Regular - Part 2 Meeting

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[58] Elisa Martinez: Welcome back. The board is coming back from closed session. If we could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please. Ready? Begin. 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. Thank you. So thank you for joining us in person and for those of you that are joining us virtually. I would like to start the meeting just with a few reminders. And I'll try to get this. For now, I'm going to be reading, because these are my reminders on the piece of paper. But hopefully, they'll go a little smoother going forward. Again, the meeting is being recorded. It's being streamed live as well. And again, our executive assistant is charged with taking minutes. So in that spirit, please, let's limit any side conversations. And if you do need to speak, I ask that you step outside. We will be having a Spanish translator. Are they here? OK, thank you. If you would like to address us on a non-agenda or agendized item, please grab one of these speaker cards. Make sure you submit them right at the beginning of the meeting as we will not be taking ad hoc requests once we get going. Each one of these speaker cards gives you an opportunity to speak to us for about three minutes. You will get a 30-second warning for you all to wrap up any last comments or thoughts you'd like to share. And as a reminder, we as a board do not normally respond to our speakers. However, I may direct staff to have some follow-up activity. And as always, we will always try to conduct ourselves in a professional manner. And always in accordance with following the Brown Act guidelines. We ask that we all treat each other with respect. And we of course always do look forward to your constructive feedback. We really are working hard as a group to begin to really, really, not begin, to continue to drive a culture of excellence in everything that we do. We know we have work to do, so we appreciate any feedback that you provide. Thank you. So having said that, moving on to closed session actions. We took no action in closed session.

[250] SPEAKER_41: Okay.

[251] SPEAKER_20: moving on to student report, please. Yes, good evening. I'd like to start with our student reports and see if we have any students from Newark Junior High School this evening. Please come forward. Welcome.

[268] SPEAKER_48: Good evening, everyone, and Happy New Year. My name is Praditya Lalamuni, and I am the ASB president at Newark Junior High School. To begin the year, we are working on Valentine's grams, which are for your friends or your sweetheart, you could buy them. Right now we're selling them in the gym at lunch. Next Tuesday, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we are reading his I Have a Dream speech out loud during morning announcements in his honor so that everyone can kind of get a grasp of his goal and understand who he was and what his mission was. Also, we are planning on having a spirit weekend rally sometime soon, so keep your eyes and ears open for that, for how and when to participate. Finally, we are working on Pennies for Patients, which is a month-long fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, where students bring in money, and we give that money to and lymphoma society so they can help make new cures and treat patients and people who need it. We have a competition this year. We're planning on having the teachers do dares, where if we reach a certain goal, a teacher will do something in exchange. And finally, right now, Report Card Night is happening. So students and parents can go discuss with teachers, like if they have any questions. And they could talk to the teachers about how the students are behaving, their grades, what they can do better. That's it. Thank you for your time. Good evening, everyone.

[378] Elisa Martinez: Thank you. Thank you.

[385] SPEAKER_20: And do we have any student speakers from our McGregor campus at this evening? OK. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Castillo to give a report on Newark Memorial High School.

[396] SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Superintendent Salinas. So ASB is currently working on the Multicultural HATS Assembly. HATS stands for Hands Across Time and Space. That's going to be on March 20th, which is a Friday, with the recent approval of the Vietnamese Student Union as one of our newest clubs on campus. We're hoping to have a lot of good performances, some clubs that we haven't seen before. We hope that the board and the general public will join us for that assembly. Again, that's Friday, March 20th in the event center at lunch, or right before lunch. So our next food fair is going to be Friday, the 7th of February at lunch in the quad. That's one of our biggest fundraising opportunities for all clubs on campus. Clubs tend to raise anywhere from $100 to $200, so it really helps them out with their expenses. It's never a dull moment when food's involved. Clubs are selling fried chicken, lumpia, spam musubi, and even space juice.

[458] Phuong Nguyen: So. What's in space juice?

[463] SPEAKER_06: Space. So that's going to be February 7th. That's a Friday at lunch in the Newark Memorial Quad. ASB is working on the Sadie's dance that's on Valentine's Day, I believe, February 14th. ASB's annual election is on January 31st, which is a Friday. The offices of ASB president, vice president, student board member, and all class offices are up for election at this time. On Tuesday, January 28th, all social science classes and freshman biology classes will be going into the theater, and they'll be hearing short candidate speeches from each person who's running. In past years, we've struggled with having a good relationship between ASB and the general student body. And so we want them to have a better idea of what ASB does and what we're involved in and the changes that we're trying to make in our community. So we invite the board to come watch those campaign speeches on January 28th. The athletics department is hosting the Special Olympics for basketball. That's going to be on the 21st of February, which is a Friday. This event draws 350 athletes annually from Newark, Fremont, and Union City middle and high schools. It takes around 50 Newark Memorial student volunteers to help put this event on. It's an all-day thing. It goes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Opening ceremony commences at 9.30. That includes a parade of athletes, the Special Olympic Oath, and a torch run. So the athletics department would like to invite everyone present to join us for that. The girls wrestling team will be traveling to Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo to participate in the fifth annual Lady Jaguar tournament this Friday and Saturday, the 17th and 18th. Newark Memorial ranked first overall in the tournament last year, scoring 119 points. The next team had, I believe, 95 or somewhere around there. Huge margin of victory for them last year. Boys JV Wrestling is going to Oceana High School in Pacifica this Saturday for the 8th annual Shark Shootout Tournament. That's going to feature teams from all around the Bay Area and one team from Reno, Nevada. So that should be an exciting tournament for them as they kick off their season. And last but not least, the spring sports orientation is Wednesday, February 5th at 6.30 p.m. in the old gym. It's an opportunity for coaches to get to meet their athletes and for parents to ask any questions that they might have. Also important, updates, changes to the athletic department, whatever those might be. Coach K will be giving those to the public. The deadline for registration is February 7th, the following Friday. So, all athletes should be registering on Family ID at that point. If they don't have physicals, Washington Hospital will be doing on-site physicals after school. I forget when they are, but I can include that in an email to Char. Washington Hospital does it. We've, the athletics department has partnered with them for a while now to provide physicals. They're sometimes under Irvington at Kennedy, and we're glad to bring them to the Newark Memorial Campus this time. that's all I have for the board at this time.

[670] Elisa Martinez: Thank you Cesar. Sorry student board member Castillo for being informal. As we move to public comment on non-agenda items I'd like to remind everyone that this segment we tend to or we'd like to keep it to 30 minutes. Everybody, again, gets three minutes. If we do run out of time, we will bring this item back at the end of the meeting once we complete all the other items. I did just want to mention, Ms. Parks, you submitted a speaker card for item 10.2. That item was pulled. I'm not sure if... No, no. Sorry. Oh, 10.1, sorry. Oh, sorry, 10.1, there's two. So if you wanted to, I know you have a speaker card for non-agenda items, just if you wanted to address it at that point, thank you. Okay, so moving on to public comment on non-agenda items, Ms. Parks.

[748] Cindy Parks: Good evening. No, I'm not going to waste my three minutes on something you've pulled. I just was kind of wondering if you, just to give you some feedback in that I know that you approved a survey and there hasn't been anything that I've seen regarding that survey. So just kind of wanting to bring that again up that you approve something that the public hasn't seen. The 7-11 committee in the same fashion. you approved an application and that you were going to move forward with that. And I know that there have been a few people that have said, wondering where you are in that whole process. The other item I would like to bring up is the dual immersion. There were two meetings that were held last week. And unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend, but I did talk to people that attended both. And just from my own impression, One of the reasons I didn't really put forward the effort to go to them is my understanding was that this was not a done deal, that you all were going to receive a presentation in a board meeting. I mean, I know that it's being advertised that you're already submitting or seeking people to enroll in it. And my understanding was that this was something that was in a planning kind of process, that you were going to actually see a plan, that you were going to see a budget. I think that Newark Unified has a history of every three, four, five years starting something and then switching to something new. And I think a lot of that has to do with a lack of having a full plan. And even when they've had a plan, it's not even been implemented in its entirety as it was intended to be implemented. And I'll just say the Kevin Clark program as an example. And so my concern is that we're going down a path and I'm not even sure that you know where you're going. Are you even aware of the full path and how much it's going to cost? I've also heard that it's been tied to the SEAL program, your English Language Learner program. Yet I did go back through and read the MOU and there is no link between either. In fact, they're kind of you know, one is teaching somebody the English language and one of them is having this dual immersion. And so I'm not sure that that's a proper link. But I'd like to spend my last 30 seconds talking about what was read at the very beginning of the meeting and where I do appreciate the fact that there is a standard that's being set. The public is being advised of that standard. I want to say that I've been coming to these meetings for 20 years off and on, lately more on than off. But it's not in your policy. to only accept speaker cards at the very beginning of the meeting. It's not in your governance handbook. And to all of a sudden start something new, I just want to bring that to your attention, that that's not spelled out in either of those policies or handbook. Restricting the comments for the public to just somebody who puts in a card when they get here. There are times when there's something that unfolds in the meeting that goes, oh, I need to talk about that, or something that's said that, oh, I can add to that maybe later in the meeting when it's on the agenda. And I just want, you know, there's so many times where the public feels like you don't care or, you know, I don't want to prompt you to also then. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Parks. Thank you.

[974] Elisa Martinez: Miss Vanessa Hernandez.

[980] SPEAKER_08: Good afternoon. My name is Vanessa Hernandez and I'm currently a senior at Newark Memorial attending the Ohlone Connections program, which is a program that lets us finish our high school classes while attending college classes at Ohlone. OCC is a great program that lets us get a head start on life and our majors and be prepared and successful. I'm here on behalf of myself and my fellow classmates at OCC to talk about the change that the district is trying to make. The way our program works is that Miss Nations, our instructor, teaches five subjects, government, econ, myth, leadership, civics, debate, and English. We're in a classroom from 8 a.m. to 12.30. The first half of class, we focus on a subject for two hours, following a 30-minute break, and then we're taught another subject for the rest of the time up to 12.30. After class, we have time until 3 for her to help us with our college classes, FAFSA, college apps, and anything else we need help with. It is important to have this time with her because we are still seniors in high school and not ready to be left alone in a college environment. we were all promised that Miss nations will be there for us every step of the way and now these 2 and a half hours are getting taken away from us. We're left to drown and figure things out on our own. The district is trying to say that helping us with their college classes and etcetera is not what they pay her for. And that she needs to follow the high school schedule and releases at 12 so that she can get a lunch and teach his class at Memorial. Not only is this unfair to us, but it's unfair to the 11th grade class The whole year they did not have a teacher and had sub after sub. Today, Miss Nations, it was her first day of teaching and a few students and I decided to help her and be a TA. All the students were saying how easy it was the first semester, how all they have to do is show up and they would get an A. They would play Kahoot all day and fill out worksheets that they never turned in. They asked Miss Nations to keep it the same, easy and simple. The funny thing is that out loud, the majority of the students say they wanted nothing to change. But when Miss Nations asked them what they wanted from her, they said that they wanted to learn. Now that they are finally given the opportunity to learn, they make other students suffer. How hard is it to find a qualified history teacher who is not our teacher? We have asked Ms. Rangel and Jessica from HR the whole time. They circled around our questions and they would not answer our questions. And sometimes Ms. Rangel, when we talked to her about certain issues, she would smile like she was trying not to laugh. During this meeting, it was clear that they knew that they weren't going to give those students a history teacher. They knew that they were going to take away our teacher. And with that, we were left with no help with our college classes. We all know that this district has spent we have a lot of money in our hands. We spent. Lots of money on unnecessary things and now they don't want to spend money on a qualified history teacher and take away time from us. And the question is where's all the tax money going our parents are paying. We need to keep our normal schedule and our teacher and get a new history for the new teacher for the

[1181] Elisa Martinez: You can go ahead and make your comments from there.

