001good evening everybody I'd like to welcome you to the reconvened meeting of the mount diao Unified School District Board of Education it's April 24th and we are reconvening at 602m um trusty bario baros has joined us and trusty and zwi has joined us after an arduous trip from Sacramento tonight and trusty mcfarren is going to be absent for the remain for the meeting tonight um we uh first will um let's see do the land acknowledgement this is item 6.1 we recognize that the Mount Diablo Unified School District sits on the territory of The confederated Villages of the Lan The ancestral and unseated land of the bay Miwok and Northern ukat and the successors of The Sovereign Verona band of contracosta County as members of the Mount Diablo Unified School District Community it is vitally important
002that 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 ancestrial land of these people who are alive and flourishing members of the mount diao Unified School District and broader Bay Area communities today please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance un States stands one nation God indivisible with okay so six item 6.3 is the review and potential approval of the minutes for the board meeting held on a ail 10th 2024 are there any corrections do I hear a motion I move that we approve the minutes of the board meeting from April 10th 2024 second a motion has been made by truste and Z seconded by um Mrs count uh are there any further questions or comments trustee and
003U baros how do you vote yes thank you the motion is adopted uh with a four in favor no NOS uh one absence and with concurrence from trusty baros thank you uh we're moving on to the approval of did I mix that up no approval of the the minutes for April 10th 2020 I'm sorry we just did that uh review and potential approval of the agenda Madame President I would like to pull item 14.20 are there any other items or any other changes to the agenda Madam chair I would move that we approve the agenda with the removal of item 14.20 second okay a motion has been made by trustee Mason with a second by trusty count uh is there any discussion if you're ready for the vote trusty baros how would you vote yes
004please vote item 6.4 passes with a 40 vote and one absence and with concurrence of trusty baros thank you so we're ready for the report out of action taken in closed session uh 7.1 was the uh board could discuss uh negotiations or provide directions to its Representatives regarding represented employees pursuant to government code 54957.6 six we received information for 7.2 dis discipline dismissal release or reassignment of Public Employee government code section B1 uh I have several items to report out for you in close session the board considered the non- reelection of um and release of one probationary certificated employee under Education Code 449 9 29.2 and by a vote of four in favor Mason count I'm sorry three in favor Mason C and mayo and absent for the vote were mcfarren and en and um
005to direct sta staff to send notice that they will be non- reelected and released at the end of the 2324 school year from their certificated positions there was a second item in close session the board considered the release of one certificated administrative employee under Education Code section 44 951 and voted by a vote of three in favor Mason count and uh Mayo um with absences by mcfarren and eni to direct the district to send notice that they be released at the end of the 23 24 school year from their certificated administrative position and sorry I have my papers out of order and the final one in closed session by a vote of 4 to zero uh with Mason C eni and Mayo voting in the affirmative and one absence mcfarren the board took action to
006approve the resignation of employee ID for of an employee her the agreement and um truste M en eni enjoyed us joined us at 6:45 PM so she was eligible for that vote thank you we're ready to move on to the next ex agenda item expulsion of student 07-24-18 approve the expulsion of student 07-24-18 second so a motion has been made by trusty Mason with a second by trusty count um is there any further discussion if not please move to the boat e so this motion is adopted uh by a vote of 40 with uh truste mcaren being absent so we're ready to move on to public comment which is 8.1 uh the public May address the Board of Education regarding any item not on the agenda um within the jurisdiction of the Board of Education
007of the district these presentations are limited to three minutes each for a total of 30 minutes for all speakers or the three minute time limit may be shortened if there are multiple speakers on any one subject the public comment period may be moved to the end of the meeting speakers not not allowed to yield their time thank you um first speaker is Miss Debbie hickey good evening board members and superintendant I'm here tonight to speak up for the clerical staff you may not know but CST staff has been working at their sites for athletics graduations open house and back to school nights for many years and being paid on the activity supervisors time sheets we have always been paid at the same rate as media until now April 10th myself and another School site were
008surprised to see that our pay was cut from $37.35 an hour to $35 an hour when I question this this response is as follows quote certificated teachers get paid at different rates in general and in part because they are not entitled to overtime and their salary and hourly rates often based on their salary schedules and M take into account their licensing College work and degrees so I would encourage you not to compare classified employees pay to certificated pay for multiple reasons wow this is coming from your chief of HR I am surprised that you have sent the message that your employees are treated different class classes working after school hours for athletics to help our students staff parents by running scoreboards taking in tickets security setting up and taking down equipment does not need a
009degree a license or college work just common sense and caring however I was given this response if you prefer not to do the work at the rate please make sure your principal knows that you can or they need to look for another staff to do the work the message your HR department is sending to all CST staff is that we are second class with or without a college degree moreover you can do or say whatever you want and CST are to do it or find another job congratulations I thought you wanted all your employees treated with dignity and respect however this message is demoralizing and degrading each site sends out a list of jobs and asks for teachers to work these jobs prior to asking for the rest of the staff however there are never
010more than a few teachers that come out and do the work so you are now hampering our students and parents from having events that run smoothly and professionally because the only ones that do the most of the work are the CST members like Mr Rubio stated if we do not like the pay we don't have to do the work thank you for making me and other CST members feel like second class employees those that do the grunt work for the pay you believe we deserve which are no good reason is less than any other employees even though it's exact same work I have attachments of those emails and I'm very upset with the fact that my CST Union President signed that we went from in just less than two weeks 3733 to 35 to 23
011how many of your graduations are you going to be surprised to see nobody doing thank you for your time and now I have to run back to my senior night to put in my time for 23 hours thank you for sharing with us there any of the cards y um the next speaker is Benet R Ragan good evening V I'm here the third time regarding the same issue which I presented in the last board meeting of October 25th and November 8 the dispute is regarding in District transfer and I totally understand as part of the dispute I requested certain information which has last bombarded with a series of emails and always he's given it's a confidential information finally on February 15 20124 I had to resort to legal council request this information which according to
012our legal council is public records act and great one after February 15 on March 19th I received a response with some details not the complete information regarding what was requested for my legal council and as part of the information what is been provided by mdsd I simply told can I verify the documents I was given appointment but I have not seen any documents and I was made sit there and told many great things but not what I was requesting because I was like okay the dispute yeah she doesn't qualify you have privacy laws I made with my lawyer and you have the copies of the document which my lawyer sent which clearly states public records at code 6250 and if you are providing me the information email why can't it be substantial the document and
013that's what what I'm asking because if everything is so clear please but you know there are sometimes emails and phone Rec voicemails which I don't respond back and just before the meeting yeah I get a response regarding again is it what you are asking it's been September 5th to the school year is ending and I'm still pursuing the thing with uh with the mdusd board and sometimes you get the response sometimes you not so are the parents if anybody wants any information which is public records hire a lawyer spend couple of thousand bucks to get this information still I'm waiting for the documents which relates so here I am the third time and I think we have may8 before the school year ends to get the information and there are many other options have been
014provided but I'm just looking for what if the guidelines and process has followed why can't it be bagged up with the documentation which should be a as a uh government board should be with the there so I need your help to see if we can get this matter resolved before the next board meeting which is May 8th because it's now I had to refer to legal council they gave information again it's not complete there's no documentation so how much a parent of a kindergarten student is supposed to pursue for this because I feel it's like testing my patient like okay it's a system this is how it works you take it or you go to a different school that's all I have to say and being the first year in mdusd it's not been a
015great experience and I have reached out to you also multiple times emails because maybe I painted a picture oh this is a crazy guy he's challenging a teacher's contract no I never challenged a teacher contract I only asked for what was the process followed to select make those criteria because I have emails you know there's lot you may get lost where somebody confirmed oh we did like this and that was a principal of the school and then the whole system is coming no everything is all right but where is the documents if the documents already yeah everything all right I go out of the door but it's like as I told testing the patients and it's a great way to tire up people but yeah as a father it's my duty to look what is
016the best interest for my daughter and that's why I'm here the third time and I'm not sure if I had to be at the fourth time or fifth till the matter is resolved thank you thank you for sharing your concerns does that conclude public comment okay thank you the next item 9.0 is District organizations do we have any speakers under District organizations there are no speakers tonight for uh District organizations um we'll move on to 10.0 recognitions and resolutions we have several Dr Clark would you facilitate these thank you madam president I will um I will take the next five items so the first one we have resolution 2324 D60 which is school lunch hero day whereas nutritious meals at school are an essential part of the school day and whereas the the staff of
017Mount Alo Unified School District food and nutrition services nourish students for academic success every day and now therefore be it resolved that the mount Deo Unified School District governing board expresses deep appreciation to these valuable employees and commends their tremendous work on behalf of children and encourages all to celebrate nutrition professionals and their one-of-a-kind superpowers Madam president president this item is now in the hands of the board Madame President uh with great pleasure and appreciation for all of our uh Food Service employees um and especially all of the wonderful um scratch cooking and additional things that they have been doing to make sure that our students are healthy every day um I happily move to approve resolution 2324 number 60 in recognition of school lunch hero day I'll second that so we have a motion
