Regular Meeting
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Meeting Resources
[26] Guadalupe Lopez: Justice Harrell.
[28] Nancy Thomas: You will notice that we do have a quorum this evening, but one of our board members has resigned. So we are a board of four, and one of our board members ill or sick child that he had to deal with. So we're moving on with three of us. And Mr. Rodriguez would like us to be as efficient as possible with our time this evening, I assume.
[56] Ray Rodriguez: Unless you allow me to put my leg up here and put ice on it.
[60] Nancy Thomas: Well, we wish you a speedy recovery. So I would next like to call for approval of the agenda.
[70] SPEAKER_32: I move approval.
[72] Ray Rodriguez: I second. I just had a question. Excuse me.
[75] SPEAKER_07: Before the- Oh, excuse me. We're- Board of Education, before your approval for agenda, I would like to formally withdraw the petition of- I can't. I'm sorry. We can't. I'll leave Cedar Childhood School. Yeah, we- But I'm the lead petitioner and then- I'm sorry, we can't.
[90] Nancy Thomas: We can't do that. Sir, we have to go. Thank you. This is our board meeting and not- Not a public meeting. Thank you.
[98] Ray Rodriguez: So what I was going to ask is, I see that the items are in order of what is action items, so that if I do have to leave, I can leave after we vote on everything. That's right. OK, good.
[116] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, we did that specifically to help you out. OK, so with that, please vote.
[126] SPEAKER_32: We're voting on accepting the agenda.
[128] SPEAKER_33: Yes.
[129] Nancy Thomas: Approving the agenda.
[131] Ray Rodriguez: Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I got that.
[134] SPEAKER_32: He doesn't have the voting. It's not us.
[137] Ray Rodriguez: There you go. Give me a second. Thank you, Larry.
[152] Sean Abruzzi: OK, good.
[155] Nancy Thomas: Three ayes, thank you. Next, we move on to recognitions and celebrations.
[163] SPEAKER_11: Ms. Salinas? Yes, good evening, board. This evening, we have Graham Elementary School and principal, Ms. Akilah Byrd, could come forward. And round of applause for our folks.
[181] Ray Rodriguez: You know the words are playing right now, Ms. Byrd.
[184] SPEAKER_17: First game of the year. Yes, opening night. Good evening. Thank you for that warm applause. And I am Principal Akilah Byrd. Good evening, Board President Thomas, board members, Superintendent Sanchez, and executive cabinet. Are you going to do it for me? Am I pressing this? I'm sorry. I'm ready to go. Or maybe not. Help me, Larry. There you go. All right. So who are we at Graham Elementary School? We have 376 diverse students. 167 of our students are English language learners. We like to call them bilingual. We are a Title I school. 232 of our students are on free or reduced lunch. We are a PBIS school, and we have lots of school pride.
[248] Nancy Thomas: Go back to that slide. Might I mention that that is one of the new place structures that were installed at all of our elementary schools last year?
[261] SPEAKER_17: Correct. And we actually took this picture on Unity Day in October of 2017, right after we got it installed. And that's why we are there. And that's become our infamous place for our staff photos now. Some of our campus initiatives this year is to continue the implementation of positive behavioral interventions and supports campus-wide, which is known as PBIS. We are still reinforcing our Tier 1 and have not yet advanced to Tier 2. We want to continue the implementation of flex time school-wide, increasing the time, and I will discuss that further. We have additional classroom support positions. We are funding a bilingual aid that is full-time as well as increased hours for our librarian clerk. Continued participation in West Coast Literacy Coaching and Writer's Workshop. We are in year two of the coaching for the teachers and we will be advancing to Reader's Workshop in the spring. We have parent engagement and are offering educational workshops for our parents. STEM workspace ready to go. We want to maintain our strong partnership with Think Together After School Program, who's also in the audience this evening, and teacher collaboration with professional learning communities. I just really wanted to capture the diverse languages spoken at Graham, as you can see how many, and I have the breakdown of how many students speak what languages. We have 191 English-only speaking students. 143 of our students speak Spanish. Nine students, seven students, six students, smaller breakdowns for other languages, yet they contribute to us being very diverse at Graham. So I wanted to point that out this evening.
[379] Nancy Thomas: It looks like you have almost as many English learners as you have, or speakers, non-English speakers as you have English only. Correct.
[389] SPEAKER_17: Yes. That's half and half. Yes. So our English language learners. Just my slides are out of order, I think. So I-LIT, which is a program accelerating English language through blended learning, we're using that this year with our upper grade students. So we're one of two NUSD schools that are piloting this research-based program this year. The lessons are focused on EOD, including whole class, small group, and independent practice. The bottom LLI is level literacy intervention for our primary grades. We have not yet started. However, we have a plan to also pilot this intensive Fontas and Pinnell level literacy intervention system this school year. It is a small group supplementary literacy intervention system to supplement classroom literacy teaching to meet the needs of our struggling readers as well as our language learners. So when looking at NUSD's strategic imperative one, which is the Newark Unified School District will provide academic excellence via equity and opportunities for all students. So at Graham, we implemented professional learning communities because we are all learners and it does take a village. There are three key areas that I've noted at the bottom, which are areas I call to grow. The first area is improving student attendance rates. So at Graham, we have noticed an overall peak of our chronic absenteeism rate for the 2017-2018 school year, which is last year. A student who misses 10% or more of the instructional days is considered chronic. We have 47 students who were classified as being chronically absent at Graham last school year. for an overall average percentage of 11%. That's a drastic increase from the 2016-2017 school year when 23 students were classified as being chronically absent for a percentage of only 6.2%. So when looking at the data, our data actually did capture a positive increase in student attendance rates last year after we implemented school-wide rewards and competitions for attendance. So we hope to continue to do that this year and actually expand that to more rewards. So we'll be talking about that with the school site council and getting more funding for that because we noticed that the extrinsic motivation actually does help our students. The next area is to improve our reclassification of English language learners. So the early data received from the LPAC scores, which is the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California, we anticipate reclassifying more students this year than in the past. However, we are still interpreting that data from 2017, 2018. So at this current time, I'm unable to give you the exact number publicly, but we are so happy with our English language learners who will be RFEPT, which stands for Reclassified Fluent English Proficient this school year. Our last area that we want to grow at Graham is improving proficiency levels in ELA math as measured by CAS, California Dashboard. I'm leaning, so I have to hold this. So I don't have a slide for this. I just want to read this to you with the data I've analyzed, and then I do have a slide showing data. So there was a decrease in Graham's overall test scores this past school year. According to the Smarter Balanced performance summary and testing in the area of English language arts during the 2016-2017 school year, Graham was 34 average points away from achieving the target goal of level 3. Today, I do regret to share that according to last year's data for 2017-2018, that we're now even further away with 43 points away from reaching our target of level 3. In mathematics, it's a similar outcome with Graham being 55 average points away from achieving the goal of reaching level three during the 2016-2017 school year. And again today, according to last year's scores that were recently released, we are currently 59 average points away from the target goal of level three. I say that, but I move towards the next slide. This slide here is really important because what I did is I pulled out the data with a multi-year cohort comparison. This means these are kids who tested at Graham one year, say for example, third grade, returned to us in fourth grade, and tested again. So I've removed any students that didn't have two years data. So this will not include students who were only third graders last year, but it would include students who are currently seventh graders at the junior high school and they were sixth graders at Graham last year. So as you notice, we have some small wins. And the first slide is English language arts. So in 2016, 2017, 27% of those same groups of students were meeting standards. Last year, looking at that data of the same 142 Graham students, 35% of them are meeting standards. So they're moving in the right direction. And we are decreasing the number if you look at the standard not met as well as the standard nearly met. We've decreased both of those in the yellow and the red as well. So even though overall, when you look at the data, it doesn't show an increase with our level. However, for the students who have returned to us and we have two years data and they've tested at Graham, they are moving in the right direction.
[787] SPEAKER_26: I think that's really important to note. Part of it is I want to commend you for your courage and being honest with the data. I think that's critical. But I would also say what the story this is telling is kids that come with us and stay with us, teachers are reaching them. If they're here over time and they stay with us, we're reaching them and they're moving. So I think that's important too.
[807] SPEAKER_32: And I'd like to add that I think that that's one of the problem with the stats that we get is the fact that we do not follow the individual student. and you have a change or a flow of kids coming in, the cohort changes. And it's not relevant. You may well be doing a great job of teaching the kids, but they're not there to show the growth. And whatever the state has to do to figure out a way of showing the growth of individual students, they better get the act together, because that's where we really know whether we're doing the job or not.
[837] Nancy Thomas: And I think you can be proud of this improvement, cohort improvement, And let your parents and let the community know that our teachers are doing a good job. They are growing our students from one year to the next. Yeah, there's a lot more room that we need to grow them, but you have a lot on your plate with all the English learners you have and the number of unduplicated students you have to deal with also.
[865] SPEAKER_17: Thank you. I appreciate that feedback. Can I share something?
[872] Ray Rodriguez: being an English language learner when I first started elementary school. Recently, a lot of Latino or Hispanic leaders have requested that we take that crush away. The fact that because language is a challenge for us, we shouldn't be treated any differently than any other student. And that we need to challenge our students. And that's one of the reasons why we did the initiative at the high school, that every child should be college ready. And so that being said, seeing that there is improvement is great. Now, as a community member, What I'm trying to do is, when I talk to a new parent, because of the real estate market we're in, people are leaving to make some money, and people are moving in, and some of them do have children, and they look at numbers. And a lot of them, that's all they look at. So if the numbers don't look the way they should, then we have an obligation as community members, board members, the administration piece, to encourage those parents to look beyond the numbers. visit the school. So what I'm asking you is that if you have a parent, let's say they just moved down the street and maybe their child is four and they're going to be in kindergarten next year, do you have a policy at the school that allows that parent to come in and view the school and kind of an open door policy where they can This is where my child might go next year, even though the numbers don't look well. What is it about your school that's going to turn me on so that I want to bring my child here, and I don't want to take him to another school? That's what I'm asking. Because when the numbers don't look as well as they should, then we have to leap to another area to try to encourage parents to bring their children to our schools. And that's where I'm at. And I appreciate it. I know you already have something in place and that you do something, because I've visited your school and your relationship with Kidango, which is a big part of what we've done in trying to bring children to our schools. And it's just, I'm happy. I'm not happy with the numbers, but I'm happy that we're not using it as a way, as a crush, that we're moving forward. beyond the numbers, because we need to bring more kids to our schools if they're out there. Sorry, I didn't mean to go too long.
[1044] Nancy Thomas: Yeah.
[1046] Ray Rodriguez: I apologize.
[1047] Nancy Thomas: We don't want you to have to leave early before all the voting is completed. Great. Mr. Rodriguez, I mean.
[1053] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.
[1055] SPEAKER_17: OK, so moving on to mathematics here. And it's a much smaller increase, however, from 24% of our students meeting standards in 2016, 2017 to 25% of our students meeting standards in mathematics in 2017, 2018. So a much smaller gain. However, the gain is also there. So we are very excited about that and the increase moving in the right direction with the students that we see who are staying at our site.
[1087] Nancy Thomas: Do you have any predictions or comments with the early introduction of our new math adoption?
