Mt. Diablo USD Board Meeting 2/11/2026 Part 2

001Good evening. I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Mount Davl Unified School District uh for February 11th, 2026. We start with our land acknowledgement. We recognize that the Mount Delby Unified School District sits on the territory of the Confederated villages of Lashon and ancestral and unseated land of the Bay Miwok and Northern Yokut, the successors of the southern for Verona Band of the Contraosta County. As members of the Mount Del Unifi School District community, it is vitally important that we not only recognize the history of the land on which we learn, but also we recognize that the land we inhabit and learn on is the ancestral land of these people who are alive and flourishing members of the Mount Unified School District and Vauder Bay Area of communities today. Please join me

002in the pledge >> algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So, our first item is review and potential approval of the minutes of the regular board meeting held on January 21st, 2026. >> Madame President, I move the board approve the minutes of the regular board meeting held on Janu January 21st, 2026 as presented. >> Second. Thank you. We have a motion by Trustee Mayo, a second by Trustee McDougall. Oh, first vote is from our student trustee. How do you vote? Student trustee Oriano. >> Yes. >> Thank you. And the rest of the vote uh board votes yes as well. So that's 5 0 0. Okay. The next item of business is to

003review the potential approval of the agenda. I am going to suggest if the board agrees that um we move the dual language update to 11.1 and move the audit report to 11.2 since we have a lot of young people in the house and we would rather get them back so they can be ready for school tomorrow. So if there's no objection to that, it's my motion. I'll take a second on that. >> No [clears throat] objection. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second to approve the agenda changing 11.2 and 11.1 around. >> And we'll take a little minute because they have >> um trust no trustee Mason President Mason made the motion. >> Y And that passes 5 Z with consent from Barrera Oriano. Okay, we are now going on to our report

004of action in close session. In close session, the board vote the board voted by five to zero to took action to approve the non-reelection of the following certificated employees ID numbers as follows. 49266 49239 39 48755 excuse me 49314 and 48219 9. In close session, the board also voted by 4 to 0 to um approve the resignation of two employees per separation agreements. And that takes us to our stipulated expulsion agreement. >> I move to approve the stipulated expulsion agreement for student 0926. Prior to readmission, student 0926 is required to meet the following conditions. Number one, student must not enter the grounds of any Mount Diablo Unified School District school at any time for any purpose. Number two, student will not attend any Mount Diablo Unified School District school sponsored activities, whether on or off

005campus. Number three, student will complete his coursework through attendance at the opportunity program at Horizon's. Number four, student will complete 15 hours of counseling to address appropriate use of social media and substance use. Number five, participate in the YVAP program. Number six, student will demonstrate a successful school experience which includes one, no violation of school rules and education codes 48900, 48915 or district rules and regulations. Two, satisfactory academic progress by earning a minimum of 30 credits. Number three, satisfactory attendance, 90% attendance and no excessive tardies. And number six, student will not must not commit any expelable offenses as defined under education code. >> Second. Okay, we have a motion, a second. and [clears throat] that passes 5 0. Okay, time for public comment. Public comment. The public may address the board regarding any item on

006the agenda. Public comment will also be allowed for each specific item prior to the board action thereon. In accordance with the Brown Act, the board may not take action or engage in dialogue on these items that are not on the posted agenda. Our public comment period runs for 30 minutes. We're going to see how many cards we have here. A lot. Mhm. We're just making double sure that these comments aren't things that are on the agenda. Okay, it's going to be one minute. So, share your thought and then because you're a large group, I'm sure someone else can pick up your thought and go and just keep going until we get all the information you think that we need. With that, I will call Sergeant Edwards. Good evening, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen of the

007board. My name is Sergeant Edwards. I was going to give a brief um background about myself, but as my students told you or told me, Google AI has done a great job of that. So, if you like, you can go ahead and check it out. It is pretty good. I'm here tonight because I wanted to address the situation that's going on at YB, the pathway program. Ever since I've tooken over the path, the pathway program, it has been treated like a secondass citizen in this school. We have six students here. Camila Baragon, Wendy Vasquez, Adrien Po Paroyo, Ricardo Vasquez, Alan Hernandez, and Isaiah Mala who were invited to state to compete in the cert competition. Our school has did nothing to recognize it, acknowledge it, or even care about it. All of my students in

008my program are certified. All of my students in my program are sponsored by Conquered Police Department. They did their program at the beginning of the year and the school has yet to give them opportunity to even receive their awards. Is that my minute? >> That was your minute. I'm sorry. Thank you. They'll pick up what you put down. My name is Lopez and I'm speaking in behalf of the health pathway student advisor. I am a senior at Ignatia Valley High School. I have been a proud student of the patient care pathway or as many know it as the healthcare pathway since my freshman year as well as many others. Today I'm here in hopes to get your support and bring attention to our program. I serve as many roles in the pathway for being a

009sportsman member, hosta member, and the student adviser for it all. I've seen all the law, all the lows and highs, but I'll always remember what what comes first, which is just being the student who has her heart in the best interest of her future. This pathway has brought multiple opportunities from getting over 25 certifications such as my OSHA 10, FEMA and first aid and CPR. I have achieved all of these things but couldn't have done it without the person who has never doubted me or anyone and has always had my back when I felt like the world was going against me. This man happens to be the only person behind the pathway and and has done so well doing it, but sometimes he needs help, too. Okay. And then uh I think it's Joselyn Martinez

010Garcia. You can pick right up. Okay. I'm here today to speak about my rights and how they were compromised. I was searched and questioned in a way that made me feel like a criminal and a thief. Even though I knew I was innocent. I was not breaking any rules. I was following a daily sports medicine routine that involves opening the facility so we can provide modern medical care to athletes. Thursday, I was required to write a statement and sign papers about my actions without my parents being informed or present. As a student that I'm in a position of fear and pressure, especially when I didn't fully understand why I was being treated as a suspect. Programs like sports medicine are built on selflessnesses and care for the YVHS community. Because Sergeant has invoked that in

011us. We show up early. We serve others. And we put students health and safety first. Programs like ours, programs that give back should be getting support and trust from Lucian and Lucian staff, not suspicion. Because sports medicine is meant to be a safe, trusted environment. Instead, I was made to feel guilty before being proven innocent. I would and that experience has left a lasting impact on me. Not because I did something wrong, but because I was trying to do the right thing. This should serve as a reminder that no student should be treated this way. Okay. Amber Ruda. Hello staff and board members. Today I'm here to speak about the health pathway and how it has affected my life in such a positive way. I joined the pathway my sophomore year and since then I've

012made multiple loyal friends and have reached such a strong bond with everyone within the pathway. Sergeant [snorts] has become such an important person in my life. Not only how he's has he always demonstrated his dedication to his students, but his commitment to the pathway. His motivation to us, [snorts] he motivates us to try our best every day and has helped us multiple and has helped out multiple students to find out what they would want to be later in life. I also came here to speak about how the staff, specifically the vice principles, Miss Dylan and Miss Castile, abused the power and misused their authority. As you guys have heard, my good friend Jocelyn got searched on Thursday the 4th of February, and I was present during that. They had already taken her out of class

013twice before that incident and I had gotten fed up with the way they were treating her. So I went with her the third time they took her out of class. I wished [snorts] I witnessed them search her backpack and made her pat herself down. And after that, Miss Castile looked at me and told me word for word. And since you wanted to come, we will have to search your backpack, too. Not only did she confess she had no reason to check my backpack, but she also showed that all she wanted was to get retaliation against me because I want to go support my friend and be there for her. >> Thank you. Okay, Amber, it's Eric's turn. Eric Zunan. Hello, my name is Eric Zun. I am the president of drone search and rescue under

014Sergeant Edwards. Is a brand new program at Nasio Valley High School, which couldn't have been possible without him. I am the only student to have my part 107 license, which is a federal license to fly drones professionally. Sergeant Edwards has put his full commitment and trust into me as he tries to help as best as he can, but due to our admin, we can do little to nothing. As a club, we have so many opportunities to take advantage of, but we have not been even recognized as a club. Thank you. Next would be Alan Hernandez. >> Hello, my name is Alan Hernandez. I am a student of Ignasio Valley. I'm also president of the sports medicine. If it wasn't for Sergeant, I wouldn't know what it truly meant to be a leader. If it wasn't

015for Sergeant, I would have never learned discipline and respect. If it wasn't for Sergeant, I don't know what path I would have taken. But I do know this. I chose the right one. Sergeant doesn't just teach, he builds. He sets high expectations because he sees potential. He pushes us because he believes we're capable of more. Growth isn't comfortable, but it's necessary. As president of Sports Med, he trusted me to lead. The trust changed me. He doesn't just create students. He creates leaders. So when our admins question him, I ask, why criticize someone who demands greatness? Why antagonize someone who is shaping futures? Sergeant has provided us with many great opportunities like a magical emergency medical response, sports medicine, community emergency response team, drones, medical terminology, and HOSA. Sergeant protects and mentors us. And as a

016leader in my club, I try to carry down those characteristics. I do as much as I can and create a community and family with the members and our students. Let me summarize. Okay, Alex Hernandez is up now. >> Hi everyone, my name is Alex Hernandez. I'm uh representing NASA Ballet High School. I'm president PTSA. I'm part of the schoolside council and I represent Nila but today I'm here like a regular parent. So I just want to invite all your board members especially you Mr. Brian you represent Bali High School. I want to invite you to go and visit this wonderful teachers class and see everything he do for the students and please uh that principal we have in need coach training and follow up she we almost about to end the school year we haven't

017get our first school site council we haven't get uh uh forgot the other meeting um this is one meeting but she's behind on the school side council um also um I'm sick and tired to hear from my son that that principal is harassing and discriminating this teacher when this teacher do a wonderful things for his students. One more thing because I have only one minute. Don't forget the community put you guys where you are. Please do not remove bilingual for any schools. Please don't do that. Okay. Jennifer RmIrez. trying to get through maybe. Okay, good. Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Jennifer, an MDUSD alumni, elect president, schoolside council member, and DAC parliamentarian. A mom of a fifth grade and first grader and a 2-year-old. I've been at Shurikres for six years now where

018we have been seeing principles administration come in and leave. This is a crucial to have a stability for our students achievement and teacher retention. So many missed emotions and questions left unanswered. We sure acres community feel marginalized always at the bottom of the list. Where is equity left at our school and our community? A quote by Debbie Zakarian educator author. It's not enough to simply teach in two languages. We must value both languages equally in our hearts, our curriculum, and our classrooms. Our community believes in the program. Thank you. >> Thank you. And just so you know that I hope you stay because there is going to be a presentation and you got a little out of order, but that's okay. I just don't want you to leave because hopefully you'll get some of your

019answers. >> Can we make sure that these two speakers are >> is um >> are for Calderon and Andrea Navaro also with your vocate. So we'll call you up when we thank you for being here. >> And what about Cecilia? >> She Okay, my friend Cecilia. Okay, >> now which one are we? >> You can take any >> Okay. How about Evan White? Good evening, members of the board. My name is Evan White. I'm the science department chair at College Park. I would like to bring to your attention some significant concerns having to do with the safety of my staff and the absolute lack of concern from the maintenance and operations department, namely Melanie Coslo, the director. She has looked me directly in the eye and told explained to me, "No, you are not going

020to spam. Yes, you are going to my inbox. And yes, I am choosing to ignore you. When I'm emailing her with questions like, you point out this chunk of wall and ceiling is crumbling. I'm worried it's asbestous. Are you testing this? What's the update on testing for asbestous here? Our stock room, our chemistry stock room doesn't have a ventilation system, which is an OSHA violation, and it's flooded with chemicals that are used for fumigation. My teachers can't be in there for more than 5 minutes without a slamming headache. A bird made its way in there. It was dead by morning. and she has been aware of this problem for 15 months now and has still not installed a ventilation system. Please help us. My teachers are dying. >> Thank you. Victoria Hansen, are you with

021the Shure Acres as well? Victoria Hansen. No, I'm not with >> you. Hello. Good evening. Uh, I'm here with the parent education program at Loma Vista and and other um campuses. My name is Victoria and my son Mateo and I were part of the parent education program. Um we were there for twos, threes and four preschool program and it was a godsend. So as a first-time mom it was able to um I was able to not only expose my child to social environment um social setting and learning but also help me be a better parent. Um it's a wonderful program. the curriculum the children are exposed to is um just leaps and bounds helps them to develop in a really excellent manner. And um even I witnessed um children who you you could were able

022to get some um observations of like possible delays and resources such as speech therapy which has helped them um and it's the importance of this program is just wonderful. So >> thank you Ellen Casease. Ellen case. There she is. After Ellen would be Laura Dwight. So Laura can be ready as soon as Ellen figes so we can get everybody in. >> Good evening. I'm here to talk to you and share [clears throat] with you about the U adults with disabilities life skill program at LMA Vista Adult Center. My daughter Victoria Case is a student in the life skills program. Um the curriculum at this program is is excellent. It's stimulating, challenging, and adapted to the needs of each special needs student. Over the past year, our daughter Vicki has often shared information she learned about

023safety in the home and what to do in case of an emergency. Recently, we witnessed her apply this knowledge to our lives. On December 28th, our home was engulfed in fire which was caused by a lithium battery. We were awoken at 6:00 in the morning to our fire alarm saying, "Fire in the house, evacuate. Fire in the house, evacuate." I immediately made my [clears throat] way to Vickiy's room upstairs, expecting to help get her down the stairs. When I reached the stairs, I was surprised to find that she was halfway down the stairs on her own carrying a lantern. Is that it? >> That's it. >> Ah, you missed a good part. [laughter] >> Well, hopefully Laura will carry on from there. Laura will be followed by Jason Stet, I think. But Laura's next. >>

024She's here. >> Hi. >> That's not her. She want the other one. There you go. There's too many microphones on here. >> Hi. My name is Laura Dwight. I'm a student at Mount Davo Adult Center, the TOPS program. I've been attending the TOPS program since December of 2018 and to work on several things like my emotions, my iOS, my independent living services, self-privacy. I am more comfortable speaking because of this program with the teachers support reaches me by teaching at a level of my understanding and meeting every other month during oneonone with these teachers. I would probably find myself going backwards instead of moving forward my go. [laughter] Thank you. uh board members for your time. >> Thank you. Okay, next Jason followed by Nerra. Jason Stnik I believe will be followed by Nerra Bosman.

