Regular Meeting

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[48] SPEAKER_42: Yes, thank you. Member Hill?

[50] Aiden Hill: Here.

[51] SPEAKER_42: Member Grindle?

[53] Terrence Grindall: Here.

[53] SPEAKER_42: Member Nguyen? Here. Member Martinez? Here. And President Insham?

[61] Bowen Zhang: Here. Okay, moving on to the approval of the agenda. May I get a motion to approve the agenda as it is or any modifications?

[74] Phuong Nguyen: I move to approve the agenda as is.

[77] Terrence Grindall: I'll second.

[79] Bowen Zhang: Moved by Member Nguyen, seconded by Member Grindel. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[86] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[88] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel, how do you vote?

[90] SPEAKER_29: Yes.

[91] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[96] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[97] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. Before we move on to the next item, which is study session, Ms. Gutierrez, any public comment on our study session?

[109] SPEAKER_42: Not today.

[110] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Moving on to our study session, which is the Board Team Governance Handbook Review and Update. So Superintendent, do you want to open this up or?

[125] Mark Triplett: Sure, hi, good evening board and President Jun and staff and community. I'm happy to start and then President Jun, I think you'll probably be directing the conversation as we kick it off. So this study session is based on the request by board members to revisit the governance handbook And I know that at the the session, the Saturday session we had with the outside facilitator, the intent was to be able to to discuss some of the governance handbook items. And because we did not have time, then that is one of the reasons why this is coming back up. And then so just for the public's sake, just to be clear, board members have put in requests for different aspects of the governance handbook that they wish to revisit as a group and have discussion around. And so the way that we've structured this time is President Jun will be bringing up the items in order for discussion. And then as the board discusses the item, then the staff will be looking for direction in terms of whether or not board wants us to go back and make some revisions to the handbook, which we would then come back with for a formal vote during a regular session. So no final decisions will be made during this study session, since study sessions don't, we don't do that during a study session, but board, if you all come to a consensus on any given change, then staff will take it back, make the revisions and bring it forth to the board during regular session a vote to approve.

[237] Bowen Zhang: Okay, thank you, Superintendent Triplett. Ms. Gutierrez, so every one of our board members has submitted a list of order of priority to a shared Google Doc, and can you share the Google Doc on screen? And what I'm going to do today is I realize there are several items that are requested by more than one board member, so we'll go We'll go first with the item that's requested the most by board member, and then we'll go from there. Once we finish all the items that are requested by more than one board members, I'll go with the round robin style, where we go from the order from each list, from each of the board members, we'll go from round robin, and then see how many we can finish. I do see quite a few items on the shared Google Docs. it's likely that we'll need to request an additional session to further discuss our board governance handbook. Okay, so on this sheet, so there are a couple of items that actually get more than one board member. So I believe the first item whether the deliberation, the order of motion is requested by myself, member Hill, member Grindell and member Martinez. So this is an item where four board member wanted to discuss. And after that, there's another thing I think is board organized core belief and organization goal that is also requested by two or more board members. So going from there, so after that, there will be just individual items. As you can see, Member Hill also asked about the motion question. Member Grindell also mentioned that in the request. I believe Member Martinez also touched a little bit on the board deliberation when it comes to the motion. So, and after that, I think all the other, the rest of the item are, the rest of the item are just requested by individual board members so we can go the Ron Robbins style. So does that sound good to everyone? Okay, then I'll open up the discussion on the one that's requested by four board members, which is the order of motion. So a little bit of history is currently what we're doing, the order during deliberation is we make a motion first to serve the purpose of open up discussion, and then it's public comment and it's staff presentation. Then we bring back to the board for discussion, comment and question concerns. And then when we reach the end, we either repeat the motion and vote on it or we modify it. Somebody will need to modify the motion and we vote on that. But we also realized that based on the training session we did two weeks ago, it looks like it's still fine to I mean, looks like the original intent for that is we got consent calendars, and we really want to limit discussion, then we do the motion first and motion second. So I do look at some of the comments from Member Hill, particularly Member Goodell. which do suggest that the more common way, which is implemented in our neighboring district, like Fremont Unified and New Haven Unified, is motion last, which is either you open up the discussion by the staff presentation, public comment, or you open up with public comment and staff presentation. So that seems to be quite a key difference between most of the deliberation process I've seen in the neighboring district. So one question for Superintendent, you come from Oakland Unified District. So do you remember the order of the motion at your board meeting?

[488] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chun. I believe Ms. Gutierrez, you actually went and looked at a few different board structures to sort of see what is some of the standard practice. Is that correct? would you, sorry to put you on the spot, would you be able to share some of those?

[512] SPEAKER_42: Yes, that is correct. And I did, I looked at quickly, Fremont, New Haven, Palo Alto, and they had, for the most part, I believe all of them had, they presented the item, they had the presentation, then they had public comment, then they had deliberation from the board, then they had, a call for the motion and a vote.

[541] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so I guess when Ms. Gutierrez is talking about Palo Alto, New Haven, Fremont, I think what's in common is they do the public comments after the staff presentation. And I think That is the part that I think we have some difference when we discuss this roughly two weeks ago and obviously board member, the other three board members all have input so I want to hear from other board members. First, are we okay with the since we voted on the, we approved the agenda at the beginning of the meeting already, so are we okay with go directly into the item, which start either with public comment or presentation, or we want to start with presentation, public comment, or we think the motion first, we should keep that. So I want to hear from the board member that brought up this issue. Okay, member Grindel?

[593] Terrence Grindall: Yes, I think we should have the staff report first. I think it's more common and more effective that having the motion first creates awkwardness sometimes. And it's also different from what people who are coming to expect looking at most cities and other school districts. So I think it'd be better to do that approach.

[617] Bowen Zhang: So your approach is just like Fremont. You want to do the presentation first and public comment second?

[625] SPEAKER_47: Correct. Member Martinez?

[628] SPEAKER_39: Yeah, so I just, given that I, the one that initiated the change last year, I just wanna clarify that the direction with the way we're doing it now, it does not only apply to consent agenda items. And I actually spoke to our trainer afterwards. I'm like, where did that come from? Nonetheless, I'm not, it's not that important to me. I think one of the main things we wanted to do just was really rein in the conversation, which were their meetings, you know, we had very long and we kind of went on and on and on. And it would be a well, what are we voting on again? Right. So the idea was, and if you look at the guidance is to do it in that manner, you can anyone can Google it. So I recognize that Newark hadn't done that historically. That's that's OK. Change is OK sometimes. Um, so with regards to, um, you know, changing and not doing the motion from totally okay with that. Um, I, I, my personal belief is I think we should do public comment first and then presentations. And the reasoning is that, you know, when staff here, some of the questions given that we can't interact with public, when the staff here, some of those questions that are being brought up staff. Ideally it gives an opportunity for staff to address it as part of their presentation and hopefully put some of those questions to bed.

[721] SPEAKER_29: Other members.

[729] Phuong Nguyen: I'm indifferent. So it's

[740] Bowen Zhang: What about the order of presentation on public comments?

[744] Phuong Nguyen: I don't have a preference. I think that, I mean, I really don't have a preference in that. Either way will work for me, but I think that sometimes, I think the public comes into the meeting already have prepared their statement. They're gonna read it regardless of whether or not they heard staff presented. So that's my position on that one.

[772] Bowen Zhang: Okay.

[772] Aiden Hill: Member Hill. Yeah, I'm like, remember when I'm indifferent to whether we have public comment first or not. I mean, I could go either way, but I do think that we should have staff and public comment and then board discussion deliberation before we make a motion. Because I think based on all those things that come up, it will determine what motion maybe needs to happen. And so that we don't have like, introduce a motion and then we got to withdraw it and make changes. I mean, this way I think it'll be cleaner if we wait until all the discussion and input has happened before we make a motion to then make a decision.

[814] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so it looks like we've reached the conclusion of our motion last, but it looks like we have some difference when it comes to whether comment first or presentation first. I guess, Member Grundahl, you're the one that's suggesting the presentation should follow the public, no, presentation should precede the public comment, where the other board member, I guess, is more comfortable seeing a presentation follows public comment.

[841] Terrence Grindall: Yeah, I see the pros and cons of both approaches. The, the pro and having the staff report first is that in it is you at least hope that the public is listening. And perhaps will be there, their comments will be shaped to be more relevant if they've heard the staff recommendation. I don't have a strong preference one way or another, but I do generally think that it's better to have the staff report first and then the public comment. But again, that isn't a strong preference. I see the pros and cons of both approaches.

[883] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, when I look at Fremont and New Haven, realizing they do the common after planting, any reason that why they will be doing it that way? Because it is like several surrounding districts are all doing the presentation for a common second, and then the more deliberation and motion last.

[902] SPEAKER_42: I did not reach out to find out why they did it that way. So I don't have an explanation as to why one over the other.

[911] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so from my personal belief, I tend to lean toward presentation first and comment second, because I hope the public, after the staff set the timeframe, set the general structure of the topic, and then bringing the public as public comment as sort of part of the discussion second, because even though board doesn't respond or interact with public, sometimes the public comment will, in many way, be integrated into part of the board deliberation. So my preference is going with presentation for just like what Fremont, New Haven, Palo Alto does. And Superintendent Triplett, do you have any memory about in Oakland, whether there are presentation first or comment first?

[960] Mark Triplett: I can't actually remember. I went to too many board meetings, and somehow it all starts to blend into one. But I will say that it is helpful to, as Member Martinez mentioned, to hear the public comment and then be able to incorporate sometimes the responses in the presentation. uh it maybe it's it really boils down to a stylistic difference.

[991] Bowen Zhang: Okay and I guess member Hill and member Nguyen both of you are indifferent to the order right?

[997] Phuong Nguyen: Yes but I think you guys already have consensus right?

[1001] Bowen Zhang: I think we didn't because member Martinez wanted.

[1004] SPEAKER_39: I'm okay I'm okay with it I mean you know it's it's not it's not life changing. I think part of the reason, sorry, let me finish my thought if I may. I think what I wanna make sure we caution ourselves is that we're doing it because it just makes sense to us the way we operate. I know sometimes we say, well, Fremont does it this way, or hey, we've always done it this way. So if it makes sense for us, I could totally support that. So I'm okay with that. you know, if we believe that it's going to shape, I tend to be like, you remember when that folks come with their statements prepared, I don't think the presentation will shape their statements, at least in my short two year tenure, but it's okay. I mean, if there's a thought that that will, I'm totally supportive.

[1060] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so I guess how about this, since we know we'll be revisiting our handbook periodically, How about let us first do the presentation first, comment second. Let's say after six months, just like we said, just like we're seeing the public is not listening to any of the presentation, repeating the same thing over and over again. Then we can have another meeting. We bring it back to change the order. Is that OK with everyone? Yes.

[1089] Terrence Grindall: Yes. OK. I also want to second member Martinez's inclination to not just do something because Fremont does it.

[1099] Bowen Zhang: So yeah, that's fair.

[1102] SPEAKER_42: That's fair. If I may just to get clarity on the decision. So the board has decided it's going to be presentation first public comment and then deliberation.

[1112] Bowen Zhang: Yes. And that last is calling for motion and vote. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Second, there is another item that's requested by three, three board members, I believe member Martinez, member Wynn and I believe member Grindel or member Hill, that is the organization goal. Who is setting the goal? Is the district or is the board setting up the goal? I think that should be a change of language. I'm looking at the existing handbook. So can Member Martinez and Member Nguyen, I believe Member Grindel or Member Hill, okay. Yeah, you three submitted this. So Member Hill, why don't you go first?

[1161] Aiden Hill: Yeah, I just suggested that we change the language from district to governance team.

[1168] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, I see a shaking of a hat.

[1172] SPEAKER_39: Yeah, I think in page one where it's district leadership is responsible for for setting goals. Governance team or board, I support that, yeah.

[1185] Bowen Zhang: I believe member Nguyen, you also sort of touch point on this. Or there's a verbiage from member Grindel. I think you, okay, then just two of you, but I think, yeah, I will agree with the verbiage. It's supposed to be the government board that's setting the goal of the district rather than just say the district.

[1209] SPEAKER_42: So if I may, if I may add a little bit here, just to provide some clarity, the governance team includes the superintendent.

[1217] Bowen Zhang: Yes, I will say so.

[1219] SPEAKER_42: Or whether that's currently currently as it is the government, the governance team includes the superintendent. So if what you guys are saying, change the language to governance team, it's to incorporate the board and the superintendent. Is that correct?

[1237] SPEAKER_39: Correct, because right now it says district leadership, that is not the board. Right. So I think the clarity is yes, we're the superintendent, of course, will be part of any governance, you know, board discussions, but but it is the governance. Yeah.

[1253] Terrence Grindall: Yeah, it's much clearer.

[1254] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. Okay, so I guess we reached a conclusion on that. Pengfei Xue:" Next item is actually also requested by Member Nguyen and Member Hill, which is the timeline verbiage, which is, I think, the old government template due to the fact that we had our meeting on Tuesday." Pengfei Xue:" So they're saying that no later than Friday when we received the package, I guess that all needs just a simple verbiage change." Pengfei Xue:" That is requested by Member Nguyen and Member Hill." So should we say no later than Monday evening, or what should we say?

[1291] SPEAKER_35: Yes.

[1294] SPEAKER_42: Could just say 72 hours, which is the rule. Oh, yeah.

[1300] Phuong Nguyen: Probably better. Yes, that's better than a day. Then we'd have to go back and change it if we change the meeting date.

[1309] Bowen Zhang: So I guess that's all for all the items that have more than one board member requested. And then I think starting at that point, we'll just go through every member's list, starting with the highest priority that's not been discussed. I think the first one I had is that motion we discussed that already. And so second one, I think I've sort of also mentioned, briefly touched by Member Hill, which is regarding seniority and presidential succession. We had this a little bit of confusion several, I think three months ago when we voted for the vice president. I think we might want to sort of modify our section plan, the seniority list, seniority order a little bit clearer. So next time we wouldn't have any confusion about who got to be the next clerk.

[1361] SPEAKER_42: So- President DeJong, I'm just going to include, bring the language that way it's here. Okay.

[1368] Terrence Grindall: And President Zhang, I also had some concerns about that. And also the existing language is really unclear. So clarity would be nice.

[1378] Bowen Zhang: So we got three board members requesting this. So one of the things that I want to talk about, my main idea about this is oftentimes the confusion comes when we have board members that have never been president serving on president before the whole who comes in first one thing comes out so I think my idea is for former like member when I myself. before deciding this term, we're really deciding who got to be the president. And then I think the idea should be for whoever member who's never been president, the lens of service on the board will determine the seniority. So in this case, regardless the election results three months ago, I should be the president before member win. I think that's also the reason why I was elected clerk to begin with. And if you have that one, and then number one, obviously, the outgoing president always goes to the bottom of the list. I think on that part, we can agree on. Ongoing president always goes to the bottom of the list, even though you may have new member join the board. And for existing member who's never been president, because if you've been president before, you know the rotation. We just keep that rotation. For the existing member who's never been the president, lens of service on the board determines who gets to be the first to be president. And for those who come onto the board at the same time, so then we come to the tricky part. For those who come onto the board on the same time, I will say the elected board member, if your service is the same, the lens is the same, elected member has precedence over appointed member. And duly elected members The regular election winner has preference over the special election winner. So in this case, Member Hill will have higher seniority than Member Grundell. And for people who are elected in the same class of election at the same time, whoever gets the higher vote will have more seniority. So that's my general idea. So I want to hear from other board members how we deal with the confusion we had three months ago.

[1511] Terrence Grindall: I'm sorry, President Jiang, I'm just a little confused about how seniority works in that regard, because you conceivably could have members that have more seniority as president and more than someone who'd been brought into the board. Anyway, I'm just a little confused. It's not a concept.

[1535] Bowen Zhang: I'm not sure what seniority means in your- Well, let me replace that with lens of service.

[1541] Phuong Nguyen: Length of service?

[1542] Bowen Zhang: Just the length of time spent on the board. I mean, the confusion, I think, primarily applies when you have two or three board members who's never been president, and you want to determine their order. Because if you have two board members who are president before, then you know who's the head of who, right? Because obviously, you have that rotation already. But I think the first item, I hope we all agree, is the outgoing president, the one who just finishes his or her term as president, goes to the bottom of the list.

[1570] SPEAKER_39: Yeah. And I think that's an important point, because the current language does not say that. Right. And in my election cycle, for example, the person that had just been the president went right back to being next in line to be president. Right. So so I so I and the only reason I was is because they're no longer here. Right. That I became president. So I actually do like your description, President Jiang, because I think it does Normally, I think we just assume that we're always going to be a neat everybody's elected and then we distinguish by, by, by votes, although the language again of like who was next after right. If you've just served as board president and you're re elected, and you get the most votes. you're still at the end of the list. Is that the case?

[1628] Bowen Zhang: I guess there can be one exception. Let's say you are the outgoing president and then right after you are the last, you are number fifth on the line. Let's say somebody in front of you resign, and we need to appoint a new person. At that point, you will move on to number four. The newly appointed person will be the fifth. But in the case of our term, even though you are the outgoing president, we have a new member, but we're sort of elected at the same time. So they're following the rest. So member Hill and member Grindel will be higher on the list than the outgoing president. In this case, it will be member Martinez.

[1668] Aiden Hill: Yeah, I just want to make sure I understand this. So are we saying that, I mean, I believe I understand the seniority part, but are we also saying that regardless of elections and things like that, that whenever somebody does a term as president, after they've done that, they're not going to have another term as president until four years after or whatever, right? So we're not going to have people rotating in because all of a sudden the elections got all changed. It's your president for one year and then you wait four years until your next term.

[1705] Bowen Zhang: Is that what we're saying? No, I guess the exception is if you have people resign or lose in the election or leave. Or be reappointed. Then you move up. You move up.

[1716] SPEAKER_39: In these last two years, whoever was in that case would have moved up like three seats. That would be the only exception. And I think it's good to plan for that because again, we didn't, you know, our language doesn't speak to that. So, so yeah.

[1733] Bowen Zhang: I think it's important to add that language. Whenever we have member leaving the board, everybody move up one spot. So, so the newly, so the newly appointed member or whatever, or the, or the, Yeah, the newly appointed member will always be at the bottom.

[1749] SPEAKER_39: Yeah, because their length of service will be the shortest, right?

[1752] Bowen Zhang: So yeah. So I guess an interesting thing is what interesting, I think the scenario is, let's say in this case, we have, obviously this time we have two new board member coming in, but they didn't kick out any incumbents. What if, what happens if they replace one incumbent in the election? Would member Martinez still be fifth at the list?

[1775] Phuong Nguyen: No, she moves up. She moves up.

[1780] Bowen Zhang: Okay, I see. Okay, so, so, so, okay, yeah, that makes sense. So member Grinnell or member whatever the new member, whatever the incumbent that's being replaced by the new member, the new member will still come at the, well, well, well, this is an interesting thing, right? We have this election is really one of the newly elected member replacing incumbent. who is supposed to be, let's say, number two, number three on the list. Will memory martinis be number four moving up one space in that case? Yes. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, I think that sort of makes sense.

[1813] Terrence Grindall: Although I do take exception to using me as the example of being... I have one other, I have one other sort of side note that is kind of missing. I've been involved in some boards where certain members don't want to be president. Is there any allowance for someone passing on it? And do we need to put that in this or is that just something we would understand?

[1836] Bowen Zhang: You know, I think that will be very, that will be under very extraordinary circumstance because obviously as part of being the president is not just Pengfei Xue, Jr. : Your, your is not just your, your right, but also your responsibility right we evenly spread out the responsibility among all the board members so so Pengfei Xue, Jr. : So I think, you know, you know, professional setting. I wouldn't expect I wouldn't expect anybody decide not to be president, just because of the inconvenience.

