001at this time now 6 o'clock so we will reconvene our April 1st 2025 lame Mesa Spring Valley Schoolboard meeting um please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance led by students from bankof elementary put your right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of Richard stand one nation under God indivisible of liberty and justice for all please be seated that was great great job okay um which brings us next to the approval of minutes of the previous meeting I move to approve the minutes of previous meetings a any questions or discussion regarding those minutes all in favor say I I oppose okay and next is the approval of tonight's board
002agenda I'll move to approve today's board agenda all second any questions concerns regarding this agenda all in favor say I I I okay and that brings us to our Spotlight on bankra Elementary all right so I'm really happy to welcome H principal Nathan saso from bftt elementary and we have H first a spotlight video to share with all of you Elementary School is the school and together we work together and through everything that's happened we stay together and we never do each other at bever two words that describe the climate of the culture is determination and resiliency get up you see the resiliency in our teachers have to experience what we did just last year the flood it was crazy was really scary for me but we worked it out and the school got fixed
003now I'm happy that we're back our teachers are there for us every time they are you okay are do need a hug we're trying not to be sad when the flood happened and we still went to school strong if we went through the flood we could go through anything the flood taught us that we will always bounce back that's how we roll that bank we all very determined to see our students be the best that they can be and meet those high expectations that our teachers have set for them the teachers work hard for the students from the office staff over into the classrooms and every single person at this school cares about our students and the community is a really strong community and we we stay strong during the flood even the flood didn't
004break us apart we never give up all families came together and we made enough to raise enough money to help those and now we have everything and since everyone together we man to be [Music] happy is the best schooles it more fun to be at schol because you have friends to play [Music] nice and he these page and be respectful be responsible and be kind as you can see there is a lot of care for our students and the instruction that gets put into everything that we do every single day at bankra bank is a wonderful place for people to grow and connect and I feel very comfortable being in this school um I'm proud to be a [Music] awesome thank you so much I want to start just by saying thank you to all
005for allowing us to present our story um one of the things that came out a lot in this video was the flood and as much as it is a part of what we went through I don't want it to be who we are so I I want to speak a little bit about the determination and the resilience from our staff and our students as I Was preparing what to say somebody said you know just pretend you're sharing with a neighbor all the great things that are happening in bank bankr I said that's easy to do because there are so many good things that are happening and the funny thing my neighbor that just moved in next to me actually is one of our parents not at our school but at a school in the district
006and he said what are you doing I said I'm the principal of vanar said oh school that flooded and I said yes and and then we we started talking a lot about the good things that are happening that bankr um when I started two years ago it was a a it still is a great community and there was a lot to work towards and I think we've been able to do that and a lot of that goes into the climate and the culture that we've been able to uh build at banro and when we think about the climate the relationships that our staff builds has been able to build with our community and our parents it's just been amazing from the moment they walk into the cafeteria and see Miss Jasmine and her beautiful smile
007and the office that we have there and our office staff and our amazing s so and SOA the the climate that we're building as soon as you walk in there is something totally awesome and really amazing that parents see that staff see when they visit our school and that our own teachers are seeing so I want to just shout them out for being here thank you so much because you our big reason of why we're doing what we're doing and moving the way that we are so thank you for that along with the climate just the the culture that we've built like I said I know that um we went through a flood but that's not who we are we've come out a lot stronger on this side and our teachers have led a tremendous
008effort with their students holding our students and our families to very high expectations and we've seen that change in just two years uh in the video we talked about resilience and determination and there is something that's been changing in terms of what we've been holding our students to I'm grateful for Aubrey and Alice here fourth graders who have done an amazing job at our school and if you were to speak with them they'd share with you that their teacher expects a lot from them and I don't want that to change I want every student to say the exact same thing um I want to shout out our teachers that are here miss Potts and Miss Farwell who are doing an amazing job our supports staff with Miss Sharon Miss Perez there are things I'm I'm
009a data person and I'm proud to say that we've been able to uh improve our chronic absenteeism rate thanks to the job that they're doing our attendance rates have been climbing thanks to the job that they're doing our scores have been improving thanks to the job that our teachers are doing so I am just grateful for them and the work that they've been able to do alongside me to make Bank what it is today and it's just a a truly amazing place to be at so thank you for doing this with me and thank you awesome can we um get some pictures up here and we have uh some gifts for the students too e okay and thank you everyone for joining us if you're here from bankrupt and you want to duck out and
