you to jmepta for hosting a successful trump recruit for our the classes were also able to get involved in community building by creating a scarecrow in conjunction with a gmea parents volunteer for their classrooms jme is focused on building fair tier teachers are teaching lessons about trustworthiness and recognizing students that are showing these traits jmu would like to give a big thanks to our special guest coach who shared with our elac committee her leadership and key experiences to school success upcoming events annual halloween parade is friday october 29th starting at 8 45 a.m and thursday november 4th is the rock steady jumbling virtual assembly john sweats highlights second grade held a place value party place value [Music] the
003kids enjoy a special day celebrating all they have learned about police values so far this year fifth grade students got a shout out at the san francisco public private condition meeting in an appreciation for students enthusiasm in the jacqueline woodson event fourth graders have been doing hands-on science creating their own crystals upcoming events virtual pta meeting on tuesday november 9th at 7pm park ahead congratulations to the following classes for earning the first eagle fight awards for positive behavior [Music] participation in first and fifth grades way to go eagles mte fourth graders organized clothing and soft drive for their homeless after reading the book harvest [Music] m-p-e-p-t-a trump retreat event last saturday thank you pga upcoming events the red ribbon spirit week dressing days are october 25th to october 29th and on october 29th at 8
00415 a.m with the whole new parade for students and staff martinez junior high highlighting a huge shout out to our 518 bullpups who earned honorable for the first quarter we are still proud of our students hard work and dedication and commitment to their academics congrats to the seventh grade girls volleyball team for attention in second place at this year's league tournament it was only the second time [Music] whose beautiful artwork was selected by the contra costa fire prevention district as an honorable mention for the fire prevention week art contest upcoming events this week marks nvhs fall spirit week where students are invited to join in on monday fall into a different decade of the past tuesday fall into your favorite worker movies wednesday fall into the final enjoy the fall fun in the fall after
005school until 3 pm thursday fall into your beloved culture and heritage friday fall into halloween join ptsa on thursday october 28th for the fall harvest fest at nvhs from 4 to 6 pm the fun will include pumpkin patch fall fun and mr salty alhambra high school's highlight for you club day was wednesday students were able to learn more about various clubs on campus to join those that are without interest in them the alternative marching band was one of forty bands competing in senate first on up to october 16 placing eighth near division upcoming events thursday and friday there will be a haunted house during lunch tuesday november 2nd there will be a diabetes music celebration at lunch martinez adults another student completed their high school diplomacy our cte coordinator bruno salvon presented information at the
006de lac meeting about a new basic computer class in spanish for parents that will begin in late january upcoming events thursday october 28th from 5 30 to 7 p.m martinez adult education partnership with diablo valley college is hosting a virtual trades tonight eight local apprenticeship programs will possess career opportunities and trades eight internships continue with new employer tlc justin gates we have agenda item number 11 employee organization reports good evening a large part of their day to day in the dark attempting to instruct students about devices with materials needed hold up in classrooms that lack proper ventilation infiltration [Music] due to the lack of electricity parents arriving to pick up their children around [Music] with students leaving classrooms and boards teachers looking for direction and leadership from administration had no confidence that there was a
007safety plan being followed in the words of educators at mjhs today was the worst management of a crisis we have ever seen another educator expressed keeping the schools open today was not in the best interest of anyone we do not have any value we are expendable although the power outage was not something that could be controlled martinez unified school district had plenty of advanced warning that a record-breaking bomb cyclone was going to hit the bay area yet there appeared to be no preparatory plans in place to deal with the obvious effects of such a storm like flooding and power outages leaving everyone scrambling at the last minute martinez unified school district also knows that we're in the middle of a global pandemic in august the district agreed to an mou meant to protect those students
008and employees the section on ventilation in part states air filters rated mirv 13 and above have been installed to ensure optimal air quality for rooms with no ventilation or where ventilation is provided only by drawing outside air in and small spaces air purifiers will be provided by the district no unit member shall be required to work for proper ventilation is not possible musd violated that mou today when the staff was required to remain at schools filled with students in inclement weather and were instructed by non-operational gmail to open their doors and windows while teaching in the dark without ventilation or air purifiers what is the point of negotiations when musd just ignores the documents it signs we have now had several breakthrough infections of fully vaccinated staff the district sent a message loud and clear
009today about their lack of concern for the safety of students and staff since the fall of 2021 school year the district has continually violated our cba showing no regard for its employees they have emphasized their indifference to educators by ignoring their right to eat lunch use the restroom use by breaking the code and by not returning emails on a mass scale being a union leader has become a full-time job as mea members having tried to get their questions answered and having been ignored for weeks seeks out they need answers about credentialing bereavement leads childbirth leaves child bonding leaves covert leads paycheck issues safety protocols and the list goes on these are questions that should be answered by the district office but instead people are ignored union leadership is ignored the message is loud and clear
010to educators they are not cared about their needs will not be taken seriously and they are expendable how sad which brings me to my next point over the past four years the amount of the budget for teachers salaries has declined steadily from approximately 42 percent of the budget in 2016 to 36 percent of the total budget that is a six percent decline in a now 50 million dollar budget to think of that another way three million dollars that should have been spent on members salary but hasn't that is enough to give every educator a 15 percent raise since the budget is merely a statement of priorities the message is loud and clear to educators we are not important in the eyes of martinez unified school district because martinez does not pay a competitive wage to
011its educators we have lost countless members to other districts other districts who have found it possible to pay their employees more much more yet martinez unified school district does not seem to have any urgency in negotiating with its unions the district has cancelled both dates scheduled in october and has not made a genuine offer of alternate dates in which to come to the table other than november 8th we are now the lowest paid educators in the county in fact a new teacher can go to john sweat unified in a different county which by the way did close their schools today and make five thousand dollars more a year or go to vacaville and make two thousand seven hundred dollars more a year where the cost of living is substantially lower once it back a bill
012a mid-career educator can expect to make ten thousand dollars more than in martinez as can an end of career educator both the lcap and district goals focus on attracting hiring and maintaining high quality educators this is a disingenuous ideology made of hollow promises to the educators and the community of martinez it is true that we are in a teacher shortage but how can paying the lowest wages be an attempt to attract hire and retain people in martinez and it is our students their families in our community who are the ones who are suffering educators can and will find jobs elsewhere but that leaves our schools and our students with a parade of substitutes or not in classes [Music] that have no assigned teachers in classes where a supervised computer program instructs where there's a lack
013of academic counselors to help with the need for information and support that our junior high and high school students require and a revolving door of sped educators for our students who need consistency and stability to meet their needs and what message does this send to our community a community who has consistently voted to renovate our schools and support our programs through their generosity and willingness to pay extra taxes our businesses who have supported us via mef foundation and our parents commitment to each site with an active pta that earns money to augment our programs we are increasingly concerned about the direction that our district is headed there has been a mass exodus of educators and exodus that will continue as job fairs are held in the upcoming months and employees leave for greener much lusher
014pastures it is time for the board to direct the district to treat its employees with respect to always bear their safety in mind to negotiate in good faith with mea and to offer a competitive salary one that will work to retain the educators that we have not send them to other districts thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you brenda stephanie i assume you're in yours okay um so we'll move on to agenda item number 12 comments from pta is okay have the right to address the board on any matter within the board's jurisdiction however the board may not take action on any non-agenda items individual speakers will be allowed three minutes to address before 20 minutes have been allocated for this portion of the agenda additional time is allowed at the end of the meeting if
015there was not enough time [Applause] good evening um but today was totally unacceptable um we should invest in technology because today's school should have been cancelled and we should have deployed virtual learning it was really simple nobody has to be an educator to know this would have been the value tired that after 19 months we and i'm emergency still don't know how to operate in a pandemic and we don't know how to deploy emergency procedures for everyone's well-being we're going to have fire outages we're going to have rolling blackouts this isn't going away so please get with the program the superintendent for these emergencies i don't know who learned today but it was disruptive to all parents and last but not least um again please look at your budget this is so disturbing all of
016us who are at home for 19 months with our children and our professionals in other fields understand how difficult it is to educate please look at your budget and make your priorities to give these teachers a raise and allocate and negotiate in good faith this is getting ridiculous and also and lastly we have an election next year and if you all can't do your job and bring some leadership here i think it's time for some new board members [Applause] good evening um [Music] who um oh is not something that i stand for as well but in any case he felt he protected his friend and my son shouldn't be feeling like he is um [Music] yes um and i where something like something like that happens there needs to be something that happens evenly across
017the world i apologize for mispronouncing your name no problem thank you spent the day at the junior high and was very disappointed in the lack of leadership and i don't believe it was from our principal and vice principals i think it was from the district office and standing on the steps instead of walking into the dark building at 7 30 i think within five minutes we had already decided on a plan that would work best and that would be the distance learning for the day and but the kids were told to still come get out of their cars and come in um the building was dark the hallways are dark the stairway is dark um it had been raining it was dangerous um there's an mou about the filtration and ventilation system and honestly you
018lied you lied to the parents that everything was okay today you lied to all the staff and you lied to the students it wasn't okay there's a reason for the mou and to break it is not okay we can't break it the teachers the staff can't break the mou if we had done what i wanted to do today we would have all walked off but we can't do that and then there's no consequence for the district office breaking the mou nothing no big deal we're expendable literally expendable [Music] hi good evening i'm usd board member my name is tracy york and this is my eighth year serving as a library media assistant and i'm approaching my 10th year overall with the district i've held the lma position solely for six years at las vegas elementary
