Regular Meeting

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[11] Ray Rodriguez: board meeting of the Newark school board. School board. We. Had the study One of you lead us, please. You're going to fight over it?

[47] SPEAKER_39: Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[71] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so what are your names?

[75] SPEAKER_26: What's your name?

[79] Ray Rodriguez: Alessandra. And yours? Gavin. Okay, thank you. Make sure you, Ms. Aquino will get your info. So let me just go through a couple things and then you can come up and take over if you want. So we just came back from closed session and There was no action taken on 3.1. On 3.2, we signed a departure agreement with the superintendent. It's not a public document because it's personnel, according to our attorney. Public employee performance evaluation. We also talked to the superintendent and the associate superintendent. And it was just a conversation and no action taken there. Conference with 3.4 update, no action. 3.5. I believe you need to report on action on 3.2. I believe it was action on 3.2.

[150] SPEAKER_22: Is that correct?

[160] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I said we approved the agreement. OK, no problem. 3.5, labor negotiator employee organizations update. 3.6, legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. And 3.7, legal counsel regarding existing litigation. So I have a statement to read. What number was that? 3.6. So on 3.6, the board, on a motion by member Gutierrez and second by member Martinez, there were four yeses. Member Nguyen is left. She went to see her daughter in a concert, OK?

[212] SPEAKER_35: At Graham. At Graham? No, or at Junior High.

[215] Ray Rodriguez: Sorry, Junior High. OK, Junior High. Well, they're right around the corner. So there were four A's to settle OAH case number 2019-090363. Thank you. Thank you for giving me that. Appreciate it. Okay, we didn't do the approval of the agenda yet, so let's do that now.

[251] SPEAKER_44: I move that we approve the agenda as is.

[254] Ray Rodriguez: I second. Please vote. OK. Motion passes. Student board member, could you I?

[275] Nancy Thomas: We can do that one for the next one.

[277] Ray Rodriguez: OK, we'll wait for the next one, if that's OK. OK. Member Nguyen, not here. Student report, superintendent.

[295] SPEAKER_22: Thank you, President Rodriguez, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen. Let's see if we have any representatives here from McGregor campus first. Mostly because I know some of the representatives have been here since 5 o'clock. As you're walking up, just tell us your name and the grade you're in. You don't have to tell us your last name, but at least your first name and the grade you're in.

[327] SPEAKER_25: My name is Marilyn. I'm in 11th grade.

[331] SPEAKER_19: My name's Leslie. I'm a senior.

[336] SPEAKER_25: Good evening, Superintendent Sanchez, board members, and cabinet members. Thank you for joining our feast on the 22nd. We served lunch to over 50 students.

[353] SPEAKER_19: Our superintendent, cabinet members, and board president Rodriguez. We also started the feast with our first quarter awards. Yesterday, 13 ROP students went on a field trip to the Old School Cafe in San Francisco. Thank you.

[370] SPEAKER_22: Thank you. Thank you. Any representatives from Newark Junior High sitting in the front row?

[381] Ray Rodriguez: There you go. Now you can just take over.

[386] SPEAKER_22: Name and grade, please.

[388] SPEAKER_26: Alessandra Gutierrez, 8th grade. Gavin Small, 8th grade. Good evening, everyone. My name is Alessandra Gutierrez. I'm a leadership student at Newark Junior High School. This month of November was great, with many exciting events. We started this month off with Cougar Day, which was the last day of Spirit Week. We also held a canned food drive with Viola Blyke, to help the homeless, hungry, and less fortunate. Every Friday, we do recycling where we pick up recyclables to help the environment and to make the teachers as well as the students more aware as a whole. We even decorated the school campus with a fall theme. Last but not least, we ended this month off with games on the quad and was followed with Thanksgiving break. So yes, we indeed did have a great month of November. And now I will hand it off to my peer, Gavin.

[444] SPEAKER_11: Hello. Good evening, everybody. My name is Gavin. I am also a leadership student here at NJHS. I'm here to tell you what we are planning for this December. Tomorrow, we'll be starting off with a toy drive with Viola Vyth. We'll be collecting new unwrapped toys for kids ages 11 through 15. The toy drive will go through at 18. We will also be selling Christmas grams, where students or staff can send a specifically made Christmas gift bag to someone else on the 18th during homeroom. Next week, we'll also be decorating the school with Christmas season. Thank you, and have a great night.

[486] SPEAKER_22: Thank you, guys. Thank you.

[492] SPEAKER_02: Mr. Castillo. Thank you, Superintendent Sanchez. So finals are upon us. December 16th through the 18th.

[505] SPEAKER_44: Is that working?

[518] SPEAKER_02: Okay, we're good. No, we're not. So yeah, each final is going to be two hours and ten minutes. We've got a 30-minute break between two finals, so two finals a day. And students will be getting out at 1240 during finals week. So to prepare for finals, ASB is doing cookies and cram next Wednesday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. We've done it for several years. Basically, students just come in, study for a little bit, you know, hang out with their friends in an academic setting. We're hoping a lot of students come. Obviously, there'll be free cookies there. So, you know, either cram or eat cookies. Either one's fine. Just a fun way to prepare for finals. Seniors have finished up college applications. The UC and the CSU applications closed at midnight on the 30th of November. I heard UC Merced still has their application open, or they extended it. So applications for private universities and out-of-state public universities are still open, and they should be open through to the new year. The Common and the Coalition applications will both be open for a while. On to athletics. The Ironman Wrestling Tournament is going to be this Saturday, December 7th. That's going to be all day in the event center. That's a tournament that's been going on for a while now. And Newark Memorial is continuing to host it. Tickets will be $7 for general admission and $5 for students with an ASB seal on their ID card. So I understand that the board's received invitations. We also invite the public to come out and see some great wrestling. Schools all across the Bay Area will be in attendance. So we hope you guys join us on two clubs. Three out of four Rocketry teams had successful launches on November 23rd, right before we went on break. Our teams are doing well, getting better scores, and we hope that we can build on that and qualify for the national finals in April. Newark Memorial Robotics is going to Rosemont High School in Sacramento on December 14th. This is going to be their second try to qualify for the regional tournament. So we wish them luck out in Sacramento. The music program is doing its winter concerts, annual winter concerts. The band concert is going to be tomorrow at 7 p.m. And the choir concert will be the following Friday, December 13th. They're going to be in the theater. Ticket prices are $7. General admission, $5 for students with an ASB seal, and children under 5 enter free. We're also accepting donations of canned goods. They will be going to unfortunate families in our Newark community. Building off of that, Newark Memorial is going to be hosting the community dinner on the 14th of December. That's a Saturday. It's going to be at 6 p.m. Leadership, athletics teams, and Newark Memorial staff have adopted homeless families, so they'll be purchasing essential goods, clothing, and gifts for the families this holiday season. They'll be invited to that. They'll receive those gifts and also get a hot meal for the evening. Newark Memorial has done this for a few years now. where it's honestly humbling to be able to serve our community in this way every holiday season. It's truly a great way for us to come together. We invite the board and the public to join us for that dinner. That's all at this time. Thank you.

[727] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you, student board member Castillo. I just want to say for the young people that report and for the schools they represent, The board and our community really appreciates all you do. Whether it's Viola Blythe, Love Newark, or any other organization, whether it's helping with the homeless, gathering baskets, or the toy drive with the kids, it's all appreciated. We know you put in a lot of work during the Thanksgiving break. And now, all of a sudden, we're getting ready for Christmas right away. So it is appreciated. And thank you. OK. So Superintendent, the school spotlight.

[789] SPEAKER_22: Sure. I'm going to hand it over to Associate Superintendent Salinas to introduce our school tonight.

[794] SPEAKER_32: Yes, so it's my pleasure to introduce our principal of Lincoln Elementary, Ms. Rancap Perez. And I know that she has got a lot of folks here, our PALS presidents in the audience, and a lot of our staff and families. So she'll get an opportunity to also introduce them. Great. Thank you.

[811] SPEAKER_38: All right. Good evening, board president, board members, Superintendent Sanchez, and cabinet members. I'm Lisa Day Rancap Perez, the principal at Lincoln Elementary School. And I'm honored and privileged to be here tonight to represent our teachers, staff, students, and families this evening. So thank you for the opportunity. And I also thank our Lincoln family as well, our house president, Angela Silvera, as well as Marian Silva, who is on our school site council. So thank you for being here, as well as our gracias por venir. Muchisimas gracias. So I'm going to go ahead and start with our mission. It is to promote the love of learning, to create a caring, nurturing environment where everyone's empowered to develop intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and emotionally in a challenging, child-centered environment. So when we look at our numbers, we have a total enrollment of 388 amazing students. We have one transitional kindergarten class, two classes in each of the grades from kindergarten through sixth grade, We also have two special day classes. The primary is from grades TK to second, and then our secondary is from third through sixth grade. So I wanted to start and just celebrate with some of the work that our Lincoln students and teachers have done by looking at some of our SBAC data over the past three years. You see here in 2016 and 2017, we see over 53% of our third through sixth grade students meeting or exceeding the ELA standard. In the next year, 2017, 2018, we see a jump of about four percentage points to a little over 57% meeting the standard. And then last year, a slight decline to 56.6% of our students meeting or exceeding the standard in ELA. So what remains clear is that our teachers are consistent in using their ELA best practices that include whole and small group instruction. And our teachers continue not only to use SBAC, but other forms of assessment to drive their instruction so that we're able to provide the academic interventions that are necessary so that our students become critical thinkers and creative writers. The next slide focuses on math. So here in 2016, 2017, excuse me, we see 46.67% of our students meeting the math standard. And then in the next year, 2017, 2018, we see an increase of about 7% to 57.5% of students meeting the standard. And last year, there was a decrease of about 3%, which put our school at about 51% of students meeting or exceeding the standard. So as a former Lincoln teacher and now principal in the first year, using data is the forefront when determining these necessary academic interventions so that our students are succeeding in math. Our teachers are also working with our math TOSA, Melissa Moore, and she's providing SVMI training on different math strategies, and our teachers are continually implementing them in their classrooms. And again, students, or I'm sorry, teachers are implementing those standards-based lessons that concentrate on explicit teaching of these specific math concepts. So the next couple of slides are going to focus on some of the initiatives that we're focusing on this year. One is our PBIS initiative. And the purpose of PBIS at Lincoln is to create a positive climate for learning. And so we are the Lincoln Leopards, and we roar. And so roar means that we remain safe, be responsible, and be respectful. And when we catch our students doing these things, they receive Leaping Leopards, which you see right here on the screen. And their names then go into a weekly drawing. We pick 12 students to be recognized during our morning announcements, and they're also given prizes. And then in the upcoming months, we'll have a special PBIS assembly for them to recognize their efforts. that we also implemented and are focusing on, as far as STEAM is concerned, is technology and our computer science curriculum with Code for Fun, which is a local organization. Our goal is for Lincoln students to experience computer science, not just as a creative process, but also to become active creators and innovators. And so last year, our teachers were trained in a program called Scratch, which is a program now that they're using in their own specific classrooms to help them implement the Code for Fun Learning Lessons curriculum. And that happens in grades K through 6. At the end of the year, we have a coding exhibition with, yes, we have a coding exhibition. You all are invited. And that way they get to display all their efforts as far as what they've learned in computer science. Another initiative that we have and two of our parent volunteers, I'll explain in a second, are actually here, which is F.A.M.E. F.A.M.E. stands for Fine Arts Mini Experience, and it's a structured school-wide program designed to familiarize students with well-known artists and composers and their works. And so our parent volunteers, our very loyal parent volunteers who are here today, they present to our grade levels And they teach them about different elements in the arts and in the music. And we hope to instill a love and appreciation for arts and music through this program. All right, so our academic professional learning communities. I am really fortunate to work with a group of teachers who genuinely care and love our students. They consistently work to improve their practice so that their students can access the curriculum. One of our teachers are insightful, they're collaborative, and I think most importantly, they support one another. And on September 20th of this year, Lincoln teachers, along with other teachers at Snow, had the chance to launch their first cycle of inquiry. And so in this process, our grade level teams work together throughout the year and engage in a collective inquiry where they find what works in terms of teaching and learning in their classrooms. And also through this process, it gives them the opportunity to share best practices as well as reflect and improve on their own instructional skills and pedagogy. So to enhance our student experience. We have extracurricular programs and opportunities, mad science for instance, where it's an after school program that focuses on topics such as NASA and energy. We also have our chess club, choir, our arts and drama club as well. And I'd like to also recognize our after school sports program. I want to recognize our flag football team who made it to the championships against Kennedy. I am so proud of them. They had a great season. I have to say that our Lincoln parents and families are such an integral part of our school. And they continually support our community, whether it be volunteering in their children's classrooms or participating and or organizing different school events. and being involved on certain communities. And so we have a very strong PALS community, I'm sorry, a PALS committee, ELAC, school site council. We have different fundraising events as well. Here in the pictures, you see a couple of our parents volunteering for our annual walkathon. And right below that, we have Breakfast with Santa, which is actually coming up. this Saturday, and I'd like to invite you all to come and help and support our community. Saturday, December 7th at 9 a.m., there will be food and entertainment, a great pancake breakfast, and we hope to see you all there, all right? I wanna say thank you all so much for the opportunity to highlight our school, and I wish you all a happy holiday season. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[1377] SPEAKER_22: Don't go away, don't go away. There might be questions.

[1380] Ray Rodriguez: There might be questions. I know who your Santa, or no, Santa's helper is.

[1388] SPEAKER_38: Oh. OK. Oh. Oh, OK. I don't know who Santa is, but you know who my Santa's helper is? Yeah.

[1396] Aiden Hill: OK.

[1396] SPEAKER_38: OK.

[1398] SPEAKER_22: That's a good thing. Be careful. Be careful.

[1401] Ray Rodriguez: That's dangerous ground when you start talking about it.

[1403] SPEAKER_39: Uh-oh. OK.

[1404] Ray Rodriguez: But anyway, I just wanted to thank you. I know it's your first year and you were, you know, you got to stay in your own school, right?

[1416] SPEAKER_38: Fortunately, yes, I did.

[1418] Ray Rodriguez: And it was the perfect choice, in my opinion. And I've got a history with Lincoln. My granddaughter went there and it's just always been an amazing school, especially when you look at the numbers and you look at the fact that that a large percentage of the students there come from other areas. And so, and the diversity you have there is excellent. And then, what you presented was great. And we look forward to amazing things from you and your staff. And can you, do you have any staff here, though? No.

[1463] SPEAKER_35: But I have my.

[1465] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, just have. Yeah. And then your back, could you tell us a little bit about what's on the back wall?

[1479] SPEAKER_38: Yes, on the back wall there are different writing pieces. There are also pieces from our fame program that you'll see, the watercoloring. And this is just a lovely wall of work and great pieces from all of our students and staff. And science as well, we have a couple of atoms.

[1506] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, yes, all that.

[1507] SPEAKER_38: And burial. Wanted to highlight that as well.

[1510] Ray Rodriguez: Are you leaving that there so we can play with that afterwards?

[1512] SPEAKER_42: Oh, no, no, no. I've got to bring it back.

[1514] SPEAKER_35: I've got to bring it back.