[1183] SPEAKER_06: Cool. So I am not part of ONE College Connections, but I have gone over the petition and I've spoken to students who are in ONE College Connections. I know there are two sides to this. There are two sides to everything. The facts are this. What's happened is Miss Nations is being asked to teach a six period CP US history class. And the Ohlone College Connection students aren't happy with it because they consider all the time after 12.30 their office hours. I believe that's fair to say. So the petition that's presented on change.org is a little misguided, I would say. And I have the license to say that. All the students taking that class failed the first semester due to the school district mismanagement, end quote. But someone just said that they all got A's. So where's the fact check and where's the honesty in that? From 12.30 to 3 PM, where's the proof that all of this time is being utilized? Where's the proof that it's all collectively valuable? Ideally, if you're a college student and you are completing the FAFSA, or you're a high school senior, you're completing the FAFSA, and you know that it opens October 1st, you would ideally complete it by October 14th and be done with it. College applications, not that difficult to fill out except for the essays, and that does require review. But it requires a lot of introspection as well, and a lot of independence, which is why you've been granted as an Illini College Connections student. So with that, I think there's a higher expectation of you to rise to the occasion and to say yes, I can be independent. In essence, I think the district has taken the least damaging route. There are worse things that could have been done. Financially speaking, we could have hired a teacher to you know, teach one section, but instead what we've done, or instead what the district has done is they've taken a teacher who is fully qualified to teach that class and they've asked her, hey, we are in a bind and we need you to help us out. And I know that it seems unfair because these students have their teacher and they would like to spend time with their teacher. I grant them that. I don't have a problem with that. what I have a problem with is that, you know, you had all the facts in front of you and you failed to see them. You haven't taken advantage of all the resources that have been given to you. And so at this point, I think you've kind of forfeited them.

[1374] Elisa Martinez: Thank you. Next speakers, Linh Truong and Sapna Singh.

[1384] SPEAKER_41: Sorry.

[1389] SPEAKER_07: Good evening, my name is Lynn Chong and this is Safna Singh. We are both seniors at Newark Memorial High School. As of August 2019, we have been a part of a program called Lonely College Connections. We are here today to express our deep concerns about the shocking and unanticipated news about our educator business nations. As you may all know, as of today, January 16, 2022, 23, Mrs. Nations was forced to teach a U.S. history class at Newark Memorial High School. Due to the mismanagement and irresponsibility of both the high school and the Newark Unified School District, the students in the U.S. history class were left without a proper teacher for the first semester. According to my interview with a student in the U.S. history class, she said that at the beginning of the school year, the students were promised a proper U.S. teacher But as the situation stands, this is clearly not the case. As stated by the students, most of the year was spent with substitutes who allowed them to do whatever they wanted in class. This include working on classwork from other classes and just fooling around on their phones. Rarely was there a time where there was actual content being taught, pursuing to US history. While almost all the students had A's for the first semester, this isn't due to actual content being taught. but attendance and classwork meant for leadership. When asked if any of the students knew anything about U.S. history, all stayed silent and could only say that they didn't know because they weren't taught on the subject. Now the responsibility of teaching U.S. history to these students falls on our teacher, Business Nations. Not only will she have to teach two semesters worth of subject in the class, but she will have to cut time she used after class to help and advise us on our college work and applications. This is unfair not only to us, but to the juniors in the U.S. history class. And I will transfer to my friend.

[1506] SPEAKER_13: opportunity cost outweighs the benefits. Due to the sudden change in the schedule and structure of Ohlone college connections. We as students of the program want to keep the original Ohlone hybrid schedule because the high school schedule clashes with our college classes and result in the OCC students not being able to have a spring break. The change from the Ohlone hybrid schedule to the high school schedule is unnecessary as opportunity cost outweighs the benefits with the benefit here of being able to match the high school schedule with ours. We feel as though we are being punished for choosing to get a head start on our educational career and for the errors that the high school and the district have made. As a school district, it is your responsibility to provide students with the proper teachers they need and keep the promises that were made to the students. Before signing up for the OCC program, we were promised an Ohlone hybrid schedule and the U.S. history students at the high school were promised a proper U.S. history teacher. that the district will carry out their promises. Thank you.

[1573] SPEAKER_41: Thank you. Ms. Sue Eustis.

[1592] SPEAKER_15: My name is Sue Eustace and I live in Newark and I'm a voting resident of Newark. I am not speaking on behalf of CSCA. I came to the meeting on January 9th and watched the meeting. The meeting itself had a lot to be desired. I find it and I want to acknowledge that Elisa was not at the meeting. So it was the rest of the board members, not the student board member either that was there. So at the end of the meeting when we got through and we were sitting in the audience, there were at least four of us sitting there talking, the other four individuals sat and continued to talk after the close of the meeting. They huddled like in a football hole and round and they definitely were not talking about anything we were talking about or anything casual. So there were three of us sitting there, one in back of me, that watched. Now, I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but it was the appearance that the board was continuing to talk and meet, which is not appropriate. No one accused the board of filing a Brown Act violation. When it was caught that we were talking, one of us did say, Is there a meeting after the meeting? And the response from the clerk was, we can talk in closed session as long as we don't take a vote on it. Not in closed session, sorry. We can talk together and as long as we don't take a vote on what we're talking about, it's all right. And the hand went like this, like go away or speak to the hand, I'm not sure which. You asked us in the beginning of the meeting to have appropriate behavior. What I saw was inappropriate behavior. We're going to have our disagreements, disagreements. We're not going to agree on things. We're going to fight, but it should be done respectfully, and it should not happen like this. And I have talked to a couple other board members that are still board members and two that were not, and they assured me that I probably was right and that was not according to the Brown Act because how do I know what you're talking about that you're not gonna bring it back at the next board meeting, put it on the agenda, have no discussion and vote on it. I have no reassurance when you guys are talking like that. So I wanna be shown respect. I didn't feel the comment was directed at me, but I was really ticked. because I thought it was a real flippant answer and I thought it was extremely disrespectful and rude. So you expect me to be appropriate behavior. So should you.

[1779] SPEAKER_35: Thank you.

[1789] Elisa Martinez: Alexis Martinez. Sorry, I couldn't make out the first name.

[1795] SPEAKER_41: Sorry, I wrote a little sloppy.

[1797] SPEAKER_35: No, no, it's OK. No worries. Hi, I'm Alexis Martinez. I am in the Loney College Connections Program. And just a few thoughts and concerns about the situation that is going on is that apparently an agreement was made with the teacher or substitutes, whoever, that their term would be ending in December. So therefore, meaning you would need to find a new teacher for the following semester. And in the beginning of August, you guys had asked Miss Nations an offer for that position in which she denied. So therefore, you guys had up to four months to figure out who would replace that in the following semester. And according to the students who were taking that class, there was multiple substitutes and multiple teachers who did not fulfill or were qualified enough for that position to teach them. to prepare for a new semester based on U.S. history. And I just think that that was very unprepared decision-making by giving my teacher from January 6th to today to prep for a whole new semester of U.S. You had mentioned in there that we said on our petition that, oh, they failed, but somebody said that we got an A's. Well, one, people, maybe they did pass, but they didn't learn anything. And the purpose of going to school is to learn. And I feel like people can't learn in class when there's multiple teachers going in and out. Secondly, they can't learn if the teacher doesn't even know what they're talking about or teaching about. So yeah, also you had mentioned how our last hours that are being taken from you guys is used just for college and studies and stuff like that, which it's not just focused on our other curriculars, it's also focused on what we do in class. So if we have work to be finished, we finish it in there. If we need help on an essay, she helps us in there. It's not just strictly on college. So I don't want you to think that, oh, well, your college class is with the Ohlone, so it has nothing to do with Nuremberg. No, it has a lot to do with the academics we're learning in class. Also, she had in class today, Ms. Nations had written a person, asked everybody to write a personality card and what they would like to learn or get from her and the class. And most said that they wanted to learn something. And I think that is what should stand out to you the most because clearly they learned nothing. Secondly, you had mentioned in the beginning how you guys are a district of culture of excellence but you're not excelling in that at all. One, because you're taking our time. Two, because you're giving these students teachers who can't fulfill the job correctly and can't give them a proper education. So how are you giving us a culture of excellence? You're doubting us and you're doubting those 11th graders. Not only them, but Miss Nations as well, because one, she was never accepting to this job. Yeah, that's all.

[1992] SPEAKER_41: Thank you.

[1999] Elisa Martinez: Ms.

[2000] Rachel Bloom: Rachel Bloom? It's me again. So yeah, so I'm at a lot of schools. Rachel Bloom, ninth year here. I've been pretty much everywhere. And so I've had a lot of students, and I've been thinking a lot about my students recently. And I don't think my students need fancy new buildings. I don't think my students need consultants. I don't think my students need an expensive ELD program, or even STEAM weeks, or even fancy maker spaces. What my students need are mental health services and smaller class sizes. I'm as you know I teach at Graham and Schilling this year. And you probably noticed how low Graham and Schilling's test scores are. So I can explain why our test scores are so low. Many children are coming to school unprepared. They do not have a toolbox of strategies to help them meet the challenges of learning in my classroom and all our classrooms. Students need mental health and counseling services to help them learn how to interact positively with other children. Many of my students need help developing empathy and respect for themselves, their classmates, and their teachers. Many of my students lack self-control. A counselor will be able to help students develop a toolbox of strategies. That toolbox can be used to help them become more successful learners. Even with mental health support, in order for students to learn, And to actually learn and to actually allow teachers to teach, they need to be in classes with fewer students. So, the number of students in each class now is too high. So, teachers spend too much time managing the class. Because students are not coming to a class, to school with the toolbox, the teachers have to help develop a toolbox. And while you're helping develop a toolbox, you're not teaching. You can't teach the actual content. And meeting the student's emotional and social needs are very important and it's definitely part of a teacher's job. But another important part of a teacher's job is to actually teach and facilitate that learning. So, the more time we spend on management, the less time we actually have to teach. If we had fewer students in classes, if we had smaller class sizes, teachers would have more time for students to help them with support, to give them support to help develop their toolbox. Smaller class sizes would mean less total time spent on class management. Because you're spending less time on helping develop toolboxes because there are fewer students in the class, that will give the teacher more time to spend on facilitating the learning. And so, in conclusion, I wanted to say that Newark students, they deserve the best. So they deserve the best opportunity to develop their strategies toolbox so that they can be prepared for school. And they deserve the best environment, meaning they need a small class size to help them learn. Thank you.

