Regular Meeting

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[446] Phuong Nguyen: Good evening and welcome to the February 17th Newark Unified School District Board of Education meeting. I'm going to go over the meeting practices and information. We are holding in-person board meetings at our district boardroom and are following the state and Alameda County's safety guidelines for public gathering. Please refrain from attending in-person meeting if you have COVID related symptoms. If you are not able to attend the meeting in person you may observe the meeting via The NUSD YouTube channel live transmission on Comcast channel 26 and their Spanish translation is available via Zoom. In regards to public comment, the public will have the opportunity to address the board regarding non-agendized matters and agendized items with a live audio only comment via Zoom with advance notice requested by email at public comment at newerunified.org, a written comment by submitting a speaking card via email at public comment at newarkunified.org or with live in-person comments by submitting a speaker card with the executive assistant. Roll call, please, Ms. Gutierrez.

[523] SPEAKER_58: Student board member Resendiz-Ortiz. Here. Board member Hill.

[528] SPEAKER_49: Here.

[529] SPEAKER_58: Vice President Grindle. Here. President Nguyen. Here. We have member Zhang absent and member Marquez absent.

[539] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Before we go to approval of the agenda, we have a public comment. Ms. Parks.

[549] SPEAKER_54: Thank you.

[556] Cindy Parks: Good evening. I respectfully request that you pull item 13.4, approval of the Chief Business Official Employment Agreement. The contract for the agenda item was not made available to the public on Monday when the agenda was posted. The agenda item purpose and background indicates it's a new three-year agreement commencing on July 1, 2022. It lacks the financial impact and conditions of employment that are contained within the contract, which would be of interest to the public. It is my understanding Dr. Triplett stated in an email to a community member that the contract had been mistakenly attached to the administrative content section of the agenda item instead of the section available to the public. Since the administrative content section is available to the board, all board members had access to the contract two days in advance of the public. The board's ability to access the contract on Monday, two days in advance of the public being granted access to the document, clearly is not in compliance with the Brown Act language in Government Code Section 54957.5B. If you were to approve this agenda item, any interested person can make a demand of the legislative body to cure or correct the action. The current contract expires in three and a half months on June 30, 2022. It can easily be pulled this evening and placed on a later agenda when the contract can be properly posted in a fully transparent manner. Thank you.

[663] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Park. OK, may I get a motion for approval of the agenda as is?

[671] SPEAKER_58: Sorry, President Nguyen, just for the record, Member Marquez is present.

[675] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Oh, yes, Member Hill.

[682] Aiden Hill: I mean, I would like for us to pull that item. I think that we need to give the public more opportunity to actually review it. So I'd like to make a request that we pull

[704] Phuong Nguyen: Do I have any other second?

[710] SPEAKER_20: I can second that motion. OK.

[713] Phuong Nguyen: How do you vote? Board member Rendiz Ortiz?

[719] SPEAKER_20: Yes.

[724] Phuong Nguyen: OK. Member Hill?

[728] SPEAKER_58: Point of order. If I may repeat the motion at this moment, just so Currently, at this moment, there's a motion to remove agenda item 13.4. The motion was made by Member Hill, and it was seconded by Res. Ortiz. Based on the rules, abstentions need to have a conflict of interest.

[763] SPEAKER_54: So, Member Marquez, how do you vote?

[765] Aiden Hill: I agree. Yes.

[772] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grindel?

[773] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[776] Phuong Nguyen: Yes, also.

[783] SPEAKER_58: Sorry. So, there was a motion to pull the item. At this point, we need to approve the agenda without the item. Okay.

[790] Terrence Grindall: I'll move approval without that item.

[797] Phuong Nguyen: student board member Rindy Ortiz, how do you vote? Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you for the second. Student member Rindy Ortiz, how do you vote? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill?

[811] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[812] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grindel? Yes. And yes as well. Thank you. Next item. Study session. We're going to be talking about 3.1 school culture and climate. Let's move over to our study session area. Thank you.

[924] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Sincerely sharing, I realized that learning in public is actually a part of a gracious space. But sometimes we talk about pretty private things, and it's one thing to learn in public in a classroom, it's a whole other to learn in public, spread over YouTube for all to see for all of time. So we will do some reflecting as part of this process, but I will not collect it, no one will see it, and you can choose to share what you want when we get to discussion parts. Does that sound okay? Okay. If you need a pen, I have additional here. And we'll go ahead and begin. All right. So before we even begin, you have your handout there in prompt one. Share your story if you need additional space. And we just take about five minutes, no longer, to write down an experience where maybe you felt like an outsider. I'm not going to give you any more than that.

[995] SPEAKER_33: There's so many. You could do a bulleted list if you want. One more minute.

[1080] Diego Torres: All right.

[1081] Nicole Pierce-Davis: If you're still writing, that's okay. We're going to add to it a little bit. So in box two, think about rereading your experience. And I think some of us just kind of wrote maybe spaces. So think about that experience a little bit more. You think down, like really place yourself in that experience. Kind of pretend like you're in the room or the space or the situation that you were in. In that moment, what pieces of the environment made you feel that way? What were actions that you saw, visuals, maybe just basic understandings or familiarity with the space that sort of maybe indicated to you that you were an outsider, that this space was not maybe meant for you?

[1120] Terrence Grindall: This goes in the second box? Yeah.

[1128] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Think about the cues. And then finally, in this third box, what would you have needed in that moment to maybe feel more connected to the space or the group or the situation you were in? What would you have needed? to wait time. Thinking through what you read, I don't want to take away the opportunity. Is there anybody that feels brave enough to share? And if not, I'm fully comfortable with moving on. But is there anyone that feels like they would want to share maybe kind of what they wrote a little bit more?

[1254] Terrence Grindall: Sure. Go ahead. Please. Given that we're were working on a school that I used as a school example, one of the hundreds I could have used. So I moved to a new school in third grade, and I didn't know anybody. And also the school had changed. It was instead of a single teacher, it was in pods where we moved. It was in a pod and you moved from three different teachers, language, arts, math, and science. And that was just also kind of disorienting. So that was the experience.

[1292] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And was there anybody there that did anything like unwelcoming? Or were people pretty welcoming, but you still kind of felt like?

[1299] Terrence Grindall: In school, they were not. And in fact, I think one of your questions was, well, the next point is, when did it become really clear? And that was at the first recess. So at the first recess, everybody's off with their pals. And I didn't know anybody. So that was when it was like, oh, I'm not I was in school, and all the teachers did a good job of including everybody, but the recess was a free-for-all.

[1329] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Thank you for sharing.

[1332] Terrence Grindall: Do you want my suggestions for how it could have been different at the same time? Sure. Some sort of icebreaker would have been good. And actually, this was kind of a growing area. It was kind of strange. I was one of just a few kids that were new. But actually, they actually were, they should have sort of been, I think they should have been thinking about some sort of icebreaker and get to know each other stuff and maybe some structured play the first couple of recesses. So kids were playing together instead of just pairing up into their, or going off into their quads.

[1363] Penny DeLeon: Yeah, yeah. Great, thank you for sharing. Member Hill or Member McKay?

[1369] Aiden Hill: So after I graduated from undergrad, I went and I taught English in Japan for almost two years. And I didn't know any Japanese before I went there.

[1386] Aiden Hill: I knew a couple people from college. And in Japan, it's a very, it's not a racially diverse society. So there's very few kind of like non-Japanese. And at that time, although it's changing now, there were many people that spoke a little bit of English, but not much. And the challenge with the Japanese language is like you, I mean both you have to speak it to be able to get around, but also you have to be able to read it. And there's three different alphabets. And so I had my first experience of understanding what it was like to be functionally illiterate. So you walk around and there are signs and you don't understand what they mean. And so that was really disconcerting. And then also, I was very clearly not Japanese. And so I was identified as, I mean they have a term for foreigners, they call them gaijin. So jin is people and gai means outside. And if they were going to use a more polite term, they would say gaikokajin, which means somebody from another country. But they use the term gaijin, which is almost like alien. So it's like you're somebody that's completely an outsider. So there's an in group and an out group. And so it was definitely disconcerting. And over time, you learn how to deal with it. You learn how to get more integrated. But there's some people that are actually resistant to it. Not in like a bad way, but they just, you know, they don't feel that you're a part of Japanese society. They feel that you're different.

[1480] Leonor Rebosura: So. Thanks for sharing. I have a lot of visuals.

[1484] SPEAKER_06: I'll try to navigate.

[1487] SPEAKER_29: So my experience. So English was not my first language. I'm a product of phonics from the 70s. When I started kindergarten, I spoke no English. And the experience that I felt immediately being an outsider is the fact that instead of the inclusion and having the teacher accepting the classroom, she sat me separately for my peers and sat me in front of the TV to watch Sesame Street.

[1517] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Thank you for sharing. So as you know, we've got students elementary, middle, high school, right? They feel very comfortable in their home setting. That is their first educational setting. That is their first educational experience. They come to school and have very different experiences. And so when we talk about culture and climate, we have to discuss those kinds of experiences and what that looks like for different kiddos in our schools. we're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. So big part of that means we need to think about how our kids are experiencing that differently. So when we think about things, different words come up. Right. So let me just pose this question to you. We had a bag of groceries. We've got family a consistently reports having funds to provide the family with healthy food options on a regular basis. You've got family be who often reports not having funds. In fact, this month was Who do you give it to?

[1574] Terrence Grindall: It's not rhetorical. Are you asking us?

[1577] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Yep, yep. It's not rhetorical. Which family?

[1582] SPEAKER_33: B. Generally, right? And why would we give it to A and B?

[1585] SPEAKER_29: Because there's a need, and you look at the level of equity. So you're looking to see whether or not the distribution, how we're going to respond or act when it comes to the action of distributing. So you look for the needs of both family, and that's where the equity comes in. Absolutely.

[1603] Aiden Hill: But the thing that I don't really like about this, and this is something that I learned from being in business and actually working with people who were really successful, is that so often time in life we create situations where it's either this or either that.

[1624] Aiden Hill: Like successful people don't say or, they say and. And so it's like how can we do both, right? And so that's what I think we need to be challenging ourselves around is how do we make sure that everybody is included and everybody is feeling to be a part of the enterprise.

[1645] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And if I had another hour attached to this, we'd talk about limited resources and what that means, but we don't. So it's very simple. Yes, it's an either or. And actually, in most cases, situations are not either or. So this is really just to paint a picture about what's happening is oftentimes in the district, I'm still hearing the word equity used incorrectly. It's used when they actually mean equality. So when you hear maybe a community member or somebody come up saying, well, wouldn't it be equitable if we gave one to everybody? that actually is equality, right? That means you're saying it's fair that everyone gets the same thing. That's not equity, right? So this is a very simple either-or situation just to kind of remind us what equity actually means, right? Now, this definition actually... Oh.

[1685] Terrence Grindall: Just to say that the key words in there were consistently reports. You know, you didn't say sometimes reports, and usually it doesn't have a problem. You made it very binary, so it made it a very easy black and white picture. If you had some more other words in there, then there would have been more discussion about sharing that. But you made it very clear, one needs, the other does not.

[1713] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And in this particular moment, what do you do, right? When they're both staring at you, what do you do? Yeah. So just to reiterate again, so equality, right, is the state of being equal. And so these definitions actually have been collaborated with our equity collaborative. We plan on taking some of these definitions later to the community to get feedback and come back. But these are working definitions for now. So it really talks about equal practices that serve everyone the same versus equity of allocating resources and capital sort of fairly, which basically takes into account situational circumstances, equitable practices promote justice and impartiality, and fairness within procedures, processes, and distribution of resources. specifically in institutions or systems, right? And so when we talk about equity as it relates to school, oftentimes we're talking about what is the historical realities here, things that we maybe don't even have control over, and how do we support in sort of evening the playing field. Oftentimes you see it in very cute little cartoons, as we discussed, these very cute little binaries that make things very easy. It's never this easy to be super clear. But this is a perfect example, right, of when we think about equality, what access does that mean? versus equity saying, you know, is it fair that this child is in a wheelchair? Are we going to penalize them and say, you just need to work harder so that you can see the fence? No, we're not going to say that. We're going to say, you know, in this case, it makes sense. It's rational to say we need a ramp here, right, in order for you to get the same access. So you see lots of different kinds of examples, and you can look online, there's a million of these. But again, just sort of an easy reference point to kind of understand. So when we think about this and we think about culture, we also need to consider culturally responsive teaching, right? So as we think about culture, how are we being responsive to the needs in an equitable way in our classroom? So Zoretta Hammond says, an educator's ability to recognize students' cultural displays of learning. Actually, you know what? Can I get a member to read this for me?

[1830] Leonor Rebosura: Anybody?

[1833] Terrence Grindall: Sure. An educator's ability to recognize students' cultural displays of learning and meaning, meaning making and responding positively on, that's a long, that's a lot. and responds positively and constructively with teaching moves that are cultural knowledge as a scaffold to connect what the student knows to new concepts and content in order to promote effective information processing. All the while, the educator understands the importance of being in relationship and having a social emotional connection to the student in order to create a safe space for learning.

[1873] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Whew, that was a big one. Thank you for taking that on. I'm going to explain what this means next. So when we think about culturally responsive teaching, it looks at patterns. Essentially, it looks at the brain. Now, to be clear, if you don't agree, there's some neurologists that don't believe in the trial and brain model. This is just a sample. Some people believe that it doesn't go from one to the next to the next. It doesn't actually matter. Hormones are released. Things happen. We're going to talk about that next. So it really stems from what kind of, what do we need to leverage to make people, to make our students feel really safe, right, in the classroom so that they actually can learn? And when we look at the development of the blank, of the brain, if they don't feel safe, and that includes cultural disconnect. If you're, if I'm not feeling safe in that moment or there's some sort of cultural, now all of a sudden I don't necessarily feel safe, right? Then if, but if we attune to that, right, that then we can actually create more safe spaces and learning can actually happen. Culturally responsive teaching really is based on cognition. And so when we think about cognition, we have to understand the parts of the brain, right? And the way that we process information. So as sensory input comes in, you have your sensory memory. If you don't attend to it, it's lost. It's lost within like five to 10 seconds, very quickly, done, gone. If you attend to it, and there's some attention drawn to that, you can hold it maybe for another five to 10 minutes, right? That's about it. And then if you start rehearsing, sort of using that, which is basically all we do in teaching, right? We start using that information, and we continue to rehearse it, and we make sense of it, and we process it in our own way, and we connect it to our own experiences, our prior experiences, our background knowledge, all of that stuff, then it has a chance of actually making it to long-term memory. If we can't connect it to our own experiences, our own culture, our own understanding of the way the world works, then it's eventually going to be lost, right? And so what this does is it looks at the brain system, right? Starting with the sort of what they called the reptilian, and again, neurologists don't like the term lizard brain, but many people still use it, right here. And this is the brain stem. So this is the part that regulates automatic functions. It houses the reticular activating system, the RAS, which scans our surroundings 24-7, just constantly. for any novelty that signals important changes in the environment. Then your limbic region here records memories of experiences and behaviors that produce positive or negative results. This is sort of your internal schema, your background knowledge. It includes the thalamus, the hippocampus, and the amygdala, which is basically the brain's guard dog. So it has the authority to bypass all of the other stuff, sending cortisol, the hormone, directly to the brain and say, hey, stop, you now need to go You need to, you know, if it senses any sort of danger, it's going to tell you to stop. The neocortex region, the outside region, is where the slow, is slow in processing, but it's what holds all the executive functioning. So it manages the working memory, the planning, the abstract thinking, organization, and self-regulation. So again, getting the RAS to pay attention is really critical. Because if you pay attention here, you actually have a shot of doing something with that information. If you can't pay attention, any relevant information connected to one's social status, physical survival, or any sort of strong emotions will stop the process right here and will not move forward. So when we look at some of the stresses that some of our students experience in the classroom because they belong to maybe marginalized communities, whether that's because of race, class, language, or gender, or other things, right, just being new to a school is a perfect example of something that could cause everything to kind of go up. We have to understand that the safety threat detection system is already cued to be on alert for social or psychological threats based off of past experience. This could happen even before they got to a classroom, right? I had a bad experience in school in kindergarten, now I'm going into third grade, right? It becomes imperative to understand how to build positive social relationships that signal to the brain a sense of physical, psychological, and social safety so that learning is possible. And so when we think about that, I'm actually going to pass out this. You can take one and pass it down. This is sort of ready for rigor. So the premise for this worksheet. So the premise for this is, what are the things, what is the framework, right, for culturally responsive teaching? And just to be clear here, when you see CRT, it's not critical race theory. We don't need to go down that path today. We are talking about culturally responsive teaching. So it talks about sort of the things that are required in order for real rigor and cognitive development to even occur. And it's based in awareness, information processes, community of learners, and learning environment, and then learning partnerships. We're not going to go too much into that, but it is a helpful tool just to kind of have and to continue to reference. So how do we start to think about some of our students experiencing these maybe background or past experiences, that don't resonate with their current, how do we get past that, right? Well, that's where restorative justice or restorative practices come in. How do we restore that relationship? How do we restore that faith in the system? How do we restore that connection to my school environment so that I can learn? And what we're going to focus on is actually restorative practices today. I do want to differentiate between the two, just so it's clear. Restorative justice is a philosophy and a proactive approach rooted in indigenous practices that is reparative, inclusive, and balanced. It often deals with conflicts and moving beyond the victim and offender approach. Restorative justice emphasizes interconnection by building community and mending relationships when harm occurs to create a more equitable future. Practices. actually are a continuum of participatory strategies that get folks, get our students, get everyone involved, that don't necessarily create a power hierarchy, but actually bring everyone into the community on equal footing. It emphasizes the role of the relationships within all members of the community. So it's not saying, maybe as a teacher, I'm your equal as a student. It's not what it's saying. But it is saying, your membership status in this community is just as important as my membership status in this community. Restorative practices aim first to build classroom communities that are supported by clear agreements, authentic communication, and specific tools to center decision making and resolution with those most impacted. In addition to serving the cause of fairness and justice, restorative approaches make safer schools and contribute to social emotional learning, which we're going to talk about. So now we have kind of the same sort of cute, very binary, very simplistic visual representation of what we're talking about. We've got inequality. You see what that looks like? We've got equality, right? But that doesn't necessarily meet the needs. We've got equity, where we say, OK, well, let's just get them a taller ladder and see what happens, right? And now we've got justice, which essentially is saying in this practice, justice practices, how do we sort of fix the system so that you don't actually need a taller ladder, right? You actually can just engage exactly as you are. So restorative practices really are a continuum. When we think of just restorative language, sort of proactive restorative circles, all the way towards really involving your entire community in that process. When we think about actual practices as they relate to equity in classrooms, this continuum can be way more expansive than what you see here. It's everything from very simple collaborative protocols, So these are ones that signal to students, right, think-pair-share is a very simple. I'm going to pause for a second, think about what I learned. We should probably do that right now. I maybe should have done that five minutes ago when we were talking about the brain, in all honesty. But we are running out of time, so we're not going to do that. The simple thing, though, it shows, it gives me a chance to process, talk with my peer, gives me a sense of safety. I'm participating on equal footing with my peer. And then when the teacher does call on someone, I've had a chance to process. I've had a chance to get my thinking out there. And I've also indicated that actually my opinion matters because somebody cares, right? So very simple protocol such as that intentional cultural representation. So this is one where folks say, well, culturally responsive pedagogy. I'll put some posters up on my wall, right? Or we'll celebrate this particular holiday. That's not bad. Please do that. Representation matters. But it doesn't end there. Right? And often, culturally responsive teaching actually says, I've got 32 kids in my class. Or if I'm in high school, I've got 160 kids I'm teaching. How do I tune to 160 different cultures? That feels super impossible. And what they say is, do this sort of very superficial stuff, right? Because it does help, representation matters. It does help folks, the cue in the classroom that shows I'm welcome here. But actually, if you think more towards the deeper things, the deeper level of culture, which is a whole other presentation, those get at sort of deeper level of culture. So things like individuality versus collectivism. That's a perfect example. Some cultures are very individual. The United States is very individual. Other countries may be more collectivist in the way that they process information, right? And so if you're tuning to that in your classroom and you're sort of creating spaces where both collectivism and individualism can be represented, that is a deeper level cultural difference that you can get at without it needing to be, you know, I now have 32 different pictures on my wall that represent, although I have seen some very great high school classrooms at Norco Memorial, where they actually put their own students up on the wall, and they do represent that, but we don't expect that in every classroom, right? All the way to when we talked about before multi-tiered systems of support, right? Tier two structures is where restorative practice meet equity. Oftentimes, and we've actually seen this earlier, we saw multi-tiered systems of support where folks put students' name on that triangle. Multi-tiered systems of support are designed to look at systems, not students. They were actually designed in the medical field to diagnose disease, right? We're not diagnosing students, we're diagnosing our system. And so when we offer counseling to students in need, it's not because we're trying to fix that kid, it's because we're trying to create a system that supports that child and being the best they can be. Does that make sense? So these are those restorative practices as they meet equity. Collaborative protocols with established norms, community circles. Our perfect example, affinity spaces, intentional examination of sort of sociopolitical context, rational and restorative disciplines. So you cut school, you're suspended. What sense does that make? You cut school, you need to spend more time in school, right? All the way over to this, you know, much more challenging, rigorous to even implement, thinking about, you know, Tier 3 structures for multi-tiered systems of support. Established protocols for school-wide RJ circles where every single person buys in. High-quality project-based learning that addresses sociopolitical concerns. This is where kids are actually doing a project that's meant for their community and will actually be good, not just like a made-up one that maybe will never happen. And then community circles and community learning exchanges, where we're actually inviting our community in and listening to their stories is another piece of data. So how does this connect to SEL? Again, restorative practices really push at the brain. We are not trying to make things easier or consider an alternative to discipline. Those are all myths, right? In fact, we're actually going deeper into the thought process about what happened and why. So as an example, the harm circle. In a harm circle in restorative justice, you ask these basic questions. What happened? What were you thinking about at the time? Think about maybe a time when you were in high school and something bad happened. Just do this process in your head real fast and see how quickly you go into deeper level self-reflection. What have you thought about since? Who has been affected by your actions in what way? What has been the hardest thing for you? And what do you think you need to do to make things right? Again, focusing on that restorative justice. Which areas of our SEL wheel are impacted when you ask a student to think about these questions? Self-awareness.

[2628] Catheerine Ingham-Watters: Relationship skills.

[2631] SPEAKER_29: And then you're responsible with the decision making. Can you change from what you've done in the past? Making sure that you use I statements.

[2639] Clarissa Kennedy: Self-management.

[2640] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Self-management. Maybe I didn't act with self-management in the moment, but now I'm reflecting, thinking metacognitively about what I did and going, okay, next time maybe I can do something different. And even social awareness. Right, so again, in this case, when we sort of think about this model of high control, high support, and how different discipline sort of processes fall on this continuum. Essentially, with restorative practices, we're trying to hit the sweet spot of high support. And really, it's still very structured, controlled, right? You're not just getting to do what you want. You still need to go through this process. But if we were to take away some of that support and still say, we're sort of going not even really control what you do, you end up being very neglectful, right? If you give a ton of support, but don't give a lot of control or a lot of that systemic sort of work to kind of do the process to figure out what happened, you just end up permissive, right? If you're like super high with the control, but then don't provide the support for a kid to understand why you're controlling them, it's just punitive. You actually haven't solved anything. You just basically said, I got to do what you say because you're in control of me. But I haven't changed, I haven't reflected, I haven't done anything differently, right? So okay, what I've learned is that I'm a slave to whatever it is that you want me to do. You know what I mean? Here are the guidelines just so you guys can kind of get a sense for what that would look like. Again, just an example of a particular sort of practice and how that would interact with SEL. So if we apply the same practice when thinking about our school systems, Right? What kinds of community infrastructure can we create to support more safety, transparency, sustainability, care, and connection? What are the skills needed to be able to prevent, respond to, heal from, and take accountability for harmful behaviors? What do those harmed and students who have caused harm need? And what are some of the conditions, behaviors, and practices in our community that help set the stage for students' behavior? And how can we change this? It's much deeper work. And part of that, Here's an example, actually. So this was a student-oriented resolution that came out before I joined the team last year. And I think it's a perfect example of kind of how do we start to think back at what are some of the conditions, behaviors, and practices in our community that help shift or help those that feel harmed? Students did this work already. They showed us a model of what that could look like. And they make it very clear in the words here with this resolution. how they were feeling about maybe some of the historical conditions, specifically in this case, for our black students and how they're feeling and what the outcomes are for their achievement levels at the time and discipline levels and things like that. And it's all very clear in there. And what are things that we can do? And one of the things that they said is Black Lives Matter Newark Day, right? And that is a day, but it is not just a, let's think deeply about some of our social, political situation here. So that is an example, right? of some of the work that's been done. We also have, oops. We also have, I wanna be clear, this isn't just me bringing like a platform to the team. The CTA also talks a lot about restorative practices, the CDE as well. This is actually a video that comes from Growing Fairness, but it actually is on the CDE website, right? This is what they're directing at. I don't think we have enough time today. Do we?

[2861] Nicole Pierce-Davis: So I think actually, we might take a look at it because it is pretty short. But first I'm going to go, so this is on the CTA website. This talks about sort of the tale of two schools and Carlos, right. Carlos in a zero tolerance education system comes to school. He's greeted by metal detectors, right, zero tolerance. His teacher scolds him in front of the class. Carlos sort of talks back. He's given detention. right, after being late to his first period class. He gets into a minor altercation in the cafeteria. A school police officer detains and arrests both students. Later that afternoon, where's Carlos? He's held in the juvenile detention facility all afternoon. He's missing school. He's now had an arrest record, and he's facing a suspension. Same exact situation in a restorative system. And again, this is coming from the CTA. Carlos arrives to school. Teachers at Advent welcome him. As they enter, he's late to first period. His teacher waits until after class, speaks with him, tries to understand what happened, sets a meeting with the school counselor. He gets in a minor altercation in the cafeteria, student peer mediators and support staff intervene, have the students sit down and deescalate the situation. Later that afternoon, Carlos and the other student agree to clean up the cafeteria during free period. Carlos meets with his counselor and parents after school to help resolve the conflict at home. right, very different outcomes just by creating a system that leads them in that direction.

