October 22, 2025 - RVSD Board of Trustees Regular Board Meeting

001Instructions for accessing subtitles in a language other than English are included on our board meetings web page as well as in the description below. Good evening and welcome to the Ross Valley School District Board of Trustees regular meeting. Today is October 22nd, 2025 and I am calling our meeting to order at 601. We have four trustees present in person at the Ross Valley School District office at 100 Shaw Drive in Sanmo. myself, Rachel Litwick, Anna Marsh, Chris Lindles, Cobb, and Daniel Cassidy. Trustee Shelley Hamilton is not present tonight. We also have cabinet members present, superintendent graph, um, CBO Chris Carson, and Director of Student Services Lori O' Conor. Our meeting is being live streamed via YouTube and the links on our website and on the agenda. There will be a 60-cond delay between the meeting

002and the YouTube live stream. An audio recording of the meeting will be made available to the public on our district YouTube website. And with that I will move on to our agenda. So the first item we have is closed session. I'm going to identify our closed session topics. We have conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant significant exposure to litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9 subdivision D2 or 3 special education program dispute one case student SSID 674110-7864. Um there is no public here to comment on our close session agenda. So with that I will move us into recess us into close session at 603. All right, welcome back. We um reconvened in open session at 6:29 p.m. Um report out from close session. Uh the board present 4 to0 voted to approve the staff recommendation

003on conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant exposure litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9 subdivision D2 or3 special education program dispute one case SSID 6741107864. Um so moving on we have procedural items. The first of which is the pledge of allegiance. So, if you would like to stand and join me in the pledge, please do so. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Our next item here is to adopt the agenda and time allocations. Um, do we have any questions about the agenda or time allocations? No. Do we have any public comment on our agenda or time allocations? >> All right. Seeing no public comment, I will entertain a

004motion on this item. >> I will um make a motion to approve the agenda and time allocations. >> Do I have a second? >> I have a second. >> Thank you. Chris >> I. >> Anna. >> I. >> Danny. >> Hi. >> And Rachel. I. All right. We have an agenda for tonight. Our next item is D communication. The first item here is public comment regarding items not on the open session agenda. So if you are here and you would like to comment on something that is not listed on our agenda tonight, this is the time. Um you have three minutes to comment on anything that is in our preview and you would like to make a public comment. All right, seeing none, I'll move on. Our next item is D correspondence communication to the

005board. do not see any items listed there. Um, and moving on, I have announcements by labor unions. Do I have anyone from RBTA who would like to come and speak? Okay, please do. >> Hello. >> Hi, I'm Sarah Hory, the co-president of RBTA, and we have a message we'd like to send to you. Um, as you begin your parcel tax conversation, it's imperative to understand the real impact of a failed parcel tax. The real possibility of closing schools and cutting programs that will directly um and negatively impact our students, and it will force our highly qualified teachers to leave the district. We don't want a short-term band-aid. We need longevity, a long-term financial solution to keep providing intervention, PE teachers, aid positions, as well as enrichment classes available to our student population. All of these

006components that we've offered for we've offered for years is what makes the Ross Valley, and this is what our educators love being here. Please think long and hard about a long long-term financial solution so we don't find ourselves in a similar situation in just a few years. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Do I have a representative from CEA who would like to speak? >> Hi, I'm Jenny Wright, um, secretary for CSEA and, um, CSEA stands with RBTA regarding this important partial tax measure. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, so moving on, we have e student presentation. So yeah, student presentation for White Hill Middle School students, a presentation on inclusive school culture. >> Okay, let's stand behind Can each of you tell us who you are, your names, what grade you're

007in before you start? >> Okay, >> great. >> Um, hi, my name is Leah Armstrong and I'm in eighth grade and I go to White Hill Middle School. >> My name is Seror and I'm in eighth grade and yeah, I go to White Hill. >> Uh, hi, I'm Piper. I'm I'm Piper Leon. I'm in seventh grade and I go to Whale. Hi, I'm Nico Taylor. I'm in sixth grade and I also know I let me introduce him real quick and just want to introduce myself. John Baker, one of the co-principles at White Hill. We're really excited to present our student leaders um for our uh SLAM group, student led anti-racist movement, and our teacher advisors at Ren and Carolina Ortega. Um, at White Hill, our goals align with the districts and that's to ensure academic

008equity for all students. And a key part of achieving that goal is making sure that every student feels a strong sense of belonging on our campus. As adults, we all work hard to create that environment, but the truth is it's these students who create the culture of our school. Um, >> yeah, I'm just going to layer in I'm just so incredibly proud um of these students and the work. um they they're just such incredible thought partners and leaders on campus. This is really our second year of having a slam group and the first that's our third year working with Dr. Watson who kind of helped us get rolling. So for some of these students this is their you know second and third year um of work of doing this work and there's really been um

009incredible leaders on campus and really helping us um you know think about what does it mean from the student perspective to create an inclusive culture? How do we make sure that um all differences are celebrated on campus? Um and that students are learning to be upstanders um and that it's not just coming from the adults, but it's coming from the culture within the students as well. And um that's in large part to the work of this group. >> Good evening. Um my name is Carolina Artega. This is my 11th year teaching middle school, but it's my first year with Ross Valley School District and White Hill. Um, just to be fairly quick, when I first was approached about SLAM, I was very my interest was speak was peaked. Um, but it really was hearing the

010passion and the voices of our powerful students that completely drew me in. Um, and aside from, you know, White Hill as a school, um, doing our lessons of culture of belonging and all of that, I can I think I can speak for both my co-advisor and myself when we say that we're just really excited um to see our young powerhouses rise up and speak and advocate for themselves and make a difference in the community that they're part of every day. >> Yeah. And hi, I'm Alison Ren and I'm the French teacher. Um, which might seem weird, but I I mean, but it isn't, right? Because actually through teaching French, what languages, what all things are are pieces of change and the culture that they're part of. Um, I'll be brief with this, but when we

011were standing up for the pledge of allegiance, like just even thinking about that, the pledge of allegiance and what does it mean and what what was the meaning of that when we set this country up and I am dedicated to this group of students and really want to see them push how they're critically thinking about that question, about the question of how do we have everyone belong, right? And also really more than anything they should really teach others um with the tools that they've learned how you can change someone's mind about just looking at what someone looks like, right? How do you do that? And so I'm super proud, but I'm going to shut up now and let them do the talking. Go for it. >> Um okay. So essentially, um we're a group of

012Yeah. sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Um, yeah, I'm a getaway girl middle school. And so, as you can see, SLAM stands for student led anti-racist movement. And we're trying to create an environment at White Hill where everyone feels safe and has like a voice to be heard and everyone feels a sense of belonging. And now essentially we want to do that by have make being making being making being making being making being making sure everyone has a voice and because that's really important what everyone has to say and along with the fact that it doesn't like it doesn't matter what background you come from. It's just like you fit in because you're different. Um in this slide we're talking about the principles of participation and the first one is commit to the cause. Second one

013is tell your truth. The third one is don't dodge discomfort and the fourth one is lean in to listen and learn. And the last one is resist relying on a rapid resolution. An example is like committing to the cause. To me that means like really finding a purpose to devoting your time to something that is important to you. And yeah uh sorry do you have an example for any other ones? Um when it says lean in to listen and learn for me that means like listening to everyone's ideas because we as a individual we have one mindset and with everyone like collaborating and coming together it forms new opinions new ideas and it's just like a really beautiful thing when everyone comes together to hear h how everyone else is thinking. >> Mhm. Yeah. Like

014we've been doing a slam at White Hope for three years now and I really think these principles have made us more confident in educating others and racism at our school. And I think these principles are really important to me because they um they show our like our uh devotion to this and our togetherness. >> Um so why is it important? Well, everyone deserves to be respected and everyone deserves to belong. And uh still we ask the question, why do we why do we need slam? Well, schools should be a safe place for everyone. And um the but sometimes people don't like feel like school is a safe place for them. And that's why we are trying to change that. Uh with SLAM, like every week students get to learn about like how to make a

015better community at our school and like learn about how to be anti-racist and like just making school a safer and better place for us. And as middle schoolers, we're at the perfect age to learn to learn and teach others about these topics because like we just like I don't know want to be involved with our community. Um hi, I'm Piper Leel. I'm here to talk a little bit about our goals for SLAM. But um first let me tell you a little bit about why I joined SLAM. I'm a seventh grade student who joined SLAM to show it's never okay to make racist jokes and I'm showing that everyone belongs. Um, we want to make sure in those moments we need them to remember when we teach these tools to our community that they put them

016in practice. Um, a couple things we're trying to do is taking the message to many different elementary schools um to help them get this information. The other thing that we would love to do is reach out to older students who have a bit more experience like people in high school or even further college students. >> We going to read this. >> We want to make the world better. We have the power and the privilege to make a change. Dr. Lorie Wonson. That is like a um that was a poem that um Dr. Watson had shared with us and I uh we all wanted to put it on the slideshow cuz it kind of like showed like why we wanted to be here and like the reason for it. >> Yeah. >> Along with that um

017cuz we all have the ability to make the world a better place. It doesn't matter like what it doesn't matter if we're like all different. It just it's like the differences, you know, that bring us together. And like with everyone being different, it adds like more strength to the world. >> Yeah. I think we have the power to make a change. And when we want to make the world better, it doesn't matter about our like like it doesn't matter about like our differences. It's actually the differences that makes us a stronger world. >> Yeah. And a lot of people today don't want to speak don't actually want to speak up about these causes even if they're like invested in them because they might like not feel confident enough to speak out about them. But you

018really don't have to have like a lot of confidence in yourself to still commit to a cause and uh like work with other people to like make the world a better place. Thank you. That's beautiful. [Applause] Would you mind? >> We got We got so many questions. >> Can I just say too, there are many people here that wanted to speak and even more than our cure. So, our group has gotten three times as big. We are meeting twice a week now for 45 minutes. I should have said that in the head. So I just want you to know if you four feel too much pressure with these questions, you have other people here that you can get help from. >> Also, we we do have public comment. So if there are students here who

019would like to make additional public comment, that's also an option. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> How so how many members are there? >> About like 30 or so. >> We're about 35. We're at 35 now, right? >> Full class. >> It's a full class, right? And more that are applying. The issue will be how we will but we're going to figure that out. We're not going to exclude. It's going to be how we figure out how to manage and pull people in at different times, right? While they can also be able to dedicate their time to school work. I mean, we get it. School's absolutely the most important thing, but changing the culture should be very important, too. So, we're figuring it out. >> Amamira, are you the only eighth grader up here? >>

020Uh, no. >> Have both of you been in it for three years? >> Um, two. Yeah. >> Two year two or three years. How have you seen a change over the last few years? Um I feel like there has been more people joining and like the like the want to and also like more confidence like kids have been getting more confident and c like me too when I was in seventh grade I was like uh I don't want to speak but like now that I've done like like the slam fam jam definitely got like my confidence level up and doing this is definitely going to make me more confident. >> That's amazing. >> Say that again. the what >> of slam fam jam. It's a thing we do kind of like May and May and

021we like all like gather up all the slam groups um from different schools in middle school and we usually meet at Kent but I think we're meeting at a different school and we kind of just share our ideas and our thoughts about slam. >> Yeah. >> Nico, is this your first year? >> Yeah, this is my first year. >> How has it felt entering into the slam team at a whale? I feel like I feel like it's actually felt like really good cuz last year I didn't exactly have like a place where I could like advocate for like anti-racism and stuff because the amount of like I don't know people of color at my school was like very like minimal I guess. But now that I'm at White Hill, I have more friends that are

022like like me and um joining Slam has like even introduced me to like more people. >> It's great to hear. >> How do you feel about the world changing right now? >> Do you feel like you're now fighting harder because of the way the country is moving? What do you think? >> Think this work is more important now than ever or just want to get >> I think it's always been important in my opinion. >> Yeah, I agree. I definitely agree with Amir. It it's always been important and also of course especially now we're just >> we're just gonna fight >> I'd say as it is very important throughout the years. It is very important now as we have um lots of people kicking out people of color based on their looks and basically removing

023them from our country where our country was supposed to be a place of diversity that accepted people from all different religions and races, all different kinds of people. And now we've decided to kick them up, set up borders, and refuse people of entry, which I find is really um hard. It's really sad to see this. And I'm as of now, we definitely have to fight stronger for our rights as people and citizens of this nation. >> What's your name? >> My name's Charlie. >> Okay. I'm going to look for you in the future. This is Yeah. All right. I Charlie like now more than ever we meet a group especially young people where there's more ideas where we all come together because there's a lot of schools, high schools, elementary schools and middle schools where

024a lot of kids feel targeted because of what's going on in the world where they see these stuff in the news, they get scared. I know if I was one of them I would be terrified. Um, so it's just great to have a community that accepts everyone no matter what they look like, disabilities that they have cuz I know a lot of people like even in the past has been an issue, but I feel like now it's more being brought up and the I feel like no offense to you guys since you guys are a bit older than us, but I feel like the younger the people are the more protests we have because we can't we like honestly we don't get we can't get shut down as easily cuz we we're kind of stubborn

025and that can go a long way for the right causes. I'd agree with that especially since as younger people we have to take hold of our future and like Catherine send said as much as we do respect our elders and the people um who are governing our our our nation it is difficult when they refuse to accept new ideas and new traditions that will take place sooner or later and as a younger generation if we want a better future for ourselves we've been forced to take on the role of protesting and acting for our rights. >> Don't stop. >> You tell us to get out of the way. This is your country. This is your country. We've had our time. >> This is your country. >> You say that. >> Sorry. My name is Bianca.

026Um I just wanted to speak a little bit more on that. Um I feel that now especially because there is so much change happening a lot of people like to pretend that since that change is happening that's enough and we can just stop especially with the younger kids but it's like not we we don't want to stop until it's like absolutely perfect and everyone's equal and because we're younger we don't always get that opportunity and I feel like this is really special that we can get to do this. >> Yeah. Adding on to what Bianca said, I feel like we like the time is now and we are like the we are like the future I guess and um like a lot of the pressure is kind of be being put on us because we're

027expected to like shape our future like just by ourselves. But um the people that are like in power in the higher positions are the people that are way older than us. And like we can't which that that makes it hard for us to like sometimes like fight to make a better future because one they're older than us and we have to like respect their elders I guess and um like they're in a higher position of power than us. >> But you guys are doing this now at White Hill. This is why this program is so critical, right? You're impacting the teachers, you're impacting the principles, you're impacting what goes on, which is exceptional, >> right? And this is where it starts. Like this is like grassroots. >> This is where movements are created. So what

028you guys are doing is is fantastic. Everybody >> and you're always welcome to come to our meetings, city meetings, email. >> We would we would love if you see us on campus, say hi. I could come and influence you to like put in some more stuff for our our group, you know. >> Absolutely. >> Technically logging, but yeah. And then >> what's the ask of college students? Because I have a lot of college students that I'm able to connect with. And so maybe after this you guys can connect with me somehow um to see what you need from local college students and then their schedules are a lot more flexible than yours and so they could come to White Hill or they could be part of Slam Fam Jam. Um so uh John and Mary

029Cla and Nico you guys know how to get in touch with me. So I can introduce you guys to college students who care about those. >> When have you worked with Archie students yet? >> No. >> Okay. I can work on getting you guys an introduction to their group. >> So we do we have students that are um in eighth in ninth grade >> that have also said they're going to pull back. >> So they're going to come back to our group after they've planted their seed there. And I know that there's a group there. We're just hoping to >> Yes. work with them. Thank you. >> Of course. >> I just want to thank the teachers and all the students and the families that are supporting these students. >> To me, this is exactly

030what this school district is all about. It's about empowering youth to make changes in in our system and in the community. And I think your communication skills, all of you that that spoke tonight, um the intellect, the compassion that you bring to the table is a perfect manifestation of the quality of our schools. I'm super proud as superintendent to hear every single one of you speak and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future. >> Yeah. [Applause] You guys nervous being here today? >> No. >> Well, I just want to say you you've been talking to the governing board of your school district right now. So, we are the old people in charge. >> Um, but just because we're old doesn't mean we're wise and we do need to hear what's going

031on at your level at schools um and in your age groups. So if there's things that you need to let us know, please do because we can't do our job without knowing what's going on for you all and that your experience is most important. >> So you don't have to respect us all the time. If we're doing something wrong, feel free to point it out. >> And when you grow up, run for office. >> Office. Run for anything. School board, boards of other city council, mayor, president. >> Congress. >> Whoa. No, I'm serious. >> Run for office because your image of who's in charge, like you said, they're all older. There are elders. Run for office and be the leadership you want to see. >> Don't Don't let people tell you what you can be.

032You become the thing you believe the world should be. >> And that starts now. And that starts next year at Arch. Absolutely. >> Or you don't have to wait to this this thing. >> Do it now. Do it at Archie. >> Do it. >> Getting involved is critical. >> Proud of you guys. >> Thank you. >> Do you have any more questions for our slam students? >> Can they do the rest of this meeting and we go home? >> Well, I was going to give people opportunity for public comment if they' had any public comment >> since I know there are people who potentially wanted to speak up. So, if you would like to make a public comment, you students, if you would like to slide back into like the regular seats, you're welcome to.

