Regular Meeting

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[25] Nancy Thomas: individual with liberty and justice for all.

[32] SPEAKER_53: Welcome and thank you for attending the February 7th, 2017 Board of Education meeting of the Newark Unified School District. Please bear with us as this is our first meeting ever that we've transitioned to a new online platform of BoardDoc. So obviously there will be a learning curve from all parties involved. So expect technicalities and challenges, but we'll, we'll get through it and, and in the long run, it'll be much better for the district and, and the community at large. Again, members of the public who wish to address the board are asked to fill out a speaker form at the rear of the room. Please state your name clearly for the record. Speakers are limited to three minutes and once per item. And the board cannot respond to items not on the agenda. At 6 o'clock p.m. this evening, the board went into closed session. We discussed three items, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. No action was taken during closed session. We move on to 5.1, which is the approval of the board agenda.

[96] Nancy Thomas: I'll second.

[97] SPEAKER_53: Okay, moved by Member Crocker, seconded by Member Thomas. Can we vote, please?

[118] Elisa Martinez: It's the old.

[137] SPEAKER_53: Okay, six ayes. Thank you. Item 6.1, student report from Newark Junior High, McGregor, and our Newark Memorial. Sarah. Good morning.

[156] SPEAKER_06: Okay, so this weekend, Newark Memorial will be hosting a practice SAT or ACT from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Newark Memorial Commons. The cost of the test is about $10. Interested students can pay Ms. Destewitt at the front office. For any additional information, you can talk to Ms. Torres in the Counseling Center. This is really encouraged for all students just to get a feel of what the SAT or ACT will be like. Only next week is Valentine's Day. So my club, the Art Box Project, is fundraising for the paint we buy in order to start our murals on all the electricity boxes throughout Newark once the rain clears up. So we're selling cute little candy grams with a whole bunch of candies and chocolates and a cute little message in it for $2 each. And I know other clubs are also selling little goodie bags just to spread the love around campus and also fundraise for our activities. This past weekend, the Newark Memorial Girls Wrestling, we had our final tournament before NCS, North Coast Sections, and we had eight of our ten girls medal within the top three. And we not only medaled, but we also took home our very first all-girls team first place trophy as a team within many years. When we got called, we all got in a huge mosh pit. We're crying and laughing. And it was really great. It was such a great thing to see how all of our hard work finally paid off at the very end of the season. But I mean, this Friday, we have North Coast sections. It's Friday and Saturday. And about half of our girls are seated within the tournament where they're predicted to possibly go to state. And so we are really excited for that. And I have to owe some of that to my coach, Bergens. I'm not sure if he's here. He said that he might have popped in. But he, honestly, he's helped our program grow so much. And we also owe it to Coach Hess, who's really formed our character and made us better athletes overall. On a different note, this Friday is also food fair. I won't be there because I'll be cutting weight. But if you guys would still like to come and buy some food, that would be really great. Just support our activities and our clubs as always. We're always excited to see all of our board members or just any other teachers from other schools or past elementary schools or junior high on campus. It would mean a lot.

[317] SPEAKER_53: Thank you, Sarah. Moving on to 7.1, Recognitions and Celebrations.

[321] SPEAKER_20: Oh, I'm sorry. Anyone from McGregor Campus and then Newark Junior High?

[328] SPEAKER_53: So McGregor? Oh, was there anyone from McGregor?

[331] SPEAKER_20: They do have some updates. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I didn't move quick enough.

[338] SPEAKER_28: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Kim May. You can call me May. I'm from Burma. It is previous name, right now it is Myanmar, a small country in Southeast Asia. I've started attending the ESL Intermediate Advanced class in January 2016 and in April ABE class. I missed all classes when I went back to Burma. When I came back, I keep on learning. I'm also attending nutrition class right now.

[374] SPEAKER_53: Hold on, excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt. This is the student report section 6.1.

[379] Nancy Thomas: It's McGregor Adult School, I think.

[383] SPEAKER_53: Yes. Okay, I'm sorry.

[384] SPEAKER_28: Go ahead. As English is a second language for me, I can read, but my speaking and listening are very poor. Whenever I speak, I would like to translate from Burmese into English. By attending classes, my listening, understanding, then pronunciation, have improved a bit. I gradually remember English grammar, which I studied 50 years ago. From nutrition class, I've learned how to eat healthy food, how to save money, and how to exercise. I've learned a way of eating smart and being active. I don't drive. My home is 15 minutes walk away from school. By going to school, I not only get study, but also I get walking exercise. And I also making lots of friends from different countries. I'll carry on the learning as long as I can. Let me tell you about Newark adult school update. During 2016-2017 school year, the Newark Adult School has used state block grant funding for programs in the following areas. Elementary and secondary basic skills classes. This includes adult basic education, GED preparation, and high school diploma classes. The total number of current students enrolled for the current quarter is 76. English as a second language in citizenship classes for this quarter is 129. The new adult school also has community education fee-based classes on campus. The total number of students enrolled in community education fee-based classes for the current quarter is 101 students. One, in addition, the adult school has begun a parent book club, a monthly coffee with the principal to discuss adult education issues, nutrition classes, and has developed a partnership with One Stop Career Center and La Familia to provide counseling and career education job placement services. The total number number of students involved in these programs during the current quarter is 41 students. The total number of students currently being served through the adult school is 347 students. Newark Adult School is a part of a consortium along with the Fremont Adult School, New Haven Adult School, and Ohlone College. During the 2016 and 2017 school year, the consortium has developed the following college and career pathways, which are available to Newark, Fremont, and New Haven adult school students and are funded through adult education state block funds. These pathways include a pre-college bridge class designed for adult basic education, GED, and high school diploma students, and a pathways to college bridge class for ESL students to prepare for their entrance into Ohlone College. B, a residential and in-home health care training program. C, an early childhood education preparatory class. Students have also had access to a pre-apprenticeship construction program in conjunction with the Cypress Mandela training standard. Based on the consortium priorities, school needs and the results of students' surveys future recommendations plans include, number two, expansion of the number type of classes offered in ABE, ASE, and ESL. Three, exploration into into and the addition of more career apprenticeship programs. Four, re-institution of computer classes, community, and career focus. Five, additional child care for parents attending classes AM and PM. Six, additional classroom space teachers in order to adequately expand the programs and services for adult education students morning and evening. Board of members, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak in front of you. Thank you.

[684] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. So going backwards, Newark Junior High School.

[701] SPEAKER_15: Late January, we began making posters to remind the student body how to continue following PBIS. We have also made posters for Valentine's Day being called Flowergram. We started selling the Flowergrams in the student store this week for the student body to buy for one another, costing just $1. Newark Junior High School began our Pennies for Patients donation competition. How it works is that all first periods have received a box that will hold the class's donations. There's one catch called sabotaging because bidding paper money, which is considered negative, decreases. The amount of coins there are, this motivates students because they want to win, so they gather the paper money and go sabotaging. But in reality, the most sabotaged class has raised more money. Last week, we also started our first weekly Friday unity activity. Many students came together for a mini one-on-one soccer game and enjoyed it. Currently, leadership have decided a theme for the dance coming up late. Preparing and finding decorations and setting up prepping the layout. Last this Friday is our no one eats alone activity. Leadership is stepping out of their comfort zone and inviting people to come enjoy food and drinks with us during lunch. We'll ensure company to students. Thank you.

[783] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. OK, all to 7.1. Recognitions and celebrations, superintendent.

[796] SPEAKER_20: Thank you, President Nguyen. At this time, I'd like to invite Principal Pam Hughes to the podium to help us with our acknowledgment of staff and student.

[808] SPEAKER_30: Hi, everybody. Thank you for spotlighting Kennedy tonight. Appreciate it. So can I just go ahead and start? OK. So our certificated acknowledgment is going to Tricia Lemler. Tricia Lemler has worked for the Newark Unified School District for 23 years. Luckily for us, all of those years have been at Kennedy. Over the years, she has been a model classroom for Sel and Ellie, a VISTA support provider, and a master teacher. In fact, she's a master teacher for several teachers working in NUSD right now. Over the years, she has served on many committees, including curriculum council and our school site council. As part of our school community, she attends school events like our Harvest Festival and Family Science Nights. Trish regularly participates in professional development, and she is both GLAD and Google certified. This year, she has stepped up to be part of our PBIS planning team. Trisha is positive and friendly. She works very hard to meet the needs of her students. She goes out of her way to welcome new teachers to our staff. She is the type of high quality teacher that Newark should be proud of.

[887] Chery Villa: Would you like to say something?

[910] SPEAKER_37: I just want to, I am so happy. All 23 years I have been at Kennedy Elementary. I love it there. The staff and the community there is so fabulous to work with. I'm very proud of my school. I'm calling it my school. I love it there. I'm very proud of the teachers and how we work together.

[939] SPEAKER_20: Well, don't go away. We're going to come down, take a picture with you, and then we're going to continue.

[945] Megan McMillan: It's your moment in the spotlight.

[952] SPEAKER_30: Have what you want. Good idea.

[1003] SPEAKER_54: Thank you.

[1026] SPEAKER_30: So next, Kennedy is going to recognize Tina Moniz. Unfortunately, Tina was not able to be here with us tonight, but I'm going to go ahead and read about her. Tina Moniz has been an instructional assistant in the Newark Unified School District for over 11 years. 10 of those years have been helping the students of Kennedy Elementary School. Tina cares about all of the children at Kennedy, not just the ones she works with in our special day class. She strives to make connections and learn about the children as individuals. She goes above and beyond in everything she does. Tina is quick to jump in and offer assistance where it is needed, on the playground, in the cafeteria, and before and after school in the student drop-off and pick-up areas. In the classroom, Tina shows even more dedication. She has high expectations for all of her students, but she knows they each have unique issues that can make learning challenging. She is creative and determined, always looking for new strategies and approaches to help students achieve. She actively seeks opportunities to improve her skill set through professional development, asking other service providers, and doing research on her own time. For example, at the beginning of this year, Her classroom had a student who struggled with staying focused and rarely completed any work. Tina found art projects the student really wanted to do. And when the student finished her work, she got to work with Miss Tina on the projects. Tina shows up every day ready to give her all to the students of Kennedy Elementary School. We are so lucky to have her at our school. All right, next. Next, our student acknowledgment. She's a little nervous. Lyndia To is an outstanding member of the Kennedy Elementary School community. She is an excellent student. She earns top grades, but continues to find ways to push herself to the next level on her own. She writes tips on her math quizzes that may help others, such as, when dividing with a decimal in the dividend, it is important to place the decimal in the quotient before completing the problem. She is a leader in her classroom. She is able to take a group of students and organize them without being bossy. For example, she will suggest a method of discussing a piece of text, then ask for other people's opinions before making a final decision on what to do. She is always kind and patient. Lindy is the president of our student council. She ran under the platform of anti-bullying, which is a cause she feels very strongly about. She is the kind of student who leads by example. She is reflective and therefore always has a solid and logical response to her peers' questions. She is patient and listens to her peers' concerns with an open mind. She is helpful and hardworking and gives up her own personal time to make sure that meetings and activities are organized well and run smoothly. She tries to do her best in the schoolwork and anything else she does. Lyndia is also extremely creative. She's a great artist and performer. Lyndia also writes song parodies that are incredibly clever and funny. She is truly a special person and a talented student.

[1224] SPEAKER_56: I really appreciate every teacher that has taught me. They have really helped me with my education and I thank Miss Hughes for how she has supported me and I really enjoy being in Kennedy Elementary.

[1250] SPEAKER_20: You can stand back here if you want. Nice speech.

[1275] SPEAKER_54: Thank you.

[1321] SPEAKER_20: last celebration.

[1331] SPEAKER_39: Board President Nguyen, members of the board, superintendent, it is a great pleasure this evening to come forward. On January 25th, we received word that for ACSA Region 6, the Association of California School Administrators, Ms. Pam Hughes, principal at Kennedy Elementary School is the 2017 Elementary Principal of the Year for Contra Costa County and Alameda Counties. Huge honor.

[1370] SPEAKER_30: Are you kidding? Briefly? OK. Thank you very much for the acknowledgment. I just want to say that in Newark, it's my turn this year, but it easily could have been any of my colleagues. We have a wonderful group of administrators, and I feel very fortunate to have them as my colleagues. So thank you.

[1401] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Who do you want as a picture with you? Just all of you.

[1416] SPEAKER_30: All right. Thank you, Miss Tammy. I've got no hands to hug her. Oh, my gosh.

[1423] Richelle Piechowski: We're going to take a picture with everybody.

[1448] SPEAKER_20: President Nguyen, that concludes our celebrations, recognitions for this evening.

[1452] SPEAKER_53: Thank you very much. If I may, at 6.1 on the agenda, it didn't list Bridgepoint, but we do have Bridgepoint students here. Oh, great. Who would like to speak. So come on up, please. Absolutely.

[1477] SPEAKER_58: Hello. My name is Emerson Marroquin.

[1482] SPEAKER_05: Hello, I'm Susana Perez. Before I came to Bridgepoint, I had heard it was full of gangs and that it was dangerous. People also said that a diploma from Bridgepoint was not worth as much as a regular high school diploma. Because of these assumptions, many students at our school campus feel degraded by our by people in our community. However, when I came to Ridgepoint, I found a safe campus. The teachers are helpful and encouraging. The small class size allows students to receive more individualized attention. Ridgepoint also has many student support services, such as counselors who are available to address academic and mental health concerns when students face obstacles to their education and overall well-being. In addition, there are regular weekly girls groups for young women, and Joven Noble for young men, as well as Substance Recovery Group for both genders. Some of our programs, such as leadership, organize activities throughout the year to create a feeling of community. The school also offers an ROP class that helps students with their business and management skills, helping them create resumes for jobs they'd want to apply for during or after high school. At certain times of the year, people come to Bridgepoint to help our communities sign up for medical health insurance. Every quarter, the administration presents awards to recognize the achievements of each student. As a result, when a student graduates from Bridgepoint, he or she will be better prepared for adult life.