[1516] Ray Rodriguez: Anyway, thank you. Thank you very much. And continued success.

[1519] SPEAKER_22: If I may, I'd like the way that your attire matches your mask. I had to represent. Very good. Well done. Thank you. Thank you.

[1538] Ray Rodriguez: OK, we next go to the annual organization of the board. When we came back from closed session, then we normally report items out. And if there's any compensation at all being discussed, we have to have that in an open session. So it's basically just talking about, in this case, it was an agreement and had nothing to do with compensation. Just wanted to make sure I was clear on that. So we go to the annual organization of the board. I have had the opportunity of being board president the last year. And I know it has many challenges. We have four excellent new board members. And just had your first anniversary, right? And I really appreciate everything that all of you bring to the board. You never know if anybody's going to put in to be a board member. We do make a lot of money. We get $250 a month, which doesn't cover our the different functions we attend. But we do it because we love kids. And I wouldn't want to work with a board member that didn't, OK? And all the board members you have up here, I and member Nguyen comes back. We're in it for the kids. And it's going to be tough moving forward. And we're going to be talking about difficult budget issues. But you can rest assured that every time that we talk about something that The issue of focusing on kids is going to come up, OK? What's best for children. OK, so we have the election of offices. And the first one is going to be the president. I need a motion and a second.

[1670] Bowen Zhang: I move that we appoint Vice President Elisa Martinez as our new president.

[1675] Ray Rodriguez: I second. Oh, I'm sorry. Student.

[1682] SPEAKER_44: You're right. You're right. You're right. So you're right. And then, no, we just let him. He votes first.

[1687] Ray Rodriguez: OK, go ahead. Did you want to say something about your vote?

[1692] SPEAKER_02: No, I just approved the vote of Member Martinez as new board president. OK, excellent.

[1698] Ray Rodriguez: Good. So Mr. Castillo's vote is in. And we have a motion and a second. Please vote.

[1707] SPEAKER_44: Do you want to show Mr. Castillo's first?

[1709] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, you want me to? OK.

[1710] SPEAKER_44: I don't know. Whatever you think is best.

[1712] Ray Rodriguez: Is that?

[1713] SPEAKER_44: Yeah. Yes.

[1714] Ray Rodriguez: OK. All right. Let me close it.

[1721] Nancy Thomas: OK. Go ahead. Go ahead. Do it again, please. Go ahead. Go again? Yeah.

[1725] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. OK. Excellent. OK. And then we vote. So student member Casillo votes yes. And now we vote. Motion passes, member Nguyen not being here. Effective our next meeting in two weeks, our new president of the board is member Martinez. That doesn't mean she can go around and telling everybody what to do now. She does it anyway, so okay. OK, next is the clerk or vice president. I need a motion and a second.

[1781] Bowen Zhang: I move that we appoint member Lucia Gutierrez as our new vice president.

[1787] Ray Rodriguez: I second. OK. Student member Castillo votes yes. Everybody else, please vote. Okay, motion passes unanimously. Okay, so future president, this is my last meeting. Board member Martinez, would you like to say something?

[1835] SPEAKER_44: Do you want to clarify? What?

[1838] Elisa Martinez: As president, as president.

[1839] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, yeah. Do you want to say something since you were nominated? You're going to be a new president starting at the next board meeting.

[1851] Elisa Martinez: Well, thank you to my fellow board members. I think it's a thank you for the opportunity to serve as the board president. You know, we have a lot of work to do. So Ray, thank you for everything that you've done for us as board president. And I do look forward to you being here and continuing to give us some guidance here, as we all learn. Don't call me anymore.

[1879] SPEAKER_44: Thank you as well for this opportunity. It has been a great year of learning. And thank you for your guidance. I'm looking forward to working with our new president, Martinez.

[1896] Ray Rodriguez: OK, 9.3 is appointing a superintendent as secretary of the board. So we're right now superintendent is Mr. Sanchez. So I may help clarify if I may.

[1925] SPEAKER_22: I think the thinking behind this was that should something happen and I move sooner than June 30th, that the board is covered and there's someone that can sign documents and it's having an additional person for signature to protect the district and that way there's no gap in support to the district. That's really the spirit behind this idea. So you're asking us to appoint you and... To add Associate Superintendent Salinas to be in that role as acting. Right. Should it be necessary. Right. Got it. Okay.

[1960] Ray Rodriguez: At the board's discretion. Okay. Based on that, I need a motion and a second.

[1967] SPEAKER_44: I move that we appoint the co-superintendent... I'll rephrase myself. I move that we appoint a superintendent and assistant superintendent as board secretaries.

[1980] Ray Rodriguez: I second. Member Martinez seconds. Okay. Student board member Castillo votes yes. Please vote. Motion passes with member Nguyen not being here. She's coming later. I. Associate superintendent Salinas did you want to say anything. Good. We can move along. Let's get to the hard one 9.4. OK. Seating placement of the Board of Education. OK. Miss Aquino you want to help us with this.

[2039] SPEAKER_41: Well historically the board has always sat in different places for example where newly elected President Martinez is sitting is where the president has normally sat sitting directly next to the superintendent. Back when you presidency you would all voted to move you'd prefer to move to another seat. So not knowing with placement we didn't know if you wanted to have presidents vice presidents together whatever the board would like to do but we wanted it out there because apparently it had to be by voting the last time you had moved seats. So we were just following suit. If everybody wants to stay where they are, they're good. OK.

[2078] Ray Rodriguez: Anybody want to? Would you like to stay where you are?

[2083] Elisa Martinez: Yes. I'm fine staying here. Yeah, for sure. OK. I'm not sure. I know historically, just from the audience, I know that the clerk usually was by the president. So that would be.

[2096] SPEAKER_44: No, that's exactly what I'm saying. I don't mind following history. like history. So I think that's best.

[2107] SPEAKER_41: And it works also as you two work together with speaker cards and signatures and things so it makes complete.

[2114] SPEAKER_44: So we'll move. And just to confirm, you'd want me to the left?

[2118] Elisa Martinez: Yes. Whatever. Yeah. OK.

[2121] Ray Rodriguez: OK. And then, member John, you would be over here, and then I would take your place.

[2126] Bowen Zhang: Is that what you want? I'm fine sitting in the center.

[2131] SPEAKER_22: So just for clarity, member Martinez, member Gutierrez, member John, members Nguyen.

[2145] Ray Rodriguez: And then myself.

[2146] SPEAKER_22: And then member Rodriguez will be next to member Castillo. Right, exactly. Do we get that? Yes. Okay, thank you. Do we need to vote on this? Yes.

[2155] Elisa Martinez: Oh yes, we do.

[2158] SPEAKER_44: I move that we vote on 9.4 in our seating placement.

[2164] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[2165] Ray Rodriguez: OK. OK. Student board member Castillo votes yes. Please vote. Motion passes. Member Nguyen not here at this time. 9.5 adoption of policies and bylaws. The board is asked to accept the Newark Unified School District board policies as Newark Unified School District governing policies. Motion and a second. And discussion if you want.

[2220] Bowen Zhang: Just a quick point.

[2221] Nancy Thomas: This is our second reading for this, right?

[2226] SPEAKER_41: I can try to clarify. Your board policies as a board is the entire 9,000 series of board policies. So it's actually a fairly large document of policies. What you are approving are all of those policies and the ones that you have approved. You still have one outstanding I need to bring back for approval. But those are the only two updates to that. to be updated now, so you're approving your board bylaws.

[2257] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. Motion and a second.

[2264] Elisa Martinez: I move to approve item 9.5, adoption of policies and bylaws.

[2268] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez moves. I'll second. Member Gutierrez seconds. Hold on. I messed up. Okay, let's close it and re-vote. Okay. Okay. Mr. Castillo, you first. Okay. Student board member Castillo votes yes. Please vote. OK, motion passes unanimously. Member Nguyen, not here.

[2314] SPEAKER_02: I do have a question. Yes, sir. On these bylaws, it is 9150. Am I authorized to make motions during board meetings? It says that the board may authorize a student member to make motions, but I'm not clear on if I am permitted by this board to make motions.

[2338] SPEAKER_41: I, to be honest, don't believe it's come up. That's conversation, so.

[2340] Ray Rodriguez: So maybe we can bring that particular policy back to the next meeting?

[2345] SPEAKER_41: 9150?

[2345] SPEAKER_02: 9150, yeah.

[2347] SPEAKER_41: I can bring it back.

[2348] SPEAKER_22: All right.

[2350] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. We can update it, and then the board can decide. Thank you. 9.6, set regular meeting time. We normally meet, our meetings start at 7. Our closed session normally starts at 6, and then sometimes we have a workshop. But a regular open session meeting starts at 7 and ends at 10. And that's what we're recommending that we stay with that time, if that's OK. So we need a motion and a second.

[2397] SPEAKER_44: I move that we vote on 9.6 to set the regular time meeting.

[2403] Ray Rodriguez: Second. I second. Mr. Castillo? OK, your vote's in, yes. Please vote. Motion passes unanimously. Member Nguyen, not here. Now we go to 9.7 which is set regular meeting dates. We used to meet on Tuesdays but now we meet on Thursdays. Okay, the board is asked to set the dates of regular meetings for calendar year 2020. Okay.

[2462] SPEAKER_44: Ms. Aquino?

[2464] SPEAKER_41: Thank you. Just a few comments. We did attach the current school calendar and the draft of the next year's school calendar to kind of help with these dates. Just to point out a couple of items that we have listed. In January, the way the holiday falls, we have one meeting for January currently. on January the 16th. Now just historically I went back to last January and we did have three special meetings because of items that came up. So I wanted to put out there if the board instead of having special meetings if you wanted to pick a second date now we could do that with the caveat streaming. We share the person with the city and we have our meetings opposite of the city so we could be you know if we do a Thursday. Again, or waiting, and you may not have to have a special, but I wanted to just throw that out there for the month of January, and same for the month of April. Only one due to the spring break. And historically, we only had one last year. We didn't have to have another one. But I just kind of wanted to show each of you, you know, have you take a look at that as we gauge for the new year.

[2534] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. We can do a placeholder. The reason why I'm thinking that might be a good idea is we are going to be talking with these. with our search firm for the new superintendent. And if you want to set a placeholder for, let's say, the week after that, and then if we don't need it, then?

[2558] SPEAKER_41: When this process happened years prior, those meetings were actually held as specials based on those firms and the dates and the process. So those are OK to do as specials, and we don't need to have that. and the regular, just to put that out there. No, that's fine.

[2576] Ray Rodriguez: So why don't we just stay the way it is then?

[2579] SPEAKER_44: I did want to ask the board and as well, if you guys knew, I knew that the change of the dates did conflict with a lot of school events. And I don't know if currently schools have adjusted events to accommodate to our current schedule or if it's recommended still that we switch back.

[2607] SPEAKER_41: So sites, most sites have adjusted their events to prior than Thursday. I need to do, I think, a better job this year of communicating our board meeting dates to those sites so they know ahead of time. For example, this evening, it wasn't the fault of anyone. They had that date picked. So again, we only had a couple evenings where we had events. So I haven't seen it to be unless ECAP sees differently.

[2638] SPEAKER_32: And I think because right now, they know that there are going to be some dates, but they just didn't know the exact dates. And so I know Mr. Quino is monitoring for the open house and the back to school night. So hopefully, we won't have conflict.

[2653] Elisa Martinez: No, I mean, that's a fair point. Obviously, the board was very gracious in making some accommodations. So if we needed to reassess, we can certainly do that. I think this has worked really well for staff as well, though, the Thursday meetings, just from a timing. So if you're all, I think we should just take that into consideration.

[2676] SPEAKER_22: I would add, I think that just to finish this school year out, the pattern now, I think they're kind of getting used to that. And I wouldn't recommend changing it again right now in the middle of the year. Maybe you visit it and revisit it again in the fall. But for right now, I wouldn't recommend changing the day. OK. But this is about the time, is what you're talking about. No, we're OK.

[2698] SPEAKER_44: OK, we're OK with the time, then. OK. So with that in mind, I move that we vote on 9.7 to set the schedule with the recommended dates, including only one meeting in January.

[2713] Ray Rodriguez: OK. You have a second?

[2716] SPEAKER_44: And, sorry, clarifying, are we keeping April 16? As is, as well, since that was a question mark.

[2726] Elisa Martinez: When is seconded?

[2727] SPEAKER_22: You always need one there. You're always going to need one there. I'd recommend that you have one in April.

[2733] Elisa Martinez: We do have one in April. April 2nd. Yeah, the second one.

[2736] SPEAKER_41: So I do have a see it to be an issue only having one in April. And I can't remember where spring break falls. I did speak more after that one.

[2743] SPEAKER_44: That being said, I'll reiterate my motion, which is to vote on item 9.7 to set the regular meeting dates with the recommended dates.

[2756] Ray Rodriguez: We have a second and then discussion. I second. Martina seconds. Student board member Castillo.

[2767] SPEAKER_02: Before I vote, I just wanted to say my recommendation, which it sounds like it wouldn't have gone well with everybody just based on what I've heard, But my suggestion would have been to set the 8th and the 22nd of both January and April, which are Wednesdays, just to keep with that two-meeting-a-month consistency, if it's the will of the board. But if January 16th by itself looks fine for everybody, then I guess that works. I just wanted to throw that out there, the 8th and the 22nd, to keep two meetings a month and to make sure they're not during any scheduled school breaks. But if the board wishes to keep what's on the staff recommendation, then I'm OK with that.

[2811] Ray Rodriguez: Can we look it up and see what the spring break is in April? Is that possible?

[2815] SPEAKER_44: It's right here on the calendar.

[2818] SPEAKER_02: It's the 13th through the 17th.

[2821] Elisa Martinez: For this break, were you referencing January?

[2824] SPEAKER_02: So I was referencing both. No, April. Both. Yeah.

[2826] Ray Rodriguez: Right. So we have had one in January in the past, and it just allows everybody to recoup. you know, after being off and everybody's back to school. So, but the April one, we can, I wouldn't have it during spring break. Can we move that one? Maybe have April 2nd and then April 9th instead?

[2853] SPEAKER_41: We also want to look at timing for staff also based on that with vacations and prepping the agenda and getting everything ready. to go as well for our staff. If we move it, some may have to come in during spring break to have their items ready to go.

[2868] Ray Rodriguez: Well, no, it would be before spring break.

[2870] Elisa Martinez: There would be two minutes, two meetings before spring break. I think we should leave it as is. I think, you know, as we get closer, I just leaned over to Superintendent Sanchez. I know that our data point for January was really heavy, but we had a lot of to the interim, if I remember correctly. I don't anticipate, I don't think any of us anticipate that we'll have to do that. So I'm comfortable with one in January, and then maybe as we start to see the load coming in into the early year, then we could choose to add another one in April, if you guys, if.

[2914] Ray Rodriguez: So we do have two in April, it's just that 16th is doing spring break. We don't have two? Yeah, the 16 is supposed to cancel. Well, you have April 2 and April 16.

[2927] Elisa Martinez: Do you want to move or only have one meeting?

[2929] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, so we would only have one April 2? OK, I'm fine with that.