[2206] SPEAKER_41: Thank you.

[2213] Elisa Martinez: Ramon Medina.

[2228] SPEAKER_10: Good evening. Thank you. Hopefully everybody's doing well. Happy New Year. I haven't been here in a little bit, but I do want to come up and just have some concerns about the I really think, I'm 100% behind a program such as that. I was really happy and excited to see that it's starting to roll out. But I have concerns, obviously, because I'm about quality. And I feel that at this time, I like to see a little bit more understanding how the program is being rolled out. And as well as a commitment, a commitment from each one of you. to understand what it actually is going to take to have a successful program. That means that you guys actually set aside money and support system and workshops for the parents, the kids that are going to be on those programs. I have enough experience in this district that when the inclusion program for music was canceled, And people came over and say, we're canceling this program when it was actually being successful. And it wasn't even running. It must be before your time. But that inclusion program is a perfect example of people talking about a great program and actually having success and being cut off for parents like myself with special needs kids that was actually being really well implemented. But you guys didn't put money aside, so it was cut off. Right? So it's all about money when it comes down to kind of the issues that we have. And if you guys don't commit to actually putting money aside, it doesn't matter. You guys can cut it off later on. So if you don't put a commitment into it, then it's kind of up in the air. So when I have a program in our company, we put money, we put budget, and we commit to it. If it's going to be seven years, you commit to it. I would like to see that going and make sure that it doesn't happen where the inclusion program happened. I think it was a wonderful thing that I just heard. And I think one of the root causes, too, and I want to say that of kids having low scores, too, is understanding the root cause also comes from actually providing parents with the toolbox to help kids. Because coming from a home that was, you know, I was a, you know, ESL student coming up. And understanding my parents never went to any meetings or anything like that. I can tell you one thing is that when my parents learned how to navigate to this educational system, we were, I was, my scores improved because I was able to understand how. And that's what you guys got to understand. You got to go after the root cause of problems. And that's what I don't see you guys really going after. or really understanding, because a lot of times, all these times, you guys have been kicking the can down the road again and again and again. That's why partial tax or G bond will not be successful nowadays, because you guys lagged on it. You guys lagged on it.

[2427] SPEAKER_41: Thank you. Thank you very much.

[2435] Elisa Martinez: OK. That was our last speaker card for public comment on non-agenda items. Moving on to item number eight, superintendent report.

[2447] SPEAKER_20: Yes, good evening President Martinez, members of the board, members of the community. As I asked Ms. Aquino to put up just a couple of graphics. I was joking, I told people it feels like we've been back for weeks. There's just a lot of really good things happening in our district, communicating and connecting with folks. And the first share out I want to share out is around our students and our community. So, member Rodriguez, member Jung, and a lot of our students were able to participate in the Afro-American Cultural and Historical Society. Their 43rd annual, and I have to tell you, that really speaks to the Newark community. It is very rare to see a community that celebrates something for 43 years. So, it was wonderful. We had our choir, our high school choir was there, along with some students from Graham Elementary, really reflecting and thinking about Dr. Martin Luther King and and the work that's still ahead of us. So that was a really great event. I also want to share around Music Elementary. So last night, thank you, Mr. Jeong, for joining us. We had a great dinner of Olive Garden, but that wasn't the best part. The best part was our teachers. So our teachers for our third and fourth grade worked with families and students, more of the focus on families about math. And they have, Principal Gallaher has this event with her teachers where by grade level families come. And I heard our speaker speak about parent education. That's really what it was about last night. And I think we saw a really good example at Music Elementary with our teachers and our principal working together with our parents with supporting students at home on mathematics. I was at a table with one of our parents who said she had to go work the swing shift at Stanford Hospital and she had set aside three hours and was going to leave a little early to go sleep for a little bit before she had to go to work. So I think that really is a testament to the work that our parents do at home. They support our students and then come in the evenings to support our kids and our teachers. So I wanted to give a big shout out to Music Elementary staff and community. And the last thing that I want to share is that on Tuesday, January 21st, we will have live the School Consolidation Advisory Committee applications. As you know, the board has approved and asked us to move forward with putting together the applications. They will be online on the website on Tuesday, January 21st in both English and Spanish. At this point, we're asking for applications to come back on Friday, January 31st. We are looking to do the selection. I know we have some ad hoc members of our board that will be participating by February 14th. With the hope right now, tentatively we're setting for the selection of the committee members to be appointed by the board at the February 20th board meeting. We're still working on getting some facilitator information, but we knew that it was important and imperative by our board that we start to at least get the applications out and start to look at who was going to participate on this. So that will be live on Tuesday on our website in both English and Spanish. And that concludes my report this evening. Thank you.

[2651] Elisa Martinez: Thank you, Superintendent Salinas. Moving on to item number nine, employee organizations. Let's start with CSCA.

[2677] SPEAKER_15: Good evening. My name is Sue Eustice, and I am president of the Newark Chapter 208 of CSCA. We started out our year by taking and we have a two-year term, so we didn't have new elections. But our members that are our officers are going to be going through training on the 27th of January at the office, Alameda County Office of Ed. And so we'll be meeting there and learning how to work as an executive board. CSCA at headquarters in February is having a more intense workshops for our members, our presidents. And so it'll only be presidents, and it'll only be secretaries, and it'll only be treasurers. So these are all really good learning environments for all of us to be able to utilize to further our skills, because most of us in this chapter, it's a two-year term. So one of the things that we did before our chapter meeting this month is we decided that we would do a two-hour workshop with our people on our contract with Newark Unified School District so that they would have not only a better understanding of what their rights are, but also what your rights are. So we worked on hours, we worked on leave, we worked on, I can't remember what the third one was off the top of my head. But it was interesting to see the interaction that some people had not a clue what was in the contract, not a clue. Actually there was a brand new person coming in and I was really surprised to see him. But there were people like, I didn't know that. And so I asked our labor rep to please come back. do a second time around halfway through the year, because that contract is what we live with. And it's what both sides have agreed to. And we have rights in it, but you also have rights in it. So it was really interesting to see for them to get, and also how it fits together with the Ed Code. So we really started out, I think, with a really, really good year. And we certainly, during Christmas time, had a very nice party of a holiday celebration at Claim Jumpers. And Mr. Rodriguez attended, and so thank you for coming. We really appreciate that you did attend. So that's kind of what we're doing for this month and starting, and hopefully I have some more better things to bring to you next month. Thank you.

[2837] SPEAKER_41: Thank you, Ms. Eustace. NTA?

[2850] SPEAKER_24: Good evening. My name is Timothy Merritt. I'm the president of the Newark Teachers Association. I've been watching you, and I've been watching a lot of faces. I don't know if you know this about me, but I've read a book and I've studied a little bit about the Chinese face reading technique. And you guys are, I don't know if you're playing poker or what it is, but you guys have those upside down smiles on your faces really well a lot of the time up there. Not just you guys, you too. So one of the best things to do is when you're standing, you put your hands on your diaphragm, and that's the part just below your belly button, not too low, but just right there. And you just laugh out loud for about 30 seconds to yourself. You can do it with other people too. It's actually better. But you can do it to yourself in the mirror. And you'll start feeling better about yourself. And you'll start looking at things with a clear perspective. I don't have to tell you that I do that myself. Yeah, my cats think I'm crazy. And they're right. But anyway, February 2nd, board members. February 2nd is our annual board we're going to have a. Breakfast that cta sponsors cost. So all the Alameda County. And cost or yeah, I can't say it tonight contra Costa County. School districts will come together. the. So all the all the all the board members last last Be well this year. So I'll be sending you the information to RSVP through Char. And we want you to come. It's the 22nd of February. Sign in and reception starts at 8. And the program starts at 8.30, probably to about 11 in Pleasanton. We hope you'll come. It's a Saturday. Was it a 22nd? 22nd. 22nd. Yes, the second is a different date, and you know about that, and we'll talk about that later. But anyway, School Consolidation Committee, I just need to voice it out loud. I'm not sure, but I think I'm entitled to be on that as a member of NTA, and I don't have to apply. But I'll be double-checking with that, so I just want to put it out there in the public. All right. We've heard about teachers tonight. We had one that's having a little bit of a switcheroo and some challenges that affect her, her students. We're asked to be flexible. In negotiations, we're asked to be flexible. It's not our job to balance the budget. It's our job to teach students. And it doesn't matter what the financial situation is, that if we're not having happy teachers teaching happy students, the budget is going to get worse. So it's an investment that you need to make. And if you can't make it, we will continue down this spiral that is not good. We can turn this around, but we need the investment. So things like this, a 35-year professional being asked to teach another class in the middle of the year, changing the conditions. These students applied for this program, and they were told what the program was, and now the program's different starting today. So that's not fair to them, and it's not their responsibility to balance the budget. It's not, at least the students. We need to figure out how to get qualified teachers. And if we're not paying them the correct amount, we're not going to get qualified teachers to teach an extra period of social studies. We're not going to get a teacher to continue to teach a lonely college connection. We're not going to get a teacher to continue to teach seventh grade STEM.

[3146] SPEAKER_24: We might lose a science resource teacher. We might lose a special education preschool teacher that can make more money going actually into the community that they actually live in instead of driving all the way over here. And some of those teachers are bringing their kids. They're transferring their kids in here. So you're paying them pennies. And then you're also collecting the money from the state for having their kids in our schools. Yeah, shame on you for thinking that a 0% offer is a valid offer. It's not. A half a percent off the salary schedule is a slap in the face. Somebody asked me, isn't that kind of like a slap in the face? And I said, no. No, it is a slap in the face. It's a real slap in the face. Yeah. This morning, the shilling teachers were out on the sidewalk. We're not going to. Your your e-mails were listed on the pamphlet so get used to it. You'll get lots of student apparent e-mails. I'm guessing on the be more of that. We're we're gearing up. We have site captains at at more and more sites. We're we're not going to accept. And with that, I will see you in a few minutes. Good night.

[3251] SPEAKER_41: Do we have a representative from NEWMA?

