Board Meeting 9 22 21 Part 2

001them welcome to the Mount Diablo Unified School District governing board meeting September 22nd 2021 we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call all right next we will move to roll call vice president Mason here trustee Mayo here student trustee Fowler is your microphone on here very good thank you glad you could be here trustee Fowler trustee McFerrin here trustee and Zoe here I'm also present we are all here thank you very much all right we'll begin with a report out from our closed session 7.1 negotiations the board may discuss negotiations or provide direction to its Representatives regarding represented employees pursuant to government code section 549-57.6 we received information and provided Direction item 7.2 discipline dismissal release or reassignment of Public Employee uh there was no I no item under this item 7.2

002no information provided item 7.3 public employee performance evaluation superintendent pursuant to government code 54957 we received information item 7.4 conference with legal counsel existing litigation government code 549-56.9 a mdusd claim number 300-4952 the board with a 5-0 vote authorized settlement as recommended by Council item 7.5 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation pursuant to 54956.9 B one case information was provided all right next item on the agenda is item 8.1 public comments excuse me thank you very much trustee Mayo I skipped over item 6.2 review and potential approval of the agenda do we have any changes to the agenda at this time yes we do we would like to pull item uh 11.2 pulling item 11.2 all right any other changes to the agenda uh president count would you like to um

003would you like to move the board member reports yes let's do that board are we okay with moving the board reports to the end of the meeting we know people like to be able to hear the superintendent's report earlier all right yes so board report item 13.1 will be moved to the end of the agenda right okay thank you any other changes do I have a motion I'll make a motion to reprove the agenda with the removal of 11.2 and moving 13.1 to the end of the agenda second thank you motion by vice president Mason second by trustee Mayo oh and we are going to move this to a vote this is the first time that we're voting online so give us a minute here um so we'll start with uh trustee Fowler yes okay

004and then I believe the rest of us will be voting online is that correct Tech year I've got to get to the right room wait a minute oh we have to go back so if you're logged in oh you need to re-logination so this is the first time that our new board member newer board members have voted online thank you it doesn't look like there's a place to if we can get this working it should speed up the rest of the meeting so we appreciate your patience here with their first time voting electronically wait yeah none of us are seeing it so should we do Voice vote all right well that gets worked on we're gonna do this one by a Voice vote all right so trusty Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes

005trustee and Zoe yes I also vote Yes motion passes five zero with concurrence from our student board member did I have you vote Yes I did okay thank you very much all right so our agenda has been approved that moves us to item 8.1 public comment public May address the board regarding any item within the jurisdiction of the Board of Education of the Mount Diablo Unified School District that is not on the 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 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 their time so for those of you who are new to public

006comment I just want to make sure that you're clear that we on the board cannot engage in discussion with a public comment because the rest of the public was not notified of that topic ahead of time on the agenda okay so please understand we will carefully listen to every public comment but we will generally not respond other than perhaps to ask a clarifying question staff may follow up and the topic can be added to a future board agenda item if needed okay all right so for public comment how many uh cards do we have we have 37 speakers so if we can limit each speaker to one minute we would appreciate that trustees we want to give every person a chance to speak and as you know there are other ways also to communicate with

007the board including email comments that are public uh any email that is received today if you have a lengthy or comment you are welcome to send to board comments at mdusd.org thank you all right so we will begin with Linda Ortega followed by Alyssa Juarez and then Christina Merrick good evening president count trustees Dr Clark and members of the audience my name is Linda Ortega I am the Medea's vice president and bargaining chair I'm here this evening because I believe we want the same things a qualified teacher in every classroom a safe learning environment for all so how do you attract and retain qualified teachers you pay them a livable wage [Applause] it's no secret that there is a teacher shortage but with your current salary proposal why would anyone want to come or stay

008at Mount Diablo My Hope for tonight's meeting meeting is that you the school board listen to our members and hear them I want you to listen to their concerns listen from their heart because I have read as well as you their emails hear how during this pandemic they are still teaching and coming to school each day Dr Clark I have never sat down with you I have never been able to chat with you but if I did I would tell you about all the amazing work our members do each and every day thank you thank you very much Alyssa Juarez followed by Christina Merrick disgusted deflated disappointed disrespected these are just some of the words that describe how I felt when I read about the district's proposed race if you've ever wondered why we come

009out to speak to you about bargaining it's because you were at the top and you all make the decisions for bargaining not the district team the district bargaining team represents you and they are to bring to the table offers that you have approved our students deserve the best but we won't be able to retain or attract the best when we don't offer a competitive salary we are seventh amongst surrounding districts and our kids deserve better at the beginning of the pandemic with all the uncertainty we trusted the district when they were concerned that funding would drop in the promise 5.5 percent raise would hurt the district but here we are 108 million dollars later and all we've been offered is two percent and in reality it's two percent over five years we can afford the

0105.5 promise and more please direct your bargaining team to offer an amount that truly reflects the hard work and long unpaid hours we've put in over the last three years and those we will put in just over in over the next two remember teachers working conditions are students learning conditions thank you Christina Merrick followed by Lillian Lim thank you [Music] my name is Christina Merrick and this is my 11th year in the district as a credentialed school nurse I work part-time three days a week and I have one school for each of those days Diablo View Middle son Terrace Elementary Wren Avenue Elementary I'm here tonight even after yesterday I was diagnosed with three broken bones because it matters it matters that we stand try to stand stand up for our students and our staff

011stand up for what's right stand up what's needed I'll start health insurance premiums going up each year eat more into our paychecks each year so it's essentially a pay cut please offer Better Health Care coverage never mind the promise five and a half promise five and a half percent salary increase that was agreed upon by both the district and Union bargaining teams and yet now here years later after the last contract was to be put in place we are only being offered a two percent ongoing salary increase please see how this is really yet another pay cut please lower student to school nurse ratios students and staff need safer caseloads please pay your nurses when directed to work over three hours a day when covering for other assignments such as seas and lvns you guys

012used to pay us now you don't so please pay us for all the work uh teacher tonight asked me Oh I thought your a long time teacher said oh you're not our site anymore I am their school nurse I have been she just hasn't seen me because we keep getting pulled thank you for your time thank you Lily and Lum followed by Brenda dubuenia good evening my name is Lily long one of the district credential School nurses at Mount Olympic Alliance and Crossroads High School I wish to address the district's slow response to the current pandemic crisis regarding contact tracing other districts have taken greater advantage of state and federal allocated covet funds La unified enrollment of 600 000 students have hired contact tracers conducted mandatory testing of students track both staff and student vaccine

013status and have established a vaccine mandate closer to home with an enrollment comparable to our district West Contra Costa has hired a team of LDN contact tracers our district does not even have one full-time contact Tracer it is unrealistic and unfair to expect site administrators and support staff to do quality accurate contact tracing while doing their assigned duties especially at our Title One schools [Music] [Applause] District district contact tracing efforts are just organized students in the same family enrolled at different schools are given inconsistent and sometimes erroneous information disagreement among staff is common and merely adds to the anxiety about contact tracing efforts we need dedicated contact tracers to help protect the health and safety of District students staff and the Greater Community thank you thank you Brenda followed by April Saldivar my name is

014Brenda duenius and I'm a teacher at Bel Air elementary school but I don't know for how much longer I my husband is disabled I am the only wage earner in my family and if this continues I'm going to have to look at one of the other six districts that pay more than we do and it's sad because I am a product of this District I graduated from Mount Diablo High School in 1982. and the thing that's the most frustrating is that we email you you tell us that that's one way to contact you to get our voices heard yet I heard back from one board member and that's kaisha she's the only one that even acknowledged that I have that I have strong feelings in this it is a slap in the face to offer

015us two percent it is disrespectful and disgusting especially when you can purchase cars for for staff [Applause] April followed by Julia Jameson good evening my name is April Saldivar I am a proud Shore Acres Elementary School teacher kosher Acres teachers are here today exhausted but United as you know there is a teacher shortage crisis this crisis exists because teachers who are full of heart and determination to help our students succeed to give them opportunities to grow and Achieve cannot financially continue to work and grow in this district teachers have historically been grossly underpaid while inflation Rises and cost of living in this Bay Area has grown teacher salary increase has been zero percent we were promised a salary increased it was taken away uh while the pattern for inflation and Rising castle in the berry

016is increasing mdus pattern for T teacher salary increase has been zero percent this means that the district does not meet that teachers are leaving the profession because they cannot afford it when we saw that the district oh my goodness our classrooms are overcrowded right there way to go Amelia Jameson followed by Jane and Lowe foreign good evening Board of Trustees and Dr Clark my name is Julia Jameson I'm an English teacher at Mount Diablo high school and a member of Medea's bargaining team tonight I'm going to share a personal example with you of how mdusd is losing competitiveness with other districts when it comes to attracting and retaining teachers like Dr Clark my immediate previous position was in Vallejo City Unified School District when I came to Mount Diablo Unified School District in 2016 I

017gave myself a thirteen thousand dollar raise by moving districts I checked what my salary would be if I still worked in Vallejo it would have increased by more than ten thousand dollars in those five years while my salary in mdusd has increased by fewer than two thousand dollars so at present I only make four thousand dollars more than I did than I would have if I was still in bcusd that's losing competitiveness [Applause] follow followed by Laura Valdez hi I'm Jane Enloe and I teach at Sequoia Middle School and it has come to my attention that you are considering ignoring your previous agreement to provide teachers with a five and a half percent raise because you're under the impression that our district is in deficit to be competitive with surrounding districts we need at least

01811 rates along with giving the raises that your District can financially handle and we deserve medical expenses going up is a salary decrease and is unacceptable when my insurance rates go up and I'm maxed out in years in units that means I have to take a pay cut every year for health insurance this is unacceptable you need to get your District in order and to instruct your team to negotiate a raise I want to thank Keisha for writing back to me and responding to me we deserve a race we need a raise [Applause] to Laura Valdez followed by Kimberly Laden good evening my name is Laura Valdez and I am a teacher at Mount Diablo High School [Music] um I am a product of this District I grew up here I've raised kids here and

019I proudly work here I would like to continue proudly working here but we need Fair pay we deserve Fair pay and we expect it and we demand it thank you Kimberly Laden followed by Kelly Archibald hello my name is Kimberly Lyden and I'm a teacher at Ignacio Valley Elementary students need a qualified teacher in every classroom and they need qualified staff members in every position the district's ability to attract and retain qualified staff is critical to this District's ability to provide a great education to all students the education that they deserve the ability is in danger because we've not had a salary increase since July 2017. there's already a teacher shortage in this state and it's going to get worse that means that the teachers are going to have a choice where to work and

020they're going to choose the district that offers the best pay the best benefits the best working conditions I have a daughter who just became a teacher a couple years ago she seriously looked at this District and she chose not to work here she's a product of this district and she chose not to work here is that my warning it will be increasingly hard to put a qualified teacher in every classroom and that hurts students in addition teachers are emotionally and physically exhausted [Applause] Kelly Archibald it's all about Craig yen start okay uh hi my name is Kelly Archibald and I'm at Walnut Acres and I honestly can't believe that I'm actually here because I can't believe things are so bad that I need to speak up because my human rights are not being met it's

021unbelievable that I am teaching kindergarten in a tiny room with 32 children and no Aid nope basically no social distancing no precautions it's just kind of a free brawl um this is unbelievable I cannot believe that you guys are not in any kind of you're in charge of this whole thing please help us we are we are your front line we are the ones making the direct impact with the children we are there to support these babies and we we are not getting support you want us to go find other jobs we will I will take my talents elsewhere because I don't feel like I'm being respected here please make a choice for the children do Craig Young followed by Trisha Collins Craig again Craig again there he is all right followed by Trisha Collins

022here we go again you're 19 in The District Two many bargaining sessions I am Craig Yen I am over at valet Verde Elementary and I'm a fourth grade teacher there we're here to express her disappointment at The District's initial proposal the lack of respect shown by the minimal salary increase is just one of the concerns increase in working hours change in working conditions as we move forward more site Time For Less pay taking away prep time [Music] agreeing to a 5.5 raise making the cuts to our unit and then reneging on that how are you going to attract and retain your Educators to make this a district please implore your negotiation team to do what's required thank you Professor Collins followed by Chloe page let's go higher members of the board I'm Tricia Collins teacher

023at Silverwood I'm I am speaking today to express my disgust with negotiations and the district's proposals we are already drastically underpaid for these reasons the surrounding districts pay significantly more than we do and we are losing good teachers because of it in the past four school years alone the district has received 12 and a quarter percent in Cola increases and none of this has been passed to the teachers a five and a half percent raise was negotiated by The District in good faith in nineteen a hundred teachers were laid off to raise the 21 million to fund it and instead the district reneged on the deal and pocketed the money there is no structural deficit the fiscal information being provided to you by District admin is flawed we are extremely overworked right now and exhausted

024every night I come home and collapse on my sofa these are tough times teachers are working harder than ever we need a raise that reflects reality and isn't a slap in the face we need to be recognized heard and we need to feel that we matter [Applause] Chloe page followed by Trevor Pike good evening I've been a special ed teacher with Mount Diablo for five years now and this proposal is insulting is that all we're worth to you two percent seriously various times during my career here I've nearly left for other districts but I've stayed because I love my school and my students but this insult might be the last straw why should I continue to teach in a district that disrespects me and think so little of my abilities we're the largest District in

025the area and yet you paid the least in order to have a truly great School District you need energetic enthusiastic teachers who stick around stick around to build something that won't happen with these sellers it's it just won't you have an opportunity here to make this a truly fantastic School District we want that to happen you want that to happen we could be the next Berkeley unified Palo Alto but if you continue down this road then we're going to be a district that good teachers avoid make no mistake this is an opportunity to build something wonderful don't squander it forever Pike followed by a band of graves hi it's a pleasure to see you all this evening I am Trevor Pike and I am an English teacher at Mount Diablo High School no indispensable veteran

