Regular Meeting

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[18] SPEAKER_24: Okay, let me begin.

[21] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the January 21 regular meeting of the Newark Unified Board of Education. The meeting is called to order at 5 or 7pm. As you probably know, during the pandemic, all of our meetings are virtual. There are two ways for you to watch our meetings. You can watch the live stream of the meetings on our YouTube channel, and this will be recorded. You can also join our live Zoom meeting. If you want to make a live public comment during our meeting, then you will have to join our Zoom meetings. Instructions on how to do so are readily accessible on our website. Okay, moving on to the next item, roll call. Mrs. Gutierrez, roll call, please.

[64] SPEAKER_37: Yes, thank you. Member Martinez? Here. Member Nguyen.

[72] Maria Huffer: Here.

[73] SPEAKER_37: Member Grundahl.

[75] Maria Huffer: Here.

[76] SPEAKER_37: Member Hill.

[77] Aiden Hill: Present.

[79] SPEAKER_37: And President Zhang.

[81] Bowen Zhang: Here. Okay, thank you. And moving on is approval of the agenda. May I get a motion to approve the agenda as it is?

[92] Elisa Martinez: I move to approve the agenda as is.

[100] Bowen Zhang: I think you're muted, Member Grundahl. Can I get a second?

[109] Phuong Nguyen: I'll second.

[110] Bowen Zhang: Okay, moved by Member Martinez, seconded by Member Nguyen. I'll call the vote. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[121] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[123] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[129] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[130] Bowen Zhang: And my vote is also yes. Motion carries unanimously. And I will move on to the next item, which is our study session. Ms. Gutierrez, is there any public comment on our study sessions? No public comment on the study session. Okay, then moving on to the start of our study session. I'll yield the floor to Superintendent Dr. Triplett.

[158] Mark Triplett: All right. Thank you very much, President Jeanne. Good evening, board members, staff, and community. Happy Thursday after the inauguration. Just want to say how exciting it is that we had this historical occasion where we now have, for the first time, a female person of color as our vice president. It's truly a monumentous era that's about to begin. So this evening we are going to be discussing in the study session, do a budget update and discuss a little bit about some of the budget process that occurs. And then also loop back to a discussion that we had in, I believe, November related to reserves, fund 17, and some other issues that the board directed the district to continue to work on and evaluate. So we'll start by, I'd like to turn it over to our chief business officer, Ms. Dela Cruz, and she's going to do a presentation after which we'll have a chance to have questions, answers, and then discussion in particular around this question that Ms. Dela Cruz will discuss more. And that is around the fund 17 and the reserve percentages. Ms.

[250] Marie dela Cruz: Delacruz? Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Let me, do you see the slide? Yes. Okay, great. Picked the right one. Okay. So yeah, good evening board members and thank you, Dr. Triplett. We will be reviewing the budget this evening, starting with just a review of what the budget cycle looks like every year and going back to where we were at first interim in the multi-year projection and what kinds of changes have happened since the first interim report that has impacted or will impact our budget and the outstanding budget issues that Dr. Triplett referred to and budget balancing solutions and what we are planning to do looking forward. So first of all, the budget cycle. Normally our budget is adopted in June, our current year budget, and after the budget is adopted, the state will enact the budget. So the legislature will approve the budget around June and sometimes in July. There's a 45-day budget revision in August. If there are any significant changes in the actual state budget that was enacted that has impacted our budget, we're obligated to inform the public and inform the board of what those revisions are within 45 days that the budget was passed. And in September, we have what's called the unaudited actuals. This is actually a report of the year-end financials from the previous year. So the report in September is actually about the fiscal year prior. And then the first interim report in December covers the current year from July through October of the current year. And then we have the governor's budget proposal where he presents his proposal for the following year. And this is about the time that the district starts their enrollment projections, staffing projections, and determining budget allocations. And the second interim report is in March, which covers the budget period of July through January of the current year. And if the second interim is certified as a qualified report, then we have to file a third interim report. So that's in May if it's needed. And then the governor's May revise, which comes out in May are the changes from his January budget proposal. So as you can see, throughout the year, we're dealing with two years, two to three years of our budget. So we're looking at our current year, we're looking at the future year, and we're looking at the prior year. So at first interim, when we did our multi-year projection, if you recall, we had projected a deficit in the 21-22 school year of about 742,000. And then in 22-23, which is the second year out, we had projected a deficit of 3.2 million. And that was assuming we would not be receiving any cost of living increase in either of those two years. We recently received our letter from the Alameda County Office of Education. We submitted our report to the county, which is required. They review it, they analyze it, and they either concur or they may change our certification. But in this particular case, they concurred with our positive certification. However, they did point out a couple of requirements for our second interim report. We have to provide an itemized list of the expenditures that are included in the projected $500,000 in savings from the school consolidations. And also a list of items to balance our budget totaling 742,000 for the 21-22 school year. So what kinds of changes have occurred since our first interim report? The governor released his 21-22 budget proposal a few weeks ago, it was on January 8th. And in his proposal, he is providing COLA for next year of 3.84%. And if you recall, at first interim, the assumption was we would not be getting any cost of living increased. So this 21-22 COLA actually includes what they're calling catch-up COLA for this year, because we didn't receive COLA this year either. So the actual COLA in 21-22 is 1.5%. However, with the 2.31% that we should have received this year, the total for next year will be 3.84%. There's also round two of the CARES Act. stimulus package, which is now called the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriation, CRRSA, or CARES Act 2. We are expecting to receive more of the ESSER funds, which is the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds. The state is receiving about $6.8 billion. And right now, the preliminary estimate for Newark is $1.8 million. And this is also, again, based on our Title I allocation. And these are one-time funds. We could possibly receive more of the governor's emergency education relief funds, also known as the GEER funds. But the governor hasn't determined yet what he is going to do with these funds. And it's about $341 million for the state. If you recall, we talked about cash payments that are being deferred, the payments that normally would be provided to the district on a monthly basis are being deferred in order to save budget at the state level. There's no change to the deferrals that they had scheduled for this year. We were supposed to get, or we will still have deferred and delayed payments in February through June. instead of receiving them in February through June, we will receive those payments next year. And then the 2022 deferrals, those for the most part are going to be eliminated except for June, which will be paid in July 2022. And the reason why we bring this up because cash payments are really critical to our ongoing operations. It provides us in order to pay our payroll and also our vendors. Fortunately for the district, we do have funds in our other. We have cash in our other funds to where if we needed to borrow, we could borrow. We don't have to get an outside source to borrow funds. Some of the outstanding budget issues that we need to address includes the increase to our reserves. Our goal is to at least have 17% in reserves in our general fund, as well as our fund 17, which is the reserves for economic uncertainties. We also have the inner fund transfers from fund 17 to the general fund that we need to resolve by second interim. There was a total of 5.5 million that was transferred from Fund 17 to the general fund in 08-09, 16-17, and 17-18. It was to address deficits in those years. So the district transferred money from Fund 17. The options that we have discussed to consider is We either transfer the total from our general fund back to fund 17, 100%, or number two, we can transfer a portion of the five and a half million back to fund 17 and then declare the rest as a permanent transfer to the general fund. Or we can declare the total five and a half as a permanent transfer to general fund and not transfer it back to fund 17. And for the benefit of Mr. Hill and Mr. Grindel, this issue was also addressed in a couple of FCMAT reports. And with every review letter we get from the County Office of Education, they also mention that this is an outstanding issue that we need to address. And FCMAT did suggest that we do one of these three in order to resolve it. And at this time, and it's open for discussion, we believe staff, it's in the best interest of the district and recommend that the board declare the transfers from Fund 17 as permanent transfers to the general fund. Budget balancing solutions, so At this time, because of the proposed 3.84% when we update our multi-year projection, and because it does include the 2.31% catch-up COLA for 2021, that will eliminate the 742,000 projected deficit in 21-22. I'm sorry, I couldn't help but use this. Nope, it's not catch-up, it's catch-up. Okay. Um, but keep in mind, you know, the governor's proposal does change. There's still the May revise, and then the legislature will debate and, um, inevitably it always changes. So that's the caution that we always try to, um, message, you know, the board that although this does look, um, very promising, just keep that in mind that it could change just like last year when We had thought we were getting cost of living adjustment and then the pandemic hit and all of a sudden we were getting zero COLA. So the final state budget will be approved in June, but we do have to use these assumptions from the governor's proposal in our second interim. And based on preliminary projections right now, it looks like we will be having a surplus in 21-22. which is an opportunity for us to reach our goal and increase our reserves to 17%. The 3.2 million that we have projected for 2022-23, based on the first interim projections, will be updated at second interim. And again, just based on preliminary projections, the 3.2 million will probably be reduced. It won't completely eliminate our deficit, but it won't be as high as $3.2 million. There's still a lot of uncertainty around the next couple of years, and we should and should always be prepared with higher reserves. The funded COLA is still not known at this time. And the governor also is warning us that the state budget is looking at deficits starting in 2022-23. and it will probably grow to more than 11 billion for the state by 2425. So looking ahead, we're working on our second interim report, which ends this month. We'll present that report in March and update all of our projections. This covers the period, again, from July through January. The assumptions in the multi-year will include the governor's budget proposal, We have started our 21-22 budget development cycle, which includes enrollment and staffing projections, site budget allocations. We'll start our LCAP meetings, and then the budget will be adopted in June of 2021. We will come with a plan to the board to increase reserves to 17% after the second interim report. And also, we will need some board action to resolve our Fund 17 transfers to a general fund in a form of a resolution. So at this time, we'd like to open it up to any questions, comments, discussion, especially the issues surrounding the transfers and the loan from Fund 17 to general fund.

[1125] Bowen Zhang: Okay, thank you for the presentation. I guess I'll first open up for questions. I see a couple of hands raising. Member Hill.

[1134] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so thank you, Ms.dela Cruz. Just a couple of questions, again, for my edification since I'm new. But when, in that, I don't remember what slide it was, but so you were talking about the deficit, so projected deficit, 2021, 742K, and then 2022, 3.2 million. Is that the slide? No. No, let's keep going back. The question, yeah, there we go, there we go, sorry. So are these projections assuming that we've already gotten the savings from the school mergers or is that pre-merger calculation?

[1180] Marie dela Cruz: No, it does include the merger. So it includes a $500,000 savings in 21-22. and a million dollar savings in 22, 23. Because the first out year assumes we are merging the two schools. And then the second out year assumes that we will be closing the second school.

[1202] Aiden Hill: Okay, so if we hadn't closed the school, then that first deficit would be like 1.2 million and the other one would be 500,000 or a million ahead, right? Four, is that what you're saying?

[1216] Marie dela Cruz: Yes. It would have been 1.2 million next year, and then 4.2 the following year.

[1224] Aiden Hill: OK. And then it sounds like in that fourth bullet point that you're saying that the Alameda County Office of Education is asking, since we've now said we're going to get these savings, that they want to have a more detailed understanding of those savings. Is that what you're saying there?

[1243] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, that is correct. Because right now, it's just one lump sum. in our multi-year projection in a category that's just called other, and it's not been itemized or identified in detail as to what those savings represent.

[1261] Aiden Hill: Okay, okay. And then let me just knock out my question so I can give everybody else a chance and I'll just, I'll be efficient. Cause just so I understand like COLA. So essentially what you said is in your current budget projections that we weren't projecting a COLA, correct?

[1280] Marie dela Cruz: Correct. Cause that's what the assumptions were at the time. with every interim report, we get our advice from the county on what the assumptions for COLA would be.

[1292] Aiden Hill: Okay. So we didn't have that built in. And then in subsequent slides, what you said is, is that there's a chance that the governor may pass along some COLA money up to the point of, I can't remember what it was, like 3.8% or something like that. Yes. What was it? 3.8%. So I'm just trying to follow your lead, Ms.dela Cruz, in terms of remembering numbers and being an expert, but I pale in comparison. I'm just teasing. But my question is, so If we don't pass along a COLA, does that mean that the state won't grant us that money? Or do we get that money regardless of whether we pass the COLA along to our employees?

[1342] Marie dela Cruz: So this is not about passing the cost of living adjustment to our employees. This is about the cost of living adjustment that's applied to our revenue projections.

[1353] Aiden Hill: Okay, so it applies to everything.

[1355] Marie dela Cruz: the revenue projections. So when we project our revenues that come from the state, we add the cost of living adjustment to our existing allocation.

[1369] Aiden Hill: Okay, so what you're saying is, is we didn't think the state was going to pass something along. We're now getting signals that they might. Yes. But I think what you're also saying is that it's still iffy, we got to go through a couple of cycles, and then longer term, it may get pulled back because of the deficit that that the state's going to be hitting the 11 billion or whatever it is.

[1392] Marie dela Cruz: Correct. Yes. So At this point, this is what the governor is proposing based on the advice that he receives from the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst's Office. But in May and also in June, by the time the budget is enacted, it may not look the same. It's going to depend on several different factors. But at this time, for what we know today, because the budget is very volatile. It's a moving target. We would use this assumption that we will get a cost of living adjustment on our revenues, mainly our LCFF, the local control funding formula, is what it impacts.

[1442] Aiden Hill: OK. And then, and then final question about like Fund 17, and I'm still kind of learning how all that stuff works. But so there was money, there was money that was transferred out of an emergency fund, right? That's Fund 17. And it got put in to cover deficits in certain years. And then was that money that was transferred actually spent?

[1465] Marie dela Cruz: Yes.

[1466] Aiden Hill: Okay.

[1467] Marie dela Cruz: For example, in 17-18, we had a $3 million deficit in the district. And the $3 million was transferred from Fund 17 to help balance the budget with those expenditures. So yes, the money was spent.

[1487] Aiden Hill: Okay, so what you're really what the question. The question. It sounds like you're presenting to the board and get I apologize. So, you know, I'm new to this, but it sounds like you're saying that that we're that what we're voting on is to say Are we gonna sort of classify this as something that we need to repay? Or is it something that we just say, okay, we've put it in the general fund, and now we're basically gonna say it's done, and that's it, and we're not gonna repay it? Correct. Okay, okay. Yes. Thank you. Those are my questions.

[1523] Marie dela Cruz: Great. Thank you.

[1525] Bowen Zhang: Okay, and I guess we're still, that's first two questions, and any other? Members, member Martinez, you have any questions?

[1534] Elisa Martinez: Yes, thank you, President Zhang. I guess more of a, I don't know if it's a question, but no, it is a question. Part of the Alameda County letter, you know, references as well that they are looking for Other line items, right, to address the potential deficit, Ms.dela Cruz. And obviously with the assumption that we are going to now get a COLA, that definitely changes the numbers or the size of the bucket. But one of the things that they call out specifically so that we need to be cautious is our enrollment projections, right? So the picture becomes a lot better for us, we're not going to have to go cut in addition to the consolidations and all that good stuff, that we still need to go back and revisit those numbers because I think those, we've consistently missed the mark on those, right? So I did just want to call that out. that, you know, and that is something we would expect to see. And then by second interim is when you would bring those revised numbers to us?

[1608] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, Ms. Martinez. In fact, I'm already working with our demographers to get those updated. We have seen a decline in enrollment over the last 10, 15 years. And unless we see a change in a different direction, I think right now we have to assume that we're going to continue that decline. And if you remember, our first interim assumptions was flat. And really, at second interim, it's not going to look like that. We'll probably going to assume that we will continue to see at least, you know, one to two percent decline every year. So yes, those will be updated. And also, you know, they did mention the hold harmless. Remember, our ADA is held harmless this year and also next year because of the way that the formula works. But it's the following year, the second out year, that will really, really hit us.

[1680] Elisa Martinez: Yeah, and I'm not sure if others have questions. With regards to your question, because right now, today, you're just looking for some initial direction on the Fund 17. So if we're all kind of sharing our perspective on that, you know, I think, you know, I mean, it's a good chunk of money. It's a good chunk of money to member Hills Point. The money's already been spent. It's a good chunk of money. We don't have me unless we're gonna cause a more significant crisis to our current budget. We really can't afford to pay it back. You know, I would be, you know, in agreement to support the that this was just completely undisciplined, you know, that this is why these last two years, last couple of years have been so hard. We've had to slice so deep because we didn't do it at the time that, you know, the condition kind of warranted it. So that would be my ask, and I'm not sure where you all land, rest the board, is that you know, if we make this transfer permanent, that along with it comes a process so that, you know, it has to be a more of a deliberate decision by the board that this is going to either be a loan or a give. That would be my ask before I would be able to vote a yes.

[1771] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you. And that was one of the problems is that clarity. I think the intent of the the board policy was that if you're going to transfer or borrow from Fund 17, that there's an expectation that you pay it back. But in looking at our records, it wasn't clear whether it was actually a temporary borrowing or not. And so part of our resolution will include that to say it needs to be really clear you know, if you're transferring out of fund 17, that it's a temporary borrowing because this is where we need to increase our reserves. So the plan will be to incorporate that as well in order to increase our reserves to 17%. Okay, member Gwendolyn.

[1840] Terrence Grindall: Yes, Mr. La Cruz, just this is probably a simple question, but do you see anything in the county office of education's letter that is going to be a problem to respond to?

[1852] Marie dela Cruz: No, actually, the letter was. I think. Pretty accurate in in what what they're asked is and Um, we should not be able I mean we should be able to meet all of their requirements I don't see any problems with any of the items that they addressed or brought up Thank you.

[1877] Terrence Grindall: And um, I would say and you know, i'm i'd like to learn more but I would say I am inclined to try to repay That the fund 17 and get back to reserves that we that we want. I understand that that that might be difficult but um I'm inclined to see us to see us boost our reserves and pay that money back. But I want to know what the implications of that are. But that's where my inclination is right now.

[1905] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, we can develop a plan to increase our reserves. So in a way, it's paying it back. But at this time, we really don't have the funds to pay it back. And Unless we do, then this issue is going to continue to be looming over our heads for several years. So what we're thinking is that we develop a plan to increase our reserves. But let's resolve this issue and just get it done so that it's resolved with the caveat and a plan to show how we're going to bring it back up. you know, if there's any surplus, for example, next year, it looks like we will probably end the year with a surplus. Let's put some of that in reserves. And anytime we have a projected surplus in our budget, let's start putting that in Fund 17 so that we can at least build that, let's say to 14%, you know, we build 17 to 14, and then our general fund will always have that minimum 3%. I mean, that would be my ideal picture. That way you have your 14% in 17 and don't touch it, but then you have your 3% minimum in the general fund.

[1994] Terrence Grindall: That certainly makes sense to me. Would that mechanism be a board policy or a general direction where we would essentially automatically transfer surpluses to back to the, to increase, to not use the word repay, but to increase our reserves. And that would be a board policy. How would that mechanism go forward?

[2023] Marie dela Cruz: We could provide a resolution, you know, in the form of a resolution, just like we would to address the transfer. It would come as a form of a resolution that the board would adopt.

[2036] Terrence Grindall: Great, thank you, I appreciate your answers.

[2041] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen, do you have any questions?

[2043] Phuong Nguyen: No, I just wanted to comment on the Fund 17 and the reserves. I too am in, I can't talk tonight, I'm sorry. I'm in agreement with Member Martinez and Ms.dela Cruz in terms of the recommendation that's being put forward to make fund 17 the $5.5 million as a permanent transfer to the general fund and built in in the resolution that when we do have surpluses, maybe not an automatic, maybe not an automatic transfer of the full amount of the surplus, but we do have to take a look at what other pending budget items that we may need, but definitely come up with a certain percentage that we do transfer and build the reserves. I too feel that it is really very important that we do increase our reserve levels as much as we can. Thank you.

[2106] Bowen Zhang: Okay, I actually also want to comment on the fund 17 issue because I do believe there's maybe some misunderstanding and some more information for our new members. So when we talk about that when member Martinez mentioned the transfer, the funds, whatever is undisciplined, Actually, the real sin was actually committed when the board voted three to two to transfer $4 million from Fund 40, which was the Russian fund, resulted from a land sale to the Fund 17. The reason that was controversial is because in a normal time, you are prohibited for doing that. You cannot transfer the sale of a real estate into your general fund. But right after the financial crisis, the then Governor Brown gave the district a loophole, a one-time loophole, to solve the financial stress for so many local districts. And then we took advantage of that loophole. We transferred 4 million of sales of Russian fund, which is fund 40, into Fund 17, and that was voted by a 3-2 vote on the board. And the reason that was divided, you probably can tell, because that was not something that you should do under normal times. So that was controversial. Once you transfer that $4 million from Russian Fund, Fund 40 to Fund 17, Everything else, the fund 70 is actually part of your economic reserve. Everything you transfer from fund 17 to a general fund is not considered controversial anymore, because that's just two buckets of reserve money that you can just play around. The real sin was committed when they transferred a formula from fund 40 to fund 17, and that is something that's considered irreversible. That's why I give a lot more leeway when saying we don't pay back the fund to fund 17, because If I'm not wrong, Mrs. Delacruz, both Fund 17 and the general fund balance, add together, will be considered our economic reserve, right?

[2221] SPEAKER_24: Right.

[2222] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. So that's why I think the transfer, whether the permanent transfer from Fund 17 to general fund, from my opinion, is a lot less controversial after the crime was already committed by borrowing, by transferring $4 million from Rothschild Fund, whatever you want to call that. The history record is the crime was committed way before we did, we transferred funds back and forth. So this time, a lot more open to the idea of, oh, hey, let's just do it permanently because we don't really want to have this as a condoler figma. So that is my comment. And with that, I think we can give it. We don't have any questions. We can open up for more board comments and discussions. And member Martinez?