[2953] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Can we, can I press that?

[2959] SPEAKER_27: Thank you. If someone were to design a system that was intentionally set up to push students out of school, to set up hurdles and obstacles and all types of threats and pitfalls so that they wouldn't finish college, well-educated, so that they wouldn't even get to college in the first place, they would design the school-to-prison pipeline.

[2980] SPEAKER_46: The combination of policies and practices that push kids out of school, arresting them for misbehaviors, suspending them at the drop of a hat, are what we call the school-to-prison pipeline. And we call it that because we know, and it's documented statistically in Newark and around the nation, that when kids are pushed out of school, the likelihood that they will land up in jail is significantly increased.

[3011] SPEAKER_47: In California alone, we have built 20 prisons in the last 20 years in only one university. In California, we spent about $50,000 on incarceration for inmates and less than $8,000 for college students. We are number one in the nation in incarceration. and number 43 when it comes to educating our children.

[3034] SPEAKER_27: Nationwide, African-American students are over three and a half times more likely to be suspended out of school than their white peers. And research shows that even when they engage in the same behavior and the same conduct as white students, that they're typically treated or quite often are treated more harshly. So we know that it's not so much the student behavior that's changing, There's adult responses to that behavior, and those responses often occur through a racialized lens.

[3062] SPEAKER_04: I got kicked out at the age of 16. With that, everyone else around me gave up on me, so I found myself homeless. At the age of 16, I had to survive. I found myself in the streets. At the age of 18, I found myself locked up. prison system incarceration is really organized around this idea of incapacitation which is really just about removing somebody from a place and

[3099] SPEAKER_05: what the situation was, what the environment was, or even that person.

[3102] SPEAKER_04: Where are our priorities at? Where are we giving back to the youth? Where are we looking out for the safety? Where are we looking out to better people and not to lock them up? We're not enemies. We're the next generation.

[3117] SPEAKER_27: So this whole notion of zero tolerance gives this illusion of safety, this illusion of order, this illusion that this is what we need to keep kids safe, to keep communities safe.

[3130] SPEAKER_22: What's really exciting at this moment is that nationally, in Louisiana, in Colorado, in Newark City, in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, in Chicago, in Detroit, local school communities and young people, parents, educators and administrators are coming together to say that zero tolerance is a work and experimenting with these alternative practices to addressing interpersonal harm and building justice for communities.

[3160] SPEAKER_47: Restorative justice isn't a program that's really a theory, a philosophy, a different approach to justice. It invites us to completely shift the way that we think about and do justice and the way that we respond to wrongdoing.

[3181] SPEAKER_05: The whole concept of restorative justice is like really trying to

[3187] SPEAKER_05: So if me and you are in an altercation, then we would, you know, just look at how what we did really affected the community.

[3196] SPEAKER_06: The starting point is that you're in a community, and it should be treated like a community. And then when something happens in that community, that breaks down, you know, or something goes wrong in the community, that there should be an opportunity for that to be restored.

[3209] SPEAKER_05: When that happens, I think in its best process, that includes administration, that includes teachers, that includes students, that includes parents, that includes you know, if there's a spoke police officer, it includes them, because then it makes everybody have to be part of that process of the conflict or of the harm, whatever's happened. It's also about saying that we can't throw anybody away.

[3229] SPEAKER_04: I was one of them students when I first came in that was, I guess, messing with the balance of the culture of YJC. And instead of getting kicked out, instead of getting like punished or whatnot. It was always, we sat down and had a conversation about why was I doing it. It wasn't me being criminalized. It wasn't me being pushed away. It was finding the root, the cause of why I was doing it. And we make it right by the people that are hard. So that's what I love about restorative justice.

[3266] SPEAKER_47: Restorative justice has the potential to really help move us from the epic domination and separation and competition to a method of collaboration and inclusivity and interrelatedness.

[3282] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I think it's profound and way radical. So again, it's really about coming together in community. When we think about equity-mindedness, and again this came out of some of our work, it refers to the perspective of remotive thinking exhibited by practitioners who call attention to patterns of inequity in student outcomes. So when we notice, it doesn't matter why we think someone feels like they're not part of the community. If they feel like they're not part of the community, then they have those feelings, right? It doesn't matter why or whatnot, but if they're acting out, they're not going to then all of a sudden switch just because you throw them out, right? What does that look like? And I think you've heard some of the students sort of discuss that. So practitioners who are equity minded are willing to take personal and institutional responsibility for the success of their students and critically reassess their own practices. It also requires the practitioners to be race conscious sometimes, right? And that was a focus of today, but that's not what it's all about. and aware of the social and historical context of exclusionary practices in American education. And so when we think about that, it really is looking at sort of repairing and restoring positive relationships, resolving conflicts when they surface, addressing the needs of the community, building healthy relationships, and reducing and preventing potentially harmful behavior. And In the essence of time, I just want to make sure that we are kind of, we're starting to think about different terminology in a different kind of way. So when we think about multicultural education, that really centers around creating positive social interactions across difference. We think about social justice education, we're thinking about really raising students' consciousness about what's happening in their environment. Today, what we focused on was actually cultural responsive pedagogy, which is really centering around the cognitive aspects of teaching and learning. Really thinking about how does the brain process information, and what do we need to do in order to help students actually get information into their brain? There is also another culturally sustaining pedagogy that comes out of Django Paris' work from 2017. And that actually centers around affirming and maintaining cultural ways of being in communities. When I think about this one, I think about a reclassification ceremony that we just had. last night where we actually celebrated our students who've just been reclassified, who are now bilingual, right? Who now speak two languages. That is affirming that their home language, whatever that home language may be, is an asset to who they are now that they are bilingual, right? So it's not about saying, great, you've now learned English. It's about saying, great, you are multilingual. That is phenomenal. All right, so to close up, go back to your original boxes. I want to review your experience where maybe you felt like an outsider. How might some of our students experience this in school? And again, you don't have to, just kind of write down some notes. If we don't know the answer to that in the second box, what would it take to find out? We don't know why students would feel it. What would it take to find out? What would we need to do? And in that third box, how would the action of finding out help everyone feel more connected?

[3574] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I would have loved to have a discussion about how this, especially three, how it might be action of finding out, help everyone feel more connected. But unfortunately, I did not do a good time management as my teaching today. So I will end with this. I know I put this up multiple times, and I know We've been talking a lot. I think member Jean, you talked about last time about how we've got to start having conversations around academics, right? We've got to start really talking about academic achievement. So this is very connected to that in that way. Culture is defined by our beliefs, values, and norms. Climate is defined by our institutional practices and student supports, guided by beliefs about student behavior. And again, student outcomes are the byproduct of high quality academic and culture and climate plan alignment. And that has been a big focus for ed services this year. Thank you and good night. Thank you for at least listening and participating. Again, please keep your sheets to your, I won't be collecting them.

[3687] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Harris, for the presentation tonight on school culture and climate. And we'll be moving on to item 4, closed session. In closed session, are there any public comment on closed session items? In closed session, we will be discussing item 4.2, ratification and approval of TK enrollment. 4.3, public employee discipline dismissal release. 4.4, Conference with Labor Negotiators, NTA and CSCA, 4.5, Conference with Labor Negotiators, NEWMA, and 4.6, Conference with Legal Counsel, Anticipated Litigation, Significant Exposure to Litigation Pursuant. Oh, I don't need to read that part. Anyways, we will be recessing to closed session. Thank you. Thank you. We are back from closed session, and I have two items to report out. Bowen. OK. On item 4.2, ratification and approval of TK enrollment, the board approved two students to be accepted into the TK program, motion made by myself and seconded by member Zhang, and it was unanimously approved. And then for item 4.6, conference with legal counsel, We have, so I apologize. In closed session, the board took action to accept a confidential settlement proposal by the parent of a special education child to resolve and anticipate a claim against the district. Instead of proceeding to litigation as part of the confidential settlement agreement, the parties reached a compromise and specified educationally related services to be provided to the child. Motion made by myself. I'm sorry. Motion made by Member Zhang, and seconded by Member Grindel. The settlement was unanimously approved by the board for the total settlement cost of $67,700. Thank you. And we're moving on to the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. Please begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. OK. On to item 7.1, employee organization. We have NTA, Mr. Sean Abruzzi, would you like to come up please?

[8026] SPEAKER_53: Thank you.

[8056] Sean Abruzzi: much better. All right. So NTA wanted to talk first before our update is NTA being represented on a committee or a task force. When NTA is being represented is when the district asks NTA to appoint members to a task force or committee that is having NTA representation. NTA not being represented is when the district appoints NTA members to a task force or committee that is not that does not have an NTA representation, which is meaning is basically is if the district is having a committee and is pointing NTA members there without asking NTA leadership of who they want to represent them, that NTA doesn't have representation in there. When NTA, when the district asks us to, hey, we're creating a committee, who would you like to represent you? Then that committee has NTA representation. It's the same thing as saying that NTA can sit there and appoint a principal to a site. It's just not right. So where does NTA have representation? We have representation on Curriculum Council. We have representation in MOUs. And we have representation on an LCAP committee. So NTA does have a working relationship at the district office. But the communication at the site level tells a different story. So one of the things we want to do is present. Hold on a second.

[8165] Sean Abruzzi: There we go. So I'll wait till everyone gets in. So as your Guinness, please look at questions one, nine, 14, and 17. Again, that was, it was one, question number one, question number nine, question number 14, and question number 17. All these concerns are equally important, but one was asking about where the secretary will be housed at the junior high, which we still have no information on it. The other question NTA members would like to know is, when will my best schedule be presented to NTA members? Even though this is February, time is moving. This is adding a lot of stress to these teachers of wanting to know if they want to go to the sixth grade or not. so we're not saying that we needed something in concrete but we would like to know where the district is on these and please present them we have talked to ed services and they said they would be working with us on this so hopefully the next time i come to the board we would have more clear answers for that okay the next thing i like to present to the board is this one The documentation you have front and back is what NTA and NUSD have worked together on. The next piece of information I'd like to present. And there's a front and a back to that. This information was presented to sixth grade students. There is a conflict of the first thing I gave to you and the second thing I gave to you. NTA is trying to have a working relationship with the district. But when things like this come up, it makes NTA wonder what our hard work is doing. Lack of communication is very confusing when one thing is presented to NTA to work with and something else is presented to students. The first thing that I presented to you still needs board approval. It's still in a draft phase. We're hoping that the board will approve this to help our students know exactly as they are coming into a sixth grade and moving through to the 12th grade exactly what their options are. We at services and NTA have worked on this, and we are very happy that we have come to this. This is something that we have been working on for many years. And these are things that we're hoping that as NUSD move forward, that we can still do that. But when things come out that are contradicting, it's very frustrating for someone in my position as NTA, but also I feel for the people that I'm working with of what are we trying to accomplish. The second thing that you were given was also presented to the middle school students as they're coming into high school. The one thing I would like you to look at is, and Tate would like to know, where this form is for students. There is something in our CBA that says after a two week that classes should be, no students should be moving. The reason why that is is so that when these classes are locked down, if they go over a certain class count, the district will have to sit there and pay a stipend to those teachers for every student over. Also, it is requiring students to make a decision and stick with it. We have students that are moving after the two-week span. Now, it says that it has admin authority on it, but we have not seen this Google form. I have personally, on my end, have had a student leave my classroom a couple weeks before the end of the semester and move into another teacher. How I find out is that teacher comes to me and says, hey, by the way, did you have this student? And I said, yes. They ask what was the grade. And I tell them, NTA, the classroom teachers, want to be informed on this. We're not. Kids come in and out of our classes without our knowledge. How hard is it for some kind of form to be given to a teacher where if a student wants to move out of a classroom, they go to the counselor, they get that information of what classes are available, and then they get the teachers who they're in to sign them out with whatever grade they had and get the teacher to sign the teacher that they're going into to have that teacher sign. Then you're getting both parties who's accepting the student know exactly what's going on with the student. That is a disconnect. This is a time-consuming thing, but it's something that helps out the classroom teacher. And we're here for our students, because Newark students do deserve the best. And this should help them out. When this doesn't happen, you bring in programs like Apex to try to have a credit recovery on that. The other thing that we would like to bring up to the board is there's no prerequisites at the high school. A student who is failing algebra one can move on to a geometry class. Now, as I sit there, they talk about this and they call it an equal opportunity school. But what opportunity are we giving our students? We're encouraging them to fail. If a student doesn't have the knowledge to move on to the next class, and you're putting them in a class, that's stressing that student out. I have two students that are taking an algebra and a geometry course at the same time for that reason. The only thing NTA wants to do is if a kid fails a class, they don't get to move on. I can understand if some subject matters, that can happen. But in the subject matter that I am teaching in, math, and I've been doing it for 22 years, you're hurting the math teacher. There's knowledge that a student needs to have before they move on to a geometry course. If that student doesn't have that knowledge in Algebra 1, why are we moving them on? Then that student doesn't have the geometry, they're moving on to Algebra 2. Next thing you know, that student's a senior and he needs math credits. Where is he going? He's going to Apex. And we have heard that Apex isn't a rigorous course. Let's try to sit there and have rigorous courses and let's figure out why these kids are not passing these courses and really tackle that. If we have prerequisites, the way this is set up, and I appreciate that the district went digital on this through Synergy, if there's prerequisites and a kid signs up for a class and doesn't have the prerequisite, then you know what? They can't sign up for the class. It's a stopgap. That tells the students to be focused. What's happening is our seniors, these students are becoming seniors and realizing that I wish someone would have told me that because I'm so credit deficient. Then they're on a back, they're on a waiting list to go to the McGregor site to try to make these up. Are we really helping our students out in that aspect? Okay. The other thing is the AP courses. On the document I gave you, it said that a student, if they sign up for an AP course, how to stay in that AP course. And today, we'd like to see the data from August until now of this year, 2021 school year, for the class sizes and see if those students are really staying in those AP courses or not. And do we have prerequisites for AP courses? If you're having a student who has a D in a math class and is taking an AP course, are we saying that that student's going to be successful? If that student wants to go in, have a form where they get their former teacher to sign and the teacher that's teaching that course sign it. And they can have that discussion of why, yeah, this kid's student had a D, but this is the reason why, let's give them a chance. But there's no communication with the classroom teacher. We are at the mercy of kids coming in and coming out. I understand a student coming into a class that's new, but when a student who's doing no work has an opportunity to get out of a class and go into another class, what are we doing for that student? The last thing is NTA did a safety survey. We finally got results from it. I have over 270 members, but I only had 100 participate in this. I'm hoping that as NTA sends out more surveys, we get more participation from NTA members. The more NTA members participate in our surveys, the better knowledge that I can help the district out of saying what NTA is feeling. So please look at the first chart. Notice that 40% of NTAs are what they think about safety. But again, I only have 100 members on this, so nothing. The second thing is, look at this secondary, look at how, the second thing is the physical safety in student behavior data from the secondary level and from the elementary level. And the last thing I want you to look at is addressing significant behavior issues at the secondary and elementary level. These are the people that are in the classroom that are teaching the young people of our community. So please look through that. The thing is, is if these things don't get fixed, We're going to see another mass exit of NTA members, of teachers in the classroom. We already are in a hole. We are a district that is one of the lowest paying districts between Fremont and New Haven. We have to figure a way to keep teachers in this district. So as we are sitting there moving the sixth grade to the junior high, and as we are sitting there listening to these surveys, start listening to what these teachers are having. We want to create a culture that, hey, yeah, we are the lowest paying, but we're here for you. Come to Newark. This is a place that is very special that we want to encourage teachers to come to. We're not there. Pandemics is going to make it hard for all of us to keep teachers in here. Every district is hurting for it. A lot of teachers are looking for what district pays more, right? So the last thing I want to say is, I want to thank the district for finally sending out the email for the director of SPED. Thank you. I appreciate that. And NTA members appreciate that. The other thing I wanted to bring up is the SDC English slash science class at the high school. This course has had rotating teachers every year. The only person that is consistent in this class is the para. We need to help support these students. This classroom is isolated with normal classrooms. Is it better to sit there and put this next to another SDC class where they can give support to whoever's in this classroom? We need to also support that para in there. How much support are we giving it? We put our effort into the top percent, the AP courses, in these computer science courses. But how much are we putting into these other ones, the Tier 2 and the Tier 3 students? Are we really looking at that? The programs that are supposed to be addressing the Tier 2 and Tier 3, are they addressing it or not? What timeline do you give for these programs? Is it a three-year, four-year, five-year span? If it's not working, let's try something different. Figure out what is working, figure out what isn't working, and let's try to get with these solutions, all right? And I want to say thank the board for your time. And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to NTA. Thank you very much.

[9079] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Bruese. Our next speaker is from CSCA, Ms. Sarah. I'm going to apologize if I pronounce your last name wrong. Oh, she's not here. Oh, I'm sorry. Sandy Agrizzi.

[9096] SPEAKER_25: Thank you. Good afternoon. Yes, my name is Sandy Accarizzi. I'd like to say good evening to the superintendent, executive board, board members. I was asked last night if I would speak on behalf of CSCA, and I'm honored to do so. Also, I understand y'all changed the agenda, so that kind of changes my talk a little bit, so it may not be as smooth as I normally would like it to be. I'm a little shorter than Sean. Here we go. Okay. So CSC members, CSCA members have been told year after year that our district does not have the funds for classified staff salary increases. We continue to be hardworking, underpaid, skeletal staff, even during this pandemic time. When we first went into lockdown and came back, classified, we were on the front line. We were there even when the district office was closed to the public. Our offices had to be open. I want to tell you a little bit about us. We show up. In addition to our pre-pandemic duties, we have all had added new steps, tasks, assignments and such that are expected to complete without any additional staff or help. Custodians not only need to complete their pre-pandemic jobs, you know, like, say, opening up the school for the day, which, believe it or not, is extensive. We find that out whenever our custodian's not there. The many things that he does when it's like, oh, okay, bathrooms aren't open. We've got to get the bathrooms open for the students, you know, things like that. And so they have to get our site ready for the day. And then they have the additional steps that they need to do to sanitize, to disinfect when we have symptomatic students. Our night custodian has to make sure he goes through every classroom and library and cafeteria and offices. and complete all that in addition to their pre-pandemic. So it's like they have to do what they've been doing and then you add other steps. Without help, we show up. We show up, we serve our students breakfast in the morning, their mid-morning snacks, their lunches, and do it safely. in the pandemic era. And by the way, I have to say, I'm so glad that we're feeding our students free of charge. I'm so grateful for that program for our kids, but it takes CSCA classified staff to make that happen. We show up. We continue to provide the one-on-one support our students need. Our paras continue to work with our special needs students. It could be resource. It can be one-on-one in a classroom. It could be in special day class. Our paras show up, and they support our students while supporting the teachers. We show up. Our child care attendants. Our child care attendants continue to provide a safe place for students before school and after school. And I apologize to them because I know they do more. I know that they provide the snack after school. And I believe they also help with homework and stuff. But I'm kind of ignorant there. So I don't have the full picture of what they do. But our child care attendants show up. They keep our students safe. We show up. I'm thinking about Coyote Hills. Coyote Hills, this is their first year as Coyote Hills. And they opened school and adequately staffed in that office to start their maiden voyage, their first year. And I remember at a meeting, it was brought up that, OK, there's no way that you can have the largest school in the district without proper office support. In addition to an office manager and office clerk, what other help is going to be provided? And the answer was, we are trying to save money, not spend it. That was like one of the worst places to cut it. We show up, you know, the rest of, you know, throughout the district, we have many elementary sites and our junior high and our high school and Bridgepoint and all. And we all in our sites have new COVID procedures and protocols. And again, all of that is to keep our students safe, our staff safe. And yet we're still also expected to hit deadlines that we need to hit, which of course we have to, right? But without adequate support. Coyote Hills, bless their buttons, now has a full-time person in the office, an office clerk. But that came at the expense of BGI. BGI, it's the second largest school, has a 4.75 office clerk. So when you have all these things happening, the hot things happening, and COVID, and you've got to get those letters and stuff like that, there's not adequate support. But you know what? We show up. And we continue to be hardworking staff, and we're overlooked by the district admin and school board. And I bring this up. I bring this up to ask you to keep this in mind when you go into negotiations this year with our CSCA negotiations team. Instead of telling us after, you know, NTA is done, bless our buttons, deserve every penny. And then, you know, NEWMA typically gets what they get. And then you get to us and we're offered a half a percent or something like that. You've got to remember us. We show up. We support. I'm going to leave you with this. For a top district office official making, say, $200,000 a year, 1%, 1% is $4,000 plus a year. So divided by 12 months, $333. Taking a teacher, not too high, not too low, but kind of in the middle there. So an average teacher, I don't know if it's average, but taking a teacher, who's making, say, $70,000 a year. 1%. 1% is $70 a month. $700 a year, $7 a month, divided by 10 months. Classified. The classified I'm using is our paras. And this might be high for our paras, because that's what we have the most of in the district. I remember seeing something put out by the district office, could be business office, that gave the numbers of staffing and stuff. And it actually even gave out the average salary of a para. So I went ahead and went with that this time around too. So 1% for a para. $340 a year, divided by 10 months, because they're 10-month employees, that's $34 a month. $34 a month. So please, remember us when you go into negotiations. And rather than saying, half a percent, or we don't have the money, remember, we show up. Thank you.

[9549] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Acresi. And our next speaker is Amanda Gallagher. Ms. Gallagher.

[9560] SPEAKER_40: Good evening, President Nguyen, ladies and gentlemen of the board, Mr. Triplett, members of the cabinet. I'm here tonight to discuss some of the things we're doing in NEWMA. I want to highlight and appreciate our NEWMA members and the work they're doing right now. So right now we're involved in a lot of collaborative projects. We have members working on the negotiations that were referenced. We have members working on the middle school design team that was referenced. We have members that are in administrative positions in our offices and in our district office who have been really supporting our schools with enrollment and with those letters and following up on our students' health and just a lot of things going on. So thank you to all of our members for doing that. I also wanted to thank our members that are working in the business office. They just completed their annual financial audit And so if anyone's tried to call the office, you've got a very polite, we'll help you if we can. But they've been hunkering down and really focusing on that. So our members are working hard right now. I also wanted to take this time tonight to show my appreciation to another labor group. And that labor group seems quite timely that I was going to do this, and I swear we didn't have it planned, is our classified group. So right now, I don't know if you all are aware of this, but we have started our LPAC testing. A lot of our proctors for our LPAC testing tend to come from our classified groups. Our members pick up extra hours, and they take this on. And it is vital to the work we do in our schools. So I just wanted to definitely thank them for stepping up and supporting our students in a totally different way, but a very, very vital way. Not that their normal way isn't vital. I guess I didn't come out quite right. but it's much appreciated. And even down to our custodial staff, I heard them mentioned earlier too. I've caught multiple custodial staff recently going on their own time to go out and decorate their school and just add a little bit of life and love to the campus that goes beyond what they're expected to do. So as NEWMA members, as leadership here in the district, I wanted to definitely shout out our other labor group and thank them for supporting the work that we're all doing. So, have a wonderful evening, everybody.

[9698] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Callagher. On to item 8.1, school spotlight, Bridgepoint High School.

[9712] Mark Triplett: Dr. Chiklit. Thank you, President Nguyen. And good evening to, again, to the board, to community, and to staff. So we're delighted to have Ms. Julie Calderon, principal of Bridgepoint and all of the McGregor schools here with us tonight to share the amazing things that have been going on this year at the school and at the site.

