Regular Meeting

Introduction

• Date: 2023 (exact date unspecified)
• Location: Newark Unified School District (NUSD) Board Meeting
• Key Themes: School year readiness, staffing and labor negotiations, policy updates, community engagement, and student/staff recognition.

Agenda Items

Closed Session Settlement Approval

• Description:
  • Unanimous approval of a student-related legal settlement (Case 2023 NUSD001) totaling $216,000 over two years.
• Decisions made or actions taken:
  • Motion passed 4-0 (Member Hill absent).

Agenda Adjustments

• Description:
  • Item 13.8 (Interdistrict Attendance Policy) pulled for subcommittee review.
  • Separation of Item 11.1 into two distinct votes (SEAC contract and HR consultant agreement).
• Decisions made or actions taken:
  • Approved revised agenda.

Student Board Member Report

• Description:
  • Joy Lee (Newark Memorial High School junior) highlighted:
    • Campus renovations (paved walkways, repainted lockers).
    • Fall sports updates and wellness initiatives (anti-vaping/fentanyl parent night).
    • Upcoming events: Club Rush, Champions Conference, and Lean Crew picnic.
• Decisions made or actions taken:
  • No formal action taken.

Staff Recognition: Facilities & Maintenance

• Description:
  • Acknowledged custodial, grounds, and maintenance teams for summer work (deep cleaning, repairs, landscaping).
  • Noted challenges due to compressed timelines after summer programs.
• Decisions made or actions taken:
  • No formal action taken.

Employee Organization Updates

• CSEA Chapter 208 (Classified Staff):
  • Highlighted summer efforts (custodial work, clerical support, transportation).
  • Upcoming labor negotiations.
• NTA (Teachers’ Association):
  • Emphasized support for long-term substitutes and collaboration with new HR leadership.
• Decisions made or actions taken:
  • No formal action taken.

New Business: Contracts & Compensation

• SEAC Contract Approval:
  • Description: $1,800 annual contract with School Employers Association of California for HR support.
  • Decisions made or actions taken: Approved 5-0.
• Substitute Teacher Pay Increase:
  • Description: Daily rate raised to $300 (with longevity bonuses) to match neighboring districts.
  • Decisions made or actions taken: Approved 4-0 (student member abstained).
• HR Consultant Contract:
  • Description: Steve Burrell approved as interim HR consultant ($150/hour, not exceeding $200,000).
  • Decisions made or actions taken: Approved 4-0 (student member abstained).

Consent Agenda

• Approved Items: Donations ($10,800 total), personnel appointments, and routine approvals.
• Pulled Item: Policy 13.8 (Interdistrict Attendance) deferred to subcommittee.
• Decisions made or actions taken: Approved 5-0.

Public Comments

• Key Themes:
  • No public comments submitted.

Follow-Up and Commitments

• Wi-Fi Infrastructure: Member Nguyen requested a progress update on high school Wi-Fi upgrades.
• Governance Calendar: Board to develop a structured calendar for reports and policy reviews.
• Interdistrict Attendance Policy: Subcommittee to review and return with recommendations.

Conclusion

• Outcome: Key approvals included substitute pay increases, HR support contracts, and recognition of staff contributions.
• Next Steps: Focus on filling staffing vacancies, advancing equity initiatives, and community engagement (e.g., HOAs, Rotary partnerships).
• Target Audience Takeaways:
  • Parents/Guardians: Awareness of safety programs (anti-vaping/fentanyl night) and campus improvements.
  • Staff: Substitute pay raises and ongoing support for classified/certificated employees.
  • Students: New clubs, sports, and wellness resources highlighted.
  • Community: Transparency in budget/policy decisions and opportunities to engage via donations/volunteering.

1.2 Roll Call

[330] Nancy Thomas: Roll call, please.

[343] Jennifer Sachs: Student Board Member Joy Lee. Here. Member Nguyen. Here. Member Plancarte. Here. Member Jones. Here. Member Hill is absent. Member Thomas. Here.

1.3 Public Comment on Closed Session Items

3.1 Report of Closed Session Actions

[360] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Is there any public comment on any closed session item? There's no public comment. Seeing none, we will be recessing to closed session where we will discuss public employment, dismissal, discipline, and release, conference with labor negotiators, employee organizations, NTA, and CSEA, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, Case number 23CV034303, Byrd v. NUSD, and case 22CV020039, Clinton v. NUSD, and conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have just returned from closed session where the board unanimously approved a settlement for the student case number 2023 NUSD001 for a total of $108,000 per year for two years for a total of $216,000. The motion was made by Member Thomas, seconded by Member Nguyen, and it was four to zero. being absent. Please join me in the pledge.

4.1 Pledge of Allegiance

[4980] 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.

5. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

5.1 Approval of the Agenda

[5000] Nancy Thomas: Next on the agenda is approval of the agenda. And I understand Member Jones wants to pull an item.

[5012] Kat Jones: Yes. I would like to pull 13.8. It is a board policy regarding interdistrict attendance. And we'd like to pull that so that the subcommittee has an opportunity to discuss it further and meet with staff. before bringing it to a vote.

[5032] Nancy Thomas: Thank you.

[5033] Penny DeLeon: I apologize. President Thomas and members of the board, it was brought to my attention that there may be a desire on behalf of the board to separate out item 11.1

[5059] Penny DeLeon: which is the SEAC agreement and consultant contract for Mr. Burrell. They were put together because you have to have one to have the other, but it was brought to my attention that maybe we should both vote separately. So we added a placeholder under 11.3, if that is what you would prefer to do, in which case I have a separate board item that I would pass out and distribute by paper, if that is what the board, the will of the board is.

[5089] Nancy Thomas: I have no problem with that. I think it makes sense to separate them out. They're two different issues. Do we have a general consensus that that's OK? Yes, I'm fine.

[5102] Penny DeLeon: Yes, I'm OK. You would like to keep them or OK to separate out? You want to separate them. Okay, wonderful. Then what I'm going to do at this time for the public is so that this is open, I will distribute those so that you have them in front of you when we get to the placeholder, if you don't mind. Okay? The job description for executive director is also attached.

[5170] Nancy Thomas: Thank you, Dr. DeLeon. 13.8.

[5200] Nancy Thomas: I would entertain a motion to add 11.3 separating out the former 11.1 to 2 and to pull 13.8 for the next meeting. I'll second it. Please vote.

[5233] Penny DeLeon: This is just approval of the agenda, right?

[5254] Phuong Nguyen: Roll call vote for the student board member. Oh, she's not on board docs tonight. Sorry.

[5264] Jennifer Sachs: Mm-hmm. Student board member Lee, what's your vote?

[5273] Joy Lee: Yes. Five aye.

[5277] Penny DeLeon: Thank you. Board members, now that we have approved the agenda, may I ask a question for clarity for moving forward? The agenda number, item number 3.8, the new policy, is it the will of the board to have new policies also go through the subcommittee? As our understanding, it was for the batch of all the old ones that we have like 5,000 old ones to do. Is it also the will of the board that the board policy subgroup review new policies as they come up that have never been done before?

[5316] Nancy Thomas: My understanding is that the board subcommittee would be involved when the policy is so old that the new policy does not come with a CSBA-generated red line. So these are the ones that wouldn't come with a red line. And because many of these policies are pretty dense, it's hard to, without a red line, it's hard to know what has changed from the original policy, but with a subcommittee, doing a deep dive into them because we have the time and we're willing to do it. Until we get all of these caught up so that we don't have these older policies coming forward, we would just use the subcommittee until we're caught up with getting all of the policies in new gamut that have been approved in new gamut before.

[5377] Penny DeLeon: I think my question for clarity was as new policies, because often after legislation is passed or whatever, a new policy will come up, and we just bring that new policy. Does the subgroup also want to see that, I guess is my question.

[5394] Nancy Thomas: Do you mean if it's a new policy that we haven't had before? Right. I don't think we have to be involved in that. No. It's just when- Only the older ones. It's just when a red line would be very time consuming for staff to do. And if the policy already has a CSBA-generated red line, that would not have to come to the board. Gotcha. And I think all of these could be on consent. We don't have to have them on.

[5425] Penny DeLeon: Great. Thank you so much. I just wanted to. Member Nguyen, did you also have something?

[5429] Phuong Nguyen: No. I just wanted to also echo what President Thomas has stated, is that my understanding, excuse me, of the subcommittee was that the subcommittee was reviewing all the old, old policies, but any new policies, I think it's okay to come to the board, all of us, like it is tonight for review, and then, because it is just a first reading, and we can pull it, and if there's something there we don't like, then we can see it back as a second reading, but I would like to see new policies come to the full board first before going to the subcommittee if needed for review.

[5469] Nancy Thomas: I was thinking a new policy would be one that we hadn't had before. In the case of the 13.789 or whatever, the old policy is still active until we approve the revised.

[5487] Penny DeLeon: Yes. My clarity was around in case when we have brand new policies, if this committee is for that, but apparently not. So that answered my question. OK, thank you.

[5500] Phuong Nguyen: Yeah, I was just answering to the new policy issue. OK, thank you.

[5506] Nancy Thomas: OK, thank you. Thank you. Yay, we got it. OK, next we have staff. No, we have our student report from Newark Memorial High School.

[5523] Oh, boy.

[5524] Nancy Thomas: Ms. Lee.

