Regular - Part 2 Meeting

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[6] Ray Rodriguez: We have East Coast weather. Thank you, everyone, for coming. Before we move on to the pledge, I want to report closed session actions. Being none, we discussed current negotiations with our two unions, the classified CSCA and NTA. We had an update on public employee and discipline dismissal. And then we discuss the superintendent's contract. So do we have a young person besides myself now that would like to lead us in the pledge? A student? OK, let's do it. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag

[71] Guadalupe Lopez: by nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[84] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you again. So there's no student reports. That'd be back the first meeting in September. Recognition and celebration, same thing. So now we move to public comment on non-agenda items. So before we do that, I'd just like to address the community on that. We ask you, as a courtesy, to fill these out for us. Shirley, we're going to do yours when the superintendent does the report. OK? OK? So please fill these out. And then you can come up and talk on anything that's not on the agenda. You have three minutes. We're very courteous. We don't like shutting anybody down. But to that effect, our excellent, what, admin or secretary or runs the school district, Charlene, Ms. Aquino, will tell you when you have 30 seconds left. And hopefully that will give you enough time to kind of end and get to the three minutes, okay? We want the board to be able to focus on the items on the agenda other than time management. So thank you, Ms. Aquino, for helping us. Okay. Paige Plotko, public comment? Is Paige here? Come on up. Welcome. Oh, before you go. As you see, we only have four board members. Member Thomas, a couple weeks ago, after giving us 16 wonderful years or excellent years of her time to the board, decided to retire slash resign. And later on, we'll explain how we replaced her. Go ahead.

[202] SPEAKER_35: I'm sorry. Good evening. My name is Paige Plotko, and I am a 7th grade math teacher at the Newark Junior High School. I would like to read a statement on my mom's behalf, Debbie Platko, who was recently told she had to be transferred to the high school this year as the new camp office manager. It's difficult for her to be here tonight, so I'd like to say a message from her.

[226] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[227] SPEAKER_35: Dear board members. I ask for your help in rescinding the recent request by NUSD to move me from the junior high to the high school as office manager, effective 8-19-19 on Monday. The junior high is my heart and soul. I have worked hard the past two years to build a friendly and inviting community for our staff, students, and parents. I have given countless extra hours volunteering, chaperoning events, and mentoring students both academically and behaviorally. students who suffer from extreme anxiety are counting on me to be at the junior high the school year to help them through these rough times. As we all know it's hard to be at the junior high and just going through these teenage years. The district's theme this year was all about community building and strengthening community and relationships. Pulling me away from the junior high community is devastating and heartbreaking to me. I have been a valuable and dedicated employee for the district for 19 years. I feel completely blindsided by this move. I want to stay and continue to nurture the community that I have built. Junior High is my home, and with your help, I hope to stay and continue the work that I have started here. Thank you.

[299] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So what happens is when someone comes and addresses us, on the public comment and items. We don't normally have interaction and the president could direct staff to meet with the individual involved in, because we don't, the practice has been not to interact other than to direct staff to meet with the person. Okay. Tony? Same thing? Okay. Welcome.

[346] SPEAKER_48: Thank you.

[349] SPEAKER_16: That was my daughter. You've done a good job. Yeah, thank you. So, just to give a little bit more background. So, as Debbie had mentioned in the letters she wrote through PAGE, she really has worked hard to build up a strong rapport with the junior high staff, all the teachers here that are supporting her. And, you know, with all that finally paying off, it was very hard for her to be thrown into a much bigger pile of turmoil because it seems to be to address issues at the high school. And that was carried over from last year. And quite honestly, being blindsided is nothing anyone likes to have happen to themselves. Debbie was informed this last Monday that she does need to go over to the high school as a new office manager. But no effort was made to talk to Debbie before making this decision. This might have allowed some insight into how not only it may affect her, the junior high, and the high school, but also to look for alternative solutions to the high school issues. It's not fair to put it on Debbie's shoulders how to fix this problem. She has done an exceptional job by taking on all the tasks thrown at her. with a reduced staff at the junior high over the last few years and many which are just too numerous to list with the given time constraints. This is not the way to show a person their appreciation for your successfully hard-won efforts by pulling you away from a position and a staff that you love without any forewarning or consultation to address perceived issues at the high school. To me, this just shows a lack of empathy short-sightedness and a lack of being able to address ongoing issues, which should have been addressed months ago. This was done without any apparent thought of how it would affect Debbie. And it just leads to the questions of, was there an effort made to hire an additional person to help that high school office manager? As far as I know, no. Did a delegate or the superintendent contact Debbie ahead of time looking for her insight or willingness to work with a high school office manager to assess with those issues? No. And also, thank you, what did the high school teachers feel about getting both a new principal and a new office manager at the same time? This seems to be setting them up for an even greater challenge. So, my perceptions is that trying to make two wrongs turn This is two wrongs trying to turn into a right. You as a school board members have a chance to step back and evaluate the options and look for better solutions for all those involved. Thank you.

[547] Ray Rodriguez: Board members, our main job, other than to hire the superintendent, is to set policy. And when it comes to personnel, this is something that we cannot get involved in other than direct staff. We have how many? We have 14 individuals that have put in to address this. We're stuck with a half hour on any one item. Even though you have three minutes, if you could try to see if you could do it to two, because if not, we have to adjourn toward the end of the meeting, and we might have two or three people that have to wait another hour or so. Okay. Ms. Lori Eddings. And then after that, Mr. Todd Haley.

[600] SPEAKER_27: Hi.

[601] Ray Rodriguez: Hi. How are you?

[602] SPEAKER_27: Well, thank you. Hi, my name is, I'm going to read this at warp speed. Hi, my name is Lori Eddings and this is my eighth year teaching social studies at Newark Junior High School. On Monday, the district spent money to hire a keynote speaker whose message was equity. On Tuesday, the district spent thousands of dollars to help build community between Newark Unified and the public. The barbecue was kicked off by Dr. Sanchez, asking that we show equity to be team players and show kindness. You said that you would be there to support classroom teachers. All this money and time invested shows the direction you want Newark Unified to pursue. I think we can all get behind that. What we can't get behind is Debbie Platko being made to leave our school and be placed at the high school. Debbie has been part of the Newark community for 30 years. Her children went through Newark Unified Schools and she has been an employee for 19 years at the district. She's now our office manager and we love her. She won volunteer of the year two times and employee of the year one time so far. Debbie's qualities make the office inviting with a friendly atmosphere. Debbie is genuine and a caregiver for the administration staff and most of all our students. Our parents depend on her to be the guidance when they walk through the door. Paige didn't get a chance to read it, but I was there when Debbie helped shape a tier three student and his attitude with undying love and support. And so he got to walk in promotion. She met with him daily. That has nothing to do with her office ability. In the office, Debbie is extremely organized and her office skills are excellent. She is punctual and follows through with work at a superior level, a superior level. Of course, the high school wants her. I imagine every school in the district would like to work with Debbie. If you're moving Debbie to bring her qualities to the high school and create a positive environment, you should know you're doing this at the expense of Debbie and all of the people at the junior high school. That is not equitable. That is not the quality you want to, and equitability is the quality you want us to improve upon. If there is incompetency at the high school, then you need to deal with it at the high school. If there is personality conflict at the high school, then please, we're asking you, deal with it at the high school. There is really no acceptable reason for the switch, especially since, and I cannot emphasize this enough, Debbie doesn't want to go. Unfortunately, no one was kind enough to have asked her. No explanation was given why, no opportunity for her voice, her opinion, no equity or kindness in the action whatsoever. Also, no way to build a community. On the contrary, this is breaking apart our community. From what I understand, the office manager at the high school doesn't want to switch either. Once again, no reason for this switch. Debbie has had plenty of opportunities in the last 19 years to go to the high school and doesn't want to be there. It seems like Debbie's being punished for being good at her job. It also seems like Virginia High is being punished.

[785] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I'm sorry. Thank you. OK, thank you. Thank you very much. We're going to go another 20 minutes. And then if there are still people that want to speak, be toward the end of the meeting. Mr. Haley?

[804] SPEAKER_19: Okay, let me just finish up on the settings points here. Not only is the switch of office managers wrong, but the timing couldn't be worse. If the office manager at the high school needs help with skills, why didn't you let Debbie mentor her? This could still happen. Debbie is that good. She's an amazing mentor. Today was the first day of school, and when everyone should be excited, starting the year off is a positive note. Because we're all professionals, we made sure our students started off right. But this decision has completely ruined the energy and positivity of our school climate. All veteran teachers can do is think about Debbie being moved, especially because she is being forced. It took a long time to create our community at NJHS. And quite honestly, Debbie is our community leader. Why would you do this to the community at NJHS, the community at Memorial, and the Newark community in general? Yes, this is a ripple effect. And yes, Debbie does make that much of a difference. And yes, Debbie is a community leader. The community is being ripped apart. The very qualities you want us to try to improve upon, equity, kindness, being a team player, and building a community are not being afforded to Debbie or any of us at the NGA, Newark Junior High School. For the good of the entire junior high, the high school, and the community that we are also trying hard to unite, please right this wrong and reconsider and overturn this decision immediately. Don't wait until next week, next month, or next year. Overturn it tonight, even if you have to stay and discuss it behind closed doors again. You have to see this switch. Office managers will not be beneficial to anyone, nor in any terms is it equitable. Thank you. Thank you.

[916] Ray Rodriguez: Yvette Haley and then Penny Zamorano. Welcome, Ms. Haley.

[928] SPEAKER_13: Good evening. I'm also here to talk about Debbie Platko. Tonight I would like you to reconsider the transfer of Debbie Platko. Debbie has been a pillar of our school and our community. Debbie always puts the needs of others before herself. She is a role model for the students, staff, and administration. She is an integral part of Newark Junior High School. Our district-sponsored back-to-school rallies Monday and Tuesday were embedded with the philosophy of building community. I believe the majority of us agree with that philosophy. I am not sure how taking an employee like Debbie Platko from NJHS and transferring her to the high school three days after school begins builds that community. Debbie goes above and beyond to make each staff member, make sure each staff member has what they need to create successful learning experience for all of our students. There are so many things Debbie does behind the scenes of our Newark Junior High School community to make it successful. Allowing her to stay will assure the continuation of the community we are building at Newark Junior High School. Can I just have everyone who is here supporting Debbie just stand up so everyone knows she's got a lot of support here. Thank you.

[1002] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. And then after Penny, Tracy Wynnum.

[1014] SPEAKER_20: Good afternoon. I'm Penny Samorano. I work at Newark Junior High. Everybody's told you how great Debbie is. That's not what I'm here for. I mean, that's what I'm here for. But I want to make it short and sweet. We're just asking that you reconsider if there's any way you can. If not, cuz I don't think it's fair for Debbie nor for Tina at the beginning of the year to be switched. If this is a switch that has to be made, maybe the following year so that they could be more prepared. And we won't be so lost without our office manager. Neither one of them know the position that they're coming into. And both entail so many different things that neither one of them have either touched. So I'm just kind of asking if you can reconsider. If you can't, we just wanted to be heard. We wanted you to know that she was loved. It's a community, it's a family that we have at NJHS. and she will be truly missed if she does not get to stay with us. So thank you for your time.

[1063] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Tracy. Kevin Sullivan after Tracy.

[1074] SPEAKER_52: Hi, my name is Tracy Windham, and I'm a parent at Newark Junior High School, and I'm also the PTA president. However, I want to express that I'm speaking on my own behalf tonight, as I didn't have enough time to meet with everybody and go over what I would say before the PTA. I am here to express my concerns about Debbie Platko leaving the Newark Junior High. I'm very concerned at the change of secretaries between the schools and also the way in which it was handled. You see, just a few months ago I was at a meeting that was at music school and there was a very similar situation where somebody found a letter in their box or the situation was approached with them leaving and it didn't have a very good feel to it. And Mr. Sanchez, you approached the person and you apologized and you said to them or to a fellow teacher you regretted that that's how it was handled and you wanted their name. You wanted to know who it was so you could write that wrong. And I thought that that was very respectable. And then I learned that recently Ms. Platka was handled similarly. And I was wondering if you were already remorseful about handling a situation in that matter once. I'm at a loss as to why it would now be acceptable. Mr. Sanchez and the board members, loving your community starts with decisions like this one. Decisions you make with switching like with Ms. Platko without having conversations with both secretaries, you can't throw a few hot dogs at it or $150,000 consultant fee. It's a problem that needs good old-fashioned morals and respect for one another. And if you want to build an environment, if you want to build enrollment, start with lifting up your staff and your teachers. Ask for their input. Your teachers and staff, they are the key to your enrollment issues and solving those problems. Ms. Platko, well, she's not here, but to her daughter and husband, On behalf of my family, I'm very grateful for what you guys have done with our community and the school. And I really hope that this is not the note in which your service ends here at Newark Junior High. But if it's any consolation at all, I'm very sorry from the bottom of my heart.

[1231] Diego Torres: Thank you.

[1239] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. After Mr. Sullivan, Ms. Mitchell, LaGuy Mitchell.

[1247] SPEAKER_22: Honored trustees, Newark Unified Executive Cabinet, parents, students, and stakeholders. My name is Kevin Sullivan. I'm a resident of Mill Valley, California, and I'm here this evening to speak on behalf of Paul Bretz. We share a common bond through our service to the Marine Corps and our rugby community. Our two families share common traits, most important being an unwavering commitment to our teammates regardless of the situation or the size of the opponent. I've known Paul Bretz for 20 years. He asked me for assistance in fighting the actions of this district, and because I know the character of this man, I'm here to provide assistance. Supporters of Bretz have provided those of us not in education a glimpse into the depths of which a district will go to stand by a decision that makes absolutely no sense. I sound like I'm repeating myself. This Bring Back Bretts petition provides all the ability to review the events that have unfolded. If Bretts did in fact do the things that the district claims, why is there no witness statements in the charging document? In the most recent petition update, the petition references that each of the eight people that should have provided statements have left the district. Is that true? When Bretz came to the board meeting in May and asked for the board's assistance by reviewing the district's paperwork, did you happen to notice that there was no evidence to support the district's argument for termination? Is the new business item 10.6 of tonight's agenda an admission that the board should have taken Bretz's request more seriously? From an outsider's perspective, the district wants Bretz resignation. When he refused, Newark kept putting up the pressure by adding three additional charges to the initial investigation. It's my opinion that the district assumed he would resign if enough pressure was placed on him. And when he called the district's bluff by asking to have the issues heard in an open board session, the district had no choice but to drop the charges. In recent months, the board's YouTube feed has captured Newark stakeholders pleased to have their voices heard. Parents state that teachers are afraid to come forward and voice their concerns out of fear of retaliation. These phrases are repeated both in the Googled news stories that I was looking at and other legal documentation from some group of Adams 14 lawsuits. We've heard from Newark's own student board member that a memorial student was recruited by a superintendent and the school board to curb speculation about Brett's administrative leave only a few days after the redacted document was posted to the petition. We have also seen the district office of the Newark Memorial have many new personnel. Why are so many leaving your community? Honored board members, given the issues surrounding Brett's, this continued fight, the resignations of so many staff, and the similarities and common link between Adams 14 and Newark, and the recent unanticipated resignation of trustee Thomas, isn't it time for the Newark board to start doing a better job of leading? Thank you for your time.

[1433] SPEAKER_67: Thank you.

[1434] Ray Rodriguez: Hi, my name is- Are you Miss Mitchell?

[1437] SPEAKER_67: I sure am.