[3257] Elisa Martinez: OK. Moving on to item 10, old business. which is since item 10.1 was pulled, we'll move on to item 10.2, which is the superintendent search firm selection process. This is a discussion and information item. And the purpose of this is to give an update on the process to select the search firm. And again, to provide some direction to the ad hoc committee that was formed in the last special meeting of January 9th. I wasn't here, I did review the meeting and I know that there were some questions that were asked and I think there was some confusion and I wanted to take the opportunity to cover that in this section. So we do have two speakers on this item. Item 10.2, Superintendent Searge, Ms. Parks.

[3330] Cindy Parks: Good evening. I wish you had clarified everything before I got up there. Perhaps you're going to deal with it. I just have to say that there was a lot of confusion at last Thursday's meeting. I proposed some questions as far as what exactly was going to take place, not understanding, based on the language that was within the item, what exactly was going to happen. And then the item was just skipped over. So I'm still at a place where I'm not understanding exactly what the process is going to be and in order to be transparent, you know, kind of looking over the language and even this item, it says the purpose is for the board to receive an update on the process. Well, I don't understand how you can have an update on the process when you haven't even actually put forward a process. and who's giving the update. And then, I mean, it just, I'm just a little still confused on how all this was. I don't see that like the RFP went out. I understand you had six firms that you used previously, but that you could have a pool of a lot more people that wasn't utilized the last time. So I just kind of feel like there was a restriction as far as what firms you utilized. The other thing that really bothered me is the language in the background. And again, you know, this is just a supplement to tell everybody what you're actually going to be discussing. But this kind of talks about the ad hoc committee is going to bring a proposed contract for the search services to the board meeting. That means your ad hoc committee is making the decision. Based on the language that's here, it appears that that's what's happening. And I would hope that it would be something that you all would be having a good discussion on. And you all would be deciding on where you want to go with all of this. It just seems, like I said, that there hasn't been something that has been conveyed to the community. And this is such an important position. I understand it is your only one true employee that you actually hire. But it just is a concern as far as what you're actually going to be doing. So if you could just kind of explain to us clearly what steps you're taking so that we understand. Thank you.

[3467] SPEAKER_41: Thank you. Ms. Rachel Bloom.

[3483] Rachel Bloom: I don't have this one completely ready yet, but I'm going to go for it anyways. I feel like me writing it out ahead of time might be working better for me. So yeah, so I'm here to talk about the closed, oh sorry, the superintendent search. And before when I spoke in closed session, I said that no one's talking about the teacher turnover problem that we have in NUSD. And I also said nothing's being done to change the culture of the district and its school sites in such a way that will make people want to stay. And I'm going to say, that's not really true. Because in December, the school board took action to improve NUSD's climate. So you all I think the fact that you stepped up and your boy vote and your appointment of a new interim superintendent that told us a lot. So your choices are making me think that maybe I know what some of your values are. And so your choices with regard to district leadership. They made me think that the school board values creating an environment that are creating an environment where employees do not have to worry about retribution or retaliation. Your choices made me think that you value honesty. And I think most importantly, your choices made me think that you value kindness. And what I would like to say is that Newark is a very special place. The community has amazing families. And the families have the most amazing kids. And I should know because I've taught way over a thousand of Newark students, and I've taught at six out of the eight elementary schools. So of all the people, I feel like I am very qualified to say that I know that for a fact, that Newark's families and kids are just the best. And so when you're picking a search firm, I just ask that you pick a firm that knows how to find a superintendent that shares our values. Find a superintendent that shares our Newark values. Our Newark values are community, kindness, love, respect. And so that's what I ask you. Remember what we are, and also remember what you showed us when you made that decision. Thank you.

[3632] SPEAKER_41: Thank you.

[3637] Elisa Martinez: So yes, I'll speak to the process. And again, I try to make sure I wrote in as many details. Again, there were some questions about the process. I think there were some, frankly, some unfortunate comments, I think, that implied that there were additional meetings happening and I just really want to make sure we clear the air and and and make sure everyone understands where Where we are why we are where we are in what direction and who's providing that direction? So the district did sir see We sought out proposals for superintendent search from six firms. How did we get there? I There was some confusion, and I think we tried to clarify it two meetings ago, or the last regular meeting, in terms of what could be discussed in closed session, what could be discussed in open session. So from a search process, we have not had any discussion. The only time that this topic was broached was in an open session, special meeting, board training, which was before Christmas. I forget the 20th. At that time, we did discuss, or we asked the question of our CSBA trainer if some of us, including myself, felt we should have some discussion about what we were looking for in a search firm. And the recommendation was, let's just go find the search firm, and they're going to help you determine, I'm sorry, The questions was, hey, do we start generating requirements for the superintendent? And the direction, I think, if you all recall, was, hey, let's just go find the search firm. That is what they do. They all have a process to help you identify those qualities that are important to Newark, to the Newark community. We all agree that that was the discussion that happened. I think that's important that there's no confusion around that point. There was no other meetings and discussion.

[3770] Phuong Nguyen: I would say yes, that was correct. We did have that discussion, like you said, but I think we did have a breakdown in communication in terms of a confirmation of when we were going to have the search firm, when we were going to do the search.

[3788] Elisa Martinez: Right. And I think, you're right, there's probably some cleanup of our internal processes. There were some communications via our executive assistant about dates and times that we would all be available. I actually also sent an email communication prior to the special meeting. So I think we do need to work on our internal processes. So I do apologize with whatever I contributed to that confusion. But that is the direction that we got. At that time, we asked, again, her CSBA trainer for sources, for potential search firms. She directed us to CSBA as they keep an inventory. We also looked at the list that was used in the prior search, and Ms. Aquino did reach out to CSBA. And basically went in the same list. And at the time, CSBA recommended, or they stated, they actually were using themselves specific one that was already on the list. So that's really I just want it to be full transparency that's the only conversation that has happened and therefore in the spirit of trying to get the process right where we start everyone starts to have a voice to get that going we wanted to make sure we invited these potential search firms to come and present to us. There was a valid question around RF RF versus RFQ, I keep getting corrected, depends, right? Because the threshold amount didn't require it. You know, again, we are looking, we are looking to make changes in the way we do. We're trying to make things more efficient and not bog it down if we don't need to. So that was the reason we did not, it was not required, so it was an invitation. And in this list, in the background, I basically tell you, or Ms. Aquino kind of took note about, you know, there were a couple that were not available, one that no longer does it, and so we really kind of got the two that responded. So are there any questions with regards to just the process and how we got here?

[3927] SPEAKER_36: I just wanted to set some clarification based on the background writing that's on the agenda. And just to clarify that the ad hoc committee is not going to we're not going to. Address or select a contract. It's it specifically says that the committee will. Further direction. And we'll discuss the contract that the firm will bring so we're not going to the committee will not be

[3969] Elisa Martinez: We're not negotiating, but I recognize this is not the best English in this particular sentence, but that is not. We did want to make sure that in that ad hoc discussion, I think it's Ms. Kateris and myself, based on the reviewing the meeting, the recorded meeting, The advice once again and Mr. Rodriguez you could weigh in I knew you also, you know shared the prior experiences In the past we've had a subcommittee or ad hoc committee In case there are some questions that we need to follow up and that's what we're going to talk about today given those presentations For example, unfortunately, I wasn't able to be here I'd love to be able to ask some direct questions about those search firms or from the search firms. And specifically, I would like the opportunity to reach out to some of the schools that they listed as clients. And ideally, they would be pointing us, and that would be a question I would ask of them, is to appoint us to a district that is kind of like us, that is Maybe in size, doesn't have to be, but from an issues, the issues and the challenges that, you know, who might be more like us so that we could go and understand the process that they followed. So that was an example. Okay. So I don't know, I just wanted to make sure before we go as an ad hoc committee and ask any follow up questions, wanted to open it to the board. Are there some things that now that you've had a few days to turn that you'd like us to follow up on? Sorry, I have a request to speak. No, that's fine. OK.

[4078] Bowen Zhang: You want to go first? I just want to know, are we talking about qualification we're looking at? Or what is?

[4089] Elisa Martinez: No, so if you recall, and in the presentations, we are not talking about the qualification for the superintendent. No, that once we hire a firm, then we will in, again, in open session begin to generate those requirements. Right now it's just about the identifying who we want to partner with.

[4109] Bowen Zhang: Oh, I see. So this is the firm selection? Yes. Okay. So I think the first firm is Leadership Associates? Yes. I think they don't really have consultants. All of their members are previous superintendents. That really makes them kind of unique, and I think they're very strong in the state of California. So that's the part that I think the first firm stand out. Second firm, McPherson, they have more than just only a fraction of their people are superintendents, and they have some consultants, but they also claim to know the tri-city area pretty well because One of their partners used to be an employee at our district and then they also help New Haven district. I think that's my impression. Do I need to say which one I prefer? I guess I'll wait for other people.

[4167] Elisa Martinez: Not at this point we're not asking. I mean if you have a really, you know, hey I'm really rooting for this and you want us to go try, go push on a couple of items and questions that would make you feel you know, hey, yeah, for sure, this is the right selection. Absolutely, you're willing to share. I mean, this is really kind of our process, right? And we really need to feel that we're going to pick the right, do the best job for our district. Any questions?

[4194] Ray Rodriguez: No, not a question, but basically from history, it seems like every four or five years, we're doing this. And it's just the way things are. The most important thing we do as a board is hire a superintendent. And the teachers and all our employees are classified, our management. They don't work for the board. They work for the superintendent. The only person that actually is employed by the board is the superintendent. So it's so important that we do this right. And hiring a search firm is the first part you have. Once the search firm is hired, then they'll take you through the whole process. How involved are they going to be in the community? And because the community is important, that they tell us what they want in a superintendent. And that'll all be done once we hire the firm. So the two firms that actually applied, had applied before, and Leadership and Associates has done the last two searches for us. And McPherson has done searches for other school districts in the area. And they're the ones that are recommended by CSBA as part of their group. So I think we're very fortunate. Both of them did an excellent job. And it's obvious that by how involved they are in the selection of superintendents in the area, that both of them do an excellent job. you know, bringing superintendents. So as far as the process is concerned, being that it is under the threshold, the board, the district can do our own in-house RFP, and that's just what we did. We contacted different ones that had applied before, and the only two that wanted to was the two that came. So as far as the ad hoc committee, in the past, If we had, let's say, six different firms, then the ad hoc committee, which is two board members, would go through those, and then they'll decide who they're going to invite. But in this case, what kind of threw everybody off is that we had the discussion on the process, and at the same time, we had two firms presenting. But that being said, I like the way things are going. We're taking our time. The process takes probably about three months. And I think it's important that we take our time and we do this right, because we want to make sure we get the right person for us.

[4356] Elisa Martinez: OK. OK. Thank you. So no questions for that? No. OK. Or direction. Ms. Gutierrez, is this a? I'm sorry.

