Mt. Diablo USD Board Meeting 3/12/2025 Part 2

001so good evening everyone uh I'd like to reconvene the uh Mount diao Unified School District Board of Education meeting for uh March 12th 2025 um I would first like to announce that trusty and Zi is participating in our meeting uh via teleconference as was posted on the agenda and all motions will be with an oral vote so um let's see our land ackn acknowledgement we recognize that the mount diao Unified School District sits on the territory of The confederated Villages of the lon The ancestral and unseated land of the bay Miwok and Northern yokut the successors of The Sovereign Verona band of contracosta 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

002recognize that the land we inhabit and learn on is the ancestral land of these people who are alive and flourishing members of Mount diabel Unified School District and a broader Bay Area communities today uh please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] so um at this point in time we will move on to item 6.3 which is the potential uh review and approval of the minutes for the regular board meeting meeting held on February 26 2025 Madam chair I would make a motion to approve the minutes from the meeting held on February 26 2025 second that so we have a motion uh to accept the minutes as printed by uh trusty Mason with a second by Mr McDougall Is there further discussion trustee and zway how do you vote yes uh trusty Ooa yes trusty

003Mason yes trusty C yes trusty McDougall yes and trusty Mayo votes yes so that motion is adopted on a 500 vote with support by our uh trustee Ooa thank you the next item on the oops I need thank you um we're going to review and approve the agenda Dr Clark are there any changes to the agenda no changes Madam president okay this is item 6.4 is there a motion to adopt the agenda Madam president I move to AG to approve the agenda as presented I'll second that so we have a motion by trusty count with a second by trusty Mason Is there further discussion hearing none we'll move to the vote trusty Ooa how do you vote Yes trusty eni how do you vote Yes trusty Mason yes trusty C yes trusty McDougall yes trusty

004Mayo votes yes so the motion is adopted on a 5000000 vote and I need to use the electronic one Al so um with support from trusty Ooa um as far as the close session um report out which is item 7.0 7.1 negotiations the board received um information on uh 7.2 which is discipline dismissal release or reassignment of public employe employees government code section 54957 B1 in closed session by a vote of 5 to zero with no OB exensions the board took action to approve the resignation of one employee per the separation agreement and on um a second item in close session by a vote of five to zero with no extensions the board took action to approve the non reelection of the following certificated employees ID number 48135 number 48264 4 and number 15143 and

005that concludes the report on our close section session meeting so for we're ready to move to 8.0 public comment the public May address the board regarding any item not on the agenda the public comment will also be allowed on each specific agenda item prior to the board action thereon speakers must submit a speaker card to the board secretary the board president will call each speaker to the podium as appropriate these presentations are limited to two minutes each tonight because we have 11 cards or a total of 30 minutes for all speakers the three uh the TW minute time limit may actually be shortened if there are multiple speakers on any one subject the public comment period may be moved to the end of the meeting and speakers are not allowed to yield their time all

006right so our first uh public speaker is Angel welcome Angel all right good evening everyone members of the board superintendent Mr Clark it's such an honor to be back I know it's been a couple of months since you last saw me at the last meeting um I just wanted to you know um tell you guys that um unfortunately um I'm trying to make as many board meetings as I can because starting in the fall I'll be moving to um Sacramento and attending UC Berkeley in the fall so um day for me so I mean well anyway I wanted to bring up a special topic that I want to bring up to you guys and that is um music and Visual and Performing Arts why is it important for for you know students to have those

007I mean in our class because um in the past a few years ago we had to cut back on Performing Arts and Music on fourth grade especially in elementary and middle school and high school levels but but it turns out that you know um those kinds of students love to perform especially if they have talent or some or something that is gifted to them for example you know I play um in instruments before in the past I play ukulele and um it's very you know easy instrument to play and um especially you know I mean not especially you know playing and Performing is something that you know people love to do especially you know who knows you might be you might see someone performing on Broadway or go to like you know um a special

008like performance for them you know especially you know if they want to you know have have an acting career in the future you know I say that you know Performing Arts is you know a good thing for them to you know um continue and have in our schools because because especially you know um especially you know in the past um a few years ago because you see I'm a student currently at the bridge program and ever since you know at the end of each school year we would always perform a play so just wanted to thank you we are always a proud so proud of your accomplishments Angel very welcome thank our next speaker is alista Alyssa Warz good evening trust is Dr Clark my name is Alyssa wattis and I am the vice president

009for media at the beginning of this year Dr Clark you talked about hoping to build a more collaborative relationship with media and to have open lines of communication between us as well as I have worked with the district this year to bargain s issues I have seen time and time again that the district's idea of bargaining is to tell media what you want and then refuse to accept anything else this way of acting is not collaboration and it surely does not encourage an open line of communication last year the district tried to slash the amount of days for elementary conferences to five without first speaking to Media about it this year we see we surveyed our members about conferences to see what they needed the majority told us they needed more time for conferences and

010a later placement in the school year with this information we let the district know what our members said but once again the district came back with numbers and dates that they wanted completely disregarding the needs of the actual people who hold the conferences in the spirit of collaboration and the definition of bargaining media tried to find a compromise the district asserted that no other surrounding district has as many days as mdusd for conferences and they refuse to agree to anything more than eight days so the librarian that I am I did some investigating and found that in fact several school districts in our area have 10 days for conferences conferences are important to creating a community and a partnership between our Educators caregivers and schools it's a chance for teachers to formulate more personalized help

011for their students an attend minut conference is not enough if a caregiver needs translation services due to the district's lack of translators this hinders and limits teachers ability to schedule a conference not to mention the extra time it takes for TR translators to translate between the caregivers and our teachers 10 minutes is hardly enough time for anything more than introductions these families should not be punished for needing assist assistance as always we want the best for our students and I hope that you as the board will direct Dr Clark to put actions behind the words he said at the beginning of the year by instructing your lead negotiator to collaborate and compromise to trust in the knowledge and experience of our teachers thank you thank you for your comments the next speaker is Jane blous

012enow welcome Jane hello welcome hi board member superintendent truste student trusty um I wanted to it has come to my attention that some board members do not know what it means to be a teacher or what it takes to be a teacher and I wanted to make it really clear that I had to go through four years of schooling and when I went 34 years ago quite a few years ago my uh program was in my bachelor's program so I did graduate with a prelim preliminary teaching credential nowadays you get your Bachelor and then you go onto a teaching program for a year or two so you have to get a four-year degree and then do more schooling to get your teachers credential then you have to clear your credential which is another two years

013with the district and if you want to move up the pay scale across the pay scale down the pay scale um then you need extra units of more education and you you have it set up right now up to 75 units is when you get your full um when you can get your full pay and you cannot move Beyond 13 years of service unless you get that 75 units that 75 units costs us money it's not free to go to this schooling that we're talking about none of this is free and I heard from one of my friends who has little children not like me who I have a 21 and 24 year old little children she actually said she heard that when her kids get into college it's going to cost $100,000 to go

014to college a year and I was just like flabbergast it I'll be amazed but I it's just it's not cheap and I I was dumbfounded when I heard that one of the board members did not know what it took to become a teacher and so I just wanted to make that clear and clear to the public because they were telling people in the public that you just need a high school education and two years at DBC and that is untrue thank you for your comments the next speaker is Trisha Collins Trisha good evening trustees Dr Clark and the audience um my name is Trisha Collins I teach at Silverwood Elementary tonight I would like to express the importance of having 10 days for our parent conferences this is our only chance in most cases to

