Board Vacancy Meeting

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[10] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. I'm calling the meeting of September 19th, regular board meeting, to order. Roll call.

[21] SPEAKER_32: President Rodriguez.

[22] Ray Rodriguez: Present.

[23] SPEAKER_32: Vice President Martinez. Here. Member Gutierrez.

[27] Ray Rodriguez: She's on her way.

[29] SPEAKER_32: Member John.

[32] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Before we go to the approval of the agenda, We can do the, let me see, how do we do this? Okay. Why don't we do public comment on filing board vacancy, if the board doesn't mind?

[51] SPEAKER_32: Point of order, President. We need to approve the agenda as written before we move on to public comment.

[56] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, that's fine. Why don't we approve the agenda? And then if Member Gutierrez wants to make a change, we can re-look at it.

[68] Elisa Martinez: I move to approve the agenda.

[71] Ray Rodriguez: I second. Please vote. Thank you. Mr. Newt, did you want to approach us on the vacancy?

[86] SPEAKER_32: Point of order. President Rodriguez, can you vote on approving the agenda? We already did.

[102] SPEAKER_15: It was unanimous to advance.

[106] Ray Rodriguez: Go ahead.

[107] Cary Knoop: Good evening, everybody. First of all, I'd like to say good luck to all the candidates. And what I think is very important is that we do have to realize that after this election, we have a majority of the board members not elected by the public. Now, by itself, that's not anything bad or good, but I think it is very important to realize that the board does the business of the public. It represents the public. Make sure that the interest of the public is always there, and I really hope, and in most cases that's the case, that board members are listening to the public. Of course, the board members have to make the decisions, but they have to listen to the comments from the public. They need to be open and accessible to the public, You know, this is not a committee that works in an ivory tower, hopefully. So, anyway, that's a very important responsibility. In addition, it's very important for new board members, I believe, to be educated. There is a class in governance, you know, CSBA has these classes. And I think that for current board members, I think it's very important kind of get an understanding of potential candidates or new candidates. Are they able, willing to take these classes? Because there's a lot of things involved. We're talking about, you know, Robert's Rules of Order. We're talking about Brown Act situations. We're talking about general things like what does it take to be a board member? Where do you need to look at? Is it, you know, look at the finance of the district? Look at the educational standards of the district? the satisfaction of the employees, you know, of all these things in the organization. And then also being the moral compass of your organization, being the example of doing right what you think is right. So very important. So I just wanted to get these few words out. Thanks very much.

[239] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, Mr. New. So I don't know if any of you, by the way, welcome. And I want to thank you for putting yourself out there. There's a reason why there's only four of you. It's not a position that a lot of people aspire to be board members. And so we appreciate the fact that you want to serve the Newark SKU community, the kids, by being on the board. That being said, to Mr. Newps, we do have training involved for you. We always encourage you to meet with the superintendent if you have any questions about how the district runs. And I know at least one of you, if not more, did meet with him. But that's always available. Whether you get chosen or not, it's always available if you want to meet with any one of us and the superintendent if you have any questions about what it takes to be a board member. So with that, superintendent, can we start the preliminaries?

[305] SPEAKER_15: Certainly. Thank you President Rodriguez, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen. At this time I want to just kind of go over and give the candidates an overview and also welcome you to Newark Unified School District. Before we start and get into the interview process I do want to explain a few things. We don't know what sequence you're going to interview yet because we're going to draw the names while we're here. So I can't tell you that ahead of time but we will do that. Candidate names will be picked at random for their placement. We will have candidates wait in the board library and will be brought out when they're ready for their interview slot. Typically, once you've already interviewed, we'll allow you to stay out here and listen. But if you haven't interviewed, we want you to not hear the questions in advance. But as we start completing it, there'll be more people in the audience, just so you know that's kind of how it's going to play out. Each candidate will be given two minutes to give an opening statement and include what motivates you to want to become a NUSD board member. your opening statement just to get you started. We'll be timing, and to help, we will hold up the 30, would you help us here, Vanna? 30 seconds, when you have 30 seconds left. 10, when you have 10 seconds left. And X, kind of like Simon Cowell, when you're out of time. Each trustee will take turns and ask a question. Each candidate will have two minutes from when they begin speaking to answer the question. And the intent is not to rush you, but just to, you know, we have four of you. We want to make sure each of you get equal amounts of time. So we want to pay attention to that. Try not to read too much. Try not to not read the questions numerous times. The question is displayed on the screen for each candidate. So you'll see it as we ask it. Because sometimes, you know, we ask the question. If you don't have it in front of you, we will have it in front of you. So I want that to be clear. When all the questions are done, And all the questions have been read. Each candidate will have one minute for summations. This will go fairly quickly. And you'll see us hold up the 30-second sign pretty quickly. So don't take that personally. As I mentioned earlier, this is the process that we used the last time. And if there are no additional questions or comments from the board, we'd like to get started with whoever is number one. And I think Shara's going to help us with the selection of who's interviewing first. Before Char does that, any questions from the board? Or do you want me to re-explain?