[2272] Elisa Martinez: I was actually just going to comment, President Zhang, so agree that perhaps one sin was worse than the other, but both are sins. Because yes, at the end of the day, it's money at our disposal, but it's the lack of discipline. And part of that is, again, there was a board policy out there. So if clearly if there's enough lack of clarity there, right, that got us to a position where, you know, we were, you know, 10 years later and there's still questions about whether this needed to get paid or not, let's not get ourselves back there. And I think, you know, the reserve is for economic uncertainty or things that pop up. So we will always, you know, let's make sure we do have that and not, and not use it to avoid some difficult decisions. That was my kind of, I think, my only point of differentiation. But I completely agree with you, you know, that we just need to be more disciplined as we move forward.

[2342] Bowen Zhang: I see member Hill.

[2344] Aiden Hill: Yes, so thank you to all of my fellow board members for helping me with my education. So, but one additional question just so I understand. So I think that Ms.dela Cruz was talking about, so we are thinking about or contemplating a resolution where we would establish a target of 14% in our reserves. And then I think you were saying that 3% in our general fund, is that correct? Was that what you, did I understand that correctly?

[2375] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, that's one of the suggestions. So, you know, 17% reserve total between the general fund and fund 17 is our target where they actually sit, um,

[2396] Aiden Hill: And do we know, I mean, so is it just kind of a rule of thumb for you guys that you always keep basically kind of a 3% sort of balance in the general fund? And so that's how we're getting to the ultimate 17%. Is that just sort of the rule of thumb?

[2411] Marie dela Cruz: The 3% is a state standard. So we're required to have at least 3% reserve at the very, very, very least. The target of 17% is a nationwide recommendation because we want to at least cover three to four months of expenditures, including payroll and payables and things of that nature. So the difference with keeping it in Fund 17, it's set aside in a different place. So it's kind of like you have a separate savings account and then you have your checking account, which is your general fund. So having it in the savings account, you know, you're more inclined to think about it before you transfer it out. So that's why we're suggesting, you know, let's boost that fund 17. And, you know, the general operating budget is in our general fund. Keep at least three or maybe 5%, you know, depending, but these are just suggestions because the budget does fluctuate. It's like a roller coaster depending on the assumptions. and make that our goal, whether it's, you know, 14% in fund 17 and three in the general fund, or maybe, you know, a board reserve of 5% in the general fund and then 12 in fund 17. So. Okay, I understand.

[2497] SPEAKER_38: Thank you.

[2501] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen, I saw you raise hand before.

[2505] Phuong Nguyen: No, I just wanted to, again, I do have the same sentiments in terms of us really being responsible fiscally as a board and as a district. And it was hard having to go through the school consolidation and making that decision. And I wouldn't want that for us to see that again, moving forward in a long, long time, if that ever comes up again, and hopefully not. And we just have to be mindful of the decisions we make in terms of what we need to approve budgetarily for the district. So that's it.

[2546] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, and I just want to use this year and last year as good examples of how volatile the budget and the assumptions are. We went from zero COLA to 3%. We're going from a $3.9 million deficit to possibly having a surplus So we have to be prepared for all of those fluctuations.

[2571] Phuong Nguyen: Exactly. And just a reminder too, a lot of times, you know, the city and the school districts aren't going to be seeing that impact of the budgetary impacts, you know, two or three years after any economic, our recovery, I mean, our downtime is going to be two or three years out before we see any harmful impacts to our budget based on, you know, based on the economy. And yes, last year and this year, we weren't, we haven't been impacted yet, but two years out, just like the governor's office says that we'll see that because they're gonna see it, you know?

[2616] Marie dela Cruz: Mm-hmm, right. And I still remember back in 08, 09, when we had midyear cuts Nobody expected that. And everybody was scrambling to try and balance their budget mid-year.

[2633] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Member Grindel, do you have any comments, discussions? I think you were on mute.

[2647] Terrence Grindall: Yeah, just to reiterate, I do want to see a plan to get the reserves up to the right level. It is important to have a savings account so you know what that money is for and it doesn't burn a hole in your pocket, so to speak. And I would like to see sort of firm direction about surpluses going into that um amount the board can always change that but they should they should consciously make those changes we should have a with that plan that we that you're gonna you're gonna help us develop we should we should lock that in in my opinion okay so I want to I want to again commend the superintendent and your team for working so hard to improve that UPP count from below 55 percent to

[2697] Bowen Zhang: I got 59% because to follow up on Member Hill's question when it comes to COLA, So just like Mr. Dela Cruz explained, the COLA actually applied to our revenue, specifically applied to LCFF, the base grant of LCFF. But the concentration grant and the supplemental grant are computed as a percentage of base grant. So an increase on the base grant also increased the money we got from the concentration grant and supplemental grants. And more important, the reason that improving the UPP to about 55% is such a game changer. is because the concentration rate is only paid on the threshold above 55%. So if you are 54%, you don't get any concentration grant. So since we move ourselves above the 55% threshold, we got a concentration grant. And not only that, a concentration grant is, I believe, is 50% of the base grant. So that's, that's a quite a big chunk of money. And by increasing your, your, your UPP account, you also increase the number, the money, the amount of money you got from the supplemental grant, because supplemental grant is a percentage of your account, of your UPP account. So that's why I would just, just very, very happy and delighted to see the hard work of the superintendent and your team for really moving up the target to above 55%. Obviously, this COLA is another great news. So I am quite happy. And this is definitely so far positive news when it comes to 2021 to 2022 year budget. And I've been paying attention to some other surrounding districts, their board meeting. They are also discussing similar issues at this time. They're in a much dire situation than we are. I believe it's our fiscal prudence in the past two years, willingness to make the difficult decision in the past two years. And obviously, plus the concerted effort of superintendent and your team to move up this percentage that we're in a much better shape than two years ago, and certainly better shape than many of our surrounding districts. Okay. Any other comments? I'll yield back to you, Superintendent.

[2834] Mark Triplett: Okay, thank you President Jhun and thank you board for the discussion and for the guidance. So our next steps based on what I feel like we heard from you this evening is to bring forth a resolution that recommends the transfers from Fund 17 as permanent to the general fund. So we'll bring that forward and of course then it'll be open for you to debate further and ultimately vote on. And then our other next step will be to, after the second interim, we will come forward with a plan for how, over the course of many years, how we hope to increase the reserves to 17%, including what Member Grindel said about having clear formulas, so to speak, when we move a surplus funds into the reserve.

[2895] Bowen Zhang: Okay, I guess that's it for our study session. Okay, so our next item will be moving to closed session. Ms. Guderius, any public comment on our closed session item?

[2913] SPEAKER_37: Nope, no public comment on the closed session.

[2916] Bowen Zhang: Okay, and before we move into closed session, I want to enumerate what we want to discuss in the closed session. We'll be discussing item 4.2, public employee discipline dismissal release. Item 4.3, conference with legal negotiator, employee organization, NTA and CSCA. Item 4.4, conference with labor negotiator, NEWMA, unrepresented supervisor and contract management. Item 4.5, conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. Item 4.6, conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. And we're expected to come back to open session at 7 o'clock. We still got five minutes. I guess everybody can take a bio break. And I will see every board member at 6 o'clock. Five ayes.

[2966] SPEAKER_32: Thank you.

[6938] Bowen Zhang: Okay, good evening student members. Salemi, how are you?

[6942] SPEAKER_11: Good evening, how are you?

[6944] Bowen Zhang: Will you be leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance today?

[6949] Nicole Izant: Sure.

[6952] Bowen Zhang: Okay, let's see if everybody is here. Yes, if you could just wait a couple minutes to make sure that we have... Yeah, we're still waiting for three more board members. We have, we're still waiting on member Martinez and member Nguyen. Member Nguyen is here. Okay, I believe we have all the members here. So we're back to open session, first pledge of allegiance.

[7007] SPEAKER_37: President Zhang, sorry, one second, if you just give us just a minute to take care of some technical things, please.

[7015] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Yeah, it says live on YouTube.

[7019] SPEAKER_37: No, we are definitely live. We're just trying to make sure that the interpreter is in the interpretation room.

[7026] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Yeah, yes.

[7028] SPEAKER_37: One second. Okay, we are, you may begin, thank you.

[7037] Bowen Zhang: Okay, we're back to open session. Next will be, will be the item of Pledge of Allegiance. Ms. Gutierrez, please turn on the banner and our student members, so let me ask graciously agree to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Everybody please stand up.

[7058] SPEAKER_11: 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.

[7076] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, everyone. Next, we'll be reporting out of the closed session. So in closed session on item four, Point five, conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation, the board voted unanimously to approve a settlement amount of $14,000 on a case number 2020100956. Let me repeat, the board voted unanimously to approve a settlement in the amount of $14,000 for the case number 2020100956. Other than that, no other reportable action has been taken. Moving on to employee organizations, superintendent, oh no, Ms. Guterres, do we have any speaker for the employee organizations?

[7126] SPEAKER_37: Yes, we do. We have NTA. We have Sean Arruzzi. Mr. Rose, if you could please move him forward.

[7143] SPEAKER_21: Thank you. I want to thank everyone. Happy New Year's. First time NTA has been talking this year. Hold on. Yeah, cool. I'm not muted. So today, with NTA's update, we'd like to talk about the right to consult. First, I want to talk about a STAR committee that was created at the beginning of the school year. You know, NTA leadership was on this committee. And NTA could have filed a cease and desist or a level two grievance, but NTA wants to work with the district and it seems that the district doesn't want to work with NTA leadership. The other thing of right to consult would be the SEL curriculum. This committee was formed without NTA leadership at the junior high by the principal, Risha. The SEL curriculum was To start, when we got back from winter break, but it didn't, Ed Services and NTA weren't informed about this change that the principal at the junior high did, which was Resha. This program is now gonna be starting in February because of the principal at the high school, which is Resha. Another committee that NTA was not right to consult with would be the Equal Opportunity Committee. This committee was formed without notifying NTA president. They're a principal at the high school. What does this community do? NTA would like to know. The other thing NTA would like to bring up is Curriculum Council. Curriculum Council has now been broken up into two areas, one dealing with the Elementary Curriculum Council at the elementary sites and the Secondary Curriculum Council at the elementary. On Wednesday, they voted for the second step, which is the SEL curriculum was voted down due to the fact that district would not provide the support that our members were asking, which was to fund a 1.0 FTE SEL coach to every elementary school site. On Thursday of last week, we had a secondary curriculum council, which the board will be voting on 11. courses were brought to the curriculum council last Thursday. No signatures on these courses, which is required. The council had no time to look over these courses. One of those courses is a freshman seminar. This needed to be written as a year course, which was submitted to the council as a semester. So we had to come back on a Friday, which was presented to the admin team at the high school, which was Olivia and Lisa. offering no academic contact. And it is, so the other thing is this course is being offered as a PE course. This course is not approved by, was not approved by the credential audit nine years ago. And now we're trying to bring it back again. So that needs to be brought up and understand why that is. and why wasn't that informed? If the board approves it, then the preservation audit will probably come back and tell the board that they can't run that like they did nine years ago. Moving on. We're going to talk about the PD March 1st. Curriculum Council has not voted on Character Strong. Character Strong hasn't been brought, hasn't been board approved either. The district is rolling out character Sean Kirkland over all secondary sites. NTAA leadership was not brought in on this process at all. The reopening plan that was submitted to the County. NTAA was not in on this. We were always given the second, not the most updated version. This is just an example of no good faith bargaining. reopening plan and hybrid MOUs should marry each other. And today we'll just now focus our energy on the MOUs. Another thing that has come up to my thing is Let's Talk, which was purchased for $35,000. Why was this purchase? Why wasn't all district employees notified about this program or company? We only noticed this when we saw it in an email. And as members, most of us deleted it because we had no idea where this was and we didn't know if it was spam or not. Another thing is we like to bring up is PBIS. Why does PBS create a task force to look at SEL curriculum without notifying NTA, again, right to consult? Has PBS reduced the number of D's or F's in secondary across the district? What has PBS done? PBS has done was created a small plan at the high school that violated that code, adds more work to the classroom teachers, and try to set intimate SEL curriculum without including the Curriculum Council. The other thing we would like to know is why PBS can't give a list to each teacher at the beginning of the school year of high-risk students in our classrooms, which will help us to make sure that these kids are successful, but that is not done, right? The other thing was that PBS was being turned into an adjunct duty because at the high school people weren't joining this committee, which makes you wonder why we are still using this for that reason. Also, NTA is still waiting to receive the escape report for the LCAP and all site SIPs of funds. NTA asked for these in November. Finally, NTA is definitely has a great working relationship with the current HR department. Hoping to have this happen with all departments in the district office. And today is looking forward to doing great things with in the future to make sure that to make Newark unified a place where parents would like to send their children. We like to say welcome all new board members and I wish you and everyone a good weekend and to be safe and be healthy. And that's all NTA has to say. Thank you very much.

[7555] Bowen Zhang: Thank you for your remarks, Mr. Bruce. Ms. Gutierrez, next speaker.

[7562] SPEAKER_37: Yes, we do have a speaker from NEWMA, Ms. Catheerine Ingham-Watters.

[7574] Bowen Zhang: Welcome.

[7575] SPEAKER_31: Hello. Good evening, President Jun, board trustees, Dr. Triplett, executive cabinet, and the Newark community. One of NEWMA's goals for 2021 is to inform the board and community about some of our amazing members. Tonight, we are excited to highlight two members, Paul Rose and Maggie Tung. Although Paul Rose has only been the network manager of IT for six months here in Newark, he enjoys working with staff to develop and improve teaching and learning through the use of technology. His main responsibilities include managing the IT department, evaluating technology solutions, and monitoring and coordinating network administration and maintenance. Budget and Position Manager Maggie Tung says, we are not a team because we work together. We are a team because we respect, trust, and care for each other. That quote describes how Maggie feels about working in Newark Unified over the past year. Maggie's role in the business office includes processing and verifying employee monthly payroll and year-end W-2s, managing and maintaining employee information, including assignment, tax info, retirement plans, insurance benefits, and through the use of the ESCAPE system, providing reports as necessary for decision-making by administrators, the CBO, and the board. We are thankful for the hard work of these two and all of our NEWMA members. Thank you.

[7696] Bowen Zhang: Thank you for your remark, Ms. Ingham-Watters. I believe that's it for employee organization, right? That is correct. Okay, moving on to the next item, School Spotlight, Millsdale Elementary, Dr. Triplett.

[7713] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jeon, and again, good evening to all the board members, staff, and community. As you know, every month we have a school spotlight, an opportunity for a school and a school principal to come and share the wonderful things that are happening at all of our schools throughout the district. This month, we are really delighted to have one of our outstanding principals, Ms. Amanda Gallaher, who has been recognized not just by NEWMA, but also by us in this space for her incredible leadership. And so she's going to talk to us about the wonderful things happening at MUSIC. Oh, Ms. Gallaher, you're on mute.

[7764] SPEAKER_32: Of course, I'm starting off strong with my tech skills there. All right, I'm gonna try to share my screen while I get started. Let's see.

[7773] Bowen Zhang: Oh, just one reminder. If there's any voice, make sure you share the voice. Otherwise, we're gonna repeat the same thing again.

[7781] SPEAKER_32: Yeah, I learned last week. So hopefully, fingers crossed, we will have that this week. All right, let's see. All right. Everybody see okay? Good. All right. So I want to thank President Zhang and members of the board, Dr. Triplett, and members of the Executive Cabinet for allowing me the opportunity to highlight music elementary and preschool, where every student is respected, valued, and achieves. And this year, we knew going into the year, it was going to be a different type of year. We knew there was going to be some challenges. So not only are we facing or were we facing distance learning and the pandemic challenge. But we also knew that our school was going to potentially be consolidated or closed. So in this presentation tonight, I'm going to address what we're doing this year to address those challenges. All right, our mission here at music is and will continue to be to ensure all music students regardless of race, gender, language, economic status, or special needs work towards mastery of the Common Core State Standards in a caring and enriched learning community characterized by high expectations, creativity, and a rigorous academic environment. So let's look a little bit more at our population. Currently, as you all know, we're a small school. We have 321 students here. We have 290 students, TK through six, and we have 31 preschool students at the time. And we know, just based on the past, that that number is going to increase as students turn three, and we accept them into our program. So our enrollment is going to grow a little bit as the year goes on. Now, if we continue to look at the composition of our school, we're pretty unique here at MUSIC. 33% of our student population consists of students with special needs. They have IEPs to help them in their educational journey. 38% of our students are emerging English speakers or ELLs. They're on that journey to learn English. 43.4% of our students fall within the category of being socioeconomically disadvantaged. Now, this is a little bit misleading. Previously, we were at 60%. And so you would think with this number on paper, we'd see a decrease in needs. But actually, this year, we're seeing quite an increase in needs. So this percentage we see on paper isn't the level of need we're seeing in our community right now. But that's OK, because we're helping the students we have and the need we see, no matter what the percentage on paper is. So let's look at some of our data. So our most recent data on the dashboard is from 2019. You can see we had an increase in both English language arts and mathematics. We had moved from orange to yellow. We had significant increases in our behavioral and social emotional aspect of our students, and we raised both our chronic absenteeism and our suspensions rate. from the red tier all the way up to the green tier. We know how important it is to address the whole child. So really focusing on behaviors and social emotional needs. We can see that it's impacting their academic instruction as well in growth. So we're going to continue that work and we're hoping to see that same growth and hopefully we're moving farther along in those tiers. But now to the time of distance learning. What are we doing? All right, so what many of you may not know is here at Music PBIS, we embrace that. And the expectations we have for our students is for them to be responsible, to be inclusive, to be safe, and to be engaged. We expect them to rise. And so this year, our theme was Rise and Shine. And here we have a student who did a Flipgrid on what it means to rise and shine. So this is a big test. Does the sound work? All right.

[8048] SPEAKER_33: I think what it means to rise and shine is to be a better you every day. Every morning when you wake up, work to better yourself so that you're better than who you were yesterday.

[8064] SPEAKER_32: I think she did a fabulous job of telling us what it means to rise and shine. And as a group, we are rising and shining by focusing on these five priorities. So the first aligns with our district priority of rigor. Of course, we are implementing Big Ideas Math, Units of Study, Social Studies Weekly, FOSS. Those are our district-adopted curriculums. We've also embraced Google Classrooms, iReady, and Imagine Learning. And we've moved farther in our small group instruction. That's been definitely a silver lining to distance learning these small groups we're doing. We have targeted ELD instruction happening, breakout rooms within the classroom, as well as targeted academic intervention and enrichment for our students. So what are we basing this rigorous instruction on? We're assessing for learning. We're doing that through our iReady and Imagine Learning. Our teachers have embraced Nearpod, Flipgrid, Google Forms. Dojo has a student portfolio component that we are using as well, Seesaw. And a bullet that didn't make it on this picture or this image was Boomcards. That is something that we found in our preschool program. And it has been truly transformative in the way that we're able to collect data. on our students in our preschool classes, especially during this time of distance learning. Another priority that aligns with our district priorities would be the social emotional learning and mental health wellness of our students. Now we're addressing this through class meetings through growth minds and activities. We have a pretty robust cost program here at music. We have also really beefed up what we're doing for our counseling. We have Miss King returning to us as an evac counselor, but this year we also had Miss Nefertari Royston join us. She's a school psychologist. psychologists, and she brings school counseling to our team as well. And so she's doing small groups based on the different needs of our students. So we're reaching even more of our community that needs that extra support. Additionally, here at music, we conduct home visits, because we know that it's not only the students that need support, but our families as well. So these home visits allow us to check in and support our families and anything they need. so that we can have a well-rounded support for our whole community, which we know is going to impact their academic success. Now unique to music, we have community as a priority. This is probably our biggest strength here at music. So how do we support community during this time of distance learning when we can't be together physically? We rely heavily on communication. Class Dojo is huge for us. All but six of our students are part of, have signed up for Class Dojo. So whenever we post online, we're reaching all but six of our students' families. So we're reaching out to them separately. Now we have our class stories, our school stories, but the most impactful component to this would be the text messaging component. Now, on an average, our school averages 1,500 messages a week. That is 1,500 connections between home and school that are happening. So we're building that in community. We're keeping that community close through that communication. Social media, we're using social media. Admittedly, not our most powerful form of communication. We're up to 53 Instagram followers, I know. We're influencers here at music, but that's okay. We're going to keep on working on it. Every avenue counts. Additionally, our PTA has taken the opportunity to try to bring those in-person events to us. Now, we usually have a fall festival and indoor event that has a huge turnout. Obviously, we couldn't do that this year, but we know how important those events are. So this year, our PTA arranged for a drive-through haunted house. So we had family groups signed up to decorate part of our upper parking lot and stand and kind of do a haunted house thing. We had our teachers there as well. Parents would drive through. They got to have the experience of seeing each other, seeing the teachers that participated and got a little goodie bag at the end. Not the same, but it was still that in person connection that we know we need is a community. Now school picture something we've always taken for granted in the past. It's such a rite of passage in tradition. And so it was really important for us to do that this year and we made sure that was an outside drive through event as well. So we still were able to bring that sense of community to us will still have our class photos this year. Pretty exciting. And then the not so exciting but equally powerful materials distribution. Our teachers know how important the connections are. So when they have the time and it's safe to do so, they're out there distributing the materials to their students. That one second wave from the curb as they grab their bag or the passing of something to the window, that's continuing to make our community strong and united. Last but not least, empowerment. So we knew this year was going to be tough for us, we knew we were going to be facing school consolidation and closure and so making sure that our parents felt empowered. to be part of the conversations and to be informed was very important to us. So how do we do that? We did it through School Site Council. We did it through our English Language Advisory Committee, our PTA, and school community meetings. And this year I can say I'm so proud of our families for coming out, for being engaged in the process, for lifting their voices up, not only in the committee meeting where they looked at data, we had our parent representatives there, but also they were coming to the board meetings, our teachers, our parents, our students, they were speaking their minds, they were letting their feelings known. And they did so in a positive way, lifting music up without putting others down. And I'm so proud of them for really taking on the ownership of that process of being engaged. Now, although it's heartbreaking, We were definitely, we were chosen to be one of the schools that was consolidated or closed. So that brings me to our next slide in how we're addressing that. Oops, so close. All right. So we are more than a school. We are a family, right? So that's how we're going to address our steps moving forward. We are a family that consists of an amazing, caring, dedicated, a group of educators, paraprofessionals, classified staff of now empowered and engaged parents. They've always been there, they've always been their students' number one cheerleader, but this year they're also sitting right next to them at the computer and they're helping them along in the classrooms. And last but certainly not least is our just outstanding group of music leopards. Our students have so much potential and truly embody rising and shining every day. and another student, their rise and shine, I thought really defined us as a school. So I wanted to share that with you this evening.