[1866] Terrence Grindall: I have no problem with that. I just thought we ought to, if there was discussion about allowing that, that it be addressed. Yeah, I actually, I disagree. I think that it should be

[1882] SPEAKER_39: you know, it's because it's not an inconvenience. I mean, and I'm just saying, you know, sometimes, especially if we want to attract not only people that are retired, but folks that have jobs, sometimes it's just not possible, even though they can meet other portions. So I would think that we should allow if a member, you know, doesn't want to be president, that they would allow the next person that that's my personal opinion.

[1911] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I think one of the key ideas about making these government handbooks is even though we can write a lot of specifics in there, but we're still relying on the trust we have that people are adults. So you behave professionally. And grown-up adults can sort these things out. I mean, we're not going to be able to write 100% of the detail into the governance handbook. A lot of that will still rely on the professionalism of the board members. So we're OK with. having a genuine discussion if somebody really, like I said, is inconvenient or just not possible to do this. Yeah, I think these exceptions can apply.

[1951] Terrence Grindall: And would the thinking be that the person could just be leapfrogged or would they go out back to the bottom of the rotation or out altogether?

[1961] Bowen Zhang: I would say probably to the bottom of the rotation, almost like you just finished one year. I mean, that's my thought. I have no preference.

[1970] Phuong Nguyen: I think that would be the easiest. I mean, if you, if you forego your, you know, your responsibility as being president, then you lose the opportunity to, you know, to jump in line somewhere else, you need to go to the bottom of to the back of the line.

[1989] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so I guess we have some consensus when it comes to order. Number one, I think the first point, outgoing president starts at the bottom. Number two was if one board member leaves the board, whether through resignation or anything, or retirement, or losing reelection, everybody moves up one spot. And people who are on the board, between members who are on the board who've never been president, lens of service will determine that. In the case of member Wynn and me, the reason I was elected clerk was because I was on the board longer than that member, even though we're never elected at all at that point. And same service, I mean, equal lens of service. Elected member has president over appointed member, and regularly elected member has presidents over special elected member. And within the same regular election, higher vote getter get the president, get the higher order than the lower vote getter. Does that sound right to everyone?

[2053] Phuong Nguyen: I'm okay with that.

[2054] Bowen Zhang: So we got five points. Let me review. One is president at the bottom. The second point is everybody moves out one spot if somebody leaves. Number three is length of service determines the order if members have never served as president. Number four is elected member has precedence over appointed member. The fifth point, regularly elected member has president over specially elected member. This applies to member Hill and Member Grindel. Sixth point is same class of election, whoever has higher vote has higher order. Last point is there can be discussion for someone to skip being president for one term. Ms. Guderia, is this clear direction for staff?

[2106] SPEAKER_42: Dr. Triplett, is this clear enough? I think I'm gonna have to look back at the video, but.

[2111] Mark Triplett: Yeah, yeah, I think it's fine.

[2113] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, but I think most of our members are quite clear on one word. Okay, so that's my point. And the next one, Member Nguyen, and your first one is organizational vision. So any input from that? Member Nguyen, I will let you discuss this.

[2132] Phuong Nguyen: Okay, so actually both my points for Um, we also have a couple of new organizational. Um. Vision and mission statement. Those two. I know that we won't be able to cover, you know. Those points tonight, but basically the reason why I brought it up is. Last year prior to the pandemic, we did go and have, you know, um. with Mr. Dolowich, and also there was a presentation to the board, but we haven't moved any further on that. So I'd like us to bring that back and have a discussion. I think that the organizational vision and mission statements need to be reviewed and for us to be able to change it to match what it is that our current vision is moving forward. for the district, because it has changed, I believe. And I think that it should be more specific to what it is that we're trying to achieve.

[2212] Bowen Zhang: Any other comments from the board? So what will be the action item for this one?

[2220] Phuong Nguyen: I think just to maybe bring it back and have a discussion. at a later time.

[2226] Mark Triplett: Okay, so if I may, President Jeon, with the organizational vision and mission statement, that's also something that typically is done with stakeholders, community, and so we're happy to think through that process and then of course it would involve, I imagine it would involve the engagement of the board and approval of the board

[2254] Phuong Nguyen: Yes, I would very much appreciate if we included our community members and our stakeholders and our staff in the discussion.

[2264] SPEAKER_39: Thank you. Thanks, Superintendent Triplett. Sorry, Member Zhang, if I may. Yeah, go ahead. I just wanted to say, because I agree with you, Member Nguyen, that, I mean, this is kind of the broader discussion, and I know that we've talked about this, which is starting to, at some point, calendar our retreat, if you will, kind of to start to set that strategic direction. And I think that that's where this, you know, ideally, by that time, we've had all the input, so we could really try to finalize that. And I, you know, I know that's going to be a big time effort for us. So we'll have to start looking at calendars would be my suggestion.

[2303] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so moving on to Member Hill, I think the first core belief that this the governance thing, we changed that already. And I guess the second point is, Board deliberation, following board deliberation, a vote will be taken. So I think this might require some comprehensive discussion. So Member Hill, I would want you to chime in on your second point, board deliberations.

[2331] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so since, you know, we kind of listed stuff out, I mean, I just listed stuff out based on going through the document, but that's not necessarily the priority. And so, and since we have limited time, you know, I wanted to kind of discuss, you know, what I think is an important topic for, you know, our handbook and that's kind of the agenda setting. So, kind of my thought is that, And let me just pull up my notes here so I can refresh my mind.

[2361] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, this is actually interesting. I also want to discuss I didn't put into the list.

[2366] Aiden Hill: Okay. Um, so, so what I what I would like to see and we kind of talked about it a little bit during our Saturday session, you know, and Deb from CSBA talked about it and I think we've talked about it before, but You know, I think it would be really helpful for us to have a board calendar for our agenda, you know, our agendas, because I think there's a lot of standing items that we know way out and that we can get slotted, you know, just and we just know it's going to be there. And so, you know, so I would like to suggest that we adopt that as kind of a formal you know, protocol in our norms, but that also I'd like to suggest, you know, we were just talking about the whole 72-hour rule, and my feeling is that, you know, we want to have really good informed board discussions, and oftentimes 72 hours may not be sufficient for people to kind of prepare and come in and really discuss, and so I'd like to suggest that we have a protocol where any item that we want to put on the agenda that we need to put it like a couple of meetings out, you know, so that everybody can see, okay, so we're gonna know that the agenda two weeks out, you know, here's the items that are proposed, and so then we can go in and look at that, and if we need to do research or whatever, we can research that, so we'll have plenty of time to, you know, come in and be prepared. And of course, you know, there will be emergencies that come in, you know, and so we have to make allowance for that. But just as kind of a best practice, if we can, you know, essentially adopt a practice that says anything we want to put on the agenda, we're really talking about putting it, you know, slotting it two weeks out or two or not, I shouldn't say two weeks, two meetings out. And, you know, and the other thing that I think is important related to all this too, and I think we've gotten some feedback about this, and I think also Deb had talked a little bit about this as well, is that per Ed Code, right, anybody has the option, the right to put something on the agenda, including members of the public. And that doesn't mean that we necessarily are required to discuss everything that's put on there, but at least there is transparency and, you know, democracy in terms of letting anybody whether it's a member of the public or the board and so I'd like to also suggest that for when that situation comes up, whether it's a member of the public or the board, that we say, we got to at least get that agendized. And then we can talk about the agenda once it comes to the actual date. But we at least get those things agendized three meetings out from the submission date. So I think if we make those changes to how the agenda gets put together, I think we'll have a lot more, basically, what's the right term? Foresight or the ability to kind of see what's coming and really prepare and have some really good discussion. So that's one of my top, you know, inputs for this process.

[2553] Bowen Zhang: Any comments from other board members on this?

[2560] SPEAKER_42: If I may, member Nguyen just informed us that her computer crashed. So she's in the process of logging back on.

[2567] SPEAKER_39: Okay, I see. Yes, I have a comment. I think that totally agree that, you know, one thing that we've been missing, and I think all those of us who've attended training talk, one thing we keep hearing about is the governance calendar. And I think it's been a while that we've had one here at Newark Unified. So I think that is probably our tool, our key mechanism. for making sure we get that visibility of what are the things that are coming down the pike. I think, you know, whether we adopt that, hey, everything needs to come to us, you know, two weeks in advance. I mean, if the key is just the visibility, I think that's practical, right? Because it's something we need to do. Hey, we know that we're going to get the you know, the dashboards every April 15th. We're gonna get this every, at least then we know what's coming up. I think we wanna just make sure we are careful to not make the process so, you know, rigid that as things come up, we definitely don't want any surprises, but that we're also not putting too many difficult, too many hurdles in terms of trying to get everything planned out so far ahead. But that's just my only my only comment is I think if we had a governance handbook that would give us that big visibility that we're all looking for.

[2669] Bowen Zhang: Superintendent Triplett. Yes, thank you. Can you comment on this agenda timeline or agenda calendars?

[2677] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, President Zheng. Yeah, so I really appreciate the sentiment around the governance calendar. It is something that we have been working on and we're hoping to bring to the board at the next meeting. We have had a very generic one. and the CSBA, the California School Board Association, also provides guidance around a governance calendar. But what we've been trying to do is actually engage with all of the different departments to have them weigh in, give input onto the different items that they know do come up during the year for the board to review. And so that's kind of the thing that we've been working on right now. we anticipate being able to have a draft to bring to you all at the upcoming meeting.

[2732] SPEAKER_39: And if I may, I think that's great, Superintendent. Just, Member Zhang, and I know that, you know, I'm not sure where all of us are in our training cycles, but with regards to that governance calendar, you know, it is board driven. And so that's something that I think that we should not just put on your shoulders, superintendent. I think that and you know, maybe that's a discussion that you and members young can have. Maybe there's a couple of us that can be a subcommittee because the reality is that one thing that I kept hearing is that the governance handbook is board directed, right? Here's what we want to see the reports. you all are kind of coming to us where here's the things we need to do to kind of keep operations going, right? But in terms of the big items, again, if we as a board say we want to do more academic reporting and conversations, then we should be able to give that direction through the governance handbook that says every April we do this, every January thing we do this. So that's something to just kind of think about, is how do we make sure it's not just on your shoulders? Because at the end of the day, it's something we want, but it's on us to also make sure it happens.

[2811] Mark Triplett: Okay, I just, I would just say the reason that we are engaging all our staff and departments in it is because there's a lot of different aspects of the operation of the district and. And so, of course, we want, ultimately, the board should. should set the calendar, but it's one of those things like not everybody necessarily knows. You're right. You're right. Nor the appropriate time.

[2842] SPEAKER_39: It's kind of populating the pieces because we wouldn't know. You're absolutely right. I think you're absolutely right. What I'm kind of commenting to is that, again, only two years behind me, but we've been talking about it and we know where there's change in leadership, but I want to make sure we take some of that ownership, too, to kind of get in there and make sure that it happens. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks.

[2865] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I'm watching the clock. I think I'll remember you have any input on this item.

[2871] Aiden Hill: Yeah, and just just echoing member Martinez, and you know, speaking as a former project manager, you know, I want to I want to, you know, make sure that we get out of the situation of, you know, operating by emergency and by exception, and really trying to go plan things out. And then, you know, the exceptions are the exceptions rather than the rule, right. And so I think, and I appreciate Dr. Triplett's point that It takes time to put this together. And so I think we need to provide some, you know, some period for putting this together. But then after that, you know, let's, let's really try to start operating with, you know, as much foresight as we can. And also provide the opportunity for the public, because there may be agenda items that either the district's not really aware of, or that we the board are not aware of. and that they, you know, let's provide transparency and opportunity. That doesn't mean that it necessarily becomes something that we choose to discuss as a board, but at least have them give them the opportunity to get it on the agenda for discussion and a decision on whether we're gonna do anything about it.

[2940] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so I'm watching the clock. I think we have time for another item. That will be member Martinez. Member Martins and I, I guess, number one, organization believe we take care of that. District goal areas. Board of Education will set specific measurable goals on annual basis. I think that shouldn't be controversial to change that one. And board meeting protocols. Board member interaction with the public at board meetings. So the change to delete sentence, so that's a part. So Member Martins, can you chime in that 3A, the first one you said, change to delete sentence.

[2977] SPEAKER_39: In the course of engaging community members during public communications, that's what I think that, so we know we don't engage directly with the public, right? So I think that, so not, and so is it during public communications and all other times during board meetings? Right. So we're doing board meetings. We're not supposed to be engaging outside. Yes, but not during the board meeting. So I think just cleaning up the language there.

[3011] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I think that should be fine, because we we do not engage with the public during during the board meeting. And the other thing is. And that would be on occasion, I think I have a hard time thinking about what is the public communication, because most of the time the superintendent sent a letter to the district, or even very occasionally, the board president serving as the spokesperson for the board sent out something. I guess that's never happened so far.

[3039] SPEAKER_39: So yeah, I was I kind of took public communications, maybe just, you know, hey, when you're meeting out with some of our constituents, or or even at the PTCs, I mean, theoretically, that's public communications, right?

[3052] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. No, I guess if you have any committee, let's say a bond committee meeting or like a school consolidation or like use of managing the surplus property, these committee meetings, I guess that still applies, right? We've got two board members sitting on the committee. So, you know, of course, during public I guess we should probably at least delete and all other times during board meetings, because during board meeting, we definitely do not engage with them.

[3089] SPEAKER_39: Yeah. And so I think just by stating it almost kind of leads us to believe that, hey, as long as we don't aren't disrespectful, but the reality is we shouldn't be, except for the board president, if he or she chooses to. Right.

[3103] Terrence Grindall: And just so I understand, you're talking about deleting the entire sentence or just the section that talks about board meetings?

[3108] SPEAKER_39: The board meetings.

[3111] Terrence Grindall: I concur. OK.

[3112] Bowen Zhang: So. Sorry. Yes, go ahead.

[3119] Mark Triplett: Harmon Zuckerman, PB – He, Him, His): Just to be clear, it sounds like the board. There's multi sentiment around that engaging with the public during a board meeting is absolutely Harmon Zuckerman, PB – He, Him, His. : Not appropriate. Is that, and this is just my own memory is that written somewhere else because of it. If it isn't, then I would recommend that it we don't lose that.

[3141] SPEAKER_39: Cindy Spence, COB Secretary she-her, OSBT – she-her-hers Because the part that basically states that it's, you know, if anything, the president may give direction.

[3158] Aiden Hill: Can we check EdCode on that? Because it's my understanding that there could be interaction if it's actually an agenda item. And that doesn't mean that we, you know, I'm encouraging that we're, you know, having direct communication or anything like that. I think we got to be efficient. But I just want to make sure we don't run afoul of EdCode.

[3179] SPEAKER_39: Okay. And one of my very first items that I asked was that if we bold the reminder that our meet on page seven of the current adopted governance is that we are, this is not a town hall. This is a meeting of ours in public. So I think that's why it's so important to really get that language. And it's not that we're being rude. I used to kind of have that feeling too when I would attend meetings. But that's not the intent of these meetings, right? So I think that's, I think we're compliant for sure.

[3218] SPEAKER_42: Superintendent, if I may just provide also some clarity. Member Hill mentioned what if a member of the public is presenting an agenda item. So this is very much more pertaining to public comment. And if they were to make a public comment, then the board does not respond or interact. If a member of the public were to have an item agendized, then the member of the public would be invited to the meeting and would be presenting the item. Therefore, there is conversation in that aspect because the item is agendized as compared to it being public comment.

[3259] SPEAKER_47: Thank you, Ms. Gutierrez.

[3263] Bowen Zhang: OK, I'm actually watching the call. We only have four minutes left. There are still quite a bit of items to go over, and I think either we want to schedule a special meeting among the board or we want to do another study session. I want to hear from the rest of the board. Should we schedule a special meeting on this?

[3289] SPEAKER_39: I would say so, so we can kind of be done with it.

[3294] Phuong Nguyen: I'm in agreement with Member Martinez.

[3296] Bowen Zhang: Okay, okay. And yes, what about member Grundahl and member Hill? I'm with that. Okay, so we got a consensus on scheduling a special meeting to further hammer out the details on the board governance handbook. And another thing that's given today, we talk about motion, which is how we run our meetings. So I guess, do we agree that we would change that order once we actually voted into our governance handbook? Member of Grinnell?

[3334] Terrence Grindall: I think that's the president's call.

[3336] SPEAKER_39: I agree.

[3337] Terrence Grindall: Sorry to pass the buck.

[3340] SPEAKER_39: I was just going to say that I think it's your call, President Zhang. You have that prerogative.

[3345] Bowen Zhang: OK, that's hopefully we schedule that one in the next regular board meeting. And as of tonight, we'll continue the current practice. And one other input I have for the presidential section line that I described, there is one hidden rule that we didn't spell out, which is for a member who's never been president, it's not possible for an appointed member to serve longer than an elected member. Because if that's possible, it's sort of all these order are all wrong, right? Because an elected member who's never been a board will definitely serve longer than an appointed member, because If somebody is appointed before a regular scheduled election, that person will need to run in that election. Otherwise, we'll have some contradiction to our line of succession. Okay, so with that, I will close the study session. Before we move into a closed session, Ms. Gutierrez, any public comments on closed session?

[3408] SPEAKER_42: No public comment on closed session.

[3410] Bowen Zhang: Okay, in closed session, we'll be discussing item 4.2, Public Employee Discipline Dismissal Release. Item 4.3, Conference with Labor Negotiator, Employee Organization, NTA and CSCA. 4.4, Conference with Labor Negotiator, Newmont Unrepresented Supervisor on Contracted Management. Item 4.5, Conference with Legal Counsel regarding existing litigation. And item 4.6, conference with legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. I will be back to open session. And I will see everyone in a bit. Thank you. Five ayes.

[3450] SPEAKER_37: Thank you.

[5596] SPEAKER_29: Scream.

[7086] SPEAKER_42: President Hsiang, we are live and can start whenever you're ready.

[7090] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Good evening again. We're back from closed session. Superintendent Schroeder has agreed to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Ms. Gutierrez, can you put up the national banner?

[7113] SPEAKER_42: Yes. Mr. Mellons, if you could please put up the flag.

[7116] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Please stand. 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.

[7140] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, everyone.

[7147] Bowen Zhang: Report of closed session actions, that's the next item. In the closed session, no reportable action has been taken. Moving on to student report from Black Student Union, Superintendent Triplett.

[7161] Mark Triplett: Thank you President Jeon and again, good evening to board members, staff and community and students. So this evening, normally we have the student reports in the first meeting of the month, but this is a special occasion. We have two leaders from the Black Student Union who are here to share a little bit about some of the initiatives that they are working on in relationship to the Black Lives Matter resolution and our work to strive to better serve our African-American families and students. Ms. Gutierrez, do we have our student members? Oh, there we go. I couldn't see them on the screen. Great. So I'm going to, it's my pleasure to turn it over to two of these distinguished leaders, Jack and Stephen.

[7215] SPEAKER_36: Hello, board members. How are you guys doing tonight?

[7220] Phuong Nguyen: Good. Great, thank you.

[7223] SPEAKER_36: My name is Jack Rollins.

[7226] SPEAKER_27: And my name is Stephen Ginn.

[7229] SPEAKER_36: We represent the Black Student Union at Newark Memorial High School. Me, African-American students at Newark Unified School District have expressed that they feel like they have been treated differently in and outside the classroom by other students, teachers, and staff. And I myself personally have felt the effects of racial adversity on campus in my experience at the school.

[7261] SPEAKER_27: I too have witnessed as well as heard stories of racism experienced by African-American students on campus.

[7269] SPEAKER_36: And because of this, we have created a survey to send out to the African-American families in the community to better understand how they're feeling through the district.

[7284] SPEAKER_27: In partnership with the Laws Committee and NUSD administrators, BSU intends to identify action steps to make NUSD a safer and more equitable place for African-American students and families.

[7299] SPEAKER_36: BSU and the Wellness Committee plan on returning to share the results of the survey and ideas on how to make NUSD a safer place for African American students and families. Thank you.

