Regular Meeting

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[377] Terrence Grindall: I'd like to call to order the March 17, 2022 regular meeting of the Board of Education. We will talk a little bit about our meeting practices. NUSD has opened its boardroom for in-person meetings and will follow the state and Alameda County safety guidelines for public gatherings. Please refrain from attending in-person meetings if you have any of the following symptoms. loss of taste and smell, difficulty breathing, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, cough, headache, sore throat, runny nose, or runny nose. For additional COVID-19 information, go to the city, go to the Newark website, Newark Unified website. The members of the public may observe the meeting via the NUSD YouTube channel, live transmission on channel 26, or in person in the NUSD boardroom. Spanish translation is available via Zoom. Public comment, the public will have the opportunity to address the Board of Education, addressing non-agendized matters and agendized items with live audio-only comment via Zoom, with advance notice requesting by email at publiccommentatnewworkunified.org, a written comment by submitting a speaker card via the email at publiccommentatnewworkunified.org, or with live in-person comments by submitting a speaker card with the executive assistant here in the boardroom. The Board does review all email and public comments, and we listen to what is being stated, both electronically and in person. However, we aren't allowed to address items that are not agendized, but we do want to make it clear that the Board is listening and takes public comment very seriously. With that, can I have a roll call, please? Ms. Gutierrez.

[496] SPEAKER_39: Student Board Member Resendiz-Ortiz. Here. Board Member Marquez. Present. Board Member Hill. Here. Vice President Rundell. Here. Currently we have Board Member Zheng absent and President Nguyen absent.

[517] Terrence Grindall: All right, so at this point I would like to ask for approval of the agenda. Are there any changes, or is there a motion to approve the agenda?

[529] SPEAKER_42: I'm ready for a motion at this time, sir. I move that we approve the agenda.

[534] Terrence Grindall: Excellent. Is there a second?

[537] Aiden Hill: I second.

[540] Terrence Grindall: All in favor? Aye. Aye. Ms. Gutierrez, it's OK without a roll call? All right, roll call vote, Ms. Gutierrez.

[559] SPEAKER_39: Member Resendiz-Ortiz? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Vice President Grindle?

[566] Aiden Hill: Yes.

[567] SPEAKER_39: Thank you.

[570] Terrence Grindall: Okay, so I'd like to open the study session. This is study session to discuss the LCAP 2022-2023 input session. We're going to convene in the table in the center of the room and receive study information and provide input on this important topic. Thank you.

[608] Abbey Keirns: We'll pull them up. You get subtle.

[640] SPEAKER_36: and saying your first name is right. Like, my first name's really complicated.

[648] SPEAKER_36: I can think of other complicated words.

[650] SPEAKER_26: Probably not an I-P-L-T.

[653] Terrence Grindall: I know. I've cursed yourself before. I know.

[655] SPEAKER_26: I love all of you. I love you. I love you, too.

[659] Penny DeLeon: I love you, too.

[660] SPEAKER_26: I love you, too. I love you, too.

[675] SPEAKER_36: for me.

[702] Terrence Grindall: Celebrate the end of the year or something like that.

[704] SPEAKER_37: Showing community with the board members, all of us wearing rings.

[707] Jodi Croce: We should be able to begin. I can begin? Okay.

[713] Abbey Keirns: Okay, so this is LCAP 2023 Community Input. I just want to frame that this process that we're going to experience today is the same process we did throughout the district. We were able to have at least two events, and in some cases more than that at each school site. And we're able to collect 465 or more different distinct pieces of feedback on the LCAP so far this year. Sorry to interrupt.

[748] Mark Triplett: It's okay. So Vice President, unfortunately, we are still in, not unfortunately, but we still have a mask mandate right now. where members appears to be refusing to follow the guidelines of the district, which every student, staff, and community member is expected to follow until the 21st.

[783] Aiden Hill: And I remember, because I was a part of the discussion, And I remember Sean was a part of the discussion as well. And we talked about, I was actually recommending that we follow county guidance and we prepare for this significantly in advance. It got postponed. We then said, as we finally got closer to it, that now the county has made a decision that effectively, I think it's the 11th. that it's strongly recommended, but it's not required. And we talked about this as a board to say, are we going to follow county guidance? And we said yes. And we said, unless there's some other issue that comes back and that we as a board need to re-decide. So subsequently, hold on a second, subsequently after that, there was a decision made to extend it to the 21st. But we as a board did not make that decision. There's no issue. And by the way, in my county right now, literally effective this week, mask is an option. So I don't see where there is an issue.

[849] Terrence Grindall: Right, well, we did vote as a board to authorize the superintendent to establish these rules.

[859] Aiden Hill: Should we call up the minutes and look at them?

[861] Terrence Grindall: No, we did authorize the superintendent to set the standards for our community, for our district, and including this meeting.

[874] Aiden Hill: So we did vote as a board. Okay, so I'm gonna propose a compromise. I am willing to put on a mask right now, but I want us to review the specific minutes where we explicitly said that it was we, the board, we're going to make the decision. And this is a very important issue because we, the board, are the ultimate authority, okay? And so if we review the minutes and that we determine that that's what we agreed, I would like to get a personal apology.

[909] Mark Triplett: So point of order, this is not agenda. I understand. We have policies in place right now as a district. I understand. Every student that are established by the board, every student, staff, and community member is following those guidelines. It's expected that all of us do. If someone cannot follow the guidelines, they cannot be present on district facilities. The board establishes the guidelines.

[934] Terrence Grindall: And that's what was discussed in the prior meeting. Member Hill, this is a two-part process. So I would appreciate it if you'd put on, if you'd wear the mask. We can't commit to reviewing that at this point because it's not agendized. However, I'll tell you that I'll personally support When it comes to comments, when it comes to council recommended actions, if you want to see a review of that, I'm just one member, but I'll tell you now that I'll support that if you'll put on your mask now. All right, that's fine. All right, we get to LCAP.

[978] Abbey Keirns: So just a little rewind. What you're going to experience today is going to be a replica of the experience that our community has had over the last month. Across the district, principals, different site leaders, I myself, people around the table have all facilitated community engagement processes. you know, mostly online and some survey responses, but have enabled us to receive 460 plus individual pieces of feedback about our LCAP, which is great. It suggests an uptick in engagement. I think also a discrete kind of way of looking at the feedback. And so you are part of this process as well. And so the purpose today is for you to also provide feedback prior to our initial revisions for the LCAP for next year. So forgive me, but some of these slides may feel rudimentary, but I always like to think of these as public meetings. So I'm not just educating you all in the study session, it's for any public member that is watching as well. So, okay, so the LCFF and LCAP. So just a reminder that California Public Schools receive our state funding through what's the local control funding formula. It's a very unique formula that really does empower our communities to be at the center of the decision making about budget allocations. So under LCFF, the goal is to ensure that every student succeeds, specifically those students the system has historically left behind. So the students that encompasses low income, English learner, and foster youth. These students are referred to as unduplicated students, because even if they're in more than one specifically funded group, they are only counted once. And that's, I think, of an important, sometimes a hard point to sort of get your mind around. If I, Abbey Keirns, am an English learner and also happen to be from a low socioeconomic background, the funds that are associated with me in those groups is only counted once, not twice, even though I show up in both groups. So how's the money determined? LCFS gives us money for all students, which we know as the base funds. And money for unduplicated students, which is called the Supplemental and Concentration Funds. So the percentage of students that are unduplicated change that bottom component, either higher or lower depending on our percentage. So the purpose for those base funds is that we use the money to raise achievement for all students. Whereas the purpose for the Supplemental and Concentration Funds is to show So what is the LCAP? The LCAP is, we show how we do, how we serve those students in a three-year plan called the Local Control Accountability Plan. In the LCAP, the state requires that we attend to eight priority areas. These priority areas are the following, and I'm gonna review these also with the purpose of what is the most important thing to you? Each of us has a thing that's our specific interest. So as I go through these, just think about what are the things that really resonate for you as a community member, a board member, a parent, whatever sort of position you hold. So basic services, we are required to report our strategies on teacher instruction materials in school facilities. Required to attend a state standards implementation that includes Common Core, Next Generation Science, and English Language Development Standards. We're required to plan for course access, ensuring a broad course of study available in all required subject areas. We're also required to attend a student achievement, test scores, English proficiency, as well as college and career preparedness. Student engagement, engaging programs and coursework that keep students in school. parent involvement, engagement, decision making, and participation, and the last ones, school climate, student health, safety, discipline, and school connectedness, and catch all here, other outcomes, which include things like community service, civic engagement, arts, music, and leadership activities. So at this point with our community engagement, we would pause and just have people discuss sort of, these are our, The e-priority is sort of just a quick visual. What are the most important things to you? What is sort of at your core when you think about what's most important in schools? And I know that's sort of a little bit of a trick question, because I know that we all feel that they're all important. So I'd just love for us to kind of start a discussion around what's most important. I'll start. As a parent, I think school climate sticks out strong to me. when I think of my son's experience in a school setting. For me, as Director of Human Resources, my eyes go to basic services, including the teacher, and really focusing on recruiting and retaining high quality teachers.

[1299] Terrence Grindall: Yeah, I agree. For me, The basic function is the basic services. That's really important. But I also think that parent involvement is something that's very, very important. It really makes the difference. And just to be clear, that's involvement in general, not just in the LCAP process, right? So that also stands out to me. But making sure that we have high quality teachers, those are the ones. and certificated staff, those are the folks that are interacting with the children, with the students, and that's really where the rubber meets the road, and that's very important. But not just to resource it, but to also have the administration be reviewing and improving and coaching the teachers.

[1355] SPEAKER_30: No particular order, but feel free to jump in.

[1358] SPEAKER_42: What stands out for me, I think, First of all, as a parent, both of my children are graduates through the Newark Unified School District and have moved on, thank goodness. And then secondary is the student outcomes. Not all students are geared or prepared or ready themselves to go straight to college or into the workforce. So as a school district providing avenues other than what we've grown up with, we've been told, right? society's expectations, but meeting their own expectations, which then falls into student achievement. Because if they feel like they're achieving, regardless of the avenue that they've taken, if they all have obtained their actual high school diploma through Newark Unified, that right there shows that we are providing the correct course access. At the same time that there is some student buy-in and engagement. So I feel as a parent, going back to my parent involvement, that that's crucial. Parents need to be involved and know what courses are my students taking or my child taking, what are they trying to get out of, and enroll into a different course. So they're all interlinked. But I think that's where it starts. That's how pivotal is the parent involvement. Yeah.

[1433] Abbey Keirns: Thank you. That's really powerful.

[1441] Mark Triplett: I'll chime in. Obviously, all of these are super important, and it's kind of impossible to pick. But in forced choice, I would say student engagement, to me, is really, really critical. Because when students are engaged, achievement happens. When students are engaged, the climate of the school is really more positive. When students are engaged, then I really encourage his parent involvement. So it feels to me like student engagement could be sort of a nexus of some sort to the other ones.

[1481] SPEAKER_37: I definitely echo that comment. Student engagement is key, especially as a student. Being engaged in my classroom during lunch, during brunch, during pause, it's really key into focusing and hopefully getting out a new perspective, a passion for the course.

[1500] Abbey Keirns: Yeah, I'll also just give a nod to the state standards. I feel like this is... Something as a teacher and then an administrator, my relationship with has changed over time. And talking with a parent the other night, I was in our DLI advisory, we were discussing the function. And I think it's one of those things where you sit, it's important to understand that this is the bar. Thank goodness we have a bar to create a sense of you know, real quality that's common across the board. And that those standards don't just attend to a narrow view of what is important, but that includes things like language development and collaboration and interaction. I've been thinking a little bit about standards.

[1553] Terrence Grindall: I'm not sure where it lands exactly, but the other part is the measurement of achievement and also the measurement not controlling for the other factors that the students are dealing with. Seeing how we've improved rather than being judged based on the struggles that some of our students have had, learning language and being in lower socioeconomic areas or lack of parent involvement. Those issues, I'd like to see us be able to measure how effectively the district is helping students achieve not just following the sort of rote scores. Right, or getting to a base.

[1599] Abbey Keirns: Yeah, right, but rather that idea of growth.

[1602] Terrence Grindall: And I don't know the solution to that, but it's important that we have a metric that matches what we're actually doing, not a metric that judges how wealthy the children are coming into our district.

[1615] Abbey Keirns: And the state has made a lot of progress on that, which just makes me a little bit sad that our dashboards are down for the next two years. But there is a much better, I think, sense of the measurement of equity rather than a measurement of, you know, the people who start at the end of the finish line sort of maintaining at the finish line.

[1640] Aiden Hill: To echo Dr. Triplett, I mean, I think that all of these categories are important, right? And quite frankly, you know, I mean, what would be kind of helpful is to sort of have a report card on each. And I think that where the involvement really, where the focus needs to be is in the areas where we're not performing. I mean, in my sense, anecdotally, because I don't have data right now, but it seems to me that the areas where we're not performing well is in terms of student achievement and school climate. But again, it would be very helpful to actually see real data and to be able to say, here's some type of benchmark, and here's how well we're performing next to it. And then wherever the area where there's the greatest delta, that's where the attention should be.

[1689] Abbey Keirns: Yes, and that is precisely the process that our sites are going through as well as that LCAP PAC process. But you are correct that today is more speaking from the place of maybe anecdotal or whatever data that the board's been presented with previously to sort of weigh in on where are you at right now would you say is our areas for growth and our areas for strength. And that's precisely what I want to hear from everyone about. So I'm going to just share a few more slides. So the LCAP, brings all of those eight areas together. What needs to be included, pardon me, is a description of the goals for all the students. The actions we'll take and the services we'll provide in order to achieve the goals, as well as the cost of those actions and services. And then finally, of course, how we'll measure the results. So when and how is it written? LCAP is updated each year. I just want to make a point that we're in year two of the three-year LCAP. Community input is an essential part of the process, and families, students, staff, and the community are invited to share their concerns, solutions, and needs. So from the input, we're gonna make changes and adjust the service and support in order to better address the needs identified by the community. And then finally, this is just a quick visual of the process. So what I was describing before, all schools, those that could attend and they weren't able to attend the meeting, were able to reply via the survey. We've now collected and started to sort the feedback into what are about eight target groups that are showing trends. The DELAC, ELACs, SSEs, and LCAP PACs will then look at the trends to make recommendations, to review, revise actions, and then we will ultimately.

[1803] SPEAKER_15: That is an alphabet soup right there.

[1806] Olivia Rangel: I'm sorry, the district ELAC. No, no, I'm sorry.

[1812] SPEAKER_15: I just had to call it.

[1814] SPEAKER_26: I had to call it.

[1815] Abbey Keirns: Please do. I'm like, I live in the waters of alphabet soup. And then, so these are really my core questions for you, and we can go in any order, but just wanted to kind of put them on the table, and then for us to just really have an open conversation. But I'd love to hear, I'm sorry, one more process point here. These are almost identical to the questions that we asked the community, except they were much more like you as a parent targeted. I took that out to sort of keep us at the more of the 160,000 foot view that you are at, So tell us about what you see as the strengths of daily teaching and learning in the district. What can we improve? And so maybe this might be a point where we can return to what Mr. Hill just said. How well are we preparing our students for college, career, and life? What can we improve? What do you see as the strengths of our community systems to inform and engage families? Again, what can we do better? And what do you see as the strengths of our facilities, technology, and other support services, such as tutoring, mental health support, and afterschool enrichment, et cetera? What can we do better? So it is sort of the whole kit and caboodle here, but the intention and open-ended nature of this is to allow people to answer and respond from wherever point of view that they are at at the moment. So we're really hearing from people what is on their minds, rather than just getting them to respond to a narrow set, not narrow, but a pre-made set of priorities. This is very much an open-ended process. We'd love to just hear from you about

[1910] Terrence Grindall: Well, I have a pet peeve, which is the communication systems shouldn't be only communicating with students and parents, but with the broader community about, you know, the schools are really the center of our community. And our communication, telling our story to the rest of the community is is not something I'm seeing done very, very, very much or very well. So I'd like to see more marketing of what we're doing, what we're facing, also what our ask is, right? But not just sending slips home to our existing students, but interacting with the overall community.

[1961] SPEAKER_42: I can piggyback off of that. My interest was caught, my attention immediately as I was coming down the 880. New Haven Unified School District chose to advertise on their freeway billboards. The one that's located near where the driving used to be, my gosh. There's a big huge right there, and then opposite. So it's on the border of Hayward and Union City, and then on the opposite side. So on the weekends, as I see that, they have their open enrollments. They're talking about the information regarding COVID. So it's just a source or an outlet that allows for the community, as busy as that area is, as a source of communication system. We here in Newark have the same type of billboard. It's located over by the mall next to the RV place, if you will.

[2016] Terrence Grindall: We have that-

[2023] SPEAKER_42: community. And so I think it's important for us to follow he to put our neighbor in the 5 school districts is doing that improves our ability to

[2038] Terrence Grindall: I had more than a little bit to do with the billboards. And we actually, non-profits like the district actually get some free time on that billboard.

[2049] Mark Triplett: So you all stole our thunder, because we are currently working on that with the city. The city has been a great partner. And so we are already in the process of getting up our billboards.

[2061] Abbey Keirns: I'm not surprised. That is awesome. That's great to hear.

[2065] Terrence Grindall: And there's nothing wrong with copying something that works from another district. Yeah, except for we're going to do it better. There you go. That's always the rule. Just take it a notch above.

[2075] SPEAKER_36: I'm sorry. No, go ahead.

[2077] Abbey Keirns: The point still remaining that what is not just around enrollment, but also what is the broader community's understanding of the work that the district's doing. And enrollment is one of the things. Yeah.

[2089] SPEAKER_42: Yeah. I've always enjoyed, you know, for the many years, the billboard at the high school, because they're always celebrating student achievements, parents and family members, you know, as far as birthdays. And we too, as a school district, can use the billboard at the high school, right? Different sources. But I do want to move on with question number four, and this is to the beat of my own drum. I do see strengths being here in Newark as many years as I have. The changes over the years, when it comes to our facilities and right now what we're dealing with with the technology, but that it's still being dealt with, and the support services. We can always do better, right? Everyone has a different gauge or a different standard. I'm a believer that yes, we may want something immediately, but then with haste comes error. So doing a deeper study and research when it comes to making our improvements so that when the improvements are applied, right, that they are successful. For example, the internet speed at the high school, seeing the resolutions and seeing the information that's being offered that yes, we are aware, we know what's going on and this is how we're going to tackle. I applaud the staff for doing that, thinking out of the box and how can we improve this so that when the students and the staff are on campus Monday through Friday, It is improved, and the broadband has been improved and strengthened. So small steps, but successful. So I appreciate that.

[2193] Abbey Keirns: I'd like to highlight as a strength support services, including support staff, like at the elementary level. whether it's intervention teachers or classroom aides, which I know is highly funded in the school's site plans. And focus staff to move students further. And then when I think of preparing students for college career and life, At the secondary levels, the counselors, the number of counselors and the quality of the counselors, I think that's a really strong asset for the district. And I know that that is also something that has been funded by the LCAP.

[2249] SPEAKER_37: I could definitely address question number three. I see my mom now, she goes to these workshops for my brother who's in an elementary, Schilling Elementary, and they talk about what GPA means, how to get ready for high school, and different career options. And I know that might be what each elementary does, but it's nice to see how certain elementaries are trying to engage with parents. And even at the high school level, the counselors give workshops to the parents to explain to them how college works, what the UC and the CSUs are like. So I truly appreciate that strength in our community that we're trying to go closer with our parents and show them especially like what's going on with the future and what their students can accomplish in the future. What we could do better is definitely working with counselors even more. I think like member Hill mentioned about the climate and other possibilities of paths, exploring that ROP is beautiful. We can definitely grow onto that. And I would like to highlight that the mental health support at the high school could be even better by adding more counselors and one-on-one conversations. But I am glad to see parent engagement.

[2322] Aiden Hill: And then quick question for you. This is maybe an additional question to this. So we're in the second year of our OPM, right? there was kind of a master plan that was established, okay, and we're in the middle of it, you know, what would be, you know, what I'm curious about is sort of how's it going, right? And so, and then what are things that we had planned for that have turned out that are working well, maybe even exceeding expectations? And then what are areas that maybe were not? And then what sort of a decision should we do we need to invest more or maybe it's a priority that we're rethinking? So, you know, can you comment on that and maybe feedback that's come from other stakeholders?

[2368] Abbey Keirns: Yeah, sure. So our kind of check on that was the mid-year LCAP report that was shared. And I think one of the things that came through that process in some areas was We, we got a lot of additional funding right, but I think some of the ways in which we plan to spend those funds, we couldn't expend those funds because of some of the conditional context situations right yet intended to hire. We intended to kind of get certain resources, including outdoor materials that we couldn't get because of additional conditional factors. So there's, and that one, it's not directly related to student achievement, but in a sense of creating the climate sometimes for powerful learning to happen. I think that it does have an effect. I think one of the things that showed up for me was that, what I'm just recalling, mind you, what I recall was that we had some successes from distance learning. And I think this is one of the sort of drawbacks of the way that the LCAP is designed, is that we sort of are getting what we call post-mortem data, not sort of live data. So in the sort of data from the previous year, which we're using to inform, We did see some kids engaging in, for example, the thing that stood out to me was AP courses. And we saw more successes in those AP courses, which I thought was an interesting highlight. In a condition where kids are not necessarily in what I'd say peak learning environments, they're actually doing fairly well if we're using the standard of passing the exam. So in some sense, I want to know more about that, right? And I'm new to the district, so I don't have the story to go along with. Why is that the case? Maybe.

[2484] Aiden Hill: And my question isn't just limited just to standard achievement or climate, but just, you know, for everything that we put in the OCAP, you know, are there particular things that, you know, again, you know, we're, you know, we're really doing well, you know, and maybe exceeding expectations and that would be good to know, you know, and then are there areas again where, you know, we're not achieving what we're hoping to and then what's, what's our, our position on how we should make adjustments.

[2511] Abbey Keirns: Yeah, and again, I think that what's interesting and challenging about education is the lagging indicator, right? So for example, we have our LCAPs designed for, I'm just thinking of like conditions for learning is one of our goal areas. And under that goal area are, I'm just saying like, yeah, right? Like, okay, I'm gonna pick something like parent workshops. So parent workshops as conditions for learning referenced by our student representative can create conditions where learning and success happens over time. Now we're not gonna see maybe the impact of that in a metric sense until many years down the road and it might show up in our. it might just show up in satisfaction data, it might show up in student achievement and graduation rates. So I think that's one of the puzzles of our work is that sometimes we don't get the satisfaction of the input output that you might get in the business world, right? So I guess it's not to put off here, cuz I think it's worth the inquiry, right? We should be asking and looking for the evidence of efficacy. But sometimes that evidence just is, we have to wait a little while. And I think that's why we have a three-year LCAP. So, yeah.

[2592] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And part of gathering this data is, in turn, getting sort of street-level qualitative data directly from our families and communities, right? Yes. So, if we're saying, hey, we funded an additional An additional instructional, yeah, well, instructional assistance or something like that for the classroom, bilingual aid, something like that, right? what you would see at the mid-year point, right, if we just started that from August until December, we're getting sort of feedback from families. Is that working for them? Are they seeing some changes? We might see mid-year IREDI data, which our communities are actually going to be analyzing on Friday to see if we're seeing growth over time. So some of it is, you know, some of it's challenging, but some of it, those progress monitoring tools are kind of what we want to build up as well. Yeah.

[2641] Mark Triplett: The other thing I'll add is during this COVID time and the return to in-person learning, what we clearly heard last year from the community is more mental health support in preparation for our students returning. I think what's nice about LCAP in this process is a district is able to pivot and be responsive to a need that's coming up for the upcoming year. We have dramatically increased the amount of mental health services this year based on the desires of the community and also just understanding the need. But of course in COVID, the need for mental health services is just outstripping the pace of

[2690] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And so we can say we want to add five positions, but if we can't hire for the remaining two, so that service wasn't done in integrity. And then we have to make a decision as a district. So I'm sorry. We're not excited. But we do. And that's the time that we're coming up to now, right? We make a decision. Our community clearly wants more mental health support. So do we continue to fund that action knowing that it may be challenging to then hire for those positions? Or do we change course to say, We really don't think realistically we're going to get another two, so what else can we put these funds into that still gets at mental health? And those become the tricky and hard decisions.

[2724] Abbey Keirns: I totally jumped in on that.

[2729] SPEAKER_42: That's crucial because I wanted to finish exactly what you were saying because The key is still engaging the community and the family members at the meetings, whether it's at ELAC, SSC, PAC, PTA. So how's that? So that they know, you know what, this is a challenge. Yes, we understand you went to five mental health support staff. Right now, we can get three. Let's, you know, brainstorm what can we do, what do you suggest, what would you like to see with what we have allocated for the other two. So that there's still, you know, action being taken from the community and then at the same time you're getting the buy-in, right, because it was a group decision.