[1585] SPEAKER_58: I am a junior at Bridgepoint High School. I attended Newark Memorial for my freshman and sophomore years. Due to the size of Memorial, it was easy to disappear and not do my work. For me and my friends, there tended to be a lot of drama. It was easier to cut out of class and not deal with the mess because I fell behind in my credits. Since I started Bridgepoint, my attitude towards school has changed. There is less trauma. I have gotten along better with other students. Academically, I have done much better. I appreciate the small class sizes, which allow teachers to assist the students individually. I feel that in this campus, I can be myself. The teachers and all the staff know every student. It is very difficult to disappear. If I am out of class, someone notices. Also we have some privileges that other students don't have. For example, I started a FIFA tournament which allows all of us to acknowledge that we can all get along in something even if we don't talk to each other. Another good thing about BridgePoint is that if we need help with anything or have any questions about something, we can ask multiple staff members from here because they want us to graduate or help us reach our goals and to trust them as friends. In conclusion, my goal is to go back to Newark Memorial and play football my senior year. I plan to accomplish this goal by taking advantage of the BridgePoint help and doing as much extra credit I can to reach my goal. BridgePoint has allowed me once again to enjoy going to school daily because of its positive atmosphere.

[1697] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Moving on to 8.1, superintendent's report.

[1702] SPEAKER_20: Thank you, President Nguyen. At this time, I'd like to welcome Ms. Jean Ficklin, the Afro-American Cultural and Historical Society Incorporated in the Tri-City area. So Jean, if you would introduce yourself and everyone else that's with you, and we want to share something with you today.

[1724] SPEAKER_38: Thank you, and good evening. Thanks for the honor. I have with me our president, Rita Green, who's a graduate of Memorial High School. Our secretary, Marian Langford. She's with Adult Education here in Newark. Our co-chair of our Black History Month observance, the 43rd one, Doris Rutland. Our scholarship chairman, Bonnie DuPlessis. Janice Morris, graduate of Memorial High School. 1977. Samuel Rutland, co-chair of our 43rd Black History Month observance. We've done our 40th Dr. Martin Luther King event. We have been awarding scholarships since 1976. We participate in Family Day at the park, the information fair during Newark days. We do presentations in schools and at churches, sharing our history and our culture.

[1815] SPEAKER_20: OK? Gene, I wanted to welcome you as part of our report, but also our board in the last board meeting had passed a resolution, 2036. And if I may read that to you, and then we're going to present you with the framed copy of the resolution after I read it to you. honoring the month of February, Black History Month, honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Whereas the month of February has been designated Black History Month by various official bodies and is celebrated as such in schools, businesses, and governmental agencies throughout the nation. And whereas February has become known as a time to reflect on the history, teachings, and achievements of African Americans, And whereas the Newark Unified School District recognizes and celebrates the contributions of African-American historical figures, leaders, teachers, parents, students, and community activists. And whereas Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also dreamed of an outstanding education for all children. And whereas Dr. King believed education transmitted the accumulated knowledge of the human race as well as the accumulated experience of social living. And whereas acknowledging the month of February as Black History Month empowers individuals, strengthens communities, bridges barriers, creates solutions to social problems, and moves us closer to Dr. King's vision of a beloved community. Whereas corresponding school activities held during this month encourage students to continue to strive for the best education as a means to fulfill their potential. whereas the Newark Unified School District envisions excellence and equity for all. Therefore, be it resolved, the Newark Unified School District Board of Education affirms its commitment by proclaiming the month of February as a time for teachers and students to conduct special studies of Dr. King's life and achievements and engage in service activities throughout the Newark Unified School District, past and adopted, at a meeting of the Newark Unified School District Governing Board held in Newark, California on the 17th day of January. Six ayes, zero nos. And we're going to present that to you.

[1949] SPEAKER_38: OK. In addition, I neglected to mention two of our supporters, Betty Williams and Ellen Jones. Hilda Ellen Jones.

[1974] SPEAKER_20: Why don't we get everybody up here to take a picture with us?

[1979] Nancy Thomas: Why don't we stand up behind here? Thank you. You guys want to stand? Yeah. Stand here. Congratulations. Thank you for being here.

[1988] SPEAKER_54: Thank you for coming. Congratulations.

[2006] SPEAKER_20: You guys back up all the way so that way we can see the board behind you.

[2011] SPEAKER_54: I wish I could say the same thing. Wave your hands. Here, there you go. OK, we're just going to mention this one here.

[2072] SPEAKER_38: Comment. The board is so beautiful. Different ages. Thank you. I began my career in 1964, and it was a different picture. It was beautiful then, but it was a different picture. May I make an announcement, please? In the name of Alpha Delta Kappa International Sorority for Women Educators, I have adopted at Kennedy School the voices of Kennedy. And I plan to adopt a school in my neighborhood. And I know it as Milani. It has a new name now. But in the name of Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority. Thank you.

[2130] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Jean. Mrs. Finklin, can you come back up, please? I can't call you Jean. I have to call you Mrs. Finklin. Thank you so much for sharing. Now, can you just share a little bit more about the time you spent in Newark as a teacher and how long you have been running the African American Cultural Society? How many years, if you don't mind?

[2163] SPEAKER_38: Yes. I'm a 53-year resident of Newark. And I began my teaching career next door at music school, September 1964. That's great. I retired in 1987.

[2182] Ray Rodriguez: No, I, you know, as a grandparent of two of three grandchildren that are African-American because of the dad. I really appreciate what your organization has meant to our community over the years and continuing to make us aware of the contributions of African-Americans over the years, whether it's Dr. Martin Luther King and so many others. Normally, you have some events planned for the month of February. Can you share those with us if you don't mind?

[2225] SPEAKER_38: Yes. The event is coming up Saturday, February 11th at the Newark Community Center. It's the 43rd one. We began our organization in 1974. And as I mentioned, we've been awarding scholarships since 1976. And on the note of my teaching career, all you need is a heart and a passion for sharing with the children to make them world-class learners. I was a lone teacher for nine years before another African-American teacher was hired. And perhaps in my career, the 23 years, I might have had 10 of our children, my children, coming through the system. But I taught all the children. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

[2282] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Jean.

[2289] SPEAKER_20: Um, next item is, uh, just an update with the city MOU. Um, and I know Terrence is here as well. Um, Terrence Grindell want to just welcome you in the audience. Um, we have, uh, had a conversation with the city council and, uh, with the, I forget the name of the committee that we share. Liaison. No, City Liaison Committee. And there has been a couple of MOUs between the city and Newark Unified. One of them was sharing space of some of the property at McGregor. And the other was just a broad MOU to share space and share all of our space with the city for meetings and so forth. But those expired in 1987. So now we're looking at refreshing those. And I know that the city manager and I are going to begin drafting that. So I just want to provide that update. And we'll probably have another MOU to go forward with how we share space and how we work together. And there'll be other things on the agenda tonight that we'll be discussing, but I just wanted to give the board an update on where we are with MOUs. We hope to have something back in front of the board probably as early as March to have an MOU for you to consider with continuing this partnership with the city and sharing space and figuring out what we want to do with how we handle McGregor property. Terrence, did you want to add anything to this conversation? It's really just a board. That's OK.

[2382] SPEAKER_53: Is that the only property that we have a joint MOU with?

[2385] SPEAKER_20: Those are the only two items that we're aware of that there's been a joint MOU about. Just McGregor. That's in writing. McGregor and there was a former one that was written to share space in general. The upcoming one. I'm not sure what the date was on that. There were two separate MOUs, my understanding.

[2401] Terrence Grindall: Superintendent Sanchez, I actually will add something. In addition, there was the agreement for joint use of the gym at the high school. OK.

[2410] SPEAKER_20: OK. Thank you. So we're going to try to roll them all into one agreement and go forward. And we have to schedule some time to draft that. But we should have something for you very soon. The Winter Governance Team Workshop, I think we've got that resolved. I believe we've identified a date. March 6th. Which is March 6th from 9 to 1 p.m. Location to be determined. And that'll be kind of a board retreat, the Winter Governance Workshop, but it is a public meeting. And we do have agreement on that date today for the record. And I do want to remind everyone there is a League of Volunteers and Elegant Affair. this Friday, February 10th. And I think traditionally, we do contribute to build a basket and contribute. I'm happy to contribute to that. I just need a few board members to help me assemble it. And I think Patty and I can help support that. But that's a very important event in Newark. And in the attachment, you'll see the invitation from Love on the elegant affair. Any questions about those items or just brief updates for me?

[2486] SPEAKER_20: OK. That concludes my report at this time, President Nguyen.

[2489] SPEAKER_53: OK. Thank you. Before we get to 9.1, is Mr. Simon in the room? Because the request for speaker is not working. OK. So moving on to 9.1. which is the three year suspension and expulsion trends report. Mr. Witten.

[2540] SPEAKER_21: We need to go back.

[2541] Nancy Thomas: Done already.

[2554] SPEAKER_21: Good evening, President Ntuk, board members, superintendent, executive cabinet. I'm Bill Witten. I'm your coordinator of student services. I was asked to do a brief, emphasis on brief, presentation on Newark Unified suspensions and expulsions, a three-year trend, very brief analysis. I have about seven slides. I figure it'd take about 10 minutes and about five minutes of question and answer, or as long as you like. As we get started, let me point out the laser pointer doesn't work on these screens. The overview of Enrollment by Ethnicity. First, I wanted to present to you the information that's available in the LCAP reports and also was uploaded through the, to the DataQuest website. So we're using the same information. You've seen this in my earlier presentations this year. This is the same information, so we can refer back to it. We've looked at the ethnicity of particular groups. These are the groups that the district has identified as the important groups of the district that we focus in on the LCAP. Reality, as you know, there's about 14 different identifying groups. But in order to be succinct and on the point, we looked for this report only at the groups identified in the LCAP. Down at the bottom of the screen, is a chart comparing the enrollment data for these groups for the three prior years. So this is the enrollment of the district. For instance, the first group of three are the Hispanic enrollments. The blue is from now four years ago, the first year that we looked at. Yellow is from three years ago, the 14-15 school year. And what appears on the screen is green. appears the last full year of information. This does not include the current year because it would only be a partial year. Today's day 99 out of 180 school days. We use the three full complete years. The data is reported to the state of California. So looking at suspensions by ethnicity, I have a slide for each of the significant groups we have in the LCAP. And again, down at the bottom of the screen, we have the demographic breakdown and the suspensions of all three groups on the right-hand side, the three years. And I keep that coming up on each slide so you don't have to flip back to that original slide. The bars indicate the suspensions by ethnicity for the students whose parents identify them as being Hispanic. And the individual line indicates the number of suspensions. So you can see the enrollment has increased for Hispanic students over those three years. Likewise, the line at the top indicates an increasing number of suspensions. And the line is above significantly, I would say, the height of those individual columns. Go on. I can come back later to any of the slides. The same information presented for students identified as African-American Black for the same three-year period So lower percentage of African, lower number, I should say, of African-American students in percentage in the district. And the number of suspensions has gone down for those groups significantly from the 14-15 to the 15-16 school year. The next slide, it's comparison with the Percentage of white students enrollment by number and the percentage for the same three-year period. Here you can see the percentage of white students over those three-year period has remained relatively static. The percentage of suspensions of white students is lower than their representation in the percentage of enrollment. It went down in 14-15 and came back up above in the 15, 16, the last year, we have complete data. The last area that we're looking at in, say, LCAP are students by ethnicity or students who identify with two or more races. There's a very small number of students. That means low percentage. And also, the percentage of their representation out of the total number of suspensions is also low. But it's much more comparable to the percentage of the population. This slide's titled School Suspension by Federal Offense Category. I need to explain that a little bit. The information on all the different types of suspensions is presented in the state data quest by these federal offense categories. And there's quite a number of those categories. We focused in on the highest number of types of offenses. This slide shows only the in-school offenses. Excuse me, the offenses, it should say, that resulted in in-school suspension or in-school discipline. The next slide shows out of school. This is for the entire population of the school district. As I get older, my eyes also get older. The first category there with the extremely long bars is the other reasons for suspension. And that comes down to the 48,900K violation in most instances, which to a certain degree is a catch-all. It's defiance, disruption, or disobedience of a school official. It's the most common. My secretary was helping to put together these slides. She said, Bill, we need to change the scale. But keeping the scale like this on the next slides that come up, for the out-of-school offenses, using the same scale across the x-axis at the bottom. These are not out-of-school offenses. These are offenses that resulted in out-of-school suspension of students. Automatically, you see more students, when they're suspended, go home for a day, miss a day or more of instruction. These are unduplicated student counts.

[2974] SPEAKER_20: So Bill, the in-school offenses, would that be like a study hall or something? Study hall, in-school suspension.

[2981] SPEAKER_21: They keep them home. They keep them at school. Keep them at school, doing schoolwork. As long as it's in a room, supervised by a teacher, certificated personnel and the students doing schoolwork for them, not just busy work, not packet.

[2998] SPEAKER_20: Well, why do you think, going back to the in-school offenses, there's a significant drop from 2013-14 in the blue at the top of that. What would you attribute that to? Was there something changed in the reporting? Or what happened where that's a significant drop from that to the following year?

[3017] SPEAKER_21: I haven't studied that specifically. It's about the time the state of California mandated interventions for students prior to moving to suspension, with the exception of physically violent acts or robbery extortion. Fighting physical violence, possession or being under the influence of a controlled substance, sale of a controlled substance. Those do not require that the school intervene. All other types of suspensions, especially the K violations, which in this falls into that catch-all category, the law requires that school administrators, teachers, all staff, teach appropriate behavior and don't move first to out-of-school suspension.

[3062] SPEAKER_20: All right.

[3063] SPEAKER_17: OK. Thank you. Question. This is the total population in the district. Yes. It's not just secondary. Correct. So is there a breakdown in terms of K through 6 versus 7 through 12?

