Regular Meeting

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[14] SPEAKER_42: Member Bruno?

[16] SPEAKER_49: Here.

[17] SPEAKER_42: Member Martinez? Here. Member Nguyen? Here. Member Hill? Here. President Jean?

[26] Bowen Zhang: Here. Next approval of agenda. May I get a moment to approve the agenda as it is?

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

[38] SPEAKER_38: Moved by Member Nguyen.

[39] Elisa Martinez: I'll second.

[41] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by Member Martinez. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[45] SPEAKER_20: Yes.

[46] Bowen Zhang: Member Goodell?

[50] SPEAKER_38: Member Goodell?

[53] Joy Lee: Yes. Member Hill?

[56] Bowen Zhang: Yes. Member Nguyen?

[58] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[59] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Moulton carries unanimously. Before we go to our closed session, any public comment on the closed session? I believe there is none, right?

[70] SPEAKER_42: None today.

[71] Bowen Zhang: Okay, so in the closed session, we'll be discussing item 3.2, public employee discipline dismissal release. Item 3.3, conference with labor negotiator, NTA and CSDA. 3.4 Conference with Labor Negotiator, NEWMA Unrepresented Supervisor and Contracted Management. 3.5 Conference with Legal Counsel Existing Litigation. 3.6 Conference with Legal Counsel Anticipated Litigation. And we'll be back to open session at around 7. Okay, I'll see everyone a bit.

[2849] SPEAKER_49: Hello.

[3421] Bowen Zhang: Still waiting for a couple of members. I believe we have everybody here. And hello, student members. Salami, long time no see. And I think we have everyone. Welcome back to open session. Member Grindel has graciously agreed to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Ms. Gutierrez, can you please turn on the banner? And everybody else, please stand. I brought my own.

[3558] Terrence Grindall: Oh, great. Ms. Gutierrez is nicer looking. Oh, and Aiden, you got it covered well. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

[3576] Phuong Nguyen: And to the Republic for which it stands, One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[3589] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Next is the report of closed session items. No reportable action has been taken in closed session. Next item, student report from our secondary schools, Superintendent Triplett.

[3606] Mark Triplett: Thank you very much, President Jeune. Good evening, board members, staff, and public. Welcome to our board meeting for the 6th of May. So this evening, we have a number of student leaders and speakers. We'll start with the junior high school and Miss Rachel Ristew.

[3634] SPEAKER_09: Hello board members, staff and families. My name is Rachel Restu, the ASB Vice President of Newark Junior High School, and today I will be giving the student report for NJHS for May. First, our leadership class has finished creating this year's yearbook. Our yearbook theme for this year is social media. Yearbooks are on sale for $40. To order your copy, go to the NJHS website and click the yearbook link at the top of the main page. Yearbooks will be distributed during the last week of school. Our marketing committee has created a fundraiser that will last through the rest of this school year and through the next. Our information about the fundraiser will go out next week. This week, our activities committee is holding a spirit week. Today is character day. Students could dress up as their favorite character from any franchise, such as Harry Potter or Disney. Tomorrow is Cougar pride day. Everyone is encouraged to dress in their Cougar merchandise to show their NJHS Cougar pride. And that's the end of my student report. Thank you.

[3690] Bowen Zhang: Thank you for your report.

[3693] Mark Triplett: Thank you, Mr. Stu. Next up, I believe we have from Bridge Point our student leader, Alexis Blanco Baron. Baron, excuse me. One second.

[3724] SPEAKER_42: Oh, my apologies. We're just looking for the student. I don't think they made it. Oh, just showed up. One second. Alexis, whenever you're ready. Sorry, Alexis, you have your mic muted.

[3768] SPEAKER_47: Good evening, Superintendent. Sorry. No worries, take your time. Good evening Superintendent, Dr. Triplett, board members, and cabinet members. My name is Alexis Blanco-Berena and I'm in ninth grade at Crossroads. I serve on the school site council. Bridge Point and Crossroads have reopened along with the rest of Newark Unified. Students are grateful to be back. To celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, our principal and office staff are treating our teachers to different treats every day. Thursday they're having lunch with to-go options for safety parents while also dropping off treats. Tonight during our school spotlight you will hear from our principal and two students. Thank you.

[3813] SPEAKER_38: Thank you for your report.

[3817] Mark Triplett: Thank you Ms. Alexis Barron. And lastly from our Newark Memorial High School we have our distinguished student board member Mr. Wahab Slemi.

[3830] SPEAKER_50: Thank you, Dr. Shipp. Good evening members of the board, executive cabinet, students, and community members. Tonight, we are providing everyone with some updates from NMHS. NMHS VTSA will be having a meeting Tuesday, May 11th at 6.30. On May 25th, there will be a coffee with the principal. June 3rd, at 3.30, there will be a school site council meeting. On April 27th, NMHS has a drive run through with a pair of students for in-person classes. For the first time, students were welcomed back onto campus for learning after months. Senior Awards Night is near. Parents of seniors, please check your emails to see if your student has received an invite to be awarded for their achievements. Spring start week will be from May 10th to May 14th. May 15th will be Senior Night. Congratulations to our homecoming king and queen, Jack Rollins and Isabella Lapp. Yearbook distribution Excuse me, member.

[3931] Bowen Zhang: Student member Salemi, I think your internet is not very stable. You may want to consider turning off your camera and speak a little bit louder.

[3945] Elisa Martinez: It's just very choppy. Or maybe try reconnecting.

[3958] SPEAKER_38: Yeah.

[3959] SPEAKER_50: You guys can do it.

[3961] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I think the audio is not very good.

[3981] Mark Triplett: Ms. Gutierrez, do we want to move on and then possibly come back to Mr. Salemi?

[3988] SPEAKER_42: Most definitely, we can do that.

[3990] Bowen Zhang: OK. I believe that's it for the student report, right? Next one is our employee organization. Mrs. Gutierrez?

[4002] SPEAKER_42: Yes, the first one is going to be NTA. And we have Mr. David Hernandez. You may begin.

[4015] SPEAKER_21: Can you guys hear me? Thank you very much. Good evening, members of the board, superintendent, cabinet, NTA members and community. I'm David Hernandez, executive director of the Newark Teachers Association, CTA, NEA, speaking on behalf of NTA. It's rare that I come and speak before this board. However, in light of how relationships have been going with NTA during these trying times, I've had the opportunity to step back and reflect on the relationship between the NTA, the superintendent, and the board of trustees. And as I reflect, I think of the role you all play in being the ones entrusted with governing the Newark Unified School District and to ensure that the school district is responsive to the values, belief, and priorities of the community by setting direction, establishing an effective and efficient structure, providing support, ensuring accountability, providing community leadership as advocates for children, the school district, and public schools. These five responsibilities represent core functions that are so fundamental to a school system's accountability to the public that they can only be performed by an elected governing body. Therefore, as board members fulfill these responsibilities by working together as a governance team with the superintendent to make decisions that will best serve all the students in the community. And when I think of the responsibilities of the superintendent, he is the chief executive officer of the district. He performs all services, acts and functions necessary advisable to manage and conduct the business and operation of the district. He is responsible to establish and maintain one positive community staff and board relations and serve as liaison to the board with respect to all matters of employee employer relations and make recommendations to the board concerning these matters. The superintendent is to provide timely information to board members about important issues affecting or that may affect the district, and that facilitates communication and information among the administrators, the board, staff, parents, and community, and sets a positive tone for the district. The board shall hold the superintendent accountable to manage the district consistent with the approved policies and goals which establish what the board expects the board and the schools within the district to accomplish. So you may wonder why I'm making this statement. I want you to know that over the past year, which has been a difficult one for all of us, the district, like all others, have had to make alternative plans to ensure the delivery of its educational services to all students. With that being said, it's unfortunate that the relationship between the Board of Trustees, Superintendent, and NTA has spiraled downward. We have seen teacher morale go down, the bargaining process lagging over the course of the year, lack in trust and transparency, the district have plenty of time to mitigate issues, and this lack of time and planning could have been prevented. Giving the superintendent the authority to move forward on a rejected MOU indeed was nuclear, a move made, comment that was made by one of you. An MOU that was rejected twice by only, by NTA only to give a yes vote with no confidence a third time, meaning that there is a lack of trust or transparency on the district's part. This move by the board and the superintendent has brought the relationship with NTA to an all time low point. Your certificated unit very much wants to be with their students. However, some still don't feel comfortable and safe for themselves, for their students to come back to school. For this reason, in order to properly represent its members, NTA will be requesting under the EERA, the complete SIZICO service work order documentation. You have employees who are not trusting of the administration and continue to have concerns over the loss of instructional minutes taken from students in this in-learning program. So how do we move forward? How does the board, superintendent, and cabinet regain the trust by its employees who touch the future on a daily basis? You do so by listening to your employee groups. Between all the employee groups in the district, you have a large percentage of employees who live in the district, send their children to Newark schools, pay taxes, and vote. They have all other children's interests at heart, not just their own. Remember that your employees' working conditions are your students' learning conditions. And get things done on a timely manner. There was a hybrid MOU that was put on hold during the fall. These safety issues today could have been mitigated earlier in the year. Complete the consulting process with NTA before taking matters into your own hands. This did not happen with the district school safety plan that was submitted to the county while we were still in bargaining. So as we move forward to the end of the school year and look at extending learning program possibly over the fall, the summer, and the fall reopening, as well as start of negotiating a new contract, The district has to put forth its best foot in regaining the trust and confidence of its employees. Building trust and confidence takes time, but it can be done. NTA strongly believes that Newark students deserve the best. And I leave you with this question. How will your decision today support your employees and students tomorrow? Thank you very much.

[4371] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Next speaker.

[4385] SPEAKER_42: My apologies, the next speaker is from CSCA and that's Ms. Sue Eustace. And I do apologize, we just have a bit of a delay, but Ms. Eustace is being moved over to as a panelist, one second. Ms. Eustace, whenever you're ready. Ms. Eustace, if you can hear us, you can unmute.

[4439] SPEAKER_18: Perfect. Thank you. I apologize. This is going to be an interesting evening. Again, good to welcome Kathleen Waters to the HR department. I've been working with her for about three weeks now, and I believe about every three days. So we're getting to know each other well. The other thing that I would like to also say is I would like to thank Debbie Romero for 23 years of service. Debbie Romero started out as a classified employee in my bargaining unit. I've known her for the whole 23 years. She is a pleasure to work with, whether she is a classified employee or a NEWMA employee. She has been wonderful, and she has serviced my employees to the best of her ability for all 23 years. So I'd like to wish her a very happy retirement. I also would like to wish all of you a happy Asian American Asian Heritage Month. I play taiko, which is a Japanese musical art. And so Asian-American heritage is pretty important to us. And not being able to play has been very painful. But all of my Asian-American friends, I wish you a great month. I also would like to wish the teachers a very happy Teacher's Day. I know it's passed, but I still wish them well. Our chapter is going to be having its chapter meeting on May 10th and we also are going to be having an executive board meeting on May 24th. Classified School Employees Week is coming up and it's going to be celebrated from March 16th to the 22nd. Normally, we as a group of Newark employees get together and we usually go and we celebrate our classified week. But this year, again, we're not going to be able to do that. So we're hoping we're going to actually move our celebration to September. So I will be inviting all of you to attend that day if we actually are able to have it. And we are going to be hopefully going back to claim jumpers. It's been pretty.

[4607] SPEAKER_42: Ms. Eustace, if you're still there with us, we lost you for a second. Miss Uses, we lost your audio. Are you still there? If she comes back, we can always bring her back, but I think she dropped. We can move on to... our NEWMA representative and for that one we have Ms. Vicenta Ditto. Principal Ditto you may begin.

[4674] SPEAKER_31: Good evening, President June, members of the board and executive cabinet. Members of NEWMA have continued working hard to continue to be ready for our students' return to campus while still supporting students from a distance. We want to thank all members of our NEWMA community for their continued effort in supporting our students and families during this very unusual school year. and we celebrate with all the members of our learning communities that have returned to campuses. I know the board is going to be taking action later on May being the, on a resolution to recognize that May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Awareness, I'm sorry, month. But as a member of NEWMA, we also want to bring attention to the fact that May is National Foster Care Awareness Month as well. And we encourage everyone to show appreciation and gratitude to foster parents across the nation. Foster care intends to provide a safe environment for children and youth who temporarily cannot live with their primary families. And foster care is a part of the constellation of services provided to children and families when they are especially in need. As school leaders, we want to recognize the importance of and celebrate those often unsung heroes that take in our foster youth to provide care and love. It is important to know that we have fantastic members in our community providing such invaluable service to others. And speaking of invaluable service to others, it is my honor tonight to highlight two NEWMA members that are truly invaluable to our district. Debbie Romero and Julie Radcliffe in Human Resources. Now, normally I would be calling them Miss Radcliffe and Miss, I'm sorry, Miss Romero. However, these are the first folks that we all meet when we join the district, and they introduce themselves as Julie and Debbie. So I will be using those as we all know them and appreciate them in their roles. Julie Radcliffe is the manager of Certificated Human Resources and Labor Relations. She's been part of the NUSD family for 16 years. Although NHR staff wear many hats, as Executive Director of Human Resources, Ms. Ingham-Watters will soon learn. It is often referred to as a one-stop shop, and there are three things Julie names as her favorite roles. The first being that she's able to create and foster long-term relationships with our employees. She feels a sense of pride when the guest teachers she has recruited go on to earn their credentials, clear it, and even earn tenure within NUSD. Julie also gets the pleasure of meeting our employees one-on-one about the joyous occasions in their lives like having babies and grandbabies or retiring after a long career here in Newark. While she mainly works with certificated staff, Julie celebrates that both certificated and classified staff are by far the most loyal employees. She is humble when she recognizes the longevity of our staff, And that's proved as many of our employees have worked in NUSD for an average of 15 to 20 years. What she won't say is that she is one of the first and last people our employees are in contact with and her dedication to each employee she serves is an outstanding contribution to our district. And Debbie Romero, she is our manager of classified human resources and labor relations. She has been with the district for 23 years and also wears many hats. When asked to narrow that down to a top three, she named recruitment and hiring of classified positions in the district. She talked about how labor relations and negotiation with CSCA and negotiated items in the contract such as seniority reclassifications and professional growth, and of course, enrollment in and coordinating benefits to take care of our classified employees. Debbie truly loves working in human resources. She's expressed being grateful for the opportunity to serve in this role. She recognizes that we have such hardworking, wonderful people who work here and feel very honored to work alongside them. I argue that we are lucky to have had her in our corner, and she will be greatly missed when she moves into her well-deserved next adventure. Thank you.

[4969] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. I believe that's it for our employee organizations. Moving on, staff spotlight. Superintendent Triplett.

[4981] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jun. and thank you to our labor partners for all of their comments. So as you heard and are no doubt aware of this week is teacher appreciation week and so we have been trying to appreciate our teachers all week long and tonight is no exception. So as you know normally we do once a month we celebrate Oh, excuse me. Let me just make sure I get the sound on here. Hold on one second. We celebrate spotlights of our staff. This week, since it is Teacher Appreciation Week, we wanted to spotlight three teachers in particular. So the first is Miss Jackson Ramirez. She's a third grade teacher at Birch Grove Intermediate. I had the pleasure on the first day back to in-person learning to visit her class, and her class was actually outside. They were already doing science with crayfish in the yard. It was really, really tremendous. Ms. Jackson-Ramirez brings that kind of energy and engagement to her kids every day, and we really appreciate her. A little love for Ms. Jackson-Ramirez. The next teacher is Alina Safra. She's a teacher at Birch Grove Primary, and I had the pleasure of visiting her in person, or sorry, distance learning classroom earlier in the year. She is, like I said, first grade teacher. She does an amazing job of organizing students, helping students to organize their own thinking. I saw her using Venn diagrams and other strategies for helping students to develop themselves as writers. And she used a lot of kinesthetic things, even in distance learning, where students were doing hands-on things to really think about how to become better writers. So please join me in appreciating Ms. Safras. And then our third teacher we wanted to highlight tonight, Ms. Heidi Flores. She's a second grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary. I also had the honor of visiting her distance learning classroom earlier this year. What I noted was how she really focused on equity of participation for all students, really critical. She used a lot of engagement strategies, even in distance learning, had students using whiteboards, showing their thinking and their learning. She created great accountability and engagement structures, teaching students around about phonics. So please join me in appreciating Ms. Heidi Flores. And of course, we have many, many other teachers in our district, and this week is really an appreciation of all of them. Earlier this week, we sent out a first teacher appreciation video, and we wanted to share another one tonight. This is the premiere of the second video, which we will then highlight again tomorrow on social media, but we wanted to share it tonight as its premiere. So let's hope my sound is working properly here.

[5218] SPEAKER_48: Thank you for being my teacher. I'll miss you and I love you. I love my teacher because she teaches me a lot of stuff.

[5234] Phuong Nguyen: Here at Bridgepoint, I really appreciate you guys so much. I want to just say that you guys have done awesome jobs.

[5244] SPEAKER_48: I like my teachers because they're nice. Happy Teacher's Day! I love you, teacher. I appreciate my teacher because she helped me a lot. Thank you! I wanna, I wanna, I wanna thank you. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna thank you. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna thank you.

[5279] SPEAKER_32: Teachers, you are amazing.

[5281] SPEAKER_48: We love you and thank you for preparing our students every single day. And you should be appreciated every day. I appreciate my teachers because they taught me to do a lot of things. I appreciate my teacher because he's informative. Teacher Appreciation Day. I am thankful. for how you are always patient for our classmates. Thank you.

[5315] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you for all of your hard work that you put in this year. You made my last year at music really special.

[5322] SPEAKER_48: I love Mrs. West because she's kind and generous. I appreciate my teachers because they're nice, caring, and they help me learn. I appreciate my teacher because she works hard and for teaching me a lot of new stuff. I appreciate my teachers because they help me learn. Thank you. I get better and better and better at homework because they help me. The more they help me, the more I get smart. I love those teachers because they make me do much work better instead of struggling so much. And I just want to say thank you to all those teachers. I appreciate my teachers because they are awesome. Thank you for all your hard work. Happy. OK, try it again. Happy Teacher Weekend Day.

[5394] Sean Abruzzi: All right.

[5401] Mark Triplett: OK. So couldn't have said it better myself. Happy Teacher Appreciation Weekend. Um, just wanted to, uh, just again, really appreciate all of the teachers. This has been such a challenging year and our teachers have risen to that challenge, supported our young people, our families. Um, we're so grateful to all of them. Um, and also a little thank you to, uh, the parents who sent in these videos and to miss Pierce, who put it all together. Um, really, really nice. And, uh, that is our spotlight for this, uh, this month.

[5440] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Superintendent. Next item is school spotlight. I guess back to you, Superintendent Triplett.

[5447] Mark Triplett: Thank you. Yes, so as you know, every month we have, we spotlight a different school. And this month we are spotlighting Bridgepoint and Crossroads and the Adult Education Center at McGregor. And so we have our distinguished principal, Ms. Julie Calderon. I think she's brought some other folks from the school along as well. And allow me before she starts to just give a public deep appreciation for all of the work that the team there has done and got WASC accredited this year, which is an extremely big deal, which is incredible. It's just so many people coming together with Ms. Calderon's leadership to really get that accreditation. So with that, I'll turn it over to her.

[5500] SPEAKER_30: Thank you so much, Dr. Triplett. Good evening, buenas noches, board, President Zhang, Executive Cabinet, community, it is an honor to serve as your Principal of Alternative Education. And Dr. Triplett opened with one of the biggest achievements that our campus accomplished this year, which was getting WASC accredited. So whenever the slides are ready, I think Ms. Gutierrez.

[5528] SPEAKER_42: One second, I'll set it up.

[5531] SPEAKER_30: Great. So as Dr. Triplett indicated, you know, this is a pretty big task. It is even more challenging during a pandemic and so I am grateful during this Teacher Appreciation Week to be able to thank my team of teachers. We are a small but mighty team and when we come together and share a common vision and more importantly a passion for our students There's nothing that we can't do. So if you're out there, team, I'm pretty sure you are. We're going to do this. We're going to keep working, moving forward. This is just the beginning. Accreditation is just the first step. And we've got big goals. So we're going to keep reaching for those goals someday. Model Continuation High School, that's another journey that we're going to be embarking on. But we're really proud of that WASC accreditation. That's probably the biggest success story of this unique year.

[5586] SPEAKER_52: Waiting on the slides. It's okay.

[5592] SPEAKER_42: Sorry, I have it ready. I just have to put it on a different screen so I can present. Of course.

[5599] Maria Huffer: Let me do this.

