Workshop Meeting

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[11] SPEAKER_28: what we can do to create a better environment. And we want to focus on the main topic of student-centered learning, where all the learning is around the students, focused on the students, and made for the students to benefit in the best way they possibly can. We're not here to kind of complain about problems because nothing's going to happen from there. We're not going to benefit. No one's going to benefit. We're not going to move forward. But we have created some kind of examples on problems that we have all experienced. And we've collectively, as I put together a group of around, was it 21 students? Yeah, 21 students. And we all came together and spent a whole good couple of days and brainstormed all of these ideas of what is missing in our learning environment, why are these happening, why are these problems happening, and then what are solutions that we could work on to have a better environment and a better school and we can learn. So do you want to explain the video?

[96] SPEAKER_30: So me and a couple students made a video about how we feel. And I didn't write them a script necessarily, because then that would only be my opinion, and I'm just repeating what I want to say. So instead, I had them come up with their own words and have them explain the situation in the videos.

[116] SPEAKER_28: Do you guys want to share anything else about what this is, what this is to you, and what you want to see from it?

[124] SPEAKER_32: I think that a lot of people complain. They just complain about different problems. But if you complain, you're not going to get anywhere. And we just need to fix them. And it's not really problems. It's just different things that we can work on.

[147] SPEAKER_26: Students should not only learn, but they should benefit from it.

[151] SPEAKER_28: So ultimately, these are all small problems that address bigger situations. Students, we want to be educated for our future. We want to be educated for life. So that's really what we're working towards. Yay. Why don't you sit here so we can see the screen. I'll move over.

[172] SPEAKER_27: OK, I'm calling the

[184] Nancy Thomas: October 2nd, meeting to order. Roll call, please.

[190] Abbey Keirns: President Thomas. Here.

[192] SPEAKER_19: Vice President Preciado. Here. Member Crocker. Present. Member Rodriguez.

[198] Nancy Thomas: Member Nguyen. Did Member Rodriguez answer?

[203] SPEAKER_17: He lost him off the line.

[205] SPEAKER_19: Okay.

[208] SPEAKER_17: So say what you just said, but shorter. Okay.

[214] SPEAKER_28: Me and a collective group of 21 students, we all got together and kind of talked about how the school is as a whole, how the learning education has been throughout all the years we've been here, what's going good, what's going bad, and what are things that we can improve on and what we can do to improve on them. And we don't want to complain about all the things going on because people have a tendency to do that. We want to work towards having what we can do now. A better solution. Yeah, perfect. And so we're here to talk about kind of these are the problems. We're addressing them. But here are some possible solutions to these. And what can we do to implement these in our school district so we can have a better overall environment and culture within the school and staff?

[263] SPEAKER_17: That's great. Yeah. And something I think that's important to mention is all four of these students have been with Newark Unified their entire educational career.

[272] SPEAKER_28: And they're all seniors. Yes. And including all the students that we've worked with, because I want to extend that this wasn't just our voices. This is a collective group of students, even past the 21 students. They all come from very different aspects of the school. And so these were the main problems and ideas and solutions coming from all of them that we all agreed upon. So yeah.

[297] SPEAKER_18: Perfect. Thank you for coming. appreciate and commend you for all your hard work. And I appreciate your approach of being like, OK, here's the issues, but here's how we think we can resolve them. And so we can actually be able to address them or work on trying to address them. Yeah.

[314] Nancy Thomas: You ready? Yeah.

[316] SPEAKER_17: Are we ready, Cheryl?

[330] SPEAKER_29: Hi, so next week I have nationals, and I'll be doing independent study. Is there a way that my work can be excused?

[339] SPEAKER_31: I'm not sure I can promise that, because we do have a lot of classes coming up next week, and I don't think it's really fair to just excuse you.

[346] SPEAKER_29: Well, this scholarship's really important to me.

[349] SPEAKER_31: I mean, I understand that, but I mean, what class are you in now? You're in my class, right? So that's what should matter, not nationals next week. Okay, good.

[361] SPEAKER_29: Hi, um, I have a bunch of zeros and I thought I was going to be excused.

[371] SPEAKER_31: I don't know what made you think that. I literally told you my class comes first. So, you got yourself over going didn't you? Hey, Mr. Sullivan. It's David. I mean, it's David actually. I've overacted to students. You can't tell. My bad. Just wondering what you're going to be doing today in class. Take your seat. You'll find out when class starts tomorrow.

[395] SPEAKER_29: All right. I have one more question though.

[398] SPEAKER_31: Were you able to check my work that I turned in last week? No. Like I said, I do have over 100 students, so it does take me a while. Here's the thing though.

[408] SPEAKER_26: Progress reports are coming out, and I really need that to go up.

[416] SPEAKER_31: Go get it when you get in. Okay.

[422] SPEAKER_29: Dad, I wanted to talk to you today because I need help with my class. Oh, hi, Denise. What's up? Mom, I'm outside because I'm struggling. Oh, what do you mean? Hold on. Um, I need to help, like, after school for an hour or two. Is that okay? Well, it's just kind of hard because I'm not getting paid for those hours. Um, I could be doing better because it's my time. But, um, you can come in at lunch on Thursdays. Oh, okay. Um, I'm kind of busy on Thursdays because that's one of my work days. But after school, I'll be here. Ooh, okay. Well, I don't know what to say with that. I'm sorry. I don't- I don't have any other time that I can do it besides lunch on Thursdays. Okay, I understand.

