Oakland Unified School District Board of Education - Regular Meeting

on the honor roll. Tonight is a celebration of excellence, perseverance, and promise. Let's repeat together. It's not about you.

It's not about me. It's about our children. I think it honors Oscar's legacy, A, because he did something. And because he did something, this has happened. We had the benefit of being here when he was still alive. But having this maintained after he's gone showcases that education is primary. And he instilled the message that education for African-American children of Oakland is number one goal.

This is beautiful to have. This will keep his memory living on. He's going to live on in all of these children. This is keeping him alive.

West Oakland is an integral and valued part of the city with a long and rich history. It includes the city's oldest school, Prescott Elementary, and the historic School of Champions, McClimans High, and numerous others.

We're underneath one of these solar canopies. It's really fulfilling our promise to the community around creating a sustainable future for our kids.

From early childhood investments to elementary to middle and then to high school, this is a coordinated effort to be able to ensure complete investment in the full pathway for our students in West Oakland.

My favorite part is the new slides. There's three now. There used to be only two. It's more colorful. Now they can see who we are, like Dover.

The windows have been an issue here since I've been here for the last 10 years. You see students appreciate it. It doesn't feel as hot. There's an obvious difference in the heat. Now that we finally got blinds, that's been helpful, too, to be able to block out some of the sun. And then visually, it's impacting students because it looks nice. The windows look good. It looks new.

It feels like it's bringing more like a good energy.

What was missing was just kids motivated to even want to come outside to play. So Martin Luther King Junior students, the impact of the new yard shows that everybody cares about them.

There's just like kind of more joyful play. Having things to do and nice facilities to do it with is a huge difference.

Our investment at McClymonds is transformational. I'm so excited to be delivering a project at McClymonds that honors the legacy of incredible people who have been students and community members and staff at McClymonds.

We're launching a nearly $100 million investment in West Oakland and specifically McClymonds. It started with the naming of the gym and honoring the legacy of Bill Russell, but now it'll be a full modernization of the school that will be breaking ground this spring. So we're really excited about that project because it's a cornerstone in the West Oakland community.

I'm excited because I'm a local kid. I grew up here. I went to Lafayette Elementary, went to Lowell Middle School, and then came here my ninth and tenth grade year. So coming back to the neighborhood and giving back just Coming back home, you know, to where I was raised, knowing the community, knowing the people, I was excited.

When you get a new house or a new bicycle, it just does something for you. It motivates you. And so having a new place to come to, there's this new smell, there's a newness about it, and people want to take care of it.

These projects ultimately create safe, welcoming, and high-quality learning environments that also strengthen schools as neighborhood anchors and serve the community beyond the school day.

We'll be right back.

Different people come in and I get painted different colors. I get cleaned, I get new furniture, but I stay in the same spot in the city. If you use up the moon to make macaroni and cheese, the stars will come together to make a new moon.

I felt that it was fun. I usually just read at school. Reading is fun. I got a lot of good books in the library.

To see our students excited about it is incredible. This is an exciting moment for me personally. I know reading is everything, and to have the whole city focused on reading, a coalition of people coming together at every level, from birth to adult, making the connection to reading with your health, with your body, with joy. I'm here today to really announce that Oakland is a reading town, and this is about our young people. Our young people deserve to be able to be literate and to be able to read and write. It's their future, and we have a duty and responsibility to partner with the school district So this is a citywide effort.

Books are expensive. So I like events like this so we can come and get free books. I think books should be accessible. Be in the community and celebrate education, literacy, get some books, and just continue this beautiful vibe of the Oakland Unified School District.

I'm a former reading teacher, so that's why I'm excited to be here. I love books. Like the mayor said, Oakland is a reading town. Starting with the two students who read their poems, it's the energy just built from there. Going in and talking to the students and looking at them being excited about their writing. Looking here at all our vendors and knowing those kids and adults are going to go home and read tonight. It's very exciting. The momentum is great.

Our school district and our school partners are gonna be encouraging and incentivizing tracking reading minutes, incentivizing reading for 20 minutes a day in school, but also at home. And so they're really gonna be working on ways that we can actually log reading. We designed Oakland as a reading town because we knew that there's a lot of competing stuff for our attention, our phones, our lives. And so we know that one of the things we can do to get reading right is we can read more.

So excited to be here today in our third annual Lit Fest. This is an opportunity for families to come and celebrate their students' reading and writing. We have the Oakland Public Library giving away books. We have Eat, Learn, Play giving away backpacks. We have food for families to come, because we know they're going to be here from 4 to 6, and we all need to eat a yummy meal.

I think every year we have tweaked it to really figure out the perfect combination of showcasing student writing, getting kids up on a stage where they can really be heard, This event is all about our kids. I think that the most important question is whether the kids feel celebrated today and feel the pride of Oakland that is in this space and know that what they read and what they write and how they grow matters to everybody who's here and to this whole city.

We are the TCN Panthers and I am so excited I'm here. Hi, I'm Lacey Lefkowitz and I am the proud principal at Think College Now. Our community was actually formed by families. Families who wanted to see their students and their families in college now. We have both art and a science lab. Students can also spend time each week in the library, each month in the garden, and each week with our partner heroes where they have PE spaces. Parents at Think College Now can expect a lot of different opportunities to engage. First, we have our three signature events. We have our literacy night where we celebrate our love of learning and our love of reading. Our second signature event is our Unity Night where we celebrate all of the wonderful cultures that come together. And number three is our Black Excellence Night where we further celebrate our community. We hope that you will all join us in our Think College Now community. You will be joining a legacy of families who have come together both to found this school and continue to work to make sure that all of our students can be successful in college careers and beyond.

I learned about the problems of the Brooklyn Bridge and how there was a lot of problems during construction and reconstruction and I learned how the community solved it.

The engineer was John Augustin. There was about a lot of laborers working on this. I built the Golden Gate Bridge. I learned all of the different parts of the bridge. The main cables, cables, the roadway, and... The towers. The wall is the Edinburgh Wildlife Crossing on the 101 freeway in LA. It's only for wildlife and no humans can go on it. It has plants on the top so the animals can find stuff for their family.

With larger projects, sometimes it can be hard for students to see that end goal because it can feel so far away and there's all of these tedious steps that they feel like they're doing to get to this like long-term thing. So this was like our cumulative project, our ELA module, and the focus was informational tech so students were learning research skills and how to look at different sources and kind of synthesize information, put it together.

They say that steel is one of the best materials to build with because it's easy and strong. The Brooklyn Bridge was the first steel suspension bridge in the world and one of the longest steel suspension bridges at the time, standing at 6,016 feet.

It was kind of scary, but since I did it with my team, it wasn't that scary.

They're nervous. It feels hard, but it's something special about doing a hard thing, it connecting to their confidence and realizing that they can do it.

I learned that bridges, like, take a long time to do. They help the community a lot. And they help people cross over to their destinations. I never knew that inside, inside of the Brooklyn Bridge, there's like, I think, a room, a museum, I'm pretty sure. It was like the most shocked, shocked thing to me, because I never heard about it.

But I think what is the most special time was this week, because it was really like the grind time. I think when they started to realize, okay, we're super close to our finish line, and now we're going to really lock in, as the kids would say.

How I built the bridge, it was like, at first my dad was kind of like, building the bridge, Stick strong, kind of. But we fixed it up.

I use a little popsicle sticks and cardboard for the strips.

I think when you accomplish anything big in life, it makes it like when you come across other challenges, those challenges don't seem as hard. At least I can take one step to accomplishing that.

Beautiful city of gold. It's such a beautiful city. Beautiful city of gold.

It means a lot to me because back then, the people of Black History Month started black community slavery and went through hard times.

And if you're here today celebrating and elevating the 100th year anniversary of Black History Month, everything's been our share.

This event is important to me because people just think our dancing is just for fun, but they have an inspiration for it.

We need more programs like this, not just in February. The young people really get excited about being able to showcase their hard work, and I think it gives them a bigger sense of purpose.

I get to express how I feel through dancing and I get to tell them what my culture is.

It was important to find out what makes young people even want to move. Words are really powerful because those words turn into movement. You know, movement turns into bigger movement and then movement turns into change.

The Expanded Learning Arts Program is an initiative that comes out of central office and our goal is to provide our students with high quality arts instruction from Oakland based professional teaching artists.

West Oakland Middle School has done a very good job I feel that for like making sure we have that connection especially through music and through dance.

This collaboration is important, and it reminds me a lot of hip-hop. Hip-hop is a collaboration. It's a collaboration of music, DJs, dancers, B-boys, taggers, you know, spray painters.

Dame creating that track and then kind of like bringing Mari onto the fold and like being like, you know, what can we do? And the kids kind of like fell right into it. The majority of the kids here do music and dance as well, so it's not a hard transition for them to do that. But I think that that showed a positive collaboration, which also passed down to the youth.

I always learn something working with young people in general because they have a lot of creative ideas. They may not always have the technical abilities, but the lens that they use to see the world is always something in the future and hopeful.

Before I started the program, I didn't have much confidence because I used to get bullied, but now I have my confidence. It's actually fun to learn new things. It helped me learn that I'm good at making beats, and it showed how good I can be at something when I put my mind to it.

Students have an opportunity to learn how to conceptualize their ideas. They learn the tools of the trade, whatever it is, if it's dancing, if it's visual arts.

Everybody may not be a dancer, everybody may not be into music, you know what I mean? So it's important to bring them both together.

I love that I can express myself through movement. I can laugh with my friends. And I love that I can do an active activity almost every day. It makes me excited to come to school. This is my first time dancing. I never danced football. It's really wonderful to be here. I learned many dances.

The elementary dance teachers and the elementary music teachers and the elementary arts teachers, each of those groups gets to meet every single week. We call it PD, but it's really more of a professional learning community. The whole focus of it is that teachers are learning from each other.

I remember when I first got this position, one of the things I was really worried about was being on an island and being by myself. And then I met Emily and it was a game changer. I think the mentorship has been great, not just from Emily, but also from the other teachers and then getting to see their work and how it can influence what I do with my students is really helpful.

Being a first time teacher was very intense and overwhelming. I don't know what this would be, but it's sort of like corralling energy rather than trying to like pull. Like they already have so much and I'm just giving it structure. I felt like my eyes didn't know how to see all of the things that were going on in the room and to process it to be able to make a decision. And I probably would have quit if it wasn't for this group.

I was kind of nervous, but like, I went through with it and it felt good. I was still nervous, but I just love all the choreography and all of the movement.

Well, any arts is a challenge to make it fit into a school culture. We created a dance framework and created a vision for dance education. And then as we started to have positions that opened up, we were able to convince the powers that be to turn initially one of them into a dance position. We went from one teacher to two teachers to, what do we have now, 12 or something that are doing elementary dance across our schools.

My favorite part about being in Ms. Felicia's class is performing and saying like poems and I love when she teaches us and she makes us laugh a lot. Sometimes she has a special guest or we're doing something special like when I was in second grade we went to Castlemont for our performance. I love dancing because it makes me feel happy and it brings me emotion.

My philosophy for dance is really about building the students and building their character outside of dance and learning the discipline of dance and how that discipline can translate into other areas of their life. So it's about how we can build them as people through dance.

Before this program, my attendance was okay. I really just like doing internships and stuff, so I just wanted to post it, and I just wanted to sign up for it for fun.

Well, I'm just really proud to happen to be at Castlemont, the home of the Knights. Education opens the door to everything. Schools bring those opportunities to students. Students bring opportunity to the community.

Since 2015, we've been doing one iteration or another of the Everyday Counts Attendance Challenge. It started with maybe 20 winners per year, and then we've increased it year over year because we believe in the power of spreading awareness in this way. The celebration today is to honor a student, Gwendolyn, who won $500 for having near-perfect attendance.

Minding for students. It's not too late. School goes all the way through May. We do this every month. Coming to school, that's the only way that you can be considered is if you're coming to school every day with at least 95% or higher. And you can do it. It's a swindle and knit it.

We just believe in awarding people for doing it, showing up when they're supposed to show up and doing what they're supposed to do.

School can help me get through and pass my accomplishments. It can get me to a further point in life. I'm getting closer to my dreams every day. I just feel like y'all should go to school, get that, get y'all learning in, and yeah, it's going to take y'all somewhere in life.

I'm Dr. Lucinda Taylor, principal of Westlake Middle School. I feel like my work is still important, changing the lives of black and brown kids in Oakland. We're here to make another impact in Oakland in a way that creates leaders, politicians, doctors, lawyers, The focus here at Westlake this year and in the years to come will be to increase the literacy scores of our students. And so we have a beautiful full-service library with a librarian, a writer's room. Westlake also hosts a myriad of athletic programs. We have sports like volleyball, track and field, basketball, tennis, soccer for our students to participate in during our sports program. all right here at Westlake. Westlake also hosts a number of VAPA classes, which includes digital media, it includes band, it includes art, it includes choir, and a host of other opportunities for our students to engage in the arts in the way that makes them young and free and fresh. Some of the interests that our students have where they're very passionate are our clubs. And one of them is robotics. This year, our students competed in the district wide challenge. We have a variety of clubs, including cooking, barbershop. We actually have math and reading clubs and a host of LGBTQ and personalized clubs. right here at Westlake. So with about 30 years in Oakland, I am here at Westlake to create conditions for our students to be excellent readers and writers and be able to compete globally. So our focus is creating conditions in the classrooms, hiring qualified teachers to match the energy of our students and make sure that they are prepared. Our attendance is up, our discipline is down, and that's all because we know that restorative justice works. And it's about surrounding them with people who care and actually love them.

I feel very happy when I'm out there dancing. It makes me happy. It makes me smile. I made more friends. I got to connect with people. Because of dance, we got to do dances together. I got to duets, solos. It's kind of scary and nerve-wracking, but you get used to it the more you do it.

So what brought me to the program first is because my best friend, she was asking me if I wanted to join dance. My English wasn't good at that moment, so I was like, um, I don't understand what you're saying. But I said yes, and then I joined, and it was pretty good. And what makes me want to stay all the time is my dance teacher, because she's really nice.

To be teaching here in West Oakland is like a really, really, really big deal for me. The students need it. It's an outlet. We probably teach everything. The only thing we do not teach is tap. We wanted to make sure that when they joined dance, they understood that we are a family.

I do a couple of dances. Some dances, I just come in for parts. I performed a lot in like a band. I performed a lot already, but dance, this was like my first year in dance. So it was kind of, it was like a first time, but I felt a little bit more confident. I say it's a good way to try something new. It's something to, it's good to keep your mind off of other things.

We collaborate, we try to collaborate as often as possible, even if we're not dancing and doing bad at the same time. Mr. Stern is a big, big, huge part of how and why we keep coming back.

This was our winter concert. You would have to ask them what it's like to perform in front of everybody, but I think that for me, I feel really humbled that I get to work with these people because some of these young people are, we have some real musicians in this group. The philosophy with our program is like show up and participate and do your best. That's how you get an A in the class. If you're showing up in class and you're kind to other people and you're participating and doing your best, again, it's not about talent. It's just about the effort you're putting in and how you show up. It's a band, so we're a team. We have students who put in a lot of effort and try and practice and learning about reading music and all that. The vibe in our classroom was really good.

At first, I played trumpet, but I didn't really enjoy playing, so I switched to saxophone. and it's really nice i love it i was really proud of myself because i learned to play a song with saxophone in three days like i just like i learned it at the beginning it was stressful and i was scared all the time but then now i i feel like i feel really confident it's still a little bit stressful but once you're on stage you just enjoy yourself

I performed saxophone and my favorite song was Tom's Diner because I get to start the song and also I get to just kind of play around with the notes and like customize it to my own liking.

I had a drum solo on it.

song that we did called Judge Aiden because it was two drummers it was me and this other kid that was playing and so what we did we take turns on the beat coming here and being able to have a community that is still large but it's still tight-knit really does make my heart really really happy I love coming to West Oakland I love going to West Oakland there's good in West Oakland and I think being here at West Oakland Middle School you see that

With the students here, the way it feels to perform with them is I feel super blessed and I feel honored and I feel humbled to perform with them. Because like I said, some of these students are really talented, really musical, and they're surpassing what I can do in some cases, which is great. I tell students all the time, when I need a substitute, I'm going to talk to you.

I definitely would suggest coming to West Oakland Middle School so that you can have fun, make more friends, and just get to build your community.

It brings such a beautiful sense.

OSD schools I've attended, Stonehurst Elementary, Elmhurst Middle School, and Castlemont High School. My name is Berenice Vega. I am the college and career ranking specialist at Castlemont. I've been here since class of 2022. I've been working with so many students here. It just feels like home. We're all connected in this community. It means so much to give back to a community where I was once part of. And I think it's such a privilege getting to work with siblings, cousins, neighbors of my classmates, people I went to school with. It really brings it back a whole circle. The ways that they were supporting us while we were in high school is something that I really appreciate because that also helps me as in my role kind of emulating ways that they were with us as students that I can also be for my students. I run the Teacher Center, the College of Career Center here at Castlemont that supports students with their post-secondary education. The advice I would give to current and future OUSD students is that you are capable of doing everything to set your mind to. There's always going to be challenges and that's just part of life. As one door closes, you have to find a window. You have to find another door and just keep pushing.

YouthBeat gave me the space where I can explore and find my voice.

The confidence to tackle any challenge that comes my way. Unlock who I am as a storyteller and also as a person.

Before YouthBeat, I had a lot of self-doubt.

But now, I tell stories for a living.

My name is Sophia.

Malik Hailu.

Lindsay Hong.

Barnabas DeFere.

Nars Ginto. And this is my YouthBeat story.

I come from a family of immigrants, but I was born and raised here in Oakland. We weren't living in the best neighborhood because of how bad it was outside. I was mostly in my house, and the thing that kept me company wasn't other people, but it was TV shows and movies.

Not being able to have the space to do things that I love was suffocating.

and U3 came at the right time for me. They were teaching me things I never knew or even existed. It's like they kind of popped the bubble of my curiosity and then they challenged me at every single point.

It's gonna be easy.

When I first came, I was really nervous. I hated being on camera before that point. And I think also YouthBeat helped me express myself a little bit more, not be as shy.

Bryce Salato, a former teacher at Oakland Technical High School. How do you see the strike impacting students?

I feel like YouthBeat and a lot of organizations in Oakland really are like safety nets for kids in OUSD public school.

A big doubt of mine was like, am I creative enough? Am I being different? And so YouthBeat set me up to bring me out of my shell a bit more.

We'll learn about what important issues do you think the next president should address. There were other high schoolers that had the same aspirations I had, who loved the same media with the same passion that I had. Oh yeah, I'm ready. I had three coffees, two espresso shots, and a monster on the way.

After graduating youth beat in high school and being accepted into SF State for their broadcasting program, I felt prepared and felt confident.

I applied to work at Array, which is Ava DuVernay's company as a production intern. Ava DuVernay was the director in my mind. She still is. I think I got an email at like five o'clock in the morning and they told me I had gotten the internship and I remember like breaking down into tears.

Now, as a freelancer, I get to work on so many different projects and work with so many amazing people. One of them is called My Sister's Keeper. I had the honor of being the director of photography. We even got to premiere it at the Grand Lake Theater, an accomplishment where you kind of pat yourself off a little bit.

In the future, I see so many things for myself. I see myself as a multidisciplinary artist.

Making films for a big water audience, added a couple of Oscars or Academy Awards in there.

Producing our first docu-series called The Black Travel Show, showcasing the unique subcultures of Black culture around the world.

Help other artists find their inspiration and their passion, just like Youth Beat helped me.

Even if the young people don't go into filmmaking as a career, allowing them to know who they are and what story they want to tell for themselves I think is super important and is the reason why USP exists and should continue to exist.

FLIP stands for Friends Learning with Inclusive Play. The idea of it for this play group specifically is around building connections starting with the littles and their families. We want to welcome everybody, and we want kids with and without disabilities to be here together. We value that.