[5614] SPEAKER_30: Thank you so much, Miss Gutierrez. So as Dr. Triplett indicated, I am the principal of Bridgepoint Crossroads and Newark Adult Education. And so I will be speaking to all of that, not just Bridgepoint, but I had to kind of put that out there front and center because it's taken the whole team. And one of the things that's wonderful is that Bridgepoint and Crossroads, we have been working as one team. We don't all of our work, whether it's professional learning community, and even some of the WASC work has involved our Crossroads and Bridgepoint teachers. So it's really one alternative education team that is moving forward together. Next slide, please. And as we've already mentioned, you know, the biggest success story of the year was our WASC accreditation. We got full accreditation after two very difficult years in probation. But we looked for the silver lining. We looked to align with our district goals and align our WASC goals to that. And so I'm so proud that we are fully, we got a full six-year accreditation. And we will be hosting a short virtual visit this year as they check in with us on our progress. Next slide, please. So as everyone else, our focus of course has been engaging students and our staff really stepped up to the challenge of switching to distance learning. And so they had to learn a lot of new things as many of our colleagues in other schools have had to do. As you can see here, we've got some examples of a teacher's Bitmoji. We've got teachers using that as well. Checkology, we've got two different students and their take on the purposes of writing, and in this case, the purposes of marketing. And so, two different students here, their slides from their presentation. Next slide, please. In our other classes, you know, we continue to do lots of work that's interactive for students. In the corner there, we've got some beautiful artwork, but as you can see, that student's art talents at Crossroads are also being used for him to master some geometry concepts. In the center there we have a slide from one of our tall students so bridge point is home to the tall program which is a workability transition program for our our young adults with special needs. And so they do a lot of work around career awareness and, as you can see, they had to do a slide presentation on career goals and. in the right corner we've got from our economics class some work with some real life problem solving where a student had to figure out what kind of car they'd like to purchase and what it would cost to purchase that on a monthly basis based on different interest rates. So just trying to keep it relevant for our students and engaging them during this time. Next slide please. With that, you know, we want the overall goal of improving our graduation rate. So while there was no dashboard due to the pandemic, you know, we have, of course, been keeping data. And so last year, the class of 2020, we had 22 graduates out of a class of 28 students, which sadly was not part of the dashboard because that would have been a 79% graduation rate. a 22-point improvement. So we are hoping, we know the pandemic, you'll hear from me later this evening about how the pandemic has greatly impacted grad rates and will continue to impact grad rates, but that's always front and center in the work that we do. And, you know, at Crossroads, things have been very positive. You know, the last reported graduation rate was 86, and we're looking to improve that as well. So that's always front and center in our single plans, as well as our WASC goals at Bridgepoint. Next slide, please. As I mentioned, Bridgepoint and Crossroads has been doing a lot of work together. So in our virtual world, we decided to combine as one school. And so we honor our students with our quarterly assemblies with both Bridgepoint and Crossroads present. So it's been a lot of fun to have these Quarterly assemblies at Bridgepoint, we have given out 49 honor roll certificates for students with 3.0s and above. We've honored 13 students with above average credit earning and 35 perfect attendance awards. And that's perfect attendance through an entire quarter. So being perfect for nine to 10 weeks. At Crossroads, there've been 22 students for the honor roll, 19 earning above average credits and 31 perfect attendance awards. We've been really lucky that we have retirees from our sites as well as community donors. that have been providing gift cards. Those are included in the assemblies as prize drawings. And I've had students email me directly to say, are there going to be prize drawings at the next assembly? Because that kind of just gets them really excited. And we have continued to do PBIS work and rewarding them with what we call our tickets. And they are saving those up because they're excited about the shipment of Bridgepoint gear that is hopefully headed our way before the end of the year. Next slide, please. As Dr. Triplett mentioned, some of my students wanted to be part of this presentation, and so I'm going to share the slide from Ms. Ashley Griffith. She couldn't be here, but she did want her slide included, so I have her permission to read her slide, and she included an image of herself. So this is Ashley Griffith. Bridgepoint assemblies have become my favorite part of each quarter. The staff here has found a way to include the students and make it fun while doing so. The assemblies have made a safe environment to communicate and solve the confusion with online learning. The staff also recognizes students for all the hard work that comes with online learning. And personally, that has helped me strive to do better and earn the most credits I can. These assemblies have overall been extremely supportive and inclusive. So thank you, Ashley, for sharing your thoughts. Next slide. Another strength of the alternative education campus is our emphasis on social emotional learning. At the top there, we have some numbers about cost referrals. So as you can see, you know, cost has been a really important part of our work. In 2018-19 school year, we had 95 referrals. That was almost three-fourths of the student population. 2019 to the following school year, 71. Unfortunately, during this year, we've only had 31 referrals to date, which is an area of concern for us because we know that typically these numbers are quite high and it's important for us to connect our students to the services that they need. So that will definitely be something that we focus on when we begin the new year is making sure that we are providing services and resources for our students. With that in mind, we did take some student surveys and based on their input, we created two special virtual events. In January, when we returned from Christmas break to kick off the new quarter, we did what we call the January retreat. And in this event, we had a keynote speaker who were, we were fortunate to have Miss Vanessa Shea from Newark Memorial and Miss Victoria Garcia who works with our district keynote on trauma awareness and self care. We also had some breakout sessions led by our teachers. that the students enjoyed, including mindfulness, healthy cooking demo with MVROP, and the most popular, chill with your pet lounge, where students could attend in Zoom with their cat or dog and just get to know everyone's pets. So that was definitely a popular one. We did something similar in March, again, based on student feedback. We called it the March refresh to kick off the fourth quarter. And in that event, we had a keynote speaker talk about social justice. Our 2P peer educators shared some of the work that they've been doing, and we also did a kickoff for Care for Strong, which is going to be our SEL curriculum next year. Next slide.

[6074] SPEAKER_52: And it looks like maybe the video won't play, which is... Unfortunately, I don't have access to it.

[6079] SPEAKER_42: I don't know if you can quickly access to it and then give me access, access it so you can grant me access. Otherwise, if you have it available on your screen, we could share. I apologize.

[6095] SPEAKER_52: Let's see. Let me see if I am able to find it. Sorry about this, folks. I had not realized that we would not have access to this. My apologies as well. It's OK. Let's see. Find his video.

[6130] SPEAKER_30: Am I able to share my screen?

[6132] SPEAKER_42: Yes, most definitely. I'll stop sharing mine.

[6148] SPEAKER_25: Hello, everybody. My name is Malik Wheaton. I am a senior at Bridgepoint High School, and today I'm going to be talking about my experience before and during the pandemic. For my junior year, I decided to go to a different high school, which was Bridgepoint, because I needed a school that had better communication, and I needed a better relationship with the school. And luckily, that's exactly what I got, because the first three months I attended at Bridgepoint, I was already making friends, having healthy relationships with the staff and principal, and I was able to trust everybody around me. Another thing I could admire from the school was the activities we got to do as a school. We had potlucks, we had holiday themed parties, and also we had a basketball tournament and a couple people came over and let us paint what we felt like so that we were ordered to express ourselves. Fast forwarded to March 14th of 2020, We have gone into, we were hoping, into a two-week quarantine, which turned into a few months of distant learning. During my junior year of distant learning was kind of weird because we didn't have any schedule, but we still communicated through emails and Google Meets. Now my senior year of distant learning, I've noticed how many people have put so much work while they're going through tough times during this pandemic. For me, it's been a struggle, but I'm going to continue to stay strong through this through and through. I would like to thank all the staff, teachers, and principal for making this all possible and helping me complete my goals I set myself for high school. That concludes the end of this video. Thanks for watching. Hello, everybody. My name is Malik Wheaton.

[6258] SPEAKER_30: Thank you, Malik. I appreciate you contributing as well. And last slide. So the final slide has to do with our post-secondary transitions. This is really important at alternative education. And as I mentioned, when I began, I also serve as your principal of adult education. So that has been important to foster a stronger relationship there. And thankfully, we have our wonderful alternative education counselor, Hamilton Baylon, who has definitely worked on not only having stronger communication with Newark Adult Education, but also collaborating with Ohlone College and Chabot College that our Bridgepoint and Crossroads students are able to attend workshops with that staff. And the interest in Newark Adult Education has grown so much that there has been a perpetual waiting list all year this year for the high school diploma program at Newark Adult Education. And we will actually be opening a second section of the diploma program starting this summer session. That concludes my report. Thank you so much for your attention and support.

[6338] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Thank you for your report, Mrs. Calderon. In particular, thank you for your hard work and your team's hard work for getting the WASC accreditation. Any other comments from the rest of the board?

[6355] SPEAKER_38: Go ahead. Member Hill.

[6359] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Ms. Calderon, for an excellent presentation. Thank you.

[6368] Elisa Martinez: If I may, I just... Oh, sorry.

[6372] Phuong Nguyen: Go ahead, Member Martinez. I'll go after you.

[6375] Elisa Martinez: Thank you. So Ms. Calderon, I just wanted to say congratulations on the accreditation. I know that you all have been working on it for a while. And a lot of folks really, you know, contributed to making this happen. So thank you. because obviously the work that you do there is so important and that we have that as an option. And we heard it today in that last video, you know, just really that he really captured the spirit of community that you have there, that we were able to see in that first graduation that I was ever able to attend. So anyway, thank you for all of the work that you and your team do for our students.

[6424] SPEAKER_38: member when.

[6425] Phuong Nguyen: I would also like to echo member Martinez and member Hills comment and the huge congratulations to you and your team, Principal Calderon. And I know that I have seen firsthand how you and just for us in a small window of last year being able to work with you. And also with Miss Gutierrez, with last year's class, and those kids and your staff really do have special unique bond and your connection with them. So I know how special all those students are to you. And I know how special you are to them and your team is to them. So I just want to say thank you for all your hard work. And we definitely appreciate all of the wonderful things that are happening at the schools there. Congratulations.

[6479] Terrence Grindall: I want to echo all the other board members' comments, particularly congratulations on the accreditation, but thank you for the excellent presentation and all the work you do all year round. Thank you.

[6494] Bowen Zhang: Thank you again for your presentation and all the hard work.

[6498] SPEAKER_30: Thank you all for your wonderful words.

[6501] Bowen Zhang: Moving on next, public comment on non-agenda item. I believe we have Seven public comment speaker, Ms. Gutierrez.

[6511] SPEAKER_42: That is correct. We're going to start with the first public speaker, which is Faith McComb.

[6526] SPEAKER_24: May I begin?

[6529] SPEAKER_42: Yes, you may begin.

[6532] SPEAKER_24: Good evening, board members and superintendent, staff and community. My name is Faith McComb, and I am a special education teacher at Music Elementary. I am new to Newark Unified this year, but I have quickly become familiar with the injustices that the district has perpetuated against our minority groups. Tonight, I am here to speak to you about an issue surrounding the TK through second moderate to severe SDC class at Music Elementary. I have heard that this is an issue that you might not even be aware of. Next year, Music will not have a TK or Kinder class on campus. However, my SDC class will have three kindergarten students. Without general education Kinder classes, my students will not have access to recess, lunch, or other mainstreaming opportunities with typically developing grade-level peers, something that they are entitled to under IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. When myself and other individuals have raised concerns about this, we have fallen on deaf ears. I have become increasingly disappointed with the leadership in the district and their lack of foresight and communication surrounding this issue. So I am coming to you with solutions to what could potentially be a troubling legal issue for the district. One, keep the TK and kinder classes at music next year. Not only do the TK and through second SDC classes spend time with these students, but our preschool program does as well. Or two, move my SDC class to a campus with a kinder class. Why keep these students at music for a year with no grade level peers when music will be dissolving next school year? If you can move the gen ed classes and our mild moderate SDC class, then surely you have room for one more SDC class somewhere in the district. During the board meetings regarding the dissolution of music, I watched President Zhang nearly break into tears at the thought of tearing our most vulnerable learners away from the school that they have come to call home. But now our district leadership wants to keep them isolated from their general education peers. This can be avoided. Please have some foresight. Do the right thing. Solve this problem now and save yourself some pain. Board members, if you truly care for our special education students, our most vulnerable learners, you will do the right thing by, you will do right by them and give them the access to general education peers that not only are they entitled to, but that they deserve. Thank you.

[6688] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Next speaker.

[6695] SPEAKER_42: Thank you. The next speaker is Miss Cindy Parks.

[6702] Cindy Parks: Good evening. At the October 15 2020 board meeting, the superintendent gave a report regarding public records requests. In the presentation, he stated per California law, requesters can expect a response within 10 days of their submission, at which point they will be notified as to whether the request can be filled and the remaining time needed to fulfill the request. Staff will track the amount of time required to fill the request and a report will be made to the board on a monthly basis. This evening I'd like to address that process. I submitted a request on April 20th and did not receive a response within the 10 day time frame. The response I received was 15 days after my request and two days following my second request. The response confirmed the district had received my public records request and said the district is currently reviewing the request and the availability of the records. My request was for Dr. Bernard's contract, an easily locatable agreement which could be quickly redacted and emailed. I also requested the financial records in a spreadsheet form for the estimated $12.5 million of COVID money I was told by a community member that Newark Unified School District received. I've asked for those records to be broken down by resource code. I would also like an itemized encumbered expenditure report for each of the COVID related resource codes. All of this is easily accessible computer generated reports. I would also like to notify the board the initial 10 day response time has now encroached upon the 14 day. extended time period for unusual circumstances. The government code states no notice shall specify a date that would result in an extension for more than 14 days. When the agency dispatches the determination, and if the agency determines that the request seeks disclosable public records, the agency shall state the estimated date and the time when the records will be made available. There are four unusual circumstances listed, none of which applies to this circumstance. It continues with, nothing in this chapter shall be conscrued to permit an agency to delay or obstruct the inspection or copying of public records. With all of this in mind, I am asking the board to intercede and ensure staff takes my CPRA request seriously. Immediately providing me with Dr. Bernard's contract and a date in which I can receive the rest of my records. Thank you very much.

[6859] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Next speaker.

[6866] SPEAKER_42: Yes, the next speaker is Mr. Carlos Zarate.

[6884] SPEAKER_22: Good evening board members and Dr. Triplett. Once again, I'm here to speak to all of you about systemic racism in our district. First of all, I find it very offensive that board member Martinez makes statements like, we are working on it. I just wanted to call that out because it's a lot of work to get there. And we're dragging decades of not doing that. And we're trying to get it all fixed in a year and it's hard to do. As a member of the NUSD board and the Latinx community, she should know the importance of having documents and meetings translated, especially for the Graham Snow community. since 50% of our parents are second language learners. Member Martinez, you've acknowledged that that has been an issue for many years and have done little about it. Take care of the problem instead of making excuses and blaming the former leadership. Also, I'm worried that our district lacks equity because Principal Byrd has brought great changes to Graham during these last five years. yet was not given the opportunity to continue leading. I've shared with you the following facts and many more about my former principal, Ms. Byrd. She's highly qualified, has had the most increased standardized test scores in the district in the year 1920, and she has been an equity warrior to all students. Thanks to principal Byrd's leadership, I and many of Graham's former students continue to thrive. Dr. Triplett, stop using equity as a buzzword. Instead, practice implementing equity across the district. Maybe you can learn something from our neighboring districts like New Haven Unified, who sends out a board brief in both English and Spanish to their entire community. Maybe you should hire people like Principal Bird who bring innovation, change, and know how to meet the needs of our diverse population. Thank you.

[7010] Bowen Zhang: Next speaker.

[7017] SPEAKER_42: Yes, the next speaker is Miss Annabelle Gutierrez.

[7033] SPEAKER_20: Good evening. On the evening of Friday, April 30, I received an email which stated that a member of our Graham School community reported testing positive for COVID-19. We, the parents of Graham School, question if campuses are safe in NUSD for students to return to in-person learning. As a Graham School parent, I wonder why our students' health are being risked in order to make a profit off emergency relief funds. As parents, we are worried that our children who are remaining in distance learning have had their instructional minutes reduced since the reopening plan went into effect last week. We are doubtful about sending our children back to school next year if changes aren't made by the leaders in the district who are supposed to be responsible for protecting our kids while they are learning. As a Graham School employee, I am concerned that Dr. Triplett's commitments, which he expressed in multiple town hall and board meetings, are not being followed through. I am worried that the district does not care about the well-being of our students or staff since they are not following their own reopening plan. I make this statement because on page 31 of the NUSD reopening plan, it stated that, initially upon reopening of schools, all employees who return to work to a site with direct contact with students will be tested. After the initial test, all students in a hybrid school setting will be tested once a month. We expect to test 50% of employees at each site every two weeks. board members. Please note that as of now, I have not been tested for COVID-19, nor has any Graham employee been tested for COVID-19. Member Hill, you voted against going nuclear. But Member Martinez, Member Grindel, President Zang, and Member Nguyen, you voted to override the teacher's union and send students back to the classroom on April 29th. please do a better job to ensure that your reopening plan is actually being followed through. Thank you.

[7168] SPEAKER_38: Thank you.

[7169] Bowen Zhang: Next speaker.

[7176] SPEAKER_42: Yes, the next speaker is Ms. Delight Evans-Vasquez.

[7187] SPEAKER_47: Hello. Can you hear me?

[7192] SPEAKER_43: Yes. Yes, you may begin. Okay. Dear board members and Dr. Triplett, I'm here as a parent, member of the community and a professional. Our district has had a tough year due to the pandemic and changes from distance learning to hybrid, to a consolidation, to a merger of the school and for the continuous lack of transparency that this leadership keeps on practicing. The pressure of opening schools without a proper plan continues to bring challenges to our communities. In our MOU, it states that we were to have been COVID-19 tested before bringing in students. We had a positive case at Graham on Friday, April 30th, and as of now, no one has been tested. The leadership team seems to be more concerned about the money that is coming from the state rather than the well-being of the students and staff. Where is the support and equity? Would the district react the same way if this was happening at a non-Title I school? Communication continues to be a major issue. As a member of the Graham community, I have been attending SSC and ELAC meetings. And once again, no one seems to have any answers to budget questions or hiring of staff. And district leadership comes unprepared to meet the needs of our community. For example, no interpretation or translation of documents. Perhaps if the panel would have kept the current principal, Ms. Bird, and would provide the tier two and three resources that are needed at Graham and Snow, things may have been better. Thank you.

[7288] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Next speaker.

[7295] SPEAKER_42: The next speaker is Ms. Veronica Medina.

[7305] SPEAKER_41: Can you hear me?

[7308] SPEAKER_42: Hello? Yes, you may begin.

[7311] SPEAKER_41: Good evening, members of the board and Superintendent Dr. Triplett. At Music Elementary School, we expect our students to RISE, R-I-S-E. That acronym is for Positive Behavior Intervention Support and means they should be responsible, inclusive, safe, and engaged. These are the expectations held for all students, even our special education students, which make up one third of our school population. Why am I telling you this? Because as a parent of a special education student, I don't believe we're holding district leadership to these standards. Leaders are not taking the responsibility of planning for our students. They're not creating safe and proper placement for students in special day classes, particularly in the moderate to severe special day class. Nor is the district leadership engaging with parents and communicating effectively. In your November meeting, three senior members of the board voted to close music after the 21-22 school year. Two members mentioned they had a concern for our special education population and wanted time to create a positive transition for those students. However, when the board approved the involuntary transfers of TK and kindergarten teachers for next year, thereby removing those grades from our campus, no one seemed to think of how that move would impact our special day class serving grades TK through first grade. Families in that SDC class were notified after the fact that their class was also being relocated to another campus because there would be no typically developing peers left at music for those students. It is beyond unfortunate that this information was not relayed in a clear and transparent manner where questions and concerns could be addressed. Well, so much for engaging with parents. If the logic behind that move was to provide special day students with typically developing peer models, why are we still planning to keep the moderate severe day class at music? Now, I am in no way saying these students should move, but why would those students be denied access and socialization with grade level peers? And if the plan is to relocate that class, when will the families be notified. There are less than 20 days left in this school year. There's been a lack of communication surrounding extended school year or summer school, and this issue affects music and other sites as well. We're already in May and applications for summer school have not been made available in Spanish. Our students and their families deserve better. If our students can rise through the chaos of this school year, then the leadership must do the same. I will wait for your actions to show me a commitment to our students because I can no longer trust your words. Thank you.

[7481] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Next speaker.

[7488] SPEAKER_42: Okay, our last speaker is Ms. Megan McMillan.

[7494] Megan McMillan: Hi, everybody. Dr. Triplett, board members. Good evening. My name is Megan McMillan, and I have a number of roles in the district. I'm a parent of a third grader at Snow. I am a teacher of SDC preschool at music. I am the vice president of NTA as well as the organizing chair. And Three days ago I got to welcome my preschoolers back for the first time in 14 months and it did exactly what I thought it would, it filled my heart, my soul is bursting I'm so happy to see them to see how much they've grown, and to celebrate their successes in the classroom. including using the potty appropriately. Anyone who knows a preschool teacher knows that they can't escape a conversation without talking about potty training. It's one of the most important things I do and probably the single most important life skill I teach. On our first day of school, I had two kids successful and it was awesome. And then I went home and I came back the next day, ready to do this again, ready to do it. And I walk into my classroom and I go into my bathroom and it has not been cleaned. And my trash can is filled to the top with the day old diapers and PPE that my para and myself used the day before. My students would be there in less than 45 minutes. According to page 13 of the reopening plan, That bathroom would be cleaned multiple times per day by trained custodial staff. My admin was alerted and we were able to get it cleaned about half an hour after my students arrived. It's unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. My admin was able to fix it, but why did I have to ask? Why did I have to ask about something so fundamental? The teachers voted down that MOU, not because the plan on paper wasn't right. We voted down that MOU because the trust wasn't there. And I went into my classroom on day two and had it thrown in my face that the trust isn't there. Our custodians are working so hard. The custodial requirements in that MOU and in the reopening plan need more staff, and you've had since January to put it in there. Why isn't it there? We need to rebuild the trust, but just like Ms. Medina before me, I'm gonna rely on those actions rather than words, because right now, the reopening plan that you so eagerly and confidently filed with the county on January 11th is not being upheld. Our students and our staff and our custodians and everyone in this district deserves the best. Do it. Give it to our students and our staff. Thank you.

[7677] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. I believe that's all the public comment on non-agenda item. Next, we move on to superintendent report, Dr. Triplett.