[8496] SPEAKER_33: Hello, boys and girls and non-binary pals. Good. Nice. Good to see you. Good to see you. Today I'm going to be talking about the rise and shine for music leopards. There is a whole rise thingy that goes with that. But along with that, you always have to be the best person you can. Be you and be nice and inclusive. And don't be afraid to do anything. Along with being kind and respectful and showing your appreciation to people, and stuff. Also, Rising and Shining is showing things that you love. And for artists, we love music. We appreciate it a lot. And showing our appreciation, we can call it Rising and Shining. Because we're showing what we love. We're showing what we're a part of. And it's beautiful. Sorry this is kind of cheesy but I mean it's from the heart and I guess that's all that matters. Yeah that's what I think Rise and Shine means.

[8586] SPEAKER_32: Student totally defined what it means to be part of our music family. It's all about the heart here. Yes, we focus on the academics and all the other parts of schooling. But it is about the heart and that heart is what's really going to be guiding us through this next year. And so with that, we've thought ahead and There is so much good at music so much good at music at all of our elementary schools, obviously, but you know I have music so this special to me. So what what we need to do is, we need to start the celebrating so i'd like to introduce next year's theme to you a little bit early. Let's see if I can do this. Nope, I did it again. Oh, there we go. All right. Next year's theme is Everybody Rise. We are going to give music and our students and our family the standing ovation that they deserve. So 2021-2002 is a year of celebration. So I'm inviting you now to rise with us. So everyone rise. We're going to start the party a little early. We're going to start it this year. So I'm inviting you to join us in April for a volunteer event. I'm inviting you to join us in May for teacher appreciation. I'm inviting you to join us in June to celebrate the most important part of our family, our students at sixth grade promotions and and our other student celebrations. So as I conclude our presentation tonight, I'd like to share this quote from an unknown source. Rise up, feel your power, become the warrior, know your worth, be fierce, dance the dance, break down barriers, know your boundaries, shine your light. Thank you and don't forget to rise and shine.

[8689] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Mrs. Gallagher for your wonderful presentation. And I will open up for comments and discussion from the rest of the board. Any comments and discussion? Any comments from the board member? Member Nguyen?

[8706] Phuong Nguyen: Hi, Ms. Gallagher. I just wanted to say that when we were going through all of the and reading all of the letters from the music community, I noticed that the one thing that rang through is true, that you say that your community is family and very respectful of the letters that we received were very respectful. And I just wanted to say that it was very difficult making that decision, knowing what a wonderful community music is and all the things that you guys are doing there with your students. the way the students represent themselves. It's a testament to all the teachers, and especially your leadership. So I just wanted to say thank you.

[8756] SPEAKER_32: Aw, thank you so much.

[8759] Bowen Zhang: Other board members? Member Martinez?

[8763] Elisa Martinez: Yes, Ms. Gallagher, first of all, thank you. It's a very inspirational presentation, and allows us to get to know your school, your family. So much appreciated. I actually wanted to appreciate you specifically because, you know, it has been a very tough year for all the things, for all the reasons that everyone we've experienced, but because, you know, you had this other, you know, you knew that we were going to go through this process and the potential impact to music. And, you know, you were just there, as being a supportive force to your folks. Again, not only your staff and your kids, but the families. So thank you so much for everything that you are doing and have done, are doing and continue to do. So thank you for being here this evening and sharing.

[8821] SPEAKER_32: Thank you. And quite honestly, I love to take that praise upon myself. But I have to let you know that my teachers, our students, and our family lifted me up along the way, too. Because as much as I'm holding it together now, it really was heartbreaking to go through this process. And I gave myself until winter break to pout. And then I said that we were going to move on in a positive manner. But it really was a team. So as much as I'd like to take that praise for myself, I can. It's for the family.

[8851] SPEAKER_24: Thank you.

[8854] Bowen Zhang: Member Guendel, you are on mute.

[8855] Terrence Grindall: I just want to say thank you for the wonderful presentation and for sharing the love of your family with us. So I thought I was inspired by your presentation. I'm inspired by what your whole team is doing. So thank you.

[8875] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill.

[8879] Aiden Hill: Yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, you're doing a fantastic job.

[8884] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. You know, I want to talk about some anecdotal experience I had with music elementary. So I've been to several music events before the pandemic. I mean, you look at the music elementary, particularly like the community, just like the presentation style, you really see the uniqueness of all that organization, the dynamism and the energy that the parents shown up, whether it's a side council or a PDA organization. So you go to their PDA, you realize compared to all the other PDA, that's probably the most diverse PDA that you're going to have in all across our district. Not only that, this is our music PDA is probably the only PDA that you see the equal number of moms and dads showing up, while in the other PTAs, it's just overwhelmingly moms. So that was the part that's truly unique about music. And obviously, you're a very close-knit family, and I appreciate your team's hard work. And I do expect that whenever your team go to Newark after the consolidation process, you will continue to be a very, very valuable asset to the new school. Well, thank you for you and your team's hard work. And I believe that's it. So thank you for the wonderful report. And we'll be moving on to the next item. Item 9.1, public comment on non-agenda items. Ms. Gutierrez, do we have speakers for this item? No speakers for this item. OK. Moving on to Item 10.1, superintendent report. I will yield the floor to Dr. Triplett.

[8988] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jun. And I too want to echo the sentiments to Ms. Gallaher. I know, Ms. Gallaher, hopefully you're still tuning in. Just deep appreciation for your leadership, how you've shown what it means to lead through the most challenging times and to hold a community through really difficult times. And the things that are happening at MUSIC, I think are the things that really need to be happening throughout our district. And particularly, I know the student mentioned inclusion. And I think that's such an important point that we need to make sure that we're supporting all our schools to have the level of inclusion, love and care that we see at music. So thank you for that. I'm going to start my superintendent's report. Let's see, sorry. Started at the wrong point. Here we go. So today's superintendent's report have five topics. One is an enrollment update. I wanted to give an update on reopening. Talks about some of the equity initiatives that we are continuing to move forward. A merger update and then also quick information about COVID-19 testing. So first, just wanted to share out our most recent enrollment numbers. So this is as of the 19th. And as you can see, we've actually seen a slight decrease in numbers since the 4th of January. around 12 students. We did see, and you can see it on the comparison with the fourth, that we have had some students who have moved from Memorial to Bridgepoint. And so that's one shift. But the actual decrease in overall numbers is something that actually, tends to happen every year around this time. The end of the first semester and the start of the second semester oftentimes is when we see some sort of movement of students. Unfortunately, this year, the movement is that we have students that have left the system, but that is something that's relatively typical. Shifting gears to our reopening update. So I shared briefly last meeting around some of the new updates from the governor around a proposal. And so I wanted to come back and we've had an opportunity to be meeting with the county And unpacking some of the proposal that the governor's governor's putting forth called the safe schools for all plan. So I wanted to go into a little bit more depth. This is something that keeps evolving and and we have support from both the county. And also other organizations and and our colleagues and other districts as we all are making sense of exactly what's being stated here and and then things to continue to change so we just need to be aware of that. But the four pillars of the of his new plan safe schools for all is one around funding. safety and mitigation, oversight and assistance, and transparency and accountability. And so there are opportunities for additional funding. There are requirements for that. There is a clear articulation of safety and mitigation requirements. Fortunately, much of those in Alameda have already been the things that we've been following because Alameda has very strict safety and mitigation guidelines. And then the plan articulates oversight and assistance, how the state and the county plan to support schools and hold school and districts accountable for maintaining the high standards for reopening. And then lastly, data and transparency in the form of new dashboards and hotline and communication that the state is rolling out. So one of the things I wanted to share that is in this new guidelines, and again, this has not fully been, this was a proposal still that I believe the legislature has yet to completely approve. But one of the things is, while there's no opening of grades seven through 12 in the purple tier, grades K-6 may open. However, that is if, And the if is if these following guidelines are followed. One, completing a safety plan. Two, that the safety plan is submitted and reviewed by the county and the state team. And then three, that the county within which the district is in must have a case rate that is that is lower than 28 cases per 100,000 for at least five consecutive days. At this point, we are not in that situation. I believe I can't remember as of today what our case rate is, but I do believe it's above 28. So we've discussed in this meeting and throughout the fall, the reopening plan that was required by the county. We did submit that after getting your guidance and getting input from many, many stakeholders. And now the county is putting forth a what they're called a different plan that they're requiring. Fortunately, for us, since we already submitted our reopening plan, it will just require us to modify and make sure that we are addressing any of the added components that the state is putting forth. But you see down there, the modified reopening plan, 14 out of 18 of the districts in Alameda County have submitted a reopening plan. We are one of those districts now. And so in addition to a modified reopening plan, they're also going to require that we modify what's called the Illness and Injury Prevention Plan. So an Illness and Injury Prevention Plan is a plan that exists in every district prior to COVID. It's just your standard plan to how a district and schools will address illness and injury prevention. However, now they've added different elements to that to specifically related to COVID. And so we are in the process of reviewing our illness and injury prevention plan, making adjustments, and then that will need to be submitted to the state. Then there is also the option of additional funding. The timeline is very short and honestly will be very challenging to accomplish given where we are at. If a district applies by February 1st, they could receive 100% of the grant rate. If they apply by March 1st, 75% of the grant rate. And I'll speak a little bit more about those guidelines. And so what would that grant look like? And how much would the funding would districts receive? So $450 per student would be the dollar amount, and then there's some added possible funding if we're submitting by February 1st. If we wait to March 1st, then we would be getting $337.50 per student. And those are for students who are attending in-person learning. Some of the guidelines. So this plan that I alluded to, they're calling the CSP COVID-19 school safety plan. And so that is what we need to now utilize our reopening plan and modify it and make sure that we're covering all of the requirements. But some of the requirements for the February 1st funding, and this is what makes this challenging, is number one, submitting that plan. Number two, to submit a ratified, certificated, and classified collective bargaining agreement, or the applicable memoranda of understanding. We currently, as the board knows, have a memorandum of understanding with our CSCA partner. We are still in conversations with NTA, our certificated labor partner, with regard to an MOU. So if we do not have both those by the deadline, then we would not be eligible for the grant dollars. In addition, posting the plan on our website, which we have already posted our current reopening plan on our website, and then certify verification that each student that is participating in distance learning still has access to all the technology needed, which we, in our case, we already have in place. So these are some of the ideas for what students should be prioritized for in-person learning as of March 16th or March 15th, depending on the date of the grant. This would be our students who have some of the most high priority needs. That's individuals with exceptional needs, foster youth and homeless, students without access to a computing device, and all students in kindergarten through grade two. By March 15, there's also the option to increase that from kindergarten grade to into up to sixth grade. The state is not recommending that and I think actually is prohibiting that the upper grades open during this timeline. So that's a little information about reopening update will continue to update you as we hear and as things change. We do have a meeting with the county on Monday, in which, which will get much more information about those application process. I wanted to shift gears a little bit and share some of the equity work that we have been working on. One is I know last time there was a brief conversation and the board members who requested that we get clarity on the social emotional learning curriculum that is being discussed and is being piloted in some of our schools. So just to be clear, we have not adopted a curriculum either in secondary nor in elementary yet. And that is why we haven't brought any sort of curriculum for approval by the board. However, we have been piloting curriculum and in the junior high we're piloting the character strong curriculum. And that was underwent a thorough vetting process and engagement process with the junior high staff. And then in elementary, a number of our schools have been utilizing the Second Step program. We've been hoping that to expand that out to all our elementary schools, and we know that both students, teachers, staff, and families have really been asking for an SEL curriculum in all grade levels. And so this is a really high priority for us as a district. I will say that I believe only one or two other districts in the entire county have not adopted a SEL curriculum. And we're one of the, so we're the one of the only ones. And as we know during the pandemic, this is like such a high priority and importance to be supporting our young people to, in terms of character development, in terms of their own mental health and a lot of those social-emotional learning competencies. Another initiative that we've mentioned, I just wanted to update you on is our implicit bias trainings that were articulated in the Black Lives Matter in the classroom resolution passed by this board in the early fall. So we have had, there's three sessions that we have constructed for all of our teachers, and we hope to do this with all of our staff across the entire district. We had session one, with our elementary school teachers on January 11th. There was, I think, approximately 180 teachers that underwent the session one training. It's really focused on the science of bias and the science of implicit bias. Our next training is with the secondary teachers, and that's on Monday, and that'll be the same topic. And then in February and March, we'll be covering our next session, our next session of the cycle, and that's the exploration of inner bias. And then lastly, April and May, we're scheduled to do session three, the final session for this year, and that's around classroom bias and the student experience. And we have talked with a number of student leaders about the idea of students, actually, student leaders coming to some of those sessions, session three, to actually discuss with teachers and staff some of the things that they experience around implicit bias and other issues around equity. As I've engaged with this week I engaged with the Black Student Union, and in the past I've engaged with the student leadership groups. And this is really important to them. And it's, it's mentioned in the resolution, they really, they've articulated to me this feeling of of how important it is that we're all entrained and all become much more conscious of our own implicit bias. So I'm really excited that we're continuing with this program. I think it's really critical. And then another I would call an equity issue or equity initiative is around a graduate profile. And so at this point, we have engaged a little under 200 stakeholders in different engagements around the graduate profile and developing a graduate profile. And something that stuck out to me is as we hear from our stakeholders and as we hear from all of these different people, some of the character traits that they really think are important for our students to have include critical thinking, empathy, resiliency, determination, and many other characteristics that really fall under socio-emotional competency. And so all the more reason why we really need to have an SEL curriculum or curricula that we can use to support our students in developing those skills. Next is, I know I've showed this as a little bit of a general timeline around school consolidations. And so I wanted to give you an update on some of the things that have been happening since we last met on the 4th. And as you see here, enrollment projections, design team formation and facilities assessment have been the top priority in January. And then we'll be shifting to staffing, really getting into the design teamwork and facility preparation as well as budgeting. And so some of the things that have been happening in the last two weeks, one is that we have formed our design team and we have identified a facilitator that will support that design team in conjunction with central office staff. And our first convening is on the 28th. And so we've sent out the invites for that. And that first convening of that group, that will be the snow community, leads and representatives and the Graham community representatives coming together and beginning to really work on the design of the new school. And that'll start with what's called a community learning exchange. It's a really, really valuable equity practice that allows people to tap into what are all the assets that the community is coming with that they really want to make sure are celebrated and then brought into the new school design. And then in terms of enrollment and staffing, we have begun the preliminary enrollment projections and we are near completion. I anticipate that we'll have our preliminary enrollment projections finished within the next week or two. And then our next step is meeting with the staff regarding staffing, regarding the process of staffing for our eMERGE school. And then based on the number of students that we are projecting, then we'll be looking at the facilities and what is the classroom utilization that we need to have based on the enrollment projections. And lastly, coming up in the next week, two weeks, is we are meeting with our special ed teams at both schools to discuss program placement for the upcoming school year in the merged school. There is a number of different special education programs. And so we really want to think through with those teams, what is the best, what is the best configuration to really support students and families. And then I'll just end, I believe, oh no, I have one more slide after this. Just a reminder, we continue to have COVID testing in partnership with our BACH. So there is free testing coming up on the 29th and 30th at the McGregor campus. And then BACH is also providing free testing to anyone at Cedar Church, January 21st and 22nd. And then lastly, I will say, I know it was mentioned at the last board meeting request around the minutes and making sure that we get up to date on our board minutes. So we have been working diligently on that and we are intending to bring forth all of the old meeting minutes for your approval on February 4th. And I believe that is my staff, sorry, my superintendent's report for this evening.

[10080] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Superintendent, for the report. I will open up for questions and comments. First, I will go to you, student member Salemi. Any comments and questions regarding the superintendent's report?

[10092] SPEAKER_11: No, but I just would like to highlight the fact that Dr. Chikla did highlight it, but the importance of social emotional learning curriculum, especially because we are, like you said, one of the only schools in the county that hasn't adapted it. And that is something that a lot of students are you know, asking for and the some of the elementary schools that have come in just like the one today where they're focusing on that it really you do see the improvement. And I would like to thank you for the information on the the equity initiatives that you are doing, and I can't wait to see more of that.

[10129] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Member Martinez.

[10136] Elisa Martinez: Um, so Let me see. I lost my train of thought on the first question. With regards to the minutes, I mean, that's something we've been talking about for quite a while. You know, so we fully expect to see the full set of minutes at the next meeting. Would we also expect to stay on track beyond that? Do we have a plan to make sure we don't get into this bind again? That would be a question, you know, It's a broader question, you don't have to answer it now. So that's just, I'll say it's a statement. With regards to the curriculum adoption for social emotional learning. So you mentioned you're piloting, when would we expect for that to come before the board so we can actually get it approved and say, hey, we've now got an established program?

[10196] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, Member Martinez. And to your point about the minutes, I totally appreciate that. And we absolutely need to make sure that we are staying up on top of that. So that's a commitment that I give to the board. With regard to the social emotional learning curriculum. So we have been really wanted to do a very thorough process of meeting and engaging with teachers curriculum council. So it has taken much longer than we anticipated. And I'll just be honest, a little frustrating on because of the urgency. However, I anticipate, my hope is that we can bring something to the board in the next couple months. It will not stop us from piloting, so we're, the piloting is happening and it's ongoing, but in terms of really fully adopting something, we do, we want to make sure that we are engaging, particularly our teachers, but also principals and others around the curriculum because if there's not buy-in, then we can purchase something and then it sits on the shelf. And so we do want to make sure that folks are engaged and committed to it, that we're not forcing something on people. And at the same time, I feel a real urgency because kids can't wait. We really need to be supporting them in developing in that way. So long-winded answer. My hope is in the next couple of months that we could actually have a cohesive K-12 thing to bring to the board to get approval on.

[10295] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill.

[10298] Aiden Hill: Thank you. Um, yeah, so kind of echoing Miss Martinez. So, I mean, my kind of experiences is that usually with any board kind of a standing agenda item at the beginning of every board meeting is an approval of minutes. And so I know that we're kind of behind, but I think it's very important for my kind of a historical record and that challenges is that the further You know, these kind of sit in the past, the more distant the memory becomes. And so I just think it's really important for us to kind of catch up and then have it be a standing item that gets approved at every board meeting. You know, obviously we can discuss that more. But so that's, that's one piece of input. And then the second thing. is related to programs is, and we talked about this, I think, in our last meeting, I think it's really important that, because my understanding in looking at Newark in the past is that there've always been programs that have been introduced, and a lot of times it's flavor of the month or flavor of the year, and then kind of the dog and pony gets rolled out, but then at some point, there's no momentum, and then it kind of fizzles, and we don't really know what we're getting. And so I think that it's really important that any program that we try to introduce, that we've got a clear set of goals and they need to be measurable. We need to have measurable criteria that we're trying to impact. And then we measure and we get basically, what's the bang for the buck? Because the challenge that we have is as we've talked about, we don't have a lot of bucks. So we got to make those bucks count. And so I think that any program that we put together you know, it's gotta be very clear what the goals are and we need to understand what's the cost benefit, what are we getting? So, and obviously we're gonna talk about that more, but I know that, you know, if things were brought before me, that those are the criteria that I'm gonna look at.

[10413] Mark Triplett: Thank you, Member Hill, I appreciate that.

[10416] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl, you're on mute.

[10430] Terrence Grindall: So I notice in your reopening charts, there's a discussion of vaccines being available for school staff. Can you illuminate on that at all, Dr. Triplett?

[10445] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, Member Grindel. What we're understanding right now is that educators are in level 1B, which is a high priority. I think it's right after emergency workers and the elderly. And so we don't have a concrete timeline as to when we can expect that, although some of the things that are being floated is around February. But again, I think that's a national, state, and then county sort of thing that is is a little bit out of my control. What I have heard most recently from the county is that they are starting to think about it in terms of healthcare providers. And so that a lot of the vaccines will go through the healthcare provider themselves, and then the healthcare provider will be responsible for coordinating with their members, so to speak. And then anyone who does not have a healthcare provider that they will create what they're calling events where people can come, large areas where people will come who don't have health care. to be able to get vaccinated as well. There is something on the state website that they're rolling out where people can go on and put in their name, and then also their profession. And then they get sort of ranked, and then their health care provider, and then they get sort of put on the list. And then the state makes a determination of what level they'll be in. And so I imagine in the next week or two weeks, We'll hear more from the county about how our educators can get on those, get on, apply to those things and begin to get vaccinated.