[1096] SPEAKER_17: I will say that it's it's been received with my staff and I'm going to speak to that in another slide with math because we've made that more of a focus this year and looking at the data for ELA we did our flex time for ELA and we did an after-school math program focused on math so we know where we put our energy last year and we can see it reflected in the gains that we received so we have some changes for this year. So flex time school-wide. In seeing the prior two slides and hearing how far we are away from reaching our target, we have already implemented this in a prior year. So flex is a time where each scholar is assigned to a classroom group for either English language development, intervention, or an opportunity of challenge, thus differentiating student needs during the regular school day. We know that we don't have enough manpower to reach every student after school in a group who needs the help. So we've manipulated our scheduling to do that school-wide during a school day. So we do this three times a week for 60 minutes, which is an increase from last year. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, you will see every student at Graham moving to a classroom where they are getting strategic intervention or maybe challenged because they're already on grade level or above grade level or that English language development instruction that they need. So we utilize our Friday learning team meetings, PLC, to progress monitor and to make database decisions about student progress. The good thing about this is it's aligned to the new professional learning community cycle. that the district is doing with a focus on math. And students enter and exit flex groups as needed. It's not set in stone. So if you need help in a different area, you will be switched to another group. So every teacher on campus actually strategically teaches a group, which may not be their grade level, may not be a student in their class, but they are meeting the students where they are.
[1236] Nancy Thomas: Are you doing the same thing for math?
[1238] SPEAKER_17: So this year we are actually only doing it for math as of now because that is a focus for the district with the PLC cycles, but last year we only did it for ELA.
[1250] Nancy Thomas: Is there a way to have enough time to do it for both subjects?
[1254] SPEAKER_17: That's a good question because I know one of my teachers in the audience has really been advocating for that when we meet as a staff. So we will probably be switching to ELA, but taking into account that Big Ideas is new and we're finding our way, that it seems like a perfect match. Thank you. Suspension indicator this is from the California dashboard, and this is the most recent data. They don't have anything for fall 2018 However, I wanted to share this slide because as far as our suspensions, we are in the green. And that is something very positive. And I wanted to share that. So for all of our students, our English language learners, our socially economic disadvantaged, our Hispanic students are all in the green, meaning they have all declined in suspensions or declined significantly. Now, our students with disability did have an increase. But I do want to share this data in reference to our suspensions, because the more time students are in school, more time for them to learn.
[1322] Nancy Thomas: Does that correlate, you think, with your PBIS program?
[1327] SPEAKER_17: Absolutely. I'm so glad you brought that up, because the next slide is PBIS at Graham. And yes, it does. We give positive praise tickets. And you can see the photo here. I actually have one here. And they're in duplicate. So students get this who are being respectful, responsible, or safe, which is our three school rules. Pass it down. Oh, pass it down. Sure. So that would be the behavior piece. We also have created scholar dollars, and they are given out to students who are earning a 3 or a 4 on an assignment of the week. It's a surprise, so they don't know what assignment will be chosen. Students can use both of these rewards as currency at our PBIS store, which is open after school on every other Friday. and they don't expire. So we have some primary students who over the summer, they actually have tons and tons and they're saving for a larger price. So during each Monday morning minute, I hold a school-wide PBIS drawing. where we all line up, and you can see the two red buckets. So I pulled three names from the primary bucket, three names from the upper grade bucket. And the rule is you must be present to win. And this is great, because students will rush to their line, rush to school, because your name may be called. And if you're not there, you don't get to win your prize. So this is really exciting for us.
[1425] Nancy Thomas: What's a Monday morning minute? Is that something you do every Monday morning?
[1430] SPEAKER_17: Yes, correct. So instead of lining up with their classroom teachers near the hallways, they actually line up on a primary playground and then we do the Pledge of Allegiance and I say announcements and we do the winners and things of that nature. So a lot of our parents are there, so it's a way for us to share and remind them about our upcoming events. So this is just a reminder, because we're very proud to participate in Unity Day, which will be next week, October 24. And we hope that you support us with that by wearing orange for a more inclusive site and just being no bullying and all of that. So that's a picture in the background of us last year. You may notice some of these shirts throughout the city with the smiley face emoji from Graham. This year we'll have a different shirt, but every scholar, every staff member will get one and we thank our PTA GPS for purchasing them. That's great. Makerspace News. So I have two short videos. This first video here is by one of our second graders. And second graders actually studied balance and motion during a physical science unit. Oh. OK. You saw that. Sorry. I need to spend more time in the maker space so Ms. Bird can get it going. OK.
[1515] SPEAKER_17: Oh. OK. I'm just. Yes. You saw that. All right. So they use their knowledge of balance to create their own balance toys. So that's a sample. You can see that was a pencil used. Now, this friend here is exciting, because even the staff, we were wearing this out last year, me included. So this is Dash. I want to introduce you to her. She's a real robot. A student used an app to create a new behavior for her. And this is her first musical performance. Hopefully, we have a little sound. Larry, can you, it changes the slide, okay. Thank you. We're so proud. And our sixth graders actually recorded informational puppet shows into videos about renewable resources. So this is a student sample about wind power with no editing. And just so you know, we currently do have a DonorsChoose project for a green screen on Rachel Bloom's DonorsChoose page so we can up our game.
[1616] SPEAKER_35: Today in this presentation, we are going to be discussing about how wind has its advantages, its disadvantages, and some cool facts. Oh, and here are my assistants. Thank you, Ariana. We'll be talking about the wind, of course, and we can't do it alone. So the people who will be participating in this is me, of course, Ariana, Brandon, and Jacob.
[1639] Jodi Croce: Hello, I am Brandon, and we'll talk about wind and temperatures today.
[1643] SPEAKER_35: And I will be talking about disadvantages of wind.
[1647] Joy Lee: And Arianna and I will be talking about some consequences of wind. And here now for the wind presentations.
[1657] Jodi Croce: Okay, one good thing or an advantage about wind is that it is non-polluting and that it's renewable.
[1667] SPEAKER_17: Okay, so that's just a snippet. However, give them a round of applause in case they're watching and we just played their video. Excellent job. So we're really trying to utilize our making space and in closing parent participation matters. We have a wealth of parents who just volunteer their time and do so much for me, the teachers, our office, just everything that we need and we really want to recognize them. Thank you. That's Graham Elementary School.
[1711] Nancy Thomas: Well, thank you. Is that it?
[1714] SPEAKER_26: Before you leave, would you mind having everyone that's with you from Graham please stand?
[1731] Nancy Thomas: Thank you very much for your presentation. It was great.
[1734] SPEAKER_17: Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate it. And thank you for having Graham this evening.
[1740] Nancy Thomas: So next, we move on to employee organizations. Do we have someone here from NTA? I see we do. Nothing to report this evening. How about CSCA? How about NEWMA? Okay, we'll move on. We have a public hearing on the sufficiency of materials, and we have a member of the public that would like to address it. I'm going to open up the public hearing, and I'd like to call up Heather Miles.
[1790] SPEAKER_20: Good evening, board. Welcome. I'm happy to be here. I'm a brand new teacher at Newark Memorial High School. And I am a biology teacher. I was kind of in shock when I started to find out that there was no money available to science teachers. And especially with the next generation science standards This requires a lot of hands-on labs and we have block periods. So my goal is to have labs at least once a week and a lot of activities so students could have an opportunity to see, hear, experience, do, think and speak science with the next generation science standards. Especially, you know, we're boasting STEM and I call it STEAM because I add art into the STEAM projects. This is very helpful for special ed students and EL students to visually see processes and do hands-on activities. Well, I find it very difficult to do hands-on activities with no money to buy consumables. In my labs, I try to be very creative. And instead of ordering from like wards or something, I go to the dollar store. I go to Foodmax. I buy instead of enzymes, I'm using hydrogen peroxide. developing labs with the science team there at Newark Memorial High School, great science team, by the way, to have low-cost labs. But still, we need money to go to Foodmax to get the materials for the labs. So, finding this out, I'm up for challenges and I try to get around obstacles. So, I said, okay. I'll raise money from the parents to for lab consumables so we could conduct labs. So I was able to raise almost five hundred dollars from parents. Then I find out that I won't be able to use this money for at least a month if not even longer. So now, again, my hands are tied about getting laboratory materials. One of the teachers, her husband donated some consumables so I could do some labs. And the other teachers shared what they had from last year, the lemon juice that was left over or whatever from last year. And I have spent my own money to get laboratory consumables. Thank you.
[1989] Nancy Thomas: Thank you so much. Could you wrap it up though.
[1992] SPEAKER_20: OK. To be fair with everyone, we have to limit the time. You know, with being STEM, or now I call it STEAM, I feel like I have my hands tied. And then regarding instructional materials, my projector shuts off during PowerPoints, presentations. I have no doc camera to draw with them for notes. And I'm just saying that something really needs to be done.
[2021] Nancy Thomas: We appreciate your input.
[2022] SPEAKER_20: Thank you.
[2022] Nancy Thomas: Okay, thank you. Okay, next we have Pamela Manna.
[2040] SPEAKER_04: Good evening. I also wanted to discuss the issue about supplies. Again my name is Pamela Manna and I am a special day class teacher. This year the math the district went through great lengths to approve and order supplies for the Big Ideas math curriculum. And all supplies were ordered so that we could all go through training and everything at the beginning of the school year to be ready to teach our students. Now, the special education teachers were given online access to our materials. However, we were not given workbooks, teacher's editions, or any other materials to be able to actually teach our lessons. It is now October 16th. And I just got a box of materials yesterday that included the student workbooks, but no teacher's editions, no manipulatives. And for example, today's lesson was supposed to start off with using 10-sided dice to get the kids creating random numbers by rolling the dice. When you don't have the materials you need to create the lessons, it's impossible for us to teach and improve our students' scores. If you want us to accurately and with fruition improve our students' scores and teach these lessons by utilizing the curriculum that you've asked us to use, we need to have those materials day one with the instructional manuals and manipulatives that go with it. to make us wait halfway through the year as with the common practice of this district. This is not the first time this happens. Every year I go through not having social studies, not having science curriculum, not having the access to the Lucy Calkins materials and I have to fight to get those materials for my students in my classroom. If you want us using your common core curriculum to work with our students to support their independent growth and nurture them through these processes, we need to have access to your materials that you've asked us to use. To make us continually wait until the middle of the year is not fair to us as teachers and not fair to our students who need that extra source and encouragement and support from you and from us. And to make them wait is simply unacceptable and unfair.
[2191] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to address this during the public hearing? Okay, I'm closing the public hearing. And next, we move on to public comment on non-agenda items. And we have Ms. Parks.
[2224] Cindy Parks: I think you would all agree that you're in the middle financial crisis. It's been coming for quite a while. Several years ago, the board determined that they wanted full classes, full classes at all levels, especially the high school because they weren't filling the classes. Last year, I requested the overtime and stipend report and shared with you that within one department, in the district office, there were two individuals that had earned $50,000 in overtime. Due to, and that was a report that you used to get yourselves, that you for some reason stopped getting to stop and you weren't able to monitor. Due to some of these issues and knowing that you've got your financial issues have been going on, I have been requesting the master schedule for the high school. I requested the overtime and the stipend report, like I said, last year, and it wasn't the first time I requested it. I also have been following the AP because of the reports that have been shown in the LCAP, and the way it's worded, it doesn't really accurately, in my terms, really provide, let's put it this way, a very open, transparent dialogue as far as how well the students are doing because of the way it's termed. So I've been asking for these reports for a couple of years now. I asked on October 5th for these reports. I was told I was having to wait until November 2nd to get them. These are reports that are very easily downloaded and could be printed in probably 15 minutes. Why am I being held off for four weeks? I understand, you know, you got workload and things like that. I'm not asking them for the following day. But why am I having to wait four weeks when I'm trying to look at financial issues that you yourselves should probably be looking at too? But I wanted to share with you this delay that I'm having to wait through.
[2362] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. We have two individuals that would like to discuss the Think Together invitation. That's Stacy Galdamez and Heather Morgan.
