001Good evening and welcome to the February 4th, 2026 board workshop meeting of the Capistroni Unified School District. The meeting is now in session. The time is 50 4 5:04 p.m. I'd like to remind everyone this is an informal workshop for the board of trustees. Mrs. Can you please call the role? >> Trusty Adams >> here. >> Trusty Bulicus >> here. >> Trusty Castianis >> here. >> Trusty Davis >> here. >> Trusty Jones >> here. >> Trusty Pritchard. Trusty Pritchard is absent. And Trusty Zallinger will be absent this evening. The pledge of allegiance will be led by John Forny. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. We have
002a motion to adopt the agenda. Moved by Trustee Adams, seconded by Trustee Jones. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 502. And I'd like to recognize Clark Hampton, Deputy Superintendent, Business Support Services to present the following items. First reading, board policies, 13:30, use of school facilities. >> Thank you, President Davis. So, these are the following items. when we'll have a presentation for um item number two, but the first item is an update to board policy 13:30. This policy is being updated to reflect recent changes to California education code following the passage of Assembly Bill 503 and to align with current statewide policy guidance. And staff is here uh to answer any questions you may have uh with the adjustments to the policy. Okay, trustes Miss Jones or Trusty
003Jones. >> Um, okay. So, first page of the policy. [clears throat] Um, in green it says subject to prior approval by the board, the superintendent design may grant use of the school facilities or grounds on those days on which this district closed schools are closed. What does this mean? It doesn't It sounds like it's different from the other parts. >> Mr. Jones, can you let us know where you're working on? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Page one of Well, page 11. >> Yes. And which part? >> About the middle of the page >> in green. Thank you. >> Green. Yes. Thank you. >> It is. >> I know. It's very pale. >> It's faintly green. >> Yeah. >> So, I I just don't know what that means. uh like it it because back up further there's
004like that s sort of thing and this is see seems to be called out for days when district schools are closed. >> My understanding is a lot of our policies are around rental. So during the school day after the school day um facilities this is specifically when we're closed. So, should someone want to utilize facilities on a Sunday, on a holiday, during a winter break, um it's so that we can still have water polar teams practicing the pools during winter break because we're not open at all there. So, it's it just kind of clarifies that even when the district is not open and in business, we can still approve facility usages. >> Okay. >> Well, I wonder if maybe it belongs then higher up like after the red new red paragraph. I don't know. I
005I I just looked at it and I'm like, I don't understand what this part is about. Uh but it's not a hill to die on. >> Um on the next page, uh it says uh adopts the following fee uh structure on the second paragraph, but there is no following fee structure. Um maybe there maybe there will be on the website or something but there isn't one here. Um so in the presentation uh which I think is later um it talks about uh in the next paragraph the board authorizes use of facilities at grounds without charge except for overtime and in the presentation it doesn't mention overtime. So I don't it seems inconsistent that we mention it here but not in the other one. So I'll I'll leave it up to staff. I just want to
006call that out. Um and I felt that when we say uh except for over time custodial costs by internal district approved school connected groups D um uh including but not limited to and I thought it would be a good idea to to repeat their district approved school connected groups, school connected athletic teams, etc., etc. Because without that, I think you could get people saying, "Oh, we're an athletic team, some, you know, AYSO or whatever." Um, so I just thought repeating it would be a good idea. >> So where where were you looking to repeat it? >> Um, where where we've taken out >> Yeah. taken out group A group A that include >> district approved here, >> right? So just by internal district approved school connected groups including but not limited to district approved athletic
007teams debate teams add it there. Add the same verbiage there. >> Sure. Yes. >> Something like that. Yeah. >> Yeah. I like bulleted district groups bulleted. >> Something like that. Yeah. >> So it's just clear that >> Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Um then in the next paragraph we say not school connected and I thought again maybe district approved should be there because you know St. Margaret's groups are school connected, but they're not our school. Our schools um towards the bottom under forprofit and commercial groups uh are not to be expended are not to be expended for charitable purposes. I guess I I was going to say legitimate charitable purposes because I think a lot of people say something is a charity when it isn't an actual charity. Uh again, I would leave that up to
008the staff as to what they want to do with that. I just felt like maybe it needed to be more specific. This is one that we get a fair amount of of not not so much the policy but the but issues. we get a fair amount of questions about um and I think it's I mean any number of policies no one has ever said boo about them >> but this but school facilities is something that people do ask questions about so I think it's important to be clear >> and we could elucidate in the AR when we talk about charitable groups that you need to be a 501c3 right that you'd have to prove your charity when you apply to use the facility so it's definitely not just well I'm a charity right it's definitely
009you have to submit the the paperwork that shows that you're identified chair. Right. So, we can put that in the AR. This >> whatever whatever you want. >> Uh and I'm done. >> Is this working? Yes, it's lit up. Oh, there. Okay. Um I had asked this question earlier and I think there are a few parents in the audience, not just a lot of uh school administrators. So, I want this to be said out loud on the record because as a parent, um, I know that there was always a sense of when we would rent out our athletic facilities. Um, and what comes to mind, my example that I gave to Clark Hampton was the pool. Sometimes there is a polo club that wants to, you know, rent our pool. Uh, and then not only
010the pool, but they want to rent the equipment that goes with the pool. And so we start to get uh rapid wear and tear on it. Uh in the policy um uh AB or excuse me the new legislation the AB503 um it says that the refurbishment, repairs, restoration, those funds will be deposited in a special fund and to be used only for certain purposes. Um, and I know that for a long time, especially at the high schools, there was always a question of, well, it goes into this district fund, but if we need to replenish at ours, it's not always that that money is is available. So, I was kind of questioning that and received the response today that yeah, it doesn't go into a special fund for that school that had incurred that it
011is at the district and all those maintenance funds are put in. and then a priority um in terms of requests for any replacements that need to be done. U so I just wanted to clarify that that still exists and there's not this special account that each you know high school receives but it is goes to district funds and as we dig into this we will find that we often do not have those funds. >> Yeah. I mean you'll see >> there's a disparity in terms of the cost of replacement and repair versus the monies that we have collected. So >> we generally take a loss on facilities used. So so it's we spend more refurbishing than we make off of those facilities every year which is kind of why that works. But we'll hopefully talk
012about that. >> The PowerPoint will show that. >> Yeah, we'll get into to that chart because I had questions on that. But that's it um for right now. Thank you. Other trustees. Trusty Jones. >> I actually missed my last two pages. I'm sorry. Uh page 13 at the bottom, it refers to um the first line, vote centers on election day, but then later on it says vote center on election day andor during the 10 days preceding because the vote centers are not just election day. Polling places used to be election day only, but vote centers are not. And we probably need to be clear on that. >> That one does, but the first one, it just says, uh, board may authorize use of school buildings as polling places or vote centers for election day and
013may authorize D. >> So, um, so you're looking to have the same verbiage for both. Well, I I don't I don't care, but I think that needs to be addressed >> consistent >> because election it's it it turned polling place into vote center sort of without dealing with the fact that vote centers go for a long time. Um then on the next page on page 14, the second paragraph refers to a telephone line for internet access. I don't think we do that anymore. So, uh, I don't I don't know what we want to do there, but but I'm I I got rid of my 300 baud modem some time ago. >> What was your specific question on the last page? >> I'm sorry. >> The last page, what was your >> provide a telephone? >>
014Oh, just >> internet access >> as opposed to provide. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. others. Okay. Thank you. All right. Noted direction staff. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to uh >> number two uh 4 A2 use of facility fees. >> Okay. So I' I'd like to call up the power Power PowerPoint presentation >> and then I will turn it over to John Forny, chief facilities officer and Carlos Chicus, our executive director for MOT, maintenance operations, transportation to take you through this presentation. Thank you. And this is related to how our fe our fees are calculated and what we need to do to be uh become more compliant with um ED code for the what char what we charge for facilities fees. All right. So, we'll go ahead and get right to the the
015goods here. So, just to give some context on the last time we addressed the uh the facility fee schedule and uh to your point, uh Trusty Jones, uh the proposed fee schedule is is coming, but this is just to kind of give us an idea when we've last took some action on it. So the board uh approves the last revi revised fee schedule in August of 2020. Uh over three years we implemented that um and uh the escalations were predetermined. U there was nothing built into that fee schedule to uh address um cola's inflation, but that's something that we're we're talking about now. So, uh, as we determine a fee schedule, how do we determine recovering some of those costs? Uh, there is the the Department of Education gives us a formula, a suggested formula
016for us to follow. Uh, and and to do that, you determine the percentage of the time that the facility is used is is is able to be used and then how many total hours are used by applicants. In other words, requesters or renters. And that could vary by facility type. for example, you're going to have much more usage at a pool than you are an NPR, for example. So, you take those total hours by those groups and then you divide them by all the hours that those are used and then you come up with a proportionate share, a percentage of what you would charge uh users. A capital direct cost is something that now with AB503, we'll be able to recoup again. How do you get to th those numbers? It's based on uh an
017estimated use uh or or end of life of a particular facility, a building. Um and that also varies by facility type. Um but we could, you know, just as an example, maybe there's there's a particular building that we estimate 30 years use of life. So we use that as a as a basis. And then uh also operational direct costs uh based on what does it take to maintain, repair and restore a particular building or facility. Uh and that's how you come up with a capital cost. Operational co costs are a little bit more straightforward. We're talking utilities, supplies, uh staff that that we have to employ to maintain those buildings. So you take the capital rate, you take the operational rate, uh and then you add those together. Uh you divide it by the hours
018of use. So what is the proportional hours of use? How many hours does a particular uh facility get used by our applicants or our requesters? That's how you come up with a proposed hourly fee. We have different groups. Some groups um are not charged at all. Anything that's internal or school connected, we don't charge them a facility use fee. Uh so the district eats those costs and we understand that we're going to uh that includes booster clubs, foundations, uh PTAs, uh and in different programs that we have identified as being extracurricular but district programs. Then you have the next group, group B. uh those are youth serving uh groups. Uh some of them are pre-identified but some of them apply uh and if they are determined to be a youth serving group they get a
019different rate. Um it's a reduced rate. So we have some examples here girl scouts by MCA um some recreational sport leagues um church supervised sports leagues. So many of those have been identified to be in that B group. the uh the the law also states that there should be a nominal charge to participants, right? So, it should be less than $60 a month that that those groups are charging. If they're charging more than that, then they wouldn't qualify to be in this group. Uh we have our religious organizations. Um it's a it's a slight discount, but it is a discount. And then uh finally any for-profit any other groups they fall under that group D fair market value. Um that's the highest rate that we charge. So to give us an idea how you calculate
020costs we we we kind of talked about it in theory but this is just a sample scenario. This is not one of our sites. It's just an example hypothetical if you will. So you talking about this high school gymnasium. Um the first thing you do is you talk about usage. Um and in this example they use 750 hours a year. The the the this particular gym is used by outside users. Uh the total use of this facility by everyone is 3,000 hours in a year. So the proportionate share for outside users becomes 25%. Uh capital costs are determined by how much would it be would we have we spend to replace this after 30 years. So, you divide that by those 30 years and you come up with a $500,000 annual capital cost. Uh, then
021operational costs based on utilities as we mentioned, based on staff, administrative costs comes up to about 175,000 in this example. So, then you take that capital rate, you take the operational rate and you come up with a total hourly rate. So those those that that capital rate is 500,000 times 25% right because we determined that's the proportion proportional share rate for outside users. The same thing goes for uh the operational rate a 25% share of that cost. So then we come into AB503 which is the legislation that we've been talking about. Uh it's kind of guided us in the revision of our board policy. It focuses on cost transparency. uh also requires us to document direct and indirect costs of community use and uh allows us to align those actual fees with our actual costs.