025Here's Jason. >> Good even good evening members of the board. Uh I work as an assistant in LMA Vista Adult Education for adults with disabilities. Um as an assistant I've worked with uh we counted seven teachers over the last five years who have had to leave because of the lack of decent pay. And these are young very talented teachers that u have shared with me that they unfortunately cannot keep that job. So they have to move elsewhere. the adults with dis uh the all of the adult teach adulted teachers are underpaid compared to every other district in the state. So that needs to be addressed. So I'm standing behind the teachers. Thank you. >> Thank you. So it's Nerra Basman followed by Stephen Waitman. Nerra, you're up. Stephen, you're next. >> Good evening. A one

026minute time restriction is absolutely insulting. My name is Near Bisman. I am an instructor at the former lead teacher at the Life Skills program. I started working at Life Skills in 1997. In just a few months, I will be 29 years of teaching my entire adult life. I feel humbly blessed to have found a career I unequivocally absolutely love, a space that provides me the opportunity to make positive changes and differences in my students lives. There are many beautiful parts to being part an instructor at MDAE. But there's another very depressing dark side. After three decades of service, I am still to this day considered a part-time temporary employee with zero benefits who has to sign a contract every 3 months. Mount Diablo educators are possibly the lowest paid adult educators in the entire state

027of California. The very same California that in 2025 ranked the fourth largest economy in the world. Um, after 30 years of marriage, I found myself divorced in in my 50s with a job I love, but one that does not provide me any medical benefits and um, pay that does not cover my very basic living expenses. To make ends meet, I have to rent out a room, sell personal items. >> Thank you, Steven Whiteman. And Stephen will be followed by Lorie Pon. >> Oh, okay. >> Go, Stephen. That one's not our mic. >> Good evening, school board. My name is >> That one's not our mic. >> The little mic, Stephen. >> Oh, okay. >> There you go. >> Good evening, school board. My name is Stephen Weman. I have been a student at adult education

028program since July of 2003. Life skills has been a central part of my life, a very important part of my weekly routine. Life skills help me has taught me a wide variety of skills to be as independent as possible. In addition, this program teaches me how to safely navigate and engage in my community. As a result, I presently volunteer on my own to grow, serving food to the unhoused. Volunteering there makes me feel important and as useful as possible. I use Uber to get to and from grow. They have gave me the confidence to take an improv class at the community center. My library class taught me how to use the online discover and go library program to get to and free print out a free ticket to the Bedford Gallery in Walner Creek. If

029I didn't have life skills, I would be directionless, sad, and just sitting at home. Life skills has been a very important part of my weekly routine as well as my life. My staff is great. They teach me. >> Thank you, Stephen. Lori. Lori will be followed by Laura Loose. >> Hello, my name is Lori Pon. I've been working for the parent education um program at Loma Vista. Um all three of my daughters went through the program. It's amazing. It started it's a co-op, so it allows parents to have hands-on be part of the foundation of their children and just give them the growth that they need. And I also started helping with the um parent certificate class which is taught in the evenings which are courtmandated. So this helps um parent or families to stay

030together. These are they're fighting for custody of their children and they go through this program and they realize wow I needed this class. I've gained so much and I want to be there for my child. It helps families stay together, which in turn is going to help all of the Mount Silo schools to have united families that are in turn going to help the teachers to be able to provide um better um education for the classrooms, the students, less stress, and um yes, going off of what all the other teachers were saying, I've been having to supplement with other income. And thank >> Thank you, Lori. Next is Laura Loose. Laura will be followed by Melissa Ros Rasins, I think, or Roskins. But Laura, you're up now. Thank you. >> Good evening. Um, before I

031start, I'd like to ask for a time accommodation because of my brain injury. I will do this as fast as I can, but sometimes my processing is not as fast. Thank you. Um, so my name is Lori Loose. Um, I started on the on track program for adults with disabilities in January of 2022. I sustained a moderate traumatic brain injury after two concussions 10 years ago next month. Before that, um, and they happened at work. I was in special education for over 24 years in a nonpublic school system that is very active in Northern California. Um first I was a teacher and then I was a classroom supervisor who also helped develop and implement curriculum and then I was an assistant principal and then a principal. I feel my background information is very important because

032I am in an adult program for adults with disabilities there. Um, and I'm very much a student. Um, and I I love that program. Um, on track is not a holding space or or just um adult day programs are important. It is more than an adult day program. It is an educational program. There are 20 of us that our teacher Cammy has to develop curriculum for for adults. It has to be age appropriate. There has to be a high level of engagement of things we like. There is no curriculum out there in the world for us. So it has to be developed from scratch. I understand that because that's what I used to do for children um with developmental delays. Um they so you know curriculum has to be developed. It can't be uh found.

033And not only are there 20 students with different levels of cognitive development, you have to also deal with us, work with us with us grieving our brain injuries and our lives before and dealing with our lives now. Um, and making them work. Um, you're also as our staff team dealing with not only cognitive and academic issues, you're also dealing with our behavioral issues from problems that have occurred from our uh frontal loes which means we have various behaviors such as um we have very low impulse control. We have problems with understanding the nuances of verbal language and then mis interpreting what is said to us and then acting on that misinterpretation. So poor um emotional control, reduced motivation, big mood swings. I I can attest to that. Um and issues with working with short-term memory,

034um motor and speech issues. All that being said, it is challenging manning managing all of it to create a safe environment for our learning and our progress to take place. Um, before I found the LMA Vista program, I was at home after I had done acute rehab therapy for brain injuries for 14 months. And I don't know what I'd do without this program. And our teachers deserve um to be paid a living wage. Um, thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for the extra time. >> Melissa, followed by Jill. >> Melissa Raskkins or R. There she comes. Hi, I'm Melissa and I come from the TOPS program like Laura. I have been there since the summer of 2016 and since that time I have not found gotten employment and without them I

035would also not be able to be take take BART and bus and public transportation. So these teachers deserve to pay more than they are. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next is Jill. Jill, I can't pronounce. There you go. And followed by Brett popped it looks like. Okay, Jill. >> Uh, good evening board. I'm Jill Magneto. I am an AP Chem teacher and union rep at College Park. As Evan has talked earlier about, our stock room does not have air ventilation. Air ventilation is an required via OSHA and the district has known about this issue for at least 428 days documented on meeting notes with Chris Hansen. Chris Hansen and Melanie Costlo are not being responsive in emails. We often get ghosted for at least three or four months several times. We send a follow-up, no

036response. We send a follow-up, no response. Every time I'm in that stock room, I get a headache after being there for five minutes. Uh sometimes if I stay longer I will go home and then I start coughing a lot when I wasn't sick earlier that day. And this is a huge health violation and if OSHA is getting even more involved then there will be huge consequences with the district. 428 days is too long for this uh issue to uh be occurring. If I fall dead or if I get lung cancer, there's blood on the district's hands. Thank you very much. >> No thanks, >> Brett. who will be followed by Andrew Francis. So, go ahead, Brett. >> Thank you, board members. Um, I just want to say all of our teachers and staff and students

037stand behind our adult educators and know that they deserve to be paid a living wage. With that said, um I am here in a uh long string of teachers that represent some maintenance and operations issues throughout the district. at Sequoia Middle School right now. We have had a flooding issue in our music room that continues to be addressed with just drying out the music room once again year after year. The problem finally became so bad this year that we had our teacher in there start to start having headaches and migraines and getting sick more often than usual. We suspect because of mold. In order to rectify this situation, we had to move all of our music students out, which is a big draw to Sequoia Middle School. into our MU which does not have heat.

038It has now been over a month with our music students displaced in a building without heat attempting to play their instruments with cold hands. Please maintenance and operations needs to be better. Thank you. >> Thank you. Andrew Francis is up and will be followed by Kevin Taylor. >> Hi. Uh my name is Andrew Francis. I'm a science teacher at Conquered High School. So the discoveries at College Park about the ventilation issues have caused like some investigations at other secondary sites that use fume hoods for uh chemistry curriculum. And we're discovering that none of the fume hoods uh at any of our high school sites work. Uh most likely uh OSHA guidelines state that they need to be uh maintained and diagnosed every year. And so this should be something that's just on the calendar for

039maintenance and operations, but uh we don't even know when the last time anyone has checked these out. One of them that we know of has been broken for several years and they have fixed it once, but then it broke again. But so like this but this is something that teachers are not credentialed to diagnose themselves or maintain themselves. So this is something that falls on uh trust with the district and our employers to keep us healthy. Uh so these are things that could that are carcinogenic and could lead to like an early death and especially us being in the same room for decades. Uh this is something that needs to be taken more seriously than it is and these and we've all filed OSHA complaints. Thank you. >> Thank you. So Kevin Taylor and Kevin

040will be followed by Angel Tracado. Go ahead. >> Hi, my name is Kevin Taylor. I teach chemistry at Northgate High School. I'd like to echo everything that's been said about our stock room. Um, I would also like to point out that maintenance and operations has continued to fail us. We have flooding in our stock room, water building up underneath electrical boxes. We have it seeping under the wall into the walking area. And when I reported it, they replaced the hot water heater, not solving the issue of the clogged drain. Then when it happened again, they replaced the water heater a second time with another new model. And again, did not solve the clock. When they finally came and looked at it after hiring outside contractor, they were finally able to fix it after months of

041water buildup and damage that we don't even know how bad the water damage is. The exhaust fan in our staff bathroom does not work. You can you have to hold your breath to go in there and I'll leave it at that because there are children present. They told me it was fixed today. I walked in and I can see human hair hanging down from the exhaust fan that's not even strong enough to pull the dust bunnies back up into the fan to show that it works. We have CO2 buildup in our classrooms. I have no door. There is a ton of maintenance issues that need to be addressed. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Angel will be followed by Jessica. >> Hi, my name is Angel Trinkado. I serve the students at Hullbrook Language Academy,

042a dual language program, which we definitely should be investing more in our district. Um but uh as with the others, we've had problems with our maintenance and operations, the response time. In my four years there, we've had several issues with AC and heating. Um the first year transformer blew, the next year one wing was without AC. Um temporary units were put in and it's dead. And the noise that those things make makes it difficult for those teachers to teach and those students to be paying attention to their teachers. Uh this year our staff reported that their heaters were not working in October. It hasn't been until Janu or the end of January that we finally got them somewhat working. Uh lots of uh we we need something better. Thank you. >> Good evening. Please be

043clear that what we're bringing to your attention is not something that is inconveniencing us. It's a clear safety violation as well as OSHA violation. Our exposure to dangerous fumes was brought to College Park's attention when they received a violation in November of 2024 and was not even brought to our attention until December of 2024. And it has still not been equipped with the proper equipment. The lack of communication, the constant sidelining of the violations clearly communicates that our health and safety is a low priority for the Mount Diablo Unified School District. I'm not asking for special treatment. I'm asking for basic standards. I just want to go home to my family alive and well. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, we've got through all of the speaker cards. I want to thank each and every

044one of you for taking the time to come out here. I know it's frustrating that it feels like you only get a minute, but we got to hear from 30 of you instead of 10. And we got to hear about different is uh issues across the district. So, now we're going to move on with the and you're welcome to stay, but we're going to slowly start moving on to the rest of our meeting, which the next thing would be our communications from district organizations. And I'm assuming we're going to hear one from our friend Linda Ortega tonight. >> Madam President, prior to that, could I just ask, would you maybe uh make a point of clarification? And I know it's listed there under public comment, but as to the board's willing ability to respond to

