Berkeley Unified School District School Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Apologies for the delay. Uh thanks so much for coming out tonight. Um firstly, um this is a February 18th uh 2026 meeting of the Berkeley School Board. Uh if you want to follow along with our online agenda, it's posted on the district's website. Um calling it to order now at what 7:36. Um, we say this every week, but it's important to just to go over this really quickly. As part of the district's continued commitment to transparency, equity, and meaningful engagement, we have partnered with Wordley uh for translation and captioning. Uh, this technology allows students, families, and members of the community access to real-time translation. And the tool is available to both in person and virtual attendees. Um, in person, you can access Worldly by scanning the QR code posted on the wall. Virtual attendees can access worldly via the link posted on the websites. Okay. Um I would like to remind you as usual uh with regard to our decorum expectations during and um all parts of tonight's meeting. No person shall disturb the order of this meeting. Such behavior includes but is not limited to booing, hissing, creating or participating in a physical disturbance, speaking out of turn in violation of applicable rules, preventing or attempting to prevent others who have the floor from speaking, preventing others from observing the meeting entering into or remaining in the area of the meeting room that is not open to the public or approaching the dis without permission. Um that's part of our bylaws with regard to meeting conduct. If you have complaints against specific district employees, we encourage you to use the district complaint process via complaints. Berkeley.net as opposed to public comment to address these matter matters. Um, so we'll approve the uh agenda for this evening's meeting. Do we need to do roll call first? Yeah, always forget

that. Director Jennifer Shinowski here. Director Anavas is excused this evening and so are our two student representatives. Vice President Jennifer Korn present. President Michael Chang. Hello. Yes, here. Sorry. Um uh okay. Will we uh do we have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Any requested changes before? So, no. I'll move that we approve the agenda. I'll second. Great. Um we have the eyes. I I

Cool. It's unanimous. Um okay. Uh report out of the closed session from Vice President Kin, please. Thank you. Yes. Um, close session was called to order at 5:38 p.m. with President Chang, Vice President Korn, and Director Shinowski in attendance. Um, and we received an update and provided guidance on item 3.2. Thank you so much. And now we have Superintendent Ford Moal's comments. Thank you, President Shank. Good evening, B USD family.

Um, so as we recognize and continue to recognize Black History Month, I just want to take a moment to briefly reflect on last night's screening. Um, we had a film screening, a special uh screen filming for Berkeley of a film called Epicenter, the struggle for black studies in the Bay Area. The film tells a story of the 1969 studentled movement at Berkeley High that led to the creation of the first black studies department in a public school district in the nation. It's a powerful reminder that Berkeley students uh did not simply learn history. We do not simply learn history here in Berkeley. They shape and they make history. We also honored Reverend Dr. Mcnite who was featured in the film and who transitioned on February 7th before seeing the completion. He stood alongside students during the pivotal moment and dedicated his life to ensuring that black history was taught with integrity and purpose. We were um blessed to be joined by his wife of 60 years last night um who closed the event by reminding us to continue telling our stories and teaching our history and it was a very grounding and deeply moving evening and I um see some people in the audience who were there and I'm sure they could attest to it as well. This year um we are piloting um a district supported siteled ortorial model. the oral tradition and celebration of student voice absolutely continues throughout BUSD uh this month and in the month of March and of course in months that follow. Um we're going to ask that our sites have their ortorial fest and classroom showcases across the campuses and many of our schools are also hosting other celebrations and so we look forward to hearing the voices of even more of our students through the sitebased ortorial fest surrounded by their families and community members. Finally, I want to invite finally for this part, I want to invite the community to join us on Tuesday, February 24th. That's next Tuesday for the school yard wraps African-Americans in steam assembly at Malcolm X Elementary School. We'll start at 6 p.m. and the evening should close around 7:30. If you aren't familiar with Schoolyard Rap, um they do incredible

work using the energy of hiphop to bring black history to life for young scholars. It's high energy. It's educational. And it's exactly the kind of joyful, culturally centered engagement we strive for in Berkeley. I think of it like Hamilton on Broadway, except not on Broadway on a Berkeley stage. Um, still high energy, but definitely more student centered. Um, there'll be refreshments, raffles, and prizes. And but most importantly, it's a space for our village to connect and come together. And so whether you are a kid at heart, whether you love hiphop and rap, or if you just love to learn about black history, we invite you um and your families to come out, whether you're from BAM, Rosa Parks, or right there at Malcolm X. Um we want to see as many folks as we can in the building. So again, that's next Tuesday, Jan, February 24th. Um now for a bit of homework. Do it again. Now for a bit of homework. Not yet.

Drum roll.

Drum. Now for a bit of homework. Um, our annual planning survey is open and we encourage all members of our Thank you, Lena. Some people get excited about surveys. She's our data person. Um, we are encouraging all members of our community to participate. The QR code um, and the link that you see here was shared with staff and families today. And already, just after sharing it today, we have 123 folks who have already completed the survey. If you are not one of them, take out your phones now and get at it. Uh your input though seriously directly informs our priorities and our planning and so we hope to see as much engagement as possible um for those for folks in this room and folks who are not in the room. Um we've also launched the first round of communications about the children youth behavioral health initiative also known as CBHI. A big thank you to all the families who have already answered our call for help by providing insurance information and consenting to bill. We are asking all families who are able to help to provide us with your students insurance information and consent to bill insurance, not bill you to bill insurance. Families can opt out at any time. And we want you to join us in this effort to bring a substantial funding source to BUSD at no cost to families to support important mental health and wellness work that's already happening to continue to happen and to scale. This information will enable us to receive reimbursements for activities and support our staff and community partners again who are already providing day-to-day services to our school sites. You can find out more information if you check out our CYBHI FAQ page on our BUSD website under the heading family resources with details about the fee schedule itself, reimbursement and forms to submit your students information and a staff contact if you have additional questions or concerns about the program. Our superintendent's budget advisory committee met earlier today and we will meet again next Wednesday at 4:30. It's

a virtual meeting. These meetings are open to the public. So, we invite you all. Um, tonight this committee reviewed the status of the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee, including the current shortfall, examined early indications of potential state revenue, and discuss recent federal funding changes and uncertainties. Um, we also looked at some of our inspiring grants, um, and we, um, hope that that will help us have more informed budget conversations in the weeks to come. Engagement and transparency are core values of our resource allocation framework. And so again, we encourage everyone in our community to come to tune in. All ASPback meetings are recorded and the artifacts from those meetings, including the presentation decks, are posted on our ESPback website. Finally, speaking of tuning in, tonight's meeting reflects the commitment to transparency and progress monitoring that I hope that you've heard us speak about over and over. We're going to review updates on our literacy action plan and our LCAP. This is the steady work of continuous improvement grounded in data and alignment to our values. And as we anchor in the core value of excellence, the data shared tonight really provide some important context for the fiscal considerations and conversations that we know are to come. As always, I say it every time. I invite you to stay for the entire meeting. And those of you um who do oftentimes find that you leave here more informed, more engaged, and with a deeper appreciation for the decisions and discussions that shape our district. And for some of you, you leave entertained as you see civic action live and in person. If you cannot stay again, we invite you to join us virtually. And just like those ESPback meetings, these meetings are also recorded and posted on our district uh YouTube website. Thank you all for being here. I'm going to count how many of you all still here at the meetings end. Thank you, President J.

Thank you so much, Superintendent Forthell. Um, we're now going to move on to the public comments. Um, there are two opportunities for such uh now and at the end of the meeting. Um, we encourage you to stay and speak at the end if you if you wish to do so. You can also email us your comments at boardofedberkley.net. And if again complaints, send it to complaints berkeley.net. Please save it for the email versus your comments. Um, we don't respond directly to comments or questions made during uh the comment period. Um, board members, the superintendent and staff, we do take notes during the public comment and may follow up with the speaker after the meeting. Um, this is a hybrid meeting. So, we have public commenters in the boardroom which will um have you come on up first with students by priority and then also we have online. Um so uh for each person we will have a minute uh and then um uh we will then shift to online speakers.

Yes. Thank you so much. Are we Okay, that's cool. I So um first on up. Okay, cool. Thank you. Um, Vice President Korn, we have um two students here. Um, and please correct me if I've mispronounced this. Aas Pawns Whittam and Kota Strauss. You guys want to come on up in two minutes a piece?

Good evening. We have handouts of slides our fellow leadership club members made for the board.

We're actually going to give you 5 minutes total. Thank you. Esteemed school board members and superintendent Ford Morell. Thank you for taking some time to listen to us today. My name is Arya Pon Whitam and I'm Cota Strauss and we are in King Middle School's 8th grade leadership club. Today we are presenting on an issue that affects many people in our district and around the world. That issue is the lack of access to menstrual products.

Our club has been working towards providing accessible hygiene products for people who menstruate and advocating for period products to be restocked in bathrooms in King Middle School and across all Berkeley schools. We began these efforts last winter with learning about students interest in access to period products in bathrooms and circulated a petition for this matter. We collected over four full pages of signatures. We developed a presentation on menstrual products for students that helped to destigmatize this topic and gave it to each and every classroom last year. We then pushed into classrooms with this lesson to teach about periods and products. What started out as an awkward topic became fun through a quiz complete with prizes and interactive discussions.

We raised money to purchase boxes for menstrual products in the classrooms and a cart for supplies in the gym. We ask teachers to keep these boxes in an accessible location for students to have access. These boxes are intended as one source of support for menstruating students. However, it is critical to offer these products in bathrooms.

