001Good evening everyone. I'd like to reconvene the October 22nd, 2025 Mount Diablo Unified School District Board of Education meeting. Um we met previously in close session. Uh our five trustees are present present and our uh student trustee uh Barrera Oriana uh is absent this evening. Uh for preliminary business 6.1, our land acknowledgement. We recognize that the Mount Diablo Unified School District sits on the territory of the Confederated villages of the Lassan, the ancestrial and unseated land of the Bay Miwok and Northern Yokut, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Contracasta County. As members of the Mount Diablo Unified 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
002land of these people who are alive and flourishing members of the Mount Diablo Unified School District and the broader Bay Area communities today. Would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. 6.3 is review and approval of minutes for the special board study session held on October 14th, 2025. >> Madame President, I move that the board approve uh the minutes for the special board session held on October 14th, 2025. >> I'll second that. We have a motion by Trusty Lawrence with a second by Trustee Mason regarding the minutes of the study session October 14th, 2025. I don't see any further questions, so please um record your
003vote. So the mot um the motion is adopted on a four yes one abstension and the student trustee is absent. Thank you. Um 6.4 is the approval of the minutes for the regular board meeting held on October 15th. Um >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the minutes for the regular board meeting held October 15, 2025 as presented. I'll second that. >> We have a motion by Trusty Mason with a second by Trusty McDougall regarding the approval of the minutes for October 15th. No further discussion. Please cast your vote. And the minutes have been approved on a 50 Z00 vote when and our student trustee is absent. Um 6.5 is the re review the approval of the agenda. Dr. Clark, any changes to the agenda? >> Uh yes, Madame President. We would like to pull
00411.1. We will bring that back at the next meeting. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion we accept the agenda with the removal of 11.1 to a future date. >> I'll second that. >> McDougall. Is that okay? Uh, all right. Uh, we have a motion by Trustee Mason with a second by M Trustee McDougall regarding the approval of the consent agenda with item 11.1 being pulled to be considered at a future date. Further discussion? If not, please cast your vote. Uh, Ma, Madam President, a quick uh clarification. I believe you said approval of the consent agenda, but I I believe this is approval of our standard agenda. >> Yes. Thank you for that correction. I'm trying to get this meeting over with. The motion to approve the agenda as amended, pulling 11.1 for a
005future date, is adopted at a 500 vote, and our student trustee is absent. Okay. Next item. Um I will now report out on the action taken in close session. Item 7.1 um existing litigation. The board met in close session with legal counsel to discuss a matter of existing litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9 by a vote of 5 to zero in the matter of the court matter of Stevenson versus Mount Diablo Unified School District Superior Court small claims case number MSC25-0167 the board gave direction to the general counsel anticipated litigation the board met in close session with legal counsel to discuss a matter of anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation. Pursuant to government code 549569B by a vote of 5 to zero, the board approved a settlement up to the stipulated amount. The plaintiffs and
006the other particulars shall be disclosed to any person upon inquiry unless to do so would jeopardize the district's ability to conclude the existing settlement negotiations to the district's advantage. And in closed session by a vote of 5 to zero with no abstensions, the board took action to approve the resignation of one employee per a separate separation agreement. Item 7.2 Two is the stipulated expulsion agreement for student 7-26. Miss Anzei, >> I move to approve the stipulated expulsion agreement for stu student 7-26. Prior to readmission, student 7-26 is required to meet the following conditions. Student must not enter the grounds of any district school at any time for any purpose. Student will not attend any school sponsored activities whether on or off campus. Student will complete his coursework through attendance at the opportunity program at Horizons.
007Student will complete 15 hours of counseling. Student will demonstrate a successful school experience which includes no violation of school rules and education codes 48900, 48915, or district rules and regulations. Satisfactory academic progress. Earn a minimum of 45 credits. Satisfactory attendance, 80% attendance, and no excessive tardies. Student must not commit any expelable offenses as defined under the education code. >> Is there a second? >> Second. So we have a motion by uh trustee in Zeri with a second by trustee Lawrence regarding the stipulated expulsion agreement for student 7-26 as presented. Is there any further discussion? Please uh cast your vote when it the screen is ready. And the motion is adopted on a 5000 vote. Thank you. Public comment. Uh the public may address the board regarding any item not on the agenda. The public comment
008will also be allowed on each specific agenda item prior to board action thereon. In accordance with the Brown Act, the board may not take action or engage in dialogue on items that are not posted on the agenda. >> So, we have no public comment cards uh for this part of the agenda. We will move on to communications. 9.1 district organizations. At regular board meetings, a single spokesperson of each recognized district organization may make a brief presentation. Items are limited to those which areformational. And our speaker is Mrs. Linda Ortega. Welcome, Linda. Good evening, President Mayo, trustees, Dr. Clark, members of the audience, and those who are watching online this evening. I just want to inform you, the trust, you the trustees and members of the community that media is sponsoring a sock and gloves and
009umbrella drive for our students. Anyone interested in donating these items can drop them off at the Willow Creek Center in room A1. With the weather changing, media members in the past years have donated these items so our students will be warm walking to and from school. In regards to negotiations, I hope that both sides can come to a fair agreement soon and that both parties can work together to rebuild trust. As the media president, my goal has been to work collaboratively with district management on how to solve problems before they directly impact our students. Open communication and trust is key to being able to successfully do that. Hopefully in the upcoming months, our educators will be able to see a change in district leadership's behavior to one where they see their educators as partners in
010student success. Hopefully, in the upcoming months, district leadership will work to rebuild trust with its educators through open and respectful communication that listens and works to collaborate in the best interest of all students. As the president of media, I personally am looking forward to a future where that is the case. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. We're ready to move on to uh recognitions and resolutions. Dr. Clark, item 10.1. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, our first resolution that we have this evening is uh resolution 25/26-30 in recognition of November as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. Whereas it is estimated that 1 in30 youth ages 13 to 24 and 1 in 10 young adults ages 18 to 25 in the United States experience some form of homelessness over the course of a year. Whereas
