LMSV Board Meeting, June 6, 2023

001okay at this time I would like to reconvene the June 6 2023 La Mesa Spring Valley school board meeting at six o'clock P.M um I would like to also announce that this meeting is being recorded and in accordance with government code 54953 trustee Nathaniel Allen is participating via Zoom from Carlsbad California as such all action on tonight's agenda will be taken by roll call vote and next we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance with students from Highland Elementary yes thank you excellent job okay next item we need an approval of minutes of previous meetings I'll move to approve the minutes from the May 9th uh regular board meeting and May 23rd board study session I seconded it any questions regarding this all right all in favor say aye aye aye aye aye Neil are

002you there oops Nathaniel can you hear that are you having any technical difficulties Matt okay let me check in with him really quick okay for some reason it didn't come through the speaker Nathaniel can you try talking um and let's see if it's coming across is it not working for you I don't think so we can hear you I said I I don't know why it didn't work all right thank you so it's your turn Nathaniel for an eye to approve the minutes of the previous meetings all right thank you um and the next item is the approval of tonight's board agenda I moved to approve tonight's uh board agenda I second any questions regarding tonight's agenda okay all in favor say aye aye aye aye aye aye good job okay next Communications we have

003a spotlight on Highlands Elementary all right so um we have uh our principal Melinda at Highlands Elementary um and first we'll play the video and then we'll let you share thanks We rise thank you friends to us isn't just about getting out of bed in the morning or even climbing a mountain it's an acronym that meets every letter she has for something important the first letter are stay up to respect we understand each other and our teachers and ourselves I stands for inspire yes we Inspire each other to learn to be creative and to be the best we can be as stands for 16. in the classroom on the playground in life we strive for Success not just for us but for everyone and he stands for empathize we care we share we listen so

004we can understand one another it's a beautiful sight to see our students and staff embody these principles not just in their words but in their actions whether it's that helping hand a kind word or a shared success or shoulder to lean on our students and staff demonstrate these values of each and every day I love how people respect each other here I'm so proud to be a part of this vibrant successful and International Community we don't just go to school together we are not only taking Highlands Elementary a better place for learning we're contributing to a better world inspiring succeed empathize these aren't just words they are tools that help us in everything we do that's how we rise here at Highlands Elementary and that's how you prepare too believe am I good to go

005awesome good evening so I first want to thank this uh take this opportunity to thank our board trustees superintendent Feliciano and his cabinet for allowing me the opportunity to showcase my incredible school today Highlands is truly a special place you feel it from the moment you step on campus because just as the video said our students and staff don't just come up and get up and go to school We rise and so as you heard rise stands for four important traits that support our students in being the best versions of themselves every single day respect Inspire succeed and to empathize as students have begun practicing these traits and implementing them into their daily habits we have seen our students Thrive soaring to new heights as high-flying Highlands Hawks our students and staff show rise in

006so many ways rise is shown by our students who have been trained as safe School ambassadors acting as undercover agents to help other students problem solve resolve conflicts promote kindness while also sharing concerns with trusted staff members during family group meetings rise is also shown by our student council who led us today in our pledge and also lead us every Friday at peace Circle but they also take the lead in planning Spirit events for our students around campus give regular updates to younger grades and then also serve as role models for their peers and celebrating your Campus Community Verizon is also shown by Mrs Bates kindergarten students as they successfully collaborate to deconstruct numbers and present their mathematical thinking to their classmates or by Miss Bristol's fourth grade students who take their role as junior

007scientists very seriously as they dissect and examine squids our students and staff rise when they set goals plan the steps needed to achieve them then celebrate each other when they meet or exceed their goals or if they miss the target they go back to the drawing board because at Highlands we practice a growth mindset and we know the power of the word yet we know that we can do hard things even if it takes a couple of tries to get there our staff has also embraced these four important traits and they serve as exemplars for our students they regularly Empower our students to be leaders and take ownership of our school Community our students know that they are the ones in the driver's seat and they are encouraged to create positive change both on our

008campus and within the Greater Community as students move on from Highlands we Empower them to continue using these important traits as they move on in their educational Journey we then invite our former former students back to our campus at the end of their senior year to walk the halls of their Elementary School while we celebrate their accomplishments and cheer them on as they prepare to walk across the stage at their High School graduation these are just a few of the ways that we rise at Highlands I can't see how fortunate I am to be a part of this remarkable team and how proud I am to share our school Community with you this evening thank you so much for the opportunity so if you guys can come forward we have certificates and pins and would

009like to take a picture with with you with um principal person too foreign that was the exciting part of our meeting in terms of celebrating our schools and our students so just want to give people permission if if they'd like to leave now no one's going to be upset thanks you guys great job okay our next item is other staff Communications no other staff Communications okay uh report of action taken in closed session uh in closed session the board voted unanimously to approve the attorney-client fee contract with the Franz Law Group okay and our next section is public comment um I have comment cards the general matters right this is the general that's correct um and then we'll also oh I'll take it and I just want to announce for anyone that's on Zoom that

010has a general comment um in how a general comment differs from the other public hearing comments is if you have a comment about student dress code policy about the local control accountability plan or about the proposed District budget please hold off right now but if you have a general comment about anything else raise your hand on zoom and after we've taken all the in-person comments we'll take the zoom comments thank you yeah yeah um okay so my first public comment I have Jacks you good evening though elected officers on this sub org you know as elected folks oh then I should probably introduce myself to actually a sustaining council member from the city of La Mesa as elected officers and Serbian government embodies these days were really challenged and all of us try to do

011our best but we're challenged by so many things and unfortunately in this Society in the United States today there's so much hate and division uh occurring always are challenged by threats by very hurtful language upon us and that's what I want to make my comments today of how we can defer some of that the current cultural War issue is the issue of recognizing pride month and flying a flag and as you know City of La Mesa chose to move forward with continuing to fight our good life supporting the LGBT Qi plus Community I think is important and I don't want to make a long comment so what I'm going to do is um quote um a part of a op-ed that appeared in this Sunday's paper uh three Faith leaders wrote op-eds All explaining why

012we need to support a gay pride month and I wanted to take some from one of them um and this is from a uh Brandon Duran he's a senior minister of attorney church not too far from us here um and it's entitled in this time of division we cannot be silent and I just want to quote his last paragraph of his op-ed I am a Christian minister and there are many clergy who feel as I do but you don't have to be a minister or to be a Christian or even be religious to see the Glorious light of others you only have to look at someone with dignity and respect the only beliefs you need or that we can do better and how we treat each other and that every one of us has the

013ability to make the world a brighter place and with that comment I asked that you really rethink your thoughts about recognizing pride month flying a pipe bag in this for this institution for the school district I think it is important for youth that are growing up for a community to know that we will fight against a small group of people who are promoting hate in our communities um in this time in this Society this is an important issue every elected body needs to make that known thank you thank you next Athena Mora hello I am addressing the board tonight as a queer member of this community a member of PSL San Diego and a former student of the public school system I want to thank councilman council member Shu for giving comment in support of

014my community thank you councilmember before I ever had the conversation with myself regarding my queerness classmates close friends included were accusing and demanding answers about my perceived sexuality as a 13 year old this was Middle School in the early odds for me around the start of the Iraq War and a few years before the odious Prop 8 passed in California I never truly felt safe talking about it openly especially at school where gay slurs were the go-to clap back for kids and teachers weren't encouraged to speak about the realities of being queer much less speak and support it was simply not talked about them for the same reasons in obnoxious minorities trying to suppress that conversation today bigotry homophobia and ignorance through the mixed Miracle of social media I am still friends with many of

015those teachers and am delighted that they broadcast their support for my community as well as take some comfort in seeing things change for the better despite with those with closed minds and Loud mouths will tell you right knowing thereafter that I would have been supported knowing then would have made the experience easier I am in my 30s and I have trouble discussing this openly and I am still not out to my immediate family and that's why I'm here kids today need that support now like I needed it then in fact they need it more bills Banning gender affirming Health Care bills Banning drag shows the list of bills goes on and on not to mention that ugly hate rally that occurred in our neighboring city of Santee my hometown they all come from a place

016of hatred and the desire to put us back in the closet I can't imagine the terror of being a queer youth today and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't get up here and make a statement for these kids bigotry can and should and at the school doors it makes me angry that any child today should share the experience I had back then or experience worse it's statistically proven that supportive environments help queer students Thrive I encourage this school board and all teachers to make casual gay bashing a distant ugly memory and celebrate queer students for the wonderful kids they are and Foster a healthy inclusive environment that will allow them to become happy adults this school board has nothing to lose by showing their students that this critically needed showing their students this

017critically needed support the loud minority voices of the bigoted be damned do right by your students all of them thank you thank you next Lauren casares good evening board president McRae and members of La Mesa Spring Valley School District board my name is Lauren casares and I'm here this evening to just express my immense disappointment in the board failing to recognize lgbtq pride month and Juneteenth I've lived in the La Mesa Spring Valley School District my entire life and attended Murray Manor Elementary School on the street I grew up on and Parkway Middle School in the fourth grade yellow Yes on Prop 8 signs lined my neighborhood that's how I learned about the lgbtq community I was told directly that it was morally wrong and that it should be against the law I remember being

018called slurs in middle school that I won't repeat tonight because students thought I was gay that's before I even felt safe enough to face my own sexuality because of those hostile environments there was no such thing as a safe space just 15 years ago for many schools the only safe space that they have the city of La Mesa recognizes Juneteenth and raises the lgbtq pride flag in June right across the street from here I request that the school district do the same over 70 anti-lgbtq bills have been adopted and over 500 have been introduced Across the Nation failing to publicly support the lgbtq community and recognize Juneteenth the board is sending a message that the issues of historically marginalized communities and even our celebrations don't matter Juneteenth is a Federal holiday and there is a

019Juneteenth celebration here in La Mesa it should be the duty of the district to Foster diversity and inclusion and educate the future future about our country's history recognizing Juneteenth and lgbtq pride month in school district is vitally important for families both events commemorate historically marginalized communities and provide opportunities for students to learn about and celebrate the contributions and struggles of these groups the velocity of the board as part of board policy states that diversity of both people and ideas is the strength of our organization a nurturing and safe environment is critical to student achievement a thriving Community Embraces change and respect for each other is the Cornerstone of communities that work I'm asking you to live into your philosophy and board policy today and recognize lgbtq pride month and Juneteenth thank you for your time

020and consideration thank you next Andrea bethvanski good evening president McRae trustees and staff my name is Andrea Beth damski and I live in the school district and I am disappointed I'm disappointed that this board has yet to recognize Juneteenth and lgbtq plus pride month both of these events are recognized and celebrated by the city of La Mesa with proclamations and La Mesa raises the pride flag during the month of June and our school district should do the same towards that possibility Chula Vista Elementary School Board recently passed a comprehensive resolution in support of lgbtq plus pride month I recommend it as a template the rainbow Pride Flag represents inclusivity and welcome raising the flag is especially important this year because Nationwide attacks like discriminatory book bans denial of Medical Care legislation which threatens to separate

