Regular - Part 3 Meeting

No content available.

[111] SPEAKER_37: Mr. Rodriguez, we can't hear you. The mic is off. He's talking, but the mic's not on.

[141] SPEAKER_66: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[178] Ray Rodriguez: report the, what we discussed in closed session. Well, no, I'll do that first. I have to report out on, there was just one item that we actually, other than information, that we actually voted on. And it was for a special needs student, member Jean. made the motion, and member Martinez made the second, and the board approved. Four ayes, member Gutierrez being absent. To approve the settlement agreement in OAH, that's the item number, or the case number, 201-903-0008. Okay, you notice, last night we were at the graduation for our adult school, and one of the parents, one of our, you know, diversity in our school is second to none, so I'm assuming either Hawaiian or maybe a Samoan family. But they were so nice, and they gave us the lei. You don't have yours? Okay. So anyway, for the next few days, up until the graduation, a week from Saturday, We're going to be going to different promotions at the elementary school, different, whether it's kindergarten graduation or the graduations for the adult school. I mean, not the adult school, the continuation school, Bridgepoint. And then finally on Saturday, the graduation at the high school. So it's celebration time, and hopefully everybody gets in the mood. Why are we here at Music Elementary School instead of at the board meeting room? Member Thomas and I, and for a while now, have wanted to take our show on the road. I think it's important for our community that we have meetings. Logistically, it's very difficult, but we started with music. We get the principal of music here. Is she here? Amanda?

[323] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So I'd like to thank everybody from Music Elementary. And Mr. Medina is going to be our Sergeant of Arms, greeting everybody and helping us out. And thank you, Music Elementary, for hosting our board meeting this evening. Hopefully, in the future, we might go to other elementary schools and the junior high school and have meetings. It is difficult. Ms. Aquino, with Mr. Simon, thank you for putting everything together. Do you want to make your announcement now, if you don't mind? She's losing her voice.

[377] SPEAKER_60: Good evening, everyone. A few housekeeping things. Restrooms are open outside here, if you need to use the restroom. For those that are speaking this evening, you will notice there is a delay between the two screens of the timer. It's three minutes per person. We will be following this timer on this screen as you speak, so don't be confused, because you'll have an extra few seconds on this timer. If you do want to speak, for non-agenda items or on an agenda item, please fill out a speaker form and please bring it to me prior to the item being announced so you can speak. If you need translation, we have a translator here and headphones available for translation throughout the meeting. Thank you for coming.

[428] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Sharon. Appreciate it. So the screen here to the left, if you want to, you know, so you can keep a Keep abreast of what's going on at the meeting. It will be on TV, right, Ms. Aquino? Yes. Okay. So with that, I need to ask the board if it's okay if after the student reports, if we get the superintendent have his report since we have so many speakers on public comment and non-agenda items. Is that okay with the board? Okay. Okay, superintendent, let's go with the student report, or student reports.

[471] SPEAKER_35: Okay, is there a representative here from McGregor campus? Any student representatives from McGregor campus? Okay. What about Newark Junior High School? Do we have representatives from Newark Junior High School? Here we go.

[490] Ray Rodriguez: Come on up. Good evening, Lady Cougars.

[504] SPEAKER_20: Good evening. My name is Isabella Ruiz. and my name is Destiny Anguiano. And we are a part of the NJHS leadership class. As far as awards go, Mr. Neal and Ms. Ryan have chosen Grace, Rickett, and Susan as the 2018-2019 Newark Junior High School Students of the Year. Other students have received awards for the various departments like math, English, social studies, science, and sports, et cetera. The leadership class has been preparing for the eighth grade for a world dance, making decorations and posters.

[538] SPEAKER_10: The dance consists of a DJ, catered food, unlimited trips to the photo booth, and the Warriors-NBA final game live. Us 8th graders are looking forward to the upcoming end of the year Great America trip. The 8th grade ceremony is June 12th. We are very excited to move on to high school. Overall, the school year has been very successful for us, such as constructing ideas to to one another as a class, turning our work in on time and having fun as an eighth grade class. Thank you.

[574] Ray Rodriguez: So you're both eighth graders? Yes. And you said the dance is coming up, or did it already happen? It's tomorrow. Tomorrow. And no adults are invited? Is that what I heard? I thought there was a flyer saying no adults invited.

[586] SPEAKER_10: I don't think so.

[587] Ray Rodriguez: You didn't do that? OK. Anyway, you're going to love the high school. And your promotion ceremony is when? June 12. Yeah, next Wednesday, right? Yeah, we're looking forward to that. Thank you. Excellent presentation. Thank you.

[608] SPEAKER_35: And now we move to Newark Memorial High School, and either Cesar or Sierra. Cesar, would you like to go first? Yeah, I'll go first.

[622] SPEAKER_07: All right. You guys hear me? The Newark Memorial Rocketry Club participated in the Team America Rocketry Challenge Finals in the Plains, Virginia on Saturday, May 18th. Both teams failed to record a score. My team was disqualified for a snag parachute, which was meant to descend with the payload section, and the other team was disqualified for its booster falling too fast. Both teams would like to thank the board and the Newark community for its continued support, and we hope to do better in the 2019-2020 season. In the meantime, the rocketry team has reached out to the junior high to begin a workshop for rising freshmen. We will be covering rocket design, motor assembly, and the creation of an engineering notebook to formally document our process. The NMHS Robotics Club also visited the junior high to reach out to rising freshmen. They will be starting a summer workshop to give these freshmen a soft intro to Java programming, building, and the engineering notebook maintenance process. Final exams will be taking place next week from Monday to Wednesday. Once again, we really appreciate the Nupal schedule and believe it is a more productive way to operate finals. Senior awards were given out last week. Each department honored a high-achieving graduating senior. Scholarships from each elementary school were also awarded. The following seniors were honored as a top student in a department. From the English Department, Raiden Romero. From the Fine Arts Department, Melissa Ruiz Gallegos. From the Mathematics Department, Josh Billman. From the Modern Languages Department, Osvaldo Granados. From the Science Department, Nicole Wang. From the Social Science Department, Rachel Hunt. In addition, Mavis Stone earned the title of salutatorian and Nicole Wang earned the title of valedictorian. And finally, seeing as I represent the students of Newark Memorial High School, I am obligated to report to the board amounting dissatisfaction among students with the board and the district. My peers and I believe that the board is not acting in the best interest of the students and that the board should consider its actions in the future as carefully as possible. As I speak, please keep in mind that the board has recently filled in public comment and has committed itself to transparency moving forward. At a regular board meeting on the 21st of August 2018, the board unanimously voted to renew the superintendent's contract and furnish him a 1.56% raise, along with a bonus of nearly $5,000. The student body believes that the superintendent performed no action significant enough to warrant this action. Meanwhile, the CSCA chapter for Newark Unified has appeared at the last few meetings, demanding more than the district's offer of a 1.5% raise. The rising cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area is becoming too much for Newark teachers and staff. Does the board believe that the cost of living is only rising for the superintendent? District negotiators have also acted improperly with the NTA bargaining unit, canceling a negotiation session after it was scheduled to begin. Is the district unprepared to negotiate? Have unforeseen or unannounced expenditure rendered the district unable to pay teachers? The board additionally voted at the 2nd May 2019 meeting to pay Ryland School of Business Consulting an additional $20,000 for consulting up to and including the 30th of June 2019. In the contract made available to the public online, section one states that, quote, contractor agrees to provide budget analysis and planning assistance for Newark Unified School District, end quote. Is budget analysis not a duty of the chief business official? Does the board find it necessary to employ a chief business official and simultaneously contract with a third-party consulting firm? If so, what is the purpose of that? Does the board absolutely need to spend money on a contract and a raise for the superintendent in this time of fiscal insolvency? Does the superintendent recognize that by permitting his raise to be passed by the board, he has made the district's financial situation worse? The contract with Ryland Consulting also includes handwritten annotations made to be a part of the contract's text. The annotation appears at the end of the indemnification clause and reads, quote, likewise, NUSD agrees to hold harmless, indemnify, and defend contractor from any and all claims and losses, end quote. Did the executive assistant or the board find it prudent to furnish the public with this copy of the contract without producing a clean copy? The lack of transparency stemming from the board, district, and superintendent. is clearly evident in the administrative leave of Newark Memorial's principal, who served at the site for three months before his employment status entered limbo with the Executive Director of Human Resources. In November of 2018, he was presented with a choice, resign and accept two months' salary or remain on administrative leave. He contested the allegation of wrongdoing from the outset and was provided with no reasoning until a statement of charges was executed on the 1st of February 2019 by the Executive Director of Human Resources. The document makes multiple allegations. The students do not contest the findings of the executive director, the Scully process, or of the principal's legal counsel. Frankly, I agree that the principal should not return to work in Newark Memorial because it is true that several board policies were violated. But after the news broke on campus, the students demanded to know what had happened. In open session, a requested information goal was silenced by the board president. It has come to our attention that the board and the superintendent instructed a student in Newark Memorial to spread rumors regarding the principal's status in order to slow down speculation. Word has also reached the Newark Memorial Campus that several Newark Memorial employees were removed from a selection committee for the new principal. When the district purportedly remains committed to representing all stakeholders in situations such as these, the actions taken are completely out of line. When all is said and done, the board has grossly mistreated students, staff, and the public throughout the school year. We the students of North Memorial High School demand that the board acknowledge all questions raised in this report and in the public comment that will follow. Allow me to be clear and say that the students would prefer to have open and positive relationships with the board and with the superintendent. We would much rather not have to come out in large numbers to rally, but it appears the previous dialogues have not served their intended purpose. I hope that in future years the students will enjoy a positive relationship with the board and that the board will be increasingly responsive to student concerns and public comments. Thank you.

[994] SPEAKER_35: Sierra, would you like to report?

[998] SPEAKER_41: I'm sorry, I would just like to clarify that this dialogue at this moment is just to report specifically what the students and what's happening at Newark Memorial and that this shouldn't be necessarily like a one-on-one Let's just say the whole student body does not feel this way, but then definitely some of the student body does. But it's not necessarily leaning towards any one biased decision, that we just want to keep that open. But going back to what is going on at Newark Memorial, the athletic awards night was last night, and we have some amazing, amazing students and seniors that will be graduating this year. The White Sweater Award, which is accolades of eight varsity sports or nine throughout the whole entire high school season, was awarded to Savannah Swickard and Chance Hefner. The athletes of the year was Angel Martinez, Savannah Swickard, Chance Hefner, and myself. And all four of these athletes received a full, if not full scholarship to athletics. This year was also one of the most amazing years where we've had the largest amount of student-athletes receive scholarships for college or just our majority of our senior class in general where this is also the biggest year as Cesar announced previously at the senior awards night where scholarships were handed out by the community for our students. This is a great achievement for our senior class and it's amazing to see what will come from this. Additionally, this graduation will be happening on June 15th at 9 a.m. If you would like to come and support our senior class, we've dealt with a lot but we are all achieving amazing things and I would just like to invite the community to come out and support. Thank you.

[1127] SPEAKER_35: Okay, before we get started, I want to clarify a point of order. In the opening of the meeting, we did amend the agenda, which means we are pulling item 14.2. So if you're here this evening to speak on 14.2, you can also speak on that at non-agenda items part of the agenda, since 14.2 has been pulled from the agenda. So if you're planning to speak on 14.2, We will definitely hear that as a non-agenda item if you would like to speak to that. So at this time, I'd like to, first of all, welcome someone new to the team. I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Saavedra to introduce our new student services director.

[1172] SPEAKER_37: Good evening, members of the public and STEAM board. Tonight, it is my pleasure to introduce the new people services coordinator, Ana Leon, who comes to us from Primo Unified as their former program manager. She has five years experience as a social worker and is happy to start serving the Newark family. Thank you, Ana.

[1200] SPEAKER_35: Would you like to say anything, Ana? Step to the microphone, please.

[1206] Ray Rodriguez: You got one minute. No, I'm only kidding.

[1208] SPEAKER_47: OK. Good evening, board and Newark community. I'm very excited to be here, and I'm very happy. I'm very honored, and I'm looking forward to working with the students and families in Newark community. Buenas tardes. Mi nombre es Ana Leon, como han dicho. Estoy muy emocionada para poder trabajar aqui con los estudiantes y familias de Newark. Gracias.

[1233] Sean Abruzzi: Excellent. Thank you.

[1238] SPEAKER_37: I also like to take this opportunity to reintroduce our recently appointed snow principal, Jessica Tomasini. She has ample experience as a classroom teacher and has dedicated her last 12 years of education to our ELs and students with academic needs. We are happy, proud to have her join our NUSD administrative team. Jessica.

[1268] SPEAKER_29: Hello. Thank you. And hello to everyone here.

[1274] SPEAKER_28: I started at Snow back as a student teacher way back in 2005. So I'm really excited to be able to continue my work there with Snow's community and to continue my work with all the fabulous employees there. So thank you.

[1286] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. And she accepted the promotion, even though I have four grandkids at that school. So thank you. Hopefully, that'll give you a rough time. Thanks for your attention.

[1304] SPEAKER_35: Thank you, President Rodriguez. At this time, I would like Joanne Hong to step up front. Joanne, are you here? Joanne Hong?

[1313] SPEAKER_44: She was going to come tomorrow.

[1316] SPEAKER_35: OK. Well, we're going to be recognizing her, but I do want to read this into the record. We have a few important people we're going to recognize at this time. Ms. Joanne Hong is the 2018-19 Certificated Employee of the Year. Joanne started working for Newark Unified in 2005. She began teaching at Newark Junior High School and has taught at Newark Memorial since 2011. During this time, she has taught choir, band, and guitar. She has dedicated many of her nights and weekends for rehearsals and performances at school, district and community events. She also does a wonderful job supporting her colleagues in her role as department chair. Thank you, Joanne, for bringing out the best in our students and helping them shine in our community. Let's give her a round of applause. The next person that we'd like to recognize is Mr. Stan Norman. Is Mr. Norman here? Come up to the podium for a moment, because we're going to give you a chance to say a couple words. I don't know about that shirt, though. Mr. Stan Norman, as our 2018-19 Classified Employee of the Year, Stan has worked for Newark Unified for almost 25 years. He began as a custodian at Snow Elementary and was promoted to senior custodian in 2006. Although he is very busy with his regular work, he never complains when something unexpected throws off his day. He always jumps in to help, whether it be to rescue a lost bird out of a classroom or give a pep talk to a student having a bad day. Thank you, Stan, for going above and beyond to help coworkers and students and parents. We'd like to present you with this plaque.

[1446] Ray Rodriguez: Stan is a role model for all our classified employees. Aren't you, Stan?

[1454] SPEAKER_35: Stan, would you like to say anything else? Please, say a few words.

[1460] SPEAKER_01: Thanks. Thanks to Jessica for nominating me. And I love my school. I love my kids. I love my staff. So that's it. Thank you.

[1481] SPEAKER_35: The next person we're going to recognize is Miss Sierra Van Rossum, who's sitting next to me. Sierra has been our Newark Unified School District student board member since 2016. In addition to playing a vital role to the district, during her years on the board, she has been her class president, then ASB president, received principal honor roll with a 4.4 GPA. Sierra is a three-time qualifier and a two-time California national wrestler. Sierra is attending Menlo College to wrestle. Sierra has left a legacy. She has been the voice of students and has helped to make positive changes throughout the district. We cannot thank you enough for all that you've done. We will miss you, but are so excited to hear all about how you'll be changing the world.

[1557] Ray Rodriguez: And did you get a full scholarship to Mendel College, Sierra? Just about? Good. We're lucky to have you.

[1575] SPEAKER_41: One of the main things I get asked all the time is why would I want to be here and oh are the meetings so long and don't I get tired? But honestly this role has the most giving role that you could possibly take where I can have my own biased point of view on anything and everything that's happening within the community, but I really have to put that aside and work really hard to not touch just my inner circles, thoughts and feelings about what's going on, but really reaching out and touching every single variety of people that are within our school district. and really get their feedback and find the consensus and be the bridge for the board and the student body. That's what this role is and it's been an amazing opportunity to be that bridge, to be that connection where it isn't a rift in what could happen, but more of a building bridge in order to find solutions and work towards a better Newark. There's been a lot of things that has been going really good and a lot of great conversation that a lot of our student leaders among our community is able to have with the board throughout the last few years and I hope it continues on. I just want to thank you all just for me being able to be here and I hope that Newark continues to grow into something beautiful.

[1668] SPEAKER_35: Thank you. Thank you, Sierra. The last portion of my report, I'd like to introduce Mr. Rolando Bonilla with Volare Communications, who is helping with our, he can give us an update. If you want. Yeah, sure. You're the communications person.

[1687] SPEAKER_40: First of all, good evening and thank you for having me. I'm going to talk from here so I can also talk to the community. Very nice to have you, everyone here. Char, are you going to team me up? Well, it looks like it's not prepared, but that's okay. My name is Rolando Bonilla. I am the Chief Strategy Officer of Volare Strategic Advisors. We are a communications firm, public relations firm that works directly with school districts. We've been here for a very short amount of time, but I gotta tell you, I think to your student trustees' point, The things that you're all doing here in this district have been amazing. We've spent a very short amount of time trying to highlight a lot of the good things that are happening within this district. And I gotta be honest, and if the report comes up, you'll see, in our short time here, we've developed three major videos to talk about who you are, to share your story outside of Newark, and to also give you the opportunity by which to invite other folks to join your family. We've also worked to ensure that every single school site has access to a brochure, has access to the appropriate marketing material to ensure that every single one of your schools is presented in the best light, and to give people the opportunity to see what you do each and every day to make your schools great. And then the third is, of course, where we are today, the Silicon Valley social media. In our very short amount of time here, increased your social media presence threefold. We've also worked really hard on developing campaigns and video content for social media to really create a very living community organism by which each and every one of you in this room tonight able to get access to information to have that real-life dialogue with with your district back and forth. So for us it has tremendously been an honor and a privilege to work here. If it's okay with all of you at the very least like the opportunity to show you one of the videos at this point. So you can see some of the work that, honestly all we are is a microphone, like the one I'm holding in my hand. And all we're trying to do is get your voice out there. I understand because I work in school districts throughout the state. We're going through a tough time right now. California isn't funding schools at the level that it should. This is a California issue. But without a doubt, each one of you here, from the administration, the board of trustees, to every single one of you that's spending time here tonight, is what makes this district so vibrant. So for us, it truly has been a privilege and an honor to serve you, the district, to serve you, the community. And I'll see if I can figure out how to do it. I should have come to Newark so I could figure out how to use this stuff, because I can't. But let's see if it works. Let's see if one of these works here. You know how to... Well, I broke it. Having said that, the videos will be on social media, the videos will be shared with all of you in the community, and I'd like to open up the floor to give the board the opportunity to ask me questions, and hopefully I can answer them for you.

