001foreign we'll start in just a minute here in the meantime if you're looking for interpretation there is a button on the bottom right for translation or a live translation to Spanish and Mr Brewer would you mind repeating that one more time for anyone who may be watching and foreign [Music] language interpretation muchas gracias okay so we're looking for oh trustee and seaweed is here maybe she's on the attendee side ah all right trustee and savory do we have you here yes I'm here okay going on very good all right okay buenos noches good evening welcome everyone to the governing board meeting of the Mount Diablo Unified School District for January 13 2021 I hope that everyone's staying healthy and safe in this difficult time and I just wanted to let you know that we will
002be adjourning this meeting later tonight in the honor of three Mount Diablo staff who unfortunately have passed away Jesse forsland from Olympic High Max Wilson from Gregory Gardens and masheed Zenda Del from Valley View we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance please join me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right and we'll begin with roll call we'll start with our student trustee alas trustee Alice I see you are here but did you free okay there we go she is here okay very good uh trustee McFerrin here and trustee Mason here yeah he I think I lagged yes trusty Mayo and trustee and Zoe here all right
003we are all here um so moving on to 6.2 review and potential approval of the agenda um this is an item that that hasn't previously been on our agenda but it gives us the opportunity it's kind of a standard item for Robert's Rules gives us the opportunity if there's anything that needs to be moved within the agenda or pulled so are there any um changes needed to the agenda at this point we would you like a motion to accept it as presented I have I actually have one item that we are that we are pulling off and that is item um 17.3 full item 17.3 do we have a motion to accept the agenda or the are there any other changes to the agenda anything okay so I would make a motion that we approve
004it with the elimination of 17.3 thank you vice president Mason do we have a second from trustee and Zoe all right um so we'll take that to a vote uh vice president Mason yes trustee and Zoe yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee Mayo yes and trustee LS I didn't do you first but we'll we'll get you in there somewhere yes okay I also vote Yes thank you uh motion passes five zero with concurrence from the student board member all right so to report out 7.0 report out action taken in closed session so item 7.1 is negotiations um the board may discuss negotiations or provide direction to its Representatives regarding represented employees for student to eera government code section 3549.1 agency negotiators uh Dr Adam Clark Dr John Rubio Dr Dan scadero Dr Lisa Gonzalez Dr Wendy
005aguili Jennifer Sachs Cesar Alvarado and Mike Berg agencies Medea dma mdspa CSEA CST Local 1 and Teamsters Local 856. on this item the board received information and provided guidance item 7.2 discipline dismissal release or reassignment of Public Employee government code section 54957b11 case there was the board received information but there was no action taken item 3.3 conference with legal counsel existing litigation government code 54956.9 Jane Doe uh court number MSC 19-00334 we the board conferred with legal counsel and voted 5-0 to authorize settlement as recommended item 3.4 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation pursuant to 54956.9 B one case the board received information all right so moving on now to item 8.0 public comment so the public May address the board regarding any item within the jurisdiction of the Board of Education of the Mount
006Diablo Unified School District that is not on this agenda these presentations are limited to three minutes each or a total of 30 minutes for all speakers or the three-minute 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 are not allowed to yield your time and then the point of clarification that we often uh like to give Here Mount Diablo is to uh let participants know that according to the brown act we as the board are not allowed to engage in a discussion in a public comment because it's an item that has not been previously noticed on the agenda but we can listen to your public comment and ask clarifying questions all right so uh is there any
007public comment verbally tonight thank you for president count yes we've set aside 30 minutes as you've said for public comment as a general reminder to our public you have two options related to public comment the first is to email board comments at mdusd.org and that email is automatically distributed to all board members that email is available until the end of the meeting and we are publicly posting the emails that we receive which can be accessed at mdusd.org forward slash board meetings there there's also information on how to leave a public comment in person which we've arrived at now registration was required participants are requested to send an email and they receive an automatic reply with instructions on how to participate so now that we're here we're going to go ahead and proceed I can tell
008you that we have four adults at least that have pre-registered for public comment and two students we'll start with Mrs Leslie Amor Harris and she will introduce to students and next we'll proceed to Julia Jameson first Miss Harris thank you so much uh good evening board members superintendent Clark and attendees uh my name is Leslie Amour Harris and I am a counselor at Riverview middle school as a counselor I have always advocated for students mental health and the importance of normalizing taking care of yourself physically emotionally and mentally this is why I'm here to support my Riverview alumni in their proposal for the availability of mental health days for students in our district I have emailed the proposal that they came up with you a kid that can they came up with to all of
009you and hope that when you have time you are able to consider it I now ask that two of my students Joshua arienda and Ivan Lopez Rosales um speak um and talk to you about what they came up with thank you foreign Mrs Harris one more time with their names so that I can allow them to speak here sure um so the first one is going to be Ivan Lopez and then the second one is Joshua arienga okay just a moment perfect thank you okay we have Ivan hello my name is Ivan Lopez um I I went to Riverview middle school last year and I am currently a ninth grader at Pittsburgh High School I wanted to talk about how mental health affects us all and about how we should have one or multiple days
010off of school to help us work on herself this school year was very different from other years on how we didn't start school in person it affected our mental health some more than others everyone should be aware of how not being mentally stable affects us mental health affects how we socialize and how we act during school not only does school affect mental health but problems at home also affect us taking days off of school would give us time to work on ourselves and become better people everyone should have a chance to be happy thank you your comments have been heard next we have Joshua arienda Arianda and I went to Riverview middle school last year and I'm a ninth grader now I play in Valley Charter High School this year as the coca-19 virus has
011largely impacted our world many begin to see the importance of mental health getting up in the morning turning on that computer and beginning the same routine every day for students can easily get tiring wake up school study back to bed repeat by now many students barely have time to socialize and take a small amount of time away from school especially with new covet guidelines from this youth mental health is being disrupted and we need to be reminded to take a step back breathe and focus on ourselves for a day or even a few under much pressure students tackle the importance of their grades at home stress and more as this starts the introduction of mental health not being one of not being of one's of someone's priorities during this pandemic many students have began to
012recognize that what we thought would be easy and fun is the complete opposite being in many different positions at once can at once can negatively impact the importance of mental health greatly the introduction of excuse options for mental health should be opinionated as the mental as mental health is just as important as an excuse for physical health to be implemented not just because of covid-19 but because statistics and youth mental health is negatively decreasing not just in the US but also worldwide even being at home for the prior winter winter break may have not been enjoyable and much of a slippery for students going through their own problems and mental health with other stressors during this time students deserve a chance to have a day or to have a few days to on the for
013themselves to reflect reconsider and recollect on their own this is why myself and other students have proposed student mental health days as an option for students I am also asking you to please consider passing a resolution to directly support Senator portianos Senate Bill 849 regarding people attendance thank you for your consideration through the chair I have a clarifying question yes so are you young men part of a group county-wide that are working on this initiative because I noticed when I read your proposal that there were no Mount Diablo students on it which doesn't mean it's not valuable but I'm just wondering are there Mount Diablo Unified kids on your Coalition or whatever group you're with um so I'll answer that for them too um so initially um they are Riverview students and they came to
014me um because they were really interested in helping other students we started to um talk about it within this smaller group and we are looking to expand to have more Mount Diablo Unified students as part of it um we you know as a mentor I wanted to start off with really small and then try to expand as much as we can thank you yeah thank you thank you Mrs Harris and uh and Ivan and Joshua for for coming to speak tonight it's always great to hear from students and and the direct experiences that you're dealing with and the proposals that you have thank you for being here tonight yes thank you next we have Julia Jameson to be followed by shoshana lyric first Julia your three minutes begins when you start thank you good evening
015president count trustees alas Mason Mayo McFerrin and enzawi my name is Julia Jameson I'm a teacher at Mount Diablo high school and I am a member of Medea's bargaining team and I'm speaking you to you this evening to implore you to direct the mdusd bargaining team to prioritize settlement of items 2 and 17K from our distance learning phase mou at our next bargaining date on January 20th when the distance learning phase mou was settled at the end of July of 2020 there were two items about which the sides could not agree one had to do with the public health metrics that would be used to determine safety for reopening School the other was with regard to the number of required minutes the minimum number of required minutes of daily live interaction because the sides were
016not able to settle this item and both sides felt it was essential to have a ratified mou before the beginning of the school year we agreed to come back to meet beginning I believe September 17th so we're here almost four months later and those two outstanding items have still not been settled the sides have exchanged many proposals and in addition the district has brought forward several other proposals that we've dedicated a great deal of time to however these two very important points are still outstanding bottom line for me as a teacher out of concern for my students and myself is that all stakeholders need to know what measurements the district is using to determine that schools are safe to open for in-person instruction we have seen variation in the state's categorization first moving from one
017care system to another tier system now having the governor give indications that he believes schools should be open even when they're in the most restricted here given the district's adopt safety plans my concern is that the district has yet to present a discrete list of specific Public Health metrics that determine safety Medea has proposed the same metrics repeatedly we have agreed to drop some but we still have not gotten direct responses to many of our proposals so it is my hope of my Interruption uh you do have 15 seconds remaining thank you it is my hope that we can settle these two items um as soon as possible so that we can then dedicate ourselves to working on getting students back in person through small group support hubs thank you very much thank you your
018public comment has been heard next we have shoshana norik shoshana your time will begin when you begin board members and Dr Clark my name is shoshana nurik and this is my 20th year at Rio Vista Elementary School we're in a very difficult period of time while I fully understand why there's a strong desire to get students back in school we also need to look at reality in the neighborhood in school where I work the number of cases of covet grows staff members are affected too many families are infected including at least two in my class at least one family member passed away and today I learned that one of my seven-year-old first graders has tested positive how can you expect teachers and students to return to in-person learning I hear parents say their children need
019to socialize but even if we return to class they would not be permitted to be close to each other they won't be able to share stem materials and play on this play structure together this is heartbreaking but while medical people are now suggesting that people should wear masks within their own homes please do not ask us to return in February thank you thank you your public comment has been heard thank you this board president we had originally expected one more registrant that I'm not able to identify in the waiting room so this marks the conclusion of the public comment period although emailed public comments are still available through the end of the meeting thank you very much Mr breidenthal coordinating all of that you know it requires all of the technology to figure that out
020so much appreciated all right um and thank you all for coming to speak at our meeting item 9.0 is next Communications this is District organizations at regular board meetings a single spokesperson of each recognized District organization may make a brief presentation items are limited to those which are informational do we have anyone to speak under 9.1 yes we do uh thank you Miss Board president count We Have Tonight a written statement from Anita Johnson from the Mount Diablo Education Association that has been attached in PDF format to the electronic agenda additionally we have speakers in person both representatives from CST and Medea namely for CST Carmen Thrones Torres and Debbie hickey who will begin I'm not sure which one you want but I'll I'll begin um good evening board president board members and superintendent I