[7686] Mark Triplett: All right. Thank you, President Jeon, and thank you to all of the public comments. So this is the superintendent's report for this evening. I have three things to touch upon. First, our usual enrollment update. Then talking about reopening to in-person learning and some updates there about how it's gone thus far and what's coming up next. And then last date around the merger process with Stone-Graham. first enrollment. So these are numbers as of last week and as you can see we've actually gained a student since we returned to in-person learning. Just one single student but in the right direction. So that is Actually, I'm sorry that the 26 was the day before we are a couple days before we went back to in person learning so gain gain the student there. Moving towards about reopening. So first of all, just want to say how wonderful it has been to see students back in schools, to see students in classrooms, teachers, and staff welcoming their students back, students being so excited to return, and parents being delighted. And as we all know, this is, This is a big, big lift, and we really appreciate how everybody has risen to it. And there are many things that we are we're going to continue to get better and iterate on as we go. But I'm really, really grateful to all of the staff for all they've done to to continue to do the amazing things they're doing every day to see our young people smiling and smiling behind their masks and happy in schools. So a couple things I just want to reiterate. One is I've been out at, I visited all schools in the last week during the reopening times in the morning and in the afternoon. Things that I've really appreciated and that I've seen is that the daily health check is being completed. I know there was some early kinks there that have been worked out. I'm seeing temperatures being taken of every child as they enter the campus. Students doing hand sanitization at the beginning right when they enter and then throughout the day. Masks being worn by everyone. These are the things that are going to keep students and staff safe. So really appreciating that everybody is doing their best to follow these guidelines and to do these relatively simple things that are really going to make the difference. There's been some questions around testing, COVID testing. So I just wanted to talk about our next steps there. So what you see right here in this white chart is from our state guidelines. And just wanted to share that these are the considerations that the state has articulated that districts and schools should follow. And as you can see, it's based on which tier you're in. And what they've articulated is in the purple and red tiers, that there should be testing, both symptomatic and response testing, as well as asymptomatic testing. So symptomatic, of course, is when someone is showing signs of possibly having COVID, that that person gets tested to see if in fact they are positive. Response testing is when someone has tested positive. And so there's a response of others being being tested as well. And then the asymptomatic testing, of course, is when people do not have any signs of of COVID, but it's just a periodic test to to check and and to continue to monitor. So in the orange tier, which is where we are, the state does not advise that symptomatic, sorry, advises that symptomatic and response testing should occur, but not asymptomatic testing. Despite that, we are continuing to follow a process where we will be doing asymptomatic testing. And as you can see on the previous guidelines, when we're in the red tier or the purple tier, that asymptomatic testing should happen every two weeks. In the orange tier, even though it's not required at all, we are going to conduct monthly testing. of asymptomatic testing in addition to, of course, the symptomatic and response testing that that is expected in the orange tier. So we are beginning our testing cadence this upcoming week. And then, of course, moving forward, it is also weekly for specific staff and specific programs. So the majority of staff will receive a monthly test. but certain staff, depending on the program, will experience a weekly test. Like I said, the testing is commencing this upcoming week. And then, so that is the guidelines from the state. In our reopening plan that was submitted earlier this year, we did articulate that we would be testing upon reopening to in-person learning. And so there was not a requirement to test before opening to in-person learning. But now that we have opened, we are going to do some initial testing as articulated in the plan. So there might have been some misunderstanding about about that, but that's that's what the intention of the plan was. And like I said, although it's not actually a requirement by the state, given the tier we're in, we are going to conduct testing on once a month and then in some cases a weekly basis. Just wanted to loop back to the board around our air purifiers, because last time we met, we had ordered those air purifiers. At this point, all of the classrooms and spaces have air purifiers. So those are including HEPA filters in the air purifiers in all of our classroom spaces. And then we have been able to open up the childcare for all staff in addition to community. We're delighted that a lot of staff have been utilizing this free childcare, and it's been a really great thing. So we're grateful to our childcare staff who have been doing amazing work providing this free childcare all day on these days when we're in in-person learning. And once again just want to loop back to the wonderfulness of seeing our young people back in school. And just just how much it's really brought to all of us, I think that realization of of why we're here and why we do what we do so. I wanna move on to the school merger update. So the big news in these next couple of weeks is around the school naming process. And so as you recall, at the last board meeting, we talked about how we had done an all call for school name ideas, that's suggestions for what would be a good name for the merge school. We put out that all call through an online survey, through email, And that people could send suggestions into an email called name my school that that at Newark unified.org and then also paper ballots, both in English and Spanish. So we got around 60 different. naming ideas, some really fantastic ideas. The design team made up of both community members and staff at both schools reviewed the submissions and a subcommittee narrowed it down to, I believe it was about 14 ideas, making sure that all of those ideas fit the criteria from the board policy. At that point, then the design team last week narrowed it down to six really fantastic school name ideas. And now this week, we've put those ideas out back to the community to vote, to narrow it to three final selection ideas. The names that are on the ballot include Coyote Hills Elementary, Jean Ficklin Elementary, Alameda Creek Elementary, Cherry Elementary, Grow Elementary, and Rogelio Collazo Elementary. So those are the selections, and we're asking students, staff, families, community members to submit their votes for what they think are the top three of those naming ideas. And then what we'll do, this is the timeline that I've shared with the board and we've shared with the community previously. But as you can see, right now we're in the engaging in a ranked choice voting process, which will end next week. At that point, the design team will go through the votes. And then on the 20th, at the board meeting, we'll have a public hearing based on the top three choices where the public can weigh in and make comments on which of the three finalist names they think are the best. And then the design team will, based on that feedback from the public hearing, will narrow to one selection to bring to the board for a vote. And that is my superintendent update for this week.

[8324] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, superintendent. Any clarifying questions from the board? Member Hill.

[8332] Aiden Hill: Yeah, thank you, Dr. Triplett for taking us through the process. So quick question for you for the naming process. So you indicated that I think it was primarily that it was an email communication that was sent out asking for input. Is that correct? Was that the...

[8350] Mark Triplett: Um, there was a, um, there was a survey sent out, um, via email and also announced, um, in other, um, communications. Um, and then there was a email address that people could send submissions to. So you could either fill out the, the online survey, you could send a submission to this email address called, um, name my school. Um, or you could submit a paper version at the school itself. So they had paper ballots that students or community could fill out and put in the ballot box.

[8380] Aiden Hill: So do you know roughly, I understand that when there's open communication in like a, you know, a town hall or whatever, that it's not easy to count, but in terms of the broadcasting of the message through email, do you have a sense of like how many, you know, how many emails were sent out? And then kind of, as we got back, you said there were 60 names that came up, but how many responses came back?

[8404] Mark Triplett: Yeah, so this wasn't the vote. This was just the all call for naming suggestions. Correct. And so I think it was roughly 60 different suggestions. Actually, there were 60 unique suggestions, I think. So some of those, there might have also been some duplicates. I would have to go back and count exactly how many people actually submitted a name, but at least 60. Right.

[8431] Aiden Hill: And so, and what I was kind of also asking is, you know, so if if your response rate right is, you know, I mean it shouldn't say response rate, but your number is 60 and then what was like kind of I know you can't count the town hall easily but in terms of the email broadcast how many emails were sent out.

[8448] Mark Triplett: We sent communication out to every family in both schools. And then there was other communications, more informal communications by design team members. One design team member talked about sharing information and encouraging people at the soccer game of their child. and so different ways like that. There's also communication by teachers to their students in the classroom. So again, all of that was to see, to encourage people to submit ideas for a school name. Okay, thank you. Sure.

[8486] Bowen Zhang: Okay, seeing, oh, member Nguyen.

[8497] Phuong Nguyen: No comment. I was just. Oh, I see.

[8500] Bowen Zhang: So I guess. Thank you for the report. Superintendent, before we move on to the next staff report, I see the student board member. Your video seems to be working. You want to give us the student report from your high school?

[8519] SPEAKER_50: I was very close.

[8525] Bowen Zhang: Actually, it looks like your video is still not fixed.

[8530] SPEAKER_42: President Zhang, I did ask him prior to that, and I believe he stated that most of the speech was provided already.

[8537] Bowen Zhang: OK, good, good, good. So before we proceed to staff report, does the board want to bring back Mrs. Eustace? I see her on the panel again. I mean, the attendees list again. Do we want to bring her back?

[8556] Elisa Martinez: Yes, yes, if she has if she didn't finish her statement for sure.

[8562] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I don't see her anymore. I was just we bring her into the panel.

[8571] SPEAKER_42: No, we don't. She might have dropped the radio.

[8575] Bowen Zhang: A minute ago. Okay. I guess we'll move on to to staff report 11.1 letter from the county regarding our second interim budget report. Superintendent Triplett.

[8589] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jun. So you all have heard my voice enough. I'm gonna turn this one over to Ms. Dela Cruz to talk a little bit about the report from the, or the letter from the county.

[8599] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. So we received our review letter from the Alameda County Office of Education regarding our second interim report that we submitted. And after their review, they concur with the district's positive certification. They did mention a couple of items for us to keep in mind, and that is the multi-year projection in the second year out to take into consideration the changes in ADA, as well as our declining enrollment. So they recognize that we're still looking at a deficit in the second year out of about 819,000. But they also mentioned the fund 17 reserves and commended the board for resolving that issue and also for committing to building a reserve up to 17%. There's also a reminder about the expanded learning opportunity grant and that there's a plan that's required as part of that grant and that it also needs to be approved by the board before June 1st. And our plan is to bring it to the board before the June 1st meeting, which would be actually the next board meeting. But other than that, I think overall, the county's review reflects the board's certification.

[8700] Bowen Zhang: OK. So Mrs. Dela Cruz, I think by convention, second meeting in May is where the governor's revised, May revised budget that's coming out, right?

[8711] Marie dela Cruz: Yes. We'll have received the May revised by then.

[8717] Bowen Zhang: OK. So the second meeting will, I mean, in two weeks, That will be the meeting where we see the governor's May revise budget and also what you just said that the thing that before the June 1st meeting will happen.

[8731] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, the governor's scheduled to release his May revise around the week of well next week actually yeah the week of May 10th and then we have a school services workshop shortly after that and so We'll hopefully be able to share some information by the next board meeting.

[8755] Bowen Zhang: OK. Any other board members? Yeah, just like, I think, as a sign on, if you do this for more than one or two years, you sort of know which month which will happen. This is pretty predictable. OK, thank you, Mrs. Delacruz. Moving on to the next one, update a math offering 2021 to 2022, Superintendent Triplett.

[8780] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chen. So Assistant Superintendent Pierce will talk to us a little bit, give us an update around the work with Math Pathways. I'll turn it over to her.

[8792] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Thank you. Good evening, members. Do we have the slide deck? This should be pretty short. This is an update. I know we talked about this last time, kind of where we're trying to go.

[8810] SPEAKER_42: Pierce, do you want me to share it or do you want to share it? Do you prefer to share it? Sure, you can share.

[8815] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Okay, thank you. All right, and we can move directly into the second slide. As you saw from the first time, what we are working to do is really consider a comprehensive 6-12 math pathways that are common core aligned, they're aligned vertically and horizontally across the district, and they provide multiple opportunities, both for acceleration and for support and intervention when needed. So what we have decided after consulting with some of our local community, so some of our parents, our junior high math teachers, math department, as well as our high school math department lead, is that we are actually going to maintain our math courses for this upcoming year. We are doing that because, so that includes, that does include the algebra and geometry options at the junior high for this year, but we are doing that because we do want to establish a committee of stakeholders to develop a new comprehensive 612 model as the junior high become as a sixth grade joins our junior high, and as we look to develop a really comprehensive plan where the junior high and the high school model really feed off each other that is the benefit of having a small district. and having that group feed directly into our high schools. So that is the goal. This will include community input, as well as research, as well as our new California math standards that are coming out and giving more and more advice about what it should look like at each level. So we anticipate that we'll be presenting this model to you in January of 2022. I'm hoping that those who are interested in the community will look out for communication starting probably as early as August to start engaging in this work with us. And we're going to take the summer to really backwards map what that engagement looks like. So we're excited to bring this to you next year.

[8961] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Mrs. Pierce. Any comments from the board? Member Hill.

[8971] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Mrs. Pierce. So if there are parents or other community members that are really interested and passionate about this, and for whatever reason, like they miss the communication, but that if they're interested that they should go see you, are you the point person on this?

[8991] Nicole Pierce-Davis: It will probably be myself and Director of Teaching and Learning, Mr. Dolowich, so we will work in partnership with that, either one, and we'll make sure we keep them on sort of our engagement list over the next few months. So yes, please.

[9005] Aiden Hill: And how many people do you anticipate being on the committee?

[9010] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I think that's part of the process we want to develop what that what that looks like so is this a committee is this a series of engagements. That's part of the backwards mapping that we want to develop out the summer.

[9022] SPEAKER_50: Okay, great.

[9023] SPEAKER_38: Thank you.

[9026] Phuong Nguyen: Just a clarifying question. I know that you said that you wanted to keep, we wanted to keep algebra and geometry at the junior high for next year. So that does include offering seventh grade graders who are eligible to take algebra, to be able to take algebra in the seventh grade, correct? Yes. Okay. And then also, I don't know if you guys had a chance or saw the news articles, in relation to the new California math standards moving forward and how there's definitely a debate on how we should proceed. So I just want to make sure that we're all aware of the challenges that may be coming forward and how we're going to find possible solutions moving forward for our offerings as math curriculum here in the district. Thank you.

[9084] Bowen Zhang: Okay, seeing no more comments. I have a quick comment.

[9094] Terrence Grindall: Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to applaud the staff for this approach of looking at a comprehensive solution with community input, and particularly having it align with the sixth graders moving to the middle school. So I think it's a good approach, and I really appreciate the flexibility and the inclusiveness in this process. So thank you.

[9118] Bowen Zhang: Thank you, Mrs. Pierce. Moving on, Junior High Steers Project. Superintendent Triplett.

[9128] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chun. So we spoke to the board, I believe it was last meeting or maybe the one before regarding the stairs. And we're coming back with a bit of an update and actually sharing out some design elements with the board. So I'll turn it over to Ms. Delacruz.

[9149] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Mr. Caputo will be joining us this evening to help with the update on the stairs project. Back in February, the board approved the stairs project. And since then, we have been working with the architects to look at some renditions. And tonight we'll show you what those look like, what the ideas are, and also, We've been able to update the budget, and we can talk a little bit about that as well. We have been working, as you know, on the solar project as well, which is at Newark Junior High. And there's been some connection and relation to the stairs project in terms of the path of travel that the solar project has to show to DSA. So we've had to collaborate on that. Mr. Caputo will give you a little bit more detail on that because there were some requirements on the ramps that the DSA is requiring us to comply with so that the new ramp will be up to the new code. So I'm gonna go ahead and start the presentation.

[9247] SPEAKER_16: Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Triplett. We are pleased to provide an update on the STAIR project. We just did not have renderings available at the time of the last meeting, so I think this will give you a good idea of how the project is progressing. We are actually at DSA right now. The architect reported to us earlier tonight that DSA has made a number of comments on the plans. They're hoping to have those revisions brought into the plans and stamped out in the next couple weeks and then we'll be going out to bid. with the intent to have the project completed over the summer. Of course, we're going to have to coordinate around the solar project, and I'll review that in a minute. Just for a point of references, at the top of the page here we have a site map from the school. And if you look at Stairway 1, that is in front of the parking lot. Stairway 2, of course, is in front of Lafayette Street. And then Stairway 3 is out towards the ball fields. In the photographs that you see here, stairway number two is on the right-hand side, and stairway one is on the left-hand side, and stairway one is to your right. Stairway three is very similar to stairway two. Our focus primarily is on these two stairs, as we talked last board meeting about some other features of having some seat walls and some planters folded in here. Next slide, please.

[9346] Marie dela Cruz: You're seeing the slide correctly, right? Yes. Okay.

[9353] SPEAKER_16: Okay, this is a rendering of stairway number one with the optional seat wall to the right. We're looking at vertical rails and spigots on the railing to match the gateways behind it. And in this rendering, you also see the ramp to the left. That ramp, when the architect first met with DSA, was not necessarily going to be required under this project, although it was a pre-submittal meeting. However, concurrently, the solar project was going to DSA as well, and DSA had reviewed the solar project and was requiring the solar company to repair the ramps on stairways one and two. So as the district requested, the architects started working together and it was determined obviously from a point of construction that even though the ramp is a requirement of the solar project, it needs to be folded into this project just for continuity with the contractors that would be doing this work. being the same contractor. So I'll review that a little bit more in succeeding slides. And then at the bottom here, you see kind of a blow up of the angled seat wall with some planners behind it. And then the next slide, please. And this is stairway two, as you saw from the earlier picture, and those of you who are very familiar with the campus know that that's a very long set of stairs that go all the way across. The architect presented a number of alternatives there to kind of put a seat wall on the side. The district and the teams were gathering and kind of landing on the center stairway to break up the set of stairs. I'm hoping you can see that well enough, but we also added a planter up on top. and I thought that was a nice feature and that is still a bit alternate that I'll review with you as we go through the budget in one of the upcoming slides. Also I think it was just very shortly after we presented to the board The maintenance department was asking if we could really look hard at adding a piece of sidewalk in front of the stairs. It's all broken up there. As some of you know, there's some tree wells across there. It's one of those things where it can go on for 100 feet on each side of the stairway, but we took a section right in the middle of the stairs and thought as an alternate to add it to this project, and that's one of the features that we wanted to show you tonight. And I'll review that in the next slide here. So we took a section just in front of the stairs and thought it really should go with this project. It can be done later and it could have extended way beyond the limit of the stairs on each side, but for budget reasons we took a sensible section just to kind of start the new look of the entrances to these campus and bring some continuity along with the stair upgrades. It would redo two tree wells. We would look at the pavers that are shown up above except for the center area about eight or 10 inches around would be around where the tree goes. And later on that can be carried to other parts of the campus as you extend down that promenade as the district wishes at a later date. On the next slide is our anticipated schedule. As I mentioned, we submitted to DSA two weeks ago. DSA has provided their comments electronically yesterday. The architect is working on some revisions that they say are fairly minor. We haven't had a chance to review those yet. But they expect to have it back into the to the state architect's office by the end of the week or Monday. And shortly thereafter, it could be a week, maybe two at the most, we'll get the stamped out drawings and In anticipation of that we've started to prepare for advertising the project for bidding. We are looking currently at opening bids on June 8, and bringing it to the board on the 17th. And then the contractor is anticipated to start working between the 18th and be completed on August 5th in front of the school reopening. And also, as I mentioned earlier, we do have to work around the solar contractor who is going to be working in this area too. So the schedule might change a little bit as we get through the final logistics of this as we complete the bid documents. And then a review of the budget. We do have a bit of a budget impact because of bringing in the solar work that is actually included and funded under a different project. So we'll have to work out those dynamics. But you can see the figures well enough on the slide. The first column dated 1-12-2018 was the budget that we reviewed in January of 2021. The current budget, we've added some engineering and architecture for the ramp elements that were engineered and brought to DSA. And then in the construction categories, Those ramps are now included in the construction costs. And also, if you go jump down to the last column, alternative or additive alternates, we had anticipated the seat wall and the railing at 90,000 but the railing now is included in the base bid because it's required by DSA and it got to a point where we're having to replace enough sections it just made sense to replace the most that we actually need to do. And then so with the addition of the ramps that are part of the solar project and bringing the handrails in there, that's increased the budget. And then we still have alternates for the seat walls. Seat wall one that we showed you is being estimated currently at about $48,000. And the seat wall in the center of the stairway that was budgeted around 90 is now trending about 153 because of the landscape elements and some of the retaining walls and the extra guardrails that are being included in that. And then also here are the sidewalk elements. If the bids come in good and the board is willing to allocate monies, we have included a section of sidewalk in front of stairway two and in front of stairway three, the total of which is about $88,000, 38 for stairway one and 50,000 for stairway number two. I know I went fast. I know you have a heavy schedule. We can return back to the slides. So if I can address any questions, I'm happy to do so at this time.

[9843] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill? Member Hill?

[9846] Aiden Hill: Yes, thank you. Yes, so thank you, Mr. Caputo. So one question request. So when I was, so as you guys know, I'm a first year teacher at Cupertino High School, and I recently completed my teaching credential at San Jose State. And while I was at San Jose State, as we were learning about some of the challenges that disabled students faced, we actually had a teacher that was going through the program who was disabled and who was in a wheelchair. And we, at one point, she actually took us through an exercise to actually show how difficult it was for her to navigate through a lot of the facilities at San Jose State. And here you would think that Tennessee State being a progressive institution had already really thought through and address this, but so it was quite an eye opener. When she actually took us to see like how difficult was her was it for her to get to a bathroom or how difficult was it for her to if there was an emergency situation, you know, to get to a to a place where they could go downstairs and so I know that we're kind of looking just at these front stairs right now. And I guess my question is twofold. So, you know, just as the stairs are related, is it possible for us to get maybe some disabled students or staff or others who really actually have to go navigate through this to make sure that it is, it works from their perspective, that it's compliant from their perspective, not from just sort of a, you know, a theoretical standpoint. So real, like have a real customer, a real user look at this. But then secondly, as we look beyond this, that stair point may be just one access point that disabled students and others may need to use. Do we have any plans for looking at other parts of the campus? And if there were an emergency, are they going to be able to navigate correctly the way that they need to? Or are they going to be funneled just through one point and will it be more challenging? So those are my two questions.