045these comments and and how the public can expect action on the things that have been brought forward this evening. >> The Brown Act oversees our meetings and the Brown Act states that we are not allowed to engage in conversation on anything that's not on our agenda that's brought up during public comment. That does not mean you're not being heard. I can guarantee you from most everything we heard, the people that work at the district that needs to hear it have heard it, but the board members have taken notes. The board members will follow up on our own conversations with the district as we move forward. And if we see fit, we'll bring something back to the board meeting. So, I just want you to know it's not falling on deaf ears by any any means

046at all. Okay? And now we'll have our report. >> Good evening, President Mason, trustees, Miss Allen, members of the audience. My name is Linda Ortega. I am the proud president of the Mount Diablo Education Association which also includes the adult educators. I would like to first thank the trustees for attending our annual Alcosta breakfast last Saturday. It's a great event that allows local school boards to enjoy breakfast with their local teachers unions and to learn something about what is happening in other districts. I have always enjoyed this event and it is a great opportunity to share our stories those who are on my executive board with each other the trustees and to get to know each other a little better away from this um dis. So thank you again for attending. Unfortunately I have to

047ha I have to report how very frustrated I am with the continuing delays and responses from the ma maintenance and operations department. As you have heard, these issues are districtwide and not limited to just one site or area. From maggots falling from the ceiling, rat droppings in classrooms, mold, CO2 levels, and the infamous HVAC failures. How do you expect our students to concentrate and teachers to teach in these conditions? The lack of an immediate response and attention to these issues in is inexcusable. Our teachers have been following the processes that we have agreed to and still they have not they've had to wait and wait and wait for a response. Even in your own board docket, it says all students will receive a high quality education in a safe and welcoming environment. This is not

048safe. How long do they have to wait? How long do we all have to wait? Even responding to the set grievance process doesn't guarantee that the issue has been resolved. As you heard from what from one of our teachers, they have to submit their grievance and this is from Northgate. They've had to submit their grievance to the next level. That means at the highest level. That means it goes to the superintendent. But why why do so many people why does it take so many people to notice an issue? I have teachers who have been reporting these issues for months going through the appropriate channels and still the work has not been completed. For example, as stated stated by our science teachers, they have been waiting for months for ventilation systems to be completed in their

049chemistry workrooms. During a recent visit to the site, I myself walked through the workroom and within seconds I was overwhelmed by toxic flu fumes. I immediately left the room and had to use my inhaler to clear my lungs and I had to continue to use it the entire day. And after this incident, I found out that a ventilation still was not installed. What is it going to take to fix this problem? I was only in the room for just a few seconds. Our teachers have to go in there to prepare for their work. And this this is a safety issue. This continues to be a safety issue. And in regards to safety, I've heard that there was an incident at one of our school sites involving a weapon. When I inquired about this, I was

050told that the principal did not meet with the staff to discuss this incident. Why not? Our teachers deserve to find out what happened. What are the next steps? I would like to know what procedures are being followed or in in or in place to ensure that everyone at a school site is safe and informed. I still have not heard that this meeting had taken place. Just sending out a statement via an email is just not enough. Our teachers deserve to be told in person, what are you going to do to keep our members safe? We are all living in very uncertain times and my members are waiting to know what the district is doing to make sure our students and our staff are safe. These are the concerns from our educators and students. I hear

051this every day. Finally, and in the spirit of collaboration, I want to thank those who I have had contact with throughout the school district. I always appreciate when I make a phone call and people answer the phone and and answer the questions my members have from the various school sites, Willow Creek and the district office. Yes, even here at the district office, I appreciate your time and your willingness to take my phone calls and emails. My goal has always been, and I have shared this with all of you, to resolve issues at the lowest level before they become grievances. And I'm here standing today. We need to resolve the safety issues. It is important to our members, to our students, and to our community. Thank you. All righty. That takes us to recognitions and resolutions.

052Review of potential approval of resolution 25-2650, determination of seniority among certificated employees with the same seniority date. Mrs. Allen. >> Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to welcome up uh Brian Sheihi to share this resolution with you. >> Thank you. Good evening board. President Mason. Uh in accordance with education code uh 44955B, the board of education must order the seniority of certificating employees who first rendered paid service in the district in a probationary position on the same date and the governing board must determine the order of seniority solely basis on the need of the districts and the students thereof. This this resolution is here tonight as a um being proactive rather than reactive. This does not state that there will be uh we will not need to enact this but just in case we do,

053we have gone through the uh staffing projections and are bringing this forward tonight uh in the possibility of us maybe needing this prior to the March 15th not uh date. >> Thank you. Questions? If no questions, I'll entertain a motion. Madame President, I move the board approve resolution 25-2650 determineation of seniority among certificated employees with the same seniority date. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion by trusty Mayo, a second by trustee in Zwee. >> Trustee Barero Ariana, how do you vote? >> Yes. That's okay. Little computer glitch here. We'll have it in a minute. Let's go ahead and do a voice vote because we don't have another vote coming up right after this. So, Trustee McDougall, >> yes. >> Trusty Lawrence, >> yes. >> Trusty Ze, >> yes. >> Trusty Mayo, >> yes.

054>> And trustee Mason is yes as well. And that can get us on to our next item, which is Okay. Oh, there it is. Okay. So, Miss Allen, would you like to introduce our next dual language update? >> Yes. So, um our next item, we moved uh 11.2 to the top of this um part of our agenda. And so, I would like to welcome to the podium uh Dr. Giley and Mr. Shihy to the to provide the board with an update on our dual language programs at both Shoreacres and Bankraftoft Elementary. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, Board of Education and community members and audience. Um I'm Wendy Gilly and um chief of people services special education here with Ryan Shehy who's our chief of um human resources. And um I just we

055want to give you some information today about some um changes for our two-way um and one-way dual emerging programs at some of our sites. Um we do have a um presentation prepared for you and while I will be speaking on the presentation. Um many members of our um district staff have contributed to the presentation adding facts to the contribution. We also um did present some information last night to the Bankraftoft PA PFC group at their um invitation and have been responding to their requests. However, that presentation is not part of this today. So, we'd like to go ahead and get started. Um all right. So, I want to remind everybody that um in our district, the LCAP is our guiding document and the LCAP um sets the goals really for the board and the superintendent

056and the community and all of our um initiatives within the district need to lead to those outcomes. And the first outcome is that all students will demonstrate growth in meeting standards in English, English language development and mathematics. An English language of development would be the acquisition of English for students who come who speaking another language in their home. Some of those students come in speaking only English um learning English and some of those students come in fluent in English. There's different classifications with that. And in addition, as the state looks at our achievement data for all of our students, they um look at that data and say, "Okay, which groups do we need to pay particular attention to?" And the groups that we are listing are our multilingual students. Um is one of those groups

057along with our students who are experiencing homelessness and our students with IEPs. Um and again, part of that is because of the achievement levels for those particular groups of students on state standardized testing, even though we know that's only a partial story. And then also really um with those partnerships with our families, students, and staff. So we um again we also have been working with um California collaborative for um educational excellence in ach in really working towards those goals and improving the achievement of our students in those stated goals. We do participate in the LCAP process every year where we collect um formal input into the initiatives that we're doing. The current year's um LCAP is in place. it was adopted by the board and we will enter the cycle this spring for the next

058year's initiatives for um to meet those LCAP goals. However, we also do hear from our community at um many other events such as our PACEC um parent advisory committee, community advisory committee, budget advisory committee, African-American parent advisory committees, um district learner advisory committees, and events such as this tonight where our parents frequently come and share their concerns with us. As we look at the programs, we um we all remain student focused on that student outcomes, but depending on I like to think of it like a prism. We all have different windows that we're looking through to reach those goals. Some of the things that we look at are our facilities. We look at our student achievement as the end result. We look at our enrollment trends and our staffing. So, when we get to Shore

059Acres, we were looking at that and that's had a um history with dual language programs. What you're going to see here is structured English immersion. And if you're not familiar with the term, what that really means is instruction that's a traditional instruction. We sometimes think of it as English only instruction. But that's actually not true because as we already mentioned, many of our students come in speaking a language other than English as their home language. and we are obligated by education code and morality um to help them achieve fluency in the English language. So we call that our structured English immersion program and that used to be in place at Shore Acres where they had two sort of pathways to speak of the um traditional structured English immersion English instruction pathway and also the um

060immersion program that where we were taking our kids who come in speaking predominantly Spanish and then really helping them switch to more of an English model as the years went by. We know we test our kids in English. Our kids will participate in the um work world and everything and I can assure you speaking a second language is a great asset. However, um it's critical that we can also communicate in English. So then that program morphed into the um dual immersion program and the way they did that is they phased it out where the English only option was no longer there and now we're really looking at what do we need to do into the next coming up school year. And so the current model um is the 50/50 model over there and they have

061partner teachers and the children go backwards and forwards between the same classes. Again, we looked at the same factors that we already talked about the achievement and we know that um shore acres achievement we need to do more to raise the um achievement levels of those students. We also know that um the class sizes over there are very small. We have some families opting out of shore acres because even though they live within that residence area, they then um are choosing to not be in the dual language program and the English structured immersion program is not available there. We also were um looking at staffing across the district which Mr. Sheh he's going to talk about in a little while and then again the enrollment trends. So here is a slide that shows the achievement

062of our students at Shore Acres. And as you can see um the students who are um you know functioning at different levels and not only do we look at where the ch the ch the children are achieving, we also look at the growth or decline over time, right? And we know that when we came in after the pandemic, that 2021 year, we know that kids um lost some ground during that time. But again, um in our English language arts, we went from 8% to about 3% for our children who are English learners. And then um our English um who came in speaking English only went from 19 to 19. So that's kind of remained flat. Math, we can see everybody went from 11% where English language learners were at about 4%. That's a decline. And

063then our English only students 7% also a decline. The district's been working really hard on math um across the elementary programs. And as I mentioned, we've been working with the other agencies. So we know that we expect high outcomes for all of our children. They deserve it in order to be competitive in the world of work and the world of higher education or any education. So we want to maintain that commitment to them. [clears throat] So really what we're looking at is um switching up that model and that we have the model there where it's a self-contained to a language class rather than them switching backwards and forwards and then also having the Englishon version available there for those children. That will do two things for us. It will give the families who are residents

064the option to stay at their school in the Englishonly program and it will also provide that really very um sheltered structured program for um the children in that school. Did you want to jump in and talk about staffing at Shore Acres now? >> Okay. Um if >> we have any questions specific to this, you want us to wait hold it till the end or go through both? >> Um that's your pleasure. M I live around the corner from Shoreacres, so I'm very familiar with it. And I don't know at what point it became a dual immersion program. Yes. >> It had always been the program you're describing now where the kids come in and there's one all English classroom there's one and then eventually and that's why in DAC we're telling the parents all the

065time, keep talking your native language at home because we really want them to be bilingual. So my confusion is that the whole time I've been on the board, which has been a while now, it never came to the board to change it to a dual immersion program. So do you know how that happened? Um it was phased out about four years ago through the final year became um it's my understanding it was about four years ago. And again, our English language learner um director, Katherine Fireman, she's not here today because she is at a conference. She's out of town this week, happens to be. she will give you the exact date on that and she's the one who gave us all the data on all of these points. So, she's very well verssed in that.