I've definitely seen a big change in Michael since he first started here. The school is very supportive. I've had a lot of support from his teacher, especially with IEPs, and I've also had a lot of support from the principal as well.

Within the Early Childhood Education Department, we work to align programs, whether it be academics, family engagement, so that students and families feel aligned into their hopefully K-12 experience with OUSD. There's the kind of organic opportunity to chit chat. We're currently building a community as well with the parents.

They serve under served communities like Latinos, recent immigrants, parents who don't know nothing about what special education is, but they're doing a really good job.

For students specifically with disabilities, I think sometimes play can be a little harder. The focus is the play. And then you have the family information that you can give in a timely manner. The idea is to give families an opportunity to learn something about what they can do at home.

Playing around, the different activities that they have, like my son loves being on a bicycle or anything that has wheels, so he has a really good time with that. And then just the thing that I think is very welcome, my wife's an educator as well, so she wants us to make sure that our kids are staying active with learning.

They can know that they're safe and playing because they've been here and they've gotten comfortable, and then they can take home some information.

I've always liked CLIP. I enjoy it. You know, I feel like it's really important. It's something that we should have more of, you know, we need to continue doing.

With parents who have kids on the spectrum, it's really hard to build a community.

So I think having events like this really, really helps.

Today we are camping, we've made our tents, we ate lunch, we're gonna go on a hike and to the ocean.

Yeah, it was my first time sailing and like in general being on a boat. There's like little plankton in the water and they give us oxygen, which is a pretty cool thing that I learned.

There's life lessons in everything. And if the students and the teachers are able to have these experiences where they've seen the students push themselves in a certain environment, then they can draw upon those lessons to be able to apply them in the classroom. Oakland Goes Outdoors, or OGO as we call it, is one of those great things that allows our kids to have a joyful experience because they're able to not just learn inside the classroom. Now it's something that has taken hold as a regular part of what we do in our middle schools. So I do think that it's something that students and parents look forward to. We use it when we talk about our middle schools and we're doing recruitment for them. Yeah, it's an important part of the regular fabric of how we do middle school.

Some students who you don't get to know in the same way in the classroom, but when you get outdoors, you see their strengths shine in different ways. We're asking kids to step outside their comfort zone, and for many of them, really take risks.

So we're here at Baker Beach today with sixth graders from UPA. Some of our newcomers, that was their first time crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. And I think even just that kind of exposure is great for our students.

I want us to reduce all of the barriers, both financial and logistical, to embed these experiences into the curriculum, into their daily experience, and make it so that all of our young people can access both the joy and the academic and social emotional benefits that come from spending time outdoors. Kids go outside.

They'll go camping and do overnight experiences in tents. Some of them will go up to Point Reyes and be in cabins. Also, kids get on the water, and so they do whitewater rafting. They go sailing. They'll also go backpacking. They'll go rock climbing.

It really builds community. For me, I had never been camping before I started working at OOPA. So I have learned a lot about setting up a tent, building a fire, so much so that I take my own kids camping.

It's actually pretty fun to come to OOPA. We do a lot of things and... I'm just looking forward, letting it get nighttime, and then we go by the campfire. How our taste in nature, like, connects.

Like, one of my friends said she really likes, like, looking at, like, birds and, like, trees. And I said, oh, like, I like birds, too. And then, like, we're, like, connecting about that.

I'm looking forward to going to the beach. I feel, like, more connected than being cooped up in a room. I get to do things that I usually won't be able to do in the classroom, like run around, be loud. how my outside was. Today it was very new because I've never been on a boat for a field trip and it was really fun like we got to do multiple things and we got to look at pelts and steer the boat.

A whole part of our mission is bringing students out onto the water who would not have the opportunity without us being there. I hope that they walk away with more of a curiosity for understanding the marine environment around them and more of a desire to protect it.

I think it's really important that everyone has access to these places and I think that if you don't ever get out there, you might never know that you want to be out there. And so I think that for a lot of kids, if you don't go out during school, you might not ever get to these places.

We have a vision of students having a world-class education and a joyful experience. And I think that OGO does both. It's part of the education and it's part of the joyful experience. So we're really excited to have OGO part of our lives, part of our schools, and we hope that it continues to last forever.

Our public funding infrastructure is quite limited in this moment and we really need additional support from our community to make these opportunities sustainable and regularly accessible for our young people. We want ultimate expansion to be every school, every student, every grade.

Thank you. Thank you.

you Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, August 26th regular school board meeting of the Oakland Unified School Board. Mr. Rickstar, can we have a roll call to establish quorum, please?

Yes, Madam President. Student Director Block. Student Director Tungan. Director Lara. Present. Director Williams.

Present, sir.

Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Director Thompson? Present. Vice President Batchelor? And President Brohard? Here. Quorum? Present.

Thank you. And Mr. Hollis, can we have an interpretation check, please?

Yes, Madam President, for tonight's meeting, we have two languages available for live interpretation. They are Arabic and Spanish. We will start these announcements with Arabic. I will lower all attendees hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Arabic. And I will ask Mr. Turek if he can come off the mute and give the interpretation announcement for Arabic. I will ask Ms. Abdi if she can come off of mute and get the interpretation announcement for Arabic.

Arabic instruction is done.

Thank you, Ms. Abdi. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not start with Arabic interpretation at this time. Moving forward to Spanish. I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Spanish. And I will ask Ms. Vargas if she can come off the mute and give the interpretation announcement for Spanish.

Of course. Buenas tardes, le damos la bienvenida. Estamos ofreciendo el servicio de interpretación al español, que solo será provisto si usted lo solicita. Así que, por favor, levante su mano, ya sea en persona o de forma virtual, utilizando el ícono de Raise Hand. Es una manita que está en la parte inferior de su ventana de Zoom. Si necesita el servicio en persona, se están distribuyendo computadoras del lado izquierdo del foro. Una vez que se active el servicio, busque en la parte inferior de la ventana de Zoom el símbolo de Interpretation, púlselo y seleccione Spanish. Si no ve este ícono, busque en los puntos suspensivos de More, púlselos y después seleccione Language Interpretation y después Spanish. Una vez más, solo ofrecemos el servicio si usted lo solicita, así que por favor levante su mano. ya sea en persona o virtualmente si necesita escuchar esta reunión en español. Okay. Thank you. Gracias.

Thank you, Ms. Vargas. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised on Zoom, we will not start with any interpretation at this time. That concludes the first announcement for live interpretation, and I will pass it back to you, Madam President.

Thank you. Tonight in closed session, we will discuss the following items. Under Labor Matters D1 26-1630, Conference with Labor Negotiators. under legal matters d2 24-0163 conference with legal counsel existing litigation city of oakland versus oakland california oakland unified school district d3 26 1728 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation d4 26-1827 conference with legal and council anticipated litigation d5 26-1831 conference with legal counsel existing litigation simmons versus oakland unified school district under public employee performance evaluation matters d6 26-1829 public employee performance evaluation superintendent of schools under threat to public services or facilities d7 26-1737 threat to public services or facilities we will then reconvene at 5 30 and we now have public comment on closed session items do we have any speakers mr sechao

Yes, President Bruja, we'll have one speak, one registered speaker, Henry Roberts. Okay, two minutes.

All right, can you hear me? Anyway, good afternoon, good evening, board, president, board, superintendent, and if present, legal counsel. I'm here to speak on closed session item regarding peacemakers and anticipated litigation. And I'm sure if you already know or don't know, the official determination letter for disqualifying peacemakers has been reviewed and hopefully the school board has received a copy. The letter of determination clearly showed no evidence of peacemakers being involved in a lawsuit and there was no evidence of peacemakers terminating a contract. And as a matter of fact, peacemakers have been serving schools in Oakland and the Bay Area for well over 22 years, and I can emphatically say we have never been involved in a lawsuit, and we have never defaulted a contract. And just speaking as a matter of fact, Board Director Hutchinson, 15 years ago, actually witnessed the work of peacemakers with accolades. And two years ago, Board Director Thompson spoke on a video speaking to the success of peacemakers in engaging very key components, the parent, the teacher, and the student. in a successful partnership. So I think the evidence is clear that the evaluator disqualified peacemakers based on unsubstantiated hearsay. But the question that I have now is where do we go from here? And my first concern is Measure Z money. I just don't want to see us procrastinate and position ourselves to possibly get into some kind of issue around the use of that money, particularly when we look at Oakland's deficit right now. that you're trying to cut. We certainly don't want to lose money. My other second and most critical concern is our students. And I don't have to tell you what you don't already know, but you know, school started on August 10th. And August 20th, there was a stabbing. So there's an urgency for the school board to move forward because our children need us now. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we will now go into closed session. Good evening and welcome to the August 26th regular board meeting of the Oakland School Board. Mr. Rakestar, can we have roll call to establish quorum, please?

Yes, Madam President, we may. Second roll call to establish quorum. Student Director Block?

Present.

Student Director Tongan?

Present.

Director Lara?

Present.

Director Williams?

Present, sir.

Director Hutchinson?

Present.

Director Barry?

Present.

Director Thompson? Present. Vice President Batchelor?

Here.

And President Brohard?

Here.

Form present.

And Mr. Hollis, can we have an interpretation check, please?

uh yes madam president for tonight's meeting we have two languages available for live interpretation they are arabic in spanish we will start with those announcements we will start with arabic i will lower all attendees hands on zoom please only raise your hand if you need to if you need the language being announced at this time which is arabic and i will ask mr turek if you could come off a mute and get the interpretation announcement for arabic

Thank you. If you didn't make the decision, click on the three dots or more, and then click on language, interpretation, and choose the Arabic language. You can also type the original voice that we heard clearly, mute original audio, there is a box you can click on, and then it will give you an end and click on done. Thank you, we are here for your service. Arabic announcement interpretation is done.

Thank you, Mr. Turek. Checking the attendees to see if there are any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised on Zoom, we will not start with Arabic interpretation at this time. Moving forward to Spanish. I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced at this time, which is Spanish. And now I'll ask Ms. Vargas if she could come off of mute and give the interpretation announcement for Spanish.

Of course. Muy buenas tardes. Le damos la bienvenida. Estamos ofreciendo el servicio de interpretación al español. Este servicio será solo provisto si usted lo solicita. Así que, por favor, si necesita escuchar la junta en español, levante su mano, ya sea de forma presencial, levantando su mano en el recinto, o utilizando el ícono de Raise Hand en Zoom si usted está asistiendo a esta junta de forma virtual. Una vez que se active el servicio, o por cierto, a las personas que están presentes en el recinto, se están entregando dispositivos en la zona de las canchas de basquetbol, por favor, ahí busque a nuestro compañero para que le proporcionen un dispositivo. Una vez que se active el servicio de Zoom, por favor busque el globo terráqueo en la parte inferior de la ventana de Zoom, púlselo y seleccione Interpretation y después Spanish. Si no ve este globo terráqueo, busque los puntos suspensivos, dicen More, púlselos, seleccione Language Interpretation y después Spanish. Estamos aquí para servirles, avísenos, levante su mano o busque alguna persona del personal en el recinto para que le apoyen. Muchas gracias. The Spanish announcement is done. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Vargas. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there are any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will now start with any interpretation at this time. That concludes the second announcement for languages, and I will pass it back to you, Madam President.

Thank you. At tonight's meeting, there are several allotted times where you may make public comments, provided you pre-register to speak online before the meeting started, or if you fill out a comment card, which you can find on the table by the entrance, and you can submit those at any time. There was public comment after closed session, which was completed earlier. There will be public comment on all non-agenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the district, after the student board members report, after new business, after each item, and there are five items. And after adoption of the general consent report, after the superintendent's report. Please be aware that in compliance with the Brown Act, board members may not respond to comments regarding issues that are not on our posted agenda for tonight. Report out of closed session for August 26, 2026. Labor Matters on item D1, number 26-1630, Conference with Labor Negotiators. The board discuss this matter. under legal matters item d2 number 24-0163 conference with legal counsel existing litigation the board approved the settlement in this matter motion by president brohard second by director thompson it was approved on a vote of six um and one absent the yes votes president brohard vice president batchelor director barry director lotta director thompson director williams and director hutchinson was absent on item d3 number 26-1728 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation the board approved a settlement in this matter motion by president brohard second by director thompson votes in favor five abstain one absent one the votes in favor president brohard director barry director lotta director thompson director williams vice vice president bachelor abstained and director hutchinson was absent on item d4 number 26-1827 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation the board approved the settlement in this matter motion by president brohard second by director thompson vote in favor five abstain one absent one the votes in favor president brohard director berry Director Lara, Director Thompson, Director Williams, Vice President Batchelor abstained, and Director Hutchinson was absent. On item D5, number 26-1831, Conference with Legal Counsel, Existing Litigation, the board gave direction on this matter. Motion by Director Thompson, second by President Brohard. Vote in favor five, abstained one, absent one. The votes in favor, President Brohard, Director Berry, Director Lara, Director Thompson, Director Williams, Vice President Batchelor abstained, and Director Hutchinson was absent. On public employee performance evaluation matter on item D6, number 26-1829, public employee performance evaluation superintendent of schools, the board discussed this matter. Threats to public service or facility matters on item D7, number 26-1737, threat to public services or facilities. The board discussed this matter. And that's the end of the August 26, 2026 closed session report out. Are there any modifications to the agenda? Director Hutchinson.

Thank you. Two things. First, from the consent report, I'd like to pull R10, R23, and R24. 10, 23, 24.

10, 23, and 24, right.

And the second thing is, at our last board meeting, we had a presentation on the 45 day budget revision. And we were told the numbers were in error that were being presented. I know I haven't heard any response from any staff over the last two weeks. And so I'd really like Superintendent Sadler for you to take your time in the superintendent's report. to at least provide the accurate projected numbers for our restricted spending this year, so we know exactly what the numbers are, and we know how much bigger than 17 million we're overspending this year. But as of now, I need access to the budget and the 45 day revision. I haven't been given it, and when are we gonna get the accurate numbers that we were told are in error? Because it's not on tonight's agenda, and I'm disappointed, President Brohard, you haven't put a budget item on the agenda tonight. So when are we gonna receive that information or can we have it presented tonight, please?

Thank you. Are there any other modifications? I would like to postpone item Q2 under new business until the September 9th meeting.

Anything from student directors?

With that, we'll move into public comment on all non-agenda items. Do we have public speakers on this item, on this agenda?

Yes, President Brewhart, we have two speakers, two registered speakers, Asala Obala and Mario Capitelli.

Two minutes each.

I'm sorry, and also Sheila Haynes.

Still two minutes.

I am quoting excerpts from an article that was put in a document called the Oakland Report. relative to your school facilities. It states in the article that OUSD enrollment has fallen 36% since 2000, more than any other nearby school district. Your facilities plan shows that your schools are only 60% full. Oakland averages 430 students per school compared to 628 students in San Jose Unified and 773 in Fremont Unified. Alameda County Officer Elise Castro has said OUSD runs more schools than its enrollment can pay for. The district OWN FACILITIES MASTER PLAN CONFIRMS ENROLLMENT FALLS ONLY ABOUT 60% OF THE SPACE OF OUSD THAT WAS BUILT FOR AND LEAVING SOME 23,000 EMPTY SEATS CURRENTLY IN OUSD SCHOOLS DISTRICT CURRENTLY YOU OPERATE 78 SCHOOLS STUDENTS CAN ONLY FILL AROUND 43 TO 53 SCHOOLS excess extra costs that you're spending on schools that you don't need to to facilitate in terms of filling students can be used that money can be used for utilities custodial services administrative staffing public records suggest that the cost of not closing under enrollment schools is going to continue to be a substantial issue in this school district While we have closed no schools, six chartered schools have closed in 2026 in Oakland.

Thank you next speaker, please.

Mario Capitelli speaking as an individual. There are many things discussed on this dais, and you may disagree on that. And the disagreement leads to stagnation and inertia. But there are things you can agree on, things you can fix and address. Things like, as a district employee who has been fingerprinted, taken mandated reporter training annually for decades, and is on dozens of campuses a month, if I want to volunteer at my child's school, I have to register with the Ed Fund and spend $40 to do it all over again. Make it make sense and fix this. Many hundreds of members of the public were allowed under the law school to campus on Monday to roam freely into classrooms in the library, student bathrooms, no background checks, no identification. When asked to leave, they refused. Make it make sense and fix this. With all the cuts to Central, I get automated replies apologizing for delayed replies, slow responses, times to service, then I can count. But when my team holds a limit, I'm threatened, intimidated, lied to, manipulated, the Brown Act is violated, and public records are not available. Make it make sense and fix this. All of our sister and brother unions have received a raise. Multiple members of senior leadership have received a raise and extensions. But you tell our bargaining team there is no money for our raises. Raises that would barely equal a cost of living adjustment and are less than a rounding error for our billion dollar budget. Make it make sense and fix this. Authorize district staff to actually bargain to come to the table with something to talk about. Thank you.

Thank you, is Miss Haines online?

Yes, Miss Haines, if you can go ahead and unmute yourself to speak.

Hi, can you hear me OK?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hi. So with the uncertainty of the budget and cuts to staffing, it helps our students feel safe. So it's just it's most critical that the district mandate love and respect that zero cost to the district. Fully funding the arts is just part of our ongoing ask for nearly two years now. It's also critical though that we understand the various findings, the various fundings and deficits because stability of staffing programs and services are necessary in helping our students progress with the safety and with the safety that they need and deserve. There's just been too many cuts to staffing and other programs that keep our students safe. I'm concerned about further cuts to the arts There's been over a million in cuts taken from a block grant with additional cuts in staffing and services. And the former VAPA director recently stated that the district is currently spending the carryover money. That's one thing I forgot to ask on last week's Q&A. I've been thinking actually, For the last couple of weeks, I don't know if we've missed them, but where is Dr. Frutos? Because I'm not sure if I missed him, but I was wondering why Mrs. T and Mr. T are the financial voices for the work that he is paid to do. At last week's Q&A, there were more questions than answers given. I keep hearing, wait for the unaudited actuals. It's just really concerning because staffing and services, the budget, that's what drives the quality of education our students need. And many parents keep their students online like I do due to safety reasons and lack of qualified staff to actually help them. So I understand in regards to Prop 28, that information on funding will be available in October. But what about the carryover spending? Additional questions on other funding sources not answered still. And without clarity, there's ongoing state of confusion. There's an ongoing state of worry for parents to not know what to expect. So I'm putting my hopes in this board to give us hope that more harm won't be caused to our students and families. many of whom, like my son, have been suffering for many years now. So I continue to hope that we can get some clarity real soon about the state of the budget, and thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Haynes. Are there any other speakers?

Ms. Brouhard, that could include public speakers.