[9972] SPEAKER_16: Yeah, so I can start out and try and address them. When we look at these ramps, these ramps from an initial perspective look like they were compliant. And that shows you how regimented the state is when they review this. We actually were using water levels at a preliminary level, the engineers were. and they were just barely off and the state's making us spend about 163,000 to repair these. Just because they are very conscientious as you are, they can't require a district to upgrade a whole campus and spend a million dollars on a $300,000 project or so. But with every project that goes to the state, they review it very heavily for fire life safety and ADA access. And there's a whole department that just reviews and requires the state to meet certain design requirements. And they actually give the architects ideas and can alter the design accordingly. And that interaction was what actually took place here. But to your other point, yeah, it is focused on these elements, because when we do a project with the state, they force us to look at ADA access and add components to meet ADA access requirements in the areas that are being renovated. Obviously, all our campuses have needs across the campus, not just where we have limited dollars focused right now. But the big picture has been reviewed by prior consultants to us in various assessments. They're also something that we've been looking at and making notes of as we go around the campuses, because obviously at some point in time, the district's going to have to look at a local state bond or other funding to make the requirements that you're making us aware of tonight.

[10099] Aiden Hill: Right. And I guess my real comment, Mr. Caputo, is I know that in California, we oftentimes believe that bureaucrats are experts in all knowing. But sadly, many of them are not truly disabled in the physical sense. And so it's always good to have an actual voice of the customer. And so could we get maybe some triangulation with people who are truly disabled to make sure that the things that we're doing are going to meet their needs?

[10130] SPEAKER_16: Yeah, and there are people that are disabled that are at the state level as well that do review these along with.

[10142] Aiden Hill: But they're not coming to our school.

[10144] SPEAKER_16: But yeah, we could certainly engage if the district has students or parents, community members, where we can certainly collaborate and do that review.

[10160] Elisa Martinez: if I may.

[10160] SPEAKER_38: Yeah.

[10161] Elisa Martinez: Yeah. I mean, I absolutely appreciate, you know, Member Hills asked. I think it also is important to just make sure we're following procedure and we're not making exceptions in this case. I think we just, you know, and we, Mr. Caputo, I think that to your point, we know there's some really strict guidelines with regards to ADA compliance. So I just absolutely agree that maybe folks could have a voice, but let's make sure we don't create a side process and that we have to be following everywhere else. And it may be outside of the official recommendation. So, definitely something to consider.

[10208] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Any other comments, one or more?

[10211] Marie dela Cruz: I think Mr. Grendel wanted something.

[10213] Bowen Zhang: Okay, Member Grendel.

[10217] Terrence Grindall: Just wanted to, the sidewalk is included in the alternative, I'm a little confused.

[10224] SPEAKER_16: Yeah, they're included as an alternate. Mostly, I mean, we would love to include them in the base bid, but obviously it requires additional dollars, and that's a decision of the district and the board, and that's why it's currently included as an alternate. Also, because it was brought to our attention and pleaded to try and increase the scope of work accordingly by the maintenance department. It came after our last meeting, so you hadn't seen it before, and that's why it's being introduced. as an alternate tonight. It can certainly be brought into the base bid, but as an alternate, you'll have the ability to see the costs and make that decision at the time that we bring it back for award.

[10268] Terrence Grindall: Yes, thank you. Because I think it's, in terms of minimizing disruption, if you're going to be repairing, replacing those stairs, you'd hate to be replacing the sidewalk the next year. So that makes sense. But I like the approach that you've put forward of making an alternate so we can decide what we, we don't have to decide on it right now. We can see how that, we can see how the bids come in and decide.

[10295] SPEAKER_16: Yeah you're absolutely right and you know we certainly understand throughout the district we have a lot more needs than we have dollars right now and so there's always with every project like this it's it's hard for us to see it's hard for the architects to really just stop when you know that you could keep going and going another 10-20 feet in each direction but you also have other priorities too so it's always hard to find that balance.

[10324] Terrence Grindall: I have nothing more. Thank you.

[10328] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Yeah, my question is actually answered before a meeting. So thank you for the presentation. We look forward to the next update. Thank you.

[10343] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, board.

[10345] Bowen Zhang: Moving on to new business. So we have seven items on the list. We have several items at the bottom of the list that actually have public speakers. So this time, I want to ask the board for discretion that we go through the items that have public speaker first, which is 12.4, 12.5, and 12.7, just so that people don't need to wait too late into the night. Because we do have quite a bit of items to go through. Is the rest of the board OK with us proceeding to the ones with public speaker first? Then later on, we come back to 12.1, 2, 3, and 5. 1, 2, 3, and 6. That'd be a thumbs up from a member, but not a member here. OK? Yeah, that's fine. OK, let's go directly to 12.4, Declaration of Need for Fully Qualified Educators. Superintendent Triplett?

[10392] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chun. So I'll have Ms. Ingham-Watters talk a little bit more about this. But essentially, every year we have certain teacher qualifications that are much harder to fill than others. This is something that's faced across the state and really the country. And so this is a little bit of pro forma that we need to declare this every year. And I'll turn it over to Ms. Inglematers to speak more on it. Ms. Inglematers, you're muted. Sorry. You're good now.

[10430] SPEAKER_36: Can you hear me?

[10431] SPEAKER_49: Yeah.

[10432] SPEAKER_36: So the Declaration of Need and the Annual Statement of Need are two forms that are required to be filed with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing annually on or before July 1st every year. This allows us to file for emergency permits if needed, and they can be refiled if they need to be updated. And the numbers on the Statement of Need are based on hard to fill positions, Some examples, if we hire with emergency permits, perhaps out of state, out of country, we create a buffer so we don't have to revise it later. So that's the declaration of need and the annual statement of need.

[10481] Bowen Zhang: Okay, let's bring in the public speakers. Ms. Guterres, I believe we have two speakers for this item.

[10494] SPEAKER_42: First speaker for this item is Christine Clinton.

[10501] SPEAKER_13: Hello, I'm going to keep this short tonight. I'm asking that you please hire qualified B-Class teachers for the dual language immersion classes based on the original program scope. Do not cheapen it before it gets off the ground. If you cannot find qualified teachers, sweeten the pot with a stipend until you can find educators who can elevate it and make it successful. I have a qualifying child who has been learning Spanish this year. I'm considering the DLI program based on its original scope and promises. Our prospective enrollment is contingent on those promises being kept. I'm sure we are not alone. Please, please consider hiring a B-Class teacher for this program. And please do not go with just any teacher, especially one who cannot teach Spanish. Thank you.

[10548] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Next speaker.

[10553] SPEAKER_42: The next speaker is Ms. Cindy Parks.

[10557] Cindy Parks: Good evening. When a parent specifically asked in the DLI information meeting whether the teachers will have the proper credentials to teach the new program and are told by the principal of the site where the program is being held, that the teachers will have the B-CLAD credential, that's what the parents expect. When I, a community member, bring up in multiple board meetings my concern about whether the program will have properly credentialed teachers, and the superintendent and interim assistant superintendent of human resources respond to saying it would be a requirement for two of the classes to have be clad credentialed teachers, that's what the community and parents expect. When board members are reviewing the dual immersion master plan and question whether the teachers will have the correct credentials, both the superintendent and the director of special projects says there will be Newark Unified teachers currently enrolled in, or say that there'll be Newark Unified teachers currently enrolled in a program which will provide them with the necessary credential. They also mentioned the district will be posting the new dual immersion job description for outside applicants who will have the correct credential. That's what the board members, community, and parents expect. So why on page two of your declaration of need for qualified educators does it list the emergency permit for two B-clad teachers? Board members, do you know what this document signifies? It signifies that you have done a diligent search to recruit fully qualified teachers for an assignment. This document contains all the same positions as last year's declaration. Under emergency permit, eight clad teachers, two bilingual B-clad Spanish, five resource specialists. Under limited assignment, it says five multi-subject, five single subject, and 10 special ed. I considered the district's response and figured they'd probably say that they're using the waiver as a safety net. If that is true, then why does the job posting for the dual immersion program, kinder and grade one teachers say under job summary, Spanish slash bilingual preferred, but not required. bilingual preferred, not required, and under requirements and qualifications, Spanish bilingual preferred, not required, BCLAD preferred, not required. Don't all Newark Unified School District teachers deserve a teacher who has obtained the correct credential for the subject manner they are teaching? Will you allow DLI program to move forward with teachers not properly credentialed to instruct the program? Or will you remove those two emergency permits, ensuring the program as promised has properly credentialed teachers? Thank you.

[10715] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Any comments on questions from the board? So I guess, so if other board members don't have questions, I actually did ask, I have one clarifying question regarding the B class credential. My understanding is due to the overwhelming demand, we're going to have four cohorts for the dual immersion program. And is that right, superintendent? And right now we have four cohorts. We have two teachers right now currently employed by the district that are going through the courses and taking the exam to get a B class credentials. And in the case of these two people, if these two teachers in any exceptional case that they don't pass the exam, then we'll be hiring these two teachers as this emergency permit waiver will come in. Because the two teachers currently right now, in this exceptional case, failed to obtain the BCLAG credentials. Is that the reason we have the two emergency permit waiver?

[10806] Mark Triplett: Yeah, thank you President Chun. So, um, we do have, we have had overwhelming interest in the dual language program, very exciting. And for that reason, while we initially planned for one cohort in kinder and one in first grade, we have sufficient students for two cohorts in kinder and two in first grade. So we do have two teachers that are currently within the district that are working on their BCLAD certification. And we're looking forward to having them teach within this program. And in addition, because of the overwhelming interest, we do have two additional positions that we need to hire for. And I will just say, in terms of proper certification, so there are hard to fill positions in many different categories throughout this state and country. Special education is one, math is another, science is another, PE is another, and B-Clad certification is another. So in all of those cases, we we recognize that it is hard to fill these positions. And so that's why we submit this this document in order to to make sure that we are doing our due diligence there. There are lots of different options. When, when you were faced with a hard to fill position, there are emergency credentials, while people are continuing to to fulfill all the all the obligations and that happens within special education, math, science, PE, and bilingual teachers. There's other options as well. And in the case of dual language programs, there is alternative certifications that also can be done or may have been completed by teachers who are coming from different states. So I'm happy to talk more about this, but really this is like a standard thing that needs to be declared every year. In addition, in terms of the dual language program in particular, there is also an option that we have stated from the beginning that Some of the classes could be taught in Spanish, and some of the classes could be taught in English. And so, based on that, we could have teachers who are not be cloud certified teaching the English component of the dual language program. We're hoping that we're going to have be cloud certified. teachers in all four of the positions, but if we don't, then we have other options that we certainly can do, just like we do in all sorts of cases in many different areas of our staffing.

[10987] Bowen Zhang: So to that, I guess, given we have four cohorts, so the number of B-Class teachers, ideally we need is actually four, right?

[10996] Mark Triplett: That's, yeah, if we had four B-Class teachers, that would be fantastic.

[11000] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so I guess, My question is this two emergency permit waiver, are these two, are we trying to apply these two to the two current teacher who are going through the certification process or these two will apply to the two outside position that we're going to hire but we're not guaranteed to find them?

[11021] Mark Triplett: What we're doing is we're just doing a declaration, which we have to do every year for different positions. It's stating that these are hard to fill and that we recognize this. We will continue to look for BCLAD certified teachers to fill the two external, for external teachers who wish to apply and be hired to fill the two vacancies that we currently have in the program. And if we get BCLAD certified teachers who apply, and they're the right fit, then that's who we'll hire. If we have candidates, if we have no candidates that are BCLAD certified, yet we have candidates that are qualified in many different ways, then we will explore options for them. One of those options could be an emergency credential.

[11076] SPEAKER_38: Member Goodell?

[11080] Terrence Grindall: I don't want to belabor the point, but what I understand, and please confirm if I'm right, this provides you the flexibility to address these positions. It doesn't mean you're not going to do everything you can to find the B-CLAD certification. This simply provides flexibility in case you need to go forward. Is that accurate?

[11104] Mark Triplett: That's correct, thank you, Member Grandel. You said it much better than I could have.

[11109] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so that, for me, it feels like the declaration should be four BFAP teachers, not necessarily just two, right?

[11121] Mark Triplett: We have two teachers, and so we're not hiring for two, sorry, we're not hiring for four teachers. I see, I see what you're saying, okay. Yeah. Okay. But I will just add, I mean, I'm a little bewildered by the comments around, we should just not do this program because of this. We never say we should just not do science. We never say we should just not do math. So I'm a little bewildered why we would suggest that we should not do a program that we know is incredibly powerful and beneficial to our kids. And we have teachers who are able to teach that program. So. Madam Martinez.

[11165] Elisa Martinez: Yeah, actually, thank you for saying that, Superintendent Triplett, because sometimes, you know, I think statements are made. and folks just kind of make the assumption that they're a fact. And the reality is two things that we're talking about here. One is this is a normal process. This is nothing new. It happens every year, right? And it's because we just don't know. Of course, we're going to go try and hire, you know, these certificated folks, you know, these very specific capabilities in each of the teachers. But sometimes it just We just can't find them and we're not the only district. So this is happens every year. Just let's just kind of align to that. The other thing is that I think eyes wide open to all of us when we talked about dual immersion and the requirements, right, with regards to the be clad. And I mean, I think there was some sections around, you know, or equivalent. Right. So I think it's just really important that As with everything, you know, if we are waiting to get everything perfectly in line before, you know, we would never do anything. So I think this is absolutely, you know, the right plan. We're just doing what we always do as a contingency. So I encourage those of you that are, you know, thinking about, you know, having your child or have enrolled, you know, please continue this. This is not an unusual situation. And I am confident that the teachers and staff will figure it out.

[11266] SPEAKER_38: Yeah. Okay.

[11271] Phuong Nguyen: I just have a comment. And also, I think we need to look at the positions as a full, an FTE, a full-time employee, and how the district can be creative in terms of how they handle FTEs, right? So for, to save, we do have two FTEs for the, and they are B-CLAD certified. They can teach, and we have, like you said, four cohorts. So we can have one English full-time teacher and one full-time B-Clad teacher teaching two cohorts individually. So that's basically how you can look at it. So basically, we have a kinder and a first grade. So one FTE that has a B-Clad is teaching half day In one cohort in Spanish and then the second half, the other cohort to in Spanish and then and then the other English teacher full time English only teacher teaches split the time so that's basically how. We can look at it that way in resolving in terms of. whether or not we're able to provide, you know, we don't necessarily need four B-Clad teachers, but it is definitely nice. And that's something that we should try to, you know, attain to, but we can still do it with two and be creative and find solutions and have the teachers split the cohorts in that way.

[11373] Mark Triplett: Okay. Yes, that's correct. Thank you, Member Nguyen.

[11377] Bowen Zhang: Seeing no more comments, anybody wants to make a motion?

[11384] Terrence Grindall: I'll make a motion to approve this item.

[11388] Bowen Zhang: Moved by member Grindel. Seconded by member Martinez, I guess. Student member is not on the panel anymore. So I'll go with the board. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[11405] Elisa Martinez: Yes.

[11407] Bowen Zhang: Member Grunell? Yes. Member Hill?

[11411] SPEAKER_38: No. Member Nguyen?

[11415] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[11417] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries with four ayes and one no. And Member Hill, do you want to explain your no vote since you didn't make any comments during the discussion?

[11430] Aiden Hill: Yeah, I voted no because when we first talked about the DLI program, I expressed concern that we hadn't really thought through this clearly and that we didn't have a good plan in place. And as a former project manager, you know, I believe that proper planning is very important. I think that this is just another example where we haven't thought through things. And we're seeing the same thing with the Snow-Graham merger, where there are things that haven't been thought through, like special ed and the impacts of making those changes. You know, I can't support something where we're just, you know, riding by the seat of our pants and then we're responding. So that's why I voted no.

[11469] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Next item, 4.5, ELD, Curriculum Adoption, Superintendent Triplett.

[11479] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Chen. So I'm going to turn this one over to Assistant Superintendent Pierce to talk a little bit about the ELD curriculum adoption. And I believe we also have a Ms. Cervantes-Falk is going to be joining us to talk a little bit about the process.

[11500] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Yes, can we go ahead and bring Ms. Cervantes-Falk in?

[11505] SPEAKER_42: Can we bring Ms. Cervantes along with the other presenters? or just Mr. Ventas?

[11512] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Yes, please.

[11513] Bowen Zhang: Oh, I see Mrs. Rahel there as well.

[11516] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Yes, thank you. I'm very quickly going to turn this over to Mr. Ventas-Falk, please.

[11524] SPEAKER_44: That was quick. Thank you, Ms. Pierce. Good evening, board. Thank you for having us. We are excited to be here today. And I want to just also send it over to my colleagues The principals and the assistant principal of the high school and the junior high are gonna be pretty much leading the presentation. And so we have Mrs. Olivia Rangel with the high school principal. We have Ms. Lisa Strom, vice principal of the high school, and then Rishna Krishna, principal of the junior high, who've all been an incredible part of this journey. So with that, I'll just go ahead and give you a context of what we've got for you tonight, and then I'll hand it over. So Ms. Gutierrez, if you don't mind presenting the slides, that would be great. Thank you.

[11583] SPEAKER_42: One second, I'll get it ready.

[11585] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I have them up if you'd like me to. Sure, thank you. Okay.

[11606] SPEAKER_44: So as she's bringing those up. Yes, awesome, thank you. So really, like I said, we've got everybody here and this is not to shorten the importance of the role that the teachers who piloted and went through this process this year took, but I'll let the principal speak more on that as well. So next slide, please. So really, today's presentation or the objective is to provide you with an overview of the program and the pilot process that we went through, the rationale, the need, and obviously the evaluation, and then provide you with our recommendation of what we'd like the board to consider and approve for adoption for our curriculum for ELD courses at the secondary level. So with that, I'll go ahead. Next slide, please. And I'll go ahead and pass it over to Ms. Ron-Helm.

[11667] Vicenta Ditto: Good evening, board members, executive cabinet, and Dr. Triplett, and community. We obviously have a need for meeting our English language learners needs, and of course, putting our students first. We want to be sure that all students have the curriculum to meet their needs. And while our English language development teachers have done well over the years, pulling resources, creating innovative lessons, Ultimately, what we need is a curriculum to support our students and that is at the request of the teachers. I also want to ensure that we want to ensure that our curriculum aligns with the current California English language development standards, which is a high priority as well. So now I'd like to talk about next slide please. the needs specifically at the high school. As we look at the most recent data we have from our California dashboard. Actually, can you skip to the next slide? I think we were supposed to switch these, my apologies. And then you'll have to go back when Ms. Krishna comes on. So at Newark Memorial High School, we have 212 students who are English language learners. That's 10% of our total population. 75% of those students are enrolled in a designated English language acquisition course. As you can see in our 2018-2019, our students who are English learners, 0% met or exceeded the English language SBAC testing in comparison to 61% of their general education peers. And as for the mathematics assessment, again, 0% met in comparison to 28% of their peers. As for the summative LPAC assessment, 12% of our students were proficient, but of course, this illustrates a desperate need for this curriculum. Next, I'd like to introduce Ms. Risa Krishna from the Junior High School to talk about the need there.

[11783] SPEAKER_32: Thank you, Ms. Olivia. Good evening, board members and Superintendent Triplett. This data speaks for itself. It is from 2018-2019 dashboard. Newark Junior High School is proud to be the home of approximately 179 EL students, which is approximately 20% of our student population. Less than 5% of our students met or exceeded in ELA or in the math area in compared to the general ed students, which was approximately 43% in ELA and 34% in math who met or exceeded the standards. It was exciting to be part of this pilot program in collaboration with our high school. We are looking forward to enact a proactive program that will support our EL students to meet and exceed state standards. And I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Strong.

[11842] SPEAKER_15: Thank you so much. Superintendent Triplett and executive cabinet and board members and community. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I want to walk you through the pilot process, as well as the conclusions that we drew as a result of it. We started this process way back in April of 2020. We created a a committee of general education teachers as well as ELD teachers to winnow down the field to two different curricula which we decided to pilot. During first semester of this school year starting in August our ELD teachers at the junior high and the high school levels piloted the VHL get ready curriculum and during this current semester starting in January the ELD teachers piloted National Geographics engages edge fundamentals at the high school level and pathways at the junior high school level. After the conclusion of each pilot, we did student surveys, teacher surveys, as well as parent surveys in order to get all stakeholder input. And we took all of this feedback and survey information, went to the Curriculum Council in April and obtained their approval. And obviously, we are here this evening to obtain yours. Next slide, please. So the curriculum process was threefold. As Ms. Rangel already mentioned, we definitely focused on selecting curricula that included and addressed the new California ELD standards. We were also very concerned that the materials addressed the four domains that the ELPAC tests. Those domains are speaking, listening, reading, and writing. And we felt that it was also particularly important that the materials were culturally relevant for our English learners. In addition, we wanted to make sure that we were able to evaluate or that these materials would be, we would be able to evaluate the materials effectively. And we wanted to be able to measure student success as a result of using these materials. We hope to ensure that the use of such materials will result in ELs moving through our program more quickly, that they will score better on the LPAC, that they will be reclassified as English proficient, and that they will most definitely do better academically in their general education classes and, at least in the case at the high school level, graduate from high school. The implementation of these, sorry, of these curricula involved the teachers collaborating together and selecting three learning activities for each of the curricula. They were told to teach without modification so that we could assess it as best we could and as objectively as we could. And then, as already mentioned, at the very end, we did surveys and evaluations. With the teachers, we included debrief sessions where we had quite robust discussions about the effectiveness of the curriculum. Next slide, please. Briefly, I want to touch upon some of the conclusions that we drew from all of the feedback that we received. With respect to VHL's Get Ready curriculum, we had rave reviews from everyone about how amazingly accessible the content was online. That was especially beneficial this year during COVID. Students also regularly engaged in the online assessments and did them over and over again to gain mastery of skills. Something else that I really wanted to highlight is the fact that Get Ready explicitly connects the English language learning to other content areas, specifically to math and science and social studies. And of course, it also includes formative and summative assessments. Next slide, please. National Geographic and Cengage publishes Pathways and Edge. Pathways is the middle school level or junior high school level curricula, and EDGE is the curriculum designed for high school students. What we found here was teachers said this was age appropriate, culturally relevant, and had very rigorous content. It also exposed our students to both fiction and nonfiction texts, which helped, again, make connections to other general education classes. Parents, students, and teachers all said that this curricula was particularly good at engaging students in higher level thinking and not simply rote memorization. And just as with VHL, the curriculum includes formative and summative assessments. And at this time, I would like to turn this back over to Ms. Cervantes-Falk for our formal recommendation.