[1438] Ray Rodriguez: I've known you since what, elementary school? Yes. Okay, go ahead.

[1442] SPEAKER_67: So I am here, it's my first time, well thank you, but I'm here in concerning of my son was bullied last year and by a parent and I was informed not by the daycare providers but from the principal that night. And I feel out of retaliation that my son got kicked out when we did nothing wrong. I have to be without daycare and my son's self-esteem is brought down low because to him daycare was like a family. All his friends that he grew up with from kindergarten to second and now I was informed that he can't go. So what I'm asking right now from the board is if I can't get my privilege overturned to be able to attend daycare. I can speak to whoever that I need to speak to about the issue that had happened at hand at daycare last year. I have emails, I have notes, I have everything. that I can show forth to show proof that my son did no wrong. My son was a victim of being bullied. And from what I understand, there are signs everywhere on the school grounds saying that bullying is not allowed. But for a parent to bully an eight-year-old child and be Unwelcome that daycare making it seem like it was his fault is not right. So the reason why I'm here for the first time I'm nervous, but I'm just very passionate because at the end of the day my son is hurting and It's a care that I need, that I know that I'm grateful to have because it's available. And I'm not the type of individual to take advantage of anything that is given to me, but to respect the young ladies in that daycare, to show them that I am responsible, that I handle my business when it comes to my son. And I feel that the ladies there treated my family wrong, did not give me an opportunity to express how I felt, and just brushed me to the side and gave me my money back. So as right now, I feel like my son is just a paycheck to them. But my son is more than a paycheck. He is a human being. But I don't feel that he is. So I'm asking now, if there's any way, if I need to talk to somebody, give them my name, number, or email. If I can sit down with them and explain to them what the situation is at hand, because it is not right. It needs to be addressed. There needs to be consequences, I feel, for the other party that hurt my son. that made my son feel like he was wrong, when he wasn't wrong, when he was blamed for something that he had no reason to be blamed for. But again, all I need is a platform to speak my voice, and it was here, but I would love to make an appointment with whoever that I have to, to get it overturned. Thank you.

[1615] Ray Rodriguez: Ms. Mitchell, we are very anti-bullying. Since the day I got on the board, we take that very seriously. So if, Superintendent, if you can, maybe Jessica, if you'll meet with her.

[1626] SPEAKER_55: Yes, I will follow up with Nydia, the coordinator of child daycares. OK.

[1632] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We only have time for three more. Michael Sagehorn? Welcome. Thank you. Next is Delton Lowry, and then after that, Diane Heeman. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

[1651] SPEAKER_11: Good evening, board, staff. My name is Michael Sagehorn, and I'm a property owner in Newark. But my day job is I'm a teacher in Antioch Unified School District. I have an issue with Paul Bretz termination. And I fundamentally think you have some HR problems here. Human resources, where you pull a long-tenured employee and plunk them out of their job. I think the whole human resources staff function needs reexamining on your part. I would never do that to anybody either in a private employment or my role as a supervisor. I think Mr. Barrett's got caught up in a personality issue between and governance issue that he came in and was not apprised of. Paul tried to hire me as a history teacher here at the high school and I had to decline the offer. But I tried to get some sense out of the position, but the human resources director was on holiday during the busiest piece of the hiring season. Paul Bretz and I served in the Marine Corps during the Gulf War. Different task forces, but you will never meet a man with more integrity and dignity and compassion than Paul Bretz. You need to get that man back to that high school like now. And you do, of course, supervise the superintendent. You need to direct the superintendent to do that. Thank you, gentlemen.

[1745] Ray Rodriguez: I appreciate it. Thank you. Dalton Lowery.

[1754] SPEAKER_21: Good evening. Good evening. My name is Dalton Lowery. I'm a former teacher of students with moderate to severe disabilities at Newark Memorial High School this past year. Twelve months ago, I was hired by Mr. Paul Bretz to be the teacher in one of the SPED classes. Mr. Bretz is a former SPED teacher himself, and I know him as the head of the Rugby Referee Society for Northern California. As you know, being a referee is a really tough position. You get a lot of complaints, and he's always done his duties, you know, firmly, fairly, and without drawing too much ire from the players. But I'm going to speak about something here called indemnity. It's to indemnify when somebody suffers a loss. You know, an insurance company will indemnify you. They'll restore, make you whole again. And in November, after Principal Bretts announced that we were getting a day off early for Thanksgiving break because of the wildfires and the smoke from Paradise, none of us knew that that would be the last action that he would have as principal at school. And when we came back, rumors started to swirl. And as a personal friend, I did not contact him because I didn't want to know what was going on. And not only, you know, we only learned until about May what was happening. But during that time, Newark Memorial High School had a loss. Principal Brett walked the campus and he knew students. I have eight students with moderate to severe disabilities. He has 1,000 students. In about the first month of school at the Memorial Day Parade, I was walking along behind with the marching band with Ms. Hong, a couple of assistant principals, and Mr. Bretz. And out of the crowd of thousands of people, when we stopped and paused, Principal Bretz looked behind us and he shouted out, called out one of my students. And I'm thinking about this, and I'm thinking, man, he has over 1,000 students, and yet he knows one of my eight students with moderate to severe disabilities. And he picked them out, and I didn't even see them, and I only have eight students. Because of that, there's a lot of good. I see I have 40 seconds left, so I'm just going to say that Newark Memorial High School should be made whole again with Principal Bretts. Principal Bretts should also be made whole again and get the position that he loves. He wouldn't be fighting for this position still months after if he didn't love the position, he didn't love the students, he didn't love the teachers that he was working with and the short time that he had to get to know them. Thank you.

[1919] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Dan Heban. Dan will be our last one. When we come back, Ms. Doot, you'll be first after we finish our meeting toward the end.

[1936] SPEAKER_36: Good evening.

[1937] Ray Rodriguez: Good evening.

[1939] SPEAKER_36: My name is Diane Hoban and I have been a resident in Newark for 33 years. I am here tonight on advice from the city of Newark and my fellow neighbors. I live on Lafayette Avenue directly across from Newark Junior High School. We have four adults living in our home, which accounts for four vehicles. We have on our street two signs informing the public that the homes across from the junior high school are for residential parking only. While we've had to deal with Little League availing themselves of our parking for years, that is a seasonal event. Unfortunately, a number of Newark Unified School District employees have decided to disregard the signs and park in front of our homes for some time now. The Junior High parking lot is a massive property and only yards away from the office and classrooms. We have photos of the autos and the citation signs. We have left notes and informed the school district already, once, of this offense. In return, we have been ignored, had our garbage cans moved so that they can park there, and have received notes on our cars, some using foul language. Following the recommendation from the city, we have been left with no choice but to petition the residents and will apply for permanent parking permits That will eliminate all non-residents from being able to park on the residential side of the street from Christine to Newark Boulevard in any circumstance. In these divisive times, it's unfortunate that members of our community have been forced to take these unnecessary measures in order to enjoy our resident rights. You have each been provided with a packet which includes a copy of this statement and the signatures currently received from residents who have had the same concerns. I am looking forward to hearing within a week's time any alternatives this administration may wish to present prior to taking this issue to the city of Newark for a more permanent solution. Thank you.

[2066] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So toward the end of the meeting, then we'll reconvene the public comment. Superintendent?

[2087] SPEAKER_25: Thank you, President Rodriguez, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board. At this time, I'd like to bring forward Shirley Sisk with Love Newark. And they have a short presentation for the board. Welcome, Shirley. And I do want to point out while Shirley's bringing her people up.

[2119] SPEAKER_41: Yeah, we have like three things to do, and I'm not taking nine minutes. You're not.

[2124] SPEAKER_25: But I wanted to give you guys a present.

[2125] SPEAKER_41: The first thing, though, is the reason you asked me here. And also I want to bring up Jana. There you are. This is the manager of Dollar Tree in Newark. OK? And what was it, about two weeks ago or three weeks ago? They came to love and donated 11 very big boxes of back to school things for the kids.

[2155] Ray Rodriguez: All right.

[2156] SPEAKER_41: And I thought it should go to Newark. It's for Newark. So really, really, she's the one that, you know, I decided she'd go to you, but why wouldn't I? But she's the one that brought it from Dollar Tree, and Jan is here, and she deserves the big thank you.

[2176] SPEAKER_25: Thank you for that. And it is in our agenda under donations report. So I can print that out for you and that way you have it for your store about the donation you guys made.

[2186] SPEAKER_41: Okay. I'm sure you've taken all those wonderful things and divided it up among different schools.

[2192] SPEAKER_25: We handed them out at the back to the school barbecue.

[2197] SPEAKER_41: Wonderful. Well, anyway. Thank you. Thank you so much. How would you all like to say thank you to Janet?

[2202] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

[2208] SPEAKER_41: The other thing I want to thank you about is we just got through with six weeks of summer camp at Mayhew's Landing. And it's free. And six weeks of Monday through Thursday, 10 o'clock to 2 p.m. But I want to thank Mary in the kitchen, who's in charge with all of her staff. because she was able to provide the lunch through the federal money that she gets. And the food was fantastic, and the kids had a wonderful time. It's not just Newark, of course, but we have a lot of Newark children who, for $10 only, they get six weeks, they get a breakfast snack, lunch, a t-shirt, And lots and lots of fun for six, but so please, I've already said thanks to Mary, but in behalf of all of us and all of the kids, thanks to Mary for doing that. And the last thing is we have something special for you. So this is almost Newark Days in September. It'll be here before you know it. So I would like Ramona and Glenn to come up. They are the co-chairs of the parade. So they have something for you. But also they want to talk about something that's brand new this year that we're doing with the schools and the children with a special thing. And they're going to tell you about it and also give you, which I hope I'll see you all wearing on your float. OK?

[2314] Ray Rodriguez: We will. Before they come up, Shirley, I wanted to thank you and everybody at Love for taking care of our kids during the summer. And you've been doing it for a long time.

[2327] SPEAKER_41: Something like 30 years.

[2329] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I know. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Oh, the dynamic duo.

[2341] SPEAKER_62: Yes, indeed. Thank you for having us. We'll keep this real short. But we want to let you know, as Shirley said, Newark Days is coming up a little over a month away, September 19th through 22nd. Four days of fun and lots of events, shows, carnival, vendor booth, food, parade, car truck show, information fair, pony rides. Our theme this year is Heroes are Super. And we did this because for our everyday heroes, our teachers, our policemen, police officers, sorry, firefighters, our military, all of these people who are heroes every day. As well as the superheroes who are out there, Iron Man, Superman, the people that the kids really love too. So we're honoring everybody. Last year there was 161,000 people who attended the four-day event, so we're looking for another banner year this year. One thing is that we have added to it as well, we thought with the hero theme, that we've asked each of the schools to have their children do an essay this year on who is my hero. The winners of the essays, each school will have one winner. The high school is going to have two. And the winners of those will get a plaque of thank you from Newark Days. They'll also get a wristband to the carnival, which is like, I think it's a $35 value for it. And we also are going to ask them if they'd like to be in the parade. They can join us on one of the floats or just walking along there. We have t-shirts here for the school board members. And Glenn will pass them on. One other thing I just want to let everybody know.

[2449] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Mr. Nelson.

[2450] SPEAKER_62: Security, of course, is high on everybody's agenda right now with everything that's been happening. And we have been meeting with the police department of the city. And I want you to know that security is high in their minds. We are making changes. And you're gonna see a bunch of changes both on the grounds and in the parade because they do not want anybody to be able to come and take advantage of all of our kids out there or the adults, anybody. So there's gonna be some major changes, little more inconvenience to the community probably with it. But we wanna take care of everybody and especially the kids because this is who we do it for. Thank you so much.

[2489] Ray Rodriguez: So who's that good looking young man that passed out the t-shirts?

[2493] SPEAKER_62: This is Glenn Nelson. I'm Ramona McMaster.

[2497] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you Ramona.

[2498] SPEAKER_62: Thank you very much.

[2499] Ray Rodriguez: We'll see you at Newark Nights. Thank you.

[2506] SPEAKER_25: Next item on my update is I do have a special meeting request for Monday August 26th from 4 to 6 p.m. This is a negotiations session. that we would like to have done before we reconvene with the two negotiating teams on September 4th. So that is the request, and I know I checked with some of you on the date, but if you all can let us know if that August 26th and 46th time frame would work, we'd like to go ahead and get that scheduled. So please let Char know. Number three I have is just an update on the McGregor licensing agreement. I think some have referred to it as the MOU for McGregor. And the board gave us direction recently to make sure we ensured that we made some edits to make it a five-year agreement. And I've made those edits per the board direction and just wanted to report back to the board that has been done. And we're planning to take it to the city liaison meeting on September 16. that process has taken its course, we will take next steps more formally. I don't know if anyone from the city liaison would like to add to that, but I just wanted to report back that we did execute the board's request to update the document so that it was accurate to be five years.

[2592] SPEAKER_58: I can add a little bit. I did also get clarification from the city.

[2597] SPEAKER_60: Like you said, September 16th we have the city liaison meeting. The city will look over it, basically give their approval. From then it does, sorry, from then, from there the city council will then take it to the city so then they can show the contract to the community members. Then we get it back and we make the final approval.

[2625] Ray Rodriguez: So just, yes. Thank you for the timeline.

[2632] SPEAKER_25: I do want to begin working to do more site visits with board members. I know I've done some already. But I think to get on to more of a formal structure, what I'd like to request is that if you have a day of the month or a day of the week that works better for you in a time frame, it's always better to do site visits while the students are in session, if possible. But if not, there's other things we can look at. So I think we can accommodate your calendar. So if you want to just let Char know what that is, and I know that, for example, Mr. Rodriguez and I, we sometimes schedule, hey, let's go to this event, or let's go to a game, or whatever that might be. So just start getting those potential days. We're looking for patterns so we can start scheduling it out and try to get it out to be more visible in the district this year. And I think the last thing I want to share with you, and I do believe we have copies for the audience, is something that the board's been wanting to talk about. I'm going to hand a copy out here. And we have some in the back that Shara's going to put on the table. This is a draft kind of plan. And we're going to talk more about number one in the plan when the demographic study comes up. But I wanted to kind of frame out a little bit of, you know, why this? Why now? And just kind of a sequence of events that we're going to talk about. And certainly each of these could be a study session on its own. But I wanted to kind of paint a picture of what the larger sequence would look like. But the first big question is, Is our numbers really increasing? Are we decreasing? Are we flat? And what is optimal size for our district? What does that look like? And if we're going to reconfigure things to that new optimal size, I want to make sure we have confidence in the numbers. And I know that Davis Demographics, we've had some concerns with the quality of data. But how does it fit with the facility master plan? Then how do we look forward with asset management? And then how do we fund this bigger plan? This is just something for you to take home with you and start scratching out some thoughts and ideas. I know we are going to try to have a study session for this, I believe, September. Is that what we were thinking, Barry? We had talked about. Yes. And Barry will bring that up in the demographic study to have a deeper conversation about this. But I wanted to just kind of give you a little bit of a graphic organizer to start thinking about and writing notes and then questions so we can start preparing more information for the board to give some direction to staff.

[2784] SPEAKER_60: I was wondering, just a quick question, how does this tie in with the work that ADIS is doing?