Okay. Next on the agenda is student report.

good evening board directors OESD staff and students community members and parents we hope that the school year has started off well for you all today we'll be giving a verbal report

On August 19th, last Wednesday, All City Council, ACC, held our first Governing Board, GB, meeting. During that meeting, we talked about our positions in more detail, and we started working on our personal projects for the year, and we also had the opportunity to meet and talk to Director Batchelor and Director Thompson. Additionally, we met today and we worked on planning our first middle school meeting on September 8th and our fall high school retreat that takes place on September 25th through 27th.

and um with the new school year starting and the implementation of this new phone policy with the yonder pouches we just wanted to come up here and speak on that a little bit and what we've been personally experiencing and what students have been experiencing so starting off with like the better things some pros that we have been seeing in our schools is that um The school culture is definitely ramping up and becoming something that is way better than it has been in previous years. I know I've spoken to students from Fremont, Met West, and I go to Tech, so personally, phones are a big thing because we do have a big campus and we have the upper campus. And I've noticed a lot of students actually socializing, which is a good thing. I usually eat lunch out front on the grass, and I've noticed a large amount of students be out there now more often. So that's really good. And also, I guess with the freshmen, because they're new to high school, it's like a whole new environment for them. I've noticed a lot of my peers and older people in the school, upperclassmen, helping out freshmen find where they need to go, including them in maybe clubs or things that they might be interested in. and yeah people are just generally more prone to talking to each other and i find especially in the classroom because i personally have been in classes with um some of my peers in previous years and they seem to have like an attachment to their phones but even if they don't put their phones in these pouches they still have you can tell they're more attentive in class and they're actually there to learn now so i feel like that's a very good win and i'll pass it on to drew

Some not as great things about this new phone policy is it is much harder to communicate with our phones being magnetically sealed. It's hard to communicate with my parents to choose a pickup spot. And let's say I forgot I'm part of a club. sports team or I want to attend a sports game after school it is now much harder to organize that with my parents and magnets aren't widespread enough so if I want to go unlock my phone to talk to my parent I don't feel like there is an administrator that I can go to talk to so that I can communicate with my parents like hey can we meet here after school Additionally, there are plenty of ways around this policy, like not locking the yonder pouch, putting a different phone in it, putting a burner phone in it. And we even heard a story from Fremont where a student put a block of cheese in their yonder pouch. There is plenty of ways around it. And administration just doesn't have the manpower to fully implement this across every single student. I talked to Director Smith and Director Simmons, our past student directors, and they were frustrated with the decision that was made because they felt like there was a lack of student input on this very heavily student policy. um... additionally there are better policies to choose such as oakland highs which had a phone box policy that phones were put away during class and students would not have access to them additionally at my middle school and a brewer there was if we see it we take it policy so phones were kept in the backpacks And that worked really well because that also made them available to texture parents because they weren't magnetically sealed.

Additionally, all city council is also kind of shocked when this policy came out, because last year, when this policy was 1st introduced, and we 1st got word of it, we received a presentation about it and possible policies that could be implemented, such as, like, the phone boxes and other things. But. We had that singular engagement, and after that, there was no other follow-up or anything like that. So yeah, that's all we have to say about the yonder pouches. But upcoming for ACC, we have some events that are coming. On September 8th, we have our first middle school meeting, which is going to be at Claremont Middle School. And we're going to introduce ourselves to the middle schoolers. There's going to be some new faces, some new familiar faces. So we're excited about that. And it's going to be in the multipurpose room. And we also have our annual overnight retreat for high schoolers, which also counts as our first high school meeting, our first high school general meeting for the school year. And that is going to be on September 25th to the 27th. So it's going to be two nights and three days. And it's going to be at the Nature Bridge Retreat Center in Sausalito as it is every year. And yeah, there should be flyers coming out about that and emails. And yeah.

That concludes our student board report. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Is there a public comment on the student report?

Yes, we have Sheila Haynes and Asala Olaballa.

In person first, and then we'll do Ms. Haynes next. You can put your card, do you want to put your card in? Yeah. Okay. Two minutes each.

I have been very much interested in what's going on, originally starting with Tuskegee University setting some criterias for their students, and it had to do with dress code. And they're no longer allowing bonnets, pajamas, flip flops to go into the classroom. I inquired when I started working at McClymonds, what is the dress code? I have been able to look at girls' cheeks out with these shorts and breasts, too much, to my opinion, too much exposure, pants hanging down. I think we need to have, and I think state law is a contributing factor about why we can't deal with having some type of weighing in on a dress code but believe me it's needed and I think these young people need to start to have that conversation and it's just at some point you have a limitation of what you're doing at some point you have to have a standard of what you're doing and I think we have an issue and it's not just students it's teachers too And administrators. So I applaud, like Mr. Thompson, God, Lee, always to the T. Old school, when I was in school, PE teachers had a uniform we had to wear every day. Lastly, I saw a document that says 43% of female girls are dropping out of participating in sports athletics. It's because of body shaming. Body shaming is going on. And I think we need to have that kind of discussion about how we appreciate our differences. Not just body, skin color, hair, all of that. Because a lot of kids are being admonished for various appearances that other classmates or peers are saying are inappropriate.

President Brewhart, we have one additional speaker, Jack Nelson.

All right. I have a business that slowed down the last week and a half, but I went out and raised $10,000 for McClymonds and Tech. And I have a good way of doing it. Mike and Valerie, you don't have to listen to this because you've always made me feel like I'm worth something. Superintendent Sadler, you're going to get a check from a company, an AI company, next week or the week after.

Absolutely.

It's going to McClymonds. Make sure it goes to McClymonds. Why am I saying this? Because my $5,000 to tech got swept up. Mike, you don't have to listen to this. But it's ridiculous. One time only donation. And Martel Price told me, it's okay for me because, hey, I gave the donation, but they need the money. They've got two classes going there. Who's the tech representative here? Okay, you need to do it. You need to get off your tail and do it. Okay, I haven't seen anything from you yet. I'm working. I spoke at the parents' meeting last week. You need to do it. Get my money back. My nephew and I are going to run. My nephew and I ran 25 years ago.

I hope to beat my record of $16,000. I'm on a good way towards it.

Tech will get money also. And they've been aware of it. I just sent that in. What they do, the AI company matches our donation. My cousin takes care of it. She's awesome. My cousin, Carrie, if you somehow get this, thank you, cuz. I love you. 911, I get tight. Vincent Dance was a friend of ours. He was the first cop killed there. So I'm going to run October 8th.

And I had a guy, two things I'll finish with.

I had a guy in San Jose. His wife went to McClymonds, one of my customers. And he gave me money, quite a bit of money, and said, go for it. He said he didn't think I could do 11 miles. Ha, ha, ha. Watch. Second, we had a guy. Also, who's wife went to Oakland schools, Mars Engineering, I'm gonna wear his hat when I run. He gave us 500 bucks in McClymonds. And I've got 6,800 bucks towards McClymonds so far and 3,400 to Tech. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Haynes?

Currently I do not see her hand up.

Okay. Board comments? Okay, I see her hand, yeah.

I do, okay. Yeah, she's raised her hand right now.

All right, go ahead, Ms. Haynes.

Hi, so thank you student board directors for the report. I wasn't sure if because you were new, we didn't see an actual report, but I know that one of the areas of focus from the last student directors were around conclusion for students with disabilities. So I appreciate continued focus in this area, especially around student safety, the arts and banning certain words as part of our ongoing restorative practice. But I just needed to clarify for the community about a newsletter that came out regarding legislation to protect disabled students. I'm also kind of offended as a parent when this is not entirely true. I'm offended because for parents with disabled children moving on to kindergarten, there's no guarantee that any student anywhere would be able to stay at their school site in five years. The grade span for a kindergartner is more than three years. My child was traumatized in kindergarten. So I take it very seriously of the information we are distributing to parents. A renewal and revision are to be reconsidered in three years. So this does not mean grade span. Although there's safeguards in place, there's no guarantee. who only three years at a school site would be like a high school student or like a middle school student. So we just have to speak truth to our parents. I would never want a student to go through what my student went through. I actually told my student, you'll be at the school site for five years. And then a charter school moved in and kicked out the entire class. and the trauma has been longstanding ever since then. So I just have to clear that up because we can't give parents false hopes for their students. Their life and family's life are at stake, but I do hope that there are more protections in place. Being that there's budget issues, we really don't know what to expect, but all I can focus on and hope for is mandating love and respect and including disabled students and everything as much as possible. So I appreciate one of your ongoing focuses being inclusive activities for disabled students as their most vulnerable and mostly impacted. And also your focus with ongoing restorative practice at every school site as outlined in my resolution. So thanks again for being the voice of our students and taking the time to listen. Thank you.

Thank you, are there board comments? Director Hutchinson?

Yes, thank you. And thank you for your comments. I really want to try to lift up and amplify what I heard a little bit. I think it's been an ongoing pattern of there being lip service to the idea of engaging students around policy decisions. And I really appreciate you bringing up the fact that in June, the All-City Council was first consulted about the coming of a cell phone policy. But then when it came time to make a decision, there was no more consultation, and the next thing you knew, something was being approved. I think it's been an ongoing practice that it doesn't have to be this way, and really shouldn't be this way. And I would say again today, I would assume that the All-City Council and you two have not been consulted about the resolution coming forward today, that will says the district will end the practice of student one-to-one device use for recreational purposes including at lunch recess and during classroom free time because i'm sure a number of students would have something to say about the fact that all of a sudden that access is going to be immediately cut from them if this passes with no consultation and no discussion And so I really want to encourage you, the all city council, and all students to get much more involved. I don't want it to sound patronizing to say that I'm proud of you, but I'm proud of you at this meeting bringing up the fact that you don't think that process went the right way, especially as the student representatives. Hopefully we can start to take this further. One thing that could be very, very powerful is like when we look at how there's nobody here today and nobody on Zoom today. If there would have been 10 or 20 students coming to give their testimony of their experiences around the cell phone policy and citing some of the holes and citing the advocacy to be included going forward. That could really have a powerful impact within this room, especially since nobody else is showing up to say anything. So I'm always available if you all want somebody to talk to, but I think you're on the right track, and hopefully you'll stay to weigh in on this proposed change for how devices are used at schools, and just kind of, I would love to see more students really engaged, especially when it comes to these policy decisions. And just the last thing, I think it was, a very accurate portrayal about how the policy has brought some good things, but there's holes in it. And I just want everyone to know the reason why the process happened like that is because there was a state law that demanded that the board make a decision by the end of June. And since we were not proactive in the process, it got to the last meeting, and somebody said, oh, we got to do something. And that never produces the best kinds of policies, just like not engaging the impacted stakeholders. So thank you all, and let's keep pushing.

I wanted to thank our student directors for their input at this meeting. I did have the opportunity to speak to student directors on ACC and I've attended several meetings where I've come in to discuss this. It was a not just a one-time meeting around the subject matter. And actually our safety director spent time doing some surveys and interviews and talking about the different dynamics for different students. We also looked at some of the bullying that had been going on through social media, through the use of phones, and some of the challenges that some of our students have experienced. And so we've been looking at a variety of things. And so our students have a variety of experiences. Some students do have the luxury of having family pick them up or they may have other things going on. So there's a lot of things that we need to work on together. But there is a state requirement that we have legislation around this which had to be implemented. But I want to share the fact that there has been discussion. I also want to note that I've been working with the mayor and we've been talking about hosting a teen summit where we talk about a lot of these bigger issues together along with the youth commission and other youth that are impacted by a variety of things that are going on. So your input is really important and I hope that you take those opportunities at your upcoming meetings to gather more inputs, conducting your own surveys, participating in meetings such as this one. But I do want to make sure that it was more than just one discussion regarding the issues and challenges. And there was also interviewing of the sites that had policy in place and the fiscal impact of implementing, requiring implementation at every single school, middle and high school, and what the costs would be regarding that. So there's a lot of factors involved and a lot of issues So thank you for your input and I do wanna make sure you know about the previous work that your other colleagues have done.

Director Thompson.

Thank you President Burlhart and also student directors thank you very kindly for a wonderful report I want to say personally thank you for inviting me to the meeting I really enjoyed hearing what you guys had to say and what other members had to say and so I actually codified information that you shared with me And I'm wondering, well, I took your idea and had conversations with other individuals about the yonder pouches, and I'm just wondering if anyone talked about having at least one side of it clear so that you could see what's being put into the pouch itself. Of course you can't... discriminated someone putting in a phone that's an old phone but you would be able to see a block of cheese or the cardboard that was actually uh... talked about and the second thing is i'm wondering if when you do your reports if you can share something about academics. It could be anything from A to G, graduation rates, literacy rates, anything like that. It would be kind of helpful. As a board member, and I'm sure my colleagues feel the same way, I'm really concerned about making certain that all of our students are equipped to make any kind of choice they need to make after they leave high school. And so I think just hearing about and knowing something about the academic growth of kids, or the pathway, then we're able to, we are able to help devise policy that would make certain that kids are afforded the opportunity for, again, parenthetically, A to G, graduation rates, literacy rates, whatever the case might be. Thank you very kindly. I really appreciate both of you.

Dr. Berry?

Yeah, I wanted to just speak to some of the concerns you spoke about on the cell phone policy and not on process, but just on what we can do next because. Obviously, there are some good intentions for the cell phone policy, but. how it actually manifests in our lives is the thing that actually matters, and so I do think there is an opportunity for you to make sure that the feedback you shared today is acted upon in some way, like there's a response, and so there is someone at ousd who's responsible for managing monitoring and continuously refining what that looks like in schools and so you should meet directly with that person and that meeting whether it's with you two or some other acc representatives should be regular so that as you continue to receive feedback from students across the district we can make sure that staff have that information and that the board can be part of, you included, the accountability system to make sure that we leverage it to improve the way students are experiencing the policy across the district. So I just wanna encourage you to make sure you connect to that person and that there's some ongoing engagement. And I think related to the policy that Director Hutchinson mentioned, whenever any policy is introduced at a board meeting, especially for this one in particular, it's being introduced so that we can discuss and potentially adopt it. But that doesn't mean that you can't amend it, that you can't meet with the authors. And so that's a very important part of the policy making process. It's on the agenda today. It doesn't mean that we have to vote yes on it today. And so there isn't obviously a ton of time for you to deeply engage with the policy right now in this meeting, but be deeply engaged in the conversation. And I would suggest that with that policy and all policies that there be an ongoing opportunity for you all to be a part of the policy making process, not just at the board meetings, but as part of the regular meetings that you have with other students.

Yeah, Dr. Berry, you know, all the things you just mentioned. I also just want to appreciate the invite to talk to you all as well, ACC. And yeah, I want to have ongoing conversations as to not just like how the Yonder Pouches are doing, but just also like how some of the changes that you've talked about around like mental health, around being more social, around just the connections that you all are having on campus that is new versus, and the culture that you're creating that is new versus what you've had in the past. um understand some of the challenges but i i do see this as something that is going to be helpful if we can navigate some of those challenges as director block mentioned i think the how do we get in contact with the adults that are not only your parents but also coaches you know other staff that are support that are helping you with leadership and other aspects of your school life and again just like how do we assess this year and figure out what could and needs to change for the following year and that may mean that we have different ways of supporting our students per grade level per school site so just thinking about all of those things and working in partnership with you all But yeah, I'll just reiterate what director Barry said like any introduction of a legislative item. That is something that is just what it is It's an introduction. So there's changes that could be proposed And so I would ask that you all take a look at that and if there's any changes sending them to Board staff as well as the authors of the resolution to make any amendments as needed to support the support the changes that you'd like to make. Do you have a, yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you all for the feedback to the public commenters and to our fellow board members. First, I wanted to say an apology to Director Sadler. I know I mentioned we had that one engagement about the phone policy, the possible phone policy. It may just be my memory, but I do recall there being one meeting that we had about like possible policies being proposed. And maybe I wasn't present or present or don't recall any other meetings because they might have not been as like strictly just like about the phone policy, like talking about that. So I do apologize for that. And also thank you, Director Thompson, for the feedback about maybe adding in academics into our reports. We'll definitely look into that. One small report that I can also add in there. We recently took the I ready diagnostic in class. So like I know a lot of the seniors have been taking that and also part of our assignments was to look into our past scores and how we've developed. So and in my classes personally, we've grown a lot, especially in my academy, because like our academies levels have been significantly lower or it's what I've noticed, and there has been a climb in our scores, so that's an update I can add, so thank you.

You can. Director Williams.

Thank you, President Brohard. I'm really happy to hear about the information regarding the policy. Being that this is the first two weeks, it's really good to gather that data. That will help us move through the end of the year to try to better understand how we can tweak it after we gain some real good data from students. I appreciate the work that you're doing on that. One of the things that this year I've made my mission is really to make sure there's a clear communication between student directors and the board here. I've reached out to Adriana a couple times in regards to trying to really make sure that what we have on the agenda if it's like cell phone policy or whatever the policy that may affect youth should actually be communicated to you as well. So when you come to the board meeting, you will have an idea of what that policy is or you have input in there. I think we can do a better job in that level of communication. So I'm really looking for us to do that. I've connected the superintendent, our parliamentarian, our president and Adriana together just to say, hey, let's find opportunities so we can really work together on our communication. Secondly, I've asked the superintendent, the Alameda County superintendent, about providing funding for student directors to actually get an orientation in student governance. I mean, a lot of times, students are elected, you have your conversation with your student director, and then you come on board. But actually, the California School Board Association has like module trainings, like a bundle of trainings each month for student directors on, you know, the budget, governance, outreach, there's a number of trainings. So I wrote an email, I've added Adriana on that to just say, hey, can we get some funding for that? So it'll give you an opportunity to learn with other student directors around the Bay Area. Y'all can have conversations and work together to really have some ownership in like our roles and responsibilities and how we help each other and serve each other. So I think that's something that I really wanted to put forth. Lastly, I've been really trying to pitch this idea to the student directors in regards to this Student Stellar Award. We have so many students throughout the year that are doing community service work, that are doing additional academic work, that are making impacts at their school, are supporting the community, that's doing voting. There's so many different opportunities that students are making community impacts, and we don't get a chance to recognize them. I'm really wanting to partner with you in regards to creating a monthly award. You can solicit your particular Governance staff and really talk about what awards, what students are doing, highlighting things that we can actually lift up and support. And we can really just kind of continue to build on that. I mean, at the end of the year, we have like a seal of bi-literacy, which would recognize all the students who are multilingual and doing a lot of great work. We also should just have an award for scholars who are doing the extra or who have contributed something positive to the school. So hopefully those are conversations you'll be interested in having so we can move that forward. I am the chair of the teaching and learning and I want to pitch that idea that we come up with something that would highlight and support our young folks moving forward. Thank you. Oh, lastly, dual enrollment. Really would like to hear students' input about dual enrollment, how dual enrollment is working for students and how concurrent enrollment is working for students as well. I mean, I think what we sit here at the board, and again, we make these policies, but really what the impact is on young folks would be really helpful to find out how effective it is, what is your feedback, if you can get some ideas from students who are doing it. Can we expand it? Do we need to focus on some things? So hopefully you can love to work with you on that as well to get some communication and feedback on how we can support the young folks who are doing that work. Thank you. Thank you so much, Director Brehart.

I was just thinking too as we've talked about the phone policy one of the things that we have is a legislative body that several of us sit on and we meet with our school services who are help us through with the legislation that's coming from the state And I'd like to extend that invitation to, I know you guys are busy, but it can also be someone from ACC. But I think to be a part of that and see what kinds of bills are coming down the pike. So again, you can organize that student voice and we can, again, I think better reflect our policies. Because the cell phone policy was one of those things. So about, I'd say about December we start hearing some of the bills that are coming and who's producing them and we start looking at which ones we would take a position on. It's pretty informative I think for our policy and I think for you guys to have a voice on that. Just wanted to extend that to you guys too. Next on the agenda. We have new business. And speaking of new business, we have, I'm sorry, we have partner labor partners, so I'm sorry. So do we have, I see UAOS coming up. Are there any other labor partners who are gonna speak? Come on up.

thank you very much good evening board kerry kaufman i'm the president of united administrators of oakland schools we represent principals assistant principals community school managers and central office administrators again i want to express that uaos is deeply disappointed with the district's leadership and the board for failing to bargain in good faith we've been bargaining for seven months and the district has yet to put a single dollar on our table the district has reached settlements with every other bargaining unit while UAOS continues to wait. At the same time, the district has found money for raises and promotions for confidential and unrepresented employees, including senior leaders. The district has repeatedly found resources for others while telling UAOS there is nothing available for us. But this is not just about compensation. It's also about workload. And the workload our members have become unsustainable. We have many schools with more than 100 students with IEPs and just one principal no assistant principal. The principal is responsible for every IEP meeting attendance, 504 plans, teacher evaluations, instructional leadership, school safety, district deliverables, compliance requirements, and everything else necessary to keep a school running. There are simply not enough hours in the day to do the work. And when the workload is impossible, vital work for students and families does not get done. Assistant principals and CSMs continue to be asked to do more and more, and their compensation fails to keep up. Over the past eight months, the district and board have repeatedly devalued central office employees and have gutted departments without any meaningful plan on who will do the work. The district eliminated the director of VAPA. Now, one administrator supports visual arts, performing arts, and music across the entire district, while also absorbing the work previously performed by a director. without the title or the compensation. The district eliminated all but one elementary STEM coordinator, one person responsible for supporting STEM across over 50 elementary schools. And the district eliminated half of the educational technology department, leaving one employee responsible for all educational technology across the district. At the same time, the district changed educational technology platforms. used by every student and teacher. These cuts did not eliminate the work. They simply transferred more work to fewer people. And our students, staff, and family feel the consequences. Staff wait longer for technology support because technology services was gutted. Students and teachers wait for access to online curriculum because educational technology was cut. Complaints take longer to resolve because positions responsible for responding to complaints were cut. Teachers receive less support because people who supported them are gone. These are not isolated staffing decisions. They are a result of cutting positions without a vision of how the work will actually get done. Our members cannot continue to do two jobs for the price of one. Our principals cannot be expected to carry impossible workloads, and our students should not receive fewer services because the district eliminated people who provide them. After seven months, it's time for the board to direct the district leadership to bargain seriously with UAOS. Come to the table on compensation, come to the table on workload, and give us serious proposals that demonstrate that you value administrators who keep the district running every day. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other Labor partner comments?