[9735] SPEAKER_44: Thank you so much, Dr. Triplett. Good evening, President Nguyen, board members, executive cabinet, and of course our many members here in our audience of CSCA and TA. and our parents community. Thank you for joining us this evening. So as Dr. Triplett said, I am Julie Calderon. I am your principal of alternative education, which includes Bridgepoint High School. This is a first. Typically, I would do this school spotlight for all of the alternative education programs. But for this evening, I'm gonna be focusing solely on Bridgepoint. So Bridgepoint High is the home of the Panthers. And this year for our, if we could go back one slide. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gutierrez. our goals and priorities had to do a lot with both sustaining and also sustaining our successes and facing our challenges. So our successes, we are still riding on the wave of just relief, joy, gratitude, and excitement about being a fully WASC accredited school. Those of you who've been with us for a few years and during my tenure know that this has been quite the journey. And so we are very proud of the work that has been done to be fully WASC accredited, and we are very excited to continue to maintain that accreditation when we receive our full self-study in approximately three years. With that, I myself have resumed going out on WASC visits. I just came back from a WASC visit out at a different school. Our counselor, Hamilton Baylon, will be heading out for his very first WASC visit, and we have another teacher that loves to go out on WASC visits and is really kind of getting very familiar. And so the benefit of going out on WSCC visits to other schools is that we get to know the ins and outs of the process. And you, school board, are the first to hear this news. I've kind of vaguely mentioned it to my staff, but we were approached by WSCC. The WSCC president, Barry Groves, reached out to me directly to say that WSCC is going to be working on a book about the WSCC cycle and that they would like to include Bridgepoint High School. So they'll be joining us in a couple of weeks to talk to myself, to talk to teachers, and to talk to students about what the cycle has looked like at our site. So that's really exciting and I'm looking forward to that and learning from that experience. Of course, sustaining our very small but strong and very united team and community. This isn't to say that we don't have our challenges. We are an alternative education high school. And so some of the ways that we are looking at that post-pandemic, we wanted to definitely continue to look at how we can support our students with making progress academically, and of course, socially and emotionally. So one of the things we talked about in our WASC goal and our site plan was to implement advisory as part of our BELL schedule, to implement a tutorial program as part of our BELL schedule, and hopefully also continue strengthening instruction. Next slide, please. So BridgePoint's mission is to promote lifelong learning by motivating students to stay in school and reach their full potential. Next slide. And so what are some of those multiple tiers of support at BridgePoint? I've mentioned advisory. This is a new addition. It is a weekly class that is part of our Bell schedule. And what it consists of is a combination of college career readiness lessons coordinated and often taught by our counselor. And it's also the implementation of character strong lessons with our teachers. Tutorial has been added as an end of day period where students can come in to get individualized help and support. One of our last goals, one of our school goals is to increase credit attainment so that our students can graduate on time. And so sometimes students are going to need that individual help. Additional supports that we've previously had and continue to be really important for us are our mental health clinicians. We have three mental health clinicians, including a specialist in substance use, a strong cost team. We've been really lucky that we have community donors that donate incentives. So we give out just different prizes. In particular, our students are big fans of gift cards. We can't purchase those, but our donors are very generous in making sure that we have those available for raffles at various events. And we're also really lucky to have an alumni mentor. We have a Bridgepoint grad. Some of you may remember him from one of our graduations a few years back. And he gives back by also donating and coming in to mentor students, particularly some of our boys who are struggling. So it's his way of giving back for his success post-Bridgepoint to come back and give back to the school that meant so much in his life. The picture that I have there is of one of our community donors. We had a community donor that is a IT specialist and builds computers. And so he wanted our students to participate in an essay contest in which they would talk about how technology has impacted their life and the prize was going to be a gaming computer that he designed himself. So we had students apply. This young man was the winning essay writer. He's now back at Newark Memorial, which goes to show, again, another success story of Bridgepoint. Because honestly, we shouldn't be the last stop. We should be one of many supports that are available, supports and interventions. And so he's now back at Memorial. But we were really happy that we were able to have him leave with a full, very impressive setup, all kinds of peripherals and and things to go with his gaming computer. So he's there with his mom and then the donor and his family. Awesome. So I'm going to have Ms. Gutierrez, because I can go on, but it's often great to hear directly from our students. Maybe if we can go back to that one and play the video.

[10090] SPEAKER_33: Let's see. Oop, no. Oh.

[10108] SPEAKER_44: OK, great. So some of our Bridgepoint events that we've kind of make our place unique are because we are a small school, we are able to do whole school activities and be safe because we are small. So we do a whole school orientation day in August for our students who are joining us in the fall. This year, we were able to our second annual wellness retreat. And what this was is this came about during the pandemic because we knew that students were really struggling and really struggling with their wellness and mental health. So we designed a day where we focus on mindfulness, learning about trauma, learning about just various mental health topics. And so this year, obviously, it was an in-person version. We had a virtual art class. We had a mindfulness session. What's pictured here is the much-requested staff and student stickball game, and yours truly volunteered to participate. Now, I have to let you know, PE was not my strong suit, and team sports were not my strong suit. But I did go and have two at-bats. I flew out, and then I think I struck out. But I was out there, and the kids really enjoyed seeing all of us on the team and having a great time. So that was part of that day. And we'll have another event coming up in March. We call it the fourth quarter refresh. And that's kind of that fourth quarter, like getting the kids motivated to cross that graduation finish line. And we still do our quarterly assemblies honoring perfect attendance, credit attainment, and GPAs. So Bridgepoint leadership is something that really is often a grassroots effort. There's not a separate class. And because we are small, it usually comes from our students. And you all are familiar with Ms. Blanco-Barron, who does our, you know, board reports. And she and a group of other students came forward and said, we want to continue this tradition of having a leadership body. And so our MVP teacher, who teaches business professional development, said, you know, I think it makes sense to house them with me. Many of them are in my class, and some of those skills that they're working on fit in well with leadership. And so together with Miss Shepherd, they have continued to host activities. As you can see, we have dress-up day. They convinced me to do a Halloween carnival. We've always done a costume contest, but this year, the kids were saying, we want to do a carnival. I said, high school kids? And they said, oh, yeah, we'll get donations of food and gift cards, and we'll have fun. And so there was a video there. You can't see it, but there's a video of the kids playing carnival games that they designed, and a great time was had. And as you can see, we have one of our tall students. They are always included in all our activities, and they were part of the Red Ribbon Week poster contest. Oh, you can't see our full logo there. So our PBIS motto is Be Cool and Take Care of Business. That was a student and staff-led PBIS effort. And so these are just some pictures from some of the fun things and wonderful things that are going on, leadership, The TAL program being included, you can see that we do have art available for students. And so students showing kind of some art techniques that they've learned. And those are just some of the wonderful things happening at Bridgepoint. So thank you for your time this evening and for supporting our Panthers.

[10330] SPEAKER_53: Hi my name is Donia. I'm a junior here at Bridgepoint High School and one of the reasons I like Bridgepoint is because they have do better and give me the support that I need. One of the reasons I came here is because I was struggling at Newark Memorial with my credits and you have more opportunities here to graduate.

[10355] SPEAKER_44: Thank you Ms. Gutierrez.

[10356] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Calderon. Any board members have any questions or comments for Ms.

[10362] SPEAKER_54: Calderon? No? Oh, Mr. Hill?

[10370] Aiden Hill: Thank you for all the great work you're doing.

[10372] SPEAKER_44: Thank you, Member Hill.

[10374] SPEAKER_54: Member Grindel?

[10376] Terrence Grindall: Yes. Thank you for the excellent presentation and all the work that you're doing. We do truly support what you're doing. I'm very happy with what you're accomplishing.

[10387] SPEAKER_44: Thank you.

[10390] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Calderon. You know that your school over there has a special place in my heart. And it's always nice to, I haven't been on campus in a while, but I'm hoping to soon. And the kids there and your staff, they do have a really strong bond and connection with you all, and I think that's really tremendous that you're working really hard with the students. And not only that, but really making positive impacts in their lives long term. So thank you so much. Thank you.

[10429] Bowen Zhang: Thank you for the great work. It's not an easy job, particularly at the alternative campus, but keep up the good work.

[10436] SPEAKER_44: Thank you, Member Zhang. Student board member?

[10440] SPEAKER_20: I truly love the presentation. And if the leadership class at Bridgepoint ever wants to teach us something at the North Memorial High, I would love to do a collaboration with them.

[10449] SPEAKER_44: Thank you. I'll let them know.

[10451] SPEAKER_54: Member Marquette.

[10452] SPEAKER_29: Thank you. First and foremost, I appreciate the fact that we, as a school district, have our own alternative education option within our school district instead of sending students out. So thank you to the school district for keeping that decision. And for you, Ms. Calderon, for allowing the mentors to actually come back Because there's nothing more important for the students than seeing someone that has walked in their shoes and that they can relate to. And furthermore, that they are willing to come back and demonstrate to the students that changes can happen. And then for actually using the PBIS system that supports the students' efforts so that they know that what they're doing is being acknowledged and recognized and that they're being rewarded for that. So I want to appreciate and thank you for that. Thank you, Member Marquez.

[10500] Phuong Nguyen: That's it. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. We'll be moving on to item 9.1, public comment. And we do have public comment on non-agenda items. And we have two speakers, Ms. Cindy Parks.

[10533] Cindy Parks: Good evening. I am tall like Sean, though. Mic's going up. First of all, I would just like to remind you that we're already in the middle of February and that parents are trying to book their vacations and the calendar is still not available. And I know that I've seen several people commenting on social media asking other parents if they know when the first day of school is. And I would encourage you to get that posted as soon as possible, please. The next thing I would like to address is the middle school budget. At the last meeting you did get a very condensed update on where everything is going. I would hope that you'll see more staff reports where you would actually be able to have conversation surrounding that merger, or what do you want to call it, middle school transition. I just wanted to refresh your memory as far as some of the things that you would hope to see in a budget for that middle school transition. Regarding the preliminary budget for the Snow-Graham merger, you saw salaries up for certificated because of the extra time that they had to commit to those design teams. There was packing and unpacking, moving expenses that you would have to deal with. classified salaries that were a part of the design team, the benefits that went with those two items, materials and supplies, the consultant that was hired, PR and marketing. I don't know that that would be in effect here, but maybe just you'd want to go and sell it as a middle school now. The capital outlay, that is going to be a big deal. Where are you putting these kids? I know they say that they're going to put them in a wing, has that wing even been identified? I mean, you haven't seen a map that says, hey, here's where these kids are going to be. There's so many questions that are still out there. And just the whole, you know, the name change, that that's going to be a cost. You know, are you going to have to do some more, some additional fencing? I mean, who knows? I mean, again, you haven't seen a budget that would give you any indication of what this is even going to cost. And you haven't seen a plan. And I know that that was mentioned. So I would hope that you would actually see some of this in some type of a form to where you would know where you're going with this decision. Thank you.

[10678] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Parks. Our next speaker, Mr. Paul Bretz.

[10699] SPEAKER_28: Good evening, board members. My name is Paul Bretz. I'm the self-represented litigant and former principal of Newark Memorial High School. And I'm representing myself in the matter of Bretz versus Newark Unified. I'm here today to provide you and the community with an update on the status of a hearing that occurred yesterday. Given that you are not meeting with your attorneys today, you may not be aware of the court's ruling. Before I get to that, though, I'd like to provide you with some background as to how we got to this point. In May of 2019, after the school district dropped all charges against me, I stood before you at this panel and asked for your assistance in addressing the district's allegations against me, and you refused to listen. When parents and staff came before you, asking for you to look at that, you refused. Last month, I presented to you for your review an offer of settlement. You and you and your attorneys met on multiple occasions, and again, you failed to listen. You failed to listen before the court's ruling, and the offer was available to let this thing end, and you chose not to. Because of your failures to listen, you were forced to accept the resignations of your entire senior leadership, including the resignations of HR Director Jessica Saavedra and Superintendent Sanchez. And as I will address more later, those failures have been passed on to your current staff. Yesterday, the court ruled that privilege does not apply to the names of the witnesses that I've been asking for for two and a half years, nor does it extend to the evidence that you collected that I believe was excluded from the investigation. The court has given you 30 days to provide that information for me. I look forward to your responses. You are aware that as soon as I get those responses, I intend to depose witnesses, both current and former employees. And I look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you.

[10865] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Brett. On to item 10.1, superintendent report. Dr. Triplett.

[10880] SPEAKER_58: Yes. Sorry, President DeJong, we do have some public comment on the superintendent report. Online.

[10889] Phuong Nguyen: I'm sorry.

[10891] SPEAKER_58: No problem. First speaker I have here. One second, let me make sure they're logged in. Yes. First speaker is Catherine Darden. Catherine, you may begin.

[10902] SPEAKER_57: Hi, I just want to check that you're able to hear me. Yes. Good evening, Dr. Triplett and the Board of Trustees. We the parent representatives of Newark Parents for Better Schools are here to continue addressing the ongoing disrespect and lack of communication that continues to happen at Coyote Hills Elementary. As you are aware, Graham Snow has always had a big population of English language learners, free and reduced lunch, and students with special needs. Last year, your You, President Fong, Members Sang, Assistant Superintendent Pierce, and Superintendent Triplett made many promises that we would have the support, the leadership, and most importantly, the resources to make the merger a success. Last year, many of us addressed you on the decisions that you and former board members, Elisa Martinez, made. We said to you that those decisions were not equitable and are not making our students a priority. As of today, you all continue to claim that you are about equity. So we are urging you and the board to make decisions that will enable Coyote Hill to succeed academically and meet the social and emotional needs of all our students. Last year, we were very concerned with the selection process of a principal because it was not fair and equitable. We questioned the expertise and credentials of principals. You did not take into account the input from the parents, community and staff. You all seem more concerned about changing the name of the school instead of focusing on ensuring that our school was equipped with resources and strong leadership so that we were ready by August. We hope that you look into it and start looking for a principal that will meet the needs of our students and not the adults. Thank you.

[11011] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Next speaker, please.

[11017] SPEAKER_58: Next speaker should be a Spanish speaker. Speaker is Marta Santiago. Marta Santiago, ¿puede empezar?

[11033] SPEAKER_13: Buenas noches.

[11036] SPEAKER_58: Buenas noches señora Marta, ¿ya puede empezar? [Translated] Good night, Mrs. Marta, can you start now? [End] [Translated] Good night, Mrs. Marta, can you start now? [Translated] Good night, Mrs. Marta, can you start now? [End] [End]

[11041] SPEAKER_13: Good evening, Dr. Tripe and members of the board. We, the parents of Newark representatives, are here to continue to address the lack of respect and the lack of communication that continues to happen at the Coyote Hills School. As you know, Grand and Snow have always had a large population of English learning students, free lunches and reduced meals, and students with special needs. Last year, President Fong, Member Tseng, and the Superintendent's assistant, Ms. Pierce, and Superintendent Tripley made many promises that we would have the support, leadership, y lo que es más importante, los recursos para que la escuela tenga éxito. El año pasado, muchos de nosotros nos dirigimos a ustedes sobre las decisiones que ustedes y los ex-miembros Elise Martínez tomaron. Les dijimos que esas decisiones no eran equitativas y no están haciendo de nuestros estudiantes una prioridad. A partir de hoy, todos ustedes continúan afirmando que se trata de equidad, por lo que les pedimos a ustedes y a la mesa directiva que tomen decisiones que permitan al Coyote Hills tener éxito académico y satisfacer las necesidades sociales, emocionales de todos nuestros estudiantes. El año pasado estuvimos muy preocupados por el proceso de selección of a director because it was not fair and equitable. We question the experience and credentials of the directors. They did not take into account the contributions of the parents, the community and the staff. Todos ustedes parecieron más preocupados por cambiar el nombre de la escuela en lugar de centrarse en garantizar que nuestra escuela estuviera equipada con recursos y un fuerte liderazgo para que estuviéramos listos en agosto. Esperemos que lo investigue y comiencen a buscar un director que satisfaga las necesidades de nuestros estudiantes y no de los adultos. [Translated] Good evening, Dr. Tripe and members of the board. We, the parents of Newark representatives, are here to continue to address the lack of respect and the lack of communication that continues to happen at the Coyote Hills School. As you know, Grand and Snow have always had a large population of English learning students, free lunches and reduced meals, and students with special needs. Last year, President Fong, Member Tseng, and the Superintendent's assistant, Ms. Pierce, and Superintendent Tripley made many promises that we would have the support, leadership, and what is more important, the resources for the school to succeed. Last year, many of us addressed you about the decisions you and former members Elise Martínez made. We told them that those decisions were not fair and are not making our students a priority. From now on, you all continue to affirm that this is fairness, so we ask you and the board of directors to make decisions that will allow Coyote Hills to have academic success and meet the social, emotional needs of all our students. Last year we were very concerned about the selection process of a director because it was not fair and equitable. We question the experience and credentials of the directors. They did not take into account the contributions of the parents, the community and the staff. You all seemed more concerned about changing the school name rather than focusing on ensuring that our school was equipped with resources and strong leadership so that we were ready in August. Let's hope you investigate it and start looking for a director who meets the needs of our students and not the adults. [End]

[11208] SPEAKER_58: Thank you.

[11214] Phuong Nguyen: So just a reminder for the board, the full translation will be made available to us tomorrow. And she actually just repeated all of that from the prior speaker in English and Spanish. Thank you.

[11231] SPEAKER_58: Thank you. The next speaker is Elizabeth Guerrero. Elizabeth, you may begin.

[11240] SPEAKER_41: Good evening, Dr. Triplett and Board of Trustees. We, the parents representative of Newark Parents for Better Schools, are here to continue addressing the ongoing disrespect and lack of communication that continues to happen at Coyote Hills Elementary. Today, our group of parents from Newark Parents for Better Schools would like to provide you with a report card. F, yes, an F, for leadership because the principal, Ms. Tomasini, has been out for more than six weeks this entire year. She has only held two school site council meetings through the correct election process and with no site plan or budget to discuss the goals of the school. There's been one ineffective elect meeting where she was never able to address or answer our concerns and needs. There has been one coffee with the principal meeting. F, once again, for community and parent engagement because there is no communication with parents and students. Students are being suspended without going through the right process. We can never speak to the principal and are being sent to volunteer vice principal that has no experience or credentials. And information is never sent to the parents in a timely manner. Once again, NF again, on design team plan and site plan. Promises were made that we were going to have a specific program and staff. For example, flex time, engaging parents' workshops. As for now, none of this has happened. To this date, we are yet to see some complete budget of the site. Every time we make a request to Ms. Tomasini, there is no follow through. Perhaps if you had reconsidered not letting go of the effective and experienced principle that Graham had, we wouldn't be losing kids at the expense of your decision. We hope that as you continue to use the word equity, that you also make sure you are meeting the needs of our students at Coyote Hill. Perhaps you need to start looking for effective, meet the needs of the school students and the community. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms.

[11382] Phuong Nguyen: Guerrero. Any other?

[11388] SPEAKER_58: One more speaker. Thank you. One more speaker. And the name is Monica Quiroz. This will be in Spanish. Senora Quiroz, ya puede dar su mensaje.

[11404] SPEAKER_14: Buenas noches, Dr. Tripp, mesa directiva. Nosotros los padres representantes de Newark para mejores escuelas estamos aquí para continuar abordando la falta de respeto y la falta de comunicación que continúa sucediendo en Coyote Hills Elementary. Nuestro grupo de padres del Newark para mejores escuelas estamos proporcionándoles una boleta de calificaciones, F, para el liderazgo. ¿Por qué la señora Tomasini ha estado fuera más de seis semanas todo este año escolar? Ella solo ha tenido reuniones del consejo escolar sin pasar por el proceso de elección correcto y sin un plan escolar. o presupuesto para discutir los objetivos de la escuela? Ha habido un ILAC ineficaz? F, para la participación de la comunidad y los padres, ¿por qué no hay comunicación efectiva con los padres y estudiantes? Los estudiantes están siendo suspendidos sin pasar por el proceso correcto. Nunca podemos hablar con la señora Tomasini y estamos siendo enviados a director voluntario que no tiene experiencia ni credenciales, solo de maestro, y la información nunca se envía a los padres de manera oportuna. F, en el plan de equipo diseñado y el plan escolar se hicieron promesas e íbamos a tener programas y personal específicos. Por ejemplo, tiempo flexible, talleres para padres pero But from now on, none of this has happened. To date, we have not yet seen a complete budget for this school. Every time we make a request to Mrs. Tomasini, there is no follow-up. Maybe if you had reconsidered, I would not let the director go. Indeed, and with experience of Graham, we would not be losing students because of their decisions. they will send up a lot of that you've got I mean to say one of the stuff is what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's a big deal with it but it's what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's a big deal with it but it's what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. [Translated] Good night, Dr. Tripp, board of directors. We Newark's parents representatives for better schools are here to continue to address the lack of respect and the lack of communication that continues to take place in Coyote Hills Elementary. Our Newark parent group for better schools is providing them with a grade boot, F, for leadership. Why has Mrs. Tomasini been away for more than six weeks all this school year? She has only had school board meetings without going through the correct election process and without a school plan or budget to discuss school goals? There has been an ineffective ILAC? F, for the participation of the community and parents, why is there no effective communication with parents and students? Students are being suspended without going through the correct process. We can never talk to Mrs. Tomasini and we are being sent to volunteer director who has no experience or credentials, just as a teacher, and the information is never sent to parents in a timely manner. F, the designed equipment plan and the school plan made promises and we were going to have specific programs and staff. For example, flexible time, workshops for parents but But from now on, none of this has happened. To date, we have not yet seen a complete budget for this school. Every time we make a request to Mrs. Tomasini, there is no follow-up. Maybe if you had reconsidered, I would not let the director go. Indeed, and with experience of Graham, we would not be losing students because of their decisions. they will send up a lot of that you've got I mean to say one of the stuff is what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's a big deal with it but it's what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's a big deal with it but it's what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's what's that let me say to that is that it was just a little bit equal your field. [End]

[11558] SPEAKER_58: I live there they come in 7 up one up and look at it but it's what's that

[11566] Phuong Nguyen: OK, now we can move on to Item 10.1, Superintendent's Report. Dr. Triplett.

[11571] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Nguyen. And so this evening, this is going to be the Superintendent's Report. Ms. Gutierrez, if you could put it up on the screen, please.

[11581] SPEAKER_58: One second.

[11596] Mark Triplett: All right. So next slide, please. So just continuing to celebrate Black History Month, I just wanted to keep that in the forefront. And lifting up another of my heroes, Coretta Scott King, who said, hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated. So I think it's really powerful words to keep in mind. Next slide. Some of the things that have been happening in the last two weeks, one, it was mentioned earlier, we had a reclassification celebration last night at Memorial, a really exciting event where students, we were celebrating students who've been reclassified as English proficient, an incredible achievement. I think we had approximately 50 students, if I'm not mistaken, that we were celebrating. The program was amazing. We had the Taiko drummers, presenting. We also had the Baile Folklorico. We had a particularly outstanding speech at the end by one board member, Ms. Resendiz-Ortiz. And it was just a really wonderful event. I think there was at least 10, I believe, languages that, in addition to English, that were spoken by the students who were being celebrated. Next slide. Wanted to just remind us, we have kicked off our enrollment for the 22-23 school year. We're really excited. And if you go to the next slide, Ms. Gutierrez. So our priority placement window began on February 8th. We had begun accepting dual language applications as of January 10th. And so now in the priority placement window, this is a time for families to be registering and applying early in order to be prioritized for placement in the school of their choice. And then on March 11th, oh sorry, on March 17th starts the open enrollment process and that'll continue through August. And other information, so the board had asked that we begin to bring back a little update around California Public Records Act. So this is our update for this month. From June 2021 to present, that's this school year, we have received 19 public records requests. As of today, I believe we have completed 12 of them, and there are still seven that we're working on. Next slide. And then in terms of COVID-19, We go to the next slide. I wanted to give an update there. First of all, as you know, the mask mandate has been lifted for the state of California. However, I wanted to just make sure that we continue to be clear with community and families that they have not changed the requirement for masking in K-12 schools and childcare. So we are continuing to mask. We we understand from the state that on February 28th, there'll be an update where they will be reviewing some of the early data and then possibly having information about when the mask mandate for schools could be lifted. So more to come there. And then in what I think of as a positive direction, we continue to see cases declining. So as of last week, we had 44 student positive cases of COVID and only two positive cases with staff. Obviously, one case is too many, but we are going in the right direction. If you look at where we started at the beginning of January, as high as 180 positive cases per week, and now we're down to 44. So heading in the right direction, we'll continue to apply all the safety and health guidelines to make sure that we continue in that direction. And that's the report for tonight.

[11862] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Dr. Sherplett. On to item 11.1. We're moving over to staff reports, the presentation of the LCAP supplemental.

[11874] SPEAKER_58: Yes.

[11883] Phuong Nguyen: Sorry. Questions on superintendent report? Member Hill.

[11889] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. So just one question regarding the COVID situation and, you know, the fact that, you know, now the masking guidelines are changing, you know, for the public, it hasn't, you know, the guidance hasn't changed necessarily for the, for schools. But as you mentioned, there's, there's an indication that they're going to come out with some type of, you know, I don't know, update on February 28th. Um, and so given that, and there are actually a number of schools districts that are already actually moving in that direction. So have we started any planning around, um, this particular topic?

[11932] Mark Triplett: Yeah. So, um, we are, we are in regular engagement with the county public health department and other school districts. And so, yes, that that planning has started with those with the county health department. And really, we're going to continue to follow the guidelines that they articulate and dictate.

[11954] SPEAKER_54: Any other comments, questions? Member Rendell?

[11956] Terrence Grindall: Yes. In terms of the Public Records Act requests, the the indication was I can't remember the numbers, but there have been 12 responses, I believe, of the 19. Is that a complete response or is that simply a response saying that we're in the process, that we're still working on the effort?

[11976] Mark Triplett: No, that's 12 that have been completed.

[11980] SPEAKER_14: Thank you.

[11982] SPEAKER_54: Any other comments or questions?

[11985] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Dr. Triplett, on the superintendent report. And now we're moving on to item 11.1, presentation of the LCAP supplement to the annual update for 21-22 LCAP and mid-year LCAP report. Ms. Abbey Keirns.

[12000] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Nguyen. So yeah, this is a staff report. We'll have Ms. Kearns is going to be presenting on this. And this is a staff report because there's no action needed to be taken here. But this is the regular mid-year report out, which Ms. Kearns will say a little bit more about. While she's on the podium, I do want to appreciate her for the amazing organization of the reclassification ceremony last night. It was just really wonderful. And Ms. Cairns had a big hand in making that happen.

[12033] Abbey Keirns: Thank you. I just want to make sure that the slide deck is accessible.

[12038] SPEAKER_58: It looked like it was. I can take care of that right now. Just give me one second. I do apologize for the delay.

[12045] Abbey Keirns: You don't get too many chances when you sit in a dispersed office to see kids glow like that. So it was just very, very special for me. Thank you.

[12061] Mark Triplett: She's talking about glowing last night, not on the LCAP report.