[457] Ray Rodriguez: Go ahead, Mr. Quindle. Board members, if you could look at the five questions and then let me know which one you want. I don't necessarily have to take the first one, if you would.

[480] SPEAKER_15: Yes, at this time, if there's no further questions to the board, I'd like to... Jessica is going to escort the candidates back to the waiting area. We can, if you like. Then the other position, that's fine.

[515] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[516] SPEAKER_27: OK.

[525] Ray Rodriguez: Just get comfortable back there and relax. What are you guys? You OK with that? OK.

[539] SPEAKER_31: What question? We just, for the first unranked, we just put like 1, 1, 1?

[543] Bowen Zhang: Just go check, check, check.

[545] SPEAKER_31: Check, check, check. Thank you.

[548] SPEAKER_15: Who's going to read the first? I have the first question written here, if you don't have it in here. It might be in your notes. So let me, before we start just housekeeping, each of you should have a long list of questions, one for candidate.

[564] Diego Torres: So who's?

[564] SPEAKER_15: And we'll explain the ranking when we get to that point.

[567] Ray Rodriguez: OK. OK. Who came in second? Huh?

[575] Ray Rodriguez: Mrs. Steele. OK. Got it. OK. Good.

[584] SPEAKER_15: Two minutes. And two minutes for the opening statement. And one minute at the end.

[597] Ray Rodriguez: So if it's okay with the board, I can go first, if that's okay? Unless another board member wants to be first and likes that question.

[604] SPEAKER_15: Hi.

[622] Mark Triplett: Hi.

[623] Phuong Nguyen: How are you? Good evening, board members and Superintendent Sanchez, how are you guys tonight?

[629] Ray Rodriguez: Good, how are you? Let me read you something real quick. Okay. Welcome.

[634] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you.

[636] Ray Rodriguez: You will have two minutes to tell us about yourself and what motivates you to want to become a Newark Unified School District board member.

[645] Phuong Nguyen: My name is Phong Nguyen and I am a resident here in Newark. I have two children attending, one attending Graham School, a fifth grader, and one at the junior high. So I have a vested interest in our community and how education is going to be moving on for my children and also the children in our community. What prompted me or interest me in becoming a board member was this past June when we were talking about school closures here at Music, I stood up there and you know, expected a lot out of you guys, but didn't understand your perspective. So, I'm always at the way I live my life is to lead by example, and which means if I want to see you guys do that, that means that I have to put myself out there and do the same thing. So, that's what motivated me. So, you guys pretty much inspired it.

[712] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. It's nice when you get someone to win through our schools. I appreciate that. Okay, question number one is, as a board member's role, we often have to choose between two good things, but we can only afford to select one. Knowing that whatever you choose, half of the organization would not be happy with your decision, how would you handle this?

[737] Phuong Nguyen: So, I know that you guys have big decisions that you need to make. Our school is our school district is seeing low enrollment and also facilities are really deteriorating over time, and you have to make those hard decisions. As a board member, I am willing to make those hard decisions, whether it means that, you know, there has to be school closures or a combination of combining schools and building a new school, then we have to look at those things, and unfortunately, You know, being a board member, you can't be friends outside of the community. You try to aspire to be, but when you make those hard decisions, there are going to be people in the community that are not going to be happy about it. And eventually, once everything is done and set in motion and built out, and they see the progress that is being done based on the hard decisions that you have to make, then you will see that people will start to understand the vision that you have. So if it's a clear-cut vision and the decision is hard, eventually the community will be behind you on your decision.

[820] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Who wants to go? You want to? Member Gutierrez, you want to be next?

[827] Maria Huffer: Yeah.