There is none online.

With that, we will move into new business. Item Q1261706, responsible use of one-to-one student devices. And this is from Director Lara.

I'd like to make a motion to approve this resolution. Second I do have a couple of amendments that I had submitted to board staff that are, after some, I think there was a discussion in teaching learning about clarifying the intent that there's no fiscal impact for this, so in consultation with senior leadership, there is one amendment that I'd like to make. I don't know if you can display it, if it's friendly, Director Williams. They're in the first be it resolved clause. The initial resolution said in collaboration with teachers and school administration and the edit or the amendment is with feedback from and the intent of that was to clarify that there was not an intent to create a new committee and new structures that would need to be supported by you know kind of the you know whether it's an ad hoc committee or interpretation it was so it's just to make sure that there is through development of the process that there's feedback and then in this third be it resolved clause initially um it said to mandate professional learning and and i changed that and um you know appreciate feedback from um uios members about um just changing that to be offering professional learning in anticipation of a new policy um so maybe while those are getting displayed i'll just make a couple of quick comments about where this resolution came from so the overall and you know speaking as a parent in the district who had two little kids on chromebooks during the pandemic one in kindergarten and one in third grade i did have concerns about the amount of chromebook learning that was happening at the time but obviously we were you know we were all at home and we were doing our best to ensure that students were still receiving instruction that was meaningful That being said, as a board director going into my second academic year, what I have not seen is a reflection from the leadership of the district around what are the benefits of using increasingly more and more time on Chromebooks, including for very young students. and that there's increased you know there's very clear evidence around the risks of you know just using screens interacting with screens for young people and in fact that's where that's part of why the state created the phone free schools policy and so what i would you know what i kind of felt like was that um you know i have been receiving feed you know lots of advocacy from parents and teachers and principals around you know the that there's a balance between our drive to collect data and give individualized instruction and then to what is actually good for students and i think that having a cell phone ban but not then you know kind of putting the onus on you know the the leadership of the district the board included and the um you know the academic leadership of the district around if we are exposing students to screens if we already know that screens are not you know that there are risks to a lot of screen time why would we not then be thoughtful and clear to the community about what we are in some cases mandating students spend many time you know lots of time on chromebooks so that's the intent of the resolution and then oh yeah there's the amendments displayed and then I would just say that lots of districts moved forward with board policies mandating limits to the minutes that students spent on screens and removing screens basically immediately and so again after you know feedback from teachers and also from other districts that is why I wrote it in the form of a resolution and then having a process for feedback for over this current school year so that anything would be implemented for 27-28 president brohard a point of clarification just on on two points because i'm not sure if this has been vetted or not

But it clearly says in what we were handed, fiscal impact to be determined prior to adoption. We're at adoption. I don't see anyone presenting anything. It doesn't say no fiscal impact. So that's a real problem when it says that. The other thing I'm really concerned with is if this has been vetted by the general counsel. Because the comments I just heard from Director Lotta are not how this reads. For example, second clause says that the district will end the practice of student one-to-one device use for recreational purposes including at lunch recess and during classroom free time it doesn't say after or starting that in 2728 or after a process the way this reads is that will start immediately tomorrow and so i want a real clarification on what this language means if it's been vetted and how come There's no fiscal impact or something else not listed here. And it's not appropriate for a colleague on the board to give this answer because the fiscal impact needs to come from staff and it needs to be included in the documents. That's why we post documents ahead of time. And so I really want clarification from the general counsel or for somebody if this has been vetted legally and how is something coming forward where it says to be determined prior to adoption, this is adoption. This is adoption now. And so if there was time to write up amendments, if this work was done, why isn't that being present? So I need this clarification before we go forward on what this actually means and what is up with the fiscal impact. Because we need a legal ruling because what I just heard is not how this reads.

Madam President, technically, I didn't hear a second to the amendment. You did?

Yeah.

I heard you move the original, but I didn't hear them.

No, Director Williams seconded it.

Yeah, then I asked him if it was friendly, and he said yes.

But this came out of the committee. It didn't come out of the, it didn't come out of the, okay. Go ahead and handle it the way you want to, but, you know.

Is General Counsel on line?

She is online. Before we hand it over, I just want to address the first point, which is that, yes, the second whereas clause is that, I mean, we actually, as a district, you know, there is a kind of, here's what I would say is that, yes, my intent was that students using devices for going on YouTube for playing games which is like definitely happens at almost every you know like that students know how to get around our firewalls and do access their use the chromebooks for non-academic purposes and so that is the intent of my clause now certainly if my colleagues want to change that they certainly you know can you know suggest amendments but i do think i think again to the I think if we as a district, and I think as you believe that students, should not have access to their phone during the school day so that they can be engaged in school and academics, and that whatever screen time we provide is around academic learning, that to my belief is that we should not be allowing students access to devices for recreational purposes. That's not to say, and this is that if you're doing research if you're working on homework if you're doing you know making you know working on your i-ready lessons that's a that's again that's you know would be an academic use of a device not um so anyways and then i think general counsel these these amendments are from were from general counsel so i you know she can speak to um that you know in teaching and learning again i wasn't i was listening but that there was no fiscal impact i you know but i will pass it to her if she can clarify and make a ruling sure um

Thank you, Director Lara, and thank you for your question, Director Hutchinson. So yes, the amendments that are there are the revisions that we discussed after the teaching and learning. And the memo should be revised to reflect if this amendment is passed, that there is no fiscal impact. Those things that were identified would result in some additional staff time. which would mean that it would have a fiscal impact. And then I understand your point, Director Hutchinson, around the date. Generally, when we have board policies or resolutions that pass in this way, that staff then begins to work on the administrative regulations and start to make those changes to comply with that immediately following. And so that is, I believe, the intent of Director Latta's Resolution here is for this to similar to the cell phone ban that this would start to be implemented following.

Thank you. So I just want to clarify, because that's different than what you just said, Director Lauda. If this passes, it will be implemented and go into effect immediately. And that's one of the concerns that I have. And it's really troubling when I have people state it as a certain way and what they think that it meant, but we just heard the ruling, and the ruling's based on how things are in normal practice. So again, clause two and clause four within this. read as they will start immediately the only clause that says that is time determinant into the future is the first clause which talks about the work that the superintendent is directed to do so thank you for that clarification i'm still not sure about the fiscal impact because general counsel said two separate things and the general counsel doesn't give the fiscal impact thank you student directors do you have comments on this we're going to do board comments first then we'll do public comments

When we're talking about limiting the recreational use, obviously that does happen in classrooms. What would this time be filled with instead? Because it still is free time. Additionally, on the Chromebooks, every single gaming website, every single tactic and trick that I know is blocked, so there really is no recreational use on the Chromebooks other than watching YouTube videos. um and if it is like board games is the um time filled with free time how um is this coming out of the teacher's pocket or how are these board games getting to these students thank you

I also had a question maybe this is something I missed but for clarification like how would this be monitored because I know like teachers obviously have like what about like maybe like 20 to 30 students in every classroom and it's hard for them as is to like monitor what their students are doing so if they have this thing where they can't be on YouTube or anything during like free time then is the teacher like expect to just like walk around and see what the students are doing or I just that's just a thought I had

Director Berry. Well, first did you want to, I'll ask questions and then you can amass them. So first, I apologize for missing the Teaching and Learning Committee meeting because I did not tune in, didn't review any notes, and so if someone's able to share any key insights from that discussion, I think that would catch me up. And then, As I understand it from the conversations that I've been a part of, the most important thing in this resolution is in addition to the context and the rationale that's presented in the whereas clauses, it's that very first be it therefore resolved clause that directs the superintendent to make use of research, best practice, collaboration with key stakeholders to produce a plan and a policy. And everything after that, to me, um, It's not superfluous that's not the word I'm looking for but I feel like I think we're is putting the cart before the horse maybe and so I would I would like to suggest a few things one I did know that students were missing from the list of stakeholders listed in that first clause and so maybe adding them to that clause because clearly they have great feedback and questions and I think the superintendent should consult and we should hold staff accountable for that and then i would also suggest removing the second clause uh and then the and that's the one that speaks to the honestly i let me pull it up so i can be specific The second one is around banning right now. And I think the reason why I say that is that may be the end outcome, but before it's ahead of the process. And I think integrity of process is probably important, particularly in light of some of the comments that have been made on even on other things during this meeting. and then from there I think if we felt like it was necessary to maintain some of the other ones like the fourth for example the district shall not adopt new instructional programs or and that the district will mandate professional learning I think that one would be helpful to implement now because in addition to the work that superintendent sadler is doing the education that educators can receive in the process is prop could probably be instructive to the feedback they're able to provide did you track that okay director williams excuse me

thank you president brohart yeah i think teaching learning committee did review this we had a few comments but the comment i didn't ask was was our student directors given opportunity to have a conversation about what this looks like I think that it's a good policy, but it may be a graduated approach where we have expectations for elementary school, certain level of expectations for middle school, and a certain level of expectations for high school. so i think there may be some opportunities to have those conversations student directors did give us a couple good questions in regards to some of the questions that they were curious about so i think that I would love to have their voice in this particular policy. I thought they already vetted it as we move forward. So I would definitely like to reconsider that to hear their voice, the middle school and the high school component of our student directors. And same thing with having clarity in regards to the financial impact as we do have very tight budget at this present time. I just want to be clear that any new policies we're moving forward that it is actually paid for or if there's no cost, we need to be really clear and take ownership of that as well. Thank you.

Director Thompson.

Yes, basically only one comment, and my comment centers around the second to the last, be it further resolved, because I think when we talk about game-like reward systems, that is a pedagogical strategy used by many educators In the classroom, when we're trying to teach a particular skill, many times it is predicated on some type of something that looks like a game, but it's an educational strategy pedagogically in order to facilitate the student's learning of a particular concept. That's my only concern, and I think that's something that we might have to look at.

Director Hutchinson, since you've had a turn to start, I'm going to go with- No, I asked for a point of clarification.

I didn't have a turn for comments. Excuse me, I asked for a point of clarification. That's not my turn for comments.

Take your three minutes then.

So we're back to that pattern again. Last meeting was the first meeting that we didn't go to recess while I was speaking in six months. So let me just say first off that I firmly believe the best way for our students and for all kids to receive an education is with a pencil and a piece of paper and a book in their hand. And I remember 10 years ago walking into a fourth grade classroom at Redwood Heights Elementary and being extremely disturbed as they were on ST Math. And every kid was plugged in with headphones on while there were boxes of manipulatives sitting right there. But this isn't how you make policy or how you do anything. So I've never seen an item that was introduced at the last meeting and brought forward for a vote here. We just heard that the author of the resolution misunderstood it compared to the ruling from general counsel. Who had to come in and tell us this starts immediately, which was not what we were told. We're also told there's no fiscal impact done. So why was this rushed through like this in this sort of way? If it was just the first clause that called for the superintendent to do this work and report back, no problem. But to say you're gonna go into our schools tomorrow and we're gonna cut off access to our students in these other times, that's a real equity issue. Don't we remember how many hotspots we had to hand out during the pandemic so students had access? What about our students at the only point they can access a Chromebook and the internet is in these recreational times at school. This is not how you make curriculum decisions. You don't put parameters on what curriculum we're gonna choose going forward immediately through a resolution that hasn't been vetted, that's only been out for two weeks. And again, the elephant in the room here today is this is the only real business item on the agenda. While we're in financial crisis, when nothing's being taken care of, where we're short of staff, half the senior staff we should have, when there's problems at our facilities, I can go down the list. And this is what we're going to focus on, and this wasn't even done the right way. I have resolutions and I've seen other people introduce resolutions that have never come forward. But this one comes forward in two weeks, unvetted, that will institute an inequitable policy across our district to limit the access our families who already have issues with access to predetermine our curriculum going forward and it's because one director made a bunch of i statements on what she thinks it means and we're told that's not even what it means so unless only the one therefore clause the first one remains there's no way i could support this and again this is indicative of how broken this board really is that this is how things are being done these days thank you

I do want to address a couple of things. I want to discuss something first that you just made a comment about. We do introduce resolutions, so if a resolution comes to me, it's on the agenda, it goes to the appropriate committee. This was introduced and it went through the committee, which is our usual process. We did have a very thorough discussion of this at the committee. Again, the question came up around the fiscal impact and working with Dr. Aguilera and the general counsel who was also at the meeting, we were able to make the amendments because I think there was some question around one of the amendments that you made around the use of time and training. But I think where I'm at with this right now is, and I do actually agree that I think pencil and paper are important tools. I think it's important for all of us. I take my paper notes, and I notice most of us do too. And I do understand as well the issue of free time. My daughter and I actually had this discussion last night in free time in class. that that is another way to to use that i've also heard from teachers at oakland high supporting this um resolution so i think what i would like to do with the resolution is postpone it and have acc go back and have a discussion as well about the um proposal and i would like to see that And then I think that, again, I don't want to assume that you have the time, but I think if you wanted to come back or a representative wanted to come back to teaching and learning, where we could again have a full discussion with the student input as well. Does that sound okay to you guys to do that?

Sounds great, thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

So I'd like to propose, I don't know what your meeting schedule is, so again, we would bring it back after ACC had their chance to talk about it and we discussed it in Teaching and Learning. Yeah, I will take that.

well madam president if that's the consensus if your colleagues can consent to that I would suggest it you refer this matter back to the teaching and learning committee and then the teaching and learning committee can take it up at an appropriate point when the ACC has had an opportunity to do it and I would encourage that the counselor to the ACC be encouraged to have them move this along That's the committee of jurisdiction, and since there are issues that have arisen around this, the best way is to work it out in committee and then come back with a cleaner recommendation.

So I second that motion that you're moving president Brohard Go ahead. We need to make a motion.

Yeah. Well, you don't necessarily really have to by consensus of the board Is there any objection by board members to refer it back to the? Teaching Learning Committee for the clarifications Hearing none madam president. I'd say that your actions appropriate. I Thank you.

And Madam President, I'm sorry, may I just add something?

I'm sorry.

I did. I wasn't I wanted to make sure I was clear and highlighting a couple of things. One is that the this is a resolution and not a board policy. There would still need to in order for. staff to be taking direction from this action, there would still need to be policy and administrative regulations. And so I think I want to make sure I'm clear that I don't think that Director Lara and myself were saying two different things. And then the other thing is, Jess, and this is for student directors in particular, as I read the intent From the authors, this is not a complete ban on the use. of devices for recreational purposes, it is the one to one piece. So there would still there could still be recreational use in groups in pairs. But these are the types of things that the resolution is directing the superintendent to come back and flesh out, which would be in the form of administrative regulation prior to it rolling completely out. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to also suggest that I guess superintendent sadly that you might want to attend the ACC discussion as well. Thank you. All right.

Is it referred back to committee? Yes. Okay. All right gotcha. Public comment if this but if there is public. Was there public comment?

Yes there is we have 3 speakers.

Okay, you should do the referral after the public comment.

Okay, we'll take public comment, 3 speakers, 2 minutes each and then we'll do the referral.

Yes for public speakers, we have Diane L, Asalo-Lavala, and Alexandra Williams.

I just want to remind you that once an item has been agendized, public comment is mandated. Even though you pull an item, you still have to have public comment on the item. So this issue is being broadly discussed. And what I mean by that, classroom time, screen time, or use of devices, people all over the country are talking about it. But the information that I've been looking at, it says there's very limited research on specifically how screen time is affecting learning, mental health, physical well-being, emotional well-being.

So there are surveys that are out here.

The Education Week Research Center has a survey on screen time. in which teachers, principals, and district leaders responded in their opinions about this. Just this morning, there was a settlement with the mega agreement that they're going to introduce requirements for daily time caps and overnight restrictions for teen use of Facebook and Instagram across the country. They're going to have stronger age-checking systems to keep parents able to check up on the use of these platforms and extend parental controls. So your conversation about including students, when are you going to include the parents in the conversation about screen time? Now, here's an example of how people are going back to books and writing. This school year, the University of Chicago's students in the social science courses will be expected to read their assignments on paper and engage in device-free discussions in contrast to prior years when they used laptops and digital texts were permitted in the classroom. This issue is being dealt with on many levels. and all classrooms across the country. So what L.A. has done this year, they are spending time looking at the amount of time you spend on Crest. You want to do that, but you want to look at the quality of the screen time that is being designated. And one of the things about this recreational thing is, uh, kids use their cameras and record things. They record teachers in the classroom and so forth. And, uh, there's a whole lot that has to be discussed, but please include parents as well.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Hello. Hi. Good evening. I'm Alexandra Williams and I'm speaking tonight as an educator. I understand that is that this is a hot topic and I appreciate the board for recognizing the benefit of technology and the concerns for excessive screen time. I think it's important to remember how we got here though and I am also glad you're taking it back to the committee to talk about some things because I want to think about this. Technology in the classroom has evolved significantly over time. I started as a teacher where we had computer labs and we had to have time in the computer labs and then we went to computer carts where we had those times where we got to decide when students were going to be using those computers. And then we went to having one-on-one devices where students have access immediately throughout the entire school day. And that has also involved the instruction. Teachers begin building lessons in Google Classroom, online curriculum, intervention programs, digital assessments platforms, where students get immediate feedback. Students know quickly how they understand concepts and teachers get to understand the misconceptions. So I think the question simply isn't is how do we use fewer screens, it's how do we preserve instructional benefit of technology and create while reducing the types of uses that are not serving our students well. Because we did not arrive to this one-on-one overnight, we should not expect to move away from it overnight. And so I just wanna make sure that we are having educators at the table when they are talking about how this is gonna happen because I think the student directors made a very valid point of how will teachers, how will instructors, how will administrators, I think also the administrator union also spoke about that, is that who is going to mandate that this happens because students are on their computers to check everything. And I just think that needs to be considered while we're doing that is what is this gonna look like? What is this implementation gonna happen? Because it's not gonna just be an overnight thing and an overnight thing of buy-in. But I do think it's an important conversation, so thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any speakers? Do we have one more speaker?

Yes, we have Diane L. If you can unmute yourself to speak.

Good evening. I'm an OUSD parent and co-lead of Schools Beyond Screens Oakland, and I'm honored to have helped write and develop this resolution. I'm part of a Y Parent Teacher Coalition, and we are looking for principals and student leaders to join us as well. The research behind excessive screen use has been very unequivocal in saying that there are negative effects on physical and mental health. But I would say what the research still needs to examine is in what circumstances does using tech not make sense and when does it make sense? We want to be flexible and pragmatic. Remember, research can evolve over time. So what we want to be mindful of that. We wanna be mindful of that if we find out new evidence showing that. And regarding some questions asked by the student directors, thank you so much, I agree. There are a lot of thorny implementation questions that still need to be addressed, especially in the upper grades. So in terms of the, if there are no screens, then what would replace that question? We are starting out with addressing that in the younger grades, replacing extra screen time with learning through art and play. So for teachers, sixth grade and up, and principals who would like to partner with us in our coalition, and I would invite our student directors to join us too, we would love that. Please visit our website at schoolsbeyondscreens.com slash Oakland. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other speakers?

