Special Meeting

No content available.

[20] Olivia Rangel: Yes. Member Martinez? Here.

[24] Vicenta Ditto: Member Nguyen? Here. Member Grundahl?

[28] Aiden Hill: Here.

[29] Olivia Rangel: Member Hill?

[30] Aiden Hill: Here.

[31] Olivia Rangel: And President Zhang.

[32] Bowen Zhang: Here. And next is the approval of agenda. May I get a motion to approve the agenda?

[39] Jodi Croce: I move to approve.

[42] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Nguyen. Seconded by Member Martinez. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[51] Nicole Izant: Yes.

[52] Bowen Zhang: Member Guendel?

[54] Aiden Hill: Yes.

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

[59] SPEAKER_20: Yes.

[61] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. So before we go to a closed session, I want to hear from the public. I want to emphasize that today's public comment is on the agenda item of superintendent review only. It is not a comment on non-agenda item. Ms. Gutierrez, any public speakers?

[83] Nancy Thomas: Yes, we have two public speakers. The first one is Christine Clinton.

[91] SPEAKER_20: Okay, are you ready? Ready. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Tonight, before you go into closed session to review Dr. Triplett's job performance, I'll walk you through the facts related to his four focus areas. Focus area number one, fiscal vitality. Dr. Triplett was tasked with maintaining appropriate reserves, developing and implementing a plan to eliminate the structural deficit, and building and implementing a strategy for maintaining or increasing enrollment. The reality shifting money from this fund to that fund to eliminate the structural deficit, and significantly decreasing reserves hardly constitutes a plan. The reserve goal is 17%, and as the finance director said during the February 18th meeting, there is still a lot of work to do. Enrollment projections for this school year were 5,600 students. As of February 1st, there were 5,502 students. That's 98 students less than projected and the year is not over. Families continue to withdraw from Newark Unified in droves. 11 students alone left between January and February of this year. Focus area number two. meaningful community engagement and two-way communication. The reality, having photo ops in parks and inserting themselves into site-specific activities like spreading holiday cheer just to get in the picture is not community engagement. No one is fooled. We know who did the hard work. Avoiding the tough questions in the town hall, then scrubbing social media posts to remove the community's questions and just criticisms is not an example of two-way communication. He gives the community lip service about valuing their input, yet was caught with the camera on at the end of the first school consolidation advisory committee meeting, discussing with the consultant how to get back control from the committee in the next meeting. Additionally, how does having all communications go through his allegedly twice illegally hired secretary, Lucia Gutierrez, promote two-way communication? She even joined a music elementary school closure Google Meet and justified her attendance because she's the executive secretary and everything goes through her. Focus area number three, instructional excellence, promoting continual improvement of teaching and learning. The reality, Dr. Triplett cannot even negotiate a contract to get teachers back into the classrooms, much less work with the labor partners to improve the art of teaching and learning. Dr. Triplett did not fill the vacancy for an education services superintendent in a timely fashion, and he told Snow's parents in a closure meeting that he is assuming both his current job and that job to save money. I'm aware that an appointment for that position is scheduled for next week. However, this performance evaluation is based on events to date, and to date there has been little to no improvement in this focus area. And then focus area for exceptional learning environments. The reality is paving projects were completed. However, they were completed at two schools slated to close. And the district office cannot be paid for with money on money. And irrigation projects were also approved. And the board approved a nearly $15,000 CAD project under Dr. Triplett's recommendation. Can you please wrap up with one sentence? So, in closing, as I just shared, there isn't much worthier praise than Triplett's first eight months as Newark Unified Superintendent. I urge you to recognize this and recognize how much the community has endured and the sacrifices the community has made and to not give Dr. Triplett any additional compensation. The salary of $220,000 a year is more than fair. And to Dr. Triplett, you have two years, four months left in your current contract.

[305] Bowen Zhang: Ms. Clinton, you're already 30 seconds over. Can you just one more sentence?

[310] SPEAKER_20: All right, I encourage him to listen more, engage with the stakeholders, and to show some interest in labor partners, and doing something as simple as writing a letter wishing everyone happy holidays is a step in the right direction. Thank you.

[323] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Next speaker.

[328] Carina Plancarte: Yes, President Zhang, the next one is Cindy Plante.

[340] SPEAKER_06: Yes. Can you guys hear me?

[341] Bowen Zhang: Yes. Welcome.

[343] SPEAKER_06: Hello. Thank you. To Dr. Triplett, my name is Cindy and I'm a parent of two students in the Newark Unified School District. I'm writing you this note to share my thoughts on the town hall meeting last Monday night. Well, I can certainly appreciate the complexity and challenges of attempting to reopen our schools amidst an unprecedented pandemic. I do feel that you could have done a better job during the town hall for the following reasons. There was no true meaningful community engagement and two-way communication as outlined in focus area two in your objectives for this school year. The tone during the meeting was not at all encouraging parents to feel safe and protected in sending children back to school. And perhaps that was the intent all along. The fact that the commitment form used the word binding signifies that parents are going to be held accountable to our decisions, no matter what happens. This does not provide a supportive environment for parents to send their kids back to school. And perhaps that was the intent all along. I was hoping the tone of the town hall was to tell parents, hey, it's safe to go back. But if you don't want to, that's okay as well. And here's how we're going to help both sets of groups. Schools in our other parts of our county, in other parts of California, and in other countries have already reopened in some sort of in-person schooling. And I sense a huge hesitation on your part in reopening, especially when you made that condescending and unnecessary comment on us needing to read the entire articles and not just a headline before making any statements. However, I think the absolute point of contention for me was that after the town hall, many voiced their opinion on the district's Facebook page. I tried to put a comment myself at one point, but could not. I then realized that the comments that were previously there had all been deleted. Sir, you are a public servant in a public role with a responsibility to serve the public. and you completely disregarded this role and you had the audacity to try and silence us, the very people you're supposed to serve. It's inconceivable for someone in your position to do that. I am seriously reconsidering staying in NUSD because this debacle with you and other folks within the districts has shown me that my kids' education are not the priority. Thank you.

[495] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Any other public speaker?

[500] Olivia Rangel: That is all.

[501] Bowen Zhang: OK. We'll be going to the closed session for our sole agenda today, which is public employee performance evaluation, the superintendent. And I want to make clear that we will not be coming back to the open session. So everyone have a great rest of the day. Five ayes.

[523] Nicole Izant: Thank you.

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

3. 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 Performance Evaluation (GC 54957(b)(1)) - Title: Superintendent

Type Information, Procedural Based on an approved timeline, the Board will be conducting a mid-year evaluation of the Superintendent.

Recess to Closed Session

Type Procedural Purpose:

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

Adjournment

Type Action, Procedural

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

This action will conclude the meeting.

No minutes available.