022And as we'll see later on in the presentation, it's not something we're really doing really a good job at right now. Uh and part of that was because we were limited on what we could actually recoup. So the the the the board policy reflects those revisions. And these are the three kind of target bullets objectives of that uh new legislation. Alignment, transparency, and sustainability. Um will we be able to sustain our our uh the cost of maintaining buildings through our use of facility fees? Absolutely not. But could it help us offset some costs? Absolutely. So, um, speaking again and as we're thinking about, uh, a fee structure, just kind of kind of to regroup here, um, there are these groups that we will not be charging. And for example, and this is a snapshot of
0232024. This is how much it costs us to subsidize that use. Um, and we understand that we're not recovering these costs. This is just a pretty good uh snapshot of how much we spent uh in in renting out the facility to our own users, some school connected groups as well. And here's where we get into um where we have more of a gap. Um, when you talk about your your your C and D groups because we were we were able to to charge a higher rate, we we we did pretty good in recovering our our costs, but it's in that, and this is a a typo because it should say youth serving nonprofit, not not school connected. So, so group B is youth serving nonprofit. Um, our direct costs uh are somewhere in the in
024the vicinity of $3.7 million. what we collected is about 833,000. And you know, we've done it we've we've gotten better at collecting fees, but what we charge is still going to have us falling way short of our costs. So, here is an example of one of our facilities. This is San Juan Hills pool. So the district for every hour the community uses the pool, we're paying $396 of that. And this kind of breaks it down. So operational direct costs for a pool are about $115 uh an hour. Capital direct costs are about $269 an hour. Um then there's administrative costs and uh the total hourly cost approximately is about $444. That's the current hourly rate, but we're really falling short on recovering our costs with this B group. So recommendations is being very transparent about
025actual costs, making sure everybody understands how much it costs to to rent out our facilities, and then uh establish a fee schedule for groups uh with a three-year implementation plan uh with an inflation escalator. That's something that we should build into the fee schedule. At least that's the recommendation moving forward. and and we can leverage this new legislation to do that. And I don't know if you want to add anything, John. >> No, I think you covered it. Well, we're open to questions and how we want to move forward with the fee structure in in the future. >> And I'd like to add just before we start, could you go back to slide three? I just want to give also some context of where we are. You know, how we want to pro proceed in
026the future in addition to this meeting three. You're going the other way. This one all the way to the beginning. You're going the wrong direction. While that's we're calling that up, I want to so the context of this is we had a slide that we'll see in a second that showed the the inflation rate over the last several years, but the fees have been had stayed the same. So, prior to that, we had to do the same thing, increase fees, but we we didn't want to shock people. So, we phased it [clears throat] in over several years. So, one of the things we're going to do over the next couple of meetings, we're going to do another information item meeting on this as well. So, this can be done very uh openly for everybody. so
027there's no shocks and make a proposal for increasing the fees over time but then lock in some automatic increases so that we don't have to come back every five or six years to revisit this we can have it be more automatic but reasonable for the users that one this was the slide I was referring to is like we want to avoid this happening where 24 256 we had the significant increase in uh inflation but we weren't our fees weren't keeping up with that with that uh change. >> Okay, Mr. Bus, >> I have a question. Um, I had asked this earlier, but now I've come here tonight and realize I think I need to reask the question. Um, I looked up ED code 38134 and under B, it said, um, it's, excuse me, let me
028go back. Um, under this board policy 13:30, in different places it says the district shall charge an amount at least equal to the district's uh direct cost. So my question was at least and does this infer if not more? And now looking at what was presented, uh we made up some money on this slide, cost versus revenue detail of 50,000 um under religious organizations. So we did charge them more. And so my original question is if we indeed if not more what's our precedence that this group you know we could get a little more money out of them but this one maybe less. Um because I was told not necessarily more but we we did. >> So where then in the policy do we have a rate chart? >> So part of it is also
029because of the types of facilities they rent. So, uh, often the religious organizations use our NPRs, which are not high cost spaces for us, right? It doesn't take the same amount of hourly in direct cost to support an NPR. So, they're paying a very low rate, but they're renting a very cheap tomaintain space, which is why it's a little bit of a benefit. They're still paying less than than a full for-profit entity would pay. So, so when you think about the groups, if you think about we're going to charge, you know, up to like a full boat point, that's for the for-profit group DS. everyone else is somewhere between no charge if they're our group or a discounted rate. The problem really for us is honestly in exterior facilities, uh, pools, gyms, baseball fields, football
030fields where the wear and tear of the use is high and the cost to maintain and run that facility is high and there's a huge gap, right? So, I mean, yes, we're 50,000 over, 4,000 under for the for the group D, but really it's your it's your sports clubs um who are renting out pool facilities where we lose $2.5 million. Right. So, ultimately he's trying to make sure for the the fee structure to get those highost facilities hourlys in line. So, there's some rooms that that the fee proposed fee structure won't actually change the rates. like for an NPR an elementary school, we're not really going to propose massive changes because we don't really need massive changes. But for the pools across the district and the baseball fields across the district and the gyms across
031the district, that's where you're going to see the biggest increases in cost because it's it's not even close to what it costs us to run it. That that's where the gap is from. It's less about billing. >> And I'm going to be curious to hear how we're going to navigate that because our water polo teams are not going to be happy, right? We're gonna get a lot of lot of conversations about this. So, >> can you go back to the side? I'm >> interested to see how we're gonna >> Yeah. And and one of the things we know is our water polo teams, despite the pool rates not changing, they have not kept their rates that they're charging families the same, >> right? So, we know that families have paid more along those inflationary lines
032every year, but but it hasn't come to pool. So, um, I think, you know, there's this discussion of if inflation is inflation, yes, it goes up, but but those teams are going to have to understand it can't all just go back to the team. >> But that's why we want to have a phase roll in, right? We don't want to go, hey, next year we're going all the way to the max, right? We're going to have a multi-year roll in where we'd like to get it closer, but it'll be we'll still take a loss next year, we'll still take a loss the year after that. Um, and then hopefully by the end of three or four years, we're closer to where we want to be. We're always going to take a loss because of our
033own groups, [clears throat] right? Um, so the goal is not to earn a profit. The goal is to just be closer to the wear and tear and maintenance that we're going to incur on these buildings and facilities. Um, and then in in after that third year have alignment to inflation. So in a no inflation year, there wouldn't be raises. But in a year where the world experiences 10% inflation, so did we. So we need to be able to adjust. >> So I understand that. But then do we currently have a fee structure, an MPR versus a yield report? >> Okay. >> Yeah, we do. >> Okay. Um, and then this is probably a tickytacky accounting question, but unlike other properties outside of schools where there's depreciation, we're using the formula that a mold or excuse
034me, a gymnasium has a 30-year life. Um, with our older facilities and maybe a gymnasium that doesn't have air conditioning, is there a depreciation factor? Because the one with air conditioning will be much more desirable to rent. Well, there may or may not be a few schools that are past their useful life. >> May or may not. >> Yes. And we've probably taken million dollar losses every year. But but I I do not believe, and you can correct me, um that we get to claim depreciation because we're not paying a tax like that. So, we don't get to utilize depreciation as a tax. >> We don't do a county like like a corporation would. >> No. >> I had a couple of questions, Mr. Castion. Um, so I could have sworn we did this yesterday
035and then >> Yeah. >> So that just tells you as time flies because when you said it was 2020, it felt like we we just went through this process. So I appreciate the fact that the district is now looking at inflation so we don't have to continually go back. But I do remember the conversation last time we changed it and I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, Clark, but I think we did roll it out last time too. It wasn't it wasn't an [clears throat] abrupt change. >> It was over three years. We did a roll out then and just like what Trustee Jones had just said about of all our policies like the one about facility use and then our fees like these are the ones that I get concerns about for groups who
036get hit with this change and then parents are unaware and then coaches have a reaction and then parents have a reaction and then um we hear from parents and families who are concerned that their team can't afford the new fee schedule. So, I guess my bottom line is just when we say increase awareness and educate stakeholders that we try very hard to communicate with coaches at all levels, not just varsity, but JV and anybody who's having these conversations with team parents and so they understand this process and this PowerPoint and what the district's going through instead of just slamming them with this fee schedule change and then they're not really understanding ing the purpose and the why behind behind the we want them to know the why very clearly so that it doesn't look like
037we're trying to pull a fast >> and that's one of the reasons we're presenting it now we're also going to present it in another board meeting later as an information before action's taken right so it'll it'll show up three times basically publicly and we're going to talk obviously principles are in the room high school principles know who they need to talk to >> I know it always feels like a silo right and so it's like does the information I know we talk about it and I know they're really good about communicating with their families, but coaches and beyond that getting that trickle all the way down from this boardroom all the way down to families sometimes doesn't happen. And so >> we've been talking about it in our coaches meetings that we have twice a
038year. So it will come up again in our coaches meetings and every coach is mandated to come to those meetings. So every coach will get it uh booster clubs will get it when our booster club training. So yes, I I agree we have to get it out there but we are going to try multiple modalities. Um but we wanted to start here. So, >> it actually might be nice to have the booster club president at each of the schools and the athletic directors have some kind of a slideshow that they can send out to each of the teams, the coaches, and then send it out to their teams so that they have an understand. So, not to not to this level, but just specifically for athletics, >> but but school athletic clubs groups are really
039not affected. Uh the the football team is playing They don't pay. >> They're very connected to >> They're connected. Yes. All these people are connected. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Often that is the case. Right. Right. I understand that. But uh Yeah. Um and well, okay. Um I my recollection is that when Mr. Mr. Hampton was our acting superintendent. This came up and we started phasing in. Was that while you were acting superintendent? It seems like it was. >> It was before that. >> Was it before that? Okay. Um uh and we we decided that we would start increasing, you know, a little bit per year. Uh am I again? Do I remember that correctly? >> Yeah, there was we had a three-year process. So, I mentioned earlier about doing it differently this time so that
040we don't do a three-year process and then stop like we did before. we we brought ourselves up to in line to where we should have [clears throat] been. So what we would hope for in the future is to tie it to an inflation index like the COLA the statutory cola but not but also use the formula each year do the formula again to ensure that because if if our costs go down then we wouldn't increase the rate we just in line. So um I feel that we have to get to the point where we are uh for at least the group D uh we are at capturing our actual cost because if we are losing you know half million dollars that's half million dollars that isn't teaching kids to read u that's half million dollars
041that is not um uh funding AP tests for kids who can't afford the AP tests. Um and I I just don't think that we can say, "Oh, well, you know, we can't shock these people." I mean, I'm shocked by by fourth graders that can't read. And I think that is our responsibility way before it's our responsibility to community groups that are totally unaffiliated with the district. Uh I mean I I feel very strongly about this. Our job is to educate and provide good mental health support to the children in our care, not to help community groups. And I I believe in the Civic Center Act, but I think that the Civic Center Act is impinging on our primary goal, which is education. So, we I think we have to do >> get some more money
042for that. We're all in. >> I I understand that. Um uh I do want to also a couple questions. I uh the issue of the colas, my recollection from some presentation I went to at one time was that the statutory colas are based on a formula that doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with what the expenses for schools are. And I think statutory cola is a fine thing to uh to use as a an escalator, but I think we need to recognize that if that's all we're using, we're still going to have to go back periodically and true up. >> Well, that's one of the reasons that the proposal we will eventually bring will also have reusing the capital and and direct costs every year because when you look at can you go to