033Otherwise, they just need one seat for for people to do public comment. >> So, Chris, can you give us three minute timer work? Okay, so here's the deal. For public comment, you get three minutes to talk on this subject. >> Slam. And you'll hear a ding at like two and a half minutes and then you have 30 seconds left to speak. So, just if people would like to say their name, so the people listening to our YouTube channel can hear it on the the audio, please say it. But you don't you're not required to tell us your name. >> So, if you would like You can come up here by one of the speakers so we can record it. >> Which one's >> either one? >> Do I have to say my name? >> You

034don't have to. >> Okay. Well, my name is Catherine. I'm in eighth grade. This is my second year in slam. Um, like we were talking about going to elementary schools because no offense to you guys because I know you guys are like the Ross vibe. So you guys know all the schools and also I think that a lot of elementary schools need this that they need to understand what that there are stuff that are not okay because I know a lot of kids that don't know this stuff and they that they need to know this stuff from a young age because if they grow up like that that's that's like not a good way to grow up I guess. But like the more you know about this subject, the more you can make a difference,

035the more you can do this and that. I remember it's like my own experience in this one. Um my I told my um my cousin that I go to White Hill and she's like, "Oh, it seems like a white school cuz the name is, you know, it's it's White Hill." Um and I told her, "No, no, no, no. It's it's it's called that, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's just that amount of that of that race that White Hill I feel like it's there's a lot of different race and I think that's really great cuz like I don't know which one of you guys said this but um there is that the more different race people that we have the more I don't know how to say the word. Um, but the more everyone

036can come together, the more we can make an impact in the world, the more we can do, we can bring this out, I like it's Yeah. >> Um, adding on to the elementary thing, when I was uh in elementary school, we didn't really have like very diverse talks about people's appearance, where people came from, and who or what they were. And I feel like that definitely influenced a lot of other kids going into middle school because there would be a lot of racist jokes, a lot of racist comments that we I would often hear. And I felt that that wasn't right. I'm sure a lot of people felt that that wasn't right. And I feel like if we can get into the kids' minds that racism is not okay, no matter what form it takes

037on, it'll be able to influence them into becoming more mature people as they enter higher grades like middle school, high school. So, especially teaching them at a younger age, despite despite it being a very maybe hard topic and maybe uncomfortable topic to them, it's definitely important that we tell them about it because as I said, I didn't get that really often. I don't we went to the same school, we didn't get that kind of conversation like >> one book. >> Yeah. One book about it and then it was over. We never spoke about it again. So feel like we should definitely be able to talk to them, explain to them, really make them feel comfortable in who they are and tell them that it's not okay to make fun of somebody based on literally anything.

038>> Anyone else? >> Okay. So it's just like adding on to what Charlie said. Um, it's just like, you know, we didn't at our school, we didn't have many, we weren't super aware about um, racism and it's just I just felt like that I when I was in elementary, I knew it was a problem. Um, I knew it was gross and it but I just felt like like I just felt kind of I suppose helpless because I really did want to do something about it. And Catherine and I we actually um and like two other people we actually we did try but it was really it was difficult because it wasn't shut down. >> Yeah. it we didn't really get the support that we were hoping for and it says earlier um lean into the

039discomfort not it's racism is a topic that some people yes they are uncomfortable with and it's just it brings up a lot of emotions and yeah of course it'll bring up emotions and it's just people just didn't really tune in because it was something they didn't really know how to process in elementary >> yeah I would agree also So, I wasn't a part of that group, but I did notice that when teachers spoke about racism like once throughout our school year, they definitely sugarcoat it. They didn't go into detail about it. They didn't tell people to stand up for much. They glazed over it, basically saying, "Oh, yes, racism exists. Wow, that's great." and then they moved on with the subject which I feel like isn't okay because if you're going to talk about racism

040and you're trying to teach them you have to actually get into detail especially when it become when you start going into fourth and fifth grade because you're about to go into middle school and that's when you start to get more mature and that's when jokes happen and that's when you get uncomfortable and you want to be able to stand up for that. Thank you. >> So you can do you can speak for your one three minutes and only one one three minute period. >> All right. >> Okay. Well, adding on to um what they were saying, I just feel like in as coming from someone somebody who was just in elementary school, uh whenever we would talk about racism, things like slavery, discrimination, anything like that, my teachers would read one book, maybe do one

041little lesson about it, and then just brush it off because they never talked about like standing up for it. They never talked about like how we as like the younger generation can take action on it. They just said this is something that happened in the past. It's still happening now, but we don't care that it's happening now because it was more prominent in the past. >> And that also made a lot of kids in my school like I don't know ignorant to racism and stuff. And they didn't, some of them didn't even know like some like racist words and then they would say them without realizing like how bad and discrimin discriminatory those words were and how hurtful they were to some kids at our school. But they those kids never got in trouble because

042um like they didn't know. But it's still like something they should have known because like well the schools didn't teach them and their family didn't teach them. So and then some of those kids went on to middle school still not knowing about any of this racism that's happening in the world. Adding on to what Nico said, um, at my old school, a lot of people would say racist jokes and like make fun of some people. And when my whenever my teacher would read a book about it, they would all like look at me and stuff. I feel like I was like the only black person in my class >> and not a lot of um, black people were at my school. And so like I feel like um so I feel like now when I'm

043at White Hill I see like different colored skins there. There's more people there that are at the school. I feel more included and and slam and everything too. Yeah. Just a quick note adding on to that, at my old school, I did I never felt like I really had anybody at my school to talk about like issues I was having at school with like race and stuff because yes, there was other people of color, but there was like only maybe one other black person at my school. And I just feel like there wasn't enough people for me to like be able to resonate with. And I could only like it's like I could just talk to one person. I didn't like have a group of people to support me. It's just like me and this

044one other girl and that was like it. [Applause] >> Have anybody else you want to make public comment on this? Um, I just wanted to talk about like how when I was in sixth grade, I had moved here from Santa Rosa. Um, and Santa Rosa is typically a more diverse place than Marin, definitely. And well, when I moved here, I kind of just felt like an outcast. Like I didn't really feel the welcome, like the welcome vibe. I just like got a lot of looks like, oh, who's this girl? Like, why is she like she's she's like black and I'm like the only black kid in my class. my in my grade there's like two black kids >> and it's just like I just feel like um I was kind of just I felt like

045an outcast. I just kind of felt like an alien in my own school. So it was just kind of scary. And then when I found Slam, it had made me more like I was like, "Oh, there's people that like want to talk about this stuff." because I did get like called racist things or like jokes like that were kind of like they were just they didn't know what they were saying and it's just like oh like you know it's okay they didn't know but at the same time it really hurt my like it hurt me and then when I was able to talk about it and slam it really just like made me feel more confident and that I was like more welcomed and I just hope we can kind of like um what's the

046word like I I want I want them to be bigger like I want it to be more uh I can't like well sorry I can't remember but just I want it to be more known like we can like reach out to like middle schools so they know and like cuz I didn't I knew there was I didn't know there was a like a slam in sixth grade so yeah [Applause] Can I say >> someone else? Um, quick thing. When she came, I remember I remember that I met her when I was trying out for the basketball team. I think she remembers this, too. I didn't pay attention about her skin tone. I thought she was like I thought she honestly I thought you were really cool because like this she's super good at basketball and

047I like wish the world could see people like that. Not about their skin tone, not about their background, about like their interests, the things that they love, things that they're good at. Like that's how I wish people would see people, not because of their skin tone. The way I saw her, I thought she was like good at basketball. I thought that she was smart. I thought that she was pretty. And I just wish that people would see others like that. Not because of their skin tone, not because of their background, just because of who they are. Not like that. >> Okay. Okay. So once you're done talking like for your three minutes, you can't talk again. Just so we So it's one you make to make the one comment for three minutes. You can say

048whatever you want on this topic for the three minutes. >> Do you want me to >> No, no, you can all you can all sit. I just want to make sure like I don't want you to start and then you start and then you go back because >> technically it's supposed to be like one. >> This is like a really formal meeting like really weird formal rules. And one of the formal rules is three minutes per topic. You get one chance and you've got to say your thing and then you've got to listen to the other folks. and I have to tell you the rules. So, sorry. >> We're not good at this either. So, we're just honestly saying that's not on topic. >> Sorry. Okay. So, please go. >> So, I just wanted to

049say like earlier today I like heard a racist joke and so like me and some of my friends were like that's not okay and like people just like brush it off. They're like, "Oh, it was a joke. It was fine." But it's not fine even if it was a joke. And it's why I think like SLAM is like good because it like provides like opportunities for people to learn from stuff like that and like going into classrooms and like other schools and like just teaching people about that. It's good. >> Um yeah, kind of adding back to like with reaching out to elementary schools. um we need them to be a tiny bit more educated because when they make um jokes like that, they don't know what they're saying most of the time. So if

050we educate them about it, they know what they're saying and they know it's not okay. And that's why slam is really important because once you come into White Hill um and there's slam, we can be more educated on these this topic and we can understand that like those things like aren't okay. >> So, I wanted to go a little bit different and talk about how I wanted to um get in touch with people that are older. I actually went beyond um high school to more college or like professional level like people that this is their job because like you said you are like the big scary adults that have power and um we are the kids and we really want to make change but instead of like trying to work against you. >> I would

051rather like work with people that are closer to your age, closer to being able to have that power. So like college or people that this is their job and come and help us and educate us and just try to do what we do but like better. >> Hi, I'm Ramona. um >> Nico's mom, >> also a founding member of the district's parent guardian equity task force and now serving on White Hill DEI task force. Um I just want to like use my voice and power to affirm everything that the students have said and to tell them that like you all are on the right track. Um and we should listen to what you're saying. We should yield power to you and I asked the district to find ways to do so. Um, one vehicle could

052be through like the White Hill DEI task force taking recommendations directly from SLAM about what we do to change. Um, I won't take my full time, but I do want to leave the students in the board with some inspiring words that always keep me like the fire burning brightly um from Assad Shakur, a freedom fighter who recently passed away. It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains. [Applause] >> Hi uh PJ Meer. I'm a parent at Manor a second grader and someone who's going to be in TK next year. Um it was great. Uh I'm plan on relisting from the beginning, but got to listen to some of it on YouTube

053as I was coming in here. And one of the students, I'm sorry, I don't know uh which one, said something that I thought was really important for the board and the district to hear as we, you know, always strive to improve our efforts in this area of how sometimes it feels like the teachers and the adults in the room can be sugarcoating things. And I know broadly this was a a common um tactic to try and um work against these types of important initiatives of you're making kids feel bad or you know by explaining racism to to them and and I think it's important not to get distracted by that and remember that it's a broader societal inst systemic issue. It's not an individual person that is going to change and make everything better. And

054we can always be historicizing things. And even though it's, you know, been turned into a some kind of a negative buzzword, that's the importance of critical race theory for everything. um even for education at the middle school level because people you can't understand why um certain communities are still poorer or live in worse neighborhoods because most families uh uh net worth is tied to their housing value. And uh housing discrimination is still going on and and has been going on and and people don't have generations of wealth to be built. And also to always keep in mind that this is not ancient history. Um, you know, some people have four generations living in their household and I'm just four generations removed from family members who were born into slavery. Like it's it's shockingly recent. Um,

055and and I think that can help kids understand why it's why this is an important part of their curriculum. It's not black and white footage and and all this in America. Um, and then, you know, last on a on a more positive note, when I was >> 30 seconds, >> uh, moving here from New York, um, you know, I was one of, uh, 13 black or biracial kids in my elementary school, like grade of 48. Um, and so, you know, coming to Marin, I thought, this is going to be awful for my kids, you know, in this specific area. Um, and I think the more we can foreground uh the district's initiatives like this and make this something that we emphasize, the more uh families of color will be comfortable moving to our district. >>

056Do you have any more public comment? >> No. Do you have discussion if you're on the board? I'm just blown away. >> I just feel like this group, you are the warm hug >> at White Hill. >> You're Yeah, you're the warm hug and you're the the strong hug. And I love the pushing back when you hear those things. My son comes home and tells me the things he hears. Um he's been trying to get in your group, too. So, I don't know. Um but uh you know >> I just think that uh this is representative of the things I want to see >> in our schools and so I'm very proud >> very proud teareyed over here like I you know as a as a kid who grew up mixed race >> and I

057pass as white so most of the time people assume I'm not I'm like not mixed. Um, I grew up hearing a lot of horrible racist things because I look white and so people felt totally safe saying horrible things in front of me when I have cousins who are black and Mexican and Filipino and Guamian and all. Yes. My cousin. Um, but I just remember feeling so shocked because my family looks like everything like everybody everyone in this room looks like they could be family member of mine. >> Yeah. >> And I didn't know and I didn't have the tools to deal with it as a child. But I feel like we're handing tools to these kids now at schools to maybe be able to understand it, to not be shocked. Like sometimes I was so

058taken back that somebody would say something. I just by the time I could speak, the moment had passed or the person was gone. And I don't have that anymore. And it took me so much longer. You know, I was an adult before I realized how to speak up about it because I wasn't shown how to do it. >> And so I'm I'm really happy that we're trying to address that now so kids don't have that moment. And a special shout out to Dr. Lorie Watson. >> Thank you, Julia, for bringing Dr. Watson to us and we eternally grateful for that. Yeah, >> if I can just say how very very important it is to me personally that our district is actively anti-racist and it makes me so proud to hear all of you and I

059have so much to learn from you students and um and learned from you this evening and we'll take that into my heart and take that forward and I just really want to thank you. This is the best part of my week so far. It was it's so I mean the way that all of you speak and our the self asssurance it's just I mean I was not that kid in middle school and it's fantastic. I mean the teachers, adviserss, like this is I mean what you're doing is just incredible. And I encourage you to talk to your principles. You get the principal like the principles of the elementary schools. you know, you could make connections and I assemblies happen every week at the >> elementary schools and >> and yeah, it's I mean I would

060I have two elementary age kids and I would love for them to get involved. I mean this absolutely this is I agree with so much of what you said about not waiting until middle school. I mean it's it's important for that education in school. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Amazing. Awesome. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I'm so impressed and just my heart is full seeing you guys feel comfortable enough to come up and speak to us >> about something so sensitive and so important and vital and that you guys felt secure and safe enough to do that. I'm feel very very happy to see you all tonight. Absolutely. We have a tradition when we have students from a school come to present. We invite them up to take a picture with us all. And

061you can sit in our seats if you want to see what feels like. >> Come on up. [Applause] >> I want to go this way. >> I want to be here. I want to be here. All right, and we are back after a brief pause to thank our student presenters from White Hill. Um, our next item on the agenda is F presentation andor action items. The first one there is the California assessment of student performance and progress CASP. So, go ahead, Julia. Tyler, do you want to introduce at all or shall I just start us off? >> I think you can start us right off. >> I'll go right into it. All right. Um definitely a hard act to follow, but um lots of celebration this evening for our um assessment results update. Really excited

062um to be able to talk about it. And of course, um, we always like to tie in our work to the LCAP. And when we talk about academic success, we're really in that realm of goal one, um, which is about making sure that all of our students are receiving highly engaging research-based instruction to develop proficiency grade level standards, um, and that they're also getting those supports and interventions that are needed. and towards that kind of north star of eliminating the predictability of how kids are going to do based on who they are, what they look like, where they come from um and all of those pieces. And just really important to remember um that quote, a rising tide lifts all boats, which is actually a John F. Kennedy quote. um you know, when we support

063any of our kids, we're really supporting all of our kids and um this work is is just really important for all. All right. Um in Ross Valley, we have lots of different ways for us to learn about how our kids are doing. Um the CASP is one of those ways, but we also have district benchmarks. We've talked about our reading screener in K2. We've talked about our I reading diagnostic assessment and of course teachers have lots of curriculum based assessments and just informal assessments they're doing on a regular basis which can just be walking up to a table group and checking in with a student. Um and so CASP is one data point that we take a look at. I think we all kind of understand how the CASP is structured. There's four different levels

064and we typically look at um the percentage of students who are at standard or above standard um kind of wanting that to be where kids are meeting or exceeding the standards. All right, so here we are. Um so we have lots of graphs this evening and lots of good news. And so just starting out, if you look at the blue bar is our district, the green is Marin, and the yellow is California, we do really well consistently across the board. ELA, mathematics, science, um you know, our students are excelling. And then I just like this is honestly my favorite slide and I've been spending a lot of time looking at it and kind of tweaking it to look the way I want it to. But um we're doing great. If you look at 2019 and

065where we were with ELA, just about 78% in ELA and a little over 69 in math and where we are, we are 100% back to pre- pandemic. And that is not a small thing. That is due to the extraordinary work of our teachers um and everything that they have done to learn how to accelerate learning when kids have some learning gaps and to build on each other's um you know to build on that progress over the years. Our teachers have gotten really really good at using data to inform instruction and tailor instruction to meet the needs of kids. um and and these are the results that we get for that. And so that's really exciting and exciting to see that there's you know significant growth in both ELA and mathematics. >> I just want to

066put one point on this slide. A few years ago, every article you would read about education is about learning loss, learning loss, learning loss. And you still see those articles today. So this is not normal. the the average district is still reeling from the pandemic and clawing itself out of the losses that happened when school shut down. To see our teachers, to see our administrators, you know, have increases for four straight years is something um that we should be immensely proud of. It's our teachers, it's our site principles, it's Julia's leadership, um it's Lor's leadership, and it's the engagement of our parents. It really takes a community to turn a tide like this and as a community we should be immensely proud that we have kind of bucked the trend and are leading our way