066I'm just speaking for us today, but >> Okay. >> Yes. But it definitely did transition. Um the staff is um was supportive of the other model also. >> Well, because one thing I have learned being on the board is when school sites suddenly make a decision and go a direction, it ends up being our problem. So, it concerns me that this program somehow became real and we never got to vote on it. >> And we did have an opportunity, there was a group of us that did have an opportunity to go to Shoreacres and and speak with the teachers at Shoreacres and they we did talk about the the history of it and how things changed and what worked, what didn't work and so we were able to take all that into account as we

067were discussing possible changes. And on the subject of that, I did go back to this slide because I think it's really important to note that the teachers really were part of that solution for us. And um what we did the homework behind the scenes and we know that um part of the concern with this is really the um the numbers of the ability to hire and retain B-clad teachers that are have the ability to teach in those dual language programs. Right now we have um 22 teachers who are from out of the country with limited time work visas and 14 of those teachers are in our dual language programs. That's um at Shore Acres. However, we do have 10 teachers with a B-clad program with a B-clad there. So that was really helpful. So that

068was a good thing. So that is the All right, >> there we go. That would give me a good segue there. And we do know, you know, as as visa requirements are changing, the cost of visas that to go out outside the country to recruit teachers h that landscape has changed. And so that definitely comes into into account as we are looking to recruit B-Cloud teachers. Our our human resources team does have other ways. We are attending a large amount of job fairs this uh year. We know where there are students coming out of school with B-clouds and so we are definitely going there trying to recruit recruit within the US. But unfortunately, BCloud has been a very hard credential to find and to keep into in our schools. >> Um, on the bright side,

069um, the Bayoint community is experiencing residential growth and planned residential growth. So, we know that that community is good and thriving. The problem that we're having though is right now some of our Bayoint schools are impacted. So as students are moving out of the shore acres community because of the no English option um then we are moving over to Rio which then becomes full. We're moving to Bair and then we're kind of moving kids around. So we believe that by um shifting to this option we'll increase capacity at Shore and increase our outcomes for our students. So that's where we are with Shore and now we're moving on to Bankraftoft. and where we are with Bankrooft, same factors that we um considered the achievement, the facilities, the enrollment trends and um staffing. And um that

070staffing is not correct on that slide, but that there's not 10 BCloud teachers at Bankrooft, but the um other part about 14 of 22 teachers on with the limited time work visas is accurate still because that's a district-wide number. So um this particular slide we did present more um information glo um to the bankrooft community last night again that that information was um secured all by our English language learner department. Um but what you can see here again is that in English language arts our English learners at that school um are experiencing declining scores. Um the information we presented last night did break it out between those in the two-way dual immersion program and um the ones in the traditional um structured English immersion program. Similarly in math um we have again the lower scores

071um across the school and again um same pattern holds. It's important that we note though we do have space in the Englishonly um program at Bankraftoft um because facilities is an issue. What we know is that um you know many times we've we've listened to the community and their concerns around transfers and the bottleneck that that creates. We changed our board policies last year in order to reflect that um children who are residents have priority over children who are transfers into the bankrooft cohort of students in order to address part of that concern. Um but the in the English part is um definitely has space that we could certainly use. Um in addition when we did the um research on it what we found is that the bankraftoft residents about 67% of them choose the

072English structured English immersion program the traditional program um unlike the transfers that about 80% overwhelmingly choose that. There was a lot of discussion about are people choosing that um bankrooft for the school because it's you know got high achievement scores or because of the um two-way dual immersion program and either way is valid because that's what people are choosing but we do have space in that program. Um and again we also looked at the facilities again the um enrollment numbers um you know are we've increased enrollment there right now it's about 686 children and of course those numbers vary one way over the other um we also know that we had to remove our special day classes from bankrop several years ago. Most of our schools in the district have a full continuum of them.

073We meet every year to align where those programs go geographically. um we just met again this year and um so that's a consideration. We know that we've added additional buildings to Bankraftoft over the years in order to do that. And we also know that we've lost flex space over there such as um STEM labs or music labs. I believe music was on the stage one year and all kinds of things. And we also have heard um as recently as last week that the daycare that's located on campus, the private daycare is experiencing capacity issues. So again, we we did hear all about the um you know, different things and we are trying to address some of those concerns consistently. Um we have kids every year that get declined to foothill and we know that's really

074difficult. Um there's no doubt about it that when kids become friends over the many many years, it's not just kids that become friends, it's the community that comes together, right? They all become literally a community. That's what we want. And so it's really difficult and we have to break that. And again, we did um go ahead and change that board priority. So it's very possible that many of the current children who are transfers into bankrupt will not get to go to Foothill and that will be hard. That will be a hard transition. And it's also very possible that a lot of the kids at Foothill will not go to Northgate and that will be another hard transition. So, what we are proposing is that if we phase out the program, not phasing the program and

075eliminating it, moving it to Woodside, which is 1.8 miles away. We did um present information last night at the Bankfra PFC meeting regarding distances, etc., etc. We did not do it by home address. We did it by home, school to school. But generally speaking, the bank the um Woodside program would be closer for many of the people transferring in. When we look at the people transferring in, they're coming from all over the district. Ayers, um, Hidden Valley to name a few. I'm thinking of some that are far away. I'm thinking Valley Verde, which is right next door. Interestingly enough, we also do have children who are moving from sites that do have current two-way dual immersion programs like Hullbrook or Meadow Homes or Ignatio Valley. They are also moving to Bankraftoft for two-way dual immersion

076in the program. So, what's important is all of our current students can have the option to remain in place. It does not impact our current students. They will remain in place. All of our um students in our kindergarten program, our TK program is not a two-way language program and never has been at any of our sites. Uh we do believe that starting out the kids with that very intensive English instruction is really important and research backs that up. It's not simply a belief. We also know so the impact to current students there is not an impact to current students. They will continue in their program. That is really important. And then metriculating students will continue to follow the same transfer process. So again the priority will always be residents. Then it goes to siblings. and

077then it goes down the pathway and then when it goes down to the cohorts it will be the resident cohorts first and again the transfer cohort. So it's again likely that many of those children will not be metriculating to Foothill or Northgate but we don't know what that will look like at the time. We do know there is new construction coming um on Mitchell and we do know that um that report was just done for the environmental impact report and so we are aware that that's another consideration that will impact staffing and transfers in that area in the coming years. And then for families, um the resident with incoming age kindergarten students um again the TK students right now there's 24 TK students at Bankrooft. Of those um 14 of them have older siblings in

078the um structured English immersion program and nine of them have um siblings in the dual language program. So those would be the families that we can tell. Again, the kindergarten um students will just continue on. We don't know how many kindergarters will be coming because they haven't all enrolled yet. But we do know the TK kids. Again, there's this group of nine that have siblings who are older and are in two-way dual immersion that probably were anticipating going to two-way dual immersion. So, nine students and again, so those students who are residents um with those kindergarten kids, they would choose between going to Woodside and again um we had a parent last night share about, you know, dropping kids off at multiple schools. A lot of parents do. And then we've had questions about looking

079at bell times. So, we would certainly make that happen. Um and then again, for those students, even if they selected Woodside, they would still remain residents of the Bankraftoft area. So if they wanted to go to Foothill when the middle school time came they would not have to metriculate to whatever school you know Oakgrove they could come back to Foothill as residents. Um similarly those who are transferring in could also elect to move their children to Woodside. But again even if they did that and at the middle school they would have the transfer priority available to them as siblings which is a higher priority to transfer than the program cohort anyway. So siblings would always get first priority to transfer no matter where they transferred to whether that includes to bank. We would accept transfers

080to bankroft is for the siblings in the structured English program because sibling trumps program and we would also um honor those for middle school transfers. All right. So in summary that is the proposal to do that because for all of the reasons that we've just stated and then we've also had questions about the staffing impact. So I will let Mr. Shehi speak to that. >> Yeah. So per the per the collective bargaining agreement with our with our teachers union by March 1st. Our pro our principles program managers shall notify members of their tenative assignment. We are we attempt to be very proactive with that each year. Right now those are slated to go out February 20th just to make sure to be give extra time ahead of that ahead of that guideline. If as this

081process goes, as staff, you know, the staffing need at one site may decrease while the staffing need at another site may increase. Those are those individuals are put onto an involuntary transfer process [clears throat] on a list which then we go through the involuntary transfer process as outlined in our collective bargaining agreement. Um these transfers are are identified all by seniority. Um, you know, really it is one of those things as we look at credentials, look at the need of credentials, how can we make sure that we have uh qualified educators to continue to educate the students of Miata Unified. >> We're at the end of our slides. >> Okay. Do any other board members have questions they want to ask before we take public comment? Nope. Okay. We will go to public comment. Thank

082you. Okay, we're going to go with two minutes. We have 18 speakers. First will be Salman. I'm not even going to try to butcher your last name, Salman. We don't usually do that because we just don't usually do that. So, are you just going to defer and let her speak >> later? >> Yeah, I'll go quick. >> Okay. Your name is >> My name is Elizabeth Silva >> and I have I'm a parent of a second grader in the two-way dual immersion program at Braftoft and I have an incoming TK student this coming year. I moved into Mount Diablo Unified School District specifically for the D two-way dual immersion program. The announcement on January 28th that Mount Diablo Unified would immediately phase out the dual immersion program and move it to Woodside came as a

083shock to our entire school. It was two weeks before the kindergarten de uh the kindergarten uh opened the enrollment for kindergarten. Yesterday, Dr. Wendy Aguili confirmed that the district did not do any outreach to bankro families before announcing the decision. The district did not consult with key committees and the district had no projected impact analyses or studies to share. There are so many questions that still need to be answered, including, you know, what will happen to the demographics of Braftoft as a result of this, of Foothill as a result of this, and of Northgate. Similar issues have in the past, as you know, derailed efforts to create a new school district. So, we are here on behalf of more than 300 families. We have I counted 65 people from Bankraftoft and we have a petition

084that we submitted today that signed by over 300 families asking please to pause the decision, allow time for the num numerous uniform complaints to be reviewed, and ensure that all of the processes were followed. We know that the LCAP requires participation from families and from different different committees and to work together with our community. We want we want to work with the the board. We want to work with the district um on a solution that works for all. And to one thing that that Wendy said earlier, you know, it sounds like the sol there has already been a solution for the for the bottleneck and foothill. The people in boundary are going to get preference from Braftoft. And if if people out of boundary don't like it, they can make other decisions. But we don't

085need to make this decision right now as a result. And I think also the Mitchell development is not physically closer to Bankrooft. It has it's closer to other schools. So there are other solutions. Thank >> Elaine Nuland. Elaine Elaine and Elaine will be followed by Natalie Webb. Good evening and thank you for your time tonight. I have a second grader in Brooft's TWWDI program and a four-year-old who I would ideally like to attend the program. Um, working at IDO, a worldrenowned innovation firm, I supported organizations in building out innovative solutions that work for the people who they serve. So, I'm speaking up on the decision process that should have been used but was not in this decision. At the core of innovation is one essential principle. Set aside your assumptions and do your research. Engage

086your end users and pressure test your thinking. This ensures you're approaching the problem from the right angle. From our perspective, that foundational step was completely missed. Those impacted were not engaged at any point. Many advisory committees were listed by Dr. Wendy, but they were not engaged. Teachers found out the same day we did. And the data used is incomplete and blatantly misleading. Research is where you ensure you're solving the right problem in the right way. After research comes ideation and iteration, building potential solutions, testing them quickly, gathering feedback, and making adjustments. That's what good systems do. We're respectfully asking you to pause this decision for one year. Engage the community, explore solutions that meet the goals without dismantling something that means so much to so many. This community is not resisting change. We're asking you

087to pause, do your due diligence, and work together. Slowing down to be thoughtful is not weakness. It's good leadership. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, we have Natalie Webb who will be followed by Melanie Gagliote. >> Good evening. My name is Natalie Webb. I have a second grader in the dual immersion program at Braftoft and I also have incoming TK twins who under the current plan will not have the same opportunity. We chose intentionally as we chose Braftoft intentionally as our neighborhood school and we chose dual immersion because we believe bilingual education builds academic growth, cultural connection and community. Braftoft's dual immersion program has done exactly that for our daughter. Two weeks ago, families were notified an abrupt dis transition plan with no meaningful parent engagement. Little time to plan and no clear data or

088long-term plan showing how program quality and outcomes will be protected. This feels like a major decision being implemented without the transparency and stakeholder input the LCAP process is intended to require, especially when access and equity are impacted. My ask is simple. Pause the transition. Share the data and rationale and form a collaborative working group with families and staff to create a thoughtful multi-ter plan that preserves the integrity of dual immersion at Braftoft and beyond. Thank you. Followed by Lucia or Lucia. Good evening, school board members. My name is Melanie Gagliote. I have two students currently enrolled in Bankrooft's dual immersion program, and we had planned for my youngest daughter to enter in the 2728 school year. Under that plan, my daughters would have each spent at least four years learning and growing side by side.