[7315] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Jack and Steven. Thank you for the report.

[7319] Mark Triplett: Thank you both. And may I just say, well, first of all, how proud I am of these two individuals and the group that they represent, but then also how eager I am to work with the group. As you all know, we are really working hard to improve a social emotional learning, wellness, and equity in our district. And I think this is a very important step. So thank you students for being with us. Thank you everyone.

[7347] SPEAKER_36: Thank you for having us. We really appreciate it.

[7351] SPEAKER_47: Thank you.

[7352] Bowen Zhang: Moving on to the next item, employee organizations. Ms. Gutierrez, do we have any of our labor union group representative here?

[7362] SPEAKER_42: Yes, so now we have representation from NEWMA and we have principal, let me see if she's available. Oh yes, Principal Vicenta Dedo. One second. Principal Ditto, you are wonderful.

[7388] Bowen Zhang: Welcome.

[7389] SPEAKER_31: Good evening. Thank you for this time, President Hsieh and board members and our esteemed cabinet. As we continue to recognize Black innovators throughout Black History Month, NEWMA would like to highlight Lisa Gallabder. She is the CEO and co-founder of Techquitable, That company uses technology to make the workplace more equitable, providing an independent confidential platform to address issues of bias, harassment, and discrimination. She has worked on several pioneering internet technologies and created products that have been used by billions of people, including Shockwave Hulu and the Ascent of Online Video. So all of those fun gifts that we love, we have her to thank for. We also want to wish a happy new year or don't don't get too mad at me. I'm really, really trying to those that celebrated last Friday and are continuing to follow to celebrate their new year. We as members. of NEWMA do want to recognize that we extol the virtues of the ox, this year's symbol of the Chinese zodiac. Administrators, much like the zodiac oxen, are hard workers in the background, diligent, dependable, strong, and determined. And while they may not be demanding of praise, they absolutely deserve recognition for their important contributions to our collective success. One such member that we would like to highlight this week is Nydia Sanchez, our Director of Child Care Programs here at NUSD. She provides customer service to our families and colleagues as she oversees six district child care programs at multiple sites. She is a caring supervisor and reliable when it comes to ensuring the safety of our students. Nydia has been with our district over seven years, and some of her favorite things about her job is getting to be of service to our district families, Developing a sense of safety for everyone in her program, and of course, seeing the big smile students have when they're in child care. Nydia is a proud and happy member of both the NUSD family and the NEWMA organization. We continue to highlight awesome NEWMA members and the work they do to drive NUSD's mission to inspire and educate. Bree Holoka, I'm sorry, one of our district behavior specialists is another such person. Bree has been in the NUSD family for 16 years working with teachers, service providers, and students through applied behavior analysis, behavior consultation at the individual and whole class levels, and supporting students with behavior goals as part of their IEPs. She also has had a front seat to watch students grow and show positive behavior changes from ages three all the way up through 22. This includes celebrating the positive changes that affect students' education and social opportunities with her students and their families. Brie appreciates how small Newark is and values the relationships she has with her Newark colleagues. Thank you for your time this evening.

[7596] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Principal Dietl. Ms. Gutierrez, do we have any other speakers?

[7606] SPEAKER_42: No other speakers for the organizations, thank you.

[7608] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Moving on to recognition and celebration, we're going to have School Spotlight, Schoening Elementary, Superintendent Triplett.

[7617] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jeon. I'm delighted to invite Dr. Wendy Castaneda-Leal to join us in the panel. We've recently had the opportunity to hear from her with regard to the Dual Language Immersion Program. But as you recall, every month we have one or sometimes two principals come and share out the amazing things happening in their school now. And so we're really glad to have Dr. Wendy with us.

[7649] Bowen Zhang: Welcome.

[7651] SPEAKER_43: Thank you so much, members of the cabinet, President Zhang. And I am so excited to be here. So let me just get a moment and I will share my screen so I can share with you guys the wonderful things that we are doing here at Schilling. And I did click that sound button today, so hopefully everything works well. So welcome to Schilling Elementary School. I can say I'm honored to have this today, but it reminds me of last year. We were the last school to present before we wanted to shelter in place on the back of the board room is all of our arts still up there. So if you ever get a chance to see it, that'll be great. So our mission here at Chilling is that all students will learn at high levels to be ready for a college or a career. And every morning we state the school's mission, but also the NUSD mission so our students know what they're striving for. So a little bit about who we are. We're about 71% free and reduced lunch and about 37% of our students are English learners. 77% of our students are Hispanic and then the next highest demographic is Filipino and Asian. So currently on our California dashboard, because we didn't have any standardized testing last year, we go back to the last time that our students took tests. So we can see with chronic absenteeism, we have significantly improved from the last time that this was documented. And then also for our suspension rates, our English language arts has improved by 12.2 points and our math also improved although there's still much area for growth. And this will be seen today by our various systems that we have in place in order to continue with academic success. We have student council where our president helps me do the morning announcements every morning, as well as members of our student board. We have different spirit days in order to continue on our adventures throughout the school, just like crazy hair day, Sports Day and Disney Day. And I'm going to show you a short video of some of the wonderful things our student council does together with our community.

[7827] SPEAKER_03: We are also participating in our SEAL school.

[7857] SPEAKER_43: And our TKK 1, 2, and 3 this year are all doing different instructional strategies with SEAL, where they encompass lots of song, lots of wordplay, and even through distance learning, our students are doing this. And it's a wonderful experience for our teachers, but definitely for our students. We also have CHANCE that they use, and they try to integrate things from the community, authentic learning. so that our students understand the extensive vocabulary that they're doing. So if you see in our storyboard, the family that is sitting down eating because of our population, they're eating pozole, which is a Hispanic dish. We also work very hard for all of our online platforms that we use as subsidized by our CPSA. And here are some of the authentic assessments that our teachers are doing during distance learning.

[7919] SPEAKER_35: Okay, Andy. Chapter one, Rabbit Game. Hi, Andy. Hello, Preston. What are we doing? We are doing nothing. What's it? Seems like we are doing something but we are not. Then what should we do?

[7949] SPEAKER_43: This is how we're determining student reading comprehension level and to see where we need to intervene and also celebrate their successes. Here's an example of a math lesson.

[7960] SPEAKER_35: About even and odd. This is an even pile. This one is an odd pile. This one's odd because it doesn't have a partner. This one has two partners. And this one doesn't have a partner. So that one's odd. These have odd.

[7991] SPEAKER_43: In our upper grades, we're talking a lot about racial equity and what identity means to our students. So these are some of the examples that as a Flipgrid is being used, our students just throw their ideas and we talk about what identity means to them in different ways. Also in upper grades for math, we have multiple ways to share how students can learn math and showing them that it doesn't matter which approach they take, whatever they feel more comfortable to solve the problem in the equation is what they can use. So here you will see three different methods that students are using during math class.

[8037] SPEAKER_35: Hi, my name is Jaime. I'm going to show you how to solve this math problem. The first thing I will do is look at pen desk. You have to look at the parentheses first. so i know 7 minus 4 equals 3 and i know 3 times 5 equals 15 okay so first i start off with 4 times 2 which is 8 then after i do 0 times 2 which is 0 Then I do 4 times 2, which is 8. 1 times 2, which is 2. Add the 0 down there. Then I do 5 times 4, which is 20. And then I do 5 times 0 plus 2.

[8101] SPEAKER_43: And the last one, this one I still have yet to master as an adult.

[8106] SPEAKER_35: For the first question, I'm going to be doing the lattice method. So first things first, you're going to be multiplying. So 4 times 5 is 20. Then 4 times 2 is 8, so 0, 8. And this is going to be 0 and 0 again, so put the 0's, 0, 0. And 4 times 5 is 20.

[8137] SPEAKER_43: All right, we also like to always talk about our cultural awareness to our students. So every month is focused on a different culture. And during the daily morning announcement, students are exposed to either a different aspect of the culture holiday or a famous person from that racial ethnicity. So here's one of the examples where we actually, when we're able to invite people from different cultures to share their culture with the Chalet students. I'm going to play with you a small clip that our students were able to experience before shelter-in-place happened in distance learning, but they're still able to see it virtually now. Students are also asked sometimes to write essay about their cultural orders and their own culture, and they make these connections to what they see, what they read, and what they experience in the lesson. We're also a gold recognition for PBIS, the only one in the district, and we're shooting towards platinum, and hopefully we can get it soon. With our team, we have developed an extended remote learning matrix, which is part of our PBIS. We also track data for different tiered interventions. And normally, if we were in class, we would do prizes, but now we're doing virtual prizes for our students to redeem when they earn stallion bucks or virtual class dojo points. So we have a different multi-tiered level of support. at school so this ranges from academics to behavior to attendance in different areas. This is going to be our student of the month celebration that we continue to do every month using our social distance practices but our students get to have they usually get pizza with the principal but now with our collaboration with FedEx we Get them pizzas and a math test as student of the month, shilling, they get a certificate and some other goodies. So I'm going to show you a short clip of what that celebration looks like. And we love to celebrate our students every month. And every month, we have a different aspect of our learning matrix that we learn. Every week, we also do, our teachers do a second step lesson, which is our social emotional curriculum. And so we are on year two for our social emotional curriculum and our mental health clinician, Ms. Jackie, always does a short video for us or a longer lesson to help our teachers. and she does a wonderful job teaching our students these Second Steps lessons.

[8397] SPEAKER_40: Hello, Stallions. This is Miss Jackie with Second Step. I'm excited to be here today with our very first Unity webinar. And since we're all together and you all have been learning about Second Step, TK, all the way through sixth grade, we get to come together and talk about what you've learned. At Schilling, we're able to recognize our strong feelings and use the Second Step ways to calm down, stay in control of our bodies, Our bodies give us clues about how we're feeling. When you have a strong feeling, your face might get hot, your stomach might begin to hurt, and your head might begin to fill.

[8443] SPEAKER_43: And these are all skills even as adults we can use too. And some of our lesson also integrates that students write down their feelings and so These was a flip grid that one of our upper grade students used just to document why it's important to calm down. And they had fantastic ideas that the next day we took some of these and announced it to the whole school during our morning announcements. We also try to make it a little bit fun when we are doing a remote learning matrix for PBIS. And this is one of the examples where this month we're looking at PE and how students are following our PBIS rules. And so we made a video for the whole school. Normally we're able to do a performance, but this year we've improved our technology skills.

[8496] SPEAKER_40: Do you ever sit at home during distance learning, just staring at a screen all day, working so hard, getting your assignments done, your eyes start to hurt? And then think about the times where maybe you miss your friends. Yeah, I do too sometimes. I sit at home sometimes. I click my pen and then I have to remind myself to get back to work. And then I remember, it's time for P.E.! It's time for P.E. !

[8531] SPEAKER_41: Hi Shilling, you know that P.E. is my favorite subject today. Mr. Horning is coming over. That's why I'm wearing my mask. And we get to play today and do some... That's him right now!

[8541] SPEAKER_16: Come on! Yay! Yay! My cousin's here today! Yay! And I'm so proud to be a stallion here. And Jackie loves this school so much, and so do I. Okay, thank you for coming over, Mr. Harney.

[8566] SPEAKER_41: Oh, my pleasure. I'm so excited. You know that PE is my favorite subject. Oh, you made my day. Okay, are you ready to be safe, be responsible, be respectful? Yes, I am. Let's go have some

[8580] SPEAKER_43: So we love making these videos for our kids, especially since we can't see them. So what else do we do? Of course, we have Ms. Jackie, who's our fabulous mental health clinician, our librarian, who does live read out louds for our students. We also have an intensive RTI process. We have a lot of EL support. We have a strong SST team, and of course, our cost team. We also have food bank at Schilling twice a month. Parent partners do a great job outreaching and providing services to our families that need it. We also have Think Together on site for four hours, two sessions a day. We also have a garden that now our Think Together students are helping out with and growing and preparing for spring. We have collaboration with Fremont High School, where their high school students run a robotics organization called I Love Pi. And also we are starting a collaboration with CEWA International, which is an organization that will be providing tutoring for free after school for our kids that need it through distance learning, and also provided 400 gifts for our students during the winter holiday in collaboration with our parent-teacher organization called PASS, who also seeked out $3,000 worth of winter holiday food and donations. And Dr. Triplett was there to help us distribute it on Christmas Eve to all the families who needed it. So I do wanna end with one more song because this is what all of our students learn. And this is one of our students in second grade who sang it tonight for us.

[8689] SPEAKER_27: Oh, sorry.

[8693] SPEAKER_35: One, be responsible. Two, be so safe. Three is to be respectful. Those are the rules of sharing school. They help us to be the greatest. Take care of things and do your work to show that you are responsible. Watch out for others and yourself for safe and careful behavior. Best of all, we show respect to friends and all school members. Each person is so very important, so caring and kindness to others.

[8734] SPEAKER_43: So thank you so much, board members, for allowing me to present today and members of the cabinet.

[8740] Bowen Zhang: Thank you for the great presentation. Any comments from the board?

[8747] Phuong Nguyen: I would just like to thank Dr. Wendy and her staff at Schilling for doing a wonderful job with all of the students and their families there. I know that you guys go above and beyond to serve some of our most underserved students in the district. So much appreciation to everyone at Schilling. Thank you.

[8774] SPEAKER_39: Dr. Wendy, thank you so much for for sharing and I especially like just all the videos that you shared, because it just really brings you know many times we just see the reports or the graphs, but this was wonderful to just you know just really get a flavor for for your community in the school, so thank you so much.

[8794] Aiden Hill: Member Hill. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Wendy. I could see you're really doing a great job and you're building a great culture. And really, you know, I can see the caring and the love. And so that's wonderful.

[8811] Bowen Zhang: Member Gündel.

[8818] Terrence Grindall: and you're on mute. Thank you for the excellent presentations. Very, very inspiring. And I love the videos and the songs. Thank you so much. Thank you for all the work you're doing, supporting the children and the teachers in these difficult times. So thank you.

[8835] SPEAKER_43: Thank you all.

[8837] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, thank you for the great work. And you're in charge of the school with the highest percentage of low-income kids. And we know how difficult this job is. And the interesting thing about this current board is this is actually, I believe, the first time that the majority of the Newark School Board actually hails from the shielding attendance era. Member Grindel, Member Hill, and myself. So hopefully that our most underserved school will continue to thrive under your leadership. And this pandemic and the prolonged shutdown of the school obviously hit our low-income students the most. And we obviously have a tough job forward once we reopen the school. Thank you. Okay, moving on to public comment on non-agenda item. Ms. Gutierrez, any speakers on this?

[8890] SPEAKER_42: Yes, President Zhang, we have two speakers that made a request. However, I currently only see one. If we can move Mr. Ray Rodriguez, please.

[8909] Bowen Zhang: I think you're on mute. Thank you.

[8914] SPEAKER_33: Okay.

[8918] SPEAKER_42: Mr. Rodriguez?

[8919] Ray Rodriguez: Yes, ma'am.

[8921] SPEAKER_42: We are ready for you.

[8923] Ray Rodriguez: Okay. I was looking for my picture.

[8927] Bowen Zhang: Your YouTube is streaming the meeting in 30 seconds delay. I think that's the problem.

[8939] Ray Rodriguez: the background noise. Um so I wanted to address the board and uh I think you're on mute. Am I on mute?

[8947] SPEAKER_42: I no sorry uh Ray I think you have um you're hearing the YouTube in the background. Yes ma'am. So if you want to just um mute the YouTube that way you can hear us here.

[8962] Ray Rodriguez: Oh okay let me get rid of that. I'm sorry.

[8968] Bowen Zhang: Your YouTube is streaming the meeting in 30 seconds delay. I think that's the problem.

[8974] Ray Rodriguez: Oh, that's the problem. So I wanted to address the board.

[8982] SPEAKER_42: Am I on mute? No, sorry. Ray, I think you're hearing the YouTube in the background.

[8990] Michael Milliken: Yes, ma'am.

[8991] SPEAKER_42: So if you want to just

[8993] SPEAKER_29: mute the YouTube that way you can hear us here.

[9005] Ray Rodriguez: Okay, so how's that? That better? Perfect. Technology drives me crazy. Anyway, I wanted to address the board on the issue of that's going to be coming up pretty soon is the opening of schools. The, you know, President Biden, with his wife being a teacher, is pushing for, you know, the schools to open sooner than later. So what I wanted to address is the issue of teachers and paraeducators. I don't know why and how it got, it didn't get done, but for whatever reason, they're not considered essential. And that's my understanding. So when it comes to the vaccine, we need to find a way to get the teachers and our educators, the ones that are working with our kids, vaccinated, getting the vaccine soon later. And so I'm hoping that with the help of Alameda County, we can do something about that and make sure that you know, parents and the teachers both feel safe going back to the classroom. It's very important, especially when you're dealing with special needs kids, because the teachers with special needs kids, as most of you know, have to be close and personal or the paraeducator that's taking care of the special needs child. So it's hoping the board, when you do have the conversation, will work with the union, and I'm sure you are already, and to come up with something where our kids can go back to school, even if it's hybrid, a couple of days a week, and sooner than later. But the last thing I want is for a teacher to feel that they're forced to go back to school when they don't feel safe because of, you know, COVID-19. And that's why I'm hoping that the vaccine is available to teachers and educators soon and later. The last thing I want is to have a teacher teaching my child, a grandchild, that's not feeling safe in the classroom. So I know that the board will take care of this and make sure something gets in place so that everybody, you know, is comfortable with if you do the hybrid model. Thank you for listening to me and I'm looking forward to this COVID-19 being over. I just had my first shot and I'm due for my second one in about 30 days. And so thank you board for listening and have a great meeting. Thank you, God bless.

[9188] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez. Member Gutierrez, any other comment? On the public?

[9197] SPEAKER_42: Yes, so the next one is Christine Clinton and Mr. Mellons, if you could please unmute the one that says Cara family, please.

[9215] Bowen Zhang: Welcome.

[9216] SPEAKER_49: Thank you. Is the time starting now?

[9220] SPEAKER_42: As soon as you begin talking, I'll start.

[9223] SPEAKER_49: Okay. Hi, everyone. Today I want to talk about transparency or lack thereof in the meeting minutes, especially when those minutes relate to the superintendent secretary, Ms. Lucia Gutierrez. Keep in mind that the instances I will cite did not occur in closed session and the topics are not confidential. The July 14th, 2020 meeting minutes state, President Martinez makes an announcement before we'll call. That's it. On video, President Martinez said, I would like to make an announcement that board member Lucia Gutierrez has submitted her resignation in effective yesterday, the 13th. Next, in the minutes from the January 21st, 2021 meeting, it states under 14.1, that public comment was made available and requested by Kenneth White. provided a statement regarding the personnel reports in relation to the hiring of an individual. In Mr. White's three minutes, he referred to Ms. Gutierrez by name twice. He focused on section 1090 that prohibits people serving the public from being financially interested in contracts, as is the case in Ms. Gutierrez's hiring. He then told the board that subsequently voted unanimously to approve the personnel report as presented and thus rehiring Ms. Gutierrez that aiding and abetting is a criminal violation. Superintendent Triplett said at the January 21st, 2021 meeting that while the district believes the complaints 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. If nobody did anything wrong, then why are you, board members, approving minutes that lack basic details? Citing names in both of the instances I mentioned is a fundamental to these minutes. Ms. Gutierrez was at the core of those discussions. Omitting that detail leaves the impression that you have something to hide. It also leaves the impression that you don't believe in transparency, that the community in which you serve isn't deserving of key information. I'm asking you to think about how information is presented to the public and to consider the who, what, why, when and where of each topic in the minutes before approval. The public deserves this. The public deserves transparency. Anything less is lazy and could be perceived as aiding the person who is central to an improper hiring complaint. Ms. Gutierrez writes the minutes and seems to be purposely keeping herself off the written record. That's not how people who have done nothing wrong act. Thank you.

[9373] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Ms. Gutierrez, do we have any other speakers on this item?