Having empty product dispensers affects our students learning ability and comfort both physically and emotionally. Just a few of the reason we believe this are it's hard to focus when you are worried about bleeding through your clothes, missing class time to find products and getting tardies and not everyone is able to afford to buy supplies. Imagine you got your period unexpectedly at the track. Products are supplied across the school in the office which is about a 5-minute walk away. What are some possible challenges of this scenario? Students have reported feeling embarrassed to explain to your teacher or the front desk staff, bleeding through clothes if you don't get there in time, being late or missing the beginning of your next class, or not wanting anyone to notice, and feeling judged. When and where you realize you have started your period is in the restroom. Walking back to class for supplies is both time-conuming, anxietyprovoking, and requires teacher permission to return to the bathroom. This is why the boxes are a temporary fix and intended as additional support for students. Storing products in restrooms is ideal for menstruating people because when it comes to periods, not everyone is prepared. Whether it's your first or you've been menrating for a year.

Berkeley Unified School District recognizes the importance of access to menstrual products and bathrooms. The school board developed a policy they adopted in 2018 titled school board requires all BSD schools to have a menstrual products in restrooms. Our district adopted a policy citing a survey that shows 86% of females had experienced starting their period unexpectedly without the supplies they need. In fact, 98% of menrating individuals begin by age 15. This is a lot of students needing these supplies. Here are examples of some dispensers in our school and photos we took of them weeks ago. As you can see, all of them have been empty.

We reached out to our peers at Longfellow and found that their dispensers have been empty, too, as well as many at Long at Willard. Students have shared that they are stocked sometimes, but not always. We are asking that these dispensers are continually stocked and that menstrual products are acknowledged as being a critical resource for students. We need daily checks to ensure students have access to them in restrooms every day. So, why haven't they been stocked? Well, as we know, menstrual products come in adorable boxes and cylinders, and many students just can't resist to urge to play with them, create art installations like sticking pads to the walls or science experiments by exploring the true absorbency of tampons in the sink.

That said, students also love to wad up wet toilet paper and toss it upon the ceiling, but toilet paper is not taken away when students mis misuse it. We are doing our part by to bring awareness to the critical nature of these supplies and asking students to respect these products through posters and a video segment in our King News next week. Since 2021, it has been the law to supply period products in all California middle and high schools. Berkeley has always been standing up for what's right before it becomes a law, and we created our own policy in 2018. Please uphold the commitments you made to the students and future students eight years ago and keep menstrual products stocked in bathrooms. Thank you so much for taking your time to listen to our presentation and we are excited to see these changes in our schools.

We brought you one of our boxes to help you remember this commitment to Berkeley students.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Um here put it right there at the front display.

It has been displayed. Um, next on up we have um Moshe Cohen and right after that Ashley Dailyaly. Yes. Off my phone like the new way to do it is. Good. Good evening everyone. I come before the board today not just as a teacher as you all can see but in the plethora of roles I have played in this district. So, parent of three, previous member of the BEP PNO committee, a member of the BFT negotiating team, and a King Middle School site rep. And I ask the board in your jobs, are you receiving more than a 1% raise? Do you have more than 56% of your healthcare covered? Just step out of the shadows. Be honest with the people of Berkeley, please. A 1% raise is a pay cut for all of your teachers and classified staff if you consider that me too close. Step up now for all to see the babies, their parents, and all of the educators who are on the ground every day and explain openly and honestly why those who do the daily thankless work should accept another devaluation of our calling or or work with management to offer a competitive wage and benefits package when compared to the districts around This room was supposed to be full, right? Enough is enough. We can't wait. Remember that you're elected officials and this boardroom may be empty.

Thank you so much. The people of Berkeley, but the people of Berkeley are watching. Thank you. There's Ashley here. Hello, Ashley.

Good evening. My name is Ashley Dailyaly and I have the truly joyful job of teaching math to middle school and high school students at Berkeley Independent Study. Before that, I spent a decade at Berkeley High. Shout out to Caspam. I love this work and this community, but loving the job is no longer enough to make it sustainable. I'm the parent of a three-year-old and expecting another child in June. Like many educators, I used up my sick leave when my first child was born, and rebuilding it has been difficult. At the same time, our paychecks have have not kept pace with the cost of living in Berkeley. Rent, child care, and healthcare continue to rise, and too many educators can only remain here if they have a higher earning partner or take on extra jobs. We rallied today because this contract is about sustainability and dignity. When teachers basic needs are met, fair pay, fully covered healthcare like our San Francisco and Richmond neighbors just secured, and meaningful family leave, we can focus fully on our students. I want to raise my children in a Berkeley where the people who teach them can also afford to stay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, next sign up with Nimo Abina. Hi, amazing school board. Um, first I wanted to thank um, superintendent for bringing that allowing the film to be showed last night. Amazing. Um then tonight I just wanted to briefly um ask a question that has been brought up to me many times from Longfellow families and that is requesting an update on the original campus on Derby. Um what is the timeline? What progress

is being made? what progress can we um anticipate? Um and then for our current campus um it was brought up many times that um people are wanting more green space. So if there is any way to facilitate that um and then also work on the windows that leak. Thank you.

Thank you. Next sign up we have Lindsay Noelt. Good evening. The literacy monitoring report under discussion tonight shows encouraging reading growth in several grades, but it also highlights systemic bottlenecks. Kindergarten pacing is challenging. Explicit instruction techniques more need more precision. And our literacy coaches can't coach because they're still buried in intervention groups. We're deeply concerned by the report's narrow scope. By focusing on only two schools, 18% of our elementary schools, we risk overlooking implementation drift at the other nine elementary sites. Most importantly, mention of middle schools is entirely missing. Despite being flagged last August, there's currently no data on interventions or evidence that adolescent literacy training is reaching those classrooms. A checkup on two of our elementary schools is not a systemwide view. We urge the board to push for transparent reporting on middle school progress and a comprehensive look on MTSS implementation. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Um, we got two people online. Um, Andrea and Katy. Is Andrea ready? She's being promoted.

Hi. Can you hear me? Yes.

Okay, great. Yeah, this is Andrea Kang. I'm a parent of a seventh grader at King and um I would like to amplify concerns about the literacy um sorry the LIP monitoring report um particularly again um the lack of information about what's going on in the middle schools for literacy instruction. um as a parent I would love to get some clear transparent information from the district um about uh what curricula structured literacy curricula are being implemented and um there's some beautiful information on our district website about Wilson um morphology and rewards but um it's very difficult to get any information at Also, I'd really like to know more about that and was hoping to see that in the monitoring report. Um, and I'd like to request and I hope the board also would be interested in learning more about that. Like to request

Thank you so much. I'm sorry. Did um if you have further comments, please email them to us. Okay, we'll do. Thank you. Thanks. Um, next on up is Katie Clingman. Can you all hear me? Yes.

All right. Um, I'm speaking today to discuss something important to all BSD schools, the Black History Month ortorial Festival. When I first joined Berkeley School three years ago, I was thrilled to learn that there was a tradition of celebrating Black History Month through an ortorial festival. I thought it was such a great opportunity to celebrate black authors while having students practice the skills of public speaking and narration. In 2024 and 2025, my site was highly supported by the district to put on our festival. We were provided with a theme, lesson plans, text, books, a rubric, and ribbons. Camela Asher from Berkeley Independent Study and I were proud to put on a joint event between our sites and to send our sites winners to the all district ortorial festival. We knew as early as January the details of when this event will take place. This year would have been the 8th annual festival. I say would have because I learned only yesterday that the all district oral festival is not happening. After Miss Asher and I sent multiple emails, including three to the superintendent and one to every board member, we finally heard back from board member Shinowski, whom we are extremely grateful for her response. She informed me that the districtwide oratoral festival would not be happening this year due to the district focusing on other Black History Month events. I'm assuming this includes special film screening. I'm thrilled this event happened, but I do not understand why it could not be in addition to instead of in place of

Thank you so much. Uh you can email us your uh comments. Um, do we have any more online speakers? That looks like that's it. Uh, thank you, Miss Chavez. Um, so moving on, do we have committee comments with African-American success advisory committee? Okay. I'm sorry. Say that again. Mr. Some is online success um advisory committee. Okay. Uh, are they online? Yes. Okay. Thank you.

So they're being elevated to panelist. I don't see that one. Apologies. We're just waiting for panelist upgrades for online for committee comments. Par Fisher.

Okay. Thank you for raising your hand.

Thank you.

Okay. Am I on? Can you guys hear me? I'm so sorry. Yes, you are. I didn't know that I had to go through steps to get in. I was just listening. Okay. Sure. Thank you so much. Um, it has my time started. Uh, yes, it's starting now.

Okay. Thank you. Um, good evening board directors, superintendent, and members of the Berkeley community. Uh, my name is Par Fischer. I am the B USD I am a BUSD parent with children moving through some of the most important years um, from middle school. I have a eighth grader transitioning to um high school and then a 11th grader going into 12th grade. So preparing for that. Um I also serve on the superintendent's African-American success advisory committee. Um and like many families, I'm constantly thinking about uh what my children would need next to be successful. Um, as we continue to observe Black History Month, we want to first invite the community to participate in the many events, classroom activities, and celebrations happening across the district. These moments matter. They help students feel seen, valued, and connected to something bigger than themselves. We are especially proud to support the sitebased events, including an upcoming event um activity happening at Longfellow later this month. But Black History Month is not um just about looking back. It's also about making sure our students are supported right now, especially during key transitions. We know from family conversations and district data that the students can lose their footing during many big changes moving from elementary to middle school and from middle school to high school. These are exciting times, but they can also be overwhelming. academic expectations increase, social circles shift, systems get more complex, and if we are not proactive, some students can get lost in the process. That is why we want to encourage families to mark their calendars. Now, we know that um April seems very far away, but we know that uh transitioning and early preparation, it uh makes a difference. We invite you all to our fourth annual African-American

Success Framework transition fairs. Saturday, April 11th. 8th is for the 8th grade to 9th grade transition fair at Berkeley High School in the Donahghue Gym. And then Saturday, April 18th is from fifth grade to 6th grade transition fair um at the Martin Luther King Junior Middle School. These fairs are designed to help families see around the corner. um if you wish. Students can learn more about classes, graduation requirements, clubs, sports, leadership opportunities, and a plethora of other things. Uh families can connect with counselors, teachers, support staff, as well as just build a community or find their community. It is about making sure students can walk into their next year informed, confident, and supported. As we approach the budget development process, um we respectfully ask that the board continue to invest in our efforts in the African-American success framework and Latinx resolution. These are not just programs, but they are commitments to making sure that every student, especially during key transitions uh years, have support that they need to thrive. Black History Month reminds us that honoring history must go handinand supporting students in the present. As a parent, I want what's most what most parents want, which is to know what my children are moving on to next. Um, and that the system is ready to support them. Thank you so much for your leadership and continued uh commitment to the uh BUSD African-American students. I also wanted to say I was present at the um the documentary last night and what an honor and it just makes me further proud of uh the work that we are doing here um with the superintendent's African-American success framework. So, thank you so much for that treat.