067out of uh the learning loss that happened over the pandemic. >> Our students are working really hard. >> Um interesting with our science scores. So the blue line is fifth grade and the green line is 8th grade. And there was a huge jump this year. um over all of the previous years. And if you go back to 2019, interestingly, the scores are actually a little bit lower. And that's because that was the very beginning of the new CAST science test and the beginning of NGSS, which are science standards, and so it's taken some time. Um, but these are actually really strong scores, and I'm super proud of those. I'm not actually sure why the scores have gone up. Um because we've had more focus I think especially at the elementary level. >> Yeah. Because it's

068a lot of reading. >> It's 95% reading. So if you teachational reading and how to decipher Sarah. >> All right. Um and then taking a look by achievement level as well. So the blue is exceeded, the green is met. So that's the realm that we want our kiddos to be in. But if you notice with ELA there, and it really points to this, we have more kids exceeding the SC standard than we have ever had, and that that red area of students who are not yet meeting the standard, you know, is is shrinking or staying small. Um and similarly with mathematics um we're about where we were pre- pandemic in terms of those exceeding. Um so that's there's some good news in there as well. >> 42% or 40 what is that 46% of kids

069exceeding grade level standard in language arts. >> That is that's remarkable. I mean there's districts that have 46% of students meeting or exceeding and work just on exceeding. So to see there's more kids exceeding standard than there were pre- pandemic, >> like that's a huge celebration for us. And you see uh there's, you know, almost the same trend in math. You know, there's kind of really similar to we have fewer kids uh not meeting. Now we have a little bit more, but essentially the same in math um as pre- pandemic. >> Can I ask a question on slightly harder question? So we haven't really moved the needle much on the not met nearly met really in these pre- pandemic to where we are now. Maybe a little bit more in math. So I get that

070a lot of parents want academic rigor like it's great 46% awesome in ELA and maybe you'll talk about this but what are we doing for that not met nearly met to move that number? >> I mean I I do feel like those numbers are moving because there was a pandemic inside there. >> Okay. Um but it's a really good question. Um our teachers, I would say our classroom teachers are doing a lot of really good strong differentiation and intervention work within their classroom. And then for students who need something more, we do have reading intervention in our elementary schools. Um both reading and math at the middle school level. um and a lot of teachers kind of coming together in what we call learning teams and looking at kids and looking at data and saying,

071"Okay, here's a group of kids who are all struggling with this very specific skill. So, what is our next instructional move that's going to support them to move forward?" >> Great. >> Um, okay. So, these are comparisons across the county. It's not every the county has whatever 18 school districts something like that 17 18 um but kind of most of the similar schools plus a couple thrown in. I would not call Mil Valley and Reed similar schools in terms of their demographics. Um but you can see that in ELA we're really there with everybody else. I mean amazingly so. um that final bar there, that final line, vertical line is the 75% mark. And I kind of think about that as a a pretty solid finish line. Like if we're crossing that finish line, I'm

072I'm pretty happy um and with that 78% I'm really happy um with those ELA results. And then with math, we're definitely making progress and our math scores are going up. Um there's more room for growth there. Um in terms of if you're looking at similar schools, we're seeing we see in Ross Valley a drop. Um it starts a little bit in fifth grade and then more in the middle school, which is pretty normal if you look at the state and the county. Um the county as a whole, but when you dig into individual districts, there are districts who are having a little bit more success in their middle school math. And that's something that we're talking about um and digging into. We're in our first year of implementation of a new mathematics program. I had

073a fabulous morning today meeting our new math coach for White Hill um who was there with our teachers. I I got to see him demo a Desmos lesson that um it was amazing just all of these different um elements of the program that he was able to demonstrate. and then he went on over the course of the day to work directly with teachers. So, we've got some things going there that are kind of new and I think we'll keep moving and and growing in that way. Um, but that's that's an area where, you know, we have our eye a little bit. >> Go ahead. Ju just a question about noticing some of the schools that are that are not quite there >> and is the county looking at these numbers as well and having some

074type of introspection or >> I mean every district is looking at their data and as a county we all come together and then it is also important to recognize demographics like you don't see um for example Sanfell on there >> because their demographics are so different from ours that Yeah, those scores are going to be lower. Um, but there's a lot of different reasons for that. >> Um, >> but yeah, I mean, we we're all looking at it all the time. >> County doesn't hold the district accountable for >> They don't That was my question. Thank you for answering that. >> I This graph makes me think about the graph you've seen a thousand times from me about the per pupil funding where we're at the very bottom. Yeah. yet our academic achievement is either

075right at or right near >> other districts that are having5 to $10,000 more per student. >> So this is a clear crystal clear indication of the efficiency that we use the money that we do get from our community. Yeah, >> we do more >> with less >> and I think we can't get too much more efficient otherwise we won't see results like this. But, you know, I'm really proud of what we're able to do with the limited resources that we do have. >> It speaks volumes for our instructors >> to to have those outcomes. >> And I'm I'm going to bring you um the data for just one school because I think it's a really important example and um you can see what Tyler was just saying. So, Manor got the highest scores they've ever

076gotten. They're incredible. And like if you look at that growth from 2023 to 2026 and you look at where they were pre- pandemic in 2019, >> this is fantastic. Um, and so of course when you get results like that, you want to really think about what the reason behind it is. And first of all, you know, the incredibly hard work of our teachers who I think at this point are doing more and more of um, you know, staying in alignment with curriculum where grade levels are working together using our district grade level curriculum, meeting, looking at data again, planning instruction, all of these pieces. Um, but one thing that Manor has more so than our other elementaryaries is a little bit more intervention. So, because they have been receiving title one dollars, their intervention is

077a full-time position. That's Amelia Alamari. She's both inter intervention and ELD. And so, they they have more time with a person who's really talented to meet with and support kids. And then this last year there was kind of a a little bit of a pilot um experiment at Ner of having the parent club funded a part-time math intervention teacher. And again, when we look at this math scores, it's hard for me to imagine that that's not part of the reason why they landed where they did. Um, and going back to what Tyler was saying on the other slide, the other school districts in Marin pretty much have a full-time math and full-time reading intervention teacher at their sites. I mean, Mil Valley certainly does. Reed certainly does. So, um, we don't and our teachers do

078a lot of intervention in their classroom and then we use our minutes really, really well. I'm always trying to get our intervention teachers to make sure that they take a break and give themselves some prep time, but they are busy. um supporting kids. >> Do Jul do Jul do Jul do Jul do Jul do Jul do Jul do Jul do Jul do Jul do we have a question? Do we have what are our goals like with the uh scores where scores >> in terms of percentage? Yeah. >> I mean again when I talk about that 75 if if our math across the district were at 75 >> I would be really happy with that. >> ELA probably a little bit higher. Um these are like 81. >> Looks like should be our big really hot.

079>> Looks like Manor should be our beacon, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. This is fant. And this is not to say that other sites didn't have equally fantastic scores. What I'm really focused on here is that growth and and kind of seeing where we can tie that. >> And this is where when we talk about student programs and we talk about our intervention program, this is a crystal clear example of investing in programs like intervention, whether it's math or language arts, has results for kids. um goes back to the rising tides lift all boats. Um and I think Anna to your question, what I look for is continuous improvement. So if we're at 81 and 76 here with Manor next year, let's see a a move in the right direction. When you start getting into the

08080s, it's hard to continue to improve. Um that's somewhere in that 80 to 90 range is pretty lofty. Um, so to see either maintenance at that 80 level or slight improvements is what I'm usually looking for. But we don't have like a target of 89% for for all of them. >> We have in the LCAP when we look at our CASP metrics for some of our student groups, we do name specific numbers, but those are for those who are not performing in that 70s and 80s. >> Correct. Okay. And this is for children who are meeting or exceeding. >> Yes, sorry. All of these percentages represent the percent of students who have met or exceeded the grade level standards which are rig rigorous standards. Cohort data is always interesting and always kind of difficult to

081tease apart. So I I did it for two different cohorts. The first graph are current nth grade students. So they were in eighth grade last year. And you can see with ELA kind of like this increase up through seventh grade, dropping a little bit in eighth grade. Um, but really steady and super high. Little bit of a drop in math for both of those core cohorts. The the second one is a little bit more flat, I guess, there at the end, but you're definitely going to see a drop in math scores over time. A third grade mathematics assessment is not the same level of difficulty for a third grader to achieve, you know, a perfect score or what, you know, really high as it's going to be for a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and

082onward and on into high school. Um, which has been the paper lately, too. Um, so I'm not surprised by a drop, but we we do want to lift those math scores a little bit in those upper grades. All right, this is a really important slide in terms of thinking about our equity work um in thinking about academic equity. Um so this is looking at the percentage of students who met exceeded standard for each of the um for a lot of the different student groups. Um and you can see that really academic success varies by student group. Sometimes, you know, it makes perfect sense if a student is um learning the English language, they're unlikely to have the same level of, you know, success as the student who was born speaking English. Um, and the same

083thing with a reported disability. Um, although our students with reported disabilities are actually doing very well. Show you a slide on that in a moment. I thought it was interesting breaking down by gender that we've still got that cap with reading with females outperforming males and then males kind of edging out the females in the uh in the math still brains the brain. >> This is pretty amazing actually to see this kind of growth over time. Um if you follow the green the ELA um we have been increasing other than in that first year well multiple years from 2019 to 23 there was a little bit of a drop but again the pandemic is in there and then um that 45.7% meeting or exceeding standard for students with disabilities is really really strong and you

084can see a big increase with Matt and Lori I don't know if you want to add anything or >> yeah I mean it's just It's impressive. I mean, there's just a lot of reconstruction going on and a lot of support for our kids. So, >> what would be the state average because we're so high above the state average in our score? Like, what would the state average be for students with disabilities? Any idea? >> I would say a lot lower. I know that we looked at um just districts in Marin for this student group and we're outperforming most of the districts. >> Um which is really interesting to see and we're kind of trying to figure out why that might be. >> Great. >> Um >> and even these numbers look like the state average

085across all students, right? It's very close. Yeah, >> that's right. Good point. So these are the results for the LPAC um and showing so when students take the LPAC they there are different proficing proficiency levels from one to four and one is really a new newcomer someone who's just learning English or they're pretty much getting ready to be reclassified as English language proficient. I look at these though kind of differently because this is a different batch of kids each time and it's not this particular metric is not looking at growth and so a different you know I don't I don't expect any kids that are coming to us who have not spoken English before to score a four there's you know they they probably should be scoring a one but it's kind of interesting to

086see where our kids are >> and this usually takes about six years to get from level one to level four. There's there's some bands in level two and level three. It's like a low level two and a high level two and a low low level three and a high level three. But essentially, if you're a newcomer student in kindergarten, by the time you head into middle school is when you should be kind of a bilingual student. >> Wow. Something that the state really looks at is the percentage that a district has of long-term English learners who are not moving out of that level four and for into level four and into reclassification. Um, and sometimes kids get kind of stuck in that level three um of just not taking that next step. And that's where

087we need our ELD teachers, our English language development teachers to really help us with providing the scaffolds and supports um to help them make that next move. So, this is just a little bit of a summary of um how we're looking at our data. We have a lot of bright spots. We are back to prepandemic rates for our students who meet or exceed grade level standards in both ELA and math and exceeding for science. Um the percentage of students who are not meeting grade level standards is low um and at an all-time low and our students with disabilities have made huge gains. Um the percent of reclassified multilingual learners who meet or exceed standards increased 10 points in ELA. That is fantastic. I've been looking at those reclassified students. I want to see the same

088gains for them in math. Um but I do think that the focus that we've had on reading instruction is having an impact on um a lot of these results. And then we of we borrow from the medical industry this notion of a problem of practice, right, of what's something we're trying to solve. And one of those is like we're a little stuck on our math scores in the upper grades and wanting to um see how we can kind of push forward a little bit there. and then and particularly with our multilingual learners um in mathematics and and ELA wanting to move forward a little bit more there. >> Are you able to look is there a micro view into what is bringing some of those scores down to enhance the teaching of that particular subject?

089>> Those are assessments, right? And so like when we when we do a diagnostic assessment, >> it's giving you really clear specific information on okay, it's vocabulary or it's reading comprehension or it's um not understanding the whole phonics progression and getting just kind of tripped up on foundational language. So I guess my question to be more direct is if we are looking to get into enhancing those numbers and seeing where it's pulling us down, are we then working with our teachers to say we need to focus more in this area because that's the area that's bringing these scores down and just just questioning like are we are we set our next step or >> I mean I don't think yes, but not tying it so much to CASP scores because CASP scores are kind of

090that satellite view, right? It doesn't give you enough information. >> But for example, with the I Ready scores, >> when teachers look at a class report, it will take the students and put them into groups based on the questions that they got wrong >> and what their next steps are need. You know, what the next steps are needed. >> Keep keep the trajectory going up. Great. And I think there is some diagnosis that we need to do around this fifth through 8th grade math. I guess relative weakness I would call it. Um we don't really know exactly what it is. Is it numeracy or is it algebraic thinking or what the issue is in there? But I think over the next few months, we'll be working with our administrative team and our our teachers and

091our folks that are implementing the new math program to kind of figure out with more of a scalpel about what what it is that we need to focus on to improve these scores. >> Okay. >> And I think you ask a great question because right now we're we're sharing board level data with you, right? Like we could go way into the weeds on >> we could disagregate this to the nth level and we do with our admin team and we do with our teachers >> but for the board level we kind of keep it at this high level and then we go much much deeper with different groups. And then if you think about marketing material like what's what's the high level thing you take away from this? That's going to be the marketing pitch

092is that our our we're back to prepandemic levels. we're seeing academic improvement um each and every year over the last four years. Um we're, you know, in competition or beating other districts in in the town and uh across the county. Those are kind of the high level marketing things. Then you've got the board data, then you've got the admin data, then you've got the teacher data, and each one of those is going to be a little bit different um based on need. How do um you might not know this, but White Hill comparable to the other middle schools across Marin County because we just saw an article the TAM union declining scores drastically over the past four years. So, do we see anything with our White Hill students maybe doing better than others as they

093enter 9th and 10th grade? Because as those scores go down, you know, then you think, hey, some former White Hill student scores are coming down as well, >> right? It varies across the county. Yeah, >> I think most districts in the county are are in the upwards, even the K districts are in the upwards trajectory. I was kind of surprised to see that slip at the high school level. Although high school it's a whole other thing because you know there's had a kids kind of sense of what's important and in the midst of taking the SAT and the this and the that >> right different topic >> um but um and we're doing well other districts are doing well I would say I think our reading scores I don't know if this sounds right but

094I think we're kind of doing better than we should be expected to do with reading in terms of where our scores are given our funding um and given you know that we're right there with districts whose people funding I don't have memorized but Tyler does um and it's much higher than ours um which isn't just about money it's about what you can do with money right which means how much extra support are they getting >> um which is really quite different >> we have really strong teachers >> you now and they're doing really good work and they're getting stronger all the time. I am blown away by the conversations that I hear from teacher to teacher um as they're you know talking about implementing a new curriculum or talking about students or talking about how

095to use data um and that kind of gives us an edge. So what do we do with our data? Um, most of us have gone over, but we're using our data um to just continue determining how we're doing and what our next steps need to be. Um, our care teams meet weekly and at each site and they look at data on specific students that they're concerned about. Um, and that's been really really helpful and something um that we've gotten much more aligned in over the last couple of years. We have these site learning teams, grade level learning teams at site and across the district and content alike learning teams where teachers are getting together looking at data and planning instruction. And that's what that plan, do, study, act process is all about in that fourth

096bullet there. >> Who serves on the care team? The care team is the principal, the RSP teacher, often the school's psych, the SLPs, speech language pathologist, sometimes the gened teacher, the intervention teacher, kind of like a whole team of minds. Um, kind of just trying to figure out appropriate supports and checking back in on kids. RSP teacher is the resource teacher special ed >> and Sean Maher who has all kinds of talents um put together this district data air table that we've been really really excited about. You can't see the whole thing in here. It's kind of purposeful. But we all of our teachers now have access to this and our principles have access and you're able to sort data and pull up how kids are doing and it it houses all of their assessment

097data in one spot. So like for a care team meeting if a teacher says hey I'm worried about you know Julia she seems to be struggling. Then right there in the meeting, we can see their CAST data, their I Ready data, their MCAST data, if they have it, and over time. Um, and that's been incredibly helpful. >> So, this is phenomenal. I've shown this to other people with my job in other districts and they're all so jealous. >> I mean, no one has fallen through the cracks with this. That's fantastic. >> It's awesome. >> Yeah. Um, and so what else are we doing to support increased academic performance? Um, we do really look at how, you know, what tools we're using to teach. And so we're very excited about our new ELA curriculum. It is

098a heavy lift. Um, but it's it's a very rigorous curriculum. We are asking our kids to do more than we have ever asked them to do. Um, and so there's some kind of struggle within that, but it's also exciting to see um to see kids really engaged deeply on super interesting topics. Um, we are leveraging assessments to inform instruction. Um, we continue to prioritize and create um, learning partnerships with our students with the understanding that relationship and rigor are side by side, right? And that when students feel that sense of belonging, they are so much more likely to be successful academically. And in fact, academics um has is inherently a place of belonging. And when a child is not feeling successful, if they feel like they don't get it, they don't have that sense of

099belonging in the classroom. So that's something we work really hard on. And we provide support. Um, we have an ELA coach that has just started a round of coaching with our sites. Um, Molina is amazing, our instructional coach. She meets with teachers all day long supporting them. Um, we started with our new math coach at White Hill. We have had trainings with I Ready. Um, so providing supports for all of these systems. And then just a reminder of our multi-tered system of supports and there's different levels of supports knowing that in that first level um the instruction is universal and we are providing interventions for all and then um as you levels providing more targeted supports and the why um going back to our racial equity mission statement to create a safe equable and inclusive