[2794] SPEAKER_25: It ties directly in with the work of ADIS. And I think one of the learnings from the ADIS study that we have to wrestle with, I think relative to demographics, like how many students do we have, is one of the learnings from ADIS study was that we have over 800 million in needs. in our district. And kind of what that means is our buildings are relatively aged, which is not a surprise to anyone. So how do we begin to reconcile that? It's almost like having a used car that you keep pouring money into, but it's not getting better or it's not going to end up bringing something new to the table. So the ADA study kind of overlaps with this, but there's a lot of moving pieces and I think The concept of having the graphic is really the concept of there's not one silver bullet, but there's going to be a braid of solutions that will help us get to a better place as a district. But if you look at the steps, these are really kind of the sequence. And certainly, the team has worked with Barry and executive cabinet to try to sequence it in a way that makes sense for the board, and it makes sense for us. So we have kind of a mental model, so we know that we're on this path. But much more conversation to come. But I thought this would be a good starting point to get our conversation rolling. And certainly it is a draft and we want you guys to weigh in and at least a place to start the conversation. But as we start discussing more of this and as the demographic study comes up, I know Barry's prepared to speak more in depth. But I wanted to at least have this in front of you as we have the conversation and as we begin going forward. I wanted you to have something to react to.

[2896] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Anything else?

[2898] SPEAKER_25: I believe the last thing I'll do later in the meeting. So that concludes my report at this time.

[2904] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. We now go to staff reports. Associate Superintendent Salinas. First day of school. Today was the first day of school. It was a wonderful day.

[2912] SPEAKER_49: It was. So good evening, President and members of the community, our board members and staff. As Ms. Aquino gets up, our slides. Today was the first day of school and we're one of the first districts in the county to really get started today. We saw a lot of smiling faces, happy parents, happy kids. But I want to make these slides about thanking our staff today. So I'm going to ask Ms. Aquino to click for me. Thank you. So we have some pictures. So first of all, thank you. Thank you to our teachers and our staff. You definitely saw the work that they put in getting their classrooms ready to welcome our kids back. there are front office staff and there is Ms. Acarisi, I mean on the phone making sure that phones were answered, phone calls were answered and that we were ready to receive our kids and our parents. Again, we were able to visit all the schools. I want to share that district office, we split up and all went to visit all the different schools this morning. I know we had members of the board also and a community that was there to greet us and greet our kids. I want to share that. this can't happen overnight. There's certainly all the behind the scenes people, our teachers getting their classrooms ready, our principals making sure that kids are assigned, our registrars, our classified staff, our principals and honestly I think that's where you really saw folks pulling together to make sure that we had a smooth opening. As you know this was the first year that we did online registration for our elementary schools We had a few hiccups with when it went live. So I think our board member Martinez and a lot of parents who right away were texting principals and we were able to thank you Mr. Simon for making sure that the glitch was fixed. But that was I think really powerful that our parents at the elementary level were able to see who their teacher was for their kids. So thank you to all of them. We had our rally, as we heard, and our cougar mascot. We had some speakers that came and then also certainly our principals that did a lot of welcome and TKK welcome back and registration. And also, you know, our teachers in action. You know, although it is a lot about routines on the first day of school, especially at our elementary schools, but it's getting right to teaching and having kids get engaged and motivated and love what they're going to come back to the next day. So a big thank you to all the staff. And it was great to see all of our families that are returning and getting to know our new families. I will share a story. At the rally, as we had all the tables, I met a family who had about three students. And all of their children are either homeschooled or in a charter school. And they went to every table to pick up a brochure to learn about our schools. I have an appointment to meet with them. because I really do want them to come back to Newark. So I think that was really one of the most powerful things that happened for me from my perspective, meeting new families that live here, and I want them to come back to Newark schools. And so as we heard, heroes are super. We are going to have an essay contest. Thank you, Ms. Shirley Sisk. Every school will be able to compete, and they will be awarded one winner, two for the high school, a one-day all-ride access bracelet, which is really fun at the carnival. And so we'll be doing that with our principals and teachers, sending out the opportunity for kids to write an essay. And that's it. So thank you very much. Have a good evening. And thank you. I know I see some teachers and principals in the audience, so I know it's been a long day. Thank you for all your work today.

[3142] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Associate Superintendent Salinas. The opening of school is always exciting, and it was great. and the event back to school that we had at the junior high. I just want to thank everyone for putting that together, because there was a request for the drummers to be there next year. But it was great, the music and everything. So thank you, everybody. All the sites seem to be represented, which was nice. So we have employee organizations, CSCA. Ms. Eustace, are you here?

[3181] SPEAKER_25: She's here.

[3190] Ray Rodriguez: Good evening.

[3191] SPEAKER_32: Good evening. Good evening to everybody and welcome back. It's a good time of the year. Through the summer, a lot of our employees were working and trying to do the best that they could to get the schools prepared for school, the beginning of school. And I think in a lot of ways, they really did with the time that they had and all the efforts that they put into it because we're short staffed in a lot of ways. that we were able to do, I think, a pretty good job. CSCA had its annual 93rd conference in Las Vegas this year, and there were 16,000 delegates that came from all the different chapters across the state of California. We had about 400 guests, so we had about 2,000 people there. One day basically was dedicated to electing new officers of state CSCA. There was a whole day dedicated to in-service training for all types of employees in the CSCA bargaining units across the state of California. Probably one of the best things that I personally heard was that we have a balanced budget, and we planned to have a balanced budget for the next five years. Under the circumstances of the changes of time, that's pretty good. So that's important to us. Paradise Fires was mentioned. We had a number of our chapter members there lose their homes. And we have a separate fund that we can donate into to help fellow CSCA members in times of need, such as the fires. It depleted almost everything that we have in that pot of money to be used to help employees. At conference this year, chapters and members donated over $74,000 in one day to get that fund restarted to refill. Very proud of the people that I work with. So there was other things that took place. They give out awards and there's things that happen through the week. So it was five days there. It was also very hot there too. So I stayed inside. I don't like heat. So it was an excellent time, well spent for me to go to see what was going on. And I hope someday, especially if it's closer, like we'll be going back to Sacramento. I would hope that all of you would come and visit us at least one day during conference so that you could see what takes place there, because it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. So one of the things that I did say that I was going to do, and I brought them, is in 2014, our chapter became 50 years old, and Pat Doyle, wrote a book about the history of our chapter in CSCA. It's the only chapter that has ever done this. She's the only person that's ever done this. This book sits at headquarters in our room that we maintain all of our important papers and files and documents. This sits there. For those of you who've been around for a few years, which I know a lot of you haven't, but for those of us that's been around for at least, in my case, 43 years, there's pictures of people that I have known for almost those 40 years. And it talks about what they've done here in Newark and what they've done in CSCA and what CSCA has done for all classified employees. So I'd like to give this to you. so that you can learn art history and that you can appreciate the kind of employees that you have in Newark Unified School District. And I was proud tonight, whether you agree with everybody in this room or not, I was proud. Teachers, classified, everybody supports all other employees here. I wanna thank all of the teachers for doing that, for supporting our other fellow employees that are in other units. I'm sure that everybody in this room wants to make everything better. We want to start heading a direction that we start accomplishing things. I don't want to come to any more of these meetings where I have to listen to stuff that I feel is really kind of not good for us. We need to move past this, become better employees, become better supervisors, head in a direction that this community can be proud of. So with that, thank you.

[3490] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Merritt, NTA.

[3505] SPEAKER_42: The last time I was here, I had a wireless mic. No, it was corded. It was corded, but I liked the power that I had by taking it and being able to hold it. I'm going to resist for a while. I'm struggling here, so I don't know what the process is on the speaker cards. I was here at 5 o'clock before all of you, even, well, she probably was in and out. But I put in the second speaker card, and if you do put in the first one, Mr. Newton's here. I know, I know, but I'm just saying. because I wanted to speak on something personally. But it really is a union issue. It is an NTA issue because Debbie Platko serves not only the students and the principal and the parents and the entire community, she also serves my members and I'm a staff member at the junior high as well. And I came on December 1st last year, so I know what it's like to be a little, out of place and she helped me navigate the rough waters those first few weeks. So, I have a mantra and I'm, Lori, I still haven't set a goal for the number of times I'm going to say it today. But I've said it since I was teaching third grade and it seemed to really apply to third graders. Don't try to solve a problem. by creating two more. Some teachers were not able to be here tonight because, well, they probably worked too long the night before. I know many of them did. But they did write letters expressing their support for Ms. Glatko as well. So my question is, if we can do it to one, we can do it to anyone. I wasn't going to bring another message up, but Ms. Windham quoted Mr. Sanchez as being generous in inviting me to come and solve the problem. The four teachers involved all were involuntarily transferred, and the conversation was very different than what you might imagine. when I walked into the office. I wasn't going to bring that up, but I wanted to make sure that since it was brought up, that it was addressed. So, over the summer, I went to four different conferences. One was a personal conference, an educational conference that I go to every year. I went to ISTE, and while I was there, I got a text from our NTA treasurer saying, I took care of the $5,000 money transfer you requested. I didn't request a $5,000 money transfer. We would never do that. And we were able to stop it. But we were a potential client of fraud. And so everybody is susceptible to these things. And they just happened to, I don't know if they knew our timing. But I was out of state and the person was leaving the country the next day, so we all need to be careful. But as CSCA says that they're solvent and they have a balanced budget, NTA2 is solvent and has a balanced budget and a bit of a surplus. That we're probably going to spend a lot of money on organizing this year, maybe electing a board member or two or three. I was very disappointed to learn about the resignation. I don't know where the retirement thing is coming from. Maybe I was misinformed. Board member Thomas, although many times Ms. Thomas may have rattled our cages as NTA and teachers, she was rattling the cage of what It seems reasonable to question the dealings of the district and wanting to be transparent and open and understanding. Okay, so three of the other conferences that I went to, I also went to two of them with Juleus Chapman. We went to the National Education Association Representative Assembly, about 8,000 educators in a single room. voting and talking about pertinent issues related to education and social justice. It was a very empowering experience and I hope I get the opportunity to do it many, many more times. I also went to the President's Conference because I'm a newly reelected president of the National, the National, no, no, no, slow down, that's next year, the Newark Teachers Association. And I'm happy to serve the members again. And I did have many members that were leery or cautious about the events of the professional development and the rally. We weren't given a lot of information about it. And I know that several of the members opted not to participate. That's sad because the rally was very worthwhile. I really would have liked to have seen a teacher and a CSCA member that grew up in Newark and went through the schools and now works here because I know there are many of those and we have those at the junior high. Mr. Sheving, Ms. Haley, Mr. Say it again. Wisniewski. Yes. The really hard thing about teachers is sometimes we know their first names and we don't hear their last names enough because we're not in their class. So, and there's many, many more. So, we have lots of talent and success stories. here in Newark as well that work for us and with us. And we clapped for the donations from Dollar Tree, and I'm super happy about that. That's great. The average spend per teacher, I believe, is about $450. So you do the math. My treasurer's not here. 300 times 450, that's how much we donated to the district this year.

[3962] SPEAKER_29: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[3969] SPEAKER_42: All right. So one of the city council members chastised me because I speak too long. None of you have ever done that. So I will. It's called courtesy, common courtesy. I'll bid you goodnight. Oh, I do have to mention the temperature, I do, because it's cooler in here than it was in my room today, 85, 85. Is it 85 yet in here? Because we brought the heat.

[3997] SPEAKER_58: Can I make a comment? If I just may, just a quick comment to Mr. Merritt. Mr. Merritt. I just wanted to echo that we do have a lot of newer talent that has stayed here and we are aware of that.

[4014] SPEAKER_60: Unfortunately, we wanted to keep the rally short because we knew you guys' time constraint. And hopefully we can continue to bring more Newark talent, but we are aware that there's a lot of Newark talent that continues to come back and give to Newark. So thank you to all of you for that.

[4029] SPEAKER_42: Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to mention that we even have a board member that went through the schools and now is a board member.

[4037] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for inviting me to address the new hires. I appreciate it.

[4045] SPEAKER_33: Good evening. Hello. Hello. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of our board and our executive cabinet. I have the privilege of being here on this most wonderful of days, the days our students come back to us. I know each and every one of you here also are grateful that they're back with us. We've held our elections recently, so we have a whole new board of officers. So I am very proud to announce that Catherine England Waters from Birch Grove Intermediate is our new president. We have Julie Calderon returning as our secretary. Leonor Robosura is returning as our treasurer. Pam Hughes from Kennedy is going to join us as our member of large. And this year I have the privilege of serving our association as the vice president. So that's very nice. So for the last two weeks our association members have been prepping for the start of schools either at their school or in their departments because we have members everywhere. But we took two days at the beginning of our work year to come together to plan and prepare At a retreat here in our lovely boardroom, it was nice. But we took a couple hours out of our day to come together as a community as well and go hike in Don Edwards, which was lovely. And there's some very beautiful and probably some, you know, blackmail-worthy photos of us attempting to hike as a team out there floating around. And we also came together with you, our board, and our community to welcome our families, our students, and our neighbors back to the school year as well. So that was nice. And we look forward to a wonderful year ahead with all of you.

[4148] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you so much. OK, we got 10.1 under new business. We're going to be talking and discussing the steps that we're going to take to fill the opening created by Member Thomas leaving us. We can go to an election, which costs us about $250,000 or more. We can also appoint. So we'll be talking about that. Mr. Newt, did you want to address us on this before we chat?

[4189] Cary Knoop: Yes, please.

[4193] Ray Rodriguez: Go ahead.

[4199] Cary Knoop: Well, happy return to the new year, everybody. Okay, so I just want to bring up some things about the process of getting a new person, and I assume that it's going to be a nomination as opposed to an election. In the past, what the board has done is having a pool of like 20 or 30 or 40 fixed questions, and then each board member picks their favorite five, and then all the same questions are asked to the candidates. Now, that's not required. I mean, if you have a governmental organization and you're doing employee hiring, you have to do that process. You know, everybody has to get the same questions. But you folks are board members. You're elected officials or nominated officials, so you have the freedom and the right to ask any question to any member. And obviously you want to agree with each other like, you know, we do a maximum of five because everyone gets the same, a lot of time to answer and so on. But you don't have to have a fixed framework for that. And I think it totally makes sense that if, you know, candidate A is in front, you want to ask different kind of questions than candidate B. As an elected official or an appointed official, you don't have to give explanation why you ask A, question X, and B, question Y. This is called democracy. So I would really encourage this board to get a more flexible approach where board members are free to ask a fixed given number of questions to any board member they like. and different questions to different potential board members. It's a much better process. Again, this is not a governmental hiring process. We're not hiring an employee. We're hiring a public officer. And so the rules are very different on that, and you might want to double check if it's legal, but I think what I'm saying is correct, that you have that liberty. And I really think that board members should take that liberty in freely asking the candidates, and obviously that goes for the student member as well. Thank you.

[4323] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Mr. New. The purpose is to determine which process, special election or appointment, will be used to fill the vacancy on the board. In addition, the board will appoint two members to be the committee for application review. On August 2, 2019, member Thomas notified the board and superintendent in writing that she would be resigning from the board. And it's my understanding she turned her letter in to the county. Is that correct? Her resignation was recently filed and took effect on August 2nd. The Ed Court provides that the board can decide whether the vacancy is filled by a special election or through an appointment made by the board. The decision to call a special election or the board's selection of the appointee must be completed within 60 days from the date member Thomas' resignation was filed with the county superintendent of schools. Depending on the board action, staff will return with a resolution calling a special election or begin to advertise the vacancy and accept applications for appointment by the board. We were given a timeline. Thank you, Ms. Aquino, for doing that. The vacancy notification will be posted on Newark Unified School District website on August the 16th if we decide to go with the appointment. Okay, I'm open to, we can do, select the two board members first, or we can decide whether we're going to do the appointment or whether we're going to do the election.