[827] SPEAKER_31: Okay. Thank you for being here today. Thank you. And second question is, community. Thank you. In our efforts to be more in 3 in our efforts to become more welcoming for students parents staff and the community at large. Please give us an example of how you would improve our district culture and customer service.

[865] Phuong Nguyen: nice, presentable, but also transparent about the things that we bring up or discuss or make decisions on. We have to hold ourselves accountable. And when the community sees that we hold ourselves accountable, then they will be more welcoming to anything that we, I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. that we present to them, our ideas or anything like that. I think staff in general in all of the schools are wonderful. They are very welcoming. And all the office staff, the teachers, the principal, they do go, especially at Graham, they go over and beyond to accommodate the families, their children's needs. also do a wonderful job at helping kids who are behind in class get to the level that they need to be. I see that a lot when I'm there on site volunteering at Graham. And those teachers work so, so hard. So if we continue to do that and if parents are involved, they will see that the district and the teachers are committed to being a wonderful role model to the students. Thank you.

[960] Bowen Zhang: Welcome. So I will take the third question. What do you think are the biggest funding challenges facing public education in California?

[970] Phuong Nguyen: Well, right now, I feel that the way that the funding is structured, it's based on enrollment. that's really difficult. I think that districts have to really think outside of the box if we continue to go on this path on how they can bring additional revenue into the city. If that means that you have to hire grant writers or possibly you know building relationships with tech companies that are in our backyard to to help you know have them donate some of those to address the the challenges that we face in public education. And you also see that not only that, but we also, we are also faced with, you know, parents who are coming in to our community, sending their children to private schools. So we're losing that money. If they are able to come into our community, understand that, you know, the teachers not just based on, you know, because I think a lot of new families who come in here, they look at the test scores and it's kind of a turnoff for them. I was one of those parents and I'm so glad that I looked deeper into the numbers and understanding it and going out to visit the school that my child was going to attend and see where the shortfalls were. And if you are And if you're an involved parent, then you know that it isn't the test scores that is a reflection of the school. So it isn't the curriculum. It isn't the teachers. It's demographics in our environment right now, in our community right now. But we can improve that.

[1095] Elisa Martinez: Hello, and thank you for being here. Question four. What are three characteristics that you believe are critical for a high-functioning board?

[1107] Phuong Nguyen: For a high-functioning board, I know that you guys are a majority. I work for the city of Milpitas, and I know that it's run by city council. You guys are there, like them, to set policies. and set goals for the superintendent. In this case, in Milpitas, it's for the city manager to complete. And for a high functioning board, you'd have to have accountability, respect amongst peers, and the board has to follow the governance that is laid out by the bylaws that you've already set for yourself.

[1148] Diego Torres: Thank you.

[1155] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, number five, which is your last question. How would you handle the request from individual community members or special interest groups?

[1167] Phuong Nguyen: Oh, this is a good one. For individual community members, I would not, I wouldn't make any promises, direct promises to any community members or special interests without the collective approval of the board. prior to, you know, you guys having knowledge about it, you know, or I would ask them, hey, come to the board meeting, address your issues there. I would not, you know, answer them directly or make any promises. That is not my place. I understand that, you know, I have not only myself but other more board members to answer to and also the superintendent. So my voice I have to remind myself that my individual voice is not a collective voice.

[1223] Ray Rodriguez: Superintendent. Okay. That's the questions. It's the final closing statement. Yeah. Go ahead. You want to your closing statement? How much time do I have again? One minute.

[1238] Phuong Nguyen: Okay. I would just like, I'd like to thank you guys for for listening to me tonight and having me here to interview. I would love to work with you on seeing what we can do to make things better here in the district. You know, possibly bringing new ideas to the table and also bridging any gaps, you know, between differences that we may have or I may have with you, but that's basically the reason why I was committed into applying for this position because, again, I want to understand from where the district's perspective is coming from, not just my own, and see what I can do to help. Thank you.

[1291] Ray Rodriguez: Excellent. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[1322] SPEAKER_15: They're just finishing up their notes. They'll start in a moment. This is not part of the test.

[1330] SPEAKER_16: Hi, Ms.

[1336] Ray Rodriguez: Steele. How are you?

[1337] SPEAKER_16: Good. How are you?

[1337] Ray Rodriguez: Good, good. Thank you for waiting patiently in the back. Welcome again. You will have two minutes to tell us about yourself and what motivates you to want to become a newer Unified School District board member. And then after the five questions, you will have one minute to kind of just conclude and any final comments you want to make to us toward the end. So I'll start with the first.

