Study Session Meeting

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[5] Elisa Martinez: I would like to remind everyone that our board meeting is being broadcast live on our YouTube station, which means everything is being captured on video and will go on record. Ms. Aquino, roll call, please.

[19] Megan McMillan: President Martinez? Here. Vice President Gutierrez?

[23] Nancy Thomas: Here.

[23] Megan McMillan: Member John? Here. Member Nguyen? Here. Member Rodriguez? Present.

[31] Elisa Martinez: Okay, moving to item number two, the approval of the agenda. Before I ask for a motion and a second, I actually would like to make a change to the order of the agenda. I would like to move item 16.1, superintendent comments and updates to become item 6.2, sorry, after the report of closed session items.

[58] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, then I have one, unless you're going to do it.

[60] Elisa Martinez: Oh, I was just going to ask you if anybody else has.

[63] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah, I would like to move 4.3 from closed to open, and it would be under new business, 11.4. Okay. And then when we discuss the item, I can share my experience with everybody about the process that we might want to take to select the search firm. Got it.

[103] Elisa Martinez: OK, thank you. Any other modifications?

[110] Ray Rodriguez: No, I'd like to move we approve based with the two amendments or changes.

[118] SPEAKER_30: I'll second it.

[124] Elisa Martinez: vote. We just vote by a show of hands for. You met you pass this with 5 votes. Okay move it on to item 2.2 public comment on the board we're going to go ahead and kick off item 3.1 restorative school discipline system systemic school change. A study session. Superintendent. Yes.

[163] SPEAKER_27: Good evening. If the board can join us at the table and we'll get started with our study session. Thank you.

[193] Vicenta Ditto: Sharp. Is this at the end? Okay.

[220] SPEAKER_28: Good evening members of the board, superintendent and staff.

[236] SPEAKER_27: This evening we bring forward a study session that looks at our systemic school change as it relates to restorative practices for our students. Today we have Ana Leon who's our coordinator of student services. And Matt Jewel Darlington, who is our support person for pupil services, and he is also with DWK. So I know that we had a lot of questions as you all are starting to build as a new board, as it relates to suspensions and expulsions. But at the same time, we also heard you, that a study session, you want more back and forth, more conversation. So you'll see a fairly short slide presentation, but we want you to ask questions all along the way. so that you have that opportunity. So I'm going to let Ms. Leond take it away.

[279] SPEAKER_26: Great. So I'm actually going to pass.

[293] SPEAKER_26: I know. So like Ms. Salinas says, so restorative school discipline, we're going to be looking at of course, discipline, but also restorative practices and how this would be implemented at our schools. But I actually would like to start, first of all, with our discipline data. Actually, and if you look at our discipline data, we've actually improved. So last year, 2018, we were at 4.2%. And this year we declined, which is good, in the dashboard. And now we're up 0.6%. And there's always ways to improve. And that's what my job is, to work with our administrators to improve. There's also, that doesn't give you much information. It just talks about the improvement. But I do have a breakdown of the actual data. And it's by groups. So if you want to take a minute and look at that.

[356] SPEAKER_27: And I can add, as she's distributing that information, later tonight, Mr. Dolovich is going to give a dashboard update as a staff report. But we thought it was important for you to look at the actual student groups. And so we look at all the background of our students.

[374] SPEAKER_26: And this is, again, this is just a brief. So we can look at it briefly. So the year 2018-2019, we had a total of 216 suspensions. Then we had 257, and this year we improved. We don't have the actual number right now, but it declined from 257. Sorry, say that again? So from 257 was 17-18.

[400] Elisa Martinez: Oh, sorry, I said it backwards. Okay, and 216 was this last year, so that's why we saw the decrease, right? Correct.

[412] Phuong Nguyen: Okay. And you guys see a current trend for more of it declining?

[421] SPEAKER_26: Yes, yes. I've actually looked at just our high school. I was just looking at the numbers, and we were just in suspensions, probably around 69 suspensions. We still have to clean up that data. And last year by About September 25th, we had a total of 70 suspensions. And we had at least five expulsions.

[448] SPEAKER_30: Any reason for the decline? Yes.

[451] SPEAKER_27: And I think as you pass that to me, we have some ideas about that.