[2934] Bowen Zhang: I got a question regarding the timing for the survey that we're going to do regarding the community support for the parcel tax and general obligation. When will that come back to us?

[2945] SPEAKER_22: We anticipate having that.

[2947] Leonor Rebosura: That's earlier, right?

[2948] SPEAKER_22: But before January, is my understanding.

[2951] Elisa Martinez: Like January, February. Early January.

[2955] Bowen Zhang: OK. And also, if I look at another interim report that says early spring, we've got to make decisions regarding what we're going to do with the school consolidation. So I would anticipate we're going to have a lot of load come January and February.

[2972] SPEAKER_22: And I'll address part of that in my report if it's coming. OK.

[2977] SPEAKER_44: So do we vote on the motion as is?

[2980] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, if you want to make a motion.

[2982] Vicenta Ditto: Again?

[2983] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, you already did? Yes. Okay. So let's vote. The motion was... The motion is to keep it as is, right?

[2993] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so just April 2nd, no April 16th. Right, exactly.

[2998] Ray Rodriguez: Hold on. Don't comment. Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Casillo. You want to vote again, please? Okay. Okay. Student Board Member Castillo-Volch, yes. Please vote. Motion passes with member Nguyen not here. Thank you. OK, now we go to the different committees and organizations that the board is involved in. I've had the pleasure to be on the RRP board on and off for a long time. So I'm the current rep taking Nancy Thomas' place. If somebody else wants it, I'm fine. If not, I'll keep it, and we can do an alternate. Anybody else want the RRP? OK. So seeing that, I'll stay on. And the current alternate is who? Martinez. Martinez. You OK? Yeah, I'm OK. OK, you're president now, so you get a little bit of a break if you don't want to be on any of these. OK, so I need a motion. It would be member Rodriguez will be the rep, and president Martinez would be the

[3097] SPEAKER_44: Alternate. I move that we vote to approve member Rodriguez as the rep and member Martinez as the alternate for the mission ROP.

[3112] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[3114] Ray Rodriguez: Member Martinez seconds. Student, there you go. Thank you. OK. Okay, we have the vote in of the student board member. Say yes. Please vote. Okay, motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next one is appointment. The SELPA. Again, this is one where I've been on it for a while and my alternate is Also member Martinez. So anybody want to be the rep to the SELPA, that special ed board that we have? OK, how about an alternate other than member Martinez, who's going to be the president next year? I mean, not next year, next couple weeks.

[3176] SPEAKER_22: Meetings tend to be in the morning. Right. That's why it's tough. So just so you're aware. When are the meetings? It's like one Wednesday. Every 2 months.

[3186] SPEAKER_41: I think that's a spreadsheet there, President Rodriguez, that has all of the frequency of the meetings on the bottom.

[3192] SPEAKER_44: Yeah. 9 to 11 AM. Yeah, those are tough for me.

[3195] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. So it's quarterly meetings, January. OK.

[3201] SPEAKER_22: But they don't meet that often. Yeah. Yeah. That's the other side.

[3205] SPEAKER_44: January, March, June, October.

[3206] Ray Rodriguez: I'm not going to a 9 AM meeting. Yes, you are. OK. So I'll stay on, and then maybe member Nguyen would like to take over some of these.

[3216] SPEAKER_41: She gave also on that sheet of paper, you'll see a highlight in yellow in which we have member wins choices of what committee she is able to attend.

[3226] Ray Rodriguez: OK, did you tell her that you had to be here in order for us to honor that? OK.

[3233] SPEAKER_44: Do we vote on SELPA?

[3236] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, let's vote on SELPA. So we'll just leave it the way it is, I guess.

[3241] SPEAKER_44: I kind of had in my mind another one.

[3245] Elisa Martinez: member Rodriguez usually, you know, covers. So I'll stay as alternate. Yeah, those are tough times to meet, but if we know it way in advance, then it should be fine.

[3256] SPEAKER_44: So I move that we approve member Rodriguez as representative and member Martinez as the alternate for SELPA.

[3265] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, I second. Mr. Castillo? Oh, wait a minute. Let me talk on it. What am I doing? OK. Open for voting. Let's do it again.

[3286] SPEAKER_25: OK.

[3293] Ray Rodriguez: One more time. Thank you, Mr. Castillo. OK. OK. Student board member Castillo says yes. Please vote. motion passes thank you unanimously. Okay appointment to the city lays on presently member Gutierrez and member John are the members and I would like to remain okay in this committee and this is one where member Nguyen wants to be on it also.

[3337] Bowen Zhang: Yeah so I can get off

[3339] Ray Rodriguez: You sure? You sure? Yeah. OK, you've got to do something, OK? So we'll find something for you to do, OK? OK, so I need a motion and a second. So it looks like it'd be member Gutierrez and member Nguyen.

[3361] Bowen Zhang: So I move that we appoint. Member Gutierrez as the representative for City School Liaison Committee and Member Nguyen as the alternate.

[3370] Ray Rodriguez: OK.

[3371] Bowen Zhang: Need a second? I just want to make a point that for this committee, even the alternate need to show up for everybody.

[3376] Ray Rodriguez: Right, right. And in this case, right, you both need to show up.

[3379] SPEAKER_44: I agree. I'll second it.

[3380] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez seconds. Mr. Castillo? OK, votes yes. OK, please vote. Okay motion passes with them and we're not here okay. Next. Appointment of board representative to East Bay induction consortium advisory Council. Is that we're at. Yes. Which is the old bits and it's an excellent committee and We get to see what our new teachers are doing and their mentors. And maybe this might be something for you. What do you think?

[3438] Bowen Zhang: Actually, just timing. I mean, the time is pretty challenging.

[3442] SPEAKER_39: What's the time on this one? 9 a.m.

[3445] Ray Rodriguez: Right.

[3446] Bowen Zhang: I mean, the evening meeting, like 5 or 7 p.m. would be like the more suitable one for me.

[3454] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. Anybody want to be an alternate on this one?

[3461] SPEAKER_44: OK. I can be an alternate if I can probably show up at 9, 39, 45.

[3470] Bowen Zhang: Does the alternate need to show up for everyone? For this committee?

[3475] Ray Rodriguez: No.

[3476] Bowen Zhang: OK. So that's a real back up for this case.

[3478] Ray Rodriguez: Right. OK. You two want to do it?

[3481] Bowen Zhang: No.

[3482] SPEAKER_44: I'm just having a minute. Is there an issue if I show up late?

[3488] Ray Rodriguez: I mean. No.

[3489] SPEAKER_44: OK. Then I can be an alternate. Yeah. Induction.

[3494] SPEAKER_22: Consortium. You're just in time.

[3497] Ray Rodriguez: OK. So who's going to be the member?

[3499] SPEAKER_35: I have to defend myself. Oh.

[3501] Ray Rodriguez: You're going to be the alternate or the member?

[3503] SPEAKER_44: I commit to an alternate.

[3506] Ray Rodriguez: How about you, Mr. Board Member Zhang?

[3510] Bowen Zhang: Oh, I just mentioned that 9 to 11 is just all the closing costs. OK.

[3514] SPEAKER_42: I think the assumption was that you that you would be the principal representative and Brigitte Harris would be your alternate.

[3526] Ray Rodriguez: Why don't we switch that? Two of us can be there.

[3534] SPEAKER_44: I will put my name as representative. I'll put my name as representative.

[3542] Ray Rodriguez: I'm probably going to be there anyway. So then when you come in, you come in.

[3546] SPEAKER_44: OK. So then I can stay as an alternate, and you can stay, and you can, or what's the difference?

[3551] Ray Rodriguez: No, no. It's just nice if you.

[3553] SPEAKER_44: So you want me to be the?

[3554] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah.

[3555] SPEAKER_44: OK. I'll stay as a rep and Ray the alternate?

[3557] Ray Rodriguez: There you go.

[3559] SPEAKER_44: OK. Thank you. So I move that we vote myself as a representative and Mr. Rodriguez as the alternate for the 9.11 Induction Consortium Advisory Council.

[3575] Ray Rodriguez: Right. And I second. OK.

[3582] SPEAKER_22: Working hard over there.

[3586] Ray Rodriguez: Open for voting. OK, Mr. Castillo, did you want to say anything?

[3595] SPEAKER_02: You're in the public committee. You just want to vote? No. OK. I'm going to say it. Why is that?

[3599] Ray Rodriguez: Good. Thank you. By the way. Okay, let's vote. Please vote. Okay, good. Member Jong. Okay, thank you. Okay, member Nguyen is back. Motion passes unanimously. Mr. Castillo, you can come to any one of these if you want to. Okay, if you're free and you want to come just to kind of check it out. Okay. I know you're busy with school and everything. You're going to college. You're busy. Yeah. You're going to college.

[3642] SPEAKER_44: We are not advocating for you to miss school.

[3644] Ray Rodriguez: Right.

[3648] Nancy Thomas: OK.

[3650] Ray Rodriguez: Next one.

[3653] SPEAKER_22: Where are we?

[3654] SPEAKER_39: 9.12.

[3655] Ray Rodriguez: OK. So this one to the audit committee, member Martinez and member Nguyen. On the audit committee, you want to stay on that?

[3670] Elisa Martinez: Yes. Right now, the, what are they? They're not bylaws, but the charter says that the president cannot be the chair of the audit committee. So you want to just switch it? Or Mr. Zhang maybe wants to do that one.

[3691] Ray Rodriguez: You want to do that one, Mr. Zhang? Sure, sure. I can do that.

[3694] Bowen Zhang: OK.

[3695] Phuong Nguyen: I'll be the alternate.

[3697] Bowen Zhang: So in this case, the alternate is a backup or alternate needs to show up for this?

[3703] SPEAKER_02: Both need to be there. Yes, it's two representatives. OK.

[3708] Phuong Nguyen: OK. So who's who?

[3710] Bowen Zhang: Bowen's the lead. And how many members are there on that committee?

[3719] SPEAKER_44: Board members?

[3720] Bowen Zhang: No, total together.

[3721] Elisa Martinez: Two board members and then

[3726] Phuong Nguyen: There's two community and one staff. There was two staff. Yeah. Or three, because Marie, Marie's.

[3734] SPEAKER_35: Oh no, I'm sorry, just two.

[3735] Phuong Nguyen: Yeah, two staff and then one community. There was two community.

[3740] SPEAKER_35: Two, yeah. Six.

[3743] Bowen Zhang: Okay. So I move I appoint myself as the representative for the Audit Committee and member Wynn as the alternate.

[3751] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, I second. Okay, Mr. Castillo.

[3762] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, student board member votes yes. Please vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay, so the next one is the one I mentioned This, we are going to have a 7-11 committee, but there's no board members on that. This is a committee to engage our community, and it's something we probably should have done a long time ago. But we'll have two board members on there, and then I've already got a list of other people that want to be on that. We'll go to different sites. We might coordinate it with site council and go to different schools. And all we're going to do is engage the community on anything that's going on with Newark Unified School District. And we could talk about, you know, what happens, the process for the 7-11 committee and school closures. We could talk about anything. But this is not a Brown Act committee. This is a board committee.

[3846] SPEAKER_44: I would like some clarification. Maybe this will be a conversation once the topic actually comes up, but maybe we could clarify that I don't personally think we have confirmed that we will be having a 7-11 committee, so I don't know if you want to leave that discussion for later.

[3864] SPEAKER_22: I agree. This would not be discussing school closure. This committee is, my understanding is...

[3870] SPEAKER_44: And I'm referring specifically to the comment of there will be, quote, quote, there will be a 711 committee. I want to just clarify that.

[3877] Ray Rodriguez: Right, OK. Agreed. To be determined. Yeah, we haven't determined that yet. Correct. Right. I agree.

[3881] SPEAKER_22: And I want to just clarify this committee couldn't discuss that because it's not.

[3885] Ray Rodriguez: This committee is just engaging the community on, you know, community and what's going on with the Newark Unified School District. It's a new committee. It's a new committee. This is a brand new committee.

[3899] SPEAKER_44: I don't mind being an alternate for this if there's somebody else.

[3902] Bowen Zhang: So can we talk about the normal, what is the duty for this, and the general hours for this one?

[3909] Ray Rodriguez: This is just going to be, we, once, I want to be on there, member Gutierrez. We'll have other community people want to be on there, and then we'll have a meeting, and then we'll just engage the community, like we might go to do it at a site council meeting in coordination with them and just, if they allow us, and just engage the community on events that are happening in Newark Unified School District.

[3939] Bowen Zhang: So this is in certain ways some flexible hours or it's generally happening in the afternoon?

[3944] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, no, it'll probably be in the evening.

[3946] Bowen Zhang: Okay. So I just wanted, I'm actually interested in getting on this committee because I'm only on one committee so far. Oh.

[3954] Elisa Martinez: Well, so I have a request to speak Thank you I'm totally okay, you know, you know, obviously you're expressing your your desire to be on it The trouble is what are we what is this? I mean, it just seems like premature So we need to shape it. We've talked about it. So I would ask that we bring this item back Just take if you wanted to take a stab member President Rodriguez And whomever else, you know, or any one of us can do that. Let's just give it shape, would be my recommendation. And that way, you know, if it's enough, maybe if there's multiple board members, if you're going to have folks rotating through or one member or something like that.

[3999] Ray Rodriguez: I can clear that up. My vision for this committee would be that it would start with, let's say, two board members. It could be myself and member of the chairs. But the whole board would be part of it. member Martinez if you wanted to go and and I couldn't make it or you told me can I can I take your place at this one because it's going to be held at your school or whatever this is flexible so we can't have more than two board members there okay and so even though we're gonna have a name of a rep and an alternate it could be any one of us that's the way I envision it yeah we can rotate It's just a way for us to engage our community, that's all.

[4047] SPEAKER_44: To that, I do, I would like to ask Member Martinez if, do you still want to bring it back with more clarity or do you want to move forward?

[4058] Elisa Martinez: I'm just one, I will ask the, you know, the rest of the members, what do you, are you comfortable voting as is or would you, with that clarity?

[4068] SPEAKER_02: I think I'd also like to see more clarity on what exactly the intent of this committee is. I think as it stands right now, this agenda item is very bare bones. It lays out a concept and no concrete details on which the committee will act. And that's not to disparage it in any way, just saying that we need to flesh this idea out in more detail before we present it to the community. Also wondering what the, specifically what the potential outcomes of any discussion will be and what it's gonna look like. I heard President Rodriguez mentioned it's not a Brown Act committee, it's a board committee, so I just wanted some clarification on that as well, to understand what sorts of discussion is permitted. And yeah, I'd just like to see it in more clarity before we move on this. Okay, you wanna bring it back?

[4117] Elisa Martinez: I would feel more comfortable. Sure. I would feel more comfortable.

[4119] SPEAKER_39: Okay.

[4120] SPEAKER_44: And to that, then, I would like to add that if we can bring it back with possible dates already, so we can have as is dates and times that we will meet, and then probably a description of what the purpose of the committee will be. OK.

[4138] Elisa Martinez: Most other committees do have some description and objective behind it. So I think we do need to do some description.

[4144] SPEAKER_22: Yeah, I'll do some help with that. Staff can help. OK. No problem.