026teacher will choose to remain in a district that agrees to less than a two percent Cola yearly consequently the board is faced with two options fairly compensate and thereby retain all of the teachers you want to keep or generate unnecessarily large cash carryovers thank you for listening [Applause] thank you Amanda Graves followed by Denise marks it's for 12 teachers on paper it might not look that bad at my school site Walnut Acres that meant a first grade teacher had to leave and is now teaching stem at four different School sites that's ridiculous that's like saying on a Friday at noon to Dr Clark well there's not that many students here so we need you to go help Vallejo Martinez and Antioch and oh you start on Monday no time to prep because on paper the

027district thought having 26 students was not enough students in a class every second and third grade class at my school site now has 31 or 32 students I am now a 2-3 combo class I have eight third grade students and 22 second grade students [Music] well I love my students I love my students this is not okay also I want to note I do not appreciate getting emails from Dr from Dr Rubio saying and I quote we continue to see some unvaccinated employees put their colleagues and students at risk you are putting students at risk by putting 31 students in a class thank you the knee smart swallowed by Nick Sanchez good evening superintendent Clark and school board members my name is Denise marks and I'm a kindergarten teacher at Harris Elementary School I've taught

028in the district for 25 years I can't believe we're at this low point in negotiations unfortunately you are making teachers lives unbearably stressful with your demoralizing offers and proposals the proposed two percent raise coupled with additional site time and duties for kindergarten and other teachers is a disgraceful slap in the face to every hard-working dedicated educator in this District we would actually be taking a cut and pay by accepting this as you are adding time and duties to our already packed schedules teachers are stretched thin and we are constantly asked to do more with less or as you have proposed basically with nothing in return thanks to the collapse of so many classes including at my site teachers are literally on the front lines in max out classrooms with unvaccinated children trying to keep them

029safe educated and loved providing for both their academic and social emotional well-being I hope that you can settle a fair contract quickly thank you thank you Nick fan says followed by karna Cruz Board of Trustees Dr Adam Clark my name is Nick Sanchez I am a loyal 17th year teacher with all year served in mdusd I also was an mdusd student attended Hidden Valley Valley View Middle and College Park High I am also a proud media rep according to sources through my union my school district is in a stronger financial position than they were prior to covet they have funding and surplus they could comfortably afford they can come they could comfortably afford to give its teachers a salary increase using only a fraction of their available funds we are the lowest paid teachers in

030all of the surrounding districts and our five and a half percent salary increase which was successfully mediated after 18 months of negotiating was stripped away from us at the start of 2020 due to covet paranoia our race is long overdue and Justified your teachers have kept this District roley [Applause] thank you your teachers perform the most meaningful and hardest work one more second what does it say about how much my district values us when I find out that they counter our salary increase Proposal with zero percent for 21 22. how much does mdusd value its teachers zero percent more all right thank you hard on cruise followed by Julie Kennedy stuff I want to say I did have something prepared but I'm not going to go that route because you've already heard those arguments if

031you want proof as to why we need a raise I don't take you back last year but I take you back a year and a half ago teachers were already figuring out how to teach before the board and the district even had a plan we were figuring out how to make new lessons how to digitalize lessons that we needed to use to meet standards so that students could be challenged at home and we continued that last year we continued our learning through virtual PDS through the summer and then while we are in school if you go to any school there are teachers there that are there at seven o'clock in the morning before their site time they leave at six o'clock and we're not even talking about the extracurricular that they do in addition thank

032you [Applause] Tim shaverland followed by Claire key good evening my name is Julie Kennedy and I'm here with my staff and I'd like to start with a quote for you employees are a company's greatest assets they are your competitive Advantage you want to attract and retain the best provide them with encouragement stimulus and make them feel like they are an integral part of the company's Mission by Anne Mulkey former CEO of Xerox unfortunately the actions of this District bargaining team do not represent these ideals at all teachers are working harder during a global pandemic than ever before and what is the district's response a negotiations proposal that is quite frankly disrespectful and insulting in its non-existent salary offer an increased workload proposal this offer is an actuality a pay cut for us veteran teachers because

033of rising medical costs and inflation and is that what we deserve after 20 25 30 years of service to this district for newer teachers it's a reason to leave the district immediately something the district cannot afford since there are still unfulfilled teaching positions that are being offered five thousand dollar signing bonuses teachers need a raise we deserve a raise we expect a raise please direct your District bargaining team to treat your teachers like the greatest assets because we are and make a fair respectful proposal thank you [Applause] Jim Chamberlain followed by Claire key you can do it that's all right good evening my name is Kim Chamberlain I've been a teacher in the Mount Diablo district for more than 25 years I started teaching a 19 night student teaching in 1994. I am a product

034of this District between the staff at El Monte we have more than 100 years of service in this District [Music] like all of my colleagues I have worked hard each and every day to ensure that my students get the best education I can give them despite a math program that does not work for every child a social studies book that has Arnold Schwarzenegger as the governor and a science book that does not cover our standards these last 18 months I have worked harder than I've ever worked 12 14 hour days away from my family to make sure that my students give the best that I can give them I need a cost of living raise to cover increased medical benefits my time and my worth I deserve a raise I demand a raise [Applause] clerky

035followed by Heather assalin good evening board Dr Clark cabinet my name is Claire key I'm a third grade teacher here at Monte Gardens Elementary School this is my 36th year and I've seen a lot of school board leadership come and go and I find this board's current bargaining strategy alarming you are offering employees essentially nothing especially when you factor in for the cost of living adjustments it's actually a pay cut but you've heard that already tonight as I said I am this is my 36th year and I'm getting very close to making my retirement decisions there is actually Four other teachers of similar vintage here at my site we make up about 20 of this site's teaching staff and at times we discuss our thoughts for when we think we will choose to wind down

036our careers our retirements will be sooner not later we also happen to have four student teachers here at our site right now these student teachers are very fortunate they're being mentored by experienced highly qualified and very capable teachers these future teachers will have choices when they start their careers these future teachers we're wondering what are you going to ensure what are you going to do to ensure that Mount Diablo is the place they want to be our students deserve the best please reprioritize a budget that ensures adequate investment in your future Workforce again our students deserve d Heather followed by tavith Bean hello board sorry thank you for having us here to speak tonight um this is my I'm Heather Aslan I work here at Monty Gardens this is my 19th year as teacher um

037this is my seventh year here in the district I formally taught in Pittsburgh Unified I'm speaking to you as a very enthusiastic and overworked educator aside from my daily duties as a fifth grade teacher I also serve on our school instructional leadership team and as our student leadership teacher and to this stresses of covid the revolving door of students either sick or in quarantine that we have to prepare work for almost daily the loss of a prep weekly because we lost a staff member this year and who took the Virtual Academy and uh the constant worry is just beyond stressful teachers are tired there is nothing normal about what we are living through our district has received millions of dollars it had no money through lost money through covid and we are right back to

038where we were five years ago do you know how much rent has gone up here in five years years I do but the bands are high the cost of living is high the stress is high the risk for illness is high you know what is not high your offer please help bring a good offer to to our teachers thank you thank you Travis being followed by Nancy coffee hello everybody thank you so much I'm Tavis beam I've been a teacher for 11 years 13 years I have a master's degree in education and I've been in this district for 10 years but most importantly I am the shop teacher at Sequoia Middle School and yeah yes I taught shop online last year okay I'm angry and my anger comes from pain I'm the sole income in

039my home and I make less than four thousand dollars a month two thousand dollars goes to my mortgage and I live in Vallejo because I cannot afford any property in Contra Costa County I mean two thousand dollars for all your bills for your food for bridge toll for classroom supplies that I have to pay for because our District's po policy is so Arcane you're destroying our CTE programs once upon a time I believed in this district and I was thinking about becoming an administrator but I want to leave you with a story a student stayed behind one day and said Mr Beam I want to be a shop teacher just like you how would you respond if you were me I await your answer how would you respond if you were me thank you thank

040you Nancy coffee followed by kimapana hi my name is Nancy Coffey and I've worked in this District since 2003. a Taunton grades Kinder through 12th my late mother was a product and graduate of mdsd my grandfather worked tirelessly on ptas pfcs and even at the dent Center I used to be proud to say I worked and lived in mdsd I'm here to ask the board to help me be proud again to say I work in this District as a school board trustees only you have the power to direct your bargaining team to make offers that accurately pay employees for their work two percent across three years or more is not an accurate reflection of fair pay my colleagues and fellow staff are insulted to say the least we deserve a raise we need a raise

041for the work we do as was said last year at a board meeting when an administrator explained the increases in a salary or expenditure at the district level or at the dent Center quote this increases commensurate with the current market rate in order to be competitive quote I challenge you to use that logic to direct your team to make offers commensurate and competitive with the market check out surrounding districts for examples followed by Kip penovich Kim yes Kim and then Kip hi hi my name is Kim apana I'm a [Applause] that our students deserve the best and we are committed to doing our part to give the best we have to offer however how can students truly receive the best when their teachers are overworked and underpaid on the first day back at school Dr

042Clark told us Dr oh hello you told us at salaries account for 94 of the usd's budget in actuality salaries and benefits represent 80 percent of the total budget they represent 94 of the unrestricted funds which is one segment of the budget the CBO needs to be transparent and accurate with the data what happened to the 21 million dollars that went unused when the staff layoffs were implemented in March of 2020 in addition there is 53 million dollars more coming from the state and Feds that is not reflected in the budget I speak for every teacher when I say this our students deserve the best Pay Teachers fairly respect the work of the teachers hold on almost done establish working conditions that are sustainable versus putting us down many of us lose our preps daily

043we are exhausted we deserve a raise of very large raise we deserved it before the pandemic during the pandemic and now please keep your promise thank you [Applause] yep kind of it followed by Sandra's falling hi I'm kit pinovich from Northgate High School and uh as I thought about what I would talk about my first question kind of Echoes what some of the previous people have said and that's if you had a child who was looking for a job would you send them here I don't think so I think you would say make the wisest choice you can look at your compensation and then go where you think you can get the most so you can establish your your life as best as possible um secondly my my second comment was about budgeting um when

044I look at comparisons between the second interim budget and when we finally come out with the unaudited actuals there is a regular pattern over the last six years that there is a decent chunk of money that appears between the second interim and the unaudited actuals last year it was 33 billion the year before that it was 15 million the year before that it was 25. over the last six years there is almost 170 million dollars that has appeared between the two be sure that you're transparent and accurate with the information you give us financially because it hasn't seemed like it's been that way thank you thank you Sandra's falling Spalding followed by m barabak hi I'm Sandra Spalding and I teach at Mount Diablo High School um thank you board members and Dr Clark um

045the Opera was insulting and I will leave it there but I would suggest an action item for the board is to sit down with Medea and the district people to sort out what the budget actually says because I don't think any of us really um have the whole picture um the second thing I wanted to talk about is a vaccine mandate um I am in a classroom I see 150 students a day and there is no and I'm at a title one school there's no mandate we know that this is a political issue and it should not be this is a public health issue we require a million vaccines already please I'm begging you require the vaccine be a leader on this issue thank you so much thank you I am Barbara followed by Rachel

046Webb um school board members uh Dr Clark first of all I want to thank you this is the volunteer job you do and it's so hard and the hours you put in and I totally appreciate that just like you guys we are mentally and emotionally exhausted you would not believe it we are seeing in our classrooms every day almost I almost want to start crying just talking about it I am here to encourage you to please do the right thing you guys can be our Advocates you can direct the bargaining team to give us a minimum five percent raise please be really transparent where is that coveted money going we have no idea how can we actually know that the right thing is being done um I have friends in a business they said they

047would never put a budget together that didn't include a cost of increase for their employees and their business please do the right thing in 2017 three percent rates 2018 zero 2018. zero twenty nineteen zero twenty twenty zero twenty twenty one zero okay that is a let me see if I said is your five percent raise okay over those years Cole has been 11.38 so what that means is teachers have actually taken a pay cut yeah please do the right thing please thank you yeah I meant to say that 175 here in Riverview I got it thank you okay Rachel Webb followed by Nicholas Selby before I begin I would like to point out the distance between each chair and yourselves my students do not have that so please be aware this district is sinking it

048is failing our students parents and teachers you claim that 94 of the budget is already going towards teacher salaries and yet you won't show a breakdown of that at any negotiations meeting every teacher in the district knows this is inaccurate and would be happy to come in and re-teach you basic addition and how to find percentages if needed if you can't figure out a basic budget then the accountant for this District needs to be fired at this point the only way to explain such an inaccurate budget while not sharing the data would be embezzlement every District around you has given multiple raises since we received our last one multiple there are people in Antioch unified receiving higher pay than myself with less experience while working on an emergency credential stop trying to throw us scraps

049and pretending you're doing as much as you can we're tired of it it's pathetic this time around we won't let you drag negotiations out we'll walk out before that happens [Applause] thank you for your measly 60 seconds of your time thank you Nicholas Selby followed by Carmen ozcona foreign trustees and superintendent clerk my name is Nicholas Selby and I'm a middle school math and science teacher at Pleasant Hill Middle School I'm here to address the district's structural deficit in February of 2020 the school district and the teachers union agreed on a five and a half pay increase to help pay for this pay increase over a hundred teachers were released the board then said no to the pay increase due to the thought of a decrease in funding this decrease didn't happen teachers were still