015meet with parents for the entire year with eight days I can only offer 20 minutes per family in a back-to-back format that is not enough time to build relationships with families hear stories of their child's interests learn of their previous academic progress discuss areas of weakness and then Provide support allow for parents that are late um uh reschedule for no shows you always have two or three parents that miss their conference and most importantly to translate a conference for an ELD family which takes two time slots when I had 10 days I met with my families for 30 minutes with a 5 minute window between each conference this allowed me ample time to meet with each family gave a cushion for late families or if I needed to run over on a conference um it

016gave the time needed for the translation services and time to make up those missed conferences but the most important reason for offering 30 minute conferences which takes 10 days is that it shows MDF mdusd families that are they are valued and important and we want to hear hear what they have to say thank you thank you Trisha the next speaker is Bev draft Bev raft there you are welcome good evening trustees Dr Clark my name is B graft I'm a third grade teacher at ignatio Valley Elementary School which as you know is a title one school in our district I'm here on behalf of my staff um to implore you to return our conferences to 10 days many of our classes are at capacity we have several different languages spoken by our families in our

017classes not just Spanish but farsy Dar um Pash to that we need to get translators for we need extra time for that those conferences take longer not to mention uh the ability of the translator to get to school find a parking spot get to your classroom and not to mention um the no shows that you have it is important for us to build a relationship with our families and our children to help them many of our children are already behind they are below grade level and we want to build a working relationship with their families so that they can help us help their child and that is so important with eight days not able to do that we had conferences that ran over we they're back to back you don't even get a break you

018don't even get to go to the restroom and if you have a family that's late you can try and reschedule if you have a time available but more than likely you don't and then if you have to try and reschedule a translator it's impossible it is very important for teachers for my teachers at my title one school and for our families so that we can discuss their children to help them thank you thank you the next speaker is Bonnie cabio welcome good evening trustees and Dr Clark I'm here to show support for families waiting to hear back on their appeals and how difficult it has been seeing those students waiting to hear back if they have been approved as they have been singled out by not being included with their cohort in all the planning

019activities for sixth and 9th grade at Foothill and North Gate I would like to thank mdusd for making cohorts a priority for students especially for schools like bankof with a Double Split feeder pattern that is not even close to a 50/50 split I would like to close by asking mdusd to reconsider our bank bankr split transfer request for 2025 26 full year it is not that many students it never is thank you thank you the next speaker is ralin Garcia please correct um your name I may have mispronounced it it's railen okay thank you welcome railan good evening trusty and Dr Clark my name is railen I am a review student and I'm here to tell my concerns about principal Clark she yells at her students very rudely not only does she yell at them

020but she shows no respect towards them she doesn't check in on them and if she sees a student that is upset she ignores them and tells them to go to class on the other hand you have Dr Richardson and Mr G the VPS they respect their students at all times and always checks in on them I believe our School needs a principal who checks in on our students doesn't yell at them all the time no student should have a principal like this I have emailed Dr Clark before and I felt like I wasn't taken seriously or that email wasn't taken seriously so I hope this time you do take it seriously thank you for listening thank you for your comments next speaker is Megan brahmo welcome Megan tro Choy congratulations happy graduation day um good

021evening I'm Megan Bramhall I'm an educator here in mon Diablo and I'm here to speak on the topic of conferences especially at the elementary level I'm a first grade teacher in a dual bilingual program at Cambridge Elementary which means I have a maximum class capacity of 62 so when you get to conferences it's kind of impossible to fit all those students in 10 days let alone eight days so in September number at conference time at 53 students which meant 53 families to schedule and of the 50 of them sorry of the 53 50 requested them to be in Spanish and unfortunately I'm monolingual so fortunately I do have a wonderful Spanish teaching partner and we host conferences together so I do not need to rely on getting a uh a interpreter so my ask today

022is to please do not further to eliminate the time a lotted for conferences if conferences are shorted shortened to less days say five that means if I have a Max class load I have to see 12 families per day and I know me I would be mentally exhausted after that and then I have to plan and prep for the next school day so uh uh plus uh where I work many families work two to three sorry where I work many families work two to three jobs and can be very difficult for them to get time off to come and visit and for a lot of the families this is the only time I can speak to them and meet with them because a lot of the families rely on after school program and I'm not

023here till 6 to meet and talk to them so at our schools with the high multilingual population we need ample time for our interpreters um I downloaded the data from the California Department of Education and we have 52 languages in this District I don't think that's accurate because there are some languages that are under the title uncoded so there's more than that so it's really important that we also make sure that we have interpreters for those multiple languages it's an equity issue if we don't have it we have a pone far SE population that's growing every single day so we ask that you also have interpreters so those families can have access to us and that we can have access to them and information they have for their students so please consider this because class

024size is not something y'all are interested in so thank you thank you Jessica V quiz is our next speaker welcome good evening trustees and Dr Clark I'm a volunteer parent at Riverview Middle School um and we come to you tonight I have two other parents back there um to express our concerns about leadership at rearview last year when we came and spoke to you um we were promised a lot of stuff we were promised in the last meeting we had towards the end of the year more meetings with the principal we've had one all year long um she's never available to students or parents if you were a parent coming in and not knowing who the principal there was you would believe Dr Richardson is the principal there because he's always available to students always

025available to parents um he communicates with them great on the other half doc um Mrs Clark she will yell at them witnessed it myself um and no child should be yelled at I mean they're coming to school to learn and to have an adult there yell at them that's not going to help them so I ask that you guys listen to us this year and make the change at that school because it is highly needed these kids need someone that's going to understand them and it's going to be there for them and not approach them the way she does thank you thank you for your comments our final speaker is Mr Brett Hal welcome uh board members Dr Clark good to see you guys uh so I am a teacher at Sequoia Middle School this

026is my first year teaching in Middle School however on my previous years in the district I have I was an elementary school teacher and so tonight I am here on behalf of our fellow Elementary School teachers to advocate for uh to not diminish further any conference time for our elementary school teachers um I think what you've seen and throughout all the rest of the speakers the common theme here really Rings true with Equity when we see data presentations that our English language Learners are cons consistently lagging behind that we have been taking the steps to address the things that we need to do for our Learners that start off with English not as their primary language the first thing I think about when I think about these conferences is equity the first people to be

027affected by these changes by the shrinking of the conference times are those parents who are often the ones we need to meet with most they are the families of the students who need the most help the translations the extra time to build those relationships because the parents that don't need it will be fine with the diminished time it's the parents that do who we really need to build those relationships with that will struggle so many of our Title One sites the amount of translations uh the amount of translators needed when I work at ran Avenue I had about half of my students need translations uh translators excuse me across all of the teachers and the site to coordinate all of those translators into a truncated period was just not Equitable so I'd encourage that you

028please consider returning this to possibly 10 days at at least keeping it the way it is and don't diminish any further thank you so much thank you for sharing your personal uh comments and next item is Communications uh 9.1 from District organizations Mrs Ortega welcome good evening good evening trustees Dr Clark members of the audience first of all I want to thank every all my members who came out this evening especially in this rain to speak in regards to the importance of having um the caregiver conferences um as an educator for many years I have always valued that time um I also because I spoke Spanish I was able to identify and be able to speak with my families a little bit longer and as my members were saying we need to establish that first