010go do something else with your evening we'll give you a few minutes if you want to move on um otherwise we're going to keep going with our meeting for tonight thanks you guys guys okay so our next item item 4B is other staff Communications and information it appears we don't have anything on here no no other staff Communications okay um moving us to item four C the report of action taken in closed session in Clos session the board voted in unanimously to approve settlement agreement 11 18082 and the board also voted unanimously to release the attached temporary employees okay which brings us to public comment do we have any comment cards um and also if you're joining us on zoom and you'd like to make a comment please raise your hand on zoom and we
011can get your comments okay thank you which takes us to item 5A a report on proposition 29 Visual and Performing arts program thank you so I'm going to actually um invite the team up we have a video to show you in just a minute but I'm just going to give them a give you a little context about a year ago we did a presentation on Prop 28 and our planning work for implementation of the art and music in schools funding that was passed by the voters in the state of California and at the time Christian our coordinator of vappa who's going to be leading part of this presentation tonight shared with you our plans for the implement of the program for this coming year and we are really excited to get to share with you
012the progress of not just how we've been implementing this program at our elementary and middle schools but also um just the impact that it's made for children to have access to this increased access to Arts across all of our schools and then really at our elementary schools it's provided additional collaboration time for our teachers and so we're going to share with you a little bit about that time and the impact that that time has had too and I just want to acknowledge on the front end that um none of this would have worked without Christian's genius organizational mind uh he's not just creative musically and otherwise inclined in the vapa world but he is a master of schedules and to be able to get something like this coordinated at uh 17 elementary schools with release
013is um a task that I would not want to have to do so we're very lucky to have him yeah um so we're going to start with the video music school just be like a black and white rainbow no fun the intention of prop 28 was for schools and districts to add Arts education and increase equity and access for all students in those schools it was passed overwhelmingly by the California voters in November 2022 in fact it was one of the highest yes votes of any proposition in years which is very exciting I like that because the art teacher is just so nice and the art just blows me away I was so fortunate to have found a great team of teachers these are people who are artists and musicians and Educators all the way
014from TK to fifth grade we are singing We are playing instruments and we're working together as a team it's awesome to see and in art it's all about giving them a problem and seeing what choices they make to solve it being creative can help me solve problems I never gave up in art so that taught me that I should never give up in math or any other subject I honestly really want to go to school whenever um any art teachers around now that we know colors and how to draw we in music we can make own songs and we can do more art to make inspiration to the world I'm so grateful to have this team and everything they bring to our students every day with a smile on their face and joy of expression
015that they create every week it's a different thing and that sometimes gives me an inspiration what I can do with art you have you can like sketch and like L colors together and then like you didn't know how to do that when you make art you don't just like just do nothing just like do little brushes you have to like express yourself onto the art they teach you all these amazing things of Art and music when they go together it just makes amazing Vibes so good it's just like a warm feeling inside I think you could use music and and all situations except falling off a cliff but then you could use the we are so grateful here in L Mesa Spring Valley schools that top 28 allows us to bring in these Arts teachers
016who have such art for students and they can touch every students live from TK through fifth grade we want every child to have access to the art so that they can find out who they are as people how they express themselves best and express their heart in music and art a um waiting for the slide deck oh there we go good evening esteemed uh born members cabinet colleagues and community members it's uh it's just great to be here once again to speak with you all about just about a year later as Dean was saying this school year was the first year of our full implementation of proposition 28 at school sites and in the spirit of proposition 28 passed by 64% of California voters in November 2022 we've worked to increase Arts opportunities for students
017at every school each of our middle school academies have added courses or assistance for courses that make sense for them Spring Valley Academy has added a music teacher Parkway has added a course in musical theater elmac has added a music power professional to assist the music classes and steam is adding a visual arts teacher for this coming school year prop 28 has also helped provide funding for Arts materials in new and existing arts classes at all of our sites this year has also marked as we've seen the beginning of our elementary vapa program we have a team of eight credential Arts teachers in visual art and music we have two art teachers here tonight from our team Wendy Cross and Heather gaun and we also have another art teacher on on Zoom who's at home
018with our kiddos so um I'm appreciate appreciative that they're here but also for those teachers as I mentioned in the video who are musicians they are artists and they are Educators they provide sequential standards-based arts lessons at every Elementary School site in every classroom once every three weeks students in our SDC classes are included in the General Ed classrooms for our vapa classes and during vapa time the classroom teachers are released to collaborate together what you'll hear about shortly our visual art teachers teach process-based lessons utilizing a variety of media throughout the year as you can see in these pictures each lesson focuses on the elements of art and the principles of design and students are engaged in learning artistic literacy building skills in utilizing academic vocabulary and talking about their art and learning to