[2774] Abbey Keirns: That was a long way around the question.

[2779] Olivia Rangel: I don't know if we did a good job, but it was a collective effort.

[2786] Abbey Keirns: Then I think the question of how do we know if this is the right type of investment is the question right now. And I think in many of the cases, the investments we've made, there are process data, right? There's the process data of Did we fulfill the intention of this? I think that's the first point. And so that's like in our data collection and communication with LCAP, we've shared a lot about where we have or have not been able to fulfill the intention of the line. And then it's, did this have the impact that we hoped it would?

[2825] Terrence Grindall: One element in question four that is interesting to me is, how and I don't really know but I'd like to see it I'd like to see it highlighted is the coordination between the district and Ohlone and the district and the city's Park and Recreation Department to really to make sure that you know and particularly as we start getting into after-school enrichment And just seeing how all the different service providers are in play. And even, I hate to say it, but even Fremont's Recreation Department, which provides resources for our. So I'd be interested in the coordination process so we don't get siloed. I don't know if you heard that from parents, but.

[2878] SPEAKER_35: No, I mean, it's absolutely true because even at all of the recreation centers throughout the cities, they do have after some sort of enrichment program during the summer for kids, you know, robotics, math leaves and all this other stuff, right? And creative writing. So those are all services that we can either, you know, partner with the city of Newark to be able to help facilitate some of that activity for our students. And let families know that, hey, there's all these other additional services for summer, if you want your student to be engaging in any of those things. So and I think that also helps with outcomes throughout school, right?

[2921] Abbey Keirns: Yeah, thank you for saying that as someone who's working on the ELOP stuff.

[2928] Terrence Grindall: And I left out, actually, the four-year universities also have open university. They all have the same mission. They're trying to reach into their farm system, right? to improve not only the educational system, but also their own marketing into their future students. So there's a lot of moving parts, but that's another element.

[2969] Abbey Keirns: Oh, I think there was also asked about sending things that we noticed from the community feedback so far. I do want to just highlight because we don't hear it enough, is that we get a lot of feedback about the excellent quality of our teachers. And the parents went on and on. about how lovely and powerful the instruction is in the classrooms. And how good of a relationship their kid has with their teacher, how grateful they are for the communication with the teacher, etc. So the predominant experience from parents who participated in this one is that their teachers are top notch. So I think it's worth saying over and over again, that our teachers are strong, we're good. And that's really the heart and soul of Newark.

[3021] Terrence Grindall: We're going to see the input, a summary of the input at some point.

[3026] Abbey Keirns: Yeah, so the LCAP PAC will be looking at the data on Tuesday from 6 to 7.30. It's a public meeting. You're welcome to come. I pre-shared the data with them, so they were able to look at it. And what we've done is taken the 460 something and then grouped them into eight categories based on what the category of response was. So the categories are teachers, let's see, communications, food was a big one. Let's see. What else? What? Wellness. Wellness, intervention, and Gosh, I can't remember off the top of my head. Facilities. Facilities. Yeah.

[3070] Jodi Croce: Safety. That fell under wellness. Was there input?

[3078] Terrence Grindall: not to expect you to dig into it, but was there input about the school resource officers? Was there input about the school resource officers and other safety elements that we have? And was that input largely positive or negative?

[3098] Abbey Keirns: So the prompt was similar to this that families saw. And in the way that we were sort of tagged them by a subgroup, there wasn't a lot of things specifically named related to campus monitors. There was a few notices around behavior, a lot of things related to supporting students with, a lot of families phrase it as their social development. They didn't phrase it as sort of, discipline and behavior, which I think I'm grateful for because it's sort of like a more positive framing on what we're grappling with as a nation. It's sort of like some of the wellness that's impacts of being sort of isolated. So we didn't hear it in that way, but someone reading through the DMAC. I don't know how much time I have. I don't want to rush anyone. I'm really grateful for this, and I'm happy to answer any other questions you have.

[3165] Mark Triplett: And this is like the opportunity for the board to sort of weigh in in similar ways as the community has around these questions.

[3171] Ray Rodriguez: So it's really beneficial to hear your input.

[3176] Abbey Keirns: If it's helpful, I can read over what I've heard so far. So regarding facilities and technology improvements sort of a deeper study of improvements of what works document the steps for improvement. Intervention and aids have been invaluable. We should use coordination with parks and rec and other city resources regarding communications. Increase interaction with the broader community, not just families. Using high visibility areas, such as billboards, as well as the school signage. Parent workshops have been excellent, and a sort of push for more of that. College career, number and quality of counselors has been very important, and a push to grow ROP, grow college readiness in college conversations, college going conversations, and coordination with alonians.

[3233] SPEAKER_42: I do want to add to number three when it came to communication, is the accessibility for the parents. And when I say accessibility, it's not necessarily the location more than the time, right? Because the new world we live in is very unique. Most of us commute to work, so we have to take that into thought when we're making the decisions as to the time. Oftentimes, the 9 o'clock or the 9.30 in the morning meetings, it's not gonna happen. We're not gonna have the parent engagement that we're looking for, versus holy meetings at 6, 6.30, 7 at night, and expect that, even weekends, right? Expect the turnout to be much higher. And if we wanna be effective and get as much input and feedback from the community, we have to be open to offering those hours. And on top of that, the child care. Because oftentimes we have parents that have little ones, right, and they're wanting to engage, and they're limited because they don't have anyone to watch their child, or it's too expensive. So offering some type of child care event is for an hour, right? Having them sign a hold harmless or something to use their area or somewhere, and having teens, just being creative so that we can really service our community, so that they can engage in the decision process. Yes. Right, that social media, right, needing that now.

[3336] SPEAKER_35: Our PTA, well, in the elementary schools, I believe some of the PTAs, they had offered babysitting for parents so that they can attend the PTA meetings.

[3351] Phuong Nguyen: So that's a good one. It helps.

[3373] SPEAKER_37: I believe in the leadership class. At the high school, we've been discussing the idea of possible speakers to come to school to discuss career options and life obstacles and how they overcame those, and giving us that perseverance, motivation type of talk. And we've discussed it. It's still in the plannings. But I really do think that could prepare us maybe a little bit more for career and life. Right now, that's really helped me with life-wise has been my economics class. We learned a lot about credit cards and the basics of loans and how all that taxes work, which is really nice because I have no clue. So I would like to highlight that that's a really great class that we should have. Required to have, but still nice. Yeah, only a semester. Yes. I'd love to learn in a semester.

[3423] SPEAKER_42: You know, we offer, many school districts offer professional development for their staff, right? Why not offer community development, right, where in the evening we have these guest speakers that provide awesome training for our staff members and helping us when it comes to engaging with our students and teaching and drawing interest, generating interest from our students in the classroom. At the same time, we can use some of those same speakers for community development and having families participate. Another Zoom meeting, but they're able to listen and follow along and a family can engage, I think that would be a great tool.

[3470] SPEAKER_35: Yeah, like funding for college or- Right, exactly.

[3474] SPEAKER_37: Or AP classes, micro and macro. I forgot the title, but I remember micro and macro. A lot of students have discussed the possibility of it.

[3484] SPEAKER_42: Ask the families that own small businesses how they can get help when it comes to the Relief Act. the different things that we can really help our families be successful. And that's where life is going to come in.

[3498] SPEAKER_35: And that actually could be a partnership with the city of Newark as well, because they also definitely have resources to be able to do that and help bring in some of those speakers.

[3509] Terrence Grindall: No, but not just the city, also the library. It's a city-owned building.

[3521] Olivia Rangel: I'm learning. It's separate.

[3523] SPEAKER_26: It's a separate system. Thank you.

[3527] Terrence Grindall: And we just happen to have the best library in the entire state. It's brand new. Beautiful.

[3532] SPEAKER_36: Thank you.

[3541] Abbey Keirns: Yeah, there's a lot we're doing related to some of the things you've already named. But there's a lot of ways in which we have an opportunity to expand what was shared. And what you're sharing does resonate with some of what the community also shared. So I think it will be important to jot those notes up. What I'll do is they'll be added to the broader data set and I'll write. board study session so that it's distinguished from ELAC inputs or SSC inputs and et cetera. I think we only have an hour here.

[3578] Mark Triplett: We have about five minutes. Do you want to talk about next steps in the process?

[3583] Terrence Grindall: Yes. I have a quick question. Yeah, absolutely. Is there input from the teachers?

[3589] Abbey Keirns: Yes. In this process? Yes, yes. It's not as broad as what we would have done in like a year one of the LCAP. However, we are, so that at the basic level, NTA and all labor unions are represented in the LCAP PAC. But I've engaged with the labor leaders recently to ask them to do a subcommittee on just labor. Because what happens often in the PAC is that we don't get some down to some of their issues. And I think that they would appreciate a deeper conversation. So we're supposed to set up two or three meetings in the next month for them to kind of talk more deeply about the draft version. And teacher representatives in the school site councils.

[3631] Terrence Grindall: They represent teachers, yeah. And it's not just the labor groups, but it should be the actual teachers themselves. Yes, yes.

[3641] Abbey Keirns: Which I think is your point. I was thinking through the lens of the kind of conversation about the implications of the workforce.

[3655] Terrence Grindall: Anyway, sorry, you were about to say the next question.

[3657] Abbey Keirns: No, I think that our timeline for LCAP revisions this year looks like this. So based on this conversation, the engagement, we've already done an engagement with the DELAC regarding the trends. We are going to do an engagement with the LCAP PAC next week where I'll share back the DELAC recommendations that look at the overall body of data and the trends that came from that, and then they'll make recommendations. Then by the first week of April, we are hoping to have together a set of revised actions and a revised budget. We'll then share that back with the sites. The sites will use that because we want to align the CIPSAs with our revised LCAP, and they'll use that to inform their site planning process. So in the month of April then, by the end of April, we're hoping to use our spring break to look at all the site plan drafts. and give feedback on those to be prepared for a May in which we are just revising again, and then doing the annual public hearing and approval process as a typical timeline.

[3736] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And if you'll permit me, I just want to say, like, part of this process is around thinking through the gaps that you notice and then trying to improve in those gaps, right, in year two and three. And last year, towards the end, we heard a lot about we would like this process to be more transparent. I just want to honor the fact that I think just from what you saw in terms of process, Ms. Cairns has really brought that transparency to the work. You know, even in just saying, hey, team, you're going to analyze the data. We're not going to sit in a room by ourselves. This is actually a team effort. I just want to sort of note that and hope everybody else notices it too. Because a lot of work has gone into trying to make it as accessible, right? And understandable as possible, but also very transparent throughout. So we'll continue to try to improve in that way. That's appreciated. Thank you.

[3780] Abbey Keirns: And the LCAP PAC's been amazing. They are now currently working in working groups sort of with a special focus. Then the special focus is around our unduplicated students primarily. So there's a group focused on special education intervention, another group focused on multilingual, cultural responsiveness, and another group that's focused on wellness and engagement. So that's giving us that focus on are we really attending to the students that are sort of really at the heart of why we do this work.

[3814] SPEAKER_35: Appreciate the time.

[3815] Abbey Keirns: Thank you. Always available if you have any follow-up questions.

[3834] SPEAKER_36: They are free on the internet. I've used them on various presentations. Amipo. Amipo.com is it? Yes.

[3842] SPEAKER_26: Thank you. Oh. Oh. Thank you very much.

[3894] Phuong Nguyen: Closed session. Are there any public comments for closed session? In closed session, we will be discussing 4.2, public employee discipline dismissal release. 4.3, conference with labor negotiators. 4.4, conference with, oh, I'm sorry, 4.3, conference with labor negotiators and TA and CSCA. 4.4, conference with labor negotiators NEWMA. and 4.5 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. Thank you. Now we are. Yes.

[3928] Terrence Grindall: Just the record should reflect that Member Zhang and Member Nguyen came in while we're in the study session.

[3934] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Thank you. Now we recess to closed session. The board voted 5 to approve a settlement agreement with a certain certificated employee and accepted the resignation of the employee. Motion made by Member Marquez, seconded by Member Hill. And on item 4.5, conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. In closed session, the board considered the claim of Salome Aguilar, claim number 604445, and decided to reject the claim by the vote of 5-0 by the board. And I forgot who made the motion. Thank you. Next on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise. Please begin.

[8269] Jodi Croce: 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.

[8293] Phuong Nguyen: Next on our agenda is Recognition and Celebration School Spotlight, Lincoln Elementary. Welcome, Dr. Triplett.

[8306] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Nguyen, good evening board members, community staff, and I'm delighted to be introducing our wonderful principal of Lincoln Elementary, Ms. Reyncat Perez. And I see we also have some Lincoln staff in the audience. Thank you very much for joining us. So I'll turn it over to Ms. Rancap-Perez.

[8335] SPEAKER_40: Good evening, President Nguyen, board members, Superintendent Triplett, Executive Cabinet, and Newark Unified Community. My name is Lisa Day Rancap-Perez.

[8345] SPEAKER_26: I was wondering where that thing was at.

[8351] SPEAKER_40: Thank you. Again, my name is Lisa Day-Rancap-Perez, principal at Lincoln Elementary School. And I'm honored to be here this evening to represent our school community, where, as part of our mission, is to create a nurturing yet challenging environment that promotes the love of learning. So thank you all again for the opportunity. I'd like to go ahead and start with highlighting some of Lincoln's academic success in ELA. And so the information displayed here shows a comparison of the overall performance of students from the fall to winter iReady benchmark assessments. So we see a 10% increase of students performing on or above grade level in the green. We have a decrease of 3% of our students performing at one grade level below in tier two. And finally, we see a 7% decrease of students performing two or more grade levels below. And so again, this is our ELA data. The progress that we see in these numbers is attributed to the hard work that our teachers and support staff have done to keep our students engaged and strengthen their literacy skills using curriculum such as the reading and writing workshop and other district curriculum in the classroom. I want to focus now on math. Here. we see a 14% increase of students who performed in the green tier from the fall to the winter assessment, an 11% decrease in the yellow tier and 4% decrease in the red tier. So again, Lincoln has much to celebrate for the progress made by our students and our teachers and staff continue to work diligently to provide rigorous standard-based lessons, as well as targeted small group instruction as a means of intervention for our kids. There are wonderful, exciting events that have been happening throughout the year. Here are several of them. We've had several assemblies focusing on social, emotional learning, as well as PBIS. This year, with the help and effort from our library clerk, students had the opportunity to write a book and participate in our Young Authors Program. And so we celebrated their accomplishments at a special ceremony where all of our authors were recognized from kindergarten to the sixth grade. Next, I'd like to talk a bit about some of the campus initiatives that we've started at Lincoln. And so this year, our PBIS team has worked on opening up a PBIS store. So we finally got a store on site. And so our kids, they're able to turn their leaping leopards for prizes, such as the ones pictured here. We've also implemented the Playground Pals program, which gives our 4th through 6th grade student leadership members an opportunity to promote a positive playground environment and climate for younger students in grades 1st through 3rd. And so some of their responsibilities are to include organizing playground games, encouraging good sportsmanship, modeling fair play rules, as well as safety awareness on the playground. And so as a site, we've also integrated character strong activities in our daily programming that include community building as well as character development. This year, we have teamed up with the Lawrence Hall of Science in Bayside to focus and explore environmental literacy principles, as well as create outdoor learning experiences for our students. And in the pictures, you can see students in our garden, some engaged in a leaf study, and our teachers collaborating with our community partners at our last site-based PD. Our STEAM committee is also planning a STEAM week for the end of April, where the whole school will participate in different activities that encourage critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. Engaging our families in this work is key, and so we have been planning a Family Science Day, which you all are invited to attend on the 29th of April at Susan Johnson Bridgepoint Park for our linking community. And in addition to Bayside, we have Alameda County Water District, Don Edwards, the East Bay Regional Park District, and our very own STEAM committee planning a day full of interactive science activities and entertainment. So we look forward to this day of science and learning. Aside from Family Science Day, there are other ways for our parents to get involved, including School Site Council and the English Language Acquisition Committee, or ELAC committee. They meet monthly. Our parents are always welcome to attend a monthly PALS meeting, which is our parent group. And I facilitate Pancakes with Perez, virtual pancakes, that is, where we discuss school-home partnerships, and as well as how parents can support their child's learning at home. And so this concludes my presentation. I would like to end with appreciating our teachers, our support staff, our students, and community partners, as well as our parents who make Lincoln an amazing learning community. Thank you all so much.

[8719] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Principal Rancap-Perez. Any questions or comments from our board? Member Marquez.

[8729] SPEAKER_42: Thank you for the recognition. Good evening. Good evening. First and foremost, thank you for all the work that you do at your school and with the staff in place. That is awesome. Thank you. I wanted to mention and reiterate and recognize the fact that during this post-COVID, the fact that you were able to put pandemic, excuse me, that you were able to decrease your yellow and your reds.

[8752] SPEAKER_40: That is awesome. I agree. I agree. But I don't work alone. I work with a team, a great team.

[8758] SPEAKER_42: So thank you. And it's the teamwork and as well as the students and the community involvement making sure that amongst what we're going through that the students are still doing well. So kudos to everyone. So another round of applause.

[8772] SPEAKER_40: Thank you. Member Hill.

[8776] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Ms. Perez, for the great presentation. And I just have one question, and that is, what can we as a board do to support you?

[8784] SPEAKER_40: I honestly think that being visual for our families and our communities. So coming to Family Science Day would be great, as well as the continued support. Thank you.

[8795] Phuong Nguyen: Great, thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Oh, Student Board Member Resendez-Ortiz.

[8804] SPEAKER_37: I would just like to say the presentation is beautiful. And additionally, the art behind the wall is beautiful as well. I was looking at it during my break, and it is astonishing. Can I give it a highlight? Thank you for the presentation. Thank you.

[8816] Phuong Nguyen: So I'd like to follow up with the student board members and ask the questions. Can you give us a little recap on what is being displayed on the back wall?

[8825] SPEAKER_40: Definitely. So I'm going to turn around here. So we have a couple of art pieces that our students have done, including wonderful celebrations and writing pieces as far as the Lunar New Year, celebrating St. Patrick's Day, which is very timely, as well as learning about our solar system and other writing activities and projects that students have done at Lincoln.

[8857] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you for the wonderful job and congratulations to you and your staff for continuing to do tremendous work at Lincoln. Thank you. Have a good evening.

[8866] SPEAKER_40: Likewise.

[8867] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. On to public comm, I'm sorry, on to 8.1 employee organizations. We have NTA, CSCA, and NEWMA presenting. NTA first, Mr. Sean Abruzzi. Welcome.

[8897] Sean Abruzzi: So, thank you, the board. On March 7th, NTA sent the board and Dr. Triplett a vote of no confidence letter. Dr. Triplett did reach out to NTA and scheduled a meeting. That meeting should be happening tomorrow at 4 p.m. We appreciate that. Thanks for reaching out to us. NTA would appreciate an answer on the direction that the superintendent of board will be going with the vote of no confidence, hopefully by the end of this month of where you guys are going to be approaching on that. NTA would like to reach out and NTA appreciates board member Hill for responding to NTA and the questions that he asked at these board meetings. We appreciate that, and thanks again, Board Member Hill, and thank you for your time.

[8954] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Ruzzi. Our next speaker, do we have a speaker from CSCA? Hi, Ms. Heffer. Welcome.

[8970] SPEAKER_30: Hi, thank you.

[8972] Maria Huffer: Good evening. Board members, Superintendent Triplett, and Executive Cabinet. I have come here tonight to speak in regard to the official vote of no confidence notification, CSCA Chapter 208, submitted to all of you against Newark Junior High Principal Risha Krishna. Board members, Dr. Triplett, and Executive Cabinet, you were all emailed a copy of this letter on March 7th, and I personally delivered copies to the district office on March 8th, but have yet to receive a response from anyone. However, we have heard that Dr. Triplett has reached out to a member of the Newark Junior High NTA staff in regard to their letter of no confidence that was submitted on the same day. Did I miss something? Why wasn't an employee of the Newark Junior High classified staff or CSCA contacted? Are the classified staff at Newark Junior High or any CSCA employee of this district not as important? I am disheartened. I just heard that Newark Unified School District Board of Education and executive staff does not think of CSCA employees as valued members of this district and does not take our vote seriously. With all that being said and after the most recent incidents that have taken place at the Junior High in the past two weeks, I've decided that I will be reading the notification submitted on March 7th here tonight. As president of Chapter 208, I believe that the classified staff at Newark Junior High need their voices and concerns heard, and I'm willing to stand with them in this fight for immediate action. Newark Junior High is not a safe place under the current leadership. to Dr. Triplett, Executive Board, Newark Unified School Board of Education. It is with great reluctance to all of us as the Classified School Employees Association, members at Newark Junior High School, that we respectfully submit this letter as our official notice regarding the majority vote of a no confidence in the principal, Risha Krishna, and request that this letter be reviewed and considered by all the board members and the superintendent. This letter outlines the numerous persistent problems that have come to exist at Newark Junior High School during her tenure as principal. We all believe that these problems directly stem from an inability or unwillingness of the principal to provide effective, competent, compassionate, and trustworthy leadership to the school. We believe that these problems have had a corrosion effect on the staff morale and fostered a climate of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. In light of the above, the CSCA Chapter 208 members of Newark Junior High School are now formally advising the Newark Unified District Superintendent and board members that we have no confidence that Risha Krishna has the capacity to provide Newark Junior High School with the quality leadership and the oversight that is essential to the school's health, effectiveness, and functioning. We submit that Ms. Krishna lacks a sincere desire to seek meaningful changes in administrative practices. The negative impact of the hostile work environment that currently exists at the Newark Junior High School began within the past two years. Listed below are reasons why CSCA Chapter 2A members of Newark Junior High have no confidence in the principal, Risha Krishna. Ms. Christian has created a hostile work environment for all staff members by engaging in the following conduct, belittling staff members in front of other staff members, students and parents and guardians. Ms. Christian has regularly been overheard stating, I am the captain and you are to assist when speaking to other staff members. She has blatantly discarded staff members' opinions, suggestions and knowledge of experience based on longevity with their positions in this district. The persistent and unrelenting safety of student and staff members. Removal of campus monitors for controlling the site campus to keep everyone safe and placing them in non-strategic static points around campus where visibility is limited. As a result of this change, there have been multitude of fights on campus, which have resulted in students and staff being injured with little to no consequences for the aggressors. Leaving one monitor alone to patrol the entire campus at brunch. Disciplinary issues, which shows the rampant favoritism by allowing specific students to have minimal consequences, while others are given harsher punishments. Examples include the following. A group of the students vandalized the school, and one student's punishment was an in-house suspension, while the others had a full suspension from campus. One student physically assaulted another student, and the instigator was not suspended as they returned to school the next day without any disciplinary action taken by Ms. Krishna. Students have been identified as having drugs, drug paraphernalia, and weapons on campus in direct violation of the education code. When reported, the students have minimal to no disciplinary action taken. Ms. Krishna continues to have a lack of transparency in communication skills. Ms. Krishna has made the office an uncomfortable space for members due to the high tension in the office on it. Ms. Krishna is often shut away in her office behind locked doors. In fact, she is so intent on avoiding the New Regional High staff and community that she fails to communicate with her staff members. As a result, She often will hold information for her staff of ongoing issues that have occurred and should be brought to the attention of the office staff and campus monitors. For example, several fights that have occurred could have been prevented if she had shared the information she was privy to. There are no guidance or consistency of information being disseminated. I can't say that word right, sorry. Ms. Christian does not show initiative to resolve issues. Instead, repeats members' questions back to them and then lectures them about irrelevant topics. Ms. Christian is not able to answer questions about rules or protocol. She is unable to make a decision about anything. She usually says she has to check with someone at the district office, but seldom gets back to anyone with an answer. Ms. Kramer shows favoritism to some members, It is obvious who she likes and who she doesn't and treats them accordingly. Instead of treating everyone professionally and equitably, this creates animosity among the staff members. She lacks the temperament and empathy required of a leader. Ms. Christian treats the classified staff members so appallingly that they felt the need to voice their opinions and concerns in their leadership by bringing this to your attention in this manner. Due to the gross unhappiness of the CSCA members, many are planning to or have already left. As a direct result of her poor leadership skills and hostile work environment, together, all the remaining classified employees continue to put their careers and livelihood on the line to keep Newark Junior High School the safe and family-friendly community and workplace we know this school once was. We want to continue to send the children to a positive school environment. Furthermore, be it resolved CSCA respectively asks that the board of directors of the Newark Unified School District and superintendent take all the appropriate action to terminate this contract with Ms. Christian or accept her resignation from Newark Unified School District. CSCA wants to make sure that something is done to boost the morale of education of our students again. Is Newark Unified School District intent on serving the interests of our students, classified staff, and teachers of Newark, California, or is it still about protecting this principle? So at the end, it was agreed upon by CSCA Chapter 208 Executive Board on the 25th of February, and it was passed and adopted by the CSCA Chapter 208 Newark Junior High staff members on the 28th of February. Thank you.