029Contact especially with our in the growing um number of TK students in classes that is the first time uh a parent may come to a public school and so they required more time they required what is going on what is going on at the school side I hear all this what resources especially if you have a family who is brand new to this country they're seeking information and we provide that if I don't if I don't have the answer I would reach out to my office manager if not a counselor whatever that need was I was able to locate that information and follow up but I need that time to learn what's going on with my families so I just wanted to um just again stress that part that we really need to go back

030to those 10 days um because that would help build a school community on another note for those who have been keeping track and I know I've been many people have been reaching out to me of the number of the age fact of vers working condition submissions and I wish I wouldn't have to read report this but I have to today we reach the 100th submission 100 although I appreciate the hourong conversation I had the other night with the director of m&o she did share she was able to share with me what is being done to fix the thermostat problem and why my members still do not have the ability to adjust their thermostat what I heard was that there are three different thermostats being used throughout the district and it will take time to reconfigure

031them this was not the news I wanted to hear my members and our students have been very being are have been very patient and they deserve to know when this work will be done again El Schneider Electric Executives if you were listening fix the problem you created and in regard to bargaining I have been asked what are media's priorities I think we have made it very clear in our bargaining updates what media's priorities are after six bargaining sessions media's bargaining team has proposed numerous improvements that includ include learning conditions for our students and working conditions for our members we've asked for smaller class sizes lower case loads for counselors nurses speech language Pathologists and special ed teachers we've asked for library media teachers and we've asked for more Elementary General music teachers we have asked

032for improvements in our safety contract language and more prep time for all grade levels these are just a few items that we would direct that would directly benefit our students so with all due respect the question isn't what are media's priorities I would like to ask instead what are the district's priorities thank you thank you thank you so we were hoping tonight we're really here tonight to honor our teachers of the year and so um if I would have known this was going to go on I would have moved you guys up front so I apologize to the families who've been waiting so patiently but we um we are really excited this is probably one of our favorite meetings of the year to um you know to recognize those teachers who have worked so hard

033um and who have been recognized by their um by their colleagues by um students by parents um for the exceptional work that you do and um and I'm really excited to put all of the attention on um on those teachers so um so I just have a couple of scripts to read and I just um if if you are a teacher of the year if you can just if you can just raise your hand just so I can spot you out in the crowd so I know as I'm as I'm reading um I see some of you guys there great are we're so excited for you so excited for you yes yes so so again you you deserve um just just all the flowers and and recognitions that um you know that that you all

034have put into this into this hard work so so just real quickly I just want to read an opening statement and then I'm gonna I'm going to recognize each teacher of the year I'm gonna have you come up I'm gonna have you say a few words hopefully um you can pass if you if you'd like but at least if you can introduce your family members who are here we'd love to to see the families um um and then I'm going to give you a certificate we have a gift for each each one of you but then at the end we're going to take a picture with all of you with the board because we're just really so proud of you all and just super excited that that you're being recognized on this very very special

035evening and you came out here in the rain and I'm just again sorry that you've had to wait so each each of our finalists here here tonight are passionate Educators who excel at building strong meaningful relationships with their students they are dedicated to working collaboratively with fellow staff members to meet students needs and are committed to sharing teaching strategies and best practices with their colleagues and educational leaders regionally and throughout the state this year over 200 outstanding teachers were nominated for the mdusd teacher of the year following their nominations teachers were invited to complete a brief questionnaire which was carefully evaluated by a panel of mdusd Representatives and from this exceptional pool the nominations were narrowed down to eight highly qualified and impressive candidates who proceed seated to interview with the mdusd teacher of the

036year selection committee these finalists are extremely are exempli these finalists exemplify the dedication creativity and Excellence that defines our district commitments to education so our first teacher of the year that we would like to recognize and embarrass and I just want to preface this by saying I know that you all do not like the attention to be to be shined on you but tonight we're going to shine that attention on you so if I can please have tabith the box from uh ignatio Valley High School please stand yes yes yes so I have a whole bunch of bullets on you but I'm just going to read a few because I don't want to embarrass you right and I know that you just like to just just serve your students and and just be a great

037educator so um Tabatha teaches Algebra 2 trigonometry and she's part of the IB analysis um and and IB analysis and approaches for grades 9 through 12 at unio Valley high school she has 18 years of teaching experience including 15 years in Georgia and three years at ignatio Valley High School she founded the school's first math team which competed at UC Berkeley um she serves on the district leadership team and she's an she is an IB coordinator Tech technology integration leader and math department chair she mentors um student teachers uh a student teacher from St Mary's College and she is passionate about fostering critical thinking and academic growth leading professional development mentoring and collaboration with stakeholders to enhance educational experiences for all of her students can we please give a big round of applause to cab

038certificate here and we would really like you to say a few words okay thank you hi Dr Clark and trustees oh thank you I wasn't quite sure hi um my family there at home tonight uh we were going to have a baseball game uh so it got rained out of course um but yeah thanks for having me um and I am very honored truly uh so with my experience in Georgia um it's it's been a whirlwind of opportunities and whatever I can bring with that expertise here I do and so coming up from a uh limited Resource as a child and um a rough environment a toxic environment I am uniquely um in a position to help some of our students at our tile one schools and I have brought not only that teaching expertise

039from Georgia but also from growing up with limited opportunities and to open those doors for the students that we have at our tile one schools and so that's what I'm doing with math team and that those are some other things that I'm doing for our Title One schools so thank you again I'm honored and I will not take any more of thank you so much thank you okay if I could please have um Lisa catron from conquered high school please stand did I pronounce her last name right all right thank you I've been working on that today so I just want you to know again special night I really want to honor you guys and I really want to get that right so um Lisa teaches English language development and academic language development at conquered

040high school she has 17 years of teaching experience including two years at St Mary's College five years at Olympic High School and 10 years at uh conquered high school she is the English language coordinator at conquered High she's developed and leads in a pushin support model for language Learners she's created and leads the bilingual ambassadors program and multilingual G lph literacy magazine she leads the tobacco use prevention education better known as tupy and Friday Night Live groups she serves on the schools side Council and she enjoys being part of a Vibrant Community making lifelong connections with students and believes teaching is a rewarding and fulfilling uh profession Lisa will you please come to the to the podium and say a few words for us thank you trusty and uh Dr Dr sorry I'm so nervous

041um I'm like shaking um I just well my family also couldn't make it but y'all are my family so we're all here together and I just want to say um I'm so honored so honored to receive this it means a lot to me um to be recognized and there's because I just know there's so many amazing Educators surrounding me so um to be amongst so many amazing Educators in this room and just also at my site and so I just want to say um I really feel like what makes us teacher of the year are those small moments that nobody sees and we're all kind of teacher of the year in different moments and it's um so it's an honor that I'm holding right now but I feel like I'm I'm holding it for so

042many other people in our daily daily jobs all the different things all these different um connections we make with students and moments that we have with students um we're quietly maybe not being noticed in that moment teacher of the year so thank you for thank you so much thank you all right if I could please have Veronica uh Leno Garcia please stand all right allise so Veronica teaches bilingual kindergarten in English and Spanish at Cambridge Elementary School she has 13 years of teaching experience including two years in Pittsburgh Unified and 11 years at Cambridge Elementary she formerly taught transitional kindergarten hat off and she serves as the kindergarten grade level representative and mentor and she mentors student teachers from Cal State East Bay and from St Mary's College she is a mentor in The mdusd