[2378] SPEAKER_06: Good evening. My name is Stacy Galdamez, and I am the general manager for Think Together. And this is Heather Morgan, and she's the quality assurance coach for the Think Together program. We're the nonprofit provider at your after school programs at Schilling Elementary, Graham Elementary, and Newark Junior High. First, on behalf of our Think Together staff, we would really like to thank you for all your support and the opportunity to bring our after school and expanded learning programs to your district. It is truly an honor to serve this community and a joy to watch the children of Newark Unified School District flourish into the students that they're becoming and the young people they're becoming now. On October 25th, Think Together is taking part in a nationwide celebration called Lights On After School to showcase after school programs in Newark and the important role these programs play in the lives of our children, families, and communities. Think Together was formed over 20 years ago when one community in California expressed a need for their children to have a safe place to go after school. Our founders saw this that some hard-working parents still lacked the means to pay for after-school programs and many kids had no one at home to supervise them. These kids did their homework without additional support and often would fall behind their peers at school. Today, Think Together delivers a program that not only provides a safe place for our children to go after school, but also provides homework help and academic support, healthy snacks, physical activity, and opportunities to explore new innovative subjects like robotics and coding that's coming to Newark soon.
[2480] SPEAKER_05: Millions of families across the country depend on our after-school programs. But lawmakers in Sacramento question the value of after-school programs, and they continue to be underfunded and at risk. think together is leading the fight to create a secure sustainable statewide funding solution for after-school programs and our lights on after-school event will bring greater awareness to our collective cause to ensure that the children in Newark Unified School District and all over California have access to high quality and well-funded after-school programs. So you're invited to experience the power of afterschool by attending our Think Together Lights On event on October 25th, starting at 4 p.m. at Schilling Elementary. But we do want to note that it is at all of the 3 sites. We just created a flyer and we're inviting you to one, but you're welcome to all. We encourage you to join the children, parents, staff, and community members whose lives are impacted by afterschool programs. Thank you for your time and we hope to see you on October 25th.
[2537] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Thank you very much for the invitation. Next, we move on to old business. Administrative regulation 5125.2, withholding grades, diplomas, or transcripts. This is the second reading. Would the board like to ask any questions or have a discussion? If not, I would entertain a motion. Move to approve.
[2564] SPEAKER_32: I second.
[2568] Nancy Thomas: Please vote. Three ayes, thank you. Oh, during the item, you can discuss it. When we have this item, you will be called up, not during public comment on non-agenda items. Oh, it's 11.1, when we will ask you to come up. OK, next, we move on to board policy. 3515.21, unmanned aircraft system, drones. This is the second reading. Move to approve.
[2614] SPEAKER_32: I'll second.
[2615] Nancy Thomas: Please vote. Thank you. Next, we move on to new business and we have one individual that would like to speak to this item. That's Mr. Kevin Toot.
[2636] SPEAKER_09: Good evening. First I would like to apologize for our order comment prior. I think it was due to, well, surprised by my colleague, Dr. Seuss, seeing that we withdraw the petition on August 12th through an email, but the agent still shows it, so his anxiousness kind of shows through. So I would like to apologize to the board for that. So we submit the petition on the August 16th, and having a couple meetings that we shown up here, explaining our position. But after much discussion internally, we decided to withdraw our petition from the Newark district. So since it's in the agenda, so since we already officially withdraw, I do not wish to waste precious time from the board member. So I would like to right now publicly submit our request to withdraw our petition. Thank you.
[2703] Nancy Thomas: Okay, Mr. Superintendent, would you like to comment and give us direction? Ms.
[2709] SPEAKER_11: Salinas. Yes, good evening. The petition for the establishment of the Uplift Cedar Charter School was received by the district on August 21, 2018 and this board held a public hearing required by the Educational Code on September 18th of 2018, so the board could hear and consider the level of support for the charter petition by teachers and other employees of the district and parents. Pursuant to Educational Code 47605, the board must either grant or deny the charter within 60 days of the receipt of the petition. A team comprised of various district staff members identified in the staff report including myself and legal counsel conducted a comprehensive review of the charter petition and accompanying documents so that a recommendation could be made to the board. The district's review team carefully analyzed the charter petition documents for legal sufficiency and public information regarding the petitioner's past history of involvement with the development of charter schools. Based on our comprehensive review and analysis of the petition, numerous deficiencies in and concerns related to the petition and proposed charter schools operations have been identified and we have determined that more than one of the legal grounds for denials exist. Specifically, as supported by the findings made in the staff report, we determined that the petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the program set forth in the petition. The petition does not provide a reasonable comprehensive description of all 15 required elements. And the petition presents an unsound educational program. It is staff's recommendation, since we have determined that more than one of the legal grounds for denial of the charter petition exists, we recommend that the board takes action to adopt the staff report as the written findings of fact in support of denial and deny the petition to establish Uplift Cedar Charter School. I do want to share that the petitioners requested that the petition be withdrawn from consideration and action by the board at tonight's meeting. They submitted this request after the agenda was public. Despite the request to withdraw, district staff requests that the board take action to deny the petition as recommended.
[2843] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Thank you. I would entertain a motion to that effect. I would like to so move. Second. Please vote.
[2853] SPEAKER_32: and get my thing up here.
[2860] Nancy Thomas: Five ayes, thank you.
[2861] Ray Rodriguez: Three ayes.
[2863] Nancy Thomas: Three ayes. Next we move on to 11.2 determination regarding process to fill the board vacancy. I'd like to thank staff for giving information to the board and refreshing our memory about how we proceeded last time when we had a board vacancy. I asked the staff to give us the documents this evening that we used for last time as an application for appointment for a governing board. I would like my board colleagues to discuss whether we want to go for a special election or whether we want to appoint and if we do want to appoint maybe look this over and see if we can agree to doing the same application process we did last time to move forward more quickly. Mr. Rodriguez?
[2923] Ray Rodriguez: I can go first. The process that we used last time worked real well, I feel. So I would like to use the same and do the appointment. Having an election and everything would just be a lot of money, and we don't have it, so the appointment. And then that person would fill the last two years of a member or Mr. Preciado's term. So that's the way I'd like to go. Now as far as when the meeting, I'm hoping, I know we only have one meeting scheduled in November, I would like to see if we can have that that meeting prior to us doing the changes that the board does the first meeting in December so maybe. have another meeting in November and do it that way if that's possible.
[2982] Nancy Thomas: I think by statute we have 60 days which gets us to the beginning of December. I think. So I but I agree with you that if we can do it you know maybe mid at a special meeting mid-November that would give us time to advertise the opening as we have to in public with November 30th And so would November 13th for a special meeting work out? That would give enough time for us to advertise and get applicants in. We also have to have a committee of the board review the applications so that only those that fulfill the minimum requirements, such as a residency. So would the two of you like to be that committee?
[3030] SPEAKER_32: I would like to speak before we go to that point. By doing it in November, we are excluding the newly elected people that come in. The November election will be the first, and I think we need to make a decision as to whether this is a decision should be made by the old board or the new. I don't know.
[3048] Nancy Thomas: We don't know. We don't have time for the new board because they don't take, they're not seated until December.
[3053] SPEAKER_32: Legally, they can't take place until December. And is that beyond the 60 days? Yes. OK, thank you.
[3059] Ray Rodriguez: I don't, if you look at the days, I think we have until the second week of December, that's my understanding.
[3067] Nancy Thomas: December 4th?
[3068] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so that's actually, that would be, when is our meeting in December? That's a Tuesday. First Tuesday of December, right?
[3081] SPEAKER_32: Which would be the 4th.
[3083] Ray Rodriguez: Right. So that's, that would be the last day we have.
[3089] SPEAKER_32: So we're asking someone to come in in a process that they've had no involvement with.
[3096] Ray Rodriguez: We could move the meeting to, how much time do we have from the election in order to have somebody sworn in? Is that 30 days or? I believe our 60 day window ends on December 4th for this process. No, no, I'm not talking about this process.
[3117] SPEAKER_32: The newly elected board members is in December, the first meeting in December.
[3122] Ray Rodriguez: No, we normally have it in December.
[3123] Nancy Thomas: But what I'm asking is how much time we have. I believe it's a certain amount of time after the election is certified. Does anyone know that date?
[3135] Ray Rodriguez: So if there's time there, we can move that back a week. And then on the fourth half, if we're within the legal parameters there.
[3147] Nancy Thomas: I think this board of four is perfectly capable of... It might not be four, it might just be three. Mr. Nguyen will still be a member at that time. So we're a group of four, we've done this process before. I think giving those that ran and perhaps weren't, ran for the election and perhaps weren't elected, giving them a chance to apply. with sufficient notice.
[3179] Ray Rodriguez: We would know that, right.
[3181] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, I mean, I don't want to wait until the last minute. I think that if we can do that in what you recommend.
[3189] SPEAKER_26: I think a couple of things. I think tonight, the only thing on the table tonight for a decision is to do a special election or to post that you're going to move in the direction of appointment. And if you move in the direction of appointment, Let's say that goes through and that's what you want to do. Then we start a 10-day window to allow people to apply. Anyone can apply. And also would trigger staff to put together the committee. That's about as much as you have to decide tonight. I think the other things you still need to probably work through. But I think that just kind of a point of order, there's a process to it. I understand. So I think that the other parts is definitely up to the board as well. But I think that I just want to remind you, That's as much as you really have to do tonight. Then we still have time to kind of work through how you want to do the next steps.
[3242] Nancy Thomas: If we're going to open the 10-day window to get the applications, I think we also have to have two members of the board be able to review those applications. So in addition to saying we want to, which I think the board is leaning toward, we want to have an appointment. We also need to have identified two of us board members to be a subgroup that will review the applications for eligibility.
[3272] SPEAKER_26: OK, so I would. You can do 10 days is just a minimum. You can do more than 10 days. Right. So you at least have to do 10 days. OK. So just so you have some parameters.
[3282] SPEAKER_32: But it must be done within 60 days.
[3285] SPEAKER_26: The appointment needs to be done within the 60 days per statute, is my understanding.
[3289] SPEAKER_32: And we will not have the new people, if there are new people. that are involved in the new board. They would not have time to do anything that's involved with it. So that was my question.
[3301] Ray Rodriguez: The 60 days triggers when Frankie or Mr. Brasado announced. That would be from the 15th.
[3309] Nancy Thomas: No, it's from the date. I checked on this. It's from the date that he submitted his resignation to the county office, which was
[3318] Ray Rodriguez: I thought it was the 15th. No, it was the 4th. It was the day after the last board meeting. Oh, OK. So you did it right away.
[3323] SPEAKER_32: So I would like to suggest that the cost of an election is not something that we want to do at this particular point. And I think there appears to be a group of people out there that are interested in being involved with the board that would apply for it, whether they're running for election or not. And I think that that means that we would have a greater chance of being successful for appointing one. If we do an election, we're talking about June. In terms of the first time we could do it and trying to function with a board that has four people is not necessarily a good thing. So I would like to suggest that the board go ahead with the appointing process rather than calling a special election. And I'd be very happy to be on the committee. OK. And you would like to?
[3367] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I would like to be in a committee. And I also want to start the 10-day process. OK. And that would We have, what, two weeks between now and the next board meeting? Or is it three? No, it's three weeks, actually, right? So we have time. So member Crocker and I will have time to review. And then maybe at the, unless you want to call a special meeting, on the first meeting in November, we could talk about when we're going to have the meeting to appoint.
[3399] Nancy Thomas: OK, so the application would be due by November 9. That would be the 10-day window. And we could decide. No. Yes.
