##VIDEO ID:https://ousd.granicus.com/player/clip/2643?view_id=4&redirect=true## Okay. K. Welcome to tonight's, January 8th school board meeting. Can we have a roll call to establish quorum, mister Rakester? On the roll call to establish quorum, student director Simmons, Student Director Vasquez, Director Latta? Present. Director Williams? Present, sir. Director Hutchinson? Director Barry? Present. Director Thompson? Present. Vice President Bachelor? Here. President Brohard? Here. Quorum, present. And can we have a translation check, mister Stetschow? Yes, President Brohard. Moving to interpretation announcement. We will start with Arabic. I will lower all attendees' hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Ms. Abdi, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Okay. Arabic announcement is done. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Abdi. Check-in to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with Arabic interpretation. Next, we'll go to Spanish. Again, I will lower all Chinese hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Mr. Copenhagen, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Copenhagen. Checking attendees to see if no hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Spanish interpretation. And that concludes interpretation announcement and we'll check again later in the meeting. Mr. Rick Shaw, turn to you. Thank you very much, Mr. Stachow. Madam President, the translation availability announcement has been completed. Thank you, Mr. Rick Shaw. Tonight in closed session, we will discuss the following items: D1, conference with labor negotiators D2, conference with legal counsel existing litigation D3, public employment D4, public employment performance evaluation D5, people matters D5, expulsion student K and D6, expulsion student L. At this time, we'll have public comments on closed session items. And do we have any hands raised, mister Madam madam president, there are no speakers signed up for this item. At this time, we will go into closed session and we will return by 5:30. Thank you. Thank you for joining us to, for tonight's board meeting. I will now turn this over to our parliamentarian to introduce and to mister Seichow to introduce, interpreting. President Breulhard, we will start with the roll call, second roll call, and then we'll go into interpretation. On the 2nd roll call to establish Cornwall, Student Director Simmons? Here. Student Director Vasquez? Here. And Director Lara? Present. And Doctor. Williams? Present, sir. And Doctor. Hutchinson? Present. And Doctor. Berry? Present. Doctor. Thompson? Present. Vice President, Bachelor? Present. And President Brujahire? Present. Quorum, present. Moving to interpretation announcement. For tonight's meeting, we have 2 languages for live interpretation. They are Arabic and Spanish. For in person, we have laptops in the back of the room for interpretation. There's also translation closed caption feature available on Zoom that you can use by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. We will start with Arabic. I will lower all tennis hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Miss Le, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Yes, of course. Arabic is done. Thank you, Ms. Lay. Check attendees to see if you if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Arabic interpretation. We will next go to Spanish. I will lower all attendants' hands. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Ms. Walker Mercies, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Yes, of course. Thank you, Ms. Walker Marquez. If any hands are raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing hands raised, we will start with Spanish interpretation. That includes interpretation announcement and we'll check again later during the meeting. President Brujaharty, I turn it back to you. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize the importance of respectful decorum, communication, and engagement at our board and committee meetings. The work of the board is serious business and impacts the everyday experience of our students, staff, families and broader community. It is critical that all of us, both here up here on the dais and in the audience, model the respectful interactions that we would like to see our students have in their classrooms, on the play yard and in athletic competitions. As we open tonight's meeting, I urge everyone present and planning to attend to review and abide by the Board of Education protocols and meeting rules of engagement listed on pages 89 of tonight's agenda. The decorum, safety, and security of our meetings is the collective responsibility of all of us, and I'm grateful for our shared commitment to ensuring our meetings bring us closer to achieving our district's mission and vision. At tonight's meeting, there are several allotted times when you may make public comments, provided you pre register to speak online before the meeting started or if you filled out a comment card, which you can find on the table by the entrance, and you can submit those cards at any time. I just want to report back on closed session items that were completed earlier. Okay. On labor matters, on item d 1, number 24 dash 196, conference with labor negotiators, the board gave direction on this matter. On item D2, number 24-2719, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, the Board approved a settlement in this matter with the vote 6 I'm sorry. The motion was made by director Bachelor vice president Bachelor, sorry, and, seconded by director Thompson. And the vote was 6 to, and no 6 in favor of and and against with director Hutchinson absent. On public employment matters on item D3, number 24-1967, public employment superintendent of schools, the board did not take up this matter. On public employee performance evaluation, item D4, number 24-nineteen 27, public employee performance evaluation, Superintendent of Schools, the Board did not take up this matter. Pupil matters on items D5 and D6, the Board heard these matters and will vote on the matters in public in Section K on the agenda. Okay. We have already done all this with the translation. Before I begin oops, that's on here too. There's repeats. Please be aware that in compliance with the Brown Act, board members may not respond to comments regarding issues that are not on the posted agenda for tonight. I ask all speakers to keep their comments to the scope of the item. If a speaker speaks to a different item, the Chair will need to ask that the speaker either speak to the specific item or hold their comments until the appropriate public comment period. The specific item or hold their comments until the appropriate public comment period. I would ask that my fellow Board members help and support me in this regard. If you don't get a chance to speak during public comment, I want to encourage you to use the e comments feature via Legislative Information Center on the OUSD website. And of course, you can always e mail Board members directly using this format, first name. Last name ousd.org. Are there any modifications to the agenda tonight? Okay. I would like to pull 2 sorry. Pull item 24-3108 and 24 dash 2939. President Breauxhall, can you say those again? Sure. I'll say them slower. Sorry. I raced through them. 24 dash 3108. Put that l in front of it. Oh, sorry. I didn't put the l in front of it. L 35 dash 24 24 dash 3028. Nope. Wrong one. Sorry. Oh, god. I did not. 24 3108. I'm sorry. I did not the, number there. Okay. It's l60, which is 24 3 108. And the next one is 2939. Where is it? 29 oh. It's filled with. Okay. So the next one is L24-two thousand nine hundred and thirty nine. So on the agenda tonight, we have the president's statement. Oh, we have that. I'm sorry. Modifications to the agenda, which we did. We had tributes to outgoing board members, Jorge Lerma, and outgoing board president, Sam Davis. We have welcoming of new board members from District 1 and District 5. J, public comment on all non agenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. K is adoption of the pupil discipline consent report. L is the adoption of the consent report. M, which is the adoption of general consent report, general obligations bonds B, J and Y. N is the student board member's report. O is the PSAC report. P, comment by collective bargaining units. Q, public hearing r, unfinished business s, new business and t is the superintendent's report v, regular board members report, and w, introduction of any new legislation matters and adjournment. Thank you for everyone's patience. I appreciate that. Okay. So on the first item okay, we have our special acknowledgments of Director Lerma, former Director Lerma, and former President Sam Davis. Let's do Director, Lerma, first. Okay. I'm gonna go ahead and read the, resolutions that we have here for them, and then we'll hear from the each of them. Whereas Jorge Lerma was born and raised in Oakland to immigrant parents from Mexico, attended Oakland Schools throughout his childhood, and graduated from Oakland High School in 1967, His OUSD education led him to become a lifelong educator, culminating in his time as director on the board of education. And whereas director Lerma, while attending college, worked as an after school playground coach, sports director, and family camp counselor in the open parks and recreation department. In college, he received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree, plus an early childhood teaching credential, an elementary teaching credential, and a secondary teaching credential. And whereas doctor Lerma previously taught at Oakland Technical High School, worked with the Urban League to establish and launch Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, La Escuelita School, Centro Infantel de la Raza, Child Development Center, CDC, the Educational Coalition for Hispanics in Oakland, and the Latino Education Network. He also helped create and launch the annual Latino Latino student honor roll event and whereas doctor Lerma was elected to the board by the voters of Oakland's district 5 to complete the term left behind by director Mike Hutchinson, who moved to director district 4 through redistricting, And whereas doc director Lerma cosponsored resolutions seeking to disrupt and repair the high rate of academic underachievement in communities of color and to eliminate the usage of, quote, Thomas Jefferson, quote, as the name of one of the district's CDCs as he was a well known holder of enslaved people, and whereas doc director Lerma recently represented the district at the Council of the Great City Schools in Washington, DC. And in the spring of 2024, he spoke in front of the California state senate hearing in Sacramento regarding education reform. He continues to push for improvement of the literacy of all children and, in particular, children of color. And Juarez director Lerma is an innovator seeking new ways for OUSD students to find success. As a member of the OUSD budget and finance committee, he and his fellow directors have managed the finances of the district with wisdom and care, navigating towards institutional solvency with passion, often facing strong opposition. And whereas doctor Lerma is leaving the board, he plans to continue to advocate for equity, quality public schools, and a sustainable school district that provides the outstanding education of all that all Oakland students deserve. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we recognize and celebrate director Jorge Lema's tireless and steadfast service and impactful results on behalf of all students, staffs, and families of Oakland Unified School District. We wish him the very best on his exit from the board as he continues to be a champion for the Oakland community. Director Sorry, doctor Lammer. We have to do one more thing. We have to take a vote. Is there a motion to adopt this? Okay. I was gonna get him the first part. Do is there a motion to approve the I move we adopt, recognition of Jorge Lerman. Thank you. And I second that. Okay. And mister Richock, we have a vote for No. Not before. Alright. Should we take public comments? Are there any public comments? Yes, madam president. We have 3. How much time would you like to allot for public comments? 2 minutes. Okay. The 3 speakers we have is Jorge Lerma, Rich Hamian, and K. Can we please have reached the It's, Rich Harrison. Excuse me. For Lighthouse Community Public Schools in East Oakland, and, just really, grateful for, this recognition. Board president Brohard and team, thank you so much for, your leadership going into this upcoming year, and happy New Year. I wanna say a deep thank you to, Jorge Lerma. Just really deeply appreciate your leadership stepping up during a critical time when your community needed representation. I just wanna talk about a couple of moments that, stood out, for me, you know, as we came back into doing charter renewals. I just really appreciated your equity stance and your voice early on in the process that really, I think, created a culture of safety for our families and our students to, come up and be proud of the choices that they're making for their education. A few months before that, you supported me in an effort to get, Senate Resolution 95 in Sacramento through, and doing some, lobbying around the science of reading and early literacy efforts, and it just speaks to, Jorge's, ability to not only navigate the school board and the complexities that we have, but also represent communities, in D5 as well as in Sacramento. And I hope to continue partnering with you and your leadership, and I'm so grateful for, you stepping up in a time where we needed you to, speak on behalf of kids and families. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. Good evening all. Thank you for having me here. I just wanna say a few words about Jorge Alarma. He's an awesome person. I worked with him on a few other stuff during the organizing the David Sakurai barbecue and, involving me in, helping me put that together, him and Sam, both, and miss Valerie Butchard also. I just wanna thank you for all involvement and all the service that is, given to the Alton Unified Schools, and, thank you for its service. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any more, public speakers? Okay. Thank you. I wanna recognize, I'm honored, and I appreciate this recognition. But I also wanna recognize the new the new people that are on the board and the continuing directors on the board. You all have the creativity, imagination, guts, and will to get us through this very difficult period. I have no doubt about that. What I am taking as I leave the dais, I am taking 3 things. 1, the mission and vision, the strategic plan, and the LCAP. The LCAP breaks down after all the analysis, synthesis, diagnosis, assessments of the kids. This is where we put all the findings, and this is where we focus to make a difference in all all our children's lives. The strategic plan speaks to the organization and long term disparities that will be corrected. And then finally, the mission and vision where we clearly talk not explicitly, but it's in there, about the divinity, the holiness of every individual child. At the end of the day, every child belongs to the largest minority group there is, and that is their individual themselves. While we may look like other people, we belong to communities, that look in large numbers like us. At the end of the day, every child is an individual. Every child has their own unique, characteristics and attributes, and that's what we need to keep in mind as we speak to larger social issues. Also, I want to make a special, dedication to the person replacing me in district 5, Patrice Berry, experienced, capable, and will be an asset to the to the to the work that's ahead of you. I also wanna thank the technical people and the people who set up the chairs, the people who end up sweeping the building after we go. This is a a large production, and sometimes we thank the people on top. We forget about the little guy sometimes, but I wanna thank labor and the community and the volunteers who make up the bulk of the of the people in our community service committees. So I know that I would be depriving you of my presence, but, I'm not going anywhere. I continue to be. My activism didn't start with the board. It's not ending with the board. Thank you. Are there any more public comments, mister Hollis? That was the last speaker for this item, madam president. We'll now take board comments. Go ahead, director Thank you. You know, I I think the the community owes you a very large thank you, Jorge. And, I know in in your service on the board, you've been the, the biggest heavyweight that we've had on the board in a very long time. And I don't think most people are aware of your record of service that you've given to us here. You are one of our cherished elders now in OUSD, and I mean that in the most respectful way. You are, one of our anchor families in OUSD with multiple members and multiple generations. I think of you and your family like I think of the prices, like I like to think of superintendent Johnson Trammell's family, like I like to think of my family. I think it's fitting that we are, having this goodbye to you here at the new La Escuelita. People don't remember anymore the school that you formed in portables behind the old Willie Harper building. And, and I know for my generation, we benefited off of all the work that our elders put in for us. And because of a lot of your work, we didn't have to fight those same battles. I really think, in my personal opinion, serving on the school board is a great way to cap your over 50 years of service to OUSD. I won't say how many years exactly. I'm I'm not gonna date you here. And I'm a little bit sad because now I'm the only Oakland native, the only OUSD graduate left here on the board. But I really wanna give you a personal thank you also. You know, when there was a a a crisis and we needed somebody to run for district 5, you stepped in. And people don't realize you know, we have not had the best relationship before we served on the board. It was never a problem, but we weren't very close. But I knew that if there was one person I could trust in district 5 who was OUSD through and through and would never do anything to hurt the district, I knew that you were that person. And I'm really glad that, you know, over 14 months, I never had to question it. And I really appreciate the relationship that we've grown to have. And so thank you for your service. We don't honor our own enough. Please thank your whole family, not just for their service, but allowing for you to serve this way. And I know you'll be around, and I am gonna do everything I can to make sure our 2 resolutions, one on taking Jefferson's name away and the other to reprioritize measure y, are finally brought forward here to the board for a vote. So thank you, Jorge, for everything. Thank you very much, president Brolhard. Mister Lermer, I just wanna say thank you very kindly for your service. And really, I would echo a lot of what mister or what Director Hutchinson mentioned. But I want to take it to almost a personal level. You and I knew each other through a very important person. And she and I worked at Franklin when it was called year round school for almost 12 years, before I moved on to another assignment. So we go back, you and I, through this individual almost 45 years. And so I thank you for the longevity of our knowing each other. Not only that, I thank you for the many depth full, if you'll allow me to use that word. That's my, doctoral thesis director. She used that word a lot. And it was a depth full conversation that you and I had many times regarding how we would want to move Oakland forward, making certain that we served open students, concentrating on those students who have been traditionally marginalized. And then it all culminated with something that you and I worked on, and I thank you very much for the resolution for us to actually address the academic growth and progress of students who are, excuse me, of color, especially in reading and mathematics. And we did not leave out our high school students because we also wanted to address, and we addressed the a to g requirement. Something that both of us intimately know. And that is, if you want to qualify for a 4 year institution, you have to certainly have those a to g requirements met. Because if you're deficit in any of them, there's a good possibility you would not be accepted into a 4 year institution. So, sir, I wanna thank you because your vision and your insight went way beyond your physical presence. It actually said, we need to encompass and embrace those things that students would need in order to be competitive in our society. So as you lead the board, I wanna say thank you very much for all that you've given us, the words of wisdom, the way you were able to put words together in order for us to think more deeply about the decisions we were making. So thank you very kindly for the greatness that you've given to Oakland Unified School District. I just wanna thank you, Jorge, for all of your service to the community and the students in the district. