Regular Meeting

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[10] Ray Rodriguez: Other than when we get to the expulsion, we'll be voting in open session on the expulsion toward the end of the agenda. OK. Music Elementary's doing the spotlight? Point of order, Pledge of Allegiance. No, no, but I'm asking they're here, right? Oh, yeah. I believe so, yes, sir. Do you have a student that can lead us in the pledge, if you don't mind? Or one of your students? OK. How about one of your parents? I can do it. That's fine. Anyway, would you join me for the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, I've already done the report of closed session actions, which is none. So we're at 6.1, the approval of the agenda. I need a motion and a second.

[89] SPEAKER_16: President Rodriguez, I'd like to speak, if I may. Sure. Staff would like to pull the following items from the agenda prior to approval. I have a list. Staff would like to pull 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, and 13.9. I have them on a sheet of paper for you here, President Rodriguez.

[133] Ray Rodriguez: OK, thank you, Superintendent. So other than those items being pulled, anyone else want to make change on the agenda? OK. So I need the approval. A motion and a second, please, for the approval of the agenda.

[154] SPEAKER_47: I'll make a move.

[155] Ray Rodriguez: I'll second. Member Gutierrez motions, and Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. Are we, is Larry here?

[170] SPEAKER_54: Are we good?

[172] Rachel Bloom: Okay.

[179] Ray Rodriguez: Let me clear it. Hold on. Okay. Open voting. Okay. Member Martinez. and the student board member.

[202] SPEAKER_06: Larry?

[204] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, on the agenda, he's allowed to vote. Just on personnel items, you're not. Okay, all votes in. OK, student board member abstains. And so we have five ayes. Thank you. Now we go to the student report, superintendent.

[237] SPEAKER_16: Yes, I think we'll start with the representative from Newark Junior High, if they're here.

[245] Ray Rodriguez: While she's coming up, you notice that I have the junior high sweatshirt, right? OK. I gave Miss Aquino $25 to give to the school, and they use it as a fundraiser. So if you need any more money, the other board members would love to. So I'm sorry to meet you. Thank you for coming.

[268] SPEAKER_05: Thank you. Hi, I'm Vanessa Benroso, the vice president of the junior high. Recently at the school, we had a member from the parent club come in and discuss Valentine's Day grams. Plus, we started recording the teachers' approvals of their individual dares. Coming up, we have Challenge Day and we have our Great Kindness Challenge. Students will be given a checklist with good deeds, complete, and goals to make our school a better place. Leadership students are also making poses for Penny for Patience. Last week, our girls basketball and boys soccer kicked off their season with wins. Also last Thursday at the junior high, teachers are going over grades and behaviors with parents at Report Car Night. I look forward to bringing new information on the school to the next meeting. Thanks.

[314] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Hold on, don't go. Anybody want to have any?

[319] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you. OK, thank you.

[320] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So again, I apologize for us coming a little late from closed session. We will continue to endeavor to get out so we can start at 7. So superintendent, next.

[336] SPEAKER_16: Next. Is there any representatives from McGregor campus here? Welcome.

[344] SPEAKER_31: Good evening, Superintendent Sanchez, board members, and cabinet members. My name is Autumn Duran. I'm a senior at Crossroads Independent Studies Program. Third quarter for Bridgepoint and Crossroads began on January 23rd. There are 11 new students at Bridgepoint with more to come, and there are 10 new students at Crossroads. Congratulations to our early graduates, Erica Paniagua from Bridgepoint and Jesus Mendoza Medina and Jacob Rodriguez from Crossroads. We look forward to seeing them on the stage with us in June. Attendance continues to be a focus at Bridgepoint. Every week, over a dozen students earn perfect attendance prizes. Bridgepoint is having their second quarter awards assembly this Friday. Thank you for listening. Have a nice night.

[385] Ray Rodriguez: Don't go. Board members? Anyone? Thank you. Excellent report.

[394] SPEAKER_16: Cesar, do you want to lead the high school? I don't know if anyone from the high school is in the audience.

[400] Ray Rodriguez: It's all on you. You have to introduce yourself as our newest student board member.

[406] SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's right. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Cesar Castillo. I'm the new student board member from Newark Memorial. I'm a junior. It's an honor to be on this board and represent the students of Newark Unified. It's a great position, and I hope that I can serve the students well. Reports from Newark Memorial. Sadie's dance will be occurring tomorrow evening. ASB has sold about 80 tickets so far. Spring sports season workouts have started last week. Teams are starting to gear up for competition. The class of 2020 had a fundraiser at Menchie's today from 1 o'clock to 9.30. Parents, you still got time. Help us out. Both the advanced choir and the a cappella choir are holding auditions this week and next week. Both robotics teams competed in Roseville on January the 26th. The Roebuckets placed 15th and the Air Bisons placed 12th. The Roebuckets will also be going to Napa to compete this Saturday. All three rocketry teams are working hard on revising their rockets. We launched on January 19th. Two of the three teams had their rockets blow up during launches. One team was about 50 feet off from our minimum height. We'll be launching again this Saturday, I believe. ASB is selling carnations and roses tomorrow at lunch. They'll be delivered to to be delivered to students on Valentine's Day. And last but not least, ASB elections are tomorrow. We'll be electing our new ASB board for the next school year. Thank you.

[500] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Mr. Castillo. Before we move on, can we repeat the items? I will pose again, if you don't mind. OK, we have 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, and 13.9, is that correct? So anyone that wants to address the board on these items can do that doing public comment on non-agenda items, because now they're not agenda. They're not on the agenda. So just fill out one of these forms, give them to Ms. Aquino, and then you can address us on those. Superintendent?

[548] SPEAKER_16: At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Associate Superintendent Salinas who will introduce our spotlight tonight.

[554] SPEAKER_37: Good evening. It's a great pleasure to introduce Ms. Amanda Gallaher, our principal at Music Elementary. We're very excited to share all the wonderful things happening at Music and I also see a lot of Music Elementary teachers in the audience, so that's wonderful.