019read artwork General music classes explore the elements of music using an experiential approach singing is the basis of music education as it is the one instrument we all have the music teachers also utilize classroom instruments and teach students introductory music notation so they're ready for deeper Music Learning if they choose in Middle School artistic literacy in music includes reading music notation listening and responding to music and engaging in using the academic vocabulary in music and discussions what we've seen so far what I've seen so far is pretty amazing there are so many benefits to students learning art and music and I've seen them already throughout the year it's started the first week that we were out there I see students being creative thinking outside the box and taking risks I see students more engaged in
020school I've heard so many stories of students who be who exhibit challenging behaviors and then once the APPA class is there they are in class and they're engaged I see students learning to self-regulate music and art give them an opportunity to express their emotions in a healthy way I also see students discovering their learning modality maybe they're more of a visual learner or an oral learner and they can learn that through Visual Art and music and that helps them in their academic work finally as these pictures on this slide show the smiles I see every time I walk into a a vapa classroom tell all students love our vapa classes and it's so en riching to our lives in lame Mesa Spring Valley vapa we truly fill students hearts with the Arts and we're gonna
021switch to teacher collaboration now Julie banks will be talking about that thank you Christian uh good evening board members and cabinet thank you for having us here to talk about our vapa um program so deian you stole did you see my notes did you see what I was planning on saying so before I talk about teacher collaboration I just I to reiterate again like it's amazing the work that Christian and his team has done Wendy is here who worked with Christian last year to plan everything and a year L like a year and a half later look at all that's happened it's it's so incredible and then if you think about okay year one of implementation of something we've never done before we've never had anything like this it's almost almost been Flawless like almost
022we it's been impressive so just kudos to Christian and team it's it's incredible so with that um time that the kids are getting all the fun art and music the teachers are in collaboration time I'm going to tell you a little bit about that so every three weeks while the students are getting their vapa instruction the teachers are released for about an hour and a half hour and 45 minutes and that time is dedicated to structured release time where grade level teams the principal the IDS teacher they all come together and they work around topics around data analysis and have time to strategically plan so the time at our school sites looks a little bit different but there are definitely commonalities um the principal and oftentimes the ideas teacher work together to plan based around
023the students needs and the team's needs at that time this is just some of the things that might happen during that time um districtwide really we've all been working on protocols to look at student tasks student work student data we're planning around grade level standards making sure that our instruction is rigorous in meeting the needs of all of our students it gives us more time to develop that enrichment and intervention that are that meet the needs of our diverse student groups and then we're constantly looking at data so data data data constantly building that data culture and in doing that that's a time to celebrate celebrate the growth celebrate the successes that are happening in our grade levels and with our students and then the time as they're looking at planning and they're looking at
024their data they're able to also refine their approaches they can have those discussions what's working what's not working what could we tweak and they have the time to really work on the that refinement and the time allows us this year as we look at our Spotlight students and we're really honing in on those students looking at the data monitoring their growth in what's happening this time has really helped support that time in the groups of students like um our multilingual English Learners so that's just some of the things that happened during our release time and then if you you were to talk to a principal an IDs teacher a teacher team the common word that comes up is valuable this time has been incredibly valuable and we've been doing this since the beginning of year
025first year and you can already see impact it's it's evident if you were to talk to anybody who's been part of this release time we're seeing teams collaborate effectively and they're fostering a stronger sense of teamwork we have Educators who are demonstrating an increased confidence and Effectiveness in supporting students and our students are benefiting from enhanced learning experiences and instruction through really targeted datadriven instruction that's being planned during that baa release time and then we have our teams and not just teacher teams our principles our IDs teachers everybody is really open they're learning they're trying new things all in an effort to do what's best for our students so it's it's really exciting that's just an overall of kind of the broad picture um but what better than to hear from a principal about what's
026really happening boots on the ground at a school so Nathan Salo is going to come back up and share what's happening at bankr elementary thank you Julie and Christian I think I speak for all my colleagues thank you so much you are definitely a rockstar because we know it's not easy getting that schedule up and running so thank you thank you thank you uh thank you again for allowing me to share about the vapa release and what that looks like at our school so I know that Julie was able to share a little bit about what vapa release time kind of looks like um at our school it's this dedicated time where myself and my IDs teacher we can meet with our grade level teams and have a discussion really on the data and when
027our our teachers participate in their Prof professional learning communities they do a lot of that planning for here's what the data say says here's what we're going to do during our vapa release time we can really hone into how to respond it now to our students so they're able to bring their data and together with the IDS teacher and as a team it's like okay so what's next what do we do for the students that don't know that don't get it and how can we adjust for those that do so this time is really about that response so looking that the data to respon to our students a part of that is monitoring that student progress and having that data discussion so every three weeks when I meet with my team they are bringing an