[477] SPEAKER_28: And yeah, Fabian, do you want to explain?

[480] SPEAKER_30: So from what you can see in the video, the teacher wasn't really connecting with their students. They were separated physically by a desk. And he didn't even remember one of his students' names. That's something that does happen at some schools. They don't have a real connection with their students. And having a connection with your students does help them. It makes them want to respect and pay attention to you while you're teaching. And about the tutorial, some teachers don't follow the tutorials to help their students when they're available. Some of them have different reasons, but they're supposed to be focusing on their students.

[529] SPEAKER_32: Anything to add? Yeah. OK. I think that the videos really just show that the teachers just need to show more, like, care more for their students. Like, I know it's high school and, you know, they have a lot of students, but if they would just put a little more effort in, I think the students would really respect them more and really love learning rather than just going to school or trying to ditch or, you know.

[564] SPEAKER_17: So overall, OK. Let me add something. I'm kind of curious of the examples given. Have those happened to you guys in here? Or which ones have you guys experienced personally?

[577] SPEAKER_30: Personally? Yeah. Whichever one. I've had teachers forget my name.

[582] SPEAKER_28: I've been denied tutorial. I've been given Fs on my actual report card when they said that they would excuse it. Mostly all of them. Yeah, me too. Mostly all of them.

[600] SPEAKER_17: So did these examples come from that larger group? Yeah. And we know this is not all teachers, right? No. So I want to make sure we say that because there's a lot of really good teachers there as well. But there's some examples that could definitely get better. Did you want to say anything? I want to make sure you said it. You guys have no reason to be nervous. We're here, we work for you. Be straight with us. We just want to know how you're feeling. Not just what's said, but how does that make you feel when these things kind of happen?

[631] SPEAKER_26: When they forget your name, you kind of feel like you're nobody to them. You're just like a student, everyday thing, just whatever.

[639] SPEAKER_32: I think it stresses me out. When they say they'll help you and they don't or they'll excuse you because you were in the hospital or something happened to you and they don't. And they're like, oh, well, that's your problem.

[659] SPEAKER_28: And so these are just a few examples of little tiny things that happen around the high school that really take a load on students. And we were trying to figure out why these problems occur. And so we brought them down to key points that there isn't really any respect between the students and the teachers or the administration. It's a very top-down way of teaching where, gosh, how can I say this? We're seen almost as we're still little baby children and that we can't talk or fend for ourselves. And it's kind of like, how do you expect us to be ready to live on our own and pay taxes and vote just within the next year if we're being treated this one way? So we wanted to talk about these possible solutions.

[726] SPEAKER_17: Before you go into that, let's leave the board wants to ask any questions of the video or the examples. I know you guys are ready to talk about solutions. I think that's great.

[735] SPEAKER_19: Is there a requirement for the teachers to offer tutorials after school? Do they have office hours? I know. When you can go in.

[744] SPEAKER_30: Some do.

[745] SPEAKER_32: Some do. In their syllabus it'll say if failing or like if you have like a D or low grade you can come in at lunch or after school but they never follow that. It's just in their syllabus. That looks good though.

[759] SPEAKER_26: Yeah. There's certain teachers that okay like they hold tutorial but not even in their class. You have to go to a different teacher in order for you to understand something. So say, like, Algebra 2 teacher doesn't have time after school, so then you would have to go to the next Algebra 2 teacher to go and see what they're doing and see if they can help you out. And then you ask them questions, not the teacher that you're learning from. So they can have a different style of teaching, but you've been going through this style this whole year, and you're going to just change it because you have to go and see what they're doing.

[797] Nancy Thomas: What about during class? Are they responsive during class? Do they engage the students, mostly your teachers?

[805] SPEAKER_26: It's kind of more like a top-down. Like, okay, this, this, this, and this.

[810] SPEAKER_19: It's very elective. Is that true for all the teachers? 75% of the teachers? 50% of the teachers? Majority.

[817] SPEAKER_28: For me, I need to be kind of led through step-by-step with certain things. So the only way I'm able to get that is by literally, as soon as he's done or she's done giving the lecture, I go up to their desk and I have them go through every single one of them because I do not understand the way that they did there. And then there, they do it with a lot more imagery, a lot more explanation. I'm like, oh, I understand this now. But that's only because I demand for their attention. A lot of other students don't do that. They don't think that they can do that. And then I additionally, like Jose was saying, and many other students have had to go to other teachers. And then they teach a whole different way. And then if you do that way on a test, it's like, what do you think? This is wrong. So I don't know. There's just a disconnect and not really communication between the students and the teachers. Do you guys have any other questions?

[882] SPEAKER_18: So I have a question for the superintendent in terms of this piece. Is tutorial required for all teachers?