011an estimated children and youth experienced homelessness in Mount Diablo Unified School District in the 2425 school year and 148 children and youth have been identified as experiencing homeless to date in the 2526 school year. Whereas the Mount Alaba Unified School District provides assistance to children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness, including clothing, backpacks, school supplies, hygiene kits, vision support, and connections to public assistance to remove barriers that may prevent students students experiencing homelessness from succeeding in school. So now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mount Diablo Unified School District hereby recognizes November as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, and hereby requests that all staff and community members recognize the unique challenges and needs of children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness. and commit to increasing both awareness of the issues impacting these children, youth, and families and
012their commitment to helping these children, youth, and families succeed. Madame President, I leave this resolution in the hands of the board. >> Madame President, I move to approve resolution 25/26-30 recognizing November 2025 as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. >> I'll second that. So, we have a motion by Trusty Mason with a second by Trustee McDougall regarding resolution 2526-30 recognizing November as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. Is there further discussion or comments? >> Trusty Lawrence. >> Yes, Madam President. I I would just say I I greatly appreciate the work our staff does, programs like Soore to support this. Uh thank you to uh the folks at media for their efforts because um as the weather gets colder and homelessness um you know housing insecurity is a issue for many of our our families here in MDUSD
013and so I appreciate the the support that we provide to these families. Thank you. And I also want to acknowledge all of the businesses who uh put out um barrels for food donations during this particular time. So, thank you very much. Um, if we're ready to vote, um, we'll wait for the ESB and resolution 25/26-30, National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, as in November, is adopted on a 5000 vote, and our student trustee is absent. Uh we're ready to move on to um 10.2. Dr. Clark. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh we have before you resolution 25/26-31, November as National Native American Heritage Month. Whereas this country was home to generations of Native people long before the arrival of European explorers. And each of these tribes had a unique and vibrant culture as well as systems
014of social order. And whereas each tribe has celebrated heroes of their own in government, sports, visual and performing arts, literature, engineering, medicine, education, and environmental science. And whereas the California Education Code 51204.5 specifically calls for instruction in the social sciences to include the study of the role and contributions of Native Americans to the economic, political, and social development of California and the nation with particular emphasis on portraying the role of Native Americans in contemporary society. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Mountaaba Unified School District proclaims the month of November as National Native American Heritage Month and encourages all schools to commemorate this occasion with appropriate instruction materials and be it further resolved that this resolution be distributed to all schools within the district. Madame President, I leave this resolution in the hands of the
015board. I I move to approve resolution 2526-31 recognizing November 2025 as Native as National Native American Heritage Month. >> Second. So we have a motion by trustee and zi with a second by trustee Lawrence regarding of the approval of resolution 25/26-31 recognizing November as National Native American Heritage Month. Is there further discussion? Well, I would just like to make a few comments, please. Um, we have our land acknowledgement that we uh what share at the beginning of each of our meetings and that recognizes the the tribes that um were um Native Americans, first peoples in the Mount Diablo Unified School District boundaries. We also did a resolution on um for indigenous people's day and that resolution recognizes the contributions of first peoples in California and those who have relocated from the rest of the United
016States including Alaska and from North and South America to California and who have committed contributed greatly to uh the state of California. Today, this resolution speaks to addressing the history of native peoples across the United States and um in our history. And for me this is especially uh moving because my family my ancestors participated in the trail of tears and my ancestors were also removed to um Indian schools and um some survived and some did not both on the trail of tears and in the Indian schools. The history is important because um we need to speak up when injustices are um uh used with a particular group of people whenever that occurs. And it's only through the truthful presentation of history that we will learn from our mistakes and do better by all people in
017the state of California and across the nation. Um, so with that, I think we're ready for the vote. Thank you for indulging my comments. >> Well said. So, this motion is adopted on a 500 vote um to recognize November as National Native American Heritage Month. Thank you very much. We're ready to move on to uh public employee appointment. Dr. Clark. >> Oh, right. You did. I didn't strike it. Okay. Uh Trustee and Sewi, would you like to go first quickly? What I did forget last week was recognizing that and now as of today, we're in the second longest government shutdown um in our nation's history. and to acknowledge the impact that that has in our district's families. Um whether it's your among our employees, they may have um a family member, a spouse, a partner
018in their own household who is not being paid right now. Um we have families who will not receive their SNAP benefits, their CalFresh in California, their CalFresh benefits beginning this week. Um and it's horrific. Um, and I just want to acknowledge that that we have our community and our nation is struggling um by choice. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, Trusty Mason. >> Uh, last week I was invited to the rocket ship back to school night and I went and visited them. They had a great turnout just like we did. Not much different than ours. is a little more structured than ours, but it was a nice visit and I appreciated um walking around with my friend Demless and hearing all about the programs there. He used to work for Supervisor Glover, so that's how
019we met. Um I went to the Apac meeting at the Willow Creek Center. Um as always, it inspires me and uplifts me to know that we're addressing issues that went unressed for many, many years in this district. I went to Mount Dava High School football game and was stressed out by all the coaches stepping on the field and I went, "Throw the flag. They're not supposed to be on driving my husband crazy, but it was a really good game." And it's hard because I got to vote for both teams because they're all we're all on the same team here. But um it turned out that uh it was the um homecoming, which I'm anti-homecoming, too, but that's back to my high school days. Um homecoming day for conquered high school and but um Mount Diablo