050let go it doesn't take a math teacher to see that you should be saving money my question to you is this what did you do with the money [Applause] here Carmen I was going off followed by Eric Wilson good evening my name is Carmen escona I am the sixth grade resource specialist at Pleasant Hill Middle School and I'm here tonight to talk about equity Equity is a word that has been thrown around a lot this year by the board by the district but how can we preach Equity when we don't have curriculum for all of our classes the school library at my site is closed every single day we don't have a librarian and we don't have a local library how is that equitable how is it Equitable to continue to cut or Support classes

051and how is it Equitable that I have to fight the district tooth and nail to get my special education students more support finally how is two percent Equitable that doesn't even cover my increased medical expenses I'm asking that you honor your word where you talked about retaining highly qualified teachers and to do that you need to pay us what we deserve thank you foreign followed by Holly Pitts good evening board members and superintendent Clark thank you for your time my name is Eric Wilson this is my eighth year at Concord High School and I love my job but I don't know how many more years I have in the school districts if we don't get the fair compensation that we deserve and that we need we all know that housing prices have surged in the

052Bay Area it is getting unaffordable without a fair cost of living adjustments to live here and to work in this District um that is basically all I have to say so thank you for your time thank you very much Holly Pitts followed by Eric Robertson hello my name is Holly Pitts I work at Olympic High School and home and hospital I have to work at both or else I cannot afford to live the ability to attract and retain qualified staff is a critical component of our District's ability to provide a great education for its students that ability is in serious Jeopardy because we haven't had a raise since 2016. the district owes us more than 5.5 from the prior agreement the board reneged on this promise in 2020 based on fears that never materialized the

053district suffered no ongoing Financial impact from the pandemic okay and factor in a better position right now to the Medea members here tonight know your worth we are overworked we are underpaid and repeatedly disrespected by the district and the board we know our value it's not two percent let your voice be heard dig deep get gritty we will not stand by and let this mismanaged District undercut us again to the board your ship is sinking and that's not the fault of teachers get your house in order instruct the district to come to the table with a fair offer thank you for your time [Applause] Eric Robertson followed by Natasha exner greetings uh my name is Eric Robertson I teach at Bel Air in Bancroft ah I'm concerned about the lack of substitute teachers within our

054district successful teachers lead to successful students the key is support during my 13-year tenure in Oakland Unified there was a position called Step Sub in addition to regular subs step Subs are permanent sub positions within schools they are on site every day like regular teachers stiff Subs allow school-wide continuity classrooms don't need to be split up when regular subs don't show step Subs allowed my Oakland School to do an intensive focus on students who are reading below grade level relieving teachers for half hour long conferences with the principal and parent during the school day stip Subs allow teachers to have peer observation within school and across the district imagine being a teacher who is struggling it can be so powerful for a teacher to visit the classroom of another teacher who feels successful and observe

055them in action I encourage you to look more into this very effective Oakland Unified program thank you for Fighting For What what's best for our kids thank you very much [Applause] Natasha exner followed by Jeffrey wiko hello I teach first grade at Fair Oaks Elementary I love my students and I love my job what I don't love is constantly being asked to do more but expect less I hate having a master's degree but earning Less Than 3 500 a month I hate running out of money on the 10th of every month and having to rely on credit cards for gas food and classroom supplies I've had to provide everything from crayons to playground equipment this year why don't teachers deserve more than two percent because we have Summers and holidays off I can assure you

056that my work day never ends at three o'clock and with all the planning prepping and printing and responding to parents I don't even have two days off a week um my students are amazing but without the best Educators supplies experiences and curriculum they are being failed and it's not by teachers if we are not given the raise and respect we deserve I will be forced to leave the district and possibly the profession if the board refuses to do the right thing I encourage all union members to stand up for themselves and strike thank you [Applause] thank you the free weekend followed by Meredith yellente I am disappointed that the district has offered teachers two percent race over a period of three years after that very uh disappointing uh contract agreement that they offer and did

057to us shame I am appalled and disheartened that we teachers still feel treated as Expendables shame it is disappointing that they wanted high value result but don't consider class size reduction hiring more teachers and staff shame it is hard you need to see at this this required price of equity and we always see a year after year of teacher Turner turnover and layout shade I feel disrespected when District proposed increase in work in workload to an over work teacher already because even our prep here is taken because there are no subs to fill it in shame [Applause] we need action we need respect and a fair contract now Meredith yelante is our last speaker my name is Meredith Meredith we're very happy that oh hello my name is Meredith fulenti I'm uh I was a

058teacher at Ayers at the Mount Diablo district and now I'm a parent of a kindergartner uh at Bancroft I came to speak today in support of a vaccine mandate for all eligible students I am um and for a fair contract for and safe working conditions for teachers in the district um we need Equitable covid testing access that makes it convenient there are too many limited sites right now we need to have the students in the monument Corridor and students without access to cars and students with parents that have a difficult work schedule be able to access um the testing um please consider pooled testing at school sites so we can make more convenient make it more convenient and find and contain outbreaks before they spread um our kids work really hard at school they enjoy

059school they love our awesome teachers they deserve a safe place to learn and our teachers work hard and they do amazing excellent work um they deserve livable wage and safe working conditions please uh pass a fair wage and a vaccine mandate for all students thank you thank you guys that concludes our public comment thank you all very much for your coming out tonight for speaking and also for all keeping your masks on indoors and showing how we can be civil at school board meetings that is much much appreciated here as we know that's not happening everywhere in our region so thank you very much foreign that takes us to 9.0 Communications 9.1 District organizations at regular board meetings a single spokesperson of each recognized District organization may make a brief presentation items are limited to

060those which are informational we have four speakers for this item we'll begin with Dan Harper Mr Harper Mr Harper we just wait a minute until the room kind of yeah yes thank you we'll make sure we can hear you thank you everyone all right are we ready it's not good enough okay go ahead Dan Harper thank you so hello board members um superintendent Chief counsel um so I think you might know why we're here tonight um You probably heard us when we were uh when we were rallying in front of the Dance Center um so I'm gonna modify some of my comments I mean we've got the same offer that the teachers got with a few exceptions but um it you know it's unacceptable it's disrespectful um the offer that's out there our members have

061been without a raise uh since 2017 same thing that the teachers are saying and um you know just most importantly the district's not in a structural deficit um we believe that you know the CIO the CBO is giving you misinformation about this um there's more than enough money to give to pay for what we Sunshine that you all have seen back in May um you know we uh we planned this rally because we didn't get an economic proposal or we were told there wasn't going to be an economic proposal until the middle of October right after we planned the rally all of a sudden we get an economic proposal and bargaining on Monday so I think what that's showing is that our actions are being effective they're working but we need to do more because

062the proposal package that we were given was just uh woefully and adequate to to put it quite simply um you all already know what it is you approved it um so with that said there you know we're going to be standing in solidarity with the teachers with the teamsters with csca with the psychologist sorry I'm going to pronounce their uh their name wrong but um we're gonna stick together and people are pretty mad they're very upset because they haven't gotten a raise since 2017. and so I mean I know that from our turnout at our rally today we didn't even have to put a lot of effort into it to get that many people to show up and we are just getting started so um you know it we have members right now that are

063making minimum wage that's shameful in this District I mean I I would imagine some of them are probably living in their cars right now so um I think you know what you need to do but you all do have the power to direct your negotiating team to give us what we're asking for and it's not that much so we demand Fair raises we demand them now um and we will be back here until we get them thank you thank you okay we have Anita Johnson and then Mark Jones and then Sylvia ventrino good evening I'm Anita Johnson president of Mount Diablo Education Association my pronouns are she and her Medea is a United group of Educators working together for the benefit of the students of the Mount Diablo Unified School District students need a qualified

064teacher in every classroom and a qualified staff member in every position one of the most important responsibilities of the school district is to ensure the best possible people are available to meet our students needs the ability to attract and retain qualified staff is a critical component of our District's ability to provide a great education to all students that ability is in serious Jeopardy because we have not had a salary increase since July of 2017. our students have one chance for Quality education they need the best possible teachers and staff members students are suffering a lot from the stress of all of the vacant positions and the lack of planning please do what you can to resolve the problem with vacant positions by increasing salaries the offer of a two percent increase over a five-year period

065in which the cola increases by 19 percent is deplorable your employees deserve a salary increase we have worked through a pandemic to meet students needs and keep them safe we have welcomed students back to campus and are helping them adjust while still dealing with the pandemic ourselves we have implemented poorly planned and poorly communicated changes and initiatives and we have made it work for the students we have been flexible and Innovative and endured chaos because of the lack of substitutes the lack of seas the lack of special education teachers the lack of lvns the lack of behaviorists the lack of psychologists the lack of office staff the lack of librarians the lack of music teachers and the lack of competent administrators we deserve a salary increase the district owes us more than the 5.5 percent

066from the prior agreement the district suffered no ongoing Financial impact from the pandemic and is actually in a much better financial situation now the board still is decision to delay action on this agreement was one more thing we had to cope with during the pandemic it is now past time for the board to take action to resolve this past due balance by incorporating this amount into plans for an immediate salary increase our salary at mdusd is lower than other districts we are one of the lowest paying districts in the surrounding area bringing our salaries to the average of surrounding districts will require an 11 increase we know the salaries in these districts will be increasing again next year as they have multiple times since we received our last increase the board must plan to make

067our salaries competitive and keep them competitive with inflation and no salary increase in three years and no appropriate salary increased for the next several years the proposal presented by the board's bargaining team is proposing is effectively a cut in pay with a medical benefits cost increases two percent over five years is effectively a cut in pay we know that you are not getting accurate data from the fiscal department and that is causing a lot of difficulty in understanding exactly what the district can't afford I urge you to take steps to resolve the problem to ask detailed Financial questions yourselves expect reliable data and corroborate the data you are given there is an answer out there this district has had more than 30 million dollars more in revenue and 20 million dollars Less in Personnel expenses

068than in 2017 the money is there the Medea proposal of a 16.5 percent increase is Affordable I understand you can't take our word on this you deserve to have solid answers to your questions your employees deserve a salary increase now the district's growing problems in attracting and retaining employees is harmful to students and it is going to get worse unless this problem is solved putting Financial issues aside I need to make sure you are aware of other ideas the district has proposed each of these proposals would be harmful to students the district proposed an increase in the site time that elementary schools from 415 minutes to 435 minutes each day requiring 20 more minutes of principal directed work on site with no additional pay this would be harmful to students the effective pay cut would

069make it more difficult to attract and retain staff furthermore the district proposed an increase in the site time at middle schools from 420 minutes to 435 minutes requiring 15 more minutes of principal directed work on site with no additional pay this would be harmful to students the effective pay cut will make it difficult to attract and retain staff furthermore the district proposed additional duties for kindergarten teachers during the period of time after their students leave and before the end of site time in reality at most sites this period is barely sufficient to ensure their teachers receive their contractually required prep time this proposal would be harmful to students additional duties for kindergarten teachers would result in less support for kindergarten students furthermore the district proposed requiring music teachers and Librarians who are at a site

070less than three days each week to supervise students during recess time this would be harmful to students adding additional duties would impact the quality of the music and Library program and make it more difficult to attract and retain staff furthermore the district proposed eliminating the assessment period for secondary SDC teachers working in the departmentalized model this would be harmful to students without time in their schedules for conducting assessments this teacher would rarely or never see the students on their caseload assessments would be delayed until the case manager could find time to conduct them the time these teachers do find for assessment would take away from time that is scheduled for supporting other students in addition these teachers are also responsible for planning lessons for three to four academic classes per day for special needs students

071there's insufficient time for lesson planning The Proposal is harmful to students your employees do tremendous things for our students stop making it harder stop adding work and refusing to pay people for it statistics proposals for longer site time less prep and more responsibilities are all proposals for what is effectively a cut in pay our students deserve the best they deserve to have a qualified teacher in every classroom and a qualified staff member in every position our District's ability to provide a great education to students depends on the ability to attract and retain employees that ability isn't serious Jeopardy because we have not had a salary increase since July of 2017. please direct your bargaining team to agree to our media's proposal Medea is a United group of Educators working together for the benefit of the

072students of the Mount Diablo Unified School District I've detailed those items that we the people who work most closely with students believe the students need the most thank you thank you Mark Jones followed by Sylvia vendorino evening Dr Clark board members Mark Jones I'm representative for teamsters 856 here at the district I did come with a prepared speech that I am tossing out because I really only have a few points to make brief history lesson my first day representing at this District was March 2nd 2020. when I when I came in there was a 24 million dollar deficit debt flash forward to this year we're now sitting on over 100 million dollars and our offer is zero their offer is zero so tonight I am saying that I will stand in solidarity with a mudspa

073CSEA Medea CST we will stand it to get we will stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters because this is not right to treat employees this way zero zero is what we're saying still a hundred million dollars and a zero offer that gives me zero confidence in a CBO zero I I really don't know much what else I can add to the conversations because everybody spoke so eloquently tonight other than to say that the next time if this continues we're gonna need a bigger room because we're going to have Teamsters we're gonna have mudspa we're going to have Medea and we're gonna have csca CSA if I missed anybody sorry but we're gonna be here we're gonna fill up the room and I just want you to know that they're righteous and a zero

074percent offer is not thank you [Applause] Sylvia good evening superintendent Clark members of the board my name is Sylvia venturino I'm a district-wide bilingual school psychologist and the co-president of the Mount Diablo school psychologist Association representing School psychologists and Behavioral Health Specialists we are disheartened that after we spent so much time and energy bargaining in good faith our 2018-19 tentative agreement with the district was rejected at the last board meeting a year and a half after it was signed to us it is absolutely clear that the district was not bargaining in good faith when they signed our tentative agreement in front of mediators and then asked the board to reject it the very document that they themselves signed we recently met with the district negotiators and we truly appreciate the willingness to work towards a