No, that includes public speakers.

Okay, with that, the resolution is referred to teaching and learning after a discussion with ACC. And I think, again, Mrs. Sada, thank you. I think we'll find a way to have parents and teachers involved in the discussion as well. with that we did pull item q2 the affirming board direction career technical education transitional aged youth hub we referred that to the september 9th meeting and do we have public comment on that yes we do we have sheila haynes and alexandra williams okay two minutes each please

So on September the 24th, 2025, you approve as a board resolution number 2526-0028, a feasibility study for development of phase one district assessment and leadership as well as phase two to analyze properties on 2nd Street, Ralph Bunche, and to present to the board findings related to that feasibility study During the May 8th, 2025 board study session. That never happened. It hasn't happened. So I'm trying to figure out where are you moving now? Because you had direction based on your resolution that you approve to have a feasibility study made available to you on May 8th, 2025. And I think you moved you moved it. But you can't do this, you can't jump back and forth, but you've already allocated $732,000 for phase one, and you have another allocation of $100,000 from phase two, and that money's coming from measure Y. Somebody's gotta clarify why you jumped from the resolution, the feasibility study, spending of the money to have you spent the money for the feasibility study or we just got brought out the window and start with something new so the next time you meet could you present some clarification based on your resolution that you approve of feasibility study and where and how that what this is combined with i don't know didn't then you have the seven eleven committee that you said you were going to do come up people Let's, let's get more clear. And we have spent money close to 800 and something thousand dollars. And I want to see the feasibility study.

Yes. We have Sheila Haynes.

Go ahead, Ms. Haynes.

Hi, is this the Barry Thompson resolution?

This is the resolution on CTE TAHEB. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, so I fully support prioritizing this building to be restored and just really becoming functional again. Not only do we need to preserve the history of this building, but from personal experience, like the various resources and programs that can be of support to nearby school sites and the community would be a great benefit. prior to the damage being done, my second place was within walking distance to the building. And I remember going to that building to obtain like employment job information and use the computer and other resources there. And the services that used to be available to students in the community was just very valuable and much needed. And it's more needed now due to the area being more populated, but also because my son can hopefully benefit as a current student and we still live close to the area. So I hope the board does prioritize funding to this site and restore the building back to a functional use. The space provides, the building provides a lot of space and could hopefully be an office for services that could possibly help our disabled students. When I heard that this building was gonna be demolished, I have felt sad, but I'm grateful for this resolution being brought forward by Director Berrien-Thompson, and I hope that the Board will vote to prioritize restoring this building back to a functional state.

So, thank you. Thank you. Are there any other public speakers?

No, there are no public speakers.

Do you have a card?

Yeah.

Yes, we have Catherine Camp.

Okay, I will be brief. Catherine Camp here. I just wanna say I strongly support the CTE TAE Hub moving forward. Our responsibility to Oakland students shouldn't end when they leave high school, especially for young people facing housing instability, barriers to employment, and other challenges. Creating one place where young adults can access housing, career training, and wraparound support is a really smart investment in their future and in Oakland. I urge the board to support this item and keep this important work moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any further public comment on this item?

No, that includes public speakers this time.

Thank you. So we should move to the next item, which is Q3. I'd like to motion to take Q3, Q4, and Q5 together, but register the vote separately. Is there a second? Second.

And on that point, Madam Vice President, I would recommend that people be allowed up to six minutes to speak on these collective items per person.

Sounds good. Board colleagues, any comments?

I just want to highlight again that under item Q5 there's three additional speech language pathologists joining the special education department so just again there's been some really heroic work that has happened with special education and our talent department to in-house these positions and I just want to appreciate that.

Thank you, and I see our chief talent officer here, and he's been doing a lot of hard work around those positions. Any other board comments? Okay, public comment on items Q3, Q4, Q5.

Yes, for public speakers as stated items, we'll have Asalo Labala.

Six minutes, Ms. Asada.

Okay, let me start. Monday, I really stood up in my seat when I heard the Ascend community identify that 80% of their students are English language learners. And I just wonder how they're going to do the job. But I do recognize, and I want to compliment you, because you do a great job of accommodating our English learner students. I always see the availability of a staffing item that deals with our English language learners. I don't know how the chartered schools can weigh in the same way we are with staffing capacity to deal with English language learners and our special ed kids as well. So I just see that we have an ability to do more in our district. And nothing against the chartered schools, but I think staff-wise. I am appreciative of the item on Q3 where we have 9th through 12th mile moderate support need teacher going to McClymonds. uh... i am concern at that meeting on monday i mentioned to dot bachelor when you ask the question about how many certified teachers you have so i looked up the data for certified teachers for oakland or usd we have eighty eight point two percent certified teachers but only sixty six point three percent of our teachers are certified in the classroom subject matter their teaching Okay, so that's a big difference that we have to make. Then when I looked at diversity, because you mentioned last time we got this diversity thing going, but when you put in the, y'all got to put something out, because when I put in my search engine, what's the racial demographics of teachers in OUSD, it says that 52% are white, 19% are black, 15% are Asian, and then the rest are other groups. but only 11% of the students are white. And so the diversity, if you're saying you have it, you need to put it out there because, and when I looked in your bio, where you can look at what you say about it, you have diversity, but you have it across some program that you're doing, and that's how it reads. So I just think that, You're doing a good job. I hope we're not still using a predominant group of Teach for America teachers because the data says that they don't stay. The percentage of who leaves within three years is very high. And I would not expect that people who come here and teach, and I got a book I just bought. Ooh. A teacher who wasn't certified wrote a book, and they're beating up on the school district because they don't have the, they're doing it for the money. Most people who go into the classroom who are going to school, they want to do this. This is their love, their passion. But this book is horrible writing about, you want to see the book? Okay, I'll show you. Yeah, beating up on our education, public education, saying that we got sex, drugs, and illiteracy in the schools. But that's the point I want to tell you guys. You might not agree with something, but read what people are saying so you understand where they're coming from and you can counter and just say, I don't want to read that book because it's so negative. Yeah, read it, so I'll be ready to deal with your behind if you ever come here. Okay, I'm sorry.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Asada.

Vice President, we also have Sheila Haynes for item Q5.

Go ahead.

Ms. Haynes, if you can raise your hand. Vice President, I don't see your hand up, so we may proceed.

Okay, we'll go ahead and take a vote on the Q3, Q4, Q5.

on the roll call student directors are recused because this is a personnel issue on specifically named employees which they are recused director lotta yes director williams yes sir director hudgenson yes director barry yes director thompson yes vice president batchelor yes President Brohard? Yes. Motion's adopted.

Great. We will now move on to the consent minus R10, R23, and R24. Is there a motion to approve consent minus those items? So moved.

And I second.

Great. Any board members like to talk about consent items? Director Hutchinson?

Yes, thank you. Especially at a board meeting, again, where we didn't get the answers from last week about the 45-day revision. The presentation that was made, we were already projected to overspend this year by 17 million. Then Mr. Christmas told us those numbers were in error and that the overspending is actually more than that. And one of the reasons why there's so much overspending, again, this is coming on the heels of overspending by at least 65 million last year, is because of what happens in the consent report. And we don't have a fiscal impact analysis for most of the items here. And even when there is a fiscal impact analysis, it's not made clear if this is a new item or an item that was already budgeted for. and it's also not made clear of what is the actual trade-off. We have still had no accounting of the monies that have transferred between unrestricted and restricted for this year. We are having presentations that people are being told there's a plan to cut 41 million that's been created and we'll find the 30 million from that. I looked up the page that was linked, that was presented to PSAC, it's not a plan. So again, I won't be voting for this consent report, but this is the outgrowth of all of these mismanagement and bad decisions. One of the items I pulled I'll be talking about specifically most people forget what happened at the end of the year when at the last two board meetings i pulled almost every item that was in the consent report because there was no fiscal impact analysis they were new items and it totaled almost 300 million dollars worth the items that weren't addressed at the last meeting of the year because we ran out of time there was then a special meeting called for four days later and at that special meeting the board started off by let's lump all of those items into one vote and had one vote and within that were tens and tens of millions of dollars with no fiscal impact analysis nothing then we come back at our first meeting this year 45 day revision surprise we're overspending So everyone needs to be clear, not only have we not come up with a fiscal solvency plan, and we've taken no action to make the needed spending cuts we need to make, we're actually still overspending. So it's not that we're not addressing the problem, the problem continues to grow. And when you need to know where is the spending coming from, it's either coming from these consent reports, or even worse, it's spending that's never been authorized. So that's why I need to see the budget. I need access to the full budget as one of the members of the board who has fiduciary responsibility, and we have not been given access to the budget, which is illegal in my mind, because the spending has already changed over what was approved. That all comes from these consent reports. I don't know why President Brohard and Superintendent Sadler continue to allow this to happen, but I would never vote for it, and this is the root of the problem. fraudulent budgets, gross financial mismanagement, and out-of-control spending. Thank you.

Director Thompson, Director Lara, Director Williams, Director Berry.

So when I looked at the Gen Consent report, which is only 34 items this meeting, which allowed me to thoroughly review it, I noticed that there's about $3 million of expenditures and about $5 million in revenue. The majority of the $3 million of expenditures doesn't fall on the general fund. I think it's only $250,000. But for the revenue it's clear what the money will be used for but it's not clear to what fund the money is being allocated so there isn't a clear way for me to understand. If there is any way that this revenue alleviates the impact on the general fund at all. so i'm wondering if there's a way that we can start getting that information included in the memos that are attached to each of these items or if it's already there maybe someone can point me to where i would find it i didn't find it on any of them superintendent did you want to respond or

I will take that suggestion for that clarity that you're requesting and make sure that our deputy superintendent is able to get that. I'm going to ask all of our staff as they present these items to make sure that they have that information so that there's a reference so you have that kind of clarity.

Thank you. And then the second comment was just a follow up to something I think I said the last meeting, which is because there is this significant overspending that everyone's been talking about in special education, I asked for us to begin tracking how much we're spending. So if there is an item that comes on the Gen Consent Report, it would be helpful to know if that is an anticipated expense. I think it was only $800,000 or something this time around. So something very small, but I would still like to be able to track that month to month.

I'm also, as we receive grants that I'm responsible for signing for, I'm keeping a record of that revenue and where those grants are going myself to track them. So that's another cross-reference that I'm doing as well as the departments receive those, write those grants and receive them. We're making where they're going. So I'm keeping a record.

Thank You director brother Didn't board directors start to Tongan.

Sorry. I misspoke. It wasn't a hundred.

It was $800 significant difference Didn't board directors on the job comment I would like to lift up a few items. So our three, I'm sorry are two through three those are all reflective window film projects using measure y dollars the we allocated 12 million dollars for that type of work and so i'm glad that we are getting continuing to do that work moving forward to make sure that our school climates are comfortable for our students and these schools are hoover bridges sequoia laurel chabot East Oakland Pride, Cleveland, Stonehurst Elementary, which has two campuses, and then Horace Mann. I also want to uplift R7, which is the Skyline High School Field Lighting Project. This, again, is, I think, in a series of contracts in order to have the lighting that we need in the field for our student athletes, which is very exciting. But again, want to make sure that folks understand this is a significant investment into Skyline, but it doesn't address many of the major needs that the school site has. And we are continuing to work with that school site community to figure out what resource, what specific Things that $10,000,000 in measure why I can be allocated for to support their academic program as well as their athletic program. And I want to uplift our 13, which is for Redsdale High School, which is 500,000 as a grant from Association of continuing education. to support workplace learning, continuing education, dual enrollment, staffing trainings, and student leadership. Again, this is a meaningful amount of work that is being done to invest in East Oakland, and I can't wait to continue to do the heat mitigation work, the facilities work, and as much as possible, connect our students to careers that they can be proud of within those fields. With that being said, do we have any public comment on consent?

yes we have a solid bomb two-minute side I don't think it was ever explained to the public why you change the process where at one time you had measure BJ and why funds in a separate category for approval now you are putting it with the consent agenda And that was never explained. And I think some reasonable explanation to put more items under the consent calendar doesn't make sense to me. The thing I'm concerned about is R1 through R9. All are facility improvements or maintenance issues. With the information I gave you earlier, that you are, you have too many schools. You have over 40 schools. that could be considered empty buildings you are in the process of spending money on buildings that you don't need and you are putting elevators when the tent uh... filters play structures and i don't see what's going on with skyline this is like the fourth or fifth time this has been on the agenda to have lighting put up a skyline and each time i don't know if it's extra money additional money but why do you keep bringing it back the other thing i'm concerned about is uh... you are spending money on buildings but you are doing remodeling the buildings where you're putting extra classrooms at coliseum college prep and at fremont and you're being told you got too many schools with empty seats, but you're building, remodeling schools and adding extra classrooms. It doesn't make sense. You also have here spending of R26, R27 and R32 coming from the general fund, all related to legal spending. And you need to have a conversation. Did you look at the depth of information of legal services you're asking for? and somebody needs to discuss how this is going to work. Come on. And I can understand you might need that. Rugsdale, last point, Rugsdale. At one of the meetings, I think it was Measure N and H, Rugsdale is considering a start time in the evening. For all the kids that work, so many kids work, they're going to have evening. So this grant that they're talking about, is it going to be able to be facilitated for those kids who have the evening classes? Before you approve something, you have to know everything that's going on at the school to say, can this work? I know it's free money. I know it's a grant. but does it does it actually have the capacity to work with the consideration of a late start time they already have a late start time of nine something now they want to have a start time in the evening which is fine does it work with this grant thank you with that let's go take a vote on the consent

Minus R10, R23, and R24.

to remind the board that there's a notation on all of these items of what the funding source is and the superintendent has said to the board that the money is in the current budget i won't get any i won't get into any whether or not it's sufficiently funded but she is saying that the money is in the current budget by the notation on the agenda on the roll call to adopt the general consent report as stated minus the items stated student director tungan abstain student director block abstain director lotter yes director williams yes sir Director Hutchinson. Abstain. Director Berry. Yes. Director Thompson. He's absent, okay. Vice President Batchelor.

Yes.

And President Brewer. Yes. Motion's adopted.

All right, moving on to R10, Director Hutchinson.

Sure, thank you. I assume this is one of the items then, Superintendent Sadler, that you're tracking. This is a $3.7 million grant from Salesforce. And first, I think these are the sorts of things that should be addressed as regular business and highlighted so there can be a discussion. This should be good news, but I have some questions and some concerns. And so this is presumably a reading through it to pay for computer science in middle school. Now, I'm not quite sure how that is going to interact with this new policy that was withdrawn from earlier today. But were these classes that were already budgeted for and scheduled for this year? I have some concerns also because in past years, including last year in our computer science classes, they're teaching coding. And Silicon Valley and most programmers have moved on from learning coding. And so we need to make sure that we're giving our students the best opportunity going forward. and again lastly how do any of these things fit into an overall plan since this board has refused to do any of the work for the three r's and general counsel and the superintendent have refused to follow through with resolutions that were adopted these are all items that should have been handled in the restructuring of the district it should have been handled in the re-envisioning of the footprint and it definitely should have been handled through transformational school redesign Now we haven't done those things, and we're still plugging in holes with philanthropy now. And so this just isn't good enough, it really doesn't make sense, and there needs to be a much better accounting. Lastly, especially since at the meeting two weeks ago, Troy Christmas stood up here and said, one of the reasons why expenditures had increased is because you all know when more restricted revenue comes in, you know that just means we spend more. Which not only is not true, then I get worried when we have new grants coming in, there's no accounting any place of how this impacts anything, relates to the budget, relates to the program that we're already doing. And this is not a small amount of money. So we need to do a much better job of tracking things. And I know there's no way possible anyone's going to be able to explain here now in two minutes, how the $3.7 million is planned on being spent. And so we have to be able to do better with these amounts of money. But Superintendent Sadler, even though I've been asking over and over for access to the budget, for the full budget line by line, which I'm required to have as a school board director, Now, since you mentioned that you've been tracking this, I would love to see how much philanthropy dollars you've tracked coming in, how those monies are going to be used, and what is the offset in other places? Because to hear that you're tracking it doesn't do me very good much, and I am the one who has fiduciary responsibility. Thank you.

Superintendent?

To that, and I know- Excuse me, Madam President. I didn't hear a motion on R10.

motion to approve R10 second superintendent yes I'm gonna ask dr. Aguilera to come to the mic but I do want to emphasize Salesforce has specifically focused on middle schools for all of their philanthropy we're seeing significant growth in our students we have a um significant number of students who are better prepared for high school as a result of their uh influx and it's not just for computer programming but i'm going to ask dr aguilera to give some of the specifics i know that counseling has been involved in the past so if you could give us an update on this recent grant from salesforce

All right, yes. Good evening, Sandra Aguilera. I'm the chief academic officer for our district. And it is true that the Salesforce grant largely focuses in on our middle school network. It is funding engineering. It is funding additional math supports for middle school. And we have math teacher leaders that are also partially funded through the grant. They also are still giving... school sites direct money and so principals are able to design from there and of course as an approval process not everything is just accepted from the principal incentive fund but they do get a portion of funding to pay for items that are related to STEM on their campus.

So was this included in all of the school site budgets? Well, first, Superintendent Sadler, there's no counseling listed on here. That's one of the problems that we have when people just speak off the top. Were these already included in the school site budgets or are these additional funds coming into these middle schools? Slash, is this being used at all to offset the cut in G1 and the loss of electives?

So it was not included in the school site budgets at adoption because we didn't have confirmation that the grant was continuing. The cycle for Salesforce is not the same as our own cycles. And so we find out much later if they have approved the grant that we apply for because there is somewhat of an application process that we go through. more like an approval. So we don't know that information at the time of adoption, and so we do unfortunately have to notice those employees that their position may or may not be renewed for the upcoming year because it is funded through the grants. And then it is not a backfiller for G1, but a principal can decide, as an example, say that they have like a 0.6 position and they can decide actually want this person here full time but my allocation you know from G1 only gives me a 0.6 so they could decide to increase to a point to 1.0 by using the salesforce grant so there is a opportunity to multi-fund a position So I wouldn't say that it's offsetting, but it can add to the existing funding that the school site is receiving.

Okay, and just lastly, since these are one-time dollars under a one-year grant, so this winds up being a one-year expansion that's going to happen at some point going forward, so this wasn't built in the program at the start of the year?

So every year we're having to go through this process because It's year-to-year funding, and Salesforce does really try to work with us in that way, but we always have to go through these steps, and we always have to unfortunately notice the staff that their positions may not be continued into next year. We would love to find a different solution because it is unsettling to the program because you don't really... Most often, Salesforce will continue the funding, and they are very upfront with us about... if they're going to be stepping down funding for a particular item. And there's a lot of planning that goes into the actual proposal and they're great partners, but the cycles, it's just really hard for us to include that funding into that adoption.

You can't sustain a program that you want to with one-time dollars in this sort of way, and so we all know the solution is to make the budget adjustments in other places so we can directly fund the programs we want to sustain, and then if we receive grants of philanthropy, we can use them in a one way as an additional service, but we shouldn't be funding core programs that we want to see sustainable in this sort of way. And we all know that's the solution. Thank you.

I do want to underscore that we do have even with the situation with the annual funding which a lot of the money that we do get from the state and federal government is one-time funding so that's one of the challenges with school finance so we do have to project planning but I want to just note that we are seeing with the investment that Salesforce has made in the past training our staff working with staff providing this funding has significantly shown evidence of improvement in our students and we are sending more students to high school better prepared as a result of that resource public comment on F10 R10

Since this was a pulled item, anyone can provide public comment.