[571] SPEAKER_39: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board, President Sanchez, Executive Cabinet. Thank you so much for the time to speak about our wonderful little school tonight. I know we didn't have any students here, but we've had a lot of things happening this week. And so we have three events, and usually two is where we top out. So I'm excited to tell you about our school. Let's see if I can drive and talk. So, a little bit about our school, just approximate numbers. We are a tiny school. We have 325 students, preschool through sixth grade. Is that okay, Shar? All right, so 325 students, preschool through sixth grade. We have four preschool SBC classes, a TK, a K, two firsts, two seconds, two thirds, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, and a special day class. All right, so a little bit more about our school. We are about 43% English learners, TK through six. We get really interesting when we start talking about our students with disabilities. That's about 33% of our school. So if you come on our campus, one out of three students you're gonna run into has an IEP. And then, let's see, about 61% free and reduced lunch. So we have a pretty awesome school. Lots of students, lots of fun needs that we get to work with. But they're fabulous. We wouldn't have it any other way. So I know you've seen this slide before, but it's great. And I could not include it. So what research says about teams of teachers, the very essence of a learning community, the teams of teachers, is the focus and commitment to the learning of each student. And I can confidently come up here tonight and tell you that my 11 general ed teachers, my one intervention teachers, my eight special education teachers, my 14 paraprofessionals, and my one instructional aid, my bilingual instructional aid, each and every one of them is dedicated and determined to help our students be successful. And so we're going to talk more about our work together tonight. So the way I organize our presentation is based on our SPSA, everything we do, is based on our goals and how we're going to help our students succeed. So our first goal, 1.1, is about math. And our overall goal is to have our students increase 12 points year over year. Unfortunately, last year, we went down by 2%. So we have work to do. We're aware of this, and we have plans in place. So part of what we're doing is here. You get to see some of our student work. But what we're doing in the classroom is we are really focusing on big ideas math. We are excited to have this curriculum TK through 12. And our teachers are digging in really getting to know the new program. Our kids are loving it. It's the color in the book. It's more engaging. They're all about it. So there's some work samples there. We are really working with our iReady online instruction as well as a supplement to help them with that instruction. We're supporting our teachers and helping them support their students by really looking at the curriculum and our district trainings. And the bulk of our work this year is our professional learning communities. So we are spending time in small groups, grade level groups, focusing on specific standards, the assessments and the intervention needed to help our students reach those critical standards that we know they need to be successful. And that really, really is helping us just pinpoint, target, make those small, really doable goals that we know are gonna make the difference to our students. Our next goal is around ELA. So our goal is to improve seven points year over year. Once again, we didn't quite meet this. We went down by 3%. So we know, once again, we have work to do. So what are we doing in ELA? We are really invested in Readers and Writers Workshop at our sites. They are not new for us. But what we're doing differently this year is we're working with our West Coast Literacy Writing Coach. and really spending time with her digging into the work. How can we tweak and refine our practices to get our students writing more, deeper, better? You can see some of our examples on the board back there. We're also working with our district colleagues to calibrate our DRAs. So are we assessing them the same way our colleagues are at the other site? Are we calibrated? Are we all on the same page? We're doing that with our reading and our writing. In addition to that, we're spending time focusing on our English learners and how we can support them in our English reading and writing workshops. So we're working there. The next one, this is the fun one, not the ELA and math aren't fun. I'm a big fan of both of those, but STEAM 1.3. We are always looking for ways to integrate the other subject areas into writing, and we are doing that through STEAM. All of our classrooms go to CRSRTs one or two times a week, first through sixth grade. We, of course, focus on our Lucy Calkins unit of writing. But I have challenged our staff to bring STEAM into every single classroom. So we are working with STEAM units and challenges. So you can see some of those up there. I want to point at that Little table of boys. Can you see that in the picture? Now, I don't know if you have teenagers at home or preteens at home, but to see a smile on their face is rare, right? Those three boys were giggling. I mean, full on giggling about the periodic table of elements. That's what we want for our students. They take that excitement back. They're building. They're enjoying. They're tying that learning to some traditionally not as exciting tasks like writing. So we're doing that. Bottom left hand corner, it's not just for our students, it's for our teachers too. So right now they're in a bridge challenge. So whichever grade level has the strongest best bridge and is learning from their implication, they're going to get an extra prep next month, right? Because I want them to learn with our students. We're doing it all together. So some of the work we're doing there. Our after school class in STEM, that's the chemistry class. They made fake blood this week. We're loving that. Professional development. I got to participate in design thinking with the other administrators, so I can push my staff further. And then most recently, our teachers in certain grade levels participated in the next generation science standards training and notebooking. Once again, how do we tie all this fun stuff we're doing to writing? Okay, achievement, right? We know we have work to do here, and how are we supporting our students? How are we giving them that extra? So part of what we're doing is we have ELD intervention time. Other sites might call this flex. This is still in the works, but basically we've guaranteed every class kinder through sixth grade has three or four times a week where they are breaking up into smaller groups. So in grade level pairs with the help of the intervention teacher and the instructional aid. So for One period a day on each of those days, it is specific targeted instruction. So we're really moving them there. We have after school tutoring offered by Ohlone once again for third through sixth graders, high. So you don't get to hear me speak very much about our preschool program, right? They're not part of our SIFSA. They don't have all that fun state data, but they're very important to our site. So how we're supporting our families in our preschool is we have PI. So these are parent instruction events. We know it's a special day class preschool, so all of our students have special needs. Learning doesn't stop at school for our students. We need to support them everywhere. And that means supporting our families too. So how can we give them tips and strategies that are gonna help them be successful at home and at school? And so Miss Megan back there, she leads that for us. You're welcome to join, too, even if you're not part of that population. We want to show you what we're doing. So come on by. And something else with our unique population, and we are unique, not just for Newark, but our kind of makeup of our school. It's not the norm. But we are 110% dedicated to our students. And what that means is having an inclusive community. So when you walk into our campus, Our students are the EL students, the students with special needs. They are music leopards, each and every one. And so that's part of what these inclusive practices are about, is that they are our students. That's it. You would never know. They're just part of our community. So that is a huge part of our school. Next goal, student engagement. This is measured by attendance. We want to support them, of course, with mental health, behavioral, social support, Decrease suspensions, you're not learning if you're not at school, right? So what are we doing this year? It is our first year of PBIS, so we're in a planning year. We have started costs this year, so we're really, really working on, once again, targeting interventions wherever they're needed. We have an EBAC counselor that's at our site one day a week. Because of our unique population, we are lucky enough to have a part-time psychologist designated just to our site, right? We have two behaviorists assigned to our site. because of our needs. We share them with other sites, too, but I like to pretend they're just mine. Monthly attendance awards and classroom celebrations. It's hard to get to school every day sometimes, especially when you're five and you're waking mom and dad up, right? So we want to celebrate them every day that they're there, because every day is important. Homeschool communications about attendance. We are going above and beyond. We are sending letters home to each family, letting them know, how many days have you missed? OK, what does this mean to you? I'm calling home for some of those families. Hey, we noticed that your child's not here today. We really miss him. Everything okay? How can I help? So we're doing that. And then we have, of course, you know, kind of our general letters home. When do you keep your students home? We're okay with runny noses. You keep fevers. We want the runny noses. So just those things as parents we wonder, we're reaching out. We're letting them know that every day is important and we want them there. Parents, they are the best partners we have in education, right? So how do we keep our parents engaged? We have kind of the same groups as all sites do. We have our ELAC, our SSC, our PTA. But what we're really doing is we are growing that. So if you look at the top picture, those are my entire group of volunteers from last year. We celebrated them. They're wonderful, fabulous volunteers. If you look at the bottom picture, that was one of our PTA meetings from the beginning of the year. There are more people there. than on our top picture. So we're growing. We're increasing. And we're doing that through communicating with our parents. And our primary way of communicating with our parents is through ClassDojo. It's like a private messenger system. So we have about 85% of our families signed up for this program. And we're messaging. Teachers can message with their parents. Last week, I believe we had 286 messages just back and forth between teachers and parents. That's a lot of communication happening We had over 100 stories posted. Stories would be like, this is an event happening in the classroom. This is homework happening in the classroom. This is something happening here at school. So we have more communication happening there. Teachers can also use this to let parents know when they're having a good day. They got a positive point for participation. They got a positive point for persevering. So really letting parents know what's going on at the school and making ourselves accessible. And of course, we have a lovely marquee. Hope you drive by and get some of our announcements there. Twitter. We're up to 80 followers. All right. I know. If you all follow me, that could just push us up over the edge. So we're working on that. And of course, we send the paper flyers home, too. But we're trying to get with the times. And that social media, that's the way to reach our parents. And through that, you can see the increased participation. It's not all about our goals, though. Sometimes it's just about community. So we have other programs that support our families as well. We have music for minors. We have a ballet folklorico group. Safe Routes, Go Green, Student Council, Intramural Flag Football and Basketball. We also like to host as many district programs as possible. If it's at our site, our parents can attend. So we have Migrant Ed Workshops and Counseling, Parent Partner Workshops, Tri-City Health. We're hosting the Math Education Evenings for our parents. We host the Head Start Program for our county. We want to give everything we can to our parents, so we'll make room for them. We have lots of things going on. So what makes music special? I've talked a lot about the data in our programs, but quite frankly, it is our community. It is our students, our parents, our staff. We are a family. When you come to our site, you are welcome. And what you will always hear me say is, we may be small in size, but we are huge in heart. So on that note, I want to invite you to be part of our music family. Tomorrow, it's a little bit late notice, but we have our family Valentine's Day dance. It's for preschool through sixth grade, so we make sure everyone can have a good time. But most importantly, I'd love for you to join me on a day in science camp. We work really hard to get our students there. You can come with me. We'll go and we'll see what they're doing in their outdoor learning adventure. So if you're available, that's the day I'm going up, and I'd love to have you join me. Thank you so much for your time tonight.

[1365] Julienne Sumodobila: They're what make it awesome.

[1369] Ray Rodriguez: Board, any comments, questions? Member Thomas?

[1373] Nancy Thomas: Well, thank you very much. That was very interesting, and you're doing a lot of great things. Just a couple, I don't understand some of these acronyms. So what is EBAC and what is DRA? I think I know what DRA is, but I don't think I remember what EBAC is.

[1391] SPEAKER_39: You know, and I should know better. I'm always talking about those. So DRA is the reading assessment we do for our students. It tells us where they're at independently and where they're at instructionally. EBAC is East Bay Agency for Children, and we work with the county to bring in counselors to support our students.

[1411] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. No problem.

[1413] Ray Rodriguez: Anyone else? OK, I have something. Sure. Thank you so much. When we approved the preschool, You know the white for kids just special needs beautiful little kids that to to go over to your you know to music I want for one and I think most of the board member and we felt that it was a perfect fit and that you know great things were going to come out of it and and So far, you know, that's what I see and I want to thank you because now you have basically two schools in one And, uh, you guys, the staff, everybody that does an excellent job and thank you for, you know, as the principal, you know, and, and making that whole transition, you know, uh, as difficult as it could have been, you know, um, it, it's one, you know, it's been well received and you've done an excellent job. So I just had, um, on the attendance that's, you know, we had our, um, our board workshop on the budget, and that's one of the big things, is to increase our attendance. And each one of our schools is being challenged to come up with. Do you have any special programs or events to increase the attendance?