043the example of the the nondescript not cappa valley gym? uh >> which looks great. >> So yeah, that's this one. This one. So So when you talk about step two and and in the policy, let's say you're going to automatically recalculate capital costs. Well, I'll tell you maybe it's 15 million to rebuild a gym now, but five years from now, it's not going to be 15 million to rebuild a gym. So that capital cost number will also increase. So we would be proposing that we would recalculate the capital and direct costs proportionate share numbers every year. >> Okay. and using a COLA because you're right, cola is always low. The CPI, the consumer price index in California outstrips cola by a lot, right? So costs in California go up more than statutory cola, which is
044based on a bunch of federal numbers. >> Um, but the the that replacement cost number, that one goes up. >> Yeah. Senny's new gym's over 22 million. >> Yeah. >> So that's where that other part comes in, >> right? Uh and I I I'm just very concerned about this uh affecting our ability for our primary mission. Um uh Mr. Chicas mentioned that uh on page 33, school connected should have been youth serving. I just like to see that in the minutes uh that correction because this is something that will be uh studied in the years to come. >> We will also correct the slideshow when we repost it. We will also correct the slides when we repost them. >> Uh if whatever >> um and then oh do we get a damage deposit from people
045who rent or is it just insurance? My concern is again I know of a group that was using one of our schools uh over the summer and the the blacktop was being uh resurfaced and some kids came in and trampled asphalt all over the carpet and um uh I do we get a damage deposit so that that kind of thing can be fixed. That's not we don't request that now. But one thing that is different is we do have them pay for it as they're reser as they're reserving it upfront particularly with our with our group D users. >> So when they book it, they're paying for it. Um but >> again to answer your question, there is no there's no damage deposit. Um and but we don't ask for a deposit. We ask for
046the whole thing up front, whatever the fee and then insurance would would kick in. um that you know they're required to have if if there is some damage. >> So uh but with all these groups I mean even booster clubs, PTAs, they could have tracked in the asphalt. Um and does do we go back and get get them to pay for the asphalt to be removed from the carpet? I mean I'm just using that as an example. >> Users are required to have insurance. So they're we would use their insurance to >> but if there are group No. >> What? But if they're our group, no. So PTA uh tracks asphalt through the library. We handle that. That's they're our group. We fix that. So ultimately we would probably ask our staff to have a
047conversation with the PTA and >> Right. I understand. But >> okay. So, but all the other groups, yes, I know we've got insurance, but there's always the deductible and and many times I know in my own personal life, the cost to do the work is only $10 more than the deductible. So, you're not really getting anything. Um, and so I'm just I I don't I don't know that insurance is really what we're looking for. I'm looking for are we made whole when there's damage? And >> I think the policy does speak to the responsibility of a requesttor if there's extensive damage that they are responsible for it. So I can't recall an example when we've had to do that recently. Okay. But but I think the policy does does uh in our terms and conditions
048is also in there I believe. >> Okay. All right. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you Vus. >> Yeah. I wanted to ask in regards to group D, fair market uh slashforprofit and um when you come up with the rate and taking in cola and what um um what is going on in terms of rates in the world? Do we also look at what our local cities that we serve and even the private schools what rates they have so that we're competitive >> um that because I know the city would fall under the um civic act but in terms of one auditorium to another so that we're not underpricing ourselves do do we look at that for competitive rates >> so when we do a a fee study. We do compare ourselves to surrounding
049school districts. Um, and we can absolutely look at other uh public facilities as well with the objective of not overpricing and not underpricing. So, so that is something we look at. >> Yeah. I wouldn't want us We're not trying to turn a profit, right? So, so I'm not worried about trying to be competitive and and if they go somewhere else and don't come to us. I if we don't lose money, that's still a benefit, right? So, I'd rather I'm not going to try and lower our prices to be competitive because it's cheaper for us to then not rent it out if someone else can rent it at that cost because we can't we have to do the work and the repair. So, for us, it's it's we want to be in line. We don't want
050to be over um what we need to be whole, but I'd rather it sit empty than to be a money loser just to be in line. Well, just to be clear, um I agree and I we're very involved with our cities and we work closely with our cities. So, I'm not looking to overpric, but I do understand what Trusty Jones is saying in terms of what our priorities are and the importance of it and then balancing it with uh where we where we take a hit. So, that was the reason for the question. Thank you. >> Any other direction? Okay, thank you staff. I think we got the direction there. >> President Davis, I would like to suggest we move 4B1 evidence-based grading since we have so many administrators here. Um, and not waiting till
051the end for us to get to that. Um, if the board approves. >> Okay. Thank you. So, we'll move on to 4B1 in order to best utilize our principal's time. I'm sure you love that discussion right there. It's all good. Good information. Thank you. >> [clears throat and cough] >> Thank you. As we're getting staff set up there, we'll move on to 4B1, um, education and support services, and we'll be moving to evidence-based grading. >> Thank you, President Davis and trustees. On behalf of all of our secondary principles and education support services staff, it's our pleasure to present B1, an update on grading. Our presentation tonight is going to begin with a highlight of Marco Forester Middle School and the lessons learned, hard work by Principal Cat Thompson and her staff over the past six
052years regarding grading. The second part will then be where you will be able to have an opportunity to speak directly with the principles in your trustee area and to be able to ask them questions regarding their work at implementing the grading policy at their sites this year. That will be the second part of our our time together. As always, please feel free to stop us at any time and ask questions along the way. We are happy to answer your questions as we present. And where is the clicker? Thank you. All right. So, we begin our presentation uh showing the vision of a CUSD graduate. We do this because again, this is our ultimate goal for each and every one of our students in CUSD. They realize the five key attributes that are described on this
053graphic. So with that in mind, the grading policy should reflect the actual progress of students towards their academic goals that then connect to realizing these uh attributes with students and parents being fully aware of expectations, success, progress, or need needing improvement to get them again to realize this vision of the grad profile. And Jen's going to provide a brief overview for you regarding the four key components and then also a synopsis of some foundational work that has gotten us to this point. >> Okay. Thanks. Uh just a reminder, these four quadrants are the board policy and this is the policy. This is the for the form that all of our principles are using to ground the work of evidence-based grading and lead their sites with this work at their school sites. Our teachers and our
054principles see this sheet all the time. Every time I walk in the door, they're like, "Here comes the grading lady with her four quadrants again to talk about how we're moving on forward with evidence-based grading." So, this is a very familiar document here at the secondary level. Just a reminder, two years ago, we had a task force that met for two years with teacher leaders and administrators from each site um that piloted, learned, and studied about different components of evidence-based grading. The last two years, we've brought in grading experts to speak to our teachers on their release day, and our principles uh participated in book studies. every meeting at our M middle school and high school principal PLC meetings and business meetings, we've discussed evidence-based grading and how to lead our teachers in this work
055over the last two years. In my monthly individual meetings with each principal, we talk about the progress they're making with their sites. This year, we really shifted from studying this and piloting components to full implementation of the board policy this year. And we shifted from the district leading this work now to our amazing secondary principles leading the work. This year the district took the lead on identifying um universal standards. Dr. Irvvis and her amazing team have pulled every con every teacher down to the district office twice this year to work in content area teams. So all the world history teachers from all of the high schools came together and worked for two full days to identify what are the priority standards for CUSD students. Not San Juan Hills, not Capo Valley, not Aliso, but CUSD
056students. And this work is really instrumental for next year pulling them down again to develop benchmark end of course exams so we can really start to measure the progress of our CUSD students at the high school level for each course. It's exciting work that Dr. Irvvis has led Cat Thompson and Marco Forester has been leading the way with evidence-based grading. So Cat's here today to share with you the story and the journey that Marco Forester has been on. >> Right. Thank you. Well, first I want to uh appreciate the opportunity to be here and share our learning with you. um we are are along this process of adult learning and I think it's important to frame our work a little bit today and recognize that part of the reason there's so much adult learning associated
057with grading is because in traditional um teacher preparation programs there isn't really like a grading 101. So we haven't had this foundation and typically when that happens we go back to doing things the way they were done when we experience them. And so we talk about grading a lot, but in our our preparation programs, that's that's not necessarily a huge part of the training that goes into it, which is a big testament of the work that CUSD is doing to ensure that high level of learning for all of the adults so that we have a consistent understanding of grading practices. And like Gila mentioned earlier, learning is our business, right? as as we're talking about all of this, everything we do is to ensure high levels of learning. I'm also a parent in CUSD. I
058have four sons that attend CUSD schools and um I know many of you are also parents in the room and if you are anything like me when you started the parenting journey, there was a a maybe borderline obsession with some of the the early milestones. And so one of the early milestones that I was very obsessed with was the walking, right? And I realized that there wasn't a timeline for children walking. They didn't say, when I met with the pediatrician, he didn't say, "You know what? On day 364 of life, your children will be walking." Right? We know that they gave us a window of time that we can expect developmentally children to hit their their walking milestones. And that window is somewhere between 10 months and 16 months. So if I if I had
059all four of my boys here and had them walk across the room, you would find that they can all walk. But of the four, one of them was very close to that end of that developmental milestone, real close to that 16-month window. But walking across the room, you wouldn't be able to determine which one of them was my late walker and which one of them was my early walker. And I think that frames a lot of the work that we do in in that process because uh that developmental milestone doesn't stop with walking, right? As they progress through and into adolescence, those windows of development continue to persist. So as as a parent now, I'm also entering the the teenage years. And I'm not sure what pediatricians would say is the normal window for room
060cleanliness, but I can tell you that uh some of my children are much better at keeping a clean room than others. So recently, my oldest son um he attends San Clemeni High School. He was very excited to go to the football game and uh they they qualified for CIF and he wanted to go to the CIF football game. Naturally, like any 16-year-old, he waited until a couple of hours before the game to ask if he could go. And um I said, "Sure. Is your room clean?" And he said, "Yes, I knew you were going to say that. My room is clean." And I said, "Great. Well, we've established a standard of room cleanliness." Right. And so we went into his room and the room looked fine. It was cleanish. It met the standard. And I
061opened his closet and it looked like this. >> [laughter] >> And so yes, different gifts and talents, right? And and so we talked about in that moment I could say, well, that's it. That's the end of your learning. You did not meet the standard. And it is cemented in this moment of time. I have deemed you nonable to clean your room. You do not pass go. You will not go to football game. But I also recognize that I am raising future husbands. And so we paused at this moment and revisited standards of cleanliness. There was reinstruction that happened, reteing and reassessment, um, and the opportunity to attend the football game. Now, continuing that developmental phase, while at the football game, uh I was very aware of just the the the level of play that was
062happening and it got me thinking about how we instruct teams and and how coaches lead teams in preparation and as as always um thinking about how that relates back to the work that we do for students. Um recognizing that there were practices that happened. And there was a film study and then coaches established a plan of action and in that plan of action they set up some maybe some defensive plays in preparation for the team that they were facing. And now when we think about their performance, what do we know every good coach does in preparation, right? They deliver. They teach the defensive plays. They have them demonstrate the defensive plays. And if they don't meet the standard, they don't say, "Well, then that means we lost the game on Friday." Right? Nobody loses the
063game on Friday on Monday. They repeat over and over and over again until they get it right in mastery, in preparation for um for Friday. And so a lot of this is framing, you can see where we're going with this, the the discussion about grading as communication of learning. And why does this matter? Well, let's take the fact that there are some seniors on this team, right? And so when we're looking at our vision vision of a a CUSD graduate, there are some members of this team that are going on to turn that into fruition. And when we look at the impact of grades, it's never more significant than in those juniors and junior and senior year. And so when we when we're talking about developmentally appropriate, we know that those juniors and seniors are