089This program offers the invaluable gift of learning Spanish, a language I speak and reflect our family's Colombian and Puerto Rican heritage. My daughters began their education in a Spanish immersion preschool, and continuing at Bankrooft has provided meaningful continuity in their academic and cultural journey. For our family, this program is not simply a pathway to Foothill. It is part of who we are. For that reason, we respectfully ask the district to pause the phase out of the bankrooft program. Doing so would demonstrate the district's commitment not only to addressing enrollment, but to preserving and creating highquality dual immersion programs. Slowing this transition would allow time to thoughtfully strengthen the Woodside dual immersion program using Bankraftoft as a model as a proven model. This approach would support long-term program success, build confidence and demand at Woodside, and

090help address feeder pattern challenges more sustainably. If the transition moves forward too quickly, there is a real risk of destabilizing the dual language program and ultimately creating the same overenrollment challenges the district is working to solve. We respectfully urge you to p to pause the phase out and engage meaningfully with the community. We understand that changes are necessary and we are eager to collaborate on solutions that keep current families together during these formative years while ensuring that new families have clear and timely information as they begin their elementary school journey. Thank you. Salman. >> Good evening everybody. My name is Lucila. I'm here with a clear request. Please pause the immediate implementation of the dual immersion program phase out. Study the impact of the decision and properly engage families in accordance with the ELP. I

091was born and raised in Argentina. My husband was born in Peru. He was raised in Argentina. We moved to the US 11 years ago. We have three kids. Two are currently in the dual immersion program. Olivia, she's five years old. She's going to join kindergarten in August. The decision directly affect us. We have three options. None of them is realistic or give us equitable solutions. The three of my kids, they are English learners. For our family, bilingual education is not an enrichment program. This is our heritage. District have authority to make program decisions but they must follow the LCAP process which requires meaningful parent engagement, transparency and data informed decision making. The timing of this announcement is deeply problematic. We heard about this 10 days before the enrollment was open. We are asking for a

092thoughtful, equitable, transparent process. Programs that support Spanish matter deeply right now in a time when Spanish speaking communities and are being targeted and marginalized nationally. Districts like Mont Diablo should be protecting and strengthening these programs instead of weakening them without community input. Please pause the implementation of the decision and work with the families before moving forward. Dr. Salman, it will be Jessica Lee. Go ahead. >> Good evening. Um, I actually live in the Walnut Creek School District. My son is an interd district transfer into the Spanish program at Bankrooft. I also have a daughter who will be TK eligible in the upcoming school year. For our part, we did not come to Bankro for entry to into Foothill. I don't even know where Foothill is. My kids will go to Walnut Creek Intermediate when their

093time at Bankro ends. We came to Bankro simply for the highly acclaimed Spanish program. We know that the early years of a child's life are the most important time to learn multiple languages. And we know that the majority of California school kids are Latino. For us, Spanish is not extracurricular. It is foundational. I'm asking all of the parents on the board to please consider that these are the most vulnerable years of a child's life. My children are each other's constant companions. My daughter has never thought of school in any other context than joining her big brother. They emotionally regulate one another. Children are not some funible item like taking marbles from one jar to fill up a different jar. If I have to tell my daughter that unfortunately she's going to go and start kindergarten

094at a different school than her brother, there will be very real heartbreak. There will be very real distress and it will not show up on any district chart. Her other option to keep my children together is to deprive my daughter of the opportunity that her brother already has to learn Spanish. We will be setting their lives on different trajectories just till they can attend the same school. Please don't ask parents to make these desperate, hopeless choices with only a few days notice. Please pause this drastic change. Please save Spanish education at Bankraftoft. It is a major pillar of its excellence as a school. And if we do our pause and we do our research and we do meaningful engagement with the actual parents and families who are affected and we end up at this exact

095outcome last year, at least we will have had a year to prepare. Thank you, Jessica Lee, followed by is it Peggy? Pega Pega. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Jessica Lee and I am a parent of the two children here. My daughter is in second grade and my son is in current TK. Um on January 28th, families were notified that the kindergarten pipeline to the two-way dual immersion program would not be moved or would be moved just days before the enrollment period. It was called as a transitional phase, but this is not a transition. This is disruption to our family and this is immediate. My 5-year-old would would be required to leave his school community next year. That means separating siblings or managing two campuses or abandoning bilingual education entirely. This is not a

096small operational adjustment. It's a structural disruption. Because the district did not gather in um gather input from affected TK families before making this decision, I conducted my own survey. In just a few days, 24 families currently enrolled uh TK families responded. 88% of them were planning to apply for the two-way dual immersion program at Bankrooft. if this program moves. 54% reported significant hardship, transportation, child care, work disruption, and zero families said that they would move to Woodside. Um, all 75% say keeping two-way dual immersion at Bankrooft determines whether they enroll. That is not speculation. That is measurable enrollment risk. This program has existed for over a decade. It is high demand. It supports English learners. It promotes bilingualism, biiteracy, and cross-cultural understanding. When access becomes logistically hard, participation narrows. That is an equity issue. California

097law requires meaningful stakeholder consultation before major programmatic decisions, especially those affecting English learners. They did not adhere to LCAP requirements. Please, we're asking you >> to pause this. >> Pega, who will be followed by Juliet Alaso. >> Pega, here she comes. >> Hello. Thank you for having us here tonight and letting me speak. My name is Pega Sherest. I am a parent of two children already in the two-way dual immersion program. I have a kindergartenner and a second grader. I am a Walner Creek native. I myself attended Bankraftoft and the schools always felt like my home. Uh last night a district representative suggested that this decision doesn't really affect the families that are already in the program and that could not be further from the truth. It really um that framing ignores reality. This phase

098out is the end of the program as we know it and the end of something much larger for my children. By the time my kindergarten reaches fifth grade, there will be roughly 60 dual immersion students left in the entire school. That has serious implications for program quality, pure learning, and diversity. It moves us towards separation, not inclusion. I struggle to understand how that is equitable for families already committed to this pathway. Meaningful parent engagement is a requirement of the LCAP process, an intent and timing matter. I had a long conversation with a representative from the uh California Board of Ed education from the superintendent's office today and she told me to plead with you guys and ask you as humans this was not given intent and timing and the decision um was forced upon us

099without um the opportunity to for engagement which everyone has mentioned but also without the opportunity to complete the uniform complaint process which we know takes at least 90 days to get into the uh state system. Uh so given this truncated timeline, I ask that you pause the decision. Um I'm not going to say things that I think they've already been touched upon so that everyone gets to speak, but um please see the error in the district's process and show this community your commitment to transparency, equity, process, and accountability. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. So, Julieta, Here we go. And Julieta will be followed by I think it says Kayla. >> Hello. My name is Juliet Alonso. I'm from Argentina. Um I respectfully request that the district consider the following. Bos the immediate

100face out to allow families adequate time to plan and avoid disruption to students currently enrolled in the program. Open a transparent and structured dialogue with the bankrupt community including families, staff and stakeholders before moving forward with any final decision. provide a clearly outlined transition plan with a realistic timeline ensuring continuity for current immersion students and clarity for incoming families. These decisions is impact not only individuals family but al but also the stability and cohesion of the entire school community. We deserve thoughtful communication, adequate planning time, and the opportunity to be meaningfully involved. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. Is it Kayla or Caya? Last name Hickerson. Oh, there you are. Hi, my name is Ka Hickerson. I'm a second grade student at Bankraftoft. I have a little brother, Hrix, who just

101started coming to school with me. Please don't make my brother go to a different school. We love seeing each other at school. We and we feel safe knowing we can help each other. We want to stay together at the school we love. Please don't move our program. >> Thank you. >> Says she has I just wanted to say um the end of my speech is that >> it was her time. >> Oh yeah. Aren't we one? No. >> Sorry. Thank you though. >> Okay. Good. one followed by Angelina or Angelica. >> Hello board members. Thank you for your time. I come to you as a parent of five two in middle school and two three at Bankro actually and I can tell that the presentation we we just saw is inaccurate. It will affect my

102child, right? It's affecting my child. is currently going to TK and will be affected by this transfer. Actually, it will be impossible for us logistically to distribute our kids in three different schools, right? Uh it's challenging right now with two, it would be impossible for us. So, you are denying to my kids uh to to attend to a Spanish program, which is is amazing, right? us as a Spanish community will enable us to keep uh culture, heritage, connection with our uh families and friends and also it will allow us to to also study abroad, study back to our homes if we need of any of our children. So we ask you to stop the the the migration of this program, right? We we really need this program to be bankrupt and you're affecting communities. Also,

103[clears throat] I have two kids uh that are already in middle school and I can testify this program works really really really well. Right? And I challenge some of the points I saw in the in the presentation like staffing moving a program to different school won't help. Right? Those those element does doesn't make sense. also uh it's not necessarily the transfer to foothill which we don't need right so again ask you to reconsider and at least pause and give us more time right it's challenging for us as family to deal with all these logistic problems and and get ahead with all our family right and community thank you so much >> thank you >> so Angelica who will be followed by uh Acacia Landfeld. As uh vice principal of Shoreacres Elementary, I am proud of

104the passion and commitment our community has shown to the dual immersion program. I am here tonight as an advocate in the spirit of our LCAP to show our families that there is to be a partnership between us and the district. Uh, Shortac Acres does have a transitional kindergarten dualway immersion this year. It was stated earlier that it did not. And I want to take this time to implore the threat of losing a B-clad teacher um with the possibility of their discontinuing the program uh is detrimental to our community. Uh thank you for your time. >> Thank you. And was it good? Got it. And after her will be Jessica Kelman. [clears throat] >> Hi, good evening. My name is Aaca Lanfield and I'm a public health researcher who studies policy evidence and I've studied and

105followed dual immersion policy across multiple states for 20 years. I'm also a parent of three children currently or formally in Bankrooft TWWDI. Two of them are bilingual sixth graders who were denied the ability to even apply to continue with their cohort and advanced um Spanish pathway despite us living in Walnut Creek and despite Foothill Northgate being Walnut Creek schools. My third child is still in the program and now in a different district than his brothers. A year ago, it took weeks working with the district to confirm something stunning. The district never developed dual immersion into a formal academic program with continuity protections, meaning that students have not been given priority as a program cohort. At the same time, Clayton area enrollment and historical priority decisions do affect access to Northgate, my understanding is 50 or

10660 or 70 students or more per year. So, if capacity is the real reason bilingual pathway students cannot continue, the public deserves to see the actual seat allocation driving that claim. A question for you tonight. How many students is that? I also want to say this respectfully but clearly. The data presented on February 10th and tonight left many families unsettled because it appears to shift definitions depending upon the point being made. Groups are combined when convenient and separated when convenient. For example, when ELLL outcomes were cited as lower, there was no transparent breakdown of which English language learners were included. And TWWI students are often high performing bilingual students. This is the case at Braftoft and most schools. If you don't define subgroups, the narrative can be built by slicing and dicing rather than by

107analysis. That's why multiple attendees, including data analysis analysts, could not follow the methodology sources or assumptions. There were no sources or citations. We don't have the data. We don't know. We're being asked to trust. We also heard insinuations that families, particularly conquered families, enroll in dual immersion to obtain foothold or Northgate access. This is a serious character characterization. If that claim is part of the justification, it should be supported with evidence, not implication. And in fact, we know from hundreds of students at Bankro this in insinuation is both false and incredibly hurtful to our friends, my good friends in conquered included. So please, we ask to pause implementation for this thriving heritage program. >> And oh my gosh, please limit. Thank you >> Jessica who will be followed by Cecilia. >> Hello. Thank you for

108listening. My name is Jessica Kelman. I'm the parent of a kindergartener in two dual immersion. It's a wonderful program. It should be studied. It should be replicated, not destabilized with a clear without a clear implementation plan. I'm also a journalist whoation for the seniors. I've seen that good intentions fail when decisions are rushed and imple implementation isn't there. Two weeks ago, families received an announcement, not a plan. We have not been pro provided with the criteria, data or written analysis supporting relocation. The community was not given any notice or chance for feedback before the announcement was made. Though LCAP rules call for community engagement, yes, no goals, strategies, or pro projected outcomes have been shared. As a parent, I feel blindsided and betrayed. That lack of transparency undermines trust. A proven strategy is to replicate

109what works. Braftoft has become one of the district's highest performing schools in recent years. We need more of those. This district should study what's working at Bankfra and build additional capacity at other schools, including Woodside. This program brings much needed ethnic, cultural, and lived experience diversity to Foothill and Northgate. For example, at Foothill, only 15% of students are Hispanic. At Oak Grove, 77% of students are Hispanic. At Foothill, 3% of students are English learning. At Oak Grove, it's 42%. How does this decision support our district diversity goals and decrease segregation? That's a question for you to ponder, maybe prove. The true goal here seems to be a desire to change enrollment patterns at low performing schools. What data supports relocation over expansion? What role does this board's two 2016 vote to give Clayton residents priority

110at Northgate play? I believe the district is using this to try to route children to Oakrove, a low performing school. What do you plan to do differently to create a high performing learning environment for our children in this new feeder pattern? With election coming up in months, please take a moment. Please do real research. Please be transparent. Please follow procedure and listen to the community. Please pause the immediate phase out. Thank you. >> Say thank you. >> Followed by Marcella. every patiently and most people have done a really good job of staying within the time limits and I've given a lot of people grace. So I would just love for you all to respect us and to respect each other and the time and these children who I've by their ages are approaching their bedtimes.