100learning environment in which all of our students feel a sense of belonging, are respected, and celebrated for their individual differences, and are empowered to thrive socially, emotionally, and academically. Okay. Do you have questions only for Julia right now before public comment? I >> think we've peppered her with questions throughout. >> Yeah. >> Are you happy, Julia? >> I am happy. I like that first slide that shows the slope. Actually, I observed a math lesson on slope today and I'm like going the right direction. >> Yeah. >> Happy and proud. >> Good. Do you have any public comment on this item? >> So, you have three minutes. So, I'll give you a two and a half minute warning. >> Call me all the time. I'm a fast talker. >> Chris, can you Thank you. >> Uh,

101for the sake of this one, I'm going to keep my name off the record. Uh, Julia, thank you so much for your work and service. Can you nod your head confirm you were a math teacher before? >> Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Uh, so looking at this data, I'm you're looking at the full K to8 range, and I know they administer different tests at different ages. I can only speak to the age that my child went through. uh he is exceptional when it comes to mathematics. You are talking about a second grade who second grader who at the beginning of the year could add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions and decimals pre-alggebra far ahead. The test that was administered listed him as meeting grade level which is telling me a couple of things. One, I think

102the data where it's being sourced from, it's questionable. it may not be accurate and it's also kind of telling me that there's a cap and there's a limit. If if you cannot actually exceed when you clearly do, there's a whole group of kids who are not getting the services that they should because they're exceeding what the state is mandating. You know, this is the minimum that you have to meet. Wonderful work. The data is brilliant. You are trending upward. It's great. Keep applying it. Keep doing the things that you're doing. I think a critical eye needs to be put into how the data is being collected and is it actually accurate because from what I see I don't think it's quite there. I think it could be better and I think if I'm right I'm

103not really in the school world and you know million acronyms for a million tests. I get it. I think you're getting rid of that test methodology. I I hope so. That's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do we need a public comment? >> All right, bring it back to the board for discussion. If there's no further comments, sorry, back to the board. >> Any discussion on this item here? >> I I think these numbers are perfect to talk about for the parcel tax as well. Those numbers do not indicate a district that needs to go into conservative ship. I I was meeting with the Falcon Foundation with Rachel earlier this week and every metric you would use to assess a school district enrollment attendance, test scores, quality of the hires, quality

104of the teachers, the quality of our board, quality quality of our admin team, the engagement of our our community, all amazing. It's the budget that's the one that's a little wonky. So I think sometimes the narrative can get a little mixed out in the community because it is nuanced that our budget issue is real and challenging but everything else is really really healthy >> and is that is that that district county state comparison I mean that's to Julia's point that first slide is like exceptional across Marin County and to show the other peer schools as well or peer districts right that there is a story there that we're doing a lot really good things. Um, I just wonder how you relay that information to parents and or community members are like, "Wait, you want taxes,

105but we're also looking at charts." Like, so it it could get complicated, but there is a story for some smart people to figure out of how to bring that into the conversation. >> I just want to thank Julia and her leadership. I think that the relationship she's built across our admin team and our teaching team and the professional development she's bring brought, the uh adoptions that she's brought over the the years. Her investment in this community is is paying off. Um and I want to thank our teachers because our teachers go above and beyond and do such exceptional work with with our students. That's where the rubber meets the road, right? It's the teacher, the content, and the kid. And when that is all working beautifully and the teachers have great relationships with kids and

106are teaching the content and holding a high standard, you see outcomes like this. And we're really fortunate in this district to have the quality of teachers that we have. And um you know, I know we all want to keep them here as long as we can. >> How do we deliver this info to the teachers? How do they get it? That's do you sit in there? >> They they get it in a staff meeting and so they get specific information about their site. They see the district information and then they also have access right to the Shaun Maher data table where it can be sorted so that they can see how their kids did the previous year and then they can look at the current class >> and are they celebrated in some way? >>

107For sure. >> Okay. Awesome. >> Yeah. Lots of celebration. >> Great. >> Yeah. That was one thing that kept coming up while I was looking at these numbers is just like how grateful I am for our teachers like because I mean yes you've done an amazing job leading everybody but also they have to like buy into what you're selling >> and they clearly have done a wonderful job of like teaching. So I mean >> I'm just really appreciative like the seeing the numbers jump from when I joined the board to now. I mean that's a huge swing. So, it's just it's nice to see >> the only way you have outcomes like this with countywide low funding is quality people. Whether it's at the assistant superintendent level, the principal level or the teaching level or

108as you know in special ed and intervention, it's the quality of the people that make that happen. You cannot have countywide low revenue and amongst the top in the county academic outcomes without quality people. Thank you teachers. >> Yeah, >> thank you teachers. >> Any more discussion? >> This is just for information. So if no more discussion >> great information. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good job following the Our next item is parcel tax partial tax working group updates. So Tyler, go ahead. Great. I'm going to start us off with kind of a review and a little bit of a review of the why before I get into what we did with the parse tax working group. So it started with some Is there a way to go full screen on this? No, >> it's

109okay. So just starting with reflective actions that we took again I I talked about this earlier in the year but we sent out a survey after me measur failed the campaign got together and did a lot of reflecting we took a look at uh the post-election analysis and then we met with a number of folks um throughout the community coalition sensible taxpayers members of the chamber and other influential folks just to kind of learn like what what can we go out there with humility. Um, understand what we did wrong and, you know, make adjustments from there. Um, these are some of the lessons that we learned. Super majority support. Almost 63% of the community members support the measure E. Um, we're proud of that. That's that's really close to the 66.7% in an off election

110where voter turnout was very low. Um, I think the community is understanding the need. We've been, you know, sharing this story over and over again. And although there's still pockets that we need to get to, most people understand that with a countywide low funding that this is a need for us. Uh, we also learned that the campaign efforts that we did had an impact. We outperformed the polling that we had from the year prior. Um, and that the senior opt out was really important with the partial tax. We also knew that the federal uncertainty right when those ballots hit inboxes um or mailboxes was really difficult for folks. Um the special election really didn't help us. There was active opposition because of the special election and there was really low voter turnout because of the

111special election. uh having opposition, having some mistrust in the community based on some actions we've taken in the past um and some just flatout misinformation made it confusing for folks. And then I think really a big lesson, although this is number four, I still think it's a pretty big piece. when you change the methodology and you ask for a renewal and you ask for um an extension, it's just a lot of factors for folks to to take under consideration. Um and it was confusing for people. So, just a reminder of the why we're looking into a renewal of the partial tax and an increase is that we have the lowest revenue in the county. Um, we've talked about the LCFF and the basic aid uh scenario here and that we kind of flip back and

112forth between the two. Um, always kind of maintaining the the statewide low uh minimum funding. Um, and it's hard to compete with districts that have so much more funding uh per pupil. Um, but as you just saw in the last presentation, we do. Um, we've seen this a lot before. There we are at the bottom with $11,774 per student. The the statewide average of 14,494. Even if we had that that average, we would not be asking for an increase. That's the why. We have the countywide low uh revenue per pupil. And when you put this in context of the state, we're in the bottom four percent. There are 36 districts out of nearly a thousand that have less funding per pupil than us. That does not make sense in Marin County that most people do

113not have that floating around in their head. They assume high test scores, high property values, wellunded schools. It's it's hard to understand, but that's actually exactly the problem. Um, in addition, when we try to augment that, we're kind of conservative on our on our current parcel tax with a little bit lower number, uh, a slightly lower inflation rate and a slightly shorter term. Um, so we could be a little bit more in alignment with our, uh, colleagues that are kind of funded in a similar way in order to bridge that gap. >> That's a really good slide. >> Yeah, I think it's an important one for for folks to see. >> Absolutely. The result of that countywide low funding is that we have countywide low pay for our teachers. Um when you see this this

114first part right down here uh for the starting teacher salary, it's hard to attract a teacher with that salary given there's lots of other districts in the county that they could go to and get better pay and it's hard to retain people when at the back end of our salary schedule we're falling behind even further. So, it's both a problem for attracting and retaining talent. And this is actually just getting worse. Um, over the last 5 years, uh, sorry, when we convert this to PDF, it it gets a little bit funky. Um, we're actually losing ground. So, not only are we at the bottom, we're losing ground. That's a real big concern. In addition to attracting, retaining talent, we're having to cut student programs. Um, last year this was kind of our plan B if

115measure E didn't pass. U, we were going to cut $500,000 potentially deeper. Uh, and we were going to consider having stagnant salaries. And everything that is highlighted in yellow, we actually executed on based on our plan B. So, we've got two plan B's moving forward. Uh if something doesn't pass in June of 2026, we have to go deeper into our student programs, elective programs at middle school, counseling services, certificated PE intervention programs, which we just highlighted how important those are to student outcomes. I mean, potentially transitioning TK to half a day. If you remember the stories of Mil Valley last year around their TK program shutting down, that was pretty dramatic and difficult. and now they're asking parents to foot the bill. This is not the kind of community that would support that. So, these

116are real cuts for students. That's that's all we have left. One thing I said earlier this week was that when you think about having essentially the minimum state funding, you're talking about a teacher, custodian, front office admin, and a principal. Nothing more. That's what that funding gets you. Right now, we're offering a lot more than that. We have robust art and music programs. We've got intervention programs. We have wonderful schools that serve students in a myriad of ways with the lowest funding essentially in the state. We can't continue to do that uh if a parcel tax isn't renewed or increased in June of 2026. And if it doesn't happen in November, it's even more dire. Potential school closures, probably two school closures. Um, and if you think about the geographics, you know, you probably want

117a school in the in the west side of town and a school on the east side of town. And schools that are in the center of the town might need to to be closed down. We'll still see salary stagnation. And then honestly, if there's no parcel tax, state receiverhip is around the corner, somewhere between 6 and 18 months out. This is real. This is plan B. I think state receiverhip is a long shot, but it is something we need to consider. It is it is not a dream. It's something we need to stare in the face. And I think that's uh something folks need to truly understand. >> What is the line to stay? >> It would be essentially that we we couldn't fund our schools. It would be it's at the point that you

118actually run out of money and so that would happen as soon as we stop receiving our parcel tax revenues. Uh which would be November 28. We would no longer receive the funds. Um and at that point you lose almost $5 million a year >> out of a $30 million budget. So, it's it's I mean, our schools rely on local funding and our our community's been generous for over 30 years with supporting schools. It's been an investment in the community. It's been an investment in their property values and the investment in the future. We saw that this earlier in this meeting, right? That is the investment we're talking about those kids. So knowing all this, knowing the why, knowing the reflections that we had after measure E, we wanted to engage the community a little bit

119deeper this year prior to bringing something to the board. So in September, we hosted two town halls. In October, we had two working group meetings. Um, for the next few months, we're going to continue to tell this story, engage the community, meet with people, share the data. Um, and then February, we'll bring a decision to you all about what you want to do moving forward, what timeline, structure, amount, all of that. Um, so first, I want to start by thanking the members of the uh, working group. They really dug in. You, some of them are here in the audience. These are the names. There are a few people on there that were both either invited or signed up but because of the dates weren't able to attend but gave me feedback in some other way

120whether it was through email or you know having coffee with me. Um but all these folks have kind of played a a really important role in workshopping some important ideas. So through the town halls there were basically five different structures that were floated there. And these these are the the five. Um I'll I'll focus on the bottom two in red. Uh one thing that we considered was, hey, measure E almost passed. Why not just run it again? Um and then the other one was having two separate measures. One a measure A renewal of just a straight renewal and a measure B that's a per partial uh increase. So two separate measures. You'd have to vote on both of them. One might pass, both might pass, neither might pass. Um, both of those were eliminated for

121different reasons. Measure E was eliminated because it's like, listen, we heard from the community, we need to make some changes. Not drastic changes, but we do need to make some changes based on what the community told us. Uh, the other one was was a little sticky. Some people were in favor of it, some people weren't. Um, but we we just felt like it was a little risky to have two separate things because we kind of need an increase. I mean it's it's clear kind of is not the right word I should be using there. We need an increase in order to sustain uh the excellent work that we're doing in the community. So those were eliminated in the first meeting. The next the three up there at the top in white made it to the

122uh the to the second meeting. And then here at the top you'll see there were some key components that came up through the uh town halls. One was to keep things simple and understandable. Yeah, I I'm happy to talk about the nuance and get into the weeds with folks, but the average community member that might not have kids in the school school district need it to be simple. They're busy, they're working or they're retired, they don't really know what's going on in the school, so they need it to be pretty, you know, short and simple for them to understand. We need to make the ballot language crystal clear. I think that was a critique of of Measure E. Um, it needs to be on a statewide election. That was a critique of measure E. Um

123and then you know consider we don't need to make drastic changes because the data we just got from the community was was very close to a yes. Um so these two cons these two options were considered um and each got six votes from the committee on the second uh second meeting. There's a per square foot with a cap. So essentially measure E but with a cap. That was a big part of the feedback that we got. Um, I floated a 10,000 square foot cap because that's what our consultants had talked about last year. Um, that would have your tax right at about $5,800. Um, and there was another one that was a combination of methodologies. So, similar to that one that got eliminated in the first meeting, but on one measure, so one vote instead

124of two votes. It's a a straight renewal with a per square foot addition. Um, we thought the cap was a good idea and maybe lowering the cap, uh, because 10,000 square feet is really large and that's mostly businesses, not very many homeowners. Um, the renewal increase is very clear in that second one with the two. It's 20 cents per square foot. It's very clear that it is a change in the amount. We liked that. Um, and we thought the cap was was important. We didn't like these Maybe I shouldn't say we, but the committee thought these were maybe not ideal because it's a lot of complexity. You even sat in the meetings when table talks were talking about these things. People didn't talk about this the flat tax very often because it was just like

125simple to understand. There wasn't much to critique. But these ones we went around and around with auctions and other things and it it was really clear that even with these most engaged families, it's still very complex. um the cap, the farther down you bring that cap, the higher you have to have the square foot. So this idea of equity having smaller homeowners pay less and larger homeowners pay more really starts to go away when that cap gets too low. So that was kind of something we were a little bit uncomfortable with. And there was comments too about uh losing revenue because on an unimproved parcel right now they pay $720. In this methodology they pay $95. So, you're actually losing out on one of the members says about $500,000 by not having by having this

126unimproved parcel. So, these two options are still were still kind of on the table, but they each got six votes. The top consideration had 16 votes. So, crystal clear again that this is kind of the front runner from from the group. And essentially, this is a kind of keeping the same thing we have but an increase. So, that I think is one of the top things that makes this a strong contender is that it's essentially the same thing that the community's been saying yes to for 30 years. Um it is a flat tax with a reasonable term and a reasonable inflation rate. Uh simplicity on this one is it is pretty simple. Um it's pretty straightforward and again it's very similar to what we already have and and there's not much change here really. You're

127not you could potentially not change the term right now. We have an 8-year term. You could change the 10-year term to an 8-year term. The inflation rates already 3%. Our optouts are 65 plus SSI and SSDI. So, really the only thing you're changing is the increase amount. You're doing a a renewal and an increase amount. So, very easy to understand here. Uh there were questions around how much do you really need? Um Chris and I have kind of gone back and forth and talked about this in a hundred different ways and we think that somewhere a total tax of between,00 and 1500 is the right number. Now the question is what can we get a vote of yes on? I think 1 1500 is probably a too high for our community. If measure E was

128right at about 1,200 and almost got yes, then I think the target's got to be somewhere in that zone. 1,200 is $458 increase. >> I mean, just that first bullet, we we pay $1,238 for our garbage. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I mean, that that's if if that is that's true across everybody's tax bill, that's a great comparison. >> Yeah. But and I think that's why there was some advocacy from members of the team to say like we should be asking for 1,500 or more. And although I agree it would help us pay our teachers what they deserve, it would help us improve our programs for our students, would be able to offer more for our kids, um there are a lot of residents that $1,500 would would clearly be too much. So, we've got

129to find a happy medium about in the in the zone of what our need is and in the zone of what our community can afford. That affordability is an important thing for us to consider. Um I had put a we had considered some other inflation rates. I think the committee was kind of like 3%'s pretty good but we could go to four. Um you know that's just another change if you add that in there but that's something you all can consider. Um and then there was interest in keeping the term actually between eight and nine years rather than the 10. Um so that was kind of the top consideration. My next step is to work with uh some we need to get some new polling and we'll talk about this in a in a another

130item later in the meeting. We have old polling from >> 2024 which that's different context different time. We kind of have quote unquote polling from measur but we need to kind of go out and get fresh fresh data from folks and that might help us understand some of these factors. So I'm basically looking for direction from the board tonight. Do we want to pull just this? Do we want to consider these other options? And in within this what are the things that we want to test? Do we want to change the term? Do we want to change the inflation rate or do we really just want to focus on the the amount of the change? I have a secondary goal of keeping the polling as cost effective as possible and having essentially the shortest poll

131we can afford. The the more options we add into the poll, the more expensive it gets. And Chris and I are, you know, really pinching pennies pennies right now. So, I want to try to keep the poll short and sweet for folks. So, happy to take direction from the board or answer any questions um that you all might have. >> Do we have questions only right now for Tyler? >> When you crunched the numbers, let's just take it from the garbage perspective. And then you said, "Okay, here's let's go 1,200. What does that look like for us? 1300, what does that look for like for us?" As you crunch those numbers, at what point do you say that's the sweet spot for you? Because I mean that's you that's your ability to say if we