[1889] Ray Rodriguez: I just have one. We're a small community. We're four miles by four miles. And each school is unique. Absolutely. So when you're preparing the message for us on what wonderful things happen in the classroom and at each one of our sites, Do you do it generically for all and then maybe focus in on some of the... No, I mean, you can't.

[1919] SPEAKER_40: I mean, every... I think this goes back to the earlier point. My team spent a lot of time in this district under the superintendent's direction and support of the administration and principals and teachers. And without a doubt, what you always want to extract is the soul, the ethos, the essence of each school site to tell the story. If we came in here and did a generic cookie cutter, today's day and age, people want authenticity. They want to feel a connection. So to answer your question, board member, without a doubt, we were looking to identify a voice for each site. And with the support of folks from the community and the support of teachers and principals at the site, we've been able to accomplish that.

[1964] SPEAKER_35: Thank you. Yes, sir? Would you please expand a little bit on some of the things you guys have provided besides social media? I know we've been working on brochures, marketing, videos for early childhood registration, those type of things. Would you just expand on that a little bit?

[1977] SPEAKER_40: Sure. No, I mean, one of the mandates that we had from the very beginning is, I mean, it's no secret that the district is going through declining enrollment. And for us, one of the mandates that we had was to really highlight a lot of the programs within the district. to really bring them to life in a three-dimensional field. We've also done trainings, customer service trainings, to really create an environment that will further support the idea that this is a district worth investing in by making the ultimate investment, right, which is sending my student to come to school here. And the direct benefit is clear. I mean, you as brand ambassadors, we want to put you in the best position to not only have you proudly talk about your Newark relationship because you're here because you are proud, but also give you the tools by which to do that.

[2034] SPEAKER_35: Any other questions by board members about Blair's work?

[2040] Ray Rodriguez: Are you going to visit, how much, How much time do you spend at every school? Do you spend one day or?

[2047] SPEAKER_40: As much as is necessary to get the essence out and tell the story.

[2053] Ray Rodriguez: So one of the things, for instance, at Music Elementary, I had the opportunity to listen and to watch the Ballet Folorico. And that's been, you know, each school has their own version of it. And for the years that's really, really, I mean, going over the top when it comes, especially the little kids. Right, the five, six year olds. So would that be something you would get into as far as at each site?

[2084] SPEAKER_40: Yeah, I mean, without a doubt. I think we were looking for everyone to give us a little bit of direction in terms of what they wanted to highlight. I mean, again, to your earlier question, we could have come in here and done a cookie cutter approach, but they're smart. I mean, the public wants authenticity. And the only way to get that authenticity is to actually focus on what each site thought was critical to focus on.

[2110] Ray Rodriguez: Like, there's a reason behind the name of each school. And sometimes it's nice when that comes out, because people know why it's called Schilling Elementary or, you know, Newark Memorial, you know, with the veterans thing behind that.

[2125] SPEAKER_40: So. Yeah, no. All great suggestions. OK, sure, board member. Thank you. Thank you much.

[2130] Ray Rodriguez: No other questions. Anybody else?

[2134] SPEAKER_40: OK. Thank you, Rolando. Well, thank you for the time. Nice meeting everyone, and I look forward to seeing you. Thank you, Rolando.

[2146] SPEAKER_35: President Rodriguez, that concludes my report at this time. Thank you, Superintendent.

[2150] Ray Rodriguez: Before we go to public comment on non-agenda items, for all of you, Cesar had spoke for a while, and as a courtesy, there was no time limit. and he got a chance to say what he wanted to say. That being said, when we go to public comment on non-agenda items, we normally have, I mean, we have three minutes for each speaker. Now, we happen to have 50 some odd speakers, right?

[2185] Nancy Thomas: Eight to 20. How many?

[2187] Ray Rodriguez: 29 agendas. Okay, 29 non-agendas. If each one of you speaks three minutes, that particular non-agenda items, it's only set for 30 minutes. So, after 30 minutes, then we come back after the, you know, at the end of the board meeting and then we conclude it. Now, so if some of you, even though you have three minutes, do a minute and a half if you want, then it allows other people to speak, if you want to. It's on you, you know, you have your three minutes if you want, but if you can go, if you can do it in less time, then naturally that, that allows everybody else to speak. Anything else? That's it? So let's start. Mike McDaniel.

[2254] SPEAKER_23: How you guys doing? Thank you for good. How's it going? So I'm here about the school closing issue. I know you guys are looking to sell the bulk of land here. You got a good deal going on or something. From my understanding, you're going to use the money to build another office for yourselves. I am aware that we are just building a new big police station. Got to be plenty of room for us to put you over there. And if you are selling this land, that money should go completely to all the other schools. I don't see the reason selling off our property to pay for your guys' salaries. I mean, I understand trying to promote the town for more kids, but you got to have things in town for the kids to do.

[2296] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you. We normally don't do this, but I'm going to ask the superintendent, part of his report, he was going to address the school closure.

[2313] SPEAKER_35: So I do have a prepared statement here, and after I read the statements on two items, we will not be engaging in discussion with the audience, but I do want you to listen to the statements we've prepared for you. On the first matter, confidential personnel matter involving Mr. Bretz, we are aware of the petition and comments circulating regarding Mr. Bretz. As we all know, it's never easy when leadership changes happen. We understand staff, parents, and students may have questions about Mr. Brett's employment at the district, but because this matter involves confidential personnel matter, the district can only provide limited information per California code, government code, and labor law. The district consulted California education law, district board policies, and related materials throughout this matter, and in determining the appropriate steps to take. The district's primary mission is to inspire, educate, all students to achieve their full potential and be responsible, respectful, productive citizens and that the students are able to do so in the best environment. We are committed to that mission and I can assure you that Newark Memorial High School is in good hands and stable hands during this time going forward. I also at this time want to clarify something that I heard as well, which is that Mr. Bernard and Mrs. Bunchero were terminated. That's not true. The fact of the matter is when retired people work, they have a limited number of days they're allowed to work. without violating their retirement. So I want to put that to rest. Second item is school closure. I want to be clear and on the record as of today, the Newark Unified School District will not be taking action on closing any schools. However, given our budget reality, I anticipate that we will continue to consider all options, including a conversation about school consolidation and possibly school closure. I also want to reassure you that our Board of Education would not make a school closure decision without hearing broader perspective from the community we serve, and that closure or non-closure decisions would only be made after the community has been heard, which is happening tonight. So we are listening, and we thank you for being here. Thank you for caring and for voicing your opinion. You have our commitment that when the conversation does occur, it will be done openly, transparently, thereby allowing the community an opportunity to provide district feedback prior to any concrete steps moving forward. That's all I have to share.

[2451] Ray Rodriguez: And if you seek additional information on the impact of school closure, you can get a hold of the district office and make an appointment and get the information. Ms. Aquino will be glad to make an appointment for you so you can discuss it with someone at the district office. Ms. Ceballos? Caitlin? Ceballos? Ceballos?

[2496] SPEAKER_74: Hello, my name is Clarence Arayos. Hello, I'm Valentine Bernal.

[2501] Aiden Hill: Hi, I'm Zylvia Gutierrez.

[2504] SPEAKER_20: Hi, I'm Natalie Diossi. And I'm... Go ahead, it's okay, don't get... We're students in music school.

[2518] SPEAKER_74: We came today to say, please do not close down this school. Because this school is amazing. Even though we are a small school, we love this school. And we have our friends and many memories and our teachers. And if you close this school, it's like you're taking all of that away from us.

[2536] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. You guys are awesome.

[2539] Ray Rodriguez: We appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Nguyen?

[2558] Diego Torres: Fong?

[2561] Ray Rodriguez: Ms.? Welcome.

[2569] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you and good evening. Yesterday there was a hot topic at coffees with the superintendent at Graham and it was in speculation of the closing of the elementary school in particular. Graham I'm here to advocate for the students, families, teachers and staff members at Graham and ask that you reconsider not closing any of the schools here in the district. Six years ago, I was hesitant to send my two girls to Graham because I could not look past the state test scores at first, but I am so happy and glad that I did because I found an amazing learning environment and community at Graham for my girls. We have a strong community of parent volunteers, amazing teachers, hardworking principal and staff. Our families do not want our students displaced to leave their home schools. Graham is where we want to stay and Graham needs to stay open. And secondly, what is the board doing to increase enrollment other than hiring a PR person to to get this thing going. You guys need to do the legwork to meet with the tech giants that are in our backyards, in our community. You cannot push this effort onto the principals at the school. You all need to earn your place as board members. And superintendent, you need to work hard for your students and family to earn the dollars that you're earning right now. Thank you.

[2691] Ray Rodriguez: L-I-E-N, first name, H-O-A-N-G, last name. Hi.

[2705] SPEAKER_48: Good evening, everyone. I'm here, a little person, living in a big city, big world. And my voice is very small. to talk anything happened to this world. Today, I just hear the room. It touched my heart that they're going to close some school here. But you know what? They have no reason to close any school, especially kids. They don't like to move to different schools. They have friends. They have people they know around them. So when you move them to a different school, they're going to hurt them. Kids, it's the future. If you don't take care of them, the future is going to be Detroit. The whole world is going to be Detroit. So my voice is very small. I'm a grandma. I have two little grandkids that six years ago, my daughter wanted to send them to private school. I said, no. I'm raising you from here, from Newark. And you got to finish high school. And you finish college, you got grades up. And you work hard, you make good money, you pay big tax. For all of you, you got paycheck. So please, help us do something right to help this school district. Don't close any school. It have no reason. Thank you for listening to my voice.

[2819] Ray Rodriguez: We have Louise Brown and then Erica Brown.

[2845] SPEAKER_02: Hello, my name is Louise Rowe. I'm a sixth grader here at Music. This year is the last time my classmates and I are students on this campus. My class has been through an amazing journey. Yale Music Elementary holds so many of our memories, the good, the bad, and everything in between. We have been through so much together, sticking from the start. And even though not everyone has been here since the beginning, they are a part of our stories just as much as we are a part of theirs. And even though we are not related, we are a family. Sixth grade graduation will be a ginormous change. This school has been a huge part of our lives that is going to be really hard to let go. Really hard to let go for us because we have learned in the classrooms, played on the playground, eaten in the cafeteria, and bonded over the years. We have been on this campus for seven years. We know this school like the back of our hands. Now, I bet you haven't been in a classroom as a student since college or been a teacher in a classroom in a while. And when money happens to be tight, you look around and find the smallest school or schools and say, let's close the school. Let's merge it with another small school. Let's move the sixth graders to the junior high. You say that as if our school is just an object, a building. I mean, it is a building. But our school, music school, my school, is a lot more than just that. You say that shutting down a school is not one of the recommendations, but in the near or far future, it might be. I know that you have already gotten rid of 13 teachers. Where are they supposed to go? You have also said that you might cut off some of the teachers' salaries to help fix the budget problem. Now, I don't know numbers, but I know teachers don't make a lot of money. I do know, however, that they buy crayons, paper, pencils, four-square balls, and any supplies that we need with their money. Their money, not the school's money, which I believe the school gets from you. The Fremont school district superintendent oversees 35,000 students and gets paid $193,710 a year. Our superintendent, who only oversees 5,913 students, gets paid over $41,290 more than the Fremont superintendent. Why does he get paid so much more when he oversees a lot less students? And why don't we deduct some money from his salary instead of the teachers to fix the money problem? Now, I don't care about what their recommendations are and what you do unless it's taking away money from my teachers or closing or merging my school. Because E.L. Music Elementary is not just a building. It is my second home, and the teachers, staff, and students are all my second family. Thank you.

[3004] Ray Rodriguez: I never grew up there also, or is that? I agree.

[3012] SPEAKER_50: Good evening. My name is Erica Rolfe, and I'm a parent at Music Elementary. I'm here tonight because you're going to be balancing the budget and dealing with cuts in our district, and certain topics such as school closures and mergers are going to come up. As a parent of the smallest school in our district, you can imagine my concern. We may not have BGIs or Kennedy's test scores, but at its core, our school has a big heart and is like family. Test scores aren't the only factor a parent considers when choosing a school. In this age of gun violence, parents are also looking for a positive and safe environment in which their child can flourish. At any grade, not only TK through third, Just this week I spoke to a parent at my daughter's volleyball club and I was surprised to hear that she was from Fremont and her daughter was going to Newark Junior High. I asked why and she told me because her daughter wasn't getting the necessary attention because schools in Fremont are focusing on expansion. So instead of merging schools and trying to squeeze as many students as you can in a campus, why not think of ways you can attract these students in these overcrowded neighboring districts? Because students have different needs to succeed. And we're a small school, not by choice, but by circumstance. Because people see our test scores, and then they decide right there and then they're not even going to give our school a try and request a transfer. And I've tried to explain our test scores to families and explain to them that we have a different demographic. So our scores cannot be compared. One thing that needs to be known is that our teachers are very passionate and dedicated. And when you have that and involved parents, any student can succeed at music elementary or any school in our new district. So there are many needs in our district, academic, but one of the biggest things that's lacking is communication. And I'm excited to see that there's a communication person, but I'm saddened to see that we're using outside consultants when we don't have the money or making budget cuts. I'm hearing that we can't pay teachers, but we can pay consultants thousands and thousands of dollars. The previous superintendent that was here understood the importance of communication and partnership with parents. He had a group of parents he met with once a month, and everyone shared what was happening. At that time, as a parent, I could talk to any interested parent and tell them what was happening in our school district. Can I do that now? I can't. There's not enough communication coming out of our school district. And we don't have to pay thousands of dollars, we just need to inform and communicate with our parents and they will be the strongest brand ambassadors and they cost absolutely nothing.

[3202] Ray Rodriguez: We started the public comment at 7.45. I'm going to go to 8.20. After that, we'll stop, and then we have to go toward the end of the meeting so we can finish our meeting. So Gabriel Guiano, Jr.? Are you here?

[3224] SPEAKER_44: Hey, Gabriel.

[3232] SPEAKER_24: Good evening, board of trustees, board members. I'm a parent here in music school. Not only a parent, I'm a community. I live here in the community. I've been living here for possibly now 17, 18 years. There's a reason I brought my family. I'm a family of four. One has graduated from music school. I've had dozens of nephews that have graduated from music. And there was a reason that we came from Miss Palo Alto. We were driven away. We were pushed away by the giant companies, Google, Facebook. As you guys can understand, we do not want to. We came. We've seen an opportunity two blocks away, a beautiful school, beautiful individuals that live in the community. This is one of the things that I really emphasize. It's family. We are here as a community. We're diverse, and we're here to represent the community of Newark, but most of all, our children, our future. Now, the whole idea of us coming today is because we all share the same thought, the same reason. We try to come and live and prosper, and just to make our children have a better future. However, being driven out is not the way to win, is not the way We have to understand that our children are here. Now, today we had an actual wax museum. Our children from fifth grade were presenting today. And there was so much history, so much information that they shared with us. But not only that, I was not the only parent, which that's what makes the community. Now, please, I do and I implore for you guys to take consideration not to break up our family, because that's enough. And enough is today. Thank you.

[3382] SPEAKER_19: Good evening board members. My name is Jacqueline. I am a sixth grade student here at music elementary. Although I'm leaving music in just a few days to move on to the junior high with my older sister who also attended music, I am leaving behind my little sister who will be in second grade. I want my sister to have the experiences at music that we were able to enjoy and grow from. Experiences like Ballet for Gordico with all the amazing music volunteers, student council with Ms. Tom, art lessons with Ms. Norman, reading many great novels with Ms. White, and science camp with Mr. Montoya. If you close music school, you will be taking away many great experiences and memories from not only my sister, but many other kids as well. Music is our home away from home and our extended family. We are more than test scores or a little bit of saved money or even potential real estate profit. When you talk about closing or merging schools, you are talking about destroying our home and breaking apart our family. Music is a place where people make connections. Kids feel safe, they get the help they need, and they learn not only how to be good students, but how to be good people. Please think about all the people you are impacting and hurting when you talk about closing our school. We may have a small school, but we have a big heart.

[3480] Michael Milliken: I thought maybe you'd clone another one of them, which would be fine with me.

[3504] SPEAKER_79: My name is Christine Pappas and I'm a junior in Newark Memorial. I wanted to use this time to talk about the district's board members. They should not keep students, parents, and staff in the dark about who is in charge of the school. They should not expect students to enjoy coming to a school where there is a lack of teachers willing to work there because it simply doesn't support them financially. The Newark Unified School District should be transparent with every person in this community. We deserve to know why our parents' money goes into the hands of the superintendent instead of the people who spend 8 to 10 hours a day with the students. The money is going to someone who is being paid to post on social media, which half the students at the high school can do. If change is not instituted soon, I can assure you that NUSD will be a mess. By change, I hope to see new administration running our district. I hope to see people who understand activities that students want to have and do not constantly try to shut everything down. I hope to see a district that realizes other people have needs besides themselves or we can always have a vote of no confidence. Thank you.

