Board Meeting

001Flag 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're going to go and lean right into roll call. Um I Michael Gordon is present. Am is am present. I am present. Yes. Uh Miss White not present at the time. Miss Pibo, Miss Hunter, Mr. Flity is not present. And our superintendent, Mr. Schumank >> is present. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Uh for items not on tonight's agenda, 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 does not appear on the formal agenda. Uh we will have a two-minute countdown if

002there is public comment and under the Brown Act, the board of trustees are not allowed to comment on items from the community on items not on the agenda. However, for items that are on this evening's agenda, I'll identify the time in which public can speak on that. With that being said, it allows for us to move in today's study session right to middle school connectedness with our rescue union school district. And so, I'd like to welcome our leaders of our district from our middle school here today. Um, thanks for being here. We really appreciate. We're excited about having some conversation this evening. Mr. Shemik, I'll turn it over to you. >> Yeah, great. Thank you so much. Um, while we get pulled up here, just an introduction um, so you just understand the intent this

003evening. I've shared with you many times that there's just so many different ways that you can measure the health of a district. You know, our fiscal stability, our attendance, our enrollment, our student achievement, and connecting kids to school is probably the most important way that we can measure how effective our system is being. And um tonight I'm super proud of our middle school team because they are um as you can attest and I think I was think um before we show started this evening I believe all but two people in this room have had middle school students so far. You're close. You're a little Greg's a little further away and some are in the in the middle of it right now. I know. And so, you know, as as we know, it can be a

004challenging time not only for kids, but for parents and for teachers. And we know that connecting kids, especially at the middle school uh level, really it serves to boost engagement. Um connecting kids uh helps with self-confidence, just poise, and it also reduces has the potential to reduce risky behaviors that can start to emerge um at that time of year. our our our intent tonight, our middle school team being here tonight is um I'm so appreciative of the fact that they're willing to hold up a mirror to themselves and come out of the gate and say, "Let's let's look at what we're doing." And I can assure you that going through this process, it was really gratifying for me. I've shared with you many times in public and in close session, I'll put our middle schools

005up against any middle schools in the state. I I saw oversaw nine of them in a different district. two were um won every award you can ever imagine that schools can win and I served as the principal at one of those sites and um I would be embarrassed to come and visit these two schools with the work that I was doing as a middle school principal. I learned so much and just watching or looking at the data um was really rewarding for me and our team also recognized that in the spirit of like how do we just get a little bit better? there are ways that we can still get better even when we have really um high achieving and that's our that's our intent tonight. So um Levi, Sam, Vera, and Greg, thank you

006for for being here tonight. Be thank you for being willing to kind of step out of a comfort level and have a little microscope placed on us. But we're excited about that. Um we're going to be presenting some elective uh we've got collective data that we're going to be sharing with you. Um and I'm going to be doing that. I'm going to be um presenting the data. So there's just one common voice tonight. So we don't have multiple voices sharing the data. The individual data for schools is in the appendix. So if you want to look at the incredible number of surveys and data points, that's in your packet at the very back end. But the the part tonight is really just going to be as a collective, what are we crushing as a middle

007school? Um where do we see some are opportunities for growth? Um, and so, uh, again, focusing on what's happening, what's going well, and then at the very end, we're gonna have an opportunity for the board to if you have any questions, um, if you want to provide any commentary, if you want us to dig deeper, if there's some data that we missed, um, our team's here tonight just to answer any questions, uh, that arise. We're we're approaching this from a we're doing a really good job and we're going to share that with you versus that we're under the there's some deficit going on and we've got to cover that up. Like we're approaching it from that lens. And I I'm hopefully you'll see that as we go through the evening here. And then if you

008have questions during the presentation, just stop, ask. Um I'm sure there's bound to be questions that I can't answer and that's why I've asked the experts to be here with us um this evening. And has everyone had an opportunity to meet Greg? >> Okay. >> Pleasure to meet you. >> Yeah. Yeah. Greg is uh has a a student at Lake View with one on the way coming to not one on the way but one that's already living that will be going to uh will be going to Lake View uh next year and comes to us was just most recently at Intercom High School as the vice uh principal there. So again we're going to approach tonight through this continuous improvement lens. give a couple things about why connectedness matters. Going to surface some hurdles that

009exist to connecting kids to middle school. Our team does not have 100% control of of whether a kid gets connected or not. You know, it's like lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink kind of mentality and I think we do a really good job of that. I'll share with again our intention, our data. We've we've uh lifted three or four kind of next steps where we just internally saw hey we this is we can get better in that. And then there are some uh board and staff inquiry based questions there the at the uh in the first page of the appendix if you're looking for something to jar your mind and then again the appendix has a ton of sight specific data and information in there and if there's something that

010we missed um ask and we could probably track that down. I've been shocked with how much data our teams collect on our kids. So, as you know, this continuous improvement lens um tonight really isn't is is on this review brutal facts to improve and then engage in meaningful conversations and always centered on this how do we harvest wins and bright spots every single day. So, those will be sprinkled in throughout. As you know, um I can be a I am an ardent cheerleader of all things rescue. So this is going to have a tone of c celebration and which is my been my word the last two years we know we can always get uh scooch better. Um so you know why does this matter? We know that uh when kids are connected they're uh

011more inclined to attend school more excited to get up not not saying they're sick and want to stay home and and and vegetate. Uh we also know that when they're connected, it's they're there's a high probability that they're not going to be as involved as some of the risky behaviors that start to just emerge as kids just naturally get older. And of and obviously um the more uh connected they are, the the higher the engagement level that kids have. That's not only on the academic side, but just on just get like connecting to school on a on a social side. And we know that um our kids that are connected typically are the ones that we see at at at the um end of the year activities that are being acknowledged for all the different

012things like not only are they doing well by being connected to school, but their grades reflect that, their attendance reflects that. They're getting citizenship awards. It's just like one leads to the other and built upon each other. And so we we do recognize how important being connected is. And um also this likely to enjoy being at school and to see value in their education. Um kids that are more connected rate that as a much higher um when they're surveyed rate that much more higher than kids that are just disconnected. I mean those are that's I don't even think that needs to be said but the data supports that not only just our anecdotal notes knowing that how important it is for kids to be connected. Again, there are just so many hurdles to being disconnected.

013Many of us I grew up in Pollock Pines in the 80s. So, no 70s and 80s. Like there was there's like two or three people I could go visit if I wanted to walk a half a day. You know, TV had three channels, no internet, um no computer, no cell phone. So, school was the connect connecting point. like if I wanted to see people, I needed to do cross country and soccer and basketball and flag whatever. So there's an incentive to be like attached to a school. Our kids, it's it's a lot different. They have so many non-school activities. We talked just amongst us that have had middle schools. So many of us said, "Well, my I'm not going to do comp and I were talking about this. Well, I'm not going to do comp

014lacrosse or comp volleyball." all the next thing you know your kid excelling and you're driving to El Grove for a game or to Stockton or you know the Bay Area. So we not only do we have these non-school activities like comp sports, we've got kids that connect in different groups, they connect with their church, they connect with their cub scouts, they connect through community service, we have boys team charity and girls charity league. There's just so many other competing factors that that kids can connect to something. So, I do want you when you look at this data, I do want you to see that just because a kid's not connected at school does not mean they're not connected to our community or to another group that's going to serve them. Um, we also know that

015sometimes kids just want to go home and ride their bike or skateboard or relax. Uh, gaming is a huge one. You'll see in some of the the data the kids that want a gaming club on campus is rather high. Um, also this, you know, middle school kids start to get a lot more self-conscious. I was in a class today speaking and one of the questions was it was about my college experience and one of the kids asked were you nervous to go your freshman year and I said they were sixth graders I said how many of you were nervous as sixth graders and I said be honest like every hand went up and I said I felt that way going to sixth grade I felt that way going to freshman year of high school I

016felt that way going to freshman year at UC Davis I felt that way my first year here so that's not going to go away, but it's it's really exacerbated, I would say, at the when kids just don't have a foundation. They don't know who they are quite yet. And so, at the sixth grade level, I think there's just a level of kids coming into the middle school that they're just self-conscious and I don't know if I should go out. I bet everyone's better than me that's going to try out for this team or I I maybe I shouldn't try out for the band because I don't play all as well as maybe some someone else that's coming from a a different school. Um, then that obviously it's just these natural changes that kids go through