028assessment a writing sample something from their students so that we can really hone in look that look and find out what are those gaps and how do we address those gaps so the data allows our teachers to really focus on our Spotlight students uh each teacher at my side has three to four Spotlight students that are really representative of the greater population in their classroom and we look at what these Spotlight kidos are doing and how can we address those deficiencies that they might have and then this data helps us to identify those gaps and really look at those strategies and what groupings can we do what can we do here and now what I really love about this is that it's on the moment like right at the moment we're not talking about this
029a week later we have the data in front of us we're able to sit down and really make those changes right then and there those instructional changes are really huge because we've been able to see that and what it looks like in practice when our two teachers come together and and and us as a team we start discussing here's our noticings here's what are you noticing how was it taught what can we do differently so it's really on the Fly and being flexible with those instructional adjustments and then we emphasize that those adjustments are made then and there another big component that is the collaboration uh to student supports so our IDs future has a wealth of knowledge to just having her there at the table to have those discussions we've seen a lot of
030impact in the adjustments that our teachers have made so releasing time this release time provides the opportunity for that problem solving when they come with their data and we're able to look at our students uh we've been able to see how they are able to implement those changes right then and there and so this is from even from TK all the way to fifth grade so it's not something that's just one specific group but all of us at our site and we've seen the positive results from this time because we're able to check in yes I know it's three weeks and it might seem like a lot but it gives much time we are able to plan out what those three weeks look like so when they come back for the next three weeks okay
031this was the plan how'd you execute it now what's next so we really appreciate this time together and to be able to collaborate so thank you so much if I can just add um and I know you're gonna close it out Julie um I I just wanted to add that um what Nathan's talking about is I think that the gift of vaa the collaboration time has brought us is the ability for the principal and the idas teacher to be with a grade level and when we have our PLC time and the teachers are meeting it's it's so powerful but it's all the teachers at one time so these focused conversations allow that team to be together at one time and then the principal to go to the next team with the IDS teacher and be
032focused together at one time versus sort of popping in here and popping in there and I'll get maybe to you know one grade level each time that's five we rotation right so this creates that opportunity that every three weeks you really have focused and intent time with every grade level and it really has been a powerful lover in helping move the work forward so I there at questions now but I that concludes everything what what questions do you have for us I don't have any questions but I just want to emphasize like Echo kind of this is amazing I think that baa is a very important you know additional piece of a students enrichment and you know education and um you never know what it is that's going to bring a kid and and um
033really inspire a kid to really like school and a lot of the times it's going to be something like vapa and it's going to be music it's going to be you know um those types of things or you know our essn program or sports or and it's sometimes you know being able to have those offerings for our kids is really important to also just you know make well-rounded holistic kids and um you know um so thank you so much and it's been really cool hearing about as you know going out to school sites the excitement you hear yeah from kids from teachers from you know everyone that like yeah having vapa in our schools is is great so thank you I also just have a comment not necessarily a question but I remember the the
034year ago being presented with your plan and scheduling to get into all the classrooms with all the teachers and just thinking like how does one even how does one even like begin to organize that but it sounds like you guys have done a fantastic job to be able to bring the baa to all of the schools um especially the elementary schools that have that rotation that must have been magic that helped out it's a little bit of like you know kind of behind the curtain and Oz and uh you don't need to see all that it's it's not very pretty it's a different kind of talent there are many talents that is one and it is a it is a unique one and we're very grateful for it awesome any other questions can I just
035say one more thing and just to emphasize I know Christian said it but from my heart too I I'm so grateful that we have all students that have access including our students who are in other classrooms who may have more restricted special needs who are included with their peers and have access because every student deserves that access and it has been really important to Christian and also he's partnered with our special education department to ensure that our teachers get trained in helping support students who have different needs so we have really talented Educators in our vapa program who are continuing to learn and support and I just really appreciate that partnership and I'd like to just go sit in and be a student in one of the vapa classes so I'll connect with you Christian
036do that yeah always needed okay well thank you thank Youk you thank you okay that brings us to item 6A our business services consent items I move to approve item 6A I'll second um and then I have an additional little comment I know some of the consultant agreements that we have on here I'm really excited about I think there's three on here um a couple of them are about our facilities and kind of being able to look at the facilities get a facilities assessment of current status I think we all know here our schools need a lot of work um and so being able to see like really what that have that Quantified will be really nice and then David was telling me a little bit about the other um the iag um group and