064starting to apply for colleges. And for some of them, a difference of a grade can make a financial impact for them. whether or not they get a scholarship, whether or not doors open for them, whether or not they get into certain schools, whether or not their merit scholarship is going to be $10,000 more or less depending on the grade. So, we know the significant impact this has on our students and our families. And then we also know that there's some seniors that worked really hard to be in a position to even graduate. And so, a change in a grade indicates whether or not they're going to get a diploma, whether or not they're going to be able to apply for jobs in the next year. And so this the significance of grading is not lost
065on us. We know that this can have a huge impact on the lives of our students beyond their time. And going back to what Gila said, if we're in the business of educating children and we're in the business of learning, we have to understand a fundamental premise of learning is that it is not set on a finite timeline. We know that anything ever that we teach, not all students are going to all learn it at exactly the same time. There's going to be windows of learning that happen. And if the purpose of grades is to communicate learning, we need to be aware that learning can happen at different times in different ways for different students. And so we need to establish systems that are in place to support that understanding uh that is fundamental to
066learning. So I I as we know uh grading is a deeply personal experience. Education is one of those interesting um professions where everybody has had some experience with education before they come to to understanding. Not everybody has s has had surgery before they go and see a doctor but everybody has had some experience with education. So to frame your work today, to frame our work today, I want you to think about um a time that uh grading has impacted your life that you still remember today. And I know everybody in this room and anybody listening online has a time has a grade has a situation where grading had a personal and lasting impact. And to frame that work for you, I want to share a story about uh when I was in 11th grade um
067in in English uh English lang class and I had Mr. Royce who I I care about deeply now, but I can tell you in 11th grade I hated the man. Um and he uh he had an interesting policy when it came to writing. We were able, which was presented as a good thing, to resubmit our high-level essays. It was an AP course as many times as we wanted throughout the course. And so when we submitted an essay, he was absolutely ruthless. He would shred it. He provided hours of feedback. He provided opportunities for you to meet with him and get feedback on it. And he would give it back. and we could take that feedback and we had the choice to resubmit that essay again. Um, and as a high achieving student, it was like
068torture, right? Because I would get a a B on that on that essay. And I was met with this dilemma of do I do I stop here at good enough? Is a B good enough? Or do I continue my learning? Do I take the feedback? Do I do I become a better writer? And I can tell you I didn't feel like that was the easy way out. In many other courses in my time in high school, whatever I received on that assessment was finite. My grade was cemented. There were no opportunities for additional learning. Where Mr. Royce mandated that I engaged in additional learning and I became a better writer because of his willingness and ability to continue my learning beyond a specific deadline. He understood at that time that learning wasn't set on a
069designated time, but it was set on that that learning is the constant and time is the variable. Um, and so I'd like you to take just a few minutes. I'll pause just for a second if you feel comfortable sharing with the person next to you um a a grading story that has impacted your life as well. And then we'll continue on with the next step. Okay. Pretty advanced. She would get to it. give me that option. And I hated her. the the rest of my goal today is to share with you about the process that um we have been going through. I don't want to say that we've gone through because we are still in the process of learning but it it starts with our mission at Marco Forester which is to ensure high levels
070of learning for all. So when we came together a few years ago and and discussed our mission of ensuring high levels of learning for all we recognized that one of the things that we needed to do was go back and analyze all of our policies, practices and procedures through that lens of high learning for all. And in that process, we recognized that we were engaging in a few practices that were actually barriers to learning, not things that were leading to high levels of learning. And one of those practices was how we were using our intervention period. And the use of the intervention period was not necessarily tied to reteing and reassessment. And so as we changed our practices associating with reteing and reassessment to mandate multiple opportunities much like the football team engaging in that
071repetition to get better and better over time. Um we we found oursel in a bit of a dilemma where we needed to figure out how are we going to communicate this learning. And so if grades are our communication of student learning, we really needed to analyze our practices associated with grading. And it was at that point we all kind of came together and realized none of us went to uh we didn't have grading 101. None of us had been formally trained on these processes. So we realized we needed to engage in some adult learning. And so those of you that have spent time at Marco, you've heard us say over and over that when adults learn more, kids learn more. And so we decided to engage in some adult learning practices. And so over the
072next 20 minutes or so, I'm going to share with you a few of the practices that the adult learning experiences that we had for our teachers and parents on campus over the past couple of years so that we could deepen our understanding and also come to clarity on consistent practices across our site. So, right now I want you to uh pause for a second and this is this is a a modified version of what we experienced as a staff. But right now, I want you to go to your Thanksgiving dinner table and imagine that you have lots of extended family from all over the district, um all over the region. and you have your your siblings there, your in-laws are there, some of your neighbors and friends are there, and you get to talking and
073you realize that all all of you, three of you have um three different children at three different high schools in the district that all took the same course. and you start talking about the course and it comes out that all of the students in all all of the the family members at this table all got a B+ on their report card. And so you you okay great. So pause right now and I want you to answer in your in your mind if that situation presented itself to you would you uh assume that they all had the same level of learning within that course? Maybe. Yes. Right. Okay. So, just file that away. So, now you get talking even further and you you start to take a deeper dive and upon that discussion, you you come
074across this information. So, I'm not going to read it aloud. I believe you have it in your slides and and you can just take a look um at this here. And now answering that same question, would you agree that all of these students, despite having the same letter grade, would you agree that they all had the same level of learning of the content, the concepts, and the skills associated with this class? So when we when we look at this we can see that there are are definitely some discrepancies across the so despite being the same course um we we see that there might be some waiting differences. Maybe one one class weights assessments at a at a higher level while another weights uh homework and classwork at a higher level. You can see there might
075be some discrepancies in things like extra credit. one class offers extra credit, one class does not, or students were were or were not able to um take advantage of the the opportunities provided in terms of extra credit. So, this this is a similar activity that our teachers walk through. We didn't go to our Thanksgiving dinner table to have this conversation, but we started to look around at our Canvas grades. And we our our question was, does a B+ in your class match what a B+ in my class? Okay. Within the same content area, does the same letter grade mean the same thing? Within different subjects areas, does the same does the letter grade mean the same thing? and and we quickly realized that there were some practices that we were using in our grade book
076that even though we were using the same letter system, we were not actually communicating the same way about learning. And so why does this matter? Well, when we think about intervention and the supports that we can provide for students, when we're not careful about how we're organizing the information in our gradebooks, we can distort learning in a way that keeps us from providing the intervention that's necessary for students. Right? So, if we take a look here, we have students that show us their overall grade and then their citizenship and their work habits. So, as we separate the behaviors from the grades, we start to see different areas of needs for students. So, going back to my Mr. Royce example, you see I have student one who's anonymous. Well, that's actually Cat Fitzpatrick, which is Cat
077Thompson in an older day. And this would be my grade if I was in Mr. Royce's class. I would have had a B or a C in that class because my initial attempt at learning wasn't there. But, I worked hard. I was extremely compliant. I wanted to do all of the things. I had those skills there, but the learning wasn't happening. And and I in many of my other classes, I was able to mask the learning that wasn't demonstrating on assessments with some of the behaviors that I had learned to compensate. I always did the extra credit. I brought in the reams of paper. I would sometimes avoid going to the bathroom so I could save my potty passes for the the end of the quarter and turn those in for extra credit to compensate
078for learning that didn't happen. Mr. Royce didn't make that error with me. Mr. Royce taught me how to learn by mandating that I did things over and over again until I demonstrated that learning. You can see Scott here. The type of intervention he needs is very different than the type of intervention Sarah needs. Scott might need a counselor, right? He's demonstrating behaviors and he's showing us areas that might need support because eventually if his high level of learning, he's able to achieve that success on the assessments, but we know somewhere down the road he's going to run into a course where that automatic knowledge might be challenged and we have to help him build the habits, the work habits, and the citizenship that's necessary for success in the future. So we had these discussions as
079a site that if we're inconsistent with our communication, we're actually keeping ourselves from uh providing appropriate interventions for students. This is just one step that we went through. Another because we also recognize that none of what you see on the the CUSD grading form is is is black and white, right? there are gradients of understanding, no pun intended, but the the um level of implementation of what we have in the board policy. And so it's important that we as a site and as a staff come to understanding and normation across the process. So we engage periodically in discussions, agree and disagree discussions. And so we will have times where we'll use different color postcards. You hold up I agree with this statement or I disagree with this statement and then there's a discussion and that
080purpose is for us to continue to norming. You see one of the other aspects of the board policy is consistency across teams and departments. The only way we can ensure consistency is to engage in some of the difficult discussions about what we think is important for students and how we're going to communicate that out. So, if we just scan through um a couple of these, right? If we go down to the bottom one right here, if we do not grade work for compliance, students will not do the work. Therefore, students must lose points in their grade if they do not complete homework or classwork. So when we have discussions about these, it's important to acknowledge we all agree that students need to do their work. That's an important part of the learning process. How are
081we going to communicate their work habits so that parents um other members of our team um everybody that's involved in the system understands what their work habits are and then how are we going to communicate their learning. Um, I will pause right here so that you have a chance to read through these and feel free if you're comfortable to jot down whether you agree or disagree with the statements. Um, but the purpose of this activity is to sharpen our understanding as a collective group. Okay, this next activity I'm going to give you a chance to practice some of the um ideas and concepts that we've discussed today. Um this is uh work that we've done not only as a site and is common that happens on on most sites across the district. Um, but we're
082going through um we our our teams, our teacher teams and our parent teams have gone through this process at Marco where we've taken a look at how to use a a rubric to score students so that we can ensure that consistency across teams and grade levels. So, I'm going to pass around two samples of writing. Make sure you take one of each. your student helper is coming along. >> Yes, >> this is how I >> extra credit strengths leader. Uh so the the two writing samples that you are getting and you should also have a copy of this uh rubric in your um in your slide deck. But when we walk through this with our teams, there's a a norming a calibration process. So go ahead and take a chance, look at your rubric that
083you see and the two writing samples. These are sixth grade writing samples. And I would like you to score these. And I'd also like you to work with a partner. So your task right now is to work with at least one other person and come to an agreement on whether you feel these writing uh samples are a one, a two, a three, or a four. And so the terminology that we've worked collaboratively to build at Marco is there's initial understanding, a developing understanding, proficient understanding, or sophisticated understanding. Feel free to use uh just work on one of the papers. You don't need to read both of them, but you have two for context to show the different types of writing that might be submitted. I'll also acknowledge you don't have the standard in front of