017also make it harder to them to feel like they were that they can fit in. This this kid today said hi to me and he sounded like he was like 29. Like he was voice was just it was like I'm sure two seconds later it was going to be super high but it was really low and he could tell I noticed how low it was. He's like I get it. My voice is really low right now. Um uh it's also larger campuses. We got multiple teachers. We're rotating between schedules. you just throw a lot layer a lot into kids as they uh enter middle school and that's a that can be a barrier for them. Uh additionally, they don't have the free time necessarily that our elementary students sometimes do. There's increased rigor and homework

018and so a lot of kids are disengaging from school because they're really focused on their academics. Like I'm my parents want me to get straight A's. I can't do that if I do volleyball or stay after for the dance or whatever. So, I'm going to go home and I'm going to study. I'm I'm going to tackle my homework. Uh the other part that we know is that if if they have a trusted adult, um and not everyone does. I can tell you our both schools work super hard on that. And we still have kids that are unclear as to whether or not they have a trusted adult on a campus or they just answer I don't know. And and you're going to see how our schools lean into that. And then obviously we anxiety, depression,

019low self-esteem, those those factor in with a certain percentage of our kids. And then um you know my wife and I were guilty of this when our we were heavily involved at Lake Forest for seven years I guess during the time our kids were there. And then Levi Levi was thank thankfully because I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye. But it was George was there and I I attended very few meetings at the middle school and I don't can't look back and say why. It was just like I knew that the boys were kind of spreading their wings and I was pulling back and I definitely wasn't going to chaperon a dance. And so we have um I didn't want to and they would not have wanted me to. But that just

020that just kind of happens. And so I think we just acknowledging that. Again, these aren't put up there to make any excuses. It's just like there's a lot of conflicting and competing interests and things that go on at our middle schools. So our intention tonight is just to share our findings from our student survey. When we talked about this, there was so many different ways we could have approached this agenda, but we really just said, let's just make this data centered and let the data speak for itself. And then, uh, at the at the end of the day, I could not resist with sharing some really cool stories that go on at these school sites. So, there's a lot of qualitative uh, but I do believe it's it's anchored in fact and not just made

021up. Um, we're going to highlight participation data and then share some possible next steps and then we're here to listen. So, um, our data, we collected data. Um, and I, ironically, and, um, I'm so appreciative, this wasn't data that they had to go like, "Hey, we've got a board study session in a month. I need you to get get a Google doc together. Let's like let's crush it." It was like, "Oh, here's that. What did you ask? Oh, yeah. Here's that data information. What about this?" They they had everything I asked for was we didn't create anything new for this survey. It was all at our fingertips. it required a lot of work on their end to compile it and get it to me. Um, so you'll see that uh this data here is super

022authentic because they asked for it. They they've been asking for it before they felt like it was a board it was going to be a board study session. But first, because I like to brag, we do some really cool stuff at our middle schools. Uh, Pleasant Grove was just awarded the PBI California uh PBS Silver Implementation Award. probably saw that in the newspaper. As we know on the far right, Marina Village last year was a California distinguished school. I think one of only two in the county if I'm not mistaken. Um, our enrollment continues to trend upwards. Our our performance data you uh Dustin will be bringing that in November. We've got some preliminary data that's super positive. So, I'm excited to share that with you along with our middle schools, our student safety. Um,

023you know, we've been blessed that our middle schools really get out ahead of these things and really do a nice job of keeping some very safe campuses. And then, you know, you can go online and I do this about once a month. I go on to uh Next Door and uh Facebook and what is Oh, what's that? Eloro County chat and I'll just type in Rescue USD. Rescue Lake Forest, Lake View, Green Valley. just want to see what's popping. And every time you pull it up, for the most part, it's really positive. Um, you know, we've had, obviously, it's a school district, you're going to have some people that want to throw mud, but on the for the most part, it's really rewarding to to do that. So, our uh middle school athletic uh participation,

024we had we have tw,30 um students um roughly in our middle school. So it's about a third of our we're almost at, you know, we're almost to 3,600 students. So it's about a third of our kids are at the middle school level. 608 of them play a middle school sport. So that's 49 um 49%. Um, and we don't have a way. We talked about we don't even know what kids how to assess what kids are playing in a competitive sport that are going home because of transportation that are in non-traditional sports that that we don't offer what karate. I know Dustin's kid did karate. Um, some some of the kids have to walk over to Lake Forest or Green Valley. We see kids up here that are picking up their siblings and that that's their

025job after school. So there's really not a great way to quantify that, but you know, pretty impressive that half our kids are engaging in really is it four sports we offer, five? Um, yeah, it's not like we're offering this huge wide variety and the ones that we're offering also have comp sports that are attached to that. Like the volleyball game I was at today from Marina Village. There's a very competitive volleyball program here and there. You're advised to this high school. I'll let Oh yes, sir. >> Um, we have flag football, soccer, basketball, volleyball, track and field, and cross country. >> And we have the same sports but not black football. We have soccer instead. >> The leagues offer because we're in separate leagues. >> Okay. >> Boys and girls. >> Yes. >> Uh, band

026we selected. We really I mean we have data on kids that are in art and Spanish and a bunch of other classes. We really said well just cuz they're in art doesn't really isn't a sign that they're connected. They're just take that's just their elective. We felt that band and leadership offered a little another element. With your in band, you're part of a community. It's year-long. You're traveling with each other. You're competing at different things kind of like our sports pro well very similar to our sports program that really you there's an investment in the school when you join band and same with leadership these are kids that we were just at Puma Palooa Friday night you got 30-ish uh student government kids that are out there running every single station they set up help

027tear down uh for the event um I know I forget the name of your event that you had at the start of the school year >> Aloha Yeah. LA day. Um that was lots of students were working that as well. So those we just figured that those are kids that we can really definitively say they're connected to the school versus they're just taking Spanish or art. Um so if 463 out of our 1,230 students participate in one or the other or some some overlap, that's 38% are involved in some pretty uh significant programming that's offered at the school. and team if you have any chimes in just jump on the microphone there. These are the clubs that we also um looked at to say uh and you there's specific data for each school in the

028appendix. These are the clubs that are offered at both sites. Some sites don't offer the same clubs. It was comparing apples to oranges, but you can see there's just such a wide variety of clubs that are being offered here on the campus. And these are again ways that kids get connected. Uh our garden club for example between the two schools about 100 kids a day uh tend to our two gardens at the at the middle schools. You would think that at least I would have thought that number would have been a lot lower. I know it's very high at our elementary but I would have thought the middle school maybe kids start pulling away. That has not been the case. Same with our library lunch club. Our libraries are maxed out. Both librarians told me

029they they cannot take another person. They allow they have different um numbers that they allow um based on the sizes of the between the two schools, but both of them are maxed out. Like if they could take more kids, they would. So they uh they've got a process that allows kids to come up and and not not always just the same kids, but there are a lot of kids that go there every single day because that's what they consider their their place. of all of these clubs. Um, how many of them are with advisors of onampus personnel versus off-campus personnel, if any at all? >> We don't have um, Hands for Hope is our only one with off-campus personnel. Our garden club is ran by one of our dedicated subs, so we consider her part

030of the staff. >> Um, all of ours are the same except theater club. And is Choir Club up there? Our choir club's not up there. Our choir club um they're they're uh people that we've hired uh to run the club through Prop 28 funding. Yep. >> And so they are off-campus, not staff, but the rest our theater club, our jazz band club, our after school jazz band club are all staff. >> So most of them are >> 90% >> advised by staff. >> Thank you. And then again, the clubs that aren't listed here that are specific to a site in the appendix, you can see exactly how many kids are in each of these. Um the some of the ones that just as a like I wished as a principal I would have thought of

031these like just to connect kids. This new student lunch club I think you just had one Levi that had eight kids that was or was it a while ago? >> Uh well it was eight in sixth grade. We had four in seventh and four in in eighth. that that was a we did a lunch for new students who were new to our district, new to our site, and just to help them connect with each other, learn more about the counselor, learn more about each other, and find out how they're doing. >> Yeah. Our um another one that uh was so impressive was the Pleasant Grove, their Special Olympic mentors. We our our um our kids compete in the Special Olympics this last year was at Rolling Hills. So when I went, I think probably about