[455] SPEAKER_26: Thank you. So current state, as you all know, we are doing PBIS, the positive behavior intervention system. We have that at all of our school sites. We're also working hard at our school climate, so different schools have different things to promote school climate, positive school climate. We're also working with Newark PD. We have Officer Holland that comes to our elementary schools and does targeted talks with different student groups. We partnered with ACOE, the 2-Pay Program, Tobacco Use Prevention Education Program. What they do is they actually provide a stipend for our teachers at the secondary level, so they can have a group of students that work on different education, peer education on tobacco, and they do different presentations to other students, and they do a lot of prevention work. We also partner with the city of Fremont, which serves Tri-City, and they have a substance abuse program, and we have one of those programs at McGregor campus. So we actually have a clinician there that provides a substance abuse intervention program. And we actually, we're definitely working on partnering with other agencies and also probably expanding that to possibly our Newark Memorial. So one of the things that, and I'll probably go back to it, but one of the things that we're talking to principals about too, if kids are using substances, don't always go to suspension. Let's look at what's the underlying problem and then as an alternative, And, of course, we're working with the Bucio Vasquez and Tri-City Health Center, too, to see how they can also support our students.

[560] Ray Rodriguez: Can I ask?

[571] Ray Rodriguez: So do they just go to Bridgepoint, or are they available for the whole?

[576] SPEAKER_26: So right now, we only have them on campus at Bridgepoint, and they're there once a week on Fridays. I think she's working to come and see students more often a couple of times a week. But they're also available at the clinic, which is a little bit farther for our students to get to, but we're working on them to be here at least once a week at Newark Memorial as well.

[596] Ray Rodriguez: So is it a walk-in or is it appointments?

[599] SPEAKER_26: So it's appointments. But also, you know, but they're there, so they already have kind of students scheduled in, but they're always taken new referrals. Right.

[607] SPEAKER_30: Thank you. I know you said you're working on Tiburcio Vasquez. I mean the organization being there at the high school. What's it going to take for it to actually happen?

[618] SPEAKER_26: So no, so Tiburcio Vasquez is actually already starting their group. So they do a curriculum called Jove Nobile for high risk students, students that are making poor choices and stuff. So with them, we just had to finalize the MOU this year, but they've been there every year. We just have to do the paperwork. And they're actually doing a new group, too, because Joven Noble is mostly for the young men, and they're doing another group for the young women, too, that mirrors Joven Noble.

[644] Ray Rodriguez: Who's the person that comes over?

[646] SPEAKER_26: Right now it's Alfredo. Alfredo Vasquez, I think.

[655] Ray Rodriguez: We have history with Susana Pellera. Oh, yeah.

[658] SPEAKER_26: So she's actually been gone from Cibul Silvestre.

[660] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so she's not there anymore?

[662] SPEAKER_26: No, she's not there. She hasn't been there for at least three years.

[665] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, how much history do you have? But no, she used to be at the high school when we had a program, you know, for counseling a few years back.

[675] SPEAKER_26: And I know they'll be doing Caray Corazon also at the elementary school. They'll be offering that as well.

[680] Ray Rodriguez: So is it always a male or do they switch?

[684] SPEAKER_26: So right now, for Joven Noble, for the one that's for young men, it's a male, because it's like they want them to see a role model. But for the females, it's going to be a young lady doing the groups.

[695] SPEAKER_30: And then just a brief question in regards to these programs specifically. Are we doing excessive marketing for the students to be aware of as well as the families?

[705] SPEAKER_26: Yes, we are. And we could always do more. I'll make sure we do more. And I actually am also working on putting it on the website as well. But also through our cost that we talked about last time, we definitely, that's why if there's any concern about a student reform to cost, and the cost members know about all these resources, but we need to work on that. To the product. Yes. To the product. And our website. Okay. Okay. So now I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Matt.