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to serve together, but I have really appreciated your deep dedication and focus on every single student, their individual needs, and I think really lifting up the importance of literacy, but also the cognitive development of young people. And I wanna, hope you have a wonderful the rest of your activism. I'm sure I'll see you around, and thank you so much for your generosity and and faith that I can, also serve the district. Congratulations. Mister Jorge Lerma, thank you very much. You know, it it it wasn't it wasn't until, I had saw you at the Street Academy, Festival and we talked and I talked to folks who really talked about your advocate advocacy for Street Academy students, culturally relevant education and really, highlighting, you know, the expectations that we can culturally teach our kids, about the world, about themselves, and about being better human beings. And, I saw a a side to you. I didn't know it. And it really, gave me mad respect for you. And, you know, hearing you and director Thompson talk about your years of experience in the school district, recognize you definitely have put in a lot of work and advocacy for all students, and that, it doesn't matter what color. It it's for all students, and every student deserves to read and write, and we should be advocating for them. So I just really want to tell you the impression you have left. I do look forward to continuing to work on Street Academy with you, definitely, and learning from you and how you moved and how the history of that has evolved. But also I will continue to reach out to you about some of the issues that matter. So I just wanna thank you again. Learned a lot and, you know, just wanna thank you again, sir. Director Lerma, I also wanna get just a little personal because, I feel like I walked into this year with a mentor who has also become a part of my family. I I thank you for embracing me, at a time when things felt really uncertain. And it's been such a joy to be in your presence. You've been so generous with your time and your wisdom, and you've made it abundantly clear to me, to my family. My daughter calls you uncle Jorge for a reason. And as we've heard from the public comments today, you've made it clear to all of us, that you are serious and about business when it comes to education and when it comes to community solidarity. And I appreciate that I've been able to witness that up close. And I do wish you rest and abundance of joy and peace, but also that you continue to enjoy the phone calls and the text messages that I will send to you throughout this experience because your mentorship has been a critical part of this journey for me and for the board. So thank you so much. So Director Lerma can now go back to calling you Jorge, right? We've known each other for a long time, and our kids have known each other for a long time. So we go way back. But I appreciate you stepping in for a short term. I think that's often a really hard thing to do. You're here for a very finite time, so I appreciate that. Although we don't agree on lots of things, I really appreciate the rich discussions. And I think your points have really sharpened my own thinking about particularly, I'm just going to name it, the science of reading. But I appreciate your knowledge and your experience. And I look forward to the barbecue backyards with no worries about the Brown Act. Thank you. Jorge, thank you for your service. And you know, I just appreciate all the years of mentorship. You were one of the folks when I first started in this crazy job, who met with me endlessly, just helping to, really create the tapestry of all of the, you know, systematic and historical challenges, you know, that we need to conquer and face 1 by 1 to create a system that better serves, black and brown and all children of various vulnerabilities. So I know from personal experience that just because you aren't you no longer serving as a director, that you will continue the good fight. That you will continue to stay focused on academic achievement. And I love the addition of the cognitive development, really being the reason that we're here and the true meaning of social justice and equity. I appreciate all the time that you spent helping us to develop the strategic plan. You were very instrumental as a part of that. And just your love and your care for the City of Oakland. So thank you for your time before you were in this seat, and thank you for everything that we know you're going to continue to do to support us and to support the Oakland community afterwards. Student director Vasquez? Hello. I just wanna say thank you. Even though we haven't really worked a lot together since we only had just the 1st semester together, I just wanna say thank you. I really appreciate all your work and and especially for serving our community. It's something that we definitely need from all our, board directors just being there, supporting all the students. I really appreciate that and looking forward to everything. So thank you. And my last. So me and you haven't really talked much. We haven't really connected a lot. But I do know one thing. You give good handshakes. You you got real firm handshake. I do really like your handshake. But I really do wish you luck wherever you go, whatever you're going to do. I know us activists, we can't stop talking. You know, we can't stop. We can't stop. We just can't stop. You know what I mean? So I really wish you luck. And yeah. Mister Raich Stark, can I have a roll call on the, motion to for the resolution? On the roll call, for, the tribute to, director Lord Jorge Lerma. Student director Simmons? Yes. Student director Vasquez? Yes. Director Latta? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice president Bachelor? Yes. President Burkhart? Yes. Motion unanimously adopted. Great picture. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. Next up, we have our tribute to outgoing president, Sam Davis. Whereas Benjamin Davis was elected to the Board of Education in 2020 and served as Board Vice President twice and once as Board President, whereas director Davis was elected to the school board by the voters of Oakland's District 1 in 2020, while director Davis' son attended Oakland Technical High School, graduating in 2024, and whereas prior to the board, Director Davis was active in the campaigns for Measure N, J, G1, and Y, and then on the Board led the effort in concert with labor partners, community groups, and youth activists to renew the College and Career for All initiative until 2036, bypassing Measure H on the 2022 ballot. And whereas, Director Davis previously served district students for 8 years as an adult education teacher, and while it was a very painful decision, it was a director Davis And whereas director Davis served for 3 years on the facilities committee where he played an instrumental role in planning the use of bond funds that voters provided for the district through measure y. He helped ensure that the majority of the measure y funds are going to long overdue renovations at 4 schools in the Flatlands where they are most needed, Garfield Elementary, Roosevelt Middle, Coliseum College Preparatory Academy, and McClimans High School. And whereas director Davis worked as president to strengthen the board's committee system so that the annual board work plan grows out of the committee work and any new board resolutions are automatically referred to committees for discussion and recommendation. And whereas director Davis led the board through the charter renewal process for 9 schools, which was the first time since 2020 that the board reviewed charter renewals, also a challenge since AB 1505 significantly changed the process in 2019 and whereas Director Davis worked with the student board directors and enthusiastically supported their leadership in cosponsoring the 2022 youth vote resolution with former director Amy Ng, coauthored by student directors Samantha Powell and Natalie Gallegos Chavez, whereby the board stood with our youth to insist that the Alameda County implement Oakland Youth Vote, years of effort finally paid off, allowing 100 of 16 17 year olds to vote in the November 2024 election for school board directors. And whereas while doc director Davis is leaving the board, he plans to continue advocating for equity, quality public schools, and a sustainable school district that provides the outstanding education that all of Oakland students deserve. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we recognize and celebrate Director Benjamin Sam Davis's tireless and steadfast service and impactful results on behalf of all students, staff, and families of Oakland Unified School District. We wish him the very best on his exit from the Board of Education as he continues to be a champion for the Oakland community. Do we have a motion to adopt the tribute to former president Sam Davis? I move. And I second. And are there any public comments, mister Hals? Check. Check. Yes. We have 17 speakers. Let's go ahead and call the first five. One minute each. Alright. Let's see. Change the clock. Okay. First five speakers are Sheila Haines, council member Carol Fife, Aslina Tamboo, doctor Denise Gail Sadler, and doctor Charcolitha Arnold. Also, madam president, Sheila Haynes and council member Carol Fife are online. You want me to allow them to speak first? K. First, Sheila Haynes. Allow them to speak. Hello? You can be heard. We can hear you. Thanks. Hi, everyone. I just wanted to personally thank, president former president, Sam Davis for working with former President Vice President Hutchinson as well as the new President Rohehart on our plan with our resolution and meeting with parent leaders and just want to welcome the new president and vice president and the new board members and just ask that you just really just think about our children and our most vulnerable children, and help each other and work together to help various things that they need. And put my faith my full faith in you all and just wanted to thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Yes. Next speaker is council member Carol Fife. Allow them to speak. Good evening, everyone. I'm very happy to be here. I actually Back in the day before either of us even thought about public service and our children were still smaller than us, we worked together at Manzanita Sea to create effective traffic safety solutions families. We participated in public safety walks and we worked just every single day for Oakland families. So I'm not surprised that he ended up serving in this official capacity for OUSD. And fast forward to today, we've had the opportunity to work on, a plan to house unsheltered students in the Oakland Unified School District. We've worked to use public land for public good and making sure that Parker Elementary continued to serve the community that it was intended to serve. So I'm deeply grateful to know you, Sam. I appreciate every time you showed up for me, especially this past year. And even when we've disagreed, I've known you to be a person of deep faith and that I could count on you to lead with data and your heart. So I wish you the very best and whatever you choose to do moving forward and I'm so grateful to know you. Thank you. Next speaker in person. I can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. I wanna appreciate and say thank you to Sam Davis. We surely have not always seen eye to eye, and we may not see eye to eye again in the future. But that's okay. You have showed me that people can disagree and still work together towards a shared goal. Taking ideas from here and there and coming up with real solutions, This is a lesson I will always carry with me throughout my life. We have had shared goals both here and outside of the school board, and it has always been a pleasure working with you towards those things. Thank you for thank you for your service and for always being so supportive, and thank you for being part of my journey. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, all, and good evening to the Board of Education. I would like to take a moment to recognize that Sam Davis has he leaving the for a new adventure in his future life. On behalf of the BTC and entire school district, we extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation to Sam for his unwavering dedication and outstanding service to our school board. Over the course of his tenure, Sam demonstrated exceptional leadership, commitment, and genuine passion for education. Sam has contributed imminently to shaping the future of our school and reach the lives of children we all serve. His impact extends beyond the Board of Education, touching the hearts and minds of students, staff, and families. We are grateful for his time, effort, vision that he brought to our school district. We're looking forward to continuing building strong foundation, communication, and trust that he helped establish, and thank you for your service, sir. Contribution have made lasting difference in lives of students and our community. Thank you again, and I wish you all the best in your future life, and thank you all. Thank you. Can we have the next 5 speakers? Yes. Next 5 speakers. Go ahead. Go ahead, please. I'm sorry. Hi. I'm, doctor Denise Gail Sadler, and I'm, very privileged to be able to acknowledge Sam Davis. I first met him while serving as an interim principal at Manzanita Seed Elementary. And at the very outset, it was really evident that he was a very special person who was committed to our students and community. And he has never been just about policy making or just, participating just to be seen. He's about rolling up his sleeves and getting the work done. I've always have seen him as a person that understood the complexities and the pathologies in our community, and he was always willing to challenge any conversation, which I hear is a theme that everybody has spoken to is that I always felt like if I called him about a concern that I have, he would call me back. I later, met him again, while working in district 1 and and serving as interim principal again at Sankofa, and we had a lot of discussions. We talked about, strikes. We've talked about, dealing with COVID and all sorts of different things. But he was always a good listener, always somebody who was willing to, think about the other approach or hear what I had to say. I'm really appreciative of the time that you have spent, your willingness to work directly with students. I always would see him in the community. I always felt supported. I always knew if I called him about anything that he would return my call immediately. He's someone who really gets what real governance is about. It's participation and listening to the community that he serves. There's so much that I could say, about him as a parent, as a committed community person, as somebody that was a good writer and communicator. In fact, many of you who know me know that I have worked as an interim at many different sites in all of the districts, actually. And it's really interesting. His writings relative to what was happening are issues at school, with the school board and the community. It's interesting that his newsletters would find themselves in all of the districts, and because they were so well written and balanced. So I just wanted to take this time to appreciate, Sam. I also wanna acknowledge, Jorge Lerma, who is a colleague that I've worked with. I actually worked more closely with his wife as well as president of OEA. She served as my bargaining chair. So we go way, way back. But tonight, I think it's really important to acknowledge people who serve, who are committed to serve this community. So thank you, Sam, for all that you've done. You're appreciated, but I know I'll see you out there. We have is there one more speaker? Yes. Hello. My name is doctor Shaquita Arnold Whitaker, and I am the proud principal of Sankofa United Elementary School. I want to show my deep appreciation for Sam Davis. Sam, I wanna thank you for all your time, energy, and service to our community. In the name of building community and establishing positive rapport, you made a visit to my classroom during the last few days as a teacher at the great CCPA to introduce yourself, share about your role. And since I was moving some things to Sankofa, you grabbed a couple of crates. What a way to welcome you. At Sankofa, we are honored to have you participate in our Latino heritage month and black history month readings, volunteering your time and doing your part in our ongoing journey to end literacy and justice, one action at a time, will always remain a bright memory for me. Additionally, you supported our school on numerous occasions and sat with our PTA at the Juneteenth parade in Berkeley as as we told the community about Sankofa and shared some of its beauty during this affirming event. So, Sam, your servant leadership and dedication is inspiring, and I thank you and appreciate you. Thank you. We have the next 5 speakers, please. Yes, madam president. Next 5 speakers are Simone DeLucci, Brooklyn Williams, Eamonpola Oberga, Martell Price, and Rich Harrison. Alright. Good evening. Happy New Year to everybody. I wanna wish everyone, all of our leaders in Oakland, good luck in 2025. We're all gonna need it. I also wanna congratulate and welcome our new directors, Barry and Lotta. Congratulations and welcome. Deep appreciation to President Brohard and Vice President for stepping up, taking on such important leadership positions, especially in this time. And, I'm here to appreciate mister Sam Davis, for all of his support. You've heard a lot of other people speak. I want to echo his support of the most vulnerable populations as well as his support in championing of student voice. It's definitely something that we have in common and shared values. In this day and time, I've been around a lot of elected leaders in the last couple of years, and, I've learned that we really need 3 things from them. I call it the 3 c's. The first one and I think Sam embodies all of these. So the first one is character. All of our leaders need to to demonstrate character. And all that really means is do what you say you're gonna do and follow-up. Right? And so you've heard that from others about Sam. So we need character. The other one is curiosity, trying to understand where other people are coming from even if you don't agree with them. Taking that time and being curious and not thinking that you know everything. And the last one is probably the most important in the day and time which is courage. Sometimes it's hard for leaders to do the right thing because they're pressured to do the popular thing. And sometimes the popular thing is not the right thing. And often time our community doesn't have all the information that leaders do. And so it really does take courage to step up and do the right thing and it's always the right time to do the right thing. So I just want to thank you Sam and also wish you the best wishes on your next chapter and we know that you'll continue to serve in the way that you have. So thank you so much and good night everybody. Thank you. Next speaker please. Good evening, Board. Rich Harrison, CEO of Lighthouse Community Public Schools. Sam, I just wanna thank you, for your leadership over the last 4 years. I moved to Oakland 5 years ago. In my 1st year, as a charter leader in Oakland, you you had just been elected to the board. And, when I think about your leadership, it's really around navigating complexity, but also leading with values. And, there were moments where, you were able to stand firm in your perspective and your decisions, but also being incredibly eloquent about, sharing how you got to those decisions even in the face of opposition, and I just really appreciate that. I also remember in our in our first few years with the pandemic response just how connected you were to ensuring that the additional dollars that we got, across Oakland were serving students in a meaningful way. Specifically, the 3 things that I wanted to thank you for. 1 is, thank you for supporting our, matters that we brought forth to the board. I also wanted to appreciate the, work that you did with Measure MNH. It is the most inclusive in terms of charter and district, partnership around ensuring that every high school student has a pathway to college and career, and it has such tremendous impact in this city. And, your leadership on that is instrumental. And last, I know that we had some charter renewals that came up, and I just really appreciate how you held charters accountable. We need to make sure that we're following the rules and regs to serve this community well, and, I appreciate you taking that stance. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Madam President, 2 of the speakers called are online on Zoom. Can we have those speakers? Thanks. First is Martell Price. I will allow them to speak on Zoom. Thank you. Greetings, esteemed superintendent, Johnson Trammell, and members of the OUSD school board. Thank you for allowing me this time to express my appreciation for Sam Davis. I'm sorry that I'm not present in person, but like I said last year when I came before the board in person during school board appreciation month, which it is again by the way, I could never do what you all do. So thank you all 100 times over over again and again for doing the work you're doing. From my vantage point, it sure doesn't look easy. But if you all know this and you still take the challenge on despite the meager compensation, that's a nod to Sam, and the difficulties we face as an educational community. I don't recall the exact date pre or post COVID I met Mr. Sam Davis, but I do recall the moment we were on the steps in front of Oakland Tech and he introduced himself and he told me that he was going to run for school board member. As a resident and also a teacher in district 1, I told him he was lucky I wasn't going to run against him as I have had political ambitions in the past. Well, today, 4 to 5 years later, I would like to publicly retract that statement. I wanna tell Sam and the rest of the world that I am lucky, blessed, and fortunate, and thankful that he did run and serve as the district one school board rep for the last 4 years because he dealt with some real heavy stuff to put it lightly. COVID pandemic. You y'all the list goes on and on. I don't even have to say it. At any rate, I'm thankful that Sam bought his experiences as a parent, educator, and a social activist to the school board, which is an arena that can be very challenging to exist in the public eye. I'm thankful that Sam was true to OUSD, and that he entrusted OUSD and Oakland Tech to see his child through his compulsory public educational journey. Rafa's acting performances and skills will forever be remembered by those who were lucky enough to see him in action. It was pure comedy at times, folks. Lastly, I'm thankful that Sam used his voice as the district one school board rep and platform for as much good as he could. That being said, I'm thankful and appreciative that I had a school board rep that would listen to me not only as the principal of Oakland Tech, but as a lifelong resident of Oakland. I wish you continued success and a great sense of well-being in your next endeavor, Sam Davis. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Yes, madam president. Next speaker is Simone De Lucci. Allow him to speak on Zoom. Good evening, everyone. My name is Simone DeLuca. I'm the restorative community schools manager at Frick United Academy of Language. I am here to just thank and acknowledge Sam Davis for all of his years of service. Sam, I am so blessed to have known you for at least 20 years now, dating all the way back to Manzanita Seed, through the design team of Oakland Soul, and through the launch of Frick United. You have been a staunch supporter of Frick United since its inception 5 years ago and you have been a true champion and community partner since we began our journey as Frick United. We really appreciate all of the deep levels of advocacy you have shown our school, Everything from struggles like making sure we could partner with the folks that were going to install the, solar panel installation. You were there to help us to ensure that it was a beautiful process and everything worked out well for our students and for the solar panel installation. When we need to support with clean water, you helped us with that, but you're also there to celebrate with us as well. When Frick Drama Club students wanted to go see a top quality theater production, you made sure you helped us get to Oakland Tech to see that amazing performance of Chicago last spring. And this past fall, you were there to celebrate with us at our 6th grade family welcome, the first annual event that we will be having now that our enrollment has blossomed to the point where we believe we're becoming a choice school. All of your advocacy and, support has really helped us get to where we are. We deeply appreciate everything that you've done for o USD students across our city because you started in district 1 and always reached all the way out to us way out in district 6. Thank you so much for your service and I'm so excited and happy that you are being celebrated this evening. Thank you for your service, Sam. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Madam president, let me call the next 5 speakers. Thank you. Or the last 6. Last 6 speakers are Mara Villanova, Katie Nunez Attler. See, there's 2, so there's actually 5 speakers left. Lauren McDaniels, Ben Tapscott, and Sam Davis. My speech. Where'd it go? Good evening, new board, directors and superintendent. My name is Nara Villanava. I'm the organizing director with Californians for Justice. I wanted to give a warm welcome to our new board directors. And Tayo, y'all have big shoes to fill. After having Sam as our board members, our youth have been, like, really big expectations, of y'all and just like what y'all should be as directors. There are a lot of things that our youth appreciate about Sam. He's not just your regular schmegular white ally. That's what I used to say. He's been consistent he's been the consistent advocate and ally, always in solidarity with the youth. The youth say when nobody was talking about race, he was there. And for the last 5 years, he's been a pivotal in ensuring the implementation of Oakland Youth Vote. He's been consistent about always including our youth, whether it's in the efforts of the reauthorization of measure a n h n? One of those. I don't know what it's called now. And or we're having listening circles around the impacts of a vaccine mandate, and what they would mean for our communities or whether it was to break down, complicated policies. The youth, He's always been friendly. This is something that Mia Tran said. Sam has never made me feel like he doesn't know who I am. He does actually care about the youth and that interact with him. He's he's going to remember your face and what you said, and it's gonna be meaningful to him. He's gonna make you feel valued and, like, our work is important and impactful. As a young as a person of color, his this made me feel like my my voice made a was made a difference. So thank you, Sam, for always having and showing up for the youth. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, everyone. My name is Lauren McDaniels, Oakland Technical High School alum and All City Council alum. I met Sam Davis through All City Council. And through All City Council and being at Oakland Tech, we got to do measure h together. And as we were able to do measure h together at the celebration, I was able to meet the CEO of Linked Learning, and I was able to be the student emcee at their 2023 Linked Learning Conference in San Diego. And my I was able to get my mom and I at 17 years old flew out to San Diego for said conference. All thank you to Sam Davis. And when we were down there, it was my senior season, and he set up tours for San Diego State and other places. And the night before the San Diego State tour, I got into my dream university that I'm now at my sophomore year. And I'm just so thankful to Sam for giving me that opportunity, something that my mom and I will cherish for a lifetime and being my board member. Because the day of my graduation, he was on stage and took the best picture of me that my mom has now framed and put in my room that I love so much. So I just wanna say thank you, Sam Davis, for always listening to me when I was in all city council, when I went to Oakland Technical High School, and staying in contact with you now that I'm in university. That is a hard act to follow. Good evening, board. It's so wonderful to see you as superintendent and community. My name is Katie Nunez Adler. I am a former Oakland Unified School District parent, a current resident, activist and organizer, and a friend of, Sam Davis. I wanted to just say Sam and I met actually in college as organizers organizing around racial, economic and social justice throughout the Americas. And then we remet when I was a parent at Manzanita Seed and he was working with family leaders as a teacher in the ESL program. And from there we started doing organizing always centering those who are directly impacted in the decisions that are made. I'm gonna not tell all the story I was gonna say because I wanna pass the mic over to Nydia but I just wanna say that I am so incredibly appreciative, grateful, inspired by all the steps on your journey, Sam. And most particularly, I'm grateful as a parent and somebody who's deeply committed to the students and families of Oakland Unified School District for your leadership here. I'm gonna pass the mic. Nydia Baez, principal at Fremont High School. Thank you, Sam, for everything you've done for us. I feel that as, we met through through our OCO days, and I just am looking forward to continue to work with you in the community. And I'm so thankful that as a board member, you visited Fremont and supported Fremont no matter what through the last, like, 12, 14 years of our experience together. And shout out to your wife for helping to support you through this entire journey of leadership. So I wish you the best, and thank you so much. Thank you all. Are there more speakers, mister House? Mister House. Okay. Well, thank you, board. I had a lot to say, but, given the number of times I've cut people off here, I think I should respect the time limit, because, you know, it's it's well, first, congratulations, President Brohard. Congratulations, Vice President Bachelor. It's so moving to see Director Berry and Director Latta up there. Thank you so much for stepping up to serve. And my other colleagues, thank you for your service. It's strange to be back down here on the floor after, you know, so many times coming here as a community advocate, and then for 4 years being up on the dais, and now here I'm back here. And, you know, it's it's always an honor to serve the students and educators of Oakland, but it's a tough job. And I appreciate you doing it. You know, there's And I honestly don't know whether it's easier to be more effective down here in the community. There's so many things that restrict you as a board member, whether it's politics, whether it's staff intervention, whether it's, well, I'll stop there. But I appreciate you all for doing it. And I look forward to I'm in the community. I'm still here. There'll be strangers. Take care. At this time, we'll take board comments, and we're gonna start on this end. So director Simmons. First off, I wanna say, Sam, you were great to work with. Amazing. You made it come as soon as I arrived, you made it comfortable, and you made it known that if I needed anything, I could come to you. Sorry. I'm a little congested. But, honestly, you are really a role model when it comes to uplifting student voices. I really feel like you're on our side a 100%. And if I really and if I really had a problem and I came to you and I told you and you say you would get it done, you got it done. And I have the utmost respect for you for that. You always stood behind your word. Thank you. It was great serving with you. I wish you could I wish you could've stayed until the end of my term. I'm coming back for senior year, so you would've been you would've been here for a minute. So, but it was great working with you. Thank you. I just wanna say thank you so, so, so much. It was really a pleasure working with you. And just like how doctor Simmons said, you were really welcoming. This is my first time, doing something just like being student director or just being a part of ACC, and you've been nothing but helpful and especially just keeping your word. It's something that I feel like a lot of people struggle, but you definitely did not lack that at all. We definitely appreciated just speaking to you, and I definitely look up to you in different ways as well. Thank you so much for, being here as our board president, but also just serving our community as well. Thank you so so so much, and I really appreciate you. Thank you. Sam, thank you so much for your service, for your sense of humor. I think having humor when you take on tough leadership work is important to kind of maintain your joy and humanness, you know, when there is just so many challengers. Appreciate your hard work. Kind of like your creative collaborative, like okay, how are we going to pull a rabbit out of a hat on this one or work through this issue? And I think understanding the importance of governance of, you know, always having open communication, even if we don't agree or see things differently, I think that's key. And you model that all the time. And just your willingness, I think also, yeah, to listen to a lot of different perspective and be reflective. So I want to appreciate your family, you know, your wife, your son for being generous with the time, you know, during particularly, you know, during COVID and other challenges that we've had. And look forward to seeing the ways that you're going to, you're a restless spirit. So I know you're not going to, you know, just be in deep reflection. So as it becomes clear what the spirit has called on you to contribute, looking forward to seeing what that is. Sam Davis. It's been no secret that we have not agreed on many things, that we had not seen eye to eye. But what I do really appreciate is, a, your willingness to be uncomfortable and just take the the meeting, join me in conversation, and always just have the the door open for any sort of conversation. I know if I call you, we can chat. I know if we meet up, we'll have a good conversation. And that, I didn't realize how valuable that was until we had those conversations, and we were able to sit down. So I really appreciate that. As as Lina, my neighbor mentioned, I really also appreciate the work that you did at Parker to restore the harm that was done to that campus and to really beautify it to the to the place where it is now, and I hope that we continue to have those kinds of creative ideas for our spaces as we move forward. And I can't thank you enough for what you've done for the Oakland Youth Vote. Again, I think it's really, really powerful when students when young people are registered to vote, they vote early, they vote often because then they can really participate in our democracy and potentially hold some of the seats that we have now. And so to see the work that you've done with not only Max and Michelle, but also every single student board director that has come before them and the ACC and your advocacy towards the county, the city, I mean, mean, like, anybody pay for this. Right? I think was really impressive, and it really showed, a, what we have to step into and step into doing now, but also what can get done if there is persistence and perseverance. And, at the CSBA conference, I was just shocked as to we're one of the only cities, if not Berkeley at all. You know, there's a just a few other cities that allow this to happen, and there were student board directors there that were very excited to bring this to their city and very excited to continue this movement. So, again, just really appreciate you for that. And then, obviously, measure h and measure n, those were, again, super valuable to our students. And, again, you having your foresight, having your persistence, and getting those things done has been invaluable to our students, and I really wanna appreciate you for that too. Director Davis, Rachel, director Latta, I know that you will appreciate where this is coming from because I know you know I respect and appreciate you, but I do regret that I will not be able to sit on the dice with you and work with you. I've learned so much from you. You've heard it tonight. The way that you are able to balance, you know, being critical about things, but also hopeful about the future. You're so thoughtful. You have vision, but you also put in work. And when I'm in district 5, people say you show up, and they're like, he's not even our district director. So I I I appreciate, that people have been able to experience that from you. And I'm looking forward to just like I mentioned to director Lerma, calling and texting and, keeping you active in the community as much as possible. Thank you also to your family because I know that it is with great sacrifice that he's able to show up the way that he does. Thank you. Benjamin. Alright. I I like Benjamin. Oh, you look like a Benjamin. He said I am Benjamin. So, Sam, mister Davis, it's been great working with you. Definitely have learned a lot. You're very savvy guy. You're always thinking about the next step ahead. You, you make moves when people don't even know that you're making a man. Yes. Because you always have a plan. Whenever you engage, you have a plan. You already know where your goal is. And so, we didn't get a chance to really chat very much during your term. I think you you you made a very quick decision that you could spend your energy on other folks and and get the same stuff done. But, you know, I definitely know when we had a conversation, it was really, a learning experience. And I and I just really appreciate your ability to reach out and work with everyone on the board to create resolutions, to create solutions for them to be a part of what they would like to do. Or even if you had the idea, you would come to another board member and ask them to cosponsor it. So, I mean, that sense of cooperative, you know, you know, cooperative justice is just like providing people an opportunity to have a say and be part of a good idea. And so that's something that I'm a take from you, definitely. I really put that this year. Let's just try to work with every single board member and find something that we can work on together. I think that is a good trait, good character trait as well. So I just wanna commend you on that. And, also, again, working with the young folks, you know, you, you know, you don't speak very loud, but you do carry a big stick. You know? You get things done. Yes. You don't speak, you know, when folks, you know, on the board get all crazy. You know? You've been able to to moderate the conversation and even you knew when to step back. And, so appreciate that maturity, to really show to board how things should be done. You were a good example for that. So I just wanna thank you for that. Again, like everybody say, your hands are in many different baskets. You've been helping a lot of folks out for a long time. And lastly, I just wanna really I keep thinking about a story your wife told at, Oakland pet the Ed Fund. And she's like, you didn't know Sam was an activist in college. We got arrested for social protesting. So I just really I really admire that aspect. I was like, look at this progressive guy. He was out in the streets. Right? About backup, police. We're standing our ground. So, that sense of that really core that you've developed, let me get off the mic. Core activism is inside of you. You've been living it. You've been working it out. You've been showing others as how to do that as an example. Thank you very much, brother. Alright. Well, I you know, thank you so much, Sam, for the 4 years, and I I I think it probably felt like 15 that you went through, on the board. I remember being at a, like, a, you know, a, merger conversation with a bunch of community from Sankofa and Feralta and Kaiser, and you rolled up and were like, I'm gonna run for school board. And I think we all thought you were nuts. And you I think through that campaign and I think through your time on the board really followed through on showing up for people. I think the you know, as a as a parent in the district, I knew from people who had kids at, you know, all of the schools in district 1, and even, you know, kind of the staff all knew who you were. They all knew that they could call you. They knew that you would respond. They knew that if you didn't even if you didn't agree and you didn't like what they had to say, that you would respond. And so I think for me now, stepping into being up here, Now it's like the roles are really reversed because I feel like I was down there yelling at you, and now you could be down there yelling at me. I think to really take that inspiration of of taking seriously the responsibility to be present and, and part of the I think some of the most powerful work is to is to continue to show up, even in spaces that are uncomfortable, and to show up for the fun stuff too. I mean, I think I always loved, you know, seeing your newsletter and on social media, you being at graduations and plays and and literacy readings, because I think it's just a really