03214 >> kids that signed up and forego a day at school and were there to help their special ed Olympian partner. And you could tell that this wasn't just a one-off. Like they knew the kids, the kids knew them. Um they have they have a very inclusive approach at Pleasant Grove with their with their special education population. And it just was really fun to see these kids participating and enjoying. Um that's something that I wish I would have had. We have opportunities for leadership in the band, too. So, if you're in band and you want to take a leadership role, uh there's options for that. And then both schools have something similar to where everyone belongs or the um uh what's yours called, Ver? It's the uh you guys have the >> web. We have

033web. >> You have web too. Okay. So, you both have web. Um but they have a I'm thinking of the day that you what what's the day the welcoming day you call it? Puma. Uh >> but yours is called Puma Day. Puma walk. Yeah. Pumok and >> day. >> Lowa day where that's where kids can get welcomed. The other piece that they do is um our kids come and uh our fifth graders are able to come. I know Marina come and visit the school and now uh we've just revised that where Pleasant Grove they're up here. In fact, we we've had kids up at Pleasant Grove just doing mentoring. >> They do the last >> the leadership comes to Green Valley to mentor once a month and then the fifth graders come to Pleasant Grove.

034It used to be for a full tour and lunch, but now they come to visit the site and watch theater and then band goes to those schools to play. >> Yeah. So that that connecting kids to school even just starts at towards the end of fifth grade um at the at Marina Village say there's a bunch of Jackson girls there watching their sisters compete and I they said, "Are you going to play volleyball?" And they're like, "When I'm here, I absolutely am." So that connection's already uh starting there. And then we again these are these are uh at the bottom there you can just see a note. These typically occur before school at lunch or after school which I think just has a higher degree of um uh connecting kids because they have to choose

035to give up some time to attend these on the qualitative data. I could tell a story about every single one of these things that are up there, but um some of the ones that really just stand out to me that I wanted to make sure that I shared with you is again uh we know the garden, we already mentioned that the surveys that take place, there are multiple survey times throughout the year. They have a beginning of the year survey and end of the year survey. Uh our team through uh Dustin um does a Novemberish survey on uh that kids can take. We have wellness centers at both sites. There's an opportunity for kids that just aren't feeling centered or feeling right or just need to go talk to someone to go and just talk

036to a counselor and and uh uh when we have some of you on staff uh if they're there on staff, they're able to connect with someone like that. We talked about the metriculation events, all the different activities that our fifth graders are allowed to come and um visit and and that are organized to try to connect them so they don't feel so scared when they show up in sixth grade. The number of site tours that our groups do, um I've seen it seems like every time I'm at Pleasant Grove, Vera is taking someone around on campus trying to help them feel connected and making sure that they're being onboarded well. And that's been going on for years. Um, we talked about web, our mentors, the friendships. The neat thing about that is our our um,

037yard duty staff do a really good job. I think there's another slide in here. When kids are just sitting alone or clearly don't have a friendship, they notify staff um, and our administrators and there's work done to try to connect those kids with someone, someone to go sit and have lunch with, someone that might have a similar interest. And our yard duty workers do a really nice job of that as well on the injuries there that really should say injury support. I read that tonight and I'm like that's that's probably not a I meant a different thing. One of the cool things that's going on right now and I was talking to I cannot remember her name but she drives the golf Yeah. Stephanie. Uh they got I think three kids now that are on

038crutches or >> for a substantial amount of time. >> Yeah. and they were look I'm not sure how it went about but they ended up getting a new golf cart so that Stephanie she has a schedule that campus is not easy to go from top to bottom like like uh Pleasant Grove is they she has a schedule where she goes and picks up a kid and takes them from PE back up to sixth grade which would they would not be I don't know how they would do that um but they've got a golf cart that allows for that. So when I saw her yesterday right before your faculty meeting, she just wrapped up her last delivery and then was headed out to do her other job and I just I thought I mean those kids

039right there and those families 100% feel connected like someone is identifying that hey sorry you got to walk up the stairs today and and just walk you could walk by that for six weeks and think it's not my problem. I mean you get a motorized chair at home or something you know but our team stops and and not just at Marina Village both sides just stops says okay where do we support how do we dive into this >> can I add one >> yeah make you speak because there's people listening hundreds on online >> I know >> really quickly Kim is on the speaker phone >> oh she is >> but just just like our yard supervisors and I'm sure Pleasant Grove is the same but our teachers are pretty highly attuned to kids who

040are not connected yet. And I've watched on numerous occasions um PE teachers connect um kids with groups to try and find that right fit. And English teachers in their classroom when they're grouping students, not only looking for um you know what might be the most powerhouse team, but hey, this kid and this kid, they might really connect and hit it off and they're they're pairing them up and helping support that um that connection piece for them. It's really, it's just neat to watch. And it it happened with my own son when I brought him to Marina. He came in the middle of seventh grade. My P the PE teacher, without me even asking, said, "Hey, you know, he's new. I connected him with so- and so. I think they would be a good a good

041friendship group." And it ended up being that way. And and it helped him feel much more um comfortable at school that much quicker. And I see that all the time. I'm sure you do, too. >> You want to tell about our friendship spreadsheet? >> Sure. You want me to? >> Um, no. But what's really great that we have at Pleasant Grove is that we send it out to our staff. We also manage it as well. Our counselor is a really good opportunity like students who based off of our data who feel disconnected to campus and we look for ways for them to be able to get connected with others. So staff provide that input. um different staff members work with them and then we also just kind of like what was stated before about like

042our our yard duty as well like during our lunch times um we're able to connect them with each other and I got to say we've already had a lot of successes with our students. Um there was actually one success that was so good she was like actually I need a little bit more time for myself because like this is going really well but I'm also a little bit of a private type of student. So I think that those are really good successes on it. So they're put on a if they don't have a friend or they're new to the school, they're put on a spreadsheet with their interests and their likes and then we pair them up. The teachers write down or the yard duties are we write down who we think would be a

043good match for them and then we match them up at lunch. We show them exactly where to sit like here's where this group sits. They walk them down and they show them the table at lunch where they're all going to sit and then we check back in with them and schedule a time within a week to check back in to see if the friendship is a good match. And then if not, then we move on to the next group on the list. So that I mean we've had two students today and they both left extremely happy because they knew exactly where to sit at lunch and that nervousness of not knowing to go was taken away um because they had students walk them down say here's our table here's where we're going to sit here's

044how like when you exit the doors and get to your lunch here's exactly where we'll be so that feeling of anxiety was already taken away from them very happy today. >> Yeah and I um I want to second that and also too we had a student um that was an English language learner. remember that he was really excited about soccer. Um, he actually came forward to me and I think also to you, right, Vera? Um, and he articulated that. We got him in the spreadsheet. We found a really good group of friends who we thought would be good. Um, and they've been hanging out ever since. I want to say they're like three and a half, four weeks now. Um, and they're now become like a group of about five guys. Um, so it's been

045really successful. >> Cool. Well, I'll add one other thing that's not up there. This exercise has been really cool for us over the last few weeks as we've been going through this process and we're like, "Oh, yeah." and we do that. Oh, yeah. And we do that. Oh, yeah. And we do that. Just trying to, you know, list it all down. One of the things that that I didn't even think about until today as I was walking around campus was um our cell phone policies. We learned a little bit from Pleasant Grove a couple years ago and we decided, okay, cell phones when you walk on campus are not to be often put away. And it's amazing to watch the kids interact and talk and hang out and they're not just glued to a phone

046before school. Um, it's another piece of this that's not quantifiable, but you see it in in the examples of our students and it's just great to watch. >> Very cool. Um, and the cell phone policy, we're I'll be bringing that in November just as a as you know, we have to we have to codify our cell phone policy by before July. So, I'll be bringing to you where we're at and kind of some next steps on that. Uh, leave just when you said, oh yeah, you know, you keep thinking of things. Yesterday I was at the Marina Village faculty meeting and that the bottom lefthand corner I had to fit it in there. They were talking about these positive entries that the staff make when they call a kid or when they send a note