021am sure that you're aware that CST was forced to approve a contract that was a slap in our members faces I took a minute a minute to read your budget Solutions posted on the mdusd website as I was reading it I found there are items that may be truthful but by no way transparent with all the truths paragraph three talks about the increase to the stirs and pers increase that places a bigger burden on the budget however nowhere in this paragraph have you included the fact that you have increased the salaries and benefits to these departments and I'll give you a list agenda May 11 2020 assistant director dual language English Learners director dual language assistant Learners Chief Human Resources Chief Educational Services Chief pupil services and special ed agenda June 8 2020 director of
022physical Chief accountant transportation coordinator agenda 1026 2020 coordinator of transportation and on that all you did was change the name of the position and give them more money new food and nutrition services warehouse distribution operations manager director of food and nutrition services and supervisor calpad syscoordinator technology operations manager maintenance manager director of facilities and bonds agenda November 9 2020 director of food nutrition services and warehouse position director of facilities and bonds all of these position salaries increase the salaries and the stirs and pers but did you do not tell the public that you are increasing the management positions all the while you are telling CST employees that the district is broke as you could not afford a two percent one-time off-schedule payment for them paragraph five talks of the deficit spending while the deficit spending
023is in the above increases because the CST members could not have a raise or have not had an increase in over four years you forgot to tell the public that the district gets Cola funding which is a cost of living adjustment but have never given it to your employees in paragraph six you talked about weathering the storm you have weathered the storm on the backs of the CST members as you have cut jobs and hours every year where are the cuts in the upper management at the board member March 9th where the district was recommending cuts to positions both classified and certificated to balance the budget to get those where the but these are the excuse me where they were cutting both classified and certificated to balance the budget these were some of the board
024members comments Brian Lawrence look at more cuts at the district office keep a Cuts away from the students Deborah Mason cut all ptosas president actually Charisse Khan bring back comparison on vacant budget CSI monies Title One monies for the past five years none of this was done yes you let the superintendent go but you hired a new one with a higher salary within one month still no contract with CST still saying still saying that the district could not meet financial obligations do you think there's a pattern here today a Medea member told me Medea was told by the district could not meet the requirements for the 1.5 percent one-time off schedule due to overspending at the district I can see where if I go back to the beginning of my speech and I could understand
025the difficult times of the distance learning but I live every day trying to get our students on the internet into classes checking out books zooming with parents do your Chiefs talk to the students through their learning issues I don't think so I was also told today that our superintendent told one of our members that CST complains about everything how disrespectful how professional how dare you decide whether I complain are you in my shoes I think not Medea was also told that the government was giving the district 3.84 percent cola this year as the district did not get the 1.5 percent Cola in 2019-2020 or the 2.31 Cola on the 2020-2024 21 therefore the government was giving it a one-time combined at the 3.84 percent this money would be used for Medea to get salary adjustments
026and increases wow that's why you didn't honor our contract with the metoo clause the board is coming on becoming very untrustable why must you always forget the CST members put their lives on the line every day during this pandemic for covet 19. so our students can get the education they need CST members have been working on sites every day the Medea members have been working from their safe little homes yet you are increasing their pay your actions speak louder than your words you do not care CFT members stay at home get your butt to work make sure you feed your children make sure you come to work or we'll take your jobs thank you board members for caring maybe you should care more thank you for your time thank you next we have Carmen Thrones
027thank you uh good evening and happy New Year board members Dr Clark on mdusd um community my name is Carmen terrones Torres administrator secretary and CST unit president I'm calling tonight because of my frustration of continuously bringing CST issues to HR on to Dr Clark and see little action To None my member Debbie hickey just mentioned about their frustration I have with communicating with Dr Clark he is the one that told me specifically that no matter what the district did my members will complain that if they offer us to work from home taking vacation time on personal necessity time we will complain Yes We complain because we're not being treated equally as you probably already know the CST Union had a fat-finding meeting on December 14th that lasted all day to get nothing pretty much
028but an extra day off during the winter holidays yay thank you so much very generous of your um on your part the district capriciously rejected to honor our signed me too clause that was signed months ago this was signed by both the CST negotiating team and the den District team we had to swallow a contract that shows the complete disregard disrespect to our unit mainly due to fear to be left with our contract with this new regime we were urged to have our members ratified the contract ASAP so the contract was ratified on January 4th since I didn't see the agenda and this item on your agenda for tonight's meeting I checked with Mr Alvarado on Monday and I was informed that my contract is now in fiscal waiting to be sent to the county
029for approval and then it will come to our final vote I hope this doesn't last a month because this contract will expire this coming June we have distant learning uh face mou that was signed in August of last year stating that our members will be allowed to work from home it has taken months to get meetings scheduled I had all day meetings on on January 5th uh I had about nine members that had doctors note since June October November and they were just now being seen as of today I have not heard the decision of the district whether or not those requests will be honored I had a member in payroll that have requested to work from home with a doctor's note unfortunately it was denied you know what happened this um January 10th with
030the uh January 10th payroll people were not paid why because my members were denied to work from home even though they had work from home the past three months when we were in Sheltering Place everybody got paid then but this time there were over 60 people that did not get paid but that's the choice of the district as a Debbie stated my member stated the budget solution posted on the website about the deficit spending we knew that long time ago when asked me did an audit back in 2017 at the end of 2016 2017 to start our negotiating it was listed then that the district was already on a deficit spending but it has continued as Debbie had stated many management positions have been created foreign Unified School District and I am very concerned about
031the protocol in place the one online data 1217 stated that everybody should be tested if someone in that department has been attested positive the district is not doing that right now they're saying that the county has changed the protocols but it's not listed on the district I Run To HR I ask what is Deployable is whatever listed on the website dated December 7 the current one they told me no it's probably outdated so who is in charge of keeping the protocols in place who is caring about the CST unit I guess nobody I had members working out of class due to too many vacancies and there are not enough Subs these members are not being compensated according to our contract the district wants to pay them according to their interpretation of my contract I told
032them don't get don't do it the job will not get done Remember You The Board is responsible at the financial situation of this District at the end it is you have who have been approving the creation of new management positions and expenditure promotions and everything that is expended that is there are expenses in the district remember the district is not run only by management we are supposed to be a team a team works together lastly when can we get a report on the savings on pars I thought that was asked at the last four meeting I haven't seen it on the agenda at this moment I asked that my members be treated with respect and dignity thank you and next we have Anita Johnson to conclude item 9.1 Ms Johnson I think you are muted
033there now can you hear me yes thank you I'm sorry about that I thought Austin needed to unmute me but here I am okay I am um let me put my speech up here um I'm Anita Johnson I am the President of the Mount Diablo Education Association the first thing I want to say is I want to provide some clarity um based on what a previous speaker said um she had announced that there was an agreement for Medea to get a 3.84 salary increase that is not true I'm not sure where she heard that information there is no agreement for salary increase at this time the facts are that the governor's proposal which came out last Friday does include a proposal for a 3.84 percent Cola for school districts but that Cola would still need
034to be approved by the legislature over the summer before it was implemented for next year so as much as we all wish that that was true it is not true so I wanted to stop any rumors before they started there okay uh moving on to my prepared comments then um we are in the middle of one of the most challenging academic years of all time the good news is that people are pulling together helping each other and sharing what they have now more than ever we need to celebrate the hard work that we are all doing please think about all of the individuals that you know in our community who are getting tremendous results putting forth extraordinary effort and being incredibly creative to serve our students pick a few of these individuals and nominate them
035for a Medea Academy Award you can find a link to the nomination form on our website if you haven't already gotten it in your email from the nominations forms that we receive we will pick individuals to honor with Awards the purpose of the awards is to honor everyone in our community by selecting and highlighting examples of the great work that everyone is doing there are many different Awards some for teachers and others for classified staff administrators volunteers and other members of the community and we have a new award this year the social justice award this award will honor an individual or a team in our community who has worked to promote social justice racial Justice diversity equity and inclusion in our schools nominees for this award can be either teachers or other members of the
036community our award ceremony will be virtual again this year and like last year will be fun and exciting please plan on joining in on Thursday May 7th at 5 pm most importantly start thinking now about who you want to nominate and complete a nomination form nominations are due Friday February 26th thank you and good evening thank you so much President Johnson for sharing about the media Academy Awards for those who might be newer to to the district it is an incredible event that has been going on for many years that brings people together from all across the district from all different areas like she said um not only teachers but staff parents volunteers and it's just an incredible celebration of as she said all of the hard work and innovation in our district so really
037excited that that event is continuing this year I know it's a lot of work to put on done by volunteers and so I hope to see a lot of fantastic nominations again this year so thank you again President Johnson all right is that complete for uh District organizations then Mr bridenthal correct yes okay fantastic all right so moving on to item 10 recognitions and resolutions um we have two resolutions tonight and I will send it over to Dr Clark to lead great thank you so much president pound and um we are excited tonight we have we have two very important resolutions um that that we want to acknowledge this evening and ask the board for consideration for approval um so the first resolution is resolution um slash 21-39 and in recognition of January 18 2021
038as Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr day and so as I as I have done with resolutions in the past I just read the opening paragraph and maybe the last sentence and then we um and then we can kind of go from there so just to open up this resolution um whereas on January 15 1929 the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr who was one of America's beloved national heroes was born in Atlanta Georgia and with profound faith in our nation's promise went on to lead a non violent movement that urged our country's leader to expand the reach of freedom and provide equal opportunity for all and he Vindicated the belief that humble citizens can collaborate together to change America and the world um so the governing board of the Mount Diablo Unified School District
039hereby calls upon everyone to observe this day by actively participating in Civic community and service projects in honor of Dr King's 92nd birthday and to commemorate the March on Washington for jobs and Freedom by living our shared mbusd values striving for righteousness and bringing goodness to others so with that I will put it in the hands of the board thank you so much Dr Clark thrilled to see this resolution that we've not had at least in the couple of years that that I've been around in the Mount Diablo School District so pleased if this has come forward um and I know that there are active um events in the community usually the city of Pittsburgh has both a breakfast and as well as a city and School District collaboration event that unfortunately is not happening