[9478] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Huffer. Our next speaker from NEWMA.

[9482] SPEAKER_39: This is Ms. Olivia Runhell, and she's online. Thank you. Ms. Runhell, you may begin.

[9490] Olivia Rangel: Good evening, President Nguyen, Board of Trustees, and executive cabinet members. As everyone is aware, NUSD will be shifting to masks being optional but strongly recommended beginning Monday, March 21st. In partnership with the NTA team and our CSCA teams, NEWMA members have been preparing our sites, students, families, and communities for this change. Sites are shifting their PBIS guidelines, emailing, calling, and ensuring that everyone's choice to remove or maintain masks are respected. While all sites have been impacted in a variety of ways by the pandemic, our NEWMA leaders are happy to spring toward an endemic. NUSD leaders have balanced many shifts through these times of challenge and constant change, but as always, we show up and continue to lead in service to our schools, our community, and always our students. Before I finish my communication, I want to wish those in the community who celebrate a happy St. Patrick's Day. In addition, I want to thank all those in the community who came to celebrate the diversity of our students at the NMHS Hats Assembly, including Dr. Triplett and President Nguyen, and thank the many staff and students who dedicated time to put this on. Thank you, and have a good evening.

[9558] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Rangel. On to item 9.1, public comment on non-agenda items. We have several speakers tonight. Our first one is Mr. Ryan Hernandez. Welcome.

[9583] SPEAKER_12: Good evening, everyone. My name is Ryan Hernandez. I'm the music teacher at Newark Junior High School. I've been at Newark Junior High for 10 years now. Now, there's a long list of things that our teachers and staff have about why we have no confidence in our current principal. But I'm going to talk about recent events that has happened due to the inconsistencies or lack of discipline and having no control of our campus and how it has turned into an unsafe and bad environment for our students. After a year of virtual learning, the kids were coming back onto campus as a whole for the first time. And this was the opportunity to set the ground rules and create an environment where all the students knew the consequences for their actions. And of course, consequences would be given to those that don't follow the rules. But she never did that. The specific kids soon found that they were able to get away with defacing and damaging school property. being able to curse and talk back to adults and get into fights and not be severely punished. And just in the last two weeks alone, a student punched a teacher on the side of their face. Cell phones were out by students so they could record what was happening. M1000s were being blown up during brunch and lunchtime. And her presence was nowhere to be found to deal with these situations or aren't being handled with enough discipline. She can't control the chaos that is going on at her campus, and because she can't handle the problems and has no presence of authority at her school, she needs others to help out because she doesn't know what to do. She asks HR to send help to supervise brunch and lunch and has others dealing with any problems that happen. This week, one of our district employees, who happens to be my wife, came to help supervise. And while helping out, she was threatened by girls who asked her if she wanted to fight them while another while a one of our fellow custodians was there being disrespected as well. She was ignored by a student who refused to have his phone confiscated. And she was also harassed and talked back by a group of boys during lunch. And our principal, again, was nowhere to be found. I even came out during my lunch to blow my whistle at the boys who then started talking back to me and began to try to instigate a fight telling me to step up. Of course, I didn't and they were mouthing off and laughing about how they knew I wasn't going to do anything because they pretty much knew that they wouldn't get in trouble because they know that's how things are being done at our school. Threatening adults or trying to initiate a fight in some places are grounds for expulsion. But time and time again, no severe actions are made, and the students who have caused the most problems this year continue to come back and continue their ways because they feel like they can get away with their actions. Our principal wants the public to think there are no problems and that our school is a safe environment. So she gives data that is actually skewed and inaccurate that makes it look like things are fine and that she has a handle on our school safety. But she doesn't have the campus safety as a priority and seems to think that any problem that happens will just go away. We as a staff have addressed these issues, yet it doesn't always seem to be of importance to our principal. In my 10 years being at NJHS, I have never seen our school run so poorly. It saddens me to see what has happened and seeing a large number of good teachers and staff leave our school or talk about leaving after this year because of the way things are being run these past two years. Our students are losing great teachers because of our principal. I, myself, even have been thinking about leaving if our principal is back next year. because I don't want to work under a principal that lets chaos run our campus, and I honestly do not trust her. And I have my reasons for that as well. But I'll leave it at that for tonight. Thank you.

[9833] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. Our next speaker is Paige Platko.

[9847] Diego Torres: Welcome.

[9851] SPEAKER_19: All right, good evening. My name is Paige Blacko and I'm a teacher at the junior high as well. Unfortunately, this is not my first time coming here to address the mistake that the district made regarding our school. Two years ago, the district made the decision to send our school's most valuable member, our office manager and my mom to the high school without any thought of how that would affect us at the junior high. The junior high united and stood up for what was right then and we are doing that again tonight. Everyone started the school year off not knowing what to expect. But the last thing we expected it was to be easy. What will students be like? What did they learn last year? How many will be in person? Will they adjust easily? Those questions were endless. With the school year now almost over, we have most of those questions answered. But new and even more concerning questions are arising. How many fights will there be this week? Will any be in classrooms again? When will explosives go off? Who will be threatened today? And just overall, am I safe here? I have been in Newark my whole life, 27 years. I went to school here, graduated from the high school, and I was very proud to be back to teach here. But I never thought that I'd have to question my safety in my hometown, in my home schools. I never thought that I would have to hear how teachers and students are hiding and crying, thinking that there is an active shooter on campus because they heard explosives go off with no explanation as to what was going on. I never thought I would have to deny a student from going to the bathroom because so many others use that space to smoke, sell drugs, and even vandalize the bathrooms because nothing is being done to prevent it or stop it. And I never thought that I would have to hear multiple times of students targeting and wanting to fight teachers. It is really terrifying to come to work every day knowing that these things are happening. I understand that no school is perfect and they all have their issues, but our issues are getting worse and worse due to the lack of leadership from Principal Krishna. In a small district, we should have these things under control, but I have never seen such lack of leadership, discipline and overall care and concern for our students and for our staff. It really sickens me that our students and staff do not feel safe on this campus, all because the district put such little thought into effort into who they would hire as a principal. Someone to lead our school, enforce our rules, and create a community where we all feel safe. I can tell you with confidence that there is none of that at the junior high, which is why, again, we are here tonight. We took a vote of no confidence for the principal, Risha Krishna, hoping that the district would hear our desperate cry for help and nothing. Once again, they do not care to see how badly their actions affect us. So we are here, once again, standing up for what is right, standing up for the safety of our students and staff. Tonight, our attendance might be small, but our presence is large. An overwhelming majority of members support the vote of no confidence and support us here tonight. They have sent in letters, and I know some of them are attending virtually as well. Something really needs to be done here, and we will not back down until that happens. Thank you.

[10039] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Platko. Our next speaker is Ms. Lori Eddings. Welcome.

[10054] SPEAKER_11: Hi. Good evening, Dr. Triplett, President Nguyen, cabinet and board. I've been here twice this year to let you know that the junior high campus is unsafe. The safety continues to get worse. I would like to give you a week in review. Wednesday, March 9th, a student attacks a teacher who is on yard duty. The teacher asks the student to pick up garbage the student threw down. The student swore at him and then attacked him, punching him in the face several times, breaking his glasses, leaving him with a bump on his head. Thursday, March 10th, students set off M1000s in the boys' bathroom and in the quad during brunch and lunch. This causes a group of students to run into a classroom and tell the teacher there's an active shooter on campus and the teacher went on lockdown. Monday, March 14th, a student attacks another student, knocking him to the ground and repeatedly punching him in the face. Tuesday, March 15th, the DO sent over a person to help with yard duty. The person they sent was accosted by a group of girls asking her if she wanted to fight. A group of boys were being rowdy, so the yard duty asked the band teacher to come over, blow his whistle, and help disband everyone. The band teacher went to help defuse the situation, and instead of students leaving, they confronted the band teacher, wanting to fight him. Luckily, the monitor and vice principal came, and the four adults were able to defuse the situation. Today, here I am, letting you know we are tired. Our requests are deflected repeatedly, being told, all schools are reporting these kinds of things. And data shows that it's only 2% of our students that are causing 100% of the issues. I want to tell you that 2% of the students have created a toxic, unsafe environment for the other 98%. The environment has been fostered by bad leadership at the highest level of the junior high. When there isn't enough discipline or non-consistent discipline, I'm not sure what other outcome you would really expect. Please don't let this chaos continue. Please support the letter NTA has sent to you. Thank you.

[10198] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Mrs. Edding. Our next speaker is Patricia Rasmussen. I apologize if I mispronounced your name. Pronounce your last name. Welcome.

[10218] SPEAKER_30: Good evening. It's the first time ever at a board meeting. So my name is Patricia. I'm the campus monitor at Newark Junior High. I've been a district employee for 10 years. I spent my last eight years at Newark Junior High. This year has been definitely, sorry, a little emotional here. Definitely the most challenging. In the past eight months, we've had over 20 fights. We've had explosives, weapons, drugs, paraphernalia, with minimal to no consequences. Due to these incidents these past eight months, I do not feel comfortable coming to work knowing that my safety and the safety of my peers and students are at risk every day. Every day I enjoyed coming to work when I used to love coming to campus, sorry. I've never felt this way in the past eight years where I've considered staff, students of the junior high as family. Furthermore, I've never seen the junior high staff morale so low. In the past two years where our opinions, suggestions and past experiences have been disregarded as we don't even exist. Above all, the leadership regarding safety of students lacks transparency, communication skills. We as campus monitors are the first responders to all incidents before, during and after school. When communication is lacking, how are we supposed to intervene or resolve issues before they happen? Tonight I'm asking you to take actions and support the classified staff of Newark Junior High in resolving these issues immediately. Thank you.

[10350] Phuong Nguyen: Oh, I apologize.

[10352] SPEAKER_39: And then I have two more virtual.

[10356] Phuong Nguyen: Oh, I apologize, yes. We do have two other public comments on non-agenda items and then also several virtual too. Our next speaker is Ms. Cheri Villa.

[10374] Chery Villa: Good evening. I am reading a a message from a teacher at the Junior High. Her name is Hilda Aguilar. She's a math teacher. Good evening. She was unable to come. Good evening. I'm Hilda Aguilar. I have been employed at Newark Unified since the fall of 1993. I began teaching math at Newark Memorial High School and then transferred to Newark Junior High fall of 2000. I spent a few years on loan to ACOE as a math specialist where I was able to work with various schools as far away as Elk Grove to as far south as San Benito Unified. In all of those different environments I have worked in, I've never felt safety was an issue until this year. There have been multiple fights on campus this year. Some fights where students physically hit another were classified as a physical altercation instead of a fight. In some cases, students were just sent home without any consequences and allowed to return the next day. More recently, staff members have been either physically attacked or verbally threatened by students. If firm and consistent consequences have been administered and a safe and positive environment were established, these types of actions may not be as prevalent as they currently are. As a veteran teacher, I know that fights occur on school campuses, but never to the degree or frequency that I have observed this year. Not only are the consequences, not only are consequences not given to students that are fighting, but the administration has not been Communicating to the staff what is occurring on campus and steps being taken by everyone involved to minimize these occurrences. Teachers have been given whistles, but the new teachers have no idea what to do if they hear a whistle being blown. There has been no training and no plans given on what to do in case of a fight. The communication from the principal lacks on many issues. We keep being told that only 3% of our student population are the ones receiving detention and suspensions. If that's the case, Why is our campus so unsafe? I've never been afraid for the safety of the students and the staff as I am this year. This is due to the lack of competence, communication and planning by our principal. My colleagues have come to board meetings to present this issue and in turn, nothing has been done. The district office sends over one person for additional yard duty support each day. It has not been enough to keep the students and staff safe. Last week, when some students set off M1000s during brunch and lunch, students came into class afraid after lunch. It was never addressed by the administration, to the staff, or the students. That day, she did make an announcement, interrupting our fourth period class to address what had happened the day before. Then, during lunch, another M1000 was set off. Some students ran into a colleague's class to shelter in place because they thought that there was a shooter on campus. A campus monitor had to go into her class because students were lined up outside waiting to get in. The instructor and students were sheltering in place and waiting for an all-clear bell or an announcement, which never came. Students were in the class crying and some parents had to be called. Thank you, Ms. Villanueva. Can you please wrap it up? The only announcement made at the time was from a staff member during lunch that ran into the office and over the loudspeaker to tell all students to sit down where they were at. There's no I had no idea what was going on. And if lunch supervision staff knew it was fireworks at the time.

[10578] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Thank you. And before we move on to our next public comment speaker, we're still having a mask mandate until next week. So if you guys if for those that don't have them on, please make sure that you have yours on. Thank you. And our last public comment speaker. Alan Mayer. I hope I pronounced your last name correctly.

[10603] SPEAKER_25: Thank you.

[10604] Phuong Nguyen: Welcome.

[10604] SPEAKER_07: Thank you. I'm Alan Mayer, a current senior at Newark Memorial High School. And I heard talks about restructuring the way the math courses are structured to have pathways more equitable for students who haven't placed as well in the 6th grade, 7th grade placement test, which currently determine what math that they will end up taking in 11th grade and 12th grade. I'm speaking about this because my experience with this is an unusual one in that I have skipped calculus AB entirely to self-study on my own and took calculus BC as a junior at our high school and excelled in the course with massive support from our math department and got a five on the AP test and was extremely successful in that class. This has allowed me to open up more options for this year that I wouldn't have had if I wasn't able to have this option, but the option wasn't clearly presented to me and I had to actively seek it out on my own. I know a girl personally who isn't in a math class that she is fit in, not due to her lack of ability, but due to her shyness. She wasn't able to talk to the proper teachers or had the proper connections to take the classes that she wanted to take in high school, and is now, with help from the math department, going to skip math analysis honors and take calculus AB as a senior next year. And she is extremely happy about it and getting the support she needs. But this pathway, even though less rigorous than the one I took, also wasn't clearly presented to her as an option. And she talked to me about it beforehand due to my experiences skipping classes in the past. I think that I heard the from my friends at the school that the board was considering restructuring these math classes in a way that would make options like this more clear, where people could start at lower levels and transition into higher level courses in their 11th and 12th grades. And I believe that this would be extremely beneficial to a large portion of the student body that either excels at math later, and even if they do poorly on the early placement tests, they're able to get in the classes they need. or just having more control over their own education and pathways, I think it would be extremely beneficial to restructure how the math courses are structured at Newark Memorial High School. Thank you.

[10742] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you so much. On to our virtual commenters.

[10751] SPEAKER_39: Yes, we have our first comment. Virtual comment is from Catherine Darden. Catherine, you may begin.

[10763] SPEAKER_22: Good evening, Dr. Triplett and the Board of Trustees. We the parent representatives of Newark Parents for Better Schools have been repeating the same public comment in English and Spanish to ensure our community and Board of Education understands the problems we still continue to have in this district and are not being addressed. Communication, we would like to acknowledge Member Hill for questioning the system and trying to hold the superintendent and the other board members accountable. We watch as your questions go unanswered just like ours. Also, student member Ortiz, thank you for requesting a report on what has been done to support Coyote Hills. Please let us know publicly if you have indeed received that report. The community continues to ask for transparency. For the last two weeks, CHE has been hosting Rush School Psych Council's LCAP and ELEC meetings. It is painfully obvious that NUSD has missed some urgent deadlines. At each board meeting, we have publicly stated that the CHE stakeholders have not been heard, nor were any meetings being held by Principal Tomasini. Now you all have set aside time for these meetings because of the lack of leadership at CHE and from you. We want to remind you that a year ago, parents asked for an experienced principal. However, you gave us who you wanted. which was principal Tomasini and look how the year has gone. Our children deserve better. These meetings have been exhausting and stressful because not only are the facilitators trying to finish the meetings in 60 minutes and never have any answers or willing to address our concerns. We are frustrated and your staff continue to patronize our community. We asked to have highly qualified interpreters and once again, They have hired individuals who are unable to accurately translate what parents have said. Dr. Triplett, you promised to build a community. Again, Ed Code section 48985 states, when 15% or more of students enrolled in a public school speaks a single primary language other than English as determined by language census data from the preceding year, all notices, reports, statements, and records sent to the parent or guardian of such students shall be written in English and the primary language. Thank you.

[10912] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Gardner.

[10920] SPEAKER_39: The next comment will be in Spanish, and that is from Monica Quiroz. Senora Quiroz, puede empezar.

[10934] SPEAKER_32: Buenas noches, Dr. Triplett, miembros de la mesa directiva. Nosotros, los representantes de los padres de Newark para mejores escuelas, hemos estado repitiendo los mismos comentarios públicos en inglés y en español para garantizar que nuestra comunidad y la mesa directiva entiendan los problemas que aún seguimos teniendo en este distrito. No es, no se está, a board member. Communication. Nos gustaría agradecer al miembro Hills por cuestionar el sistema y tratar de responsabilizar al superintendente y a los miembros de la mesa directiva. Vemos como sus preguntas quedan sin respuestas, al igual que las nuestras. También a los miembros estudiantiles Ortiz-Rendiz, gracias por solicitar un informe sobre lo que se ha hecho para apoyar a Coyol Hills. Por favor, háganos saber públicamente si realmente recibió ese informe. La comunidad sigue pidiendo transparencia. Durante las últimas dos semanas, Coyole Hills ha estado organizando reuniones apresuradas del Consejo Escolar, ILAC y ELPAC. Es dolorosamente obvio que el distrito ha incumplido algunos plazos urgentes en cada reunión of the board of directors. We have declared publicly that the parties interested in the Coyolijios have not been heard or that Director Tomasini has conducted any meeting. Now, all of you have reserved time for these meetings. Due to the lack of leadership in Coyolijios and you, we want to remind you that a year ago, the parents asked for an expert director. Sin embargo, no nos dio a quien ustedes querían. Era la directora Tomasini. Y mire cómo ha sido nuestro año. Nuestros hijos merecen algo mejor. Una vez más, la sección 48985 del Código de Educación establece, cuando el 15% o más de los estudiantes matriculados en una escuela pública hablan un solo idioma primario que no sea el inglés, Thank you. This statement was verbatim from the prior. Thank you. Actually, before we move on to the superintendent report, can we have Alan Mayer come back up to the podium?

[11109] Phuong Nguyen: I just wanted to personally thank you for your comments about the math pathway and to express your experiences. And also, I wanted to say congratulations on getting a five on your AP calculus BC exam. It's a huge accomplishment, and it's something that we should definitely recognize. So I applaud you, and I'm very appreciative that you came tonight to speak to us. Thank you.

[11140] SPEAKER_07: Thank you.

[11141] Phuong Nguyen: Keep on doing the great work. On to Agenda Item 10.1, Superintendent Reports.

[11150] SPEAKER_39: Dr. Chiplett. And President Nguyen, we do have three comments on this item. Oh, thank you. These are virtual comments. And the first comment is from Catherine Darden. Catherine Darden, you may begin.

[11171] SPEAKER_22: Good evening, Dr. Triplett and the Board of Trustees. We, the parent representatives of Newark Parents for Better Schools, have been repeating the same public comment in English and Spanish to ensure our community and Board of Education understands the problems we still continue to have. Title I parent engagement. It is March and no Title I parent meeting has been held. For a school that was promised equity and support after a merger during a pandemic, you have even failed to meet the standards for compliance. Under Ed Code Section 6312, each LEA receiving Title I funds shall implement an effective means of outreach to parents of ELs to inform the parents regarding how the parents can be involved in the education of their children and be active participants in assisting their children with the following. A, attaining English proficiency. B, achieving at high levels within a well-rounded education. C, meeting the challenging state academic standards expected of all students. Parents and the community were told at the SSC meeting on Monday, March 14, that more than $200,000 needed to be spent by April 1st, 2022. Otherwise it would be taken back. CHE is a Title I school with a large majority of ELS students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. Students have been struggling, not because of COVID-19, but because of the lack of resources and support under your lack of leadership. We are demanding that the status quo be maintained at CHE for an additional year. We want everything to remain in place until we have proper management, proper SSC and elect meetings. family feedback and listening sessions and needs assessments for students with special needs. SELPA meetings that took place on March 7th, 2022. Again, there were no interpreters. Parents were not informed in a timely manner. Newark parents were once again, not at the table to be part of the discussion and no interpretation was provided. Where is the equity? Let's start focusing on the facts, rather focusing on the creating of mascots and marquees. Board members, we are asking for the board to request a study session of the following. Effective, transparent communication. Transparency builds trust. Thank you.

[11315] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Darden.

[11321] SPEAKER_39: The next comment will be in Spanish and that is Monica Quiroz. Senora Quiroz puede empezar.

[11338] SPEAKER_32: Buenas noches Dr. Ripley y miembros de la mesa directiva. Nosotros los representantes de los padres de Newark para mejores escuelas hemos estado repitiendo los mismos comentarios públicos en inglés y en español para garantizar que nuestra comunidad y la mesa directiva entiendan los problemas que aún seguimos teniendo en este distrito. No se está abordando comunicación. Nos gustaría agradecer al miembro Jeeves por cuestionar al sistema y tratar de responsabilizar al superintendente y los miembros de la mesa directiva. Vemos como sus preguntas quedan sin respuesta al igual que nuestras. También a los miembros estudiantil Ortiz-Ruendiz Gracias por solicitar un informe sobre lo que se ha hecho para apoyar a Coyol y Quiroz. Por favor, háganos saber públicamente si realmente ha recibido este informe. La comunidad sigue pidiendo transparencia.

[11392] SPEAKER_39: Disculpe, señora Quiroz. ¿La puedo interrumpir? ¿Es el mismo mensaje que ella dio? Sí. Las reglas no permiten que se repita el mismo mensaje. Por eso tiene la oportunidad durante el 9.1, que es comentario público.

[11406] SPEAKER_32: Oh, está bien.

[11407] SPEAKER_39: OK, disculpe. Muchas gracias. What I just said here was this was the same statement that was previously stated during public comment. And the same statement is not able to be repeated twice, especially since we have to stay on topic. And we do have one more. The next comment is by Martha Santiago. I believe this one's going to be in Spanish as well.

[11438] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you.

[11439] SPEAKER_39: Senora Santiago, puede empezar?

[11447] SPEAKER_31: Good evening, Dr. Tirp, members of the Board of Directors. I am the president of the Newark Parents for Better Schools. We have been working to ensure that our community and the Board of Directors understand the problems that we still have in this district. Title 1, commitment of the parents. no reunión de padres de Título I. Para una escuela a la que se le propuso apoyo después de una fusión durante una pandemia, incluso no ha cumplido con los estándares de cumplimiento. El Código de Educación 1612, cada distrito que restablece el fondo del Título I, impide un medio de alcance with respect to how parents can participate in the education of their children and be part of the process. The next thing is to master English, to reach the required levels of comprehensive education, to meet the challenging academic standards that are expected of all A los padres y a la comunidad se les dijo en la reunión del Consejo Escolar el lunes 14 de mayo que se necesitaba gastar más de $200,000 del 2022. De lo contrario, se recuperará. Exigimos que se mantenga lo mejor que tiene Coyote Hills durante un We want everyone to stay in their place until we have a chance to hold adequate meetings with COLA and ILAC. Coyote was the first with a large majority of students. Students, not because of COVID-19, and support under his lack of leadership and transparency. Retroalimentation section and family listening and evaluation to study social issues. The Stelpa meeting that took place in 2022 Una vez más, los padres no fueron informados de manera... Una vez más, no estuvieron en la... Y no se proporcionó interpretación. Conocemos... Señora Santiago, si es el tiempo. En los hechos, en lugar de centrarnos en creación de mascotas, We are asking the board to request a study section on the following. Excuse me, Ms. Santiago, time is up. And I leave you with this motto.

[11664] SPEAKER_39: Transparency generates... And it is time for you to take action.

[11666] SPEAKER_31: Thank you, Ms. Santiago.

[11681] SPEAKER_37: Could we let her know that her comment wasn't being heard and that she could translate it later through an email?

[11689] SPEAKER_39: Senora Santiago, su comentario no se escucho bien por la mala conexion que tuvimos en su audio. But this was the exact translation from the first comment regarding Ms. Katherine Darden.

[11705] SPEAKER_31: She did confirm that it was the same statement. Thank you, Senora Santiago.

[11737] Phuong Nguyen: Any other comment? That's it. Thank you. That concludes our public comment. I'm sorry, that concludes public comment on superintendent report. Superintendent Triplett.