[3575] Ray Rodriguez: me.

[3586] SPEAKER_70: Good evening, school board members and city guests. Many of you may or may not know me. My name is Isabel Dominguez and I attended music school from kindergarten through sixth grade, where I was a member of the student council for two years and also named the student of the year in 2014. Currently, I am a junior at Newark Memorial High School. During my time at music, the principal, Ms. Ashmore, had left and this resulted in a void, not only for the students, but the staff as well. With each new principal came a new start and a hope that someone would stay. Several years later, I find myself experiencing the same situation here at the high school. This type of thing cannot continue to happen. This school board is failing not only the students, but the teachers as well as their community. Our teachers work so hard to maintain not only a fair, creative, caring, innovative, and humble surroundings, but an inspiring one as well. This has not only impacted who we are to the core but who we represent. I think you should all take a long hard look at what you are doing and think about the impact on the current and future students and the community that you all represent.

[3676] SPEAKER_21: Hello members of the board, my name is Kaitlyn Ewing. I'm a senior and a three-sport athlete at Newark Memorial. In my senior year, I have experienced the most chaotic year of my year's district. I have dealt with four different principals and only one of them cared about his students. The one that I feel that cared the most was Mr. Bruns. He took the time out of his day to attend my varsity water polo playoff games, not because he had to be there as an administrator, but because he was generally interested in the success of our athletic program. As a co-captain of the team, I appreciate the fact that he drove several hours to attend our games. However, I have not seen board members present at any athletic contests this past season. My parents are strongly considering sending my brother, a rising freshman who will be promoting this next Wednesday on June 12th, to the high school and considering on taking him to James Logan or Washington this next year. This is what happens when districts do not prioritize their students. This explains the declining enrollment at Newark Unified. Students and parents want to go to schools with staff that care about students and do their absolute best to provide a quality education. The district has failed to create a positive enrollment an environment for students, parents, and staff, and it must strongly reconsider its future action when hoping to fulfill the goals it sets for itself. Thank you.

[3781] Ray Rodriguez: Minister Robinson.

[3801] SPEAKER_68: Good evening board members and superintendent. I've spoken with a few of you lately. My name is Melissa Robinson. I have two children in music elementary school. I know it's been said we're family and we're quiet. I think. We have a lot of non-English speaking so maybe some people that are afraid to speak up. I just want to commend especially the sixth graders. You guys are awesome and your high school students. I was afraid of public speaking when I was in college so you guys are way ahead of me. Closing things down is not the way to go. Breaking up families is not the way to go. We have a strong community here. You guys want to know what we're about? Come visit, hang out. Come to our events. Come PTA. We're on it. And you guys need to really improve the high school reputation if you want the district numbers to increase. Because I've been there. I've looked at the high school number and gone, eek. I don't know if I want my children here. And I know a lot of people who have done the same thing and have even moved out. because of that reason. We are in the Silicon Valley. It is unacceptable to be below standards. We have so many opportunities here. So many. Companies that will work with us. Colleges. Just, you guys, don't let it go. Just, thank you.

[3926] SPEAKER_26: I am not a parent of a music elementary school student, not yet. I am a Newark resident for the past three years. I work for a public agency, so I understand the importance of communication and transparency with the community that you service. So I'm hoping that you listen that There are future students out there. We just don't know what's going on. So being at the meeting today, I'm actually really, really concerned. I bought a house originally in Castro Valley and left to come here because I bought a house two blocks away from the school. So I'm very, very concerned about what's going on in the school district.

[3981] SPEAKER_51: Thank you, school board members, superintendent, and members of the cabinet. My name's Cedith H. Aguiar. I'm a parent and a former student from Schilling Elementary School. I'm here today to voice my concerns about the inequalities that I continue to see in our school district, and particularly at the school that I love so much, Schilling. To begin, in every board meeting I have watched, I wonder why we are not having official translators for the YouTube broadcast for our Spanish-speaking parents at a school where the high population of Spanish-speaking parents They are required to have translated copies of all communications. But you, the school board member, the school board, violate this law. Also, why did you not ask in previous meetings where the three classes were going to be located with 28 students? There's two of them at my school, and my son happens to be one of the students, at least in the kindergarten classes. A school that has the highest number of students per teacher. in our school that has the highest population of minority students, English learners and low-income students. I see every day how hard each teacher at Shilling works and the number of parents that come and volunteer to help these hard-working teachers. I am one of them. I'm there every day, Monday through Friday, from 8 until the end of the working day, helping our students, but I do not see any of you there helping our teachers. You really need to decide what is more important, the education of our kids or saving money. Because you cannot have both. If you do not make a good decision today, it is not equal to see the school where my children go and they have more students per teacher than other schools. Shame on you for allowing this. I hope you will address my concerns.

[4145] Ray Rodriguez: We only have time for one more speaker, and then we'll come back to Ms. Baraka.

[4171] SPEAKER_71: Good evening school board members, Mr. Sanchez, and Newark community members. My name is Veronica Medina, I'm a parent at Music, and I'm a voter in the city of Newark. As I address you this evening, I realize that our district is in a difficult time. But I'm a daughter of a steelworker, and I learned that in these difficult times, or the fire, steel can either be strengthened, or it can melt. Well, I understand that we're in a time of declining enrollment, and this impacts our funding. It leads to thoughts and fears of school closures, program cuts, and elimination of positions. But I ask that we use this opportunity to create an identity as a district. Five years ago, I listened to Dr. Markin, who was the superintendent, talk about creating a destination district which drew students in, which increased our enrollment. I wonder now, where did his vision go? We need to create programs that will bring students into our schools. Homes are being built. Families are moving in. We need to draw their students into our schools. And we do not need to ask consultants what we can do, but we can look in our own yard. I understand that Lincoln Elementary, a Title I school, increased their enrollment this year. They were one of the only schools to do this. What did they do, and how can we replicate that? Can we think creatively? Can we think creatively to follow Lincoln's example? They created an arts program which is a magnet to their school drawing kids in. What can we do in our high school creating internship programs, thinking outside the box and making programs that will draw people in, not shutting doors to push people out. Ultimately, it is up to you, our elected officials, but as a voter, I hope that you choose to be strengthened in this time and do not let our district melt away.

[4299] Ray Rodriguez: the public comment on the items and we'll start that again after the consent agenda prior to the Board of Education report. Superintendent, we'll go to the staff report.

[4320] SPEAKER_35: Mr. Wynn is going to be reporting on that this evening.

[4323] SPEAKER_44: We have somebody that wants to speak.

[4332] Ray Rodriguez: Are we talking about 11.1 or 9.1?

[4347] Nicole Izant: Okay, I'm ready. Oh wait, do I go first? He said me first, right? And then you go, okay. And then everyone else. Okay, so really quickly, my name is Nicole. I'm gonna face these people, because they've seen me before. I grew up in Newark. I went to Milani before the name got changed. I went to Newark Junior High School. I went to Newark Memorial. Then I went to UC Berkeley. Then I got a Master's. And now I'm back here living in Newark. I'm a single parent. I'm a homeowner. And I work at one of those tech companies. So let's not say that they're horrible, because they actually employ Newark people and enable us to buy our own homes back in our communities. So long story short, I wanted to comment on two things before I comment on this. A lot of parents are here tonight, which is fantastic, but as my kid's soccer coach says, it's constant pressure that's going to get you the win. You all need to come to all the board meetings all the time and participate in all of these committees, like the one I'm going to talk about right now. Otherwise, a one and done doesn't work. So good job for coming tonight, but come every night. So with that, the Revenue Committee was a small cohort of parents. I was there, the Music PTA parent was there, a couple others from my school, some of the principals, whatever. It was a great idea or thought exercise, but in the end, it didn't fulfill the goals that I thought it would. I came in to share some ideas that I've seen work at other public school districts. I came in with the idea of perhaps we see all these buses coming through, why don't we charge the tech companies to use our parking lots and we get thousands of dollars for that. All these kinds of ideas came in at the first meeting, and those ideas got stalled out. And I was a little bit disappointed that that happened, because I thought it was gonna be sort of a way that the parents could generate ideas, we could research them, and we could bring in more revenue to our communities. In the end, what we did was we ended up coming to some conclusions, which you're going to see in the slides in a few minutes. But I want to draw attention to the fact that the parents had more ideas out there that we can still put forth and we can still work on, even if we don't go with what the conclusion that is going to be brought tonight. So please get involved. Bring your ideas. And even if they don't come through or we can't do it, make sure you're there and putting pressure on the district and on everyone else to participate. So that's it.

[4485] SPEAKER_44: Thank you.

[4498] SPEAKER_36: Good evening, everyone. I'm going to turn around too, because I really want to talk to these guys. Hi, everyone. I'd like to comment on the Revenue Committee presentation. Myself and other Revenue Committee members were emailed a preview of the presentation last week on the 29th. This was appreciated and reviewed by all of us. However, upon review of the agenda and presentation that was posted on board docs this week, we noticed a huge discrepancy between the two documents. Conclusion slide two was not only omitted from the 529 preview email sent to the committee, it was also never discussed or approved during the committee meeting. As a committee, we carefully crafted our conclusion statement. We specified that a parcel tax and or GO bond was not supported by the committee. And to our surprise, that's exactly the opposite of what conclusion slide two expressed. Parents, I urge you to attend these committee and LCAP meetings and participate in oversight for your children's school district. We're all busy parents. Get involved, run for office, help drive the change you want to see in your children's school district. Thank you.

[4575] Ray Rodriguez: Jennifer Cirilla. Cirilla.

[4584] SPEAKER_69: My name is Jennifer Cirillo. I have a student at Birch Grove Primary and a student at Birch Grove Intermediate. I also participated in the Revenue Enhancement Committee. We were asked by our principal to attend to share great ideas that we might have and it sounded like a great way to possibly help the district as a parent who's heavily involved and just generally as a parent. quickly realized this was not the case. Our first meeting, there was no structure, no objective. We had a great turnout. There was about 20 plus people. There was ideas listed in a present, the ideas that you will see listed in the presentation for the first meeting. Half of those are not the community ideas and were the district's ideas that were brought to the table. The second meeting, the community ideas were not even addressed. We had to specifically ask that they be added to the further meetings. With the exception of the foundation speaker from the Newark Education Foundation who came in and did a presentation on our request. Other presentations involved a former pupil service coordinator suggesting gold stars on diplomas for perfect attendance that would increase attendance money and solve problems. We spent an additional hour after the meeting ended trying to figure out why we were there and still left with no answer. On the third meeting, we spent our focus on these bonds and parcel taxes. We stated several times that we needed more information about an extra community support before we could formulate an opinion on this. This meeting also ran overtime by 30 to 45 minutes. The fourth meeting, we were asked if we would recommend a bond or parcel tax. Again, we stated we needed more research that we couldn't form We hadn't met enough, we were only on four meetings and it was our last meeting. We were then split into groups to focus on other ideas for less than three minutes and then asked again about a parcel tax. Our in-depth meetings were only in-depth about the confusion of the objective of this committee. There was a finance guy who could only address numbers and could not offer advice or insight as to if this was a good idea. As a small groups of sometimes less than five people who attended all four meetings, we felt that we were very unprepared to make such a strong formal recommendation and disagree with the presentation that will be presented tonight. Thank you.

[4765] SPEAKER_38: Good evening. Thank all the parents and everybody that came today. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for your support. I am really pleased to have everyone here. And I'd like to thank the members of the board that actually granted for us to have the meeting here. I hope we can have it here next week, too, because we might need to, right? Mr. Bow? Yeah? All right. So I think it's time for the community to understand what the process is. I think we need to educate and retrain our community. I think the committee, the revenue committee, it was my first time being in such a committee. And it was shocking. The first meeting, we did have a lot of people. We did have a little bit over 20 people. And we had some great ideas. But it was shattered by a lot of the same individuals that go to those committees. You know, new faces. I was a new face in there. And I realized that this community doesn't belong to five or six individuals that come to the board every day. And the board needs to realize that, that that's not the people, that's not the only people that we live here. This is, this is new work. This diversity is newer. So we're right. We need to come every day and speak up. Because or else we're letting only five or six individuals tell them what to do and whispers in their ears. That's not us. That's not us. We need to realize that this community, we have to be responsible for it. We, it's our money. I voted, it's our money, so we have to come. We have to come strong. Don't let five or six individuals run this community. It's all about us. It's all about the kids. And the number one thing our education, our community has to do, it's about the kids. Every individual. People that show up to committees, they have to think about the kids only. Because it's simple. This is simple. You make it difficult by having drama, by having personal agendas. by not having other parents participate, by yelling over other people. We have to understand that, that we're a small community, and we are together, no matter where we come from, no matter our socioeconomics, no matter our abilities, no matter our language. Because this is what this country is about. This is what Newark is about. It's about building. a strong community. I spent from 1130 to 230 today talking to the mayor. And I'm telling you, I'll take accountability for not making them accountable. So we have to take accountability as a community to make them accountable. But we have to start with ourselves. Don't let five or six individuals run this. They've been there for too long. They've been there for too long.

[4987] SPEAKER_35: I'm concerned about what I'm hearing from committee members, and because of what I've heard, I'd like to pull this item, 9.1. I'm not going to have that be presented in front of the board when I have a split committee, and I would like to invite the ladies to meet with me personally on how we can resolve that moving forward. So I'd like to pull this item, if I may, board, at this time.

[5006] Ray Rodriguez: Is the board OK with that? Yes, we are, Superintendent. So we're going to table and have a seat. Thank you. So we go to Item 10, Employee Organizations, CSCA. And then NTA and then NEWMA. Welcome, Ms. Eustis.

[5037] SPEAKER_57: Good evening board. Since I've talked to you last, I want to bring up, I attended the scholarship awards night at Newark Memorial High School on May 23rd. I had never been before. And I was so impressed with the kids. I cannot tell you, I wish more groups would make donations and scholarships if they could come out and see how many wonderful kids that we have in Newark, how intelligent they are, how hard they work. I was totally impressed with what I saw. This community has more to give. I will try to talk to some of the members of CSCA and see if we can do more in the future. We could only give two $500 scholarships, but it's worth it. You should be proud of the product that is coming out of Newark Memorial High School. I wanted to share with you that on Monday night, June 3rd, we met with our retirees and we had a little bit of a party at the Olive Garden and it was like over 85 years just of the three people that were there that we were celebrating their retirement. One of these days I am going to bring a book in and show it to you that Pat Doyle has written about our employees and how many years of service and what they've done at each site. It's very impressive of what they have done. Many of our people stay here 25, 30, almost 40 years. The other thing that I am looking forward to during the summer is the CSCA conference is going to be in Las Vegas. I am attending as a live member, but two of our members, Maria Huffer and Bertha DeAndre, are also going to be attending. And it's where we get a lot of really good information. We also make our major decisions for our organization of California School Employees Association. So that's all I have to report now, and thank you very much.

[5173] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Mr. Merritt.

[5184] SPEAKER_30: I think we should turn on the disco ball and turn the lights down. I really like this that we're here. My name's Timothy Merritt. I'm the president of the Newark Teachers Association. And in 2009, I had a life-changing event where me and 3,000 of my closest friends at Macy's were told that we were losing our jobs. And I was terrified. And I'm like, what the heck am I going to do? And how am I going to survive? And what's next? And as you can tell, I mean, 2009 for some of you was a really long time ago, but I would still kind of look like this. So it's kind of hard sometimes for us old people to get out and change careers. And I decided that I wanted to be a teacher. And I'm like, okay, I can do this. And I went back to CSU East Bay and I was taking a creative dance class. It was one of my classes that I had to take. And I had to volunteer at a school and teach creative dance to kindergartners. And guess where I went? I was right here. I was right here teaching creative dance to kindergartners. And it was amazing and it energized me and so I have a, music has a place in my heart too. So I think this is a great opportunity for us. You know the school spotlights should be at the schools. You know figure it out. Bring your team and visit the schools for your board meetings and have a spotlight there and be able to showcase and talk to the families and let them talk to you and it would be just a great opportunity. So I want to recognize a few people. Sorry, my pacemaker is making the microphone go weird. So I want to recognize a few people. So first, she's not here, but she was selected as the Teacher of the Year by the Newark Optimist Club. And that was Arlene Cordozo from? Snow, yeah, because, you know, Cordero, sorry. Sorry, Cordero, yes, yes. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's probably still snow working. And she can speak a lot better than I can. And then I'd just like to recognize some of my newly elected officers from NTA. So Megan McMillan is our new vice president. And Nate Whitaker is one of our new secondary directors. And Juleus Chapman is our other secondary director. Now, the other thing I want to talk to you is about, it's the end of the year. It's June 6th already and I don't know how that happened. where teachers are getting ready to close up their rooms. And I'm hearing that there's going to be time constraints on how much time. I mean, our contract ends, and so we kind of have to be out the door. But we also need to be prepared for the custodians to clean our rooms and stuff. So if any of you are free to help clean rooms or pack boxes or move things, I've been in the district. Anyway, every year that I've been in the district I've had to move a room. Every year. And this year I moved twice. And I'm moving next year. Luckily just next door, but I'm moving again. So, if you're free and you want to help, that would be great. And then if you're not free next week to help on Thursday, then come back in August, on August 12th or 13th. We need help unpacking our rooms and getting back moved in. So we'll get our keys like two minutes before we can start. So there you go. I'm also concerned about our teachers, where our teachers work and where they don't work. I just had a teacher come up to me. I had to stand up because my bum went to sleep. So I went outside and the teacher came up to me and says, I've taught music for 15 years and I got a notice in my box that says I'm going to Schilling next year. He spent 15 years Making relationships at a school with the staff, the students, the families. And he gets a notice in his box saying you're going to another school. Now he loves kids no matter where he's at. But could we have a conversation? Does he really need to just get a notice in the box? He's not worth more than a note in the box. I mean, I get it. I do it to me, but because I'm a rebel rouser. He spends every day making relationships in a school that is full of heart and has students that need him more than anywhere. And is he needed at the other school? Yeah. But the other school is That teacher is getting moved someplace else and somebody else is moving here. It's like we're on a merry-go-round and you're jumping off. Why? What's the purpose? I'm really concerned that we talk about customer service and we miss that mark. And I shouldn't be the one having to remind you that, because you've all been there too. You've all had a job and you had to go work somewhere that you didn't necessarily want to go, and it worked out. It did. But was it the right thing to do? I don't know. I'm an optimist. I don't always feel like an optimist, and I don't always appear as an optimist, but I do believe that no matter where This teacher goes, he's going to make an impact for somebody and it's going to be really important. It's going to be the best thing for him and for those other people. So I'm not saying that there was a bad decision. I'm just saying it wasn't compassionate. And we deserve that because what we do every day as teachers is hard. And I know because I haven't always had it this hard. I got to work retail. So I know about the hard. I was a dairy farmer when I was 10. I milked 12 cows, and I sold cream, and I made about $300 a year when I was 10. So I know we're late on time, and I'm overrunning. But I'm gonna promise you that I'm not gonna come on June 19th because I'm gonna be on an airplane to Philadelphia to learn how to run that 3D printer that's gonna be in my new STEM lab next year. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I know there's some people that are angry at me for saying STEM and not STEAM, and I apologize for that, okay? Because I believe that STEM is STEAM. STEM does include art because no matter whether you're doing math or engineering, you have to do some art. You have to do some art. So have a wonderful summer. You won't hear from me again until August, I promise.

