Oakland Unified School District Board of Education - Regular Meeting

I'd like to welcome everyone to the January 26th school board meeting. Mr. Raikstra, can we have a roll call to establish quorum, please? On the roll call to establish quorum. Student Director Simmons, Student Director Smith, Director Lada, present. Director Williams, present, sir. Director Hutchinson, Director Barry, present. Director Thompson, Vice President Bachelor, here.

President Brohart, thank you. Uh, here. Sorry. Quum present. Thank you. If we could have the audience quiet, please. We're going to do an interpretation check, please.

Uh, yes, Madame President. For tonight's meeting, we have three languages available for live interpretation. They are Cantonese, Arabic, and Spanish. We also have a translation close caption feature available on Zoom that you can use by clicking the close caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. With that, we will start with live interpretations. We will start with Cantonese. I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced, which at this time is Cantonese. And if you are in attendance and need a translation laptop, you can see the you can see the tech underneath the basketball court to your left for a translation laptop. So, I will ask Miss Ho if she can come off of mute and give the interpretation announcement for Cantonese. The Cantonese announcement is done. Um, Mr. Hollis.

Thank you, Ms. Ho. Uh, seeing that there is a hand raised on Zoom, we will start with Cantonese interpretation. So moving forward and I will turn on the interpretation uh once the entire announcement is complete. So moving forward to Arabic I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced which at this time is Arabic and I will ask Miss TK if you can come off of mute and give the interpretation announcement for Arabic.

Thank you. Fore language interpretation. Arabic interpretation announcement is done.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Turk. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands on Zoom. No hands in the room. We will not start with Arabic interpretation but we'll have Cantonese once the announcement is complete. Uh so lowering all attendees hands on Zoom. Onward to the next language which is Spanish. I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language is being announced at this time which is Spanish. And if you need a translation laptop, if you are in person, you can see the tech to your left underneath the basketball court for translation laptop. I will ask Miss Vargas if she can come off and mute and give the interpretation announcement for Spanish. Of course. Basketball. Fore hand language interpretation interpretation Spanish.

Spanish. Thank you. The Spanish announcement is done.

Thank you, Miss Vargas. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there's any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands on Zoom, no hands in the room currently. Uh we will start with Cantonese interpretation at this time and that concludes our interpretation announcement and I will pass it back to you Madame President.

Thank you. Tonight on the agenda, we have two items. Item 25-3065, a Method Public Schools Downtown Charter Academy charter material revision, change of enrollment preference, and enrollment increase. The second item on the agenda is 25-3032, franophhone Charter School of Oakland Charter Material Revision, Change of Location, and Enrollment Increase. I'm going to ask the audience tonight so that we can hear both of the presentations from both schools if we can hold our applause until the end. Um I know that a lot of you are going to be speaking but if you could hold that applause until everyone is done with their speaking so that we can also hear your presentations as well. Thank you. With that, we will open the hearing for a method public schools downtown charter academy charter material revision change of enrollment preference and enrollment increase. I understand there's a there should be a presentation from a method and the presentation is 15 minutes. board of directors, superintendent Sadler and staff, thank you for giving us an opportunity to present this material revision proposal for Downtown Charter Academy. My name is Adrienne Barnes and I am the CEO of a Method Public Schools. I've been in this role for over a year and started with a method as COO 18 months ago. Just to share a little bit about myself and my background. I come from a charter

finance background uh with seven years of experience in charter finance and operations, experience leading finance and operations in charter schools and then another four years of experience as a fractional CFO with a back office provider for charter schools in Northern California. We've I was attracted to a method and have stayed here through the challenging times because of our long history of impressive and outsized results for young people like me who have backgrounds like mine. We've sent over 80% of our students to college and four-year colleges and we have about the same persistence rate which outpaces even schools in higher income areas. As a public school student who was born and raised in Oakland, I'm proud to lead this network of schools. We're here in front of you today because we've made the decision to consolidate our portfolio of schools. We're proposing the merger of Oakland Charter Academy and Downtown Charter Academy, our two middle schools here in Oakland. This includes formally closing the charter for OCA and requesting this material revision for DCA. We're asking for a one-year enrollment preference for OCA students applying to DCA and an increase in DCA's enrollment to ensure space for that increase in students. This request is just for the 2627 school year because DCA will be up for renewal again next year and will be submitting their renewal request this fall. The lottery preferences would be revised to give preference to the current OCA students and increase enrollment by 95 accommodating those students. This merger addresses the challenges with declining student enrollment across middle schools and ensures that we have

the economies of scale to provide a quality education to all of our students. Additionally, bringing OCA students to DCA will increase the student diversity at DCA and enable OCA students to benefit from an incredibly strong, stable, and high-erforming middle school at DCA. To share more about the strengths of the DCA program, I'm honored to introduce Miss Whitfield.

Good evening. My name is Jill Whitfield and I'm the proud principal of DCA. I joined DCA as a teacher in 2013 and taught primarily math and physical education. I became involved in school and district leadership as a math instructional coach, a dean of instruction, and I became principal of DCA last January. In my 13 years at DCA, I've been very fortunate to work with and learn from educators dedicated to continual improvement for students. I'm deeply invested in the community that we've built here and I truly value our culture focused on growth and collaboration. The strength of this culture has resulted in remarkable team cohesion, high teacher retention, and most importantly, improved student outcomes. I'm incredibly honored to be the principal of this school and represent an amazing group of inspired educators, youth advocates, hardworking young people, and very invested families. Because of the hard work of our community and our unwavering dedication to our young people, DCA ranks in the top 10% of all middle schools in California and scores 10 out of 10 on the grade school's index of school quality. The team at DCA relies heavily on data to drive our instruction. Um, personalizing that instruction to the diverse needs of all of our students and implementing a multi-tered system of supports to ensure that all students are making accelerated growth. We've been relatively consistent. As you can see, our 2023 California dashboard shows blue and green with one orange area. We used that data to focus our interventions. And you can see that in 2024 we saw all blue scores. In 2025 we saw blue in ELA and math and suspension um but saw chronic absenteeism and ELPI drop. So we've adjusted our priorities to ensure growth in those areas for this year. We use multiple forms of data to