[11750] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Nguyen. Ms. Gutierrez, if you could put up the deck, please. So this evening for the superintendent report, I have a number of updates based on some requests from the board. And I will also ask that Director of Teaching and Learning, Mr. Ariel Dalowich, join me for some of this report to speak in particular about certain items. But we can start with the first slide. So the board asked for an update around internet connectivity at Newark Memorial. So this week, we have shared both with the staff and students and families at Newark Memorial some updates around this, as well as the board. We've had some real challenges around connectivity, as I know that all of us are aware of at Newark Memorial. The IT department has been working really diligently to try to identify the challenge and then to also then plan for a fix. And at this point, we have a plan for this weekend to go in and to do the fix in partnership with an outside expert as well as with the AT&T. So we're optimistic that we'll be able to make the fix. Unfortunately, it's not possible to do it during the week because it's going to require shutting down the entire system for the district. so that the fix can be made. But we're hoping that that will take care of it and we'll continue to update both the board and the community with regard to this in the future. The second thing we're going to speak on is, and there he is, Mr. Dulwich. The board asked for an update around Coyote Hills Elementary and some of the support and different things that have been happening there. So if you recall, the Coyote Hills leadership and some of its staff did come for a school spotlight earlier in the year. So this will be the second update with regard to some of the both successes, challenges, as well as support that has been given at Coyote Hills this year. So I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Dulwich to take us through this section. Mr. Dulwich, you already have the clicker. There it is.

[11907] SPEAKER_05: All right, thank you, Dr. Triplett. Good evening, members of the board. As a result of a recent request, I'll provide an update this evening with respect to Coyote Hills Elementary. As one would expect in the first year of a merger, there are going to be growing pains and challenges. We've experienced that this year, and returning during a pandemic only exacerbated some issues. At the same time as a district, we've provided intentional support throughout the year, and I will detail these actions as well. And finally, as I will also outline, there have been a number of successes. First and foremost, for distributed leadership that has evolved, we are excited and grateful to the Coyote Hill staff for helping create a new school model predicated on horizontal leadership. Supports provided at the start of the year include the following, six campus monitors placed in an elementary site, a full-time SEAL teacher on special assignment, The district received additional funds last year, as you remember, during the pandemic, and the district created an equity formula, disproportionately allocating funds to our schools most in need. So therefore, Coyote Hills as a Title I school received additional funds and used some of those funds to support two full-time English learner intervention teachers. Similarly, they also funded two full-time bilingual instructional aides based on the district equity formula just mentioned. And then finally, at the elementary site, there are seven paraeducators in the classroom. In the principal's absent, we've been very appreciative of the Coyote Hill staff, and I'd like to outline a number of steps they've taken to step into leadership spaces. We've provided as a district timely communication with respect to the community and the staff. And since January, we've placed a district administrator on site daily. Most recently, there has been a principal designee, assuming administrative responsibilities effective March 7th, that is Christy Palomino. And she's been an administrative designee for years in this district and has over 27 years of experience. Additional district supports this year, we approved additional hours for campus monitors for COVID testing. We've strategically placed a bilingual office clerk and we have a fantastic office support staff in the office. We additionally provided a full-time teacher on special assignment for the purposes of instructional leadership in addition to the CLTOSA. And as we've talked about taking a balanced approach, we've really focused on positive climate initiatives. We have t-shirts school-wide that are set for a motivational assembly with our students and staff. That'll go to everyone. And we also have a mural project in progress. I'd be remiss not to mention a number of teacher leaders that have trailblazed in this last regard. Maggie Baylon, Rosanna Sepulveda, Carol Rose, and Christy Palomino. And in speaking about staff contributions, I'd also like to recognize that we have two teachers spearheading science camp to make it a reality for both fifth and sixth grade. That would be Helena Rodriguez-Sousa and Carol Rose. We've also increased communication, especially via Blooms and also School Messenger. That would be with Brandi Wex at the first grade. And then also direct communication with our NTA rep on site, Brianna Aker. And then finally, we have upper grade leadership with Lulu Irwin, as well as Rosanna Sepulveda. And a number of teachers have willingly stepped up for one another and support colleagues with parent meetings. Christine Long, to name one, one of our EL specialists. And then I, again, if I didn't mention our office staff, Rosa Diaz and Toya Lemus have played critical roles in really driving and developing the culture at Coyote Hills. So we have an amazing staff that's really stepped in to leadership spaces. We've also, since 2022, made an intentional commitment with partnering district and site level leaders. Staff meetings have occurred regularly and in person. ELAC meetings have been providing budget information as requested and going on for over two hours at length. We've had LCAP community input meetings. Ms. Palomino has led parent-teacher organization meetings. I've been a part of leading school site council meetings, and we have another one upcoming March 28th. And as mentioned about student assemblies for climate, we already partnered with an organization and provided with Ms. Palomino, stand up, step in to stop bullying. Like I said, we're gonna do a motivational assembly for CASP and distribute those t-shirts to students and staff wide. So we're very, very appreciative of the staff that has stepped up and partnered with us. And I just wanna, again, acknowledge the challenges that we faced. There have been challenges, but we also think that it's important to recognize the staff that each and every day are dedicated to the site and provide a balanced report this evening. So thank you.

[12229] Mark Triplett: Thank you, Mr. Dolowich. We're going to move on to the next agenda item in the superintendent report, which is COVID-19 updates. If you could go to the next slide, please, Ms. Gutierrez. So wanted to share out our regular report on our data dashboard. This past week, we had six positive cases across the entire district in terms of students, and we had zero positive cases in terms of staff. So again, we're optimistic that we are headed in the right direction and that things are progressing in a way that is really showing improvement. Next slide. So one thing that I think the board as well as the community and became aware of, we made a decision as a district to follow the guidelines of the state and county. And Monday, March 21st, we will begin the optional but strongly recommended masks for all students and staff in Newark Unified. This decision was made in partnership with our labor partners, conversations with them, and then also engaging with our health department and county office of education. I did just want to highlight a couple of things. One, that these health and safety actions are what we feel very confident are going to continue to keep students and staff safe as we make this transition. So, so all of these things are in place and have been in place. In addition, this week, we really wanted to make sure we had this week as a as a ramp up to the 21st mask optional process. So both principals and teachers and other staff have been engaging with parents, with students, and with each other with regard to preparing for this change, including having conversations about the importance of respecting everyone's decision, whether or not that they're masking based on their own safety and health needs. And so we're feeling positive about this upcoming transition. Next slide, please. Want to just remind everyone we do have our next vaccination clinic at Schilling, second dose on March 18th. And then next slide. We also have vaccination in partnership with Newark, the city of Newark, as well as Alameda County Department of Health. We are going to have this event on March 12th and another event on April 2nd to do additional vaccinations. And that's at the Alameda County Fire Department Station 28. Next slide. And then a reminder, we will continue to test both at school sites as well as Whiteford. And so that process continues. We also are in partnership with Alameda County and with the State Department of Health. Prior to spring break, we understand that we will have rapid tests to administer to or to give to all students and staff. than with the instruction that they take that test prior to returning to school after spring break. Next slide. And last but certainly not least, I wanted to end with some celebrations. A couple of really exciting things that I've been able to experience at the high school in the last week. You can go to the next slide. It's already been mentioned this evening, but the hats assembly that occurred on March 11th, both during the day and then in the evening, was just really tremendous. This is a celebration, hands across time and space. It's different dance troupes and clubs at the high school that do performances, poetry, dance, really, really amazing. I think it really shows the beauty and the wonderful multiculturalness of our district as well as our city. And then lastly, I had the pleasure last night, that's my actual flyer that I was given, to attend the Silent Film Festival and Awards Ceremony of MCA at the high school. This was students presenting their own silent films that they produced this year, really wonderful pieces of art. And then they did a, after showing all the films, they had the opportunity for the audience to score them and then also gave out awards, almost like the Academy Awards for MCA. So a wonderful event with students, family, staff, and really, really highlighted the amazing work of the Academy and the students in the Academy. And that is the superintendent's report for this evening.

[12542] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Any comments from the board? Yes, student board member, Resendiz-Ortiz.

[12551] SPEAKER_37: You got it right this time. I would like to first of all begin with an appreciation to the working on getting better internet at the North Memorial High. I'm glad we're following through and speeding through on hopefully Saturday to get it fixed, because it definitely was an issue, an emergency. So I want to say thank you for that. And additionally, to the Coyote Hills request that I had previously made, I truly did appreciate Mr. Jalowicz's presentation on the staff and the support that they are receiving. But I feel I might have misinterpreted, misstated my question as to how the district was supporting Coyote Hills and what they were missing. Because I'm aware that we're being quite equitable to help Coyote Hills specifically because they are a merger school. But listening to parents' continuous comments and listening to teachers coming up in previous meetings, I'm wondering if, in any case, they're missing something or if we didn't take everything correctly. Because I would assume if, I understand each school has its own problems, but if it wasn't that big of a deal, I'm sure we wouldn't have that many public comments on Coyote Hills. And I was wondering what we as a district are doing, I suppose.

[12624] Mark Triplett: Yeah, so the slide deck, if you want to bring it back up, Ms. Gutierrez, and I see that Mr. Dulwich has left, but I'm happy to reiterate. The slide deck showed some of the different actions that the district is doing to support. So if you go to the, not that slide, but the next one. So these are some of the supports this year. So I know that some of the comments have been that there has been no support at Coyote Hills this year. And so these are some of the direct supports that were provided. If you go to the next slide. And then the next one. So these were additional district supports that have been provided. And then I think there's a next slide. And then this is in partnership with the staff, some of the work that's been done. So I think Mr. Delowich was pretty clear about articulating that there have been challenges. in this first year of the merger and as well as successes. And so we really wanna acknowledge the challenges and what we've tried to do to take steps to mitigate those challenges as well as some of the amazing work that's happening both on the part of district staff as well as school site staff and in particular school site staff to really support. If you go to the next slide. So these meetings that were articulated here, this is where district supported the leadership at the site to hold all of these meetings. And then the next slide. Oh, that was the last one. So I don't know if maybe I misunderstood the question, but that was the presentation around district sports.

[12740] SPEAKER_37: And I appreciate it. But I was wondering, did we receive any input from Cody Hill's staff? Did we receive any feedback from them as to maybe what they saw was going on wrong?

[12753] Mark Triplett: Yeah. So do you want to put the slide deck back up, please? So I think maybe start there, Ms. Gutierrez, and then go down. So this right here was district administration has been on site every day for I believe since January, really listening to the concerns of the staff and engaging with the staff collaboratively. to really try to address some of the things that are happening. So this absolutely represents listening and partnering with staff. If you go to the next slide, please. So out of the listening has come some of these responses of additional supports. I myself am part of the positive, the last bullet, a meeting with a group of teachers at Coyote Hills. Sometimes it's twice a month, sometimes once a month, to really think about these positive climate initiatives and working with them to try to free up resources and also identify partners to support in some of these projects. Next slide. And then these contributions from the staff, which have, again, done such an amazing job of rallying and unifying as a team. This is really, this is where we have heard concerns, and so we have stepped in to try to support. Science Camp is a great example. We have district staff who, based on the requests for help, have reached out. I myself have connected with the science camp leads to talk about what is it they need, what kind of support do they need, and so on. So I hope that answers the question, unless I didn't understand.

[12890] SPEAKER_37: It does briefly, I guess, explain the question I did have. So from these district supports that were given, will the problems that the parents and the teachers bringing up be solutionized, is what I'm hearing?

[12904] Mark Triplett: If the question is, are we going to solve all the problems? I guess I can't, I don't have a crystal ball. But that's certainly what we're doing collaboratively with the school site staff and families to really listen, address issues, try to make corrections. So I hope so. I hope that the things that we have heard them say and that the actions that we've taken to support them is heading in the right direction.

[12934] SPEAKER_37: All right. Thank you.

[12938] Phuong Nguyen: Any other comments or questions? Member Hill?

[12944] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Dr. Triplett. Could we also get just a quick update on enrollment for the coming year? I know your calendar and sort of the phases and everything, but sort of our projections at this point for overall enrollment and then also for DLI. Thank you.

[12961] Mark Triplett: Sure. I'm happy to provide that at a future meeting.

[12963] Phuong Nguyen: OK. Member Grindell?

[12968] Terrence Grindall: Yes. When it comes to the Coyote Hills outreach meetings that were listed on the slide, you don't have to bring it up. I wanted to ask whether or not they were translated into Spanish. Was there Spanish translation available at those meetings, to your understanding?

[12984] Mark Triplett: To my understanding, yes.

[12988] Terrence Grindall: Thank you.

[12992] Phuong Nguyen: Any other comments or questions?

[12996] Bowen Zhang: So I guess a follow-up on the language translation. So based on the EDCO, what is the law governing the translation of another language? Because sometimes we heard comments saying we're violating the law by not providing the translation. I really want to know what does the EDCO say about that?

[13019] Mark Triplett: Thank you. Yeah, I'm happy to bring back an explanation of that. I can tell you that when engaging with legal about the requirements for translation at board meetings, What I have been informed is that it's actually not required, but it's best practice.

[13035] Bowen Zhang: Well, I'm not asking the board meeting. I don't think the board meeting is governed maybe differently. I'm just asking school official communication when it comes to translating to another language.

[13046] Mark Triplett: Yeah, happy to bring back the exact language at a future board meeting. That would be helpful.

[13054] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Dr. Triplett.

[13058] SPEAKER_42: Member Marquez. Thank you. With regards to March 28th for the school site council meeting that they mentioned during the presentation, if we could get the information as to the time and the location at the site when the meeting will actually be held. We know the date, which is March 28th. We're just looking for the time and the actual location.

[13076] Mark Triplett: Sure. You're talking about it. So there has been school site council meetings. You're talking about an upcoming one?

[13080] SPEAKER_42: The upcoming.

[13082] Mark Triplett: OK.

[13082] SPEAKER_42: The date is March 28th.

[13084] Mark Triplett: March 28, time of the school site council meeting.

[13088] SPEAKER_42: And their location, which building or which office will it be held in, please.

[13092] Mark Triplett: Oh, OK.

[13098] SPEAKER_22: Thank you.

[13100] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. No comments from me, but just a quick comment for Member Marquez. So I have attended school site council meetings at BGI when Miss Ingham-Watters was principal there. So yes, definitely I would recommend the board checking out, members of the board to check out one of those meetings. Highly encouraged. That's it. Okay, so on to staff report, item 11.1, advanced placement access policy. Dr. Triplett.

[13140] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Nguyen. So for this agenda item, I'm going to have Ms. Pierce speak. So I believe this was a request from board to bring back a staff report with regard to advanced placement courses and access.

[13183] Phuong Nguyen: public speakers.

[13213] Nicole Pierce-Davis: All right, good evening. So I am talking about advanced placement access. Notice there is a change of title from prerequisites to access, because that is what we're going to be talking about tonight. So very quickly, I just want to go through our equity mindedness. I know we talked about this as a study session. As we think about access to AP classes, I want us to keep in mind that we do have a personal and institutional responsibility for the success of all of our students. And that means that we do need to continue to reassess our own practices. I did pull off directly from our AP college board as well, you know, again with a statement that AP really is for all students, but they need to be ready to be clear. They need to be ready because it is a rigorous course and students have to be prepared. So again, I just wanted to very quickly, I know I discussed it last time, but I want to again just kind of talk about the research and rationale for why AP prerequisites were moved in the first place. There is evidence that shows that students taking AP courses and exams in high school are more likely to succeed in college. This is after research has controlled for other variables such as success in the sciences prior to that class. Also, taking an AP class or exam can make college more affordable. And there's evidence that students complete four-year college degrees earlier when they've completed an AP course and examined their high school experience. And then again, when part of a larger instructional improvement effort, universal access to AP programs can address the achievement gap. Just to kind of unpack that a little further, research has shown that tracking just does not work. Oftentimes when you track students, the students that are tracked into lower classes continue to perform low, whereas those that are tracked into higher classes continue to perform high. But when you mix those or you have strategic groupings throughout the day, then actually everyone benefits. We also want to make sure that we're applying our restorative lens. So when we tell a student, we don't think you can do something and they're telling you they can. I think our friend Alan is a great example of that today. It actually, in fact, reduces rigor instead of setting high expectations for students. And then finally, there's a lot of research out there that states representation matters. So when students see students that look like themselves or are part of the same identity group as themselves, they're more likely to participate in class, they're more likely to do better. And again, All of these things, sense of belonging, positive sense of belonging, additional support, all of these things have a lot to do with how well a student does in those classes. So Newark Memorial High School did some work with equal opportunity schools. So this really has gone sort of without contest since 2014. So that's again why I was a little surprised that this was brought up at this time. Equal Opportunity Schools at that time met with key community members including teachers, AP teachers, counselors, principal, and the superintendent at the time to collaboratively shift to a less restrictive and more sort of AP policies. These examples include, and again, I want to be clear that we're not just opening up access without support. We're not opening access without intention. So for examples of how we can provide that support includes a survey given every year to determine student interest and identify their trusted teachers, those teachers that meet with the students to help identify barriers, encourage belonging, and share realistic expectations of the support and offerings that Newark Memorial has. Newark Morrill High School actually hosted an AP summer bridge last year for the first time for any new students new to AP courses. So they wanted to, again, give them kind of a head start to prepare them for the rigor and level of work required of AP classes, thereby kind of setting that expectation even before they even entered the class. And then finally, they continue to receive training from equal opportunity schools on best practices. The policy information, so there are specific courses where we at Newark Memorial High School, they still do really strongly encourage sort of sequential order. Those classes include math classes, science classes, and foreign language classes. Specifically because often the material that you're learning from the class that came before does help you succeed better in the class that follows. So for instance, if you haven't taken Spanish 1, taking Spanish 2, unless you have something in your background that would help you jump into Spanish 2, would be quite challenging. The same is, of course, true of a biology course before AP Bio and, again, math courses as well. So if a student does fail a sequential or foundational course, Algebra I is a perfect example. The student is required to take that same course the following school year or complete it during summer school. In most cases, course requests are not changed until a passing grade is received. Now, again, just to remember, for UCs, the second semester can qualify the first semester. So let's say a student really struggles in the first semester, but they pass the second semester. According to UCs, that then does qualify the first. Doesn't mean they don't have to go back and retake that class in summer school, but it does allow them to move on to the next class. Sequential courses means that the prior mastery of the course content is actually necessary to be successful. So those are things, like I said, biology to AP biology, Spanish 1 to Spanish 2, and so on. And then non-sequential courses means that the prior mastery of the course content is not necessary to be successful in the course sequence. So perfect examples of this is world history. And then the next course is US history, right? You don't actually need to be successful maybe at world history. There are skills there that are helpful at the next level. But the content themselves don't necessarily build one to the next. Here's an example of 2013-14, what that might look like in the course catalog as opposed to 21-22. And as a result, I mean, you can see a difference there in how many students even registered in the class. But we just wanted to give you a sample of what students are looking at, students and parents and families are looking at when they see a course catalog. And then here's some data that's coming from enrollment. It's from 2013-14 and then comparing 1920, 2021, 21-22. As you can see, it is hard for us to still continue to track data, of course, across the years during COVID because it's just such a different kind of experience that distance learning year. But what you can see there is total enrollment at the top, the number of AP courses offered. Some of the rationale for why some of the courses were not offered in earlier years was because, again, if there's not enough students that request the course, then it's not fiscally responsible to hold the course. And so we do need a certain threshold of students that enroll. And then total number of AP enrollments, so students actually taking an AP course. And then total number of AP tests taken. So just because you are in the class doesn't mean you take the test, but we do encourage it. And then percent of AP scores with a three or better. And that is it. Ready and willing to answer any questions you may have.

[13653] Phuong Nguyen: Member Zhang.

[13654] Bowen Zhang: So I guess for sequential courses, it feels like it's really just a change of vocabulary from prerequisite to whatever. Because it looks like in the sequential courses, like whether the example of Spanish 1, Spanish 2, or biology, or whatever math pathway, you still need to pass the prior course in order to take this one, right?

[13675] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Yes and no. So prerequisite is a little bit more set in stone. I think with the sequential course, it's strongly recommended. That is kind of where people are going to be guided to go. But again, if you see a student who may be, for instance, if we're talking Spanish 2, and they have spoken Spanish in the home their whole lives, we're not going to force them to take a Spanish 1 course if they are ready for Spanish 2. I think the example of Alan earlier is another example, right? We don't want to force him to take Algebra 1 when he's excelling through, Calculus BC, which is just incredible.

[13714] Aiden Hill: Member Hill. Thank you, Ms. Pierce. So a question and then, you know, kind of an observation, but the question first. So do we have a sense right now of what percentage of students who enroll in AP courses actually end up dropping them? Do we have a sense of that?

[13737] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I don't have that data in front of me, but I'm sure I could locate it pretty quickly by checking with counselors next week.

[13744] Aiden Hill: OK. And the reason I say this is that, so I've joined the board, and I've recently become a teacher because I think that education is incredibly important. And I've gone through some pretty rigorous training over the past four years, including a year and a half at San Jose State. And this is only a couple of years ago. And studying with basically people who are not only experts in this field, but also Many of them are pioneers. They're doing fundamental research. And one thing that I think it's important to understand as it relates to prerequisites is that one of the pioneers in the educational field that a lot of research is built on is a gentleman by the name of Lev Vygotsky. And so you see a lot of the things, the practices that we're trying to put into place right now are built on theories that he formed. And one of the key things that he talked about was that, you know, a student's learning journey is not that different from climbing Mount Everest, right, or climbing a mountain where, you know, you start at a low level and then you ultimately, you know, hopefully achieve the peak. But the point that he really emphasized was that you don't do it in one step, right? So you don't go from ground zero, you know, ground level all the way up to 30,000 feet. You know, he basically talks about how you go in steps. And he calls those steps, he calls those steps the zone of proximal development. And what he basically says is, is that every student is in a different, you know, sort of, you know, basically area within the mountain or a zone of proximal development. And I just want to read you, you know, again, some, you know, some of the research that I, you know, had to go through and learn about. and then maybe get your comment on how it's playing out in Newark. So the challenges teachers face are being aware of each child's individual zone of proximal development and providing scaffolding and guided assistance that enables students to master challenging tasks that promote growth and development. By giving children experiences within their ZPD, adults challenge children but help them reach new levels with sensitive adult guidance. Developmentally appropriate learning experiences build upon what children already know and encourage them to stretch a reasonable amount toward a new level of achievement. And then they go on to say, to set goals for children that are challenging but not frustrating, teachers should be knowledgeable of child development and learning, and along with what they learn from close observation and probing of individual child's thinking. And so I think the thing that we need to be very cognizant of is that the idea that we can just put everybody into, you know, one class and assume that they're all at the same level of proximal development, It's just not realistic, right? And the challenge that we face, and I literally live this every day as a teacher, is I actually have teach classes where I have in the same class freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors. And there is a wide variety of skills, and I have to adjust for that. And my classes are not AP classes, but I can tell you that there is a difference their proximal development, whether they're a freshman, a sophomore, a junior, or a senior. And the challenge that I have, and I've been experimenting a lot in, can I set up high-performing teams? Can I set up mixed teams? Can I bring in people who maybe there's one student that's really good and another student that is, you know, basically having some challenges and maybe they could benefit from peer tutoring? And there's some help there, but it's not like orders of magnitude. And so I think the thing that we really need to think about, because the challenge is that if we put kids into a situation where they are not ready for the material that we're about to throw at them, it can get incredibly frustrating and it can become demoralizing. And I literally see certain kids that are in that category in my class And, you know, and it's very difficult, right? And sometimes they just, they can't make up that gap. And so I think as we think about this and we think about AP, I think that we need to think about, and it sounds like you're doing this, but I just want to confirm that we're having really teachers involved in these conversations. And we're having teachers talk with the individual students and really kind of have a dialogue and assess, okay, here's what we're going to try to do. Number one, are you motivated to do it? And then number two, do you feel like you can take it on? And it's really sort of a dialogue. But I think that just throwing everybody in and just thinking that they're all going to be able to perform at the same level, I just don't think it's realistic. But I'd be curious, again, if what I'm describing is actually what we're doing.

[14063] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I mean, that's exactly what I was about to say. So zone of proximal development, the way in which you described it essentially proved my point. That's exactly what we're trying to achieve here. I, too, studied Vygotsky through my teacher education program and so on. I think I hear you say in best interest that the hope is that teachers are guiding and supporting students in knowing what classes they should take. And that is absolutely the case. But I also want to raise something that maybe you hadn't considered, which is that part of unconsciously what can happen when we rely on adults to make those decisions on behalf of kids is that bias does creep into that. So I know you talked about your personal experience. I myself, as a black student coming into my high school, was told I couldn't take a biology course. I said, don't take that course. It will be too hard for you. Ultimately, I was lucky enough and privileged enough to have a family that advocated on my behalf. I took the course. I ended up being the valedictorian of my high school and went on to Stanford University, right? Had I listened to that counselor at that moment, I would not have had that experience. And so I think we do need to be careful of the biases that creep in when we tell students they can't do something. And I also think that if we had to err on one side or the other, I will 110% always err on the side that says, I believe you can do it. And if you can't do it, I'm going to provide the support for you. And if you really can't do it after that support, that's OK. You can drop that course because you're in high school. And we can take that course in summer school. We can retake it next year. And you will be OK. And you are loved and cared for. But the moment we start telling students they cannot do something, I think we find ourselves in real trouble. And I think the outcomes, whether we want them to or not, and this is no, I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad, but whether we want to or not, we know from experience that the outcomes will be inequitable, specifically for students of color.

