001That's the 5-minute break after all the student stuff. Yeah, that's what I was gonna… yeah. Hi. This is crazy! Be careful what you wish for. Ruby! Excuse? Right, right. Good evening, everyone! Apologize for being late. I call this meeting to order. We're gonna reconvene, and we're going to do our Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Uh, we have a public report of action taken during… We're in the closed session. As described in Board Policy 5144.1. The board determined that the student. 2025-1009. S35 did commit expellable acts and has unan- uh, and… The board has unanimously voted to approve the suspended expulsion. All right, now we have our special recognition. Do we have a report out for, um… Settlement cases, as well? I wasn't given a script for that. I can report on that. I think it's
002just that they were… okay, that's fine. I think it's just that they both… they were both… past, I think both of them 4 to 1. Number, uh, SS2526-01 and SS2526-02. Both… both past, um… 4 to 1. And then the settlement agreement, um, was also accepted by the board. in the Public Employee Discipline Dismissal. Release. Thank you. All right, now we go on. I was so excited about the presentations! Wasn't doing my job. Okay, so we have Student of the Month, uh, recognitions from Kenilworth. We'll start with Kenilworth Junior High School. Oh, no, uh, Ellen. If you don't mind. Okay, that's fine. Come on! Yay! Okay, are you all set? Ready. Go. It's not on there yet? Okay. Kenilworth Junior High School is proud to announce our November Student of the Month, Athena Stewart. Athena's team
003of teachers chose her for Student of the Month because of her positive attitude, incredible work ethic. and natural creativity. Having maintained a 4.0 GPA for both 7th and 8th grade. Great. Athena shines as one of our most academically capable students. I think the famous teacher has many wonderful things to say about her, Mr. Quintua, Athena's. Um, history teacher says, Athena has been an outright pleasure to teach so far this year, and all of last year as well. She is a hard worker, thoughtful, and enters class with a positive attitude unmatched. She continuously goes above and beyond the expectations of her projects with immense creativity. While she may not have the curliest hair, top 3 this year, though. I appreciate her sympathetic laugh. When my jokes are missed. Athena has many interests that keep her busy
004outside of school, including volunteering for local organizations, playing tennis, painting, and various art endeavors, as well as thrifting for fun finds at local donation shops. Athena will attend Crasa Gonde for her high school career and is excited to see where her interests take her. As she starts thinking about her future. Athena's creative eye has. her planning a possible career in interior and exterior design, but she remains open to how her path unfolds. Fenilworth knows you'll be a superstar in whatever you choose to do. Congratulations, Athena. Congratulations, Athena! Can your family please stand so we can acknowledge you? Bye! Thank you. Okay. Dunworth Junior High School is proud to introduce our November Student of the Month, Jax Musselman. This is an excellent student and exemplary citizen. Jax is one of Kennelworth's hardest-working students and one of
005our most exp… Inspiring successful stories. Jax earned a 4.0. both semesters as a 7th grader. And all of this hard work and determination continues to pay off as an 8th grader. JAX determines all. Appreciants? Wait… Jack Teachers all appreciate his positive attitude. Dude, enthusiasm and sense of humor. Mr. Quintua Jackson's history teacher shared, if I could clone one of my students, I would choose Jax Musselman. Jacks can be counted on to have work completed on time and. Be prepared to learn every day. Jax has earned the respect of his peers by being the ultimate team player. Darks brings positive energies to the class. That is not only appreciated by me, but his classmates as well. Outside of school, Jax is a dedicated athlete. Jax has been in… been an important member to both the Petaluma
006Panthers football team. And the Athletic Edge baseball team. Jax is planning on going to Casa Grande High School, and he would like to continue his upward. trajectory. as a student by taking advanced. Advanced placement classes. When he gets there. Jack's also. Jax is also planning on becoming a varsity athlete, Wally Gaucho. After high school, Jax would like to study interior housing design. Kenworth is proud to. Have you as a cold. Congratulations, Jax. Congratulations, Jack. And your family please stand so we can acknowledge you. Congratulations! Uh, now we have Petaluma Junior High School. Please come forward. Our students of the month. Padluma Junior High School is proud to introduce our November Student of the Month, Stella Smith. Stella was chosen as a Student of the Month because, as Ms. Cecchini says, her name says it all.
007She is a star. Stella is a natural leader who always has a smile on her face. Stella never waits a moment between her grueling dance schedule and producing… Using top-tier academic work. Stella lives by the mantra, anything worth doing is worth doing well. Stella's… family is very proud of her as well. They shared that Stella is surrounded herself with books from a young age. Stella is wise beyond her years and demonstrates this through her emotional maturity and empathy. Stella's mom said, Stella is steadfast in her opinions, engages her dad, younger brother, and I in discussions about morality and social injustices. Demonstrating a keen analytical mind and a strong sense of equity. loves meeting new people, and she can. contributes greatly to the positive school community. Stella keeps busy with 6 different dance classes, Girl Scouts,
008baking, and raising money for a trip to Europe. Stella plans to attend college and study psychology, education, or management to further her leadership endeavors. Congratulations, Stella! Congratulations, Stella! Can your family please stand? There you go. Petaluma Junior High School is proud to introduce our November Student of the Month, Nathan Gilliland. Nathan was chosen as Student of the Month because he embodies what it means to be bantam. Ms. Cecchini said that Nathan has a deep sense of personal responsibility, and his dedication to Bantam Broadcast is evidence of this. Nathan is eager to challenge himself, and he goes above and beyond to make sure all of his work is outstanding. Nathan is an active participant in class discussions. He is inquisitive and asks questions to deepen his understanding. Nathan is kind and respectful to everyone he encounters.
009Nathan's family is incredibly proud of his accomplishments as well. Nathan's parents shared that he has always been curious about the world, asking deep philosophical questions as a toddler. Nathan's grandma Tammy even nicknamed him Baby Einstein. Nathan is a self-driven, independent thinker who sets high standards for himself. Nathan says he enjoys the culture at PGHS the most. He said the staff are kind and seem to enjoy. Or seemed to really care about how he is as a student. Nathan said his classes are fun and engaging. Nathan plays lacrosse and golf, as well as the bass guitar. He also likes going for walks and hikes around Petaluma and spending time with his friends and family. After high school, Nathan hopes to attend a prestigious university, such as Stanford or Caltech. He isn't quite sure what he wants
010to be when he grows up, but he is interested in chem… botany, golf, and literature. Congratulations, Nathan! Congratulations, Nathan. Can your family please stand? Wow! Well then, thank you. There you go. Emily's here. We got one. Okay. Okay. I'm proud to present Emily Ventic as November Student of the Month. Emily Benzik is a senior at Costa Grande High School. She loves to spend her free time running with her cross-country team. Reading, listening to music, and volunteering with the Young Astronomers Club. She's a part of the National Honor Society, as well as co-president of the French Club and on the track and field team in the spring. She has received the gold level athlete Scholar in all seasons of cross-country. And track and field throughout her high school career, and twice been awarded All-League in cross
011country. Emily's of the first trumpet in the symphonic band at Casa Grande, and also enjoys performing in concerts. She also enjoys working with children, and every year volunteers a camp counselor for Old Adobe Union School District's 6th grade camp. She works hard in her classes at Casa Grande and plans on attending a four-year college after graduation. Congratulations! Hey guys. Congratulations, Emily. Is your family here? Can they stand? Oh! There you are! Okay, and now we have… I'm proud to present Samia Hakim as the November Student of the Month. Sammy Hakim is involved and is a senior at Casa Grande. She's a co-president of both the Casa Grande Honor Society and her own club on campus, Sugar Society. She's also part of Cross's ASB and Captain of the girls tennis team, and has been awarded for
012being the top 10 of her class in the past 2 years. Samia's favorite thing to do is to go on drives and spend time with her friends. In her free time, she has volunteered with children at the after-school program and at 6th grade camp. In the summer, she has worked as a counselor at a nature day camp for kids. And she was chosen to delegate for the California Boys and Girls State Program. After high school, she hopes to attend a four-year university, preferably at a UC. She wants to major in psychology and hopefully be a child psychologist in the future. Finally, Simeon wants to thank her mom for everything she has done for her. Congratulations. Good luck on your… in her golf tournament, also. Excellent. Okay, Petaluma High School. Our first student of the month
013is Addison, or Addie Lowe. She is very involved in her school's digital media program, serving as both the secretary and executive producer. She is also part of many clubs as the Director of Policy for Civic Leaders of America. Vice President of California Scholarship Federation and a member of NHS and the Astronomy Club. Outside of school. She is an active participant in Sonoma County's community theater scene, where she is an actor, assistant stage manager, and choreographer. She also loves spending time with family, friends, and her two golden retrievers. She plans to attend a four-year university after graduating, pursuing a degree and career in media production. She is extremely grateful to her parents for their constant support. Congrats. Congratulations! Can your family stand? Yeah, there. Great job. Our next turn of the month is Carly Nazar. Carly
014is a senior at Petaluma High School and is currently involved in various activities. She started the astronomy club freshman year, and over the past 4 years has run fundraising events, club field days, viewing nights with donated telescopes, and. Club lunch meetings. She is also involved in the Petalum FFA, and this year is serving as chapter secretary. This past year, Curley again attended Girls State as the delegate representing Petaluma High. Earlier this fall, she played on the water polo team, taking the role of captain. Carly values her academics as she is involved in various AP classes and is currently the. President of National Honor Society. After high school, Carly is planning on attending a four-year university and majoring in astrophysics and political science. Congrats! Congratulations, Carly! Can your family stand so we can. Thank you! Great
015job. Okay, so now we have San Antonio. Very good. Don't be shy. I am happy to announce our Student of the Month, or Student of the Month for San Antonio High School. Angel Munozoriano. When Angel joined us at San Antonio in August, he adapted quickly with the positive attitude. He made it clear that his goal was a speedy graduation. Angel has a pleasant sense of humor and is admired by his peers. He has worked hard to put mistakes behind him, revealing impressive growth in this short time. Graduating on October 31st. Ms. Mcgarry says in the government class, Angel would often ask questions about current events. His active participation and curiosity would lead to rich class discussions. At the beginning of the year, he would tell her that he was nervous to take the government test.
016But he was pleasantly surprised when he only missed one or two questions and earned an A for his efforts. He recognized that he is capable. Of doing hard things. Angel has spoken of plans to learn a trade and family is important to him. In the future, Angel would like to start a family and would love to have a daughter of his own. With this strong word ethic and soft. Motivation, we believe that he will be successful in whatever he chooses to accomplish. Our counselor, Mr. Shinzotto, reports, Angel was laser-focused when he transferred to San Antonio High School. He adapted quickly to our school and took full advantage of the program and credits to graduate within this semester. My conversations with Angel were always engaging, and he would love to talk about how he wants to
017have a successful future and have a career that will carve. carve out a fulfilled life for him and a future family. motivated and confident towards the goals he has for himself. Congratulations, Angel. Can your family stand so we can acknowledge them? Yeah… That's your family, woo! Thank you. I'm happy to announce our other Student of the Month, Tim Porter. Tim has all the qualities you hope to unearth as an educator. He has a keen sense of humor and a natural drive to know and do more. Sure, he is not the biggest fan of fractions, but when no one is watching, he's asking Mr. Stevenson. How to land a spot on the Principal's Honor Roll. Whether he knows this or not, Tim is becoming a leader by modeling virtues of tendency, curiosity, and bravery. This means
018he is actively helping others every day they see him being the best version of himself. Lately, this means conquering his fear of heights by ziplining for the first time, but most commonly, this leadership and helping of others is the form of telling a friend when. An assignment is due, asking for references to put on his resume, and earning perfect attendance awards. Despite having hard days to overcome, Tim has. Tim hopes to be an elevator mechanic after graduation, which is beyond fitting for someone who already knows how to elevate himself. We know he will continue to succeed and raise others up. Tim's counselor, Nikki Jackson, has this to say about him. While Tim has struggled in previous school settings, he has absolutely come into his own here at San Antonio. He has a warmth and honesty
019that is unparalleled. His natural curiosity and ability to stick with something, even when it's hard, makes him an excellent student and school community member. We are so lucky to have him on our school campus. Congratulations, Tim. And your… your family and your school family needs to be acknowledged. Thank you so much, you're all amazing, and your futures are going to be. Spectacular. Um… So, going on to our site report from McDowell School in Dual Language Immersion Academy. They're excited. Good evening, and thank you for having us tonight. We're excited to share what McDowell Elementary such a special place to learn, grow, and belong. This year, we have so much to be grateful for. Madawa teacher? Wait. And then we'll go on. McDowell teachers and staff make everything possible. Our trusted adult team continues to grow
020with new teachers. Teacher's assistants and office staff who bring energy and care. We're thankful for every adult who helped us learn, stay safe, and feel supported. CARE stands for Cooperation, Academic Effort, Respect, Empathy. Safe, wait. Respect, empathy, and safety. Values we live by each day. Our monthly awards recognize students. And to value these traits in our classrooms and playgrounds. Thank you for supporting programs that celebrate character and kindness. program. We create, perform, and build confidence. Thank you, VAPA teachers, staff, and Petaluma City Schools for believing that creativity belongs in every classroom. Great. Say it again. Our meeting perform… Are music… art music and performance help us express who we are, so the VAPU program, we create, perform, and build confidence. Thank you, VAPA teachers, staff, and Petaluma City Schools for believing that creativity belongs in
021every classroom. Our jog-a-thon is one of our favorite traditions. This year, McDowell students. As families and staff ran, cheered and worked together to raise over $53,000. With help from generous local businesses. Our amazing community is a perfect example of teamwork, school spirit, and how much our community cares about kids. We honor our culture and family through the Dia de los Muertos celebration. Colorful of friends and artwork fill the campus in. As we remembered, loved. Loved… loved ones, and celebrate life. We have. had Aztec dancers and… We honor culture and family through Dia de los Muertos celebration. Curf for a friend does an artwork, fill the campus. As we remembered loved ones and. And celebrate life. We had our tech dancers and traditional folklore. Korico dancers perform. Let's not forget the amazing students who sang beautiful
022songs. This event reminds us of McDowell Valley. Values, belonging, and respect for all traditions, we are grateful for our volunteers. families and teachers for honoring this tradition. nature around us. We explain nature on this. Our trips to our regional parks and local preserves make learning exciting and remind us why protecting the environment. Matters. We're grateful to receive the support from Sonoma Educational Environmental Collaborative. This year, or Lion King Jr. Brought the whole school together. Students also learned to sing, act, and dance, and will never forget the teamwork behind it. Every actor and stage helper had an important role. And we are very grateful for the teachers, families, volunteers. And PTA hope the shine on stage. We are grateful to the Petaluma Educational Foundation. We've received two grants that make learning exciting and. Creative. One of
023the grants. Or for new AVER Amplowwave. audio and amplifying systems for 10 classrooms and other will fund books and materials for our middle school classrooms. I mean… oh. McDowell's students and families are on the move. Our walk and roll program through Safe Roots to School. keeps us active, helps the planet. And starts our mornings with energy and smiles. We're thankful for everyone who makes our routes safe and fun. the campus with joy, costumes, and laughter. It's one, it's one more. way our school builds community and celebrates creativity. Our community… Our community garden is thriving. We plant water and learn about responsibility science and sustainability. It's a complex that shows how teamwork and care help living things and learning. Growth, we are grateful to our teachers and volunteers, and Mr. Mortenson for helping us maintain our
024garden. Learning doesn't stop when the bell rings. McDowell offers amazing enrichment opportunities that help build creativity and leadership. Our clubs include Student Leadership Council, giving us students a voice in school decisions. Our crochet club, which helps both focus, patience, and beautiful creations. Our theater club that inspires confidence and teamwork on stage. And our Boys and Girls Club, who provides after-school fun, friendship, and support. In a few months, we will have. Our robotics club. That will help… that will help build engineering, creativity, and teamwork. Well, we're grateful for every advisor and volunteer who makes these programs possible for us. McDowell is proud to be a Genius Hub site. The Genius Initiative genuine… Empathy and nurturing intellect of underserved students. Help schools create learning environments where every child can thrive. Our teachers are learning through the pedagogy
025of confidence and supporting the African American learner frameworks. The statewide work hosted. Right here at McDowell helps schools foster equity. Amplify student voice, and build on every learner's strengths. This year, our dual immersion program, our dual language immersion Academy continued to expand with the addition of 5th and 8th grade classes. Our program brings students together to learn both in English and Spanish, developing bilingualism. The literacy and cultural understanding. We're proud to be a campus where students can learn to think globally. Communicate across cultures and celebrate diversity. Or do language Immersion Academy prepares us to be global citizens. In September, the DLA invited Cherry Valley Vista and PAX to our second middle school dance. We had such a great time at our neon dance. As we close tonight, we want to say thank you to the
026school board, our teachers, and our families for helping McDowell continue to shine. Oh, I think you need to introduce him. That was excellent, excellent, excellent. Okay, this is Victor, he's our therapy support dog. They also call him the vice principal at McDowell School. And I just want to thank you, board members, for all that you have done to support McDowell's School, and it's exciting to be growing. Pretty fast and it's great to see how. larger leadership group has gotten. And thank you to Ms. Nealon, who is… Who is 100% responsible for this presentation, and all of the leadership group. So we really appreciate all she's doing for our school, and we appreciate all of your support, and thank you for letting us take a lot longer than our allotted time. But thank you. Yeah, yeah.
027Well, thank you. You guys did an excellent job. I think McDowell is fabulous, it has fabulous teachers. administration, and you guys showed it. You really did a great job, so thank you. Parents of McDowell students, can you stand? Because they're amazing. Whoops, thank you. Okay, keep scanning. Pictures, pictures, pictures. Are we gonna have pictures? Yeah, so right now, we're going to, uh, before you all leave. We're going to have pictures of the students of the month. Ann McDowell. And then, um, and we're going to take a short break after that for about 10 minutes. Okay, so students of the Month, please stay and come up here. And McDowell, students, please, thank you. part of this group, okay. Some examples of work. Students of the month? We're gonna… yeah, yeah. All right! Going here? Yeah, come
028in here! All right, here we go! Don't get out of the way! I already feel my… No worries. Um, I'll… Okay, okay, yeah, yeah. You guys did great! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. process in Spanish. Call this meeting to order. Thank you for waiting. Um… We are back in session, and we now have comments from the public on special. Oh, I'm sorry. Athletics presentation. I was just going to skip everything, I'm sorry. Athletics presentation! All right, good evening, thank you. Thank you so much. Um, we are here tonight to provide a little overview, um, on high school athletics, and I've got Gio Napoli, Principal of Paluma High. And Erica Noon, principal of Casa Grande High School, with me tonight. All right, so, um, Eric will talk a little bit about the. Numbers at CASA. Hi
029there. Do you want to tell me right… yeah. Gio's trying to help me with the microphone. Um, okay, so at Casa Grande High School, we have a total of 21 athletic programs. That includes 9 girls sports and 8 boys sports and 4 co-ed sports. Um, about 608, um, student athletes participated in 24 25 school year. Um, but 230 of them participated in more than one sport. throughout the year. Um, we have over 90 coaches, paid and volunteered. Coaches, um, that support our programs. And 39 total teams across all… of the programs, and I don't need to read. all of them for you. Um, but that's… I believe all of them. Swimming make the cut? Yep, there it is. Yeah. Alright. Uh, good evening. Um, so at Peloma High School, we, uh, similar numbers, um, slight.