019and due to budget reductions back in march of 2020 i am currently in my second year split between three sites weekly two days at la juntas two days at john muir and one day at mjhs aside from having a split schedule i also lost nine working days within the school year at both elementary sites i am the only lma serving 310 students 16 classes at la suntis and over 410 students 19 classes at john muir elementary that's over 720 students i see personally at the elementary level below prior to budget reductions my schedule consisted of 25 hours a week at las ventes and even given and even with the time given i still work well beyond my contracted hours now i am expected to run not only one but two sites see double the amount
020of students for a fraction of the time and yet at the same pay bottom line the district does not provide me with sufficient time to perform my job duties in which they require this is not only unfair to myself but more importantly to these students both of my sites are title one schools both would have a high population of english second language learners both of which recently received 30 plus million dollar campus replacements both in which their libraries sit empty more than 60 percent of the time prior to reduction student act students accessed the library weekly with their class and had an additional opportunity to visit weekly for lunch giving students access to the library three to four days per week now students visit the library two days a month with holidays approaching um in
021my restricted time there some classes that john muir will i will only see once in the month of october and only 12 work days at john muir over 1800 books have been checked out i've worked countless days over my contracted hours all unpaid so i can perform my daily duties i've been employed for the district again for almost 10 years and as much as i don't want to leave for another district you're really giving me no choice i love these jobs i love my job and i love these students and this and only this is the reason i continue to stay prior to covet in the transition to distance learning many students were struggling to read at grade level and now with the learning loss that has taken place many are even further behind and
022yet we're cutting the services that need most and for many students the library is their only access to reading materials this past year perez were reinstated to full-time technology specialists were brought back full-time and i asked where does that leave us the lma's within the district three of the six lma positions were cut and not a single one has been reinstated with the millions we received from covid i asked how does that help support students we talk about fostering a love for reading and being lifelong learners well that begins at the elementary level and even prior i came across a quote recently that really resonated with me what a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education thank you [Applause] a member of the board or the superintendent request
023for any [Laughter] the water have any questions about item 15. comment on this agenda item vanessa [Laughter] and specifically watching um my mind okay um we'll bring it back to the board for action okay authority um tim hill said am i granting you last name right now okay um be valuable to not see a number of projects and programs that we're working on relative to transportation here across the county thank you so much transportation authority is a voter approved agency that basically oversees congestion and transportation many times across the county uh it generates about 2.7 billion dollars in the life of measure for transferring okay anything this is in 2004 and we've been able to do this successfully through the entire program 4.2 million dollars just refinanced our bonds this year and so we've been
024looking at a proactive approach using a safe systems design working with all of the nineteen local jurisdictions [Music] we have to start thinking about ways to optimize our transit network as well as kind of taking the transit forward by redesigning our streets and re-prioritizing their streets for more uh more safer walking and body games dedicated transit lanes as well as moving to zero mission admissions to meet our greenhouse gas goals and clean our air for our communities so speaking about community here we also are focused on reducing vehicle miles traveling around across the county and so we are developing the first of its kind in the stadium fighting transit projects trail projects to help be able to promote people moving out of their cars into other modes of transportation with a huge onset of electric
025vehicles contra costa county is actually in the top 10 counties in the state for electric vehicle adoption and so to keep up with that rate of adoption we need to um invest into our level of electric vehicle charging so we developed this ev readiness plan to really help provide the road map and framework in terms of the investment needed to keep up with that rate of growth we're really proud of this study um it's available on our website actually outlays all of the electric vehicle charging that's really needed for coming across the county and the needs and demands on the power grid we're also focusing disabled communities in contra costa county really promoting mobility for all making sure everyone has the ability to get around in contract county so we developed an accessible transportation strategic
026plan and we're looking at we're implementing this right now under our task force and really looking for new funding as well as ways to make parent transit and disabled services more efficient uh more seamless um across the entire county next slide please we're documenting every year we have to document this every four to five years with the documented this in the counterweight transportation development and the county-wide transportation plan really outsets the goals of the ctp of the county and really the framework and we're working on this right now this is an opportunity for the community as well and since martinez is obviously next to the 680 core certified 680 core i thought it'd be really important to kind of hear what we're doing along our innovation program this is a seven-pronged approach developing projects to
027basically develop a better integrated transportation system along the succeeding and last time more connectivity and better connectivity along our local roads to get to the highway system but also have better connections to things like your mobility hubs and better and personalized mobility options consumption so this is kind of our vision of what the 15th corridor could look as well as vehicles making sure people are able to the infrastructure and the vehicles are able to communicate in real time so we can keep those vision those vehicles between each other to avoid collisions avoid near misses um as we're kind of operating the highway system and encountering is actually operates the highway system cctv how to move people more efficiently in our local road system so we're developing a county-wide smart signal and a consistent signal program
028and that program has really had a leveraged technology to avoid those near misses and to help our vision zero goals with walking and biking so that way most people most people are now driving connected vehicles and so it's our ability to be able to communicate that to the driver or to the bicyclist or mobile lab but also making sure that we are able to prioritize for our transit cars for emergency network make sure vehicles comes this is actually a video which i can play with but um this video is kind of marketing of whatever building hub looks like it really provides a suite of personalized mobility options so that way you can have these network assurances mobility options so you can access the transportation network so the idea is really bringing transportation to the people
029rather than people having to trying to find transportation for bringing goes to martinez amtrak station they connect with all every car full under canyon parking ride you can visit range all the way down the dublin bar what's important about that is the two markets together between between walmart and dublin as well as the two training systems basically the eighth pleasant to journey in the amtrak station um in martinez all of us through a mobility on demand or mobility service platform so it's kind of hard to see but the top part is and you'll received access to a number of mobility options whether that be uh car sharing on-demand shuttles on-demand transit potentially direct integration and links with uh tnc transportation network companies like us is [Music] oh is [Applause] we're also looking at first um
030what i think we're really proud of is really supporting workforce and workforce development the future um is it really starts promoting education around being aware learning how to cross roads and starting to learn and then you go into heads up which is uh and martinez has been doing a really good job of using this school program that's how to on campus using a bike blender we also give away free helmets we also provide more promotional materials education materials and really help with in classroom activities as part of our middle school program next slide in our high school program partnering with the csp start smart program to really help them understand students how to learn the rules this is actually the number of for schools and this is the number of assemblies that we've held um
031the inception of the program in 2012 until now in 2021 and we also have a number um but also we have a winter walk challenge a number of programs that promote youth and families to use their bodies and that concludes my presentation um thank you for joining us tonight and giving us this presentation and telling us about your school outreach programs i think one of the one of the questions he added comments he had was what would our company like to see as far as transportation improvements and what i would throw out is as ccta is working with steve martinez on transportation routes near schools and everybody would like either improvements for crosswalks whether it's additional lighting just to make our students more visible in those crosswalks and make those process safer for that it's
032kind of like my two cents on it does any other board member have any questions hi tim thanks thanks for coming down that was really interesting and thanks for everything you're doing i actually recently took a survey from cc from ccta so i knew you were doing some exciting things similar comments to jeremy but one of the projects that i'm really interested in working on as a board member is i've been reached evelyn the parents have reached me that they're having difficulty getting their kids to school we don't unfortunately have school buses in our district which is unfortunate because some parents have trouble getting their kids to and from school but i also think that buses would cut down on the idling and the uh and then drop off and pick up one that's not
033been from the environment information yeah there's a lot of different fun sources in transportation um particularly in the transit world so county connection is your training operator here and they have a number of fun sources so measured [Music] we are actually working under a voter approved transaction venture plan and as part of that expenditure plan um i hate to say that there's actually no funding for school business programs in central county um um but certainly i can talk to the county county connection general manager and see what we can do about some sort of school bus program it has been a hot topic for many many years in fact your city in central um working with county connection or even providing some sort of private house service but that's kind of the second product in
034terms of the school bus program right now okay is um or what's the best course of action for us there is an 18 return to source funding that goes to each of the cities based on population as well as length of roads in each of the jurisdictions and so that's an opportunity where you can work with martinez those are flexible dollars and planes go to get appropriated to the cities on financial races every two years um but also working directly with cctv like member of ryan has indicated just providing some opportunity on priorities what you're looking for um there's obviously martinez would probably compete well compete well in the race safety improvement programming funding you could particularly look at in terms of private schools there's also a thing across the school program at the state
035level so there's a lot of different grant opportunities um that's what i encourage either you talking about with the city as well as and encourage the city to prioritize those projects and grants towards these sources around the schools as well and then we're obviously here to help as a resource with the city to help them you know either review or guide them on the brand development as it related to some of these projects thank you questions from the board comment on this agenda we've been going about an hour now we'll take our quick little break minutes okay we'll get started again folks 16.2 which is a presentation regarding trustee area um feedback so we're going to go a little bit lower good evening everyone uh mentioned my name is william tunic i'm an attorney with
