001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Jackson is in the house, right? Look at this >> as always. Fantastic. I wanted to just bring attention to our restructure of our board. We fired three board members tonight. Kidding. I probably shouldn't joke about that. Uh we've had three board members just with really unique circumstances this evening has made it um challenging for them to be uh present. We do have one that actually is on the phone right now. So it allows for us to have quorum. So um they're all apologetic of not being present for Jackson's presentation this evening as well. No, >> it is reported um to YouTube and they all details participating in >> but when you do board appreciation gifts just remember who is kidding. Um so at this time we're going to go ahead
002and reconvene back into open session. If you'd all please be so kind and join me and stand for our flag salute. >> It's up front. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance 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. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much. We'll move on to a roll call at this time. Um, Miss White is not present. Uh, Miss Bibo >> here. >> Present. Thank you very much. Uh, Miss Hunter >> present. >> And Mr. Flity is not present and our superintendent, Mr. Shimick, >> present. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much. Can I please get a motion to adopt this evening's agenda? Jeez, >> the agenda as is. >> Is there a second? >>
003She just texted me. We we lost our connection. >> Thank you very much. There is nothing to report out session that has extended meeting to our superintendent report. >> Okay. Well, good evening. So nice to see everyone here and again our apologies for not having a full board here for you. We got some students. This be fun to listen to your presentation. We'll make sure that everyone gets to see it. Um, as many of you know, you've seen us here before uh we start off our evening just um with the superintendent report and I got to back that up. Oh, thank you. Um really just uh the topics are always centered on what our board or focus goals are and we don't cover all six every single time but usually there's enough to to do
004that. I think we've got four of them this evening that I wanted to just share with our team. So on this continuous improvement, two things really going on right now in the district. Our student education survey, this is our employee engagement uh services survey. Um this is an annual every spring where staff have an opportunity to field about 21 questions um uh ranging from a variety of things. Do I feel supported in the job? Do I have the materials that I need? Am I proud to tell people where I I recommend rescue all those items are giving us feedback in the next month or so. And this is just an example of my top my favorite. This is the last And this second I'm referencing right now questions. want to see I would imagine this
005requires you to stop and ask um that the question that follows this is a parent can name I can name my school that >> thank you so much we are a hot mess here this evening >> but we do really want to hear you. So here >> this is continuous improvement on the fly here where um so that that second question uh that uh when we ask if a parent can name it even has better results than this. So that data will be collected. So really in the next uh about month and a half we're collecting quite a bit of data that just um it's really important for our team to receive feedback. If we're going to improve in a in a an area, we need do I we need to listen to our staff
006members and to our parents to help guide where that improvement needs to occur. It shouldn't come from me sitting in my office just saying I I think what we should get better at is X when it's not informed by our staff and our parents. So, I'm excited to share that data and that'll go that da the data from the LCAP survey will go live in August when we have our welcome back and the stutor goes uh live for our leisures in July when we come back. Um, I have to have I had to have a Jackson photo in here, but we talk about a culture of excellence and student support. I don't know the student there. Apparently many in the office here do or but I walked I walked I walked in and uh you
007just talk about people that just plug in and support kids where they're at. Um I imagine this kid was having a tough day before I walked in and um Koko didn't miss a beat. Just kept on plugging away with this kid and kind of gave me one of those all knowing mom looks. Uh, and I thought, well, I'm going to wait a moment and capture her when she's not looking at me and get a a picture of this, but I thought it was just indicative of what I see regardless of what school I'm in. Staff are uh plugging in in so many different ways. Daniel, I was going to pick a picture of you in the play, but you you were you were focused so uh heavily in our last Monday memo. I thought this
008one would serve, but that it was just another example of staff plugging in when they can. Uh, talked about our commitment to community. These are our community nights that we host once a month. And I just the level the quality and level of food that we are providing to our neediest families. We have about 80 families that show up once a month um between just typically up here. So it's at Rescue Green Valley and Pleasant Grove. uh that come. This is our partnership with that we just received and if you don't know we just received an award from the county with our partnership with Aspire Kids uh Bayside Church um Hills and the Flity Foundation and then uh Jen our MTSS coordinator and soul our community specialist uh coordinate this every month. But this is
009an outreach event that we do where we we are bringing um we are meeting a need that I don't even think we knew what the need was. Uh this started two years ago with just the August back to school kickoff and that was so popularly widely attended that we thought what would this look like on a monthly level and our partners have been amazing. This is all food from Whole Foods, Nugget and um Trader Joe's. And like I said, the quality is amazing and they can take as much as they want. Many families are walking away with about two weeks to three weeks worth of food. Big boxes that they take. And then that that third slide over from the uh left is that's the quality of food that we're serving these families when they're
010showing up. Um so they they can bring their kid. Um and then there's always a support provider as you know that's there. Well, one month it might be a free haircut for children. The next the next month it's there's always a clo closed closet that's there and that closed closet has gone from gently used to almost all new uh clothing at this point. So really proud of the partnership that we've created and I'm glad that the county recognized that for us what two Mondays ago. That was fun. I think I've got one more. Yeah. And then this is the last one here is just uh as we talk about something to make you smile, some this is something I stole from Dustin on the Monday memo. But you you know when we think about a