084you. So just give this your best. Now, this this can sometimes take hours with teachers, so I'll go ahead and pause right now. Um, but it, you know, just think about the the type of discussion that you're having right now. And in one of those samples can range anywhere from a a one to a four in depending on uh any individual teachers interpretation of the standard, any individual teacher's interpretation of the rubric, which is why doing this process together is important so that we have a common understanding. And this is a a district-wide practice. We're fortunate to be a part of a district that just recently we're in the process just this week of um aligning our understanding of the standards across all of the schools in our district which is really exciting and and
085part of the important work in making sure that regardless of which teacher you get at which school you're attending you're getting similar feedback on the learning. But you can see here I I I want you to think now I just asked you to agree on a level of one to four. So one of those let's say one of the samples one team says this is a three. The other team says this is a four. Now I want you to think in terms of the the scales that we usually use. We're we're operating on a 100 point scale. So to to help you see the level of inconsistency that might exist just for one sample of writing with many many scales of descriptors is if we're saying one of the samples let's assume you picked one
086as a four that can go anywhere from 90 to 100 and a a sample over here was selected as a three that could go anywhere from 80 to 90. So now imagine the discussion you just had, but I'm saying you now need to agree with rationale and descriptors. If you're calling it a four, is it a 90? Is it a 91? Is it a 92? Is it a 93? All the way up to 100. And if there's variation there, that can go anywhere from 80 to 100 per uh 100 points. Right? So we now have what was one degree of separation in terms of discussion to 20 different degrees or descriptors of differentiation of the student levels of learning and we just talked about how important how much of how much that matters for students
087in their future. However, if we provide students opportunity for re-eaching and reassessment and they're giving multiple chances to improve upon their writing and demonstrate learning, um, if we're sitting submitting drafts and we have multiple iterations, that starts to close the gap between the discrepancies that might exist because we're continually working to the level of the standard. Um, so I'm not advocating for any specific point scale. Um the the research that we discovered is the the fewer the number of descriptors that everybody can agree upon helps you align more closely and ensure consistency across the board. So this is one activity we did. I'm going to ask you to read one more writing sample. This time the the teacher's rating scale is included on the sample and this time I'm going to ask you to put
088on your your parent hat. So sample another A student. >> Yes. >> So, you'll get two samples of writing. This is from the same prompt and the score is at the top. And so, I want you to look at the one that says one. And that is a writing sample that your child submitted at in at the start of the year. So, let's say in August, the sample that says one, a score of one, is your child's August submission and the one that says four is your child's December submission. And I want you to talk with your partner and I would like you to tell them that what would that conversation look like at home if your child brought home these two writing samples and said, "This is where I was in August. This is
089where I am now." What would you say to your child? >> Hallelujah. >> Yes. >> So, I didn't I didn't hear any of you say that, "Wow, this teacher really took it easy on you by having you write this same prompt over and over again." Right? We would focus on the growth. We would focus on the learning. And so one of the the last components of our essential grading practices is not is honoring the more recent attempt that students demonstrate and not averaging learning over time. Another example, I had a beautiful example this morning. Um, I went into our musical theater class and they're just getting started in preparation for Newsies and they got their first um, uh, choreography and so this was their first attempt at the the dance that they're going to be
090doing and and I'm I I think you're understanding where we're going with this, right? The dance they did today, if that score went as a cemented grade in the grade book, what would we be communicating to those children? you are at a sea level of your dancing ability today on this routine. We would never want that then to say, "All right, we're going to fast forward. You put on the Newsies production. It's fabulous. You nailed it." Right? It was amazing. It was an A-level production. And so on your report card, I'm going to give you a B. Right? By the end, by the production, what what type of communication would you want on your child's production in the play? What type of communication would you want about your child's writing? If one if it's a
091one and a four, the the average of those would be a 2.5 in the grade book, which would equate to somewhere about a C. So, if we have a a D or C level of learning and at the end we have an A level of learning, would we want that communicated as a B level of learning averaged over time? or would we want to communicate? The most recent evidence indicates that you have nailed it. And when we think about what that does to a child's confidence, if I told those students today that we're on the stage, you're at a C and that's going to stay in the grade book forever. Hopefully, you do well enough at the end. What is their confidence going to look like about getting on stage? What kind of stress have
092we induced for for students in that process? Right? And so these are the types of conversations if our goal is learning, how do we analyze our practices, policies, and procedures within our organization to make sure we have a common understanding of what learning looks like and then how we communicate that learning to all of the stakeholders invol involved knowing how critically important this is for our students. And so tying it tying it all together, we're going to have an opportunity right now to discuss with our schools about where we are in this process. um and connecting it back to the evidence-based practices for our board policy. Uh one, and this is this is kind of a a summary of the learning that happened at Marco. One, we recognized a need for universal standards. We would
093identify priority standards, align assessments, and create shared rubrics. And so that's the early work that we needed to do. If we're going to be consistent, then we need to be measuring consistently. and and in CUSD this work is is happening right now. Um and then the second thing is establishing that students that that learning is the the constant and time is the variable. So we need to create systems in our schools that allow that variable to happen because there's a lot we need we need to make sure that students are learning all of the important standards. And so again, we're we're exceedingly fortunate to be in a district that understands that and has time built into the day. Every single secondary school has a tutorial period built in the day to allow for flexibility, to
094allow for multiple opportunities of learning. And it was at Marco when we when we started using that time more effectively for reteing and reassessment that we started to ask ourself, well, how do we report this? how do we effectively communicate grades for students? And so we had to shift from compliance-based grading to consistent measuring evidence of mastery. Um, and so this is a great opportunity today when you when you're working with your teams and I think a great place to start the conversation as to where and how are we using that intervention time and providing multiple opportunities for students. The third thing that we learned was that we needed to be consistent across uh departments and that's going to be constant work. That's not something we do one time and now we're consistent. We constantly
095need to be engaging in communication about how we are grading, how we're communicating grading, how we understand the standards and we have time built in at all of our schools to allow teachers that time to have those critical conversations. And then fourth, we recognized that we needed if if we're going to be providing intervention appropriately, we need to report behavioral grades separately from academic grades. And one of the early things that we needed to do, we recognized we were engaging in equitable practices like assigning extra credit for attending afterchool events, um assigning points at the end of the semester for potty passes. So by not going to the bathroom for the period um we are adding points on um signing a syllabus and other compliance-based measures. So we had to inspect those practices and start
096removing them so that we were getting closer to being able to provide the appropriate level of intervention for students. Um and then we also need to be able to communicate that to families. So, how are we working uh together to use the report card tools that we have like citizenship and work habits to to communicate that and also help educate our families. When we when we put an O for citizenship, what does that mean, right? And and work habits as well. So we are constantly learning like I said when when adults learn more kids learn more and we are learning together through this process and um grateful for the support that we have had along the way. Um I I believe our next portion of this time is the opportunity to share and reflect on
097where we are in that process. >> Thank you Cat. She's very humble right. She's amazing. [applause] She's so humble. They are in their sixth year of this work at Marco Forester Middle School. So, our principles are going to share with you for just about seven to 10 minutes where they're at in their work. But, please recognize Marco isn't perfect yet in this work and it's been six years. This is very hard work. It's difficult work. It's technical work, but it's extremely important work to do right by our students. So, we're going to take the time, do it right here in CUSD. We really want to thank our curriculum and instruction team that is leading this work. It's hard to do it at one school, but to take an entire school district. So, a big thank
098you to our executive director Jeff Jones, and our coordinators Karen Gothier and Rihanna Stores for leading this work with their teacher experts. We have Kim Gendra for history, social science, Paul Biggs for English language arts, Stacy Olsen for math, Linda Keeler for world language, and Steve Danner for science. They're the experts leading this work, meeting with our middle school and high school teachers throughout the year on this journey for universal standards. So the exciting part is you get to hear from your principles. We'd like to thank Dr. Brown for playing the part of Lisa Zallinger and Dr. Merwin for playing the part of Dr. Pritchard. and your principles will meet you over at your tables and they'll give you an update of where their schools are at in their grading journey. >> My principles are
099way more stressed. >> Turns out I don't know. We're going to give you a twominut warning and we'll come back together in two minutes. Okay, everyone, if we could have your attention, please. >> Thank you, everyone. Could I have your attention, please? Okay, thank you. If you wrap up that conversation. >> Okay, we are going to now uh close our time with this uh with the grading update. Before we do that, like to both Jen and I have a microphone. We're going to walk around. Are there any final thoughts or uh comments you wanted to make regarding the conversations at your tables or anything regarding the uh presentation by Cat? Anything you wanted to share or comment on? Both Jen and I have microphones. We'll bring it over to you if you had something you
100wanted to share. Going to give some weight time here. comments, thoughts, questions about what you learned in your groups and then also from the presentation. Anything you wanted to add? >> I just want that on the record. >> Um, you were talking about something she asked me to kind of share real quickly is we talked about how the board policy looks like, oh, there's four things. We should we can do four things. But when you look at the policy and you start working on it and cat alluded to this that it these create touch points in every area of academics. So when you talk about one thing it leads to another conversation. Now we're talking instruction assessment we're talking teaching practice years of everything. So that's why if you hear how could this take so
101long to implement four simple things. It's not. And it's all good. It's productive and it's what we need to be talking about. But that's why the process can be so arduous. It's that productive struggle happens because it touches everything in a classroom. Okay, one more on Jen's side. Anyone on Jen's side that wanted to share comment question of thought? We kind of talked about when you look at those quadrants, you see a lot of technical things. when you just look at it on surface layer. Um, reteing for example, that's technically pretty easy. It's you take the best strategy and you retach kids. And grading an assignment is pretty pretty easy technically. What is much harder here is the cultural component behind this, the values and beliefs that you have to address to get to that
102point where you're doing the technical things. And and I think that's where it takes the time, the training, the open dialogue, the the productive struggle, the the disagreements, and and coming back to measuring those. And I thought Kat did a good job talking about her children and and the different developmental stages. There's there's not many educators that would disagree with the statement that children learn at different speeds and different ways. But if we only assess a skill on Friday, then that's not giving a system to meet those demands that we know exist within our occupation. That's a philosophical, that's a cultural component. That's not a technical issue. So I think that's the most difficult part and the part that takes the most time. >> And uh Dr. Baker mentioned culture eats systems for breakfast. So
103that's a pretty important one that we have to navigate is that culture. >> Okay. Excellent. Did you have one of something else you want to share? >> Hello, my name is Julie and I'm here actually um as PTSA uh PTASA president at Kappa Valley High School. um been very involved in PTSA and as a parent over the years and my husband and I have gotten very involved with this particular issue. Um and one just want to say thank you for the time and energy that all of you are putting into this. Your presentation tonight was wonderful and we really really appreciate that. Um and we just ask that as this continues to be implemented and rolled out, we plea that the teachers do it with genuine care and concern about these students, especially at the
104high school level where it is so critical that uh while the focus should definitely be on the actual grades and what they're able to show proficiency and mastery in, um and not all the fluff, but making sure that the other side of that that the students are being rettaught and opportunities for reassessment and that those do replace the grades. Um and we as parents and I know there are many PTSA would love to be able to support the staff as you continue the implementation. >> Thank you. And again, let's hear it again. Oh, sorry, Trusty Jones. >> I just wanted to make a quick comment about high school because I know a lot of high school parents are nervous about this uh and students. Colleges have been telling us, not just us, but the education,