Thank you so much. Um do we have any other public speakers? No, I don't see any miss. My um uh Zoom link has crashed. Um so yeah, thank you. Um great. So are there any other committee persons here in person? I don't believe so. Um so thank you so much. We will now um uh have our board member comments. Are there board members who would like to speak today? Director Sh.

I'll be nice and short. Um I just have a couple of quick comments. So, I want to first um shout out to our transportation department um and Superintendent Ford Morell um and City of Berkeley and AC Transit and CHP even um for getting together to talk about some of the issues facing our families who live on Grizzly Peak and their transportation issues. So, um I was really happy that we were able to come up with some creative solutions. It's not all the solutions that folks wanted, but um some different options to help that. So, uh thanks to transportation, B USD transportation. Um, last week I attended a bond oversight committee meeting and at that meeting we talked about a number of things including an upcoming March 17th facilities meeting and March 18th board presentation where we will get fully informed about the status of our Longfellow um on Sacramento facility uh Sylvia Mendes and also Mullering Field as well as some other updates. So, I encourage you all to attend that. Um, please let the Longfellow community know um that that is coming up and invite them to attend or watch. And um yeah, thanks. That's it for me tonight.

Thank you much, Vice President K.

Sure. Um, happy Black History Month, everyone. I was also able to attend the screening last night of Epicenter and like the superintendent and some of the commenters. I was also really moved by the story and Berkeley High's history as the first public high school in the country with an African-American studies department. If you weren't able to attend last night, I don't know how you get to see this film, but you should try to find it and watch it. It was really amazing. Um, I'm also grateful to all the public commenters who joined us this evening. And I especially want to acknowledge the students from King who looks like they had to go home and do their homework. But um I'm grateful to them for sharing about their work, talking with their peers about menstrual products and raising awareness about some of the challenges with ensuring that all students have access to menstrual products. Um I've been doing a little investigation of this issue and I can share um that the operations department has installed menstrual product dispensers in all girls restrooms, all genderneutral restrooms, and one boys restroom at all schools and three boys restrooms at Berkeley High School. Um, I'm also told that during the last walkthrough by the operations manager at King Middle School, it was discovered, as the students told us, that several of the dispensers had not been filled for some time. On the same day, this was discussed with the head custodian who then walked the buildings to check and refill all of the dispensers. The operations manager has spoken to and emailed the custodial staff to remind them that they must refill the dispensers daily. Um, and I've been assured that they will continue to conduct random checks to ensure that these dispensers remain filled daily. Um, so I'm really grateful to these students for raising this important issue and for their advocacy and their leadership. Um, and finally, I'm proud that on tonight's consent agenda, we will be voting on resolution 26-030, which is calling for an end to immigration enforcement surges that disrupt schools, affirming the right of

every child to safe, uninterrupted public education, and urging federal investment in education, and opposing any expansion of immigration, immigration enforcement funding absent enforcable guardrails. Um, this is an issue that's really important to all of us on the board. I believe making sure that all of our immigrant students and families are safe and protected in our schools. Thanks everyone for being here tonight.

Thank you so much, uh, Vice President Kin and Director Shinowski. Um, I'll keep mine short. Uh, thanks for bringing your hearts and minds as usual. Um and thanks for all the uh commenters who came up here uh teachers and students on uh the important issues that they have brought to us to bring to bear. Um also uh I also want to reflect as many of the other board members and the superintendent have reflected on the important values and lessons learned um from Black History Month. Um uh you know it's a uh also uh we want to mark the passing of a real um stalwart and titan of the civil rights movement Jesse Jackson and a fellow Chicagoan who we're proud just from him being a Chicagoan who really um moved the dial on the national level in many many ways with the rainbow push coalition and his work prior to that as well. Um just reflecting on his life uh you know uh at the intersections of segregation, integration, uh the election of the first American president into the present present time, you know, born in 1941. um you really see the scope of American history and the complexity and the um range of um uh challenging and um uh challenging contestations that we've had uh to the present day um from the 40s until today. um but also the um the exercise of advocacy and power and agency and uh he's someone that I I really appreciate uh on a personal level and I think all Americans do and I want to mark that

time um in uh during Black History Month. Um so I'm looking forward to our conversations um today and uh our consent calendar as well and with discussion. We have literacy action plan mid-year update and local control and uh accountability plan. Um this is also a challenging time for the district and across the country for public school districts as we navigate um very complex issues around funding and properly um providing uh full funding. our goal of full funding as all these board members here and this team here um have spoken of previously as a Berkeley value for education and that's something we strive for even within the constraints of the complexity of um the uh restrictions on federal funding and state funding uh that we deal with today. Um so uh thank you so much and next on up we have um our consent calendar. It is now time to move on to this. Is there um any questions from board members before there's a motion? No. Okay. Do you have a motion on the consent calendar?

I'll move. I'll second. Thank you. Do we have the eyes? I I It's passed. Um okay. Um great. Thank you so much. So, we're on to 13.1 literacy action plan. Good. I'm going to make introductions from here because Dr. Kim Gibbons is joining us virtually. That's right. Yeah. So, she's going to be doing the presentation, but I just wanted to provide an introduction and um some framing. Thank you.

Um so, Dr. Dr. Kim Gibbons is here to deliver the midyear report on our literacy action plan. Dr. Gibbons is the director of the center for applied research and educational improvement at the University of Minnesota. Um she is our designated monitor for this fourth year of targeted monitoring for the literacy action plan report. You might recall um from George Ellis's final monitoring report in August um he identified that while BUSD has demonstrated significant progress in many areas, we had not yet met um we had met some but not all of the requirements in goal three and he made a recommendation for targeted monitoring in this the fourth year in two specific areas. One was an additional year of targeted support for the principles at schools with low levels of implementation as identified um in uh in his final report. And the second is to collect evidence for classroom observations of tier one implementation of functional phonics and fish tank which are the new curriculum we are using in the elementary schools. And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Gibbons, who's joining us virtually from Minnesota.

Thank you, Jill. Good evening, President Chang, um members of the board, and Dr. Ford Moral. Uh I'm here tonight to provide a monitoring report midyear on the on the monitoring um for the 2526 school year. So, whoever is the kind person advancing my slides, we can go to the next slide. Um, so Jill mentioned that um I I've been uh working with your district for the last three years in the role of consultant for the literacy action plan. This year I'm serving both a dual role as um both a consultant and the monitor for targeted monitoring. So, um, as Jill stated, uh, George Ellis found that the district was in full compliance with goals 1, 2, and four. Goal one was to develop programs to improve general education, reading and language arts achievement for all students, especially those um at risk for reading disabilities, including dyslexia. two was to increase the system systematicity and intensity of tier two and tier three reading language arts intervention and goal four was special ed programs um would increase reading achievement by improving the quality of IEP goals. Those were in full compliance. Goal three was around the fidelity of literacy improvement um implementation. Um really recommending an additional year for two targeted elementary schools um as well as looking at universal tier one monitoring across all of the elementary schools for districtwide consistency. Next slide.

So, I'll um start with the report on the targeted monitoring um for for two schools. Um I began my my time in October of 2025 with um a full day site visit at each of the two schools um involving involved classroom observations across uh K through 5. along um with me doing the observations were the principles of both schools um literacy coaches as a district um office team of district um of uh I'm sorry the monitoring included um Jill Hogendike um Chris Alrech um Rose James um I could could be missing someone um but we had a full team. We did a um initial meeting in the morning um to kind of calibrate the observation tool that I was using was um called the functional phonics and morphology critical attributes checklist. So uh I had that uh the teachers were told in advance that that's what would be used and members other members of the team used that as well. So, two full days of observations at both schools. Um following each day there was a debrief at the end of the day where we all um shared some of our comments um what we had observed strengths uh areas of growth and um really laid out the plan um for virtual monitoring which is occurring monthly between November and March and then I will be out for

another site visit in April. and then a final month of virtual support in May. So, um so the so the targeted monitoring included this the site visits in the fall. Um really what I was looking for was to see whether functional phonics and morphology was being implemented um in the classrooms and um in every classroom I observed it implemented. Um, I will say that what I wasn't looking for was complete fidelity to the curriculum. I recognize that um, your district is actually rolling out two curricula this year um, which can be very challenging um, for staff to to learn two different curriculum at the same time. So, I really wanted to see evidence that it was being implemented. There were I'll go over some of the strengths that that I observed as well as um some of the focal areas for growth in the virtual meetings that occurred. Um we started each meeting with following up from the previous month of um followup. We had some to-dos that principles and coaches were going to do. So we would check in about that. Um and then we'd hear from we would look at um some of the observational walkthrough data that has been occurring with each of the sitely the principles as well as district office staff and then um really started to to lean into looking at data. So, um your district is using um dibbles as well as star reading and doing um three times a year benchmark assessments in the fall, winter, and spring. So,