[3076] SPEAKER_21: We can do that. But for the time available tonight and to give you the overview, I thought it would be better not to break it down into too many different ways. It's a very busy slide as it is. But we can do that.

[3088] SPEAKER_17: They changed at the high school how they handled in-school suspensions about that time. Yes. So that may, because that's a decision that the school makes. Yes. So they go home and it's taken.

[3101] SPEAKER_21: So that's a change in the policy more so than behavior? Yes, it's a change in protocol and practice. The policy, your policy, remains constant in points. But the not out-of-school offenses, but offenses that resulted in out-of-school suspension, you can see it's quite higher. These are the most common of these reasons that have come up over the years, over the whole school district. There's very few in-school suspensions at the elementary level. In-school suspensions are almost exclusively in this district at the high school. There's no consistent in-school suspension program at the junior high school. Individual elementary principals oftentimes have the student and will supervise a student in their office instead of doing an out-of-school suspension. But it's much more common at the Newark Memorial High School. These are expulsion trends by the LCAP significant groups. And here we have them broken down by all English language learners, special ed students, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. And because the numbers of expulsions are very, very low, we had to be very careful about how we present these because we can't make their individual student information identifiable to the board or members of the public that also are participating in this presentation. The numbers, these are numbers of expulsions of Newark students who, committed an incident while under the jurisdiction of the school and went all the way through the process and were expelled by the school board. These numbers do not include students who were attending a different school district, say on an inter-district permit, committed an incident and were expelled by the board in the other district and had their permit to attend that other district revoked. And they came back to us. You've seen a number of those placement documents that I bring to you occasionally for a student in such circumstances. And you've reviewed them if they're still in our district at the time we do the end of semester review, which you did at the last board meeting in January. So these are the students who went all the way through the process. And you can see in the 2013-14, all students, there were seven expulsions in this district and went all the way through the process. That year, there were over 24 recommendations for expulsion, but we were able to resolve the issue with some other outcome other than expulsion. Or there was some problem with moving forward with an expulsion. Or in certain cases, there was a problem with moving forward, and they were on an inter-district permit, and they left the district. Those are the ones that went all the way through. You can see the numbers went down. significantly over this period of time. When I started here in January of 2008, that year I think I numbered about 40, 50 cases and brought to the board that first year about 24 cases. The number of expulsions in the district is drastically down. from the past. And that's a credit to your teachers and your administrators who are working to educate students about the rules and providing better interventions, especially those behavioral and psychological or counseling resources that we've been able to get to the classes and to the teachers and the schools, excuse me, at all the different schools of the site. Here we are. and the three-year expulsion trend for the LCAP's significant ethnic groups that we've been looking at in the other areas, Hispanic, African-American, white, and two or more races. So the numbers are quite low. In some of the slides when I was doing a similar presentation, but not exactly the same for the LCAP, in this room earlier this year on January 11th, Some of the teachers and staff noted that the numbers don't always add up. That's because they're unduplicated. A student could be in special ed as well as being in special ed and also socioeconomically disadvantaged. But because it's an unduplicated count, the actual numbers don't always add up. But these are the actual correct numbers. We verified them. forward and backwards for the three-year trend. These are the reasons by federal offense category for expulsions over the three-year period. The total number of expulsions, the types of suspensions that were involved, violent incidents that involved bodily injury, could be a fight. It could involve an object, such as a knife something else, those involving injury and without injury, those involving some sort of drug, such as possession of a controlled substance, and those where weapons were, possession of weapons, one type or another. The actual numbers across the bottom from DataQuest. That's the presentation.

[3443] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. I just have a brief question then we'll go to Ms. Thomas or go ahead. Why don't you go first?

[3448] Nancy Thomas: Okay. Well, could you bring back the suspensions by ethnicity, the Hispanic first? Okay. I think it's important to look at the scale here because what you see is that you have about 53% of the population in 15-16 is Hispanic and 60% of suspensions were Hispanic. That's a range of only 7, 7 percentage point difference. Now, if you go to the black, that's a lot more concerning because, you know, in the one before, it looked like it was twice as many because of the scale. But if you look at the black, black students come from about 5% of the population and 16%, three times as many for the suspension. So I think that that's something that we should look at, that why is it our black population has three times more suspensions than our other populations?

[3516] SPEAKER_21: Yes, exactly. The change in the scale was not meant to make it harder to read or harder to understand. We're just trying to show the comparison. But that's a very good point. I meet regularly. approximately every other month with the assistant principals of the secondary sites. Early in the morning, I bring coffee and donuts, and then they show up, and we talk about these types of data and what it means, and where we are doing well, and where we might need to start looking at things a little bit differently. Also, it's an opportunity for the assistant principals to get trained in the EEE teacher evaluation process.

[3560] Nancy Thomas: And I assume that the reason the other ethnicities don't show up is that you don't have enough to... It's a very small number in some of those categories.

[3568] SPEAKER_21: And you can't report it? But for simplicity, we looked at the same groups as the LCAP. The LCAP significant groups that are identified there. That was the main reason to include just these.

[3580] Nancy Thomas: Oh, it's not because there's fewer than 10 or something, then you can't report it?

[3583] SPEAKER_53: There was no cut-off line that we identified. Let me make that correction. So two items. the 16% to 5%, you know, three times the population, that's the national average for African-American suspensions versus the population count. So we're trending with the overall national average. In regards to the rest of your report, if you can send us a Friday update, because you're missing the Asian subgroup, which is 21% of our district's enrollment. And that's a significant subgroup that's not listed on, in this report.

[3613] SPEAKER_21: Okay. Very happy to. Thank you. Bring that up. Yeah. Send it to you as a Friday update.

[3622] Ray Rodriguez: Mr. Whitten, thank you for the report. I know when you're talking about suspensions and expulsions, it's very delicate, and especially because of the privacy issue. And I think that over the last, since you've been here, and especially putting this together, you've done an excellent job. You were talking about different different actions that students do in order to qualify them for either an expulsion or a suspension. What are the ones that are basically, you know, that... A choice? They're automatic, right, basically, for expulsion?

[3664] SPEAKER_21: We have what's called the big five. Possession of a gun, a handgun. selling drugs at school, possession of an explosive device at school. Those are very, very rare in this district. And there's two others that I don't remember off the top of my head. Those are the big five, where the school administrator, by law, has no choice and must recommend expulsion. Also, by law, the board has no choice in California. And if it's found that the student commits any one of those big five acts, The board has no choice and must expel. Those are the ones where, because they're serious and they represent a clear and present danger, is not a good term, to the faculty and staff of the school. Those are the cases where the board can choose to expel for one calendar year, longer than normal. Those are the big five. There's the little five, where the principal Kent is expected to recommend expulsion but it depends on whether or not there's secondary findings in order to support whether or not they should go forward with an expulsion. And the board has discretion as to whether to expel or not and for how long.

[3744] Ray Rodriguez: Now these figures also include summer school, don't they? Yes. Or is that a separate report?

[3750] SPEAKER_21: Okay, good question. I believe they do include summer school. Very few students are suspended, and I'm not aware of any that are truly expelled from summer school. The regular school rules apply during summer school. Students who commit acts during summer school, such as being under the influence of a controlled substance, if it's repeated, perhaps they would come up for expulsion.

[3774] Ray Rodriguez: The only thing I remember is a few years ago where during the 4th of July, during that week where a student brought something that caused the expulsion.

[3787] SPEAKER_21: There were, it's very unusual. We did have, I can't go into details, but we have had one or two explosive type devices.

[3796] Ray Rodriguez: Now I have one last question. When you have two students and they're fighting, do you try to give them the same days or how do you work that so one student doesn't feel that or the parents that they're being picked on more than the other one when it's like an altercation or something?

[3814] SPEAKER_21: Very good question and it does come up often. And if the students are equal, equally involved, equally responsible and they have also equal or relatively equal disciplinary histories then yes, that was what would be expected. We try not to suspend them out of school if we can. If there has to be a suspension, the administrator by law must look at each individual infraction by itself with the merits of that student and the interventions that have gone on in the past. If you have one student who has been bullying a number of students a number of times and has been given correction and has been suspended prior for bullying, and he gets in a fight with another student who has never been suspended, They're not in the same situation. So it is possible for students who are in a mutual combat to receive different disciplinary outcomes. But it's not always easy to explain that. Commonly, they get the same.

[3875] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Thank you. So members, if you'd like to speak, you have to probably raise your hand for this time, because it's still not working, the request to speak.

[3883] SPEAKER_17: I was curious as to what the last slide that you have, I suppose she's right. Is there a reason why the 2015-16 is not listed on the chart? The reason for the green is not there. On the lower, I see the green on the top total.

[3922] SPEAKER_21: I apologize, that's an error. There were expulsions and some of them did fit into those categories, but that's an oversight, that's a mistake.

[3934] SPEAKER_17: The chart down at the bottom of the page? I wonder in terms of this being, because the numbers are so small, as to whether they really indicate problems. I think suspensions is a greater number. And so there are definitely issues that we can look at in terms of how things are handled, in terms of the climate of the schools. But with the expulsions, it's down to very little liquids. One or two students can make a difference in terms of presenting.

[3970] SPEAKER_21: And I think that's a fair and accurate conclusion. I think we need to look at the suspensions for students, apparent inequities. and make sure we're looking at all the data we need to look at. This is not a comprehensive presentation of all the different causes, all the different ethnicities. This is an overview of selected groups that are significant in the LCAP as we move forward for planning. We look at these groups in LCAP and talk about what do we need to do differently as we move forward? What are we doing successfully? And where are there gaps as we move forward with these groups? President Wynne pointed out, we need to make sure we're including the significant groups.

[4016] SPEAKER_53: Great. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bill. Board, if you can restart your requested speaker screen. Very good. Thank you very much. Next, we have 10.1, which we do not have an item for, but it is a placeholder. We move on to 11.1, which is public comment on non-agenda items. We have three speakers. The first of which is Nadja Adolf or Adolf Nadja. Excuse me.

[4084] SPEAKER_26: Hello. My name is pronounced Nadja. It's unfortunately spelled the German way. Let's see. What I'm here to talk about is very brief. I would like to see the school district see about working with like the 4-H groups to provide activities that are very low cost and wouldn't go on the school's budget. In this area, we have 4-H and everything from sewing and gardening and cooking to raising poultry. The 4-H has barns where the students can even keep goats and sheep. And I'm only recommending this because I think we need some activities to keep the kids busy. And what I've found is I spend time out in Livermore and in the agricultural towns. In fact, I just got back from the Dominant Club of America National Show, which means all the top breeders in the country were there. as part of the Pacific Poultry Breeders Association. And you see kids there and you see multiple generations, people who started in 4H back in the 50s and 60s and their grandkids are participating. And you see a lot of teenagers in places like Livermore and Tracy and Stockton who do not have time to get in trouble. And in fact, they can earn scholarships through doing these things. And it gives them some connection with what actually goes on into creating food, clothing. And it gives them also a feeling of purpose and meaningfulness which just does not happen with just being given an allowance. And I would also say that I think it has been a great tragedy that our school district has moved so far away from many practical trades and practical realities. I would like to see us bring in things like auto shop as well because not everyone is going to go to a university and a lot of people just frankly a lot of kids are not interested. And I know some very successful people who never darkened the door of a university.

[4237] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. So I have two requested response, but we can't respond to non-agenda items. So I'm going to clear that out. The only response we can give is to direct the superintendent to look into it, if that's the case. Our next speaker is Marek Yarbrough. Mr. Yarbrough?

[4261] SPEAKER_20: System working here. It's working. Marek Yarbrough?

[4266] SPEAKER_07: I know you guys have a couple of agenda items today that I'll speak towards briefly and covers a bunch of areas. But my biggest push right now is that we've got school growth. We've got a city of 41,000 people. We have a city manager here who can speak well to how they came up with it. They put in your plan that you also posted to your website. We're looking at 15,000 more people over the next 20 years. We already know based on the developments that we've got at least somewhere between 3,500 and 6,500 people already in the city right now that are new. And so we know there's got to be a hit on our schools. There's got to be some growth going on in our schools. And the city says they counted on the school for numbers. The school, you guys even, I think in December, discussed this and said, hey, we really got to find it. We've got to get a good number grasp of what our growth is going to look like. And if the numbers come through from what the city is doing, and if we start spending money now on some of these other big capital projects, and all of a sudden we've got to find money to build schools, we're going to have to go back to the taxpayer, who's me, and I'm going to be like, hey, we brought this up, and let's think about this a little bit up front and try and get some answers as to what our real speculated growth is going to be. Or real or speculated, either way, whichever works out best for us. I'm asking for us to get some numbers and get them back out to the public so we can see there's been due diligence on that aspect. Faculty housing. There's more paperwork coming around from developers. It gets circulated in your stuff that talks about spending city or school board money on faculty housing. And I'm all in favor of whatever it takes for us to retain the best teachers. School board member Preciado brought us out and said, hey, we had We had four people talk to us last week. And none of them said that their favorite teachers left because they were bought out of the neighborhood. They were gone because there was difficulties between management and them. Maybe that's the answer to some of them. Maybe the answer to some of the people leaving is faculty housing. But I'm asking again, can I get some information so that I can feel confident that the due diligence, as I as a taxpayer who have to fund either building houses for those people in this town or not building houses for those people in this town, can have confidence that we're seeing this data is being taken care of. So please, some follow-up documentation on, you know, why do we really need faculty housing and are we going to continue to let developers drive the issue for us? And I'm throwing this all out in light of last year's wonderful, or last month's wonderful school board meeting where we had The Alameda County reports that said that one in ten of our graduates is struggling to get, you know, they're qualified to go into the university. Three in ten of them are qualified to go into the universities with transitional classes followed up by a budget report that looked like we've got three years of really belt tightening time coming at us. And so in light of all that, please, think of all of us and we'll think of you. Thank you.