So this is supposed to be for middle schools. And then R-12 is supposed to be for middle schools. But when you, I read the contract for R-12. They have all the schools. They have in that contract six elementary school and Oakland High School. So if the recipient is middle schools on this contract has that been verified that it is all middle schools because are twelve six l i say it again six elementary schools and oakland high school as a part of it uh... so and i i i don't i don't know if you guys are reading these contracts But there are discrepancies in them. And then you have on R26, you have language that's confusing. The contract for these legal services, July 20th, 2026 to June 30th, 2028. And then it says $114,000 in a fiscal year. Now this is a two-year contract. Is this $114,000 each fiscal year? You're really spending $228,000. But the way it's written, not clear. So again, I think we've got some room for improvement when we're trying to identify all these contracts written appropriately and all the fiscal accounting done correctly.

Any other public speakers? Alright, let's take a vote on this item.

Roll call to approve our dot dash 10. Student directors are absent. director thompson absent okay director barry yes director hudgenson absent director williams yes sir director lotta yes vice president batchelor yes and president brohard yes motions adopted

Moving on to R23, Director Hutchinson.

Motion to approve R23.

Second. Director Hutchinson.

Yes, thank you. I just wanted to pull this item to highlight it, especially in light of the business item that we had on the agenda today, talking again about devices. This is an item where it's a $237,000 contract to bring esports opportunities to our secondary students. And again, this is an expansion of what we're looking at doing. And there's this cognitive dissonance where this again wasn't a part and hasn't been a part of the conversation about devices or even cell phones. And so we as a district are going to have to do some real work instead of the shorthand in order to develop policies to address all of these things. We're a district now where most of our teachers are dependent upon Chromebooks to deliver curriculum. The idea of developing your own curriculum disappeared a generation ago in our schools and it's only gotten worse. And we know that our students now are very attached to devices and we want our students to be literate in technology going forward while we also are able to address the equity issues that many of our students face. and so again it is a good thing that we are bringing esports opportunities to our students but we need to end this cognitive dissonance that happens from the board where people just latch on to whatever low-hanging fruit they can and not addressing the big problems that we're facing and be real careful when we put forward policies because i want our students especially who have access issues to be able to have full access to technology like any other student. And as a board and as a director, I believe that people are speaking from their privilege whether they want to limit our students' access when some of us fought so hard to get that in the first place. So again, this is a good item, but hopefully my colleagues on the board will be a little more aware as we're addressing policies, the implications that they could have. Because engaging in eSports is recreation. And if we're going to be offering this to our students, especially in a competitive sense, I want them to get the full benefit they can from that, even if it includes using a device one on one. Thank you.

I do want to speak to this one here because I also believe that it is not only the gaming is also having to do with developing technology skills and I think for our middle school students again this also results in you know a healthy competition with this But I want to go back to the policy because I think that in the policy that came before the board tonight, it really does have to do with looking at, and I believe somebody said this in their speech, that it's how do we use the technology? When is it efficient to use it and when is it not appropriate to use it? But I also take a little bit of issue that I feel that as someone who was in the classroom within this generation, that the skills, again, our teachers are not, are skilled in both. And I think it's, I think, you know, Dr. Thompson, sorry, you know who's also in the classroom and using a balance of those things but I feel like you know our teachers do know how to teach with paper and pencil our teachers do know how to incorporate technology in ways that are appropriate and I think that the intent of the resolution tonight was not to say no computers but for us to think about that balance and when it is best to use more tactile approaches, more pencil and paper approaches, and when digital use is appropriate. Thank you.

All right, any other colleagues? We'll go ahead and take public comment on this agenda item. Mr. Sechow, anybody?

Chair, do you have any public speak for this current pool item, which is R23?

R23, yes. Looks like we have one public speaker. So far.

Hello, hi again. I do wanna say something to the two things that were said about, it is something to think about because that was just said in the resolution, which y'all are not passing it now, is that there will be no more online curriculum that will be adopted. But also, it's the understanding of President Brohard made a comment about the fact that teachers know how to use it. I think that's an assumption that they do because sometimes when you get new technology put into the classroom, a lot of times you get teachers rebelling on using the information because it's new technology that they don't know how to use. So if it's going to be something that's invested in, it's also to be thought about is how are you going to support the teachers in using this technology online platform because students don't just get on. We come from a day and age where I had computer class. Students don't have computer class. They're just given computers and they say go use them and really what it is is they need the support on how to use them. If we're going to implement another online platform it does need to know on how the implementation is going to look like but I'm sure it will be great if they're just make sure we focus on implementation.

So you notice how so much of the conversation is around technology? And last week. There was a instructor. Who is a instructor at a school that teaches electrical uh... future electricians and he's saying that uh... a lot of people who are in technology because of the AI they've been pushed out and they are now signing up for things like jobs that you know AI will not ever touch so plumbing air-conditioned heating electricity uh... construction and so forth So when are we going to start balancing at some point this overreach that we have with technology and start moving? Because when I was in school, we had woodwork, carpentry. Young men learned how to do automotive skills. There are schools right now, right in here in Oakland, where you can learn airplane maintenance. Big money. Big money. The only thing I'm saying is we got to start looking at other directions besides this. Oh, we're going to learn gaming and we're going to learn technology. We got to start looking at some other ways to have young people be prepared for the workforce besides this, what I call overreach with technology.

Thank you. Any other colleagues want to weigh in? All right. So let's go ahead and take a vote on this item to approve R23. All right.

On the roll call, Director Lauder?

Yes.

Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Sting. Director Batchelor? Yes. Vice President Batchelor. And President Brewhart?

yes oh i i believe the uh general counsel wants to speak what's your vote on this yes okay all right motion is adopted thank you general counsel did you also want to share about this item not hearing her let's move on to r24 um is there a motion to approve r24

I move that we approve R24 I second Director Hutchinson Yes thank you and looking at the file history of this item This is an amendment to one of the contracts that was a part of the master contracts with non-public schools that was approved at the very end of the school year last year. I referenced earlier how at the last board meeting of the year there were a number of items that I pulled from the consent report that then weren't addressed at that meeting so a special meeting was scheduled for June 29th and the board lumped all of those items together into one item. One of the items that were lumped together then was this master contract, a $67 million contract with a number of agencies. Now already we have an amendment coming forward on the terms for one of those schools in that contract. so when two weeks ago we were presented with the forty five day revision and we see that expenditures and spending again are ballooning these are again some of the reasons why where at the end of last year items were approved that were not included on the budget even though superintendent sadler said they had all been included in the budget just like mr rakeshaw reminded us tonight that everything on the consent report now the superintendent is certifying has been budgeted Even though not only can nobody show us on the budget, I haven't even been given access to the budget. So again, this is what happens when we don't take care of things and do things the right way. We have to make amendments. There's changes now in the amount of students and the ratio at this school that they're allowed. No explanation. It's a part of a huge $67 million contract with 20-some agencies. How can we even track this? How do we know how much it's going to cost us? How do we know what kind of services they're going to provide? And if we were ever going to have a chance to know, How does throwing an item in the consent report at the last board meeting with no discussion and then putting it forward for a vote lump with other items, how does that ever get us there? And again, this was part of a $67 million contract. So if this is being done with some of the biggest contracts that we do every year, can you imagine what's happening with the smaller contracts? The ones that I can't speak on? The ones that don't require a fiscal impact analysis because they're roughly under $100,000? Did we get an accounting of this summer if the superintendent used her authority to sign any contracts on our behalf? Is that the $17 million in overspending? But we wouldn't know because there's been no public disclosure of the 26-27 budget. It's not available online, and I don't have access to it either. This is not how we should do things. This is the crisis that we're facing. And again, I'm gonna keep saying, I don't have access to the budget, and I have fiduciary responsibility. So what's really going on?

I would like to comment on that because I find your argument really insidious on this one.

Please send me a copy of the budget then. Excuse me, I have the mic. Send me a copy of the budget and you won't hear a thing from me.

In this item here, it says required by a student's individualized education program. So again, in looking at funding our students with the most- Excuse me, I'm finished.

Amendment number one, non-agency master contract- Excuse me. Star Academy Special Education Department. It doesn't say what you just said it said. It says- So are you saying the narrative that I laid out of what this is and how we got here is wrong? Is not accurate? Because it's all on the record.

I'm not going to be shouted down, Mike. I'm going to finish my time.

It's Director Hutchinson to you.

Director Hutchinson, please let- I'm going to finish my- You don't have any role to say anything to me.

So point of order.

No, point of order, I have- Don't tell me no. Point of order. I'm going to continue with this. Point of order. Actually, I'm going to continue because it does say- Point of order. I have the old microphone right now. It says to provide for special education services. stated in agreement required by a student's individualized education program. And I think one of the things that we are dealing with in special education is that we often have students who have more needs. And they may have more needs if their IEP is held later in the year. You may hold an amendment to an IEP. There are many reasons why this increased cost could happen. And we owe this to our students who have individualized education plans. So this is nothing that's hidden. This is, again, in our special education department looking and understanding the trends and realizing that those numbers and those needs for our disabled students may change. Thank you.

Point of order, I don't know what you're referring to, because R2426-1693 reads amendment number one, non-public sectarian school agency master contract. And it says within it, the amendment is class size, calendars, and LE student progress report cards. So I don't know what you just read off of, but I'm very clear what R24 is. And I'm tired of people not telling the truth on the dais. So if you don't like what I say and how I do it, that's fine. There's actually parliamentary procedures, and if people followed them any time, we wouldn't be in this situation. So whatever you read off is not even the item that we're on. So you can take how insidious you thinks are, and you can do whatever you want with it. But this is being done by you, President Brohard, and there's no way to escape your responsibility as board president.

Okay I will read item R2426-1693 amendment number one non-public non-sectarian school agency master contract 2026-27 star academy special education approval by the board of education of amendment number one non-public sectarian school agency master contract 2026-2027 by and between the district and star academy san rafael california legislative file number 261315 enactment number 26-1345 june 29th 2026 for the latter to provide special education services stated in agreement required by a student's individualized education program for the period July 1st 2026 through June 30th 2027 amending section 25 class size subsection a section 26 calendars subsection a and section 37 lea student progress reports report cards and assessment subsection b each as enumerated herein other terms of the conditions and master contract remain in full force. A student's individualized education program. Thank you.

Can we take a vote?

We need to take public comment. Any public comment on this agenda item? I see no one coming up to the dais for public comment. So let's go ahead and take a vote on approving R24.

uh on the roll call to approve our that dot dash 24. student directors are absent director williams yes sir director hutchinson abstain director lotta yes director barry yes director thompson yes vice president bachelor yes and president prohart yes motion is adopted

Thank you. Move on to S, which is a superintendent's report.

thank you very much I want to thank the staff for assisting I wanted to just go over some highlights and then also some specific comments I want to make about the third week of school again I want to highlight that on our first day we visited schools as I discussed but I have some actual pictures here and I want to acknowledge our visit to McClimas High School and I've kept in touch with our principals there to just kind of check on how enrollment is going and the new teachers that they have on staff that's been going very well and then you know as we left McClimas High School that first day we went to the young adult special ed program at Santa Fe and you see a picture there with Brooklyn giving who was one of the ambassadors that showed us around and you'll see in that picture and I want everybody to take a look at that picture in that this is their independent living room where the students are actually taught how to wash their clothes how to cook how to organize themselves how to take care of themselves and actually just how to live independently and that's our goal for many of our students is to prepare them to be successful adults and talking to the principal and staff there. That was one of my favorite sites that I visited. We later went to Sankofa where we visited a TK classroom and the teacher was going over all the jobs the duties of the jobs that students have and it was very positive the students were absolutely listening very closely and then later on you see us at garfield elementary school where we're in front of the picture of the new building that we're going to be building on that site where we will have a tk and early childhood program on site much needed building for that neighborhood then we moved on to sequoia where we visited i visited several classrooms there as well as the library and absolutely instruction was going on on that first day in the classroom Later on, you see us at Greenleaf, and you see Vice President Batchelor actually working with some students who were trying to get animals into a cage there, and so it was very interesting to see the TKers' activity at that site. Really exciting to see how that former Whittier School has developed into a wonderful TK8. And then, moving on to... uh... uh... this is an exciting moment you see a sitting uh... around the table talking uh... with director barry he sat down to discuss many things going on at the schools with the council marianne allen by ardo and the principal uh... smithson uh... opa has really done a great job in fact their enrollment is increasing at lupa and uh... i was very much aware of the pbis program that they have at the site they had been Planning for it for two years and this is the first full year of implementation So I've worked with the system principal David Martinez and I know very how hard he worked on the design of that and PPIS as you know board members and the community is a program where the students really talk about what is the appropriate behavior in certain areas of the school inside the classroom outside the classroom and This is also a site that has benefited from the outdoors grant that we received. And these students get a chance to go out camping and have a variety of experiences. And I believe that this is an investment of a reuse of a facility in a really positive way. And it is continuing to grow. Then we went to District 7. director Thompson's school, which I actually hadn't been to Madison Park since it had been rebuilt, and it was just like going to Disneyland for me. It was just incredible, the middle school and the high school, and absolutely instruction was happening on that first day. In fact, we were in a science classroom that I didn't actually want to leave. I wanted to see how the instruction ended. We also got a chance to observe the end of school where the Yonder pouches were returned and collected. And so we did learn some things about the implications for after school and the process. But generally that was a really dynamic experience. continuing on with uh... the highlights of the week you'll see under armor has been a great partner with us and they gave out backpacks at several of our schools uh... focusing in on middle and high school and you'll see their uh... the backpacks they gave out tennis shoes they gave out um it was just incredible how well organized that was and you know that we had our students actually visit their headquarters in baltimore last year and they um and these were students middle and high school all through the district who were able to go on that special trip so they are partners they actually started out as you know um Steph Curry was with Armour at one point in time, and they are still maintaining their relationship with us, even though Steph now has his own tennis shoe company and products that he's doing. So again, so these partnerships are very significant for our kids. And I just wanted to highlight the sites that they supported, specifically Westlake, United for Success, Elmhurst. And they also gave out T-shirts. I mean, it was just phenomenal. And for many of our students, this was really some of the only new materials or new things that they got for school. Many of our kids didn't have new clothes. It's a big deal for many of our families to have something new. And so I just want to acknowledge that partnership that's continued in spite of the fact that one of the major spokespersons now is moving on. Later on in the week, we had many of our staff and students participated in Oakland Pride as well as board members. Vice President Batchelor and President Bluhard and many of our staff and students marched in our pride parade. We also, while they were there, met up with Congresswoman Latifah Simons and I'm sure Vice President Batchelor and President Brouhard will talk about that and some other elected officials that were also there. So again, that's another highlight to really talk about our students and staff who were very active. This is not our first participation in Oakland Pride. It was very, very well received. Then we ended up the week with visiting the city hall for a reception with our students from Fukuoka and I'm sure President Brouhard will talk about that because she was present there. There were six students from our sister city in Fukuoka and as you know Our sister city is a port city just like Oakland. They have a lake in the middle of the city. They have a bus stop, Frank Ogawa, who started our sister city programs. I had a chance to take students there and visit, so it was really nice to hear what the students thought about their visit here. They were at Oakland High, and I'll let you talk more in detail about that. And then I wanted to just mention, today we have... had 30 students from McClimans High School who flew out of Oakland Airport and San Francisco Airport. They were part of our football team at McClimans, Warriors. We were invited to participate in a football game there. One of the things I want board members and the community to know, I made sure that, because this is the third week of school, that part of their plan was the teachers were to provide homework they were supposed to do have actually study halls while they're there because we want them to keep the cadence of being in school and getting their work done so even though study trips like this do count towards attendance I treated it just as we would independent study where their homework has to be corrected and kept on file as a part of our attendance record But I really wanted to make sure we're absolutely clear that this wasn't, you know, this is a great opportunity. They're going to visit Pearl Harbor. They're going to have other opportunities, lifetime opportunities. But again, we are in school, and this is a study tour, and they need to get their studies done. So I wanted you to know that I emphasize that. And then I wanted to also highlight that earlier in the week, and I wanted to thank our Executive Director of Safety and for our Chief of Academic Officer, Dr. Aguilera, for a wonderful meeting that we had with our adult ed faculty at Parker. And that was on Monday. And it was really well planned and done to recognize just where our staff was in terms of the issues that had happened at Parker. So they had a really good training. Staff was given the flexibility to participate or not, depending on where their emotions are at this point. But as I drove on campus, you know, I stopped by the day of the event at Parker, but, you know, just driving on campus, I know how I felt. I want to acknowledge, publicly, Dr. Aguilera and, you know, nelson for their i mean they were there all day and night and they have just really been you know significant in terms of making a difference for the staff and other students i talked to the principal i've talked to other staff people and we have to think about the impact on our staff who were there and taking care of other people. I'm keeping an eye on them because they have put in so much time to support others. And I know it had an impact for them to come back on campus. It was just such a respectful thing for them to do to organize this event for our students, you know, just to have the faculty meeting to talk about everybody's healing. And then the Sunday before that Monday faculty meeting, there was a healing circle that I know that Vice President Batchelor attended. I'm sure she'll speak to that. And then I wanted to emphasize that our staff, led by Dr. Aguilera, has been doing culture walks these first three weeks of schools, going to school sites, checking on the culture, seeing what's going on, visiting new principals, going to some of the sites where we're concerned about things to just see what's the culture, what's happening, what's actually going on at the sites. I've been visiting schools as well. And so I just wanted to just mention, we'll be talking a lot more about academics at every board meeting. We are also have, I wanna mention that we have student interns uh... student teacher interns placed at our school so i'm going to give you a report on that we have there's a special new credential for pk three where uh... some funding will be provided for teachers who were uh... might be currently cdc teachers who want to get their pk three credentials and so uh... we have partnered with uc merced to support teachers participating in that. I'm also gonna be working directly with the Black Thriving Teachers, Ms. Zabala, on their programs and the modeling of what they're working on at the individual sites where they have been appointed to serve. So you'll be hearing more updates and specifics on the programs that we have academically. I also have shared with board members, I have been writing a four-year plan that I have been working on, worked on all last year around specific recommendations. I've talked with PSAC about that. rolling that out working with our executive team getting a specific input on them but my whole thinking behind the plan is for everybody to see themselves in the plan i want our students to see themselves in our plan our parents our community our staff and so this is something that i think is really critical as we move through this year In addition to that, I want to make sure our budget development process is aligned with the LCAP process. And that's something that, since LCAP started in 2013, which I was a part of all the trainings, that was the envision, that was what was envisioned around that. And, you know, we get, because of timelines, meetings, and everything, we often, um kind of just fit it in to when we can have the meetings that kind of thing and so we want to start now working on budget development for next year and have that process aligned with the lcap process so um i will be talking more about that along with you know more dialogue with the board and with my staff So I just wanted to give you a heads up on our third week of school in terms of all the things that we've been working on. We just took an account on Friday, so we'll have more reports by our next board meeting on what our enrollment looks like. There are some sites that are under-enrolled that are surprising to me, particularly in the kindergarten area. And I think a lot of that has to do with our newcomers and some other factors. But we're going to be analyzing that. Our TK program, though, has been a real success, and so that was something I think was forward-thinking for us to expand our TK hubs. So I want everybody to know that we are working feverishly to figure out, as we're doing, as we're preparing for next year's budget, we're working on this year's budget, and we're also working on the implementation of schools. um i did want to also note where we are have been putting in all this the heat um on the windows and all of that ceiling that has been requested by many of our families there are many of the schools that have been our priorities or schools that are actually over 100 years old And so those are the old windows. And the air conditioning was never a part of the plan for those buildings when they were initially built. There were portables added on to a lot of those schools. So those are a lot of the things that we're having to think about. And as we do our facilities master plan, we do have to think about where are our children located? What are the needs? What is it that our students are looking for in terms of facilities and environments and locale? uh... believe me uh... i know if more people when more people get a chance to see the madison park site in uh... sabrani park it's not like the old madison park that i'm familiar with and uh... as we go to greenleaf you know the old Whittier it's a totally different world in terms of the programs they have there so I just wanted to give you an update on the specifics of what I've been working on with different partners and as I visit schools and talk with staff we're really excited about we had a really good opening and we're continuing to assess um our work and figure out what our planning needs are and we may have to have some consolidations based on where our students are and making sure that we have the appropriate number of teachers where we need and then lastly i wanted to let people know that we are working on immunizations as you know we're required by law in order for students to enter school that we must have their immunization records and we have some schools that almost a perfect score I want to shout out Sankofa only has one student without immunization and then we have some of our bigger schools high schools where we have to do significant work to work with our families notices have been mailed to them that kind of thing but after 10 days of not having you know you get a 10-day reprieve after the 10 days then students have to be removed from the site so we are working with all staff to address that but it seems to be our high schools where we're having more of a challenge there.