030differences, uh, 27 programs total with 663 athletes. Uh, 90-plus coaches, um… including volunteers, that's an important factor there. Um, and then 43 total teams of all different levels. Um, and as you can see, one of the big differences is that we have a water polo. Um… because Costa doesn't have a pool yet. Yeah, I said yeah. Uh, but yes, uh, so there's… there's some slight changes in what we offer, but not very different. Alright, uh, so the next thing that we, uh, are presenting here is just a little bit about what we do with our coaches and, um, how we support them and run our programs, so… Um, at each site, we have a .4 FTE athletic director. Um, who really oversees all of athletics, works with the coaches, makes sure parents, uh, makes sure
031parents are getting in and signing their kids up on time. Uh, making sure that the student athletes are cleared, uh, throughout the year. There's a lot that goes into. To the job, uh, much more than I just shared. Um, and one thing that our new coaches and even administrators are able to, uh, participate in is an NCSCIF training. It's something that. our overbody, uh, overseeing body, uh, helps and supports with. Um, and I just remembered, I apologize, I didn't say this earlier, um, also our athletic directors are able to participate in a NTS-level AD. conference, it's like a one-day thing that they do. So it's an additional piece to it all. Um, and then over the years, things that we've done, um… for a variety of reasons. Uh, we've had, uh, we've had a working
032relationship for a few years with Positive Coach Alliance. Last time we had them in was in 2003. Uh, sorry, 23, thank you. Um, we do have annual coaches meetings, so at the beginning of each year, and then at the beginning of each season, we meet with our in-season coaches. to prep for the upcoming season. Um, and then, uh, throughout the year, whether it's administration, whether it's, um, our athletic director, which it's mostly our athletic director. Uh, we'll be doing, uh, periodic check-ins with our coaches, even off-season coaches, connecting them for the. upcoming seasons, planning for the future, and working with them to help run the program. Okay, so, um, moving forward with athletics, trying to improve our… we're always… Always trying to improve our offerings for our students and our families and community. Um, and
033one of the things that, um. Tyler at PHS and Katie Peshota at CASA. Um, participated in just recently is the Bullying Prevention Train the Trainer. training put on by Olveus, did I say it right? Okay. Um, and that… They are going to take what they learned and teach that to the rest of the admin coaches. Um, and, oh, and, uh, John Antonio, our athletic director at CASA also participated in the Train the Trainer. Um, but that's coming in the spring of 2026. Um, inside of that Olveus bullying prevention training is the team captain development, so part of that training is really to develop. Our student leaders as upstandards. upstanders, so that it's not always just up to the adults. in the community to help prevent bullying and deal with that as it comes up. Um,
034so that's a big part of the… a culture shift that we're looking forward to with, um. Within our athletic teams. Um, and then finally, we are working on developing a, um, cross-school PCS. um, athletic handbook, coach's handbook. Um, PHS has one, we have a version of one, but they're… a lot of the content is the same, but we're really working hard to, um, solidify our crosstown. processes and policies so that they're the same regardless of site. Um, so that's something that we're working on this year. Um, it would include district policies for transportation safety and so on, but also. Um, try to support our coaches in. helping our students with mental health. Um, behavioral challenges and, um, anything else that might come up. For, for our coaches. Um, in the spring of 2025, we administered,
035um. an athletics experience survey to both CASA and Petaluma High School, and so these graphs just show the total responses for each of the high schools, how it broke down by. the number of parents who filled out the survey and the number of students. And overall, the themes that came out through that was that. Um, but the athletics are viewed positively by students and families. The coaches were recognized as welcoming, respectful, and supportive of athlete development. Um, there was a lot of, um… willingness to recommend and advocate that more students, um, participate in athletics by encouraging their friends to join, highlighting satisfaction and confidence in those programs. And then. There was also a lot of open-ended feedback around, um. praising coaches as positive role models and fostering community and growth. There were areas for improvement,
036which we'll talk about. One of those being clearer communication, academic balance support. Can't see that one down bottom. Um, and ensuring that… but I remember it… ensuring that there's clear communications around schedules, practice schedules. Um, and ensuring that all voices, athlete voices are heard. This was the first time that we, um. elicited feedback in this manner, and it's one that we want to continue. We also asked athletes and families to rate their overall experience, the coaching experience, and so we've broken that down by school, and they were very, very similar. Um, describing their experience and aesthetics is largely positive. Um, and. That many respondents highlighting that coaches were welcoming. respectful and supportive of athletes' personal growth. And then this comes back to that advocacy and sort of spreading the word around, um, you should participate
037in athletics as well, and so that willingness to return. The percentage of students at PHS and Casa Grande, um, that they would play again, and if they would recommend their, uh. sports to peers. So, moving forward, we want to continue to foster positive culture. Again, this comes. Back to the work we're doing around Alveus bullying prevention this year, and making sure that we're aligning practices across both sites, improving that communication. Um, around practice schedules and expectations, but also this culture, creating this feedback culture that at the end of the school year. We really are eliciting and acting on feedback that we receive from our families and our parents. Well, that's it for athletics overview. Any questions? Thank you. Do we have questions? I have a question about, um, you mentioned that you did the positive
038coaching? But not since 2023. So is the bullying… prevention's supposed to take the place of the positive. Coaching? Okay. So, the, um, PCA, the Positive Coaching Alliance work that we did was through our league. It was not through PCS. So, um, they're not related that same way, um, so, um, the Vine Valley Athletic just. Excited that as a league, we wanted to put more emphasis on sportsmanship. And, um, in both the community, the students, and the coaches' experience, um, and so that's where that decision to lean into PCA came from. So that… that year that we did that work, there were student. Um, uh. What's the word I'm thinking of? The student… we chose student leaders from schools all across the league. And they all came to sort of a seminar where they gathered together
039and did the training together, and then we did the same thing with some coaches and, and, um… other adults that work with our programs. So that was back then, and it was paid for out of Vine Valley Athletic League. Um, but this… the Olveus training is different. Um, because it's through PCS, not through the league. So is there other… Thank you. Oh, go ahead. Sorry, just to add to it, um, so we worked with the Vine Valley for the… for Positive Coach Alliance, but… as a district, we also did it, and our two school sites, um… paid for that, so that we could… Provide additional training. Um, uh, specifically around implicit bias with our coaches. So we… this was, like, still kind of in the Zoom era, so we had a lot of Zoom meetings
040with coaches from both sites. Um, to have that. So that was… I don't remember what year that was, a couple years before that, we had this training. And then the base now is a new one that we're working with. So is that bullying prevention for the students, or for the coaches? Is that… and if not, then what's their professional development? It's for the coaches, so the… so Tyler Aftab and Katie Peshota, um, along with, um, John Antonio, athletic director from CASA, were trained in the. the train… the trainer model, and so they will disseminate that training to actually all the faculty and staff at our comprehensive high schools and our coaches. Um, I have a question about improving communication. Um, clarity around practice schedules and expectations. I think there should be something in there about.
041transportation. Um, and maybe at the beginning of every sport season, just. that need… I think that needs to be reviewed. Could that be part of the handbook? Yes. And it's part of… I never know when to step up. Um, it's part of our… the pre-season coaches meeting, all those transportation policies are going over. at those meetings. Thank you. Um, I was just… I just had a couple of very quick questions, um, about, you know, I'm glad to hear that you're going to continue it. I was wondering if you had a way of. Increasing participation. And, um, and then I was wondering about if… If the results were broken down by sport. You know, they were, um, they were not. Broken down by sport. Could we do that? We could work on enhancing… yeah, we could
042work on refining the survey as it goes out. I think it's part of a, um… You know, an assessment of coaches. And of our… of our system, and whether the things that you are training the coaches for is actually. effective. Yeah, it'll allow us to disaggregate the data in a better way. Okay. And, uh… improving communication. Around practice schedules with the other question that you had? What was it? No, it wasn't… oh, no, no, just improving participation. Oh, in the survey, yeah. Wasn't huge. Okay, you know, got it. You know, it would be nice to have a little bit more, and then just aggregate it by sport, for sure. So I did have a follow-up, so it sounds like you're gonna do the survey again in the spring? And then, how will we ensure that
043the outreach is greater? Because I did hear, just through the grapevine, and just, you know. People complaining through the normal channels that not a lot of people got the survey. Both students and parents. Yeah, I think it went out pretty late, and so I think now that we've done it one time, we have some lessons learned around. the communication, the outreach, obviously refining some of the questions on the survey, but I think we could. We could lengthen. the outreach time, kind of like, we have Youth Truth for a full month, how do we do some, um, advertising and disseminating this is coming, and then opening up. That time period for wider… a wider length of time. So, yeah, we can definitely improve upon that. And getting it out there, and I can work directly with
044our. high school admin, um, around any specific ideas they have to enhance those… increase the touch points. Would it be possible for it to go out to not just the. parents of athletes and the athletes, but to the general community, because when we think about. Like, barriers to… The sports, you just mentioned participation. Oh, you're talking about participation in the survey. I thought you were talking about participation in sports. Um, because there are a lot of barriers, so it'd just be interesting to ask. Why do you or your child. not participate in a sport? Is it… You know, the suggested donations? Is it… the equipment to play? Is it, um… I could go on, I don't want to, but I could go on, just about all of the… yeah, all the. financial barriers as well,
045um, just so we can just get some feedback on how to. Um, engage more students in the sports programs. Sure, we could do some, you know, surveys. monkey and other surveys have… you could do some logic branching and. If you don't participate, here's the set of questions we have for you, so we could definitely… We look at that. Okay, yep. Yeah, thank you. And we'll stay, because for the next… This is a start. This is a start, yeah. This is a good start. That's a great way of looking at it. Thank you. Okay, now we have, um, moving on… Yeah, we're gonna invite Paige to come join us. Oh, so you all are still up there? Okay, we got a couple tonight. So this is a 5-star passes and bathroom practices at the Comprehensive high
046schools. Yes, so we'd like to do just a little update, um, on. Uh, the hallway pass system, the bathroom. past system at both of our. high schools, and so this year, we are using five-star digital pass system. across, um, our high schools as well as our junior highs have access to it, and so we want to talk a little bit about how we're utilizing this. Okay, um, so, uh… The quick history of this is that Peloma High, we've been using Five Star for a few years. Just recently started using the Hall Pass system. Um, last year, CASA had a different system, but this year, in alignment, we are both using Five Star, so… We're at different stages of use of the program, but we are both utilizing the same program. Um, so part of the
047reason why we, uh, chose to do this was be. Uh, it really was a response from the year before of just students kind of wandering the hallways and having a better system for not only. helping to control that, but also having a better system for trying to keep trying to keep in touch with who's in the classroom and who's not. Um, and so we… it allows for a streamlined process where technology is utilized to be able to see who's out of the classroom. Um, our administrators, our student advisors. Um, can use a device and actually see who's been checked out, and then as they're patrolling. Um, they can use that to, um… to check on them, so things that they might be checking on are, like, we have this… it comes with a built-in timer.
048Or we could set the parameters of what that time is. Uh, we can control the number of kids who are leaving per class, a little bit better. Um, and then also, um, one… Well, I'll let… I think it's in the next slide, so I'll skip it. Um, so it… so it limits the number of students, um, through the process and being able to watch that. Um, behavior management piece is good because, um, if there are reasons why a kid shouldn't be leaving the classroom, we have the ability to actually, like, block their pass. Um, for whatever reason that may be, that we've determined that there needs to be a limit in how often maybe they've abused the system, maybe they've done something that they shouldn't in the hallways. Um, etc. Um, but it also allows
049us to control, like I said, the timing of it. So, like, at each site, we're doing a 7-minute pass, but we can also build different types of passes. to allow for more flexibility. And then, um, all of this is kind of connected to that real-time oversight, so we can walk the hallways and actually look to see who's been checked out, and if they're over on their time, so… It's a… it's a neat system that we are, um… that we're working with and improving the system every single time. Thanks. Can I ask a question? I have a concern about controlled capacity. So, are you telling a kid who has to go to the bathroom that they have to wait in line? Before they can go? No, it's more so, like, um, if we have, uh, I
050think that's more so connected to, like, behavior issues. So, if we have two kids that are often meeting in the bathroom, or they've got. in trouble for some reasons, we can actually say, well, this kit's checked out, so you can't go yet. Um, it's more of, like, a response to behavior than it is about limiting access to the restroom. There we go. Okay, so the basic procedure for how a student would request a pass, that's what this slide's about. Um, the first thing they would do is ask. like, is this a good time from the teacher? Because if they're just about to jump into a direct instruction, now might not be the best time. And that being said, a lot of teachers, many teachers handle it differently and at different sites, too. Um, more in
051the senior class, it might just be an understanding that. I'm just gonna make my pass and go, and be responsible for my body, whereas freshmen might be dealt with a slightly different way. based on maturity levels. So they would ask for teacher acknowledgement, they go into their five-star program on their Chromebooks, not on their phones. on their Chromebooks, they sign in to… through their Pet K-12 email address, they, um, create their haul pass. then it costs at least, um, and I believe at PHS as well, they leave their device at, in the classroom. Whether it's at their own seat or at the teacher's desk, or in a designated spot, they go and do their. their business. Um, some classes still have a physical pass that they take with them. Like, teachers like to lean into
052that sometimes, like, I know Hugh Bucker has, like. Skull, like a. There's, um… They take their physical past cell phones as… because they're bell-to-bell, they're in the pockets the whole time. Phones are not supposed to be with them. They return within 5 to 7 minutes. We also have a 7-minute limit on our passes. Um, and then when they come back in, they close their pass on their device and get back to it, whatever they were doing before. So, quick question? Oh, yes. Uh, about what device? They're, um, they're Chromebooks. Not their phone. Not their phones. They do not use their phones. Did I say… But they can use their phones. No. They're in the pocket, bell to bell, no phone. If they're not in their little pockets. technically speaking, can they access the Five Star
053through their phone? So… Any device that connects to the internet could work. I was just in a class with seniors. And they were going, how can we go to the bathroom next year without cell phones? They use their Chrome… so, at CASA, we have… Use, use, we. They do the kiosk model, they'll get to that at the PHS slide. But at CASA, we actually have it blocked so students can't use their phones. To create a haul pass, um, because they're not supposed to have it. Um, they use their Chromebooks only. Um, they do have SmartPass on their phones for their digital ID. So that when they go into a football game or something, they can show their ASB sticker to get into a game. But they cannot build a bathroom pass on their phones, only
054on their Chromebooks. That's at CASA. Um, okay, so using our respect, safety, integrity, or RISE expectations. Um, that's how we built out our agreements about how to use Five Star and how to attain bathroom passes. So, um, Five Star really helps us to minimize disruptions when requesting leaves, because students can take care of it on their own. Um, integrity, we are training our kids, hopefully, to use the past responsibly, um. and take care of their own needs that way. Um, safety, this really helps us. to see who's out and who's not. So if there was an emergency, a fire drill, or a real fire, or something happened. We would know exactly who was out of the classrooms on a pass. And then, um, it encourages them to make it snappy. Get there, do your thing,
055and get back to class, because there's a 7-minute timer. Otherwise, there's a lot more lollygagging. Um, so, addressing misuse of passes when we notice that kids are out too long, my discipline secretary and our student advisors can see who's out and who's expired passes, like, way too long and multiple times. And then we can start having those conversations with them about. being responsible with their needs. Um, and then the number of passes, just to clarify, they get assigned. Two passes every day. Um, and… when… if, let's say, Johnny comes to the teacher and says, sorry, I've used my two passes, but I gotta go, teachers can absolutely override those. And let a student go at any time. Um, and then on top of that, we have it built in, and I think this is coming,
056but for students that have. Certain medical needs, 504s, IEPs that require extra bathroom privileges, that can be built in at an individual level. Um, so, uh, Petaluma High School, we, uh, have, uh. Similar type of agreement, just slightly formatted differently. Um, so, uh, our expectations, uh, be safe, be respectful, be responsible. Uh, we ask teachers to monitor how many kids leave per classroom at a time. 7-minute max is what we've agreed on for a normal bathroom pass. Um, if kids want to get water, bathroom locker, they can use that same time to do that. Um, and then, uh, physical pass with the classroom ID, so… All of our teachers have some sort of physical pass, and so we just asked our students to… we asked the teachers to still have them have it. Um, because
057when our campus supervisors are walking around, it's really great to be able to see the visual of that. Um, because it's not, you know, like, checking it on the thing is one thing, but walking around and seeing kids in front of you. is another, so when they have that pass, they know the teacher gave them permission to be out. Um, and then addressing, uh, addressing the misuse of the pass, um. So, a lot of this will happen with our discipline secretary as well. Sometimes it'll happen with just our student advisors as they're working with kids. But we'll give them a verbal warning. There may be apparent contact if we're seeing it. Um, same thing with Step 2, it's all trying to change behavior and not necessarily be extremely punitive. Uh, and then, um, if necessary,
058we get to a place where we feel like we have to escalate behaviors. we'll have that, you know, discipline referral to the admin discussions, um, conferences. Uh, if necessary, detentions. And then again, it also goes back into the system where. We may limit when they're allowed to go, or whatever that may be. So there's some different things there. DOSI going up here. So, safety and supervision, this is a hot topic. With our… With our bathrooms, because. Um, they're private areas, and so it's hard to supervise an area that's meant to be private. Um, so our campus supervisors, or student advisors, and our administrators are actively supervising restroom areas regularly. Especially break and lunch when everybody's out all at the same time. Um, we have assigned… phones where different people are, are… watching certain areas, and
059they get to know the kids that hang out in those areas and start to build relationships. Um, our student advisors and admin are actively looking for vandalism. Checking for disrepair in our bathrooms, checking for cleanliness, and reporting that as needed. Um, and then we're also looking for large groups, like, um… there's no reason for 20 people to be in one bathroom at the same time. Um, and most of the time, if there's that many kids going into one restroom at the same time, they're up to things that they shouldn't be. And it's not really using the bathroom at that point. Um, and mostly we don't see that during class, that's only during break and lunch, because there's really not that many people out all at once. Um, we don't see 20 in a bathroom during
060class time. It just doesn't happen. Um, so we're watching and… and supervising and taking kids in to have conversations as needed. Um, and then utilizing that 5-star system for movement through class time. Um, some current challenges we have are… 7 minutes might be insufficient when using… Like, if the bathrooms are full or out of order, I know Jessica was talking about that during our meeting, but. I haven't noticed that. We don't usually have full stalls. Um, bathroom as a social area, students huddle, especially in the wintertime, because it's really cold out, so… And our campuses are all outdoors, so people hang out in the bathroom. warmer in there, um. And then both sides are short-staffed right now for campus supervisors, so it's hard to cover all bases at lunch and break. Um, so some potential
061improvements. This has all been coming out of conversation with our, um, with our student board members, and. Um, at the site level as well with Esmeralda. And, um, one of the things that we're… We were looking into is a notification system, sort of like what. Paige talked about if you are… you only have 7 minutes, and in the bathroom you get to, happens to be locked down because there's a. Um, a leak, or something happened that required repair, um, you might not have enough time to get to the next bathroom and then get back to class. Without the 7 minutes expiring. So, um, they looked into, um, we were working with tech to see if there was a way to alert when bathrooms are impacted or unavailable. But so far, we haven't been able to
062find that solution inside of Five Star. The second one is making sure that our substitute teachers are trained or understand how our system works. So that they can continue to support our students in getting their needs met. Um, especially for our students who have special needs outside of a normal. Um, situation, um, reminders to our student body, we are always reteaching, teaching, reteaching expectations of how we act. When we're out in the world and in the bathrooms. Um, I know at CASA we're looking at some videos back in… when we come back in January to reteach expectations, especially around bathroom and hallway use. Um, and then the last one, number 4, kiosk. I know PHS has a lot more kiosk. setups than we do currently at CASA, but we are looking to. um, develop more
063opportunities. And the kiosks, um… the setup is where a teacher would have either an iPad or a Chromebook or another. computer system where students would sign in and out on that specific device, so it's a designated device for that. signing in and signing out, so they wouldn't use their own device, they would have… they would just go to the door, put in their student ID number, and build their pass and go. So, more like a kiosk option for Five Star. So, um, that would help with the substitute teachers also, because. independently. So. Any questions for us? So, just to clarify, um, if… if I… if I rose… if I raise my hand. Is there a way that you as a teacher know that the student actually. put the 5-star request in. I can talk about
064Catalina. Yeah, at CASA, the student actually… most of the classes, the student brings their device to the teacher's desk and leaves the device on the teacher's desk. So they can see it. It's open. Um, we were running into it, um, some issues where if the student left their device at their own desk. kids would come in and mess with it. Um, other kids that weren't. In the bathroom, so it worked out better for the device to just. get dropped on the teacher's desk, so it's kept separate, and then the teacher can easily see, oh, there's a computer on my desk, I know somebody's out. Um, and a lot of my classes, even… we don't even have computers out, because, like, MacBooks are super distracting. It's basically a phone. You can text, use the internet, do