047home through Jupiter. They they track their positive entries. You've heard that them talk about it when they come and present. And Sam leans over to me and goes, "Put that. Make sure you put that on the presentation." So I was trying to move things around yesterday like how do I fit another one in here? Um again the friendship pairing they've talked a lot of this to yard supervisors. Um, one thing that's not on here that they you'll see at the very back, but um, Pleasant Groves does this clash of the classes where they're trying to also build like some community with just within your sixth grade class, your seventh grade class, your eighth grade class. The rallies are designed to address that. Again, the academic piece, we have a lot of kids uh, that connect

048to our school solely for school. Like everything else is outside of school. They're there just to learn. And so that academic piece, there's just a lot of connectors. And I think if you if you look at how many kids are enrolled in some of the um some of the other I don't think we put art. Yeah, I think we took the electives off. But when you look at our elective offerings, they're they're quite robust um at the at each of the schools and kids can find a spot there just academically through an elective as well. I want to see if there's anything else that I wanted to point out up there. Oh, and my favorite is the student names. You can go on either of these campuses and these four people I I bet you

049could parade the whole school in front of them and I bet they could get 80% of the names. That is really difficult to do. I mean, I think I've shared a story where a a high school principal in previous district I was in where the superintendent asked a high school principal as kids were coming across the states for graduation, they'd been with this class for four years. How many kids do you know by name? And the response was probably 12. And he was like, how is that even possible? We're in we're in the hundreds here and they're just with them for three years. It's really fun. Um, Vera is almost impossible to talk to during the day because in the morning it's she'll be talking to me and then she's like, "Johnny, hey, how's basketball?

050Did you get a new pair of shoes? Hey, there's a pair of socks in my office. I know your last pair had a hole. Have a great day, sweetie." And then the next kid, hey, no, you're not allowed over there. Get over here. Where, you know, you're supposed to be walking down there. And and it's all by name. Um and the level the just the depth of knowledge that these that our team has um with understanding the kids that are on their campus is it's really um really inspiring. I think additionally our staff uh we talked about it here a little bit already. Ver was sharing like the spreadsheet that they have but they they do have students um where they ask uh you know what's your level of involvement? How many how many act

051after school activities did you go to? When we have kids that say I don't know or I don't care and or that just rank their connect their connect connectedness as low and so you can when you listen to them talk they're very good about identifying who that kid is and then making sure that the staff that has that kid that someone raises their hand and says, "Oh, I know that kid really well. I will find out what's going on. Why they said I don't care. That's not that's not how they feel. I know they care. I'm going to say something to them or Yeah, I could see that. Let me let me do a double check. Uh let me just check in on them. And so there there's not only is it just seeing kids

052that might be sitting alone or that are disengaged visually, but just kids that are self-reporting like I don't feel connected. Um you could see that they uh lean into those kids. Um, and then their site level survey data can be found in the in the appendix. So, as you're going through that, you can see all kinds of data like what they ask like what are what what uh dressup days do you want to have? And the dressup days are predicated on how was the voting like Levi, you guys changed your start of the school event this year to aloha day because kids didn't want to necessarily do a dance. Is that what what was the change? >> Everything's a party now instead of a Yeah, they weren't into dances. So when we do our activities,

053we do more of a hangout party type thing. Yeah. It's it's it's a dance. >> It's exactly the same. >> It's just called the party, >> but but we're listening to >> Yeah. But they're listening. It's called a party instead of a dance. So just just like that listening piece based on the survey data. Um and changing the terminology that you use just to reflect that is uh just so apprec appreciated. So, as as we as we said, we put this mirror to our faces and just said, "Well, yeah, we're doing a really great job." And and the and here is where where's the blind spot? Where's an area where we can improve? The intent here is not to like walk away from this process with 15 more things to add to your plate, your

054already busy plate, but it's like, okay, if we're going to do something, how do we do it better? And maybe it's just a little bit better. So, I think just um that this idea of how do they continue digging into this road to connectivity for students through the survey data, like what's how's that process working? Is the spreadsheet that Vera referenced, is that the most effective way to do it? are staff reporting that they're able to make traction by connecting kids or is the kids still disconnected like just our current process is it yielding results or not? Um, one of the things that I noticed and I know I drove Vera and and uh well the whole team Vera Levi, Sam and Greg, but particularly Vera and Levi nuts was I kept asking I had

055so much data points and but they weren't phrased the same and I didn't want to you know the question wasn't exactly worded the same. So, I asked like these nu nuanced questions and I think what we learned is we could do a we could do a better job of probably just sitting down with the survey and saying, "Oh, that's a great question. I we don't have that on ours because they don't ask all the same questions." Many of them are similar, but many are specific to the school and saying, "Okay, how do we ask the question and phrase it in the same way?" Um, I think there was a question on there that asked, "Did you attend any of these or which events did you attend?" And there's just four events listed and there wasn't

056an option to say, "I chose not to attend any or I didn't attend any." Like, could we add a layer another question because all it gives you is the data of who went to the events but not who chose not to go. Um, and then adding a connectedness question or two to our district-wide culture and survey that's going to be coming out here uh through Dustin's office uh soon enough. We're going to look at the connectedness. I know we have questions in there that indicate connectedness, but is there a question we might want to add to that based on how we went through this? And again, that data comes in November to the board. J. Yeah, I uh to your point about adding that question of I didn't want to. I also think there's a

057next layer of I couldn't >> Oh, >> I don't want to be there versus I couldn't be there because I wasn't allowed to. I had to go home. I had to babysit. I had to be at band, sports, whatever. Just >> Adam. >> Yeah. So, I could I love that one. Um, where am I at? >> Oh, and then also, uh, when we have our middle school principles and our team and our VPs, it should also say on there that when they come and present, uh, for their annual board presentation, um, just making sure that we are top of mind talking about just connectedness, like if there's something that's been going on that's just another layer to connect kids to school. They add things all the time. Um like like the uh golf cart. That's

058not something that I don't think you could have shared last year. Probably could have and I just didn't know about it. I know like the kid that broke his femur a couple years ago. You moved all of his classes so he could just be in a practically a bubble of walking just in a certain little area so he wasn't going all over the place. Um but so that's what connectedness looked like two years ago. They don't have that situation now. kids in walking braces that have to that need a golf cart to get. So, how do we as we come and do our presentations, how do we just surface like some of the intentionality that we do and could we do a better job related to that? I think that might be the last. Yeah.

059So, at this point, um I I love and I think that's what we're really looking for like is there a like the question about I couldn't like are there if you look at the data I know you got the data over the weekend with the appendix. Are there questions that our team could answer? Are there um wonderings that you have uh >> or or advice like if we're missing something? We're all about like what are we missing or who are we missing? How do we find them? How do we So yeah, we'll take any I mean I'm open to ideas in any way that we can get better at it. >> Yeah. And don't and I always say that that I've taken that from And um it is really truly so incredible that we have

060two strong middle schools that offer so much. One thing that I think is important is that we're able to offer a variety of things, right? We're not necessarily just a blank school or we're super heavy in this. We never offer that. Both of our schools offer such a wide range of activities, sports, events, clubs, all of it. Um, and I'm really thankful for that because I think there are so many students that want to be involved in some things, but not all things. We're things, right? And I think that's okay. But I'm really proud of all of the work that you've done and all of your and for being vulnerable and diving deep and then yes, we have so much to celebrate. Yes, this is going to be such a great meeting because here is

061what we have, right? So, I'm thankful for that. Um, I mean, I think we all are, which is probably why we lovely involved in our communities. Um, and I am constantly in conversation, specifically the district at both sites. >> Oh my gosh, >> did you know that I'm so proud of that? I feel a part of this community and while I can't take credit for it, I'm proud that is not at all a Thank you. I'll start off by saying um thank you for being here tonight. This is not your um scheduled school time presentation. So to ask our leadership from our sites to come from some additional work um at a board meeting. I just want to express my appreciation. Um, I've had two of my three kids come through our middle schools and,

062um, I'm hoping the third one makes it. Um, but I will say with my first two that came through, it was so impactful foundationally for them. um one academically, one athletically, and the teachers and the coaches um on our campuses um they care about our kids and it's evident and clear and um as a once middle school teacher for five years, um middle school is a very unique place >> and it also requires um a unique person to commit to want to be at a middle school and love doing what they do because middle schoolers are at such a unique time in their lives. Um, as a coach, I would tell you that we often place our best coaches at the varsity level in high school, but in reality, they really should be placed at