105the K12 community for years that uh preparation is going down, that students are less wellprepared for college than they were two decades ago, three decades ago, whatever. Um, and I know that colleges know what an A or a B at at high school X means. It's different from what it means at high school Z. And I think it's incumbent on us as a district and inc and and unfair to our students if we are not communicating something to the colleges because they're these are really the students who who are concerned not the ones who are going to do something that not doesn't involve higher education. we need to to uh be communicating that an A means that this student really knows the stuff. Um, and I just think that's important for our students just as
106much as it's important to make sure they're getting high enough grades to get into college. >> Thank you, Trusty Jones. And let's hear it again from Miss Cat Thompson. Thank you so much for the presentation. [applause] And then at this time, we'll ask our trustees to please come back to the to your tables. And thank you very much to our administrators for being here this evening. Thanks for >> I think they're all going to You want to have cat answer a few questions >> if she can say a few questions. >> Just right there in front of you. We're down to >> So, we are down to our last hour. So, if I could ask the trustees to return to their seats. We have Cat for just a few more minutes if you have a
107question for her. And principles, thank you. You can leave. We'll bring it back in here for first of all, thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you for that. And I was um I was telling Dr. Brown that we need to Superintendent Brown that >> [snorts] >> um that we were um that it would be really nice if you created a video that we could share out because your presentation and all of our principles, but if you could create a video, I I think what you just shared tonight would be a a great opportunity for families to begin to understand. And I do think the biggest piece here that is of concern is families in high school and what that looks like for colleges. So there's a there's a an additional piece that was
108not included in the presentation that said then round two, right? In my opinion, because this work is is clearly important to see from a one to a four. And I'm guessing that this is the same student. Both of those two scenarios in essence is the same student. so that you can see the progress. So anyway, any comments? >> I've read in so many different ways that storytelling is the best way to really get a point across and I really appreciated your presentation. Um, and I know you have four sons. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> And they're darling. >> Yes. Um, yes, I agree. That was a fantastic presentation. And no offense to Dr. Brown, but that was the best explanation of the whole thing that I've heard. [laughter] >> Take it >> and I would
109love to have it on video to share and and even refer to. So my question comes more from teachers that have communicated with me and it's a middle school question so that's why I wanted you to stay. Um, so and it kind of goes with I think the student was Scott, the one that had knew the stuff but didn't do any of the work or had the work terrible work habits. So what I'm hearing from middle school teachers is that there's a concern with it's the whole idea of like grading homework or classwork as that going to the grade. And I totally I completely agree that we want the grade to reflect. Do they know the stuff? That's what we want it to reflect. The concern in middle school is we're dealing with a different
110type of kid, you know, like a less mature kid. High school kids, they're already motivated. I don't want to get a D in this class. It's going to be on my transcript. Or I don't want to fail this class. I'll have to take it again. for middle school, it's like, "Oh, I don't have to do these assignments." Bam. That's awesome. So, how has your team worked on just that motivation piece to, you know, because I know middle school teachers have attached points and things and that's they believe that has helped the students like, "Oh, I have to turn this in." And even to your point of raising good husbands, which God bless you. Yes, we we need that. We want to raise good students because like you said, Scott might get an A in math
111six, but then he's going to hit geometry and oh, I got to study and I don't know how to do that now. So, I love that you talked about the interventions, but just that motivation piece, like what is your team discovering that they can use to motivate a middle school student to actually engage in the learning? >> That's a great question. Definitely one that comes up often and um we I think it goes back to the process that we took before like we never set out to change grading. That wasn't the goal. We set out to ensure learning. And so it started with looking at our priority standards. And so through some of that work, we recognize like, okay, if this is our standard and we have a common understanding of the standard, we realize
112that many of our assessments were not actually aligned to the rigor level of the standard. And so part of that process was transitioning from, you know, wrote memorization to deep application of the learning at a at a really high level. So through that there was a change just in the initial um ability of a student to prepare for an assessment if if they can prepare for it in five minutes is it really learning that's happening and so making sure that we're providing highlevel high rigor learning opportunities for students um and then looking at helping them to make the connection and there are a lot of different ways and I appreciate appreciate what the the PTSA member um president shared that um one of the things we say is that as as we're learning right and
113we're experimenting and we maybe jokingly say like as we're experimenting on children with this learning process right we need to make sure that we're extending grace through that until we deepen our understanding and so uh we had one one team in particular that was wrestling with this concept it wasn't the math team. And so they said, "Okay, let's look at how we go about this process." And they had one of the teachers take um the the traditional you're going to you're going to put it in the gradebook and we're going to keep points and you keep track of what percentage of the students do the assignment, right? And then I'm going to do the same but without assigning points. and they found that there was 0% difference in the turn-in rate and hypothesized that those
114points weren't really what whether they were giving points or not, the students that weren't doing the work weren't doing the work either way. And so the the point wasn't the motivator. It was connecting the the work that they were doing to the learning. And so we have different without getting into too many of the logistics, there's different approaches that teams have taken. For some they're they're saying, "Okay, in order to be your ticket into the assessment is going to be your these are the assignments that are so critical to your learning that you have to have this done." And so you're not going to take the assessment until I get this work from you because I don't have evidence from you yet that you're even prepared. Why would I send you? Why, you know, going
115back to the musical theater, why would I put you on stage when in rehearsals I never saw I would never set you up for that kind of failure. We'd make sure that you were prepared. So why would I set you up for that kind of failure in an assessment? I need to see evidence that you have learning and then we'll jump into and so there there are many different right like Nick said, there's the cultural and the technical aspects. There's many different technical ways to do that. And I think one clear example um that comes up if you if if I gave everybody a whiteboard right now and asked you to jot down your ideas and you're learning on a whiteboard there there's very few that actually opt out of that. As soon as we
116turn it into a worksheet it it's now like how many points am I going to get for this? Right? Nobody asks how many points am I going to get for putting my ideas on a whiteboard but they're still demonstrating the learning. So there are a lot of different ways to elicit thinking from students that >> um right if we engage in a discussion and I'm listening to the discussion I can keep track of learning that way evidence of learning that way. So I think there's just going back to the the technical pieces and that's the learning that we will never stop doing as professional educators and studying how do we get better and better at those types of things. But but excellent. It it's absolutely students have to have those skills and and and really
117we don't want them to have those skills out of blind compliance. We want them to see the connection that when I right we live in an age where you can assign homework and there is there are a million different ways for them to get that homework done that requires zero thinking on their behalf. So we are we're really trying to teach them how to take those learning opportunities as learning opportunities because that's what's going to translate into success in at the next level. >> And all of that I'm sorry Krista and all of that is being shared out to all the teachers in the trainings, right? all of your >> those are that's just some of the learning that we've been doing and I think it goes back to that foundation of establishing and and
118it's the work that the district is doing and as we get a deeper understanding of our standards >> and we have common assessments that we're using then we'll establish common effective practices. Yes. >> Got it. Thank you Cat. It's amazing. It just triggered something to me or made me think about it as you were speaking, Cat, because um I teach lower primary, right? And we don't assign point value to doing work or um engaging in learning, right? Because they're four and five, right? But our educational institution has trained them that this is how you're rewarded in our process is you get a point if you do this or whatever. So in some respects we have to kind of retrain. We we want them to react on what we think is the value of how we
119learn. And they're coming to us saying we'll do what you want us to do but teach us and show us how. and then they will navigate through the way that we kind of guide them through. Right? Is that my understanding? Because that it just triggered for me because I'm like, well, my kids don't associate yet. >> There's no association. But by the time they get to fourth, fifth, secondary school, they have a strong. So then we have then enabled that and taught that and now they that's the only way they think that they learn and is they get reward they get a reward. So, so I would add one thing too that that Cat didn't talk about, but this work doesn't exist at Marco in a silo. She hasn't done this work on how do
120adults learn, how do kids learn, and how does that reflect into our grading that didn't come alongside something else. So, when you go to Marco, what you also notice and a lot of our sites is is that they've also worked on culture and belonging, right? So, those kids also know that the teachers want them to learn, that the teachers care about them. We were just at Marco celebrating middle school teacher of the year, right? And every kid in that classroom was like, "Of course, he's the teacher of the year." Um, because they've worked also on adultto adult relationships, adultto student relationships, student belonging. So when I come, it's not, "Well, I have to be here because I have to be in English and I have to earn these points." It's I'm here because, you know,
121Pat cares about me, she greets me, every teacher greets me, everyone knows me. We have student mentors, we have student campus supervisors, we've got students who are non-traditional, um, in all sorts of roles doing things. Uh, and so that work has to go alongside this work. You can't just change something technical and systematic like this without also talking about well teach kids don't think teachers care. They're not going to care what the grading system is. They have to know you care about their learning. And so that work has been going alongside this. And we didn't talk about that, but this is why this has taken Marco six years to get to this point. It's why when we first started talking about this, I said this is going to take four, five, six years. This isn't
122going to be like tomorrow the grading policyy's done. It works. Because you have to work on the culture and the belonging as well. Thank you. Okay, I think we have plenty of direction to staff on that one. >> You don't have to make the video. You just have to be in it. >> Yeah. Not Yeah, you just star in it. Just star in it, please. Thank you. Okay. And um we will go back to 4 A3 and we will have Clark will be presenting this item. Yeah, I like that discussion on grading because as me I also have been impacted by grades every like she said think back in your career of a student and there's going to be that time where grades factored in and that is so true. Okay. So item um four
123three right here those this was uh first reading board policy 3551 food services. Uh this policy is being updated to reflect changes in California education code and uh applicable federal regulations as well as to clarify and mo modernize existing language. and staff is here to answer any questions that you have about this uh first reading of board policy. >> I got to play Zinger earlier. I'll play Davis now. So >> kind of sort of a kind of a question. Let's see. Oh yes. Uh page 41, the paragraph in green, it says the program shall give priority to serving freshly prefer prepared on-site meals. I I just think that's confusing. It makes it sound like you're going to prepare them on site on the campus site. And I I'm not going to suggest how to rewrite
124that. I just think that it needs to be written in such a way that it doesn't sound like we are preparing meals at the campus. That is the ultimate goal of >> really. We're not going to use Central Kitchen anymore. >> Well, no. It would still be Central Kitchen as a commissary. So, they would be preparing in instead of in the packages that you've seen when you visited the central kitchen. They would be preparing those meals or the ingredients for those meals in on sheet pans or in hotel pans and shipping that out to each school site to then either serve on a plate or in some kind of an apparatus and they would then move towards a more homemade feel to our items instead of a packaged feel to our items. And that's across