6.1 Student Report from Newark Memorial High School

[5528] Joy Lee: Hello, everybody. Good evening, board, executive cabinet, and community. My name is Joy Lee, and I'm honored and excited to represent Newark Unified students as the new student board representative. I'm currently a junior at Newark Memorial High School and president of the Environmental Club, outreach coordinator for the Interact Club, and I'm on our girls' tennis team. I entered the Newark Unified School District my fourth grade year, and through the past years, Newark has shown me how strong a community can be. I'm proud to be a product of our tight-knit community and I'm grateful to be here tonight to give my very first school report. Thank you. So last Wednesday was our first day back for students and it was filled with icebreakers and learning about pride in our new classes. Pride is the acronym at our schools which stand for the student expectations on campus. Participation, respect, integrity, drive, and excellence. I just wanted to take a moment and thank all the new staff who joined our Newark family. Although we students do not express it often, we are thankful for you guys and the difference that you make in our schools and lives. I would like to shout out and give a big thank you to Superintendent DeLeon who pushed for renovation on Newark Memorial High School's campus and also want to thank our maintenance staff who worked hard to get our school ready for this new school year. Students have given feedback that it is uplifting to come back seeing improvements on our campus with the even pavement, newly painted lockers, and our water filling stations. To get the school spirit fired up, Newark Memorial High School kicked off with their annual Black Light Welcome Back Assembly on Friday. It began with many laughs from the class competition of bubble soccer, where juniors secured the win, and concluded with their Black Light performances by our club's K-pop, cheer, South Asian student union, and creators. Shout out to student Rami Hayani for organizing this assembly, and thank you to our superintendent and Ms. Sachs for attending. We hope you had a marvelous time. The week before, Newark Memorial High School had a link through orientation for incoming ninth graders transitioning from our Newark Middle School to our Newark Memorial High School. We hope our volunteering seniors and juniors were able to be of help for our new incoming ninth graders. Students can agree that our athletics department is a big part of our Newark Memorial High School and on August 2nd, fall sports orientation was hosted where expectations for our future student-athletes was shared and families were able to meet the coaches for each sport. Fall sports registration has closed. However, look out for our winter sports registration during October, which will include soccer, basketball, and wrestling. Fall sports games has also started. Families, if you're listening, come to root on our teams. To find more dates and times, go to our Instagram, Newark Memorial NMHS Athletics. Okay. So now I will announce upcoming events to look out for in the month of August. So if you would like to take note of it, now is the time. On August 18th, Newark Memorial High School will be having our Lean Crew picnic during lunch in the quad for the freshmen to reconnect with their upperclassmen and Lean Crew leaders. Athletics will be hosting our very first Champions Conference on August 19th from 4 to 7 p.m. This is for all Newark Memorial High School student-athletes, the conference will include Cougar athletic-themed breakout sessions, giveaways, and end with a barbecue. For more information, it can be found on, once again, our Instagram page, nmhsathletics, which if you are not connected to yet, please follow. On August 25th at lunch is our annual club rush. All of our clubs will set up informational booths and host giveaways and performances to encourage students to join clubs. We highly recommend that students please join all the clubs on campus. And this is for our middle school, middle and high school parents on August 30th. A information night on the dangers of vaping and fentanyl will be hosted in the theater at Newark Memorial High School. We highly encourage parents to attend to learn more about vaping and fentanyl and gain access to resources to help support our kids and keep them safe. Notable speakers are Program Coordinator Jeanette Torres-Solis from Aiden Youth and Family Center Substance Use, Outreach Worker Nather Suberman from the Alameda County Tobacco Control Community Health, and lastly, Kathy Miranda, Fentanyl Awareness Educator, Advocate, and Founder of Garrett's Voice. If you are interested, more information will be available on our new ParentScore app. We hope you encourage your kids to attend these events and mark your calendars. That is all for the very first school report. Thank you for listening.

[5842] Nancy Thomas: Joy, welcome again. Welcome again to the board. And being a junior, you may be here two years.

[5849] Joy Lee: That would be nice. I'm excited to be here. Thank you.

[5852] Nancy Thomas: Thank you.

[5854] Penny DeLeon: Can I just say one quick word? Sure. Joy, I am so incredibly proud of you. That was an amazing first report. Well written, articulate. and intelligent. Thank you so much. It was great. And by the way, I want to personally thank Joy, because when we were there for the blacklight assembly, she helped us to our seats. She made us comfortable. She talked to us. She showed us where to go. It was incredible. Did you have fun, Ms. Sachs? Yeah, she made us feel cool. She was awesome. So thank you. Definitely the right selection for our board rep. So thank you.

[5889] Joy Lee: There will be more assembly, so other board members, if you guys would like to come, please come. Thank you. Yes.

[5898] Nancy Thomas: Joy, would you like to introduce your family that's here?

[5903] Joy Lee: Yes. Oh, yeah. My mom and my dad are here over there. My dad's name is Jonathan, and my mom's name is Hesed. Yeah. Thank you to mom and dad.

[5922] Nancy Thomas: Great, thank you. So next, student spotlight, Superintendent DeLeon.

7.1 Staff Spotlight

[5930] Penny DeLeon: Yes, so our staff spotlight tonight. As you know from our last board meeting, our facilities maintenance team did a lot of really great work, and we had a big presentation on it. But I found out after the fact that some folks didn't know about the recognition and wanted to be here. So we invited them back tonight. And so if our wonderful facilities maintenance folks, anybody from the department would come up. Yes, come on. Is anybody here? Come on, there they are. Come on up. Yay. I know that their work hours are early, early in the morning, but we did want to make sure we reached out and gave people an opportunity once we informed them, so yeah.

[5980] Susan Condon: We did have one custodian come, but he thought it was going to be earlier, so he went back to work. Oh, OK. So thank you, V.

[5989] Penny DeLeon: But please do pass along our deepest gratitude for all of their hard work. And we're sorry that these meetings are so late at night, and it just doesn't jive with those early schedules. But we do appreciate them and thank them for all of their hard work. And as you heard from board member Lee, it made a huge difference for our students. Thank you.

[6012] Nancy Thomas: I have to tell you that when we went on the first day of school and visited the schools, I was blown away by how good they all looked. And I remember in the days leading up to the opening of the school, I went by Kennedy School and I gave a shout out to the guy that was cleaning that up and the same thing at

[6041] Susan Condon: McGregor site. Oh yes, McGregor site.

[6045] Susan Condon: Same crew.

[6047] Nancy Thomas: Thank you for the recognition. Yeah, the job they've done and your team has done to get ready for school is great and amazing. Thank you.

[6062] Penny DeLeon: Could I add one more thing, President Thomas? I'm sorry, but I do want to also recognize the fact that Our schools, several of our schools hosted Think Together all summer. And so there were classes in there. And there was a real time crush right after Think Together closed to try to then go and deep clean all of those classrooms that they housed during the summer. And I know that I put a lot of pressure on everybody to have those schools looking fabulous and to keep them fabulous. And we were afraid that maybe it wouldn't happen because they were really crunched for time with those schools, and they did it. So I just have to add that they came through when we needed them. So thank you.

[6114] Nancy Thomas: Next, we move to employee organizations. I see we have someone here.

[6121] Penny DeLeon: They're both here. Yay.

[6126] Nancy Thomas: Welcome.

8.1 Employee Organizations

[6127] Maria Huffer: Welcome, Ms. Huffer. Hello, everybody. Good evening. Hi. I have to write everything down because you guys know I don't do this very well. I wanted to say good morning, board members, Superintendent DeLeon, executive cabinet, community members here and watching from home. and our members of CSEA Chapter 208. Welcome back to all of you that were off for the summer and for those that had to work. I hope you were able to get some days off to relax. CSEA had its 97th annual conference at the end of July with over 1900 delegates statewide. CSEA Newark Chapter 8 elected and sent Sarah Kieser and Toya Lemus as our delegates this year. Members conducted business, voted on resolutions, and voted in the new slate of board of directors for the next four years. CSEA's negotiations team is looking forward to continuing negotiations to wrap up unfinished business and to begin bargaining our contract re-opener. And then, on behalf of the executive board, we would like to personally thank all our classified staff for all they do every day. Without them, the school could not function, especially this summer, with school ending in May, and it should have been in June, that was my mistype, and summer school starting right up. This did not give our members much time to get things done, but with hard work and a dedicated team, they were able to complete assignments before the first day of school. Custodians were able to get all facilities cleaned, floors waxed, completed minor repairs for the safety of our students and staff. Our grounds team was able to get all the landscaping completed and looking great for the first day of school. Our paraeducators, librarians, aides, kitchen staff jumpstarted their first day with training and helping getting their classrooms set up and kitchens together. Clerical staff hit the floor running with getting calendars arranged, parent portal questions answered, and sending out all necessary important information to the new parents and existing parents for their students to have a great start to their new school year. And lastly, our maintenance operations and transportation staff. Without them, our sites would not have working lights, air conditioning, plumbing, key badges, locks reprogrammed, locks reprogram, carpentry work, alarms functioning properly, furniture moved from multiple rooms and multiple sites in time for school to start. So I know that I am missing so much more and forgive me, classified staff, if I forgot anybody or forgot what you guys all did, but I wanted to acknowledge their hard work is not unnoticed and greatly appreciated. With that said, to all our classified staff, CSA's executive board, and I thank you. And then I want to wish the staff and students an excellent 2023-2024 school year. So I think that's it.

[6330] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Huffer.

[6336] Cheri Villa: Hello. Good evening, superintendent, board members, and the rest of our Newark community. My name is Cheri Villa. I'm president of our NTA. First, I'd like to welcome Mr. Burrell to our interim HR. I've had a chance to have a few meetings with him, and looking forward to doing the work. So thank you. Thank you for being here, and I'm looking forward to it. Okay first things first like to thank or welcome back kickoff. Thank you to food services for providing the food for us and the lunch. That's awesome. You know teachers are very a lot of compliments. So thank you to food services. Superintendent. Breath of fresh night you know positive. I mean just a new direction. So thank you for what you're already bringing and continue to bring. All right, on another note, let's see, appreciation to our returning NTA members. We have anywhere from two years all the way up to 30 years plus coming back. So, you know, people keep showing up and it's very inspiring. Okay, now, and finally, our own board policy 4112.2 talks about providing assistance and support to teachers that hold a preliminary credential, and we do. Induction, absolutely. to keep in mind our long-term subs in our district. They also need the support and the Support from teachers, you know, in lesson planning to classroom management. I mean, we have some people coming, you know, with no background in subject matter, and we're, you know, putting them in classroom and ready to go. You know, that's, it's going to be, it's going to be difficult. So keeping those, making sure that we support our long-term subs. But other than that, we're looking forward to a positive year. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms.