[889] SPEAKER_17: No. And I think that part of it is, I know all teachers do some of the tutorials. They do have an aspect of tutorial that's built into the pause period. And there'll be a presentation tonight on some of the information what the high school's doing with the intervention. But typically during the day, there is some time for teachers to work with kids. It may not be for a full hour, but it kind of depends on how it falls on block days. So on block days, there's usually more time for teachers to work with the kid if that happens to fall on the period that they have for planning. But if they're teaching the full block, it's more challenging. But there is time during the block week for teachers to have availability for kids. And I think that's the thing I would remind everyone. every single teacher there's some really good examples of how it's done correctly but I think it's two-fold part of it is a part of it is what are they getting to support but the other part of it is how they're talked to is kind of what I've gotten from talking with these students because it's really more how they're spoken to I mean it's different to say I think in the example it was well the only thing you need to worry about is my class don't worry about anything else versus You know, let me think about that.

[973] SPEAKER_28: You couldn't get the independent study? And that, I was actually, two other students besides me within our small group that had the same.

[983] Nancy Thomas: Isn't there a district policy around that that would protect our students that are going to nationals?

[989] SPEAKER_28: Well, the thing was, it wasn't until I brought a lot of attention to it that I think now it's being established more and taken care of, but still not that much.

[1001] SPEAKER_18: So I think we can talk about maybe potentially developing a process for the outlines. Okay, so here's a step. So you go with your teacher, and if your teacher doesn't, then who is the next level person so that it's clear, and then It's outlined so that you guys can spread the word about, okay, this is the first step, then there's a second step, and then the third step.

[1021] SPEAKER_17: I would suggest, these guys have some great ideas on simple things. So let's lean into that a little bit now. Let's hear what you guys have prepared for that.

[1029] SPEAKER_28: So attacking that current conversation, we all came up with, why isn't there like an overall syllabus? Or a syllabus or like policy? for these problems. So, for instance, tutorials. Like, there should be some sort of policy that teachers, like, should be. And the main problem is that teachers will always say is, like, they're not getting paid for their extra time. Like, this is out of their own time. And we completely understand that. They have their own families and their own lives. But it's also students failing these classes. We feel like, could there be some sort of policy where maybe for the extra hours that they spend with their students, that they have to get those hours and they're kept track of? They could be paid for. Or they have to spend time with these students to get this extra help. Can that be something where maybe even the teachers collaborate with each other and all take turns with teaching the students or having specific days or within a month where students are able to get help on these certain subjects? I feel like that would be really helpful if there was some sort of policy for that. So is it variant between teachers and subjects?

[1114] SPEAKER_17: Char is taking notes for us.

[1116] SPEAKER_18: Thank you. And the reason I had asked about, like, what are the requirements of the tutorial, just because I wanted to get a sense of, like, if you're offering it, so, for me, it's like, one, if you're offering it, then you should have it, but then also knowing, does everyone have to offer it or not, and then, so getting a sense of, so people are, or teachers, some teachers are offering it and doing it and other teachers are offering it and not doing it. So it's two points.

[1143] SPEAKER_28: Well, some are just not offering it at all. Okay.

[1146] SPEAKER_26: Yeah. Because you have to go to another teacher.

[1149] Nancy Thomas: As far as I can recall in the teacher's contract, there's teacher-directed time and staff or administrator-directed time. There's nothing about tutorial time. Exactly, yeah. And if it were in the contract, it would have to be able to be scheduled and we could hold teachers responsible for having it and giving that time. So I'm wondering if, Pat, we have to talk to... Yeah, I think part of it is

[1190] SPEAKER_17: I think it does come back to some of the things we've already discussed in earlier meetings, like grading policy and tutorial policy, maybe. I don't know if we have one. I think that's really a great suggestion. Do we have a policy around tutorials? But some of it certainly is a conversation with our union partners and say, you know, here's a perception. Is there something that we can do to influence that perception? I think the part for me that I think is the most profound is how it makes you guys feel. Because I think that's the part that I think there's things that we can do about that that don't cost anything.

[1233] SPEAKER_19: There's also things you can do in terms of organizing processes and habits in the teacher's point of view that make things easier for you. There are certain best practices that If you were to make a list of all those things that help you understand how you're structuring your class time, what expectations are, you're talking about the fact that not being able to be at a time when the student can go, the issue is the teacher has responsibilities too. And so trying to find a way of making it work for both the teacher and for the student. So one of the things that teachers do, the ones you like, that make it easier for you, that make it a better learning environment for you. And I think if you made a list of all those things, for example, if you like having something listed on the board, this is what we're doing today, an outline. Does that help? Does it help for, in terms of some people learn names better than other people, and having taught 150 kids for six months and then getting another 160 kids, People's ability, I may know you, but I may not, the name may be a confusing thing. And whether or not that is an excuse or not is a reality sometimes. And so what are things that you think could be helpful to have this happen? So I think that the more that you can tell the teachers this is what works for me, this is what works for most of the students, there's a greater chance that voluntarily, this is going to be happening. There's no excuse for a lack of respect. There's no excuse for that. There's no excuse for dismissing students. There's no excuse for that at all. And I think any teacher will tell you that.

[1353] SPEAKER_17: I have pictures of all of our ideas. I can send it to you guys.