[12149] SPEAKER_44: Thank you, Ms. Strong. After much discussion and rigorous conversations, the recommendation was that for, at the junior high, for beginners, that we look into adopting Get Ready, the sixth through eighth grade levels. And for the intermediate, that we go ahead and work with Pathways, the level three. which then in looking at this, Newark Memorial High School felt pretty strongly and it was regards to get ready as well, that especially for the beginners, the get ready piece for the ninth and 12th grade, ninth through 12th grade was appropriate. And in looking at the intermediate and the advanced, they felt the same way that then and the fundamentals level specifically of EDGE was what was working or they felt would be better for the intermediate. So after, like I said, so much discussion, we then figured, okay, so we would definitely like to recommend that we select get ready for our six through 12 program, but we also look into the differentiation for intermediate levels at both secondary schools. Next slide, please. And so when we looked in terms of the cost, as we did the pilot, really we were looking at, because of the number of students that we have in these classes, and because that number varies from year to year, We see the cost to be at most 27, $30,000 with all of the materials, with all of the programs being discussed here, as you see in the breakdown. And in working with our business office, we looked at this piece and we said, it's like we would definitely be looking at lottery funds, which are our most restrictive funds to do this. So we felt comfortable with the pricing, we felt comfortable with the total amount for, like we said, these particular courses that normally we would be serving about 125 to 150 kids yearly. Next slide, please. And in conclusion, we just want to say that we, first of all, Thank you for your time and your consideration. We also, I do want to say great, much, much appreciation to Ms. Lisa Storm who really took, you know, the lead on this project and worked with the teachers of the high school as well, the junior high, and a lot of appreciation for Ms. Krishna's support. the very last, you know, she was our new administrator. And during the summer, we caught her up to speed. And we said, Do you think your ELD teacher will be interested in doing this? And sure enough, we got everybody on board. And so we just want to say thank you. And we are really looking forward to to an approval. Because the teachers are really excited. And we've been looking for something that would really support the kids as well as our teachers in supporting the kids moving forward. And so with that, we will, you know, we're here to answer any questions you might have.

[12381] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Ms. Gutierrez, we have one public speaker on this item.

[12391] SPEAKER_42: That is correct. And our speaker is Ms. Delight Evans-Vasquez.

[12404] SPEAKER_43: I'm delighted you may begin. OK. Hello, board members and Dr. Triplett. I'm wondering about the parent curricular review. According to your timeline, it took place in December 2020 and April 2021. I'm wondering if this review session was presented to parents in a way that they were able to engage and provide authentic feedback. And was this in their primary language? Thank you.

[12430] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Bring back to the board. Any questions and discussions?

[12441] SPEAKER_38: Member Martinez?

[12444] Elisa Martinez: Hi there. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for reviewing the process and obviously the selection procedure. I have a question. Just given that we're going with two different products, if you will, for beginner and intermediate and advanced, So I assume that at some point, students will go from beginners to intermediate. So do you all have any concerns in terms of how that material connects? Do you understand my question? How easy of a transition would be from one curricula to another?

[12486] SPEAKER_44: Lisa, do you want to? I know you've been very involved with this.

[12492] SPEAKER_15: I think that's a great question. I do think there's a couple of realities that are present here. One of them is VHL's curriculum, which we actually really loved, is only designed for beginners. So at this point in time, there's not an intermediate level. I think that if there were to be an intermediate level developed, we would be extremely interested in being able to try that, which might address that sort of cohesive vertical integration issue that I think your question suggests. One issue that was raised by the teachers in particular, though, was the fact that they kind of liked the difference, because often We hope to change this, but often our EL students are in our EL classes for a longer period of time than we'd like. Or, for example, they transition from the junior high to the high school, and we don't want them to be repeating material. We want them to grow. And we want them to obviously move out of the EL program and succeed. So the teachers indicated that they felt that perhaps having a different curriculum that would challenge students in a different way might actually be beneficial. We also, though, at Curriculum Council, this issue arose. And one of the things that we decided would be that we would only do this for one year. because we were curious to see if VHL would come out with an intermediate level. I hope that answers your question.

[12594] SPEAKER_44: I'm sorry.

[12595] SPEAKER_38: Go ahead.

[12600] Aiden Hill: Yes. So thank you, number one, for the presentation and all the work that's gone into this. The question I have is, although I'm new to the board, I've, you know, kind of track things that have been going on in the district for a number of years. And it's, I think, I think many of you are also new to the district. But I think as you also know, we've, our issues with ELD and ELD performance are longstanding. And so this has been going on for many years. And there have been many programs that have been brought, you know, to the fore in the past. to say this is going to be the panacea, this is going to solve everything. And then those programs are oftentimes they're, you know, programs that are required to be purchased, we purchase them. There aren't really any clear goals, there aren't any clear measurements. And then we wake up and nothing really has changed. And then the program is quietly shuffled off to the side and then we go on to the next one. And so my question to everybody who is bringing this together is why do we think in this situation purchasing a new curriculum. that we're going to have different results? And also, what kind of quantitative and objective data do these vendors provide that show if we purchase their programs that we're going to see based on implementation of those programs in other districts that these are the types of improvements that we can expect to see?

[12695] SPEAKER_15: Could I try tackling the second part of your question first? Is that, I'm sorry, Ms. Cervantes-Volk, is that? Okay. I think that there's a couple of things. One is the curriculum themselves offer baseline as well as summative assessments so that students entering the programs would have some sort of baseline assessment and they'd have some sort of an exit assessment as well. I think also that many of the measurements around EL success are actually not measured by the curriculum per se, but are going to be measured by things like the LPAC test, their grades in their general education classes, whether or not they actually move through the EL program because they have been reclassified as English proficient because they've become successful. That's the ultimate goal of an EL program. My understanding is that the And this is not unique to this district, that the EL program has struggled, actually, to be able to have a really comprehensive, robust curriculum. And this is an attempt at being able to provide that to some of our neediest students, some of also our most capable students, save for the fact that English isn't their first language. I think that that's how success is actually measured for them. I'd also like to say there is no panacea. This is very difficult. It's not only difficult for Newark, it's difficult for every district. I would also like to say that I think this is just one step in a much larger program and approach that needs to be taken in order to address EL academic success. General education teachers also need to be trained in how to teach and incorporate EL strategies into their classrooms. So this conversation goes well beyond simply this. I would say in my mind, this is just step one in being able to really address this issue. Thank you.

[12830] SPEAKER_32: Can I add a little bit to Ms. Strom's point as far as at the junior high, and this is more anecdotal, and the experience that we've had with our students and our staff and our ELD staff. The relevance of this program has been really engaging with the students and being in distance learning, just the digital tools and the ancillary videos they found to be really worthwhile in the classroom and the practice of the academic language as far as what was provided in the program really helped our students So we saw benefit as far as the growth of our students. And so that really helped me to understand as far as that how happy our teacher was in using this program who's been teaching ELD for a very long time.

[12883] SPEAKER_44: And Olivia, did you have something else to add?

[12887] Bowen Zhang: I guess you told me to address the first question of member Hill, what makes this program so unique?

[12897] SPEAKER_44: So, right, good question. I think one of the things that we have to just remind ourselves is that when we're looking at curriculum, number one, we're never gonna find the perfect curriculum or the best curriculum, especially when we're talking about teaching English language acquisition or supporting the English language proficiency of any student. And for that, I say, because we are looking at every year this population changes. And every year, the needs are different. Just because we have English learners this year doesn't mean that they're going to have the same needs that they had last year, and so forth. The other thing, too, that we're looking at and remembering when we're talking about secondary is that a lot of the times when we're looking at our students are in these classes, the English language development classes, they have multiple needs. not only learning English, but to some degree, some of them are coming with very little or no literacy skills in their primary language. So to say that we have this one program that is going to really fix or that the measurement is gonna be there, that's insane. We're never gonna find the best program. What we believe or I believe in the group, which I've been very just excited to be working with is that for the first time, And I don't know if it's because we're all new, but for the first time, we've had these conversations across grade levels, seven, 12, right? So we've had this collaboration with the junior high and the high school. And looking at that we're using the similar programs in both secondary schools, but just different levels of it because they're the same publishers or the same, you know, yeah, publishing company. That's what's unique, I would say, in the sense that we are coming together and we're trying to make this work. And we're starting to collaborate more across grade level. It makes it unique also because it was accessible virtually, online, as well as if we were to be in person. And that was very surprising. I mean, I was very skeptical. you know, of what we might end up really liking about some of these. Because a lot of the times when you see of curriculums, it's a matter of somebody just changing something from a PDF version to an electronic version. And yet this wasn't the case with Get Ready. And excuse me, sometimes I mix it up with I Ready, because we have all these ready curriculum set aside. So I totally understand that it's always about how do we know that this one's going to be it? I can tell you that this is a lot better than what we've had, given that what we've had and we've been using has been based on the old standards, English language development standards, which was not even aligned to the current LPAC, the assessment, how the kids are currently being assessed. So just the excitement that we have something that we can say, yes, I don't have to modify it as much because I know it's aligned is just exciting in itself. And I wanna come back to the comment where at Curriculum Council, we said that we were doing it for one year. Let me just clarify is that we're adopting because we know this is what's gonna be good. Well, we said about one year, the get ready, yes, the get ready. comes with the online licenses. And that's when we said we wanna hold off in purchasing more than a one year license for now till we know whether they're going to add the intermediate level and so forth. So it's not like we would be changing the curriculum in a year. The committee knows that, I said, you give something three to five years before you even say whether it actually works unless it's really, really bad, but that won't be the case.

[13153] SPEAKER_38: Member Martinez?

[13155] Elisa Martinez: Yes, thanks. I just wanted to come back to, I think, a comment my fellow board member made, and I think it's important that, you know, historically there's been a narrative that we just kind of go willy-nilly with curriculum selection. I mean, I think it's important that, you know, again, those folks may have our opinions, And that's of the past. And so tonight we're talking about what you all have brought to us. And I am excited at the level of collaboration. Absolutely nothing is a panacea. If every program that was out there, we go buy them all, right? Because then we'd solve for all of our kids, math issues, Spanish issues, English, whatever the issue was. So I think I'm really excited. Like I said, just in terms of the process, is it perfect? I'm sure there's, I'm sure not, right? I'm sure that there's some folks out there that says, wait a minute, I wasn't tapped. I didn't understand the feedback you were asking for. I get that because I've been there as a parent. You know, hey, why didn't the principal of BGI reach out to me and get input? But we all have those, right? So, but I am really excited about that collaboration. I'm really excited. if I think about those numbers that you showed Ms. Angel for our high school students, how shameful if we don't go after something and try it. And if it doesn't work, we're gonna go try it again. Because if anything we're learning is education is constantly changing. The standards are changing. So we know this is gonna happen. So coming to the point that member Hill likes to mention about project management, I am a project manager. And I know that you have to be flexible and you have to be nimble and you gotta have a good process. So I think that's what we really should be asking of you is show us your process and we're gonna hold you to account. Come back and tell us how this is going. And if it's not going, ask for what else do you need, right? Let's not suffer in silence and carry it for five years. Maybe after two or three, we're saying, this isn't working. And there should be no shame in that because that's what happens. You start go down a hypothesis and you follow it, you prove it. And if it doesn't go down that direction, we fix. But I think we just really, us as a board, that is our role to really test the process. And I'm really, personally, I'm really happy with what you brought together for us. Thank you.

[13328] Phuong Nguyen: I just like to thank everyone and for all your hard work and collaboration on this. bringing this forward to us tonight, and I did have a question in regards to the pilot and. And if, when you started the pilot you had if you had a base captured a baseline for the student and then how have they have progressed since then. And I like the fact that Miss Krishna had answered part of my question and that she saw. a significant improvement in the performance of the student enough that this program that you guys are bringing forward merits the adoption. So I just wanted to say thank you again for your collaborative work and I appreciate the time and effort that you all have put into it. I could definitely tell that you all are very passionate about making sure that our ELD students succeed and can thrive in their general ed classes in English. So thank you.

[13398] Bowen Zhang: So I have some questions regarding the funding. So we're using the lottery fund. And is this a one time purchase? And this will come back to the board for additional approval for for the next purchase? Or this is just that's it?

[13413] SPEAKER_44: Right? That's a good question. So the Get Ready program is both student and teacher edition, as well as a license, an online license. And they do, the other one right now is the Edge Program Pathways and Fundamentals. That one right now is just hard copies. So for sure, we're looking at a one-time cost. When it's a hard copy, it's like buying a textbook, just like any other curriculum. The Get Ready, is the one that, you know, you have the one-time cost with the textbook. It's the license that we would be purchasing annually.

[13461] Bowen Zhang: So- And that is a software license, right?

[13463] SPEAKER_44: Excuse me?

[13464] Bowen Zhang: That is a software license, right?

[13466] SPEAKER_44: We're purchasing- Right. It is. It is. And it's per student. And for that reason, you know, and that's what we need to explore a little bit more. And for that reason is where we're saying, okay, we're just going to do the license for one year. because there are options, there's one year or six years. And so the idea is we don't want our English learners in this class or in this program for six years, right? And so, yeah, thank you.

[13494] Bowen Zhang: So that means if we want to continue the Get Ready, the board will need to approve again next year at this time. Is that right? Yes. Because you're talking about your license, right? Yes. And I guess both the textbook and the software licensing will come from lottery, or is it not?

[13511] SPEAKER_44: That's what the plan is, yes.

[13514] Bowen Zhang: So that means, let's say if Get Ready is working pretty well, next year we're renewing the license for one more year. That will come out of the lottery as well, or that will come out of general fund?

[13526] SPEAKER_44: That I don't know, and I apologize if I should know that answer.

[13531] Bowen Zhang: I guess that would be a yes. You have the answer? Yep, let's say next year we're renewing the software license. Will that be coming out of the lottery or general fund?

[13542] Marie dela Cruz: It could continue to come out of lottery because lottery is an ongoing revenue source.

[13548] SPEAKER_44: Right. That's what I would think, but you know.

[13552] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so personally for me, because like it or not, I generally use the dashboard result to look at the effectiveness of the program. I mean, on the high school level, we showed a zero. So that's literally just the status quo, right? It's zero. We continue this path, it's still going to be zero. So not sure whether we're going to have standard testing for next year, but eventually that I mean, I guess the backup plan for this is there's always a way to measure the effectiveness of the program. And if it doesn't, if this, if two years later, the DAPR will still show zero percent, then we'll have another conversation about whether to reauthorize this.

[13592] SPEAKER_44: The other piece too, and I know, so the other piece too, and we probably can have this a conversation at another time, is that The data that we're looking at when we're looking at the, you know, ELA and math percentages is all English learners, right? So we're talking about all English learners, not just our English learners that are in our English language development classes. So for example, and so, yes, those 75 students at the high school level that are in the English language development classes contribute to that, you know, the number of students that scored that still gave us less than the, you know, 0%.

[13634] Bowen Zhang: It's both the in-progress English learner and the graduated English learner. Is that right? So it's both the people that are currently in the program and the people that get out of the program.

[13646] SPEAKER_44: Yes, exactly. Exactly. But what I was going to say is a way that you measure it is if we could definitely be looking at the LPAC scores and the progression, right, and how many have at least measured or moved at least one level in the different domains. So there are ways of measuring it. I just wanna make sure that we don't think that because we're doing this for 75 kids at the high school and 50 kids at the junior high that are in the English language development classes that automatically we're gonna think that all of a sudden our numbers and the math and the ELA are going to just skyrocket.

[13686] Bowen Zhang: Watching the time before we move on to the next format, watching the time, I'll extend the meeting to 11 p.m. I will move to extend the meeting to 11 p.m. May I get a second? Seconded by Member Nguyen. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[13709] Marie dela Cruz: Yes.

[13711] Bowen Zhang: Member Goodell? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen.

[13718] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[13719] Bowen Zhang: My vote is as well. Motion carries unanimously. Meeting extended to 11 p.m. as of now. Member Hill.

[13729] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so I don't want the group to get the wrong impression from my comments. You know, first off, I want to applaud your effort. And I know it's a very difficult effort. And I'm a teacher, fellow teacher, so I know. And I'm also excited about the fact that you've been piloting this and working with this and that you're seeing some promising sprouts or whatever you want to call it, buds. And so it has potential. The concern that I have and why I can't in good conscience vote on this right now is I really need to see this as a part of a larger comprehensive plan around how we're gonna move the needle on ELD. And I think I mentioned for most of my career, 25 years plus, I was a project manager. I was involved in lots of software implementations and the software vendors were always promising the companies If you just implement our software, it's going to solve all of your operational problems. And that almost never was the case. The software was a component. And one of the kind of the buzzwords, you know, that people use in IT implementations is people process technology. So I really think that we need to come up with a larger plan around ELD, people process technology with metrics. And then if you come back and say, this is how it fits into the technology, That's going to be a much more persuasive sell. And I think we're going to create a much more, you know, much greater likelihood of success and really improving LD. So that's, that's my viewpoint. So I don't want to, I don't want to throw cold water on you. I just want to say we need more. I want to see more.

[13839] Vicenta Ditto: So I just want to take a minute because I know Miss Cervantes called on me earlier and I haven't had a chance yet, but I just wanted to state that, um, This is just one piece of the puzzle. So each of our schools will be presenting our school plan for student achievement, and that has a greater plan as to what our goals are. And we've had to revisit it over the years of what our metrics will be because we don't have that SBAC data, but many of us are utilizing our graduation rate, our course completion rates. So again, this is just one piece of the puzzle and you'll see the larger picture for each school site, Newark Junior High and Newark Memorial at the next or the following board meeting, so.

[13881] Bowen Zhang: Okay, any other discussion from the board?

[13887] Phuong Nguyen: I just wanted to say that most of the time, the reason why software fails is because implementation people who use the software don't have a proper business process. I mean, business process. And that's why they are always trying to try to make their business process fit into a software program. And therefore, that's a lot of times where that fails. But I know that our staff has their processes in place for evaluating our current ELD students. the software I believe is just enhancing their ability to assess the students more thoroughly. And I truly believe that. So I hope that we can support them in this. Thank you.

[13944] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill.

[13946] Aiden Hill: So I think Ms. Rangel said there's more coming. So if that's a promise and we're gonna see a larger plan that looks at everything and it's holistic, and we're gonna set goals, and we're really gonna push to try to move the needle on this. I will support your effort right now, but again, I'm gonna hold you to your promise.

[13973] Jodi Croce: I'm gonna send her on that.

[13975] SPEAKER_32: So I'm gonna send Principal Rangel on that as well. So you'll be seeing something similar from the junior high. So in absence of SBAC data, you will see other forms of metric that will provide some information on our EL students and what types of support that we are providing for them through our SPSA plans.

[13997] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I think I shared a sentiment. I think we all shared a sentiment on Member Hill. And like I said, for me, the backup thing is, come next year, we're going to see some data. We'll vote on this again. This is not voting for this and give them 10 years of trial and error. So we do come back next year if this is working or not working. So hopefully, by that time, we'll have a clear understanding about whether this thing is working or not.

[14021] SPEAKER_32: And I just wanted to, just to board member Nguyen's point, about the software and the user, I think I was super excited when I saw my teacher so excited about the program. And she said, Risha, and my students can do this, and they have accessibility to do this. And in the previous program, I couldn't do this, but now my students are doing behavioral science and genetics and technology and earth science and economics. And the VHL program has all of these different things that it addresses, psychology, right now we're in a unit of psychology of shopping and how it applies. And the ELD kids are using that. So I think it was the excitement that she brought to the classroom because she was so excited about the program. So just wanted to share.

[14071] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Given that there's, I guess we spent quite a bit of time on this. I see no more comments. I will entertain a motion. So I will move to I'll move to approve the ELD curriculum adoption. May I get a second?

[14087] Terrence Grindall: Second.

[14088] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by Member Gundau. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[14093] Marie dela Cruz: Yes.

[14094] Bowen Zhang: Member Gundau? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[14102] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[14103] Bowen Zhang: I vote yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you for everybody for the collaboration. and the hard work. It's pretty late to the night but thank you for being patient with us.

[14114] SPEAKER_44: Thank you board members. Thank you so much. Good night.

[14117] Bowen Zhang: Jumping to the lot. Jumping to 12.7 resolution 2020.21-029 honoring May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and denouncing hate crimes and bigotry targeting AAPI communities. Superintendent Triplett.