037the idea behind an exchange teacher program which is sounds super um super cool and like really valuable for um for everyone so that I'm excited for all of all the things happening any other questions or comments okay um all in favor say I I I OS okay and that brings us to item 6B which is a resolution um delegation of authority to the superintendent Andor assistant superintendent um Business Services to award emergency contracts move to approve item 6B I'll second any questions discussion regarding this item okay all in favor say I I I opposed um item sixc um the resolution authorization of emergency action taken for electrical power outage at steam Academy I'll move to approve this authorization second any questions or discussion regarding this one no just thanks to the team for getting things
038up and running quickly yeah I know that there was a lot of hard work that went into it so especially thanks to Shan and our maintenance and operations team like figured out something that was a real Challenge and the site too we we operating on generators and M yeah that we got everything back up okay all in favor say I I I opposed and that brings us to item 60 appointment of citizens Bond oversight community members for an additional term and it lists out the four members for an additional two-year term I'll move to approve um this item and thank everyone for um stepping up to do another term one second any questions comments okay all in favor say I I I opposed um item 6E is the intention to convey interest in real property
039and ride of way at the casa de Oro library site I move to approve item s e or six e oh second any questions or discussion regarding this item all in favor say I I I oppos sometimes you just have to chuckle at the legal e that go into some um that next is our Educational Services we have our Educational Services consent items I'll move to approve our Educational Services consent items any questions or discussion regarding these items all in favor say I I I which brings us to Human Resources um item 8A our human resources consent it we move to approve item 8A I'll second any questions to discussion regarding these all in favor say I I I opposed and this is our annual um Declaration of Need for fully qualified Educators I'll move
040to approve item um 8 B all second again any question discussion regarding this okay all in favor say I I hi I okay and that brings us right to item nine which is our closing communication announcements reports and Communications from the board and superintendent yeah I guess I'll just say one thing uh hope everyone um all the staff and teachers have a nice spring break and recharge for the final push for the rest of the year that's it I just wanted to mention that teacher appreciation week I think will be happening before our next board meeting so I think it's the first week of May so thank you teachers ahead of time and if you're a parent in here make sure to thank the teachers too all um and then I just want to remind
041everybody that on April 26 is Spring Valley day um it's from 10: to 3M and I believe we're one of the biggest sponsors the district right I know the booth was very popular last year so just a quick reminder so Spring Valley days is April 26 um I'll Echo about spring break almost there one more week and um then I also want to highlight a couple of things that the district has done recently um some of you might have seen on our social media that um the district was highlighted in the California school boards Association letter about our diversion program and um in a article about alternatives to suspension which was um really exciting to see it's fun I hadn't read the article yet um and had just saw the headline I was like oh
042cool it'd be so cool if our school district was highed like we're probably not but like we we have this diversion program and then saw it on our social media and was like oh we were highlighted that's awesome and um then I also want to highlight and Shout out um Liz lther the principal at SVA for getting honored as the AXA U Middle School principal of the Year Middle School principal of the year which is super exciting for her um she's done a ton of great work at um SBA and so just want to highlight those little things which are awesome little winds for our district excellent I don't have many announcements but happy spring break a few more days and then you guys will we be having a well-deserved break so Mr superintending every
043year it feels like as spring break comes up it's like does it normally feel this way but there's definitely like an urgency of oh we got to get there um I have four kids and in my home we are navigating three different spring break schedules so that's that's fun but it ends up I I get a good excuse to to take different packs of kids uh campaign so I'm looking forward to it um a couple things that I wanted to share uh one something I'm really excited about and we're going to be posting soon on our socials and on our website is we had um the resolution on um our commitment to a culture of belonging in our schools we um translated it into the um uh languages of our families and so we're going
044to be posting that and sending it out to everyone um with uh links to all the various translations we just thought it was important that we put that out and made it available to all um something else this week that was uh really cool and it wasn't this week it was actually last week but um deian and her team uh LED data meetings with our principles and uh we've heard so much great um just feedback about that and how everything went but one of the things that Dean shared that I thought was so cool was just how the principles and you saw it today also with um principal saso over here like just recognizing and acknowledging the work of staff and everything that they're doing to focus on the success of our students um is
045just incredible and when I think about How Far We've Come uh just over a span of of a few years really like since we've got out of covid mode and we got into um we're going to be different and we're going to transform lives and um it's been it's been really really neat um I just shout out also that we've had a a new process for our employee of the year um both classified and certificated this year and um a great team I know worked with Meg really hard on um going through applications and all that and so there'll be announcements to come soon I know that some schools have already made announcements for their like individual sites um and then we'll have announcements and videos for our districtwide um winners and then they'll go
046into the uh County running and um yeah and spring break I hope everyone has a great break and just thank you all for being here today um we'll get there just a couple more days okay so we can adjourn this meeting at 6:40 p.m. all right