focus our resources and address any gaps. And while we're always still a work in progress, we have been building and sustaining a focused and responsive and thoughtful program instructional program for the past 13 years. While we may not be satisfied until we see all students performing at proficiency in ELA and math, we're proud to have made progress towards 73% proficiency in ELA and 72% in math. And quality and sustainability are not only about academic test scores. We're proud that we've been intentional about building out a robust MTSS system to support all learners and that we have strong ending reserves and a multi-year budget that projects ongoing financial sustainability. And we have a facility that we've worked to make safe, bright, warm, and inclusive. We would leverage all of these assets and resources to welcome our OCA families and students and to ensure their ongoing growth and success at DCA. Again, what attracted me to a method was our exceptional outcomes and what has kept me here is my commitment to our students and staff and to correct the challenges they were facing with respect to financial oversight and governance. Because of my background in charter finance, I saw the challenges with financial management systems and oversight as challenges that I could tackle and overcome. I'm proud to share that we've made extensive progress on the areas of concern named last year when I joined a method. I lead a new finance team which includes a consultant who is a seasoned former CFO from Summit Public Schools, a well- reggarded and successful multi-state charter network who led an extensive forensic audit to clean up our past mistakes. We also have a back office provider with over 15 years of experience supporting charter

schools with financial management. We've addressed the gaps in policies and systems. We've cleaned up our books and have greatly improved our financial reporting. We recently completed our 2425 audit in a timely manner with an unmodified opinion, no findings, and no material weaknesses. Our first clean audit since 2021. We have a new chief of staff whose primary responsibility and goals are timely, accurate, and responsive reporting to our authorizers, auditors, board, and stakeholders. We are not done. We're continuing to refine and improve, and we're coached by several seasoned adviserss who've led highly successful charter CMOs, including Education for Change and Aspire Public Schools. Additionally, we've turned over 100% of our board since I last stood in front of some of you, and we've cleared the concern over governance issues. We've professionalized our board with members who have expertise and decades of experience in charter finance, CMO leadership, and school governance. As you can see, this board is a highly qualified group of individuals, all who have either served on charter school boards or school district boards and or have led charter schools or charter management organizations. You'll meet some of them tonight through public comment to ensure we don't repeat the challenges of the past. We're working with a governance coach and building systems to ensure that no matter who is on the board and who is in leadership, there are accountability structures that force monitoring and oversight. We've been thoughtful and intentional about this merger, conducting deep engagement with staff and leadership at both schools and partnering with FIA around family engagement at the schools. We've identified teams who will oversee

the operational details for both the OCA closure and the DCA expansion and will continue to work with this team to ensure a smooth end to this year and start to next year. We share OSD's vision and mission for Oakland's youth by supporting each other, connecting with community, and contributing to meaningful change in Oakland. This is important to every single one of us at Amps. I believe DCA has demonstrated consistent excellence and that their commitment to serving our OCA students is inspiring. I'm also proud that we at a method are consolidating our portfolio of schools to ensure highquality programming both in service of our students and in service of the larger public school system we all serve. In summary, we ask the OSD board to consider this material revision for DCA, a one-year enrollment preference for OCA applicants and an enrollment increase of 95 students to accommodate this influx. We will formally close OCA, helping to rightsize the larger portfolio of schools in Oakland. And we will leverage the exceptional instructional programming at DCA for our OCA students to ensure that those students have the option to go to a high-erforming school. We want to truly appreciate the Office of Charter Schools for their ongoing partnership and guidance. And we thank you, the board, for your consideration for all that you do for Oakland's children. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, we'll take 10 minutes of public comment. Uh we have one minute each. The 10 speakers are Dasha Fam, Edura Su, Rasme Vega, Margie, Djar, Gio, Maria, Germaine, Davis, Leon, Dr. Ellenburgg, Kimmy Keane, Mi St, and Stephanie Gonzalez. Those are 10 speakers. First speaker, please. Hello. Good evening. Um, my name is Stephanie Gonzalez and I am in my fourth year teaching sixth grade science at Downtown Charter Academy. At DCA, our brick values, an acronym for bravery, respect, integrity, compassion, and kindness guide our approach to student success. Our goal is for students to internalize and live them throughout their time at DCA and beyond. DCA cultivates a growth mindset in our students. We teach them that mistakes are valuable learning opportunities. We provide comprehensive academic support such as tutoring in ELA and math and EL specialists and a sped department serving students with IEPs and 504s. Students are provided extended learning

opportunities such as to utilize at home. Um, and I choose to remain at DCA because I truly believe in its mission and values. Our school develops both character and knowledge in our students. And I believe that DCA's supportive and collaborative environment creates a school where any student can grow and thrive academically, emotionally, and socially. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Um, hi. My name is Dasha Fam and I'm a sixth grade student at DCA. Um, the way that my school teaches the curriculum is understandable to me. They're always giving us more support and letting us come to their classes during lunch and after school. Also offering tutoring lessons. Um, the school really shows that they care about their students. Thank you. Our next speaker, please. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Maya Germaine and I am currently a teacher at OCA and have been there since 2022, currently teaching sixth grade English. As teachers, we notice the good and the stress that impact our students. We see students who rely on consistency, relationships, and stability to succeed. Merging our site with another school within the organizations allows us to preserve what's working. Amethod staff dedication, a rigorous education with excelling scores, and the trust we've built with our students. Students know they have a safe place at OCA. And that would be no different with the merger with Downtown Charter Academy. A merger keeps students connected to educators who know them while still meeting

organizational needs. I strongly urge you to consider merging because our students deserve continuality.