[3407] Ray Rodriguez: No, the 10-day window starting from today, right?
[3410] SPEAKER_26: Off. The posting of the application should be at least for 10 days. And you're going to post it. So if you move in this direction, the first day of the 10 days will start tomorrow. But I think the next piece that I think probably where President Thomas is going to look and review the application to make sure that the contents are what you want?
[3429] Ray Rodriguez: That gives us a week. So member Crocker and I will, OK, so we got the 26th, let's say. So we have the 26th of October. And then what day is that? Well, 26th is the Thursday of the last week. So member Crocker and I can meet, let's say, on that Friday or the following Monday. I'm sorry. And then we'll.
[3446] SPEAKER_32: It's the 28th. 26th is a Monday.
[3450] Nancy Thomas: Well, actually, we were going to, do you want to speak to this?
[3458] SPEAKER_30: You had mentioned November 9 so after the election on the 6th if anyone wasn't elected into a position there were still a few days to complete the application and submit it and that gave enough time for the review to happen and then go into either a special meeting to do just the interview process prior to the December 4th meeting which would be the reorganization of the board. No, the selection would happen at the special meeting if you choose to do so.
[3488] Nancy Thomas: And the person would be sworn in at that meeting, if I recall.
[3492] Ray Rodriguez: OK, so we're throwing different scenarios here. So rather than the 10-day minimum, then, if we wait until after the election, and then, remember, we accept applications. The election's on a Tuesday. Let's say we accept applications through that Friday.
[3508] Nancy Thomas: Then that would be the 9th.
[3510] Ray Rodriguez: Right. So anybody that, for whatever reason, comes up short and through the regular election, then can apply.
[3518] Nancy Thomas: And they can also have access to what the application process is ahead of time to prepare if they want.
[3525] Ray Rodriguez: So maybe that'll give member Crocker and I time to review everything and then set up a meeting. So when do we want to set up a meeting now or just start the process and that's it, like the superintendent says?
[3540] SPEAKER_32: Let's have a schedule. Let's set up a time schedule.
[3543] Nancy Thomas: I would hope that we could have a special meeting after the 9th, after the last come in, and before Thanksgiving.
[3552] Ray Rodriguez: Right. So that Thanksgiving is... Perhaps the 13th or the 20th.
[3555] SPEAKER_26: The 13th. Right. Yeah, the 13th. The Tuesday. November 13th would be the Tuesday. Yeah. Right. Okay.
[3562] Ray Rodriguez: A tentative, we can set that as a date. Right, tentative.
[3564] SPEAKER_32: And that would be...
[3567] Nancy Thomas: at that meeting that we would appoint through the interview process.
[3572] SPEAKER_26: You have all the applications on the 9th. That gives you all weekend. And then until then, you could discuss it on the special meeting on the 13th only for this topic at this point.
[3583] SPEAKER_32: And the only thing that Mr. Rodriguez and I will be doing is verifying the information. We are not making judgments about it.
[3590] SPEAKER_26: We are just verifying information. I think the statute reads that you verify that they are qualified, which really means living in Newark.
[3602] Nancy Thomas: And 18.
[3603] Ray Rodriguez: And 18. So let's vote.
[3606] Nancy Thomas: OK. Well, one other thing, the format to can we tentatively agree that we want to use the same format we last year successful before I okay we'll use the same format so you you don't want to work with staff to set that up before when the committee would do that I would hope that we make a motion to just say start the process.
[3630] SPEAKER_32: I I'd like to see you make a motion you want to sure I'd like to move that we use the appoint a process for filling the vacancy on the board and that we start. doing the sending out of applications and the last day will be November 9th. And we will have a special meeting on the 13th to interview the candidates and make a decision.
[3653] Ray Rodriguez: Excellent. I don't have anything to add other than second it.
[3656] Nancy Thomas: OK. Please vote. OK, three ayes. Thank you. We have a process.
[3666] Ray Rodriguez: And don't forget to vote November 6th.
[3670] Nancy Thomas: Okay, next, staff has, would like to introduce this next item, projections for capital improvement funds.
[3683] SPEAKER_26: Mr. Wynn, and he's a minute to get his PowerPoint up.
[3688] Mark Triplett: Let me stretch.
[3695] Ray Rodriguez: Do you need more ice? No, I'm good.
[3707] Nancy Thomas: We'll take just a few minutes. Ms. Crocker.
[3998] Guadalupe Lopez: All right.
[3999] SPEAKER_36: Good evening, board members, Superintendent Sanchez. Tonight, I'm going to talk about the capital improvement project. Maintenance and operation and our consultant identified some key projects that we need to implement. We're going to be using Measure G or the Russian Fund to address some of these projects. However, before we implement these projects, we would like to get the board's approval to implement these projects. We'll be working with the ADIS with the facility master plan We will also be working with our construction manager on certain projects on as needed basis. There are some guiding principles that we use, safety and security. We want to make sure that our campus is safe and secured and in good working orders. But also we want to look at technology, integrate technology into the curriculum and making sure that everyone, there's equity across the board. We want to modernize our classrooms, our bathrooms to ensure that it's safe and sanitary. and also 21st century learning. We want to maintain our playground. I understand that a few of our playgrounds are off limits to our students, that it needs some repairs. We also want to look at parity in terms of moving the district office to another location, such as Whiteford and McGregor, and also the replacements of our power generator at the middle school and the high school. We also will be looking at solar panels and irrigation system to be more environmentally friendly. So our proposed action is to repurpose something that we have, such as modernizing our classrooms and our restrooms, as a few examples, but also looking at our parking lots that are deteriorated, doing repavement of our parking structure, as well as our playgrounds. Again, we want to integrate technology into the curriculum by making sure that our classroom is ready for 21st century learning. So in terms of measure G, this is what we're going to be looking at. HVAC replacements at the high school, building 100 and 800.
[4131] SPEAKER_26: Kai, if I may for a moment, I want you to, I think it's important to note the recommendations that we're bringing forward were based largely on CBOC recommendations. As well as Vanner, priority list. And MOT working with the consultant who was Lowell, Shira, who was here before. So I want to just be really transparent about where we're getting these ideas from. That is correct.
[4157] SPEAKER_36: Thank you for bringing that up. And also, plasma technology project with the interactive projectors. And we may have to replace some of the whiteboard, the existing whiteboards, with new whiteboards. And if you look at it, it's about $1.6 million to fire and safety. It's not much of an investment. It's about $20,000. Also, panic door hardware as required is $8,000. But asphalt replacements, trip hazards, there are some areas in the campus that considers hazard where kids or parents or community members walking on the campus can trip. And that could be a liability on our district. We're looking at the pavement, the drive-through pavement at Newark Middle School. That needs to be redone as well. And other location on as needed basis. So that's, we need to investigate that and that should be determined. Some of our flooring at our school sites in our classrooms are old. The carpets are 20 years old. We need to look at replacing those as well. And it can go up higher, but right now we're looking at about $250,000. We want to renovate our bathrooms. That amount is about $20,000, but I can foresee that may go higher because restroom does cost more based on my experience from the past. Plumbing and irrigation. issues, especially plumbing. From what Susan Condon has explained to me that every week almost our plumbing from one school breaks, then we bring out a plumbing company to address the plumbing issue. Then the following week another plumbing issue happened at another school site. So maybe in the future We may have to go out for another bond down the road to address some of the plumbing issues that are old. We want to look at security. Instead of using keys, maybe we can look at card readers as a replacement. And we can centralize where we can match all of the card readers at one central location. So it should be automated. The high schools already have security cameras, as well as the middle school. So what we can do is we should also place security cameras at the elementary school as well. And alternative power, again, replacement of the generators at Newark Middle School as well as the high school. And also replace some of the portables and then remove some of the portables that are not fixable. Let me go back here. Most of the portables, from what I understand, the life expectancy is about 20 years. So we're looking at about $500,000 to replace. So in essence, we're looking at about $10.7 million to modernize, upgrade our school sites.
[4362] Nancy Thomas: Do you mind if I ask how much money is left in Measure G? Because that includes soft costs, I read.
[4370] SPEAKER_36: $12.5 million. I can double check, but I'm pretty confident about that.
[4374] SPEAKER_26: That's what we have left in Measure G. So this would meet the requirement of the 85% rule?
[4379] SPEAKER_36: That is correct, without a doubt.
[4381] SPEAKER_32: I have a question. When was the last time? We do have card readers now, right?
[4386] SPEAKER_36: I'm sorry, say that again?
[4386] SPEAKER_32: We do have card readers now.
[4388] SPEAKER_36: We do have location, yes.
[4391] SPEAKER_32: It's not universal?
[4392] SPEAKER_36: We are going to upgrade them. We're going to be working with the vendors to work to integrate to make it all universal So the existing card reader that we have we may not to replace them. We can just use the existing Manufactured the same manufacturer and just you and apply it to the other locations.
[4413] SPEAKER_32: I hope that answer your question We can't buy new parts any longer
[4422] SPEAKER_26: So do we have to find another model that's?
[4425] SPEAKER_32: Well, I mean, a lock is a lock. If you're doing card readers, the life of the card reader is not as long as the life of the lock. And maybe card readers are not what we do.
[4436] SPEAKER_26: Or if there's a plan to maybe only put them in really high priority areas, a few fewer card readers. Currently, I think what he's referring to is we're having to borrow card readers from another site replace that with a lock to fix a card reader in an area where we might need a card reader.
[4452] SPEAKER_32: So if you had a locked area where the card reader got you into the major building, the rest would be locks.
[4458] Michael Milliken: Right.
[4459] SPEAKER_32: Because a lock is a key, and locks and keys are long, and they have a good life in terms of being able to do it. So I mean, I love the fact that card readers work. But if the life of the card reader is 15 years, maybe that's not long enough for bond money to be spent on putting more stuff out there. because we're still paying for it. So I think we need to maybe be clear about what is, a million dollars is a lot of money to spend in law.
[4486] Nancy Thomas: And one of the original ideas that I heard was floated around is that we can't get replacement parts, but we have elementary schools have these same card readers, middle school, I mean junior high and high school. The idea of being, retain them at the elementary schools, for example, And when we remove and upgrade the ones at the junior high and high school, they will provide parts to keep maintaining into the foreseeable future the breeders at the elementary schools, if that were the case. So I would hope that, I don't mind a placeholder, but I would hope that you would take into account some of these comments as you plan with Adis, our architect. our construction managers and so forth. OK.
[4540] Ray Rodriguez: I had a question. For the card reader, are we within our realm to do that, to use the old manufacturer as opposed to go out for bid? Because we're talking about a lot of money, so is there enough of it discount from the old manufacturer to, I mean, can we do that for one? And is there enough discount where we don't just go out for a proposal and try to see if we can get it for a little bit cheaper?
[4579] SPEAKER_36: Yeah, I can definitely look into that and get back to you on it in terms of whether we use the same manufacturer or we go out for a bid and use a different manufacturer. I think if we go out for a bid using a different manufacturer, the cost may be a little bit more. If we use the same manufacturer, we can integrate with the same existing system, but upgrade with newer technology.
[4603] Ray Rodriguez: I think there are big requirements. So the question would be, can we do that without, because there's certain guidelines that we have to go by as far as going out for bid because of the amount of money and everything.
[4614] SPEAKER_36: Definitely. It would be a formal bidding process, but the manufacturer.
[4617] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, it would be like extending a warranty or something. Yes.