011culture of excellence, it's just meeting every kid where they're at. And this is our unified basketball. This is our third or fourth. I want to say it might have been our third third year of Thank you, Dustin. Third year of doing this. We've got they've got uh they're outfitted with a uniform that's provided by branded sports. Our PTC's and our PTO's um provide quite a bit of funding to support uh this event. It happens at Lake uh Forest. Each year we have coaches um many in this room I saw were there supporting our kids. Um obviously Michelle and and um Dustin and Tony uh with our sped department do a lot of behind the scenes work and then provided refreshments for these kids. We this has grown now to 144 kids up from 115 and
012I learned this morning that we had some significant transportation issues that were that were uh we were not prepared for. and that that transportation team did an amazing job of making sure that they rerouted and had enough drivers to go pick these kids up and bring them to the event. So, just a really uh really cool event and um nice to see so much support for our kids. So, that's my last slide on continuous improvement and a culture of excellence. to our next agendaized items which is celebrating excellence with Jackson here and um Molly, you're up. >> Yeah. >> Hello. Good evening. Thank you so much for having us. Um I'm excited to be here for my first official Jackson board presentation. I want to take a moment to thank the team, the parents, and
013the students for coming as well. So, thank you so much. The support means a lot to us. So, thank you. Um, all right. So, let's talk about Jackson Elementary School. Um, you want to go to the next slide or do I have it? Oh, got it. Okay, I got the control. So, since it's the end of the year, I thought we'd kind of talk about a highlight reel of all the things that have been going on at Jackson. Um, so we want to talk about our Halloween tradition that continues, something very near and dear to Jackson. um our strong academics and our really systematic intervention for student learning, the staff collaboration, what we've been spending our time working on this year, positive school culture and climate and the work that's gone into that, our VAPA
014program, visual and performing arts, and some new fresh PTO events. So to start talking about or start off talking about um Halloween, the tradition coming on board and kind of learning about all things Jackson, uh one of the main things that came up, a trend from parents, students, and really our staff was that these traditions are really important to the school, the staff, and to the community. And so we wanted to make sure we're keeping those traditions alive. Um some that Michelle started, that previous principles started, and we really wanted to keep those going. So Halloween being the kind of the first one. So, typically in the past it's been a kind of a movie theme and everybody's had a character that they've portrayed. Um, and this year we wanted to put a different spin
015on it. We wanted to have a cohesive theme. Um, but have our own little twist on it ourselves. So, we were the bewitching witches of Jackson. Um, and everybody kind of was a different kind of witch. We had some alphabas in there. Um, we had a Glenda. We have the Sanderson sisters. So, everybody had their own little take u on that. So, it's pretty special. As we continue, I want to make sure though with this highlight reel, we highlight the team and who we are here at Jackson. Uh, so we are a school of 524 students, 28 classrooms. We have an Edco preschool program on our campus, as well as an EDCO multiple abilities program. We have 21 classroom teachers, TK through 5ifth, a PE teacher, one and a half education specialists, we share one
016with Rescue Elementary, a music teacher who's paid for by the Prop 28 funds, a band uh district band teacher, an art teacher and a dance teacher. Both of those are funded by PTO, and we have one intervention teacher. For our support staff, we have two school secretaries, one library media coordinator, health office aid, 10 instructional aids, so they are in TK, kinder, special education and intervention classrooms, one district nurse, three custodians, speech and language pathologists, six yard supervisors, school psychologist, two food service workers, and two garden coordinators. And one that's not on here is our very important school counselor. So, she is on there as well. She is my right-hand lady. So talking about our academics and our intervention, our really strong programs. I wanted to share with you a couple years of our state
017test score data and really we dive into this at the beginning of the year reflecting on the year before. So I wanted to share these with you. We've had some trends upwards. We've have some dips in our data which is normal and going to happen. But really what it does is it allows us to dig in and inform our practice. So for teachers, what I really appreciate is they're digging into that data at the beginning of the year. What worked well? What did students learn well from? And what do we need to change? So it informs our teaching practice. Um, so I find this data just to be really helpful, but also just really important, our intervention program. So we're lucky to have an intervention teacher, Megan Wojen, and an intervention aid, Danielle Rios, and
018they are fantastic. And they support our intervention program from kinder through fifth grade. And it looks different at every grade level depending on what the need is. Um, but I wanted to highlight today first grade and third grade programs. Um, so you'll see some pictures there, some little first graders doing intervention work. Um, and really the focus at these grade levels is with reading and reading comprehension, site words, phonics skills. Um, but the data here shows us first grade there's about 20 students in that early entry group not meeting the benchmarks for phonics and for site words and then that data by the end of trimester too. I mean for that the amount of growth that happens in that time and so she's looking at data points all throughout the year to make sure if
019our student groups need to change. So these are small groups of kids some are moving up in the process. Some maybe are stagnant and we think what do we need to do differently? So they're really looking at that data all the time. So what are our students where are the where's that growth? For third grade it's a smaller group this year is about five students but coming in looking at their reading comprehension and their fluency. So that where they were at the beginning of the benchmark and now where they are meeting 80% of them 80% of them are meeting the trimester 2 benchmark. So again that huge incredible growth. So a lot of hard work and collaboration goes into that staff collaboration. What do we spend our time on this year as a staff? Um
020kind of two main focus areas for us. The UDL work universal design for learning. And this is something district-wide that we've been talking about. And so as a site we have um listened to many kind of recordings um that have been provided from us by the district and really digging into some of those questions about universal design for learning. What do we know? What do we need to learn? But also what are we willing to try and what's kind of scary to try and digging in and really having I think some vulnerable conversations. Um so that's been really interesting for us. We've also been focusing on our positive behavior intervention support program, our PBIS program. And so this is where we focus on what are our school rules. What do we want students to be