020did beat them. So, I was sorry that they were disappointed, but glad for Mount Diablo. And I went to the CAC meeting last night and I assume um Trusty Mayo will report more on that, but it was a good crowd and we had a nice presentation on supporting your families and kids at home without stressing yourself or your children out. That's my report. >> Mr. McDougall. >> Uh, well, there weren't many district events that I attended this last week. It certainly wasn't because I wasn't busy, but in the interest of moving the meeting along, we're going to close down right now. >> Trusty Lawrence, >> I will pass for this week. Thank you. >> Well, um, I'm going to make a few comments. Among other activities, on October 18th, my family visited the California State
021Indian Museum in Sacramento in observance of Acorn Day. This in in intimate museum has effectively curated indigenous items which display everyday utensils, clothing, regalia, hunting tools, basket and basket weaving mostly from Northern and Central California tribes. It is a child-friendly museum with hands-on activities. The California State Parks employees and tribal dosent of all ages were located outside under heritage oak and redwoods at numerous booths with hands-on activities for the public. And yes, acorns were falling on us as we participated in the activities. They patiently answered questions and corrected myths about indigenous cultures and practices. One favorite was the live bat exhibit of four species native to the Sacramento area. As bats and their habitats decrease, more pesticides are required, which are harmful to all animals, plants, and insects and humans long term. our native peoples
022were aware of them and treated bats with respect. During the summer, tours are available um by a society or an organization in Sacramento that work to inform the public about bats. These tours are offered at dusk in the summer, as I said, and they are under the causeway. So, it's a very dramatic event if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of those. And as um Miss Mason indicated, we both attended the CAC special uh ed committee meeting on Tuesday night. And um the informative slide deck uh for parents can be located on the special education website under CAC, the community advisory committee. Dr. Clark, we're ready for your report. >> Great. Thank you, Madam President. I um I know we're back here already after after a week off, but it's always it's always
023good to be able to do the business of the board. Um tonight in my superintendent report, I'm going to um use the majority of my time to share publicly our overall um standard uh standardized testing results from this from the state. So, first of all, as we look at our LCAP goals, our LCAP goals really guide um guide the work that we do within within Mount Diablo. And many of our goals were developed as a result of not only our our ESPback results, our calf scores, but also from the results from the dashboard, which will be coming out in the next in the next few months. So, um, as we get our data and then we come up with a plan on how we're going to respond to our data, you now have our LCAP
024goals and along with these goals, our resources in the forms of monies that allow us to work towards achieving our goals. So, tonight I'm going to give you an update on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. And so I'm just going to I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I just want to just highlight some things so people know what I'm talking about. So the primary purpose of the calf's system, that's the standardized testing system, is to assist teachers, administrators, students, and parents by promoting high quality teaching and learning through the use of a variety a variety of assessment approaches and item types. So on the left on the left here you see the Smarter Balance the ESPback you see the California science test you see the um California alternative assessment
025for English language arts um you see the um um again CA for science again uh with the California Spanish assessment option and then the grade two diagnost diagnostic assessments which is optional. Um, and then just over on the over on the right side is everyone who participates. So all grades uh three to eight and 11th graders will either either take the SBback or the CAAs in ELA and math. And so English learners who have been enrolled in school in the United States for less than 12 months are exempt from participation in the ELA assessment. Um so when we look at um our results, these are the results of our third through eighth graders and our 11th graders. So approximately half of our grade levels. And so the way we read this this uh chart here
026is um on the left hand side you have ELA which is the percentage of students within each achievement level. And we have four performance bands. We have um we have standard exceeded. And I just want you to think as um as a grade of an A. And then over um next to that in green you have the standard is met. So I want you to think of that as a B grade. And then in the yellow you have standard nearly met. I want us to think of that as a C. And then you have the orange the standard not met. Um that would be a D. Okay? And we're not going to we're not going to work in Fs um as we talk about standardized testing. So as you can see in English you have
027um 21.43% exceeded the standard and 26.43 met the standard. So we combine that those two percentages to come up with what you see in the circle there. And so we're at 47.8 47.886% of our students um or roughly half of our students met or exceeded the standards. And then as you go over in math, it's the same thing. But you can see that in math where in English we had 21% um exceed in math we had 19.74 and in meeting the standard um in compared to English we had 26% and over in math we had 18%. So overall this is our um this is our district score. were one uh 1% here or there um level with the state. So as we break it down to um to state and county and district comparisons in
028the um in the first column you have the categories um and those are the A B C and D that I spoke earlier about um then you have the state of California. So again you can see the state of California is in the second column. You can see Contraosta County is in the third column and you can see Mount Diablo in the fourth column. And so you can see where where we um where we fall in those areas. And as you can see um in each one of the categories except um except the two um C and D, we are uh behind in the in the state. However, with students not achieving, we are above that area. So when we talk about our target areas, these are the areas that we are definitely targeting should
029be through all of our all of our efforts and work is to is to bring these up. Let me go to the next slide. So this is our comparison in math and um in math you can see a um a similar pattern. Um however we did um I'm looking at the standard that did not meet. We did uh go 3% higher than the county in that area and 1% higher than the county in the uh standard nearly met. Um a little higher in than the county in standard met but uh were below the county but above the state in exceeding standards in math. And again I'm just going to go through all the data and then we'll give some commentary as um towards the end. This is a real busy um real busy slide here,
030but essentially what it shows is our is our grade level comparison. So um again you have minimal, developing, proficient and advanced. So green would be your your A, light green would be your B, developing would be your C and minimal would be your would be your D. So as we look at our overall changes um from last year, we rose um in in English language arts overall increasing 2.64% of our students um improved in this area and in math 1.5% of our of 1.55% of our students um improved in this in in math. And now, um, because we're in California, we are required to break down our student groups. So, again, um, you know, we don't do this just to, you know, call call student groups out or anything. We're required to present this information.