[1497] SPEAKER_39: Right now, our special events are those monthly celebrations. That's what we're doing right now, and really taking that time to get to know each family personally and let them know that we're there for them. This is a big challenge for us at music, especially, because the odds are not in our favor. With our size being what it is, just a few special circumstances, that already throws our percentages off. But we're not letting that get us down. We're going to keep on working on it, making those connections.

[1525] Ray Rodriguez: And you know, music is probably, I think it's out of the school. But if not, and so much history there. And I see Mr. Montoya there. But could you take a minute, and I know you have a very, very engaged community. And could you kind of maybe ask him to introduce some of your staff or ask him to stand if you don't mind?

[1549] SPEAKER_39: Absolutely. Music staff, please stand.

[1552] Ray Rodriguez: And parents. Thank you. And then the back of the room.

[1566] SPEAKER_39: Can you share that with us? Absolutely. So I think we have a little bit of a unique approach to decorating. What I tell my staff is you bring something from your classroom that you're working on that you want to share. So it's not always the biggest, shiniest project. But if you go and you look back there, this is what we're doing in our classes. This is how we're connecting reading to social studies. This is what STEAM looks like. This is how we're practicing math fluency, art, letter recognition. This is the real work.

[1598] Ray Rodriguez: And then if your PTA decides to do a fundraiser for T-shirts or whatever, we would like to get some for us. At least, I want to try to get T-shirts from all the schools.

[1611] SPEAKER_39: I think you'd look beautiful in the music leopard shirt, each and every one of you. We'll happily accommodate.

[1617] Ray Rodriguez: And somebody brought up the idea, and I don't know if you want to drive it at music, but getting a T-shirt with all the schools. And when I went today to your, in the office there, that's what somebody.

[1631] SPEAKER_39: Yeah, my office manager. Your office manager brought that up. Yeah. We would love to help you get those t-shirts set up. Yeah. Absolutely. Newark Pride.

[1639] Ray Rodriguez: Anyway, thank you again. And we enjoy and appreciate everything you do for our kids and our community.

[1648] SPEAKER_39: Absolutely. And thank you. You are always welcome at music. OK. Thank you.

[1651] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you very much. Superintendent. Oh, we move to, I'm sorry, my fault. Public comment on non-agenda items. It's next. So, Mrs. Parks, you had put in for 13.3. Did you want to switch that over to public comment on non-agenda items or just address it when we bring it back? Thank you. Thank you much. Okay. Member Thomas, could you help me, please? Excuse me. So now we have public comment on non-agenda items, so we have a few of you. Now, normally we allow three minutes, but because we have so many, if you can get done quicker, then that'll help us. And we have one. that has, is this 9.12? Yeah. Oh, you want this first one? Okay, sure. And then we have one where there's a few people on there. So past practices is we allow you more time because there's maybe three of you that want to come up. So if you need more time, if you want to do it in three minutes, but because there's two or three of you. So the first one is Mr. Montano, one. Sure, sure.

[1762] Nancy Thomas: What's your name, sir?

[1763] Ray Rodriguez: What is your name? Mr. Jimenez. Mr. Jimenez? Yes. OK. Normally we would charge you money to go in front of the line, but we're going to waive that.

[1777] SPEAKER_53: It's just the way we have it in Norway.

[1779] Ray Rodriguez: OK.

[1780] SPEAKER_53: All right, good evening, board. My name is Oz Jimenez. I'm with Newark American Little League and the reason I'm here tonight is to let you know about of our membership is merging with Newark National. In the past we were two separate baseball leagues within the city of Newark and I have a letter that we sent to Little League in Williamsport to let them know that we wanted to merge. Newark National and Newark American are requesting to merge into one league. The merger is subject to the approval of Little League Charter Committee. If approved, the merged league will be named Newark Little League. While the leagues were originally planned to merge for 2020 season, we are accelerating our merger application to the 2019 season due to a significant drop in registration, especially in Newark National. The merger would help us achieve our goal of having a cohesive baseball community where you and your kids can learn and enjoy the sport of baseball. This is the product we want to provide the community Both leagues are looking for sustainability of baseball in the city of Newark moving forward. Since both leagues feed the same junior high and the same high school, we feel that this would be a logical merger. As one league, it would help our baseball community grow together as players, parents progress from T-ball to seniors, and hopefully playing high school baseball on Newark Memorial one day. The reasons for merging. The merger will help sustainability of baseball in the city of Newark moving forward, Two, competition with other sports in our community have made it difficult to keep our numbers up, i.e. soccer, lacrosse, cricket, and other baseball leagues. The new league would provide you with a more easily accessible one-stop shop for baseball in Newark. We would simplify the boundaries of our league and the city limits and Newark schools within city limits. In addition, moving forward as one league, we would have a stronger voice within our community. As two separate baseball leagues during the city of Newark's master plan discussions, we could not get the city to help our leagues moving forward with baseball field space. The director of the Parks and Rec, Dave Zender, could not understand why we have two leagues in our small community. He was so, he saw us as a divided baseball community. He mentioned the strength of the soccer league in our town was that they encompassed everyone in the city. He felt that our league should combine our resources for the betterment of the community. Combining our resources and, for example, our volunteers, board members, coaches, fields, equipment, will help our leagues thrive. So to finish, I'll let you know that yesterday Little League and their charter committee voted and accepted our merger. And as of last night, we are now the Newark Little League.

[1951] Ray Rodriguez: All right.

[1952] SPEAKER_53: Congratulations. So now we are one. I have a copy of the letter that we sent them, and I can just have that.

[1961] Ray Rodriguez: Sure, I'd love to have that. Finish reading it. Thank you. We don't normally comment on public comment, but however, the partnership that we've had over the years with both little leagues, and I'm assuming you're going to be playing at the junior high school.

[1975] SPEAKER_53: We will be playing at the junior high, yes.

[1976] Ray Rodriguez: And it has been second to none. And we appreciate all the volunteerism and what you do for our kids. And most of the people here are Our kids have gone through Little League.

[1989] SPEAKER_53: I've seen you there the past couple of years.

[1992] Ray Rodriguez: And thank you and all your volunteers for continuing to move forward with the Little League. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Much success. Thank you. Now, Mr. John Montano? No, go ahead. It's going to cost you, but you can go.

[2015] SPEAKER_60: I'll pay, no problem. I'm Manny Padilla, Newark National Little League president. Just to follow up with Oz and the merger, we, sorry, I'm just coming off a cold. But this is exciting for Newark. We tried, I took over the league three years ago, Newark National, and it was almost broken. A lot of our parents and volunteers worked hard to get the league back on its feet. as well as Oz and Newark American who did the same. He's been in his seat about the same amount of time, and they came out of some big debt and overcame some big hurdles and worked their butts off to get in the positive. And I just feel like the two groups together merging is going to be just strengthen Newark as a community. That division of them over there against us over here is gone. So thankful for that. Now that we At Newark National, we partnered with the low enrollment and all that. We've been working our tails off to partner with parents that work at Apple and construction companies, all these big construction companies, to get donations to help our league out. Last season, five, six of our parents were like, hey, I work at such and such company, and if we build new fields, You build it, they'll come. That was the motto to getting more kids over to baseball. And they were willing to donate tens of thousands of dollars. They were like, I know you guys don't have the money, you're a nonprofit. I could probably get five, six grand from this company, five, six grand from that company. And towards building brand new fields, little by little, we're getting pushed out of the high school, out of the four fields that originally were Newark National Fields, once the high school took over that property, they took over the fields, of course. Over the last few years, they've been kind of pushing us out. We're down to two fields. So with this merger, we're so excited to hear that. Now we've got five, six fields over there at the junior high that we all get to use. These guys, Juan and these guys, and all the guys that volunteer over there, I mean, from fixing broken sprinklers to cutting the grass to doing all the maintenance, field maintenance, and upgrades at that field. Newark National was looking at building these brand new fields at Milani, which is our old home. Now we're looking at using those resources at the junior high. Word on the street is that they want to start charging us for those fields. I don't know if that's true or not, but I figured I better come up here and say something. Because for us to put tens of thousands of dollars tens of thousands of man hours into these fields. And to get charged for that, I don't think that's right. So I want to figure out how, if anything, we're costing the school district money and how we can eliminate that. The plan was that the Milani is, once we took it over, scraped the field from scratch and built the branding fields, that we were going to maintain them ourselves. If we could do that at the junior high, we'd be more willing to do that. cut the expense to you guys and take on that expense to ourselves.

[2215] Ray Rodriguez: I apologize, our three minutes are up. But I'm sure staff will contact the district office and they'll chat with you about it. And it's Burge Grove Intermediate, right now? Right. But I call it Milani also. Sorry. No, that's fine. Please invite us to, you know, throw out the first ball, opening day, whatever you want us to do, we'd love to come. March 9th. Thank you.