[6462] Nancy Thomas: Villa. Thank you, Ms. Villa.

[6466] Penny DeLeon: Could I add something really quick, President Thomas? I'm just so excited about all this. So I do want to piggyback on what Ms. Villa just said. And also later, I'll be piggybacking on what Ms. Huffer said as well. But I do want to piggyback on how helpful our veteran teachers are to our new teachers and to our substitutes. We have a few vacancies in this district and some long-term substitutes in our classrooms. And you know, I am committed to making sure they all get support. I know that our teachers, our wonderful veteran teachers are there to help. I can tell you that my daughter, who is a long-term sub, has gotten fabulous help. Tonight, Ms. Villa, who's at her school, said, have her come to Room 2. But it's just been that spirit of collaboration and everybody pulling together. And I really appreciate that this district for that spirit of collaboration. Our teachers have really helped each other. Our classified staff really help each other. We all help each other and so I want us to keep that going and I want to thank both of you for setting the example and for both of our, all of our partners, all of our wonderful employees for setting that example. Thank you.

9.1 Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

9.2 Public Comment on Agenda Items

[6543] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Next we move on to public comment. Do we have anyone that is put in a card for public comment?

[6552] Jennifer Sachs: No.

[6553] Nancy Thomas: On neither agenda items or non-agenda items? No public comments on either. Okay. Seeing none, we move on to superintendent report.

10.1 Superintendent Report

[6565] Penny DeLeon: Tonight I just wanted to talk a little bit about how we started off school and how it went. And so if we'll go to the first slide, our pre-service, in-service, before our teachers and classified staff come back, we have a lot of trainings. And so I have asked our Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Dr. Nicole Pierce-Davis, to please talk to us a little bit about that.

[6592] Nicole Pierce-Davis: Absolutely. So it actually started even before this with our office managers coming back on July 24th and then our office clerks coming back on July 31st. We then had our NEWMA retreat on August 2nd where we brought back all of our managers. We followed up with a day two for NEWMA with principals and reviewed district policies, what our kickoff would look like and I know you are all at the kickoff which we really appreciate your attendance many of you guys. also came to our new teacher orientation on August 4th, where we give a chance for our new teachers to understand who's who in the district office, let them know that they have support here, have them get to know each other a little bit, because they often are each other's best resource, and just generally welcome new teachers with open arms so that they know they have a district that will support them when the time will come, because the time will come. And then again, as you all know, the kickoff was a great success, and I'm sure you're going to talk about that next.

[6653] Penny DeLeon: We have a slide for that, actually. And I apologize for leaving off the office clerk one. I should have had that because, by the way, Ms. Sacks did an amazing PD on Parent Square that day for office clerks. It was a great day. Or office managers, it was a fabulous day. They really did a great job. District kickoff. So our district kickoff was August 7th at the old gym at Newark Memorial. We decided that we just need to celebrate people being back. So we had our amazing cougar band in cheer, welcoming all of our employees as they came back. As said previously, our educators provided breakfast and lunch for all of our employees. And it was delicious. We had 309 employees attend, which is nearly 67%. I do understand, though, that many of our employees are 10-month, and they don't return till after that. But then also, we had people back at the sites doing landscaping. Our custodians were still cleaning and prepping with school just two days away. And our food services people were also cooking that day. And so there were several people who couldn't come. But we were really thrilled with the attendance that day. And then I just wanted to briefly give a shout out to some of the schools who won. We had a spirit challenge. We did. I'm that gal. I'm a cheerleader at heart. So we had best spirit gear was Coyote Hills with their fluorescent gear. It was awesome. We had the loudest school, which they had these horns. that were so loud, so loud. Kennedy, Kennedy, Ms. Obedosier geared them up with their horns. Best overall school spirit went to the BGs. Ooh, they had a lot of people in attendance as well. Best department spirit went to special education. They had matching shirts. They were loud as can be. It was awesome. And then we just today announced, we did the calculations, and the best attendance was Coyote Hills by about 10% above everybody else, with 80% attendance at the kickoff. So we were really proud of that. And it was just, to me, all I wanted was short, fun, and let's review our goals, and let's get excited for the school year, and let's work as a team. And one more time, if I haven't said this enough, I'm gonna say it again, and again, and again, and again. We all do this together. Nobody's more important than anybody. Everybody contributes. Everybody gives it their all. And when that happens, students achieve. Period. And that's how we roll in NUSD. So anyway, it was a good day. And I want to thank our board for being there. And it was hot. Oh, my lord, it was hot. But it was good. It was good. Next slide. First day of school. was August 9th, our board members and I and cabinet and Ms. Sacks, we all walked around just so we could see. And here's what we noticed. Our schools were organized. As Ms. Huffer mentioned, people had been working all summer to get it together. Many, many staff had been working together and it was organized. Our parents were there. They were welcomed onto our campus. Everybody was outside helping children, helping parents. Our campuses were sparkling. They didn't get that way with the snap of a finger. That was hard work of all of our custodians and our facilities folks. Our classes were full to the brim with students. I felt an energy in our schools where people are ready to get to work and make us the best and our students deserve it and we are committed to that. And it was just such, I'm not gonna list every single person who contributed because when you do that you forget somebody and I'm just, I do, I almost always will forget one person or something and then I feel awful. But what I'm gonna say is everybody contributed, our teachers are classified, our administrators are awesome principals, everybody, our board, everybody, and our parents were a huge part. And it was just an amazing first day, and it's going to be a great school year. Oh, and there was one more thing, too. I'm sorry. I have to mention this. I asked Mr. Burrell if he would talk a little bit about one thing that was hard was trying to get staffed for the school year because we had a lot of vacancies this year. We had over 30 filled, but we still had some because some people left to go to other districts like a week before school started. And so we still have some vacancies out there, but I'd love it if Mr. Burrell would talk to us about what they're doing and the work that they've done.

[6970] Steve Burrell: I'm good to go. Great. Thank you for having me, board members and community and organizations. The human resources team has been working closely with each of the school sites. We have a comprehensive list of areas of need in regards to vacancies. We are analyzing what's in the pipeline, which substitutes can be long term for a certain amount of time while we fill. But in working with Dr. DeLeon, our team has made it a priority to make hiring our top priority to start the year. I had a great day coming on the first day of school. So in hopes of getting that again to be the number one priority, I got a chance to go and visit a couple more schools today just to spend a little more time, meet office staff. And also I got to hear the plugs of we really need various support. So we will be on it and continue to work to fill those spots.

[7033] Penny DeLeon: Thank you. And so what he's talking about is our real priority to get subs in place, get teachers in place. So there are a couple agenda items on there tonight that will maybe help us do that. So we're really, really doing everything we can. So thank you, Mr. Burrell. And lastly, I would love it if Ms. Sachs would talk about Paris Square. She did, let me just tell you, she was at Lincoln today training teachers. And they asked a lot of questions. I was a little afraid. And she just handled it like a pro. I was like, darn, she's good. So go ahead. Tell us.

[7075] Jennifer Sachs: All right, well, we've rolled out ParentSquare, so everyone should now be able to access their ParentSquare. And what it is is really two-way communication between parents, the teacher, the principal, just their school site in general. It's a great way. to get that communication out there because, as we learned previously, there was, what, 33 different languages spoken across Newark, I think was what the library determined, and Parent Square will translate back and forth and into whatever, it translates into over 100 languages, and so we're able to reach everyone in our community, and it kind of breaks down that communication barrier between our teachers and our families. So what it does is it pulls, it speaks to ParentVUE, it pulls their information from ParentVUE and StudentVUE. It's in a phone app, which is super great. It's really easy to access. You can just download the app onto your phone. You can access it by website. If you choose to do neither of those, you will still get our emails of important information when it goes out. Parents will also have the ability to fill out and submit forms as well. We're still in the process of rolling some of that out, and if everybody saw yesterday, Dr. DeLeon submitted her first community newsletter, and it was fully the entire thing. I think everything except for the top header could translate. because we did it through Parents Square. So that was a big success.

[7178] Penny DeLeon: Thank you, Ms. Sachs. And I would be absolutely remiss if I did not mention the hard work of our business services department, who, I mean, everybody got paid. Everybody had their supplies delivered. It was amazing. And Ms. Dela Cruz, I would love it if you would talk a little bit about payroll and how many they had to run and how much ordering they did. Could you just tell us

[7203] Marie dela Cruz: Yeah, so in July, we had four payrolls processed because we had to do retros and the new salary schedules and then the regular payroll. And all of the bargaining units and employee groups got paid. And all of the calculations that needed to be done, some of them are really complicated. So thanks to our business services staff for getting that done. All of the POs that have been processed, there's a lot of renewals that occur on July 1, and all of the orders that needed to be received and checked in and delivered. So everybody was really busy trying to get the schools prepared for the first day of school. Oh my gosh.

[7249] Penny DeLeon: I think that, thank you so much, Ms.dela Cruz. We do appreciate it. I think that is all, President Thomas.

[7256] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Dr. DeLeon. So next, we move on to new business. And I will ask the superintendent to introduce 11.1, which is the contract with the School Employers Association of California.