063the freshman level. um because that's where some of the most instrumental development takes place for the banners that hang in the gym at the end of the year by the varsity teams. And I say that because I think the early years in middle school are are such an important time to have the right people there. And I think our middle school leadership makes that happen and it's evident and clear. And I just want to say thank you for that and recognizing that. Um, so with that being said, I'm always interested. You were asked to kind of um be reflective on this whole connectiveness with your with your students on your campus. Not that you don't think about it throughout the year, um, but maybe because we were all going to get together and and, um,

064and talk about it, maybe it just got a little more of a, um, additional lens thrown over it from then until now. And I'm just curious maybe what you came across that was not so much like, oh yeah, we do that, we do that, we do that, but more of a reflective if you had the ability um to snap your finger and either change something or add something in that moment. Um, did you come across anything that that maybe had you take a look at something and go maybe at a later time um when timing is right or when the resources are available, this would be worth having a conversation about. I'm curious your professional opinion about that. I'll I'll say the first thing I think um part of this process for me and one

065of the ahas again and it's not really an aha because I knew it already but was how much I learned from my colleagues right and I thought to myself we need to collaborate more on some of these things and really have a discussion about um about what we're doing because I think so much of what we do just gets ingrained in our daily and I we don't really think about, oh, the specifics of, okay, this and this and this. We're just, it's kind of a natural part of what we do all day long and focusing on it and enumerating some of these things and then hearing, oh, that's a great idea, too. You know, I I forget that we need to do more of that. And we do we do collaborate, we do talk, but

066we haven't had as much of an opportunity maybe to talk at the level this level, which I think was not only gratifying, but also, I mean, I'm still taking notes as we're talking. Oh, yeah. Let's do make sure we think about that. Let's make sure we think about that just because um it's like um it's not a one-size, you know, fit all approach for kids, right? That's why, like you said, we have to have that variety of opportunities. And so, you need a million different things that will help kids, you know, connect. I mean, we have a chess club that just started. We haven't had a chess club in a couple years. We've got 26 kids coming every Friday to play chess and we and I didn't know we had a nationally ranked chess player

067on our campus. Now I do, you know, but um it's those kinds of things that like it's like what are we missing? How how else do we find these little niches that we can connect kids to our program and let them shine? And I think when you can allow kids to also um become those leaders, a lot of our clubs are just we've got adviserss and we we try and shadow leadership with the kids that they become the drivers of that activity with the guidance of an adult. And man, they do amazing things when you let them, you know, give them a little reign. It's it's fun to watch. So, we have a a couple things because we've been doing these surveys and sharing our surveys back and forth for about seven years now. And

068so, each year each year they're added on a little bit more and we alter the questions. Our positive school culture and climate committee also gives us input on what questions they would like to see and get feedback on for that school year. One of the things I noticed was when you give the surveys makes a difference. We used to give it the first day of school to the second day of school. Last year, we changed that. We now give it um four weeks into school so that they have a little bit of time to get connected to adult if they haven't yet and they have time to experience what it is to have a merit or lose a merit or get a referral and have an adult connect with you. This year we did give

069it in the week that um we did our lockdown drill. So we did see a lot of data come back from students on that as well. So that was something to reflect on of like when you give it does matter too. Um, we had a lot of students report that they was really scared of school shootings. Yeah, that was probably the biggest thing that students reported on was being a fear of school shootings. And so knowing that they have that that anxiety as well as they're walking around campus all the way from learning everything from some students scared because we have um too much brush around campus and a wildfire had just broken out near Renee Malot's house and worried about that. Can we get the brush cleared? And so the guys came out and

070cleared the brush. But then really reflecting, Jim gave me a card to get into Ponderosa Games for free. Thank you for that. So I've used it quite a few times. Um now and just seeing the difference when you show up even when they're in ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade to their games and how excited they still are to see you there. Matt Hart and Shawn Manley and I all went on Friday night to support the kids who were presenting and they're still I mean they're 18 and they're huge and they look like Roman, but they're just as excited like little kids to see you there to support their stuff. So just knowing how to stay connected with them and like you're talking about that community connectedness long throughout their life, right?

071And how to keep that longevity going as well. I think those have been some things that we've really talked a lot about, but you might have a different perspective too since you've just started. >> Yeah, I mean I think um what's been really great for me is that one transitioning to middle school um and then number two also being you know fresh on the site. So kind of different perspective, different eyes, everything like that. Um Ver has done such an incredible job of always bringing me you know us together as thought leaders. You know what does this look like? take all the data, be able to then discuss it because I don't have that historical context, which I think is a pro, um, to our team that we have. Um, and I know one big

072area that we were looking a lot at for our data and our surveys going through this process was ways to really amp up some of the programs that we started or that you started, you know, one, two years ago, things like Clash of the Classes, right? Um, and we did, we have such an incredible staff. they provide really good feedback and I think we really did a good job listening to them and thinking about ways to make just minor changes um with the processes that we were already building on and then now we're getting even more positive feedback about that. Um, so I know like many of the board members today asked that question, right? Like so good about so many things to celebrate. We're planting all these wonderful seeds. We're building all these different

073um aspects of our of our school programs and now we're we're kind of diving in deeper and ways to be able to extend that to make it even more engaging, more fun. Um getting our teachers really excited about the activities we're doing. Um, so I think that's been really good for me and I think my different perspective and just building off of the great things that have been going on at Rescue all all over these different years. >> Thank you for sharing that. >> The other thing that just it continues to highlight for me is I mean I know we're putting in a lot of effort but it's also like I just don't want to miss that kid, right? And that's always a worry for us. I just don't want to miss that one. And

074so there's I mean and Jim can share anecdotal things. We've shared with him a lot of anecdotal things where you know we've sought those out and and it was always and it was a good reminder to me that all this connectedness it happens one by one right it doesn't happen like hey let's do this big thing. I mean that that can be helpful, but it's really one by one these individual connections with kids and finding ways to help them connect with each other, adults connect with them and them and have them connect with things that give them um uh positive reinforcement and and feelings of success. >> So it's like but you have to do that in it's almost individual and and so that's always a challenge. >> You know that and I hate to

075go on about this but that reminds me of our focus for the school year. So, we took last year's data and we started our first staff meeting before school started this year was based off of last year's data. And those sixth graders and seventh graders that have metriculated up and then we looked at the fifth grade data that the teachers sent over because they fill out a form for us on who their friends are, what they're good at, what they're worried about, etc. So, our teachers looked at all that data and the kids who didn't feel connected to school. And each teacher picked one to two students to have to help them get one% more connected or better um at school. And with that then they look at the survey data of have they ever

076visited our world to cart? What do they like to do because their hobbies are listed on there? Um do they have homework help? Who how do they prefer to be contacted by a staff member? So with all that information then the staff member when they started the first week of school already knew like Greg's my focus student. He loves reading. He loves classical music actually. Um but um he he loves uh de debate and he likes to be communicated through email and so now I already know Greg's walking into my classroom and doesn't feel connected but I know these things about him and I also know that he didn't get a lot of Puma Pride tickets last year and he never visited the candy cart and so I might you know make sure that those

077things happen for Greg this year so he feels more connected to the school. So each teacher has those focused students and we've checked in now one one loop around to check in on how it's going with those f focused students and then making sure that they're getting those positive um referrals home so that the parents know as well and trying to connect the parents to the school that way. So like that strategic does it you really have to look at the each student and help them get connected. The ones who told us there's a question on there of like do you want an adult to reach out to you? So then our counselor and our psychologist take those students and break up the names and break up the list and then they mark down the

078days that they've checked with them. But our new psychologist, she's been a fabulous hire. She even went deeper with the kids of I don't know that they're connecting that I'm meeting with them connecting that because of their answer on the survey. And so she's telling them like because you put this on the survey, I'm meeting with you today. um just so that they're making another line of connection of what their responses do matter to us and that we are taking it seriously as well. >> Can I share where this um where this is rooted from? I I I think how this kind of evolved um just the subject and us sitting here maybe I want to say it probably surfaced a couple of years ago um when we started discussing um the correlation between um