111So we want to make sure everyone has a chance to speak. So just respect the time. Thank you. Hold on. And also, can she speak more clearly into the microphone also? Good evening everybody. On January 23rd, I registered my daughter for TKU and on the 29th they told us about the bilingual program for TK. So today we are making a request for the dual immersion program and this program should continue from TK all the way up to fifth grade. Leaving no child behind since we are an inclusive school. with excellent teachers and under the education code 303 and the community is behind us 310 interpreter correction. and the community is behind us. We've collected signatures and today we are going to turn it to you is 132 signatures. And now that they're talking about the

112scores that are really low, we need your support more than ever. And you are welcome whenever you please. You can come to our school. and we had a new administration recently and we're very happy with them. This is the second year and you can see that there's been an increase on the graphics. So this year we are having the vice principal for half a year. So we are just hopeful and sadly we will no longer have our family leas. So we are losing another sport. And that's why we want to ask for your support for our school. And we like to have the opportunity to have one class in English, but we the opportunity to have one class in English and Spanish. from TK to fifth grade. Because this will be my first daughter that

113will start TK. I have two children in special education. So, this will be my daughter's chance to take advantage of the district's education. >> Thank you. I doubled the time. >> Thank you. >> Oh, Marisella Sanchez. Good evening. My name is Maricella Sanchez. I'm here representing community frustrated. And we also feel that uh taking this very important decision wasn't done in a very transparent way. None of the families were involved. There was no previous warning. The last and this happened right before the registration open for kindergarten and for TK. You need to understand that as parents, we made this decision with several years in advance to choose the best future for our children. Our children should be the most important factor to consider for these kind of decisions. Debra Mason. Miss Deborah Mason is who

114represent us in the community. keep our language and it's not a hurdle. It's actually a strength. And this strength makes our children, our kids will have a better future vocationally and in labor. And while we make this decision, you are making our whole educational system including our children vulnerable. When you violate your own objectives from the LCAP is setting a present for something that was that had no place in this school district in which your community doesn't feel heard, doesn't feel valued. We're being discriminated for individually, collectively, and structurally. Leaving our children vulnerable for resources that the bilingual system will be able to offer. And we know that in the future they will have better opportunities. >> Thank you, M. >> Madam President, if I if I I I just recognize how many uh families

115we have with small children. And something I wanted to make sure everyone in the audience understood is that tonight, this is on as an information item. So, I just want to set the expectation the board legally cannot take any action tonight. And so, I just want to make people aware of that. Okay, Andrea Navaro. Okay, >> thank you. >> Good afternoon, trustees. We are teacher, staff, and community at Share Acres. It is alarming that phasing out the dual program at Sure Acres was an option for the district. It is inequitable to have even thought that it was okay to phase out the last bilingual program in Baypoint. We are asking that you have clear communication with families and staff. Directors from the district came to our site on January 30th to answer questions and reiterate

116the message that the program was being phased out. And today in the afternoon, we were informed that we are potentially keeping a self-contained kinder dual class and structured structured English immersion class based on enrollment. We need the district to commit to continual bilingual education in Bayoint. Thank you. Great. The last one is Yuani Var Vargas. It says for dual language from Bayoint had to go home. Thank you. I thank thank all of you for your public comment. As Trusty Lawrence has said, this is an information item only. So, we have received your information and the people that need to know about programming has received your information and there will be more to come. So, thank you so much. Did you want to say something or any other board members have questions or comments? They can

117go after Mr. Lawrence here. >> Yep. So, one question I had for for Dr. Agiley um would be if if the board were to make a move to postpone this decision, what would be the imp do we know what the implications of that would be? Where are we in the decision? The the logistics, the financials, what would be that impact if there were any type of delay on this uh the implementation of this? >> Right. So, I think the the um the school um I'm not sure where the board's role falls within this decision about moving um the program because it's not a closure, it's a moving. Um but simply put, I think that the reason that the timing was done this way was really to align with the kindergarten um transfer window which was

118opening up. Um in addition to that, this is you know January when the decisions were made and school is starting in August which is seven months. Um the factors that are being considered which are um achievement data which we know changes from year to year. we saw the sheet um that's publicly available on data quest which is a lot of questions wherever that information is coming from um that doesn't contain all of the sources of information such as the reclassification but that quick view of data cost will show you how achievement changes over time by student group and school and district etc. Um the other factors though that would just simply push the um can down the road, right? So we have parents here today who are talking about, you know, their children are in

119kindergarten or TK and should you move it down another year, you're going to have the same problem in a year with another group of children, but you're also going to have another group of children who are facing that cohort breakup, etc., etc., which um to be fair, we did take steps to address that last year. And um but you would still be in that same position kind of kicking the can down the road. It wouldn't address the issue. Um there was a comment about Diana Dare. I know the district is negotiating with Diana Dare. Um that um so I will defer on that question. Um but again it doesn't um the the other factors aren't likely to change in the near future. the issues with obtaining staff from, you know, the short-term visas is not

120likely to get any better within the next couple of years, etc., etc. >> You have one one public comment's done. Okay. Thank you very much. If there's no other questions, we'll go on to our next item, which is And I'm assuming [clears throat] some of you want to get these kitties home, so feel free to quietly exit while we get ready for our next presentation. >> So, I I did just want to share a a perspective on this. And I I thank >> Dr. Agiley for for sharing. Um, you know, I think there are multitude of factors here. There is the capacity of our schools. One of the things and I and I shared this with with folks previously is when you have one one elementary school that has triple the student population of another,

121you have imbalances that helps create inequities. Um we are all here and all highly focused on student achievement and there are some real gaps that um the superintendent and our staff are aiming to to address. Um but I think the other part of this is we need to make sure that we are balancing this with um transparency and collaboration. And I think our our board uh would be wise and staff would be wise to really listen to the the feedback we heard this evening and take that into account and reflect on that in terms of how we go about our decisions. Um are we achieving the optimal decision? At the end of the day, I mean, I I I will be very blunt. People are inevitably going to be unhappy. There are hard choices that

122have to be made in public education and there are trade-offs, but I do think that it is incredibly important to make sure that we are still balancing collaboration and um making sure that people have a voice. And there are times where as a school district there are certain things that um due to laws and um labor relations and things like that that cannot always be uh done in public and and that impacts some of the timing. But I just I I do strongly believe that um both the the staff and our board should reflect on the feedback we've received tonight. So thank you. And with that said, we're going to move on to our financial report, review and acceptance of the Mount Devil Unified School District independent audit to the fiscal year ending June 30th.

123Uh thank you, Madame President. I'd like to welcome to the podium uh Adrien Vargas, who's going to introduce our guest speaker tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. Your children were incredibly well behaved. >> Seriously. >> We should have an interview. Okay, Adrienne, the floor is yours. Thank >> Thank you. Um, so I have Jeff Nigro with Nigro and Nigro, uh, our independent, uh, audit firm. And so Jeff is here tonight to go through the 242 um, year end audit. So with that, Jeff, good evening. Thank you. Uh there's nothing quite as good for the ego as having a whole room full of people stream out [laughter] right as you're about to speak. So I know the audit isn't as interesting as the previous stuff, but um I will keep this brief. And as uh doc

124Mr. Vargas mentioned, this is for the 2425 fiscal year. We're now seven months into the new fiscal year obviously, but uh it's important to go over this and really I I'd just like to summarize what an audit is. I think it's important because I think a lot of people hear the word audit and it conjures up negative images. Uh people tend to think of the IRS or SEC auditors that, you know, carry people out of buildings in handcuffs and it's nothing like that. I like to use the analogy that the audit is similar to going to the doctor for your annual physical checkup. You know, it's about that exciting. Hopefully, you don't hear anything too alarming. Now, um the audit is to give an opinion on the district's financial statement. So, you adopt those unodudited

125actuals in September and then we come in and we look at those numbers. Now, there's obviously a lot more to it. It's a year-long process. We start uh early. In fact, for the 2526 audit, we've already started. We've gone out to some of your school sites and we're looking at their ASB procedures and we're looking at their attendance. So, that process starts early. We come to the district before the books are even closed in the spring and we look at processes. We start looking at all the compliance areas that we have to look at. And believe me, those compliance areas are growing every year. as the state gives you more and more these program monies, they want them audited to make sure that the district's following all the compliance rules. So, there's numerous requirements over

126all these programs. Uh the big new one for this coming fiscal year is going to be the attendance recovery program. So, you know, we've already had discussions about some of that, but anyway, we we do a lot of that work in the spring before the books are closed and then we come back in the fall uh to do the final piece of the audit and then we come out after the audit's filed and present it to you. So, the good news is that the opinion that on our um on the audit is what we call unmodified. It's a clean opinion. That's the opinion you want to get from the auditor. It basically means that the financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. So that's really the ultimate goal of the audit

127is to get that opinion. Um, now there's obviously a lot more to the report and I'm not going to go through every section in the interest of time. I could bore you to tears and go through each section page by page, but we won't do that. Um, I think what most people are interested in is they flip right to the back because that's where we put the findings. And it's not because we want to hide them or anything. They're they're public information, but that's where we're required to put them. The state controller is very uh precise about the order of the audit report. Is that me? Um anyway, there are some findings this year. Um some were new findings, some were repeat findings from the previous year. Um we've had numerous conversations with management about

128uh what needs to happen to correct some of these. And my understanding is some of the things are happening now. So, we'll be back here a year from now to report back on the status of those. Just like every year, we have to report back on the status of any previous findings. So, um that's my very quick overview of the audit. Um clean opinion, some findings, some things to work on, and I'm happy to answer any more detailed questions if you want to go through those. I appreciate the thoroughess and um the explanations and the findings and I want to thank staff for um figuring out how we're going to correct those findings um because that's important part of our process and uh so thank you to everyone that was involved in this process. Um,

129I'm help u some nonprofits do an informal review of their financial records and I know how important these items are. So, thank you very much. >> Anybody want to make a motion? >> Madame President, I move that the board accept um approve uh item 11.2 to the uh MDUSD independent audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025. >> Second that. >> Do we have a second? Okay. Okay, we have a motion by Trustee Lawrence and was it Allen or was Okay, Trusty, it just was a male voice coming that direction. >> Trusty will second. No, you all sound alike to me. So, okay, we're just waiting to vote. Okay. And that passes 5 with the consent from our student. And we'll make sure we invite you again next year when we have a

130full house just so you can enjoy yourself. We enjoyed it actually. Okay. So now we are at um 11.3 uh Mount Dav Unified School District Black Educators Association presentation. Miss Allen. >> Yes, Madame President. Thank you so much. I am so proud and delighted to invite our own Dr. Francis to the podium to come up and share report um with regards to our Mount Diablo Black Educator Association. So thank you. I wish the room was just as crowded as it was a few minutes ago. Just saying. >> We have everybody we need. We thank you bealf of the Mount Diablo Unified School District Black Educators Association. We want to acknowledge that this is Black History Month uh that we celebrate in the month of February. We're going to begin our uh presentation by singing Lift

131Every Voice and Sing, which is the national black anthem. And it's going to be sung by our very own Mr. Jeremy Armando Strong Whale, who is an alumni of Mount Diablo Unified School District, um and is also a former music teacher. And so, he's going to go ahead and give us a rendition of that strong will. Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven heaven. ring with the harmonies [singing] of liberty. Let our rejoiceing [singing] rise high as the liing skies. Let it resound loud as the roll [singing] rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us. Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought brought us. [singing] Facing the rising sun of our new day began. [singing] Let us march on till

132victory is won. [singing] >> Thank you so much uh Mr. Strong will and I just want to uh remind you that he is also a teacher in our district. >> Yes. Yes. Good evening. Um, first of all, we want to acknowledge um the audacious leadership of our superintendent who's not here tonight, Dr. Adam Clark. We want to acknowledge all district personnel, uh, any politicians, the distinguished trustees and VIPs, all of the ordinary people that see us as equal. We want to acknowledge the hood, the hustables, the anybodyodies, the everybody's, the somebody's and the liy daties. And everybody likes to party and don't cause trouble and don't bother nobody. We wish you peace and educational prosperity. Tonight, as we celebrate the 100th year of Black History Month, we recognize that our story is too sacred to

133be squeezed into a season. A story cannot be confined or contained to a calendar month. However, it is a part of a larger legacy of global resilience that demands year-long recognition and both culture and our curriculum. Black history is American history. Therefore, we are not add-ons. We are not additions or seasonal sidebars. Yet, we are the blueprint and the blackbone of this country. We are the rhythm and the reason of the American narrative. Therefore, our story can no longer remain in the footnotes when we are the foundation. And so, we stand here tonight united as the sons and daughters of the African diaspora. We are the architects of inspiration. We are the authors of audacity. And tonight we stand unified to testify to our story. As the Mount Diablo Unified School District Black Educators Association,

134we are proud to present to you tonight our organization and our objectives. We realize that we stand on the shoulders of former black educators who have graced the halls of this sacred establishment, freedom fighters who believe in education for liberation and whose own shoulders we stand on tonight. Tonight we want to recognize Dr. Mildred Brown, Miss Ava Sudd, Dr. Alan Young, Dr. Gary McHenry, Lisa Murphy Oats, Queen Mother Felicia Stucky Smith, and my mentor, the late great Mr. Willie Mims, who unapologetically stood at this podium for years and fought religiously and relentlessly for the liberation of black minds across this county. We honor them tonight and we continue their fight. And so, in keeping with our presentation, we want to go ahead and introduce our executive uh board. I stand as Dr. Lamont Frances. I