018by trusty count and seconded by trusty Mason on resolution 2324 number 60 in recognition of school lunch hero day are there any further comments hearing none truste baros how do you vote yes please cast your ballots your votes the motion is adopted with a 40 and one absent um designation thank you Dr Clark thank you our next item um item 10.2 this is a recognition of California day of the teacher which is May 8th 2024 and National national teacher appreciation week which runs from May 6th through May 10th so whereas Wednesday May 8th 2024 is California day of the teacher and the week of May 6th through the 10th is national teacher appreciation week and whereas the governing board of the mount ala Unified School District wishes to express its uh its appreciation to our
019teachers for their creativity dedication and talent so now therefore the governing board of the mount Alo Unified School District hereby recognize May 8th as California day of the teacher and the week of May May 6 through 10th as national teacher appreciation week be it further resolved that students parents and School District employees are encouraged to participate in observance that Express and show appreciation to the instructional staff at schools throughout the mount Alo Unified School District Madame President this item is now in the hands of the board I moved to I'm loud right I moved to um approve the resolution 2324 d61 California day of the teacher and national teacher appreciation week all second a motion has been made by truste en Z with a second by trusty count for the adoption of resolution 2324 number
02061 the California day of the teacher and the national teacher appreciation week is there further comment uh trusty baros how do you vote yes thank you for adopting the motion 41 let's move on to 10.3 our next um our next resolution is resolution 2324 62 in recognition of May as Asian-American and Pacific island or Heritage Month whereas the US Census Bureau reports over 23 distinct Asian-American and over 19 distinct native Hawaiian Pacific island or ethnic groups including Asian Indian Bengali Burmese Cambodian Chinese Filipino Romanian Hawaiian M Indonesian Japanese Korean Lao uh Malayan okan Pakistani Samoan Tha Vietnamese and other and whereas the mount Alo Unified School District 11.8% in 2022 23 of the student population are identified as Asian Filipino or Pacific island the third highest demographic yet studies yet Studies have found that the
021academic needs of Asian-American and Pacific Islander students are frequently overlooked now therefore be it result Unified School District that the month of May is designated as Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month and calls on all schools to commemorate this occasion accordingly with appropriate appropriate instructional materials discussion presentations and projects and be it further resolved that this that this is ex executed resolution be distributed to all schools within mdusd Madame President this item is now in the hands of the board I move that we approve resolution 2324 d62 Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month I'll second that a motion has been made by trusty and Zi and with a second by truste Mason for uh the approval of resolution 2324 number 62 Asian American and Pacific um Island heritage month for the month of
022May um is there further discussion I make a comment yes sir I just wanted to say just as I serve uh for the California Association of African-American superintendents and administration and administrators and we also have the California Association of Latino um superintendent and administrators there's also and they actually had their very first conference this year uh cable which does the same for our um Asian-American and Pacific Islander colleagues so any um any Mount Diablo administrators that would be interested in um participating or joining that can come and see me and I can definitely um get them in touch with with this organization thank you for sharing that opportunity and information pry baros how do you vote Yes the motion is adopted with a 41 absent uh outcome and concurrence of our uh trustee um baros
023great Madam president next item we have is item uh 10.4 and this is uh recognizing may as Jewish American heritage month so whereas National Jewish American Heritage Month celebrates and recognize Jewish contributions to American culture History Military science government education in all areas of American Life and whereas on April 20th 2006 the federal government proclaimed that may would be Jewish American Heritage Month stating as a nation of immigrants the United States is better and stronger because Jewish people from all over the world have chosen to become American citizens since arriving in 1654 Jewish Americans have achieved great success strengthened our country and help shaped our way of life so now therefore be it resolved that the governing board of the mount diabo Unified School District hereby recognizes may as Jewish American heritage month and supports
024opportunities for all students staff faculty and members of the public to honor and learn more about Jewish American history and culture Madame President this item is now in the hands of the board Madame President I would like to move to adopt resolution 2324 number 63 three recognizing may as Jewish American Heritage Month second and I would also just like to say um you know this is a very challenging time I think in the world for so many of our families that may have Jewish Heritage um and so we we respect you we honor you and um you know we will continue to make sure that people of all heritages in our schools are recognized and safe so thank you thank you uh we have a motion by truste K with a second by trustee en
025with for approval of resolution 2324 number 63 recognizing may as Jewish American heritag there further discussion trusty baros how do you vote yes thank you very much the uh motion is adopted with a 4 01 AB trustee absence and the concurrence of our student board member thank you Madame President we have our our last uh resolution this is resolution 2324 64 in support of National Foster Care month whereas National fost my microphone was established more than 30 years ago to bring foster care issues to the Forefront of the national Focus highlight the importance of permanency for every child and recognize the essential roles thank you sir and recognize the essential role that foster parents social workers Advocates and Educators have in the lives of our children in foster care throughout the United States and whereas
026many children in California's foster care system experience frequent placement changes we 15% of foster youth experiencing five or more placements and 44% experiencing three or more placements and whereas the Statewide average high school graduation rate is 83% but Youth and Foster Care have a 50 53% ontime graduation rate so therefore be it resolved that the mountel Unified School District Board of Education number one recognized as National Foster Care month as an opportunity to raise awareness about the educational challenges that children face in the foster care system I'm going to stop there because I know we have um hopefully we have Rosie Reed who will be speaking on this issue but Madame President this item is now in the hands of the board so members of the board we do have a public comment card Rosie
027Reed would you please come forward oh and look she appeared hello Dr Clark members of the board nice to see you today my name is Rosie Reed and I'm representing student services I wanted to thank you for hopefully adopting this resolution and also to give you an update on some of the things we've been working on with our Foster and unhoused youth uh we just sent a group of students up to feather R River College last weekend for a weekend of college awareness and outdoor education and they had an absolute blast one of the students even signed up for Feather River College on the spot and um the students that we sent up were not students who had a plan for next year so all of the students really loved it and had a phenomenal
028experience and so that's now a viable option several of them are considering it so we're really excited about that partnership and we we hope to expand that next year potentially even working towards our own weekend at feather Feather River College we're also doing um a FAFSA challenge with Contra Costa County Office of Education do all of our College and Career advisers are doing an an amazing job of trying to get every single posture and hope identified youth um to complete their FAFSA obviously they're trying to do that with all of their seniors but it's particularly important when it comes to our Foster and help identified youth because it's so much free money and often that's how people can afford to pay for call or their housing and the incidentals they might need to be able
029to continue their education next year uh our team is also collaborating with Contra Costa County Office of Education and child welfare to plan uh Foster youth uh Wellness Summit on May 18th for fost youth in grades 6 through 12 and um students get a $25 gift card um as an incentive to attend they also get to have a boutique shopping experience where they to go get new clothes new shoes um get a haircut they have a whole bunch of uh Wellness inspired workshops that had a lot of Youth input on the designing and inspirational speakers so hopefully we get a great turnout for that um in terms of just broader what we're doing for all of our students we're really working to expand our Partnerships so we can have more resources available to give to
030our students we've had an ongoing um collaboration with operation schoolbell for many years but we expanded that greatly this year and we were even able to give um the Assistance League who does that um our the AXA gave them the the community partner award because of all of the incredible work they do in our schools and a lot of that comes from the work they've been doing with our our Foster and hope identified youth uh and fact they said we we've expanded so much in terms of how much we're helping your program we want to meet with you next week to see how we can expand more next year and do more with that we also started a new partnership just this week with a local organization called set to thrive that's out of San
031Ramone and they give um what's called a Thrive bag to students who arrive in this country um or they are placed into foster care or they become unhoused and it's a three days worth of clothes um brand new shoes brand new uh undergarments a backpack school supplies a duffel bag any other incidentals that they need and so I just place an order and it's now I just did my first three today I'm very excited they're being delivered tomorrow directly to the schools to give the students so I invite you all to come on down to our office and see all of the amazing work that we're doing that just kind of touches the surface but we're really excited about all of this work that we're doing and thank you so much for hearing this so
032we're ready for a motion Madam I move to approve resolution 2324 number 64 in support of National Foster Care month I'll second that and thank you so much Miss Reed for your wonderful report so we have a motion um by uh truste Mason with a second by trusty count to approve resolution 2324 number 64 in support of National Foster Care months is there further discussion trusty baros how do you vote Yes so the motion is adopted 4 with one uh trustee absent and concurrence of our student trustee baros thank you uh we're ready to move on to 11.0 Public Employee appointments and Dr Clark would you facilitate the Madam President we have uh Mr sheii is going to take uh items 11.1 through 11.5 but we are extremely excited to be welcoming some new members
033to the team and so I will turn it over to Mr sheii good evening Dr Clark Board of Trustees the human resources department is bringing for the board's review and potential approval the appointment of Tiffany Allison as vice principal at Mount Diablo Elementary School Tiffany has worked in public education for 18 years she taught middle school middle and high school in Colorado for 13 of those years and most recently worked in the Walnut Creek School District as a teacher on special assignment Tiffany earned a bachelor's degree in English literature and master's degree in secondary language arts curriculum and instruction Tiffany Lov SP time in nature enjoying the company of her friends and family she has a goal of visiting all 63 national parks with her husband and her children they've made it to 20 Parks