021children from their families and more claiming quote unquote neutrality fails to publicly support the lgbtq plus community at a time when it is most needed and tells those who organize harm against its members that the district will stand by and look the other way when hate comes knocking on our school district doors I am the descendant of our ancestors who perished in the Holocaust so-called neutrality stances by Nations too timid to take a stance against hatred and genocide led directly to the torture and murder of millions and nearly extinguished my family line neutrality in the face of hate leads to this outcome it is predictable you have the opportunity and responsibility to create a safe and inclusive environment for all marginalized students across this District you have already you already have clothing policies in place

022which support lost my place all right support where we go which supports students wearing items appropriate for their gender identity religion culture and more this is a good start and more is needed to Juneteenth was declared a Federal holiday only two years ago so it might not be yet on your District calendars La Mesa will be holding its second annual Juneteenth and Friends celebration on June 18th and our school district should likewise Foster inclusivity and community building events like this a proclamation would be a good place to begin plus ensuring this important piece of our nation's history is in curricula across the district some might say that teaching respect for diverse identities creating a safe environment for our children and standing up against hatred and bigotry is politics it isn't though it saves lives so

023I urge you we consider your positions before June Slips Away please adopt policies to recognize Juneteenth pride month and other events that recognize respect and celebrate our wonderful and diverse Community who knows how many lives you many lives thank you next Liz Weaver evening um I am here to ask that lmsvsd increase or visible support of our beautifully diversible Community by raising the pride flag formerly recognizing Juneteenth and initiating Heritage motivation district-wide unlike many of the wonderful people here tonight I work here I'm behind the scenes and I know how much support there is in the scenes and it's time that we make it more visible to our community forgive me I have um laryngitis I want to share some data from studies conducted and facilitated by the Trevor Project because I am a teacher

024and I love evidence suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24 with lgbtq youth more than four times likely to attempt suicide than their peers and at least one lgbtq youth attempts suicide every 45 seconds in particular black transgender and non-binary youth report disproportionate rates of suicide risk with 59 seriously considering suicide and more than one in four attempting to suicide in the past year a little more than half of lgbtq Youth found their school to be affirming the Trevor projects research consistently finds that lgbtq young people report lower rates of attempting suicide when they have access to lgbtq affirming spaces having at least one accepting adult can reduce the risk of suicide attempts among lgbtq young people by 40 percent lgbtq youth who live in a community

025that is accepting of lgbtq people reported much lower rates of attempting suicide than those who do not I'm so grateful to be in a district and to have my children attend school in a district that is prioritizing equity and mental health Wellness of our students our partnership with encust mental health Staffing and the new SEL curriculum are needed in timely thank you from the bottom of my heart however ignoring the critical mental health disparities between lgbtq youth bypoc students and at a much greater risk bypoc lgbtq youth is dangerous we have an obligation to ensure that they are not left out of the equation as we review the encas data and increase mental health measures we have an opportunity to implement simple yet powerful practices to show and tell our students and families that we

026are on their team that we are their team that they don't have to leave any part of their culture or identity at home when they walk through our doors all are welcome in lmsp SD and I know that but let's make sure that everyone knows it thank you thank you next Robert Weaver good evening we fly a pride flag on our house and um you would not believe the random letters that keep showing up in our mailbox from our neighbors that are Thanking us for having that flag on on our house there are lots of reasons why we have that um just I was maybe about six to eight weeks ago um a teenager or um young adult decided they did not like our flag and ripped it off of our home um I don't

027know where that person went to school but I think it's it's important that we do show our community that that type of behavior and that intolerance is not acceptable here um I can say firsthand just this evening um we are planning to go to DC and go see family back East um my child's grandparents will not be seeing my child because of some of the posts that they are putting on Facebook and social media we're leaving in two weeks and I just found this out this very evening I think it's important that we show people in this community that they are that they belong here there are children that are in our school district where their own families are not accepting them we need to give them a safe place to be and we need

028to show them that they are loved and that there is a safe place and there is no better way to do that than recognizing pride month and recognizing Juneteenth thank you so much thank you and next we have Janet it's Dennis hello Madam president board members superintendent um I uh raised my four children in La Mesa they all attended La Mesa Spring Valley Schools from kindergarten through eighth grade as an educator myself I spent a lot of time each year selecting the teacher that I felt would most appropriately support my children and that was important to me because I wanted my kids to be in a classroom where they were they felt safe there was not harassment or teasing because they might be different that their friends would not be harassed or teased that they

029would be able to to learn a lot about different types of families and be willing to accept and honor those families and among the teachers as well teachers who felt comfortable being who they really were and so as they grew up they came to honor and respect all the people that they work with in life it was a great experience now they knew the safe places to go at school they knew the safe classrooms they knew the safe teachers wouldn't it be nice if the entire School were a safe place where they wouldn't feel as though somebody's judging them or teasing them or harassing them or questioning who they are or what their family looks like I know it's difficult I know you you know don't wanna get into so-called politics but being gay is

030not political being gay is humanity and we need to realize that we need to accept that and if the forces of hate come and come forward and express concerns let them because change is difficult and we've got to move forward and we've got to understand that humanity is much more important than those being fearful of those voices of hate thank you for listening thank you so I have no more comment cards regarding General matters um do we have any hands raised in Zoom yes we have three hands raised the first person I'm gonna add to the board meeting is Reverend Daniel Scott Brunner Reverend Daniel Scott if you could please unmute your mic you can speak to the board okay greetings my name is Reverend Daniel Skye Bruner I am ordained clergy with American Baptist

031Churches USA and serve as a community Minister I come respectfully before you to offer comments and support of placing an agenda or the proposal of in June to be Juneteenth and lgbtqia plus month as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ also known as the gospel of peace I Rise concerned that a particular religious sect has become quasi-alkaeda in intent on indoctrinating all to their beliefs regardless of the other person's religious views these are Christian nationalists who have organized with strategic plans to undermine the vast will of the people the will of the people is inclusion the will of the people is to know the real truth unfortunately La Mesa School Board these are the times we are living in book Banning rewriting history so that certain folks don't feel uncomfortable and attempting to

032totally erase members of the lgbtqia plus Community is the terrain I have been known to be a playing preacher that tells it like it is you have a charge and a responsibility to our students which requires courage and resolve this is your time to stand proudly and boldly not in fear of what people will say but to do the right the right would be to celebrate Juneteenth and lgbtqia plus we live in a multi-racial and Multicultural Community make no mistakes our Pre-K students are exposed to other students whose parents may be of the same sex what exactly do you think we are protecting them from I was a middle school science teacher and for fact my students knew exactly what time it was pretending things are one way and ignoring how they really are is

033not education it it is ignorance as a teacher and a parent I never tolerated ignorance this proposal would be a celebration and a glorious statement of what the kingdom of God can be and so many of our marginalized students and staff would be affirmed I offer these comments every respectfully request they'd be entered into record God bless you we have another guest but the title of ecqtco please unmute your mic and you may address the board um hi there can you hear me thank you um my name is Savannah I'm with the East County queer and trans Coalition I'm sorry that I couldn't be there in person but I would like to speak in support of the district recognizing Juneteenth and June as pride month I attended Fletcher Hills and Parkway Middle School during my

034time at Fletcher Hills I lived in the library one of my most prized possessions came from its discard bin a copy of The Wizard of Oz I read almost every single book on those shelves and only one was about a black girl like me my eighth grade year was during Prop 8 in elementary school I had already seen my sister have to travel to the only city where she could get married only to have her marriage then annulled by the state and as I would ride the bus to Parkway I would count the signs in my neighbor's yards so I would know how many of them couldn't support equality and would use their power to take away another person's rights at school I saw posters for a Christian club and while I have no problem

035with Christian kids having their own space it felt like everywhere I looked I saw signs saying that I and my family were wrong when I asked faculty if I could start a GSA I was denied because we couldn't have groups that were sexual I needed support I was practicing self-harm because I was constantly being targeted for being so different I was literally treated like a monster but in retrospect I really don't think any of those kids had ever seen anyone from a family like mine this is why I representation matters when you're omitted from The Narrative people fill in reasons why as a black queer mixed kid and the only one I felt like that copy of The Wizard of Oz no visible flaws but placed in the discard bin no student should feel rejected

036or so isolated that their identity is unspeakable that their story doesn't deserve to be told California fought with the Union this is our history recognize Juneteenth support your marginalized students happy Pride thank you all right we have one more Rachel Graham please unmute your mic and you can address the board hello my name is Rachel Graham and I grew up in La Mesa I'm a proud graduate of Rolando Elementary and what was then called La Mesa Middle School in 2008 the year I graduated from Helix Charter I was extremely disappointed that the Grossmont Union High School District board voted to endorse prop 8. when the school board took that action they sent the message the lgbtq plus youth and the lgbtq plus Community as a whole that they weren't welcome I wrote to every member

037of the school board but they didn't change their position Society has come so far in the past 15 years and it's time for the La Mesa Spring Valley School District to represent lgbtq plus pride month and Juneteenth with lgbtq plus communities increasingly under attack and black Americans still being murdered for merely knocking on neighbors doors it's more important than ever to publicly stand in support of these communities your support will help save lives thank you very much thank you that concludes public comment from Zoom thank you and I have no further comment cards I I just wanted to make a one point of clarification on the issue of Juneteenth um for the record and just for everyone here um the board actually in March of 2022 uh formally adopted um language with its labor groups

038recognizing Juneteenth as a district holiday it's actually a paid holiday for employees that are working during that time it's been codified in the district's Ed code so I just want to make it very clear that Juneteenth is as much a holiday for La Mesa Spring Valley as Christmas Thanksgiving Memorial Day veterans day and we were actually one of the first districts in San Diego County to adopt it as a district holiday which we were really proud of uh it was all just months after the the federal designation so just that one point of clarity thank you for clarifying um the next item is public hearing regarding student dress code policy I have comment cards for this item as well um Andy is good evening I'm Andy acetis and tonight I am commenting on the proposed

039school code dress code for the district and first as a mom I understand how contentious dressing can be and how I remember how difficult it often was trying to Balance fashion and practicality with my kids and as a teacher I also know how challenging student clothes can be so I get it and honestly I'm not sure if you guys will ever be able to please everyone so I I understand my perspective is that once again schools do need to prior to prioritize their goals and stay focused on their primary purpose which is to provide a solid academic education I tutor students after school and work with groups in the classes and our students have lost a year and a half of learning and are still behind despite teachers working diligently to close those gaps I

040hope all these kids will catch up eventually but it's not today as a teacher I also know how imperative it is to create a classroom environment that Corrals the students attention and reduces unnecessary distractions no wonder districts often opt for uniforms and I can understand why that may be the direction we're headed even special days in the class and the school year that incorporate costumes are they're always fun but teachers know that they are often losses in terms of learning opening the dress code to include dress that is consistent with students gender identity or gender expression is loose and arbitrarily and definitely blurs the focus of academic learning and I just want to say that I know there's been a lot of words tossed around and labels in terms of people being called hateful or