November we um looked at the data um for both of each of the targeted schools and started looking at um the percentage of kids that were meeting or exceeding our proficiency standards as well as looking at kids um that hadn't yet reached those standards yet. Um, we looked at progress monitoring graphs um for the students that were in interventions and I've been doing a lot of um think alouds and kind of job embedded learning with the sites on how to look at the graphs to make sure that the goals are ambitious that we are collecting data regularly um at least bi-weekly for students. um when we notice that student progress um we're not seeing the growth that that we want, I've recommended that they increase the um progress monitoring schedule to weekly so that we can collect more data points. And then we've been working a lot at looking at student data and using some decision-making rules to determine whether kids are on track. Um whether they're exceeding the goals that have been set for them, which is always a really good sign. Um as well as troubleshooting and talking about students that aren't making the progress that we've expected. Um and then we always end with kind of next steps for the next month of virtual support. Um and you know the principles have been um very good about providing um good data around the progress that they're seeing in the building as well as um challenges that exist. So we can go to the next slide. Um so I want you know I want to point out that um if we go back and we look at

the August final monitoring report um that noted that um two these two schools were partial in partial compliance um that principal observations were inconsistent, feedback logs were incomplete and that there was a risk of implementation drift. And what I will say is um if you look at the monitoring report, you can see the reports for each of the two schools, but there were really I'm going to focus on the consistent areas of strength and some of the focal areas that emerged across both sites. Um so some of the things that came out um in the fall observation um was was pacing. And pacing is actually a very natural um challenge after districts have gone from long-term use of loosely aligned materials uh literacy materials aligned to research. Um teachers began they they can get they're accustomed to adjusting lessons freely skipping components um extending favored activities. And when we make the shift to a more structured literacy program, particularly phonics and morphology, that really requires tight sequencing, daily cumulative review, explicit modeling, and protected instructional minutes. So, it's it's often normal to see some transitions um to struggle struggles with transition, particularly in the early grades, kindergarten and first grade. and um it's very natural to have difficulty completing every lesson component. So the strengths that I saw is um you know based on my October visit and then feedback input from the principles and

the teams are that the instructional routines are becoming much more efficient. Um teachers are starting to demonstrate increased fluency and managing all the materials and the leaders are observing more teacher decision making um during instruction which is really positive to see. Um the other area of strength um of growth has been in leadership and coaching. you know, recognizing that your literacy coaches um up until this year have really spent the bulk of their time providing direct services, intervention services to students. This year um it's really important to make the shift when teachers are learning again to new curricula that there is support in the classroom um to to really help them implement the curriculum with fidelity. So as far as the leadership and coaching goes, um the the instructional leadership both with the principles and the literacy uh co is visible um active. Uh teachers um have been demonstrating uh openness to feedback and reflective practices. Um both schools are starting to um engage in peer observation structures so that if um a teacher is struggling with a particular aspect of the lesson uh that they can go watch a colleague that maybe that area is a strength for that colleague and um and that's a really I think good support to have in place as teachers are learning all of these new routines. um coaching capacity remains a a critical lever and I you know I think that there's starting to become a shift to real differentiated co coaching where

teachers are in or coaches are in classrooms um where that support is is needed the most. Um, and both of the schools I think have really um demonstrated a a good shift from compliance driven monitoring to improvement driven reflection. Um, so lots of lots of kudos there. Um as far as progress monitoring goes and alignment with a multi-tered system of support framework um the dibbles screening and progress monitoring um are being consistently administered. Uh there are data review structures that are are in place. Um tier 2 intervention groups are being formed based on the screening data and the MTSS structures are functioning. Um though there's still a continu continued refinement needed to really strengthen tier 1 um small groupoup differentiation so that we're really targeting and working with students who need that extra support in the the general education reading block so that we really re try to reduce our reliance on having students served in supplemental inter intervention groups. So, um I I think most importantly I I didn't see any evidence of implementation drift at either either site. Um I will my expectations will shift this spring and April when I go back to observe. Um I would like to see some progress with some of the things um that I where I observed in October and some of the challenges that have been that I've been working on um with the building

principles. So if we go to the next slide, um looking at some of the midyear data patterns um that have been happening in both schools, um we're seeing we're seeing um in kindergarten and and second grade um some variable growth patterns observed um that really aligned with with some of our instructional refinement areas around pacing, transitions, and tier one um tier one differentiation. Um and I also just want to point out too that it is natural again when when schools are teachers are implementing two brand new curriculum in that first full year of implementation there there is often growth present but sometimes it can be uneven. um some grades will surge um and I think we're seeing that in grades 1 3 4 and five where we're really seeing some strong growth in the area of oral reading fluency significant movement to at or above benchmark. Um fourth grade um performance um was was a actually a real a real strength across those grade levels. Um, and it's not uncommon to see some of the earlier grades show slower acceleration as routines like there the teachers are really learning new routines, new structures and typically we can see a little bit of slower growth but would expect to see that growth start to accelerate as the teachers become more familiar and um really really get to a level of kind of automaticity with with

the curriculum and the materials. Um so again um growth is present. The variability aligns with some of the identified focus areas that I'll talk about next and um currently not seeing any um evidence of systemic regression occurring. So, if we go to the next um slide, I just want to um point out some of the um some of the focus areas um that we'll be looking at again in the spring of um 2026. I think the primary work ahead is is really about strengthening the instructional precision rather than rebuilding systems. These are refinement areas. um and they often represent typical leverage points in the first full year of curriculum implementation. So some of the things that have been um called out that the coaches and principles are working on is um kindergarten pacing and transitioning um functional phonics and morphology is set up with a number of different lesson components which require transition within the instructional block. Um so that that is an area um that's a growth area um along with uh consistent access to decodable text in in kindergarten. Um we really are working on strengthening the explicit modeling within a gradual release. So I think the simplest way to describe that is the structured literacy materials are really designed to um follow an I do, we do, you do approach where the I do is the teacher doing explicit modeling, then guided practice with all of the kids,

giving all of the kids opportunities to practice and get feedback. um and then working independently. Um that's the you do with the teacher circulating and giving lots of of of feedback to students. So um we saw instances where um there were there were a lot of um we do and some you do. Some teachers needed to focus a little bit more on that I do component. Um, and that's um the lit I have to give um real high compliments to the literacy coaches at both of these schools. They're they're really leaning in and and providing support um in a positive way to the teachers that are are working to implement these new curricula. We also um need to continue to work on differentiation within that reading block so that there are opportunities for the teacher to pull small groups of students that might need that extra support um who are also currently some are receiving um tier 2 supplemental interventions. um some kids are are getting um support and differentiation and aren't receiving interventions yet, but their progress data is being monitored closely. And then finally um in the area of coaching, you know, really as we're making that shift from the literacy coaches um being the intervention teachers to now being that classroom instructional coach. Um that's been a balance that we've we've had to you know really talk about with each of the principles and they're making um some really nice changes um to provide more scaffolded differentiated support based on on teachers who need that that support more than others.

So if we go to the next slide. Um so that's the that's the targeted monitoring for the two schools um that were that were identified. Um the next area is is looking at universal tier one monitoring across all of the schools. So I'm not going out to all of the schools. I've I've been um charged with the two focal schools, but we're we've um your district has really done a nice job of setting up um universal tier one monitoring across all of the schools. Um so really working on um doing there there's lots of walkthroughs that have been happening both from the principles and the literacy coaches as well as district office leaders um are in classrooms regularly and um I think it's it's um it's been nice to have the focus be on the two focal schools along with tier one um across all of the schools because we're actually seeing some similar patterns um that are come that are coming out um which is just a good um triangulation of of data. You know, we have a lot of data that's being collected through bullseye observations as as well as um literacy coach and principles in the classrooms. So, we're really trying to prevent that that drift um through that system level consistency. Um there's been um revisiting of expectations that have have occurred um with some October professional learning sessions clarifying tier one instruction instructional minutes some of those foundational skill routines and um material expectations.

the principles are planning and doing calibration sess sessions with the district leaders um on those instructional look fors there's also been some class um targeted classroom observations um the center that I direct at the University of Minnesota um is is um created the functional phonics and morphology curriculum and I have a team of 27 um staff members ers at the university that are providing targeted support around the country to different um districts using this and they've actually been on site a couple of times um to to be in other classrooms aside from the two targeted schools that I've been at. Um and then um I'm meeting with the tier one group from the district office on a monthly basis. Um so we go over the bullseye implementation data, the walkthroughs that the um district leaders are doing um the professional learning that's being provided and um and looking at data trends as well with um the dibbles and star data. So the next slide. Um so Bullseye is the one of the monitoring infrastructure um systemwide tools and um you know the the principles um when I go out to the virtual meetings they're reporting on uh looking at their bullseye observations and giving feedback. And then when I meet with the tier one um group across the district, they're also sharing their observations um with me um some of the evidence that they're collecting, how they're documenting that um and also making

decisions about coaching um allocations. Um I also know that that their um principles are supposed to do at least 60 informal observations annually and then provide that immediate feedback and structured follow-up conversations. And those are things that I'm checking in on with the two schools and the tier tier one team at the district um is managing that across all of the other schools. Next slide. Um so you know mirror you know some of the the um patterns and implementation um status strengths are really that formalized um instructional monitoring infra infrastructure with documented observation expectations using the bullseye data really prioritizing and protecting the instructional minutes and the pacing expectations. Um and you know in my opinion really providing a robust professional learning um structure with PD days, site release planning, literacy collaboration um sessions with that active um embedded coaching visible in each of the classrooms. Uh next slide which the midware midyear data trends um pretty pretty sign pretty much aligned with the two focal schools. Um they're seeing strong um oral reading fluency growth in grades 1, four and five. Movement from below to at benchmark in grades 2 through five. Um, kindergarten growth is happening but slower compared to um, previous year's monitoring. Um, the star reading data is also showing modest but positive gains.