[5718] SPEAKER_35: You can hear me from there. No, I think you can hear me. Well, all I'm going to say is let's meet tomorrow and resolve that. I need the unions to work on that. Let's solve the problem with the teacher you mentioned tomorrow.

[5738] SPEAKER_30: So I think it involves three teachers, but I would love to do that. I'm done teaching about 12, 15. And are you buying lunch? No, no, I'm on a diet. I'll bring my own lunch. One o'clock would be great. Shari, you got that on the calendar? Are you going to send me a meeting invite, or do I have to remember? All right, thank you. Thank you.

[5779] SPEAKER_08: Good evening, board. On a much lighter and positive note, I would like to share that all the schools are winding down and preparing for school closure. So we've been exceptionally busy. We've had numerous activities, and we're now preparing for promotion. And three schools made the honor roll list, and they were in Newark Memorial, considering what they've been going through. made the honor roll. Birch Grove was the other school that made honor roll, and also Lincoln Elementary School. So thanks, and I wish staff, Birch Grove Intermediate. Yeah, so it was Newark Memorial, Birch Grove Intermediate, and Lincoln Elementary. And thanks for your support, and I wish everyone a happy summer if we don't see you.

[5845] Ray Rodriguez: Let me open it first. I need to open the public hearing 11.1 on the 2019-2020 Local Control and Accountability Plan, LCAP. Mr. Rillo, did you want to speak on this?

[5872] SPEAKER_69: I'll be brief. I just really wanted to recognize and thank Robin Sert for all, she's probably really nervous right now, for all of her time. Not only did Robin pour an immense amount of time into our LCAP this year, but she truly listened and she truly came back to every meeting with answers to our questions. So we are very much going to miss her and really wanted to thank her for her time.

[5899] Sean Abruzzi: Thank you.

[5904] SPEAKER_30: We feel the same way, 10 times.

[5913] Ray Rodriguez: Nicole Eisenach.

[5919] Nicole Izant: And so the other parents out there, see, this is why you need more than just five people, because it's going to be the same people always up here talking, so get involved. Anyway, so I also want to start off by thanking Robin a lot, because as you can see from tonight, Newark is full of informed parents. We want to know the data, and we want to know it now, so thank you for going above and beyond, Robin, to provide us with the data, and also the other staff that's here tonight that did the special presentations throughout the LCAP committee. I know it was not easy to answer our questions, and sometimes you felt put on the spot, but thanks for taking one for the team and really pulling through to give us that information. Some learnings from this year's LCAP Parent Advisory Group, which I was on, this is my second year, and I will no longer be on it going forward, is that it would be great if At the beginning, you can meet with the parents and give them a budget 101 class or post something on the website. Public school budgets are not easy to deal with. You have all kinds of fun types, all kinds of restrictions. And I think if you can get all the parents on the same page from day one, then you'll have much more informed discussions. And maybe the discussions won't be stopped so often by parents asking questions, if you can answer them up front. Another thing that I wanted to flag is that it would be great if you can demystify for all parents in Newark how absenteeism is scheduled. It came up in many forums and many board meetings that even if you call in when your kid is sick, they're still not gonna get money. So maybe really giving that information to parents would help because apparently attendance is one of the big ways we can still maintain budgets. One minute left. Okay, another thing that came up in the LCAP committee was that we currently pay for many different software systems, and I understand that some of them are grandfathered in, some of them are old, we don't have money to get new ones, but one of them was the budget software, ESCAPE, that apparently the way that the ESCAPE program is set up, you weren't able to track line items very easily, and Robin had to put in a lot of extra time cobbling together the answers to our budget questions, so it would be great if we could figure out a way to make ESCAPE a more useful software budget management system. Another thing that came up was that we pay for two systems, Synergy and Swiss. And the two systems, software systems, don't communicate to each other. So if going forward, either through LCAP or other things, you could figure out a way to either make the software systems communicate or consolidate into one. That would be another way of saving money for the budget and you wouldn't have to train people up on two different systems. So yeah, thank you so much Robin, other staff, and the parents who really put in the extra hours volunteering to make sure we came up with great recommendations for the next year. Thanks.

[6095] Cindy Parks: Good evening. I'm used to my podium. I'm kind of feeling naked up here. I would like to echo what my predecessors had said. As someone who has been very involved with LCAP and going to the meetings for many years, I do believe that this last year was the best run, most informative groups of meetings. There is one item that did seem to keep coming up was the FIT report. And one of the items, the reason it kept coming up was because nobody was familiar with it. And it kept being asked for. And on page 63 of the report, it does say that all sites have met the good qualifications for the FIT report. And I know early on when this first started appearing in the LCAP, it said that the Williams Act schools, meaning your Graham and Schilling, which those are the Williams Act ones, complied. Now, it started about three years ago where you wanted all of them. And all three years, you say that all the sites had met that criteria. Yet, I've never seen a report And, and asking for it now, we've still not seen the report. And in the spirit of transparency, I think that the, for the parents that do have children, or myself who has grandchildren in the school, I think that we would like to know the condition of the school sites. And I think that I'm, I'm just kind of surprised that it's not attached to the single school plans or to the SARC. And just would like to see that report. To go along with what the language is on page 157, which is what you're going to be doing this year, 3.1.2 states to check the maintenance status of the sites annually using the facility inspection tool, FIT, which you can download from the CDE. You can get in there and you can download the six-page document. However, I believe you're using your own staff to do these inspections is what I've heard, that they're the ones who actually have been doing it for the Williams. And I'm assuming that's what the process is going to be for the other sites. However, that's your own staff. My understanding is this 145 that's been set aside, unless I misunderstood at the meetings, that's actually going to be for the repairs that are delineated in the tool. So I think that perhaps changing that language to say that the inspections are going to be done, but that the repairs are what is actually going to be that $145,000 is being used for. So thank you.

[6269] SPEAKER_73: So I'm going to move over here with the presentation. Good evening, President Rodriguez, school board members, Superintendent Sanchez, and executive cabinet. I have the honor to share with you all of the hard work that's happened at our LCAP advisory this year. I've prepared a full presentation, but I'm going to just highlight for you. There's a lot of ed code in here that I just want to make sure you're aware of, so you have that full presentation. But I'm just going to highlight a few things for you. The LCAP is our living, breathing document that should drive all the decisions we make here in Newark. And it's really about supporting our underserved students, our English learners, our foster youth, low income, and all of our students who score in the low percentiles on our dashboard. We have a whole developmental process, so you've heard from some of our advisory. I wanted to take the time tonight, because our LCAP advisory members participated in seven meetings. There were at least two hours each time, and we worked through understanding the LCAP and then making recommendations for the following year. So if you're an LCAP advisory member, could you please stand? So let's give them a round of applause. They did all of the hard work. Thank you. They represented their sites or their organizations and really were vital roles in helping us, or vital participants in helping us determine our recommendations. And so we, that's our advisory. Just quickly, I wanted to share with you the demographics of our district. Just to remind you, we have about 5,700 students. And the students that we serve through the LCFF process are our socioeconomically disadvantaged students, which are 51% of our students. Our English learners are 23%. Foster youth is about, it's less than 1%. Our homeless students are 2.6%. And unduplicated students is how we are funded, and that's 56% of our students. So again, these are our demographics of our students who the LCAP serves. I'm gonna just go through because our district is in differentiated assistance for our special education students at all of our sites. I'm gonna just let you go through the, the presentation. I'm not gonna go slide by slide. But we, we are in differentiated assistance, which means that we have some work to do. So our LCAP is going to support that work. We have five goals in our LCAP. I wanted to highlight in those goals the changes for this year. The LCAP is a three-year document. It's really a dense document to read because it has data from 2017-18, action items from this year, and then we plan for 2019. So it truly is a three-year document. And so I'm just going to highlight for you some of the recommendations and changes. We have this year in goal 1.3, which is implementing common core state standards across the content areas. One change we're adding this year is we're going to be piloting some materials for our social studies for K-8. All of the other items are remaining unchanged. In goal 1.5, for our students with disabilities, we are going to be trying a new credit recovery program. It's called Aceles. In 1.7, for our underserved students, this is a big shift for us. We've always had after school intervention. Now we are looking to provide intervention before, during, and after school. Because we know the optimal time for learning for our students is during the school day. In 1.8, we are adding the addition of one full-time teacher on special assignment to support our English learners with the implementation of SEAL, which is an English learner program model for TK through third grade. And again, we have before, during, and after school. In our goal two, we're adding the addition of a .5 parent engagement and mental health specialist to support our families with chronic absenteeism and our students in crisis. And along those same lines, we are adding another mental health clinician to support our students who do not have Medi-Cal services. This change was only that it's in two places in the LCAP. In goal four, we're going to add additional parent workshops and we're also going to support our SRTs who come out. SRTs are our science resource teachers who come out and help with our family science night. So we have added additional funds to support family science night. And then the last addition is that goal five is really about increasing AP, but we needed to look more about broader course of study. And broader course of study includes visual and performing arts as well as college prep. So we have shifted that goal this year to include providing professional development for our visual and performing arts teachers. as well as our college prep teachers at the high school. In addition, we have now collected data from this year, how many students are in our VAPA courses and college prep courses. And we'll be following up with that data for next year. So those were our. After all of those meetings, those were our recommendations for changes. There are a couple of additions for the LCAP this year that I wanted to make sure you're aware of. The state has a new requirement that we have a budget overview for parents, so that document is also attached. So you have that as well. And then, in addition, we had to write an addendum this year, which outlines the use of all of our title funds. We actually, as a district, have done that within our LCAP. It wasn't required of us, but we are very transparent and put all of our all of our title dollars in the LCAP. And so this year we actually had to write an addendum for the state as well. So those are the two additional documents. Recommendations for the next year's LCAP is that we make sure our membership is representative of the student population and the demographics that I shared with you earlier. We have currently in our bylaws three representatives from each school site. My recommendation that two of the three would either be parents of English learners or a DLAC representative, a parent of a foster youth or students with disabilities or homeless students or African American students. These are the students that we want to make sure we're serving. So that's our recommendations for the next LCAP. I gave you the quick version, so questions? It'll be on the website. The, the draft is actually on the website. Once it's approved, hopefully at the next board meeting, it, the draft will be removed from that. The next step is that it goes to the county office and they do an approval as well.

[6720] Nancy Thomas: No, I would just like to say thank you very much for all the work you did on this. It's amazing. Thank you. Thank you.

[6732] Mark Triplett: Appreciate you so much.

[6743] Ray Rodriguez: 11.2 public hearing number 2018.

[6759] Cary Knoop: Good evening, board. I'll address you because this is a board meeting, and I think that's proper. I want to talk briefly about the budget. The budget original from this year was supposed to be flat. We land with $1.8 million in the debt. Now, it's true that we got less students, but the revenue went up. So our revenue was higher than we originally budgeted, but we still managed to get $1.8 million negative. If you look at books and supplies and service and other revenue expenditures, it's over $3 million that we went over budget. So I'm extremely worried about cost control. How did we get to this situation? In addition, if we look at the historical chart for, you know, services and other expenditures, we see a real lift for this year. And we really need to understand why that is. Because now we're going into the new budget and we put it lower again. That's a risk. Because do we really want to hear six months down the road like, oh, by the way, it's over 10 million again. So we need to understand what that is. Also, we're in a budget cut situation, so I don't like it personally, and I hope the board doesn't like it either, when we see 20 to 30% overrun in, you know, conferences. You know, that needs to be managed. You know, if we are expecting teachers to cut, if we're expecting programs to cut, we should also expect that we keep the budget with these things. You know, in summary, I think that is a problem. The other issue is that the board does these workshops, and it's great that they're doing these workshops and working out scenario one or scenario two, and then after a long time, you say, okay, let's do scenario two. And so I look at the budget, I look at the multiyear forecast, and what do I see? I don't see scenario two. As a matter of fact, scenario two showed flat for 2021 and 21-22. We're seeing now $700,000 in the negative and $1 million in the negative for 21-22. What gives? What's the point going into workshops, agreeing on scenarios, and then finding out that we're not cutting $3 million, but we're cutting $2.5 million? Thank you.

[6940] Cindy Parks: I have to say, it's really difficult to hear sometimes. I'm all for the roadshow. I think that's wonderful. I think it's great that you guys would go visit the sites, but I hope you have a better microphone system, because it was very difficult to hear some of the earlier speakers. Thank you, because it's hard. Some people couldn't hear around me. First of all, I think that in the past we've gotten these public hearings, we've only seen about two-thirds of a budget. And I have to give kudos to Kai because this was a little bit further along than what we've seen in the past. The proposed budget that we've gotten for the public hearing has only been about 120 pages. When the finished product is done for the second meeting in June, it's been about 180 pages. This one was 140, and then we walked in and were handed some narratives. So I appreciate that. The only thing that I'm concerned with is, again, there are about eight documents that weren't included in here. One of them, which I think you could totally understand, is the average daily attendance. Now, of course, you'd have to complete that document in order to be able to do the budget, because you'd need to calculate what you're expecting to get in revenue to do the budget. So there definitely were some documents that I'm concerned that, OK, were they prepared to do it? I mean, I don't know. Again, it's not the full budget that I'm sure we're going to see on the 19th. But I appreciate that it is more than what we had gotten previously. There were a couple of items that I did have some concerns on. I'm glad that Mr. Newt went first because some of the things he brought up, it was good that he was able to do that and I didn't have to waste my minutes. But on page 8, there is an item called community redevelopment funds, not subject to LCFF. In 2017-18 budget, it was $216,000. Last year it was $78,000. Now it's going back up to $216,000. So I don't know what changed there, and I'm not even sure what that is. So I really appreciate knowing what that is. And overall, some of the items that I'm going to bring up, it's more in the fact that your budget is very tight. And to just bring this to your attention, that I'm wanting to make sure that the numbers are as accurate as possible. So again, it went from 216 down to 78, and now it's back up to 216 again. On page 32, you're saving 45% on your operation and housing, or operation and housekeeping for child development, and on the rentals, leasing, and repairs. I'm just kind of concerned that how did you drop 45% on those items? It just seems like that's kind of a large amount. Fund 17, you're not using it. It's your reserve that's just sitting there. It's dropping 36% on the interest rate. And since the money isn't going anywhere, I don't know why. I'm not sure why it dropped the 10%. But when you get to Fund 21, the bond, It went from $98,000 this year to 170, which is a 72% increase in interest. And you have a 72% interest rate increase on Fund 40. So why, on Fund 40, the Russian money, and on Measure G, money that you're spending, why would your interest rate go up 72%? I know, thank you.

[7175] SPEAKER_49: All right, good evening, board members, Superintendent Sanchez. Tonight I'm going to talk about the 2019-20 proposed budget. I have here with me is Raul. He's from the County Office of Education, as well as Kim Lola, Director of Fiscal Services, who helped work on the adopted budget. And I want to thank her for that. So the adopted budget has to be approved by July 1st for every school district in the state of California. The adopted budget is based on the governor's January proposed state budget, then also the May revision. However, we may revise the adopted budget 45 days later after the board approves it. based on the governor, based on the legislators approving the revenues that's coming in, the cost of living adjustments. So here's differences and variants from January's budget versus the May revision. LCFF is going to go down a little bit marginally. So you'll see on the next slide, the cost of living adjustment went down a little bit. There is no longer one-time discretionary fund like we have in the past five, six years. However, the governor, the new governor, Governor Newsom, decided that he's going to inject $3.15 billion into CalSTRS contribution. So I'm going to go on the next slide. So cost of living adjustment is going to go to 3.6%. This is what we're receiving. for 18-19 on the left side for K-3, $7,500, 4-3-6, $7,571. But if you look, if you added the COLA in, this is our new base fund for 19-20. Obviously, the high school gets more funding because there's more needs at the high school. In regards to transitional kindergarten, I know that there was a lot of debate in regards to receiving students that are, have not turned 5 by December 2nd. So what the Senate bill is going to do, if it gets approved by the state legislature, The state of California may approve students that turn five past December 2nd.