041mean-spirited or transphobic or all those things and that's not I'm just speaking as an educator who wants to keep her focus on educating our kids thank you um next oh I didn't is James Gonzalez good evening my name is James Gonzalez I am both a teacher and a parent at La Mesa Arts Academy I've been teaching for 19 years in the La Mesa Spring Valley School District in various subjects and grade levels I was a language arts teacher then a special education teacher and now I'm a physical education teacher I recount these duties because I feel it gives me a firm understanding of student Behavior both in and out of the classroom I'm here to speak on behalf of the dress code and the importance of sustaining this important guideline in our schools while I

042understand dress code is an ongoing issue I get it as your adults on campus we are responsible for creating safety plans lesson plans rules and procedures now extrapolating data from a survey given to students about such a hot button item would lead to skewed results and bias outcomes in all of my years of teaching I've never seen a dress code tighten up they've only laxed what is our goal with the dress code is it to provide students with some latitude to express themselves within guidelines or blank canvas to come as they want I only ask is because I see firsthand what a dress code does for a PE Department it levels the playing field no one is ahead or behind someone else the focus is taken off the clothing and and onto the learning now

043I'm not advocating for uniforms far from it but I'm making a point as to what is really the message we're trying to send our young adults my daughter is a seventh grader at lmac and truth be told I've even dress code of my daughter uh before school uh not because I wanted to be a tyrannical dad but I wanted her to understand the message she was sending by her choice in attire now her attire wasn't anything provocative or inappropriate uh in nature she simply thought a pair of pajama bottoms was a pro for his school it wasn't the conversation was simple school is a place to engage to question to communicate I told her her pajama her pajama bottoms told me she wasn't serious about the day and that that was the message she was

044conveying to her teachers speaking of my daughter I'm actually missing her seeing the national anthem right now at the Padre game because I feel so strong about this topic and I wanted to speak to it according to an article in the association of psychological science across five experiments researchers found that dressing to impress enhance the person's ability to engage in abstract thinking and creativity the formality of clothing does not only influence the way others perceive a person but how the person perceives themselves because dress has a direct correlation to one's confidence it could influence decision making in various ways picture day for example has a profound impact on our student body there's an air about the way that everyone's dressed up as opposed to just being present students understand that their attire speaks volumes about

045who they are as a person it's apparent in the way they carry themselves and interact with others it's a mutual respect for both their classmates and themselves in closing I think the current dress code is plenty of expression and creativity being so late in the fear in the year I feel many teachers and parents would would have liked more time to weigh in on the topic I appreciate your time thank you thank you Laramie litig good morning good evening um good evening my name is Laramie littig and I am a current teacher and parent at La Mesa Arts Academy I have been teaching for 21 years grades k through eight at this point across five schools in our district I spent my first 11 years in elementary and my last 10 at La Mesa Arts

046Academy with older children I have seen the trends come and go and I am here today to speak on behalf of the importance of having a dress code our school's culture and motto has always been to be above the line we ask students to do more than is expected we want them to push themselves in academics and the Arts but more importantly with their character and their behavior we hold high expectations of our students and they continually rise to this a big part of that is how we dress when we expect them to dress for their job to be professional and to follow the dress code they know that what they're doing at school is important these high expectations of how they come prepared for their professional day as a student lead to higher self-esteem

047and Higher Achievement when our dress code became more lenient a few years ago we saw an increase in behavior problems and a decline in the mutual respect between students and between students and teacher it changed our school climate dress code is not just about the high expectations in setting a high standard for our students it is also about safety hats and hoods block the faces of students and we cannot quickly identify who should or should not be on our campus 8th graders with hoods can easily look like an adult as some of them are actually taller than me also airpods can be hidden under hoods blocking out important safety announcements and alarms we are here coach Gonzo and I because we love what we do we love our students and we want them to be

048safe we want our students to continue to do their job and rise to the challenges and expectations we set for them we are in the trenches with them and truly want to create the best learning environment possible doing away with a dress code at this age or making it any more lenient is a disservice to our students into learning as a mother of a middle schooler I value that the emphasis we put on education at home is continued throughout my son's school day thank you very much for your time thank you um Miriam Moody good evening cabinet and board members I hope you're having a good day I am here to talk about Dr Esco and my first question to you is what are we focusing on did you know that the state of California

049is ranked 40th in the country in terms of Education According to niche.com which takes a variety of data and uses algorithms and statistics to compare schools throughout the United States the La Mesa Spring Valley School District is given a B minus rating given there are 18 schools in this District eight are given a c rating eight are given a B rating only two in a rating out of the 689 districts K-12 districts in California that actually have data La Mesa Spring Valley is ranked 458th in terms of the best places to teach and 510th with the best teachers in the district do I say the teachers don't care clearly I don't say that based on proficiency tests in La Mesa Spring Valley School District 53 percent of students are proficient in Reading while only 41

050percent are proficient in math why do I bring these statistics to you the foundation of our children's education starts at the elementary school level with these rankings we should be focusing more on Reading Writing arithmetic Science and History such as the commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved African African Americans established by Major General Granger on June 19th 1865. elementary schools not only provide the foundation for high school but College I teach at the college level in the fall in the past spring semester in my pre-calculus classes I had to do the job of my predecessors not only at the high school level but the elementary school level while teaching pre-calculus material I had to teach basic algebraic skills that the students lacked this is something that college instructors should not have to do we rely

051upon elementary schools to give our children a solid foundation so when they move on to high school this Foundation only becomes stronger I asked this District to remember why the children are here Reading Writing arithmetic please focus on this thank you thank you do we have any um on Zoom for public hearing you know okay thank you and I'm out of comment cards so next we move on to another public hearing for the local control and accountability plan and we don't have any public uh comment cards on this one and Matt do we have any hands raised we do not okay okay so next item is public hearing um for the 2023-2024 proposed District budget I have no cards do we have anyone on Zoom we do not okay okay next we are going on

052to reports we have the 2023 2024 adopted budget that report that everyone's so excited to hear every year said earlier like this is the boring part of the meeting my presentation anyway right [Laughter] okay oh I love it laughs okay so the 2023-24 budget adoption um I'm going to give you more nuts and bolts tonight as we go along um I don't have a ton of slides but I'm going to add a lot of narrative if you don't mind um so to give you a little bit of the background um and to understand the budget we need to understand kind of the mechanics of what happens this time of year and so I kind of laid out a timeline for you all the to look at about the events that you may or may not

053be familiar with so in May the governor's revision of his proposed budget that he put out in January comes about and that that's for a reason it's there's a budget proposal in in January and then economic conditions can change and it's buttoned up a little bit closer as we get closer to adoption time and now this is kind of the next best version of the state's version of the budget for the upcoming year the budget year is July 1 through June 30. and so um we're coming up to the crunch time here finalizing budgets so that we have them in place for the new fiscal year um we use those May revision budget assumptions to develop our budget and it's this is the part that is difficult and so hear me hear me out through

054this um so we're here tonight we have a proposed budget for you for the 2324 year and we don't have a state adopted budget yet so it's I guess at this point an educated guess but I guess nonetheless so to night in June we hold our public hearing and then the legislature who is currently working on their version of the budget is still no doing negotiations because they take the the governor's revision and then they go back to the Senate and the assembly and they have their committee work and they're you know kind of hammering out all of the details of what they want to prioritize in the state budget and so all of those negotiations are going on right now but by June 15th the legislature will have their adopted budget um and wouldn't

055you know we don't adopt our budget until the 20th so can if you can imagine like I think about our director of fiscal services south glengarden if we asked him and his team to you know go and change everything that'd be quite difficult so we're presenting to you a budget that we know is exactly wrong approximately right um so the governor signs the budget by late June and then and beers prior like in the last several years since the pandemic when we've had a lot of changes to the budgets um stimulus dollars or state one-time grants that you know come about towards the end of that legislative negotiations period um there when there's big wild changes like that we're going to do a revision to our budget and that's what we did last year but

056in years prior it was pretty steady there weren't too many drastic changes just the minor things that we could tweak in by first interim we'd adopt a new budget um and so really um as I said tonight is to kind of our first stab at it I sort of anticipate some big changes and if there are some changes then the board may consider a 45-day revision and there's actually something that is um a 45-day revision budget that you could you could adopt So within 45 days of the state adopting their budget a district can revise their budget if there are huge changes to it so I hope that clarify the timeline and it's rather muddy are there any questions I can take from you now on the timeline before we go any further okay can

057I add something really quick just on the timeline that just pointing out that that's not by choice we don't decide to um have our budget adopted before the state our budget's totally dependent on the state budget and it's just how the um calendar works out um actually in the Education Code which is frustrating but it is what it is that's what we have to work with yeah okay so the governor's May revision the themes the first bullet really says it all um Governor newsom's attempting to reach a balance of protecting or his existing education Investments while anticipating that there is economic uncertainty out there um and the warnings that he he stated in January um should broader economic risks materialize deeper reductions will be necessary and the revision Governor Newsom presents a balanced budget um

058but he does continue to to say it's important that we maintain fiscal prudence and discipline I actually watched his news conference of the May revision and I I wrote in my notes reserves continue to matter which is why I have it um have it up here um and so in times of uncertainty just like in maybe your personal finance how you handle your personal finances you're going to make sure that you have reserves to to weather the storms of uncertainty and so um that's definitely one of his big themes at the very beginning of his conference he he hit that over and over and over again so to understand the district school budget we have to understand the state's budget and we have to understand the impact of the economy on the state's budget and

059how our budget and how the revenues for the State of California work so whenever there is volatility in the economy there's going to be volatility volatility in our state revenues because in California revenues are primarily generated from The Big Three As we call them personal income tax corporate tax and sales tax personal income tax being two-thirds of the state's Revenue approximately of what's brought in so when we see that the economy is having trouble so goes California usually and since the governor's budget the revenues have the but the revenues have softened softened and so the the projection for the deficit for the state goes from 22 and a half billion to 31 and a half billion that's a big that's a big change um so the other Factor that's creating uncertainty for the state's budget

060is the postponement of personal income tax and corporation tax returns until October due to the um storms and emergencies that were declared as a result of the storms so that means an estimated 42 billion are not due to come until fall and that's estimated the the total dollar amount that will be collected in October remains unclear and so it's kind of like the states developing a budget but they don't know if that revenue is going to materialize there's just a lot of uncertainty with this this um right now um and one other thing related to revenue volatility especially in California I came across this information in a recent conference that I was attending and um the public policy Institute of California the ppic express caution about migration patterns that could negatively impact the state's Revenue

061now we all kind of anecdotally know like we see so many people leaving the state of California and we you know we've talked about it here oh with me people are going to more affordable places to live you know the cost of living is is less in other states for example um but since 2018 the net loss of higher income residents has been Starker than Arlo you can see that the higher income in the red on the slide is dramatic quickly increasing in terms of the number of of residents that are leaving the state of California and because so much of the state's revenue is dependent on our higher earners that can be a problem for us going forward as well so it's something it's just an interesting statistic that will also need to be