[4455] SPEAKER_53: Thank you, sir. Ms. Christine Clinton.

[4469] SPEAKER_16: Hi, so I wanted to speak for a minute about the upcoming decision to sell off district-owned assets. How would this decision to sell off district-owned assets directly benefit the students that you were elected to serve? How would the students benefit from a new $8 million joint use space at the city hall? These are students who don't have access in some of their schools to their libraries full time. or at will usage of computers, or even basic school supplies. Our school at Lincoln is 50 years old, and those buildings, if they're good enough to house our students day in and day out, something like that should be good enough for the school board. You guys are tasked with putting the students first and yet you want a new meeting space. Why in such a cash-strapped district is this deemed necessary? Shouldn't the passage of GG fund City Hall in its entirety? Is there no adequate space within the district-owned buildings for meetings? And may I remind you that you were all elected to serve your students and put their needs first before your own. Thank you.

[4535] SPEAKER_53: That concludes our public comment on non-agenda items. Moving on to 12.1, playground equipment. Old business. Superintendent?

[4548] SPEAKER_52: Yes. We are bringing forward, as the board recalls, we brought forward the proposal of removing some seriously damaged play structures immediately at a previous board meeting. And we said that we'd bring back to the board play structures to replace them and our maintenance and operations department made some contacts with the firm that is currently slated to install the new Birch Grove Primary School playground equipment and they actually had several models that were end of year clearance basically for lack of a better term, like you get at the end of a model year for cars. that he was able to negotiate some extremely competitive pricing on. However, we found out after this had gone to press that there was a miscommunication between Kennedy Elementary School and the maintenance department as to which of the two that they had seen was the one that they wanted. Unfortunately, the one that they wanted is now no longer available so we're actually pulling Kennedy from this item for tonight because the one that they want is the one that we wanna bring back to you but the dollar amount is such that we're going to have to, we'll be required to go to bid. So we're gonna group it with the rest of the ones that are slated for summer because of the bid requirements. So instead we're bringing forward the ones for music and gram at this time.

[4622] SPEAKER_53: And I'm assuming it fits within the budget allocation that we provided for the program.

[4626] SPEAKER_52: It does. It's actually quite a bit less than what we had anticipated for these two campuses because we're getting discounts of over 35% on them.

[4637] SPEAKER_53: Okay. Do we have a, a motion?

[4640] Nancy Thomas: I move to approve. Second.

[4643] SPEAKER_53: Yeah, second. Second. Please vote. I'm sorry, do that again, please.

[4667] Nancy Thomas: The student left, you have to block her out first?

[4674] SPEAKER_53: Let's try that one more time.

[4680] Ray Rodriguez: One more time, folks. I have a quick question to Mr. Richards. Kennedy, when are you bringing them back again? I'm sorry.

[4688] SPEAKER_52: Kennedy will be brought with the larger one that's going to be coming back because the dollar amount is such that it's going to kick us into bidding thresholds that we need to abide by. So what time frame are we looking at?

[4699] SPEAKER_53: Six-week bid process, right?

[4701] SPEAKER_52: Yeah, it's going to be several, it's going to be a couple of months and because we're going to be grouping it with a larger number of play structures for the other schools and we're going to have to go through a competitive process on that to get that are equivalent of the one that they've chosen. So we're specing that out with the other schools as well. Got it. Thank you.

[4716] Ray Rodriguez: Appreciate it. OK. Please vote.

[4727] SPEAKER_53: Five ayes. Thank you. On to new business, 13.1, audit report.

[4738] SPEAKER_52: Tonight we have with us Sarah Feeler from Christy White Associates, who's going to present the audit report.

[4747] SPEAKER_41: Good evening, members of the board. It's my pleasure to be here tonight to present the audit report for the year ended June 30, 2016. And if the board would like to follow along, if you have the copy in front of you, I'll be going towards the end of the report on page 83. This is the summary of auditor's results. This page displays the various opinions that we issue over the financial statements as well as compliance areas. To start with, in regards to financial statements, we issued an unmodified opinion. This is the most favorable opinion, a clean opinion that can be issued. There were no material weaknesses. However, there was one significant deficiency identified. And this finding was finding number 2016-1. It's the Associated Student Body. And we noted internal control weaknesses at two of the sites and improvements that can be made over cash receding, also checks requiring double signature, and timely bank reconciliations. And following these audit results, our recommendation was that the district provide training for staff. And a training occurred in March of last year. And I just wanted to point out, comparing the ASB finding from the prior year, there has been improvement at these school sites, which is great. And moving back to federal awards, we issued, again, an unmodified opinion. There were no material weaknesses nor any significant deficiencies identified. And we tested the Title I Part A program and the child nutrition cluster. And for state awards, we, again, issued an unmodified opinion. There were no material weaknesses. However, there was one significant deficiency identified. And this was noted on page 86 of the report. Finding 2016-2, and this is related to the school accountability report card, or also called the SARC. In our testing, we compare the facility inspections with what is actually presented in the school accountability report cards. And we noted that the district wasn't using a standard form where we could reconcile the various facility categories into what's actually being presented in the SARC. And what occurred, it appeared that there was some turnover and changes in position. in personnel. So we recommended that the district begin using a standard form that includes all of the categories that are presented in the SARC. And the district's new Director of Maintenance and Operations and Transportation will be using what's called the Facility Inspection Tool Form, or also called the FIT. And this includes all of the required categories that can easily be reconciled to the information presented in the SARC. And just to conclude, in the prior year, there were two audit findings. One was related to the student body. And this finding has been partially implemented, as I mentioned. I've seen improvements between the two years, which is great. And also, in the prior year, there was a finding for needing an actuarial study for OPEB. And this finding was implemented and corrected in the year of audit. And just to conclude, I would like to thank management and personnel that we work with during the audit for their cooperation and transparency during the audit process. And if the board has any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

[4961] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Ms.

[4962] Nancy Thomas: Thomas. The audit committee did meet and we had a discussion with you over the phone and that was very helpful. I'd like to commend staff for getting in what's called a... Unmodified. Yeah, modified. audit. I think we've done a really good job of, of managing all of our basic funds and financial reports. The one thing that did come out of our discussion at the audit committee level was that it would be important that principals have training in ASB so they can adequately monitor and supervise their office managers who are handling cash and everything for ASB. And Mr. Richards offered that perhaps he can get on the agenda at one of the principal's meetings to make that happen.

[5018] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. I believe we need a motion to accept the report. So moved. By member Rodriguez, second by Prociano. Please vote.

[5033] Ray Rodriguez: Can I ask you a quick question before we vote? Sure. It seems like every time we do this, you find basically like Member Thomas and a student. Is that something that happens with a lot of school districts?

[5049] SPEAKER_41: It is. I would say it's probably more rare to find a district that does not have an ASB finding. It's very common. Some of the reasons there's, you know, the students are very involved in the process and they do a really great job. There's also sometimes turnover in personnel that work in those processes. So the training that we, that actually I performed kind of lays out some of the roles and responsibilities of each of those individuals involved in ASB. I foresee that there will be even further improvements. But just to note, the findings that were noted were very minor and actually show that there are really good controls at the sites, always room for improvement in some ways. But I would say compared to other districts that I audit, although there is an ASB finding, the corrections that need to be made are fairly minor.

[5103] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. It's five ayes. Moving on to 13.2.

[5114] SPEAKER_52: This item is just the board adopting a resolution to include FTJ Fund Choice as one of the selections for our 457B plan. It was one of the original choices, but we didn't have any employees in it for a period of time. And so we fell off of their list, and we've now had an employee request it. So we're just asking to reactivate the account. But it requires a board motion on a resolution to do that. Do I have a motion to approve?

[5136] SPEAKER_53: OK. Moved by Crocker. Second?

[5140] Ray Rodriguez: I second.

[5140] SPEAKER_53: Second by Rodriguez. Please vote. Five ayes. 13.3. Do we have a motion to approve donations? Move to approve by Preciado. Any second? Second by Crocker. Please vote. Five ayes.

[5177] Nancy Thomas: We usually either have the superintendent or you read.

[5180] SPEAKER_53: Yeah. Once we approve it, right?

[5182] Nancy Thomas: Okay.

[5182] SPEAKER_53: Okay. So, got it right here. $350 to Music Elementary by PG&E through their Your Cause LLC. Nothing specified for use. A donation of $89.90 to Birch Grove, Birch Grove Intermediate from Box Tops for Education. and a donation of $175 to Whiteford Preschool from the California Retired Teachers Association for sensory items for autistic students. Thank you very much. Next, 13.4, purchase of Chrome cards.

[5227] SPEAKER_52: This item comes forward to bring in the second round of purchases related to the technology rollout If the board has additional questions, Mr. Simon is here and will be able to answer. So there's no presentation tonight then, right? I don't believe so. No, it's just approving the quotes. It's not an expansion beyond what the board has already approved. It's just the second round of rollout. And we used piggyback full contracts from Sacramento to be able to lock in the pricing.

[5252] SPEAKER_53: We do have a speaker, Ms. Cindy Parks.

[5265] Cindy Parks: Actually, the reason I put in the card was because I didn't see the list of sites mentioned in any of the supporting documents. I did get clarification from Larry prior to the meeting, so I'm, thank you for that. But I didn't see anything in here in your supporting documents that you all know what site.

[5284] SPEAKER_53: Got it. Thank you. Do we have a motion to approve?

[5288] SPEAKER_47: I'll move to approve.

[5289] SPEAKER_53: All right, Preciado. Second by Rodriguez. Please vote. It's five ayes. 13.5, 1718 LCAP Parent Advisory Committee Proposal.

[5306] SPEAKER_39: Yes, this evening I come forward to present a proposal to engage more of our parents in the LCAP process. Each school site will have two parents or parent guardians that will be representing the school as part of the parent advisory committee with the provision that at least one of the parent representatives is the parent of an English learner or a socioeconomically disadvantaged student. Interested parents or guardians reach out to the principal. The principal's also reaching out. Three committee dates already scheduled which would be February 21st 6 30 p.m. To excuse me 6 30 to 8 p.m March 14th and April 11th with child care and translation services provided to support participation and Principals are in the middle of recruiting parents and I'm hoping to have the full roster with your approval this evening to send as an update to the board as soon as it's all completed. I think what's important about this is that we have parent voice and parents are engaged in the process as outlined by the LCAP and I look forward to being able to move forward with this and then bring that to the board.

[5374] SPEAKER_53: So the two parents per site, is that a hard number or what does that look like?

[5381] SPEAKER_39: Well, what we were looking for is as much representation as we could. And when looking back as to what had happened in the past, although there was one parent rep, it was very difficult to even get the one parent rep to come in. So we thought, too, it's not a hard number, but that's what we're shooting for. It's an open meeting, so we will also be posting agendas and having minutes and all of that posted. We're shooting for two reps for each school, though, at this point.

[5411] SPEAKER_53: I'm just thinking on the line of as, as far as if there were more parents who were interested in joining the committee and they represent Memorial High School, which has close to 2,000 students, that they should be able to have more representatives than an elementary school. It's just a ratio, right?

[5426] SPEAKER_39: I'm, I'm willing to augment that if and we can, we can definitely work with that. Okay.

[5431] SPEAKER_53: Member Thomas.

[5432] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, I was just wondering about the, the people that were on the committee last year. Are they invited? back or how are we going?

[5440] SPEAKER_39: Yes. And so we did reach out to the parents that were that were part of the process. A couple of them have moved away. Just they've moved away. And actually two of them are again one of the volunteers that we're tapping that come come back on board. So we already have two of the same parents coming back. There are different school sites though. Interestingly enough. But yes we're going to ensure that the folks who participated last year are also invited to take place to take part in this.

[5468] Nancy Thomas: Have, have you given any thought to continuity such that there, there would be like a, a minimum of a two year term and, and so people, you'd, you'd get turnover and yet you would get fresh voices on, on the, the committee. I know some districts have bylaws that kind of spell that out and how, who would, who would run the meeting. I would like to suggest that, that staff bring to us bylaws that we can approve that talk about how the committee's going to operate now and into the future? Would you, would you be open to that?

[5509] SPEAKER_39: I think we can't. I have not recently seen where this committee actually has a year of service or two years of service. It is generally just parents. And because we have parents who move in and out of the district, we could certainly, I think, look at posting agendas, having minutes, and making it an open meeting for anyone to come to participate in. I'm not quite sure how that would work with bylaws, but I'm willing to research it. I know that we do have the, unfortunately, the urgency to get the word out to start on February 21st just because we want to be able to bring back updates.

[5551] Nancy Thomas: Right. I don't think it needs to be held up for that, but I would like to suggest that the committee look at that and have a way that it operates. Okay.

[5561] SPEAKER_53: But I think once you formalize, like, a two-year term, you're getting to school site council mandates, which require then an election of some sort by the stakeholder community.

[5570] SPEAKER_39: Yes. At this point, these aren't elected representatives.

[5574] Nancy Thomas: Although I was just thinking of something like pulling numbers out, you know, a lottery of which ones have one year and which ones. It doesn't, it's just brainstorming a little bit. Okay. To make sure there's continuity from year to year.

[5591] SPEAKER_47: So thank you for proposing this in terms of being more inclusive. I think that's a good thing. One of the things that I just had a question because maybe this will be to the board. My understanding is that this is a formal Brown Act and we already mapped out the committee makeup because if you changed it to, for example, the memorial had four votes or five votes, you have to have the bylaws laid out or otherwise you can't, you don't know what number you need in order to pass something. I remember seeing this bylaws and committee makeup, so I don't know if we have to formally edit that because we also, I remember we had to appoint the committee members. So I guess, I don't know if we can figure out a way to be like, we move forward with this, kind of general idea, but we can't actually approve, like, the committee makeup until we see how the decision-making process will be, because otherwise then we can't make a decision, like, or they won't be able to make a decision, and then knowing who's taking the lead on each.