[2246] SPEAKER_16: Superintendent? I would like to respond because it might save some brain damage for this gentleman that are here and maybe help even to change some of their comment. First of all, I appreciate you bringing it to our attention. I know that we have been talking with some little leagues relative to creating a memorandum of understanding. But I can tell you that we are interested in developing a good partnership and continue partnership because you serve our students. So one of the places where we do charge more is for people that don't serve our students. And we are going to have a structure that is kind of a sliding scale. And by definition of what you guys do, you would be at the lowest rate, which is our partner rate. But even in addition to that, we usually don't do a memorandum of understanding unless it's someone that's even a deeper partner, which I would say you guys fit that criteria. An example I'll give you of that is the stage one. They do a lot of similar stuff. So we have a separate agreement with them. And we know we've been holding one of the fields at one of our sites to finish that conversation. So it's on my radar, at least from the sense of we have to sign a formal memorandum of understanding. But that can be more of a five-year, six-year agreement. And it's kind of the idea of if we have a good prenup agreement, we have a better relationship because we know the rules up front. But we're definitely interested in working through that with you. And now it'll be with Newark Little League, which is really exciting. So I just wanted to kind of share with you that there's no barriers here for that. But we could sit down and sort through those details in a formal agreement. Then everybody knows the rules. And part of what we've had to do is clean up some of the past agreements. So going forward, it doesn't mean we don't want to make that partnership. But I definitely like the idea of some symbolic ribbon cutting when we do finally sign the paper. Oh, we're excited. So let's think of some funny ways, some cool ways to do that. And I think we're definitely with you as you are with us in serving our students. Thank you.

[2362] SPEAKER_60: Thank you for your time.

[2363] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for taking the time to approach us. I appreciate it. Now Mr. Juan Montano. With the Raider Nation t-shirt.

[2377] SPEAKER_15: All right. How are you guys doing? My name is Juan Montano. I'm a board member for Newark Little League now. I am the field maintenance manager, and I am the equipment manager. I'm the one that I do all the work on the field. This year, I'm working on the two backstops on the minor field and on the farm field, putting new ones back there. We got new wood put on the bleachers and stained. We make sure that we pressure washed everything. Everything's been repainted. We put a lot of work in those fields. I do a lot of running around to price stuff. I'll be over at Hobart Lumber. Then I'll head over to the one on Cherry and Home Depot. I'll get all the prices together. And then I'll present it to the board. And they give me the OK to get what I can, being as cost effective as possible. So like I said, I work on the field. And my name is Juan Montano.

[2436] Ray Rodriguez: I appreciate you doing that. And just so that everybody knows, and you can chime in on this, the Little League also has young ladies that it's not just about boys, right? Yes.

[2447] SPEAKER_15: Yes. Yes. I appreciate that. Also for, I think the little girl that stood up the first one, she plays, my daughters also play for the Newark Junior High softball team with Coach Lori. I also prepare the fields for them when they're getting ready to start their practices and all that. Because I'm out there every day. You drive by, you'll see my car right next to the baseball fields every day. And through the summer, I'm out there on the weekends with my boys. And I try to keep all five of those fields maintained. So that way, it's a whole lot easier for our parents to just come and do little stuff.

[2485] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time come up and talk to us. And good luck again on the merger. OK. Miss Natalie Herrera.

[2503] SPEAKER_54: Welcome.

[2506] SPEAKER_32: So I'm definitely not a public speaker, but I did come on behalf of the Newark Little League. I'm their treasurer, and so I'm happy to hear what you have suggested about working together, because boy, did we fundraise. So we do a lot of fundraising to keep our league going. It pays for the equipment. It pays for the jerseys. So all they have to do is buy their pants and cleats. It pays for, I think, did I say equipment? And the field maintenance. And so all of the money that we raise, we use to just better the field, our league, and the equipment. So I'll be looking forward to partnering with you guys on how to keep continuing that partnership.

[2547] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you for your hard work. Ms. Michelle Padilla.

[2558] SPEAKER_54: Welcome.

[2561] SPEAKER_38: Good evening. Baseball is an all-American pastime. The relationships, forms of sportsmanship, teamwork, and responsibilities are valuable lessons for our youth. As you've heard, due to declining enrollment and it's been long overdue, Newark American and Newark National have been approved to merge. Our hope is to create a wonderful baseball community center for Newark at the junior high. Not only do kids create relationships during baseball, parents, grandparents create relationships in the snack shacks, in the stands, and brings Newark together. It brings our community members together to strengthen Newark. Our fields, as you heard from Juan, are meticulously maintained by our volunteer staff. No custodial support is needed. We pay for and maintain our own trash and restroom facilities. I urge you, board, to mitigate fees to non-profit youth sports and partner with us to foster the great experiences and relationships that Little League baseball brings to our community. Thank you.

[2623] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else from the Little League?

[2634] SPEAKER_59: I sprained my ankle coming.

[2635] Ray Rodriguez: That's OK. No lie. No, it's not OK you sprained your ankle.

[2638] SPEAKER_59: I'm sorry. Hi, my name is Confessor Santiago. I was the vice president of Newark American. And now with the merge, we'll find out what position I hold. This is all new to me. So my son is a kindergartner at BGP. So this school board, all this is new to me. So shout out to room 11, BGP. And Miss Carlos. So like so far the experience has been great. So from an education standpoint it's been everything we wanted. We moved into Newark from Renningen Mountain View three years ago. We have no plans of moving. We have a townhouse on Joaquin Marietta and one day we'll buy a single family home somewhere. If you're all selling I'm interested. But I'm going to talk to you about the benefits of youth baseball. I'm a manager at the farm level, so I have six, seven, and eight-year-olds on my team. There's 13 kids on my team, and at the first practice, I went around and asked them, you know, what's your name, what's your school do you go to, what's your favorite food, and what's your favorite athlete? Seven of them said Steph Curry, and it was a baseball league, so it just turns out popular. Steph Curry is. I thought I was in the wrong sport. But 12 out of my 13 players go to public school. And I think that there's probably about that same ratio at the number of kids we have. Most of them are our kids in the public school. Benefits of youth baseball. It helps them develop self-esteem. It's regular exercise for them. It teaches leadership skills. It teaches teamwork. It teaches communication and social skills. It teaches strategy. Gets them thinking, right? Like runner on first and second, what do you do? Runner on first. Nobody on base. You hit the ball, what do you do? So it really does teach them strategy and it forces them to put their electronics down. It forces them to stop doing, what's it called, Fortnite dances. That's my rule on my team, like no Fortnite dances. And lastly, it teaches them the value of authority and discipline. Because similar to when they're in their classroom, they need to respect the teacher. That's the same respect that I sort of ask as the manager of the team. And I know that we have great managers behind us. And just overall, like baseball, it is a partnership, right? You guys are taking care of them from 8 to 3. 4 to 5.30, they're on my watch. And the good news is Newark is a community. I moved here from New Jersey, South Jersey, and really community-based, right? Next door neighbor was like a family. I've lived in a couple areas around here, and like, Newark, California is... is like reminds me of home, right? Like that's what I love about the small town nature of it. And I'm going to stay here for as long as I can. And like I said, we should partner. Like it's just not even about the schools and the fields and the money, right? We're partnering together to teach these kids and grow them into great adults. So anyway, thank you for your time.

[2817] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[2820] Ray Rodriguez: Hopefully both my grandsons are supposed to play. Oh, OK. Thank you. And I was going to say, I'm sorry you're from New Jersey, because I'm from Newark. But that's OK. My father's Puerto Rican. Oh, OK. Clemente shirt. I was going to wear my Clemente shirt. Megan McMillan? Miss McMillan? Thank you.