[734] SPEAKER_10: Hi. Hope everybody is doing well tonight. Happy holidays. we're going to talk about right now and and if you have questions about I'd like to answer any that you have is the trend that we're seeing and really that CEE has also been pushing which is progressive discipline which means other means of correction to try to intervene to correct students behaviors, student code of conduct violations, making poor choices, etc. And when I say trend and what's being pushed from CDE, what I'm referring to is through the MTSS model, and then also through districts monitoring their dashboard, which is why we started off with that slide, which is looking at alternatives that aren't going to expulsion, which is obviously the full removal of the child from the traditional school environment, and not even putting him in a true alternative education environment. and then looking at alternatives to that, or even looking at alternatives to suspension. And there is a progressive way of doing that. The education code, it's stated in there under 48900.5, but the other piece of it is that it's really based upon what your administration does and then what you as a district, of progressive discipline. It only really kind of takes takes legs and has life if you as an administration kind of take it on in terms of this is what we will set out to do. And this isn't to say that there are some expellable offenses where you can't you can't back away from those. There's some student code of mandated, but for others, especially for first, second offenders that are committing bad acts where we can hopefully intervene. So then what we look at then is what are some other means of correction? What are some other alternatives? And I do trainings for, you are one of our clients, but I do trainings throughout the the state in rural areas, in very populated areas, and what I can say that's pretty consistent is that when students are committing what are expellable offenses, districts are wanting to look at other ways of trying to limit the full discipline of expulsion and looking at other ways of maybe alternatively intervening. And then even before that, from a progressive stance of getting away from suspension, what are other things to do? So parent conferences is one of the first things to look at, which is bringing in the family, reaching out to the family. And parent, as we know, in modern times means, it's a broad term, right? It's parent, guardian, other, and it's really what is in the family, who is the family. Sometimes the parent can be a brother, sometimes the parent is a foster family, and then you have also some students who the parent is a family with the family, you go through, basically going through what the offense was, what happened, and then what are other alternatives that are available. available step and these aren't these are different types of intervention you these aren't in like ranked order but they are just different ways of looking at interventions for the teams at the site and it's individualized child by child student by child student which is a behavioral intervention teams that bring the student on board. They can look at the student, analyze the student, they're watching the student, and then they start to create a plan for the student. And sometimes there's confusion when you see behavior intervention team or behavior support plans that general education standpoint, be able to intervene and to hopefully stop the behaviors that are happening or understand the behaviors and then intervene the next time that they arise. There's also school support personnel from site to site and within each different site, it's very different. There's also different ways that teams come up with interventions, but those mechanisms are kind of the gateway to bringing students into these different programs. There are students who are referred to anger management. It's usually in the form of counseling. There's also for students that have mental health issues, there's mechanisms for referral to that, or for students that have alcohol and drug dependency issues, there's also referrals for those things to happen as well. Sometimes how the student is presenting when they're acting out is seen as a pure student code of conduct violation, but in reality what they're manifesting is something that's related to their the first individuals to be able to hopefully intervene and not just correct but also helped for you know the healing process whatever that means. Community service, as we all know, has been around a long time, but community service has changed. What students can do now as avenues to be involved in the community. Students can volunteer for racing events, run-walk events. Students can volunteer locally in other businesses that are non-for-profit. So there's a whole host of things that students can do. There's also local school site-based community and I try to always remind site administrators of this, which is students can do work at their site, right? As long as it's not during the school day where they're seen as like literally doing labor, but they can actually do things for their school site. And then after school programs exist to serve as kind of another form of intervention. And then lastly, restorative justice programs. more in the later slide, but the idea with restorative justice is a way to, and this is a very broad brush summary, but it's a way to intervene with students where the students themselves, peer to peer, are intervening, working together in order to correct what we see as non-preferred behaviors, and where peers themselves work together to create kind of a healthier school climate and environment.

[1139] Ray Rodriguez: Years ago, I know with my kids, especially at the high school, a lot of parents were requesting like a tracking where the student would have a sheet, a behavior sheet, and then every Friday the teacher would sign off on how they did that particular week. Is that something that we do?

[1160] SPEAKER_26: Yeah, we actually recently, I was speaking to one of the principals and she's, that's been one of the alternatives to suspensions or just a means of correction that she's doing is communicating with the home, which is really important.

[1172] Elisa Martinez: But these are done normally in the elementary grades, right?

[1176] SPEAKER_26: Yes, yes. But we actually, now even high schools are using it, just for attendance purposes too, because when we serve kids too, the parents are like, hey, I thought I dropped off at school, so now there's something in place too for high school students.

[1190] SPEAKER_30: When I was in school here, in-house, which is basically, instead of being suspended, you would be excluded from the general population of the students, and you'd be in a room doing schoolwork, etc. Do we still have any of that, whether it be primary or secondary?

[1209] SPEAKER_26: Yes, we have it at the high school. Only at the high school. Possibly at the junior high too.

[1215] SPEAKER_27: So what we're looking at is trying to make the shift from In the past, it would be a classified employee who is basically like the detention monitor. And we want to get away from, if we're going to keep them out of the general population, we want them to be doing something that's productive and that's supporting them. So what the high school did was bring in a certificated person who now is an alternative to suspension. I don't think it's really fleshed out to where it needs to be. I think the interim principal has put in a lot of really good steps, but those are one of the next steps that we're seeing to roll out for next year. But it is a space where the certificate employees, they're working directly with kids as an alternative.