034so far Tiffany also par participates in the 40 book challenge each school year and is already on book number 30 this early in April feel free to ask her what she's reading with that I leave this appointment in the hands of the board she is madam president I move to approve the appointment of Tiffany Allison as vice principal for Mount Diablo elementary school second a motion has been made by trusty account with a second by trusty eni on the appointment of Tiffany Allison as vice principal at Mount Diablo Elementary School Is there further discussion hearing none trusty boros yes thank you and the motion is adopted 4001 welcome Tiffany Allison be sure and share this Applause with her ABS absolutely the human resources department is bringing for the board for review and potential approval the
035appointment of Ruby Ortega as vice principal of meta homes Elementary School Ruby has been an educator for eight years in a b bilingual setting teaching in both Spanish and English Ruby is passionate about building community in the school she works at her leadership experiences include being on the schools side Council being an instructional lead and being a culture and climate team lead Ruby earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a minor in Cho studies and a master's degree in education Ruby lives in Richmond with her husband Carlos and two sons Leonardo and Armando they love traveling as a family and giving their children fun experiences with that I leave this appointment in the hands of the board I move to approve the appointment of Ruby Ortega vice principal at Meadow homes Elementary I'll second that
036we have a motion uh made by trustee and Zi with a second by truste Mason on the potential approval of um Ruby Ortega as vice principal of meadow homes Elementary School there further discussion seeing none trusty bario yes trustees please cast your ballot the motion is adopted 41 welcome to M the school district all right good evening my name is Ruby Orga I am very excited to be joining the diao Unified School District um very excited to join metal homes elementary school a school that values diversity and bilingualism just as I do um I'm looking forward to building Community with all staff and um students and families at Meadow homes so thank you very much for your approval tonight um and I'm looking forward to a great year thank you do you have uh family
037members and friends that you'd like to introduce tonight yes my husband is here with me tonight my husband car and my kids are at home um and I have family watching tonight so so hello to everyone watching thank you so much welcome the human resources department is bringing for the board's review and potential approval the appointment of Tiffany Jones as vice principal of Shore Acres Elementary School Tiffany has been working in education for over 20 years primarily in middle and high school she loves creating spaces where students feel empowered and cared for Tiffany earned a bachelor's degree a master's degree in curriculum and instruction and is working on a second master's degree in social emotional learning Tiffany has two sons who she loves tremendously and in her free time she loves to be outdoors Tiffany
038is grateful to have the opportunity to work in the Mount Diablo Unified School District with that I leave this appointment in the hands of the board Madam chair I move to approve the appointment of vice principal Sher of sher's Elementary as Tiffany Jones and welcome to my neighborhood literally I'll second so a motion has been made by trusty Mason with a second by trusty count on the appoint potential appointment of uh Tiffany Jones as vice principal at shoreacres elementary school please uh trusty baros how do you vote Yes and V is 41 with one absence um in favor with this concurrence of our student trustee um Mrs far Miss bario uh please introduce yourself good evening my name is Tiffany Jones and I'm I'm really excited to um be able to be a part of
039Mount Diablo team thank you for the appointment and super excited to be a shark so I think it'll be a really great time look forward to building community and keep going on what already is short Acres thank you very much welcome now we'll be singing the shark song in our head of the meeting I wasn't yes the human resources department is bringing for the board's review and potential approval the appointment of Dr Ronald Richardson as vice principal of rivers viiew Middle School Ronald began his career in 2002 as a fourth grade teacher in Oakland he has also worked as a middle school assistant principal and principal in West Contra Costa unified a middle school principal in Oakland Unified and a principal in sanle Andro unified Ronald hold bachelor's degree in liberal studies a master's degree
040in educational lead leadership Urban education and a doctorate in educational leadership Ronald and his wife have three beautiful children 11-year-old son and twin daughters who are nine years old in Ronald's free time he loves to read spend quality time with his family play pickle ball bowl and help coach for his son's baseball team Ronald is extremely honored and excited to join the mbusd learning community and with that I leave this in the hands of the board Madam chair I would like to approve the appointment of Ronald Richardson as the vice principal at Riverview Middle School my alma moer I'll second so we have a motion made by trusty Mason with a second by trusty count uh on the potential approval of Ronald Richardson as um vice principal at Riverview Middle School uh Is there further
041discussion not trusty baros how do you vote Yes and welcome the motion is adopted on a 400 with uh absent by trusty mcfarren and concurrence of trusty baros Mr Richardson oh thank you good evening Dr Clark superintendent Dr Clark nice to see you in person um good evening Board of Trustees thank you for this amazing opportunity uh I'm so excited I love education um one of the goals of mine is to contribute to the body of no to ensure that all students and staff I have unlimited opportunity to unlimited opportunities and uh to prosperity and I I brought my beautiful family with me to celebrate this amazing moment because I finally get to work and it's always my dream to work in the community that I live in a I'm literally a jog a schoool
042to ride a bike ride away and I love our community um I'm in the Mount Diablo Unified School District my uh twin daughters attend Delta View Elementary my son uh was there as well so I want to if you can stand up Eli my beautiful Serena Serena Sabrina their fraternal twins I'm not Regal I'm I'm also identical twin brother you might have seen Reginal Dr Reginal Richardson in Mount Apple my wonderful wife Zora Richardson and my my my shirro and hero I have my my shirro mommy Jacqueline Elizabeth Richardson is's my shirro yes Che your flowers my my hero my uncle dad Daniel Bon Will Williams rice he's gonna get me later for that one and I just want to say it's an honor to be here I know I don't have that much time
043I am can speak a lot but I'm just so ecstatic so excited and so honored so thank you welcome the human resources department is bringing for the board's review and potential approval the appointment of Megan om Ali as vice principal of Oak Grove Middle School Megan taught an alternative and comprehensive School settings from high school to middle school she brought her knowledge of special educ ation and restorative practices to administrative goals and sites in District level positions across the bay area Megan earned a bachelor's degree in Theater Arts and a master's degree in theater and performance Megan is a second generation mdusd educator with that I leave this appointment in the hands of the board uh Madam president I move to approve the appointment of Megan om Ali as vice principal of Oak Grove Middle
044School second so we have a motion by truste count with a second by truste eni on the potential approval of Megan omali as vice principal at o Grove Middle School Is there further discussion hearing none trusty baros how do you vote yes thank you and welcome to mounta school district the is 4 with Aon mcfarren being absent and concurrence from trusty baros welcome good evening Dr Clark and board I'm very grateful for the opportunity to come back to Matel unified um my mom taught in the district this is where I started my career as a teacher um and my son now attends Valhalla Elementary um and I'm very excited to get to come back where I there's so many familiar faces and so much great work that's happening I'm excited to work with Dr Ramos
045and the team at Oak grve Middle and to get to be part of continuing to move forward all the great goals that we have here at Mount devil unified thank you thank you welcome so I want to congratulate our all our new appointees and um thank you for bringing your family and friends and thank you to staff who have come to support these appointments we're g to be here all night so this is your cue to to leave so thank you yeah the faithful remain okay yeah yes it is enthusiasm okay we're ready for 12.0 board member reports so uh truste and Z would you like to start um well I'm just talking to you all well there's some people sorry today um I was at uh the first day of the birth to 12th
046grade water cooler conference which is um uh sponsored by Catalyst California and I was actually a moderator on a for a panel that had the CEO from the executive director from AXA and this fabulous student from Tula um she's a senior from Tula Tula I mean just with all their drama anyway that wasn't my panel um but it's it's a gathering of people who work in all from Early Education so from B from birth literally through 12th grade and the panel that I moderated which honestly was the best and I'm telling the truth um was um on creating learning spaces that are that develop a sense of belonging and that are liberating and welcoming um and my panel included um four folks um uh a gentleman who runs an early learning both Early Learning and
047after school care for the Chinese community in San Francisco um Chris Chapman who has King makers of Oakland which focuses on black boys um Terry I do not remember his last name the Asian he was Chinese American Born Chinese man his name was Ben Terry is an indigenous man and he works on developing um and teaching language Native languages um in Northern Califor California Northern of us and then Martha Hernandez who's the executive director of California it's together which focuses on Dual language learning and I feel like you all would have really appreciated all of the bits and nuggets of wisdom that were shared um and did Mrs Garza leave she was here I'm like there was something that um been from who works with Chinese um children and family in San Francisco that I
048love that he said of how he creates a welcoming environment is one they speak the language for of parents and one they actually talk to parents they welcome parents and then the parents and they TR they show that they trust parents and then the parents return that because they've been shown that and because they they speak the language um they have the same Foods um and they just really affirm culture and um and same in the the Terry the um Native American man um who has a program around language um he shared a story of a student who had been very engaged and I don't remember the name of the language that he was teaching but then the student became disengaged because he's like this isn't my tri I'm not part of this tribe he
049was a member of a different tribe so this isn't my um my family's language and he doesn't want to learn another language anguage over his own family's language but Terry was able to affirm him like that's one be so happy that this child was so honest with him but then to tell them like it's no matter what language you're learning now this is preparing you to be able to learn um your family's language your tribal language down the road because you're exercising that muscle um and then I really focused it takes us back to our casa um event and Reporting learnings um from Dr Howard and the importance of how well um children do when they have a black educator or Latina educator and um all children um and so that kind that kind of