065everything, so… Um, it's actually interesting, this is my first year where we have no computers in, like, any of my classes, everything's on paper, which I actually love, but… We usually just… I don't even raise my hand, it's just… senior classes are a lot more mature, so I just walk over to the… Um, some of my teachers have iPads, so you just put your number in, and then you walk out. It's pretty chill. You go back and… Put your number in again, and it, like, closes your path for you. And then… Like, if you can tell if someone's out because it'll stay on there, or some teachers have, like, a plushie where, like, you turn it inside out and it's red, and you turn it the other way and it's green, so you can… I
066just, like, look, and if it's green, then I go to it, but… Yeah, seems to be working well. I like it. Thank you. Perfect. I don't have a question, I just have a partner who's been subbing at CASA and saying it works pretty well, and he's surprised. But it works well, so… Yeah. I have a question, actually, a couple, but, um, how this relates to the academic component, because I know we've talked. For a few years now about. how teachers are still tying… Like, not using the bathroom. To, like, extra credit and things. At the secondary level, so… How does… how does that tie into all of this, I guess? That's my question. I don't really know how to answer the question directly, because. Um, I know that that was a practice a few years
067back. I don't feel like I've seen it, and if it's happening at Peloma High, then I'm not aware of it. Um, I do know that there are some teachers who will use. Um, like, as more of, like, an encouragement to not be out of class often, but not as a restriction to being able to use the restroom. Um, and so, like, what Paige said is, like, yes, it's maybe something that still exists. Um, I haven't directly heard that that's a problem. for kids to be able to access restroom. Um, so it would be interesting for me at my site, to learn a little bit more about that. I also just want to say one other thing, because I feel like, like, there's, like, a little bit of something that's happening, so… Um, we're not perfect
068with this system either, I want to be very clear about that. Like, there are some teachers that are still using a paper and pencil because. Um, and that's why number 4 is an important piece. It's like, having the kiosk option takes the pressure off the teacher to have to check a kid out every single time. Some of our teachers, especially our senior-level teachers. Um, you know, our upperclassman teachers have a little bit more confidence in what the students are doing, so it's a little bit more of a trust. Um, system. It's definitely more utilized with our underclassmen. Um, but ideally, we would move to a whole school process, so everybody using the same system. I just want to be clear on that, because I feel like that's not being addressed. So, no, we don't know
069how this is… No, but I think if that… I mean, we would certainly want… we don't want to tie. bathroom use to an academic component, so I think that's something we should look into and make sure that we're. working collaboratively with our staff to make sure that those two things aren't tied together. Yeah, and then also I want to know, um… I still see some All Ed folks in the audience and up here, um, what are the… I'm putting on the spot, Greg, sorry. And Ruby, what does this look like at… the alt-Ed sites. Well, at San Antonio, we use almost a similar app. It's called SmartPass, and from there, either we could make the pass on our end. And we do the same, we just… like, show the teacher it's visible to them, so
070they are able to see it no matter what time. Or we also could just raise our hand and ask the teachers to make us a pass on their end, and it's… For example, we get about 4 minutes, because our classes are. Really slick. close together, so we don't have to go traveling across the school or across places to have to use our restrooms, but. It works the same way as in Putumahai and Casa. Thank you very much. That was really interesting. Uh, okay, so next up, we have the elementary math common assessment update. So I get to update you tonight on the, um… There we go, get to update you tonight on the work that we have been doing on the. elementary math common assessments. So, um, I know we've been. working on this for
071a bit, but just as a reminder. Um, the purpose of common assessments. So the first is just around consistency of learning expectations and creating an equitable environment where regardless of what school you're at. you're held to the same high expectations. So common assessments allow us to measure mastery of standards. To monitor student progress, um… They provide common data for collaboration, so teachers are giving the same assessments and can have common conversations about. Um, about instruction and, and using those assessments to inform instruction. So, common assessments give us a shared language for understanding learning… student learning, not to rank, but to respond. So, um, our… 24… I'm realizing I should want my computer, so I'm not turned sideways. Um, so just to review last, um, what we did last year, um. Last school year, 24-25. So
072we have two different assessments and different groups working on these for. Kindergarten and second grade last year was the first year of piloting a common assessment that a committee had. chosen, um, and working with, um, with Josh Dice. the previous year and so they piloted the assessment, they, you know, input the data into Illuminate, which is a system that teachers are still learning to use. We had 2 district-wide grade-level meetings, so we went to one site and all the kindergarten teachers met, first grade, second grade. Um, and those meetings were facilitated to give teachers the opportunity to review their data and talk about what instructional changes they were going to make. And then during that year, the K-2 math committee continued to meet. They were the ones that were designing the agendas. And ideally, there
073was one committee member to lead each of the, um, of the grade-level meetings, so they led in collaboration with the principals. So for grade 3 through 6, they were basically a year ahead of K2, so they had already piloted. And so they were, um, implementing, um, the Common Assessment, which was Math Annex. And then they also participated in those grade-level meetings. We did not have the committee meet last year, um, because that work was. Not done, but it wasn't an ongoing meeting at that point. So then, after last… so, you know, in the spring. Um, I was hearing a lot of feedback about the K-2 assessment. And so I did a survey, and this was the feedback. Back that came back to us. Um, they did find having a common assessment valuable. Um, and it
074was a one-to-one assessment. Which is difficult, it's very time-consuming, but it let them hear the students thinking about each item. That was really one of the strengths. Of that assessment. Um, they appreciated time to collaborate with their colleagues. And, um, it gave them an opportunity to use Illuminate and to have a reason to learn to navigate it. Some of the challenges were they found that the assessment was not aligned with the, um, with the curriculum or with their report cards. So they felt like it wasn't as relevant as they wanted it to be. Um, the windows were too close together, so the test assessments were given right on top of each other, so they couldn't even see a student. had grown. Um, they, um, because it was. Not, you know, it was not the most
075advanced platform, and so… and it was not an online administration, so it didn't kind of give you the… The ability to just press a button and get all kinds of data reports. Um, and then, um. And then, you know, some of the grade-level meeting facilitation was uneven, and so some of them felt like they needed stronger facilitation. So, at the same time that spring. As we were collecting that feedback, the state let us know that we were going to be needing to. Um, implement a reading screener, a reading difficulty screener. And that came on very quickly, and they told us we had to adopt something by, I think it was last June. And so, just as we are hearing that there's work we need to do around the K-2 assessment, we're also hearing, oh, now
076you're going to have to launch this whole other brand new assessment. And since it's elementary, right, these are the same teachers, right? So we're not having different teachers for different content areas. So, the same teachers that are doing the K2 math assessment are having to launch this new reading screener. And so, we decided to. Go ahead and put a pause on the K2 math assessment. So that we could take the time to talk about, okay, where do we go with this, and focus on. The reading screener, which we, um, had adopted Dibbles. And, you know, the one thing I want to stress about this is that it's still common assessment work, right? So the plan was to do math. And we ended up doing, um, you know, reading, but it is still the same work.
077It's still having a common assessment. common expectations. Looking at the data together, grade level meetings. informing instruction. So, I really believe that we're still moving forward in. supporting teachers to engage in that kind of collaboration and that kind of thinking about instruction. Um, so, in terms of next steps. We, um, the K2 Math Committee will, um, debrief. Well, I'm sorry, we did debrief, we looked at the feedback. Um, and what the committee really wanted to do is look at other assessments. They felt like. There's other people doing this fork, you know, let's… why do we have to reinvent the wheel? Let's see what other people are doing. Um, and then, um… decide whether to… we can… can we revise what we have, or do we need to do something totally new? And so, at our
078next meeting, I'm bringing back the research that I did about what other districts are using. And then we will discuss that and talk about how to move forward with that K-2 assessment. Yeah, um, if the assessment isn't aligned. with anything, then it doesn't seem very useful to me. I think the teachers would agree with you. So are you… so are you looking at other assessments that may… be more appropriate for… Yes, more aligned and also more often, right? Having an assessment that you only do twice a year. That's really hard to have that. Inform your instruction. Mm-hmm. So, in terms of 3-6. Um, so also in spring's prize, Math Annex got acquired by Amplify. So, that kind of threw us for a loop, like, okay, and so now at this moment, we don't have any
079way to administer the test that we had decided was going to be our common assessment, because that platform went away. Um, at the time that I did this, um… I didn't know as much about what was happening, but I know a little more now, and the news is better. Um, so we did reform the 3-6 math committee, because obviously. We need to have more discussions after finding out that the company was acquired. Um, I did, um, speak with Amplify, and it turns out that they acquired MathAnex because they wanted the test. So the good news is they have… they took the test, they updated it, they put it in a. kind of a fancier platform that does have the bells and whistles of the. reporting features, progress monitoring, um, so it sounds like a promising
080possibility. Um, so they are… Amplify is going to come to our next math committee meeting. And present, um, the assessment, and my hope is that we can. just roll forward with it. They're willing to give us it for free this year. So that gives us a really great opportunity to test it out and hopefully just keep moving forward with the work. And that is it. Any questions? So would we… would they also be able to do the K through 2? I'm kind of with Ellen and confused about what… how this assessment came to be that isn't… like, I thought teachers were the ones making the assessment, so how is it not. in line with what they're teaching. So they, um, the committee selected an assessment that was being used in another district. Oh, okay. And
081the, um… so what the committee. reflected, because I wasn't part of it at that time, right? But what they told me was. The hope was that the assessment was going to really engage teacher… students in higher-level thinking, and it was. kind of ambitious, right? It was… Um, very open-ended, rigorous questions. But part of what that meant is that it didn't align, and so she felt that, you know, this person in particular. felt like it had really gotten away. The years… in the years they were working on it, they had gotten away from the alignment with the curriculum and the report cards. Um, this test at Amplify, um, has, um, purchased slash developed. does extend K, um, K6. So it is a possibility that we could use it for all of elementary, which would be amazing.
082And then that would happen when, like the 26th, 27th school year? So, my, um… So, I definitely think we need to get a group on the 3-6 in the spring. I don't know if that's every… I mean, hopefully that's everybody. I mean, I have to talk to the committee about that, right? But we definitely need to really get a good sense of what that looks like. Um, and then maybe in the fall, um, 26… 27. Um, we would be looking at K2. The DIBELS implementation has been really challenging. It's very new. And so, trying to do something else on top of that, I think, would be… would be too much. I think we really need to focus on. on Dibbles and learn how to do that well, because it's also an excellent tool. It gives
083really good data. I'd be happy to share about that. with you at a later point, but I think we do Dibbles this year and then K2 next year. I'm just… have some… so many concerns, because, um, we've been talking about potentially doing a common assessments since. Back when it came out, like, February 2022? And then just, like, looking at the dashboard, the new data that just came out. Um, we're in red for our ELs. Our long-term English learners, students with disabilities, and then, uh, orange for… Our Hispanic identifying, homeless, and socioeconomically disadvantaged in these groups just keep continuing to fall in the math category. And so, I'm just like, so where is the urgency? Um… to serve our students. It's been almost 4 years. And, like, these children deserve to have the same education as
084everyone else. About it. I don't know if somebody else might answer. Superintendent Harris, somebody. Because, um… I don't see how we can just keep waiting to do this. This has been a long time, and how many times has Ellen asked for an update? I'm tired of hearing her ask for an update. So, it's… there's so many concerns. That if we keep putting it off. Can I respond if you say something, Matthew? Yeah, well, I mean, I just, I share your urgency, and I share your dismay about the dashboard, um, and… Um, and the fact that we have to do something, like, that's not… There's no… we have to. Um, I… again, I do… I know that. We are… we have more need in math in terms of performance. And in terms of academic performance. Um,
085I do think… so the Dipples is really about foundational skills. And there is something real about students' challenges with reading affecting their ability to perform well in math. So, I do strongly believe that if we work around literacy, we are going to see gains in other areas. And if our students don't have those foundational skills of phonics and phonemic awareness and reading comprehension, like, that affects. everything. And so, I do believe it's really worth the time to implement this DIBELS assessment well, and again, I think it's going to help. us build that culture of, let's look at data together. Let's talk about these results together, let's talk about how we improve instruction. Um, and, and. we are gonna have… my envision is that we would still have a team piloting K2. This spring. I don't
086see us being able to go full scale, but certainly there's got to be a group. That is piloting, and the committee talked about that as well. Right, because there's been money set aside in the LCAP. For years, for common… Assessment development and so then to see it's still not. being implemented or prioritized. And I 100% agree about the. the ELA as well. My kids… I went to a school that did dibbles, so… And they are excellent readers, and I know it's benefited them. So I understand that as well. But… this conversation about the common assessments has. outdated the conversation about the dibbles. So, I… I guess that's just my… I'm just concerned that this is gonna get put off. For even longer. And it will outlast at least 3 of us on the board, and
087then, um… I don't know, I just… I just have some concerns about how long it's taking. And our student performance. This is not okay to see these numbers. And then we're also seeing it affect our graduation rate. just all of the, um, all of the engagement in climate. Data… So, it's… I do want to just echo that, I feel… Like, math is the… absolute wet blanket. Kids can't get through it in high school, kids can't get through Math 1. I know juniors still in Math 1. My mom is a resource specialist. Some of her kids can't get through Math 1 third time, like. It starts so early, and by the time, even in middle school, if you feel like you can't do math, you just don't do math, and. So, I think math is a
088super important thing, and it's… there's a big disparity. I even noticed it just from. Witnessing at Panama High between the groups that are succeeding in us. And just, I mean, so I just want to add… Yes, the Bull's K2, like, the M-Class assessment is… is very important. It's linked to math because. when you start to… the older and older students get, the more language-heavy the math is, and so. You can almost, you can get to some 3rd, 4th, 5th grade assessments. And math assessment. that if you don't have the reading skills, you're not going to do well on the test. That's all aside. I'm… I share your… the frustration that we have… I've talked… we've been talking about this for so long. to get common math assessments going. We have, I mean, multiple years. And
089I remember it was about 2 years ago, before I left. When we had a group of teachers up here and said, okay. We don't want to do math annex, we want to do our own math assessments. We said, okay, we'll give you the year. do the… get… pilot it, try it, see how it works out. This was more… 7, 8, 7, 8, 9. And if we don't get it done, then we need to implement mathematics. We need to get something started. That has been now two and a half… two and a half years. Two and a half years. So, we… I mean, I… I share, like, we have… this has to get started. We know this is one of the missing links in our district. Talked about it five… almost 5 years ago. that we…
090I mean, this is not like a… a novel thing that we're trying to do. This is… every district I've ever been in or talked about successful districts have common assessments. Not because we want to… Don't get me wrong, it's not about testing kids, like, we want to test kids to death. That's not what we want to do. We want to have time for teachers to talk about. best practices and learn and grow from each other. It's not about the test. It's about best practices for teachers, it's about aligning students, it's making sure that our expectations for students. at CASA and Panama High. And San Antonio are similar for the… a similar course. To make sure that math instruction at McDowell and Grant and Pengrove and McKinley were at a similar… were having similar expectations for
091students. I mean, it's very… basic, basic stuff. We need to, we need to move this forward. So, 3-6 is going to be doing the math… is going to be doing, um, an assessment, so… Gloria talked to me this morning that the. assessment that's up here. that we have been doing is… just because the company was bought by another company, they're still… they still have that same or similar assessment that we should be. that we should be putting in place. Um, K2, I understand. And, I mean, it is, it is what it is, but 3, 6, and then what we should be doing is moving into. Math 1, looking at our… Our 8th grade accelerated math, right, across the district. We've got 8th graders who are doing Math 1. Our freshmen are doing Math 1, looking
092and seeing how does that. How does that align across our district, and what are our expectations for students? Paige is right. Math 1 is a huge stumbling block for a lot of students, and you have students. take it over and over again, and so then… backwards planning from the Math 1, looking at. How are we preparing students to be successful in Math 1, especially with new graduation requirements, 7-period day? I mean, the expectation is that students aren't going to be. cruising through Math 1, Math 2, and I mean, I have… two daughters who are in Math 1, Math 2 right now, it's making me, uh… sweat a little bit, helping them, helping them with their math, so… Um, yeah. It's… I'm… I'm… I share the… the urgent… the urgency and the frustration that this hasn't…
093this hasn't happened… happening fast enough. Well, and this did come up when we talked about. adding the third year of math. The question was, well, what are the supports going to be for this third year of math? Because students are having. Hard time getting through the first two. And so now here we are with 3 years of math, and so I'm still asking, like, what are the supports then? Can I add something? Yeah. Um, when I went to the Petaluma High School, I actually took a math support class my sophomore year. Because my first year was pretty hard. But once I took that math support class in my sophomore year, that really helped me, like. Open my eyes to what I was doing in math. And I was finally able to understand Math 1. Right
094now, it's San Antonio, I actually have a great math teacher. He teaches me a lot about what the actual life is about. He teaches about credit cards. And he actually goes into… That's about math not only, but like. the curriculum wants us to know, but like, what. Well, it's actually about life, like, what you need to know, you know. And I feel like those math support class, maybe if we make them bigger or if we extend more of them. Maybe it could really help our students? Great. Um, I… Gloria, I'm… I'm… I'm puzzled, also. Um, because it sounds like we had 2 years of piloting or doing something with. Case through 2. And then, because they… The program didn't fit with. certain things, we just decided to not do it. I just am… is that
095right? I mean, and now we're not doing the common assessments at all. Because of the DIBLES program. I'm just kind of puzzled why we spend all that time for 2 years and then it's just done. Um, why can't they do both? And just wait a year before you pilot another. kind of test, just use the test. As a practice. For common assessment practice… best practices, right? I mean, then they can continue to have some kind of data even though it doesn't work into their standards or. I don't know how it doesn't work in standards, but… Um, or their report cards. Does that make sense? I mean, it seems like I am totally. Flummoxed by this whole thing, um, and so… and I just keep looking at that data that, that we all see. We can't
096go through another year of just, oh, let's do a pilot. We've done it. If that's going to be the result of a pilot, is to do nothing. Then let's get rid of pilots and just implement. them to everybody. and just see what happens, because to just get rid of it at this point seems. irresponsible on our part, at least for me, as a board member. So, um, can… is there anything that you can do to maybe. Or that we can do to maybe… get this going a little bit better. So… Yes, I struggled with this myself, um… both in terms of understanding, sort of, what happened, and why did… how did we spend so much time and end up with something that, like, so many teachers are saying. This isn't useful at all. Um, and
097so… I also struggled with. losing that time and the work that was put into it. With an overwhelmed. number of teachers saying, this isn't helpful. And… do we keep going forward with something that teachers are saying isn't helpful? Right? They're not… it's not helping them understand what students know and are able to do. Um, and a reality of. Those are all one-to-one assessments. And they require, so last year we provided 2 sub-days. For the teachers to do the assessments. So we were doing… so it would be two sub-days for the math assessment. One day for Dibbles. Potentially another day for second trimester Dibbles, plus the elementary math… the elementary common… the elementary assessment day that teachers get. So now we're looking at potentially 5 sub-days. So part of it was, honestly, it was logistical and
098budget of… Um, how much time are we gonna… pull teachers out of teaching. to assess and how much money are we going to spend. I think for second grade, there can be an argument about students. being able to work independently enough to do a one-on-one test. Kindergarten, early first grade, no. That's… that's just not… as a former first grade teacher, that's just not realistic. and assess… I mean, obviously, they looked at different ones. Why pick one? That doesn't… go with… With the report card and all that. I mean, why choose that? And now you have to get rid of it. That's what boggles my mind. I thought the elementaries were. on it. And, and so to hear that they picked. an assessment, because we didn't impose that, they picked it. And they picked an assessment
099that doesn't work. So that's my confusion. It's like, how did that happen? And I… I wasn't there, so I can't say for sure, but what I've heard is that it is sort of a philosophical, like. being more, um, yes, again, just that rigor and the… The frame… there's, like, the frameworks. And mathematical thinking, focusing on mathematical thinking. Whereas our report cards are more about, like, students, like. Performing on more concrete skills. And so, they went that way, and. the teachers… at large felt like, no. this is what's on the report card. Why don't we have data about this? And I think that's why the new committee is saying. let's just, like, can we just buy something? Can we just use something that's already out there? Because I think they share that frustration of what happened.