031So, our African-American students as as they compare to our overall district, um, you know, if I go back to our overall district, we were at 47%. So, as you can see in our African-American students, we have only 27% um exceeded or met. Um, which is why on our LCAP, we specifically call out in one of the student groups are African-American students. The not met standard at 49% so over half of our um right under half half of our African-American students um are not meeting standards in ELA. And then if we go over to math, we see um you know, we see similar comparisons to um the overall district where we are lower in this area. Um however, 1.2% of our students of our African-American students in math did increase. That said, the the 59.88% and
03288% of of standard not met um is is is not acceptable and it's something that we continue to work towards of of addressing. Um of course we're going to celebrate the the blue um but 7.5% definitely is not is not nearly enough. As we go to another group that we follow, our are our foster foster youth. Um 26 26% uh um exceeded and met in ELA. Um 66% are not proficient. Um you know, again, unacceptable. Um that's why they're listed on the cover on the front of our of our of our LCAP goals. and um and 73% not met in mathematics um is is not s um acceptable and there are no there are none of our foster youth who exceeded standards in math. So again this um you know this gives us our our
033direction. I'm talking about this because um we talk about it as a team, but I want to make sure everybody is talking about this and everyone has a hand in this and everyone is working towards um addressing these these numbers. U McKenna Vento, those would be our our homeless students. And again, um 7.9% um um met or exceeded in ELA, 5.3% met or exceeded in math. So um so as um you know as we continue to collaborate and look for best practices, do classroom observations, do classroom walkthroughs, provide professional development, update our curriculum, all of those things. You know, this is this is one of the end results which is our standardized testing. So clearly um plenty of work to be done in this area. Um, as we look at our students with disabilities, again,
03418 18.5 55% um 6% exceeded uh standards. And we go over to math, 6% exceeded standards, 15.3 um met or exceeded. Again, when we go back to that district as a whole, it's 47% uh met or exceeded and 38% in math. So all of these groups that I showed are um are well below the the overall district um achievement achievement level. And if we look at our multilingual students, these are students who are learning English um you can see where um you know where they fall 4.82% um and 5.9% in math. Sometimes in this area when you have students who are learning a language, they tend to do better in math because some of it is numbers. Math is um you know um in the in the SBACK exams. The math portion does have a
035lot of word problems and so there is literacy that needs to happen and so um but students do are doing a little bit better in math. This is one of our primary focuses this year. Um and so we are targeting our um multilingual uh learners and so um you know hopefully we'll get the support and the collaboration and able to do that and that we can continue to um implement best practices in all of our classrooms. Um these are our science our science scores. So overall as a district we have 32% uh meet or exceed and um in grade five in our in our calf score. So this was the overall result. This was grade five. Again, not all not all grade levels take the science test. So in grade five, this is how our
036students um progressed, 33% and in grade 8, 35%. And in high school, uh 26%. So the the science portion is is relatively new over the over the last few years. And so we're still working on this, but again, um still lots of work to be done. This is our uh uh uh state and county uh comparison. So, as you can see, we lag behind the uh county, but we're above the state and exceed it. And um we lag in standard MET and we um uh exceed contraosta, but we but we lag behind the state. And then in um our sta standard not met, we we're higher than both state and county. So again, work to be done in that area. I'm going to share some um I'm going to share some individual uh spreadsheets and
037let me work backwards here. So yeah, this is small. Is there any way that you can blow that up, Mario? Thank you. And that's fine. So these are our um these are our student groups. Um so every every student group and um and also grade levels and so I think it's important um so that we can we can look at this and so you can see where each ethnicity scored on in the column there. And so our columns are black, African-American, American Indian, um Asian, Hispanic, Pacific Pacific Islander, white and two or more races. And so you can see in this area, our highest performing group is our um is our are our white students. Our lowest performing group and and exceeded would be our our American Indian, Native American students. Um, and so you
038can you can see that in both um at least in ELA when we go over to math, our our highest performing group is our Asian students and um um lowest performing again is our Native American students. As you go down the chart, you can also see some interesting things. You can see um the the um the IEP and the RFP. that has to do with their designation of of language, whether they've been redesated or whether they they have not. Um, but really again where we're focusing on is our um is our English learners where you see 0% 4% 16% and then 78% over in the literacy in comparison to English only you can see the difference except our redesated students. Um and then an interesting comparison that I always like to make um you can