050um thoughts were brought up because I opened it with um a quote from Dr D'Angelo who wrote White fragility and she had she did a speech where we were all taught by probably taught by a white teacher who was taught by a white teacher who was taught by a white teacher using books who were written by a white writer and it goes on and on um and how if you when you are a white student you always have someone who looks like you and um and an education that is framed around you but if you are a student who's not white um you may go through your entire life of never of Education of never having someone who looks like you and so then I was able to give the example of my daughter the
051only black educator she's ever had was her early educator her family childcare provider before entering kindergarten and now unless we hire some new people there you know she's got two years left um in in this District to to have um a black educator um and to see someone who looks like her but how easy that is and to happen and that in Me growing up in the 80s and going to college in the 90s um and graduate school that I had a black teacher in the third grade a black teacher one black teacher in college and one black teacher in um graduate school and so I've already outpaced um my child um and that's kind of sad and that and then I reflected on my very oldest friend who was also taken care of by
052my grandmother in our very early years we've known each other since we were she was five months and I was 11 months old and that my nana my grandmother was her has been in all of her schooling K through college was her only black educator as well and she's white um and so we all lose out when we don't have a diverse teacher Workforce um everyone does that everyone benit from benefits from a white teacher from a latinx teacher teacher from an indigenous teacher from an Asian-American teacher from Fillin the blank everyone benefits when we're not all just being taught by the same type of teacher so that's my Reflections on the day I wish we all could have been there it's amazing Conference next year Dr Clark should send everybody it's two days in
053Sacramento um and and yeah so thank you Mrs Mason well I'm back I had nothing for the last couple because of spring break and road trip so stting the day after our last meeting I went to the APAC meeting where I had a very nice visit with Dr Frances and Rasheed but we were the only ones there I think it was kind of being right after spring break getting everybody back back out um the next weekend the 13th and 14th the um growing healthy Gardens program had Gardens open unfortunately that Saturday rain started to fall so most of them weren't there but I did visit Ren and saw the kids um painting rocks uh saw a cute little pawsum on the fence they were very excited about that the teens were there they were getting
054ready to plant when I left and then the next day I went out Sunday it was sunny and was able to go by sh Acres where again that must have been the activity painting rocks because they were painting rocks as sh Acres but they were doing a real interesting square foot gardening which my husband and I have done where you get the big bin but you do it by square foot so you have vegetables in with herbs in with flowers and so that was really cool to see them doing and went across the street to riia Vista where they were working on the Food Forest there were more teens working there um freaking out because they saw a bug and they wanted to step on it and I said no no no bad juju we
055we don't kill anything in the garden except weeds when we pull them out so those kids were working and I understand some of them want to come back and continue to to volunteer because gardening will do that to you and then I went next door to M Gardens and was shocked because where we just saw this mural go up last year and there was nothing there they had this flourish flourishing garden with celery which isn't that easy to grow and so I went home with celery and sugar snap peas I was very excited kids were there decorating the garden it was very very nice gardening day and then on um Tuesday we had our pack meeting where Miss Sach shared the new a once again new format it seemed like every other year a new
056format for our local control funding and um got input from those parents um the next morning I went to mount Dao High School to the World Academy and visited their second and third period classes I am always so impressed with those kids they really touch my heart because they all introduced themselves and told me what country they came from and how long they've been here and having just recently experience if you've been around I finally got to go back to my old country where I'd never I wasn't born but my grandparents came from so I had to chat with the kids about that and told them I hope they don't have to wait so long they can go back and visit their country soon but they were just delightful and the teacher was excellent and
057they were having a great time later that afternoon or evening we had celebration of success which we get to see our young students shine and I I don't know if he'll tell you but I swear it must be one of Dr Clark's favorite events because he beams from ear to ear as he gets to shake the hands of all the students that come up on the stage then the next day we had daac where I got to hear about the lcap again and get another group's impression which is interesting to see the different input from the different groups on what we're doing at our schools to wake up the next morning and go to Java with Janice at RI Vista Elementary School which she had a ton of parents there and they're excited because last
058year they complained they didn't have a lot of field trips but they raised money they had more field trips this year even though the bus broke down in the city they managed to get them back eventually and they're planning for fundraising for more trips for next year and then on Saturday I went to Sis for Earth Day where I got to pull weeds with some kids and they were getting ready to paint some tables and then I had to leave there because I had to get Shore Acres for coffee with the counselors which they had a pretty good turnout and did a really good job of letting that our community and the um Spanish speakers know about all the summer programs that the district is offering and then on Monday we had Pathways over at
059Serendipity where we got to hear about what those students have been doing so it's really my favorite time of year because it's non-stop from now until graduation and I just like to thank all the parents the students and the teachers and district office for providing such a varied kind of education for our students and trying to meet all their needs and that field trip is one those students will never forget when the bus breaks down I have three stories to tell you Miss count all right thank you um happy Administrative Professionals Day everybody um so I have a longer report today as well because I was not here at the last board meeting um so um first let's start with some fun I got to attend the Walnut Acres International Fair um for Walnut Acres
060Elementary and the parents um and staff at the school did just an amazing job continuing their beautiful tradition of Hosting this International Fair it's huge um celebration of the diversity of all of the families um and it's just such a joy to walk around and you hear all the different languages you taste all kinds of different food um and watch beautiful performances and you know in in this time of so much Global Strife this school had both a a an Israel table and a Palestine table um and both of them were beautiful and centered education and Humanity um and there was even a Northgate student there who um was featuring his if I could change the world project um which is on preserving the culture of immigrants so it was just a wonderful day highly
061recommend um going to that every year um today is also denim day so I'm wearing jeans even though you can't see that under here um but um denim day is held in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month um and for if you don't know it was a campaign that um began after a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court where a rape conviction was overturned because the justices decided since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped the person who raped her thereby implying consent so the following day the women in the Italian parliament um instead of coming in their usual business attire uh came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim um and ever since there's an organization called peace over violence um that has developed this campaign to bring awareness
062to victim blaming and the destructive myths that surround sexual violence um so if you look up peace over violence it's a really wonderful organization that has all kinds of resources as well um and then sort of along similar lines last week in Walnut Creek our assembly member uh Bower cahan hosted a um panel and film showing of the film misrepresentation um and it was um it was really wonderful it's um one of the films by an organization called the representation project um that's um led by Jennifer seel Nome and um they have some incredible materials actually I want to pass these out to you guys um those down so um they have four different um films the the one that's called Miss representation is the one that they showed um and that was actually came
063out in 2011 I think um and so you think like is it really still relevant now yes it's it's even more relevant than it was back then because it talks about um the um how how particularly uh women and girls are are presented in the media um and um the influences of that on our culture and on our ideas um and then there's one called The Mask you live in um that's about um Mas masculinity and the kind of pressures that our boys are under um and then there's the Great American lie um which um examines the US value system um built on Extreme masculine ideas of money power and control and how it's glorified individualism um and and resulted in some institutionalized inequality and and then the fourth one is called fair play that's
064a deep dive into gender inequality at home um and the invisible care work that is historically held by women so each one of these films um they provide with a free curriculum and toolkit that Educators or um or anyone can use to be able to discuss all of these issues in depth and um with age appropriate uh curriculum so it's a really great resource and it's at the rep project.org um and they're coming out next with a gender equality training program uh for high school and college students that weaves together leadership development mental health media literacy social emotional learning and gender-based violence prevention so just an incredible resource and then um at on the panel was a member of the youth advisory Council that they have um and their advisory Council are ages uh 14
065to 22 from all around the country and we I found out also have a representative on that Council from our school district so um Sarah Zhao is a student at Northgate High School um who's passionate about raising awareness for bipo health the lgbtqia plus community and gender Equity um so for students out there there's an opportunity to be able to uh join that advisory Council and um give them um your perspective as well which is really great um and then lastly the reason that I was not here at the last board meeting was that I was in Washington DC with um csba our state school boards Association and superintendent Association um advocating for public education and it was a great place to be with with hundreds of Schoolboard members and superintendents from all over our
066state um and you know when when we come in Mass like that it it feels more powerful right for us to be able to to be there talking with um with our Congressional members so there were kind of three key um uh items that we were advocating for um the first is to fulfill the special education funding promise um and so when idea the individuals with disabilities Education Act was enacted almost 50 years ago Congress promised you may not know this Congress promised to provide 40% of the average perut expenditures to pay for this new federal mandate so do you think that they have ever done that um turns out that promise has never been fulfilled sure so ever since then um it's usually hovered between 7 to 10% um in terms of what the