[4364] Ray Rodriguez: Yeah. OK. Go ahead.

[4365] Elisa Martinez: The ad hoc committee is advising.

[4367] SPEAKER_36: Absolutely. Yeah. I just wanted to comment to the McPherson's process and what they explained was I think it's very important to to notice that. I feel that they have. They have a process that would be very. Welcoming towards our community I think to some of those concerns and what she would be looking for. I do think that make fearsome of time and time that they take, the process that they have and how much it actually includes our community. So I think it's something that we should really look into making sure that both firms, McPherson already stated that they do have it, but making sure that the firm that we do have has a process similar to McPherson's or McPherson's in the sense of involving our community, involving the board members in getting to really know on a one-on-one basis the candidates. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you.

[4443] Bowen Zhang: Mr. Zhang. I just want to make two points, two parts I really like. Leadership associate, I think it's kind of unusual about how they present it. Number one is I like the fact that when they're recruiting somebody they placed previously, They want to see this person has been committed to the current job for five years plus because they believe in commitment and long-term continuity of the district. So they wouldn't recommend anybody who's been there for only one year and just jump ship to get a bigger paycheck and climb the career ladder within three years. I think they're looking for people who have commitment to a community. They're looking for people who want to be rooted as the community they're working in. So I think that five-year minimum commitment that they have that they require for their candidates. I think that's something really attractive to me. And the second thing I realized that one of the questions I asked them is about the passive candidate recruiting. You know, many of the top performing superintendents that their respective board will be very happy with their performance. They probably have four years, five years contract or even infinite contract waiting for them being extended because they're performing really well. Many of these candidates will not be the ones that are actively looking. But if leadership, based on what leadership associate answers my question is that sometimes they will reach out to these passive candidates who are highly performing in their district and are not looking for jobs but can be convinced to leave if presented with a good, better opportunity. I think that part was really something that impressed me because the candidate poll, oftentimes when we're looking at search, We're only looking at people who are actively looking for jobs. But maybe the majority of those top performers, rock stars, are not the ones looking for jobs, just because they're bored, probably want to do their best to keep them there. So that's the two things I felt leadership associated really stood out.

[4562] SPEAKER_41: Thank you.

[4563] Ray Rodriguez: I just had a question, if you don't mind. Because of the timeline, and this is for the ad hoc committee, which is the two of you, when do you think that you're going to bring this forward to us at a board meeting so we can discuss both firms and make a decision?

[4578] Elisa Martinez: Yeah, I apologize. I didn't finish that. The last sentence is our intent is to bring some of the answers, at least. I know, again, I have some questions, and I can't share those. It really is around, well, I'll get to that in a second, the first week of February, we would like to. So it really is by our next regular meeting.

[4599] Ray Rodriguez: And it will have both contracts?

[4603] Elisa Martinez: That's the intent. I mean, again, right now, unless there are any other questions, I really, it's kind of my questions at this point. And just so you know, and in the spirit of me being transparent, some of my questions were around, tell us of when it didn't work, right? What failed in the process and how did you self-reflect and what are we doing to make sure or how is that going to make sure you're building something into our process? That was kind of one of the very specific things. One of them, again, the other thing is around pointing us to, as we go do reference checks, if you will, help us understand who is kind of like us or struggling with those. So those are some of the questions that I would like to ask and then bring back. And again, those would be some of the reference checks that would be included, I think, as our role is ad hoc so that we can, you know, make the most complete decision. Since folks are weighing in, I did want to weigh in in terms of, you know, who I liked, who I'm leaning to, and the why. I really like McPherson. I mean, I really, you know, like their header line was, we're hiring someone to solve problems. And then kind of everything, the whole story came off of that. You know, really having clarity of purpose, objective criteria. And I think this information is available. Certainly, it's recorded. It's online for those of you who are interested in seeing. And so, you know, they kind of go through their process. So in essence, you know, both of them look very similar in terms of the steps and timelines that they follow. I just, you know, frankly, body language, kind of how they engaged, and just really the level of detail and the amount of focus and some of their strategies to engage parents. right? You know, even if that means going to the school sites. There's a lot of that just from just the way they engage that felt more like us. So again, those are the things we really have to pry for in terms of, you know, how do they really engage practically speaking.

[4730] Ray Rodriguez: So I personally would want to wait until it's actually an agenda item and then weigh in on which one I really like. I think we're very fortunate that both of these firms are excellent, and I feel they'll do an excellent job for us. The one question that I had, and I think one of them answered it, was once we pick a superintendent, is the firm going to stay with us during the superintendent's first few months and do some mentoring? And I think both of them will do that if we ask them.

[4763] Elisa Martinez: Yeah, I think that was included in the presentation, if I'm correct.

[4771] Phuong Nguyen: Yeah, I think that either firms would do a great job in selection, but the one thing that really stood out at the end was that McPherson did say that they would stay on and do the onboarding, and also helping with goal settings for the superintendent, and helping us help the superintendent set goals for the six months or whatever. So that was really good.

[4796] Elisa Martinez: OK. Any other comments? Yes?

[4801] SPEAKER_36: I would like to ask, and it's at this point since we are the ad hoc committee, if there's anything from the rest of the board members that, dire questions that they would like for us to ask or do or research, otherwise.

[4818] SPEAKER_41: Okay. Okay, thank you very much.

[4821] Elisa Martinez: Okay, moving on to new, so again, sorry, we will expect to bring this back on the next regular meeting. board members. New business the audit report for fiscal year ending 29th.

[4836] SPEAKER_20: this evening miss delacruz will introduce our auditor and also introduce this item.

[4843] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you superintendent Salinas. President Martinez and. Board members we received our audit report We do have Kyle Montgomery, director from Christy White, to go over the report with you. And Mr. Montgomery?

[4874] SPEAKER_24: Sorry?

[4878] Leonor Rebosura: Is there a comment card?

[4880] Elisa Martinez: Yes, I was going to allow for the presentation, and then I would ask for a motion and a second. Are you OK with that? Please proceed. There will be an opportunity for a comment.

[4898] Marie dela Cruz: OK. Thank you. This is Mr. Kyle Montgomery.

[4901] SPEAKER_11: All right. Good evening, everyone. I'll assume that each board member has a copy of the report in front of them. And then we also have the electronic version up here on the screen. So I'll be scrolling along, but also flipping pages. So it might take me a few minutes on each of these. As you open up to the table of contents here you'll see that it is A pretty comprehensive report. It contains not only financial information for the year ended June 30th, 2019, but it also contains a lot of supplementary information. Things like information on OPEB, pension liabilities, average daily attendance, instructional time, some trend schedules, and just a lot of information to take in as you see as you flip to the second page of the table of contents. It is about 90 pages in length. We won't be going through page by page tonight because we could easily spend hours going through this report. I'll just be highlighting a few key sections. And with, yeah, with that, we'll go into the first one on page one. And that'll be right after this. All right, so. Right there, looking at, First thing we'll look at here is management's responsibility as it pertains to the audit versus our auditor's responsibility and where we come into play. So first thing being management's responsibility. Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. So the way that this is delivered to us is in the form of the unaudited actuals once that is finalized in the fall. And then where our responsibility comes into play is that is to express opinions on not only the financial statements, but this audit requires us to express opinions on state compliance and federal program compliance as well. And so in order to do that, our professional standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements and compliance are free from material misstatement. kind of important things to keep in mind as we're moving through this report. Anything that would be a more detailed technical question about the numbers in the report themselves might be a better question for management. Anything on the findings and our audit opinions would be better question for me or to take back to the partner, Michael Ash, who was not able to be here tonight. So with that in mind, we'll move forward to our summary of auditor's results, and that's gonna be towards the back of the report on page 78. Sorry, that's report page 78, sorry. I'm not sure what the PDF number that would be.

[5115] Guadalupe Lopez: Maybe in the... I think it's 79.

[5119] SPEAKER_36: So we're on report page, I'm sorry.