important example in in addition to being a parent in the district, but to to really be, embedded in the community and and to continually be of service in multiple ways. So I really thank you for that. I won't go on and on about the work that you did on, you know, Schools and Communities First, which, you know, I think you were running your own campaign and also trying to support that yes in the back. It's coming back someday. We're gonna reform Prop 13. The work on, measure h, on the youth vote, I think I just, I do really, really appreciate that. I look forward to seeing what you do next. I will echo what my colleague, director Barry said, which is that, you know, you put me on speed dial because you're on my phone. I'll be reaching out to you for lots of things. But also, you know, I think thank you to Yael and Rafa. I know this was very difficult on you you all, so thank you very much, for your support for Sam, and congratulations, Sam. I think, my president would understand this and allow me this time. I would like to use a terminology that I want, this person to recognize and that is President Davis. Because he was my president. He actually taught me a lot of things. Many times, he would sit over where you're sitting and then I would sit not too far from him. And thank you, Sam, for being that example for me to follow. But if you allow me now to talk about 2 specific, times when I really appreciate, having had you have as my mentor. And that is with, the youth vote. When we met out in front of the school and we took our picture, we stood in solidarity because we believed in our youth being able to have the the right to to vote for our school board. The second thing was measure n and 8 when we were over at Fremont High School. And I I really, really enjoyed that. And when I think about those two ideas, I combine them into something that people might not see in it, and that is making sure there's equity provided to all students, no matter who they are. So I appreciate that in you. I appreciate your depthfulness, how you're able to think about things critically, and then come to a conclusion. I think about the times when we had to walk off the day in order for things to cool down. But I think you that we were able to do that as a group. And we came out unified and as one. So thank you very much. I also want to thank his family for allowing him this time with us. Of course, I'm being kind of prejudiced here. I wanted all of his time, but of course, he had to give his time to his wife and his son also. So thank you very kindly. Oh, in the last day, I remember the time that you and I went through something handling that. Thank you that we've made it through that. Okay? I really appreciate all that you've done, and I want you to have a great, great rest of the time. So I guess, as President, I get to close out. I have really learned a lot from working with you, President Davis. I think your mentoring, I think knowing, seeing your contacts, seeing who you knew in the community, seeing how people really respected the work you did, I think I appreciate you introducing me to so many different people. I think like if people have said your work on the Oakland Youth Vote, I think your attention to the needs of our students, your connection seeing when we did the walk through at Oakland High, your connection with both the principal, but also with the kids as well. So you may have your son to add, thank you for that too. But I really appreciated that work. I think your excitement about student activities, you're always telling us when there's a drama production and so and so. And I think, again, another way to support our students in the arts. I think as far as your work on the District, I deeply appreciate being able to collaborate with you around 10:25. I know we had many discussions about it. But I appreciate, again, your depth of knowledge as I came on to the Board, and again, your depth of connections, talking I think that was really and again, I think that's your advocacy for transitional aged youth. I appreciate that as well. One thing I really did appreciate and learned from you, I might have to step up my photo game, but I noticed that on your Facebook, you are always there's different events always going on and you're taking the photos. And really, I think, supporting the schools. I know people talked about schools in other districts as well, but I think your support for the schools in District 1 was showed both a deep connection and a real responsibility representing your district. As I moved into this role, I have really appreciated your mentoring and you're constantly reminding me of limits to hours in the day and what I needed to cut out. So I appreciate that. But again, I think your sense of activism, your family's sense of activism is really a benefit both to the Board and to the City of Oakland. So I appreciate that. Thank you. And with that, we'll now take a vote on the motion to approve the tribute to, former President Sam Davis. May we have a roll call, please? Yes. On the roll call to approve the tribute to Benjamin Sam Davis, student director Vasquez. Yes. Student director Simmons. Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Director Latta? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Berry? Yes. Vice President Bachelor? Yes. And President Brothard? Yes. Motion is adopted unanimously. If, school board directors could return to the dais, wrap up your conversations. We are about ready to take roll to establish quorum. I really hate to use the, 1, 2, 3, eyes on me. It's the elementary part of me coming back. But if you are a school board member and you are in the out on the dais, please join. Director Bachelor, Director Hutchinson. Alright. We can take a roll call to establish quorum. Yes. On the roll call to reestablish quorum of the board following the recess. Student director Simmons? Here. K. Student director Vasquez? Here. Director Latta? Director, she's absent. Director Williams? Present, sir. Sure. Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Here. Director Thompson? Here. Director Vice President Batschwick? And President, Will Hart. Here. Warren President. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is, welcoming of new governing board members, District 1, Rachel Latta, and director 5 I'm sorry. District 5, Patrice Berry. If you would like to take one minute and introduce yourselves. Hi. I'm Rachel Latta. I'm a parent of kids at West Oakland Middle School and Prescott Elementary and was, involved with Equity Allies and Integrated Schools, on my journey to be here. So, I look forward to getting to know people more people here and online, and, feel free to reach out to me. Thanks. Bye. Director Berry? Hi, everyone. Thank you for showing up. In my day job, I work for a poverty abolition organization called In Poverty in California. I've been working in Oakland Schools for the over a decade that I've been here, first in the mayor's office, but then running an organization called Assist Hub that provides access to economic resources to families across the state, but also here in Alameda County in Oakland. And I have been sending out emails and text messages to folks whose contact information I have. I would love to meet. And so please come find me after this. But also, I'll be sending out a note, to to invite folks to meet with me because I'm here to listen, learn, and then apply all of our conversations to the decisions that we make here as a board, and I'm excited to partner with you in that regard. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is public comment on all non agenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. We have 30 minutes for this topic. We have public comment on this item. Oh. We have public comments on this item. Oh. I think I have Vice president Yeah. Yeah. We have public comment on this item. Okay. Are there any yes. There are 13 speakers. Is it time still 1 minute? Madam President? I'm sorry. 13 speakers. Still 1 minute? One minute. Yes. And this time, we are really gonna adhere to the 1 minute. Thanks. Okay. First line speakers are Rosa Vilamaran, Shania Rizzi Hernandez, Al Algendro Hernandez, Katie Persons, Julian Hernandez. Good evening, board members, superintendent, and community members. As this newly elected board convenes for the first time, I wanna take a moment to reflect on the stakes of your leadership, particularly as we face a looming $90,000,000 budget crisis. Oakland families are depending on this board to prioritize equity, transparency, and the future of our public schools. I want to specifically address director Berry and her troubling ties to charter school organizations like Go Public Schools, Education For Change, and Families In Action. These organizations have repeatedly undermined public education in Oakland by diverting critical resources from our public schools to underperforming charter networks. During your campaign, it became evident that your candidacy was deeply intertwined with the charter lobby. From the outset, her campaign was funded by powerful interests, including governor former governor Jerry Brown. And supported by independent expenditures that pour tens of 1,000 of dollars into attack ads, illegal signage, and misleading campaign literature. These same IE's resorted to spreading outright lies about grassroots candidates who have dedicated their lives serving this community. Their campaign literature used distasteful and harmful language to smear candidates who stood for transparency and accountability. This behavior was not only divisive, but disrespectful to the families and students of Oakland. Time was yielded to me. We all time. We don't need time? No. Point of order, we have a rule here of no personal attacks. And so this is a very slippery slope. And also the time has expired. And so if we're gonna allow personal attacks, this is gonna get very difficult very quickly. Respectfully, this is not a personal attack. Next speaker, please. What time would you I'd like to remind board members that we don't engage with the public. Next speaker, please. We have a translation, please. Mr. Copenhagen or Ms. Wachimer Keyes? Yes. Hello. Yes. So so hello. My name is Rosa Villanueva Marine. As a mom, I know director that you understand why I am here because if you, if your daughter had gone through what my daughter went through, I just don't understand why you did not support her. My daughter is a descendant, afro American descendant and she is well educated. She actually graduated from the university where I used to clean and you did not defend her. It was very hard for her to achieve her education but they used my daughter as somebody who was not a mother, as a person of color and also as a person of the LGBTQ community and you did not support her and it's important to support the youth in Auckland and I hope that now you are in the correct place to be able to correct what you have done in the past. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Juliane Landes and I'm a freshman at Life Academy. Sasha is my aunt and she has always played a big role in the lives of me and my siblings. Over the past year, our shared campus with United for Success was impacted by lead contamination. My aunt stepped in to support us, ensuring families received critical information in Spanish, which hadn't been provided. Most recently, she has organized she has been organizing against the potential merger of my school. Patrice, I have not seen you show up once. I hope you break away from the practices of Mike Hutchinson and Jorge Lerma and actually show up for students like me. Your campaign claimed concerns about unequal access to Oakland Schools, yet one of reported events was linked to your job at the Oakland Education Fund. You simply you simply choose not to attend. Now that you're in office, I hope you make better choices and truly prioritize Oakland students. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Katie Persons is not here this evening, but she wants to pass the mic to me. I'm here with her daughter. McKenzie, is that also not allowed? It's not if you want us to fill out another speaker card, but it's There the speaker card's already Okay. Then I'm sorry. We don't yield time. Thank you. Call the next speakers, madam president. Next speakers are Assata Olegbala, Jonathan Tom, Natalie Hernandez, Nayar Pena, and Alexandra Hernandez. Mister Corey. So the question will be, will you continue your new people to do business as usual? What is business as usual? A 104 items on the consent agenda. Is this appropriate? Many of the items on the consent agenda are already in place. President pulled l 10 and l 60. I'm sorry. L 2 and l 60. L 60 started in September of 2024. L 2 started in October of 2024. What are you pulling it for? It's already been activated in place. You also have a procedure of closed session where you don't, identify what you're talking about. You put code words and don't say. You have expulsion hearings. Are you gonna be a part of not really having expulsion hearings where parents are in the room with advocacy in the room, where parents are given an opportunity to have their public hearings in person if they want to? Do they have representation when you meet in those closed meetings? Is it business as usual? Are you gonna do something different? Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Jonathan, a district 5 youth voter, junior at Fremont High School, and youth for Sasha intern. During the youth forum at Fremont, I appreciate hearing you talk about mental health, an issue that deeply affects students like me. However, the mailer sent by your supporters attacking Sasha deeply impacted our team's mental health. We knew it would harm our campaign and cost us the election despite the hard work we put into uplifting students, families, and the Oakland community. Sasha's campaign was rooted in true community engagement, investing in students throughout leadership opportunities, feeding hundreds of students, teachers, and families. With OUSD facing a 95,000,000 deficit, I'm concerned about how you will lead district 5 given how you ran your campaign. While you raised triple the budget of our campaign, little to none of it which went towards supporting students, teachers, or the community. Instead, the majority went to consultants, illegal signs, divisive mailers. I hope you reconsider these practices and put all US students first because you've taken that opportunity from someone who truly would. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Natalie Hernandez, a junior at Life Academy from District 5 and a District 5 youth voter and a youth for Sasha intern. During my time supporting the campaign, I learned so much about the election process. During our time in Sasha's campaign, we learned the do's and don'ts for campaigns. I remember arriving at one of our weekly campaign meetings and I shared with Sasha and the rest of the team that throughout our neighborhood I had spotted several of your campaign signs. Being a new to the election process, I thought that might be a great idea for our visibility until I learned that all those signs were illegally placed by breaking quote Oakland Municipal Code article 5 chapter 6 section 20. I asked Sasha why she wasn't comfortable using the same illegal tactics you were and she said because our students are watching and deserve better. Those who lie and cheat do not deserve to see. Thank you. Are there any other speakers, mister Hals? Doctor Moore, I believe you had a statement. Oh. Oh, the other one. Sorry. There go ahead. My name is Noel Tyn Hernandez, and I'm an OUSD alum district 5 voter and future OUSD parent. Sasha is my but more than that, she has been a mother figure in my life and in our community. During the election, Patrice, you allowed discriminatory and Trump like attacks against my for not having biological children. This Eurocentric approach to the nuclear family completely disregarded the ways our culture defines motherhood. In my family, we come from a strong tradition of community and connection, and we recognize my Tia as a true mother figure. Oakland Latine families like mine face language barriers and countless challenges, so it was my Tia who consistently showed up for conferences, graduations, and most importantly, when I was harmed at life. My Tia fought for me and even spent entire school days for me for by my side and ensure I succeeded. By not denouncing the mailer and placing an ethics complaint when you have been in violation yourself lets me know that people like you can become Oaklanders but will never be from the town. While to you and your supporters, Mythia might just be an angry Afro indigenous person but to us, she is mama Sasha, a protector, a leader, and a pillar to our family and community. Thank you. Hello? Hi, my name is I am a OUSD alum, d5 voter and future OUSD parent. Patrice, I had 2 interactions with you and your campaign during the last election and both left me with concerns about your leadership and integrity. The first was when you were walking in our neighborhood and what you have described as a pleasant interaction revealed troubling information. When asked why you didn't denounce the mailer attack attacking Sasha, you admitted you had asked them not to release it, but why were you coordinating with the independent expenditure? That is a violation. You also committed to addressing the attacks against Sasha, but instead, you canceled every opportunity to do so. At the Dia de los Muertos Festival, your team remained idle until we started engaging with the community and connecting organically. Your campaign aggressively began approaching community members and with triple the budget of Sasha's campaign, it's disappointing that your team offered nothing but misinformation to the Oakland community. To make matters worse, we saw your campaign disrespect our culture by placing flowers sacred to our traditions on people's heads misusing a cultural symbol. With nearly 80% Latin A students in D5, I encourage you to please educate yourself and be culturally competent during your time in District 5. Thank you. Thank you. That's all the time we have for public comment. I know You don't get to say that, and you don't get to speak to I'd like to make a motion to extend public comment by 5 minutes. 2nd. Sorry. But you're not gonna do that today. You can do that to everybody else but me. If there's a motion and a second, then, whom? Okay. Alright. You can ask for debate if somebody wants to debate it. Excuse me. The board right here the the conversation right here is on the board, on the dais. Is there any comment or or discussion about extending our time for 5 minutes? Yeah. I just have a a comment. You know, if we're if if if we're not if we're not gonna manage if we're not gonna manage the time, if people aren't gonna be held to the time on the clock, if we're not gonna manage the time that it says in the agenda shall not exceed, and we're just gonna make it up as we go along, it's gonna be very difficult. And I just wanna say I'm personally offended that some of these comments were allowed to happen, especially in this setting like this. Madam president, the motion is in order. It's up to the board to decide whether or not they want to extend time Okay. On public comment on non agenda items. Can we take a a vote? A second, please. Can we take a vote to extend the time by 5 minutes? On the, roll call, student director Simmons. Yes. Student director Vasquez. Abstain. Okay. Director Ladder? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? No. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Abstain. Vice President Bachelor? Yes. President Bruyhardt? Yes. We'll extend. The motion, is adopted. The time is extended. So we have 5 minutes? For 5 minutes. Yep. With speakers, and I appreciate the people who have been taking the time to follow the clock at 1 minute, but each speaker will have 1 minute. And and madam president, the rule applies to people who have not spoken. Alright. Hello. My name is Sasha Rita Hernandez, but in front of you is Alexandra Yali Fernandez Villanueva. I wish I had the opportunity to address the attacks by your supporters privately. Attempting to minimize my personal and professional life while questioning my leadership, integrity, and commitment to Oakland is unfair, divisive, and harmful. When you take over a $100,000 from the Oakland Education Fund, money that should be going to our school, I spent my career advocating and raising funds for Oakland youth and families. Please show your records of teaching here in Oakland because former teacher is very misleading. Meanwhile, your children attend a private school that is over is almost $30,000 a year while my nieces and nephews attend actual public school. Let me be clear. I do not just serve Oakland. I live. I breathe it. I fight for it every day, guided by the responsibility of being a an Afro indigenous woman to care for the next 4, 7 generations to come. I have one question for you. If you lost to a homophobic, racist, not oh my god, narcissist, and then to a liar and a cheater, would you still be standing here fighting for Oakland students? Would you still be fighting for them? Would you still have your heads up high to speak your truth? You know what? Thank you. Your time is up. I will say Next speaker, please. Hello, newborn, and welcome back. Welcome back. And for our new directors, I'd like to say welcome to the Thunderdome. I'm ready to engage in conversation with you all this year. I've been missing in action for a little bit. I'm going to law school. Part of you guys are my inspiration, because we need to make things right. So I just wanted to say welcome to the Terra Dome. Thank you. Are there any other speakers, mister Holmes? Yes. The remaining speakers are, Noyl Noylsen Hernandez, Janelle Harris just spoke, Ben Tapscott, Vivica Ekoy Walton, and Dexter Moore. Madam president, I'll just note for the record that appears to be more speakers than 5 minutes. Sorry. We'll take 2 more speakers at 1 minute and then Doctor Moore. That should be okay. Hello, board. Thank you so much for the time. My name is Vivica Ekoi Walton. I'm a parent of a district 7 student, by the name of Carter sitting over there. I'm also a family and community organizer with Families in Action For Quality Education in Oakland. I wanna say congratulations to miss Lada as well as miss Berry for your wins, as well as your reelection, doctor Clifford Thompson, as well as you, mister Van Sedgwick Williams. And I would also like to state that I'm so excited for the for the way that this board is gonna move forward. I I adore you, Patrice. You ran a very, very standout campaign, and I couldn't be more proud of the woman, the mother, the sister that you are to me and my same sex family. And I appreciate your honesty. I appreciate your integrity. And I'm so excited for the transformation speaker, please. Welcome, new school board members. Is the mic on? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? We have a lot of work to do. The attacks on black students continue and this board doesn't do anything to solve that problem. President Thomas lied to you about BTUs and the fact that we didn't need to fill another boiler. I want that boiler back over at the school or buy a brand new one. Seventeen classrooms, I'm sorry. Ten classrooms, no heat. 17 restrooms, no heat. 5 custodial rooms, no heat. And this board voted to have that removed. You've done that to no other school. You have closed 8 schools in West Oakland. That's called discrimination. And I'm sick and tired of this board having these meetings and then attacking black students in Oakland. It's shameful. It's disgraceful. Thank you. Doctor Moore? Good evening, board, superintendent, community. Happy New Year. It's good to see you all. I just wanted to take a brief moment to, wish you all, a happy school board appreciation month. January is school board recognition month, and it's a time to salute the more than 5000 California School District and County Office of Education, board members. You're the largest group of elected officials in the state of California, and so you have some goodies on the dais. We will be providing you with some certificates of recognition at the January 22nd meeting, and we'll also be, highlighting you on our district social media throughout the month of January. So on behalf of, superintendent, general counsel, the entire, leadership team and staff, we wanna say thank you for your service, and we're looking forward to a really productive school year. So thank you. Thank you. We now have public comment on all non agenda items, and we have 30 minutes for this. How many speakers do we have, mister Hollis? We just did that. No. We didn't. We did it for the wall. That was a cover. The new board. Yeah. Yes. Madam president, we have 6 speakers. I'll call them all out. K. And we can give them 2 minutes each. Yes, madam president. First or let's call them out. Asada Olegbala, Janelle Harris, Jack Nelson, JD Woloshen, Joe Mannequin, Ben Tapscott. If your name was called, please approach the microphone. Hello, board. Hello, directors. So, I'd like to talk about McClimans High School having only one pathway. It was a shock to us as parents to know that one of our pathways would be taken away. However, the parents and the students have been congregating together, and we've come up with a really good solution. McClimans is known as the school of champions. And we would like to support our school becoming a sports academy and using that as a pathway for some of our students. Our students were excited and came up with the idea of becoming a sports pathway sports learning pathway, so they can study things such as sports medicine, sports management, because as you know, McClimans is known for their athletic program. We have a lot of d one college student athletes. Right now, we got 2 at Cal Berkeley, that came out of McClimans, and they are rising superstars. And so why not? I just wanted to put this idea in your ear because the parents and the students will be writing a proposal to you all, just to, you know, open the discussion about becoming a sports pathway. I feel like this is a way to get our enrollment numbers up. Like, McClimans is already climbing the ladder of success as far as enrollment. We have 3 new students today. So I think our numbers are, like, 280 something. We've come a long way. But if we have that pathway, I can guarantee that our school would be full. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. And if I may, madam president, there was one further speaker, Sheila Haines, who's online, but I will Hi. I'm, JD Woloshen. I have, I'm a parent of, 2 students in OUSD, and I just wanted to comment on the fact that there is a whole page and a half of measure n and h funding for different schools, on the consent, report, but there's not anything for the young adult program. And this is a glaring omission, and so like, which, you know, intended or not intended, it's essentially, you know, discriminatory against our disabled students. And so I'm hoping that the board can direct the measure n n h commission to fully fund the young adult program for the current year and provide compensation, for these years of non funding. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Go back to the right place. You will. Good evening, directors. Good evening, superintendent, community. I'm Joe Madikian. I'm the parent of a 3rd grader, also a CAC member. I also wanted to speak to the young adult program. For just for some, context, the young adult program is essentially the last chance for learners with disabilities to access meaningful education and job training in OUSD. And to speak quite frankly, this is access that is not readily available to many of them from K-twelve. Currently, YAP is receiving the planning year funding for the 2024-twenty 5 school year, which amounts to $2.50 per student. Full funding is more than 3 times that, it's $850. So if you do the math, 124 students in more gap times 8.50, it's $105,400. I know in the context of a $1,000,000,000 budget, it's a pittance. But for these learners, it's potentially life changing money in terms of meaningful education and meaningful experience. So to the Board and to the Measure NNH Commission, I would just really encourage you, let's stop the gatekeeping. Let's not use administrative process as a cudgel. And most importantly, let's give the young adult program the money that they are entitled to and have been entitled to that stated in the measure n and measure h over the past 10 years. It's the right thing to do. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My subject is equity. In this district, we speak as if it exists and it doesn't, particularly for African American students. When it comes to a system that has decided to accommodate dual language and eliminate African American studies, you have taken away from students something that they deserve to have as well as any other student deserve which you're replacing. When you look at the agenda tonight, it is a constant, appearance of the same schools getting resources and services and accommodations. Oakland Tech today is accommodated with 2 programs, digital citizenship, as well as wellness skills and care. Ruggsdale has 2 accommodations with trauma treatment, counseling, support. Castlemont has community project support interruption, class time, non interruption of class time program. Dewey has an appropriate Fremont has, apprenticeship and internship. Oakland International has food bank at after school cooking. And this is constantly same schools. McClimans. You got something from McClimans. What is it? Something about, athletics. We need support at McClimans. We you don't even know who this is. Black children need to know who this is. African study, you don't know who this is. We are not learning about our culture, but you constantly ta you accommodate newcomers. Accommodate anybody you want, but not at the expense of black children. And that's what you're doing. You are accommodating newcomers, and black students are getting less accommodation. And that will be addressed. It's happening with the city of Oakland. You are a sanctuary city. You accommodate other people who are noncitizens more than you accommodate African American people. I'm sorry. That's your time. Be constantly addressed. Do something for my clients. Fix our football field. We are being put in the back burner to fix Oakland High's football field now. I'm sorry, miss. That that's your time? Thank you. My time can stop, but you got to do what's right by McClimans High School. Next speaker, please. Don't forget, your office of enrollment purposely said that McClimans was full and denied students to come to McClimans year after year. Next speaker, please. Hello. I'm Jack Nelson. Unfortunately, you have to know who I am tonight. I'd like to thank Mike Hutchinson first for attempting to help me with my issue. And, and I'm sorry I interrupted your night the other night. I'm a miss Johnson Trammell. This is what happened. Basically, I gave $25,000 to Fremont over a 2 year period, and that's fine because I got the tax write off. But the money is sitting somewhere. The principal knows where it is. I'm not gonna use names. The principal knows where it is, spoke to Franky Navarro about it, and nothing's been done. That person also lost checks. I have copies of them here if you want them. I, for 35 years 32 of 35 years, have raised money, and I do it now mostly in Oakland and San Leandro where I taught. I think we need to I think that needs to be addressed, And the principal needs to come up with that money either for you, for the general fund I'm fine with that or the OAL, one or the other. 2nd I got 40 seconds. The money also is a problem at Okanai. There's a coach there that has his own bank account. He's not a 503 c. He can't do that. Okay? And, he doesn't get insurance for his tournament there. Something must be done about that because he's putting us all at risk. The OAL should run that, and the OAL should provide passes or not provide them. And I certainly hope that this is addressed. I'm not looking for anybody's jobs, believe you me. It's hard. It's hard to work in Oakland, and they're both capable people in many ways, but that's unprofessional conduct. What I have delineated. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I wanna know who voted to delay working over at Macleiman High School. We're back. We're back to the same discrimination that we keep talking about. We were scheduled to remodel in 2018. They delayed it. Now they're delaying it again. That's called discrimination. Fremont got a brand new stadium. Castlemark got some work. Parker got some work. All of these schools out there are getting things and except one except one that just happens to be in West Oakland and black. School board members, that's what I'm talking about. And these issues need to come to light. It took us a whole month to get a black plastic bag off the drinking fountain. A month. But somebody gave the okay for a charter school to work on weekends, 4 Saturdays Sundays, 64 hours overtime. How did that happen? We can't get any of this stuff we're talking about. Now you're delaying it again. You took a boiler out of there, and you people sitting up there went Preston needs to be fired. He lied to you. Go home and turn down your water heater and watch your water bill go down. 17 classrooms, no warm water in the restrooms. 10 classrooms, no warm water. 4, 5 custodial stations, no warm water. Why is that to be in the West Oakland? And you sit there and have these me I almost said a bad word. My dad would get would get me for that. What are you people doing? Nothing. It's called discrimination, And we keep coming back down here. Somebody decided not to, fix the scoreboard. Oh, by the way, we've only won about 4 state championships lately. Hello? I'm sorry. That's your time. Thank you, mister Pat Hapcock. It's past time. Are there any other speakers, mister Carlos? Yes, madam president. Sheila Haynes on Zoom. I'll allow her to speak. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. We can hear you. Thanks. Hi. I just wanna just point it out and just make it known that the ongoing trauma my son has suffered was a result of school closures, and that his learning loss continues to be with us. He's been learning online for over 5 years. And so I just wanted to speak on the need for the young adult program to be fully funded. Students like my son, once they reach that program, they've already suffered a lot of trauma and learning loss. And this is his final chance to really try to make something for himself and learn something to just try to make it. And I need the district to help me to help him. And so, I just want to speak on the need for that program to be funded as much as possible. And a lot of students are relying on that. And thank you. Thank you. Are there any further speakers? That was the last speaker for this item, Madam President. Okay. Thank you. Alright. We will now move on to the adoption of people discipline consent report. And give me a minute. Sorry. Can I have a motion to approve the student the pupil discipline consent report? I move to approve the student discipline report. Is there a second? Second. Okay. It was moved by Director Thompson and seconded by Director Latta. And public comment on people discipline consent report. And we Yes. Yes, madam president. There are 3 speakers. Assata Ollobala, Janelle Harris, Ben Tapscott. Of students from Oakland Public Schools with any depth of context to what's happening. So you expel you don't even tell us what you vote you're voting to expel? Have you ever voted to not expel a student? I've never seen it. In all the years I've come here, there's a possibility by chance, a recommendation for an expulsion has come before you. And in your process, you determined that students should not be expelled. That has never happened. Why? Because what you do is just go through a process, and whatever is given to you, you say yes. Expel them. And until I see the actual process, do you bring the parents in with the child, with the with legal representation or some support representation? Do you go through a interview process of the document allowing the documentation, evidence to be presented re presented to you here in both sides? Or do you just take what is and who in the hell is in charge of expelling of students? Where does that document that you received come from? We have no idea of how you are excluding students from this district, how it works, how it is in compliance with the necessary laws of the state of California related to expelling of students. But you come here tonight and you and you don't even say we're recommending expulsion. You just say it's on the agenda. Vote yes or no. You also closed the community day school, which would have given those students an opportunity for to prepare themselves for reentry. But what did you do? You put them online, and you send them to Alameda County probations to have them take care of these kids. And what do they come back with? Nothing. Nothing. And you expect them to integrate themselves back into. And who are the majority of those kids expelled? Black boys. Thank you. That's your time. Somebody else? If they were another race? If they were new colors? So I have a concern with the adoption of the pupil discipline consent report. Just being involved with my school at McClimans, I know that the staff don't know the processes and procedures. Some of them make their own procedures and processes up. I know that for a fact, and I can prove it to anyone who's interested in seeing. So my concern is is that we are expelling children when we know expulsion doesn't help them anywhere. It it is the beginning of the school to prison pipeline. And we all know what happens to at least I know firsthand what happens to children when you send them to jail. Like, that's not the responsibility of a school. Right? And for many, many years, I would attend expulsion hearings, and I would catch them in their own procedure that they did not follow. And I can guarantee you that this procedure was probably not followed either in before it got to you. So I would urge this board to look into your processes and procedure before you vote on an expulsion because expulsion is life changing, and you don't know what this child is dealing with. You don't know. You don't know. And I do know that this district doesn't go by facts. I know that. They like to do things with feeling, especially investigations. They do many investigations with feeling, and they do investigations on each other, and they're all friends. So that don't work for me. So if you are going to expel someone, and I'm in the business of helping them sue when we catch them doing wrong. So just keep that in mind when you are expelling kids. Thank you. We have time for one more speaker. Are there any other speakers? All names were called for Vote on these, people discipline consent report. Oh. More speaker. One more speaker. I'm sorry. 5,000 adult prisons in the United States. 55% of those inmates are black students that cannot read above the 4th grade level. We have the problem here from the superintendent's office who said out of 10 seniors graduating, been in our system 12 years, only 4 of them out of 10 can read above the 4th grade level. Aguilera said there were 15 elementary schools. No. There are not. There are 18 elementary schools that need help with their reading. Their teachers say they need help. We need a reading specialist. We need Saturday for kids coming in to learn how to read. That's the pipeline we're talking about. Those students that can't read eventually end up in prison. Those that come out and get help are not sent back in. Those that come out and don't get help are repeaters. I was on juvenile justice commission for 24 years, and we taught those kids out there how to read. Oakland Public Schools are not teaching our children primarily in black schools how to read by 12th grade. What are we doing? This new board needs to look into it. In Oakland, 55% of our suspensions are black students. We need to go in and analyze that. Is it fights? Is it threats? If we don't know what the problem is, how do you improve a solution? If we know it's fights, we start talking to our students about, is there another way that you can solve this problem without fighting? We're not doing that. Thank you. That's your time. That concludes short change. That concludes public comment. Can now take a vote on the adoption of the pupil, discipline consent report. On the roll call to adopt the pupil discipline consent report, which the student directors are recused, director Latta. Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? Abstain. I hope you all did right by those 2 that you reviewed for expired Director Berry? I hope you Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice president Bachelor? Yes. President Brothard? Yes. Motions adopted. If it's okay with everyone, I'd like to move ahead, to the student, report, which is in. Okay. You wanna go ahead? Good afternoon and happy new years to students, parents, the board, and the superintendent. Today's report, we will cover some upcoming we will cover some upcoming events going on. So first, we have the middle school ACC meeting that will be on the 21st January at Lake West Middle School. The annual high school ACC meeting that will happen on January 30th at Oakland Technical High School. Some important dates for the new year, we have our peer resource and ethnic studies conference, March 6 2025 at Mills College, which is now Northern Eastern. It's still called Mills? I'd be at Still called Mills. That is our annual middle school ethnic studies conference. That happens for upcoming leaders who might want to get into some youth advocacy and leadership roles. Youth Action Summit, which will be for all city council elections for the 25 to 26 school year that has happened in April 18, 2025 at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland and that is all, that is all of our events so far. Thank you. This concludes our report. Any public comment on the student report? Yes. We have 3. Asada Olegbala, Janelle Harris, Ben Taft Scott. 