[4149] Ray Rodriguez: Because this is something that a large member of our community wants, an opportunity to engage, even if it's two board members. And I hate to have it just go away.

[4159] Elisa Martinez: I agree. But to student member Castillo's point, I think part of it is also managing expectations of the public when we say we're going to have this, what is allowed to be discussed so that they know that we're not going to be solving necessarily issues right then and there. So I think that is important.

[4180] Ray Rodriguez: OK. So we'll bring it back. Well, you'll bring it back.

[4187] SPEAKER_44: We will bring it back. To that, I do want to comment that if any more members who have not signed up for anything would like to assist with the East Bay Induction Consortium Advisory Council, I'm more I'm going to do this one. Can I be your co lead. I right now.

[4238] Elisa Martinez: you know, occupational situation may change. So is that even possible?

[4244] SPEAKER_32: You know, what I could do is I can talk with Ms. Rebusura, see if there's a way that we could adjust the time. I know that this is done because there's a couple of teachers who also participate. There's other school personnel. But there might be a way to maybe make it later in the afternoon. I'm not quite sure. But we could look at that as well.

[4264] SPEAKER_44: And then for my sake, even if I have that flexibility where if I were to say, hey, I can't make it today, If another... You always have that flexibility.

[4271] SPEAKER_22: Okay. Thanks. For all these committees. Okay.

[4275] Ray Rodriguez: With that, we'll look forward to President Martinez bringing this back in a couple weeks. Okay, now we go to public comment on non-agenda items 10.1. We have four individuals that put in for this. Is Ms. Michaels still here? Marguerite? OK. If I get you her number, can you reach out to her and see?

[4316] Elisa Martinez: Is that customary?

[4317] Ray Rodriguez: No.

[4317] Elisa Martinez: Maybe they can come back to the next meeting.

[4319] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, somebody let her know that we'll welcome her back. I'll reach out to her. OK. Thank you. OK, Ms. Silvera, then Mr. Medina, and Ms. Lopez, Arroyo, and Torres.

[4341] SPEAKER_37: Hi, everyone. Hi. You know me, I guess. I'm Angela Silvera. I am the town's president. And I have three kids in elementary school. I'm coming to you today to talk again about the grading rubric or the new report cards. We are what we do repeatedly. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit, Aristotle. Does our new elementary grading system allow for excellence to become a habit? No. It allows our students to strive to meet standards, not exceed. But they no longer need to challenge themselves, and they no longer need to challenge themselves to go above and beyond, because the system will never show that. Alone, we can do so little. Together, we can do so much. Helen Kebler. Together, this word is so important to me. My three children's teachers I consider to be my partners in their education. But this new grading or this pilot grading report card, which is said to be standards-based, doesn't actually show all the standards. For example, I took my eldest son's fifth grade report card And I put it next to the English language arts standards. There were 11 standards for English language arts. But if you go to the actual standards, there are 44 standards and 44 substandards, meaning that 88 standards are represented in 11. To me, this is not sufficient. If we're in this together, shouldn't we as parents be given more information, not less? I understand. that having 88 standards on a report card is ridiculous, as I was a teacher, and that would be way too much. But I think less is not more in this case. Here's what I request. A grading system that encourages excellence by either going back to a four-point rubric or changing the three-point rubric to allow for an exceeding standards option. If that's not a possibility, then I'm requesting a GATE program be reinvigorated in Newark Unified. Because if we can't show it on the report card, then we need to allow the students that can excel a place to excel. I also request that a report card that allows parents to help their children and does so in all areas that they need help, not ones that put four to eight standards under one giant umbrella. Because to me, our community, who wants the best for their children, needs to know how to help their children do the best. Thank you. Thank you.

[4522] Ray Rodriguez: OK, Mr. Medina. Good evening. Welcome.

[4536] SPEAKER_06: Good evening, everyone. I'm here today to talk a little bit about definitely something that happens in Newark a lot. And it's unfortunate that we always continue to keep our students just the minimum. And we're not going beyond what we could do as a community, as teachers, and as administrators. I think we have to be able to keep them the best, not the minimum. Um, it's time for us to, you know, you started the meeting talking about, it has to be about the kids, but for the last 25 years, 30 years, it hasn't been about the kids. It's been about people in the community who will tell you, I vote for you. I'm going to get you out. You know, I've been here a year and a half trying to tell you, I'm here to help. I just to tell you what, what, what I feel, but I think people that are in leadership and we voted for you. I mean, I voted for Ms. Martinez, but I voted, you know, for Mr. Reyes at one time. Um, and, but we have to make sure that things are getting done with the most, um, out of, um, out of the, um, understanding that we got to give them the best. We talked about the implementation of our new program coming in. of an emerging program. Here's a flyer that's going around already throughout our community from the New Haven. So they're already trying to get our kids, which probably, I'm sure, Fremont did it. And that's how we lost kids, too. So we're always behind. Seems that we're always behind because of the decision making that the board has made. And not literally you guys, because you guys are pretty much babies. And I understand some of the decision making that are very tough. But I think we have to make sure that you guys reach out to parents every day, not just when you need us, not when you guys are going to go and close schools. But a year ago, we talked here about finances. And we had some great ideas. And none of them ideas got put together. Because the decision, and those are accountable to you guys. Because those times, you guys were here. I want you guys to understand accountability. Stand up. Don't just sit there, you know. The other part is the immersion program. Talk to parents. Make sure everyone's on board. Expect three to five years transition. The kids are going to sometimes fail. You've got to tell that to parents, you know. Don't just think about the immersion program that's going to be successful because you have to put money into it. Books, teachers, qualified teachers. You know, we already have enough programs that are understaffed, special ed programs that are understaffed. How do you not think about that? Please think about that. And I appreciate the time, but I had a lot more, but I might come back to you later about that. Thank you.

[4728] SPEAKER_42: Thank you.

[4734] Ray Rodriguez: Ms. Lopez, Ms. Arroyo, and Ms. Torres. So you normally get three minutes, but since there's three of you, you got up to nine. And most of the time when there's more than one person come up, they normally take about five minutes.

[4751] SPEAKER_31: We'll be faster than nine minutes.

[4753] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, OK. We got one card. Did you want to fill out a separate card? OK, you OK?

[4762] SPEAKER_31: Good evening, everyone. It's nice to see everyone here sitting today. So this is where some of the members of the Latinx committee, and we just wanted to repeat a little bit of what we said last time. We wanted to say thank you to superintendent for all the good projects that he supported us, especially in working with for underserved students. One of them was the proposal that we know it's already moving for the NUSD Community Research Center, which is very fundamental, a fundamental piece to establishing a collaboration partnership between parents, school, and community. Thank you for that, because we know also the staff is already working on that. And also, the second one is for the implementation for next year for the Spanish Immersion Program. And why not in the near future, just like New Haven is doing it, the Mandarin or probably the Punjabi Immersion Program here in our city as well. Also, for the support and collaboration with the Latinx Committee to put together that that big event where we were able to put together some important evidence of the highest needs of especially this community, which at the end, we as part of that community probably don't talk too much or show up very often to the board meetings or check every agenda, but we do definitely take actions with our kids. You know, for example, supporting the parents, supporting special in the morning, in their schools. And also to let you know that we have been still working already for a few years as a group also, promotores group, working for the most needed students and their families as well. We wanted also to make some suggestions, more than recommendations, but as we just realized right now that you've been working on those and we're very happy and we're very proud. Some of the issues that came out in the 14-15 through the Alameda County grant duty final report. So thank you very much because we know that the new phases and the new members are working on that very much. Like the culture of interference, crisis in leadership, the noncompliance with its own rules, ineffective fiscal oversight, and all the recommendations that they did. So thank you very much because we need all those updates. And the very last but not least is that we also like to see the changes and to change the old practices to new habits and new practices because after all, it's for all the kids. And it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay. We can be accountable for our actions. There's nothing wrong with that. We can have also new people at high positions make mistakes. But as long as we don't repeat him so much and very often, we're fine. Thank you very much. We believe in you. We have our hopes in you. Thank you for bringing new ideas. And there is nothing else, but we need changes. Thank you very much.

[4960] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. So just for clarification, we normally try to do the public comment on non-gender items around 8 o'clock. So we ran late because of all the committees. And that's why I thought it would be if superintendent could reach out to Ms. Michael and of course she was here. And then the other thing is for Mr. Castillo, that committee that we're going to bring back, I was going to ask that either you or I'd like to have two students on there.

[5004] SPEAKER_02: I can take it back to ASB and see if anybody else is willing to join, preferably an underclassman. I'd like to get someone involved as well.

[5010] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

[5013] SPEAKER_22: OK, superintendent's report. Thank you, President Rodriguez, President Martinez, members of the board. This is the only night we have two presidents, so have to have some fun with that. President-elect. President-elect, President Emeritus. I only have a couple of items. First of all, we need to look at the proposed study session sequence because I know that, do they have that document, Char? It was an attachment in the agenda, but I don't need you to do it right now. But I do want to look at the sequence of what's there. I know we did have a request from Member John to try to do the Measure G sooner than later. But there was a more pressing item that I think President Rodriguez wanted to bring forward, which was the transfer policy. So that kind of pushed it back. So just take a look at that and give us your feedback.

[5069] SPEAKER_44: I have a question. Is that what enrollment is, transfer policy?

[5071] Diego Torres: Yes. Right.

[5073] SPEAKER_44: And specifically to students transferring to our school?

[5078] Ray Rodriguez: Would you like us to get more clarification and to have a study session on it?

[5081] SPEAKER_22: Associate Superintendent Salinas clarify kind of the idea of what that was.

[5084] Leonor Rebosura: After we vote on it.

[5087] Ray Rodriguez: Right? No.

[5087] SPEAKER_44: She just wants to know what it is. OK. No problem.

[5093] SPEAKER_32: So at the last board meeting and tonight, we're bringing for second reading the inter and the intra district transfers. So it's a timely item. Speaking to the dual immersion comment, we need to have this in place so that we can keep the momentum going. So these are the policies that had to be in place. At the time of the first reading, there was a question and also want to have a deeper discussion about enrollment. And so the proposal was to do a study session on enrollment. My hope is that we do accept the policies tonight at second reading because those need to be in place in respect of dual immersion, but that the conversation at the table for the study session would be on enrollment, capacity, transfers in, transfers out, kind of more of a data discussion on how many and how many are coming, how many are leaving.

[5141] SPEAKER_44: The reason why I ask is because I understand the urgency in regards to approving the policies. But my restorative justice has been getting pushed back and pushed back and pushed back. And I think it's important. That's what I want to know. What is so important in regards to open enrollment? Is it just teaching us what the process is? Because if that's the case, I think it's more important that we find out more about how our students are possibly getting punished And especially since we had to deal with a lot of expulsions and things of that sort. So that one is related to that.

[5176] Ray Rodriguez: So mine on the enrollment is we're still looking to grow, even though projections say that we're not going to grow. We're still looking to grow. And if you have a seamless way that we do things, so for our new board members, so they can find out how a parent that's living in the Lincoln area that wants to have their child move to the Kennedy area, the steps they have to go through, and then a parent from, that's coming from Union City, let's say, to here. It just, the more we understand how that works, the easier it is for us to make any changes to it if we need to, or so that we can, it would be a way for us to grow. But I don't have a problem with yours being first. I don't have a problem with that.

[5233] SPEAKER_22: If I may clarify. And I think this is kind of the idea of what Shara and I were after because we know these are all urgent items to some degree. I mean, this affects enrollment, affects our bottom line, and affects the district. but also some things have been hanging for a while. Now, you do have some options. You might be able to pair two and have a longer study session and put both in the same sequence so it doesn't have to keep waiting. You can do a two-hour study session if you needed to, or maybe do a little more bartering on, I'd like to do that next. So my suggestion is to map out the rest of the school year with study sessions. That way, you have a firm date of when it's going to happen and try not to tamper with it, but sometimes these other things come up. So however you want to handle that, but I do understand that these are things that have been hanging in fire for a while.

[5286] Bowen Zhang: So speaking a little bit more.

[5290] Elisa Martinez: Just a question, and Associate Superintendent Salinas, regarding the policies around enrollment Just from a timing, do we need to get something approved for other things that you're having? Because I think that we should do that. So if we wanted to do restorative justice, then I would recommend let's keep that. But then let's just make a longer study session. I know it's not ideal to have a long.

[5323] SPEAKER_44: But that's why I wanted clarification. Because the policies that are currently in place on our agenda we have to vote on today which is why I was basically my question was is this study session contingent on these and they're not not not we're thinking we can

[5341] SPEAKER_32: It was more I think the clarity so parents understood the process more and have the board understand that process There's only two changes on the policies that are tonight for second reading per CSBA But those need to be in place so I can send out those nice shiny postcards that you haven't sent out and And so that was the ask. And so, and I know that we also had moved, I believe measure G had actually been set for December 19th. And so that was the other piece too.

[5378] Bowen Zhang: Speaking of Measure G, the study session, I just want to have a small request. Are we going to delay that until January? I just hope we have that study session before we vote again on anything related to Measure G regarding the HVAC or roof repair.

[5393] SPEAKER_22: And I can definitely assure you that it's something that I'm going to be working on to deliver as part of a larger conversation for Measure G. And that gives me a little more time to do it. You can do it as a staff report, too. So yeah, I'll be working on that. I'll be working on that. OK? So I just wanted to, but as you have those requests, I think then it's, what I'm hearing is let's leave restorative justice where it is. And then we will work to bring Measure G in soon. And that kind of gives us a little bit of clarity. So we'll draft something. I would recommend we leave it where it is for now. But I do recommend that we approve the policy.

[5434] SPEAKER_44: Where are you set? I would say move restorative justice to enrollment.

[5442] SPEAKER_22: Oh, I was saying, let me look at the... Can we do it together?

[5446] Ray Rodriguez: How much enrollment would be in maybe a half hour? We can do it with an update too, just so the new board members know exactly the way. I just think that since that's geared to us growing, we're really losing parents, like we have

[5465] SPEAKER_22: So if I may, let me clarify further. The enrollment update was separate from the item that Associate Salinas wanted to talk to, so we know that. But the board will get a lot more questions about enrollment as we head into some of these transitions and heading into next year. I think it's OK to leave it on the 19th. And maybe what we do is bring enrollment in January. We could flip them. That's still pretty soon. And then you could still, then you would do restorative justice sooner in enrollment early January. I don't think that is too late on the enrollment side. Because if we look to enrollment, we're really looking towards next fall. Is that kind of what you were thinking?

[5504] Elisa Martinez: And it's a communication more than anything, right?

[5507] SPEAKER_22: Right. So if I would recommend just flipping them, I think that satisfies what you're after for right now. And it buys us some time to map out the rest of the year.

[5516] SPEAKER_32: And I anticipate we will, just like with the counselors, Here's an idea. If we were to do restorative justice on the 19th, we aren't going to have all of the information that night. And I think it's going to be more like the counselors where we need to have a deeper discussion. Also, I'm thinking about staffing because I know it's the day before the winter break. So it may be a little difficult, but we'll be here and be able to bring the information. And then maybe we follow up at a later date. an update on restorative justice and the counselors presentation. And they would, the social emotional and the academic. I don't know, I'm just kind of thinking about future for late spring. That would be an idea.