062tracking because we normally we're looking at this just you know as it relates to our enrollment but now we have to be thinking about the impacts to revenues for us as well so the assumptions are here that we are using for the district's 2324 budget we are using the 8.22 percent cost of living adjustment or the cola as it's known to most this is what the governor has proposed in his revision by the way we don't make up our own cost of living adjustment percentages we all will always follow the um the industry standards which usually will come from a variety of sources like the Department of Finance School Services of California Capital Advisors we're not just guessing what they will be we precisely use their budget assumptions we're using because of inflation the California

063Consumer Price Index or CPI has risen greatly so we're using a 5.71 percent increase for inflation our calstrs and Calpers contribution amounts to Employee Retirement plans for the calstrs for our certificated staff is 19.1 percent Calpers 25.37 Calpers is projected to increase over the next couple of years as well and we're assuming that we have a reduction to our Arts music instructional materials block aren't of 3.2 million dollars now it's important to note that's one time money that we received for this this calendar year the 22-23 year and we've had plans to use it um we have used it and we're proposing that the state's not going to give us our second allocation in in this month of June or July and we're just not planning on receiving it we've had clear communication that it's

064expected that we're not going to see that um there was talk in the governor's May revision of a reduction to the learning recovery emergency block grant about 32 percent of our proposed allocation for us it's about five million dollars we did not include it that reduction in our budget yet because it didn't seem as solid as as as the information we were getting related to the other block grants so that's not included other budget assumptions that relate to our sweet kiddos here are kind of our demographics right and so we always need to look at where our enrollment is and as that relates to average daily attendance so enrollment is continuing to slowly decline much like the state of California um and our local region is um we're not seeing a steep of a decline

065as we did during the pandemic so that's good news and with the addition and the extension of transitional kindergarten that has helped also slow our declining enrollment now we're funded on average daily attendance and that's how many days each of our kids actually comes to school and so that's what we call Ada and the way we're funded is it used to be on the current year or the prior year whichever is greater and then um I think it was a lot this current Year's budget they all kind of run together the state um added a provision to use the prior three-year average for average daily attendance because attendance rates are also very low that's the next row you see there 91 percent is our Assumption of the percentage of times our kids will come to

066school pre-pandemic that was about 95 and that was pretty steady and what we're experiencing with our attendance rate is very similar Statewide with other school districts and Charter Schools attendance rates so um using that as well there is legislation um that may have some traction related to enrollment based funding and we've been watching that carefully to see where it goes and instead of using average daily attendance it would be an aggregate of student enrollment divided by the number of days that they actually are attending work that we have in our school year so if a student were here half a year would be kind of a prorated amount for a student versus someone who was here all year so we'll see where that goes um we're helpful and then our unduplicated pupil percentage is our

067percentage of what we also call our targeted students that are free and reduced lunch free and reduced lunch meal eligible Foster Youth and English Learners and that that is also a three-year average um 65.6 percent 64.6 and 64. and that is an important factor for us because it influences the amount of supplemental and concentration grant funding that we receive that we can apply for the needs of our targeted students and if you're below a 55 threshold there's a there's a drop of you're not eligible for the concentration Grant so we carefully watch that and we make sure that we have Outreach to families so that we are making sure that every student that as in our district is counted for that percentage going back to cost of living adjustment or Cola um I've shared the

068slide maybe a couple of years ago but I always like to bring it out and talk about it um because it's confusing to folks it's confusing to even people who work in school business um and and finance because it means something different in different Industries for us it just simply means that our Revenue per pupil is increasing by the cola it doesn't mean that our let's just say we had a hundred million dollar budget and we see an 8.22 percent Cola it doesn't mean that we're going to get 8.22 percent more than that 100 million it simply means it's that amount per pupil that we'll receive um and so in our budget that's proposed with you like you'll see if you look at the first column on your um on the attach report which I

069don't have that on the slide but you'll see that the difference from last year's prep last year's revenue or this year technically to do the prepost 23 24 year is 4.4 not 8.2 percent it's 8.4 it's I'm sorry 4.4 increase and that's largely also due to um the fact that its enrollment is declining so you have to factor in enrollment declines and the impact to our Ada um and so that's a very confusing concept and I just want to make sure that we're really clear that it's the revenue per pupil that is increasing each year um Cola typically is two to three percent so this eight percent is huge and it's also because um what is it the implicit price deflator I can never say that one so it's a statutory number um and technically

070the governor does not have to fund it fully but it is a statutory number um and so we have seen negative Cola in fact when the pandemic first um was a thing that may revision at that time showed I think it was a 10 negative 10 percent Cola it was very scary um in that so whenever you see a lower um colas really because the economy may not be as healthy um let's see do I cover everything on the slider and there any questions on the slide okay so the local control funding formula or the lcfs which is the formula that funds our California schools has this complex formula but I wanted to show you this slide from school Services of California so that you can see the mechanics of how the cola is applied

071because in each grade span there's a base Grant and so for purposes of how Cola is applied to the revenue per pupil the cola is applied directly to the base part of the Grant and then there are the GSA is a grade span adjustment and so for our lower grades there's an increase in funding because typically you may find lower class sizes or different needs for our lower grade students and at the high school level there might be more Career Technical education or other needs that high school students need so there's that grade span adjustment or um the adjustment I was going to say add-on but I'm reading ahead of myself the TK add-on then was something new um it all already is including Cola and so that is calculated on top of the TK

072column I'm highlighting there because there is that new app add-on but there's not a cola on top of the add-on that's already included and so then you see your adjusted base grants so for the TK level 13 995 and so on for our other grade levels up to 8th grade and then you'll see the the funding that's available for a supplemental Grant and the concentration Grant and as I said a few slides earlier the unduplicated pupil percentage is what drives our concentration Grant and so you can see those large additional Grant amounts that are on top of the adjusted base Grant and the supplemental con supplemental Grant the concentration Grant is important so going on to our estimated actuals for the current fiscal year so you can kind of see comparison from this year to

073next what it looks like um you can see that our total revenues in the current year are about 200 and just over 201 million and for the next year the 2324 adopted budget year about 183 million now going line by line you can see that there's an increase in the local control funding formula primarily due to that Cola um and then you can see how the revenues are tapering off for federal and other state so Federal revenues remember we have stimulus one-time monies still available that we've been spending down we're not going to be receiving well it's not anticipated that we'll be receiving the amounts that we had been previously and then our other state revenue revenues drop off remember what I talked about in terms of the cut to the Arts music and instructional

074materials block grant and then the cut to the learning recovery emergency block grant those were in the neighborhood of about 20 million for us last this current year and so we're that's a one time it's not going to be next year and that's why there's the big drop off there but those are the big differences for the revenue side for the adopted budget compared to where we are today and on the expenditure side you can see that they go up um from the current year so revenues are going down expenditures are going up um and we've added additional staff in our certificated we have a 12 million dollar mental health Grant and so we've been able to add additional staff supported by some of those funding sources and then you just see the natural increases

075to other salaries for classified and certificated the step in column advances on the salary schedule each year and of course our employee benefits always continue to rise we assume about a five percent increase but remember we have people adding and dropping and so it's not in it's not an easy five percent over there um our books and supplies are dropping because they too also were influenced by previous one-time dollars in that category and that's about the big differences we see we do have oh let me go back to Capital outlay because that would be something you know more facility related we had anticipated some expenditures were going to occur in the current year but they didn't happen so they're going to happen next year so a lot of times these can be timing issues whenever

076we're making these shifts um and then I want to talk to you about multi-year projections so at the second interim the board certified our second interim financial report and if you remember that's when we look at the current year and the subsequent two years which is an Outlook to see if we're going to be able to have enough revenues to support our program for the current and the two next years and so we certify positive yes we will have we will be able to meet our financial obligations but going back to what I said earlier when we look at multi-year projections we can also say a budget is never right but it's exactly wrong but approximately right um they're the result of mathematical calculations they're based on good solid assumptions in Industry standards but they're

077not a crystal ball they're not project they're not really um a forecast or a prediction of what's going to actually occur we make our best guesses so I always want you to remember that when you're looking at the multi-years because things can wildly change as we've experienced in the last few years oops if you want to see the multi-year there it is okay this is super high level but our beginning fund balance remember is like our District's savings account if you will it's the remaining of what's left over after we've received our revenues spent our expenditures and that's the bank account so we start the 23-24 year very healthy with the 67.5 million beginning fund balance we already looked at our revenues in expenditures but we're deficit spending in the 23 all the next three

078years we're deficit spending um but in the current year 8.8 with an ending balance still healthy and with a reserve percentage of about 22.5 percent average elementary school districts in the state are closer to about 25 percent and I'd love that sweet spot so that we could have healthy reserves if you know back to the first slide maintain fiscal Prudence reserves continue to matter we want to see that number remain healthy um but a lot of this too again it can be timing of when we received revenues and when we're spending so the deficit spending can look scary but again we could have received money um last year for expenditures that we spent this year so sometimes it can be a little deceiving when we look in and see that deficit um but you do

079see um we're continuing to spend down our one-time and stimulus dollars and we get to the 25-26 school year with an ending fund balance of 37.5 million or a 15 Reserve so any questions on the general fund nyp D no all right so our next steps is that we're going to continue to watch what's going on at the state and use those new assumptions to update our budget and we may re oh look at that may revise I just noticed that that is school business office nerd talk right there we made have the board revise our budget if it's drastically different from what it is that you're adopting um on June 20th and then we're going to continue to Monitor and plan for those budgetary impacts as a result of what's uncertain for us right

080now and if we have to make some changes that's what we need to do um but we we will be continuing to watch that very carefully we're going to take what the governor's advices and to maintain our fiscal Prudence which is what we always do and we're going to prioritize our Reserve levels and do the best we can to maintain our adequate reserves to whether all the uncertainty that's ahead of us and with that I'll take any other any questions that you might have do you guys have any questions I do um many slides ago you men or you showed the graph with the kind of multi-year enrollment um data and you show that the unduplicated pupil percentage was also decreasing is that something that we've been historically seeing as enrollment's been decreasing our under

081duplicated pupil percentage has been decreasing it has we've did a really big push um well not to get into too many details but we really wanted to make sure that we preserve that percentage and that we get all of the revenue that the that we are entitled to get and so we changed our practice that used to just be based on free and reduced lunch applications and we switched to a family income survey that we have all of our families complete and we have really worked that effort um and we saw that number greatly increase that used to sit closer to 60 61 percent and we were able I think last year it was about 66 ish but it's gone dead it's ticked down slightly just because our enrollment has declined and it just depends

082who's leaving us and whether you know kind of that but it's been an intense Focus for us that we we do that we had a training um with all of our slms a few years ago it was kind of a pet project Matt's part of that project I think that you guys figure it on a three-year rolling average so the the um there were three years ago just at the start of the pandemic we saw the number kicked down significantly and it started to come back up and I think the projection that you see here is it's a conservative estimate um that's just being informed by that three-year average I actually would expect that for it to remain level and potentially even grow it just doesn't really work with the average of the decreases that