[9380] SPEAKER_42: No, that is all.

[9382] Bowen Zhang: Do we have any other speaker for the rest of the meeting from the public?

[9387] SPEAKER_42: Not from the public.

[9388] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Okay, moving on to the next item, superintendent report. Superintendent Triplett.

[9397] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jeon. If I could share my screen. Here we go.

[9415] Phuong Nguyen: Great, sorry.

[9417] Mark Triplett: All right, so this is a superintendent's report for this evening, February 18th. Wanted to give you updates on enrollment registration, also give you a merger update and discuss a little bit about the reopening plans and the work that's being done there, as well as COVID-19 and information about that pandemic. First, enrollment. So as you know, every board meeting, I've been bringing updates around these different topics. And so today's enrollment information is here for you to see. This is a snapshot as of the 15th. which was earlier in this week, I believe. And as you can see, in comparison to the last time I presented enrollment at the last meeting, we have one less student. So it went from 5,502 on the 1st of February to 5,501 on the 15th. And this is 99 students less than what our projections were at the end of last year for this year's enrollment. So again, important to keep track of. We really want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to keep students and also as we're focusing on registration and enrollment for the upcoming year. This is a real priority for us as well. The second thing I wanted to talk about with regard to enrollment and registration. Last time you recall, shared out the timeline around registration. So as you may be aware, we unfortunately did experience a technology glitch on the part of our parent view and synergy system. So at the start of the enrollment window was supposed to be February 9th. But because of that glitch, we had to close the window temporarily, work with the company, EduPoint, who helped to fix the technology glitches, and we're able to bring the registration window back up on the 12th. So because of that, we are extending the priority window from February 12 to March 12. It was going to be February 9 to March 9. So just wanted to make sure that we're giving adequate time for folks to be registering in the priority window. And then on the 15th, we'll close the priority window. And at that point, we'll place all of the students that have registered in their respective schools, and then reopen the registration. March 22nd and that'll be open then until start of school and and beyond of course. There will be a point February 15th where we won't shut down the window at all or shut down the registration but we will internally be reviewing the projections, matching it up and seeing where we're standing in terms of enrollment and at that point we make adjustments accordingly. And then in May, and thereafter, is when we process all the rest of the intra-district transfers, and we accept inter-district transfers at that point, so students and families from other districts. So a little bit about how we've been engaging families within this process. So we did have a registration info night on February 9th in both there was an English version and a Spanish version. We had dual language info sessions, January 19th, 28th, February 3rd. And we did have a one specifically for kindergarten families on February 17th. And we've had a number of community meetings with regard to TK and K with music because of the consolidation that's going to occur in 2022-23. We will not have TK or Kinder at music for the upcoming school year because those students would then be having to make a different transition to another school the following year. And then we are holding parent view workshops. So that's the platform in which families enroll and register. And those are occurring February 25th. There's one, it'll be in both English and Spanish. And then March 5th, there's another one, English and Spanish. And then we do plan on having additional sessions of those workshops later in March as well. So moving on to our design, or sorry, a merger and the work in designing the new school that will be on the Graham campus, the Snow and Graham merger. So this is our general structure for what's been happening in January and February. And I shared this last time. I shared the actions that we had completed in January. And these are the actions, just a refresher, a reminder of the actions that we have on our chart to complete in February. So we've been showing a lot of good progress. We had our second design team meeting on the 11th. We'll be sending out a memo to to community and staff. It might have gone out today, but I believe that the latest will go out tomorrow, sharing out the notes from the design team work from the 11th. In the design team, we formed different work groups that will continue to now work on different aspects of the plan. There's a vision and values and mission group, There's climate and culture work group and then there's an instructional program group. And so each one of those groups so subgroups will be working on different aspects of the plan. They'll continue to bring information back to the to the whole design team for feedback and ultimately will will be creating components of the design. We've been able to complete our enrollment projections for the Snow-Graham school and we are almost complete in terms of determining the teacher FTE and so we expect to have that done in the next couple weeks. And then we did meet with the Snow teachers this week. We'll be meeting with the Graham teachers on Monday regarding staffing to answer their questions and communicate updates. Shifting gears again, reopening update. So these are the things I shared last time. Just want a reminder about the programs that we are currently operating. Athletics program, preschool, our Think Together Day program. And you'll hear more about athletics tonight in a staff report and the really amazing positive impact that the athletics program is having right now on students' social-emotional well-being and academic success. And then we are continuing to develop this learning hub model, additional think together day programs, and then childcare we intend to open once we are in the red tier for 10 days. And lastly, with regard to reopening, we are planning our next town hall meeting Monday, February 22nd. We'll also be sending out on Monday a survey to families to begin to, again, get a sense from families what is their disposition in terms of comfort level and returning to in-person learning. And then, based on the survey results, is really how we will move forward with our plans for in-person learning and, of course, in partnership with our labor partner. And then lastly, a little update on COVID-19. So I know everyone has been hearing information about the vaccinations. Just want to communicate that we are now currently in Alameda County in phase 1B. Phase 1B is the phase in which educators And childcare workers are eligible to receive the vaccine. So our educators are currently eligible to receive the vaccine. What we're hearing from the county is that there is well there's 325,000 people. that are in that phase in our county. So it's a significant amount of people. And that represents then 650,000 full vaccine doses. And I think it that continues to be a challenge for the county and the federal government in terms of having sufficient numbers of vaccinations for everyone. So we are we are messaging patients. I know that there are educators that have already gotten their vaccine through this process, which is terrific. Educators can log on to myturn.california.gov to make appointments, and we know that our folks are doing that. But at the same time, we also want to just remind everybody that There aren't currently enough vaccinations, I believe, in the county nor in the entire country. And so therefore, all of us need to be patient and also continue to practice the safe health guidelines, wearing masks, distancing, and proper hygiene. And we also know that even when vaccines are administered to everyone, we will still need to be continuing with those practices of masks, distancing. and proper hygiene. And then lastly, we do have a, we continue to have COVID testing in partnership with BACH. So our next testing date for COVID is March 26th. And we are also starting up our internal COVID testing opportunity with a curative. So we'll have more information about that in the next meeting. And that is my report for this evening.

[10059] Bowen Zhang: Thank you for the report, Superintendent. Comments from the board?

[10068] Phuong Nguyen: I just have one comment. And I just wanted to echo what Superintendent Triplett had said that there are some of our staff and teachers who have been vaccinated this week. And they told me that it was well run and a breeze. in and out in 30 minutes, no waiting except for the 15 minute post shot wait. And then several of us have had gotten the vaccine since Tuesday. So I just wanted to encourage staff to, you know, since they do have the opportunity and we're in this phase to go get vaccinated. Thank you.

[10111] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to the next item, staff report.

[10117] SPEAKER_39: I'm sorry.

[10117] Bowen Zhang: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[10118] SPEAKER_47: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[10119] SPEAKER_39: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[10133] Mark Triplett: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[10135] SPEAKER_39: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[10136] Mark Triplett: I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[10137] SPEAKER_39: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[10140] Aiden Hill: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[10141] SPEAKER_39: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. right? What is that number? What's my math? Almost a million dollars, right? It is significant. I just, you know, I think that's why we want to keep that number in front of us. It's a big number 99. Because again, that starts to, you know, think about we have to start thinking about what does that not $990,000 shortage really mean? And how does that translate for us to stay in the green, if you will? I just wanted to kind of call that out, because I think we just kind of have to remind ourselves of that. With regards to school opening, so I know that when we go into the red, and so I think we're projected to be in the red in the next week or so, right? So I know that at the end of the year, beginning of the year, you submitted our reopening plans. So are we approved from a reopening plan perspective?

[10212] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, Member Martinez. Yeah, so we did in fact submit the reopening plans that the board reviewed. They were approved. We're one of 14 districts in the county out of 18 that had their reopening plans approved. And so what that means is that the county health department and the county office of education and the state have said that we are in terms of safety and health guidelines and preparation that we are good to go. And so what's what's left is we continue to work with our labor partners with NTA to make sure that we're that we're in agreement with them. and that we're ready to move forward. We do have an agreement with our classified labor, CSCA, and we are eager to continue to work with NTA so that we can create the situation where everyone feels safe and ready to return.

[10274] Aiden Hill: Member Hill. Yeah, just building on the point that member Martinez raised. So since I'm, I'm new, I don't have any context, but I'm just curious. So, you know, we talked about the enrollment forecast and then and our current, you know, our actual and our Delta. And thank you for clarifying, you know, the financial impact, but I just did the math like really quickly, you know, in terms of percentage. And so it looks like it's like a 2% variance. And I'm just curious if we ever looked historically at our forecasts and like, is that like a normal variance or is that out of the, you know, the the realm and are there certain things that we can do to improve our forecasting? Maybe we're more conservative in our forecasting next time around so that we don't have a budget variance. And so I'm just kind of throwing that out there. I just, I would like to be educated more about that.

[10329] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, Amber Hill. We do work with a demographer, and we have a way of creating the projections. And Ms. Stella Cruz can speak more to that. But I will say, as we all know, we're in a highly unusual situation here. And, and it has had a significant impact on enrollment, not just ours, but all districts. So, so yeah, this is an anomaly. But, but yes, we do have certain ways of trying to look at trends. To be honest, I think we can, I have experienced other ways that we can utilize historical trends to make even stronger predictions. And so I'm looking forward to reviewing those systems and definitely continuing to build better systems around predictions. Ms. Delacruz, did you wanna say any more about that?

[10388] Marie dela Cruz: In terms of the enrollment historically, our decline has been about like 1.9 to 2%. So, Fortunately, with the COVID, we were able to get a provision that held us harmless this year, which means that whatever ADA we recorded last year is being used as the basis for this year. So that's really saving us this year, as well as next year. But the impact will be in that second out year, because unless they give us another provision and that flexibility, we will have to deal with the actual decline in enrollment.

[10439] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Thank you. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next item. Athletic Program Update for Staff Report, Superintendent Triplett.

[10453] Mark Triplett: Thank you President Chen. So, um, I alluded to this earlier but really wanted to. I'm excited to have our staff share with the board. Some of the, some of the work that's been happening during the shelter in place with regard to athletics, as we think about the social emotional impact. of this pandemic and distance learning on our young people, the sheltering in place and what that has done, the screen time. I think it's really valuable to think about how important, even more than ever, getting outdoors is, exercising, having opportunities to safely engage with peers. Here with us tonight is our wonderful Coach K, who is going to share a little bit about that impact that the athletic program has had this year.

[10510] SPEAKER_20: Good evening. Thank you all for letting me come and share this update and information with you. I have been looking over this and very interested in just this information in general, and I'm very excited to be able to share this with you. So I'm going to share my screen. Here we go. This first part is just kind of an update as to the current state of high school athletics in general and after many months of uncertainty, we have recently received some direction from the state as to how to proceed and how to move forward safely with high school athletics. And so recently, our state provided information and essentially put sports into different tiers based on the colored tiered system that the state is using. And based on that direction, our league and section have created a calendar that coincides with the colored tiered system. So what has happened recently is our league has approved and is moving forward with a schedule, a calendar with two seasons of sports based on the colored tiered system. So starting March 1st, the purple tier sports will begin with cross country, swimming, boys tennis and girls golf. And then a second shortened season will start on April 19th, and that will include more purple sports and the addition of red sports, red-tiered sports. So that will include track, golf, baseball, softball, girls' tennis, and boys' golf. And the decision has been made by our league to continue to monitor the colored-tiered systems and monitor the sports in the orange and yellow. But at this time, We are excited to be able to offer this opportunity to our student-athletes and getting them involved and engaged and connected to our school. And next, I just wanted to share with you, I know that you have heard about our on-campus conditioning workouts where our student-athletes are participating in pods and just kind of a brief history of how that came about and where that came from. Starting in June, We began work with our partners at Washington Hospital to develop a return to activity plan. And after many months of revisions, we were finally able to implement that plan starting in September. And we started it with a phased implementation where we included just our fall sports, an original fall sports season. And then eventually in October, we were able to add in some spring sports. All of these workouts were completely voluntary for all student athletes and coaches. And so we were able to offer sports where coaches and student athletes were comfortable and felt safe to participate. And so our numbers have fluctuated. We have had seen participation numbers go anywhere from about 230 students all the way up to about 250 students. and then down to about 220. And things kind of fluctuate depending on comfort level and tiers and just the current situation of what is happening with COVID. And so while we were participating in workouts, we felt that it was necessary to send out a survey to just evaluate what is the effectiveness of our conditioning workouts, not just on our student athletes' physical health, but also their social emotional health. And so the next piece of information I want to share with you is just some of the results from this survey, kind of including who is participating in our workouts. What grade level are we capturing? Who are we capturing? Who are we getting to? And so you can see we're pretty heavy with the upperclassmen, with the juniors and seniors, but we also have been able to capture some freshmen and have them involved in our workouts. by gender. These are the sports that are currently participating, cross country, football, water polo, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, and track and field. And recently, we have included girls lacrosse. The participation happens with staggered days. So we do not have all of these student athletes on campus at the same time. They are coming either on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule or a Tuesday, Thursday schedule. We have some staggered start times on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday schedule because we're very careful about facilities and mixing spaces and sharing spaces. And so we've had to develop a staggered calendar and schedule. In addition to staggered start times and staggered check in time so that we are very careful and intentional about where we have our student athletes participating. And so you can see the difference in numbers based on how often they're participating. Then we wanted to get into really what is the effectiveness, what are we accomplishing and how are we doing in our efforts to not only improve physical health, but also the social emotional health of our student athletes. And so these survey results, we have about 257 responses in this survey. And you can see we're asking them questions about Is this a way for you to escape some of the stress at home, whether it be distance learning or family matters or anything that's going on at home? And you can see that the majority of our students are using this opportunity to get out of the house and to be able to connect with their peers and their coaches. We also asked them about their emotions and is this affecting your mood? What effect are these workouts having on your mood? And again, we see significant, a significant impact and improvement in the mood of our students who are coming on campus and participating. We also wanted to kind of touch on the connectedness of their, with their peers, with their coaches, how do you feel? Because we know that when students feel connected to the school, they're much more likely to be successful in all areas. And so we ask them questions about that. And again, you can see that there's a significant amount of students who are feeling a sense of belonging and connectedness by participating in these workouts. This is something that we were hoping for and that we were expecting that we would see that there's an impact and improvement on their physical health just by coming here a few days a week for one hour and being active. Next, we wanted to just kind of touch on their relationships with their friends because we know that they have been isolated most of the time. And so we were interested in finding out, is this a way for you to have more of a improved relationship with your peers and friends and access. And again, we're seeing that they are using this as a way to build relationships. And then again, going back to being connected to the school and how the connectedness to the school will often relate to just success overall and feeling included. And again, we're seeing the same results of these students that are participating in these workouts and coming on campus. are in fact feeling more connected to the school. We talk about their schoolwork and how has this been made an impact on your ability to focus. And again, we're seeing our students that are participating having an improvement in focus areas and being able to pay attention and be engaged in their classwork. Again, this goes back to their social emotional health and talking about building relationships with adults. Adults that are checking on them, that are holding them accountable, that are monitoring their grades, and also being able to monitor their social and emotional health in person. And so we can clearly see in this slide that this is something that is important to our young people. Again, same questions, but with their peers. And again, very clearly, this is something that is important to them and has a major impact on their overall health. This was also a very significant slide, very significant piece of information for me to see. When we asked them if COVID-19 continues to delay or even cancel your season, would you still come to on-campus workouts? And you can see that overwhelmingly, our student athletes are saying yes, despite any seasons, any particular calendar or schedule, we will still be present, we will still show up just for the value and benefit that they're getting from attending. And so this was very significant to me that the opportunity that we are providing for our student athletes, and this group of students who are attending is very significant to their total overall health. And then next, this was another exciting piece of information that I wanted to take a look at and see. We know that this is having a positive impact on their social emotional health and their overall well-being, but what are their grades looking like? There's been discussions about how is distance learning affecting the academics and the struggle that our students are going through because of distance learning. And so I wanted to take a look at how are This group of students, how are they doing in the classroom? And so this slide represents that information. How are they doing in the classroom? We had a total of 1,308 classes between the students that were included in this report. Of those classes, of those 1,308, there were only nine Fs. The average GPA of the students who are attending our workouts is a 3.6, which is much higher than what we have seen in the past. And so we are looking at a significant increase in their academic performance. We're also looking at out of the, there's 218 students included in this report. Out of the 218 students included in this report, 96 of them have a 4.0 or above. And so they are doing extremely well in the classroom. This opportunity that they have to come on campus and to participate is having a positive impact on their social, emotional well-being and overall health. And so I am very excited to be able to share this information with you and kind of give you a little snapshot of what is happening. And how, although things are very, very difficult, we have some students who are excelling and persevering and able to overcome many, many challenges. And so I just thank you for the opportunity to be able to share this with you. And I am happy to answer any questions or any comments if you have any.

[11268] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. I will open it up to the board for questions and comments.

[11277] SPEAKER_47: Any, any questions and comments from member Hill?

[11283] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Coach K, great presentation and love all the data. So thank you. And just out of curiosity, as you were, I mean, so I'm actually also a teacher at Cupertino High. And so I've had a little bit of exposure to some of the challenges we've been having around, you know, organized sports. And I'm just curious, as you did your survey and as you're talking with your students, have there been any requests or any kind of ahas about what the kids are really looking for in this tough time and if there's anything additional that we can do to support them? And it doesn't necessarily have to be scientific. It could be anecdotal. But just curious what the feedback that you're getting right now.

[11330] SPEAKER_20: Yeah, that's a great question, and one that I have been asking often. And just kind of the feedback that I'm getting from our students that I am interacting with every day is just really the check-ins, just the check-ins, knowing that we can kind of sit in this with them and understand that this is a struggle for everybody, and just acknowledgment that this is really, really hard, but you're still doing it. And that has really, really made a difference for the young people that are coming here and that are able to have a conversation with an adult that they know cares about them. And that has been the biggest attraction for people to get involved.

[11375] Aiden Hill: Thank you. Thank you. Member Martinez.

[11379] SPEAKER_39: Hi, Coach K. Thank you. Thank you so much for presenting tonight. Just wondering, You know, obviously it's great data. This is how you know the our students are performing going through the conditioning program. What's our comparison point, meaning, did we see a significant spike or increase in that performance. You know, or is it kind of our students were already kind of in that realm? The reason I ask is because if we've seen a significant movement, then it really is around some of those qualities that you talked about. How do we replicate it in the general population, right? To your point around the contact with, in this case, coaches, that adult that's gonna hold them accountable. So anyway, that's kind of why my question.

[11432] SPEAKER_20: Yeah, so I think there's two parts to that. One is that just kind of our overall philosophy and belief in the athletic, oops, sorry. Got to move in the motion lights. Just the overall belief and philosophy in our athletic department of building champions for life, right? So that is something that we are constantly having conversations with our students about constantly. and just overcoming adversity. That's, you know, a topic and grit and the ability to face challenges, the ability to go through the process. And so there is some influence of work that has already been done in, you know, coaching kids through this difficult process. And I just believe that that kind of just comes under our overall umbrella Of this is how we have to kind of coach young people for life really right and our philosophy is to do that through opportunities in athletics that just kind of come up naturally. And so there is some some of that. However, it's, you know, this is like unprecedented. This is times that like we had never coached them through something like this. And so I do think that it's, you know, they've had exposure to it, but also the influence and just the ability to connect. And I've seen, you know, we've been able to connect our students who are attending to different cost resources because they're able to have a conversation with an adult and go through that emotional kind of breakdown that they need. And so that's another significant piece of just being able to do that. You know, as far as like the growth and the trajectory, In the seven years that I have been the Athletic Director, I have never seen that number of students with a 4.0 or above. I have never seen numbers that show that significant as far as the number of Fs that students are receiving. And so I can't give you an exact number, and we're talking on a much larger scale. However, I can tell you that I have never seen that before. We're normally on a normal grading period about our scholar athlete award we give for any student who has a 3.5 or above. And we're normally about 300 student athletes out of about 800.

