Amazing the work is that you do and how collaborative you are I think
Individually each of you as trustees. I think
You give wholeheartedly to the work that you do across this district
as individuals and then the collective whole of you as a governance team is pretty amazing and
So instead of me reading all of the the formal things that people say to their boards
I feel like we have the privilege of knowing you as supporters of our school, supporters
of every single person who makes up this district, and somehow you find a way to support schools
and to listen to the community at the same time, which is a really big part of what you
do.
You are public officials who are voted in by this community, and it's really important
that you listen to the community and at the same time find a way to do that work at a
level that also makes our Walnut Creek School District family here of families and students
and people you serve feel like they are listened to as well and so on behalf of all of us,
thank you for the great work that you do, the vision that you set for our district and
just the amazing governance team that you are so cheers to all of you and thank you for the great
work that you do. We felt like that was the perfect thing for us to do at this first meeting
of the school year so thank you. Item 9 for 1 WCTA okay. Good evening it's good to see everybody
back in the new year. Normally I'd come up and share some things that are happening at one of
of our particular sites, but tonight I wanted to share kind of initiative that
we're taking on throughout our union and through CTA. It's the extension of Prop
55. We have a goal of trying to get 85% of our members to sign the petition for
the extension of Prop 55. Obviously, school funding, it's set to
finish in, I believe, 2030 and has significant impact on public school
funding our district alone it's estimated to be close to $700,000 that
could be lost if prop 55 is not extended so obviously our union thinks that's
important because we could use those dollars all across our district and
obviously statewide CTA thinks it's a very important thing to undertake so
that's why all the unions throughout the state have been tasked with trying to
get 85% of members signed up on the petition so that's something that we're
taking on we'll be trying to gather signatures all the way up through I'd
I'd say on the third or fourth week, final week of February,
and then we'll be turning those over to our CTA offices.
So that's kind of something that we're taking on.
Obviously, every dollar in public education is important,
and we feel like we're doing our part
by getting our members signed up
and aware of what it means
if it does not extend after 2030.
That's it, thank you.
Next is CSEA.
Good, almost like the morning.
Good evening.
Maybe I want to be back at school.
I'm here tonight on behalf of the CSA
to provide a brief update.
Since our last board meeting in December,
CSA held its annual term election,
and we are pleased to announce our new leadership.
We welcome a new president, Stacey Scallion,
and a new president, Carlos Benchelles.
We also now have a full extensive executive board
in place, including treasurer and secretary positions
and are excited to move forward together
as we begin this new chapter of leadership in the new year.
We would like to extend our sincere thanks
to Chris and the previous Executive Board
for their time, dedication, and service.
As we look ahead, our primary focus
is to increase membership, engagement, and involvement
throughout the year.
We recently completed our first negotiation session,
which I sat on, so exciting,
During which we work collaboratively with,
on the 2026, 2027 instructional calendar,
we would like to thank both the two teachers union
and the administrative team
for fostering a positive environment.
CSEA looks forward to continuing a positive
and productive partnership with the district
in the end, in the year ahead.
Thank you.
Come again.
Reports from...
Want me to tell you how wonderful you are again.
Do it again.
Showing no harm.
Item 11, parcel tax update.
Good evening.
This is a follow-up presentation from our November 17
presentation.
When I presented to you the need for another parcel
tax for the district, which we've been talking about since I
got here, at that meeting we had added the community support
that we've seen through both Measure D and J,
and Measure H when it was passed before.
We also talked about how we used to fund 21 teachers
in 2010, and now we're about 13 teachers
because we don't have an escalator,
even though we're very grateful
that the partial tax does not sunset.
For the work of the survey and the strategy
and the campaigning, we went and hired teen civics
to help us pass Measure J last corralled,
And I invited Charles Heath, my team civics,
to give us a summary and an outline of the strategy
for parcel tax.
Charles?
OK.
Thanks, Vincent.
Looks like the slides are coming up here.
Good evening.
I'm Charles Heath.
I'm a partner with Team Civics.
And I'm going to talk tonight a little bit about parcel taxes.
Your school district is one of the fortunate few
that has a permanent parcel tax that
doesn't include a sunset date.