Um, again strong um, grade four and five movement into moving kids um, above um, exceeding where we want them to be at benchmark. um with comprehension really emerging emerging as the the next instructional focus area um which is supported through fish tank. So, some of the just the continuing emerging focusing areas are pretty similar to the two focal schools, pacing, transitions, lesson completion, particularly in kindergarten, continued explicit modeling of routines and um and checks for understanding, clarifying coaching roles and and balancing um intervention with that tier one support. And then really aligning the early grade outcome patterns, looking at where we're maybe not seeing the growth that we want to see, and really focusing on instructional refinement efforts in those areas. Next slide. So, um, just to kind of wrap things up, um, right now, um, the midyear evidence that I've collected, it confirms that Berkeley, uh, Unified is successfully moved, um, from system development to active system enactment and their universal implementation of adopted curricula is established. instructional leadership is visible and active and monitoring systems are are functioning consistently. So, um I think again the the we're in a refinement phase right now um with this first year of implementation and um the spring pipe priorities will continue to be strengthening instructional precision, early grade pacing, tier one differentiated tier one differentiation

um and on track um a positive path towards sustained fidelity and continued um compliance with goal three. So, I will um give you a longer targeted monitoring report at the conclusion of the school year um where I can really synthesize the spring data and outline um the progress that's been made and recommendations in terms of long-term sustainability. So, with that, I will um conclude and I'm I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you so much, Dr. Gibbons. Um, board members, are there questions? Sure. Director Shinowski,

I'm sure a literacy expert is going to have lots of good questions. Um, I just have one. Um, you didn't talk a lot about uh teacher experience. And so I'm wondering how um you assessed or measured or got any feedback from the actual teachers that are working with these um new tools and doing this work.

Thank you for that question. Um I have been getting regular feedback. I know that um that there are feedback loops that are in place um that um Mr. Alrech Alrech is collecting in terms of getting um input from teachers on the that there's a way that they can provide feedback as well as getting feedback from principles at the monthly principal or uh meeting or weekly principal meetings. um the literacy coaches, our TI coaches are gathering regularly. Um so he updates, you know, when we have our tier 1 monthly meetings, I'm getting updates on that as well. And I guess then is that positive? Is it being received positively by the teachers? And um are they feeling supported in the implementation? I I I think that probably when um Jill talks about the the local the local literacy plan can kind of go a little bit deeper into that. Um I've heard, you know, the the two schools that I that I was in, um I've heard a lot of of positive feedback. I've also, you know, I'm also aware that um this is really hard um for teachers to implement. I I'm I it really I've been in education 31 years. I've been a district administrator for 20 years. I've gone through curriculum adoptions and and it's hard and it's hard harder when you have two, you know, have a knowledge building curriculum and a phonics and morphology curriculum. So I would expect um that it's not that you

know there's probably some teachers who have some really good routines established um but you know this is a big change um compared to the last 20 years. So I I can imagine that there that there's still um there's still that still working on that fluency with the different routines. Thanks so much. Thank you. Uh, Vice President Corn,

thank you so much for your presentation. I really appreciated the detail and the specificity um, and the calling out the district-wide systems that are in place for the use of data, for instructional leadership, for improving our coaching practices. Um, and I I really appreciated the way you talked about the two focal schools in relation to the work being done to shift the whole system to better support all schools. Um, and it sounds like you're really leveraging the work with the two focal schools to bring in our district-wide team to really um, build their muscle around doing that tier one monitoring across the whole system. So, thank you for all of that. Um, my biggest question, I think, is about the kindergarten data and the the early grade pacing challenges that you've called out. And I guess I'm just wondering if you could speak a little more to what are the specific challenges in the early grades. And it also brought up a question for me about our TK curriculum. Um, which maybe is outside of your scope, but it made me wonder what we're doing in TK and how that's preparing students for kindergarten.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that question. Um I think that what I what I observed in um kindergarten in particular for for one one of the schools um one of the schools the kindergarten teachers um were on a field trip the day I was there. Um but we've been following up with um the the literacy coordinator has been in in that classroom. I'm getting um some videos sent my way. But really what what I observed um and again it you know it's October and the you know beginning of the school year just a just a lot of difficult like there didn't seem to be um a lot of routines established for kids um how to trans transition from the carpet and circle time like back to their desks. it. Um there were some longer transitions and that was really one of my recommendations um was to really back up and really focus on teaching some instructional routines to kids for the transition um to get that really tight and and kids at that age they need a lot of practice and a lot of repetition. So actually um you know taking some time every day to practice proactively like before we get you know before we even get to the reading block. Lots of review on how how we do that and and what the routines are. And I I know that both from the district office um there was followup um between Rose and Erica were out were out supporting teachers um in those grade levels as well as the local literacy coaches. Um and I'm not aware I I'm not I I

haven't really been involved with TK. So I'm sorry I can't speak to that more. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Um, I really appreciate the effort that's been put into this implementation and also the update. Um, are there any other questions? I don't have them. They're those are super helpful. Thank you. Um, and I hope you're staying warm out there in Minnesota. Um, and next on I'm not sure about warm. Um, but I am ready for bed because it's 11 o'clock here.

It's late out there. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna duck out now, but thank you. I've really appreciated um the time I've spent and the growth I've seen in your district. You have a lot to be proud of.

Great. Thank you. We're very pleased with it. Thank you. Um and next on up, we have the local control and accountability plan, the midyear update as well, 13.2. How you doing? All right. Um, good evening members of the board, superintendent, and members of the public. I'm Jill Hoganike, associate superintendent here in BUSD, and I am excited to be joined here at the DAS with uh Dr. Lina Sweeney who's our director of our Bria department. Uh Rebecca Weissman who is one of our district TSAs also in the Bura department. Um Joya Bach who you met at the study session but just to introduce formally to the public is our new director of of state and federal programs and special projects. And then director Chris Albeck um who leads our curriculum and instruction uh department. So, we are here I think. Oh, wait. That didn't work. No. Oh, I thought I was going to Sorry. Okay. Thank you, Sam. Uh, we're here this evening um to present the midyear update on um the local control accountability plan or the LCAP. In

tonight's presentation, we are also going to highlight our LCAP midyear metrics with a spec specific focus on English language arts and math. We are also going to review the midyear LCAP expenditures and then share our ongoing work for the development of the 2627 LCAP plan, which is going to be the third and final year of the current three-year plan. Next slide, please. The local control and accountability plan um has goals that serve as our framework for what we hope to achieve regarding outcomes for all our students um and outlines the available funding. aligned to those actions and services um that are intended to serve our BSD students with a particular focus on our unduplicated students uh who are either our students or and our students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch, our English language learners, and our foster youth. Um, on the next slide, just for some background, uh, Senate Bill 114 requires districts to present a mid-year report no later than February 28th each year. Um, and that report must include all available mid-year outcome data. Um, all available mid-year outcome data is also attached to this board agenda as a spreadsheet. Um, we have, uh, all of our outcome data with our identified student groups in that spreadsheet that is available. We're not going to go over every single line today. We're focusing um, we're going to highlight a couple of things. Um, and then the second requirement is to provide a mid-year expenditure and implementation report. So, we'll do that for you this evening. On the next slide, just a reminder, BUSD has five LCAP

goals. Um goal one and one is around providing high quality um tier one support classroom instruction. Goal two is providing the necessary and effective academic and behavior interventions. Goal three is focused on wellness and belonging. Uh goal four partnership and engagement. And goal five is specific to a single single school in BSD, the Berkeley Technology Academy. Um and on slide seven, we have attempted in this three-year LC cap to line our LCP align our LCAP goals with the five pillars in our emerging strategic plan that you see there on the right hand side. Um and then with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Sweeney on the next slide who is going to review um and highlight some of our California school dashboard data. Thank you, Jill. And good evening, superintendent and board of directors. Um, it's great to be with you tonight. I'm excited to speak with you about some of our dashboard data, give a brief overview of that. We've we've talked about this at some of the previous meetings, so we'll we'll go through that and then to dive into some of our midyear data around um English language arts and mathematics. and of particular um

excitement is is sharing there. Yeah. Is sharing we we went and interviewed a number of practitioners and so we'll be sharing some of those um snippets from those interviews as well. Okay. So, all right. We I'll I'll have you do it. Yeah. All right. Thanks. Um Okay. Thank you. Um, so just briefly, this slide helps ground us in why the California State Dashboard matters for us at the basic level. It it is like a report card for us as a school district and communicates how we're doing in a common statewide um way. So we'll we'll move on to the next slide. Thank you. All right. So this slide highlights two important shifts in the dashboard for 2026 that change how we think about accountability moving forward. First science will move from being an information only to becoming a full state indicator. That means CAST, California State Science Test will now receive a and now does receive a color-coded performance level just like English language arts and mathematics which has real implications for us. Um, science results will now factor into our state and federal support determinations. And in short, science um is no longer kind of a nice to look at added data point, but is part of our accountability system. And um second, as we've talked about in in some previous presentations and we'll we'll review here as well, uh student growth in English language arts and mathematics has now become part of the core framework. Last year it was shared just forformational purposes and um and

now student growth in grades 4 through 8 is becoming increasingly formally integrated into the dashboard. And so this this is an important shift in how progress is being measured. We're not looking just at where students land, but also how much growth we were we're able to make with our student groups. Next slide. Okay. Oh, okay. Okay. Um, so this slide shows our our 2025 California State dashboard results for Berkeley Unified School District at the overall district level. Overall, the district has three indicators in blue, three in green, and one still remaining in yellow. That reflects a steady improvement across several areas with some clear movement in key academic indicators. In particular, California um excuse me, our college and career metric moved from yellow to blue in both ELA and mathematics moved from green to blue. And that's a meaningful shift, especially given how stable these indicators tend to be year-over-year. This suggests that that recent instructional investments and coherence in curriculum and supports are starting to show up in our statewide measures. Right. Next slide. I think you have to click it twice and to move through to the next slide. Okay. Can you go back one? Thank you. Um, this slide. Yeah, thank you. So, this sh excuse me, this slide shows how our district's 2025 English language arts results on the California state dashboard. Um, as I

mentioned before, our English language arts overall metric is in blue and our distance from standard has increased compared to last year. This reflects continued improvement in average performance across the district as it's one of the indicators that's moved from green to blue in this cycle. Um, when we disagregate by student groups, we recognize that the picture is more mixed. We we celebrate that we have no groups currently in the red. However, we still recognize that we have multiple groups in the orange and also in the yellow. So, we're we um we recognize that and and consider that an area that we're focusing upon. Next slide, please. Okay. So, again, um here this shows our overall score in mathematics which is in blue moving from green in 2024. Um, our districts our distance from standard increased by more than 18 points from last year. And that's a notable year-over-year gain and reflects systemwide improvement in our average performance. Again, here we recognize that um and celebrate that we have no groups in the red. However, we notice that and note that we have um some of our focal groups that are remain in the orange and the yellow. Next slide, please. So this slide introduces student growth in English language arts, which is a newer way that the state is helping us look at progress. Growth looks at how much students have improved compared to how much improvement was expected based on where they started the year before. So, it's not just about who's proficient. It's about whether students are making more, less, or about the same amount of progress that we would expect.