[1355] SPEAKER_18: So that we can actually start discussing because what I'm afraid of is like I don't want to just hear your issues and then there's no next steps because Right in terms of timing or for me it's it's how can we actually so based off of these solutions that you're proposing like Let's start having that conversation to be like, but this is something we can do like and these are the steps tutoring center we've been talking about in terms of the LCAP. I know it was geared towards elementary school, but if we decided to move forward in that way as a district, I don't see a reason why it can't be like one for elementary and then one for the secondary or one for high school. And then it doesn't address your specific teachership, but at least it provides a forum for hopefully it would be like every day after school for like these two hours or this block that you can go to people who That's a potential solution that may or may not work with you guys. But let's, for me, let's figure out.

[1429] Nancy Thomas: There also seems to be things that can happen in the classroom that teachers can do. In the way they organize you into groups, perhaps, and have you. Cooperative learning. Cooperative learning. This direct teaching model is not, doesn't work. And everyone knows this doesn't work. It needs to be a mix of collaborative learning, project-based learning, and having you help each other learn, dealing with your misconceptions, making sure you're allowed to make mistakes, and then be able to discuss and understand, you know, why your answer maybe didn't make sense. But help you think through it, not tell you, oh, that answer's wrong or something. That's also a question.

[1485] SPEAKER_18: together as opposed to top down.

[1488] SPEAKER_17: One of the things that I think I wanted to ask you guys is have you had this conversation with people at the school? Sorry, what did you say? Have you had this conversation with the leadership at the school yet?

[1500] SPEAKER_28: No, because I wanted to keep it here and then I was going to move it with them tomorrow because I have my meeting with them tomorrow at the ASB meeting.

[1507] SPEAKER_17: I think that's a good step. I think that being able to meet with the site leadership and the leadership team And having that aspect of professional development be kind of in collaboration with students would be very helpful. And I think that that's part of a longer term solution where if they're willing to commit to working with you guys for the rest of this year, because I think it'd be powerful for this conversation to happen in front of the staff. It's a big staff, it's a big school, but I think that it's a healthy conversation that needs to happen. And I'm pretty sure that If you need help facilitating that, we're glad to help with that. And it sounds like an overly simple solution, but I think it's important. You know, I think part of it is, and I'll say it, that you guys have had at least three principals in four years. You know, and I think that has an impact. And I think it's certainly, I know it's had an impact on teachers.

[1569] SPEAKER_26: It's like moving back and forth.

[1571] SPEAKER_17: There's a little bit of PTSD going on, and it's not anyone's fault at that building, other than there's been a lot of churn in leadership, and I think that's something that we have to call out and try to get past it. I like that you guys are trying to bring solutions and trying to change it, but it really is In my opinion, what's at the core of the belief to allow you to treat students that way is part of the question that I would be asking is, you know, what drives the belief that it's okay to talk to one student this way, but other students might be treated differently? You know, and not that it's all teachers, but I think that to really recognize the positive behavior and call out the really good examples that's also important too so I'm sure there's teachers that you don't have any of this go on in their classrooms so it's not only trying to fix it but it's also how do you reward what's going right and is there a way that students can help recognize teachers for doing the right thing you know maybe showing up with a cup of coffee one morning or you know whatever that might be but I think that wherever it goes after today I think definitely a step to meet with the site leadership is is definitely a great idea. And however I can help or not help, I'm happy to do what you guys need. But I think that you guys have been through a bit in your four years in high school. I know that.

[1660] SPEAKER_19: From my perspective, I think the role of the board in this is to ensure that the structure at the school allows for the changes that you need to have. Yeah. And I think that's our role is not to go to a teacher and say, you're not doing this right. No. Because we can't do that. But we can work to get a schedule that allows enough flexibility so that you can work out meeting with the teachers, or you can work out giving the supplies, whatever it might be. Whatever you feel is needed. I mean, you as learners know best how you learn. And you need to be really clear in telling people, I don't understand this. Can you say it another way? It's too noisy in here. Can we have it? It's not bright enough. I need some sunlight. Whatever it is that works for you to learn, to enable you to learn, I think that you've got to be advocates for yourself. And I think letting people know. And so having a process that frees you to do that. It's very scary to tell a teacher who's in charge of your grade, hey, I don't like the way you lecture. That's a scary thing to do. That's why a lot of people don't stand up. And they oftentimes don't know what's wrong. I mean, because you are just now in your development getting to a point where you understand what works for you. You know, if you talk about ninth graders, they may or may not understand. Sure.

[1746] SPEAKER_18: I would just agree with that. I mean, I think at the beginning, I think you already understand whether or not the folks are good or not. And just for the record, I was one of the rabble-rousers for my ninth grade teacher to do a petition saying, this person is not teaching. This person is not moving forward. two of my classes to sign it, right? And so I was one of the route browsers for that, and then figuring out what the next steps were. But I think, going back to this piece of respect, I can't see it. And Drigo, correct me if I'm wrong. I was trying to see if I can break it down into pillars for your for your issues. So it's respect, it's student-centered learning, and then tutorial. So tutorial kind of seemed like it was its own thing, but it could be different.