132could get this we are you're not going to be giving us the doom scroll in two years. Right. And did you have that number? >> I I mean I think right around 1,200 total. So, a $450 increase is right around what measure was. That was kind of our minimum ask, right? We didn't ask for the moon in measure. >> Were we getting the cornbread and not asking for the butter? I like butter on my cornbread. Okay. So, I mean, >> were we kind of going, "Okay, I'm sorry. We're putting, you know, let's put fur on the floor so everyone's comfortable." Or we saying 1,200. Boom. >> It was cornbread without jalapenos in the cornbread. Okay. >> And it was butter, but it was unsalted. >> So, it was close, but it wasn't exactly >> 1300

133perhaps, right? >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> I I think if if we're closer to that 1300 number, we're I mean, if you go back in the slides here, >> we're closer we're kind of in between Larksburg Court Madera and Kentfield in that scenario. We're not >> even near Kentfield, but we're >> it's starting to get up there. Mhm. >> At that point, we're able to maintain programs. We're able to pay our teachers, you know, a wage that's more in line with this bottom third. See the the dark, >> the bold line kind of in that around that zone >> and we're able to maybe uh improve our intervention programs >> and we're not looking at 10 years like Kenfield. We're looking at eight years still, right? That's part of the direction that that I would

134take from the board and that we could >> okay >> we could decide to pull on >> a number higher than 458 increase >> we could pull on a term difference of eight years or 10 years. >> So if we pulled price paying threshold and term is that a a decent >> we could keep the we could keep the uh >> the cost of the poly down >> short. Okay. >> Yeah. and less expensive. >> Okay. >> How how has the polling served us in the past? Do you have clear data on that? >> That's a good question. Um >> Rachel, do you know? >> Yeah. Well, it's a little bit hard to say just because what we had in the measure E language was very different from what we had in the polling. And

135so it's hard to figure out like were our results effective because like in measure E effective because hey we didn't have a forever tax which is what they pulled on which clearly our community does not want right. >> Um and so it's hard to say like it was the big swing in the difference from 55% to up to 63 almost was that because of the forever tax or was it because people really want to support our schools or you know so it's hard to gauge >> a little bit because the language is so different from which what ended up on the ballot language. So for that one, it's hard to tell. In the past though, when they've done it, it's been quite a long time, but when they have done it in distant past, it

136was it was similar similar outcomes to what they had pulled. It >> does seem to me like polling is absolutely worth it. So we can get this passed that >> no conversation question. >> Oh, right. Yes. Question question. I don't know. So, how does the typical term length impact people's thoughts? So, 8 to nine years or 10. I don't know. Does do people have an Yeah. Do people have enough an opinion on that? >> Oddly enough, if I think there's a psychological threshold >> just like the $299 versus $3. >> Okay. >> The 9year term versus 10 10 year term. on first blush. I think people are more comfortable with a relatively shorter term, >> but the the consideration from the committee was a 10-year term. >> And in the conversation, that last bullet, they

137were kind of saying maybe somewhere around eight or nine. >> Okay. >> A couple. And then, you know, using Marin Sanitary Service as our comparison, right? We're asking now for I think it's exactly $1,200 if I did my math correct >> if the if the increase was $458, >> right? And so what if that looked like what if it looked like the increase would be 558? How does that and to I guess that's Chris's point. What new programs or how much can we keep or like kind of showing people that lever of you know does that make a difference? And I don't know from a polling standpoint if that $100 would sway enough people an extra $9 a month really is $100 a year less than that. Just a a reminder that we there's 36

138out of a thousand school districts that have lower per pupil funding. 36 out of a thousand bottom 4% in the state. The need is there and the need is far beyond what I think the community is willing to to do. So the question really is what are what what will Sanelmo residents and Fairfax residents vote for? And we we've got to we've got to listen to the community and find out. And I think that's where polling will help us with a little bit more find. Right now it's just like who have I talked to recently and there's probably some bias in who's talking to the superintendent. I need some unbiased data to kind of point us in a direction between that 1100 and500. What's the the number? It's really like a $4 to $600 uh

139range there in terms of the increase. And just a point of reference, that extra $100 per parcel is approximately $650,000 additional revenue. >> Okay, that's >> just so you have an idea. >> So 6 just to put that $650,000 is a 3% raise to every every person in the district. That's not insignificant. It's also intervention teaching like doubling our intervention. So like 600,000 goes a very long way. Um whether we're talking about student programs or attracting retaining tal talent. >> So $100 could be a big difference for a community member to to pay and it could have a huge impact. So it's it's really about finding that sweet spot with the community. >> And then the other question, thank you for framing this as just questions only. Um, how do we promote the senior opt

140out better? >> I think simplicity wins the day. So, I I think there was a lot of interesting conversation around these two options, but the complexity buries some of that where here the simplicity helps you highlight things like the opt out or the inflation rate that that may not change or the term that may not change. You can see a world in which the renewal number's the same, the term numbers the same, the inflation rate's the same, the opt out's the same, and the ask for an increase is X. That is simple. And I think that's what the average the average voter needs simplicity because they've got a lot going on in their life. >> Trash $1,200. The future of our entire world. $750. >> Priceless. There's a Mastercard commercial somewhere. >> Is are the

141opt out categories statutory or do we decide? >> It's a good question. I don't know whether they're statutory. They're I think those are the ones that like are common. And usually if you have 65, you do the SSI and SSDI. Um, but we could probably opt for one, but then it just makes it more complex. >> Yeah. I'm just thinking about >> maybe I'm complicating things with low income families because SSI doesn't necessarily indicate that. >> That's right. >> Um, nor SSDI, but >> I guess that's something that maybe we'll figure out. Um, one more question. Mhm. >> The likelihood of us getting it called Measure E again, is that >> It's up to the county. So, are we seeing, in your experience, any hurdles to try to re-educate people as to what you're like,

142oh, first it was measure E, now it's measure D. What what do you want? You know, I'm tired response. you know, will we be able to say, will we have to go through another re-education based on the memory of people knowing it was measured and it didn't pass and it came close and it's is a no-brainer. I don't know. It's a thought probably a question that can't be answered, but it crossed my mind. >> I there was a little bit of conversation in the committee. >> I mean, we never want to see any of these not pass. We want to put effort in and get them to pass and hit the sweet spot with the community on what's affordable and acceptable to the community. However, spending six months talking about this, people are more educated

143today than they were last year at this time. >> So, there may be some name recognition. There is some understanding of the need clearly with a lot of folks. So, we're kind of we have a little bit of a step in the right direction. Mhm. >> Do I do I want that step in the right direction or would I rather have that thing passed last year? >> It's obvious, right? >> Right. >> And I remember um talking to a couple of business owners and there was quite a bit of push back last time from the the maybe four business owners that I spoke to across the entire area. Are more business owners in favor of this per parcel? Do we know? the the business owners that I've talked to absolutely are. >> Um I'm thinking

144of three off the top of my head that have all said that this is kind of the way they would rather go. And I I I was listening into the Kentfield uh board meeting from last week and they were talking about anytime you change the methodology, you just bring up a bunch of questions. So this this kind of idea is not really that much of a change. The change is the ask for an increase. Everything else is the same. >> Um, but when you change the methodology, people are uncomfortable. It's like, what's this? Mine's going to change by three times. This person's is going to go down. Like it just it complicates things. And I think making things complicated is not the right option. I >> agree. Any more questions? Right. Do public comment on

145this item. Two minutes. Two and a half minutes. You'll get a notice. >> Never going to need it all. Uh, Peter Berg, parent of Wade Thomas Elementary. Uh, Tyler, thank you for listening and actually putting forth the actual dire situation we're in, where this is going. State conservatorship would be extremely detrimental to the county. And I applaud you for hearing that and putting it forward. Uh, in terms of the two considerations, uh, for what it's worth, quite literally every homeowner I talked to was against the per parcel increase largely because, you know, they felt penalized. Is it ideal that the wealthier pay more? Should they, you know, pay their fair share? 100%. Are they going to vote for it? Not if they want to keep affording that big house. they're going to stick with what's,

146you know, simple, easy, fair, the least they have to pay. So, spreading that out, making a flat rate, that's going to be effective. That's what's going to work. It's not ideal, but we're not in a situation where we can go for what's ideal. Uh I I have quite a lot to say on on terms of the polling and what that's worth and kind of where that's coming from, but that's a different topic. But for this, this is uh KISS. Keep it simple, smarty pants. Someone's got any more public comment on this item. >> Uh PJ Feer mayor parent. Uh thank you Tyler. I think that was a very good summary of the um meetings that we had. um except on one point it was not my impression that the general consensus was to stick at

1473% inflation. I think a a lot of people found it compelling that that has been the rate and that means that our partial tax has increased at like 11% less than inflation over the term since 2018. So, you know, we're losing money to CPI at 3%. Um and the at least the people that my table on the first day, which was when I had like a a full table, um largely were skeptical that the three versus four versus five would move the needle in terms of yes or no votes. Um I'm going to avoid my uh polling specific comments. Uh, Tyler, I think you mentioned um the point about having the lower rate for unimproved parcels being like around $500,000. So, I went back and that that information came from the January 8th meeting. The

148team civics presenter said that there's about 900 of those parcels. So, that was like $544,000 um doing that drop. And in that same presentation, he also mentioned that there's only 30 parcels in the district that are over 10,000 square feet. Um, so if you want, you know, if a big thing that made people anxious about the per square footage calculation was that it's uh there's no cap, people's imaginations run wild with how how much their tax could be. Um, that's a that's a threshold that you can drop in and not affect the amounts too much. I think you had some basic calculations in our meetings about um how much that would go. I do think I mean I like the the mix because the people the people I was speaking to in Fairfax are were

149happy to find out mo a lot of them that their their tax would have been going down with measure E and they very much understood you know why is it that the Sleepy Hollow House is paying the same rate as like department. Um um you know that I think that's compelling and I think you know one one other thing I I disagreed with was it was the uh description of the district being generous with its partial tax over its history and that we are the the district is so far below their per 1,000 uh dollars of median income spending uh local spending. on K12 education. I it's it's shocking uh how how far off base we are. I'm a parent to kids. I was part of that committee. know how we call it working group

150parcel tax working group um I also did quite a bit of work on me last year and I talked in canvas to a lot of people a lot of people had absolutely from people I talked to while canvasing most of them had no idea um how schools are funded how things are working and what uh where the money are coming from um and so summarizing kind of my experiences both from last campaign and this engagement which I think was a great idea. I wish there was more people that would come out to those things and not um kind of the same group but I do still think it's it was amazing to put it out there learning community and give them a opportunity to be engaged atformational level before it becomes a ballad and all

151that. Um, I would suggest to keep it simple, as simple as we can in terms of ability to explain that to the average voter that may or may not have kids in a district. Most don't. and complicating going to we learned last year I think that confusing and making things complicated making it that one neighbor going to pay double the next neighbor that just didn't work we we went through that and I think we should really take that lesson seriously that simple is the way to go especially when we think about having to reach all these people that aren't connected to our district anyway don't have any kids in school like my neighbor is 82 and another 89. They don't have any of those details. I don't think they want any of those details. And

152so be me being able to like have it that oh there it's just straightforward and simple is the way to go. Um and yeah, I think polling is the next thing we can talk about. Um I do agree with was one comment that PJ um mentioned is that you know some of us thought well okay 3% versus 3.7% might not necessarily if I'm talking about inflation rate um it's probably not going to turn off as many people but it's actually going to get you significant um increase in in revenue. So, I think that's one number that um we should put more thinking into if it was up to me. >> Any more public comment? >> Jenny Wright, CSCA secretary. Um just wanted to thank the board for your tireless and thoughtful um efforts on this

153measure. Any more public comment? There's no more public comment. I will bring it back up to us for discussion. Are you looking for direction? >> Yeah, we can talk a little bit about direction on polling. Um, and then >> next agenda item. Yeah. You want to talk about it then or? Yeah, I think the the polling agenda item is really about the contract, but so I mean if you gave direction now and if folks wanted to make public comment about the polling at the next agenda item, I think that's fine. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I just want to say that I think um the public comment sparked my memory of mentioning that the rate of inflation should be scrutinized just based on the fact that we haven't kept up with it used to be 2.5.

154We haven't kept up with that and that we should consider putting a little more meat on the bone there um so that we're not left behind again. um eight years, whatever time frame we choose, we have to really make sure that we coded with the ability to keep up with the cost of living. the table groups that I was in when I was on the working group, >> the comments that some of the other people at the table with me um were relating to the inflation rate. We're saying like >> a shorter term and a higher inflation rate because >> then we can reassess it and see what we need later. Like when our continues to go up like we expect and >> you know when our property taxes continue to go up like so

155we can kind of it's a shorter term >> we'll have a little more time to evaluate like where we are at >> and then renew it again and maybe we can readjust it down like we did this last time in 2018. >> Right. And I think the demographics will change too with the ownership of homes, especially with those um who will age out of ownership and um new people will start to move in. I think that we are looking at the potential to revisit it and have some better ability to navigate those numbers. So yeah, I like that. >> Yeah. It's just a reminder too that back in 2018 when we put measure E at the time up, >> we changed the inflation rate from 4% to 3%. >> So this partial tax historically has

156been at 4%. >> Um, so >> okay, >> just something makes sense. Yeah, I it seems that I mean of course the more revenue the better, but I just question if changing that will confuse people. It's like something else that we have to justify why we're changing it. >> It's just I mean it just it needs more marketing, right? Like the more things we change, the more things we have to market. And while I think it's Great. Let's go back to 4%. It's just nothing we need to really think about if that's going to hurt our chances. >> And we're not talking about the polling, but that would be a good thing to for polling. Okay. >> So, what are we talking about now? >> We can talk about polling. >> I think I think

157I'm asking for direction on polling. >> On polling. What things we are curious about changing here? >> Let's poll three versus four. And if you decide not to approve the polling, then gosh, >> this would be a conversation and it's something that we think about when we come to the point where we need to decide on putting something on a >> So I agree polling, let's pull three versus four, right? Inflation, but then also what about the the per partial increase to and I'm not a price guy, but what if we had like pulled 449 increase, keep it below the 450 threshold, but then also 5.49 49. >> Agreed. >> Right. So, it's like we we're giving if that's another $600,000 >> in revenue, maybe 459 gets us still at garbage. Uh, and four 5.49

158gets us better than garbage. I'm not a marketer and I, you know, there's probably other people that can use that a better way of saying that. Uh but those two numbers 449 and 459 maybe has that numerical like oh that's it's not $10 it's $9.99. >> So you're interested in looking at like increasing the increasing the amount of it asked but >> yes well I guess lowering it $45 $4.49 >> and 549 would be the two things I would go out to. >> I'm curious. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> I I mean it's Yeah. That's compelling to not have to go to the bare minimum. >> Absolutely. >> Like if Yeah. Let's start at 549 and see what people say with that in in the polls. For sure. And the polling will give you all

159data. I mean, none of this is concrete, right? Like we're not we're not voting on >> a partial tax measure, >> right? We are only talking about polling to get more data so that in February you all can actually make an informed decision about what structure, what amount, and when you put something on the ballot. >> Yes, >> I think so. >> Yeah, the more data we have, the better. >> So, right, a three channel poll is going to not cost a lot of money, right? So you're talking about like the rate that we're asking for for the >> inflationary rate, the amount increase and >> I think that's it. >> Those two things we're not going to so we're going to keep the term at 10 years or >> I mean that's something that

160we don't have to pull about, do we? >> Term is interesting because you know the other districts right a couple of them have 10. >> Yep. >> but it is nine. I mean to move >> right the marketing nine versus 10 I mean I don't >> well I mean if people are asking us to go out it means you're have to do >> because that'll give us clearer data that'll give us cleaner data. >> That's a good point. >> So eight or 10 doesn't matter really means you have to go out two years before whenever the 8year or 10 year mark. >> Yeah that's >> okay. Okay. So, I'm hearing feedback if the board approves polling the polling contract that we're going to keep the the poll as short as possible to be as cost

161effective as possible and really focus on the amount of the increase and the inflation rate. Is that accurate? >> I think that's right. >> Yes. >> Sure. >> Great. >> Yeah. >> We need people to participate in that polling. So are we did we talk about item three and are we looking to >> we are still in item two. I was going to move us to item three right now which is approved contract with Gabby Research to conduct a parcel tax measured feasibility survey. >> So I'm bringing this to the board and this is just a contract approval. It's pretty standard. Uh we've worked with Godby in the past. God works with a number of districts around the county. Um, I shared with them our fiscal situation and asked for the uh cheapest possible option

162so we can continue to be fiscally responsible. Um, and that's what I'm bringing to you all for approval tonight. >> Okay. How much? >> Uh, I believe that it is uh he's he's trying to keep it under right around $27,000. Kind of depends on what the length is. he that he makes based on this feedback that you've given. So, um I think the shortest possible one is right around 27,000. >> Okay. We we had them last time too, right? What did we pay them last time? Do you remember? >> It's about the same. >> About the same. >> Yeah. Says 28. >> 28. Yeah. So, the difference between a 12minute and 18 minute is, you know, a couple thousand dollar. And I, you know, that is kind of budget dust, but Chris and I are