021able to kind of understand about the way school works and the behavior expectations and how do we reward that? And not just in a tangible reward way, but how do we remind kids and say, "Hey, thank you so much for walking on campus. Thank you for being kind." And so looking for those character traits and those those expected behaviors. So at the beginning of the year we spent a lot of time talking about okay what's not working in the system and what is working and looking at the data within that as well and so making some changes with that. So I'm going to talk about that next school culture and climate. So part of our PBIS acronym is called get jaggy. So jaggy stands for just be kind, act responsibly, go safely and your manners
022matter. So, we really decided to kind of come back to the basics of this and focus on how do you show the Jaggy way? And so, we do that through a few different systems. We have something called Jaggy Gems and we have these little purple gems and kids love to collect them. And so, yard supervisors, myself, Miss Vanessa, PE teachers giving these out all the time when students are demonstrating these traits across campus and so in different areas. Um, we also have we reward classes with groups of Jaggy Gems. So, at the end of each week, there's a class winner. There's student winners that get to come up to the prize cart. They were selected for having the most Jaggy gems. So, we're rewarding that positive behavior. What you see here, though, is an something
023we've added this year, and it's called Jaggy Gem of the Month. And this is where teachers nominate students who are demonstrating these Jaggy Ways in the classroom. And Miss Vanessa and I go into the classroom. We're all decked out in our purple or our Jaggy. and we come in and we read what's on the back of the certificate. So, we present the certificate to the student and share what the teacher has to say about why they were nominated. The goal is by the end of the year for every student to be nominated because every student can demonstrate the Jaggy traits. Um, what's really fun, and I borrowed it from Miss Morris over at Pleasant Grove, is we add a little fun to it with some music and some songs. Um, something like K-pop Demon Hunters
024and Zootopia. And they love it. They go wild. Um, I think the first time we totally caught them off guard. They probably thought it was like April Fool's Day or something. Um, but we come in, we dance, we celebrate, and then we present their certificates. So, it's a really fun way to intimately kind of have this, you know, recognize them in front of their classmates and their teacher on that um notion of positive school culture and climate. Daniel didn't know I was going to do this. Um, but I wanted to take a moment to recognize a staff member who I really think embodies positive school culture and climate, and that's Daniel Roy, our lead custodian. I know you've heard about him quite a bit. He really is a man of many talents. You can see
025here he is in our our JAG musical, both of them, the fall and the spring. But really, what I think when I think of positive school culture and climate and someone who promotes that, I he does come to mind. He is so willing to step in and help with anything. Things are sometimes that outside of his job, you know, description. Um, he takes his work really seriously, the health and safety of our school. Um, and I just appreciate that. So, I wanted to take a moment to recognize him. So, thank you, Mr. Daniel. We are very fortunate to have a thriving and very generous PTO. Um, and this year they've brought in a few new events and so I wanted to share a couple of those because we have heard about other schools doing a
026family glow dance and so this year we thought we've got to do that. And so it's been fun to be um to kind of be part of this Jackson community and see the events, the hard work that goes into what they do for our school. So um this glow dance was really well attended by our by our families. Um, and they brought in a DJ and all the black lights and all the swag and everything. And they brought in this, I think it's called Mr. Robboto. He is glowing. He is on stilts. He's walking around dancing with the kids. And they just thought that was the most amazing thing. I thought it was a really cool picture um that somebody snapped. So um so fresh new events with the glow dance. And then we also
027have a color run coming up. We are modeling it after Lake Forest color run. So that's going to be at the end of the year. So we're really excited just to try some new things and bring that to our community. And we are known as a vapa school, a visual and performing arts school. We just have some programs that cater to that. And I what I really like is we have a little something for everybody. Um we have a fall dance program and then once that finishes we have an art program and these are both funded by our PTO and what I really appreciate is they're happening during the school day. So every student has access to the dance program and to the art program and are receiving instruction. We also have our Jackson Actors
028Guild. So, it's our musicals. One h one happens in the fall and one happens in the spring. That bottom picture there is our spring production, the claw. And Miss Magianis, Miss Jones, and Miss Baron put that together. And I think they had 68 first, second, and third graders perform. I mean, they put to bring all that together into life is pretty incredible. Um, we have music classes courtesy of Prop 28 funds. We have our district band program. We have afterchool art classes. And we have a new club that we want to talk about today called the morning show. So I'm going to invite uh Miss Wagner, fifth grade teacher. This was her idea, the morning show. Um and our student presenters to come up because they're all part of the morning show and they're going
029to share a little bit about this. Guys want to come on up. Um I'm going to turn it over to you guys. So maybe everybody can introduce themselves and then you can chime in about pick us off. >> Okay. >> You go ahead and start. Well, so I just went to Molly, I don't know, five months ago maybe, and I said, I had this crazy idea. I think I saw it on Instagram or Tik Tok, I don't know. I was like, what about a morning show? I said, we got rid of our electives. We need something for our fifth graders, some leadership type opportunity. And I thought, how fun. These kids are always talking about how they have, you know, YouTube channels. I'm like, I don't know. Let's I I know nothing about this, but
030I bet they do. So, I went to my team and I thought, what do you think? And they're like, sure, we'll support you. Of course, let's do it. And so I took it to the kids. They had tryyous, auditions, and they blew me away. So, we had our first broadcast right before spring break. My second team starts tomorrow, and we can't wait to continue this next year, though. So, it's been a lot of fun. We're just kind of looking to see how we can tweak it next year to kind of bring it to more kids and not have it before school, and how we can kind of incorporate it in our day. But I would like to introduce you to a couple of our morning show team. >> Take it away, Sydney. >> I'm Sydney.