043Residency program supporting new district teachers she serves on the School site Council and she is passionate about teaching and inspiring bilingual Learners and building strong Community Partnerships ladies and gentlemen Veronica garia family thank you again thank you thank you so much this is an honor um actually this is my second time being a finalist and I'm just wow again so this is amazing maybe the third one will be the best I don't know I'll continue doing my best uh I have my twin sisters here who came from Southern California um so thank you thank you I also have some colleagues uh behind supporting me so again thank you I know not everybody could come but I know they are they're there for me and I'm there for them too um and I just want to

044read something really quickly that I share with um my the the parents that I serve the families that I serve at my school um I share the news this good news to to uh to my families uh in class dojo uh of course I said it in Spanish but I'm going to translate in English um so I just say I just I told them that I dedicate this recognition to all the students and families that I have I have had the pleasure of teaching and meeting because thanks to all of them I am the teacher that I am now um building my strengths in uh my teaching practices my strategies and I just I know there's more to learn and I'm ready to continue learning uh I also thank them to entrusting me their students

045because uh every morning I I go to school very happy and my students are there very happy always shering missl and I'm just that warms my heart um also I want to continue again like I said continue doing my best uh because at the end I want the best for my students I want them to achieve academic success and be bilingual and biliterate uh and I continue doing you know uh promoting those good values uh as human beings so again thank you so much this is for them thank you thank you thank you so much all right do we have uh Katherine gates from Pleasant Hill Middle School she here tonight oh yes than all right Katherine Katherine teaches sixth grade core language arts and World historyancient Civilization and she also teaches mindfulness and social

046and emotional learning seal thank you for doing that she has 23 years of teaching experience including including years in arenda in Oakland um and in the Oakland Unified School District she has been at Pleasant Hill Middle School for the past 13 years she has focused on building trust and creating safe supportive environments for all students she values mean meaningful connections with students and and providing a space where they feel seen and heard ladies and gentlemen I present to you Katherine Gates I much as other people have I tend to be a little bit on the less wor the shy side um thank you um my family wanted to be here but my husband is taking care of my sick daughter at home unfortunately um they're here in spirit um I just want to say that

047this was an unexpected honor and I feel very humbled and I look forward to continuing to grow and to do hard work for the students that's what I'm here for thank you for all you do thank you all right do we have Teresa Gutierrez from meal homes all right Teresa so Teresa is a second grade dual language Spanish teacher at metal homes Elementary she has 19 years of teaching experience including 15 years teaching third grade and four years teaching second grade she's she has experience with various bilingual educational models she is a national board certified teacher in English as a new as a new language since 2013 she's she's an adjunct assistant professor at St Mary's College of California school of education since 2023 active in various committees including School site Council PTA and national

048board certification support groups she Mentor student teachers some of who have become metal homes teachers she enjoys continu with learning and adapting teaching strategies to best support her students ladies and gentlemen I present to you Teresa Gutierrez I just want to say for any of you who are bilingual feel free to speak in multiple languages we do value and all languages here in this district and we do have translation um well just one thing I'm gonna say in Spanish is my name is actually Thea okay thank I'm very like particular on that okay my family watching at home is gonna be like that's such that that's a thing to do I'm I'm gonna come to your class and you're gonna teach me to say your name correctly all right I promise you that all right

049all right good um so thank you to the trustees and thank you Dr Clark um today I have my husband Jose and my daughter Le said who's um in kindergarten um we live in valo so but she's in a bilingual program in valo which kind of speaks to how much I value bilingual education um and then my family's at home watching um so hey family um I just want to say that um obviously this is a huge honor and um something that I think every teacher strives for is to create an environment for their students um to be comfortable to learn Lear to be successful and I think that if we can accomplish that um whether we know the outcomes or not you know the that's it just speaks volumes for for everything that we

050do um I am so grateful to um all the um my colleagues families students uh my mentor Lorena Styles um and just all the learning that I'm able to do with my students every day um every time I of get bored or get complacent with my job I kind of think like okay what else can I do and um that's kind of what gets me to keep on doing professional development and seeing what else can I improve on um to be a better teacher so um thank you so much for this honor and um I hope that um in the future or I can't I hope sorry I can't I'm super nervous um I'm really excited to see what other things um we all can accomplish in the future for our students so thank you

051thank you so much thank you so our next teacher um do we have a Ernesto Ernie migana from Sequoia Middle School in the house all right beautiful beautiful it says Ernesto and then Ernie's imprint is in quotation so you want me to call you Ernie can I call you all right Ernie so Ernie teaches 8th grade English and sixth grade and sixth grade leadership at seoa middle school he has 18 years of teaching experience within the mount Alva Unified School District he is is inspired to he was inspired to teach by his grandmother a former a former English professor at Diablo Valley College he has focused on helping students find joy and fulfillment in learning and he values witnessing students progress and celebrating their achievements ladies and gentlemen I present to you Ernie mlan from

052seoa middle school superintendent Clark Board of Trustees thank you so much this is a great honor I'm very humbled and surprised uh by this so thank you for having me and thank you for celebrating the teachers of this wonderful District uh I had no idea I was going to talk but I do want to say briefly uh express some gratitude to some individuals namely uh the teacher at Northgate High School Scott Harris he's the one who convinced me to teach at the middle school level I thought I was going to go to high school but now I realized well I realized for almost 20 years now Middle School Is My Jam um the I have a a knack for teaching middle schoolers and it seems to work so it's been great I also want to

053thank a guy who's here who took a chance on me when I had at ponytail in Ro young uh Robert Humphrey my former principal hi I was just a substitute teacher and he saw something in me and he wanted me to work for for him full-time so thank you Robert uh I also want to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff that I work with at the cor middle school as far as I'm concerned they should all be teachers of the year and I have a couple of them with me here Jane and Brett thank you um yeah I think it's important for me to say that I'm a product of this District I was a former student of mgsd uh I wasn't the best student but there were teachers in this District that

054took care of me and looked after me uh namely suich who was who's now long retired and she was my teacher at seor middle school I and I'm very proud to be working at s Middle School paying it forward uh my mother and my uncles went to seore middle school I went to squ middle school with my sister and my three youngest daughters or my three daughters all went through that school the youngest one there right now so it's just been a joy being an educator um paying it forward helping the kids seeing them Thrive encourage them to learn uh so and I my family's not here because my wife is timing at a swim meet my daughter's first swim meat she's swimming in the rain and my other daughter is at a dance comp

055uh dance practice because she has a competition coming up in uh two weekends from now so and my other daughter is watching live from home hi honey so thank you very much thank you thank you thank you okay so um so those were all of our finalists and now we're down to our two teachers that are going to represent Mount Alo unified in the county and state um um teacher of the year competition so um someone who is who is not unfamiliar to this room if he can please stand David pintado from Mount diabo High School I got like a page and a half on you but I'm gonna read a couple bullet points is that all right because I know you're a shy person and and David David and I know also once you

056get that microphone it's not going to be brief so I got right no so we're going to so David um he's a family practice medical doctor licensed in Mexico with 28 years of medical practice experience he taught nursing and Public Health at universities in Mexico for 20 years he holds a master's degree and a PhD which supported his transition to Career Technical education better known as CTE in the United States began teaching medical assisting to adults at hee College worked as a health science teacher in West contracosta unified for one year joined Mount diblo High School in 2016 teaching in the medical and biotechnology Academy now transitioned to the patient care pathway he is a health science Adjunct professor at Diablo Valley College he coaches tennis at Mount diabo High School and advises the sports