Thank you. Uh next speaker, please. Hello school board members. My name is Reneesmega. I am a student at Oakland Charter Academy. I'm here to talk about the DCA expansion. My mom chose DCA because she thinks it was the best option. She liked the learning experiences that they offer. I think I'm mostly excited about the opportunities I'll get and all the new people I can interact with. All my sisters went to OCA. I think that's another reason why I'm going. I think OCA shutting down is very unfortunate. I feel like a lot of us have already made connections with other students, teachers, and admins. I know that I have made a lot of new friends that are not going to the same school as me. Although the expansion could be an advantage, there will be more diversity, new people, and it keeps the OCA spirit going, I think I could get used to the campus fast. I'm willing to learn about different cultures and tell others about my own. Thank you for your time. I hope you'll consider the DCA expansion.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Hello. Good evening, board. I'm pleased to be here in support of the material revision as submitted by the Mthod team. My name is Margetta Georgio. I currently hold a seat on the A method board of directors. I've served in the world of education for nearly 30 years in both traditional district and charter schools, sitebased program, independent study, classroom teacher, charter co-founder, site administration, sat on a few boards. No secret a method has had some challenges in the past, but when I learned that Adrienne Barnes had taken a seat as COO, I knew the organization would be headed in the right direction. She approaches her work with a meticulous eye, unwavering integrity, and always, always, always puts students at the center of the decision-making process. I took a seat on this board in May, and I can honestly say I'm proud to sit with this new cohort of board members. Their breadth and wealth of knowledge is outstanding, and we stand united in our commitment to holding the leadership accountable so they can provide the best learning opportunities for students of the community. Respectfully ask that you approve the material revision. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.

Good evening board members. My name is Dr. Mangstab Gabriavier. I'm a father of a sixth grade at DCA. My daughter initially was not interested to move to this school. But the school show us the school the classes. They gave us a private tour. My daughter interest was switched. Now she is so interested every time she come to the school. The next evening I'm getting a lesson of every lesson she learns every day. This is a testimony. My daughter is so interested. The school brings a lot of enthusiasm to my daughter and I want other families enjoy whatever as a uh whatever decision that I I have made here. I want to see other families see that light. This is a very good school and I hope to see other uh OCF families enjoy the school as well. So I urge you to expand the uh to allow the application to be approved for the school. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker please.

Good evening school members. My name is Yudara and I'm a seventh grade parent at Downtown Charter Academy. I first learned about DCA through referrals from friends and what immediately stood out to me was the high academy expectations the school holds for its students. One thing I love about DCA is the attention to their students and making sure that each child is truly seen and supported. My daughter loves DCA because of the teachers and the supportive culture they've created. She's actually excited to go to school each day with good grades and perfect attendant can join the night events. She's super excited about joining the quarterly appreciation party. DCA has been transformative for our family and I want to help ensure that OCA families can benefit from this same caring rigorous educational environment. That's why I'm committed to get getting involved in the expansion. I want to serve as a bridge between the schools and families, helping new parents navigate a transition and ensuring all students feel included and supported. Having been through transition ourselves, I understand how important it is for families to feel connected and informed. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening, school board members. My name is Dr. Ellingberg and I am the principal at Oakland Charter Academy. I've been with AMPS for the past eight years acting as principal for six of those years and one year director of expanded learning. I'm excited for the expansion of DCA to continue the spirit of our flagship school. I think it's great that our families will be able to continue to be with AMPS. DCA is able to offer a long-term uh and stable program for our families at AMS and has the space to be able to provide more activities for our students to continue growing and flourishing. I really want to see my students benefit from the high performance and high quality that DCA is able to offer and I believe our students will excel and deserve the opportunity DCA has. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening OSU directors. My name is Davis Le Young. To introduce myself, I'm an XCPA that has worked at Deote. I run the downtown Oakland YMCA and I've run for-profit companies ranging from land management to technology startups. In my volunteer life, I've been actively involved in churches, the YMCA, and I've served as board chair for Urban Monetary Charter School and I've been on the board of director of AMPs for the past seven months. I've also t recently taken on the finance committee chair for AMPs. In that brief time, I've seen AMPs consistently approve its processes, specifically as it pertains to financial management. School management and the board have taken on hard questions and have endeavored to do the right things for the children of Oakland. Because of that, I urge the board to approve AMSA's petition to merge DCA and OCA and to expand DCA for the benefit of the children of Oakland. Thank you. Good evening, uh, board of directors. I'm Kimmy Keane, proud to be an OSD alumnist with 26 years serving in Oakland public education. Downtown Charter Academy has been a real beacon of light in our Oakland community. Strong teacher retention and ownership, a co-eing model, incredible systems of academic support, and a vibrant school community, including passionate parents, are some of what makes them one of Oakland's highest performing public schools. They've engaged their educators, parents, and built impressive support for a large amount of change. DCA has hosted open houses and field trips for OCA students to begin to build a bridge to a unified school community. And we all know change is not easy. but it's often required when we're seeking to serve our students to the best of our ability. Expanding DCA, one of three hightra charter schools in Oakland, and allowing OCA to emerge has tremendous benefit for our students. In addition to stewarding the needed improvements in

their organization fiscal and governance, I salute the Athod team for thinking differently and creatively about how they sustainably serve Oakland students now and in the future. Operating two small middle schools is not optimal. And as difficult it is as it is to consider, we need less schools in Oakland. I applaud them for thinking about their footprint and how they can best leverage resources and build on the tremendous strengths of DCA for more Oakland students. Thank you so much for your consideration. Thank you. At this time, are there any board comments? Board comments?

Yes. Um I have a couple of questions um for um maybe the principal and um Miss Barnes. Thank you. Um so nice to see you both. Um I know uh when we when I came to tour um we talked a little bit about kind of what you were doing to help um merge the two um different communities. I was curious um you called out in your presentation um some demographics differences, but I did notice that two groups that were missing were black students and also disabled students. What are the differences between um the demographics between OCA and DCA in those two groups? Um and then if you could also let me know about the specifically kind of how you're bridging. So, um, you know, we talked a little bit about the special education program at DCA. I'm wondering about the staffing and programming for the disabled students, merging between those two schools.