[14134] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jeon. So this this upcoming month is is Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. So we're really delighted to be sharing a resolution. And Miss Pierce will talk a little bit more about it in a moment. But I also do think it's important that this is an opportunity to also speak out against the hate that we have seen, particularly directed towards our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities throughout the country. And unfortunately, the Bay Area is no exception. I know just last week, I believe, we saw some violence against Asian Americans in the Bay Area that was very troubling. So I do think it's really important that as a community, we stand up and show solidarity and express outrage over the type of things that are happening. And so we're going to speak a little bit more on that in a moment. Miss Pierce.

[14200] Nicole Pierce-Davis: You took the words right out of my mouth. I could not have said that better. In some way, I'm not going to repeat it because it is getting late into the night, but in some ways this resolution did serve as a talking point and an initiative. I actually got a chance to meet with a handful of students to discuss what was on, specifically some of our Asian American and Pacific Islander students, to ask them and to discuss what was on their hearts and minds during this time. And we also asked what can the district and their school do to improve in how we respond to them and their needs. Not just so that they feel safe, not just so that they feel welcome, but so that everyone feels truly valued. And so this is a part of our larger equity work. This is a part of the values that we espouse. And we are really looking forward to, this was kind of a start for us in a way, but the community has been asking for already for more affinity groups, for more discussions, for more rich dialogue around equity. So I am not only proud that the district is hopefully going to read this so that all can hear, but I'm also incredibly impressed with our students and can't wait to talk to more of them.

[14280] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. We have one public speaker on this, Ms. Gutierrez.

[14286] SPEAKER_42: Yes, the speaker is the light, Evan Vasquez, please. Ms. Evan Vasquez, you may begin.

[14301] SPEAKER_43: OK. Hello, board members and Dr. Triplett. On Tuesday, May 4th, I saw a flyer on the parents of NUSD Facebook page about an AAPI resolution community engagement event. For the first time, I was seeing an invitation for my voice to be heard and to connect with district leadership regarding a resolution denouncing racism and hate towards the Asian and Pacific Islander community. This seemed very interesting to me as a member of the Asian community, and I was sad when I realized I missed it. I thought it would be valuable to share it on Blooms with other members of the AAPI community at Graham, where I work. I wanted them to know that the district tried to reach the AAPI community, but the advertisement of the event was poor. I posted it to give reference to the event that was missed and the Instagram account it was posted on, so in the future, others would not miss an event. I also posted the information about the Parents of NUSD Facebook page because I received so much of my information from them and I thought others would appreciate knowing. The next day, I was notified by Assistant Superintendent Pierce that my posting may have confused our community because in an email, Ms. Pierce said, this meeting was not a community event. It was intended to engage student groups who they have been outreaching to for the last month. Excuse me? I confuse the community, I am the community. And I was confused by the post because the flyer said, Newark USD AAPI Resolution Community Engagement in the title. I was also told that if there was more of an interest in the district leadership, the district leadership would have more of these kinds of events. Well, how is the district supposed to gain interest if the events aren't advertised? I had no idea and I work in the district. I was also confused because I have a son who attends Newark Memorial High School, and he had no knowledge of this student group event. The high school is also very good at sending out upcoming events through a weekly email announcement, and I did not see it there. What student group were you working with? I feel it should have been put out to all students who are interested in supporting the AAPI community. Asian, Filipino, and Pacific Islanders make up 27.5% of the NUSD population. What about letting all the staff of NUSD know there was a student group? Maybe they would have wanted to be a part of the group. This is poor communication method seems to be a problem in the district. Dr. Triplett and board members, are you putting together a meaningful AAPI resolution? Or are you gonna wash over this issue and say something was done? I remember this was done with the Black Lives Matter resolution. Remember, NUSD eliminated the only highly qualified African-American principal. Thank you.

[14479] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Back to board discussion. Any board member want to chime in? Member Hill?

[14492] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so I think that this is a very important topic. And so I'm glad that it's come up. And I think that many of you know that I'm actually married to a Japanese woman. And so, you know, have a, you know, a very strong interest in our relationship with different Asian communities here. But I would also kind of like to echo the concerns that Ms. Delight Evans had expressed, because I think that I'm seeing a pattern here and I'm concerned about it. And my viewpoint is that we, the elected representatives on the board, are the voice of the people, we are the voice of the community. And that resolutions should be coming, really driving from the community itself to the elected representatives. And we should be driving that these need to be brought up, that these need to be going through various drafts, getting staff's help. And then ultimately we as a board make after sufficient community involvement, make a decision on this. But I think that there is a lot of staff-driven types of resolutions that I've been seeing over the past months that really have had limited input. And this is coming from an unelected body. And so I don't think that this is a good trend. And I think it's something that we need to think about potentially reversing and having the true customers, the true community stakeholders bubbling up and giving these things. rather than it being driven by the district itself.

[14588] SPEAKER_38: Member Grindel.

[14590] Terrence Grindall: I just want to thank the district staff for putting this together and working with the community. This is a very important recognition and I'm strongly in support of it. I look forward to reading my portion of it.

[14608] Bowen Zhang: Any other comments from the board member Martinez?

[14611] Elisa Martinez: Yeah. Also, I wanted to thank superintendent and staff for bringing this forward. You know, we haven't done this. You know, people don't like it. You know that when I say, Hey, we're working on it and they were getting better. This is not something that we've done historically. So I applaud the efforts of staff. You know, will we get better outreach and communication? Absolutely. But, you know, for us to say, hey, we're not going to speak out as a board, as an elected body, right? We are an elected body. And folks have empowered us to approve or not something that the staff brings forward. That's such a normal process. And absolutely, with our Black Lives Matter, with the current one that's before us, I am just, I'm actually still surprised that we're having these conversations, to be honest, and it feels good because we didn't historically do this. So, of course, I'm going to echo some of the comments of member Hill, which is we can always get better at the process. We can always get better at how we engage. And that goes for basically everything that we do, but that should not stop us from giving the voice to some of our student groups that absolutely need to feel supported. So I thank you and celebrate the opportunity to approve this resolution.

[14711] SPEAKER_38: Member Wynne.

[14713] Phuong Nguyen: I do want to echo member Martinez's comment, but I do want us to, if we do have community engagement, that we do advertise it earlier and make the communication clear, whether it is, you know, full community engagement or just student engagement, we really need to make sure that those are specifically distinguished and identified so that moving forward our community understands where the resolution is coming from, what it's intended for, so there's a clear-cut definition. and that people do not feel like they were not included in a process. And that is very important for us to move forward. And I know that we are working on that, and we're trying to improve all of those processes and communication. But I do really want to say thank you to staff for bringing this forward. And I am also excited to be reading my portion of the resolution tonight. So thank you.

[14786] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I want to thank staff for for working hard put up with something like this. And I want to follow up on member Martinez comment about surprise that we're still talking about this. So I given this resolution is primarily about the current may as a as a API heritage land, I thought we're going to be more celebratory on this because for so many of the Asian immigrant this country, we really don't want to who come here to, I mean, I will say, we'll want to say this is still a great country, probably the greatest country on earth. And for so many immigrants who, whether on millions of people, I mean, around the world who are desperate to risk their life, want to come to this country, it's just a living embodiment of the promise and the vitality of this land. So although that we have seen some incidents about rising violence, whether it's during the COVID-19, a special circumstance, I still hope that this can be a more celebratory event about talking about how great this country is, because I really don't want to give the next generation of our children in newer unified to, I don't want to give them the sense that somehow this is a fundamentally flawed country or fundamentally racist country. So I applaud the staff for doing this. And obviously the regret is we didn't I try to find out whether there's any Asian American affiliated organization in the city. I guess we have a hard time finding them. Not sure whether we want to. So I'm actually, I'm sort of on the fence. If we can find an affiliation or an Asian American organization in the city that can come in and co-sponsor this with us, I'm fine postponing that two weeks. But yeah, we really couldn't find them. I'm fine doing this right now because this is a historic first that we've never done that. We've never done that before in the community. So Superintendent, yeah, that's my position. It is a little bit, I will say, I won't say disappointing. I wish that we can have an organization sponsoring that, specifically dedicated to the cause of Asian-American in our city.

[14927] Elisa Martinez: We have a city government for that. All right, so.

[14937] Terrence Grindall: President Zhang, I just want to say that it is a great country and part of what makes our country great is we don't close our eyes to our past. We don't look away from the injustices that have been there and we keep working to be better. So that's what this is part of.

[14957] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I remember just a couple of days ago when somebody was talking about the Chinese exclusion, I was in a group. And then somebody mentioned it was this country is never about the original sin. It's always about the redemption. And I mentioned to that, I said, yeah, can you believe that people were talking about the Angel Island and the immigration process? I can imagine a hundred years ago, a person like me will be legally excluded from this country. A hundred years later, I got more than 10,000 votes in an election. I mean, we came a long way if you compare it to a hundred years ago. I mean, for me, not being even a legal person in this country to me, breaking the record when breaking the vote record, you know, you know, election being elected in his adoptive home down the school board. Yeah, we did come along. And that's why I always trying to tell our students and youth, this is a great country. Yes, we do have problems. Don't ever let anybody convince you that this is a fundamentally flawed country. This is not.

[15012] Elisa Martinez: Right. And if I may, I think let's refocus my suggestion to what we're here. And it's about you know, of course, there is the broader picture, but we are the servants of our kids, right, of our students. And we are celebrating the fact that, you know, aside from all the negative things, there is a community, right? There is a community that supports them, right? And so, again, we can wait to get it perfect, right? but there is something about just saying, you know what, we hear you, we see you, and we're here for you. And, you know, again, this will probably not be the last time, you know, that we have many of our students subgroups that perhaps have never heard us say the words. And maybe to some people, it may sound flat when we read the resolution or tone deaf or whatever, but if we can reach, you know, our core, audience, which are students, then I think, you know, we're making strides. We're making progress.

[15086] Bowen Zhang: Okay. So with that, anybody want to entertain a motion?

[15094] Elisa Martinez: I move to approve the resolution.

[15097] SPEAKER_38: Moved by Member Martinez.

[15098] Phuong Nguyen: I'll second.

[15100] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by Member Nguyen. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15104] Elisa Martinez: Yes.

[15107] Bowen Zhang: Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[15113] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[15115] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. I guess this is the resolution that, like, the type of resolution that we have to read, right? And given this is, I guess we have, let's see, we have how many? We have 11. I got 11 people on the panel, so let me even divide this out. I think everybody wants to take part in this. So I guess I'll just by paragraph. Resolution 2020.21-029 honoring May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and denouncing hate crimes and bigotry targeting AAPI communities. The newer unified school district hereby remains resolving the following. One, honoring May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Two, denouncing hate crimes, hateful rhetoric and hateful acts against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and three, reaffirming its commitment to foster a culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. Member Nguyen?

[15172] Phuong Nguyen: Whereas the month of May is set aside to honor the contributions Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, AAPI, have made to the United States.

[15182] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill?

[15187] Bowen Zhang: You are on mute.

[15190] Aiden Hill: Sorry, which, I'm sorry.

[15192] Bowen Zhang: The second we're asked, we're asked in 1990, yeah.

[15195] Aiden Hill: Whereas in 1990, Congress voted to expand Asian Pacific heritage from one week to a month, a month-long celebration. And in May, 1992, the month of May was permanently designated as an Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month.

[15210] Bowen Zhang: And. Member Grundahl.

[15214] Terrence Grindall: Whereas, understanding Asian and Pacific Islander history is an important part of celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and... Member Martinez.

[15226] Elisa Martinez: Whereas racism towards Asian and Pacific Islander communities has always existed, such as the 19th century scapegoating of APIs, also known as the Yellow Peril, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, assaults against Filipino farm workers in the 1930s, the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s and continues today through overt acts of violence and the perpetuation of divisive stereotypes such as the model minority myth, a false narrative intended to divide and minimize experiences on AAPI communities and?

[15263] Bowen Zhang: Superintendent Triplett.

[15265] Mark Triplett: Whereas Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have persevered, providing for their families and creating opportunities for themselves, their children, and others, and?

[15275] Bowen Zhang: Assistant Superintendent Nicole Pierce.

[15277] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Whereas we acknowledge these Americans for their contributions to government, industry, and commerce, agriculture, science, literature, and the arts, and?

[15287] Bowen Zhang: And Mrs. Inga Waters.

[15291] SPEAKER_36: Whereas the diversity of these groups include Asian-Indians, Bengali, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Romanian, Hawaiian, Hmong, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Malayan, Okinawan, Pakistani, Samoan, Thai, Vietnamese, and others, and?

[15315] Bowen Zhang: Mrs.dela Cruz?

[15318] Marie dela Cruz: Whereas in Newark Unified School District, 24% of the student population are identified as Asian, Filipino, or Pacific Islander, and... Ms.

[15331] Bowen Zhang: Gutierrez?

[15335] SPEAKER_42: Whereas the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and Chinese for Affirmative Action launched a hate incident reporting internet website titled Stop AAPI Hate the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak on March of 2020 and documented over 2,800 hate incidents against Asian Pacific Islander Americans in 2020 and over 700 of these incidents occurred in the Bay Area of California and whereas racism against AAPIs has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic in part due to harmful bias and rhetoric.

[15373] Bowen Zhang: And according to a Pew Research Center report, 31% of Asian Americans report having been subject to discrimination since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. And remember when?

[15384] Phuong Nguyen: Whereas the recent rise of violence against AAPI community members is part of a larger history of violence and exclusion against communities of color, and we must work together to find localized solutions that are community centered and actively work to reverse historical, systemic, and institutional racism in all of its forms.

[15407] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill.

[15410] Aiden Hill: whereas the Newark Unified School District Board of Education stands with the AAPI community and wishes to affirm its commitment to the safety and well-being of AAPI students, staff, and community members, and for it to be known that they are not alone and should feel comfortable speaking out to help stop the spread of hate and racism and.

[15430] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez.

[15433] Elisa Martinez: Now therefore be it resolved that the Newark Unified School District Board of Education proclaims may as National Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with appropriate instructional activities to recognize the countless contributions that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have made in helping our nation.

[15453] Bowen Zhang: Superintendent Triplett.

[15455] Mark Triplett: Be it further resolved that the Newark Unified School District Board of Education calls on all residents and leaders to join us in the condemnation of hate crimes, hateful rhetoric, and hateful acts against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and unite with us in ensuring that all AAPI students, staff, and community members feel safe, welcome, and valued both during this COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

[15480] Bowen Zhang: approved, passed, and adopted by the Board of Education of the Newark Unified School District this sixth day of May, 2021, by the following votes, ayes are five, nos are zero, zero absent, zero abstain. Thank you, everybody. Back to item 12.1, release of special term retirees and long-term guest teachers, Superintendent Triplett.

[15503] Mark Triplett: Thank you, and I will turn this one over to Ms. Ingham-Watters.

[15509] SPEAKER_36: 4.1 is the release of long-term guest teachers. This is a formality. However, in a show of good faith and transparency with our loyal and dependable guest teachers, we have always formally released them from their long-term positions and included in the letters they receive is that we are looking forward to having them return in August to support our students once again as guest teachers.

[15545] Mark Triplett: Any questions from the board?

[15549] Phuong Nguyen: Questions? President Zhang, are you there?

[15562] Elisa Martinez: He needed to step away for a second.

[15565] SPEAKER_42: Vice President Nguyen, if you want you could continue. Okay.

[15571] Phuong Nguyen: Does anybody have any comments or questions for Ms. Ingham-Watters?

[15578] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I'm sorry. I went with a, I got a Bible break.

[15586] Terrence Grindall: If the president will entertain a motion, I'll move approval.

[15590] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Yeah, let's entertain a motion. Member Goodell. motioned uh seconded by member martinez member martinez how do you vote yes Member Grindel yes member hill sorry yes okay member win yes my vote is yes as well motion carries unanimously 4.2 date of the teacher superintendent triplet

[15626] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jhun. So as we said earlier, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. However, next week, I believe the 12th is what it says, is official California Teacher, Day of the Teacher. And so I think it's wonderful because why just do one week when you can do a week and a day next week? So we look forward to Assuming that we pass this tonight, we look forward to continuing to celebrate and honor our teachers next week as well on that special day.

[15666] Bowen Zhang: If there's no discussion, I will entertain a motion. I will move that we adopt resolution 2020.21-027, date of the teacher. May I get a second? I will second. Seconded by Member Nguyen. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15686] Elisa Martinez: Yes.

[15688] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel?

[15690] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[15691] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[15694] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[15695] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries with five ayes, 12.3, Classified School Employees Week. Superintendent Triplett? Oh, before we move on, this is a resolution we need to read, right? 4.2. That's correct. Okay. Resolution 4.2. I guess I will start. Resolution number 2020.21-027, state of California, date of the teacher, May 12, 2021, whereas the annual date of the teacher will be observed in all schools and educational institutions of the state on May 12, 2021 and member when.

[15734] Phuong Nguyen: Whereas the Board of Trustees of the Newark Unified School District wishes to commend and express its appreciation to the teachers who serve the students of the Newark Unified School District and.

[15746] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill.

[15747] Aiden Hill: I'm sorry. Whereas the Board of Trustees and Superintendent, sorry, is that what? Yes. Recognize that unique and highly specialized skills are required to meet the varied needs of the young people served by the district instructional programs and are proud of the success that these programs have achieved and. Member Bundel.

[15774] Terrence Grindall: Whereas it is further recognized that the quality and success of students depends significantly upon the instructional, instructional outstanding performance of the teachers who've committed their considerable skills, talents, and energies to meeting the needs of their special students.

[15792] SPEAKER_38: Member Martinez.

[15793] Elisa Martinez: Now therefore be it resolved that the board of trustees and the superintendent do hereby thank and commend.

[15804] Bowen Zhang: The teachers of the Newark Unified School District for the outstanding and meaningful contribution they are making to students and families served by Newark schools passed and adopted on May 6, 2021 by the following votes. Ayes are five. Thank you. Moving on to Classified School Employees Week, Superintendent Triplett.

[15828] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Jhun. So planning ahead a little bit, we do have other appreciations coming up this month. Our wonderful classified staff and the week of the 16th through the 22nd is appreciation of all of our classified staff that do so much to keep our schools running safe and healthy places for our students to learn.

[15857] Bowen Zhang: Hey. Any discussions from the board? Member Keohokalole, are you raising your hand?

[15864] Aiden Hill: Yes. So and this is related to the prior resolutions. Is anything else going forward? So how do we decide whether we read it or not?

[15874] Bowen Zhang: So if you look at a resolution, if they have whereas, whereas, like showing solidarity, that's the thing that we need to read. That's the general rule of thumb. If it's just a resolution, let's say cutting, balancing the budget in three years, that's not something we need to read. I think that's probably the one.

[15891] Aiden Hill: Okay, so the really pompous sounding ones, those are the ones we read.

[15896] Elisa Martinez: The recognition ones, usually. Yeah, okay. Not administrative, yeah. Okay.

[15904] Bowen Zhang: If there's no other comments, I will move to adopt resolution, classify schools employees week. May I get a second? I'll second. Go ahead. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[15921] SPEAKER_20: Yes.

[15922] SPEAKER_38: Member Grindell?

[15924] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[15926] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[15930] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[15932] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries with five ayes, and we need to read this. Classified School Employees Week, May 16-22, 2021. Whereas the legislature of the state of California has officially designated a third full week in May of each year as Classified School Employees Week, as time to recognize the many contributions of classified school employees to public education and member win.

[15961] Phuong Nguyen: Whereas the members of the board of trustees and the superintendent are personally aware and appreciative of the high standard of quality and service provided by the members of the classified staff and.

[15974] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill.

[15976] Aiden Hill: Whereas the services provided by the members of the classified staff have a profound and significant effect on the operations of programs operated by the Newark Unified School District.

[15987] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel.

[15989] Terrence Grindall: whereas it is further recognized that all adults in a school environment are important to the success and well-being of our students.

[15999] SPEAKER_38: Member Martinez.

[16000] Elisa Martinez: Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Trustees and the superintendent do hereby recognize and commend the members of the Newark Unified School District California School Employees Association Local 208.

[16015] Bowen Zhang: for their outstanding effort in serving the district and meeting the needs of the students, staff, and parents of the newer unified schools. Passed and adopted on May 6th, 2021 by the following votes, Ayes are five. Thank you. Last item will be 12.6, graduation requirements, class of 2021, Superintendent Triplett.

[16037] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Hsuan. And I'll just turn this right over to Assistant Superintendent Pierce.

[16043] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Thank you, and I believe we have Ms. Rangel and Ms. Calderon, if they can be brought in as well. We presented some information last week, so we will... Most of this is the background information you should already have. Do we have our two principals with us? Perfect. Oh, great. Okay. So just to do a little background. So in our previous informational session, we kind of framed the dilemma a little bit for everyone. We talked about NUSD's graduation requirements. We talked about how many students were at risk of potentially not meeting that this year. I believe at that point, we were at 75 students for Newark Memorial. We were concerned about dropping the rate by about 20% at Bridgepoint Crossroads. We talked about some pandemic related concerns to high school graduation and trends across the nation so we've talked very local, we talked statewide and then we talked national as well around flexible graduation requirements and how that precedent has really been set. In fact, how California has sort of really encouraged local education agencies to think creatively about this topic, given how hard this year has been on our seniors. We also talked about what our community input has been, and we talked about some possible solutions. These were the solutions we presented to you last time. I'm gonna move forward and talk about the solutions that we wanna bring forward to you this evening. So without further ado, who's right now?

[16149] Vicenta Ditto: So I believe number one is actually Ms. Calderon. Thank you.