And this metric measures students in grades 4 through 8. This slide disagregates by our subgroups which helps us see not just whether our students are improving but whether growth growth excuse me is happening equitably across our student groups. We do not have any student groups in the minimal growth range which is an important baseline. Several groups are showing accelerated growth. At the same time, we see moderate growth for African-American students, students experiencing homelessness, and long-term English language learners to name a couple of our groups. For some of our smaller groups, we don't have reportable growth categories because the number of students is very small, which you'll see noted there under no performance category. That doesn't mean the outcomes don't matter for those students. It means that we need to look at site level and individual student data to ensure that those students are being supported. Next slide. Okay. Um growth continues to be our focus. This slide shows student growth in mathematics. As in with English language arts, growth looks at how much students have improved compared to what would be expected given where they started the year prior. It helps us see progress over time, not just the end ofear proficiency. As you can see here, our students overall made accelerated growth compared to their peers across the state. Next slide, please. Thank you. This slide shows our math our math um growth by student group, which helps us see where progress is accelerating and where it's more typical. We do not have any student groups in the minimal or moderate growth ranges which is an important baseline

for us. Several groups are showing accelerated growth as you may note. We also see exceptional growth for some of our groups. As in with ELA, a few of our smaller groups do not have a performance category because the total number is is small. Okay, next slide and I'll pass back over to you, Joe. All right. So, we're going to go over um some of our midyear data. It just it's important for the board and the public to know that we have a lot of data in the appendix. So, um if you want details on any of one of these pieces, you can um likely find it there. Um we I do want to orient um folks to the midyear metrics. Um as I said, the spreadsheet um was attached to this board agenda item. Um there's a screenshot of what that looks like here. Um and the yellow arrow is pointing to the midyear data as of December 31st, 2025. Some of these measures we already shared with you in October when we did the data um update um because that reflected our CASP data and we're going to be focused on our screening data um you can see some of that here um for the w the fall to winter assessment um screening window. Um again you will find in the appendix there is a slide for each of the goals um to break down some of those mid-year measures. Um before we start I do want to remind us of our uh theory of change and improvement recognizing that ideal results require ideal behaviors. We have been focused on implementation of tier 1 in both ELA and math but obviously with a primary focus on literacy in the elementary grades um which has included a lot of collaboration um and support. I

do want to shout out our sitebased specialists, our um our literacy TSAs, our RTI TSAs, our ELD TSAs, our Brea TSAs um and our uh special education um TSAs because they have um really um done a lot of the work to provide some of the professional development um as we've implemented that new curriculum. Um we also know that our purpose and systems drive behaviors. Um you saw from Dr. Gibbons report that we are really um honing in on the data informed practices relative to progress monitoring um and then using that MTSS model to identify students for additional support. Um, we have received differentiated assistance funds from the Alama County of Office of Education, which has allowed us to continue to train our sitebased specialists in the Orton Gillingham program, which has been an important lever for that tier 2 support. We also know that mindsets inform behaviors and we approach this work from a continuous improvement mindset understanding that we are not just looking at both uh qualitative and quantitative data but we do have feedback data particularly with regard to our literacy implementation. Um and with that I am believe I'm going to turn it over to Chris.

Sure. Uh good evening everyone. Uh back one side please. Oh, sorry. Do you want to do your own?

So, the next series of slide series of slides will be going into the midyear screening data. So, in Berkeley Unified School District, we screen our students three times a year as we approach our final summit of assessment to see how our students are making progress throughout the school year. You heard uh Dr. Kim Gibbons speak a little bit about that at some of our grade levels and now we'll go into that a little bit further if that's okay. We'll first start off with English language arts. Um, just as a reminder for our community, we uh use the Dibbles assessment for our students in kinder, first, and second grades. And Dibbles is composed of a series of subtests that um assess FMIC awareness, phonics, and reading fluency. At the upper grade levels, starting at third and then heading to 10th, we use the STAR reading assessment. Um, and then before we go into what the midyear screening is currently looking like, we do want to bring back to what we have set our intentions uh for this year as it relates to literacy. So, this was a slide that was presented to our board of education and to our community in October during our fall data dive around what our big goals were around this year as it relates to literacy. So, just uh a recap of what those were. Our first one was really around ensuring instructional integrity to our new set of instructional materials to making sure that the new set of instructional materials that we have spent uh certain a significant amount of resources time and allocations to uh to bringing to our educators are implemented with fidelity. Uh the second part of our literacy actions for this year was really providing the time and structures for our educators to not only be using but to learn how to use and to get support and to provide feedback on what is working and what's not working in the first year of implementation. We know that there's always going to be some speed bumps. Uh and we're looking forward to sharing with you all what we are hearing and what we're doing to address those speed bumps. And lastly,

uh we are looking to deepen knowledge of the curriculum and specifically not only how the curriculum is meeting all of our students, but how is our curriculum really meeting uh our focal groups and helping us achieve that 3x5 target as a school district. So those are some of our intentions and we're seeing how those are playing out in our screening data and we look very much to presenting to you all on March 4th. I believe that might be our next board meeting around our English language arts curriculum implementation update for you all and I'll pass it back over to director Sweeney to go over our English language arts midyear screening data.

All right, before back go back we're going to was going to give everybody a quiz. Um what was our t what's our target for our metrics? Wait, director Shinoski I can't hear you.

3x5. All right. Okay. Okay, we have a 3x5 target. So, we are going to take a look at um our data in that context. Good job. Um so, this we're going to start with our youngest learners in K2. Um 73% of our students in grades K through two showed proficiency on the winter dibbles assessment, which was a 5% increase from fall. Um most of the students in our program groups that you see listed here showed progress um with English learners meeting our 3x5 target and exceeding it with a 12% increase between fall and winter. Um we did want to call out grade level data um which you see here on this next slide. Um districtwide 73% of our students um were at or above benchmark. um kindergarten students um did have a slight increase but it wasn't as much of an increase as our teachers had noted in the prior year which Dr. Gibbons addressed in um her uh presentation. Um and you can also see that first and second grade um also had some gains and we're going to look at a little qualitative data.

Yeah. So for this ne next portion um Jill will present the um the quantitative data sets and I'll present the qualitative data set. So we'll switch back and forth. Um and so here we have added a qualitative data slide that shift us from from just looking at screening data to adding what we learned from interviews and classroom visits to better understand what's behind the numbers that you see. These conversations help us see how tier one instruction and multi-tered systems of support are actually showing up in practice, particularly here in elementary English language arts. This example here that you see through the voice of Jackie P, a kindergarten teacher at Ruth Acti demonstrate what tier 1 literacy instruction can look like and feel like in the classroom. coherent practices, research aligned instruction and differentiation in real time. The goal here really though isn't to highlight as a a single teacher, but to lift up concrete examples of what's working, what it feels like for students and where our system supports are landing well. together these qualitative insights I hope and I think help us to connect the dashboard and the growth data to what's happening day-to-day for students and for educators and I think I passed my all right we're going to go uh to third through fifth grade um with this next slide um as of the winter assessment 77% of our three three through fifth graders demonstrated proficiency which was a 3% increase from fall. So, we met our 3x5 target there. Uh again, most subgroups that you see here, um this represents our ethnic subgroups demonstrated um some progress, though we did have lower

proficiency rates among our black and Latinx students, which is means that we need continued targeted instruction and intervention to accelerate learning. We also wanted to show the grade level breakdown. Um so you can see here third grade had an increase to 72% at or above benchmark. Um but we also decreased the number of students and with urgent identified for urgent intervention by 20. So that was a pretty significant drop for um for the third grade. Um that's the one I'll highlight there and I'm going to turn it back to Dr. Sweenies for some qualitative information.