[4422] SPEAKER_60: On my end, I select an appointment.

[4426] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. So we could do it by motion, but if you want to address us first, if you want to address the issue.

[4436] Elisa Martinez: No, I was going to answer your question. I think, yeah, we need to make the decision if we're appointing, therefore, and then the next step would be the two members. I, too, I'm not sure if we should move, but I, too, support an appointment process.

[4454] Bowen Zhang: Then I guess I move to make the process the appointment process.

[4464] Ray Rodriguez: If you don't mind, Cesar, did you want to say anything on this?

[4467] SPEAKER_04: No, I stand with the rest of the board. I support an appointment process. Okay.

[4471] Ray Rodriguez: So, Member Zhang, you made a motion? I'll second it. Member Gutierrez seconds. Okay, so the motion is to what?

[4484] Bowen Zhang: So, I move that we fill the vacancy left by Member Thomas' resignation by appointment process.

[4490] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, thank you. We have a second. Okay, please vote. Okay, motion passes. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That saves us a whole bunch of money. Okay, now we move to the selection of the two members to be for the committee for the application review. Which are, and that will be, let me go through the timeline first. Okay, now that we voted to do the appointment, Tomorrow, Friday, August the 16th at 9 a.m., the vacancy notification will be posted on the Newark Unified School District website. Newark Unified District Office Store, Newark Unified's Facebook page, and sent to the Tri-City Voice, which is a newspaper that serves our area, for publication. On Monday, August the 19th, beginning Monday, August the 19th, the application will be available via hard copy at the Newark district office lobby and it can be seen online and printed from the Newark Unified School District website.

[4568] SPEAKER_60: All applications are to be received by Tuesday, September 3rd, 2019 at 4 p.m. Applications can be delivered to the district office or emailed to sharakino at seeakino at newarkunified.org. Appointment committees We'll review the applications during the window of September 4th through September 11th, 2019. Okay, so you ended Thursday.

[4589] Ray Rodriguez: So Thursday, September 19th at

[4604] Elisa Martinez: Sorry, let me come back. Thursday, September 19th at 5 p.m. On September 19th, 5 p.m. at the regular board meeting, the applicants will be interviewed in public session. The interviews and appointment vote will occur at the September 19th regular meeting.

[4623] Ray Rodriguez: And then after that, when we select the individual to fill the open, the vacancy, That person will be sworn in and will participate in the board meeting.

[4638] Diego Torres: Go ahead.

[4639] SPEAKER_64: I have one quick addition for tomorrow morning. It'll be approximately around 9 a.m.

[4644] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Now, who wants to be part of the committee to review the applications? We need two people. Member chair? Who else? And member Martina. Okay, good. So we got that settled. Anything else on this particular item? And the board's okay with the proposed timeline? Yes. Okay. Everybody okay with the timeline?

[4671] SPEAKER_25: There's no one? Okay, Char was going to ask that, so I asked first. Okay. Okay, excellent. Thank you.

[4679] Ray Rodriguez: With that, we go to 10.2, appointment a board representative to the Mission Valley regional, the ROP, that's the nice beautiful building that I had the opportunity to be involved in on the corner of Blacow and Stevenson and Fremont. So I was on that before member Thomas was for at least 10 some odd years, if not more. So unless somebody else wants it, I'm willing to

[4713] SPEAKER_60: to be there, but I would need a... I was just going to say that Member Martinez was the backup. I don't know if she wants to... No, go ahead.

[4721] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[4723] Elisa Martinez: Actually, I would prefer if one of the other board members, just my schedule and the timing of the meetings, because I was the alternate. They tend to be during the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, and that's really difficult for me to attend.

[4737] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. So, I'm okay with it. Anyone else want it?

[4741] SPEAKER_58: Did you say you wanted it?

[4742] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I'm fine.

[4745] Bowen Zhang: I move to appoint President Rodriguez as our representative at ROP.

[4752] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[4753] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, hold on. Hold on, let me, come on. Okay, member John made the motion, member Martinez seconds, please vote. Okay, motion passes.

[4775] SPEAKER_58: And President, do we want to have an alternate as well?

[4779] Ray Rodriguez: Yes.

[4782] SPEAKER_60: Continue? OK.

[4783] Ray Rodriguez: OK. So we don't have to, since you're already the alternate, we don't have to vote on it. But just for everybody, the Mission Valley ROP, we have a board member from each district, Newark, Fremont, and New Haven, which is Union City. Select one board member and an alternate. That becomes the board or the governance board for the Mission Valley ROP. And the president is rotated every year and we've had an excellent partnership with Mission Valley ROP and it will continue. Okay. Next we go to 10.3, board meeting and governance protocols. I'm the one that wanted to have this on there, just to make sure all board members are on the same page on things that we're doing. Go ahead, Mr. Newman, if you want to address this.

[4845] SPEAKER_59: Thank you.

[4853] Cary Knoop: I think he's waiting for you. Go ahead. Yeah, so there is sort of an agreement.

[4862] SPEAKER_60: Sorry, Ms. Aquino? Are you ready for the timer?

[4866] Ray Rodriguez: Go ahead, Mr. Nou.

[4868] Cary Knoop: Ah. Thank you. I could have gotten some extra time now again. So in the handbook, if I'm not mistaken, there's kind of an unwritten rule or a gentleman and a lady's agreement to have the presidency of the board being kind of a round robin, sort of like a round robin situation, and obviously every time you would have to vote, but it's kind of like custom and tradition, right, that goes around. And I think that's great. But somebody pitched me an idea, which I thought is actually a really great idea, because about to make a little adjustment to that. I think it's very important for anybody stepping up and being a board member, and that's just a wonderful job to do. very thankless in many ways because it's a lot of time and it's really hard to make these decisions and bear consequences and so on. But I think it's a responsibility if you want to step up and be a board member that you commit to learning what it takes. And, you know, there are classes. There's these governance classes, masters in governance from the CSBA that prepares you you know, understanding what it takes, Brown Act matters, Code of Conduct, Ed Codes. I mean, it's fairly complicated. So I'm kind of looking at the newer board members that, you know, you would have to show that you want to do these classes, I think. And obviously, I think that there should be a budget for that because I think it's unreasonable for board members to fund that out of their own pocket. That is good for the district. That's good for the board. So a reasonable education cost should be part of the board budget, in my opinion. But you have to commit. And it doesn't mean that, you know, once you get a board member, once you be a board member for one day, that the next day you have to take these classes. I mean, it doesn't work like that. I understand that. But you have to show, like, hey, when am I going to do that? When am I going to write myself up on this? Are you going to write up two months from now, three months from now? So I would suggest that the board perhaps considers adjusting that code of conduct that it applies for those board members who are on the path of going into or committing to a master's in governance, CSBA class schedule in order to be part of that becoming a president. So I think it's really important and it's kind incentive for newer members to really take these classes. Thank you.

[5035] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you very much. So the way I'm going to start this is basically to the first state that we attach the governor's handbook which member Thomas and also member Crocker who have been with me on the board for years. I think member Thomas basically did about 90 percent of it and we spent a lot of time and We're going to discuss that again. But what I want to do now is basically just go over a few protocols. So on the issue of board president, past practice has been it would be the senior member. It would be by seniority. And hopefully we'll continue that. Does anybody have anything that they want to say on it?

[5081] SPEAKER_58: Yeah.

[5083] SPEAKER_60: disagree with that if respectfully I was looking through the handbook and so page 11 we currently have a set schedule that that would be followed if obviously the the members didn't change and there would be rotation. My concern here is just an example of what happened in currently where we have three different new members. If we follow the schedule, I guess what I'm trying to say is if this were to happen again, it's just going to defer to the senior, to the senior, to the senior. So what ends up happening is we're going to have a repetition of the same president, the same president, the same president. So what I see here in regards to the sake of rotation is so that we can all have an opportunity to do that. In this situation, if we were to have followed 2018 protocol, I mean, schedule, it would have been member Persiado, which then would have deferred to myself. At that point, I would like to continue a schedule that, let's say, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, so the rotation continues to be the same, no matter who the member is. But with the option, in this case it would have been me, giving the option of whoever the, if we do have a new member, to say, hey, if I don't want it, defer to the next person, which in this case maybe would have been seat number five or so. I just feel that that gives consistency instead of just saying, well, if I choose to be on the board for the rest of my life, I'm gonna continue to possibly have the majority amount of time being president instead of giving other people the opportunity because they're just gonna be according to current protocol, they're just going to be pushed to the bottom, to the bottom, to the bottom, every time we get a new member.

[5197] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, thank you. Anybody else?

[5200] SPEAKER_63: Member Martinez.

[5204] Elisa Martinez: Sorry, I wanted to ask district staff. I believe that this chart was updated after the last set of elections. So, and I thought that there is consideration for, you know, the position so it doesn't always default to you know, to the most senior, if you will. I thought that was considered. But I do know that we, I do remember seeing an updated... I'm sorry, I'm looking at Member Gutierrez. I do remember that. Meaning the, after the election, the actual sequence of leadership was updated.

[5246] Ray Rodriguez: When we had our meeting where we appointed the new president and vice president at that time.

[5257] SPEAKER_63: So I think there's two different things. Are you asking the actual governance handbook get updated? No, this particular item. This particular item was.

[5267] SPEAKER_64: updated the item in the governance handbook just did what the agenda how we did the agenda based on the same criteria.

[5274] Elisa Martinez: So I think I wanted to just be clear about that because it we you know this particular document you know would imply I think what member Gutierrez is suggesting that there is a risk of that. My understanding is that we have to I remember speaking about it or you know kind of reviewing this particular process so Anyhow, I just wanted to call that out, that we should probably bring that up somehow, because this is not the most current document.

[5301] SPEAKER_60: Just to clarify, if I may, I believe I recall what you're talking about, and I think that's when we assigned member Rodriguez as president, right?

[5313] Elisa Martinez: Sorry, he was due in the existing sequence. He was next.

[5318] SPEAKER_64: I believe when we reorganized the board in December, it was based on the criteria of the governance handbook of the next person goals. And from there, nothing was rewritten in the handbook. It was still the same criteria. And I'm understanding what you're discussing is maybe re-looking at the criteria of how the sequence goes for the next time we do this in December. Am I understanding?

[5343] Ray Rodriguez: Exactly. Okay. So what we need now is member Thomas was the clerk. We need to select a new clerk.

[5352] SPEAKER_60: Just for clarification, sorry. Can I understand then what is the process that we're going to be followed? Because I just want to make sure if it's what's on the handbook or if it's something different. I'm sorry.

[5367] SPEAKER_25: offer a suggestion. Typically going through and making some red line edits would probably be something that a subcommittee would do and then bring it back to the board to look at if there's interest in making some adjustments. This is your handbook and I think that's usually a better way to not take the public time to go through the details of that. It does sound like some interest in making some adjustments. That might be a suggestion for you guys to do to just begin to have a subcommittee of two and we're happy to work with you to make those changes.

[5397] Ray Rodriguez: That would save some time. In my opinion, that would be something we need in the future. Right now, we need to elect a clerk to take Member Thomas' place. I agree. And based on the meeting that we had in December, when we did the rotation, based on that, Member Martinez would be next. So, I'd like to make a motion that Member Martinez be our new clerk.

[5425] Bowen Zhang: So the new current is also the new vice president? Yeah, basically the vice president.

[5429] Ray Rodriguez: I second. Okay, thank you. Please vote. Okay, motion passes. And we'll find time to go into the governor's handbook and Make sure we update it. Did you want to say anything else?

[5455] SPEAKER_60: Yeah, I was kind of curious what the conversation was going to be limited to in regards to this. I did look through the handbook and I did have a couple concerns about it. So again, I don't want to extend the conversation more if that's what it was limited to, just assigning the clerk.

[5475] Ray Rodriguez: We're talking about governance protocol, so if you want to take time and address that, that's fine.

[5481] SPEAKER_60: Okay. If I do have that, if we do, then I would like to, like the superintendent mentioned, set up a time for us to do some red line through this and some changes. I think this handbook is outdated and does require some changes. One of the things that I wanted to make note, and it has been suggested to us before, is looking at our board member response to community complaints. We had been suggested that we remove some of these, and I agree, I believe that we should keep one, five, and six, and particularly the take out two, three, and four.

[5524] SPEAKER_65: And then I did want to emphasize, just one second,

[5537] SPEAKER_60: I did want to emphasize, and if I may just read this briefly, it's board member interactions with the public at board meetings. Board member meetings are meetings of the board held in public. They are not town hall meetings where the elected officials and community members freely engage each other in an uninstructed manner. Meetings are conducted in a civil, orderly, and respectful manner under the administration and discretion of the board president. want to ensure that all and multiple voices are heard at the designated times during the meetings with the purpose of informing board members. Board members, the board will enforce its guidelines for public comment that balance efficient board meetings, board meeting management, and full participation of the public. To ensure that all persons are treated fairly and equally, each speaker will be allowed to speak once at the podium on each agenda item and will be allotted the maximum time of three minutes. Complaints and concerns will be responded to quickly as possible, and the board president will delegate the responsibility for response. Thank you.

[5600] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So the superintendent, the first meeting in September, do a board workshop on the governor's handbook. Do you have anything else that's coming up that you know of?

[5616] SPEAKER_25: I think we were looking to propose later in the agenda a study session on demographer on September 5th, I think. Is that correct? Okay. So we did have something we were considering that we wanted to bring forward.

[5630] Ray Rodriguez: Can we do that, do you want to do that the first meeting or the second and then we can do the governor's handbook, the other one?

[5637] SPEAKER_25: Since this item is something that we always have to discuss in public, I think that it would, I would stick to maybe a modified suggestion of a couple of board members working as a subcommittee and then bringing something back as a red line to discuss in a public forum on the agenda. so that we can continue to work through that and then at least they're starting to see the progression and it's all in the public eye as it's board, you know.

[5662] Ray Rodriguez: So let's look and see how heavy the board meetings are in September and then we'll do it as an agenda item. I need two of you to volunteer to look at the governor's We spent a lot of time on this, so I'm hoping that all you do is make a few edits so we don't reinvent the whole thing.

[5681] SPEAKER_60: But that's... Do you want to volunteer first if I may?

[5683] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, sure. Maybe you could chair us? You want to do it? Member Martinez. Okay, excellent. You guys work together on this. You're voluntolding.

[5694] SPEAKER_25: I saw that. Okay.

[5696] Ray Rodriguez: I learned that in the Marine Corps.

[5699] SPEAKER_04: I have a question, if I may, real quick. Am I permitted to serve on these committees in any capacity, or no? Is that restricted to elected and appointed board members? That's up to you. I'm just wondering.

[5711] Ray Rodriguez: Do you want to serve on this one?

[5712] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think I could contribute. So that'd be fine.

[5715] Ray Rodriguez: We have two board members. Everybody okay with that? Is that what you wanted to say? Sure. That's fine. Like I said, I learned in the Marine Corps not to raise your hand.

[5723] SPEAKER_64: Point of order, President.

[5725] Ray Rodriguez: Yes.

[5725] SPEAKER_64: May I? My apologies. I just want to maybe clarify this item as we were discussing the updating of the board governance handbook.

[5733] Ray Rodriguez: Right.

[5734] SPEAKER_64: We had discussed back in our May 4th training. that we would have another governance training in which we were going to do the handbook as a team, and we hadn't rescheduled that training. That's why the updates hadn't been done. So this technically hasn't been updated since back in 2017. My second check, with all due respect, I would like to just double check to make sure with the governance handbook, the input from our student member and where that will fall appropriately within our governance handbook to make sure that you know, we follow all of our protocols properly.