040in person this year and will be greatly missed but there are some online opportunities and Service Learning opportunities as well um so so as this says definitely encourage people to participate do we hear a motion I would make a motion that we approve the adoption of resolution 20-21-39 in recognition of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr day and I think it resonates with us and is more important to us this year than it has been in a long long time thank you vice president Mason do we have a second I would like to second the motion second by trustee McFerrin any other comments can I make a comments um so thank you so much Dr Clark for putting forth this resolution commemorating Dr Martin Luther King Jr's birthday and I just wanted to acknowledge that
041like most people watching tonight the extent to which I learned about him growing up was his famous I Have a Dream speech at the Mark March on Washington for jobs and freedom um but as most everyone knows we just know it as the March on Washington and we forget about the jobs and freedom um part it was a large demonstration to advocate for the economic and civil rights of black people and Dr Martin Luther King Jr though stood for so much more than as he said in his I Have a Dream speech little black boys and little black girls being able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls as sisters and brothers he was in a strong opposition to the Vietnam War he was a labor activist and in fact in
042Memphis before he was murdered he was there to deliver a speech to striking sanitation workers as part of his work for economic Justice and his Poor People's campaign and and as the resolution encourages us to all use the day and service to others Dr King urged to make a career of humanity commit yourself to the noble struggle for so for equal rights you will make a better person of yourself a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in so I'm pleased at the stated goal of our district celebrating our great diversity throughout the year and this is my third year with a child in the district and at least two of those years I don't know about this year yet um there's never been a mention of Martin Luther King Jr
043at my daughter's schools so I'm excited that with the passage of this resolution and more to come you're establishing a new norm and new expectations that I hope will make our district more welcoming for all students and I'm really excited to say yes in a moment for this resolution thank you so much trustee and zaywe and and that really is um brings to mind to me that the part of the resolution uh in the whereas section that says let us guard against Prejudice whether at our schools or if at the polls or in the workplace whether on our streets or in our own hearts and let us pledge that in the words of Dr King we will not be satisfied until Justice rolls down like Waters and righteousness like a mighty stream um so just
044to your point I think um these are all uh issues that are alive and well today and that we all really need to work on in in many many different ways but and but in addition in our in our schools so thank you any other comments before we take this to a vote all right so um let's uh have a vote on the motion to approve this resolution and we'll start with student trustee alas a resounding yes thank you so much uh trustee and say we there trustee and say week yes okay sorry I couldn't hear you uh trustee vice president Mason yes trusty Mayo yes and trustee McFerrin yes all right motion passes five zero with concurrence from our student board member thank you so much everyone I'm looking forward to the events of
045Monday all right and next we have item 10.2 review and potential adoption of resolution 2021-42 in recognition of January as human trafficking Awareness Month and I'll give this to Dr Clark great so this is um you know this is this is one of those um resolutions that shines a light on on probably one of the most horrific crimes that we have um taking place in our communities today so um so it's with um it's with both sadness and um that we even have to have a resolution um identifying this um you know this this horrific these horrific practices but I'm also I'm inspired to be able to bring this resolution to the board and hopefully as a as a governance team we can agree to um you know to to fight this um you know
046this horrific practice so with that said um I am I'm proposing that the board um adopt resolution 20 slash 21-42 in recognition of January as human trafficking awareness month and so whereas human trafficking is a form of abuse in which force fraud and coercion is used to control victims for the purpose of commercial sexual or label labor exploitation that occurs in every industry and affects individuals of all genders ages and the end of all backgrounds so now therefore be it resolved that the Mount Diablo Unified School District does hereby Proclaim January 2021 as human trafficking awareness month and urges all residents to actively participate in the efforts to both raise awareness of and end all forms of human trafficking in our communities during human trafficking awareness month let us recognize the survivors of trafficking and
047let us resolve to build a future in which no people are denied their inherent human rights of freedom and dignity let us make it known that human trafficking has no place in our cities this country this nation or this world with that um president I leave it in the hands of the board and I know that we have a very very special guest to um to talk about this this um horrific issue but I will let you introduce her president count yes thank you thank you very much Dr Clark yes and thanks to the leadership of our district attorney Dinah becton our Contra Costa County District Attorney's office now has a human trafficking unit task force um and we were fortunate to have Miss Daniel folkowski supervising Deputy district attorney to be able to present
048some information to us when we first presented this resolution last year and she has come back to be able to give us updated information about what it is that we can all do to raise awareness of this issue and to be able to take action when we see any activity that that might appear to be human trafficking here in our County and in our schools so with that I would like to give the floor to miss Daniel Dana filkowski hello to the board and uh the members in attendance thank you so much I'm so honored and privileged to be able to present to you and I'm overwhelmed at the um just the the symbiotic nature of this Proclamation following on the heels of the proclamation to honor Dr Martin Luther King uh who was a
049labor activist and a proponent of collaborative efforts this many years later Contra Costa county is just getting that point that no one response mechanism can be an island unto itself the Federal grant that we received in October of 2018 that created our task force is called the enhanced collaborative model to prevent human trafficking and that Grant challenges us to enhance our collaborative efforts between the community justice system and victim service providers recognizing that if you call 9-1-1 and the police show up that does not make our victims and our survivors whole that does not create that does not bring back a lot of what was lost which includes dignity and humanity and financial loss and job loss and with a lot of our victims being pulled into criminal Behavior themselves the worst tragedy is when
050it is our youth who are themselves exploited they don't have a life experience to recognize that an intimate partner who encourages you to sell yourself for sex to benefit that partner the that's wrong and if that is a person who says I will love you if you do this for us that's the beginning of a trafficking and an exploitative relationship the term that we have for those youth is csec commercially sexually exploited children and I was able to provide Dr count with a lot of resources and posters from our County our children and family services division and we actually have a c-sec steering committee that is partnering with multiple agencies to try to Grapple with that particular issue the one thing I want to talk about that that I wasn't going to talk about until
051I heard about Dr King is labor trafficking we have filed one labor trafficking case in the county of Contra Costa they're more complicated people think it's not a crime people think that if the person agreed to their exploitative labor conditions that it's that person's fault and the reality is I have accepted the the challenge of figuring out how to prosecute labor trafficking my myself in Contra Costa County I have a phenomenal partner in my unit Michelle Holmes who will handle the sex trafficking cases and it won't just be our kids that we have to worry about with the exploitative working conditions but their parents particularly now when with the economic uncertainties caused by covid moms and dads will do anything they can to keep roofs over the heads of their kids and keep food on
052the table where we used to hear about these problems was when a teacher noticed that something was wrong with their student in their classroom and that conversation that special trust relationship that exists between kids and their teachers or maybe a teacher could call or or reassure the child or get them help we're not having that because we have zoom classes um and so I challenge this entire Community there's a whole bunch of you listening to me right now 140 people listening to me right now if you see something say something to get one of our task force members to start an investigation whether it's potential sexual exploitation or trafficking or labor exploitation or trafficking the District Attorney's office has a tip line that phone number is 925-957-8658 one of I have two inspectors one for
053labor one for sex trafficking they monitor those calls and they will coordinate the county-wide response if we think there's something going on there but if you don't say something we won't see it with the sex trafficking I can see girls standing on corners I can find out about stuff going on in motel rooms but what's happening with exploitative labor where someone is being pressured to accept less than minimum wage and folks it's called the minimum wage law because if it was the minimum wage suggestion people wouldn't be following it California is a worker friendly state but if we don't know about the exploitative conditions and they apply to people with or without immigration status we don't know about that we can't do anything about it so I challenge this community in listening to you tonight
054I see that Mount Abel Unified School District is indeed a community that is connected and cares or works together to resolve issues that affect its community members not just their students but the families supporting those students let us know thank you again for this opportunity in addition to working for the DA's office I'm on the board of directors of the Contra Costa family just Justice centers that's a One-Stop shop for victims of interpersonal violence and their families interpersonal violences human trafficking sexual assault domestic violence child abuse and elder abuse I encourage All Families to look to their website if they look like they if they feel that they're in need of resources support and help because it's something that's here in our community for our community one of the things that the Family Justice Center
055has is the Family Justice Institute which is a training platform it's gone virtual because of covid which means more people can go because we can all be in Little Boxes and hearing of the educational presentations on January 21st I'm doing a two hour Community training on understanding human trafficking in our community and I encourage everyone to go to the Family Justice Center website I think it's www.cocofamilyjustice.org and look for the the training information and sign up completely free to our Zoom training and again thank you so very much thank you so much for that crucial information and the resources that are right here in our community that we can tap into throughout the year that tip line again everyone is 925-957-8658 you can also find that tip line it's been shared over social media with
056the hashtag wearblue as well as what's the other hashtag Contra Costa wears blue right um so if you look under those hashtags you'll you'll find the tip line pretty easily there as well as multiple organizations are getting this information out so thank you so much Miss Wilkowski for all of the work that you do in our community and for keeping us informed all right with that do I have a motion on this resolution Madam president I would move that the board adopt the resolution 20 21-42 in recognition of January as human trafficking Awareness Month I would second that motion all right thank you motion from trustee mayo and second from trustee Alice all right any other comments I do yes thank you so much president Khan for bringing this resolution forward and this topic for
057it I know it's one you're passionate about and and you've just you know taken the opportunity to educate a lot of us tonight um Contra Costa county is considered a human trafficking hot spot and human trafficking really is modern day slavery our large community of immigrant families Children and Families makes us a a a huge Target for human trafficking so I really urge our district to take concrete steps to provide ongoing education of teachers staff parents and students on what human trafficking is how it's done and how we can all protect the community from labor and sex trafficking I know that this and the MLK Day resolutions will just pass that just passed will appear on our board pages on our website but I'd like to request that when we pass resolutions like these that
058make bold statements and that do encourage action that they're placed prominently on the front page of our district website and on individual school websites and well you haven't asked me yet but yes so but you'll come back to that thank you and uh were there any other comments before we go to a vote all right to tell you that we do we do school Outreach programs so if Mount dabble Unified School District wants us where we're working in West County right now uh one of the things we want to do is is just talk to kids and I'm so excited to see your student representative um president count knows how to reach me you reach out to me and it's better when kids talk to other kids and we'll help you do that absolutely absolutely
059um and just in in my work with the California Association of student councils we actually um just recently uh presented to the California state Senate and assembly committees on education seven different proposals one of which was specifically about educating students around sexual assault rape culture human trafficking um so definitely something um that I will be looking into so I will be in contact with President count so that I can get your contact information because I is very important we would be delighted to partner with you there thank you thank you great work wonderful thank you thank you so much everyone collaboration is the way we get this done and I'm so appreciative thank you all right with that uh let's take this to a vote um uh student trustee alas yes trustee and Zoe yes