135am a a family advocate for or coordinator for the district, family engagement for this district. I'm the president of our Black Educators Association. We also have with us tonight Dr. Ethel Burton. She is one of our uh vice presidents. There she is. All right. Uh not with us tonight, we have our second vice president, Mr. Raymond Leonard. uh not with us tonight because she came down with a cold is our communication director uh Miss Teresa Turner. And then we have our treasurer uh Miss Lauren Ryan who's a teacher I believe at uh RMS. And then last but definitely not least, we have our secretary, Mrs. Nan Williams. We thank you guys for being here tonight. I'm not going to go over all of these slides. Dr. Clark said, "I can't be too long." >> He

136did say 15 minutes after delivering that message on his >> Yes, I know he did. I know. I know he did. And >> Black History Month and we should take all all our space, but we have to go to work tomorrow. >> Yes. Abs. Absolutely. Even though we waited all night, but we are good. All right, here we go. Um the Black Educators Association, we envision an equitable environment that empowers uh educational community uh where black students, educators, and families thrive and reach their full potential. So that's our vision statement. Um these are some of the uh pictures that we have that we show with our monthly meetings. So we have been meeting uh monthly gathering and in our gatherings it it involves camaraderie uh mentorships a professional learning um community. Um we have transformative

137spaces where we uh challenge systems while working out uh the recruitment and the retention of quality black educators. And so we do that. We have a monthly newsletter that goes out. Uh these are just some of the the many fine black educators that are in our district that come out and support our meetings. Of course, we have food. We have uh fellowship. And this is a place where we combat uh the the racial battle fatigue that uh many black educators uh go through on our campuses. Uh feeling isolated, sometimes feeling alone. Uh these are objectives. I'm not going to go over all of them. Um, but one of the things I do want to point out is that, um, last year, um, African-American educators represented about 1.9% of the, uh, teachers here in the Mald

138Diablo Unified School District. That's about 31 uh, staff. So, we definitely want to increase that number. But overall, um, between certificated and classified, we represent over 200 employees in the Mount Diablo Unified School District. Now, if we all showed up tonight, this place would look like Wakanda. Okay. Uh but uh we could not all be here tonight, but I'm so glad my brothers and sisters are here and we stand united and we have each other's back. So, I'm so glad my brothers and sisters are here tonight. All right. Uh last year, um the district sent me to um Jackson State in the wonderful state of Mississippi. And there at Jackson State, which is a historically black uh college, I got the privilege of meeting uh some wonderful potential employees, some young uh black u college

139students, and we were there trying to get them to come out to Mount Diablo. And um it was a a wonderful time, and we need all of these uh educators. And I when I got a chance to to get there, a lot of the uh young people were coming to our table and they wanted to know about this district called Mount Diablo. And everybody says, "Why are you getting people to come to your table?" Well, we sold them on the four C's. And the four C's was we we talked about cash. You can make more money with us. Community because we have things like this. California because our weather is better. And then the last C is Clark. We sold Dr. Clark. Covering is Dr. Clark. Not everybody has Dr. Clark. All right. Yes. He

140should have been the first se. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, so with that, I'm going to bring up the uh vice principal of College Park, Mr. Nan Williams, and she's going to go ahead and uh finish off our presentation. Mrs. Shawn Williams. Good evening, Madame President, members of the board. Um, I'm I am here just to I'm not going to read the slides, but just to quickly summarize the impact that black educators have in our schools. Um, and each slide is tailored toward LCAP goals and how black educators, how we impact families, how we impact students, and how we impact our campuses. In summary, as black educators, we make a powerful impact in education by serving as role models who reflect the identities and experiences of many of our students. We create culturally responsive classrooms that affirm

141students backgrounds and promote inclusivity. Through advocacy and leadership, we challenge inequities and work to expand equitable policies and opportunities. Our commitment to mentorship and community engagement strengthens student achievement confidence and long-term success. Thank you. And so as you see here, um, our organization, um, exists to align with our district LPAC, uh, LCAP goals. Um, so I'm not going to go over all of that and and in in just the interest of time. Um, but I do want to go ahead and and and say this, um, that we want, uh, those who are interested to become a part of the Black Educators Association, uh, please contact our treasurer, Miss Ryan. Yes, we do have a membership dues. Our next meeting will be March the 3, 2026 there at Gateway High School for those that want to

142to come and be a part of this wonderful organization. I don't know how I'm doing on time. Were we okay on time? We if if I do have time because we sat here and these fine uh uh educators waited for two hours. If they could just at least just say their name in their position. If you could just come and just say that. Come to the mic and say your name and your position. Just just do that. Thank you so much. >> Dr. Diane Fitzpatrick, Vocal Scholar Secondary Schools. >> I am Sandra Courtney. I am the SDC teacher at Westwood Elementary. I'm >> Jeremiah Strongwell. I'm a long-term music sub at Mountain View Elementary School. >> Good evening. I'm Dr. Ethel Singleary Burton, vice principal at Oakwood Middle School. Thank you. >> Nan Williams, vice

143principal at College Park High School. >> Good evening. I'm Kai Dwire, principal of Silverlit. >> Okay, I guess that's me. I'm the outsider. Uh, Dr. Rashid, um, contracted services with power and we focus on literacy in males of color. >> Good evening, Linda Pete, director of strategic supports and interventions. >> Good evening, Aurelia Bashami, director of enrollment services. Thank you so much. So, tomorrow night we are proud to uh announce that we are going to have our districtwide Black History Month celebration um there at Gregory Gardens at 6:00 p.m. We're expecting over a 100 people to show up. We're going to have a lot of information, a lot of inspiration, a lot of families, and a lot of food. So, we're asking everybody to get there early for best seating. I will be mcing the

144program. We're going to have a wonderful time and that will be our monthly uh APAC meeting. I do want to go ahead and thank you as the board for all of your support um over the years for attending the events. Dr. Enzwei, we thank you for your unapologetic Yes, I have to well you are doctor uh for for your unapologetic uh support of black students over the years. We thank you uh for what you do. Um, also we want to go ahead and say, uh, we recognize that our curriculum needs to be infused into the regular curriculum. Uh, we're going to advocate for that. We are standing strong. Thank you so much. So, in the words of Dr. King, I'll just leave you with this. As I travel along, if I can help somebody with

145a word or a song, if I can show someone that they're living wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as an educator, if I can bring salvation to a world once. If I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain. Thank you so much for your time. >> Dr. Frances, Dr. Frances, could you quickly tell us the time? >> Leave so fast. We have a question. >> I just I want to know the time of Gregory Gardens. You gave us tomorrow night. Would Could you give us a time? >> 6 6 PM. I'm I'm so sorry. 6:00 p. p.m. 6 p.m. there at Gregory Gardens. Hope to see you then. I have a quick question you may not have

146the answer to, but 1.9% of our certificated staff are black, but how many what percent are in classrooms? >> That is a great question, and I'm going to ask Ryan, >> you know, >> I I I do not know. I I I looked at >> because many many of the people in front of us are no longer in the classroom, but they are certifi I know they're counted among that certificate because they got certificates. Um, so I love to see us everywhere and I love for every child in this district to get to experience a black educator, but clearly the chance of that is like >> you lived in Bay Point. It was a high chance of that. I never went to any of the schools, nor did my kids, where we didn't have black

147educators. And now that I'm mature and know what was going on, they thought just dump them in Bay Point. What a gift they gave us. So, thank you for that. >> Yes. And so we we do know that studies say that children when they see teachers that look like them, they tend to do better. So we we definitely want to go ahead and uh try to add and recruit and retain more quality black educators. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, that takes us to board member reports. Who wants to start tonight? We'll start on Linda's side. Is that okay? >> Doc, I'm not I'm gonna make you. >> Yeah, it's all around. We're all daughters. >> Um, so it seems like forever since our last meeting, but um I was able to attend a

148few events on January 22nd. Uh, I attended the Mount Diablo Unified School District Soore student and family event held at Willow Creek Center. I want to thank everybody that was involved and especially Rosie Reid and the student services staff members and others who volunteered to make that event so successful. Families moved in quickly and um uh felt supported with the um uh useful things that would make their family life better. So, thank you so much for all of that work. On January 214th, I attended the 32nd district PTA reflections awards ceremony held at the county office of education and uh five of our Silverwood students received recognition at that u event for their artistic submittals at the program and they were featured in the Friday letter. On February 3rd, we had this Contraosta County School

149Boards Association meeting with the Contraosta Community College Chancellor and she presented an overview of the college district and its new programs and it's a you know um outstanding continuing programs and um it was shared that they um college board has um approved a measure to be presented on the November ballot for facilities funding at the three county campuses and two satellite campuses. So, uh please take time to review their information as it comes available on um through different channels including probably some mailings. On um February 7th, we attended the Alcosta CTA breastfest between the Alamita and Contraosta counties. And I want to thank Linda Ortega and media for the invitation and the information and the about the documentary the apology. Uh on February 9th uh we I attended the Mount Diablo Education Foundation meeting and

150I want to appreciate the foundation's volunteer efforts to raise funds uh to support many programs across the Mount Diablo Unified School District. On February 10th, we attended the CAC special education meeting. Uh this topic was mental health and comorbidity by Jessica Posus. It was an excellent presentation and I hope that uh many of you will take the time to review the PowerPoint presentation uh that'll be posted on the CAC web page. Um the CAC is sponsoring the spring fling on May 19th and March 24th will be the celebration of success and May 6th is the annual SULPA advocacy day in Sacramento. And it was a uh a pleasure to welcome back Jonathan Rosalyn who is uh serving as the interimm parent leaison for CAC or for this uh special ed department. Uh, I want to

151compliment the special education department for um finishing overdue IEPs in dramatic numbers. Uh, and there was mentioned of a new SEAL curriculum with evaluations uh that will be used in our schools. So, watch up watch out for the upcoming announcements that will benefit our Mount Diablo students. Um then my final thing um the Contraosta County Science and Engineering Fair which is something I mention every year is March 5th, 6th and 7th to be held at Los Madenos College. Currently we have more than 250 projects and we expect additional 40 projects or so from Contraosta uh Unified School District. Students compete in grades 7 through 12 in six disciplines and are um um 130 judges need to be uh present to evaluate the scientist boards in the morning on uh March 6th and interview the sciences

152scientists on the afternoon. Each student probably will be in interviewed by six to eight judges. So this is the value of our competition is that students are interviewed by multiple judges, not just one or two. So I am looking for volunteers to participate from 7 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon on March 6th uh and judge at our fair. Uh to register, you would go to just type in uh your search bar-le.org org backscience-f or contact me and I'll send you all of the information. We have winners uh every year at the state and international fair and the Contraosta County Science and Engineering Fair is the gateway to the state and international competition. So join us. Thank you. >> Thank you Trustine Ze or should I say doctor? No, don't disrespect the people

153who actually went through that. [laughter] Um, I just have a few things to share. Um, it was there. I thought I wasn't I didn't even think of sharing this until all the public comment and then even the presentation by Black Education Association, but I lead an organ I founded and lead an organization um that focuses on early childhood education and black children, black families, and black early educators. And last fall, we actually um came up with a statement um comparing cultural affirming versus culturally responsive education in early childhood education. But this is relevant across education. So at the heart of equitable early learning is how we see and support every child's identity. When it comes to black children, early education must do more than simply include culture. It must honor it, celebrate it, and address

154conditions of anti-blackness which have detrimental impacts to the development of positive racial identity and belonging. Culturally responsive practices are about recognition and acknowledgement. They help educators understand and respond to children's cultural backgrounds, family traditions, and ways of learning. Being culturally responsive means teaching in ways that reflect black children's experiences, and making sure classrooms feel familiar, welcoming, and relevant. It's a linear connection. Whereas culturally affirming practices takes that a step further. It's about celebration, preservation, empowerment, and relationships. Culturally affirming education doesn't just respond to black children's culture. It lifts it up and it is seen as an asset. It says your language, your history, your creativity, and your joy are central to learning. It is a reciprocal, mutual, and dynamic connection. In policy and practice, being culturally affirming means building early learning spaces that highlight the

155brilliance and beauty of black culture. Preparing teachers to see black children's expressions, language, and movement as strengths. Positioning black families as leaders and knowledge holders in their children's learning. Measuring success not just by test scores, but by how deeply children feel seen, valued, and proud of who they are. If early education is truly about equity, then affirmation, not just response, must guide our work. And then uh next week, not believe it or not, not in my role or maybe thankfully to some people, not in my role as a trustee, but um in my role as the leader of my organization, um I'll be moderating a uh a webinar on TK and black children and it's called Nurturing Black Brilliance: Creating Positive Transitional Kindergarten Spaces for Black Children in California. and um our my organization challenges

156the TK roll out and the um benefit of TK to black families and but especially around their experiences in public education. And um we have panelists from several school districts who uh are giving examples of how they at least try to move from cultural responsiveness to cultural affirmation in TK and um and the challenges they have in um both drawing in black families to TK for many reasons. If anyone wants to have a deep conversation with me, I'm so open and I love it about this topic. I'm passionate about it. Um, and but also what they've done, which is very rare, to make TK more welcoming um, to black families if that is the path that they want to take for their child's early education. Um, because TK is part of our early education ecosystem,

157though maybe schools forget that. Um, I'd also the following week or the day of our next board meeting, so that's why I'm going to tell you about this today. We are also at my organization hosting um a webinar in collaboration with our partners Californians together catalyst California and early edge California on about um black English language and we've been working in my work I've been working on making sure that black language is also affirmed in in our education system um and that it is because it because it is a legitimate rule governed language um that it receives the same respect and affirmation that children with other home languages also receive and that children um black children when their black uh English language is affirmed that is also um an asset to developing their literacy. Um

158so we are hosting a webinar. So the first webinar, I forgot to even tell you it's next week at 1:00 and if you go so the webinar on TK I like left off I I left out the whole important detail. >> The webinar on TK I don't have an easy way for you to find it but if you the best is the ho the webinar host of like the zoom is Edrust West and if you go to their website which is just edrustwest.org or and go under their events tab. It's the first thing under their events tab. That's for the TK webinar which is next Wednesday the 18th um at 1 p.m. And then on the 25th I might have the times messed up. I might have just told you the time for the 25th.