031I was a news anchor and I talked about segments and I also introduced people. I also I also talked about things happening around the campus like events and that kind of stuff. It was a lot of fun, some dedication, hard work, but it was awesome. Now to Kate. Um, I'm Kate and I was a script writer on the morning show. Um, it was a little difficult because our time was a lot shorter than I expected, but it was really fun. Um, I think the best part was seeing the script that me and the other script writers wrote actually being like what um the anchors and reporters say in the eventual when the film came out. And then this clip is the start of the morning show and someone interviewing our lovely principal, Mrs. Griffin, about
032some pros and cons. Oh, okay. You got to do it on your end. Okay. >> Hello, >> Sydney. >> Welcome to our Jackson morning show. Today we are going to entertain you with some interviews, some jokes, some weather, and possibly some secrets. >> Welcome back. Now it's time to look into the life of our beloved principal, Mrs. G. >> That's our reporter who got the scoop on this busy lady that helped out our school, Lucas. >> Hi, Mr. G. What's it like being principal? >> What's it like being a principal? >> Well, it's a big job, but it's a really fun job. I really like that I get to hang out with kids all day and I get to watch teachers doing some amazing things in their classrooms and watch you guys learning. Um, I
033love that I get to be outside a lot. And I really like that I get to do things like hand off these birthday bracelets every day. So, it gets me to the kids every single day. >> The pros and cons. It's a really big job. So, sometimes that means a lot of work. >> There's a lot of report We have a Yeah, it's gone. We have a couple different clips in there. Are we not able to show those? Okay. Um, so that was one just one of the clips we wanted to share, but I did want to have a couple other kiddos share a little bit about their experience. Um, yeah, it's in the presentation. The next slide, why don't you go ahead and talk about your experience? >> I was I'm My name is
034Caitlyn and I was a reporter for the morning show. It was really fun, cool, and pretty much chaotic. I got to I got to interview our school mascot and watch most of the filming. I would recommend it. I also wrote the script for the reporters, which pretty much had the same experience, but slightly different because I didn't get to see them filming, so I didn't know how it was going to turn out and if I had written down the right stuff. But it was genuinely really fun. This next clip is of me interviewing our school mascot, Mr. Whiskers. >> If you can click that or if we can go back. I think it's maybe at like the one. >> You see him at events everywhere around the campus, but have you even met him or
035even heard him speak? Now to our reporter who is live on scene, Caitlyn Yeah. So, today we're gonna ask Jackie or Mr. Whiskers, depending on how you know, a few questions to try and figure out who is. Okay. Starting off with the hardest part of being in the city all day. What's your favorite food? >> Yeah, I like that, too. And what's your favorite color? >> What's your favorite animal? >> That you >> you may not have known, but we have a >> All right. Hi, I'm an editor and uh I got a uh notice a bunch of things behind the scenes and all the support that was put together to create a um well the complete video. And uh these are some two pics of the teamwork and support and how much effort we
036put in. And as an editor, we got to see a lot of behind the scenes and what we had to do. Um, and then this next the next clip is about a very lucky teacher that got gets to train a very special guide dog for the blind. >> You may not have known, but we have a furry friend on campus. Now to meet this puppy to our reporter Moira interviewing Mrs. Wiser and Hugh. Now let's meet this fluffy pup. >> Thank you Sydney and Leia. As you can tell, we have Miss Wiser and Hugh. Can you tell me some things about you? >> Sure. Hugh is a guide dog puppy in training. And as you can see, he's wearing a green vest to show that he is a guide dog puppy. and he is able
037to come to school with me every day so he can learn um new environments and how to interact with people um in a different environment. >> Okay. Um what are some rules to be around you? >> Oh, great question. So, I know when you see a cute puppy, everyone wants to come up and give him snuggles and love, but if he's wearing his green jacket, actually any puppy that is wearing a vest, um he probably is a puppy that is working at some point. So if he is wear if he is walking with me the best thing to do is just ask me can I pet your puppy or can I pet you and depending on how he's doing and how I'm feeling at the time I may say sure you can pet him one
038student at a time or I might say right now is not a good time maybe next time you see him you can pet him. Um, what are some skills that Hugh needs to, you know, do? >> It's a long It's a long We'll send you the whole video. It's It's wonderful. Um, but that that's really everything from us. These are some save the dates uh we have. We'd love to invite you and see you guys at We have our fifth graders who are amazing here um doing their wax museum presentations. We have our art show open house and band concert on the 14th and we have our first ever PTO color run. if you want to come and throw some color at kids. It's going to be fun. Uh you're more than welcome to join
039us. >> Any questions for us? >> Fantastic. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. You want to start? >> I will. >> Okay, let's do this. >> Um first and foremost, it is so I get so choked up. It is so powerful to me um to see you guys all here. The support is to me it just shows that you guys care and love your school, right? And that is it goes so much more in our district that we are always so so proud of it so much more than children in the seat reading or learning or anything. That is of course the most thing that we value. However, the community that in which we live in is just so powerful to me and the Jackson community always shows up and you guys should look around the
040room and be so so sincerely proud, especially coming over um you know some new change and you should be so proud of the room that you have supporting you. So, first and foremost, I think that's really wonderful. You guys should really be proud of yourselves. So, great job there. Thank you. >> Um good job. >> Sorry. Thank you. Oh my gosh, baby. I'm so sorry. Thank you. I'm such a crybaby. It means a lot. I've got a big heart. Um students, you guys did such a great job with that. To me, um that makes it seem like learning is fun. And I have to assume that maybe you learned something in that process. Would one of you maybe want to speak to like something you learned from being a part of the morning show? Um,