060trustee McFerrin trustee Mayo yes and vice president Mason yes all right and I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you so much Miss volkowski for taking the time to be here tonight much appreciated all right thank you and with that we'll move on to item 11.0 reports and information 11.1 review the increase and decrease of certificated Personnel full-time equivalent for the 2020-2021 school year good evening board members Dr Clark is it okay if I proceed yes please please uh take this item Dr Rubio this in the in the following item sounds good thank you good evening everyone I bring to you just our usual informational item showing you the movement and transactions in the district the first one is certificated so uh the subject is the review
061of the increases and decreases in certificated uh FTE and so uh I'm not sure if there are any questions but this one is here for your your review as normal thank you are there any questions or comments okay and then 11.2 as well thank you 11.2 is very similar it's informational it's there again the transactions of the movement up and down reviewing it increases and decreases in FTE and changes uh again here for your review uh for classified or classified positions all right any questions or comments on these board members all right thank you for the information thank you okay 12.0 now board member reports let's start with our student board member trustee alas hi hi everybody um thank you so much uh president count board members members of the public I have a couple
062announcements a couple things that I want the community to be aware of and opportunities um this past weekend over during winter break um I've been meeting regularly with the student advisory committee to the Mount Diablo Education Foundation which focuses on advancing um steam related opportunities for students um that's a 501 C3 and focused on specifically expanding equity in the steam area so science technology engineering art and Mathematics and one of our projects currently is increasing awareness for the Contra Costa science fair which is open to students in 7th through 12th grade in the past um there hasn't been mbsd representation at the science fair and it tends to be dominated by students it's in private schools or students from other local school districts and this year we are so excited to announce that we are
063really pushing the front on getting mjsc students signed up for the science fair getting support and mentorship opportunities for the students who choose to sign up so if you are if you know of a student or if you are a student who is potentially interested in signing up for the science fair we are going to offer so many resources for you to be successful and we have a Google form and which we made into a tiny URL so if you are listening um the link is tinyurl.com mdusd science fair so that is the link I'll repeat it one more time tinyurl.com mdusd science fair so if you just type that into your browser it'll pull up a Google form and please we are asking everyone to sign up by this Friday and one plus that
064we have acquired is that if you're a student and do a Steve the registration fee is waived as long as you specify that you're a student from mdusd so this is a great opportunity for students who are interested in stem to become involved in science um so yeah please please sign up for that um something else other projects that the student advisory committee is focusing on for the Education Foundation working with um working on promoting a woman in stem webinar series at the American Association of University women is hosting I know um president count forward me the information on that the next one is Sunday January 24th and then there's one February 7th so we're going to be working to promote that to all the schools so that's young girls in stem and young female
065identifying people can um can gain inspiration from these from these powerful women um so once again that's the American Association of University women if you're interested um and then furthermore uh we are going to be working on a poetry slam of sorts of totally virtual of course uh this coming um this coming spring where students from all the high schools it's going to be an inter-district event students from all the high schools can go um and perform some of their own written poetry so that is in the works so watch out for that watch out for my student board member updates um so that's it on the Mount Diablo Education Foundation front um some of the other activities that I have planned and have been working on for the past couple weeks I'm looking to
066form a student District advisory committee made up of students from throughout the district and I would love to have middle and high school representation from all of the high schools all the middle schools and especially also the alternative education high schools um so I have a Google form for that as well and it's also a tiny URL it is an interest form and that is tinyurl.com mdusdsdac so that stands for s-stack once again it's tinyurl.com mdusdsdac so that is an interest form to form part of a student District advisory committee we would have maybe bi-monthly meetings or maybe monthly meetings um depending on the need I'm also reaching out to site Council students so that we can somehow form like a site Council Coalition and really form a precedent for student board member for years
067to come so we kind of have that resource to rely on and we make sure that we are adequately representing the needs and grievances of every student at every School site so that is in the works further more I'm looking to um pursue the student Bill of Rights which is just a document that delineates the enumerated rights of students that are already codified into state law our laws all that good stuff but just has them in a more synthesized form and I've spoken about the state SEO Civic engagement already at a pass during one of my past board member reports which is essentially a graduation requirement a graduation recognition given to students who show exemplary Civic engagement so we are going to be implementing that very soon and hopefully for the class of and then
068I believe um that is oh and then one last update I recently met with the student board member from the aqualones Unified High School District um to kind of you know bounce ideas off each other and start using each other as resources so establishing that connection seeing as they're such a local school district and experience you know in the same covid rates um as we are good to talk to him and use him as a resource so I once again hopefully setting um precedents so that the mdsd student board member can continue working alongside the alkalanes student board member and yes I believe those are my updates for today fantastic thank you trustee on us all right let's see uh who would like to go next shall we have uh trustee vice president Mason I
069don't have a lot because um when I'm on holiday I'm on holiday I'm not doing a lot but I did go to the last dlac meeting and um would like to that was always always a good meeting the d-lac meeting so I enjoyed that um I just want to because uh a couple times testing has come up I want people to know anybody who would like to get a Cova test they're given free every Saturday at the Contra Costa County clinic at Riverview Middle School you just drive into the back parking lot and um usually there's not a big line so that's a service that's out there for the community to take part in and other than that I'd just like to wish all the board members and staff and students and listeners a happy
070New Year and hopefully it's going to be a better year thank you so much all right uh trustee and say we good evening um I want to take some time to quickly introduce myself before I get into the board report but my name is Keisha and zawi for all of you who are wondering how do you say her name um I'm a mom to a middle schooler I'm the public policy director of a Child Care Organization where I have the duty to work on the state budget and legislative issues I'm a third generation Girl Scout leader and I'm a painfully loyal alumna of the University of California Berkeley go Bears and calpoint Cal band great yes I was a Band Geek all the way through college um I will say oh president Khan um you
071requested that we uh comment on our board committee assignments and so I'm interested um in the audit committee the parent advisory committee um the career Pathways and Technical education advisory committees and then should we establish the anti-bias and anti-racism committee I would also want to be on that so a lot has happened in my world and in our world since we last met um in our world in my world I had the fortune of meeting with the directors of Refuge food pantry which is in the monument and early in my career I worked on hunger and poverty issues so it was a pleasure to dip my foot back into into that topic during my discussion with them they provide groceries to families in the monument Community weekly and they're looking for ways they can help
072fill the Gap when school is out we also discussed concerns about how well communicated our distance learning food program is with families based on discussions with them and other community members I'm fairly certain that because our Communications are limited to electronic means and the occasional robocall were disappointingly missing a large swath of families who don't know about food being available I had the pleasure of attending the black Educators association meeting where topics discussed included Black History Month activities within the district the issue of racist microaggressions towards adults and students and Equitable grading practices among other topics I would like to offer my congratulations to miss Malaya hall for the successful Grant award for the we do 2.0 course that's it Bancroft School I'd like to I'd like to extend my condolences as um president Khan
073mentioned at the top of our meeting um condolences to the friends family and co-workers of Mr Max Wilson the custodian at Gregory Gardens Mrs masheed Zinda Hall the special education assistant at Valley View and Mr Jesse forsland a teacher at Olympic High who all died over the winter break I would also like to offer my deepest appreciation to Isabel Lara who after being part of the mdusd family for 18 years is leaving this week the weekend I decided to run for school board everyone asked me have you spoken to Isabel and I I don't know Isabelle but she was off visiting family at that time but the night her plane landed she was on the phone with me and what I learned that night and ever since is that Isabelle is an Unapologetic advocate for
074families in the monument who feel as though they have no voice she's been a rock of stability for families who don't speak English for families who are newcomers for families who just need to feel heard this is such a loss for our district but I'm comforted to know that she is still here still devoted to all in her community so thank you so much Isabel for all you've done for mdusd and all you will do for the community moving forward as of today we've had 49 802 cases of covet in our County 7950 in the last 14 days and about 2 800 in the cities in which our district serves in the last 14 days I extend my well wishes to all who have contracted this awful disease and my condolences to those who have
075lost loved ones last week our nation witnessed violent seditious actions by terrorist mob who overtook the nation's capital using destruction violence and death I personally couldn't believe what I was seeing but of course then I could believe it as with most black people in America I instantly recognized the disgusting difference of law enforcement Force put demonstrated towards peaceful black lives matter protesters standing up against the state-sanctioned murder of black people and the overwhelmingly white crowd violently overtaking our nation's capital to prevent accounting of votes of our presidential election believing that the votes of black people are invalid as the days have passed I've watched in horror as more video has been released showing how these people truly terrorize the capital with Little Resistance and much restraint from law enforcement I so appreciate my daughter's teachers
076and the countless other teachers that have done their best in the following days to help students process and understand what happened this historic day will go down in infamy I appreciate it even more knowing how difficult it was for me to process it and continue to work a Friday letter for how to speak to Children about this issue and I especially appreciate the board's Equity resolution of last June that declares black lives matter thank you that's it thank you very much trustee and Zay we much appreciated um and thank you for reminding me about the committee preferences um that is something for each of you board members in your report if you would like to share any preferences you have about which committees to um to be appointed to this this year uh we will
077take action at the next meeting but this is a time to be able to say any preferences and so Ms Mason you can feel free to speak back up or let me know if you'd like to do that as well I was good with it as presented so okay perfect thank you okay uh trustee Mayo I apologize I'm being delivered a cup of tea in the middle of this well we can switch it around would you prefer Uh Oh no you're okay okay I'm fine it was just a surprise over my shoulder um I would uh like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and uh but with the stages of covid-19 cases in Contra Costa County and events occurring in the capital and Across the Nation let's hope that it's not a fractured new
078year for the remainder of the year we all know individuals who've contracted covid and survived or who have passed my sympathies go out to every one of you and if you've lost a loved one or a friend because of other causes or if you are struggling financially to survive my sympathies to you as well over the vacation I had the joy of uh doing some of my favorite volunteer work and on January 5th I participated in the special education CAC Community advisory meeting beginning at 7 pm parents adjourned to a California collaborative for educational Excellence focus group meeting and that lasted over 90 minutes and they reconvened their meeting the CAC meeting at 8 40 p.m the reports were given and the meeting concluded at 9 30 PM so I'm just mentioning that because I