[1797] SPEAKER_28: Are there... Well, okay. We do have this list of solutions for all the problems that we've talked about before. Do you want me to just, I'm just going to list them all. So then we can go through each individual one. OK, so solutions. We thought there could be a collaboration between disciplines, like between the departments, of kind of what they're learning. And you know, we're in the 21st century. We should be able to have some sort of collaboration and not be stagnant and work towards a better education. and ultimately have students that are learning within the classrooms. This is for the students. How are the students learning? Are they not grasping on this concept? Do we need to slow down? Maybe it's not so, oh, we need to keep up with this textbook by this timeline because students fall behind. Maybe it's like, OK, I'm going to teach this to the best efficiency that these students understand because that's how it is in elementary school. The teachers go by what the students are learning. students still kind of need that in high school. Because we're going to be on our own in the next few years. Where are you going? College, I hope. I hope. And then we're talking again about changing the class structure to also help the students that are learning. There are literally thousands and thousands of testing results that collaborative learning and working together is the best way for students to learn, for anybody to learn. Even creating our country, how our country is going to work and build, they all got together in a room and they refused to leave for days upon days until they all to each other and got all their concerns out and problems and solutions because you know maybe you don't think one day what someone else thinks a different way and boom suddenly you understand. So we were thinking in some classrooms we found that when students collaborate with each other they're able to understand and they're able to learn more efficiently. And so we wanted to kind of maybe bring that down to the simplest of the class structure of having like groupings. And I don't know if you guys saw in the library, but they have the new desks and chairs that were donated to us that are able to move up and down, and they're grouped up in pairs. And those are awesome. And students go in there, and they collaborate with each other, because they're not able to in class. And so why don't we bring that into class, so they don't have to feel the need to go to the library. So you're talking about furniture, even.

[1960] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, even down to furniture. These are simple things. Yeah, our desks are not conducive to putting them together in a grouping. Yeah.

[1970] SPEAKER_19: And then... Now, that's something that's in the board preview. Yeah. That is something that is a structural thing. Yeah. And I think that that's the kind of thing that we need to hear. Exactly. What kind of support do you need? And it's a school site where this action has to take place. You know, it's like Frankie, he went to his principal, right?

[1993] SPEAKER_18: I started at the teacher level. Right, which is why... And then I moved to an ally that I had among teachers. And she helped me navigate to the principal level. And then all of a sudden, surprise, surprise, the teacher was teaching. And I'm like, wow, this is great. And I turned around because there was an evaluation that was happening. But there was some progress that was made. So that's my experience. And then my teacher ally, that person was the one who was going back with me and supporting. So I've had experience where I've of awesome and amazing grade teachers, and then there's only a couple.

[2031] SPEAKER_19: And I have to commend you for that, because I think this is what they're going to be getting from it, too, is an empowerment feeling that you can do something better. So you need to speak up, and I'm so delighted. And I think that what we can do to help you in getting this process going, I think that's what we really want to do. Because your suggestions are great suggestions. I don't think there's any doubt about that.

[2052] Nancy Thomas: And your research, I mean, What you're talking about is backed up by research, and I found this today, and I couldn't help myself. I printed it out. I paid for it myself. It's about 30,000 students and 20,000 student work samples being analyzed, and so it's something that I hope I hope you'll take a little bit of time to read and see if this kind of fits in with what you're experiencing, how you're being perhaps let down.

[2086] SPEAKER_28: Yeah. OK. The last few things on the list was like, you never stop learning. No one does. And we feel like not to kind of say it to the teachers that are teaching us, but you never stop learning. Kind of have them learn about the generation back Everyone learns differently. Everyone learns differently in the classroom. And we actually did diligent research within the CTSP. CSTP. CSTP. And here, this is it. It's the continuation of teaching practice. This is given to every teacher. And in there, it states all the things of what a teacher should be doing. And it's standards for the state. And there should be multiple variations given to the students on how to teach. You guys want to go on?

[2147] SPEAKER_32: Well, we found a bunch of different sections in there that related back to what they're doing and what they're not doing. they're doing basically most of it but there's some stuff that's like kind of like yeah like the the stuff that really um that we want to go over so um

[2174] SPEAKER_17: a couple things. I know we're getting kind of out of time, but I think that the idea of meeting with the site is a good idea. I think the idea of asking to develop a teacher-student administration kind of culture and climate committee would be helpful. You know, and I think that if I were in your chair, I'd be thinking about Who are the teachers that could help you? Who are your advocates that you might want to have in that room to kind of help send this message to the larger staff?

[2207] SPEAKER_27: Mr. Rodriguez.