Okay. What I can say on behalf of DCA is that this year we have a 11.9% black and African-American demographic. um and about 8% of students with disabilities. Um our current program we have an education specialist um who provides push-in and pullout services um and additionally a paraprofessional who um supports with those um uh those services. Um and also additional things I think Miss Busby could speak more on that.

Good evening board of directors. My name is Mary Busby and I'm the senior director of student services and special education. So currently at both sites, the special ed model runs very similar. It's an inclusion model. They're about 8% at both of the school sites. So it would be a merger. It's a like Whitfield or Whitfield said is a a matter of pushin and pullout support with a robust 504 system and MTSS. And so the bridging is actually quite easy because the services are very similar. And do you have an ED specialist and a PAR like a you know one position each at um OCA as well? Correct.

Okay. And then what is the percent you you mentioned the the um percent of black and African-American students at at um DCA, but what is it at OCA? If you'll give me one moment, I can find that information for you. If not, we can provide it for you after in an email. Okay. Yeah, you can um if you went send it to the board staff, then it can be added to the minutes. Absolutely. All right. Thank you. All my questions. Director Williams, please come back to me. Uh, Director Barry,

thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I just have a few questions. I first want to appreciate how thoughtful you're being about footprint. Um, it's something that OD needs and is doing broadly. But one thing that I have been sharing on this end um about how folks approach consolidations is that it should really be about your vision for education um and not just a budget adjustment or development solution. So I'm curious, my first question is how a merger serves your vision for education and for the students and the community that you intend to serve. And then my second question is I think it's exciting that through a merger you would have a more diverse school and family population but curious if you could be more explicit about the shifts in diversity and demographics that you anticipate and then related to that how you plan to staff that. um having a more diverse campus requires more resources and it probably um would indicate a need for shifts in programs and services. So just thinking about how you plan to make some of those adjustments. So I believe the first question was how are we approaching the shift in looking at serving both populations in terms of DCA is our longest standing with our highest returning teachers and a well-established program which really is based on the intervention. They do six week cycles of this is actually you six week cycles of um inquiry where they're actually looking at data and students

and pulling out small groups. And so when we look at our OCA campus where we see students are tend to be struggling and are not necessarily getting that individual support with high staff turnover, it allows us to merge those programs to provide that service to students who really need it. The second question I think we'll have to get back to you on uh one of the things that I can uh add to that is that we've really prioritized adding additional staffing in terms of instructional assistance at DCA. Um and this has allowed us to provide additional um pushin and pull out support in English and in math um for all students regardless of disability status or um uh other support needs. Um, and I think that that is an opportunity for us to continue to push in that area. Um, to increase our instructional assistance, um, and to, um, keep that on the forefront of what we're doing. Um, as we try to, um, as we try to, um, thoughtfully thoughtfully merge. Yeah. Sorry. Vice President B.

Um, thank you for the presentation. One thing that I also was uh looking at within your uh petition is um the uh number of unhoused and foster students that are served by both school sites. Can you um tell us how many of those students? So, unhoused students and foster students that are served by both. Let me get back to you on that. Okay. Well, the numbers that I have are very low. So, I guess can you talk to me a little bit about what your plan is to attract those vulnerable students?

We actually added a preference. I'm sorry, I don't have it in front of me. Um, but we added a preference for unhoused students and or increased it and added it in our um updated preferences in our petition to you. So in slide number four that you showed us, uh I think the preference for Mckin Vento students is number four or five. Uh while other preferences are above that, um would you be willing to commit today to moving that preference to number one so that you can um start uh supporting unhoused and foster youth students? Absolutely.

Okay. Thank you. Um the next question I have is um about uh one of the things one of your teachers mentioned at OS. So um what is your retention plan when you're merging two sites or two faculties, two staff? So what is the plan to merge those without having too much overhead?

Uh well the increase in enrollment in DCA will naturally open up additional positions at DCA. And what we did last year with the closure of another one of our schools was we made sure that every single one of our staff members that wanted to stay with us had a position within the AMPs network. So if that's not DCA, then it's somewhere else in our network. We're committed to keeping all of our staff. Okay. Thank you. Um and then um the space that you all have um you all are thinking about around about 30% increase of students. Um, what have you done to ensure that the space is adequate enough to fit all of those students?

There's actually a significant space in our building right now that we're not using at all and have never used. So, we're going to take over that space and turn that into usable educational space and then also expand some of our outdoor space as well. So, essentially using our full facility. So it sounds like a lot of your plans predicate on the fact that you will be absorbing a a large percentage of students from OA. What if that doesn't pan out? What is your plan B? It would be to accept the students that have registered or uh applied and expand as allows with that amount of enrollment.

Thank you. I did have some further questions about your special education. So, um, and I know Mary and I have talked a lot about this, right? Um, so I'm I'm curious to know, uh, what what things you offer for for, uh, disabled students and how will those two programs from OCA and DCA merge? Um, again, space-wise as well. Um, and then I guess my next question is what kinds of disabilities do you um serve at at both schools and how will they be integrated in a merger? In terms of programming, like I said, we have an educational specialist um who provides push-in and pullout supports um and also a pair professional who uh assists in um in providing services along with counseling um occupational therapy um speech and all of the other services. Currently we have all most of our students are on the mild moderate and so majority of our students are SLD or OI which is really under um ADHD and so the demographics or the disabilities are very similar at both school sites and have similar needs and so merging the two allows us to add a broader program actually because DCA also has significant amount of instructional assistants that provide gened support in the classroom. So they have a wealth. So it's not just the special ed parah who's providing the support with small groupoup instruction. They have a large group of tutors that provide that throughout the day.