075solution what we do not appreciate is a manipulation and creative reporting of numbers and the ambiguous inconsistent information that we are given at the last board meeting the amount of 8.5 million dollars was used a lot utilized as the reason why the board should and consequently did reject the tentative agreement between Mitzvah and the district this enormous amount was supposedly based on a 1.5 percent increase for 10 days over three bargaining units utilizing the newly important metoo Clause by the way we still haven't received documentation of how this was actually determined so we don't even know how that came about however the 1.5 increase had been off of our bargaining table for quite some time we had agreed to forego it due to this new celebrity the me too Clause I guess HR forgot about

076that when they put it in their equation but suddenly it became a factor that must be considered this 1.5 should not have been used um in this confusing equation to come up with an even more perplexing result of 8.5 million dollars we are wondering was this extreme number a miscalculation or was it used to intentionally mislead the board the superintendent and the public that's a pretty big number for a very very small group like others we do not trust the information at board meetings high-priced items are routinely approved quickly and all at once there's little discussion as these items are interpreted as being essential to the district but as soon as an item includes one of the labor Partners the slide rule comes out the beans get counted and move from one jar to another

077the Excel sheets start pivoting the head starts shaking and suddenly there's no funding why does this District have so much difficulty compensating employees that directly work with students this behavior is baffling even to my group since the last board meeting are already decimated department has continued to dwindle we have lost over a quarter of our staff and now that amount has increased as qualified professionals continue to leap at the same time just as we expected demands for Support Services have skyrocketed we have been experiencing a huge increase in requests for special education assessments the need for behavioral mental health support counseling services and therapy we do not have enough staff to be able to provide the mandated Services let us know let alone the experimental health support students need modeling a pandemic we do not

078have enough staff to be able to keep up with the increasing assessments being requested due to perceived learning loss and distance learning students are not able to receive required Services due to the numerous vacancies in our department families are not able to receive services all students are entitled to a free and appropriate public education yet the district is inhibiting our ability to provide these mandated services this is inconceivable and could have been avoided if the district had only bargained fairly it is only September and we are exhausted this is my 30th year in Mount Diablo Unified and I have never seen it so bad this isn't the first Vic not report or budget crisis I've experienced it's not the first time we've had declining enrollment it's not the first time that employees lack faith and

079trust in the district but the exceptionally high level of distrust and the extremely low level of morale that currently exists are in my opinion unprecedented other District received substantial funding from the state and government Federal governments last year other districts compensated their employees fairly but in Mount Diablo where do those funds go your employees are asking for a Lifeline we are groveling for crumbs mdusd please build trust with the different employee groups please compensate us fairly please remember that we are all here to serve the students board members please hold them accountable thank you [Applause] thank you very much that concludes item 9.1 all right we will move on with our agenda at this point item 10.0 recognitions and resolutions 10.1 review and potential approval of resolution 2122-17 in recognition of national school lunch week

080Dr click foreign count in um Mount Diablo Unified School District would like to present to the governing board resolution 21-22-22 in recognition of find it here quite a few here in front of the national school lunch week whereas in 1946 then president Harry Truman signed the national school lunch act whereas the national school lunch program is now the largest Federal Child Nutrition program whereas on October 9 1962 Congress by joint resolution designated the week beginning the Second Sunday in October each year as a national school lunch week now therefore be it resolved that the Mount Diablo Unified School District Board of Education that it celebrates national school lunch week from October 11th through the 15th 2021 done in meeting duly assemble this the 22nd day of September 2021 so with that President count I put

081this resolution in the hands of the board thank you very much Dr Clark do we have a motion on this item I would make a motion that we approve resolution 21-22-17 in recognition of national school lunch week and thank our food services for doing such a good job a second thank you motion by vice president Mason second by trustee inzawi any other discussion on this item Justin our national school lunch program along with other Child Nutrition programs such as free breakfast and supper are among the best tools we have to fight child hunger I'm sure everyone was appalled along with me when earlier this summer a school district in Wisconsin opted out of continuing to provide free lunch to all students as has been the case during the Nationwide during covet one board member in

082this school district was concerned that kids would become spoiled can you imagine that spoiling kids by making sure they aren't hungry meanwhile in California our legislature and Governor made permanent free School meals for all children this school lunch week and every day I hope our students parents and staff will be generous with their kudos to our nutrition team for literally having to figure out in a matter of days how to feed every student who wants to be fed how to figure out how much food to prepare how to handle the lines and so I'm very very grateful that you're spoiling our children thank you very much trustee and say we I think we will all second that um and add to that too moving all of the lunch uh tables and everything outdoors for covet

083as well so it's it was an incredible feat that continues to happen every day in our schools so thank you so much to all of our food service staff all right with that shall we take this to a vote any other discussion first email okay all right we'll take it to a vote trustee Fowler yes and okay so for the rest of us I for Tech I don't see the vote button on the screen so are we going to be doing a Voice vote I know the intention was to vote online but there is not it says under discussion and does not show a vote button so we'll continue with The Voice vote um throughout until uh we see a button in the future if that gets fixed tonight okay so Voice vote trusty mail

084yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Zoe yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member oh there it is on the screen okay thank you someone did it for us all right it might work on the next one then okay uh okay so item 10.2 review and potential approval of board resolution 2122-18 for personnel with provisional internship permits okay so Dr scudero is going to take this item so this is just the uh the resolution for personnel in this case one uh for the provisional internship permit uh Brett we bring for your review potential approval board resolution 21-22-18 okay thank you do we have a motion on this item I'll make a motion that we approve board resolution 21-22-18 for personnel with provisional internship permits second

085thank you motion by trustee Mason second by trustee McFerrin any discussion on this item we'll take it to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Zoe yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member okay we can see the votes on the screen we just don't see the voting button over here apologies for that but thank you okay item 10.3 review and potential approval of resolution 2122-22 in recognition of indigenous people's day so president count I have uh to present to the board I have resolution 21 22-22 in recognition of indigenous peoples day whereas the Mount Diablo Unified School District governing board seeks to formally recognize indigenous people's day being motivated by the by the continuously developing value for cultural

086appreciation and being motivated to give due respect acknowledgment and honor and whereas the office of the governor of California first proclaimed for our state in 2019. this day as indigenous peoples days with these eloquent words and he goes on I will skip through that therefore let it be resolved at the governing board at the Mount Diablo Unified School District fully endorsing the significance and meaning of this Pro of this Proclamation hereby recognizes October 11 2021 as indigenous people's day president count I put this item in the hands of the board thank you very much Dr Clark do we have a motion I'll move that the board approve resolution 21-22-22 in recognition of indigenous peoples today thank you motion by trustee McFerrin second by trustee Mayo any discussion on this item um yes trustee Feller I

087wanted to point out that indigenous people day is a holiday celebrating the original inhabitants of North America observed instead of Columbus Day and some U.S localities according to the Associated Press style book with the golden unify others as well as different awareness to issues affecting their communities representation matters and I'm happy we're honoring it thank you very much trustee Fallon any other discussion on this item trusty and Siri I'm going to share a land acknowledgment that conquered communities Alliance specifically Lara nakamara has generously shared with me today for today land is part of who we are it is literally the ground on which Home and Community exist where we all play grow plant celebrate pray struggle eat sleep create and work land is the ground on which our history grows and where roots are set

088for future generations to the people who occupy the land it represents their history and their future we make this land acknowledgment to recognize those who were here originally and to remember those who came later took that land often violently and settled here with social and governmental support and encouragement we make this land acknowledgment to honor the native people whose Land We Now inhabit it's important for us to acknowledge the long history and ongoing process of disruption dislocation and displacement which had to occur for us to live here we recognize we are on Stolen land that originally belonged to the Ohlone and chupkin and second tribes of the baby walk people indigenous people are still here today working to keep alive their culture traditions and languages we are committed to making space in our conversations for

089indigenous peoples cultural teachings and concerns as we walk in life let's commit ourselves to make space for indigenous people help to amplify their voices and invite them into our efforts and mdusd as we know all know very well today is often compared to other districts but something I've noticed boards around us do is begin their meetings with a land acknowledgment it doesn't have to be as long as this but we could develop one together and make it a regular part of our meetings to honor the land upon which in which we are privileged to do our work and I hope we can consider doing that soon thank you very much trustee and Zoe I really appreciate that and thank you to Laura Nakamura and the Concord Community Alliance to for providing that land acknowledgment I

090think that that absolutely that is something that we can do as a board um and it's appreciated that it comes from the community as well yeah okay all right uh so shall we take this to a vote we'll start with trustee Fowler yes trustee mail yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Xavier yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you very much all right that takes us to item 10.4 review and potential approval of resolution 2122-23 proclaiming recognizing October 10th to 16th 2021 as California week of the school administrator so president count I bring to the board this resolution California week of the school administrator whereas approximately 15 000 certificated and classified school administrators are employed in the public schools of the State of

091California and whereas the title School administrator is a broad term used to define many education leadership posts which include the district executive team principals the system principals special education and adult education leaders curriculum and assessment leaders School business officials classified educational leaders another School District employees so now therefore be it resolved that the Mount Diablo Unified School District joined with the State Board of Education declaring October 10th through 16 2021 as week of the school administrator and commends the many outstanding contributions and services provided by administrative teams in our Public Schools be it further resolved that this resolution be distributed to all schools within the district president count Miss resolution is now in the hands of the board thank you very much Dr Clark do we have a motion on this item do it at

092a president I would move that the board approved resolution 21-22-23 in recognition of October 10th through 16 2021 as the California week of the school administrator I'll second that thank you very much motion by trustee Mayo second by trustee Mason any discussion on this item so I appreciate of course every school administrator who's chosen this profession and chosen this District in which to share their skills and talents and I want to give a special shout out though to our school site administrators for literally holding down the fort during this pandemic I know you didn't do it alone but let me give you your flowers now you've managed empty campuses for months keeping them open for necessary visits or for teachers to teach from their classrooms you prepared your campuses to welcome students back in the

093spring and this August you are contact tracers Logistics experts and goodness knows whatever else you certainly did never never expected on your job description where it said and other duties as assigned thank you for your leadership patience and commitment to the nwsd community thank you very much any other discussion on this item all right I would just like to add my thanks as well um I think from all of us that uh you know I don't know what a school district is without its School administrator leaders especially out at the sites as you said um we've all gone above and beyond uh in so many ways and we appreciate you every single day so thank you and we'll look forward to celebrating you during the week of our next board meeting as well all right

094so we take that to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Zoe yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you okay that takes us to 10.5 review and potential approval of resolution 2122-25 recognizing October as lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer questioning History Month president count we have and we're going to present to the to the board resolution 21 22-25 um October as lesbian gay bisexual transient transgender queer questioning History Month whereas lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer questioning history Americans have made and continue to make lasting contributions to strengthen the fabric of American society and whereas October holds historical historically significant days such as the first national March on Washington and also coming out day so now therefore

095be it resolved that the Mount Diablo Unified School District board recognizes and supports October as lesbian gay bisexual transgender and queer questioning History Month be it further resolved that the Mount Diablo School Board encourages all schools to utilize high quality curriculum and training um training resources such as those attached so with that um president count I put this resolution in the hands of the board thank you very much Dr Clark do we have a motion I'll move that the board approved resolution 21-22-25 recognizing October is lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer questioning month thank you motion by trustee McFerrin second by trustee Mayo any discussion on this item trusty Feller LGBT um lgbtq History Month provides Role Models builds communities and represents a civil rights statement about the contributions of the LGBT community I'm happy that

096our district is putting this in motion and recognizing our students we are here for you and we are welcoming thank you very much trustee Fowler any other discussion on this item trustee and Zoe we know all know how easy it is um to erase history or change history as we see across the country people want us to do that now in our teachings and I think lgbtq history is a perfect example of that I would say American culture up until rather recently would have you believe that LGBT lgbtq people didn't exist like it was a new phenomenon let's say in the 80s but preparing and preparing for today um I only learned this year of lgbtq History Month but I learned today that it's been around since the mid 90s and while pride month gets

097much of the attention it's pretty amazing that this month is not more widely acknowledged and celebrated so like I said in our pride month celebration I'm really really happy for the Times our children are growing up in that this month will be embraced that our students will see that people that they've learned about in history previously um will get that extra layer of knowing that there's people that we already know about in history that are lgbtq and that we can outwardly and purposefully identify them as such as they're learning about the contributions they've made in society and I'm really excited that we live in a community that will Embrace and uplift this history and our current students thank you very much trustee and Zoe uh yes this is the first time this board has proposed

098this resolution to recognize lgbtq History Month um so I'm really excited for us to be the first to do this in our district um and uh just really encourage you know teachers parents students to take a look at the resolution and the resources provided because we often talk about our outdated curriculum and uh the things that are not in our textbooks but there are some really high quality resources out there with ready to go lesson plans and information um there what the one is lgbtq history.org another is LGBT history month.com and the other one is glsen.org is a really great resource out there so these are all things that could be used immediately um you know whether it's a within a classroom or PTA or or student GSA group as well so and I know

099trustee Feller you're well connected with it with the clubs throughout the district so appreciate that all right so with that let's take this to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and zerry yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you very much that concludes our recognitions and resolutions so now on to 11.0 Public Employee appointments Dr Clark yes and um um HR Director Ryan Sheehy is going to take the next two items Unified School District is pleased to bring for your review and potential approval Bruce Burns as the new principal at Silverwood Elementary School Bruce began his teaching career with Stockton Unified School District he served as an elementary and middle school principal for 14 years and as