083we saw in previous years yeah you're right that's a good point I mean we do we're pretty conservative with this number because we haven't had as strong period of time where it's gone it's remained high so we've been cautious with what we forecasted to be gotcha cool thank you and then um I also have questions about so do you incorporate it into this the I think it was prop 28 right the the Arts um uh funding cut that has been that was part of the May revised I this is probably not a question for you but right for Deanne um at some point when we this is all figured out I would like to the board to get an update on kind of what does that mean we will be able to be you know

084implementing yeah prop 20 it's different from prop 28 just to clarify okay um there's the the block grant and then there's prop 28 but there is yeah there's cover related and reduced yeah two different funds that wasn't what she was talking about but the prop 28 has also been reduced and so once we know um and then once we have a plan for what it the definite allocation is then we'll absolutely do a presentation give some information part of it is we've been waiting on the language in terms of what's going to be required and how it's implemented which um we'll have thankfully our um our vapa coordinator um doing that work you know once we get that information from the state and then we'll definitely bring a plan to the board for how that's

085going to be utilized and then another just I'd like if we could get updates as this moves along if it moves along I saw that there's a couple of um proposed legislation regarding funds for operating facilities for TK um and or I mean I think it was framed as tk3012 but um I I if that gets passed through I definitely would like if the if we could get updated on how that might affect um affect our district and what we might be able to use that funds for yeah definitely we'll do that it might even be good to do a workshop around um uh the state facilities program and the history and how you know because it Taps into the bond that's how we're able to utilize some of those funds and um so that

086would be a good topic yeah it looked like some of that was um proposing a measure to go on to the ballot for 2024 but like a Statewide measure and so um I I would like more information you know I'm sure also like more information on how how we can get our hands on some of that money for sure um and yeah that was all I had okay any other questions okay um next we are at item 6A Legal Services agreements so this will be moving forward for the 2023-2024 school year um so obviously there's three legal teams here um listed um I could you give us just a little bit of a background I know that typically they've all served different purposes or different categories of Legal Services could you just give us the

087brief overview on what legal services each one of these would provide sure and there's a another Law Firm that isn't on here because our we have a two-year agreement with them which is um dwk um John Pearl is one of the attorneys that maybe you guys have heard his name um I can't remember if I think Dean is typically the ones that you you've talked to So Adam Silva McNally is primarily HR related support and then General matters um I actually reached out to them today about a a public records request um chidester uh has represented Us in matters typically that were like board level um legal issues or or settlements that sort of thing and then Orbach huff and Henderson I'm not sure which oh special education and student services oh thank you so

088we'll need a motion and a second to approve the agreement I've moved through motion item 6A all second and I have one quick question just confirming it it seems like all three of these are re-upping agreements with them these are all three reacting agreements correct yeah with the ohh's ohh is a continued agreement correct all continuations cool thank you okay um all in favor say I I I I I um our next item 6B is a discussion item regarding the student dress code policy um with sample dress codes are attached and the current dress code is attached and a board policy is attached so this is just for us to talk about what we want to do as a board regarding dress code and if it's all right um it is all right if I've

089provided just a little background on it um so a discussion item really uh is just an item for the board to talk about the issue at hand and give direction to staff if there's any changes that they would like to make or not um because the board and Administration has received several letters from students and family members expressing concern about dress code we felt it was best to bring it to the board to get input we also just did a really high level survey of students and and our Middle School Academy staff Middle School Academy students just about the dress code how they feel about it what changes they would make if any and then we gave some samples um of the the uh grouped into more permissive versus more restrictive and just a reminder

090that our address code policy and regulation was adopted in March of 2020 um and a big portion of that was taking really making our dress code General gender neutral so that it wasn't highlighting you know a particular type of clothing over another so all of that has been provided here as well okay so now we get to discuss so I um that was a lot of pages of reading that survey data and I found that to be really helpful that um some of those students took a long time like were very thoughtful about the words that they were using but the big things that kind of stood out to me was that it's disproportionately affecting girls in our schools um and that was repeated over and over and over again and it's if the if

091the idea when we adopted it in the past was to sort of hope that that wasn't going to be the case with the dress code currently that is the case with our dress code that we're hearing um from the survey results so that really stood out to me that if we want to be inclusive and have Equity I mean we can't just say it like we have to have things in place that prove that we care about all of our students um so that's kind of where I'm I'm at I don't have an answer I don't have like an actual thing that I necessarily want but I can't ignore the comments and from teachers and you know staff and students um that that is what they're experiencing at school so yeah I would like to

092make some comments sorry uh for not being there again to tonight um I just spend time reading the survey and also the policies uh previous in place uh the current In-Place policies and the proposed um options um I I do think that really after reading the the current policy and um kind of guidance that it needs to be updated um you know I think it's uh not fully developed and I think there's a lot of room for improvement there um yes I I appreciate that the district did spend the time to get the comments from students and and faculty to kind of get the perspectives of some of the key stakeholders on campus uh echoing what Rebecca has uh the president has said that you know the comics of the girls of the girls who

093feel that they are being dress coded um maybe more frequently or are kind of targeted more you know did stand out um there was a lot of comments as you read through that really started overlapping of certain trends that the children uh the students had identified as you know important to them and I think that's a really really important thing to consider when updating this this this policy uh I believe that the you know looking at the proposals the the one that was modeled after the Helix High School was uh you know I think a very good example when it should be based off it was well developed and kind of covered a lot of important topics uh and yeah I mean I think that's uh my initial first thoughts I I I know everyone

094has their their uh kind of preference and I think it's more important that you know yeah kids are appropriate kids are given kind of the freedom especially kids that are emerging and being teenagers the freedom to kind of you know properly be comfortable especially in a a a school district in East County it does get warm in the summer and and feel comfortable but also be able to kind of represent themselves and express themselves in an appropriate manner at school and um you know kind of doing a re-look at this is important um I wanted to take a moment to thank the four members of the public that came and spoke today regarding the dress code I think that it's important that we get um you know public feedback on this and that's why we

095posted it as a public hearing um one of the things and I think it's been clarified now is that I was hearing so I I shared this on my social media um to to make sure that we were getting as much of the public the public knew that this was happening um and some of the questions that I was getting on social media was kind of the question of why is this coming forward um you know are we proposing changing the the dress code are we what exactly is the ask here and I think that we've gotten that kind of clarification here tonight and um and also you know the language and the the agenda was this is this is a discussion um I think that I want to thank the the two teachers that

096spoke up um coach Gonzo and Mrs litig because I think that and and you know all of the people that um filled out the survey it's it's again important to get the broad range of of what is how is this actually being applied we're up here we are none of us are in the schools you know every day working with the students um and and so for me it was nice to see like how is this being applied um I have a little bit of a different um uh perception of of and how I how I interpreted the survey that I think you did um Rebecca I I interpreted it as a little bit more of a it was being enforced differently and that that to me goes back to training and how we are

097how people are interpreting the dress code um not necessarily how the dress code is written and I think that if we can be I would I would propose if we want to take some sort of an action I would propose that maybe we'd do a first step of um of let's train make sure that we do a training over the summer or a beginning of the school year training for for the teachers and all of the staff of this is how the dress code is supposed to be enforced and we're enforcing it equally across the district and let's re-re um review this maybe at the end of at the end of um in December or January and see like okay how did a a half a year of school work did it get um did

098some of these these issues about enforcing the dress code differently for boys and girls some of the things in here that I was seeing was like boys that were sagging and you know Deanne has talked about it our dress code covers the box and so it is it is it covers your privates and that that is that is um that is the intent of our dress code and I I really appreciate that our dress code has been um you know moved away from gendered language and and really focuses on that box that that everyone has and um and so I think that if we can you know boys are sagging and and being allowed to Sag that is that is not covering the Box um I think that um so so I think that that's

099one of the things one thing I would like to see Clarity on if we want to clarify anything is around hats I have been going into classrooms and seeing technically based on what power dress code is written apps are now not allowed in the classroom I walk into classrooms and see plenty of plenty of baseball hats um and I think that that's when place where we could get clarity on do we want to allow hats in the classroom and I totally get not having hoodies because you can have your headphones in and that distracts you from um from you know learning and that's what I feel like all of the comments um that we got from the public today focused on how do we keep kids focused on school and being focused on on learning

100because that's what we're that's what we're here to do is to teach kids um and so yeah that would I think that those that that's my perception on this is that I would like to see more training done and then maybe hats and and headgear can be where we make modifications yeah I would like to make a comment based on that real quick I I just oh I personally disagree with it I think it is an enforcement I actually agree with that um how it's enforced is you know a big driving Factor the experience of the students and the especially of you know the different students a perspective uh reading the policy though I think the policy is very high level and very limited right so that allows interpretation uh if if it's not detailed

101enough of what's allowed and what to what's not that is the driving of the driver of the training so without a better more well-developed policy that that kind of sets those limits I understand that the regulation shows you know the graphics and the pictures but um you know being something in my personal career um I do read a lot of policy uh I I I I I think there's a plenty of room for improvement in the policy whether it's going to be more restrictive or permissive and and that based on that I agree training is important because that's training and um and the message and and how it's given is how you and it into the schools and how and how it is enforced uh but but it all starts with the policy so I

102think adjusting the policy is is part of the first step and not just training like I said uh reading the reading the examples we were given there there is a variety of kind of variants between the permissive and the restrictive um like I said I think the most well-developed one was the one based off Helix because it's obviously an In-Place policy for Helix High School and so whatever is going to be included or excluded or not allowed in the policy should it should kind of be as well developed and thought out and and described in the policy so I'm a teacher and I'm at school every day with kids um I've taught every grade except for Kinder um at my district there might be a dress code I don't think there is a dress code

103um and I've only ever dress coded one student in my 19 years of teaching and there was an inappropriate statement on the shirt using profanity um and that was just I mean I wasn't okay with that um I feel like as a teacher it's not my job to judge how someone presents themselves at school um working in schools with high Title 1 schools um kids don't always have a lot of choices of the clothes that they have and the last thing I want to do is call them out on their shorts that might be a little small when they maybe don't have the means at home to go and buy the next size up yet and I would never I could never look at a kid and say those shorts don't fit you like I

104would never do that I've worked with teachers who have put students down like that such and such students should not be wearing shorts that short and it's so demeaning and no one should really have that power I don't feel a place that judgment over our kids and you know the way it makes the kids feel when they walk in a classroom and the first thing the teacher does is look them up and down to be like what's wrong with what you're wearing today and I think if we want our kids to feel safe at school to feel accepted at school we need to kind of take that lens off we're not in the military I don't need your badge polished I want to look at the person that's walking into the classroom and show that

105I value that person for who that person is and not start tearing them apart that um I don't know if those shorts are three to four inches um when the person standing next year has the exact same shorts on but their body is a lot different so they're good but you're not and I don't know how that helps um our kids all of our kids feel safe and accepted at school when they're being picked apart by their body parts um or the clothes that are the ones that they have at their house to wear that maybe don't fit them appropriately um I there's never been a situation in 19 years that I've needed to dress code a child at any age level for what they came to school and I've had issues where a button