[5553] SPEAKER_22: Okay. Thank you. Then we can work with the president elect and vice president elect on sorting that out. My next item is we do need two representatives for the Godby bond survey consultant to work with the consultant that we've hired. So I just need two names. They'll reach out to you and work with two members of the board on shaping the contents of the survey. And it's like, so who would like to do that?

[5584] Bowen Zhang: That young man right there. So can we talk about, so what will be the more specific duty? We're just shaping the language on the survey?

[5593] SPEAKER_22: Shaping the questions that will be on the survey is my understanding.

[5597] Bowen Zhang: That's important. Yes. Is that related with the general obligation bond and the parcel tax?

[5602] SPEAKER_22: This is the survey that we approved through Godbey to do the viability and feasibility of a bond slash parcel.

[5609] Bowen Zhang: And I thought that we said early in January, they're going to bring us back the results. So we don't know.

[5616] SPEAKER_22: But that's why we need your names now.

[5618] Bowen Zhang: I see.

[5618] Nancy Thomas: Do you want to be part of it?

[5620] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I can do that. Yes. OK. Bowen, who else?

[5624] SPEAKER_44: I can be part of it.

[5626] SPEAKER_22: OK. I like the way you pointed it out. OK, so Bowen and Lucia, Bowen and Mr. Zhang, and Ms. Member Gutierrez, please. OK, that's all I needed.

[5638] SPEAKER_44: Yeah, they're just asking questions.

[5639] SPEAKER_22: They're going to help you work with them to shape it. OK. Thank you. Got it? OK, that concludes my report, President Rodriguez. Thank you, superintendent.

[5652] Ray Rodriguez: OK, staff report. is next. Ms. Dela Cruz.

[5670] Marie dela Cruz: So in this staff report, the approval letter from the county based on our adopted budget is attached. This closes the loop on the adopted budget that was conditionally approved and the board had taken action. We did a study session and approved a resolution to meet the conditions and identified budget reductions. And so this just closes the loop and informs the board of the approval of our adopted budget.

[5701] Ray Rodriguez: And I sent a copy to the board earlier today. And I thought I sent one a few weeks ago. But I don't want to read the letter because it's about two or three pages. Did you want to say anything else on it, or?

[5718] Marie dela Cruz: Well, it basically says that, yes, that we have met all of the conditions and the county is satisfied with the adopted budget based on the submission, the submittal that we sent to the board. Thank you. Thank you much. To the county.

[5735] Ray Rodriguez: OK. So we move to employee organizations. Anyone from NTA? Anyone from CSCA? And anyone from NEWMA?

[5744] Elisa Martinez: Sorry, so do we actually, is this just a staff report?

[5749] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, that was just a staff report. No action. Yeah, no action. Just information. Sure, thank you. Okay. Okay, so no one employee organizations, all business. 14.1, board policy and administrative regulation 511161, inter-district second reading. Open enrollment second reading. I want to do separately because they're here separately associate superintendent Salinas if you want to address this.

[5784] SPEAKER_32: Yes, we bring these forward for a second that we can put on our website and more parent friendly. So we're also working on that piece as well.

[5822] Phuong Nguyen: I do have a comment, I'm still in disagreement on the selection procedures for the immersion school on AR 5116.1 and the selection procedures number 3. I don't think that having a lottery process I think it's a good idea for the students applying to enroll. I think that it should be first come first serve because you want to take the element of any discrepancies out of the lottery, especially when you have, because of the last sentence, late applicants can be added to the wait list, and then you're just adding another element of liability on top of that. So I think that if you just take that completely out and just you know first come first serve you have your wait your list and then go off of there for your wait list if I may.

[5879] SPEAKER_35: Member member when what section where you're looking sorry it's it.

[5886] Phuong Nguyen: It is on page. 8. And it's item number 3. And it's AR5116.1. Enrollment priorities? Under selection procedures. Do you see it? No.

[5915] SPEAKER_25: Yeah, selection procedures.

[5919] Phuong Nguyen: And then number three, in the green, where the floor is crossed. Yeah. you know I thought about it a little bit more after the discussion after him. After and I just really.

[5945] SPEAKER_44: I guess if I if I may add. And to get clarification at the understanding here is. If there are. However, if there is applicants, they're going to go to the very end, but in that particular order of late applicants.

[5970] Phuong Nguyen: Yeah, but you're just adding an element. But I'm hearing that there's a proposal to do first come first serve. To eliminate. Instead of lottery.

[5979] Bowen Zhang: Last meeting, I made that comment about the appearance of better late than unlucky.

[5986] Phuong Nguyen: Yes, that's exactly it.

[5987] Bowen Zhang: So I think we sort of get some conflicting, like, conclusion from that meeting, and then certain members of the committee are also rightfully confused. I still wonder, could there be a possibility that a lottery loser who applied in time getting put into the line behind the late appliers?

[6008] SPEAKER_44: It doesn't seem like it, because the scenario that it gave is we have the students that applied on time, and then there's this pool of 10 students that are extra. So these 10 students are going to put in on a random lottery. So then there's going to be 1 through 10. And then anybody late would then be 11, 12, 13.

[6025] Phuong Nguyen: I know, but he's saying that. But his example was that.

[6029] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so for example, we have five spots. And then before the deadline, 10 people apply. So we know due to the lottery process, five of them will be losers, will be the unlucky losers, right? OK. And then we also have this. What happens to the applicants, say 11 applicants who apply later than the deadline? What would that 11th player be? Is he on the front of the waiting line, or is he at the back of the waiting line?

[6054] SPEAKER_32: He's at the back. He has to be at the back. He's at the back. But you would have the, we do not have to do the lottery. So remember, these are our recommendations. If the board comes to consensus and has that preference, we're not tied to the lottery.

[6064] Phuong Nguyen: Because originally, when it was explained to us, there was confusion. And that's why member Zhang made that comment. It's better to be late than unlucky. Better to be late than unlucky. And I thought about that, and that's why I asked, and again, to clarify, and she did, no, it's fine. So when I went home, and I'm like, why do we even put that element in there? Because, I mean.

[6093] SPEAKER_32: this is what some districts do. And so we're following CSBA language. But again, we don't have to do that. And I think that's precisely why boards, knowing our community, having those ideas, having the experiences as parents in our district, can make those kinds of changes.

[6111] SPEAKER_44: Yeah, absolutely. I don't mean to go against what you're saying. I'm trying to just understand. So let's say we go to the scenario which is there's only five spots available. We have 10 applicants. They're going to go in a lottery, which means random. So one through five, and this is, I'm picturing, so one through five get on the wait list. The next ones should still be on another list.

[6131] Phuong Nguyen: Yeah, but how do you determine those other five kids who are in the lottery that didn't get picked? So do you pick all 10 numbers and then the top five go into this lot?

[6143] SPEAKER_44: So my understanding of a lottery is like a raffle. You just pick out a number, right? Correct. So then we have one through 10, and it could be whoever the first five, right? The next ones get put on a wait list. So then anybody late would be behind that. That's correct. So I don't understand what the liability is.

[6162] Phuong Nguyen: Well, because in the language, it doesn't clarify all of the possible scenarios of how a lot of it is.

[6172] Bowen Zhang: Like I said, that's a seemingly appearance of how that's not.

[6175] Phuong Nguyen: Exactly. It's too general, right? So if you get a parent who's very articulate and is willing to fight for their child to come in, they're going to argue your point. How are you going to answer when the wording here is so general? So if you take out those elements of, you know, generalness, then you can, and it's detailed enough, we can't, there's no argument.

[6200] Bowen Zhang: So under the current system, before we have a deadline of, say, applying for intradistrict transfer, right? So by the time we have a deadline, so we say we have, we're oversubscribed, therefore a lottery is required. And before you draw the lottery, could there be any applicant that applies that will be considered a late applicant?

[6224] SPEAKER_14: After you do the lottery?

[6226] Bowen Zhang: No, before you do the lottery. So right after the deadline, but before you do the lottery. Right after the deadline, if you're still applying, you will be considered late, right?

[6236] SPEAKER_14: If you miss the deadline?

[6237] Bowen Zhang: If you miss the deadline, you'll be considered late, and you will be in the waiting line, right? Are you going to be on the wait list at this point?

[6242] SPEAKER_14: Well, at this point, we can put you all the way in the bottom, but then you probably won't make it into the school, because all the numbers that are above you will be enrolled. You know, all those students come before you. Does that make sense?

[6257] SPEAKER_44: You can change it. Yeah. I understand, and I think to me it would be clear, but for the sake of making it easier, I think what you're saying for comfort serve and just going based off that list might take away that element of confusion.

[6271] SPEAKER_22: What I can share with you, having experience with this in my prior role, if the board wants to do a wait list, I think that's good. Either way, you will be lobbied. If this is successful, you're going to be lobbied either way, and your best defense First come, first serve, we're sticking to that. We're doing lottery, sticking to that. You can't change it once you start it. So this is the time to have the argument. So I think that if the board feels that they could approve this with the amendment that is first come, first serve, then we can stick to that. That's easy.

[6302] Ray Rodriguez: OK, so let me, go ahead. Did you want to say something? Yeah. That's OK.

[6309] SPEAKER_02: Go ahead. So with regards to first come, first serve versus the lottery system, to be blunt, I think first come, first serve makes more sense. When we're talking about education, and we're talking about parents wanting to put their children into the best possible school, those who submit their applications earlier, and those who are on top of the paperwork, and those who are willing to go out of their way to make sure the application is submitted on time, should have... They should be recognized before those people who maybe don't have, aren't necessarily on top of their game, or for whatever reason didn't submit the application before anybody else. So I think we should go with first come, first serve to eliminate any possible confusion with this lottery.

[6364] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. And I don't like the term lottery, other than the lottery that gets us money. first-come first-serve is just very clean to me and so everybody's spoken so I need a motion and a second.

[6382] SPEAKER_44: Before the motion is made I would like to clarify the language so we would first sentence would say I want to read it just sure if the student if the student applications if the student applications to enroll in school are greater than the opening available enrollment in the school of choice shall be determined by first-come first-serve. I think that will be added right there. Is that correct?

[6412] SPEAKER_32: And then so yes, and then in terms of the dual immersion, it would also speak to, because remember, we're doing target languages. So there's really two lists, just for clarity's sake, specifically dual immersion, where we need native English speakers and native Spanish speakers and the bilingual, because we do a third, a third, a third. So yes, we would do that. Would you want to keep the language about late applicants can be added to the waiting list in the order in which they apply? That's after approval.

[6442] Ray Rodriguez: That's cleaner, I think. OK, motion and a second.

[6448] SPEAKER_44: So to that, I move that we vote with the amended language as I read.

[6453] Ray Rodriguez: OK. You don't want to read it again?

[6455] SPEAKER_44: Yes, I can if you need me to.

[6458] Ray Rodriguez: No, go ahead if you don't mind. We don't want to read it?

[6459] SPEAKER_44: Yeah, just to be clear. So I move that we vote on this with the amendment to change language on the section stating applications to multiple sites simultaneously is prohibited. No, sorry. To the sections stating selection procedures, number three states, if the student application to enroll in schools, any school are greater than the opening available, enrollment in the school of choice shall be determined by a first come, first serve.

[6491] Ray Rodriguez: Excellent. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[6492] SPEAKER_44: Late applicants can be added to the wait list in order in which they apply.

[6496] Ray Rodriguez: Got it. Okay. Student board member? Oh.

[6504] Bowen Zhang: I guess. Is there a motion? Yeah, we're doing first come, first serve. Then, well, I guess.

[6510] Ray Rodriguez: We have a motion. Did you want to make a second? Then keep, you can keep talking if you want to make a second.

[6515] Bowen Zhang: Do we still need a word late in that first come, first serve?

[6518] SPEAKER_02: Late applicants? Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I think if the language says, shall be determined by the order in which the applications were received, I think that and, you know, I don't know. I think like when it comes to like late applications, you know, if we just have that, it includes everything. I don't know. That's my opinion.

[6543] SPEAKER_42: You're saying it's redundant. Right. Yeah. I think that's right.

[6546] SPEAKER_44: Yeah. However, I do agree with you. Sometimes more is OK when it comes to words because there will be that, well, I'm late or not, et cetera. And it doesn't hurt.

[6557] Ray Rodriguez: So you made the motion? Yeah. OK. I need a second, please. I second. OK. Any more discussion?

[6565] Carina Plancarte: No.

[6566] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Please vote. Mr. Castillo first. I'm so sorry. Motion yes. Everybody else, please vote.

[6580] Penny DeLeon: Thank you.

[6581] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. 14.2. Need a motion and a second. Hold on.

[6606] Sean Abruzzi: This is first reading.

[6609] Ray Rodriguez: No, they're both second readings.

[6610] SPEAKER_22: OK. They're just titled that way on the attachment.

[6614] SPEAKER_44: OK. There were no changes to the last one.

[6619] Ray Rodriguez: So this is Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5117, Inter-District Attendance, Second Reading. Does anybody want to make any changes on this one? Do we have the similar situation on this one? I did read through it, but I didn't read it word by word. Because there's a lot of stuff in there.

[6640] SPEAKER_44: I don't read everything.

[6642] Ray Rodriguez: I know. No, there wasn't. You read everything. There wasn't a section. There was not. Maybe that's why I'm retiring this year.

[6649] SPEAKER_44: I move that we vote on item 14.2. Board Policy and Administrative Policy Regulation 5117, Inter-District Attendance, second reading.

[6659] Bowen Zhang: I second.

[6661] Ray Rodriguez: Got a motion and a second. Mr. Castillo. Okay, votes yes. Open for voting. Please vote, everybody. All right. Perfect. Motion passes unanimously. OK. Now we get to the big item on the agenda. First interim report. Ms. Dela Cruz. Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Newt.

[6701] Cary Knoop: I was afraid you were going to forget me.

[6703] SPEAKER_35: You were gone.

[6707] Cary Knoop: Good evening.

[6708] SPEAKER_26: Did you bring us coffee?

[6710] Cary Knoop: No, I didn't. I'm so sorry. I just want to quickly talk about the budget. First of all, I would like to say that the narrative of the budget before the sex reports is really nice. This is really informative. It shows the differences between budget and the first interim. It lists the items we want to consider or enact on for the budget cuts. So it's all there, and I thought it was really great to see that in that format. So thanks very much for that. There's one major concern I have about the budget cuts. And there's about, what is it, $500,000 for a buying stop or buying halt halfway. Is that the right terminology? Halfway during the school years, we basically stop buying things, right? That's kind of painting with a very big brushstroke. You know, that's more like wishful thinking, I think. I don't think, I see it happening. I see principals coming rushing to the district office and say, we need to fix this. The PTA is trying to help. We need paper. We need printers. We need this. So yeah, it's wonderful if you can do it, but I don't think it's very realistic. It's more like a wishful thinking that that's $500,000. The other two things is I really like this idea of putting our assets to work. And I know that the interim CBO had some great ideas. You know, if we, within the confines of the law, but also within the confines of the spirit of the law, can do these things, that we put Lance to work for leasing long term or, you know, put Whiteford to work. I think that's great and that's worth the investment if we need somebody to, you know, look into this. The other thing, what was the other thing? Well, I kind of got a brain lapse here. I don't remember the other budget cut item, but I think that's a very important one to list. Again, I'm very optimistic about the way the information is presented. I really think that this is really helpful for everybody. And I think we're a little bit lucky in the sense that last year was a lot better than we would have, you know, feared. And that gives us a little bit of a cushion and hopefully the enrollment will go up, you know, and then we can sort of like survive. Thanks a lot. Five ayes.