079want to share what a hard-working team RCA special ed CAC committee is I appreciate trustee alas mentioning of the Contra Costa science and engineering Fair she provided a detail overview and an encouragement students but one of my roles in working on that particular project is I'm the judge recruiter for the organization so I will need between 140 and 150 judges to evaluate the Science Fair entries on March 12th if anyone is interested please reach out to me by email or contract someone at the district office and they'll make sure that I receive your name and um there will be information on um the science and engineering Fair website you can actually just type in Contra Costa science and engineering fair in your browser and all of the information will come up from Bay Leeds um
080website um so that concludes my report if you wanted my preference for committees I'm interested in the budget and local control funding formula advisory committee our committees are getting longer names now the CAC committee uh I've enjoyed the d-lac committee uh the bond oversight committee is still a favorite I serve as a member of the Mount Diablo Council of ptas so I hope that I can continue there and then if uh appropriate the parent advisory committee thank you all right thank you very much trustee mayo and I did uh also see that the science fair was promoted through parent Square um so it seems to be coming through to the 7th to 12th grade parents and families um and also um I've heard of it through directly mentioned in in science classes as well so
081the word seems to be getting out there so thank you so much all right trustee McFerrin your board report please all right um so um last week I was able to attend the csva webinar um on Governor newsom's budget proposal um which was fascinating and really helpful so um I'm really hopeful you know that um is positive it look as it looks that it um you know ends up being that way when we get you know the final budget um the highlight of my week last week was definitely meeting with Concord High School's leadership um student leadership program the actually award-winning student leadership program and is a former leadership teacher it was just a real thrill to meet with these kids um you know I was I asked them a lot of questions about how
082school is going and how they you know how they've been able to transition Student Activities from in person to Virtual and they said that it was tough but that they they were able to they were able to make that make the shift um to Virtual and socially distant activities um such as having a scavenger hunt using an app um and um they also told me that they have um a new social justice project committee which I thought was really excellent I was excited to hear about it and they were um you know proud to get to tell me about it um and a lot of the students also are very kind of up on what's happening in the district one even emailed me today just to ask me you know about the board meeting this
083evening which I found really um you know charming and impressive um so um that was just a really wonderful experience um and then let's see I'm also I'm really looking forward to um the annual Academy Awards events hosted by the Mount Diablo Education Association um it was mentioned already by Ms Anita Johnson but I wanted to mention that um that I this has been an incredibly challenging year really I think for everyone um I think it's really um essential that we make sure to appreciate and thank people for their efforts um and um so we wanted to let everyone know that um you can nominate teachers but also you can nominate other school staff um and even um parent volunteers um you know parents this year especially you know we say it um where I
084work parents are our co-teachers and we've really been depending on parents I think in ways that are much different than any other school year and parents are stepping up um to that challenge um and then also volunteer organizations so I just would like to encourage um anyone that would like to to please nominate people for these Awards um nominations are due Friday February 26th and then the event will be in May um I have it written down and I'm not Thursday May 6th um and if this is something if you need access to the Forum if you send an email to me I would be happy to share it with you um I also would like to um to Echo um trustee and zaywe's comments about um Isabel Lara um it was very sad to
085hear um that she is leaving the district but she um is just a really incredible example of someone who works so hard for our community um and I've really appreciated her service um and then um for the Committees that I'm most interested in I am most interested in the budget um elkef advisory committee um the CAC and um also potentially the um the school climate coordinated uh Health Council are the three that I think are most fascinating wonderful all right thank you so much trustee McFerrin okay um all right so I've got a few comments myself here let's see um I first wanted to just say that I I started the meeting in Spanish tonight um just in recognition that our mission as a school district is to educate all students and engage All Families
086um more than 40 percent of our students identify as Hispanic and more than 20 percent identify as English language Learners on our on our dashboard you can see that we have over 50 languages spoken in our district and I would like to just really thank all staff who've helped us improve our multilingual Outreach to families the most recent example of this is the investment in the parent Square app and just for those of you who may not have heard of it yet the parent Square allows a family member to choose what language to communicate in when they're communicating with the school with the teacher or with the district as well as what mode to communicate in so email or text or just directly through the app so I think that's a great addition to our
087communication tools along with the translation that we have in our board meeting live in Spanish as well um so with current events in the United States showing just how destructive and dangerous the height of intolerance and disinformation can be I think it's more important than ever that here in public education we actively include all families and respect all families I really liked what Tony Thurman had to say last week when he said we can choose which future we want for our youth and today must reinforce our commitment to using the power of Education to end hate and bigotry and to empower communities that have been made vulnerable by systemic inequity so education is the foundation of a safe and civil democracy and so I think we in education need to reinforce our role in preparing
088young people to be informed to be respectful and to be active members of our society so personally I spent last week in deep discussions with my own family and children about how does a democracy handle peaceful transitions of power how do we ensure our citizens can can trust our election system what does fair and just policing look like um and and we ended up researching just exactly how the 25th amendment was designed to work which is not something I did as a child um I know that many of you had similar conversations with your families and in your classrooms um I think it's so important for students to study current events to be media literate enough to know where to get accurate information especially these days and to be able to respectfully exchange ideas with
089others so I was really appreciative that there were Fantastic Tools shared out by the district and by teachers and principals and parents there's also a parent group new non-profit called Rise Up Against Racism that is led by Mount Diablo parents and also a former Mount Diablo teacher of the year they last week wrote an excellent blog at ruar.org that included a comprehensive list of many of the things that many of us were sharing out there so I just appreciate so much that we can really learn and share together as a community in these tough times lastly uh a few days ago I attended CDE the California Department of Education has webinars um a series called education to end hate and the third of the series uh was just a few days ago and it was
090how to understand and counter Islam of how to understand and counter islamophobia um and I was really impressed that it Crea it provided a high quality free resources from an organization you can find it at ing.org they have resources for educators and parents to Foster safe and inclusive classrooms they include detailed lesson plans and even speakers that will come out and speak to your classroom for free as well providing many different perspectives all of these webinars are available on the CD the California Department of Education Facebook page for people to be able to watch um I also continue to watch the state progress where we are and our coveted rates vaccinations testing um and look and monitoring the state budget what's being presented there um that learn how we can safely provide quality education to
091students while supporting the struggling families during this tragic Global pandemic um so with that um you know my heart goes out to all of the families and staff who are facing uh covid and other health related issues um we will do everything we can to make sure that uh that everyone can stay as safe interpreter are you still there uh I am still here yes thank you thank you thank you very much all right um so with that that concludes my my board report at this time so thank you everyone and next we have the superintendents report 13.1 then we'll turn it over to you Dr Clark great thank you so much and thank you Trustees for those um very in-depth but very informative reports if I could please have the have text uh bring
092up the PowerPoint thank you so much uh next slide please so um so I I know it might it might seem like just yesterday that we started school and um and I think someone brought it up in the in the public comments as we were preparing to to open schools it it um you know it does not seem as if it was that long ago however as you can see from the um from the dates here um as as we embark on to our um you know onto our spring spring semester you know February 26th is the end of the second uh trimester for elementary schools and March 19th will be the end of the third quarter for for secondary um and then shortly thereafter we'll be on Spring recess and then by June 2nd
093this Academic Year will be over as we embark on the beginning of this semester um we started with a with a very in-depth cabinet meeting where um Direction was was was given and just reassurance was was provided that at our high school campuses that we are looking very closely at our at our second semester seniors class schedules and credit counts to make sure that um that all of our students have have every opportunity to um to graduate on time and to make sure that if there's a course that they need to complete before June that we have those students enrolled in that course or we have either one of our online courses available to those students but some way that we can make sure that um that our second semester seniors are at a minimum
094going to graduate and then of course we want to make sure that we're providing transcripts to our for our students who are applying to schools and and getting acceptance letters right now and um and also making sure that we have those connections with our local community colleges to make sure that our seniors when they exit our system have a seamless transition to um to the community colleges that that's what they wish to do so so a lot happening as we as we kick off this this second semester if I can have the next slide please so we are clearly still in distance learning and um and I know when we when we talk about distance learning there's um you know there's for for maybe lay people who may not quite understand what it is here's
095a here's a picture of distance learning and this is one of our this is one of our elementary schools and it happens to be hat day so it just shows that you know we have staff out there that are doing um all they can to try to make um you know the school experience as normal as possible for our students we know that many of our families and students are struggling but I think when when we think about distance learning this is a this is a snapshot that we all can you know sort of um you know sort of embrace and walk in the shoes of of some of our amazing Educators just for just for a brief moment if I can have the next slide please um here's here's just another um example of
096distance learning over at Rend they they had a virtual art night um and this was a fourth grade class and the the picture on the left is is one of their pictures that was recognized by the county and one of the um in one of the art contests that we had and they were they were recognized for their work but but again you can see there there were several different pictures of um of this screen to the right here but I just pulled one of the one of the screens just again to give an idea of what distance learning might look like in an art class um in a in a fourth grade class at Wren Elementary School can I have the next slide and then um we're still um working with with career Pathways
097um this is a a speaker series that has been taking place this week um on the left you have you know we we have great relationships with our with our trade unions and so um our trade unions um did a virtual uh presentation to many of our high school students and talk to them about the about the Fields And Trades you know when when students exit our system as as seniors we want to you know we want to make sure they have every opportunity to go to a four-year University to go to a community college to go into a trade school to do something that that we've prepared them for and so um you know we have so many different employees and programs within our district that that work with students to make sure that
098when they exit our system that um that they can find something that they're passionate in and that they can contribute to society and so this is just a small example of that and if I could have the next slide we'll see it in action so this was this was that career Pathways meeting there were students there from Mount Diablo High School from Concord High School and from Horizon Center for Independence study if I missed out some of our other students I'm sorry this is what I was able to pull off with the information but on the left here you can just see one of the slides that are that our trade Partners were sharing with our students so that they can see sort of the um you know the hourly rate and I'm seeing you
099know it's not as if when you know when I left high school and they were paying us you know six bucks an hour to flip burgers or something it seems in in some of these uh in in some of these trade professions that the the hourly rate is is quite High and um you know we know many of our students are um you know can be very successful with their hands and so um I'm just so so thankful that the um that the trades was able to come and share this presentation with our with our students and as you can see on the on the other picture you can see what what many of our our secondary teachers face when they're when they're teaching is just screens with names on it and so there are