100So, let's just use something that's already out there, and let's get going. So they also want to just move. They don't… I don't think the current K-2 committee does not want to create something new. their preference, from what I… sort of what I heard was. They want something that's already out there. That's gonna be online, good data. That they can just move forward. Okay. So then, in that case, why… can we implement that in the spring, then? You know, I mean, just… choose a program. of it being a common assessment. I think it's possible to pilot. I don't know. So, um, about having everybody. LK2 doing it when they're still. Learning Dibbles, I… I… yeah, it's… it's always that balancing act of, like, how much can people do, right? Um, and… What do our students
101need, right? It's… I definitely think, like, a pilot for the spring is doable. Okay. At least we can get something. Did you have a comment, Ben? Um, so first of all, Glory, thank you for the update, thank you for, you know, I think listening to some frustration that's been built up, um… I, uh, I am… I don't have the full background from the last 4 years on how this has developed. But what I'm hearing is that… Um, there's direction from the, I think, the board on… we want to move forward versus… another pilot, or another 6 months to a year of studying. Um, I'm also hearing from you, the logistics of… K1 of being. quite tough. So, um… I would, uh, question whether. rolling out for just second grade. is a potential… step forward. Um,
102I also want to acknowledge, um. What I've heard that Dibbles is quite. You know, uh, tough is a completely different program from what we… We were using beforehand. The state only approved, what. 3 or 4 programs, and the one that we just got, I think, Unified as a district on, uh, was not part of that, so that is… I get it frustrating for the teachers. Um, but if we are going to move forward, you know, I'm trying to think of ways that we can do it with the capacity. Um, if it's less, um… Uh, I think… Or more doable for just 2nd grade, I'd be interested if that is an option to move forward, and then continue to roll it out. You know, um… Uh, through first and K in the next year. And I
103think, yeah, thank you, thank you, um, Trustee Williams. There's also… There are ways of doing this. It's not about, like, let's add more work on or more tests for… for the teachers, like, there are ways through the curriculum, even, just, we all agree that here are the essential. that lines up with our report card. to do, because I'm not trying to give a bunch more extra work to. To teachers, there's some things that everyone's do. Or… can agree… can… we can come to some agreements, and… and… Um… common assessments can look very… are going to look very different in… that K2 area, K2 land versus, uh, you know. Math 1 assessment up in 9th grade, 8th or 9th grade. Um… Anyway, I think there's a way… I think there's a way forward, particularly if. teach,
104you know, it sounds like it's… it's how do we… how do we get… the biggest… the biggest hurdle, I think, is. Finding… cutting and carving out that time for the teachers to meet, because. When I look at the presentation that you shared. A lot of the pros are getting to work with… because articulate some of our smaller schools, right? If you're the… you only have. One for, you know, pure… First grade teacher or maybe there's a 1, 2 combo as well, it's also getting some time with your, your colleagues at that same grade level. to be able to have these conversations. And I mean, as a… former teacher, you know, teaching… I used to teach first grade. I used to teach third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. meeting with my colleagues in Southern California, like,
105we always… we had common assessments. It was… I found it so valuable, the time with my peers, looking at. the same assessment, around the same time. Anyway… I think there's a way… there's a way to do this without making it a. a huge burden on teachers. That's not what I'm trying to do. I think it's actually really valuable. I found it. incredibly valuable as a teacher, so… Yeah, and I don't think it was ever initially… Thought of as being this huge. Onus on teachers, so definitely. Okay, well, I think we need to move on to the common assessments for secondary. Oh, are you doing it? Oh, dear! Oh, really? So, I will just say, um… Thank you, Whitney, for your… Thank you. …pinch-hitting for, um… Uh, for Ed Services, for Amy Fidi, who's not here
106today, um, but… Whitney, our principal at Kenilworth, is on… just recently joined the committee with, right, this year or last year? This year, um, with Amy, and so they're… co-facilitating it, yes. And so, I'm providing an update while she is. trade-off, right? Here we go. Okay. So… I want to provide a little bit of background, um, on the. secondary math committee. As Matthew said, I am co-facilitating it with Director Amy Fidigi this year, and we've held 3 meetings. But prior to our three meetings, I wanted to provide the background on last year, and a few years back. So, over the last few years, the Secondary Math Committee. has identified 8 essential units across 5 math courses. So for Math 7, Math 8, Math 1, Math 2, and Math 3. They identified 8 essential units for
107each of those courses. And within those 8 units for each course, they identified. 2 of those essential units designated for common assessments. So this work provides a foundation for increased collaboration within the math teachers and alignment across our secondary math programs. So that's where we started. This year, we've held 3 meetings. So far this year. At the first meeting, the committee reviewed. Viewed the work in previous years to ensure that Amy and I were up to… fully up to speed on what they had done over those 3 years. At the second meeting in October, we examined big picture CAASPP data. To understand the overall student performance across the district. strict. And at yesterday's meeting, just yesterday, our third meeting, um, we reviewed the essential units and discussed the next step, defining the essential standards and
108understandings for each unit. So that all teachers have a shared, clear expectation of what students should know and be able to do at the end of each unit. This has become, um, we had a longer discussion yesterday in our meeting about the shared understanding, because with the essential units. the teachers on the committee said, okay, we identified the 8 essential units, we're ready to go for a common assessment. But really, that was just identifying the state standard. And so, what do we want our students to know about each of those standards and be able to do by the time that they're done with that unit? That is the essential information, and that essential information creates the foundation for our guaranteed and viable curriculum. So for Mass 7, we need to have an outline of everything
109that our students are going to need to know and be able to do by the time they complete Mass 7, and that needs to be cohesive across the district. And so sometimes teachers are like, you want us to produce a paper where we have all this stuff? No. We're putting all of their shared understanding down so that everyone has those common expectations. And so, not only is that great for our Mass 7 teachers, but it's also essential for our Math 6 teachers. For our students coming into junior high, essential for our Math 8. Teachers to know, and so the whole process really blends in the vertical articulation so that we can make sure our students are prepared not only for that level of math, but for the next. And 2 and 3 levels on from
110there. So, the secondary committee in this work in the first couple of meetings. really has spent time clarifying the purpose of common assessments, and I know that's not going to. Be welcomed news, um, given the last discussion, but it was really important. to talk about the common assessments, that the common assessments are not the end goal. that we're not doing that just to have these common assessments and say that we have them. The common assessments reinforce the most essential standards, what I just talked about. Our guaranteed and viable curriculum so that we all know and can articulate to students and to parents. what students have to know versus what's nice to know, that we can guarantee the have-to-knows are going to happen in our classes. And then, if we have time, we will get to
111the nice-to-knows. They also, the common assessments, again, not the end goal, they are the tool that we use to support collaboration. among our teachers and reflection on how to best meet the learning needs of our students. One of the conversations that we have is, okay, we have the standards, we all know what we need to teach. But if we really focused on teaching all of the state standards that would actually take, if we're just looking at high school, that would take about 13 years. If we were going to try to teach those. So it is our job to really look at what's essential. And how are we addressing those to meet the learning needs of our students where they are? The common assessments, again. Can we discussed are important because they shift our conversations from
112intentions and impressions. 20 years, oh, I'm pretty sure that most of my class knows this. And that most of them passed the test. Instead of that, we're shifting the conversation. the evidence-based discussions about student learning. So we're using those assessments for the tool, and these are all the things that we've been talking about in the committee, and I know that the panel knows, but I wanted to make sure you had an update on all of our discussions. And ultimately, we want to use the common assessments to align practices across. every single classroom, every single site in PCS. So all of our students have equitable access. to essential content and high expectations. One of the areas of concern for teachers is that that was voiced in the secondary committee, is that this meant that we wanted
113them to be lockstep. None of this is about teachers being lockstep. It's not even about them using the same exact instructional. strategies or materials, but rather that we are working together so that every teacher ensures. the essential learning outcomes are what's emphasized in our classes. So, that is what we are discussions have been the basis of. So, where are we getting for next steps? So, with those discussions… The, um, secondary committee has not produced. Any common assessments? So far. So, our task, Amy and I, to come in and really get this thing moving for this year. And so, our first step. started yesterday, and we are going to work at the January PD Day. Our committee requested time for our secondary teachers to meet. We are going to focus on Mass 7, Math 8, and
114Math 1. As Matthew said, the Math 1 being bridging between our junior highs and our high schools. We're going to take those 8 essential units, we are going to then define the essential skills. And content that our students need to know and be able to do on January 6th. Then we are going to use that information in order to help us use the smarter, balanced. interim assessments as common assessments this spring. So, the Smarter Balance. Um, interim assessments are free to all California educators. And they are broken down into 3 different types of interim assessments. The first one is the interim assessment blocks, the IABs. Those focus on a larger group of targets, 3 to 8 targets per IAB. And they… and each of them have between 10 and 18 items, which we can customize.
115So if we want to use it more as a summative or group, a couple of the IABs together as a summative. we can do that. We can also use the FIABs, the Focused Interim Assessment Blocks. as formative, common formative assessments as well, because those. um, are 1 to 3 targets. And so they get even smaller into the standards, and they are a total of 10 to 15 items. There are some hand-scored IAVs. and FIABs, but most of them are… it's a computer-generated. Um, test for the students to take, and it is scored instantly, and it breaks down the data for the teachers. It gives the overall class performance. for above standard, near standard, or below standard, but it also breaks down each student's individual scores. It also breaks down by question, so that we can
116see that on question 10 and 11, none of our students got that correctly. We used that to inform our instruction. So I introduced the, um, IABs and the FIABs yesterday. at our secondary math committee meeting last year, I guess in the spring, they were trying to get access. Um, to those to determine if they were going to use them, but I am working right now on getting every teacher access to the interim assessments. But right now, they all now have the tools for teachers. in the Smarter Balanced website, so that they can use in order to prepare students, and as we're going through looking at the standards, what we need to include in those. because we know time is the one resource that we don't have enough of, and education, our teachers were concerned about
117when we did do admit… administer an IEB or the FIAB this spring, when were we going to all be able to meet? to analyze data, and so that's when we decided that we would focus on grades 7, or Math 7, Math 8, and Math 1. And we would use a common assessment, and then use the. March PD day to really dive into the data. and spend that time going through that first common assessment with the data. walking them through the process so we can make sure that they get a taste of the process and then administer a second common assessment. Later in the spring, so then we could replicate that process again. And I think I just did all that. We will, um, support. Um, all of this work on our spring meeting dates, we
118will meet on January 6th, then we have a committee meeting on the 26th, March 2nd, March 30th, April 27th, and May… 18th. That doesn't mean… we talked about yesterday, that the entire committee needs to meet on those dates. We may just break it up and have one for BMAS 7, so we really dive in to the IAB or the FIAB that they're going to use, another for Math 8. and the next for Math 1. We also talked about potentially getting together virtually on a Google Meet to analyze data if we needed to, to discuss, to pre-plan, so that we could really be flexible with our time, because our teachers didn't want to be out of the classroom in order to do all of this work. And so, to make it successful, to make it doable
119this spring semester, we're going to break it into chunks. Thank you. Question? I am… I just got an email earlier today from a constituent who's a math tutor. Um, and she… pointed out a lot of good things, I'm not gonna try and quote everything she said, but. I want to make sure that we are using our assessments to. Do instructional alignment and evaluate curriculum, because if. you know, 90% of 11th graders don't know one thing that they should have known. it's probably not on teachers, but we need to figure out a new curriculum, or… Something, right? Like… If… what is the threshold of us? realizing that something's wrong with what we're teaching or how we're teaching, um… I mean, she was saying that there are high school students that don't know their multiplication tables. That
120there are students she's working with in 11th grade that don't know how exponents work, but they're getting A's in their class, so… Um, I mean, I think she's writing out in the opposite of her… Self-interest, like she's trying to. get herself out of a tutoring gig, um, if all of our students are excellent at math, so… Um, I just wanted to voice that, because I'm not sure if she was able to come tonight, yeah. And I think that's where the essential really digging down into the essential standards and everything that. for that unit, what do we expect our students to be able to know? And then when we give a common assessment on that. analyzing the data, going back, seeing where the gaps are, but also really then saying, okay, is this. going to be
121important, and looking at it as far as leverage is concerned, too. Is this a prerequisite knowledge or. skill that they need for the next class, that they need for that class, for the end of the class, that they need for the next class, or two classes. And if it's not, if it's not something that's essential, then why are we teaching it? We can save that for… if we have time for… the nice to know, but really us drilling down on how we're going to build that math content and math skills with our students. as they progress through our system. Mm-hmm. Any other? Ellen? This has been a long time coming, and I'm really glad that you're doing this because. when we first started talking about assessments. We had the elementaries, and we thought they were.
122Right on. Little did we know that they picked an assessment that doesn't work. Um, and the high school, the secondary said we want to come up with our own. This was like, what? Yeah, several years ago. And I've been asking for them. Ever since. And so I'm glad we're fine. Finally seeing this, um… But it's all this, we will do this, we will do that. And, you know, it's time to… And I think part of it, too, with common assessments, I mean, I started doing the common assessments when I first started teaching. Um, I just told Gio last week when… the year I started teaching, and I think he almost fainted, but, um, yeah, it was way before he graduated from high school. So, um, and I was lucky enough to land at a spot
123where we did common assessments to veteran teachers, pulled two brand new teachers in, and we did common assessments from the get-go. I've been leading teams in common assessments since 2003, and the thing that I notice most is everyone thinks. that in order to be useful, it has to be this huge, summative assessment, and it's going to take all of this time, and not only time to administer, but time then to analyze the data and have the discussions. But really, it is so powerful to do common formative assessments and do them along the way, so that way we understand where our students' gaps are before we even get to the summative. So that way, we can intervene, we can really bridge those gaps right then in the moment. And so, we really, I think, also have
124to have those discussions. in our committees, that it's not this grand. thing that we have to do in order to have a really tremendous impact on our students and student learning district-wide. We can have lots of small, common formative assessments and have those really powerful conversations with just a little bit of data. Yeah, I think what… sorry, I think what you're saying is what Tony has been saying for the last 4 years, like, it doesn't have to… exactly, like, literally exactly what you just said. So then, I guess my follow-up question is, because it's. This has been said, this is not new information for anyone. Um… so then, I guess back to Caitlin's… piggybacking off of your point. what is gonna be the… The deciding factor in us actually moving forward, like, is there going
125to be some sort of threshold? Like, this percent of teachers, or… this percent of students… I don't know, I'm just… I'm concerned that we're going to go from pilot to pilot to pilot. Well, this isn't a… no, well, you're gonna cross… Right, we're using the IABs or the FIABs, which are established, and they're adding more every single year, and they're connected. I'm sorry. Well, I mean, we're going to use those, see how they work, evaluate them, but continue to use those even if we decide to build our own common assessments as well. And so I said pilot because. they haven't ever used a common assessment. So, it's really using this one. And then going through the process, and if we decide as we're using this, you know what, we could really build our. own. We
126want to use these for these units, but we want to build our own, and for more performance tasks, common assessments. So this is just the starting threshold, and I know. I hear you, that it's been a long time coming. But really, this is a great place to start, and. I know my teachers at Kenilworth are really excited to do this. Um, this semester, so we want to build our own is also what we heard. Two and a half years ago, so I think that's also why I'm also a little concerned, but… I mean, all we can do is. But she's done… That's why we're starting with… We're starting with the Smarter Balance that's free. But then she said… Well, no, eventually, possibly building from that. Exactly, that's a red flag. For me. Yeah, then we
127just don't have them do that. I mean, they're not gonna stop giving assessments, am I… am I right? Correct. So, if we really feel that the FIBs or the AEBs are really powerful, used in a formative way for formative common assessments, and we want to work to build a summative assessment. Let's say for each semester, for Math 1, Math 7, we can do that. While we are still practicing how the whole common assessment process. by using those that are already established, those that are scored for us, and give us the data. Because really building your own, if we're looking at a summative assessment. that's gonna take a while, but we can't wait to do that. We know that. Yeah, we can't wait to do that, so we need to do this while we're also deciding
128what is the format we want to use. You're squeaky. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Good luck! It's a good start. Thank you. Well, or 4 years down the road. Just for me. First for you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, ELOP program report. Okay… Alright, so I just wanted to start with, um… a, um… a really… a budget update, and then, um, and then, uh, Jessica and Steven aren't gonna present on our summer program. So, at the beginning of this year, um, so Expanded Learning Opportunities Program, um. ELOP, we got some bad news that our allocation had been reduced pretty significantly. Um, so you can see for… so Petaluma City Elementary is one pot of funding, and then we get them for the, um, elementary charters. And so, um, we lost over 400,000 for PCS. Uh,
129$70,000 for Mary Collins and $110,000 at Penrove. Um, so that was a total of $613,000 that was reduced from the year before. And keeping into consideration we had a lot of carryover prior to that, so if. feels like even more. And so, um, you know, we were scrambling at the beginning of the year. Our contracts, um, are for $1.5 million. And our allocation was 1.3, so that made us very nervous. Um, however, we have some, you know, some funding opportunities that we're very hopeful about. Um, the state had some excess funding, uh, around ACEs for, um. For the after-school program, and so we have applied for a total of $300,000 for McKinley and. McDowell, our existing ACES sites. Um, we're pretty optimistic that we're gonna get it. The state basically said, like, there's this extra
130money, this is how much you can apply for, that's how much we applied for. So that is, um, that is hopefully going to be good news. They also, in what was a bit of a surprise. opened, um, uh, another round of funding for new ACE sites. So, in the past, you had to have a pretty high threshold. Something like 80% of free and 80% of students on free and reduced lunch. They dropped it all the way to 0%. They said, we've got a lot of money. We're gonna fund as far as we can get down the line. Um, and so we are applying, actually, for, um. Maxing out the funding at McKinney. McDowell has already maxed out, but then we're applying for all our other elementary sites. We're applying for over $800,000. And again, I
131don't know that we'll get all of it, but I feel fairly confident. Um, about, um, McKinley and McNeer in particular, um, but hopefully. Everybody will get funded. Also, the state legislature has approved an increase in per-student ELOP allocation. From 1,280 per student to $1,575. So. The money's not in the bank, so we never. count on that, but that has been approved, so, um, we're anticipating getting that as well. So what that means is that we, um, would be able to offer… well, first of all, that will get us to cover our contracts. and then be able to offer an academic summer program again, which we couldn't do last year because we didn't have the funding. So, just a quick update on our enrollment. Um, so this is… this first column is our enrollment at each
132site. And then the second column is how many unduplicated students we serve. Um, so we receive funding to serve these students, the unduplicated students. We're required to serve 100% of them with the funding that we get. because of the cuts in our allocation. for the first time, we had to put caps on schools, um, and how many students they could serve, because once we realized we didn't have enough money. Um, to serve what we had planned to, we had to really readjust. So, again, our hope would be that, um, we would then lift these caps and be able to serve, um. All are unduplicated students. And then get, you know, we've got a bit of a wait list right now, pretty big, at Pangrove and Valley Vista. Um, related to staffing and an inability to
133find, um, staff. For those programs. So that's it for the logistical part. Any questions about that? Okay, I'm gonna turn it over to Jessica for our summer elementary program update. Oh, did I not click? I was… You did. Oh, did you click, you did. You did great. Um, hi everybody. Uh, some of you I met at a Boys and Girls Club community event, so hello again, and for those who I haven't met, my name is Jessica. I am the Expanded Learning Coordinator for Petaluma City Schools. And today, uh, Stephen and I are going to share, um, hopefully really good, good. feelings about summer and how that went. Uh, we're gonna talk a little bit about who the program served. Um, what students did in the program, and some of the impact that we looked at.