[5127] SPEAKER_11: Page number 78 here, not PDF page number. Keep going. Right there. Yep, that's the one. So this is going to be our summary of auditor's results page. What this page does is take all of our opinions and kind of summarizes all those in one page. It would be the best kind of one stop shop you could go to in the report to see what is the outcome of the auditor. of the auditor's reports and what are the opinions expressed. As you can see here, we have three separate opinions that are expressed through the course of this audit. First being financial statements followed by two compliance opinions on federal and state awards. So with respect to the financial statements, you'll see that the type of auditor's report issued there is unmodified. And we're actually at the top in the financial statement section, sorry. And the unmodified opinion is the best opinion that can be provided in an audit. What it means is that we believe the financial statements are materially correct and we've obtained reasonable assurance in order to provide that opinion. You will see that there are not any findings related to the financial statements provided in this report. Nothing that would be considered a material weakness or a significant deficiency with respect to financial reporting. Moving on to the compliance sections, first we have federal right there. That is also an unmodified opinion, again, the best possible outcome of this audit. And once again, it believes we're confident and have obtained reasonable assurance to say that with respect to the district's federal programs and the major program that we audited there was the special education program this year. We believe that the district is in compliance with the federal guidelines in all material respects. And you'll notice again there that there were not any findings with respect to federal awards. The last section is going to be our opinion on state compliance, which is again unmodified, but we did have a few significant deficiencies noted in the course of the state compliance audit. There were a total of three findings there, the first related to school accountability report cards, the second related to the unduplicated pupil counts, and the final one related to the attendance reporting of the afterschool program. And we'll be going over those in just a couple minutes. If you flip back to page 76, just a couple pages up there. Yeah, so right there. This is going to be the table that outlines all of the various state compliance procedures that the K-12 education audit appeals panel requires us to perform each year. They put out an audit guide. It's available publicly. You can see everything that they want us to do. And so anything within that guide that would apply to the specific district, we would perform those procedures. So it ranges from attendance, teacher credentialing, instructional time, LCAP, unduplicated pupil counts. A new one this year was the comprehensive school safety plan. And so there's just a lot of things in there that the state wants us to look at and they kind of pick and choose based on the risk that they see within these programs and kind of what they're interested in and getting feedback on. So a lot of it might seem random, but these are all the procedures that they require us to perform. So if you move on to page 81 there. This is gonna be our first finding and that's related to the school accountability report cards. You may recall that this is actually a repeat finding from the 2018 report. Deficiency that we ended up noting here is one of the components of the school accountability report cards that were required to test is the facilities reporting contained in there and make sure that that information is backed up by adequate supporting documentation. And that would typically be in the form of what's called a fit form, a facility inspection tool. And for the two schools listed there, those two schools were sampled, but we were not able to locate or we were not able to obtain the fit forms that backed up those facilities conditions reporting. Not exactly sure what the reason is there, but we sampled the SARCs and asked for the support, and ultimately we were not able to be provided with that support. Fortunately, in this area, you'll note that there are no question costs because there is no state funding source that's directly related to the SARTs. It is kind of just one of those random state compliance areas that they require us to look at. But in the event of a finding, there really is no direct fiscal impact. Any questions on that one? So the second one is going to be related to the unduplicated LCFF pupil counts. What we do there is get the CALPADS 1.18 student list and pull three separate samples and then do some testing based on that sampling. And I believe, yes, this one is actually also a repeat finding. And the condition that we have noted here is that one out of the 60 students that we sampled that were listed as only free and reduced price meal recipients didn't have adequate supporting documentation on file to justify that designation. And what the particular reason for this deficiency was is that this particular student was selected for the NSLP income verification process during the year. And as a result of that process, was actually denied and switched over to paid for the program purposes, for the national school lunch program purposes. However, that change was not reflected in the CALPADS system. So when we went to look at that support, the designation we saw looking through documentation was paid. However, in CALPADS, the update or amendment wasn't made there. Through identifying that deficiency, we identified a total of 20 students that were incorrectly classified. And you'll see down there towards the bottom, the total question cost was $10,490. So not an incredibly significant financial impact, but there is an impact there. This table towards the bottom outlines our calculation of that question cost and this calculator is actually produced by CDE and requires us to put all these inputs in there and then ultimately down at the bottom it provides us with the estimated question cost. Any questions on that one? Okay. And so the third and final finding here related to state compliance relates to the afterschool education and safety program, the ACES program. And it primarily relates to the attendance reporting of that program. And so when we tested the first half base attendance report, that report covers from the first day of school all the way through the end of December. And tried to sort of tie back the amounts reported to the state to the detail that supports those amounts. We noted some discrepancies for the 3 schools shown here. If you scroll down just a little bit right there, you'll see the variances that we had noted. Which result in a total overstatement of about 197 students served for the first half of the school year. out of a total of approximately 15,000 students served. That was the total variance noted. So as you look at question costs, you'll note that there are none, although there were variances noted. And the reason for that is that the ACES program funding is not affected as long as the pupil participation level is maintained at at least 85% of the targeted the amount for students served. So obviously 197 out of approximately 15,000, if that were going to be the target, is only just over 1%. So not anywhere near having a potential question cost impact there. However, it is important to note that going forward, we would like to see this documentation improved and being able to tie back the amounts reported to the state to the detail that backs those amounts up. This one was not a repeat finding, it was a new finding for 2019. And since the state audit guide requires us to test this area every year, it will be an area, along with the other two, that we circle back to in 19-20 and make sure that the corrective actions were implemented there. And the section immediately following that shows each of the prior year audit findings, the first one being related to the SARCs and the second one related to the unduplicated pupil counts. We do have one final item here to go over and that's a management letter related to compensated absences balance reporting and primarily related to the classified management and confidential employees balances. I believe this is something that's already on your guys' radar, but we have started to notice that, you know, over the past few years, that balance has been growing. And it's important, I think, to look at those policies going forward as that balance has increased pretty significantly in recent years. It doesn't appear that the that there's a cap for those particular employees' balances. And so in order to kind of make this in line with industry standards, our recommendation going forward is to create and enforce a cap on accumulated vacation days for these employees within these respective classes. Any questions on this one?

[5802] Elisa Martinez: So what I'd like to propose, I will ask for a motion and a second and we'll open it up. Apologize for that. I will ask for a, the recommendation is that we approve, obviously I will ask for a motion and a second and then we'll open it up for public comment and then we'll have some discussion and at that point we'll ask our questions if that's okay. Okay. So can I get a motion and a second to approve the the audit report.

[5833] SPEAKER_36: I'll make the motion. I'll second it.

[5837] Elisa Martinez: Member Rodriguez moves, Member Gutierrez seconds. At this point I'm going to ask our members of our community to come up and speak. Ms. Parks.

[5859] Cindy Parks: continually get to speak first because I put in my papers too quickly, I guess. There were several findings that were of concern in the report. To read over the last item that was just discussed, the observation made by Christy White that Mr. Montgomery addressed was that during the review of the compensated absences balances, we noted several accumulated vacation balances that appeared to be unusually high. In each case, the balance had significantly exceeded the industry standard allowable rollover balance of 30 days, as the district does not currently have a cap on accumulated vacation days in place of its classified management and confidential employees. What a sentence. As a result of this, the district's liability for compensated absences. Along with the treatment of non-duty vacation for this class of employee, the district's liability for compensated absences has increased significantly in the recent years. Their recommendation is to mitigate the potential impact on the district's financial position, which it does. We recommend that they create and enforce a cap on accumulated Three employees that just departed since October of last year. Three of them cashed in their vacation. They fall within this category. One of them cashed in vacation in the total of $77,000. Does that have a financial impact? When it's on the books, it's just vacation days. But when they leave, you just cashed them in at the tune of $77,000. A second employee, who wasn't here quite as long, cashed in and it was about $23,000. The other one? was only about eight and that employee was told that they that they had a higher vacation. They said no I don't and they cashed out at a lesser amount. So which leads me to be concerned and the person that told me that the tabulations might not be correct. So In ensuring that the correct tabulations of vacation time are done, I would sincerely ask you to investigate this. And to investigate this, you have two options. You would do it internally with people that, and not, I don't want to smear anybody's name or anything, but you have to look at, you're having internal people investigating an internal perhaps issue. Do you need to go outside and perhaps look at somebody to come in and look at this? I think when you have an issue of this magnitude that could financially impact you severely as it did with those three employees to the tune of $100,000, over $100,000, you really need to seriously look at this and consider the impact and how you should audit it. Thank you.

[6046] SPEAKER_41: Thank you. Mr. Merritt.

[6059] SPEAKER_24: I think I wore too much red today. I'm seeing red. So I did have a question as you were presenting that on page 76, independent study was no. So that means you didn't look at independent study. And I would really hope that we would look at independent study and refine that process. I have, I'm trying not to, I'm not, I'm trying to, what? Don't worry, I'm not going to use my full three minutes. Don't worry. No, I was staring at your end. Because Ms. Parks gave most of my stuff. So that's why she goes first. She speaks faster. But anyway, independent study, I really would like us to take a very close look at that. I feel that there's some pressure by some administrators to bend the rules for independent study and suggest that students or parents should hold their student out for five days instead of four so that they can qualify for an independent study. We should never do that. They learn in the school, not at home doing worksheets. Long-term liabilities, this balance is 800, well, it was $864,000. Now it's only $764,000. So we did decrease it. I fully believe that those employees deserve that vacation and it's management's job. Now, most of these people are managers anyway. They're in that category, classified managers. But they shouldn't be self-managing. And they should be allowed to take their vacation. And to me, vacation is a right, and it's not mandated when they can take it. So if we can't find a mutually agreed upon time to take vacation, and there has to be a little give and take, We need to be telling these people to take their vacation and during a good time and not telling them that they can't. So one of the people, I think, that got a huge payout, they well-deserved and overworked. But we're only talking about like 12 employees, I think, maybe 11. So $800,000 for 11 employees' worth of vacation. I'd like to switch to classified management as soon as it's available. And I'll promise five years of work. I won't take a single day vacation. And then I'll retire. I promise. Thank you.

[6209] Nicole Pierce-Davis: OK.

[6213] Elisa Martinez: That was the last comment.

[6218] SPEAKER_41: Do I have any questions from the board?

[6224] Elisa Martinez: I do. I have a question regarding the repeat items. I suppose the question is, what's the implication? I know when I first joined the board, the FIT reports, I think that's an ongoing item. At what point is there a consequence? We need to have our, so that will be another question to staff, but even just from an auditing perspective, what are the implications, what are the risks and impact to us?

[6259] SPEAKER_11: For repeat items, sorry. Again, even if it continues as a repeat finding, the way that they've worded this guidance, it would that the school accountability report cards. Continue to not have a fiscal impact just because of the fact that there is no funding source directly tied to the It's just sort of a miscellaneous state compliance procedure that they include in that audit guide because. The perception is that the school accountability report cards If it was determined that that information is not accurately presented, it's our job to include it in this report and just kind of continue doing the same thing over and over again until we can adequately determine that that corrective action has been implemented.

[6312] Ray Rodriguez: Member Rodriguez. We talked about free and reduced lunch and with the new law that's in effect now where, you know, children or students that come to school and don't have any money, we have to give them a full meal. As your, you know, as an auditor, as your company looked at advice to school districts on how they could, you know, kind of the financial impact, hopefully it's not going to be very much, but, you know, how they, you know, record that and stuff like that. as it applies to, you know, moving forward with the new law that's in effect now.

[6355] SPEAKER_11: So, I'm sorry, what exactly was the question?

[6359] Ray Rodriguez: There's a new law now that, you know, so the question is, as an auditing firm, are you given, is there advice or ways that you will help school districts?

[6370] SPEAKER_11: Well, I mean, obviously you want to try to capture as much funding as you possibly can here, so if those particular students would you know, qualify for the free or reduced program, you know, you would want to make sure that those families are completing the application and make sure that they know that that is an option. And that these things are available online and in hard copy format at district sites and try to, you know, encourage that as much as possible so that, you know, obviously there is a cost there that is assumed when you have to serve meals free of charge. as long as these families have filled out the corresponding application, then the district would be able to receive some funding there.

[6412] Ray Rodriguez: My understanding of the law is that a student wouldn't have to fill out anything if they come to school.

[6418] SPEAKER_11: Yeah, but so what my point is there is in order to be able to get the federal and state revenue there. Right, you would encourage them to fill it out, right. You would want to try to encourage that to sort of offset the cost because either way the district is going to incur the cost. Right, exactly. So that would, you know, be the recommendation. Okay.

[6438] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you.

[6439] SPEAKER_20: Thank you. And Member Rodriguez, I haven't had a chance to share this yet with staff or with Ms. Delacruz. So yesterday we had a meeting at the county office and spoke about what's happening, what's the impact of this new law. I mean, the positive is certainly kids are getting a full lunch, but we have also our nutrition departments that are also seeing a big impact because we can't charge and we have to give the full So what we're looking at as a county is looking at a program to really incentivize our students and get the outreach out that it's more than a lunch. There are so many other things that can be tied to applying for free and reduced price lunch. So I'm going to be meeting with Ms. Dela Cruz on this plan and also with Ms. Sayers. I know she's fairly worried about this and it's going to have to be an action plan. But we are seeing impacts already across Alameda County.

[6493] Elisa Martinez: Any other questions?

[6497] SPEAKER_36: Sorry, one question and you made me think about it, Ms. Martinez, when you mentioned the issues that are continuous. The FIT reports don't have a financial impact, but what about the ones that do have a financial impact and if they continue?