Thank you. So, some of these invivo quotes come from our work with our response to intervention TSAs who are doing amazing work. Um, and across multiple schools, we're hearing consistent patterns. Students in early grades are moving closer to at or above benchmark in literacy. and schools are using universal screening and progress monitoring more systematically to make timely tier 2 support decisions. These examples here paint a small picture of how teams are using dibbles and star to identify students in the yellow range or the the need support range and how they're responding with targeted supports either through response to intervention or in-class supports with teachers and specialists. So next slide please. And here again on this slide we highlight the voices of two of our practitioners. Um one is Angelica Perez, a literacy coach at Thousand Oaks and another is Evan Anderson, response to interventionist also at Thousand Oaks. Um, what we're hearing is that this isn't just about pulling small groups. It's about building teacher capacity and making data usable in real classrooms. Coaches are providing tailored job embedded supports to help teachers adjust instruction and students themselves are beginning to understand and track their own progress. That studentf facing use of data is a powerful motivator and reinforces a growth mindset around learning. So these qualitative examples help explain how the growth we're seeing in ELA and also in mathematics, which we'll talk about more subsequently, is being produced through consistent assessment cycles, aligned instructional practices, and

coordinated tier 2 supports. Next slide, please. And here again, this slide shows a concrete example of what tier 2 progress monitoring looks like in practice. This is an an actual screenshot of um a student's progress monitoring graph. So you can see all those little blue dots there are all the different progress monitoring probes. The green line is the goal that was made for that student and the small orange dots are the accuracy data points. Um, this these progress monitoring graphs are a key part of making multi-tered systems of support function as intended with targeted interventions, regular progress monitoring, and the ability to make instructional adjustments when students are not yet on track. And these kind of practices help explain how we move students from below benchmark toward grade level expectations, especially in the early grades where literacy growth is most foundational. All right, we're going to go to middle school. Um here you see that 78% of our middle school students showed proficiency on the winter star assessment, which it was a 2% increase from fall. also didn't quite meet meet that 3x5 target. Of note there though is that we reduced the urgent intervention by nearly 40 students. So that was a significant shift there. Our English learners did meet the 3x5 target with a 5% increase between fall and winter. Um but again we do have lower proficiency rates among other program groups which are areas that we will need to continue to focus on. We're swapping back and forth. Okay, so

this slide here highlights what um tier one improvement and a focus on multilingual learners looks like at the secondary levels. Particularly highlighting here our um English language development teacher on special assignment, Kathleen Marte, whom we we interviewed to see um how she was um implementing and experiencing tier one intervention for multilingual learners at the secondary level. So what's important here is that this is not about separate supports outside of the classroom necessarily. It's about strengthening core instruction. And here that's um specifically through professional development around constructing meaning. Teachers across content areas are being trained to use intentional scaffolds and language support so that multilingual learners can engage with rigorous grade level work inside the tier 1 classroom. Okay, next slide. And oh, you got it. There's Crystal. Yeah. So, this slide here um highlights what regular assessment and progress monitoring looks like at the secondary level alongside the relational work that makes multi-tered systems of support effective in practice. This example here reflects how intervention at middle school is grounded in strong relationships and culturally responsive practices which are sens essential conditions for students to engage with supports. And here we highlight specifically the work of Crystal Pashelle who's at Longfellow Middle School. Next slide. And here we see the complimentary progress monitoring graph for students at the secondary level. Um the probe

that's used is oral reading fluency. This is the literacy screener subtest that is the most sensitive to change and is researchbased and norm referenced. This shows a concrete example of tier 2 progress monitoring at the middle school level and how it connects directly to our LCAP actions. In alignment with LCAP action 2.1 on response to intervention and instruction, interventionists are using structured literacy approaches such as Orton Gillingham and regularly progress monitoring with Dibbles to track whether students are moving toward their reading goals and I'll pass to you Chris. Yeah,

we'll now transition to taking a look at mathematics. Uh next slide please. So unlike with ELA in math, we our screening assessment is only the STAR reading assessment. So starting in first grade and going till 10th grade and no doubles in math. Uh next slide please. Just a reminder again going back to where we have set our intentions for math for this school year. Uh first was around beginning the process for a curriculum adoption at the elementary level to review new math instructional materials. The second intention for this year was to really thinking about strengthening early math. There was a conversation earlier about TK. Uh we would love to do a presentation on TK and all the great work happening there. Um but for our intention this year around math, we've been doing a lot of work at the TK and the P PK3 alignment uh with a lot of TK learning labs going along uh across the district. And thirdly, uh we're really thinking about developing the math infrastructure as it relates to intervention. Um mimicking a lot of the early work that we did around literacy, thinking about diagnostic assessment and intervention across our system that is common and aligned. Uh so doing a lot of that as it relates to mathematics. So those were our three um intention items for this school year. And now we'll go into seeing how they are paying off. All right, we're going to first and second grade where 66% of our first and second graders showed proficiency, which was a 3% increase from the fall. Um, most subgroups again here showed progress with our black and African-American students increasing their proficiency rates by 4%. So, getting closer to that five on the 3x5 target. um our in our third through fifth grade um there was a 2% increase from 62% to 64%

fall to winter and again most of the subgroups uh showed progress as well um but here our black and African-American students in the third through fifth grade increased um but by 2%. So here we highlight um what MTSS look differentiation intervention looks like in elementary schools through the lens of Sam Nicholson who's a response to intervention and math coach at John Mir Elementary School. um to highlight the connection between our LCAP metrics um specifically here LCAP 2.1 and 2.7 our schools are narrowing in on a small set of high leverage early numerousy skills number sense quantity early addition and subtraction and place value and using data to determine which students need additional support. These examples help us to see how we're operationalizing our LCAP commitments in early math, tightening tier one foundations, providing targeted tier 2 supports, and using ongoing assessment cycles to adjust instruction so students can build the foundational numerousy that they will need for later math success. Next slide, please. All right. So, in middle school, we did not see while we saw growth, not as much growth. Um, with a 1% increase. We have about 58% of our middle school students that are demonstrating proficiency as measured by the STAR. Um, and again, some minimal progress across our subgroups um with our black African-American students increasing proficiency um by 1%. Um and you do see almost the about 16 of our overall

middle school students um was a decrease in the urgent category. So again we're shrinking that number but we need to accelerate that target. So here we highlight what differentiation and intervention look like in secondary mathematics aligned with our LCAP actions around strengthening tier 2 and tier 3 supports. In alignment with LCAP metric 2.7 and 2.8, 8 schools such as Longfellow, featured here, are using structured support classes and targeted intervention time to slow down pacing, preview, and revisit key concepts, giving students more time to practice core skills. And here we highlight specifically the the work and voice of GA here, math teacher at Longfellow. Next slide. All right. Uh we do want to close out just recognizing um that we have um grown our assessment uh span into the high school. Um although Berkeley High is currently doing their mid-year assessment. So we have the beginning of the year data here. You can see um that for the fall administration 54% of our students um in the 9th grade scored at or above benchmark and then 49% for 10th grade. So, our high school is definitely the area that we're working with. We are working to build out the structures um and shifting mindsets about the importance of assessment and shared assessment and data cycles. Um and principal Regosa and his team um have been working to make those shifts both as an administrative team and within the departments.

Thank you. And here we see through the voice of Mr. Dr. Juan Reosa um how MTSS multi-tered systems of support differentiation and intervention are being implemented at the high school level as aligned with our LCAP metrics actions around regular assessment cycles and progress monitoring and um what's important here and what Juan lifted up in our interview is the systems lens how data is being used to surface both where students are making progress and where opportunity gaps remain. This allows teams to adjust, particularly through his coordination of services team, as he highlighted in our conversation, um, supports across tier 2 and tier three at the high school level, whether that's academic intervention, course supports, or other coordinated services rather than just relying on static placements. Okay. Next, I think we're going

we're going to turn this uh expenditure portion um to director Bach.

Thank you. Okay. I get the distinct privilege of walking us through our midyear expenditures. Next slide, please. This slide shows a summary of the adopted budget from June 2025. Just as a reminder, we have about $116 million of local control funding formula, of which $6.37 million is our supplemental funding. That supplemental funding gets allocated to target services and supports for our unduplicated pupils. Next slide. This slide provides a summary of our LCAP expenditures as of December 31st, 2025 with a breakdown of spending by each goal. Overall, we've expended $6.7 million of the $15.4 million allocated. That $15.4 million is a total that's reflective of the LCAP supplemental funds, grants, and local funds, including VISAP. So, if we focus specifically on the LCFF supplemental funds, that's in yellow, and we've spent 2.96 million of the $6.37 million allocated. This represents just under half of the total allocation, which is consistent of where we are in the fiscal year. This spending pattern is expected because the majority of our LCAP actions are positions or FTE investments. So, at the midpoint of the year, we've paid approximately half of our salaries and benefits, meaning we're on track with projected expenditures. You can see slight under expenses in goal three and zero for goal five. Um, for goal three, we've budgeted approximately a million dollars for behavioral health contracts, and not all invoices have been received or processed at this point. However, we anticipate fully utilizing the contracts and

remaining on track by the end of the fiscal year. Details um by line item are included in the appendix for board and public review. As um Jill mentioned previously, goal five is specific to BTA, our only equity multiplier school in the district, and we work directly with the school to allocate, monitor, and revise funds based on student need. Next slide, please. This slide shows um we've shown it through prior ELCAP presentations in the past and you can see where we had projected revenue coming in um from LCFF and where we have expenses. We see our expenses are exceeding our revenue over the past two years. And because we had grants, we elected to move activities on to one-time grants that provided for temporary stability this fiscal year, but not long-term sustainability. As of the January governor's budget, we're anticipating the LCFF supplemental funds to come in around $6.59 million. And if you look at our current spending rate, this slide foreshadows the need to make decisions around how to prioritize the projected revenue. We're looking forward to partnering with PAC DAC and the newly reformed educator advisory committee to identify priorities and reduce expenses. Next slide. So moving into the timeline and next steps. Next slide. This slide shows how the strategic plan pillars and the LCAP work together as a cycle of continuous improvement grounded in data, community input, and student needs. The LCAP is an ongoing iterative process rather than a single event or document. And at this point in the year, we're at the midyear update, reviewing progress,

identifying emerging needs, and using that information to inform our next steps. We're now entering the budget development season, which is where priorities become resourced. And over the spring, the board and community will hear more about how LCAP priorities are shaping budget development. The work will culminate in June when staff bring forward the LCAP and budget recommendations for the 2627 school year. Next slide. The visual is outlining our budget and LCAP timeline. Again, I want to note we did relaunch the educator advisory committee last week and alongside the pack and the DAC, the EAC is a key partner in reviewing our ELCAP expenditures. The recommendations will be shared and incorporated throughout the spring. And our final slide, um, not all members of the community are on an advisory committee. Therefore, the annual planning survey is a crucial mechanism to collect and incorporate everyone's input into the planning process. So, please take out your phone and scan that QR code or click on the link. Um, we really need you to complete the survey because your input in your input is crucial. And I will turn it back over to associate superintendent Joe Hogan.