036dana paul over kelly and i've actually i think i've got uh josh here justism with popular strategies on speakerphone so if there's any questions tonight uh that we need uh his assistants will still be able to assist as well uh as the superintendent mentioned we're here today to talk about uh the impact of the 2020 census and the potential need to redistrict the district's trustee areas which are used for board elections i was looking i was here three years ago i think when the board went through the process of creating trusty areas i know there's a few new faces on the board so just real quickly when the board made that transition from at-large to trusty area uh elections a couple years ago a few years ago the meat of that process really is the
037development of the boundaries of the trustee areas the five geographic subdivisions from which each trustee is elected and that the voters of that area are the one that elect the trustee for that seat when the district went through that process it was using the data that it had at the time primarily the 2010 census data because this was obviously before 2020. there's a requirement in the law that we'll talk about that says when new census data is released all agencies that have in all school districts that have trustee area elections which are a lot more now than 10 years ago have to take a look at those trustee areas and ensure that they're still population balanced now that we have that new information and so i think the superintendent talked to you a little bit
038about this before that's what this process is about and tonight's presentation is talking about what what it looks like when we take the 2020 census data look at your current trustee areas what is the observations recommendations and potential next steps for the board so with that if it's working perfect um so as i mentioned the 2020 census data was released it was released much later than was was hoped obviously a lot of things happened last year so it came out in september of this year what it shows for the district is overall a growth of a little under eight percent total and this is total population so everyone counted by the census you can also see there at the bottom of the slide that's a breakdown of the change in population by trustee area so
039which which you'll probably notice pretty quickly there is generally growth across the district except for the area in trustee area 2 which is pretty much stagnant and then substantial more growth in areas 3 and 4. so that's that's the change in population again from 2020 to uh or excuse me from 2010 to 2020 and so that's what we'll be looking at tonight as far as how that impacts the trustee area balances just uh by way of a little bit more information from the data this is the breakdown of the district's demographics which did change a little bit from 2010 but not significantly enough really to impact the maps uh again as you can see about 60 percent white 20 hispanic latino uh the next group after that being asian at about eight percent as well
040so not there was some change latino numbers did go up but not significantly enough like i mentioned to affect the maps and this one and probably i think the board on the screen over here might be a little bit easier to see what this is showing is the um uh percentage of individuals and this is a voting age citizens in each census block that identified as hispanic or latino and while we're looking at this map is under federal law if there's a concentration of protected class voters where we can draw an area where they would they trust the area where they would become out as a majority of that area that's something under federal law we have to look at for the most part again as i mentioned when we did this originally and now
041looking at it again that's still the disbursement essentially of latino voters and really the number make that first sentence they voted they should say citizen voting age population really don't make that possible i know you can see i'll use my little pointer here maybe there's that one area that's that's dark there off to the left because these are percentage based what those are those are areas that have very little population numbers and so it doesn't take much for the percentages to get very high that is not actually numerically very large so again something we looked at last time we looked at it again no real change as far as the ability to draw uh would be easier to pick up here these are the current trustee areas that the district has again you can see
042uh area one is in yellow there which is kind of the western part of the district area two in green the north uh three is the red sort of in the middle off the east there four being in blue on the east and then five in purple the south so that's those are the areas that were drawn when the board went through this process originally so what we did or actually what i should say we did what the demographer did with cooperative strategies was take these trusty areas and the data from the 20 20 20 20 census to see what we have and this is essentially the results of that analysis so let me walk through what we're looking at here across the top line we have the total population of the district that's 31
043little less than a little more than 31 000. so to come up with the ideal trustee area size we take that number and divide by five so that gets us to about 60 200. the total variance i'm gonna let me come back to that in a minute i'll explain what that number is the chart below shows for each trustee area two two columns of data one tp is total population again that's everyone who's counted by the census the second column is citizen voting age population and that number is important because that's what we use to look at whether or not it's possible to have a majority minority area that's what the courts have defined as the democrat or the information you use to make that determination so what you can see really the most important
044two columns here that we're looking at are those first two the population and the population variance the population is pretty self-explanatory that's the number of people counted by the census in each trustee area what the variance is is the difference between that number and the ideal right so area trustee area one for example is two percent over what would be the ideal trustee area size because the area 2 is 5.6 below that number and then you can see as we go across so looking at that which you can probably see pretty quickly is areas 2 uh and four are kind of the ones that are the outliers area one a little bit less so three and five are pretty much right on so now you've probably figured out by this point that if you take
045the difference between the negative 5.6 and area two and the over three point seven percent area four and add those together with a little bit of rounding uh you get to that total variance number of nine point four so that's what 9.4 is telling you the difference between the least populous and the most populous trustee area using the 2020 census data and that's the number that for purposes of this analysis is the most important because what the ed curve says is when a board takes a look at this they should make adjustments to i think that the code actually uses the term um making them eq population equal as as near as may be i think is the actual term in the code generally speaking under federal law when we draw areas we try to
046keep that i'm 10 as a bright line we like to get it closer to 5 percent i think when the board adopted the maps it looks like it was about 4 is my recollection so i think the idea would be we'd probably be recommending that we try to make some changes to get those numbers that nine point four closer in the range of five something in that area and if i can actually go back one slide what what we're essentially looking at is area two which is the green area which is up here that's the area that's under so that means that in order to balance population that area needs to grow the two areas that are actually uh high in population are the blue which is just the area of uh four right here
047and then trusty area one which is over here in the yellow uh unfortunately those both touch so that it actually makes the adjustments relatively simple we can take from a trusty area that is high in population and move to a trusty area that's low in population that balances it out without having to move everybody around this is the idea here is simply to make some changes really around the edges not really supposed but to make changes at the edges to bring us as close to the compliance and those would probably be the areas we'd be looking at um again probably up to the east side uh before maybe that little part of trusty area one the yellow that kind of gets closer to area three you can kind of see where there might be an
048easy way to get some more population there so that isn't to say necessarily there's a right or wrong way to do it but just kind of looking at these based on uh this chart if you wanted to get that 9.4 down closer to fox so as far as the actual process for making those changes as um by i know the one board member who was here would remember when the board went through this process originally there was a lot of required process there were five public hearings that the board went through public outreach uh approval from the county committee on school district organization and actually a waiver from the state board of education you needed all of those things to go through this process is an exception to those requirements so this is done solely
049at the board level uh it's pretty much up to the board flexibility wise how you wanna how you want to handle this process and like i mentioned because this is really intended at making those minimal changes just to adjust what's there there's not as much so that being said um the board could come at this a couple ways and we've actually got a proposed timeline if the board would like to go forward with making those changes these are the considerations that the demographer and working with myself and staff to be looking at and making those changes again given how minimal the changes are not a lot of these are going to come into kind of really come into effect because you're going to be pretty much went to trust in the first place in other
050words current board members stay on the board there's no impact on any current terms if any of the changes uh were to impact which trustee area trustees lived in those chambers yeah which trustee areas they were living in those changes don't happen for the next election um again given the sort of the minimal nature of the changes we're talking about that probably is not going to be an issue but i just wanted to make that clear that it's not something that happens you don't make the change today and there's a change over the next couple elections finally as far as a draft timeline and again this is a draft because as i mentioned it's up to the board if and how the changes are made but one way to do it would be uh if
051we receive direction tonight for the demographer to perhaps a prepare options on how to make changes to bring that population variance down those would come back to the board on november 8th for review if there is agreement at that point or consensus among the board over one of the initial options we can actually come back in november and adopt it if there's need for additional revisions those could come back in the second november meeting we can talk about that and then you could have final adoption in january there is a deadline for this process to be completed by march one of next year but there's also if we can get it done earlier there's there's no downside to that so um i've done my best to cover josh's slides i'm sure he'll correct me if
052i missed anything i'm gonna bring him to all my presentations um just just record that piece yeah yeah just that piece okay thanks you can go um but uh yeah don't say that until you hear the question so yeah if there's any questions um i'd be happy to answer them or uh or josh could just compliment my job do you have any questions from the board i guess what is the estimated cost to get us from you i'm know to remember so the the the contract uh the contract the board has with uh cooperative strategies was done in two parts there was uh i think it was about four or five thousand for this initial phase and i think the second phase is about ten thousand my guess is rough about i think i'd have
053to actually look at the contracts is acceptable can you go back to the map with the colors yes thank you okay so the blue area which is area four is the one that is that that needs to you recommend this is some population correct yes it's three point seven percent okay and which one is the area two which is the green so just to the north of it okay that was my only question thank you so you would you would add population to green exactly so we would take a population uh likely from area four maybe from area of one to follow from area four and move it into green because that will reduce trust areas that are overpopulated it [Music] as far as looking at the trustee areas i think the the interactive map