[14182] Aiden Hill: Yeah, and I'm not advocating. I mean, I understand the danger of bias and that we have to be careful about that. But I think, and this is kind of maybe what Member Zhang was alluding to earlier, oftentimes there is quantitative data that we can look at to see, OK, a student took a certain course before, and here was some objective data of how well they did. And that we use that to inform, OK, are they going to be able to now take this course or this other course? And because the fear that I have is, I mean, literally, I'm seeing certain kids sometimes where they are really, really challenged in my class. And it's, again, because I think that they have certain unique challenges that maybe You know, it wasn't really, you know, maybe they weren't aware of it. Maybe, you know, counselors didn't, you know, provide input. Maybe there wasn't really testing. And so, and I can see that when that happens, unfortunately sometimes it can be a negative reinforcing cycle where they now all of a sudden think, I can't do it, when in reality they could if we could provide scaffolding for them. So that's the only thing that I think I want us to be sensitive about.

[14263] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Member Hill. Any other comments from the board? Student member? Student member? Rescindis Ortiz?

[14271] SPEAKER_37: You got it. Ms. Pierce, I just wanted to echo your comment on how we truly need to encourage our students into taking these AP courses. And you mentioned the idea of if they don't feel like they can do it, we can give them support. And I love that thought. The thing is, we don't have any support. I mean, we do with the AP Summer Bridge, but I personally have never heard of that, and I asked around, and not that many students have ever taken it. And the only support that I'm aware of, by taking three years of AP courses with over, I think, 10 or 11 AP courses, which isn't the best idea, is a peer tutoring club that students co-created, and we all help each other out. But from staff, we have our librarian who knows math, but unfortunately she is only one person for a lot of students. So I was wondering what other support is there for students?

[14319] Nicole Pierce-Davis: That's a great question. I think it actually connects a little bit to what Member Hill just said, right? I think oftentimes when we think about support, we think it has to be done outside of the classroom by somebody else. And I think we need to start getting out of that mindset of if somebody is not performing in my class, it must be somebody else's problem or it must be the student's problem. We have to start creating some of those experiences within the class. Now, you may not have experienced that, but I do know that we have been, as we consider professional development and what it means to create more restorative practices within the classroom, we want to start creating those interventions within the classroom. So you may not have experienced that from your teacher because you may have been performing quite well and not needed that level of support. That being said, that would be a part of what we would need to do in terms of next steps, right? We would need to start to look at which students are doing well and which ones aren't. And how can we bring sort of affinity groups of those students in to say, what additional supports do you need? Bridge is just step one. We have more steps to go. But I don't think the answer is saying no to students in the meantime.

[14382] SPEAKER_37: And I definitely agree with that. But following up with the idea that it should be happening during class, Is it realistic enough to ask teachers to, I guess, like, if each student needs support in different ways because not all of us learn the same way, is it realistic enough to ask the teachers to support each and every student one-on-one like that when they already have to teach the course and keep AP track?

[14404] Nicole Pierce-Davis: It's hard. I was a teacher of my own. It's hard. I'm not going to say it's easy, right? Differentiation is hard. But we know that that is what good teaching is all about. It's about mixed groupings. It's about differentiation. It's about providing that in-time real support. But again, it's not easy, right? I know that I'm the assistant superintendent now, but I started as a teacher. I've done some of this work. It's not, it is not easy, but it is a part of what we need to do. And again, if we need to create those other support areas, we can. But again, I don't think the answer, right, is saying no. I think the answer is continuing to get better at what kinds of supports that we're providing.

[14442] SPEAKER_37: All right. Thank you so much.

[14446] Bowen Zhang: So can we go back to the slide where we see the score of the three-year comparison? Yes, this one. So the percent of AP score with a 3 plus, is this percentage on the students that ended up taking the exam, or this is a percentage based on the enrollment of that class?

[14463] Nicole Pierce-Davis: No, that is the students who took the exam. So you can see there, for instance, 2021, you can see the number of students who took the exam went way down because we were in distance learning at that time, right? So it was a lot harder. There were a lot of barriers. At some point, we weren't sure if they were going to take the test online. Could they take it? Did they need to come in? There was a lot of barriers that kind of came with taking that test. And so, yes, so the percentages below are the amount of students who took the courses. But again, I just want to I The test is really important, and it's an important data point, and is what's helped students to get that college credit, right? But if I'm a student who's not used to taking an AP class, and I get that level of rigor, and I pass that course, there is benefit to that. There is absolute benefit to that. And I don't want to take away the benefit of a student who is asking for more rigor, even if they don't take the test or get college credit, and they still are able to pass the class. There is absolute benefit to that level of rigor.

[14529] Bowen Zhang: So I remember last summer when we did the LCAP approval plan, and there's this one item, which is AP courses. So I remember there's one data point that really stood out, which was among the people who are enrolled in that class, it looks like we have pretty low percentage of people who are actually taking the exam. I believe that number is in the 70s. That means, let's say you have 100 students in that class. Only 70 plus students took that AP exam. Could you explain what could be the reason that they go through the rigorous course but not ending up taking it? Is that the cost of the AP exam? Because when I was in high school, I did remember low income, because I was a Title I student and I got to take the AP exam for free. There was financial assistance to take the AP exam.

[14575] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Yeah, and we do offer financial assistance for students in need so that they can take that AP test. I don't want to speak on behalf of students, but I'm sure we could ask the students who made those choices. There's a variety of reasons why they could choose not to take the test at the end.

[14596] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grindel, do you have a comment?

[14598] Terrence Grindall: Yes. Well, and actually, just to that point, The percentage of students who were taking the test actually went up between the 2013, when you removed the formal prerequisite, it actually went up, and the passing rate went up as well. So that's just a data point, but just wanted to point that out. I strongly support not imposing strict I think that you, I believe that this is the right, the approach that's been taken since 2014 is the right approach. If anything, as pointed out by the student who spoke here tonight, that path needs to be even clearer in case there are students that don't even know that it's possible, right? And they just aren't, they're just in that mode. If anything, I'm sure you're already on that, but if anything, I'd like to see that the flexibility that is even more clear to the students, again, with the important clarification or, you know, for somebody outside of this room, the rigor doesn't go down. It's just the opportunities that are going up. And then, as was stated, they're not just thrown to the wolves. they're going in and being supported. So I'm strongly in support of the track that we're on.

[14691] Phuong Nguyen: Student board member?

[14694] SPEAKER_37: I was going to echo Member Grindel's comment following along with that, but he stole my thunder.

[14701] Phuong Nguyen: All right. Thank you so much for the staff report, Ms. Pierce. Okay, on to our next staff report, 11.2, culture and climate educational services update. We do have a public speaker. And do we have any virtual? Okay. Ms. Villa?

[14729] SPEAKER_35: You're the only Villa here.

[14731] Chery Villa: Oh, I didn't see my brother back there. Okay. I would like to address the culture and climate update that is on the agenda for tonight's board meeting. It is my opinion that the culture and climate update is an illusion that was created with the intent to distract or take away from what is truly happening within our district. It is also my opinion that the culture and climate update completely disregards the teachers, our NUSD teachers and their concerns that they have brought to you about staff and student safety starting all the way back in November and continuing on to this very meeting tonight. As you hear and view the culture and climate update, the headlines and messages that you see at the very beginning imply that student behavior issues during this time of the pandemic as we return to the classrooms are happening in every school district and is normal. Also within the culture and climate update, Even in the title are two words, culture and climate. Within NUSD's definition of culture are the words beliefs, values, and norms. Also within NUSD's definition of climate, it ends with the words guided by our beliefs about student behavior. I'm not going to list, you know, more incidences that have happened in our district as the teachers did tonight. So with that, I just would like to ask two questions. Number one, when has it become the norm for the students of NUSD to undermine the authority of teachers and adults by verbally and physically attacking them? Number two, when is the principal at Newark Junior High School going to be held accountable for what has and continues to happen on a day-to-day basis? Thank you.

[14849] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Villa. Superintendent Triplett.

[14858] Mark Triplett: Thank you, President Nguyen. So the board did ask for an update, a school culture and climate update. And so Ms. Pierce is going to present that. I do want to point out I just want to acknowledge some of the concerns that have been raised up this evening. And we want to take those very, very seriously. And we are taking those very, very seriously. I think we do need to be sensitive to a couple things. One being that we absolutely can't vilify students. And that we know that Students make bad choices sometimes, and our job as adults is to really support them to make better choices. And so that is sort of the framework for how we really want to approach school climate and culture. But we also need to make sure that our schools are safe. for everyone, and that's a number one priority. There are certain things that happen around discipline that have to stay confidential to protect the students' rights. And so you'll hear tonight from Ms. Pierce. She won't be talking about individual incidents or individual students, because that would be really inappropriate. But I'll turn it over to her to talk more about the trends that we have been seeing and also the steps that we have been taking to try to address the culture and climate in our secondary schools.

[14959] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Thank you, Dr. Chopra. That's exactly right. There are these two things are very different, and they don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. But what you are going to see tonight is sort of a high level. In December, we talked about what are we doing as a district around SEL. So this is what we are doing as a district and what you can see in some examples of that work. So this is a very high overview. This is not specific necessarily, although you will see a couple examples in here to any particular school site. So as we talked about in December, reopening schools in a new normal has not been easy. There was a lot around, this is not working, around. how we needed to do this in a very equity-minded way. We talked last month during a study session about the difference between equality and equity. And I'm bringing that back to the table now because knowing the issues that stem from the pandemic, we made SEL a priority for the district. And what does that mean? It means we set up a cycle of inquiry for educational services team, specifically around social emotional learning. When we think about this at a district level, obviously there are a ton of variables here. So we're going to talk about those towards the end. But we want to kind of just talk through what the process for our Ed Services team was. This does include school site teams, district cost teams, community partners. So you can see the amount of variables just at this level that you're going to see in this report. The action plan from the beginning of the year was to implement multi-tiered systems of support. which included strategic community partnerships, positive behavior interventions and supports, PBIS structures, staff professional development with SEL integration, district adopted SEL curriculum, family engagement opportunities, and directhearyou.org services for all staff. And if you could just very briefly click on that link for me. We're going to go back to the report, but I just kind of want that. I'm very sorry. OK. You can click out of it and go. So I believe each of the board members has access to that. That is each of these sort of big bucket areas tied down with not only what is in the report, but what are the sub actions and examples that you can see at different school sites, as well as kind of what the measures are that we're using and the frequency of those measures. So that is what the Ed Services team is looking at district wide when we're looking at Is the work that we're putting in for SEL working, or do we need to adjust course? And we talked about that earlier with the LCAP goals as well. Not everything we try is going to work, but we do need to continue to adjust. So this is kind of the cycle of inquiry. We analyze, we make a plan, we implement, and then we evaluate it and adjust. We evaluate it and adjust, and that's what we're going to see with SEL as well. So this has been our attendance. You'll notice the attendance is slightly different than what you've seen in other reports. I just want to note this is percent present, so that's a little bit different than what you'll see in like an ADA report, which is average daily attendance. It also looks a little different than what you saw at the last report, which was from A2A. What's interesting about this for attendance is that the A2A report What we found in our 8 to 8 report is that it was pulling out all of our COVID absences because we didn't want to issue letters to those families. And so you can see the attendance is much higher when you take out COVID absences. And I bring that to the table just because I think it's important for us to see the difference and what that means to our numbers. So you can see where it would be if we didn't have the COVID absences and where it is now. It does make it tricky to measure engagement. as it relates to attendance, when we have the protocols in place that we do this year for safety. So that's our large attendance data. Last time in December, I showed you suspension for semester comparison. This is after three months. So we did some reset programs. And I know it's a little bit confusing to look at. I'm going to narrow down in a second. But what we wanted to look at is did we slow the slope? So we put in some very intentional measures in January. We said these are our action plans. We went from August to December. We want to see if we do strategic action. So for Newark Memorial High School, for instance, they did the refresh. At Bridgepoint, for example, they did a sort of wellness retreat that first or the second week back in January where they brought different people in. And we want to see, does that make an impact? What you can see here is the first semester as compared to the same data as of March 9, 2022. And so what you want to see is a slowing of the slope. So for there, you can see a comparison of 2021-2022 to the years that preceded in terms of just suspensions. So you can see we actually started out in the semester mark, right about kind of middle of the road for the last six years. And then what you saw is a dramatic slowing district wide. Now that could be for a variety of reasons, but that's what you see is kind of a slowing of that slope. If you look at it a little bit more carefully, this data sort of compares the totals from semester one of each year with the totals as of March 9th each year. So the rate of increase is sort of slower than what we've seen in previous years, but just barely. Expulsion data. We saw a huge spike in expulsions at the beginning of this year, more so than we've ever seen. So these obviously expulsions are some pretty extreme behaviors. Since December, we have only had one. And so we have seen a dramatic reduction in expulsions. Now again, that is not the target that we're going for, but this is very high level district data. Newark Morrill High School example, they did a collaborative culture setting, so this was the January refresh. They did professional development, so specifically on culturally welcoming spaces. I believe our student member was actually at one of the PDs on February 28th and sort of saw the challenges that arise from professional development. Specifically targeting behaviors, responsive and then preventative measures, so these are things like Looking at ahead of time, you sort of know students may be kind of in conflict. And so maybe Ms. Shea brings them in for a circle, tries to mediate before anything needs to happen, something like that. Staffing and supervision at the time, we increased by two campus supervisor positions. Unfortunately, that action never happened. They still remain vacant. We talked about that at the LCAP, I think, session earlier. So that action has not actually happened. If anybody in the community is interested, please let us know. And then the reset programs and restorative practices. So they were supposed to do SART meetings in January. That did not happen. As you guys know, we had new protocols come out in January, which were incredibly challenging for all of our sites. So some of their plans got exchanged for COVID protocols. That being said, they do plan on really focusing on attendance in March, and they've rescheduled those SART meetings that were supposed to happen in January and February. for March, April. That will set us up for next year when hopefully we have less absences due to COVID. And then finally, the WASC review. As you can see from that work, you haven't seen too much of a slope. It's pretty much in line with what we've seen. And I'm going to narrow in a little bit closer there for Newark Memorial. The slope really hasn't changed. It's pretty much in line with exactly what's happened in the past. And so now we've got to go back to the drawing board and see what else we can implement to try to interrupt those behaviors. And we've got some ideas here on the last slide as well. The Newark Junior High School example, they really have as a school site been one of the schools that have taken up character strong implementation. So this is, you know, we've got to look at the end of the year to see if character strong is something we want to continue or not. But they've done weekly school-wide advisory lessons as well as connected broadcasts. They've done data analysis during professional development, continued MTSS PBIS strategies, and revised supervision schedule. Again, they have additional campus supervisor positions that remain vacant. And then they attempted a January reset as well with classroom PBIS visits. Here's some examples of the things that they show. They looked at Swiss data more in particular. They show GPAs in comparison to different programs they're implementing. So for instance, Puente is a tier two support for students. And what you see here is that students in the Puente program are outperforming students, the whole group as a whole. So again, these are just examples. I'm not doing a deep dive into what they've done at the particular site, but these are examples of the work that's being done. The Character Strong Student Survey, they focused on particular targets that they were working on, so choosing to care, did you learn the difference between empathy and sympathy, how well do you understand this difference, right? So this was one survey that was passed out to students. Another example is during the lesson around understanding stress, we reviewed some coping strategies, which coping strategies have you been using, deep breathing, so on, right? So these are just things that students are using to reflect on what it is that they are doing. We still have a long way to go in particular around data. So previous slides show attendance discipline data. These are very high level pieces. They do not show qualitative street level data. such as community engagement surveys, etc. Those will be coming very soon. These should also be considered. So for instance, the California Healthy Kids Survey will be coming out soon that will go to students, families and staff. That is something that we are going to be looking very carefully at as a summative assessment. We also want to do some community engagements. Classroom observation site walkthroughs is another piece of data. Coordination of services team cost data. You're going to have one of our leads come present at a future board meeting. And then PBIS data as well. Implementation data as well as what they're seeing at their particular sites. We really do believe that the next step is around creating a universal referral reporting. system right now, each school does something slightly different, which makes it incredibly hard to track data across the district. So we'd love to kind of see that be universalized a little bit and actually bring the community in to do that work. Because that way, with some of the progress monitoring data that the board has even asked for, it's hard to present that because, again, it's different at every single site. Cycles of inquiry also, again, like I said, they include other variables. So I think earlier we had the example for LCAP where there's lots of different reasons why initiative may or may not work. And so we do need to analyze what those elements are, whether they're human elements, they're the implementation variances, or just things that interrupt like the COVID protocols. And again, these are complex systems that are in constant flux. And so we will continue our work, but we definitely have kind of our marching orders for next steps. The two biggest ones being create a universal system for how we're tracking this data, and two, really evaluating our use of character strong for future years. If there's any questions, I'm sure I can answer.

[15653] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Ms. Pierce. Any comments or questions from the board? Member Marquez?

[15663] SPEAKER_42: Thank you for the acknowledgement. Good evening, Ms. Pierce-Davis. The question that I have with regards to the PBIS and because each school site or each campus is using the overall idea there and then practicing it according to the actual site. Is there a team or is there a group that will oversee possibly integrating so that they are all on the same page utilizing the same resources so you can start creating the data? Do we have that in place already?

[15691] Nicole Pierce-Davis: So no, we don't have that in place. And I wouldn't necessarily want to take away the autonomy of sites to kind of do that PBIS level work. But in terms of how they're reporting, let's say, when incidents, major or minor incidents, that is kind of what I would like to do is pull together PBIS teams from each site and start to analyze what those are and then create sort of a universal bar. what the consequences may be for a behavior that we would not want to see at the school is the same at Birch Grove as it is at the junior high as it is at the high school. And developmentally appropriate, of course. Thank you for that.

[15732] Phuong Nguyen: Any other comments or questions? Member Hill?

[15739] Aiden Hill: Thank you, Ms. Pierce. And these comments are not directed at you. They're directed at the district as a whole. I really don't feel that the district is being transparent about the safety issues that we're facing. And I feel like the data that we're being provided is very misleading. And when we look at issues like expulsions or suspensions, I kind of feel like when I look at that data and then I compare it with what I'm seeing, what I'm seeing in terms of emails that are coming to the board, what I see in terms of individual people in the community that are coming to me, and then also, you know, the number of teachers, et cetera, that are coming here, that what is being reported to us is not being expressed in this presentation. And it really kind of reminds me of, kind of Chase of Boudin and San Francisco, where if you were to talk to Chase of Boudin, he'd say there's no crime in San Francisco because prosecutions are down and it's a safe city. But the issue is that they're not prosecuting people on purpose. And so I think that what we need to look at is we need to look at rather than this data, because I think that the teachers have come to us and they've said there's an issue with you know, a respect for authority and a following of the rules and consequences when this doesn't happen. And there's been, you know, numerous people identifying that, that that's not happening. And, you know, and literally we've had, um, you know, we've had a prominent real estate agent here in the, in, um, Newark writing email to the board, basically saying that there's a number of families in the middle of winter who are pulling their kids out of the junior high school because they don't feel it's safe. Um, You know, we have, you know, again, teachers that have been sending the information in and speaking to us and giving us numerous examples that quite frankly, we, the board, I mean, nobody in the district is communicating this to us. You know, we're hearing this third hand from the community. We're hearing third hand that there are illegal fireworks that are being set off in the school, M1000s, which are quite frankly, actually an explosive. And, you know, we've got a dangerous environment. We are having teachers being assaulted, and yet it just feels like this is a cover-up. And I will tell you that, so there's been excuses about how, well, we can't provide this data because it's, you know, it's confidential. And that's not true, okay, because if we were going to go and talk about individual students, that would be a confidential matter. But when we talk about incidents, it's no different from talking about test scores or any other thing that's going on. And by the way, the district, as all schools here in California, we are required to provide for every single school a comprehensive school safety plan. And in it, it actually states here What is included per education code must be included in the CSSP assessment of the current status of the school crime committed on school campuses and at school related functions. And so this is not confidential information. And if you look at actually what was reported at the high school, at least we actually had some data around how many assaults were there, how many issues of vaping, et cetera. But I'm going to read to you and literally this came out a month ago, the comprehensive school safety plan for the junior high school. So here's what it says. Assessment of the current status of school crime. The previous committee assessed the current status of school crime committed on the school campus and at school-related functions. Currently, SWIS data supports that majority behavior incidents occur in the bathroom during brunch lunchtime. So that's the complete assessment. That's the complete assessment of what's going on at the junior high. And yet that's not what I'm seeing in emails. That's not what I'm seeing coming from the public. And then here's the conclusions from the junior high. So here's our plan for how we're supposed to deal with this. One sentence. After reviewing the above data, vape sensors and 58 security cameras are all in operation to support student safety. I mean, it's laughable. We have a fundamental responsibility as a district. There's a lot of things that we have to do, but the two primary ones are we have to provide a high quality education, and number two, we've got to have our kids and our staff safe. And I think that there's ample evidence right now that we are not achieving in that area, and we need to do something about it. Thank you.

[16052] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I would just like to add, I'm not going to kind of dispute one way or the other, but I do want to say that the first step towards exactly what you are describing is universal measurement. So I do think that is the like in this report, I don't think that I think it's very clear that that is the gap that we have as a district and that that is the first step towards being able to measure and then also make that available for the public. Right. I think that long term, We do want to work towards that transparency and move forward. But I do think the first step and maybe that is not the first step for particular school sites. I think that there are absolutely other steps that are being taken. But I do think the first step district wide so that we can provide that to you is universal measurement.

[16100] Aiden Hill: And I agree that measurements important. But right now, I don't think that the Ukrainians right now are engaging in a lot of measurement as Vladimir Putin tries to overrun their country, right? So the first is to try to stop the violence. So I think that that's the first step, and then we can start talking about how we measure it.

[16120] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, Member Hill. Any other comments from other board members? Thank you, Ms. Pierce. Oh, sorry, student board member.

[16133] SPEAKER_37: I would like to echo part of Member Hill's comment, not necessarily bring it to the extreme comparisons of Ukraine and Russia, because that is a very different issue and a very serious topic to discuss. But I would like to state that seeing this data that we're doing great with SEL and Character Strong and still contemplating whether or not we want to continue in the following year is great. But the fact that what we're hearing from the public is a grave situation, and this isn't what the data is necessarily representing, which I understand wasn't necessarily the entire topic of, let's talk about what's going on and what's wrong. But it is a misunderstanding of how we're seeing great data, but it's not what's being represented by the junior high.

[16178] Nicole Pierce-Davis: And it's sad to see. Yeah. I appreciate the data. I think that's where we start to get a, I think that's exactly what we're saying, right? Without that universal data, right? We can say, well, we're presenting great data. That is the data that we have. right now at that high level. So until we start to figure out what our minor, major, and then suspension and expulsion incidents look like, and what is our pre-interventions and post-interventions, that plan needs to be in place. And so I don't want it to appear as if we are covering up or I certainly don't want to be compared to Ukraine, but I do think that We talked about being solution oriented and we talked about wanting to say what are their gaps and what are you doing? And that's exactly what we're trying to do here. We're trying to say here's a major gap that can help us in better reporting so that people can see what's happening. But I hear you, I hear, I hear, I hear you.

[16234] SPEAKER_37: And I appreciate all the efforts for the solution oriented type. Thank you.

[16238] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grindel.

[16240] Terrence Grindall: Yeah, I wanted to just comment about the measurement. Measuring safety is one of the hardest things to do. I'm an urban planner by background, and it's, you know, they teach you in planning school that oftentimes a high crime rate, a high arrest rate is a sign of safety, right? Because there's more police officers being more active, so then there is more arrest. Well, then it gets reported in the headlines of the newspapers. that crime is up. No, it's not. So how do you, but, but it's, it's a really complicated. So, you know, to your point about measurement, it's very, very important, but also very difficult. And simply listening to, to, to anecdotes is not the solution. And, and trying to, trying to make anecdotes match reality and discounting the reality because it doesn't match the antidotes, it is not the right way to go about it. We need, it is complicated, it's very difficult, but we need to actually measure the issue. That said, it is critical and I know it's important to all of our staff to make safety a priority in our schools. No matter how you measure it, You know, you know it when you see it. And I'm sure our principals and our staff are on top of these things. And if not, that Dr. Triplett, you're going to be taking corrective action on that. So I don't want to discount how important safety is. And it needs to come, whether it's measurable or not, safety is a very high priority for this board member and I believe for the entire board. Sorry if I went off on a tangent there, but I just wanted to explain the challenge of measurement.