[4621] SPEAKER_36: I'll get back to you on that. OK. So here, we're going to be using Russian funds with our facility master plan. We'll be looking at landscaping, improving the image of the campus at our various school sites. So again, the cost would be to be determined. But in terms of relocating the district office from here to Whiteford and McGregor, we met with a consultant, architecture interior designer, And they estimate that it's going to cost about $450,000 just to move, to redesign and move the district office from here to Whiteford. But we're going to do this in phases. We're not going to do this all at once. And also, we got to look at expanding the parking lot structure as well. We're looking at about $5 per square footage, so that may come out to be about
[4682] Ray Rodriguez: $150,000 so I personally we need that to be broken down further. Okay, you know relocation Could be the moving from you know point a to point B And you might also have expenses of bringing the that particular building up to code not saying that it's not but I we haven't had a Report on that building as far as what needs to be done. Yeah, so it would be the The actual fixing of the, or making sure that that building is, is we can actually move into it and then to the actual, you know, relocation piece where you're moving from point A to point B. Yeah.
[4723] SPEAKER_32: I'm just, I was looking at the 45, 450,000, that's about 10% of what it would have cost had we gone on with the city and putting the district office there. So that being a reference point, um, What is the square footage at Whiteford and McGregor?
[4742] SPEAKER_36: I don't have the exact square footage.
[4744] SPEAKER_32: I think that we want to make sure that there's a lot of things that happens in this building. I know the building is not necessarily in the best shape, this building. That's correct. And so I think that if we were to do what we had to do to maintain this for the next 15 years, what would it cost us? Would it be the $4,500 or $450,000? $450,000, right. a problem for me. $450,000, whether that would be it. So I think that we need to sort of look and see, number one, is that a better facilities for what we're using it for? And number two, is it economically really feasible? And then that leaves us with, what are we doing with the land here? And so those are all issues that I think we need to sort of talk about before we just move a desk over to another spot and say, we're going to have the district office there.
[4794] Nancy Thomas: The good thing about, I'm sorry, go ahead. I would also like us to consider that TBD there. I think we have an opportunity with the facilities master plan and with ADIS working with us to not just look at moving staff into Whiteford, but to make sure that this is a project that's scoped out in its entirety. Where is our boardroom going to be and what would be the cost of renovating part of McGregor for such a thing? the cost of moving the copy center and the IT department. I think rather than saying yes to $600,000, I would feel comfortable saying let's take it the next step and work with ADIS to come up with a comprehensive plan for each step, for each phase with a a complete estimate of what that's probably going to cost. And then we can always move ahead on the first phase, followed by the second, followed by the third. But then we have the whole plan. We have the architectural drawings. We know where we're going to move. We know how much renovating the bathroom or updating the bathroom is going to cost. We'll know exactly how much the parking lot is going to cost and where it's going to be. We'll see the drawings. exactly what the project is going to be and we will have a comprehensive plan at the end of it to look at and say yes or no to. But in the meantime, we can start spending money on developing the plan.
[4898] Ray Rodriguez: I have a question. Not to interrupt the gentleman here, but as far as how long his presentation is, because this is just
[4911] SPEAKER_26: How much more time do you need, Connie?
[4913] SPEAKER_36: I'll just wrap it up.
[4914] Ray Rodriguez: Because we're going to be talking about this probably more times, right?
[4918] SPEAKER_36: All right. I think I'm done.
[4920] SPEAKER_26: Thank you. Good answer. Good answer, Connie.
[4924] SPEAKER_36: This is our next steps.
[4926] Nancy Thomas: There you go. I mean, I would feel comfortable, and I don't know how you feel, but I would feel comfortable locating the Moving Ahead with the Measure G programs. There's only $2 million left. And the thing that is not on there was the science at the high school. That'll probably come out of science labs at the high school. That'll probably come out of the work that ADIS is doing on the master planning. So we have time, but we can at least start spending that 85% that we need to spend by next summer on these projects.
[4958] SPEAKER_32: So are you going to bring this back to us?
[4960] SPEAKER_36: Yes, I can definitely bring back in regards to additional research.
[4966] SPEAKER_32: I'm going to miss the facility meeting.
[4970] Nancy Thomas: I'm sorry about that. Do we feel comfortable saying yes to the budget? It's really a broad-based budget, which then they will be able to start working on. Because we'll be approving the individual bids and the individual projects as they go. But is this the list, is this the budget that we feel comfortable approving for Measure G?
[4998] SPEAKER_32: I think I would like a little bit more specifics on each of the things exactly. It's very general.
[5006] SPEAKER_36: It is something that we should implement because, man, the HVAC, we have to replace the HVAC units at the various locations. There's asphalt that are cracking that we need to repave the area.
[5019] Ray Rodriguez: So the, I mean, I think Ms. Parks wants to.
[5023] Nancy Thomas: Before we, yes, before we She often wants us to have the presentation before she gives her remarks anyway. Is that correct, Ms. Parks? Would you like to come forward now? I'm sorry, I missed that. Go ahead. Come on. No, it's staring me right in the face.
[5046] SPEAKER_26: If I could add maybe something that might help move forward a little bit. What I'm kind of hearing is there's some interest in maybe moving forward just with the Measure G portion of the budget. to be able to meet the 85% threshold, but asking us to slow down on the Russian until we get more detail. That's kind of what I'm hearing.
[5065] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, that's is that that differs from the recommendation, right?
[5069] SPEAKER_26: So I would be amended in that regard, but you want to hear we can make a motion on that after Miss Parks.
[5076] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, not before Miss Parks. Motion stops.
[5085] Cindy Parks: Thank you. As a longtime member of the CBOC, first of all, I'm very thankful that you're shooting for meeting the 85% within the 36 months of the sale of the Series C. I did want to make a few comments. And I do like to wait till after the presentation, because sometimes there's something that's like, wait a minute here. And one of the comments was made about the elementary school not having cameras. And there were cameras put. Now they're not as comprehensive coverage. as the high school and the junior high, but they do have cameras. So I just wanted to make sure that people understood that that is there. And I'm glad that I did get to listen to all of you, because you expressed a lot of the things I already had written here. And I want to appreciate the fact that you're taking a step back, especially with the Russian, that that is a huge endeavor. And there's very little specifics on here. And I think if we learned anything from the merger, the $60,000 that grew to $120,000, that grew to, what is it now? I don't even know. But to have it all spelled out before you start spending it, I really appreciate your comments this evening. Just a couple of other things that I don't know. We have new CBO here and a lot of new people. But when we went on the tour of Snow, there are two classrooms. And if you ask the custodian they can tell you that literally when you walk in the room you slope. And when when we were on the tour as we have to go every year literally I walked into the room and it was still dark where they were fiddling around trying to figure and I could walk it and I could feel it. And he showed us that he put a ball and it rolled. So when you're talking about your flooring just to mention that there are two school two sites or two rooms that snow that that do have a very large incline. Then as far as the under the asphalt replacement safety and ADA access, the Graham ADA compliance, the 21,000, I don't know if you noticed that that was already in your warrants that you'll be approving this evening. That 21,000 is being paid out of Fund 40 right now. And so I'm assuming that this is something that you're looking to maybe journal and transfer now to Measure G. I'm just bringing this to your attention that it's already being paid through Fund 40. And then, again, I wanted to, I was going to mention the science that it was not showing on here. And that was one of the things that was one of the big ticket items and one of the things that was the constant all the way to the $13 million plans that were drawn up. And those plans have already been, that money's already been spent for plans to be, you know, three different versions. And, you know, it's just wasted money, $26,000, if I remember correctly. You've already had plans drawn up, you know, so just to make sure that that's not forgotten. So, again, thank you for your looking at the Russian money and whether you put the money here or you put the money there to evaluate what's the best.
[5286] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for your time. Thank you.
[5289] Nancy Thomas: Okay, so I think what I'm hearing staff ask is that we give tentative or we give approval to move forward on the Measure G projects and that we wait on the Russian for a more detailed plan. Yeah, I'd like to make that motion.
[5304] SPEAKER_32: I will second.
[5305] Nancy Thomas: Okay, please vote. Three ayes, thank you. Next, we move on to the change order with DECA Tech for the district-wide audiovisual project. And I assume we would want Mr. Simon to address this. I've always said those chairs are dangerous. They really are. They are a safety.
[5340] Ray Rodriguez: Careful. We might have to do a change order for the chairs.
[5344] SPEAKER_29: So this comes from as we started the work on the project. The original plan was to go over existing whiteboards. And as we began to install the interactive projectors, make sure TV line can hear. The interactivity portion was not working because we discovered that it's almost imperceptible to the eye, but there's enough bowing in the old whiteboards because they're 30 some odd years old. that it would make that portion of the projectors non-functional. So we're bringing this to try and to rectify that part of the project.
[5378] Nancy Thomas: I have a question. Is it OK with you if I ask a question, or do you want to speak first? I didn't ask to speak. No, I didn't ask to speak. OK. My question has to do with we are putting projectors in, but there are several classrooms where it's not feasible to do that, right?
[5397] SPEAKER_29: The last part of that, that third paragraph where it said some classrooms where it's unfeasible to install projectors are infeasible. And we're looking in those rooms, working with the principals to change if we have to, to either a standard throw projector or a large screen television.
[5413] Nancy Thomas: So is there any ability for specific teachers in specific classrooms to say, I don't want a whiteboard. I would rather have a feeling.
[5423] SPEAKER_29: So our goal is to standardize across the board. I mean, there have been a couple of cases that have been brought up, especially at secondary science rooms that are longer, where maybe they want a larger screen instead. And that's something we're still working on. But in general, we're trying to standardize the room so that the experience is the same in every classroom, that you don't have one thing here and one thing there.
[5448] Nancy Thomas: I can understand that. I know that there are certain grade levels, teachers on the primary level that do not feel that the projector system is amenable to, but you piloted this and you feel it's best at all grade levels?
[5467] SPEAKER_29: Right. So the difference we do it, the only difference we really try to do at grade level differences is the height that they mount these at. Obviously, you go a little lower at younger grade levels and a little higher at, you know, four, six. I mean, I think there's a lot of reticence to start. But the big thing I would say is even if you're only going to use it as a projector, from what I've seen from them, they seem to be better in just about every way. They look as bright as a television when they're on. They're lampless, so they should have a better long-term maintenance outlook. And really, the image quality is really, really high on these. I think the reticence comes from the fact that it goes on the whiteboard. So if you had posters on the whiteboard or you had things, you have to change the way you're using that.
[5512] Nancy Thomas: Yeah. OK. Ms.
[5514] SPEAKER_32: Crocker? As a retired teacher, I appreciate the fact that every teacher likes to structure their own environment. in a way that is suitable for how they teach. However, we did have a teacher at the high school that painted her room black. And I think we have to have some parameters in terms of what would work. And I think that having the standardized in all classrooms the same, because teachers do move from one classroom to another. It's not something that they have forever. And as a teacher, I know I like staying in one room, but that's sometimes not always possible. So I think that we need to standardize, and I appreciate that. I'm sorry that we have some that cannot do that.
[5556] SPEAKER_29: It's very minimal, really. And it's usually not regular classrooms. It's different spaces. Really, it seems to be coming up in science rooms, where there's a lot of cabinetry and permanent fixtures that can't be moved. OK.
[5569] SPEAKER_32: And there's no way we can utilize that technology, because the classroom doesn't allow it? You're saying going to a projector rather than using
[5581] SPEAKER_29: We're going to try and keep the interactive projector as much as we can, but it really has taken place mostly at the science rooms and libraries, where the libraries are wall-to-wall bookshelves. So the only way to put in, if you were to go with an interactive projector in those types of rooms, you would have to be ripping out bookshelves and doing a lot of additional work. And I would say in those types of rooms, the interactivity is not as critical. So those are the sort of scenarios we're looking at. But they're sort of coming up as we go. We're only on our second school now. So we don't really know until we see them.