054on the district website as well so you can actually zoom in and see yeah no i'm working on that right now but some of the numbers that you have any other special comments on the board any public comments on the sergeant adam anna-marie um i just want to refresh everyone's memory that when these maps were first adopted uh they were not fit uh begrudgingly from some board members that are no longer here and so i don't think this is necessarily the right template to start from um i also for the consultant to really consider that we need to find a community of color and an interest in this map given the fact that nearly 30 and so i think we need to create more geographic neighborhood as we identify in martinez and the northwest area
055is not correct and so i really would encourage the consultant and the board to look at these maps because um this is not the place we want to start from and we also need to bring equity to this because it is not done through the lens effectively the last line and then finally um um that we will be watching this process carefully as a community to make sure these maps are going but there's also the county board of education oversight of this so they're legal and the community oversight so i hope that you really take apart my words that you re-look at these maps and draw them equitably and we should not have gerrymandered maps for incumbent protection um and possibly also reach out to the city of martinez who has an independent districting commission
056and see how that works i know we go over into areas that martinez does not cover that i think the closest we can all mirror that i think would be beneficial for the city and its residents as we try to figure out what districts so i i hope you take apart my comments tonight um because i don't think that that first wave was done properly and we shouldn't have districts that go from um downtown to south of highway 4. very different geographic demographics and i don't think it does and lastly um as a professional i think you guys should all give the professional courtesy to your constituents but when you're speaking thank you you three on this side that people will save eye contact with the knowledge but i think it's really disrespectful that you
057don't take the time to look at and hear our comments and yes that goes to detroit you as the voice present it's really rude i've watched you do this to all your constituents as we all speak any other questions or comments before we close this one think you mentioned up that you weren't able to identify a latino or a hispanic neighborhood as if if we asked for how that population was dispersed on the maps is that so yeah i think this is the map and and i want to i want to make one distinction but there is one thing that comes up sometimes in this discussion which is the distinction between the district student population the district's population that's counted by the census and then citizen voting each population those are all three different statistics
058sometimes they look the same most the time they don't as a matter of fact i think if we go back this just gives you just kind of a little bit of a hint you could see there the change between total population and even if we just get to 18 and over you can see that it starts to shift a little bit from latino to white um and then when we go to citizen voting age population you can see it drop shift even further to 14 to 74. so what we're looking at here which is what the courts tell us we have to look at the purposes of determining the majority minority area is that citizen voting age population and again hispanic latino voters are but there isn't that concentration and really numerically i think what
0593000 you pretty much have to have almost all those loaders in one trusty area in order to get 50 percent of an area because your idea was 6200 right so it unfortunately doesn't work and you know anyway so that's the answer there i don't know josh do you have anything else to add about that if you heard the i think the question was kind of about being able to identify those communities yeah that's the challenge [Music] um minority trustee area uh there's um community american community survey survey data that's something else that's run by the census they update that as well on an annual basis so that information is think in some places if you know there's going to be a lot of growth population wise so there's a lot of subdivisions or infill or
060something like that happening some districts will make the population of that area slightly under still within enrollment is kind of hard to tie directly to the population directly what i've noticed on our maps is that some of the areas are very compact and that some of them are very spread out is is there a reason why or can you tell me a little bit about the history of that sure the answer is population so um the the areas have to be population balance or what you'll almost always see unless you're in a district that's completely urban where density is equal throughout you'll tend to see districts that are geographically much different sizes because if you get into areas that are lower density by population geographically those areas will get a lot bigger so that's what
061you're seeing um areas is there a reason we can't get this projection to look like that yeah that frequency device is completely different and that's the old device that is a lot brighter and we were we are in the process of i think that's all for now i'm sure future meeting but thank you so much for your time um [Music] i am one of the assistant principals over at the junior high um as well as a former teacher at our homework high school so i'm here tonight with dr senora to kind of give an update um and a recap of kind of the journey of racial and social justice working down in the district um the last presentation was in february um to the board and so you'll notice some similarities some kind of things
062that again are a recap and then kind of some updates so first up on the screen here we have right our usd commitment a commitment to ensure that we honor include and with all voices in our community um as well as build resources provide opportunities for all of our stakeholders ranging from staff to students to families our community to have the tools to not only identify but also to interrupt racism and social injustice in looking at this commitment and how does commitment become practice and through the lcap process so the local control and accountability plan right where the district does this work meets with stakeholders identifies what are the major goals in this district where are our focus areas and how will we go about doing so i will acknowledge that's a lot of writing
063on the screen i broke the cardinal rule of making digestible information but i felt like it was important to quote directly and exactly as it's written in the l cap so as a summary right l-cap goal number five is shedding the light and focusing on the need to build relationships in terms of building a positive learning environment with a focus on fostering anti-racist and social justice policies and procedures when you look at the why what is the reasoning behind this goal and why is it important why is this something that should be a focus for this next lcap plan is looking at our data if you look at our data historically you'll see that there has been an imbalance or a discrepancy between not only uh attendance but suspension academic uh achievement and performance amongst
064our black and african-american community our latino hispanic students and really kind of this piece around connectedness to the community and connectedness to being seen um and so working right i think looking at serious um not just you know statistical data but also student self um reflection in terms of the california healthy kids survey where there are many questions that ask about how are you being connected what relationships are you fostering what is kind of you know it kind of covers a wide range of things but in their seeing that there is this thread of a need of more focus and support across the board so again really reflecting on how does this become practice and how do we frame it um really working with dr watson around some of these guiding questions how do we
065take a commitment how do we take a goal but how do we have pillars that we stand on what are the questions that we must reflect on uh to make this work happen and so here you'll see kind of four overarching questions that we consider when doing this work how do we all step forward community show up for all of our students where they feel a sense of belonging what are the inequities that show up in our district what are we seeing what are we not seeing how do we address these inequities and then how do we disrupt our current inevitable practices and the consideration there is where do all of our students see themselves represented you'll see me kind of talk about this a little bit more but what stories are being told what
066main characters are in books that are students are reading what is the narrative that is out there so again a big charge with these guiding questions um and pillars for us and so again how do we make this happen how do we propel this work forward how do we keep the momentum and the work happening and i think it really comes to the focus of purposeful planning how do we build a system that is not just for a year but what is sustainable how does this uh work expand and extend how does this work remain central to everything that we do each day for our community and our students so here you'll kind of see a couple of guiding um pieces right on ongoing multi-year training and support um you know i think we live
067in a world of education where we feel like bring in the trainer and everybody's got it after a year everybody see you later good luck keep it going right but really this work is central and it is in um just embedded in everything that we do each day and the training and the learning that needs to happen is very deep not only in our own growth and our own identification but then how does this extend to our community and our students um also looking at what are multiple opportunities to engage our staff and you'll see me talk about this a little bit right but last year we did a fall kickoff for all staff members um logged in it was a part of a professional development day and then from there opportunities to engage deeper
068in the work and here is really where um dr watson has kind of given us the guidance and looking to her as a professional looking to her as who does this work across communities who has lived and breathed this work for so long um is you know really um starting with those who are ready those who are ready to engage in this work those who are on a volunteer basis saying this is something i'm committing to learning and then from there you'll see where the plan is to scale um but so again we'll talk opportunities for our staff to engage um offering um we called them elevation a transformation cohort these were um basically two three-day training sessions with dr watson in a small group um and really kind of starting to dive into topics
069of like what is our own learning how do we see ourselves what is the community that we work in um and as well as building out um supporting our families what are the resources that are available to our families and talking about race talking to their children even their own learning and they think this is something that um in in my other hat that i wear at the uh at the junior high i um facilitate the elac meetings and this was a big topic last year parents wanting to support parents wanting the resources parents wanting to have these conversations with their students but wanting to know where to start um as well as right again this idea of training our staff right if we are um building the system it starts with us right and
070who um who is our staff and how does our staff engage in this work what is their own learning that needs to happen but also and then to turn it back into our students and then again just kind of referring back to the elf hack where you'll see the goal written out and then some more specific actions so again really trying to be purposeful about how do we build a sustainable system to keep um the learning happening but also like the boots to the ground work that needs to happen and addressing the inequities across the world so again a lot of writing but where have we been um where are we going i will say that this is kind of a pretty truncated and streamlined um summary of what's been happening since july of 2020
071for a more kind of maybe a little cleaner to the palette um uh you can refer back to the board presentation in february it's actually linked onto this presentation as well but starting in july of 2020 right starting with that board resolution a commitment um to this work and then ranging from the racial equity committee to community meetings the partnership and the development with dr laurie watson um and also a recommendation from dr watson to our administrators um working with deborah mcknight who does more of the leadership focus of this work um and building leadership capacity to make this work happen the launch of our trainings for our staff the parent series and ac which is the admin council which again is all of our administrators um the website we made available online um with