039continue to blow it up is our um students with disability versus our students um our students um without disabilities. You can see the difference there and you can see the work that needs to happen. But then also I think another interesting data point is when you look at our economically disadvantaged students. Um that would be students who come from families with low wealth verse are not economically disadvantaged students. Just looking at the the the groups that exceed it, you got 10% to 30%. But when you combine the two, it's basically in half because you have 31% met um exceeded or met and then you have 65% um met or exceeded in in our economically um noteconomically disadvantaged. So you can see those you can see those those differences. There's um there's lots of factors that
040go into standardized testing results. Um I am one. I'm the superintendent of this district. I take full responsibility for these um for for these uh um scores that it's my responsibility to to lead the efforts to make sure that all students um you know all students have the um the opportunity, the resources, the access to to be able to be successful, but I don't personally teach in classrooms. So um so I provide the curriculum, you know, I I recommend the professional development. Um I I work with our principles. I work with our our district directors. Um we I'm very proud to know that after um several years, you know, three or four years ago, we brought back our instructional leadership teams at every site. And that's when you have a mix of of teachers and
041administrators who work together on these things. It can't just be the administrators and it can't just be the teachers. It has to be a collaborative effort. So, I was happy to hear the comments of media's president earlier saying that um she's hoping that we can work together to address this because clearly we we cannot do this in isolation and we cannot do this if we're at odds with one another. Um, another interesting uh factor as you continue down the list, they do break it out between males and females. Um, so I'm not going to touch that one, but um, but you can um, I mean, facts are facts and this is how our data comes out, but um, but but but that's a you know, that's a concern. We we we don't want there to
042be discrepancies between between our students. We want everyone to have equal access. We want everyone to have opportunities to be successful. We want folks to be successful. All right, I'm going to go to the next slide. Mario's gonna Okay, here's our elementary school. So, so one of the one of the the the great things I I do want to recognize Martha Thomas. I know I I talked I jumbled up her title last week, but Martha Martha Thomas, past principal of Heirs and past principal of Walnut Acres, is now leading a team that breaks down this data. And what this is, and again, just for reminder, I emailed this out to every family, every employee of the district one hour after was released by the state. And so I I really find this document um pretty
043fascinating because it shows the last year's 23 24 um scores compared to the 2425 scores. And um and what I'm happy to see at least in that first in that first column for ELA, you see way more green than you see red. So where there's growth, there is um you know there there's green and where there's a decline, there is there is red. Couple um couple schools I just want to shout out. Uh Sun Terrace um you know, you see them with a 14% growth there at the at the bottom of the ELA for elementary. Um, you see Silverwood with an 11%. You see, um, you see Delta View with a no, not Delta View, Elmonte with a with a 7% growth. So, those are those are things that um, we want to highlight. We
044want to tap into those folks, find out, hey, what are you guys doing? This is what we do during our professional developments. This is what we're supposed to be doing like today when you when we were released early. Our students were released early. So, that should be a time to work on this. If we go over to math, um same same pattern, um but just some there's um unfortunately there's seems to be more red in um in the math um as compared to as compared to English. And um and so you can see um again, Elmont showed some growth here. Um they're one that stands out. Silverwood showed growth. Sunra showed growth here. um and and uh Valverie um definitely showed the most growth with with um 12%. So, so one thing as as we
045look at um like schools and like districts, um you can see that we have many schools on our um in our district that have high scores and when compared to um other like other like um um schools and districts are are scoring high. But then in other areas where um you know where where where where things are different at those schools um we compare those to schools also that have similar student makeup, similar uh community makeup and things like that. So there are ways to compare. We are we are a large district. We do serve seven different communities. Um we serve, you know, 30,000 students even though close to 15,000 are the ones who took this test. Um there are differences. I see pos pockets of excellence, but that's not acceptable. We can't have our
046parents um spinning the roulette wheel hoping to fall into one of those areas where um you know they're they're going to um be in a in a classroom or in a school or in a situation where um it's going to be different. So we are doing things like doing walkthroughs with with multiple people. What I mean by walkthroughs are we are visiting classrooms and we are watching the instruction. We are seeing what's what's happening. We don't want every single third grade class to be doing the exact same thing at the exact same time, but we are looking for best practices. Some of these best practices would be not seeing worksheets. We don't want to see worksheets when we go and visit classrooms. We want to see students talking to one another. We want to see
047students engaging. We want to see the district adopted curriculum being used. We do not want to see um teachers paying teachers. That is a a resource where it's not district approved. It's just things that are out there on the internet. Um we want to see um curriculum that we've adopted and that is adopted by the state and as well as our supplemental curriculum. We do understand some of our textbooks may not um particularly like in ELA in in ELA and elementary it may not align with all of the components of science of reading. So therefore supplemental materials are often used in that way. We just adopted a brand new multi-million dollar math curriculum. So, we are not we are asking our teachers not to use supplemental math materials until we really get a firm grip