057medicine Club he operates in East Bay CPR first aid Training Center employee employing MD Mount diabo High School students as interns he mentored students in the SAA future health professionals organizations he's created dedicated CPR first aid and basic life support Training Center authorized by the American Heart Association he's motivated by the opportunity to create positive change in Youth and promote health and safety education I could just go on but ladies and gentlemen David pintado please thank you thank you okay all right it is yeah well guess what I'm not goingon to be here can can you hold the microphone [Music] now just the microphone for the video people watching at home three two no one minute and my parents for giv me life I want to thank custodians teachers outside in the parking lot waiting

058for their children I want to thank the students my family obviously my wife Katie my son uh Taylor which actually volunteering right now at Mand AO High School uh my son uh AJ which is very happy to see his former teacher right there you see real family but anyway I just want to say that um we are of change we are here to change uh the society and that's why uh you guys what you see what you get with me I mean I'm not gonna keep my mind sh when it comes to changes I'm GNA make this different and you think a lot of people there's one in particular and right here this from [Laughter] and a few t-shirt uh Mr Pike Susan you guys are are the best with me and my students which

059actually I'm here for them too but I'm going to end this by saying that uh I just met Sacramento in a hallway talk and is by the best that's right so that being said I thank everybody for that and um a couple years ago was final now I made it like a hoscar osar okay to everyone all right last but not least and I don't know if I see her is Elizabeth oh okay where is she hiding back there there she is all right good um I'm not going to embarrass her but I I saw we were at a training on Monday and I saw her and I and like literally she's on my computer like all the time because I have that uh Friday letter up and so I told her I feel like

060I'm seeing like a in you know famous person there and stuff like that so so anyway Elizabeth Swanson uh TK teacher from Silverwood Elementary School this is going to shock us all but I'm gonna say it 35 years of teaching experience starting at RI Vista I hope that's not a typo okay all right okay good good so 30 32 years of teaching experience starting at Ria Vista Elementary in Baypoint then moving to Silverwood Elementary in conquer she taught kindergarten and has focused on transitional kindergarten for the past 11 years she is passionate about child centered play based learning C I know trusty and zie is excited to hear that creating lessons that meet individual student needs she's recognized for her patience trustworthiness and her ability to Foster early childhood education success she collaborates closely with

061instructional assistant Nancy ESP penino to Nancy here all right okay there you go Nancy there you go now I lost my spot okay um and and Nancy to provide individualized and small group support she integrates music meditation and cool down time to help students learn self-regulation and emotional well-being she encourages pos positive affirmations promoting self-confidence and resilience in students she incorporates three types of play teacher facilitated teacher facilitated child centered and collaborative emphasizing social and problem and problemsolving skills she engages with families through events like literacy nights promoting strong family connections she's highly regarded for her trans transformative impact on students communication and emotional skills as shared by parents she serves as a mentor and leader in the district and County she's recognized as a spotlight teacher for exemplary practices in equity and engagement she

062welcomes new teachers to observe her classroom inspiring effective effective teaching strategies through the district teacher induction and support program she is praised for nurtur ing a love of learning elevating both students and the teaching community Through Innovation and dedication ladies and gentlemen Elizabeth Swanson good evening first of all I'm going to turn two because I believe even being respectful thank you first I want to acknowledge all of the finalists sitting back there I was like how am I going to follow all this right you're all extremely extremely impressive teachers and it's an honor to be here with you today okay second thing I want to talk about is my family can't be here but my son and my daughter are Mount Diablo graduates they graduated from college park and they are out in the world

063doing really hard things change in the world so thank you m They al blue teachers um I want to preface continue on with what David said was it's really important that when we approach our world right now that we be the change we want to see in our world we may not be able to affect everything but what we do every day matters and if we go to our jobs and we go to our communities and we try to reflect the love and the care for one another then we can make small changes and if everybody does that we can create a Tipping Point right the other thing I want to talk about is although my family is not here my school family is and I've been at Silverwood for 22 years if you've ever

064walked on that campus you will see how the teachers care for each other and how they take care of each other someone's out everyone gathers it's a wonderful place to be another thing I want to talk about is Mr Burns and brought along with us just a few years ago the idea that to be curious not judgmental and every day we start our staff meetings with that not we started off as a wonderful staff and now we have Mr Burns we have an incredible staff and I just want to appreciate everyone who's in our community at our school thank you very much for this honor I plan to continue to be a proponent of play because we know that when children had have advocacy for themselves and their families we can make changes the ability

065to have an assistant like Nancy Espino where I can work with children one-on-one and I know that she's there to support all the children it makes every bit of difference in the world this small class size where I can give the children exactly what they need is everything thank you very much so so if we could have all the all the teachers of the year come up to the front for a picture and then families can take a picture and then we can continue on with our meeting sure we all got we all go to look at the camera all right I I want to thank everybody for coming tonight so that we could celebrate you as our honoraries uh for the teacher of the year program it's very exciting can they get it get

066the speaker older the fun of having a twin huh well thank you Dr Clark for making the evening uh so joyous and a special uh congratulations to all our teachers of the year uh we'll move on to board member reports can you speak a little closer to the mic I'm sorry all right um just when I think I'm being loud so uh we'll start with Mrs count all right thank you very much um this since the last board meeting I was able to get out and about more than usual so really appreciated uh it being read Across America um I got to go and read um at Meadow homes Elementary and also at Ren Elementary um and you know it's called read Across America but I think in our district it feels like read across

067the world um because you know that we have students from all over like they were saying we have over 50 languages um and so it's so fun to go into classrooms especially when they have a world map to be able to find out where everybody's from and what languages they speak um and to find connections with them so that's just been a real Joy um I was also invited to um observe at Meadow homes the method um of uh teaching young students in tkk and first grade um the the sounds of letters um and it was really fun to watch in action um and the students were really into it it was very um physical there were hand motions that went along with it as well um and um and it felt like play based

068learning as well it was really fun um and it seemed like students from all different um backgrounds were able to catch on to really um figuring out those letter sounds so it was was very interesting to see and I appreciate that that uh teachers are who brought this forward and shared it with other teachers um it seems to be spreading so thank you for hosting me um I also um uh was able to attend um the conquered safety night um last night was that last night yeah thank you uh Justine Mason was there as well um and so thank you to the city of conquer to vice mayor Nakamura um and to the organizers of the event um and the conquered Police Department um it was really valuable information um and I appreciate that it

069was recorded as well so that hopefully people who were not able to attend will be able to access the resources and the information um it also was a reminder to me of how far we've come that some of the things that we've put into place place um over the last few years in this District um uh like the say something um Anonymous reporting system and the close Partnerships um between schools and school districts and police departments um that those things are really working to uh to prevent tragedy um they had some very good examples of that as well that they gave so much appreciation to everyone who's keeping our families safe um I also got to go to the project 212 robot real out at osia Valley High School which is always super fun um

070I try to make it to that every year that I can um it's always just so impressive to see um this that the students fully lead the event um presenting uh their invention um and that every student participates even the ones who are brand new um they stand up there and speak and they all cheer for each other and support each other and it's very professional um being presented to uh to business leaders and mentors in from the community as well very impressive um I got to go to the county honor band over at Los mcdonal Community College there are people from um students from our district and other districts um that came together to perform in that as well um and then this morning it was just so wonderful to be able to celebrate

071our own trusty Ooa um congratulations to all of your accomplishments and achieving your graduation ation credits um and I'm sure that will be talked about later um but we we're just so proud of you and we're so thankful to have you here on the dis with us sharing your perspective and sharing the perspectives of so many students across the district as you've been out and about and making sure to hear from them and so just much appreciated um and congratulations teachers of the year um thank you to every single um one of you who is so intentional about being fully inclusive of students um of all languages genders races abilities um you know these are our values of this district and um and they are in fact our board policies that must be followed um