Great. Thanks, team. Um uh just quick outline of next steps and then a quick outline of next steps and then we will take questions. Um we are clearly promoting the annual survey. Um so please encourage your friends and fellow colleagues to take that. Um we are have ongoing meetings um with the pack and DAC. Both of those groups are actually um meeting this week. Um we are going to be gathering information from all of those groups um to update the LCAP um and we will continue to monitor implementation of the budget making sure that we do get all of the invoices in so that we can pay out on time. It's also important to know that we have ongoing meetings with the Alama County Office of Education both in a supportive role um but they will actually their team inclusive of their budget team will be meeting with um our team to review all of the details of our planned 26 27 um LCAP and they will be providing feedback. Um so that information will need to be incorporated. So tonight we were focusing on LCAP goals one and two. Um but we will be um coming back to you in the spring looking more closely at LCAP goals three and four. Um and then our June boarding board meeting dates will be important because we will be presenting the LCAP along with the advisory group recommendations and then looking to the board to approve the LCAP for the 26 27th school year. All right, with that we'll take questions. Board members have questions.

I just have one question way early on. I'm just curious about the data on slides 10 and 11. These are the dashboard. And I'm just wondering if those big jumps I remember last time we had lots of uh metrics that were low and they were sort of like um it wasn't real that they were low but we didn't have as much participation. And I'm just wondering if those big jumps up are because of increased in participation and growth or just participation or just growth like cuz I think that that was really confusing to me and sort of um it blocks some of it makes that data look weird.

Mhm. So, um the jump of of two colors in in in many in many cases um many of some of our focal groups went from as you may have noted from from red to yellow. We had other groups who went from um orange to green etc. And um and the um reason for that is a is a combination. So we did go our students raw scores improved and we had increased participation. So when any number of our groups or holistically are underneath the 95% participation rate then all students underneath that participation rate are assigned a red giving us yeah false data. Um, so that's why we we are talking so much with anyone who will listen to us about um about how important it is that our students are assessed so that we're able to actually analyze what's what's actually happening with our students and see that that real data. So So the short answer is it's it's a combination of of of both.

Thank you so much. Yeah. Do you want to add to that, Rebecca? Um, yeah. in this for the CASP administration in the spring um of last year we did meet the 95% participation rate as a district and the year before we had not so the scores on the dashboard the year before include the penalty and this year we did not get a penalty so and yes it's both correct yes but there was still growth as well so that's great to hear okay thank you so much thank you vice president See, we listen. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thanks for all this information. I also just have one question. I was really struck by the slides where you My throat is funny tonight where you interviewed um some math intervention teachers. There was an elementary math intervention teacher, there was a middle school math intervention teacher. Um, and I know in literacy we have a really systematic approach across all of our schools to how we're doing intervention. It sounds like in math we're in more of a sort of experimenting space where maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it's kind of seems like these different teachers are trying out different things at different sites. So, I'm wondering what kind of data we're collecting about those different approaches to intervention and what we're learning about how we're approaching math support. I I think you'll have things to add as director Albec, but I I did want to share that um one of the people I interviewed was Sam who's a response to intervention teacher and a math coach at John Mure and he's currently engaged as a I um and and you Rebecca in a foundational mathematics in to grow um professional development series. So, so part of a small part of what he spoke about is related to to that work that we're currently engaged and very excited about. The other person that I was able to interview um Gita at at Longfellow is a general education math teacher and the model that she's working within is one in which she teaches her students in in tier 1 and then she also teaches a support class as do other um general education math teachers and that class might be a blend which she did note. I'm I'm not sure that I I noted it here on the slide, but she did in in our in our discussion, and that was the importance

of the support class including students with IEPs, students without IEPs, and it being taught by a credentialed math teacher in in a smaller group environment. So, uh I just I wanted to bring that up and bring that voice into the space. I was just going to say that that that's all great and I'm sort of wondering like are all the middle schools using that same approach or is that an approach that's unique to Longfellow that sort of thing?

At the middle school level we have math support classes and math intervention classes. So traditionally our math support classes have been students that are approaching grade level proficiency but not quite there yet. So in those classes, we're using a pre-teach model where those those intervention or math support teachers have predominately their own students who they know very well in the tier one setting. So they're doing some of that. Okay, what's happening next? What are some of those skills that are getting in the way of proficiency and I would say pretty confidently that's happening across our three middle schools. And then we have our math intervention program at our middle schools which is for students that are two or more grade levels behind. Uh for the last 2 years we've been using the math 180 program which has provided some alignment to um a system that has had little alignment as it relates to that class. Um we've had we've experienced m mixed results and we're working with our educators to determine what are the next steps as it relates to that class. But that's sort of uh the way that the way it's looking at the middle school currently. And then as uh director Sweeney just spoke around around the elementary we're getting towards that more alignment. So in literacy we got to oh all of our literacy interventionists are now using Orton Gillingham or the OG approach. Um all of our math interventionists currently are going through a shared professional learning around a program called Integrow which director just spoke about. um trying to build that alignment so that regardless of what student goes to Gregmont or Sylvia Mendes or Malcolm X or Emerson, they're getting the same systematic approach towards math intervention. So, we're gathering data and more information to come.

And does every elementary school have a person who is specifically doing math intervention? All of our all of our elementary schools have RTI coaches. Our RTI coaches have taken on different roles and responsibilities as priorities have shifted. Currently, as we look towards our elementary math curriculum adoption, we are thinking about how can we support the ongoing literacy work while also ensuring that the math uh support u for our teachers and our students are being supported. So, we're thinking about how how that role might have to shift or what those kinds of things. Yep. Any other questions?

I have a quick question. Thanks so much. Um, thanks for all of your hard work and there's there's good news in terms of growth and you've put in a lot of work here. So, um, we're we're proud of this. Um with regard to slide 34, um my question I guess is related to what director Schnowski asked as well in terms of understanding data and um your your um kind of uh enthusiasm around the importance of uh you know having students be um assessed as well. uh with this particular slides. It's um star reading.

You're looking at the star reading for 68. Yes. Grades 6 through eight.

So you have um you got the various vocal groups, special ed, e, homeless, sed, and then then there's foster. Um this is from fall to winter. And uh in particular with EL and Hispanic EL, you have, you know, significant numbers in the red with with um uh urgent intervention in the red category. Is this is this pretty as a trend? Is this something that's relatively typical in the sixth to eth grades for these two focal groups? I do want to note also of course that uh there was improvements of progress uh from the fall to winter but in terms of at least how I'm reading this chart if I'm reading it properly um for both EL and Hispanic EL you know they're they're over 50% in in one case in the fall at least it was over 75% that mean the student 75% of the the raw numbers um who who were in the urgent intervention is that a a a characteristic of that focal group and as a trend, has that been the case over the years?

It it it does follow a a general trend. And if we're looking at the same slide right now, we're we're looking at an assessment of of star reading, which is is in English.

And so our um we we are assessing students whose whose um primary language at this point is is not English in English. Um and and so with this this trend does does generally hold true looking from BOY to beginning of the school year to the middle of the school year. Um I I'll note also that STAR while it's an effective measure is a um a a measure that shows can show fantastic growth longitudinally and doesn't generally move as quickly as you might see when we when we look at at at the dibbles measure. So I I I love to look at both um because dibbles will will show quite a bit of growth and respond to intervention quickly whereas star um is is slower to grow over time and so we're looking at an assessment that was in in relatively short secession. So we we we this does follow a trend of not seeing as much growth.

Okay, that's helpful to to note that the dibbles in addition to star. Um, as a trend as well, just looking at STAR, um, when these two focal groups, EL and Hispanic EL, for example, pivot into beyond 8th grade, um, do these percentages start to drop below, you know, the 70, maybe down into the 50s as an overall demographic. Is that something that we found for I'm sorry for the red category with urgent intervention? I I think I could pull that that data and share that with you. Okay, that would be helpful.

Particularly now that we are assessing um using STAR at the high school level. So I I could share that. Yeah. And again I I understand that as you've noted um STAR is conducted in or tested in English and these are focal groups as English learners who by definition are English learners but it be important to understand what happens as they shift into high school. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um are there any other questions?

Can I just ask a this is a probably a very silly question but I want to make sure that I'm stand understanding it correctly. When we're looking at fall scores versus midyear scores, I am assuming that the benchmark has moved. That the fall expectation is here and the winter expectation is here. So, if we're seeing a greater number of students who are proficient, that means students aren't just improving on the measure from the fall, they're they're improving against a higher measure. You're correct. Perfect. Yes. Thank you. And and these are also aligned um with our state standards of course which which are then aligned with with outcomes for CASP which is which are spring benchmark aligned. So yes great

I just wanted to that was how I was understanding it and I just wanted to make sure that was accurate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you that that's helpful from the context of um a growth ba based assessment as well. And that's true of dibbles and and star that the the benchmark shifts. Okay. Thanks. These uh charts are are super helpful. Um any any other commentary? Thank you so much. We really appreciate your hard work and and it's a good news of the the growth and improvements too. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Um I think next on up so that's our discussion. We have information. Um let's see. Um, are there is there any extended public comment? Looking at the anyone here in person? I don't think so. Um, how about online? Do we have anyone? We do not appear to have anybody. Do we have No, Mr. J. Okay. Uh, do you have extended board member comments? Nope. Okay. I think we've adjourned. It is 9:48 p.m. Thank you.