125the state. It's across the country. there's a big push for a scratchcooked or more um minimally processed foods coming into the program. >> Well, I understand that and that's what I I think you're doing at Central Kitchen. Oh, yeah. I just don't see how we can be doing that. um particularly with uh sanitation issues, you know, like okay, let's take Ambiel in that sort of >> perfect quasi little shack that they do it in. Uh so whatever >> we are saying giving priorities so it's not the policy isn't saying we will only do this. It says we'll priority. So right >> at the high schools it's a lot different and a lot easier to do this at some of the middle schools at some of the elementary is not. So, but but where it's possible
126and where we have the equipment and and ability to do it, we want to do as much as the final preparation as possible at the final serving point. >> And again, I guess that's that's fine. I wasn't aware of that, but um I I think giving priority I I think we need to be saying something like where possible. Um because again parents sometimes look at these things and say why aren't you preparing this on site? You're supposed to be giving priority to that and and that's not going to happen at ambul in that like little closet that they where they give out food. Okay. >> As of right now, you are correct. All of our elementary schools are deemed prepackaged by the Orange County Health Department. And so it would be a a process for
127us to implement something like this at each of our >> but we can definitely add language it says where possible given >> con you know okay I'm done. >> Thank you other trustees. Okay given. Thank you. And then we'll move on to four um A4 and I'd like to recognize Clar Hampton, deputy superintendent to present the item on board policy 3553, free and reduced price meals. >> Thank you very much. So the the polic this policy is being updated to reflect changes in the California Education Code and applicable federal requirements. It updates the terminology and clarification of universal meal requirements and expanded language regarding participation in fally funded universal meals service provisions including the community elig eligibility provision. Policy also clarifies requirements related to the provision and sale of reimburseable meals and staff is here
128to answer any of your questions. Bulus, >> do we know how long they're projecting out that we are going to be able to do this? >> Um because there's been lots of legislature and >> the universal feeding. >> I'm sorry. >> How long will we'll be able to do universal feeding? >> Yes. Free to every student. So far, the state's not indicated that they plan on cutting it back and they're funding it that for next year, but you heard anything they might dial back. that that's where we are currently with the with HR1 federally going into place and the cuts to SNAP uh benefits and funding for for families that could potentially have impact on those federal universal meal provisions provision one two three and the community eligibilility provision known as C. We have five
129school sites currently running C in our district. Um, we are in the process right now of looking at our direct certification numbers to see if we will still qualify for those existing five sites and or if we could group additional sites together to qualify for more sites to maximize our federal reimbursement so we don't have as big of an impact fiscally on the state reimbursement coming in from the California Universal Meals program. So it it really is dependent on the state's ability to continue to fund that backup. >> Thank you. >> Of dollars, >> Mr. Jones. >> Yes. So I'm really glad that Dr. Gomez is still here uh because I have some questions about this and in Okay. On page 48, the um the third paragraph that survived uh to starts out to provide
130optimal nutrition, it's refers to it says such as provision to or the or C. Um and I know that or I believe there was that C qualifications changed or or were going to change and maybe didn't. So I think this is possibly a moving target. So, I like the such as and I kind of was concerned about maybe we needed some more such ases in this policy like over on 49 where we've got the numbers one, two, and three. Number t two could be identifi identification of students eligible for services under such as those provided according to the federal elementary and secondary education act. for example, I I'm just not convinced that we are putting in enough for instances in case things change. Um, and then >> we'll bring it back when it changes. >>
131What? >> Won't we bring it back when it changes? >> Well, yeah, but things can change pretty fast. And if we had a such as as we have in this first one, then maybe we don't have to bring it back. Um, is what I I'm saying. Um I you know again I would leave it up to Dr. Gomez. He knows this stuff more than I know ever would or want to but um it was just you know um a concern. >> Well, we'll make a note to to work on any wording that can add flexibility given the changing uh federal and state landscape on this. So we'll look at just kind of places where we can add wording flexibility. >> Okay. And then higher up on page 49, the first thing it says, and I
132think there's just typos here, the board authorizes designated individual records pertaining to an individual student's eligibility. It's just a lot of individuals there. Um, I think it's just well, I don't know. Uh, but I >> it's it's part of it is because we can't give out lists of kids who qualify. that we can't say as an employee, you can have a list of every kid who qualifies. We're not allowed to do that. So, you're allowed to have an individual record for each individual kid that qualifies is why it's it's it is redundant. I agree. But it's because of the way that law is written. >> Um Okay. We can't we can't give lists of free and reduced uh students. >> All right. I'm good then. Thanks. >> But to your point, I mean, we do
133have free and reduced price meals on here. So, that no longer exists and it's been a long time. So anytime we can make it. >> Yeah. Thank you. Other comments? Okay. Thank you. And we'll move on to five number two. Thank you. So item number five, first reading board policy 3554, other food sales. So, this policy is being updated to reflect current state and federal competitive food and beverage requirements and to clarify expectations for food and beverage sales conducted outside the district district's food and nutrition service program. And staff is here to answer any questions about the revisions. >> Um, I have a question on uh page 54 the second paragraph. It refers to andor sales at secondary school student stores. So, what do we have do when we've got a K8 school? Uh, I
134don't know whether they do that in paid, but um, but a K8 is not a secondary school. >> Could we change it to all schools? >> You wouldn't change to all, but you could change it to K8 and secondary schools. >> Yeah, we can change it. That's fine. >> They do have PBIS tickets that they use, things like that. So that would that would you are correct that would reflect >> this one. >> Anyone else? Okay. Thank you. >> Oh, sorry. Trusty Walus, I've got a question. I'm looking through this to see where it said uh promoting student wellness. At some point in time, um the elementary schools would do like popsicle sales for fundraisers for fifth grade science camp and all. I think that was okay if it was after school. Um, just not
135during like a lunch period or a break period. We're we're still good with that. It doesn't fit probably in the wellness portion. >> A lot of the times they do reach out to food and nutrition services to purchase compliant popsicles for those sales. Okay. And that is much much better than if they were to do it >> elsewhere or in a different fashion. But yes, it's typically 30 minutes before the school day and up to 30 minutes after the school day. That's the regulatory time frame where there's no additional sales. Um, >> especially >> really the 30 minutes after, okay, because I don't know. >> That's the legalities and it can't be because it can't has to be a food that qualifies, right? So that's why if they go through food nutrition services, they can
136meet get a food that meets the benchmarks. >> They could do it right after before mom picks them up from school. There are compliant products. >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Well, I'll keep that in mind. >> Yeah. So, the caramel apple suckers that used to make sports teams fabulous amounts of money are not able to be sold. >> And those Valentine grams that you we used to see, those are anything that is a ticket, any kind of, you know, >> transactional thing is is deemed a competitive sale. >> So then what are you saying about the popsicle sale? Even if it's a healthy popsicle, that's they're taking money for it if they're fundraising. >> If it's a compliant item, that is >> okay. So, it's only if it's the other. Okay. >> Those caramel apple
137sucker things >> 30 minutes after fine. [laughter] >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I have a question about shared shared campuses and right now we've got we're sharing with a charter school on one site and then we have two charter schools sharing one. Um if So, let's say we had a charter school and bearing a site with a non-charter school. Um, can the charter school put in do whatever they want food wise? Can they put in a vending machine? Can they let their kids sell popsicles, non-compliant popsicles at lunch? Um, and does this have any >> I do not believe that they can violate the nutrition rules for public schools. They are still a public school, so they can't do those things. And those that you're speaking of are their own
138school food authority or SFA. And so they have to meet these exact same regulations. Okay. That we in food nutrition services for Capistrono unified must meet. >> And several contract with food services to provide meals for them. >> Yeah, I know some of them do. Yeah. Um Okay. Um yeah, I just wanted to make sure we were covered on that. >> Thank you. Any other comments? Direction? Okay. move on to 4B2 and first reading board policy 5125 student records and we'll recognize Greg Merlin. >> Thank you so much. I'm gonna ask the team to come up just give us a minute. >> We skipped over because we did B12. Okay. Thank you, trustees. So, as we uh start with 5125 student records, I want to point out for this board policy as well as items
139three through five, all of these are being revised to be in compliance with new state law AB495. So, these are all become compliant with AB495, which is required by March 1st, 2026. That's the context behind these. So, then we're happy to answer any questions. And can I propose that we talk about all of them just in order just kind of go right through all of them? >> Absolutely. >> Is everyone okay if we go ahead and go through just moving to the next one? >> Well, I have a couple comments on this one. >> We'll comment along each one >> as we move along. >> Okay. I didn't understand what you said, >> but you but you said this is due by March 1st to be implemented. >> We need to be in compliance. We
140need our board policies approved uh by March 1st. >> Those come back for second reading in the February board meeting. So you'll give a direction the night first reading. They'll come back at the official regular meeting. >> We still have a regular time. This will work. No. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Two trustes. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Happy to hear any feedback. >> Have at it. Um okay. Age 74, the purple paragraph, it refers to uh what the superintendent designate does uh if the student well if they get there was a request they'll say that the student has not been enrolled at district for at least 60 days. But what if they get a request for a current student? Um seems like that's only dealing with students who are gone. It's about
141deletion. We don't delete current student records. This is a request for a deletion, right? Okay. So, you're like this is if a student 18 years or older requests the deletion of a record, then they have to have been not our student for at least 60 days and be over 18 to request the deletion of their record. Right. So, so it can't just be a 17-year-old student comes and says, "Hey, delete this record." Absolutely not. But if you're an 18-year-old student, you're not a minor and you're not you haven't been here for 60 days. So, I'm 18, it's April of my senior year, you cannot delete your records. But if I'm 18 and it's April of my freshman year of college, then you could request a record deletion. >> But we're talking about um information under
142the control of an operator of a website, online service, or application. Um so it's not us. Um so they're requesting this information. Well, >> so it's apparent or so This would be something like >> older than 18. >> This would be something like we have a contract with um Clevver for rostering for student records for Canvas or like all a lot of our vendors. So they're controlling the record of that kid's login, let's say. So okay um I'm I'm a student. I've been logging into um Pair Deck because that's a vendor we've used. Um I want my login data deleted. Well, no. Unless you're So So it's our student record, but it's controlled by the operator of that vendor. That's really what this is about. So, it's it's kind of it's it's definitely language that's
143being required to be added for very specific use cases that exist now because there's so many vendors that have some information about a student's activity, >> right? But yeah, okay. So, the student has to be 18 or over, but the student the parent or guardian can make the request. Um, so it's it's current student, there's information on Clevver and they the parent wants it deleted. >> Um, so do we do that or >> it depends on what the >> district >> the record is, but we can for some of it. Yeah, if it's something that that we have access to. Yes. Okay. >> All right. Well, never mind. Um, >> are there comments >> with the student records from social media? It seems like there's more than just um if so some student gets into
144a fight and we could look on social media and see information about 99 different fights they've gotten into and we could use that in in our expulsion or whatever I guess is what we're saying. But um there could be information we get from places other than social media. Uh there could be uh emails that the district have has gotten uh that say, you know, where an email with a video attached with this kid getting into a fight last week. Uh so I guess I'm not convinced that it's just >> social media. Um, I don't know. >> Yeah, I mean, we can already do that, I think, and we can look at where that's in that and call it out or specify it because we definitely can already use that kind of investigative data. The the
145issue really was, I think, the the law was not clear on whether we could actually scrub social media to find, right, someone sends us something about a kid, that's different than us going and searching their social media background. Okay. >> Right. So, so we gather all sorts of investigative data, but >> it's also a question of >> Yeah. If the social media post is a public is made available to the public, then it's open for everybody. If it's a private page, then no, that would bring into question. >> But if someone brings it to you, >> correct? >> then it's it's public. >> Okay. >> Um and then it it also refers to the district must next paragraph must first notify the student and parents about the proposed program. What what proposed program is this?