134Oh, yeah, this is not synced. Um, so program scope, uh, it's modeled… it was modeled very similarly to the 2024 summer program. Um, it was at McDowell, uh, during 2025. It was a 5-week program lasting from… or starting on June 23, going to July 25th. It was a 9-hour day, 8 to 5 p.m, um, serving grades TK-6, and that is, um, the grades of the school year. 2024 to 2025. Uh, food and transportation were provided, and as Gloria mentioned, um, the pri… the only funding source for, uh, summer 2025 was our ELLP allocation. Um, and so one of the key differences because of that, uh, last year in summer 2024. Uh, we had COVID relief funding through ACES ESSER Summer Grant, and we were able to provide. in academic enrichment model where PCS teachers were
135employed and, um, were able to. do intervention in math and literacy. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that this, um, past summer. Um, but we work closely with Boys and Girls Club to offer academic programming and summer brain gain, which Stephen will. share about. And so, uh… We brought our students together through this summer offering. We were able to serve 247 students. All across the district, um, at all of our seven schools, and the way that, uh. We went about inviting students, um, was to do it in two rounds. Um, there was a first round where we really were targeting. Um, academic need, um, for our students to. Um, primarily, uh, first offered to those students, um, and, uh, how we did that was to, uh, our goal was 240 spots, uh, that were. Uh,
136divided up based on the percentage of unduplicated students at that site in relation to the district. Um, so each school got a portion of spots. Uh, we worked, uh, we used STAR reading assessments to, uh, for grades. 3rd through 6th, uh, which, uh, reading assessments are the standardized assessments that, um. I think you've heard a bit about it already tonight, but that helped to measure student. literacy and reading comprehension. Um, so we looked at the STAR reading, um, assessment for our students in grades 3rd through 6. And then K-2, uh, we worked with our reading specialists, our principals, and our teachers to really identify who were the students, um, that had the most academic need. Um, and this was opened up to, uh, for two weeks for those students to, uh, get priority enrollment and
137jump on it, and then we opened up to the whole district for all unduplicated students. Um, and from there, uh, our enrollment rose. And so, some of the great news is that we met one of our big goals, which was to continue to increase enrollment. So, this past summer, we enrolled 247 students, which is a 17% enrollment increase compared to. 2024, which had 208 enrolled students. And even before that, 166, so it's great to see it going up. Um, we also had, uh, higher average daily attendance of 147 students, um, on average attending, compared to 138. Uh, last year, and even Arno shows went down. So that's also really great. We had 14% less no-shows with 23. Who didn't show up to programming, um, compared to 27 last year. Um, okay, and then the other
138way that we had to think about how do we allocate these spots is based on grades. We serve, uh. TK all the way to 6, and one of our key targets was early literacy, really supporting. Um, early literacy, and we did that by providing, um, more spots for, uh, students, TK to 3rd. Um, and one of the other ways that we also support that for our littles, for TK and Kinder, is the ratios. So we have one. Um, teacher, Boys and Girls Club member to every 10 students. Um, and then the ratios shift from first through sixth, where it's 1 to 20. Okay, um, and I'm gonna hand it. Off to Stephen. Awesome. Um, okay, so thank you guys. Um, my name's Stephen Byres. I was here last year, some of you guys remember. I
139do see some familiar faces, so, uh, this is my second year doing the summer camp, and I am currently the. Director at the after-school program. But also, um, got some time under my belt, but just to go over the things I'm going to be talking about, I'm going to be talking about summer brain gain and the curriculum that it is that we cover. the enrichment and the physical activities that we did in the. Afternoon, as well as two culminating events that we did, and our weekly field trips. On the slides, there's gonna be some quotes as well from the parent server we sent out, so… Please make sure you guys are reading those as well. Um, so just to begin with, our enrichment, so our programming happened during the afternoon. We focused all of our
140morning. with our brain gain sessions, and we split up our members depending on grade levels, into. color groups where they'd be assigned to different staff members, where then they would rotate from staff to. 5 in the morning, but the afternoon was focused more on our enrichment programming, so our programming is based on five core areas. We focus on. academics, character, and leadership. Sports and recreation, the arts, and health and wellness, so all of our programs are targeted in those specific areas. And we do focus on engaging the members in a fun way where they're still learning and maybe sometimes not even knowing that they're learning. So going about, kind of, making slime and teaching them the different reactions of. You know, putting a little bit too much glue compared to less, so, um, those small
141little learning activities that they can still do. Uh, we also went on field trips pretty much every week, so we, uh, these are all the locations we visited, and then we also did weekly. pool trips for all of our members, so, um, at each of these field trips, we were able to fill up a whole school bus, so a lot of our members were able to go, and. Um, from what we saw, more than 75% of the whole camp did attend at least one or more field trips. Um, some of the things we did at the… so, Doran Beach was one of them, and we engaged our members in a beach cleanup. Um, so we pick up some trash before they're able to go and have some fun on the sand. Sorry. Um, now getting
142into summer brain gain. So, summer brain gain itself, um. They are modules that are assigned per week, so most of our summer bringing come with 5 different modules, and each module has. a specific day, so they're week-long modules. And they focus on things like cultures, we focus on the academics behind, for example, one of our sessions is focused on the culture behind. Japan, uh, we detail what part and continent Japan is at, and in the specific. kind of lesson, we focus on origami. So we teach them kind of the history behind origami, and then while we do that, we are also able to kind of step-by-step towards the end, show them. Um, how to make… Um, and then at the end, we have reflection time, where depending on age levels, we're able to kind of,
143um, pose questions like. What is it that you learned from this, or what is a key takeaway, and. Um, obviously our TKs can't write, but allowing them to come verbally come up and show what it is that they learned, or if they are at the level where they're able to write, kind of be that… that be their ticket out. Um, were they able to write down what it is that their takeaways. Um, we do… they are project-based as well, so the origami, for example, is something. That the members are able to take home and kind of. bring back to their friends during the lunch transition, or back home to their parents. So, uh, we do just focus on, like I said earlier, for our enrichment program, it's the micro-learning that we're able to. Teach them
144in ways where, um, they're so engaged and aren't even aware that they're learning a little bit. Um, and then the last thing that we did were the two culminating events, so we did a… a, um, a Camp Chella, which is related to the Coachella theme, um, and it was just different stations where the kids could come up with this picture right up here. Um, there were… we… got some little pens where members were able to get little tattoos. There was a, um, a DJ that one of our staff just luckily, um, had DJ equipment and was able to bring some speakers out, and it was like a freeze dance station, and it was accommodating for. Our youngest members to our older members, so, uh, those two culminate, or that culminating event, as well as our
145Water Week at the end of camp, it was, uh. McDowell tradition to the last day of camp or school. It's a water day, so that's how we wrapped up the summer. for this, um, year. Thank you. Okay, um, okay, and now on to impact, um, some of the data. So, uh, we put out a parent survey. Um, and, uh, there's really two areas that, uh. we ask questions around. One is, uh, program satisfaction. As you can see in blue, strongly agree. Parents are very happy with the program. 96% would like to enroll next summer, 93% would recommend the program to friends, and I believe the bottom one is 85%, or 80… 6%, uh, my child enjoyed their experience at the PCS summer program. Um, and then, uh, we also ask parents their sense of what
146was the academic benefit from, uh, to their child from participating in summer. And by and large, parents agreed to, uh. three statements that there was an academic benefit to attending during summer. Um, that they did more math than they otherwise would have at home, and more reading than they otherwise would have. Um, and what you see in red is actually students, or parents, um, families saying, not sure. So, actually, nobody disagreed, which is great. Um… And then this next one is a bit of a doozy, so I'll walk through it, but we're really excited by what we found. Um, so one of the goals with our summer programming, um. And the way that we set it up is really that there's research showing the summer slide, so this idea that students, particularly students from low-income
147families. can experience up to 2 months of reading loss during the summer. Um, it can be even more in math. And, uh, what we looked at, uh, is really to, uh, look at the star reading assessments. Just before summer started and then this fall for our students in grades. currently in grades 4 through 6. Um, and looked at how did students, uh, unduplicated students who attended the summer, how did they do in those, uh, the STAR reading? Um, and, uh, versus those unduplicated students who did not attend. Um, and what you'll see at just a high level is that, uh, students who attended summer outperformed, um. students that did not attend. Um, and this is specifically unduplicated students. And I also would like to mention that this data represents 60 students who attended summer and
148248 that did not attend summer. Um, and just going a little bit more into the details of this, uh, the fir-. First, uh, thing that you see here is their… the average change in the scaled score between the spring to the fall, so that's really. a metric from 600 to 1400 that, uh, is what did the student score, um, on, on the test. And you can see over double. of a score increase for those students who did attend. Um, the next is percentile rank, which is a scale. From 1 to 99, um, and that is really comparing a student's score to other students within their grade. So if you have a percentile rank of 75, that means you've, uh. outperformed 75% of other students in your grade. Um, and you can see here that the
149average change in percentile score actually was greater, so 2.59% increase. Um, for students who attended summer. Uh, we have the student growth percentile, uh, which that one is kind of similar. It's a scale… from 1 to 99, but it's really targeting what does that growth look like between… within this testing window? Um, how much growth, uh. Did we observe? Um, and this is… really a more interesting thing to look at in that it's, um… the student is compared to their academic peers nationwide, so not just students within their grade, but also those who have a similar score history. Um, and so, again, those that attended summer, um. had a larger, uh, growth. Um, and their percentile. And then one that's not on here, but I think it's worth mentioning, is the grade equivalent. So, this
150is, um, another thing you can look at to interpret the scores, uh, student scores. Um, and essentially, uh, this is… on a scale from 0 to 12.9, which represents all the grades, um, that you can do from kinder to. Um, 12th grade, and the months, the 10 months within the school year. Um, so if you had a score of, uh, 5.3, that means that. that score is expected of a typical 5th grader, that's, like, 3 months into the school year… school year. And what we actually observed was that students who attended summer had, uh, points, on average, a .5 increase, which is. Um, that their scores, uh, increase by, like, 5 months, essentially, as a way to look at it, which is actually. More growth than would be expected even in a 3-month period for
151summer, where those who did not attend, it was a smaller growth of 0.1. This is where my student's going, and we think that will help with the enrollment numbers as well. Uh, for our underrepresented sites, so if you think back to that, um. pie charts, uh, we'd like to see some of the other sites… some more participation from some of the other sites. Um, we would like to encourage participation in all 5 weeks of programming. Get that ADA even higher. Um, we will be using, uh, the new literature… screening tools mClass that was spoken about earlier to really look at that K-2, um. age group to identify priority students, and then finally. You know, hopefully the funding will come in. We would love to implement the academic intervention model that we had in 2024. As
152funding allows. That brings us to questions. I have a question. It's about… it's really just curiosity. What… when the average daily attendance is so much lower than the enrollment, is that just people going on vacations, or, like, what… Do we know what drives that? I can speak a little bit to that. Um, Steven, if you want to chime in as well, but some of that is, like, planned vacations. We had parents let us know, like, hey, when are you, um, planning to go out? So… that contributes to it, um, and then, um… That would be one of the main things, I would think, but… Yeah, that is one of the main things, and the… Uh, wanting to get enrollment out quicker, that's one of the reasons, because then we can mitigate those vacations, because. Parents
153are planning well in advance, and it's something we saw in 2024, where we had so many enrollments, and we were expecting so many kids, but. Parents would communicate, hey, by the way, I'm gonna be gone for a week and a half, and then… You know, and it's just all over the place, so that is one of the biggest things. Um, and then extracurriculars as well, so a parent or kids going on, like, tournaments over the weekend, or… Just camping, so those are things that also impact the daily attendance. Yeah, you read my mind. I figured the earlier we can do enrollment, the easier people can plan their vacations around the 5-week camp. So, awesome. Thank you all. Anybody else? May I, um… I just also, too, wanted to thank our partners, Boys and Girls Club.
154They do so much for us, and when we had that funding shortfall, they stepped up and said. We will raise funding for these other students that you can't pay for, so I just really want to acknowledge Stephen and Dana. Um, for being such amazing partners. I agree. Thank you very much. That was wonderful. I think it's… Sounds like a… I'd like to go. Okay, we're moving on, thank you. Okay. Um… we now are, uh, back… we're on to comments from the public on how we're doing this. presentations and non-agendized items. Um, I have. 3, so let me read our, um… Board guidelines for public comment. And then we'll begin. Under Government Code Section 54954.3A. Members of the public have the right to address the governing board. on any items of interest, providing it relates to
155the subject matter jurisdiction of the school district. While government code allows speakers to criticize. The district's policies, procedures, programs, services. and or employees, the district does have a policy, BP1312.1. Specific to complaints against employees. Topic of interest… oh. More. Um… Sorry. Um… Sorry, where am I? The request, uh, that the complaint must be… oh, wait, here we go. Uh, topic of interest within the jurisdiction of the board. Should comments from the public pertain to a specific. district employee, the board requests. that the complaint first be submitted in writing to the employee's immediate supervisor for investigation. If the comment is about something that is not on the agenda. It will be heard only during the public comment on non-agendized items, period, which is now. Once that part of the meeting is over, comments will only be
156taken on agenda items. During the discussion of those items. The board values public comments, and although we cannot take action. Or discuss items not on the agenda, we listen carefully and appreciate input from the public. Public comments are subject to a 3-minute per person limit or a 20-minute limit per subject matter. Commenters may not cede the. Your time to others. All right. Alternative Ed. I know, I got it right there. Um, I'm just seeing if there's a bunch that are together. So how many did we have? 1, 2… Alright, you'll all have 3 minutes. Um, I believe Taryn was here before. Is she still? Oh, she's left, okay. All right, she also had another one on the athletic program. So, just tell her to write us, email us what her comment was. Okay. Uh, Melissa
157McQuery? This is on alternative education. McGarry. That's okay, that's okay. teacher at San Antonio High School for 19 years. And I realize you have to make some. decisions about the budget. But as you consider making cuts, I'm here to advocate for them. As you know, we serve the most vulnerable, most disadvantaged students in the. PCF's website says that the district is committed to wellness. With an emphasis on ensuring that every student. has at least one trusted adult school. Over the last few years, the Youth Truth Survey has asked students. If they have a trusted adult to talk to at their school. San Antonio. has consistently scored high on this. Survey. We are a district leader in regard to having a trusted adult on campus. The district has spent a lot of time and money training
158us on. And we know we have a disproportionate number of students. who have experienced trauma or who have 4 or more ACEs. AltEd students feel included, safe, and respected in the strives their scholastic. Over the years. superintendents and boards have recognized that we help the district. hit the over 90% graduation rate. While AltEd schools account for 0.5% of the high school population. We deliver 12% of the total yearly high school graduates. We not only catch many of the students falling through the cracks. We get most of those students to graduate with a high school diploma. We have students who come to our school to get away from student. Students who have had conflicts on the larger campuses. have their own distinct space. away from the larger schools at our campus. Over and over, we have
159seen examples of SARB students. Students who hadn't attended school in years. begun to attend school regularly. San Antonio students have robust access to support services. Such as mental health counseling. drug and diversion programs. And a Petaluma Health Center clinic on campus. Every year at our graduation ceremony, we have students. Many of you have heard these speakers. It's 30 seconds. So, their stories. Every year, um, every year, we hear the students attribute their success academically and emotionally. to their close relationships with teachers. We ask you to consider all these factors as you make decisions. about our students here. Thank you. Kayla… By no? Beeno, sorry. This is on? I think it is. Okay. I wanted to address, um, some learning materials. So, I have some things prepared. Um, I have 2 children at the Petaluma City
160Schools. I'm here tonight as a concerned parent about things that are happening at Petaluma High School. Recently, my child brought home material, as in homework, from Petaluma High School that was inappropriate and extremely suggestive. This came from her English class. I trust the school to educate. And to not turn their English class into a sex and gender studies class. The book they're currently reading has themes of sex and hiding underage sex from your parents. Gender confusion and body dysmorphia. This is not an isolated incident. Ms. Lashawn has assigned on more than one occasion, work centered on sexuality. gender and politicized themes that do not belong in an English class of minors. There's a clear pattern, and it's hard to see anything, but this being intentional. I did bring this to Principal Napoli, and he told
161me that you, as the board, have approved these materials, and materials that he actually did not know were being taught in class. that his daughter is in, by the way. I find this extremely concerning. that we were not asked for consent. I've made the decision as a parent to sign my daughter out of sexual education, and it's actually just been implemented into her other classes. If consent was asked, this would be a different situation. when I addressed the school directly about this. I was told that I'm the only parent complaining, therefore I'm the problem, essentially. I also emailed a. Member of the board with a lack of response as well. Um, I, I find it… disturbing, if anything, that when we are, as a parent, choosing to sign our children out of classes that teach
162this. that the material's just being implemented elsewhere. I think that's a break of trust from the parents, and we trust our children with you every single day. I'm here to draw a line not only for that, um, but this teacher has also implemented other of her politicized ideology, which I just think does not belong. in school at all, let alone an English class. Um, having our children do land acknowledgements and letting them know that they're on. stolen land, um, I've had my daughter come home extremely confused on this matter. on why they are being guilted into feeling. Like, they have an issue for just living here and being who they are. Um, so I would… I'm urging the board to look at this material. Um, to look into these books. Um, I printed the quotes,
163I printed everything for Principal Napoli. Um, and I was really made out to be the problem, which is why I'm here today. So, um, I urge you guys to do something about this, to… let the parents know that this is the material that's being taught. If there is. sexual themes, I think that it is not your decision, um, to implement that in our children's classrooms. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah Romero? Hello, everyone. My name is Tara Lucia. I'm a parent at Cherry Valley. Thank you to the board for all of your hard work in making. schools, welcoming to all families and students. I was blown away by the. made by Medell Elementary. Today, which highlighted… Many of the programs driving their schools. In particular, the dual immersion program. One of the things in the earlier
164presentation that stuck out to me was hearing one of the students stand here confidently. praising the dual immersion program for how it creates. students who are global thinkers and able to communicate. cultures, um… At Cherry Valley and Grand Elementary, the Hispanic population makes up about 11% of the student. While Ed McDowell, it is closer to. 3% and 50% at McKinley, according to the. California school dashboard website. I will end my comment with a strong recommendation that the Board think of how it can allow. all students have access to language and create global thinkers. Allowing all students to have the opportunity for dual immersion is not only equitable and inclusive. to all families, especially Hispanic families. Although at a lower rate. and percentage at certain schools, but furthermore, it has a. potential to create a more
165equitable distribution of student enrollment. from diverse backgrounds across all of PCS's campuses. Additionally, I learned yesterday from. principle that for the upcoming information night at Cherry Valley, there's no one available who is a Spanish translator. Peter, uh, not ensuring that all campuses across UCS provide Spanish translation or someone available to help answer questions for Spanish-speaking families. Continues to deny equal opportunity for those families to engage. and the many wonderful arts programs it offers, therefore limiting enrollment from those families at schools that do not have dual. enrollment for Spanish-speaking staff. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Hmm. Heather Gallagher? Hello again. Hi, you guys? Thank you guys for everything you guys do for our school district, it's amazing. Just the layers of working. Thank you. I didn't feel like it was on. I didn't hear
166that reverb. Um, thank you for taking my, uh… public comment earlier when it wasn't… At the right time, but this one… I'm doing a public comment on the athletics presentation. The… they said that. CASA has 608 students and 90 coaches, and. Petalam High School has 663 athletes and 90 coaches. A total of 1,451. People that are playing on the artificial turf fields. And I am concerned that. There isn't anything in the safety handout. to address the hazards associated with artificial turf. In the NCS… dash CIF training, are there hazards of the artificial turf included? And best practices for student athletes. Does the Petalama City School Coaches Handbook include safety policy that incorporates. best practices when conditioning, training, and playing are an artificial turf fields. By addressing heat stroke. As artificial turf is several degrees higher
167than natural grass, microplastics. And infill coating hands, clothes, and gear with toxic materials. Are they addressing recommending athletes to minimize particles from entering home by cleaning gear and clothes from. from particles sloughing off with artificial turf? The City of Petaluma recently addressed. posting Prop 65 warnings on city fields to alert athletes. and the greater community of the exposure when using these fields. Does Petaluma City School District plan to include these warnings on their fields? Recommended athletics reframe. Do they recommend athletes refrain from eating while on these athletic fields to reduce the potential for ingesting particles from artificial turf? Fields which build up in the GI and the blood system. Do they recommend cleaning wounds to reduce micro… Plastics from entering. The blood system across the country, artificial turfs are being removed and banned in cities,
168towns, and districts. To reduce exposure to the most vulnerable communities. Zero Waste Sonoma is currently proposing Sonoma County to consider an artificial turf ban. Will our districts follow suit? CASA and Petaloma Health Center both have artificial turf. Casa's field failed and flooded. Causing addition… oh, is that over? Dang it, I have so much more to say. Thank you. I didn't think you heard the 30 seconds, I'm sorry. Okay, thank you, Heather. Uh, Courtney Lauer, is that right? Hello, good evening. I'll make this brief. I am here also as a San Antonio teacher. I am an RSP teacher there, so I'm giving you the special education perspective. Over 90% of San Antonio students' quantiles, or math abilities, and Lexiles, or reading abilities. Following the elementary range, some as low as second grade. For perspective, math ability
169needed for most careers begins at 10th grade. Median demand for college is 11th grade or above. According to the Lexile Career Database, Lexiles for construction workers range from 8th grade. to, uh, 10th grade. Given all of that, it might not surprise you to know that nearly 80% of students who took a spelling test I administered this week. Um, of high-frequency PCS vocabulary. Spelled 3 or more of those words wrong. They include accountability, diploma, readiness, literacy, graduation. Budget equity, requirement, attendance, and university. The top misspellings include readiness, requirement, university, and diploma. This data is not an aberration. In fact, most students at San Antonio share similar learner profiles. And those students graduated this year and in years prior. Our students don't start with us, but they do finish with us. But without schools like San Antonio.