079optional connectivity and mandatory connectivity and the outcomes of academic success. And when we looked at this ex when I looked at this example of a school that went from optional connectivity to mandatory, what they notic is an increase in joy by being connected with something after school, during school, athletics, clubs, organizations, whatever it might be. And by being associated with something and having a a place to belong, they found joy to start to increase. And with the increase in joy, they saw a direct correlation to increase in academics. And they went from optionalism to mandatory um with ninth graders. I know it's it's high school, but it's it's just one grade removed from our middle schoolers, at least our eighth graders. And so we started having conversations in and examining how do we think the

080percentage of middle schoolers are connected with something on school and could we extract data to show correlations between their academic successes and their connectivity. And so that's when we started just having conversations about wonder what it's like. Um and I would say this conversation probably has been going on for a couple of years. and not in a way of of our unhappiness with our middle schools because it's far from that. It was just another um subject to examine of can we become better 1% at everything that we do. And so we just wanted to have conversations about it and and examine it and see if there's any validity at our middle school with the same subject with ultimately trying to interject more joy in our kids' lives maybe has a connectivity to academic success both

081short-term and long term. So, um, Kim, I know that we've kind of been talking about this journey for a couple of years, and so I I I just wanted you to kind of under have a little background on maybe like where is this rooted from or where is this coming from? Um, and I I feel quite confident in saying that we have the utmost confidence in our middle school. Um, both our leadership and our employees, our our faculty, our our staff are certificated. Um, and we believe it's a great place for our kids to go to school. We were just curious, is there room um, it does this examination of the subject with nth graders um, could it have um, an opportunity with our middle schoolers? >> Correct me if I'm wrong or not. >>

082Michael is hitting it out of the park. That's exactly right. I want to echo what he said as well. Um I I'm sure when Jim approached you and said, "Hey, so the board wants to have a conversation about middle schools, um you know, you might have thought,"Oh, terrific. Why? Um why do we have to do this? Uh we already have to present and already come to a board meeting." Um but what Michael said is true. It has been something that we have been thinking about because we just know that um from our own experiences with our own children and being in the community and having been on campuses and just existing in American society. We know we know that that age group is the one that starts to, you know, pull away. They're starting to

083have other issues. We know that you all are doing fantastic. So I to echo what Michael said, we're not like this wasn't a boy, we see a big problem. It's that 1% better. Can we do better? And I do remember like there were a few things that um that kind of popped into my head as I was originally looking forward to being here um right on time. um you know we we had asked um you know we've got the surveys and we know that there are a lot of kids connected but to to your point we're looking for every single child and I remember at the there was like some meeting we had and there was this discussion about um putting every kid's name up on a board and forgive me if you guys have

084already like covered this because I think I hopped in like 20 minutes in um But um and every adult, you know, would look anyone, it doesn't have to be, you know, certificated or whatever, but any adult on campus was looking at it saying, "Oh, yeah, I talked to this kid." And they looked for the ones that didn't have any connectivity. That's just one method. And I'm trying to I think it was at a study session that that um that came up. couple things popped into my head that I wanted to ask about and see if we could if we were revisiting. Um, I did hear, you know, it does sound like there is, um, you know, an such a concerted effort, which I really appreciate because I think that, um, you know, I look at

085all of you and I was listening and I know that you are um, intentional and trying to do that, but to Michael's point, we're just wondering, you know, because it's like 95% is great, but that 5%, you know, there our students too. And so, you know, the idea of if we're missing anything and you know, are there other creative ways? I was hoping this meeting was not going to be like some like, you know, tell us what you're doing. You know, itemize it for us. You know, we'll value it. Like, let's all kind of, you know, put out ideas recognizing that we are 100% getting most every kid. So what what what about these other ones? So couple things that I thought were interesting that I learned when I when we used to do the

086listening circles um for our LCAP and we would which I loved going to. Um I thought it was really interesting when I was at Marina that the students really seem to like having some kind of adult structured um play. So some kind of sport, but having it adult-managed and you can imagine why because the kids who are going to take the basketball court are usually well received and certain kids, you know, maybe the most sporty or whatever. Some of the other kids wanted to participate and they were not really, you know, afforded the time on the court and, you know, it's just the, you know, the structure of uh of being a middle schooler and who gets to make those decisions. So, and I don't even know if we still have this. So, this is

087the question. The board five, six years ago when we did this put together a stip. We wanted a stipend and it went to someone. I believe it did end up going to a teacher cuz I don't remember how that was decided and disseminated. You too might remember. Um but um that was supposed to be so that there were more adults out on site at lunch to help create opportunities for kids to participate in. And what's nice about that too is that by doing it and this is one of the things that I love about garden and I you know love any educational piece but it's not my driving force for garden. I love that it is something that ev, you know, kids can do and they get to cross-connect with other kids that they might

088not normally see. So, I'm talking a lot. I guess I have a built-in question about thoughts on having um I don't know what happened to the stipen, but resurrecting the stipen mural. >> Inter mural. >> Yeah. >> You know, it was actually I'm going to try to remember who got it. It was a teacher who got it and it was like I I don't know three $4,000 stipen with the intent of running sports basketball at lunch. >> Okay, that's what it's called. Okay. >> We had inter murals with our prop 68 funds for was that three years that we did prop 68 and we had inter murals for those three years. Um and then we surveyed the students after that but that's a to that group has gone and sailed. So, we haven't surveyed the

089groups of students that we have right now to see if they're inter interested. That could be a question to add, though. >> Yeah, because I wonder I mean, obviously, this is going to be a different group of kids, right? I mean, it's been five years, you know, they'veated through. Um, but I remember just a couple kids raising their hand saying, >> "I really want to play, but I can't always play." And it sure would be great to have, you know, it's it's those aha moments where I was like, well, we can do that. Why can't we do that? We should be able to do that. Um, and then we were able to do that. We did that. And then I kind of feel like it um, you know, I I don't know what's happening with

090it. Nor do I even know if this particular group of kids if that's what they want anymore. But it does seem like having having more, you know, just having it's it, you know, when it's more of a freeforall, sometimes it's hard for a kid who's less outgoing, less assertive, maybe less wellreceived to become part of something, you know, they just don't have the skills. It's just, you know, whatever. So having an adult somehow involved in it, even if not not necessarily the kids want to verbalize that that's what they want, like you know, cuz the certain kids certainly do not want any adult involvement. They've got it all figured out. Um so anyway, that that is just something um that I'm curious, you know, what what happened to that? what you think of the value

091what you think of the value of the board idea, you know, putting kids names up on a board because again to echo Michael and probably all of us up here I can speak for like we know you're doing a great job. We know you guys are hitting you know 95% of the kids we really just want to get everybody every single one of them. Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, we there's a there's a couple things. So, we have a spreadsheet that gets sent out to the teachers. Um, so we meet, let me back up, because we meet twice a month as a learning support team and that spreadsheet is then sent out twice a month to teachers to remind them of it. they can add to the spreadsheet any students that they notice are not making

092connections and their interests and likes and then we pair them up with another student like even arrange to where they're going to sit at lunch um so that they have a group of friends to count on and they know where to meet and then they're one of us becomes our case managers. It's almost like having a general education case manager and so we meet with that student, they're put on our schedule and we meet with them again to see how that group of students is working out or if they need another group of students. Um, yeah. >> How >> the teachers get well all actually any staff member can put them on there can put the student on there if they notice that they're not making connections, they're not talking during class or hanging out

093in the morning by themselves or at lunch by themselves and so they can add the names on there. It's called our um you it's called you have a friend in me is the name of the spreadsheet so that we can find a friend for every kid. Then but from there I would say honestly um our students are super active during lunch and so the inter murals does speak loudly to us because that's I mean we've already spent I want to say about $450 just on equipment at lunchtime because it gets eaten by our berry bushes if it goes over the fins. Um, so I would completely understand what you're saying about inter murals and having that support for the students just because if they don't feel like they can enter the basketball game and stuff

094and have that voice and so that's something we can ask the students about. We also since we're a huge PBIS school do a very similar activity. We used to do the board and have and everybody took a name off the board if they knew they were connected and whichever tags were left up were the students that we knew weren't connected. Now, we send around a list and then a teacher will put a star next to them if they know that that's a student who has a connection or doesn't have a connection and then that becomes a focus students. I don't know if you were you were here though when we were talking about our 1% focused students for this year as well. So, those are some ways that we're making sure to reach those kids

095that and hopefully they don't fall through the cracks because it is hard. Um >> maybe you could speak also to the the survey that you do if a kid says >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. So, the students who report that they don't feel connected to school or they don't have a a trusted adult. Um, if it's it kind of depends on what the answer is. If they say they want an adult to check in with them, then those are the students that our counselor and our psychologists ensure to check in with. And then they decide from there if they need a summit view referral or if they're going to meet with our counselor or if the kid was just like, you know what, I was having a bad day. And that we also have um

096for the students who put like for example we had a student who put that he's not connected to school and he's probably our top athlete. He participates in every single sport and then he put down that and he has straight A's. He's a 4.0. So honestly when every teacher saw that they said what why would he put that? And so we just talked to him. He's like I'm bored. I'm ready for high school. And so just having those conversations like like you're saying, Levi, if you don't talk to the students and figure out and kind of dig a little deeper into why they're putting these marks down, then we're not quite sure. We also realize on our survey that maybe they don't understand a one to five scale and so we didn't have a definition.