[1371] SPEAKER_31: No, no, no. She needs to make her statement.

[1374] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. You have two minutes to make a statement.

[1379] SPEAKER_16: Okay, so I guess the question was what motivates me to want to be a part of a board member?

[1386] Ray Rodriguez: Right, exactly.

[1387] SPEAKER_16: Okay. I'm Susan Steele. I've been a long-term resident here in Newark. Over the years, I was very excited to see how Newark evolved as a city. You see a lot of new houses, business that came into Newark. However, I also realize there's one thing that's lagging in part of resident of Newark. The education has not taken off at all. For the last, what, 30 years, pretty much stays the same. Nothing's been improved much. The technology has not caught up, and we are in the Bay Area where we are surrounded by technology companies. And however, our school system is not prepping our students to become part of the technology world here in the Bay Area. Therefore, when this opportunity presented itself, I felt with my background as an HR and a business administration manager for many years for many startups, I feel like with my experience, I would be able to contribute to the success of maybe involve, I mean, improve the current school system. Hopefully, we can bring in more ideas or improve the current employees, teachers that we have, or, you know, the technology.

[1495] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So again, we're going to have five questions, and I'll take the first one. As a board member's role, we often have to choose between two good things, but we can only afford one. Knowing that whatever you choose, half of the people will not be happy with your decision, how would you handle this?

[1523] SPEAKER_16: Well, this happens to me all the time. Working at a startup, we often encounter financial difficulties. I'm working on my eighth startup, so many companies will hire me to go into their company and improve their current system and streamline the process and everything. So, for example, in this case, I'm just going to tell the organization the reality, right? If we run out of money, that is fact. What can we do to, as a team, we had to come up with a solution and work on what we have and do our best, right?

[1573] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Member Gutierrez.

[1578] SPEAKER_31: Thank you for being here. And second question is, in our efforts to become a more welcoming, I'm going to read it again. In our efforts to become more welcoming for students, parents, staff, and the community at large, please give us an example of how you would improve our district culture and customer service.

[1599] SPEAKER_16: I don't want to sound like a complainer. My niece is currently a sophomore at the Newark Memorial High School. Every year, I had to complain to her. I go, oh, my God. First year, we receive a whole paper package, right? I feel like with our technology, the school should be able to just email me. Email me because what I noticed since junior high, I noticed that the school has trying to, has done a great job of, you know, communicating to parents via emails. But we still continue having paper, which I don't understand, right? And I also noticed that sometimes when I call in the office, I may not always get the answer I'm looking for, right? I am not sure if it's because we have employees that has been in the same position for a long time and they become complacent, right? How would I improve on it? More training. Developing new ideas. So maybe the current employees can be educated or go visit our neighbors, right? For example, Fremont Union City and learn from them, right? And hopefully that improves our culture and the customer service. Thank you.

[1696] Bowen Zhang: Welcome here, so I will ask the next question. What do you think are the biggest funding challenges facing public education in California?

[1706] SPEAKER_16: Well, I think today's society, most of us have less kids nowadays versus in the olden days. Most families have, what, five or six kids? And from my understanding, the public education is funded based on what? Based on headcounts, right? If there are not enough kids, We will not receive enough funding, right? But I don't know how it works. Will we be able to obtain private funding? So I think the biggest funding challenge is that we don't have enough kids in school.

[1746] Elisa Martinez: Hello. Question four are, what are three characteristics that you believe are critical for a high-functioning board?

[1767] SPEAKER_16: Fairness. I'm sorry? Fairness, being fair, right? Ethical, and not be afraid of conflict.

[1782] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Thank you. This is your last question. How would you handle the request from individual community members or special interest groups?

[1801] SPEAKER_16: So I'm not sure what the, I've never been a board member in the school district. Am I allowed to have even personal interface with the community members? If I'm not, If a community member or interest group approach me, I will inform them that, hey, let's schedule a meeting with all the board members so we can all be in the same room and discuss any issues that you may have.

[1837] Ray Rodriguez: So now you have a minute to just tell us anything you want. This will be your concluding comments.

[1851] SPEAKER_16: I've been living here in Newark for such a long time. Never thought today I'll be sitting here and trying to be appointed to be a board member. But I feel like at this stage in my life, I am a professional. I'm quite good at what I do. I feel like it is time for me to give back to my community and I love Newark and I think we can do so much to our community and by me being part of board member this is where I can contribute a little bit and to the success of Newark.