100superintendent for 11 years in the Moraga School District Bruce holds a bachelor's degree in liberal studies and a master's degree in education Administration Bruce wife is a mdusd guardian science teacher his eldest daughter teaches High School science and his youngest daughter is in graduate school working towards her special education credential thank you very much do we have a motion on this item Madam president I would move that the board approved the appointment of uh Bruce Burns as principal at Silverwood Elementary School second thank you motion by trustee Mayo second by trustee McFerrin we'll take it to the vote trustee Ballard yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board members if you like to come up and introduce yourself and anyone else who might

101be here with you thank you uh good evening Dr Clark and members of the board um I'm delighted uh to be approved uh anxious to get back to where my heart is and that's working directly with students and teachers I'm thrilled to be connected to uh or to work um as a Skyhawk at Silverwood um uh I do want to thank the HR department for a very smooth process um they've been efficient and responsive I look forward to meeting staff parents students learning more about the school uh recognizing it's a distinguished school and uh learning about the successes and building on them identifying challenges and working towards there thank you very much thank you congratulations the TV 11.3 foreign Unified School District is pleased to bring for your review and potential approval Tyler rosecrants as

102the new vice principal at Northgate High School Tyler started his career in education as a moderate intensive teacher in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District for the past year and a half he has been the vice principal at Pine Hollow Middle School Tyler holds a bachelor's degree from California State University East Bay and a master's degree in educational leadership from California State University East Bay Tyler's family consists of of twin almost three-year-old boys and a week old baby girl when not working Tyler is spending time with his family and volunteering as a soccer coach for Concord AYSO for his boys soccer team thank you very much do we have a motion on this item I'll move that the board approved the appointment of Tyler Rosecrans um as vice principal at Northgate High School thank

103you motion by trustee McFerrin second by trustee Mayo we'll take that to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Zoe yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member Tyler here tonight he's probably home with the baby oh home with the one week old baby all right well congratulations Tyler okay all right thank you very much that's all of our appointments for tonight item 11.2 has been had been pulled okay all right that takes us on to reports and information item 12.1 a report from the budget advisory committee Dr Clark I'm gonna have Dr Gonzalez present this item I know I see Mr Langley and Mr Ferrante I believe you're part of this as well if you want to come

104on up you're presenting I would like to introduce John Ferrante and Mike lingley who are both going to present this evening on behalf of the budget advisory committee what we're going to try to do from here on out is every two to three meetings have some representatives from the committee come and bring you some of the information they've been looking at some of the discussions that they've been having and we're kicking that off this evening with the two gentlemen that are going to give you the foundational information about the budget advisory and some of the priorities that we have so gentlemen take it away okay oh can I have the first slide oh there you go it's a lot of trust good evening Madam president board members superintendent members of the public I'm Michael Langley

105a member of the budget advisory committee John and I will be presenting this update I will elaborate as you read your own PowerPoints this committee was formed nearly 15 years ago and I've been a member periodically for 11 years versus A Madea rep that I was appointed by a former board member and currently as a member of the measure J oversight committee the budget advisory committee was born in troubled Financial Times which were relatively worse than our normal Financial troubled times and was designed to give input to the superintendent from a broad spectrum of stakeholders initially it was to consider the lesser of the destructive choices for budget cuts from the options available when the state began partially restoring funding members continued to study budgets but frankly their role was reduced as restoration of programs

106were obvious and championed directly from those who had suffered the devastating cuts periodically when new perceived Financial chokeholds were applied from the state interest in the committee's input increased parenthetically at times the options available to the committee were heavily influenced by who sat and District chairs and helped us guide along there were some who had very narrow choices others gave us broader choices that was actually in parentheses so parenthetically was right currently the with the disruption of covid-19 and the decreasing enrollment and suggested shortfalls we are again on the verge of significance in line d is one of the things we are to provide input on budget enhancements and reductions frankly we don't have a lot of control over enhancements this District gets what it gets and does what it needs to when it gets

107it but again we do become important when it's time to make cuts I mean lighting for instance uh next slide would be this one Community composition as you can see appointees come from board members from bargaining groups and other standing District committees including measure a which is an advisory committee and measure C and J which are oversight committees two board members and two staff members complete the membership of this committee I would like to note that not all positions are currently filled and those that are filled sometimes uh are not attended I am happy to see that there is a new positioning being filled in the agenda today I think concerned groups should review the status of their appointees and uh look at The District's fiscal area on the website and they'll see a nomination

108form to submit for General board approval now that I've given a little bit of history and context my numbers guy John will take over good evening John Ferrante chair of measure Jay Bond oversight and measure c bond oversight um so I I forgot how many years we've been meeting it's been a long time most meetings we discuss the same things because we get new data at most meetings one thing that we do on a regular basis will be training the new members doing a budget is a nightmare so training for members of this board is necessary um when there are budget reductions we do give our inputs actually our inputs are usually asked for it and we gladly give them um declining enrollment is currently a problem because that impacts how much funding we get

109as you all know so that's an ongoing concern the cares act that's new so we're learning about that ourselves uh oh I skipped over the budget development process now Mika I mean that oh that poor lady well there's a lot of work involved there every single year and every year we get a report on what's going on and we get to see how crazy people get trying to get this done in time we always discuss the unaudited actuals and their actuals they just haven't been audited yet they don't change between the unaudited and the audited they're the same numbers but we still get them presented to us we get to review them thick man every now and then they give us a fiscal Health Report we're in the midst of talking with them right now

110getting information and input from them as we do uh site walkthroughs where do I point this thing there we go so coming up we've got a lot of data to look at LPA did all of their work I was involved in some of that there's an awful lot of data there uh we need to compare our district with other districts that are of a similar size to make sure we've got the same facility capability for the same number of students specialty programs those are so changing from year to year to year especially special ed counselors they're here they're there they're here they're gone something needs to be done to keep them here students need those uh data on school allocations we're going through some of that right now um each School site's being given a

111walk through to see who has what on board to determine what they need that will be reviewed by ficknet right yeah that's what I thought I'm old and unforgetful uh we reviewed the benefits programs um we're looking at we will be looking at inputs for music and vocal and Librarians what's the utilization this is a concern from the budget point of view uh utility usage how much square footage do we have that is being utilized for what it was designed for we have classrooms that aren't being used as classrooms what are they being used for well some are being used as computer labs that's good some are being used to storage that's not good but that has to be undone um we'll be looking at more data on early retirement that came up last year

112and I guess a number of people took advantage of that that helps to lower the overall cost but it means you get a lot of new teachers coming in if they even want to come in and we need to look at uh or we'll be looking at data for textbooks and hopefully the proper use of school utilizations bathrooms are a biggie we've heard about bathrooms over and over and over again especially on the major c bond oversight committee they tend to be an issue I don't know how to resolve that and we will continue meeting we don't meet quarterly we meet um beginning of the school year we meet again at first first revised second revised third revise if there are any changes then we meet again and we go over all the data over

113and over again and usually we have inputs and hopefully we can do something positive this year instead of negative that's it yes pretty much except I think you forgot the fact that we've added a lot of meetings so we're pretty much meeting monthly oh yeah but at least we have fun we get to interact with these guys on a regular basis in any case gentlemen thank you very much for being here board members do you have any questions about uh the budget advisory or some of the tasks they're taking on this year I just want to thank everyone that's been involved in the committee the new folks as well as the veteran folks that have served on the committee for a number of years um there is so much information that's available through our fiscal

114department and and uh it's important to folks to understand that uh where the information can be found and to hear uh input from Members like you who serve on the committee um I wanted to share that the budget advisory committee meetings are open to the public and um currently the meetings are being held by zoom and the easiest way to find the budget advisory committee information is to type budget advisory committee into the search bar of the Mount Diablo Unified School District website and the page for the committee comes up immediately and the date are listed there as well as resources like all kinds of Financial Resources through the the State Department of Education and other areas for people to become more and more informed so I would welcome folks attendance at the meeting and

115then of course there's always a public comment section on the agenda for folks to ask questions and then perhaps they can receive an answer later so thank you and since we are a board-appointed committee we do have to follow the brown act so as Miss Mayo pointed out we do have public comment that is required thank you very much and thank you trustee Mayo for pointing out that it is a public meeting that anyone can attend I know there are a lot of questions about our budget and finances right now um so just uh that is a really great reminder to have out there any member of the public is welcome to attend those meetings and ask questions at any time so it's a great resource thank you so much anything else on that item

116okay all right that was information only our next report is 12.2 the ficmat fiscal health risk analysis report next steps and progress monitoring yeah so we just want to know if the board has any questions about this about this process trustees any questions go ahead trustee McLaren um I just have a question because it's come up a lot recently um so on page 10 there's a mention um of 89.4 percent of unrestricted expenditures being allocated for salary and benefits um in the district and that the Statewide average for this is 88 in 2019 to 20. um It also says that mdusd expects to spend 88.2 percent of unrestricted expenditures rather than the 89.4 because of textbook adoptions inflate this figure um and then it says that the percentage we plan to spend on this is

117well above the state average um but it does look like it's about two tenths of a percentage above um above that average um and so I just was kind of wondering if this is something that you can um explain kind of especially in light of hearing that we spend 94 of our budget on um employee salary and benefits so let me let me first of all share what thick map put in its report and I know that some of the board members asked this question so I'm just going to reiterate what was what was shared with the board um so the question that you asked is taking information from a number of different locations uh first of all when you take a look at page 10 which is section 13 13.2 where it says fikmat

118report this is directly out of their report and so what they're talking about is 88.2 number is from the adopted budget where they looked at what we had anticipated paying for salaries and benefits they stated that the percentage of the unrestricted is lower um the excuse me they stated that the percentage of the unrestricted 2122 is lower because we know that we're going to be increasing uh spending this year which means that we would expect to see a little less in the salaries and benefits because we're going to be spending so much more in not only technology but also in textbooks and so it's going to throw it off for one year but then they also brought back that they're going to see it increasing again does that help so your reference to it being

119above the average has to do with not just the the two tenths of a percent but looking at the year after where it's back up to 91.9 that well and not only is that correct but there's more information that is in their summary so this is a snapshot of one thing they said but it it really would have been nice to have a lot more detail and it's found in three other Pages pages and sections of that report so it did make it a little more complicated okay thank you other questions over here no okay all right well thank you very much it is good to see the progress report and I know this will be a regular occurrence for us to be able to see as we make progress on their specific recommendations so

120appreciate that that's available to the board and to the public we will be putting that uh if it's not already on the business services website we'll go ahead and put those updates there so everyone can see the chronology of what they look like the date on the front is the date that we submitted it into the board packet which doesn't necessarily correlate with tonight's date but we wanted to make sure that we were clear about the date that it was it was completed and we will bring this back every two to three board meetings to give you updates and if there are any questions in the meantime any more information you'd like to have we we'd be happy to bring that back as well thank you all right thank you very much okay so that

121is the end of our reports and our board member reports we move to the end of the meeting so next we have 14.1 a superintendent's report Dr Clerk great and I have a presentation perfect thank you so um so first I just want to again review our lcap goals is that all students will receive a high quality education um in a safe and welcoming environment with Equitable high expectations access technology and instruction in the California state standards that prepare them for College and Career and our second goal is is the high quality culturally proficient and responsive staff will provide engage and instruction respectful of all students background to ensure that they are College and Career ready and goal three parents families and Community will be informed engaged and empowered as partners with the Mount Diablo

122Unified School District to support student learning um and then also just just again to reference our our triangle that um really focuses on learning acceleration not learning loss but acceleration social emotional learning and and educational Equity um again that's from our sir report from our systemic instructional review and those are our areas of focus as we continue to move forward so first of all I just want to announce um that tomorrow night at five o'clock um the Contra Costa County Office of Education will be broadcasting live the teacher of the year um celebration and we have we have two teachers who who have been um who have been recognized for this for this um very prestigious award um and they are two of 17 out of the 18 counties County County school districts and those

123teachers are and and we did recognize them in several meetings earlier on last spring but Chelsea Ridenour from Diablo View and also Libby McDonough from Prospect and Horizons that those are our two teachers that are going to be representing the Mount Diablo Unified School District so if you aren't busy tomorrow evening that will be streaming live either on the County county TV station or on their YouTube station and um and we just want to again congratulate them and you know wish them our best I mean they are superstars in our eyes so whether they're moved on to the next level or not they're still um you know excellent representatives for the for the Mount Diablo Unified School District so just want to give them a special kudos next I I want to address as I

124um as I've committed to this board is um I want to continue to have conversations surrounding data around around our students around you know our our efforts and this is our last um cafs data this is from 1819 so so this is our this is our Baseline and um and just real quickly to um to explain what this is on the left hand side you have English language arts and what this what this document shows is that 51.10 of our students met or exceeded standards in English language arts so just to tick over half of our students back in 1819 before the pandemic were proficient on this measurement and again the this is the standardized test from the from the state and so it's one snapshot in time but 51 of our students were more

125proficient or Med standards or exceeded standards as we go over to math and is a little bit lower 39 of our students met or exceeded standards so so again if we're comparing this to to letter grades we would say met or exceeded that to be getting the letter grade of equivalent to an A or a b and um and um not met or or nearly met that would be equivalent to or C or a d so it shows that we have you know we had work to do in this area be pre-pandemic and so we did give the Caps last year um under you know under the hybrid model and I do have those scores however they're encumbered but I will share with the board that they are a couple of percentage points below what

126we have here so so I think as the narrative is out there that there's there was this tremendous learning loss at least by this measurement and by the students who participated in our standardized tests um we are lower than where we were but it's not it's not a double-digit loss it's not a um you know it's right around five percent three percent in both areas so I think that that um you know when when that when those datas are able to be released I will come back to this board and share what that information is students who did take the test last year do have access to their scores so those scores are available for individual families to see and for site administrators and site Personnel to see again when we when we talk about