097So just little things like that that you start to realize like, oh, our survey is not quite accurate. We do need to change it. We need to adjust the question or add an extra question or followup. Sorry, was I >> I just want to jump on something you said there. I I actually love the follow-up that you all have with your students because I think sometimes students think that no one even looks at the results of their survey, >> but when you're actually arranging for a one-on-one or some chat time with them about their results, it >> well, they talk and they talk with their peers and maybe it just shows the value and the information that we're trying to extract for the benefit of them. Yeah. >> So, I I love that. I think

098that's fantastic. >> What um I I love the survey I but to your point maybe the one to five scale they're not you know as sure as what that is. >> So I wonder if um doing kind of like those um learning circles or information circles if you all I mean total question if you think there's value in rounding up uh you know like from different I don't know I I I don't know the best way. You probably do to round up a group of 20 or 30 from different grades and to have conversations. I remember Dave Scrogggin's like his thing was kind of like kind of and Jim does it too kind of you know you know what what what should we do better around here you know what what what needs improvement and

099>> it was amazing how many hands would go up and how much they wanted to contribute. So, I don't know if you know if that's a helpful idea. >> Well, I kind of was giving a dig about the berry bushes because that's where I learned that the students were upset about the berry bushes because Jim did a listening circle about three years ago and they and that came out of the listening circle that we lose all of our equipment. All of our balls are going in the berry bushes. We can't get them back. So, now the groundskeepers cut it back very far so we can go get them and retrieve them. Um, so I do think there's great value in that. >> We've done a similar thing with that. One year we actually committed to

100was it six six every month? I think it was sixth graders. >> Six eighth graders. >> Um we did one for each grade for a while there. But we would take them to lunch and we would sit there and ask these questions like what are you thinking? What do you I mean and we do all this stuff and and unfortunately it wasn't very productive. They did not give us very much information back that you know they they enjoyed being there and they're like no it's all great. my teachers care and so and we were doing you know getting kids from all you know different you know areas and stuff like that that wasn't as successful. I think doing something more like where you have them in a group in a class and you're grabbing a

101a bunch and just kind of checking it is maybe a little more productive than than I was trying to go well let's go above and beyond let's do it make it really fun for them and they were like it's all >> good lunch and they were just like oh I don't want to eat >> lead by or Sam um we heard about inter murals what I don't know the status of inter murals at the middle school I did pull this up these are many of the things that students can do at lunchtime that don't involve athletics if you're not involved in athletics. But um I'm that's I'm curious about inter murals as well. A structured inter mural versus >> them for the three years when we had the position money and it started out very

102strong and after that the kids would sign up and then they weren't showing up. That's what I remember. They wanted Yeah. They wanted to hang out with their friends. Um but it started strong but I wouldn't say it ended strong. They were Yeah. >> What was your experience at? >> Um well we didn't really have a a teacher who wanted to do it. Oh, >> I mean give up their no matter a no amount of money is going to make them give up their lunch. >> Yeah, >> but >> if I think it was intended to not go to a teacher originally. It was supposed to be like to a parent or something. >> We we actually did put it out there and just couldn't get any takers. >> But we >> But our yard

103supervisors do it and they do it just as part of their regular day. >> So Christy runs um >> Yeah. Speaking of my >> It's your turn, Sam. Uh, one of our yards supervisors, Christy, runs a uh, dodgeball tournament and they get so excited. I mean, there's like everybody's watching and she um, she has them sign up and Levi puts in the newsletter, you know, that, hey, signups are coming up. It's teams of six. They name their team and then she has all these um, what do you call that when she does the >> brackets? >> Yeah, brackets. She has all these brackets and they go down. Oh, it's amazing. So, she does it for sixth, seventh, and eighth in the MP room. Um, and then we have a yard supervisor Luciana. She's from Brazil

104and she speaks Portuguese, so she does jumping into Portuguese and she has these big jump ropes that she asked us to get for her. And um she's teaching them like double Dutch and jumping in and and every week she has a different well she started out week and now seems a few a little more time but um like she did uh numbers in Portuguese 1 through 10 and so when they jumped they had to you know say the numbers and then she did like months and then colors and so they were like learning Portuguese as hello goodbye you know different you know things that they would say and the kids would all yell it while they jumped. So those are two things that they can join other than like library or garden or friendship or

105there I mean there's a lot of choices at lunch. We also had um our yard supervisor put on basketball tournaments um as kids can sign up with teams twos and fours. Um from our perspective as far as I you know I don't really see there's never there's never a place where like if a kid wants to play basketball they can play basketball. There's enough room. If they want to play football there's enough football. If they want to play frisbee, there's no frisbee. If they want to, you know, play four square, we have 16 foursquare courts, right? So, I've never I've never seen a student and in my talking with students go, "Yeah, I can't get in on something I want to get in on." They all have there's always that opportunity. Um about two years

106ago, we did have a handful of basketball students that were we had a quite a few kids who were playing basketball and that got a little tight there for a little bit and and we'd have to find other opportunities for them to play, you know, and other areas for them to play in. But for the most part, our students seem to have an opportunity to get into anything they want to at lunch. There's just there's there's enough room. >> Yeah. I mean, you know, on a basketball court, you have five on five, right? So, you're going to have 10 on the court. You're not going to play 12 on 12, right? So there there are going to have to be some kids waiting and what >> but we have eight courts. >> Okay. Um but

107there's not Well, I mean I don't I haven't been standing out there lately. But I guess what I'm just suggesting is that you know what what could happen is you're a kid and you want to play and there's the game going on and you're you know there's not enough kids to run another one. I just want to get in on this one. >> Sure. and they're like, "Yeah, no, Sam's Sam's playing, you know, like she, you know, you're not getting in." So, I'm just kind of like, and again, this is, you know, again, I I just want to reiterate, broad-based, you guys, we're we are literally just trying to >> brainstorm, try to come up with ways. It's not a criticism. It's not like you guys should be doing this. I'm not even sure what

108the answers are. I just know that somewhere in our school, we have Even if there's two. >> Yeah. >> Two. Like, okay. So, let's figure out a way to get these to like what? >> We're always Yeah. We're taking That's for sure. I agree with you. >> I wonder um too I am talking a lot. So, do you guys have some like I can pipe down. Do you guys want to say something? >> Okay. Um I wonder if too with our and this is kind of going to be a bigger problem but you know the thing with um sports and I know Marina better than I know Pleasant Grove but like trying out for the teams is really hard like it's competitive to make the teams and I wonder and I love now that there

109that we have more sports so we don't you know now we have soccer and stuff like that that is so great why we couldn't start that earlier I do not know. But anyway, um >> Lisa, who loves soccer? >> Yes, I know. Lisa, I mean, come on. Why did you not push for this? What were we thinking? Um I wonder >> done. I know. I We should have But we should have done it sooner like seven years ago. Um but um or longer than that. Um, but I wonder if there is a way because there are kids. I mean, I remember after tryyous and there would be boys coming out and there'd be tears and struggling to not have I wonder and then they and then they kind of just stopped playing. And I do