[2213] SPEAKER_17: Mr. Rodriguez. Ray? I must have missed him. Because I think part of How we would normally handle issues like this that come up at a site would be just like that. So how do we have a committee that really can have a hand in, okay, we're going to have a training for teachers this Friday. Can you guys come and do a presentation to talk about what's going on? And then part of it too is, do we have a survey at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year to see if we made a difference? of how kids feel, and then if we use that survey again the next year, and just establishing some metrics of, hey, we are where we are, but how do we know we're making a difference going forward? You know, and I think that that's important. And I think on your teacher standards, it'd be very helpful for the administration to know, like, the group you would go through and agree and highlight, these are the really important things that we think would help us, that'd be helpful for them to know, and how do we communicate that with teachers? I think that the challenge with teachers is that they're so overwhelmed, they have so many things to do, there's so many responsibilities, and I think what we need to do is help them simplify things in a way that is more manageable so they don't feel like it's overwhelming, because it's a tough task. And I think that, but to take the approach that, hey, we're going to try to make a difference on three or four really important things this year, that's tangible. For you to try to fix everything, you're going to just go crazy. I mean, I saw one of the ideas was something simple like don't walk past a student without saying hi or something.

[2323] SPEAKER_19: Oh, that's important.

[2323] SPEAKER_17: That's the one. That's simple. You know, it's simple. But we all get busy. I know I've done it here where I'm in my head thinking about something and I walk past someone and they'll say, hi, you've got to really push yourself to not do that. But those are some things that are really simple. But I think you'd be really surprised to see how the adults will respond, especially if you approach it the way you've approached it with us, which is problem and solution and We're not here to complain, we're here to help make it better and we'll roll up our sleeves and work with you. I bet you this would be very impactful, the same kind of structure maybe with a little more beef and solutions to bring to the staff. I think they'd be very excited to hear from you guys.

[2368] Nancy Thomas: And maybe Dan mentioned about the structure. I think it's really something that we at our level can be looking at. What can we do to build in time so that you know that you can go to your teacher and get help so that there's scheduled time. And I think that's something that has to happen at the superintendent's level. And whether or not we need new furniture at the high school, people are telling me we do. That will facilitate cooperative learning. That's also something that, along with the kind of professional development, to help teachers understand how cooperative learning works. how they can move toward it if they're not already doing it.

[2413] SPEAKER_28: Yeah, ultimately, we all agree that we want just some sort of policy to kind of be established for these, for like a syllabus for teachers.

[2424] SPEAKER_26: No, like how we get a syllabus in the beginning of the year. And like they state their rules. So like I'm not saying that we should state our rules, but we should state like our, not our beliefs, but like what we should be seen as a student.

[2436] SPEAKER_32: Like our natural rights.

[2438] SPEAKER_26: Yeah.

[2438] SPEAKER_32: Or your needs.

[2440] SPEAKER_19: In other words, most people do not go into teaching because they hate kids. They go into teaching because they love kids and they want to make a difference. They're not going in for the money. So those are two things that eliminate. But sometimes they get waylaid. And so being really clear about the fact that you feel that these are things that are my needs as a student. And if you don't fulfill those needs, I'm not going to learn. You're letting them know. They should know these things. But sometimes we forget. Sometimes adults forget. And that would be really, I think, powerful if you say, I need to have clarity in terms of what's happening during my class period. I need to have a website where I can go and I can check. I need to have visuals posted on that website so that I can go back if I've missed something or lost something. I need to have an outline of what going to be expected during a certain period of time, be it a month, or a semester, or a day, whatever it might be. And that I can go and I know it's going to be updated, so that if the teacher is taking their time and spending it, they'll know that it's going to impact the most kids. So go beyond the basic. Right, right. And I think this comment about looking at you straight in the eye. Your best teachers look at you in the eye. The teachers that can't make eye contact, you're gone. You know that. And it may be a personality thing, but it's also a trainable thing. You can teach people how to interact with kids.

[2532] Nancy Thomas: I think customer service is something we need to ratchet up in every aspect of the district. From the time you walk into an office, someone should look up at you. Hopefully, they'll stand up. They'll say, hello, may I help you?

[2546] SPEAKER_28: I do know teachers, they have peer mentors. I know they have that program. And they've been doing that two years now or something like that. I think it all has good intent, but I've talked to the teachers about it also. And it's like, maybe someone has a bad way of teaching, and they're mentoring this new teacher. And then suddenly, we have two not best way of teaching practices being shown to students. And this was something that was found true. that I talk to the teachers about. And so kind of having a module also of, oh, these are kind of the good things to follow. These are maybe the not so good things to follow in order for students to learn in the best possible way.

[2599] SPEAKER_19: You know, if we had a contract situation, this is up here at Cali, a contract situation where the teachers contract to do certain things, and the students contract to do certain things, then it's something that's very specific. So whatever it is that you feel your needs are as a student, say, this should be in the contract, that I need clarity about assignments. I need clarity about grades. I need clarity about what my responsibility is as a student in that class. And the teacher needs to have things that they need to be able to provide pertinent, real information. They need to move at a pace that is is appropriate for my class and if I find I get behind then I need to do what I need to do because there is a need to complete a certain amount of curriculum in a certain class for the class to be relevant and to be acceptable.

