Special - Superintendent Evaluation Meeting

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[26] SPEAKER_27: Just one second as I get the flag up, I apologize.

[31] Bowen Zhang: Ready, begin.

[32] Aiden Hill: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[53] Bowen Zhang: Okay, next item is roll call. Ms. Gutierrez, roll call please.

[59] SPEAKER_27: Member Martinez. Here. Member Grindel.

[63] Aiden Hill: Here.

[64] SPEAKER_27: Member Nguyen. Here. Member Hill.

[67] Aiden Hill: Here.

[67] SPEAKER_27: President Hsiang.

[69] Bowen Zhang: Here. Thank you. Approval of the agenda. I move that we approve the agenda as it is. May I get a second?

[77] Phuong Nguyen: I second.

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

[83] Carina Plancarte: Yes.

[84] Bowen Zhang: Member Hill. Yes. Member Grindel. Yes. Member Nguyen.

[90] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[92] Bowen Zhang: My vote is yes as well. Motion carries with five ayes. Before we enter a closed session, we have public comments on the superintendent evaluation. Ms. Gutierrez, please bring in the public speakers.

[106] SPEAKER_27: Yes, just let me check our participants. Perfect, we have our first speaker, which is Eric Tam.

[119] SPEAKER_31: Hello. Hi, you may begin. Hi. Hello, board, staff, and Dr. Triplett. Tonight, I hope to provide a fair and objective evaluation based on my experience in the past six months. For wins and successes in this time period, I wanted to thank Dr. Triplett for his hard work and the following results. He made progress with the website rollout as he updated on 520. The district was able to move several bond G landscaping and HVAC initiatives in beautifying and helping our schools. He was able to manage a school district in the midst of a pandemic, and this is not an easy challenge, and I recognize that, so thank you. Partnering with the board in trying to move forward diversity and inclusion resolutions, including Black Lives Matter resolution, AAPI, Thursday's upcoming LGBTQ resolution, and taking the time to reach out to parents. For areas of improvements, I wanted to highlight three important areas. In the area of trust, two weeks ago, two parents highlighted that we shouldn't let the focal minority portray the community sentiment. So I thought it'd be important to dig into data. So let's go to hard data. Out of the 227 teachers that ratified the vote on April 23rd, 68.7% of them voted yes with no confidence. This described as meaning they don't trust the district or leadership, nor do they see transparency. Ford, I'd like you to let that sink in a little bit. Seven out of 10 teachers would not trust this district and its leadership. The result, the schools opened, but Dr. Triplett, unfortunately, you damaged your relationship with the teachers that you're charged to lead. I hope you can rebuild it in the upcoming year. In the area of fiscal responsibility, and even though we presently sit on a positive projection, I'd like to point to a specific example. As of March 4th, 2021, or in March 4th, 2021, second interim report, Ms. Dela Cruz projected and pointed to an $819,000 deficit in 2022 and 2023. This assumed a $1.56 million savings in two years while closing multiple schools. Yet Dr. Triplett moved forward with hiring assistant superintendent role costing $186,000 annually. Over two years, that would have covered 45% of our deficit. Board, you asked hundreds of families to sacrifice to save $1.5 million while closing multiple schools. Dr. Triplett, a great leader, is willing to make sacrifices for the better good. I hope next time you can do that. Finally, Dr. Triplett's own KPI enrollment. Let's look at the data. January 4th projected 5,524th. May 17th, 5,470. This was below Ms. Dela Cruz's second interim projection. This is actually the hardest challenge for any superintendent. I have yet to see a larger plan, but I hope, I wish Dr. Triplett the best of luck in the 2021 and 2022 year. Thank you.

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

[302] SPEAKER_27: Thank you, President Zhang. Let me restart our clock. OK, and our second speaker is Christine Clinton. You may begin.

[308] SPEAKER_06: Hi, everyone. So night before you go into closed session to review Dr. Triplett's job Focus Area 1, Fiscal Vitality. Shifting money from this fund to that fund to eliminate the structural deficit and significantly decreasing reserves hardly constitutes a plan. Enrollments are down significantly since Dr. Triplett joined NUSD, and as of today, the community hasn't seen a plan to boost enrollments. There was a $10,500 marketing expense to mail post to all of Newark and some of Fremont for the DLI program. I don't know if that generated any new students because Dr. Triplett is breaking the law by not responding to my CPRA request for the program's enrollments. His intentional disregard for the law will result in lawsuits. Accruing legal fees isn't a fiscally sound strategy. He also spends frivolously on and enriches his friends with independent contractor agreements. Two of his former Oakland Unified colleagues led a training that resulted in a grievance being filed. Focus area to meaningful community engagement, taking and posting countless photos of himself is not community engagement. Avoiding the tough questions and town halls and living in social media comments is not public engagement either. The LCAP committee didn't feel heard either. Dr. Triplett blatantly ignored a board member's request twice for the Snow-Graham naming vote results. The pattern we are seeing here is that if something doesn't cast Dr. Triplett in the best light, often by his own doing, he will ignore and avoid it, hoping it will go away. And board, each of you is allowing him to remain unaccountable. Focus area three, instructional excellence. Dr. Triplett couldn't even negotiate a contract to get the teachers back into the classrooms, much less work with labor partners to improve the art of teaching and learning. He strong armed the labor partners, lied about HVAC filters and got a no confidence vote for it. Additionally, he is continuing to dumb down high school education by using Apex to achieve an inflated graduation rate There's a 3000 expense in this month's warrants for the program. The graduation rate is above 90% yet only 40% are prepared for the next step of life. His former employer was also called out by the grand jury for relying heavily on Apex and Dr. Triplett is doubling down on that shameful program in Newark when he should be defunding Apex entirely. Focus area four, exceptional learning environments. Parking lots were paved, but the HVACs are still broken. Portables are past useful life, and the curb at the water school looks about the same as when Dr. Triplett joined NUSD. As I just shared, there isn't much worthy of praise. Do not reward Dr. Triplett's bad recommendations. You continue to approve with any additional compensation and contract extensions. Act like leaders and hold him accountable. And to Dr. Triplett, you have a lot of work to do, and I don't think your consultant, Fred Brill, will get you there. Stop giving your friends sweet independent contract gigs and hire qualified people. If your friends were exceptional at their jobs, San Lorenzo Unified and Oakland Unified wouldn't be in their current state. Thank you.

[493] Bowen Zhang: Thank you. I believe that's all for the public comment. And we'll be moving to a closed session for the superintendent evaluation. And we will not be coming back to open session. So everybody, we will see you on our Thursday's regular board meeting. Five ayes. Have a great rest of the night.

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

Virtual Meeting Practices & Connection Information

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

Meetings will live-streamed on the NUSD YouTube on the internet. Public comment opportunities will be available through the virtual meeting. Please see the public comment instructions provided here.

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

Pledge of Allegiance

Type Procedural

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

3. CLOSED SESSION

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (Gov. Code, � 54957, subd. (b)(1)) Title: Superintendent

Type Action, Discussion, Information

Recess to Closed Session

Type Procedural Purpose:

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

4. 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.

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.

No minutes available.