127cash data we're talking about last year's data and so it's not reflective of the students who a teacher may have in his or her class right now but it is data that is useful and can help guide some of our efforts going forward so just to prepare this board and prepare to prepare the public that I will be sharing ongoing data throughout the year with our efforts just to to keep everyone abreast of student progress another data piece I would like to share and I will be sharing regularly is is our suspension data um you know suspension data is directly related to to campus climate and school climate and I and I know that this is a this is small but but I'll go ahead and read it it's not it's not that many but

128this is from our first month month of school and we had approximately 102 suspensions um these are all separate suspensions separate students so this is the 102 students who were who were suspended um just real quickly Bel Air 2 Meadow homes 3 Delta view one Shore Acres one Sun Terrace one Westwood One Diablo View Middle School 10 Foothill Middle School one Oak Grove Middle School six Pine Hollow Middle School one Pleasant Hill Middle School three Riverview Middle School 14 Sequoia Middle School three the Valley View Middle School four College Park High School 21 Concord High School four Mount Diablo High School four Northgate High School one unacio Valley High School one Olympic High School six Glenbrook 13 Sunrise k-a-1 so again there's a story to to all of to all of these suspensions um what

129are you know what our expectation is is that our site administrators and site Personnel are working with these students and um you know trying to resolve whatever issue resulted in it in a suspension as this board knows we are you know we are under State mandate to to address our suspension data with our African-American students and our homeless and Foster youth students and so this is an area that um again I will be bringing data regularly back to this board and sharing it with the public so that we are all very transparent on our disciplined practices within the Mount Diablo Unified School District again we want to stress alternatives to suspensions we want to keep our students in school we know that our students have um you know had many challenges during the pandemic and

130as they re-enter into school or enter into school for the first time that there are going to be some challenges and our expectation is that we have empathetic and caring adults to to work and mentor and guide those students to making the right choices and correcting the negative behavior and not just applying punitive consequences we as a district apply many punitive consequences we've um you know last year we um you know suspensions before the pandemic were over I actually have that information right here let me give that to you last year during the same time that I shared those um that I that I shared the cast data our suspension data for 1920 was 1690 students were were suspended and so again you know what we're averaging you know over 100 or so suspensions a

131month and that's a number that that we want to reduce by further engaging with our students by making sure that first time instruction is is strong and it's very clear to our students and that acceleration and intervention methods are taking place in each and every one of our classrooms and so again this is data that I'll be bringing back to this board uh every month so wanted to share that just a little pet peeve of mine okay Riverview is one word okay yes okay well this came from uh this came from Aries so we'll have to fix that in Aries because this is not a table that was typed up it just came from Mary so we'll work on fixing that another thing that I'm excited to to um to present on on social emotional

132learning is this was a message that that went out to staff this afternoon and um it was it was embedded in our in our counseling communication but I'll go ahead and read it for those of you who um who may be struggling to see this but the SEL assessment social emotional learning assessment for third through 12th grade students is currently in illuminate communication was sent to principles on September 14th that included the directions and timeline please take time to review teachers will ensure each third through 12th grade student completes the assessment by October 5th so that the data can be available to review on on the October 11th professional development day the student assessment should take approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete online the SEL assessment protocol reports and resources will be forthcoming from

133the assessment research and evaluation department so again we want to assess our students in multiple ways I I shared um standardized test data with you earlier this is another assessment that will be giving students that really measures the social emotional levels of our students so that we can adequately find ways to better support our students or to at least get a baseline understanding of where our students are instead of making assumptions we may we may underestimate how much our students have have been affected over the last 18 months or we might overestimate and so we want to make sure that we have an accurate um you know data point on where our students are so that we can best apply resources to those areas so again these are reports and information that I'll be bringing

134back to this board on a on a monthly basis so with that I'm gonna I'm gonna jump into covid and and um and covet kind of kind of goes into the next item but let me just share a little information that we have on on on kovitz so as we as we present our coveted prevention uh uh program CPP CPP and get so confused with all of these this is um when when over the summer as we were getting ready to start school this was an update from Cal OSHA which really triggers our our CPP our covert prevention uh program and so essentially what Cal OSHA was asking for was that the workplace standards were updated on on June 17th to include requirements for vaccinated and unvaccinated workers and so if you if you recall

135as we were in summer there was rules coming out around if you were vaccinated and you're with other folks who were vaccinated you didn't have to wear a mask things of that nature and so this was just in June June 17th and so of course things have changed since then but this is what the requirement was so as we bring forward in the next item the covid prevention program it's pretty much the same as as what we had last year but there are some there are some adjustments that reflect this Cal OSHA guidance and so just want to bring that to the to the board's attention as as we go into that into that next item I do just want to just quickly highlight our our mitigation factors around Mass um you know as as

136we're going around to schools you know we're still seeing students um you know wearing masks definitely indoors also outdoors I have to say yesterday I passed by Olympic High School as they were as as it was dismissal time and there were students who were a block away who were still wearing their masks as they were walking and talking so I think that the debate around mass is not it's not a student issue right there's others who may have issues with it but it really truly is an effective mechanism physical distancing outside and at lunch time we've talked about that the sanitation you can see the hand sanitizer that we all have in front of us that's throughout all of our schools to contact tracing you know although it's not an exact science we do have

137folks that are doing it it's really all boots you know all boots on the on the on the ground and really helping with this process but a true really is working and our our quarantine guidelines that I know are confusing it continues to change and get updated but we're doing the best we can to follow that and of course our testing options which I'll talk about so testing we have transitioned our testing off of the elementary sites of course you know um in this in this very stressful time of covid you do one thing and then people are saying well why are you doing this why don't you do this and then we do that and then they they get upset about that as well so I have to say we move testing off of

138our elementary sites not because we want to make life difficult for elementary folks it's because at the high schools they can better manage the testing layout and the testing sites themselves so we've tried to strategically place them so if you if you see from this chart we have College Park High School they're doing testing there three days a week Monday Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3 30 to 6 Mount Diablo High School two days a week from three to six Northgate High School two days a week three to six Riverview middle school because of the um because of the high case rates we have Riverview middle school Monday and Thursday three to six we've also added the Willow Creek Center and that's taking place two days a week from ten to five so almost all day

139long we're doing testing down at the Willow Creek Center two days a week and then unacio Valley High School two days a week and you see Wednesdays is at 3 30 and then something new that we just started last Saturday was doing all day Saturday testing at Concord High School from eight to two and we had several hundred parents show up show up for that parents and students show up for that that last Saturday I I have to say that all the testing of top here is for students and staff as we begin to implement the the um the non-vaccinated staff test mandate we are going to be able to we're going to need to be able to accept those folks and and provide an option for those folks to be tested but again this

140is the um this is the PCR test so this is not the the rapid test this is the most effective test that we can give and it's a service that we have been providing for our community and for students since last spring and and there's many many people who contribute to making sure that this happens smoothly so um so with our mitigation factors and we're testing we're contributing to our positive numbers in the county so this is from the this is from the county dashboard and so what this is is Active covid-19 cases throughout the county are at 2107 and um and this is a 38 change over the past two weeks and that's a decrease and so those numbers are very very positive and then the people who were hospitalized in all of Contra

141Costa county is is 126 and that is an 18.6 percent decrease over the over the last two weeks and so again that is um you know that is very good news for us as a county obviously this has to do with with mitigation factors in the county it also has to do with our high vaccination rate um in the in the county and so next slide which I just um put us in there was this these are our Contra Costa County covid-19 dashboard in terms of vaccinations so this is the percentage of residents ages 12 and older who have received at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccine so you can see in Contra Costa County we're at 85.7 percent county-wide that's a great number compared to in the United States as a whole it's

14274.8 percent so so I think that you know we're moving in the right direction all of this is contributing to the next slide which is this is our case rate in in the Mount Diablo Unified School District again we're averaging 28 000 students we have 14 active student cases and we have Stu two active staff cases in a district our size um with students in classrooms with one another wearing math I think you know that we should really be commended for this just in in to compare this in my um in my September first Slide the number was 50 in for students and five for staff so um so again I think as more people you know continue to be vaccinated continue to practice the the the the distancing and and those measures you know

143these numbers are are continuing to improve of course we can always do better and there's more that needs to happen um you know we as a as a district and a board we are gonna you know have to continue to have discussions about this I know that there's a lot of talk out there about student mandates and things of that nature and we will as a board we will discuss that and we will talk about pros and cons and really what that would look like and so I'm eager to to to engage in that conversation however we first have to to address the issue of of Staff vaccinations and and testing those who are unvaccinated and um just so everyone knows that October 15th it's a Friday is the deadline for that to happen and

144then starting October 17th it's going to be expected that all staff members all substitutes all vendors who come on our campus everyone if you're on our campuses you're going to be vaccinated if your staff you and you're not vaccinated you're going to have to submit to the you're going to have to submit to the testing so um so anyway just want to share that I think that that is this is good news I think things are in the in the midst of a pandemic you know we're we're still fully in a pandemic you know these are stressful times there are still hospitalizations and people getting sick from this and we still need to do do more work and Outreach so um so with that I'll open it up to questions before I move into the

145into the next item so is there any any questions or anything I can shed light for on for the board trustees questions you just said um you included vendors everybody yeah so I just wanted to like clarify or accentuate that um is there well so as you know we today my daughter took her picture retake because it was pretty crappy in August and someone um brought up that concern that that we don't know that like that that the photography company is vaccinated or not um is there on this in this instance is there a reason we have to wait for October 15th for vendors for Outsiders non-staff right well we've already made the decision of um of volunteers because we have a process in order to vet our volunteers and we we have them go

146through a process we don't have a process in place yet for vendors and um you know for people like Lifetouch or or things of that nature some if they're working directly with students then we can you know we can start putting that in the agreements as we look for those services but at this point you know we really our main goal is really taking care of our employees and making sure that we have a crystal clear policy and procedures for for staff and then if we're expecting staff to do it then we're going to expect everyone else to do that and then just when you when you think about contact tracing remember a close contact it's 15 minutes um within six feet so again if you're just taking somebody's picture and your the person who's

147taking the picture is wearing a mask and the student is unmasked they take those pictures and you know I would say less than a minute so I think we want to measure things out like that now if you have someone who's coming and doing maybe it's a speech pathologist who's a contractor speech pathologist and they're in in close quarters working on speech I think that's a different story than than someone coming and just doing a quick service so that would be an answer to your question thank you other questions comments I have a quick comment I would just say I think the numbers are really good and I think it's really important because of that we stay vigilant and don't get excited like we did in June and so I just hope all of us

148keep in mind that we don't want to go back there so let's keep doing what seems to be working for us absolutely thank you um and can you just remind the public what what the situation is for student athletes as far as vaccinations so our student our student athletes we've been we're required to test athletes who are participating in in high contact Sports so that would be like water polo football wrestling things of that nature but we've done is we've taken it a step forward and we are requiring all of our athletes to test however if they're vaccinated they don't have to test so that's what we're doing with um with our athletes and our athletes are testing but they're testing out outside of of this schedule here and so our app our athletic testing

149windows are not made public so we don't want to have any confusion with athletes testing with with other students or teachers or things like that the athletes come at us at a separate time okay thank you yeah that's very helpful because I think people were wondering you know what where are we with athletes and that's just one more incentive for our high school athletes athletes and extracurricular so if there's a school play if there's you know the band performance and things like that that would equate extra quicker so those students are participating in testing as well and providing vaccination proof if they want to be excused from that testing thank you yes so there's a lot of incentive for students to vaccinate especially if they're in any extracurricular or sports activities just get that vaccination

150done and that will lower your your length of quarantine if you need to quarantine lowers the number of testing covet testing that you need to do so uh yeah it's great that we have that in place yes indeed thank you any other questions trustees about the covid part of the presentation or or even the earlier part from superintendent trustee McLaren um I just want to say that I really appreciate the data around um our cast scores um and also our suspension data um kind of what you shared isn't surprising to me um kind of given that I don't have a deficit mindset around our students and their learning and I also um recently heard that like kind of a swing of about five percent is never really statistically significant one way or another um so

151I just appreciated that our cast scores are there's just one data point but um but it doesn't you know it just doesn't line up with kind of this false narrative that I'm sometimes hearing um about um learning loss kind of before before evaluating and assessing our students but thank you for providing that to us um and also um I'm seeing in my day job that students are really kind of struggling with kind of the return to full days on campus and so um you know I'm hopeful that our suspension data improves but um but that didn't really surprise me either and I appreciate you sharing with sharing it with us and then you know promising to continue to share that data with us as the school year continues absolutely I think um you know I

152I think as you pointed out students are transitioning back and and it is it is tough but I think you know we also heard tonight that the adults who you know whether it's you know teachers or classified staff bus drivers administrators districts you know district office staff this is an adjustment for everyone and we understand that these are highly charged and highly stressful times for everybody and so yeah there's a there's a lot of stress on all of us we are all feeling it and and I don't want to highlight one group over another and say oh this group is feeling it more because everyone I talk to is feeling it so so I I appreciate you bringing that out because our focus is on the students right first and um and really how are

153we going to work with them on reacclimating them to the to the day-to-day educational process thank you all right I really appreciate that um and also I would say on the Casp and suspension data you mentioned that uh you know that's one of the things that we need to really look at and improve particularly for student for for specific student groups so I'm assuming that as as we move forward and you continue to share the data that you'll also be separating it out by the student groups is that absolutely absolutely and if our if our data wasn't encumbered I would I would present that to you right now but the state has it all encumbered and and just so you know I'll be sharing out and making available to the public uh individual School data