It's a blessing and a curse, because while you
that funding that you can count on and it's locked in going forward it's also
stagnant right and that measure was last part passed in 2009 and since 2009
obviously a lot of the purchasing power of that $82 is has diminished so as soon
as we get the slides up here we will jump right in I see it there just won't
We'll follow along on this monitor.
Okay.
Start open.
Charles C, Team Civics.
Uh-oh.
Now this one, it pants.
You got it?
Okay.
All right.
Next slide, please.
Got some formatting issues.
not to pretend like those aren't there. So we are strategy and communications
consultants. We work with lots of school districts in the area. We work with you
on your measure J parcel measure J bond measure back in 2022. But basically our
job is to help you think about how you might structure a measure for the ballot
that has a reasonable chance of achieving the two-thirds threshold
required for passage of a parcel parcel tax. We start by assessing the feasibility
of the measure through some survey research that I'll describe here in a
minute, evaluate potential election dates, different tax rates, different tax
structures, potential durations of the measure, and then funding priorities.
Assuming we come out of that process with a viable proposal that we think
stands at a reasonable chance of success, we work with you and your legal counsel
to write the measure for the ballot, go through the qualification process, but
also tell your story to the public so they understand what your funding needs
These are that this proposed measure is designed to address.
Next slide.
So just a little bit about our experience that you kind of understand our experience
here in the area.
I'm personally a resident of Orinda.
My kids go to Orinda schools, so here in the local area in addition to our work with you,
we've worked with Orinda, Moraga, Mt. Diablo, San Ramon.
That list is longer, but the slide got cut off.
So several other districts here in Contra Costa County as well.
slide please. So talking about parcel taxes in particular, you know the
challenge of a parcel tax is that it has the highest threshold for any type of
ballot measure in California. You need two out of every three people to say yes in
order to pass it. There are many parts of California where a two-thirds passage
threshold is just a non-starter which is why only about ten percent of California
school districts even have a parcel tax but the opportunity associated with a
parcel tax is unlike a bond where the funds are limited only to capital
facilities improvements equipment technology furnishings things like that
a parcel tax can be used for any purpose the only limitations are self-imposed
when you write the measure for the ballot so most frequently we see the
parcel taxes are used to attract and retain teachers support academic
programming maintain small class sizes those kind of programmatic investments
that other funding sources aren't available for you have flexibility in
terms of when you can put it on the ballot special elections are viable in
in addition to the primary and general elections
like we have coming up here in 2026.
And we'll talk about some of those opportunities
in a minute.
You have an opportunity to offer certain exemptions
from a parcel tax.
Your current parcel tax allows you to exempt
senior citizen homeowners.
Oftentimes that's offered to make sure this doesn't become
a burden to those on fixed incomes.
State law also allows you to offer exemptions
to low income people with disabilities
that qualify for federal SSI or SSDI benefits.
So that's something to consider as well.
The Citizens Oversight Committee,
like you're required to have for your bond measure,
is an option for a parcel tax.
You don't have to have one like you do for a bond,
but you can do.
And many school districts do do that
to provide an extra layer of transparency
and accountability for the taxpayers.
And then as you know, you can have a fixed duration
for your parcel tax or it can be permanent
until ended by voters is usually how that's phrased
the ballot language, but as you're experiencing if you are going to go for a longer duration
or an indefinite duration, the need to build in some sort of an adjustment for inflation becomes
important because otherwise you have diminished purchasing power over time. We'll go to the next
slide. So by comparison to other school districts here in the area, your current $82 tax rates at the
low end, you can see the comparisons to some of your neighbors there. Lafayette and Arendo have
have parcel taxes over $800 per parcel.
If you look at Piedmont Unified through the tunnel,
there are parcel taxes over $2,000 per parcel.
So there's a wide range in California.
Like I said, most school districts
don't even have a parcel tax,
but here within the Larmor-End area, you are at the low end.
So one of the things we want to look at here
is with a new parcel tax, if there's an opportunity
to lock in a rate that's a little more competitive
with what other communities are investing in their schools.
So next slide.