[6885] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you. 15.1, staff recommends approval of the 2019-2020 first interim report with positive certification. Ms. Delacruz.

[6903] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, President Rodriguez, members of the board. It's my pleasure to present to you the first interim financial report, my first official report here at Newark Unified. Most of the information that I'm going to review with you tonight is in the executive summary that's included in the first interim report. So the first interim report covers the period of July 1 through October 31st. It is a snapshot of our budget as of October 31st, 2019. We'll be reviewing our revenues and expenditures that have been forecasted for the current year as compared to the adopted budget, which was the last time the board reviewed our budget. It includes a multi-year projection for the two subsequent years, 2021 and 2122. And we need to certify whether we are positive, qualified, or negative. Positive means that we will be able to meet our obligations in the current year and the next two years. Qualified means that we may not be able to meet our obligations in the current year or any of the 2 subsequent years. And then negative means that we will not be able to meet our financial obligations for the rest of the current year or the next fiscal year. And we're required to submit this report to the Alameda County Office of Education by December 16th. So first of all, in looking at our revenues, we have a total of $66.9 million in revenues. And of that, $1.6 million is carryover from last year. And we've also received some adjustments in our allocations in the federal and other local revenue. And the governor has approved a $400 one-time funds in the Early Intervention Special Ed Preschool Program, which our district is estimated to receive about $404,000.

[7034] SPEAKER_44: Yes? Regarding the 404K, do we need to apply for that or is that guaranteed to us?

[7040] Marie dela Cruz: It's guaranteed based on the number of students. Thank you. And as you can see, the local control funding formula is the main source of revenue, which is 82%. And so what that looks like, the LCFF calculator does include several components. We get a base grant based on our ADA. And right now, our ADA is $5,567. And the grant gives us about $7,700 to $9,300 per ADA. And we get a grade span adjustment which is for class size reduction in the TK through 3rd grade and also for CTE programs in the grades 9 through 12, the high school. We don't receive anything for the necessary small school and we receive supplemental grants for the English learners, low income and foster youth students. And anything above 56 or 55%, and we're at 56 about, it's like 55.5, we receive concentration grant. So the supplemental and concentration grant is about 10% of our LCFF, it's about 5.6 million. And then we also get 810,000 for home to school transportation and the improvement block grant. And then there's also the restricted property taxes under special ed, which is about $332,000. So all together, our LCFF is about $54.8 million. And in our expenditures, this is the general fund only. It's a total of $69 million. As you can see, 80% of our total we're going to talk a little bit about some of the things that we're going to be looking at in terms of expenditures is salaries and benefits. And that represents about 482 fte's full-time equivalent. 482. we have about 293 fte's and So it's about a 61, 30 to 9% split. So 61% is teachers, 30% is classified, and 9% of our salaries and benefits is management. And then the other 20% is services and operating expenses, books and supplies, and then the other outgo, which is our transfer to Mission Valley ROP for our CTE programs. 16% of our total expenditures is services and operating expenses. That's about 10.9 million. So as you can see, 49% of that is really restricted funds and it's specified for certain use, specific purpose. And then 51% is unrestricted, which is 5.5 million. And so what that looks like, as you can see, there's about 10 different categories in services and operating expenses in the unrestricted accounts. And most of it, 39%, is under operations and our housekeeping services budget, which is 2.1 million. And that's where our electricity, our water, our garbage, maintenance is all under that category. And then the legal expense is only 5% of this category. And then the consultants and professional educational services is about 16%, or 846,000. We have 2%, a small portion, that goes to travel and conferences. And rentals and leases and repairs, is where our copier leases are. That's about 7% of this category. Another big piece of our budget is the contributions. So this is where the general fund, unrestricted, contributes to the restricted accounts. So we contribute in the special ed program and also the routine restricted maintenance account. In the special ed program, you can see that the revenues that we receive is about 3 million coming from property tax revenues and the SELPA, which is the consortium that we belong to along with New Haven Unified School District and Fremont Unified School District. And the expenditures, on the other hand, with salaries and the certificated classified and the benefits and then services, the total expenditures to operate that program is 10.6 million. So when you look at our revenues, less the expenditures, we are operating in a deficit in special ed. So the general fund needs to contribute 7.5 million. The amount that we contribute to routine restricted maintenance is based on 3%, which is about 2 million. 3% of total expenditures, and that's required by law. So here's a summary. When you look at our total revenues and our expenditures, we're still looking at a $2.1 million deficit for this current year. So our revenues at $66.9 million. Our expenditures is about $69 million. So that's where you do the revenues minus the expenditures, and you end up with a deficit, which is a shortfall of $2.1 million this year. What that does with our fund balance and our reserves So we're starting out with an unrestricted fund balance of 4.4 million. And when you deduct the deficit of 2.1 million, we're left with an ending fund balance of the 2.3 million on the unrestricted side. And so that's the amount that we are setting aside for the reserve for economic uncertainties. And the minimum required reserve is 3% of total expenditures, which is equal to 2.07 million. So based on that, we are able to meet our reserve for economic uncertainties this year. And we're not allowed to use that 2.5 million ending fund balance on the restricted side. towards that reserve for economic uncertainties. So when you're looking at the reserve for economic uncertainties, it's really about the unrestricted general fund. So even though it shows we have 7 million total, you can see that all the way to the right in the beginning fund balance. And the ending fund balance is 4.8. Only 2.3 million of that is what we can use for our reserve. So in our multi-year projections, we have assumptions for the two subsequent years. And those assumptions include increases in the salary schedule advancement, which you'll also hear a step in column. So as our employees move on the salary schedule, we projected 1.57% for the certificated employees and 1.1% for our classified employees. There's going to be an increase in our contribution to STRS, which is the employment, I mean, retirement program for our certificated employees. It's going from 17.1% to 18.1. Our PERS rate is going up, which is our classified retirement system from 19.7 to 24.6. As you can see, it's almost What is that, five percentage points? In the next couple of years. We are looking at declining enrollment from 5600 to 5574. And we're hoping to enhance our revenues with cell tower lease and our use of facilities. We have identified budget reductions of at least two and a half million based on the resolution that was approved by the board on October 17th. which includes a reduction in salaries of $900,000, a reduction in the books and supplies of $103,000, and then reducing our services and operating expenses of $475,000, and then the school consolidation and closures, which adds up to $1.5 million. So this shows you We're down to 5600 students. And remember that even though this only shows 13-14, we actually have been declining for more than 10 years. Back in 10-11, we were up 6,600 students. And then our ADA which our ratio right now is about 96, 96 and a half percent. Our enrollment to our ADA ratio and it's declining about the same rate. So if you imagine each ADA is worth about $10,000, a loss of 700 students is about 7 million. And then in the next couple of years, if we're looking at losing 166 ADA, that amounts to about 1.7. So even though we're projected to start growing, I think in the third year out or the fourth year out, It's still going to take time for us to recoup what we've lost over the last 10 years in terms of ADA. So in the current year, we did put in our plan to implement a hiring freeze and maybe save $200,000, and then an early cutoff in our spending. Cutting it off in February instead of April. We're hoping that this will help maybe capture about $500,000 in our budget for a total of 700 to help reduce our $2.1 million deficit. And then another budget item that we did include in our plan was to consolidate in closed schools starting in the fall of next year. So that process needs to start as soon as possible. because the budget cycle for next school year is going to start in January. The governor will present his budget proposal for next school year on or around January 10th. So in terms of school consolidations, we need to start the decision-making process. And in order to implement this by August of next year, 2020, It should be done by spring of 2020. And that includes the process of creating the advisory committee for community input, gathering all the facts, our enrollment projections, boundaries, and then safety concerns and the impact on district as a whole, our staffing. And then deciding which schools to consolidate, looking at the conditions of the schools, capacity of other schools. transportation and how it will impact the educational programs. So as a summary in our multi-year, this year we said we were projecting a $2.1 million deficit. And then next year, even with all of the reductions and the enhancements in our revenues that we're projecting, we're still going to have an $823,000 deficit. and then in the following year, $249,000 deficit. So how this impacts our ending fund balance and our reserves, we're projecting in 2021 that we will start with a fund balance of $2.3 million And if you deduct the deficit of $766,000, that leaves us with $1.5 million next year. So next year, because we do have our special reserves, Fund 17, and we have $2.2 million in there right now, we will have available total of $3.7 million, which we will be able to meet the minimum reserve required of 2 million. But just keep in mind that if it wasn't for that special reserve, we really would not be able to meet that reserve just based on our general fund because we will only have one and a half. And then in the following year, we start out with the one and a half million and you deduct that deficit again, so now we're down to 1.4 million. And again, because of special reserves, yes, we will be able to meet the minimum required reserves. However, again, keep in mind that the general fund is slowly going to be depleted. And if we're not able to implement any of the reductions, obviously, we'll have to come up with another plan. So that was all about the general fund. We do have nine other funds. We have an Adult Education Fund, Child Development Fund, the Cafeteria Food Service Program, the Special Reserves, our Building Fund 21, which is our bond, and then Capital Facilities, which is developer fees, and then the Special Reserves, I think that's also known as the Russian Fund. The bond measure G51, that's how we pay for our debt issuance. And then the self-insurance funds, 67. So these are all restricted. So what happens next after first interim? We will have a second interim report in March. So that'll cover the period through January 31st of 2020. And then if needed, we will have to do a third interim. And if needed means that if second interim is qualified, then the county will want us to do a third interim report. And then we will also be working on the next year's budget around the same time. And that will go in June along with the LCAP. And our year-end unadded actuals for this year will be presented in September. So in summary, we're projecting a deficit this year of 2.1 million. We are going to try to do an early cutoff to try and help that deficit and maybe not hire a couple of positions. And we have assumptions in the multi-year projection that includes $4 million in the revenue enhancements, budget reductions, and savings. We do have school closures and consolidations as part of our plan. And if this is not possible, then we do have to consider other reductions or enhancements. We will be able to meet our obligations and our 3% minimum reserve based on the assumptions at this time. We are recommending a positive certification of the first interim report. So if the board has any comments or questions at this time.

[8142] Ray Rodriguez: I have one, but member John, do you want to go first?

[8150] Bowen Zhang: A quick question on the enrollment. So compared to last year, do we have, it looks like we have lower enrollment even from, 20 and 2020 have lower enrollment than 2018 or 2019, is that correct?

[8166] Marie dela Cruz: Correct. That's the projection, no word.

[8170] Bowen Zhang: But it's higher than our originally projected for this year, right? I remember on your reports, 22 students higher than for enrollment.

[8178] Marie dela Cruz: Oh, for this year. Yeah, for this. Yes, this year is, yeah, I think it was about 20 something students more than what was originally projected.

[8189] Bowen Zhang: Okay.

[8191] Marie dela Cruz: I think we're at 5735 based on the last CBEDS.

[8195] Bowen Zhang: But even with that 22 students, more than projected, we're still lower than last year.

[8200] Marie dela Cruz: Is that correct? The 5735 is higher than last year. We're about 20-something students higher than last year.

[8209] Bowen Zhang: No, the enrollment. Just the number of enrollment. So the real enrollment, you were saying, the real enrollment in this current school year is higher than last year? Yes. So will that help us when it comes to LCFF? Well, I guess it won't help us. Because last year, we were using the previous year's ADA for the funding. But it's better than expected. At least it's better than we were having declining enrollment compared to last year, right?

[8238] Marie dela Cruz: Yes. And remember, it's based on ADA.

[8241] Bowen Zhang: It's not enrollment.

[8243] Marie dela Cruz: So our funding is based on ADA.

[8245] Bowen Zhang: Yes. Because by looking at the graph, the enrollment and ADA, I look at the blue line. It almost felt like from 2018, 2019 to this year, the blue line is still declining, even though the blue line should be increasing a little bit, right?

[8261] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, you can see a slight, just a tiny, if you look at it, it's just the scale.

[8268] Elisa Martinez: Point of, sorry, I'm sorry, point of order, we do need to extend the meeting just because we have quite a bit to cover. Sorry, before we continue. Okay.

[8279] Bowen Zhang: I move to extend the meeting until 11. I second. Mr. Castillo? Anybody else? Please vote.

[8308] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez, no. Everybody else, yes. OK. And actually.

[8313] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so then I guess the issue is this year, even though we have slight increase in enrollment compared to last year, but our ADA percentage is going down compared to last year. Is that correct?

[8325] Nancy Thomas: Yes.

[8326] Bowen Zhang: OK, OK. OK. And I have other one, but you can go ahead.

[8332] Ray Rodriguez: No, no, no. Did you want to wait? We can rotate, yeah. Sure. Student board member Castillo, did you have something?

[8341] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do. So for the current year considerations where we consider roughly $200,000 for the hiring freeze, and maybe Associate Superintendent Salinas can answer this question for me, but the positions that we choose not to hire for the next academic year, what positions would those be and then how do we compensate for a lack of educational services, potentially, because that's what it seems like it would be to me. Or at least, you know, us not having educational staff next year compared to this year.

[8374] SPEAKER_32: This is for 1920. Yeah, so this is for 1920. Existing year.

[8379] SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay. So this is, so we've saved $200,000 this year.

[8383] SPEAKER_32: That's what we're looking, that's what we're looking at to do so, yes, and absorbing job responsibilities or programs that might go away. And it also depends, because this may not necessarily be in the educational sector. It might be more peer or support.

[8400] SPEAKER_02: OK. I have one more question as well, if I may. Or do other board members want to continue? No, go for it. So going back to the multi-year projection, I just had a question about what The top says increase in salary schedule advancement, so 1.57% certificated, and then 1.1% classified. Is that moving from 19-20 to 20-21, or is that what the increase is in expenditure?

[8432] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, it's moving from 19-20 to 20-21, and then moving from 20-21 to 21-22. OK, so those percentages, is that

[8444] SPEAKER_02: That percentage is an increase from this year's expenditure to next year, or from 2021 to, or for, I guess, the next school year to the one after?

[8458] Marie dela Cruz: Yes. So it's an increase from this school year to next school year.

[8462] SPEAKER_39: OK.

[8463] Marie dela Cruz: And then an increase from next school year to the following school year.

[8467] SPEAKER_02: Right. So those percentages are expected to be consistent, right? Yes, at this time, yes. OK. Thank you.

[8475] Ray Rodriguez: I think we have a motion to adjourn.