170future graduation outcomes for our students are at best uncertain. and avoidable. If you have questions, and you really should. Please email me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. I know it… I know you all had to sit for a long… time for this, so thank you. All right, we're moving on to adoption and approval of the agenda. I move to adopt and approve. Okay. Uh, all those in favor? Oh, we have a… You haven't changed. Did you have a second, or… Uh… Doesn't matter. We have to… we need to pull, um… So, yeah, 17.3.1, it's the first read new course proposal. Beginning, like… In our line dance, the committee, we added these… The committee met last night, the committee did not want to move forward with this. This is the only ones. I moved
171to Table 17.3.1 to the first meeting in December. I don't know if we table… Okay, table indefinitely. Table until we meet. Table indefinitely. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. I moved to adopt and approve the agenda as amended. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. Uh, so now we're… a report on activities and correspondence of our school board members. Um… Let's see… Okay, um, I'm going to read these off for the school… for the school board members, and then for our student board members, they're going to have you guys. Do your own. Um, and I'll do Jessica's. Okay, so we have… we… our board members went to the California Legislative Staff Education Institute. As a panelist. Uh, SSU counseling program panelist. meeting with the Family Resource Center
172and the City of Petaluma. Kenilworth Girls basketball team. CASA girls tennis match, CASA Girls basketball games. Grant site visit, McDowell and McKinley volunteering, and historic Chinatown Park Plaque Ceremony. I saw the the. things downtown for the China Chinese park, what's it called? Or Historic Chinatown Park. Okay. All right, um… And we had, um… Valley Vista Dia de las Muertos Celebration. meeting with the superintendent. Uh, VAPA meeting? Um… Back. Budget Advisory Committee. Uh, Casa Grande performance at The Breakfast Club, awesome. It was really good. That's so cool! Um, the McNeer Peace Poll Ceremony. Um… We have the North Bay Council… Labor Council dinner. La Cienne State of Health Care Forum. Wow, this state is that it's bad. Yeah, not surprised, yeah. And then our LCAP meeting. And then we had San Antonio Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.
173Uh, anti-racism training and coaching. McDowell visit, um, Climate Action Task Force. we did office hours at Kenilworth. Uh, I did a Cool Petaluma, um, is doing a… Uh, big thing from their roundtable. And so there was an urban garden work group. Um, which I attended. Uh, the bond implementation review, Petaluma High School, um, American Government Panel Discussion. Um, and so I'll have… do you have something to re… I think I got… did I get you? Yeah, I don't have it. Yeah, go ahead. comment on… I forgot to write it down, but I attended the San Antonio. And it was wonderful. It was so fabulous. The food was amazing. The energy, it was just a wonderful, wonderful celebration. Um, I met with Jessica and Esmeralda and talked about our bathroom policy, and so it's super exciting.
174But, um, it was cool to see, like, how it works, obviously, like, a meeting and presentations and stuff. Camp Roberts, which is a military base, and so I basically, like, pretended to be a lawyer for the weekend and learned a lot about. government and legislation and stuff, so it kind of relates to this. And then, um… I have a yoga club, I'm the president of a yoga club at my school, and my advisor for ASB is a professional. I'm a yoga instructor at the yoga post, and she holds classes during the school day, during advisory, so we have a really big turnout, and everyone likes it. Even all the boys come and do yoga, so it's fun. like, serious, which is cool. Yeah, you should come. I'm always like… I'm like, this class costs $40
175if you go after school, just come into this, and everyone's like, okay, and then they all, like, focus. So, yeah. Alright, um, at San Antonio, we recently had a field trip to the college in Marin, the Indian Valley College. And a lot of our seniors attended to that. It was honestly great. I didn't expect that many students to actually want to join us on the field trip. But we were able to… We went to a different… A couple of different type of career places where they were showing us what classes to take. What's, like, neutralized, different things, because a lot of things that they offer there. at San Antonio, it's really enclosed, because we don't have that many extracurriculums. Or stuff like that, so when they open those doors to our students, like mechanical engineering
176and all those things. Our students are really interested, and actually one of our students is already signing up for the spring semester at the Indian Valley College. So I'm excited for that. And we also have our 7th annual gingerbread competition for the Petaluma Hotel, and we've been working on that. are actually the day after Thanksgiving, so we have to get that ready before next week. And… it's crazy because they've been doing this for 9 years, but this is our 7th year. being in that, so we've been with them most of the time, they've been doing it, so I'm proud of that. And I also wanted to talk more about the event we had on October 15th. For a lot of our students leave because they don't want to stay there for, like, presentations, for little
177events we have. But a lot of our students, we didn't see any students leave. So, we're proud of that. And then we have our financial aid workshops on Fridays, and those are super helpful and resourceful to our seniors that are graduating. Because we don't have them just… Like… like, right now, like, spring semester, this and that, we have them throughout the year, just in case different students are graduating different grading periods. They're able to do those on their own for when those sub… like, spring semester do come, they're able to do it. Or just, like, stuff like that, so I'm happy with those. And I was actually able to fill out my financial aid. Yeah, so I'm excited, but I'm also a little nervous. But, yes. That's wonderful. Well, I think it was those pinatas.
178They were able to really, you know, like… So funny. Actually, we didn't finish doing all of them that day, so our students are like, can we do them during the break? Can we do it during break? So we were able to finish those last couple ones that. We weren't able to do that day, so I would say they loved that event. And we're actually thinking about having, like, a potluck for Christmas. So, we're trying to figure that out. It's really great. The advantage to having such a small campus is very much community. collaboration. Yeah, exactly. Sheer bats. Um, okay, so then Jessica had to leave, and so I'll just, um, read what she sent me. Uh, from, uh, from Casa Grande. Uh, during this time, uh, she was working with Ms. Noon and another teacher
179at CASA Suasi. to start up a food pantry. Where students can bring home food for their family during this government uncertainty. Our plan is to keep it until winter break. since the holidays can be financially tough. On families, and since it seems like. the government is open, but there's still lots of… Pain and uncertainty. Uh, in ASB, they're starting our Dream It project. Where all the students pair up and create an idea that can help improve the school. By using some of our allowed money in some ASB funds. My plan that I would love to present is prioritizing safety in the student parking lot. By posting yielding signs. As well as making the curb outside the parking lot red. So students can turn safely without cars shielding their view on oncoming traffic. I can't believe
180we don't have that. And it's… Yes, exactly. Um, so anyway, I've been working out the details with Ms. Noon, and I'm very excited to present this idea to my ASB class. Since that parking lot applies to every student. Okay, so thank you guys for your participation. It's fabulous. Okay, moving on… Any other comments about anything you guys did? Okay. Uh… Now we have comments from the public on consent items. See, no one rushing? forward. Uh, we will move on to approval of the Consent Agenda by consolidated motion. I move to approve the consent agenda. Second. Any questions? I do have one about the absence policy, or the ARs, um, and I don't know if this is the right place to put it, or for it to be addressed, but… My kid misses a class like
181today, she missed a class. Like, I don't get the notifications until 5.04 PM. I don't know why they come at 5.04, but… Um… I forgot what class she missed, I don't know. But she… like, what if she was kidnapped or something? It's, like, second period, and then. There's no alert until 5 o'clock. So that's… So, if we're talking about the absence policy and safety and all of that, that's, um… a concern, because it's happened a few times. Sure, the, um, the AR, what we brought, what we're bringing forth for approval today, doesn't get into the details around notifications, but we can certainly… we do update all of our coding and our timing, and I can take that back, and we can look at district-wide and make sure that those are. earlier. Yeah. Is… is that…
182is that district-wide? I mean… Is it different by school? Or, I mean… So, in the past, those have been set up school by school, and so it is something that we need to go back and look at. Yeah. I can have Jalen ditch a class tomorrow, and I'll tell you how sickly I can. I'll have CNN edition class here, because I… Yeah, I don't… I think… I don't know. Yeah, okay, thank you, interesting. Okay? So, I have several items on the consent. We're going through… On, like, through… The business services consent items to, and… Okay. Um, so I have… Number one, I just want to flag that I'm going to abstain. from the approval of the minutes for October 14th, I haven't had a chance to fully review that meeting, and I cannot approve that.
183Um, but on the purchase orders, um… I saw several what seemed to be… Um… Uh, maintenance items that could, I guess, seem like they were… Could have been paid from, like, the facilities fund, and when we are going into kind of a crunch with the general fund. dollars, I just wanted to double check to see, um. why the general fund's being used for, um… Uh, items that look like they could come from either fund. Though, um, it was the general fund, Fund01, it was not our unrestricted resources that were used. Those were all charged to resource 8150, which is our routine restricted maintenance. by law, or, excuse me, by EDCODE were required to set aside 3% of our annual operating budget to pay for routine restrictions. Routine maintenance and operation items, so they've all been…
184I checked the list, and they were all charged to that account. Fantastic. Thank you for… And I think just in general, the philosophy, I mean, you try… Using the most restricted funds first, that's, you know, Amanda's. All over that. Yeah. Great. Um… ratification of contracts. I had one question on… Let me pull this up… on ProCare Therapy, uh, can you explain this contract and whether. Um, this is work that… We have the capacity to do in-house, or why it's being contracted out. Yeah, that's, um, a great question. Um, this is for a position I believe the person is out on a leave, and we did not have subs to fill it. Um, I believe this contract specifically was for SOC. Yes. Yeah, sorry, as I said it. And, um, it is a… Legal requirement to
185have this, so we often, if we can't find subs that are qualified. We will fill in with… Um, contracts, but we always look for subs first. All right, thank you. And I changed… we fixed the dates on… two of the… There's a couple spreadsheets. Um, and then… Uh, I don't know who's the best to answer this one. Sorry, pull it up. But, um, again, I missed the first reading of this, so I don't know if there was a conversation. on, um… Some of the new policies that are being put for… I don't know if there's major changes, it was already on, but I have a couple of issues on. Um, in particular, on the recovery of property loss or damage, there's a reference to contacting law enforcement that's vague, just seems unclear. Um, so, when
186there's vagueness or, you know, that's going to be applied differently to different students or through different administrations, and. consistency or threshold, it would seem appropriate. Um, in addition, I have… Is it, like, a dollar amount, or a vandalism, or… Yeah, I mean, it just is like, you know, someone's having a bad day and smashes their Chromebook, and. you know, so they get the police called on them, and I don't… I would not… like, I assume we're gonna be voting on that right now. Yeah. And then there's also, like. The… in lieu of a civil lawsuit, the student can work off. Um… outstanding debts. Um, and, like, that also is unclear to me, um… About how, like, the money is calculated, and just says we'll be in compliance with, like, labor laws, which is… Okay, but,
187um… Just very curious about… The history of this, and… Some of the vague… vagueness of this policy. Alright, great questions. Um, I'm trying to pull up. It was discussed at, uh, the. October board meeting, and I believe… I'm trying to look up… this might be a policy, I believe this one was a new policy. Um, that the district has not previously had, so… every quarter, we receive updates from CSBA on board policies. A lot of times, if there's new laws or regulations, or if something's outdated, it's kind of like a… Look at your policy, um, and there was a list of policies that we. previously did not have, so this one specifically had updated language. The language was taken right from CSBA's recommendation. With a slight change to, instead of saying. now says highly encouraged.
188And we… so this policy actually. It's because we have one meeting a month now. Um, we actually discussed this specific policy, I feel like, for. Quite some time, um, and that was where we landed on that. I'm happy to look to see… I'm going to guess that a lot of districts. have the same language, because this is CSBA's recommendation, but I can look to see. What, um, other districts do, putting an amount on things is hard because people can't always quantify what something is worth. And that might… can cause confusion. I'm also trying to look at the language that you were referencing. Right now, um, as we were… discussing this. student or former student the option to provide service work or other alternative non-monetary forms of compensation to settle the debt. And this just seems
189like the series of articles where you had. kids or parents working off, like, cafeteria debt. I know this could just be, like, a bad day for a student, but, like, this is… the kind of stuff where, uh, you know, seeing it for the first time over the weekend. Um, I have questions, and if this is something that's not on the books right now. I want to digest this, I would… ask my colleagues to digest this a little bit more, think through some of the specifics, and again, the vagueness in this policy. and table this to the next meeting. Okay. Would you like to make a motion? I'd like to make a motion to table… Can I ask a clarifying question, Ryan? Were you… Are you… you're talking about the regulation? Right? Or, for the AR,
190the AR or the… I think it's with the AR. And when are the police? Yeah, all the AR, okay. So this first part that says. Consulting with law enforcement? Is it that, or is it the debt part? Oh, I see, it's on… it's both… it's also on the AR. They're both on the AR? Uh-huh. Because I know, like, when… I don't spend a long time since I've been in a discipline hearing to help me out here. Because I know, um, sometimes when a student has, like, a suspended expulsion, it's like… you know, there's all these stipulations, and one of them can be community service. Um, and I'm sure that there's just, like, a number, I don't know. 25 hours, so I wonder if… Um, Ryan's concerns could be addressed, you know, when we bring this
191back with, like, is there… A specified amount of hours that we're asking students to work off damage. Like, the Chromebook is, like, $150 or something. The… that we have to repay. Um, so is there, like, a… I don't know, hourly amount that kids have to work off if they smash their Chromebook on a bad day, something? And I just want to note, like, this is not… We're not talking about cafeteria debt. Someone still owes. This is… this is willful damage of… Property, okay, okay, so make sure… Yeah, and it does… it will say conduct a complete. the district or 10. the superintendent or designee will conduct a complete investigation. Which includes consulting with law enforcement officials when appropriate, so… There's that piece of it, and then on the second piece, um. I am not aware
192that it is a current. practice that, um, we have people work off debts here in this district, but in previous districts. It's generally… Minimum wage is, um, if that is something that goes forward. So. That's how it's, um… quantified the amount of hours. I just feel like we've already. This is the second reading, so we've already gone over all this, so… Well, no, none of that's really… So there is a vagueness, there is, like, oh, we're putting into. You know, LLC, like, stuff that we've never done, and, like, we… right now, this current iteration of the administration is not going to do. But, like, it just takes… One, you know, very upset… Principle 1, again, and again, it's going to be, like, so… wealthy students and their families can pay off the debt, but are
193low-income or, you know, or… we'll have to, like, be shown, like. You know, you have to work at the school. Like, it's… I feel like… I feel like you could just require everyone to pay off your debt via… via minimum wage work for the school district. Like, even the wealthiest kid can't. Their parents can't write a check. They have to. They have to work 15 hours. And just have it set at something. Student has to work. $20 an hour until they make the price of it. I will offer that I know this isn't a… a policy under the 5000s in terms of student discipline, but I will say that. Um, it is common that we would have a restorative approach in lieu of suspension to property damage, is that you're doing something to beautify the
194campus. to restore the harm and the damage that was done. So that is a practice. That is currently in place. separate of this particular property damage, so it's not unheard of. And in fact, that's what we would want to do to repair the… Right, that's not what this policy says. Yeah, I hear that. Clarify it to, like, align it more with the… Yeah. The student discipline policy. Yeah, so maybe that's what we could… that's what I would… Yeah, so I would, like, table… Table this, and, um… And I can take… I guess I'm volunteering myself to take point to, uh, I think, uh, align… with our other policies, um… Currently on the books. And I just want to voice what we did talk about last time was. We are looking at a big budget crisis,
195and we do need to have a mechanism to recoup. money. Like, if… Someone pulls a fire alarm, and there's a ton of water damage. I mean, hopefully Restic would cover it, but… I do think we need some mechanism to recoup money in the case of actual. Damage. So I don't know how that fits in, too. Yeah, because I agree that I don't want it to be… what, you know, disproportionately affecting, and I mean, yeah, like, consulting with law enforcement when appropriate. Is it only appropriate when it's a Black student in trouble? No, we don't… that's not what we want to be doing, but um… Yeah. We can't afford to fork out $100,000, like, for the freaking fire department fines when someone pulls the… Thing. Even when Resig covers every instance that is reported to RESIG.