So I guess that was one question. I have two more questions on this one. What you you mentioned that you have one ed specialist at DCA. Correct. And one at OCA. Correct. So there'll be two. There would be two. Okay. Most of your students are mild moderate. Correct. Okay. And then you also mentioned I and I think one of you I don't remember who mentioned this before in your presentation or your conversation here that you have IAS that serve all students. Correct. How are how do you ensure I guess that your disabled students receive that targeted um intervention? Well, it's not intervention, you know, targeted support from the IAS. Um

correct. So that's my question. So the IAS are pushing into general education pulling out small groups of students while the pair of professional provides that targeted instruction with the special ed students. This the ed specialist will either be pushed in or pulled out in providing those direct specialized services but there's support in the classroom throughout the day for everybody. Thank you. Uh those are all my questions. Director Williams, did you have questions? Uh, no. I'll pass.

With that, with that we close the public meeting or public hearing, sorry, on um the merger between OCA and DCA. And with that, we can we have a roll call on the vote, please. Oh, that's right. Sorry about that. Whoops. Sorry. is um uh the next item is 25-3032 which is franophhone charter school of Oakland charter material revision change of location and enrollment increase charter school's office and I really want to thank the a method audience for clapping at the appropriate time so we could hear all of your presentations so franophhone families if we could do the same that way we can hear our families as well.

Oh, want to take about five minutes here to get everybody out. Sorry about that.

Thank you. Everybody else,

how are you? Yeah, I heard heard. Yeah. The other one just nice meeting you.

Okay. I'll see you. I love Uh, a method families, we'd like to start the franophone hearing. You're more than welcome to stay, but we need it quiet so we can hear them. Appreciate it.

All right. The public hearing for Franophhone Charter School of Oakland charter material revision, change of location and enrollment increase is now open and you have 15 minutes for your presentation and we'll have uh 10 minutes of public comment after that.

Thank you. Um Bonju, good evening. Um, Miss Brewart, um, Miss Barry, Miss Lata, uh, Mr. Thompson, uh, Miss Bachelor, and Mr. Williams. Um, we are really grateful for the opportunity to present our petition to unify our school on one campus. Um, we uh my name is Claudia Lee and I am the executive director as Francohone the click and the next one more. Thank you. Uh we are extremely proud to be the only public school in the uh Bay Area that offers free French immersion program for the families and the one of the few in California and in the country. We are well established in the fruit veil community and we uh since we opened the lower school in 2020 um and are thrilled that the new campus is still in the same neighborhood um only like a few blocks down the road. Our mission is to provide dual immersion curriculum to a diverse community and our goal is to develop bilingual and biliterate global citizens who are open-minded and value inter intellectual curiosity, personal integrity and creativity.

Good evening all bones board members. My name is Dain and I'm a uh first grade teacher at Francohoneon. Our school serves French speaking immigrant families and staff from over 16 countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. We make a strong intentional effort to build a school community that reflects our city and our shared values of equity and inclusion. Over the past 5 years, the number of families qualifying for free and reduced meals has steadily increased. In response, we actively visit Head Start programs, partner with neighborhood organization, and participate in city events to ensure that all Oakland families know a free Friends immersion program is available to them. We are highly qualified teachers in our home countries and are working toward California credentials as well. We are grateful that franophhone sponsors credentials programs allowing our our qualifications to be recognized in California. For many of our student English is a second or third language. Yet Frankfont students consistently score above most Oakland and California school on stack assessment in mathematics and English. An impressive achievement given that they learn in France and take tests in English. With 70% of families not speaking French at home, we are proud to offer students the opportunity to learn a new language and we also provide online French lessons for parents and staff. Merci. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Angelie and I'm in seventh grade. Our school has some of the highest performing black and Africanamean students in the city. We have small classes and work on a lot of science, writing, and social studies project in small groups. The middle schoolers are trained in restorative justice and are the school ambassadors for bullying prevention and social skills. Our extracurricular activities include robotic, web design, and performing arts. We are also in the Oakland Athletic League with students from Od. In many ways, we feel a part of Oakland school district because Fragaphone prepares us for Od high schools. Many of us go to high school at Oakland Tech, Castlemont, or Skyline. Thank you. Hi, my name is Mimi and I'm in sixth grade. In a small school like ours, we get to work on special initiatives. This year, I started a lending library with two friends. We do all the organization and logistics by ourselves and open it 4 days a month. We collected 185 books for the library already. We call it books on wheels because we don't have enough space for a library on our current campus. So, we put all the books on a cart. We're very excited about having library space at the new campus next year. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Brooklyn. I'm in fourth grade at the new campus. Little kids will be on one side of the street and older kids will be on the other. We are happy our parents can drop off and pick up kids in one place.

Good evening. My name is Claire Hamard. Um I teach middle school French and science and it's my second year at uh Franophhone. Um restorative justice practices, attendance incentives and family support have helped us make great progress in our school culture as you can see on that slide. Um, additionally, for the first time this year, we are offering an international exchange program and um taking uh the students and middle schoolers to uh France where they're going to stay with French families and discover a middle school there. We hope it's going to help us uh discover new opportunities for their future. Um, so they're going there for 12 days in March and next week we're going to receive 28 French students at our school. Hopefully with the new campus we can uh make sure that this program keeps uh happening. Um, regarding the enrollment, the interest in our school is growing. About 25% of our students come from other school districts in the area and mainly from immigrant families in the Bay Area who want to offer their kids French as a second or third language. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kevin Pawn and I'm a parent of a kindergartener and a member of the facilities committee. This location change was a deliberative community process aligned with our multi-year strategic vision. One of our greatest strengths at Franophone is the commitment of our community and we are grateful for the collaborative effort from parents and staff members to make this unified move happen.