[5615] Nancy Thomas: Well, I would entertain a motion.
[5620] SPEAKER_32: I move acceptance.
[5623] Ray Rodriguez: Second.
[5624] Nancy Thomas: Please vote. Three ayes, thank you. Ah, the agreement with Stage 1. Who would like to address this? Is there any speakers? OK.
[5644] SPEAKER_36: We've been in a longstanding relationship with Stage 1. And basically, what we're doing now is just renewing contract terms with Stage 1 for 2018-19.
[5656] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Do we have a public speaker? I just want to check. I see some faces.
[5665] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, they can come up. That'd be nice.
[5668] Nancy Thomas: Ms. Maloney, would you like to?
[5669] SPEAKER_32: I know you don't like speaking in public, but yeah.
[5676] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for hanging in there for two hours.
[5679] SPEAKER_38: Yeah, thank you. I'm ready for dinner. Well, other than being 18 years at Newark Memorial High School, and other than bringing such joy and fine arts to our wonderful Newark community, We've helped funding for new lights for the high school. The light board last year we arranged for student training. The light board last year we it was $10,000 and we used the we got it through the Newark Betterment Fund. I believe we do help with the STEAM project because we are fine arts. Students can work with us and audition for our shows and do tech and other things. Last summer, several students participated in our Ohlone College production, giving them college credit, which was great. We share costumes and props and sets and bathrooms and everything else. Building supplies, we help with the building supplies. Again, we share everything with the drama club and help produce their shows, actually. So we help build their sets and things. So it's a great partnership, and we really appreciate this partnership. So we'd like to stick around.
[5769] SPEAKER_32: Well, I think we appreciate the partnership, too. And having our students being able to work with professionals is a fantastic bonus for them and for us. And so you give quality shows for the community, and that's a plus, too. That's right. Thank you very much. I agree.
[5786] Nancy Thomas: It's been an amazing partnership. And our students have benefited so much from your list, but just in being able to work with professionals like yourselves. I agree.
[5801] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. The partnership going back, what, 20 years? I like that it comes back to us every year, because you can give us an update on what you're doing. You might prefer every five years, but you've been mentors to our kids that are in drama, and our programs that the high school puts on, it's second to none. And I know you're right in the middle of that.
[5831] Nancy Thomas: You're all volunteers.
[5832] SPEAKER_32: I appreciate it.
[5835] Nancy Thomas: Well, I would like to move acceptance. Second. OK, please vote. Three ayes. Thank you. Yay. Now I can go have dinner. Now you can go have dinner. Right, otra vez. OK, next we move on to an agreement with Susan Seala, consulting.
[5858] SPEAKER_36: So our district don't really have a purchasing department for the last few years. So what we're planning to do is utilizing Susan Salaya's professional services in regards to, we're going to go out for formal bidding that requires bid specs for request for proposals. She's going to assist us with the process from start to end. And it's a low cost dollar investment. She's charging us $90 per hour.
[5889] SPEAKER_32: Thank you. Ms. Crocker? What is being done now for purchasing? How have we been handling it without her help and no purchasing department?
[5899] SPEAKER_36: Based on my experience, some county are more stricter than others. In San Diego County, they were very strict. They went by the book. And you had to have three quotes in every single project, anything from $45,000 $75,000 in formal bidding, but anything above $75,000 to $175,000 and above, you got to go for formal bidding. And you want to make sure you dot your i's, cross your t's, because some vendors will question, how come I got outbid versus how come I wasn't awarded the contract? And then they may petition, and that's where it gets more costly.
[5943] SPEAKER_32: What are we doing here at Newark? What did we do last year without this consultant?
[5949] SPEAKER_36: I believe they were, I believe the, the, um, Venner has been doing a lot of the legwork for us in terms of going out for bids and, um, getting, um, quotes from RFP from vendors.
[5965] SPEAKER_32: So this is, this is not just for supplies. This is for the, the contracts that we're talking about for the bond money too.
[5973] SPEAKER_36: That's correct. It's the whole gambit, whether it's a small dollar amount to a huge dollar amount.
[5983] Ray Rodriguez: I have a question. In reading through the agreement, there's the fingerprinting part of it, which is nice, after what we asked of all the volunteers to go through, which is nice. I know the superintendent, and thank you, Ms. Thomas, member Thomas, for donating money toward the cost of that. My question is, the agreement is with one person. So she would have to go through the fingerprinting. Is that the way it works or no?
[6019] SPEAKER_36: She would be working remotely.
[6021] Ray Rodriguez: But that's what Gormy meant. She's working on her computer, so she's not going to be on site at all.
[6026] SPEAKER_36: She won't physically be here. Yeah. And if she is physically on site, then we would have someone to be working with her, a staff working with her in conjunction, if she were to go to a school site. Right. If students are present.
[6041] Ray Rodriguez: Right. I'm sorry, so if she, for whatever reason, has to come on site, then what's the protocol there?
[6049] SPEAKER_26: She'll be escorted by staff. Yes.
[6051] Ray Rodriguez: OK. But most of it is going to be off site, then?
[6054] SPEAKER_26: A large portion of it. She'll be working at CHI's direction for specific things, but it's also not to exceed 55 hours.
[6060] Ray Rodriguez: Right. Yeah, so $4,900 or whatever. That is correct. OK. Thank you.
[6064] Nancy Thomas: OK. Would you like to make a motion?
[6066] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I'd like to make the motion that we approve.
[6069] Nancy Thomas: I'll second. Please vote. Three ayes, thank you. Next, we have a first reading for a Board Policy and Administrative Regulation, Education for English Learners, and that's quite a read. Yeah, I think at some point it would be really good to have a, maybe even next time when we're asked to approve it, that we have a presentation. Would you like to say something now?
[6109] SPEAKER_11: Yes, so currently we follow the past practice of highlighting in purple what's old language and having it as a legend. But we can certainly give a presentation to highlight. What I can share with this updated policy is that a lot of it is around the new LPAC, the replacement for the CELP test and the new timelines and the triggers that are now set by the state of California as it relates to assessing English learners, reclassifying them, and tracking their progress.
[6141] Nancy Thomas: It almost looks like we have to have a full-time staff member just to implement this process. Is that your explanation?
[6146] SPEAKER_11: I have to tell you, that is something to start to look at right now. A lot of this work, thank goodness for our school sites who support us with a lot of this, but right now our director of special projects takes this on in addition to the LCAP. So it's a lot, but we will continue.
[6164] Nancy Thomas: OK. Well, we're not going to vote on that this evening, but hopefully we'll have a presentation next time. Next, we have resolution 2119, sufficiency of instructional materials. I move acceptance. Second. OK. I'm going to have to vote no on this. Then it won't. It won't. It won't pass. We'd have to bring it back when there's more of us here, maybe. But I have, for many years, questioned why we give the same amount of money for an English class for materials as we do for science. And I've never gotten an adequate answer. I asked the superintendent how much a while back, how much we do a lot for our science labs. And I have not gotten an answer back there yet, but I understand. from our speakers tonight that it's not sufficient. And in fact, you know, it's not just a science but apparently it's our special day class. So I would hope that we would look into this and make sure that we have, do you want to speak?
[6237] SPEAKER_26: I'd like to let you address part of this.
[6241] SPEAKER_11: Yes, so I do want to give some clarification. So in regards to the special day classes, unfortunately, historically, we had not equipped all of our classrooms with all of the instructional materials that were needed. So we took on a different process this year. And while it is not a perfect process, and we will continue to make it better, we only have two hardworking ladies in our IMC department who work tirelessly to try to get materials out to the school sites. But what I will share is that we created a grid for our special education teachers to complete on their own because what we found was that every SDC class had different needs because, of course, it's guided by an IEP for each individual student. So although a grade span may be K-2 in a classroom, there may be students with different needs. If a grade span may be third through sixth grade in a classroom, we may have three students at second grade level, four students at fifth grade level. It will depend. So what we did this year with the new adoption was that we gave online access for K-6 for all the materials. And we asked the teachers to tell us what teacher's edition they would need. And so I was texting with our staff to share the document with me so I can look at it. And I can certainly look to make sure that we have all of the materials. We're still working with, at this point, everyone should have what they need. It sounds like the manipulatives weren't delivered, so I can double check. But as I was looking at the chart for the class in particular, I know that the request was only for one grade level teacher's edition, but they were going to be okay with the online for the rest. But we can continue to make it better and more transparent for our teachers. I do want to highlight in terms of the consumables for our science department, working with our site administrators at the high school and our department chair, I know that what we do with our science department is different because we don't have the textbook adoption yet. And so it's coming. So we're relying on our teachers to develop lessons, and it's a big job. And what we're looking to do for this year is to actually streamline the process of consumables like we do with the FOS kits for K-6. Again, our two hardworking ladies at the IMC, they replenish those FOS kits, but we're trying to see what can we do to streamline for our high schools so that if it's a reimbursement process for the school sites, but working closer with our principal there. there should be no, I feel awful that that we have a teacher that's fundraising and then not having access because we were very clear with our science leadership team that it was an automatic that they could submit receipts or the school site could go ahead and do the ordering. So I'm gonna talk with our principal at the site to see and our department chair to see how to better support them with that process but there should not be any holdup with having access to consumable materials for science.
[6421] Nancy Thomas: But science teachers have been asking parents every year for donations because they don't have enough money for science materials. And I can't buy the fact that, well, we don't have, we're working on the curriculum so therefore we're not, you know, I think the IMC is great and I think that teachers shouldn't have to go out to a dollar store and buy materials. There should be materials that go along with the curriculum that are standardized, that are ordered through our purchasing department like everything else. So I guess we have Ms. Crocker and Mr. Rodriguez wanting to address this.
[6461] SPEAKER_32: I appreciate the fact that you have a lab class, whatever lab class it might be, whether it's art or whether it's science or whether it's a food class. that there are different needs for supplies, and there are needs to be able to go out and get what you need, not necessarily through the district office. It's something that's specific to a particular class. From my perspective, that's a department head responsibility. There's a certain budget that's given to a department, and they should be able to put out what is necessary in terms of that. I am sad that people feel that they have to go out and fundraise. I'm not surprised, but I'm sad. And I don't know, we need to look at a way of funding, and that's a budgetary thing. I mean, if we are providing textbooks, which we are doing now, for everybody, that's a cost. But I think that if we are going to call a class a lab class, you have to be able to have supplies, and that is not some consumable that somebody else has decided what it is. I think that is within the discretion of the teachers. It's a department issue. It's a high school issue. It's a junior high school issue. And I think it needs to be solved there.
[6535] SPEAKER_11: Right. And I can offer that. We can work with Mr. Johnson at the high school and the principal, not to bypass the principal, but we can certainly help with suggesting a process for purchasing of materials. It's really the high school that's the most in this spot. With the junior high, because we're piloting, Materials at the junior high, we're not hearing as much about this, but we were able to work a little closer with the administrators there to ensure that they had access. Leonore Rebusuda, who she has taken science on in addition to managing our induction program. So we actually will be with all of the elementary, well, a lot of the science leadership team on Thursday. So we can certainly check in also with the high school to see how to better support them.
[6586] SPEAKER_32: And reimbursement is something that should be done through the school itself. Correct. That should not be an issue. Assuming it's within the budget that they have. Correct. So that setting up the budget is the department head thing.