[1255] SPEAKER_30: And when I was there, to use that word again, it was in the junior high as well.

[1260] SPEAKER_26: And actually, we were trying to see, because I know our interim principal is working with the junior high principal to see if there's a way we can put the kids at the same site with that alternative. And even McGregor, you know, students from McGregor campus. So we're trying to look at all that information and see what's possible.

[1280] SPEAKER_30: Okay. And then with the new, sorry. No, it's okay. With the new law, it's already in place. So have our practices changed to implement this law? And based on that, are we expecting our dashboard numbers to change as well for next year?

[1295] SPEAKER_26: I'm hoping that they drop even more. Because we've been practicing this for a while, but I think now it's even more. Even the high school, even though it's K-8, even the high school has been practicing this.

[1307] Elisa Martinez: So this, though, came into effect starting this school year, right? So theoretically, we would see the effect of this into next year's results.

[1316] SPEAKER_27: Yeah, next year's results. And it's always been, I think it was a practice that started, because before it became K-8, it was K-4 under the law. So where the, is it the K violation?

[1329] SPEAKER_26: Yeah, 49. The defiance.

[1331] SPEAKER_27: The willful defiance. It could not stand alone, so we're building on that practice here, so that it is K-12.

[1338] SPEAKER_30: So if that's the case, And I don't know if it's part of this, but based on some of the dashboard data that we're going to be discussing later on, how can a primary school, especially focused on the grades K through 3, have a high suspension rate if we are following, you know, the... I don't think we are where we need to be.

[1362] SPEAKER_27: We also have new administrators that we have to support with more. I can go back to a month ago, we had a discussion with actually coming up with a list of alternatives to suspension. And some of the, I'll be candid, some of the principals said, well, I don't have all those resources. And we said, OK, let's kind of do a brain dump as to what do you have as an alternative to suspension? Other means of correction, I should say. And surprisingly, we came up with a lot. Things such as the behavior charts, which you were talking about, having kids work in small groups, can go take a break for a bit. And it doesn't always have to be like another set of personnel that will pull the kid out. That's not what we also want. We want to keep them in the educational setting. But that's some of the work that needs to happen for next year. And when we get to the next steps, we'll flesh it out a little bit more.

[1412] SPEAKER_30: And then just one last quick question for now. What is the process then, specifically in elementary school, where a student's going to get suspended. Is it based on the teacher discretion, principal discretion, or what is the process?

[1427] SPEAKER_26: So usually it would be the principal's discretion, but a lot of the ones I've seen and I get phone calls for, they're like, the kid had an iPhone campus, or things that are suspendable offenses. But it's up to the principal.

[1443] Bowen Zhang: What are the behaviors that require mandatory suspension at the high school setting?

[1448] SPEAKER_10: I'm sorry? What are the behaviors that are required mandatory?

[1457] SPEAKER_10: So the mandatories fall under 48915C and the C offenses are, I would say, kind of what you would consider to be the most drug possession, drug sale, weapon possession. I'm trying to think off the top of my head. There's five 4915C offenses.

[1484] SPEAKER_10: I helped put it in this form a long time ago, and I update it every year. So it's sale, possession, or furnishing of a firearm, brandishing a knife at another person. And to brandish a knife, The definition is to waive in a wanton or menacing manner, which actually has an intent element to it. I know that specifically because we've had an appeal on that matter. Selling a controlled substance, committing or attempting to commit a sexual assault or battery, or possession of an explosive. So those are the mandatories under 58915C. And two, your question about the kind of the

[1531] SPEAKER_10: The only thing I would caution about that is, while of course the goal is to would be to have the curve go down, there's always unanticipated things that can happen that aren't related to four, eight, nine hundred K offenses, right, the willful defiance. You still have within that bandwidth seventh, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders that can commit, unfortunately, offenses that are not a would be very tough to not recommend them. And where we have been seeing a trend up in student discipline and interventions statewide is students' use of electronic devices, specifically their phones, and specifically through either social media or peer-to-peer sharing of either pictures or selling of things. And the trend that we're seeing is what were maybe And that's pretty apparent that it's happening statewide.

[1601] SPEAKER_10: And it doesn't, students don't just misbehave or violate student code of conduct in certain places. It's everywhere and they all have these devices too. I'm pointing because it's in my pocket. I'm thinking about it.