[5659] SPEAKER_53: So I think the approval is seeking us to approve the recruiting process for the outreach process itself.

[5667] SPEAKER_47: Okay, because it says parent advisory committee proposal. So I wanted to make sure, and then, okay, so it is the recruitment, but that we don't need to approve recruitment. We'd have to approve the actual. The actual group.

[5680] Nancy Thomas: We have to approve the actual members and.

[5684] SPEAKER_47: The makeup of the committee.

[5685] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, it's a board appointed committee, so we have to approve the members like we did last year.

[5692] SPEAKER_47: So I guess. trying to figure out how to move forward with the general idea. But we can't, or my thoughts is that I can feel comfortable moving forward without seeing the actual makeup, because it is a formal Brown Act committee that we have to appoint, right?

[5708] Nancy Thomas: All right. The number of parents has to be a majority. So certainly, I think you will get a majority of parents here. But that's the only rule, is that it has to be a majority of parents. So if you have community members, staff members, they can be on the committee, but it has to be a majority of parents.

[5729] SPEAKER_39: Yes, and in looking at last year's committee, unfortunately, I think there was the intent to have the majority of parents, but because of the way the numbers were done, my understanding is that we had very few parents that took part because of different reasons. And I think what we're looking for is to actually have a committee that's composed only of parents. And so it will always be a majority. What I could do is if you're able to approve the makeup or the composition, but not necessarily the names, we can send you the names. I'm almost confident that we can have the names by Friday because we've already kind of started to recruit who is interested who would like to do this and because we already have the meeting dates already set in stone in the sense of parents need to know what the days are so that they can start to make plans for it so I'm not sure if that would if that would fit the need or fit your request. Member Crocker.

[5792] SPEAKER_17: I'm thinking of this committee in terms of Excuse me. I'm thinking of this committee in terms of being an advisory committee to the principals and to the people that are writing the LCAP. Is that correct? Their function is to have input, not necessarily to do the actual writing. Correct. So there is a flow in terms of who would be there. In other words, if you have a school and you have two people from the school, whether or not those two people go to all four meetings may not be as important as there be input for all four meetings from that school. From my perspective, I don't know that we need to have names of the committee. Rather, the fact the process was done, the people that choose to give input have a chance to do so. And since it's an open meeting, there may be more from the high school. And I don't know what the difference is between someone who comes to the meeting versus someone who is a committee member in terms of what their input is and what their power is. So from my perspective, it's a way of finding out from the community, from the parent community of a particular school, what is important to them. And I don't know that we have to have a longevity in terms of someone being on the committee for a long period of time.

[5871] SPEAKER_47: Actually, I was just going to ask, is this the formal committee that's required when you develop the LCAP plan?

[5885] SPEAKER_39: Yes, so what the guidelines say is that most districts already have an existing parent committee. If you don't have one, some districts will just pick their DLAC, for example, as one. But I think what was important, what I heard was that we had some representation from every school site. Within that representation, the majority being parents, which in this case will be all parents, that we do have the groups of students such as the parents of English learners, parents of socially disadvantaged students.

[5916] SPEAKER_53: What I'm... So basically what we're approving tonight is the general composition of this committee and I think the fact that it's going to 100% parent is great. Mr. Rodriguez and then

[5932] Ray Rodriguez: I'd like to move on this, so I'd, I'd like to make a motion that we accept staff recommendation on item 13.5. One second.

[5941] SPEAKER_53: Okay, and Member Thomas.

[5943] Nancy Thomas: We need to, we need to continue discussion, I believe, before we vote. That's fine. This is, I believe, a board appointed committee, and I don't know how you can appoint a committee unless you bring forward the, the members of the committee for the board to appoint. Yes, sir?

[5961] SPEAKER_20: My button's not working. A couple of things that I want to remind the board in this discussion. The prior approach in creating this, making this a Brown Act committee, I know the intent behind that was very good. However, the turnout wasn't what we'd hoped. So I think what we want tonight is a little different approach to expand participation in this. Now, with that said, in the current political environment, I do have a little concern about publishing names that fit the profile of the demographics. And I think about, you know, there's not a requirement for this to be a Brown Act committee.

[6001] Nancy Thomas: That's wrong.

[6002] SPEAKER_20: Or maybe is it?

[6003] Nancy Thomas: There is an absolute requirement that this be a Brown Act committee.

[6009] SPEAKER_20: Well, we need some clarification on that at minimum.

[6011] SPEAKER_53: We did need clarification and we never received clarification.

[6014] SPEAKER_20: Right. Well, I can find out. I can find out. Yeah. My point is really more, um, the intent, I think as far as we want to get tonight is really like we talked about approval on expanding the participation. I think that's something we're all interested in. And then I need to get clarification from legal about, you know, uh, Does it have to be a Brown Act committee? Then I think we bring it back to the board for a decision point and further discussion about how we go forward. But I do know that the real spirit behind this, which I think is the right spirit, is to get more people involved, especially parents that have students in our district. How we do it, we need to wrestle with a little bit. But I wanted to say I do have, I know there's a little bit of worry from, I know a couple of my parents I've spoken to that are EL English language learner parents that might be a little fearful of having their name appear in a public document, although there's ways we can structure that so that they're not sure who's who, but I think just with just current political winds, there's a little bit of concern there. I don't think you can, I think we can find a solution, but I just wanted to If we can at least get as far as some indication to go forward with the approach to expand it and deepen it, I think that's something we can agree to. But going further than that, I think we need other clarification and more discussion.

[6100] SPEAKER_53: Yeah, so before we do that, maybe come back on March 7 with the final approval of the committee, whether names are omitted or not. But then hopefully by then we've gotten the final end all, be all. Does this require a Brown Act? Because that's a question we've asked for the past year and a half. I can get that for you. Thank you. So, Member Crocker.

[6119] SPEAKER_17: Looking at the proposal, I think that we are in agreement that you need to go ahead with what you're doing, because we don't want to stop for two weeks or a month saying that you can't go out and recruit people. We're looking at it a different way rather than taking the DELAC. We're looking at setting up a committee that's specific for that. And I think going ahead and doing it is what you need to be doing. And I don't know that you need our approval for doing that, but you've asked for it, so I'm ready to give approval for you to recruit.

[6150] SPEAKER_53: Okay. So we do have a motion and a second. No, we already have a motion. That's what I said. I'm saying that we do have a motion and a second on the floor. Is there any further discussion before I call the vote?

[6162] SPEAKER_47: Yes. So I think that if we're, we're not, the motion is not to move forward on recruitment, the motion is actually to approve the makeup of the committee. But the makeup of the committee isn't really, I mean, based off of this, I wouldn't be able to tell you maybe how many people it would include. I guess for me, I don't know, for me, I think of maybe if we step back in terms of I want to make sure we do this right if it's a formal Brown Act committee, because then we're just kind of spinning our wheels. I think we can say that we're OK with the approach without having a motion and moving forward on that. And the February 21st, so that there's no momentum lost, it could be an info session on getting in as part of the parent advisory committee. So you still have that meeting and say, this is what we expect. This is kind of the approach we would like to garner interest. It gives us time to then map out a formal Here is the make of the committee. This is how votes would happen if it has to be formal.

[6231] Nancy Thomas: I agree. I think we don't need to vote on anything. Just staff needs to move forward with that. And in the meantime, we have to get these questions, these important questions, I think, answered.

[6244] SPEAKER_53: So then I'll withdraw my motion. OK. Thank you. I'll withdraw. All right. Next, 13.6. which is the new business civic center shared space. I believe there's a presentation, correct?

[6261] SPEAKER_20: We do have... I think it's really a board discussion. I think that there is a... The information is in the packet for everyone to see. Okay.

[6269] SPEAKER_53: So let me get to the speakers first and then the board can discuss the rest of it.

[6273] SPEAKER_20: Okay.

[6273] SPEAKER_53: Absolutely. First speaker is Ms. Cindy Parks. Who's? Ms. Cindy Parks.

[6295] Cindy Parks: Hi. Who wouldn't want to live in a brand new house or work in a brand new building? What stops a homeowner or a business of having a brand new home or building? Money. This district has been deficit spending for many years. In June of 2016, when Mr. Richards presented the 2017-2018 budget, I'm sorry, 2016-2017 budget. He used $3.6 million from Fund 17 to balance the budget. On December 20th of 2016, you received the first interim report, which listed the district as only having a qualified certification. During the PowerPoint presentation that evening, Mr. Richards said, worst case scenario, if nothing changed in the next four months, three years from now, the district could have an $8.8 million deficit. What has been done to address that worst case scenario? For a district that is in such dire financial situations, should you be pursuing such an expensive endeavor? On attachment D. of the feasibility study, it states that the board and the city council would be able to share chambers and meeting and training facilities. Would the city be waiving the use of lighting, the use of the facility itself, heating, and custodial fees? It then goes on to say that Newark Unified would own their own space outright. Yet in the next bullet, it says that they would pay for their own space and parking. Can someone please explain to me what that means? Does it mean that you will own the building itself once it's built? I mean, that you'll own just the building, and that you'll build the structure, and then you'll be paying for the spaces, but you're not paying for the dirt that it's on? The August 2011 Facilities Assessment Master Plan identified over $150 million worth of projects for only 10 of the school sites, not 12. The $63 million bond that was passed, those projects actually paid for 12 sites and replaced items that weren't even a part of the plan. So their $150 million worth of projects in the master plan wasn't a true representation of the district's needs. How many of those identified projects are still outstanding? Is there a facilities report for the district office that hasn't been made available to the public? On your agenda, there's an option B. It doesn't specify an amount if you're just going to utilize those shared facilities. Is that going to be a part of the MOU that's to be discussed further on? Finally, for a district whose mantra was kids first when it came to selling the Russian property, prove you haven't forgotten that. Put the kids first when you cast your vote tonight. There's still 10 seconds left. Do I get answers to my questions as far as what it means?

[6476] SPEAKER_53: Maybe.

[6478] Cindy Parks: Thank you. I'm not going to leave. You know, I usually get up here and I say my speech and I turn around and walk away and I go, I didn't wait for the answers to my questions. So can you please explain what it means to own your own space outright, yet the next bullet says that you'll pay for, you're gonna be paying for your own space and parking.

[6496] SPEAKER_53: Hopefully we'll get that through the discourse of discussion. Thank you.

[6501] Cindy Parks: Okay. I hope so. Oh, and then about the option B. Sure.

[6506] SPEAKER_53: Miss Diane Bonbright.

[6513] SPEAKER_40: Hi, I'm Diane Bonbright, and I'm fundraising chairman for PALS at Lincoln School. We raise each year between $20,000 and $35,000 to assist our school. We pay for the bus for our field trips. We pay for school supplies, classroom supplies. We pay for our librarian to be full time. Now, we have had a lot of obstacles put in our way. We used to have the office that we could use to sell scripts. We no longer have that. We used to be able to have the office daily to have donations dropped off. We no longer have that. I have to sit out in the cold on the bench to collect these things from parents. I see our school district throwing more and more obstacles in our ways and you wanting a brand new facility for meeting space when we don't provide our students with the basics of field trips. A librarian full-time for a grade school? Come on, guys. Put our children first. I'm on my grandchildren. My children got better care from this district than my grandchildren are, and that's wrong. It's absolutely wrong. They should be getting less. As a PTA, when my children went to this school, we didn't earn but maybe $10,000 a year, and it was for the students to do extra things. Now we're supplying what you should be supplying, and you put more and more obstacles in our way. Each year, our budget has gone up with what we've had to do. Yes, our librarian needs to have a pay raise. Yes, but you know, when our librarian gets a pay raise, it's not the district that's paying for it, it's the parents because we pay half of her salary. Why? Why would you even consider going into good, new, brand new office space when you're, the students of the district are not getting the basic needs?

[6641] Guadalupe Lopez: That's it. Thank you.

[6642] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. So before we go to the next speaker, I think there's a disconnect as far as the position that the board has taken. I think this discussion for this meeting was to merely inform the city because originally, early in the year, there, as part of the bond measure to pass, They wanted to see if we were in or not at the time. It was, okay, we're interested, but let's see how the numbers fall out. We have not made any kind of commitment, nor desired, nor expressed any opinion of any sort. So, and we'll go through the speakers and we'll discuss. But if you read the agenda, it clearly does not state a position of this board as far as our desire to go into new.

[6686] SPEAKER_40: Correct. No, it's not.

[6693] SPEAKER_53: The city's requesting, the city requested. Sure. The city requested for us to inform them in a timely manner so that they can proceed with their plans. That's what tonight's discussion is. Miss Elizabeth Garrett.

[6717] SPEAKER_25: Hi, I'm a 30-year resident of Newark, and I also work for the school district. I'm a fifth grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary. And I wanted to give you my input about what you're thinking of doing, because I'm kind of appalled that you're considering giving yourself a brand new place to be, when at Lincoln School, in my fifth grade class, many of my children sit in broken desks. And many more of them sit in broken chairs. And we have had a year-long infestation of cockroaches that hasn't been addressed. Also, I've got three colleagues who are in portables that were supposed to be temporary and have been on site for over 20 years. The carpets in those portables are frayed. The roofs are leaking. And there are rats nesting in and under the room. We have no technology. You have these fabulous pieces of technology. I'm using an overhead projector. I have a hand-me-down projector that doesn't work very well, and I can't show my children text. To show them things, I don't have it. They have, finally, Chromebooks that were bought by the school, not by the district and by PALS. Our students deserve better. We've said before, you say that it's students first. But at my site, I'm not seeing that. PALS buys us everything. I go out and buy paper. I ask for donations. The district in my room, I don't think, I don't know what the district has provided in the room besides the desks that are probably 30 or 40 years old. So I'd urge you to consider putting the students in new and improved digs before you do that for yourself. Thank you.

[6842] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. And I apologize for mispronouncing the name ahead of time because I know you mentioned earlier Ms. Nadja Adolf? Nadja. Nadja, sorry.