072but we just we just really appreciate um your intentionality and your caring of all of our students and I think that's it thank you thank you trusty and Zoe I don't want to skip you would you have a report tonight um I will just I will be brief and I'll save most my things for next week since we only have a week in between but I just wanted to just honor trusty ATA I hope you are so excited excited and proud of yourself and I'm so sad that I'm not sitting next to you this evening um you are amazing I'm so proud of you and I'm honored um to get to know you this year um in fact Dr Clark is right I am excited that we have a real live early educator as one

073of our teachers of our of the year and I'd like to just congratulate though all of our all of our teachers of the Year nominees and finalists and top two um you are amazing and our students are so lucky to be educated by each of you um otherwise you'll get me live in the moving color next week with lots to say well we look forward to hearing about everything that's happening um on the East Coast uh trusty o choa you're not you're not excited trusty o choa last Monday I had the opportunity to go to the California Academy of Science it was really fun field trip while I was there I got to see a whole bunch of different animals that I have never seen up close before such as an octopus glowing jellyfishes and

074a museum full of exotic animals on February 27th I attended the FED not awareness night at Olympic High School it was great to see how many people came with their families it was a personal way to let people know more about the dangers of feta and how is affecting our local communities I hope to see more events like this in the future lastly I have some exciting news to share I am happy to announce that I'm officially a high school graduate I would want to say thank you to all the people who came out to graduate me today I will say um thank you to all the people that came out to congratulate me today including Dr Clark and many many of my fellow board members your support this year and in the Years even

075before I knew you means a lot to me at my graduation announcement today there were also a mount Jabo unified staff for my elementary years it is a great reminder that every experience in your journey was was more special because of the adults who supported me along the way finally I would want to remind young people never to give up on their themselves because there is so much more happiness still ahead throughout life you would grow change and become different versions of yourself it's it's important to love and be grateful for each version of yourself because every chapter shapes who you are becoming and each one matters wonderful thank you trusty Mason here after the last meeting I think it was like the next day um I went to um Olympic for the new partnership

076we're having a new pathway there which is about customer service which I think is really really perfect because I know a lot of from personal experience a lot of those Olympic kids leave Olympic and go to jobs so it's just going to help them succeed and grow faster I'm going to be watching that one to see how that grows um and then I went to the um uh Meadow homes to read and I read in Miss mlan class and Mrs hinkley's third and fourth graders and as I shared last year I choose third and fourth graders because it was my fourth grade teacher that got me hooked on reading and so I actually read them a chapter from one of the books that my fourth grade teacher had read me which is Mrs piggle wiggle

077which I was delighted to find it was still on the allowed to read list so I read a chapter of that to them and then I went to the project 212 always fun to be there the kids are so articulate um I've really found going to the the a lot of things in the past couple weeks that people are really very kind and nice in Mount da School District I know at that um project 212 I'm short me was sitting there and having a hard time seeing because I was by the door and one of the fathers asked his daughter to move so I could get in and and see and I thought I'm like you know what it's about your kids I just really need to be here support and then the next day

078I went to conquer High School for the bands and all the different grade levels of the bands and I knew I wanted to sneak out before all the car I'm telling you there was no place left to park it was great there was Bay Point's kids there conquered kids from all the different ages all supporting each other but I'm standing quietly against the wall and here comes a gentleman that says here here's a chair sit down and I'm like I must really be starting to look old people are taking care of me oh and then I um went to see the um ribbon cutting of the new football field at mountd high school very very exciting I've spent a lot of time in those bleachers when Pacifica used to play there and then when my

079kids went there going to the Mount Alo games I went to a game this year so it's really really a beautiful field and I hope it lasts us a long time and then the best day went yesterday that was great to hear from um the all the Partnerships that come to us from DIA volley College was really impressed with our own presentation by our own HR department because of like wow we really do employ a lot of people and there's a lot of opportunities so I was very impressed with that because you I've been here forever and you kind of forget the wide perspective that mount dablo has on the communities that it serves and then um I went to the gun safety last night as well and I'm just again want to reiterate the

080energy in the room tonight with our our teachers of the year the parents that I'm encountering when I go to the schools the staff the kids um with a lot of unease in the world I feel like we're a really safe place to be and that makes me happy thank you very much Mr McDougall do you have some comments to share with us I do uh let's see several things happened uh the 27th of February we attended the last CTE uh career Pathways day like you mentioned consumer services so we're glad to see that getting launched and we hope it succeeds uh Beyond expectations uh March 3rd on Monday morning I visited a couple of elementary schools with Dr Clark here very interesting to sit in on those classes so that was very educational for

081me the next day I had my own town hall meeting uh where the public is uh meets and talks with a trustee and um we had a standing room only crowd due to all the teachers who were there uh this was our third town hall and we are getting good participation we do it so the public and parents in particular can make comments and questions and the questions are referred to District staff for answers we hope to get more parents involved as attending these board meetings here doesn't allow much for interaction so they can do a lot more of asking questions than that at a town hall the day after that I uh participated in read Across America I read to the first grade class over at Meadow homes and really enjoyed that because they

082also asked me to come and help teach the the alphabet with them so that was uh very helpful I hope um and then I uh participated in the track ribbon cutting and I'll have to say um that field is really Gibbs it's very spongy and more so than dirt and grass and uh I remembered playing on artificial turf 50 years ago when I played rugby against the University of Minnesota and um I learned that you need elbow pads and knee pads when you're playing that stuff um but that was very interesting to see the track and the new field very impressive um attended the annual best day this last Monday and it was very interesting to see the teachers who shadowed the local professionals and I think it was very educational for them as well

083but I was glad to catch up on all the uh the things that are happening in that program and then was able to attend Crystal's graduation with the horn blowing this morning so that was really good to see all your friends coming along and really heartfelt congratulations to you because they know that it was you know very hard for you to do it and we just congratulate you on all the hard work that succeeded and um next week I won't be able to come to the board meeting because I'm going to be attending my granddaughter's wedding in Los Angeles thank you all right uh so I just have a few comments I too attended the uh ignatio Valley High School uh project 212 robot reveal and as was stated the students are very articulate and

084they do uh enjoy sharing the uh um SK their skills in um what do I want to say uh controlling the robot uh because there are various tasks that are required for the competition but I think we mustn't forget that the students learn through Hands-On learning um in this particular program because they manufacture all the components of the robot themselves as well and so when you consider the hours that are spent in um design experimentation uh and redesign and building again um it's just amazing the time that they're putting in and everything that they're learning as well as team building which is one of the most important things um in our lives uh in the business world I attended the best day uh the luncheon portion and just so folks understand the acronym it's business

085and Educators shadowing for tomorrow and through this process uh teachers and our business partners learn to understand where students are at what students need to be uh successful in the business world and then business becomes a partner with our schools and it's amazing um uh collaborative effort each year we see new faces but we also see many people returning um to be uh hosts for our teachers and the uh DVC has a shared uh certificate program that they're offering for uh certificates for students attending DVC that help them Advance more quickly in gaining their uh degrees that they want to earn and I too was very impressed with our Mount Diablo Unified School District human relations team and their presentation and I believe our business partners uh stand now more about the work that Mount