159So Ed Trust is at it's after it's later because it's the target audience is public school 3:30. Sorry. [laughter] Um so it yeah the target audience is is public school teachers and administrators. Um the black English language one is at 1:00 on the 25th. Um, and this first, it's a webinar series and this first webinar will focus on what is Black English and um, yeah, just literally that. And you can go, sorry, [clears throat] to the social media of all the places I mentioned, Black ECE, well, I didn't mention mine. Black ECE, um, Californians together or Catalyst California or, uh, early edge and we are all promoting it everywhere and you can sign up for that webinar and learn something really amazingly new um, that I'm very excited to be bringing so many people into

160because it's it's an aha moment for so many folks as we've been engaging in this work and especially for folks who have for a long time engaged engaged in dual language learning and home language affirmation. Um, adding adding black English language to their mix has been a great and beautiful aha moment for a lot of people and I hope that you all get to experience that too. >> Lawrence, >> um, so I also uh attended the Alcasta uh meeting and so thank you very much for having us. It was it was a a great event. Um I did have the opportunity to to visit um and attend the PFC meeting where Dr. Aguili spoke last night and stayed after and heard from members of the community at at Bankraftoft. And um you know what one

161thing I do want to call out is just how powerful people's voices are. And I I will say that last night um I just thought the people were um incredibly eloquent and heartfelt and this evening across an array of issues that people bring things to this board. Um and overwhelmingly um I I would say that it's in in a spirit of how do we improve things? How do we partner with with the district? How do we partner with the board? We have points of view. We want to share those. And I just think that's an incredibly important uh part of democracy and and so I want to to thank people for having done that. Um and then there was mention um I've visited Ignacio Valley High School several times this year. I I've not visited

162uh the particular program that that was mentioned, but um I would just encourage members of the public to myself and other board members to reach out to us and and invite us uh if they want us to see a particular school or particular program. So, I I welcome that opportunity and I will make sure to to do that in in the near future. And then I just wanted to mention um you know, I've seen several uh spots around uh my neighborhood of u people gathering signatures for a potential ballot measure called uh briefly the the billionaire tax. And um you know, my my belief is billionaires should pay their their fair share. I think one of the things that um Warren Buffett talked about was the fact that his effective income tax rate was actually

163lower than his secretaries, which was shocking um and something he was opposed to. But I do think it's very important that people actually look at the mechanisms um that sometimes things sound very good, but they make for very poor public policy. And so I really encourage people to look at the structure of this bill because I actually think it could result in a significant decrease in the amount of revenues in the state of California which is something we can ill afford because of the way it's structured that it is a tax on unrealized income and it's already leading to uh changes in behavior of uh people leaving the state and impacting our our tax base and I think that could have some very negative material long-term impacts. So, I would just encourage people uh to

164really study these things before they sign and certainly before they vote. So, thank you, >> Justin McDougall. >> Thank you. Um yeah, it's been busy for the last three weeks. Uh there were three, excuse me, five career and technical education meetings, uh digital media at College Park. Right after that was um consumer services at Olympic and after that on the 29th was uh building trades at Conquered High School. And on the 2nd of February the CTE uh midwinter meeting on engineering at Ignatio Valley High School and just yesterday the education pathway at Ignatio Valley High School. So, uh, the program is doing very well at improving education opportunities and I'm glad to see that. I'd like to see that progress so that we get all of our high schools doing all of the programs, but

165that's a dream off in the distance. Um, [clears throat] then I went to uh after all those CTE meetings, there were other things going on. uh budget advisory committee meeting here at the Dent Center. Um I had a town hall on February 2nd. We had 24 in attendance. The I went to a Rocket Ship Futuro, which is our charter school in the district, and had a good tour for uh the morning uh at Rocket Ship Futuro. And finally, I enjoyed that alcosta breakfast last Saturday. I do want to make a comment here, and it's entitled indoctrination question mark. The anti-ICE uh walkouts have been framed by the organizers as studentled protests supposedly meant to allow them to express their own concerns about deportation tactics and the chaos surrounding ICE operations. But not everyone accepts the

166stated claim that these walkouts are spontaneous grassroots student movements. Documents and organizing guides from liberal activist groups have surfaced, suggesting the protests were carefully planned and coordinated, going well beyond spontaneous student expression. Along with growing questions about who is actually behind these protests and why these age groups are being heavily influenced to join, there's also concern about the loss of classroom time, particularly in schools where academic scores are already below average. To put the question bluntly, can our public school ch public school children participating in ICE out protests even read? The commentator I was reading here said he's sounding the alarm about the consequences of turning schools into political activism spaces rather than educational environments. The efforts by these outside groups are not illegal, but they should raise questions about who's shaping these movements and

167whether students and parents fully understand that influence. Are parents even included in the decision to use class time for these activities? Parents have a fundamental right to decide what ideas and values their children are exposed to during their formative years. When school time is spent marching through intersections with signs bearing predetermined messaging and chanting slogans, including a lot of f-bombs, instead of learning history, math, science, or literacy, the role of moms and dads quickly erodess and their input becomes irrelevant. In a time when many parents are already concerned about academic performance and the future prospects of young Americans, tying up instructional hours with organized political activism, whether around immigration enforcement or any other hot button issue, is seen by many as a distraction from core education core educational goals and an infringement on conversations that

168should be led by parents in the home. If we genuinely want young people to be informed and engaged citizens, that work should start with a solid education, not spending school hours being indoctrinated. Thank you. Well, I will say that the years that I spent having walkouts at school and protesting against the Vietnam War and objecting to the fact that we'd have Martin Luther King's birthday off and all those protests I did without my parents approval is what made me the great activist that I am today. So, there you go. It's activism and training. Student report. >> Yeah. Uh since our last meeting, I've received a lot of positive feedback from the presentation that the student advisory committee did and I've heard from some of our student advisory committee members that they've been approached by their

169administrators and are working together on some of the areas of improvement. I also attended the town hall hosted by Miss McDougall. I appreciated that there was a open forum for people to share their points of view, but I also hope to see more of our diverse community come to these meetings. I know there have also been a lot of statewide walkouts in California and our district as well. And I just want to say I fully support these students for advocating for their rights and for their our communities. They're speaking up for people that can't speak up right now and they're fighting for something that's much greater. They're fighting for some justice and organizing to organize the next student advisory committee meeting this month. >> Thank you for your report. I will now give my report.

170I also went to the sore event and actually saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while and I got the job at clicking as the people came in the door and I left at 184 I think it was so I didn't get the final number. I attended all the same pathway meetings that uh our my fellow trustee attended and always amazed at the conversations at those about how we can better meet the needs of our students. They're always very engaging conversations. Um, I went to Meadow Homes and I read The Black Stallion to the third and fourth graders. I tell this story every year. I picked third or fourth grade because that's where I learned my love of reading because our teacher used to read to us in fourth grade all the

171time and I got where I wanted to read books and so I read the Black Stallion because it was one of my daughter's favorite books and I when I was introducing it to the kids and I said you know I it's really important to read and I love to read and I since I graduated from high school I've read 3,134 books. I try to read a book a week and get trying to get them all jazzed up. And so I finished reading the two chapters and I'm like, "Now, are you going to check it out of the library and and read?" And one of the kids throws his hand up and he goes, "You really read 3,000 books?" I said, "Don't be that impressed. I'm older than I look." So, that was a lot of

172fun. I had a good time doing that. And then um I went to the uh historic black college event at Mount High School which was like a party because bells were ringing and kids were getting scholarships and walking out. It was very exciting. And then I also went to the um annual meeting that with the school board over at um in Pleasanton and uh had to make an early exit because the um Hispanic counselors were having the parent meeting at Mount Dea High School. So I went over to there. There was about 18 parents there. It was a really good meeting. Um telling parents about resources that were available. Went to the CAC meeting with um Trusty Mayo last night. And that concludes my report. >> Trusty Mason, can I add one more thing? >>

173Yeah. Um my child is brilliant as are the thousands of high schoolers in this district. Brilliant. Whether they their test scores are whatever they are, they are brilliant. Um, I bought the all I did all I did was buy a poster board. Um, but otherwise, as far as I know, these children organized themselves. And as far as I know, many parents, we had nothing to do with it. But at least at my school, we all were hanging out in the way background. We knew where they were marching too and hung out in the background. Um in support and the most immense pride um that we are raising children and our district is developing children that and even well sorry like as having someone who has civics and economics this year and has long and has

174had US history and world history knows the difference between right and wrong and moral and immoral and is willing to stand 10 toes down for it. And I was never so proud um last week of my child and the hundreds others who had the courage to stand up against fascism um and the the students across our district and across our region. And I have no idea if it was across the state all on the same day. Um but I do know that we have children who are so capable of thinking for themselves. So capable. Thank you. Just couldn't Yeah. I couldn't let that one go. Sorry. No, sorry. Didn't mean to say sorry. >> Okay. Consent agenda. >> Sorry. >> Anything. [clears throat] >> And just just FYI is sometimes we forget. And I'm just

175reminding you if you just want to comment on something, you don't have to pull it. You can just make a comment. If you want to hold it over to another meeting or have a discussion about it, then you're welcome to pull it. So, having said that, where are we on the consent agenda tonight? Oh, did you want to do superintendent's report? >> What? >> It's okay. Uh, I had told uh yeah, President Mason earlier that I was going to forego a report for the sake of time. And just so you all know who I am, I have Samantha Allen, the chief of ed services and with Dr. Clark is out doing uh the beautiful work he does out in our community. Uh I have luxury of sitting up here in his space. Um I someday

176hope to fill his shoes in a a beautiful way. And I do want to let Trusty and Zei know I just registered for the webinar. I cannot wait uh to participate. So, thank you. Okay. Are there any items to pull from the cassette that we know of? No. >> No. Okay. I'll entertain a motion. >> Madame President, I move the consent agenda be approved as presented. >> I'll second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. And again, was that was that you? Okay. I was going to make sure. Second by our student trustee. Okay. We will going to vote. How will you vote? Trustee student trustee Barrerero Ariana. >> Yes. >> Okay. And that takes us to business and action items. 171, review and potential approval of changes to board policies and administrative

177regulations per California School Board Association recommendations December 2024. >> Okay. So, there are two here for your approval uh presented at the January 4th meeting. Madame President, I move that the board approve item 17.1, changes to board policies and administrative regulations per California School Board Association recommendations. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion by Trustee Lawrence, a second by Trustee McDougall, Trustee Brian. I'm I'm trying to I'm trying to say student first now. I'm trust getting myself student Bana. Um, Oriano. >> Yes. >> Okay. And that passes. And 17.2, reviewing potential approval of changes to board policies, administrative regulations for California Schoolboard Association, recommendations from June 2025. That is for information. 17.3 Review and potential approval of changes to board policies and administrative regulations per California schoolboard association recommendations for September 2025 quarterly update.

178That is for information 17.4 review and potential approval of changes to board policies administrative regulations for California school board association recommendation November 2025. That is for info and review and potential approval of changes to board policies and administrative regulations for California School Board Association recommendations July 2026. And that is there for info. We don't need a meeting extension. We don't need to go back to closed. Is there any request for future agenda items? >> Uh I have two future agenda items. >> You you know me so well. um one would be uh for a followup regarding um the dual immersion. So um a a followup on that and then the second would be I would have a request to have an update from M uh regarding facilities and very specifically the um the the concerns

179regarding the the chemistry rooms and and the safety hazards associated with that. Those would be my two requests.