[6598] Ray Rodriguez: Right. This is a little bit frustrating because thinking, I mean it wasn't that long ago that Monica was at the high school and you know, taking science from ninth grade and on. And I don't remember, I mean, most people understand that teachers, each teacher's different, and some want to do more than others, and the fundraising would be to, you know, to maximize or to increase. But to not have the basic, that's frustrating. And here we are, it's October the 16th, and is this considered step one? in order to approve this or as far as making sure that the science teachers have the money in order to do at least the basics?
[6653] SPEAKER_11: At any time, we have a lot of teachers who directly reach out to us or directly reach out to the IMC. We don't want to stop that because I think there's a lot of a lot of concerns get addressed quickly that way. But in terms of I mean you have my pledge that I will follow up with the science department. I will follow up with the special day class and ensuring that now that I have access to the grid and I have every every STC teacher has logged on to really because this was a document that was shared with all of the department and all of the teachers to complete it themselves. But we did slow down a little bit in terms of the special ed materials because We didn't know what was needed, and I think it was, you know, we should have pushed more to get information quicker, so I certainly take that on. But in terms of the science, there really should be no stopping in terms of the basics of having vinegar or whatever, what did I heard, like all of that. That should not be, because that's what we had last year. And so last year, I know that there was some difficulties at the end, speaking with the department chair. but we also want to empower our department chair to reach out and say, how do, I need help, you know, I need, there's a stop in communication and we're not getting our stuff.
[6724] Ray Rodriguez: No, it's just, my thinking is, shouldn't have we, maybe moving forward, we should have, this discussion should have been had probably in August, you know, in that meeting, and so we can, you know, move forward. And then the issue of when money is donated and it's, having to wait a month, that was confusing.
[6746] SPEAKER_11: Yeah, I'm not privy to that process at all. I don't know what that was in reference to.
[6750] Ray Rodriguez: Well, that could be FGMAC or the auditors saying that you have to go through a process. But people don't need money in the classroom. So I don't know if this is getting off subject.
[6759] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, I think it's a little bit off subject. But I think it's all part of tightening up the way we do business in terms of providing materials for our students. And for example, The FOS kits have a complete list of consumables and the standard. When it goes to the IMC, they look at it, they do a check off that list, they replace the stuff. For every high school lab, there should be a list of needs going in. It should be part of the curriculum and it should be helped by the IMC to make sure that those materials are provided. And there should be a budget for it. And if they're only given $50 or whatever they're given, they have no budget for materials. They can't do a lab. And I think just to even go in with that mindset that they get $50 is just, it's something that we've done year after year after year. We just have to change.
[6824] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, but we're the ones that approve the funding.
[6828] Nancy Thomas: We approve the budget, yes. Right. Right.
[6832] Ray Rodriguez: So that's the time to look and see why isn't it in there.
[6834] Nancy Thomas: But we don't get down to the level. We don't get down to that level. We don't get down to that detail level. Anyway, you know I'm going to vote no if you want to pull it and delay it.
[6843] Ray Rodriguez: No, we have no choice.
[6844] Nancy Thomas: I would like to vote on it. OK, please. I'll open the voting. Please vote.
[6848] Ray Rodriguez: Why are we voting on something if it's going to be?
[6851] SPEAKER_32: I'm asking because I've moved. If you want to withdraw your second, you can do so.
[6856] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, we draw the second.
[6859] Nancy Thomas: I'd like to vote no.
[6861] Ray Rodriguez: Well, I would hope that you get together with the superintendent. OK, I'll second it.
[6865] Nancy Thomas: I'll second it. OK, please vote.
[6877] SPEAKER_32: Are we in a situation where we need to have this form? We are in a situation where this form, what will happen
[6884] SPEAKER_11: I candidly have never been in this position before, so I don't know. I know we are under a deadline though. What is the deadline? It's very near. I don't know if the November date will do it, so I'm going to have to research that.
[6899] Nancy Thomas: I don't know what the remediation would be or what the
[6904] SPEAKER_11: So what I'm hearing is the remediation I would propose is that I ask our teachers in the science department, oh, there she is, ask our teachers in the science department to work with their department chair and to submit the lists and the number of labs by coursework. I don't see that getting done in time for the next November date, but perhaps it could be. But that would be, I think, the remediation at this point.
[6931] Nancy Thomas: Okay, thank you.
[6934] SPEAKER_32: So if we do not get a deadline by November, what are the consequences?
[6939] SPEAKER_11: I don't know. I'm going to have to research it. We are under a deadline, and so all school districts take this resolution forward in October.
[6947] Ray Rodriguez: So hopefully the next, and I'm not getting on your case, Madam Thomas, but I'm saying that it's a responsibility, in my opinion, of whoever puts the agenda together. This is something that should have came to us a long time ago. So I don't know. It's a little frustrating and it's just, you know, it's our responsibility as board to make sure that the communication between board and staff is such to where stuff like this doesn't happen and get information from the superintendent and from, you know, Mrs. Salinas to make sure that... I don't want to speak in my own defense but, you know, we don't necessarily know the deadlines for reports that we have to approve. But something that involves materials for classes and everything, when the classes start in the end of August, I mean, it's just common sense that that stuff should be to us a lot sooner.
[7004] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. So next, we move on to declaration of surplus instructional materials.
[7019] SPEAKER_32: I move acceptance.
[7024] Ray Rodriguez: Second.
[7025] Nancy Thomas: Please vote. Oh, wait. I forgot to clear and close. OK, please vote. Three ayes, thank you. And finally, our donations report.
[7044] SPEAKER_32: Move acceptance.
[7045] Ray Rodriguez: Second.
[7050] Nancy Thomas: Please vote. Sorry about that. Three ayes, thank you. Would someone like to read that list?
[7063] Ray Rodriguez: Go ahead, I can't pull it up for some reason. I'm happy to do it. I can start. Go ahead, Ray. A $500 donation from Music Elementary, from Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, materials for Ms. Michelle McGeer's autism. specific classroom that's outstanding. In-kind donation of books for Snow Elementary. Donor is Mr. Stanley Hunt for students. Former teacher. Right, I know. For 5th and 6th grades. Donation of $3,740 for Newark Junior High. Parents of Newark Junior High students, materials for science classes. In kind donation of books for Snow Elementary from Maria Ventura for students. In kind donation of books for Snow Elementary, Judy DeCubo for students in 5th and 6th grade. In kind donation of tables and bookshelves for Snow Elementary, Juan Mata and Norma Guerrero for kindergarten classes. In kind donation of soccer balls for Kennedy Elementary from the Bonner family students in PE classes. They've always given us a lot of stuff.
[7143] Nancy Thomas: And we thank them all.
[7144] Ray Rodriguez: Yes, we do.
[7152] Nancy Thomas: Oh, next we're on to the consent agenda. And that's a new personnel report.
[7158] SPEAKER_26: Pardon? Did you do the personnel report?
[7160] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, that's personnel. That's 12.1. Oh, I misread it.
[7163] SPEAKER_32: Thank you.
[7171] Nancy Thomas: I entertain a motion.
[7174] Ray Rodriguez: I move that we accept the personnel report.
[7176] SPEAKER_32: I'll second.
[7178] Nancy Thomas: Please vote. Three ayes. Thank you. Next, we have a non-personnel items. 13.1, 13.2, 13.3.
[7199] Ray Rodriguez: 13.4, 13.5, and 13.6.
[7201] SPEAKER_32: Move acceptance. Second.
[7207] Nancy Thomas: Please vote. Mr. Rodriguez. I'm sorry. Three ayes. Thank you. OK. So we move on to the Budget report. I can't.
[7231] Ray Rodriguez: I'm really hurting right now. And this is not a, this is more of a report, right? Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez.
[7237] Nancy Thomas: Do we need to close the meeting? No. Do we need to close the meeting? We don't have a vote. We're not going to vote on anything. We can still have the report. Yeah, you can still get the report.
[7244] SPEAKER_32: We can have the report, but do we have to close the meeting? Oh.
[7250] Ray Rodriguez: Is there any way we can get? How do we do the report?
[7254] SPEAKER_32: We can get the report afterwards.
[7258] SPEAKER_26: If you could keep it open, we'll come back with the resolution.
[7264] Nancy Thomas: For a special board meeting, we'd have to have at least three of us here. For what? We can continue this meeting for up to, I don't know how long.
[7276] Ray Rodriguez: Well, how long is these?
[7277] SPEAKER_32: I will not be here. The budget update. So I will not be available for the next week.
[7283] Ray Rodriguez: Most of the budget update is information that we normally get anyway.
[7287] SPEAKER_32: No, you're talking about for the one that we voted down.
[7293] SPEAKER_11: Yeah, I'm trying to see if I can resolve for the sufficiency of materials. And what I'm looking at right now, it looks like it does not point to labs. It really points to textbooks. But I want to honor what the discussion was, which was the labs. So I'm wondering if we continue the meeting, if I'm able to resolve the labs, and I'm doing some emails right now to see if that would help to address it. But in researching right now very briefly, it does not speak to labs. It's speaking more to textbooks, but again, in the spirit of what you said.
[7328] Nancy Thomas: That's what I read this ahead of time, and it does say laboratory science equipment was provided for science laboratory classes offered in grades 9 through 12 inclusive.
[7338] SPEAKER_32: So I. Equipment versus supplies. Equipment versus supplies.
[7352] Nancy Thomas: Maybe we can get Mr. Nguyen to come. If you can coordinate with Mr. Nguyen, Mr. Rodriguez and I will try to make ourselves available.
[7368] SPEAKER_11: I'm trying to see if I can provide a list and an action plan to help to remediate it. Because the labs happen all year round, and so it would be more the process. Because we could not just bulk buy everything. I think it would be, I want to give the teachers time to actually, I don't know if they have every lab written out with the supplies that they need. So that's what I'm trying to figure out with them.
[7393] SPEAKER_32: So that's something that will take more than a week to do, because you're talking about talking to people. So we're not going to be able to meet the deadline. No matter whether we have an extension of the meeting or not.
[7406] SPEAKER_33: Okay.
[7407] SPEAKER_32: From my perspective. Because you're not going to be able to get the work done beyond the fact that you are guaranteed it will be done.
[7413] SPEAKER_11: Right. And I want to honor, teachers have other things happening this week and I'm sure they don't have time to sit and write it all out.
[7420] Nancy Thomas: Right. And I don't know that we want them to. I think, you know, lab materials are kind of a process. You don't purchase the frogs until you need them and things like that.
[7431] SPEAKER_32: Right. then the consequences of this will be that we will not have completed this in the time frame that the state requires. And so at that point, what are the consequences? We have to get an extension. Can you get an extension? We need to find out.
[7447] Nancy Thomas: Yeah. I think that would be the better thing to do is get an extension rather than doing something quickly without spending enough time. OK.
[7458] Ray Rodriguez: So now we get back to the budget update. How long is that going to be?
[7464] SPEAKER_36: I can make it quick. Give me five minutes. OK.
[7468] Ray Rodriguez: Please. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I just.