[6514] SPEAKER_11: Those ones, obviously, since there is a current year finding, it kind of signifies to us that it poses a little bit more of an audit risk because we had that last year. The state audit guide requires us to look at these particular areas every single year. But if we know that we have a finding there in the prior year, we're gonna make sure that we plan accordingly and focus on it a little bit more because of the risk that's associated there. So things like increased sample sizes and and things like that to really make sure that the corrective action plan is implemented.

[6547] SPEAKER_15: Thank you. Perfect.

[6551] Elisa Martinez: Thank you. So if there are no other questions, Ms. Aquino, can you please repeat the motion?

[6556] SPEAKER_39: Yes, motion by Member Rodriguez, second by Vice President Gutierrez.

[6562] Elisa Martinez: And I will open voting. Please vote. Wait, Cesar first. Oh, sorry. Cesar votes first.

[6574] SPEAKER_06: My vote didn't do a voice vote.

[6579] Elisa Martinez: Sorry. OK. Sorry. So just so that folks know that folks are seeing different changes in process. And this is, again, as a result of some of the training that we received. The advice was our student board member would do a voice vote.

[6598] SPEAKER_06: I vote yes on this item.

[6600] Elisa Martinez: Thank you. I'll open voting. Please vote. The report is approved. Five ayes. Thank you. OK. Next item is consent agenda personnel items, the personnel report. No.

[6631] Joy Lee: Did I say that?

[6632] SPEAKER_41: Oh, I'm sorry.

[6634] SPEAKER_20: you. Thank you. Mister Cruz will will do 11.2 our our salary schedule for that.

[6645] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you. Superintendent Salinas and president Martinez and members of the board. we have 3 positions in our district, the campus monitor for elementary schools, the food service assistant, and the student assistant. Even though that impacts these 3 positions, there's really only one position that is currently directly impacted at this time, and that's the campus monitor position. The other positions are already filled with employees that are currently placed on salary schedule that's above the minimum wage. So if you look at the attachment, we revised it so you can see the food service assistant which is a range 30. We've crossed out steps A and B, columns A and B so that the minimum there is 1347. And in the campus monitor at range 33, the step A, column A is now $13.16. So our subs are usually paid based on step A of the position that they're subbing for, except for the food service assistant. So the positions also for the substitutes for those three positions, the food service assistant, campus monitor, and student assistant, those are all going up at least to $13. So the minimum in our district is at $13.16 and $13.47. And the corresponding hourly rate schedule is also attached, and that shows that in ranges 30, 31, and 32, we've eliminated the three rates that are below the $13 so that anyone that starts in the district in those positions, in those ranges, will be at least at the minimum wage.

[6776] Olivia Rangel: Thank you.

[6779] Elisa Martinez: second. Thank you. Can I get a motion a second please.

[6783] Guadalupe Lopez: I make a motion.

[6783] SPEAKER_41: This could terrorists makes the motion miss when. Seconds. Questions comments.

[6795] Elisa Martinez: This could tear us.

[6808] SPEAKER_36: Will that be updated? And will it be updated as of what we see today?

[6817] Marie dela Cruz: At the bottom, we did put a note that this is revised to comply with minimum wage effective 1-1-20. And in terms of the salary schedule, yes, we can update the heading. Normally, they're effective the July 1 of the current year. So it would be July 1, 2019.

[6838] SPEAKER_36: And then, okay, thank you. And then the next question is. So my next question is looking at the page where it says the range, the ranges. So 30, 31, 32. Like you said, you crossed out the first section since those wages are no longer going to be paid. However, when do we fill in? So for example, range 30. A and B is crossed out and now it's going to start at C, which is 1347. How, when will the, I mean, the C's going to have to move to the front where the A section is. So when will we know what D and E? Or does it not? It stays the same.

[6881] Marie dela Cruz: The ranges, C and E. So it will start at C? It will start at C. Okay, thank you. That's the minimum that they will be placed at. Okay, thank you.

[6892] SPEAKER_41: Okay, any other questions from the board? motion. This is a personnel student board member I will not ask you to vote on this one. Otherwise I miss a keynote can you repeat the motion.

[6928] Elisa Martinez: Motion passes with five ayes. Okay, I skipped two items. I did not have the most current printed. I apologize. Item 11.3, Resolution Number 2055, Recognition of Fund Education Now Week. Please.

[6951] SPEAKER_20: Yes, good evening. We've actually had, as I said, we've been doing a lot of work in the last two weeks that we've been back and we want to share with you tonight an initiative that Alameda County Office of Education and our labor partners, our NTA, CSCA, and also NEWMA are working collaboratively with the Board of Education and with administrators to really make this push that we want fair funding for our schools in the state of California. And so we bring forward this resolution. We are we had a meeting this week with our labor partners with our representatives from the board to really look at February 3rd through the 7th of some activities across the city of Newark where we're really going to inform our community that we want and need and deserve more funding for the state of California. So we bring forward this resolution. Thank you.

[7007] Elisa Martinez: Thank you. So again the recommended action is staff recommends the board approve resolution number 2055 for recognition of fund education now week Can I get a second a motion in a second? I Get a second I'll second it Member Rodriguez moves member and we do have a speaker card. Mister Merritt please.

[7053] SPEAKER_24: Okay I don't want anybody think I have a split personality I want to let you know how much I appreciate you stepping up and being a part of this committee. So the East Bay Coalition of Public Education has a history that's about two years old, maybe three. It started with the union president Joe Kahui from, I always want to say Union City, but it's called New Haven. And he saw that there was a need for us to work on funding education in a fair way. So many of you know, but the public may not know, that we are the, California is the fifth largest economy in the world, and yet we're 39th in spending per pupil in the United States. Now if you look at the map, All the states that spend more than California are pretty much the northern minus Idaho all the way across. And the ones that don't are the red down below. But we really think that we have an opportunity here. And I presented this to Superintendent Salinas that we need to find things that we have in common. And this is certainly one of them. We know that we're severely underfunded in public education, and the students deserve more and better. And so we worked really hard to create some activities, and so we're going to have five full activities, maybe six, I'm trying to remember. And so we're looking for your participation beyond just saying yes to a resolution. That first week in February is going to be a busy and full week, and we're looking forward to working with you all. Thank you.

[7172] SPEAKER_41: Thank you.

[7178] Elisa Martinez: Any comments, questions? If not?

[7184] Ray Rodriguez: Long overdue.

[7188] Elisa Martinez: So can you repeat the motion?

[7190] SPEAKER_39: Yes, motion by member Rodriguez, second by member Gutierrez.

[7195] Elisa Martinez: And student board member Castillo, how do you vote?

[7199] SPEAKER_06: I vote yes.

[7200] Elisa Martinez: Thank you. I will open voting. Please vote. And the recommendation to approve resolution number 2055 passes by five ayes. Can we read it?

[7224] SPEAKER_41: Let's see.

[7231] Elisa Martinez: Student Board Member Castillo, can you please start please?

[7236] SPEAKER_06: Whereas California currently has the fifth largest economy in the world, yet 37 out of 50 states from Vermont to Alabama spend more per student than California and our state spends nowhere near the national average on per pupil funding and.

[7253] Ray Rodriguez: Whereas Stanford University and policy analysis for California education, which is PACE, published a report in 2018 that illustrated that the state would need a $25.6 billion increase in school funding to adequately fund schools and... Whereas educating a student is significantly more expensive compared to other states due to the high cost of living and... Whereas the cost of housing is uniquely impactful for the education community in the Bay Area.

[7288] Bowen Zhang: where costs have risen 78.4% over 15 years, and.

[7293] SPEAKER_36: Whereas the cost to repair school facilities are higher in California than other states, as well as the cost of maintaining transportation services for students, and.

[7302] Elisa Martinez: Whereas educating a student is uniquely challenging as California has the highest rate of poverty amongst children, and.

[7314] Marie dela Cruz: Whereas California is a beacon of opportunity for people around the world which has allowed the state to have the highest number of English language learners and... Whereas the United States government has not kept its promise of increasing funding for the IDEA Act which supports special education programs and...

[7340] SPEAKER_41: Whereas school districts are forced to implement unfunded mandates from the California legislature, and?

[7348] SPEAKER_06: Whereas school districts must cope with the state-mandated rising costs of pensions with little relief from the state, and?

[7354] SPEAKER_41: Please finish. Go ahead.

[7356] SPEAKER_06: Whereas California remains at the bottom for teacher-to-student, nurse-to-student, counselor-to-student, and librarian-to-student ratios, and whereas studies have consistently shown a positive correlation between funding levels and education outcomes, community. We are a little low energy today.

[7401] Elisa Martinez: that. Okay so and now go move on to the item I skipped over so apologize again. Item number 12 consent agenda personnel items.

[7416] SPEAKER_20: We bring this forward for your consideration and approval this evening.

[7422] Elisa Martinez: Can I get a motion and a second for the

[7431] Phuong Nguyen: Item 12.1 personnel report.

[7434] SPEAKER_36: I'll second it.

[7435] Elisa Martinez: Member Nguyen moves, and Member Gutierrez seconds. Any questions, comments?

[7445] SPEAKER_39: Okay. Motion on the floor to approve by Member Nguyen, seconded by Member Gutierrez.

[7452] Elisa Martinez: I will open voting. Please vote. motion passes 5 ayes. Thank you. can I get a motion please to approve consent consent agenda items items 13.1 through 13.8.

[7506] SPEAKER_36: I move that we approve consent agenda items 13.1 through 13.8.

[7511] Ray Rodriguez: Second.

[7513] Elisa Martinez: Member Gutierrez moves. Member Rodriguez seconds. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Okay open voting please vote. Item 14.1. Staff recommends that we approve the item 14.1, expulsion E1718-11.

[7570] Ray Rodriguez: I'd like to make a motion that we accept staff recommendation of 14.1. I'll second it.

[7585] Elisa Martinez: motion passes with 5 ayes. Item 14.2.

[7614] Phuong Nguyen: motion to approve the motion to approve the motion to approve the motion based on staff recommendation 14.2.

[7622] SPEAKER_36: Expulsion 19 to 0 dash 6.

[7626] Elisa Martinez: Member when moves member OK, we are now at item 15, Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief, and Discussion. We'd like to go ahead and start with you, Member Castillo.

[7657] SPEAKER_41: Do you have any comments?

[7659] SPEAKER_06: First of all, my dad texted me saying he can see me on TV, so hi, Dad. I do have a question regarding 10.1 with the flooring. I just wanted to know why that one was pulled. I wasn't here for the approval of the agenda.

[7678] SPEAKER_20: So the item was pulled. We had had a request from a board member to make time to have a study session on Measure G and to either reaffirm or reprioritize the asks on that list. So we went ahead and pulled it so that we could do it all as a group.

[7693] SPEAKER_06: Okay. And just regarding this item, was it to replace all flooring or specific rooms as targeted or what was the nature of this?