[1897] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you again for taking the time to you know put in the application and we really appreciate it.

[1906] Leonor Rebosura: Thank you.

[1947] Ray Rodriguez: Welcome, Ms. Peters.

[1949] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you.

[1951] Ray Rodriguez: So you will have two minutes to tell us about yourself and what motivates you or what motivated you to become a Newark Unified School District board member.

[1963] SPEAKER_21: OK. I have two points I'd like to make tonight. I have a burning desire to be on the board. And the second, I feel that our students are our community. And the graduates of this school district are individuals that we see in the stores, in our community, and how they are, how they behave in school is also reflected on how they behave in the community. So regarding the first one, I have three, my husband and I have three young men who have already graduated from Newark Unified. The two of them are in college and I have seen them grow by attending this district And I'm noticing that they have, I believe, have found the loves of their life. They hope to get married in the near future and have kids. So my burning desire that at some point in the near future, I will have grandkids. I'm a different person today than 30 years ago. I have financial resources available to me I did not have when I was a young mom. And now I'm thinking to myself, where are my grandkids going to go? And I don't think. of Newark Unified as the very first place. And the reason for that is my next-door neighbor went to Challenger. Their children are now doctors. I have nieces and nephews who went to Catholic school, and they're also very successful with their bachelor's degrees and their new careers. And I would like to say the first choice would be Newark Unified. And so I would like for any parent especially the ones who are buying those expensive homes out by the bay, would want to think that Newark Unified is the very first choice, and they want to be here. And so I would like to make that a possibility by assisting your group.

[2086] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So we have five questions. I'll take the first one, and then member Gutierrez, and then member John, and then member Martinez. And then we'll have the last one, and then at the end, you'll have one minute to conclude. So the first question is, as a board member's role, we often have to choose between two good things, but we can only afford one of them. Knowing that, whatever you choose, half of the people would not be happy with your decision, how would you handle this?

[2124] SPEAKER_21: Individuals may not be happy with decisions because they might not be informed, thoroughly informed of the possibilities. So I think marketing the options that are available and helping to educate the community and being transparent and trying to see what is being offered. I think that while we cannot make everybody happy, I think that by marketing and sharing that our community would know that we made the best choice that was possible with the funding that was available. Trying to create a burning desire in individuals around you to do well I think helps knowing that we can't do it all. And listening to the community about their feedback about the issues is going to be a big part of making a good decision as well.

[2184] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[2187] SPEAKER_31: Thank you for being here today. In our efforts to become a more welcoming... Sorry, I keep on messing this because I include an A where it's not. I'm going to reread this. In efforts to become more welcoming for students, parents, staff, and community at large, please give us an example of how you would improve our district's culture and customer service.

[2210] SPEAKER_21: I thought that the back to school barbecue, I thought that was a great idea. I thought it was, I didn't hear about it until after it had occurred, but that's okay because once you start something new and fun like that, it gives it, you set a precedent and you start marketing for the following year. I think just as welcoming as having farmers markets at the school. I used to work at Kaiser and we didn't have them at Kaiser. You'd think as a healthcare organization, who would have had these markets for many years, and yet they're pretty, it's a pretty new idea. And people, employees at first thought, well, this is interesting that we're doing this. And then now it's like, well, how can you not go to Kaiser and not have their farmers market on Thursday in Fremont? So I think there's many fun opportunities. Reaching out to the community, I think there should be more solar panels at our schools. I'm sure there's tons of people in the community You could provide us with ideas on how that can be accomplished. Christopher School in San Jose has solar panels. Chevron paid for them. And when the extra revenue came in from the electricity that was generated, that's how they paid off the panels. Good customer service. I answer the phones over at the Fremont district office. My customers used to be physicians and I guess I would say training. We had excellent customer service training and that allowed me to treat my audience to the best of my ability. Not demanding to do things but trying to encourage them to want to participate and do the things that I asked them.

[2324] SPEAKER_31: Thank you.

[2327] Bowen Zhang: Thank you for being here. So the next question is, what do you think are the biggest challenges, what do you think are the biggest funding challenges facing California public education?

[2348] SPEAKER_21: Biggest funding challenges in California, so you're talking about the state. I would have to assume that you're talking about maybe companies that are leaving the state that don't generate as much revenue for our school systems. Perhaps you're talking about federal cutbacks that we may not be receiving. I would have to say that this probably wouldn't be my strongest answer. And that's probably all I could share on that one.