[12065] Abbey Keirns: Just for clarification, no students glowing on the LCAP report. So good evening, Trustees Superintendent Triplett and the Executive Cabinet. I'm here tonight to provide an update on the LCAP. California's 2021 Budget Act, along with other historic state and federal funds, have provided us with a significant increase in funding. And I have had a chance to, and I have a chance to present to you on at least two occasions so far about some of those funds. In addition, Assembly Bill 130, Section 124E, added that there's a required supplement to the LCAP, which would present information regarding the use of these funds, the alignment of funds to the LCAP, and the community's engagement in the development of plans for the use of all of these funds. Today, I'm gonna go over a brief review of the LCAP and LCFF, as well as supplemental concentration funds. And I'm going to provide you with a review of the initial budget, the current revenue, and the difference between the two. Then I'll highlight the additional fund sources and the way we've aligned those fund sources to the LCAP actions. And lastly, I'll review some of the key successes and areas for growth in each of our LCAP areas. So but before I want to begin, I want to just appreciate all the collaborative work that goes into putting together reports like this. It's been a big effort between business services, ed services, HR. So it's just been a big group effort. And then lastly, to the board, I just want to make sure that it's clear that today's presentation is to inform. There's no action necessary. But in later on in June, when we present the final LCAP for 22-23, this supplemental report will be included in that, in which you'll be asking for your approval. Okay, so on the next slide, so... Oh, sure. So what is LCFF and LCAP? California public schools all receive state funding through the local control funding formula. So the goal of LCFF is to ensure that every student succeeds, especially those that the system has historically left behind. And who are those historically left behind students? Those are our low income English learner and foster youth. So that's just a quick preview, but I heard previously it would be helpful to have reminders of some of these acronyms. But I want to get into the meat of this budget. So I want to point out that we have an initial budget here in the first column, and column two is the adjusted budget, and column three is basically the difference. I want to point out that the decrease In the LCFF, S and C, which refers to supplemental concentration funds, the funds that are used for our unduplicated pupils, was adjusted as a result of a change in the unduplicated pupil count. However, overall, we've had a lot of additional revenue. We're in the plus 9 million, and it's important to note that these additional funds are heavily directed towards particular outcomes. They're not exactly the same as LCFF. So here's some examples. So we have received federal funds that are one time funds directed towards COVID related return to instruction and learning loss. We have also received funds that are from the state that we can be used over multiple years. These funds include educator effectiveness and extended learning opportunities, which I presented to you about. And lastly, we've got additional funds coming soon, which are going to be the ADT course credit completion, including students that need to recover credits, dual language immersion grant, and a universal pre-kinder planning grant. But we've done extensive work to align these one-time and new state funds to our current LCAP goals and actions. So this slide shows the focus areas where we've aligned funds from multiple sources. I don't know if I should go through and read all of these, but I just want to highlight that in almost every area, we were able to leverage ESSER funds, LCAP funds, and ELOG funds. ESSER and ELOG funds will expire shortly, so it's important that we expend those as soon as possible. So now into LCAP updates. So some great areas of success in our Goal 1, which is our goal around student achievement. So we are on track for all of our actions that were defined in Goal Area 1. We've also leveraged ESSER III funds for Action 1.4, which is around academic counselors. And we've leveraged ELO funds for Action 1.12, which was credit recovery. We've also increased the percent of students reaching an overall level of four on LPAC in 2021. We have a strong start for classroom observations this year with a total of 72 classroom observations so far this year. We have 85% of our SEAL teachers having been trained. And we also have an increase in the number of graduates meeting A to G requirements. moving from 30% in 2020 to 36% in 2021. Our students with economic disadvantage increased 17% last year. Areas to grow in the goal area around student achievement, we saw a decrease in the percent of students reclassifying, even though we also saw them have an increase in LPAC level four. We believe that this is a result of the local testing criteria change. As you remember, we didn't have SBAC, and that is often used to help students reclassify. We also had, we have an opportunity to grow in strengthening our CTE pathway data, especially in terms of how we report it, as well as our CTE completion rates. So goal area two is engagement and school climate. We are also on track for all actions in goal area two. We have leveraged ELO funds and private grants. I'm sorry, let me separate that. ELO funds were used to pay for the data system in action 2.4 and separately. A private grant was used to pay for action 2.6 parent workshops. Sorry, that's unclear. Our third success in Goal 2 is that we had an increased graduation rate of 2% for English learners, African-Americans, students with socioeconomic disadvantage, and our Hispanic students. There was also a strong percent of those students that received cost referrals actually accessed those resources at 94% of 1,149 referrals, which I'm very excited to know. So areas for growth in goal two, engagement and school climate, we did see a decrease in overall graduation rate by 2%, with the highest decrease in the area of students with disabilities, which was negative 11%. Our reflection on this is that this is when we were in distance learning, a learning environment that was really unconducive for students with disabilities. We are noticing a significant increase in student suspension and expulsion rates this year, whereas in the LCAP midyear report, you'll see that we were As to report out on last year, in December 16th of this year, you saw a report from Assistant Superintendent Pierce that showed we are showing spikes in suspension and expulsion this year. And goal area three, areas for success and conditions for learning. We were on track for all actions in goal area three. We have implementation of curriculum materials and professional development for FOSS kits in K-6 science curriculum, an increase in percent of total enrollment in one or more AP course, so 31% of our students at the high school, and an increase of students with scores of four or higher. I'm sorry, that should say three or higher. Pardon me. I'll make the correction. On AP exams, so 43% in 2020 to 53% last year. And goal three, areas for growth and conditions for learning. We did have a low response and completion rates for student staff and parent surveys. This was in part because it was not required by the state. It was also in part because people were not in person. It was very hard to reach people. We don't expect that continue, but we'll put a lot of effort into making sure we get high completion rates for these surveys. We also acknowledge that there's a need to improve our data systems to provide data while the California dashboard we are expecting will be down for the next two years. A big source of the data that we use to monitor our goals comes from the dashboard. So lastly, I'm going to end by just talking about the community input process for revising the LCAP for next year. Just a reminder, we'll be in year two of the three-year LCAP process. The process is going to involve community input, about 22 events we're expecting. We'll gather the input from schools, from staff, from students and parents. We'll then take the input and feedback and look for patterns. We'll then share this back with the leadership groups to make meaning of the information. And then we will begin to build a plan with the district. leadership. And just a reminder, this is where we are in the process. We're going to be drafting plans and doing input. We'll be revising and reviewing next month, in the next two months, and the public hearings revision and approval will happen end of May and June. And that is all.

[12702] Julienne Sumodobila: Thank you.

[12703] SPEAKER_54: Thank you, Ms. Cairns. Any comments or questions from the board? Member Marquez?

[12711] SPEAKER_29: Good evening. Thank you for that. I appreciate the information. I do have some questions. First of all, the first question I have is, in noticing the layouts of the goals that we have, we go from mid-year and then it skips and it moves forward to 23-24. Which would be the purpose of not adding a column that indicates what our shorter term goal would be for the following school year of 22-23? Oh, OK. I believe in the...

[12741] Abbey Keirns: So this is the three year plan. So we are reporting on the baseline. The midpoint was actually is which is actually this year and then following year. I think in the first I believe I'm not sure about this but I believe in the development of the three year LCAP they do outline the four the four points along the road. I don't think it's in this report but if we go back it should be outlined in the previous version of this LCAP.

[12769] SPEAKER_29: And then one other comment. Thank you for that response. In goal number one, we discussed Puente. And earlier on this evening, we had a presentation as well during our study session with regards to equity. And I noticed that we don't identify Bridgepoint as a high school when it comes to the services of Puente. And if we're going to be all inclusive, we want to make sure that Ms. Calderon and the students at that site are being offered that opportunity, because they, too, are a high school. Right, and they're being serviced to make sure that we have that all-inclusive. Just a suggestion, because I see that the junior high and at the high school, and I see that we didn't mention Bridgepoint. So I want to make sure that they are included, or if there's something that we can do so that they receive the same services. Because she also mentioned earlier on, there was a young man, for example, that was in the presentation who was now back at Newark Memorial. So what a better way to have that seamless transition from Bridgepoint and the services of the students are receiving and possibly a part of such a program as Puente, and then moving back to the high school and having the same service rendered to the student. So again, it's just creating that equity for all students, regardless of campus. And then with parent workshops on 2.6. And it said that we have it listed as a success, and that's great to see. My question would be, because earlier on we had a public comment at a particular site that they were mentioning, did not have the actual parent workshop. So it'd be interesting to see what actual sites are being successful with the parental success and for the community so that we can start measuring and seeing where we as a board need to focus or visit or provide feedback so that we can support what it is the public comment or the public speakers are asking and be better prepared to respond to that because we have the information of the actual sites. So just some information requests. Thank you.

[12888] Julienne Sumodobila: Thank you.

[12890] SPEAKER_54: Member Hill.

[12892] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Ms. Cairns, for your presentation. I had just a couple of questions on some of the data, and I don't know what the specific slides are. Maybe you can direct them. But there was one slide that talked about LPAC and the increase in the achieving level four. So what was the starting point, and then what is it now?

[12919] Abbey Keirns: starting point sorry so we're saying an increase so an increase from what to what just look in the report itself I believe it's in the report itself so It was an increase from, and the original baseline data was actually from 2018-19. So the baseline data was 16%. Okay. And. And now it's 20. And it's just 1% more. Okay. All right, 1%.

[12965] Aiden Hill: Okay, so it's at 17% now. Yes, correct. Okay, great. And then the other question, I'm not sure if I'm on the same slide or not, but we're talking about the increased number of students meeting A to G and then also the increased graduation rates. Is that on the same slide or is it a different slide?

[12985] Abbey Keirns: I think it's number six here, but there is another reference to graduation rates later. This is number six here is specifically the cohort of graduates meeting A to G A2G3G requirements.

[13001] Aiden Hill: OK. And this is maybe kind of an extension of what Member Marquez was talking about, because I'm wondering whether the data is really telling us truly what's going on. And so, you know, because we heard from a public speaker, from Mr. Abruzzi from NTA about, you know, essentially the the issues of whether people are truly getting the coursework that they need and properly either completing it and then moving on or being sort of pushed along. And I think that's been a longstanding concern at the high school. And this shows up in our California school dashboard in terms of we have high graduation rates, but then we have low college and career readiness. And then when we just looked, and we're going to have an agenda item shortly, I think, I guess it's the next one, the Illuminate assessment, where, you know, literally we're showing that for kids at the high school, we've got, you know, essentially either meets or exceeds for ELA, for English language, as well as for math, like 10 and 11%. And so, I mean, I'm really concerned that when we look at this data, Is it, you know, is this just sort of a check the box, but are the kids actually really, you know, coming away with skills? And so, I don't have a strong feeling that this is meaningful data, but I'm curious what your perspective is on that.

[13102] Abbey Keirns: The California has college career indicators that have multiple criteria. So, A to G is just one dimension. Seal of biliteracy is another dimension. CTE pathway completion is another dimension. ROTC is actually one of them. So there's a list of things that go into how they define preparedness. And I think it is worth exploring more to find out, for example, what is the, what's the trajectory of 9th through 12th grade? Do we see you know, interventions, for example, within ninth grade, changing the trajectory of ADG completion. And I know that it's definitely of interest to Superintendent Pierce to grow the, what does it look like for many more students to show up in those various indicators that will lead them to being identified as prepared?

[13159] Aiden Hill: And I can understand that there could be multiple variables in the California School Dashboard. But what I'm more concerned about is the anecdotal information that we just heard from NTA about kids basically moving in and out of classes and then also not having prerequisites and getting pushed along. So there's that piece of data, which is anecdotal. But then we have some real data that came from the Illuminate report. which is that literally 10% of our kids are meeting or exceeding in math and in reading. And so what that tells me is that if they're not scoring on those reports, how are they meeting A to G requirements and how are they graduating?

[13204] Abbey Keirns: And the Illuminate report is K6, correct?

[13208] Phuong Nguyen: No, the assessment is for grade 11. Oh, OK.

[13211] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And we'll be reporting on that next.

[13212] Abbey Keirns: OK. I think that's a good question that I I can't fully answer it this time.

[13218] Aiden Hill: Yeah, and I'm not expecting you to know the details. My only, I guess, comment is that I think we should dig into this data deeper because it could be a false positive. I mean, it could be misleading. Are we truly training our kids for success after high school? I don't think that these metrics in comparison with what other things that we've seen, I don't have full confidence that that's happening.

[13245] Abbey Keirns: We may consider, sorry, post-secondary readiness results as well alongside something like this may give us also an additional part of the puzzle.

[13254] Mark Triplett: If I may, perhaps there's some confusion about what A through G requirements are. So those are classes that are required for UCs and, So if we have an increase in students meeting A through G requirements, it means more students are passing classes, fulfilling all of their requirements than prior. So that's that data set. It's one data set, and it's indicating students passing classes that meet those A through G requirements.

[13293] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And if you look in the report, you can see that there's been a 6% increase there. So from 1920 to 2021, for all students in terms of the UC CSU requirements, we did see an increase there. Now, we are going to discuss the Illuminate data next. And I think that's a part of the assessment and the data rich culture that we are trying to continuously improve on.

[13323] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Any other comments or questions by other board members? No. Thank you, Ms. Kearns. Okay. Item 11.2, Illuminate Assessment 2020-2021.

[13341] SPEAKER_54: Dr. Triplett.

[13343] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Wentzell. I'm going to turn this over to Ms. Pierce. This was really a request from the board to have some information about the assessments, the Illuminate assessments that occurred last year during the pandemic. And so we're here to share that information. And sorry, I'll just, I'm sorry if I steal a little bit of thunder there, Ms. Pierce, but I will say, so these numbers, I'm in agreement with Board Member Hill. These numbers are very low and very disturbing. And so clearly we have a lot of work to do here. And this was an assessment or assessments taken during the pandemic last year.

[13392] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Well stated, Dr. Triplett. So I'll jump right in. So we did administer the Illuminate assessments at the end of a distance learning year in spring of 2021. By all accounts, folks did not, by anecdotal accounts, folks were that was not for forefront on their minds as we reopened schools at the at the end of last year. It was approved by the State Board of Education in lieu of the CASP assessments. This was for one time only. We in Newark had never given.

[13425] SPEAKER_58: I have to apologize. I we do have a public speaker on this. My I completely apologize. President. Yeah. OK. The public speaker for this item is Eric Tam. Eric Tam, you may begin.

[13443] SPEAKER_07: Oh, pardon. Just a quick comment. I'd love to learn more about how Illuminate differs from CASP. But I was looking at the 20s, on October 17, 2019, there was a CASP presentation, CASP as in the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Report. There was a great slide in there about Newark Memorial High School at a multi-year, you know, kind of a trend of 2016 to 2019 for three different school years. We were averaging on math 75% nearly met or not met. I'm sorry, nearly met or not met at the bottom, I guess the bottom two half. The Illuminate data shows we're at 90% below expectation and unsatisfactory now. For English, we're at 47%. And then in Illuminate data, we're at 90%, respectively. Basically, it doubled in the two years. I'm curious, how does the Illuminate data differ from the CASP? And I'd love to learn more. And thank you, Dr. Triplett, for saying how urgent this is to take in.

[13507] SPEAKER_54: Thank you.

[13510] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Tam.

[13514] Nicole Pierce-Davis: So this was in lieu of the CASP assessments. It's a local assessment. So it served as the end of year summative assessment. Again, the focus here was on return to in-person. I want to be clear, though, when we think about this data and we say these sort of qualifiers, it is not because we are in a state in terms of ed services and in terms of an executive cabinet of saying, oh, this is throwaway data. We don't want to take a look at it. We are absolutely not in that space. But we do feel like it's important that we have context. We most likely will not give end-of-year summatives again in Illuminate. So this is kind of a one-year only baseline. How do you then grow upon it? We'll go back to the CASP most likely this year. So that being said, the performance bands are here. Green is meeting expectations. Blue is exceeding. Yellow is below. And red is unsatisfactory. Note, we are not including Bridgepoint High School because we don't love them and care about them. There were too few students. That creates too many identifiers. And so we're not showing their data for that reason. So we give Illuminate and CASP as well to grades 7, 8, and 11 were the grade. So that's the data that you'll see reported here. Again, these assessments were given to students who returned to in-person. So as you can see, I think we've all discussed it already. I'm not sure how much we need to go into these numbers. As you can see from what people have said, there is some work to be done. So again, this is 11th grade ELA. We have here 11th grade math. For our junior high, we have 7th grade ELA. And we have 7th grade math. Here we've got eighth grade ELA. And we have eighth grade math. So our next steps, really, for teaching and learning is to coordinate with the junior high and Newark Memorial administration regarding the CASP assessments in spring. We want to support our teachers in successful planning for summative assessments that are aligned to course standards, But really, and I want to reinforce this last bullet the most, we really want to focus on, and this is part of our district priorities. We have three priorities for our professional development. SEL, assessment for learning, and in student engagement, rigorous student engagement. And that assessment for learning really is speaking to this last bullet. It is how do we enhance the use of progress monitoring tools to support student learning and lesson differentiation over time. So we're not waiting till summative assessments. The other piece of this is, I will say, as an Ed Services team, I think our PD, we really looked at our, we focused on our elementaries in this regard. They actually looked at iReady data coming into the year. Then they reviewed the first data report as a team, developed a plan, and we want to try to do something very similar with our secondary schools, where instead of looking at the iReady data, we're using Illuminate or possibly another tool, in all honesty. that then can use, again, as a progress monitoring tool that's a leading indicator instead of a summative one. So that is the work that we have to do. Thank you.

[13728] SPEAKER_54: Thank you, Ms. Pierce. Any questions or comments by the board? Member Hill?

[13734] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Ms. Pierce. Thank you for the context. One additional piece of data that I just think is important, and it's not exactly apples to apples, But I think it's important for us to understand. So did a little research on the high schools in our area and how they were scoring. And they were taking the CAS, but for the year 2020 and 2021, so if we look at Mission San Jose High School for English, so this is meets or exceeds grade level, 93.65. So 94% meet or exceed. In English, 93.73% exceed in math. If we look at Fremont Unified American High School, 89.6% exceed in English, 81.74% exceed in math. If we look at Irvington High School in Fremont, 87.93% exceed in English, 79.93% exceed in math. In New Haven, in James Logan High School, 74.67 English, 43.97 in math. In Fremont Unified Washington High School, 73.68 English, 60.87 math. Kennedy High School, 69.17 English, 53.39 math. And then Newark Unified, 11 and 10. So the gap is massive. And this is the same type period. I think we've got, you know, a real issue and, you know, and I think that right now parents, everybody is really spending a lot of time very concerned about education and what's happened during the pandemic. And we've had some big, you know, basically events happen. And as I think many people know, we had A major event happened in San Francisco where three members of the school board got recalled. And I read a quote from London Breed, the mayor, because she's going to be the one that's appointing the new school board members. She said, the school board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else. So this is our prime directive. Nothing else matters in comparison to this. So I really think that we need to prioritize because there's something big going on. We need to figure it out. We need to put a plan together. We need to execute. And we need to start getting back to the performance levels of schools in our area and schools in the Bay Area and in the state. So again, I look forward to seeing those plans and the execution.

[13907] SPEAKER_54: Member Grindel?

[13909] Terrence Grindall: Can you explain why the state didn't do the CASP? Why we had to shift to the Illuminate? And also just provide a little more explanation to how the tests differ and how that dynamic occurs. I'm sorry if that's coming. I didn't ask this question ahead of time, but if you can provide a little explanation to that, I'd appreciate it.

[13936] Mark Triplett: Not a problem. I can start, and then feel free to chime in, Ms. Pierce. So CASP is a state assessment. It's designed by the Smarter Balanced Association. And Illuminate is a company that makes assessments and has a platform where you can select questions and create assessments on your own, or they also have ready-made assessments. So last year during the pandemic, the state decided to allow districts to not have to take the CASP and instead take a locally generated assessment. And the reason being is just taking the CASP is like a really heavy lift, both technologically, but also time-wise. And so With distance learning and people being at home and some some people coming back But some people not the state recognized that it just it actually wouldn't even get valid data from from taking the cast and so for that reason they allowed districts to Decide if they wanted to take something different. So some districts did take the cast still I don't actually know. I'd have to look and see which ones chose to do that. But many districts chose to use a local assessment. And so it's not apples to apples at all. And the Illuminate assessments are not, the level of analyzing the assessments, balancing them, making all that stuff, is not what is happening in Illuminate. So it's a very different assessment. Ms. Pierce, did you want to add anything to that?

[14042] Nicole Pierce-Davis: The only thing that I would add, and again, I say this as a qualifier, is that even in some of the other reports that you've noticed from other districts and CASP, because we were in this influx of in-person distance, even that data does not necessarily reflect a full cohort like you would see in a regular year. Again, I don't have each one of those reports up, and so I don't want to necessarily make that comparison. But I think everyone's data from last year has a bit of an asterisk. And I think, again, I think our focus needs to be on progress monitoring and determining whether even Illuminate is the assessment for us as that progress monitoring tool. There are others out there like IABs, and you can look that up. They're very much aligned with the CASP assessment. But again, we won't make that decision in isolation. That would be a team and a community decision.

[14094] Bowen Zhang: So the data you cited about surrounding school, particularly James Logan, are they from CASP or are they from Illuminate? So my understanding is that they were all CASP. OK, then that makes more sense. Because what happened is, before the pandemic, if you look at CASP, James Logan is pretty much similar to a newer Memorial High. And yeah, so that's why I was initially very shocked to hear that they were that much better than us, because you're using the CASA data. Okay.

[14123] Aiden Hill: And then just one last comment, because I think, Member Zhang, you had mentioned in the last board meeting that although the current results are bad, they weren't that much better a few years earlier when we were doing CAF. So I think you were saying it was like 30%.

[14139] Bowen Zhang: So 38% was the oral math pathway, if I remember correctly. 50, 51% is the oral ELA grade. And if you look at the 11th grade, that's our weakest point. So on the 11th grade, which is the only grade in high school that are being tested, because 9th, 10th, and 12th are not being tested. On the 11th grade, I remember math is around 28 to 29%, and English was around. high or mid 40%.

[14166] SPEAKER_54: Member Grindel.

[14167] Terrence Grindall: Thank you. I want to I want to echo some of the concerns of my other board members. This is a very the academic achievement of our students is very important. We don't want to get I don't want to get wrapped up around the testing and the processing process. But I also don't want to dismiss this. And I want to run a really stress that I certainly applaud staff for gearing up for the CASP cycle and getting back to sort of how we've done in the past. Of course, an in-person is going to make that a little easier, and maybe they won't even have to wear masks at the time. Who knows? So I just want to stress, this is a high priority, and the board is very much behind staff in trying to address that, and we appreciate that. But at the same time, tests can be apples and oranges. And I'm looking forward to getting onto a cycle where we can track things more consistently. And I appreciate that you're taking those efforts. Thank you.

[14233] SPEAKER_54: Member Marquez?

[14234] SPEAKER_29: Yes, thank you. And going back to the slide that mentioned that enhancing the use of the progress monitoring tools, and that's the key is that progress monitoring. Because oftentimes when we use the term with our students, oh, you're being tested. You're being tested. You're being tested versus we're monitoring. We're measuring your academic progress. We're taking a snapshot now. So I think it's going to be key in the way that we use our delivery and letting the students know that this is what we're going to be implementing as a school district. And every so often, whether it's quarterly, whether it's every eight to 10 weeks, we're going to be going through and we're going to measure your academic progress. Let's get that snapshot. So you have, for example, in one of our handouts this evening, we mentioned ingenuity. And Genuity has a reading and a math test and exam. It can be offered, whether in a homeroom, whether it's in a study hall, as well as we have NWEA. So the map is out there. We've got Edgenuity. So many of these tools, and I'm sure that Apex has it as well, it's already being implemented. And it's just a matter of how we present the information to our students. Because there's nothing worse than being tested, over-tested, and tested. So delivery. letting them know how we deliver the information, and letting them know that it's to let them know where they're at. It's a true snapshot. And it's not about a pass or fail. And I think if we can teach that to ourselves, as well as the students, that we may have better outcomes when it comes to the results that we're seeing, so that we, too, can be competitive with the other schools, from what Rahil was mentioning earlier on this evening. Thank you.

[14333] SPEAKER_54: Thank you. Any other comments or questions?

[14337] Phuong Nguyen: No, I think we're good. Okay, on to item 11.3. Are there any public comments, Ms.

[14345] SPEAKER_54: Gutierrez? Dr. Triplett?

[14349] Mark Triplett: Sorry, I was just, oh, are we still on 11.2? No. Oh, okay. I just had one other thought I was just thinking about.

[14357] SPEAKER_54: Oh, but you can comment if you'd like.

[14359] Mark Triplett: Okay, thank you. I was just thinking about the data that member Hill presented and realizing that so Fremont actually didn't go back to in-person I don't think so. They took the cast at home I think So that's another thing to think about is it's just really hard at this point to compare apples to apples not that The you know, we don't know whether the data would have looked significantly different or not But but we just want to keep that in mind

[14391] SPEAKER_54: Thank you, Dr. Shifflett.

[14393] Phuong Nguyen: So we're on to item 11.3, Information Technology Study Report. Dr. Shifflett.

[14401] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Nguyen. So this was a response to a request from the board and from President Nguyen in particular to do an assessment of our IT department and the services and staffing and all of that entails. So we were able to engage with an organization that provided this report. And I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Delacruz. And I believe we also have a guest from the organization site.

[14441] Marie dela Cruz: Yes. Thank you, Dr. Triplett. worked with CITE, which is California IT and Education. The study consisted of the three senior level technology and educational professionals from CITE. And they visited our school sites, conducted surveys, visited the district office, met with staff, and also visited equipment rooms and provides a report with the results and some recommendations. So tonight we have Ms. Andrea Bennett, the executive director from CITE, to present the report.

[14490] SPEAKER_52: Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me OK?

[14493] Marie dela Cruz: Yes.