106breaks or something we can address that if you'd like to find a pair of shorts in the nurse that maybe can fasten or we can go the nurse student call home and have something else brought but I would never expect that I would send a kid because of their clothing to be replaced with something else unless it was just to keep the clothes on or for a reason uh you know sat down pants split we'll fix that but um I think that it would be empowering for students to come to school and walk in and know that the teachers that say they care which I believe our teachers care really care about the per the whole person um regardless of what they show up in is my take remember I have a question um so

107no dress court or more permissive dress code that you'd you would be uh siding with in this based off that comment I bet you there's a piece of paper that has San Diego unified dress code I bet we could look something up but as far as like enforcement um some teachers have preferences of no hats in the classroom but they're allowed to wear hats at school so I tell my kids you know where hat it's just you have to wear it if we're playing with it or throwing it and you can put it to you know put in your backpack but I'm not going to decide that I don't find anything offensive with teaching a kid with a hat on even at our school um hoodies are fine I had plenty of kids when we

108came back from covid that would not go to school if they could not be in their hoodie and their mask so I'm used to looking at that kid with a sodium mask on so I was curious are you would you be advocating for a more permissive policy or like pretty much no policy it was my question I was curious for you so I think that it would be a policy that would be more permissive yeah something on paper that did so that we have the address like the address code policy I want them to come in close like no I I mean anyone would come without their clothes on but I'm in agreement with you I'm sorry I was I was curious based on your comment and you know I think you know that's the

109part I really liked about the dress code enforcement of that policy based off Helix is that it does you know kind of give guidance and you know obviously not saying the copy this exactly but I mean they have a lot of you know important aspects of the policy that I think are important for example hats are permitted not in the classroom but but in the hallways we live in a sunny part of the the you know Sandy you know Sandy we live in Sunny City so I think it's uh yeah appropriate I was just curious whether you were saying you shouldn't really have a policy or if it should be more permissive thank you huh well go ahead MiMi because I'll wait I'm trying to summarize what I'm hearing so I'm going to wait till

110I'm done so I'm probably going to have the most unpopular opinion on this um because of my children I would love uniforms and this is why because we have first-hand experience what happened when you don't have a uniform our children I talk about my children all the time my children are adopted when they came into our house um they came to us with nothing so thank God they went to Kempton where there was uniforms so we took off to Walmart got uniforms and that was it two of our kids um were in um gen Ed and then we had another kid our other son was in Special Ed but because he was in uniform just like all the other kids nobody looked at him different which was a huge thing for us then he got

111moved to another school that didn't have uniforms within the district and we started to see Behavior changes in one of our kits and um we would get the phone calls and you know and then they went to middle school and in Middle School obviously that's when the kids are starting to get more into who they are you know who are trying to figure out who they are and unfortunately one of my kids um decided that the gang thing was going to be something he wanted to do even though our household is very Brady Bunch and I wish there was uniforms in middle school because the focus for him became I need to get Gucci I need to get this I need to get that on my you got Gucci money we ain't got Gucci money

112sweetheart I wish we had Walmart money to go get you some pants and then he would start changing at school without our permission so I my threat to him every day when I would hear about his behavior was like you're about to start wearing uniforms to school I don't care if nobody else is stressed whatever you're about to wear a uniform and I went and I bought him white t-shirts and khakis and some shoes from Walmart and I said this is what you're going to wear if your behavior doesn't change because his grades started slipping because he was more worried about who he's going to impress but what he's wearing and I wish you know that it was it was it like the coach said it is a Level Playing Field when everybody's wearing the

113same thing maybe the shoes maybe would be different but you know it was it is a it is a um a Level Playing Field and my son who was in special education in middle school with my other kid um he was the one with the hoodies and you know his coping was putting a hoodie on but he would get in trouble but then we had to go and put it in his IEP that it's okay for him to wear the hoodie um it's that's unfortunately I know that's going to be an unpopular opinion but for me it is a it is a Level Playing Field um my daughter even too she would say Mom you should see the things girls wear because she would like to dress like a lawyer and I said don't you

114want to wear like something nasty like Mom just be happy I'm wearing what I'm wearing I'm like okay it is what it is and I would go to the schools and drop them off and I'm like wait did she go to your school and like yes Mom and I'm like oh okay and it is what it is but I see I've seen it I've experienced firsthand what happens when people come from low income and they're they have the hand-me-downs from the older kid and yeah he is sagging well because they couldn't afford a belt I've gone to the Spring Valley Swap Meet and I bought belts for kids because they would get in trouble because they're sagging but it's because they couldn't afford to buy pants that fit them or they were in in foster

115care in the group home and we would go out and buy whatever we could foreclosed that fit them because they thought oh they're gang affiliated because their clothes is too big or something but you know that's my opinion on it because like I said I've lived it I've seen it um but if some you know if we have to go with if this is our only option it would be the permissive or maybe there is more training for the teachers and more understanding on you know this is why the kids wearing what he's wearing and it is what it is so but for me unfortunately I would love uniforms it would be a the kids will focus more on whether they're at school and instead of what you're wearing so sorry kids So currently steam

116is our only uh Academy middle school that is utilizing uniforms and it's um and it's kind of a a hybrid uniform because it's not provided clothing it's more color based and no logos permitted that sort of thing um and there's language in our current dress or yeah the current regulation and dress code policy um that talks about how the uniform policy is is established um at steam I know that it's been there for a number of years predating you know this policy I think the uniform language in the previous dress code policy was very similar to the language that we have in here uh David quick question is this so I know this is the policy for the district is it but there's also words in some of your comments um about being from middle

117school is this a middle school specific policy or does it does it also apply to the elementary school of the district yeah go ahead no you got it it's not middle school specific it's it is the policy for the district it's just um I think it becomes more of a an issue at the middle school which is why we're sort of that's why we've gotten the feedback from our Middle School staff I think it isn't very often not even discussed or an issue except if you're dealing with the things for example that Rebecca referenced like a shirt that might have profanity or something inappropriate on it and that's where having a policy that references those things is nice to have something to fall back on for those um issues yeah this is something I thought

118about the uniform I thought about as well I mean and uh you know hey Nathaniel can can you see if you can scoot into the microphone a little closer we have you turned all the way up but it's it's kind of quiet in the room we can hear you but it's we're we're straining okay uh I have the I have a speaker I also have a headset but uh the speaker's now really close to me if I need to move to the headset I can of course do that no that's great can you hear me better now yeah okay sorry about that uh thanks for letting me know uh yeah so I mean uh you know you know from something I'll be you know I thought about as well I mean it makes your your

119morning quite easy if you know you have to wear a colored uh polo shirt you know sweatshirt with the School logo and khaki pants or or shorts or skirt or whatever the options I mean when it comes to you know kids of you know lower Econo social economic status I mean I have I come from a single mother home as well and um as a child and kids find finding reasons the distinct you know ways to distinguish themselves whether it be the accessories the backpacks or the brand of clothing or or whatnot um obviously people who um uh yeah they find ways to kind of you know in make themselves individual but they also find ways to to make fun of a kid regardless of if you're wearing a uniform or not so uh you

120know is it an option of course it is well it's all everything um maybe maybe not um I I think um yeah I mean like I said the permissive uh more permissive is good um yeah I've obviously we saw a lot of comments from middle schoolers uh I think when I look at the elementary schools that I I visited when my kids go to and interacting with kids I think they're you know there's a variety of clothes that kids wear and I've never heard of a kid getting dress coded which I I think is uh is important as Rebecca has said so yeah I mean I was curious when you say the the gang uh kind of style uh so it's is it where the wearing baby clothes and wearing designer clothing or is it

121is it actually is it in general or specifically related to getting it because I I was kind of curious on that comment so unfortunately I've had to dive into the gang stuff because of my well now 17 and a half year old um and now they're they're really sneaky about it so you would go to school and it depends you would take a bandana so the bandana you would put in your back pocket and then it would let everybody know what gang you're in and then or if not what shoes you're wearing um so it was just depending um even colors what color you were wearing um that's why I would tell my kid is like you're about to be nothing when I I'm gonna put a white T-shirt on you with you know some

122jeans and you're going to go to school that way um and it did work for a while you know it did work but that's where that gang stuff goes to because it is kind of sneaky now about you know they try to be sneaky about it I think I've always been there though we talked about the bandanas the colors the the certain symbols and the certain shoes too I haven't changed in the 40 years I've been around so uh though uh that will always be there I I think yeah I mean you having your your son uh you know dresser in a you know a self-inflicted uniform I mean obviously that's something parents can do as well um but yeah I think living colors have always been a part of uh identification of a gang

123among other things so that that's hard to control so yeah and it's not the basic colors like before so just to let you know it's not basic colors but regardless I mean yeah I mean whatever color it is I mean if a kid wants to whether you're a kid is actually in the game or not right I mean if they want to have that look they're gonna you know they're gonna find a way if oh yeah yeah right they're gonna find a way so um I think this is about you know I had the same discussion with with David uh earlier before I left for my work my work uh event that you know I think the average the average teacher is not going to know every single symbol that can represent a gang um

124obviously if anything is obvious you know yeah those if you have that the specialized knowledge and you know you can identify it but I think that would be you know a harder task for the employer they think it's about uh the the staff I think it'd be sort of the appropriate to still kind of give the guidelines of what is allowed and what isn't and I agree with it be more permissive but it also have to be um you know but needs to be well thought out and developed so yeah okay a lot of um thinking and I would like to be able to get some maybe direction of things to bring back or to consider um because I was the one presenting the Box the last time um so as we we worked on

125this and really were thinking about doing what maybe some of the intention isn't hasn't panned out in the input implementation of the dress code but really to be very gender neutral and allow expression there is language in here about Gang Related apparel um we work with law enforcement on that Nathaniel just to specify so if there is oh yeah particular concerns they usually bring that to our attention to so that we can monitor things um and so I think that one of the things I'm hearing is that certainly the enforcement has been inconsistent and because of the inconsistency of that it has caused questions about that and so where maybe there's lack of clarity um what I heard Nathaniel saying is there's the the policy needs to be more clear because there's still interpretation in

126what's in there and that can lead to so you can train but if people are still interpreting things differently that can lead to confusion in implementation and so I'm wondering if if a next step is to think about clarifying or bringing um back more clarity and and or changes to what's here as an interim step or to consider as a next step like this might be maybe not completely adopting it's hard to know I feel like our policy is kind of in the middle of more premises versus less permissive and so is as it's in the middle but maybe some clarity and some language around enforcement and things like that for making sure that we have consistency um might be a next step at least to look at and in a first reader discussion um

127and that could be something that we could bring forward and if if that might be acceptable as a Next Step I'm not sure what what is the wish I'm just trying to I'm taking a lot of notes and trying to hear from everyone and I want to give some examples just where I think there is maybe confusion that has to do with the language and the policy itself um is around like the three to four inches on um short lengths and you know really that was included to be an example of what covering the Box meant um not a ruler based you know we were trying to get away from that and I think um that hasn't always been the case and so there's a lot of you know a student might buy a certain