[5768] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. So, the committee would be looking at different edits. So, we have two board members and the student member based on past practice is a combination that we do to, you know, involvement and make sure our student base is involved. So, we can, I have no problem having the student board member. I don't think there's anything in the governor's handbook that would prevent us from doing that, unless someone else has an issue with it.

[5806] SPEAKER_60: I don't have an issue, but I think I agree with Ms. Aquino to just, I think it's just a quick update just to look at the handbook so we are not making any violations. And then I think she can quickly send an email to say yes.

[5822] Ray Rodriguez: Did you want to do that, Ms. Aquino? Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.

[5826] Elisa Martinez: And I was just, thank you for the reminder Ms. Aquino about that we were going to be doing a workshop. It might still be worth the member Gutierrez and I just do some initial redlining and at least we're not starting from scratch when we do all get together.

[5842] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. The last thing I have is basically board meeting protocol and we've normally, we've always done the three-minute but tradition in Newark, and we did address it, is that the board president has some leeway. And we always fall on the side of being courteous. And like I said earlier in the meeting, time management is something that I would really don't want the board involved in. So Ms. Aquino, thank you for a normally 30 seconds. Tonight was special. I mean, the way it went, where everybody was basically done, And hopefully that would continue.

[5888] SPEAKER_60: One last thing. Yes. Just in case we do have other meetings like this, and maybe it's a process Ms. Aquino already has, but to avoid what happened where the cards got mixed, if we can put a... I'm sure you can come up with something. Thank you.

[5905] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Okay. So anybody else have... So hopefully the committee will come up with some excellent edits to the governance handbook. Okay, so we go to 10.4, Interfund Borrowing. I need a motion and a second. Discussion? Sure. Staff recommends the board adopt resolution number 2146, allowing temporary borrowing between funds. And to fund borrowing, establish financial stability and fiscal solvency in order to drive continuous improvement.

[5948] SPEAKER_60: OK. I have three quick questions I'll ask Mr. Schimel. What account, and more in general terms, do we want to borrow from and put in?

[5958] SPEAKER_43: At our last board meeting, the board saw how much money was coming in. And I think for the public's sake, it's important to know that doesn't come in evenly. Let's say, for example, we get $120. Divided by 12 months, it does not come in at $10 a month. Why is that? Most of the funds for public schools come based on property taxes. And property taxes are due November 1st, but most people pay them by the penalty time of December 10th. And then again, in March and April 10th. So the first few months of the school year, July, August, and September, the state doesn't have the money to give you an equal share. So if you don't have a very large reserve in your general fund, typically the building fund, the capital facilities fund, and the food service fund are usually the three largest in a district. And you're allowed to borrow from those funds, if the board approves, for a period of time up through June 30th, 2020. It must be paid back, and it's actually paid back with interest too. Whatever you're receiving from the county has to go back to that. And so we will likely use probably first most districts look at their food service fund. That's the one that's most common. But in this district, we're fortunate we have two different accounts that have significant dollars in them based on our bond and based on the sale of a piece of property. So that's probably where this district might look to do that.

[6069] SPEAKER_60: And then my next question is, what assurance can you actually give us? I know that it is required to be paid by July 2020. You said, right?

[6079] SPEAKER_43: The end of this fiscal year, which is June 30th of 2020.

[6083] SPEAKER_60: What assurance can you give us that those accounts will get replenished?

[6087] SPEAKER_43: Well, first of all, the managers for those accounts very much are aware that that happens. And second, when you present your next year's budget, in May, June timeframe, the county office of education has the responsibility to make sure it gets repaid from your year-end balance on June 30th. They're very much aware of that. All county offices do that to meet the letter of the law. There's no way that it wouldn't get paid back. I can assure you of that because there's an accounting. If it comes out of the building fund, That's usually for a capital project. And I can assure you, Mary Sayers will be very much aware of exactly how much to be paid back. And you want to do that. It's like borrowing from the family. And the reason for that is the interest rate is better. If you choose not to do that, then we would have to do what's called the trans. And we would then go borrow from Wall Street. And their rate is much higher. than borrowing from your uncle or your tanta, any of that kind of stuff. So, that's why we do it that way. Keep it in the family, you get better rates.

[6171] Ray Rodriguez: Member John.

[6174] Bowen Zhang: So, I got a question for Mr. Schirmel. As you mentioned, we have a fund that has the sale, the proceed of sale of the property at Russian, and it's called Fund 17. So if you knew the history of our district, several years ago, we sort of borrowed, whatever, transferred more than $4 million of fund from Fund 17 to our general fund, and we think that's an emergency. And that fund, in a certain way, was never paid back. So the proceed from the sale, we got roughly $17 million. I heard right now we have less than $13 million of that fund, or maybe only $11 million of fund. So is there a way that we can sort of add an amendment to this so if we really want going to borrow from the fund 17 that the board will have another vote because I don't want to see us repeating the same emergency borrowing and then only to see the fund 17 keep shrinking every single year until we don't have money left and we don't have land left to sell.

[6238] SPEAKER_43: What I would suggest board member is that next meeting we are going to present the closing of the books for 18-19 in September of 19. And then whatever gets borrowed this school year, and we will show you, and I will ask Kim, anything that we borrowed to show you that it got paid back. And I would suggest your future chief business officer, the board can ask. We want to see that a year from now, that if we borrow within this year, how it got paid back. And I will make a point of showing you anything that we borrowed in the 18-19 year, how did it get paid back before June 30th of 19 to those funds. For this current year, at our next board meeting when we close, you're going to get the unaudited actuals. And I'll point that out to you by line. It's a good question to assure you that it does get paid back. A little bit of an aside. Your building fund can be used in your general fund. It's usually not recommended, but when you get into an emergency, like you had a fire at a school and the whole school burned down, by the time the insurance pays you, you have to find a place for the students the very next day. There's an expense to that. Sometimes it does come out of the building fund and it never gets put back. You're right. Anything else? Does that give you some assurance that we'll show it to you?

[6338] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, the interesting thing is last time I believe the state made an exemption that you can borrow the emergency fund and put into a general fund because we have the last recession. If you're reading news these days, you probably can tell that we see the flashing sign of a coming recession. I just don't want to approve this one. Next year when we really have an economic downturn, we come back and say, let's make an exception again. Let's just use this fund borrowing. put it into the general fund and then spend another three, four million pretending we're balancing the budget, but we're not.

[6370] SPEAKER_43: And you very accurately said the last time that was done, the Board of Education applied to the state for a waiver. If you don't want to do that, you wouldn't apply for the waiver.

[6385] Ray Rodriguez: OK. OK, so I need a motion and a second. to adopt resolution number 2146?

[6399] Elisa Martinez: I move that we adopt resolution 2146 that allows temporary borrowing between funds.

[6405] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Member Martinez makes the motion. Need a second?

[6410] SPEAKER_60: I'll second it.

[6410] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez, any more conversation? Questions? Please vote.

[6423] Diego Torres: Okay.

[6426] Ray Rodriguez: Did I miss something on yours? Let's clear it. And if you don't mind doing it again, please. Okay. Passes unanimously. Five ayes. Thank you. Next one is 10.5 agreement with School Works for demographic services. Mr. New.

[6459] Cary Knoop: Hi. You know, when I looked at this agenda item, I was happy because that's about half the money that we used to pay for with Davis Demographics. So that's really great. But 50% discounts, I'm always getting worried, like, did we get the whole package as we got before? And one of the things that I have a question about is, you know, I think capture rate is very important, especially we really want to know how many kids in which area do not, hopefully yet, go to Newark Unified. And so Davis Demographics did provide capture rate. I thought it was an option, but the board in the past always wanted to have that option. They wanted to know the capture rates. A contract talks about new building yields, which it seems to me is not exactly the same as capture rate. Capture rate is like we want to know of all the buildings and where we are before, where we are now. Are we getting more parents going to put their kids in private schools? Where do we miss kids? How do we gain in areas, new students? Very important statistics, I think. So I just want to, you know, have to ask the board to consider looking at that and make sure that we do get capture rates for our whole district, not just on yield of new buildings. Yield and capture rates, depending on how you interpret it, is not exactly the same thing. So I just really think it would be a mistake not to get the capture rates. Thank you.

[6557] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Member Gutierrez. And then Member John. And then Member Martinez. Okay.

[6568] SPEAKER_59: Go ahead.

[6568] SPEAKER_60: Thank you. I guess I wanted to get just a better understanding as to why we're doing this when I know that we had David's demographics just I think early this year. I mean I agree with some of the comments that yeah we didn't get the information that we probably needed but you know just more in general why are we doing this right now again?

[6594] SPEAKER_25: start and I might have Barry go a little deeper. Everything we do in our budgeting is going to rely on trying to be more accurate in predicting our enrollment. And since, and I think to the public commenters, I do agree that Davis demographics, the way the yields in the prior study played out didn't work in our scenario. And I think the models they picked, I think were anchored to kind of a Hayward model, which is different than what we're just seeing in Newark. But the short answer to your question is we feel it's necessary to bring this about because a lot of the goals we're going to execute and implement from the board direction should be based on a more confidence in our numbers of projection. And we're hoping to kind of use this information to go deeper into having a better confidence level Are we increasing, are we decreasing, are we increasing, are we flat? But I don't know, what would you add to that, Barry?

[6658] SPEAKER_43: If I may take a moment to go back before I get, I wrote both of the questions down and I will come back to them. When I came into the district, the superintendent and the executive cabinet, we talked about some of the issues facing the district. And it was pretty obvious the first one we discussed at the last board meeting, that your deficit is spending $2 million. That needs to stop now, because 2 million becomes 4. And having been a trustee for a school district, it takes all the power away from the board. It's a great job, you get to make all the decisions by yourself. We don't want that to happen in Newark. The other observation that I've made is our schools are tired. They were all built between 1960 and 1970, and their lifespan has been expended. And there's a community expectation that they shouldn't look like schools when the people on the dais went to school. It's a new generation. They do things differently. Teaching is different. And we need to provide facilities that are gonna look more like the jobs that they have in 2030. So I've helped and worked with the superintendent. We talked about this. It's not one silver bullet. The board is going to be faced with making a decision. And so the what is what I'm trying to put together. The how is your job to decide how you want to do it. But we all can't get in the car and drive the steering wheel. That's kind of why you hire a superintendent. What we did is put a plan together because we have to have improved facilities with a balanced budget. That's the thing that it's going to get to and I'll come back to it to capture it in a moment. So we started with what is step one? And this is why we're going to have the study session to get your input to modify this chart. You'll notice that it's draft four and you just saw it tonight. So that meant this team has done all their homework. to bring it back to you, and they'll be draft five, six, and probably seven. So the first thing is we want to take a look at Davis demographics. The firm is very reputable. I've read through the report. Demographics change every year. And this will answer the question of capture rate and yield. Capture rate is how many people are available to go to school in Newark. And you are only capturing two-thirds of the number of eligible students. That's a whole discussion. Might be the look of our schools, might be a lot of other things. But that's what the board's gonna have to figure that out from the information. The yield rate is what's going to happen based on economics. Capture rate is the reputation in the school district. how kids are treated. Yield is, what's the housing market look like? I've looked at the number of permits. There's a lot of permits that are on the drawing board for Newark. But if you will look at your own neighborhood, two years ago you never saw a for sale sign. You never saw ads in the newspaper on the weekends, open house. You're seeing those all over the Bay Area. Isn't that a newer thing? Because the market has really flattened, maybe going down. And it has, in my opinion, an effect of how many people can afford a million-dollar home. You go out of this state and they laugh. You have million-dollar fixer-uppers in California. Because if you go to Arizona, where my son lives, he grew up here, he lives in a $340,000 house that's 2,800 square feet or something, with a swimming pool. That's what we're gonna have to look at. That's your yield rate. And if you go back just one year, my instinct is the yield rate was much higher because they look at that for 15, 16, and 17. We need to get data what's happened in the last 12 months. And for just reading the newspaper, new home sales are down. Look at the Sunday newspaper, they're advertising all over the place. You're even seeing bonuses. So my instinct is that's why the school works is going to look at that. It is important to have capture rate, but it doesn't change that rapidly. It's not going to change from one third of your students are choosing to go someplace else to 10%. So the next time we do demographics in 2020, 2021, you might want to do capture rate. You're not going to get any significant data, so why spend the public's money on that?

[6971] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[6972] SPEAKER_43: The other reason the cost is less, the firm has done business here before in your district, and they do your developer fees. They kind of like to come back, and I was able to do some negotiation on your behalf.

[6988] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for doing that. Your next?

[6994] SPEAKER_43: Did I get all the questions of why capture rate yield?

[6999] Ray Rodriguez: I think you covered a whole bunch in there. Memory John.

[7003] Bowen Zhang: Just follow up on the superintendent's previous comments. So last year when Davis demographer did the analysis, their biggest flaw is they were comparing us to Hayward. So by reading this document, I actually didn't see how they were building their methodology part. I didn't see how they're building a model for their yield rate and capture rate. So do you have any idea about what will make school works have a better result or more accurate result than Davis demographer?

[7037] SPEAKER_43: I think they won't rely as much on neighboring districts, whether it be New Haven, Hayward, Fremont. And we'll hone in more on what's happening in Newark. It's a little easier to do because Newark's smaller. That's one of it. It's kind of like when you work with an attorney, each firm has their way of doing things. And Davis has their way. We're gonna see another firm and the true answer is someplace probably in the middle. And you will have to make that determination. But you get two different sources to make your decision rather than to say Davis was right or Davis was wrong. I worked with a completely different firm in another district last year. It was spot on for six years in a row with the district was inclining in Costa County. And then last year they blew it because the economy just flattened. And that district had been going up to 300 kids a year. They lost 300 kids last year. And the demographics didn't show it. It's an estimate and a projection based on their basis of knowledge. It's still a projection until opening day of school. And if our team is going to go count students, we don't know whether that projection was accurate yet.

[7127] Bowen Zhang: And timeline-wise, this is the projection for 2019 and 2020, or?

[7132] SPEAKER_43: For the school year that we're in.

[7137] Bowen Zhang: OK. So when do you think we can get the estimate back from the school working

[7143] SPEAKER_43: They're going to wait until CBEDS, which is the first week in October, California Basic Educational Data collection date that every school district has to turn in, and that's kind of the stop point. So they will actually look at our enrollment this year, compare it to last, and then project out about six years.

[7163] Bowen Zhang: And the sort of the general practice or procedures once we got the data, before the first interim, whatever the board needs to make necessary budget or spending adjustment, that's in between?

[7175] SPEAKER_43: Absolutely. Okay. I have three able, two other able partners here. We look at it from every perspective. Naturally, I look at from divide the number into the number of kids, that's how many teachers you get. And I don't want to hear about anything else. But we have to look at students, okay? When they both come into my office together, I know it's going to cost me money from the district. because they're looking at kids, program, and personnel. And that's what they should be doing. But we work really well together. They get the idea of the $2 million.

[7212] Terrence Grindall: They really do.

[7213] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Member Martinez.

[7216] Elisa Martinez: You've answered most of my questions. Mine was going to be around timing. Why now? We just spent money doing this. And we all recognize that we had gaps in the reliability, if you will, of the study. So, thank you for explaining, you know, the importance of also not only the revised approach, but also the timing. So, you know, one of my questions was going to be around then, therefore, what, like, what's our level of confidence going into this assessment? So, I think you explained a little bit about Again, the methodology and also, at the end of the day, managing our expectations, it's still an estimate. That's what I'm hearing. I mean, ideally, it's just, you know, a bit more reflective of Newark.