048on our adopted math curriculum. But this is what I hold our principles accountable for is visiting classrooms um in um interacting with teachers, working with teachers, mentoring teachers, learning from teachers about best practices that students are doing. So um I don't expect as I said before I don't expect all of our classes to be exactly the same but there are certain elements that should be present in our classrooms and I hold the principles responsible for ensuring that that happens and district staff for ensuring that the principles are doing that work. Um if we can go to middle school and I'm almost done. I know you guys were timing me. Oh, I'm sorry, Mario. I I I control it. >> Maybe not. >> Here you go. Can you uh blow that up for me, Mario? We're
049super proud of our middle schools. If you look at our middle schools, you see green um all the way through there. There's just one little bit of red. I'm not going to talk about that because that person has already been talked to many, many, many times and had to deal with this over and over. So, I'm not going to rub salt in the wound, but um you can see I was a vice principal and a principal at a middle school. It's it's it's probably one of the most interesting grade levels that there are between sixth and eighth graders. Like, it is just an interesting time in the development of a human being. And so to know that we were able to show this amount of growth in all of our um in all of our
050middle schools and and even even the one that has read Sequoia, their scores are extremely high as is. So like you know but but we want to focus on we want to focus on growth and and seeing growth means that we are working to get better and that's what we want and um and so to see that we have growth in sixth grade they showed our most amount of growth growth in seventh grade uh growth in eighth grade and then in math we have the highest growth in eighth grade um which is just which I just I just find amazing. And then just to just to shout out, Pleasant Hill Middle um just knocked it out of the park this year. I'm just really really proud of the work of um of of that team
051over there with a 9% growth in um in ELA and um and also 4.4 in in math. But the leader in in math would be Diablo View. Um and so Diablo View has um basically um is our highest performing middle school in ELA in terms of this of of this assessment. So I know that the principal was very very proud of that and hopefully their families and students and staffs are very proud of that as well. Next we're going to go to high school. You blow it up for me Mario. Thank you. High school is a little different beast. Um, you know, again, I'm not I'm not one who um I'm not one who makes excuses and I'm definitely not one who blames, but one of the challenges in high school is that is that
052it's only done in 11th grade. So, it's just one grade level. and um and you have um there's multiple competitions for standardized testing in high school, whether you have the the um PSAT, the SAT, or you have the advanced placement exams or you have the IB exams that take place. And so sometimes our um our high school students don't necessarily see the value in this test. When you have a fifth grader or something taking the test, they think it's, you know, um you know, like everyone is watching that and all that stuff. when you have 11th grader, like it's just a little different. Um, even our 11th graders that, you know, are are getting straight A's and things like that, they may not take this really all that serious. And so, um, that's not an
053excuse. I'm just saying that that's some of the challenges that that pop up. But in high schools, we have some we we had some growth overall growth in our high schools. We saw growth 2.64% 64% in overall um and 1.5% in in math. Um you can see in um you know as as we go through you can see where the um I didn't do that Mario. There we go. Nope. That's the that's the middle school. There we go. You can see um you know there's some challenges there that that that we want to highlight. Um, Olympic Olympic High School is on our um on our um um LCAP is as one of our goals and they far exceeded they far exceeded their their goal there. Um so we were you know super excited about that.
054I know Courtney Lion does a good job over there but to see that growth there is is um something. Obviously the um the negatives that we see there are things that we are we are paying attention and I mean like it's just it's it's just it's it's just kind of shocking that you know usually you have the growth in ELA and you have the dip in math but here it's completely the other way. I will say the high schools uh high school math teams are doing work with TNTP as well as our middle schools, elementary as as well, but like high school um started working with TNTP later than the than the other groups. And so um you know along with the hard work of those teachers and um and staffs there along with good
055professional development, you can see that we almost had growth at um at all of our high schools except Northgate. and and of course Northgate is not taking that lightly, so who knows how that'll look next year. Um but anyway, so so th those are our um those are our standardized test scores, which are not the um we you know, I like to describe it as as taking a pizza and cutting it into three pieces and your your regular classwork, chapter test, regular assignments, projects, and all that falls into one slice. Another slice is kind of everything else. Projects, attendance, behavior, being able to collaborate, being able to work, being able to, you know, follow directions. All those things kind of go into that second piece. And then all your standardized testing goes into the third.