128pair of shorts at the beginning of the year grows throughout the year and all of a sudden is being dress coded because they're shorter than you know three to four inches or or what have you um that's one I I've noticed I've heard um discussion uh pajama bottoms and there's actually language in the dress code that talks about Footwear and says pajamas aren't appropriate and I think it's just talking about you know like that one onesie PJs not really pajama bottoms and um I I don't think even I I I don't think there's a definition of what a pajama bottom is except that certainly you know like onesie pajamas wouldn't be appropriate at school because they're not safe um but some of that I think needs Clarity certainly um in in the board policy one

129of the things as I was reviewing the permissive and the the restrictive um samples and I know actually San Diego unified is included in the permissive samples Rebecca um it's either sample number three or number four um and all of the permissive samples are actually relatively um similar but um uh one thing that I saw in the Helix um dress code that was significantly more permissive than any of the other dress codes and I would love to just get the board direct feedback on this one is um you know they have their their um the basic principles of you have to have clothing on you have to have Footwear on um and then beneath that it talks about visible midriffs are allowed visible waistbands on undergarments or visible straps on undergarments worn under other clothing

130I and you know so waistbands I'm thinking that's too take uh you know sagging out of the equation but uh the the language about midriffs and it is a departure from the box and so I would just like to know the board's thinking on on that because I I think the overall philosophy was that the um the the the you know all that private parts would be covered fully um even with the box so you know it wasn't the intent necessarily to say that you know it's acceptable as long as something's up to your armpits and straight across you know that's acceptable like anything below that is you know um somehow unprofessional or Unbecoming of a classroom um anyway so I'd love to get just the words thought specifically on the language about midriffs for

131instance in the in the permissive policies well I think that what bothers me the most when we think about that box is that a shirt the bottom of a shirt can touch the top of the pants right but we our bodies move around and girls are getting singled out that they're not following dress code because when you raised your hand then there was a gap there and that I don't think is the intention of the policy I don't think it's that big of a deal if you're at the top of your shirt doesn't touch the top of your pants like I don't think that that's a big deal but I also have two daughters at home and I watch them get dressed all the time and if they're not going to school they likely have

132a crop top on it's really hard to find a shirt that is not a crop top um that they would find age-appropriate other I mean they can get like the big t-shirts and stuff but even um some people have a problem if the shirts are too oversized or then it's like it's it's a tricky situation the only thing I want to add before my and I get before I get home and my kid tells me something he actually he's sworn into the Navy so he's going to be in uniform for six years so foreign I I just want to add that I think that I I think that Clarity around with the bare midriff around um you know that it's this is this is your it needs to be covered when your hands are you

133know by your waist or out to the side or having some clarity about that I think that yes you're right there's plenty of shirts that you know any of us have that you raise your hands and it slips up a little um I I think that that is I don't think that crop tops are appropriate necessarily for school um but I also went to school in a day when the dress code was significantly more you know strict than this um I I think that my fear about making this more permissive in terms of um allowing midriffs or allowing um uh yeah um is that there's a lot of you know girls have a lot of body dysmorphia out there and you know seeing what other girls are are allowed to wear and maybe look good

134in that you might not necessarily look good in is is a struggle for a lot of these girls and so and and boys um and so being able to you know coming back to focusing on having kids be able to focus on school and focus on learning I think that being able to have something that is that is more generic across um you know everyone and I think that you know kind of the entire box but yes I think that I I would I would agree with maybe having a little bit more clarity about um about some of the some of the more the the pieces of the dress codes that are up to more interpretation um I I would definitely agree with that um but I and I I understand what Nathaniel is saying

135about that needing to be incorporated into the policy I would still like to see maybe some sort of an interim not even of incorporating I don't want to change the dress code policy and then it not work and we're doing all this again um in in a year because we changed it in the wrong way that that you know we didn't really uh weren't able to fully fully process this out I would like to maybe see again some sort of a training if we come up with a this is how we would like to clarify things let's train the teachers in the in the fall and see again okay does that work cool now in January December January let's Implement that into the policy or if it doesn't work and that's not um you know

136things weren't clear enough or we're we're having problems in other ways in terms of um in terms of uh enforcement let's let's re I think that it's a step-by-step process before we wholesale change the policy but I think that having more clarification is is important um but then those things figuring out what that looks like to then go into the policy um so my experiences with um high school and college students since I coach high school and I um teach at Community College so obviously that's a very different age groups um but I did just want to comment that um in my high school students and my college students there are uh students of all shapes and sizes wearing crop tops so I'm hoping that we are getting away from the idea that only certain

137body shapes are acceptable to where certain types of clothing but that's all I wanted to add yeah yeah after that so you talk yeah talking about you know shoulders and midriffs and you know crop tops or whatever uh obviously everyone's opinion if that's going to be different um whether whether we we ensure that if a shirt if a person moves it dress coding because they lifted their arms or or walking down the hallway then their shirt lifted up you know half an inch I think that you know whether it's that or whether you allow it or not I think that's disgust but you know I think the being permissive and kind of those guidelines is allowing people to uh pick what they are comfortable in and that is appropriate for for within within the policy

138and I think that you know allows you know who every student to make those choices and kind of know that this is you know I'm not going to get in trouble I'm not going to be berated I'm going to be able to to go to school and when I'm comfortable and and it's been my day so whatever the end goal is when it comes to mid-drift um I mean the person's you know shorts or pants or skirt are at an appropriate level in their private parts are are covered you know whether a shirt shows a little bit of stomach or not I mean or having you touch or do we need the required long enough to be tucked I mean that's uh I mean for me I think as long as it's you know the

139private parts are covered the kids comfortable um I think I think I think we're okay Brian I just want to get some clarified so you don't want to change is there is there anything to restrict us from from uh passing a policy and updating it on a on a shorter term basis than multiple years is there anything that would stop us from doing that no there there's not there's nothing that would stop the board from updating the policy is often we're going to train people you something right all right so it's the guidance that that the the you know Deanna and her team and whoever else is involved is going to develop based on and that we're going to you know kind of you know pass as this is the policy so I I you

140know if we were going to do a training in you know every three months do an interval and say how is it going I mean that effectively you know having a very fluid situation that's constantly changing so whether it's we we pass a policy in fact in one year reassess it or two years reassess it uh yeah I think it's uh I don't know how policies are you know in general what school districts are generally created for for uh for dress codes but I mean having a ongoing change of changing training doesn't seem like it would it would address this issue as well it probably caused even more confusion um especially if if there isn't something to kind of Base the view of the district on all right when it comes to training the teachers

141so whether we want to do a policy that you know kind of sets whatever level of detail is appropriate to get us there and then and then we we update it you know based on the trade how it's received I mean but I I just feel like there needs to be something as a starting point that's better to developed than what we have now but if I could the only thing I might add is it it would be hard to enforce the policy if it wasn't updated so having clarifications and revisions would be helpful just to be able to enforce or however like to train on yeah for sure what are you going to hold the teacher to right if the teacher decides to put their Viewpoint and say this is well this is what

142the training said and depending how that was delivered but if there was a document these are the bare minimums right then I think that's uh that kind of helps the situation overall I get that and I get that not having something to enforce is is difficult um I think that my my concern is that from what I understand teachers do not want to have to be going through trainings every three months on the dress code and so being able to uh figure out what we want and stick to it um I think that my again it goes back to my concern is is if we change the dress code and then it's not what we want and in three months we change it again and it's you know figure out if that's that's what works

143I think that that's where then then we also create confusion right because it's changing so frequently um I I know that as uh in the work that I do as a working for an Architecture Firm the City municipal code changes so frequently for certain things but I submit some plans and by the time that we get comments back the municipal code has changed and they're like you need to fix this because the municipal's codes changed I was like well when I drew those plans they they were accurate um and so I think that that's uh that's also difficult is if we're we're constant we can't be constantly changing it um but I think that I I would propose them that we direct staff to bring back clarifications language that would clarify some of the um

144some of the issues in in the dress code but I would also like to see not just from the surveys but that that be done in conjunction with with staff I I think that making sure there's not just a district thing but but whoever the decision-making body is on bringing those um ideas back to us I would like to see um the elementary schools and middle schools represented in that so we can get a good cross-section of of you know staff that is actually enforcing the dress code and what do what does staff need to be able to enforce the dress code um whatever the dress code may look like but my only with the survey I'm not sure what I can't remember what David said was the percentage of the return responses I I

145mean there is a a flip whether it should be more lenient or more restrictive right so we have but started driving this conversation with also students speaking out about how they are being it's being enforced against them and so if we're taking the the Viewpoint of only the staff um which absolutely needs to be considered um it's going to be ignoring the the experience and the perceived that we may of all the adults in the room the board the district and the teachers are making the decision and how is it but what is how it's being received is how the the students and the families are going to be taking it and feeding us back so without having that input which is what the surveys try to do then we're really missing a major component

146of reshaping it right because I believe I believe the pie chart was a flip I'd have to go back and look at it but I I thought that one teacher wanted a more more restrictive and students wanted it more leaning in or maybe maybe I'm mistaken on that date no that's correct I mean it looks to I'm looking at the pie chart now and staff was roughly 50 50 on good as is and not strict enough and so I think that both of those can still be interpreted as and from Reading comments a lot of it is clarification and and clarification in some ways could be seen as more restrictive but also clarification could be seen as more permissive um I think that I agree that including students in this might be might you know

147could be would be important as well um but I think that just using this the surveys isn't enough because the surveys weren't asking what language would help you interpret you know interpret this better um and I think that that's where understanding what language um you know the the language side of things is is important in um in making it actually enforceable well sorry I'm gonna get the survey again so teachers are 40 not strict enough 45 good as is students are 63 too strict and 33 good as good as is okay but but then you also looking at the quantitative responses from the students right and especially when it comes to what we're what we're assuming are the female students because a lot of there are some comments like it doesn't affect me I don't

148care I want hacks that even gives even more texture to the very simple survey they were given so whether whether it's creating a more well-developed that are talking about Footwear shirts dress uh uh you know pants shorts dresses or or however we want to do it I mean I I think it also depends how we select the teachers that are it's going to be on a volunteer basis that we do in a sample basis or are we reaching out to the principles to kind of kind of get a get a a sense of what their their students and teachers needed and being the representative I think that's you know obviously we have two very passionate teachers about this topic who came in was very helpful to get their perspective but I I I think it's

149also you know as us on the board and the staff to consider what we've been told consider what we see in in the verbal response and make it and make a decision on that as well but about saying that we shouldn't be getting more input but how do we go about the method of getting that is kind of what I'm curious about then uh I'd like to propose this to the board and just get your input on whether or not this is what you would like us to do um what I would propose is that we take our existing dress code and that we make the clarifications where there is lack of clarity um and um the areas that that exists we work with our representative groups both our Teachers Association CSEA our principal leaders

150and then bring back um a draft to the board of a of a amended dress code policy not not a new dress code policy but a dress code policy that has been adjusted based on the feedback of the board based on you know the um the lack of clarity that you see and the responses from staff and and that themselves and um and kind of take it from there and I I don't think that Deanna and I have you know really been working on this and thinking hard about this talking to a lot of people about it I don't think that um I think we could have a like a proposed something to the board even at the at the next June board meeting to get input I mean it's once you start to get