100students behind those names and I know that you know we've had several conversations with with family students teachers I'm trying to get students to turn their cameras on and I know there's there's uh there's reasons for and against it but um but again here's students at our high schools interacting and working with members from our you know from our community and we are so thankful for these Partnerships and for the staff within our districts who who really um have gone out and found these Partnerships and continue to um you know support them and and continue to grow these these programs at our schools so next slide foreign just um you know we have amazing staff here in um in in Mount Diablo here is um you know on the left here this is um the
101office of Valhalla and we see uh you know the wonderful office staff there they're making that office even more friendly than what it already is and any of you who have visited Valhalla you know that um you are greeted um with an uh an abundance of warmth when you walk into that office but they are getting a um a screen um uh mounted into their office so that there can be messages and information that's shared on that screen and so just wanted to give a shout out to the Valhalla office staff and um and I believe we have a District maintenance worker um couldn't or text someone from the tech department putting up that screen and then over to the right we have just from our from our maintenance team um if you if you
102go around in many of the schools in our district you will see these six feet apart markings that that are consistent through through many of our schools eventually if they aren't already they should be at all of our campuses but um again this is just showing the the flow of traffic there's six feet markers that can really start to teach our students and teach staff and teach our communities about keeping that distance as we're still fighting this pandemic but this is one of our this is one of our amazing maintenance team members who is um assisting in putting those markers out so so again just during this pandemic and as we kick off the the second semester you know I just can't um acknowledge enough the um you know the teamwork that has taken place
103within this District to keep us functioning we are essential we are in a in an essential um you know community service that we provide here and so I know throughout the many challenges you know we still have to attend work each and every day and um and you can see just from this from these two pictures years of um you know just a snapshot of some of the amazing folks that we have here in the district next slide please so so as as we you know I'm sure you know the 139 people on this call or whatnot many of them are probably wondering like what's the what's the call on on opening schools and you know whether there's anxiety around there or or fear or anger or anguish or whatnot just want to just give
104an update as I said I would this is just a a snippet from a letter that I sent to the community and to staff back on December 8th that we would revisit this um at the at the January 13th governing board meeting and true to my word we are we are revisiting it can I have the next slide please this is so just to be 100 clear I'm an I'm an advocate of our students being in school I think that the best place for our students to be the safest place for our students to be is in schools with caring adults who who care about them and who have their best interests in mind and however I I do know that there's a um you know that there's a larger sort of um you know
105larger sphere of influence out there that um you know whether you are a proponent of students coming back to school or whether you're a proponent of staying out until it's safe or someone who's right in the middle um you know I fully understand the why personal experiences that we all have that help contribute to these decisions however the decision that I bring to the board most often is is what does the California Department of Public Health say what are the metrics that the California Department health of Public Health you know what are the metrics that they're putting out what's the guidance that we're getting from the California Department of Education California Department of Public Health and the Contra Costa County um Health Department that's that's who who we follow and so I think I I
106think after these next two slides that I think it's it's pretty self-explanatory but on November 4th 2020 you can see the Statewide metrics for positive covet cases was 7.7 per 100K and the county metrics were 5.7 per per 100K now we weren't open during this time we were in full distance learning and so this is what it looked like at the at the beginning of November so if I could have the next slide please and this is what it looks like uh as of yesterday so at the state level 91.7 now remember it was 7.7 back in November and so 90 now it's 91.7 positive cases and um as we look in our County it's 48 48.6 um of positive cases so so I just think with you know with with these numbers that um
107that it really is um as plain as day that um we cannot we cannot continue with the plan that we had um you know approved several months ago because of what the what the metrics look like at this time can I have the next slide please so there's there's a great deal of of information out there and I think I think trustee town really hit the nail on the head when she talked about the importance of um of us having relative information that that that we can trust and that we know and so I know you know when there's headlines that come out of something that the governor said or what the state said or what um you know different individuals on the news say that that we really have to unpack that and so
108um schools in purple-tiered counties cannot reopen so for in-person instruction so when people ask oh are you opening or we cannot reopen when we're in purple so so so that is Crystal Clear I 100 understand that um and that's where we are right now in addition to that we're also on the regional stay-at-home order that was fully implemented on on December 17th and so um so stay at home order and purple tier it means that we're remaining in in distance learning now um the governor governor Newsom put out his put out his uh budget plan and again it's a plan um he presents the plan he presents his vision and then it's up to the legislative process to actually approve or deny different parts of the plan what we're going through as um as as
109those in the educational world is um those those very highly skilled um Financial analysts are going through that plan with the fine-tooth comb and we will be getting updates um you know not only this week but into next week of what this actually means for districts if this is approved or if this is not approved in different areas so um so again I'm just sharing this information I know some people may have heard the headlines you know there's money you know for schools that open the the budget you know allows for XYZ and I just want to say more information needs to needs to be developed and shared on this matter the next thing is is guidance is the California Department of Public Health is actually updating their guidance and so we're in this um
110you know we're kind of in this um you know in between area right now and there's going to be some very specific guidance on on the testing of staff on right now it's just staff you know districts can decide whether or not they they test staff if staff return to work so if you have staff who are on site working then districts can either choose to test those folks or they can go and do the free testing that's in the county and so the California Department of Public Health is coming up with with actual guidance to to touch upon that with uh with staff and with students and so we are eagerly awaiting that guidance to see where we are the next thing under under vaccinations you all can read the news just like me
111um the federal government put out these vaccinations they gave it to the States but there wasn't necessarily a plan in place and so now the states the the state received the vaccinations they then released the the vaccinations to the counties and now it's basically up to the counties to figure out their vaccination plan what I can say is that um is is that the first phase of vaccinations were what they call 1A and so those are for your First Responders health care workers and individuals living in an assisted care facilities but um for us for 1B for for those Educators who um you know not just talking about principals or administrators or teachers these are these are all Educators if you're an educator you will be eligible um under 1B and again they're working out
112some of those some of those details and some of those details are well is it schools that are open and actually seeing kids or is it all Educators and and again it's not it's not up to me to make that decision or this board it's gonna it's gonna be um we're going to be directed on this and so what I can say is that um you know they are moving pretty swiftly on ensuring the words that I've heard is that all educators are going to be vaccinated um however the the you know the real details is um you know are are are the ones that are are definitely going to affect or or hinder you know our progress going one way or another but as soon as I get more information on the vaccination plan
113I will I will share that out um the next thing I wanted to touch upon um if some of you watch KRON um you know I was on I was on KRON last night and and one of the things that they were asking me to respond to was to a letter that um a a group of doctors from from UCSF put out and basically in this letter there is a team of doctors and it's signed by many doctors and I have a copy of the letter if anyone would like it I'd be more than happy to send to someone's way but um there are doctors that are saying that it's safer for for students to be in school so so they give their reasons they give their um you know they give their reasoning behind
114that and they've actually set on February 1st as a um as a date when I was asked that question on the news last night I said um that you know although I'm very thankful and appreciative of of the medical field weighing into this conversation of school to schools opening and and what that should look like and the the metrics and the benefits of schools being open I'm very thankful to that but that um you know I didn't necessarily see anything at least in in Mount Diablo School District that would take place before February 1st but that I was definitely thankful that the medical field is is weighing in on this very important topic so what this what this means for us if I can have the next slide is we're we're on distance learning at
115this point and and I you know I understand that um you know distance learning is that all of our students are not being successful through distance learning it's not from lack of effort not from lack of organization or or you know or will but we just have some students that um that don't have the supports in place or may not have the motivations or may not have the relationships or the technology to be successful so we I'm I'm asking the public I'm asking you know our our community of professionals is how can we improve distance learning for all students um you know is is more screen time what we need or less screen time is there are there some other ways that we can provide support is there some other ways that we can think
116outside the box to to um to you know better meet the needs of our varying um you know different different students within our district either you know we we stretch over many different communities and students come to school with different experiences and and so how can we as a district really provide the best possible product as possible to our um you know to our most sacred customers which would be our which would be our students and so so I posed that question out of what can we do to improve distance learning until we are able to to bring students back on our campuses and and um you know this isn't a I'm not bringing forward an official recommendation for the board to approve or not approve but um I I would I would want to
117you know probably push this decision out until March until you know some of this guidance from the California Department of Public Health can come out until we can get a real concrete plan on vaccinations until we get clear guidance on um on on testing protocols for staff and if um you know districts are expected to also test students and what that all looks like and so so again I just you know I feel um I feel awful for the families that um you know that that are struggling with you know with with distance learning and um you know and I and I feel awful for those employees that we have who are you know working their hardest and trying their best to meet the needs of those students and there's just some that they can't
118reach and I feel bad for them because I know that that um they they they take that to heart and many of them wear that on their you know wear that burden on their shoulders and um and I just wish that we could do more and so I'm open to suggestions I'm open to um you know we have staff that that is um you know that is working very hard on this whether you know it's Chiefs or directors here at the district office working with principals whether it's our tosas or our curriculum leaders out there our teacher leaders you know are um you know our instructional age our instructional assistants who are helping you know I was out at I was out at two Elementary sites today and the office managers were like um you
119know air traffic controllers with students coming to the down the hallways to pick up information you know I was at one school and a little boy came and knocked on the door and was asking where the basketball was and it was just it was you know the office manager knew the kid by nay he's obviously a neighborhood kid who comes and finds a safe space at that at that school that you know and she was just very kind to him but she let him know very nicely that the school wasn't giving out basketballs or whatnot but um but we have amazing people who are doing work and so we really want to reach out to the community and see what are some ways that we can continue to win to improve our product I can