Securing a long-term facility will bring stability to our school. The board of directors established a facilities committee composed of parents, experts in finance and real estate. Together, we visited many sites and considered dozens of options, renting, buying, renovating, or buying. We identified the Kulage campus as an ideal place for one unified campus based on budget, location, size, condition, and timeline. We are thrilled to move this summer with your approval and are excited to continue serving the Fruit Veil community. Thank you. Hey, what's going on everybody? I'm Big Al. What's up, Rachel? I appreciate you coming by earlier. Van Cedric, Patrice, Valerie, Jennifer, appreciate you. All right, so my name is Big Al and I'm on the board at Franophhone Charter School of Oakland. I'm also the at honorum CFO. So, um, uh, we're happy to have found a campus that can facilitate our growth and expansion and everything that we have going on. Oh, I forgot to mention that baby girl. That's my baby girl, Brooklyn. I got a fourth grader and a first grader, London, right over here, too. So, uh, but yeah, we're happy to found a campus so that we don't have to drive to two different parts of the city to, uh, drop off our students. And because it provides so much more spaces for our, uh, administrators and our teachers, it has a teachers room. It'll have a bigger cafeteria. It'll have a place for the parents and so forth. Also, I wanted to mention that uh, we won't be using Prop 39 funding, which might be a good thing for everybody. and uh and it also it's going to prepare for us to do more things for the children.

So, I've got two young ladies coming up and then I'll say one last thing. Hi, my name is Zoya. I'm a second grade. We will be happy to have a school with space for a science lab, a nice cafeteria, and a library. Hi, my name is Margaret and I'm in second grade. We are happy to be be learning French at Franophone. We are like a big family of franophhone. Many parents work with the school to make it better.

Yeah. Thanks. So, we stress tested the financials with uh the finance committee, outside finance coordinator, and myself. I didn't know if I mentioned this, but I'm a business owner here, a local business owner. We run a tax and business advisory firm in downtown. So, um we looked over all the models and we made a very conservative financial projection over the next seven years for with a maximum maximum of 420 students at just a 94% ADA. This year, I think we've already gotten like 95 or higher. So, uh we wanted to be conservative with our approach just to make sure that the numbers worked out and uh we hope that this new facility will help us retain students for the middle school. Uh but we do not anticipate a huge increase in enrollment in the near future. However, this location will accommodate us if we eventually grow to the authorized enrollment numbers. So, thanks for your support. Cheers.

Thank you. We now have 10 minutes for public speaking. How many speakers do we have? President Bruho, we have eight speakers. Okay. Uh let's give them one minute each, please. Eight registered speakers are Noah Johnson, Knifer Kila Kila, Christina Kim, Nan, Meredith Anne Baldwin, Mindy Glenn, Joyce Mitchen, and Stephanie Blow. Those are the eight register speakers.

Hi. Uh my name is Noah Johnson and uh I'm the PTA president. Actually, I got involved because I really believe in the school. I think it's an incredible opportunity for kids. Uh my daughter goes to school with a group of kids that are so much more ethnically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse than where I went to school growing up in uh Silicon Valley. It's more diverse, I think, than Montlair Elementary, which is the school down the street from us. I just can't believe the kind of people that she's meeting and the things that she's learning, not just from the teachers who do a great job and the administrators who do this great planning, but just from the other kids in her class and just being exposed to a different way of life. So, I just think that this new campus will help the school survive and thrive moving forwards. And I hope that you guys will accept our proposal because I really want to see this school continue to provide more opportunities to kids like my daughter and to all the other kids who go to our school. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, board members. You want to wait a second? Oh, there.

Good evening, board members. Um, I'm Nifer Kilikila and I am a parent of a kindergartener and a second grader who spoke tonight. Um, I'm really excited about the possibility of being on a new campus because right now our children take their recess uh 200 feet from the 5880 freeway and our children spend the recess on oil stained asphalt um to the constant soundtrack of the freeway above them. Uh we can't put out a garden box for science lessons due to leasing um restrictions at our current place. And it isn't a this isn't just a space issue. It's a quality of life issue. Uh the proposed campus changes everything. Um it offers greenery filled environment where our entire school can finally be together. Um, it's a 4-minute walk from the historic Peralta Hienda Park and uh giving our kids the chance to trade freeway noise for bird song and asphalt for grass. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening. My name is Christina Kim. I live in Oakland and I have twin girls in first grade at Franophhone. Um, no one in my family speaks French. We have no French background, but we have found a home and a community, and we love the school. Um, my kids are receiving the highest level of education, which is evident in the data. But what I really love about the school is the community that is, as you've heard, is so diverse, is so inclusive, and the core values that we promote in our kids is to to be filled with joy. um to appreciate diversity, to learn from each other, to be humble, to be curious, to be creative, and to grow up to be global citizens who will go out and make a difference um in being proud of who they are and appreciating the differences that other people bring. Um, we it's an incredibly diverse, rich, uh, loving community and I hope that my kids in the new campus and my kids as well as all the other kids run around, have trees, have birds, have a playground, have a garden and um, yes, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name is Stephanie Loenthal Savvi. I am an educator. I also taught in OSD for a few years. So I am speaking with you today um from the perspective of an educator and a parent at this school. Um I deliberately chose this school for my child because of the instruction. It's incredible. The instructional staff is so talented that I feel um lucky that students in Oakland get to have access to their instruction. Um, and the beyond that, my family is French and so the ability to provide my child with the skills necessary to be able to communicate with her family in another language is truly a gift that wouldn't be possible for my family if it weren't for this school. Um, in terms of the unified campus, I'm I can uh attest to the fact that I was part of the team crunching the numbers. um we can afford it in the short term and the long term and it'll help us grow so that our kids can thrive and ultimately grow um so great heights. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name my name is Meredith Anne. I'm the school counselor. Um I just started this year and um I've really been loving it there. It is a really special place. Um the community is so supportive. Um I I watch I so I go to both campuses because I work with all of the students and so I I get the chance to see all of the teachers in different capacities and what I see are really dedicated educators. Um, and the thing I also love is that we we get together every month and have meetings to discuss the students and their needs and how we can better support them. And it's a very collaborative environment with a lot of caring adults that show up and support each other.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hey there, my name is Minda Glenn and I'm a staff member, director of student supports. Um, I want to share with you something that I love about Francohone. Um, you've heard a little bit about it. It's that there's this incredible international diversity in the families and in the teachers that combines with the neighborhood kids coming and it's really lovely to watch how they collaborate and grow, learn from one another and change by being part of this community. I feel really lucky to be part of it. Um, it's really fun to walk into a little kindergarten class at the beginning of the year and hear them struggling with French and then a couple of months later they've knocked my Dolingo out of the water. They um are pretty fantastic. Selfishly, one reason that a move to a new campus would be great is because I wouldn't have to take meetings in my car because space is really limited where we are. And I see families struggling, not strugg I mean struggling to drop off kids at two campuses, pick up from two campuses. It' be great to see them not have to deal with that.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good evening board members. Thank you for your time tonight. Uh my name is Joselyn Michaelsson and I'm a proud Oakland District 6 resident and parent of two students at Franophhone. Um, I wanted to take a moment to speak to the amazing resource that is franophhone and to the benefit that the move to a single campus will bring. The diversity, academic rigor, and strong sense of community are what brought my family to Francohone. We found a thriving school where my children are flourishing and enjoying an educational and cultural richness that we couldn't find anywhere else. The move from two campuses to a single campus will allow even more Oaklanders to enroll and experience this unique school and its community. Um, I respectfully urge you to vote to approve the petition to locate at one facility. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good evening. My name is Nishan Najarian and I'm a parent of a student at Franophon Charter School. I'm here to strongly support the school's proposed move. As a parent, I care about two things, stability and quality education. The Franophhone Charter School has consistently delivered both. My child is thriving academically, socially, and culturally. This is not just a good school. It's an exceptional one of one that fills a real need in Oakuckland. The proposed move is not about expansion for expansion's sake. It is about securing a facility that actually fits the school's needs and allows and allows it to operate safely, efficiently, and sustainably. The current space limits programs and basic functionality. The new site solves those problems. Approving this move gives Oakland children continued access to highquality, multilingual, culturally rich public education that aligns perfectly with the district's mission. Please support this request. It's good for families, good for students, and good for Oakland. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any speakers on? No, pleasure public speaker. That concludes public speaking. Uh, are there any board comments? Director Lada.