[11577] Mark Triplett: If I could just add, I appreciate the comment or the question, member Martinez. Later in this agenda, we will be discussing the SEL curriculum for secondary. And I actually think that's a great example of how we take some of the strongest elements of the work that the athletic program is doing in terms of really one-on-one connections with students and think about how an SEL curriculum and And that type of work with students can really translate into other areas of the school.

[11613] SPEAKER_37: Thank you.

[11619] Bowen Zhang: OK, seeing none, thank you, Coach K, for the presentation. I'm also very impressed by our student-athletes' academic performance. That's great news to hear. OK. Thank you. Moving on to the next item, new business 13.1 resolution 2020.21-018 to declare permanent transfers from fund 17 reserve for emergency purposes to general fund. May I get a motion to open up discussion?

[11656] SPEAKER_39: I move to approve.

[11659] Bowen Zhang: Can I get a second? I'll second. Moved by Member Martinez, seconded by Member Hill.

[11666] SPEAKER_47: Superintendent Triplett.

[11669] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Hsuan. So if the board recalls, this is really coming from a study session that occurred in the late fall with regard to Fund 17 and the reserves. And from that conversation, and also from the FCMAT report, as well as the county's report, um we we've all recognized the need to address this this uh long-standing issue around the funds that were transferred out of fund 17 into the general fund and um and sort of close that chapter so the board directed us to uh to come forth with a resolution and that's what we have this evening i'm going to turn it over to um miss stella cruz to explain more thank you dr triplett

[11719] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, so after our study session that we had last month, we did go back and did a more in-depth review of the Fund 17 and the history, all of the transactions that have occurred since this administrative regulation was approved in 2006. We just wanted to make sure that we covered all of our bases and that when we do when you do approve this resolution that there are no more issues. So we did identify, in addition to the ones that we have been talking about and the ones that have been brought up by either FCMAT or the county, there were other transfers made in 12-13, 13-14, and 14-15. So in the background, I delineated those transfers and the total transfers that were actually made was $6,960,000. And in 08-09, There was a budget that had planned on transferring $1,457,380 out of Fund 17 to the general fund, but what was actually transferred was only $300,000. And that $300,000 was actually paid back to Fund 17 in 10-11. So that was the only transfer that we could identify that was actually paid back from the general fund to fund 17. And there were also a couple of deposits made into fund 17 in addition to The first deposit that established the fund, which was the 1.5 million, there was a transfer from the sale of Russian, which we have also talked about, the $4 million. The sale was made in 2015, so there was 4 million transferred into Fund 17. And there was also a resolution in 10-11 that transferred 3.3 million from the tax override fund to Fund 17. So in the end, where we're at today, with all the transfers in and the transfers out, the ending balance in Fund 17 right now, well, as of January 31st, was $2,291,656. So we were able to reconcile that all since 2006. And that does include interest that has been earned in this account of about $415,000, so over the years. And this resolution really clears the $6,960,000 that has been transferred out of Fund 17 into the general fund and declaring it as a permanent transfer. But we also do recognize and acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do in increasing our reserves and building it back up to 17%, which is our goal. So basically, that's the story behind Fund 17. And the recommendation is for the board to approve the resolution to declare those transfers of $6,960,000 from fund 17 to the general fund as permanent transfers.

[11956] Bowen Zhang: Okay, given that we had discussion last month in January, any additional comment from the board?

[11967] SPEAKER_47: Member Hill.

[11969] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Ms.dela Cruz for going back and dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Thank you.

[11976] Bowen Zhang: Any other additional comment or questions? With that, Ms. Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[11989] SPEAKER_42: Motion that staff recommends approval of resolution 2020.21-018 to declare a transfer of $6,960,000 from fund 17 reserved for emergency purposes to the general fund as permanent transfers. Motion made by member Martinez and second by member Hill.

[12012] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[12014] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[12016] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[12023] Jodi Croce: Yes.

[12024] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Next item, 13.2, audit report for fiscal year 2020. Ended June 30th, 2020. May I get a motion to accept the independent audit report?

[12043] Phuong Nguyen: I move to accept the audit report.

[12047] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Nguyen.

[12049] SPEAKER_36: I'll second.

[12050] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by Member Martinez. Superintendent Triplett.

[12056] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chun. I'm going to turn this one again back over to Ms. Dela Cruz, who can speak a little bit about this report.

[12064] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. This audit report is the financial audit of last year, the year that ended June 30, 2020. And we do have Mr. Montgomery here to present the report to you. So I'm going to actually pass it over to Mr. Montgomery.

[12089] SPEAKER_46: All right. Thank you, Marie. I appreciate it. As Marie said, I'm here to present the audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020. I'm not sure if you've all had a chance to take a look at it so far, but as you open it up, Um, you'll see that it is a very comprehensive report that contains not only the financial statements of the district, um, inclusive of the governmental funds, the fiduciary funds, and then the government wide activities, but it also contains quite a bit of supplementary information. Um, so in the interest of kind of keeping this as brief as possible, we'll kind of fast forward straight to the results of the audit, as I'm sure that's, you know, what you're most concerned about. Um, the, those results are summarized on page 79 of the audit report if you have a copy in front of you, and that will be PDF page number 87. So as you're looking on that page, you'll see that our audit is divided in three main sections, first one being the financial statements, second being federal compliance or federal awards as it's shown there. That was page number 79, Marie. And if you want to just type it in up there at the top, I'm not sure if it'll let you in this view, but it's 87 in the PDF.

[12184] Marie dela Cruz: Let me just do it the long way. OK, no problem. Did I pass it?

[12201] SPEAKER_46: It's all the way at the bottom. It's page number 79.

[12205] Marie dela Cruz: Oh, sorry.

[12222] Maria Huffer: OK.

[12224] SPEAKER_46: All right. So this page right here is called our summary of auditors results. And as I was saying before, It's divided up into three main sections, the financial statements, the federal awards, and the state awards. So to start with, the opinion that we have issued on the financial statements is unmodified. That's the best possible opinion that can be issued at the end of an audit. We didn't have any major misstatements or audit adjustments, anything like that, that required us to change our opinion on the financials or make some sort of a large adjustment to the unaudited actuals that were provided to us. We did have one significant deficiency that was noted in the way of internal controls over ASB. So we'll go over that in a little bit more detail in a few minutes. But moving on to the federal awards section, we again have an unmodified opinion there. The two major programs that we audited this year were Title I, Part A, and then that new emergency relief program for this year, which was the coronavirus, sorry, Coronavirus Relief Fund. We just call it CRF for short. We did not have any findings in the way of federal awards, so that's good news. No findings either in the way of state awards, as that opinion was also unmodified. That's good news, as we had a few prior year findings there in 2019 that related to ACES attendance reporting, some of the school accountability report cards, and then the CALPADS unduplicated pupil counts reporting. So each one of those three that were in the 2019 report, we were able to confirm that the corrective actions had been adequately implemented and we did not have to reissue those findings in 2020. So that's good news there. Moving on to the one finding that we did issue this year, that'll be right here on the next page. This is a fairly common one, I think we've kind of had issues in this area before, but it relates to internal controls over ASB activities, primarily at the junior high and Newark Memorial High, as those two sites tend to have just a higher volume of transactions. So there's a little bit more risk there. Controls and oversight at those two sites is gonna be a little bit more crucial as a result. So with Newark Junior High School, to kind of summarize that condition there in the middle of the page. The main issue that we ran into was just in reviewing bank reconciliations, a few just kind of rather odd reconciling items that stood out to us. So, you know, what we're recommending there is just improving the bank reconciliation activities and then also the review that go along with those, making sure that those accounts are properly reconciled and that someone reviewing them would have the ability to detect any sort of errors or irregularities in the reconciliation process. And then with Newark Memorial High School, it had to do more so with proper backup on cash receding activities, maintaining that for review, whether it's from district office oversight or when the auditors come out, making sure that there's a clear audit trail of proceeds that are collected and deposited for fundraising purposes, using things like tally sheets, control sheets, things like that, making sure that funds are deposited in a timely manner. So what we would be looking at there at the most is depositing funds within two weeks of them originally being received. In some of the instances we were seeing The lag time between collection and deposit was anywhere from three to six weeks, so a little bit longer and a little bit riskier than we would like to see. And then the last deficiency that we had noted there at Newark Memorial High School was related to just proper voiding of transactions and just making sure that the finance clerks there understand how to properly void and document a transaction should the need arise. And the next page goes into a little bit more detail on the district's corrective action plan and how management and the business office plan to kind of rectify this situation and make sure that we don't have this finding going forward. So I'm not sure if Marie would like to speak to that, but that pretty much does it in the way of the one finding that we had issued this year. As I said, the three that we had issued last year would show up on the last couple pages of this report as governmental auditing standards require us to just present those and indicate what their current status is. If you keep scrolling, it's a little bit further. But you'll see that the current status there at the bottom is indicated as implemented, meaning that when we went through and tested that area this year, we were able to kind of reasonably conclude that the corrective action plan from last year's finding had been implemented and we determined the area to be compliant. Same thing with the unduplicated finding. And then that last one as well with the ACES attendance reporting finding. And so that just about does it there. Once again, I want to thank the business office for all their help this year in helping us get through this audit on a remote basis. We were able to get out to the school sites before the stay-at-home orders were issued. That was in, I think, the very first part of March. So fortunately, we were able to get out there then. But then from there on out, the remaining, I'd say, about 90% of the audit had to be completed on a remote basis. with the assistance of Marie, Kim, everyone else in the business office just kind of helping us out and working towards this goal of getting this audit finalized and issued.

[12616] Bowen Zhang: Okay, thank you for the presentation. Any comments from the board?

[12624] Phuong Nguyen: I just wanted to thank Kyle and his team for finishing up the audit and making sure that we implemented the corrections from the prior two years. So thank you so much.

[12633] SPEAKER_46: Yeah, it's always good to see when those corrective actions have been implemented and, you know, the findings don't show up in a recurring year.

[12642] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I echo member Winsett. Any other comments? Seeing none, Ms. Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[12664] SPEAKER_42: Staff recommends the board accept the independent audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2020 as presented. Motion made by member Nguyen and second by member Martinez.

[12675] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[12678] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[12679] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[12687] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[12688] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Kyle.

[12695] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you.

[12696] Bowen Zhang: 13.3, Secondary Social Emotional Learning Curriculum, Character Strong. May I get a motion to approve the Character Strong curriculum?

[12713] SPEAKER_39: I move to approve.

[12714] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Martinez.

[12718] Phuong Nguyen: I'll second.

[12720] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by Member Nguyen, Superintendent Triplett.

[12724] Mark Triplett: Thank you President Jeon. So we are very excited to bring this forth to the board. As you recall, I've been giving regular updates as to the development of our social emotional learning programs at all grade levels. We have been piloting this particular curriculum, Character Strong, in the junior high. And I'm happy to report out about how that's been going. And at the same time, we've been really working to identify and make a determination about the best curriculum to implement in the high schools. And based on a lot of research, a lot of engagement, we came to the determination that having a through line of character strong throughout all of secondary was something that would be really effective. And so we're coming forth today to present that to you, answer your questions, and recommend the approval of this curriculum for all of secondary, both junior high and high school. So without further ado, I'll turn it over to our wonderful Teaching and Learning Director, Mr. Dalowich. He's going to explain a little bit more about the program, the curriculum, and then we also have someone from the Character Strong organization themselves here to also share.

[12811] SPEAKER_10: All right. Thank you Dr triplet. Good evening members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to present tonight regarding the recommendation of a specific social emotional learning curriculum for our secondary schools titled character strong with me is the CEO and co founder, Mr Norlin of character strong. And even prior to the pandemic research and national organizations alike, which include the California Teachers Association, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation strongly recommend district support educators. with a comprehensive social-emotional curriculum. SEL, as it is known, not only has proven to improve academic performance, but it also creates the space for students and educators to grapple with important collaborative skills and to develop positive social behaviors. Earlier this evening, hearing Coach K discuss her philosophy around champions for life, as well as coaching students through resilience and teaching during adverse times, I couldn't help but think of the connection with SEL. And now as we approach a full year in the global pandemic, students at all levels we know are dealing with mental health issues and a lack of socialization. And so SEL is designed to address just these needs. By supporting students with an SEL curriculum, we're providing educators with an ability to teach specific social and emotional skills and allow students to process the current reality of these very unique and difficult times. We're also following clear recommendations by the California Department of Education, as well as our own Alameda County Office of Education, and through numerous interactions with staff and parents, as well as students, there's been a number of requests for an SEL curriculum at many points this year. SEL also stands as one of the district's three instructional priorities for our district, and we are committed to supporting teachers both at the elementary and secondary level. So what is Character Strong? It's a developmentally appropriate curriculum. Tonight you'll have the opportunity to hear from Mr. Norland. Again, I mentioned he's the co-founder and CEO of Character Strong. Character Strong provides current and relevant, easy to use videos and lessons, as well as supplementary tools and strategies for our teachers. That's one of the reasons it rose to the top. And it is utilized by districts, not only in our state, but across the country as well, designed by educators for educators. And you may be aware that Newark Junior High School formed a task force in the fall, and out of three presentations that they identified, Character Strong being one of them, they selected Character Strong for the reasons I mentioned and you'll hear tonight. They've received a series of professional development, and then they began implementing on Monday, February 1st, since February 8th and February 15th were both holidays The next date for implementation is February 22nd. So clearly we don't have enough data as of yet to measure the progress, but there has been a baseline survey provided earlier this year to our students and families. And then our intent is to continue to monitor that later in the spring in March and April. from our students as well as from our staff. And then most recently, Ms. Martinez was a part of a Newark Memorial High School student mental health panel that occurred on February 5th, led by our ASB students. And the high school students during that panel strongly advocated for a mental health curriculum. All things being equal, we're very excited to make progress in this arena. And without further ado, I'm going to stop sharing and I'm going to turn it over for a brief presentation for Mr. Norland.

[13071] SPEAKER_11: All right, members of the board, Dr. Triplett, thank you for having me tonight. I'm just gonna share my screen. I know it's late and I know your time is precious. I was a high school teacher for over a decade before I worked at the district level as the program administrator for the whole child up in Washington State. In the district here, I'm also proud son of a 20 plus year school board member while growing up. I know the commitment and are grateful for that commitment that you give. I'm just going to do a real quick view of one of the lessons and make a couple comments about what makes Character Strong unique. One is a quick little history on social-emotional learning is that it is lived for many years at the elementary level. There are a lot of offerings at the elementary level for social, emotional learning. There are some at the middle level, there is almost nothing of significance or engage ability at that high school level. And yet we know that it's not just elementary students who need social, emotional learning. It's not just middle school and high school students that need it. It is all it's even us as adults that need that social, emotional learning. And so one of the pain points when it comes to Social-emotional learning curricula is working at the secondary level is that for many, it has been reaching up from the elementary level to try to serve the secondary student. What makes Character Strong unique? We started focused on the secondary level. We knew that there was a gap. We knew that there was a need, and so we really intentionally created something that was specifically designed for that secondary age student. But just as important, it needed to be also designed for that secondary educator, which is much different than an elementary educator. And it was mentioned just a moment ago, but ease of use is a huge one. It's not their main subject area. It needs to be something that they can actually do that doesn't require a huge extra prep and workload on them. And so as I show you an example of a lesson here, I'm going to share my screen. and go full screen for a moment. I just want you to see a couple of the key components, ease of use, how it's designed. There are three main components to every lesson. The hands with the heart is the community building aspect. The brain is the content focus for each week. And then there's that weight. And that's what we would call the character rep or the character dare, depending on the grade level, which is a practical way to put the content area focus into action each week. The objectives come up for the teacher. And after they do that, they have a menu of options that they can choose from that give them those tools that so many need, especially in a time where we're either virtual or in-person or hybrid. And so every one of these lessons has been designed to work in the in-person or virtual setting. I'm going to give you one example, Deck of Destiny as a community building activity. In the upper right or left-hand corner, it's telling me that this would work in person, that's the schoolhouse, or virtually, that's the computer screen. I don't have to adapt it as it's designed. And the idea here is pick a card, any card, and a deck of cards. And if Dr. Triplett picked the ace of spades, I would actually click on the spade. It takes me into that suit. I would actually go over and click on the ace. And then there's a specific question that comes up for the ace of spades. Simple connection opportunities, get to know you type of things that teachers can use to provide that opportunity. Our students need more opportunities for that social connection than ever before. And what's great about these is the interactive nature. It's not your old model of we always go slide one, then slide two, then slide three. It's an interactive slide deck. We can go multiple rounds. We can come back to this activity multiple times because there's a lot of cards in a deck of cards. And so it provides staff those tools that they can use to help build that social connectedness that is so critical. In the upper right-hand corner, when I click on that icon, it takes me back to the main screen. If I want to go right to the content focus at the bottom, I can click on the brain and it takes me right into the core part of the lesson. Now, this is lesson two. Early on, it's a values clarification lesson. Who is it that you want to be? What is it that's most important to you? We do that in a simple way by asking them to identify items that would be on their to-do list. We all have really big to-do lists right now, many of us. It can feel like the work is piling on for our high school students. We don't want to stop there. We want them to identify what are some things that you want to be. Even for adults, this is a great exercise because a lot of times what's missing from that to-do list is the who I want to be list. What's going to happen after this lesson that we discuss and they identify some of those things that they want to be is that the next lesson goes into the topic of what gets in the way. Well, there's a lot that gets in the way right now. Things like stress, anxiety, fear. And beyond that, the lessons will start to dig into how do emotions work? What are tools that we could use to deal with stress coping type of skills that are so needed right now? Each lesson will also have a discussion part where they get a challenge at the middle school level or junior high level. It's called a character dare. At the high school level, it's the to be list. A practical way to put that content focus into action each week and then the opportunity to discuss it. This is a brief view of one of our lessons, the ease of use, how you can jump to each of the main sections in any given week. And the goal is that we can provide a foundational set of tools and supports for our students so that all students can be exposed to this work, especially during this time when so many of those skills are needed. There's a lot more that I could cover, but I just wanted to give you a little visual. And if there is any questions, I'm more than willing to stick around and answer. But I wanted you at least to have that visual of the curricula that was just mentioned as a part of approving for your high schools.

[13439] Bowen Zhang: OK, thank you for the presentation. I'll open up discussion to the board.

[13450] SPEAKER_29: Member Hill.

[13453] Aiden Hill: Yeah, thank you, Mr New Orleans for presenting. And just a quick question. So I, I'm, in addition to being a board member I'm actually a new teacher at Cupertino High, and I teach business. And one of the things that I teach is teach my students is the whole concept of cost benefit. And and we've been talking about prior programs as well and I'm a real big, you know, kind of numbers advocate. And so what I'm curious about is with your program. How do we, how do we measure, you know, the effectiveness of the program. And so what goals do we set, you know, and then how do we track you know, what metrics do we use, how do we track progress?

[13495] SPEAKER_11: A great question, yeah. We work with schools in all 50 states and the primary way that people measure is through some form of perception-based survey or surveys with key stakeholders, students, staff, even families. There are some really solid reputable companies that that is their main thing that can be adopted by a district that has a pretty robust system on how to do it. There's also validated instruments that are free that a district can use and usually what a district will identify or what are the key things that we really want to measure. So there's an element of choice there. there's all sorts of different areas of social-emotional learning that you can try to measure, usually for a district and or a school, it'd be narrowing that down. We really want to measure these three things, and it would be then implementing that pre-middle post type of survey, perception-based survey data, and then reporting out on what that growth is that you're seeing. Obviously, you can see that correlation to academic data as well. But when it comes to measuring the social-emotional learning, it's usually through one of many different options of perception-based surveys.

[13566] Aiden Hill: Could you give me an example of like, I mean, because you're saying there's lots of choices. Could you give us an example to say, OK, here's a specific goal, and then here's what we're measuring, and here's where we see it.