I mentioned the flexibility you have in terms of the election dates when you might put a
parcel tax on the ballot. There's three opportunities coming up in 2026 when you
can put a measure on the ballot. We have the statewide gubernatorial primary election that's
going to occur on June 2nd. That's one opportunity to put the measure on the ballot.
Qualify for that ballot is coming up here fairly quickly on March 6th.
So we are moving on a timeline to keep that option available to us, but it is quick. After that,
there's an opportunity to have a special mail-in ballot election on August 25th.
I've typically found that those August elections are terrible for school
measures because it's right in the middle of summer and when you're trying
to mobilize parents and others to get involved they are not a captive audience
at that moment. So then we also have the November statewide general election. The
deadline to qualify for that ballot is August 7th. That dotted line in the
middle of the slide represents an important sort of point of demarcation
in the calendar each year. If you pass a measure on or before the end of June, that tax that's
approved by voters goes onto property tax bills in the next fiscal year. So that would
be 26-27 when the rates would be adjusted and that's when you would start collecting
funds. After that point, if we were looking at that August or November election, the funds
don't start flowing until the 20-27-28 school year or fiscal year. So that's just a practical
consideration to keep in mind. But like I said, we're moving on a timeline to keep
that June election on the table and then we can always fall back if we see
evidence that we need to. Next slide please. Or is this working now?
Maybe not. I don't know if I did that either. It advanced. So just a little bit
about the process that we go through when we're thinking about putting a
parcel tax on the ballot. So first of all, your existing measure is permanent. We
don't want to touch that that that funding will stay in place so what we're
looking at is a supplemental measure that would basically layer on top of
your existing parcel tax and what we do is we start with a feasibility
assessment the centerpiece of that is conducting statistically reliable
survey research among your voters a representative sample of those voters
that we expect to vote in the upcoming 2026 elections and we present to them
different parcel tax proposals tax rates durations funding priorities and we get
their reaction and then we use that data to make recommendations about what
might be viable and how we move forward. So we're in the process of doing that
now. We'll have the results of the survey that we're currently conducting at your
January 26th meeting and we'll be prepared to share the results of that.
Assuming that we have a viable path coming out of that feasibility
assessment then we begin the awareness building process. School districts by law
can't use public funds to advocate for the passage of a parcel tax but you can
use public funds to educate and inform the public. And typically it's important prior
to placing a parcel tax on the ballot is to get that kind of base level story out there
so people understand here's our budget, here's some of the things we're struggling to fund,
here's how locally controlled parcel tax funding could help us achieve the goals of our district.
So we help you put together that informational communication strategy to get the message
out to voters in advance of placing your measure on the ballot. And then we're also working
to develop the resolution that the board would adopt that places the measure on the ballot.
That contains the actual ballot question the voters would be voting on, the full legal
text of the proposal that's reprinted in the ballot pamphlet that's mailed to voters.
So help to create all that to make sure it's aligned with voters' priorities, but also
meet your needs.
And then, you know, assuming the board votes to adopt that resolution, placing the measure
on the ballot prior to that March 6th deadline for the June election or August 7th for the
November election. We then move into an independent advocacy effort. Some of you
may remember that process for Measure J. So at that point we can't use any
district resources for advocacy so we have to form an independent campaign
committee, raise private dollars, recruit volunteers to conduct the advocacy for
the measure and enhance of Election Day. And when you need a two-thirds vote it
always requires a strong advocacy advocacy campaign in order to be
successful. So go to the next slide, thank you. So again what we're talking about
here is a, this is just a summary of some of the things we're testing in the
current survey. A supplemental parcel tax in addition to the current base parcel
tax of $82, we're testing a range of rates from $98 on the low end that would
generate about one and a half million dollars annually to a $164 tax rate that
would generate about two and a half million dollars annually. And what we're
doing in that process is trying to find the tipping point.
You know, where can we find two-thirds support for voters?
For parcel taxes, that price sensitivity
is always a critical element.
So we want to make sure we get that right.
In this measure, we're looking at a potential nine-year
duration.
What we find is that establishing a new parcel tax
like this is typically the most challenging election
you'll have.