[7262] SPEAKER_43: That is absolutely correct. It's their best analysis based on the data they have, but what actually shows up, it's like, this may not be the greatest analogy. You think a football team or a baseball team playing this team should win by so much, and there's an odds. And then the game happens, and the score turns out to be something completely different.

[7287] Elisa Martinez: Right. So again, thanks for all the context. I think that to Member Zhang's last question was around timing. So timing, meaning we're going to do it now, assuming we approve. The duration is very important to me, because it felt like we waited and waited and waited for the results of the Davis demographics. And then it was like, oh, well, these are not very reliable. timeline I think is very critical. So are we confident that we will have these results before first interim? Is that our target?

[7318] SPEAKER_43: The answer is yes. And your question was right on point. You usually do your demographics in the fall after seabeds and try to get your results back the first of December before your first interim report to look at that. I don't know all the reasons why. It was a little later.

[7342] Ray Rodriguez: OK. I had something and then we'll finish with Member Gutierrez. I understand what you said about Davis, but to me it was a waste of time and a waste of money. The only positive that came out of, in my opinion, Davis is that we have some data that hopefully School Works can use And maybe that's the reason why it's more reasonable, because there's a lot of data there. They didn't understand this at all. It was just, you know, and I would never, never ever vote for Davis to come back here again, in my opinion. Now, the school works, and I know you have a history of being in different districts, and we lean on that. It says here that student capture analysis, your rate study and Davis already did that and they charged us $4,000 for that. Is School Works going to use that information or that data?

[7410] SPEAKER_43: We have already provided since it's public data and it's available absolutely and that is one of the reasons why the cost was a little lower.

[7421] Ray Rodriguez: Right, it's more reasonable. Got it. Okay. Member Gutierrez?

[7426] SPEAKER_60: Just a quick, just a quick comment. I believe I read in their fee proposal after the scope of work, they will be billing us $140 per hour. I would like if we can make a request that we please do not go beyond the scope of work and if it has to go, if it does, please come back to us as a board before we start, they start billing us $140 per hour as well. On their first sheet, they said one of the purposes of this is to help with facility master planning. I have difficulty understanding what the purpose of ADIS is. What I'm looking at here with the data that you showed, the chart that you showed, I feel like you guys are doing all the work that we hired ADIS for. I feel that hiring this company is also doing the work that we hired ADIS for. I just feel like it's overlapping. And if that is the case, I would like to either maybe stop the work that ADIS has been doing. I wouldn't want to do that because I know they've done a lot of work. But I feel that, again, because of this overlapping in work, we're spending more money than we should have.

[7500] SPEAKER_43: Let me ask two questions. Okay. Question number one that you asked. I was able to negotiate with School Works that they will make one presentation to the board. That's included in the $7,500 fee. I also negotiated, when you look at demographics, I don't believe it syncs in as well on a computer as when you flip the pages and make your notes and circles and things like that. So I got eight copies so each board member can have their own copy. They'll get one report. After that board meeting, they have no further obligation, and we have no further obligation to pay the $7,500. It would take some board direction. So there isn't any other we would bring back to you. And that may come from you as a board, because your second question was, what are we doing with ADIS? What are we doing with demographics? And is the staff doing the work? The answer to that question is yes, yes, and yes. And let me share with you why. I'm not a demographic expert. I don't think any of your executive team is. So we need that number. Because you need to feel firm that your enrollment's gonna be flat. Some districts, like Fremont, it's going up. Other districts, like where I live in Evergreen, it's losing 500 kids a year in a 12,000 student school district. Some reasons for all that. is what you're gonna make your base of your decision. How many schools do you need? What's your enrollment look like? The second piece is, and I, by coincidence, have worked with Adis and Mr. Doe on several facilities master plans. And he is looking at it from construction cost, from where schools might be using the data you've provided, enrollment and demographics. But as far as grade configurations, as far as how many schools you operate, he's not giving you that recommendation. And when you first hired him, and we had a meeting, our entire team, with him, he identified the $800 million in needs. And I've raised some questions. Why would you do that on a Band-Aid approach to take a 60-year-old school Fix up the internal, it's like fixing my 55 Chevy. Looks good, and I like to ride it on Sundays, and I shine it a lot, but it's still a 55. Doesn't have backup cameras, it doesn't have airbags. I was trying to bring that forward, and Mr. Doe agreed with me. He's modified his report, which you're gonna see, to look at something a little different. Still your choice as a board. You could spend, if you pass the bond, fix up all your schools. You might do something else. So he is not doing duplicative work, but he should not be driving your facility master plan. Your staff and you as the board get to decide on what the look is. We can have six or eight older schools or maybe fewer brand new ones that are larger in size. That's all. That's why you're a board.

[7711] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. We normally try to stay within a half hour on any particular item. No, that's okay. We value your expertise. Member Martinez, did you want to add something? Because we really need to get moving on.

[7723] Elisa Martinez: Just very quickly. Sorry, I forgot to ask. So I know that this is an item that's listed as a budgeted item. Was it budgeted? I just, I don't... Yes. Okay. It's in the budget.

[7736] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. So we need a motion and a second on this one, please.

[7745] Elisa Martinez: I move that we approve the agreement with School Works for the demographic study.

[7751] Ray Rodriguez: I second. Can we, is there a way to amend it to make sure that we don't go over the $7,500? That's all you're authorizing.

[7762] Sean Abruzzi: That's all you're authorizing is $7,500.

[7764] SPEAKER_43: Okay, good.

[7765] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, I want to make sure. Okay, we have a motion by Member Martinez and if John makes a second, please vote. Okay, motion passes. Thank you. We next go to the first reading on board policy 10.6, which is the complaints concerning district employees.

[7793] SPEAKER_64: President Rodriguez, you have a speaker.

[7794] Ray Rodriguez: We have two speakers on these. Mr. Bretz and then Mr. Polman.

[7810] SPEAKER_15: Good evening. I believe the board's review of board policy 1312.1 is directly related to the issues that I faced last year. On November 1st, I had a conversation with my district appointed administration coach who stated that I was about two weeks from getting fired due to issues with the master schedule. The following week, I received a letter from the district noting that I had cost the district more than $400,000 due to mismanagement of the master schedule. In November, December, the board received information from the district that the prognosticators had made an error in the projections of a total of $400,000, the same number that was given to me. Two weeks after the meeting with my coach, I directed the school to conduct an investigation related to an assault of a student. As a result of the school's actions, which are all supported in law, I was placed on administrative leave because the district argued I created an unsafe environment. No one knew the reasons for my removal until I started appearing at the board meetings in April, two weeks after I had requested to have the issues surrounding my administrative leave heard in open session and the decision to drop all of the charges. District office staff have called me a liar. You've stated I'm unethical. immoral and dangerous to students. You've accused me of trespassing, and at every board meeting I've attended, you've called the police. You failed to provide any witness statements from any of the 11 people that were involved with the issues that placed me on administrative leave. You failed to produce any evidence that I've done any wrongdoing. And in March, you dropped all charges. Throughout the process, you've asked my resignation five different occasions in hopes that this would just go away. Your own student board member stated That the superintendent and the board reached out to a student to spread rumors about my administrative leave a few days after the redacted statement of charges in Skelly report were placed on the petition that was created. Are these actions ethical? To date, the 11 people I named in my initial statement are gone. They've all retired, resigned, or like myself, been non-reelected for hire or placed on administrative leave. Since that time, more people have left and the high school still has an interim principal because you failed to recruit anyone to take the job. Your most recent action, the switch to the principal's secretaries, is another effect of what is occurring. How does that support a new principal with no experience? Every action I conducted was in support of my students and their safety. I told my student, who was overheard by a staff member threatening my life, and his parent that he was a good boy and not banging as he claimed. I delayed parent notification of assault because the experts in the room stated it was in the victim's best interest. I tried starting a rugby program at the school because my students asked for it. For these actions, I'm deemed by the district to be immoral and unethical. The district has reached the edge of a cliff. The issues the district faced last year are not going to go away. To see your future, look at what happened at Adams 14. I'm not going away. You can demonstrate some internal fortitude and say enough. Take a step back from the cliff or you can continue your current direction and fail this community.

[8015] Ray Rodriguez: Before we move on, this is not public comment on our agenda items. We have an item on the agenda. So if you want to address us on this particular item, then go for it.

[8034] SPEAKER_24: Well, my comment is this 1312.1 does look to be retroactive at the principal breadth situation. And I think if this process had been in place, which you might vote on in just a few minutes, he'd still be here. And not only that, but you should make it retroactive. So that if you do pass it, he falls under this as the first person or the first employee that goes under. One of my comments is really, The board's mission statement, what is your mission statement? It should revolve around teachers and it should revolve around the students. I know principal Retz's mission statement is always about the students and also about the teachers. The last meeting I attended, there were three subjects that were of note. One was closing one of the elementary schools to potentially to build an administrative office or something like that. Two was a consultant fee that you paid to either increase the morale or the visibility or admissions to Newark, something along those lines. And the third was the administrative leave of Principal Bretz. Again, those don't look like a mission statement that includes students, which should be your goal the whole time, students and teachers. So I urge you, you guys have voted for a bunch of stuff tonight. Let's vote for it right now. Vote to see if you bring back principal Brett's. Let's make it official right here. Mr. President Rodriguez, I believe you have the capabilities of doing that. And that's what my request is.

[8133] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you much. Staff recommends the board approve as presented and this is a California School Board Association board policy that they're recommending that we approve with the edits. We can continue to look at it and bring it back at the next meeting or we need a motion and a second to approve this particular board policy based on CSBA recommendation.

[8174] SPEAKER_60: Board President, I did want to make some edits to it. I don't know if we do them now or what the process is for it.

[8179] Ray Rodriguez: Normally, if you want to do edits, you would state it and then we would bring it back.

[8184] SPEAKER_65: So, state it now? Sure. Okay. I would like to make the change. Give me one second. We are on 10.6.

[8212] SPEAKER_60: Okay page three out of four it says a complaint that is filed anonymously may be investigated by the superintendent or designee depending on the specificity and reliability of the information. The statement above paragraph in blue states that we can make some changes to it. And what I would like to change is a complaint that is filed anonymously must. So I would like to change made to must and then end it, conclude it with must be investigated by the superintendent or designee period. I believe, well, I don't know if you need my reasons or just to state the change.

[8253] Ray Rodriguez: No, it's on you. if you want to give your reasons.

[8256] SPEAKER_60: Reasons being I think it leaves too much subjectivity to one person so I just want to take what take out the depending on the reliability and that's it thank you.

[8271] SPEAKER_25: Okay if I may clarify so I have it correctly. Yes. So it would read with the with the edit a complaint that is filed anonymously must be investigated by the superintendent or designee. Period.

[8284] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, thank you. Anybody object to that?

[8286] Bowen Zhang: Well, what about in the case that the complaint is filed against the superintendent? What happened to the case if the complaint is filed against the superintendent?

[8298] SPEAKER_60: If I may add to that, it was specified in there and it would then come to the board.

[8304] Ray Rodriguez: Right. The superintendent, Member John, is our employee, okay? What we're talking about is district employees, okay?

[8315] Elisa Martinez: I just have a quick question, you know, to the suggestions a member Gutierrez made. So when we have, when I, as I was reading it and I'm looking at the language, the red language, if you will, that's the CSBA recommended. So, you know, policy is, you know, obviously we can make that decision. Typically do we just go with a standard or kind of what's some guidance on that?

[8341] SPEAKER_25: The board always has ultimate flexibility of how it's executed. So you guys have the freedom to edit.

[8349] Ray Rodriguez: But most of the time we accept CSBA.

[8353] SPEAKER_55: If I may add, so this language is issued by the California School Board Association and it's, there's suggestions for you to either extend on, expand on or.

[8367] Ray Rodriguez: So we can vote on it right now with the edits or we can look at it some more and bring it back. What is the direction of the board?

[8375] Bowen Zhang: I would want to bring it back so give us more time to make.

[8379] Ray Rodriguez: Sure. Okay. So we'll bring it back, Superintendent. Okay. Is there a time thing on this one or? No, we can bring it back for second reading, even third reading.

[8387] SPEAKER_55: No, I think we just have to review it every year.

[8389] Ray Rodriguez: Right, right. This is a, this, my understanding, this is a first reading so it'll be the second reading, right? Okay, which we normally do anyway. Okay. Thank you. 10.7, board policy, maintaining appropriate adult-student interactions.

[8410] SPEAKER_55: So this policy is also new and suggested by CSBA. So this would be, if you would like to review it, this would be a first reading. You can always bring it back next time. This is a brand new board policy that reflects the appropriate interaction between staff and students.

[8433] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Is this something that can we vote on this now or did the board want to bring this back to restudy some more or any recommended edits?

[8444] SPEAKER_60: I found it good as is.

[8446] Nancy Thomas: Yeah.

[8449] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Who wants to make a motion? Member Gutierrez?

[8453] SPEAKER_60: I move that we approve this policy.

[8456] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, okay. Member Martinez?

[8459] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[8459] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so we're, Member Gutierrez, Member Martinez, we're board policy 4119.24 dash 40, 4219.24 dash 4319.24, maintaining appropriate adult-student interactions. Very important. Thank you, board. Okay, please vote. OK, motion passes.

[8490] SPEAKER_60: Thank you. President, if I may, with your permission, and if time doesn't allow it, I completely understand. There are some wording here that I think is very important that we shouldn't disregard. You want to read it? If I may? Sure. Thank you very much. So, OK, very important right here. And with the environment that we now live in, I think it's important to point out that it says, adults should not intrude onto the student's physical or emotional boundaries. And I think we need to understand that we don't know how every individual may take, so we need to be careful with our words, even, and especially pay attention to the person's, the student's emotional boundaries as well. number five that says creating or participating in social network sites for communication with the students other than those created by the district without prior written approval of the principal or designee, oh sorry, this is pertaining to no communication between students and adults or teachers by the approval of the principal and designee. I believe this is important just because as I had mentioned to our superintendent previously we need to centralize and standardize our social media. So if we can please work on that, especially since we're adopting this policy. Number six, inviting or accepting requests from students or former students who are minors to connect on personal social networks, separate network sites, unless they are dedicated to school business. And eight, addressing a student in an overly familiar manner, such as by using a term of endearment. Thank you.

[8586] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, thank you. Thank you for reading that. Appreciate it.

[8589] SPEAKER_04: I do have one question, actually. The last policy that Member Gutierrez went over, how would the social networking sites apply to something like LinkedIn? What's the boundary there? Does there exist a boundary? If not, should one be defined, I guess?

[8609] SPEAKER_60: If I may? those words become very technical and there's a lot of like legalities to it that we shouldn't address because we may compromise but there are legalities that we need to follow and I think those would be answers that we could probably bring back to you later.

[8629] SPEAKER_04: Right so I guess if I can request of Superintendent Sanchez if I can get clarification on that. I want to understand the question better. Yeah so basically if like hypothetically speaking if I were to add a teacher on LinkedIn who also happens to have a LinkedIn account, how does that fall under this policy, this board policy?