110remember having this conversation with Bruce Peters because we were doing it at the elementary level and when my kids were there and I said because we had an A team and a B team, but there were some kids who were going to get cut and I was like why do we have to cut them? Like I'll coach I mean I literally don't know what I'm doing but I'm sure I can figure out something so that nobody gets cut because once you cut them then they are going to turn away from the sport and then there's really not going to be an opportunity for them to engage back in and it might have been something for them. So, I wonder and I know there's nothing we can do. I mean, listen, like all the schools are

111doing that. We can't run maybe, you know, an A team, BC, B team, and C team like we were able to do in elementary. But I wonder if there's like some way to round up those kids who aren't making it and then make some kind of something where they're playing against each other or I don't know. again, just brainstorming, trying to grab every kid. >> Add on. Um because we talked about some of the things that we lifted as we had this mirror to us about how we could get better as I'm hearing the inter mural piece because I I recall being a middle school and a high school principal when we were trying to run inter murals and that finding staff that want to give up their lunch and it was always a year

112stipen and I'm just thinking to myself right now why isn't that an event stipen like a dodgeball tournament that runs six weeks and it pays what whatever the amount is or a basketball tournament during the NCAA tournament. Like, it's just a it's a this is a yeah, this is a this is a three-week commitment by a staff member and you're going to get compensated. I'm just thinking that's that's that's an opportunity I think that we just might look at something a little bit differently. We also talked about Kim just um just at the beginning um where do we just some of the barriers and that first one there when you're talking about the just linking to the school is just um we're find ourselves competing with so many other things. I mean I know our

113boys both did comp soccer. So a lot of families it's like I I'd love to play basketball but I'm get in the car. You're going to we have comp soccer down in Stockton or someplace today. So, you know, there there there are so many other um our scouts or church or whatever the other activities are um there. So, we do I think the team does a really nice job, too, of just making sure that um we when we can advertise those opportunities for kids, we do. I know that we have a really close partnership with the Elorado uh Community Service District. Rotary's just reached out to us finally with Cameron Park and we're'll be connecting um some of our kids with I think that's this is it next week um where we're gonna finally start

114honoring some kids there and hopefully start bridging the gap that we've had with the Cameron Park CSD as you know the um Mark who was the Colorado CSD is now is now up at Cameron Park. So he's reached out. So, I think there's some opportunities for us to try to connect kids to those those kind of non-cut events that they offer through the CSD as well. Um, >> one way to look at it too would be maybe considering adding that as a club for kids. Clubs are ran usually in four to six week cycles. And so we could possibly look at running those as clubs as well, like inter mural. >> Because then that teacher, if you only teach sixth grade and you're at sixth grade lunch, then you run a club like twice a

115week as an inter mural for six to eight weeks or something. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. It's a challenge. the sport, the athletics are a challenge, especially on those on especially on those uh teams that, you know, if you have more than 11 12 players on a basketball team, they're going to sit and they won't get to compete. They just get to sit there, right? And they can be on the team. We've had 15 players on the team before and it's like that's a bummer because they just don't play very much. They get maybe a minute or two in a game. So, that is a challenge obviously and I like that creativity of of running it that way. The other piece too is we we also operate within a league. So >> um we're not

116able to just say we're going to field six teams and so there's but that might be might be an interesting conversation just within the league. Is there a I don't know that we'd have enough kids to do that or not but >> our schools probably would but we might be the only school in our league. Yeah because we're the biggest school in the league. I don't know that there it would be a facilities thing too. I would imagine since our our facilities are rented right now, every field, every gym, everything from now until April every single night. As soon as we're done with the facility, an outside group is in there. And we have a um a big partnership with Prospector Soccer and they serve hundreds of our students. And then the Elorado Hills Basketball

117League runs both of our facilities as well. F comes up to marine as well >> and rent our facilities. >> So yeah, so we make sure each year we black out our calendars for those um to make sure that we're partnering with those teams. There's a lot of teams. >> Yeah, EDHYB will do will rent and then Bolson will also rent. So >> well, we want to make sure that um you're all leaving um with with clarity just from our gathering. I don't know if you have any questions for us to provide you any clarity or um there's anything that we can lean in on anymore. >> I think that this was a very good process for all of us in all honesty. It got us talking. We we constantly talk and it's even on

118our school tour. It's like, "Hey, you're doing this tour tour. What's it going to look like? I'll send you the dock. All right. Bye." And then our conversations like we constantly talk. I mean multiple times a week, but they're very quick conversations. And so this made us had a more reflective conversation. >> I thought it was incredibly valuable and and just again some of the things that you know watching what Ver and and Greg are doing and and reflecting on what we're doing and and thinking, wow, we could be stronger here and and we could do more to reach out there and that's a better way of doing it. It was really really I thought it was really helpful. Honestly, I found a lot of value in just kind of going through the process. Um,

119and it's it's interesting. I love I love the questions because it's like again, how do we provide enough of those opportunities and as many as we can possibly do, you know, and that's always the that's always the challenge. So, we again try and make the biggest variety we can make and see if we can get kids connected that way. But, um, it's an ongoing conversation obviously. I mean, it doesn't stop tonight. So, I appreciate it. >> We really appreciate you guys being here. for this evening. Are there any um questions or comments from our other trustees? >> I just wanted to jump in really quickly and compliment both sites both times. Well, I'm not there frequently. I would like to be there more, but most recently I was at Constitution Day and then I was

120at Pleasant Grove's um graduation last year. And I think that um as a former middle school teacher, oftentimes middle schoolers are um little conduits of chaos. And >> and um >> when you when I walk on campus like for graduation or for Constitution Day when there when there's not a structured environment happening and you see the kids being respectful without having to be prompted or knowing that no one's watching them. Um, when I drove into campus at Marina last week, you know, kids are stopping and they're waiting or they're, you know, they're being polite and when they were walking in after the events had started, they aren't disruptive. And that's a big deal for middle school students to manage themselves. And I think that's an absolute reflection of what's happening at your school because I

121think that for me demonstrates that they have a um incredible level of respect and um you know to use the word connection to their school that they they recognize hey this is a parent or it's a person who's unfamiliar with us and they still have that um you know level of um self-awareness to be um not a conduit of chaos at that time. Um, and the same goes with Pleasant Grove, you know, when I when I come on campus for graduation or even um, you know, for our um, welcome back. And I know that's everybody in the district, but I think there's a um, general sense of, you know, positive community and that's with all the parents there. And sometimes you can walk on a campus and I tell this to kids all the time

122who are looking at colleges, like you can walk on a campus and feel a vibe and go this isn't for me, right? Or this isn't this is not my community. And um each time I've done that on your campuses, I felt like people are um you know feel very um strongly about their community in a positive way and I think you see that in the way that they're interacting with each other and that goes beyond the students. So thank you. >> Mr. Schmake, is there anything else of business you would like to ensure happen? You shouldn't have asked because you Michelle be the last, but there was a there one of the thought bubbles was tardies on there and I skipped over it and I'm so glad you said this. When you go on these

123two campuses, there is a vibe. It's very positive. Kids are welcoming. But when that bell rings, there's they are not running around with a cattle prod trying to get like kids know and they respect the staff and the school enough that they it literally like the bell rings and I know sometimes it might feel like this chaos coordinator, but from a from the outside I I think I say that every time I'm at your side. I'm like, I cannot believe how uh just compliant because they know that they should or because they trust or they value or they're connected or whatever the term is. I think that's just such an it's a daily every hour on the hour they have an opportunity to be chaotic and they consciously choose not to be and it's because

124they really are connected with people on the campus and I I'm so glad you said that because I was sitting here going gosh darn it I left that one unsaid. So, I I appreciate our team. It's hard to hold a mirror to yourself. I think they've done a great job. I texted Michael, I said these four are pros and I I I think um I hope that you see that this evening and we have and we have some work to do. I think we got three or four maybe even five things that just got generated from our conversation and through the process where I feel like we can just get that 1% better that Ver was uh and that we constantly talk about that continuous improvement. So, that's it. Thank you for organizing this talk,

125taking time out of your evening and being here. We really appreciate it. And of course the rest of our cabinet also. So with that being said, if I could please request a motion for adjournment. I I move that we adjourn at