[13580] SPEAKER_11: Yeah, if there's a way like I can still share my screen. This is an example of our theory of change. And so the long term outcomes. You can see on the right hand side that we're going after because there's a lot of different areas that you can so for character strong will ultimately we want to see is an increase in a sense of school belonging. An increase in emotional well being. an increase in school engagement and there's some specific questions that we could craft where you do that baseline and then you have that kind of middle and post and that you can you know implement that even over multiple years to then see in a really zeroed in way these are the three things that we're going after because we know if these three things are being obtained, and we're seeing impact that there's a lot of things underneath that that are going to be positives, right? These are the big ones, though, that we're going after. How we're doing that at Character Strong, you can see the core components on the left-hand side of how we support schools in different ways, and then the short-term outcomes are where a lot of our lessons get focused in on, and then that ends up being the impact that we're wanting to see is in those long-term outcomes. So what you might do is craft a shorter the better survey that gets used that really zeroes in on questions related to a sense of school belonging, emotional well-being, and school engagement. And we can provide examples of that if, I mean, in terms of like drilling down to even specifics. Thank you. Yeah.

[13675] SPEAKER_29: Member Martinez.

[13678] SPEAKER_39: Thank you, President Sean. Um, thank you, um, Mr Dullavich and, um, and for bringing this forward. Um, and Mr Nolan Norland as well. I didn't have the opportunity to participate in the in the discussion led by the our A. S. P. T. M. Uh, group at the high school and, um You know, I think that there's just some subtleties, I think, as I think about your question, Member Hill, that I think that there are some immediate things that we can start looking at. I definitely heard a very clear, you know, in their own words, with different experiences, some very clear themes, and that is the you know, the need to really normalize being able to talk about some of these social emotional learning themes or just themes. And, and that, you know, really anything we can do to enable that to happen to make it okay for kids to talk about it, it, whatever it is, it is something that they were really all craving. Thank you for the demo. I think that was One of the things that stuck in my mind is that our students were talking about that they're, you know, the way we structured our week is there's a really good intent for Mondays to be those touch points. But this is my words, not theirs. What I'm saying is, you know, I think that some of our teachers have discomfort, right? Because they, how do they engage? How do they teach these topics that as adults, it's hard for us to even engage in our own feelings. And so we revert to what we know, which is we use that time to just go do work, right? And I think most of them that participated, they all said, this is exactly what's happening. It's not a criticism of our teaching staff. It's just really highlighted the need for us to give them, put a curriculum in their hands to say, hey, let's try this, right, because there's clearly a need. So, I mean, I was trying to think about some of those things, but it really was around normalizing, really, they said it too, making sure that their teachers maybe have the help that they need to be able to engage them in these conversations. Because at the end of the day, you know, the things that stood out were that this, you know, in distance learning, you don't have that human connection. And though, yes, there's office hours, and yes, there's ways of reaching out, they've all noticed, I mean, I've kind of ticked off all the folks that, I think was it four or five of our students that participated, every single one of them said it's harder to engage with their teacher. Even though it feels like we can be in touch with anybody at any time because of this medium, They, it just was, they all consistently said it's much more difficult to engage. So anyway, I just wanted to share, sorry for saying a lot, but I wanted to share that with the rest of the board. I think it was really impactful and I'm just really excited about the ease of use that this curriculum seems to have.

[13882] Bowen Zhang: Any other comments from the board?

[13884] Phuong Nguyen: Just a quick question. I'm sorry, just a quick comment. I just wanted to thank Mr Dollar, which and Mr Norlin for the presentation and also Mr Dollar, which had answered my questions that I was thinking of. And those were like where their baseline indicators to evaluate the program. And he had mentioned that you guys had the survey to be able to do that firsthand. And then of course, this being a new piloting program, we don't have sufficient data yet, but that we will revisit and evaluate the program in the spring and later on in the year. So I appreciated that. And then also just a quick question or comment about the program. So it's a good way to, it's interactive in the sense that it sparks conversation or starts conversation and opens up a medium for communication between the students and the teachers, correct?

[13948] SPEAKER_11: Yeah, and we know that the highest impact size by John Hattie's research is what's happening, right, from that teacher to student level. And so anything that we can do to create a system of supports, we always say at Character Strong, systems over goals. Right, we can all have the goal that we want to have this kind of connection to happen. But if we're talking school wide having that system of support. So not only providing tools resources dedicating time is all a part of Helping to make that happen. So yes, a huge focus of this is on that teacher to student relationship piece because the number one way we're going to teach is to role model and so the key to all of this is the adults and I'll be leading a training for the high schools on March 1st. I'm personally leading that training and that'll be a big part of it as well.

[13995] Phuong Nguyen: Great, thank you so much.

[14000] Bowen Zhang: Any other comments?

[14003] Terrence Grindall: Just to reiterate the other board members' comments, it's very important and I really appreciate you putting this together in a structured way to help our teachers and our students.

[14014] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Seeing no other comments, Ms. Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[14024] SPEAKER_42: Staff recommends that the board approve Character Strong as a secondary SEL curriculum for Newark Junior High School District, sorry, For the Newark Unified School District, motion made by Member Martinez and second by Member Nguyen.

[14037] SPEAKER_47: Okay, Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[14040] Aiden Hill: Sorry, sorry, Dr. President Schwan. Yeah, sorry, just one clarification. So we're voting for this for, you know, to evaluate this for a year, right? Is this, so we're gonna, so I think the 13,000 is for a year, correct?

[14055] SPEAKER_10: That's correct. That's for the remainder of the year and it would be for all three secondary schools.

[14060] Aiden Hill: Okay, and then we'll evaluate at the end of that.

[14064] SPEAKER_10: Yeah, during and at the end.

[14066] Bowen Zhang: Okay, perfect. Thank you. And this will need the board to approve for additional extension, right?

[14073] SPEAKER_10: Correct. We'll return to the board.

[14077] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[14081] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[14083] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindell?

[14084] Terrence Grindall: Yes.

[14086] SPEAKER_47: Member Hill? Yes.

[14088] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen? My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Norlin and Mr. Dolovesh for your presentation. Moving on to the next item, repair, replace concrete stairway at Junior High. May I get a motion to, I guess, to approve repairing stair one, three, or repair the entire stair one, two, three?

[14116] Terrence Grindall: I'd make a motion to repair all three stairs.

[14120] Bowen Zhang: That will be in the dollar amount of $529,000. Any second?

[14129] SPEAKER_39: I second.

[14130] Bowen Zhang: Second. Motion made by member Grundell, seconded by member Martinez, Superintendent Triplett.

[14137] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chun. So I'm going to turn this over to Ms.dela Cruz to explain. and review this. And then we also have our project manager in the house, Mr. Caputo, who will be able to also talk to this item.

[14157] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. So we have been working on the Newark Junior High School stairs for several months, maybe a year already. And we finally have an estimate to present to the board after discussing it with our project manager, structural engineer, and an architect. When we first received the estimate, it was a little bit more than we had anticipated. So that was the 529 for all three stairs. And so we did ask our consultants to go back and maybe look at what would it cost just to do two of the stairs? At the time we were just thinking that might be more palatable to the board. Although we do recognize and really need to do all three stairs. So this is a safety issue. The concrete is deteriorating, it's falling apart. And some of the rebar is already showing We try to provide you the map of where the stairs are located. So stair one is the one that's nearest the main parking lot. And then three is the one by the portables. And stair two is that central, the large set of stairs on Lafayette. So the first estimate for stairs one and three was about $272,000. That includes all estimated construction and architect fees and any other engineering consultants. The other estimate, that was $272,000. And then the other one to do all three stairs would be about $530,000. So unless Ralph has any more to add, Ralph, is there anything else?

[14292] SPEAKER_22: No, I think you've covered it very well and if there are any questions, Marie and I are prepared to answer them.

[14299] Bowen Zhang: So I do have a question regarding the approving of whether 1-3 or 1-2-3 altogether and obviously Let's say we only approve one and three tonight, and years later, when you come back for stair two, what will be the approximate additional overhead costs? Because I guess the reason initially the motion is approve one, two, three is, if we're going to repair that, we might very well just avoid additional overhead costs for this.

[14329] SPEAKER_22: There is definitely some economy of savings, and it's mostly with respect to the architectural and engineering costs. The construction cost could be relatively similar, but you're obviously going to pay for another wave of architecture fees, inspection, testing, and the like. So there is some cost benefit to being able to do all three of them. There is a hybrid solution, but it would really limit timing. We could engineer and design for all three stairs and do stair two, for instance, as a add or deductive alternate. But when you get a permit from the state, it has limited longevity. So unless we're prepared to do the other one within a 18 month to two year period, you can get somewhat of an extension. But at some point, it'll exhaust it. And if we bid out all three stairs, then we decide later we can only due to and hold back on stair two, it'll give us some difficulty to close out the project with the state. So by doing it as a designing it as an ad alternate, it would allow the district to retain the benefit of the architectural fees, be able to close out the job, but then you could regenerate those plans at a later date and bid out the other stairs.

[14420] Bowen Zhang: What is the annual inflation cost when it comes to construction costs?

[14425] SPEAKER_22: You know, for many years, we've seen it at three and a half percent, but, you know, there's been some very volatile times and we have to recognize in the public school sector or public work sector, particularly with school districts, school districts have been passing bonds pretty regularly. It's a robust market. So we've been seeing inflation more into the five and in some periods during the year, as you get close to summer, up to maybe 7%. But it's usually a higher in recent economies because of how much money there is in the school sector with local and state bonds.

[14467] Bowen Zhang: Okay, other questions from the board? Member Grindel?

[14473] Terrence Grindall: Yes, so it's my understanding that these stairs would be needed if we do a middle school model. Is that correct, Dr. Triplett?

[14485] Mark Triplett: Yes, that is, that's correct. We anticipate that with the junior high turning into a middle school in a year from now that are well in 2223 that there will be more use of all three staircases just in terms of entrance exit and the like.

[14505] Terrence Grindall: Thank you. Given that we have capital funds available, it makes sense to me that we would mobilize and get these stairways all up to standard and safety at one time, particularly because I would hate to see a middle school model rollout delayed because we had to rush and do a project. I think I'd like to get that hurdle out of the way, and that's my opinion.

[14534] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill.

[14537] Aiden Hill: Yes. So just question for Mr. Cruz. So you mentioned that there was an initial estimate. But then as you guys sharpened your pencils, you know, it was above what you thought. So I was just curious what the initial estimate was. And then also, I'm just curious about, are we going to put this out to bid? And then is the cost going to potentially be lower? Or how's all that going to work?

[14560] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, so your first question in terms of the estimate, it wasn't a formal estimate. It was more of us guessing what it might cost. And we were thinking maybe $50,000 per stairs. So $150,000. And that's why when they came back with this, it was really a sticker shock. And then what was the other part of your question? I'm sorry.

[14587] Aiden Hill: Putting it out to bid.

[14588] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, we will be putting out putting it out to bid and just like our paving project, the bids came in a lot lower than what we had estimated. So there is a potential that the bids could come in lower, but there's also that other potential that they could be higher depending on the environment and what the demand is in the construction world. I did forget to mention the two alternates that were included in the estimate. The architects came up with a couple of good ideas in terms of how to utilize some of the space by the stairs. And so they added like a seating area. It's an upgrade, it's not a necessity, but they did put it on there. as alternates, so if the board was interested in doing those alternates, it would be an additional about $100,000 for the seating area, and plus they had added some railing, some ornamental, you know, make the rails look nice, so.

[14666] Bowen Zhang: So are you saying that 100,000 is in addition to the $529,972 for all the 1, 2, 3, all the stairs? Ralph, in the estimate, I see it on the side. It says it can be added.

[14685] SPEAKER_22: Yeah, it would only be with regard to stair one, it was just an idea of theirs that they would cut out a section adjacent to the stairs and build a little offset retaining wall and add a seat there that would still be a little bit protected underneath the overhang. And it would just be a seating area for students while they picked up. And that was valued at approximately $65,000 by the architect. And the other one for the ornamental handrails was more discretionary. It was just to refresh and just replace some of the older handrails that are there.

[14724] Marie dela Cruz: And that was $25,000 to $30,000. So for both of them, it's about $95,000.

[14732] Bowen Zhang: And if the bid comes back, whether it's below our target or above the target, would the board vote again on this thing?

[14742] Marie dela Cruz: No, not necessarily. What we would do is bring back the contract, the actual bid award, and that's what you would be voting on. So your approval tonight is for us to move forward with the understanding that this is the budget that we're working with. And we would bring back the actual bid award to you.

[14767] SPEAKER_22: And I would add, if I can, that if we were to get approval to do all three stairs, we would suggest, if you were interested in looking further at that offset, that we would include it as an alternate. So when we came back with the bid results, you can weigh the bids and determine at that time whether you want to do that extra commitment or not. That might be a good solution to consider.

[14794] Bowen Zhang: We can approve all Stairs 1, 2, 3, but once the bid comes back, we can choose not to do the offset at Stair 1, I guess.

[14801] Marie dela Cruz: Yes. Yes, depending on the bids and how they come in.

[14808] Bowen Zhang: And if we approve Stair 1, 2, 3 with the option of doing the offset, the price, will that still be $529,000? Or that's going to add another $130,000 to the $529,000?

[14821] SPEAKER_22: No, it would add about just under 100,000 if you did both the stairs and the rails, or both the offset seating and the ornamental rails. If you just did the seating, it's approximately 65. And I do, in the budgets that I'm presenting, I do have contingencies, you know, for design contingencies and change order contingencies that could be applied if they're not needed for other areas. So the budget does include some level of contingencies because we still have to design this and see what DSA's comments are.

[14861] Bowen Zhang: My idea is that we know we're going to be fixing all of these three stairs, whether with or without a middle school model when the kids come back. You may very well do this during the shutdown with the minimal disruption to the school. Number two is if you hire a plumber, electrician these days, or any construction worker, you know their fee go up not just 5%. They probably go up 20%, 30% a year easily. I mean, several years ago, it's $250 per square foot to build a new building. Today, it's probably $400. Yeah, so if we're going to do this, we might very well do it with an economical scale and do this early during the shutdown. Any other comments from the board member?

[14905] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grandel has a comment, and then I'll go after him.

[14910] Terrence Grindall: I was going to defer to you, because I've already spoken. I did notice in your documents that you're going to try to do some value engineering through this process. Is that accurate?

[14923] SPEAKER_22: Yeah, some of that is a bit of, you know, sitting down with DSA and really understanding, you know, you're talking about taking apart areas where there are columns that support the roof structure. So, you know, we have to work with them so that we can, you know, minimize the impacts that they may require structurally. Um, you know, um, when you work with the state, there are a lot of structural engineers at the state level, and they always, you know, want to look at the impacts to the structure or look at the age of a building. And so the architect is trying to keep this below thresholds that won't require a full structural upgrade, um, but focus primarily on these stairs. But ultimately, the state can have us look beyond the stairs. Sometimes it's just ADA improvements. So there's just a little cushioning there for that.

[14977] Terrence Grindall: Great. And one follow up. I note that the size of the stair number two is substantially larger than the gates that, you know, it's more of an architectural or ornamental feature. Would there be, as a part of the value engineering, any thought of reducing the actual size of those stairs and adding to reduce cost and be just as effective?

[15001] SPEAKER_22: I can talk to the architect about that option. It hasn't been discussed with them before. The stairs to remove and replace them are like one operation of a demo concrete company. Typically, if we make them smaller, we have to do something to fill in the other area. That's going to offset a little bit, but there may be an opportunity there. And that's certainly something we can carry to them with your approvals tonight. Um, I don't know. I don't know. Um, if it if it's prudent, and, um, you know, we'll we'll discuss it with Dr Triplett and, um, Estella Cruz and. And we can update the board upon that review.

[15045] Terrence Grindall: Thanks for your answers and all the time. Thank you. Member with.

[15049] Phuong Nguyen: I would just like to thank member Grindel for making the motion to, um, approve. All three sets of I think that, um, I think that, um, stair two is probably the most used because that's where a lot of the kids, um, get dropped off on the, um. Through Lafayette and then and then, um and then maybe stair one. But, um, so if we did have the option, it would pop. My choice would have probably been wanting to first before we did three, but. I think that overall it is best to have. I think it's a great idea. And also I do. I am in indifferent to remember Grandel in terms of like. Maybe changing the structure of stair to because that's it's been like that for a long time, and it will change the aesthetic of the building, and I'm a little bit sentimental. Um having been a student there myself, but, uh. But. As long as as

[15121] Bowen Zhang: Any other comments?

[15124] SPEAKER_39: I just wanted to support that. I think we should do three. I agree with you in terms of where they get the most use. The two, the one facing the portables, that one is in horrible shape. It's flying apart. So we really need all three of them. So I agree, member Grindel, with your motion.

[15154] Bowen Zhang: So, so I guess before we move on, before we move to the final vote, so remember now your motion is obviously it's just to fix tier one, two, three together at the cost of 529, 529,972 bucks at 50 cents. And what about with or without the option on the guarding rail? I mean, or like the support structure on the, on, the one sitting there added to stairs one. Do you want to include that or not?

[15189] Terrence Grindall: I support staff's idea of including those as an alternate. And then when it comes to awarding the bid, we can assess that as a board. OK.

[15198] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. OK. Seeing no additional comment, Ms. Gutierrez, can you make a motion?

[15207] SPEAKER_42: President Zhang, can you provide me with that final amount, the $529,000?

[15212] Bowen Zhang: So I guess the whole motion is, this is coming from the Russian fund, right, Ms.dela Cruz?

[15217] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, it is.

[15219] Bowen Zhang: So I guess if I want to repeat the motion, I think motion made by member Grindel.

[15227] SPEAKER_42: Yeah, and I can help you with that. I just wanted to make sure that I had the accurate new motion. And right now you just gave clarity on the final amount, you said 529.

[15234] Bowen Zhang: Final amount is $529,972.50.

[15242] SPEAKER_42: So then the motion as it stands is that staff recommends the board authorize staff to proceed with the further investigation design and construction to repair and replace construction stairways one, two, and three at the Newark Junior High with a preliminary budget of $529,972.50 as presented. Motion made by member Grindel and second by member Martinez.

[15270] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15272] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[15273] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindell? Yes. Member Hill?

[15277] Aiden Hill: Yes.

[15278] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen?

[15281] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[15282] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Caputo. And moving on, I guess we'll be with you for the next item. Moving on to the next item, architect and engineering services for the HVAC project. May I get a motion to open up discussion?

[15304] SPEAKER_39: I move.

[15307] Bowen Zhang: Moved by Member Martinez.

[15310] Phuong Nguyen: I'll second.

[15311] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by Member Wins, Superintendent Triplett.

[15315] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chun. This next item, as you mentioned, I'll defer to Mr. Caputo and Ms.dela Cruz, but I will say I know we're all very eager to be focused on HVAC systems and improving those, and so this is an important step. And I will turn it over to Ms.dela Cruz.

[15335] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Yeah, as we continue to work on the HVAC project, this is another step in the process. So we've had a consultant review and assess all of the HVAC systems throughout the district. And so now we're ready to move forward with the architectural piece to provide the designs, the drawings and the bid documents so that we can prepare to go out to bid. Mr. Caputo and his team, they did reach out and get proposals from a couple of architects. And after reviewing the proposals, we are recommending that we go with H, I'm sorry, Ratcliffe Architects. Mr. Caputo can provide a little bit more background on that whole process and what the next steps are.