[7338] SPEAKER_44: So we're hoping that that may be approved.

[7354] SPEAKER_49: No, I don't hear. All right. So here are some of the assumptions. Our enrollment, we're projecting that our enrollment will decline to about 5,700 students for 19-20. Our enrollment will continue to decline, we're projecting, in 20-21 by about 40 students. And in addition to that, in 21-22, we're projecting that enrollment will decline another 40 students. However, our enrollment's been declining by about 100 students per year in the last 12 years or more. Last year was an outlier year where enrollment actually increased, but this year enrollment declined and we're projecting enrollment to continue to decline. These are some of the assumptions. It may change for the cost of living adjustments for 19-20. For next year, it's 3.26%. And then 20, 21, 3%, and I'm pretty confident that in 21, 22, the cost of living adjustment, the COLA, will increase further. We get lottery funds as well. Unrestricted is $153 per ADA, average daily attendance, and then also $53 for restricted funds. Again, there's no one-time discretionary fund. This is the summary of our LCFF. 83% of our revenue that comes in is through LCFF. We get base fund of about $46 million. We get a grade span of about 1.8. And supplemental and concentration funds is about 5.5 million. That's based on the unduplicate people count. All right. Here's some expenditure assumptions. First up in column, we're projecting our step income to increase for certificated by about 1.64%, classified about 1.1%. And then our CalSTRS, the good thing, like I mentioned earlier, the governor contributed about $3.1 billion into CalSTRS. So it went from 18.1% to 16.7% that the employer, that our district has to contribute. However, our CalSTRS continued to rise and the district will have to continue to contribute into certificated salaries as well as class-wide salaries. As you can see here in CalPERS, he did not inject any funding source to CalPERS because other organizations are a part of CalPERS, such as the police department, the cities, firefighters. So we're projecting our CalPERS to continue to rise significantly. By 2022, we're looking at 25% contribution. So again, I want to thank the board that approved our resolution 2130 in reduction of about $2.2 million. We reduced 13 FTEs for 19-20. We moved some of the custodian services to be funded out child nutrition. And that is a temporary solution, not a permanent solution. We're also looking at using class size reduction funds to offset some of our expenditures in total of $2.2 million. Some of our assumptions here as well is that our class size from TK through third grade is at 26 to 1, as well as from 4 through 6 is 31 to 1. And then secondary, middle, and high school, a teacher gets about 155 contacts per day. But all these assumptions may change based on the ending fund balance. Our state budgets, what the governor, what the state legislature is going to propose, it's going to commit. And then also ongoing negotiation settlement. That's not factored into our multi-year projection. If you look at our revenue, we estimate that our revenue is going to come in about $54.2 million this year. And then our preliminary budget for 19-20 is about 54.8 even though our enrollment is declining, but the cost of living adjustment is offsetting that. So we're going to increase our revenues through LCFF by about $571,000 projecting. And then we're federal revenue based on the census data that some Title I's and Title II's may decline next year, well actually it will decline because as our community in the city of Newark, Fremont is more affluent, there will be less revenue coming in for Title I funding. And then there's also some one-time discretionary funds that may not be carried over to next school year. The other state revenue we're going to decline by $1.3 million is because that we no longer have one-time discretionary fund as we have, again, what I mentioned earlier. In the past, in the last five, six years, we had one-time discretionary fund from the previous governor, but next year going forward, the only thing, the only revenue source that we're getting is the COLA, right? Then local revenues, such as SELPA, the use of facilities, we get, we receive that, but we're expecting a decline of about $539,000. In essence, about $1.8 million in reduction in revenues. So here's a pie chart of our revenue. Again, it's about 83, 84% is LCFF. Then we get other state revenue. About 5.1, only 8%, federal revenue is only 3%, and then other state, other local revenue is, which is self-buff funds, is about $3.25 million. Give you a summary of our expenditures. Our certificate salaries, we reduced 13 positions for 19-20. However, if you factor in the step and column, the cost of, And then second column, it will be pretty much the same as what we're projecting for 18-19. That the salaries will continue to rise, our expenditures as well as classified. And then our benefits increases. Our books and supplies, a major variance there is that We have one time book adoption for this year. We don't anticipate having a book adoption next year, so that's why there's a reduction in books and supplies. We're looking at, we're trying to bring in, this year we had a difficult time of bringing in speech pathologists, speech therapists, psychologists, so next year we're trying to bring in those employees instead of outsourcing. So that's why you saw, that's why you're seeing 18, 19 that are projected services and other operating expense at $10.6 million. But we're hoping that by next year we'll reduce that. All right. So here's a pie chart, a breakdown of our expenditures. Again, 83% of our expenditures are personnel, that's certificate salaries, classified salaries, as well as medical benefits, health and welfare benefits, statutory benefits basically. Then we have service and operating system expenses, only 14%. And then books and, we only spent about 3% on books and supplies. Well, that's how it is budgeted. Again, 83% of our budget is personnel. All right. So here's our much-needed projection. As you can see, our revenue, we're projecting that our revenue is going to decline significantly from 18-19 to 19-20 because of our enrollment decline. and one-time discretionary fund is no longer available. And then there's also some carryovers that may not be coming over to 19-20. We made a reduction of 13 positions of 1.678 million for 19-20. So our beginning balance in 18-19 is going to be about $6 million, but we're deficit spending. by $1.8 million. However, there may be a surplus. We may garner some surplus in our ending fund balance, but we won't know that until our year-end books are closed at the end of the year, which is by about September 15th. So we'll know more about what our actual fund balance will be. Some of the fund balance that I mentioned earlier that we have about $600,000 for class size reduction. It's going to help us out for 19-20. And then we're looking at in 2021, we're looking at another reduction of possibly six positions in 2021. And again, we have, we When we close our books in 18-19 by September, we're going to be using some of those fund balance to offset the $1.2 million that we need to make in 2021, in addition to the $649,000 that we're going to reduce in terms of possibly positions. When we reduce $649,000 in 2021, that's going to carry over And then we're going to have to reduce even further in 21-22, possibly looking at one position as a certificated and also another possibly at a classified position in 21-22. And other reduction that will equate up to $668,000. We have to maintain 3% of economic uncertainty that is required by the state. So here's our other funds. We're looking at adult education, our beginning balance, our revenues coming in, expenditures. So our ending balance is going to be about $10,000. Child development, it's a profitable program. And we're looking at the ending fund balance of about $157,000. Child nutrition in the end by about $542,000. We have special reserve, the $2.2 million in Fund 17. We also have the general obligation bond. We still have funds available by about $12 million. And then developer's fee, which is about $14 million. And then we also have the Russian fund, $10.7 million. And then bond interest redemption, $7.7 million. And then self-insurance is $2.5. So again, I just want to reiterate that orienting fund balance may change when we close our books in 18-19, that we may garner a possibility, a surplus, to offset some of our deficit spending in our out-of-years. And again, also with whatever passes with the state legislator in probably next month, we may have to do a revised budget in September. or August really. So we have 45 days to do a revision on our adopted budget based on what the state legislature approves. Any questions?

[8206] SPEAKER_49: The state is supposed to approve the budget I believe it could be at the end of June. I can double check on that. But we have 45 days to do a revision. So that would be sometime. Exactly. If there's major changes.

[8249] Diego Torres: All right.

[8250] SPEAKER_49: We're good? All right. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Rowe, we met with Alameda County Office of Education the other day, and they reviewed our multi-year projections and our fund one, and they approve that our funds are available.

[8276] Nancy Thomas: Rowe, come on up.

[8288] SPEAKER_25: Good evening, President Rodriguez, Board of Trustees, and staff. My name is Raul Perangao from the Alameda County Office of Education. It's nice to be back here. So, yeah.

[8302] SPEAKER_35: I'd just like to have you talk a little bit about what are some of the trends you're seeing statewide in districts that have either flat or complying employment enrollment relative to how that's impacting budget in the state of California?

[8317] SPEAKER_25: There are very few school districts that are increasing enrollment. Many, I would say about 90% of the school districts in California are declining. One of the school districts that is constantly increasing is very close here, Fremont Unified, Dublin Unified are increasing rapidly. I would say, however, that Fremont experienced, after about 12 years of increase, last year they experienced a decline for the first time in 12 years. And so the pattern might be changing. And based on my conversation with Fremont, they are watching their seabeds very carefully for this October because they already had a decline last year and they're suspecting that they may decline again. Now I mention that because Fremont is very close to you and the pattern of housing is roughly the same. We have the same clientele, like the Silicon Valley. But yet, even though there is a lot of housing built in the neighborhood, it appears that many of the people who are buying don't have children.

[8400] SPEAKER_35: We certainly have struggled in having accuracy in our demographic reporting, and you are very familiar with our budgetary challenges. What are some strong advice you would give us relative to being conservative and planning when we're not really certain? I think the enrollment is going to increase, I just don't know when. So how do we plan for that? What's kind of the advice to us as a district?

[8425] SPEAKER_25: So when we spoke to Mr. Kai Nguyen here, we look at your enrollment pattern. We look at the last 5 years, we look at the last 10 years, and what we've seen is an average of about over 100 student decline every year for the last 10 years. Now when we look at the new projection here, we see that you are projecting a decline of about 45 students, some of them are 25 students, which in our opinion is changing the trend. Now that is a little bit concerning for the county office because if you have been declining over the last 10 years by about 100 students and now it's all of a sudden 25 or 45 students, we feel that revenue might be overstated if that does not materialize. However, you know your community more than we do. You probably are seeing patterns, particularly your demographers. They are, you know, they're some level of accuracy when the demographers do it. They do survival cohort. They actually do count the student generation rate. And so they must be seeing something that we are not. Because of that, what we would advise districts would be, you could go ahead and budget for a slow decline, such as yours, but we would advise you to increase your reserve or put some designation on your reserve in the event that the students don't show up. And that could potentially happen. October, the first Wednesday in October is actually the date where we need to watch how many students will show up on the first day. And if they don't show up, that would be the time when we need to make adjustment to the budget. Having said that, I think there is a positive note. I think Kai mentioned about your closing. It is very common that when you close the books, you're able to garner some savings. And that would be on the positive side. Now that's very common to many school districts, and I think we will be watching that very carefully, see how much money you're gonna be able to save by the time you close the books.

[8558] SPEAKER_35: I'm sure more members have questions, I'm sorry.

[8560] Ray Rodriguez: Anyone have a question of either Mr. Nguyen or Raul?

[8570] Nancy Thomas: I guess one of my big concerns is the pattern of deficit spending and the pattern of of the changing budget every month. If you track our budget, it changes dramatically and to the negative. So it just feels like we're not managing our expenses as well as we should.

[8593] SPEAKER_49: Well, again, that is because we have to factor in the step and column, the PERS and STRS contribution. work miscompensations, all the other statutory benefits that's factored in. And then again, on the multi-year projection, we're not even factoring in negotiation. So whatever is negotiated, that's not factored in. So if we approve something, we may have to

[8631] SPEAKER_25: I think something to note is that this is the reason why the state requires that you make revision to your budget three times a year. Forty-five days after the governor signed the budget, first interim report, which is generally reported on the middle of December, and the next one is on March 15. And in the case of Newark, you are required to provide a third interim report because of the qualified status. Now, there is a reason for that, and that is because of what you mentioned about the fluctuations in the budget. Many things happen in between those dates. For example, you don't generally get the final Title I funding until around October. Now, you are required to do budget in June, but the final budget don't really come to you until October from the federal government. The local funding, the local source, local donations, you don't budget for it until you get commitments from the PTA, PTO parent organizations and the donors. It is not a good practice to budget when you don't have any commitment letters or you don't have the check. Those come in year round. In September, when you close the books, that's when you figure out what the carryover funds, if there are any, thus you have to make adjustments to the budget. So every month and almost every quarter, the budget staff has been making those adjustments, and those gets reported on the first interim report, second interim report, and third interim, and that's what we validate at the county office.

[8726] Nancy Thomas: I'm not worried about the revenue side so much as the expenditure side. That's where we seem to have an ever-increasing expenses over what we budgeted for, especially for operations and supplies. And so I worry about that trend in our district, that we make a budget number, but we just kind of ignore it. We spend more money than we budgeted. It's the expenditure side I'm concerned about.

[8757] SPEAKER_25: I cannot speak specifically for Newark, but I could tell you what the general practice in many school districts. I'll give you an example of a situation where you were constantly making changes on the budget. So in the June, when you budget for special education, for example, you're basing it on estimates. You don't know how many students with disabilities would come. You just base them on estimates. It was very easy for you on the first day of school or the first week of school that you will have additional students with disabilities that you have to provide for paraprofessionals, provide teachers, or provide non-public school, non-public agency services. Another one is that if you have some facilities matters that you, you know, you try to make the best estimate that you could in June. Well, facilities happen, some breakage in the facilities happen throughout the year. And you have to set aside money for that as much as you can, but you cannot predict what's going to happen in your facilities. I'm just telling you these examples as a general practice. I don't know the specific example in Newark, but that is generally what's happening throughout the year for many school districts. There are a few other expenses that could arise that as much as you want to plan in June, It's really hard to predict that because something's going to happen throughout the year. And that's why it is very important on our side of the county office. We advise school district to have some cushion on your reserve because sooner or later you're going to be needing to use some of those money to be able to cover for the unplanned expenses.

[8859] Sean Abruzzi: Thank you for calling Mr. Nguyen.

[8863] Ray Rodriguez: We appreciate the county's help.

[8864] Sean Abruzzi: Mr. Nguyen, Ms.

[8865] Ray Rodriguez: Lowe is here. Would she like to address that?

[8870] SPEAKER_61: Good evening. I just wanted to add to what our county CBO said about our balancing of budgets throughout the year. One of the things he spoke to, yes, our special ed. We never know from year to year if we're going to have new students coming in with NPS needs already, things of that nature that can really make us swing our budget. We may not be able to anticipate that because we base our budget in many of these programs based on what we're experiencing this year. Because it's our best knowledge. Probably in Newark, and I suspect many districts, I don't know personally, but one of the biggest adjustments we have to make, and I usually try to make it be our site's return, is in our supplemental and concentration funds. As you know, those will not be approved until minutes before adopted budget goes to you for approval. So I don't have those details until after that happens. Again, I know the total dollars. I know what's allocated to each site. I can only base how they're going to spend it based on what they did this year, because I don't see those plans until they're finalized. I spend days during my summer rebalancing all of that so when the sites return, their budgets match exactly what their site plans say and the monies they're ready for them to spend in the programs they've planned for the year. And then I work with Ed Services, the same with theirs. The LCAP, I don't see a final adopted LCAP. until after our budget's approved, too. So again, I work very closely with Ed Services to get their budget aligned with how the plan is laid out. My best guess is what we did this year, so that's basically how we'll align it. Then we do see some big swings, and this is something that Ms. Salinas and I have spoken about through the year. We have historically had, we have as every district does a fairly early purchasing deadline, April 1st is ours. That means the sites basically have to have all of their major purchasing for the year complete. It's far enough in the year that all the sites look at their budgets, especially their CIPSAs, see what they haven't spent. And it may not be in materials and supplies. It could be in a five, a service or software or something they had planned, they decided not to implement for whatever reason. It could be extra hours they've put aside for, and the benefits they've put aside for staff or intervention, PD, whatever, and maybe didn't happen again, maybe couldn't get subs, went a different route, whatever. This is their chance to make sure they don't lose those funds. And so unfortunately, and I'm hoping this is something we can modify the practice of, but what happens is, In March, all the site councils meet. They all decide, oh, we aren't going to be using these funds. Let's put them towards things our students need in the classroom or to supply STEAM programs or whatever it is. We saw a lot of STEAM this year. They'll go through an approval process. They'll go to Ed Services for approval to make sure it's aligned with our district goals. And then I've given approval to move their budget so that money that is maybe originally pegged for classified salaries and benefits is now going to be used for supplies, anything in a four. This will be a supply, could be one of those great 3D printers somebody got. I know we ordered a bunch of those this year. So we see that big swing. We're going to try to get our sites and really encourage them not to do that, to do their spending throughout the year as they should. We have some, we've talked a little about some plans that we might use following Fremont's model that we've heard about, to encourage the sites to spend per their plan early on, so we don't run into that, because quite honestly, that deadline, that end of purchasing thing just kills us. But when you're seeing those swings, I'm not adding budget, I'm moving budget. So unless we have new revenue, I'm not building in new expenses. When we do get revenue, I do like to put the expenses to recognize that there is going to be an expenditure slide to that revenue. Sometimes it gets used during the year, and sometimes if it's coming late in the year, I'm told, no, we're going to actually implement that next year, so you'll see it drop to the bottom. So, you know, when you see that, yes, supplies are $3 million in originally budget, it's not because budget's been added, it's budget's been moved. I just wanted to make sure that that was understood.

[9144] Sean Abruzzi: I spent days and days doing this.

[9151] Bowen Zhang: So I just want to, I have a question for our CBO. Can you explain to the board and to the public how the incumbrance for this year will help, but not the out year?

[9162] SPEAKER_49: Yeah. So this year, again, we're projecting a decline of $1.8 million in deficit spending. However, when the year ends, when we close our books, by September 15th, we may garner some revenue stream that our decline, deficit spending may reduce by at least, let's just say by maybe possibly of $600,000, as an example. So that will help us out in the outer years.

[9194] Bowen Zhang: But will that be there in about one or two years, or two or three years? Because I remember you mentioned that will only help this year, but not the year going forward.

[9201] SPEAKER_49: Yeah. So it's going to help us in 19-20, because again, we are projecting that we're going to have to read resolution 2130. We want to reduce $2.2 million. So we reduced. by reducing 13 FTEs in the amount of $1.67 million. And then there's going to be $600 in class size reduction. And when our encumbrance fall out, when we close the books, that's going to help us in the 19-20. That's going to equate to about $2.2 million. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense.