[2852] Megan McMillan: So, hi. Our Director of Special Education presented her State of Special Ed in Newark. And pardon me, I'm getting over a cold too. One of the things that she highlighted was how all of our IEPs, all different types, all last year were turned in on time. And while that is a feather in all of our caps, I really wanted to take a moment and highlight the work that goes on behind those IEPs. So I just have a couple of highlights. that I wanted to share with you because I don't think you hear it enough about the great things that we're doing. So, first from our psychologist, Anne Vandenbroek. She is so excited that she's been able to really connect with parents over the past year in a way that she's built trust with them. They come to her for getting their problem solved with the hows and what's and why's of challenges that they're facing. She likes that she's built that trust. At the preschool, Alyssa Bauer, She has a number of students that through all the tireless dedication and work in her classroom are on track to go into general education kindergarten in the fall. And in addition to that, out of eight students who came in wearing diapers, two are now completely potty trained, three are now using the potty when taken, and one who used to scream and do that like cat with the hands on the door, you know, going into the bathroom is now sitting appropriately and it's going to happen any day. A lot of success at preschool is around a bathroom. So, in Michelle Migia's classroom, children who had never had to follow a routine before are really starting to follow and understand what transitions are. In Jeanette Liu's classroom, this was fantastic. There's this child with Down syndrome who communicated via sign language for the very first time in her classroom this year. At the elementary level, Arlene Cordero at Snow, she's been able to implement the entire general education curriculum in her classroom. She even has some students with DRA levels that are on grade level and are now able to participate in ELA in general education classrooms during the day. Alicia Greve, she teaches our Montsevier class at Graham, one of them, and she is so proud of the social skills work that her kids are doing, learning to play and work with their classmates and with their general education peers. Rochelle Bautista is at music. She's a first-year teacher and the thing that she is so proud of is that she really feels like she's gotten a handle on class management, which is a big deal your first year. She really loves her team and she's seen such growth in social skills and academic skills. Sarah Rohde at snow. Is very proud of her entire team this year. She had a kid that transferred in with a really confusing IEP. They were able to piece it out. And he has gone from needing breaks every 30 seconds to working for a solid 20 to 30 minutes at a time. And is approaching grade level in a number of subjects. And another student who has reduced the need for a behavior plan entirely. It's great. And up through the junior high and high school, we have students that are making advances, making friends, building friendships. I really wanted to highlight this stuff because I don't think we hear it enough. I know we're at the three.

[3051] Ray Rodriguez: No, no, it's OK.

[3052] Megan McMillan: Last thing. So this is the stuff we're proud of. It's the stuff that makes all that paperwork worth it. And these are the things that make all of our work special, impressive, and worth every single penny you put into it. Thank you.

[3067] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you for all you do for our kids. We appreciate it. Next, Ms. Lydia Arroyo, Soyola Avila, and Veronica Torres with the Latin Educational Summit.

[3095] SPEAKER_52: Good evening, dear board members.

[3098] SPEAKER_54: Welcome.

[3099] SPEAKER_52: And district executive. My name is Soyola Avila. I'm here to invite you guys. for the first Latin Education Summit. This event is being organized by promoters, Latinas, parents, leaders, superintendent, Mr. Sanchez, and a lonely board member, Ms. Vivian Larson. The day is February 22nd, 1929. I'm sorry. 530 to 830 p.m. from 5.30 to 6.30 we're going to have education resources and then we're going to have from 7 to 8 p.m. we're going to have the event. The main topics we're going to have is there's a need and to identify and address critical forecasts that face our Latinx students in the family and the focus of our summit will be engaged and to seek input from participants to determine top areas of primary and to develop potential solutions. We must be informed about students' achievements, success, and challenge in order to overcome to go to college.

[3180] Ray Rodriguez: Beautiful goals.

[3185] SPEAKER_48: Yes. This event is going to be in Ohlone College, meeting room, second floor. We hope you go over there and share with us. It's going to be child care provide, free parking, and what else? What else?

[3210] SPEAKER_42: and we hope to see you all. You're going to be getting a special invitation and the flyer English and Spanish tomorrow first thing in the morning as well as all the principals and all the executives. We are looking for facilitators to help us on our tables because we're going to have some sessions on tables so if any of you can come We prefer bilingual because we're gonna have a lot of people that speak Spanish only that event It's gonna be in Spanish and translated in English. So we hope to see you all there on the 22nd 530 to 830 p.m.

[3247] Ray Rodriguez: Friday Lonely college not to interrupt you Oh Lonely College, Newark or Fremont Newark Oh Lonely College, Newark.

[3255] SPEAKER_42: Okay, so please come please please If there's anything we can do to

[3263] Ray Rodriguez: Because we want to make sure it's successful.

[3265] SPEAKER_42: I'm sure there will be stuff that you can do to help us. But please just send it to everybody and invite everybody. Everybody, it's welcome. And it's open to the community. We have parents already signing up from Fremont and Union City. So we hope to open it to those areas as well. Thank you very much. Have a good night.

[3287] Ray Rodriguez: You have more time. Does anybody else want to?

[3290] SPEAKER_42: I only printed a couple of copies because you're going to be getting everything tomorrow. So two in Spanish, one in English. Any questions?

[3300] Ray Rodriguez: No. Anybody? No. Thank you. Thank you for all of you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[3305] SPEAKER_38: Sorry, I do have a question.

[3307] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Member Martinez. Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. Never mind. Board, you want to? Why don't you? She'll get with you. She's got some questions for the superintendent. OK. And maybe if the superintendent wants, we can, I don't know if there's enough time to have you come to and do a presentation. But anyway, thank you. Thank you for doing this.

[3337] SPEAKER_42: Sponsors, Avanzando, Cal State East Bay, and Metas, and of course, Ohlone College.

[3343] Ray Rodriguez: Muchisimas gracias. Thank you. [Translated] Thank you so much. Thank you. [End]

[3345] SPEAKER_42: Gracias. Buenas noches. Buenas noches.

[3350] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Mr. Knoop, Carey Knoop.

[3362] Cary Knoop: Good evening. You know, I didn't actually want it to come, but I saw the meeting about the budget cuts, and I felt I had to say something. So this is the second time in a short period that we're going through these budget cuts. And it's very difficult. Somebody said we're family. We are family. We have parents and teachers and everybody together. And cutting is really hard. Now, if you ask a board member before they get on the board when you do a cut, what's the most important thing, they probably all say, we want to keep it away from the classroom. Right, and that's why I had to say something because I saw this meeting and there was something I didn't like. I refuse to believe that there's no single educational program that cannot be investigated and be cut or halved. I refuse to believe there's no contract that can be readjusted and or professional contract or piece of software that can be considered as part of cuts. Now, we have to be realistic. Are we going to have to cut some teacher positions? Yes. I mean, you know, how else are you going to get 2.2 million dollars? But are we doing our utmost best? Is educational services working around the clock, going to every single educational program and saying, Which program is not 100% mandatory funded? Where can we cut something? Is that happening? Is the finance department looking at contracts, insurances to see can we restructure some things? Are they working round the clock on that? Because we want to minimize the number of teacher positions that we have to close. And I was very discouraged because I saw some members of the board mentioning professional programs, educational programs. But I didn't feel that the rest of the board was interested in that. And I think that's a serious mistake. We need to do our best to make sure that we minimize the numbers of teacher positions that we cut. So by looking at educational programs, this will be the second year when Newark does a cut where zero educational programs are cut. And I refuse to believe that there's nothing there that we can cut, that all these programs have to be there. We have to look through it. We have to look through contracts. And we have to see how much can we save, even if it's one single teacher position. So I urge the board not to say, oh, it's OK. We understand what you're saying. Just sign up the dotted line. No. Go back to the district and tell them, we want to see where you can cut programs. Thank you.

[3536] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Mr. New.

[3541] SPEAKER_06: OK, seeing that's it for the.

[3553] Ray Rodriguez: No, it's just that we've moved on. Superintendent, it's a superintendent report. So if he wants to have you tag on to what he's going to report. Good. OK.

[3567] SPEAKER_06: All right. One thing real quick, so I know the principal situation in Newark Memorial has been a bit confusing for students lately. We're kind of wondering what's going on with the interim principal and the principal that's currently on admin leave. Speaking for myself, not speaking for any other students, it's just a bit worrisome, I guess, that I haven't heard anything, that nothing's been announced publicly to students. Principal Bratz is probably one of the administrators that made students feel most welcome on campus. His daily messages were very welcoming. He made you feel like you were, he made you feel, you felt a personal connection with him. And the fact that he's gone with no sort of information since about November, December is a bit disconcerting. I just hope that we can hear something soon about what's going on.

[3633] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I apologize. But when you're dealing in personnel issues, we really, if you want to get together with the superintendent at some point, I'm sure he'd be glad to talk to you. Superintendent?