056However, standardized testing is important because it's a gateway into opportunities at the next level. So, obviously, for colleges, even to get into the trades, it's a standardized math test they need to take, things like that. So, we want our students um you know, we want our students doing well on this. We do not teach to the test. We um you know that that's that's not what we do. But we believe that if you um if you have good solid quality instruction using grade level grade level materials, state adopted materials um and students are getting feedback and there's um uh opportunities for acceleration, opportunities for um reteing, retaking tests, real guidance that our students um should be able to outperform what we're doing now. Um the newspapers write articles about um standardized test scores. They don't
057write articles about just wonderful, you know, class projects and things going on. Um the realators, they use these to determine, hey, you're in a good neighborhood versus you're in a in a neighborhood with not such a great school. I think that's unfair because I truly believe at all of our schools, um we have we have excellence. We have dedicated people. Um, we have dedicated adults who were paying to do this work and that's real important. But at every last one of our school, we have amazing young people and our young people come to us um, you know, with bright eyes ready to learn and it is our job and our moral imperative to make sure that every student um, has the highest quality experience that we can provide. So that's my responsibility and um I
058take I take my responsibilities very serious but um always willing to collaborate and and listen to ways that we can do better. So that's my report. Definitely open to to questions, comments uh from any of the any of the trustees and anyone watching at home can email me at clark a mdusd.org. >> Go ahead Lauren. Uh so first I appreciate um the the transparency and uh the comprehensiveness of the the presentation. Um what trends are you seeing at what's working so well at the middle school level? Um especially compared to the the elementary, but what what are the positives you're seeing and and what are we taking away from that and applying elsewhere? >> Yeah. So, um, I'm not going to call on staff and things like that because they're not prepared to answer this,
059but I would just say that, um, you know, w within our middle schools, middle schools are a little smaller than high schools, and so there's a little bit more continuity within the within the teams there. And, um, and to be honest with you, we have been doing um, a ton of leadership work with our administrators there. So they are crystal clear on what the expectations are on what the work is and they are partnering with those teachers. Those teachers at the middle schools are collaborating with their administrators. They're looking at data. They're looking at best practices. They're sharing those things. Um and they're really um you know motivating and supporting their supporting their students. So, um, every Wednesday there's there's, uh, PD that that take, well, it's early release and I know, you know, our
060teachers have times to plan and to correct papers and stuff during some of those Wednesdays, but when we are doing our professional developments on those Wednesdays, I open up to any board member if you want to schedule an appointment to go in and watch those teams, look at data, look at best strategies and things like that, then um, I think that would that would further further answer your question. So, I had a comment about and it's just because of my curiosity and I've spoken about Native American Indians on your um uh one of your sheets the um the reports the second report the American Indians um did not exceed or meet for English language arts or mathematics but surprisingly um they exceed 5.44% exceeded in science and 15.65% met the uh standard there for me
061in thinking about science English language arts is required to understand the questions and um uh provide a response. Perhaps I'm wrong, but will we be looking at the that particular data for the fifth, 8th, and 11th grades? I recognize there are a few American Indian students, so that may factor into uh a particular grade level and the results. Uh, but I find that very interesting and how can we move the possible English language arts skills so there's a better score under English language artists. >> Is that a good question? >> No, that's a great question. And and also um the the um Native American population that we have is statistically significant because we have data on them. So it isn't it isn't so few depends. >> Yeah. it isn't so few that um you know
062that we don't have that data but that is something that we will be looking at. Um we our team um you know whether it be Roose Steel, whether it be Aaron D. Martini, Chris Clawson, Lauren Ashton, we are living in this in this data and um and you know and as I shared before, we did implement um we did implement a new data platform that allows us to tease out our students by different groups and things like that. And so that is something that we will tease out and see if we can even out those scores um and see why we had the bump in science and how that can be replicated over in ELA and the other one. >> Right. And there's math involved with science as well. >> Yeah. >> Um the other
063thing I wanted to call out was the um uh 24 25 grade level comparisons. And um it's remarkable. not I shouldn't say remarkable but I'm pleased to see that 11th grade um met or exceeded has increased because typically when we go from uh third grade to 11th grade we see a continual decline in those particular areas and for this year the the green bar uh is two green sections are greater than in the past and I think that's that's outstanding >> you know and The other thing something that that does contribute to this and um and I I have the highest um you know regard for for our principles but principles create and especially at our high schools princ principles create an environment where students um you know where where students can learn where they
064feel safe where they feel respected and heard and seen and things like that. And I think our high school principles and teams have done a wonderful job at at creating spaces where students feel um you know I mean high school is such an emotional time for our young people and it's such a a challenging time with trying to keep up and the pressures and all the peer pressure that's out there and to have folks that are very very responsive. we um you know we we aren't punitive. We're more corrective in our in our um in our interactions with students. We're trying to engage more with families and trying to bring families to the table. Um you know, we are leaning um you know, on our counselors. you know, we've done PD with our counselors all
065the way through elementary, middle, and high school counselors and really working on those feeder patterns and making sure that they're able to help students work through some of their um some of their um you know, challenges that adolescence go through, but then also giving them that academic um that that academic support and advice and guidance along the way. and um you know and a lot of that um you know is the work that we've unified our counseling staffs and have really you know put a um you know put a framework in front of them and having them working from a framework to do that work. So all of that contributes. So, so again although we didn't see the growth in ELA in the high schools, seeing it in the in the in the math and