[8479] SPEAKER_44: Thank you president we're in a dire situation and you understand that. This is not something that happened this year didn't happen overnight and at least specifically for last year, there was an Enhancement Revenue Committee. And if we would have, who knows, you know, this is speculation, but if we would have taken maybe some of those considerations, maybe the deficit would be slightly less, maybe not, who knows, but at least it would have been worth a try. So my question at this point is, is there anything that we can do currently in an immediate emergency type situation to try and generate some revenue to assist with this deficit. And just going back to some of that Revenue Enhancement Committee ideas, I mean, they were talking about grants, they were talking about reaching out to our parents and community members who do work for large companies that have the capacity to donate, et cetera. There was a wealth of information there, and parents were very willing to help our district. But nothing was done. So is there anything that we could currently do to assist us with this deficit?

[8579] Marie dela Cruz: Well, we can certainly look at that.

[8583] SPEAKER_44: And you weren't here at that time?

[8584] Marie dela Cruz: Yes. I mean, I can certainly look at that and see what types of recommendations were

[8591] Elisa Martinez: offered at that time, and at this time I'm... I think that's a trouble, there wasn't a lot of concrete ideas that were brought forward.

[8602] SPEAKER_22: If I may respond as well, I think that part of it too is beyond what we're doing, I think the biggest factor that we'll do that'll raise the quickest amount of money to offset that number is slowing spending. That's the one that, that's the fact, that's an approach that Because what comes after that, if we're not closing schools, we're looking at cutting positions. With 85% of our budgets tied up in staffing, the only other solution is going to be to reduce positions. So I think slowing spending is, and maybe there's some communication that needs to help to kind of get that word out of here's why we're slowing spending. But that factor doesn't eliminate jobs. You know, usually most principals have spent all the stuff they need for this year and they're able to get through the rest of the year with stuff they need. And we never say if there's something a school needs that we're, you know, come talk to us and we'll try to figure it out. And we approve some stuff even after spending is frozen. But my experience has been that's been the largest factor to generate the kind of dollars we need. I mean, although it doesn't hurt to look at the recommendations from the Revenue Enhancement Committee anyway.

[8676] SPEAKER_32: Revisit that and see if there's anything that we need and that's easy something easily that we can do You know the other You know the board tasked us to ensure that we were staffing quote, you know staffing Tighter and effectively and with a good awareness of what we needed so I know at the elementary level We're pretty much on the button We believe we've got a little work to be done at the high school, and so we have some ideas about that. I think the other thing we're looking at is in terms of what does the LCAP have. And I know in the past, working with our LCAP committee and with the community, we brought forward some, prior to a lot of you, some supposed cuts. And I think at that time we heard from our community and they said, hey, let's see how we can look at it within the LCAP. So I know that we're looking at, With some of these general fund positions or services, there may be a way to be more creative where it's actually augmenting our program because if we're looking at it as possibility of a cut, maybe we can absorb it within the LCAP and look at more of sticking to more core curriculum ideas and then continue to look for grants. There's some out there, not as many as there used to be because I think everyone's pretty much dealing with this. You know, the dual immersion, yes, it's coming. I know that's not going to be the one thing, but it's kind of a catch-22. It's like we want to continue to highlight the good work that we're doing, but at the same time, we recognize that we have a lot more that needs to be done. So it's balancing that, but then also asking our community members to support us. And I know they want to come to the table to help us, so it's also leveraging those partnerships.

[8788] Phuong Nguyen: But we haven't established any partnerships. That's the main thing that I'm really concerned with. I mean, I don't think that we have actively gone out into the community and established those partnerships. So what is it that we're doing wrong? I mean, we have to ask that question. And we want to be able to bridge the gap and build partnerships with these corporations that are coming in. a huge, amazing space at the high school that is totally not being used. And I think that if we're able to do some of that stuff, then we can definitely bring in programs that can generate some revenue in order to sustain that space. And just But we haven't. I don't think that we have, as a district, even sent out communication to families in the district asking for any kind of resources to partner with. And I know it's difficult, but we have to try something.

[8863] Ray Rodriguez: OK, so.

[8864] SPEAKER_44: Ditto to memory.

[8865] Ray Rodriguez: Hold on. No, no, no. Oh, I'm sorry. That's OK. I'm next, and then since Member Martinez has spoken, it will be her, and then Member John. We do have partnerships, but it isn't really district-wide as it is schools. We have a lot of schools that are doing their best and forming partnerships. We do have a lot of companies, one being Facebook, that's moving into the area with some microsystems. But I don't want to go there by myself. So if anybody wants to go with me, we can, I mean, they support, spend a lot of money, you know, through their foundation. Wells Fargo is another one that has a foundation. But my question right now is, last year we, although I like positive, last year we changed it from positive to qualified because we had to make some changes. I thought the board had said that it was going to be almost impossible for us to close the school by August of 2020, which is only a few months away. If we do do the 7-11 committee, just if that's voted on, the timeline takes us into May, June. And so the 500,000 that's in here, I just I'm not comfortable with having that in there right now. Unless the board moves on quickly and says we are going to close a school by August of 2020, my understanding was, superintendent, that we talked about it and it was going to be very, very difficult.

[8970] SPEAKER_22: Let me give you an idea of the time frame to be able to come to some conclusions on these. Let's look at, would it be second interim in March? by second interim March, which means that probably by the end of February, if we're going to readjust the multi-year projections in the plan, that you'd either have to make some kind of decision to either close schools, or consolidate two schools, or identify $500,000 in cutting positions out of the system. So one way or the other, in the next three years, it's going to have to be right sized as a system, and they'll just have to be fewer employees. But you have a little bit of time now. The idea of going to qualified and saying we need a little more time and going to third interim is a possibility. That gives you a little more time to wait to see how things fall out with the committees that you've initiated. But I do think the sooner you get started with the survey for the parcel, I think that's a big piece. I think the other part of starting the 7-11 whatever the hybrid committee is going to be, that's going to be critical. Um, so there's some time, but there's not a lot of time. And I think there has to be, uh, if we don't hit third interim, by the time we get to third interim, if we're not at positive, we'll probably, we'll be looking at the County making the decision for the board.

[9062] Ray Rodriguez: Okay.

[9065] Elisa Martinez: Yes. I, you know, I, um, I guess I'll qualify with a statement, which is, you know, I think a year ago I had a lot of those saying, you know, why aren't we doing more of this? Why aren't we doing more of this? And meaning raising funds. And I think it's important because it's a tough realization, but we all have to accept it, is that we are not right sized. And so even if we can go get grants, even if we can, and this is again what you've all taught me, Those are one-time funds. And I recognize that, Ms. Dela Cruz, you've done an excellent job at really helping us understand the dire situation just from an ongoing cost and ongoing funding. So with that qualifier, I just want to focus then on here's what we've got in front of us. We absolutely, on an ongoing basis, we have to grow our enrollment. Everything else will be dependent on one-time funds, and absolutely we should go after them in grants and whatnot. But I think it is important that we all recognize that. Having said that, so specifically here, a couple concerns around the services. Obviously, we went up in expenditure between adopted and interim. And I know you've got commentary, but I'm going to apologize. It's just been a really long day. Can you just remind me, what's the big driver of that? Is it coming back to the special ed chart once again? Is that how those two are correlated? Again, I've never seen it laid out this way, where we're actually funding out of our general fund into special ed by two times as much as we get funded. That is huge for us to, not just us as a board, but as a community to understand, right? That's other money that had, were we wholly funded for special ed, all this $7 million can go back into the general fund. That's, that was outstanding, outstanding, like, to me. So, in that spirit, is that $1.7 million increase in projected, related to special ed, or what is that?

[9206] Marie dela Cruz: No, that's from the carryover. A lot of it is carryover from last year. So some of the, deferred revenue or money that wasn't spent last year, we put it back in the budget this year. So it looks like an increase, but it really is a wash because you increase the revenue and the expenditure with the same amount because it's money that we didn't spend last year. And then in terms of the contributions, our district is not alone, unfortunately. The special ed programs are inadequately funded by the federal budget, as well as the state. And all of the districts up and down the state are going through the same thing.

[9256] Elisa Martinez: And thank you for that, because I think that, you know, as we go after partner funding, if we could really be targeted, because this will all be restricted, right? So I think that is helpful. as we formulate the ask to you, when we go ask, hey, because you guys are who execute, right? As we start to go look for funds, maybe we can start to be more deliberate and specific around what we're trying to fund versus kind of just a little bit of everything.

[9289] SPEAKER_32: And I like that. Back to the point of I think the role that the board can also play is to support us with that. You are out in the community. You are connected with agencies, and I know we have folks in the audience that can also help. But I think if we were to target something like special education, so we're peeking at the indicators. I've already seen the dashboard, it's still embargoed, that's gonna be coming. we're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. But I think if we were to focus our efforts in an area as last year we really need to make more of a push with special education and that might be something that we could put together shop it and I have talked to Mister Bowen about this is saying about this where we have to have something to show funders though it you know they're not just going to say hey I'm going to give you I think it's a good point.

[9344] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. Follow up on the service and operating expenses. So this is the unrestricted chart. I just want to confirm that even in the restricted chart, the consultant part of the expense, that can be reduced if we hire, if we find full-time employees, right? What I'm asking is for the consultant part of the pipe. For both unrestricted and restricted, we have to, we can reduce expense by hiring the full time, right? Even though we didn't show the restricted part.

[9383] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, well it's actually a wash and sometimes we have positions that are vacant for special ed. If we're not able to fill them, then they end up being professional service. So it's just moving it from one category to another.

[9399] Bowen Zhang: So you're saying actually hiring a full-time employee for the special ed will not really reduce the expense if we are compared to hiring consultant? Because last fiscal year, one of our biggest problem is we cannot hire full-time employees. So we keep paying these consultants. And that was one of the drivers that's for the deficit.

[9419] SPEAKER_22: Because we can't attract. So in special education, we can't attract the employees and they remain vacant. So it's difficult to attract because of what we pay. So, there's almost no other option than to go with a consultant. And some of those are hard to fill anyway. But the largest portion of the consultant budget is special ed contractors. And some of those things we have to provide. But I think that now, could that be a longer term solution? Yes. But I think that I really could tell you that the bulk of the contracts that we have that are big ticket contracts are within the realm of special education services, I believe.

[9458] Bowen Zhang: I would defer to... But are we saying right now, even if we get, even if we fill the full-time position, it doesn't make a difference anymore?

[9467] Marie dela Cruz: Not much, unfortunately. Yeah, we have to pay benefits.

[9475] Bowen Zhang: And just have a small question for Mrs. Lola. In the previous fiscal year, I remember that at the end that we applied for some grants related to LCAP. that sort of certain grant that, I'm not talking about a $600,000 one-time grant, but I remember a certain grant that totaled close to half a million that actually pushed us across the finish line, so we have a surplus last year. Was that, or am I mistaken?

[9503] Maria Huffer: It could be the CSI you're thinking of, and that was a federal grant actually.

[9509] SPEAKER_32: So and that that actually is one-time money in the sense of it's really a two-year grant And that's where we're able to provide you heard Lincoln City speaking about a coach and the seal coaches So we're actually paying them out of the CS CSI grant We're paying for part of our counselor at the alternative ed setting Out of the CSI grant so that is a two-year grant that's going to sunset Unless, but I will say something else, but we don't know yet if we are going to get more money in that area. So there is talk out there that they may refund and fund again.

[9546] Bowen Zhang: I remember I specifically asked that question several months ago, whether we are going to apply for that this year. What are we going to get out of this year? But I remember the answer is most likely we will.

[9555] SPEAKER_32: Yeah, and it's not out yet. And so right now, as the dashboard is going to be public, then they're going to say whether or not a school's district is in differentiated assistance. And then they will go down to the school site level if a school is in CSI, which is what happened this last year for this year.

[9573] SPEAKER_44: Ms. Ellicott, can you please explain the criteria for positive, qualified, and negative?

[9584] Marie dela Cruz: So the positive certification means that we will be able to meet all of our financial obligations this year and the next two years, which means that it includes meeting that minimum required reserve of 3%. And then qualified means we may not be able to make our obligations this year or any of the two future years. And negative means we definitely will not make it the rest of this year and next year.

[9620] SPEAKER_44: OK. So based on President Rodriguez's concern about the, his concern that there might be a delay within the school closure, would you change your recommendation to a qualified or do you still believe that are you still recommend that we should move with positive.

[9642] Marie dela Cruz: Unless you're able to identify other reductions at this time. Then and if you're not comfortable the school closure by next year then. I mean, 500,000 and then a million the following year because we thought we could close two schools and consolidate more. I mean, that's a million and a half. And it was a struggle to come up with the amount that we did come up with. And to come up with another one and a half million, or even just the 500,000, is going to be a big challenge. the board is not comfortable or really doesn't see it as being realistic in terms of closing a school for next year and getting that whole process done by spring of 2020. I mean, I'm not, I wouldn't be offended if you decide that maybe we should file qualified. In a way, if we self-certify positive and the county says no, I think you really are qualified. That's worse than us saying we're qualified, and then the county confirms we're qualified.

[9721] Elisa Martinez: Yeah, so I would go for qualified. I would recommend qualified. It's not synonymous to me with, I don't think that we should stop trying to make the changes, right? I think that just realistically, there is a risk. Whether our estimates are off, Right? So I think, and it's mostly for, yeah, for that year, that out, right, that outward year, even though we have a solid plan, it's a timing and execution. I, too, would feel better if qualified, maybe by March, if we are looking, then we can go positive.

[9763] Ray Rodriguez: But right now, I have more to go. Okay. So that being said, then, the motion then would be that we would go with staff recommendation, except changing it from positive to qualified.

[9777] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so I need a motion.

[9779] Bowen Zhang: I move that we certify the first interim report as qualified.

[9784] Ray Rodriguez: Second.

[9785] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[9785] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, open for voting, Mr. Castillo.

[9789] Marie dela Cruz: Excuse me, can you say the word change from positive to qualified because the recommendation is positive. Okay. Just to be clear.

[9796] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so you want to change, do you want to reword it?

[9798] Bowen Zhang: I move that we change the first interim report from positive to qualify. OK? OK.

[9808] SPEAKER_44: Just for clarification of this, are we voting on changing the language and then voting on the number? Or this is all one, all together?

[9816] Ray Rodriguez: All one. All together.

[9817] SPEAKER_44: OK. Thank you.

[9818] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Mr. Castillo? OK. OK, motion is the vote's yes. Please vote, please. Please, please, please. you. Motion passes thank you. Mister Cruz. 15. proposed school consolidation advisory committee.

[9865] Marie dela Cruz: members of the board to have a discussion about the committees that we have been referring to either as a 7-11 committee or maybe an extended version of a committee. What we were trying to do is form a committee so that we can engage the community in the possibility of school closures and school consolidation. Structurally, our district, our budget is not right. So we need to start the discussions on how can we make this right. We have schools that, I mean, our entire district has declined in enrollment. We obviously need to look at other ways of right sizing our district and board meeting. We had a lot of discussion about. Balancing our budget. And so. At the last board meeting we were recommending a 7.11 committee. That was tabled and I know a couple of months the board did. Approver authorize superintendent to move that we're going to do. If we are going to consider school closures of school consolidations is to start with formation of this committee and what that's going to look like. If it's going to be the 7.11 which. Means that you have at least 7 members of that committee not more than 11. And it's represented there's School districts that have gone through school closures have done both. The Napa Valley did the 7-11, Oak Grove School District has worked with an extended version of that. And the extended version of that includes the makeup of the 7-11 committee at the least. And then they've added more members to that committee.