[6856] SPEAKER_26: Whenever I hear someone discuss a vision in new work, I get very nervous because the vision seems to involve usually placing developers, providing elaborate and overly priced fancy office space for administrators and shafting, excuse my language, the local residents. Well, what is the Newark School District been known for? Let's see. We had students at Snow Elementary without real heat while a certain charity, basically a cut rate junior league was living rent free in a building that actually had heat. We have had discussions of building teacher housing. Isn't the matter of building a teacherage something to be in union negotiations? I am very amazed that this board which has not been eager to provide health insurance to teachers inexpensively is suddenly willing to provide them with cheaper housing. I want to know who's building it, who benefits. Next, we talk about, well, we're going to have a smaller family size. Yeah, we heard that in the 70s too and we did have a brief period and then we had another baby boom starting in the 90s. Now, the district is going to be facing expanding, you know, student capacity. And the only thing that's online to provide space right now is what appears to be an extremely polluted lot in a new development that will cost more to clean up than it would to build a new school. Now, my next question is we spent a lot of time hiring an overpriced chef because of an alleged epidemic of childhood obesity instead of a registered dietitian who actually has been taught real scientific nutrition. And all of a sudden this childhood obesity doesn't matter because we can go and sell a whole bunch of things like the field at the middle school or how about the play yard at McGregor. And we can put housing on this because apparently our childhood obesity epidemic miraculously ended in time for people to make a profit. out of getting school resources. And I am with the teachers here. I have friends who have withdrawn their children from this district and are now voting against every school budget. And you need to think about that because a lot of the people who are pulling out of the schools are not going to be supportive of you. And a lot of people are really disgusted when they take their kid to Schilling Elementary which seems to have looked like a jail inside and out. And it also seems to have something in this town to do with ethnicity and color because they sure have nice things over at the other school.

[7044] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Ms. Angela Ackrich.

[7053] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Good evening.

[7060] SPEAKER_14: Option A, do you mind if I? Sure. Option A, it seems like a bad one. I know you know this. First, you already know how I feel about the McGregor fields. So I'm going to talk about the junior high. 44 homes and then the accompanying traffic at a junior high is a safety problem. At least I feel it is. The kids cross that intersection to get to school. I live off Lafayette and I pass the kids on the way to my school shilling in the mornings. A school I wish I could transplant close to my home because I'm proud to go there. The city has plans for more housing on Cedar. Why not use the private parcels? The city has $5 million plus in affordable housing money. Collaborate on this subject just like you do on others. One thing I learned that Mr. Preciado, and I know I just botched his name, but what I learned from him in a work study that I streamed is that it's the city's job to provide housing to meet your needs. You provide a valuable service to this city and you deserve support for the benefits of students and the community, teamwork, right? Second, the district isn't in a strong financial position, as evidenced by the deficit spending, unfavorable revenue, and mounting pension debt. What is it, a couple hundred million? What is it? This isn't news to you. I went to PensionTracker.com and saw the cities throughout the nation. and their pension debts, all agencies, Alameda County Water District, you name it. I would not want to be the superintendent. You inherited quite a few challenges. Third, the agenda packet is missing vital information. Where is the independent inspection report that outlines the problems with this building or the McGregor building? I think you call it Bridgepoint, sorry. When you're entertaining selling off assets, it's only respectful to have that information in your packet. Because it does indicate that you're making a choice tonight to move forward or not. If you didn't mean that, it was probably an oversight. Just as students deserve good conditions, so too do staff and volunteer board members. I don't have a problem paying for improvements. But what are they? I'm new to these board meetings. I don't know what you know. If you don't have such a report, let me provide you a local contractor. I might have a contact that might be able to volunteer his time to make such an assessment. There are people in the community ready to help, inspire them. Let us help you find solutions, alternative solutions. Maybe there is an option C. Option B. Can we wrap it up please? Sure. Thank you. Why do you need shared board space? I mean, this is a great place. What's wrong with this room? That's not a rhetorical question. I honestly don't know what's wrong with it. I hear there's a leaky roof, but there's nothing in your agenda packet. I have no clue.

[7276] SPEAKER_53: Thank you, ma'am. So I'll speak for myself because I can only speak for myself and hopefully I'm speaking with the mindset of the board that we've always felt that it's students first. And I'll reiterate, we've never have advocated to spend money on the district office to preempt anything that we would spend for student facilities. What we want to do a year and a half ago was study all the available options that we had. And we're glad that the superintendent and Dutra Serra has brought back all the available options. It doesn't mean that we have committed to any decision. We just want to see what was out there for us to explore because I'm sure as a constituent group, you would like the board to make a decision based upon all available information that we have. And so what we have in front of us is all available information. With that being said, there are two options for us to look at, and I know the city needs a response from us. And I personally like option B, because it doesn't include any kind of expenditure for us. And again, the city would allow us to use the boardroom space at zero cost, and I don't see a harm in that. And then from there we can decide what to do with this space or move it or whatnot. But I think it's imperative for us to give a city an answer one way or the other.

[7369] SPEAKER_20: Yes. If I may provide some clarification for the audience as well. The way this agenda item came about was a result of the city liaison committee that we had with the city of Newark. I certainly have my own opinions, but I don't make this decision. It's a board decision. And I think that the discussion is intended to be as it is in a public way. But I can tell you that the meeting from the city, their desire is to have a decision by March 10th. And I'm going to maybe ask Terrence to step to the microphone and help clarify some of the questions that were asked earlier. So the intent of this was just that we are at a crossroads and the city, in order for them to maintain their timeline, they want to know are we in, are we willing to look at feasibility to be in on purchasing the property or are we only willing to share space with them, either of which I think they're okay with. But in the development of the agenda, we decided well let's put all the information, at least what we have in front of us now, But there's not a decision to go ahead and start selling property that's in this request, but it is giving an idea of what we would have to look at for feasibility. But Terrence, would you clarify first and then I think I wanted to share a few more things, but would you clarify kind of the crossroads that the city's in?

[7459] Terrence Grindall: Absolutely. Board members, superintendent, the city is in the process of selecting an architect for the Civic Center project. So At the time that we have an architect on board, we'll start expending money on design of that project. So we need to know how big it's going to be. We have to know whether or not to include space for your administrative offices or not. And as the superintendent indicated, the city is fine with whatever decision you wish to go with. But as we are going to start expending resources, we do need to know whether you want to be a part of the be have your administrative offices a part of the that project or not in any case. If you decide not to have your administrative offices be a part of it, it is the city council's direction that the council chambers would be available for school district use and also other facilities as well. If the sanitary district or the water district wanted to use it, the space would take the form of a town hall for the council chambers where it could be used by other entities. So that's the crossroads where we are. We can go either way, but we do need to know as we hire that architect what the size of the building is going to be, what the footprint will be, how much parking is needed, so we can design properly.

[7551] SPEAKER_20: Thank you, Terrence. I think I do want to, in defense of the board and certainly they can speak for themselves as well. Brian, would you tell us a little bit about how much the board has allocated to upgrading district office space in the last few years?

[7567] SPEAKER_52: We haven't had anything much. We did the central EMS system because we have to be able to control it in a central location where our computer servers are. But you'll recall when we brought the roofing HVAC, we were going to do the district office along with music and the board pulled the district office. So we have not addressed our roofing and HVAC issues in this building. We also have some dry override issues out front that we were holding off because we The board did not want me sinking additional facilities funds into this facility until the board makes a decision. So we have been holding off quite a bit on some deferred maintenance related to this building pending the board's decision on the process. But we've known that it was a question mark for some time. So we've been following the board's direction with regard to that. And then what we'll do to address the needs of this building will be a decision we bring back to the board after the board decides on this project.

[7618] SPEAKER_20: So I think that's my point. I think that the board is actually more aligned with the sentiment from the community than kind of it appears in this kind of decision point. But I do know that there is a strong desire from the city to have some strong final decision from us so we can move forward. And I would like that as well so that we can continue going in the direction that the board majority selects. But I just thought I wanted to provide some additional background about how this came about. Mr. Rodriguez?

[7652] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, President Nguyen. You know, in my 20 years here, we've always, as a board, shied away and we always, the district office would be the last thing that we would fix. We've always concentrated. Terrence, you don't have to stay up there. Thank you though, you look nice up there. Thank you. I'm proud of the fact that board members see that as an important thing that we do is making sure that we put our kids first and would consider this and that was part of your measure. But here we are and people talk about, you know, option A, B. Well, there is an option C which is no. And I don't really think we need to do anything right now. We have so many things that we're working on. and trying to get our schools beautiful and working on buying furniture. The Russian property, it took us years to get to the point where we actually sold that, went to the 7-Eleven committee and we're finally getting through that. That's a property that wasn't being used and we've shied away from even talking about closing schools even though our enrollment has gone down because we want our community to know that we're vested and making sure that our kids have everything that they need, and having a beautiful school is part of that. And that's where our focus should be. So I'm not, you know, Terrence made a good point. If we vote not to do anything, the city, you're being a public entity, your office space is always going to be available to us, naturally, if we need it. I don't think you're going to shut the door and say you can't come in there because we vote no on this. And thank you for saying that. That enlightened me a whole bunch. So it's important that the city find out how the board feels and my vote would be not to do anything and concentrate on the things that we've already started, which is beautifying, making our schools beautiful, and making sure that the community understands that our kids are first. And all we do at the district office, and all we've done over the years, is just fix it minimally to make sure that it's a safe building. And that's it. Thank you.

[7798] SPEAKER_53: So for clarification, option B is basically no. there's, so if, if it's a no vote, it's option B, which is do nothing, let the, let the city proceed, we're not engaging in any way, so no is B. There's no C. No, that's not the case. That's not how it's written. So option. No, so that's what I said. There's no C that says do nothing, right? So option B, so I'll read option B. It says recommendation to move forward with the sharing of city council chambers and USD boardroom only and not to pursue expenditure of 8.41613 million commitment.

[7835] Ray Rodriguez: We don't need an option B, President Nguyen, because of the fact that Mr. Grindel made it very clear that that's available to us.

[7843] SPEAKER_47: We don't really need an option C. But it had to be a formal process in order for us to come. If it's okay, is it my turn or not? So I think in this piece, I think I do speak for the board as a member when mentioned in terms of maybe we could have communicated this agenda item better in terms of the approach was not to say this is what's going to happen. But it makes sense if I were a community member, I saw this. in one meeting, I want to make sure that our approach or my approach would never be to sell any assets of any time after one meeting. You would have to have extensive community input and ask from going forward with that process. The short timeline that a member, sorry, that Superintendent Sanchez mentioned in terms of not having enough of an opportunity for us to really examine the details of proposals. We're kind of like the city is just saying you have 30 days to move forward, which would have been better to actually have longer time to do that and actually inform the community and for us to go through that process. So from my perspective, automatically because there isn't enough time to move forward on this or to actually even examine the details in an informed, rational manner that we would not move forward with that piece. I think to clarify, maybe to address that need that we could change option B a little bit, would be to move to option A, pursue MOU discussions on using the board chambers depending on the cost. Figuring out something like that because... But there's no cost. That's... Would you want to clarify that?

[7953] SPEAKER_53: Yeah, there's no cost, right? For using the board chambers?

[7958] SPEAKER_17: Using the city council chambers.

[7959] Terrence Grindall: It's, excuse me, superintendent, members of the board. There's been no discussion of cost. The city council's given direction that there's... It's... Well, basically, the answer is this needs to be folded into an MOU discussion. The district and the school and the city don't presently charge each other's rent for profit for facilities, and it's envisioned that would go forward.

[7989] SPEAKER_53: There could be cost involved with... So there's a potential pending MOU that we have not discussed?

[7994] Terrence Grindall: Yes, that would have to be discussed, but that would be the... If we do that.

[7997] SPEAKER_47: And then just as a point that if you could take back, I think, or maybe not, but from my perspective, you could take back at least that to consider the fact that the whole community supported Measure GG, and so adding costs would be like charging the taxpayers twice for that. So hopefully we could get it to the minimal cost of whatever, like to have someone clean it up or open it or whatever that is, but we can talk about that.

[8022] SPEAKER_53: But that's, yeah. So I think that's a great clarification as far as a potential MOU that still has to be negotiated. So, I think with that, then, you know, with this, there may be a... option B may be warranted. I mean, excuse me, option C may be warranted. We're, we're just non-committal to anything at this point. Thank you. And then we.

[8045] SPEAKER_47: So that's, that would be the, the piece of either. Right, right.

[8049] SPEAKER_17: Whether you amend option B. I'm, I'm objecting to this because I think people have not had a chance to speak. Yeah. At this point, and you're making decisions. No, we're not. Before we. Well, you are, you are essentially coming to some sort of conclusion that you'd like to do. So I would like to have all of us be express our feelings about this, and then from my perspective, the reason this was on was so that we could have a discussion of what options are out there, not to make long-term decisions, but to say to the city whether we're really interested in that or whether it looks like it's going to be too expensive for us. That is the discussion I think we need to have tonight in terms of that. The city put it out the option to the voters that this might be something that could be done in the city center. As a person who's lived in Newark for 50 years, I love the thought of having a center of the city. I think that's exciting. I love the thought of having Patio where people could come and say this is Newark. We don't have a center for Newark I love that aspect of it and having the school district there as a president as a presence is a very important piece But we're looking at an awful lot of money, and so I think that that Saying to the city an eight million dollar Price tag is out of our league from my perspective because there are other options of things that we can do. Whether there is a way that we can get a presence of the school district in the city center that we're talking about, I think that maybe we need to look at maybe creative ways of that happening. I don't know. And maybe sharing the meeting spot is the thing to do. But I would like to be able to spend our time now talking about what kinds of things we can do and looking at what information we need to go further in terms of making our decisions about the district office. I was the one that says pull off the roof in terms of replacing the roof. We cannot have staff in an unhealthy building. And essentially, this is becoming an unhealthy building. So although it may look nice with paint and with computers and with screens, the essence of being able to function for a long period of time is not here for the district office. So we need to look at what we have to make decisions about where we can utilize our facilities on a better basis, on a more healthy basis. And that's a discussion that we have to look at. And that means that we don't eliminate something because I don't like it. And there's some things about the proposals that were made in the draft of use of the facilities that I am very angry about. But that doesn't mean we don't discuss it. It doesn't mean that we don't go through and see maybe this is an option, maybe it's not. But I don't want things to be shut now in terms of discussion. We're just starting the process. We're certainly not getting to a point of making decisions except to say to the city, you know, you need to go your way and we need to go ours.