041so I learned that in the morning show being a news anchor is a lot of hard work and you have to practice a ton, but it's also a lot of fun. >> That is incredible. We have to put a lot of hard work into a lot of things, right? Good work. Having fun is important and learning is so important. Something I learned was that when um people, even fifth graders, um when many of them come together, we can work together and we can accomplish something that even with six weeks and one practice each week, we can come up with something really cool. >> Also powerful. Teamwork really does work. Uh, I learned that teamwork is the dream work. >> And um, and that you don't have to be great at everything. You just have to
042try your hardest. Like, and everything doesn't have to be perfect. Like, the video wasn't perfect. It the reporters weren't the editors weren't perfect. Um, there was a bunch of mistakes, but mistakes you learn from them. And uh yeah, sis, you can have fun. >> Well, there you go. Wonderfully said. >> Wonderfully said. >> I will just end with I think it's thing that hold tight to some of the things that the community loves and that are important to Jackson, but you're also putting a beautiful spin on maybe introducing some new things. So, great work. You guys are really valuable. Thank you so much, Molly. I think you're incredible. >> Mr. Did she leave? >> I said I had two iPads and I had them to meet me in a couple days. So, yeah, >> ready
043to go. >> I don't normally chime in during this time, but since we're down a a board member, I I thought I'd if you don't mind, I I just two things that your comment about what are you willing to try and what are you scared to try? I'd love that because that's just what we're learning comes from. a place of or maybe even just resisting like I don't want to try that but I I'm I'm open to exploring that. I'm so appreciative of the fact that that's a question that you asked because um that's all we're asking is that we just you know this continuous improvement is is really just this what what what could better look like and sometimes it's scary and the other part um on the morning show I'm going to say
044continuous improvement way too much but that is exactly what continuous improvement looks like you had an idea let's try it out let's see if it works and you guys crushed it and obviously So, you're going to continue with it. And I'm sure there Yeah. And there are many things from my seat, all of our seats where we try in our classrooms or we try in the library or that don't work and you say, "I'm never doing that again." That that's just what that eb and flow looks like. And so, I'm just appreciative of the fact that there was an idea almost to your point like what do we want to add? And um and you and you ran with it. And then I loved your comment about just mistakes happen and okay, what do we
045learn from it? and you know what what does better look like? So, thank you. >> Um I want to start with a quote. Um I'd like to congratulate our lovely principal. Um I believe that was a student's quote right there. >> Yeah. >> Of making a place in space for newness as well. >> And sometimes that's that's challenging. That's hard to do. Um especially entering into um a very successful um traditional um learning environment. Um, Mrs. Wagner, um, I love the risk that you took because the fruit from your labor is evident and clear on what's before us tonight. Um, all the academia is so important and we understand that, but the real application element that these kids are experiencing, I think it's really tough to put um, a measurement on that. um from um
046public speaking to professional writing and editing to um what it's like behind a camera um but most importantly working through chaos I believe was one of the word >> um because that's where the most real learning takes place and I couldn't be any more proud of the morning show and those that are part of it where it came from and where it's headed. Maybe we can even work on a field trip one day to Jackson down to a network to see some others doing that from a real application environment as well. >> Great job, Jackson. >> Well done. Absolutely. >> We do have um some riveting other parts to our agenda. However, if um we have homework to do or um dinners to make, we do understand that this is sometimes the right time to
047to go. Good night. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Oh, yes. I know. Get your mom with my mom. All right, fantastic. Um, let us move on if we may. Um, this has us entering into public comments portion of our agenda. Um, this item is placed on the agenda for the purpose of providing members of the public and bargaining unit representatives the opportunity to address the board on any items of business that do not appear on the agenda. um we will provide the opportunity for them to speak on it. Unfortunately, the board cannot comment on items that are not agendaized. However, we do have the ability to refer such items to our superintendent and cabinet to follow up with those questions. However, for items that are on this evening's agenda, I
048I will point out and identify the time for the public to speak on them. Um that then has us moving to agenda item number two which is SCA negotiation openers. This is a public hearing and our assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction Mr. Haley is here. >> Good evening. >> Welcome. Uh as the board may remember at our previous board meeting on March 10th uh we had brought uh the openers for this session of bargaining with CSEA and with the district. And as a reminder, uh, CSEA had asked to open the items, article 4, grievance procedures, article 15, health benefits, article 16, salary, and then a proposed new article on technology and AI usage. The district intends to um propose to open article 5 working hours, article six, vacation, article 15 health benefits, and article
04916 salary. And at this time we had recommended on the 10th that the board set a date for this meeting to hold a a hearing for public comment so that the public could have an opportunity to speak on those issues. So at this time recommend uh opening the hearing. >> Wonderful. Thank you. I will open up to public comment in the chamber before going to a public hearing. And seeing none, it is 711 p.m. and I will open up to public hearing at this time. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing at this time. Is there any discussion among the trustees? Seeing no discussion, thank you very much, Mr. Haley. >> Thank you. >> Y uh this then has us moving to agenda item number three, food service department update, and we are for
050Miss Knight here with us. Welcome. Oh. What a disappointing evening to not be present for make sense. Makes sense. Yeah. My goodness. pleasing. >> No, I don't need a second. Thank you very much. All right, thank you for having me. I'm Laura Knight. I'm the food service director and I thought I'd start by just introducing uh my staff. This is Nicole Briggs. She's my secretary. She's new this year and she handles uh everything from new nutritional analysis, taking care of the invoices, uh making sure that's okay. Oh, that's okay. >> I'm the wrong person, too. They just want to see that. Is that better? That is okay. Um, and she helps uh get subs to keep us fully staffed, which is super important. Um, here's our central kitchen cooks. We have Joanne. Tasha's on the