[8647] SPEAKER_25: Right. I think that the intent here is to set boundaries for the adults on which social networks are appropriate. So if LinkedIn is on the list that is approved activity for an employee to be doing, then it wouldn't be a problem. But if it's not on the approved list, then it wouldn't be allowed. What this really defines is the conditions of employment. As a teacher or an administrator or someone that holds a license in the state of California, there are specific boundaries you need to set between you and a student. So you can have a relationship with a student as long as it's academic and appropriate, but it shouldn't be interpersonal and crossing those lines and they shouldn't be blurred. So the oneness is on the adult that's an employee, not on the student. So in those cases, you usually err on the side of caution. So LinkedIn's a good example because it's professional and it's polished and it's not really a personal interaction. But we need to be aware of what sites we're approving for that interaction to occur because even if it is approved and the communication crosses the line, then we have recourse to take action on the employee should they cross that line. So it gets into the area of usually it's defined by two factors. The discomfort of the victim drives it, and the other factor is reasonableness from a standpoint of court of law. So happy to talk to you more in detail offline, but in general, that's what we're looking at is to protect the student, to minimize the vulnerability for the students in that situation. Thank you.

[8746] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. We move to, we've already voted on this, But if you have any other questions, just get together with the superintendent or email him so he can answer your questions. 10.8, donations report.

[8762] SPEAKER_60: I move that we vote on 10.8.

[8763] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Member Gutierrez moves. I second. Member John seconds. Hold on. Oops. Oops, sorry.

[8774] SPEAKER_65: Sorry, I took too long.

[8776] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, that's okay. Please vote. OK, motion passes. Superintendent, can you read it for us, please? Certainly.

[8790] SPEAKER_25: In-kind donation of 50 gently used MacBook Pro laptops. The donors, Cloudera, Mr. Danny Tran, for school sites district-wide. The second donation is the one that Shirley Sisk mentioned earlier. In-kind donation from Dollar Tree of 10 giant boxes of brand new school supplies for students. Thank you.

[8813] Ray Rodriguez: We're very grateful, especially this time of the year when the opening of school. When I was at Snow today, all the parents were bringing boxes of supplies. And I know every school does that. And our parents have always been very giving, as our community members are. And we really appreciate it. 10.9, superintendent, CBOC member appointment, Mr. Jebediah Ross.

[8839] SPEAKER_60: Just a quick question before we start. Are we appointing two members or are we choosing between the two? Appointing both. Okay, thank you.

[8845] Ray Rodriguez: Appointing both. Okay, so 10.9 need a motion and a second.

[8849] Bowen Zhang: I move that we appoint Mr. Ross to the Supervisors Oversight Committee. Member Johnson moves.

[8856] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[8857] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Next one is 10.10, CVOC appointment, Ms. Melody Amrishani.

[8877] SPEAKER_60: I move that we vote on 10.10.

[8878] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez moves.

[8883] Elisa Martinez: I will second.

[8884] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. Motion passes. Superintendent, are they here? Could you come up just for a second if you don't mind? Oh, you're both here. Great. All right.

[8908] SPEAKER_25: They waited the whole time.

[8913] SPEAKER_54: Hi, I'm Melody. Thank you for waiting and it's on you. Sure, of course. I'm Melody Amirisani and I'm excited for the opportunity to get on the CBOC community. I'm excited to serve Newark. I have three children here at the district. I have a kindergartner, I have an eighth grader, and I have a twelfth grader.

[8933] Ray Rodriguez: All right.

[8934] SPEAKER_54: Yeah, so I hope to help, you know, serve and do what's best for our district.

[8939] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for volunteering. Did I do okay with your name?

[8941] SPEAKER_54: Yeah, I'm Marisol. Marisol, thank you.

[8944] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you, welcome. It's Ross. Did I do okay with your name?

[8951] SPEAKER_29: You actually did perfect, which is something I can rarely say ever happens. So thank you. Jebediah Ross, I've got two daughters in this district. One is nine, one is 12. One recently entered the junior high. One is at BGI. I'm really looking forward to offer whatever help I can to help you guys, help us make this city the best that we know it can be. I've been here since I was two years old. in the Newark Days pageant won.

[8986] Ray Rodriguez: You want to share when that was?

[8989] SPEAKER_29: I would say I was born in 78 so that would probably be in about 80, 82 somewhere. My sister won as well. So my point is I've been here a very long time and I You know, this city is wonderful. It's very diverse. And we've got a lot of beautiful things that happen in this place on a daily basis. And I just think that we can each do our job and make it even prettier, not just aesthetically, but intellectually.

[9021] Ray Rodriguez: You went to school with my kids, Jason and Allison. So I appreciate you, both of you. Member Jean, did you want to say something? Member Martinez, did you want to say anything?

[9033] Elisa Martinez: Just thank you so much for stepping up. You know, it does require time. I'm sure you guys are super busy with the kids, but thank you so much.

[9042] Ray Rodriguez: Thanks a million. Thank you both. Appreciate it. 10.11, individual contractor between ATX Learning and Newark Unified School District. I need a motion and a second. Nobody's... Did you want to speak on it?

[9061] Bowen Zhang: Oh, I just want to ask why even 10.11, things similar to this be on the consent calendar?

[9076] SPEAKER_49: We can work with, I know at Agenda Review, we have the majority on the consent. I think this was because it was around FTE, why we put it on the new business.

[9094] Bowen Zhang: Is this the, because this is one FTE, so that will theoretically save costs by not hiring a consultant, I guess, right?

[9104] SPEAKER_59: No, no. It is a consultant. It is a consultant.

[9108] Aiden Hill: And a consultant.

[9109] Ray Rodriguez: A person. Member Gutierrez?

[9115] SPEAKER_60: I did have a question in regards to hiring. I'm looking at the dollar amount, and I'm just wondering if we can't hire someone for that same amount? Or are we not hiring somebody because we're not paying the right amount? Or are we really just not finding candidates? Because I feel that if we use this dollar amount to pay somebody's salary, we might.

[9141] SPEAKER_57: Yeah, we are bound by the rules and what we can pay people. But we have been trying really hard. much rather hire somebody than have to contract.

[9154] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. How does this compare money-wise to whether you're hiring somebody or it's a contract?

[9163] SPEAKER_60: Let me check. $120,800. It's probably about 20% more.

[9169] SPEAKER_57: It depends on, you know, where the person that we, if we were to find somebody that we could hire fell on the salary scale.

[9175] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Member Martinez.

[9178] Elisa Martinez: It's maybe more a question for our CBO. So again, we've been having this conversation about can we find, can we repurpose the money from a contractor. So in this instance where we say it is budgeted, right, is it, was it budgeted as an FTE or did we budget coming into the contractor bucket, if you will, the service bucket, budget? And the reason I ask, is are we making sure that now the dollars are being transferred over so that we don't show, you know, we have a variance in an area where we didn't expect the money if we had budgeted on the actual true FTE. I'm curious where that's being accounted.

[9229] SPEAKER_49: So yes, this would move from our budgeted FTE allocation. We wait until the board approves, and then we work with the business department, special education, to ensure that it doesn't show an encumbrance in the FTE. But yes, it will show a change then on contracted services, but it is the same. But the funds are not duplicated. We don't mark them twice.

[9262] Ray Rodriguez: Any other questions? Okay, we need a motion and a second if the board so deems to approve it. M.11, individual contract agreement between ATX Learning and Newark Unified School District at the dollar value of $120,848, special education. Okay, need a motion and a second please.

[9290] SPEAKER_60: I move that we vote on 10.11.

[9291] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez moves. Any second? I'll second. Please vote.

[9304] SPEAKER_25: I'm glad you're staying up there.

[9310] Ray Rodriguez: OK, we're good on that. Thank you. I'd stay up here. 10.12, agreement with Jackie Malter, behavioral health consultant for $57,000. I move that we vote on 10.12. Member Gutierrez moves. Need a second. I second it. Member Johns seconds. Let me clear it. Open it. Please vote. Motion passes unanimously. 10.13 Separate Equipment. Need a motion and a second.

[9356] SPEAKER_60: I move that we vote on 10.13.

[9356] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez moves.

[9361] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[9361] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez seconds. Please vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay with that we move to consent. personnel items. We have 11.1 appointment of administrative assistant.

[9385] SPEAKER_55: Yeah, I would like to introduce Monique Castillon. She's not here tonight, but she will be replacing our fabulous Laura Johnson, I mean Laura Forrest who moved on to work with ACOE. We've been looking for a replacement for a long time and I'm glad to say that Monique Castillon will be joining the Ed Services team. She's worked, she actually brings a lot of experience working in different districts, including Stockton Unified School District and serving Ed Services Department.

[9418] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Need a motion and a second. Conversation? Member John?

[9426] Bowen Zhang: I remember for Consent Calendar, or is that due to personnel items, we cannot vote in bulk?

[9433] Ray Rodriguez: Right. Does the student board member on this one? Okay.

[9437] Bowen Zhang: No, what I'm saying is I'm talking about voting in both. So voting on 11.1 to 11.3 in one vote. Okay. Do you want to make a motion?

[9444] SPEAKER_25: Yeah, I move we vote to approve 11.1 to 11.3. Okay. Second? I second.

[9462] Ray Rodriguez: And Martina seconds. Please vote. Student member, no. Okay, motion passes. Four ayes unanimously by both members. Okay, we move to, oh, did you want to say anything on this before we move to the consent B?

[9490] SPEAKER_60: No, it's okay. It's too late. Yeah, thank you.

[9495] Ray Rodriguez: Superintendent, anybody?

[9498] SPEAKER_60: If I may, yes. Go ahead. Just clarification purposes and maybe Assistant Superintendent Salinas might think or Mr. Vedra. One question and I apologize I didn't ask it earlier. 11.13 in the middle it says the difference there's an asterisk a difference between old rate and the new rate no yeah for special circumstances so for special circumstances this will not be covered by the LCAP just an example what would be special circumstances it depends special circumstances that have to do with long-term services okay I do want to make a correction though I well I was reading the document

[9538] SPEAKER_55: Under the public content it says long-term sub $175. It's actually the amount is wrong. We currently have this daily rate at $185.

[9549] SPEAKER_60: And in the paper it says $165.

[9553] SPEAKER_55: That would be the short-term sub.

[9557] SPEAKER_60: Oh, long-term currently it says $200 and it will increase by $15. That's correct.

[9564] Elisa Martinez: Sorry. So what are we voting on?

[9568] SPEAKER_55: We are actually increasing the amount of... No, no, no, I'm sorry, what did we vote on?

[9576] Elisa Martinez: Sorry, correction, what did we vote on?

[9578] SPEAKER_55: To increase the salary for substitute teachers.

[9584] Elisa Martinez: Right, but sorry, I didn't follow the correction. So, when I voted, we were looking at which number?

[9594] SPEAKER_55: Okay, so if you look in your document, we have the public contents. We have a current daily rate and then we have a proposed daily rate. So under the short-term sub, we have 150 and the proposed new rate will be 165. The other one, long-term sub, we had $175, but it's actually $185 currently. And the proposed one would be to increase to $200.

[9620] Elisa Martinez: So where we're moving to is accurate? That's correct.

[9625] Ray Rodriguez: That's why sometimes it's better to vote one by one. That's just my expertise. You guys are great. Consent agenda, non-personal items 12.1 through 12.11. I believe 12.1 is pulled, right? 12.1 was pulled. Well, 12.1 was pulled, so 12.2 to 12.11. Does any board member want to pull any one of these items, 12.2 through 12.11? I do, if I may. 12.4, 12.10, 12.11. OK. So can you make a motion on the others, please?

[9670] SPEAKER_60: OK. I move that we vote on 12.2 through 12.9, taking out except for 12.4.

[9684] Ray Rodriguez: OK. OK. I'll second. Please vote. Okay, motion passes.

[9704] SPEAKER_60: Member Gutierrez. 12.4. I had a question. Ms. Willis.

[9710] Maria Huffer: Okay. Thank you.

[9712] Ray Rodriguez: It's okay. You're back.

[9717] SPEAKER_60: We approved a master contract for this. I just couldn't recall if it was this past meeting or if it was, or correct me if we ever did, a master contract for this last year? Yes, this is the same staff coming back. OK, and then just for understanding purposes, the dollar amount here, $133,000, that stays the same as the master contract? Yes. Yes. So even if we get two independent contractors, the number doesn't change. It's not like because we have two people, now we're paying the same amount to these two people. So we would have to revise the master contract if we were to add? Correct. Yes. OK, thank you for the clarification.

[9762] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so at this time, before we do anything, I need the board to extend the meeting by one hour. I don't think we're going to need more than 15 minutes after 10, but I need a motion and a second to extend it to 11 o'clock.

[9775] Bowen Zhang: Please. I will move to extend to 1030 because I just don't see why we move to 1030.

[9781] Ray Rodriguez: That's fine. You want to extend it to 1030?

[9783] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so I move to extend the meeting to 1030. Okay.

[9788] Ray Rodriguez: I'll second. No, Member Gutierrez, second. You can only extend one now, Missy. You can't talk. No, I'm kidding.

[9797] SPEAKER_60: I move that we vote on 12.4.

[9798] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, wait a minute. We have to vote on this first.

[9802] SPEAKER_60: Oh, sorry. Yes, my apologies.

[9808] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, Member John. Vote. Let me clear it and do it again. Okay, please vote. This is voting on the extension. On the extension, yes. Please vote. Thank you. OK, we're good. Member Gutierrez.

[9827] SPEAKER_60: I move that we vote on item 12.4.

[9829] Ray Rodriguez: I second.

[9831] Elisa Martinez: Discussion? I just have one question. I think, frankly, with regards to all of them, it comes back to, again, FTE versus contractor. Let's say we get lucky and we find an FTE to hire. We were able to stop this contract. Yes, 20 days.

[9852] SPEAKER_57: We have to give 20 days notice. Okay, got it.

[9854] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Excellent. So we keep looking, right? We keep looking. So, small question. Yes, sir.

[9861] Bowen Zhang: I just want to know that every time we have contract where you have, say, one or maybe two teachers, how do we decide whether we want to have a master contract or an independent agreement contract? Why isn't this a master contract?

[9879] SPEAKER_57: Sorry, say why isn't it a master contract?

[9881] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, because we've seen the past contract. You have master, even though you have one, only have one consultant, you have one master contract, say $130,000, and then you have an individual contract with an individual, which is also $130,000, and the number adds up.

[9898] SPEAKER_57: Yes, because it has an ISA.

[9904] Ray Rodriguez: Can I say something real quick?

[9906] SPEAKER_57: I think we probably should have a master contract for it.

[9915] Ray Rodriguez: Being on the SELPA board all these years, I think it's so important and could we maybe, and I'd like to join, so we have a better understanding of on special education on all these and how they work because it just gets a little bit confusing sometimes. Okay.

[9934] SPEAKER_57: And actually I realized, I'm sorry to interrupt. Go ahead. I had a realization. I was thinking this was a non-public agency but it's not. So I actually dug into it a little bit and so the difference between when we have a master contract is the SELPA master contract that we use. It's for all non-public schools and non-public agencies that are state certified. So we're actually required to use the SELPA contract, which is negotiated between the districts within each SELPA. So that's a requirement. And then we have to have an ISA. But the alternative is the independent contractor agreements, and those are required by our business office for non-certified, state-certified agencies.

[9980] Ray Rodriguez: Got it. Now, technically, a school district can kind of go out on their own, but we don't. We want to join the SELPA to be three. Isn't that the way it works or am I wrong?

[9992] SPEAKER_57: No, every district must be associated with the SELPA. Now there are some districts that are single district SELPAs.

[9998] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, okay.

[9999] SPEAKER_57: Yeah. It's basically, I like to say- So it's got to be a SELPA or could it be a single district SELPA? It can. Basically what you're saying is, We as at one district or we as multiple districts, we say we can take care of all of our special education needs within this area.