[10551] Terrence Grindall: Great, thank you. And also, this is kind of more of a just a policy sort of statement, given that we have COVID infection rates that are worse than ever right now. You know, I'm quite, you know, I'm quite skeptical about some of the timelines that are being talked about. However, I do applaud you for being ready and prepared for that process. I do hope and expect that we won't actually be rushing any reopening until it's actually safe, given what we're experiencing right now. But I do applaud you for being prepared. So thank you.

[10591] Mark Triplett: Thank you, Member Grindel. And yeah, I made a commitment at the very beginning that we would not reopen without two weeks notice to our community and communicating that out. And so we want to make sure that we adhere to that. And then, of course, we will only follow county guidelines around when it's safe to actually reopen. Thank you.

[10616] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen.

[10617] Phuong Nguyen: Hi. Thank you for the report, Superintendent. So the only comment I had was, I just, I thank you for the clarification in terms of the SEL curriculum that it is a pilot program. But initially in our communications that went out to families from the junior high, it did say that the district adopted a new curriculum. And since then there has been another email update to let us know that it is a piloting program. but I think it's so important that we really have our communications in line and especially us to know that you guys are rolling out a pilot program and the timeline of it so that when we do get questions from the community that we're able to answer them appropriately. So that's my only comment. And then the other, the second thing is for your superintendent report, the slide decks that you have, Is it possible for us to attach them to either, so that our community can access them? I know that it's not attached to the agenda prior to the meeting, so it's not stored along with the agendas, but either post it somewhere on the website or in our library of documents where we have so that they can access them. I think it's valuable.

[10707] Mark Triplett: Absolutely, yeah, thank you. And I saw a thumbs up from Ms. Gutierrez, so the answer is yes on that one. Thank you. And I do apologize on behalf of the district for the confusion around district adopted versus pilot, and I'm glad that the clarification went out.

[10727] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so I have a question regarding the grant you're applying before February the 1st. We'll get 100% grant for the incentive, I mean, reopening incentive. Is that the money coming from the governor's budget, the $2 billion one, or it's a county-specific money? That is governor's dollars. Oh, that's part of the $2 billion that he did. Because last time when you were doing your report, The money seems to be only for district that are going to be reopened by a specific deadline, an arbitrary deadline. And I made a comment, I said, this seems to be only the county in the rural area probably will get it, because I don't anticipate any coastal county, given the severity of the pandemic, will open. It looks like this has been changed over the past two weeks. It's just submitting a plan. You don't need to necessarily reopen. you need to submit a plan and then you'll get the money.

[10791] Mark Triplett: Is that right? You only receive the funds if you have students in person. Oh, I see. I see. Yeah. To your point that you made the last meeting, and I think that has been brought up and has been noticed that there seems to be an inequity there in terms of the ability of certain districts in certain geographical areas to open more easily than others.

[10818] Bowen Zhang: So given the severity of our pandemic in Alameda County, we don't really expect to get any of that $2 billion, right?

[10829] Mark Triplett: We're going to continue to move forward to be as prepared as we possibly can to receive that, with the knowledge that it is possible that we will not be. OK.

[10842] Bowen Zhang: OK. That's all for me. Any other more comments, questions on the board?

[10851] SPEAKER_11: Just I wanted to echo member Hill's point, especially with something as important as mental health and the social emotional learning curriculum and any curriculum. I hope that we attach goals to it just so we can measure its success and see if it's working or not. And then, you know, correct that.

[10871] Mark Triplett: Thank you, members. So let me.

[10874] Bowen Zhang: Any other comments? Seeing none, thank you for your report. Next item will be staff report 11.1, letter from Alameda County Office of Education regarding 2020 to 2021 first interim budget report. Superintendent Triplett.

[10893] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Hsuan. So I'll just turn this one over to our CBO, Ms.

[10898] Marie dela Cruz: Delacruz. Thank you, Dr. Triplett. So last month we presented our first interim report and then subsequently submitted it to the Alameda County Office of Education as we are required to do for their review. And this letter represents the analysis and the review that they conducted with our first interim budget report. So good news, they concurred. based on their review and analysis with our positive certification. So that's a good thing. And then they also made comments regarding our enrollment and our average daily attendance projections. They want us to be cautious and be aware that the ADA that we're using right now is part of what they're calling a hold harmless, where the governor has allowed us to use our ADA from 2019-20 because of the pandemic. And that exemption or that provision will expire in 22-23. So the potential for us to have a lower ADA, which results in lower funding, is likely to happen in 22-23. So they're advising us to look at our numbers closely and have some sort of contingency in case our enrollment numbers don't materialize. In the multi-year projection, they did commend the board and the district for being proactive in taking the necessary steps as difficult as it was to consolidate schools and also addressing the issue with regards to the transfers from Fund 17. And so with the second interim report, they're requiring a couple of things. One is for us to itemize the $500,000 that we're projecting to save from the school consolidations because right now it's in one line item as a lump sum. And so they wanna see that in detail, what that really represents. And then the projected 742,000 that we had in our multi-year projection as a deficit for 21-22, they want to see some budget balancing solutions on that as well. And from our study session, did mention that because of the governor's proposal, that deficit will be eliminated. So that will be part of our report at second interim, which is due to the county on March 16th, and will be presented to the board before that. But overall, it was a positive and encouraging letter.

[11101] Bowen Zhang: OK. Open up to questions and comments, student members. Any questions and comments?

[11110] SPEAKER_11: I just had a question, and I know this is just based off of assumptions as of now, but assuming because of the COLA funding we are expecting, which would eliminate next school year's deficit, would we still need to identify budget balancing solutions for the 21-22 school year?

[11126] Marie dela Cruz: Because I know that was required. Not in detail. What we would identify is to explain that because of the change in the assumption that we are no longer projecting the deficit.

[11146] SPEAKER_11: Okay, thank you.

[11148] SPEAKER_38: Member Martinez?

[11154] Elisa Martinez: Sorry, I do not have any questions. I know in the during the study session, I think there was some just clarification points, but I don't have any. Thank you.

[11163] Bowen Zhang: Member Quindle?

[11169] Terrence Grindall: I also don't have any questions to follow up on. Just thank you for the succinct and positive report.

[11176] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill?

[11178] Aiden Hill: No questions. Thank you, Ms. Delacruz.

[11180] SPEAKER_33: Thank you, Mr. Hill.

[11181] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen?

[11183] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Delacruz, for the presentation again. Just one question. For the itemized $500,000, would it be consistent with the I'd my list that we had for the school that was presented in the school consolidation.

[11200] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, that's where 85% is mostly salaries and benefits. Okay, thank you.

[11208] Bowen Zhang: That's it. Okay, so For me, I just want to highlight one thing. I'm just glad that the county concur with our positive qualification, which means no more third interim report. It's actually the first year since I've been on board so that we don't have third interim report. And obviously, given the news we got from the study session, in the past two years, we've made some really difficult and tough decisions. I'm just glad that I think we're not completely out of the wood, but we're in much better shape than two years ago. better safe than many of the other surrounding districts in Alameda County. So thank you for the hard work.

[11249] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you. It's called cautious optimism.

[11252] Bowen Zhang: Yes. Okay. So with that, we'll move on to the next item, old business 12.1 appointment of a board representative to audit committee. May I get a motion to open up discussion?

[11270] Phuong Nguyen: I move. I second.

[11273] Bowen Zhang: Moved by Member Hill, seconded by Member Nguyen. Do we have public comments on this item, Ms. Guterres?

[11283] SPEAKER_37: No public comment on this item.

[11285] Bowen Zhang: Superintendent Dr. Triplett?

[11290] Mark Triplett: Sorry, no comment from me.

[11294] SPEAKER_37: This is actually a requested item by President Zhang, if you wanted to speak on this.

[11302] Bowen Zhang: Yeah so then should I lead the discussion on this? So after being re-elected to the chair of the audit committee during the last audit meeting that we got the charter we confirmed in the charter in the audit committee charter which clearly states that board president doesn't get to be part of the audit committee so I will need to step down so we'll need to have a new member to be on the audit committee, and then we'll need to elect a new chair to the audit committee. And electing a new chair will happen in the next audit meeting, but today we need to elect a new member to the audit committee. So right now, member Hill is the only member on the audit committee. Any other board members that are interested in getting onto this committee?

[11349] SPEAKER_37: President Zhang, if I may, I believe we had member Nguyen as the alternate.

[11354] Bowen Zhang: Okay, oh, I see.

[11356] SPEAKER_37: But it is open to the full board.

[11360] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so any members that are interested in being a committee member?

[11369] Elisa Martinez: So just to clarify, it's a two-member committee, right? So a member win is... It's a two plus one, I believe.

[11379] Bowen Zhang: It's two committee members plus one alternate. A member win right now is the alternate.

[11385] Elisa Martinez: So we need. And we didn't have a second member already?

[11390] Phuong Nguyen: It was member Zhang, but he stepped down. I know me. And then member Hill.

[11397] Elisa Martinez: So we're looking for an alternate then? No, we're looking for.

[11401] Bowen Zhang: I mean, not necessarily. If member Nguyen doesn't want to be a full-time member, she remains the alternate. So we'll need to have a full-time, I mean, other member.

[11414] Phuong Nguyen: I'm okay with being a full-time member, but I'm just, I'm yielding just in case member Grandel or member Martinez would like to participate in the audit committee.

[11429] Bowen Zhang: Member Grandel.

[11433] Elisa Martinez: So I could be, I'll yield to member Wind whether she wants to be full-time or alternate and I'll do whichever she does not want to do. Or prefer, not want, but which one do you prefer?

[11453] Phuong Nguyen: Does member Grandel have a comment or would he like to be on there?

[11460] Terrence Grindall: No, I'm not. I'm not interested in joining that committee at this point. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.

[11468] Phuong Nguyen: I know because both our new members are so nice. They're always yielding to us when we're calling motion.

[11475] Bowen Zhang: So here's my suggestion. I think member here is relatively new to the board and to the committee. I would rather prefer somebody that has some experience serving on the audit committee to be a second full-time member given member when you are the full-time member. throughout the entire fiscal year, I mean, possibly calendar year 2020, and then you only stepped down after Memberville was sworn in as the new board member. So I would prefer that you step up to be the second full-time member, and that Member Martinez will be the alternate. So we can have a more experienced member, and plus a relatively new member on the other committee.

[11515] Elisa Martinez: And just so you know, no pressure, remember, when I've been on that committee as well. whatever you prefer.

[11522] Phuong Nguyen: I'm okay. I will step up. Okay. Per President Zhang.

[11528] Elisa Martinez: Okay. So I will serve as the alternate then.

[11531] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Okay. So, member Hu, can you rescind your motion? Or I can make a new motion. I mean, because when we did a motion, that was not very clear. So I'll move to appoint member Nguyen to be the second member on audit committee and member Martinez to be the alternate member. Can I get a second?

[11549] Terrence Grindall: I'll second that.

[11550] Bowen Zhang: OK. Given this is a board item, I guess, does student board member vote on this item?

[11560] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[11561] Bowen Zhang: OK. Student member Salemi, how do you vote? Yes. Member Martinez?

[11569] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[11570] Bowen Zhang: Member Guendou? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[11576] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[11576] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill? Yes. My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, everyone. Moving on to the next item. New Business 13.1. Resolution 2020.21-016, Purchase of Global Plasma Solutions Need for Bipolar Ionization Devices and Workflow Installations. May I get a motion to open up discussion?

[11603] Phuong Nguyen: I move.

[11606] SPEAKER_24: I'll second.

[11608] Bowen Zhang: Moved by member Nguyen, seconded by member Martinez. Superintendent Dr. Gutierrez, do we have any public comments on this item?

[11618] SPEAKER_37: No public comment.

[11620] Bowen Zhang: Okay, I'll yield the floor to Dr. Triplett.

[11623] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jun. So this is a follow-up to the initial purchase of some of this amazing technology. And so I'll turn it over to Ms.dela Cruz to explain more, and then I believe we may have some other guests who might be talking to this as well.

[11643] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Yes, Ms. Gutierrez, Mr. Caputo and Ms. Bazar may be here to be a guest. I'm not sure if both of them are here, but if you could please let them in. Okay, so if you recall back in November, the board approved the purchase of 160 ionization devices. We also had a presentation from the manufacturer's rep, and we had indicated that there were an additional about 350 or so devices that we still had to purchase because the plan was to install these devices at all of the schools. So we initially purchased the 160 because it was just below the threshold of the purchasing limit that's allowed for us without having to go out to bid. And then we said we would pursue a way to purchase the others, whether we had to go out to bid or if there was an exemption. And so we were able to work with our legal team and the resolution that's attached explains the exemption and how we are allowed to purchase the rest of the ionization units. Right now, we're estimating that we're going to need another 396 because we need a total of 556. and that's so we can install them in all of the HVAC units throughout the district. And the installation is also included as part of the resolution. We went out and got quotes for installing the 160 devices, because initially we thought our maintenance team would be able to do it, but it really is way beyond their ability to install these devices. We're recommending that the resolution is approved based on the additional devices that we need to purchase and the reasons that are outlined in the resolution that allows us to buy these devices plus the installation. And we've attached the quotes from the contractor for the installation as well as the quote for the devices. And in total, we're looking at a fiscal impact of $271,000, which will be covered by the Federal CARES Act funds. Is there anything else, Mr. Caputo, that I missed?

[11814] SPEAKER_25: I believe you covered it very well. I do know that there were some questions and that we provided some answers for so if there are any other questions we're here to address them. We did engage with district council over the holidays and to evidence to him that the devices were vetted out through mechanical engineers and through our office and looking at other comparable products to determine the cost benefit on these given that these are all specialty items and they're a little bit different and we provided that supplemental information to the board I believe yesterday in response to some questions. And that, yes, we did bid the installation of the initial 160 when maintenance determined that they were unable to install them themselves. And we reached out to four contractors. Only two provided bids for it. The second bid was quite a bit higher than the first. It was 32,705 compared to the bid that we're recommending of 21,892. And the difference is about 137 apiece compared to 204 apiece. And so we will use that as a starting point to negotiate the installation of the balance of these units.

[11903] Bowen Zhang: Okay, with that, I'll be open for questions and discussions. Student member Salami, you have any questions? No questions. Okay, member Hill.

[11913] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so a couple questions. So since I wasn't a part of the original presentation and discussion. So was the installation of these really being driven by coven 19 and trying to improve air circulation in the schools.

[11927] SPEAKER_25: Yes, so in this case, it's not just air circulation. These purifiers, I'm going to be in simplistic terms, sheet ionization into the ductwork system that essentially separates the chemistry of the virus and effectively kills it and enlarges the particles so they're caught into the filters.

[11954] Aiden Hill: OK, because I guess my question, just to sort of net it out, is I think that as COVID-19 has hit, this is something that none of us have anticipated. And we've kind of taken, and I'm talking about our society as a whole, we've taken a kind of approach of throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. But my concern is on an ongoing basis, what are the implications of this? And so, number one, are all schools employing these, using these, or are we just one or what percentage? And then also, even though we're being able to fund this from temporary one-time money, For a one time installation. What's the ongoing cost and do we have estimates for maintenance, you know, what's the useful life. What's the replacement. And so, you know, I think we want to get an understanding of how necessary is it and what's the ongoing obligation.

[12018] SPEAKER_25: So these are self-cleaning, maintenance-free. They work on low voltage in the cases that we have. These are set up to where they can work from 24 volt up to 240. These will be hooked up essentially to low voltage, so there'll be very little energy draw. from them. It's very evolving technology in the sense that it's being used now for COVID, but they've tested this. They've gone through all the ATSM testings for other viruses. The presentation showed a lot of graphs and studies. It was introduced to us by the mechanical engineer. We did a presentation with the district and then the board separately from the manufacturer representative and it's part of the evolving studies that many districts are incorporating as well as businesses. Residences are putting them in their houses as well. The size and nature of the units vary based on, of course, the size and the airflow of the different types of mechanical units.

[12090] Aiden Hill: Do we have a sense, though, of useful life and replacement costs?

[12096] SPEAKER_25: They cost about five 24 a piece with the volume that the next purchase is they'll they're trending down to about 490 a piece. You can take them and use them into other device into other units if you decide to close a classroom and bring it into another classroom. So we're looking to be as frugal as we can in the spaces that will be utilized, because throughout the schools there are spaces that don't necessarily have students all the time or can be limited in schools that don't have, you know, enough population for every classroom. But I don't have at my fingertips, I could look it up online, but I don't have it on my fingertips right now. The anticipated longevity of these things, but they're part of research that universities are doing, states are doing, there's a lot of research done on these. And they also, like in the presentation, we heard that even with the forest fires that we've had, it is very effective in eliminating that smoke from classrooms. as well as, you know, many other things. The charts showed its effectiveness. I just don't recall the longevity, but I'm assuming like everything that we look at here, it's, you know, 10 to 15, 20 years. And it is part of our COVID preventiveness program. You know, we've been doing it in a couple of school districts. Other districts are doing it across. We first were trying to get some supplemental information out of Alameda. I know Lafayette School District's doing it. Sac City schools are using a similar product. It's becoming widespread, yes. It's part of things that are being done industry-wide.

[12214] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Any other questions from the board? Hey, I have a question regarding the first approval of the first 160 units. So apparently when we approved 160 units, we didn't really include the installation cost for that first 160 units. Is that correct?

[12236] SPEAKER_25: Yes, at that time we thought that the maintenance department had indicated that they could install these. The vendor, the manufacturer was going to send a rep out to instruct them on how to do it. But with reopening and all the other stuff on their plate, they just didn't feel that they had the bandwidth to do it. And as you know, the COVID readiness has been evolving and you know we're going to open in November and now we don't quite know when so with the urgency of being ready when we start looking at 596 of these or 556 of these it's well beyond their capacity to do it in a timely manner.

[12280] Bowen Zhang: Okay that's all my questions. If no other comments or questions.

[12287] Phuong Nguyen: I have one Okay, number one. So if we approve this tonight, what is the timeline that you anticipate that the vendor will be able to install these?

[12303] SPEAKER_25: So the contractor's on standby right now for the initial 160 that is already in the district's possession. And there's about a two-weekly time on the balance of these. And we'll be ready to have those installed as soon as we receive them.

[12322] SPEAKER_33: Thank you.

[12326] Bowen Zhang: Any other questions?

[12328] Terrence Grindall: Yes, just briefly, I just want to applaud staff for thinking about the safety of our students and being on top of this. So I appreciate it.

[12339] Aiden Hill: Any other questions? And just one last question. It sounds like, Mr. Caputo, what you're saying is that if we do install these, that because I think what we're talking about a total of roughly about 500 now, is that what we're

[12354] SPEAKER_25: Yes, and we can phase them a little bit. The district and I have been talking about, you know, really seeing how the districts, I mean we want to be, we want to be stand ready so we've even worked with the vendor that if for any reason we see that high school may be deferred out longer or may not reopen, then as long as they're not unpackaged, we can return them without a, they've waived the restocking fee, and we can order less and then buy more down the road if we need to.

[12387] Aiden Hill: And then if at some point we discover three years out or five years out, maybe some of them are failing earlier than we anticipated, or maybe there's better technology, or maybe we just don't think we need them, that we can disconnect them or choose not to use them. It's not going to affect the underlying infrastructure of our HVAC system, right?

[12413] SPEAKER_25: No, not at all. In fact, if we weren't doing this right now, just given COVID and not knowing what's coming next or how long this will really last, we would have, or the mechanical engineer would have recommended as we move forward with one of the next projects, replacement of HVAC units, that these are installed at the factory and come installed.

[12444] Bowen Zhang: Seeing no other questions, Ms. Guderios, can you repeat the motion?

[12450] SPEAKER_37: Yes, staff recommends approval of resolution 2020.21-016 for the purchase of Global Plasma Solutions needlepoint bipolar ionization units for district HVAC systems and award for installation. Motion made by Member Nguyen and seconded by Member Martinez.

[12472] Bowen Zhang: Student Member Salami, how do you vote? Yes. Member Martinez?

[12478] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[12479] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[12486] SPEAKER_33: Yes.

[12487] Bowen Zhang: My vote is also yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Next item 13.2, map making system proposal for the landscaping and irrigation project. Can I get a motion?

[12509] Leonor Rebosura: I'll move.

[12512] Elisa Martinez: I'll second. Sorry.

[12513] Bowen Zhang: Couldn't make my member wins. Second member Martinez. Miss Good areas. Do we have any public comments on this?

[12519] SPEAKER_37: Yes, we do. We have Cindy Parks. Um, and. She has been moved. Um so, Miss Parks, I believe you. Your

[12539] Cindy Parks: One of the sites is the district office. Let me remind the board, no district office projects can be charged to Measure G. At our December CBOC meeting, It was noted the project manager's fee for a project which included multiple sites included the district office was paid for with Measure G. The project manager is having to go back and note what portion of the fee was for the district office project. Then the business office has got to go back and make an adjustment. If you recall, one of the items in the fact findings and concerns from last year's annual report was an issue pertaining to recategorizing or retroactively transferring payments, which pose a challenge for oversight and risk of error. Please revise your motion stating any mapping fees for the district office are to be charged to a fund other than Measure G. Thank you very much.