11.1 School Employers Association of California (SEAC) Joint Powers Agreement and Consultant Contract for Personnel Services

[7271] Penny DeLeon: Yes, thank you so much. Let me go ahead and click on it real quick so I have it in front of me. Yes, thank you, President Thomas, members of the board. This is a contract with the School Employers Association of California. And this is an organization that provides assistance in human resources and support. They give us updates on new legislation, new bills, new law regarding HR. They offer consulting services. There are many, many things that they do. They have a newsletter. Almost every district I've ever been in, we belong to SEAC because they're a very valuable organization. SEAC is the organization that actually Mr. Burrell works for and is providing him as a consultant. So I wanted to bring the contract for them. If you look at the actual contract, a district our size would be about $1,800 for our annual service. And so I am asking the board to please approve this wonderful organization to work with our district.

[7350] Nancy Thomas: Any comments from board members? If not, I would appreciate a motion.

[7358] Kat Jones: I'll make a motion to accept this.

[7360] Nancy Thomas: A second. Member Jones makes a motion to accept the contract. Ms. Nguyen seconds it. Please, oh, student member Lee? Yes. Please vote. If you're wondering why it takes time, we have to set up the voting for each issue, but it's a good process because it automatically works with the setting up of the minutes, correct? If we can interrupt the agenda and go back to employee organizations, Ms. Huffer would like to speak.

[7428] Penny DeLeon: Did we vote already? Did we capture the vote for the last one?

[7433] Jennifer Sachs: Yes, I captured the vote. It's 5 aye. 5 aye.

[7435] Nancy Thomas: OK, there you go. I totally appreciate this.

[7438] Maria Huffer: Welcome back. Thank you. So soon, right? I knew I was going to forget somebody. And I do have to acknowledge these three people. It's IMC department, total of three people. But without them, these students and teachers would not have their curriculum. to get the ball going the first day of school. And I want to make sure, and like I said, I was going to forget somebody, and of course. Always, always. But I want to make sure I acknowledge them tonight so that they are aware that I thank you so much. And thanks for doing everything you do. And hopefully, we continue to have a great year. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to come back up.

[7481] Nancy Thomas: I have to say, I know at the beginning of the year, they have a big job. But what I love about the IMC is all of the science and steam and equipment they get out to our schools throughout the year. They do such a fantastic job.

[7497] Maria Huffer: Yeah, we don't, for us that sit behind the screen, we don't realize how much work it takes to get all that information logged in into the system and get it all out to them. And they were able to do that. So I wanted to make sure that I was allowed to come back up and acknowledge them. And I appreciate you guys letting me do that. Thank them for us. I will. Thank you.

[7521] Penny DeLeon: Oh, and in the spirit of not forgetting, Ms. Daly-Cruz?

[7526] Marie dela Cruz: You started it, Maria. So yes, after I finished and I quickly remembered our fabulous graphic arts department. I can't forget how much work they do from the get-go getting all of the materials printed for all of our schools. So thank you, Graphic Arts.

[7549] Nancy Thomas: OK. OK, thank you. Next, we move on to 11.2, superintendent, increased daily rate for substitute teachers.

11.2 Increase Daily Rate for Substitute Teachers

[7558] Penny DeLeon: OK, Mr. Burrell, would you like to handle that one?

[7561] Steve Burrell: Sure. In working in conjunction with Dr. DeLeon, we talked about making sure that we remain competitive with our neighboring districts in regards to substitute salaries, our daily rates. So I had my team do an analysis of our neighboring districts, including Fremont, New Haven, Milpitas, Hayward, and taking a look and analyzing where we sat. slightly below all of those other districts. And so we decided to raise it to slightly above the other districts. But with that, money alone doesn't bring people. It really is building a community within the schools, making sure that our substitute and guest teachers feel welcomed at the school sites. And so we also have a very untapped group within our own families. The basic skills of having the CBEST test being put on pause for a year until the end of 2024, having a bachelor's degree along with obtaining your third day sub-permit is enough to become a substitute along with the training that goes along from the district level. So my department with, In hopes of the passing of this, we will be looking at also making a push out to recruit new substitutes into our district as well. This honors our subs that we have. We also built in, if you saw, a longevity where for our regular subs who come often enough, and we had marked at 15 days per month, that would be a $300 longevity bonus added on during that month. Other districts, you had to wait till the end of the year, 60 or 75 days and just we want it to be immediate and have that feel right there. So with that I propose that we move forward with this new sub rate for our district substitutes.

[7682] Nancy Thomas: Ms.

[7682] Phuong Nguyen: Nguyen. Thank you for bringing this proposal tonight. I think this is definitely overdue and I love the fact that there's a Newark USD longevity bonus built into that. I think that's really smart. And we really do need to make these kinds of efforts in order to be able to get substitutes in to be able to help backfill our teachers. And I really appreciate that. So thank you.

[7720] Nancy Thomas: Thank you.

[7723] Nancy Thomas: Would any of you like to make a motion?

[7725] Carina Plancarte: I'll make a motion to approve this item.

[7728] Nancy Thomas: I'd be happy to second that. Ms. Plancarte moves and Ms. Jones second the approving the increased daily rate for substitute teachers. I believe this is a personnel item, so the student board member does not vote on personnel items. So please vote. Four ayes. OK, four ayes. Thank you. Next, we have 11.3, which is a placeholder, which has been pulled out. And Superintendent, do you want to talk about this?

11.3 Consultant Contract for Interim Executive Director of Human Resources, Stephen Burrell

[7770] Penny DeLeon: Yes. This is the consultant contract for our hopefully soon to be interim Executive Director of Human Resources, Stephen Burrell. This is a contract of do not, to not exceed $200,000 at a rate of $150 per hour. So with the thought that it would be flexible, leave us enough flexibility for him to be able to work as many, hopefully many days until we have somebody in place because we really want to be able to take our time to find an outstanding HR leader and then also understanding that there he has all the other consultant jobs as well and there are days where he'll be there for four hours or six hours or eight hours or and then that helps us to spread the time even further and so it is my sincere hope that this board will approve the contract for Mr. Steve Burrell.

[7832] Phuong Nguyen: I'll make a motion to approve the contract.

[7834] Nancy Thomas: Ms. Nguyen makes a motion to approve this contract with Mr. Burrell. I'll second. Ms. Jones seconds it. Student member does not vote. Please vote.

[7845] Jennifer Sachs: 4 aye.

[7860] Nancy Thomas: Four ayes, thank you.

[7863] Steve Burrell: Can I just say thank you and I really look forward to providing as much expertise to the district as possible. It's been really a wonderful first week. I enjoyed the first day of school. You've done wonderful. You have an amazing cabinet, but you did a great selecting a new superintendent. We clicked right from our first phone call. I think we have a lot of the same energy and hope to bring that positivity throughout. of health bridge to the person that will be here long term. So, thank you.

[7896] Nancy Thomas: We are so pleased to have you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we move on to the consent agenda. We have 13.2 through 13.9 with the exception of 13.8.

[7919] Kat Jones: Personnel items.

[7923] Nancy Thomas: Oh, I'm sorry. Personnel items.

12.2 Personnel Report (Approved on Consent)

12.3 Memorandum of Understanding between NTA and NUSD: Signing Bonus for Special Education Teaching Positions (Approved on Consent)

[7933] Phuong Nguyen: I move to approve items 12.2 and items 12.3, but student board member does have a comment that she would like to make on item 12.3.

[7942] Joy Lee: Yeah, I just wanted to make a comment. Last year, I helped out at our Cougar Olympics and was able to meet our special education department and met many of the teachers working there. And they're just so marvelous at what they do. And I hope to see support to find more special education teachers with that same dedication and love for the students as them, because the program that we have on this campus is just so special.

[7972] Nancy Thomas: Well, thank you very much for that acknowledgement.

[7976] Penny DeLeon: Yay.

[7981] Nancy Thomas: So do we take these both at the same time?

[7985] Kat Jones: Yes. I'll make a motion to second Member Nguyen's motion for accepting 12.2 and 12.3. Thank you.

[7997] Nancy Thomas: We have Member Nguyen making the motion, Member Jones seconding to approve the consent for personnel items. Please vote. Four ayes. Thank you. And sorry I jumped the gun on the non-personnel items, but we'll move on to that next.

[8026] Penny DeLeon: Can I quickly just thank our bargaining team? I do want to thank our wonderful NTA and NUSD bargaining teams who negotiated the bonus for our special education, negotiated the MOU for our special education bonus so we can get some great teachers in place.

[8043] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. We have previously pulled 13.8 on the consent agenda, but I would I would like to have a motion for the remainder of those items.

13.2 Contract with Ed Theory for Special Education Teacher (Approved on Consent)

13.3 Categorical Programs Application for Funding 2023-24 (Approved on Consent)

13.4 REPORT: Donations Report (Approved on Consent)

13.5 REPORT: Warrant Report for July 2023 (Approved on Consent)

13.6 MINUTES: Minutes of the August 1, 2023 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education (Approved on Consent)

13.7 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 5145.6 and Administrative Regulation 5145.6 - Parent/Guardian Notifications (Approved on Consent)

13.9 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 6174 and Administrative Regulation 6174 - Education For English Learners (Approved on Consent)

[8064] Carina Plancarte: I'll make a motion to approve all minus 13.8.

[8071] Nancy Thomas: I'll make a motion to second. Ms. Plancarte moves the consent agenda minus 13.8. And member Jones seconds that. Please vote. Oh, Member Lee, your vote. Yes.

[8100] Joy Lee: Yes.

[8100] Nancy Thomas: 5 aye. Thank you, Member Nguyen, for keeping me on track here.

[8110] Penny DeLeon: Would you like me to read the donation report?

[8113] Nancy Thomas: Yes. That would be nice.