Renewals thereafter become easier.
And so the idea is if we can lock this measure in
for nine years, that gives you a nice runway
to deliver on your promises before we have to come back and renew it and at
that point you can reevaluate what the district's needs are potentially adjust
the tax rate the terms of the measure and if support is sufficient at that
point you could potentially make that tax permanent but at this point in the
process we think that a you know roughly decade duration is a it would be a good
achievement you can see there the list of the potential uses that we're testing
in our survey so that we can see what the voters priorities are you obviously
you have a sense of what your educational priorities are,
we'll tell you what the voters are saying
their priorities are and kind of how we find the overlap
between those is typically how you put together
a strong measure.
The poll will also test arguments pro and con.
So we have an understanding of, you know,
where's voter support today, but also where might it be
after they're exposed to the type of information
and discussion and debate that comes out over the course
of the campaign.
And that will give us a sense of what our viability is
can help inform our recommendation.
So as I mentioned, TrueNorth Research,
I don't do the polling myself,
but it's a firm we partner with.
They're conducting the poll right now.
We should wrap it up this week,
have a chance to analyze the results,
and we'll be back on the 26th to present our findings.
So that's where we're at,
and I'm happy to answer any questions you have.
So this has been an incredibly volatile moment
for education and these types of taxes.
How good is what we used to know about campaigning?
You don't have to answer that now,
but I think when you come back with some of the,
one of the things that would be helpful to hear
from True North is how confident do they feel
about their polling and will they be taking
into account the recent loss of the parcel tax for oculani's
and how will that inform messaging?
Yup, absolutely.
So that's a great point, actually.
We will preface our presentation of the poll results
with the statistics we have from recent elections
in 2024 and 2022.
No doubt, we live in unusual times.
The volatility post COVID has just been,
and a poll tells you what people are thinking
on the night that you actually interview them, right?
And then opinions change and evolve.
I will say True North Research was the pollster
for Akalani's Measure T.
I was involved in that process as a mayor money parent.
And the election results were a little bit surprising
relative to what we saw in the pre-election polling.
But we always take that to heart after the election
and try to learn from it.
But I will say that's an outlier compared to generally
how predictable the poll results have been
throughout 2024 and other recent elections.
There were some particularly unique factors
in that Akalani's election.
The fact that it happened in May of 2025,
just as we were kind of going through the process
adjusting to a new federal administration. There's lots of turmoil
related to tariffs, stock market volatility that I think made it a
particularly unusual time. I've had several clients on the ballot since then
that have all been successful because I think, you know, kind of the early days
of change are the hardest for voters to sort of get their heads around and then
things start to normalize after that and we're certainly seeing some of that
normalization now. I think one of the things that I'll be interested in
in potentially going forward is to see how you might think
about constructing the volunteer components of the campaign.
I think one of the places where Akalani's was unprepared
was in managing social media, for example.
So just be curious to know also what
are the critical components of a campaign
that maybe we haven't thought about in the past
because we haven't had to.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think to echo Heidi's sentiments,
what lessons can be learned from,
do you get the pulling back that provides us
with a feasible measure going forward,
how can we be successful?
Sure, yeah, absolutely.
Potentially crowded ballots and more, you know.
Yeah, we will not be alone.
So the polls are happening, or the polling is happening now.
I'm sure you'll present this when you come back.
But the funding priorities, is it that we provide some
to you of potential, or do you ask them,
or just have general, or?
Yeah, so it's a list of options that voters are presented,
and then they're asked to rank those
or rate them individually.
We worked with staff to develop that list.
Some of it is sort of the tried and true stuff you see
in most parcel taxes.
Others were informed by some of the, you know,
specific needs here and things that may be at risk
in the budget.
But yeah, that list that I had there is kind of a summary
of the types of items, but we'll go through those
individually when we present the results.
Yeah, I'm anxiously awakened.
Yeah.
Thank you.
All right, my pleasure.
Thanks, Joe.
Item 12.1.
You, Ben?
That's me.
Tonight I had the pleasure of introducing Jose from just a senior accountant over at
our auditors firm, Christie White, what come on in.