[2387] Bowen Zhang: Thank you.

[2396] Elisa Martinez: Hello and welcome. I will do question four. What are three characteristics that you believe are critical for a high functioning board?

[2408] SPEAKER_21: I think it's important that everyone respects one another on the board. I would like to be friends and have a a light-hearted atmosphere on the board. If that's not possible, I think definitely respect for one another so that you can work as a strong team. I think it's important, like the gentleman stated earlier, that you listen to your community, go out into the community, and to reach out to the schools. I was surprised when I went to a parent-teacher PTC meeting where they were trying to raise money and they don't reach out to the families that have been here for 30 years. We'd love to give back to our schools. Just because our students don't go here anymore doesn't mean that we wouldn't want to support. So I think outreach to families who don't have kids as well as have kids who have been here a long time ago. So reaching out. having a collegiate atmosphere amongst your board and a sense of ownership and care and concern about the funding that you'll be spending. How is it done and is it done in a manner that is pleasing to your community to the best of your ability?

[2505] Ray Rodriguez: So we have our last question. How would you handle requests from individual community members or special interest groups?

[2529] SPEAKER_21: I assume there's a protocol for any type of request. If the group member or the community member or the interest group is asking something of you, I would have to assume there's a protocol for how those type of requests are made. So, they're always going to be done in an ethical and professional manner in that you're sharing or reporting out what has been presented to you. If you're indicating a request that someone wants a favor, well, that's not, and acceptable request, I think it'd be an opportunity to listen to new ideas if those requests are coming from your community. It could be an exciting opportunity to share with the board. So you would share it with the board and make it public and make sure that it was done in an ethical manner.

[2597] Ray Rodriguez: So now you have one minute to conclude.

[2601] SPEAKER_21: Okay. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to be here. As I stated earlier, I have, I want to be on the board. I want to be here. I have watched over the years different individuals be successful for various reasons and I would like that, those exciting opportunities such as benefits from a private school or Catholic school to be incorporated into the public school. I think it can be meshed very well. I love participating. I like giving back. I've done so with all the boards. I like to create. I'm just not here because I hope to have grandkids in a great school. I want to be here because I want everybody to do well. So when they do well, we do well. Thank you.

[2664] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you again, Ms. Peters, for putting yourself out there. We appreciate it. Welcome, Ms. Graham.

[2714] SPEAKER_08: Thank you.

[2717] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you for your interest again in becoming a board member. You'll have two minutes to, opening statement, to tell us a little bit about yourself and what motivates you to become a Newark Unified School District board member.

[2737] SPEAKER_08: Well, I wanted to thank you for the time and opportunity to be here today. And all of you citizens out there as well, your time. We could all be at Newark Days saving a little bit of money, but we're here. I have a vested interest in this district. My son just started kindergarten this year, and my daughter's going to be starting TK next year. So I'm very vested in this district. You'll be seeing me around for at least 14 years. So you can get used to the face. I am very excited. to be here today. I'm a mom of two. I'm married. We have a home here in Newark. I've lived in the area for eight years in Newark, but I grew up in Fremont. After purchasing our home, we decided to raise a family, and of course we decided that Newark does have that hometown feel, and that's why we decided to stick around here. I work really well with others. I'm personable. I'm easy to get along with. I have great attention to detail. I am organized. I'm unbiased and open-minded. And I would love to be of service to the community. This is a, I currently work at home, work from home with our small business and raise my children. I go to school part-time, so I do have time to read all the documents prior to coming into these meetings to make sure that I am well prepared with the documents that are there. I have a huge passion for education. I'm currently still pursuing my education now, just got accepted to Cal State East Bay. And I would just really love to have the opportunity to learn and serve the community here. Thank you so much for your time.

[2842] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So we have five questions and I'll have the first one. As a board member's role, we often have to choose between two good things, but we can only afford one. Knowing that, whatever you choose, half of the people will not be happy with your decision, how would you handle this?

[2865] SPEAKER_08: That's a great question. I actually expected something like this, because of this role of this position, you're not going to make everyone happy. I think that if you go into it with an honest acceptance that you're not going to make everyone happy and do what you think is right, I think that I would be I think it's important for us to make sure that we are. Okay accepting of that. It's understandable not to have everyone like you in this position.