Um, yes. Thank you for your um presentation and thank thank you for hosting me um at the uh upper campus today. I have um two main questions um I think and and maybe one comment. And so my first I'll just lead with the comment which is that um I noticed in your presentation and when we spoke that you've made an effort to increase your enrollment of students from socially um or from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and I think you attributed that partially to the work you've done outreaching at Head Start. So um I think I would encourage you to to continue that and I think I see that as part of your enrollment. Um my two questions are one, your um petition includes that you haven't had any suspensions or expulsions in the last two years and I'd love to hear more about how you've um done that. And then my second question is about your percentage of students um with IEPs or 504s and what um your staffing model is to support those students and how you know in in a French immersion setting how you're able to support those students um with language acquisition. Thanks.

Thank you. Um thanks so much for the uh for your visit. Um really appreciate your commitment. Uh I was really moved to see you coming to the school on holding the coaches and and it's really amazing. I really truly appreciate that and so all of us. Um the first question is the suspension um rate is 0%. Uh we have we have trained all the teachers all the staff and all the middle school students into restorative justice practices. So they are they call themselves ambassadors um of um how do you call yourself Mimi? Ambassadors of what? Just restorative justice ambassadors and they are safe school ambassadors and they are the students who help us um reduce the bullying. uh they are trained to talk uh to to students and to recognize when is happening. Um so I I think it is supporting uh and also we have incentives. We have the PBIS program that is probably all of you probably familiar with. Uh but in addition we have a school store and we have the school has six values and we uh award prizes to the students that demonstrate those values. The values are excellence, belonging, respect, jade de and integrity. And um so that is with suspensions with students with IEPs. Uh we are um yeah, we recognize that our numbers of students with IEPs have historically been lower than the neighborhood

schools. We have this year we have 13.6% 6% last year 14.1%. Uh we contri we think that the contributing factors for this are that uh some parents decide to opt out of uh a Frenchimation program for obvious reasons. They don't want perhaps to add yet another lay layer of challenge to the kids who are already challenged with some disabilities. Uh so some parents don't. However, we always encourage them to come um and we for example if they are applying for higher grades, we made all the accommodations possible so that the kids can take the test and pass the test. Uh it is important to us. So we don't discourage anyone for applying to our school. Um then we also have a very strong student support team and we catch many kids in the tier two and support them. So we catch them before they are referred for an IEP. We also have kids exiting IEPs which people sometimes think that an IP is for life. Actually the goal is that they walk out of the IEP that they don't receive the services anymore. And um that happens often in our school. Um you said uh but we I think that one of the biggest priorities we have is to serve the most vulnerable students. Our department is really um robust. We have five full-time staff members serving our students. Uh we have the director of a special education. We have another special education teacher. We have also a full-time speech uh pathologist and we have two staff members that work under their supervision and two of them are

here and a full-time counselor. So we feel really equipped and we welcome we are prepared and welcome uh all students. Great. Thank you very much. Also yeah we we do Okay. Uh, Director Williams, thank you very much for the report. Just want to know what was your selection process in bringing students to the school? When you admit students, what is your selection process?

Oh, is is the lottery? Oakland enrolls, parents go and we have the priorities. One of the priorities are students in the neighborhood in the fruit bale area and also siblings is a priority. um and the siblings and um the children of uh founders and I think that's about it. Those are our priorities. It's a public lo lottery and we have lots of tours and we visit we purposely visit some um head start and dayc carees uh because we want to increase uh the number of families that qualify for free and reduced meals.

Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to see you know if you were also you know expanding around the community to uh bring student to diversify the school. Absolutely. Yes, we make uh efforts to do that and we also um participate for example in the international franophhone countries association and they referred us students as well. There are many immigrant families uh from African countries that come and they would like to keep the education for the kids and they refer students to us but everyone enters the lottery. uh they enroll in the Oakland enrolls and enter a public lottery. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Director Barry.