So that's my report for this evening.

Thank you superintendent. Do we have public comment on the superintendent's report?

Yes we do. We have Fasalo Dabala, Katherine Kemp, and Alexandra Williams.

two minutes each, please.

And also, Sheila Haynes.

So, Superintendent, I called one of the parents this morning at the airport, Ms. Handy. She said, you know her. And she guaranteed that they're going to set aside at the hotel area for them to meet and get their homework done. And I said, the superintendent wants this done and make sure it happens. So she promised me it's going to happen. I drove by McClymonds today, a little bit concerned. A lot of work is going on. A lot of fencing and closing off of areas where work is being done. And my concern is, in case of an evacuation, we have lack of access to certain exits. and so we can confirm some kinda way are the ability to safely evacuate the building if necessary I was also was concerned with a lot of dirt that has been uplifted and I know the BART station in West Oakland they did ready to do the first thing they doing is remediating the site so thank you again for the intense concentration that you're giving to McClymonds. I heard a report today that the U.S. Department of Education has announced through the Office of Civil Rights they have issued a federal guideline warning schools not to consider a student's race in discipline matters or they could risk being investigated. This is going to be a struggle for the issue we already know about disproportionality of African-American students being disciplined. How are we going to handle that based on this? And I think Fayette, Alabama is being investigated because they were trying to deal with that. The other thing is I was so encouraged with the Japanese community and Oakland High was the perfect school to go to because of the diversity of that school. representation so they could see that. My grandchildren went to Japan this summer and they were just amazed. I hope we'll have a chance to go there to see how clean it is, how the schools are structured, how the culture is. I'm glad these young people came to see us, but I hope we'll have an opportunity to see them. And lastly, those enrollment numbers are so crucial to where we go forward with uh... making some decisions about uh... and i'ma keep asking y'all to look at these facilities we got too many facilities it's difficult and they are drawbacks but uh... you gotta make some difficult decisions now please thank you next speaker please

Hi, I'm Catherine Camp. I want to offer a concern about the superintendent's report. At a moment when OUSD is facing serious academic enrollment, operational and fiscal challenges, the public needs more than highlights and celebrations. We need a report that clearly tells us what are the district's top priorities, what progress has been made, where are we off track, and what is being done to address it. There's absolutely a place to celebrate students, staff, and schools, but the superintendent's report should also be a tool for transparency and accountability. Families and the public should leave with a clearer understanding of the actual work of the district, the challenges ahead, and whether we are making measurable progress for students. Now, I appreciate the verbal commentary that came after the superintendent's report, but the documentation in that presentation was all pictures and it was all just showing kind of like a fluff piece. And when we're in this situation right now and we're looking at what's happening in Sacramento and we're on track to lose our savings by 28, 29 and be out, we need to have more up-to-date reports on the progress that the district is making. I heard the comment about grade consolidations. I heard it very quietly. Being said, I'd love to hear more details about what that is about and that actually documented in these decks that other people will have access to and not having to watch this whole recording after the fact.

Thank you.

Let me just make sure that we're really clear about I said that we may have consolidations based on the enrollment it's the third the middle of the third week of school so we're we have a certain amount of days to figure out how many people are you know showing up to the classrooms and so this is the normal process of figuring out what our class size is going to be at different schools whether we need to close some classes, move things around, but I just wanted to make sure that no decisions have been made, but we are monitoring that, and we just looked at the enrollment, the attendance on Friday, and we're going to be looking again on Monday, and I'll have more information, full information at our next board meeting.

Hello again, it's Alexandra Williams. I want to begin by saying I appreciate how you give a qualitative experience of what it looks like being on the grounds in schools and talking to staff and students and seeing it firsthand. I also appreciate hearing about the cultural walks and the qualitative observations like and what that the school climate and instruction and relationships are looking like. And I'm also happy about the four-year plan that is supposed to be coming in alignment with the LCAP process and the budget process because alignment is important. I would like to understand Next, how student outcomes become anchored in the four-year plan as well. What measurable outcomes are we trying to move over the next four years? And what specific milestones will we expect to see this year? If we're aligning the LCAP and the budget, how are we going to trace major investments back to student outcomes that we intend to improve? And what is the qualitative... that's being captured in these cultural walks, and how are we making sure that we're meeting the outcomes of what culture is supposed to look like inside of the schools. I think that all of the things are important, quantitative and qualitative data, and I think that the experience that the students have and the staff have in schools and teachers is important, but I also need to be clear that we do have to measure what student outcomes look like and what are we doing to move the needle. And I'm looking forward to hearing that next in the next superintendent report, thank you.

Next speaker, Sheila Haynes, if you can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yeah, we can hear you.

Okay. Thank you. Superintendent seller for your report. Um, I appreciate the highlights and as always was happy to see, uh, Sankofa as one of your highlights. Um, grateful for our connection with that school site, because at a time when James was suffering trauma, that's the site he ended up at. I just want to ask that you help the board to protect further funds from being taken. My student has lost so many years of education and the arts is what's keeping him focused. I mean, countless students with disabilities can benefit from this education. And while I appreciate the highlights about the independence at the adult school site, that's still several years away from now. And we need help now. I mean, these are the issues that not just my child faces. So when I speak on the needs of my student, I'm speaking on the needs for countless students who rely on this type of education for consistency. There's so much funding available through Prop 28 and block grants and other sources of funding. All students should be able to have inclusive arts education daily. And that's what our ongoing request has been. I mean, even with an IEP, there's still no help available and time is ticking. My hope is that this board will send my resolution through the next process to be agendized and to protect more funds in the arts from being taken. And while I'm grateful that the district has recommitted to a zero tolerance of hate speech, we've been asking for an official ban. Student safety is most critical. And with these uncertainties with the budget and staffing and services, our students really have to be in the most respectable space. So thank you, Superintendent Stadler, for taking on such a huge challenge. I know there's many challenges. I know you're out there at many different sites and doing what you can, but we really need to get this budget together and know that these funds that are intended for our students' well-being are protected. So thank you. Thank you for your commitment, and please help us. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Haynes. Are there board comments? Director Berry?

Yeah, I wrote down a similar note when I was going through the superintendent's report about a desire to see something on the budget. And it's not just the responsibility of the superintendent's report. It could have also been placed in, I guess, unfinished business. But I think we've spoken about this before, that I don't think we can afford to go a meeting without putting it on the agenda. so that our board can continue to discuss and receive updates and so that the public can engage and can continue to build understanding of what has been a very complicated process. I will also say though that People are working hard in the district, students, educators, staff, and it is also helpful to hear highlights because that is also part of the reality and the truth of OUSD. So this is a both and for me. I think it is helpful for the culture of the org to celebrate what is instructive to us about things we should protect and things that are going well. And it is also critically important that we maintain a pulse and have an opportunity to continue to work through the things that are urgent for us. And I do think the budget is one of those things. And I also think I think we've talked about prioritizing budget, safety, and student outcomes as part of regular board meeting agenda items, and so I would definitely echo that.

Director Williams?

Thank you, President Brohard. Thank you again for the report, Superintendent Sattler. Really appreciate it. It's really great that you're building up this culture of engagement with cultural walks and just really supporting those on the ground doing the work. I think that is a really great start to the beginning of the year. We want to really build the sense of belonging, the sense of support for our students, and just seeing our staff do that work and are bringing joy to their particular profession. So just really want to thank you for that. That is something we haven't had in quite a while, so I appreciate you bringing that forward. Also, I think we as a board are wrestling with a lot of things. We're still working on our board work plan and what we're trying to go to. I think that for me, it's really about public safety. I'd like to hear about some of those things that we're doing in public safety. We have some additional services now. We gotta figure out where they need to be put. So can't wait for our Director of Public Safety to talk more about that. Also, I think we all are wanting to maintain academic outcomes and actually grow as well. You know, the first step, as the student director said, is with the new cell phone policy, they're starting to see more engagement. I think that is actually going to build into more or a cleaner academic growth for our young folks. They're able to really put more energy into the subjects and the learning that is coming from the classroom. So I'm really excited about that. But I also want to know what our plans are. And I think we are, President Brohard, I, and Director Thompson are really excited to have these conversations and the teaching and learning. So we definitely wanna partner with you as moving these literacy goals that we have as well as just understanding what our plans are. So thank you for continuing to lead that work. I know you're asking all the tough questions and you're holding folks accountable. That's really the basis of all of this is really having the level of accountability and expectation to move this work forward. Yes, we've been in some challenging situations over this last couple years, but You know, I think we're understanding that we're keeping the belt tight and we really are paying attention to all the small details. I know that you've talked about it before, so I look forward to you sharing those details with us as we're moving forward. I know that you have support on this board and we will continue to support your vision as you're moving forward. You are great. You're really showing yourself as a fantastic ambassador to not only the city of Oakland, but to our district and to our school sites. I think that now we want to add some more to that, which is more detailed information of how we're moving forward. Thank you very much for the work you have done. And thank you for your, again, really focused attention of McClymonds. Thank you.

Director Williams, I did ask our Executive Director of Safety to just give a quick update because safety has been at the forefront of our issue here and I just wanted to give a quick update in terms of where we are. I appreciate that. And then I'm going to ask our chief academic officer just really quickly talk about just the progress of when parents will actually hear, you know, how their students are doing their first progress reports. It's a certain time for elementary and a certain time for middle and high school.

President Borja point of order we already had public comment on the superintendent's report she gave her report it's inappropriate now to have more staff come on and be a part of that report that should have been included before this isn't appropriate and it's not the process that we have here and it's definitely um not serving the community who already spoke on this item so if this is what the superintendent wanted to include why wasn't that included in the report before

I agree with the timing. I think that we should continue with our board comments, but I know that other times the superintendent has asked other people to come up and add to the superintendent's report. So if you don't mind, we'll finish our board comments and then I think people would like to hear a safety update and an academic update.

Then there needs to be another round of both board comment and public comments allowed because it's a continuation of the item. And again, this really isn't how you run a meeting. Thank you.

That's how we're going to run it tonight. And yes, there'll be another round of public comments and board comments. Director Lotta. Director Thompson. Director Hutchinson.

Thank you. You know, I actually agree with Ms. Camp's comments and Director Berry's comments. I actually think it's a little insulting having no information in the PowerPoint and just a couple of pictures. And let's be clear, these pictures are from the first day of school visits. That's what you presented in your last superintendent's report at our last meeting. We don't know what the true budget numbers are right now. The budget is not available online on the OUSD website like it's required to be and I still don't have access to it and have not seen it as a school board director. I have not seen the true numbers from the 45 day revision that Mr. Christmas at the last meeting said were in error and he refused to tell us. And I know that you, Superintendent Sadler, sitting here right now, have access to the budget. So why hasn't anyone emailed that to me at all? I've been asking the same thing for months. And we are being denied access to the budget. That is not acceptable. and illegal because I know there's been changes to it that the board has not approved. So the way you clear up this issue is giving me access or telling me when I'm going to receive access to that. I first sent you a list of questions, Superintendent Sadler, months ago. You never answered those and responded. I haven't met with senior staff in months. We had fraudulent budget numbers. We had our credit rating issues. We had the county send us a notice of going concern. We have a $30 million plug in the agenda. Last year we overspent by at least 65 million and this year we're projected to overspend already by 17 million. On the adopted budget there was only one year of cash flow analysis when two years are required. We had first the consultant, then Ms. Gar and then Mr. Christmas stand up here and give statements that were not accurate. Because you can't have a surplus and a deficit at the same time. We had Troy Christmas talk about how we have adopted a budget with a deficit before. When that's not true because state law prohibits it. And when he talks about 2017-18, the reason we ended with less than our required reserve is because of overspending within the year. So given all of this, when am I going to receive a copy of the budget line by line? I will make sure to share it with the community if the district won't. But when am I going to receive that? It should be by today when I get home, you can tell somebody to email it to me. But when am I going to see the full budget, including the correct numbers of projected spending and restricted, which Mr. Christmas said were an error and you did not direct him to give us what the answer is. So it's been two weeks. You said you'd address those questions. What is the answer? And when am I going to have access to the budget?

The last two days, we have been working with FICMAT, has been doing a health assessment, and so all of our staff have been involved in interviews with that, and it's continuing tomorrow, so I'm hoping that we will be able to get that information to you as soon as possible, because we are required to give specific information and documents and provide specifics to FICMAT as a requirement as a part of our health process. So I will try to get that to you as soon as possible.

That has nothing to do with the adopted budget and us receiving it. You're actually required to give it to me as a fiduciary agent of the district. So if you're working with FCMAT, that means you do have the line item. When am I, as the school board director for District 4, going to be given access to the full budget? Because the community should have access. That's a public document. And so when am I going to be given access? If you're meeting with FCMAT, that means the numbers exist. So why are they being withheld from me? And when are you going to ensure that staff provides it to me or you provide it to me? Give me the link.

We are working on it. Sorry. We were working on the actuals. As you know, we had to look at the actual funds that were utilized and all of the invoices that came in at the end of the year. We have the 45 days.

Superintendent Sadler, I'm talking about the adopted budget for this year. This year's adopted budget, I need a copy of it line by line. That has nothing to do with actuals from last year. The adopted budget, we were never given access to the line by line. I need access to it, including line 4295 out of the unrestricted expenditures, which had the $30 million plug. And the only reason we know that is because the CFO presented that one category. So I need the line by line item of the budget. As a fiduciary agent, that's why I couldn't vote for the budget before. But this idea that you don't have it ready. Wait, we adopted the budget at the end of June. What do you mean it's not ready or it's not ready to go or you need other information? Where is the line item budget that was adopted by the school board for 26-27? When am I going to receive access to it? Because I know it has to exist because the board voted to adopt it.

Thank you, Director Hutchinson. Vice President Batchelor.

Excuse me, I didn't receive an answer to that question yet. There's not another question available.

So does that mean, are you again, Superintendent Sadler- I will make sure the board gets copies of the budget.

When? When?

I have to talk to- When?

All I need is the link because I've been told that we were told that at the last meeting. I would like to know a date. Why can't it be provided right now? You have access. Why can't it be provided now? What am I waiting for? What does staff get access to that I as the fiduciary agent of the district don't?

I think we're going to take that answer offline and we're going to allow- No, that's what we did last time and there was no answer.

Director Hutchinson, there are other members who would like to speak. That's fine, those other members should be asking the same thing. So am I again not being given access to the budget and I'm not being told the date when that's going to be even available when it was adopted at the end of June, two months ago?

Next item.

Director Batchelor.

All right, Superintendent Sadler, I'll be making that answer public.

On that note on the first day of school I just want to appreciate all of the walkthroughs that we did I also want to highlight that 99.66% of our classroom teaching positions were full at the beginning of the school year which as I have talked to school communities about this parents are excited teachers are excited students are seeing educators that they will be seeing throughout the school year so that there isn't a sub filling in for the majority of the beginning of the school year and this is a great accomplishment I think again by all of our teams working together i also want to highlight a parent leader tiffany mcdermott who's a parent in the school district as well as an after-school provider on the first day of school there were some issues that she had to navigate but she had a the biggest smile on her face and was just working with students and really excited to have as many students in their after-school program as possible at mpa That week, I also attended- Point of order, we're on the superintendent's report.

Correct. Not on director's report, so what does this have to do with the superintendent's report?

She talked about the first week of school, so if I could finish my conversation.

So I ask for a point of order from the board president.

Director Hutchinson, you're really kind of hogging the mic here.

I'm not hogging anything, I haven't even gotten started. Thank you. So point of order, so we're not going to address people to speak to the topic?

Director Hutchinson, she is speaking to the first day of school, which is part of the superintendent's report.

Thank you. So I did go to the Sojourner Truth Back to School Expo, and I want to give a huge shout out to Lend a Hand Foundation for not only helping thousands of students in the first week of school get backpacks filled with supplies, but at the Sojourner Truth Expo, They also handed out food and more goodies to our students. And it was so wonderful to see educators meeting some of their students in person for the first time, and even more wonderful to see some of our students meeting each other for the first time. in person and i will also say that the tk through fifth grade was full from what i saw in that program and i'm glad that we've continued to support that program for the entire grade span Other events that were shared in the superintendent's report as well is, I did take three students and an educator to the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club Pride Breakfast. They were able to meet local elected officials like Congresswoman Simon, learn about the organizing that's happening in our community, and connect with other LGBTQIA plus folks. We also then attended, with directors Lotta, Berry, and Brohard, the Pride Parade, which was, again, a lot of fun, and continued to have those types of celebrations for our students, and I really appreciate the support of the staff that were there as well. That same day, I was able to also attend the Healing Circle at Parker, and it really kind of centered to me the challenges that our community is having around gun violence, but also the hope that a lot of our community members have around what we can do together to take action and lastly i want to end with i visited with director brohard oakland international high school again they have such an amazing program but as you mentioned they have fewer students than they had perceived that they would have or and so we talked through we talked to those educators about other ways that they can support other school sites that may be having literacy challenges within middle school and high school since they are very apt in supporting older students in their literacy goals as newcomer teachers and so thinking about all the creative ways that we can use the brilliance of our educators here in oakland to support other school sites and other students within our school district thank you

I wanted to talk I had a chance to meet with the students from Fukuoka and I remember a few years ago when one of my fifth grade students actually took the trip with the younger students and it was a pretty incredible experience for him but one thing that really struck me was they talked a lot about the differences between their education experiences and one of the things that they really stressed that really surprised them was the interaction both between students the interaction with teachers and students and they said in their classrooms they pretty much listened and the teacher talked to them and they were like I mean this really was like all the kids spoke about how people interacted in classrooms and I know you know we've done a lot of work around that in our curriculum but I think they talked even more about that than they did about the Valkyries game. I got to see a lot of things about Oakland and I think it was a good experience for them. i did want to talk a little bit about linking this up a little bit i think with our teaching and learning and i think we probably had one of the best teaching and learning committee meetings i should let the chair talk about this as well but i think in looking at student outcomes some of the things that we're really looking at i know that dr aguilera presented quite a bit of information at our last meeting and really made me think a lot about our literacy instruction and kind of, but I'll spare you that because I'll talk with my committee members with that about later. But I would like to, Dr. Aguilera, maybe have a report back on the culture walks or some of the things that you're seeing, kind of linking to the information that we were talking about at our last meeting. I did like Director Batchelor said I think seeing the community and at the Sojourner Truth event seeing community and parents and some of the kids had not you know been to school yet so I mean they'd gone online but they hadn't you know seen each other in person so that was that was that's pretty good I do want to talk about the pride thing was the pride march and the breakfast I think to me again that's part of what we've been talking about with our joyful schools and knowing that students need to belong and i think the fact that there was such a mixture of students there were a lot of educators there at the breakfast itself and then at the march and i think again our students being able to be who they are and be a sense of belonging and acceptance so it was a pretty moving thing for me as well I did want to mention also the Santa Fe if people have not been to the young adult program it really is a pretty amazing thing and looking at that living space that they have that was my former teachers lunchroom which was a dismal place and it's it's actually quite nice now and I think the other thing of really encouraging our students to become independent I am concerned, I guess it's a little point, but I am concerned about immunization, particularly since our federal government has been dissuading people from immunization. And I think, again, that may be a concern later on, too, as well. That's all. Do you want to give the safety and the yeah and then we'll do safety and then we'll do public comment and then board comment on safety and then we'll Dr. Aguilera do yours.