[1618] SPEAKER_30: sorry and so to that and um based on on the four uh mandatory expulsions specifically the knife one i mean this is where it gets technical we have to really look at the word of the law and you just said it you know willful and wanton waiting but so having a knife in a backpack that later on gets discovered does it fall under that category?

[1641] SPEAKER_10: The possession alone would not. It would be what happens with the knife.

[1645] SPEAKER_30: So I think that's very important. We as administrators need to be careful and knowledgeable of the law then.

[1655] SPEAKER_10: Yeah, well and what I have seen from the district, and this is from my perspective, is the trainings that have happened over the last two years, specifically this year, with a real focus on site-based training administrators that are, you know, day-to-day doing the work and then working with the district office. They're seeing it and the questions that we were having during some very in-depth trainings, I thought, were very telling of the trends. The questions a lot of times were leading to what, you know, they're seeing

[1694] Bowen Zhang: things that are that are happening. So given this new law passed, like K-8, does that mean there will be no suspensions for K-8 students? No.

[1705] SPEAKER_10: If you look at the legislative history behind this, and I've been practicing this long enough that I can kind of look back in time, what was happening as a trend, and this is pre-dashboard obviously, was there was a fallback acting in a certain way so I'm just gonna check the box and do you know and you have your own form here that administrators could have and when I say you know they I'm saying statewide this is what we were seeing happening as a trend and the trend was well let's just check the student will be, you know, I won't have to deal with that. So it was kind of like the fail safe. What happened was, is there was disproportionality that was taking place that was being seen as a trend too, that was then also following along certain lines of protected classes, but also protected disabilities. So we were seeing disproportionality among certain minority groups, but then also along special ed groups as well. there are other ways to intervene. And so what I see, like if you were to go back in time and look at the legislative history from this, what the legislature was saying is, find some other way to intervene, don't have us be the fail-safe and try to figure out other ways to correct things.

[1783] Elisa Martinez: You know, and we were talking a lot about, you know, the the sure the sure offenses if you will like if you see this that's an automatic or it's a whether it's a suspension or a expulsion in um in my short tenure you know over the last year when I have seen suspension cases come you see a long history of just you know you see a kid who's now in 11th grade and now they're being expelled and with all the implications of what that means for that individual. Then you look back and they've just got a history, right? And it just feels like where should we have pulled the, rang the bell, hey, something's happening here. If we don't intervene, there's no question we're going to lose this kid, and I know we can't get them all. You know, I'm not naive to that, but I think that's maybe kind of what I'm thinking about. It's that systemic breakdown, right? I think I'm going to say that these are the easy ones, right? Cause they're the obvious ones. It's how do we put it in place that, that early, early warning? I'm not sure what, how early that is to basically say, Hey, this is enough. We now need to intervene parents or whatever, you know, some of these other topics because otherwise, you know, it's bound to happen that we're going to lose that child.

[1873] SPEAKER_10: Yeah, and I think that to your point, I think that, and I can't predict the next 10 years, but if I were to look back at the last and then the different interventions that I've seen happen from a legal standpoint, I think that you'll start to see suspensions and expulsions continue to trend down. But I don't think it's going to be overnight, similar to the change that you saw in your trend down, but you could have, for some reason that doesn't make sense at one school site, suddenly an uptick, and then that's gonna affect your number.

[1911] Elisa Martinez: Yeah, and I'll say, make statements that are not always very popular, but I remember, Mr. Sanchez, you and I had a conversation about, I guess, pushing the suspension metric down is not always necessarily the right thing, right? Because sometimes, there is a need to get the attention of the student, of the family, right? So how do we balance that that says, let's not obsess over that suspension rate down, finding out where is that balance.

[1944] SPEAKER_07: One event can tip your data in the other way. You could have a brawl at a football game, you could have a fight at a sporting event, and suspend up to 60 people in one event. And that skews your data. I think the intent behind where I see the law going is really How are you working with the kid and the family to try to, especially in the younger years, it ends up being more leaning towards conflict resolution. Because they don't have the skills to deal with conflict. And so I think that might be one thing to consider on the laundry list of what's being put in place for restorative practice would be just getting kids to resolve. Because I think in the secondary form of restorative practice, you have student court. And what I've seen it happen in student court and restorative justice is the kids are much harsher on themselves than we would ever be. But it's powerful because they're leading it. And I think it teaches them that responsibility. So I think that the intent is what's more important. I think that's where we have parents that are concerned is, I've been asking for help for years in your example. I continue to ask for help, but I can't get the right people to help me. I don't know what to do with my son anymore. Now he's 220 pounds. He's bigger than me. Dad's not in the picture. I don't know how to handle this young man. I need help. Those are the things that we need to take more of, even adding parent education components to that to help parents deal with some of those factors. But I think that's where you see the trend going is really, I think the intent of the law, and correct me if I'm wrong, is just to really see a high quality, good faith effort to try to keep kids in school, because we know that's really not a punishment anymore.