067federal government actually pays so the the um AXA and csba the superintendent and school boards Association has a federal partnership um and they are in support of there is a house bill and a Senate bill um that we advocated for that would establish a Glide path to actually reach the 40% promise so that's pretty exciting that that's out there um and then also our very own Congressman desonier um was one of the bills that all of us were advocating for which was to increase funding for preschool and infant and toddler programs um in special education um that because we know early intervention is the most effective also the most cost-effective way to ensure success for all of our students with disabilities um and that um area has been is is currently funded at lower per
068pupil rates than 1999 even though we're we're in a situation where this age group 0er to five has been um increasing tremendously so at a time where we need this funding more than ever we actually are funded less than than even 1999 so yeah um so there's there's a lot of support for that bill which was great to see um and then the other two categories were teacher recruitment retention and retirement um under that uh we were advocating for a loan forgiveness for educators act so for teachers out there um we want to be able to uh forgive those college loans um and then there were a couple of Provisions um a windfall elimination provision and a pension offset set that are these um things that are in place that are currently disincentives for people
069to enter and remain in the teaching profession so you know being able to fix some of these structures is important um and then Broadband access privacy and cyber security was the other area as well um so it was great experience um I did not ask the district to pay my way to to go um because it was just something I had decided on my own to do um but I would highly recommend it it was it was really incredible to be able to um to be able to advocate for these important issues um with our federal government and see how all of that works um and then lastly I ended up extending my stay um for a couple of extra days um after all of that um for the the Thursday Friday Saturday um because
070my eldest child was admitted to Georgetown University the school of Foreign Service um and so it just so happened that the admit days for that school were the were the Friday and Saturday of um the week that I was going to be out there anyway um so we went to admit days together and they have committed to attend um so we're really excited um and I just want to thank ignasio Valley High School international baloria program um for providing the opportunity for them in this District to to have gotten to really explore and Excel in an education that's focused on global Affairs so thank you so much you're gonna be going to DC a lot I hope so frequent flyer miles trusty baros you have anything you'd like to share with us honestly I haven't
071really been doing that much as I've just been going to school waking up barely it's getting harder every day to actually get up but we're getting there yeah and we're currently in the process of electing our new board members so I'm excited to see who turns in their applications and who shows up um and I see a lot of fast fo workshops going on which makes me happy because I haven't even turned mine in yet um but I'm glad to see that there workshops for that and there's like a lot of workshops for parents going on recently which is good because I think not that many parents go anymore but I see how much um our schools have been promoting them and I see that more people having going to them so that's a good
072thing right but apart from that well thank you for going to school we appreciate that um so uh as was stated uh I attended the um parent advisory committee the deac uh committee meeting I also went to the special education CAC celebration of success and I want to con congratulate um Wendy agil and her team for um working with CAC parents to provide that um celebration event it is uh outstanding and parents are uh SOC excited and I'm looking forward to see if Dr Clark has a a particular photograph uh that he's going to share um I'll call it out when he or raise my hand when he does um and I attended the introductory meeting or the welcome meeting for the conquered High School wasque event on Sunday and we went to the business
073Alliance uh Career Technical Education meeting on Monday and then last night was the bhalla family steam night uh so the multi-use room was um filled with activities for the students as there was a scavenger hunt in the garden there was an activity out on the playground and there was an activity in one of the classrooms that involved mushrooms and mushrooms excuse me involved marshmallows and toothpicks could be mushrooms those those are edible too um the uh um so everyone was having fun it was particularly um heartwarming to see the College Park students with uh the RO their robot from the robotics Club um they were uh had a soft rubber ring that the robot could pick up and toss to adults or students at different height levels and of course they could launch it with
074a little more velocity for adults and a little softer for students so uh the younger students were particularly enjoying picking up the the rubber ring placing it on the floor so that the robot could roll over it and uh lift it up into the trajectory device so um they were displaying it with PL pride and with um appropriate uh notice of each individual's uh engagement level it was heartwarming to see today I was excited to see that Mount diao High School has a Gates scholar and I will mispronounce his name but only his first name was posted it was h no it's hoseit um is his first name and I apologize he was chosen among 750 Scholars from a pool of over 53,000 applicants so this is very welld deserved and quite uh an esteemed
075um ex opportunity and experience for Mount Diablo High School I want to acknowledge the passing of a past State superintendent of Public Instruction The Honorable delay Easton a champion of public education and she was an advocate Stu advocate for students of all abilities and she was in particular support of uh parent engagement and attended many of the PTA activities that I was involved with um during her superintendency and uh afterwards and most recently we saw her at the uh teacher of the year event in Sacramento and um at the reception she took command to the stage like Deane Easton always could um so um I was sadden to hear that and I'm sure many of you are also and uh with your permission I'd like to take a moment of personal P privilege and acknowledge
076the service of Jennifer saxs to the mount the AO Unified School District I have known Jennifer since I joined the board in 1997 and have followed her successful career ever since I admire her commitment to students families and public education I also value her professional approach to her own personal growth mentoring others and identifying and advancing and promoting professional development for educators it's not goodbye from me but I'll still be following you Jen and it's till we meet again Dr Clark thank you so much for those reports um uh vice president Mayo I'm sorry but I'm I'm just sharing data tonight so I don't have any fun pictures like I used to do so um but this is just this is just as important so we have to uh we have to talk about everything
077so I have two reports tonight I have a the first one I'm going to go over our um attendance rates this report was run on April 17th um just so folks understand for the state we have to break up our um our ethnic groups and then we also have to um break out our our student groups so that's why um when I present these reports they're always separated by race and by um by student groups so so so here's our overall and you can see um if if we look at the First Column over here we have uh 29,40 students and the blue dot means that we have students who have attended 95% of the school year or greater and the Green Dot is between 90% and 95 yellow dot 85% % through 90 uh
078orange is 80% to 85 and the Red Dot is um is less than 80% so as you can see I mean we have over 15,000 students who are at that greater at that greater than 95% level and then if you add that to the seven close to 8,000 students we have quite a large population of our students who attend school the majority of the time um however when you look at the bottom three columns you can see that it that it falls off a bit um so we can see what our how our black and African-American students um are are attending um next we have our American Indian and Alaskan students um and then we have our Asian students we have our uh Latino students um you know one thing I want to point out
079with our Latino students we have 12,000 a little over 12,000 Latino students in the district we have um right around six ,000 so we have half that are at that upper band level and if you add that to the to the green then we're at we're at 9,000 so I do want to highlight highlight those numbers um next we have our native Hawaiian students we have our white students where um we have uh close to 8,000 white students and if you put the 4500 and the 2300 so close to 6,000 of them um are attending school 95% or higher uh two or more races and then we go into student programs that would be our low socioeconomic students um so out of 8,000 we're write um right around 6,000 are um are basically at the
080at the higher level um and then English Learners you can see where they fall and then lastly our students with disability so this is breaking out some of our groups some of our F Foster youth we um technically have 75 Foster students in the district and you can see you can see their um their attendance level there um obviously you know there's other there's other challenges and we try to really break down those barriers for these students and really support them in making sure that they get to school each and every day and one of the reasons why attendance is so important is because all of our programs are um are are designed for the students to be in the classroom each and every day so not only when they're absent are they missing out
081on learning they're missing out on um on uh socialization with their peers and also many of our students receive uh nutritious meals at our schools and um so and it's also our goal is to uh prepare our students for College and Career um any career you're in you got to show up and so so that's why these are these are so important we have our ask a question you want me to wait no um you can ask yeah on the on Foster youth is it I'm assuming that's reported to the county that's receiving funding not which is not unusual in Bayo a family member just taking in correct a kid and raising them okay because I would think it'd be much higher if they looked at that these are students who are in the system
082same with our same with our hope these are our our homeless students and it says we have 704 homeless students we know from the from the giveaway that we did over the holidays we had far more than far more than this um but again it's all about breaking down these barriers for these students and um and making sure that we have those caring adults on campus who who are going to give these students um incentive and reason to to support their attending school each and every day so so if we break it down here we have 80% of of all students have a 90% or higher attendance rate so that's very good here it breaks it down by demographics uh so our Asian students are at the highest with 87% our white students are next
083with 86% two or more races 83% our Latino students are at 76% and our black African-American students 70 uh Hawaiian Pacific Islander 61 and American Indian Alaskan native are at 56 so you can see the um you know you can see the work that we have there and um and getting all those numbers up and then you have by programs uh um uh economically disadvantaged students 74% e 73 special EDS 73 Foster um 59 and hope 57 so um so you can see the discrepancies and you can see the gaps amongst our student groups as we break down Elementary I know this is this is hard to see but I mean let's just randomly let's just randomly pick a school let's pick canbridge so if you look at Cambridge we have 60% of the students