154with all of their groups broken down as well as District data grade level data again it's not in a way to um you know to be punitive about it we we just want to be transparent and share what's going on out there and see in ways that we can continue to support our students and make sure that the programs that we have are doing what they were intended to do and um and really using that as a guide going forward to see we can best support our student and provide the best educational opportunities for all students exactly yeah and I think it'll be really great for us to hear what are those strategies so like you mentioned there's restorative justice there's other things that you can do and so when you bring the data also

155bringing what those strategies are that that we hope over the course of this year will make those improvements happen and what kind of what they look like would be really great to hear thank you okay anything else should we move on all right thank you so so the next item is um is item 14.2 and it's the review and potential approval of the updated covid-19 prevention program so um so that was in your that was in your packet I'm not going to go through it it's a 19 page document it's it's been posted on our website since last spring we just had to update it and part of that process is bringing it to the board so since it's been posted you know for the last five days and um and it's a it's a

156public document I'm asking for potential approval so that we can post it back on our website and put that board stamp of approval on it if you have any questions about it I'd be happy to address those I was going to make a motion that we approve the updated covid-19 prevention program second okay thank you motion by vice president Mason second by trustee Mayo any discussion or questions at this point pretty straightforward process and I think as you explained it's the it's the OSHA requirements that need to be put in there and it's it's not a document that that we we use much more I think user-friendly documents beyond that to be able to share out like you just did where the covet testing can be achieved in all of those other pieces so this

157will meet the requirements of that particular document is my understanding okay shall we take it to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Xavier yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you very much okay great all right thank you Dr Clark uh that moves us to our consent agenda and and I I know that um trustee Fowler had two items that she had wanted to pull so if she will go ahead trustee remind me what those are uh I would like to pull item 15.8 and 15.10 okay any other items from other trustees okay do we have a motion I'll make a motion that we approve the agent uh the consent agenda with the removal of 15.8

158and 15.10 do we have a second a second thank you all right motion by trustee Mason seconded by trustee and Zoe uh we'll take that to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McLaren yes trustee and Zoe yes I also vote Yes motion passes five zero with concurrence from our student board member all right so that will move us to uh consent items pulled for discussion we'll start with 15.8 trustee Fowler um 15.8 is regarding the outdoor education um in elementary school I still remember my experience with outdoor education and I even still remember my leaders names it was an amazing experience that helped build community and Leadership and I'm beyond happy that we're having it this year unfortunate I even hope to be a chaperone for it this year

159for my old elementary school Valhalla Elementary and I'm just beyond happy that it's here I'm so grateful for it it's an amazing experience and I was actually going to pull this item as well and I just wanted to pull it to say that I think any uh program like this that comes before the board is they should attach their uh covet protocols to the contract so we make sure that they're following at the minimum what we're following any other comments trustee Mayo I understand and appreciate what um Miss Mason is requesting however these camps are going to be next spring and they're going to change a lot possibly yeah and I'm I'm voting for it I just think for the time being it'd be a good idea because God help us if another variant comes

160around we might still be here right you're just looking for the depth yeah and the recognition thank you okay yes there was a section on covid-19 but it only had to do with canceling the program if needed so not exactly the health protocol all right great um I think the other thing to of note here is for the district to consider um and it doesn't change my vote on this tonight um but to consider uh which fifth graders have access to Outdoor Learning uh to these outdoor camps and which don't I know that's something that the um mdusd Ed Foundation was interested in in potentially assisting with and there's there's yeah no there's a lot of people out there that are working to find grants and additional funds to be able to ensure that all

161students have access to this um but I think it's something that we we haven't achieved yet in our district um and in a lot of cases it's it's funded you know directly by the parents or by a specific grant for a specific school but there are some schools that don't have access to it at all so I would hope that we continue to really work to make sure that all fifth graders have this opportunity all right any other comments okay so we'll take that to a vote trustee Fowler yes oh I'm sorry did we have a motion let me let you make a motion on that trusty family I'm moved to approve um the independent service contract between Mount diaba Unified School District and exploring New Horizons for outdoor education I'll second that all right

162thank you motion by trustee Fowler second by trustee Mason now we'll take it to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and zabri yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member that moves us to uh 1510 and we'll give the floor to you again trustee Feller uh I wanted to say that I did get my Chromebook today and it did have a Autobox around it so fortunate for those middle school students that it will be protected as well as an insurance policy the access it allows for us in school to Excel and succeed is amazing I know in most of my classes we will be using our Chromebooks every day for instance in my Sociology class we're using it to

163create presentations my AP Stat class we are using it as well for graphing and in my AP French class we're using it for language so it's a great tool and I'm very happy that we have it in our district it allows opportunities for everyone to succeed and with that you could just say the number 1510 okay okay I moved to approve that 2021 to 2022 Penny computers last technology purchases spreadsheet September 1st 2021 through September 14th 2021 and the amount of eight thousand five hundred and eighteen dollars in one cent I'll second that all right thank you very much a motion by trustee Fowler second by trustee Mason any other discussion on this item I would just say um as we're moving forward with the Chromebook rollout um and with the hot spots I hope

164that we are really prioritizing those students who really need um access to the internet to uh to be able to get those as soon as possible um versus other students who may not have that need as much um I know that we're rolling it out as quickly as possible throughout the whole District but I hope that we have that Equity lens uh as we roll it up okay we'll take that to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Zoe yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you that concludes our consent items for the evening okay that takes us to items 18.0 business and action items 18.1 is review and potential approval of the public hearing regarding sufficiency

165of textbooks and instructional materials for the 2021-2022 school year Dr Clark I'm going to turn this over to miss Sachs to um to introduce this item maybe okay here we go um good evening everyone this is an annual uh textbook sufficient it's actually a public hearing to say that we do as a district have um sufficient textbooks two things to note that unfortunately Glenbrook was left off the list it's a very small school but it's an important school and they are sufficient with their textbooks so I just wanted to make sure that that was clear for the record and then also textbook sufficiency means one of two things one they've got their hands on the books this second or it could mean that they are in a truck in transit so the good news is

166that we it's just within a matter of days that we're going to have all the books for all of the students and so this is here for public hearing and for approval all right thank you very much uh so we'll open the public hearing I don't think there are any public comments on this item going going on all right we're going to close the public hearing thank you very much uh I know there's a lot of interest in textbook sufficiency okay all right um so we need a motion on this item Madam president in honor of Mr Willie Mims I moved at the board adopt the 2021-22 resolution 21 22-6 uh 16 sufficiency of textbooks and instructional materials I'll second that okay thank you motion by trustee Mayo second by trustee Mason any further discussion

167on this item all right I I just want to even though that sounded humorous I want to share that I do respect Mr Mims uh constant reminder to school boards around the importance of materials for students and um he always questions us about this and questions whether the information is reliable but um I support staff in the efforts they've undertaken to ensure that our students have those materials so thank you much appreciated trustee Mayo thank you for that absolutely all right we'll take this to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Zoe yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member all right at 18.2 review and approve new job description for special education Information Systems specialist Dr aguili is

168going to take this item okay now it's on thank you so regarding this item we're I'm reorganizing two current positions within our department due to just changes in technology one of which was used to formally manually enter Transportation forms and now those are done online so it's a simple process and certainly it still needs to be accurate so the person is spending a lot of time verifying the data that's input and then the second part about that is um now special education is reported to calpads which is the state single reporting system as opposed to case Miss which is now Obsolete and so the duties have shifted around there more over to the DBA and the person now will be just handling the day-to-day operations so we can combine those two into one position and

169the um job description and the salary accompanies it reflects the importance of accurate timely reporting both up to the state and also back to our department staff all right thank you very much it's very important to update these things and make sure that they align with what the actual jobs are so much appreciated also combining jobs where possible all right do we have a motion on this item I'll make the motion to approve the job description for the special education Information Systems specialist second motion by trustee Mason second by trustee Mayo any other discussion on this item okay take it to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and zerry yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you

170very much all right item 18.3 review and potential approval of revision to administrative regulation 1312.3 and Miss Sachs is going to present these the following couple items absolutely so this may look familiar this has been to you twice before I really want to give a shout out to our federal Auditors that look at these things quite carefully so there are a couple words and and actually a very short paragraph that they realized that was uh unfortunately left off the last version so with regards to the entire document everything that is underlined is what's changed and everything else is absolutely the same and they have assured me this is the last change foreign much appreciated it's important to attend to those details do we have a motion on this item Madam president I moved the board

171approved revisions to administrative regulation 13 12.3 I'll second that thank you motion by trustee Mayo second by trustee Mason any further discussion on this item we'll take it to a vote trustee Fowler yes 50 Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and Zooey yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member to item 18.4 in front of you this evening is a another board policy and regulation um about parent involvement IT addresses not only Title 1 schools but also all of our other schools in the district I would like to thank all of the advisory groups and folks that did provide information to us with regards to changes in actuality we did not make any changes because the input had mostly to do with how we were

172serving families that had difficulty getting fingerprints done or they were mostly questions about covet and how we were supporting our community and our families with covid related issues so they did not exactly connect to this board policy as 60 20 but there are things that our team are following up on and I'd like to recognize Don Edwards and her work with this policy and administrative regulation thank you very much do we have a motion on this item I move that the board approved the revisions to board policy and administrative regulation 6020 second thank you motion by trustee Mayo second by trustee McFerrin any discussion on this item yeah okay I just want to say thank you to uh to all the staff that worked on this um and for your attempts to to get feedback

173through the various committees and groups I know uh sometimes a nine page policy is not something that's easy to send out and ask people to read and provide feedback on um but I think going forward when we have this in place we can highlight key pieces of it with those committees um like I really appreciate number four that really talks about meaningful involvement of parents Guardians and family members um and uh really looking at the barriers that exist to participation with particular attention to those who are economically disadvantaged or disabled or have limited English proficiency or are of any racial or ethnic minority background so um policies like this keep us focused on those needs and make sure that that we are taking those into account and doing everything that we can so I appreciate

174that all right take it to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and zerry yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you okay item 18.5 is that you as well go ahead yes this is ours and these are revisions that were brought to your attention uh information at our Lex board meeting a board policy and administrative regulation 6174 addressing the education and the support of emerging bilingual students or otherwise knows in other districts as English learners but we're trying to change our lexicon thank you do we have a motion on this item Madam president I moved the board approved the revisions to board policy Administration administrative regulation 6174 addressing the education of emerging bilingual students I'll second that

175thank you uh motion by trustee Mayo second by trustee Mason any discussion on this item all right you think none at this point since it has come back to us um do you appreciate the change of lexicon though to emerging bilingual students I think that's something we all will need to uh practice to get used to all right uh let's take that to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee Mayo yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and zerry yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member thank you very much 18.6 review and potential approval of nomination of one member to the budget advisory committee and I I think those two gentlemen here earlier I think they did a great PR for that committee so Dr Gonzalez do

176you have someone who would like to join them in all the fun Harmony Murphy is a nominee for you this evening each of the board members is able to appoint one individual for a three-year term so she is being recommended for appointment this evening by a board member mayo and would be starting a three-year term next week when we have our next meeting all right thank you very much do we have a motion on this item sure I get this stated correctly I move that the board approved the nomination of Harmony Murphy to the budget advisory committee all second up all right thank you very much motion by trustee Mayo second by trustee Mason any other discussion on this item would like to say that the person that I had uh represented at the budget

177advisory committee has moved out of state so I actually have an open nomination so if anyone is interested please let me know all right let's take that to a vote trustee Fowler yes trustee mail yes trustee Mason yes trustee McFerrin yes trustee and zerry yes I also vote Yes motion passes 5-0 with concurrence from our student board member and welcome Harmony yes she's not here tonight I did communicate oh would you like to introduce yourself come on up I couldn't see you would you please stand up and come forward excuse me Madam chair [Music] hi um I am Harmony Murphy I come from a long history of education I taught in Orinda and Brentwood teach music many many years ago and then I taught at college for the last 10 years and due to covid

178and back in the area where I grew up my daughter is a TK student at Pleasant Hill Elementary so I come I come ready to do this this sort of thing fantastic thank you so much Harmony for stepping up and volunteering your time in this important role we look forward to seeing you at the meeting and thank you for coming we had a communication about it and I offered that we would be happy to introduce her to them fantastic thank you and I would like to take this opportunity if I may to thank great Triana for having been my representative in the past to the budget advisory committee he uh decided to step off because his youngest child graduated from college park in June and uh he felt like someone who had a student enrolled

179in school should be advising the budget advisor committee so thank you to Ray Triana fantastic thank you so much trustee mayo and yes thank you to Ray Triana for all your years of volunteering on on the budget advisory committee okay all right so that takes us to our board reports which we had moved to the end of the meeting so let's see who would like to start trustee mcfarian would you like to go first you said did you say no Justin would you like to go first mine is brief for real it is um I just wanted to say I regret that I didn't get to go to the Battle of the Bands this weekend but from one Band Geek to another congrats to all the musicians and their teachers who participated um sorry this

180week I know for myself I'm a Kaiser Member flu shots began yesterday so I assume they began in the world or they begin on Monday so I assume they began in the world yesterday so our county says that every person aged six months and older needs the flu vaccine every year this is especially true this year with covid-19 also circulating widely in Contra Costa County and so for the general public there are public Immunization Clinics there's community community clinics um you can get them at the pharmacies or grocery stores or your regular health care provider for community members who have Contra Costa Health Plan who get their care at County Health Centers they have walk-in flu clinics for Health Plan members um and then for community members who get their care who have Contra Costa