[14494] SPEAKER_52: Great. Thank you, everyone, for having us today. I'm going to go fairly quickly through these 14 slides And then we'll be happy to take questions at the end. And so on slide two, you can see, again, my name is Andrea Bennett, Executive Director for CITE. And with me also on the line are Mike Vollmer, the Executive Director for Q, and Chris Hagel, who's the CTO for Ceres Unified. And we were your jet review team for this review. And on slide three, There's a couple of some explanations about who we are. So CUE and CITE are both professional membership organizations working in the K-12 community here in California. CUE really concentrates on teachers and administrators. And here at CITE, we help support the IT professionals working in schools. And then slide four, you can see a little bit about our process. So what we do is we joined together to create the JET review so that we could bring in experts, people with a lot of experience into school districts at their request to review not only the IT part of servers and infrastructure and things like that, the educational technology and what's going on in the classroom. So on slide four, just to note, this is not an audit. There won't be any KPIs in the report that we're gonna come back and check on. We offer recommendations and support to the districts for which we do the reviews. Slide six, sorry. Yeah, slide six is an overview of our process. So we start out initially after having an interview with the superintendent and the cabinet, we distributed a survey. Marie helped us distribute a survey district wide and gathered some data and some feedback. And then once we got on site, we went to the district office and checked out the infrastructure and how things were set up at the district office. We also interviewed the staff. Once we got out to the school sites, we did visit five of your school sites, and you can see them there listed there. We looked at the infrastructure at each of those school sites. We visited classrooms to observe what kind of technology was being, you know, used in the instruction, and also interviewed principals, teachers, and students. And on slide seven, you see some of the results. This is a summary of our findings of the survey. We got 133 responses. 89% of the people who responded to the survey believe the technology department is understaffed. 59% don't think that their requests are getting responded to in a timely way. Over 50% don't feel they have adequate access to the internet or wifi. And almost 84% said they were using technology in the classroom for instruction every day. When we went out to the school sites and we spoke to the people at the sites, their responses were the same. There is a high level of respect for the three people you do have in the IT department. And the overwhelming feeling is that they are definitely overworked. and understaffed. And there is a frustration out there because of, you know, with 84% of your classrooms using technology every day, it's got to work. And so there is a little bit of frustration about that as well. So on slide eight, you'll see we have four categories of recommendations, technology department, job descriptions, and positions. IT processes and methodology, a little bit on pedagogy, and then some opportunities to automate and improve your data systems. And then we organize them or categorize them in four different ways. Some are immediate needs, some are quick wins, some are short term, and some are longer term. And so on slide nine, I'll go directly to the first set of recommendations for the technology department. Your technology department is definitely understaffed. And in the report, you can see some of the department structures that we researched in similar districts kind of show the differences between what Newark has and what some of the other districts who are the same size and in the same area have. So recommendation 1.1, you know, some people think of job descriptions being used only when your positions are open, but we feel it's important to review and update IT department job descriptions frequently. Not only does this ensure that the work that needs to be done is addressed in the job description, updating them can identify areas of professional development that might be needed. 1.2, excuse me, Visiting neighboring districts can help Newark identify what will work best for them by seeing the successes at other districts. It kind of helps verify the positions that you might need. And 1.3, the technology department, we're recommending that it be reorganized. You need strong leadership. Again, with 84% of your classrooms And that was just in the responses that we got using the technology every day for instruction. You really need it to work. And so the person leading the technology department should not only be part of technology, but should also be part of the conversations around the technology being used in the classroom so that you can ensure that it's well planned and supported and sustained. And so on slide 10, you see, we did put in a couple of recommendations for possible structure of your tech department. These are just recommendations and not any kind of edict. We do feel strongly that a director level position is needed. Ideally, you would also have an assistant that could kind of keep the department organized. And we also believe that there, should be a specific position for CALPADS that's separate from the SIS support. And I'll talk about a little bit more about this in a little bit. And so slide 11, this is a long list of recommendations that we have for IT processes and methodology. The good news is, is that the district has very good cabling, fairly new access points and switches and a backbone that will allow for growth. So the investments that you've made in technology in this area were worth it. Recommendation 2.1, every school site we visited reported internet slowness and or Wi-Fi issues. Using network analysis tools can help determine where those backlogs are and can be used as needed when issues are reported. And 2.2, in addition to implementing those tools, we're suggesting that the district hire a company to perform a network audit. Their expertise and focus will help identify and fix the issues that are being reported by the schools, and it will result in more stability and better access. 2.3, this is a longer term recommendation here for a cybersecurity audit. These are essential for making sure that you're safe from hacking and ransomware. And they can be very involved. And so that's why it's a longer term recommendation. 2.4, the phone system is outdated that's being used at the school. It doesn't have any support because it's an open source system. And it's really important that the schools have access to their phones. You want to make sure you don't get into a safety issue. And so we're recommending that you take a look at the phone system and see if it might need to be replaced. There is a help desk system in place, and it's used by many of your users. However, it currently has no priority settings in place, and the procedure for assigning tickets isn't really clear. Ideally, the help desk system would allow users to enter as much information as possible to help IT understand the severity of the issue. This should also be the main way issues are reported. Phoning the department or emailing should really only be done for follow-up or if they've got an emergency. Using a robust help desk system also gives the district leadership the data they need to ensure the department is staffed appropriately, and able to complete the work that needs to be done. Recommendation 2.6, the equipment in the data center at the district office is not being cooled adequately. We recommend that IT and the maintenance department work together to ensure that the equipment is safe and working properly. Also, the UPS systems need to be upgraded. And in 2.7, in addition to the UPS systems at the district office, The team saw several UPS units at the school sites that were not functioning. So having the systems backed up properly is essential to keep the data safe and keep the systems up and running. 2.8, the bell system is obsolete and also has no vendor support. Some schools are experiencing reoccurring issues and they can't really rely on their bell system. It's not really a safety issue, but it is something that should be addressed to help the school leadership run the school more efficiently. 2.9, there's obsolete equipment present in classrooms and in the IT closets at the school sites, as well as in the district's data center. This equipment should be removed to free up space in the classrooms for better learning and should be removed from the IT spaces, which is creating clutter and potential hazardous waste issues. Some equipment might be able to be sold or auctioned off. Recommendation 2.10. Some of the E-rate rules have changed recently, and so we added this recommendation. So the district work, recommending the district work with their E-rate consultant to plan on using those funds by 2025. That's the deadline to use those funds. And then 2.11, currently one person is supporting the SIS system and is solely responsible for CALPADS. CALPADS is the state's data submission system, which requires multiple data points to be checked and validated throughout the year. Supporting both the SIS and CALPADS is a near impossible task for one person, which is why we suggested the analyst position in slide 11. In addition, we're suggesting the district consider implementing a district-wide calendar of activities that help validate the data throughout the year. Tasks could be assigned to school site staff to validate the data according to that schedule, and then school site leadership could certify the data when the data is correct and ready for submission to the state. In our third area, our pedagogy area, we have two main recommendations here that really go towards professional learning and professional development. In 3.1, we're recommending the district consider the free resources provided by Sunny Magana as a way to engage innovative conversations about student-centered learning. Beginning with district leadership, a group read of disruptive classroom technologies could help start the change discussion in the district. The work that Dr. Magana does is research-based and offers pragmatic ways to move away from traditional classrooms to more student-centered learning in using technology as a tool. 3.2, we're suggesting the district utilize school, school site staff meetings, in addition to professional development days to provide new resources to teachers. Using tools that allow teachers to learn from educators outside the district, like Aluda Learning, can keep teachers engaged. Allowing teams to attend learning events, such as annual conferences in California, and then setting the expectation that the teams will return and create an artifact to share with the teachers in the district can help bring new concepts for learning into the district or the schools. And then finally, our last recommendation has to do with automating and improving data systems. So with 4.1, automating the creation of student accounts by connecting the student information system to the apps used such as Google Classroom, ensure students get connected as soon as their records are entered into the SIS. This also removes a task from staff and it saves time there as well. And then similarly in 4.2, the accounts for staff could also be automatically generated by connecting the SIS to the HR system. This is also important for ensuring that proper access is given and taken away as appropriate. And lastly, in 4.3, another way to save time and improve service for students is to keep the inventory of the Chromebooks in the library system called Destiny. and have the devices checked in and out of the school sites. It's critical that the inventory be accurate so that the district knows if new devices are needed. Chromebooks don't last forever. They're not meant to last a long time and they need to be replaced frequently. With a high number of teachers using this technology in the classroom, ensuring student access is essential. And I know I went through those slides very quickly, so we're happy to take questions.

[15416] Phuong Nguyen: Anyone have any questions or comments?

[15419] SPEAKER_54: Member Hill.

[15422] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Ms. Bennett. I appreciate your presentation. So just kind of a general question. So in my prior career working as a management consultant, project manager, but involved in a lot of IT implementations, dealing with a lot of IT departments, kind of the experience that I've had, and I suspect that President Nguyen can maybe echo this, is that the demand for IT services always exceeds the supply. So there's always more stuff that users want to do, and there's always a constraint on IT staff to be able to satisfy that. And that's even in big, large organizations. So you have to be efficient. And I would also suspect that, again, kind of in my experience working with other companies, that if you were to survey almost any company, their employees, they would all say that, you know, IT can be a struggle and that oftentimes, you know, they feel that IT needs more staff and that you, basically, they're not always getting the things that they need. But how oftentimes IT organizations and consultants approach this is to be data-driven and to say, okay, let's really pick apart exactly what the needs are and then kind of determine, you know, what are the types of needs and what are the priorities, because we're not going to be able to satisfy everything. And usually where you go to determine that is the help desk ticketing system. And then you can really do an analysis that determines and says, You know, here's how many tickets we have coming in. Here's the categories. Here's the types of issues that are coming up. Here is the aging. Here's how long it actually takes. And so you can become very strategic in identifying, okay, here's what the real issues are. And here's, um, you know, kind of either the changes in processes that we need to make to automate things and make it better. For example, oftentimes one of the number one reasons that a user will contact it is because they forgot their password. Um, and there's, you know, oftentimes common things that you can, you know, easy fixes for that. But I'm wondering if we did an analysis of the help desk ticketing system here and kind of determine what are the types of issues and where is the real work versus maybe just the perceptions of the users.

[15584] SPEAKER_52: Yes, definitely a review of the help desk system and the data that you have now is a great place to start. But I would also encourage you to look at the processes in the workflow of the help desk system to make sure that the data that you're getting actually reflects the work. So if you have people calling or emailing or walking into the IT office and asking for help and then the IT personnel not recording that in the help desk system, now your data is starting to get skewed. And so definitely, the help desk system is a great place to start.

[15635] Aiden Hill: Just to clarify, so the scope of your work, you did not actually look in at the tickets that were in our help desk system?

[15642] SPEAKER_52: We did not.

[15643] Aiden Hill: OK, thank you.

[15646] SPEAKER_54: Member Grundell?

[15648] Terrence Grindall: Yes, thank you for this. excellent report, and I'm sure it's going to be very helpful to us as we continue to make sure we have the adequate technology to educate our children in this century. I did have two quick questions. As part of your evaluation, did you look at the sort of fiber bandwidth that was going into the sites, or is that something that we'd need to assess, whether there's bottlenecks there?

[15677] SPEAKER_52: We did not do a an audit or an analysis of what was happening. We did, I think we did talk with the county, the county office. And, you know, it was it was talking with Paul Rose as well. It was difficult to determine where there might be a bottleneck. We did see some legacy access points in at least one school. And we were thinking that what could be happening is even though the access point is supposed to be shut down, if it's on, it could be creating some cross traffic with the new access points. And these happen to be in rooms with very high ceilings. And the IT department was having a difficult time getting rid of those access points because they didn't have ladders, they didn't have cranes, whatever. And so that's why we kind of felt like getting a company that's really experienced in taking a look at and auditing the structure there would be a quick and relatively inexpensive way to get those kinds of issues brought to light.

[15766] Terrence Grindall: Thank you. Thank you for it.

[15768] SPEAKER_19: Can I interject? Yeah. One additional comment. This is Mike Ballmer. Along with Andy and Chris, I was part of the team that visited the district. The bandwidth that the school district utilizes right now, based on the number of kids and the number of teachers and the demands, is probably adequate. But like Andrea said, should definitely be looked at. But our recommendation is before looking at how much bandwidth the district is currently utilizing, the network itself and the configuration of the network would be the first place to look for bottlenecks and other factors that could be inhibiting student and teacher access to the wireless network in particular. So before We would recommend getting more bandwidth. We would recommend doing some work on analyzing configuration of the various components of the network.

[15836] Terrence Grindall: Thank you. I have one further question, Madam President. I noted that you indicated cybersecurity as sort of a longer range issue, but then you sort of indicated that it takes a long time to get to an involved process. I would, I guess my particular sense is that particularly in the world we're existing in now, that a cybersecurity audit is something that we ought to be as a board prioritizing. You hear stories of ransomware and other kinds of attacks And, you know, I would hate to be trying to explain later why we didn't do something about it. So that is one sort of exception that I take. I do think a cybersecurity audit is probably a higher priority.

[15890] Phuong Nguyen: So can I? I'm going to answer this question. So basically, a full network analysis tool would help us into determining, you know, how our network is running and how the firewalls and access points are being affected. And then once that's done, a clear understanding of how our network is set up, then we can have a cybersecurity audit.

[15922] Terrence Grindall: Absolutely. I didn't mean to imply a particular audit, just that I just think that cybersecurity should be a high priority.

[15928] Phuong Nguyen: No, definitely it is a high priority. I would definitely agree, because we do have confidential student records, employee personnel records. All of those, we do not want to get hacked into by anyone. And definitely, that is a security measure that I am in agreement with you on. But any other questions or comments? So um I I just had a quick comment. Thank you so much for this uh thorough report and I do like the fact that you guys addressed and list you know the immediate needs and uh and short-term needs and quick wins. Um I do think that it is really important and yes uh member Hill the help desk ticket system is one way for us to um look into you know, see where the trends are for, to prioritize certain things. But it isn't the only, the only thing that will give you the fair indication. And that is definitely true that, you know, I myself am guilty of not, if when somebody walks in, I'm helping them. I don't log, you know, all my stuff in the help desk ticket. And then in terms of the current help desk system that we have here in the district, It may not be able to have those because it doesn't have the priority levels set. And no, it doesn't. It doesn't allow to set priorities. I don't know what they use. OS tickets. So those are the kinds of things that, yes, we could look at in short term and for the wins to be able to help improve the system and take it and analyze it. My only question is that during the evaluation was there any IT governance evaluation in terms of In terms of getting our IT staff input and recommendation on on on what systems they wouldn't would be involved in implementing moving forward

[16065] SPEAKER_52: You mean in terms of the help desk system, or?

[16068] Phuong Nguyen: No, in terms of overall IT support and operations. Any new IT initiatives? Are there any IT governance protocols put in recommendations made by your team?

[16086] SPEAKER_52: No. No, we really stuck to what we felt were the more immediate needs. The you know the the biggest area is really taking a look at the capabilities of the three staff members that you have and making sure that those are in line with the district's goals and the district's needs. But we didn't really talk about overall governance beyond the processes of help desk systems and network and things like that.

[16134] Phuong Nguyen: OK, thank you. And then one last question. In regards to the E-rate opportunities, you stated in the report that the district has $938,874 of available E-rate Category 2 funds. And is it only eligible? for infrastructure like capital improvement for site specific or can you use that money to buy and upgrade like a help desk system?

[16166] SPEAKER_52: You cannot use it to buy a help desk system. It's a very complicated program and Mike and Chris could probably talk to you all night long about it. But it really is for infrastructure and some limited devices.

[16184] Phuong Nguyen: OK. Well, that will definitely help us to be able to purchase some of the UPS battery backup systems that you guys recommend. And the other thing that I didn't really get in the report is that, did you guys touch upon any of our backup systems? I'm sorry, did you say backup? Like disaster recovery. Any recommendations in regards to that? Are we sufficient in that?

[16210] SPEAKER_52: You should definitely implement a disaster recovery plan. We did not see one. We did not discuss any disaster recovery. We did, again, we did see a lot of the UPS, the backup systems, not operational or failing. And that's a great place to start. But yeah. And there's actually a great resource that we could provide Paul in terms of disaster recovery that was created by the CTOs up at Sacramento County and Butte County after the Dixie Fire. And so we can provide that to Paul and help him get started on that.

[16253] Phuong Nguyen: OK. Thank you so much. Any other comments or questions? Thank you.

[16263] SPEAKER_52: Thank you very much.

[16264] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Miss Bennett.

[16277] Phuong Nguyen: We're going to do a one-time extension of the meeting to 12 a.m. May I have a We have a motion and a second.

[16297] Terrence Grindall: I'll second that.

[16298] Phuong Nguyen: OK. I move to move the meeting till 12 AM. And member of Grindell seconds the motion. How do you vote, student board member?

[16312] SPEAKER_58: You can be excused at 10. Yes.

[16318] SPEAKER_49: Member Zhang. Yes.

[16321] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez.

[16323] Megan McMillan: Yes.

[16324] Phuong Nguyen: Member Hill? Yes. Member Grindel?

[16328] Terrence Grindall: Hoping we don't need it all, but yes.

[16330] Phuong Nguyen: And myself is yes too, thank you. I'm going to make Member Hill stay here until 12.

[16335] SPEAKER_33: Just kidding.

[16339] Phuong Nguyen: All right, on to item 11.4. Are there any public comments? Ms. Gutierrez?

[16352] SPEAKER_58: Yes, we do have an online speaker. Mr. Tam, you may begin.

[16360] SPEAKER_07: Good evening, Board, Dr. Triplett and staff. I hope you were able to review my spreadsheet analysis from last night. Student member, Resendez Ortiz. The HVAC project is a clear example of the CPRA process doing its job to create accountability for NUSD. As of 11 p.m. last night, the staff report was underreporting on equipment costs by 542,000. I'll let the board members know with appropriate CPRA documentation that I received. I also took screenshots of the reports with timestamps, just in case. I checked today at 4 p.m. and glad to see staff has attempted to fix the mistakes, Dr. Triplett and Ms. Delacruz. I want to remind you specifically on what President Nguyen requested on December 16th. She said, and I quote, What was our preliminary budget for all of it? What has been approved and what has been paid out? Your table format was difficult to differentiate the three. Board, since they changed it, let's analyze the new changes in the real time. On slide four, staff magically zeroed out testing inspection and moved money from contingency and added the missing 542,000 to construction. First, how can testing be zero when this board publicly approved an air testing contract for 173,000 for phase one? Second, staff check your formulas. Phase one total budget versus phase two total budget have different formulas calculations for each row. They don't add up correctly. On slide five, the labor bid estimates for increment one and two is still 8.2 million, which defies the board's approved preliminary budget of 7.6 million for all of construction. On slide six, this is really hard to believe. Staff reports a 0% difference between original budget versus actual, down to the exact dollar. President Nguyen and member Hill, how many $10 million budgets have you landed down to the exact dollar? Does this mean the June 3rd prelim budget this board approved doesn't matter at all? And finally, why is our phase one total still different? Add up the equipment POs and all the approved bids for phase one. And my total is $10,930,727. Your total is under by 24,000. Why is that? Based on the errors from your second attempt at this report, it is clear that NUSD does not know the actual spend for the project. On December 16th, staff reported a construction cost of 8.9 billion. And now today it's magically 9.4. Even after two revisions, the total budget does not match public documents on your own board agendas. Board, the staff had two months to prepare this report. Based on the abundance of mistakes, I believe this constitutes as a material weakness within our financial reporting system Staff was unable to provide accurate financial statements for a $10 million public project. This warrants an audit investigation. Thank you.

[16525] SPEAKER_54: Thank you, Mr. Tam. Superintendent Shepard.

[16534] Mark Triplett: OK, thank you. So we have some partners here, I believe, that are going to assist with the presentation. This presentation is based on a request from board to get a little clarity around the different phases and stages of the HVAC implementation. And so I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Stella Cruz, and she can then introduce our guests.

[16563] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Tonight, we have Mr. Ralph Caputo from RGMK to give us an update on the HVAC project replacement. If you recall, when we initially started this project, the Measure G bond only had $3.3 million set aside for the HVAC replacement projects. And since then, a lot has happened, including the pandemic. The requirements for ventilation have all changed. And the $3.3 million soon became, we realized that it was not going to be enough to do what we needed to do. And we were able to find other funding sources to increase the project budget. Normally, what happens is when we present a budget to the board, it's based on estimated costs. And then when we receive bids, we come back with the actual costs and the actual awards of the bids and update the budget accordingly. So with that, I'm going to allow Mr. Caputo to just give you an overview, and then we can answer questions.

[16646] SPEAKER_32: Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to address the board tonight. My name is Rob Kudo and I wanted to start out with a slide show. This presentation is actually twofold. We wanted to give an update on the status of the work itself but also review the budget and some of the budget revisions that have occurred. So starting out with the first slide just a quick refresher phase one. As we reported early on was a single phase. We've broken it into two increments. We've explained that before and we'll go over it again tonight. But Birch Grove Primary had 30 units installed in January. Coyote Hills had 27 units that were installed between Thanksgiving and January. Kennedy installed 21 units. In Schilling, we installed 28 units. These projects are all substantially complete. I believe in the next board meeting, we'll do a budget reconciliation on that, and we expect that that budget will close out just slightly under the contract amount. Phase one, increment two, we have 60 units that are scheduled to be installed at the junior high school in March. and we have installed already 117 units at the high school. The high school had 60 units that were completed over the Christmas break and 57 that were completed in January. Phase two, we had originally reported to the board that The DSA, the Division of State Architects Office, had us remove from our original submission back in the spring five units at the elementary schools, two at Kennedy, two at Birch Grove, one at Coyote Hills. We had made a case that those should be expedited by DSA. These units were just slightly over their weight thresholds, but they had the authority They told us if we removed those, they would give us exceptions for the ones that we've just installed in phase one. Since we had to remove those five, we resubmitted them to DSA, and they agreed that we should have had an exception on those, so those are now on order. There's a 21-week lead time right now, but the M&O Department was experiencing some issues in sustaining some of the existing equipment. So we went ahead and ordered these so that they will be ready, and we can install them faster if there are continuing issues with some of the existing units. The junior high school has five units remaining in phase two, and the high school has 31 units. Those units are in the final stages of design. They will be submitted to DSA on the 2nd of March And we anticipate approval, and if DSA can help us expedite it, we hope to do the construction installation in late January. Next slide, please. This was presented, I think, at least once prior. I know it was in December, but it's a recap of the district's HVAC counts. Mentioned before that when we started this venture, we had looked at the facility assessment. We had looked at the master plan. We received other information from the prior firms that have worked in the district. Counts were varying because of the way that they were counted. Split systems were counted as two when they're really one room, one unit. Some of the counts included hoods, As mentioned earlier by one of the board members, there was counts that included some of the smaller units in the IT closets. What we were addressing is the units that are for student classrooms and all the support spaces, offices, computer labs, libraries, gyms, multipurpose rooms. We were instructed early on not to touch the portables. So those were being repaired separately by M&O department. What we're trying to accomplish in this program is 339 units. Prior to our involvement, the district had installed 22 units out of the units in the schools that we're pursuing. The current phase one, units are 276, and phase two is 41. Total though, the district had previously replaced 28 units at Birch Grove Intermediate, four units at Lincoln, 31 units at McGregor, 20 units at Music, and 12 units at Snow. So the total count of the district's mechanical system, except for ancillary equipment and portables, is 481. The district had previously replaced 117. We're replacing 276 in phase one, 41 in phase two, for a total of 339. The budget moved in a couple categories. The design and planning was previously reported at $1,498,060. The revised budget and current budget trend as we come to completion is $1,363,010. Construction had increased from $8,000 or $8,941,617 to $9,473,892. We had $20,000 for inspection, not for the commissioning of $173,000 or commissioning of $91,200 and testing and balancing of $173,000. That's actually the difference in the planning costs We had a contingency early on in the budget for $446,580. That was based on not knowing the roofing conditions and the conditions that DSA may require of us for structural upgrades to the roof system. That funding is no longer necessary. Our current trend, we're leaving just shy of $70,000. And the project will be completed within the original budget of $10,906,257, as previously reported. Phase 2 currently remains unchanged. Ms. Dela Cruz has outlined where she is attributing the money for this. $4,801,113 is being allocated under Measure G funds. Capital Facilities Fund 25 is covering $7,635,000. and the capital outline fund $4,900,000. Next slide, please. In June, the estimates that we had anticipated when we thought we could be doing the work over the summer was about $26,000 per unit on average. Every unit is a little bit different, so I'm using averages here. The actual trend based on the budgets that, or the bids that have been awarded and the procurement of the materials is trending about $34,325 per unit. The highlighted part here in yellow will show what our estimate was for phase one, increment one, was $2,970,000. The bid actually came in at $2,993,000. and you can see the unit cost, this is just for installation, not materials, is $30,232 per unit. Just looking at the differences in the bid climate between the two bids, you can see that the estimate using the same calculations for increment two was $5,313,000 or $5,310,000 And the bid came in at $4,233,000 for an average unit cost of $23,915. As Ms. Dillon-Cruz pointed out, under the initial Measure G program, the district had incrementally replaced antiquated HVAC units. over several years. 117 units were replaced between 2010 and 2016. On August 20, 2020, the board allocated just $3.3 million for further HVAC improvements, with the remaining $7.8 million in Measure G bond funds. We worked with the district and issued an RQ for architectural services, selected an architect, and had them start working on helping us assess what little funds we had available, which are the most important units to replace with the limited funds. This was a pretty arduous task because all of these units were of the same vintage. So trying to figure out which is going to fail first, we had spent a lot of time on that before COVID hit. As assessments were being made, the COVID pandemic emerged. And the district recognized an endeavor to meet the CDC and ASHRAE evolving guidelines for bringing in fresh air and increasing air exchanges, among other COVID precautionary measures, until the units could be replaced. Concurrently, the district M&O department engaged in a pretty detailed endeavor to try and work with the existing units, because as you know, between spring and fall, We thought we were going to open school. We had to pull back. We thought we were going to open school again. So we had to make sure that the units we have bring in sufficient fresh air and sufficient air exchanges to meet the CDC and NASHRA requirements. That effort and findings was coordinated with the architect and mechanical engineer. And consequently, there was some changes, both additional and units that we thought that are still in good shape and can maintain until the district can find other funds. So we tried to focus on just the ones that we had to absolutely replace to meet the requirements. As COVID emerged, it became apparent that the remedial work on the existing mechanical units, on some of the existing mechanical units, may not be able to sustain long-term. And the district sought to expand the budget to replace all it could to ensure proper safety measures. Discrepancies in prior assessments were recognized, as well as the full deteriorated conditions of the existing equipment. All while the district was still doing repairs, trying to keep the old units operating as well as it could, while we were ordering and starting to replace these units. Accordingly, yes, our preliminary estimates fluctuated as engineering progressed, and the state regulatory agency, DSA, reviewed each application. As a result, and as I reported before, the budgets that we were looking at in June, we hoped and expected that we would be able to install, if not all, a good amount of these units over the summer during regular time hours. As I mentioned before, the units had been budgeted less originally when we had the summer window and have increased as a result of a number of factors. Among the principal factors for some of the cost increases include, as everybody is aware, the largest inflationary index this United States has experienced in many years, coupled with supply chain issues, resulting in a more difficult and higher bid climate fluctuation. Added scope, including more energy management control upgrades than was anticipated originally. Increased testing and balancing requirements for COVID. The addition of weather coding on each of these units, as we saw that some of the units that were replaced prior as early or as recently as 2014 and 16 were already showing signs of rust. And most of the work, instead of occurring over the summer, is occurring in overtime and double time at prevailing wages. These are the biggest cost factors that the district is facing in trying to maintain and improve the district's mechanical systems. Next slide, please. This is just a recap to show where we are today. All of the phase one work is done except for the junior high schools, 60 units that are being installed in March. We're really down to just punch list now and final billings, O&M manuals, as-built drawings, some training for the district staff. Eric is expecting to bring the increment one project budget updated at the next meeting. And as I mentioned before, we anticipate just a slight decrease in the overall contract amount. Next slide. So this slide we showed before, this is really just to show how that the high school was coordinated around school activities. We had explained this before, so I won't take too much time. I know you have a long agenda. But the orange boxes show actually where the crane sat and how they had to move it around to install these units incrementally. And then we just have a few pictures to show on the replacements. projects, this is the crane installing units at Memorial High School. This is another slide. This is at Schilling. And this is also at Schilling. And this is the replacement project in general. Able to address any questions? and always available to meet with any board members, bond oversight, community members that wants to talk in more detail and understand more about the evolution of this important project for the district. And if anybody is interested, please contact Dr. Triplett, Ms. Delacruz, and I'm happy to make myself available.