[2050] Ray Rodriguez: I had a question for the high school level. I know we have partners. So I'm looking at the prior slide where you looked at referral for anger management or referral for school support or the intervention teams. I know Kaiser, you know, tries to be as involved as they can. And then, you know, with the Center Health and some of the others. And they all have very, very, you know, well-educated or individuals that are very up-to-date on working with the high school level kids. And so I guess my question would fall under, Whether it starts at the teacher's level, where you see tendencies, or whether you see the reason behind the behavior, like maybe the parents just broke up or whatever, and then all of a sudden the kid. And then to try to get that young person into a counseling, either with us or with the partners that we have. And that brings us back to the mental health issue. when it comes to high school kids. And, you know, there's so many signs you see and where, you know, if you don't have a stop mechanism in there, the child begins to look at ways to harm themselves and stuff like that.

[2145] SPEAKER_30: And if I can just add, referencing back to what Member Martinez was saying, I think it's important to point out that we can't just focus on the data here, the numbers, because we're talking about behavior, we're talking about students. So, you know, correct, we can't just say let's lower the, or let's change the color, because ultimately that's not the goal. The goal is let's help these students. And that's my focus here is, and I'm looking at, I saw this earlier and I wanted to address it, is we have a race with students with disabilities, which makes, to me, makes no sense. What, to me, what it's saying is we don't have the resources or we don't have the training to know how to address students of this category. I don't, you know, we shouldn't. We should not have a rep. We should not have a rep, you know? And then going back to behavior and the willful defiance is, it's ultimately looking at what's affecting the student. Going back to primary grades, the first through K, addressing the issue that Member Martinez said. If, first through, I'm sorry, first through third grade, if we're having suspensions, we need to figure out what the real problem is. And it's not sending this child home because it's either that they don't have a home to go to, they're having parental issues, they're having, et cetera. It's not, let me suspend a third grader, let me suspend a kindergarten. It's, what can I do so that when you're in nine, 10, 11, 12, you're not gonna get expelled?

[2239] Elisa Martinez: No, that's a great point. I mean, just our tolerance, the fact that, I mean, if we did this as adults, you know, are now saying, hey, I have to spend, spend to spend in an eight year old. Wow. There is something is, is, is, you know, and again, I'm not naive, but none of us are naive that there are some things that, you know, that, that can be out of our control, but it should be a big deal amongst our district, not just isolated to that school, right? And I don't know, but I think if we double click down to this data, we could probably go to some trends in particular schools, right? And the fact that we're shaking our heads, that means that's a red flag for all of us. It says, why is that happening? So I agree with Member Gutierrez that there is something It shouldn't concern us, right, any time one instance of that nature happens. I'm sorry, I do, I'm trying to be a time check. I know we have five minutes, because we only scheduled 45 minutes. So I'm sorry about that, yeah.

[2303] SPEAKER_26: So, I think these are some of the questions. Okay, these are some of the questions, so.

[2310] SPEAKER_27: I know the last time, some of the questions that have come up from the board was really around can the board change recommendations as recommendations for expulsion are coming forward? Can the board look at the terms of expulsion and what does it mean to continue an expulsion or to terminate an expulsion? And maybe Matt could answer some of these questions.