[15396] SPEAKER_22: Yes, so we expected proposals from three architectural firms. One architectural firm honestly told us that they are so busy now we have a pretty aggressive schedule. Obviously we want to get these done as fast as we can and we do have a design period and a DSA review and permitting period along with the engineering. So both architects are very well qualified, have been doing work for many years, are leaders in the industry. They're very much of equal size and caliber. In view of their qualifications, they're very much equal. I would say one architect might have a little bit more focused on K-12. The other one does a lot of healthcare and higher ed, but it's all the same permitting process through DSA, junior colleges, and K-12 schools. They do have K-12 background as well. The firm that we are recommending just provided a much more aggressive schedule that suits our necessary needs. And although the full design preliminary costs were a little bit preliminary, we believe that the Ratcliffe architects are offering a better value cost benefit in the overall fee for the entire design. That amount will would fall as stipulated in their proposal and the documents would be between nine and eleven percent, which is well within industry standard. It's not the highest and it's a little bit under the state allowable when they used to govern architectural agreements. So we think it's a very competitive proposal and a very aggressive schedule. Like I say, both very equally qualified firms. In this particular instance, we believe Ratcliffe offers the best value to the district.

[15529] Bowen Zhang: Any additional comments from the board? Seeing no comments, Miss Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[15545] SPEAKER_42: Staff recommends the board authorize district administration to negotiate and award a preliminary service agreement to Radcliffe Architects in the amount not to exceed $35,000 and a design and engineering contract not to exceed 11% of the construction cost as presented. Motion made by Member Martinez and seconded by Member Nguyen.

[15566] SPEAKER_47: Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15570] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[15572] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel?

[15573] Michael Milliken: Yes. Member Hill? Yes.

[15576] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen?

[15578] Nancy Thomas: Yes.

[15579] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Caputo, for your time.

[15585] SPEAKER_22: Thank you very much.

[15587] Julienne Sumodobila: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Caputo.

[15589] Bowen Zhang: Moving on to consent agenda, personnel items. May I get a motion to approve personnel items 14.2, personnel report, and 14.3, release of temporary certificated employees.

[15602] Phuong Nguyen: I move to approve 14.2 and 14.3.

[15606] Bowen Zhang: Made by Member Nguyen. Seconded by Member Grundell. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15614] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[15617] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundell?

[15618] Leonor Rebosura: Yes.

[15620] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[15624] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[15625] Bowen Zhang: My vote is as well. Motion carries unanimously. Next one is consent calendar, non-personnel items. May I get a motion to approve item 15.2 through 15.7?

[15645] SPEAKER_39: I move to approve consent agenda items by 15.2 through 15.7.

[15652] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Martinez, and I will second this one. Seconded by me. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15664] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[15665] Aiden Hill: Sorry, could I ask a question about one of those items?

[15670] Bowen Zhang: Okay, then we'll pull that item out. Which item will be that?

[15674] Aiden Hill: Sorry, hold on. It's 15.3. Okay. May I get a motion to approve 15.2, 15.4 through 15.7?

[15692] SPEAKER_39: I move to approve consent items 15.2, 15.4, through 15.7.

[15700] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Martinez. I'll second it. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15706] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[15708] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel?

[15710] Michael Milliken: Yes.

[15711] Aiden Hill: Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[15715] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[15717] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Item 15.3, reclassification criteria 2020 to 2022. May I get a motion to open up discussion?

[15733] Aiden Hill: I move to open up discussion.

[15736] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by member Hill, seconded by member Martinez. Any discussion?

[15745] Aiden Hill: So can we have an explanation of this?

[15750] SPEAKER_47: Superintendent Triplett.

[15752] Mark Triplett: Absolutely yeah thank you. So what this is is English language learners across the state. We are of course all trying to support language learners to become proficient in English and so part of that process is to evaluate their proficiency level, and if their English reaches a point where it's proficient, then there's a reclassification of those students to be English proficient, no longer English language learners. And so there is a criteria for making that determination, and it involves not just state tests, but then also local assessments, and then also recommendations from teachers and. the family itself. And so what this is, is during this time, the state has created additional or new guidelines or revised their guidelines around the criteria for reclassification. And so we're just basically taking those guidelines and making sure that we're adhering to those and that we utilize our own internal assessments to facilitate this reclassification process.

[15840] Aiden Hill: The question I had was when I read that description there, it seemed like we were lowering the standard for reclassification. Is that a correct reading?

[15853] Mark Triplett: I don't believe so. What passage in particular, Member Hill?

[15863] Aiden Hill: Hold on. Um, so the part where, um, I had a question was, um, it was saying that, um, if you read down proposed criteria for secondary, uh, secondary third bullet point. So, um, highlighted in red district assessment, grade level writing assessment score within 5% of English proficient average. Um, and so. I mean, I was reading that and thinking, OK, so we have a target. And are we now saying, well, that's not it's now the target is actually a range. Is that what we're saying?

[15907] Mark Triplett: So Ms. Cervantes-Folk is here and she can also answer some questions, but I will say, I believe it is, that is pretty standard practice to have that range for reclassification of English language learners. But Ms. Cervantes-Folk, thank you for being here. Would you like to add anything?

[15932] SPEAKER_33: Surely. Good evening, board members. That is correct. So we're not lowering the criteria. What we're asking is that when you look at our reclassification criteria, we followed the guidelines from the state. The challenge within this year is that we don't have state assessment results because all of the state assessments were suspended last year. So In the case of our elementary, our reclassification criteria is not so much affected because we already had a practice in place where we would be using the state assessment, or we would use the local assessment, which for us is the I-Ready in English Language Arts. So our criteria has already been either or. For the secondary, we also had that, you know, where we would have the SBAC or the CAS results. And for the high school, we would also use PSAT results. Again, and that was it. So for the secondary level, we only had the state test results and then the PSAT. So with the absence of assessment or scores from 19-20, that's when then the state said, you may use local measurements. So in consultation, oh, excuse me. And so to backtrack within our range of the state scores, our reclassification criteria already says within 5% of the English speaking average score. So what you're reading now is similar language as to what we already have in place for when we're using actual results of state scores. And then in consultation, I work with both the junior high and the high school, the administrators, the EL teachers, ELD teachers, and also English teachers and we learned that we already have common assessments at all the grade levels and they also use the a common rubric so it made sense to then be able to say well then let's ask that especially for this year and that's what we said we're asking for 20 for this 2021 and possibly the 21-22 because we still don't know exactly how we're going to end up in the year with assessments. We said, let's at least add this third option so that we have data available to be able to then provide our kiddos with an opportunity to be reclassified. And the last thing I'm going to say for this is, to clarify, is that in order for a child to even be considered to be reclassified, we always start with the English Language Proficiency Score, which is the ALPAC. So a child must first earn a level four in the ALPAC. And then once they have that, then looking at it, or the aspect or in our case now would be the local assessment. So it's just providing an opportunity so that our kids are not penalized from the possibility of being reclassified because we didn't have a measurement tool.

[16166] Aiden Hill: Thank you for the clarification. Thank you.

[16173] Bowen Zhang: Ms. Gutierrez, can you repeat the motion?

[16179] SPEAKER_42: Yes, staff recommends that the board approve the 2020-2022 NUSD reclassification criteria. Motion made by Member Hill and second by Member Martinez.

[16189] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[16191] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[16193] Bowen Zhang: Member Guendel? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[16198] Jodi Croce: Yes.

[16198] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes. Motion carries unanimously for item 15.3. Board of Education Committee Reports. Member Martinez, any report from Mission Valley ROP?

[16217] SPEAKER_39: Yes, I had a couple of things. So on the 11th, Mission Valley ROP held a virtual educators brunch, something that they have every year. Obviously, this year it was virtual. And at that time, school, the different JPAs, the partnership, which is New Haven, ourselves, and Fremont schools, our representatives are invited to the brunch, mostly counselors. And in our case, our college and career member was there. And the idea is they basically do an overview of ROP, how it's funded, all the different course offerings, and obviously the benefits of taking ROP courses that in the most part, for the most part are articulated or, you know, A through G approved. So it was a really, really, really good opportunity to just kind of everyone to hear what's new, what's coming, and really that was their way of kicking off and the enrollment phase, if you will. Next Tuesday, the 23rd, and superintendent, I had told you, I think it was the 22nd, but it's the 23rd. They're gonna be having a virtual program showcase. It'll be again, virtual, and a lot of the instructors have done little recording videos with descriptions of the courses. The information is available on the Mission Valley ROP webpage. Of course, just like all other schools, they're thinking and planning for, you know, in-person instruction. They're obviously having, are dependent on us, on all the partner school districts, but they believe, Superintendent Hanson said, you know, from the minute that, you know, they're giving a thumbs up, they really would only need a couple of days to get moving. They really feel like they've got everything they need to get going. Also, just like everybody else, they're continuing to monitor funding and anticipate some funding challenges, but still, you know, obviously no big decisions on any changes to the program as of now, but something to keep an eye on. And that's it.

[16380] Bowen Zhang: Okay, nothing from SELPA. Anything from the liaison committee?

[16388] Terrence Grindall: There's not been a meeting since our last report.

[16391] Bowen Zhang: OK, I guess nothing from EBICS as well, right? And any audit committee thing? Update from audit committee. OK, Member Hill.

[16406] Aiden Hill: So yeah, we had a request to approve our audit, and that being moved to the board for review and approval. And then also, member Nguyen insisted that I be the chairman because she's tired of doing that. And so reluctantly, I accepted.

[16430] Bowen Zhang: OK.

[16432] Phuong Nguyen: Yes. Congratulations on being chair.

[16435] Bowen Zhang: I guess not much from the bond and parcel committee, right?

[16441] Terrence Grindall: Still looking forward to a meeting.

[16443] Bowen Zhang: OK. Next. educate a board of education request member Martinez.

[16454] SPEAKER_39: Can you come back to me please?

[16458] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl. None tonight. Member Hill.

[16465] Aiden Hill: I'm sorry I'm missing what so are we on to the new agenda item I'm sorry I missed. Request yeah okay. Yeah, so so for for future agenda items. So yeah, so I have two requests. So one is, can we at some point have per our, our governance handbook, which is still in process, but we have a we have a section in there that talks about brainstorming opportunities. And could we have a session, a brainstorming session, talking about a protocol for how we basically introduce, you know, and approve a new program. And, you know, and so those would include things like, you know, okay, obviously we need to have a description, goals, metrics, funding, if there's a some type of sunset for when we say, okay, this is You know how long we're going to fund it and then we're going to reevaluate. And so, you know, I think it would be good to establish sort of a template or a protocol. And I think it would be good for us to all brainstorm that and then come to, you know, a consensus around how the entered process that we use for for introducing and evaluating programs.

[16544] Bowen Zhang: I think for that one. I don't know whether that we can discuss that, you know, special meeting when it comes to governing humble protocol. And speaking of program, that actually I do think we should have a robust way to evaluate them. I asked a couple of program in mind, which I think should be terminated. I'm not going to name that tonight, but I want to hear from other board members. How do you think we should approach how the board initiates approves and evaluates and terminates programs?

[16582] SPEAKER_39: I think it's a that's a pretty broad question. And, you know, as I was wanting to kind of catch my my thought, I, I believe, is my request was just to I mentioned it earlier, we, I think we need to start to identify a date when we're going to start doing our strategic planning. because this, what Member Hill just spoke about is one thing, right? It's one, it's a big effort, but it's, you know, like, where in the list of priorities would we want to start to develop this process? So that, I mean, absolutely, we need to do that in the grand scheme of everything else that's going on. I think we really need to think about prioritizing. So my ask would be to maybe member, I'm sorry, President Zhang, if we can start thinking about a timing to start our strategic planning session, because that's gonna be at least a two-day event in my mind.

[16651] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Yeah, I think I'm pretty sure the rest of the world will agree that we'll need to have some special meeting probably on a weekend for our strategic planning for the next year. And Member Hou, you have another request, I believe.

[16669] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so the other request, and again, maybe it falls under the governance handbook, or maybe it's separate, but training related. So, you know, we already have, you know, some things that we've identified that we need to do training as a board. But I think that maybe, you know, other things that would be good would be like an ethics training, and then also a like Brown Act training. because I think that there's sometimes some confusion around that. And so at some point, maybe discussing that and figuring out what's appropriate.

[16703] Bowen Zhang: Now I can actually answer your question. I think for the new board member, every single board member will go through a five course master in governance training paid by the district. So I believe member Nguyen and member Martinez have already been through the five courses. I've been through two courses together with the superintendent. I guess member Grindel, member Hill, you guys haven't been through any courses yet, but I think going forward once the slot is open up based on whatever the county school district or the statewide training, I think Ms. Gutierrez will be working with both of you to schedule a training session where you need to commit at least four hours just for half of the course. So these five courses, every course will take a two two sessions each is around four hours. So you will spend eight to nine hours per course. And the five courses will require you to attend 10 sessions, so a total of roughly 40 to 50 hours. But yes, we do have mastering governance training for new members. Not only that, I believe member Hill and member Grinnell will probably, in addition, before they do the mastering governance training, they should go through another training called new board member training, which member Martinez and myself went through in early 2019 in the city of San Diego. That was a three day training, I mean two day training, two full day training. So yeah, so there will be a lot of training courses that you as a new board member will need to go through.

[16795] Phuong Nguyen: And then also today, Ms. Gutierrez also sent us the PDF version of the Brown Act manual. So that's a really good reference. And if you haven't had a chance to look through it yet, it's an easy read. There's about 50 pages, well, like 47 pages or something. So definitely try to go through that and it will help with some of the questions you may have in regards to how we conduct meetings through the Brown Act.

[16827] Aiden Hill: Is the Brown Act covered in that Masters of Governance training?

[16830] Bowen Zhang: Oh, absolutely. Not only that, the Brown Act is covering the Master in Governance training and also that's covering the new board member training, which Member Martinez and me, we went to two years ago in San Diego. Okay. Okay, with that, Member Nguyen, it's your turn.

[16849] Phuong Nguyen: The only request I had was from earlier in our study session is to bring back items that we had discussed in previous board meeting in regards to the mission statement and and vision of the of the district. So and we will get to that later. So I'm okay with that.

[16872] Bowen Zhang: That's it.

[16876] SPEAKER_39: Um, no, just like I've already asked it, which is around agendizing our strategic planning session. So I won't ask anything else. That's a big one.

[16886] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. So for me, I really I don't have specific requests. We I know next week, we will be having a special meeting when it comes to mid year superintendent evaluation. Normally, we should do that at the end of December or early January. However, we have the school closure activity and we also have two new board member coming in in late December, so this year is a little bit late, but we should do the mid-year evaluation next week. Another thing is I definitely look forward to next month's first meeting, the first meeting in March, which will be our second interim report from Ms. Del Cruz, which will give us a more updated version about how well we're doing and what the current state budget is. Okay. Moving on to recognition and announcement, member Martinez.

[16941] SPEAKER_39: No, I think, well, yes, the recognition as I think about the different meetings that I have an opportunity to attend, specifically on the social emotional theme that our ASB students really took the lead to organize. Um, you know, I, I just think that, um, you know, this is not an easy time, but, you know, kids are stepping up. Right. And they're stepping up because they know that, um, they're looking just outside of themselves. They're feeling these things, but they're really recognizing that they need to speak up, um, for, for, for their peers. And, um, anyway, I just wanted to shout out obviously to all the supporting, um, staff. but most importantly to our students for being courageous and just getting out there.

[16993] Terrence Grindall: Member Gwendolyn. Yes, well, I just want to thank all the staff and of course the students as well. And of course, all those parents that are going through the challenges of helping their children with distance learning. So I wanted to, I just want to thank, I want to thank everybody for working together to keep educating our children through this process.

[17018] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Member Hill.

[17022] Aiden Hill: Yeah, I just want to, yeah, kind of echo everybody else's sentiments and just specifically call out that I thought that the people that were, that both came in our last meeting, but also in this meeting. So Dr. Wendy and then Coach K, you know, I thought they did really nice presentations and, you know, and I can see that they're working very hard and adding value. And so that's great.

[17049] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen.

[17052] Phuong Nguyen: I too echo the sentiments of the board and want to continue to encourage students to stay resilient, work hard, and you guys can do anything that you put your minds to. And you have shown true grit during this time, and we're all very proud of you. And then lastly, I just wanted to thank NUSD faculty and staff for sponsoring the food dinner, the meals with Project with the Robin Hood Project and O'Sullivans on 4-2-10 last Wednesday. And then this Wednesday, 2-17, I wanted to thank Graham Elementary School of GPS and their community over there at Graham for sponsoring this week's meal. Last week, I think they did over 300 meals. And then this today, I just got a ping and said that this week they did 425. So shout out to O'Sullivans and and the Robin Hood Project for continuing to support our community and help put food and provide food for our community. So thank you.

[17132] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. I want to echo every board member's comment. Next, we have superintendent's concluding remark. Dr. Triplett.

[17142] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President. Oh, I'm sorry. Does Member Hill have something before I go?

[17147] Aiden Hill: Yes. Sorry. Yeah. And so I'm sorry in my haste and in my tiredness. I just want to also thank Ms.dela Cruz and her team for her presentation. So thank you.

[17159] Bowen Zhang: Thank you.

[17159] SPEAKER_47: Superintendent Triplett.

[17163] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you, board. I really appreciate the evening and all of the questions and how you all are really pushing us to come forth with our very best work. So thank you for that. I also want to lift up that there is Read Across America is coming on March 2. And I wanted to just personally invite you all to join us at some of our schools. They're all eager to have board members come and read on that day. It's a really, I understand it's a really fun event. And so please expect some invitations from from principals and myself on that. March 2. March 2. Yeah. Okay. And, and then I wanted to just appreciate the staff, in particular, our business office, HR enrollment office right now is particularly busy and stressful time for folks because they're focused on continuing to do the very best in this year while also having so much work and effort go into preparing for next year. So they're doing a lot of work and wanted to really appreciate them for that. And lastly, I wanted to just give a personal shout out to Ms. Gutierrez who always is doing such amazing things behind the scenes to make sure all of this works and operates. She has done such amazing work to really improve the way that we are doing board docs, the way that we're importing information, and has become the resident expert around Brown Act and other things. So I just really want to appreciate her.

[17272] Bowen Zhang: I echo that, particularly when it comes to preparing the Google Doc for the study session and doing research when it comes to the motion done by other district. OK, thank you, Superintendent. I move to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a second?

[17290] Chery Villa: I second.

[17292] Bowen Zhang: All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. Meeting adjourned at 9.49. Thank you. Good night, everyone.

[17302] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. 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. Please see the public comment instructions provided 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 Phuong Nguyen, second by Terrence Grindall.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill

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

Governance Team Handbook Review and Update

Type Information Purpose:

The board will have a discussion to review the Governance Handbook and make updates if needed.

Background:

The Governance Handbook was last updated in 2017. Two board training seminars have occurred since then where updates have been suggested and agreed upon by the Board. This Board will convene in a study session to review the current handbook and make agreed-upon changes where they see fit.

If updates are provided, and newly updated handbook will be brought to the Board at a later meeting for approval.

File Attachments Governance Handbook_20-1217.pdf (371 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.

The 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:

Bretz vs Newark Unified School District Keenan Claim # 569505

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: One 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. STUDENT REPORT

Student Report from the Black Student Union

Type Information Purpose:

Representatives from the Black Student Union at Newark Memorial High School will provide the Board with an update on their latest work.

8. 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

9. RECOGNITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS

School Spotlight: Schilling 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 Schilling Elementary Principal, Dr. Wendy Castaneda-Leal

File Attachments Board Mtg_ 2020-21 School Spotlights.pdf (45 KB) Schilling Board Spotlight- 2020-2021.pdf (5,782 KB)

10. 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

11. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

Superintendent Report

Type Information Purpose:

Information provided by the Superintendent

File Attachments Supt Report 2.18.21.pdf (1,058 KB)

12. STAFF REPORT

Athletics Program Update

Type Information Purpose:

Members of the Athletic Department will provide an update on the Athletics Program.