He will be presenting for your acceptance the audited actuals from our 24-25 fiscal
year along with the bond performance audit for both measures, D and J. Just as a note
And at the end, you may have one motion
to remove all three of them.
Just a fun fact that our audit work doesn't start
when we close the books.
It actually starts in the spring
when the school year is still open.
So we have an interim audit
that we provide all of our reporting to the request,
and then they come back in the fall and finish that audit.
And these guys are just amazing to work with.
They have an incredible portal that makes it easy
for us to provide documents,
and they are an incredible resource for us, too.
But we don't know how to book something in the county.
We have questions.
You always call these guys and they're so helpful.
So with that, Jose.
Thank you, thank you.
Good evening, everyone.
My name's Jose Lopez, and I'm a senior accountant
with Christie White.
And I will be presenting the results
of the fiscal year 2024-25 annual audit report
for Walnut Creek School District,
including the Measure D and Measure J bond billing funds.
The purpose of tonight's presentation
to briefly summarize the audit opinion issued,
internal control results, federal and state compliance,
bond performance audit results.
Next slide.
Oh, thank you.
The dollar report provides opinions
in three-part areas, financial statements,
federal compliance, state compliance,
and police report the district receive unmodified opinion
in all three areas with the best opinion
an auditor can issue.
The non-lawified opinion means that financial statements are presented fairly in all material
respects and according to general aesthetic calendar principles.
A summary of these results can be found on page 72 of the audit report.
Next slide, please.
Right here.
Perfect.
Beginning with the financial statements, our opinion is located on page 1 of the report.
In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly in all material respects the respective
finance position of governmental activities each major fund
and the remaining funnel information of the Walnut Creek
school district as of June 30th of 2025.
This opinion is based on the audit procedures
performed in accordance with the government
auditing standards and includes an assessment
of accounting policies estimates and overall
financial presentation.
As part of the audit we evaluate the district internal
controls or financial reporting.
a mandatory report, no material weaknesses,
no significant deficiencies,
no instance of non-compliant materials
to the financial statements.
This indicates that the internal controls
are properly designed and operate effectively.
This report begins on page 63 of the audit report.
Next slide.
Next, we tested compliance
with the federal program requirements.
For example, the Child Nutrition Cluster
was selected and tested as a major federal program.
Our testing includes expanded testing and other applicable compliance requirements.
Our opinion on federal compliance is unmodified, meaning no material weaknesses were identified,
no specific definitions were reported, no federal findings were disclosed.
This report can be found beginning on page 65 of the audit.
We also provide the required testing over state compliance requirements.
Our state compliance testing includes, for example, attendance reporting, school accountability
report cards, and structural times.
In our opinion, the district complied with all material respects with the compliance
requirements described in the California State Compliance Reporting Guide, where the fiscal
year ended in June 30, 2025.
There were no material weaknesses, no sufficient deficiencies, and no state compliance finding
reported.
This report begins on page 60 of the audit report.
In addition to the financial audit for measure D and measure J, as required by the educational
audit appeal, panel K through 12, state audit guide.
The primary objective were to ensure bond funds only approve purposes and insider expenditures
comply with California Attorney General opinion 04-110.
In our opinion, the financial statements presented fairly in all material respects, there is
a respective financial position of the Bond Building Fund of sorry, a position of the Bond
Building Fund of the Walnut Creek School District as of June 30, 2025. This represents an unmodified
opinion which is the highest level assurance an independent auditor can provide. Next slide please.
We also perform expenditure testing for the following measures. Measure D, we tested 5.6
million, representing 94 percent of non-personal expenditures, and no personnel cost for charge
to measure D. For measure J, 11 million tested, representing 49 percent of non-personal expenditures,
and all employees charged to measure J were verified and allowable by the bond related positions.
For bidding procedures, no measure D contracts were awarded during the year. For measure J,
contract tested measure j contract were tested and complied with the applicable
public bidding requirements. Next slide. Based on other proceeds performed the
district complied with all applicable compliance requirements for both bond
measures. In closing the district in closing the district received clean audit
opinions all across the required areas with no findings related to the financial
reporting, internal controls, federal compliance, state compliance or bond
performance. Thank you for your cooperation throughout this other process.