Yes. Thank you to all the speakers. Um I really appreciate the presentation. I think and I shared this with you all before that this is more straightforward to me than a lot of the material revisions because no significant change to program or vision or anything like that. I do have one small question about something small and I'm not sure if it's a discrepancy, but in one place in the materials um it spoke to a 15% increase enrollment over two years and in another place it said 25% over two years and just wondering if it's 15 or 25 because of the implications.

Thank you. Um we made the projection to um for the se next seven years to grow up to 420 uh students. We are authorized for 520 uh students but the projection is for 420. We all know that enrollment is a challenge in Oakland and is um it is not for us in in a way that we have many parents that want to enter u the lower um grades. uh but um I think we we are expecting um to grow maybe 420 and we're preparing we grow to all uh just 420. Next year we will have about 405 students is the projection. Um and the following year will be 420 and then that's that's about it. I don't think uh we want to have our feet on the ground and know that you know enrollment is an issue. um but it's not a big um expansion for our school. I think it's moderate as you saw perhaps in the presentation. We have grown in enrollment slowly but steadily. Uh we do have parents in uh in the wedding list for TK um a lot and uh we refer them to other schools.

Yeah. Thank you, Vice President Bor. Thank you. And I appreciate you putting together a facilities committee to really be thinking through this. And I know the chair is here tonight, so I appreciate that. As someone who chairs a facilities committee, I know how difficult it is to make some of those decisions. Um I guess to piggyback on director Barry's um convers or um question. Um so the affordability of the new location, it's based on the assumption that you all will get to the 420 enrollment for the following school year. Is that correct? Right. Okay. Yes. For the seven the next seven years. The next seven years. Yes. Yes. And we are already this year at 370.

370. Okay. Um how much do you rely on um enrollment with immigrant families? Um I think we're just a city school. um just many immigrant we they are drawn to us because of the language.

Um so I think we don't rely we just have like partnerships with some of the um dayc carees and head starts and we reach out to all the community. Um I will say I don't have a number like a percentage of how many uh immigrant parents but many are but not necessarily from French or franophhone backgrounds. Yeah. Uh from all the different backgrounds. Yeah.

Thank you. Um and I guess my my next uh questions are around uh vulnerable students. As you mentioned, you all want to make sure that you're serving the populations that we are. Um but um I don't see that you're serving unhoused students and foster youth as much as uh us as a district are in other schools. Can you talk a little bit about your plan to specifically try to target and enroll some of those students knowing how difficult it can be? Um but I know that you all want to service vulnerable populations.

Yeah, absolutely. We we do I I think the effort that we're making now in visiting several Head Start programs uh is that reaching out to these families um and we just work with some organizations. We are moving to our landlord. They have it's an evangelical church and they work with some communities and they are you know passing the uh the word that we exist. Um, we also go to events. We make sure we are present in all events in Oakland like um I forgot the names of the events but we are we always have a table. We go with families in action. We join that table and sometimes we have our own table. We are planning to go and I don't ask me about the event but uh an event two events this this month this weekend actually. Yeah.

Great. Thank you. you. And I know that you all are up for renewal as well in two years, I'm guessing. Yeah, two years. Um, again, I'm going to be really looking at those numbers of vulnerable populations because again, we have to be able to serve all students here in Oakland. Thank you so much. Thank you. I have a couple of similar questions. Um, I wanted to know what your percentage of students were with um, IEPs. Um, they are this year 13.6. 7.6 13. Okay. Thank you. Sorry.

A couple of things that you said tonight that made me think. Um I'm wondering in a dual immersion school. I mean I taught in a dual immersion. How are your students served? Um your disabled students who are who come to you not English speaking. I I don't know if you have any you know French speaking students who come but with your students who are um multilingual. How are the students served in their home language or are they served in English? Um the we have one of the um special education teachers is from Haiti. The other teachers speak English and depends of what the kids need.

Okay. So you would offer both for your Haitian students. Okay. Um and then my last question, there is a process for leaving when a student who a student has who has an IEP. Um there's a monitoring time. Um do you offer that as well or how what is your process for um students who no longer um qualify for services?

The director of special education is here. Uh we'll we'll we'll keep them um you know for a year for monitoring to make sure that we're you know that they're thriving. Um usually before we get to that point we've put a lot of steps into place to help them to grow in independence, autonomy, know how to self- advocate. Um so it's not sort of like okay off you go. Um but yes, absolutely. And you know it's never too late to come back if needed. You have one last question. You probably are the person to answer as well. um what types of disabilities do do you serve at your school and what what does your staffing look like?

Yeah, so we um have a pretty broad range of mild moderate. Um we have tell you a few specific numbers. We have 19 students who received specialized academic instruction. 19 students who received speech and language. Of course, there's some doubling up, so it's going to seem like big numbers. Nine students receive occupational therapy, six receive educationally related mental health services, one with behavior intervention support, one with specialized vision instruction, and one with orientation and mobility. Those numbers are actually a little higher because we've just found a couple of students eligible. So um thems behavior intervention and a couple others have gone up but anyways our services um we have a really fantastic team um that works really collaboratively together at both sites. So we have on staff I think you mentioned already a special education teacher and two pairs who work um sort of under her supervision also providing behavior intervention and specialized support in the classroom. Um, we have our fantastic school counselor and a speech therapist that we're lucky enough to have on staff. We contract out for an occupational therapist for the psychologist who does cognitive evals and is really involved with our school and knows our families and um, oh, right and a specialized instructor for visual impairment, orientation, mobility, and then FBAs when uh, functional behavior assessments when we need them. We have to contract out for that as well. And which Sela do you belong to?

Elderorado. Elorado. Okay. Thank you. I think there are no more questions. With that, the public hearing is closed. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

And we are adjourned.