[8114] Penny DeLeon: We are so thrilled that part of the consent agenda, we approved several donations to our district. So I want to give some shout outs. Woo, break it down. Here we go. We got a donation from Jason Serraulo for $50 for Newark Middle School, specifically. was our teacher donation account. Gotta give our teacher some love. All right, we got $4,000 for Kennedy Elementary from the Kennedy School PTA. Thank you, PTA. And the purpose is the science camp bus. Woo, nice. We got $3,250 for Newark Middle School from Box Tops for Education, and this goes into the principal's donation, probably so she can give out treats and gifts and stuff. Okay, we got $1,500 for Newark Memorial High School from the Newark Rotary Foundation and the specific purpose Rocketry Club. Break it down with Rotary. Okay. And then last but by no means least, $2,000 for Newark Memorial High School. Again, wow, Rotary. The Newark Rotary Foundation for Athletics. Love it. Thank you so much to all of our wonderful donors.

[8201] Phuong Nguyen: Yes, Member Nguyen. I just wanted to give a shout out to President Thomas. She is responsible and you are the you lead the Newark Rotary Foundation in accepting fundraising and distributing and reviewing all of the applications that come in and then we vote as a club to make that happen. So President Thomas does a lot with the Rotary and I just wanted to acknowledge her and say thank you. Thank you.

[8238] Nancy Thomas: I'd also like to say that we In addition to grants like we just made, we have donated $5,000 to the Newark Educational Foundation for, get this, for their next project is to work with, can I let the Kat out of the bag? Remember when? I don't know that you were there today, but a little birdie told me that they are putting together a, call for proposals for supporting teachers and projects at the middle school.

[8282] Phuong Nguyen: Yes, so with that I also wanted to add something. I know that the Newark Educational Foundation is being revamped and they're doing a lot more marketing and that's also in part thank you to Miss Jennifer Cirillo and I think If members in the community, if you want to volunteer or please come join these organizations, especially the Rotary. I'm pitching the Rotary now too. We do a lot of fundraising for the community and it does go back, as you can see, to our teachers, our students, and our community. So I would really, if you guys are watching, please come and join these wonderful organizations that help out our community. Thank you.

14.1 Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief and Discussion

[8328] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. Member Nguyen. Yay. We appreciate that. All right. Well, this is really going to be a record evening. It's 8.15, and we are at Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief, and Discussion. And Joy, I don't know if you remember this, but we usually start off with you to see if you have any announcements or requests.

[8360] Joy Lee: No, not today. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

[8363] Nancy Thomas: Member Nguyen?

[8366] Phuong Nguyen: Yes. First and foremost, I just wanted to thank Dr. DeLeon and all the executive staff, everyone here at the district for, you know, putting together a wonderful kickoff event. We have not had that in the past, and what a wonderful event it was. I personally enjoyed it immensely. just the fact that it does bring everybody together at the beginning of the start of the year. It lays out expectations because you shared the goals and the district goals with everyone. And I think that sets, you know, everybody up for what everyone is expecting, especially in the community and also what you're expecting of your staff. And I think that's amazing. We really needed that. We haven't had that in the past, like I said. And and then what really really what you had said about opportunities and having options, it really resonated. I think that that's what getting an education is really all about, is setting ourselves up to be able to have a successful career and be able to have options and opportunities so that we can thrive and pull ourselves out and and create and stop the systemic hardships and also to be able to create a fulfilling life. And so that really resonated and I hope that resonated with our teachers. So because our teachers, if you don't realize, you know, you guys are a beacon of hope for a lot of students. And a lot of times our students may not know at first that they are special and that they are capable. It just takes one person to be able to connect with them, and that's usually our teachers. And I'm where I am at today, and I'm successful because of my teachers, and I'm giving back to the community that has given me so much. And I hope that our teachers remember that all their hard work is not in vain. If you are able to touch one child's life and improve it and make a positive impact, it's a lifelong change. And I hope that our students realize that they are very capable of being able to do whatever it is that they set their minds to. And we believe in you. We believe that you are capable, strong, smart, and can do whatever it is that you set your mind to. So I hope that you strive for that. in your life and it can get you very, very far. I promise you that much. And then with that said, the only one request I have is I just wanted to get an update on our Wi-Fi access and how that project is coming along for the high school. I know that We want to make sure that our technology that's in place is able to service our students there and the teachers so that they can do and make progress throughout the school year. And I know that we've had some delays with hardware being shipped here and installation, but I hope that we're able to get that done. So I hope that we can get an update for that. So with the board majority, I hope that you agree with me and approve that. I would love to get a staff report from the staff. Thank you.

[8579] Carina Plancarte: I don't have any committee updates, but I do want to officially welcome all of our families, our students, our teachers, our staff. Thank you, Penny, for inviting us to the Welcome Wagon first day site visit. It truly was an honor to be a part of that, and I really felt And the energy was just so infectious and it just feels so positive. And I'm really excited for this year. And I am happy and grateful that we have such good custodians and that we have some great crossing guards and they are all a part of it as well. So I do want to thank them because, you know, not only them, but obviously everybody who had a hand in beautifying our campuses. I mean, you truly could see them shining. Some of them, you know, were just absolutely sparkling clean. And to have an environment where you start off and it's in such a great shape, it really, it might not seem like it's a big deal, but it really is a big deal. And it just sets up the year for success. And so I just hope that our families, are just as excited. I think for the most part, everybody I've talked to is super excited, and I'm happy to see our teachers back at school, and I really wish the students and everybody a great, successful year. Thank you.

[8678] Kat Jones: Thank you. Ms. Jones. I just want to say welcome back to everyone as well and that I had a blast going around to the schools that first day and being able to pop into teachers classrooms that teachers welcomed us in and were very receptive to us, you know, saying things or giving hugs out to past students in my case. So it was really fun, but I just really appreciated the attitudes of please come in and spend a minute. And that allowing us to interrupt your first day meant a lot. And the experience of coming into the positive, excited atmosphere of the classrooms and the schools and So thank you so much for that opportunity for us to be able to visit you and to be a part of your first day with the students. It's been really fun being a grandma to a Kennedy student too and being able to walk to school and meeting parents as just a community member. And that's been an awesome experience too. And I'm having some really great conversations with parents that I'm meeting as I'm walking home. after dropping Delilah off. So welcome to this year and really look forward to many more opportunities of being able to pop in and see other students and teachers in their classrooms. Thank you.

[8774] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, and for me, a big shout out and a big thank you to the executive staff, to NEWMA, to our NTA teachers and CSEA for all the work all of our employees have done getting ready for school, and to our parents and students. It was a lot of fun going around with my colleagues here on the board. Of course, the three of them were greeted all the time because they know member Wynn as a parent and member Plancarte and of course everyone knows member Jones. 30 years in the district. So it was a lot of fun with the start of school. I had a chance to speak at the new teachers welcome and I told them what teachers meant to me and to my future growth and and impressed on them that they're going to make a big difference in the life of their students. And there's going to be that one or two or 10 special students that will just forever be different because of their support and intervention. So that's my report except for I do have, I do want to mention that member Hill and I with Dr. DeLeon, met with the Bayside Homeowners Association, and maybe, Member Superintendent, you might mention a little bit of that in a moment. My one request would be, and we've talked about it before, and if we went to the Masters in Governance, we learned about having a board calendar, and capturing on the board calendar And the CSBA has a great template that we can use to develop a calendar. We can put things, reports on it. And I know we've had some of these in the past, you know, inter-district. report, athletic department report, volunteers. There's all sorts of things that we can put on that calendar and space it out during the year so there's not a big burden on staff to just schedule these things. So that would be my one request. Dr. DeLeon.

[8918] Penny DeLeon: Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

[8921] Phuong Nguyen: Apologies. I do have a comment regarding the board calendar. I believe there's already a start of a board calendar through Google, through our Gmail calendar. So we can discuss what other items you'd like to be put on there. And it's already linked to our personal calendars. So if you need me to show you how to use it, I'm happy to, President Thomas. The Google calendar? The Gmail. It's built into our Gmail account. Our Gmail calendar?

[8961] Penny DeLeon: I think she's talking about a governance calendar.

[8963] Nancy Thomas: Governance.

[8964] Penny DeLeon: Oh, OK. Sorry. Apologies. Apologies. Yeah, it's confusing. There are both. One is like a calendar of dates and events, which is, I think, what you're referring to.

[8974] Phuong Nguyen: Yeah, that's what I was talking about. So I apologize.

[8976] Nancy Thomas: Yeah, OK. I know what you're talking about, though. OK. And I might ask you for help.

[8980] Phuong Nguyen: OK, perfect. And then our student board member does have a comment.

[8985] Joy Lee: Yeah, I just had a comment. It was my first meeting, and it was really great. Thank you to everyone. And to everyone who's listening, and to everyone who's listening, and even in there, I ask for your understanding as this year goes by. And I look forward to being able to truly connect this amazing board with our exceptional students. Because even like a year ago, I didn't even know this board existed. I know I'm not the only one on our campuses and I hope to be able to connect all our students at our school with this board so that we will be able to have a great connection with each other. Thank you.

[9028] Nancy Thomas: Thank you.

[9031] Penny DeLeon: Yay, very good.

[9035] Nancy Thomas: Next we will move on to the superintendent's concluding comments.

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

[9039] Penny DeLeon: Thank you so much, President Thomas. And I just got hand sanitizer in my eyeball, so it won't be long.

[9047] Penny DeLeon: I was rocking it. So it'll be brief.