051left and then Joanne. Joanne's full-time. Tasha's our part-time cook. They take care of Their day starts at 5:00 a.m. So, I just want to give a shout out to that. Um, they handle all the food ordering and the deliveries. They oversee uh kitchen production records, transport records, and as you can see from the other pictures, they put away a lot of food. Um, we get two deliveries a week from Gold Star. We have a paper delivery and produce deliveries all week long. So, they're very busy. Um, we also have central kitchen staff that are there making some of our freshly prepared um items. There's Mandy making some granola and we've got Shondaanda. She's putting together our shakurerie boxes there and Julie comes in and cuts massive amounts of vegetables. uh Rescue Elementary. We serve about
052140 breakfastes, 360 lunches a day. Our staff there are Julie, Amy, and Autumn. And they uh they got that brand new kitchen the year before, and they're loving it. And the kids are loving it. Green Valley Elementary, we have Heather and Dawn there. Um they do about 140 breakfastes, 230 lunches a day. And over the summer they got brand new um flooring put in which was much needed and has really u made the place very nice. It's not working. Okay. Did you do it? Jackson. Okay. We've got Irene and Izzy down at Jackson doing about 163 breakfastes, 23 uh1 lunches, and um I hope this summer to upgrade their kitchen with new flooring and some new sinks. Lake View Elementary, we have Justine, Alyssa, and Carrie. Uh about 200 breakfastes, 222 lunches, and um yeah,
053they they're doing a great job there. Lake Forest Elementary. We've got Heather and Michella uh there. Do about 111 uh breakfastes, 211 lunches. This year we started a before school breakfast uh program there. The principal came to me and was like, I think there's a need um you know, what can we do to maybe serve some of the students before school? So, we piloted it out and enough students came to make it at least break even. So, we're serving about 30 meals before school starts. Now, Marina Village Middle School, about 178 breakfastes, 374 lunches. They're one of our busier sites. We've got Leslie, Sue, and Becca down there um killing it. Uh they had a brand a big overhaul of their kitchen, all new flooring. That serving area, that picture on the right, it used
054to just be a concrete slab. Um, they got a much needed three compartment sink and this year I also installed a dishwasher for them. So, and then Pleasant Grove, they do about 42 breakfastes. They just have a before school breakfast program. Uh, 321 lunches and we've got T, Shondaanda, and Sharice working there. So, what's going on this year? Uh, this year I'm under procurement review. So, that's something that happens every eight years. Um the California Department of Education looks at everything we've purchased in the previous year. So you provide with them a list of all your vendors you've used about how much you've spent. Um your spending gets categorized into three categories. There's microurchases, simplified acquisitions, and then your formal bids. They choose one vendor from each of those categories and then do a deep
055dive looking at your invoices and your contracts and all of that. So they chose uh link school nutrition for the micro purchase, Kaylor general contractors for the uh simplified acquisition and Francis Distributing was our formal bid and um provided them about 40 documents or so and it closed April 2nd with no findings. >> Yesterday we are also under administrative review this year that occurs every five years and this is a big deep dive. It's a big audit into everything food service. So, our financials, our menus, our meal applications, our policies and procedures, you name it, they're going to look at it. Um, it starts with what's known as the off-site assessment tool. It's something you fill out online. There's about 11 sections, 85 questions, about 30 documents were uploaded, and then from there, they might
056uh request more. Um, we have a month of review, which is was March. That's where they're looking at your claims and your meal applications, uh, to name a few things. Within that, we have a week of review where they look at all your, they choose two sites. They look at all your production records, your, uh, nutritional analysis. Um, yeah, among other things. And then, uh, it'll all wrap up with a day of review. So, they've chosen, um, Jackson Elementary. They're going to come on May 6th. They're going to observe breakfast and lunch. Um May 5th, we'll they'll be at Marina Village observing lunch. And on the fourth, they'll come into the central kitchen, look at the central kitchen and and review the large binder of documents I'll have for them. So, that's ongoing and um
057not sure when it'll close. Sometimes the actual closing can actually take a month or two beyond the on-site visit. So, Okay. So, what continuous improvement? So, um we were always striving to to be better, do better, asking the staff, um what are some of the pinch points for you or the hardships? And they expressed that having better training for new staff would be something that they would really like to see. So, um, with talking with them, we came up with a plan of when we have a new hire to always have a sub in place for at least 3 days, uh, or longer if needed so that they're not training someone and trying to get the meals out at the same time. Um, so we've, uh, that's been very successful this year. We've, uh, onboarded
058four new staff members. They've had three to four days of extra help in the kitchen while they were trained, and that's really helped a lot. Um, something else we want to improve is the feedback was, can we make the, uh, kitchen environment even more welcoming for students? Sometimes it can be hard when you're in the rush of getting meals out to make sure that you're always doing it with a smile and not getting frazzled. Um, so I just made sure that kindness and patience were really prioritized in our professional development training, in our staff meetings. I kind of made kindness as is kind of our uh catchphrase, not catchphrase, but you know what we wanted to really focus on uh not only with students but with your colleagues as well. Um so our numbers improved
059with some data uh in we went from an attitude score of 4.25 to 4.5 on that. So we had a good improvement this year. Uh the goal is four. So, we've always been above it, but we always want to improve. And the feedback I've gotten from principles, um, have been really good. So, and then, uh, we wanted to look to see how we could improve some of the long student lines. And so, that'll take us into the next slide. Uh, the principal at Lake Forest came to me and was like, you know, our TKers, kindergarteners are having a tough time punching in their keypads. They're co-mingled with the other grades. It's slowing everything down. what can we do? Um, so I found some new scan, some new pin pads that also have a built-in scanner