[12591] Bowen Zhang: Do we have another speaker?

[12599] Nancy Thomas: That's it.

[12601] Bowen Zhang: OK. With that, I will yield the floor to Superintendent Triplett.

[12607] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jun. So I'll turn it over to Ms. Dela Cruz. And I know our guests, Mr. Caputo and Mr. Abasiar, could also speak a little bit in more detail about this agenda item. Ms. Dela Cruz?

[12623] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. The proposal here for map making systems is part of the landscaping and irrigation project. So as we are working on developing the drawings, the bid specs for the landscaping projects, we're finding that we don't have the drawings, the complete drawings for us in order to have a complete set of bid documents. So this proposal is for map making systems to do the surveys and create the CAD drawings and be able to incorporate them in our bid specs. Regarding the district office, it is our intent to not pay for that out of bond. So in terms of the budget source, yes, I see that we put measure G, it should be a combination Measure G and Fund 40, which is where we're paying for the district office portion of the landscaping project.

[12698] Bowen Zhang: With that, I'll open up for questions and comments. Student member Salemi, you have any questions?

[12706] SPEAKER_11: No questions. I conveyed a question earlier to Dr. Triplett before the meeting. Okay.

[12713] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez?

[12714] Elisa Martinez: I do not have any questions and thank you Ms.dela Cruz for clarifying the funding source. Thank you.

[12724] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel?

[12725] Terrence Grindall: I have no questions at this time.

[12729] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill?

[12731] Aiden Hill: So are we hiring somebody to create these maps? Is this what we're paying for? Are we buying the software and then we're going to do it ourselves?

[12741] Marie dela Cruz: We are, oh, sorry, go ahead, Ralph. It's a service, it's a contract with someone that's gonna create the maps.

[12748] SPEAKER_25: Okay. Yeah, like a specialized surveyor.

[12751] Aiden Hill: Okay. Thank you.

[12756] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen.

[12758] Phuong Nguyen: Just a quick question. In terms of on here, it says significant landscape elements. Does that include like parts of piping, and will they be tagging those as access?

[12773] SPEAKER_25: Yeah, curb heights, trees, fire hydrants, manholes, anything that's in the areas of the proposed scope of work. We scoured through the district drawings and we just couldn't find substantive information because there hasn't been a lot of work done in those areas. So even though the perimeters of the curbs are shown, not every, you know, power pole, light pole, fire hydrant is noted on the plan, so this is to physically go out and measure all those things, drain inlets, anything that's in that general area, so that it's just a way to avoid change orders later on in the construction process.

[12818] Phuong Nguyen: Okay, and that includes, that will also include irrigation piping and everything like that?

[12823] SPEAKER_25: Well, this is subsurface. We've already done some locations of that. We've done some exploratory work. That's part of the architects' work to go out there and dig things up and analyze that. So yeah, if there's like a manhole, they'll check that out, or a drain inlet, they'll show the depth or the curb heights and any pipes that go through the curbs.

[12849] Phuong Nguyen: And then lastly, will they be tagging Launch lat longs on these, um. On these elements so that you guys have location for the location and in terms of like maybe down the line, the district might want to, um, have the data for their if they decide to put it in a GIS system.

[12872] SPEAKER_25: Yeah, in fact, all of the, um. All of the plans and the maps, all of that will belong to the district in the end. So they'll have the electronic and the paper records of anything that they record. It'll be turned over to the district, as well as it'll be part of the bid plans.

[12889] Phuong Nguyen: Great. Thank you.

[12892] Bowen Zhang: I actually have some questions regarding the funding source. I believe Fund 40 is the Russian fund, right, for Mrs. Del Cruz. And that's for capital outlay and capital improvement, right?

[12904] Marie dela Cruz: Right. Yes, for facility improvements.

[12910] Bowen Zhang: And this CAD system, the mapping and drawing the CAD, does that really fall into a capital improvement and only?

[12918] Marie dela Cruz: Well, it's part of the entire project, so we can attach it to the project cost. The total project costs.

[12929] SPEAKER_25: Typically, they're hard and soft costs. It's an element of what's required in order to do the capital improvements.

[12935] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, so it's similar to architect fees. If we needed architects, we would also include that as part of the total project costs.

[12944] Bowen Zhang: So for the total cost of $14,900, what portion of that will be paid by the Russian fund?

[12955] Marie dela Cruz: Well, proportionately, it's about three acres. So we'd have to look at the portion, three acres out of 17 total.

[12965] Bowen Zhang: I see, I see.

[12966] Marie dela Cruz: That's how we would do it, just a proportionate share.

[12970] Bowen Zhang: Okay, okay, I see. Okay, that's all my questions. Any other questions for other board members? Seeing none, given the motion is to approve using, using the entire, using, what do you call that? The entire fund, Fund 21, Measure G, Measure G to pay for, and then we also get a conclusion about 3 17th of the fund will be paid by Russian Fund 40. So can we revise the motion by member, Member Nguyen, you made a motion. Do you want to modify your motion?

[13020] Phuong Nguyen: I will rescind my previous motion and state a new motion.

[13026] Elisa Martinez: I will rescind my second.

[13030] Phuong Nguyen: I move to approve the mapmaking system proposal for landscaping at Newark Asian Project from budget source fund 21 and fund 40.

[13046] Elisa Martinez: I'll second that.

[13047] Bowen Zhang: Okay, moved by Member Nguyen, seconded by Member Martinez. Student Member Salami, how do you vote?

[13054] SPEAKER_11: Yes.

[13056] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez?

[13058] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[13059] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[13065] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[13066] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. And thank you, Mr. Caputo, for answering questions for both of the two items we discussed above. Thank you very much.

[13077] SPEAKER_37: I'm sorry to interrupt. Member Nguyen, you said the last, the ending of your motion was budget source?

[13084] Bowen Zhang: Fund 40.

[13086] Phuong Nguyen: Budget source, Fund 21 and Fund 40.

[13091] Maria Huffer: Thank you. Okay, thank you.

[13093] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Moving on to the next item, 13.3, 2020 to 2021 Local Control Accountability Plan, LCAP Advisory Committee. May I get a motion to start discussion?

[13110] SPEAKER_11: I move to start discussion.

[13113] Bowen Zhang: I'll second it. Moved by Student Member Salami, seconded by me. Ms. Gutierrez, do we have any public comments for this item? Okay. Yield the floor to Dr. Triplett.

[13128] Mark Triplett: Thank you President Jun. So, Mr Cruz can feel free to chime in, but essentially this is the local control accountability plan advisory committee, and we already have members for this committee for this year. And what we're proposing is that the. that, sorry, for the previous year, what we're proposing is that these same members continue on, given COVID and the distance, the virtual setting that we're in, the challenge of going through votes at every school is a little bit prohibitive. So what we did was we checked in with all of the current committee members who all said that, and their schools, who all concurred that they were willing and interested in continuing in this capacity. I will note that there are two people on the committee that we are still waiting to confirm with. So that's noted on the item. And if they were to decline, then we would bring back two new members or one depending on the situation for this board to approve.

[13206] Bowen Zhang: Okay, I'll open up to questions and comments from the board. Student members, Salami, do you have any questions?

[13214] SPEAKER_11: No questions, but I would like to point out that there are student representatives, and I don't know if that's happened before, but I just wanted to point that out. I thought that was cool to start that normalcy of having students and things like this, even though it is uncharted water, we hope to be active. Okay, yeah.

[13234] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Any other board members?

[13241] Elisa Martinez: No questions.

[13242] Bowen Zhang: Seeing none, Ms. Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[13249] SPEAKER_37: The administration recommends the membership to approve as presented, to be approved as presented. Motion made by Member Salami and seconded by President Zhang.

[13261] Bowen Zhang: Student Member Salami, how do you vote? Yes. Member Martinez?

[13268] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[13270] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[13276] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[13278] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously, and congratulations to the member Salami. Hope this will be a rewarding experience for you. Thank you. Moving on to the next item, 13.4, new secondary courses. May I get a motion?

[13303] SPEAKER_11: I move.

[13306] Bowen Zhang: I will second the approval of the new courses, a motion made by Student Member Salami, seconded by me. Ms. Guderius, any public comments?

[13317] SPEAKER_37: Yes, and sorry, was the motion by Member Salami?

[13321] Bowen Zhang: Yes, by Student Member Salami, seconded by me. Thank you.

[13325] SPEAKER_37: And we do have requests for one speaker, but I don't believe he's on. Give me one second. Um, there was a request by, um, Sean and breezy and he's currently not, um, not on the waiting room, so we can move on.

[13341] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Superintendent triplet

[13346] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chun. I believe we do have Principal Rangel here as well, who's happy to answer any questions. But I will start just by saying, so we have a significant amount of courses. We're really excited about the fact that we've done a lot of work to identify some courses that would be really supportive of our young people, some courses that are supporting really higher level thinking and are really courses that set students up for success in college and careers. And then also courses that are really addressing some of the needs that we're hearing from our students and that we're seeing in some of the student data. In particular, the course in a freshman seminar course is something we're really excited about because what we've seen in the data prior years, and this is indicative of other districts as well, is some of our freshmen classes tend to be the students that struggle the most in high school. And I think it's indicative of entering a new system ninth grade lot of different expectations and new environment and across all high schools in the country really this is a this is a trend that students, we see an increase in D's and F's. in the freshman year. And so one of the courses in particular is designed to specifically support students as they make that transition into ninth grade and really address that data by giving them some of the social emotional skills and competencies, giving them the teaching study habits, as well as some of the foundational pieces that are really important for success in high school. One thing that I think has been a misunderstanding by some people, so just want to clarify it right off the bat, is by getting courses approved, it does not mean necessarily that all of these courses will be added to, that they will actually become sections in the school. The intention here is to create more offerings, and then we see what students are interested in, and then from that, we create the master schedule. And I know Ms. Rangel can speak more to that, but this is not a reflection of us increasing our FTE, for example. This is really a reflection of us increasing the opportunities and offerings that students have and giving them the choice of what's going to be best for them. Did I steal your words, Principal Ranga?

[13516] Vicenta Ditto: Stole my thunder, but I'm happy to address the board. Good evening, Board President Zhang, Board Members, Superintendent Triplett, and Executive Cabinet. Thank you for the opportunity to answer questions related to the new courses being proposed this evening. With the systemic inequities and the pandemic, the state recommends that it is more important than ever to maximize student engagement and interest in these courses. So in 2019, our high school classes were more filled than in any prior year based on our master schedule focus to focus it around student interest. So we are committed to offer courses that meet student needs and interests. If we can't appropriately fill the course, just as a superintendent triplet stated, it will not be offered, but we want at minimum to offer the opportunity to our students to have access to these classes. Some of these courses are in alignment with our goals to have more equitable access, be student-centered, meet potential upcoming state mandates, and meet the communication needs and expectations that we've heard from our parents and students. So I'm happy to offer any clarifications needed around any of these courses.

[13587] Bowen Zhang: Any questions from the board? I see student member Salemi. Go ahead.

[13593] SPEAKER_11: No question, just comment. I want to say seeing this agenda item earlier this week made me ecstatic and I couldn't wait for us to consider it. I just want to say that it is truly hard work like this that is going to make huge impacts for our students and make them more equipped and successful in their educational journeys. And I know it was people here at the district, but also many teachers that put a lot of effort and hard work into advocating for some of these new courses. especially the music courses. I know there was a lot of work done there. And to me, with the potential addition of these wide variety of courses, we could really begin to create a robust music program at the high school. And it is something like this, which makes our students competitive. But most importantly, there were a whole lot of students who've been asking for these courses for so long, for example, the Ethnic Studies course. And it's courses like that that drive up attendance, motivation, and graduation rates. it is gonna give students the opportunity to learn about themselves and their history and help our society become more just. And when we look at the freshman studies course, that is something that I have even mentioned before to Dr. Triplett, and I see a lot of potential for that. So this is a great example of the many things that we could potentially start offering to our students.

[13669] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Member Hill.

[13673] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so I guess my question is, you know, at Newark Memorial a couple of years ago, you know, we had an issue with the master schedule and the mismanagement of the master schedule. And it resulted in all sorts of issues, ultimately the firing of the principal, the resignation of board members, and then the ultimately the leaving of the superintendent. And so that's how serious, I mean, because these, you know, the master schedule, right, is ultimately what drives you know, basically costs. And I guess the question is, as I understand, Dr. Tripp, at your point, that just because we add a course, it doesn't necessarily mean that we actually fill the class, but given the fact that we don't really have, and I'm not gonna speak here, I'm really asking a question, but in many areas, we do not have well-documented procedures and protocols. What are the safeguards and the checks and balances prevent a future issue around master scheduling if we were going to approve this.

[13746] Mark Triplett: Thank you, Member Hill. Are you referring to if, for example, if we were under enrolled in a class and therefore we're utilizing FTE? Correct. Yeah. Ms. Rangel, do you want to speak a little bit to the master scheduling process?

[13766] SPEAKER_17: Yes, the master scheduling process is quite a process, but it is based on student interest.

[13771] Vicenta Ditto: So it is an early process as well in order to make good decisions. So we do base all of our courses on what the students enroll in. So enrollment starts in the upcoming weeks, but basically we take those numbers and align them to, you know, for instance, let me just use algebra one. So if we have students interested or need 250 students interested in that course, then we will need to align it with how many courses, how many sections we will need. And then from there, it's just balances, right? Double verifying what the amount of courses that need and then the FTE we currently have. In some cases, you know, if there's less of an interest in AP chemistry one year, we may hold off and offer it the following year. But I am happy to bring back my staff to discuss how we do master scheduling in depth, because it is quite a process.

[13826] Aiden Hill: Yeah. And my, you know, concern is that, you know, we've got, I mean, for lack of a better term, we've got a lot of tribal knowledge that operates. And tribal knowledge gets you in trouble. And so where I think that we really need, and so my question is, is that if we had a documented and good process before, why did we have a master schedule mishap, a major mishap? And so why did that happen before? And if it did, if there were things that were not documented, what are the things that have been documented now? What's the process that's in place that's going to prevent this from happening again? Because we know it already happened. And we can't rely on just people's knowledge. We need to rely on a documented process.

[13874] Mark Triplett: Yeah, if I may, I appreciate the concern. And we definitely want to ensure that we don't we don't overstaff misuse funds in any way. I believe last year, we had classes full to greater capacity than than been in recent memory. I don't think, I know neither myself and I don't believe Ms. Rangel was present in the leadership position during the time that you're referring to, but I feel really confident about how things went last year. and the systems that are in place right now. And it sounds like Mr. Rangel, you and your team are more than willing to come and share with the board some of the master scheduling processes if the board is interested.

[13926] Aiden Hill: But what I'm driving at Dr. Triplett, and I think that member Martinez might echo it given her background, is that one of the things that you learn in you know, businesses that are very process-oriented, is that you can't rely on human beings and their individual judgments because they are fallible. What you need to rely on is documented processes. So that's how you actually make sure that there is a repetitive and repeatable process. And so we don't want to rely on the fact that You know, maybe we've got a good couple of people now who are making decisions, but then maybe a month from now, a week, you know, two months from now, a year from now, they disappear. And then we get some people that are less capable and then a whole bunch of bad decisions are made. So, because that's how we're going to get out of control. So, my sense is that we really need to have a process to make sure that we have this under control and it's documented.

[13986] Mark Triplett: Yeah, um, my my sense is we have both good people and a good process. Um, and um, we're happy to bring that to the board if the board wishes to better understand what that process looks like.

[13999] Elisa Martinez: Yeah, um, president martinez. Um, um, so member hill, thank you. Um, I think, so first of all, Ms. Rangel, thank you, and Superintendent for bringing this forward. I think this is, you know, this is the kind of conversation we should be having to remember Salemi's point, which is, hey, okay, what are we thinking about? What else are we gonna be bringing to the table? I think my concern is, and you stated it, Member Hill, is this is a part of a broader, right, of a broader thing. And I don't have all the history of when all the other issues happen, but I do know that in the two years that I've been here, I still haven't seen a master schedule. We've asked for it, that whether it's the process or, hey, here's what it looks like. Here's our review of the master schedule. Here's how we're coming up with this new menu of potential courses. So I want to make sure that absolutely I want to support that we are looking at whether it's improving, existing, bringing new opportunities for our students. However, it does feel piecemeal. I was in a Mission Valley ROP meeting the other day, and I had some questions about the courses. And the other two sister sites, New Haven and Fremont, said, well, that's what you talk about every year when the master schedule comes to you, to the board for approval. I said, well, that doesn't happen in Newark. At least I don't know when the last time that happened was, right? So I think that is the discomfort that I have at this point. So it's always a question of timing, right? How critical is this for us to give you the go ahead right now? How quickly can we get a view of here's what the master schedule is, Ms. Rangel and team, did an evaluation of the gaps, and here's what we're bringing forward as a potential other sites. I have no idea how much of a lift that is, but that's something we just don't see in Newark. And that is part of the setting up the process that's repeatable every year and can be improved upon. So that's kind of my initial feedback.

[14144] Mark Triplett: Thank you, Member Martinez. Just to be clear for the board, the courses being introduced, they are not the master schedule. So the master schedule is created once we have the courses are for a course catalog. Yes. Select courses. And then from that selection, the school team builds the master schedule.

[14167] Elisa Martinez: Absolutely. Yes. And there's two. There's the two components. Absolutely. we don't see anything, right? And hence this whole, if we look at the goals and objectives for you this year was, you know, setting up the graduate profile so that we could then have at least our true north, our anchors to say, hey, are we developing the course catalogs or the curriculum, you know, that are going to be able to shape our students and support them in those paths. So we don't see any of it as superintendent. And I know, you know, you're still relatively new, Um, but that is an ask. So, you know, I would like to take up, uh, Miss Rangel on, on, on, um, the offer to help us understand here is the process and here's how we're getting to, to this point.

[14216] Vicenta Ditto: And I just want to say, we're happy to absolutely come back and discuss that. We follow a calendar to a T, um, and that calendar has been at Newark Memorial for a long time. But of course we are also revamping. We are retraining department heads. We're working with them closely. and we're also making it a transparent process. So at the beginning of this year, we made sure to meet with our NCA partners so that they can see why we made the decisions we made. This way everyone's on board. So we're happy to do the same for the board.

[14247] Bowen Zhang: Any other questions from board members?

[14251] Phuong Nguyen: I have a question. So part of the process, putting this onto the course catalog and asking us to approve it, I think that part of the process should already have student input. They should already be reached out to or surveyed prior to you guys putting them onto the catalog to make them available in order for you guys to have a more I guess I wouldn't say accurate number but close to accurate number of how many students are going to be enrolling in those in these additional courses that we put out and that it would be better for You guys and probably easier for you guys to put the master schedule together. But again, I do have reservations and I I am all for adding these additional classes, but I would like to us to be able to finish up identifying the graduate profile, having maybe a study session on how the master schedule is put together in order for us to feel comfortable approving these additional courses moving forward for the students. I 100% agree that we do need to add more music, art, and into our curriculum, and definitely ethnic studies. But the process has to be I think the process just needs to be established. And right now, it really isn't. And I just feel like we have so many courses that we are putting out there. And some of them are not fully And you don't have the full enrollment in some of the courses in prior years. So I think there needs to be a better gauge on that process, if that makes sense.

[14372] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, Member Nguyen. I think Ms. Rungeld can speak a little bit more to it, but I know that there was student input up until this point regarding the course offerings. Board Member Salemi spoke to it a little bit, but I can speak as an example with the computer science A course. That was one that we did a survey of students to see was their general interest enough to even create this course offering. With the understanding that, of course, then we're going to do the same process once it's on the course catalog is then then we're going to actually see who truly wants to enroll. But some of that student input was part of the process and continues to be. Did you want to speak any more to that, Principal Rangel?

[14429] Vicenta Ditto: Yes. We work with a group called Equal Opportunity Schools, really trying to focus on the inequities and address them. And all students were provided a survey to fill out to really engage their interest in courses. So that is one way that we made these decisions to offer these specific AP courses. In addition, we currently have 103 students enrolled in our AP Computer Science A program, 54 of which are 10th and 11th graders. So we can only assume that they will also want to take AP Computer Science Principles next, which is the reason why we have that on the books. In addition to the PLTW course, which is enrolled in, we have about 60 students enrolled. So some of these courses are, well, most of the courses are student-driven based on that survey and based on our work with Equal Opportunity Schools.

[14481] SPEAKER_11: And if I could just add, maybe as a student, both of the things that Ms. Rangel mentioned, the survey, that was something that everyone took and it was an effort on Monday that students had to take that as a part of their instruction on that day. and I'm in computer science and that was months-long conversations and we did have a lot of surveys, conversations, and things like that. So in terms of it being student-driven or not, it is definitely student-driven.

[14511] Phuong Nguyen: Okay, so my question on the AP Computer Science, why is the course only offering Java programming and not Python?

[14522] Bowen Zhang: Oh, I think that's the requirement of the college for, I actually did the research. That's not something we can decide.

[14528] Vicenta Ditto: All AP courses are extremely scripted, and we stick to them to a T. So that's just part of that offering.

[14537] Phuong Nguyen: All right.

[14538] Vicenta Ditto: But I do want to say that parent and student interest has been strong in developing our 21st century technology skills. So you're right, Java and Python are things we hear common in our communications with our students.