[9241] Bowen Zhang: So are you saying that the 600,000 class size reduction fund, that's not the same as the, when we close, when you have, when you calculate the incumbrance, right?

[9251] SPEAKER_49: Well, that's part of when the year end closing. Okay. So, um, Can you, okay, so.

[9267] SPEAKER_61: I'm not quite, could you restate what you asked? I'm not quite clear what you asked.

[9273] Bowen Zhang: I guess the $600,000 cost-wise reduction fund, there are one-time money, right?

[9280] SPEAKER_61: The $600,000 that is being referred to, I believe at first interim, when it was agreed to cut 13 positions next year, it was decided that we actually could have cut up to 18. I mean, that's what the numbers really fell out. And we didn't want to go that severe. So we were going to support with $600,000 of fund from this year. And where that's coming from, again, it's from our LCFF funds. We have money within our LCFF plan designated for class size reduction. And so we have been sure to not spend those funds completely this year. We're going to have it drop to the bottom for you next year. And those will be supporting those six six positions, I guess it is, or five positions, whatever it was, for next year. So when we say it falls to the bottom, it may be money that's currently encumbered. It could be just budgeted somewhere and sitting there as account balance. And I know there'll be 600 because I've made sure that's going to be there. But there may be other funds that are going to be unspent. We don't know till the schools are closed. The purchase orders are closed, and everything's then encumbered and released.

[9354] Bowen Zhang: So the $600,000, when we say the class-size reduction fund, that is part of the encumbered money that you were talking about, right?

[9362] SPEAKER_61: Yeah. It might be encumbered. It just may be account balance. It could be either one right at this point.

[9368] Bowen Zhang: What is your estimate for the total encumbered fund by September 15th? Restricted and unrestricted?

[9378] SPEAKER_49: We're looking at possibly about $800,000 unrestricted and maybe about $600,000 to $800,000 unrestricted.

[9388] Bowen Zhang: Yes. So yeah, that is the part I don't quite understand. Why is that in convert risk? Go ahead.

[9396] SPEAKER_61: Say that again. Clarify again what you don't understand.

[9400] Bowen Zhang: Yes. I understand that roughly $800,000 from the unrestricted and $600,000 plus in the restricted. That's going to help us 2019-2020, right? Yes. And will that come back? So next year at this time, are we going to have this similar number of encumbered funds by September 15, 2020? We don't know.

[9428] SPEAKER_61: Well, there's usually... something that falls to the bottom. Whether it's significant enough to be, I mean, and we can't estimate what that's gonna be. All we know is what we've budgeted, what we're allocating to our sites for spending and our programs. You know, we can't predict that. That's not something that can be predicted.

[9453] Sean Abruzzi: Okay, so next meeting, two weeks.

[9457] SPEAKER_49: That's correct. On June 19th, we'll ask the board to approve the adopted budget.

[9463] Ray Rodriguez: So if there's nothing else, then I propose to close the session. Thank you.

[9468] SPEAKER_44: Mr. Nguyen, Raul, it's good to see you all. Thank you.

[9488] Ray Rodriguez: OK, so we're at 9.45. I suggest we go to midnight, because this way we can extend the meeting, or if we go to 11, this way we can go to midnight, and hopefully we'll be done by 11. So that's my suggestion.

[9508] Nancy Thomas: I move we extend the meeting to midnight, but stop the meeting at 11.

[9513] Bowen Zhang: I second it.

[9519] Ray Rodriguez: With that, we go to 11.3, preparing our first initial proposal for reopeners between the California School Employees Association, CSCA, and the Newark Unified School District. Anyone want to address that? 11.3? I do.

[9537] SPEAKER_65: Good evening, Board President Rodriguez, Board members, Superintendent Sanchez, and Executive Cabinet. My name is Debbie Romero. I am the Human Resource Manager supporting classified staff here in the district. I'm here tonight to read the Newark Unified School District's initial proposal to California School Employees Association, CSCA, Chapter 208. 2019-2022 successor negotiations. The Newark Unified School District and the California School Employees Association are parties to a collective bargaining agreement with a term of 2019-2022 with an expiration date of June 30, 2022. This is the initial proposal of the district for the successor negotiated agreement. The Newark Unified School District values the people who make up our district community, students, employees, parents, and residents. We believe in preserving and nurturing relationships based on respect, trust, and transparency in order to meet the legitimate expectations of our community to provide a quality education to all students. We value classrooms in which the needs of all students are met and will embrace effective practices, procedures, and tools to ensure engagement of students in the joy of learning, improve student achievement, positive academic outcomes, and accountability to our district community. We value a professional district community in which all stakeholders are lifelong learners, welcome innovation, reject all forms of inequity, acknowledge the full scope of professional responsibilities, and believe in structured and meaningful collaboration and pursuit of continuous improvement. We value protecting the fiscal health of the district in the short and long terms for the benefit of the district community. We believe the level of expenses must be aligned with current and projected revenues in order to maintain economic stability and prevent disruption to the educational program. The district makes the following initial proposal to the California School Employees Association for a successor agreement. excuse me, Paying Allowances, Article 9. The district proposes to open this article to discuss current and future levels of state funding for education under the local control funding formula, the district's unique fiscal challenges, and their impact on the district's ability to negotiate a fair and equitable adjustment to compensation. Leaves, Article 12. The district proposes to reopen Article 12 to clarify the conditions under which bereavement leave may be granted and explore ways to improve attendance and clarify other sections. Evaluation, Article 7. The district proposes to reopen Article 7 to discuss evaluation after the fifth year and clarify other sections. Thank you.

[9706] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Anyone else? And with that, we close 11.3. The public hearing, we move to our business, 4.1, place structures. And the dollar amount is $728,786. It's budgeted, the budget source is Fund 210, Building Fund, Bond Measure G. The purpose is to complete phase three, process of play structures and give the kids all new and working playgrounds. The vendor is Creative Recreation Assistance, Inc. Discussion? Motion? Second?

[9751] Nancy Thomas: Board? I move approval.

[9757] Ray Rodriguez: This is phase three of what we've already voted on before.

[9767] Elisa Martinez: I guess my question was just as I was kind of reviewing this. So what has been the delay? I mean, because I know if I look at kind of when the dollars were appropriated, what's been the delay?

[9783] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. I understand that when the governor cut the budget to the school,

[9796] SPEAKER_64: two years ago, the CBO who was here at that time froze the phase three, thinking that maybe we could get by with not doing it and kind of being afraid of the money that was coming into the district. I don't understand the correlation, but that's what I understood happened. So it just sat. Then we ran into problems with the project manager and the final phase of two. being completed and the contractor who was doing the playground equipment, not completing the work or coming to repair certain things that were done. When I came on board in May of last year, we eventually found out there was an outstanding invoice that was not paid. We took care of that and everything else went into play. That's how I found out about the phase three being put on hold and not being followed through. So it was just a matter of us saying we weren't going to move forward yet. We didn't give them the approval. We didn't give the vendor the approval to move to phase three. But we, you guys, as I sent the information, believed that that was all approved from the beginning. I know it's a little confusing. So it should have never been stopped, but it was at some point. The district didn't follow through. and tell the vendor to go to the next step.

[9893] Elisa Martinez: Two years ago.

[9902] SPEAKER_64: So I had them repriced for today's pricing. So there was a little bit of an adjustment for the, there was a little bit of adjustment in the pricing because of the two year gap. There was also some, we put into consideration for the playground equipment because of Hachachi's issues with piping. I want to change those structures so they don't go underground in some of the areas, so we redid those structures. There was one other thing that we changed, but, oh, to save us more money, there's a rubber matting on one of the playground structures. I believe it's at Graham. It's very costly. It's the only one in our whole entire school district that has that. It's got to be torn out and replaced anyway. So I thought it would be best to stay with the rest of the school district and go to the fiber fill, which saved us a couple hundred on that too, a couple thousand. So the pricing went up only because of the time frame from when it was supposed to go and from today's pricing.

[9993] Ray Rodriguez: You're talking about the ones we pull out?

[10016] SPEAKER_64: This whole year, you've probably heard or the board has heard and people have been talking, I've closed down several play structures because of parts that were not in or the schools were not safe. The structures are not safe. If they're not safe, they get boarded up and not being able to use. There are a few at the school. Most of them are up except for I think Bunker is the, not Bunker, BGP is the only one still has fenced off playground structures. So we do close them down.

[10048] Elisa Martinez: You're welcome.

[10059] SPEAKER_64: If you give me the okay tonight, I'm calling him tomorrow and he's ordering the equipment. We're going to try and get it in before school starts. That's our goal. You know, if because of, because of delivery, it may go a little bit beyond, but our goal is to get it in before school starts.

[10077] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Did you want to ask any questions of Ms.

[10109] SPEAKER_42: Williams?

[10114] Elisa Martinez: I mean, I guess I have my same question. Every meeting, we're increasing. And I think, again, my consistent problem is, again, the justification. Don't take this personally, but just across the board, When we present a requirement for additional funds, I would expect to see the assumptions right behind it with the accompanying documents. Meaning, if we want to increase by 26,000, right?

[10149] SPEAKER_28: I put information in the background content.

[10166] Jodi Croce: I'm also happy to review that again now.

[10171] Elisa Martinez: I am trying to provide more background for you all. Yes, happy to.

[10194] Nancy Thomas: I saw that and I thought, this is great, it explains exactly what happened from last time to this time and why we need to increase it.

[10202] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, thank you. I need a motion and a second, please.

[10205] Nancy Thomas: I move approval.

[10206] SPEAKER_44: Member Thomas moves. I'll second. Member Martinez seconds, please vote.

[10216] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, with that we go to new business one, 13.1. meeting pitches for Graham Elementary and Schilling Elementary.

[10229] Nancy Thomas: Discussion? I approve them with the purpose of a discussion.

[10244] SPEAKER_44: I second. No, you want a second? Sure. Go ahead, Member Thomas.

[10256] Nancy Thomas: I'm excited about this. It's a great structure, great opportunity. The only concern I have is how much logos, you know, the sponsorship is really requiring that we put their logos on. They're pretty big, but I guess that's the cost of getting a nice system like this.

[10282] SPEAKER_49: It's just a Target logo on the center. And that's it? Yeah. It's very nice, based on the previous pictures that I've seen from other school sites and parks and recreation sites.

[10295] SPEAKER_44: Did you want to answer?

[10305] SPEAKER_64: I believe it's just the Target emblem that we're looking for. And they are the ones paying for it, them and the US Foundation. So I don't think it's bad. We support Target in a lot of ways. And Target supports the schools. So we get money back from the schools, too. So I think it's a good thing to put them out there. Do we have a motion?

[10341] Ray Rodriguez: 13.2, swimming pool at Newark Junior High. Discussion?

[10358] SPEAKER_64: How can I help?

[10362] Ray Rodriguez: Do we have anybody that wants to speak on this? No.

[10365] Nancy Thomas: Oh, yes, we do. I'm sorry. No, no. OK. Go ahead.

[10371] Bowen Zhang: Do you have a comment? I just want to note our general policy or guideline on using the money from the Russian sales. So if I remember correctly, the sales of Russian is $70 million, and right now we have $30 million left. Only $90 million.

[10412] Nancy Thomas: this is not included in it. And I understand when we go out to bid on this, it might cost upwards of 400,000 to do this work. Is that true, Ms. Condon? No, we're talking about filling in the swimming pool.

[10437] SPEAKER_64: So what happens with the swimming pool, before we can get you any quotes at all, they want engineer drawings. And it would cost us $30,000 just to do the engineering drawings for either way or both. So before I can move on, I've got to know, OK, whether you want to take that $30,000 and go for demo, or you want to go for rebuilt. In the information that I gave you in the packet, We do, I have people waiting, just waiting for them to get quotes on what we're doing. We need that final drawing. But as far as guesstimating, they're telling us it's a quarter million million to demo and almost a half a million to repair those pools. So you kind of think, why would it be that much to upgrade it? That's basically what we have to updo. plumbing, it's old, it's not working, it's leaking, it's costing money. Then it's underneath the current pool, which means we have to restructure that. Then we have to, if we could get everything upgraded to that point, then we have to upgrade the equipment to run the pool. So that's why you're looking at close to a half a million on that. We have a beautiful Olympic-sized swimming pool at the high school. It's nice to have the pool at the junior high, but it's not a mandatory curriculum over there.

[10539] Bowen Zhang: So do we plan to ask the engineering for the engineering drawing on this one?

[10545] SPEAKER_64: I'm asking for the proposal. I'm asking you tonight to give me the okay in which direction you want to go, to give you the actual quotes. I can't move without those drawings, and I don't have $30,000 to approve either way.

[10561] Ray Rodriguez: So how much is that?

[10562] SPEAKER_64: I think it was $30,000 just to do the approval, to do the demo, to get the drawings, to figure out what we're going to do.

[10569] Ray Rodriguez: And then that would also include if... It's just the engineering drawings, and then they'll give us the quote for the demo. And how about if we decide to fix it?

[10579] SPEAKER_64: If you decide to fix it, it's going to cost $30. So you're going to go one way or the other. If you want to quote on both, you're going to cost $60,000 just to do the drawings.

[10587] Nancy Thomas: My thought is, and I think you probably feel the same, is that it's beyond its useful life. We don't need to do it. It's probably best to fill it in.

[10599] SPEAKER_64: That's something I'm thinking.

[10604] Elisa Martinez: I mean, I think that's where we've been talking about this. Just from a, you know, we hear a lot about what are we bringing to the kids, how are we making our schools distinctive. You know, when we walked, the superintendent, we walked the junior high, we talked to our maintenance guy, and he was talking about, you know, Just the, not only we'll call the school pride, but really the number of kids that really use it, the number of kids that learn to swim at a junior high age, you know, so I'm not ready to give up on that. I mean, I think I'd like to understand from the community, you know, how that does add value to the experience. one way or the other, are we going to demolish or are we going to build? But I feel like we haven't done our due diligence in terms of putting it on for discussion.

[10666] SPEAKER_64: I think this has been going on for years now. I mean, we closed it down for three because we couldn't get it repaired. But before that, it had been a conversation. I'm in this department for 14 years. And for 14 years, there's been discussion on closing that bowl. because of the usefulness of the pool. It was there for when it was a high school. I kind of would like to see you demo it, build something or do something better for the junior high and put that quarter of a million that you wanted to put in to revere it over at the high school and help them with their pool to get that a little bit better. That would probably be a way. And the only thing that the junior high does at that pool is due races that right now we're bringing into the high school.

[10713] Ray Rodriguez: I tend to disagree on that. I would like to see the figures on, because once that pool is fixed, if we can do it within reason, and we don't know until the engineering is done, if we spend the $30,000, there's swim clubs that are There's one over there by, that's over here by Napa. There's different swim clubs that would probably like to be there. So that could actually be a revenue source for us, okay?

[10742] SPEAKER_64: Now you might disagree, but- I see the revenue sources that come in through Facilitron. They sort of make me sad. With all the work we do to bring facilities in here.

[10752] Ray Rodriguez: So since we have to spend the $30,000 anyway, what's wrong with spending the $30,000 and getting some figures on what would be the cost?

[10761] SPEAKER_64: I think you should go for the 60 and do it both ways.

[10780] SPEAKER_41: I started a swim club, an after school swim program for the junior high students because it was an advantage for the junior high and only in the Chesapeake area to have a pool, which would then, so we led, the student led, for students to teach them how to swim and then how to play water polo leading into the high school. So it was of good use, but honestly, I feel like this should be a conversation that we can entertain to the public because I think we just need to make a decision because it's costing us money just to keep it going.

[10840] SPEAKER_64: and not doing anything with it. So it's draining the system constantly. So if we could just make a decision, if you want quotes both ways, 60 grand to get the drawings made up. And then we go from there. And then make this the final decision on what you're doing when we get all the way through.

[10858] Ray Rodriguez: So how much would that be if we do it both ways?

[10862] SPEAKER_64: The drawings is 60. It's 30 each way. I don't know why you have to pay twice, but I guess they do the drawings to build it. and demo and get rid of it.

[10873] Bowen Zhang: OK.

[10881] Ray Rodriguez: Either 30 in the demo or 60 to look at both options. Is that correct? Right.

[10886] SPEAKER_64: And it's just, that's just to get it, just to get the end. No. In order to get the close. Somebody help me here in order to get the quotes We have to have engineered drawings made in order to do those engineering drawings. It's 30 grand just for I'm sorry Right That's what we want.

[10927] Ray Rodriguez: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we can't.

[10931] SPEAKER_64: No, no, seriously, because it has got to be, they need physical engineering drawings in order to give us quality. Nobody wants to take the liability on not knowing what's there. So they have to go in and get an engineer in here and design these drawings to see what it is. Which I guess, they'll also find out where those leaks may be, because they'll go in or whatever they need to do to get the drawings correct.

[10959] Ray Rodriguez: So I would be, I'd like to make a motion that we do, that we bring both back under engineering and we spend the $60,000. We still need $30,000 to figure it out.

[10970] SPEAKER_74: We can't.

[10987] Elisa Martinez: So I have a concern. So again, as we, as a board, are asked to consider the needs of our district, I think this is an important one, that we do go to work more. I don't know. I'm not going to presume that I know your job. It does, you know. I'm not sure. I know my job. Because it sounds like, well, why do I have to pay twice? Right. How can whoever we are working with,

[11020] SPEAKER_64: They're two different groups. They're two different people as well.