120have the next slide please the the impact of of coven so so covid has impacted so many in so many different ways and and I have um I have said multiple times that everyone has has suffered through this through this pandemic everyone is suffering so so I don't mean to you know say that there's individuals in our community that aren't suffering or or not everyone has our our way of life has been upended um you know our most sacred schools where you know where so much happens have been shuttered and um and and and and we're impacted by it however there are there are those who um you know who who are impacted by other things and what covet has done was was has shed a light on those on those deficiencies and um so
121so definitely um coveted has it has had a disproportionate impact on low income on on on black and Latino students um and so so we we as a as a board as a district we need to um we need to do more to help offset that disproportionate impact and I and I and I have a um you know I have I have something that that we're going to be working on the next thing is is that the pandemic has exacerbated the growing rate of depression in young people this is all young people right these are are um you know all the way from kindergarten to 12th grade and everyone in between the pandemic has has had a a impact on these students and and we need to you know we need to do what we
122more of of what we can to help um you know to help offset some of that you know this this growing depression rate that's taking place within our students and I just have you know two things that we're going to be doing coming up so if I can have the next slide so we we have a um we have an equity board policy that the board adopted um I believe over the summer and and we actually have a um an equity team here within the district but but what we don't have is we don't have um we don't have a community parent um group to sort of um you know to to supportive give us that that that parent perspective and that Community perspective and even that student perspective of of of what's out there
123so um so what what what I'm proposing along with along with our partners um within the district is to create a anti-bias and anti-racist committee much like our community advisory committee or parent advisory committee but but one that focuses on anti-bias and anti-racist um you know policies procedures I have another slide coming up that can talk about that and then also I um I'm I'm proposing that we schedule a a not just one but but possibly a series of mental health panel presentations we have so many resources within this District whether it's psychologists behaviorists counselors you know teacher leaders just um social workers we have you know we have the expertise within here however we gotta we have to harness that expertise get it out into a platform and then get it out to our
124to our families and to our students and to our community members so that we can continue to to to battle these challenges next slide please so the um the the um anti-bias anti-racist group it would be it would be establishing a a committee um the focus of the committee is to affirm and improve upon the district's effort efforts to implement in equity and anti-racist vision and Mission throughout our schools how do we do that I um you know I'm not going to sit here and lecture folks on the inequalities you know in our societies and whatnot I think that you know that that some of those things are crystal clear and if they aren't Crystal Clear then even more reason why you know we need to to to have groups like this who can get
125together and talk about these issues um you know I'm not here to blame one group or another I'm here to say hey if if we're going to improve the data of our students which I've shared previously in many different forms if we're going to improve that this is something that we have to pay attention to and that we have to work towards and so we're seeking to understand and develop actionable solutions to root cause systemic issues impacting our school climate and um and implicit and implicit bias things like that institutional racism things in our policies that um that disproportionately affect you know our our black and brown students we have to address that and I'm not saying that we take from anybody else to do this we improved the plight of one we implied we
126improved the plight of all so um so this is really a um you know I want us to be a model of professionalism a model of unity a model of doing what's right and I'm very confident within this District that we have the folks we have the community out there we have the you know we have the students that are worth fighting for and and seeing something like this come to fruition and I have the next slide please and so um the next is our is our mental health panel webinars and so again I I showed you what distance learning looked like if the if the trade folks can do it we can do it to to address our mental health so we have resources you know um um you know Mr Stephanie Roberts puts
127out a a wonderful counselor's page that you know that is that is on our website and it's produced and it has so many resources that would benefit our young people and our families but I want to make sure that everyone you know has access to that you know we have Elementary and secondary counselors which which in in um in the California public schools and with our budget crunches it's almost unheard of to have Elementary counselors but this district has invested in our counselors we have we have many lead psychologists either side site leads or or District leads but we have psychologists who who have the training who have the skill we have Behavioral Health Specialists so so so um so again we have to we have to orchestrate how we're gonna how we're gonna do
128this but um but it's either going to take place the week of January 25th or if we can if we can schedule this earlier then then we will do that one of the things that we can do because we're all on Zoom is we can hold this panel anytime and then send it out to all of our families or post it on our website and do that so we could do a series of talks around mental health because there's so many things that that affect our young people's mental health and and I believe that we have the answers in-house to be able to to to address many of those challenges so so that really concludes my report I um you know again um I'm very excited that we're kicking into to second semester um and
129and again you know the semester is what our secondary schools are are are judged by trimesters are what our elementary schools are kind of you know organized in and so forgive me as I as I as I talk semesters but you know as as a you know as a past secondary person um you know we're on semester so we're rolling into our second semester um you know very excited about the the possibilities for our students you know we're still in this Global pandemic um you know that's that's top of our of our priority list we're continuing to to to work with our labor Partners we're continuing to um you know try to improve the culture within our district how we how we treat one another how we go about doing our business and stuff we
130have work to do I'm not I'm not shying away from that but um but the the the will is there and um and with working with the board we're very excited to um to you know kick into the second half of the school year so with that all I'd be more than happy to entertain any questions that the trustees would have any questions board members I have a quick question about um the um what is the timeline looking like for the anti-bias um anti-racist uh committee like um when are we gonna like delineate a membership and stipulations um and yeah hopefully like what is like the general timeline yeah so we're so we're gonna I wanted to I wanted to first you know I've had members from our from our community sort of talk to
131me about the need of that and Dave we have we have folks who are out there itching and ready to go on this on this topic and so now that I have um sort of officially you know presented it to the board and and it sounds at least as I'm as I'm looking through Zoom it sounds like there's uh you know there's there's head nods and affirm you know giving me the affirmative that that we should go forward so we're going to start working on this ASAP um and so definitely within the next couple weeks we should have a um you know a call out there's still lots of information that needs to be worked out what type of community maybe this is going to be you know is going to the bylaws all those
132things are going to be worked out but we're looking at getting that done during this during this third quarter perfect thank you and thank you so for the presentation superintendent Clerk thank you did I see it and trustee and Sammy um I just want to say thank you so much for this presentation um starting with covid and school reopening I I know that there's a lot of frustrating and angry parents out there um and and I know that a lot in our community are suffering just from covet and so that's a balance that we have to take and that we as a board and you um and everyone at the district office and at school sites um do care about children and do want to do what's best for them um and that is our
133main priority that's why we're here so I just appreciate your words on that and giving a potential timeline of when we'll revisit the discussion because we are so deeply purple um and thank you so much for a lot that comes up obviously that came up in public comment and that has come up in the past is around our students mental health so I appreciate you like those that's a step the concrete step that we can take to support families and I wonder if it's possible um well I'm sure that um simultaneously simultaneous interpretation would be available but I wonder if it's possible to just have sessions that are only in Spanish or only in Tagalog um or what of the other um primary second languages that are in our district um because this is such
134a heavy topic and it would be easier to communicate directly so that's one and then for the a bar yay thank you um to everyone out there I just want to say for something like this establishing an anti-racist anti-bias anti-bias anti-racist committee um to anyone listening 133 people like never doubt the power of one person that was not me so but just one person speaking up and here we have action so thank you Dr Clark thank you trustee and Zoe were there any other questions comments trustee McLaren thank you um I also am really excited about the a bar and I was really listening and I really liked the word actionable um I've definitely seen in a lot of districts where um you know we might have um you know resolutions or statements that really
135just seem more kind of like gestures than real you know action um so I really appreciate that and I'm very excited um you know to see what what this what this group um will do for our district um and I also wanted to um so that I appreciate that the information on the mental health support um and say that I think that this is something that we really need um you know as immediately as we can um Implement and then also I think this is something that we'll need moving forward um because even even if and when we're able to move into a hybrid model um I don't really um feel optimistic about a hybrid model um improving mental health um you know for students um you know with um still students still needing to
136be distance and then masks and things like that I just really don't want to I just really want to be cautious as an educator not to over romanticize this model of instruction which I think is something that's largely left out of these discussions um and um I also wanted to just um just to to mention that it seems like um we talked a lot in our last meeting about the the small um support group hubs um and I know that seems like something that we we probably um I know we don't have an mou on it and I know that we it doesn't seem like we could even Implement those until we're back in the red tier and unfortunately our health data is just so terrible right now um you know but I'll be really
137excited when that's an option that we can offer um and I wanted to know just kind of in the in the meantime it looks like the mental health support is going to be an excellent addition um but I wanted to know like with Health Data being what it is without being to do that without the ability to do the small groups at this point like what are some what are some resources and what are some um options that we can offer to our community at this point great so so thank you for that and I will definitely we have a team of staff that are that are watching this call that are on this call and I know they're taking notes and and um you know we are going to you know and and again
138it's not that that um you know most of our schools have have systems in place where they're where they're calling families where they're you know doing the best they can to reach out trying to you know bring some sort of you know um normal normal life back to our students and trying to support them as best they can and and I think you know like like so many things in this district is that individually we do a lot of great things but we really have to unify and and put our power together so that we can have much more of a strategic um approach to really dealing with that mental health and dealing with our students who are struggling and just giving all students just more support so so thank you for those comments and
139then we will work on that yeah thank you trustee McFerrin any other questions or comments okay well thank you very much superintendent Clark for the for the very informative presentation I think those were you were spot on with exactly the types of information that our community needed right now and that we as a board needed to be able to understand how to move forward where we are with with covid and vaccines and testing all of those all of those things um to understand when we'll be able to make a decision to move back to in person that was very clear um also really appreciate the actions of the a bar and the mental health I know we've been hearing from students on on both of those issues you know that that are ready they're ready
140to take action right there's a there's a group of students that created a district-wide group called diversify your narrative that are already you know making lists for history and English about how to diversify our um what is taught in our classrooms um and they're ready to engage with teachers on that I know that in mental health we've had students come and speak about the need to be able to have text lines to be able to um more easily access uh you know counseling or crisis lines without other people in their household being able to hear so so there's just so much possibility there and I'm I'm really excited about us moving forward and providing even more information and resources to the community so thank you so much great all right all right with that we