[7705] Marie dela Cruz: It would have replaced the flooring for all of the classrooms at the high school.

[7711] SPEAKER_06: And then one last thing. I do have a little celebratory announcement. She didn't want it announced after. I wasn't sure if I could announce it in December. But one of my good friends at Memorial, Alina Sarmiento, has been accepted early decision to MIT. So. Congratulations. She hasn't made a decision yet on whether she'll be attending or not, but it all has to do with financial aid. But I wish her the best in her journey for higher education. I just wanted to share that with you all.

[7751] Phuong Nguyen: That's really great. Thank you so much. Thank you.

[7755] Elisa Martinez: Number Rodriguez.

[7759] Ray Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to make sure I'm on. This is, we just, with member John and superintendent Salinas, we attended the Martin Luther King ceremony last Sunday at Newark Presbyterian Church, which is put on by the Africultural Society. And it was excellent, excellent speakers. And it was good to see our kids up there. and in the choir, and they did excellent. And the three young people from Graham Elementary, I thought they were just so great. So it's really nice when you see our kids involved in different events that are going on throughout the community now. I know that the teachers have, during Martin Luther King, the week before the holiday and the week of, During class, there's a lot of discussion about Martin Luther King and his mission and what he brings or what's still going on in our country. And then in February, it's going to be Black History Month. So I shared with the board and Reverend Jones, he's a pastor of a African-American or black church in Newark, and they're going to have different ceremonies, so I'll be sharing those with you. I'm on his advisory, and they do great stuff. And so in the field of mental health, that's a big issue that we discussed at the supper meeting, not only as it affects all our kids, but especially you know african-american students it seems to be hitting them harder when it comes to mental health as applies to our young people so that's uh... he's also his organization has taken that on also so that'll be upcoming uh... the uh... legal volunteers is having their uh... uh... valentine's day elegant affair they'll be contacting you and uh... whatever you know, I'll be attending, but if there's anything you need, because I know Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Crocker were in charge of all that for years, so if, whatever you need from me and from the rest of the board as far as the economic fair, and that goes into supporting all the programs they do for all our kids. At the We did have our budget meeting at the special ed organization that we have for Newark, Fremont, and New Haven or Union City. And they're sponsoring the Olympics, the special ed Olympics that Mr. Castillo talked about. And then the first one is going to be in Newark for basketball, and then it goes over to American High School for soccer, and then over at Logan. in Union City for track and field. So that's all sponsored by the SELPA with the three school districts. There's going to be a special ed ball in April that's also sponsored by the SELPA. And all the kids from Tri-Cities are invited. And the place is donated by Union City, their senior center. And the kids dance from 6 o'clock until, you know, until we ask them to leave. So it's an excellent event. Everybody's welcome And then on a personal note my daughter Allison and my son-in-law Jason Had a beautiful little girl, and so I'm a grandfather again And her name is Penelope Thank you, that's all I have This week I was

[8019] Phuong Nguyen: I was able to participate and visit BGI and attend their site council meeting. I thought that was well ran. And I love the fact that the parents that were there, they're very supportive of the schools and coming up with ideas on how to be involved and participation. And the principal there, Ms. Catherine Waters, She presented to them their CAS results for this year, and there was a lot of excitement in their room, and it was well-deserved. They did a wonderful job. And also, for us internally, I just hope that we continue to build on communicating better, openly have open communication. And also, for staff down, I want everyone in our district to feel you know, that they're comfortable being able to talk to any level staff and that we should, you know, we shouldn't be, we shouldn't turn people away or teachers away or families away. Our titles are just titles, you know, we need to strip that down and really just, you know, be ourselves and be able to communicate openly and hopefully transparency will we're going to be able to. You know transpire and. And we can. Work together. As a team the community and us to make you know Newark better. Moving forward and then lastly I just hope that we can get our master calendar together so that. that we were able to make it for the dual language immersion we weren't able to because we have a special meeting. I don't want to see conflicting events. With board moving forward in the future and could especially tonight at the junior high you know I was able to make it for a I was able to get to 4 and that was fine but I would really have liked for all of us to have that opportunity to be able to go and have those kinds of events with staff. So that's it. Thank you.

[8185] Bowen Zhang: So first, I want to do some advertisement for Lincoln School. So in about one week or two weeks, Lincoln's going to be selling their promotional sweatshirt and jackets. So hopefully, if you get a chance, buy some t-shirts from Lincoln and support our schools. And on the 24th or either 24th or 31st of this month, yet to be determined, it will be Lincoln Movie Night. So it will be a great community building event and fundraiser for the school. And second, last Sunday, just like Member Rodriguez Rodrigo said we were at the first Presbyterian Church for the MLK commemoration day along with our superintendent. And I think our student had an amazing performance. And just I really felt our high school choir, Somewhere Over the Rainbow is really our signature piece. And the student that introduced that song, she was sharp. She was articulate. She really articulated MLK's vision really well to the community. And yesterday I had the pleasure of going to music for the 3rd and 4th grade food for thought evening event. And that was to talk about how we teach math for 3rd and 4th grade. I thank the staff for working so hard to put up this event together and hope to get invited more to this event.

[8269] SPEAKER_36: I would like to start off by Miss superintendent Salinas for attending the Martin Luther King event. Thank you. And then I would like to give an update on the meeting I had with about regarding the survey. So just to recap, there was a brief discussion on the overview of the election, when the measures can be placed on the ballots and voting trends. we're going to be doing a survey. As well we discuss the type of surveys that are available and for our district is recommended that we most likely do a split survey that we can better determine what's best for our community whether it be a bond or a partial tax. They are looking to do the survey after the March election. God we will then come back to As well, there is the city liaison meeting that will be coming up this Monday. So I wanted to ask the board members if there's any topics that you guys wanted to include, please let me know. And please, if you could, let me know if there is by tomorrow morning, because I need to send those to Shar. Isn't this coming Monday? Oh, my apologies. 27, Monday the 27th. Monday, January 27th. Yes, thank you. I would like to thank you. As well I would like to thank miss for. Her comments earlier and stating that she has she sees that we're trying to. Thank you. And and with that I would also like to add that. This is a new board and we are trying. I feel that we're trying very we're making a very, very valid effort. I think it's unfortunate that others are making up false statements, and particularly to myself. So hopefully that won't happen again, and hopefully we can be more accurate in regards to how we depict information. Thank you.

[8409] Elisa Martinez: So I just wanted to thank staff. I think in the first couple of weeks of the year, I've really seen a nice, you know, tone, change in tone in terms of how we're preparing. I thank everybody that's coming to meetings and listening to meetings for your patience as we stumble through some of these changes in structure. Again, we really are trying to drive, again, as much transparency, trying inefficiency in our process. And I know it's not an easy transition for you and staff, but as Superintendent Salinas and team, but I really appreciate all the work that you are doing. Our intent is that we will try to make these meetings so that nobody is surprised and that we're not trying to rush to decisions. So that is really how we're thinking through agenda setting, making sure there's opportunity for folks to have time to digest items before we are asked to vote. We recognize in some instances we may not have that luxury just because some time constraints. but we are trying to have that forward-looking plan. I know that Superintendent Salinas has done that and to the request that one of our board members made, I think we all would love to be able to have visibility to everything and make as many things, but we're getting there and I really wanted to say I appreciate all the hard work that we're beginning to see and from an agenda setting perspective. To the board, I know that in our training session I mentioned that I was keeping our vice president on the agenda setting because we were trying to kind of reformat and set a new path. But if you can, right now the standard time for agenda setting, we're trying to standardize that to Friday afternoons at noon, 12 noon. Ms. Aquino? So if you, is everyone available? We could arrange for a phone call. We are looking at being able to do like a Skype call to share documents. If, you know, to the extent that we should be able to plan on that, we can start to invite some of you guys to do that.

[8555] SPEAKER_38: Okay.

[8557] Elisa Martinez: On Fridays, 12 noon. Obviously the Friday before each meeting. Okay. To 1. 1. It's one hour. Yeah, sometimes it'll bleed over a little bit. We are trying to keep it to one hour. Okay. So please advise if you're available, then we can go ahead and start getting you into that rotation. Thank you.

[8581] SPEAKER_06: If I may, Member Zhang reminded me of one more thing. Rocketry is going to be selling hoodies. So on the front it's got, I plan to send out an email and then I got caught up with some of the technicalities that our officers were concerned about with payment. But we are selling hoodies. It has NM and Rocket on the front, and then on the back it has all of our names. of all four teams. Unfortunately, the deadline that we've presented to our members is tomorrow for payment, so I know it's super short notice, but if you'd like to buy one, you're more than welcome to. I'll send an email to all of you and to Char directly. We have a Google form, so you just enter your name, the size that you want, and then payment can be delivered, I guess, to the school office at any time tomorrow. And if you're brave enough, a Saturday morning at our launch, provided it's not raining, that'll be kind of early. But yeah, this Saturday, yeah. Beginning at 7.30 and provided it doesn't rain. So it's a hit or miss with the rain. I don't know what it's going to be like, frankly. But we will be selling, we are selling hoodies. So if you're interested in buying one, just let me know. $35. Uh, I don't know if that's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean, yeah, for, for that works, that works. That's what we were trying to figure out is whether we could take check because our vice president wasn't too clear with custom ink on what forms of payment we could accept because we had to submit it as a large group order and so our payment was kind of restricted. At least that's the explanation I got. I wasn't involved with that fundraising process. Yeah, and cash would be, I mean, cash is what they're preferring, so.

[8718] Elisa Martinez: Send us the email.

[8719] SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I will.

[8719] Elisa Martinez: We'll put some peer pressure on some folks. Thank you. Yes, Superintendent, concluding comments, please.

[8733] SPEAKER_20: So just a reminder to everyone that on Monday we will be closed in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 's holiday. Again, time to reflect, be with your family. I think there's a lot of Bay Area activities as well. Also, our next scheduled board meetings will be on February 6th and February 20th. We are anticipating bringing back Measure G, possibly a study session. We're still working through that. Also, I know that Ms. Aquino has been working really diligently on a calendar. It's almost ready to go and I'm not sure if you've, yep, it's ready to go so you all will be getting that so you can see activities at a glance a little bit easier. Thank you.

[8778] Elisa Martinez: Thank you and with that we reach item 17 adjournment. Can I get a motion and a second please?

[8785] Guadalupe Lopez: I move.

[8786] Elisa Martinez: I second. Member Gutierrez moves. Member Nguyen seconds. Let me open voting here.

[8795] SPEAKER_06: That's a resounding yes for me.

[8797] Elisa Martinez: Oh yes, sorry. Thank you. Sorry. I'll get it. I open voting.

[8804] Leonor Rebosura: Please vote.

[8809] Elisa Martinez: It passes with five ayes with a hand vote by member Rodriguez and meeting adjourned. Thank you.

No minutes available.