[14555] Elisa Martinez: But sorry, Superintendent, but I think that this conversation is speaking to the need for the board to understand more, because there's clearly communication happening, and none of us know anything about it. So if anybody asks us a question, hey, how did we come to here? What's the evolution of? How are you meeting? Well, I'll speak for myself. I would not be able to say anything about it. So it's a very uncomfortable place to be.

[14588] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you. And I appreciate all of you pushing us to better understand the process. So it seems like it would be really helpful to everybody for us to bring that back and talk through what is the trajectory. Because it's a lot of work, and it spans over the whole year cycle. And so it sounds like it would be a great either study session or a staff report

[14617] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I think my comments on this is that the other board members are looking for process, controlling, doing a better job on master schedule. I'm not a very processed person, but I'm an institutionalist. What I'm looking at is the guidelines, precedents, and protocols. But the end result won't achieve the same. We're a district of rules and orders, not a district of men. We shouldn't depend on an individual's talent or whether you make a good hire to make a good master schedule. It should be, regardless who's in that position, the master schedule is properly followed with the guidelines so we don't have the problem that we had a couple years ago at high school. So yeah, I asked today by reading and listening to other board members, I think we're looking for a study session with staff report on the guidelines of master scheduling before we can vote on offering the new course catalogs to the high school. And Member Hill, I see you raise your hand again.

[14677] Aiden Hill: Yes. Yeah. And just to echo Dr. Triplett and Ms. Rangel, I think we're all really supportive of you coming up. I mean, we want to improve the curriculum. I mean, that's our goal. We don't want to rush into it. And we want to make smart decisions, sustainable decisions. And one other thing, as you go back and work together, I think we all want to be in the boat together And I think that, you know, I'd seen some, you know, some concerns that were raised by NTA and Mr. Abruzzi that, you know, teachers hadn't been fully, you know, kind of involved in the process. And so I think we want to get them involved and we're all kind of, you know, rowing in the same direction. And so if you could maybe get them, you know, more involved in this second round, and then we all come back, I think that we'll probably be much in a much better position to make a decision.

[14727] Mark Triplett: Just to be clear, teachers have absolutely been involved from the very beginning. So I do take issue with what our NTA president mentioned earlier, and we're happy to articulate how that involvement has looked. But I just want to also understand what President Zheng was saying, because what I was hearing is that it would be really good to have a study session around the master scheduling process. The courses in front of us right now is not the master scheduling process. And we do have urgency around approving these courses in order to get them on the course catalog so that we can be following the timeline and process that is already created. So if the board is thinking not to approve courses which aren't actually related to the master scheduling process, I just want to make sure that the board is aware that that delays the opportunity to create a course catalog, offer it to families and students, and it puts us in a really challenging situation in terms of following our institutional and the processes that we have in place already.

[14806] Elisa Martinez: if I may, President Zhang, Superintendent, I think we get it. We get it that we're talking about course catalog, and eventually that's going to lead, right, to the master schedule, which absolutely impacts the number of sections, our FTE count, you know, the nuts and bolts, right? But I think that, you know, we know there's urgency. Principal Rangel talked about the timeline and the sequence. Can we do a staff report then at the next meeting, or can you all do, and just walk us through, here is this timeline, here is the sequence of events that we are following. And by the way, here's what we've done, and here's who's been part of the process. Because it's not just for us, it's just for our community as well to make sure everybody understands. I think that, at least for me, speaking for myself, will get me much more comfortable with saying, yep, got it. Let's move on. Let's get these on the catalog. Next is let's talk about how we're going to load the classes. I think it's maybe a two-step thing. Is that something we could do?

[14876] Mark Triplett: I think we could, we can come with a presentation around the master scheduling process. I think that we are up against deadlines related to course catalog and course approval. Principal Rangel, feel free to chime in. But my understanding is that waiting two weeks would significantly delay us and it would create a lot of frustration on the part of families and students who then are delayed in being able to see what the offerings are. Principal Rangel, feel free to chime in.

[14917] Vicenta Ditto: Yes, we intend to start going into eighth grade classes in the next two weeks, which is before the board meeting, the next board meeting. So the course catalog needs to be revised, printed, and available to families before we even do that. So that is why it's so effective. But again, I just want to state that these courses are just simply an opportunity. It doesn't mean they will necessarily be offered, so.

[14943] Bowen Zhang: OK, member Brunel.

[14947] Terrence Grindall: is understanding that the course catalog is not the master schedule. And I echo the concerns of my other board members that we want an update. We want to understand the master scheduling process. I do believe we should move forward with these course catalogs at this point. So that's my opinion.

[14967] Aiden Hill: Member Hill? Yeah, I mean, the process just feels too rushed to me. And I don't get that. Since I haven't been through the process, right, so I can't really, I don't have, what's the right term? I don't understand how we've arrived at where we've arrived. And I don't understand, okay, here's the universe of courses that we're potentially looking at adding. Here's the criteria for evaluating which ones we're going to pick. And most importantly, how are we going to, you know, tie this to our California school dashboard? So which ones are really, really going to move the needle? Because that's ultimately what's driving part of our enrollment issue. And so I just feel like it's really rushed, and I think that we should take a deep breath and take a step back, and that it's better to make an informed decision than a rushed decision.

[15023] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, I think you have some additional comment.

[15028] Elisa Martinez: No, I was just going to say a little bit of a pet peeve of mine that, you know, to hear that. Well, if we don't vote on it right now, it's it's going to, you know, derail everything. Then the question is, why did it get why is it coming to us so late, especially if there is a timeline? But I get it. So if we needed to, and if it's really gonna derail everything, I'm willing to support. We always have the alternative of a special meeting. It really though is, Superintendent, the sense of if we have these processes, why are we not getting a chance to think about it or to review and discuss before we have to vote? That's been part of the process that we've been trying to get away from. is an item being presented and that we absolutely have to vote on it because it's just gonna blow up if we don't. So that is, and I say that, you know, in my long history of two years, that, you know, those, unless it's really something that was not expected, it's hard for me to buy into the, if we don't vote on it tonight, it's a big game changer, right? Again, I'm willing to support it if it really is going to derail the entire schedule for the next month of communication. But if, you know, so I guess that's what I'll say. I'll support the majority of my fellow board members.

[15124] Bowen Zhang: As a board president, I want to ask the board, would the board be comfortable voting on this today with the promise that in February the 4th, the next board meeting, Although we don't have a scheduled study session on that board meeting, but with the promise that we will have a study session on the master scheduling, will the board be comfortable voting on this tonight? If there is a promise that the next board meeting, we will add a study session on master scheduling. Because I do see a need for board member that, I mean, urgency and the yearning for other board members that really want to understand how the master scheduling has been done. in our district.

[15164] Aiden Hill: I'm not comfortable.

[15169] Bowen Zhang: Even even with knowing that the next next I mean superintendent speaking of logistic would it be possible to add a study session on master scheduling and subsequent board meeting on February the 4th?

[15180] Elisa Martinez: And remember I'm sorry and remember it's two things because Superintendent has been very clear to there's master schedule and there's course catalog. We're talking about courses for the course catalog right now.

[15193] Aiden Hill: I'm not even comfortable that we've picked the right courses. We haven't been a part of that process and I don't see how it ties to the California School Dashboard. So, you know, so we're starting to make commitments right now. I mean, so, yeah, I mean, I just, and like you were saying, Member Martinez, right, it's always, you know, this sort of rush. And in my experience, usually no good decision is rushed.

[15223] Bowen Zhang: Superintendent Tribble, when it comes to the logistics of this, Because my main concern is, I think the course catalog, that part is fine, because if you are not going to be, if you are going to follow a strict procedure about deciding whether to offer that class in the following semester, only after you follow procedure and you see demand from the students, and you are able to hire the right teacher for that one, that's how the course, the course offering is materialized. So my, my, my, my stick point is, is the master's kind of how you go from, from course catalog to offering this course in the following school year. So I guess, Pengfei Xue, Jr. : Speaking of logistics, so that as a result, the master scheduling procedure like not that's not creating additional problem like we did a couple years of that will be my main sticking point so superintendent trip. I would like to ask you about them just logistic and the possibility of having a study session in the on the February 4 meeting.

[15292] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, President Martinez. Sorry, President Jeon. Yeah, I believe we can have a study session on the 4th. Ms. Gutierrez, correct me if I'm forgetting something. And that it could be about the master scheduling process, if that's what you want to see. Or it could be about the course catalog and the development of the course catalog. I think either one of those is possible.

[15326] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Member Nguyen, are you comfortable with moving our voting on this item and with the promise that the next because the original February 4 board meeting should have no study session but we are requesting an add-on study session on February 4 specifically on course catalog and master scan, whatever we want to decide. Are you comfortable voting on this? Tonight was the promise that there will be a study session the next board meeting.

[15360] Phuong Nguyen: And I'll be honest, initially I'm not, but I, cause I, you know, like all this additional information, we're having this discussion now. I am in the same mindset as member Martinez in terms of that, you know, we tend to get information or things that we need to approve always kind of last minute. And, and this in light of everything, I mean, generally all of us are pretty new to the board and, and for us not knowing the processes of how catalogs are put together and how it determines the master schedule. I think that's so important to us and I think all of us want to know, you know, the enrollment numbers for each of the classes, what was offered last year versus how they're going to be projected for next year. I think those are all things that we look forward to. in the last couple of years, which we haven't been, because we've been dealing with a lot of financial stuff, issues in the district. And for this to come up, I was certainly very excited to see all of this stuff. But to answer your question, because I'm being long-winded, yes, I'm OK with us voting on this tonight, and we'll support it if we have a study session on the 4th.

[15438] Bowen Zhang: OK. Because for me, I think the promise of February 4th study session, whether it's on course catalog or on master scheduling, I think that's a reasonable compromise that I was seeking. I guess the thing is, do we want to have just master scheduling study session for February 4th, or we want to divide it half-half, 30 minutes for course catalog, 30 minutes for how we do master scheduling? Member Martinez, go ahead.

[15473] Elisa Martinez: I was going to propose, I wouldn't want to split it half and half because I think master scheduling kind of deserves its own time. Perhaps, maybe even superintendent, just maybe just a staff report on that, that, that, you know, Principal Rangel can, where you talk about this process that is followed and who you're partnering with him. Because I don't think it has to be this really long, you know, it's just, we just don't know, right, how you how we got here to give us that sense of comfort. So I would suggest that the study session, I actually, I think we, my proposal would be that we would be 100% focused on master schedule, because that, yeah.

[15514] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so yeah, so given, like I said, the sticking point is not offering class, it's offering class, and it's not putting the class in the catalog, it's offering class. We're only at 15 students there, and you need to hire a new FTE to do that. So I would also be comfortable supporting, I still want a study session, a study session on master's scheduling on February the 4th. Would the staff be comfortable doing that, Superintendent Triplett, on February the 4th?

[15544] Mark Triplett: Yeah, I think we can do that. And Principal Rangel, feel free to chime in if that does not seem doable in such a short, short time frame, because we will be relying on your team.

[15557] Vicenta Ditto: Yeah, we'd be happy to return and do that.

[15560] Bowen Zhang: On February the 4th.

[15562] Vicenta Ditto: On February the 4th, you have my commitment.

[15564] Bowen Zhang: Okay, thank you. So I guess, Miss, so we have this compromise and majority of the board is comfortable moving forward with this. So Ms. Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[15582] SPEAKER_37: I just wanted to note that it has been noted that member Zhang has asked for a study session on February 4th on the master schedule. And the motion in order to take a vote on this item is, the board will take a vote to approve the new courses. Motion made by... Oh, sorry, I apologize. Motion made by Member Salami and second by Member Zhang.

[15616] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Student Member Salami, how do you vote?

[15620] SPEAKER_11: Yes.

[15622] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez? Member Martinez, I think you were on mute. Member Martinez?

[15632] Elisa Martinez: Sorry, sorry, I thought, yes.

[15636] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel? Yes. Member Hill?

[15640] Aiden Hill: Nothing personal, but I feel it's too rushed, no. Member Nguyen?

[15645] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[15646] Bowen Zhang: And my vote is yes as well. Do we have the board up? I don't see the, I don't see the board having the pop-up for voting.

[15659] SPEAKER_37: I did send it. Did some of you receive it? Nobody received it? I did send it and I can manually input it based on your votes. Did you want to see it or?

[15674] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I think that's fine. So we can move on. Okay. Motion carries with four ayes and one no. And member Hill voted no. And I think he explained his no vote during the discussion already. Thank you. moving on to the next item is consent calendar personnel items where student members don't vote before we vote on that i would want i would like to pull item 14.1 personnel report i'm sorry president zhang if you can give me a second um before you proceed the i i think um board docs did not

[15715] SPEAKER_37: go through because it might have logged me out. So if you give me Yeah, if you give me a just give me a one quick minute.

[15725] Bowen Zhang: Oh, and by the way, thank you, Mrs. run hell for this for the discussion with us.

[15732] Vicenta Ditto: No problem. I appreciate the opportunity.

[15736] Aiden Hill: Thank you. Thank you.

[15757] SPEAKER_37: Okay, yeah, I did log me out. So one second, I'm recording the votes. And we are able to move on. So now we are on consent agenda items. I do want to note for you, President Hsiang, that we do have comments on 14.1 and 14.5.

[15787] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so I will pull 14.1 and item 14.5, job description to immersion elementary teacher off the consent calendar. Any other board member that want additional discussion on other items so we can pull? Seeing none, may I get a motion to approve consent calendar 14.2 through 14.4?

[15817] Penny DeLeon: Oh, I would like to- Oh, go ahead. Go ahead.

[15823] Terrence Grindall: Thanks. I will move the consent calendar without the two items that were removed.

[15831] SPEAKER_38: Can I get a second?

[15833] Elisa Martinez: I'll second.

[15835] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by member Guendel, seconded by member Martinez.

[15839] Aiden Hill: Sorry, sorry, point of clarification here. So we're removing which items?

[15845] Bowen Zhang: No, we're not removing, we're pulling 14.1 and 14.5 out of the consent vote. So we'll discuss them individually and call individual vote on those items. Okay, okay, thank you. Seeing no other board member want to have any additional discussion on 14.2 to 14.4. As a result, I call for a bulk vote from 14.2 to 14.4. Motion made by member Grindel and seconded by member Martinez.

[15872] Aiden Hill: Personnel. Sorry. Yeah. Can you give me a minute? I just want to look at this. Sorry.

[15879] Bowen Zhang: Okay.

[15890] Aiden Hill: And I'm sorry, President Zhang. So which ones are you pulling again?

[15894] Bowen Zhang: 14.1 and 14.5. We will be discussing those two items individually.

[15901] Aiden Hill: Okay, but you're saying we're gonna approve 14.2, 14.3, 14.4? That's correct. Okay, I'm good now, yep.

[15911] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15913] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[15914] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundell? Yes. Member Hill?

[15918] Aiden Hill: Yes.

[15919] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen?

[15923] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[15924] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motions carries unanimously for 14.2 and 14.4. to 14.4. Coming back to item 14.1 personnel report, Ms. Gutierrez, can we bring in our speakers?

[15940] SPEAKER_37: Yes, Mr. Rose, for 14.1, we have, sorry, let me look at the name. It's a little bit different. Ken White, please.

[15953] Bowen Zhang: Yes. Oh, actually, I forgot we should, I always should ask for a motion on 14.1. Can I get a motion to approve the personnel report as presented?

[15966] SPEAKER_24: I move.

[15966] Phuong Nguyen: I'll second.

[15970] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Martinez, seconded by Member Nguyen. And I guess, Mr. White, you can go ahead. Thank you.

[15979] SPEAKER_27: Members of the board, my name is Ken White. I'm an attorney, a former federal prosecutor, and for the last 20 years, a criminal defense attorney and litigator. One of my specialties is government code section 1090, the provision I know you're familiar with that prohibits people serving the public from being financially interested in contracts. I want to comment today about a matter on 14.1, and that specifically is the rehiring of Ms. Lucia Gutierrez. When the board hired Ms. Gutierrez to an executive position after she had been a board member, with respect, that violated 1090. The board cannot evade 1090 by having someone resign and then hiring them after they've resigned to a paid position. That's very clear from California law, from court cases, from the Attorney General and the Fair Political Practices Commission. Now it appears the board thinks that it can cure this violation of the statute by having her resign again from the executive position and then rehiring her. That is incorrect. And respectfully, if someone has advised you that that is a safe maneuver, it is not. And I say that with the confidence of 20 years practicing cases with 1090 and taking them all the way to the California Supreme Court. California law is very clear that you cannot hire a member of a body such as yours, just by having them resign and then appointing them to the position. Even with the distance of a few months, that is what you're doing here. This is not a moral judgment or a judgment on character at all. Section 1090 is very unforgiving and many think unfair. And I have represented people who have been charged with criminal violations of 1090, even though they got advice, bad advice, from counsel for their boards that this was permitted or not a 1090 violation. If you have gotten legal advice that this is safe, what you're about to do, I'm here to tell you that is bad advice. Could it perhaps pass muster? Maybe, but it is at a minimum legally quite dangerous. And you should bear in mind that for the last three years, California law has made aiding and abetting a 1090 violation by someone else a criminal violation. I respectfully submit that you are, I hope unwittingly participating in a violation of the law. I know you don't want to do that and you don't want to serve as that example. I urge you respectfully to reconsider. Thank you.

[16151] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Do we have any other speakers?

[16157] SPEAKER_37: Not on this item.

[16158] Bowen Zhang: OK. Superintendent Dr. Triplett, I will yield the floor to you.

[16164] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jun. So I appreciate you pulling this item just to have clarity, because I recognize that there is one particular personnel line on there that the public may have questions about. So tonight's personnel report does include the appointment of the executive assistant to the superintendent. And as you may remember, the board approved the appointment of this position last summer. However, several months later, the district received a complaint about the appointment. While the district believes the complaint's allegations were without merit, to eliminate any questions going forward and the need to expend additional district resources on the complaint, the district conducted a subsequent and separate appointment process, which has resulted in the recommended appointment included in tonight's item.

[16226] Bowen Zhang: OK. Any discussions from the board? Seeing none, Ms. Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[16242] SPEAKER_37: Yes. Staff recommends that the board approve the personnel report.

[16251] Bowen Zhang: I'm sorry. The motion made by member Grundahl and seconded by member Martinez, I believe.

[16257] SPEAKER_37: Thank you.

[16260] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[16263] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[16264] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundell? Yes. Member Hill? Member Hill? Member Hill?

[16276] Aiden Hill: Sorry, I abstain.

[16279] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen?

[16280] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[16282] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries with four ayes.

[16288] SPEAKER_37: Do you want to provide clarity, Member Martinez?

[16291] Elisa Martinez: I was just gonna, point of order from our governance handbook, board policy, unless there is a point of, oh, what's the word I'm looking for, Ms. Gutierrez? Conflict of interest. Conflict of interest. The board is compelled to vote and not abstain. So I just wanted to share that.

[16318] Aiden Hill: Can you explain what that means? Sorry.

[16321] Elisa Martinez: So the only permissible reason as to abstain to a vote is if there is a potential conflict of interest.

[16331] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so I want to comment on that as well. So I believe so far I abstain from two votes so far. One has to do with a case related to somebody who happens to be my banker. The other happens to be somebody we're voting for the delegation. to elect it to the California School Board delegation, who happens to be someone I know. So that's the two places where I abstain. So other than that, other than that, yes. Unless there's a conflict of interest, generally, we don't abstain from voting. Would you want to change your vote, Member Hill?

[16369] Aiden Hill: I think you're telling me I have to. OK. Yes.

[16379] Bowen Zhang: OK. My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously with five ayes. Moving on to item 14.5, job description, dual immersion elementary teacher. Can I get a motion to approve the job description for dual immersion elementary teacher?

[16399] Phuong Nguyen: I move.

[16401] Terrence Grindall: I would second.

[16404] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Nguyen, seconded by Member Grindel. Any public comments? Can we bring the public comment?

[16411] SPEAKER_37: Yes, we have public comment by Cindy Parks.

[16416] Cindy Parks: Good evening. Hi, good evening. I'm sure you would all agree that every student in the district deserves a teacher qualified to provide them with their instruction. Whether it's the TK or kindergarten teacher teaching them their letters and numbers, or the high school calculus teacher teaching them a fundamental theorem of calculus. That is the reason I'm previously brought to your attention, excuse me, the districts need to ensure the B-CLAD credential teachers for its dual immersion program. I was discouraged to see the job description say B-CLAD credential or equivalent. I'm not sure what would qualify for the equivalent. As far as I can see, our surrounding districts that have dual immersion programs require a B-CLAD credential for their teachers. I would hope Newark Unified would require nothing less. Please consider moving this somewhat nebulous term you approved or nebulous term when you approve the job description. That's requiring the teachers in the dual immersion program to possess a B-clad. Thank you.

[16484] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Parks. I believe there's no more speakers, right?

[16490] SPEAKER_37: That is correct.

[16492] Bowen Zhang: I will bring the floor back to Superintendent Dr. Triplett. Actually, there are some questions, discussions. I see Member Hill raised his hand. Member Hill, you're on mute.

[16513] Aiden Hill: So thanks. So we, we talked about the dual immersion program in our last board meeting. Um, and I think that we had, um, three board members. So I believe it was member Martinez and member Nguyen as, as well as me, um, basically talk about the fact that, you know, we, we haven't formally improved this program as a, um, as a program and that we wanted to learn more about it. We wanted to see, a plan, we wanted to see a budget, budgetary impact, and we wanted to see how it ties to metrics. And so I don't see how we can be identifying positions and approving positions until we actually have seen a plan and a budget. So, I mean, I think we've kind of got the cart before the horse.