060and our software is able to print out little uh ID cards that have a barcode on them. And so we laminated those and handed them out to those students and we test piloted that at Lake Forest and it went really well. It's so well that we've bought them for all the rest of the elementary schools. And um by the time that rolled out, it was kind of mid year. So not every um school, you know, is going to use it, but it's there for the, you know, in August. So I think that'll really help. Um, another thing I really wanted to work on this year was collaborating with the school gardens and Gina, our great garden coordinator. Um, I wanted to see if we could reduce our food waste in the kitchen by maybe giving
061some of our scraps for composting. So, I met with Gina and we brainstormed some ideas. We came up with, you know, some buckets that we could put the produce in and then the garden coordinators could come and pick it up and compost it. So, some of the barriers are, you know, not every site uh has a composting area. Um, also just getting the bucket back and getting it picked up on time is um stuff we're working on. Um, I also wanted to see if we could maybe use some of the food from the gardens in the kitchen um so that the kids could eat what they're growing. Um, you know, I I would love to be able to put something out on the salad bars with a little sign that says, you know, I'm your
062school garden. Um, so, you know, some of the barriers to that is that, of course, the gardens are small, the harvest is small, and some of the fun of having a school garden is getting out there and picking it off the vine and eating it right away. So, um, so there's that. Um, I also want to make sure that we have proper protocols in place to ensure food safety during the harvest. So, that's just something Gina and I are working on of uh, you know, getting those protocols set up and discussing what vegetables might make sense for them to grow for us. You know, I think the sugar snap peas are pretty prolific. We could probably at least get a half a sheet pan out of that. Um, and then we talked about tomatoes and
063cilantro for the salsa that we make. Okay. So, new this year, we um we removed all alle cart items that have artificial dyes in them. That's in response to Assembly Bill 2316 that was signed in 2024 and that um says that we have to eliminate all foods containing certain dyes by 2027. So that's your red 40s and your your blue ones and twos. So we went ahead and just got a jump on that and removed everything. It meant starting the year with uh not as many selections, but the industry really uh has stepped up. PepsiCo in particular has reformulated all of their chips. Um, so by January, we were able to get a lot of the favorites back. So, if you know how to get stock in paprika, I suggest buying that because everything's being
064colored with paprika now. Yeah. Um, I working on expanding our farm to school. But something that is near and dear to me is making sure that we get as much fresh local produce as possible to our kiddos. So, um, we've been working with Spork Food Hub for a couple years now. They're out of Davis. They, uh, will get food from small organic farms throughout the Central Valley and they're able to deliver to us. Um, but I wanted to see if maybe we could find something that's a little closer and support farmers that are even closer to us. So, I found um the Farmers Marketplace. They're out of Auburn and we've been able to get mandarins and we get some cilantro, just to name a few things. They're a really great company, very um responsive, communicative
065um and they are serving farmers from uh Elorado and Plaster County. So, They've been a great addition um to highlight all these fabulous fruits and veggies we're bringing in. Um we always highlight fruit or veggie of the month. We put out some marketing uh in the parent newsletters about it. Um we've been able to get some red pears, some uh some really fun purple dragon carrots. That was fun. Um we've had the kids try hikima. We've done the blood oranges. Um just to name a few. And then new this year, I wanted to also introduce some nutrition education maybe like in the kitchen in in the cafe as they come through. So, we've come up with these flyers that we can post uh right by the vegetables. Um so, like when we when we highlighted
066kumquats, you know, we had a fun little flyer. What the heck is a kumquat and how do you eat it? You know, like you're not supposed to peel it. It's too tiny to peel. Um and then we had one for our dragon our purple dragon carrots. That was fun. So, I think, you know, having those out uh on the salad bar uh helps the kid understand what this new vegetable is and then the staff talks to them about it and hey, give it a try. Um we had a a great success with the hikima by just talking to the kids. At first, they were like, what is this? And then by the end, uh they were eating it all up. So, that was a a good success there. Okay, hits and misses this year. Well,
067uh, some of our hits, we introduced a shakuderie box at the middle school level that, uh, is gang busters. We were only supposed to do it in our first cycle, but it it's going over so well, we just held it over all year long. Um, we're bringing the pasta with meat sauce back for the middle schoolers. That's an elementary item, but they were very happy to have it in middle school. We do a strawberry salad at the middle school that is a nice spring light salad that they love. Um, elementary students are loving their sloppy joe's and their teriyak dunkers with rice. Um, what didn't work? Our our hot ham and cheese croissant sandwich didn't work. Um, the year before we had tried a cold turkey and cheese croissant sandwich and the kids were like,
068"No, no, thank you." So, we were like, "Well," and the feedback was, "Well, maybe if it was warmer or ham." So, we thought, "Okay, let's do a hot ham and cheese croissant." The kids are like, "No. So, we dropped that. I don't know. I think maybe croissants at lunch is is not going over very well. And then we tried an Asian noodle salad at the middle school level that uh it was a cold salad and yeah, nobody wanted that. So, we dropped that. Um so, what are we working on for next year? We actually already have our menu set for next year. We've been spending all winter um trying new recipes, trying new products. Um, the pictures you see there are from a food tasting we did at Rescue Elementary. We tasted out butter chicken
069curry to the kids and so they were able to put stickers and like do they like it, do they not like it? It was overwhelmingly very positive. Um, so we're definitely bringing that on the menu next year. We're going to also do some sweet and sour chicken for the elementary school students. Uh, we're going to do some Thai sweet chili chicken at the middle school. We're working on an Italian salad. We uh sampled out some barbecue bacon uh barbecue chicken bacon wrap. It's a warm wrap that was so good the kids were clamoring for it. So, we've actually added it now. Um yeah, it's really good. If I could find a way to heat stuff up here for a few, I would bring I would have bring you Okay. Okay. Next time. Next time. Okay.