163in between the cushions looking a budget dust right now. >> Okay. All right. So, >> is this going to make us eat beans for dinner for a week? >> Top ramen and beans or >> I think I think we're rice and beans for the rest of the year and uh keeping it as cheap as possible is the right move. >> Okay. Okay. Any other questions? So nothing will need won't happen because of this. >> No, we're not going to cut a program because of this point. >> Like Chris, >> okay. I mean, is anybody I have very little experience with polling >> questions? Questions? It's fine. We can discuss, but just questions for >> questions. >> I know. Sorry. I think from your perspective is the benefit of this an integral part of helping us

164move ahead. >> At first I if you had asked me in early September I would have said no. I would have said we had polling from 2024 >> that we had measure E which is essentially polling. The community told us a lot what to do. But as I worked through those town hall meetings, it was clear to me that I needed more information about the size of the increase. >> Okay. >> And and I think that convinced me that this this price tag was willing I was willing to invest this to listen to the community about what's a viable increase. And that's essentially what this is. It's a $28,000 investment for us to get 400 people to give us feedback on what number is the right number for us to ask. >> Okay. Okay. Any

165more questions before I go to public comment? >> Public comment. It's Halloween. >> Yeah. Come by my house. You'll see it. It's definitely Halloween. That was a little sneaky. Um, you brought up an agenda item talking about these are our two options and this is what's under discussion. And then switched gears to polling, which is a separate comment. Those are two separate action items. When the cost people call out and say, "Hey, you're being sneaky." This is one of those instances. This is one of those things where you change gears and people can't comment. That being said, let's move on to the polling. Uh approximately $30,000 for 400 people. For $1,000, you can get the state register, you know, county register of voters in the area their contact information and you can send them anything

166you want. Uh good friends of mine in Salelito did this with uh Rise Up 94965, a nonprofit group that raised tons of money for their school district, reformed what they were doing there in major ways. Still have issues, but there are cheaper solutions. $30,000 is fiscally irresponsible. This is we don't know where that money is coming from. the the cost of the two uh uh contractors consultants that you want 50,000 that's 10% of the cuts that were made this last year is that money coming from parent donations you know measure E pulled a lot of uh parent donations last year that didn't pass those parents money that they gave for their kids gone out the door a lot of people were pissed off about that you want to do it again make the right choice

167is put in the effort. Make people go do what is readily available. Don't hire consultants. It's a waste of money. Professionally, when have consultants ever delivered? You know what the sentiment is? You can get it if you need new information. Please do better. I'm out. The spider I guess one thing I was only going to say is that not counting like how much money is but 400. So that the the contract says it's mostly 400 responses that's about 2.1% of our registered orders. And so my concern would be well I don't know who how they choose those 400 I don't know but is that um a good representation of our community in other words is that how good of that data is >> and that would be uh one I guess most significant thing I

168would think about in terms of this particular contract and whether we could get because you know that 400 is really not very many responses, but is when you think about 18,452 registered votes we have. But that's just kind of what stood out to me about that contract that I want. >> I want to be clear too that I'm open to hearing public comment about what to pull in this in this comment. Even though we talked about it in the last one, this is still it's still relevant under this uh this item. And I believe I said that before we went to this item. >> Republic comments. >> Um so, uh Tyler, I agree that coming somewhat coming out of the working group meetings. It definitely felt like more information on how to size the increase

169would help, but I am skeptical that we'd get that from polling. And I think you'd certainly want to consider the final questions before approving anything because if you get a just like a you're trying to do it as efficiently as it possible, you had six questions and to one question is would you be in favor of a inflation rate at 3% 4% 5%? People are just going to choose 3%. And you do the same thing with a flat rate. They just see the numbers together. you're like the others have said, you're not getting a lot of people and what information are you really getting? And I think there's a real opportunity to shoot ourselves in the foot with the polling because we've seen very um recently with the cost measures uh campaigns, not just for

170RBSD but other um jurisdictions. If you pull something um and say the it polls at 64% and you say, "Okay, we're just going to go a little bit lower." And so, you know, that's that should get us over the hill. They're just going to say you pulled an issue that didn't get broad approval. And even though you're making changes to reflect the information you got in the poll, the story in the community is going to say, "You pulled something. The poll said it wasn't going to pass." and you did it anyway. Um, and people just will react negatively to that, you know, regardless whether or not it's rational. Um, and I think this money could also be spent really diving deeper into um the demographics of the community. Like there's a lot of I've gotten

171a lot of information on from the census that um is counterintuitive. Ross Valley's a median age is 47 and roughly 47 and the counties is 48. So we're actually a younger community. Of the owner occupied homes, 40% are owned free and clear without a mortgage. Um, you know, there's there's a more vocal and more visible community that we uh run a risk of over catering to if we're worried about people paying a tax who are not uh don't have kids in the district, are they more likely to be in a smaller house and would rather have a per square foot anyway? You know, it's I think it's that kind of information that'd be a lot more helpful than just pulling percent this. Yes or no? Uh or strongly support or mildly support. >> Hello. >>

172Uh Anna Grum, I have to agree with what the three before me said. Um, and that for our district in a dire state of financial distress, 30,000 is a lot to pull 400 people. I think I think the number was 700 parents of Ross Valley students who didn't even vote. That might be well worthwhile talking to them. Um, it just seems like a lot of money. Um, as somebody who's been fundraising for Yes. and more Yes. and the fund run. Um the ask on parents is a lot and to ask the PTO's for more money um to fund some of these things is a lot even before a campaign starts. So I would really thank you for scrutinizing these contracts and looking at more cost-effective ways to pull people maybe which ones we're pulling. Thanks.

173Any public comment? >> I will bring it back to the board for discussion. $27,000 is not nothing and feel like I don't have enough information that I mean I I don't have a clear grasp on how effective it can be. Um, you know, I'm concerned that it wouldn't give us really the information that we like concrete black and white. Like I feel like it could just be gray and that's not helpful. >> It'll be worse if I do it. >> Have we're modeling what other districts have done in similar situations and they are engaged. this specific um research company >> because they do it all for the districts to ensure that whatever data they gathered and I understand that the populations that they've looked at are the same as well four and 500 people. So

174that's their that's their boiler plate. >> They are going out to all members of the community. the response rate >> the response rate is extremely low. >> So they they're able to capture it's just the capture of response. >> That's right. >> And I guess my my question is to you know we're not just saying yeah let's get a get a pollster to figure out like how people feel. This is this is a datadriven approach that has worked for measures that have failed before to find out how they can tweak. Okay, that's that's that's the part that I need to understand is correct that I'm thinking about this correctly. Um because when they came in last time, they did they they didn't just reach out for the people. They reached out to everybody and to

175capture what just happened to be >> 18,000. >> Think of think of all the times you've had a text message or phone call from someone asking for five minutes of your time. Exactly. >> 99% of the time or 100% of the time you hang up or you don't respond. And that is the exact same thing that happens here. >> It's the same thing when I send out a survey to our families. It's the same thing when I said put out a survey on Next Door, right? >> The capture rate is abysmally low, >> right? Um I hear you, Anna, about $27,000 not being small change, especially given where we are. Um, and it's kind of like, do you invest the money to ensure that you have success to get the money you need? Right. >>

176Precisely. And I'm a finance person, so I understand the risk, but the the outcome of success has to be quantified enough >> for the effort to indicate that the results are what we need. And so putting that amount of money, which is what percent, a very small percent of our revenues. Can you just throw that out to me? And I'm just And I'm sorry that I'm just I'm sorry that I am I this is my brain. This is what I do for a living. So you know you you have to understand the risk and the output and and we're modeling that >> 1% of our >> 1% >> of the total budget.1% >> to get >> and this is not coming from PTAs this is coming from unrestricted dollars >> not from parents it's not

177coming from it's unrest it's our unrestricted dollars >> that's right >> the point 0.1 okay which is small >> to achieve that $650,000 to me that that quantifies a sensible approach especially if we're not we're modeling what other districts have done to achieve this and have effectively used that data. Right. Okay. >> I go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to say in a previous school district I was in um two years ago we used Godby also and we passed a parcel tax. The following year we passed a bond measure very successfully >> using >> knowing the data. >> Yeah I understand I understand that they are the ones to really help you make the right decisions. Um, I just want to make sure that that that money we're not looking at 5% or >>

178but I think this the the medic like if you just rise up above this conversation that we're having right now that's the financial situation this district is in. >> We're sitting here arm wrestling about a tenth of a percent >> tenth of a percent >> of the overall budget. >> Right? >> And we all have big feelings about that, >> right? a normal like in a normal business, you're not worried about a tenth of a percent of your total budget. That is an easy decision, especially if the return could potentially be $30 million over $27 million over >> exactly eight or nine years. >> My concern is it's not a guarantee. You're talking about it like it's a guarantee. I want to see the data like from I want Godby to give us that data

179from other schools. I feel like I don't have the information I need. or what information you looking for? >> So, the schools that Apparel Tech passed after doing the poll. >> So, all that's public information. I can get that for you. Kentfield did one with Godby before they passed their uh and I talked with the Kentfield folks. They did a poll with Godby. Then they went out and outperformed the Godby uh polling in their measure. and now in their bond and now they're doing the same thing with their u partial tax and their data is coming back at you know mid70 to high 70% on their information which gave the their board the information to say okay we can increase our already almost $19,000 $1,900 paral tax by another $100. So, but they have that

180data. And I think one thing that I want to say is that being superintendent, the data I have is extremely biased. When I hold a town hall, there's 50 of the exact same people that I talk to every time I'm on a school campus. And what do they all say? We need $1,500. Just go out for $1,500. That is unrepresentative of the community. It just is. I agree with them. That's what we need. But that is not the average. So, and one thing that was very clear to me is it is exceptionally difficult for me to tap into what an average non-school-aged family wants. Having professional polling gets me that information. I could send out a goo. I I I have the the emails of every person that's a registered voter. I have the the

181phone numbers. I could craft a Google form and send that out to folks. I could sit in my office and call people, but I'm not a professional pollster. I I don't have the time or the expertise to get real data that's representative of our community. And I agree, 400 people out of 18,000 is not as represent as representative as we would like. But the alternative is nothing. alternative is the conversations I've had in the in the parse tax working group and the town halls or a Google form that I put together and send out to the community. >> And this district has used Godby in the past, even prior to this last time. We used them for our last uh geo bond measure as well as one or two of our previous um partial tax.

182So they have a history of successful polling and use of it here in the district as well. >> And I think we have to really differentiate. This is not a consultant. This is a polling. >> Yeah. This is someone that's getting getting data, professional data for us for you to consider what the number is we want to move. Because again, if you if you go talk to the families in our school district, most of them are going to index towards a bigger increase because they've got a vested interest in that. But we need to talk to the 60-year-old couple that their kids are in college and they can't opt out. I need to know what they're willing to to do and it's very difficult for me to get a hold of that person. >> Right?

183And of those 400 people, the demographic I is >> self- selects. It's all it's >> so we reach out to whoever we can and then it's self self- selecting responses >> but they understand that the integrity of the data underlying the responses is an indicator of bias as well which is something that I don't think we have the ability to do ourselves is to understand that the bias within the actual response population and I think that that that that's what they're trained to do. Um, so they can say, "Well, here's the data. This is what 400 people say." I don't think it's that linear. I think it's a little more layered in terms of the information we'll get to be able to base our decisions. >> But if we if we can get that specific,

184as I was I appreciate the public comments, right? Like it's a lot of money, right? You just said earlier, you and Chris have been arm wrestling for $17,000, >> right? >> $17 an hour. I would like to know who's winning those arm wrestling men, you know, just if there's any like injuries or anything. But, >> um, so that's you guys, everybody's aware of that. >> And if the conversation we had earlier, if we ask for for $449 or $549, that's an extra $600,000 that comes back into our district. So we would be potentially leaving a lot of money on the table if there is an appetite for more, >> right? >> Or if the delta is 10% in the negative, we know not to go that route >> because we because we need a yes.

185If we don't get a yes, it is closing schools time. >> Correct. >> So we have to have like hyper the best data we can get. >> Okay. So I'm not a polling expert. So how do we this goes to the public comment that about how it's framed. So, in the polling, I mean, if there's given options, I'm always going to say the lower number, like, well, that's actually not true. I wouldn't, but that's because I believe it strongly and this is where our taxes should go. But I think a lot of people, if they're given the options like, would you choose 449 or 549? A lot of people are like, oh, well, they only need 449, so I'm just going to select that option. So, how is it worded? How is it framed or

186>> it's not worded? Would you choose 550, 450 or 400? Right? Because the bias would always be 400. >> Exactly. So, how is it? >> They use professional polling strategies to get at that. And I won't go into the weeds of it, but >> they're professional pollsters and they use strategies to get accurate information. Understand what the yes is by asking a series of specific questions. And if I say it specifically out, then I'm >> Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. >> Well, then they t tend to do it in a situation where they'll ask it with this ballot language, would you support this measure? It's like, would you support it for these reasons? And then based on that, it's like, if you don't support it, then it's like, would you support this one? And it's like

187a lower amount. Yes. >> So, I think that's how they generally do it, but it's it's along those lines in the ones that I've seen. >> Yeah. No, I mean I absolutely >> and that's where like the actual real pollster that's a professional that does this for a living is very different than my Google form. >> I we could get more information with my Google form. There's no doubt about it. And it would be >> like sure let's buy a Lamborghini. [Laughter] [Music] >> I'm sorry. I I just think that that the there is bias when I am >> the the >> Yes. >> gatherer of information. >> Absolutely. >> And I think that's why when asked the question earlier, >> do I think we need this? If you had asked me in early September,

188I would have said no. >> That's why I asked you. >> I would have said no. We're not spending the $30,000. I've got a good sense based on right >> my based on measure. And then as I talked to more people in the community, I was like, "Oh no, some people are reaching for the moon and some people are like, >> don't ask for anything. Don't just do a straight renewal." >> And that started to give me the like, okay, I need way more information than I have right now. >> and that's what this is in my mind. >> I do agree. I mean with measure E we, you know, this parent population are is such a small population of our community of the 18,000 people and we need we needed that I mean then

189and we need it now of everybody else outside of our parent and guardian. So >> So we can vote on this tonight. Okay. >> And we would get polling data by December 17th to consider, >> which would give us more time to engage the community, have conversations before you needed to vote in February >> or June >> for if if June, June would be the earliest, which February would be the earliest you would would be able to vote. If it was in November, we could push it out further. We could also push this item to the next meeting in November. which means we probably wouldn't get polling data until January or almost February >> and you won't be here. >> You can vote on this in November without me here. Um I have confidence that

190you'll be prepared to to make that vote. It just pushes out the polling and then to one of the public speakers comments is we're basically getting the data making the decision right away. And I think the the sneaky argument is when we back up the data with the decision immediately. But if we have the data and we let that data breathe in the community and allow people to >> mle it over and talk about it and come to a board meeting and then we make the vote, >> then I think it it's a slower process. >> Yeah. >> That feels more transparent. That's an excellent point because we really we want to give as many opportunities to our community to weigh in as possible. I mean, we learned that for sure. >> And the delta

191of this 30k could be anywhere from like million and a half dollars, right? If we ask if we nope, you can only ask for $300 more of an increase. Okay, that's good to know because we thought we might ask for$450 or 550, right? That's, you know, over a million dollars a year >> and $200,000. Uh >> I'm a little nervous though about doing the polling just because like what if it comes up and it's like you get abysmal numbers for all of them and they don't want an increase at all. It's like and we desperately need this money and then we have to go out. We still need to get this money because you know, it's kind of dire. >> I think that's a super fair critique. >> if we don't do something that listens

192to the polling, it looks like we're not listening. So, we spent $28,100 for a polling and we didn't listen to it. That's my other that's my concern. >> Devil's advocate. If that polling does come back, is that an indication that we're not communicating effectively to the community rather than them just saying what they don't want? >> Because that's a trigger to us that we need to be more communicative about what these numbers mean, why we're asking for these amounts of money, because the polling is not going to say, "Hey, you pay garbage this. Would you pay this?" Right? We have that ability. Um, >> and that you're right. So, the polling could tell us one, what's the appetite for the amount of the increase, >> right? Or the inflation rate, which is two things that

193you're interested in hearing about. But it could also give us some data to say you're really close. You just need to do some more like information before you vote on this, right? that could if it if the numbers 63% you know you're close with that and you're just your your campaign's going to have to be a little bit more engaged and knock a few more doors. >> Well, I think that's probably one of the mistakes, one of the things we'd learned from mistakes. The polling numbers were not positive for measure E, but I remember them saying it was quite quite a big delta. Whatever I don't remember the exact numbers, but >> 55 and >> was it 55 to 60? I was like, "Oh, 55 is not bad." The guy's like, "You >> proved him

194wrong." >> That's a That's a big forever tax off of it. >> They took the forever tax off because they pulled it and told us that. >> So, I don't know. >> But could would the would the poll also say just go out and just renew like Z appetite for increase versus $500 appetite for increase? I think what I heard from you all is doing something that's like a three- tiered approach that's in the ballpark of our need of what we need. What we need for sure. We would not be pulling a flat >> okay >> flat uh renewal, >> right? That's that's plan Z. >> I I appreciate the public comment about fiscal responsibility because it's we could have put this on consent agenda and just moved on. We made a specific decision to