[2890] SPEAKER_31: Thank you. Thank you for being here thank you. In our efforts to become more welcoming for students parents staff and the community at large.

[2910] SPEAKER_08: I think it's very important to be available to the community as this position is serving and representing the community's wishes and desires. That's why it's importantly voted in. But I think being accountable, being available, being transparent, I think those are all very important things that would improve the culture and customer service per se. Thank you. Thank you.

[2937] Bowen Zhang: Thank you for being here. What do you think are the biggest funding challenges facing public education in California?

[2947] SPEAKER_08: I think the largest challenges in public education right now are lack of enrollment. We're not getting the funding that we are used to or accustomed to having with the lack of enrollment. The enrollment going down, private schools getting more enrollments than the public schools. I think that's a real issue for funding in California in general, hoping that that with Gavin Newsom, we'll get some change, a little more funding towards the public schools, but with lower enrollment, it's concerning. Thank you.

[2984] Elisa Martinez: Hello and welcome. Question four are, what are three characteristics that you believe are critical for a high-functioning board?

[2994] SPEAKER_08: Three characteristics that I believe are critical for a high-functioning board would be I think thoughtfulness in requiring an answer to questions that you're responsible for giving your opinion on, being thoughtful of all the people that are involved, all the people that would be in effect of these issues that come upon the board. Also, I would say that Being able to compromise, I would say, is definitely very huge. Because like I stated before, it's not always right or wrong. There's a lot of gray area. And that's understandable to me. I'm not expecting it to be anything black and white. But I'm OK with that. And lastly, I would say open-mindedness, being able to hear each other out and look at it from all angles prior to making a decision. Thank you.

[3062] Ray Rodriguez: So we have the last question, question five. And then after that, you'll have one minute to give us final comments or concluding. Question number five, how would you handle the request from individual community members or special interest groups?

[3081] SPEAKER_08: I think it's very important that individual community members and interest groups have a year to listen to. I think a lot of times that people don't have the time or are not willing to listen. I think these community members are valuable and need to be heard. So I would hear them out in entirety and, of course, take into consideration their thoughts and opinions.

[3105] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. You have the one minute. Oh.

[3111] SPEAKER_08: Thank you. OK. So here's my closer. So I'm highly motivated to be here today. I'm highly motivated to be here at all the board meetings. I think it would be an honor to serve alongside of you. I'm truly vested in this district. Once again, 14 years, you're going to see me around. I do have a strong attention to detail. I will look at all of the documents with a fine tooth comb prior to me getting here. And I would really just love to serve the community. I have that passion for education and would like to be able to find provide transparent, accountable approach if appointed. And thank you all again for this opportunity, and have a great night.

[3159] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you very much.

[3168] SPEAKER_15: Could you, if I may, Mr. Lieutenant? At this time, I'm going to give the board a few minutes to kind of collect their notes I'll give about a minute pause and then I'll explain the next process of scoring and ranking. So I'll give you a couple minutes just to organize your thoughts and think for a minute.

[3188] Ray Rodriguez: Since I have a minute, I wanted to address all of you four. We can only choose one. But I want to let you know that everything you said from all of us was really appreciated. And we know that you want the best for Newark Unified School District and our kids. So we want you to stay involved. You got so much to offer. There's so much talent in each one of you. And we need that. These are difficult times right now for school districts because of the funding. So we need everyone on board to help us out. And together we can help our kids move forward. So we want to thank you again. So you want us to?

[3240] SPEAKER_15: I can explain. The first round that we'll do is identifying three candidates that you want to move forward to rank to make the final vote on. So the first round is just selecting three. You're moving forward. You don't have to put a score, just an x by their name. Fold it in half, pass it down, and Char will tally it. And then we'll reveal who are the first three moving forward. And then we'll explain the second round. It'll involve ranking. OK.

[3268] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[3302] SPEAKER_27: So we'll play the music while they're waiting.

[3445] SPEAKER_15: Okay, we have the results of who's moving forward sure if you would share that on the screen So if I'm reading that correctly, Shara, it's... So yes, top three will be Ms.

[3467] SPEAKER_32: Wynn, Ms. Peters, and Ms. Steele.

[3477] SPEAKER_15: Thank you, Ms. Graham, for staying involved, and I would encourage you to stay involved moving forward. Now I'm going to ask the board to do the next round, but I'd like for Shara to explain the scoring. Because we are going to be scoring in this round and the point value. Shara, would you mind explaining the scoring for the board?