I'm happy to answer any questions that board me have.
Just out of curiosity, did you test all of the contracts from Measure J?
The bidding process part, you just you noted in the rest of your report like 94% of transactions.
Yeah so we take a sample of uh samples of the expenditures and we see like so we can test up
to 25% but we try to go a little bit higher to make sure we're hitting like
the range and everything so yeah.
I was curious and I don't know if this is a question for you or for Vince about a measure D, when do we stop auditing that?
Well last year 24-25 at the closing the books we there was about five
the five million dollars left in measure d, and to close it out we move parking and expenditures
into measure d just to spend it, and this will be our first fiscal year where
measure d is not going to be part of the audit anymore. The $25.26 is our measure d is fully spent.
Yeah. Well, I think we all last year offered our congratulations to the Business
office in particular because having an unmodified clean audit across all categories was exceptional,
so.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Just one thing, I don't know that it makes a difference, but your letter is to the Walnut
Creek School District, but on most of the documents it states Walnut Creek Elementary
School District.
And I don't know if it makes a difference that elementary is fair.
I don't think so.
No.
Yeah, I don't think so.
Yeah, we're just, sometimes, the nomenclature isn't always
Yeah.
Yeah, just in terms of state-wise,
they say Walnut Creek Elementary School District.
But I think it, I think we're clean.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
We have the 40Ks.
I move approval of the Walnut Creek School District's
under financial statements and bond performance audit
for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025.
Second.
I have a motion and a second.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed?
Does that change?
Motion to approve the Walnut Creek School District's
audited financial statements and bond performance audit
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025 carries.
Okay, item 13, 13.1.
We will present just a quick report on our attendance
and experience of the 2025 CSBA annual education conference
in Sacramento.
Seta, did you wanna say?
I can, yeah.
It was, you know, every year,
trying to think what year this is for me,
haven't been quite as much as some of my colleagues,
but it seems like there's always a vibe or a theme.
I think it was interesting.
The upcoming governor election
and the people who are running was interesting.
I'll just say that.
definitely you could feel the different dynamics and it was quite lively in
certain ways. Just culturally it was definitely yeah kind of kind of
shocking honestly. So that that gave an overall flavor and you saw different
comments and things like that it really felt fractured in that sense that there
were different camps and different thoughts
and different approaches to education.
I don't know, in having had some time now since we were there,
it felt very obvious that it was definitely a lot of fractions.
It was great to continue to return more
to the education from post-COVID.
There was less about wellness and things
like that, which, of course, is very near and dear to my heart,
but it was nice to return more to the education emphasis.
I think I attended a session where
I was talking about English learners, and then
a math framework, and how that was approached.
So it was a good education for me.
It's always really helpful, these sessions.
And then, of course, there was a really nice Prop 13
update which you can never be under over educated of prop 13 there's so much to
learn always and yeah I think overall some some really good sessions yeah so I
would agree with you about sort of the vibe being a little different than it has been in the past years
just a reflection of how fractured our country is overall you know you saw that
The board members are citizens of the country, just like everybody else.
And there's different opinions and different approaches and what I noticed is presenters
were—I felt like they were more careful about what they said.
And the other comments I would make is that there was at least one of the days there was
like a table outside on the sidewalk in front of the convention center with some people
advocating for a certain point of view. People don't usually come to school board conferences
and try to pitch their perspective to you. So the session that I chose to highlight or
am choosing to highlight tonight was called Hunting on Success and Now Our Great Proficiency
starts in preschool. So it was all about early education and the importance of
the early grades to achieve, excuse me, education proficiency and the importance
of doing so by third grade. There, it was California Education Partners which I'm
not familiar with, but I assume, you know, so many different groups out there. I'm assuming
you've heard of them. They've been around since 2013. And then there were three
districts that that group has worked with. They worked with districts like all
over the state of California but I was looking at their map I didn't see any in
Contra Costa County. So the guy said that Steve Kellner he said that California
has one of the largest achievement gaps in the country beginning at kindergarten
entry and that on average school districts in California do a good job of
providing one year of education per school year. But if a child comes in
behind their peers, if they receive one year of education per school year, they
will never catch up. They will always be behind. So the goal is to accelerate the
learning so that they learn more than one year in an academic year. And just
the way he phrased that, I really, that just really resonated with me. I mean, I've
I've heard that articulated in other ways.