195put this on discussion action to allow public comment to have this conversation because $30,000 although it's a tenth of a percent in our context is real money >> and we want to make sure we're making the right decision. And I I think there are places in our district where we can bootstrap some things and do things ourselves. And I I tend to agree. I was talking to one of our staff members about consultants earlier today and there's lots of times where consultants aren't that valuable. Godby has skills I do not have. Nobody on our team has and I think it'd be very difficult to bootstrap this quality of information although not perfect to the level that God can do it. >> Right? If there were other district that said we're not using Gobby, we're doing

196ourselves. We would be able to model what they've done but they don't do that. Mhm. >> They all use copy >> and we're not in a position to kind of like get creative, >> right? >> We we need the best data possible >> to make the best decision possible to get to a Yes. >> Okay. >> I know. I wish there were I I appreciate how much time we're putting into this on the front end like before >> putting something on the ballot, these discussions. I do wish there were more people here in this room right now. Um because I just yeah I don't I don't know what other people want and I do want to know what they want. >> I >> again a $30,000 $28,000 cost now for polling numbers that could be

197more clear. We can earn an extra $600,000. That to me is a a no-brainer. I hear you, but there's no guarantee. >> Totally. >> I mean, no guarantee that that's going to get us the information we want, >> but like >> do you feel like you could get more data if you talked to Godby and asked them for more specifics or if you got more data pulled in or is it just in general? Uh yeah, I mean I so of the I've got to be up to 400 people, it's it is an event like a >> they reach out to a broad spectrum of >> right but if the people that respond >> they just stop when it hits. >> Yeah. I mean, reach out to high propensity likely voters. >> Yeah. >> People that

198vote in, you know, multiple elections. They're not going to call the person who hasn't voted since >> ' 86, >> right? >> Yeah. >> And that's a number that's a 400 is a is an accurate number for the size of our district. Like what's the >> They did 402 for us last year or two years ago. >> Say that again. >> They they talked at 42 people in our district last time. They did this. 400 people is more than almost any uh survey that I've ever had in this district. >> I think the when I reached out about technology use was the one time that I got more um you know I think I when I sent out the Google form on Next Door on social media and to our community about reflections measure e

199I think I got 150 people. >> Yeah. Um, and my questions certainly weren't >> as good as a professional pollster could could give. >> Yeah. >> And I I I and I think you're right. We might not get the information we want, but we're going to get more information to make the most accurate decision possible, >> which is which is really what we need. I mean, there's, like I said, like we we know the people in this room. We know we are confident on parent community. It's seniors and business owners and everybody outside of our families that are in this district. >> Yeah, we need to hear from >> and that's what we really who we really need to hear from and I want them to be included. Like that's the piece that I just

200Yeah. I we we need that. We need that and this if this can give that to us then yeah >> Chris did you have something you wanted to add? >> I was just going to say that the TAM district also used Godby for their their polling um recently >> and as an example u as a community member I received a call from them to participate in their poll. So that that's just an example of the type of prop high propensity voter that they would reach out to somebody like me. >> And Mil Valley just used Godby to do their polling um for an upcoming parcel tax that they're considering. So >> okay. >> All right. Um do we feel like we are ready to make a decision on this item? Do we want to push

201it? How do we feel about this one? I'd rather not push it based on just >> backing into that >> February date, right? That doesn't feel I I like the idea of if we were to move forward with this, people have many weeks to sit on it and to talk about it and to kind of come up with what is that ask. >> And I'm happy to do other engagements with the community. I feel like the town halls, although I was very proud to have 40 and 50 people at those meetings, I thought that was a wonderful turnout, 40 and 50 people out of 18,000 is like a needle in a hay stack. Um, so this gives us an opportunity to really cast a broader net than I'm able to do or that I've been

202able to do. Um, yeah. And we recognize the amount, which is why we've asked for the cheapest possible one. >> Wait, what? The the special. What's on special? >> Mhm. >> Okay. I'm Yeah, I say we Chris, are you ready? I'm >> ready. So, we would like to make a motion. So I make the motion that we uh recommend the we approve the contract with Godby research to conduct the partial attack measure feasibility survey. >> I will second >> I >> Anna >> I Okay. >> And um you have >> Yeah. And I'm I'm happy to have conversations with other members of the community about other ways I can engage folks and get information from folks. I offer all the time to get coffee with anyone that's willing to share their feedback. So, you know,

203aside from this, I'm always willing to listen to folks that have feedback for us. And our next item is to approve the contract with team civics to provide consulting services andformational flyer for a parcel tax measure. >> So this would be mostly uh engaging with team civics on anformational campaign paid for by the district between now and the time you all vote to put something on on the ballot. So this isformational uh communication. So, social media messaging for me, um, and mailers. Uh, one the the cost of this is, I think, $9,500. The cost of mailers through Team Civics is another $9,000 a piece. I talked with Team Civics and said, "We can do it cheaper." Um, almost 60% or 40% of the the cost that they can do it. Um, so I need their

204consultation on how to do the wording and what to do and you know some of that. Um, but we will execute the action. That's something we can bootstrap. We can we can do the mailers on our own. We do have some parents in the community that are excellent graphic designers. So we can kind of utilize some of their skills as well to cut $18,000 out of this contract um and have a a lower cost. >> So what's the total expenditure? >> $9,500 >> for them to help us. >> Mhm. and I asked for the the lowest rate they would give. >> And so what does that get? What will that get us? >> Uh consultation on um communication andformational strategy with the community. >> So they generally will take polling data and like the wording

205and the language and use that in marketing purposes and noninformational things like what hit voters best. >> Okay. Do you um do you need a marketing person because we have access to one? I don't know how much that ties into what they're offering here, >> but >> part of it >> I I think this comes back to the fact that I need support in connecting with more people than the same 15 people that I talk to every time. I like I need help reaching the people that don't read my parent square message, that aren't following us on social media, that don't know what's going on in the school, those are the people I need help with. Um, and if parents can do that, I'm all for it. But what I've what I found is that

206lots of parents are very eager to help. But then when it comes to a big time investment of 25 to 30 hours of investing in working on this, very few parents have the time. They're they're busy. They have kids. They've soccer practice. They've got jobs. Um and a big investment like that is a huge ask from a parent. >> Okay. >> So I came on board after all this part was done, right? I wasn't on the board for measure E. And so I came on the committee after all of this. Right. So I don't know I suppose how valuable their services were. >> So this is questions part, right? >> Right. >> Yes. Questions. >> Oh, right. Okay. Well, no, I have a question. I have a question. I have question. So >> that's what

207I want to know is what was the value that you think because from the committee side, right, we didn't end up using them once we ran the campaign. So I just want to So from this part of it, how valuable was it to you in the spring? >> I think it's helpful to refine messaging >> and that I think is the value that civics gave me in theformational campaign. I think there are real critiques about the delivery of the mailers. Uh we've heard from the community on that. I was wildly disappointed with flyers hitting inboxes the day of a board meeting. That made it feel disingenuous and that was, you know, I was pretty upset about that. And that's where I felt like I can go back to them and say, "We can do the

208we can do the flyers. We can get the timeline. We've proven to do that with some of the other flyers that we've sent out and I can take that cost off." That wasn't as big of a value as the refinement of the language. >> I did all the flyer. I I ordered all of those from >> and yes, it is much cheaper. >> Yeah, it is. >> Yeah, we can definitely do that. >> I I I think I >> Yeah, it's not a question. I'm sorry. >> My question so hard. My question for you is I know that when this is done in team civic source with an attorney to make sure that we're not sending anything out that's like >> pushing anything. It's more likeformational strictlyational and I know that we had criticism last

209time from certain parties saying like we were using >> public resources to move forward an idea of something. We don't have anything on ballot right now. There is no initiative. Um, but like do you feel like the value here is worth it to get that criticism on the back end later on if you know we do put some ban? >> I feel like running things by a professional group that does this for a living to say is this legal? Can I say this? Is thisformational or is it advocacy? Because I think some people can read some of the stuff that I put out in that gray zone. You know, when I talk about closing schools, is that advocacy? No, it's actually part of the consideration that we're taking. That's a that's a fact. And I

210need to run that by experts that know the law better than I do. Um, and I'm not a like remember often times superintendents are like former teachers. I'm a second grade teacher. I'm not a professional pollster. I'm not a professional communications major. I'm a second grade teacher who's kind of worked his way up to where I'm at today. So, there are times where I need support. Um, and this is in my mind, I don't need support with the $18,000 flyers, but I do need support in some refinement of the the messaging, or I need a handful of very committed parents that are going to step up and work hand inand with me to get it done and tell me whether things are legal or not. >> And you can't just use the information that they

211gave you already. Probably not. >> I mean, it's right. >> Well, most of their information they gave you last time was based on the polling we had done with God, right? >> Yep. It was based on the old polling and the the structure that we were using. So they would really start helping us in earnest after December 17th when we receive polling data. >> So they might show up to that board meeting and kind of give some information and recommendations. They're also good at giving the board strategy in terms of communication and marketing. Um, >> do we have any more questions? >> Do we have public comment on this item? >> Um, I appreciate that you remember the fiasco and absolute failure of the mailer. It was in this contract. So I really definitely want

212to make sure that everyone remembers how that public hearing note came after the public hearing for a lot of houses. So that was objective failure of this particular consultant just a few months ago. Um I guess I would also hope that we can think more about what how we learned from using them in the spring and what how can it be really truly helpful. One example I want to give is that, you know, it was the consultant that pushed um $95 for unapproved parcel that would basically give a discount to everyone that's already paying it now. And the logic was there was like, well, we don't have kids, which didn't make any sense. PJ brought it up to you that it didn't make any sense to give a discount and lose 500,000 a year by

213doing that. And in the response, well, well, yeah, I hear you, but consultant said, I just want to like highlight this. Unlike the poster, consultants aren't professional necessarily. Anybody can call himself a consultant. No, seriously, it's not like you go get a PhD in that, right? Consult. And it was a very objective failure with the mail that this particular consultant wouldn't even own. They were not really straightforward about it. Where are we going to learn that we don't already know? They're not local. They don't know the Fairfax specifics, demographics, and all this kind of stuff that is very truly specific to our community. They're not from here. And you know, it's it's spending money that we don't have. Like we just talked about how much we can get from the PTA strap book strap mass

214intervention for like 12 hours a week. We got such amazing results from that. you can do a lot of mass interventions hours for for those dollars. So it's at some point I think it kind of becomes I appreciate that you need a support but are these the people that really going to give you something given especially given how the failure was happens ago. I guess I I'm not particularly sold on using a consultant that just failed you and the language they came up with was measuring we all know where we end up with that. So is that really the right consultant to use? I don't question that. That's actually my perspective. >> Last time you're hearing from me tonight, it's all I have to talk about. >> Uh I agree with Ana. Uh I didn't

215I was not aware that there was a failure on their mail mailer they sent out last go round. I do agree messaging is important. You need help. I can give you the name of a parent who was uh PR marketing for very high-profile people, very large Fortune 500 companies, who is retired at a young age from how well she had done. That would be a resource that could potentially help you. It does not help you decide tonight whether or not to vote on this. In terms of civics, they did a horrendous job last go round. If you look and and you know read about how they've done historically, they just failed the parcel tax in their own home district. You need help, get someone. I don't think those are the right people either. I wasn't

216aware of the other stuff, but history's kind of showing they're not it. Thank you. Um yeah, I think you know sort of similar to the last item, it's what what are we really getting out of this agreement? And I think from what I heard in the discussion on the last one and on this one, it's the board is doing a great job of considering what you're hoping this can help you with. And I would ask you to think more about first, how likely is it that you're going to get helpful information? Um, and second, knowing that there is going to be an opposition group, no matter what you do, how they're going to use each of these decisions to oppose the um effort. So, very, you know, off the top, they're just going to say,

217"Use the same people as last time. You're not listening to the community." you know, it would take them no effort to just start messaging that. Um, you know, it's and when it comes to the actual service, it seems to me and it's sort of like a mix of these agenda items and this sequence of how we're going about here, like what are they messaging? Do we have a set partial tax structure and amounts and they're messaging something for that? Otherwise, are they just messaging the need which the information is the same as it was in May? The need is not how much is the need really differed. Um, you know, I just anything that they could provide that would be different from what they've already given us and you know, we change dates and push

218it back to six months or so if helpful would would need to come after we have said settled on what the structure is going to be and what the polling says and and what we understand more about the community. So, I think either way, even if you do want to have a consultant help you prepare materials and things like that, fair. Um, but I think this is not uh even a helpful time to do that. Um, so I have to drop in because that happens all the time. It was 2% of the unrestricted fund. The uh cost of the other one. We're always separating restricted and unrestricted amounts. That's Um, and I disagree also with what you said about not understanding the average person in our community because we got 63% we we do have

219a good handle on the average person in the community and it's onethird of the community that we're not figuring out how to persuade. Um, and you know, some of that is going to be not persuadable and some of that may be and you know, I think each decision should be made. Uh, focusing on that. >> Do you have any more public comment? >> I'm going to bring it back for a board discussion. >> Is this time of the essence? Do we need to do this right now? Right. >> What I was going to say, but I I know I know with this one any consulting that's on this contract, we couldn't be done after we figure out terms that we want to put on a >> because legally we can't advocate for anything. >> So,

220can we push this out? I think we can >> to after we get all the information that we need and then think about by that time we can think about >> like before we put something on a ballot, >> you know, what kind of marketing people we can bring into the fold to even think like >> well are there other options besides civics too. >> I was curious to to know I mean >> yeah it wasn't great last time. >> Yeah. and they took I had heard from public comments that they didn't take any responsibility for the failed mailer. Is is any of that on us for giving them bad? >> No. That I would I I think the assessment by the community of the effectiveness of team civics is maybe a little uh understated.

221I do think it was an abject failure that that flyer hit inboxes at the earliest the day of the board meeting. Full stop. That was on them. We had the information to them. That was was fact. Um, they did help us get some information out prior to the board making a decision and they helped us a ton free of charge throughout the uh actual campaign with the canvasing and the app that that we used for canvasing. Um, and that they basically gave to us for free. um which is neither here nor there, but uh I I thought to me the canvasing was like the critical thing and they they did support us there. Um I you could wait to do this until we could bring this back to the December 17th board meeting without a

222problem. Um and let this conversation breathe a little bit. Um, but if if a parent steps up to do do this in a loo, I need someone who's dedicated >> and will finish the job. >> Yes. >> There's lots of good intention. >> Yeah. >> With people that just have too much on their plate. >> I need someone who has time. >> Yeah. >> And can deliver quickly. >> Yeah. >> We pay them to do that. And obviously they missed on that that mailer. But if I have a parent that's going to do this, it needs to be snappy and all the way through. It's it is not a small commitment by a parent. It's not >> helping with pickup and drop off on Tuesday once a once a month. >> Do you know if

223there are other options besides civics? >> This is the one most people use. Um uh Kentfield's using team civics. I think uh Mil Valley is using team civics. it doesn't mean it's the right decision. I I do think there are some fair critiques about team civics, particularly with that that one flyer. I also think the cost of them delivering delivering the flyers is objectively high. Um we send out our mailer I think for $4,000 which is pretty affordable. Um but there is some legal advice that we get from them. There's some tailoring of messaging that we get from them. there's some uh graphic design that we get from them and those things I I feel are valuable unless I had a team of parents that could help me with >> you know professional messaging and

224graphic design >> then you have to manage those people. >> Yes. >> And that'd be volunteers and managing volunteers is very different than managing someone who's working for us. >> Yes, it is. So, it's I love the idea of parent volunteers and I'm you you know me. I'm wide open to that. I love working with our parent community. It just on this thing that's this serious. I need I would I think I would like to table this until next meeting. But I would also I would like to see their competitor. I would like to see like how much does it cost for another what's what's what else who else is out there besides team civics? want to also I guess that if we tabled it for a month it or our next meeting or it

225would give committee members a chance to connect and >> and commit. We did have >> I just sent myself a note to to help >> like we did have people who helped on measure E who were professionals who did commit a significant amount of time and were very responsive to getting things done. So I know there are people out there it just it's a matter of us finding them and them having the time to help with this. So >> we need to make a motion to move that to the next future. We we just don't have to make take action on this item. >> Correct. >> Are we all good pushing this to >> see feels like the right thing and that's not pushing anything back because we're not going to have the data before

226see >> just to see if we have people who are willing in our community. I mean >> and if in these two contracts there's one one of the two I feel like we can utilize strengths in our community and one that we cannot. >> Yes. And I think you've already made the decision on the one we can't. >> I believe in team civics. I think they can do a better job than they did last time. I think they can be helpful, but if something emerges between now and the November meeting or the December meeting, then, you know, I'm I'm all ears. >> Is there a way to negotiate them down further based on their mess up? >> I think that I I was just trying to look through my email. I think their original cost

227is $15,000. >> Mhm. and they lowered it to 9,000 for us because of our financial situation last year and they're offering us that reduced rate again this year. >> But I mean on top of that's our financial situation, >> but their mistake, >> but they may have thrown in all the polling services to >> Hey, sorry we messed that up. Here's some free polling services. You said they were very helpful. >> I think the campaign >> I think that's they helped a lot. I they didn't explicitly say that, but they did offer Okay. >> what I would consider a >> pretty good amount of free service during Okay. All right. So I mean I like the public was insensed that that flyer hit the day of because I think one thing we're all trying to