2 minutes. Hello, student directors, and welcome. This is my first time laying eyes on you, and you're doing a terrific job. Thank you for the dates that you've given. I just have a few questions that you you don't have to answer now. But, usually, I email our student directors when I have questions, because you are the most knowledgeable about what's going on in the schools. So you mentioned that there's a high school meeting on January 30th at Oakland Tech. I'd like to know, like, what does that entail, and who is invited to these meetings? March 6th is at Mills College Ethnic Studies Conference. Who is invited to this, conference? Is it mandatory? Is it student leadership? Like, are all these high schools participating? These are just questions that are going through my mind when you guys talk. So if you could just give a little more information, that would be wonderful. But welcome. Welcome. Welcome. And I'm so glad to see you. I'd like for you to pursue looking at how students are ever educated in other countries. I I just looked at a a video of Japanese education system, and it concentrated on they don't take tests until they start in the 4th grade. Kindergarten through 4th grade, major development of social skills and independent living. They don't hire janitors. The kids clean the schools. Have you seen this? It is amazing. This country, Burkina Faso, has taken over its educational system in a different direction. When the French were colonizing this country, they closed 1100 schools. All of those schools have been reopened as well as they have taken the kids back to wearing their own cultural, uniforms. They have also allowed girls to grow their hair any way they want to. They have also pursued, making sure when they open, factories that the youth would have jobs. Over 10,000 youth have jobs. So a lot are going on in others' countries' educational systems that we can take and bring back as recommendations on how to improve our system. So I encourage you to look at, particularly, the Japanese. It's just amazing what young people are capable of doing, and that's not happening here, and how we put too much emphasis on grades and testing. And I, also look at the California law related to limitation of homework or any of the, recent, education is my time up? Okay. Any of the new education laws that are impacting students. Okay? I'm gonna see if I can give you guys the same request. Of all of our high schools, how many of them have warm water except 1? And I I don't know that for a fact. I think you guys can make some phone calls and find out. The question is why, and no one up here yet has brought the subject up that we're gonna buy a new boiler and put it over at my climax because if the weather gets cold, 2 boilers will not heat 3 floors. The 3rd boiler is for those areas that doesn't have warm water. So your b two use are down, and Preston Thomas should be fire. And this school board should bring that issue back up. But let's just see how many of the high schools have warm water besides 1. Okay? Thank you. Are there any other speakers, mister Holmes? That was the last speaker for this item, madam president. You. If it's okay, I would like to move PSAC next. I know a lot of people have to get home to their families and any objection? Okay. Alright. Yeah. Happy New Year, everyone. Hang on just a second. I'm sorry. Could could board have a comment on the student report? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. You have a comment? Oh, sure. Thank you. Happy New Year, student directors, most definitely. You know, last couple of months, I was really kinda caught up in some stuff, but now I'm free of that, and I definitely wanna commit to, coming to visit. I've talked to Maximus about About that. We have, meetings here, at Escalida, what, twice a month. So we should be coming in and visiting Michelle as well. I definitely would like to put a challenge to all the board members to make visits to the schools because, again, what we're talking about, I just don't want you sitting here on the board and you give your report and then you bounce out and you go home and you don't see us until the next time, you come back. Right? Like, there's no relationship there. And so we can't really be trying to fake that. And I really would like to be the first, you know, to say, hey, please, let's find, a time that a day that you're usually pretty free. And I can try to work on scheduling, some visits for both of you. And then I would ask my other board members to do the same and show in support and really being able to talk to young folks and understand. So second thing I'm good. I got a minute. Second thing, I just really wanna continue to lift up the interest you have this school year. Just telling this board one time or a couple times is not gonna get it. We have to continue to talk about how we're supporting you to move what is most what's the what's the fire that's driving you. It's really important. I I served my first term, seen some great directors. But if you really want something done, you have to put us to the challenge. You really have to say, hey, I'm working on this, Williams. I'd like you to come see or, you know, I'm working on this. Cliff, please come on through. We wanna work with you to get it out more to students. My thing is that we have, our executive director, John Sasaki, communication guy, should be blasting everything. Like, we have 34,000 students. 34,000 students should be receiving your emails. Right? And you should be, like, really figuring out how we can get that message out. Secondly, I know that I know that you really focused on restorative justice. Just wanna make sure we continue to update that work that's been going on. We started once here, with the board, restorative justice. Please, let's not make that the only time. Let's see if we can talk to, president and see if we can get that in on a regular basis because it does take 2 or 3 times to really get into those conversations. Director Michelle, whatever you have that, is gonna be a burning desire for you, please share with us because I think that we all ran in a position to support young folks. It's hard to see that sometimes. Like, you come in and you'd be like, how are you actually supporting young folks? I don't know. So the easiest way for us to do that is to support you, and you'll help us get out to where the young folks are. Thank you very much. Thank you. Are there any other board comments? Thank you. Thank you for the words, Vince Hedrick, director Williams. Although I have been a little quieter than usual than I usually am, I am working behind the scenes. I am a there is stuff happening. We just not we're we're just not as out as we used to, But I am working, and I am I am working hard to make sure changes happen and things happen. So you're gonna see it soon, though. I wanna add that you guys are all invited to our middle school and high school meetings. I don't I wanna keep mentioning that. And so also to answer your question, for the middle school meetings, all middle schoolers are welcome to come. Same thing with our high school meetings. All high schoolers are welcome are welcome to join us. We all email their, leadership and principal, at each designated high school so they know, and they could also reach out and also spread the word through their high school so we could have more peep students come in. But it's also important for the directors to also show up so they also can hear in person what the students have to say instead of also relying on us all the time. It's a good practice to have to be present and to be there. So you guys are more than welcome. If you have any questions, you can always email us. We're always open. And, hopefully, we could see you there. Thank you. Before we do the PSAC report, we have to do a, interpretation. Yes, ma'am. President, moving to interpretation announcements. We'll start with Arabic. I will lower all Chinese hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Ms. Abdi, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Okay. Great. Thank you, Ms. Abdi. Check attendees to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. I do see one hand raised, so we will start interpretation for Arabic. Next, we'll go to Spanish. Again, I will lower all attendees hands. Please don't raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Mr. Copenhagen, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, mister Sei Chau. Thank you, mister Copenhagen. Check attendees to see if any hands are raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with Spanish, but we will activate Arabic interpretation, and that concludes interpretation announcement. We'll check-in later. I'll turn it back to you, president Brujah. Next up is item O, which is the Parent and Student Advisory Committee meeting. Hi, my name is Cynthia Molina. I am the Program Manager for District Advisory Committees and LCAP and Budget Engagement. So happy to be here, happy to be in support of these amazing leaders who have waited patiently to share their information with you and a very happy New Year to all of you and welcome to the new directors. And so some notes. 1st, the request that this document that they're going to read, which was shared with all of you and with Board staff be entered into the public record for this agenda item since January 1st was a very hard posting date. And then, also that the order of the document that you have is going to be different than the presentation. So we're going to have first the Community Advisory Committee for Special Education, followed by the district English learners advisory committee, followed by the foster youth advisory committee, and ending with the parent and student advisory committee. So that will be the order. Thank you. And I need the oh, there's no clicker. Okay. Hello. Again, I am JD Woloshen. I am, the newly elected cochair of the CAC along with my fellow cochair, Coriander Milius, and our vice chair, Latifa Ali. So we have a we just finished our, newly elected, officers, last month, I think. Maybe November. I can't remember. Anyway, for this, they're listed in the report. We will, for this year, be continuing our work on the following initiatives. Number 1, partnering with our board to adopt the resolution to promote school stability and belonging for disabled students in OUSD. This would affirm the right of disabled students to attend their schools for the entirety of a grade span just like their non disabled peers. It would affirm that they are members of school communities and don't just belong to a special education classroom or program. 2, successful implementation of the plan to reduce suspensions for disabled black students in middle school. This work is being done in partnership with the Middle School Network and the Office of Equity, and it will be the focus of next Monday's meeting. 3, the successful implementation of the board adopted resolution number 2021 dash 0159, ensuring access to social, emotional, and academic supports for students with disabilities. And our current areas of focus for that is after school, visual performing arts, athletics, and work based linked learning, which we had a very extensive conversation on in December. Number 4, equitable access to measure h funding and work in career based learning for students in the young adult program, and we continue to insist on full measure h funding this school year for the students in the young adult program. We also seek actions to address the historical exclusion of YAP students from the benefits that measure n, its 10 year predecessor provided their peers, and I just want to extend a shout out to CAC member Carol Denton for her leadership on that work. Number 5, follow-up on the CAC legislative priorities adopted by the board in January 2023. And number 6, sufficient special education staffing for disabled students with IEPs, special education teachers, paraprofessionals, instructional support specialists, and this will be the focus of February's meeting. In the printed version tonight, it says next Monday, but it's actually February. Individual members of the CAC are also leading collaborative work with the district English language learners subcommittee and the foster youth advisory committee to meet the intersectional needs of disabled students. Our next public meeting is Monday, January 13th at 6 PM, and it's over Zoom. Thank you. Good evening, board members and superintendent, and, special hello to, the newly inaugurated, board members. My name is Melissa. I am the district 4 representative, with PSAC, as well as the district English language learners subcommittee, or DELS for short. I also have a 9th grader, at Oakland High. So the district English language learners subcommittee, we're gonna continue, to focus on the following goals this semester. Proof that all English language learners are getting designated English language development or ELD at their level, including all disabled English language learners and newcomers. We want strong sight English language learner subcommittees or CELS with authentic voice and leadership from families of English learners. We're doing this work in partnership with the Office of Strategic Resource Planning and the Office of Equity. And we're continuing to assess the language access needs of all English language learner families, getting additional interpretation and translation to support the needs that we already know exist. Our December meeting provided a comprehensive view, view of the staff and resources that are currently available to support the needs of English language learners. We also reviewed possible changes for the, 2025 to 26 school year. So this will be the focus of our January 23rd meeting, how to enroll for school and programs for English language learners available at schools. We'll also offer updates on our ongoing work, and you can find the Zoom link at ousd.orgforward/calendar. And lastly, we just wanna emphasize a very important message. On Monday, January 6th, OUSD shared essential information from the OUSD Sanctuary Network about protecting immigrant and refugee students. Please share it widely. You we've provided we've provided, a QR code, on the document that you were handed. And for anyone listening on Zoom, you can go to ousd.orgforward/lcap, and find the document, there and scan the QR code for that information. Thank you so much. Protect some black children, and then I'll be talking about protecting somebody else. Before you start the wheel there for a moment. Yes. Just a second. You are gonna go over the 10 minutes. So before you have to interrupt you, I'm gonna ask if we can extend if I have a motion to extend ISAC by 5 minutes. I'll ex I'll make a motion to extend for 5 minutes. 2nd. And I that one. Oh, is there any debate over it? On the motion to extend, the Peace Act report time by 5 minutes. Director, Thompson. Yes. Director Berry. Yes. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Even though we're at 6 minutes. Director Williams? Yes. Platter? Yes. Yes. Bachelor? Yes. Deborah Hart? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. So the section has 15 minutes. Thank you so much. So, I'm going to extend the report from the Foster Youth Advisory Committee, because we could not get a person quickly enough after the holiday to be here to do it. It's a very short report. It says, unfortunately, the Foster Youth Advisory Committee had to cancel the meeting, sorry for the omission, that was planned for December 3rd. The committee will meet again on Tuesday, January 28. They always meet on the last Tuesday of the month. And we have a 5th Tuesday no, we don't, 5th Wednesday. The goals of the meeting are learn what success we have had in identifying the adult team for all foster students. This was a programmatic strong goal. Get up to date suspension data for all foster youth and foster youth with IEP specifically, and that is an area of focus for the committee. And follow-up on commitments made by staff to ensure immediate intervention when a foster youth is suspended, which is a really tricky and important thing. As a result of our Committee's focus and leadership, there is an active collaboration between Foster Youth Services and the Special Education Department to take specific actions that will reduce suspensions for foster actions that will reduce suspensions for foster use with IEPs, which you will learn about more at that meeting. So you can join again the conversation on January 28, and all Zoom links are at ousd.org/calendar. Okay. Now good evening, board and new folks sitting in the seats. We appreciate everybody being present, and, we we certainly want to set a tone for 2025. We certainly want to do something a little bit differently now. We we wanna really make good on some partnerships. We wanna make good on some cohesion and cooperation, and we need the buy in. We need the support. We can't do that. Like, imagine what we could do if we did it together. Imagine what it would look like. You you know what? And I love the fact that we bring black people into it because we need to bring all people into it because we have to do a thing together. And I appreciate you not and that's fantastic. So so Don't tell me who's bringing it. I'm gonna just I'm gonna ask you tonight. Don't you I'm gonna I'm gonna have I'm gonna ask you not to ring you. Talk about black But Excuse me. Can we continue back with the agenda item? Miss Shelley? Miss Shelley. Miss Shelley. Miss Shelley. You don't want I don't know who you can. You should. I don't know who you should. Excuse me. You're using up your time right now. I'm gonna call for a 5 minute recess. PSAC has 5 minutes. And, mister Raksha, if we can have a, roll call to the chart to, just like more. Yes. On the on the, roll call to establish quorum, student directors are absent. Director Latta? Present. Director Williams? Present, sir. Director Hutchinson? Present. Director Berry? Present. Director Thompson? Present. Vice president Bachelor? President Brothard? Present. Warren present. K. We have board business to, continue with, and PSAC has 5 minutes to continue their report. And the time starts now. I must apologize to everyone because, of course, my 6th grade teacher is like, oh, I did not teach you that. I didn't. When I taught you how to speak well and communicate and express yourself, it didn't include that. Mister Thompson, I am so sorry. That's so lame because you taught me better. 6th grade. See, education in OUSD in the 1900 was thick and robust, and it was good, and we learned well, and we had the hands on teacher and encouragement. And he said I would be something great and wonderful, and and here mother is now at the podium advocating and speaking out loud as he taught his class. I I I think that we'll have to deviate a little bit from the report and just kind of do welcome. Let's do something together. We do have responsibilities about budget, so we do need to be involved in those conversations. We don't wanna be reactive this year. We know that budget adjustments, that 28 slash out 30 point plan, the proposal, and whatever is actually gonna come of it impacts us directly in how we are supposed to share out, how we are supposed to teach, how we are supposed to make decisions on SSC, and all the tables that we serve on that require us to spend money. We have to know whether or not we have to do a balancing act. We have to know whether or not that the dollars that are coming in or going out or no longer available are gonna require us to do something clever and creative with our California Community Schools Partnership Program, for instance. Right? Our PTAs, PTSAs, wherever there are dollars, we have to figure out what to do with them. We're we have to and we have to learn the budget in real time. We have to learn and know what's happening in real time so that we are able, boots on the ground, to make sound decisions. We are able to design layperson friendly budget instruction and education when we do our PSAC meetings. Our SSCs, our school site councils, and our site English language learner committees require us to make those decisions. We would love we would love to have SSC and SELS members, parent members, come to our PSAC meetings on Wednesdays. You can find that information at ousd.org forward slash c a l e n d a r. And, I think that once we understand the necessity of working together, everyone working together, I think we can see the results of those efforts. So it's gonna take some creativity to adjust to these adjustments. It's gonna take a little bit of buy in and cooperation to adjust to these adjustments, and, hopefully, this long term investment of our partnership is gonna help us boots on the ground. What we provided to you because we didn't do the, do do the, do it up there. Girl. What you have in front of you are the questions regarding budget adjustments and things that we would need to know from you. This wouldn't be the place to ask you those questions, but it is the head start for you to review it and figure out if you're partnering with your partner, if you are, partnering with your SSCs in your district, how you can answer the questions so that we can take that and we can design our PSAC meetings to be layperson friendly to share this budget information. And and thank you. Thank you. Are there any board comments? Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar of the l, measure number l, which is the services agreement? So moved. I second. Point of clarification. It's it's not l. It's l minus the 2 items you pulled. Right. Thank you. Madam madam president, oh, okay. The motion's fine. It is minus the 2 that we've pulled. Just note that, l it is it is not on that. It it l 30 is not on that, and it's actually withdrawn as I understand it at the request of the administration, which is technically rec correct. It is minus those two items. K. Minus l I have an insurance. Can you read the numbers that it's minus again, please? Yeah. L 30, which is 2438 24 dash 30 18 is withdrawn by the administration. Is that correct, madam counsel? Yes. 30/18. Yes. And, and, temporarily, you pulled 20 madam president. Yes. You pulled 242939. Yes. So, technically, it's correct. They're not they're they're not on the agenda at this moment. Okay. Thank you, mister Raksha. Is there any debate on the consent account or the consent items? If not, you did I'd like to just uplift, now I have to go back to my l one. Our partnership with, EatLearn Play, has been just transformational for our playground spaces for our students, across the district. And now their support for our flow water stations just shows their internal commitment to Oakland, and I just really wanna thank, the organization for continuing to support our schools in this way, and, I look forward to continue to partner with them, on anything that they have, any other plans that they have, to support our students here in Oakland. Are there any other board comments on this agenda item? Yeah. Doctor Edson. Thank you. I do have to say I'm a little bit disappointed that what's been happening in the room hasn't been addressed from the dais. I think it's our responsibility as we're running a meeting not to just ignore it when something happens. I also wanna thank Eat, Learn, Play for stepping in to help with our flow water systems. I also wanna thank, the superintendent Preston and the team for the grant that's been submitted to the EPA, where we're also looking to help with funding for the lead remediation. And just on the same subject, I'm really hopeful that this new board can continue the work to reprioritize measure y and accelerate the plan that we need to have in place for how we're gonna remediate lead, across the district. But again, a big thank you to staff in the Currys for their continued We have public comment on the side. Yes. Madam president, we have 4 speakers for this item. So 2 minutes or how much time would you like to allot for public comment, madam president? Yes. Those 4 speakers are Assata Ollobala, Janelle Harris, Ben Tapscott, and Kamalataz Rancipur. We are We are speaking on the consent items. So you guys got all that Point of point of order. I'm So point of order. Why is somebody speaking from from the podium when their name hasn't been called? Excuse me. This is out of order. This is extremely out of order. Can you give me a moment, please? Order. Comp I I I can't you don't have a speaking card and I do. I don't have a speaking card. But it's not on this item. I I I I appreciate that, and I also wanna just say that, we've been in here trying to hold this whole space together. And I have a I have a teenager at home, and I'd like to go home. So, you know, I'm I'm I'm down to be a culture keeper, but I also just wanna go home. I wanna appreciate the fact I I really what I wanted to say was happy New Year to everyone. I wanted to say that seeing this many President Brohart, this is out of order. It really out of order. It's out of order, compa. Women on the board is absolutely amazing. It's amazing to see that maybe President Brohart, how is the mic being continued to run when this is happening? Yeah. You need to polish it to finish her speech. For this role. I do not need someone else. There's no speaker card. This is out of order. So is everyone going to be allowed to speak? Is everyone going to be allowed to speak then? There's no speaker card here and it's out of order. I'm sorry. I understand that. Excuse me, madam president? Madam president, she has a speaker card in on the general consent report. And in general, you cannot censor what people say. But you can limit but you can't but you can limit the time but you can't limit the time but you can limit the time I would like to reclaim for the whole entire item and for the individual speaker. I would like to reclaim my time. Thank you. What I really wanted to say was welcome to the board. You know, we are really, really proud to have, so many women that are on the board. I want to make sure that our board president and vice president do not allow other board members to poke at them and to undermine their authority. Want to make sure that, you know, that this board is really clear that, you're nasty, you're gonna make me lose my time. We would just make sure that, you recognize that you are skilled and that you are qualified despite what people have come and said about you. We wanna make sure that you understand that if they are coming and making remarks, it is because of envy. I wanna make sure that, that, you know, madam vice president, that, we are incredibly proud that you are on the board, that you have taken this opportunity, to, you know, you you've sacrificed your time, and, and really took in this leadership role, so we wanna appreciate you for that. Director Latta, we are incredibly happy that you have, as a parent have that voice on this board, and and that you're able to share with us, all of the work that you've done as, as a volunteer on doing enrollment issues. Director Berry, I've been told that you are an incredibly wonderful human being, and a very lovely person. I do have to say that some of those mailers were harmful. They were harmful to people in my family. People told me to reach out to you. I just can't physically do it because it just it it caused harm. So I'm I'm I'm gonna work through that, but I do understand that, you know, I hear that, you are a very lovely person, but they did come across kinda homophobic. You. That is your time. Next speaker. I had more to say. Brother, Van said That is your time. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Next speaker. And again, if folks can keep their comments in the general consent report and the cackling. And any as well. Told you now any order? In whatever order. Go ahead. Okay. I'd like to direct your attention to l 81. I wanna speak again in regards to the Sports Academy that I brought up the first time. I think this pot of money would contribute to the beginning of our second pathway, which would become a sports academy. I mean, it was an idea from the kids. The kids came up with this idea, and it almost like the light bulb went on because I was like, our school will be full. I can almost promise it. And we would like this board to just consider it or try to brainstorm or set some time to brainstorm with us. I think, mister VanSedric, I wanted to plant that seed in your head. So, you know, thinking on things that we could, have the children learn that they're interested in. Right? Because our pathway is engineering, And not all of our kids are gonna wanna be engineers. And really, we did the statistics on how many black engineers really do the, you know, engineering. And there's not that many. And our school is almost 80% African American. And so we wanna put that in your thoughts because it's like, does it make sense to have everybody engineers, right, when we don't think that everybody that graduates from McClimans is going to be an engineer. But we do think if we become a sports academy, sky's the limit. People will be coming from everywhere to come to McClimans High School. And we have the legacy already. So it's not like, you know, word-of-mouth. Kids come from all over the place just to attend our sports program. And so I think it's really important and invite you to have a conversation about it. You. Next speaker. So looking at l 4, it's for water led testing from May 20 25 to April 30, 2030. That's 5 years of lead testing. You gotta stop testing and get rid of the lead. Are you on a on you on a program of allowing the lead to stay in the pipes and just put filters on it? Or will you consider removing the lead? You have item, l 10, fire alarms and intrusion alarms, at skyline and other schools. We gotta get that in place at every school. You have on the agenda l 21, officiating for high school football games. Now let me tell you this. The officiating at the high school football games is atrocious. It is so fair what has happened to McClimans this year related to the poor officiating. It's unfair to these kids, and something needs to be done to be better quality officiated in place. As it relates to item l 23, improve conditions for black students at Frick. You know why black students need help? Because you got that dual language program that mandates that they have to speak another language to learn their academic core subjects. It is alright for parents to approve that they want their children included in dual language, but it is unfair to mandate struggling African American students to have to be a part of a dual language program. Look at item l 30. Provide interventions to review substance abuse. This item known as Fentanyl is impacting students to a high degree. We are losing high volumes of young kids. And you don't have to wait for the mandate for you to put sentinel instructions in place. You can start it tomorrow. Thank you. That is your time. Next speaker. What I'd like to see is some type of structure. My Clements was number 1 in 2018. We lost Tim White. It is totally disorganized. So they should come back with a list of projects, but climate should be up on top of that list and and the money that it's gonna take for that. I fought for Fremont because Fremont didn't have a football field. Everyone said, coach, why are you fighting for Fremont? I think equity is something that I always hoped we had in sports. I don't know who's gonna be have the courage to bring up, we're gonna put that boiler back over there for those children so we can have those warm waters in classrooms and restrooms. Some type of list for projects. Preston needs to be fired. You found something out and didn't say anything about that to the public and those kids drank that water for what? 6 or 7 months? On your filters, you want a removal date. So everyone looking at the filter will know this is the date the filter should be changed. Not just put it on there without a date or no one knows what the date is. And the other thing I already talked about, they're working on the floor. I don't know who approved that. If I was a basketball coach, I would not be a happy camper. They're starting from the ground up. They're saying that they're gonna be finished by the end of next month. So a list of projects, we have the funding form, and you then set your priorities, and we need to see if we can get some of the things organized because right now, I don't know what you guys are doing and I don't think you know either. So a list maybe of the top five projects where and how much it's gonna cost, get those 5 done, and then bring some others up. Thank you. Mister Hollis, are there any other public speakers in speaking? That was the last speaker for this item, madam vice president. You. I can turn it over to, president, Robert. Are there any board comments on this? The right start, can we take a roll call? Yes. On the adoption of the general consent report minus the items mentioned. Director Berry. Yes. Director Thompson. Yes. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Latta? Yes. Vice President Bachelor? Yes. Yes. The general consent report is adopted as stated. Yes. 1 is withdrawn by the administration. That's l 302430 18. And the other one is l 242939. Right. Pulled by you. Right. Point of clarification. I think there was also a third item that that you had taken out card. It was I think it was l so there are 3 items in total. 1 was pulled by the administration and 2 were pulled by 31 await was pulled by the administration. I don't have l 60? That was the one that's pulled by the administration. Oh, I thought that was pulled by you. I apologize. No. There are 2 pulled by the administration? 2 pulled items, and the one was by the administration. Alright. So you only have l 2 left. K. I'm not opposed to this. I I know the person, so I am going to, decrease myself. Great. So let's take a vote on l 2. Yes. Madam president, if you're accusing yourself somebody would like to make a motion Yep. L 2, we can go ahead and move forward. President. I appreciate your comments, director Hutchinson. I was just asking you to hold until the president left the room. Would anybody like to make a motion? It's to approve l 2 to 24, 2939. I'd like to make a motion to pill to approve l 2 through l 29. 2nd, clarify that was just l 2. Can we make, can we take a roll call on this item, mister Hollis, or mister Yes. On the motion to adopt ldot dash 224, 2939, student directors are absent. President Brohard has recused herself because of knowledge of the person to perform the work or relationship with them of some nature. Director Lader? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice president Bachelor? Yes. Motions adopted. Thank you. Now moving to m, madam vice president, if we're just, to wait for the president to return, if that's okay. Wonderful. And then we will be on, m, which is adoption of general consent report, general obligation bonds measure bjny. Back over to you, president Brolhard. We're now on, item m, which is the adoption of general consent report, general obligation bonds for measure b j and y. And are there any? Yes. I will motion that we adopt the general consent report, general obligation bonds b j and y. Thank you. Is there a second? 2nd. K. The motion was made by director Thompson and seconded by director Williams. And at this time, are there any public comments on agenda item m? Yes, madam president. We have 3. Sara Olobala, Janelle Harris, and Ben Tapscott. You have 2 minutes each. Thanks. Thank you. I just again wanted to, revisit, the fact that measure BJNY funds were allocate or measure y funds were allocated to McClimans. However, we have not had any community engagement in regards to this process or any program process to the rebuild or monetization of my clients. I have sent several emails to the powers that be and have gotten zero responses. And I was disrespected by an OUSD staff member. Disrespected. And my son recorded the disrespect that was sent to legal. And so for them to shut the community out on this process is wrong. And and it's it's unheard of. And so they have been doing things around the building that we have no knowledge why or what. I do know that we still have mice running through the kitchen. We have ants all over the building. We have cockroach bugs in the classrooms, and I want somebody to address this. So I just wanted to let you know. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. M 9. You're increasing the amount of money that you're spending on construction management services additional 2.5 $1,000,000 going from over $5,000,000 to $8,000,000 for construction management. Does somebody wanna have a discussion on that before you rubber stamp it? If you look at the item that's addressed at Garfield. Garfield, you're extending a project that was supposed to end December 3, 2024. And now you're saying the project will end December 31, 2027. 3 more years. Does somebody wanna have a discussion on that before you rubber stamp it? Look at item M5, change orders. Now you're telling McClimans, we don't have the money to do change orders, but some kind of way we get in and out here. Yeah. We're gonna do some change orders and give y'all some more money. It hasn't happened yet, but it's happening here for Laurel an additional $500,000 Look at Coliseum College Prep. Extra money, where you are building additional classrooms. You're not remodeling classrooms at Coliseum College Prep. You are building 14 extra classrooms and you have a declining enrollment every year. Does somebody wanna have a discussion about that? No. You're gonna continue to do this rubber stamp with no discussion. Look at item. Is my time still going? Yes. Change order at at Clairemont. More money. Look at item. Let me go back to the other one here. Garfield, why are we spending? Somebody's gotta tell me what y'all not gonna do. December 31, 2027. And this is what you're gonna do at the climate. Thank you. Your time is up. To start in the summer of 20 Next speaker, please. Next speakers, please. Sorry. So I keep talking about some organization. Preston is not the person for this project. There's no other school that has had a 2 year delay on a major project except McClimans. Fremont's been back 3 or 4 times for additional money. Somebody is approving this over $1,000,000,000 if you talk about the measures. Our scoreboard doesn't work. Half the time coach Peters is out there trying to fix the scoreboard before the game. So superintendent, I don't know what his role is but he can't he he doesn't know how to organize. We had the meetings about community involvement. Architect, engineer, Preston went and got a consultant that's gonna cost more money for the project, but not improving the project. Your general contractor and your architect is all you need. You don't need a middle person to come and tell them and cost more money. I asked him about it, he didn't have an answer. On our lead issues in how many schools? 40? On the filter, put the removal date so everybody looking at that knows a certain date that filter should be changed. If it's a date you put on it, that doesn't tell people when it should come off, and I'm assuming that we're providing water in those schools or some type of, dispenser so that they can have safe water until the project gets started. I've asked a question, have you done a seismatic test yet? What's that code? Is the foundation strong enough to withstand a major earthquake? If it's not, you're not gonna put a new building on top of foundation that's not structurally sound. Thank you. They're gonna do it in in July 2025, we need to get to humping. Thank you. Are there any more speakers, mister Haus? How's the last speaker for this item, madam president? Are there any board comments? Break start, can we call? The roll call is over. Yes, madam president. On the roll call to adopt the general consent report for the general obligation bond measures b j and y. Director Thompson? Yes. Director Latta? Yes. Director Berry? Abstain. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? No. Vice president, Bachelor? Yes. And president Brolhard? Yes. Adopted. The next item is, comment by collective bargaining units p. Are there any comments by the members of collective bargaining? Madam president, I don't see any, members from collective bargaining units in the audience, and there's no one raising their hands on Zoom currently. K. Thank you. The next item is our unfinished business. There's any unfinished business. S why am I forgetting yours? S what? S 1. Oh, unfinished business, madam president. There's no new business. Right? Oh, alright. Measure s 1 I guess And is there a public comment on this item? S Ward? Yes. It is. It's a new business item as soon as the report is presented. K. And we're looking for chair Kakashiba for measures in NH Commission. And president suggest that you move the report to a future meeting. K. Should I do that public comment first? Okay. Alright. We'll take public comment on s one. Yes, madam president. We have 3 speakers. Susana Olegbala, Janelle Harris, Ben Taft Scott. Give them 2 minutes. Okay. This report reflects some very drastic information related to African American students. As it relates to the charter school graduation rate, 11.4pp decline for African American students. Dropout rate, 1.1% in, decrease for OUSD, but for charter schools, a 9.5pp increase. 4 year cohort graduates who met, AG requirements. African Americans, 29.1 pp decrease for chartered schools. 