[16353] Phuong Nguyen: No, I'm definitely in agreement with member Grindel. And as a parent who has a daughter at the junior high and at the high school, I can attest for their well-being. I ask them every single day, how do you feel being on campus today? How do you do you feel unsafe? you know how and of course there are going to be incidences. I'm not going to downplay how every individual feels about their situation and and our work environment. That is a personal matter and we got to remember that there that if we do have universal referral system in place to be able to see and actually see the data that's relevant and be able to put action to the data, then we can really solve problems. But taking incidences from different perspectives, that needs to be a collective whole. Yes, right now we're hearing a lot of worries in the community about the junior high. and at the high school. But that is just one part of the picture. There is definitely other parts of the picture that we have to recognize that, yes, our staff is being proactive in trying to find solutions and putting proper measures in place. Thank you. Any other comments or questions?

[16454] Mark Triplett: If I may, President Nguyen, I just appreciate everybody's comments, questions, and concerns. And I think I articulated at the beginning, but I just want to reiterate that there have been incidences in the last two weeks that are very concerning to all of us at the junior high. And so we are actively trying to address those. I will say that prior to that, I think that there were There had been some incidences. For example, we had incidences in the boys' bathroom that the staff really were very concerned about and did things in order to mitigate those, and those incidences were reduced. And so that was a really positive. Unfortunately, in the last couple weeks, we have seen a spike in behavior that is very disconcerting, and we absolutely need to take action to make sure that we are keeping everybody safe.

[16513] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Okay, on to old business item 12.1, presentation of the A through G completion improvement grant plan. Dr. Triplett.

[16526] Mark Triplett: Thank you. I'm sorry, Ms. Pierce, this is a very heavy, these last couple of agenda items are all you. So I'm going to turn it over to our assistant superintendent, Ms. Pierce, who's going to talk about the A through G improvement grant. So if you recall last board session, we brought this to you as a first read and to get your engagement. And then so now we are bringing it back after engaging with not just the board, but with staff and school site staff, as well as district staff. And so we're bringing forth the final plan. Ms. Pierce.

[16563] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I'm going to keep this one short. We chose the two-year option as discussed last time. If there are any additional questions, I'm happy to answer. But you do have the plan, and I believe we discussed it last time.

[16576] Phuong Nguyen: May I have a motion to approve?

[16578] Bowen Zhang: I move that we approve the Improvement Grant Plan.

[16585] Phuong Nguyen: Motion made by Member Zhang. I second. Seconded by Member Marquez. How do you vote, Student Board member? Yes. Jacinda Ortiz. Member Zhang.

[16598] Bowen Zhang: Yes.

[16599] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez. Yes. Member Hill.

[16603] Aiden Hill: As I mentioned in the last session, we as a district have said we have, we're making a commitment to try to use SMART goals for our initiatives, but I do not see any measurable goals in this, and so I cannot vote to support this. Thank you.

[16619] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grindel.

[16620] SPEAKER_15: Yes.

[16622] Phuong Nguyen: We have five ayes and one no by member Hill. Okay, on to new business item 13.1. Are there any public comments? Are there any public comments on the remaining items? Thank you. Item 13.1 audit committee members appointment, Dr. Triplett.

[16649] Mark Triplett: Thank you. I'll turn it over to Ms.dela Cruz in a minute, but I will say we're very excited that we have a candidate that's coming forth to the board who has been a longstanding non-voting member of the Audit Committee and then applied to be a voting member. And so we're delighted to be presenting his application to you this evening. Ms.dela Cruz.

[16676] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, so we had a couple of openings for the audit committee, one for a voting member and one for a non-voting member. We received three applications, one withdrew, and they were both... Bless you. Bless you. They were all for the voting member. So we didn't receive any applications for non-voting members. So we reposted that position and hope to review those applications and do the interviews in the next week or so. So after going through the process of interviewing with the Audit Committee, we do have a recommendation to appoint Aaron Weisz as the voting member to the Audit Committee. And I'm not sure if Mr. Hill, you wanted to add anything.

[16729] Aiden Hill: No, I think you covered it. Thank you. Thank you.

[16733] Bowen Zhang: So can you repeat what happened to the other applicant?

[16736] Marie dela Cruz: One applicant withdrew. So we received three all together, and one withdrew.

[16742] Bowen Zhang: And two, the remaining two were both for a voting position, voting member position. Yes, the two applied for voting member. Was the two board members on the committee that selected this person?

[16757] Aiden Hill: Maybe I just provide a little bit of additional information. I mean, I think you already said it, Ms.dela Cruz. So we had initially three applicants. They all ran. So there's two positions for the public. There's a voting public member and then a non-voting public member. All the applicants were running for the voting member position. So we initially had three. One dropped out. We had both the prior public member, voting member, present in these meetings as well as member Marquez and I and we went through a process of collecting their applications, of having them come in to speak, make their case, and we gave them certain criteria to, you know, to speak to, and then we ranked them, and then we brought, and it was the voting members that did this, and then we brought together and totaled up the scores, and the person who ultimately got the high score was the existing non-voting member, Mr. Weitz.

[16819] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Member Grindel?

[16822] Terrence Grindall: Yeah, I'd like to understand why, Since this appointment is by the board, why is there a process by which the committee itself interviews the candidates and makes a recommendation? I want to say I'm in support of the outcome, but I want to understand the process of how it is that a subcommittee makes a recommendation for its own membership. So, Dr. Triplett or?

[16854] Aiden Hill: So it's because it's in our audit charter. So we have a charter, and it actually outlines the process for the appointment of new members.

[16863] Terrence Grindall: Thank you. But I would like staff to address that. Or maybe it's the same answer.

[16870] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, it is in the charter about the process of appointing the members. And there's a timeline that's included in the charter. But we do recognize that there are aren't really detailed kind of outlined in terms of the process on how the interview takes place or the selection criteria and all of those details.

[16900] Terrence Grindall: Thank you. That answers my question. And this may be something we discuss as part of a board member requested item. But given that, just Regardless of that, I would like to move that we approve Aaron Weisz as the voting member for the board.

[16921] Bowen Zhang: So I do have another question. So obviously, the current public member, he also, he or she also participated in this election. Is this member the one that expressed interest that he's quitting or?

[16934] Aiden Hill: No, the existing voting member did not choose to run again.

[16938] Bowen Zhang: OK, good. So I move that we approve. Mr. Aaron.

[16943] Phuong Nguyen: Sorry, point of order. There's already a motion. I second that motion. OK. Does the student board member get to vote on?

[16954] Phuong Nguyen: Student member Resendez-Ortiz, how do you vote? Yes. Member Zhang? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Grindel?

[16964] Terrence Grindall: Yes.

[16966] Phuong Nguyen: I'm also yes. Six yeas. Six ayes. OK, on to. So welcome aboard, Mr. Weiss. He's been on board, but yes, he's been here. OK, on to item 13.2. Twenty twenty two. I can't even say this. Twenty to twenty twenty two bond measure planning for November 8th, 2022 election.

[17001] Mark Triplett: Thank you. So, this is going to be an informational report with regard to the timeline and the process for assessing the feasibility of a bond. And I believe we have a presenter. Is that correct, Ms. Delacruz? Ms. Gutierrez? Oh, great. So, I'll turn it over to Ms. Delacruz, and she can introduce our presenter and discuss this further.

[17026] Terrence Grindall: Point of order. Would it be a good idea to vote on extending our meeting prior to? Because I think sometimes these consultants think they get paid by the word. So do you have a motion? I'll make a motion to extend to 11.

[17045] Phuong Nguyen: I'll second. How do you vote, student board member?

[17049] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[17050] Phuong Nguyen: Member Zhang? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Grindell?

[17057] Terrence Grindall: Yes. It's only 11.

[17058] Phuong Nguyen: Yes for me too. So six yeses. to extend the meeting to 11 o'clock. Thank you.

[17067] Marie dela Cruz: Thank you. So as we near the end of the Measure G bond projects, we recognize that there's still a significant amount of facilities improvements that need to be done at our schools. We have a facilities master plan that identifies over $600 million in needed improvements. And at this time, the only sources of funding that we currently have available are $9 million from our Fund 40 reserves for capital outlay, which is also known as our Russian Fund, and $15 million from Fund 25, the Capital Facilities Fund, which is generated from developer fees that we collect. The passage of a voter-approved school facilities improvement bond is really the only realistic way for funding the identified needs. The next bond election is on November 8, 2022. So tonight, Mr. Charles Heath, the consultant from Props and Measures, who led the district's last successful bond measure in 2011, will present information to the board on the process and the timeline for considering placing a new bond measure on the November ballot. He's sorry he couldn't be here in person, but he is here by Zoom. So Mr. He?

[17155] SPEAKER_48: Good evening. Can everyone hear me?

[17157] Phuong Nguyen: Yes.

[17158] SPEAKER_48: OK. Excellent. Shall I just jump into my presentation? Yes.

[17162] Marie dela Cruz: Please go ahead.

[17163] SPEAKER_48: OK. Will do. If we could go to the next slide here. Thank you. And I apologize. It looks that something happened with the fonts in my presentation when I sent it, so I'll try to read this so it's clearer for everyone.

[17182] SPEAKER_39: Sorry, the presentation is attached in the correct format. However, when we share it, we use a Google platform and create this conversion. I do apologize.

[17192] SPEAKER_48: I got you. I got you. Yeah, so not all the text may fit on the slides, which is why I'll kind of go through it to make sure it's clear.

[17199] Marie dela Cruz: Everyone, you can follow along on the attachment as well.

[17204] SPEAKER_48: Sounds good. So I'll start off just talking a little bit about me and my firm to orient you to who we are and the work that we've done for your district in the past. So I'm a partner at TBWVH Props and Measures. We are a strategy and communications consultants that specialize in working with school districts and cities and community college districts and other public agencies that are considering placing a measure before their voters. For school districts, that's primarily bonds and parcel taxes. For cities, we work on sales taxes and other revenue measures. We've been doing this over the last 20 plus years, and we've worked on hundreds of successful measures, many in Alameda County, and very locally. I was the consultant that worked with your district in 2011 to put together the Measure G bond that was successful, and those are the funds that are now running out, which is prompting the consideration of a new proposal. If you go to the next slide, We are one member of your bond consulting team as you consider a measure for the ballot. So our focus is on the strategy and communications piece, making sure that we're putting together a measure that's in alignment with your community's priorities and sensitivities, but also making sure that we have a plan to help the community understand what your facility needs are, what your options are for funding those needs. And if they're asked to consider a bond measure, make sure they have the requisite information to cast an informed vote. Another member of the team that we partner closely with is a public opinion polling expert. Godby Research has done the survey research of your voters in the past leading to your prior successful bond measure and also did some work for you in 2020 when the district was thinking about a measure. The other member of your bond consulting team is your financial advisor. K&N Public Finance has performed that role for you all in the past. K&N's job is to look at how you structure a bond measure, the tax rates, the bond amounts that work within the legal limitations, but also result in a fiscally responsible proposal to take to your voters. And the last member of the bond team is your bond counsel. That's your legal advisor that prepares the actual documents. In this case, the resolution that includes a project list and the ballot language that would be approved by the board if you were to place a bond measure on the ballot. So you can see how there's subject matter experts on the team to attend to the various components of a potential bond measure. If we go to the next slide. Just a little bit about process and timing. So if you're looking to place a measure on the November 2022 ballot, that's your next opportunity. I should note that bond measures can only be placed on the ballot by law in regularly scheduled elections. So that's the primary and general elections in the even-numbered years in most cases, unless there's a statewide special election like we had last year. So, if you want to place a measure on the November 2022 ballot, your deadline would be in early August, August 12, 2022 is the deadline to qualify for the November 2022 ballot. So, we would begin now working through a process to first assess the feasibility of a bond measure. A big piece of that is doing the polling that I mentioned to ask questions of your voters and understand if there's an appetite in the community to support additional funding for facility improvements? And if so, what does that measure look like? What's the tax rate, the bond amount, the project priorities that the voters might support? As part of that process, we're also looking at the political landscape to understand what else would be on the ballot this year, how those competing issues might impact how voters are considering local funding proposals, and just the broader environment. Obviously, it's been a tumultuous environment, economically, politically, from a health perspective over the last couple of years, and so we're constantly trying to evaluate how those various factors impact voter opinion and support for these measures. Assuming we come out of that feasibility study with a green light that we think there's a path forward for a successful measure, our next step is to begin the communication and outreach effort to raise awareness of your needs and build consensus around a potential proposal. The school district can educate and inform voters, can do stakeholder outreach to make sure that folks have the information they need to understand what they're gonna be asked to vote on. And then from there, we typically take what we've learned both from the feasibility study, but also through that consensus building outreach process to build a measure that reflects what we've heard from the community, and then bring that back to the board for approval to place on the ballot. Once the board casts the votes to adopt a resolution calling for an election, we transition to the last phase of the bond process, which is the advocacy campaign. And by law, no school district resources can be used to advocate for the passage of any ballot measure, including your own bond measure. So for that advocacy phase, the school district has to step back into the background, and a community-driven, independent advocacy campaign has to step forward to raise private resources, recruit volunteers, to go out and advocate for the passage of the bond measure. So that's sort of a different step in the process, separate apart from the school district, but is typically important in order to secure the votes necessary in order to pass a bond measure at 55%. And if we go to the next slide. So then just putting a little more detail on that big picture timeline to describe the process that we would undertake if we're looking at a potential November 2022 bond measure in your district. First step is to make sure we have a good understanding of your project needs. I know that in 2020, the board adopted a facilities master plan that contains most of the information we would need for that. We would work with your financial advisors to model some potential bond proposals. And then with the projects and the bond modeling in hand, we could then conduct the baseline opinion research. Our plan would be to do that in April and bring results back to the Board for May 5th meeting. And assuming that there's consensus at that meeting, that we see the signs for a potentially successful measure, we would then proceed to engage in that informational messaging and outreach, engage with your various stakeholders, students, teachers, staff, parents, other key components of your community, and assuming we're hearing positive things from them, we would then take the steps to prepare a measure for the ballot. That would include drafting the election resolution, the ballot question, the project list. If we think that there are additional open questions to be answered by opinion research, we could do a tracking poll at that point to answer those questions, or if we feel like there are shifts in the economy or the political environment that we need to track, then that ongoing opinion research is an important tool. Then in June, we would be targeting to bring that resolution back to the board for consideration and approval so that we can meet that August 12th deadline to place a measure on the November ballot. And assuming all those steps are completed, we would then move into that independent advocacy campaign. And that's where community members, that could be teachers and staff members in your district, but working on their own time after their work hours. It could be parents and others. that care about the local schools, stepping forward to help run that advocacy campaign to make sure the measure is successful. And if we move on to the last slide here. I just wanted to give you a summary of what the costs would be to the district. These are the costs to plan and prepare a measure for the ballot. This does not include any of the campaign costs that could not be paid for by the school district. This is kind of everything to get you on the ballot. So one component of that is my consulting fees. That's 6,500 a month. That's the same fee we charged the district back in 2010, 2011. So over the number of months we're looking at, that's up to about $32,500. Our contract can be severed at any time. If you decide that we don't want to move forward, the poll results don't look promising, we can end that. And obviously, the cost would be substantially less than that. The cost of a public poll is a function of the length of the poll and the size of the sample based on the recommendations from Godbee Research. That would be up to about $34,000. We also need a budget for printing and distributing informational materials to the public based on your roughly 25,000 registered voters in your district. We're thinking that we would need a budget of approximately 50,000 for those outreach expenses. And then there's about $10,000 each in financial advisor and bond counsel fees, assuming we're going all the way to that process of the board placing the measure on the ballot. If we stop short of that, then those fees would be less than that. So the estimated not to exceed amount is just shy of $140,000. That's to get you on the ballot. And then, obviously, an independent advocacy campaign would have to raise private dollars. And that would be a separate pot of money. really depended on what the fundraising potential looks like. So anyway, hopefully that gives you a sense of kind of what the bond planning and preparation process looks like. And I'd be happy to answer any questions the board has.

[17773] Bowen Zhang: So if we approve this report, does that mean we're going to, I mean, does today's vote have any fiscal impact? Does that mean we'll be spending $136K by voting yesterday?

[17787] Marie dela Cruz: No, tonight the action is really about receiving this information. There's no fiscal impact. At the next meeting, we hope to bring the consultant for the polling to the board to see, you know, what the feasibility is and so we can do the poll for the community.

[17813] Bowen Zhang: You mean copy research will be here in the first meeting in April? OK.

[17821] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, that's the timeline.

[17822] Mark Triplett: So at that point, we'd be asking the board to make a decision about whether they wanted to move forward with that stage, just that stage, but not more than that. Is that correct, Ms. Delacruz?

[17836] Bowen Zhang: That's correct. So let me ask, let me clarify. So the first meeting in April, the board will need to decide whether we want to move forward with polling, right?

[17848] Marie dela Cruz: Correct.

[17848] Bowen Zhang: And so that will have $34,000 fiscal impact in the next week. Yes. OK, I see.

[17859] Phuong Nguyen: Member Grindel?

[17859] Terrence Grindall: Yes. So the poll would also be used, I would hope, to get input from the community about what their priorities are, that even if Even if we decided not to go forward, that poll, that information about what the community thinks would be valuable to the board to be able to direct our actions. I would hope that staff would be able to work with the polling consultant to make sure that's the case, that we're actually going to get good input. Because the main problem with the existing master plan, in my opinion, is the lack of prioritization. There's a lot of projects, sort of a wish list, and I don't think that prioritization would be best to occur, you know, in the staff offices or even at this board table. I'd like to see community input either through a poll, but also through community meetings. I'd like to get, I'd like to be able to get information from the public very transparently about what their priorities would be. I don't think that's any conflict to that, but I just wanted to stress that, that transparent outreach is something that I'd like to see us do as a matter of course, to have more public input into our decisions. So, and also understanding that once, until we have that, until we have that survey, we're not making any commitment to go forward We're going to see what the community thinks are their priorities and what their appetite is for investing in their schools. And then we'll come back and come forward. So the cost to sort of assess the community's temperature is around $35,000 or so. You have the exact number there. Yeah, that's correct. Around $34,000. And we'd be considering that in April.

[17993] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, that is correct. And the survey could be tailored in a way where you would be able to get that information in terms of priorities and it's a way to get an idea of whether the bond would be successful or not or if it would be supported.

[18014] Terrence Grindall: But there also could be possibility, if we were to go forward, there could be possibilities to have public discussion about that too. We could hold a town hall or something along those lines if we desire to. Not that we want to draft that process right now, but I'd be interested in being able to hear from the community.

[18037] Marie dela Cruz: Yes, we would go through all the public engagement.

[18040] Bowen Zhang: So I do have a question. Speaking of timeline, do we really need to make a decision when it comes to polling in early April? Can that be delayed by a month?

[18052] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, as it is. The resolution has to be approved by August 12. And in looking at our calendar, the first August meeting, I believe, is August 4. So just working backwards, if we are going to get on the November ballot, There's a lot of other things that need to be done before then in terms of.

[18080] Bowen Zhang: The reason I'm asking this is I know before we have several study session when it comes to our facility conditions. But that was probably more than 18 months ago. I think ideally from a board's perspective, it might be better that we have a study session so we really know the need of the district and we know which area that's significant need investment. And we have an idea about what facility needs repair and upgrade, what facility are nearing the end of the lifespan, and how much money we really need. And after we get a big overview picture about what we need, then we can decide whether we want to proceed with polling and this bond measure. Because to be honest, seeing this agenda item, I wouldn't say this caught me by surprise, but it was still, I thought, pretty unexpected that we're going to be talking about bond measure this quickly.

[18135] Marie dela Cruz: Well, we wanted to be able to take this opportunity because the next opportunity would be in a couple of years. 2024. In 2024. And our schools have a significant amount of improvements still that need to be done.

[18155] Terrence Grindall: It's also worth noting that even if there's an election in 2024, the revenue doesn't start coming in and the bond proceeds don't start coming in for 12 to 18 months beyond that. So you could be looking at, you know, approaching 2030 before we actually saw anything happen in the community. So that's where the urgency here is if we can, without having to wait two years. So I think that's where the urgency is.

[18189] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, if you think about the 2011 Measure G, and we're now in 2022, how many years it's taken?

[18199] Phuong Nguyen: Member Hill?

[18201] Aiden Hill: So I think it's important to kind of put this topic, this agenda item in context. And I would agree with Member Zhang that I think that this is incredibly rushed. But I think that when we actually apply some data to it, I think we might feel that way even more. So last year, right in the fall, we submitted the 2021-2022 school accountability report card. And we submitted this for every single school, okay? And in that report card were a number of things where we were talking about the status of the schools, Some of it was related to test scores. And I talked about Newark Memorial a few weeks back. We all talked about that. But some of it also talked about the status of our facilities. And this was data that we actually reported to the county and to the state. And so this is our own assessment of where we are. So what I'm going to read to you right now is I'm going to read to you what we said our facilities status is for each of our schools. And then I'm also going to read to you what our test scores are for each of those schools. So for BGI, according to our school accountability report card, our facility status is exemplary, highest score. Our I-Ready test scores for BGI were 60 for English language and 62 for math. That's a report card. That's a D. We look at BGP. The school accountability report card for facilities said good. We have no scores for our test scores for BGP. If we look at Bridgepoint, according to the school accountability report, our facilities there are exemplary. Yet we have no scores, no test scores for Bridgepoint. If we look at Coyote Hills, the facilities are classified as exemplary, yet our I-Ready scores are 26 English, 28 math. And this is meets or exceeds. So again, this is an F. At Crossroads, this is actually the one that it seems where we have more facilities needs. We rank that as good to fair. We don't have any data, actually, on test scores for crossroads, except, interestingly, for science, where we score a 28, again, a failing grade. At music, facilities exemplary. IREDI, 41 English, 40 math, failing. At Kennedy, facilities exemplary. IREDI scores 64 English, 63 math, a D. At Lincoln, facilities, good. iReady scores 50 for English, 48 for Math. At Newark Junior High, Facilities Exemplary, Illuminate Data, 29 for English and 10% for Math. For Schilling, Facilities Good, iReady scores 34 English, 29 Math. And then we already talked about Newark Memorial scores, but how we scored the Facilities Exemplary. So what we've told the county and what we've told the state is we do not have a burning platform when it comes to facilities needs. That's what we've told them, okay? And yet we are now talking about putting together a bond on a rushed basis where, quite frankly, we've been very good at pursuing programs that have money attached to them. But we've been very poor at execution, right? So we went after our free and reduced price meal program, and we're now ending up having to pay the state just for that program forward and $40,000 back. We've had numerous cost overruns related to our HVAC program. We do not have a track record of managing large programs. And yet, right, we're going to talk about distracting our attention from some of the most important things here, which are literally test scores and academic achievement, and also safety, to go focus on a bond measure, which some might describe as the giant sucking sound if we were going to resurrect Ross Perot. And so my comment here is that I think that this is really more about adults building monuments to themselves, and putting bullet points on their resume versus dealing with what kids really need. And the thing that I would, and I would like to invoke and let you think about, you know, there's a famous story in history about Nero from the Roman Empire who increasingly the leadership started to get more and more out of touch with its people. And there's a famous story of Nero fiddling while Rome was burning. Well, right now we are fiddling with bonds while our kids' achievement and their safety is burning. And we have our priorities backwards and we need to change them around. And I do not support this initiative at all. Thank you.

[18529] Phuong Nguyen: Any other comments? Member Grindel?

[18533] Terrence Grindall: I'd like to address some of those points. First of all, we have a facilities master plan that lays out extraordinary amounts of capital needs that we have and That that that is that is a very detailed report. And again it's Matt it's missing in my opinion with prioritization because the extent of the need. Our schools are old. The extent of the need is so great that we really we really have to prioritize more than it than it than it would. Good facilities safe facilities. High quality facilities and facilities with curb appeal is part of our strategy to improve our schools. It's improve our scores and our teaching. So these are not separated things. It's not an either or. We have to chew gum and walk at the same time. The other thing I'd like to point out is that neurofiddling when Rome burned is actually a myth. It's not true, but.

[18599] Aiden Hill: I happen to study Roman history, so you're

[18602] Terrence Grindall: So have I, and I'm not incorrect. So I just wanted to stress that. We have enormous needs, and what we're talking about doing is not doing anything rushed, getting the input on schedule, getting survey information, getting public input on what the priorities are, doing it properly, and we can chew gum and walk at the same time.

[18632] Phuong Nguyen: Member Zhang?

[18634] Bowen Zhang: Yes. So roughly 18 months ago when the superintendent just got on board, there was this discussion about putting the bond measure on the 2020 election. And if you remember correctly, if you look at the public recording, I was there saying I oppose that bond measure in 2020. And the biggest reason I said back then was we're in the middle of a pandemic and people were losing their jobs. So it might not be the right time to raise taxes on people. Fast forward today, if you look at the inflation rate and also the gas prices, it does feel like right now might not be the perfect time to raise taxes either. But like I said, I'll probably let the public opinion polling to see if people are really, really willing to raise their property tax in this period of economic uncertainty. Because ultimately, you need 55% of the voters, and you do need to consider the economic climate and the political climate when you go for a bond?