[2331] SPEAKER_10: Yeah, so for the first one, can the board change recommendations? Assuming there's a recommendation from the district's administrative staff to you as a board, some of the times the recommendations can be changed, meaning can you change it from a certain expellable recommendation of a certain amount of time always goes back to what is the nature of the offense. So if you look at your form and you would be able to look at that because it'd be part of the record of the student, for example, if it's a mandatory, there's a certain calendaring time frame that goes along with each of these offenses. So if there was a recommendation and if it was a mandatory, you wouldn't have much wiggle room, so to speak. But if it was a lesser than offense, then you could, in essence, change it and make the recommendation different. So in terms of just answering that specific question, yes, the board can change. The answer is when, and when can you do that? And it really depends on the fences itself. And that goes to the term of expulsion itself as well. The board can change that. And the board could even recommend, if you were to say, we have a stipulated expulsion and we'd rather do a expulsion and enter into that type of agreement, you can do that as well. The only caution I would give is that sometimes you're dealing with timelines, timeframes, and so you may be at that timeline on the date that you're having that board meeting, and so if you make a recommendation, the administration, the staff might say, you know, I understand you want to do this, but we're meeting this timeline issue, and so you may not have as much flexibility. But a lot of times there is a little bit, there is some type of regulatory

[2438] SPEAKER_30: Real quick, when we're talking about terms of expulsion, so there is such a thing as maybe one year expulsion, six months? Six months.

[2445] SPEAKER_10: Yeah, there can be the balance of the semester, it can be the balance of the semester and the next semester, or it can be one full calendar year. And the mandatory offenses, most of them are connected to a one full calendar year expulsion.

[2469] Ray Rodriguez: Can we talk about the confidentiality? Because when you're dealing with expulsions, everything is confidential. We had a parent a few years ago that wanted to address the board on an expulsion, and I explained to her that if she did that, then she's the only one that could do that, and then it would take it from being confidential all of a sudden everybody knows about it because she wanted to address the board. She ended up not doing that, but that piece is so important that the student and the parents understand that this is all in confidence and nothing is going to be shared with anybody. I think where we see this coming up is where there's

[2514] SPEAKER_10: multiple students involved in, let's say, a student code of conduct violation, let's say it's a social media type of related violation that happens, and other parents that are maybe involved, their child's involved, they are one of the kids that's harmed, they want to know that information, and we just, we can't provide it. And what we have to just say is, is this is confidential

[2540] SPEAKER_26: And also well today you're going to be seeing some continued expulsions and stuff and a lot of times when they don't meet their rehab plan it rolls over and also some of these expulsions are kids that just registered with us and we're expelled from a different district so we have to implement the expulsion as well. I know we're out of time. Okay so new steps taken yeah Okay, so for this year, you know, overall our role as administrators is also to keep our campuses safe. So we have to look at where we're suspending, where we're expelling, and which ones are mandated, right? But our job is also to educate every student. And I also believe in early intervention. I was a therapist myself. I'm a licensed clinical social worker, but I was a therapist. So like you said, early intervention. Let's start early. Let's meet with the family early. What kind of services can we provide to the students, right? So I'm looking and making sure all of our administrators, and I'm supporting them with other means of correction. We have a new updated suspension form, like our attorney said. Another thing we're implementing is the phone a friend idea. So Alameda County has this thing that says, friends don't let friends suspend. So before you suspend, call another administrator at a different campus to talk about it. And maybe they can start asking you, what other means of correction are you implementing? To your point, to President Martinez, make sure every student who is suspended is referred to COST to see what kind of services they might need.

[2628] Nicole Pierce-Davis: What is COST?

[2629] SPEAKER_26: Coordination of Services Team. So every school has one of those and it happens once a week. And just to add to that, like we said, the high school is also doing basic trauma-informed teaching training, so for teachers, trauma-informed practices, and frequent meetings with campus monitors, because I think they're the first line of defense, and how to build those relationships. So those are some of the things that the high school is doing, and they'll highlight that at their spotlight.

[2662] Ray Rodriguez: Because we talk about students a lot, about the fact that we want them to feel safe in the classroom, but the teacher and the other employees, that should also be there, where they feel safe in the environment.

[2673] SPEAKER_26: Correct. And it goes back to restorative practices too, right? Building that sense of community and a student having a safe place or a safe adult to go talk to when they're having issues at home or issues with homeless, you know, or any other needs. So planning for 2021, so restorative practices, one of the things we're going to be doing is we're going to build from what the high school's already doing, and then we're going to investigate restorative practices and build a plan for next year. We're going to be looking at, is circles better? You know, the high school's already doing some restorative circles, because there's somebody that's trained there. Mediation and conferencing, is that the best thing, or peer jury? So we're going to be looking at that. Also, we're going to be doing student focus groups on school climate. And we have a discipline matrix.

[2719] Elisa Martinez: So when you say we're going to be looking at these, is the objective to build something in for that calendar year?