[2655] SPEAKER_28: Yeah, so actually our class started creating, because you know how, okay, you know the handbook of the, like the rights for all the parents and everything that we're given at the beginning of the year and we're supposed to sign and turn in. So no one really reads it, but they sign it and we turn it in. But we looked through it, and we found that there was a lot of parents' rights, there was a lot of teachers' rights, there was a lot of district's rights, but there's no student rights at all. And there are state student rights that we found on the web. I don't have a website right now, but I have the link. I can send it later. But there are student rights that we have and we don't know about that we can have time off for certain reasons, or we can be given multiple ways to learn. And I don't know. There's so many, and I just feel like there should be some sort of written documentation that students know about in a common sense type of language that they can read and understand. That's so it's like states that the rights like this is your right as a student and like this is your education And you have a right to your education.

[2727] Nancy Thomas: There must be a there must be policies Around student rights that that we can look up because it should be an Ed code if you know yeah There are Ed codes, so it should be in our Ed code, but it's not in our Ed code. It's not in our Ed code. It's in the state Ed code.

[2743] SPEAKER_19: And that's what we found. Do we have anything in our policy at all about student rights? I don't know off the top of my head, but I'll certainly look into it.

[2750] Nancy Thomas: But I think that is something where we can help.

[2752] SPEAKER_17: I think we can certainly commit to let's incorporate something into next year's handbook and start working on it this year. And I think that's kind of back to where Mr. Preciado was going, is I don't want this to be the end of the conversation. I think it'd be good to bring you guys back to see how it's going in maybe four to six meetings, which is maybe another month, month and a half. Then you'll have a chance to meet with the site, take some steps, come back and report to us, because I think we'd like to know how that's going, and then that might give us time, too, to look at some policies and some changes to the handbook or regulations that we need to look at. But I think we can work together on some of those things, and I don't want this to be a one-shot deal, and I think that coming back and say, how did it go? What did you guys do? Is it getting better? What are you working on next? I think that's really important. Something that we can do is help just by giving it the time that is valuable to us and that we want to hear from you guys. I think that's important. We know that more of you aren't here. just because they've got other things going on.

[2825] SPEAKER_28: Yeah, we were supposed to have two other students that were super excited about it, but they are full-time students, and they also have to provide to their families, so they have jobs right now that they weren't able to get off. All the students that were involved, and even the ones that we just talked to, they're all super passionate about this. All that we say is from a mass majority, once again. And we all just want to learn. We feel like there's some better way, and we want our school district to acknowledge that.

[2858] Nancy Thomas: Well, I would be interested in having you read that and see if these student voices that are in this report are what you're seeing and what you're feeling also.

[2870] SPEAKER_17: And I think that would be helpful, too, is to start figuring out what would be a good student climate survey that might be useful. It can't be very long. Like an evaluation. Yeah, it's something we take at the beginning and the end of the year to know if we're making a difference on some of these big things. But I think we have to take the time to figure out on how do we agree what are the big things first. We don't want the survey to drive what we're doing. I think we want to make your goals and targets in agreement with the site, and then let's start working on those goals. And then once we know what we want to measure, then we'll start asking. But some of it's pretty simple. you're being treated better, or has customer service improved, or is tutorial easier to get to now? I mean, those are things that we can measure.

[2918] Nancy Thomas: Are we talking at the high school about some of the PBIS things? Be respectful, be nice, be kind. I mean, are we doing more than just posting posters on the wall? Are we talking about it among ourselves and with our staff?

[2933] SPEAKER_26: We have like a first day that they go over. And they go, you switch different classes, and then we talk about the P, and then the A, out of their respect.

[2943] SPEAKER_28: I know. At the beginning of the year, they have, well, actually, did we have to have it this year? They didn't have it this year because of the transition of the principal and stuff. So we didn't have the orientation days like we usually do. But we will, next year, have the orientation days where we go over these RRs. pillars for the school. In there, we can include the policies and the rights of the students. And this is kind of letting students become excited, encouraging excitement to learn. I think that's the key thing, because I don't know about you guys, but you kind of get dwindled. You're not looking for another four years after high school to do this again, when really that's not the case at all.

[2995] SPEAKER_17: Mr. Rodriguez just texted me. At some point, maybe not today, maybe in a future conversation, we'd like to know what kind of your perspective as seniors and as you're departing Newark to go on to bigger things, what are some things looking back that you think we could do to make things better for kids? I mean, that's kind of a closer to the end of the year kind of question. but and just to hear about your overall high school experience I think that's be valuable for this board to hear and I think that I think you're hearing a lot of support from the room for what you're doing how we approach it's very important I mean there's a lot of really good work going on there but I think we can work with the sites and certainly can help you with planning and how we how do you approach the situation because this is this is life things aren't going to be perfect and your attitude is the biggest thing you can bring to the table and how you show up and how you, hey I'm willing to work on this and I appreciate you playing, makes a big difference.

[3060] SPEAKER_19: Also your research is really important. Yeah. That you're doing your due diligence and that's marvelous. Yeah.

[3067] Nancy Thomas: You guys have done a lot of work. This is great because you know what teachers are expected to do and to the extent that as a group you can raise the consciousness of the all the school and the whole district about the important things for teachers to be able to do to respect you and to provide you with a standards-based opportunity to learn in the classrooms.

[3097] SPEAKER_26: I mean, those are there. Like, we don't really, like, state them. I mean, the state states them. Like, they should at least follow it. Because, like, they're giving it to them. And we're not really telling them, you know, do this, do this. But the state gives us a lot of stuff.