086Diablo does and the importance of our employees and I think they were very appreciative of the information as well um and uh today I participated in the csba advocacy week uh six trustees from throughout contracosta and Alam County uh are meeting with uh legislators and today we met with uh Senator Grayson and assembly member Wix and uh shared concerns uh and bills and um what do I want to say we advocated on certain positions with these individuals and uh what's uh great is when trustees from across the county uh and even Alam County can come together and advocate for the same thing because even though we seem very different we all have common needs needs that must be met and we even advocate for positions of smaller school districts and larger school districts because we

087know when we uh improve the conditions for some we're improving the conditions for all and I too had the joy of celebrating truste Ooa uh at her uh graduation uh clap out at Olympic High School it was exciting to see everyone who supported her and uh the pride in her mom's eyes and in everyone who knows her so congratulations thank you uh Dr Clark would you like to say a few words great yeah um I have a um I have a short presentation but always always lost to say when there's exciting things happening so um again I I think you know more than ever our our lcap really remains as that North Star as we just navigate going into spring um you know I know it's raining this evening but the the sun is is

088definitely awaiting to come out and um and and that brings it brings new growth but it also just on a school campus can bring a lot of anxiety and a lot of activity and so as we continue to meet these lcap goals um just always want to keep them in the Forefront so that so that we know what it is that we're striving towards and if if folks don't know what we're about all they have to do is read our lcap and that means our students teachers staff members administrators families it's all here in the lcap um and and again I I think that we are making good progress on lcap goals four and five and so I just want to you know give a shout out to all those who are supporting um those

089students that we've identified um I want to thank many people in the room had a um had a huge hand in our professional development day that took place on Monday the 10th we have two of these a year and um you know if if I could wave a magic wand we would have a week of professional development before school we'd have a week in the middle and we'd have a week in the end but um but but that's not possible but um you know just just some of the just some of the highlights of the day and I and I know i' I've missed some but these were just some of the things is that first of all we have really been focusing on on our principles as really being those instructional leaders at their

090sites um not only are they instructional leaders but they're also um you know they wear so many different hats knowing each kid working with families knowing all their staff members supporting all of those folks on on on campus are you know key to that to that principal ship and so they they LED their trainings um and they shared uh current data they shared um you know making plans on how we're going to address the rest of the spring and how we're going to Contin continue to monitor student growth so just a big hats off to to our principes and the folks in the room who um who supported them um our special education staff met at conquered high school and our Special Education team um worked with worked with them um I attended the TK

091um uh TK training over at conquered High School and we brought in West Ed and they were um um working with uh brain developmental science and and really refocusing the the Young Learners um our classified employees were at conquered high school counselors um and Social Work Specialists were at Willow Creek um our CTE teams uh participated in best day at local businesses and then also uh debriefed at um at at uh Serendipity and and we heard another powerful presentation by DBC which is just such a gem to have right here in our district and in our community and I know um I get Dr Fontanella nervous when when I start getting excited about DVC because um because I just want more of our students to have that opportunity to get on that campus and and

092actually see that they can do it and they can compete and they can be successful in that environment um so it all comes from a good from a good place our world language teachers were at we at Willow Creek and um Visual and Performing Arts on the schedule it said to be determined so I'm not quite sure where there were and there were many more learning opportunities so a lot was was squeezed in to to that one day I'd be curious to see how our attendance was um the preliminary reports I received was that attendance was good um amongst our staff it is a day that if they if they want to take a personal day or a sick day they can do that but many of them came to participate in the in the

093learning so just a couple quick pictures here um as we as we look at number one um she she just left but I know the the principal from uh from Shore Acres and I'm I'm pretty sure this picture is from Shore Acres but this is just again this is this is learning right it's not sitting in rows it's not uh stage on the stage getting talked at all day like like putting putting stuff together and letting our kids go to town on it and stuff and so these students are creating these electrical circuits and things like that so very very exciting to see that um our counseling team um just just continues to shine and I know that you know these counselors are doing this outside of their work week they're not asking for any

094compensation they're just doing it because you know they really feel committed to their communities and saw a gap there and so they um so here they did that we have you know our team there we got Dr Specky Smith there we got Linda Pete we got Linda Pete there um and the picture on the right is our our families who came to be supported that day and um and again it was just an activity that they had where they were where they were painting I don't know if they were painting their idea um situation or their families or you know where where they'd like to go afterwards but just um really when we talk about Community that's what it's all about but it wouldn't happen without these highly qualified culturally Pro uh proficient and responsive

095staff who saw a need and then went to work to fill it um another thing when we talk about this is our our principal over our prospects and what she is doing right now with high school kids at an alternative school who you know often times get a get a bad rap out there but they are doing attendance Raffles and so um when you show up you can do a raffle to get a prize and you could see these students are engaged and excited about this raffle and I don't quite know what's in that in that little bucket there but they're excited about it so again sometimes you just got to think outside the box to get St students um to you know want to come to school and to see the value in school

096so that so that they can get all that we have to offer um you know within the campuses I know many of you talked about the uh ribbon cutting at at Mount diabo High School um you know this is not only for our not only for our students but it's also for um for our community as I've spoken to Mount Diablo high school students in the past often times um they feel that um you know that they are they're neglected Ed and they you know they're at this old older High School I don't know it's built in the turn of the century not the last turn of the century but the previous turn of the century um but to have a state-of-the-art field the only one so far in the Bay Area um you know

097just was a you know was a a tremendous just it's a commitment that we have in letting them know that they are important they matter and they're just as important as anyone else in this district and um and so were excited to be there I want to thank Melanie coslo and her team um because this really went off without a hitch like we didn't even know I mean we didn't hear about it happening and and things like that so I know we hear you know we hear some things but like so much happens that people don't even notice um you know and um and and so for them to put in a whole field and track right under the nose while school is taking place and for the not to be a peep about it

098just hats off and I don't know if Melanie's still here there she is yep so and and the the the group that did it um just really spoke highly of she and her team and stuff like that so um so do do want to recognize that I know you guys um talked about read read Across America it's funny I wasn't invited to read in any classes but um but that's that's fine that's fine I'll you know I'll read to somebody else but um budy invite him yes but um no it's um you know just it's a it's an important time and um and again this is this is a a I believe he's a captain in the police department so um you know just again that Community feel that we have at so many of

099our schools and bless you so and so much in our community um last night we did have the opportunity to talk about um gun safety and and again I know that the conversation was about gun safety but as it as it morphed and as each of those people um in the in the circles impact what they do and how they contribute to student health and wellness so much came out and so we really provide a comprehensive program for and putting students at the center of of all those things and all those folks work together and there's Partnerships that that are taking place um you know really to to keep the focus on our students and um just just extremely proud of that work and extremely proud of the work that we do to um to

100support our students so I'm so I'm not done I got a couple other couple other things but I wanted to share I sent out um our suspension data to our principles today and I and and just shared the data with them and I asked them if you if um if your data is is high or if it's low or if it's flat if you'd like to share anything with me I'm I'm available and so um so I actually received several emails and I and I just wanted to read a couple things of what of what principles said now when when we talk about reducing suspensions the goal is not to turn the other cheek to misbehavior or to violence or to drug use or things like that the the goal is to establish relationships to

101be proactive to be present to know who your students are so that you can prevent those things from happening and unfortunately when they do happen happen that you respond in a way that is going to help the student learn from their mistakes and become a and become a um you know a better person and learn from it so just a couple things that that uh principal shared with me so um I'm not going to identify the school but our numbers are trending lower this year because we are being very intentional with the use of our other means of Correction admin and counselors are facilitating conflict resolution between students and sometimes between students and staff our counseling team has been very proactive and responsive in designing presentations for all students on a variety of topics I.E