[18694] Phuong Nguyen: Well, the last political climate, I mean, we did based on the questionnaires last time, it was positive and in favor of the bond. And just I know that some of our board members hadn't had the privilege to actually or have seen the master facilities plan, but we can get that information to you guys to be able to review. And then, yes, a study session would be to review that and the board can you know, if we read that, do the homework and prioritize, like member Grindel had said, that we could possibly do this because the bond proposal has been on, has been brought up by previous boards, you know, over the last five years. I mean, we just finished the last bond and I can understand why members of the community would have difficulty maybe supporting a current bond because it took us a long time to to facilitate and get all of that work done. But we did do it in the last two years during a pandemic. And then in terms of prospects for the bond to be able to improve our schools, just like what's been happening at the high school, the bad internet connection, connectivity. With that money, we will be able to improve technology in the classroom so that we can be competitive in terms of making sure that our students have the necessary tools and resources that they need to be able to succeed and do well and excel. And so for me, I think that it is viable option for us to look at, look at this option and see if we can pass the bond.

[18807] SPEAKER_39: President, I mean, is there a motion on the table?

[18813] Phuong Nguyen: Student board member has a comment.

[18818] SPEAKER_37: I just wanted to reiterate that this isn't approving the bonds. making sure that we can progress to the next stage, correct? Correct. No money on the table.

[18826] Mark Triplett: Right. That's correct, yeah.

[18833] Aiden Hill: So, yeah, again, I mean, I think, you know, as Member Zhang points out, there's a lot of factors, including timing and you know, political factors, you know, etc., economic factors. But I think there's also an optics factor. So we've just given notice to over 70 FTE that we are potentially laying them off. And yet, We're now talking about spending $136,000 for a consultant to do an exploratory, you know, project. No, no, no, but we're laying the groundwork, okay, so we're considering this. So, and if we move forward with it, we would be spending $136,000 to take it all the way to the end. And I think that it really doesn't look good, and again, you know, per, you know, My confusion is I haven't seen, I've seen pieces of that master plan that was done like three years ago. But what I'm confused about is again, what we're reporting to the state right now in terms of the status of our facilities doesn't map to that. But that is one factor. So ma'am, hold on.

[18904] Phuong Nguyen: You're not thinking of the bigger picture.

[18906] Aiden Hill: Ma'am, I'm not finished yet. But the other thing that I want us to think about is we talk about chewing gum and walking at the same time. The problem, though, is, is we don't focus on, you know, the one thing that's most important, which is student achievement. I do not see the same level of effort and planning going in to address these scores, which have been abysmal for years. And yet, I see so much effort going into facilities that, quite frankly, really do not have a direct correlation with educational outcomes. And I will challenge anybody to show me studies that prove that they do. And I will tell you that the same is true in corporate America, that companies that focus on making a palace out of their headquarters and they don't focus on their customers, they go out of business. We've got our priorities wrong. We need to get them right. That's it. Thank you.

[18962] Phuong Nguyen: Did you have a comment, student board member? OK. May I have a motion to approve?

[18968] Bowen Zhang: I move though. We received a report on the timeline and process for the feasibility of November 2022 school facility improvement bond.

[18978] Phuong Nguyen: I second. How do you vote, student board member?

[18988] SPEAKER_37: May I abstain?

[18989] Phuong Nguyen: Sure. Member Zhang?

[18993] Bowen Zhang: Yes.

[18994] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez? Yes. Yes. Member Hill? No. Member Grindel? Yes. I myself is a yes.

[19006] SPEAKER_39: We have, just for the record, this is stating a no vote means you are not receiving the information. Okay, thank you.

[19018] Phuong Nguyen: So the vote is four ayes and one no and one abstention by the student board members. On our consent calendar for personnel items, I'm sorry, consent agenda, personnel items, 14.2.

[19043] Mark Triplett: Dr. Triplett? Oh, this is consent. I think, is there a motion?

[19048] Phuong Nguyen: Oh, sorry. Motion to approve item 14.2.

[19055] Bowen Zhang: I move we ratify the personnel report as presented

[19058] Phuong Nguyen: I second. Thank you. Motion made by Member Zhang, seconded by Member Marquez. How do you vote, Member Zhang?

[19064] Bowen Zhang: Yes.

[19066] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Grindell? Yes. I myself is a yes, so five yes. On to a consent agenda, non-personal items. May I get a motion to approve items 15.2? May I get a motion to approve items 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.6, 15.7, 15.8, 15.9, 15.10, 15.11, and 15.12? I'll move approval of those items. I second. How do you vote, student board member? Yes. Member Zhang? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Vendell?

[19120] Cary Knoop: Yes.

[19121] Phuong Nguyen: I'm also yes. So six yeses. And item 15.5, member Hill?

[19131] Aiden Hill: So this is about the addendum to the master contract with Ed Speg. And so it's looking to approve 800, for us to approve $893,400. And my understanding is that our prior contract was roughly about the same amount, correct? So our original contract was $900,000. And now we're talking about adding another almost $900,000. And I guess my concern you know, as a former consultant, not to, you know, belittle my profession, but it's usually very expensive to be staffing operations with consultants and outside contractors versus with your own employees. And so I want to know why we're having to spend so much money on effectively outsourcing a lot of special ed versus trying to staff internally. And it seems like not only are we not staffing, but it seems like we're having a lot of people leaving. And so there's something that seems to be broken. And I'd like to understand a little bit more about what's going on.

[19231] Nicole Pierce-Davis: I'm pausing because that's a pretty big question. What I can say is most of the positions that you see here are not additional funds over and above what we would expect. They are to fill vacancies. We have had a huge challenge with filling specifically special education positions this year, whether they are aides, whether they are one-to-ones, or whether they are other positions. We are, as you know, our director of special ed is currently on leave, and I have been filling in for the last month and a half now. And one thing I can say is that it's given me a chance to really get to know some of our staff in that way. And my hope is that I can continue to look at areas that we can do a better job of recruitment and hiring for next year, as well as some other items.

[19279] Aiden Hill: And what about retention?

[19284] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Retention as well.

[19289] Bowen Zhang: Well, I will say, based on my past three years of experience in Special Ed, it's always an area that is very, very hard to find qualified people. It's just almost every district is contracting now.

[19301] Aiden Hill: And there seems to be no quick fix for this. And my concern isn't so much that I understand that Special Ed is hard to recruit for. And at my own school, it's certainly hard to recruit for. But when I start to see that a lot of our existing staff is leaving, that really compounds the problem. And so I think that we have to look at, why are we having our resources leave? And what can we do to actually change that? Because the alternative is a very costly alternative.

[19333] Mark Triplett: Sorry, Member Hill, when you say a lot of existing staff leaving, what are you referring to?

[19340] Aiden Hill: So based on both some of the prior personnel reports that I was looking at, looking at special ed that were leaving, And then also looking at now, you know, some of the positions that we're recruiting for out on Adjoin. It just seems like we've, that we've been losing people in and above, you know, what maybe extra needs we are. And that's why we're now moving from a situation of, I mean, literally we're doubling the size of this contract. And, you know, I can't believe that that's because, purely because we have double the demand. right? It seems to me that it's probably partly that we're losing our own capabilities and we need to figure out what's going on and turn that around. And I may be wrong. If you can provide information on how many we started with, you know, in that department, where we are right now, if it's stable, then maybe there's something else going on. But I want to make sure that we have as strong a department as possible and that potentially we're going to build it and make and add even more so that we don't have to use more expensive contract labor.

[19404] Phuong Nguyen: Member Marquez.

[19406] SPEAKER_42: Thank you for the acknowledgement. After reviewing the actual contract and it specified the specialty in which these positions that are being added and amended and as well as The fact that this is a budgeted item, this isn't something that's new. It's already been labeled and listed as a budgeted item. We as a school district, we've been talking about the mental health. We don't actually have the position. What we have here is we are seeking and we're fulfilling what it is that the community is asking for, as well as psychoeducational assessments. And then we also have the case management support, which is a unique situation that oftentimes school districts do not have a full-time case manager. on board. So at this time, with confidence, because we already have this item budgeted, this isn't something that's just shown up. I'm comfortable and ready to make the motion.

[19454] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. I second the motion. Student board member, how do you vote?

[19460] SPEAKER_37: Yes.

[19461] Phuong Nguyen: Member Zhang? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill?

[19466] Aiden Hill: I vote yes if we can, again, try to figure out how to reduce it going forward.

[19470] Phuong Nguyen: So I'm voting yes. Thank you. Member Grindel? Yes. I myself as a yes as well. Six yeses, please. Thank you. OK. On to Board of Education Recognitions and Announcements. Student board member?

[19493] SPEAKER_37: There are so many people to recognize that it's hard to keep one small list and say this is the right people, because everyone deserves recognition in this district for the work they put in helping students, striving truly to make this a better place, and talking to us, the district, the board members, if that isn't the case. And I want to appreciate all the public comments that came in today. I truly love when we hear input from the community. whether it not be the best that we wanted to hear or whether it be the greatest news ever, everything is valuable to us. And I would once again, as at every meeting, like to recognize all the teachers and classified staff that are putting in the work and really helping the students in any possible way they can. You are recognized and appreciated.

[19540] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Member Zhang.

[19543] Bowen Zhang: So just like I mentioned in a previous agenda item, I mean, Inflation is at a 40-year-plus high, and gas prices probably highest ever. So these are not easy times. I just hope members of our community, because we're still primarily a working-class community, we just hope everyone can hang on there, and hopefully we can go through this period of difficult times relatively quickly. And on a relatively more positive note, and this is still Women's History Month,

[19577] SPEAKER_42: Celebrate every one of our female employee in our district including your superintendents or female cabinet Yes, appreciate them dr. Triplett just kidding Member Marquez, thank you for the acknowledgement first and foremost I'm well going to echo our student member board member and it is difficult because when you want you want to say something about everyone and Right. And today in particular, I had something else in mind. But immediately when we had our young student from Newark Memorial approach approach the board and the podium and to advocate not only for himself, I felt that I had the strong urge to let him know that his voice is heard and I appreciate what he's doing. So at this time, I'd like to acknowledge Alan Mayer. for his success in his AP courses. I applaud him for his accomplishments, his ability and willingness to advocate for himself when doors were shutting. It was obvious that he took the time to find ways to pry them open. And more so for his ability to and willingness to share his knowledge and to assist his peers in advocating for themselves. So not only did he set the stage, but he led by example. So at this time, I'd like to ask everyone to please applaud Alan Mayer.

[19664] Phuong Nguyen: Member Hill?

[19666] Aiden Hill: Yes, I'd like to echo all of my fellow board members' comments. I agree with all of them. And then as a person whose first name is Aiden, I would also like to acknowledge and celebrate our Irish heritage as a country, since it is St. Patrick's Day.

[19687] SPEAKER_30: Yes, it is.

[19690] Aiden Hill: And I think that the Irish welcome everybody, and I think everybody can be Irish. And so, again, happy St. Paddy's Day to everybody.

[19700] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Member Grindel?

[19705] Terrence Grindall: I have to echo the comments of all the board members. I couldn't have said it better than myself. I'm not going to try. I had the good fortune of being able to work with the CSBA and on their legislative action days last week, this week, and was able to meet with Assemblymember Alex Lee and staff from Senator Wieckowski's office and express the CSBA's priorities going forward, trying to encourage more and stable funding and predictable funding for schools. And we got very good responses from Assemblymember Lee, particularly in person, a lot of energy towards what we're talking about. In addition, it continues to go on. I just want to say that my heart goes out to the people in Ukraine struggling for their freedom against Russian, or let's just call it Putin's, aggression. Because I think the Russian boys that are being sent into that situation are no more the villain. And we're our heart goes out and watching the news is heartbreaking. And we're and I'm personally hoping that they'll be that they'll be they'll they'll be fully successful in defending their country and and achieving victory. That's all I have.

[19804] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you, members. So just again, everybody made wonderful statements tonight. And I do want to add to what Member Marquez had said. I'm very grateful that one of our students came and spoke tonight, Alan Mayer. And for all the students in the district, just remember that you do have to advocate for yourself throughout life. And if you feel strongly about your achievements in high school and you're able to connect with a teacher or teachers that are going to support you, hold on to that and continue to definitely pursue that and work hard towards your goals. We all have to do that. And it's definitely, it's not just that you can't as a young person, you definitely can and you definitely can advocate for yourself and continue to do so throughout your whole life. And you can achieve great things when you find the mentors in your teachers and even in your peers. So student support groups are amazing and don't forget that and keep on You know, continuing to work hard towards whatever goal it is that you have and and don't forget that, you know, there are going to be bumps, but just get up and keep going and Eventually, you will find that person that has all the connections and that they will be able to put those road, I mean, set those roadblocks aside so that you can continue through that path. So for all our students, remember, you can do whatever it is that you want to if you put hard work and determination and perseverance through that all. So that's it for me. And I also just want to thank all of our staff on the tremendous work. And yes, there's definitely challenges. But it's just a reminder for everyone that we do have to just make sure that we see every facet, every side, and not just not go through life with blinders on. There is great things at the end of the road, but we need to make sure that we're inclusive of everybody's perspectives and thoughts and feelings. OK. So on to Board of Education Committee reports. Are there any report out for the ROP?

[19969] Terrence Grindall: Member Grindel? Nothing to report. They've been having their monthly meeting. I've been attending, but nothing notable to report.

[19979] Phuong Nguyen: SELPA? Nothing for SELPA. Anything for EBIC? Member Marquez? None at this time. Audit Committee?

[19988] Aiden Hill: Yes, so we've already covered the fact that we've elected the voting public member. and we have an application process going for the non-voting position, and that's already been advertised, but I'm also making a public announcement here that anybody that is interested in serving on the board as a non-voting member and as an advisor, you're welcome to apply, and I believe the deadline for sending in your application I think is next Wednesday, or this coming Wednesday, so a little bit less than a week from now, and then we will be having I think it's the following Tuesday, anybody who's applied will come in and we'll meet with the board again or with the committee again and present their qualifications and we'll make a decision on who the non-voting member will be. And then shortly after that we'll have our first full audit committee meeting in April. Thank you.

[20045] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. And then for the Bond Parcel Tax Committee. I guess we will be hard at work because we did pass to accept the report to take measures of possibly looking at the bond for 2022. And then for the liaison committee, we will be having a meeting. Well, originally we were scheduled for April 18th, but I think that's going to be rescheduled due to spring break. Any other comments? Member Grindel?

[20080] SPEAKER_15: No, nothing further.

[20083] Phuong Nguyen: OK. On to item 16.3, Board of Education requests. Student board member, do you have any requests?

[20094] SPEAKER_37: That's a funny question. I do have a certain request. I don't know how to phrase it right, once again. But I would like to know more about the junior high and what's going on and if there's any way we can assist them. Or if there's anything, I don't know. I don't know how to phrase it right, but I would like to know more details about junior high.

[20123] Phuong Nguyen: So do we have consensus? No, no. So basically, the request is on the floor. I think moving forward, we should because last time we get there's a lot of confusion in terms of like us trying to amend what may or may not be the direction of the person that is asking for the request. So OK, so there's no consensus at this point. I support it. OK. Member, Member Zhang.

[20157] Bowen Zhang: Request is for the study session for the scope of the possible bond facility update as soon as possible. It can be, it can be, I mean, it can be the study session for the first meeting of April. It can even be a special meeting later this month. For the facility scope and the scope of the bond. I'm saying I'm requesting a study session. for the scope of the facility update and among the bond, if we decide to go for a bond. So pretty much a facility update, overview of our facility in the district. It can be the study session for the next regular board meeting. It can also be a special board meeting later this month. Because I hope we have that picture before we vote on the polling.

[20205] Terrence Grindall: I agree with Member Schenck's request.

[20209] SPEAKER_42: I agree as well. I was going to ask for the same thing.

[20211] Phuong Nguyen: We have consensus.

[20213] Mark Triplett: Sorry, just in terms of timing, we do have a planned study session already, which is time-sensitive around budget prioritization for the upcoming study session. But we could, what I think I heard you say, Member Zhen, is that a special session with the study session.

[20232] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, just on a later this month, because we're going to have two weeks without regular board meetings, so.

[20239] Mark Triplett: Okay. And just in terms of being, we have been working on a deferred maintenance plan and working on facilities sort of planning. But just in terms of being able to produce that level of a report in April, Ms.dela Cruz, is that possible or?

[20263] Marie dela Cruz: Well, what I'm hearing is that you want to study session to kind of look at what the possible priorities might be for the bond.

[20270] Bowen Zhang: And also probably the total amount of the bond. Are we going for 80 million bond or 120 million bond or 40 million bond?

[20279] Terrence Grindall: Yeah, so. We have the facility, we have the facility master plan, which could be presented or some, thank you, wait, a summary of it could be presented. And as well as we have results from the previous poll that was done, that's that's information that you have at hand. that we could go over in the study session. I'm not hearing from the request that this is a generate a lot more information. It's about digest what we have. Is that correct?

[20308] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, because the board probably need to know what will be the scope of the bond and why are we doing that.

[20316] Aiden Hill: So to that question, I think that it was said earlier next board meeting. Is that a correct statement?

[20329] Bowen Zhang: Yeah, $34K pretty much. That's the money on the table. For the polling. Just for the survey. For the polling and the survey. $34K.

[20335] Aiden Hill: So we're not going to probably have a session, a study session like you're describing, before that.

[20341] Bowen Zhang: That's why I said it can be a special, just a special meeting on the study session later this month. Because there are three more weeks before we're going to meet in three weeks, not in two weeks again.

[20353] Phuong Nguyen: Do we have consensus for a special meeting?

[20355] Aiden Hill: But I just want clarity. you're saying we're going to have this before the regular April meeting?

[20360] Bowen Zhang: Correct. Because I don't see the value of having that author voting on a 34-page.

[20366] Aiden Hill: OK. The only request that I would like to make, because as you know, I have serious issues with these continued special meetings, that we publish this well in advance. We publish the agenda well in advance. We're not going to publish 24 hours. And we're going to widely advertise this to the public, because this is something that they need

[20387] Bowen Zhang: I'm not very fine with that, because this agenda is not going to be that complicated. Because it's not like we have 20 agendas on the table.

[20398] Phuong Nguyen: Special meeting agenda is always posted 24 hours before the meeting.

[20402] Bowen Zhang: But I will say, if we have a study on Monday, we can post it on Friday.

[20407] Mark Triplett: So maybe just so that we can stay clear here because we're falling out of our protocol. So I think I understood the consensus around having a study session, having it be either with a special session or not.

[20427] Bowen Zhang: Actually, these special sessions have been widely used for the budget. challenges in the year 2019-20. So I've attended several of these specially purposed meeting just for a budget, just for one topic. So we do have historic precedent in this district to hold two to three hour long special meeting only on that one topic, which is a three hour study session or two hour study session.

[20447] Aiden Hill: My only issue is that we provide full notice.

[20451] Mark Triplett: Point of order. So we understand that one, and Member Hill, do you want to make a different request about what you're saying? I'm asking that we, if we do this,

[20468] Bowen Zhang: So it sounds like this is a request. So my question is, is that going to be proved difficult for you to do that, what Board Member Hicks says?

[20478] Mark Triplett: Sorry, I just want to make sure we're following protocol here. So Member Xun had a request. There was consensus.

[20485] Aiden Hill: So consensus means everybody. No, consensus is majority. If we want to look up the definition of consensus, we can. It means everybody. No, three. I am not supporting it. I'm asking for an amendment.

[20500] Phuong Nguyen: I told you, we're not amending requests from individuals.

[20503] Aiden Hill: That's your rule, OK? But I don't see whether that's an amendment. And I'm saying that I want this to be published tomorrow.

[20514] Phuong Nguyen: No, because the last time, you had the issue of like, wait a second. No, no, no, that's my request. So at your convenience, you can make those kinds of calls, right? No. So no. So I'm trying to simplify it. Excuse you. I'm trying to simplify it and generalize the fact that we have a request made by member Zhang. If he wants clarity, he can address the clarity to us.

[20541] Aiden Hill: If we want a lack of transparency, then I'll just vote no.

[20549] Phuong Nguyen: At this point, the point of having a special meeting is so that we can be transparent. And if we choose to have a special meeting, we are allowed to post the items 24 hours in advance. That is not required.

[20564] Elisa Martinez: President Winters?

[20565] Mark Triplett: Just a point of order, if Member Hill, if you would like to When it's your turn to make requests, if that's the request that you want to make, it seems like that's the protocol that we're trying to follow here. So if we have member Jeon made a request, it was consensus. If there's another person that now wants to make a request, and member Hill, when it's your turn, if you want to make a request, it sounds like you have a specific request around special sessions.

[20590] Terrence Grindall: It is more like majority than consensus. I do have to agree with member Hill. Consensus does mean that everyone can live with it. But it's still the majority of the board.

[20603] SPEAKER_39: President Nguyen, at this point we have a request from Member Zhang and we have an agreement from Member Grindel. So there is no majority. Actually, there was a majority. Okay, so we do have three. Thank you.

[20616] Phuong Nguyen: So the request was to have a study session for the bond.

[20626] Terrence Grindall: Prior to the vote.

[20627] Phuong Nguyen: Prior to the vote.

[20629] Terrence Grindall: On the polling.

[20631] Marie dela Cruz: Right?

[20631] Bowen Zhang: Yes, yes. Prior to the vote. Yes, yes.

[20634] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, and that would include facilities overview, reviewing the master plan.

[20638] Bowen Zhang: And the amount of money we're going to invest.

[20639] Marie dela Cruz: And the amount available. OK. Yes, yes, yes.

[20643] Phuong Nguyen: OK, Member Marquez, do you have any requests? None at this time.

[20647] SPEAKER_42: I was going to ask for the same thing. None at this time. OK. Member Hill?

[20651] Aiden Hill: I have two requests. And I'm happy to entertain amendments, because I'm not My requests are first, building on what student member has raised. Again, I think that we saw from the public that we've got a serious issue going on at the junior high school. I think some of it involves sensitive personnel matters. And I'd like to request that we actually put an agenda on closed session for the next regular meeting to talk about what's going on at the junior high school and as it connects with personnel. So that's my first request.

[20688] Terrence Grindall: I don't believe that's an appropriate closed session item. Staff can correct me if I'm wrong.

[20694] Aiden Hill: So hold on a second. If the public has made clear that they are unhappy with the leadership at the junior high school, that is a personnel issue. And I think that we need to discuss it.

[20708] SPEAKER_39: At this point, the request is on hand. Is there two other people that would like to agree with the request at hand? Thank you.

[20718] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you. Second request.

[20721] Aiden Hill: The second request is building partly on what student member had mentioned earlier, and then also what some of the members of the public that came to speak today had mentioned. Again, I think we have an ongoing transparency issue, and I don't think that we have. We're really hearing the voice of the community. And there's been a recommendation that we hold a study session on this. And I'd like to have a study session where we can figure out how we have more communication and not only from the district, but also how we include stakeholders in this and have them speak and provide their perspective so that the board can get a full complement of information before we make decisions. So I'd like to propose that we have a study session on this topic.

[20767] Terrence Grindall: On what topic?

[20768] Aiden Hill: On the topic of how we can improve transparency and two-way communication in between our district and our stakeholders.

[20782] SPEAKER_37: Thank you.

[20782] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you.

[20784] SPEAKER_37: May I add a comment?

[20786] Guadalupe Lopez: May I add a comment?

[20792] SPEAKER_37: I guess expressing or echoing whoever spelled comment, we just had like more than five public comments from about three and a half.

[20805] SPEAKER_36: Are we doing nothing about that?

[20806] SPEAKER_15: Sorry, is this a request?

[20811] Mark Triplett: Can I ask a question? There is no request to do anything about what's going on in the past. Are we bleeding that website? I'm sorry.

[20827] Phuong Nguyen: So, this is... If you ask it in a form of a request. Can you ask it in a form of a request?

[20837] SPEAKER_36: I request that we know more about what's going on in Junior High, whether that be in close-ups, or either on a wall, or whether that be at a study session. I would like to bring this request again, because we just have more than five public commenters on. Half of them are teachers who state that what's going on in Junior High is unacceptable. That would have never happened when I was back in Junior High. And I'm beyond concerned. The students are, the teachers, the staff. What's going on with the leadership about this? It's the job of the superintendent to deal with his personnel issues. He works for us. We don't get to

[20891] Terrence Grindall: we don't hold hearings on personnel issues and reviewing the staff of the superintendent. So that's why you're not hearing it. The superintendent is, you can speak for yourself, but the superintendent is certainly paying attention to these issues, but he can't comment on personnel issues and critiques of his staff. And of course, it's a lot of Most of the public commenters we're hearing from are actually teachers from the school. So it's not like we have the parents here. But the superintendent has to deal with personnel matters. It's very, very sensitive, very, very difficult.

[20936] Aiden Hill: And so I would like to make a correction, Member Grindel. So all powers that the superintendent has are delegated powers. Just a point of order. So he was allowed to make a speech, I'm not allowed to make one?

[20957] SPEAKER_39: At this point, this is not speech moment, this is request moment.