[10005] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Member Gutierrez?

[10009] SPEAKER_44: I would like to recommend that we go with the expanded committee. I think it is important that our community members get engaged and involved with such a large topic as school closure, school consolidation. However, I don't recommend that we go with the 7-11 committee for various reasons, particularly the implications of it. But I do recommend that, which is your recommended, I do agree that we go with the recommendation of the expanded committee and include the requirements of, or the representation based on 7-11. Okay.

[10047] Ray Rodriguez: And then I just wanted to add, looking at the guidelines, and I talked to Ms. Dela Cruz earlier, I'm not comfortable with having a subcommittee where you have the superintendent I'd rather see that as resource and just leave it at that. Because that's what in essence what it is. It's staff resources. So the district office is a resource to the committee, as opposed to being a subcommittee. I'm not comfortable with having subcommittee. But the expanded committee is something that I agree with. It engages more people. And it sounds good to me. Anyone else? OK. So you want to make a motion?

[10094] Marie dela Cruz: Excuse me. Have you had a chance to look at the attachment on the recommended committee members? OK. So that's OK? We know that we can't be on it yet. No, you can in the expanded. Oh, for the expanded, you can. Yeah.

[10109] Ray Rodriguez: I didn't like the LA kind of one, but I think ours is better.

[10113] Marie dela Cruz: But is there anything that you wanted to add to the committee, or is that sufficient?

[10119] Ray Rodriguez: I think that, to me, it covers it pretty well. Anybody else?

[10124] SPEAKER_02: I would have thought somebody from city council would have been on here, but I don't know if that's pertinent to this activity. I would think it is, but that's just my opinion. Somebody from city council or the city manager, I don't know.

[10139] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, that could fall under public agency.

[10142] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, public agency. But to have somebody from the Newark Education Foundation is big. Students, do we see any students in here? I thought we had students.

[10156] SPEAKER_02: There's parents of students, but no students themselves.

[10160] Ray Rodriguez: I would like to add students.

[10161] SPEAKER_44: Yeah, students. Now, I have a question. If we add students because of, can we put recommended that students attend, not required? Sure. Because if they can't make it, then.

[10177] Ray Rodriguez: Make it part of your motion if you want, or just.

[10181] SPEAKER_44: I move that we vote on item 15.2 to propose a school consolidation advisory committee as an expanded committee.

[10197] SPEAKER_02: I have a clarification question to the motion. So does that mean that we're actually forming the committee right now? Or are we just saying that's what we're going to go with?

[10205] SPEAKER_44: Forming as in we're selecting individuals?

[10210] Ray Rodriguez: the board is approving the motion right. And can you add students to that if you don't mind, yes, I will be great.

[10219] SPEAKER_44: So I move that we. That we vote to create a school consideration advisory committee. To be an expanded committee and include. The option of students.

[10239] Ray Rodriguez: you did it.

[10241] Ray Rodriguez: OK. Excuse me.

[10242] Marie dela Cruz: Do you want to clarify the subcommittee? Oh, yeah. Because you had mentioned that you would. Oh, yeah.

[10248] Ray Rodriguez: I'm sorry.

[10249] SPEAKER_44: With additional clarification that staff will be resources and not subcommittees.

[10256] Ray Rodriguez: OK. I'll second that also. OK.

[10259] Elisa Martinez: And they should start. That's not a chance to crack.

[10262] Ray Rodriguez: Mr. Castillo, please. She'll watch the movie. She'll watch the movie. She has fun. Okay, we have a motion and a second. You want to, Mr. Castillo? Thank you. Yes, please vote. All right. You know, you guys, you surprised me. I thought this would take us about another hour.

[10290] SPEAKER_44: We got to keep going. Keep going.

[10293] Ray Rodriguez: Okay.

[10293] SPEAKER_22: You don't have to finish at 11.

[10296] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. 16.1 personnel report, a motion and a second.

[10302] SPEAKER_44: I move that we vote on personnel report.

[10308] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[10309] Ray Rodriguez: Member Gutierrez moves, member Martinez seconds. Student board member? Oh, that's right, you don't like this one.

[10321] Elisa Martinez: Oh, that's right. I've been waiting for it.

[10330] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, student board member doesn't vote, motion passes. Five ayes, thank you. Okay, what's next?

[10343] Elisa Martinez: We have 17.1 through 17.6. Does anybody want to pull any one of these items?

[10355] Ray Rodriguez: case the and then I did a motion and a second please.

[10359] SPEAKER_44: I move that we vote on item 17.1 through 17.6.

[10362] Ray Rodriguez: And you've got a motion. I second when seconds. I really want to go.

[10370] Megan McMillan: Okay, me too. Okay, this is because to you.

[10383] Ray Rodriguez: Yes, open for voting. Please vote. Thank you. Okay, motion passes unanimously. Thank you. 18.1, Mr. Newt. You got one minute.

[10404] Cary Knoop: Well, it's actually very quick. I really appreciate all the committee reports. But please, can we make sure that the public knows that you have these meetings? Because A, they're not on the website. B, they're not on the agenda. Next week, there's a CBOC meeting. Again, you know, the public, I would have loved to go, you know, you know me, I would have loved to go to the audit committee meeting. But I just found out a few days ago that it happened. And it is a Brown Act Committee meeting. And the same with the CBOC. So please let the public know that these meetings are taking place. Yeah, I checked. They weren't on the- I'm sorry, may I speak? Oh, the Audit Committee.

[10450] SPEAKER_41: The Audit Committee, last November 12th.

[10457] SPEAKER_22: Point of order, it's public comment.

[10460] Cary Knoop: If I'm mistaken, I apologize in advance.

[10462] Ray Rodriguez: You're commenting on an agenda item. Superintendent, did you want to address it?

[10468] Cary Knoop: If it is posted, I apologize. I didn't see it.

[10472] SPEAKER_44: I think clarification can come later.

[10474] Cary Knoop: Okay, thank you. I know there's next week a CBOC meeting. Just to make sure. But again, I apologize. If it was there, it's my mistake, you see. I forget things, and now I'm starting to make a mistake. It's all coming clear now. Join the group.

[10494] Ray Rodriguez: You don't have to apologize for anything.

[10496] Richelle Piechowski: Thank you.

[10497] Ray Rodriguez: No apology necessary. OK. Board of Education Committee reports. Mr. Castillo, you want to go first or last? I'll go last. That was a mistake. Member Martinez.

[10515] Elisa Martinez: First of all, I want to thank Associate Superintendent Salinas for working with the counseling staff and your staff groups. So it was very helpful, but some feedback. It felt very one way. It felt like a staff report to me. So I kind of mentioned that, so I think my request is as we start to think about study sessions, that's the whole point, that we want to be able to do more interaction. So perhaps we can, you know, before the next, even the next one, like restorative justice, really getting clarity of what is it that we're looking for. I think you all are getting to know us, we're very data driven, right? So not just, you know, the box, 20 and 50, but what does that really mean? And I point to Ms. Dela Cruz's report. Fantastic. I mean, I think that's what cut this meeting so much shorter. So that would be my comment. But thank you very much. I know that the folks were nervous. I hope that they know that it really is just to help educate us. So please thank them for us. Thank you.

[10590] Ray Rodriguez: OK, so I can chime in on that one. You're going to be board president in a couple of weeks. I mean, you are now, but you'll be taken. But anyway, in the past, what we've normally done is when we have a study session is the majority of the board chimes in and decides whether we're going to go back and forth or whether we're going to do the presentation and then wait. And it became a little more difficult because your report, I mean, it took a while. So that would be up to at the time. based on what's being presented, and then the board as a whole can decide.

[10630] Elisa Martinez: I agree. I think the key is that I'm okay holding questions, but you know not presentation for 50 minutes and 10 minute for this right because in that case it really that's a staff report in my No, I do agree with you.

[10645] SPEAKER_32: I do agree and and it is nice when you can go back and forth And and we're open to that absolutely and and I would also say like for consideration maybe longer it's so hard something as big as a And honestly, I think we also want to be able to share with you what's happening and some of you, you know, it's the first time hearing from the counselors. And so as we start to get to know each other more, I think that we can definitely pause more and have more back and forth and interaction.

[10677] Elisa Martinez: I think I'm not going to take ownership for that one because I think I was very specific. So I think that's why we need to set up a process so that there's clear expectations That's not what I had asked for, right? So I think it's, I'm not, it is just what it is. We don't have a solid process. So even if it's a process where we get together and sketch out, you know, here's what we're looking for, then it's totally worth the investment of our time to work with you.

[10707] SPEAKER_32: Yeah, and I'll keep sending emails to the board to ask for feedback and questions as we send out.

[10712] Ray Rodriguez: Since you're the new president, you can come up with something, I'm sure. But you could have easily done the report by yourself and maybe had a couple of counselors. I like having all those people there, but it takes time. But I think it's important for us to see the face of the counselors that are doing our kids. So I think we should have another one. Member Winning.

[10740] Phuong Nguyen: I just wanted to thank Ms. Delacruz for a great first interim. And also, Associate Superintendent Salinas. Sorry, it's late. Please tell your counseling staff that we appreciated their time, and I know that it's very hard work that they're doing. It's not easy, especially in the times that we're living in. And I was just, and thank you, I was just at the junior high for the winter concert. So I was able to leave our meeting to go over there. And I wanted to let the teacher, Mr. Hernandez, know that he did a wonderful job with the students. I cannot believe that he oversees over 200 students in the music program. And they did a wonderful job. And that's it.

[10799] Ray Rodriguez: We're happy that you could go. That was great. We need you to write up something for us, OK?

[10807] Phuong Nguyen: A report?

[10807] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, a report would be nice.

[10809] SPEAKER_44: Member Gutierrez. I want to apologize to Ms. Salinas for butchering your title earlier. And Ms.dela Cruz, thank you for your report. As well, I would like to thank Ms. Susan Condon and her team for all their hard work. And I'd also like to invite our community all the members of our community who have questions regarding the board or the district or anything having to do with their duties to come and ask us directly as a board. I think it's going to be a lot easier if you guys as a member of the communities approach us or get your information directly from us instead of possibly getting inaccurate information from elsewhere. So thank you.

[10856] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Member Johnson.

[10859] Bowen Zhang: This coming weekend a newer optimist club will have his annual bell ringing Ceremony in front of the Safeway from 10 a.m. To 6 p.m. We have different shifts. You can come in any time you want Thank you, mr. Good see you.

[10873] SPEAKER_02: Thank you. So I Rocketry we are actively looking for sponsorships now. It's something that the council has discussed and we discussed it last year Going to different companies down cherry and boys and seeing if there's anybody that would like to sponsor us so Myself and our president Nolan Chai have gone through and we found a couple so hopefully by January will be We'll be reaching out to companies and we'll be seeing if we can get some money because it's not cheap to have launches. Each launch costs us around $100. With all the motors that we're using, those aren't cheap. None of our materials are cheap, so we're looking for sponsorships there as well. ASB is going through the process of rewriting some rules. So we've had recent updates to our bylaws. We're doing more specifically with clubs because we've been having issues with clubs that are inactive. So myself and the other club commissioners are going through and writing some language that makes it more imperative for clubs to hold meetings and so they understand the implications of, you know, creating a club and then Great, now we've wasted all these resources on you and you've not done anything with the opportunity that we've given you. Another comment or request I have is I was told a while back that I would be put on Friday updates. And as of now, I still haven't gotten any. I don't know if I'm entitled to those.

[10971] SPEAKER_22: Because we haven't done Friday updates in a while.

[10972] SPEAKER_02: You haven't done? Oh, OK.

[10975] Ray Rodriguez: You're not the only one. We're asking for the motion.

[10980] SPEAKER_02: Other than that, I think that's That's pretty much it. We're still doing our canned food drive at Newark Memorial. That's going to be going all the way through the end of the year. Like I said at the beginning in my report, it's really humbling that we get to participate and help out our community in any way possible. This is probably one of the most significant community outreach events that we do all year. And so it would mean a lot if you guys could donate, show support in any way possible, come to the community dinner that we're going to be having that's next Saturday at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. I don't know, I can send Char the details for that. Saturday the 14th, yes. Yeah, so like I said, we'll be presenting them with the things we've collected, donations that we've received, And then they'll be getting a hot dinner and the opportunity to interact with other members of the community, students that have donated personally. And we invite the board to come and the community to come as well. It's a really great event. Is that the high school? Yeah, it's at the high school. It's going to be inside the commons. And then it's Saturday, December 14. I don't know the exact time. I said it earlier. You said 6 PM. I said 6 PM. OK. And then, like I said, the music program is doing the concerts. So, instrumental band is tomorrow at either 6 or 7, right? So, yeah, so admission is $7 general admission and $5 for students. And then choir is going to be next week, next Friday at 7 p.m. Those are both in the theater as well. And so, with all the, With all the things that the music program has been going through this year, I think it's really important that the community come out and show support because it really has been student-led this year. And my friends have worked hard on this. I know a lot of them personally, and the music program does mean a lot to them. So it would mean a lot to them if you guys came and showed your support as well as board members, members of the community. And we also will be accepting canned good donations there as well. So if you'd like to bring any, they're welcomed. That's all at this time.

[11124] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, thank you.

[11126] Phuong Nguyen: Go ahead. Real quick and then we can leave. So this is for Ms. Saavedra. Is it possible, may I have your standard hiring procedures for the district and all of the and vacant positions that are available. And then the classification, job descriptions of, or where to find it, that's all I need to know. If it's on the website, I can go look for it. You just need to direct me where it is so I can look it up. And then for Ms.dela Cruz, may I also get, do we have budgets for each of the sites? Yes, we do. Okay, may I get a copy of each of the site's budgets.

[11176] SPEAKER_32: I just want to see. And also, their site plans are online, because that will have more of the detail.

[11189] Ray Rodriguez: I just am thankful that Thanksgiving, the one week off was all we had, because my grandkids were bugging me all week long. But I will be performing, not performing, I guess it is. I'm going to be doing Santa Claus for the kids, the special ed kids at Shaker's Pizza in Fremont on Fremont Boulevard in Thornton. Oh, I shouldn't be saying that. I'll be Santa's helper. We have an opening for Mrs. Claus, if anybody knows. Jan Crocker.

[11235] SPEAKER_44: Mrs. Claus Helper.

[11237] Ray Rodriguez: Mrs. Claus Helper, right. But other than that, I have nothing. Superintendent?

[11242] SPEAKER_22: I only had one item I want to remind everyone. As we enter the holiday season, it is a high point, or sometimes a low point, relative to mental health. And please talk to your kids. Please listen to the students, what they're going through. Right now, the seasonal things and holidays tend to bring out a lot of emotions in people. I would encourage parents that are listening or watching this broadcast to please pay attention to that, especially as we get through these days that are darker. And that's something that literally, the sun sets early and it feels later. And I think it just creates some seasonal effective impact on our kids. Other than that, thank you.

[11282] Bowen Zhang: Correct. We need your 1033.

No minutes available.