[17649] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Caputo.

[17650] SPEAKER_54: Any questions or comments from the board

[17653] Phuong Nguyen: Member Zhang?

[17654] Bowen Zhang: I think one of the original reasons we asked for this report is we really just want to know how many more contracts that the board needs to approve and in what amount. I think that's just the clarity the board is seeking. The newer junior high school, I think after the first phase of approval, we only have one more phase to approve for. Or there's... Yeah, so... Oh, sorry.

[17677] Marie dela Cruz: What's left is phase two. So, phase two will be the... remaining units that are going through DSA review and design with the architects. So I believe there was 41 units there, Ralph, Mr. Caputo?

[17696] Bowen Zhang: Yes, that was on, I believe, slide... And what is the amount, the financial amount that we're expecting?

[17705] Marie dela Cruz: The budget for that is about 2.4 million.

[17715] SPEAKER_54: Any other questions or comments?

[17716] SPEAKER_32: Yeah, that would be on the slide here. Slide four. I also provide full detailed Excel spreadsheets. They just don't fit on the slide, so we summarize them. But they've been submitted before in board packets. Probably should have had more frequent updates. We do very comprehensive budgets. We track them. We update them routinely. And my apologies to Mr. Tam because he's having to cut back and forth and is looking at materials that in some cases are a little bit dated or evolved. And I apologize for his efforts in that regard.

[17760] SPEAKER_54: Member Grindel?

[17763] Terrence Grindall: I guess I want to restate Member Zhang's question. Do we expect any further contracts or changes that are going to be coming to the board, or is everything that you need to do to get the project done in hand?

[17779] SPEAKER_32: The two projects that are under construction now had nominal allowances in each one. And pretty much where we're standing right now on increment one is we expect to close that out with a slight savings, a couple thousand dollars. Increment to I still have a contingency appropriated for that because we haven't done the junior high school yet So until we see what kind of dry rot roofing conditions But we have budget we have contingency in there that I think is adequate for that Any other questions or comments if possible I just have one quick point a lot of the savings that we had in the planning and We're coming from the POs that we brought to the board in December for commissioning and, you know, I told you those were on T&M not to exceed. What we experienced over the last couple of months is that the contractor has, both contractors have really stepped up good to do a lot of their own testing, balancing and professional reports. So we've dialed those and we were able to meet the COVID protocol without a lot of effort from the commissioning agent or the testing and balancing. So I've dialed those budgets down, but I'm still hoping we can find some savings on that. But I had to leave money in there because most of the work they really need to do is just checking, not doing the balancing. And most of it is just working with the EMS system that we still have some supply chain issues on. And we just want to make sure that when all of this is done, they're dialed in right, that Susan can work on the computer and adjust things without having the difficulties that they've faced over the last couple of years.

[17895] Terrence Grindall: If you don't mind. No, go ahead. No, I appreciate that input. I do think the commissioning is important, but it's good that you were able to work with the contractor to minimize those costs. So thank you.

[17909] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Caputo.

[17912] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Mr. Caputo.

[17922] Phuong Nguyen: On to new business. Item 12.1, contract with Think Together for after-school programming. And are there any public comments online?

[17933] SPEAKER_54: Thank you. Dr. Triplett.

[17936] Mark Triplett: Thank you. I'm going to turn this over to Ms. Pierce, who can explain briefly about what this is.

[17943] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Absolutely. So this is the contract that's associated with the plan that was delivered to everyone in our last board meeting. So this is now the Think Together after school contract that will support in after school, Think Together after school programming for 75 students at Lincoln for the remainder of the year, a total of 84 school days for up to four hours a day. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer. But I believe this is a part of the plan that we approved last board meeting.

[17973] SPEAKER_54: Any comments or questions? Additional comments or questions? Member Zhang?

[17979] Bowen Zhang: No, I just, I'm ready to make the motion.

[17981] SPEAKER_54: Okay.

[17984] Phuong Nguyen: May I get a second?

[17986] Bowen Zhang: I move that we approve the Think Together contract in support of our approved EO-P plan.

[17992] Phuong Nguyen: Motion made by Member Zhang. I second. And seconded by Member Marquez. How do you vote, Student Member Rendiz-Artiz?

[18001] SPEAKER_20: Yes.

[18001] Phuong Nguyen: Oh, I keep saying it wrong. We're getting close. Member Zhang?

[18008] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[18010] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Grendel?

[18015] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[18016] Phuong Nguyen: And myself, yes, as well. So five ayes. Onto item 12.2. And I do believe we have a public comment. Ms. Cindy Parks.

[18044] Cindy Parks: Good evening. Why did the district hold back on findings outlined in the audit report? Are we to believe this information wasn't known when the unaudited actuals came out or at first interim, is no one to be held accountable for this revenue audit adjustment of over $650,000 that was mentioned in the LCAP presentation this evening? For quite a while now, several community members like myself have questioned financial expenditures, processes, and internal controls. The lack of proper processes and internal controls has been revealed in this Newark Unified audit. Concerning the $221,000 HR audit finding, those teachers should have recognized their credential had expired. Plus, they received notification from the CTC along with Newark Unified is my understanding. I'm glad to see there is now a six-step detailed process in the findings to prevent this from happening again. The unduplicated local control finding formula pupil count error with this total supplemental and concentration audit adjustment of $436,000 is reprehensible. The report states 44 out of 60 students were tested from CALPADS and they did not have the appropriate supporting documentation on file to justify the free and reduced designation. In the past when this was a finding, it was 1 to 60. Personally, I have never seen a Newark Unified audit finding with such a large financial impact. We know the audit reporting indicates that there were students who are classified as only free and reduced with non-EL that did not have the appropriate supporting documentation on file to justify the meal designation. I found the alternative application form and the document with the instructions on how to capture the date, time, and name of the student's adult household member spoken to, along with the date, time, name, and signature of the staff member who called. Is this some of the information that was lacking? Unfortunately, we don't see a succinct remedy as we did with the HR finding. Instead, we get a vague action plan about importing, exporting information that will now have checks and balances to ensure the accuracy of student information contained within the EduPoint or CENERGY program and then report to CALPADS. Clearly the IT department either entered incorrect student information or entered student information without proper supporting documentation on file in the Synergy and CalPADS system that caused the $436,000 finding. The Christy White attached letter might lead the community to believe Newark Unified had a clean audit. I hope their representative will address in detail these findings when they speak this evening. Finally, I hope you are willing to publicly ask the difficult questions of your administrative staff, letting us taxpayers know you find the lack of internal controls unacceptable. Someone needs to be accountable for this over $651,000 revenue loss. Thank you.

[18231] SPEAKER_54: Thank you, Ms. Parts. Dr. Triplett?

[18236] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Wendt. So we have our external auditor here, I believe, to present on the report. I do want to just say up front that what you'll see in here is certain sections of the audit that were very positive, but then one particular section, the state compliance section, to have these three findings, which are very disconcerting and we take very seriously. So we, as you'll hear later on in the presentation, we have done our own investigation, and that's ongoing, and already identified steps to address some of these findings and to correct, take corrective actions. So with that, I'll turn it over to Ms. Delacruz.

[18289] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Yes, tonight we have Ms. Heather Rubio. The PowerPoint says Mr. Kyle Montgomery, but they switched. They have several board presentations. And tonight we have Ms. Rubio who's a principal from the Christy White Auditing Firm who will present the audit report. And we really appreciate, you know, all the critical work that they do and what they did. They usually visit our district two to three times a year and perform various tests involving our financials, our policies, our procedures, and compliance with state and federal guidelines. And as Dr. Triplett mentioned, we do acknowledge, you know, that there are three findings in this report. They're not related to our financials or controls or the federal programs, but all related to state program compliance. There are no repeat findings from last year. We do take all our findings seriously and we've already taken measures to address some of the areas where we need to make improvements and done our investigations and ongoing process this year to make sure that this doesn't happen next year. With that, I'm just going to go ahead and turn it over to Ms. Rubio.

[18388] SPEAKER_48: Okay, good evening. Thank you for having me. I was planning on going over the highlighting the opinions of the report and the procedures that we get, that we do to get the opinion, and in addition, going through the findings that have been discussed earlier. You are welcome to ask me any questions throughout the presentation or at the end. or anything related to the audit report, I'm happy to address. Okay, if you just want to move on to the next slide. In summary, we as the auditors are providing three different opinions. One is related to the financial statements, the numbers in the financial report. There's also an additional report related to the internal controls over those numbers. The second one is federal, and the third is state. And so what I'm going to do is tell you the opinions we've had for each of these areas and the procedures we do to get those opinions. So if you move on to the next slide. Yes. So the first one is your opinion on the financial statements. You have received an unmodified opinion. This doesn't sound fancy, but it is the best opinion you can get. So actually, an unmodified opinion is A+. So as far as the numbers and the financial statements, That is your cash, your accounts payable, your revenues, your expenses. We believe that those numbers are stated correct materially with all generally accepted accounting principles. So again, you received an unmodified opinion and we as auditors agree with those numbers. So if you go on to the next slide, how do we get that opinion? Well, again, we are talking about, we're looking at the controls you have in place of those numbers. We're looking at the segregation of duties. Examples include when you have cash, is there a bank reconciliation? Is someone signing off from bank reconciliation? Does it match what's at the bank? When you have accounts payable, is there a purchase order? Are the purchase orders correctly numbered? Are the account codes correct? Are the expenditures allowable for the source of funds? Are there correct signatures? And are you following the process? And again, is there a segregation of duties throughout that whole process? So that we can rely on the numbers. So we as auditors are looking at those controls and then we are testing to those controls. So that we can verify the numbers are correct. And I want to state that we came across no significant deficiencies and no material weaknesses in this area, which is a great job. Again, we didn't come across any issues with the numbers in the financial statements. Okay. If you want to go to the next slide. Because you're a local education agency and you're receiving federal monies, the Office of Management and Budget puts out an audit guide each year. Even more difficult is that they put out an audit guide this year for specific funds, and that audit guide came out after you received the funds. And so there was a lot of work that the district was involved in with the auditors, the CDE, in determining the allowable use. Those programs selected this year were your education stabilization funds, more commonly known as GEER, SRS, two, and gonna be three, Coronavirus Relief Funds, that's your CRF, your Child Nutrition Cluster, and your Child and Adult Care Food Program. So what we did here is we tested for allowable expenditures, we tested the time, so did you use the funds within the allowable time, and the reporting. And I wanna say that we did not come across any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. Another very expenditure-heavy testing very difficult area and you guys did a wonderful job. You received an unmodified opinion. Okay. On to the third slide or the next slide. Third opinion. And here we have the state compliance opinion. So every year the state puts out an audit guide. State controller's office and auditors and a large group of people work together to put together the state audit guide. This audit guide changes from year to year. It's changed significantly in the last year and is changing significantly next year, mainly due to changes in law. So whenever there's a Senate bill or a change to law, it ends up in the state audit guide. A very difficult area to get an unmodified opinion in. One, because the state doesn't have a materiality threshold. And two, the procedures are very specific and they change from year to year. In this area, you did receive a qualified opinion, and there are three significant deficiencies we came across, and I will discuss those in a little bit more detail. We didn't come across any material weaknesses. So if you want to go on to the next slide, I will describe those. Oh, I just want to point out that one of the big areas for state compliance this year, and the big word everyone heard when I say this year, I mean 2021, was distance learning. And in this area, which is one of the hardest areas, because the guidance was changing as you were in distance learning, the district did a wonderful job. They did not have any findings in the distance learning area. For 21-22, the big thing is going to be the independent study program, the in-person instruction grant, and the ELO grant testing, because those are new additions. So just things to take a look at. So this changes from year to year. And then on to the next slide. This is a summary of our honors result. It's basically a summary of everything I've just said. We have an unmodified opinion for financial and federal rewards, and then we have the qualified opinion for the state awards. Okay. Do you want to go on to the next slide? So the first finding related to the state compliance area is the unduplicated pupil counts. The quick summary of this is that we pull your on duplicated CalPADS reports and pull a sample. And here we did come across 44 out of 60 students that did not have a correct free and reduced meal program form on file. The thing with CalPADS, and I think you heard mentioned earlier in a report, is there are multiple data points for CalPADS. So it's an area that has different parts of an organization working on it. So the result is the district is not in compliance with the state requirement. Again, the state's very specific. And so the students were misclassified and we requested that they be removed from the CALPADS reporting. Okay. Do you want to go on to the next slide? The district, again, we recommend the district work on the controls in this specific area. And I know Mrs.dela Cruz will go into some detail of the corrective action plan after I go through the next couple of items. Okay, next slide. The next one is the teacher certification. In this case, we pull teachers from all our sites that we select for testing. And we also verify their credentials on the Commission of Teacher Credentialing website. We did come across two teachers, two separate instances, one for an entire year and one for 22 days, that did not have the proper credential on file. This was not a finding from last year. And the district has outlined a plan that will be discussed after I go on to the next finding. This is the instructional materials finding. Interestingly enough, it's been a common finding for the last two years. One, the state's no longer assigned dollars to this area. And I think because of COVID and Zoom meetings, there's been some difficulty in implementation. In this case, the district did not post the notice 10 days prior to the hearing. I think it was around seven days. There is no fiscal impact of this finding. Do you want to go on to the next slide?

[18898] SPEAKER_58: Oh, is that it?

[18901] SPEAKER_48: Oh, perfect. Overall, I want to report that the district did a great job with the financial statements, the requested samples, the new funding for federal funds, and the distance learning. The other three areas we've come across, I think, are related to the state compliance areas as mentioned. And I know that Ms.dela Cruz will speak to the corrective action plan.

[18932] Marie dela Cruz: So with the finding related to the unduplicated pupil count, there are several data points that we work with and three different software systems. One is the CNS system, which is Mosaic. And then our student information system, which is Synergy. And then all of that gets fed into CALPADS. So our corrective action plan is really working with all of our software providers and making sure that we take all of the steps necessary to validate the data between each data point. Because when we're transferring data from Mosaic to Synergy and then from Synergy to CALPADS, there's a validation process that needs to take place to make sure that the data from one point to the other is accurate. So in some cases, as you know, because last year we were all in distance learning and students were receiving free meals, there's some data that was carried over from the prior year where they were qualified as free and reduced. and may not have qualified or turned in the paperwork last year. So those are the kinds of things that we're working on. We've already taken the steps and have met several times with our student information system provider, EduPoint. And they've helped us identify steps and starting to document what those steps are. So our goal this year for next year's audit for this year is that we won't have any discrepancies. So this is disturbing to us as well. And we've been working really hard to make sure that we correct it.

[19064] Mark Triplett: Then next, Ms. Ingham-Watters, do you want to speak on the corrective employees.

[19077] Catheerine Ingham-Watters: Sure. As Ms. Rubio mentioned, it is the employee's responsibility to ensure that they renew their credentials and they do in fact receive email notifications from both directly from the CTC as well as from our office. There is definitely a need to tighten controls to ensure that they do in fact go on and renew their credentials. And so our corrective plan is six steps, which I'd like to go over this evening. Starting with step one, right when a teacher is onboarded as a new hire, his or her credential is checked and formally verified by HR through the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the CCTC. The verification is printed and a copy is placed in their personnel file of the new hire. In addition, the credential information is entered into an HR confidential database that is considered a running record used by human resources to track expiration dates of all credentials in NUSD. Step two, each year on the day prior to the first day of school, the credential running record document will be printed and carefully reviewed to ensure that all credentials are up to date. Step three, on the first workday of each month, the manager of HR certificated will check the credential running record to review and confirm that any and all credentials are intact and to prepare notices for any certificated staff whose credential will expire within the next three months. So step four. Now we're at the three-month prior mark. Three months prior to a credential expiring, the manager of HR Certificated will email a letter to the certificated employee with copies to his or her supervisor, his or her union president, and the executive director of HR, notifying him or her of the impending credential expiration date. In addition, the email will specify how to renew the credential, whom to notify in HR when the credential renewal is completed, and will offer contact and support information from HR. There definitely is a number of weeks for the CTC to process when you go online. And so we offer specifically for folks to take a screenshot or a copy of their receipt and send that to us. So we may not see it right away on the platform, but we know it's in progress. Step five, if the certificated employee has not notified and verified with HR that the credential renewal process has been completed, One month prior to the credential expiring, the manager of HR Certificated will issue a certified letter to the employee, again, with copies to the employee supervisor, union president, and myself. The letter will state that HR has not received notification, and if the credential expires, the employee will be placed on unpaid leave until such time as the credential is renewed. And then finally, step six, if the employee has not completed the renewal and notified HR by two weeks prior, a second and final certified letter will be prepared by the manager of HR Certificated and issued to the employee by the executive director of HR with copies to the supervisor and the union president reiterating the placement on unpaid leave if the deadline is not met. and then enforcing the paid leave, the unpaid leave at that time and providing a sub or another teacher in that class. But offers of support along the way.

[19332] Marie dela Cruz: And on the third finding, it has to do with the annual sufficiency of instructional materials public hearing and with this, We're adding the item to our governor's calendar, set as a reminder that this happens every year, and provide training to staff to make sure that we meet the 10-day window. We missed it by four or five days this year. Last year. Three days, sorry.

[19366] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Are there any comments or questions from the board? Member Marquez?

[19373] SPEAKER_29: Thank you. My question would be with regards to the penalties or fines that we incurred from the two findings in regard to the credential as well as the duplicated pupil count. Is in fact the fees or fines that we were incurred can they be paid this this academic school year or this fiscal year versus next year and if so would we receive some type of decrease in fine or is there something that we could do to remedy the cost due to the circumstance especially with keeping in mind that it was during the pandemic and the students were distance learning so that the food delivery in itself was handled differently right it's not our traditional and so it could be right as from a parent perspective that because the the way that the food was being distributed at that time or the form. So I'm just curious to see if there's something we could do to remedy that cost.

[19434] SPEAKER_48: Would you like me, is it for me?

[19437] Marie dela Cruz: Oh, go ahead. Ms. Rubio?

[19440] SPEAKER_48: Yes, I can answer that if you'd like. When a finding goes into the audit report, you do have an option to appeal with the Education Audit Appeals Panel. But an appeal is a lengthy process and you usually have to, it doesn't usually reduce the dollar amount from experience in the past. So state compliance is very, you know, really specific on how the calculation is done, I guess is the only, as far as I'm aware. But you can always try. But that would be the process, is that you would submit that to the Educational Audit Appeals Panel.

[19486] Mark Triplett: Thank you, Ms. Rubio. And just for the board's knowledge, we have been working with the county to explore the possibility of an appeal. And we are intending to move forward with that. Ms. Delacruz, did you want to speak any more about the question from Board Member Marquez?

[19505] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, if we are assessed the penalty, it will come out of next year's allocation. So usually they will adjust our allocation for next year.

[19520] SPEAKER_54: Thank you. Member Hill.

[19524] Aiden Hill: Thank you. So this is I have a couple of questions for Ms. Rubio. The first question is, Ms. Rubio, did you serve on this particular audit?

[19533] SPEAKER_48: I did not serve on this particular audit. I did review this audit, and I did review the work papers.

[19539] Aiden Hill: OK, because there are a couple of questions, and I don't know how much you coordinated with Mr. Montgomery. But was your firm aware? So my name's Aiden Hill, and I'm a board member, and I'm also the chair of the audit committee. And we met last February. And at that point, we were requesting that we have more regular meetings with the auditors and as an audit committee. And even in the minutes of that particular meeting, I'm reading, I'm quoting, the committee expressed an interest in meeting more frequently. Ms. Dela Cruz was asked to coordinate with Mr. Montgomery for the best timing for the next meeting. Most likely it will be scheduled around the time Christy White does their spring audit. But we never had any meetings around the audit and I don't I don't know if if you if your firm's I mean if there's any explanation for why because the first time that we as an audit committee actually saw this information was in January of this year and you know I'm quite concerned given that what we learned from this most recent audit committee meeting is that these findings, right, so we're talking about a total of $657,000 that potentially we're going to have to pay back to the state. I'm very concerned that this was not raised, especially since this information was known in June of last year. Do you have any details on why the audit committee wasn't informed of this issue?

[19647] SPEAKER_48: I do not have any details as to when our firm realized that it was the full issue. With the way I just know from audits that I've been conducting is we asked for this information around June, but a lot of districts were not able to get it to us right away because of the way we've been doing audits. So I don't know if that played a factor in this particular audit.

[19675] Aiden Hill: What Mr. Montgomery had told us. So we have some public members. One is actually an accountant. And in the last meeting, he specifically asked, when did we know about this issue? And Mr. Montgomery responded in June of last year.

[19693] SPEAKER_48: So he did know. Yeah, I don't know.

[19699] Aiden Hill: The second question I had is, as you were going through basically your process at a high level of what you audit and basically your findings, one of the areas is related to internal controls. And in your letter in the beginning, I'm not sure the proper terminology, But you basically explain, and this is pretty standard procedure for accounting firms to say, that you're not auditing every single process, and you're not looking at every single piece of data. And in the section that you were talking about internal controls, I believe you said that in terms of deficiencies or findings, you said that there were none reported. Is that correct?

[19755] SPEAKER_48: Yes, as far as the related to the financial statements. So essentially, the way that the reason the terminology is there is because we're specifically looking at those that relate to the numbers in the financial statements.

[19767] Aiden Hill: Okay, so were your firm informed that there were issues that were in questions and potential issues related to internal controls last fall? There were members of the public that brought forward information that indicated there could be concerns around purchase orders, contracts, and payments, and segregation of duty, and the associated internal controls. And that I, as the audit chairman, had requested from Dr. Triplett and Ms. Dela Cruz, both in public meetings as well as in emails, that this was a serious issue and that we wanted to schedule a meeting with the auditors to discuss this. Were you informed of this request?

[19816] SPEAKER_48: I don't know if Kyle was informed of the request. But I do know that if it was in the board meetings we would have seen that at least. Because we do review your board meetings as part of our procedures. So I don't know if he.

[19834] Aiden Hill: So I guess that.

[19837] SPEAKER_48: I apologize. I don't know if he was. But I do know that if we were made aware we would adjust our procedures increase the risk and pull an additional sample. You know, so there are procedures because we, you know, we do encounter them.

[19852] Aiden Hill: Right. And again, I mean, I think that you would need to be, you need to understand actually what the potential issue is, um, right before you were able to respond. Um, and so, you know, and, and I just want to remind everybody, cause I'm looking at the, at the, uh, NUSD audit committee charter matrix and our responsibilities. So, In the beginning it says section B, review the plan for the audit process with the independent auditor to determine the adequacy of the nature, scope, and timetable of the audit. We did not participate in that as an audit committee last year. And then also review the results of the audit and participate with the independent auditor and management preparing final recommendations and responses. Again, we were not involved in that. And I'm particularly concerned given that There were potential issues, and I still have an outstanding request to understand what are the internal controls that were tested as a part of the procure-to-pay process. And we still haven't seen anything there. And so, again, I'm not sure if Mr. Montgomery is going to be the person handling this next year. or this year rather, but I think that we need to get that on your radar screen to actually meet and discuss what the issues are, make sure that we have a plan for reviewing this.