[20959] Aiden Hill: Okay, well then we need to enforce those rules consistently.

[20964] Phuong Nguyen: I think member Grindel was making a point to explain to student board member how the process is being worked out.

[20973] Aiden Hill: I was trying to explain that his explanation is incorrect.

[20977] Phuong Nguyen: No.

[20979] SPEAKER_39: At this point, we're a member of Grindell. Do you have any requests?

[21003] Mark Triplett: You're making a request to hear, for the board to hear from staff about the safety at the junior high?

[21012] Phuong Nguyen: Safety protocols?

[21017] Mark Triplett: I'm just trying to get clear, Member Resendiz-Ortiz.

[21023] SPEAKER_36: I would like to hear something about this rather than nothing.

[21030] Mark Triplett: Please know that we are absolutely doing something about the concerns that have been raised up. I take them extremely seriously, as well as the other members of the staff. And you actually heard from NTA tonight that I'm meeting with them tomorrow to discuss this very fact. I mean, I don't know if you want to still have that request that you just had, but please know that we take this extremely seriously. We can't talk about personnel issues publicly here, but we do take the safety concerns extremely seriously and we're acting on them.

[21074] Phuong Nguyen: Thank you.

[21076] Terrence Grindall: OK, so I have a couple of requests. Yes, member. I have three of them. One, I have to return my promise that I made to member Hill at the start of the meeting, which is to support him in your request, but to support him in requesting that staff research the documentation that provided they gave the that gave the superintendent the authority to apply COVID-19 rules. I certainly recall it, but that's the request. I can only speak for myself, but I promised member Hill that I would support that request in return for him putting on a mask, so I just did. Is there consensus?

[21121] Aiden Hill: I support that.

[21122] Phuong Nguyen: Yes. Okay, we have consensus. We have a majority.

[21126] Terrence Grindall: There's a majority. Hopefully. So I'm concerned about the procedures that are used by the Audit Committee to interview staff. The Audit Committee appointment is by the members of the whole board. I, you know, I'm concerned about that process. I think the board should be interviewing these candidates and I'd like to see that happen, but.

[21158] Aiden Hill: I want to just make a clarification here. So we have multiple subcommittees, right? So we have a bond oversight committee. We have, you know, the, you know, the liaison committee. Point of order.

[21172] Mark Triplett: This is not a request. This is out of, this is not a. I made a request.

[21179] Terrence Grindall: I was starting to make a request which is that we as a board look at the charter of the audit committee and clarify it to where necessary and make a decision as a board about how appointments and other matters are made.

[21193] Aiden Hill: I'm requesting that if we make this amendment that we apply it to all committees.

[21199] Mark Triplett: So there's a request on the table. And I'm making an amendment.

[21204] Terrence Grindall: That's your opinion. My request is to look at the Audit Committee Charter.

[21210] Phuong Nguyen: He's making a request to look at the Audit Committee Charter. And if you want to, next, next.

[21218] SPEAKER_39: That would be part of the discussion. President Nguyen, at this point, can you please ask for a majority?

[21223] Bowen Zhang: Is there a majority?

[21233] Mark Triplett: I think you just need votes from each person if there's a majority or not.

[21240] Phuong Nguyen: Is there a majority? Student board member? No. Remember John, no. Remember Marquez. OK.

[21249] Terrence Grindall: OK. That's fine. That's all I have.

[21254] Phuong Nguyen: OK. I don't have any requests. Superintendent, concluding comments, updates.

[21269] Mark Triplett: Thank you. I think this is a really challenging board meeting. I just want to appreciate everybody for staying in it. And sometimes conversations are going to be really hard. And this is not easy work. And this is not easy to be on this board. And it's not easy to be in leadership to try to really affect positive change. So I just want to appreciate everybody for being in it. really trying to maintain the civility of the dialogue. And then in particular, I want to, again, shout out the MCA teachers and students. The silent film festival that occurred last night was just really tremendous and inspiring. These students were working incredibly hard, doing really cool stuff with the support of their teachers. And I neglected to mention earlier, but part of the celebration was about the number of students who are on honor roll from MCA and also on the principal's honor list. And there's a lot of students from MCA that were receiving honor roll, high honors, et cetera. So I really want to give them a shout out. Likewise, the hats ceremony and the amount of work that must have gone into that, both from all of the different clubs and groups and all of the practicing for those performances. But then also the student leadership group, our board member and then as well as the other members of ASB who really led that and really made that possible. So just want to again thank them. And then lastly, I just want to appreciate you, student member Resendiz-Ortiz. I know you're really being very conscious about listening to your fellow students and really encouraging them, engaging with them about them being more involved in the district and the leadership, and encouraging them to participate in this process. And so I really thank you, because it's really important. We need to hear all voices, not just a few. And so thank you for that. Oh, and happy St. Patty's Day, everybody.

[21406] Jodi Croce: OK, meeting adjourned at 10.50. Sorry.

[21414] Bowen Zhang: Motion to adjourn?

[21416] Phuong Nguyen: Motion.

[21417] Bowen Zhang: Motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn.

[21418] Phuong Nguyen: Member Zhang made the motion to adjourn. I'll second. Member Grindel second. How do you vote, student board member? Yes. How do you vote, member Zhang? Yes. Member Marquez? Yes. Member Hill? Yes. Member Grindel? Yes. Myself is yes, six ayes, and I'm firing myself. Oh, meeting adjourned at 10.51 PM.

1. CALL TO ORDER

Meeting Practices and Information

Type Information, Procedural 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 this meeting's agenda. 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 this meeting's agenda.

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

3. STUDY SESSION

LCAP 2022-23 Input Session

Type Discussion, Information PURPOSE:

To provide an overview of LCFF and LCAP process and purpose, and to engage the Board of Trustees in a conversation about what they see as the areas of strength and the areas of growth in order to inform our 22-23 revisions to the LCAP goals and

actions.

BACKGROUND:

This study session is offered in combination with multiple other community engagements. The information collected from the Board will be added to the aggregate comments, solutions, and concerns shared by the staff, families, students, and other educational partners. In April the District will complete a draft of the LCAP for the 22-23 school year and will engage in another round of feedback. In June the LCAP will be presented in a public hearing and will then be presented to the Board for final adoption before being submitted to the Alameda County Office of Education for review. The ACOE will then issue clarifying questions and the Superintendent will respond in writing to these questions in August. Final approval of the LCAP 22-23 will be received by September 15, 2022.

File Attachments LCAP_SPSA 22-23 Board Study Session Slides.pdf (1,288 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.

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

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: Two 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. 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.

6. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION

Pledge of Allegiance

Type Procedural PURPOSE:

The Governance Team will recite the Pledge of Allegiance

7. RECOGNITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS

School Spotlight: Lincoln Elementary

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 Lincoln Elementary Principal, Lizaday Rancap-Perez.

File Attachments Lincoln Spotlight - 2021_22.pdf (14,293 KB)

8. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS

Employee Organizations

Type Information PURPOSE:

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

BACKGROUND:

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

1. NTA: Sean Abruzzi

2. CSEA: Maria Huffer

3. NEWMA: Vicenta Ditto

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

File Attachments Superintendent's Report 3.17.22.pdf (3,537 KB)

11. STAFF REPORT

Advanced Placement Access Policy

Type Information PURPOSE:

To provide additional information to the Board of Trustees regarding Advanced Placement (AP) course access and prerequisite policies.

BACKGROUND:

AP prerequisites have been removed from NMHS since 2014. Recently, there have been questions regarding the rationale and history regarding this shift. This presentation briefly addresses these questions.

File Attachments Staff Report_ AP Prerequisites.pdf (690 KB)

Culture and Climate Educational Services Update

Type Information PURPOSE:

To provide an update to the Board of Trustees regarding school culture and climate, as it relates to the district's priority focus on social emotional learning (SEL) and wellness.

BACKGROUND:

Reopening schools after a year of distance learning has 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 update the community on the impacts of the action steps taken since August of 2021, as well as adjusted site-specific action steps that were planned to be implemented in January at our two largest secondary schools, as shared in the December 16 staff report.

File Attachments Culture & Climate Action Plan Report Out.pdf (2,835 KB)

12. OLD BUSINESS

Presentation of the A-G Completion Improvement Grant Plan

Type Action

Preferred Date Mar 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $375,061.00

Budget Source A-G Completion Improvement Grant

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the A-G Completion Action Improvement Grant Plan. PURPOSE:

To adopt the district's A-G Completion Improvement Grant.

BACKGROUND:

California SB-309 states the A�G Completion Improvement Grant Program is to "provide additional supports to local educational agencies to help increase the number of California high school pupils, particularly unduplicated pupils, who graduate high school meeting the A�G subject matter requirements for admission to the University of California and the California State University."

Assistant Superintendent, Nicole Pierce Davis will present the final version of the NUSD A-G Completion Improvement Grant Plan.

File Attachments 2021_A-G_Completion_Improvement_Grant_Plan_Newark_Unified_School_District_20220203_FINAL.pdf (97 KB)

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the A-G Completion Improvement Grant Plan.

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

13. NEW BUSINESS

Audit Committee Member Appointment

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education appoint Aaron Weisz as the voting Action member to the Audit Committee. PURPOSE:

By taking this action, the Board will appoint a new voting public (community) member, Aaron Weisz, to the Audit Committee for a first-term beginning March 18, 2022, and expiring January 31, 2024.

BACKGROUND:

The Audit Committee currently has two members whose terms have expired. Their positions include the voting and non-voting community members.

The request for Audit Committee membership applications was posted at the District Office and online on February 1, 2022. The application deadline was March 1, 2022. The Audit Committee reviewed (2) applications for the voting member position and interviewed applicants on March 7, 2022. The Audit Committee recommends Aaron Weisz be appointed by the Board of Education to the Audit Committee as a voting member. Mr. Weisz has been on the Audit Committee as a non-voting member since he was Board approved on June 6, 2017.

There were no applications for the non-voting member position. This position was re-posted on March 8, 2022, with applications due on March 24, 2022, and the recommendation for an appointment at the April 7, 2022 Board meeting.

File Attachments 2022-02-01_Audit Committee solicitation-posting.pdf (85 KB) 2022-03-01_Audit Committee Application_Aaron N Weisz_redacted.pdf (433 KB)

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education appoint Aaron Weisz as the voting member to the Audit Committee.

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

2022 Bond Measure Planning for November 8, 2022 Election

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education receive an informational report on the Action timeline and process for assessing the feasibility of a November 2022 school facilities improvement bond. PURPOSE:

The Newark Unified School District (NUSD) Facilities Master Plan identifies over $600 million in needed improvements to its local schools. Passage of a voter-approved school facilities improvement bond measure is the only realistic means for funding the identified needs. The Board will hear a report from the consultant who led NUSD's last successful bond measure in 2011 on the process and timeline for considering placing a new bond measure on the November 8, 2022, ballot.

BACKGROUND:

On November 8, 2011, 56% of local voters in NUSD approved Measure G, a $63 million school facilities improvement bond to provide dedicated local funding to:

    Update aging classrooms, libraries, and science labs
    Improve earthquake safety, fire safety, and school security
    Improve access for students with disabilities
    Remove hazardous materials like asbestos and lead
    Improve energy efficiency and other school improvements

All Measure G funds have been expended. NUSD's Facilities Master Plan (FMP) provides a long-range plan for improving school facilities to meet the changing needs of NUSD students and helps to ensure that resources are allocated in an efficient and effective manner. The FMP is the result of a robust stakeholder engagement process and a thorough analysis of existing facilities on the District's elementary school campuses, the Newark Junior High School campus, the Newark Memorial High School campus, and the MacGregor Alternative Education campus.

The FMP identifies over $600 million in school facilities needs across local campuses and currently, NUSD has no significant source of funding for addressing these identified needs. Based on state school funding policy, NUSD's past experience, and the experience of other school districts around the state, the passage of a local school facilities improvement bond measure is the only realistic means for securing significant funding to address the needs identified in the FMP.

School bond measures require 55% voter approval and may only be placed on the ballot during regularly scheduled elections, typically the primary and general elections conducted in even-numbered years. The next election opportunity for NUSD to consider placing a bond measure on the ballot is November 8, 2022. The Board will hear a report on the timeline and recommended process for assessing a potential bond measure from Charles Heath, a Partner at TBWBH Props & Measures. He is the consultant that assisted NUSD in preparing Measure G for the ballot in 2011 and his firm has assisted most of our neighboring school districts with similar work along with hundreds of other school districts around California.

File Attachments NewarkUSD_TBWBH_BondPres_03082022.pdf (377 KB)

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education receive an informational report on the timeline and process for assessing the feasibility of a November 2022 school facilities improvement bond.

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

14. 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.

Personnel Report

Type Action

Absolute Date Mar 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 03-17-2022.pdf (364 KB)

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the personnel report 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
Abstain: Estaina Resendiz-Ortiz

15. 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: except 15.5

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

Curricular, Overnight Trip for Schilling Elementary fifth and sixth grade class to travel to Scotts Valley, CA.

Type Action

Preferred Date Mar 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $14,400.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Student Fundraising and Donations

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the overnight trip for Schilling Action Elementary fifth and sixth grade class to Scotts Valley, CA. PURPOSE:

The Schilling Elementary community requests permission to take fifth and sixth grade students on a curricular, overnight field trip. Students will travel to Scotts Valley, 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: Schilling Elementary


     Dates: March 28 - March 31, 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 fifth 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.

Curricular, Overnight Field Trip Request, with One-Way Distance Over 100 Miles: Newark Memorial High School Media Communications Academy Seniors to Glendale, CA

Type Action

Preferred Date Mar 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $24,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source MCA CPA Grant Funds

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve for the Newark Memorial High Action School MCA Seniors to travel to Southern California to be exposed to post-secondary opportunities in the greater Los Angeles region in the fields of Arts, Media, and Entertainment. PURPOSE:

The Newark Memorial High School Principal requests permission for the MCA Director, Media Communications Academy to take MCA Seniors on a curricular/non-curricular, overnight trip with a one-way distance in excess of 100 miles. The trip is to familiarize our Career Technical Education/California Partnership Academy students with the possibilities available to continue in the multimedia pathway. Students will visit colleges and universities, both private and public, as well as observe professionals in the workplace. Travel will be by chartered bus.

     School: Newark Memorial High School Media Communications Academy Seniors
     Dates: April 2-5, 2022
     Location: Glendale, CA

Field trip 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, all trips in excess of 100 miles, non-curricular trips, and overnight trips require Board approval.

New Math Course: Blended Algebra 2-Math Analysis

Type Action

Preferred Date Mar 17, 2022

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the new secondary math course. Action PURPOSE:

On January 20, 2022, Ed Services presented the rationale for addressing and updating the progression of mathematics courses offered in grades 6-12 in NUSD. The articulated mathematics progression for the secondary level is aligned with the California Department of Education's newly proposed Mathematics Framework, the Common Core State Standards, and includes two blended math courses in order to accelerate students at the high school. This blended Algebra 2-Math Analysis course is the second blended course within NUSD's updated math progressions; the first blended Geometry-Algebra 2 course was approved by the Board of Education last year. Please see the attached math progression flowchart for details.

BACKGROUND:

The State Board of Education last adopted a Mathematics Framework in 2013 in anticipation of the Common Core State Standards. The state now has a new Mathematics Framework that is set to be adopted in July of 2022. Partnerships between the State Board of Education and college and university systems have outlined new guidelines and recommendations for a progression of secondary mathematics courses to specifically support and prepare students in grades 6-12. During these years Newark Unified School District had not updated its articulation of a progression of mathematics courses at the secondary level and is, therefore, not aligned with the state's Mathematics Framework. By adopting both blended math courses at the secondary level, NUSD and Newark Memorial High School will provide students for the first time an opportunity to accelerate in mathematics at the high school level. This updated math progression takes into account state recommendations, provides students expanded course offerings to accelerate, and has been approved through the district Curriculum and Assessment Council. Please note, we are not asking that the board approve new math progressions at this time.

File Attachments Math Analysis Course Proposal.pdf (446 KB) Draft_ Secondary Math Progressions 3.17.22 (2).pdf (59 KB)

Addendum to the Master Contract with Ed Sped Solutions, Inc.

Type Action

Absolute Date Mar 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $893,400.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Resource 6500 - Special Education, Resource 6537 - Learning Recovery Support, and Resource 0000 General Fund

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the Addendum to the Master Action Contract with Ed Sped Solutions Inc.

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

PURPOSE:

To ratify the Addendum to the Master Contract for Ed Sped Solutions, Inc. in the amount of $893,400.

BACKGROUND:

The services provided by Ed Sped Solutions, Inc. are essential services for ensuring compliance requirements are met for students with disabilities, that includes assessment timelines, and related services are provided per the students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Related services and assessments are legally mandated per Individual Disability Education Act (IDEA). Without Ed Sped Solutions, Inc. services, Newark Unified School District would be out of compliance. The contracted positions provide services for unfilled district positions.

    The Master Contract for Ed Sped Solutions, Inc. was approved by the Board of Education on August 18, 2021, in the
    amount of $987,640.
    The total amount for the Ed Sped Solutions, Inc. contract for the 2021-2022 School year including the proposed
    addendum is in the amount of $1,881,040.

File Attachments Ed Sped Contract Master Contract 2021-22 SIGNED.pdf (710 KB) Ed Sped Addendum 3.17.22.pdf (15 KB)

Motion & Voting The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the Addendum to the Master Contract with Ed Sped Solutions Inc.

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

Contract with Cinnamon Hills Youth Crisis Center

Type Action

Absolute Date Mar 17, 2022

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $65,424.52

Budgeted No

Budget Source Resource 6500 - Special Education

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the Master Contract and Individual Action Service Agreement with Cinnamon Hills Youth Crisis Center.

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

PURPOSE:

To ratify the Master Contract and Individual Service Agreement with Cinnamon Hills Youth Crisis Center for residential treatment services for the 2021-2022 school year.

BACKGROUND:

Newark Unified School District requires a highly intensive individualized residential program in order to meet students' unique needs per the consented Individualized Education Program (IEP).

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

"Least restrictive environment" (LRE) means that a student who has a disability should have the opportunity to be educated with non- disabled peers, to the greatest extent appropriate. Students with disabilities should have access to the general education curriculum, extracurricular activities, or any other program that non-disabled peers would be able to access. Students with disabilities should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with non-disabled peers. Should the nature or severity of the student's disability prevent the student from achieving these goals in a regular education setting, the student would then be placed in a more restrictive environment, such as a Resource Program, separate classroom with specialized academic instruction (Special Day Class), or a non-public school or residential treatment center.

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

File Attachments Cinnamon Hills Contract 21-22.pdf (282 KB) ISA Cinnamon Hills_Redacted.pdf (270 KB)

Resolution 2021.22.31 Agreement for Participation in the Alameda County Operational Area Emergency Management Organization

Type Action

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve Resolution 2021.22.31 Action Agreement for Participation in the Alameda County Operational Area Emergency Management Organization. PURPOSE:

To approve Resolution 2021.22.31 Agreement for Participation in the Alameda County Operational Area Emergency Management Organization.

BACKGROUND:

In the early 1990s, the State of California established the standardized emergency management system (SEMS). An important component of SEMS is the Operational Area, which the State recognizes as an intermediate level of the state emergency services organization consisting of a county and all political subdivisions within the county area. The preservation of life, property, and the environment is the responsibility of local, state, and federal governments. In 1995 the County of Alameda first established an Operational Area (Op Area) agreement between the County, in cooperation with the cities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, Union City, special districts, and other public benefit non-profit corporations, to collaboratively participate in the Op Area Emergency Management Organization. This agreement is intended to ensure unified and coordinated efforts between state and local government agencies, and to facilitate the effective and efficient use of regional and local resources, thereby maximizing our ability to prepare for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from, any disaster or catastrophic event.

The Op Area agreement is renewed every ten (10) years and in May 2016 the Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved the current iteration of that agreement. This new agreement will be effective until December 31, 2025. Through the County's Office of Emergency Services (OES), each partner agency is asked to adopt the Op Area agreement. This is generally accomplished by a Board resolution. The last NUSD Resolution No. 1289, which adopted the 1995 Op Area agreement was approved by the Board on January 14, 1997.

The critical events that have confronted the region over the past couple of years have demonstrated the effectiveness of having approved Op Area agreements in place, as it allowed for the more expedient deployment of resources. This included establishing sites for Covid-19 testing and vaccinations, as well as the distribution of emergency food and water, etc. In those instances where an approved Op Area agreement did not pre-exist, these processes were substantially delayed as new agreements had to be drawn up and approved by both parties. These lessons have served to reinforce the importance of pre-event preparedness in minimizing impediments to our ability to effectively and expediently carry out critical functions of emergency management during a disaster or emergency.

File Attachments Resolution 2021.22.31 Adoption of Alameda Co Operational Area.pdf (3,372 KB)

Revised Board Policy Exhibit 7214 - Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee Bylaw (First Reading)

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the revised Board Policy Exhibit Action 7214, Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee Bylaw, as presented. PURPOSE:

This is the first reading of a revised Exhibit 7214, Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee Bylaws, under Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 7214 General Obligation Bonds.

BACKGROUND:

At the Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC) Regular Meeting on March 8, 2022, the committee discussed the need to update item 5.0 A. Meetings language in the Board Bylaw Exhibit 7214. The current language states "The Committee shall meet at least quarterly, in January, April, July, and October each year".

Currently, the CBOC meets in March, June, September, and December. This practice aligns with the timing of the audit report and the annual report and does not have the committee meeting in July when schools are not in session.

The CBOC voted unanimously to change the language to read "The Committee shall meet at least quarterly, in March, June, September, and December each year".

If any revisions are recommended, the document will be brought back to the Board of Education for a second reading.

File Attachments Exhibit_E 7214 General Obligation Bonds (first reading)-CBOC Bylaws.pdf (154 KB)

Resolution 2021.22.33 Notice of Completion for Planting and Irrigation Project Group 1 Schools

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve Resolution 2021.22.33 Notice of Action Completion for Planting and Irrigation Project Group 1 Schools (Birch Grove Primary, Birch Grove Intermediate, Kennedy, Lincoln, and Schilling). PURPOSE:

To approve Resolution 2021.22.33 and authorize the filing of a Notice of Completion (NOC) with the County Recorder of Alameda County for the Planting and Irrigation Project Group 1 Schools by Marina Landscape Inc.

BACKGROUND:

On June 17, 2021, the Board of Trustees awarded a contract to Marina Landscape, Inc. for the Planting and Irrigation Project Group 1 Schools (Birch Grove Primary, Birch Grove Intermediate, Kennedy, Lincoln, and Schilling) in the amount of $535,400.

On October 7, 2021, the Board of Trustees approved Change Order #1 in the amount of $9,799.41 for additional plants at BGP and irrigation changes.

On November 18, 2021, the Board of Trustees approved Change Order #2 in the amount of $5,310.40 for irrigation controllers for a total contract amount and final expenditure of $550,509.81.

All contract items, punch list items, and project closeout items have been satisfied. Accordingly, staff requests acceptance of the project which will allow filing a Notice of Completion with the County and permit the release of retention thirty-five (35) days after approval.

File Attachments Notice of Completion-Planting and Irrigation Birch Grove Primary.pdf (69 KB) Notice of Completion-Planting and Irrigation Birch Grove Intermediate.pdf (70 KB) Notice of Completion-Planting and Irrigation John F Kennedy.pdf (71 KB) Notice of Completion-Planting and Irrigation Lincoln ES.pdf (70 KB) Notice of Completion-Planting and Irrigation August Schilling ES.pdf (69 KB) Resolution 2021.22.33_Notice of Completion for Planting and Irrigation Group 1 Projects.pdf (14 KB)

Warrant Report for February 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 $2,737,222.31, made from District funds for February 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 February 2022.pdf (321 KB)

Minutes of the March 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 March 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 March 3, 2022, Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. The meeting may be viewed on the NUSD YouTube Channel HERE

Minutes of the March 9, 2022 Special Meeting of the Board of Education

Type Action, Minutes

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the minutes of the March 9, Action 2022, Special Meeting of the Board of Education.

PURPOSE:

For the board to review and approve the minutes

BACKGROUND:

The attached minutes are reflective of the March 9, 2022, Special Meeting of the Board of Education. The meeting may be viewed on the NUSD YouTube Channel HERE

16. 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 RepresentativeAlternate

Mission Valley Regional Occupational Center/Program 1. Terrence(ROC/P)Grindall1. Bowen Zhang Executive Board

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

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

Audit Committee 1. Alicia Marquez 1. Terrence2. Aiden HillGrindall

                                                               1. Terrence

Bond/Parcel Tax Committee Grindall2. Phuong 1. Bowen Zhang Nguyen

                                                               1. Phuong
                                                               Nguyen

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

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.

17. 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.

18. 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 11:00 P.M.

Motion by Terrence Grindall, second by Phuong Nguyen.
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 adjourn 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 adjourn this meeting at 10:51 p.m.

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

No minutes available.