072some tools and resources um uh classroom libraries being built out um in terms of k5 uh something that i remember amy shared with us was that there were 50 books added to every elementary library um and building like a more multicultural library and then leading up until this summer the launch of the equity team leader so it was open to everybody who had participated in the initial training and then we're um you know kind of coming back together um building out this work to then be able to take it back to our site and kind of extending the reach of this work of opportunities to the staff to engage in it um and all of that this year and beyond looking to continue the parent series looking to continue staff trainings the um ultimate goal
073is to continue not just the team leader work but to also be able to kind of keep this door open around new learning the initial kind of training that um was available to staff last year again the site work being done an exploration of a student series and again this was really taking the direction of dr watson building the capacity of our staff to then be able to open that door for our students with staff members that know how to handle these conversations or at least have a tool the tools and the framework to initiate that work i think this is definitely something that um everyone who's been a part of this work is really excited for and really hopes that it can launch is doing the student series but again right it starts with
074developing these staff and the adults that will be there to help facilitate and to follow it forward and focus on grading for equity which is um a little bit different but again right what are the grading practices what are we measuring in terms of achievement and then curriculum considerations again like what are the stories that are being told who are the main characters that are in our books how are we building more multicultural lens um and again right this is a little bit of a um version of all the lofty goals and hopes and dreams for all of this but um starting where we are acknowledging that this work needs to continue um and acknowledging that it is not just a um one and done right it is something that needs to be continuously built
075out um and just like our community will change i think we need to be able to change and adapt so kind of fast a lot of information but that just takes me to kind of the end of where we are um thank you thank you i just want to kind of reiterate what yadira has said this is a multi-year process still um um [Music] how many sessions are in the parent series this year this year my understanding is there was a class here the last parent series is if you're unable to attend series will that be available online somewhere so that we can watch it what is my own kind of history or what is my own experience and so it's a little bit hard to um um she sent us a number of resources
076um [Music] um a previous administrator in our district having worked with dr watson um at their previous district and saying you know this [Music] the trainer or the um program that would kind of come in and support us through that um so her name came across um i want to say it was probably amy black's death first as a recommendation and then being kind of vetted out of like who is this person what is the experience what is the reputation that comes with it um you say amy black and i met with her understand what she had to say in her approach and some of her philosophy around initiating this work um and then that information brought back to the um um is from higher level courses we a lot of this is kind of
077international um what does our curriculum show where did people see themselves and so for us as an administrator we've been looking at what we're offering and saying again the example of spending um spending funds to increase uh our libraries and so looking along things along those lines a lot of qualitative data as well in terms of talking to folks so again having some in these parent breakout sessions um having some really challenging conversations with parents and their experiences they've had and so kind of for us as administrators to hear you know oh your child experienced that okay let's dig deeper into our own practices and how we related you know the situation again long-term data as well and it's been odd too because we were in um distance learning last year and and our data
078is not our data we're looking at 2018-19 data but this year when we kind of look back through the practices that we've had let's see what are we looking at is our attendance rate higher are we still having the same discipline incidents that we have and that's going to be a significant metric for us as people to talk about hey you know what we acknowledge this what are we doing to disrupt this practice and look you know look more closely at ourselves is that information we're tracking and developing or is that just something that consultant is providing and saying hey this is these are the areas of concern these are areas from my experience of that we need to be what you you this district needs to be working on i think what it sounds
079like we're doing it ourselves we get asked specifically okay so you know you have this data let's look at your and we looked at three-year trend data and said okay great um we need to do better so yes we we are being asked by our consultants to look more closely at our data we had a number of consultants last year we had deborah mcknight and dr watson and those are the conversations that we're having to go with those okay so did we get a report back at the end of the year or something from dr watson saying this is my end of the year summary this is what i'm finding you know this is what i think the next year we should be working towards i would say not at this point it's still in
080the initial like developing uh the tools like providing the tools for staff to engage in this work um i will say too i think if you want to look kind of that hard and fast numbers like i [Music] um i know you probably don't mean this but you also would caution they're like relying too heavy on data like that versus like the impact or like more anecdotal data where like what are the students what is the student experience now from this work what is our staff experience now i think even just again thinking anecdotally um i was very fortunate i'm at the junior high and we had the highest participation in all of the staff trainings um and i would say in large part to this plea right here is our principal really you know
081advocating for this work and encouraging our staff to move forward and to dive in and just take a chance and go to these trainings and i will say both of us could tell you that the feedback that we got again this is anecdotal but our staff really feeling the value in it this was something they had never done before this is something that has been missing in this district for a long time um and again that's more anecdotal data not carbon-class numbers but i think just kind of this sense and this kind of um called a body that seems so like informal about right like the [Music] like hearing that because it's it's like specific and my concern with the current structure is it is a global solution to a very local challenge um where
082you know what's going to happen at las vegas is going to be different than john muir is going to give him high school and asking teachers from all all sites and parents from all sites to come into one forum to discuss this and review this when they're all in different levels of parenting of things that their children are experiencing levels of activities that they're involved with in school and out of school i don't know that this is the right solution to or right approach to to the to the challenge and it's it's uh i i i was actually in investigating or asking the questions about involving the ptas even to a higher higher utilization because they're going to have that interaction directly with parents and the teachers for their local site and it doesn't sound
083like there's any any coordination that's that smaller nucleus ever would just say again i think the guidance of dr watson is starting with those who are ready and opening that door um and i mean if they're i mean i think the opportunity for growth is limitless which i think is very exciting for the district to be able to move forward in this work um but i also think it is um you know you're we're taking the guidance from a professional who's done this for many years across different sites perhaps different sites that come that look like us some that don't um and they will say i think even the way that the uh training and the way that the parent series is built is again right like opening the door for conversation and discussion so
084that families from different communities can kind of hear what is the experience across martinez because i do think that well the elementary schools may have their own identity and kind of their own experience they all come to the junior high they all go to high school everybody all ends up together or i'd be right like building this um uh cultural like um competency this cultural awareness at any level is extremely important um especially a district that is so small where all the students do end up together and i think that that's something to consider as well do you have any questions i have a few comments but i'll i'll wait talk to your public comments okay regular questions yeah this was just about um i know at this point the staff update is voluntary and
085this may or may not be a question for you but maybe more directly over here is there a plan um for for making at some point it doesn't sound like this year but is there kind of a plan for engaging more staff at some point you need a requirement what is the trajectory for that absolutely and i think i think this is one of the areas where we do look to our consultant to help guide us in this work again um we obviously want to create a district where all students feel valued included welcomed and we have work to do in that area and so again kind of along these lines starting again there was a mandatory training uh in in the summer of 2020 and so kind of starting the discussion and then it
086was again starting with starting with william and um we absolutely have to move this discussion on because we know we are here for all kids all means all and so we build the support and the folks who can be these teams to help drive this um so it's not again so it's not seen as something that's top down i know the district is making you do this that this is no this is a ground swell we want this work um i don't mean you mentioned it i'm sorry there was a lot but is there it are there programs for students at this point for that point yeah yeah i can touch on that again definitely so right now at this moment the student series is not launched the goal is to launch that um like
087january i think would be the earliest but again we're focusing on our staff building the capacity of our staff we think the last thing you want to do is to um you know i think oh not open the door but i think the last i think really the guidance has been like fill the capacity of the staff to have these conversations with your students and then to right really promote the student um leadership in it but also like having a system of staff that have tools in the lens to also support this work and to help continue moving it forward so kind of right like building building your foundation so that we can like build a house on top of it right one of the students want to start talking about race they are asking
088to talk about race and we want to make sure that we build again just as good as that we build what is the percentage of this funding for compared to the funding for training all other training in the district what however i would say we have a wide breadth of trainings that we have offered um in the past few years last year and i know previously um one of the things that we have in addition to our work with racial equity we are in differentiated assistance and comprehensive support and assisted intervention for a number of our sites where we work with building our capacity to launch a professional learning community we have worked with our english language learners we last year had worked with blended learning um we um work with ngss science standards so
089we do a breath i think this district has done a great deal with additional training and i think one of the things that is important about this and then you're kind of saying you bring the trainer in once and then you wash your hands of that um and call it spray and pray hopefully this stuff um and you know that's not what we want to do so the professional development that we are we want to be very mindful and focused about that and say here's how we're building you know our systems so that we do have data to show that this is making the impact um and so i would say it's a it's a definitely important portion but we are offering a variety and a host of other professional development opportunities [Music] carlos um