[3504] SPEAKER_32: Okay, so for this round, you're going to score three points. Three is for your first choice, your top choice. Two is for your second choice. And one is for your third choice.

[3599] Terrence Grindall: We are ready. Superintendent, we're ready.

[3629] SPEAKER_15: I'm waiting a minute here. We're having some technical difficulties.

[3640] SPEAKER_31: But I think we can continue.

[3642] SPEAKER_15: OK. So President Rodriguez, are you ready for us to display the results? Yes, Superintendent. So would you read the results for us, please?

[3661] SPEAKER_32: Yes. Congratulations, Ms. Nguyen.

[3676] SPEAKER_15: President Rodriguez, would you like to make any comments?

[3681] Ray Rodriguez: Graham Elementary. Miss Peters, Miss Still, Miss Graham, again, thank you. All of you have so much that I can see, so much energy, and you want to do whatever you can to help us. We're facing a lot of challenges. And Miss Nguyen is going to be one of five board members. Now, come next November, since I will be exiting the board, there's going to be four openings, I mean, four positions open. So any one of you can, if you want to, you can run the election like Member Martinez just did recently. And so the top four out of whoever puts in next year will be serving on the board.

[3748] Bowen Zhang: I guess I want to add, I think this position will be running for a two-year term, so it will take me two separate elections, right?

[3756] Ray Rodriguez: No. Everything's going to be next November.

[3759] Bowen Zhang: No, but we should have two different ballots, because one is for a two-year term, the other is for a four-year term.

[3766] Ray Rodriguez: Yes, to the next election, which is next November.

[3772] Bowen Zhang: But I thought we should still have two board members staggered at midterm year and three staggered at the presidential year, right?

[3783] Ray Rodriguez: Eventually, yes. That's the way it's going to be. Normally, you have two and then you have three running. But for this particular election, since we have board members that retire or resign, it's got to be according to the guidelines, it has to be the next big election, which is November of 2020. OK, OK, so we can, OK. President Rodriguez, if I may, when you're ready. No, I wanted to ask the board, I know we have for the swearing in to later, you know, because we didn't know the time frame, but it looks like we have time. So if the board wishes, we can do the swearing in right now if you want. What do you think, superintendent?

[3828] SPEAKER_15: Actually, we are a little bit over time. I was going to explain to, winning candidate, Mrs. Nguyen, that we do have it on the agenda appropriately to at 5.2 for new board members swearing in. I don't know if anyone's with you that you would like to read the swearing-in document or I could read it to you when we swear it in, but once you're sworn in then you actually would be able to take the chair and vote after you've been sworn in. So that's a 5.2 that would occur after our closed session, which is scheduled for right now. So I just want you to think about that. And for the board, if you would please hand in your green folder with all your materials, I'll return those to Char. And then back to you, President Rodriguez.

[3877] Ray Rodriguez: Since we already approved the agenda, so we're going to follow the agenda. And so we're going to be going to closed session. Thank you, sir. Do we have anybody that wants to address us before we go to closed session?

[3902] SPEAKER_15: I didn't see any comment cards. That's for a later item. I don't believe so.

[3908] Ray Rodriguez: OK. So for the community, I would like to read what we're going to be discussing in closed session. 3.1 is public employee discipline dismissal release. 3.2, Public Employment Chief Business Official, CBO. 3.3, Public Employment Title IT Technician. Excuse me, could you, if you don't mind? Okay, thank you. 3.4, Conference with Labor Negotiator Employer Organizations, NTA and CSCA. 3.5, Conference with Legal Counsel Regarding assisting litigation GC 5 for 49 56.9 3.6 public employee performance evaluation and goals titled superintendent 3.7 conference with labor negotiator Unrepresented employee superintendent 3.8 titled superintendent and 3.9 confirmation of expulsion from prior district and rehabilitation Superintendent, can you just take a minute? Because you're on here three times and just explain the reason why, if you don't mind.

[3989] SPEAKER_15: It just allows the board the freedom to discuss anything about the superintendent they would like to discuss. Okay, great. There's nothing that's connected to these items in the open session. There'll be no action.

[3998] Ray Rodriguez: Right. There'll be no action and at some point in the future, if we discuss the superintendent's contract, it'll all be done in open session, as far as the voting. Okay, since we have nobody that wants to address us at 6.10. We go to closed session. Thank you.

No minutes available.