181Health Plan who get their care through the community provider Network um they can get their flu vaccine at Rite Aid or Walgreens from three years old and up and you should call first to avoid long Waits and um of cchp members of all ages can go their doctor to get the flu vaccine and community members with Kaiser should I just went online the whole schedule for every Kaiser location is there or you can call 1-800 KP flu 11. so it's time to get your flu shot and your coveted vaccine so that because this year we're not going to know the what's what how many of us have had colds or colds in our household this month like they're back because we're moving around so the flu will be back so let's try not to like

182confuse the matter and everybody get vaccinated that's it all right thank you trustee and Zoe trustee Fowler would you like to connect um I would like to say I did miss the last board meeting because I did have a sore throat and I did what anyone should do in society is get covet tested I did and luckily it came back negative so very thankful for that um as well as last meeting I was going to honor a suicide prevention month and speak a little bit about it I wanted to bring awareness to mdusd's policy regarding mental health days as excused absences as well as on our ID cards and school website there was a National Suicide Prevention Hotline District Health Services crisis hotline and National runaway hotline some some social media accounts regarding Mental Health

183on Instagram are Mental Health America let's talk mental health and advocating for mental health our students are fortunate enough to have social media or parents who want to take a look at it I definitely recommend so they're great websites as well as Monday I did speak at the Capitol in Sacramento about how covet impacted the mental health students it was a little nerve-wracking I but it was a great experience and I'm very happy that attention is being brought to mental health of students especially during covid as well as clubs so I am the President of the blacks Union at College Park High School I've created a close-knit community of African-American students along with their allies and I believe that implementing clubs like BSU GSA interact into middle schools will create a safe place for students

184to express themselves like-minded students help make friends produce a reposition representation of pupils in need and produce Unity and linking clubs together of all types across our school will also help support the student leaders and broaden the horizons and with that this District student advisory committee that I am in charge of putting together I would like I did send an email uh Dr Clark did send an email she's seeing me um to get students for the student advisory committee of the student side council at their school and contact with me so I can help create that and help create a voice for students in need as well as bring that to board meetings so principals please send me your emails of student site council members or any questions you have at Fowler Ka mdusd.org and

185lastly I did want to point out that going to school during covet is scary I I can admit that but my teachers are handling it very well everyone is on top of keeping their students in check as well as keeping their mask over their nose and their mouth during class which I really appreciate thank you very much trustee Fowler and appreciate you having you back at this meeting we missed you last month or last week last meeting trustee Mayo yes thank you um my calendar was full although um many of the meetings weren't directly associated with Mount Diablo school district for the last two weeks so um I was able to attend the d-lac meeting where uh there was parent input and questions in particular about the board policies that were being brought forward and

186then I was able to attend a portion of the Mount Diablo Education Foundation meeting the latter portion um I do appreciate Dr Clark's mentioning of the teacher of the year event for tomorrow night and uh I hope that many people are able to attend because this is an outstanding event and the the more we support the program the more our teachers throughout Contra Costa County will receive deserved recognition as well as some benefits cash and and different kinds of benefit benefits so it uh it is important to continue that and just for a piece of information that program was began originally by um 32nd District PTA and uh AAUW from Pleasant Hill so it has a long-standing history in Contra Costa County all right thank you trustee Mayo trustee Mason [Music] I attended the business

187Alliance meeting which is still being held on Zoom but I continue to be impressed how that program keeps morphing and going up to the next step that's the kind of program I like I don't like same as same as I like to see you always taking it up to the next Notch but they've done a really good job of and I also was able to attend the parent advisory committee where um superintendent uh Clark got the opportunity to actually meet some of our parents face to face which was nice and I look forward to those meetings in the future and although everybody's gone I'm going to just say that I do my best to answer every email I get um but I will not respond to any emails that have anything to go with to

188do with negotiations because I don't feel that's the board's purview I'm happy to get them because it is our job to collect information and opinions and weigh it but I don't want the teachers to be offended or any other labor group I will not answer any emails regarding negotiations thank you trustee Mason trustee McLaren all right good evening everyone um on Monday I stopped by the kova testing site at um Ignacio Valley high school and I had a mild symptom and so I took an opportunity to go there and I really rushed over after you know finishing my own school day um and so um besides my mistake and showing up right at the end of the school day and getting caught in some school traffic um which you know was my own fault um

189it was a it was a great experience um I was somehow in and out about three or four minutes um which was great because I know that um uh for our students and their families their time is precious um and so I just was glad to see it so well run um and organized and the staff working so efficiently um and competently to um to make this process really smooth um for our community um and uh you know I don't have covid so that's good news I got that news today this morning um you know I didn't think that I had it I just have a feeling that if I even though I'm vaccinated I feel like if I get covered like I'm not gonna you know be off the hook with no symptoms I

190doubt it um anyway um also um kind of I am um looking forward to some events that are coming up um the run for education on uh Saturday October 2nd um through the Education Foundation I'm really excited to attend that um and um also I'm going to be going to a grading for Equity training um coming up starting in November I'm very excited about that um and to see kind of how I can Implement um some of these practices in my uh teaching career and also um kind of use it to inform my lens for the work that I do here um I also really want to um congratulate uh trustee Fowler I was so excited to see you um on Instagram I think it was on the Mount Diablo black Educators Association page um

191uh speaking at the Capitol um so thank you for doing that um I think Mr Harris took you so I want to really thank Mr Harris for stepping up to um to chaperone that trip it's really important work um also I want everyone to know I know there's a readathon currently happening at Westwood um so I just want to cheer on those kids you know reading and getting their money's worth out of me um I'm getting my money's worth out of I'm an English teacher um so I like when kids read um and then I'm also very excited to hopefully um get to see part of the teacher of the year presentation through the county um and um that's that's all I have to share tonight all right thank you very much trustee McLaren okay

192a couple things I got the chance to attend one was the virtual college fair um which for anyone who missed it the sessions were recorded and you'll be able to go watch it on the site um it's strivescan.com mdusd um it was really exciting to hear uh from people from each of the different Colleges and Schools they were so friendly and they were just saying you know we're here to help you we're not here to like weed you out we're here to help you so reach out to us I thought that was really great um and one of the ones that I watched was uh on was I had a whole focus on International Schools so there were schools in Italy Switzerland Japan Ireland and England and another surprising thing was that in some cases

193they are more affordable than schools in the United States so and and oftentimes they also have scholarships so it is something for people to take a look at I would really encourage you to take look at the all of the options from that site I also attended the suicide prevention 101 tools for parents that CDE held and it's on Facebook so you can go back and click and watch that video as well some very useful information about what to look for if you think that anyone in your family or community may be at risk and how to respond um I enjoyed going to as a parent to school back to school nights they were virtual so that that made them more accessible for me to be able to to hop on and meet the teachers

194but I was aware that for some schools that didn't yet have their student Chromebooks or hotspots checked out those parents were not there because I think last year that is how they they accessed it so that's one of the other reasons why I feel like it is really important for us to make sure that we get those Chromebooks and hot spots out to families who don't already have internet at home um and then just spend a lot of time listening listening to our teachers our custodians our food service workers painters locksmiths uh just trying to hear what it's what it's like out in our district and and what we can do to improve things um I spent a lot of time really um hearing about how to support our Afghan families that are coming into

195our district I'm hearing that there are there are we do have Afghan students in a number of our schools and so really want to spread the word that there are resources out there to help right down the street in Concord um off of Treat Boulevard is the nor Islamic Center that has is leading a huge effort Islamic so their website is nor Islamic and culturalcommunitycenter.com they have a big effort that's collecting all kinds of um supplies and and household items for for students and their families and at that Cultural Center they also have classes in Dari and Farsi and Pashto um and so if you want to learn those languages you're going to learn them there but also I think so many of those community members are volunteering and and trying to help make those

196connections um and are willing to to help I know um we have a local parents uh from within our school district that are volunteering as well to help make those connections so do reach out um the Jewish family community services uh organization jfcs East Bay um is a local organization resettling many families as well so so my hope is that um um oh and so and there's also just yesterday I think or the day before there was an article in edsource um about that was highlighting school districts such as Elk Grove and San Juan who have had some really Creative Solutions to welcome newcomers with culturally appropriate meals setting aside rooms in schools for prayer during Muslim holidays uh Saturday school for English Learners and and just hiring more trans translators so my hope is

197that in our district we are being really proactive about that as we have job openings I know we have noon supervisors and campus supervisors and assistants all kinds of uh different levels of jobs that we are really connecting with these groups and these and these families um to hire them into our district and and have more people within our schools that speak these languages and understand the cultures to be able to connect with the students that are coming in um and then lastly just some upcoming things that I'm super excited about one is tomorrow night the Contra Costa toupee webinar is on Tobacco vaping and cannabis everything adults need to know is tomorrow night at 5 30 in English and Spanish um another resource out there um is called no place for hate.org that can

198help you build a school learning community of inclusivity respect and Equity um and that anybody can get involved in that basically every person in your school has a role to play whether you're a student a parent teacher admin staff you just register your school and at this no place for hate.org you can access age-appropriate activity guides research-based lesson plans you form a committee at your school and commit to doing just one project in the year um and it's just a great resource out there some of our neighboring districts have actually been using this for years um and uh and then a couple of two more programs that I want to mention one is um for Spanish-speaking parents The Ninth Annual Faria de education is going to be held virtually on October 1st and 2nd with

199Univision in 19 Sac State and CSU aiming to empower thousands of Spanish-speaking parents and students with information and resources and that's at csus.edu Faria and then I also was very excited to see the UC Berkeley black recruitment and retention center they're doing their second annual free virtual recruitment program registered by October 1st check them out on Instagram at brrc underscore Berkeley and that is it for my board report I did want to say in terms of I really appreciate everyone coming out to to email us or to speak to us both I know the Hot Topics kind of negotiations as well as vaccine mandates um appreciate everyone's perspective and just for everyone to know that we take this all very very seriously and some of it is very complex and so we're not going to

200rush in to you know one of the things that I've noticed is the school districts that have pushed forward with the student vaccine mandate is that they're running into some legal issues some logistical issues it's more complex than it seems so I think it's really smart for us to watch what's going on out there and really consider things carefully before we make any uh immediate moves in those areas so uh we are watching and we are listening we are reading every single email that comes in even if we don't reply to every single email that comes in just know that that we have read it so uh with that Let's see we have a future agenda items did anyone have a future agenda yes right oh I have a couple Dr click so um and

201again this is notice for staff so they know how to prepare for the next meeting um I've been asked that we provide a report on our on our Title One schools CSI schools about um you know our school Improvement plans the academic academic support systems so if we can um we're going to have something ready at the next meeting for that I've also had a request that we do an update on the Hope program so we can hear all about Hope and hear about those services to make sure that we're providing those support for those for those students also I see my HR team still here um we um we would like to present some information to the board and in the public about our District Libraries how many vacancies um difference between High School

202vars Elementary things of that nature so if we can get some information about the libraries and then also on the on the um uh topic of HR also some reports on substitutes what what are our numbers of substitutes that we have in the district how many are we utilizing just just more information on Subs so that we can again be be very public about it and transparent about um about the substitutes and then also I spoke earlier about the need um as as president count have brought up and as trusty and Zay we brought up in in her talk is that there is a lot of information out there about mandating vaccines for students and so I would hope we could um question that we schedule a study session on this topic and so that

203we can bring in the information we can have an open conversation about it and find the what's going to work out best in our district to support our communities and the district I I think we're all on the same page but I think it's the you know the the devils and the details and so really having an opportunity for us to talk about that would be things so so again that's that's what I um got from board members over the over the uh last week of meeting with you all if I've missed something out if I've left something off I apologize and correct me if there's anything I've missed anything else trustee and savory totally stole my offender but I'm sorry around I asked for the because a parent asked me and I couldn't say

204oh like and so I'm like we need to learn but I've also asked about a study session um for vaccines because I I it is fact vaccines are our way out of this pandemic we've been asked over and over again to follow the science um and we can't pick and choose which science we follow I'm really excited that our County as of today is requiring proof of vaccination to enter a restaurant or gym I'm really proud that my daughter was so proud to present her vaccination record to her theater company that she's involved in because that was a required um it's a required location um and she's 12 and above um and so I wanted like whether we follow in the footsteps of of school districts who have already taken that step who I've that's

205actually what I've been doing the last few weeks is learning from board members from those various school districts or we wait for the what I believe will be inevitable from the state um I'd like us to begin preparing ourselves and our community for back vaccine mandates at the school level these aren't new it would just be adding a new vaccine so I want parents to remember that that you already got to school because you only reason you're here is because you were willing to vaccinate your children and so what I'd love to have covered in the study sessions is vaccine safety and efficacy for adults and children the effect of vaccines on reducing Community spread of Coba 19 potential Community Partnerships and education to address vaccine hesitancy bringing vaccine clinics to school campuses and other

206ideas to address access vaccine or test which is what is currently this going to be the state um process October 15th versus vaccine and test the rights of parents and students when vaccines are mandated at school because again this already exists just not for this particular vaccine independent study options for vaccine refusal rights of students who are experiencing homelessness or foster care and options to protect their Community outside of vaccinations so what else can our schools be doing which our district has been doing a lot having on-campus on-site vaccine clinics last spring testing now we're all messed up blah blah blah like so there's all sorts of things we can do but just making sure we're doing everything up to and including vaccination so thank you okay very good so study sessions definitely needs to

207be scheduled um and then we we had two items from last meeting uh to board policies that we'd like to come forward at some point in time one was board policy uh 1313 suggested on civility um to help board meetings continue to be civil thank you to our community we have not had any issues in our district so far but it's a good idea to get that in place and then the board policy on on suicide prevention just updating that with the latest so those are the other two items that are still on our on our list okay I think that's a good list and I think we've completed our job for tonight so with that I will adjourn everyone please stay to sign our documents and with that we will adjourn the meeting at

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