[3646] SPEAKER_16: The only thing I will say is there will be clarity soon. And I'm happy to talk with you outside of this context. May I proceed with my report, President Rodriguez? Members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, First of all, just kind of a little bit of housekeeping. I do want to, now that we have a full board, I wanted to share a copy of a previously shared document that is committee assignments for the board. It's a copy of it for member John to look at and to begin that conversation with the board president about where he might fit as a board committee member or as a alternate. So that's pretty easy. Retreat update, I have submitted the, thank you first of all to all board members for giving me your potential dates and your availability. I'm working with the facilitator to schedule our first series. It's looking like we're probably gonna have the first one happen in April. He's traveling in March, but I think it's gonna be worth waiting for because we have a good team of people that are being paid for with external dollars. So we'll be working with Josh from Berkeley School District, with Steven Ladd, who is one of the big trainers for CSBA relative to Masters of Governance. And we'll be working with Chelsea Kang from the CCEE. And they're paying for all of it, which I like. But I'm looking for kind of, it looks like the result of the survey of the board is probably a combination of Friday, Saturday, and a few alternate options like that. So we'll probably start with the first four-hour session. But it might also be a Saturday that's maybe a six-hour session. But more to come on that. But I just want to say thank you, and we'll be working on that. And I hope to have something as soon as next week to put in front of you to look at. And certainly, by the time we meet next, we should be able to really nail down three or four meetings that we can do between now and June. So that's coming. And on the communications front, there have been a lot of activity. Here's some highlights from Valaire Strategic Advisors, who is our contractor that we have for communications and marketing. They produced three videos to support your enrollment outreach efforts. And I do want to get ready to queue those up, Char. So let's show the videos that they've prepared for us first, then I'll finish my update. Our core mission and vision is really to ensure that all of our kids become successful in their lives. I can tell you that what's really important to us is that we're helping kids succeed at high levels academically and that we're implementing programming that challenges them every day. So our core mission really is helping kids.

[3829] Catheerine Ingham-Watters: When I think of Newark's focus on academic success, the thing that comes to mind is our new math implementation. So just this last year, we have fully implemented a K-12 math program called Big Ideas Math. And this is the first time in many years that we've had full kindergarten to 12th grade articulation in math.

[3853] SPEAKER_16: So teaching math language arts, social studies, science. Not as separate subjects, but starting to blend them together, kind of the way you would in the real world. So this idea of real world application of learning through problem and project-based learning is at the core of what we call STEAM. Our teachers are very kind and caring and many of our employees send their kids to our school district, which in my mind is the ultimate compliment. I think they're very centered in who we serve. I'm proud of our staff and how they treat kids and how they speak to kids and how we treat parents as customers.

[3889] Catheerine Ingham-Watters: Newark is definitely a special place for its families. We have the A joy of being a small town in the heart of Silicon Valley. And one of my mentors said to me, we are big enough to matter, but small enough to care. And that's what I think of when I think of Newark Unified.

[3910] SPEAKER_16: So that's kind of an intro to the district. The next video, what's the next one we're going to show, Shar? We have two more videos. One is a TK. Promo and the other one is the junior high.

[3929] SPEAKER_04: What's your visa number, Larry?

[3934] SPEAKER_47: We can do that one next, thank you.

[3949] SPEAKER_50: Shaping 21st century learners requires teaching students the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in high school, college, and beyond. The Newark Unified School District offers an outstanding junior high school program committed to making learning engaging, meaningful, and relevant.

[3966] SPEAKER_11: It's really a nice place. It's a great place to go to school. Kids love it here. Parents love it as well, and the teachers that we have on staff love it. We try and make the instruction suit the student's needs. So if you are struggling in a certain level or certain subject, we're trying to find a way to make you successful in that subject.

[3984] SPEAKER_49: I think it's really, really important for the teacher to bring the energy that he or she wants into the classroom. I meet my students where they are. I understand them. I connect with them. I establish relationships with them.

[3998] SPEAKER_55: I'm engaged in the class. because they make it really fun and they teach it so well and it's so easy to understand. I wouldn't have to say that this is a great community to be in. We will have great peers being here. The teachers are like teaching like how it should be taught and I just like did not care. The principal is awesome.

[4020] SPEAKER_49: Parents are interested in their children being safe in a safe environment. The teachers here will protect their children and take care of their children.

[4029] SPEAKER_11: I think if you're looking for a place where you want your child to feel welcome, and feel safe, and feel supported, then this is it. Teachers care about kids at this school, and we know through research that's a really important component to making sure students are successful, and they will get the education they need here at the Fry School. And we have one more.

[4061] SPEAKER_50: The Newark School District's mission to inspire and educate all students to achieve their full potential starts with a TK and kindergarten program committed to a young learner's academic success and social development.

[4074] SPEAKER_04: I think it is extremely important for children to attend a transitional kindergarten. It will get them ahead of the game academically, emotionally and socially speaking. The children are marvelous. They are innately curious and I feed on that so it inspires me on a daily basis. My son is developing so much in the TK program. He comes home, telling me different things that he's learned and all excited about learning fall and winter.

[4100] SPEAKER_57: I think the most important thing is the teacher. This teacher program is wonderful. She is very friendly, nice and humble. So I think my daughter, she really loves her. I also feel like the communication between the school and the parents is

[4117] SPEAKER_04: is very, very great. There's a lot of diversity, which is amazing. I've been very impressed so far. The teachers, the principal, they go to great lengths in order to ensure that the children are safe, happy, and that the environment in their classrooms are conducive to learning.

[4136] SPEAKER_50: We are committed to our students' success. Enroll your child in TK or Kindergarten today. Visit newarkunified.org.

[4151] SPEAKER_16: My favorite, I like those little kids. And we are currently working with them to develop a video that's going to highlight our STEAM initiative and our commitment to STEAM as a district. So that's kind of in the works. All videos have been posted on the district website and will also be used for social media. In addition, the videos may also be on the city of Newark website on their tour of Newark that they are developing. And they'll be shown for education as well. We are still making some progress on billboards. I'm not going to reveal everything there yet. That's very exciting what's coming. And we had a big breakthrough today on that. So more to follow on that. I'm not going to share it all. Thanks to the Bolaire team. And the district has been highlighted in local media over the past few weeks. I did an interview in La Raza, 93.3, on Univision 14 morning show, the Despierta Aria de la Bahia. The Valaire team is working on a social media campaign focused on enrollment. That's kind of one of the priorities being given. The purpose is to highlight the great programs and things going right in Newark Unified. And I've had a lot of conversation with teachers about that's something that we all kind of agree that we need to do a better job of because there's really good things going on here, but we have to do better at telling the story. And remember to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook handle is at, or is that the Twitter handle? I don't know how this works. Face, chat, snap face, whatever it is. At NewarkUSD, Twitter handle is at NUSDSchoolNews. The Volare team has been supporting the district with graphic design support as well. Creating a Latino Summit flyer, they helped with that. They're working on brochures for all school sites and the principals, thank you for getting information. We're working on that now. Collecting content, taking photos and writing. We look forward to sharing those brochures as soon as we have those drafted and available. President Rodriguez, that concludes my report this time.

[4269] Nancy Thomas: Any questions? I'd like to make a comment if I might. Thank you very much. But, not a but, but Ms. Waters is in the audience and she has offered to come and speak to Rotary on the 19th. And so if any of the board members would like to come, lunch is on me. It's at noon at the Doubletree. So we'll hear all about BGI's STEAM initiative. And I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Catherine, for doing this.

[4307] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Ms. Waters. I agree. Let's give her a round of applause. OK, we now go to employee organizations. Anyone from NTA? I like the hat.

[4328] SPEAKER_19: Thank you. During the break, I was shopping for a new hat, so we'll see if something new comes up.

[4335] Ray Rodriguez: So who are you, by the way?

[4337] SPEAKER_19: Good evening. My name is Timothy Merritt. I'm the president of the Newark Teachers Association, and I'm Very pleased to represent two, I believe our number today is 295 members. Great. We have, for the first time in a long time, 100% membership at the high school. Yes, and very excited about that. The first thing I'd like to start with is I've talked to some of you, and Char forwarded you an email about a Alcosta school board breakfast. It's where once a year Alcosta, which is the Alameda County, Costa County local CTA organizations. I don't know. It's a group. It's a group. It's a, it's a, it's a, of all the, all the, the local CTA organizations, which NTA belongs to. And so once a year we host a a breakfast for board members to come and learn a little bit more about CTA. And so that is on February 23rd. I have RSVPs from hard RSVPs from three of you and two of you I'm waiting. So and I have to turn that in tomorrow. So if you just give me a nod right now I can just put you down. As long as you're paying for it it should. You know what. I have to pay for my own, but they're going to pay for yours. And I'm going to be there.

[4433] Ray Rodriguez: I was going to ask Member Thomas to pay for it, but that's OK. She's tapped out.