Especially when I was typing this up last night,
I was like, oh, this is not rocket science.
But just the way he phrased that and that he said,
you know, teachers work hard, districts are working hard,
and they are providing a year of growth per year of school,
but we need to do more in order to help
those kids who are starting school behind their peers.
So he had two Lynette kindly printed out the presentation
so you can take a look at that.
But there were two strategies that I thought I would share.
Again, these are probably things that you already know.
But one was he was talking about the importance
of vertical collaboration time.
So districts are very good about providing
horizontal collaboration with grade level peers,
but don't always find the time for teachers
to meet with the grades that are one grade above or one grade
below them.
And I can remember a point in time when we talked about that.
I don't know if this district has continued
to make an ongoing effort to build that time into teachers,
calendars.
I know time is precious.
So I was listening to this and thinking, yeah,
that sounds like great.
That's really important.
And I was thinking, we're going to find the time
to do all of these things.
But his point was that in every classroom,
and he used a second grade as an example,
there are children on grade level.
So that second grade teacher needs
to have expertise in the second grade curriculum,
second grade standards.
But there are also kids who are below grade level.
So that second grade teacher needs
to be familiar with and understand first grade
standards.
And there are kids above grade level,
so that second grade teacher needs
to be familiar with third grade standards
so that they can differentiate.
And we talk a lot about differentiation.
So they can differentiate the education
that those different groups of kids need.
So what I liked, I guess, that was a little bit different.
When we talk about differentiation, in my mind,
anyway, I'm always thinking about an individual teacher
working with an individual student.
And how is that teacher meeting that students need?
And he was talking about it as a systemic endeavor.
How do we make sure that all teachers are familiar
with that three grade level band of standards
and are equipped to meet the needs of the kids
in their class, and recognizing that everybody
has this common need.
So I wanted to share that.
and then the second thing was examine curricular materials
through a standards alignment lens.
So he said part of the work that they,
this group, California Education Partners,
does with the districts that they partner with
is they analyze the curricular materials.
So they'll take like a textbook that's been used
and analyze the tasks that are listed in the textbook
and make sure that they really align to the standards.
And what they find is there's lots of assignments
that actually don't, are either partially aligned
or not wholly aligned.
And so that's, they're just not a good use of time.
So, by doing these audits, they can weed out
the tasks that really aren't a good use of time
to promote learning and just use that classroom time
to focus on the tasks that do teach the standards.
And so I thought, well, that also sounds like a lot of work,
a lot of time and effort, but potentially it
would only need to be done once because if you continue
to use the same curriculum after a year and then you've
developed, again, as a system, you've
developed what are the important assignments to give
and which ones can be discarded.
Alright, math, I think, was a theme because I attended a different one, which I don't recall all of the details as detailed in me, but I do recall, they had, I feel like it was a Santa Barbara, it was one of the school districts, and they talked a lot about how teachers, when you're learning to become a teacher, you're not necessarily learning how to teach math through each framework and each change and it's an ongoing process as an educator,
to have to keep relearning.
I mean, because I learned math a very different way
than how my kids learned math,
and I had to go to Khan Academy as a parent
to reteach myself.
So I could imagine as a teacher,
that is an ongoing learning challenge.
They showed us a great video in that session,
and I thought it was neat.
Our facilities might have a heart attack,
but they had the kids riding with expo markers
on their desks and working right there together,
and they were working through the problems together,
and that was really interesting.
And they were very joust about that,
these particular teachers.
I think a lot of this, the framework is coming out next year,
the updated framework?
From math?
It's out now.
It's out now, that's why.
So I think that's why math was like,
does that explain?
The updated curriculum is coming out now.
Oh, the new curriculum is coming out.
Okay, yeah, so in preparation,
they were really preparing us for math.
There was a lot of math.