[16569] Bowen Zhang: Superintendent Tripoli, would you want to respond to that?

[16573] Mark Triplett: Yes, thank you, Member Hill, and Mr. Martinez, feel free to chime in. So what we're bringing forth to you today is a job description. It's not approving of any position. It's just approving a job description. And then from there, we absolutely intend to bring the bilingual immersion plan as requested by the board to you in early February. So that's something that I believe have been communicated to all the board members, that that's our intention is to bring forth a plan on the February 4th, at the February 4th meeting. Mr. Martinez, did you want to add anything to that? You're on mute, Mr. Martinez.

[16636] SPEAKER_26: Simply that it's a step in the process. As Dr. Triplett indicated, there are other things that are going on simultaneously. Again, it's simply an essential function of what we hope that individual is going to do when he or she is hired into that position. So again, just.

[16661] Aiden Hill: Yeah, my, my concern, right. I mean, as you guys all know, I spent my entire career in business. So if we're going to do a startup. Right. And we were going to identify. Okay, what types of positions do we need to staff that startup. Will there be a big difference in the position description. If you were going to start a software company versus you were going to be building equipment or if you were going to be running a donut shop. And granted, we don't meet. We don't have that big of a difference, but I really don't think that we should be putting job descriptions in until we clearly understand what the program is what the scope is what the goals are. Because if we don't get it right, we're going to have to amend it. And so I really think that we ought to get the program defined first before we start talking about job descriptions.

[16712] SPEAKER_26: If I could just point out the job description, with the exception of four or five essential duties is same as the teacher job description general education. So there are about four bullet points that are added into the job description that refers specifically to what a teacher would do in a dual immersion program. Otherwise it's very similar to the general ed, regular ed teaching job description.

[16743] Aiden Hill: Still doesn't change my opinion.

[16745] Bowen Zhang: Okay. I have a scene raising hand. I'll first yield to a member of Grindell.

[16755] Terrence Grindall: Thank you. I was just going to ask for Ms. Park's comment to be addressed.

[16760] Bowen Zhang: Superintendent Triplett? I think that's also happened to be my question. Are we going to hire a B-class teacher for this dual immersion program?

[16771] Mark Triplett: Yes, so I'll let Mr. Martinez chime in, but yes, the intention is that for the classes that require a BCLAD, that that would be a requirement. Not all positions in a dual language immersion school do require a BCLAD credential. We intend to, at minimum, have two teachers with a with a B-Clad credential as we start off. And that fits with the current plan that we'll bring forth to the board in February. But it also was part of the presentation that the board already saw earlier this month. Mr. Martinez, would you like to add anything?

[16823] SPEAKER_26: There's nothing much that, although you know my direction has been find the DCLAD person and that's that's what we're specifically after fully authorized DCLAD.

[16835] Bowen Zhang: Okay.

[16837] Terrence Grindall: Member Guendon. I was going to say, given that, can we strike the or equivalent since we don't think there is an equivalent?

[16847] SPEAKER_26: Let me give you an example of what an equivalent might be. We might have a native speaker who may have everything but the BCLAD, which before that would be what's referred to as a BCC, bicultural credential, where maybe the BCLAD isn't part of that. The candidate may be working on it. But in the meantime, he or she is a native speaker. we would hire then that person possibly and make sure that person would be enrolled in the B-CLAD program so that we could finally get that person fully authorized through a B-CLAD. That's just an example of what could happen if we couldn't find a teacher. Sometimes there are native speakers who may even be from somewhere else who has a teaching credential but doesn't have the California B-CLAD. we can look at something like that. That's all that covers.

[16910] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, Mr. Martina. And just as an example, we do that with other teachers all the time. So intern credentials are the same thing, where a teacher might not yet have a credential, but they're in a program. And so therefore, they are qualified to begin teaching. So it's not any different than other teaching positions in that sense.

[16942] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. So that language just gives you flexibility in hiring. And then I have one more question. I know that we had, there was presentation last year on the certifications of our teachers and on there, I believe there were two BCLAD certified teachers on that list, but When we're looking for this in particular, are they going to be, are you recommending that they have a BCLAD in Spanish, particularly in Spanish, or, and are the BCLAD certified teachers in our district, are they BCLAD in Spanish or in another language?

[16993] Mark Triplett: It would be Spanish, yeah. And there are a number of teachers who are in B-Clad programs right now that are in our district, but then of course, we would open these positions up for people outside our district as well.

[17012] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you.

[17014] Bowen Zhang: Okay, any other comments or questions? Seeing none, Ms. Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[17025] SPEAKER_37: Yes, staff recommends the Board of Education approve the job description for dual immersion elementary teacher. Motion made by Member Nguyen and second by Member Grindle.

[17034] Bowen Zhang: Okay, Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[17041] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[17042] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindle? Yes. Member Hill? No. Member Nguyen?

[17050] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[17051] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries with four ayes and one no. And I believe Member Hill has already explained his no vote. Thank you, Mr. Martinez, for the discussion and watching the clock. I will say it's with regret that we might need to extend the meeting a little bit, even though I think we might be able to finish by 10. But I don't think we'll need a lot of time. So I will make the motion to extend the meeting by 10 minutes till 10.10 PM. Can I get a second?

[17081] SPEAKER_24: I'll second.

[17084] Bowen Zhang: Student member Salami, how do you vote? Yes. Member Martinez?

[17090] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[17091] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[17098] Phuong Nguyen: No, I want to extend it to 1030. Just kidding. Yes.

[17105] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously.

[17108] Terrence Grindall: Moving on.

[17111] Bowen Zhang: Yes, moving on to the next item, consent calendar, non-personnel items. Any members that want to pull any individual item? Seeing none, can I get a motion to approve item 15.1 through 15.4? I move to approve 15.1 through 15.4. Can I get a second?

[17140] Phuong Nguyen: I'll second.

[17142] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Martinez, seconded by Member Nguyen. Student Member Salami, how do you vote?

[17148] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[17150] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez?

[17152] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[17153] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl? Yes. Member Hill?

[17160] Aiden Hill: Yes.

[17161] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen?

[17162] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[17163] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously.

[17167] SPEAKER_37: And I apologize, President Zhang, who made the motions?

[17170] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Martinez, seconded by Member Nguyen. Thank you very much. 16.1, Board of Education Committee Reports. Any committee reports? Mission Valley ROP, Member Martinez?

[17186] Elisa Martinez: Yes, we had a meeting last week. I'm actually going to be chairing that group. So, you know, there were a lot of good discussions about superintendent, about superintendent Hanson joining the meetings on the graduate profile. So he's very excited to collaborate with that and all the other initiatives that I know that you all are speaking about. So I just really look forward to those meetings. I'm learning a lot from my colleagues from New Haven and Fremont. I hope to have more knowledge next time and I'll be sharing. There was some information I should have brought it. I should have brought my notes in front of me. I don't have them with regards to the funding and where we are, you know, with how we've been funding to date. I will share that either in an email or at the next meeting. I'll be more prepared. Thank you.

[17244] Bowen Zhang: Okay. There's nothing from SELPA, anything from City School Liaison Committee? Meeting scheduled for Monday. You mean in three days? In four days? Correct. Okay. Any other comments on the liaison committee? Nope. Okay. Moving on to the e-victs. I don't think there's any update from e-victs. Other committee that we reported last time, anything from board and parcel tax, bond and parcel tax committee, I guess this committee hasn't been having a meeting for a while. So I think that's pretty much it. Moving on to the next item, 16.2, board of education request, student member Salemi?

[17293] SPEAKER_11: No request.

[17295] Elisa Martinez: Member Martinez? No, no requests.

[17303] Terrence Grindall: Member Grindel? Just looking forward to the study session about the master schedule on the 4th.

[17309] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill.

[17312] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so I just wanted to thank Dr. Triplett for pulling together a preliminary kind of plan around the merger, the school merger. But my request is could we actually have the facilitator slash project manager come in and give a presentation on kind of the plan and kind of explain the milestones and progress. And then I think also that you had still had a to-do for the budget and that maybe they could present, to present the budget as well. And that maybe on an ongoing basis, we could have a regular update, maybe once a month, since this is so important and needs to get done by middle of the summer. So that's my request.

[17359] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Member Nguyen?

[17364] SPEAKER_37: President Eshan, before we move on.

[17367] Bowen Zhang: Actually, your request is to, because if your request has another two board member, majority board member nodding with you, Now we'll put that onto the agenda, I believe. I'm nodding. I see Member Martinez nodding, so you got a majority of the board agreeing with you and hopefully a superintendent triplet that will plan this request on a future agenda item going forward.

[17399] Mark Triplett: Yeah, President Jun, could I just want to make sure that I'm really clear on what's being requested?

[17405] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill, can you repeat your specific action item to put on the agenda?

[17410] Aiden Hill: Sure. So yeah, so what we'd like to see is that the person who you're appointing as kind of the project manager, I think you're calling them the facilitator, that they could come and give us a presentation about, okay, here's the plan that we've got, here's the team, and here's the key milestones, progress to date, and also the associated budget.

[17440] Mark Triplett: Yeah. And just to be clear, the facilitator is the person who is facilitating the design team meetings, but they wouldn't be in a position to present all of those things. But I'm happy with my team to present on those things.

[17457] Aiden Hill: So we don't have a project manager?

[17462] Mark Triplett: The facilitator is facilitating the design team, but as you saw on the planning document, each different aspects of the planning process and the project has someone who is accountable, and then someone who's responsible, and then groups who are collaborating.

[17486] Aiden Hill: And who's coordinating all the different work streams?

[17490] Mark Triplett: That would be, I am accountable for the whole entire project. Each one of those different work streams are big buckets of work has someone who is accountable for that particular bucket.

[17504] Aiden Hill: So you're the project manager.

[17507] Mark Triplett: That's not what I would call myself, but I am accountable to ensuring that this merger is successful and part of my job as superintendent is absolutely to manage all of my direct reports to ensure that they are getting their work done and are accountable to completing tasks.

[17529] Aiden Hill: Okay, so if you're, if you're the accountable, then if you could then, you know, maybe bring in kind of the whole plan. And because the, the, the part that I saw in the report that you had submitted is that I could see that there were work streams and I could see that there were kind of buckets of things, but it would be good to really be able to see a little bit more detail. and also see kind of due dates, and also to see are we on track or off track, as well as a budget, because bottom line, right, all the private, I think I've mentioned I've been doing project management for 25 years. If you don't do that, projects go off track, and we can't afford to have this go off track.

[17570] Elisa Martinez: Yeah, and you know, Superintendent, you know, I recognize at the end of the day, you know, this is in your purview, Um and but and I think that without adding a ton of work of the you know the racy and the timeline that you put together I think is just a really good document to just review um there there is um whether it's a specific date or not I think it's more of like hey um you know we've already there's items from November and December um you know can we change it to the color to say hey these are complete these are my intent to be completed and by the way here we've already done this, it just gives a perspective, are we ahead or behind? Again, so we don't want, we can't and won't micromanage you, but I think we are just trying to get a sense of, are we moving to plan? And are there some key milestones in there that we're maybe thinking, you know, in February, we need to do school culture, and we think that that's a, you know, high risk item, whatever, however you wanna call certain things out, I think just using the document that you have is a good place to start, just without adding more work for you.

[17645] SPEAKER_37: If I may add, just based on the governance handbook, superintendent has to act on direction of the majority of the board. So just to make sure that there is clarity that what is being requested is being approved by the majority of the board.

[17659] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I guess this just, since you're the facilitator superintendent, I guess this just falls on you to make the Pengfei Xue, Ltd. : Presentation on the more concrete climb was was plans personnel and time left with this mode merger, I think we got a majority of the board agreed on this.

[17673] Mark Triplett: David Ensign, PB – He, Him, His. : Great yeah i'm not the facilitator, we have a facilitator who's going to be supporting the design team, but I am ultimately accountable for the entire. Pengfei Xue, Ltd.

[17682] Bowen Zhang: : Okay Member when what's your request.

[17687] Phuong Nguyen: I had one request during the board meeting and it was already been satisfied. So I'm okay. I'm good. Yeah. As long as we get to see the superintendent report published either in the library so our community can access them or on the internet somewhere on our website, that would be great. Other than that, I don't have anything else. Oh, actually I do. I lied. For the dual immersion, The dual, you said, you stated that the dual immersion plan is going to be presented in February. Is it going to be the first or second meeting of the month?

[17729] Mark Triplett: The plan is for the first meeting.

[17731] Phuong Nguyen: Okay, perfect. Thank you. Looking forward to it.

[17734] Elisa Martinez: Thanks. And remember, sorry, President Zhang, just very quickly to piggyback on her on number wins. question around bringing back the plan. Superintendent Triplett, I know that we've been asked or there's been a question circulating, I know, amongst ourselves of whether we've actually approved. So are you bringing the plan forward for approval or still some additional review? What would we expect on that next meeting?

[17767] Mark Triplett: Yeah, I hope to bring it forward for your approval.

[17773] Bowen Zhang: Okay.

[17774] Aiden Hill: So can we include a budget then? A budget in metrics?

[17781] Mark Triplett: Ms.dela Cruz, is that possible to include a budget on our dual language plan? And board members, the reason I'm asking is really the budget for shilling will be, will be to the large extent, the budget for the dual immersion program, because that's where it's going to be housed. And I don't know if we will have all our school budgets done by February 4th, but Ms. Delacruz, correct me if I'm wrong.

[17817] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, I guess that would depend. What are we looking for? Because if it is part of the shillings budget, that's still in the budget development cycle right now.

[17828] Mark Triplett: And When can we, when would we be able to bring forth to the board those school budgets?

[17838] Marie dela Cruz: That usually happens in June when we adopt the budget.

[17843] Elisa Martinez: If I may clarify, at least this is the ask that I had made prior to your tenure superintendent, which was, you know, I think I'd asked the previous person in your role and I said, hey, should we expect this program or this dual immersion to cost us more? And the answer I got was no. And we said, okay, but aren't you purchasing some initial there's some startup costs, if you will, we're going to purchase some initial curriculum, we're going to purchase so net at once we get going, maybe it's the run rate is the same, but there might be some some startup costs. So I don't think we're looking at the overall budget. It's more of the what's that additional cost, right? We know that there's a benefit there. It's just the cost

[17891] Marie dela Cruz: So if we can come up with that, Dr. Triplett.

[17894] Mark Triplett: Yeah, yeah. Okay. I think that shouldn't be a problem.

[17900] Bowen Zhang: Okay. From me, I don't really have any additional requests being requested by other board members already. Moving on to Board of Education Recognition Announcements, Student Member Salemi.

[17913] SPEAKER_11: So ASB is planning a mental health town hall, and that's ongoing efforts with Dr. Triplett, ASB, and other school leaders to advance that conversation. And we're calling it a town hall, and it's gonna be an hour, and we would love to invite you all to watch. We're still planning out the logistics, but we'll convey that date and time probably the first week of February.

[17940] Bowen Zhang: Okay, thank you. Member Martinez.

[17945] Elisa Martinez: I just want to say kudos to Superintendent Triplett. I know we come at you with a lot. And, you know, again, in your short tenure, you know, we're seeing some really, really good things. But so Hang in there. I hope you know we mean well. We're here to support. But we really, I really, we really appreciate all of the things and all the work that you're doing for our kids.

[17973] Mark Triplett: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

[17975] Terrence Grindall: Member Grindel. I want to echo those comments. I appreciate all your efforts and all your staff and all the teachers who are working so hard to help our children learn. So I appreciate everything that you're doing. Thank you. Thank you.

[17992] Aiden Hill: Member Hill? Yeah, thank you. It's a big lift. Yeah.

[17998] Bowen Zhang: We know. Member Nguyen?

[18003] Phuong Nguyen: This week was really inspiring, I have to say, obviously with the inauguration and everything. And then also I was a, Superintendent Triplett invited me to sit in on a of the STAR Academy meeting and with staff who's putting that together. And I just thought it was so inspiring how hard all the teachers are working to develop this new program for the students and I'm really excited for them to be able to kick that off and it's so integral. They're writing a huge grant proposal and cross my fingers we'll get it and we can get our students started and more robotics and more computer science. And it's it was just amazing. So to be a part of that and to see the progress that your staff is making. So thank you for that. And I just want to also thank my fellow board members and our executive cabinet for all their hard work. So thank you so much.

[18068] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. So Yesterday, we again witnessed one of the hallmarks of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power. And obviously, as the events in the past two weeks have taught us that the fragility of our democracy requires every one of us to play our part in defending and preserving it. And on a light note, if I forget on Saturday, if I'm going to forget on Saturday, I want to wish member Martinez a early happy birthday. So that's all from me. Moving on to 17.1, superintendent's conclusion remark. You got two minutes left. Dr. Triplett.

[18107] Mark Triplett: All right, I'll make it 30 seconds. The appreciations to everybody, particularly the staff who are just working so hard right now. And this is a really major crunch time with, at this time of year, schools, teachers, principals, district staff, they have one foot in this current year and this reality, and one foot in next year. And that's the way it's gonna be from here till the end of the school year, and it's really hard. So I want to appreciate everybody for being in that space. And I want to really appreciate the students who I've had a chance to engage with this week, particularly the Black Student Union. They're going to be coming forth in the upcoming month to speak with the board about some of the things that they're really wanting to do to engage, do a better job of, or pushing us to do a better job of engaging African-American families and supporting African-American students in our schools. It was really a pleasure to work with or to meet with them. And I'm really looking forward to partnering with them for us to continue and to improve how we support our students and families. All right, that wasn't 30 seconds, but thank you.

[18181] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Superintendent. Next item, adjournment. I move to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a second?

[18189] SPEAKER_11: I second.

[18190] Bowen Zhang: Go ahead. Student members, so let me, how do you vote? Yes. Member Martinez? Yes. Member Grindel? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[18201] SPEAKER_24: Yes.

[18201] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. Meeting is adjourned at 10 p.m. Good night. Thank you, everybody, and good night.

1. Live Comments: Join with an Internet connected device (tablet, computer, phone, etc.)

Virtual Meeting Practices & Connection Information

Type Information, Procedural In accordance with the Governor's Executive Order N-29-20, Board meetings will be held "virtually" until further notice. These meetings will be accessible to the public by internet or telephone. No physical meeting place will be provided.

Meetings will live-streamed on the NUSD YouTube on the internet. Public comment opportunities will be available through the virtual meeting. Meeting access instructions are provided below here.

As always, we encourage you to contact the entire Board by email at "board@newarkunified.org." This address goes directly to the Board members, who check their emails frequently.

Roll Call

Type Procedural Board Members:

President Bowen Zhang Member Phuong Nguyen Member Elisa Martinez Member Terrence Grindall Member Aiden Hill

Student Board Member: Member Wahhab Salemi

2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

2. Live Comments: Join with an Internet connected device (tablet, computer, phone, etc.)

Approval of Agenda

Type Action

Recommended Recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the agenda for this meeting. Action Purpose:

Members of the Board may request that the agenda be approved as presented or amended.

Motion & Voting Recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the agenda for this meeting.

Motion by Elisa Martinez, second by Phuong Nguyen.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill
Not Present at Vote: Wahhab Salemi

3. STUDY SESSION

Public Comment on Board Study Session Items

Type Procedural Purpose:

To provide a space for the community to make a comment on the Board Study Session.

Background:

Please see the link below for Public Comment information.

http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/nusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BN8PNC6402C1

Budget Review

Type Discussion, Information

Goals 2. Establish financial stability and fiscal solvency in order to drive continuous improvement.

Purpose: To review the budget and discuss budget balancing solutions for the current year and two subsequent years.

Background: The multi-year projection (MYP) in the First Interim Report projects a deficit of $253K in the current year and $742K and $3.2M in the two subsequent years.

Resolution 2020.21-014, approved by the Board on December 3, 2020, commits to implementing expenditure reductions of up to $742,000 in the 2021-22 school year and $3,200,000 for school year 2022-23 based on the First Interim Report MYP assumptions.

File Attachments Board Study Session- Budget Review 1_21_21.pdf (3,598 KB)

4. CLOSED SESSION

Public Comment on Closed Session Item

Type Procedural Purpose:

To provide a space for the community to make a comment on Closed Session Items.

Background:

Please see the link below for Public Comment information.

http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/nusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BN8PNC6402C1

Public Employee Discipline/Dismissal/ Release (GC54957)

Type Procedural Information will be provided by the Superintendent and Interim Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources.

Conference with Labor Negotiator Employee Organizations: NTA & CSEA (GC54957.6)

Type Procedural Information will be provided by the agency negotiator, Interim Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. Assistance from legal firm Dannis, Woliver, Kelley, Attorneys at Law may be provided.

Employee organizations include NTA & CSEA.

Conference with Labor Negotiator (GC 54957.6) NEWMA, Unrepresented Supervisors & Contracted Management

Type Procedural Information will be provided by the agency negotiator, Interim Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, and the Superintendent. Assistance from legal firm Dannis, Woliver, Kelley, Attorneys at Law may be provided.

The employee organizations include NEWMA, Unrepresented Supervisors, and Contracted Management

Conference with Legal Counsel regarding Existing Litigation (GC 54956.9(d) (1))

Type Procedural Cases to be discussed:

OAH CASE NUMBER 2020100956

Conference with Legal Counsel Regarding Anticipated Litigation (GC 54956.9(d)(2))

Type Procedural

Information will be provided regarding:

Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 54956.9: Two case

Recess to Closed Session

Type Procedural Purpose:

The Board will recess to Closed Session, and reconvene to Open Session on or about 7pm.

5. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION

Pledge of Allegiance

Type Procedural

6. REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS

Report of Closed Session Actions

Type Procedural Purpose:

If available, a report of closed session will be provided by the Board President.

7. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS

Employee Organizations

Type Information Purpose:

At regular Board meetings, a single spokesperson of each recognized employee organization (NTA, CSEA, NEWMA) may make a brief presentation.

Discussion items are limited to updates, celebrations, and upcoming events.

NTA: Sean Abruzzi CSEA: Sue Eustice NEWMA: Cathreene Ingham-Watters

8. RECOGNITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS

School Spotlight: Musick Elementary

Type Information Purpose:

The School Spotlight gives the Board of Education and the public an opportunity to hear from each school with highlights of their achievements and initiatives.

Background:

The presentation will be provided by the Musick Elementary Principal, Amanda Golliher

File Attachments Musick BOE Spotlight Presentation.pdf (2,167 KB) Board Mtg_ 2020-21 School Spotlights.pdf (45 KB)

9. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS

Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

Type Procedural Purpose:

To provide a space for the community to make a comment on non-agenda items.

Background:

Please see click the link below for Public Comment information on Non-Agenda Items and Agenda items.

http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/nusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BN8PNC6402C1

10. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

Superintendent Report

Type Information

Purpose:

Information provided by the Superintendent

File Attachments Supt Report 1.21.21.pdf (1,556 KB)

11. STAFF REPORT

Letter from the Alameda County Office of Education Regarding the 2020-21 First Interim Budget Report

Type Information Purpose: The Chief Business Official will review the letter from the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) regarding the Newark Unified School District (NUSD) 2020-21 First Interim Budget Report.

Background: The Governing Board approved a POSITIVE Certification of NUSD's First Interim Budget Report on December 3, 2020. The district subsequently submitted the report to ACOE, as required, for their review and analysis.

In accordance with Education Code (EC) Section 42131, ACOE reviewed the First Interim Budget Report based on standards and criteria for fiscal stability adopted by the State Board of Education pursuant to EC Section 33127.

Based on ACOE's review and analysis, the 2020-21 First Interim Budget Report approved by NUSD's Board of Education on December 3, 2020, accurately reflects the financial status of the District. ACOE, therefore, concurs with NUSD's POSITIVE certification with comments.

File Attachments Newark 2020-21 First Interim Board Letter -FINAL.pdf (337 KB)

12. OLD BUSINESS

Appointment of a Board Representative to Audit Committee

Type Action

Recommended Appoint Two Board Representatives and an Alternate to Audit Committee Action Purpose of this Item:

To nominate and appoint two representatives and one alternate to the Audit Committee.

Background:

Board Bylaw 9140:The Governing Board recognizes that effective performance of its community leadership responsibilities may require its participation in district or community committees on matters of concern to the district and its students. As needed, the Board may appoint any of its members to serve as its representative on a district committee or on a committee of another public agency or organization of which the Board or district is a member or to which the Board is invited to participate.

The purpose of the Audit Committee is to provide oversight for financial reporting, internal controls, and auditors activities. This committee meets, at a minimum, once per year in January.

Member Martinez and Member Nguyen have served as the Board's representatives for the past year.

During the Dec. 17, 2020 meeting, the Board selected President Zhang and Member Hill as the representatives, along with Member Nguyen as the alternative. Based on the Audit charter, the Board President is not permitted to be a member of the Audit Committee. Therefore, this item is being brought back to select a replacement for President Zhang.

The Board will appoint two representatives, and an alternate to the Audit Committee.

File Attachments Board Committees - Prepared for 120320.pdf (20 KB)

Motion & Voting Appoint Member Nguyen as the second representative, and member Martinez as the alternate to Audit Committee.

Motion by Bowen Zhang, second by Terrence Grindall.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Wahhab Salemi

13. NEW BUSINESS

Resolution 2020.21-016 Purchase of Global Plasma Solutions Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization Devices and Award for Installation

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $271,322.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Federal CARES Act Funds

Recommended Staff recommends approval of Resolution 2020.21-016 Purchase of Global Plasma Solutions Action Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization Units for District HVAC Systems and Award for Installation. Purpose: Purchase of additional Global Plasma Solutions (GPS) FC24-AC and FC48-AC Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization (NPBI) Devices and misc products for various units per attached proposal and authorize contracting for the installation by an outside vendor as presented. By authorizing the purchase and installation of the ionization devices, the Board is taking measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Background:

On November 19, 2020 as an integral part of the District's readiness planning to reopen in-school learning activities under the current COVID-19 pandemic, and to better protect students and staff, the board approved the initial purchase of 160 Global Plasma Solutions (GPS) FC24-AC Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization (NPBI) devices at a cost of $554.24 each pursuant the CUPCCAA guidelines and annual procurement limit, the cost of which will be covered by the Cares Act funds.

During the presentation, staff explained that additional units will be needed for all the HVAC systems and that staff was assessing the number required and further exploring procurement options available. Additionally, it was determined that M&O staff would need to contract the installation of the devices as M&O staff had other priorities and that M&O staff could not install all devices.

The District estimates a total of approximately 556 ionization devices will be needed for all HVAC systems. The initial purchase of 160 devices was approved by the Board on November 19, 2020. A quote for another 396 devices has been provided by Norman S. Wright for a total of $195,245, including tax and shipping (average cost of $493.04 each).

The District sought proposals for the installation of the initial 160 GPS NPBI Devices at five District schools, (Birch Grove Intermediate School, Graham Elementary School, Birch Grove Primary School, Lincoln Elementary School, and Musick Elementary School). Western Allied Mechanical submitted the lowest proposal in the amount of $21,892 ($136.83 each). The second quote received was $32,705 ($204.40 each). The installation cost for the additional 396 devices is estimated at $54,185.

Action: Authorize District to purchase and install additional Global Plasma Solutions ("GPS") FC24-AC and FC48-AC and similar Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization ("NPBI") Devices for special applications as designated by staff in Districtwide HVAC systems pursuant to the resolution drafted by counsel and to negotiate installation with Western Mechanical.

File Attachments Resolution 2020.21-016 Ionization Units for HVAC Systems.pdf (22 KB) Western Allied Proposal_installation of NPBI units.pdf (187 KB) GPS NSW Quote NPBI Devices- 1-13-2020.pdf (864 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends approval of Resolution 2020.21-016 Purchase of Global Plasma Solutions Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization Units for District HVAC Systems and Award for Installation.

Motion by Phuong Nguyen, second by Elisa Martinez.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Wahhab Salemi

Mapmaking Systems Proposal for the Landscaping and Irrigation Project

Type Action

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $14,900.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Fund 21 Measure G

Recommended Staff recommends the Board approve the proposal and authorize a contract with Action Mapmaking Systems, Inc as presented. Purpose: The purpose is for the Board to review and approve the proposal for Mapmaking Systems to prepare the drawings for the Landscaping and Irrigation project that was approved at the October 15, 2020 Board meeting.

Background: In order to prepare the bid drawings for the Landscaping and Irrigation Project, there is a need to survey the areas of work to prepare the base map and create the CAD Drawings. Mapmaking Systems, Inc. will locate and digitally map the areas, including, footprint of building (where necessary) with door locations, curb edge, road edge, planting beds, trees, turf areas and other significant landscape elements. Mapmaking Systems, Inc. is proposing to do this work for a cost of $14,900.00.

File Attachments Mapmaking Systems, Inc. Proposal 2020-12-10.pdf (79 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board approve the proposal and authorize a contract with Mapmaking Systems, Inc as from budget source fund 21 and fund 40.

Motion by Phuong Nguyen, second by Elisa Martinez.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Wahhab Salemi

2020-2021 Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) Advisory Committee

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Fiscal Impact No

Budgeted No

Recommended The administration recommends the membership be approved as presented. Action

Goals 2. Establish financial stability and fiscal solvency in order to drive continuous improvement. 1. To provide academic excellence via equity and opportunities for all students.

Purpose:

We are seeking approval of the attached proposed membership of the 2020- 2021 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Advisory Committee. At its first meeting, the commmittee will review its bylaws which will include rules regarding processes and procedures. The Director of Special Projects, Isabel Cervantes-Falk, in collaboration with the Chief Business Officer, Marie dela Cruz, will facilitate the meetings.

LCAP Advisory Committee meetings are open to the public; all agendas and minutes will be posted in advanced for interested parties.

All meetings will be held virtually, until further notice, from 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm, and translation will be provided to support member participation. The meetings are scheduled as follows:

January 26, 2021 February 23, 2021 March 23, 2021 April 27, 2021 May 25, 2021

File Attachments LCAP PAC Membership 2020-21 For Board Approval.docx (1).pdf (103 KB)

Motion & Voting The administration recommends the membership be approved as presented.

Motion by Wahhab Salemi, second by Bowen Zhang.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Wahhab Salemi

New Secondary Courses

Type Action

Fiscal Impact Yes

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source 0500

Recommended Approval of new courses. Action Purpose:

The purpose is to update course offerings at Newark Memorial High School for our students, especially in light of distance learning. This includes three new AP courses in order to address student inequities and provide more student opportunities for accelerated courses that can prepare and allow students to earn college credits. This includes AP Human Geography, AP Environmental Science, and AP Computer Science. In addition, a new and advanced Blended Geometry/Algebra 2 course will be offered to develop math pathways for accelerated students, especially for those interested in completing their high school career with a course in Calculus and thereby prepare for a college major in the Sciences, Mathematics, or Health Care Fields. Ethnic Studies is a course based on current events, diverse sociological perspectives, and balanced points of view from different cultures which students have demonstrated interest in and would be offered in the history department. This

    course is supported at the state level as well with the introduction of AB 331 which advocates for Ethnic Studies within
    each comprehensive district.
    There are also four updated music courses -- each based on an already existing music course, however, with a new
    course name.
    Finally, freshman students, based on previous years of data, have often struggled with a high number of D's and F's as
    they transition to the high school level.   A Freshman Seminar course is geared specifically as a course offering for
    incoming Freshman to learn character values, organization skills, health education, computer skills, and essential
    student skills to succeed at the high school level.

Background:

It has been years since Newark Memorial High School has updated course offerings in the Course Catalog. With new realities for our students in light of distance learning and the pandemic, it is essential to continue to refine, improve, and update courses for our high school students to thrive in the 21st century. The introduction of these 11 new courses at the high school level is designed for this purpose. It takes into account state recommendations, expands AP offerings, and has been approved through the district Secondary Curriculum Council.

File Attachments AP Computer Science A.pdf (238 KB) AP Environmental.pdf (247 KB) AP Human Geography.pdf (199 KB) Blended Geometry-Algebra 2.pdf (467 KB) Choraliers (Advanced Choir).pdf (381 KB) Concert Band (Beginning and Intermediate Band).pdf (420 KB) Ethnic Studies.pdf (1,096 KB) Freshmen Studies.pdf (351 KB) Lyrical Choir (Beginning and Intermediate Choir).pdf (370 KB) PLTW-Principles of Engineering.pdf (181 KB) Symphonic Band (Advanced Band).pdf (437 KB)

Motion & Voting Approval of new courses.

Motion by Wahhab Salemi, second by Bowen Zhang.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Wahhab Salemi
Nay: Aiden Hill

14. CONSENT AGENDA - PERSONNEL ITEMS

Personnel Report

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board approve the personnel report as presented. Action This report includes employment, retirements, reassignments and terminations for both certificated and classified employees. Specific actions can be made known at the conclusion of the meeting.

File Attachments

HR PAL 01-21-21.pdf (363 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board approve the personnel report as presented.

Motion by Terrence Grindall, second by Elisa Martinez.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill
Abstain: Wahhab Salemi

Notre Dame de Namur University MOU and Agreement to Place Student Teachers

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the Notre Dame de Namur University Action MOU and Agreement to Place Student Teachers Purpose:

The purpose of this item is for the Board of Education to approve the MOU and agreement between Notre Dame de Namur University and Newark Unified School District to place student teachers commencing on June 30, 2020 and ending June 30, 2025.

Background:

The District works closely with local institutes of higher education (IHE) and supports student teacher placements. Agreements between Newark Unified School District and a university must be in place before a student teacher can be placed at a school site in the District.

Student teachers in training do fieldwork in our schools and are supervised by the administrators who volunteer to provide supervision and training.

Student teachers are able to learn, practice teaching, and fine-tune their craft under the direct supervision of a master teacher. The opportunity to student teach in the District benefits both the student and the District.

As vacancies become available in the district, it is invaluable to have the opportunity to observe directly student teachers who may be eligible to interview for vacancies and observe how well they fit into the culture of Newark.

File Attachments Newark Unified School District ST 6-30-25.pdf (139 KB)

Motion & Voting

Notre Dame de Namur University MOU and Agreement to Provide Education Specialist and Teaching Interns

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the Notre Dame de Namur University Action MOU and Agreement to Provide Education Specialist and Teaching Interns Purpose:

The purpose of this item is for the Board of Education to approve the MOU and agreement between Notre Dame de Namur University and Newark Unified School District to provide education specialist and teaching interns commencing on June 30, 2020 and ending June 30, 2025.

Background:

The District works closely with local institutes of higher education (IHE) and supports education specialist and teaching intern placements. Agreements between Newark Unified School District and a university must be in place before an intern can be placed at a school site in the District.

Interns do fieldwork in our schools and are supervised by the administrators who volunteer to provide supervision and training.

Interns are able to learn, practice teaching, and fine-tune their craft under the direct supervision of a master teacher. The opportunity to intern in the District benefits both the student and the District.

As vacancies become available in the district, it is invaluable to have the opportunity to observe directly interns who may be eligible to interview for vacancies and observe how well they fit into the culture of Newark.

File Attachments Newark Unified School District INT 6-30-25.pdf (82 KB)

Job Description: Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the revised job description for Assistant Action Superintendent of Educational Services. Purpose: The purpose is for the Board to review the revised job description prior to posting and initiating a search process.

Background:

The item is for the Board to approve a revised job description for the position of Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services. This job description was last revised in April 2004, seventeen years ago. The new job description better reflects the duties and responsibilities of the position and is better aligned with the District's core mission.

File Attachments Redlined Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services-04.06.2004-1.pdf (69 KB)

Job Description: Dual Immersion Elementary Teacher

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the job description for Dual Immersion Action Elementary Teacher. Purpose: The purpose is for the Board to review the job description prior to posting and initiating a search process.

Background:

With the implementation of the Dual Language Immersion program, it is necessary to develop "Essential Functions"' of the job to define the duties and responsibilities of the certificated staff selected to teach in the Dual Language Immersion Program. The Board is asked to approve this item so that the District may begin its recruitment and selection of the teaching staff.

File Attachments Dual Immersion Job Description Jan 2021.pdf (127 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the job description for Dual Immersion Elementary Teacher.

Motion by Phuong Nguyen, second by Terrence Grindall.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall
Nay: Aiden Hill
Abstain: Wahhab Salemi

15. CONSENT AGENDA - NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS

Quarterly Report on Contracts - FY 2020-21, 2nd Quarter

Type Action

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended Staff recommends the Board receive the Quarterly Report on Contracts. Action

Goals

                          2. Establish financial stability and fiscal solvency in order to drive continuous
                          improvement.

Purpose: These quarterly reports on contracts are submitted to the Board for review.

Background: The Board has requested a report of all contracts for services over $10,000 be reviewed by the Board on a quarterly basis. This report only includes contracts that have not been previously approved by the Board.

This report lists contracts from the 2nd Quarter of FY 2020-21 (October, November, December 2020).

Contracts are on file in the Business Office.

File Attachments Q2 2020 Contracts over $10K.pdf (11 KB) Jennifer Parenti 2020-2021 school year.pdf (175 KB) Washington Hospital-DEVCO_2019-22.pdf (784 KB) ACTS (Augmentative Communication & Technology Services) SpEd agreement_2020-21.pdf (693 KB) Keenan & Associates_P & L Claim Administration 2020-21.pdf (266 KB)

Motion & Voting 15.1-15.4

Motion by Elisa Martinez, second by Phuong Nguyen. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Wahhab Salemi

Addendum to the original contract with Augmentative Communication & Technology Services (ACTS)

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $50,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source 010-5100-3310-5770-3150-500-50- -177

Recommended The staff recommends the Board ratify the addendum to the Augmentative Communication Action & Technology Services (ACTS) contract.

Goals 1. To provide academic excellence via equity and opportunities for all students.

Purpose:

The purpose of this item is to increase the original contract amount. The original contract was in the amount of $40,000.00. This addendum amount of $50,000.00 will bring the total contract amount to $90,000.00.

Augmentative Communication & Technology Services (ACTS) provides assistive technology assessments and services to students with disabilities (SWDs). Augmentative Communication & Technology Services (ACTS) service provider will analyze the needs of the students' with disabilities, assist in selection of appropriate assistive technology to meet the students' needs, and provide training and monitoring in the use of the selected device(s).

Background:

Related services and assessments are legally mandated per Individual Disability Education Act (IDEA). Without Augmentative Communication & Technology Services (ACTS) Newark Unified School District would be out of compliance.

File Attachments Addendum to Contract ACTS 2020-21 Unsigned.pdf (10 KB) Master Contract ACTS 2020-21 SIGNED.pdf (474 KB)

Warrant Report for December 2020

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Fiscal Impact No

Budgeted No

Recommended Staff recommends the Board approve the Warrant Report as presented. Action

Goals 2. Establish financial stability and fiscal solvency in order to drive continuous improvement.

Purpose: The purpose of this item is to present warrants, for a total amount of $4,034,388.51, made from District funds in December 2020.

Background: The warrant registers represent a complete listing of all payments made from District funds for a month. Because Newark Unified School District is a fiscally dependent District, each warrant must pass through two separate audits; first by the District's Fiscal Services department, and second by the County Office of Education. No warrant can be paid until such time as it is examined and approved by the County Office of Education.

File Attachments Warrant Report December 2020.pdf (365 KB)

Williams Uniform Complaint Quarterly Report October 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020

Type Action

Preferred Date Jan 21, 2021

Absolute Date Jan 21, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the Williams Uniform Complaint Action Quarterly Report for the period of October 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Education Code 35186 requires that the Superintendent of a school district report summarized data on the nature and resolution of all complaints filed under the Williams Uniform Complaint Procedures to the local Board of Education and the County Superintendent of Schools on a quarterly basis. The report must include the number of complaints by general area, the number of resolved and unresolved complaints, and be publicly presented at a regularly-scheduled Board meeting. The attached report is presented to the Board for the period of October 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.

File Attachments Q321 UCP Report.pdf (273 KB)

16. BOARD OF EDUCATION - COMMITTEE REPORTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, REQUESTS, DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION

Board of Education Committee Reports

                       DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION

Type Information Purpose:

The board committee members will give any updates from the following committees:

Mission Valley ROP - SELPA - City/School Liaison - East Bay Induction - Audit Committee - Bond/Parcel Tax-

Board of Education Requests

                       DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION

Type Information Purpose:

This is an opportunity for Board members to suggest items for placement on future agendas, and to review requests.

Background:

Governance Team Handbook

Authority is collective, not individual: The only authority to direct action rests with the Board when seated at a regular or special Board meeting. Outside of this meeting, there is no authority. A majority vote of the Board provides direction to the Superintendent. Board members will not undermine the ability of staff to carry out Board direction.

Bring up new ideas/decide to move new ideas forward:

    The Board will be open to having "brainstorming" discussions around any idea that a Board member may feel merits
    exploratory consideration. "New Ideas" are defined as any proposal brought forward by a Board member, at his or her
    own initiative or at the request of a constituent, which has not previously been discussed during a Board meeting.
    Board members will first notify the Board President and/or the Superintendent of their interest in bringing forward a
    new idea. The preliminary discussion of a new idea will not require staff research time. Initially, staff will be expected to
    respond to new ideas based on current knowledge.
    Only a majority of the Board may direct the Superintendent to conduct research regarding exploration of a new idea.
    The Superintendent will decide on the delegation of assignments to other District staff.
    The new idea will be agendized for discussion only. The Board will decide if the new idea should be further developed
    and studied by staff. A Board majority will decide if staff time should be invested in the "fleshing out" of new ideas.
    Individual Board members, in the course of interactions with constituents will be careful not to make or imply
    commitment of the full Board to explore or proceed with implementing new ideas.

Board of Education Recognitions and Announcements

                       DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION

Type Information Purpose:

This is an opportunity for Board members to acknowledge or recognize specific programs, activities, or personnel.

17. SUPERINTENDENT'S CONCLUDING COMMENTS, UPDATES FOR THE BOARD AND FUTURE AGENDA REQUESTS

Superintendent's Concluding Comments, Updates for the Board, and Future Agenda Requests

                       FUTURE AGENDA REQUESTS

Type Information Purpose:

This is an opportunity for the Superintendent to make any concluding comments, updates, agenda requests, or provide information of future meetings.

18. ADJOURNMENT

Adjournment

Type Action, Procedural

Recommended The recommendation is that this meeting be adjourned. Action Purpose:

No items will be considered after 10:00 p.m., unless it is determined by a majority of the Board to extend to a specific time.

This action will conclude the meeting.

Motion & Voting Extend meeting to 10:10pm

Motion by Bowen Zhang, second by Elisa Martinez. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Wahhab Salemi

No minutes available.