084in the blue so that's 296 students 107 in the green so if if we're to Target the red and orange I mean that is 48 students so as superintendent the expectation that I have is that out of all the adults on campus someone is connecting with those students and and um you know recognizing when they're gone welcoming them back when they're here we should have relations with the families I don't think it's totally up to the principal at that school to do all of that has to be a team effort and um and so that's my expectation with with our attendance we do we do do a really good job at at targeting our students who are missing school we do a great job at recognizing and celebrating those ones that come to school and
085each and every day but we still have to look at the barriers of what's keeping our students out of school so I have every Elementary School on here I'm not going to go through them all um um most of these are um you know there are some outliers I uh you know I I look at just on this page I look at Sequoia Elementary with 94% in the uh in the um in the blue and green so so that is um you know that's excellent um followed by Mount diabo Elementary School 92% so so you do see some outliers there and I want to focus on the positive here um 91% Walnut Acres and um and yeah those are the highest on that page we go to middle school it's a little a little bit
086different but but still um it's just as important for our middle schoolers to be at school each and every day so you can look at those numbers um we can look at that 95% at uh Foothill which is which is high up there but then if you if um couple of those outliers so if you take home in hospital that's 36% obviously they're it's home in hospital so you might see an outlier like that if you look at Glenbrook Academy we only have three students in the program right and those three students have missed multiple days of school so that's why they're completely 100% in the red um and uh um you know we have other schools that that as you can see are doing are doing well with their attendance rates then we go
087into high school um again the college now program no surprise we got 100% there we know we know the students are doing some some great things and and of course we want want to expand those uh those dual enrollment opportunities to give our students with DVC uh being so close there but you can see High School kind of drops off a little bit I think the highest on this page we have uh 88% over at uh Northgate um you know you can see one of our lower ones prospects 19% it's also there's a lot of um independent study taking place over there as well um but more work to do more work to do in the in the in the high schools I think I think it should be um in high school you have
088six teachers so you got six folks to kind of look out for you and you got guidance counselors you got Vice principals you got um you know we have Wellness rooms so there you know there needs to be more Outreach making sure that that these students get into school each and every day I have the next report great so um so the next report my last report here is uh suspensions wanted to talk about our suspension rates again and I I say this often um it is not that um that I ever have directed people not to suspend what I direct them to is that suspension should not be a tier one intervention so suspensions usually come to a last resort there's a again you have adults on campus who um are trained and who
089this their job to work with kids we ought to find other ways of supporting our young people besides suspensions but sometimes there there does need to be suspensions I fully understand that again you can see our total you can see our total amount of students you can see um with our with our African-American students we have uh 934 African-American students in The District 100 of them have been um suspended you can see our um American Indian and Alaskan students you can see our Asian students out of 3,800 Asian students 69 have been suspended out of our Latino students out of 12,000 we have 645 that have been suspended um out of our uh native Hawaiian uh 204 2117 students in the district and 13 have been suspended out of our white students we have 7,992
090199 have been suspended students with two or more races we have 80 suspensions there out of 2500 and students who are from low socioeconomic backgrounds um we have 452 of those students who have been suspended um and then we have our English learners 356 out of uh 6,334 and students with disability out of uh um 3,932 300 of them have been suspended Foster youth you could see our numbers there 10 per day so they're at a 10% suspension rate you can see our um our homeless students uh again 10% suspension rate this is the breakdown uh District why we have 4% of our students have at least one suspension um out of we have our our Asian students uh 2% we have our white students at 3% two or more racist 3% American Indian Alaskan
091natives 3% Hispanic 5% native Hawaiian Pacific is 6% African-American at 11% I've said before um in this meeting in a public meeting our our African-American students are disciplined differently than our other students that's something that we continue to work on but uh we still have lots of work to do in that in that area and we're we're under State mandates and whatnot to to change that so I'm not just making that up but I have witnessed it I have seen it and I've shared that with this board it is something that we're that we're working towards um s students uh 5% El 6% um special ed 8% Foster youth 11% homeless students 11% were under State guidance to improve our numbers of foster Youth and homeless students as well so foster youth homeless African-Americans those
092are our groups that um that were under State directives to improve as we go to our as we go to our elementary schools again um you know we're we're looking at about five suspensions uh about 1% uh from from um the majority of our elementary schools anywhere between five seven students um throughout the year have been suspended uh we have a couple um you know couple of of outliers there we have some some tins there um but again I'm not saying that students you know shouldn't be suspended there are reasons why they're suspended but hopefully it's a last resort and not a first Resort as we go to Middle School there's some concerning numbers here on Middle School um we have um um just going from the going from the top down um what raises
093a uh tremendous concern for me uh Oak Grove Middle School with 80 84 um suspensions so 12% of their population Pine Hollow Middle School um we're at um 177% there's only 555 students in the school and um and 997 have you know close to 20% have been suspended so um I don't know I don't see Samantha back there and I see Chris there but there's something going on there so that's something that again I want to look at and know what's going on there and why do we sometimes you have events where a large number of students have to get suspended for something that could happen but I don't know that that that seems a little that seems a little out of um there's something going on there so hopefully we can get to the
094bottom of that Riverview Middle School um you know not happy with 101 students being suspended there 14% of their population so we got some work to do in Middle School um it is a very impressionable age um but I think that's when we have to um you know put more effort into making sure that those students have the the um uh skill sets to be able to problem solve be able to do what it is that they're doing but but again we we the adults are doing something wrong if this is this is our our numbers there so hope y that's something that we can put some some effort into high school um you know the the high schools are are one thing I mean if you look one big standout you have uh Pro
095you have uh Glen Brook again 41 41% well there's only 17 students in the school um and so so seven of them have have been suspended it's a it's a it's a school that targeted students with um you know with unique needs and so there's some things going on there but if you look at some of our other high schools College Park 119 suspensions um uh Mount Alo high is probably our our outlier in terms of high numbers 21 suspensions um you know we got to do something there and uh the Nale Valley I I will give you n Shield Valley their their Kudos bringing that number down to 7% um from where it had been in in uh previously want to recognize uh want to recognize Northgate for being at 4% uh 54 suspensions
096so so anyway these you know this this data you can use it in in many different ways I look at it as as ways of okay how can we provide additional supports to to students and and how can we make our schools more engaging or um you know what are we missing there not um you know not I don't agree with suspensions and no one ought to be suspended and we got kids who are fighting and then there's no consequences and stuff like that that is not what I want but we employ um uh over 3,000 3,000 adults and um and you know we have 30,000 kids roughly so um do the math we all need to connect with kids a little more and and make sure that we're helping them work through through these
097difficult times so with that that that's my that's my data share I I do just want to touch on on a couple of events the uh celebration of success you're you're absolutely 1,000% right that is my most favorite event to attend all year because um those are kids who um they have every right to be in this district and they have every right for an education and often times they're labeled and they um they're look at at with a with a deficit lens and at this night there's no deficit lens it's only a a growth mindset lens that they that they have to I me engage with on that evening and their parents are thrilled because um they're getting positive feedback on on their kids and most importantly the kids are generally excited so I
098would just hope that um you know why do we why do we have to do a special night for our special education students to be recognized why could that just be part of what we do in school but when we have students who who don't receive the resources that's what Equity is about is bringing everybody bringing everyone up so that was that was a great night uh daac was good I I I've really enjoyed all year working with the working with the Pac and um and uh Jen Sachs who you know we we've talked about does a great job with that group of really getting that that parent input um you know uh we're doing some great things with with Gardens in our districts we're doing great things in our classrooms I just can't believe
099all of the things that I read about every week in the Friday letter um about just the amazing things that our teachers are doing that staff are doing the amazing programs that we have I tell this board all the time we offer too much in this District you guys like like there's so many options for everyone and I know that that's hard we we really try to meet the needs of everyone but that really does come out a come out of cost we have a lot of programs that are people dependent and so when we have a lot of turnover and we lose lose people then sometimes those programs go away we have other programs that are just that are just flourishing so just again kudos to this board for your for your leadership and
100and Direction and just I'll just close by saying um you know we we are all gonna g to miss Jin Sachs terribly um but it's a it's a great opportunity and she's going to take um all of the skills that she's learned here in the Mount Diablo district and all of our wonderful ideas and programs that she's going to uh do at those um in in other spaces but the important things is is that young people will benefit and that's and that's that's all that matters so um so anyway thank you to this board thank you to all the work I want to thank JY saxs and her team and uh that concludes my report unless there's any questions I don't have a question but I will comment on the photograph I was anticipating um
101there was a young man who was introduced to receive an award and two adult males from who are obviously family members or close friends jumped up on the stage to be in the picture with Dr Clark and truste McBarron and that family was so proud and cheering in the audience um and everybody in the entire room broke out in a smile because of that enthusiasm and that joy and that support for that particular student that's right um the room is always packed for the cele celebration of success so if you ever have an opportunity to attend this event please do next year yeah thank you thank you so we're ready to move on to the consent agenda I know there are people that are anxious for us to be moving along on the agenda uh