[3112] SPEAKER_19: It's kind of overwhelming. Yeah, I know. So I think it's really important that you're really clear about what it is you think you need.

[3124] SPEAKER_28: Yeah.

[3124] SPEAKER_17: So next steps?

[3128] SPEAKER_28: Well, should we look into, should the students look into more of like what the policies would be? Let us do that.

[3136] SPEAKER_17: Let us do the policies, the handbook.

[3138] SPEAKER_18: Based on the conversation, if it's okay, I have some proposed next steps. And then we can. Sure. So, what I heard you, Pat, say is having a teacher-student committee at the site level. So, in terms of the who, would be the principal, 12th grade reps, and then I would suggest 11th grade reps for continuity in terms of that, but you guys can. And teachers. Oh, yeah, sorry, I meant in terms of.

[3163] SPEAKER_17: Okay, yeah.

[3164] SPEAKER_18: Of course, yeah. Sorry, it's called the Teacher Student Committee.

[3167] Michael Milliken: Okay, good. Thank you. I didn't think that way.

[3170] SPEAKER_18: No worries. And then having a board advisory committee potentially on teacher student success with Sierra or whoever's the next board member as the co-chair. With quarterly updates, the focus would be on Newark Memorial High School at this point. In the future, hopefully it could include NJHS. And then kind of three or four different things that they could kind of look at would be student rights handbook, student climate survey review or put together, the tutorial discussion, the senior feedback, And then a input for the use of capital funds in a targeted manner. So capital funds are like furniture or building a new science swing or whatever that may be. So maybe it could be tasks. We get a formal structure of student input. So that's under the board advisory committee. And then attend facilities master plan session. at Newark Memorial High School. So this, if there's a way that the student leaders, you guys can coordinate at the high school, there's going to be a facilities master plan session that gets input from students and parents on what types of facilities, what are the needs for each site and district. So that would be, I mean, just seeing that data is going to be key in what the leadership is going to look at to move on next steps. And the last thing that I have is figuring out if there's a way that we can do LCAP student input. Maybe that's under the Board Advisory Committee, I'm not sure, but getting student input for the LCAP. I know that was a lot, but I guess it all comes down to, if we can establish a Board Advisory Committee on teacher-student success with Sierra's co-chair and then there maybe there's a way to have a process for a teacher to be the other co-chair with quarterly updates on these pieces so that the board is informed and then there's actual tangible next steps because I think for me what I don't want to get lost is we had a great conversation but then a year from now we're saying hey we had a great conversation last year But we took no tangible next steps. So if we create an advisory committee to be able to look at these things and then present reports on what types of action we can take, I think that's the best way to move forward from our role as the board in terms of that. If there's other things you want at the site level, that would be at the site. And then you don't need our input for that.

[3348] SPEAKER_17: So let me translate that.

[3351] Toni Stone: It's pretty comprehensive.

[3353] SPEAKER_17: But it really is plan the work, work the plan. So what's the plan? What do you want to do? What's doable? But you have to kind of adjust that on how it goes with meeting with the site leadership. But I think there's, and I'm going to assume there's interest in the board bringing this group back to see how it's going in another month, month and a half. And I can work with you behind the scenes in any way you want to help kind of pave that conversation in the most positive way.

[3385] SPEAKER_18: Yeah, sure. And as I am just, sorry, I rambled on. The shark's saying yes, I can do it. In one sentence, it would be structure, having a structure for what to look at. And then that way, you can actually examine what you want to. Hopefully you can read my handwriting. We'll call you.

[3407] SPEAKER_28: Yeah. I mean, ultimately, yeah, to conclude, I mean, everything that we said is we just, like, we want to be prepared for the future. Like, we are the future. We are the next generation. The way the school structure is now has been the same school structure when it was first established. It's never changed. Yeah. We actually looked at it a really long time ago. for factory workers, the whole class system. So we want to change that, because we're not factory workers anymore. We're entrepreneurs. We're movement makers. We're groundbreakers. We want to be treated that way and learn that way. So this is just a step, a first step, into maybe something greater.

[3457] Nancy Thomas: Thank you very much. This has been extremely educational. a good first step, I think, for more things to come during the year. I like Frankie's and Mr. Preciado's pillars to discuss. If we can't do it all, pick the ones that are most important.

[3477] SPEAKER_26: But let's do something. At least something that we can fix, at least in a short amount of time.

[3481] SPEAKER_17: Yeah, let's pick stuff that's doable. This year, you know, One of the things I think that, the only thing I was going to add to his list because I'm kind of OCD about that is senior exit survey. Now that you're leaving, now that we're not going to hold grades over your head, now that, you know, we can't torture you with some letter about your attendance, what would you tell us on your way out? I think that's important, because we're looking at doing exit surveys with students that are leaving the district. So we can help with that. But there'll be a lot of stuff. But I think part of it is we have to stick to what's doable. And let's not get crazy. I mean, it's easy to talk about all these things. But picking two or three is going to be a lot of work. So let's keep that in mind. OK? Thank you. Thank you, guys. Good job. Take a water with you.

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