090just to kind of tell them what annie was asking about i believe dr watson is also a consultant with the city of martinez racism task force i believe she's gonna have a program let's see martinez for the public at large um which folks may be able to incorporate into their education as well but we'll open up for a couple of comments uh jeremy but if they made one another i guess one of my other concerns or feedback from from constituents is the reports back with dr dr watson and lack of inclusion and uh some of the public comments and so there's a there's a concern that it's you know if you have a different opinion or a different perspective or something that's not as well received or is shut down and so there's there's a
091little concern that i've heard from the public regarding that into the parent series is that what you're saying um no independent of that from other uh districts and other trainings and currently any other questions we'll open up your public comments and we do have public comments on this agenda and we'll start with the folks in person first of lynda [Music] good evening can i turn it off is it on you're good [Music] martinez uh working with some of the parents in and out and i had children in the schools myself i've worked with children a lot coming from oakland and schools in oakland for 50 years and so um i want to first agree with mr melendez and then it sounds like there should be more evaluation going on of dr watson's work and the
092other thing i agree with a few nights that there needs to be more community participation i was really excited when this whole thing happened in july and then i had to dig and dig and dig as a member of community to participate in this and there was one participation opportunity with dr watson and i didn't think that was hardly enough so i wanted to start out before making the comments on mr melendez as you are aware ethnic studies will be implemented in all schools in california by 2025. ethnic studies will benefit all students attending martinez unified school district especially the 30 plus who are students of color qualified teachers must be selected for this course and all those who work for the school district must also participate to make the school district truly integrated including
093opportunity for much more community input where more expertise consultation and workshops will be needed so if [Music] that responds to why [Music] speaking of community input this is of utmost importance in order to educate the martinez community about the needs for ethnic studies in the schools and all of its benefits i sit on martinez anti-racism and anti-discrimination task force and one of our priorities will be to educate citizens of martinez about racism and how to make martinez a community for all races in their districts okay so once again i wanted to qualify my comments on mr milan is we don't want to throw the baby out with the bath we just want to improve this and keep it on board it's very very important for martinez the school district thank you she submitted her comment
094to be read oh okay yeah she had a she had a uh [Music] okay so is there any other in-person public comment for the second item [Music] um as a parent i would like to encourage you all to continue this contract we barely touched on the surface i was a parent that attended these meetings and i found them very beneficial we need more outreach and encouragement of parents to attend i'm really happy to hear the teachers attended this um not only do my children attend the public school system i am a product with the whole school system and i would have loved to have seen something like this in this school district when i was coming through um martinez unified um i don't know how many of you all attended it i'd like to kind
095of curious you can raise your hand if you all attended it because i think it would give you perspective how enlightening this was for the community the parents and for the teachers so i would advocate they can continue funding um how do you quantify being educated and being sensitive to things that you may not know that's not quantifiable that's a personal experience of growth um and and checking our implicit bias especially for our community-wide allies to check her white privilege and understand the perspective of people of color as a latina mexican-american i think this is a very important dialogue for people to understand that we have very different educational experiences because of the color of our skin unfortunately and so i found the discussion fascinating and important and i even learned something as someone a
096woman of color that gets to experience it personally so um i don't think there's no value for you all to allocate a budget line item to this effort it should grow and i'm really happy to hear um mrs betta speak that there is going to be an opportunity for our children to have this education and enlightenment it's wonderful dialogue for everyone regardless of what your ethnic background is we should all want to be a community to discuss these issues um that impact many children and there's not a voice there and i think this is meaningful work that dr watson's doing with our teachers and i want to thank the leadership for doing this on the teachers that have engaged and put so many hours into this um to terminate now because we want to quantify
097something okay do a survey i mean these are private experiences that people of color are sharing and even our white allies are speaking of i have no idea how i was being offensive to a community member without hearing the sidewalk so i don't think we should report something that is a very private personal moment for people being vulnerable and for it to be out in a public domain in that way um i hope that shortly will be in person because i think it would be a much nicer touch because people are sharing real experiences of racism in our community or other experiences of how they were not treated equitably in a system that has you know systemically been biased towards them so carlos i would encourage you if you haven't attended it to attend them
098and if you have concerns about budgets i think it's uh pennies in the bucket compared to the value of growth for everyone who is engaged so i please support this effort thank you okay any other republicans hi my name is um i am honestly just learning about this to i just learned about it today and um i really love the presentation that i saw and um i understand carlos is concerned and um i don't know dr watson i just found out about this but the first thing i'm going to do when i get home is read and find out but just speaking from a parent's perspective um i have a son now who is living in your life and there is more than i think three incidences that just blew my mind when he was
099still at the elementary school and what i was just looking at where i was dealing with the teachers who were trying to deal with a racial situation where my son was on the receiving end of it and i was getting so frustrated and thinking to myself teachers need to get educated teachers need to be just get a little bit more training in terms of dealing with kids of color and especially in this environment where martinez the community is changing i'm new to this community i've been here for a few years but there are more people of color in this community and and i kind of feel like our educators either need to change or need to be educated as well to be able to address and or deal with issues that happen on a daily
100basis um i think it's very very important work that needs to be looked at addressed something has happened go ahead there's a little form that you feel out of the back but come up come up and do your public comment and introduce yourself but throughout the point hello everyone my name is steve i'm sorry for that um finding out the forum um i just wanted to wait wait what people have said it for me really i like the presentation she made and one thing that is very important is the anecdote you know and we're talking about data they are very blind they don't really give a picture but i think i'm looking at my own children they go to a mpe i have two daughters and my youngest is eight years old and she was
101a student of mrs welch last year and it was amazing to see the transformation in the way she was learning uh some of the lessons one of the assignments was given by mrs welsh was to do research and report on a well-known person of color and she chose uh muhammad ali and she put a lot of energy into it she was very excited we went to target and she actually went and bought a book because for the first time she really felt included she really felt like she did a work on someone who represented her so yes training of teachers is very important i don't know if you heard an incident that happened so who are in southern california a teacher math teacher who made a native american uh you know head or something like
102that and she's dancing in the classroom and you could see the students slumped on their stats because they're just embarrassed and i'm thinking if this teacher had proper training sensitivity training she would know what she's doing is wrong so yes training us our teachers is vital and i'm really excited that it is going to be extended to the students too and yes we need to educate each other to better understand how to deal with each other one thing that always comes up is i was joking but if you know exactly the story behind whatever term you use whatever you say you wouldn't know better this is not a joke for the person from so yes i am encourage the board and encourage the district uh to train our staff and uh as anna marie was
103saying getting the community involved is also very important i've done this this type of discussions too by the way before even uh the incidents we judge from george floyd and everything i have started this conversation for five three years with parents i'm engaged friends in a comedy community through my facebook page i did this do this type of conversation events and it's gone we found some of the resistance the resistance but most of the time it goes well some people are hesitant some people are scared it doesn't if we don't speak about it things don't change you are aware of happened in rwanda in 1994 genocide duties and mutuals hating each other but what they did that is different when i seen america they sat down and they talked about it they had the truth
104for the conservation commission people opened their eyes they did the same things in africa if you don't talk about it professors thank you any other republicans [Music] i would like to express my support for the district's continued work with dr watson on issues related to racial equity and inclusion i believe strongly such work should continue to be a top priority for all districts i found the workshop sessions that i attended with dr watson last year to be thought for about being collaborative and non-judgmental she did not try to impose views upon us but rather gave us the tools and resources to explore our own views and see conceptions in the context of our own life experiences they pertain to race and diversity i found her very skilled in eliciting health a healthy dialogue and respect
105and safe environment as a community we need to face up to the fact that racial conflict and insensitivity exists on our school campuses as they do in society many students have confirmed that the use of the n-word has been commonplace on the alhambra campus for some time many students of color and their parents have expressed frustration with their climate in our district as it pertains to race some have left it as a result issues of cultural appropriation in the context of teen dress-up days in alhambra left many students of color offended and hurt one parent described her child being in tears over what she witnessed we all have a responsibility as a community to reckon with these facts and and history and seek healing and understanding acts of racism and cultural and sensitivity are often
106not intentional which makes the work of people like dr watson all the more important so that we can build the awareness and understanding necessary to make this district a welcoming tolerant and empathetic place for all unfortunately we've seen a backlash across the country toward this necessary work in the form of distortions about something referred to as a critical race theory some have made the argument that this is somehow an attempt to make people ashamed of our history and shame the white people for being white i saw none of that dr watson sessions that i attended in fact she made the point that she doesn't believe in using the term racist to characterize people because the focus should not be on characterizing individuals but on exploring the root causes of actions and attitudes that are a
107reflection of our broader society and history much of this backlash has focused on the work of nicole hannah jones and the 16-19 project so i would like to end my comment with some of her words on this issue from a recent podcast interview that i listened to you can't just put a person in a category as being good or bad but that's how we've wanted to teach the history of this country and we'd have to be more honest none of us are responsible for what our ancestors did but we are responsible for what we do now we do have the ability to build a country that is different that has not held hostage to the past but we won't do and do that by denying that upon which we were built because that past is