102the items listed under consent agenda are considered routine and will be approved by 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 at the beginning of the meeting Dr Clark pulled uh item 142 so that will not be considered uh under the consent agenda uh are there any items that you would like to have pulled as trustees I move that we approve the items listed under the consent agenda I'll second that so we have a motion by trusty eni with it second by truste Mason to approve the items presented on the consent agenda there further discussion no discussion allowed uh trusty baros how do you vote
103Yes right the motion is adopted 400 with uh trusty mcfarren being reported as absent and a um concurrence by trusty baros uh now we'll move on to um 17 point oh six 17.1 great our next item um this is the potential approval and revisions of the high school ethnic studies course of study and we have uh Susan Hartwig who's going to be presenting this item good evening Dr Clark and board TR it's nice to see you I've also brought with me uh Meg honey who is a practitioner of ethnic studies so we are looking forward to speaking to you on this topic um Meg is currently teaching two uh sections of ethnic studies at Northgate High School right now um so what we wanted to do is make sure that you understood the rationale of
104the work that we've been doing to um move ethnic studies towards ab101 which is assembly bill 101 and it's the ethnic studies requirement that you know for all of us is coming soon and um by the time our freshmen come in in 25 26 they will be leaving having all um taken and passed the ethnic studies course um and to that end we need a awesome course of study so that is what we've been spending time doing to align the course of study with the Department of uh of education's model curriculum uh for ethnic studies and also meet the needs of our mbusd community as well we also look to sharpen the lens on all of our courses of study so that's review because you've seen some of our other courses of study and that
105is always something that we apply to all of our course of study revisions so um we all we also wish to align with the UC AG portal as well um and then what's really important and I wanted to mention is that this course of study is going to be on a continuous cycle of Improvement and revision um the nature of current events the nature of things that are happening in the world um and the nature of a changing Community requires us to to Really stay on a cycle of improvement so our process our process is again review if you look at the first three bullet points but wanted to mention that something that's a little bit different with ethnic studies is the need for ongoing professional development for our teachers and practition ERS around this
106course so we've had regular cohort meetings starting last May Meg was there with us and um several other people which I will list um also our ethnic studies teachers current and future continue to collaborate with staff developers from the UC Berkeley history social science project um and we have this um we had our Co cohort work very hard um over the course of our cohort meetings to work on the course of study divisions and what's cool about that also is because we we have ongoing practitioners that are currently teaching the course and also people that will be coming on board to teach in the years to come and here we are with the Board of Education review with you here's an overview of How It's looked over the course and this is actually um in
107partnership with the County Office of Education we've been working closely with them as well uh phase one has always been the introduction and really setting the intention for ethnic studies and then phase two and three has been really about starting that development and um the work we've been doing with the cohort and with uh the new Berkeley history social studies project has been really instrumental uh phase four will be the implementation of the requirement and prior to that we'll have time to do some summer training as well for any new teachers coming on board with the cohort um and then um just to mention to I have renewed the contract with um our UC Berkeley history social studies um project staff developers so we will continue to give that support um so this is just
108a basic overview of the program and just kind of the course of events as we've been working through the year and um Community input as we start to move into next year we're going to be bringing in community input and we're also going be having parent meetings and things of that nature and in in addition tightening up what we think um is going to be our best options for curriculum what I wanted to also mention is that um when you see look at the Circle you see the four subgroups that is the typical areas of study and the subgroups that we study but we never want to forget that there's there's a section in the middle it's called intersectionality that's a really important space where there's a lot of different types of study going on
109within the course so um I'm actually going to I want to kind of clear the space so you can ask as many questions as you need um but wanted to definitely give you some time and also to look at the people that have been instrumental in making this happen and have been really taking the time to um to learn more and to build kind of Fill Their Own knowledge and build their own tool belt so that when they go to uh teach that they are ready um and these meetings have been taking place over the course of the Year during the day and with a sever so I wanted to get to the most important part which is questions so please do feel free to ask any questions and Meg is just a wonderful resource
110and a wonderful um practitioner of ethnic studies not just in our district but also in um her other professional life outside of the work she does at Northgate so um are there any questions from the board M no questions yes bario can you give us like an example of what you would teach in the intersectionality um thank you great question um intersectionality and an emphasis on intersectionality is the ethos of ethnic studies and it grounds everything that we do so although the discipline um was very intentionally constructed to Center indigenous Americans African-Americans latinx Americans and the Asian-American Pacific Islander Community we acknowledge and um uplift the many different parts of our identities so when we're talking about intersectionality um as it relates to the four core groups we are also putting focus on gender expression
111and ability and socioeconomic status and access to education um because we know that not not one of these groups is monolithic we are not monoliths and so we really are intentional about ensuring that our study of the four core groups and our own ident I ities um very much rests on the um knowledge that um intersectionality is um an important lens to look at both oppression and marginalization but also to look at resilience and joy and creativity and Innovation thank you bring her other questions so I want to uh compliment you on the large number of Staff members who have participated in this work that's so uh critical and it's noteworthy that so many people were involved in it uh that shows the commitment of individuals at our high schools and I hope that um
112our community recognizes that commitment they may not necessarily know about it but if they ever look at this at PowerPoint they will see the names and can take some joy in understanding that people were involved from their particular school who understand the students and the diversity happening at that particular school um and I want to owledge that we have received uh board comments uh from various members of the community and I know that you have received those as well and as Educators you will be looking at them as you're um developing The Continuous cycle in this uh great curriculum so thank you I I kind of respond to that too I just I mean ethnic studies is nothing thing but responsive we are responsive to the needs of our community our populations the unique um
113dynamics that are unfolding on our campuses and in our community and so absolutely we are very um much taking feedback and reading and considering and talking I also um would be very remiss if I did not say that um as a teacher the professional Learning Community has been um the most meaningful work that I've ever been part of and I really want to thank Susan and Nicole Kipnis for their organization and vision um the way that they have uh engaged groups like the UC Berkeley history social science project experts in this work um and really building that bridge between the academy and the K12 space and we are all better for it so thank you Susan and Nicole so very much and Jennifer Stacks as well yes the whole group back here the whole group
114always empowering us yes thought of a question that's okay um just as you've been um you know teaching this class this year what's what is one or two of your favorite experiences that you've had with these students I'll be about three or four hours it's been it's been an amazing year um I am continually inspired and dazzled and uh galvanized our students energy and their agency their knowledge their um enthusiasm and commitment to really lean in and learn um material that maybe they had never encountered or to really um engage with narratives and perspectives and experiences of people who have been completely absent from the historical record so that work and watching them and being with them in that work has been um wonderful I will say that at Northgate we're you know piloting and
115so my two sections have 9th 10th 11th and 12th graders all in one room and it's been a beautiful moment of watching our upper class people support younger class people and then younger Class People provide models of leadership that maybe they didn't even know that they were capable of so I've loved that um and then I just uh really enjoyed being in the learning process with students we are um very much on a journey together so it's been it's been great and I can't wait for next year already thank you right thank you very much for the presentation ready for a motion I move to approve revisions to high school ethnic studies courses of study second so we have a motion made by trustee and Z with a second by truste count on the potential
116approval of the high school ethnic studies course of study um I don't see any further comments trustee baros how do you vote Yes so the motion is adopted 4001 congratulations to all of us on the success we're ready for item seven 17.2 just Mrs hang out here you're going to uh present the supplemental reading materials list that is right that makes sense yeah just keep it rolling so um again good evening all and I wanted to now tell you I'm partnering here with Nicole Kipnis our uh secondary literacy actually you do the you wear all the hats in terms of pay through 12 but uh primarily secondary um literacy toast that so um she's done a tremendous amount of work with uh our teacher librarian team and uh while this some of this will be
117review the part that will not be review is the part where we have layered in uh titles from the third grade through the fifth grade so this is super exciting for us and um this is all for the supplemental materials um that teachers may use in their classrooms so this may be familiar to you you've seen it before um so we'll kind of push forward so we can make sure we can answer any questions and also get you some ideas around what's happening with the three through five titles there has not been any change to the category language um so that has remained the same over the course of the year uh much like the ethnic studies course of study our aim is to continually keep this list on a continuous cycle of improvement and
118um just to give you an idea as you look at the list um and you've been reviewing the list the newly added titles will be in uh red and in metallics and um so that's the same um so that's why you'll notice that the three through five three through five titles are all in red so I wanted to um just mention the secondary list again this is a review process here we are again after the process at the Board of Education review and then I want to go ahead and hand this over because Nicole over the past year or so has been doing a tremendous amount of work with our teacher librarian team and I want to give her an Unity to talk a bit about that give a quick summary of the process and