[19937] SPEAKER_48: Yes, I agree. I can go into a little bit of our procedures for procurement. We do look at public contract code. We select all construction contracts and select a sample and look at the formal and informal bidding process. In addition, if there are federal funds spent on contracts, there is an additional procurement procedures related to that, very specific to federal funds. And we do test that.

[19964] Aiden Hill: OK. All right.

[19965] SPEAKER_48: Thank you. And change orders is another piece. We do pull change orders on contracts and then are looking for anything that goes over it.

[19975] Aiden Hill: The information that was raised, and again, it needs confirmation, is really related to potential payments that were made without the purchase orders in place, which you obviously know is a violation of segregation of duties.

[19990] SPEAKER_48: Right. And that is another large test we do, is that we pull a large expenditure sample first based on materiality, second based on a haphazard sample. So it's not entirely random, but somewhat haphazard. And one of the attributes we're looking at specifically is that there is a purchase order. So there is some sort of prior approval to the invoice date. So it's specifically looking at purchase order date. One, is there a purchase order? Are the correct signatures there? And two, looking at the date of the invoice. So if the invoice date comes before the purchase order rate, there's something wrong. Also looking at the signatures and who's allowed to approve those. Who's, you know, putting in the requisition, making the purchase order, who's approving, and then finally paying.

[20039] Aiden Hill: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Rubio. And those are the only questions I have for you, but I do have a comment later once everybody's asked their questions.

[20050] SPEAKER_54: Member Grindell?

[20052] Terrence Grindall: Yes. I want to thank you for your efforts on this, and I am very gratified to know that we have an unmodified audit, and that's a relief. and we really appreciate your effort and staff's effort in getting to that. When it comes to the findings that have to do with the state reporting, I do want to understand the finding that had to do with the unmodified, the unduplicated students. Was this essentially a computer glitch where tables didn't match or was this resulting from was this resulting from the actually not having the documentation that we need? In other words, were these students eligible for lunches and we just didn't have documentation? Or was it just reported incorrectly?

[20113] Marie dela Cruz: It was a combination. The data was not validated and reported correctly. And the documentation was missing on the students that were in the CALPADS report. So in some cases, they were carried over from one year to the next. And so they were still in the data as being free and reduced because, you know, there's that window between school years where if they qualified last year, then they still qualify for, I think, 30 days. So there was some of that data going on and being transferred from one system to another.

[20150] Terrence Grindall: Great. So in the case that someone no longer qualified, they wouldn't be eligible for, we wouldn't be eligible for those funds. If a student's income had increased or it wasn't just a matter of not filling out the form, if they were no longer qualified for the program, that's money the district's not really due if we had reported properly, right? That's not, it's like they accidentally sent us more funds. It's not like that. It's not like we've lost money so much as that. And the other issue, of course, is obviously the fact that lunches were being given free to all students reduced the motivation for families to fill out the paperwork. I'm assuming that that played a role.

[20206] Marie dela Cruz: Yes. Definitely, yes.

[20209] Mark Triplett: Yes, it made it much more challenging and continues to be challenging to get get the forms from families, because no one is.

[20218] Terrence Grindall: They don't need to. Exactly. Sorry to answer your question. I have one more. When it comes to this certification, I just want to be clear, this was not a new hire issue, right? These were people who had been hired and had proper certifications and they were they expired for whatever reason. And there was just there wasn't the check that was now going to be in place with the six. I just want to want to be clear. It wasn't an oversight of hiring unqualified teachers or uncertified teachers. It was just it's really a paperwork renewal process. I want clarification on that.

[20260] Catheerine Ingham-Watters: That is that is clear. You are correct. They were eligible to renew. They had all of the qualifications. They had all of the background and requirements and schooling and everything. So student facing, they were still present with the students. They had a lapse credential, but it wasn't like, they weren't eligible, they hadn't met the requirements, etc. So that's exactly right.

[20290] Terrence Grindall: Thank you. I want to be clear with that, that we're not talking about unqualified teachers, we're talking about state paperwork. That's correct. Thank you.

[20299] SPEAKER_54: Thank you. Member Marquez, do you have any comments?

[20302] Phuong Nguyen: Okay, thank you. So I just wanted to, I know that Member Hill had made a comment stating that he hadn't received the delegation of authority. And I just wanted to point out that Dr. Triplett had sent it to us on January 15th. So and then also in regards to the data collection for the unduplicated people, since we're going to You're looking at data from three different systems. Is there a way for us to, is there a way for us to evaluate and see if there's a possibility of integrating or having an interface built so that once the data is entered, it can go into the other two systems so that you guys don't have to export data out and then reimport data into other systems?

[20370] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, we're hoping that that's something that Mosaic and Synergy can help us with. Because I think our previous IT director was working on something like that. OK. But I don't know that they were able to do that. I mean, Mosaic works with several districts. So I can't imagine they don't have a solution for this.

[20398] Phuong Nguyen: OK. I'm going to help you guys take a look at it. Thank you.

[20402] Marie dela Cruz: OK, thank you.

[20404] Phuong Nguyen: OK, member Hill.

[20407] Aiden Hill: Yes, so. So again, right, I'm I'm. Disappointed and frustrated in how this process worked. Because again, the purpose that we the board has, we have a fiduciary responsibility for oversight and the Audit Committee in particular has been delegated. the authority to be much more involved in that. And we really weren't included last year. And I understand that mistakes happen, and some are avoidable, some are not. But really what isn't excusable in this situation is when we had a major issue come up that it was not escalated properly, or it wasn't escalated. So we're talking about a $657,000 miss And this is money that we potentially have to pay back to the state. And if we put it in context, our school mergers and closure, we were talking about potentially saving a million bucks from that effort. And here, if we do end up having to pay this back in the form of less funding from the state in the next year, that's consumed 66% of those projected savings. So it's a big deal, and I think that if, you know, it wasn't raised to us in June, it wasn't raised to us in September when the unaudited actuals were brought forward, and it wasn't raised in the first interim, and I think that these are material issues, and potentially if it were raised earlier, not only could we have been more proactive in dealing with some of this, but also I think it would have informed our discussion around the goals for this year, the superintendent goals, if we were going to take such a big hit. So, you know, I'm disappointed that that's happened. And then just a follow-up, President Nguyen, because I might have said this in a confusing way. You're correct that we had requested delegation of authority information from Dr. Triplett and Ms.dela Cruz, and they did provide that. But what I was asking for specifically was the internal controls. And so it's basically, these are like the checks and balances. It's like, where are the checks specifically happening? And then what are the accountants using? What are the tests that they're using to validate that the internal controls are working? And that's why it was important to actually meet with the accountants so that we could review these specific issues. Because as they said, they do not do an exhaustive test of this. And so it's really our responsibility to actually alert them to this so that they can perform additional tests and investigate.

[20577] Phuong Nguyen: No, I don't disagree with you. But I think that there are three different, they're looking at three different, what was the word that she used? So basically, financial, three different opinions. So basically, there's the financial piece, the federal, and the state. So you're asking for internal controls for which one? The financials? Well, the financials, I think they came out OK. Internal controls in terms of the state findings or the federal findings?

[20611] Aiden Hill: No, so I'm talking about the, so I'm disappointed in the lack of communication around the state findings here, right? So the free and reduced price meal and then also the teacher certifications, right? So I'm disappointed in that. But when we're talking about internal controls, I'm talking about financial controls, and I'm talking about procure to pay, and issues related to contracts. And although there was- We had a study session in regards to- Hold on, hold on. We had a high level discussion about this, and a high level document, but we did not have to the level that the accountants do in terms of internal controls. and that was the information that I was requesting and also I was requesting that we meet with the auditor to discuss this specific issue so that we can confirm the process and do additional testing if necessary to make sure there are no issues. And that was never provided and that was never scheduled.

[20675] Bowen Zhang: Point of order, I think we're going over the 30 minute limit for the item. We're like almost 40 minutes. Generally, I think our own policy says each item together should be less than 30 minutes.

[20685] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you.

[20686] Aiden Hill: So I'm happy to make a motion. So I'd like to move.

[20691] Phuong Nguyen: There's no action on this item?

[20693] Aiden Hill: There is. It says type of action.

[20695] Phuong Nguyen: I'm sorry.

[20697] Aiden Hill: So I move to accept with also the condition that a future report on what specifically happened with the free and reduced price meal you know, issue that we have a real report that diagnoses what happened and then also a project plan put together to remediate so that we don't have this happen again for the next year.

[20727] SPEAKER_54: Member Grindel.

[20727] Terrence Grindall: Point of order. Can I just understand the what is meant by real report in that regard?

[20735] Aiden Hill: So what I mean is, is that we had a less than a a paragraph description of what the issues are. And I think that we need a more detailed analysis of exactly what went wrong so that we can put together a proper remediation plan.

[20753] SPEAKER_58: Just a point of clarification here.

[20756] Aiden Hill: Member Hill, can you please restate the addition to the motion that you... Okay, so move to accept including a future report on the free and reduced price meal issue, what went wrong, and a project plan to remediate that for the following year.

[20783] Marie dela Cruz: Can I just ask a question? Are you asking the auditors to add that to this report, or are you asking staff?

[20788] Aiden Hill: No, staff.

[20789] Marie dela Cruz: Because the report has to be accepted as is, unless you're asking for certain revisions.

[20796] Phuong Nguyen: I have a compromise for Member Hill. So, Member Hill, can you make that request during the request portion of the agenda? Your second part of it. That's fine. Thank you. Okay, any other questions or comments?

[20819] Terrence Grindall: I'll second the motion if it's simply to... No, we need an original motion.

[20824] SPEAKER_29: We need a new motion. Madam President, I'm ready to provide a motion. Thank you. I move that the Board of Education accept the independent audit report that was given to us for the fiscal year ending June 30th of 2020 as presented. 2021, excuse me, as presented. I'll second.

[20846] Phuong Nguyen: Motion made by Member Marquez, seconded by Member Grindell. How do you vote, Member Zhang? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Grindell? Yes. Myself, yes. Thank you.

[20861] SPEAKER_58: Thank you, Ms. Rubio.

[20865] Maria Huffer: Thank you.

[20870] Phuong Nguyen: Okay, we're moving on to consent agenda. Personnel items, may I get a motion to approve item 13.2, 13.3, and 13.4? Sorry. Oh, sorry. We pulled 13.4. May I get a motion to approve 13.2, 13.3?

[20888] Bowen Zhang: I move that we appoint 13.2 personnel report and 13.3 classified seniority list.

[20900] Terrence Grindall: I'll second.

[20902] Phuong Nguyen: Motion made by member Zhang. Seconded by Member Grindel. How do you vote, Member Jean?

[20908] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[20909] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Grindel? Yes. And I also vote yes as well. It's five ayes. Okay, on to consent agenda non-personnel items.

[20928] Aiden Hill: Yes. Can we pull item 14.4 to say

[20936] SPEAKER_58: Yes. Same as the speaker. Same as the speaker. OK.

[20941] Phuong Nguyen: And we do have a public comment on item 14.4. So can we go ahead and approve or have a motion to approve item 14.2, 14.3, 14.5, 14.6, and 14.7?

[20959] Terrence Grindall: Yes, I make that motion.

[20960] Phuong Nguyen: And I'll second it. Motion made by member Grindel, seconded by myself. How do you vote? Member Zhang?

[20968] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[20969] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill?

[20972] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[20973] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grindel? Yes. And myself as yes as well. Thank you. Five ayes. Okay, item 14.

[20981] SPEAKER_58: I'm sorry, President Nguyen, do you want to read the donations report?

[20985] Phuong Nguyen: Oh, yes. Before we move on to item 14.4, thank you, Ms. Gutierrez. We will be reading out the donation reports for this month. Thank you, Dr. Triplett.

[21000] Mark Triplett: With pleasure. So we are appreciating the following donations. First is $7,023 for multiple Schilling Elementary Classroom teachers donated by the California Retired Teachers Association Division number 91. Next is $175 for Newark Junior High School classroom teacher, and it was donated by California Retired Teachers Association, also division number 91. $120 for Newark Memorial High School, donated by an anonymous individual PG&E employee donation, and that's for principal's donation. $60 for Ed Services, an anonymous individual PG&E employee donation, that's for Newark Unified School District. $497 for Coyote Hills Elementary, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation, and that's for SDC Sensory Materials and Toys. Aguas Frescas for Newark Memorial High School. That's a donation from Los Gallos Taqueria. And that was specifically for Dia de los Muertos Puente fundraiser. And $500 for Schilling Elementary. That was donated by Catherine Sheving. That's a principal's donation. $2,000 for Newark Memorial High School. That's the Newark Rotary Foundation. donating in particular for Iron Man Wrestling Duels. $2,150 for Newark Junior High. That's for multiple anonymous donations in memory of Lisa Merrill, History Department. $500 for Newark Memorial High. That's from CASBO Northern Section. And it's for the purpose of the Newark Memorial High School Band musical performance. And then lastly, $5,500 individual hand sanitizer bottles for Newark Unified School District donated and being held up right now by President Wynne, donated by Allure Labs, and this was specifically for Newark Unified School District.

[21132] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Public speaker first. Okay, on to item 14.4, Comprehensive School Safety Plan. We do have a public comment. public speaker, Mr. Paul Bretz.

[21151] SPEAKER_28: For expediency purposes I have As stated earlier, my name is Paul Bretz, former principal of Newark Memorial High School. It's my belief that the NUSD board, collectively and individually, desire to hold true to the belief that all schools should be safe. My decision to stand before you today and ask for you to pause the approval of the school site safety plan can best be summed up by the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do because his conscious tells him it is correct. California Education Code 32282.1 states, as a comprehensive school safety plans are reviewed and updated, the legislature encourages the inclusion of clear guidelines for the roles and responsibilities of mental health professionals, community intervention professionals, school counselors, school resource officers, and police officers on school campuses if the school district uses these people. It's been my experience that NUSD has failed to provide guidelines for the roles and responsibilities for individuals related to the investigation of sexual assaults and are therefore not in compliance with Ed Code. In spite of the lack of guidelines and thanks to the work of the Newark Police Department, the district's therapists and counselors are aware of the policies utilized when treating the victims of trauma as they rely on the processes and procedures developed by a San Leandro based company, Calico. whose mission is to ensure victims of assault are not re-traumatized when being asked to recount the sexual assaults and have relationships with every police department in Alameda County. Nowhere will you find reference to Calico in any of the site safety plans. As evidenced by the document that I'm supplying for review today, the procedures and guidelines required to expel a student in Newark Unified undermine student safety when school site administrators are forced to choose between protecting a victim of sex crime and punishing the assailant, particularly when therapists, police and school administrators agree that the victim need more time to heal and that time impedes the investigation and the district's ability to expel due to timelines in completing the investigation. It is also my belief that no NUSD policies exist relative to sexual assault because sexual assault is a crime and therefore the purview and jurisdiction of the police. If this is true, how then can district officers demand school administrators collect a victim statement despite therapists, counselors, and police authorities' recommendations to delay asking the victim to relive the event when that demand is counter to student safety and to victim safety? I further contend that district officials have known about this clash between supporting the victim and expulsion procedures since former HR director Jessica Saavedra ordered former assistant principal of Newark Memorial High School, Dr. Julie Poussaint, to provide details about a sexual assault investigation I authorized in November of 2018. Time. It's also my belief that sexual assault occurred earlier this year, and once again, school administrators were directed by district staff to pressure the victim to provide a written statement.

[21387] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Bretz.

[21388] SPEAKER_28: Your time is up. Pain produces policy. How many more cases of sexual assault?

[21394] Phuong Nguyen: Point of order. Your time is up. Thank you.

[21402] SPEAKER_28: Questions?

[21415] Phuong Nguyen: Any comments? Or actually, 14.4, Dr. Triplett.

[21424] Mark Triplett: I think this was pulled by Member Hill. Was there something to be discussed or any questions?

[21431] Aiden Hill: Yes. So I didn't look at the safety assessments for every school, but I did look at the one for Newark Memorial. And it's because that's where we've been getting a lot of reports from the community. And so apparently California law does require that on a yearly basis that all schools provide a safety assessment and a plan. And part of it is that there is a section that talks about how many issues have been going on. And so I can only read what's here, I don't have any personal knowledge of that. But it says that for the 2021-2022 school year, that there were 193 behavioral referrals. The top three most cited violations were conflict with the peer 67, cutting class 26, and physical altercation 25. And there were, I think, 23% total discipline referrals. And if we kind of look through that report a little bit more, you know, there's policies that I see cited, like, for example, that it says that we have a closed campus. There's policies that say that, you know, essentially kids, when they're not in class, are supposed to sign in and sign out on logs, and that they are supposed to have a pass if they're walking around. Anecdotally, I mean, I think that we've been hearing a lot of information to the contrary. And I don't, although these are policies, I don't really see a plan. And the concern that I have is that if we're going to talk about PBIS, and PBIS is mentioned here, and if we are going to talk about you know, restorative justice and that kind of thing, I think that it actually needs to be tied to the data. And I think that we actually need to start saying, here's specific things that are going on, here's interventions that we're going to try, and we're going to measure and see if we're making improvement. But right now, I don't really see the connection. And I think until we make that connection, We're not going to make improvements here. And as I think everybody knows, we've had a lot of input. We've even had a local realtor send us emails indicating that a lot of families are moving out of the district because of safety concerns at the high school and the junior high school. So I want us to connect the dots, apply whatever strategies we're going to use, and use this type of data to measure our effectiveness and to really make improvements here because it's very important.

[21606] Mark Triplett: Thank you for those comments.

[21609] Bowen Zhang: So I think my understanding is approving the safety plan is sort of an annual formality. I think improving the safety of the school might be another topic in another agenda. So then we'll further engage with the superintendent. With that, I'm ready to make the motion that we approve the plan as presented.

[21628] SPEAKER_29: I second the motion.

[21631] Phuong Nguyen: Motion made by member Zhang, seconded by member Marquez. How do you vote, member Zhang? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill?

[21641] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[21641] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grindel?

[21643] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[21644] Phuong Nguyen: And myself is yes as well. Thank you. On to item 15.1, Board of Education Recognition and Announcements. Member Zhang, do you have any comments?

[21661] Bowen Zhang: Well, just as we continue to celebrate Black History Month, in my industry, we're also celebrating some of the pioneers of African American in early IBM era that made tremendous contributions to the computing industry. Hopefully, everybody else can continue to celebrate Black History Month.

[21679] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Member Zhang. Member Marquez.

[21683] SPEAKER_29: Thank you, Madam President. I, too, want to go ahead and acknowledge as we continue Black History Month through March. First, I wanted to share some important facts and figures. I'm pleased to know that And here we go, if I can read right by eyesight. After years of his actual remarkable work as an attorney, let us give high recognition to Thurgood Marshall, who became the first African-American to serve in the US Supreme Court. He was officially nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the year 1967, where he served as a justice until 1991. So we're looking at 25 years. Another important figure through Black History Month that I'd like to recognize is that after graduating from Oberlin College in 1850 with a literary degree, please know that Lucy Stanton became the first black woman in America to earn a four-year college degree. So she set the milestone and the first step for many to follow people of color. So I want to acknowledge those two. And lastly, And please note that this month is the free youth admission to the Mothership Voyage, which is introducing us to the Afrofuturism exhibit at Oakland Museum, California. And it's free to the youth. It's free admission through February 27th. So you can actually log on or you can to the Oakland Museum of California and get your actual ticket. So again, it's free for ages 13 through 17. So please take advantage.

[21769] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Member Marquez. Member Hill?

[21776] Aiden Hill: So just echoing Member Marquez, and since I'm looking at her computer screen. So she had a bunch of interesting people on there, but one of my heroes was on there, Nat King Cole, so I'd like to acknowledge him as well. But also I would like to acknowledge, because I don't think that we maybe overlook it, But I just wanted this for this session, acknowledge the students in our district, because I think that whenever we deal with students, we really see how much they've been going through over the pandemic. And, you know, it's been really tough. And so and I think that they're soldiering, you know, through and just want to, you know, again thank them appreciate them congratulate them and also you know keep our fingers crossed that maybe we're finally pulling out of this and maybe you are going to return to some more to greater normalcy.

[21839] SPEAKER_54: Thank you member Hill member. Wanted to.

[21843] Terrence Grindall: congratulate the Newark Unified for having a fantastic Black Lives Matter in Newark Day and having the stickers handed out to all the kids and staff was, I think, a great idea. And I'm sure it was appreciated by all of our students and staff. And also, I want to echo my fellow board members in their celebration of Black History Month. And in addition to the students who've been working really hard, I really want to point out that the certificated and certified, classified and certificated staff have done an amazing job. They work very hard for our children and really applaud their work.

[21895] SPEAKER_54: Thank you, Member Grindel.

[21896] Phuong Nguyen: I, too, echo all of my board members' sentiments and in celebration of Black History Month, and also wanted to congratulate all of our wonderful students during their reclassification celebration ceremony. That was wonderful. These students are bilingual, and they are proficient in English also now, and I think that's a huge accomplishment. And it was so wonderful that Dr. Triplett had expressed that the students should still be encouraged to speak in their native tongue and continue to be fluent in their native language. So that's really great. And I hope that they do continue, because I know it's really easy to just pick up on English and then go from there, right? And I also wanted to thank staff for all their hard work. And hopefully, yes, we are at the end of, any huge surges, and so we can maybe come back with some normalcy moving forward. So thank you. Item 15.2, Board of Education Committee Reports. Are there any reports from Mission Valley ROP?

[21983] Terrence Grindall: Member Grindell? Nothing to report. We had had a meeting, a special meeting, but no Nothing in particular to report.

[21991] Phuong Nguyen: OK. For the SELPA?

[21995] Bowen Zhang: Nothing for SELPA.

[21996] Phuong Nguyen: And for EBIC, Ms. Marquez? Nothing at this time. Member Hill, anything from the Audit Committee, which we?

[22007] Aiden Hill: So our interview, our recruiting process is in process right now. And we've scheduled a meeting for March 7th. review any and all applications, and then we'll decide on a recommendation which we'll bring forward to the board. So that's in process right now.

[22028] Phuong Nguyen: Are you still taking applications? Yes. OK. So make an announcement.

[22035] Aiden Hill: Yeah, so we didn't do it the last time?

[22038] Phuong Nguyen: No, just make another announcement.

[22039] Aiden Hill: All right, so yeah, so for those that are interested, yes, please. All good people, please apply to the audit committee.

[22048] SPEAKER_54: Thank you.

[22052] Aiden Hill: March 1st.

[22053] Phuong Nguyen: All right. On to the Bond and Parcel Tax Committee. Member Grindel, you want to take this one?

[22059] Terrence Grindall: Sure. We had a telephonic meeting of the Bond Committee. Nothing to report at this time, just investigating timelines and options that we're facing.

[22075] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. And then the last is the NUSD liaison committee, we are scheduled for a meeting on February 23rd. Wednesday, February 23rd. That's it.

[22096] SPEAKER_29: I do have one more announcement for the good of the order. Yes, please. Madam President, thank you for the recognition. I'd just like to share that there has been an official announcement that Newark Days is back. Yes, save the date. It's for the third week into September. Please know that that is one of the highlights. Traditionally in my family, because of all my family members that are at the different schools participating with their school in the parade, and it's always nice to see the Newark Unified School District schools represented in the parade and with the children's faces and extremely excited. So I look forward to seeing everyone at the parade this year.

[22134] Phuong Nguyen: Great. Thank you for that. On to item 15.3, Board of Education requests. Member Zhang, do you have any requests at this time? No. Member Marquez, any requests?

[22145] SPEAKER_29: None at this time.

[22146] Phuong Nguyen: Member Hill?

[22148] Aiden Hill: So I have two. So the first request is, given again that we've now lifted the mask mandate for vaccinated people but not students, but we may be getting news you know, as soon as, you know, a little bit more than a week, that I'd like to recommend that we actually involve our community in, you know, in discussing and kind of making a, you know, making the voices heard around their viewpoints on how we ought to address this issue. And it's unfortunate that the student member's not here. I think it would be great for her to get input from the student council and the student body. But I'd also like to request that we maybe ask staff to organize a town hall so that parents can come and voice their thoughts on this, and also get the NTA and certificated involved in their viewpoints so that we can come up with a good unified approach to this potential you know, change in policy.

[22215] Bowen Zhang: So how much discrepancy do we have once the state changed the guidelines?

[22221] Mark Triplett: Yeah, we need to follow the guidelines from the county and the state.

[22225] Bowen Zhang: So my point is, let's wait for the update from the state and we'll see where we're going. And next time the student board member will be here, so it might be more convenient.

[22234] Aiden Hill: So if I can just provide a little bit of detail. So there are actually school districts right now that are already lifting the mandate. And so the mass mandates are Roseville is one, Eldorado Hills is one. There's a number of other ones. And it's my understanding that, you know, the last time I checked, that we are a government of the people, by the people, for the people. We're not a government that is controlled by unelected health officials. So I think that we actually have a say in this. And I think that we want to be proactive and get our community involvement. And we don't want to wait until the last minute. So I think we ought to start caucusing right now to get input on how our community wants to handle this.

[22275] Bowen Zhang: So the district you mentioned, are there any of them in Alameda County?

[22280] SPEAKER_54: No.

[22280] Bowen Zhang: So the Alameda County is the one that has the bigger say.