066the overall work and seeing um you know seeing that there is growth is I think is a direct result of also changing the cultures on our high schools >> and you called out uh Olympic High School but I think it's also important to call out Mount Diablo High School uh because they saw gains across the board our flagship ship school as we would like to say. Well, pre um just board I need I want you to understand that um we've had this data for some time and at the um you know at the end of the school year after everyone goes home our principles sit in this very room um individually they share their data not only their standardized test data but also their dashboard data which would be suspensions attendance and all those things
067and we've been working on this since since June we've been we've and pouring through these numbers, looking at strategies, planning all summer, um you know, implementing as we started school and now things are are in effect. And um you know, um you know, I'm again, I can't reiterate enough hearing the hearing the media president say, you know, that um that, you know, once we get everything settled that they're willing to collaborate and work together and um really put students at our at our focus where I I believe it should be. And I'm really excited for that partnership to continue to flourish and to grow. And and um you know, Linda Ortega has um I feel she has led um you know, she has led with that in mind um over the past and I'm um
068you know, again, I'm happy for her leadership and that hopefully we can get down to this as being the focus and this is what we're talking about. So, um I have I have high hopes. I wish we would have done better, but wish doesn't matter. That's why I've tied my um evaluation goals to these numbers so that we see more um you know, more drastic results of our students because our students can't wait. So, um looking forward to, you know, continuing this work and finishing out this year. >> Great. Other comments? I didn't mean to >> not to be a Debbie Downer, but >> the other thing that we have to realize that we can't control is what goes on in a lot of these um targeted groups life. I mean, if you don't know
069where you're sleeping tonight, if you don't know where your next meals, if you haven't eaten, those are all factors that clearly are going to affect how kids perform and are out of our control. So, we do the best we can to provide those supports and to help them, but we have to always be realistic. there's always going to be something that's completely out of our control and we just continue to move forward as you've done and bring everybody to the same page to do the same thing for our students. And but I always feel for those kids of ours that the homeless and and and different groups that they're dealing with more than we have to deal with and many times people adults make the choice not to show up to work. They're still showing
070up every day. >> Thank you. further comments. >> We have an extremely diverse student body. Um there's lots of contributing factors that go into education. What my um you know what I what I show up to work each and every day for is that no matter who walks into our doors, no matter who it is, that we are going to take that student from where they are and they are going to improve being a part of our system. And um and that is what you know that is what I work towards and that's the expectations that I hold for um you know for my administrators and um you know that's what as a team in cabinet that we work together to do and um and we're just trying to shift it shift the culture. So
071that's excited to share this. I want to be transparent. I'm not I could have just sent out a you know press release email or something with a link but I really wanted to make this as accessible as possible to all families all teachers all of those who nurture and take care of our students. >> Thank you. I know we all believe our students are above average. So need to get there. All right. Um >> I'm sorry I did have one thing. It's not it's very brief. It's not a question don't worry that as parents these this data is available on Aries for our children right now so you can see what you know happened last year. So I just thought for that reminder that I know when it came out but >> if people are
072listening today you can go on right now and see what happened >> and again I I I said it in my letter home to parents you have um you have uh uh parent teacher conferences coming up soon. I hopefully our parents bring their scores and and want to ask their teacher how is going on in the classroom that's going to contribute this. I also just as equally ask parents to talk to their school's principal or vice principal about this as well. Our vice principles and principles are ready to discuss this. So, um, so again, parents do have access to their own students to their own students data and I hope they're accessing that and if they need help, they can email me and I can get them in touch with someone who will help them.
073>> Thank you. Um, we're ready for uh 14.1 approval of items listed on the consent agenda. No item. Um are anyone wish to pull a particular item? >> I move that we pass approve the items listed under under the consent agenda. I'll second that. >> We have a motion by trustee and Zewi with a second by trustee Mason to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll prepare for the vote. The motion to adopt the consent agenda as presented is approved on a 500 vote and our student trustee is absent this evening. Um, now we will move to the business items. Item 17.1 is just for info only and those are September uh 2024 quarterly updates. >> Everyone always leaves when we get to the >> I know >>
074policy update. >> I wouldn't be walking out of here. No, I'm joking. Then are we ready for 17? Did anyone have any questions on items uh 17.1? >> No questions. We're ready to move on to 17.2. >> Yes, madame president. This is um there is we are asking for approval on this. I move that we approve revisions to board policies 4151, 4251, 4351, 4158, 4258, and 4358 and AR 4158, 4528 and 4358 as presented. >> Second. So we have a motion by trustee and ziwi with a second by trustee and sewi to approve the uh board policies um 4151 4251 4351 4158 4258 and 4358 and AR 4158 4258 and 4358. Any questions? We'll wait for the system to provide us a ballot. And item 14 um 17.2 is adopted um as presented with a
0755000 vote and our student trustee is absent. 17.3 Dr. Mr. Clark. >> Yes, Madam President. There is info action on on this one. So, we are asking for some some minor edits which are in your notes. So, >> I make a motion to approve the revisions to BP 4140 and 4240 and AR 4157, 4161.2, 2 4261.1 4261.2 is listed again. 43 point 4363.1 and 4361.2 as presented. >> It's not a duplication. >> Okay. >> Feels like it should be. >> I I second. >> Okay. Okay, we have a motion by Trustee Mason with a second by Trustee Lawrence to approve revisions to board policy 4140 and 4240 and AR 4157 4161.2 4261.1 4261.2 4363.1 4361.2 as presented. Further discussion. I was ready to say bingo. >> No, we take our policies seriously. Um so the
076motion to adopt the policies under 17.3 is approved as presented with a 5000 vote and um our student trustee is um absent. Uh we won't be using the meeting extension. We don't need the close session item. And so the next item um after is 21 future agenda item requests. Uh so I greatly appreciated uh President Mayo, Dr. Clark and and staff uh for the uh bud budget study session. I thought that was very informative. I did hear from a small number of people, but I heard from folks that um they they found it useful as well. Um and so just recognizing that we're getting our meetings done in lightning time here, which I appreciate. Um, I I would just uh kind of return to my my previous comment. I I think the budget was the
077most important one, but I'd be very interested in us even just using our regular meeting to look at some of these other topics such as um you know, our our garden program, uh, school nutrition, um, into curriculum and and things of that nature. So, I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you. >> Anything else? If not, I'll declare the meeting adjourned at 7:14 p.m.