[8236] SPEAKER_53: Yeah, I think that's the only decision we're making tonight. and as it relates to informing the city where they can proceed from here. And then as far as discussing what we can, you know, now that if we made a decision that, okay, we're going to stay home, whether we, you know, revitalize this home or whatever, that's a future discussion that we can have soon. Superintendent?

[8263] SPEAKER_20: I do think we owe, we need to make a commitment. I would recommend a commitment tonight to decide if it's option B. That's kind of the feel of the room. Just because continuing to kick the can down the road does not help our partnership with the city. Whether we like it or not, I like that we're in a partnership with the city. I think they're our friends. I think they are not holding us against us either way. There's not a wrong vote here. But I'd like, I also want to clear the air with, I don't need a fancy office. I don't need brand new furniture. I could work out of a school. All I need is a laptop and I can function. So there's not a desire from my perspective as superintendent to have the Taj Mahal where my office is. And honestly, if I had placed this on the agenda after the next agenda item, we'd be having a very different discussion right now. I have bigger worries about budget. I think we have other things that we have to put first, namely students, and I can tell you in all honesty, that is the spirit of this board. It's not even what I've been asked to do. I definitely can tell you this board is very grounded in putting kids first, and I think this agenda item probably stirred more panic than it needed to, but I think that Part of the new environment that I've been asked to create by the board is to increase transparency. And this is what it looks like. It's ugly. It's imperfect. And sometimes it's not pristine. And it is not sanitized. And that's OK. That's OK. Because in the end, I think everyone in this room wants to get more resources to kids, especially those members that are elected officials up here. I can promise you every one of them feels that way. But to kick the can down the road and say we're not committing, I think it's just if we're not going to spend the money, I know we have other needs. And I think that allows staff to get to work on creating other scenarios. What it does show you is there's some resources there that maybe the board does consider into pouring into schools and other needs. Is that something that we do want to do? And there is a process. There's law around creating a 7-11 committee. Nothing like this can happen overnight, as was mentioned. So I think there's a significant process. And I think to go into the details of that, I'll probably bore the audience to death right now. But I promise you there's checks and balances there. We're just at a crossroads, and whether the city goes on their walk without us for a while, we're still their partner, and we still work with them. And I think that there is MOUs forthcoming, and I think that that's something I'm very interested in. And I think we're going to work those things out. But I just wanted to really clarify for the audience and people watching that The spirit of this is, hey, we're at a crossroads and this is really a board decision. It's not my decision. I couldn't put one option on there. I wanted to put the cards on the table and then let the board deal with it as they should.

[8464] Nancy Thomas: I'd like to say I'm proud to be a member of this group and really appreciate all the thoughtful comments you've made. I think I concur with all of you with everything that you've said because I think what we've said is that We're not at a point where we're going to jump off and make big decisions. We have to take time to make those decisions. And we've also said we have other bigger problems. Right now, we have our budget and our operating side of the house. And we're not done with our capital side of the house. We still have painting to do at the schools. We still have to get over to Lincoln all those things that they're saying that they need because it's part of what we have planned for our capital money that we've talked about. We've allocated money for some of those things and it's going to take the next year or two to roll them out. But I'm excited about the fact that our Our school sites are going to be landscaped in the next couple of years. Every one of our schools are going to be painted, that every one of our schools has new roofs and new HVAC systems. They're not going to be breaking down. We're not going to have classrooms that are cold or too warm because the HVAC doesn't work. So I think the fact that we are coming to the point to the conclusion of finally sitting down with the city and talking about MOUs and how are we going to handle McGregor fields and how can we share space. I think those are just good moving forward types of things that are happening and I thank staff for facilitating these discussions. So that's what I wanted to say.

[8580] Ray Rodriguez: I agree. I think it's important to have the discussion. I don't agree with the superintendent, which is rare. You want to write that down? No, it's 99 times out of 100. I think he's, we're very lucky to have him and he's doing a great job. This is difficult times for us. Mr. Grindel, when you mentioned the March 10th deadline, it was my, from reading this, it was my interpretation that we were talking about option A. not because option B to me is not kicking the ball down the road. It's going to be discussed when we discuss all the MOUs. So we don't really have to select option B right now because that's going to be a discussion when we talk about all the MOUs. So question again, the March 10th deadline was not for option B. From my interpretation it was really option A.

[8635] Terrence Grindall: That is correct. Option B is something, the use of that facility by other entities is something we're going to design into the building regardless, so that is not something you need to make any commitment to anytime soon.

[8651] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you very much, Darren.

[8654] SPEAKER_53: Member Preciado.

[8657] SPEAKER_47: I forgot to mention, this was tangential, but it was part of the conversation that I think if we can direct staff for that to make sure that the cockroaches at that Lincoln classroom are taken care of because that's really that's unacceptable. And the rats and pests I know it was mentioned this conversation but that is unacceptable. And now that we're aware of it if we can just get it taken care of that would be awesome.

[8681] SPEAKER_53: Okay, so I think with that, the city needs an official notification of some sort. And so, and I know there's some hesitancy with option B in regards to the pending MOU. Is there a way that we can devise a motion that essentially that would direct staff to officially inform the city to go ahead and proceed with their construction without the board's, without the excuse me, without the district's involvement in any kind of funding of the project.

[8714] Ray Rodriguez: So essentially saying no to option A. We don't really need that because it's an MOU that's coming up.

[8720] SPEAKER_47: But you, we have to direct staff. They need to. We have to direct staff to engage in that discussion. So, I mean, I could, well, I can make a motion and then you can, again.

[8730] SPEAKER_53: I should, can Mr. Sanchez add something?

[8732] SPEAKER_20: I would just, I could suggest a modification to option B. That's very simple. Recommendation to move forward with the sharing of city council chambers slash NUSD boardroom only, period. Simple.

[8748] SPEAKER_17: Mr. Grindel, is that what you need? He doesn't need anything.

[8753] SPEAKER_53: No, they're asking for something. But even with that though, are we not then making a commitment to sharing that? Because we can make a commitment prior to the MOU being executed.

[8762] Ray Rodriguez: Right. We need the MOU first. We need the discussion. I'm sorry, Tim.

[8767] Terrence Grindall: I'm sorry. Yes, we would like to have so in answer to the first part of that question, we would like to have an official letter from your from your superintendent saying that that you're not interested in being a part of the design project. The other part of it is the there is a process. that we would want to work out and we would not expect you to make a commitment to share that space until we've worked out that process. So I think you can, um, I think that's, that's what I'm understanding. And you want to do a motion and then you can amend it.

[8803] SPEAKER_47: So it would be moved to pursue MOU discussions with city council concerning sharing costs for board chambers and not moving forward to pursue the expenditure, um, of, $8,410,613 for the space.

[8819] SPEAKER_17: We're not looking to share the cost of the facility. We're looking to utilize the city who's paid for it.

[8825] SPEAKER_47: So, it would be pursuing discussions with the city council concerning sharing cost. So, if there... No, we don't have to make that commitment. No, no, no.

[8833] SPEAKER_53: We don't have to make that commitment now. I think we just need a simple one sentence that... We are not interested in... We are not going to pursue... Being involved in the design process.

[8842] SPEAKER_17: Thank you.

[8843] SPEAKER_53: We'll be a part of the design process for the new city center.

[8845] SPEAKER_47: And then we can... And then the other piece we'll have to... That's later. We just have to direct, but we don't have to direct the superintendent to start engaging in those discussions.

[8853] SPEAKER_20: They are already. So let me offer another stab at it. You could direct the superintendent to draft an MOU that includes sharing space with the city.

[8865] SPEAKER_53: That's two parts though. That's part two.

[8867] SPEAKER_20: But there's no cost involved in sharing space. We do it already.

[8871] SPEAKER_53: No, there is, once you resolve the MOU. Because once you negotiate the MOU, they may say, yeah, if you want to use this chamber, you're going to pay $1,000 a month.

[8878] SPEAKER_20: And I say to them, let's talk about McGregor Field. OK, exactly.

[8881] SPEAKER_53: It's a negotiation. So at this point, we're not going to discuss the MOU yet.

[8886] SPEAKER_47: That's something we can do, right? So then let's just do then, it would be a motion.

[8890] SPEAKER_53: The city would just like to know, are we in or are we out? OK, so we're out.

[8893] Ray Rodriguez: We're out. We need to make a motion that we're out.

[8897] SPEAKER_47: So we would move not to pursue the expenditure of $8,410,613. Second. I'll second. Yeah. And that's what we said.

[8920] SPEAKER_17: I think what we're saying is that we do not want to move the district offices to the civic center, period. And then at that point, there may be other things that down the line we take care of. But the bottom line is we're not interested in building or putting our district office in the center because we're saying it's too expensive. So I'm going to propose a motion.

[8939] SPEAKER_53: Hopefully this flies through. I'm going to move to direct staff to officially inform the city. that we will not be participating financially in the design process and development of the city center.

[8954] Maria Huffer: I second.

[8955] SPEAKER_53: Perfect. Who's second? There's a second by member Rodriguez. Please vote.

[8964] SPEAKER_47: Cool. All right.

[8970] SPEAKER_53: Five ayes.

[8971] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Terrence. You were great. Thank you.

[8977] SPEAKER_53: OK. Moving on to 13.7, FICMAC study proposal.

[8988] SPEAKER_20: So I do not have a formal slideshow presentation. OK. But what I can share with you is a I know we've had a growing concern relative to budget. I know we completed a survey of every board member relative to kind of the specific score that you achieve based on concerns about budget. And I think long story short here is we kind of came to the conclusion to get a proposal from FCMAT to come in and give us an external third party review. And that's what's in front of you today. I know that today I received a letter from the county that says, you know, they still want us to start designing a way to get out of deficit spending. And I think this could really inform us and guide us in how we go forward financially. And I just know that I share that concern with all of you. And I think that's what's in front of you is to approve this FICMAT to come in and help us get a real handle on the budget as well as make some good third party recommendations of how we can get to a better place and be fiscally in a great place going forward.

[9060] SPEAKER_53: Thank you.

[9061] Ray Rodriguez: Mr. Rodriguez. I have a question of Member Thomas. When we did the study before, what's it been about two, three years I think or has it been longer?

[9070] Nancy Thomas: About 2005. That long?

[9073] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. I thought maybe if it was a restudy, we might be able to get it lower. That's all. We tried. Okay. Thank you.

[9080] Nancy Thomas: Was it 2005?

[9081] SPEAKER_17: I think it was after that. Because that was, you went through one with Bernard and then one later. What? When is it? 2005. 2009.

[9091] Nancy Thomas: 2008, 2009. Oh, thank you. 2008, 2009.

[9094] SPEAKER_17: Member Crocker. Yeah, I just, I'm hoping that this will be a report that is full of specifics. in terms of what can be done, working away at where we're spending too much money. Sometimes when we get reports from consultants, it's very general. And I'm looking for a whole list of specifics. So I'm hoping that when they come, they'll say exactly what we need to do so that we can use it as a basis for getting back to our structural budget being within the money that we get.

[9134] SPEAKER_53: And I, I wanted to, to be sure that we're clear to the public and especially the viewers that, you know, they may quite, they may be questioning or wondering, you know, you were, you just approved two plus million for playground equipment, you're spending all these monies on all these items, so for the, so on for the past month or so, why are we then doing a feedback study? Although the study is going to include the bond funds, it is primarily a study of expenditures or ongoing expenditures that, that the district expends, which which bond money or facilities money cannot pay for. So it's a separate part of money. Do I have a motion to approve?

[9173] SPEAKER_17: So moved.

[9174] SPEAKER_53: Seconded by Crocker, seconded by Rodriguez. Please vote.

[9181] SPEAKER_47: To your point on page two, it lays out the following areas. Budget development, monitoring, position control, purchasing accounts payable. So it lays it out and then it says bond oversight. So it lays it out.

[9198] SPEAKER_53: Five ayes. Next item, 13.8. Purchasing of refrigerated truck.

[9207] SPEAKER_52: Yes, Ms. Sayers has received approval from the federal government with regard to the replacement of the refrigerator truck. We actually had one that we were going to be bringing forward to the board that we were ready to move on, unfortunately it got sold out from under us prior to the board meeting so we're now asking for authority of an expenditure amount that way we can move forward as soon as Vince and Mary are able to find another unit because they move very very fast. And so we just want to have authorization up to the 60,000 that she got approved by the federal government so that we can move quickly if there's one available that meets her needs.

[9244] SPEAKER_53: So just a brief clarification, is this a necessity out of a need because our fleet is old or is it a CNS account carryover issue or both?

[9259] SPEAKER_52: It's the truck needs to be replaced issue. Yes, they are spending some of their carryover. However, they're dealing with a specific need that they have right now in the department.

[9271] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Member Crocker.

[9273] SPEAKER_17: This will not impact the general budget.

[9276] SPEAKER_53: It will not. Do I have a motion? Oh, Ms.

[9280] Ray Rodriguez: Rodriguez. So do you want to put a cap at $60,000, or are you asking it to be open?

[9288] SPEAKER_52: Well, the original, the one that they had identified was going to be 43,000. It wasn't new, but it was fairly new. And so, I asked Mary what range did she feel comfortable putting in the budget? Fifty to 60,000 question mark. No, I just see that as not to exceed 60. We put a not to exceed because normally, I only have signature authority to half of the go out to bid number which would put us at about 44,000. And with tax, we might have gone over. So, I asked Mary to give me an outside range of where she thought it would be so that I could have authority to move forward. with the board's blessing if they identify a vehicle that will meet our standards. Okay.