[11024] Elisa Martinez: But let's just say we choose a bid, does that money go towards, I mean, I'm just trying to think of how to, my only point is maybe we're not done doing our homework for me to say, yeah, let's approve. I'm not ready, frankly, to, I just don't feel that we've done our due diligence. Perhaps we've been talking about it for five years, four years. Where is that due diligence in terms of what did we give up just because we let it go. You know, we didn't maintain whatever it was that became unused.

[11058] Elisa Martinez: What did we lose with that? And so coming back to, Sierra, your comment, I think it's not just being, you know, kind of, hey, let's get to the pool just because. What are some possible revenue sources? Or frankly, right, how can we partner? At the end of the day, what do the kids get out of it? And how do we make that a unique experience for our kids in junior high?

[11084] SPEAKER_64: Well, in order to get any of those answers, I need drawings, and I need an approval to go through in both directions to be able to give you information that you can talk about and decide what you're going to do. Because I think the money of the repair is going to be the cost of whatever you come up with.

[11101] Ray Rodriguez: Didn't we have a figure before on how much it would take to demolish the pool and just put some tennis courts or whatever?

[11110] SPEAKER_64: I didn't talk about anything with tennis courts. I asked them if they can give me an idea of what it would cost, and they told me 100 grand. When push came to shove, we couldn't actually get them to quote. They were just talking. And then that's when they came back and said, there's no way I'm going to give you a quote unless I can get these drawings. and that's where we're at now. So I don't have a thought in my mind one way or the other which way to go. I mean I do, but it doesn't matter to me if we keep it or we don't keep it as long as it benefits our district and it's a big cost no matter what we do.

[11148] Nancy Thomas: I have a question. If we keep it, isn't there a locker room that's associated

[11160] SPEAKER_64: Again, to bring it to use, it's going to cost you more. So you have to figure that whole thing in. It's not just bringing that pool. Do we have a locker room that's useful? Do we have showers that they're going to use? Did they shut off the piping in the back?

[11178] Nancy Thomas: It's all going to be part of your repair. That would all be part of the $30,000 drawings would be what it would cost. So you mentioned $500,000 to redo

[11190] SPEAKER_64: I don't know what it includes.

[11193] Ray Rodriguez: They're giving me guesstimates because there's no drawings.

[11197] SPEAKER_64: It's for whatever they think it could be. I don't really know. I can come here today and tell you it's a half a million. And once we get the drawings, they tell me it's more or it's less.

[11214] Nancy Thomas: We need to make clear people to get a vote on the drawings, whether or not it includes the Lockwood consultant.

[11220] Ray Rodriguez: Right. Can we bring it back at the next meeting? Yeah. OK. I think we better bring it back.

[11225] SPEAKER_64: Do you want to bring the whole thing back, or do you want to vote on getting the drawings?

[11229] Ray Rodriguez: Right. We'll have a full board at the next meeting, and then we have some info. I don't know if you can have a conversation with the, is there a possibility to get one person to do both drawings?

[11241] SPEAKER_64: I was told no. I was already told, no. There are two different people that are trying to get me my bids. I'm working with the, Yvonne and Puck are working with me with demos, contractors, DSA, to try and get this all upgraded and done. So they're going through various vendors to get it done, and they're saying there's two different units that does it. One company completely demolishes it, one will rebuild it.

[11273] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so we're going to bring it back. Thank you, Ms.

[11276] Bowen Zhang: Condon. So when we bring it back, we're going to make the decision whether we're going to keep it open and remove that, right? Well, because if we make one of the two decisions, we reduce the cost of $70,000. Right, right.

[11287] Ray Rodriguez: So let's bring it back. We'll have a full board, and then we'll have more discussion. So basically, hopefully, Ms. Condon, maybe you'll find somebody that can do both. I don't know. I've done my homework. You haven't, and it's impossible. Okay, got it. Okay, thank you. Okay. So we go to 13.3 Stadium Lighting at Newark Memorial High School Contract Award. This is for you also, right, Ms. Condon? That's why you're doing it, right?

[11326] Nancy Thomas: My understanding, Ms. Condon, is that this was approved as part of the Prop 39 several years ago, and it's coming out of Prop 39 dollars. So we already have the money, and Yvonne and her firm have been working on it.

[11345] SPEAKER_64: Yeah, that's all done. It's funded by Prop 39. So there's no cost to us, I'm guessing, with this prop. It is actually, we went out for the formal bid process, and From the paperwork I gave you, the formal bid came in with a lower bidder, but he didn't make the qualifications that were required by the process. So we want to offer it to the second bidder, ABM, electronic and lighting, and it's all under Prop 39.

[11382] Ray Rodriguez: And that's $318,000? Yes. Got it. OK. Any more questions? If not, I need a motion and a second.

[11392] Nancy Thomas: I move approval.

[11394] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Member Thomas moves. I second. Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. OK.

[11400] SPEAKER_42: Thank you.

[11401] Ray Rodriguez: All rise. Passes. Carpet replacement at Newark Moore High School.

[11406] SPEAKER_42: Mr. New? He left. He left.

[11410] Ray Rodriguez: He's not here? He left. He left. He left? OK. OK. Ms. Condon, did you want to address this one? Carpet replacement at Newark Memorial High School. Mr. John, did you have something to ask on this one? I thought that you were asking something on this one. But if not, I need a motion and a second.

[11439] Nancy Thomas: I have a question. I spoke to Ms. Condon earlier. Any time we go out to replace to do this type of work, anything that's over $200,000 has to go out for competitive bidding and has to have a public. So we have that whole process.

[11462] SPEAKER_64: I know that. And as I explained in the paperwork, Sourcwell is the member we belong to. And it's also a member that this vendor belongs to. We can get it verified with the lawyer if you need to, but I went through all the information that says they've actually, a government procurement company that takes care of that processing, that formal bidding process for us and doesn't make us have to go out for those three bids. So by the people that I've cleared that with, we should be fine with using that vendor. and these prices. If for some reason, we have a couple options to go with this, if you want. The entire school that I checked was at the higher range. We went in to look because of the price, and I thought, well, gosh, that's an awful lot of money, period. And we reviewed and said, these are the worst of the worst. So that's how we got the second figure. I can always drop that below that, too, if it's an issue because of the formal bidding. It should not be based on the process of the government agency and the source well. And all we need to do is make a phone call, if you want, to the legal, I called someone else that said we should be fine.

[11547] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, my thought is that we should go for the full amount, the higher, and do the whole job. And I could feel comfortable making a motion contingent on the attorney saying that this process means to get this bid is correct.

[11567] SPEAKER_64: And if it is not, then we can turn around and go out and put it through for formal.

[11574] Nancy Thomas: I move that we approve this contingent on our attorney verifying that it's a California

[11581] Bowen Zhang: I'll second the motion. More discussion? Questions? Please vote. Thank you. Sure.

[11608] Ray Rodriguez: We're going to move 13.8, individual service agreement. Butterfly effects, ICA. Anybody want to speak on this?

[11620] Bowen Zhang: OK, Superintendent. So can we make a motion?

[11627] Ray Rodriguez: Did you want to give us a motion? If not, we can make a motion and a second and move on. We need a motion and a second.

[11635] Bowen Zhang: Do you want to address the board? I move to approve item 13.8.

[11642] Nancy Thomas: I'll second that.

[11643] Ray Rodriguez: Member Thomas seconds. Member John makes a motion. Please vote. All right. See, you got up and you didn't have to say anything. Thank you, Ms. Willis. Thank you, Ms. Willis, for staying. Appreciate it. OK, 13.5 security locks district-wide. OK, are we all having fun?

[11668] Nancy Thomas: My concern about going out for I have a concern about this going out for formal bid Because the vendors that we went to we're not in the

[11696] SPEAKER_64: those sources that we had to not do a formal bid. I don't know if those companies are. There may be a lot of companies out there. But I'm going through for material only. So what I have to find out is do I have to go through a formal bid to buy material? We're in hopes that our employees can install this. The cost is quite a bit different from The outside vendors come in. They want to install, I don't remember the totals, but I'm going to tell you this, that they want to do $175 per lock. And ours are around 55, maybe $65 an hour to do the locks. So it doesn't make sense for us to have someone on the outside pay double to triple the amount of the money to do the locks. We have one guy who does our locks in the school system, and we have a couple other guys that they can teach to do, so we could save a lot of money for installation. So what I would be bidding, going for, is the material only. I don't know if that is necessary. Is Kim still here? Kim's not here.

[11770] Nancy Thomas: I did read the, I read our board policy, and it required mentions of materials, purchase of materials of that magnitude.

[11779] SPEAKER_64: So, I mean, I'm happy to go with this, but I don't think we followed the... We need to... I believe we did follow the policy of the three quotes. Whether we followed the policy for formal bid, I don't know. But if you read your policy as well, it says maintenance upkeep is not necessarily needed for the formal bid process. It is a maintenance upkeep. It's an upgrade. It's a replacement. But because of the material only, I don't know if it makes the difference. We're not having outside contractors. Basically, I'm saying I don't know the answer to your question. And we can find that out.

[11820] Nancy Thomas: You're going to be checking with the attorney. Yes.

[11824] SPEAKER_64: Yes.

[11837] SPEAKER_64: What the package? The package included the three bids I went out for. The bid we took was the lowest bid. No, that was just material. Labor was separate. That's just... Correct.

[11853] Elisa Martinez: Those were the three bids you received.

[11870] SPEAKER_64: I did not go out for a formal bid with drawings and have them come in by dates and do all of that. We had three vendors quote on the same material.

[11881] Nancy Thomas: I think it's very important to get a legal opinion. Right. Because I worry that we didn't follow the bidding process. That's fine.

[11890] Ray Rodriguez: Let's bring it back.

[11891] SPEAKER_64: That's fine. I have no problem with checking with him when I check with the other one. Well, the sooner we get it done and started, the sooner we can. But if we're doing it ourselves, we're not hurting ourselves with the install. It's just a matter of ordering it.

[11909] Ray Rodriguez: That also would be a summer project, right?

[11911] SPEAKER_64: We would start as soon as we can start, yeah. So I have no problem checking with the lawyer, seeing if it meets the qualifications and bringing it back next time for that if that works. If not, we'll set it up to process for the formal bidding. Okay? Thank you.

[11938] Ray Rodriguez: Member Thomas moves on 13.6, donation report. I second. Member Jones seconds. Please vote. Motion passes. That's read it. OK, I'll start. Donation, $120 from Music Elementary. for your cause, donors your cause, LLC, trustee for PG&E, for school use as determined by the principal. Like that. $4.50 for Newark Junior High, April 16th. Box tops for education is the donor for school use as determined by the principal. Superintendent, you wanna take the next one?

[11991] SPEAKER_35: $300 for Schilling Elementary, California Retired Teachers Association for Miss Georgia Vicente's classroom, $440 for Newark Junior High School, your cause LLC trustee for PG&E for school use is determined by principal, in-kind donation of an iPad, accessories for special ed, Karen Okon for student use at Lincoln Elementary. Should I keep going?

[12015] Ray Rodriguez: No, member Thomas you want to Do the last two.

[12017] Nancy Thomas: In kind donation of project management services for Kennedy Elementary. Donors Forge. Clark Design for the Murrell Project. Thank you for that. In kind donation of design services for Kennedy Elementary. Forge for the Murrell Painting. In kind donation of paint for Kennedy Elementary. Kelly Moore Paint. Shannon Kaye for the Murrell Painting Project.

[12043] Ray Rodriguez: Excellent. It's just so nice when people donate to the schools. I'll cover it later. We need to find a way to visit the mural project. Okay, surplus equipment, superintendent, who do we want to address this? Ms. Condon also? Or do I just, can I get a second and a motion and then we don't have to?

[12069] SPEAKER_35: Larry's here to address it if we talk about it. It's tech equipment that's older, I would imagine. Larry, do you want to address that real quick? Of course. Surplus equipment of monitors, paper shredder, mouse, keyboards, that was prior use by child care. This is just surplusing those. OK, that's it. Thank you, Larry.

[12098] Ray Rodriguez: OK, motion and a second, please. Larry, go ahead.

[12103] Elisa Martinez: I move to approve.

[12105] Ray Rodriguez: And Martina's moves. I second. Larry, I just had a quick question. On surplus equipment, and I know we covered it before, just for the community so that they understand. Can you just sell that to anybody? Can you just go over that?

[12124] SPEAKER_18: I'm not a lawyer, but as I understand the law, we cannot sell anything that we surplus. It has to go to public auction. So we've never actually done it because there is a pretty high threshold for doing that. There are some vehicles like there's some compliant public auction websites that you can put equipment on and old things on to surplus. Most of the things we surplus are at the point where we're not surplusing things we can use, really.

[12149] Ray Rodriguez: So. Thank you. Appreciate it. OK. We have motion and a second. Please vote. Motion passes. Four ayes. Oh, we already did. OK. So we go to personnel. 14.1. OK. Personnel. We have Chairman Contreras. Are they here? Mr. Medina Ramon, did you want to address us on personnel?

[12196] SPEAKER_38: So over the last couple of days, personnel have come to me, some of the staff, some of the people have talked to me about some of the issues that are going on with people transferring and going everywhere and taking one teacher from one side to another side. I'm afraid sometimes all we're doing is patching things up and not really solving problems. And I think sometimes we need to really sit down before we make some of those decisions And we stare up and instead bring people together, start collaborating, start communicating. Because all I hear from a lot of the staff and the teachers, the classified, oh, there's no lack. There's a huge lack of transparency. There's a huge lack of communication. And I've seen it now over the last couple of weeks that I've been involved, the last two months. You know, I'm a special case. I've been able to have the time to get off work and do the things I have to do. But one of the things that I've noticed is that they're right. There is lack of communication. There's lack of trust. And when there's lack of trust, there's no, there's a broken relationship. And right now, everyone sitting there has a broken relationship with the people sitting here. If you don't actually work on that relationship, you're not going to go, you're going to go on circles. No matter if you know numbers, if you know quality, if you know community, you know how to campaign. If you know, if you were Santa Claus, I don't care. I think what we need to really understand is that you have a community that needs to trust you back. And if you don't earn that trust, you're not going to have nothing to be there for because a lot of us will leave. And you're going to lose a lot more parents than you're going to gain. So I really hope that when it comes to personnel, you guys start working on trusting and figuring out how to work on those relationships. The biggest thing I heard tonight is this young lady here. I was so just proud of this amazing speech. I really think that if a young lady like herself can tell and can talk the way she can talk, Come on. I'll vote for her any day to be president. But I think we really need to understand what's happening here. You have broken trust. I've talked to some of you, most of you now, I'm sitting there. I have a couple people to talk to. I'm hoping to meet with Nancy next week. So as you guys have started to know me, I'm about solutions. I'm about making an effort to work together. I'm not about to just yell at you and tell you. I'm about to try to work together and solve the problem. Mr. Bowen, thank you very much for coming to music school. My parents really appreciated that. Thank you. He made an effort. I expect everyone to make an effort, even staff. Come out. We really want to talk to you guys.

[12399] Ray Rodriguez: 14.2 has been pulled. So we need a motion and a second on 14.1 to accept the first amendment.

[12410] Nancy Thomas: I move we approve 14.1.

[12411] Ray Rodriguez: I second. Member Thomas moves. Member John second. Please vote. Motion passes. Thank you. So now we go to consent calendar. So on the consent calendar, so we're going to pull 15.6 Ms.

[12432] Ray Rodriguez: So I need a motion for 15.1, which is the trip by the Kennedy fifth graders. And then everything else is the school plan for student achievement, that's SEPSA. So we got 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5. So all of them except for 15.6 and 15.7, that would be the motion. I move approval of all of them except 15.6 and 15.7. Okay, member Thomas moves, Dean seconds. Member Martinez, please vote. Okay, 15.6. Ms. Sparks, did you want to address us on that?

[12497] Cindy Parks: Good evening. I forgot to mention earlier, I was here 32 years ago, my very first board meeting in this room, when the school board was talking about closing Lincoln. Baby in arms, my brand new baby in arms, when you were talking about, well, not you, but the board. So yeah, back here talking about a school closure. So 15.6, the reason I asked to pull this. I wasn't there then, by the way. No, you weren't. It's close there, but close to the 32, but not quite. So the reason I asked to pull 15.6 is the membership I question the membership here. The document that's in your packet is dated 5-17 of 18. And I know, the reason it even caught my eye is that the person that's listed as chair, I know that she's been in Arizona the better part of this school year dealing with her mother's health and then with her passing. So that caught my eye that she was even on here and then I happened to notice the date. I don't know that this is the current valid membership, and definitely is dated a year ago. So just for your consideration.

[12573] Ray Rodriguez: Stamp? Oh, motion? Did you want to? Let's just have you address the other one, and then we'll vote on both of them.

[12584] Cindy Parks: On 15.7, the way the site councils are configured is 50% parents and 50% is staff. The principal, you have a staff. And then the majority of that side has to be teachers. On this particular form, you only have two teachers and four parents. Your minimum is 10. So you only have eight on here. So it's not a properly configured site council. You're missing a teacher and another parent. Thank you.

[12615] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Thank you. So we need a motion for 15.6 and 15.7.

[12619] Nancy Thomas: I'm wondering if we should just bring these back at the next meeting with any corrections.

[12627] SPEAKER_35: Is there a timeline deadline? Can we bring it back?

[12631] SPEAKER_66: We can certainly bring them back. I'm looking at, and I know our principals, we didn't ask them to stay, but I know we do have updated sheets. I know Ms. Gallaher is here also. If you wanted to ask a question specifically about it, or we can bring it back on the 19th.

[12647] Diego Torres: Okay.

[12658] SPEAKER_66: But for music, she does have parody, which is the even. Can I ask the board if they're OK with Ms. Kalaher coming forward? No, that's fine. Go ahead.

[12674] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. The illustrious Kachemola.