[2726] SPEAKER_27: Yes. And build on what they've already have. So I know that Ms. Rangel and Mr. Neal and Ms. Calderon are working together. They actually took a trip, I think two of them, and one of our teachers to Southern California to go see what they're doing at a school that has some really high reviews as to how it's restorative for kids, So they're building on that. And so we're hoping to unveil it, if not by the high school spotlight, then soon. But that would be for 2021.

[2752] SPEAKER_26: And just going back to what you say, it has to be a systemic implementation. And what does it mean to have restorative practices, an opportunity for those who commit wrongs to be accounted for and repair the harm? I think repairing the harm is really important. And there's always that missing piece, right? So we've got to work on that. Build a sense of community. When students feel that they belong to the school, they're more likely to participate and respect and actually go there to have fun. Another increase is the pro-social skills of those who have harmed others. And again, it addresses what you said, the underlying factors. Like, why did they do this? There's always a why. And so we're going to look at restorative practices and can it be implemented in circles, peer jury, mediation, and conferencing? What would be the best approach?

[2807] Elisa Martinez: So we will be looking for, in the next couple of months, here's what we intend to do for 2021. One quick question if I may.

[2815] SPEAKER_30: Procedure-wise, I know there's the two aspects of a student committing something and it's a straight expulsion. But looking at the continuous bad behavior, students get suspended, suspended again. How many suspensions lead to an expulsion if that's even? No. I don't think. No.

[2838] SPEAKER_26: There's not like five suspensions equals? No. OK. You have to look at the different.

[2842] SPEAKER_30: Depending on the act. OK. So they just quickly reverse the procedure. Child committed an act that that leads to an expulsion. What are the proper steps that are taken?

[2854] SPEAKER_26: So it's actually... I'm sorry, you read my mind, except I know we're running out of... Thank you, thank you.

[2866] SPEAKER_26: I love your job. So usually what happens is the administrator calls me and they recommend for expulsion. Right? And they have all the evidence, all the witness statements, they have the whole packet. Then from there, I meet with the family, and I talk about what happened. And I meet with them, and I say charges because it's what disciplinary charges. And then either the family agrees, and so they will go with the stipulated expulsion, which means they agree to the charges. And so then we look at placements, what is the best placement. If they don't agree, they have a panel hearing, and our panel would be administrators, and the administrators kind of get to decide, yes, we're moving forward with expulsion, and what the recommendation is going to be, and the placement.

[2917] SPEAKER_30: How many administrators? I think it's three.

[2920] SPEAKER_27: Well, it's a hearing of three.

[2923] SPEAKER_26: Yes. Sorry. I thought administration was right.

[2926] Ray Rodriguez: So what do they go primary?

[2929] SPEAKER_27: It's a mixture. It really depends. We like to have all of our administrators take part in it so they learn and see it from the other side. And so it just really depends. But more than likely, it's always ours. At least we've got one secondary person on that.

[2941] SPEAKER_10: It just can't be an administrator from the school site where that site is being recommended. Yes.

[2947] SPEAKER_26: And so then, so if it's just me, I meet with the family and then They agreed to the charges because that was what was committed, and then I make the recommendation to the board. What I always take into account, too, was like Matt said, was the charges. If it's a sexual assault, maybe it's not safe for this kid to be even at our school sites here, so there would be a recommendation for Hayward. A lot of times, too, if they're selling substances, the recommendation is for Hayward. So it all depends also on what the student did, yes. So then the hearing takes place, the advisory panel makes the recommendation and the recommendation comes to you.

[2989] Ray Rodriguez: So on those, you know, offenses, is it mandatory that you get them off the site for a minimum of what, three days, five days?

[2999] SPEAKER_26: No, so usually it's at least five days because then I do my extension of suspension meeting with the parents until I meet with the family and they gather all the documents needed.

[3012] Ray Rodriguez: And we're not talking about five school days. Or are you talking about five school days?

[3015] SPEAKER_26: Yeah, so they're suspended for at least five school days. Five school days. Yes. And of course, if it's special education, there's other things that need to happen, too. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, the manifestation, determination has to happen within 10 days and stuff like that.

[3030] Joy Lee: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

[3053] SPEAKER_28: you

[3099] Elisa Martinez: Thank you, staff, for the, for guiding us through this study session. So now I'm going to open it up to public comment on closed session items. Do we have any speaker cards on that? No. Okay. And just as a reminder, we did amend the agenda. One item from closed session, 4.3 was pulled to open session. And with that, we recess to closed session. Thank you.

No minutes available.