196Just like your personal insurance, we do have a deductible. For every single claim submitted. That ranges from. Um, $1,500 to $12,000, depending on the type of claim. Yeah, I feel really uncomfortable about indentured servitude, I just… I think we can take that out. I don't… I really don't want to sign on to something where, you know. You've created a debt by something that you did, you know, you did something wrong. There's nothing wrong with some community service. No community service, but no, this is payment. This is paying it back by working. That's one of the thing says. You gotta work 20 hours and pay off your $150 fee. Community service is different in my mind. I think absolutely community service should be in there, not paying it off by working. At $20 an hour. But
197that's basically what we're asking. Like, if my kid, because she can't even get a work permit, she's 13. damages her Chromebook, then she has to do 10 hours of picking up garbage at Kennelworth. That's the same thing. It's community service for this many hours, which equates to this many dollars. Yeah, that's all I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, I think that's what this is saying. I mean, we're interpreting it. That's how I'm interpreting it. It is that you actually. have to work at the school with the supervisor and all of that. Yeah, to pick up the garbage. So you broke the Chromebook. And then you get, like, a little… Well, then are we taking away CSEA jobs if we… Replace our custodians with child service. But I think we already do that with the, um, community service
198when they have a suspended expulsion. If we could just be more specific about that, since there is that… I agree with you completely. So, I'd like to make a motion to table. Uh, BPAR3515.4 to the next meeting. I'll second that. All those in favor? Any opposed? Okay. And I moved to table the minutes from October… or not table, to poll the minutes from October 14th from the consent agenda. So that Brian can abstain. Okay. If anyone wants to say that. I need a second. Can you just pull them? I think you just… I don't… I don't think you need a second to pull an item off consent, because it's no longer consent. Okay. Okay, you don't… that's over. Okay. Okay, we have a motion on the table to table. No, we've… But then there was
199another one, right. That agenda as a… Right. And then we need to do that. That's what I was going to do, and then I heard this other thing. Okay. Now we're gonna, um… do we have a… I move to approve the consent agenda as amended. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, it passes the consent as amended. passes. And I move to approve the minutes for October 14th, 2025. Um, uh, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Abstain. All right, very good. Comments from the public on action items? We see no public, now action items? Here's it! Uh, we have, uh, the approval of the landscape assessment and recommendations from calendar associates, landscape architects. Uh, Inc. I move to approve. Second, anybody for a second? I'll second, either way. Any
200discussion? Uh, I was really excited by the… everything landscape, and proud of myself for recognizing some of those plants as things that are growing in my yard. Thank you, previous homeowners. Um, yeah, I can't take credit, but… It was really exciting, and I hope it makes it… both, like, easier for future projects, but also more uniform, but not too uniform. like, a lot of thought and strategy went into it, and everything was. Very low water usage, which is… Obviously, great. So yeah, I'm excited. And non-invasive. Anything else? Yes, um, I want to highlight the comments from Deb Fox from the City of Petaluma. Um, that while we are building this out, check in with them and. potentially some of the volunteer groups. Um, I know plants can be a passion in the community, and we
201should use that passion for good, uh, versus, uh. getting yelled at that we use an invasive species by accident, and… So… Um, just want to, again, highlight, and she, I think, offered up some of the work that they've done and experienced, so I just want to make sure that, uh, you know, the district is working with, uh, you know. Uh, that… assistance with the city as we're building this out. Okay, and I think I just would reiterate that. trees are always good. I also agree that the bigger the better. Um, it's okay. We can't spend the whole budget on trees. Okay. We could have one really nice tree, or… Yeah. Future Amanda's yelling at you as paying a budget, or, like, cutting it down in 20 years, yeah. Exactly. Okay, we have a motion on
202the table. Not a table on a table. Um… All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Yay! We have a landscape assessment! Woohoo! Okay, now we have number 2, approval of facility contracts for November 2025. You could explain how this is… Yes, yes. Um, I've noticed over the last couple months, and I think, uh, Trustee Webster brought some questions last month about, um. We really use the term facilities interchangeably for a lot of things. So, um, one of the ways we thought we could. make changes is… That, um, our traditional maintenance and operations that are routine are routine maintenance charges will stay on the traditional. Um, contract spreadsheet that brought… was brought forward during consent, but now that we're getting ready for bond implementation. our facilities, which is our capital facilities project, so basically our
203bond developer fees are bigger projects are. going to start overtaking, um, that spreadsheet, and it's also… I think may help with a lot of the questions and confusion in the future on. When we're looking at budget cuts, why… why are we also. Proving hundreds, thousands of dollars of contracts, um. bringing it to action does allow the board easier to have the conversations and to ask the questions, um… For the contracts themselves, so that's why it's presented different this month. And if you guys think it works, we'll try it again or not. Great. Okay, can I get a… I move to approve. I second. Any questions about the, uh… selling contracts? Um, I suppose that, like, I do, like. being this broken out. Me too. These Casa Grande High School restrooms are going to be, uh.
204top of the mark, it looks like. So, that's great. And then, um, looks like we are, uh… the, you know, I… I know how hard you worked, Amanda, like, on the, um, you know, the unexpected high enrollment at Valley Vista, and. Um, so the portable facilities, like, that was completed, and, you know, uh, what's your… I guess 10-second recap of, uh, how that went. Um… and how… and how they're being utilized. Yeah, great. Um… the CASA bathrooms is part of the bleacher project, and we required ADA. accessibility, so this is not… fancy, um, toilets, this is going to be a beaut… like. a whole beautiful new bathroom that will actually allow for ADA access, so we're super excited about it. And then, um, for the. I can say this now that I'm bringing forward the
205notice of completion, um, for the Valley Vista. This is the only… project that we've had so… in months that hasn't had any major hiccups. Unfortunately. They… they are temporary. Um, we… so, we… did go for temporary. For temporary, um, for 3 years, so DSA approval for that is a little… easier. Um, this is one of the first projects that Van Pelt, um. helped pick up and has made the process a lot easier, so… They do not have restrooms, though, um, that. Would have been extremely expensive to bring sewer into, um, the thing, so… Restrooms would have been wonderful, but they were not within our budget, and the scope of work, because then we would have. sewer lines, which will eventually become. a play area again, too, so… Other than that, it was great. Any other
206question? Okay. Um… Um… yeah, I know. I need to… do we… we have had… okay. We need a vote. Everybody in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Our facility contracts have passed. Comments from the public on discussion item. No public coming forward. Um, discussion, information only. FY26 seabeds enrollment update. Amanda. I really hope that this was shared with Carl. the seabeds update? No? Have it? Perfect, thank you. Yeah. So, as that gets put on this. screen, I will go ahead and get started. Um… I believe it was… in September, I brought, um. Uh, enrollment update to the board. projected versus day 10, and then I said that I would bring an update back after census Day, um. Census Day is the date that we use for our projections for our LCFF calculator. our enrollment, our attendance certification
207for the year, so this becomes a very important snapshot in time. Though we do receive, um. actual funding on the days attended and. It's a lot of paperwork and a lot of math to get to the true number. This is what the state shows on the CDE website. This is what we use for. the information, um, for our budgeting and stuff like that, so… Excellent. Yes. Any questions about this? It looks good. It looks pretty consistent. So, one of the great things, um, that we did notice is that we saw. Um, actually some small increases, which does not always happen this time of year. So that was good. Um, no major declines at any of our sites. Um, we had a couple that went down, too. But for the most part, we saw an increase
208in enrollment in 2 to 3 students at each of our elementary sites. Um, our second dairies stayed. junior highs all stayed really consistent. And our high school's, um, Petaluma High. had the largest increase of, like, 6… students, and he's like, where did you come from? So, yeah, exactly. So, other than that, everybody else… Paid. Um… That was… yeah. Wonderful. Okay. Share screen. Oh, there we go. Did you get it? We don't have the cover, because I'm in the wrong spot. He is the head cold. So, if we just want to do a quick scroll that shows everything we. just discuss. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he has that. I do believe that we shared it with. Karen, do you have the implementation? Do you have the implementation plan that's the next thing on the agenda? We don't
209have to do this anymore, yeah. That's the next question. I'm sorry I played over here. We're trusting those thoughts, and then we'll keep our own. I didn't know, everybody stressed around numbers. Okay, we're moving on to the, uh, measure AA and Z implementation plan. This is where… Thank you! This was a very long meeting. We really appreciate you being here. Van Pelt was lucky enough to join us at our. Our board study session at 4 o'clock this evening, and… She is… she, Kelly, is still here, so… Oh, so, um… Amanda. I'm gonna go ahead. Sorry, before we… before we start, I think just… I know that there… I don't know how many people are watching this, or will be watching this in the future, but I think it's… important, just to restate. That, yes, we
210are in a budget crisis, our general fund is… we are… we are having… We're needing to make some major reductions right now to, um. to our general fund. About a year ago, the community passed measure. AANZ. to fund… a bond fund. Bond funds are very separate than the general fund, and we can only use bond funds for facilities, upgrades, building, etc, etc. And so, we cannot intermix the two. So if we hear it over and over. from community members. How can you say that you're, you are. Uh, you don't have money for… you're having to make reductions, and while you're building. a pool at Casa Grande, or whatever it is. Well, because… two very different funding sources. Alright, um, thank you. So… As earlier today, we held our study session on our facilities master plan.
211Our Energy Master Plan and our Landscape Master Plan. that was all to… we've been spending the last year to prepare us for bond implementation. Just to do a quick recap due to. fluctuations and variations in the market. We did sell our first series of measures Z and AA. Last spring, um, generally when you receive a bond from the voters, you sell them in. Three sets, series 1, Series 2, and Series 3. And you then do your, um, implementation plan around 3 series. Generally, you take an implementation plan first before you sell, but because of the volatility of the market. We have been, um… We did that in opposite this time, so this has been something that we've been working, um. diligently on to bring forward to the board. Um, this will start the program of
212the two new bond measures. So this will come for discussion this evening. And then it will… hopefully it will come back to the December meeting. with the facilities master plan for approval, and that is when we will be able to officially. start the work of, um, our new bonds. So, Amanda, I have a question. So, each school has a list of projects. Are these wish lists, or these. Um, things that need to be repaired, like HVAC, or is it a combination of both? So, great question. This is a combination of both, so… through the meetings, the community input meetings we've had, things that we've heard from the community itself. speaking with our site administrators, talking at the district level. We've taken, as we said earlier, close to $800 million of. Um, potential projects, and we've.
213Selected about just under $230 million. Of, um, and I do want to point out, once approved by the board, this will be a living document, things. requirements change, needs of the district change, so this is, um, once… this implementation plan will continue to come back to the board at least annually, where. changes can be made, but right now, we're looking at a combination of need. And a couple fun wants at the community level. The other thing that we really. leveraged when you look at it site by site, is that we've looked… we are looking at the work that has been. done with our previous bonds and other types of funding. Um, on work that's already been done at sites, so, um, Mary Collins happens to have a. big, beautiful project going on right now that
214is, we are using the 2014 bonds to pay for, so… you will not see a large pro. project in this, um, and it's really about trying to create equity. Um, at our site, so our elementary schools, like our charter. junior highs like, and, um, to bring our. high schools similar we talk a lot about, and I laugh that it came up, water polo. Um, it is such a topic of conversation, right? We don't want to be in our district, well, I play water… I'm obviously too old for high school, so my son plays water polo. So he can only go to Petaluma High School. We want to remove those types of barriers by. Having similar facilities, they're not always going to be the same. at our like sites, so that's a lot of what you
215will see. And when you look at the overall $220 million funding, um, that it is not equally divided by site, and that's what we looked at for this implementation specifically. So, without further ado… I will invite Kelly and Ray up to the… No, just tell you to the podium. I will call upon Ray as needed. All right, does the clicker, okay, perfect. All right, so a little bit of this was already covered, so just quickly, a fast reminder, Facilities Master Plan. all of your needs and wants for a perfect district with perfect facilities. Uh, an implementation plan, we go down to earth again and say. Can we actually accomplish with the dollars that we have? Um, been awarded from the voters. All right, so we're gonna start with district-wide initiatives. So, um, I'll define district-wide
216initiatives. as goals that the district has, and maybe we haven't developed what that scope looks like at individual sites, and there. Might be variations of need, but we've identified that there is a need for this scope of work at each of the sites. So single-point entry. Um, another thing that came up today in the meeting, uh, technology upgrades. District-wide furniture, window treatments. And then also bond overhead. Um, bond overhead really is. and to choice, um, in order to move forward with your bond, you need to have a cost of issuance legal counsel, management, consultants, things like that. All right, so then what we wanted to do is take the board and the community through each campus and what they'll be receiving as part of the bond, and then at the end, we'll talk a little
217bit about the financial side. So, at Casa Grande, we'd be looking at a facility that would support a CTE program for child care. Effectively, a second gym. Solar work, roofing replacement, a new pool covered tonight as well. Uh, fire alarm replacement, and then HVAC replacement as needed. Petaluma, similar items, also a second gem. One of the things we're also going to be looking at as we roll out this implementation is efficiencies among the projects. So, if you're doing two gyms. at the same price point at two high schools in the same district, you have to think about design reuse. Is there a possibility that we can design that gym once? and then drop it in two different locations, and all we would have to do is redesign the utilities. So those are the kinds of
218things we're thinking about as we roll out the projects. And then you'll start to see a theme of roofing, solar, and HVAC. Yes, oh, absolutely. All right, uh, Kenilworth, roofing, solar, and HVAC. Um, we are looking at about almost every site. Petaluma Junior High, roofing replacement, and. HVAC, on Petalima Junior High, I just wanted to remind everyone that we are… we have started the courtyard remodel. Which is part of the 2014 bond. There's also some opportunities, um, that many districts take advantage of with the roofing and HVAC work. Uh, to package multiple sites. So that you can get a little bit more bang for your buck. So we'll look at that as well. More roofing and HVAC. Uh, one more thing that we also talk about is if there's… within those budgets, if there's opportunities
219for small wins, um, landscaping, paving, a little bit of paint or something, so that our community knows that work is getting done, because sometimes when you're doing only things on the roof, it's really hard to show those voters. what they're getting for their dollars. So we'll be mindful of that as well. This one is solar in HVAC, so a little bit of a change-up, but as Amanda mentioned, there's a lot happening right now at Mary Collins. And just a question, so. One thing you'll see throughout the elementary schools and the K-8 schools, are the, um. One big need that we have heard over and over is a separate. space for performing arts music. Right, so it's almost like a two-classroom module with a, um… A little amphitheater or something in. In the middle so that
220you have a place where. Right now, our music teachers. VAPA, um… even the theater that I was over at Grant yesterday. their itinerant teachers, so they're always going from classroom to classroom without spaces, instruments, etc, etc. finding a space where the instruments can live, the marimbas can live, where. We have a dedicated space for the arts. on our campuses. That's, again, could be used for other purposes, right, especially if it's only… depending on how many times a week we have. those types of classes. But just a nice, dedicated space for the arts on our elementary and our K-8 campuses. So… sorry. At, um, Mary Collins, we are replacing. 5 classrooms, um, 3 of them are leased. that will eventually be removed, but there will be space that is currently being utilized by the middle school.
221Um, for this specifically, that's why you don't see it on this list. All right, and speaking of VAPA spaces. Um, what we talked about here is the need for modernization and construction of TK facilities. and how we might be able to package that with some sort of an indoor-outdoor space for VAPA at the elementary school level. So that you'll see another reoccurring theme as we go into the elementary schools of spaces that may serve that TK use, and then also have some outdoor spaces for performances and use for VAPA. Um, additionally, you'll start to see play structures come in at elementary schools as well, so we've set aside some funds. for place structure replacement at each of the sites. Uh, yes, and uh… and also track replacement or putting in tracks, improving tracks as part
222of these projects as well. All right, um, at McDowell, we are also doing, on top of the things that we just discussed. a new classroom building to support the program that's growing there, and that's another good example of where we would be putting in a track as part of the landscape scope and the work that we'd be doing in those projects. Go for it. This new building would be similar to what is being built at Mary Collins for the. dual language immersion Academy part of, um… The school built on. the side that is closer to. the back of the school where the open field is closer to Safeway, and actually, we would have the an opportunity then to have a separate. drop off an entrance for the junior high. All right, more roofing replacement and
223solar. And this is one that we have to track. Yes, yes. Sorry, some of those tracks are a part of the landscaping that would just go on and kind of be incorporated into the larger projects. All right, and then, uh, McNair, we're also doing that. that same TK space with the VAPA and some of the other things we've discussed. All right, at Penrove, much of the same. In addition, we'll be doing a lot of thinking about the drop-off pickup situation at that site. I'm sorry, I keep looking over here, but… That's alright, I'm good. Um, and again, indoor-outdoor spaces, TK Village, so a little bit more… TK Kinder Village, rather. So, a little bit more robust of a project at this site, and then also, um, addressing the VAPA space that we're looking for indoor-outdoor.
224All right, do you see that nice big open space there? That is where a performing arts center will be. Um, so we, uh, chose, when we presented this. to take this out of the Casa Grande slide, because it really is a facility that's going to support the entire district. So we wanted to feel that way in the implementation plan. Um, so it looks like a big field right now, but we would be working on a project that would get a performing arts center. All right, district facilities. So, this would be, um, district office maintenance, central kitchen, some of the work that needs to get done in those spaces. primarily focusing on solar roofing, and HVAC work. As far as the central kitchen is concerned, doing something more significant there to go to more of a
225scratch cook model, and then taking some of that pressure off the sites. Um, because their kitchens tend to be overwhelmed and going to something where it's more centralized could help. programmatically, as well as giving a nice facility to food services. Alright. Okay, so here is the meat and potatoes. Um, so what we did is we went through and built a budget that identifies. site, site type, a particular scope of work, so everything you see in project aligns with the slides you just saw and the different initiatives we talked about. Then we identified the Facilities Master Plan level. So, you may recall Ted mentioned that the level identifies the type of scope, not necessarily the priority. Um, and then we took. priority levels, just as we saw them, that kind of help guide what was our
226first pass, what was our second, and how we build those projects from here. And then we added a cost. Now, um, there was a cost in the Facilities Master Plan. This cost has been heavily escalated from that… Based on what we're seeing in market conditions, and understanding that some of these projects will be under construction 3 to 5 years from now. And not knowing how that's going to turn out, we'd rather err on the side of caution. In addition, I wanted to clarify that there are built-in contingencies within each of these project budgets, so there's multiple. Types of contingencies. Within that project budget, let's say Performing Arts Center, because it's your biggest chunk of your bond. Um, what we would do is we would have a percentage of the total budget. And that would be
227contingency on the entire project. Then we have a design contingency, and what that does is address, um, anything that comes up during the design process that seems unforeseen, or. Typically, as we get going on a project, there's just things we don't think of as we… formulate the design. And then we also have a change order contingency, which is more for active construction and how we address unforeseen conditions. You know, you dig into the ground, you find different soil conditions, or some underground storage tank, or something that you can't. for C, and then we address those with the change order contingency. So again, I say this a lot, um, you'll probably hear me say it again. We always design to the budget, we don't budget to the design. So we take that big number, and we
228break it down immediately, and then we're honest with our design teams and our contractors about what we can accomplish for that construction box within the budget. Um, just a quick recap. Up here on the slide, I won't read it to you, but you have your, um, bond measure. Your total bond funding, and in the bottom, what we do is we do project interest. Um, so there is interest that will be made on the funds. Will they sit in the bank, um, as we use them. So that gives you a total program funding of $234 million, and right now we are budgeted to $233.9. So we're gonna use every penny. Um, as mentioned earlier in the presentations. to come and say, hey, good news, we have a project that came in a little under budget, here's
229the adjustment we made. Bad news, we had a little project that came in a little over, and we're gonna move those funds around so that we're always keeping the board aware of the changes that we're making as projects. projects are closing out, and the bond program moves forward. Um, what you won't see included in this amount, as Kelly said, we have only addressed. The actual cost of the bonds and interest is that any sort of grants or matching funds that reimbursement that we may receive from the state, um. For a couple of reasons. Number one. We don't know if we will get them, and if once we do qualify, we don't know when the funding will come in, so we don't want to count on it. As part of our cash flow, and one of
230the things that. We really want to look at as we implement this bond is that we only start projects that we have cash to pay for, so we don't want to count on tomorrow's dollars. districts, you… there are horror stories where you see half-built schools or half-finished projects because they literally ran out of money. So we don't want to count on these funds. What will happen is we may have a list of. projects that did not make implementation, or as things go on, that we. have had to redesign may fall off. This will give us an opportunity towards the end of the bond program to bring. either projects that fell off or additional projects forward. All right, and then, um, as much as we love to work in these spreadsheets, they're not very digestible for
231the rest of. the community and the board, so we just wanted to give you a visual representation of if you're looking at your entire bond program. That's how it shakes out site to site. All right, and this is how it shakes out by type of facility. Obviously, district-wide is huge because of the new Performing Arts Center. And this is by project type, so we looked at roofing, HVAC, solar, all those different things we discussed. This is how it shakes out that way. And we are happy to take questions. I had questions on Friday, but this is my second time seeing this, so I just thank you, and thank you for explaining the contingencies, because I was really worried on Friday when I saw. like, 23, 3.9 out of 234. I was like, um, it's construction.