[12683] SPEAKER_15: I love them. Cindy, thanks for catching that. So at the date of our meeting, two of our parents couldn't attend, so they attended online. Or one of our parents, and then a staff member didn't sign. She had to leave a few minutes early. So when it came time to submit, they had to put their names on the paper. But I wanted to make sure our document went forward. Since then, they have both done that. And the scan just hasn't been added to our document yet. But our parent did have every opportunity to participate in the discussion, give feedback, and vote for her approval as well, as did our teacher member who was at the meeting. So we have that document that we can put the updated scan in there.

[12725] Nancy Thomas: Well, I move approval with the corrected scan being put in.

[12729] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Need a second.

[12730] Bowen Zhang: Thank you.

[12732] Ray Rodriguez: I second. OK. Now, which are we doing on both?

[12737] Bowen Zhang: Oh, that's the music one. Oh, just music. OK. Just 15.7. OK.

[12740] Ray Rodriguez: Does it bring both of them back with the corrected documents?

[12742] Elisa Martinez: I mean, that's the thing.

[12744] Ray Rodriguez: No, we have a motion and a second, so.

[12750] Nancy Thomas: OK. I would withdraw my motion, and they bring them both back.

[12754] Ray Rodriguez: You want to bring them both back? OK.

[12757] SPEAKER_35: OK, that's fine. That's pretty cool. Then there's no consequence against timeline in either school for bringing it back. OK. OK.

[12766] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, now we go back to public comment and agenda items.

[12770] SPEAKER_35: Wait, Ciara had a comment.

[12771] SPEAKER_41: Oh, I'm sorry, Ciara, go ahead. I just want to bring light to 15.10 on the Newark Memorial High School extension for the CPSA until the principal's in place. I do want to, okay, Ohlone Connections. Ohlone Connections is the middle college program that we have at the high school. Because of the administration constantly shifting, there has been a confusion and conflict in what the future looks like for Loan and Connections, and this would be set in the SPSA, or what it will be. I feel like there needs to be some kind of communication with the board on what action will be taken because as of this year, what has been said is the program will be being shut down. The APs were withdrawn for last year, the AP credit. And we had 45 applicants for the next year, but then seven of them, and we accept 30, but then seven of them withdrew once upon hearing that the APs were withdrawn. And then, let's see. We, then after that was withdrawn and there was only 23 students that would be in the program next year. It is then said if we don't have 30 students enrolled, the program will be cut. But I'm not sure really where that stands now because we have different principals or administration. And so I just want kind of clarification on that. When the SPSA is being made, what is going to be done within the Olympic Connections program? Because I went ahead and I crunched the numbers just for the data that we've gotten. from this program and I wanted to share with you. It was in the last four years, 50% of our students that have been in this program were Hispanic or Latina, Latino. And then 85% were first generation. 100% we've had college acceptance rate and have enrolled in college within the past four years. And I have written testimonies that I can share from the students where they were They did not plan on going to college. They did not want to go to college. None of them has before. But because of this program, they are now in college or going to be. I feel like this is really important conversation that needs to be made. I've invited the board to come tomorrow and visit the classroom and speak to the students and our professor. at 11 a.m. tomorrow. I believe Superintendent Sanchez and Ray Rodriguez will be coming. I would like to open the invite to the rest of the board members to come. Just to really understand what this program is and the benefits and just what this will look like moving forward within the next school year and following.

[12946] Nancy Thomas: Will those seven students go back in if it's AP?

[12951] SPEAKER_41: That's up for the decision, but that's, yeah. And what connection does it have to the success? It's how our teacher gets paid. As of right now she has, what's it called, she was given three classes the next year and then to come back to the high school and teach 10th grade English afterwards. She's a professor I may say for 35 years. She's not, she's never taught in a high school. She's always been a college professor. So it's just, it's a shift of what's going on and what is, is this even a real program that is going to be happening.

[12988] SPEAKER_35: Yeah, so that... We can clarify some of the funding streams now. I think that there's so many accuracies of how the teachers funded, I don't know if... Ms. Liz, do you want to speak to a little bit of this?

[13001] SPEAKER_66: Sure. The position is not in the site plan, in the CPSA. The position is a general fund position, paid out of the district funds, and my understanding is that looking at, as she is an employee of the school district, we must follow the allocation, and I think we're cleaning up additional preps that were given in the past, and that's not part of the contract. So she, so my understanding is that she will be returning to the site. She has the credential, and so she will be teaching a class that's part of her regular course load, like any other teacher at the high school.

[13039] SPEAKER_41: Yeah, I just, I wanted to, I guess I was trying to say that this program, she is like any other teacher, but what she agreed upon for her contract was for the Ohlone Connections program as a professor for this program specifically. And that's just the conversation I wanted to entertain in us moving forward.

[13062] SPEAKER_66: Right, and I, I would invite, I know Human Resources has met with her and they should continue to meet with her if there's clarifications. But she is not a college professor, she is actually one of our employees, so. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.

[13074] Nancy Thomas: But we'll be there. Yeah. I think this is, this, I think we should approve the SPSA. Oh, we did already? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we already did. Okay. Yeah, and I think this is.

[13085] SPEAKER_41: Yeah, it's the extension, but it's just a conversation that happened.

[13088] SPEAKER_35: Can I give a report back in the next meeting?

[13092] Ray Rodriguez: Anyway, I love that program and I want to do everything we can to make sure to make it better. And the board did commit a few years ago to assist the teacher in whatever way we could, individual board members, in recruitment. And we also have the counseling component as far as getting counselors to help in the recruitment. Shouldn't all be on the teacher, in my opinion. Okay, so let's move on to There's not public comment, none agenda items. We suspended it. And now it's open-ended, which means we'll go until everybody who's still here can speak on it. So I'll call the name and then see if you're still here. Sylvia Gutierrez. Paul Bretz.

[13155] SPEAKER_06: Good evening. Good evening. Honor trustees, I'm Paul Bretz. Last board meeting, I shared my journey, a journey that started at Newark Memorial, a journey with the students that were here tonight, and a journey that at some point hopefully comes back. Since then, I've been humbled by the outpouring of support. The community started to bring Bretz back petition, which asked for the board to look into the circumstances around my current status. In only 18 days, the petition has close to 1,300 signatures. I reluctantly begun telling my story, a story that I still do not fully comprehend. I don't comprehend why I was removed in the first place. I don't comprehend why I was charged with sending out positive affirmations to students. I don't comprehend why I was charged with trying to start a rugby team. All this is on the change.org website. If you don't believe me, look for yourselves. I don't comprehend why I was accused of being on the Newark Memorial Campus on May 15th, the day before I started telling my story when I was nowhere in the vicinity. I don't comprehend why the Newark police have been at the recent board meetings I've attended, and I don't comprehend how it's gotten this far. I was supposed to return to work on January 15th, and here we are six months later. And for what? That question's not rhetorical. For what? That's the question that's never been answered. I came to a crossroads in my career where I was forced to make a decision. Do what is convenient and easy and submit a resignation. Or do what is hard and right and stand up for my students, colleagues, and myself. I don't know how this is gonna turn out. But I do know my soul is intact. I can look my wife and children in the eyes knowing I did what was right. When I was principal at Newark Memorial, I did try to teach character by sending affirmations and such, like, do what is right, not what is convenient. And let the questioning continue. The ability of the person isn't asking the questions. I'm happy and proud to say it looks like some of those lessons sunk in. Today, the students that were here were also at a crossroads. They could do what was easy, or they could take their personal time to get involved, to stand for something, do what is hard and right. They were faced with the same decision I was. I'm proud to say that they made the decision that most of us hoped we would make. They wanted to speak, to have their voices heard, and you denied them that right. What makes them even more remarkable is that some of those students were pressured, pressured by powerful people, adults, to stay at home, to shut up, and pressured to not do, to not speak with us tonight. It's sad to see that the board chose to deny the students that came out tonight by simply manipulating the system. to force the children that were here to speak later when they have essays finished. All of us at some point come to a crossroads at one time or another. And without exception, we know the right path. But often we don't take the right path because it's just too difficult. We're at a crossroads right now. We can follow the lead of those who have us silenced, have us resign, have us shut up, Have us go away. We can follow the path of the students that came here tonight to do what they know is right. I've chosen my path. The students that were here, the students that spoke tonight, they've chosen their path. Choice is yours. Thank you. Thank you.

[13408] Ray Rodriguez: Ms. Kelly Hopkins.

[13419] SPEAKER_76: Hi everyone, I'm Kelly Hopkins. I'm a parent of a student at Newark Memorial and I just have two things that I wanted to bring up. One was in regards to Mr. Bretz. I read through the Scholarly Report and the charges and the information that the Human Resource Department had against Mr. Bretz and I'm very confused as to how the decision was made. In the initial suspension of Mr. Bretz, it states that he was suspended because he did not call, as far as the sexual assault on campus, didn't call the victim's family. But that's in direct violation. of laws of Alameda County and the state of California. He had the police department called. He had the psychologist called right away. And he followed the rules. So in the HR department's letter, it actually tells him to break the law. So I'm super confused on that. I'm also confused why there wasn't any more data. I would expect that there would have been a lot of witness reports, police reports, those types of things. And there was nothing in there on any of the charges against him. Actually, I'm super confused on the rugby club regarding it taking place during pause. There's clubs meetings taking place during pause right now today. So I'm wondering, are you going to be suspending all the teachers who have meetings during pause? Or was this just something special for Mr. Brett? My other statement is regarding the firing of the coach that was doing drugs in front of the students, with the students, whatever that situation was. Seems like a no-brainer. Drugs are bad. Say no to drugs. But it seems that the HR department had a problem with the way that he was told to fire her. And my question is, where was the HR department? Why wasn't the HR department doing the firing? Because that is their job. So I don't understand how you guys could have a human resource director that has stated that she actually does not have a credential from a human resource academy or doesn't have experience. And that comes from the response to her questions in a prior meeting. I'm just, human resource is so important and I really don't understand how we're failing in this area because it seems like there's a lot of confusion caused by lack of communication in letters that were sent or lack of understanding of laws of the state of California in regards to victims' rights. That could have been taken care of way early on if we had somebody who understood what was going on in human resource. The final thing I want to say is in regards to our teachers at the high school. Our teachers at the high school are super unhappy. They're leaving at a vast rate. They're extremely unhappy. They're telling their students that they're working in fear of the district office. I know this. They have personally called me. I've personally spoke with several of the teachers and staff members who feel that they are working in a fearful environment. They fear for their jobs. If they come here to speak out and to support their students, they are in fear of retribution from the district office because so many people have had suspensions or other situations occur in employment through the high school. And that's a scary thing. I would hope that there would be something better for our teachers and our staff members that they don't work in fear. And I expect that the board would look into this because it's alarming that our teachers are reaching out to the students to stay, that they are afraid to come to board members or speak out against the superintendent or the human resource department because they're in fear of their jobs. That's alarming. And I really hope you guys look into it. I, you know, we voted for you guys. I specifically voted for you. And I hope that you guys do look into things. Okay. Thank you.

[13639] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so let's close that. Okay, so we go to committee reports.

[13673] Ray Rodriguez: Committee reports, announcements. Member Zhang, did you want to say anything?

[13679] Bowen Zhang: Well, two weeks ago, the seniors awards night was great, and I was impressed by the achievements of so many of our kids graduating from high school, going to colleges, and going to whatever endeavors they choose. And our valedictorians, second generation Chinese-Americans, their parents had a Great conversation with me. The students graduated from the former Malani Elementary School, Junior High, and the New World Memorial High, going to UC Berkeley, studying computer science, sort of following in my footsteps.

[13720] Ray Rodriguez: Any requests? It's going to be busy between now and high school graduation, so hopefully you can set aside time to make some adjustments.

[13728] Bowen Zhang: I mean, I'm glad the parents didn't ask me to pay for tuition.

[13733] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez.

[13738] Elisa Martinez: I have a comment and a request. I guess my comment is that it really was good to see so many people here today. It's not the most comfortable chair to be in, frankly. But I think it's really important to hear. There are a lot of things that maybe there's folks assume that we know or that we hear. We don't. So it's really, really important. Whoever's on the other side watching at home, please, please do come. We do want to hear from you. And give us an opportunity to look into some of those issues. A request, uh, regarding L cap training or somebody, uh, I think Nikolai or had suggested maybe a primer of some sort for anybody coming on. Hey, how do I even look at this thing? Hey, and by the way, I would like to participate in that. I know that I've mentioned to Superintendent Sanchez. It could be really overwhelming. And I do know that there is, I think, a term limitation on the parents that are already there. No? Okay. So for folks that, I know that last year I heard that. So, you know, just when folks are starting to learn how to navigate that, you know, anyway, my point is, let's understand what training is available.

[13830] SPEAKER_35: If I may just clarify that. Yeah. Maybe it's also something we can ask the communications firm to help us put together a video. I think that was one of the ideas there was a tutorial video about how to support California along those lines. And that's something we have resources. Clock's running, but if I could squeeze it in before they finish their contract, I might be happy. Yeah. OK, I'll come back on Sunday.

[13855] SPEAKER_44: Thank you. Member Thomas.

[13856] Nancy Thomas: Oh, well, since you brought up Bowler, And needing to spend money, I would love to see the billboard idea that a student board member had come to fruition. OK. Oh, no, that was Lucia, I think, that had that idea.

[13874] Nancy Thomas: She was a student. Yeah. I still said it wrong. OK. Anyway, I've had a chance to go to the adult graduation last night. The adult school graduation, fantastic. It's so heartwarming to hear their stories and what their plans are going forward. I also, what else did I do? I was traveling, yes. We were at the senior awards night as well. Oh yes, I was at the senior awards night as well. And I too enjoyed this venue, although I wasn't sure I would, but I really did. I enjoyed the fact that we had so many members of the public that are expressing their views. I think that's so important. And I kind of like the idea of going to other sites with our board meetings in the future, especially if we're going to be talking about controversial and complicated subjects so we get more people to come.

[13941] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. I just have a couple items. I'd like to thank Char, Guino, and Larry, and all our staff that did the impossible and set everything up. And it's always a challenge with the microphones and all that stuff. So hopefully we get better at it because I'm going to be trying to do that at different sites before I exit as board president. And then maybe Member Thomas can continue it. But I think it's With the times we're in, I think it's important to go out to the people. And we spent a lot of money years ago in building multi-purpose rooms. And this is one of the use of it. So I'm looking forward to that. Superintendent, staff, thank you for everything on putting this together for us. And thank you for our whole school music. Amanda, thank you. and Mr. Bedina serving as our Sergeant of Arms and helping us. So it's a great experience and we're looking forward to doing it at other sites. I also had a chance to be at the graduation last evening at the adult school and I got some figures. Over the last 10 years, about 350 students have received their GEDs or their diplomas from the adult school. And I know we've gone back and forth on the adult school to make sure that it's self-sufficient and everything, but I just wanted to share, and that's because of the board, the present board and the board before, and making sure that we continue to have an adult school. And a lot of times, small communities like ours get rid of their adult schools, and we've managed to continue it, and that is appreciated. Superintendent and I, I joined him over at Graham, and Well, we were there to assist the principal there, give an award to one of the third graders. And he got a skateboard and naturally a helmet. A scooter, a scooter. And then also attended snow and we're going to try to get to as many of these sites as possible. I think that's what I have. Superintendent, how about your report?

[14096] SPEAKER_35: Just a couple of quick things. First of all, I am very pleased that we're hearing from a larger sector of our community. I think that's something we need to continue to work toward. And I know the board is talking about how to do more things in schools, but I think there's also some things that we can do during the next school year. relative to maybe just me and one or two board members can start attending side councils and talk to the parents at their meetings and just kind of do a rotation and return to the board meetings every year. I think that would go a long way to again just having less board meetings and less board meetings. Other than that, I'm really proud of Sierra. I know we're in a pretty new medium, a little connections tomorrow, but just proud of what we've accomplished in your time with us. And we know you're doing well, and we didn't make you come back to the office. That's all I have.

[14154] SPEAKER_44: Thank you. I just have one more thing before I end the meeting.

[14156] Ray Rodriguez: I wanted to thank all our young people that came from the high school, and Cesar and Sierra stayed here, and all the community members that came to speak. We normally do a half hour, we have 40 minutes, and we have no choice but to move it toward the end. And I wanted to hear every one of the young people that were here. I think it's so important, and we do have an advisory. We do meet with the students at the junior high and also at the high school. We're trying to get our students more involved in what we do, and so we can go visit them at their leadership meetings and talk about what they feel is best for our schools. So this is something that we're doing, and I appreciate every board member that goes to that, and it's so important. Okay. Sierra, you want to say something? This is your last meeting, right? I think.

[14216] SPEAKER_41: No, you can come that way. Let's see. Tomorrow, I just remembered, tomorrow we are having our installment for all our next year's leach officers, including the acres, will be coming. This class starts at 6.50 a.m. until 7.38. If you'd like to come, that would be awesome. There is just going to be, I think we're going to have donuts and stuff. But it would be nice for you guys to put faces together, both with the context of the next generation of leadership students that you would be communicating with and would be leading our high school.

[14251] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, and then talk about the breakfast. You're in breakfast.

[14254] SPEAKER_41: Oh, yeah, senior breakfast is. Your breakfast. Thursday, Wednesday. Gosh, I'm sorry, there's a lot going on right now.

[14262] Ray Rodriguez: No, no, no, well, I know, but you sure will get us that information. Yes. It starts at about 10 o'clock, right?

[14267] SPEAKER_41: Yeah. There's a lot, yeah.

[14271] Ray Rodriguez: And you get the video, and you'll be in the video, and all that good stuff. Thank you. Yeah. I know it's exciting for you being a senior. Yeah. You don't want to go, but you have to, right? Yeah. OK. What time is it? 11.05. 11.05.

No minutes available.