151into a new school year and that sort of thing it's um it's you know tough to change something like this Midway through um but I do think it's something that we definitely could bring you back something if that would be agreeable to the board so could parts of our the current dress code be taken out in that amended form yeah absolutely I mean it will we would look at that um any of the language like uh we're going to take out the language about pajama bottoms because it's confusing you know so um but yeah I think that the dress code can I think we can incorporate the feedback um and it will change things that are in the dress code but I I mean I'll be really honest with you I did when you look

152at the difference between um the most permissive policy and hours there's not a huge swing between the two it's um how it's structured is a little different but in terms of How It's worded and everything um it's it's there's not a huge swing so and you know we're we're going to bring back a recommendation that um or a draft that maintains the Box but provides more clarity around what is intended um and more clarity for staff about how that would be enforced um some of which was discussed here tonight so where are we at with hats and hoodies that's a hard one for me because in my district we have hats and hoodies there's kids that won't they need to be in that like you were saying and yeah I'll just say that I saw

153a commonality that I saw through a lot of these policies was um hats and hoodies being permitted in as much as it wasn't hiding the um Identity or the face of the student but I wonder what you yeah I think that the the concern I hear often from stuff is the safety issue I think it was brought up even tonight about being able to identify so it's about how it's warm um not that it's worn and again hats are are required to be permitted for Ed code for sun covering sun protection but it's the indoor outdoor thing so it goes back to like what's what's the objective right but part of it is how is it warm is it covering the face there's the the earbud thing that becomes an issue becomes initiative that's you

154know kids are paying attention things like that but we don't want hoods pulled over so much so that we can't identify or recognize who a student is that's safety issue so there's some clarity I think that can be provided in that way yeah I think that I think that would be good with the clarity as far as why you know if a kid is called out for having his hood on um you know what's the specific reason so because I know a lot of kids use that as a coping skill like my kid did so just a quick question um when uh training is provided about how to enforce the dress code do we include um implicit biases in that like sexism racism waitism um that might make people just casually without thinking about it

155and force it differently with different groups so when we first rolled the new dress code out also keep in mind that was right before pandemic shutdown um but our training was to administrators and then via administrators to school staff so I don't want to um I I think that's part of the the issue is like it it becomes the the telephone game right um and that's that's the nature of certain things but it certainly was absolutely discussed as the reason the dress code was changing in the first place and that conversation about um their whole selves and their whole identities being brought to school and the things that we don't want to be looking at and that dress code and and the clothing that children wear shouldn't be dependent on body type body shape gender

156identity any of those things and so lots of conversations about that and about even you know there is language in Ed code that is included in um in our board policy um that was a big deal several years ago just about hair and braids and how hair could be worn and that was something that we discussed because it was a very important um piece so yes those things are there because they're very specifically called out I think what we'll have to do is put something together that's kind of a presentation that just can be gone through so it's standardized one last thing uh beyond the uh the midriff which I think we're getting some kind of feedback from you Nathaniel [Music] Jordan sorry just confirmed we don't need a vote or anything on that right

157it's just Direction yeah just discussion and then we'll bring it back um probably the next board meeting and um but whether or not that's a voting item or not um and then we could take it from there can I make one last thing sounds like Nathaniel's trying to talk not just feedback oh is it is that what it is someone doing the Darth Vader into a fan but my voice is D but I don't think it's that deep um maybe something happened with the audio a lot well I have a lot of comments about Footwear you know when I know you're you you're totally robotic we can't hear you at all um can you try turning off your video or is it already off my video is already off okay robotic um we need to

158let's see foreign can you unplug your headset and plug it back in Nathaniel can you hear me now um no still causing an issue yeah um you know I'm just gonna make it really simple and just call him and we'll do it that way yeah yeah let's do that Nathaniel we're gonna call you hello hey can you hear us okay yeah can you hear me now yeah you have to mute your computer like I do the uh okay am I muted now yeah it sounds good now all right perfect sorry about that um quick comments about Footwear I mean uh obviously you see you know kids Elementary School win a variety of Footwear um I know a lot of comments were some of the comments were about Footwear and I think especially you know for

159a safety reason like it's a lab it's you know a cooking class it's you know a sports class or PE of course you know Footwear is important but other than that I mean if there's a safety reason why I have to be close to those shoes at all times um which obviously you don't see I think at the elementary school level then you know then maybe then that needs to be clarified but uh there were some comments about how kids wear their crops or their sandals and uh or whether they can wear sandals or not I think that could you know something that should be clarified as well that was it thank you thanks Nathaniel okay so now we're on item seven a new business business consent items I moved to motion um to approve

1607A oh second is there any question or discussion regarding this item okay all in favor say aye aye aye Nathaniel we lose him we sure do he's calling me about that nice thank you uh I'm gonna call you back on the other phone okay thanks we'll verify that he did say hi I'm here thank you all right thank you and you did say I on that vote I did sorry about that yeah thank you all right next item 7B it's a resolution requesting the Board of Supervisors of the County of San Diego establish a tax rate for bonds to be sold during the fiscal year of 2023 through 2024 and authorizing necessary actions in connection there with yes but we'll need a motion in a second before we'll call it I motion to approve item

1617B I second good question yeah could we just get uh I mean it sounds fairly straightforward we could get like The quick summary from Jen yeah so the board issued um the Assurance of series B and so we anticipate that there'll be new debt that will be serviced via property taxes and so it's requirement of the County of San Diego to submit a resolution approved by the board estimating what the X you know the tax roll will be for the upcoming fiscal year just a requirement cool thank you okay and Kathy it's a roll call vote actually you can go ahead and do it because all of them are roll call votes okay um hi all right Nathaniel hi I promised Kathy she was off the her tonight so we got it um item 7c

162is a resolution Award of lease lease back agreement I moved to approve 17. I'll second with the same just quick summary from Jen so this is for bundles d and e and it's the competitive bidding process that we're required to do that we we've done for bundles a b and c we've been super happy with our partner with Balfour Beatty but this is true um competitive bidding at its finest because through the process and the selection process the team the interview panels identified losardi as scoring higher with the um you know the rankings through those interviews and so this is a new partner that we'll be working on bundles DNE with with the board is approval is there any um reasoning that Balfour Beatty you know with the knowledge of how a b and c

163went that they had a higher bidder or or what not maybe scored lower because of the original information that they had or did it seem like everyone had the enough information do do we is there a mute button on there could we hit mute on him no on The Cisco on the or either oh it's there but that he'll be able to hear we won't be able to hear him through here and then when I'm done talking or you know I can like yeah okay so you wave if Nathaniel if you need to comment on something other than a vote let just let Matt know or or text me and then we'll we'll do that so we'll mute this for now and you don't mind unmuting um cool um but yeah it wasn't there is

164there any it did it seem like yeah they had just they had more information so they had a higher bid and or or was it I don't know the particulars of what they did have but I know that um and I could get back to you with more detail on it but I do know that for them um they requested a review of of everything so that's what our team's doing is reviewing with them you know okay this is how it went and they can see how everything was scored and get the feedback that way cool um but yeah I can give you more info if you need it that's good that answered my question okay okay so are there any other questions all right so uh I'll start voting I I I okay next

165item 8A is Educational Services consent items I moved to approve um item 8A and I've actually been involved with them and I think they're an amazing organization I'll second that any questions or discussion okay all in favor say I I I I I all right 8B is the action authorization to change Elementary and Middle School grade spans I move to motion item 8B I have a couple of comments um just more I note this is the approval to move this process forward um and I think that this is we've gotten I think last time we had a public hearing on this so we got some public feedback on on opinions about this um I think from some of my site visits being able to talk to principals also about how this is going to affect

166me a lot of the times it's like this is a good thing we don't have enough space at the elementary schools um but I think hearing both you're hearing all the sides of things and um I want to make sure that we are moving forward with this are looking at ways to um really roll this out equitably across the across the district I know a big concern that we've been hearing from a lot of parents is lmac moving to not have fourth and fifth grade and fourth and fifth grade at lmac were really critical you know years for the foundations um uh lessons for that and so being able to get that base there I think that some of the stuff that I've I've mentioned in the past of the vapa grants and and all

167of the Arts education being able to be incorporated into the elementary schools now and utilizing that funds at the elementary school so now all of our elementary schools are able to get Arts education um I think that you know looking at other um curriculum that may have some sort of an imbalance between Elementary School and Middle School a few months ago we approved the family health curriculum and that is as I understand it right now being rolled out in sixth grade and seventh grade which means that if that moves forward it is only going to be in middle school I think that the intent of the sixth grade year was to have a year of that in elementary school and the curriculum that we approved is framed as and for that year is it framed

168as an upper elementary school curriculum I would like to see you know just as this gets rolled out to review kind of where other pinch points might be and and um you know make sure that we're considering this considering all of the implications that might um you know unintentional implications of this yeah thank you only I'll need a second I'll second thank you any other comments or questions okay all in favor say I I I I [Laughter] think um item nine action Human Resources consent items I'll move to approve the human resources and consent items oh second any questions or discussion regarding our human resources consent items okay all in favor say aye aye aye aye aye okay excellent and last is our closing Communications announcements reports and Communications from the board and superintendent do

169we have any announcements just quickly I was able to go out to jogathon at Avondale um last week and that was super fun it was it was fun to see all the kids running around um and I love those kinds of events because they're definitely organized chaos but that's a lot of what an elementary school is and so that was that was fun to see and then I just wanted to thank you again we had a lot of public comments on on all of the different things today and I I would like to thank the the public for coming out and and expressing their opinions on um on on the district so thank you I'm excited for next week um wanted to just welcome back Meg um to her first meeting we're back from her

170leave I hope I hope you have done good quality time with your family and I also thank you to the staff for all the hard work you've been doing for these uh important topics uh that's it and then I'm just looking forward to the graduations I will be attending La Presa in Spain it's really exciting Caitlin do you have anything no I don't really have much either it's the end of the school year we just gotta hang in there and celebrate the bodies that we have with us till they're gonna leave for summer and we'll start over it's it's a tricky time of year with behaviors for some reason the weather being so cloudy makes it feel a little bit different so I feel like there's a lot more days left than there are because

171I'm used to it being like warm around this time um but just everyone Hang on we're gonna make it um um yeah I just uh first off I want to thank everyone for your patience tonight about the technology um we got through it so that was good thank you for that um I want to just thank all the members of the public everyone that came out and gave comments tonight um we really appreciate it especially that everyone was um kind and and um thoughtful so that that was appreciated um and then welcome back to mag um thank you to Guido who I'm sure is not watching this but um for helping out in her absence and um congratulations on Baby James and um and just last but not least is the end of the school

172year and um it's always such a Bittersweet time you know uh as we realize that we're getting into the last week it gets you choked up um and I just can't say how grateful we are for all of our families and for all of our teachers our staff our students just for making this District everything that it is thank you for that okay so we will adjourn this meeting at 8 34 pm