102racism sexual and sexual harassment in addition to adapting secl lessons for teachers to lead in classrooms each department takes turns in leading seal lessons every week as a school we have been working on building build community and relationships I think the combined effect of these strategies had has led to an overall Improvement decrease in suspensions with this last quarter of the year coming up we hope to continue this positive momentum and maintain low suspensions and high academic rates thank you um that's what that's what the principal Rose that's not me just thinking you and then another principle these are just some bullet points here of things that they did um school counselor classroom push-ins for restorative practices and um and circles and mediations frequent meetings with parents admin restorative practice circles and and conflict mediations

103I think I read that already establishing and communicating schoolwide Behavior expectations working closely with school counselors School psychologists and District behavior intervention teams meeting with students individually to discuss Behavior concerns and solutions by using use of site Behavior contract learning Learning Resource video on self-discipline self-control and responsible decision making so um so those are just some of the things you didn't hear in there um you know we are just turning a blind eye to things over saying oh you know these kids can't you know behave right because of whatever you want to fill in they're they're really being proactive and that has been that has been the goal all along to um to use what the research says works and to actually implement it in a in a learning setting so extremely proud of that

104and I have several more emails just like that um maybe they all got together and wrote These but but they are they are great and I was extremely proud to see that can I get to the next one the other thing that um that I'm I'm basically I'm I'm submitting this so it's on the record is this is a um this is a a summary report an executive um you know just an executive summary of our work with with um with tntp and so in here um you will see what uh the the project overview is and and our ambitious goals so there is District leadership there's uh they're working on school leaders they're working on the math instructional leadership teams they're working with the literacy instructional leadership teams and then they're also providing uh

105specific support to our schools that are receiving CSI support so again like none of this happens in a in a vacuum this is all you know our um our administrators are participating our District staff are participating and those teacher leaders are um are participating but um so there's just as as you as you go through the document um um you can there's a summary on District leadership There's a summary on school leadership and there's a summary on the on the math I and a summary of the of the CSI work and so um so I just put that document in there for um for the community to read for the trustees to read and then if you have questions um you you you you have that so just in closing I um you know again

106I want to um acknowledge our teachers of the year um I think as I as I read their sort of summaries there were lots of um um there were lots of things in there that were consistent amongst amongst many of them many of them it's about service many of them are experienced educators many of them are working in schools where there's High needs um so those are those are folks who you know who are really passionate about this work and see the value of of actually working with students and developing and and having a a a huge um influence on our on our future young people so just um really excited to be able to celebrate them and um and and and highlight their efforts um and then lastly just want to um again uh

107uh recognize trusty AOA um you know I mean graduating high school like right A lot of people just say yeah what's the big deal but but it's a big deal because it's the it's the first it's the first big commitment that our young people have um in in in life right it's it's something that you know it takes four years it takes a whole bunch of of rules and and and and and meeting requirements that that they don't like you don't just are born with knowing how to navigate the high school system and things like that and and I think just what what makes this so special is that um there's just been changes in our in our alternative schools whether it's Prospect or Olympic they're both model continuation schools they both have leaders there

108who believe in the students and when you go to those campuses you do not hear um you do not hear Blame You do not hear what it's me the kids aren't feeling sorry for themselves they're not fighting they're not um you know they're not into um you know negative behaviors it really is a um a supportive environment so so we are um proud that you accomplished this but like there was never a doubt that you that you wouldn't right and so um so it's just it's just the first hurdle and what's going to happen is there's going to be many many many many of those hurdles in life that come before you but hopefully you know now that regardless of what it where it is regardless of where you start regardless of who's around you

109you can you can accomplish whatever you put your mind to and as I told as I told you today we celebrate you but we celebrate every single kid in this District every single kid in this District gets the respect and the love that we showed you today that's that's how we all feel and and and that's what it means to to be an educator in this district and to work in this District under my leadership and under the leadership of this board and which you're part of this board so you set the tone for all those other students out there so just extremely proud of lots of things happening um we can only affect what we what we have direct you know influence on and and right now we're focusing on taking care of our

110students taking care of our communities taking care of our employees so so um thank you all for allowing me to share a little bit during this superintendent report thank you thank you very much Dr Clark um sometimes the hard part is getting back to business right so we'll move on to the consent agenda which is the next item on our um agenda there we go so items listed under the consented agenda are considered routine and will be approved or adopted by a single motion there will be no separate discussion of these items however any item may be removed from the consent agenda upon the request of any member of the board and acted upon separately so are there any items that uh trustees would like to see pulled for discussion and I will recognize trusty

111and zie do you have anything you'd like to have pulled on the consent agenda no all right well with that um I just have one comment I'm very excited that there's a principal going to attend the 2025 Science Education Summit woohoo um and I will move to approve the consent agenda I'll second that so we have a motion by trusty count with a second by truste Mason on the approval of the consent agenda uh any further comments trusty Ooa how do you vote yes uh trusty and zae yes thank you uh trusty McDougall yes trusty K yes trusty Mason yes and Linda Mayo votes yes that motion is adopted with a 50000 Z vote with support from trusty Ooa uh we're ready to move on to the business items 16.0 uh Dr Clark 16.1 changes

112in board policy 16.1 um you you've all have seen that we're bringing this back for potential approval Madam president I move to approve revisions to BP 4118 4140 4157 4240 and AR 4157 as presented second that so on item 16.1 um we have a motion by trusty K with a second by trusty Mason on the adoption of I have to put my glasses on bp4 4118 BP 4140 BP 4157 and BP 4240 as well as AR 4157 um is there further discussion trusty Ooa yes okay uh truste and zie yes trusty count yes trusty Mason yes trusty McDougal yes trusty Mayo also votes yes so that motion is adopted on a 5000000 vote with the support of trust o choa 16.2 Dr Clark yes so again um this is coming back for approval you've already

113had a chance to review um these uh policies these updates and um we're we're asking for okay there were a lot on this list uh is there a motion to approve I have a question for our legal councel do I have to read every number or can I say as presented thank you I make a motion that we approve the revisions as presented second so we have a a motion by trusty Mason with a second from trusty McDougall uh regarding uh the policies on item 16.2 to be considered as presented um let's see we're ready for um the opinion of trusty Ooa trying to change it up a little yes trusty and Zoe yes uh trusty Mason yes uh trusty count yes truste McDougall yes uh the motion is adopted for approval of all the

114policies on 16.2 with a 50000 vote and support from trustee uh Ooa 16.3 Dr Clark yeah Madam president 163 and 164 are first reads and so um it's just it's just info only I know that um 164 is info action but um info only is info only is fine for vote okay there a preference with trustees we'll bring them back at a future board meeting all right um well at this point in time we don't need a meeting extension um uh are let's see and are there any um requests for future agenda items just uh Madam president we're going to be doing a um we're going to be doing an Arts presentation in the in the next couple meetings I talked with Miss Hoover and she's excited to do that and so um so we

115have that next week we're going to be having our our our second interim very excited about that and um that's all we have great and very thankful that we're not making uh reductions right now before March 15 so that does not need to be on our agenda as it is on many of our neighboring yes we have a reason to celebrate um our right with that we are at um item 21 which is adjournment thank you very much everyone for your time this evening and uh the meeting is adjourned hi