141will move on to item 14.0 this is the consent agenda so 14.1 items listed under consent agenda are considered routine and will be approved adopted by a single motion there will be no separate discussion of these items however any item may be removed from the consent consent agenda upon the request of any member of the board and acted upon separately do we have a motion or any items that board members would like to pull all right if there's not going to be anything pooled I would make a motion that we accept the uh consent agenda as presented thank you vice president Mason second by trustee Mayo all right we'll put that to a vote um okay so uh trustee alas yes thank you trustee Mason yes trustee Mayo yes trustee and zawi yes and trustee
142McFerrin yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with approval from our student board member as well all right that moves us on to item 17.0 business and action items uh so item 17.1 is review and potential approval of nomination of a new member to the budget advisory committee Dr Clark yes and I believe I'm uh Dr uh Gonzalez is going to take this one correct we have uh we have one new nomination uh from parent uh I think it's from the parent advisory Community advisory sorry my computer just froze and I don't have the document in front of me I have it give me give me one second here I have it uh that would be um so yes we have one nomination for the for the budget advisory for the budget advisory uh
143meeting and the name is Lisa Lisa yes and board members we will be bringing uh more nominations forward uh once we get the appointments from both of our new trustees as well as another person that's going off so that'll be next meeting all right thank you very much all right do we have a motion Madam president I move that the board approved the appointment of Lisa buffum uh as the CAC representative to the budget advisory committee thank you trustee Mayo do we have a second second thank you trustee and zawi with a second all right um let's take that to a vote uh trustee alas yes trustee mail yes trustee and say we yes trustee McFerrin yes and vice president Mason yes and I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from the student
144board member all right thank you very much moving on to uh this looks like the last item of our agenda 17.2 this is the 2020-2021 school plans for student achievement Dr Clark yes and I'm going to have uh Miss Sachs uh present this item and if there's um if there's any questions Miss actually be more than happy to entertain those questions but um Miss sacks absolutely good evening everyone uh the single plans for student achievement were brought for information um in December and so there was quite a bit of time between the December meeting and this meeting in hopes that people would have an opportunity to review them each School site developed a plan alongside their parents and at the secondary level there are students which is always exciting to hear their thoughts and ideas
145about how to improve the program planning at the school site um within the budgets themselves or I'm sorry the plans themselves are budget items so if anybody has you know ideas or questions about how the funds are being utilized at the school sites they can access this document even though there's only three on tonight for official approval you're actually when you take action um if you do approve them you're approving them all for the district and they all are available on our district website um underneath um the parent portal thank you Miss X board members are there any questions or comments on this item comment trustee and Zoe um I just I want to I want to thank all the School site council members who worked on these plans I know they're really part of
146defining the culture of a school um but also it's obviously about how it's a plan about how a school will help meet its goals and areas that may be underperforming so it's really important for parents to be involved in this process but I also know that many schools have trouble recruiting parents to participate so I encourage all the parents out there listening to apply when positions open up on your school site Council and I encourage schools to do everything possible to make school count School site Council meetings accessible to as many parents as possible so and about the plans um what I noticed is that many schools identify reducing the number of suspensions as a goal especially among black students and they named PBIS as a solution and focused on changing student Behavior I know
147that the issue of disproportionate suspensions and expulsions of black students is a long-standing problem within our district as is the number of suspensions overall and among the plans I reviewed PBIS is listed as an action they'll take to reduce those expansion um expulsions and ex suspensions my concern is that PBIS and our high number of um suspensions and disproportion and disproportionate suspensions and expulsions of black students have been around for a really long time and I can't I personally can't believe that generations of black Latino and Indigenous students just don't know how to behave those are the groups that have the highest rates of suspensions and excursions I can't believe that they just don't know how to behave year after year so this is a systemic problem clearly and I would presume that it has
148to do with school culture and the adults who Dole out these punishments so I would hope that in future plans that their strategies that really get to the root of the problem and don't depend on solutions that clearly haven't worked over the years um I would hope that we could follow the model in Chicago public schools that establishes a committee made of community members that reviews um the suspensions and expulsions that have happened and making it possible to more easily identify patterns among the adults just doing the suspending and the expelling um it's like like I said this isn't new a new problem but we've accepted it for way too long with very little change and I charge us to do better because we have no choice we have to do better by our students
149thank you trustee and they were very very important points to make there absolutely other comments or questions I would just uh tag on to what trustee uh and zaywe was saying in terms of participation um I know that I've been as a parent on a site Council um or two um and and they do vary School site to School site as to what time they're held um and uh you know how accessible they are in what languages and that sort of thing um and I think in some cases parents and and students and and teachers are really working together to put together a very detailed plan with with specifics you know it doesn't just say materials and supplies but it's which materials and supplies are we targeting this year to meet this particular goal and
150um but in other sites it's a lot more General they may approve um a plan that just says you know fifty thousand dollars of materials and supplies for safety um I think the areas where there are more specifics and more um more of a a strategic plan to meet a specific goal for the students at that school are the ones that are more successful so I hope that moving forward we increase the participation throughout our communities um and and with our Educators uh in those site councils and that we as a board hear more from our schools about what strategies did you try what investments did you make that worked really well that you would recommend for other schools and which ones didn't and why you know we need to be having those conversations about
151what are the best investments we can be making for student achievement and so I just appreciate everyone who spends so much time on the site councils helping the principal to make the best decisions that they can for our students this is uh there's millions of dollars that are that of decisions that are made at that level and we'd like to allow schools to to make their own decisions for the different communities and different populations but at the same time I think think as a district we really want to make sure that all of our investments are really reaching and making the best Improvement that they can for all students so thank you so do I hear a motion on this item president count I have yes one more thing just regarding students and we were
152just talking about how we need to you know increase as people should become you know aware of site counsel and really becoming involved in these local decision-making processes students if there are any students who are watching you can also become involved in your site Council ask your your your counselor your your principal about site Council there are students sitting on that entity um you can help you know form the little the little lcap local control accountability plan for your um specific site um so and then Furthermore with the sac the student District advisory committee I'm hoping to help um student site council members better understand their role and better understand how um to form these plans so Veterinary students watching please become involved in your site Council fantastic thank you so much trustee Alice yeah
153you know I think the the that's one of the great um things about having a student board member um on the Mount Diablo School Board is that now we have a structure in place where you can be one of those systems of support for our student site council members and really bringing them together so thank you for that much appreciated all right every School site Council actually they go through training so if there is an individual that does not know how they would participate what their role is and they're a bit maybe um insecure on whether or not this is something they'd want to do we do have some very thorough detailed resources in English and in Spanish right now and they are resources that are reviewed each fall with the council so um whether
154or not it's a student or Community member we do provide quite a bit of support so I don't want anybody to hesitate if they're just not sure about the exact role oh that's fantastic Miss sex thank you for saying that um is that are those resources on the website somewhere or how how do people find those resources usually um what happens is the chairperson of the school site council is the individual that does end up you know providing that support with the training and it doesn't always need to be a staff member sometimes it's a parent who's a chairperson that they walk the other team through it someone just even a student I've been in a different District where actually it was a student that was the chairperson of the school site Council so um
155that's generally where the resources are um I have to double check with all honesty on our website whether or not they're available there for the public but they are you know there absolutely could be open to the public um so folks could take a look at them wonderful it's a great thought thank you once upon a time the district used to have a yearly training for all site councils to come together to bring their teams and to listen and get ideas from each other which I think was a really good idea I'm not sure why it stopped if it was the expense but it's nice if everybody's on the same page instead of different schools having different understanding everybody hears the same thing everybody knows the requirements everybody gets the same information so I would
156I would rally for doing that again someday when we get to do well we could do it online I suppose just like we do everything else online you know that's an interesting thought uh what what you're describing uh trustee amazing I believe was the center Concord 400 people and that massive Ballroom where we just kind of took the mic and we went through the training and it was quite a party um but it was actually a wonderful opportunity for networking and to share the thoughts and ideas between schools but with um the virtual resources that we have and having very very large me leading group licenses that's definitely something that we'll take a look at I'm possibly planning for the fall pandemic no pandemic it might be a great way in order to train Folks
157up in just a very common consistent with a common consistent message yeah that's one of those things that I think um you know can be one of the one of the beneficial outcomes of the situation that we're in is understanding the things that we can harness this this distance you know tools for because it even when it was done in person I'm sure there were benefits to doing it in person but there are also probably some barriers for people to be able to get their transportation all kinds of things take off work for that period of time um so there there could be a lot of benefits to having more online resources and collaboration so thank you thank you for that and thank you vice president Mason for sharing that history as well that's that's
158great and I would go ahead and make a motion that we approved the 2020 2021 school plans for student achievement a second second all right motion by vice president Mason second by trustee Mayo we'll take that to a vote trustee Alice yes trustee mail yes vice president Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes and trustee inzawi yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from the student board member thank you so much everyone that was very informative okay item 17.3 as we know was pulled um during our uh 6.2 approval of the agenda so that will not happen this evening um and then there's no carryover from closed session so um 20.0 is future agenda items did anyone have anything on 20.1 alrighty so given that uh we are at adjournment uh during the meeting
159at 8 22 pm thank you so much everyone sorry I I was going to adjourn the meeting in memory of Jesse forsland who has been teaching at Olympic High School since 2005. he was a huge supporter of Olympic Student Activities and events Jesse continued to keep the community Bike Shop up and running which was a which is a gem of a program for the whole Community there Max Wilson was the substitute custodian at the dent Center for a year before transferring to Gregory Gardens Elementary School Max was appreciated and valued during his time at mdusd machine worked in mdusd since 2005. she was working as a special education assistant at Valley View Middle School masheed cared deeply for her students so our hearts go out to all of the family and community of these members
160of our Mount Diablo community um and to everyone who is um uh suffering during this during this Global pandemic this terrible time so we honor them and uh with that oh miss trustee Mayo did you have something to say um the two resolutions require board signatures will they be added electronically or do board members need to visit the district office trustee Mayo we can add electronic signatures continuing to practice last year into this year Ford permitted yes all right so we'll continue the practice of electronic signatures okay anything else all right thank you very much everyone with that we adjourn tonight's meeting at 8 23 pm congratulations on a great meeting thank you thank you good night