[16155] SPEAKER_30: Yes. So these are our recommendations that we are hoping we gain your support tonight. The first is to allow a fifth year. This would be criteria based with principal approval. And we would encourage our students while offering a fifth year, we would encourage them to try to finish by the end of the fall semester.

[16174] Vicenta Ditto: And then, in addition, we wanted to request a reduce of graduation credits by 10 in vapa and electives which wouldn't take us too far from our. A to G requirements and still keeps us with the state requirements, so that would be a reduction to 220 credits in Newark memorial high school and 180 credits at bridge point.

[16195] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And then the third is around summer school. So this would mean that we would sort of implement some graduation contracts, allow students who are 10 to 20 units away from graduating to actually kind of go through the process of walking the stage, provided they agree to attend summer school, and then diplomas would be issued upon completion of summer school. Now, this is pending availability of teachers and program offerings, obviously. Um, but, uh, we hope to be able to expand our summer, um, programs this year. So what we're asking the board is actually to implement all three if they're willing. Um, but that is the, these are our recommendations. So, um, at this point we would also take one of the three or two of the three. Um, but we are actually hoping that all three, um, are passed this evening.

[16250] Bowen Zhang: Any comments on the board?

[16260] Elisa Martinez: I do. Oh, remember marking this? Um, yes. So, um. I think I had a question or in terms around, um, you know how to Each student that is, um, unit deficient now. What they qualify for one of these, or it's a combination of these. I'm just curious as to again. Um. You know, Why the three options? Like if I'm 20 to 10 to 20 out and, you know, what the summer program versus does that mean that I don't qualify for the reduced graduation credits? Because it says 10 to 20, this one's by 10. So I'm just trying to understand. Yeah.

[16309] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Yes, so they do hit our students at the different levels that they're at. So for instance, a fifth year might be more appropriate for a student who is out 40 units. And they could potentially do sort of a half day right and through one semester and then they and then they would be able to complete. Another student might be 10 units just so close to that sort of finish line. and can pass that way potentially with less summer school or with no summer school. And then with summer school, again, you could add those two together and sort of be able to support your kids that are maybe 20 to 30 units out by either reducing the credits and then offering summer school in addition to that. So yes, we would kind of look at a plethora of options, see what best fits each student, and then make determinations that way. And principals, feel free to add.

[16361] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill.

[16364] Aiden Hill: Yeah, I mean, I appreciate the challenge that we're facing here in the district, and I appreciate looking at all the different options here. And as a teacher, I'm living every day the challenges that my kids are facing in terms of dealing with remote learning and other challenges associated with the pandemic. But my viewpoint is that when we start to lower our standards, we start to get on a slippery slope. And what I'm trying to do with my kids is when they have something that's due, and if they are having a problem meeting the deadline, I will extend the deadline or try to make extra accommodations to give them somehow more time or more help to do it, but I'm not reducing the, The requirement of what they need to do, because that requirement is going to be important for them to be successful later in life. And so I can support definitely options one option three. I'm kind of on the fence, just because you're talking about kind of shrinking credits, but that's maybe, you know, a possibility, but option to reducing credits. I don't think that's a good idea. I think we're going to do this or a disservice to our kids by doing that.

[16443] Bowen Zhang: So I want to echo member Hill's comment. When I first saw that, I also think that reducing the requirement, even though during this extraordinary difficult period, is probably not a good solution for the long term. I'm just curious, can a student can actually take advantage of all these three options? I mean, if we approve all, like one person taking on all of these three options at the same time, right? Let's say if he's 30 units short, he can go to summer school, get 20 units, and then set, I'm 10 units short, if we approve number two, like he can still graduate, right? Or is this just one student has to choose one of the three options? Yeah, we implement, yeah, we approve all three alternatives.

[16487] Nicole Pierce-Davis: So just to clarify, so a couple of things to clarify. One, we did talk about this last time in the sense of this really, I totally understand, and generally speaking, you are going to hear me at these meetings advocating to increase rigor, to increase demand to increase so you know supportive our kids. This is this is this is unique conversation for me to be having with you all it being assistant superintendent of Ed services but also just who I am as a person. That being said. this is not without precedence, right? And so we kind of shared the long list of districts, both locally, statewide, and nationally that are doing this. And then to answer your second question, technically, yes, a student could take all of these options. But again, option one is only allowable with principal approval, right? So principals are going to be very mindful of this as they're making those decisions. the summer school option is not reducing credits. It's actually asking those students would still need to take those courses, right? And so they're not getting double credits. That means they have to go to summer school double time essentially, right? So in that again, it's pending whether or not, this has been a challenging year. So pending whether or not we can get the teachers into the program and the principals into the program, right? To be offering these additional services, which we are recruiting as we speak. So technically, yes, a student could utilize all of these, but in two of the three options, there is no reduction of credits. They're putting the time in. It's just at a later date. So we're kind of extending the deadline, as Member Hill said.

[16593] Bowen Zhang: So I guess a student can go to summer school and then be allowed for a fifth year?

[16601] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Again, I would say that's based off of the principal approval. I don't see that happening unless it was a very, very unique case.

[16608] Bowen Zhang: Most likely, if a student really has a lot of credit left, he will be going to the fifth year, I guess. Pending principal approval. If he's 60 points short, 60 credits short, he'll probably be going to the fifth year.

[16622] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And that might not be allowable, but because it's 60 units, That may not be allowable. It would really depend on the student and it would be to depend. And this is why we're putting the principal approval in there because our principals know our students, our teachers know our students, right? And they know whether or not this is a successful path for them. They're not going to choose this option. They're not going to say yes to this option if they don't feel like the student will be successful.

[16648] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel. You are on mute.

[16660] Terrence Grindall: I was just saying that I think member Martinez had her hand up first. Okay, member Martinez?

[16667] Elisa Martinez: Yes, actually. So thanks for explaining that because when I first saw, excuse me, tired, the reduction in credits, I mean, my initial reaction was, I don't like it. However, when I look at option three, especially when students are that close, right? Implementing the contract for that summer school. And I think about some of our school, I'm so tired, I'm so sorry. Some of our students who happen to fall in that small gap. And that one of the main drivers would be that they just haven't been able to be in class because they've had to take on responsibility to support their family. And so it makes me really nervous because we say, OK, we're going to let you do this, but you've got to come to summer school. Well, what has changed in their life that will now allow them to come to summer school? So so that one is probably the one that makes me the most nervous because of some kids just haven't been able to attend for many reasons. Um, so anyhow, um, I'm, I think we have to have a number two available for those reasons.

[16750] Bowen Zhang: Member Goodell.

[16754] Terrence Grindall: Um, I have concern about number two. I do feel like it's a bit of a slippery slope to start reducing requirements. However, these are extraordinary times. And as Member Martinez pointed out, students are dealing with a lot of issues. And since this reduction is only in electives, I would support including all three.

[16779] Phuong Nguyen: Member Nguyen? I'm in agreement with Member Grindel.

[16786] Bowen Zhang: Do we have any idea about how many of them, because each class, we roughly have 400 students, and this we're talking about class of 2021, so roughly 380, 390 students for the total class. Do we have any idea about how many of these students actually fall into the category of 10 credits short? How many of them are falling into the category of 20, 30 credits short?

[16814] Vicenta Ditto: Yes, I'm able to talk about Newark Memorial a little bit. So in our last presentation, we had over 70 students who were credit deficient. But again, those numbers are very fluid. So currently it's at, I believe, 63. And so 36 of those students are missing 10 credits or more. And while 27 students are within five credits. But again, because they're so fluid, we also have to take into consideration the current classes. So that's what's important to think about. So I hope that helps you with some of the numbers. That's just a rough estimate.

[16847] Bowen Zhang: So 36, 36 of them will probably need to go to summer school or will need one of the three or more three options. I guess the 2024 is only missing a cradle of five. They will just be either I mean, if you only need five credits, I think that would be the option two, right? Because the summer school is for the credits for 10 to 20, right? Is there a way they go to summer school to earn five credits?

[16876] Vicenta Ditto: Absolutely. And again, a lot of this is around walking the stage too. So students who don't have those five credits or those 10 credits typically don't walk the stage. And so that's another component of the summer school senior contract is that they would be allowed to walk the stage and then obtain those credits in the summer.

[16895] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, I'm glad to hear that. So we have roughly 60 students within 10 within around 10 or less than 10 credits. How practical it is for these students to all go to summer school, if let's say option two is eliminated.

[16922] Vicenta Ditto: Again, every situation is different. You know, just we've seen how powerful it is just to already open schools where students who haven't turned in anything all year come to school with papers in hand prepared to turn in school. So every potential prepared to turn in assignments. So again, every situation is different. And so it's really up to the counselors and the administrators at each site to meet with the students to determine what works best for them and their families during this pandemic.

[16953] SPEAKER_30: If I could add that there are approximately 14 alternative education students who would benefit from number one being approved. They will not be able to finish through summer school. They would need additional time.

[16966] Bowen Zhang: Right. Yeah, I think I think this. So for me personally, this is pretty late at night. I would rather have like more data. So if I can get my way, I hope that we can shelve this and come back later when we're all more refreshed and get more concrete data on which option will be more suitable or sooner. Is this really time sensitive that we have to approve this tonight?

[16992] Nicole Pierce-Davis: So there's two things to consider, and then I do want our principals to speak to this point. One, we can come with data, but know that, again, that data is constantly fluid, especially as we get into the final semester of senior year for our high school students. If, for some reason, they fail a class in this last semester, that could cause the numbers to go way up. If they stay exactly where they are, then the numbers should stay pretty consistent. with graduation coming, the sooner the better. But principals, I'll let you speak to that.

[17027] Bowen Zhang: So also, can you educate me what VAPA stands for? V-A-P-A. It's we're reducing the graduate credits by 10 coming from VAPA electives.

[17040] Mark Triplett: Yeah, will you explain that and then also if you could address both both of you if you could speak to the possible ramifications of us waiting on this decision.

[17051] Vicenta Ditto: Yes, so First is the VAPA is Visual and Performing Arts. So that's courses such as ceramics, art. So that's the first question. And second is, I don't believe we have much more time to wait. We will have to meet with each of these students and have these conversations with their family, as well as this question has already come up. We've been holding off our families quite a bit about what this will look like, what are their options for next year.

[17086] Terrence Grindall: No, I just want to, I want to, I want to reflect on that. I think these, I think these students have a right to know what, what the future holds so they can make some plans. So I think we should, I think we should make an, make a approval of this or at least consideration of this tonight. And I'm happy to make a motion when you're ready.

[17112] Elisa Martinez: I support that. And I would just, again, remind the board, my fellow board members, that this is an exception. This is not a, what we're voting on today is not for next year, unless conditions are still there. But for now, this is a one-time adjustment. So please consider that as such. And I'll be glad to make a motion as well.

[17141] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill.

[17145] Aiden Hill: Like I said before, I can vote for one and three, but I can't vote for two.

[17148] Bowen Zhang: Okay, anybody's ready to make a motion?

[17155] Terrence Grindall: I'll move that we approve recommendations one, two, and three.

[17161] Elisa Martinez: I second.

[17163] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Wendell, seconded by Member Martinez. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[17169] SPEAKER_20: Yes.

[17172] Bowen Zhang: Member Grundahl, how do you vote? Yes. Member Hill? No. Member Nguyen?

[17179] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[17181] Bowen Zhang: My vote is no as well. So motion passed with three ayes and two noes. And I think we, Member Hill and myself, explained the reason behind that already. OK. Thank you, staff. I think this has been a long night. Thank you for being patient with us. Moving on to consent calendar personnel report. May I get a motion to approve the personnel report as presented?

[17207] Phuong Nguyen: I move to approve.

[17210] Bowen Zhang: Motion made by Member Nguyen.

[17213] Elisa Martinez: I'll second.

[17215] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by Member Martinez. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[17220] SPEAKER_20: Yes.

[17223] Bowen Zhang: Member Guendon?

[17224] Joy Lee: Yes.

[17226] Aiden Hill: Member Hill? Yes.

[17228] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen?

[17232] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[17233] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries unanimously. Consent calendar, non-personnel items, 14.2 and 14.3. May I get a motion to approve both of them?

[17246] Phuong Nguyen: I move to approve.

[17247] Bowen Zhang: I'll second. Motion made by Member Nguyen, seconded by Member Grindel. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[17255] Elisa Martinez: Yes.

[17258] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[17264] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[17265] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries with five ayes. Board of Education Committee report Mission Valley ROP. Member Martinez?

[17274] Elisa Martinez: No, we haven't had a meeting. No reports.

[17276] Bowen Zhang: No self for me. I believe there's a liaison meeting.

[17281] Phuong Nguyen: Member Nguyen? I'm going to let member Grindel report out.

[17290] Terrence Grindall: Okay. Thank you. Remember doing, um, we did have a, we did have a liaison meeting and, uh, there were, um, it was, it was helpful, uh, information. Um, one, one discussion was about the timeframe for, uh, constructing the school in, in the sanctuary development of otherwise known as area three. And that's, I'm going to talk about that when it comes to, um, future agenda requests.

[17318] Bowen Zhang: Okay. Uh, EBIT. Member Martinez, anything for the induction consortium?

[17328] Elisa Martinez: No.

[17328] Bowen Zhang: Okay. I guess nothing. Uh, anything for audit committee? No. Non-parcel tax, no as well. Board of Education request? Member Martinez?

[17345] Elisa Martinez: Um, yes, I have, uh, two. And again, if we can get an answer on the facilities master plan, if we have the final one, I think it's just, it's an ask of, do we have it? And then at some point, if we could agendize it for review, if we have, and I forgot, I apologize, but I'd like to just get that clarity. The second one is, perhaps an update on the revamping of our web page. I know that we've kind of had started that effort some time ago, Superintendent. And, you know, again, as I hear some of our public comment, I worry that people are going to unofficial, informal chats to get information and, you know, That's never a good plan. And so if we can maybe get an update as to where we are, and again, if we can just also perhaps send out communication reminding of the correct process to look for information. So it really worries me. I've seen some of the stuff that gets communicated in some of these informal locations, and I think that just helps with the disinformation. Those are my two requests.

[17438] Bowen Zhang: Before we move on, I actually just want to be safe. I want to extend the meeting again to 11.15. That should be enough. I'll move to extend the meeting again to 11.15, in case we have other board members have more extensive requests.

[17454] Elisa Martinez: I'll second.

[17455] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by Member Martinez. How do you vote, Member Martinez?

[17458] SPEAKER_36: Yes.

[17460] SPEAKER_38: Member Buenaventura? Yes.

[17463] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[17466] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[17467] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries with five aye. Meeting extended to 1115. Member Grundahl.

[17475] Terrence Grindall: Yes, as I indicated when talking about the liaison committee, I'd like to see a report from the superintendent about the timeframe it would take to start construction on that school by August of 2025. I want to make sure we're not missing all the time frame. So not a detailed analysis, but a rough idea of what we'd need to do to make that deadline and what other options we have.

[17507] Bowen Zhang: OK. And obviously, the funding source, whether we need to go through public contracting or no public contracting needed.

[17515] Terrence Grindall: I'm really looking for the time frame at this point. But yes, there's definitely options we have to look at. OK.

[17521] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill?

[17524] Aiden Hill: a request.

[17526] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen, you are on mute.

[17533] Phuong Nguyen: Just one, I too would like to see an update on the web, our school district website. I know that there's There's all our committee pages are also not have not been updated. And just want to make sure that we stay on top of those changes. And then also where we're at on the new new web pages, or the new website for the district. That's it. Thank you.

[17565] Bowen Zhang: Hey, Thank you. So my request is, this is May. In June, it will be the last month of the school year. And I'll ask for a special meeting for the full year superintendent evaluation. And I believe in February, we did a mid-year review. So by convention, starting this new term with the new superintendent, we should have the half year, more of an informal review and a full year comprehensive official review. And the mid-year review will happen in December. And a full year review obviously should happen in June, the last month of the school year. And four months ago in February, we did the media review in February instead of in December, was because in December, we have two new board members that literally have no input to the process. So that wouldn't be productive if we held that in December. But going forward, I totally expect the media review will happen in December. And the full year review will be in June. So I will be requesting a special meeting for the war, maybe the second week of June, or maybe the last week of the June for the superintendent review. I see member kill you raise your hand. Is that a reason?

[17635] Aiden Hill: Yes. Shouldn't it be after the year has closed?

[17639] Bowen Zhang: Yeah so you know initially remember I once suggested the full year review should be happening you know around September because that's when we have the dashboard score and we close our board we know the budget but what happened as I'm looking back to the contract of the superintendent contract if you read the contract I think I believe the contract is saying superintendent need to have a full year review by the end of the year. I believe if that if that's what the contract said that we're obligated to do the June

[17666] Aiden Hill: The end of year is the end of June, right? Yeah, by the end of June.

[17670] Bowen Zhang: So would that be July? No, it's by the end of year, not after, not at the end of year. Yeah, no ideal case, I would want this to be mid-September because that point you have two major data point coming out. But even the superintendent contract that we signed last year, it looks like, superintendent, correct me if I'm not wrong, that's by the end of the school year, right? That's correct. Yeah. So that will make us time constrained. Therefore, I propose that December the mid-year review. By the end of June 30th, that will be the full year comprehensive review.

[17704] Elisa Martinez: And I think tied to a couple of things, just as a reminder, it's tied to contract renewals, of course. And also, most importantly, we also need to be generating goals for the next academic year. Right now, we've been patching them together, but we haven't actually done that. So I think to your point, Member Zhang, just as we need to be thinking about the evaluation, we need to be thinking about the goals for the next year.

[17735] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. So I guess the next step is we'll reach out to see the availability of a board member, whether it's second week of June or the fourth week of June. And we'll do the We are review. So that will be my request. And another thing is that, yeah, I'm actually curious about the I think the board expressed some concern about the SDC class for the, after we consolidate music starting next year. So, this is not a formal request to me, a formal request by me as of now, but I will probably reach out to superintendent during our regular one, want to get more information about our vision and our current plan for the SDC class.

[17780] SPEAKER_38: Okay.

[17781] Bowen Zhang: Board of education recognition and announcement.

[17783] SPEAKER_42: President Zhang, if I may, I'm just, Just based on your words right now, you said this is not a formal request. Some of these may be formal requests. So do you want to ask for a vote or concessions from the ones that are a formal request?

[17797] Bowen Zhang: A formal request, I guess, is the Superintendent evaluation. But I believe.

[17804] SPEAKER_42: Sorry, I was referring to the other requests. There was no formal consensus for any of the requests that were currently made.

[17811] Bowen Zhang: I think Member Martinez made two requests. I guess that's in the request is for a staff report. I don't think it's for a study session. So for staff report, that will just be either, is this a staff report or a member?

[17827] SPEAKER_42: Just as a reminder, things that are gonna require action from the superintendent require majority of the board. That's why I was asking for consensus from the majority of the board.

[17838] Bowen Zhang: Member Martinez, I'm curious, what do you want? Is that a separate?

[17841] Elisa Martinez: No, just an update. I'm not expecting it to get agendized or a study session, but it was an update on those two, on those two items for now.

[17852] Bowen Zhang: I guess the superintendent update, right? Because we have a superintendent report in every meeting. I guess it's not so high whether we want to update on the website and the master facility. Yes.

[17867] Mark Triplett: I think what is referring to is a part of the, the board. The guidelines is that requests are coming from with consensus from the word, rather than an individual or.

[17883] Aiden Hill: that hold on a second because we talked about this before right so so so if if there are issues that are requiring staff time that requires a board vote but putting it but putting anything on the agenda does not require a consensus miss gutierrez can you uh do you want to clarify the superintendent the superintendent acts upon the majority of the votes

[17911] Elisa Martinez: the majority of the board so according to according to so uh if i may so um if there are uh actions required of the superintendent of any sort then it just requires a consensus of the majority of the vote that's what that's the direction we gave that is the direction we gave as a board so that's all that you're asking about so yeah those are the quiet those are the the updates that i would like um and so if you i think and we should go really every time I think to your point, every time one of us has a request, we should all say, yep, we should probably spend time on this or not. So I think that's a fair reminder.

[17948] Aiden Hill: So we've already talked about this before, and our consultant Deb from CSBA has said the same thing. Any request for an agenda item must be put on the agenda, whether it comes from us or from the public. Ma'am, point of order, I have the floor, okay? And we've talked about this before, all right? Anybody, including the public, can put an item on the agenda, all right? The board, during the time that the agenda is adopted, can decide whether or not it will be discussed, but everybody has an opportunity to put an item on the agenda, and this does not require a consensus of the board.

[17991] Elisa Martinez: If I may, President Zhang, I know that not everyone's been through training, but there is a hierarchy of documents. There's ed code, there's board policies and procedures, and there's our governance handbook. which requires active decision making from this board. All Ms. Gutierrez is asking us to do is to live by the direction we have given, okay? So one could have these, academic conversations about what should be, that is the direction we give. We can go back to the table as a board.

[18029] Aiden Hill: It's not academics, it's the law.

[18030] Elisa Martinez: Excuse me, I have the floor, excuse me, thank you. So this is something that we as a board, not any single individual on the board can change. So if we want to change our governance handbook, I think we all should go around the table or schedule a meeting and revisit that.

[18050] Aiden Hill: The governance handbook does not trump the law.

[18054] SPEAKER_38: Okay.

[18055] Elisa Martinez: I don't know what law you're talking about.

[18057] Aiden Hill: It doesn't trump Ed Code. It doesn't trump Ed Code. And this is per RCA. This is per DEV.