[4437] SPEAKER_19: She's doing the rotary thing. Maybe next month. All right. So in addition, I just wanted to highlight some of the conferences that we've sent people to. Most recently, we sent Amanda Yap, a teacher from the high school, went to Las Vegas in January to an issues conference. And we sent our wonderful Megan McMillan to the Good Teaching Conference this month, I guess, yeah, just a couple weeks ago in San Jose. We're also hoping to send about 10 educators to the new educator conference, which is at the San Francisco airport, one of those hotels there. And we sent 10 last year, and we hope to send another 10 this year. And then we have the Equity and Human Rights Conference in San Jose coming up in March, which we're shooting to send another 10 people. And don't worry, no subs required. It's on a Saturday and a Sunday, because that's what teachers do. Yeah. And then our last conference that we're going to go to is called the Conference on Racial and Social Justice, and that's also in San Jose. So we know that Newark Unified School District doesn't have money to send us to conferences, and so we're trying to send as many people as we can to conferences that are, and we're fortunate that many of them are in San Jose. The other conferences that we went to, we went to a GLBT conference and that's the last time that conference will be held under that name because it was antiquated. It's now called the LGBTQ plus conference starting next year. So we sent two people to that conference and then we had the president's conference. We had a leadership conference. And so we're really about learning not only how to be better union members, but better teachers. It's not just about contracts and negotiations and following the rules. We also want to learn how to be better teachers, and so that's what we do every day. So Ray, you're going to confirm to me tomorrow whether you're going to the breakfast, and everybody else is already confirmed. Any pressure there? No. OK. All right.

[4578] Ray Rodriguez: And I also want some more information on the conference for the racial and social justice, if you don't mind getting that to me.

[4584] SPEAKER_19: Absolutely. And if you want to come, you can pay for it yourself. But the non-member pay is really steep. No, no, I will pay for that one.

[4590] Ray Rodriguez: It's really steep. Member Thomas, did you want to say anything? No. No, we're good.

[4596] SPEAKER_19: Thank you. I appreciate what you do. Keep fighting the good fight.

[4605] Ray Rodriguez: We appreciate everything you do. Thank you. Anyone from CSCA, from that classified group? And NEWMA? Ms. Waters.

[4620] Catheerine Ingham-Watters: Hi, I'm Catherine Waters. I'm the principal at Birch Grove Intermediate. And this year, I am serving as NEWMA's vice president. So I'm happy to share some acknowledgements and exciting events at our school. So first of all, congratulations to our NEWMA winners who won the following AXA Region 6 awards. Technology Administrator, Larry Simon. Central Office Administrator, Leticia Salinas. Elementary Principal, Angela Ehrlich. Middle grades principal Mark Neal. And the region winner is our very own superintendent Patrick Sanchez. I'd like to share some exciting events across the district. The McGregor campus in collaboration with Ohlone College will be hosting back-to-back financial aid workshops on February 19th and 20th. All families of high school seniors, welcome. Music hosted the first of three district parent education evenings, How Can I Help My Student in Math. The next section is the 20th, focusing on our TK to second grade supports. All families and community members are welcome to participate. At Schilling, student council is the school. Working on changing the image of the school by surveying students and determining where they would like to see more art. A proposal will be presented to the board in late March. Lincoln hosted the Association of California school administrators state meeting. It was great to see other school administrators coming from with dynamic mindfulness. Birch Grove Intermediate hosted a delegation from China, including school leaders and principals who were visiting the area and asked to see the work that BGI was doing, in particular STEAM. Visitors enjoyed seeing flexible seating, project-based learning, Lego robotics, gardening, and BGI's Makerspace. At Snow, they have two upcoming parent engagement workshops on the 20th, Face and Heart Parent Workshop Series, and on February 26th, Bullying Workshop for Parents. Thank you.

[4777] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you very much. OK, with that, we move to old business. 12.1 board policy 0500 accountability. It's a second reading. I need a motion and a second.

[4800] Nancy Thomas: I move that we approve this.

[4802] Ray Rodriguez: Member Thomas moves. I second. Member John seconds. OK. Ms. Gutierrez has stepped out. Okay, we have four yes, Ms. Gutierrez stepped out for a minute, so motion passes, thank you. Can I go to new business? So 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, and 13.4 have been pulled and they're coming back. So we go to 13.5, NEWMA, and Ms. Ehrlich wanted to address us on this. the principal of Lincoln Elementary. Welcome.

[4864] SPEAKER_25: Thank you. Well, good evening, board president, board members, and executive cabinet. I'm here tonight as the president of Newark Management Association, NEWMA, to speak to you about their standing team of leaders that we have here at Newark. Now, who are members of NEWMA? Our school principals? assistant principals who wear many hats to make it happen for our kids. For example, in addition to being instructional leaders and ensuring school safety, we control traffic, we substitute in the classroom, we mop floors, just to name a few. Department chairs, managers, supervisors, confidential employees are second to none. all work tirelessly to ensure that the very best is given to students of Newark. Our leaders in educational services provide support and training to sites through outstanding professional development. Our business leadership provides guidance on budgeting and ensuring district sovereignty. Our directors, supervisors, and maintenance Food services and graphic arts ensure that our students have safe, clean environment in which to learn, healthy, nutritious food to eat, and quality printed material for our classrooms. Our executive assistants, administrative assistants, secondary officer manager, occupational therapist, program specialist, psychologist, and HR technicians provide competent professional support to every aspect of work being done in NUSD. We attend all school sporting events, evening meetings, back to school nights, weekend events, and a variety of activities for students and families. Many of these events aren't just things that we show up. We actually plan, coordinate, write up nominations for many of these functions. We rally our school communities to promote district initiatives such as passing measures and bond. We believe our support has been instrumental to the success of these very important achievements for our district in the past. Despite a huge lack of resources, we are continuing to promote NUSD schools. We have remained committed to when other opportunities present themselves because we are dedicated to the students of Newark. We have families, we pay for our health insurance, and we're still one of the lowest paid in the Bay Area. We are an unrepresented group. not any more important, but certainly not less important. It takes all three units working together to make the district run and be successful. We are respectfully asking for equitable compensation and believe parity with NTA is fair and reasonable. So on behalf of my colleagues from NEWMA, I thank you very much for listening and for your time and for your consideration.

[5071] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Ms. Hurley. Appreciate it. We started the clock. We didn't start it on time, so that's why we gave you the extra time. So, thank you. So, we have third, anybody else? I think that's the only one we have for the 13.5. So, I need, the staff recommends the board ratified salary increases for management confidential and supervisory NEWMA employees for the 2018-2019 school year. Need a motion and a second.

[5106] Nancy Thomas: It is my honor to move that we approve this increase to our NEWMA group.

[5111] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Member Thomas makes the motion. Need a second.

[5116] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[5117] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez makes the second. Please, please vote. Motion passes unanimously, five ayes. Congratulations. With that, we move to item 13.6, Individual Service Agreement. Chair is Youth Center, Superintendent. Who's going to address that? Associate Superintendent Salinas. Associate Superintendent Salinas.

[5159] SPEAKER_37: Yes, this is a service agreement for an individual student who is qualified for non-public school setting due to his IEP.

[5169] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, any questions? I need a motion and a second. I'll move. Member Gutierrez moves. I'll second it. Member Johnson seconds. Please vote. Motion passes unanimously, six ayes. Go to 13.8, independent contract agreement with Nova Health Therapies, Inc. and NUSD. No, wait a minute. Did I skip one? 13.7, independent contract agreement with 101 Therapies Staffing, Inc. and NUSD.

[5217] Nancy Thomas: I move approval. Okay.

[5219] Ray Rodriguez: Member Thomas moves.

[5222] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[5225] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. OK, motion passes, six ayes. Thank you.

[5238] Richelle Piechowski: Five ayes.

[5239] Ray Rodriguez: I mean, five ayes. We just added another board member, huh? OK, so what's the next one? 13. 1.8 independent contract agreement with Nova Health therapies Inc. and NUSD. Any questions? From staff? Board? Can I need a motion and a second, please?

[5267] Nancy Thomas: I'll move approval.

[5268] Ray Rodriguez: Member Thomas moves.

[5270] SPEAKER_47: I'll second.

[5270] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez seconds. Please vote. Member Martinez? Perfect. Five ayes. 13.9 we pulled. 13.10.10 agreement with Alameda County Office of Education for District Internet Services. Any questions? Anybody want to address this? Staff? Mr. Simon?

[5312] SPEAKER_24: This is a partnership with the county to provide internet services. E-Way pays a good portion of the ISP services.

[5323] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Mr. Nguyen. Any other motion and a second? If no discussion.

[5330] Richelle Piechowski: I move. Approval.

[5333] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez moves. I'll second. Need a second. Member Gutierrez seconds. Please vote. Member Thomas. OK, motion passes, five ayes. 13.11, monthly business transaction reports, December 2018. Did you want to, the board, have any questions on this? Or did you want to address this, Mr. Nguyen? Or are you?

[5363] SPEAKER_24: Yeah, this is just a monthly.

[5365] Ray Rodriguez: Go ahead.

[5366] SPEAKER_24: This is a monthly transaction report for the month of December. Gives you a detailed report of what's going on.

[5373] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Any questions? I need a motion and a second, please.

[5381] SPEAKER_43: I move.

[5384] Bowen Zhang: I second.