[9322] Ray Rodriguez: And there's no trade-in value, right, for the old one, right?

[9327] SPEAKER_52: We will have to assess that after we actually have something to have it evaluated whether or not we'll be able to get any salvage value out of it. Okay. Got it. Okay.

[9334] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. I believe we have a motion by Member Crocker. Is that correct?

[9338] SPEAKER_17: I will make a motion. I was going to move, but it's okay. Okay. That's fine. Go ahead.

[9341] Megan McMillan: I'll second. Okay.

[9342] SPEAKER_53: Moved by Member Preciado, seconded by Member Crocker. Please vote. Five ayes. Next, 13.9, 2017 CSBA Delegate Assembly vote. Do I have a move, a motion to approve?

[9363] Nancy Thomas: I move. Well, it's not that simple.

[9365] SPEAKER_47: Yeah, because you got to choose who you're electing.

[9367] SPEAKER_17: I move that we only accept, only vote for Nancy Thomas.

[9371] Ray Rodriguez: I second the motion.

[9372] Nancy Thomas: I disagree. No, please, don't.

[9374] Ray Rodriguez: We can discuss. So what is your recommendation, Madam Thomas?

[9377] Nancy Thomas: My recommendation is that we vote for the four individuals that are listed. OK.

[9382] Bowen Zhang: Is there a four spots?

[9384] SPEAKER_47: Yeah. So my question is, last time when we voted for two, then there was that issue that you had with not only voting.

[9391] SPEAKER_17: There's four spots.

[9392] SPEAKER_47: Pardon? Oh, OK. So that's why. OK.

[9395] Nancy Thomas: So I really was surprised when I saw that. It's her gig.

[9399] SPEAKER_53: Let's just do what she wants. So she wants us to vote for four spots.

[9402] SPEAKER_47: OK. I'll move to vote for all four.

[9405] SPEAKER_53: OK. Is there a second? I'll second that. Second by Member Thomas. Please vote.

[9415] Nancy Thomas: OK. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you.

[9418] SPEAKER_53: Moving on. Employee organizations. Looks like Ms. Condon.

[9425] Ray Rodriguez: Hey, you just got a new truck. I got a new trunk? No, no, I'm sorry.

[9429] SPEAKER_51: It's not me. But we won't have to fix the old one anymore. Oh, OK. How's that? Good evening, President Nguyen and board trustees, Mr. Sanchez and executive board. I'm glad you guys decided against the participation in the sale, the building at the district office. I had it at the city. I had a whole bunch of things to say about it, but since we changed it, I'm going to get rid of that and just say that I did have a meeting with, I did go to the liaison committee meeting. And I appreciated the fact that it was a discussion. And I believed tonight, Mr. Nguyen, that it was also a discussion tonight, not necessarily that you had already made a decision. and I'd like to say that publicly so people understood where we went. I also announced that to the RCSEA members when I went to the liaison meeting. Since that liaison meeting, I had another meeting with Mr. Sanchez and I suggested that since this liaison meeting is a committee meeting that has been going on for a good 20-something years, It should not have been a surprise when the agenda came out that you were having that meeting at City Hall to discuss this and it looked more like a school board meeting than it did a city liaison meeting. So my suggestion to Mr. Sanchez was somehow that since it's a collaboration between the city and the district, that the minutes or the information that is discussed is published as minutes on our website. So our community, our staff, our members, our employees all know what is going on, hence our transparency. So you don't have this kind of I don't want to call it an attack. People are concerned. But they become concerned because they don't hear anything. And then boom, all of a sudden, you're going to make this decision tonight. And they don't have any say in it. So I really think if we could somehow get it posted so that they know, hey, these are things that are coming up. And then they will have input to know what's going on. It's a suggestion we had. And hopefully, it'll happen. Another thing that I had is we are in negotiations, as you know, and since we lost our chief negotiator to Ed Services, we've had another change to our district team. We now have a new lawyer has come over, and it's changed a little bit on the disposition of the committee and on the teams. But I just want to say I know that Mr. Richards was going to come tonight and talk about our financials and move forward. So I'm just hoping that with the changes that we have, and I understand we will have another change come March because our HR intern will be gone. that you give them the authority to make a decision so we could move forward and proceed with whatever negotiations we need so we don't have to play cat and mouse back at the board and this is what we want, this is what we hear, so that's what I'm hoping. And the last thing I would like to say is that I've gotten a lot of phone calls from my members in regards to the work calendar that's coming forward. I know it's not your decision to do that work calendar. I know it's based on the committee that we've had, that committee we had a year ago, Brian, I believe. It was about a year. It was, yeah, it's been going on for about a year. I just want to be on the record that CSCA does not like that calendar. Just so you know, if that's the way it goes, we'll work with it. But we are not happy with that calendar. It starts way too early. I understand, and as I explained to my members, the calendar is really based on the student's curriculum, the testing, the way the teachers operate in the class. But what is never considered, even with us in that committee, is that Although the teachers start two days before the students do, classified 11-month employees, the offices start three weeks before the teachers do. So this year, and I guess the earlier you get, the first year is going to be the worst, but this year if we finish our school, I think it's June the 18th or June the 14th. The 14th, I believe, is the end of school this year. And we work another two weeks in the office, in the office of the sites. And we start August, the school starts again August the 17th. That means my classified office managers start in school the last week in July. You do the records. You do the numbers. We also have a maintenance department. We just barely make it to get the maintenance school up and ready. when we have six to eight weeks of no school in the summer because you have summer school. That's also not being considered. So I just hope to God we could get the schools ready in the short time that we have with the last year of construction that's supposed to be going on through the school year. So I just want to put on the record, we're not real happy, but whatever happens, happens. OK? And with that, I guess we'll see you next month.

[9782] SPEAKER_53: So thank you. Thank you. Next consent item, agenda item. So, first with the personnel items 15.2, which is the certificate seniority list. Do you have a motion to approve?

[9796] Nancy Thomas: I move that we approve.

[9797] SPEAKER_53: Okay. Is there a second? Second. Second by Rodriguez. Please vote. Five ayes. 15.3, a personnel report. Is there a motion to approve? by member Crocker. I'll second. Second by Preciado. Please vote. Five ayes. 16.1 through 16.7, non-personal consent items. Do I have a move to approve the whole set? So moved. Moved by member Rodriguez. Is there a second? I'll second. Second by Crocker. Please vote. Five ayes. 17, Board of Education Committee Reports to start with Member Thomas.

[9854] Nancy Thomas: Anything? Okay, well, I just went to the Audit Committee meeting or had the Audit Committee meeting. Thank you very much for coming. And Mr. Richards and I are working together on a potential charter for the committee so we understand what our role is. Also, I'd like to talk a little bit about how we address each other at meetings. I think it's really important that we address each other with members of the public and with members of the staff by their last names. I think it's not appropriate to use first names, so I'd just like to remind us of that. And that's it.

[9902] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Member Preciado.

[9906] SPEAKER_47: So I think we mentioned this last time at the city school liaison piece, but I just want to say that was a good suggestion in terms of posting it. I know it's posted every other time because it's posted by whatever entity hosts the meeting. So the last meeting that the school board did, it was posted on our website in our minutes. And then in terms of the minutes for when it's at the city, the city will post it. But that's a good suggestion for us to have it as well, in terms of letting folks know. And I think it's only been active for a couple of years, as far as I know. This formal process like this?

[9941] SPEAKER_17: This particular goal. OK. I mean, there's been other things that we've worked with the city on.

[9947] SPEAKER_47: Cool. But I think it's good that we do publish and we let folks know, the whole school community, of what's happening, because were insular, then it doesn't get to the community. Other than that, that's all I have. Thank you. Member Crocker.

[9963] SPEAKER_17: Yes, I've had a busy couple weeks. I've been on the pedestrian and bicycle investor plan committee for the city, and we've been working six years on trying to set up something that would make the community more friendly to pedestrians and to bicyclists. There's a lot of issues that are there and a lot of money that would take to make it perfect, but they do have a proposal. They did, they researched what it is right now, and that particular document is available at the City of Newark. I sent one out to Superintendent Sanchez as well as all the principals so that they see what is indicated, concerns that the consulting firm found about various schools and suggestions. And some of them may be very financially strapping. The others are very simple. And so I think we need to look at it. I also sent one to Vince at Mott. So he has that information. So if you're interested in talking to the city tonight, the Planning Commission was discussing it. The committee accepted the proposal and sent it on to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission We'll discuss it and then send it on to the City Council on Thursday. So if you want input into it, that's a time to go and talk about it. I also went to a meeting of the, excuse me, there was a meeting of the Redevelopment Committee I was unable to attend. And this is a committee that is monitoring the funds that is owed to the city from the state, the federal government when they closed the redevelopment area. And so there's still some money that's due for assuming that that's going to be taken care of in one more meeting. So, it's something that, when I was president, Mr. Rodriguez passed it on to me. And I've just been going every four, four to five months to a meeting for that. And then the last one is I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the ROP educational brunch at the Mission Valley ROP. It was last week and they had a wonderful brunch prepared by our culinary students at Newark Memorial High School. And we had a chance to see all the facilities that's there. And as a lover of having a variety of activities and electives for our kids, this is where our kids get it. And I think that we need to, we do have a limited number of students that we can send to the ROP. But they have wonderful programs that are there. And I want to make sure that we keep on encouraging our students to utilize that. Because there's things that are learned in an ROP class that may be difficult to learn in an academic class, just because of the hands-on nature and because it is definitely work-centered. And so they learn the culture of the workplace, which doesn't always happen in a regular high school class. So that was very interesting. If you have a chance to go to it, it was designed for the counselors to know what kind of programs were there. We were represented by two members from the high school. So we were well represented. Other than that, that's it.

[10163] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Member Rodriguez.

[10167] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, President Nguyen. In addressing each other, I agree with Member Thomas. I've always, and if I skip sometimes, I apologize, but I always want to put member in front and when I address our Superintendent Sanchez or our Superintendent's Council, put their title first and then their last name. Superintendent Sanchez and I had the opportunity to visit the developer, I forgot the name of the developer. Bishores. Right, at the end of Thornton Avenue and we also visited the one at the Russian site. We're hoping to do more of that and other board members are willing to, if you want to join us. I think it's important that we make contact with the developers and just to make sure we have an update on everything and also if there's a possibility that we can get some little freebies from them that would naturally improve the closest school to the development like we did when the developer behind Malani, I mean not Malani, yeah, behind you know, Birch Grove, Intermediate, Omalani did. So I think that's important that we do that. As far as moving forward, I really need to, I was hoping that I could get information from staff on the MOU process. I don't know whether the board wants to discuss it first, or staff's gonna discuss it with the city, but I think, to me, I see it as a two or three part process, We really haven't done this for a while. And we have so many things that intertwine with the city that it's important to have those MOUs. So I'm looking forward to that. So maybe in a Friday update we can get kind of, so I can get a better understanding on how this is gonna work. Okay, thank you.

[10289] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. So I'll point to 18.2 for my comments. For the board, I sent out an email with a Google form. So if you can fill out your agenda request, and that's not a public document. So when we look at point, 8.02, you know, we have various requests by board members so that the public can see what's on the horizon, what's coming ahead. And one of the requests that I made was a report on facility use, facility use permits. And that would, that would also entail MOUs. But also, if we could get a presentation report on the potential of using the spaces that are available for us in a facilities use agreement with other entities as a means to raise funds. And please, board member, if at your leisure, please add the items so that we can keep the members of the public updated as far as when those items will be discussed. So, but that's all I have for, for the, the comments.

[10356] Ray Rodriguez: Can I say something real quick? Chief.

[10360] SPEAKER_17: I, we are getting close to closing. Yeah. And I, Superintendent Sanchez has a number of items, so I would like to be able to give him the time that he needs. How much time do you think you need? for your report. Can you get it done in time? I can do it in four minutes. Four minutes. OK, that means that you can't talk to me. You have 30 seconds. I'm sorry. No, no.

[10376] Ray Rodriguez: Mr. Rodriguez. I just wanted to commend President Nguyen and Ms. Sandoval and Larry for helping us with this whole board docs thing. It's something new. And I'm finally getting a gist of it. And I think it makes it a lot easier. And I appreciate it. That's all I have.

[10392] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Thank you. 18.1, Superintendent Cummings.

[10396] SPEAKER_20: Thank you, President Nguyen, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen. I've shared with you a couple of documents. One of them is Oakland Unified becoming a sanctuary district. I've included the acts undocumented student rights PDF. And I think this is something that is new in our environment politically. And as I think about it and I think about what's on the horizon, I really think that I'm not sure if that's the position or the direction we need to go as a board or a school district. And my thinking and recommendation is to consider embedding equity throughout our new vision and mission and values and goals as a board. Because we do value equity. We do value diversity. And I think we can probably better say those things in that format in the upcoming board retreat that we've planned and we scheduled. And I think that having a strong commitment to equity for all students is another way to address this in a proactive way and not be drug into a political firefight. But with that said, I can tell you I have several parents that are very concerned about rumors about ICE agents being at the high school and I think there's just a lot of really raw emotion around this. So I think that there might be a way for us to reframe it within the the confines of the board retreat. So just something to think about. I also wanted to highlight quickly two really solid things that have happened. One of them was BGI receiving an electron microscope from Hitachi. The attachment's there. It's really exciting. And I think that we also have a news release I'm sorry. We also have a student here that has become a spelling bee champion, which is a great way to end our meeting and get close to the end here. Braden Babich, eighth grade, Newark Junior High School, Geography B winner. Braden Babich, congratulations to you in representing Newark Unified. And with that, I conclude my comments.

[10545] SPEAKER_53: Thank you. Meeting adjourned.

No minutes available.