[10014] Ray Rodriguez: Right. So we don't share. But we don't do that. We'd like the partnership between the three.

[10019] SPEAKER_57: We do.

[10020] Ray Rodriguez: Good. OK. Anyone else?

[10026] SPEAKER_60: I move that we vote on 12.4.

[10027] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Member Gutierrez moves. We need a second.

[10035] Elisa Martinez: I'll second.

[10036] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez-Seconds, please vote. Let me open it. Okay, thank you. And we're what? 12.10. Okay. Member Gutierrez.

[10055] SPEAKER_60: Yes. One question on this that I had. We are looking at 2019, 2019, 2019, 2020 certifications. However, I know this is backdated from June and we have our previous CBO signature on this. Just wondering if we needed to update that or if the previous signature, I'm sure the previous signature suffices but would it be best practice to update the signature or not?

[10094] SPEAKER_43: Up is on. I'll get this yet. At the time, he was the acting person and responsible for that period of time. His signature is appropriate.

[10104] SPEAKER_60: Okay. Thank you.

[10107] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Need a motion and a second.

[10114] Elisa Martinez: I move to approve 12.10.

[10124] Ray Rodriguez: Please vote. Okay, perfect, motion passes. Next one is, did we already approve 12.11?

[10139] SPEAKER_60: No, no.

[10139] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so I need a motion and a second.

[10141] SPEAKER_60: I also had a question on this, sorry. Okay, go ahead. Okay, superintendent, we wanted to know what was your threshold approval limit? 45,000. 45,000, okay. And then one concern that I had on page 6 of the PDF, not numbered 6. An example here that I had a concern with would be like, let's say, legal fees. And there's an amount for $600,000. Let me find the page. Page 6 of the PDF. Is that Kenan? I think that's Kenan. It is Kenan, correct. Maybe just how does that differ from something that wouldn't come to the board for an approval like that?

[10184] SPEAKER_25: Let's see what they're looking at. It's the line here. Page 6 of the PDF, page 5 of 40. Oh, page 5.

[10200] SPEAKER_60: Sorry.

[10218] SPEAKER_43: That was likely an action item that was separate. This is paying the bill. In other words, when you as a board chose Kenan for your insurance, that was probably a separate action item. And this is just paying that bill that you've already approved.

[10238] SPEAKER_60: Thank you. Thank you for the clarification.

[10243] SPEAKER_48: Okay.

[10244] SPEAKER_59: Want to move? No, I don't.

[10249] SPEAKER_60: I move that we vote on item 12.11.

[10251] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, I need a second. I'll second. And Martina seconds. Please vote. Okay, motion passes unanimously, thank you. We did it, we went through it. Oh, wait a minute, before we go, we have public comment on non-agenda items. We had five that didn't get to speak and three have left. Mr. Newton? Mr. Newton?

[10289] Cary Knoop: Here I am. You already spoke. I kind of, yeah, yeah, I know, I speak too much. Somebody told me you're getting really wordy. I want to talk about the role of the student member. And, you know, as you probably know, the legislation has changed. It was enacted in 2018. And what our representatives in Sacramento wanted was, first of all, a recognition that a student member is basically a full-fledged board member with two exceptions. So one exception is that his or her votes are preferential. In other words, they don't count, but the student member states their preference. And the second is that a student member cannot vote on close item matters. That doesn't include not voting on personnel items in my book. So this is something I bring to the board to investigate and make sure that they get it right. The other thing that our representatives in Sacramento did was that they wanted to make sure that the board members have the opportunity to consider the preferential voting of the student member before they cast their votes themselves. I can quote the ad codes. It's pretty explicit what it says. And in addition, I also found a PDF from one your law firms, Lozano basically giving the rationale for that. So my understanding is that the correct practice is that when an item comes along that the student member first casts his or her vote and that board members could take that into consideration. They probably are strong-willed and have made up their mind already, but you never know. And it's, of course, very important to know what the student body thinks about it. So, in general terms also that when there are documents to be distributed to the board, I'm thinking about Friday updates and things like that, I think the student members should be aware of these as well, unless, of course, redacted if there's going to be confidential or closed session items in there. Obviously, the student member cannot see these. If the superintendent has, you know, you know, one-on-ones with board members, then a student member needs to be treated the same way and the same information base needs to be provided to the student member. I think it's very important that we support our student member, you know, students need to speak up, students need to say what they think about the state of the district, and again, I think the voting practice, I think the district should investigate that, it's the new law, and also the law specifically states that The student member can vote on all items except closed session items. So, I know there's something about motions with respect to employee relationship, but that's something else than voting on employee matters. Thank you.

[10474] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Noel Doot. Ms. Doot, how are you? Thank you for staying. Thank you for opening up your home for the recent nights that we had. What was it?

[10492] SPEAKER_37: You're very welcome. I realized that a little bit ago as per 10.7, I might be in a little trouble. There was a student this morning who was hysterical because she couldn't find her class. And I comfort her and I think I called her dear. But I'm 63 and, you know, that's what I do. The other thing I would like to say is the Newark Junior High parking lot has in excess of 300 parking spaces. I know because Tony and I counted them a few nights ago. So if staff is parking on Lafayette, that's not only lazy but very disrespectful. I have a smattering here. We also have an organization called Kenan that provides on computer exams for those of us who are in the classroom that we are required to take every year. Kind of in regard to another item you had tonight, it is curious to note that the section that is on pesticide use is 63 minutes. The section that is on child abuse reporting is about 32 and the section that is on sexual abuse is 38 minutes. So twisted, weird, I'll take the test. I always pass them. It's just weird. In regards to neighborhood night out, about a year and a half ago I asked the sitting board to please consider that if you're only going to have one meeting each summer month that you rotate around your Tuesday night meetings so that people that wanted to participate in Neighborhood Night Out would be able to do so. And through several circumstances graciously that happened. It was a wonderful evening. We've done it for years. We always have emergency workers, members of the community. We have someone from the DA's office, city council, Mayor Nagy. This year we had member Gutierrez and Ms. Salinas stop by our home. And so it was really good to have that representation. In these divisive times, I think community and neighborhood is really important. I'm really glad that it's Thursday nights as well now because it just makes that so much easier to have happen. And those are all positives, well, mostly positives, but then I am me. So I'm hoping that this community-wide barbecue was worth the risk and worth the expense because to invite Households of 47,000 residents of Newark when the mailing was $3,700 seems a little excessive perhaps not transparent Might want to reconsider that next year. Thank you and good night.

[10675] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you much. Thank thank you for being patient appreciate it Okay, we move to Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief, and Discussion. We start with Cesar. Is that okay? Start with you? Or you want to wait and we can?

[10697] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'll wait.

[10698] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Member John.

[10701] Bowen Zhang: It was just great visiting school with the superintendent early this morning.

[10706] Ray Rodriguez: I saw you. Member Gutierrez.

[10711] SPEAKER_60: I just want to say thank you to everybody who worked on our barbecue. I think it was a great turnout for being the first barbecue. I want to thank our speakers who volunteered their time to speak to our teachers and stay as well. And congratulations on starting the year off. And then one question. to our superintendent, no need to answer now if you don't have it, the Friday update will suffice. But just wanted to get an update on standardizing social media and how that's coming about.

[10751] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, thank you. Member Martinez.

[10759] Elisa Martinez: Thank you, President Rodriguez. First, I just wanted to, I wasn't here, I didn't get the opportunity to, well I guess none of us were, but I just wanted to Thank Ms. Nancy Thomas for her service. We will miss her. We will miss her voice, her questions. And I look forward to her staying engaged in the process. Second, one of the community speakers talked about the role of the student member. I'd love to hear back from the district. I did read some documentation, so it would be great to confirm that. I think it, you know, I hadn't, to be frank, hadn't thought about, you know, allowing the student to really speak for the student body, right, and us having a chance to think about it before we cast our vote. Again, as some folks mentioned, some of us are kind of hardheads to begin with, but it's great to hear that, so it'd be great to get some confirmation on that. Also, this wasn't mentioned, but is the student member allowed to move, to motion, in the spirit of allowing him to really be a fully functioning member of the board? I love the idea also of one-on-ones. Just as we were having, I think, probably most important, Superintendent, in my opinion, is that you do hear the voice of the students more so than ours, to be honest, because you'll hear from us whether you want to or not. So if you could please follow up on that, that would be fantastic. So today was first day of school. I have a kid in BGI and one in the junior high. So it was really cool just to see everybody excited, a lot of good energy. at the junior high I must say it was a traffic nightmare and it's not a first thing or the first time obviously but because I do have you know children at BGI in fairness and because of some of the comments that were made about you know how we use our parking space if you will I see the elementary folks at BGI, the principal and teachers, really collaborating to help alleviate a traffic mess. And today I was so surprised. There was no backup getting into BGI, which I was blown away. It'd be great to see some work done on the junior high side. Got lots of ideas, because I sit in that traffic all the time. But I think it really is. I think about, for me, it's second year. For seventh grade parents coming in, new parents, that's first impression, right? So anyway, I think a great opportunity to really change that. So if you can look into it, and I'd love to weigh in. And then finally, it wouldn't be me if I didn't have my follow-up question, Superintendent Santos, which is, My question from last school year on counseling resources in the high school in the context of how are we supporting, especially our students who are struggling and are behind in academic performance and credits. I don't want, I wasn't looking for anything complicated. I just wanted to kind of get a census frankly. We'll schedule some time with you. Thank you. Sorry it took so long.

[10990] SPEAKER_04: No, it's fine. Okay, I know my school reports don't begin until September, but I just did want to touch on a few things that we did over the summer. So if you'll recall, before we went on summer break, I did announce that Rocketry Club was going to be doing its workshop for incoming freshmen. So we did hold those at the Newark Library. We held them two days out of the week, beginning in the middle of July. We had seven freshmen appear, and we're hoping that we'll retain them for this season. We also did a little bonding event. We saw Spider-Man, so it was nice to go hang out with them. On a personal note, I attended, I was one of 200 students to be selected for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund's Youth Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California. So thank you. So I was there for four days, gaining some knowledge professional networking, college applications, things of that nature. College applications did open on August 1st, so if you know any seniors, just kind of let them, they might be stressed out, or they will be soon. And yes, today was the first day of school, so I'm looking forward to the new school year. I know some of you may already be thinking, who will be sitting in this seat when I'm gone? And I am already considering who will come to fill in after me. So that's in the works. And myself and Ms. Canales will be working on my successor. That's all for this time.

[11087] Ray Rodriguez: Just a comment. A few years ago, as part of the Hispanic Community Affairs Council that I've been involved in for over 30 years, one of our young people that got the scholarship when he was doing his master's, actually did a thesis on applying for scholarships. And he was supposed to give it to us. And so maybe that's something that you might consider when you get ready to do your master's. Because it's so important. There's so many things that students, and seeing my kids filling out those forms, whether it's for scholarships or the loan forms and stuff like that. So hopefully your senior year is an eventful one, and you have a great time and enjoy, because you're only a senior in high school once. The only thing I have is to thank staff and everyone for the event we just had. Maybe we can look at trying to get a sponsor next year, so that is that possible, Superintendent, to sponsor the event? The gentleman with the grill over here that, what's the girl's name over there by Panda that supports Kennedy so much and all the schools. Dino, right? Somebody that would sponsor that particular event. Visiting the schools, thank you everybody. Our kids really, really, You know, I mean, they're so wonderful. And to see staff working together with parents and PTA and, you know, my daughter's so involved right now in the PTA over at Snow, and I'm so excited that she is. We lost a valued member of our community, so I was going to ask Member Gutierrez if you could, so we can adjourn the meeting, and his name, if you don't mind.

[11214] SPEAKER_25: I have a report still.

[11215] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[11216] SPEAKER_25: I'll wait. Before we adjourn. Superintendent, go ahead. I'll wait. I don't need all of the time. Let me just recap my to-do list. I'm going to bring back a refreshed, updated policy from some of the recommendations from Lozano-Smith. We've been working with them prior here. So I think we can connect with them and bring something back to the board to look at and begin working through. I also want to bring back, and that'll be based also on new ed code. We also are going to schedule some time to do some problem solving around traffic flow and parking issues at the junior high. I'll start looking at that for some of the comments earlier. Social media, just to respond to your request earlier, I did talk to Larry Simon. We're going to begin executing some standardization of social media. We wanted to start the year, so at one of the future coming up dates, probably September, with DLT to roll it out with all of the principles so we have more standardization. So when a part of the one thing we're trying to resolve, if a principle leaves, someone leaves, that we still own the sign-in for Facebook or for Twitter. So Larry looked at it, he says those are things we could do pretty easily, but let's start the year first is kind of his response, and I agree with him. So that's coming. Schedule time with Member Martinez, specifically I think Mrs. Salinas, I'd like you to find some time with at least two counselors from the high school to join you and go through a process, a protocol of how do we monitor and track on and off track kids and how do we make sure we get them across the stage. I think it's kind of what you've been asking for. So we get that scheduled soon. And then to answer your question about sponsoring, actually, I think we don't want to wait until next year. I think we should start planning something else. for the third week in January, which tends to be the darkest month of public education, because you got paid before you went to Christmas break. The next check's not coming until the end of January. And that third week might be, you know, something we can do different, like a pancake supper or a spaghetti dinner, something like that that can be something fun. Or we even thought of ideas like a kids' night out, where parents can drop their kids off and maybe have some time without kids. I do have some sponsors in the community that might be able to support some of that. The other thing I want to share is I will be out of town Monday. Acting in my place will be Jessica Saavedra. I thought I was leaving tomorrow morning, but I'm not. I leave tomorrow night. So I don't leave till later tomorrow. So I'll be here tomorrow. But my son is moving into college this weekend. So talk about supply list. I'll be glad to trade any of you for his supply list. But I'm also grateful for a start of a new year. I was pleased with what I saw today and people just, you know, problem solving throughout the district and I think the rally was a great start. But I think we need to keep the pressure and the momentum with community engagement and keep trying to work through some of our problems and it's just, it's tough and I think that if I was going to say anything else at the rally it would have been that The state of California is putting us in a hard spot and we continue to underfund public education in the state of California. That really is what the Red for Ed movement is about. It's not only teachers, it's also educators and how we continue to be funded in, you know, 10th from the bottom in the nation instead of 10th from the top. So sometimes when that goes on, we end up fighting with each other instead of fighting towards or fighting against the state that's underfunding us. I'm very pleased with our start of the year and, you know, we still have lots to do and that concludes my report.

[11455] Ray Rodriguez: I did have on special education. Oh, the request. Yeah, with all the master contracts and individual, could we do maybe a board?

[11466] SPEAKER_25: Do you want to study instead for everyone or do you want just two of you? No, let's do for everyone. Study? Yeah. Can I work with Ms. Willis to try to schedule that?

[11473] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, that'd be great. Okay, thank you. Okay, Member Gutierrez, go ahead.

[11478] SPEAKER_60: Yes, as President Rodriguez was saying, we lost a dear member of our community. In this case, it was a classmate of mine, a friend of mine. It was a Newark Memorial High School principal, I mean, sorry, coach and very, very active member and someone who, if you ever got to meet, had the biggest heart that that you could ever see. And in this case, it was Sebastian Sumo Crowder. And it's unfortunate that we lost somebody so young. And our heart goes out to his family.

[11518] Ray Rodriguez: So in his name and our prayers for the family, I adjourn the meeting at 10.22. Thank you. Thank you.

No minutes available.