Hello okay thank you.

Good evening board members, superintendent, board president. Just a quick update on how the beginning school year has been going for safety. The main focus right now has been on supporting Parker and Castlemont after their two recent incidents that they've had. When we started the year, a lot of the priorities have been around prevention and preparedness. We did not want to get into this response cycle that the start of the school year has started us in. We started doing that by really looking at some of the protocols that we had and how we improve those systems and helping our staff identify the issues at the school sites. At the leadership institute that we had before students returned and sites opened up, our administrators had a full day of behavioral mental health supports. We developed a crisis manual that they all got a physical manual to help them support through any type of incident and with a more social-emotional lens. And that was a full day of training for our principals, our APs, as well as our CSMs that attended. throughout that we also focus on our culture keeper training before they were going out to their sites they received four days of training whether it's first aid CPR training on the first day some were more about cultural understandings how they can refer students to the different type of resources we have around using human trafficking whether it's around Again, social-emotional learning, that was a focus for our culture keepers and how they could support also their administrator for the cell phone ban that was being implemented at the beginning of the school year. For this year, some of the focuses that we have are how do we provide reentry support for our students? That is for them after they return either after an expulsion, either they had an involuntary school transfer due to a safety concern, or they were coming back because they're just as impacted youth. So that's been a huge focus that we're going to have for this school year. as well as the violence interruption work that will hopefully be coming to the board I believe in the next board meeting or soon in September. That way you can see how that violence interruption work that we put an RFP out for over the summer will be implemented at our school sites. And that's just a quick update for now. Thank you.

Thank you. Other board comments on, I mean public comments, I'm sorry. Not seeing any board comments on safety. On safety, yes, go ahead, Dr. Hutchinson.

Thank you. First off, it's very troubling to start off the school year the way we did with two major violent incidents on our campuses. That hasn't been the way that we've normally started off years. And to me, it's really scary and sends off alarm bells. especially as somebody who grew up in Oakland in the most violent years that Oakland has ever seen, when we're literally at war with ourselves. I had my first classmate murdered when I was still in middle school. Really saw more guns and weapons in middle school than the rest of my life put together. It was wild in the crack days when Oakland went to war with itself. But I'm really worried that we've had these incidents happen already on campus. I'm really disappointed that there haven't been more proactive communication out there in the public and the community. And worst off, for both of these incidents, I learned about them by reading about them in the media on Facebook. I didn't even receive a phone call or notification from your superintendent or any of your staff of these violent issues. I had media calling me asking me about it when I hadn't even been informed that this has happened. That's unacceptable, unacceptable under any administration. And the fact that, again, this isn't something that you led within your report of importance. Rather than highlighting stuff, we've had major violent incidents at our schools after we've hired a staff person to supposedly handle this, after we've worked on and spent all this money on our entry systems and other things. And so if this isn't adequate, it needs to be addressed. We need to make sure this isn't a pattern or something larger happening. But again, as a sitting school board director in one of the seven districts, the fact that I learn about it on social media, instead of somebody having the respect and the professionalism to let me know directly, just like how I haven't been told what the budget numbers are, there's just some things that are unacceptable, unacceptable. And so I'm very disappointed. I want everyone to hear that publicly. And it is the worst thing possible. It's the worst feeling possible to read about it on social media or have people reaching out to me asking me what I know. And I have to tell them nobody even let me know something happened. So that's just not acceptable. And if I'm the only one who wasn't notified, that's even more unacceptable. But if it's not the general practice to inform the school board, the democratically elected school board, when there's an incident that's going to be in the media that was violent, guns and knives, it's unacceptable. And it shouldn't happen again. And when it happened the first time, I reached out to you to ask what happened. Then it happened again, and I didn't even bother to do it. you know happens a second time that means it's a pattern and that can't go on any longer uh director vice president bachelor

thank you yeah i'd like to address at least one of the instances since it happened at one of my school sites i was told about what happened by a neighbor i immediately then reached out to kim jones and he informed me that nelson and misha were already on site supporting with opd and then i also reached out to roots health care roots health center to make sure that their staff and their clients were okay again if folks are interested in supporting violence prevention I'm happy to partner in that work I have been as superintendent has mentioned going everywhere to try to get the resources that we need to from philanthropy to the city to the county getting the resources that we need to, and I have a meeting set up over the next few weeks with folks to support the violence prevention work that we need to do at our school sites. So again, I ask all of my board colleagues, if anyone is interested in supporting this type of work, because we all know that this is important. It is not just happening in Deep East, it is happening all over our city, in every single one of our high schools. regardless of whether or not we have high schools within our districts I think it is important that we support each other and support most importantly our students and families and staff and having safe environments and I want to just thank director Aguilera or Nelson for his work at parker not only the day of but in subsequent days and making sure that the staff there had all this had all the information and support that they need and again i look forward to seeing what happens at castlemont skyline and all of our schools and making sure they get all of the resources they need to to mitigate this these safety concerns and i welcome partnership by any of our school board directors in order to do that

Seeing no more board comments, Dr. Aguilera.

Good evening, the question that I received was about setting goals for this upcoming year, and we did review this content at Teaching and Learning, So the slides with all the details are posted, but I'll just give a quick summary as to what we discussed. So every year we set goals for the year and what we are going to focus on and how we want schools to interact and work towards these goals. We also celebrate the schools that reach those goals, and so we were able to show the list of schools that were able to reach the intended goal. So we have goals around attendance, we have goals around chronic absenteeism, suspensions, and we do focus in on suspensions for our students with disabilities and our suspensions for African American students. So we have specific targets for our groups of students. We have goals around reclassification, so supporting students to become more fluent in English. We have goals around quality and on-time implementation of our individualized education programs or IEPs. We also set targets for SBAC and I-Ready in all grade spans because we now have that assessment in all of our grade spans. Lastly, of course, our ultimate goal is ensuring that our students can graduate and are graduating A to G compliant so that way they have more eligibility as they go into their futures. And so we also have targets for graduation rates and A to G. So those are the areas that we provide goals for our school sites. And then you'll see that incorporated in the school site plans. And we have like school site plans are annual, but we have smaller cycles in between the school year. So that way there's way to progress monitor towards these goals. So we are getting data and providing feedback to school sites. They have data conferences throughout the year with their supervisors to go through how they're progressing throughout the year. Additionally, I received a question around how do we communicate progress to our families? And we did start the practice of sending out results for I-Ready and SBAC, which is the state assessment. So families receive... according to how they've selected to receive notices from us, mostly through email, a message that provides them the actual scores. And then it also shows them that they can go into ARIES to log in to get more information. But all those details are emailed. And I sent a sample of that letter to Dr. Sadler when I received that question. And I'm happy to share the samples with our board members as well. I think that's the summary that we probably have time for. So that's the update that I can provide.

Thank you. And again, thank you for a really good presentation at teaching and learning. That's really helpful. Are there public comments on this? Any board comments? Again, academics? Director Hutchinson?

yeah i'm not the one that's had the problem talking on subject thank you um so i'm really curious where where do these goals come from because for over a year there's been no superintendent work plan no board work plan and for longer than that no strategic plan so where where do these goals come from that were just mentioned madam president

I'm getting a little concerned that we're getting to areas that have not been previously noticed for a board agenda item on tonight.

Comments, okay, sorry.

No, no, the board president ruled that this was part of the superintendent's report, which was agendized. Wait, wait, wait, I was in the middle of my comments and I asked a question, what's happening? The board comments on the superintendent's report of what Sandra just said. What do you mean it's not question and answer? I can ask a question and ask her, or the superintendent, so nobody can answer where the goals are coming from? Excuse me, I'm asking a direct question of what was just presented.

Madam President, what the Brown Act says, as I understand it, that you can respond briefly to questions being asked at a meeting that are not agendized. We are now engaging in an extensive debate over subject matter that's very extensive here and that is why I am concerned. We didn't previously notice it.

Okay, I'm going to honor the concern.

I think we can have- Then Superintendent Sadler, where do these goals- Are there any other board comments? Excuse me, so can I please have my clock restarted? These are my comments. Everyone just starts talking, but that's fine. But Superintendent Sadler, you just have staff present a number of goals. I'm just asking where they come from.

The goals are set annually based on the previous year. We set goals annually. This is discussed at our training at the beginning of the year.

Set by who and contained where so we can find them.

They're available.

Because I haven't heard of these goals before. So is the attendance goal that was mentioned here the same as the attendance goal that you put in scenario three? You can't just say it's discussed every year. If you're saying these are the goals of the district and there's no work plan, where can we find these? Or did you just develop these on your own and this is the first presentation of them?

These goals have been in LCAP and we've talked about them.

So then I need somebody to tell me these are the LCAP goals, but that's not what somebody's telling me.

Nobody has to tell you that they're there. They're in the LCAP.

That's not what I heard the superintendent say. No, she said they were adopted every year in a meeting with staff. She didn't say the LCAP. You can't just answer for her. You brought this item up here by extending this.

I'm asking a question of what was just presented.

And everyone likes to cut me off. They don't even say point of order or point of clarification when they do it. But you acknowledge me to speak. I ask a question of what was presented. I'm going to take into account. And now everyone has a problem. So it's just clear. I have no copy of the budget. Nobody calls me when there's a violent incident. Nobody can tell me where the goals actually come from. I got it.

Are there any other comments? With that, we are going to move on. Are there any board reports? Barry.

Yes, I first wanted to say that I, during the first board meeting, I found a dozen letters written to me from students and it was postmarked May and I just received them. I'm not calling anybody out, but I just wanted everybody to know I didn't get them until August 12th. But I read them all and they were from students who are leaders with Frontline Catalyst, students at United for Success Academy. And so I'm publicly apologizing to the students who poured their hearts and their intellect into the letters that they wrote. I read them all and I do intend to respond and hopefully connect with you all. And I just wanted to shout them out because their letters were focused on water quality at OUSD. And so it is a topic that remains top of mind for us. And although we do not always present updates during this regular board meeting, they do come up at every facilities committee meeting. I just wanted to give a shout-out to Life Academy and United for Success Academy for the ribbon-cutting ceremony they had for the new soccer field. It was really amazing. The energy was great. The weather was cooperating, and I got to see part of a soccer tournament, and I just... All the things that are going on right now, I just want to give a shout out to the folks who are really committed to protecting the experiences that students and educators have at the sites across the district. And then two other things I wanted to mention because it will provide context for some events that I'll be hosting in my district. I did attend a listening session recently and It was a beautiful experience because there's a lot of power being built on the call and a lot of holding space and exchange of wisdom between parents. But it was also really troubling to hear some of the feedback that folks were sharing with one another about their experiences at some of our schools. I do intend to hold more of those events in District 5 and hopefully collaborate with other board members to do the same across the district, but I think those experiences are really important, so thanks to those of you who showed up for that. Even though I know it's really hard to share those experiences over and over again, and sometimes it may feel like that's to no avail, but I do want folks to know that we hear you, we see you, and I do intend to be following up. My next office hours along those lines are on September 18th is from 10 to 12. I do have a new sign-up sheet because The first session I was overwhelmed because everyone showed up at the same time and then this second session I only had three folks show up and so now I'm gonna have a little RSVP and just so you can give me notice if you intend to come and that way I can spread out time to make sure I can give everyone some time and attention and just do some better planning. I will reserve my other comments for time for some other time. Thank you. Vice President Batchelor.

Thank you. So our students deserve classrooms where they can learn and not places that are too hot for them to focus. As many of you experienced today and many more days, Oakland is experiencing more than frequent intense heat. and we are taking action we allocated 18 million dollars in measure y to invest in air quality and heat mitigation and this investment as we see in the consent agenda it's going towards the window clings the cool roofs which shout out to our buildings and grounds team for doing some of those cool roofs cooling rooms at our schools and then portable heat pumps and other targeted cooling strategies Most importantly, we're using an equity centered approach to prioritize classrooms and students facing the greatest heat burden. And I also want to give a shout out to Youth Versus Apocalypse. Due to the work that they have done, and then us in the facilities committee, we are building in climate resilience in the major projects at McClymonds, Roosevelt, Garfield, MLA, and CCPA. Again, this work only happens when our students get involved, we as board members hear them take action and then our staff also integrate this work into the planning for the future i also want to highlight an upcoming event by the 40 by 40 which is an empowerment day on september 12th from noon to 4 pm at parker community resource center these events are i love these events they're filled with resources activities food and students are able to come learn and play in the playground at Parker so please come on out on September 12th which is a Saturday from 12 to 4 at Parker Community Resource Center where you'll get to again experience some joy in that space thank you are there any other board director Lara

um so i just wanted to highlight a couple of things um in light of um dr aguilar's um you know presentation that she made to teaching and learning about the academic um um achievements for the year i just wanted there was many many in district one and i highlighted all of them um in my newsletter but i did just want to lift up that oakland tech last year had a graduation rate of 94 overall 95% for African-American students and 92.2% for our Latinx students. And they've also increased their A to G completion rate for all students to 75%, a little over 75%, which is pretty incredible. And then I think special education has come up over and over again in a bunch of conversations and I I think as the liaison from our board to the Community Advisory Committee for Special Education, I would just invite anyone, whether it's my board colleagues or members of the public who have questions or concerns or just confusion about the special education budget, I just would like to invite everybody to the next CAC meeting. It's going to be September 14th from 6 to 8.30 on Zoom. And it's going to include a focus on the special education budget on unpacking it and will be a time to answer questions that you might have so just again i think if when we're trying to be mindful of how we think about the spending on our student and our disabled students then i just would encourage you to come get educated at that and then the other highlight from the last cac meeting was that And I just want to give a big appreciation again. I know it does this early in the meeting to the special education department. and our talent department because for the first time in a decade we have full staffing of special education classroom teachers meaning they're zero um so you know teacher teachers that are vacant which is amazing um there's also the lowest vacancy rate for our support staff so that's our para educators that's our instructional support aides and then we also are fully staffed in related services so that's um our um ots our speech pathologists our psychs and um and you know i think i mentioned this up top but we had um a historic year of bringing in house positions that were previously contracted so there was 12 new um district um employed um speech language pathologists and 24 psychologists so again those were um biggest years um jen blake said biggest years um that the um the district has ever had um in recruitment so i just um want to again appreciate that work director williams

Okay, just real quick want to highlight Prescott Elementary. They actually, it's been a fantastic beginning of the year for them. August 19th, 2021 was a Kaboom landscaping renovation project. Over a million dollars have been put into the project. Did some soil remediation there, which was fantastic. And then really partnered up with the Currys, Eat, Learn, and Play. think that was just again they have done so much for our Oakland schools but of all the schools that they have completed I can tell you that Prescott is the best and you know it was really great to see community come out thank and I want to thank common visions wanda stewart for really spearheading a lot of community engagement i want to thank rachel director lada for coming out and uh and her children coming out to partake in lifting up prescott by participating in the renovation. It's just really fantastic when you see a school bring new, when a project like this brings new life to a school. There's murals on the school now, there's some nice murals and just great equipment for our young folks to play in. So I just wanna shout out Prescott and the community as well, the PFT, Prescott Family Team. has been very consistent over my two terms of just really driving engagement with parents and community. And it is just a big success. Prescott is growing and it is fun to be there. And if you bring your child, come on through. We usually are hanging out every Wednesday morning and you are always welcome. Thank you.

Director Hutchinson.

thank you you know i was just i was just remembering the other day how before i was first elected to the school board in 2020 i had been at almost every school board meeting for eight years leading into that which now means i've been at almost every school board meeting for 14 years i've missed less than 10 meetings in that time and It's wild what's happened here, and as a district, we've never faced anything like this before. I wish this was something that was broadcast someplace where they could do a fact check after every comment. It would be wild watching those pop up bubbles. But we have this real problem now where we are in financial crisis due to the mismanagement of the board. We have an interim superintendent that was now extended a second year. No talk of a superintendent selection. When I ask just to have access to the budget, which I should have as a school board director, I'm ignored. I'm shined on. People say, oh, I'll get it to you. Like I haven't asked it already before. When I ask where are goals coming from, because I know we have no strategic plan, no superintendent work plan, no board work plan, no fiscal solvency plan. I get told, oh yeah, we decide that every year. And then the board president says, oh no, it actually comes from PSAC. And every step of the way, the people on the dais up here go out of their way to make excuses and try to act like this is great and we're moving in the right direction. That's not what anyone else thinks out there. Credit rating agencies sure didn't say, oh, I trust them, they're doing the right job now finally. I mean, people are literally saying this was the first balanced budget passed in 22 years when the real reality is this is the first time it wasn't a balanced budget. The state law requires to pass a balanced budget. And you can't just put a $30 million plug in the budget and say, oh, we passed it. That's why the credit rating agencies took one look at it and said, oh, heck no. It's embarrassing what's happening here. It's embarrassing. People should be ashamed of themselves, but if people don't feel shame, then it's up to the community to do something. This is not what was promised. This is not what was said to me when people first got here. Said, oh, I'm not gonna worry about the politics anything. I'm only gonna be concerned about the students. It's offensive. It's infuriating. I know that there's been illegal activity going on around the budget. We don't even have a general counsel here in person, superintendent, you didn't even require any senior financial staff here, nothing on the budget to even address it, and we did no actions today as a board. This ain't how it's supposed to be, and if this continues for two more years, everything's lost. It ain't our fault that nobody else has stepped in to save us, but it's our job to save ourselves.

Thank you. Is that a hand raised? No, we're done. We're moving on to new budget items. We have three resolutions that are coming before us for a first read only. Item B1, 26-1834, California Proposition 1. Item B2, 26-1852, California Proposition 3. item v3 26-1853 California Proposition 40 I believe director Batchelor is going to speak to items v1 and v2 and director Williams is speaking to v3 but we can introduce them by saying a few words

I've never heard of that. So today I'm proud to introduce resolutions supporting Proposition 1, 3, 40, and 40 for the November ballot. These measures reflect the values that are fundamental to strong public schools and healthy communities, investing in our students, protecting communities, and asking those with the greatest ability to contribute their fair share. Proposition 1 would make critical investments in strengthening our communities and public institutions. Proposition 3 protects and expands access to opportunities for our California's families. And Proposition 40 would raise additional revenue from the wealthiest Californians to invest in priorities like education and essential public services. as a school board director i know that the quality of children's education is shaped by what happens is not only shaped by what happens in the classroom but but by whether their families have stable housing access to health care safe communities and economic security supporting these propositions is an investment in the conditions our students need to learn grow and thrive and succeed I urge my colleagues to support these propositions and ask Oakland voters to vote yes on Propositions 1, 3, and 40. Director Williams?

Thank you, Director Batchelor. Just really wanted to let everyone know that public schools and community college received more than $14.6 billion last year in this year of funding, and over 120 billion since Prop 3 was approved in 2012. So it is a big contributor to our budget. If we don't pass Prop 3, What it means is a 15% tax cut to funding and public education, public schools and community college, which is one out of every six educators will be potentially losing their jobs. So our public funding budget, which is Prop 98, really depends on this particular tax to be extended. This is not a new tax. This is just an extension of a tax that was passed in 2012, and the tax is only for those who have couples earning more than $740,000 a year. This is for those earning more than $740,000 a year. It does not change any other taxes. So this is a continuation of those who make $740,000 a year. It doesn't change anyone else's taxes. And that alone brought in $14.6 billion last year. So let's keep it going. Let's find ways to continue to support and

invest in our prop 98 budget which actually funds our public schools thank you these resolutions will be voted on at the next meeting and there's no need for them to go to any committee so we will vote on them do your research and support them in two weeks and with that we are adjourned