[22285] Terrence Grindall: I'm sorry. I disagree with Member Hill and agree with Member Zhang. I think we should wait before we hear anything else.

[22293] Phuong Nguyen: Great. I don't think we have consensus. Your second request, please.

[22299] Aiden Hill: Right, was related to that we asked staff to prepare a more detailed report on what exactly were the root causes and issues that caused the free and reduced price meal, basically, issues. And then connected with that, a project plan that describes how we're going to address those and eliminate those issues for the next audit?

[22330] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, so I want to ask for a postmortem, sort of a postmortem-like thing for that. So I don't know whether that's the same thing as Memorial was asking. Yeah, that's in the form of a staff report. I don't think we need to do another study session, but maybe a staff report is enough for a postmortem about really what happened and what is the mitigation going forward.

[22356] Terrence Grindall: I would agree, and if we can include an update on the appeal process that staff's working on with the county, that would be, if that's okay with the other board members. I'd like to stay on top of that.

[22370] Phuong Nguyen: Okay. We have consensus for a staff report and into the findings and resolution. I'm sorry, do you want to repeat it again? Since you say it so well.

[22385] Aiden Hill: So I think that member Zhang stated it much more elegantly. So a post-mortem on the free and reduced price meal issues that we face, findings, and then a mediation plan going forward, as well as an update on the appeal process.

[22408] Phuong Nguyen: OK. Thank you.

[22412] Terrence Grindall: How's that? So it's a three-headed snake.

[22415] Mark Triplett: Yep, I think I got it.

[22417] Phuong Nguyen: Everybody hit it on the head. OK, got it. All right. So on to item 16.1, superintendent concluding comments, updates and future agenda items.

[22428] Terrence Grindall: Oh, sorry. OK.

[22435] Phuong Nguyen: Member Condell, do you have any requests? No, I don't. Well, I took your last one, so. Yeah, you piggybacked on member Hill, so. Okay, on to 16.1, Superintendent, concluding comments, updates, and future agenda items.

[22451] Mark Triplett: Thank you. So, a couple things. One, I do want to recognize and celebrate we will have a new board member for the upcoming year, and although we'll miss very much board member Resendiz-Ortiz, a new student board member was elected, I believe just last week, Diego Torres. So, congratulations to Diego. For this semester? for the following year. So very exciting. Congratulations to him and I really look forward to getting to know him and having him join the board next year, even though it'll be a very hard act to follow with board member Resendiz-Ortiz. In addition, no, I think that's all.

[22495] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, everyone. And on to adjournment. Who would like to make a motion?

[22501] Bowen Zhang: I move we adjourn immediately.

[22502] Phuong Nguyen: I will second. Motion made by Member Zhang, seconded by myself. How do you vote, Member Zhang?

[22509] SPEAKER_49: Yes.

[22510] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Grindell? Yes. And myself as yes as well. Five ayes. Thank you. Meeting adjourned at 11.50.

1. CALL TO ORDER

Meeting Practices and Information

Type Information IN-PERSON MEETING INFORMATION

NUSD has opened its boardroom for in-person meetings and will follow the State's and Alameda County's safety guidelines for public gatherings. Please refrain from attending in-person meetings if you have any of the following symptoms: Loss of taste/smell Difficulty breathing Vomiting Diarrhea Fever Cough Headache Sore Throat Runny Nose

For additional COVID-19 information please go to https://www.newarkunified.org/covid-19 or https://www.acoe.org/guidance

OBSERVE THE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING

Members of the public may observe the meeting via the NUSD YouTube Channel, live transmission on Comcast Channel 26, or in- person at the NUSD Boardroom. Spanish translation will be available via Zoom.

PUBLIC COMMENT

The public will have the opportunity to address the Board of Education regarding non-agendized matters and agendized items with a live audio-only comment via Zoom with advance notice requested by email at PUBLICCOMMENT@newarkunified.org, a written comment by submitting a speaking card via email at PUBLICCOMMENT@newarkunified.org, or with live in-person comments by submitting a speaker-card with the Executive Assistant.

Roll Call

Type Procedural TRUSTEES:

President Phuong Nguyen Vice President/Clerk Terrence Grindall Member Aiden Hill Member Alicia Marquez Member Bowen Zhang

STUDENT BOARD MEMBER:

Member Estaina Resendiz Ortiz

2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Approval of the Agenda

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the agenda for this meeting. Action PURPOSE:

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

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the agenda for this meeting, without 13.4.

Motion by Terrence Grindall, second by Alicia Marquez. Final Resolution: Motion Carries Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Alicia Marquez, Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

3. STUDY SESSION

School Culture and Climate

Type Information PURPOSE:

To provide additional information to the Board of Trustees regarding school culture and climate, as it relates to restorative practices, social emotional learning, and culturally relevant teaching.

BACKGROUND:

Reopening schools after a year of distance learning have brought along new challenges and opportunities related to school site culture and climate initiatives, such as PBIS, social-emotional learning, culturally relevant pedagogy, and restorative discipline. This presentation will serve to extend the conversation on culture and climate that started on November 18th as a staff report. This presentation will provide more information to the Board of Trustees and our community on how restorative principles and practices are and can be integrated into culture and climate strategies that are aligned with our district values around equity and excellence.

File Attachments Study Session_ Culture & Climate 2.7.22.pdf (2,257 KB) READY-FOR-RIGOR_Final1.pdf (47 KB)

4. CLOSED SESSION

Public Comment on Closed Session Items

Type Information PURPOSE:

The Board of Education encourages the community's participation in its deliberations and has tried to make it convenient to express their views to the Board. If a constituent wishes to address the Board on any agenda item, please fill out a virtual speaker card via email at PUBLICCOMMENT@newarkunified.org.

RATIFICATION AND APPROVAL OF TK ENROLLMENT: (Ed. Code, �� 48000 & 35146)

Type Action, Discussion, Information PURPOSE:

The Board will review student information for approval of newly registered Transitional Kindergarten students who shall reach age 5 after December 2, 2021. This process will continue on a case by case basis for students who register within the extended window.

BACKGROUND:

Education Code sections 48000 and 48010, and District Administrative Regulation ("AR") 5111, requires the District to enroll any otherwise eligible student who turns age five or six on or before September 1 of a given school year into kindergarten or first grade, as applicable. In addition, if a student turns age five between September 2 and December 2 of a school year, then that student shall be offered an opportunity to enroll in TK. The District may additionally admit younger children to TK "on a case by case basis".

Education Code section 4800 specifically provides as follows: (c)(1)(C) [A] child who will have their fifth birthday between September 2 and December 2 shall be admitted to a transitional kindergarten program maintained by the school district or charter school. (c)(2)(A) In any school year, a school district ... may, at any time during a school year, admit a child to a transitional kindergarten program who will have their fifth birthday after the date specified for the applicable year ... but during that same school year, with the approval of the parent or guardian, subject to the following conditions: (i) The governing board of the school district or the governing body of the charter school determines that the admittance is in the best interests of the child. (ii) The parent or guardian is given information regarding the advantages and disadvantages and any other explanatory information about the effect of this early admittance.

Consistent with the Education Code, the District's AR 5111 provides: On a case-by-case basis, a child who will turn five years old in a given school year may be enrolled in kindergarten or TK at any time during that school year with the approval of the child's parent/guardian, provided that: (Education Code 48000)

1. The parent/guardian is given information regarding the advantages and disadvantages and any other explanatory information about the effect of this early admittance.
2. The Governing Board determines that admittance is in the best interest of the child.

Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, the birthday cut off will be extended to February 2, and will continue being extended by two months each school year, until the 2025-2026 school year, when any student with a birthday after September 1 must be admitted to TK

PUBLIC EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE/DISMISSAL/RELEASE (Gov. Code, � 54957, subd. (b)(1))

Type Action, Information, Procedural PURPOSE:

Information will be provided by the Superintendent and Executive Director of Human Resources.

CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Gov. Code, � 54957.6, subd. (a): Employee Organizations - NTA and CSEA

Type Action, Information, Procedural PURPOSE:

Information may 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 NEGOTIATORS (Gov. Code, � 54957.6, subd. (a)): Employee Group - NEWMA, Unrepresented Supervisors, and Contracted Management [Chief Business Official]

Type Action, Information, Procedural PURPOSE:

Information may be provided by the agency negotiator, the 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 � ANTICIPATED LITIGATION Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, � 54956.9, subd. (d)[(2) or (3)]

Type Action, Information, Procedural PURPOSE:

Information may 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 7:00 p.m.

5. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION

Pledge of Allegiance

Type Procedural PURPOSE:

The Governance Team will recite the Pledge of Allegiance

6. REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS

Report of Closed Session Actions

Type Action, Procedural PURPOSE:

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

7. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS

Employee Organizations

Type Information PURPOSE:

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

BACKGROUND:

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

1. NTA: Sean Abruzzi

2. CSEA: Sarah Keiser

3. NEWMA: Vicenta Ditto

8. RECOGNITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS

School Spotlight: Bridgepoint High School

Type Information PURPOSE:

The School Spotlight gives the Board of Education and the public an opportunity to hear the highlights, achievements, and initiatives at each school directly from the principals.

BACKGROUND:

The presentation and information will be provided by the Bridgepoint High School Principal, Julie Calderon.

File Attachments Bridgepoint 2022 School Spotlight - 2021_22.pptx.pdf (2,085 KB)

9. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS

Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

Type Procedural PURPOSE:

The Board of Education encourages the community's participation in its deliberations and has tried to make it convenient to express their views to the Board.

BACKGROUND:

Please see the instructions on 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=C4Q2D4019F40

10. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

Superintendent Report

Type Information PURPOSE:

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

BACKGROUND:

The presentation and information will be provided by the Superintendent

11. STAFF REPORT

Presentation of the LCAP Supplement to the Annual Update for 2021-22 LCAP and Mid-Year LCAP Report

Type Information PURPOSE:

To provide the Board of Trustee with an update on the use of federal and state funds and engagement, actions, and outcomes related to these funds.

BACKGROUND:

California's 2021�22 Budget Act, the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and other state and federal relief acts have provided local school districts with a significant increase in funding to support students, teachers, staff, and their communities in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and to address the impacts of distance learning on students.

Abbey Kerins, Director of Special Projects, will present the 2021-22 Supplemental Annual update mid-year report to the NUSD governing board related to engagement on, and implementation of, these Acts. SEC. 124 (e)(2)(B) of AB 130 also requires that all available mid-year outcome data related to metrics identified in the 2021�22 LCAP, mid-year expenditure & implementation data on all actions identified in the 2021-22 LCAP and update to the 2021-22 Budget Overview for Parents be included in the presentation to the governing board. No board adoption is required until June with the 2022-23 LCAP.

File Attachments Supplement to the Annual Update to the 2021-2022 Local Control and Accountability Plan.pdf (775 KB) 2021_LCAP_Mid-Year_Report_Newark_Unified_School_District_20220215.pdf (911 KB) 2021_LCFF_Budget_Overview_for_Parents_-_Board_Update_Newark_Unified_School_District_20220215 (1).pdf (792 KB) NUSD 2021-22 Mid-Year LCAP Report (1).pdf (815 KB)

Illuminate Assessments 2020-2021

Type Information

PURPOSE:

To provide additional information to the Board of Trustees regarding 2020-2021 Illuminate assessments.

BACKGROUND:

At our February 3, 2022 Board Meeting, members requested more information regarding these assessments. Illuminate is Newark Unified's comprehensive assessment and data management tool for monitoring and measuring student academic progress. As a result of distance learning last year, the California State Board of Education (SBE) provided school districts the flexibility to administer alternative assessments to the CAASPP due to the additional stress that annual assessments can place on students. Illuminate was one of the state-approved local assessments and Newark Unified utilized the Illuminate end-of-year assessments in English-Language Arts and Mathematics for secondary grades 7, 8, and 11. 2020-2021 was the first year of implementation, and will serve as a baseline data for future years should we continue to implement.

File Attachments 2021 End of Year Illuminate Data.pdf (763 KB)

Information Technology Study Report

Type Discussion, Information PURPOSE:

To provide the Board a review and presentation of the Information Technology Study Report.

BACKGROUND:

At the regular Board meeting on June 3, 2021, the Board requested staff to conduct a review and assessment of the Information Technology department and services.

Staff received three proposals to conduct the study and awarded a contract to California IT in Education (CITE). The study team consisted of three senior level technology and educational professionals. The study included visits to school sites and the district office, meetings and interviews with staff and conducting surveys.

File Attachments Newark Unified IT Study Report Final.pdf (362 KB) NewarkJETPreso-final.pdf (1,049 KB)

HVAC Replacement Project Update

Type Information PURPOSE:

To provide the Board an update on the HVAC Replacement Project.

BACKGROUND:

The Board requested staff to provide an update on the HVAC Replacement Project which is part of the Measure G list of projects.

File Attachments NUSD HVAC Update 02 17 2022 Final-rev.pptx.pdf (1,890 KB)

12. NEW BUSINESS

Contract with Think Together for After-School Programming

Type Action

Preferred Date Feb 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $117,123.00

Budget Source ELO-P

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board approve the Think Together contract in support of our Action approved ELO-P plan, adopted February 3, 2022 and in alignment with the guidelines in AB 130 PURPOSE:

We are seeking the approval of the Think Together contract in order to execute the ELO-P plan.

The District is dedicated to carrying out the Board-approved plan for providing an extended day to our TK-6, unduplicated students as outlined in the Expanding Learning Opportunities Program (ELO-P) plan that was presented and approved by the Board on February 3, 2022. These funds will assist in providing additional academic and social-emotional support to students through a 9-hour extended learning day to our student populations that are historically underserved.

BACKGROUND:

In July of 2021, Governor Newsome signed Assembly Bill (AB) 130, which included many budgetary and programmatic changes for this school year. One of these changes was to provide comprehensive, district-wide, after-school, and summer school enrichment programs for transitional kindergarten through sixth grade students that are English learners, foster youth, and/or unhoused.

The proposed contract includes the expansion of Think Together for Lincoln Elementary School this school year, 2021-22. Think Together was selected as the primary partner for this work because it supports the district's intention to create a single, comprehensive program. Think Together has been a strong partner, providing our ASES services in Newark for multiple years, and they have proven both within the District and across the state to be an effective program, providing mentorship and care for our students.

An additional contract for the subsequent school year and summer school services will be presented at a future board meeting.

File Attachments Newark USD EXLP proposal.docx.pdf (160 KB) Newark MOU for Lincoln EXLP 2021-22 RB signed (1).pdf (186 KB)

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board approve the Think Together contract in support of our approved ELO-P plan, adopted February 3, 2022 and in alignment with the guidelines in AB 130

Motion by Bowen Zhang, second by Alicia Marquez.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Alicia Marquez, Bowen Zhang, Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

Audit Report for Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2021

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education accept the independent audit report for Action the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021 as presented. PURPOSE:

The purpose of this item is for the Board to receive information about and accept the financial audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021, as presented.

BACKGROUND:

In accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and Government Auditing Standards, the independent auditing firm of Christy White, Inc. has completed their audit of the combined financial statements of the Newark Unified School District for the year ended June 30, 2021. A representative from Christy White, Inc. will present the audit report to the Board for review.

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

The district's Audit Committee met and reviewed the audit report on January 31, 2022.

File Attachments NUSD Audit Report June 30, 2021.pdf (1,192 KB) SAS Letter to Newark USD Board_01-26-2022.pdf (224 KB) 2020-21 Annual Audit Presentation NUSD.ppt.pdf (1,302 KB)

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education accept the independent audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021 as presented.

Motion by Alicia Marquez, second by Terrence Grindall.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Alicia Marquez, Bowen Zhang
Not Present at Vote: Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

13. CONSENT AGENDA: PERSONNEL ITEMS

PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Type Action

Recommended It is recommended that the Board of Education approve, under one consented vote, the Action agenda items under Consent-Personnel, except for agenda 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 the Consent Agenda are considered routine and will be approved, adopted, or ratified by a single motion and action. There will not be a separate discussion of these items; however, any item may be pulled from the Consent Agenda upon the request of any member of the Board and acted upon separately.

Motion & Voting It is recommended that the Board of Education approve, under one consented vote, the agenda items under Consent- Personnel.

Motion by Bowen Zhang, second by Terrence Grindall.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Alicia Marquez, Bowen Zhang
Not Present at Vote: Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

Personnel Report

Type Action

Absolute Date Feb 17, 2022

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the personnel report as presented. Action 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 02-17-2022.pdf (376 KB)

Classified Seniority List

Type Action

Absolute Date Feb 17, 2022

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education receive the 2021-2022 Classified Action Seniority List. PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to receive the 2021-2022 Classified Seniority List.

BACKGROUND:

The attached Classified Seniority List identifies the job classification total hours worked in a specific classification for each regular classified staff member. A copy of this Classified Seniority List has been provided to each classified staff person for review and has been posted at each school and campus site.

File Attachments Classified Seniority List 2.17.22 for Board.pdf (254 KB)

Approval of the Chief Business Official Employment Agreement

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board approve the new three-year employment agreement Action for the Chief Business Official commencing July 1, 2022. PURPOSE:

To approve a new three-year employment agreement for the Chief Business Official, commencing July 1, 2022.

BACKGROUND:

The current Chief Business Official employment agreement expires June 30, 2022.

File Attachments Chief Business Official Employment Agreement FINAL- (2).pdf (96 KB)

14. CONSENT AGENDA: NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS

PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote

Type Action

Recommended It is recommended that the Board of Education approve, under one consented vote, the Action agenda items under Consent Non-Personnel, except for agenda 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 the Consent Agenda are considered routine and will be approved, adopted, or ratified by a single motion and action. There will not be a separate discussion of these items; however, any item may be pulled from the Consent Agenda upon the request of any member of the Board and acted upon separately.

Motion & Voting It is recommended that the Board of Education approve, under one consented vote, the agenda items under Consent Non- Personnel, except for agenda items 14.4:

Motion by Terrence Grindall, second by Phuong Nguyen.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Alicia Marquez, Bowen Zhang
Not Present at Vote: Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

Curricular, Overnight Trip for Kennedy Elementary sixth-grade class to travel to Occidental, CA.

Type Action

Preferred Date Feb 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $21,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Fundraisers and Parent Contributions

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the overnight trip for Kennedy Action Elementary sixth-grade class to Occidental, CA. PURPOSE:

The Kennedy Elementary community requests permission to take sixth-grade students on a curricular, overnight field trip. Students will travel to Occidental, CA for an outdoor science education camp. Transportation will be by district bus. Students will study content standards in ecology, resources, ecosystems, and conservation while experiencing team building with their peers. School: Kennedy Elementary Dates: March 29- April 1, 2022 Location: Occidental, CA

Chaperones for Science Camp: The ratio of adults to students on school-sponsored trips shall be based on the following formula: K-3 1 adult for every 5-8 students 4-9 1 adult for every 10 students 10-12 1 adult for every 10 students where strict supervision is required (tours, theaters, etc.) Overnight trip supervision must be gender appropriate. However, in the event that the supervisors, who stay overnight in proximity to students, are of a gender other than that group of campers, adequate planning, and preparation of campers and the physical arrangements of the camp shall be made to ensure optimal safety and privacy of students (AR 6153).

No student will be denied due to a lack of funds

BACKGROUND:

According to Board Policy, all trips in excess of 100 miles, non-curricular trips, and overnight trips require Board approval. The site principal and sixth-grade teachers request permission to take students on an overnight curricular trip to attend an outdoor education/science camp program that is articulated with grade level curriculum. The programs are taught by credentialed staff members and camp staff and are viewed by the sites as a valuable part of the students' educational experience.

Athletic Trip, Overnight, One-Way Distance Over 125 Miles Field Trip: Newark Memorial HS Varsity Softball Team to Sparks, NV.

Type Action

Preferred Date Feb 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $2,280.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Athletics 103, Softball ASB

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve Newark Memorial High School Action Varsity Softball Team to travel to Sparks, NV. PURPOSE:

The NMHS Principal and Athletic Director request permission to take students on an athletic and overnight trip to Sparks, NV for the Reed High School Softball tournament.

Our Varsity Softball Team has been invited to return to the Reed High School softball tournament. This is a highly competitive, invitation only, tournament which will provide exposure to college recruiting for our student-athletes. Date: March 24-26, 2022 Location: Sparks, Nevada

Requirements met: Grade K-3, one adult for every 5-8 students; Grades 4-12, one adult for every 10 students; Board Policy requires at least two adults on every trip regardless of the number of students (BP 6153 and AR 6153) Overnight trip supervision must be gender appropriate No student will be denied due to a lack of funds

BACKGROUND:

According to Board Policy 6153, all trips in excess of 125 miles, athletic trips, and overnight trips require Board approval. Newark Memorial High School Principal and Athletic Director request permission to take the Newark Memorial High School Varsity Softball team on an athletic trip to Sparks, NV.

Comprehensive School Safety Plans

Type Action

Absolute Date Feb 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the plans as presented. Action PURPOSE:

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

BACKGROUND:

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

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

File Attachments BGI 2022-23 Comprehensive School Safety Plan 22-23(1).pdf (2,285 KB) BGP Comprehensive Safety Plan 22-23 (2).pdf (2,225 KB) Kennedy Comprehensive School Safety Plan 22-23.pdf (6,259 KB) Lincoln Comprehensive School Safety Plan 22-23.pdf (2,824 KB) MacGregor Comprehensive School Safety Plan 22-23.pdf (1,968 KB) NJHS Comprehensive School Safety Plan 22-23 (2).pdf (3,284 KB) NMHS Comprehensive School Safety Plan 22-23 (2).pdf (2,511 KB) Shilling Comprehensive Safety Plan 22-23.pdf (3,424 KB) Coyote Hills Elementary Comprehensive School Safety Plan 22-23.pdf (2,336 KB)

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the plans as presented.

Motion by Bowen Zhang, second by Alicia Marquez.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Alicia Marquez, Bowen Zhang
Not Present at Vote: Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

Donations Report

Type Action

Fiscal Impact Yes

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source General Fund (Fund 010) Donations

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education accept the donations on the Donations Action Report as presented. PURPOSE:

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

BACKGROUND:

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

File Attachments Donations Summary Report 2-17-2022.pdf (23 KB)

Warrant Report for January 2022

Type Action

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the Warrant Report as presented. Action PURPOSE:

The purpose of this item is to present warrants, for the total amount of $5,720,490.33, made from District funds for January 2022.

BACKGROUND:

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

File Attachments Warrant Report January 2022.pdf (357 KB)

Minutes of the February 3, 2022 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

Type Action, Minutes

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the minutes of the February 3, Action 2022, Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. PURPOSE:

For the board to review and approve the minutes

BACKGROUND:

The attached minutes are reflective of the February 3, 2022, Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. The meeting may be viewed on the NUSD YouTube Channel HERE

15. BOARD OF EDUCATION: COMMITTEE REPORTS, REQUESTS, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Board of Education Recognitions and Announcements

Type Information PURPOSE:

The Trustees may acknowledge or recognize specific programs, activities, or personnel at this time.

Board of Education Committee Reports

Type Information PURPOSE:

The Trustees will provide an update, if available, on the committees of which they are members.

BACKGROUND:

Each year the Board of Education members liaise with schools and committees in order to build relationships, hear from staff, students, and families, and act as a conduit for information to and from the schools.

Board Committees 2020-21

Board Adopted on 12/16/21 Representative Alternate

Mission Valley Regional Occupational Center/Program (ROC/P) 1. Terrence Grindall 1. Bowen Zhang Executive Board

Regional Policy Board of Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) 1. Bowen Zhang 1. Alicia Marquez

Newark Teacher Induction Advisory Council (Formally EBIC) 1. Alicia Marquez 1. Aiden Hill

Audit Committee 1. Alicia Marquez2. Aiden Hill1. Terrence Grindall

Bond/Parcel Tax Committee 1.2.Terrence GrindallPhuong Nguyen1.BowenZhang

                                                                         1. Phuong Nguyen

City of Newark � NUSD Liaison Committee 2. Terrence Grindall 1. Bowen Zhang

Board of Education Requests

Type Action, Discussion, Information PURPOSE:

This is an opportunity for the Board of Education to suggest items for placement on future agendas and to review Board requests.

Approval from the majority of the Board will be required for direction to be provided to the Superintendent.

BACKGROUND:

The following derives directly from the Board approved "Governance Team Handbook"

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

Bringing New Ideas Forward The Board will be open to having "brainstorming" discussions, or study sessions, around any idea that a Trustee may feel merits exploratory consideration. "New Ideas" are defined as any proposal brought forward by a Trustee, at their initiative or at the request of a constituent, which was previously discussed during a board meeting. Trustees will first notify the Board President and Superintendent of their interest in bringing forward a new idea at a board meeting. When initially agendized, 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 District staff. The new idea may be agendized for discussion only. The Board majority will decide if the new idea should be further developed and studied by staff. The Board majority will decide if staff time should be invested in the "fleshing out" of new ideas. Individual Trustees, in the course of interactions with constituents, will be careful not to make or imply the commitment of the full Board to explore or proceed with implementing new ideas.

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

Superintendent's Concluding Comments, Updates, and Future Agenda Items

                       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 of Education extends the meeting to ____P.M. Action PURPOSE:

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

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education extends the meeting to 12:00 A.M.

Motion by Phuong Nguyen, second by Terrence Grindall.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Alicia Marquez, Bowen Zhang, Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

Adjournment

Type Action, Procedural

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education adjourns this meeting. 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 the Board of Education adjourns this meeting. (11:13pm)

Motion by Bowen Zhang, second by Phuong Nguyen.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Phuong Nguyen, Terrence Grindall, Aiden Hill, Alicia Marquez, Bowen Zhang
Not Present at Vote: Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

No minutes available.