232Get close. That's too close. Yeah, so thank you, I appreciate it. Um, I have a question on, um, the choice on, uh, on when to make or how to make on the solar renovations as, um… Caitlin mentioned earlier. The… kind of, like, I would say the reimbursement or the cost savings we get from PG&E. are not as high, maybe we can… If it's replacing, we keep the old rates, um, but… I just want to make sure also that. You know, we have, uh… you know, two different minds, like, one is, like, some of our solar is a herd operating quite well, so maybe it doesn't need to be renovated, but we all… also have the new… or we have a timeline on, um… the federal tax credits, but I guess not tax credits, reimbursements for
233us. Um, so what is the, kind of, like, threshold and, um… You know, process on… where it makes sense to actually, like, you know, the biggest bang for. Or it's buck, so we don't… I don't know if we need to do every single solar renovation. Uh, district-wide. Yeah, um, that is a great item to bring up, so… I will say that, um, Climatech was in the middle of finishing the assessments when. I called them and said. Guess what? We will be presenting this. To the board on this day. So, um, they… the information I literally got the information yesterday of where we were landing on HVAC and things like that, so what we knew. Going into implementation is that we likely wanted battery backups. at, um, our other comprehensive high school and junior high. Because
234we have them… We are working on having them still at Casa Grande and Petaluma Junior. We knew likely that we would want that project. We knew that there was HVAC. And other things that needed to be included, um, going into this. So now that we have the information and. the… what has not been presented to the board yet, it was just touched on tonight, was the full assessment. Um, Climate Tech will bring forward an assessment. that looks similar to the landscape and the facilities master plan. We will now use that information. to decide, um, which order projects need to go in, because we know that, um. this… we would need to be at 5% by July 4th if this. project, if it moves forward with the board to look at HVAC and solar, we will
235make that a. priority in this first series to meet those deadlines. Um, this is potentially something we could see with statement matching funds with other projects, too. So, I think right now, um, going into implementation, this is, like. I would say probably the most exciting part is we get all of this information, and we'll start making. those decisions, so we would like… we will likely… solar will be one of the first things, um. if it is deemed that we're gonna move forward with it specifically. Did that answer? Thank you. No other question. And yeah, I just… I really interested in hearing… This second time I've seen it, and it's… it's… I'm really glad that you're doing this. Thank you. Anything that we're missing? I did have something, but it feels… Like, really, um… Late. Yeah.
236Um, for me, but, you know, I look at, uh. San Antonio, and their lack of, um… access to electives and CTE. And so, it just like you just said, and so. Um, it seems like if we could have a shop there, some kind of. remodeling of the buildings. I know that, like, carve out. Carve out something there. I don't know if it's too late in the process to do that. Nope, not at all. It would be awesome, and also to give them. I just think it's absolutely essential, like, what Ruby said, you know, they went on a… On a field trip to the junior college, and already they have students that are signing up. for those, um… Those, uh, you know, certificate programs. And so, it would be awesome if we could get them some
237kind of. Building of some kind. I know, so they can have access. Yeah, we definitely can do research on that and bring that back to the next meeting. Is there anything on the list, um. That we're not in love with, that we don't love. I did, you know, this did come up when we, yeah, unfortunately, that and HbAC is a necessity. Um, those are the… the not-sexy projects that, you know, have to get done, but… One of the things that, um, did come up on Friday, and as we spoke to, we're basically. at, um… capacity just really close to our limit, is unless we leverage other facilities. Funding any, we do add to bond implementation does mean we need to reduce somewhere else. That is something we'll continue to look at to bring back, but…
238so, like. Even… Do you want to add something? Yeah, okay. Okay, you guys, like, pass whatever you want, I'm done. Okay, um, I got… Uh, one thing that, I mean, I think, unfortunately, you and I. potentially want to follow up with the county on is the intersection and or, you know, again, the traffic patterns around Penrove Elementary, which really does. Um, cause a quality of life issue for our parents, and I think adds stress to staff and students. Um, I spoke recently with Supervisor Rabbit, um. And it seems like, uh, that, uh, the intersection. Uh, has been… delayed yet again on redoing or adding an additional lane, right-hand turn lane, but… Again, if we have, you know. ability to make… maybe, like, I do driveway or something on, you know, something I have to think
239through. That is a project. I know, I know, but, like, but I think my point is we should check in with the county and public infrastructure, as I do think it's kind of, like, next up on their list, too. And we choose. And maybe do some work together, and also get easement permits. Turns out they'd like you to get those. I mean, I knew that. Maybe like a sidewalk, you know, a little bit. But that is one of the plans, that is there. things, that's a great point, so maybe… I'm not saying this is what we're doing, but maybe we had the Penn Grove drop off in. our Series 2 of cells and then we have a meeting with the county and we find out, well, actually, they're going to be doing the work this
240summer. That is something we would bring back to the board, like, we feel like we need to move this project up. So, what project is in Series 1? that now will be moved down. But those are part of the conversation and working with the Van Pelt team is that these will become regular. updates, not only for the board to be informed, but it's a great way for our community. to see how, um, their tax dollars are hard at work. Excellent. Thank you again, and thank you for staying for this very long meeting. Oh, our pleasure. Thank you. Oh, and also, this is Ray Green. He didn't get to talk. Ray is our Director of Project Management for our entire firm, but he also is a Petaluman. Do I say that right? Is that how you
241say it? Yes. So, get a little bit high. Okay, very good. Okay, we're gonna get through this. Um, successful pricing of 25, 26. General obligation refunding bonds, this is a good thing. This is a fabulous thing, and I have an update since this has been posted, so… Um, we took our 20… 14 bonds, um, you passed a resolution at the last board meeting. to refund or refinance our bonds forward delivery, um, at the. time that we took them. I guess to mark it. Um, we did, we had interest. In the forward refunding for the elementary, but there was not interest at the secondary, and then we were. Able to refund, um, the secondary, um. a firm reached out the day after this posted and decided that they also wanted to buy… I can't remember if
242I told you. Okay, good. Um, they also wanted to purchase the second dairies, so it looks like now, instead of a $1 million. Um, cost savings to the taxpayers of Petaluma were going to be closer to $1.3 million savings. So. What this will do is this does not reduce the amount of money that the district received. But we have reduced the interest. Um, by over 3% to the taxpayers of Petaluma, so super exciting. I know we don't have a communications coordinator, but this would be a really interesting letter to the Argus Courier, or, um… Um, yeah, public… what's the… That's really… there we go. Yeah. Thinking… I'm happy to help write it if Amanda can do the logistical writing, I can… beautify it. Perfect. Yeah. I think the voters will want to know. I think
243they should. I think they should now. So, thank you for that. And I would think… Are you gonna be doing all this? I'm not gonna go through. Great. Well… They're from the sites, yes. Hi, everyone. It's very late. And I had my microphone off that whole time, so… Just, like… Yeah, so these courses, generally speaking, come from the sites, and they go through their shared decision-making process at the sites. departments into, uh… principal Advisory Committee, or… leadership team, and then we have developed over the course of the last year or so. Um, what we call a course of study committee, and there is course of study board policy, so we're… We're really… I think we've… it's safe to say we've done a good job of tightening up the process. And you have now a solid
244set of courses at one time to review. At one time during the year versus. A cores here, a course there. So we've really tried to do our best. It's not perfect yet, but we are getting there, so… And instead of going course by course, just curious if you have any questions. There are several that are. A completion of a CTE pathway, you'll see advanced public services careers, for example, advanced 3D animation. Those are capstone CTE courses that complete the CTE pathways that we have. At those respective sites. I think a couple of the more unique ones, United Physical Education is a really interesting course. It's Miracle league. Special Olympics, um… Driven, this would be the course, it's currently. piloting at Petaluma High School right now, to great acclaim, but this is the course that students
245who. Our general education program students who are in the course supporting students with. Moderate to severe disabilities and providing some leadership and some collaboration to support those students. who are taking PE. So, it's going very well from what I hear, and this formalizes that for those students. Curious if you have any questions there. Really good question. Yeah, so that's at Costa Garner High School, which they've significantly expanded their sculpture program, and it's mostly all CTE. They already do AP3D and 2D, so it's one of those things where it's kind of embedded in that course. students who want to opt in to taking. that AP course, then they do so. Yeah. Um, just real quick about the math applications, if I correct in… Seeing that it replaces math too. No, it's a really good question. So,
246this is an interesting course coming from Petaluma High School, and they have developed a course they feel strongly about. That allows a bit of, um… It's not an off-ramp, per se, but students who struggled in Math 1 need some more support. strengthen their Math 1 skills before they move on to Math 2. So that would be, like, what… So it still counts as a year of math? But a student could potentially do math 1. math applications, and then Math 2. As a 3-year course sequence. And that would qualify for that third year of math? Correct. Yeah. Okay, yeah. I did… I did something like that in high school. Yeah, so… Um… great to see AP Business as a new course, um, and several new math. Um, I have a question on video game design. Um,
247it says it replaces Intro to… to computer? Yeah, it replaces Intro to Computer Science. So, I have a… I have a problem. I am worried that… this is potentially. More gender-focused, like, uh, it may attract. and disengage, um, you know, just based on gender, wins video game. versus, like, the 3D art, which includes some video game design. in that course. So, I want… uh… I don't know. Are we the second set of eyes? I almost want to see our, like, think through. this one, again, I'm not… Um… as of this moment. uh, supportive of this. Um, but we just want to know more, and… Um, kind of thoughts from the committee, and how this gets. again, like, replacing inter… Computer Science. Uh, versus into video games, I feel like that may turn off. Some… a
248set of demo… you know, set of students from. Um, getting… skills that, uh… can be utilized in almost all modern workplaces. Sure, computer literacy, absolutely. So the concern is about… potential, um… Let's just name it… too many male students in the course is that the concern? and turning, I think, potentially off. Yeah, female students, yeah. Or, again, just people who are… Interesting computer games and not, right? I think there is. Definitely some, like, I understand, like, there's potentially, like. more excitement in this kind of course, and, like, some very cool and fun projects that can come out of it. Um, but again. just getting… I think it's… it potentially has… issues with enrollment, and… Where… versus compu- internet computer science. It's a good point. Let me get back to you on that and see if
249we can develop a system to ensure there's. equitable enrollment in the course, and I think promotion is a key part of that. It's interesting to note that the course itself is really a replacement of this course that is. I think it's meant to be more project-based and more hands-on. And so it was, I think, developed to actually attract more students. Um, so… But the concern is valid, and we definitely don't want to turn away or turn off students. So, let me find out more information. Yeah, so, I mean, why isn't it, like, uh, you know, website design? Why isn't it, like, uh. graphics and, you know, online video, or, you know, there's a couple different things. Video game is very… Specific, and I don't know. I think it depends on how we market it, because
250a lot of women and girls do. Play video games. Yeah, I kind of resent the implication that girls don't. Oh, I'm not… just as a quick note… Well, you're claiming gender, and that offends me. I'm sorry. I just wanted to make the note that, um, a lot of what you, I think, consider the gaming. is what the first-person shooters, these. action-type video games, but in actual sense, a lot of the most successful games. are ones that are storytelling, ones that have a lot of character involvement, where they're not… it's not… gender biased in that sense, if you actually designed the game structure. You're saying, build a story, build something, build a narrative. build a lot of stuff that's around it. The last part is actually, in some ways. making all the graphics. If you don't
251have a compelling story and you don't have something to draw the. player in a lot of games fail, so the most successful games are the ones that. actually have things that draw the users in, which is something that's not. I don't think that's specifically gender-based. You think of it one way, but I think a lot of the, uh… I think successful stories, and in fact, a lot of very successful game designers are women. For that reason. I mean, we don't hear about them as much because. It is dominated by men, but some of the most successful games. are designed by women as well. So I just wanted to bring that up. It's not… Thank you. Thank you. So, my, uh, point is, I think by, like, naming it. this, and I am worried again, there
252is a… I'm not… again, I'm making a point. I know women play, and young women play video games. There is a gap. There is a gender gap on. They have people who are, I think. Uh, very into… Video games, and just naming it this, and like. consequences. That's why I just wanted us to double check, dot the I's, cross the T's, make sure we're doing this right. I hear that. I think you could also say that for computer science as well. Um, like, my daughter, she got… one of the main reasons she got an iPad so her and her friends could play Roblox. And this is when they were juniors in high school. This is last year. So, um, I hear what you're saying, and… I don't know if there's a way to, like, vet
253how many are gonna sign up until they actually sign up, um… I do think that there are more girls engaged in video games than maybe when we were sitting in front of our Ataris, because I'm so old, we had an Atari and a Sega. The original Segas, okay? Um… Pre-Pong, yeah. So I… I hear your point, and… I don't know if there's a way for us to… see if it's going to cause more of a gender divide until we, like, actually put it out for course. Um, sign-ups. It would be interesting, like in a… I mean, I'd like to kind of know. It sounded like you already answered it, why they changed it. You know, why they're getting rid of computer science to video game. Design in order to attract people. maybe just work on…
254the name of it, you know. have much experience in any of this, so… I mean, I think in… just, it comes down to marketing and highlighting different games, like, exactly like… Typically what Carl was pointing out, like, I love the sims, the storytelling, yeah. I'm curious to go back and, uh… you know, see what is the gender breakdown of the current Intro to Computer Science course taught by the teacher who also proposed this course. I think that would be interesting and he's a very engaged young teacher and. Well, you know, we have the auto, you know, over at Petaluma High, and Keith just made that program because he really. Um, he really marketed it to. the young women at Aluma High, and so it really grew. And they, they… I don't know what it's like
255now, but I know for a couple of years, it was really growing with its, um… And esports had a lot of girls, too, at CASA. Esports has had a bunch of girls at CASA, too, so… Targeting them. Okay, so here's my view. Quick Pew research study. 2024, uh, and teenagers who identify as video gamers, 62% of teen boys do, compared to 17% of. Girls. There is… Um, who've played a video game in the past, I don't know, I think it's the past month or past year. 97% of boys, 75% of girls. So… Right, but you see, there's a gap. And let's… It's also interesting, we have, you know, we have our very successful child development careers and education pathway now at Costa Corona High School. We're growing our own, everybody. And, uh, the genetic breakdown
256there is very heavily. A female, um, it's safe to say, um, but they're doing great, and I have to say, it's so exciting to see the CTE-driven child. Thank you. I remember when we field tripped up to Windsor, that's on the… that made the cut for the implementation plan. Amen. Um, so I just think moving forward. with noting the concern. Going back to that, the committee, um, Dr. Owen, getting some more information, you and Fideji. You and Amy Fide G? Absolutely, yeah. Okay, and to bring back to this for a second read, and maybe even… Maybe there's even a way to… Maybe the childcare women help the boys design a game for the little kids. No, like, there's some ways of collaboration to introduce more girls in the STEM, and… I mean, we look at
257all demographics when it comes to enrollment. Of course, is because we want to do our best to make sure that access and. And the classes are balanced, you know, that's. That's just… good practice. Yeah. It just seems like, again, like… Uh, advance, um… experience and, uh, uh. Yeah, again, classes on computer, computer technology, computer programs, programming, you know, uh, it's just so important. Right now, and nowadays, so I just want to make sure that… Yeah, it's… I don't know if you're following the College Board, and I know it's getting late, but isn't this. The College Board AP Kickstart, their College Board is leaning into CTE courses. I don't know if you've noticed that. So, AP Business is one of them, AP Networking, AP Cyber Security. They're taking over our CT world. Watch out. Um, but
258I did want to end on just a positive note, too, that one of the topics we talked about a few years ago was ensuring that all of our CTE courses were A through G approved. And folks, we're near 100%, which is really amazing. So, kudos to all of our teachers across the district. That's been a big lift. We've been submitting those and getting them approved and updated. regularly, so that's all in our… you can go to the College and Career Pathways landing page on our district website and see those lists. Thank you, Dan. I really like how you… I got one more thing. It's not related to video games, but it is about AP African American history. I know we had talked about it a few months ago. And I don't know what the process
259is for people choosing to teach things, but I have talked to people at CASA who said they wanted to teach it, but they were discouraged from teaching it because they were white. And so I just think when we're looking at. Um, these classes, and we're gonna talk about biases and things like that. If anyone should be able to teach any class? Um, and so I just find that very dis… discouraging and disappointing in our district that people were told they should not teach a certain class because of their race. Anyway, with one of the highest, um… AP pass rates definitely a little bug in your ear, either for this year or next year, to try to get that. You know what I mean? Another teacher, yeah. I can give you names after. Yeah, okay. Okay,
260thank you, Dan. This is really good work. I love seeing all these in my little comment on the side was, wow. Thank you. Is that it? We don't have any more. No, we have future business. Okay, we're moving on to future business. Anybody got anything? I have a few things. I usually don't. I saved them for the fun meeting. Um, before the end of the year, I would like to do a resolution, the Mahmood. Versus Taylor case, um, I've talked to Matthew a little bit about it offline, I just want to see if we can get that before. the end of the year, um, just so that. students know their rights, families know their rights, um… About… their… Right, to opt in or opt out of material, and making sure we're affirming. that we support
261queer and trans students and families, no matter what. Public commenters say, um. queer people exist. queer can exist, trans families, trans people, trans kids. Exist, I'm mad about it. Um, and then I would also like to re-examine our resolution about flying pride flags to allow for, um. principles to fly them at other times outside of. May 22nd through the end of June, because schools end during, like, beginning of Pride Month, so the beautiful flags are not. flown as much as I would like them to be. And then lastly, I have been politely sitting through the Pledge of Allegiance for 7 years, and I'm over it. I would like to start doing land acknowledgements, at least in addition to the Pledge of Allegiance. I would prefer instead of. The Pledge of Allegiance, but I will defer
262to my other board members on what they think about that. Um, yeah, I was inspired by the public commenter today, and would like to start doing land acknowledgements at our meeting. Meetings. I would like to discuss going back to two meetings a month. Um, this was a Luan thing and she's not here. So, you know, I never had a problem with two meetings a month. And I'd like to… talk about going back to that. This is a long meeting. Why? You know, just about hitting 10.30. I don't disagree at all, but also, I think no matter what, November and December are weird because of all of the holiday breaks, so this would already be a… gnarly meeting, um, but I don't disagree at all that in other months, I'm… I prefer, too. And it also
263makes it easier to break up presentations and. Breakup students of the month, and… Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Yes, thank you. Did you want anything, Joanna? You're not gonna do it? It's too late to say. No one's watching. I hope they watch. I do too. What do you think? Anything? Last… last chance, okay. Adjourn to closed session, we're not done with closed session. Thank you, sweetie. Just making sure, because people are saying they're done. So we finished it. We finished, no, we have the evaluation of the superintendent. We're not