[7477] SPEAKER_36: All right. Good evening, board members, Superintendent Sanchez. Tonight, I'm going to talk about the budget update for Newark Unified School District. Back in 2018-19 in June of this year, The board approved the adopted budget for 18-19 with a stipulation that our enrollment is going to increase for 18-19, 19-20, and 20-21, our outer years. However, so far this year, instead of increasing by 58 students, our enrollment declined by 134 students. What that means is that our revenues, we're going to have a shortfall in our revenues. And I'll explain that a little bit. What we projected for 19-20 and 20-21 for enrollment to increase, we were too optimistic. So now our projection is that we're anticipating a decline in enrollment in our outer years. In addition to that, bless you, our one-time discretionary fund decreased from $344 per ADA to $184 per ADA. Again, and another issue was our LCFF funding for our ADA decline. So we're losing additional revenues there, as I mentioned earlier. So in essence, with those two reductions, we're looking at $785,000 deficit spending. And we're anticipating deficit spending in our out-of-years 19-20 and 20-21 as well. If you look at this enrollment trend, We have been declining for the past seven years, actually more than seven years, about 112 students per year. If you looked at it, 112 students times $10,000, say, that's over a million dollars worth of ongoing revenues. The only time that our enrollment increased, which was last year, and it was justifiable that we that we should project an increase in enrollment for 18-19, 19-20, and 20-21. However, now with our declining enrollment of 134 students, we have to project that enrollment is going to decline, even though there's new housing development that's being developed in the state of Newark. But we want to project conservatively. Look at this graph here. Our enrollment was 7,666. In 17-18, it's 5,913. So that's a loss of about 1,700 students. That's quite a bit of money of lost revenues. So this is our new revenue projection. In June 2018, which the board approved, we expected revenues to be about $54 million for 18-19. The new LCFF calculated that we just recalculated in September, it's going to be about the same. But the governor, his inactive budget, our one-time discretionary fund went down from, again, as I mentioned earlier, from $344,000 to $184,000. So we're going to be, in the red, about $785,000. What's worst is that with our new enrollment projection, we're projecting that what we projected in June of 2018 was revenue is going to come in about $56.5 million. But now, with the actual numbers that's coming in for 18-19, we're going to be using previous year's ADA to fund current year revenues. So current year budget, excuse me. So the difference is that for 19-20, it's about $1.3 million. And then in 20-21, we're looking at another deficit spending of $2 million. So in essence, about $4 million. We don't know when revenue is going to flatten or stabilize or increase. So again, we want to project conservatively. So let me give you the expenditure here. For every dollar we received in terms of revenue, 49% of our expenditure derives from certificated salaries, 13% comes from classified salary. And employee benefits, it's 21%. So again, about 83% of our expenditure resides on personnel. We spend our service and operations, a large portion of that is special education restricted funds. And then some portion of that, 12%, is for major maintenance account to make sure, making sure that our facilities or grounds. Our campus is looking clean and in a safe working environment. Again, 4% of our revenues goes to books and supplies. So we really don't spend a lot of money on books and supplies.
[7798] Nancy Thomas: You're talking about just LCFF dollars. You're not talking, though, about we do get money for books and supplies from the lottery.
[7808] SPEAKER_36: There's state revenue, yes, unrestricted and restricted. So if you look at the CalSTRS and CalPERS contribution, in 2013-14, the district contributed about $3.4 million, $3.3 million. But now in, if I can beam this thing up here, in 2018-19, the district is looking at contributing about $6.8 million. So it's more than doubled. And again, CalSTRS income first continues to rise. So the next step is that our budget committee need to address the district shortfall. We got to monitor our enrollment and our ADA more carefully. And I'll be honest with you, the budget reduction is going to be a daunting task for us. We got to look at whatever reduction we make. Our current year and end of this year will have a more meaningful impact in our outer years. If we do more reduction this year, we won't have to reduce as much in the foreseeable future. And then in our first interim report will end, bless you. We'll end on October 31st and we will report our first interim report on December 15th. during that week. All right. So any comments, questions, or concerns?
[7907] Nancy Thomas: So if I looked at that, we're losing about $1 million because of declining enrollment every year. And we're losing. We will, by 2021, we will have lost $6 million each year because of the increase of our STRS and PERS.
[7926] SPEAKER_36: Yeah, the students and professors will continue to increase. We are going to be deficit spending because we projected so optimistically. And now that our enrollment has gone reversed and has declined by 134 students this year, it's going to have a significant impact.
[7945] Nancy Thomas: We only have about four members of the public and their staff here to hear this because we're not on TV tonight. But that equates to about 50 teachers. We could have 50 more teachers if we didn't have the increases in STRS and PERS that the states put on us, and then another million dollars that we have. It's a daunting statistic. Oh, not to mention special ed. So how much has special ed increased over the last few years?
[7980] SPEAKER_36: I believe I have to look back. The encroachment. Right. I can give that information to you. we're going to have a meeting.
[7990] Nancy Thomas: Tomorrow when we meet for the see over time definitely we've seen enrollment we've seen stirs and purrs it be good to see. Special Ed because I think 3 that are preventing us from providing quality
[8017] SPEAKER_32: The board has said there's no deficit spending. So are we going to get a budget in December that is deficit?
[8024] SPEAKER_36: Well, we're going to have the study session tomorrow. And we're going to look at options, ways to reduce our budget.
[8032] SPEAKER_32: I'm sorry. I'm not going to be able to be there.
[8033] SPEAKER_26: Let me speak to that. So it's not a study session. It's a budget advisory committee. Right. So we'll be talking with them about how do we approach it. And I'm very aware that, you know, It's framed currently as deficit spending. I know the board's interest has not been to do deficit spending. But we are going to have to look at how we project those cuts. And what the projection really is, if you took last year's number and this year's number and drew a line, that kind of tells you where you need to kind of aim your projection. And because we've had a decline, we're going to have to make some recommendations. So my goal is to have the committee come forward with recommendations to either look at making those cuts or a combination or some iteration of deficit spending with the plan. But we're not there yet. We're going to be working with the committee. And I'm glad we're starting earlier this year than last year.
[8083] SPEAKER_32: The other piece being on that is that we just talked this evening about supplies and money for teacher supplies. And so there are some nonprofit organizations that do provide grants. And so that may be something that we need to, perhaps be more proactive in terms of finding other sources of funding. I know that the FOSS kits, when we first came, they were supported by Cargill. And they did a lot of filling of that kind of thing. So I think that, I'm sorry I'm not going to be there. I really feel badly about that. But the bottom line is that we can't spend money we don't have. And we can't spend our savings account. So we're going to have to do something proactively. Whatever it is, we have to be creative.
[8128] Nancy Thomas: You know, I was looking at the, warrants, and there was a lot of money for staff food. And I think one of the things a superintendent can do without getting permission from the board is to stop spending on conferences to the extent that if they're not critical, let's not do them. Food for staff, maybe we want to still do the parent food and the student food, But for staff, no. I think we need to really tighten the belt. We need to question every single expenditure, every single contract we are putting out. And we need to put a freeze on hiring, unfilled positions if they're non-critical.
[8181] SPEAKER_32: That's something you can talk about tomorrow, I think.
[8184] Nancy Thomas: Yeah. But I think some of these things are just, we need to We need to be projecting to the staff and the public that this is a serious issue, and we're doing what we can immediately to stop spending.
[8203] SPEAKER_36: We'll be looking at all options tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you.
[8210] Nancy Thomas: OK. That's it for Mr. Rodriguez. Do you want to have any board requests before you go?
[8219] Ray Rodriguez: One of them was the science, and we're already going to dig into that as staff is. And the other one is, I think you might have already had a similar report, but I need more information on the process. If I'm a parent of a ninth grader at the high school, and I want her to go to the alternative school, I need a better understanding of that process. That should be, that should flow, so a parent shouldn't have to, I mean, do they start at the high school, do they go to the district office and talk to Mr. Winton, or do they go to McGregor and talk to the principal there? And it shouldn't be that complicated. It should be pretty easy. I talked to my child and made a decision that we're going to move over to McGregor, and it should be, and we already know that based on information we have before that there's a large number of students that would be better served being a McGregor than they are in the high school. So if I can get some information on that, I would appreciate it.
[8290] SPEAKER_26: And I can work towards a staff report on that. And actually, it's something that we've been working on. So I'm actually glad to hear that.
[8295] SPEAKER_32: We're ready to share. Oh, yes. I was at a Rotary Club meeting today, Ms. Salinas and I. And we picked up a bunch of books that The Rotary Club has the speaker's sign, and so we brought them with us, and she's going to make sure they get delivered to us.
[8315] Nancy Thomas: Did you get your major award?
[8323] SPEAKER_32: No. Well, John was not there. John was not there.
[8326] Nancy Thomas: Oh, I'm sorry. We were waiting for you to come to a meeting so we can give you a major award.
[8333] SPEAKER_32: And it's not a lamb. The second thing is because Mr. Preciado is not here, I assume that I will be helping Ms. Thomas with whatever it is in the future until we structure it.
[8347] Nancy Thomas: Larry's gone, but could we move? Yes, move her over one.
[8352] SPEAKER_32: Crocker over here. And you might want, I don't know if you want to move everybody over at this point. I don't know.
[8358] SPEAKER_26: Let us work on that.
[8359] SPEAKER_32: OK, thank you. Other than that, I have no announcements except I'm sorry to miss two really important meetings this week.
[8367] Nancy Thomas: Well, I was on the plane for five hours, so I thought about stuff. I'm surprised you weren't working on it. I'm glad you made it. Yeah, but I wouldn't have worked without it. I was looking at Transparent California, and they said they would have the data on salaries out in the fall. And now it's very incomplete. So if we can find out if they made a request and if we need to fill it, The Stage 1 contract brought to mind the fact that we have not had board-approved changes to the fee structure for facilities use since 2004. When we checked with Facilitron and we started Facilitron up, I think the board was pretty much led to believe that we were going to be doing that sooner rather than later. It's been a year.
[8423] SPEAKER_36: I'm going to be looking at a comparison how other districts rates are and versus our rates and that will make those adjustments or we will make those adjustments accordingly.
[8432] Nancy Thomas: Okay maybe we can get maybe we can get these things kind of scheduled out you know planned and scheduled out so it's not another year because it was a year ago when we talked about that so.
[8445] SPEAKER_36: For sure that will be done.
[8446] Nancy Thomas: Okay thank you. If we haven't already I think we should be Scheduling that free FICMAT visit. Do we have that scheduled yet?
[8455] SPEAKER_26: We just talked about that today.
[8456] Nancy Thomas: Okay. The budget spreadsheet, I was told that we could get that. So I'd appreciate that. Has Davis Demographics gotten all the data they need for moving forward with their report?
[8474] SPEAKER_36: CalPADS system is following up this week. And the IT department submitted their data to Davis Demographics. And then I approved the information from Davis Demographics. So they're going to start their research.
[8492] Nancy Thomas: Oh, great. And is someone making sure the city gives us an update on the housing?
[8499] SPEAKER_36: We'll look into that.
[8500] Nancy Thomas: OK. Last year, Conango had made a proposal to us that they wanted to start a preschool at BGP. And we didn't move on it. I think to the extent that we can have preschools opportunities at discounted rates for our most needy families is a wise thing. So I would hope we would move forward with Kidango and see if we can get maybe more than one additional site with Kidango preschool on it. Every school. Every school, yeah. I mentioned the cost-cutting measures and I'd like to see a job description for the EBIC coordinator and have it brought to us for amendment. If it's been changed substantially, it sounds like maybe it was. Okay, that's what I've got.
[8564] SPEAKER_32: EBIC, Lenora.
[8572] Nancy Thomas: So, Superintendent, your turn.
[8576] SPEAKER_26: I have no concluding comments in honor of Mr. Rodriguez's pain.
[8581] Nancy Thomas: And you stuck through it to the end. And 9.30 is not too bad of a time.
[8585] SPEAKER_32: Well, Shar got me the ice.
[8588] Nancy Thomas: She's always surprised. Thank you. Well, it was a little more relaxed tonight because we weren't on TV, at least for me. So I hope I wasn't too familiar into making remarks. But thanks, everyone. Thank you, guys.
[8645] SPEAKER_33: you