108shaping us the shaping our country our politics our culture our economics whether we acknowledge it or not and all i'm saying is let us acknowledge that upon which two are built so that we can try to actually become the country of these majestic ideals i couldn't agree more the next comment is from michelle simone i'm writing the support of dr lori watson in her race work program i hope musd continues its commitment to racial equity with continuous education and training around racism and bias the next comment is from lisa sanders i'm a parent in the martinez unified school district i want to voice my approval of a contract that will provide outside facilitation to tackle anti-racist work i want to strongly urge the board to approve dr watson's contract this contract is so important to
109help create a climate in the school district that my daughter deserves i look forward to her facilitated discussions this year thank you the next comment is from sarah tucker dear board members i have a parent within musd i participated in the parent workshops with dr lori watson last spring i found the sessions to be invaluable and talking about anti-racism providing parents and participating staff with information that is so desperately needed in these divided times i was incredibly heartened to know that these conversations were happening within our district given some of the questionable circumstances we have heard about regarding racism on our campuses dr watson's approach was realistic genuine and insightful even when the conversations were tense and challenging please continue to support racial equity and opportunities for our community and musd staff to learn more
110about anti-racist work which will help serve and protect the most vulnerable and marginalized students in our schools i fully support the renewal of dr watson's contract and encourage the district to consider other opportunities for equity as well thank you the next comment is from fernando uh valava bill villa alva i support the contract with dr laurie watson i believe it is important that we discuss and learn about issues of diversity equity and inclusion in our community and schools especially given the apparent inequities and divisiveness present in our society i think teachers administrators and parents need to develop more knowledge and tools on how to cultivate healthy welcoming environments so we especially children can explore appreciate and burst and embrace a diverse community next comment is from jeff sherwin dear school board i'm a parent of
111an alhambra high school junior and we have attended the first of ms watson's racial equity trainings in november of 2020. i understand the sentiment behind these trainings that feel the execution did not warrant the 40 thousand dollars she was paid the participation also dropped session after session and by the end of the six one-hour session there were only a handful of administrators and possibly no parents attending particularly a concern was homework assigned by miss watson which i found really divisive and insulting to my intelligence i felt that ms watson has found a nice niche in our local educational landscape making money selling this unity and mistrust without any positive message to share i think giving ms watson another 25 000 for teacher training would be a big mistake the next comment from justin gomez i
112am writing to urge the board to continue to prioritize anti-racist work through the timely approval of dr watson's contract i understand the hesitancy and opposition of some families and wanting the district to make such investments in this area but their work is necessary and long overdue as a former educator myself i know the discomfort that can come when we talk about issues of race and inequity but it isn't that discomfort where we grow and ultimately change for the better these conversations must happen at a district level if we expect to see strides toward racial justice in our schools i strongly encourage the board to stand on the right side of history as our society moves to impact generations of injustice to build a better future for our kids anti-racist work is is on all of
113us in this community and we cannot cave to those who wish to prop up systems of oppression the burden to enact change lies most with those who hold power so i hope you recognize the immense obligation you have in your positions to our families and students of color in the wsd community the next comment is from mea um mba thinks the district are formally beginning the important and necessary work we would like to see an increased effort to create sustainable change including a partnership between mea district administration and site-based teams equity work benefits all students and is a building block for shifting systems that have unfairly impacted certain groups we influence the next generation of our students our future change makers ongoing trainings and workshops with teacher input and collaboration will help keep our work
114student centered and create the learning environment our students deserve equity must continue to be a key consideration of all the decisions made by the district schools and our educators next comment is from chuck carpenter board members and superintendent senior although i do not live in martinez i care deeply about your city in school a 42 year member of carpenter's local 152 and a grandpa of five young girls i follow the work of your board and other school boards in our country in our county excuse me when he began working with dr watson i investigated her program my granddaughters are growing up in a county and state where equity matters and recognizing their differences are also important dr watson's successful work with the lafayette monte vista apolanis morocco districts even the contra costa library is a
115testament to martinez district's excellent 2020 choice please continue this contract and get more parents and grandparents involved in the learning thank you chuck carpenter i wanted to be sure that all the board members had read the homework assignment given to musc parents in november 2020 by dr laurie watson by joan olson detour spotting for white anti-racist that i emailed each of you prior to the last coordinating if you haven't you should not vote on whether to if you haven't you should not vote on whether to approve funding at this meeting and hospital in the vote until you're able to read it this reading that quite frankly was the most insulted thing i have ever read the reading categorizes all whites as privileged with unfair advantage the region says people of color are oppressed and victims
116as a biracial woman the world is not black and white america is the great melting pot where so many people are just not one race it is possible to be it is possible to be both white and a person of color so i am so i am a victim or privilege this is not the type of nonsense that musd should be peddling to its parents and teachers anything talk to teachers will trickle down to our kids we should take a page from condoleezza rice who recently spoke on the view when she said we shouldn't make white people feel bad for being white but instead we should make black people feel empowered feeling empowered is not accomplished by telling people of color they are oppressed and victims we should be sticking with the teachings of martin
117luther king jr and demand that we will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character vote no on funding dr laurie watson's divisive training that parents were not interested in attending last year as the sixth class was mostly school employees and not parents the twenty-five thousand dollars would be much better spent at nusd making our schools a better place and not push more families to leave the final comment is from nadine i'm sorry to put your your last name um peyrou kane um i want to thank all of you for serving i have read articles from several reputable sources that explain the disruptions that school boards have been experiencing across our nation you have put up with a heckling being yelled at protest and experience personal threat
118you are heroes and i want to remind you that the majority of voters parents students and community elders respect the difficult work you do including our student representative and these unprecedented times we find ourselves in what you and other school board members have been experiencing has been recorded as being organized and funded by such by such a group as freedom works that align themselves with insurrectionists their values are not ours in contra costa county nor in california they oppose teaching the truth about history and they oppose acknowledging and accepting people for who they are i am very proud that this body the martinez unified school district board is considering contracting with raceworks to analyze and work with us to correct any policies that continue discriminatory practices i am sure that you and your staff will
119review all the work and results of dr watson's company from what i have read i hope the contract is approved and that this and that soon the program will be implemented in our schools for our students i did want to address uh a couple points made by public comments about um you know measuring the cost of this this program or this effort or this contract specifically and um our role in it and um while i want to just go off the feelings and and emotion the fact that matters is border i'm charged with making sure our dollars are spent our district dollars are spent appropriately wisely getting the most bang for the buck and um and i do prioritize the racial the racial equity that education and that's that sentiment and i do think the
120approach should be more targeted to the local sites and this format is not necessarily applicable but going back to one of the comments about the homework that was provided i was not able to attend any of the sessions but i did follow up and do read the homework that was provided and it did my take away from it was very um uh polarizing and the fact that you know i consider myself a non-racial individual person of color i'm born raised hispanic but it made me question everything i've known and just that my christian upbringing of treat others as you'd be treated you'd like to be treated and even that was question of like that is that is that racial or racist so this approach i think is is misguided and i do have to go
121back to making sure that the district is spending its dollars wisely and utilizing the funds and getting the most out of this training is this gentleman any other more comments i'll try to give a brief i have a lot of a lot of opinions in this area but i want to say that i did attend most of the sessions with dr watson i did all the homework um and i've done i've done work in this area in my professional and personal life outside of the school district and i'm coming from a place that i don't believe racist racism is negotiable it exists our job is to work to eliminate it everyone has bias it impacts all of us and it impacts all of the decisions that we make and there's a quote i saw from
122ania smith he said we don't see things as they are we see them as we are and that's why i think this work with dr watson is so important and thank you for the wonderful presentation majira the only way we can eliminate bias is to expand our world view to talk to people who don't look like us to talk to people who weren't raised where we were and to talk to people and to spend time with those people and whether we like it or not we are admit a social movement addressing anti-black bias and systemic racism we don't give our community and staff the tools to work within that movement and with those issues i think we're doing them at this service and we know that this these issues exist in our district thank you
123julie for recognizing that i think the prior board who recognized that with their resolution in 2020 and who started this work i think it's up to us to continue it and maybe there are areas where we can improve but i think as one of the commenters said don't throw out a baby with bathwater um and i just wanna share i did i talked to a parent in a neighboring district that did work with dr watson and their district also and what she said to me is sorry i'm reading from an email she said dr watson made countless contributions to our district's activity work she's led professional development and parent education that have given students and families new tools to talk about race she cares about working with our schools and our community to meet our
124needs so i'm very much in support of this contract really importantly so i have um also a lot of feelings about this site i've written stuff down so that i wouldn't forget anything so i'll make it clear that i am 100 in support of this work in our district and i am proud of our board members who are still here who passed the anti-racist resolution and those who it was a unanimous vote the three that are no longer on this board and the resolution is what led us to starting this work this has become a hot topic issue unfortunately but i want to be clear that educating ourselves our students our teachers is not the same as teaching white students to feel guilt or shame as a white woman with a young white son i