[5386] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez moves. Mr. Young seconds. Please vote. Motion passes five ayes. And 13.12. is the donations report. I need a motion and a second. I move acceptance. Member Thomas moves.

[5412] SPEAKER_47: I'll second.

[5413] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez seconds. Please vote. Motion passes. Five ayes. Superintendent, Do you want us to help you read or are you going to? I can do it.

[5434] SPEAKER_16: I can do it. You want to do it? $120 donation for music elementary from your cause LLC trustee for PG&E for the school use as determined by principal. $50 for Newark Junior High School from Maribel Gutierrez for the athletics department. A donation of $95 for Newark Junior High School. The Bonavity Community Impact Fund for school use is determined by principal. $500 for Graham Elementary from Western Dental Services Incorporated for sixth grade science camp. $20 for Newark Junior High School from Celia Velasquez for athletics department. A donation of $550 for Kennedy Elementary. The donor is Kennedy Elementary PTA. Museum of Children's Arts field trip $100 donation for Newark Junior High School. Donor is Srivani Vajari and Sasidhar Julliamudi for the athletics department, totaling $1,435. Thank you.

[5502] Ray Rodriguez: We appreciate the community involvement in our schools and supporting what our kids are doing at each one of our sites. Okay, with that, we go to 14.1, personnel report.

[5525] Nancy Thomas: I move approval of 14.1.

[5528] Ray Rodriguez: Member Thomas moves approval of 14.1. I second. Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. Okay, motion passes five ayes unanimously. Thank you. 14.2, certificated seniority list. I need a motion and a second.

[5553] Nancy Thomas: I'll move.

[5554] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez makes the motion.

[5558] Elisa Martinez: I'll second.

[5559] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. Motion passes five ayes unanimously. Thank you. Now we move to consent agenda items. We have 15.1, non-curricular field trip, Newark Junior High 8th grade class to Santa Clara. 15.2, non-curricular field trip, Newark Junior High leadership to Vallejo, California. 15.3, warrant report for January 2019, 15.4, minutes of the regular board meeting, December 4th, 2018. I need a motion and a second, unless you wanted to pull any one of these and discuss it separately. I move approval. OK. Member Thomas moves approval 13, I mean 15.1 through 15.4. OK. Please vote. Oh, I need a second.

[5620] SPEAKER_47: I'll second it.

[5620] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez seconds. Please vote. Excellent. motion passes unanimously 5 ayes. So the next thing we have is the student expulsion we discussed that in closed session as. We normally do. I need a motion and a second. Expulsion, stipulation for E1819-13.

[5662] Nancy Thomas: I move acceptance of the staff recommendation.

[5673] Ray Rodriguez: Member Thomas moves acceptance. I need a second.

[5679] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[5680] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. the motion passes 4 ayes and one no. Member Gutierrez, normally what we do in a case like this, if you want to address the board or the community on why you voted no on it, you don't have to, it's your prerogative.

[5711] SPEAKER_47: I don't want to get into, because of the gravity of the situation, don't want to get into too many details, but ultimately I My goal here as a board member is for the betterment of the students. So in this case, I chose to vote no.

[5735] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Thank you for sharing. 17.1, Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief, and Discussion. You want to go first?

[5753] Bowen Zhang: Okay, I just have one simple item, as you can tell what I'm wearing today. This week is the Lunar New Year, so for 20% of our newer residents are celebrating this festival. So for those 20%, particularly those in our Korean-American communities and our Vietnamese-American community, including our chief business officer in the yellow pig. Particularly, this is actually your year, the yellow pig. And our Chinese-American community, I wish every one of you a happy new year. Chungman nam muay, xin niang kuai le.

[5787] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So if it's OK with you, when we adjourn, we'll adjourn in celebration of the year of the pig, Chinese New Year. Or the, is that?

[5799] Bowen Zhang: Lunar New Year. I was saying Lunar New Year. Lunar New Year. That's fine. Because all Korean-American or Vietnamese-American are also celebrating the same day.

[5805] Ray Rodriguez: OK. member Gutierrez.

[5810] SPEAKER_47: I had two items, one that I won't because it was about the Latinx summit and since they gave me enough information on it. The next one is the Newark girls soccer, I'm sorry, Newark girls softball league will be holding a softball clinic at the high school softball field this Saturday. There's a softball clinic from 10 a.m. to noon. and a leadership workshop from 12.30 to 1.30.

[5840] Ray Rodriguez: OK, that's at the high school?

[5845] Ray Rodriguez: Because they play at Snow Elementary, right?

[5848] SPEAKER_47: So Newark Memorial High School this Saturday.

[5850] Ray Rodriguez: OK, excellent. OK, anything else? That's it, thank you. Member Martinez?

[5857] Elisa Martinez: Anything? Yes, President Rodriguez, am I on? Yes, I'd like to request, and I think this came out of our study session, the appointment or the formation of the research action group slash committee so that we can continue the work that we need to do in terms of looking for additional longer term opportunities for cost savings or revenue enhancements.

[5888] Ray Rodriguez: OK. So did you, we can actually, Did you want us to appoint two board members on that?

[5901] Elisa Martinez: Yes, I'd like a couple of board member representation.

[5905] Ray Rodriguez: I would love to be on it. So we got it. Member Martinez and Member Thomas. Thank you. Anything else? Member Martinez?

[5920] Elisa Martinez: That was my only request, thank you.

[5921] Ray Rodriguez: Member Thomas?

[5926] Nancy Thomas: Audit Committee meeting, and we appointed Ms. Martinez as our chair. And we're going to follow up with about three meetings or four meetings a year. I'm glad to see that happening. Also, a very good ROP meeting. ROP is making great strides, and they had a PICMAT report that started out with showing up a lot of problems, but in the end, everything was squared away. And I really appreciate FCMAT and what they did for the board, the ROP board, and for the organization to really take care of their financial situation.

[5972] Ray Rodriguez: Excellent. So I just had a couple of things. Thank you, board and staff, for not even 9 o'clock, and we've done pretty well. But we did start at four, right? Just a couple of things. I would like to visit Facebook and talk about all the wonderful things that are happening here in Newark. They just took over two buildings in Newark, is my understanding. So Mr. Young or Bowen, you were going to go with me, right?

[6007] Bowen Zhang: Sure.

[6009] Ray Rodriguez: Maybe we'll bring the superintendent if he behaves. Is that going to be this month? Yeah, we'll get together and schedule it. And see if we can get some money out of Facebook, right? Contribution. Yes, sure. But Facebook gives a lot of money and mostly through Mr. Zuckerberg's wife.

[6028] Bowen Zhang: I guess it's called Zuckerberg Chan Institute. That is their major... And that's his wife, right?

[6036] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. Perfect. So we can go see it. I've been wanting to do this for a while, and it allows the opportunity to do that. I do want to schedule a workshop where we discuss the governance handbook and maybe update it. Member Thomas can help me with this, hopefully, and get it on a future agenda. Sure. Happy to. Let's see. I had a couple of other things. Board. OK. Superintendent, we want to do a board committee of two or did we already, so let me announce it. It's member Gutierrez, right, to, for the superintendent to get with him on, what was it that we? Yeah, the review, right. The board committee, right, exactly. Thank you. The brief committee. Right. Who did we, who are we going to do there? Was it going to be? Martinez.

[6099] SPEAKER_16: Member Martinez. Martinez. Ad hoc evaluation.

[6102] Ray Rodriguez: Right, thank you. Thank you Member Thomas for helping me with that. Let's see, I think that's about it.

[6115] Nancy Thomas: We did very well and I'm looking forward. The debrief of this meeting.

[6122] Ray Rodriguez: Right, exactly. The debrief. And right, we're going to rotate, right? so okay any anybody else have any announcements or again thank you staff thank you board and oh yes yes yes yes yes thank you thank you member Thomas Oh Alyssa member Martinez okay so we have the evaluation document for the superintendent so I wanted to give it to to every board member, fill these out and get them back to me. And Superintendent Sanchez says, say nine things about him. OK. And I wanted to say congratulations, Superintendent, and all our individuals, all our NEWMA members that got awards, Mr. Simon. We appreciate everything that you bring to helping us all educate our kids. And what you mean to Newark, I mean Newark Unified School District. OK. So superintendent, before we adjourned, did you want to say anything? I do. What?

[6205] SPEAKER_16: Do we need to? Oh. Shower's on cue, the 40 page PowerPoint. I just wanted to say from here, we are very honored to be here and finish before 9 o'clock. So that concludes my report.

[6221] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So member, anybody else? Member Yang, did you want to, here, why don't you adjourn the meeting in honor of the Lunar, go ahead.

[6236] Bowen Zhang: The meeting is adjourned in honor of the Lunar New Year.

No minutes available.