[9050] Penny DeLeon: OK. So you read my mind, President Thomas. We actually had a conversation at our last cabinet about the governance calendar and kind of, you know, planning out the year in terms of what staff reports need to happen. There are statutory reports, and then also board requests. And so we're in the process of actually putting that together as we speak. So it's going to be good. So we're happy about that. We did, members, Thomas Hill and I met with the Bayside HOA, which is, there were about 200 people, parents, on the Zoom meeting. And Bayside is the community down by Sanctuary Village and all of that area where the new developments are. And they want state-of-the-art schools for their kids. They want their students going to prestigious universities. And they want us to help them get there. And they want STEAM and all of those things. And so we had a long conversation about how we were going to get there as a district and what our goals were. And I asked them to Give us a minute, but go with us. Go with us on the journey. Help us participate. Be there. Walk with us every step of the way, because it's not done overnight, but it's going to be done. And hopefully, as new condos and whatnot are built, as we've had conversations before. But we will likely have to build a school out in that area soon. And so just food for thought. But that's coming back. And they were wonderful people. And we're going to continue to meet. As well as all the other HOAs, I've reached out to several of them. I'm a little afraid, because when my HOA finds out that I live there, I I'm going to have knocks in the middle of the night. But anyway, we are reaching out and bringing our parents in. We want to recapture everyone we can into this district. And I also would be remiss if I didn't thank all of our district office employees, both certificated and classified, who filled in at our sites and are still filling in in some places as teachers, as paraeducators, as aides. You name it, they're there helping us still. So I want to thank them very much. incredible to see that this district already had a plan for that. It's something they've always done is they've always gone out and just filled in as needed. And so thank you to everyone who's part of that for getting that together. I think Nicole sent it out. So thank you so much for all of that and getting us organized. And then last, but by no means least, I do, well, second to last, I do want to thank my assistant, Jen, and I should have mentioned it on that slide, but she coordinated the district kickoff. I basically said, here's the idea. And she got it together. So Ms. Sachs, thank you so much. That snaps. I find myself surrounded by people, if I just like throw an idea out, they do it. They rise to that level of whatever it is I ask. So I'm really thankful for that. And I just want to say, I just want to sort of piggyback on what Member Nguyen said, that at the kickoff, I had two quotes that are really, really important. I want to say it again for our community. One of them, Toni Morrison, the purpose of freedom is to free somebody else. And I feel that's what we do. That's our purpose in education, is to provide freedom and options for other people. And then the second one by Nelson Mandela, which is everything seems impossible until it's done. And so those are our two things I'm just going to continue to harp on, and we're just going to continue to work. So thank you, everyone. Most importantly, I want to thank this board for all of your help. You've been the most supportive board, and I've had a couple. And you guys are amazing, amazing. And I just thank you for all your help. And we really do feel it from you. So thank you so much. Appreciate it.

16.2 Adjournment

[9294] Nancy Thomas: Thank you. It is now 8.30. Could I have a motion for adjournment?

[9302] Phuong Nguyen: Well, I'm trying to stretch it out because our- Yes, you have a motion.

[9308] Carina Plancarte: And may I have a second?

[9311] Nancy Thomas: OK, who made the motion? Member Jones made a motion to adjourn. And Member Plancarte. I don't know. I might go back down. Second it. Let's vote.

[9326] Joy Lee: Ms. Lee. Yes.

[9331] Phuong Nguyen: All right, Kat.

[9335] Penny DeLeon: We have a bet going on.

[9338] Yes, probably. There was.

[9339] Nancy Thomas: What did you bet? 830. 830 math! All right!

1. CALL TO ORDER (Not Found)

1.1 Meeting Practices and Information (Not Found)

1.4 Recess to Closed Session (Closed Session)

2. CLOSED SESSION (Closed Session)

2.1 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE/DISMISSAL/RELEASE (Gov. Code, § 54957, subd. (b)(1)) (Closed Session)

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

2.3 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL EXISTING LITIGATION (Gov. Code, 54956.9, subd. (d)(1)): Case #23CV034303 Byrd vs. NUSD and Case #22CV020039 Clinton vs. NUSD (Closed Session)

2.4 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL ANTICIPATED LITIGATION Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, 54956.9, subd. (d)[(2) or (3)]: Reference No 2023NUSD001 (Closed Session)

3. REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS (Not Found)

4. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION (Not Found)

6. STUDENT REPORT (Not Found)

7. RECOGNITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS (Not Found)

8. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS (Not Found)

9. PUBLIC COMMENT (Not Found)

10. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT (Not Found)

11. NEW BUSINESS (Not Found)

12. CONSENT AGENDA: PERSONNEL ITEMS (Not Found)

12.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote (Not Found)

13. CONSENT AGENDA: NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS (Not Found)

13.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote (Not Found)

13.8 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 5117 and Administrative Regulation 5117- Interdistrict Attendance (Removed by Board)

14. BOARD OF EDUCATION: COMMITTEE REPORTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, REQUESTS, DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION (Not Found)

15. SUPERINTENDENT'S CONCLUDING COMMENTS, UPDATES FOR THE BOARD AND FUTURE AGENDA REQUESTS (Not Found)

16. ADJOURNMENT (Not Found)

16.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting (Not Found)

[330] 1.2 Roll Call

[360] 1.3 Public Comment on Closed Session Items

[360] 3.1 Report of Closed Session Actions

[4980] 4.1 Pledge of Allegiance

[5000] 5. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

[5000] 5.1 Approval of the Agenda

[5528] 6.1 Student Report from Newark Memorial High School

[5930] 7.1 Staff Spotlight

[6127] 8.1 Employee Organizations

[6543] 9.1 Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items

[6543] 9.2 Public Comment on Agenda Items

[6565] 10.1 Superintendent Report

[7271] 11.1 School Employers Association of California (SEAC) Joint Powers Agreement and Consultant Contract for Personnel Services

[7558] 11.2 Increase Daily Rate for Substitute Teachers

[7770] 11.3 Consultant Contract for Interim Executive Director of Human Resources, Stephen Burrell

[7933] 12.2 Personnel Report (Approved on Consent)

[7933] 12.3 Memorandum of Understanding between NTA and NUSD: Signing Bonus for Special Education Teaching Positions (Approved on Consent)

[8064] 13.2 Contract with Ed Theory for Special Education Teacher (Approved on Consent)

[8064] 13.3 Categorical Programs Application for Funding 2023-24 (Approved on Consent)

[8064] 13.4 REPORT: Donations Report (Approved on Consent)

[8064] 13.5 REPORT: Warrant Report for July 2023 (Approved on Consent)

[8064] 13.6 MINUTES: Minutes of the August 1, 2023 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education (Approved on Consent)

[8064] 13.7 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 5145.6 and Administrative Regulation 5145.6 - Parent/Guardian Notifications (Approved on Consent)

[8064] 13.9 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 6174 and Administrative Regulation 6174 - Education For English Learners (Approved on Consent)

[8328] 14.1 Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief and Discussion

[9039] 15.1 Superintendent's Concluding Comments, Updates, and Future Agenda Items

[9294] 16.2 Adjournment

[100003] 1. CALL TO ORDER (Not Found)

[100003] 1.1 Meeting Practices and Information (Not Found)

[100003] 1.4 Recess to Closed Session (Closed Session)

[100003] 2. CLOSED SESSION (Closed Session)

[100003] 2.1 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE/DISMISSAL/RELEASE (Gov. Code, § 54957, subd. (b)(1)) (Closed Session)

[100003] 2.2 CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATORS (Gov. Code, § 54957.6, subd. (a): Employee Organizations - NTA and CSEA (Closed Session)

[100003] 2.3 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL EXISTING LITIGATION (Gov. Code, 54956.9, subd. (d)(1)): Case #23CV034303 Byrd vs. NUSD and Case #22CV020039 Clinton vs. NUSD (Closed Session)

[100003] 2.4 CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL ANTICIPATED LITIGATION Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, 54956.9, subd. (d)[(2) or (3)]: Reference No 2023NUSD001 (Closed Session)

[100003] 3. REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS (Not Found)

[100003] 4. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION (Not Found)

[100003] 6. STUDENT REPORT (Not Found)

[100003] 7. RECOGNITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS (Not Found)

[100003] 8. EMPLOYEE ORGANIZATIONS (Not Found)

[100003] 9. PUBLIC COMMENT (Not Found)

[100003] 10. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT (Not Found)

[100003] 11. NEW BUSINESS (Not Found)

[100003] 12. CONSENT AGENDA: PERSONNEL ITEMS (Not Found)

[100003] 12.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote (Not Found)

[100003] 13. CONSENT AGENDA: NON-PERSONNEL ITEMS (Not Found)

[100003] 13.1 PLACEHOLDER - One Consented Vote (Not Found)

[100003] 13.8 POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 5117 and Administrative Regulation 5117- Interdistrict Attendance (Removed by Board)

[100003] 14. BOARD OF EDUCATION: COMMITTEE REPORTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, REQUESTS, DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION (Not Found)

[100003] 15. SUPERINTENDENT'S CONCLUDING COMMENTS, UPDATES FOR THE BOARD AND FUTURE AGENDA REQUESTS (Not Found)

[100003] 16. ADJOURNMENT (Not Found)

[100003] 16.1 PLACEHOLDER - Extend Meeting (Not Found)

1. CALL TO ORDER

Meeting Practices and Information

Type 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 Nancy Thomas Vice President/Clerk Aiden Hill Member Katherine Jones Member Phuong Nguyen Member Carina V. Plancarte

STUDENT BOARD MEMBER:

Member Diego Torres

Public Comment on Closed Session Items

Type Procedural PURPOSE:

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

If a constituent wishes to address the Board on any agenda item: In-Person Comment: please submit a completed speaker card to the Board's Executive Assistant before the start of the meeting, or prior to the calling of the section for public comment. Audio-Only Virtual Comment: please fill out a virtual speaker card via email at PUBLICCOMMENT@newarkunified.org by 1:00 PM the day of the meeting. Please label your email as " AUDIO-ONLY PUBLIC COMMENT" and include your name as it will appear on Zoom, your phone number, email address, and the agenda item number related to your comment.