070I see. Right. Um, the elementary schools are going to do a barbecue rib sandwich. And then because I refuse to give up on croissants, we're we're going to try a breakfast croissant. So, some eggs, some cheese, and a warm croissant. And if that doesn't go okay, we're done. Okay. And just to finish up, um, just looking ahead to trends in the National School Lunch Program. Um this year we uh are dealing with our sugar limitations. So breakfast cereal has to have six grams or less per 1 oz of dry cereal. Yogurt is 12 grams or less for the 6 ounces and flavored milks at 10 grams or less. So um yeah, all the the industry has producing that. It's not hard to uh adhere to that. And actually I find that um you really can't
071tell a difference flavor-wise, especially with the dry cereal. I think it tastes better. Um, by 2027 28 school year, um, added sugar is going to have to be less than 10% of the weekly calories. So, that's what we're working towards. Um, California, the legislaturator is really focused on ultrarocessed foods and getting those out of uh, school lunches. So, that's they signed AB1264 in 2025. It defines what an ultrarocessed food is. Um, and so they're going to spend this year and the next two years um identifying what what is of concern to them, what emulsifiers or additives they're looking at that they want to get rid of. And then by 2829 school year, that's when we have to start um phasing them out. Uh 2032, vendors can't sell any ultrarocessed foods to schools and there'll be
072a full prohibition in 2035. So, I know that's a long ways out, but it's kind of and who knows what'll happen in the meantime, but that's where the industry is going is, uh, getting rid of some of that ultrarocessed foods. And then, um, of course, the USDA and Department of Health and Services, uh, released those new dietary guidelines in January. That's that upside down food pyramid. Um, so you know, it's about a year or two once a new dietary guidelines come out before it kind of trickles down to changes in national school lunch program. So there's currently no changes at all. Um, but we're all kind of talking about it going, what do we think's going to happen? And so I think for sure they're going to expand the types of milk we can serve.
073Right now we can only do uh non-fat and 1%. Um, so I'm I feel confident that'll be expanded at both breakfast and lunch. Um we we assume there's going to be an increase in protein requirements either weekly or possibly daily probably uh focused on breakfast and um and the dietary guidelines didn't mention vegetable subgroups. The vegetables are classified into five subgroups based on what sort of nutrients um they contain and then we have to serve one of each subgroup in the week so that over the course of the week students are have the opportunity to have all of those nutrients. So usually the dietary guidelines talk about that and they didn't. Um so we're just like thinking are they getting vegetable subgroups? I'd be shocked if that happened. So, and that's just a little bit
074of what we're uh looking forward to. So, thank you for having me. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Let me u go ahead and open it up to um some public comments. Doesn't appear there's any. So, let me then go to discussion from our trustees. >> I'll start. Laura, I am so impressed with this. Um I know this is a newer role to you and holy cow to start with two massive reviews that haven't been done in five and eight years. That's pretty incredible and that seems like maybe terrifying. Um, a little bit. >> So, huge congratulations for passing one and getting pretty close to hopefully the near end of the other. Um, that yeah, that doesn't seem very exciting for a new position, but kudos to you for being organized, prepared, and ready for that. Um,
075I started taking notes and then I stopped because I realized every single one of your slides I had something really powerful to say or what I thought was powerful. But I'm just so impressed. You seem to know the ins and the outs of the everything on the requirements, the guidelines, what the kids want, um, how to support your staff, continuous improvement. I think I wrote like four different things that you're asking about, questioning, changing. I'm I am so impressed. You did such a great job. You're a wonderful speaker and I am like holy cow arms wide open. This is we're so lucky and thank you. You provide such um a real true intricral piece to the day of every of many of our students. >> Um and for our students who eat at our schools
076multiple meals, this is very very very important. Um I am so impressed. Thank you for everything you do. Sincerely, that was that was incredible. >> Thank you. >> You gave us two. I'm going to take um one home to my wife to reveal expectations. >> Yeah. >> Did we talk about how >> That's okay. I meant to say we It's the It's our banana uh blueberry smoothies from breakfast, our cinnamon crumble pan bread, and then I really wanted to highlight our fruits and vegetables that we're bringing in. So, >> they um I did eat all of mine um and they were all fantastic. So, thank you. Um, just to comment on a couple of things. Number one, I love um the problem solving that you went through in regards to try to create more efficiency
077with your lines >> and not stopping there, but also then sharing that efficiency mechanism with the rest of the sites, giving them the opportunity to implement when they see fit or needed. I I really that's a true sign of a great leader. Um, in addition, I suppose someone in your position could um tell kids what food we're going to serve or ask kids what type of food we can serve. >> And there's something about demonstrating value in your clients thoughts and opinions. And I understand they have to eat it, >> but um I have to imagine that's still a choice in regards to their participation. Um, and I just like to commend you for that. um the desire to try to find what kids are interested in and what they will eat to ensure that
078they actually are eating foods >> at our school that are healthy. Um >> I think that's fantastic. Um and um I've been in education for 26 years and I think you can sit some people down who haven't been around education, ask who are the important people. I think sometimes individuals get forgotten or they're not mentioned and it's evident and clear such an intricral part that you have in our district and our success and I'm so glad that you have the opportunity to present for people who are watching to listen and hear that we can't be as great as we are without people like you and what you do. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I just want to add that um the first couple years where we did that LCAP survey, all I heard about
079was food. And when I would go to meet with students in classes and I'd ask them, "What if you were the superintendent, what would you fix?" And it was it was always food. And and and I know we were doing a great job even then with Kim at the helm doing this work. But whatever it is that you're doing, the the the newsletters, the things you put out for the newsletters that families can see that go out every week to our families to just the menus to um the the deficiencies in the lines. I think all these continuous improvement, it's resonating with our community because no one none of the kids talk to me about food now except for can we bring back something that they wanted that's that's missing and it's not showing up
080as an item. I'm I'm looking at this information that's coming in right now and it's extremely complimentary of our food services program and the food the kids are getting. So, not only are you moving the needle, I'm so appreciative of the board being so complimentary because you absolutely deserve it. Especially year one, I'm I was watching when you sent me and I was like, I cannot believe she's doing all this year one. Like we said, let's just do one continuous improvement thing >> and there was about five there that I saw. Um so, uh I just want to echo what they're saying. I'm I'm so proud of you and you did a great job tonight. >> Thank you, chair. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay, this has us moving on to consent and uh
081we are still in quorum with three board members. Um but I just need a motion to adopt consent as is. Please, >> I move that we adopt consent as is. >> And is there a second? Perfect. Motion made and second. All in favor? I oppose. >> Thank you. And then um >> I move that we adjourn this meeting at 7:4. >> Thank you very much.