But one I attended on the last day in the realm of SPED,
because that's kind of like my day job,
than this role. It was interesting was that the Newport Mesa district and I
believe it was a speech therapist up there who was an administrator in their
district. They kind of went they took a look at things and they said that they
needed to change the attitude of that's the way we do it because that's what
we've always done it and how things are evolving and some of their quick they
had a high number of one-to-one eights in their district at the time so they
kind of took a look and some of the quick wins I jotted down that they had
mentioned was roles and responsibilities and they had program coordinators sort of
like we were a very small district compared to them but really trying to
break out the roles of special education and helping support all of our
students and understanding the roles of aides versus counselors and what
everyone's jobs are and then one thing that was kind of interesting is the
students maybe with IEPs I guess we might say did not leave core instruction
time. They were in their classroom for core instruction so their pull-up time
was probably scheduled accordingly around that. They also had a better
outcome. They found that students in SPED, I'm not sure where their research on
this one came from, but students in special education have better life
outcomes with less one-to-one support. So they were very strategic to write
goals in a way and I believe they were like a TK-12 district, but to slowly
fade away the one-to-one support for a child because really to be independent
in the world you're gonna have to be independent. So I thought that was
interesting and that they also had their speech therapist meeting with grade
level teams I think to learn more about what's happening in the curriculum and
the language and all of those things and to kind of collaborate yeah and create
yeah to create independence plans that's where it is instead of just fading away
and aid but to be strategic in creating them to do the child writing more goals
if the child could be independent accomplishing XYZ on their own and then
and fading away days strategically, which kind of makes sense.
So that was kind of one of the ones that stuck out the most.
But yeah, it was interesting.
And we were in Sacramento, so it was a different vibe,
being in the capital, I think.
Kind of have the same thoughts as Saturday.
The vibe was definitely sessions I went to
that talked about school districts
just dealing with tension in the classrooms
and the unions and negotiations, those things.
I did tend to go to the sessions
that talked about the legal cases
because those are always interesting to me.
And this year the highlight was among mood,
which is still, I think, an issue
for a lot of school districts,
figuring out how to have people, you know,
do the waivers if they don't wanna look at certain books.
But what I thought I would highlight is an upcoming case
that might trickle its way,
which was in one of the sessions,
the Mirabelli class action case.
I'm not sure if you guys have heard about it.
Two middle school teachers
sued the Escondido Union School District
because they were challenging a policy that forced them
to use the student's chosen name and pronoun
and keep that change secret from parents
unless the student explicitly allowed it.
So then the teachers said this policy forced them
to lie to parents, and so it conflicted
with their religious beliefs.
That went up to the appellate court,
And the US District Court ruled in favor of the teachers.
So at this point, that's where it stands.
But of course, it's now being appealed, right?
And so what's going to be interesting
is how the upper courts will rule and eventually probably
the Supreme Court.
And so that's always interesting to me
to see, you can kind of see both sides of the story,
but just kind of see how it plays out
and what we'll have to do once the courts do
give out a final warning.
Interesting.
Always interesting, even though it's not,
my day job is so interesting to read these cases
and know a little bit more about this type of law.
And it was always great for us to spend some time together.
It was recommended.
So I think the last thing is comments
from governing board members on any events or activities
they've attended.
So it's the last meeting.
I don't know if we've set up.
Oh, I don't have anything to report.
I don't.
No, not yet.
Our last meeting was.
7th or 15th, right?
month is all a blur. Yeah, okay. Any future agenda items? Okay, item 15, part
in a date, any additions? I have just one question when the band
performance is tomorrow. Seven o'clock. Seven p.m. Thank you. I was hoping this evening but I wasn't.
Okay, and we do not have closed session. So, that's it. We are adjourned at 7.02.
This is the perfect visual.
Yeah, we all did one thing.
I apologize, but my computer was not working at first, and so I was like, you know, trying to figure out...
It's good to have the picture though.
I think I like it.
There's too much.
I was pretty good at just keeping my agenda up on the computer
and just kind of scrolling through.
But that's why my brain kind of scattered.
With a new format.
I'm still hooked on my brain.
I don't like the layout.