File Attachments Athletics Updates - February 2021.pdf (3,832 KB)

13. NEW BUSINESS

Resolution 2020.21-018 to Declare Permanent Transfers from Fund 17 Reserve for Emergency Purposes to General Fund

Type Action

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended Staff recommends approval of Resolution 2020.21-018 to Declare Transfers of $6,960,000 Action from Fund 17 Reserve for Emergency Purposes to the General Fund as Permanent Transfers. Purpose:

To declare transfers from Fund 17 Reserve for Emergency Purposes to the General Fund as permanent transfers. The transfers were made during the period of 2012-13 to 2017-18 for a total amount of $6,960,000.

Background:

Fund 17 had a beginning fund balance of $3,252 in July 2005.

On Feb 21, 2006 the board approved Administrative Regulation (AR) 3050 to establish Fund 17 Reserve for Emergency Purposes. Fund 17 was established at $1,500,000 using a transfer from Fund 53, the tax override fund. The main purpose of Fund 17 was to maintain a reserve over and above the minimum 3% reserve required. The fund may not be used for ongoing operational and instructional purposes. The fund may be used as a resource to allow loans to the General Fund or other funds, as necessary, which shall be repaid under terms and conditions established by the Board at the time of such loan.

After the Board Study Session held on January 21, 2021, staff conducted a more in depth review of Fund 17 transactions since the AR was approved in 2006. In addition to the transfers made in 2008-09, 2016-17 and 2017-18, staff identified transfers made in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15. In 2008-09, $1,457,380 was budgeted to be transferred from Fund 17 to the General Fund. The actual transfer from Fund 17 to the General Fund was $300,000 and this was transferred back from the General Fund to Fund 17 in 2010-11.

In 2010-11 the Board approved Resolution #1865 on June 14, 2011 to transfer $3,332,000 from the tax override fund to Fund 17.

In 2015, Ruschin School was sold for $19,000,000. Of this amount, $4,000,000 went to Fund 17 and $15,000,000 went to Fund 40 Reserve for Capital Outlay. Ed Code 17463.7 allowed schools to use the proceeds from the sale of surplus property for any one-time general fund purpose.

From 2008-09 to 2017-18 a total of $6,960,000 was transferred from Fund 17 to the General Fund.

Fiscal Year      Amount Transferred From Fund 17 to General Fund
 2008-09         300,000
 2010-11         (300,000) (Transferred back to Fund 17)
 2012-13          100,000
 2013-14          500,000
 2014-15         2,300,000
 2016-17         1,060,000
 2017-18         3,000,000
   Total         6,960,000

The Alameda County Office of Education mentions the transfers as a concern in their budget review letters to the district.

During the Board Study Session held on January 21, 2021, the Board agreed that declaring the transfers from Fund 17 to the General Fund as permanent transfers would be in the best interest of the district with the understanding that staff would develop a plan to increase reserves to 17% as recommended by FCMAT and the Governmental Finance Officers Association.

Fund 17 has earned $415,585 in interest income since 2005-2006. The current fund balance (as of January 31, 2021) in Fund 17 is $2,291,656.

File Attachments Resolution to Declare Permanent Transfers from Fund 17 to GF.pdf (73 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends approval of Resolution 2020.21-018 to Declare Transfers of $6,960,000 from Fund 17 Reserve for Emergency Purposes to the General Fund as Permanent Transfers.

Motion by Elisa Martinez, second by Aiden Hill.


Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Elisa Martinez, Bowen Zhang, Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill

Audit Report for Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2020

Type Action

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended Staff recommends the Board accept the independent audit report for the fiscal year ended Action June 30, 2020 as presented.

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

Purpose:

The purpose of this item is for the Board to receive information about and accept the financial audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, as presented.

Background:

In accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and Government Auditing Standards, the independent auditing firm of Christy White, Inc. has completed their audit of the combined financial statements of the Newark Unified School District for the year ended June 30, 2020. A representative from Christy White, Inc. will present the audit report to the Board for review.

The audit report is the financial document that all outside agencies review, county offices scrutinize, and bond rating agencies rely on. The District prepares all reports in the state approved format, but the audit report is the document that is readily available to the public and is audited in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and the Guide for Annual Audits of K- 12 Local Education Agencies and State Compliance Reporting.

The district's Audit Committee met and reviewed the audit report on January 5, 2021 and February 9, 2021.

File Attachments Audit Report 19-20-Newark USD FINAL 2.3.2021.pdf (1,158 KB) Audit Report 19-20-letter to the board-Newark SAS 2.3.2021.pdf (108 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board accept the independent audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 as presented.

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

Secondary Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Curriculum - Character Strong

Type Action

Preferred Date Feb 18, 2021

Absolute Date Feb 18, 2021

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $13,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source 7420

Recommended Staff recommends that the Board approve Character Strong as a secondary SEL curriculum Action for Newark Unified School District. Purpose:

Character Strong, a comprehensive Social-Emotional Curriculum, is designed for students in grades 7-12 at all secondary schools. The curriculum is updated each year and includes relevant topics for students, including character education, navigating social media, and dealing with emotions as a result of the pandemic. The curriculum includes ready-made videos, lessons, and supplementary resources for teachers. Students and teachers have voiced significant interest in having an SEL curriculum. Focusing on the mental health of our students stands as one of the district's three instructional priorities.

Background:

As a result of the pandemic, educators and leaders at the state and county level strongly recommend creating a space for students to engage in Social-Emotional Learning. Newark Junior High School is currently piloting the curriculum and this curriculum would now be offered for all secondary students in Newark. In addition, students within Newark have requested an SEL curriculum in order to delve deeper into topics that are not covered in traditional academic courses.

File Attachments Character Strong Overview.pdf (33 KB) Character Strong 2.18.21.pdf (274 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends that the Board approve Character Strong as a secondary SEL curriculum for Newark Unified School District.

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

Repair/Replace Concrete Stairways at Newark Jr High School

Type Action

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $272,792.50

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Fund 40 Special Reserve for Capital Outlay Projects

Recommended Staff recommends the Board authorize staff to proceed with further investigation, design Action and construction to repair/replace the concrete stairways 1 and 3 at Newark Jr High School with a preliminary budget of $272,792.50, as presented. Purpose:

Review and Discuss the Preliminary Budget to Repair/Replace the Deteriorated Concrete Stairways and Ramps at Newark Jr High School. Should the Board determine to prioritize the project and budget for stairways 1 and 3, authorize staff to proceed with further investigation, design and construction with a Preliminary Budget of $272,792.50, as presented. Upon further investigation and design staff will advise the board of updated scope and estimates. Upon bidding, staff will bring the bids to the Board for discussion and award.

Background:

At the request of the District Administration regarding safety concerns, RGMK, the district's Project and Construction Manager, and the design team inspected three (3) sets of stairs at the Jr High School and reviewed remedial options with a structural engineer and architect and costs for repairs and replacement. The entrance stairs have deteriorated, stair treads and nosings are spalled and uneven. Repairs made over time are failing. The estimated construction costs to address all three stairways and appurtenant work would require approximately $410,000 (estimated construction costs). With the associated design and engineering, DSA, bidding, and inspection fees, a total estimated budget would require approximately $550,000.

To reduce costs, staff sought a budget to replace stairways 1 (East) and 3 (West), deferring stairway 2 (South) as it is the least used and most expensive to remediate (see attached map for location of stairs). The preliminary budget for stairways 1 and 3 is estimated at $272,792.50, including construction and associated fees, soft costs, and a $19,000 contingency budget. Note this is a preliminary budget, final costs may vary depending on further investigation and DSA requirements.

Although staff recommends repairing stairways 1 and 3, the Board may discuss the option of repairing all three (3) stairways and modify the recommendation as needed.

File Attachments NJrHS - Stairs 1 & 3 Prelim Budget Estimate 2-12-2021 - Board.pdf (156 KB) NJHS Budget Estimate for Stairways 1 2 3_2-12-2021-Board.pdf (191 KB) NJHS Stairs Preliminary Conceptual Design.pdf (4,586 KB) Stairs Map NJHS.pdf (282 KB) East Stairs 2 NJHS.JPG (3,101 KB) East Stairs 1 NJHS.jpg (3,768 KB) East Stairs 3 NJHS.JPG (2,891 KB) West Stairs 1 NJHS.jpg (4,437 KB) West Stairs 3 NJHS.JPG (3,786 KB) Central Stairs 1.jpg (127 KB) Central Stairs 2.jpg (126 KB) Central Stairs 3.jpg (148 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board authorize staff to proceed with further investigation, design and construction to repair/replace the concrete stairways 1, 2, and 3 at Newark Jr High School with a preliminary budget of $529,972.50, 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

Architect and Engineering Services for the HVAC Project

Type Action

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $35,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Measure G Bond

Recommended Staff recommends the Board authorize District administration to negotiate and award a Action preliminary service agreement to Ratcliff Architects, in the amount not to exceed $35,000, and a design and engineering contract not to exceed 11% of the construction cost, as presented. Purpose:

Authorize District administration to negotiate and award a preliminary service agreement to Ratcliff Architects, Emeryville, CA in the amount not to exceed $35,000, and a design and engineering contract not to exceed 11% of the construction cost (which is within industry standards) with the option to combine in this or defer to next Board meeting.

Background:

The District issued an RFQ-P to three qualified architectural firms and received two Statements of Qualification (SOQ), preliminary fee structures, and a preliminary design schedule. Both responding firms are commensurately reputable and well qualified. The Ratcliff firm proposed a more aggressive design schedule and a more competitive fee approach. The District has identified 171 remaining mechanical units of varying sizes that are well beyond their expected life span and these remaining units have been failing incrementally. Most of the mechanical units are roof-mounted.

At the February 20, 2020, Board meeting, the Board allocated $3.3M, plus $200,000 for roof repairs out of the remaining Measure G bond funds for the next round of replacements, following similar incremental projects completed over the past several years. Current funds are insufficient to replace all ailing mechanical units. Both firms included a preliminary services phase as a part of their proposals to bring structural, electrical, and plumbing engineers up to speed with the mechanical engineer's assessments and existing conditions and to determine which replacements can be designed and expedited through DSA on a `like-for-like' basis, and which will require full DSA regulatory review, potentially requiring new roof curbs, structural and electrical upgrades, dry rot repairs, etc. In addition, DSA will likely require up to 20% ADA upgrades with each submission which the firm will determine the most sensible and cost-effective solutions.

Deliverables: The architect shall provide, Schematic Design (SD) and Design Development (DD) drawings for review and Construction Documents (CD) for DSA regulatory review, bidding and construction, technical specifications, and budget estimates.

RFQ-P Respondents HED Architects X HKIT Architects Received Ratcliff Architects Received

File Attachments Newark_USD_Fee for Assessment Phase.pdf (215 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board authorize District administration to negotiate and award a preliminary service agreement to Ratcliff Architects, in the amount not to exceed $35,000, and a design and engineering contract not to exceed 11% of the construction cost, as presented.

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

14. CONSENT AGENDA - PERSONNEL ITEMS

PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Type Action (Consent) Purpose:

This is specifically a placeholder, and will only be used if multiple agenda items are approved under a consented vote.

Motion & Voting Consent all

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

Personnel Report

Type Action

Preferred Date Feb 18, 2021

Absolute Date Feb 18, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board ratify 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 02-18-21.1.pdf (398 KB)

Release of Temporary Certificated Employees

Type Action

Preferred Date Feb 18, 2021

Absolute Date Feb 18, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the release of Temporary Certificated Action Employees.

Each year temporary teachers are hired to fill positions for permanent staff that may be on a leave of absence, in a job share, or in a special assignment. Permanent teachers have rights to return the following year to an assignment for which they are credentialed. Temporary employees do not have automatic rehire rights and may be released by the district at the conclusion of their temporary contract.

File Attachments California Education Code.pdf (110 KB) 2020-2021 Temp Release List 02-18-21.pdf (357 KB)

15. CONSENT AGENDA - NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS

PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Type Action Purpose:

This is specifically a placeholder, and will only be used if multiple agenda items are approved under a consented vote.

Motion & Voting Remove 15.3, 15.2, 15.4-15.7

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

Comprehensive School Safety Plans

Type Action

Preferred Date Feb 18, 2021

Absolute Date Feb 18, 2021

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

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

Purpose:

To approve the Comprehensive School Safety Plan (CSSP) for each Newark Unified School District school site; all plans attached. Per Education Code Section 32281, the School Site Council (SSC) writes and develops a comprehensive school safety plan relevant to the needs and resources of that particular school, or may delegate this responsibility to a school safety planning committee. Each school must review and update its plan by March 1 every year.

Background:

A Comprehensive School Safety Plan (CSSP) is an annually-revised plan to develop strategies aimed at the prevention of, and education about, potential incidents involving crime and violence on the school campus. All California K-12 public schools must develop a CSSP that addresses the safety concerns identified through a systematic planning process in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, community leaders, parents, pupils, teachers, administrators, and other persons who may be interested in the prevention of campus crime and violence.

The requirements and mandate for CSSPs are outlined in Education Code Sections 32280 - 32289 School Safety Plans.

File Attachments BGI CSSP 21-22.pdf (1,898 KB) BGP CSSP 21-22.pdf (2,290 KB) Graham CSSP 21-22.pdf (1,836 KB) Kennedy CSSP 21-22.pdf (4,844 KB) Lincoln CSSP 21-22.pdf (2,448 KB) MacGregor CSSP 21-22.pdf (1,518 KB) Musick CSSP 21-22.pdf (2,218 KB) NJHS CSSP 21-22.pdf (1,975 KB) NMHS CSSP 21-22.pdf (1,813 KB) Schilling CSSP 21-22.pdf (2,814 KB)

Reclassification Criteria 2020-22

Type Action

Preferred Date Feb 18, 2021

Absolute Date Feb 18, 2021

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended Staff recommends that the Board approve the 2020-2022 NUSD Reclassification Criteria. Action

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

Purpose:

This item is being presented to the Board for approval of the NUSD Reclassification Criteria for the current and following school year (2020-2022).

Background:

Reclassification is the process by which a student is reclassified from English Learner (EL) to fluent English proficient (RFEP). Per California Education Code (EC) Section 313 and Title 5 California Code of Regulations (5 CCR) section 11303, LEAs must use the following four criteria to establish their own reclassification policies: 1. Assessment of English language proficiency (ELP), using an objective assessment instrument, including, but not limited to, the state test of English Language Performance Assessment of California (ELPAC); 2. Teacher evaluation, including, but not limited to, a review of the student's curriculum mastery; 3. Parent opinion and consultation; and 4. Comparison of student performance in basic skills against an empirically established range of performance in basic skills of English proficient students of the same age.

For criteria 1 above, the statewide standardized ELP is an Overall Performance Level (PL) 4 in the ELPAC. LEAs are to use the Overall PL 4 to determine whether a student has met that criteria. The other three criteria are for the LEAs to determine and establish local measurements. NUSD's approved reclassification criteria align with the state's first three criteria. For criteria 4, NUSD determined to use the following:

    Elementary (K-6th):
           District Benchmark Assessment in ELA: I-Ready score On or Above grade level, or

           SBAC ELA score within 5% of English Proficient average

    Secondary (7th - 12th):
           CAASPP: Most recent SBAC ELA        score within 5% of English Proficient average, or
           PSAT Scores in Illuminate in Yellow or Green (only applies to 10th and 11th graders)

COVID-19 Reclassification Guidance from CDE Due to school closure, the pandemic, and the suspension of all state assessments in Spring 2020, the CDE is providing the following reclassification guidance for criteria 1 and 4: Criterion 1: For those students who completed testing in 2019�2020, LEAs will use the results from the 2019�2020 Summative ELPAC to determine reclassification eligibility. For those students who did not complete testing in the spring of 2019�2020, an optional fall Summative ELPAC window will be open and available between August 20�October 30, 2020. During this window, LEAs can administer the optional fall Summative ELPAC and use the results to meet criterion 1 eligibility for reclassification. The optional fall Summative ELPAC is highly recommended for all English learner students who have already met all other criteria in 2019�2020 except for criterion 1, particularly in grades four to eleven.

    Criterion 4: For all grade levels, LEAs can use most recent local assessments or the Smarter Balanced Summative
    English language arts assessments.

In efforts to support our ELs and ensure equitable access to reclassification, NUSD is recommending that its reclassification criteria for the current and following school year (2020-2022) be updated to reflect new measurements for criteria 4 for secondary level students:

Proposed criteria 4:

    Secondary (7th - 12th):
           CAASPP: Most recent SBAC ELA        score within 5% of English Proficient average, or
           PSAT Scores in Illuminate in Yellow or Green (only applies to 10th and 11th graders), or
           District Assessment: Grade Level Writing Assessment (Term/Semester) score within 5% of English Proficient
           average

See attachment.

File Attachments NUSD Reclassification Criteria 2020-21 Proposal_2.17.21.pdf (296 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends that the Board approve the 2020-2022 NUSD Reclassification Criteria.

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

Resolution 2020.21-019 Declaring Surplus Equipment

Type Action

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended Staff recommends the Board approve Resolution 2020.21-019 which lists items to be Action declared as surplus to the needs of the District. Purpose:

The purpose of this item is to obtain Board approval of Resolution No. 2020.21-019, declaring surplus equipment as recommended.

Background:

Surplus materials will be disposed of per Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 3270 Sale And Disposal Of Books, Equipment And Supplies (Personal Property). Education Code, Section 17546 states that if the Governing Board, by a unanimous vote of those members present, finds that the property, whether one or more items, does not exceed the value of $2,500, it may be sold at private sale without advertising, by a District employee empowered for that purpose by the Board; the property may be donated to a charitable organization, or it may be disposed of in a public disposal facility.

The personal property as described in Resolution No. 2020.21-019 includes equipment used in the Maintenance Operations and Transportation (MOT) Department and Information Technology (IT) Department. Staff determined that items are obsolete and/or beyond economic repair.

The equipment is currently stored and will be recycled/disposed of upon Board approval.

File Attachments Resolution 2020.21-019 Surplus Equipment.pdf (13 KB)

Warrant Report for January 2021

Type Action

Fiscal Impact 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 the total amount of $1,953,543.02, made from District funds for January 2021.

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 January 2021.pdf (623 KB)

Donations Report

Type Action

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $955.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source General Fund (Fund 010) Donations

Recommended Staff recommends the Board accept the Donations Report as presented. Action

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

Purpose: The purpose is to acknowledge receipt of donations to the District.

Background: Throughout the year community members, groups, parents and other individuals make monetary and in-kind (supplies and equipment) donations to NUSD. The exact nature of the source of the donation is submitted to the Business Office on a standard form. It is critical that any restrictions on the funding be indicated and the budget developed based on the donor restrictions. If there is no indication of the school or use of the funding, any proceeds or cash donations received are placed in the NUSD local revenue in the unrestricted general fund. It is recommended that the donations be processed through the Business Office and ultimately approved by the Board so that the funding can be publicly acknowledged and budgeted properly according to donor restrictions. There is acknowledged and budgeted properly according to donor restrictions. There is acknowledgement at the public Board meeting and a letter of thanks is sent ot the donor by the Business Office for NUSD.

File Attachments Donations Report_2021-02-18.pdf (19 KB)

Minutes of the February 4, 2021 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

Type Action, Minutes

Recommended Staff recommends the Board approve the minutes of the February 4, 2021, Regular Meeting Action of the Board of Education Purpose:

For the board to review and approve the minutes

Background:

The attached minutes are reflective of the February 4, 2021, Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. The exact language is available for viewing on the NUSD YouTube Channel.

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, if available, of the committees they are members of.

Background:

Mission Valley ROP - Elisa Martinez SELPA - Bowen Zhang Newark - NUSD Liaison Committee - Phuong Nguyen & Terrence Grindall Newark Teacher Induction Advisory Council (Formally EBBIC) - Elisa Martinez Audit Committee - Phuong Nguyen & Aiden Hill Bond/Parcel Tax - Elisa Martinez & Terrence Grindall

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 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 about 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 the 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 a 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 The recommendation is that this meeting be adjourned.

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

PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board extend the meeting to ____PM Action Purpose:

This is a placeholder, only to be used if the Board adds a motion to extend the meeting.

No minutes available.