119any differences that might have occurred okay sure hello so with the 3 through five process it started last March so that professional development day last March um before that actually we surveyed all the grades three through five teachers and asked them what titles are they already teaching in their classroom so we had that list and then we audited that list and we looked for the cultural experience composition and any that was missing from that list um in terms of cultural diversity um or any experiences that we're missing we made note of that and then our fabulous feature librarian team came into play uh that professional development day last March and the last four professional development days so the March one and then you know the fall one and all the one since um we have
120met and have just been revising the list and so they have looked at any experiences missing and um added a lot of titles to the list just titles they recommended that build in any of those voids and now we have a very robust list and when we did the last audit uh with the current list it really hits pretty much every cultural experience and every category that can think of and they just spent a lot of time um really trying to make sure that everyone is represented and then we pulled back in the three through five teachers who wanted to be part of the committee and we met with the committee as a whole uh three or four times and here we are and so when we met with the committee they were able to
121um you know make revisions to make comments decide on grade level discrepancies and so it's been over a year process as season said but here we are and we have a pretty great robust complete list for grades three through five there's our amazing teacher librarian team you led yeah so we were excited to have that them to join in on this work they were very willing and very enthusiastic Partners in this work uh so this has been a really exciting addition to the list and I will also mention that we have this wonderful wonderful resource so if you ever have you know an opportunity we have a thing called teaching books and it can you can run our list through there and it will audit for cultural experiences so um that's been kind of like
122our just basically our go-to um and our best resource as I said the category language has not changed it continues on and um is aging quite well so we are excited about that uh and then I always add my FAQ but if you have more questions we are here to answer them members of the board I had one comment I told Dr Clark I don't know how some of the books I thought everything I read was bad some of them are survived I know I'm telling my kid I don't know how you survived me because I think I did everything wrong but um no I was surprised some of my favorites are still on the list and I was also pleased with some of the additions so looks like you did a very thorough job
123was it was a it was a always like I say it was a labor of love books are awesome so and through this process probably more um a greater variety of books will be used in the classroom that's what that's the exciting piece for me is because people have suddenly go oh I I remember this book I I want to teach it I want to try it this year yes exactly that's what I was so excited about there's so many titles on here that are like favorites um and it's such a wide representation like you said from different cultures different experiences and you've got that bread um that that our teachers can draw from it's just really really exciting um so with that I would love to make the motion um to approve supplemental reading
124materials list grades 3 through 12 I'll second it but I have one more question that you may not have an answer to because last year I asked um like how are we supporting teachers and teaching new texts new to them texts yes and so I'm curious if anything's happened in the last year because my daughter is still reading the standard okay so good news one of Jen Sax's best sayings is uh good news is the new curriculum actually has curricular support for several of the titles that um that are on our list so that's a really great addition with the curriculum that's coming in new for the secondary um but teaching books also has a lot of support for um for curricular and in instructional pieces so that's really great and that's actually something that
125teachers have access to right in their class link they go straight there they put in the book UPC comes 28 resources including authors um you know reading of of the book or an author's uh you know rendition and then videos and graphic organizers so there is a plethora if you use it so we'll be supporting teachers with that and encouraging absolutely is there a second okay I just wanted to make sure you threw a question in there okay we have a motion by uh trusty K with a second by trusty and z um we've had quite a bit of discussion um trusty baros how do you vote Yes okay and this is adopted 400 with trustee mcfarren absent and concurrence of trusty baros thank you very much for your excellent work thank you uh we're
126ready for um so yeah so item 17.3 there's just if you have any questions we have Dr Gilly here to to answer questions but there's not a presentation with this but we're seeking approval I'm I lost it sorry I did have a question um just I think for the general public to have an understanding of of what it means um when you have an altern alternative diploma instead of the um the regular high school diploma like does that change your um career possibilities you know beyond what what does that mean um it's a great question and this is actually the first part of a two-part process um this is the approval of courses that we put forth last year pilot in response to the state change and Education Code um 5122 5.31 in which um
127students who formerly would have earned their certificate of completion are now able to earn a diploma through alternative means um by meeting the state minimum required standards so um previously um prior to Essa under No Child Left Behind those children would have received a certificate of completion and they would have counted towards the district's graduation rate um once Essa came into play then we went ahead and um those children were no longer included in the graduation rate affecting States graduation rates as well as districts but in addition um the actual grown-ups right right by now um for the rest of their life were unable to answer that question um do you have a high school diploma um this actually affords them to say yes I have a high school diploma um there's been a lot
128of political spirited debate about this as you can imagine but the truth of the matter is um the um individuals who do end up with the alternate diploma or certainly have to pass any other requirements for any job that they might be um applying for they does not make them eligible to go straight to UC it does however make them available um financial aid FAFSA so there's a lot of positives for um the students and again um opening doors for employment and also um forther in their education in whichever ways appropriate we do plan on bringing other courses um at the next board meeting which will include um a financial um literacy course and then we also are going to be bringing the um curriculum that goes along with it thank you go ahead I
129would make a motion to approve the recommendation by St second so we have a motion by um truste Mason and a second by trusty en on the potential approval of the courses of study board uh Dynamic courses um is there further discussion trusty bar how do you vote Yes that passes 400 with truste mcfar and absent and uh concurrence from truste baros thank you very much U we're moving on to 17.4 review of the 2324 School site comprehensive school safety plans Dr Clark again same as the previous item um we're looking for approval but if you have any questions we have staff here to respond to those questions are there any questions I move that we approve the 2324 School site comprehensive school safety plans I'll second and also just a comment that um I
130really appreciate all the work that's been done on these plans to really um make them more easy for people to digest and read and follow um especially in with all the different possible emergency scenarios that that we can have happen um so I'm impressed and thank you for everyone who worked on these thank you they appreciate that so we have a motion by truste um in with a second by trusty count I believe we've indicated there's no further discussion trusty baros how do we yes and this motion is adopted 400 with mcaren absent and trusty baros concurrence uh we're ready to move on to 17.5 which is potential approval of school plans for student achievement for met homes and Mountain View elementary schools there any discuss yeah and again we we um we presented our
131our our plans earlier uh these two these two um needed a little bit more work so we're bringing them back so if she have any questions we're seeking approval okay any questions if not we're ready for a motion I would move that we approve the 2023 24 school plans for student achievement for Meadow homes Elementary School and Mountain View Elementary School second so we have a motion by trusty Mason with the SEC second by trusty eni on the uh student achievement plans for two of our schools this is item 17.5 Is there further discussion seeing none trusty bario how do you vote yes oh yes she'd surprise us if she said no would she okay this's a motion is adopted 4001 with trusty mcfarren absent and um concurrence from trusty uh baras let's move on
132to 17.6 which is and I just I I just want to thank our principles for uh for hanging in there with us we appreciate it so yes so next item 17.6 uh um we're excited to present this uh tenative agreement we have uh we have Dr Rubio here who will present the uh present 17.6 thank you on board the good evening I have before you for your review potential approval uh tenative agreement between the district and the clerical secretarial technical unit local one CST uh we're very happy to be here with them um in terms of where we're at we're very pleased with our relationship and we're particularly pleased uh and I want to just make make a note if I may for a moment the outgoing president Carmen tonus Torres who's been I've had
133the pleasure of working with for the last almost four years now who's retiring and I appreciate her steadfast leadership and collaboration with us and uh their new president will be Jane France who delivered a seven pound baby girl this morning I believe so I thought I would just mention those few things but but uh happy to have this before you for your approval and review any questions if not we're ready for a motion Madame President I move to approve the tentative agreement between clerical secretarial technical CST Local 1 and mountel unified school district for for the 2024 2027 collective bargaining agreement second so we have a motion U made by truste count with a second by truste en zwe um on the tentative on the agreement with clerical secretarial technical local one and mount diao
134school district for the 20 24 through 2027 uh calendar years that's amazing that we have such a long agreement and I also want to compliment you for uh attaching the um um 1200 form from the County Office of Education so that our public can see that it's been reviewed by the Contra County Office of Education absolutely I and I fail to mention that did did they did concur with our assessment and review a right thank you all right um Dusty baros how do you vot yes and congratulations to everyone is 400 one with Aaron mcfarren absent and the concurrence from trusty baros um 17.7 is the approval of changes to board policy and administration regulations according to csba recommendations and we are looking at the board policy and AR 3400 management districts assets accounts Dr
135Clark I believe these were um presented to you all earlier so tonight we're just looking for approval approve I move to approve the BP and AR 3400 management of District assets accounts as presented second so we have a motion by um trusty Mason and a second by trusty and Zi on item 17.7 um it was presented previously trusty baros how do you vote Yes we'd welcome her opinion wouldn't we the motion is adopted 4001 with Aaron mcfarren being absent and concurrence from our um uh truste barus uh I don't think we're going to need a meeting extension we do have some documents to sign tonight and I want to thank everyone for your patience during tonight's meeting and um it was a great presentation tonight oh I guess I better wrap the gabble do you
136want to wrap it again meeting aour at 811 pm thank you vice president Mayo