146And is this like the annual notifications we're talking about? Oh, okay. Okay. So, we just have to include this in the annual notifications that we might be looking on your social media. Okay. >> And is this state language? >> Okay. Any other direction for staff? I thank you. We'll move on to 4B3. >> Are we on 43? >> Yes. Release of directory information. >> Why did we delete the definition of directory information? >> It it's been added to the administrative regulation. So, all of those definitions have moved over there. >> We're going to go in the AR. >> Okay. All right. >> Um, and then we say we we're include directory information in minutes of the board's meeting. And that kind of makes it sound like it's it could be, you know, all these different
147things like email address, date of birth, whereas I think we just might say the student's name and school. Um it just seemed a little scary like oh we're going to >> specific language is mentioned in AB 495 >> that we referenced that this way and it add actually one of the policies that will come for your review is for bylaw on >> um 9324 at the February meeting >> to clarify that too because there's things that got added in because of AP495 that this is cross referencing that's why so many of them have these little pieces that have been added here and there Right. Because they touch those things. >> They're always adding little pieces. >> Yeah. And and that was the specific call out on protecting student information that gets potentially called out in
148a schoolboard meeting. Like if you were to take action on expulsions, we always use student ID numbers. We never say Michael Gomez. It's all of those things. So there's things we already do. Our policies have to be reflective of AB495. >> Okay. Any other direction moving on? Thank you. So um in the summary it uh the right after the first group of bullet points it says policy also reiterates that staff may not obstruct or interfere with immigration enforcement personnel who lawfully enter those areas. But when you look in the policy, it does not say lawfully. Um, so I think >> Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, right here on page 84, >> uh, right after the bullet point, >> it says personnel who lawfully enter these areas. But then you go on page 85 on the policy
149and it says um, >> well, it's covered in the second paragraph, right? It says, "Unless required by state or federal law, required to administer a state or fally supported educational program or presented with a valid judicial subpoena, judicial warrant, or court order, district staff shall not." And then it elucidates what we won't do. So, so it it actually kind of talks about what the lawful requirements are there in that second paragraph. >> Okay, here it is. It's down at the bottom under four. says, "However, district staff shall not obstruct, interfere with, or otherwise impede an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration for enforcement." Oh, okay. Who nonetheless answers da da da da. Um, and but here on the first page, and I haven't read the ED code that talks about this, or I
150think there might even be a new law. Um but the the the summary says reiterates that you can't obstruct them if they lawfully enter these areas and here and but then in the policy we don't talk about lawfulness. We're just saying you will not obstruct interfere with >> it's the same exact paragraph I got completely confused on >> where it says however. >> So we could add the word that's the one paragraph is very confusing. Yeah. >> And it needs clarification. >> Like we could be we could say district staff shall not obstruct or interfere otherwise impede an officer or employee of an agency lawfully conducting immigration enfor. Right. We could add the word lawfully there. >> Okay. >> It just [clears throat] did not fine. We can repeat the word there. >> It was
151really confusing. >> Does that make it more clear? Any other direction? Okay. Move on to 4 B5. deletion of board policy. >> So this was the pre pre previous policy which B4 replaces. Yes. >> And 4B6 >> will be another deletion >> and unless someone has any comments on it and we'll move on to 4B7 also deletion and 4B8 deletion and now we're on 4C1 communications parent collaboration and engagement just for the public those deletions happen because those wordings and policies end up in other board policies and ARs. So it's not like we're just doing away with all that. It's because of the FPM process, it has to go live somewhere else in another policy that that are being updated. So I just want to be clear. We're not just throwing policies out there. Those
152wordings are ending up somewhere else. >> 100%. Thank you for that clarification. Absolutely. >> Yes, it's referenced in the the board item. >> Make sure at the following board meeting that we reference that in the agenda item so the public knows where the information is housed. >> 100%. Thank you. Thanks for that clarification, too. Okay. And 4C1 parent collaboration and engagement trustes. Thank you. So, so if you can imagine, I was not a performing arts student. Um, I was a STEM student, remember, former chemistry teacher. So, uh, definitely different outfit changes were not in my wheelhouse. I would have been the kid who needed many, many times to, um, redemonstrate my learning in the newsies preparation. I would not have been ready up front. So, one of the things that we committed to doing a
153few years ago for the board is talking about a a compendium or or a a one-stop shop where parents could find out really all of the different ways that we want to communicate with them, collaborate with them, engage with them, all of their different rights, all the different ed codes that support what they do and all of the different things they can learn. And so, um, Ryan and the team from it services and our lawyers and our web people have all been working on trying to because it all this stuff existed. it just existed all over the place. And kind of to your point, Trusty Jones, some people scour the policies to figure out what they can and can't do. And some people don't, right, look at the policies or they only look at the
154policy when it when it is hitting them at the moment. So the idea is to create a website basically or a link on our website where parents could go in and find out all the different ways that we want to communicate about all the different things we want to commun, how they can get involved, what their rights are, what kind of ways they can interrogate records, those types of things. Um, and so Ryan's been working on this. Um, uh, well, all of the websites should be user friendly. That's a different discussion and that'll be an investment that I'll have to ask for you guys to make later when we have money. Um, but right now Oh, Ryan, I don't have to be Ryan anymore. >> All right. I thought that was pretty good to be
155honest. You're up first. [laughter] So, >> sorry. Sorry. I should have done better. So, after I left the stable this morning, um, [laughter] >> sorry. >> All right. So, I set context, Ryan. So, we're we're done with this slide. >> He went from Abby to stable. Yeah, there we go. >> Thanks. >> Okay. >> Sorry you all made me wait so long I had to go potty. >> [laughter] >> All right. So, tonight very briefly, I wanted to talk about our work on parent collaboration engagement mostly in the context of how it fits into board policies and um administrative regulations and what we've been working on in the district. So, we begin with just a look at screenshots of the parent um collaboration, the parent partnership document. And we began developing this resource in October
156of 2023 um based mostly on feedback from that we were getting in board meetings and other places about how parents could be involved. Our website, as most school district websites are, have so much information they're hard to navigate and really help parents find out how to get involved in school. So, um, we started putting this document together. Um, this this particular iteration was actually based off of feedback from PTA. We started with more of a letter style to tell parents what this document was about. PTA said, um, it would be great to see it in bullet points and to make it even easier for parents to get through. So that is that is what it looks like currently and this actually is the current document that we have posted on our website. Um we like
157I said began working on this in October of 2023 and it was finally ready for distribution to parents on May 2nd of 2024. >> [clears throat] >> It includes our parent promise which is a a world-class education for every student that includes a partnership with parents and guardians. Um the document reflects our values as a district and reaffirms to our parents that we want them involved and engaged. This this is also screenshot that comes directly from the electronic document. Um and as I said after feedback from PTA we revised the paragraphs to show them more briefly and succinctly what was exactly in the document. It identifies opportunities for teachers, administrators and staff to engage with parents and guardians from TK to grade 12. The document highlights policies aligned with state education code and federal law
158that contain opportunities to communicate with parents and guardians from TK through grade 12. Our guiding documents include, but are not limited to, California State Education Code 511, section 51101, which is known as the code that outlines parent rights and affirms the rights of parents. We also of course use our board policies. And then um there are additional documents that we use that inform our work um currently and then also help us um sort of build our long-term vision and aspirational goals for what this should look like in classrooms from counseling from school sites administrators and from the district. So we have we have been looking specifically at California standards for the teaching profession, California standards for school counseling and American school counselor association professional standards and competencies. And the goal for us was really to
159find alignment with the work that we're doing and then again set some aspirational values and goals that we can continue to work on as we talk to teachers and principles and and work on this in the district. Um so the key takeaways from these three documents um are that family engagement is directly connected to student achievement and well-being which I think we all know. Um parent engagement is a professional expectation from from the counselor and teacher documents and from what we see in in uh in large ways already in our district. Communication must be two-way and it must be relationshipbased. So it means it has to be more than just emails going to parents. It has to be phone calls and and um communication coming from parents to teachers and the other way around. It
160also needs to be accessible in multiple languages. So we use things like talking points so that um we can speak directly to to our families who use um who use native languages other than English. it translates it directly and then translates their communication back to us back in English. Um, engagement goes beyond academics. So, we would look at how families partner together in academics, mental health, crisis response, college and career planning, and MTSS systems that we have in place. And then, of course, it's not about compliance, it's about improving outcomes ultimately for students. So this is what we currently see on our website and it is um it is a list of things that parents and guardians can the way that we are building this is that through these bullet points you would find direct
161links to places that that would help parents get more information. So when we say scheduling time to visit your child's classroom to and observe instruction, um that may go to a place that helps them find their school front office phone numbers and access to principles and teachers, participate in school sponsored activities, be informed of their child's academic progress and and school performance. Again, those things are already taking place, but it's a good reminder for parents that they that it's not just about a one-way communication access and review ex educational material. So, this would um this would take people to the IMRC here at the district office and then also again direct them to the principal and teachers um just like our policies say so that you can review the educational materials and curriculum also have
162links to like their Aries parent login. So if we again get one more way they can get to their Aries parent login where they have massive access into their students records. So just a lot of ways to get them in so that there's other ways to do it but they can find it this way as well. >> So yeah and this was this was created sort of to be a one-stop shop as as Trusty Adnum said. Um again, this is 6 through 10 of what parents um can do as far as education as as engaging in their students um education. And so this list is on the left side and then if you look at the quick links, these are already going to these specific areas. So the partnership document is linked on this web
163page and then we also have access directly to the annual notices. Parents typically only get this once a year during the registration process. Um there is a lot of good material in there that parents should probably be looking through throughout the year. And then of course access to ed code um opt out rights, ed code language, our student opt out letter um and and um information on special education and disability rights. And then finally, some information on the safety act. So, our next steps are to make sure that we get feedback from trustees and that um we continue to um to sort of finalize this and prepare it for the next time that we're sending it out to parents. I would say probably at the end of or sometime this month in February. We want
164to ensure alignment with the parent partnership document in the web page. So there will be places as law changes that we have to make sure that we have updated both of the document and this website. And then finally as I said share resources with parents, guardians and our school employees. So I am ready for feedback. So, how are you how are you going to disseminate this out to parents? I mean, is this going to be a packet in children's uh in elementary backpacks that just emails all different ways? How how we going to get this messaging? >> It'll be a variety of ways, including even just posting the link to the page from our social media accounts. Um, the way that I the way that I sent the parent partnership document the first time around
165was a link to a live Google form. Uh, and so parents could access the Google form directly and it never is out ofd because it's something that is always being updated live >> and what kind of response did we get to that? >> Uh, the number of parents that actually >> people are people are positive about it. So in a lot of cases they don't they didn't know exactly how to sort of navigate the school district or even their schools. They didn't know that they had they had access to this sort of engagement and so it was a good reminder to them. And then I would say on the other end it was positive from employees because in some cases it's a good reminder for them. Um and then um it also holds all of
166us accountable. So what we're actually telling parents we're doing um we can actually see in a document that is that is clear and concise of what we should be doing. >> But like our insider do we have measurement of how many parents are accessing and looking or how many hits we get or >> the Google form does not measure that kind of engagement. So I I could post it in places where we could measure the the people who are actually clicking on the link and looking at it, but only it's only real- time data that shows me who's in the document at the time on Google. The reason I like the the live Google doc is because if if there is something that needs to be updated, we can update it and parents have direct
167access to it and it and they're not keeping papers at home that are now out of date. You're going to continue using pointing parents to that document, the Google document that spells out the CUSD cares that >> Yes. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So um 107 and 108 or pages six and seven of the presentation I think in in an attempt to tell parents everything they can do. We have included a bunch of things that we are promising to them. Let me just do on the on the second one. Schedule time to visit your child's classroom so they can do that. participate in school sponsored activities. They can do that. Be informed of their parents their child's academic proc progress. We do that. And it's not like, oh, you might be informed about this. We're
168going to inform you. And I think a lot of these are wills, not cans, or more correctly may, but let's not get into that. Um, and I think we need to to def different differentiate things that parents can do versus things that we're going to provide to them because we better be sending them grade reports. We better be um providing school rules and attendance policies. We better be telling them about their rights, responsibilities under the law, uh, or whatever. Um, and and I think if we're saying they can get this, it's like, yeah, you know, maybe they can can get it. It's it's almost like they're going to have to ask for it. >> So So you're thinking red redefine those to to things that like things that will be done like pushed from our
169side versus things they can access, but they have to do a little leg work to get right. >> Things that a parent can optionally do if they decide to >> versus stuff that we will. >> We commit to doing this. We commit to providing this. Um, and I don't know how you want to do that, but I when I first read this, I'm like, "No, no, no. These are these are are some of these are district promises. Others are things parents >> No, I think that's a good way to look at it, right? Because it's it's a two-way street like Ryan said. So, like there are things that we will do no matter what. And then there are things that some parents will do and some parents won't. And we would encourage them to get
170involved and encourage them to be, you know, part of school sponsored events, but they don't have to. and and we can't force them, right? So, it's it's that sort of our responsibilities and then things that could be their responsibilities in that sort of two-way relationship piece >> because there are some parents who will never do any one of these things, but we are still going to do all of the things that we have to do. >> So, I I guess the way that I would envision that because I this was somewhat built off of the parents rights ed code, which is basically like they have the right to this stuff. So even if we didn't want to do it, we'd have to like share progress reports and things like that. The way I think to
171make this easiest for parents to access and understand you can do this or we will automatically do this is sort of like a checkbox next to it where it's like where where we'll say like this is parent proactive parent work not like that but and something that we do automatically. So yeah. That's also good be Oh, sorry. That's also good because it goes to that piece you were talking about of accountability on our part. So, this is our commitment to you. Yeah. >> And then they can hold us accountable to that. >> I was just going to add when you visually look at something and it says parents and guardians and that's a laundry list of of two pages. when you break it out and then you say what we will >> again it it
172just makes it really clear what they're going to get and you >> from [snorts] a visual standpoint too. >> Okay. >> And I'd like a link that we could kind of go through it. Paper's great, but then just a a separate link would be awesome. >> Okay. >> So that we can navigate it and see how it feels to go through >> as a parent. Other comments? I love the idea, too. I can't remember where you said it, where there's going to be a link or a way for a family to go to their school. Like >> you can visit your child's classroom, follow this link, and then find your school. That's just that one-stop shop that >> they [clears throat] don't we don't want them all over the place because it's frustrating for them.
173>> Yeah. So again, I'm going to say aspirational because website design is not in our budget at the moment. Um >> well, it and it may be as simple as here's the here is the the roster of schools and phone numbers to call, but at least it gets them without having to search or anything else. One place, find your school, all the numbers. >> And in a perfect website, the idea is that you can get to certain resources from multiple access points. So you don't always have to navigate all the way back to the home screen to then find something else. Um so again aspirational this is this is our first shot at that. Um someday we cannot do budget cuts and we can then do website redesign. >> Okay. Anything else trustees? >> Yes.
174Thank you. >> Okay. And with that there be no further business before the board. May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. Moved by trustee Bulicus. Second by Trusty Jones. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries 502 to adjourn the meeting. The time is now 7:52. Thank you. Have a good night.