125know i am not alone in having the desire to teach my son to be an anti-racist but i lack the tools to do so i am proud that we're giving our community a way to gain the tools necessary to confront racism head-on our job as a school district is to provide a high quality education and safe environment for each member of our diverse student body i simply do not believe these goals can be met without continuing our work with anti-racism and i'm in full support of renewing this contract sure well first i wanted to uh thank you for bringing this back off our consent power so that we can have this really important discussion and i'm part of the old board but this is the board now um i think it's important for our community
126and for our community to have this conversation in public um to give an important employment perspective so i i mean i hope we continue to bring these kind of challenging discussions which is i think the point and one of the reasons why this district taking that resolution and really following it regardless of how difficult at times and we're going to accept with other challenges and changes in personnel i mean it's going to happen when we took this on even initially uh looking for a program that fit what we wanted to do there there's no guarantee and i see this contract as one one more step moving in the right direction but there's there's gonna be plenty of things that we can do better that we should be doing better and we should always try to
127do that um but we do have to keep moving forward if we can do it if we can find things to make it better fit us as a district as a community then we need that input so we can rush to that challenge and make the make the right changes so i support the work the district's already done with dr watson i want to continue moving in that direction i want to bring back other ideas potentially other programs so that we can expand it in a meaningful way so we can actually make change continue to make change which is i think what everyone in this room is really i will support it as well i guess i'll finish up one of the things i would like to see in our programming in the future is
128is education in this area for the folks who can't attend the meets right so there are people who work and plan for whatever reason for its family or other activities and so a portion of our population doesn't get to defend the parents and yeah no dr watson we won't have a recorded veteran of a reported parent series this year but at some point i think we need to expand it so that we have something whether it's ted talks on our website that people can access or something along those lines like poor little portland lauren the mba had a fantastic set up on an award um last year so resources like that i think we need to include in their programming and and i know this is a this is our first step in continuing that
129education for our for our community um but for future future planning i would like to see something like that so this is an acronym um for the board you have a motion to approve dr watson's contract and then to approve do you have a second you have a motion on the second [Music] agenda item 16.4 [Music] um so in the first section of the plan itself um under addressing the impact of lost instructional time there was i'm sorry in the second section excuse me [Music] okay so what we did was in the strategies for continuous and safety person learning section that 700 500 700 540 700 547 was allocated for we um split some of that money off in order to add a section for technology support that includes the safety and security and functionality
130of our district network in terms of cyber safety upgrades and ransomware and all of those things to protect our students and our district uh while they're using our current technology so that funding was needed again we found a way to put it in here without giving up once we took it out of the pvp we do get a lot of donated from the county [Music] thank you so much any questions for the world any further comments on agenda item 16. here you know hello chancellor all right um my question and i reached out to some um i don't actually know how many emails i sent out so it's okay uh one of my concerns is a lot of the technology pieces that have been implemented uh or suggested that it is in this sr3 um
131my biggest concern with that is i just have spent the last year and a half it'll soon be two years doing a lot of computer-based work and computer-based learning i should say um specifically looking at even the kids who don't have permanent teachers chatting with some of the parents at the high school chatting with my daughter who's had a multitude of different teachers because i haven't had the same science and english teacher i'm talking about the junior high there's a lot of computer-based learning and so to hear that the learning loss is going to be supplemented with tutoring.com i think was one option brass kids one of the challenges is brad's kids uses some especially for learning to read some programs that are specifically um guiding kids there's a there's a tutorial that i can
132send um showing that kids can't do the word purple in the first grade but because purple's all over the page and because it's literally written in purple kids are learning to guess the words and that's not going to help them learn to read um not all kids most kids but not all kids so one of the things that i'm concerned about is ideally we'd be able to get some peer-to-peer counsel or peer-to-peer tutoring some services like um academic success junior high is fantastic but i don't think all kids know about it or all parents know about it because my kid knows about it wants to avoid it but it's gonna be investing for her as opposed to something online so i'd like to make sure whenever possible if you can avoid guiding the technology i
133love that we have it it sounds really good on paper but especially last year and a half really really like to see more social engagement um thank you for bringing it back any other public comment on this video uh and helen i know that janelle's not here so i don't know if you can even answer this question but i actually have similar concerns but i think to the extent we can offer some live people one on one maybe not even one-on-one maybe small for tutoring i know at the high school they are going to do some peer tutoring with some of the um the national honor society students and to the extent maybe those kids can tutor at the junior high and and maybe we have some money to hire some professional tutors too but
134um i guess that's not really a question but that's my question but in the in the actual plan there are money for academic intervention support teachers for to provide support in ela and math and small group instruction throughout the day at the elementary and middle schools right now there is actually a meeting specialist that's working with students at the high school level so this would allow us to have your homework it's hard to find right now um reading advanced specials but we have tried to download this button and dedicate more money to the is [Music] suzanne thank you so much so we're in the process of looking for a new coordinator for the post program that's been on hold and we're looking forward to resuming classes that there's been some changes in the regulations and
135so in order to um attract some of the candidates we wanted to kind of change the position a little bit it is a part-time position 18 hours a week is about the most the coordinator works um the regulations change that it now has to be a sworn officer and somebody that has been in a supervisory role during their career it does tend to in the past attract people that are retired so the benefits isn't always something that someone retired from the law enforcement needs so we thought taking that amount and adding that to the hourly rate bringing it up to 50 to 55 an hour would enable us to attract the right candidate for the position and then we also included that new information in the job description so that's what i'm proposing tonight is
136to remove the benefits just and so there's no impact because you basically are just increasing the hourly rate and then to um have the new uh description for the post coordinator i think it's bummer that you're losing your your previous uh coordinator because of the changes but um any questions from the board do um would a candidate or who fills this position would they be able to acquire benefits through the district no no it would this would not be a benefit position anymore and it's it's only 28 to 30 weeks per year and it's only 18 hours a week so it's it it doesn't really benefits aren't something that is attractive for this position also it doesn't really fit the position the coordinators at the school that have benefits are 40 hours a week 46
137to 48 weeks a year so this is going to get along with the position sorry they just wouldn't be able to purchase into our existing exactly and most of them that are retired usually through calpers and they have their own benefits already with their this is not directly related to the position but um i have a friend who graduated from the our post programs i'm highly supportive of that he's a great program can you speak to its utilization right now and what kind of traffic we have through our program well right now the program's been on hold since um march of 2020 and we cannot run any classes the modular classes which i believe you're speaking to that you had someone graduate from until we have a coordinator in position that a coordinator position prior
138to that how many people were graduating um in the module three and two it started to drop off a little bit right before the pandemic but in the past usually if you run a modular three we try to get about 20 people because then we have usually five or six that drop off and then the next that group who graduates can then participate in module two and then they would all sort of complete their training in module one somewhere else because we just covered the three and two we're hoping i mean it's it's been tough with other academies but we're helping with bringing and bringing the right person in to help attract and build the program back any other questions we'll open up for public comments is there any public comments on identity 16.5 okay
139we'll bring it back to the board um so this is an information i don't i don't know is it coming after action in a couple weeks okay excellent can we put it on there [Music] um first off oh we have a pops concert which is for the whole uh music program with alexandra high school it's this wednesday at 7 00 pm outside of the pav so hopefully you guys can come you know you can watch me perform as well you know and then also about the tutoring thing i'm the president of nhs and i think we can definitely do something with the middle school [Music] to bring the two love tutoring people [Music] just very quickly i do apologize for being late um but i was following along and listening on the live stream and
140julia mirror if we can do something to improve the sound and and presentation it was very very challenging to hear coming through so um but i i do appreciate it being able to do that but [Music] yeah i just wanted to again remind people um and thank you for that presentation suzanne at the at the the adult school thursday night is putting on a virtual trades night um which i think is a really awesome opportunity we have a lot of the local unions are headquartered right here in martinez so hopefully people will be interested in that i'm sure they will and reach out if you have questions uh that band concert sounds amazing one day i will make it to one of those i promise i'm going i was in the marching band in college
141and i'm going to my college homecoming reunion this weekend so yeah that'll be interesting um haven't played in a while but i'm going to and i just wanted to reiterate some of the technical issues i know we've had them for a while to the extent um we i really feel like we need to keep making them an option for people we we need to encourage public participation and it's people are having a lot of challenges figuring out the google form and getting it in on time or getting down here so i think that we should really try to do that and lastly i just want to say happy halloween everybody and have a safe and fun weekend okay i'll be very fast um i wanted to uh welcome dr kota to our meeting um we
142have a one minute week the dr hoda lives down south and so she was here on friday for an interview and so um we have a little speech and she would just like to thank the board before it starts i want to thank everybody who served on the panel for interview appreciate your time thank you to the staff and folks who participated in board members uh greatly appreciated [Music] director position i apologize [Music] as an assistant is [Music] is my husband vandalism and bathrooms and so again i want to make folks aware of this that we are dealing with these situations um we'll be talking to students about our behavioral expectations and uh folks that are listening and please have conversations about treating our facilities with respect um again the community has spent a great
143deal of time and effort making these amazing schools and we want to continue to support that so and want to end on a more positive note as well i want to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving and thanksgiving um [Music] you