228lead is through transparency and being leading through with integrity and that an action like that is neither. and I was furious and I don't think well they're not going to do it again because we're going to do the the flyers moving forward. >> I mean I nailed the timing. Um I'm just going to put that out there >> and my good my good friend Teresa is also very good at that. >> All right. Okay. So, we're going to um not take action on item four on that contract and we'll move to the next item which is recommended approval to utilize region 4 education service center Omnia partners contract R241203 for digital workplace solutions of KIA document solutions for copers throughout the district and copy leases with KIA. >> Yes, take it away. So this is

229me. And so by approving this agenda item, this allows us to replace all of our aging copers throughout the district. Uh we have a number of them that are starting to fail due to age and they're no longer um have the parts, but uh another benefit of it is it would actually lower the cost by approximately $8,500. So it's kind of a win-win situation for us. We get new copers at a lower cost. Does this come what funding does this come from? >> These are our normal general fund dollars. Okay. And so it um a portion of it is for the from the district office and then the the remaining portions are from the site funds. >> So site general fund unrestricted dollars. As an example, Hidden Valley went without a copy machine for three

230days last week and Teresa and I were running copies of Brookside for the Hidden Valley teachers >> on Thursday morning last week. So, this is uh >> Yeah. >> I mean, >> all right. Do we have questions on this item? >> I mean, no. If Chris If Chris says, you know, it's a good saving us money. Is this one of those piggyback things like a >> Yes, >> I was going to say it looked like that when I was reading through it, but I wanted to >> Yeah, it was actually bid out by a group in by a a public entity in Texas and then it goes through this other firm, but it's a publicly bid um contract. >> Okay. All right. Any questions? >> No more. Do we have any public comment on this

231item? >> No copies or Okay. Um I will bring it back to the board so you know public comment. >> I will recommend approval to utilize region 4 uh education service center Omnia partners contract for digital workforce solutions in Kaioa document solutions for copers throughout the district and copier leases with Kaio and to allow for our superintendent not to run through to get them there. Is it manner or hidden valley? Hidden valley. >> Yeah. Christy Bish. I will second that. >> All right. >> Thank you, Chris. >> I >> Daniel. >> Hi, >> Anna. >> I >> Rachel. >> Hi. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next item is consent actions. So, we can approve these all in one action unless somebody would like to pull something out for discussion. They're all pretty question. >>

232They're pretty straightforward. >> Does anybody have any questions about any of these or want to pull anything? No. Do we have any public comment on consent actions? then send on the financial statements and warrant uh things just you know it's a you know contracts that the board I think should drop in uh sooner rather than later. the state uh just uh approved and the governor signed a law saying that all uh all of these types of meetings need to have Zoom participation access. I think it's going to be beginning next calendar year, but I know that's a comment you've heard with some regularity here increasing the public's ability to participate in these meetings. um something to consider getting ahead of as we had, you know, like a hundred $100,000 or so move in our favor

233uh so far in the budget. Um um I think you know especially as we're going into the season. Um that's a a good way to spend money and increase public goodwill. Thanks. public comments, consent actions. Seeing none, do any comment discussion on this? If not, we'll enterain a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent actions. >> I will second. Anna >> I >> Chris >> I >> Daniel >> I >> and I Okay. So consent approved. Our next item is board business. I have committee updates and reports from and announcements by trustees. >> Last weekend, Brookside threw a lovely uh farmers market um fall festival, raised several thousand dollars by uh Good Earth that donated pies, um people buying pumpkins. It was a very successful event and I just want to thank

234the parents that did that. We also had a great time at the White Hill uh barbecue. The music was exceptional. Um what was the dance troop? Uh >> Buddha dance group. Yeah, that was awesome. >> Uh really I felt like it was a good turnout. I'm sure we could have always had more people there. The food was exceptional. Whoever does the barbecue. I think it's just a family just as it every year. It was just it was great. It was an awesome It was an awesome event. Really cool. So, it was really hard work, I think, for everybody that put it on. They're always looking for more volunteers at White Hill as I'm learning every day, right? >> Uh hopefully the school dance will happen this weekend. I don't know if they get enough parent

235volunteers, but um >> uh yeah, it's fascinating, right? First time on a middle school camp. Like, yeah, they need parents. >> I would >> uh Yeah, you need you remember your high school dances. You need chaper. >> They prefer the sixth grade parents to chaperon the seventh and eighth grade dance because >> that cuz I did it last year. >> Nobody wants their parents there. >> But you don't want your parents. >> That should have been it. That should have been a I don't know if that was made clear to the sixth grade parents. >> Yeah. I I suffered one last year and and it's hard for the kids to have their parents. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. >> I would have stepped up, but >> I'm not going to be that mom. >> Anyway,

236so that the White Hill event was awesome. The Brookside event was great. Uh Walker Creek last week for Brookside was was fun. Um it was just a great event. Great great time. Oh >> yeah, that's what I've >> Okay. >> Uh I did not attend YesFest, but I did go to the board meeting uh this last week and they raised a lot of money uh $64,000. >> The goal was 50. >> Um and their current reporting is 40% towards their annual fundraising goal. And so it's going great. Um there is a yes fundraiser turkey trot happening. Um that thing is going to go out Friday, I think, to the schoolwide or districtwide. But so that's a fundraiser for Yes. that some parents are putting on. Um which will be sweet. Uh but yes, they are

237all exhausted. The entire board of yes or exhausted but all smiles. Um so let's see. I went to the um MCSBA right >> at the breakfast um with you two and it was interesting. It's definitely so it was AI was the topic and I have a lot of questions I guess about our district how things um you know we what's going on there like if we're making moves with policies and such. So, um I don't know when the last time that was brought up or what's going on, but we should, you know, that's something that's been on my mind a little bit that we should I guess I could save that for future topic, but you know, at some point we should discuss that some point soon, I think. Um it also felt like a

238little bit of a pitch, you know. Um but but I was I yeah, I definitely want to go to those in the future. It was, you know, do a little networking. It was nice. Um, what else did I do? I did a hidden valley and a manor facility walkth through. I missed the other ones, but those were, it was nice to see everything that we've, you know, people talk about, especially like when community members show up and have concerns and then, you know, teachers kind of see it. For myself, we certainly do have I mean all not all schools are created equal with the facilities for sure. There does definitely seem to be um bigger problems at some than at others. Um but it was it was nice to just walk around and get the

239full spectrum tours there. Uh what else? I went to the picnic. My daughter was in Buddha in the performance. Um, and let's see. Oh, all the fun runs. All of Well, not all of them. Four. Three of them happened. Three of the fun runs, right? There's still What school did not do? >> Brooks didn't do theirs, right? Um, but otherwise, the other schools happened on Friday and I think the kids had fun and they raced a lot. I think all the schools exceeded their rate or met their goals. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think they all met the goals which is >> fantastic. Yeah, a lot of tired well parent volunteers. >> Yeah. So, thank you parents. It's that's Yeah, this was the first year I didn't volunteer at it. I just I just went and

240watched. It was great. >> That's awesome. All right. So, I made it to both parcel tax working group meetings. So, that was really interesting. Um it was interesting just to see who was showing up to these groups. Uh I went to the MCSBA meeting as well on the yeah presentation. Um I'll mention that on the next topic later. Yeah. >> I went to the League of Women Voters Education and Library Committee meeting. A couple other trustees from other schools added me to this group. And so I suddenly found myself on a mailing list and invited to all these events. And so I went to their first meeting that they've had since they added me to this group. Um it's a lot of people who are in the education world, former trustees, current trustees, um and

241then legal women voters, people um somebody who um is on there came to two of our partial tax working group meetings like the um that committee head chair. Um so it was an interesting group of people and kind of trying to tie in like how important education is and public funding is for our schools. And so they were actually heavily interested in our school district in particular because of our funding situation. Um I think that they knew a little bit more than most people because they had a representative at our parcel tax working group meetings. Um but they were kind of just like holding us up is like this is why we need more funding for public schools and it like kind of like advocating at a federal level and state level for that sort

242of stuff. >> Um I went to the wellness committee meeting which was lovely. Um we had students, parents, teachers, um admin there. It was um really productive. It was nice to hear from the students and just hear what their um their focus and their importance things are and just getting their feedback live on the ground. I had no idea that there is a specific drinking fountain at White Hill that is the one to go to. Apparently, my kids both knew about it. >> Who knew? I'm not I'm Nope. You got to find out when your kid goes there. We'll find out. >> Okay. >> And and they will know very quickly. >> Apparently my mind is going like all sorts of places. >> Yeah. No, there's a one drinking fountain that they all flop to.

243>> So I went >> the way like like the laughing is happening. I'm like what? >> It's not just about the floor. >> It's bizarre, but it's a thing. Um I went to the Hidden Valley Fun Run, which is kind of fun because that's kind of how I got involved in all of the volunteer service here. I started out with fun run and fundraising for them back in the day. >> So, I dropped in and got to see their fourth and fifth graders friend, which was super fun. They had a silly string battle at the end, which was >> Oh, wild. And I felt really bad cuz I'm not sure if they're going to do that again after the cleanup. I was going to say that so much clean up for the parents. I was

244like, >> um, but the kids loved it and they were so fired up. Um, I went to the family barbecue at White Hill, which is fun. Popped in for that. Um, I like the students who were playing. It was really cool. Um, in the dance troop, I I left right I had to leave for that, but I did see a little bit of it. Um, I went to the harvest festival at Brookside, which I was fantastic. There was an Archie Archie band was playing there. >> Didn't hear anything about until like the day of. >> Yeah. >> I So, they had like a book fair and they had all sorts of fun stuff. >> Book fair raised $1,500. >> They did a great job of that. And then um I also went to the uh

245Archie Williams Falcon Found like Falcon Foundation I guess. I went and met with them and listened to a presentation on our financial situation. >> That's good. >> So >> that's all. >> Unbelievable. >> That's all. Uh okay. So with that, do we have any public comment on any of that? >> No. >> Okay. Seeing no public comment, I'll move us on to the next item, which is approval of regular meeting minutes for October 8th, 2025. Do we have any questions, comments, changes? >> No, I will make a motion. >> Oh, wait. I got to go to public comment. >> Do I have any public comment on this one? >> Nope. Okay, seeing none. >> I got a motion to approve the meeting minutes on October 8th, 20 second. >> Great. Anna, >> I. >> Chris,

246>> I. >> Daniel, >> I >> Rachel I. Okay, so that's approved. Superintendent Cabinet report. Go. >> Great. I attended a lot of the things you already mentioned. I won't mention those things again. Um I think some of the highlights for me over the last couple weeks are the facilities walkthrough. So the principles um it's nice to have Anna there. Um and just kind of like really dig into the things that we have improved in the facilities and what are the kind of you know you know the more challenging things we we have to deal with. And it's interesting to hear a principal's perspective verse Dez's perspective. Both super valuable, but both very different. >> Absolutely. >> Which is good. And that's the that's the point of those meetings is to put them both on

247the table and prioritize based on the needs of both groups. >> Um I really appreciated the conversations of the parcel tax working groups. Both those meetings were really good. Uh some conversation that was a little unexpected for me but really valuable. So, um, the engagement is has been really nice. Um, and I've appreciated the people that some people came to both town halls and both parcel tax working groups. So, they spent, you know, a total of like five and a half hours with me talking about the parcel tax. So, we have some very committed uh, community members around that. >> Uh, Chris and I had negotiations with our teachers union, RBTA, last week. We're going to go back into negotiations um next week and I would say that given our financial situation, it was about

248as good as it could possibly go. I want to publicly thank RVTA for their understanding of the budget and their collaboration. Um we're under tough circumstances right now and they understand it. We understand it. We're trying to give where we can. they're understanding where they can and um I'm eager to see what we can accomplish next week. Uh budget advisory committee tomorrow. I'm excited about that. Chris and I spent some time planning that similar format to last year. Um similar topics too. Uh and then we have a big five safety training tomorrow as well. So um working it's actually through Marin County Bos Office of Education but it came from Sonoma County Office and or uh no maybe S San Monteo. Thank you. >> Um and it just talks about earthquake drills, lockdowns, um fire

249drills, just how we can best prepare to make sure our kids are safe and our staff is safe during an emergency. So eager to attend that meeting tomorrow. Yeah. Um, as I mentioned, we've got some coaching going on. So, our our first math coaching day at White Hill today, um, which went really well. And then we have had three of four of our elementary sites have had their first EEL education coaching day. Um, and those were terrific as well. Really great conversations. and and in all of them, it's just such a um impactful experience to watch a lesson being modeled by by the coach really. Um it's something that our teachers really appreciate. Uh the materials are on their way for our TK pilot of a kind of a supplemental literacy program called Get Ready

250for School. Um and teachers are really excited about that. It's got lots of hands-on fun materials and ways to introduce students to letters and sounds and things like that. And then um we have a ton of PE equipment that has come in for so TK doesn't have PE classes and so we put together um a big old list of different kinds of equipment and then we have massive wagons. So, we'll be rolling into each PK classroom this wagon of really fun stuff that >> we've kind of been playing with as well here at the district office. We just sad to see it go. Um, but that was just kind of a fun one. >> Nice. So, in student services, um, yes, we had a wellness committee meeting, our first one of the year. We have

251three this year. Um, it was great. It was we had yeah we had like like Rachel was saying parents, students, principals, district office staff, classified staff. It was really great and yeah, a lot of people um we talked about we did a review of the food services um initiative and we got some good feedback from the kiddos um even around like how the food's distributed and how to shore up the lines and it just beautiful. Um and then um and they are requesting that all of the drinking fountains are or the water stations are um refrigerated. >> Refrigerated. >> Oh, >> sorry. I had to give it away. >> Oh, sweet. >> Yeah. So, so it's a really good meeting and um and then we um were in the middle of our special education review

252with our consultant, Holly Wade. Um Holly's conducted interviews with families and staff. um she's compiling that information and then this week we um I helped her send out a family survey to all her special education families and a um staff survey and we've gotten 16 responses for the staff one and 15 for the parent push. Uh, and then she's going to be here at our next special education advisory committee meeting on November 4th to share her um preliminary findings and um and give us a little bit of information there and then she'll have the report ready by um right around January. >> Um okay. And then speaking of special education advisory committee, we our next meeting is on November 4th here at the district office. Um, we're going to have an update from Holly and

253then we're also going to review three versions of a definition of inclusion that were generated from all the feedback from the last meeting. So, we're going to start digging into that. Um, we um I submitted our compliance and improvement monitoring plan um progress report due to the disproportionality we have in some of our special education um disabilities and demographics. And so that was submitted and updated. And the really the um the focus this year is professional development in our TK and K classrooms around universal supports and making sure kids would have what they need in order to prevent kids from from potentially um going into the special education programs. And then finally, our comprehensive safety plans. Um principles are working on those with their site councils. Um and those will be coming to the board

254on February 11th to for review and um approve. >> So I wanted to reiterate what budget that we have a budget advisory committee meeting tomorrow what Tyler had mentioned. Um we also have on Saturday um November 9th a manor field day um maintenance day. So we'll be doing some work in inviting the the school community to help with that. or the 9th. >> I'm sorry. I thought >> 8th. I think I did that earlier, too. Um, Saturday, November 8th. And then we also have been working really hard in the HR payroll and accounts payable areas. We've been um working on our new financial system both in trainings as well as dual entry. So, I just wanted to let everybody know about that amount of of work that's been going on. That's a monumental amount of

255work for our business office, by the way. Double entry, new system, lots of fun. >> Okay. And with that, uh, meeting review, future board topics, and board direction. I think I wanted us just to like look at our AI policies for board docs or whatever. I don't know if it would be under for policies or if it would be under just general guidelines, but something like like >> Yep. >> tech policy. I got coffee right after we were all at that meeting. >> Yep. >> Great. >> I have probably in order for me to bring that I need to do some engagement with our teachers. I mean, I can just bring it for us to discuss, but I'd rather bring you with some information from our teachers and our principles and um some best practice,

256and they need a little bit of time to prepare that. Okay. >> So, you have the those like three >> You have like three things that have to be on your policy. >> Yeah, I have that's on my desk. >> I figured future the notes I took down those future board topics direction. >> Um I know that the school lunches are going very well and they're well received. Um, but I also know that the middle school students are complaining that they don't have enough food and I'm just wondering about seconds and things like that. Are we getting our kids fed enough at that age? Just curious. So maybe we at some point we can I don't know just sort of briefly pull the little >> Are you saying the portions are the same? Right. the

257same as the little as the as >> that's a good point. >> And so the they're going back for seconds and many of them can get seconds but I'm hearing that it's not enough food and of course at that age especially the male population. So I wasn't quite sure how that was working. So maybe we can dig into that and figure out. I I I think asking for more food is is difficult, but if there's enough seconds and people are getting the seconds line and it's working, just just interested in knowing how that's going. >> We can certainly bring something back on that >> at a future board meeting. >> Great. Great. Meeting D. >> Comments, questions? >> Trying to make sure we don't have to vote on keeping this meeting past 10:30. Um, I

258think there are some things that went a little longer than we'd expected, so we're here later than I wanted to be. But >> can I just say one thing? >> I appreciate the deep conversation around both of the contracts and the decisions you made are strong decisions. I think it's an indication to the community that you're willing to wrestle with decisions that are traditionally just on consent, right? So the fact that you didn't have it on consent, you had it on discussion action and you actually had a real discussion with it based on the community feedback. I think that's an indication of a healthy board. I think it's a highlight that um we should just keep in mind moving forward. >> And I loved having the kids here. Always a huge highlight. So good. >>

259So glad. >> So impressive. >> Yeah, they're fantastic. All right. Any other needing to be comments? If not, I will um adjourn us at 10:22.