Please see detailed instructions for public comment on the link: http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/nusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C4Q2D4019F40

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.

2. CLOSED SESSION

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 LEGAL COUNSEL EXISTING LITIGATION (Gov. Code, 54956.9, subd. (d)(1)): Case #23CV034303 Byrd vs. NUSD and Case #22CV020039 Clinton vs. NUSD

Type Action, Information, Procedural PURPOSE:

To discuss the following case(s):

1. Case #23CV034303 Byrd vs. NUSD
2. Case #22CV020039 Clinton vs. NUSD

CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL ANTICIPATED LITIGATION Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code, 54956.9, subd. (d)[(2) or (3)]: Reference No 2023NUSD001

Type Action, Discussion, Procedural PURPOSE:

Information may be provided regarding significant exposure to litigation pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 54956.9: Student vs Newark Unified School District Reference No 2023NUSD001

3. 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.

4. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION

Pledge of Allegiance

Type Procedural PURPOSE:

The Governance Team will recite the Pledge of Allegiance

5. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Approval of the Agenda

Type Action

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

PURPOSE:

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

6. STUDENT REPORT

Student Report from Newark Memorial High School

Type Information PURPOSE:

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

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

1. Newark Memorial High School

7. RECOGNITIONS AND CELEBRATIONS

Staff Spotlight

Type Information PURPOSE:

To recognize the wonderful accomplishments of our NUSD Facilities Maintenance Team.

BACKGROUND:

The presentation will be provided by the Superintendent.

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

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

Public Comment on Agenda Items

Type Procedural

PURPOSE:

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

BACKGROUND:

Please see the instructions on the link below for public comment information on non-agenda items and agenda items.

http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/nusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=C4Q2D4019F40

10. SUPERINTENDENT REPORT

Superintendent Report

Type Information

PURPOSE:

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

BACKGROUND:

The presentation and information will be provided by the Superintendent

11. NEW BUSINESS

School Employers Association of California (SEAC) Joint Powers Agreement and Consultant Contract for Personnel Services

Type Action

Absolute Date Aug 15, 2023

Dollar Amount $200,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source General Fund

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the School Employers Association Action of California (SEAC) Joint Powers Agreement and Consultant Contract for Personnel Services. PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to approve the Joint Powers Agreement and Contract for Services with School Employers Association of California (SEAC) to provide Human Resource services and support, including an Interim Executive Director of Human Resources, until the position can be filled permanently.

BACKGROUND:

The cost includes the Joint Powers Agency (JPA) membership fee and an estimated cost for contract work, that includes hourly pay and expenses, until the Executive Director of Human Resources position can be filled permanently.

The Executive Director of Human Resources resigned effective July 28, 2023. The district is in need of Human Resources support, while this position is vacant. Steve Burrell is an experienced educational leader with a rich, 30-year journey in education. With a career spanning over two decades at Cupertino Union School District and the past six years at Union School District in San Jose, Steve has embraced a variety of roles, from teacher to principal to Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. Throughout his journey, a resolute dedication to student-centered learning has been the driving force behind Steve's approach, ensuring that each decision and action taken aims to create impactful and enriching experiences for every student. Steve's strength lies in orchestrating cross-functional teams and fostering collaboration among all employees, while instilling a culture of creativity and development. Committed to propelling collective growth, Steve endeavors to nurture collaboration, creativity, and the success of all within the district, while conducting a search for a highly-qualified candidate for the position of Executive Director of Human Resources.

School Employers Association of California (SEAC) is a JPA comprised of school and community college districts. The mission of its member districts is to promote positive employer-employee relations in the public schools of California. SEAC will provide research, information and advice on all matters relating to collective bargaining, negotiations and related human resources issues. SEAC provides advanced training led by experienced superintendents and HR administrators, delivers specialized services (e.g., health benefit analyses and classification and compensation studies), and advocates on behalf of its members with the California Legislature, the Governor, and state agencies. Because it is a joint powers agency, SEAC can deliver all these services for a low annual membership and very competitive fees for services and training.

As a member of the SEAC Joint Powers Agency, our district will receive a variety of free services and the ability to attend trainings or contract with SEAC consultants at a reduced price.

As a new SEAC member, we will immediately receive:

    Weekly electronic updates on legal decisions, legislation, and key issues
    Timely information updates on breaking news
    Review of our districts collective bargaining agreement or a professional development activity

Upon request we will receive:

    Research on labor relations and negotiations issues
    Sample documents and contract language in specific areas
    Answers to questions related to negotiations, employee-employerrelations, and personnel challenges
    Advice in human resources, governance, and leadership areas
    Compensation and job classification studies performed at discounted rates
    Health Benefits analysis, including one free analysis anddiscounted health benefits consultant services

File Attachments School Employers Association of California (SEAC)_Joint Powers Agreement_23-24.pdf (460 KB) Burrell, Steven_SEAC Contract for Services 2023-24.pdf (16 KB)

Increase Daily Rate for Substitute Teachers

Type Action

Preferred Date Aug 15, 2023

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $80,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source General Fund

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approves the increase in the daily rate for Action substitute teachers. PURPOSE:

To consider increasing the daily and long-term substitute (guest) teacher rates for the 2023-2024 school year to $235 per day (day-to-day assignments) and $270 per day for long-term positions (beginning on Day 6 of the assignment), along with a $300 longevity bonus for substitutes who work 15 days in a month.

BACKGROUND:

In order to remain competitive with our pool of guest teachers, there is a recommendation to increase our day-to-day and long- term substitute rates. Based on our surrounding and neighboring school districts, the proposed Newark Unified School District substitute teacher pay rate increase is $235 for short-term and $270 for long-term substitute teachers. Our goal is to keep our current substitute teachers local and wanting to work with NUSD, as well as to attract new substitute teachers to our district. Beyond working with our great students and staff at our schools, we want to make it financially attractive for our substitute teachers to work with us daily.

PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE PAY RATE INCREASE

Type Current Rate Proposed Rate Percentage Increase

Short-term (1-5 days) $220 $235 6.8%

Long-term (6+ days) $250 $270 8%

Half-day $110 $117.50 6.8%

Newark USD Longevity New $300 for 15 days Bonus worked in a month

12. 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 Aug 15, 2023

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education ratify the personnel report as presented. Action PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to ratify the Personnel Report as presented.

BACKGROUND:

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 08-15-2023.pdf (360 KB)

Memorandum of Understanding between NTA and NUSD: Signing Bonus for Special Education Teaching Positions

Type Action

Absolute Date Aug 15, 2023

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $60,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Contribution from General Fund

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the MOU between NTA and NUSD Action to provide a signing bonus for special education teaching positions for the 2023-2024 school year.

PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NTA and NUSD to provide a signing bonus of $5,000 for eligible special education teaching positions newly hired in the District for the 2023-2024 school year.

BACKGROUND:

The District and the Association recognize the crucial role of special education teachers in providing quality education and support to students with special needs. To attract and retain highly qualified special education teachers, the District has proposed the implementation of a signing bonus program.

File Attachments Signed NTA MOU Sped Signing Bonus.pdf (137 KB)

13. 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.

Contract with Ed Theory for Special Education Teacher

Type Action

Preferred Date Aug 15, 2023

Absolute Date Aug 15, 2023

Fiscal Impact Yes

Dollar Amount $137,000.00

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source Resource 6500 - Special Education

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the contract with Ed Theory. Action PURPOSE:

Ed Theory to provide 1.0 FTE Resource Specialist (RSP) teacher required for an unfilled position for the 2023-2024 school year.

BACKGROUND:

Despite intensive efforts, the District has not been able to hire for this unfilled position. The contracted teacher is intended to fill the RSP position for the 2023-2024 school year only.

File Attachments Ed Theory Contract 23-24.pdf (90 KB)

Categorical Programs Application for Funding 2023-24

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the 2023-24 Categorical Action Programs Application for Funding PURPOSE:

The purpose of this item is to approve the 2023-24 Categorical Programs Application for Funding as required by the California Department of Education and the Consolidated Application and Reporting System (CARS).

BACKGROUND:

The Consolidated Application and Reporting System (CARS) is a state data collection system to apply for Categorical Program Funding and to report on the use of those funds. The Application for Funding is required to be approved by the governing board.

Each year, the programs included in the CARS change based on federal/state mandates and different methods of gaining or disseminating information.

CARS brings funds into the school district for a variety of programs including Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV.

Each of the identified programs has specified guidelines or requirements for their expenditure. All titled programs are federally funded. Title I, Part A funds are used to support the increased achievement of at-risk students, primarily in reading and math. Title II, Part A (Teacher Quality) funds are used to support teacher evaluation, as well as teacher professional development. Title III English Learner funds are used to support our English language learners. Title IV funds are used to improve students' academic achievement.

File Attachments AppforFndng 23-24_for board approval.pdf (102 KB)

REPORT: Donations Report

Type Action

Fiscal Impact Yes

Budgeted Yes

Budget Source General Fund (Fund 010) Donations

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

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

Background:

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

File Attachments Donations Report_8-15-2023.pdf (19 KB)

REPORT: Warrant Report for July 2023

Type Action

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 $3,796,877.04 made from District funds for July 2023.

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 Districts 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 July 2023.pdf (382 KB)

MINUTES: Minutes of the August 1, 2023 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education

Type Action, Minutes

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the minutes of the August 1, Action 2023 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. PURPOSE:

For the board to review and approve minutes of the August 1, 2023, Regular Meeting of the Board of Education.

BACKGROUND:

The attached minutes are reflective of the August 1, 2023, Regular Meeting of the Board of Education. The meeting may be viewed on the NUSD YouTube Channel HERE.

POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 5145.6 and Administrative Regulation 5145.6 - Parent/Guardian Notifications

Type Action, Procedural

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Board Policy 5145.6 Action and Administrative Regulation 5145.6 - Parent/Guardian Notifications as recommended by the CSBA June 2023 Guidesheet PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to review the recommended changes and approve the updated administrative regulation.

BACKGROUND:

This is the FIRST reading of the attached regulation. The language is sanctioned by the California School Board Association. California School Board Association notations can be seen in the documents for the benefit of the Board. These notations will be removed from the final, Board approved policies. The administration has reviewed the recommended updates for accuracy and made revisions to reflect district practice. If any revisions are recommended by the Board, the policy will be brought back to the Board of Education for a second reading.

Board Policy 5145.6 - Parent/Guardian Notifications The NUSD board policy has not been revised since 2021. The language has been replaced to match the sample board policy provided by the California School Board Association.

Administrative Regulation 5145.6 - Parent/Guardian Notifications The NUSD board policy has not been revised since 2021. The language has been replaced to match the sample board policy provided by the California School Board Association.

CSBA Policy Guidesheet June 2023 states: "Policy 5145.6 - Parent/Guardian Notifications Policy updated to reflect Health Care Services Policy and Procedures letter No. 21- 017R and No. 23-004 which require districts to develop a plan to meet alternative formatting requirements for individuals with disabilities to enable individuals with speech, vision, and hearing disabilities to effectively communicate and participate in the

Medi-Cal program.

Exhibit(1) 5145.6 - Parent/Guardian Notifications Exhibit updated to add parent/guardian notifications related to (1) the manner in which district-established graduation requirements and career and technical education courses satisfy college entrance A-G course criteria, (2) California's child access prevention laws and laws related to the safe stories of firearms, (3) transfer of coursework and credits for highly mobile student populations, (4) how to access mental health services at school and/or in the community, (5) the online distribution of a digitized mental health poster, (6) type 1 diabetes information, (7) the opportunity to submit written comments on the local control and accountability plan, (8) student's participation in state assessments and option to request an exemption from testing, (9) information related to the district's food service programs, (10) upcoming eye examinations at school site and option to opt-out of eye examinations, (11) potential eligibility for services or accommodations pursuant to Section 504 or an individualized education program, (12) limitations on disenrollment of a child in a preschool or child care program, including expulsion and suspension, including how to file an appeal in the event of expulsion or suspension, (13) program plan for maintaining a child's safe participation in a preschool or child care program when a child exhibits persistent and serious challenging behaviors, (14) receipt of a "Notice of Action, Recipient of Services," prior to suspending or expelling a child in a preschool program, (15) the provision of a suspension and expulsion notice, manifestation determination notice, involuntary transfer notice, and related information to a foster youth's educational rights holder, attorney, and county social worker, and an Indian child's tribal social worker and, if applicable, county social worker, (16) findings from an evaluation of participating in an independent study course when satisfactory education progress is not being met, (17) exemption from district-established graduation requirements for students with disabilities, (18) requirement to stock and make available an adequate supply of menstrual products free of cost, (19) posting of child care license, and (20) requirement to post rates, discounts and scholarship options at child care facilities. exhibit also updated for conforming changes."

File Attachments Existing NUSD BP 5145.6 - Parent. Guardian Notifications.pdf (63 KB) Existing NUSD Exhibit 5145.6 - Parent. Guardian Notifications.pdf (166 KB) Recommended CSBA BP 5145.6 ParentGuardian Notifications.pdf (169 KB) Recommended CSBA Exhibit 5145.6-E(1) ParentGuardian Notifications.pdf (693 KB)

POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 5117 and Administrative Regulation 5117- Interdistrict Attendance

Type Action, Procedural

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Board Policy 5117 Action and Administrative Regulation 5117- Interdistrict Attendance as recommended by the CSBA June 2023 Guidesheet PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to review the recommended changes and approve the updated board policy and administrative regulation.

BACKGROUND:

This is the FIRST reading of the attached policy. The language is sanctioned by the California School Board Association. California School Board Association notations can be seen in the documents for the benefit of the Board. These notations will be removed from the final, Board approved policies. The administration has reviewed the recommended updates for accuracy and made revisions to reflect district practice. If any revisions are recommended by the Board, the policy will be brought back to the Board of Education for a second reading.

Board Policy 5117- Interdistrict Attendance The NUSD board policy has not been revised since 2019. The language has been replaced to match the sample board policy provided by the California School Board Association.

Administrative Regulation 5117- Interdistrict Attendance

The NUSD administrative regulation has not been revised since 2019. The language has been replaced to match the sample administrative regulation provided by the California School Board Association.

CSBA Guide Sheet June 2023 states: "Board Policy 5117 - Interdistrict Attendance Policy updated to reference NEW LAW (AB 185, 2022) which extends the school district of choice program to July 1, 2028, and to reflect NEW LAW (SB 941 2022) which authorizes a district to enter into an Instruction Collaboration Agreement with another local educational agency(ies) (LEA) to offer the same or similar courses and coursework to students from another LEA who have been impacted by teacher shortages, disruptions, or cancelations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes, or dual language immersion programs."

File Attachments Exisiting NUSD AR 5117 - Interdistrict Attendance.pdf (84 KB) Exisiting NUSD BP 5117 - Interdistrict Attendance.pdf (67 KB) Recommended CSBA BP 5117 Interdistrict Attendance.pdf (390 KB) Recommended CSBA AR 5117 Interdistrict Attendance.pdf (488 KB)

POLICY UPDATE: Board Policy 6174 and Administrative Regulation 6174 - Education For English Learners

Type Action, Procedural

Fiscal Impact No

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education approve the updated Board Policy 6174 Action and Administrative Regulation 6174 - Education For English Learners recommended from the June 2023 CSBA Guidesheet PURPOSE:

The purpose is for the Board of Education to review the recommended changes and approve the updated board policy.

BACKGROUND:

This is the FIRST reading of the attached policy. The language is sanctioned by the California School Board Association. California School Board Association notations can be seen in the documents for the benefit of the Board. These notations will be removed from the final, Board approved policies. The administration has reviewed the recommended updates for accuracy and made revisions to reflect district practice. If any revisions are recommended by the Board, the policy will be brought back to the Board of Education for a second reading.

Board Policy 6174 - Education For English Learners The NUSD board policy has not been revised since 2018. The language has been replaced to match the sample board policy provided by the California School Board Association.

Administrative Regulation 6174 - Education For English Learners The NUSD board policy has not been revised since 2018. The language has been replaced to match the sample board policy provided by the California School Board Association.

CSBA Policy Guidesheet June 2023 states: "Board Policy 6174 - Education for English Learners Policy updated to remove outdated material and reflect NEW LAW (SB 941, 2022) which permits a district to enter into an instruction collaboration agreement with another school district, county office of education, or charter school to offer the same or similar courses and coursework to students who have been impacted by teacher

shortages, disruptions, or cancellations to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes, or dual language immersion programs. Administrative Regulation 6174 - Education for English Learners Regulation updated to remove outdated material and reflect updated information from the California Department of Education's (CDE) English Learner Federal Program Monitoring 2022-23 Instrument, CDE's Reclassification Criteria website, and letters from CDE which provide updated reclassification guidance regarding the criteria used to determine whether an English learner should be reclassified, including a review of the student's curriculum mastery and academic performance, the provision of an interpreter for parents/guardians, when necessary, as part of the parent/guardian involvement, comparison of student performance on an objective assessment of basic skills in English against an empirically established range of performance in basic skills, based on the performance of English proficient students of the same age, which demonstrates whether the student is sufficiently proficient in English to participate effectively in a curriculum designed for students of the same age whose native language is English. Regulation also updated to include that the four years of post-reclassification monitoring should be utilized to ensure that students have not prematurely exited, any academic deficit incurred through participation in the English learner program has been remedied, and the students are meaningfully participating in the standard instructional program compared to students who had never participated in an English learner program. Additionally, regulation updated to clarify that the LCAP advisory committee provides input regarding exiting language acquisition programs and the possible establishment of other programs."

File Attachments Exisiting NUSD AR 6174 Education For English Learners.pdf (92 KB) Exisiting NUSD BP 6174 Education For English Learners.pdf (201 KB) Recommended CSBA BP 6174 Education For English Learners.pdf (529 KB) Recommended CSBA AR 6174 Education For English Learners.pdf (572 KB)

14. BOARD OF EDUCATION: COMMITTEE REPORTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, REQUESTS, DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION

Board of Education Committee Reports, Announcements, Requests, Debrief and Discussion

                       AND DISCUSSION

Type Action, Discussion, Information

PURPOSE:

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

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

REQUESTS: 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.

DEBRIEF AND DISCUSSION: The Trustees may debrief and discuss items.

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 2022-23

Board Adopted on 12/15/2022 Representative Alternate

Mission Valley Regional Occupational Center/Program (ROC/P) 1. Nancy Thomas 1. Carina V. Plancarte Executive Board

Regional Policy Board of Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) 1. Katherine Jones 1. Phuong Nguyen

Newark Teacher Induction Advisory Council (Formally EBIC) 1. Aiden Hill 1. Carina V. Plancarte

Audit Committee 1. Aiden Hill2. Katherine Jones1. Phuong Nguyen The following derives Bond/Parcel Tax Committee 1. Phuong Nguyen2. Carina V. Plancarte1. Aiden Hilldirectly from the Boardapproved "GovernanceTeam Handbook"

                                                                     1. Phuong Nguyen                                 Authority is

City of Newark � NUSD Liaison Committee 2. Nancy Thomas 1. Katherine Jones 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

Adjournment

Type Action

Recommended The recommendation is that the Board of Education adjourns this meeting. Action PURPOSE:

No items will be considered after 10:00 p.m. unless it is determined by a majority of the Board to extend to a specific time.

This action will conclude the meeting.

No minutes available.