[18062] Elisa Martinez: Point of order. President Zhang, I would ask you to continue with the meeting because I don't think we're going to gain agreement on this item.

[18072] Bowen Zhang: Your item, because you're not requesting an agenda item, you're just requesting him, requesting the superintendent's option. Yes, correct.

[18078] Terrence Grindall: Yeah, so. My item is the same. It's not necessarily requesting an agenda item, but it does require superintendent's action, so we should have voted. So I would move that we would approve the two items from member Martinez and my item as requiring superintendent time.

[18103] Bowen Zhang: Are we going to take a vote or just nodding?

[18105] Elisa Martinez: Just consensus, I believe. Just consensus. Yes.

[18109] SPEAKER_42: So, yes. A simple raise of a hand is sufficient.

[18112] Bowen Zhang: Yeah. What about member Wen? I didn't see you.

[18117] Phuong Nguyen: I just had the request for the website.

[18120] Bowen Zhang: Oh yeah, you have the same request. I guess a special meeting, I don't really need to ask for any consent. This is contractual obligation. I mean, I don't see why people want to oppose the special meeting for superintendent. superintendent evaluation, okay?

[18134] Phuong Nguyen: No, Ms. Gutierrez was asking about your second request in term, but it wasn't.

[18139] Bowen Zhang: That is not, I'm not requesting that. Okay. I will be talking to superintendent first, that next meeting will be the next step. 15.4, Board of Education Recognition and Announcement. Member Martinez.

[18156] Elisa Martinez: Oh, sorry. recognitions and announcements. I want to recognize every single individual that made coming back to school possible. You know, it's of course, the front and center are teachers and but you know, if you if if you had the opportunity to drive by obviously I have to drop off just the energy and the smiles and and just everyone just working collaboratively Even the neighbors, you know, I was dropped off my son and there's this, this, this, this fellow walked out of his house and he looked at the kids, he's like, they're back. And he was just his face lit up. So, you know, this hasn't been easy. You know, teachers, we really appreciate, we know this is hard. We know not everyone was a hundred percent on board with the direction. but we really, I really want to thank you for, you know, regardless of everything around really putting everything, you know, forward for our children. So I really appreciate you and all the support staff in the office, you know, facilities, everybody, thank you so much for everything that you do.

[18242] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Member Grindel.

[18245] Terrence Grindall: I. I usually hate following Member Martinez. In this case, I very much do because she said exactly what I was thinking. The only thing I will, I'll amplify a little bit on the work that the cabinet did in making this happen too. But the teachers, the parents, our staff just did an amazing job and it was very hard work. There were a thousand details. and I just am appreciative of everyone's work. Thank you. Okay.

[18282] SPEAKER_38: Member Hill?

[18285] Aiden Hill: Yeah, I echo the same. Thank you. Thank everybody for all their hard work.

[18289] Bowen Zhang: Member Nguyen?

[18292] Phuong Nguyen: I also want to thank everyone for their hard work and happy Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week. I know that our decision was a very difficult decision to bring back and reopen schools. And like what Member Martinez echoed is that, yeah, not everybody was on board 100%, but I really do appreciate the fact that even though we do have that difference in opinion, everybody rallied together and really made it happen for the students who were returning and the smiles, the love, the affection that was shown, and we've been able to experience and seen for ourselves during drop off and pick up was really overwhelming and emotional. So I just wanted to again really stress I know that it's difficult when we make these kinds of decisions on staff, our executive staff, and then also especially our teachers and our CSCA members. So thank you for all your hard work, resilient tenacity, and passion for inspiring our lifelong learners. We appreciate what you do and are filled with gratitude for the positive impact that you make on our children's lives every single day. So thank you so much.

[18379] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. Yeah, I want to echo what all the members, particularly member Martinez and member Nguyen just said. I want to end on this session with a slightly light personal note. I just got granted the patent from US Office of Patent and Trademark for my work in cloud computing and data replication. This is actually my first patent ever granted by the United States federal government. And they sent me this thing. I don't know whether you can see this. Do you call this inscription or something? You have my name there, patent number. And then on the top, it said United States Federal Government Office of Patent and Trademark. So I don't know what you call this inscription, I guess.

[18421] Phuong Nguyen: Congratulations. Congratulations.

[18425] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. So moving on superintendent concluding remarks.

[18430] Mark Triplett: Thank you. I would just say thank you and good night everybody.

[18438] Bowen Zhang: I'll move to adjourn the meeting. May I get a second?

[18442] Elisa Martinez: I'll second.

[18443] Bowen Zhang: Seconded by member Martinez. Member Martinez, how do you vote?

[18449] Elisa Martinez: Yes.

[18451] Bowen Zhang: Member Grindel? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Nguyen?

[18458] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[18459] Bowen Zhang: My vote is as well. Meeting adjourned at 11.09 p.m. Thank you for a long night and have a great night everybody. Five ayes.

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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
Not Present at Vote: Wahhab Salemi

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 Discipline/Dismissal/ Release (GC54957)

Type Action, Procedural Information will be provided by the Superintendent and Executive Director of Human Resources.

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

Type Action, Procedural Information will be provided by the agency negotiator, Executive Director of Human Resources. Assistance from the legal firm Dannis, Woliver, Kelley, attorneys at law, may be provided.

The employee organizations include NTA & CSEA.

Conference with Labor Negotiator (GC54957.6(a)): Employee Group - NEWMA, Unrepresented Supervisors & Contracted Management

Type Action, Procedural Information will be provided by the agency negotiator, Executive Director 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 - Existing Litigation (GC 54956.9(d)(1))

Type Action, Procedural Cases to be discussed:

Bretz vs Newark Unified School District Keenan Claim # 569505

Conference with Legal Counsel - Anticipated Litigation (GC 54956.9(d)(4))

Type Action, 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.

4. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION

Pledge of Allegiance

Type Procedural

5. REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS

Report of Closed Session Actions

Type Action, Procedural Purpose:

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

6. STUDENT REPORT

Student Report from Newark Junior High School, MacGregor and Newark Memorial High School

Type Information Purpose:

At regular Board meetings, a spokesperson of each secondary school may make a brief presentation.

Discussion items may include updates, celebrations, and upcoming events.

1. Newark Junior High School.

2. MacGregor Alternative.

3. Newark Memorial High School.

7. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS

Employee Organizations

Type Information Purpose:

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

Background:

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

1. NTA: Sean Abruzzi

2. CSEA: Sue Eustice

3. NEWMA: Vicenta Ditto

8. RECOGNITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS

Staff Spotlight

Type Information Purpose:

To recognize the wonderful accomplishments of our NUSD Team.

Background:

The presentation will be provided by the Superintendent.

School Spotlight: Bridgepoint, Crossroads, and Adult Education

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 presented by the Bridgepoint, Crossroads, and Adult Education Principal, Julie Calderon.

File Attachments Alternative Education School Spotlight .pdf (1,677 KB)

9. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS

Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

Type Procedural Purpose:

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

Background:

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

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

10. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

Superintendent Report

Type Information Purpose:

The superintendent will provide the Board with district information, updates, news, or anything in the jurisdiction of the board or the superintendent.

Background:

Information provided by the Superintendent

File Attachments Supt Report 5.6.21.pdf (3,065 KB)

11. STAFF REPORT

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

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

Background:

The Governing Board approved a POSITIVE Certification of NUSD's Second Interim Budget Report on March 4, 2021. The district subsequently submitted the report to ACOE, as required, for their review and analysis.

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

Based on ACOE's review and analysis, the 2020-21 Second Interim Budget Report approved by NUSD's Board of Education on March 4, 2021, accurately reflects the financial status of the District. ACOE, therefore, concurs with NUSD's POSITIVE certification with comments.

File Attachments Newark 2020-21 Second Interim Board Letter FINAL.pdf (196 KB)

Update on Math Offerings 2021-2022

Type Information Purpose:

To provide information to the Board of Trustees about math offerings for the 2021-2022 academic school year and the vision for future community engagements regarding NUSD's 6-12 Mathematics Model.

Background:

Preliminary information regarding community mathematics engagements for the 2021-2022 academic school year was presented at the 4/15/21 board meeting, with the goal of reporting engagement outcomes at the next board meeting (5/6/21).

File Attachments Math Program Update 5.6.21.pdf (349 KB)

Update on the Newark Junior High School Stairs Project

Type Discussion, Information Purpose:

The CBO and Project Manager, RGM Kramer, will provide an update on the Newark Junior High School (NJHS) Stairs Project. The Board is invited to provide input and feedback on the design and scope of work presented.

Background:

The Board approved the NJHS Stairs Project on February 18, 2021.

The staff has been working with the architects to review preliminary drawings and possible options on the stairs design.

Concrete repair in front of the large staircase (stairway #2) on Lafayette has been added to the scope as an alternate.

There will be work on the ADA access ramp at stairway #1 (main stairs by the parking lot) that is tied to the solar project due to DSA (Division of State Architect) requirements.

Construction is projected to begin in late June 2021 and completed in early August 2021.

File Attachments Newark PPT-06.pdf (14,091 KB)

12. NEW BUSINESS

Release of Special Term, Retirees, and/or Long-Term Guest Teachers

Type Action

Absolute Date May 06, 2021

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the release of Special Term, Retirees, Action and/or Long-Term Guest Teachers Background:

Each year certificated staff is 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 the right to return the following year to an assignment for which they are credentialed.

Special Term, Retirees, and Long-Term Guest Teachers do not have automatic rehire rights and may be released by the district at the conclusion of their assignment. Attached is a list of certificated employees to be released as per California Education Code 44954.

File Attachments California Education Code.pdf (110 KB) HR Long Term Sub Release 05-06-21.pdf (355 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the release of Special Term, Retirees, and/or Long-Term Guest Teachers

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

Day of the Teacher

Type Action

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education adopt Resolution No. 2020.21-027 Day of the Action Teacher. Purpose:

The purpose of this item is to adopt Resolution No. 2020.21-027 recognizing Day of the Teacher, May 12, 2021.

Background:

Newark teachers continue to provide outstanding instruction and learning opportunities for each Newark student. Students, parents, administrators, and the Board of Education appreciate the efforts of our credentialed instructional staff. Newark teachers are dedicated professionals who commit long hours beyond the school day in the interest of our students. Our teachers continue to study and prepare themselves to provide for the success of all of our students. Resolution No. 2020.21- 027 acknowledges the contributions of the District's certificated employees.

File Attachments Resolution Day of the Teacher.pdf (32 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board of Education adopt Resolution No. 2020.21-027 Day of the Teacher.

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

Classified School Employees Week

Type Action

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education adopt Resolution No. 2020.21-028, Classified Action School Employees Week. Purpose:

The purpose of this item is to adopt Resolution No. 2020.21-028 recognizing Classified School Employees Week, May 16-22, 2021.

Background:

Classified employees continue to provide valuable services to support the district mission to ensure success for all students. The valuable contributions of our dedicated classified support staff have a broad impact on students, classrooms, offices, maintenance, grounds, cafeterias, and other support areas. This year, the week of May 16-22 has been designated as Classified Employees Week. Classified employees provide support to both students and staff in the Newark Unified School District. Students, teachers, administrators, and the Board of Education appreciate their efforts. Resolution No. 2020.21- 028 acknowledges the contributions of the District's classified employees.

File Attachments Resolution Classified Employees Week.pdf (32 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board of Education adopt Resolution No. 2020.21-028, Classified School Employees Week.

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

Declaration of Need for Fully Qualified Educators

Type Action

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the Declaration of Need for Fully Action Qualified Educators as presented. Purpose:

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing requires that each school district file a Declaration of Need for Fully Qualified Educators for the pending academic year.

Background:

The declaration specifies the number of teachers the school district anticipates hiring in designated subjects and at designated levels on emergency permits and the number of interns the school district anticipates hiring. The declaration is valid for one academic year and is a prerequisite to the issuance of any emergency permits to the school district from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The declaration may be amended throughout the academic year as needed.

File Attachments

NUSD CTC DON 2021-2022.pdf (321 KB) CTC Annual Statement of Need 2021-2022.pdf (262 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the Declaration of Need for Fully Qualified Educators as presented.

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

English Language Development (ELD) Curriculum Adoption

Type Action

Absolute Date May 06, 2021

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $30,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Lottery

Recommended Staff recommends that the Board of Education approve the adoption and purchase of the Action recommended English Language Development (ELD) curriculum, instructional materials, and licenses for the secondary ELD courses (7th - 12th). Purpose:

The NUSD staff recommends that the Local Board approves the following English Language Development (ELD) Curriculum/Instructional materials for secondary ELD courses: Get Ready! (Grades 6-8) Get Ready! (Grades 9-12 Pathways: Level 3 (Grades 6-8) EDGE: Fundamentals Level (Grades 9-12)

Background:

California Education Code (EC) Section 60811 requires the adoption of English language development (ELD) standards for students identified as English learners. The purpose of such standards is to support school districts in developing their programs and services to meet the needs of English learners as well as help them: Achieve proficiency in English (in a quick, swift, and effective manner) Attain access to the standards-based curriculum (all core/subject areas) Achieve state and local grade-level academic standards (performance levels similar to that of their native English- speaking peers) Achieve reclassification status

In November 2012, the California School Board of Education approved the most recent ELD standards. These standards were established to purposefully align and augment the California State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (ELA/Literacy). Common Core State Standards (ELA and Literacy).

Such alignment allows for English learners to receive English language development instruction in support of English proficiency and access to a standards-based curriculum.

The last time NUSD adopted a curriculum for ELD was prior to 2012. The adopted program was Accelerated-English - (Kevin) Clark Consulting and Training Inc. which was aligned to the old ELD standards. In 2018-19, NUSD began the discussion of searching for and adopting a new ELD curriculum. In 2019-2020, a committee was formed to begin the process by identifying programs to pilot. In 2020-21, secondary ELD teachers piloted identified programs. To that end, the NUSD secondary ELD team recommends that the local board approve the recommended ELD programs to implement Fall 2020.

File Attachments Streamlined.ELD Curriculum Adoption Timeline.pdf (72 KB) ELD Curriculum Adoption.Board presentation.May 2021.pdf (516 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends that the Board of Education approve the adoption and purchase of the recommended English Language Development (ELD) curriculum, instructional materials, and licenses for the secondary ELD courses (7th - 12th).

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

Graduation Requirements - Class of 2021

Type Action

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the following temporary modifications to Action graduation requirements for the class of 2021: 1. Allow 5th Year (Criteria-based, with Principal Approval), 2. Reduce Graduation Credit Requirements by 10 at NMHS, and 3. Implement Graduation/Summer School Senior Contracts. Purpose:

Recommendations will be presented to the Board of Education for approval to adopt flexible graduation requirements (for the duration of one year) given the impact of pandemic-related school closures on the graduating class of 2021.

Background:

Given the additional challenges high school seniors have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic locally and nationally, NUSD high schools would like to recommend temporary, flexible graduation requirement options to be considered for the class of 2021. Preliminary information regarding this year's graduating class was provided at the 4/15/21 board meeting.

File Attachments Class of 2021 Graduation Requirements (Board Recommendation 5_6_21).pdf (140 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board of Education approve the following temporary modifications to graduation requirements for the class of 2021:

1. Allow 5th Year (Criteria-based, with Principal Approval),
2. Reduce Graduation Credit Requirements by 10 at NMHS, and
3. Implement Graduation/Summer School Senior Contracts.

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

Resolution 2020.21-029 Honoring May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month & Denouncing Hate Crimes and Bigotry Targeting AAPI Communities

Type Action

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education adopt Resolution No. 2020.21-029 Honoring May Action as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month & Denouncing Hate Crimes and Bigotry Targeting AAPI Communities Purpose:

To adopt Resolution 2020.21-029 Recognizing May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month & Denouncing Hate Crimes and Bigotry Targeting AAPI Communities.

Background:

In 1990 Congress voted to expand Asian Pacific Heritage from a week to a month-long celebration and in May 1992, the month of May was permanently designated as National Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month- a celebration of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in the United States. This is an opportunity to share the historical and current contributions of all Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

The diversity of these groups include Asian Indian, Bengali, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Hmong, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Malayan, Okinawan, Pakistani, Samoan, Thai, Vietnamese, and others.

In Newark Unified School District, 24% of the student population are identified as Asian, Filipino, or Pacific Islander.

File Attachments AAPI Resolution 2020.21-029 May 6 2021.pdf (76 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board of Education adopt Resolution No. 2020.21-029 Honoring May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month & Denouncing Hate Crimes and Bigotry Targeting AAPI Communities

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

13. CONSENT AGENDA - PERSONNEL ITEMS

PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Type Action

Recommended Staff recommends that the following personnel agenda items be approved under one Action consented vote. Items _________. Purpose:

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

Background:

Items within Consent Agenda are considered routine and will be approved, adopted, or ratified by a single motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items; however, any item may be removed from the Consent Agenda upon the request of any member of the Board and acted upon separately.

Personnel Report

Type Action

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education ratify the personnel report as presented. Action Purpose:

All personnel activities including new hires, changes in status, resignation, leaves, and retirements are routinely submitted to the Board for ratification.

File Attachments HR PAL 05-06-21.pdf (359 KB)

Motion & Voting Staff recommends the Board of Education ratify the personnel report 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
Not Present at Vote: Wahhab Salemi

14. CONSENT AGENDA - NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS

PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Type Action

Recommended Staff recommends that the following agenda items be approved under one consented vote. Action Items _________. Purpose:

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

Background:

Items within Consent Agenda are considered routine and will be approved, adopted, or ratified by a single motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items; however, any item may be removed from the Consent Agenda upon the request of any member of the Board and acted upon separately.

Motion & Voting Staff recommends that the following agenda items be approved under one consented vote. Items 14.2 and 14.3.

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

Addendum #2 To Agreement with Jackie Melcher, Behavioral Health Clinician

Type Action

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $77,500.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Title 1

Recommended Staff recommends the Board of Education ratifies the addendum to the agreement with Action Jackie Melcher, Behavioral Health Clinician, for services at Schilling Elementary School. Purpose: To increase the total compensation and amend the contract with Jackie Melcher, Behavioral Health Clinician, previously approved by the Board on August 20, 2020.

Background: This agreement provides Schilling Elementary School students an onsite Behavioral Health Clinician who supports Tier I and Tier II needs. The clinician also supports the implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS). The original Independent Contractor Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), were approved on August 20, 2020. Addendum #1, approved on September 17, 2020, corrected the hourly compensation rate from $51.78 to $65.00 per hour. The hourly rate increase did not affect the Financial Provisions that Schilling Elementary School would contribute (an amount not to exceed $64,000.00). The original Independent Contractor Agreement, MOU, and Addendum #1 are attached for reference.

As a result of the pandemic, the Clinician has been expanding services, and working more hours after school, supporting students and parents. Additional services include, but are not limited to: Making videos for SEL curriculum and providing parent support for SEL after school hours Looking through the new SEL curriculum and integrating Character Strong lessons with Second Step Providing Second Step training for all teachers after school

    Hosting social groups with students after hours to help them during non-academic times
    Providing individualize supported tier services and supporting parents, after hours, with implementing these strategies
    at home

Addendum #2 to the Independent Contractor Agreement for Behavior Health Clinician, Jackie Melcher increases the total compensation by $13,500.00, making the total amount of the agreement $77,500.00.

File Attachments Jackie Melcher_contract for Schilling_2020-21_fully executed_redacted.pdf (420 KB) Jackie Melcher_contract for Schilling_2020-21_Addendum #1_fully executed.pdf (66 KB) Jackie Melcher_contract for Schilling_2020-21_Addendum #2_fully executed.pdf (61 KB)

Individual Service Agreement -Esther B. Clark ISA 21-05b

Type Action

Preferred Date May 06, 2021

Absolute Date May 20, 2021

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $7,108.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Special Education

Recommended The staff recommends the Board of Education ratifies the agreement. Action

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

Purpose:

Newark Unified School District's least restrictive environment (LRE) for a student with disabilities (SWDs) per IDEA was determined by the IEP team to be a placement in a Non-Public School (NPS). This placement is due to the significant disability, behavioral, or programmatic need that has impacted the student's current ability to be successful within the general education setting. (Education Code 56342.1 & EC 56366) http://www.gamutonline.net/district/newark/DisplayPolicy/137894/

This proposed action is consistent with the existing Board of Education Policy 0200.

Background:

As part of the U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the least restrictive environment is identified as one of the six (6) principles that govern the education of students with disabilities and other special needs. By law, schools are required to provide a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment that is appropriate to the individual student's needs.

"Least restrictive environment" (LRE) means that a student who has a disability should have the opportunity to be educated with non- disabled peers, to the greatest extent appropriate. They should have access to the general education curriculum, extracurricular activities, or any other program that non-disabled peers would be able to access. The student should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with non-disabled peers. Should the nature or severity

of a student's disability prevents the student from achieving these goals in a regular education setting, the student would then be placed in a more restrictive environment, such as a Resource Program, separate classroom with specialized academic instruction (Special Day Class), or a non-public school.

To determine what an appropriate setting is for a student, an IEP (Individualized Education Program) team reviews the student's needs and interests. The types of educational settings for students with disabilities will vary. With by the differences in needs and interests among students with disabilities, there is no single definition of what an LRE will be for all students.

File Attachments Esther B. Clark ISA 21-05b_Redacted.pdf (331 KB)

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. ADJOURNMENT

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.

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board extend the meeting to 11:00 PM

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

The recommendation is that the Board extend the meeting to 11:15 pm.

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

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 is adjourned at 11:09 pm.

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

No minutes available.