9th grade, on track to graduate, 13.6 pp decrease for African American students, and charter school. Dual enrollment is not given by race. And we have to have race demographics, because you're not at the point where equity can be assumed. You have to produce the data on anything that has to do with dual enrollment, work based learning by race, career technology education by race, who's receiving it, link learning, pathways by race and categories of the pathways, post secondary transition support? Who's getting it by race? Do you think I'm here because I don't have nothing else to do? I'm here because by race, African Americans are disproportionately and unfairly not getting the same services as your other groups, newcomers included. So when you see me going off in this room, it's because I have a rage about how we are not attended to. And you will see that rage over and over again. No justice for black children. You will have no peace in this room. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you. So I wanna address the equity issue part 2 in regards to the debt the data that is being given. I am very skeptical about the data that the district provides because I know the accountability piece doesn't come with it. Oftentimes, when reports are written, they are not written factually. They do not have supporting evidence that support whatever the report is saying, and I have a concern with that. If I was to look into data statistics, I know that my outcomes would be different. And miss Assata is right because we have looked at the data, and we have looked at the outcomes. And it is a little suspect on why it is not given by race. And I think we know the answer to that question. And it's really hard when you live in this skin, and you feel the everyday effects of how you're being treated, especially differently. I grew up in a time when Jim Crow was still around. I mean, all of you have too. So you know what I'm talking about. And so it's not fair that we have to consistently fight for the things that other people just generally get. It hurts. You know? And so I'm asking you guys to just really look at the accountability piece on when these reports are going out because it's important that they're accurate. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. There's coach left. Okay. Are there any other speakers, mister Hall? That was the last speaker for this item, madam president. Are there any board comments? No. We don't have no decision. K. Mister Raikstra, can we call the, vote, please? You're not butting out. Never mind. The next one, s 2, application for provision internship permits, California Commission Teaching on teacher credentialing, named employees for school year 2024, 25. Is there a motion to pass? Motion to approve. K. K. Thank you. It was made by director batch vice president bachelor and director Thompson. There are there are public comments on this. S 2 Are there any public comments on this? Yes, madam president. Three speakers, Asada Olegbala, Janelle Harris, and Ben Tapscott. Is this s 2? Yes. Yes, ma'am. S 2 identifies that you have 1 multi subject teacher. I think we need to identify what subjects are included in multi subject teaching, what qualifies to be a multi subject teacher. You also have 3 individuals hired, 9 through 12th grade Oakland Tech extensive support needs SDC teacher. You also have that same teacher identified as extensive support needs at Montclair, extensive support needs at College College Prep. It's amazing. All 3 of these schools are supposed to be high performing schools, and you have extensive support going on. Where's our extensive support teacher at McClimans? Where's our extensive support teacher? And what does SDC stand for? That's what I'm talking about. The same schools continue to get assistance and support. Miss Harris, do we have an extensive support teach at McLymans? No. No. Okay. So the next time on the agenda, let's get us one. So I wanna talk about, the commission on teacher credentialing at McClimans, incorporating special education. So we have a very, very high number of students with very extensive IEPs at McCliman High School. Our our SPED department is ridiculous. It is out of control. We are out of compliance a 1000% with these students. I have 5 parents that I could name right now that their children are not receiving services that they should be. I have been in communication with Jennifer Blake and mister Razor who are doing their best to assist, but it's still leaving our children behind. My son is a special education student, and he is in 11th grade. And I had to hire an outside tutor to assist my son with getting the things that are on his IEP. Now be this credentialing thing here, we have a high number of teachers that are not credentialed, and they have not been credentialed the whole 3 years that I've been there. And it was my understanding that they have a time limit, 2 years or so, two and a half, to get their credentials or become a part of a program, but it's the same teachers. And the notifications you guys are sending out do not identify all the teachers that are teaching my son who do not have credentials, and I know exactly who they are. And he I believe he has 4 teachers out of his 7 classes that are not credentialed. So the explanation I'm looking for is how do you justify graduating a student like that? Like, special education is suffering. We are outsourcing and out contracting for people to do these IEPs that don't know how to do them. Thank you. Missus Soll, I wanna clarify multiple subjects are elementary school teachers that teach all that teach multiple subjects. So it's a particular credential for a grade level. Secondary teachers tend to have more, specialized, credentials. K? And then the ESN is, it is a special a self contained special education classroom, ESTC. So it's a special day class that then I know they're calling it SCPs now. But that's what the, the the, the the extra supporters. Does that clarify that? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Do we have mister Rick Star, can we have a roll call, please? Yes, madam president. On the motion to adopt, s dot dash 2, which is 2431 7, as stated, director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Latta? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice president Bachelor? Yes. President Pearlhart? Yes. The next item is s 3, application for variable term program waiver, C BEST and BCLAD, California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, named employee for school 2024 school year, sorry, 2024 2025. Are there any public comments on this item? Oh, I have a motion to approve. I I motion that we, accept the application for bear realty, term waiver. 2nd. 2nd. The motion was made by director Thompson and seconded by Vice President Bachelor. Madam President, there are no speakers for this item. Okay. Thank you. Are there any public are there any comments by the board? K. Mister Raikstra, can we take a vote on this? Sure. On the motion as stated, director Hutchinson is absent. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Director Latta? Yes. Vice president Bachelor? Yes. President Breuer? Yes. Motion's adopted. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is item t, which is the superintendent's report. Good evening. Good evening, board, and community. Excuse my voice, but, hopefully, you all can still hear me. And students, anyone left online, happy New Year to everybody, and thank you all for being here this evening either in person and, again, those who are still listening online. As always, my full report is available in the PowerPoint presentation and tonight's agenda, which I encourage you to access for additional information. Tonight, I'll provide a mid year update on our strategic plan initiatives, providing the stories of progress and impact featuring and what will be an And partnership that demonstrates our progress toward our strategic goals. Our first strategic plan initiative area is focused on ensuring strong readers by 3rd grade. Our goals this year are focused on increasing phonics and decoding mastery, along with strengthening curriculum implementation and classroom instruction. Key data from the first half of this year reports that 100% of our literacy coaches have improved in their coaching practices. SIP's mastery tests show increases in 1st grade phonics and decoding skills. And kindergarten students are mastering letter names earlier in this year than this time last year. Our adopted core curriculum, EL Education and Benchmark emphasized the importance of deep subject matter knowledge for our elementary students, TK through 5. Highlighting one of our schools, Highland Community School, they begin showcasing student learning by hosting community celebrations of learning. To create these displays of their work, students must first reflect on and articulate what they have learned, the questions they've answered, the research they connected to the their work. There are many community partners who are contributing to our aligned vision, our language and literacy framework and curriculum. But one that I'd like to highlight that some of our board members have highlighted earlier is the Stephanie and Ayesha Curry's Eat, Learn, Play Foundation, which earlier this fall made a $25,000,000 investment in foundational literacy interventions, specifically scaling our 2 to 3 our Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports to provide 1 on 1 high dosage tutoring to students who demonstrate the need for additional targeted literacy instruction. You will read more about the promising early results of this investment in my midyear impact report. The Currys were also gracious enough to put together a documentary, really focusing and highlighting the work in Brooke Halter, just illustrating some of the experiences from the student perspective, parent perspective, teacher and principal. Our second initiative area, supporting empowered graduates, focuses on preparing students for post secondary success through targeted improvements in middle school math, high school graduation rates and ADG completion rate. The district's 4 year cohort graduation rate for the class of 2024 increased over 6%. And so we were able to reach our strategic plan graduation goal, which was 80%. Our graduation rate is now at 80.6%. We also increased our A to G rate by 6.5%, decreased our dropout rate by 3.9% and increased the dual enrollment participation rate by 88 students. And we'll provide details on the report. Our goal is making sure that our students are taking those classes and passing with a C or better. Notably, graduation rates among African American, Latino and Native American students, as well as students with IEPs demonstrated substantial gains ranging from single digit to double digit increases. These outcomes underscore ongoing investments and rigorous standards based curriculum, targeted interventions and equity focus initiatives. Several high schools achieved substantial increases in graduation rates and I just I'm highlighting a few. Castlemont, which hasn't had a graduation increase in some time, 6.8%, Skyline 5.9%, Fremont 5%, Oakland High 5.1%, Rugsdale, which is one of our alternative alternative ed schools, that is where we have really struggled to increase our graduation rate. And the lack of progress in our alternative ed actually is what has contributed to not having the acceleration that we've had over decade. So rug sale had a 25.2% increase. And Sojoyner Truth, which is the online school that we basically expanded during the pandemic, had a 13.1% graduation rate. So just huge kudos, to those leaders, just in terms of it really has been starting those schools up from scratch and we have a lot of kids from across the district that are attending those schools. There'll be another report on Friday focused more on how we're empowering our young people for success in doing high school in OUSD. Additionally, middle school math performance has shown marketed improvement with a 36.7% increase in 7th graders meeting or exceeding standards on our fall interim assessments. This growth ensures that students are better prepared for the rigorous academic demands of high school and beyond. Schools such as Montero Middle School and United For Success Academy exemplify the district's growth and academic achievement with students making exceptional gains in math proficiency. At the same time, initiatives like the Cypress Mandela Training Center and OUSD's dual enrollment program equip students with opportunities to earn college credits and gain skilled trade experiences. Our 3rd initiative, create safe and joyful schools, has seen significant achievements in attendance and school culture and safety. Attendance rates have risen by 1.4%. Again, that's comparing where we are today around the same time next year. If we're able to keep this trend, that will generate revenue of about $6,000,000 as well as obviously more students being in school. We also have 7 schools that now have full time violence intervention and prevention teams, which support our students and staff around safety. I believe I have here I just wanted to read out the schools that now have this full time support. Fremont, Castlemont, Drogsdale, Bunch, Dewey, Oakland High and McClimans. So I really wanna thank, our city leadership, and just asking all of you, you know, our city is going through the same and even actually more in-depth financial crisis. So we're really counting on citizens to really advocate for continued investments and safety for our schools, even as our city has to make drastic cuts because they really are making a difference and they're sorely needed in our schools. I'd like to highlight schools West Oakland Middle School that has reduced chronic absenteeism from 54.7% to 27.5%. Partnerships with Eat, Learn, Play and Kaboom have helped us to complete 7 out of 8 Schoolyard revitalizations during the 2024 school year, bringing the total school yard projects up to 16. Our goal is to complete 25 partnerships in partnership with Eat, Learn, Play and Kaboom. We have 6 to 7 more planned for the 2025 year. We've also done cafeteria upgrades at Allendale, Hoover, Global Family and Esperanza Elementary, which have further enhanced the student experience. Our final initiative growing a diverse and stable staff prioritizes investments in early career teachers, preparation models and leadership development. Today, our participation in teacher residency programs has grown by 25%. Over 60 students are now engaged in pre apprenticeship programs, including Madison Park Academy's initiative, where 15% of upper grade students are on track to graduate with both a state permit and a pathway to immediate employment in OUSD. In the 1st year of the Oaktown leaders pre apprenticeship being moved to specific school sites, Madison Park Academy has registered 29 students in 11th 12th grade as pre apprentices. This will result in 15% of the students in those grades receiving wraparound support to take at least 2 college classes, graduate high school with a state permit in early childhood education, and have the opportunity to begin work in OUSD immediately after graduation. I'd like to shout out some of our community partners, EOYDC, East Oakland Youth Development Center. Thank you, Selena and Alameda First 5. Thank you, Kristen Spanos, for supporting teacher preparation and wraparound services. As you all know, we have a huge thanks to the generous tax paying citizens of Oakland and Alameda County. We have a huge investment in early childhood. But as what's been communicated even from some of our comments, we have a national teacher shortage. It's a national teacher shortage. We have a decline in people that are actually going and getting their credentials, which means we have to ramp up nationally apprenticeship programs, really figuring out ways to take pair of professionals, support them to become teachers, and other classified staff. And we're now reaching into our students. Really bleeding and and, braiding and combining what we're doing with link learning so that we can have our students both help to solve some of our labor shortages. We're talking about special education, and early childhood and other educators. So just really want talent office who've worked together and our community colleges, to provide these experiences, which is increased engagement for students because they know they're getting college credits, and they can actually go to school and and, actually graduate and have some employment right at their fingertips. The last thing that I wanted to share, and I sent this president, Rouhard and Vice President Bachelor to you, I just wanted to share some information from the Alameda County Office of Education. Many of you know for many years as a district, we've been in differentiated assistance for a total of 8 categories. As of today, we have moved out of differentiated assistance for 7 of those 8 categories, and they're all related to specific student groups. So the one area where we still must focus, PSAC has brought this up, many of our community members have brought this up, our foster youth. For any of you all who follow the California dashboard, performance and academic acceleration, socio emotional acceleration is rated by colors. It's kind of confusing, but that's how the state rates. Red, orange, yellow, green and blue being the highest performance. Every district is put in differentiated assistant for any subgroup that is in red, which is the lowest tier. We still are in red for our foster youth students, both for graduation and for suspensions. The other 7 categories where we were in red but we have made progress and so we're now out of differentiated assistance are for our English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, sometimes they're referred to as Title 1 students, students with disabilities, African American, American Indian, Hispanic, Latino Latina and Pacific Islanders. And I wanna read specifically, I'm reading directly from the the letter, the acceleration increase. 15.2% increase in English language arts for students with disabilities. All of these increases are based on the metric of the SBAC, which is the standardized test all students have to take in the state of California. 17.4 point increase in math for students with disabilities. 20.2. Increase in English language arts Arts for African American students, 17.4 point increase in math for African American students, 29.4 point decrease in chronic absenteeism for English learners, 32.7 point decrease in chronic absenteeism for Hispanic students and 8.1% increase in graduation rate for English learners. So again, there is still much, much more work to do. But I do want to point out the growth from some of our investments from our 4 strategic plan areas. So that concludes my report. And President Bruchard, I will give the mic back to you. There's no public comment on this. Are there any board comments on the report? Go ahead, director Thompson. Madam president? Oh, there is. Sorry. I was looking at the top part of it. I'm sorry. That's my fault. Do we have public comment on this? Yes. There are 3. Assata Olobala, Janelle Harris, Ben Tapscott. Thank you, superintendent, for your report. I always look forward to reading them. However, a lot of the statistical data is not there for African Americans. And I feel like the pattern is when there's not a good number for us, then we stay off of these reports. And I keep all of your reports, and I go through them 1 by 1 to compare where we are in absenteeism, in math, in reading. You haven't given any statistics on that because we know by state have declared that we are the lowest reading level. We know that. And that's a concern. It's like if the numbers are good or bad, we wanna hear them. The public has a right to hear because it's not real if you don't tell. Right? And so I would ask that you consider putting those numbers on here because I wanted to be realistic and real. Right? You didn't even call out our graduation rates, Emma Clemens. And we have a good graduation rates with AG requirements. We have always had a good graduation rate with d one colleges, d two colleges, colleges you don't expect our children to get into. So I would ask that when you are giving these reports, if you give us a little more data on African American students just so we know where we're at. You know? Do we need to do better? Like, what can we do to help and support? What kind of supports do we need? I mean, I know the supports we need for our special education student because my son happens to be one. So I see it. I'm involved. I'm there. I participate. And so I know these IEPs like the back of my hand, and our children can't get help if they're not being given the tools that they need. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. The the statement is made that we are working towards ensuring strong readers. What is a strong reader? In my opinion, a strong reader is someone who has a love and a habit and an enjoyment of reading. Just to have someone capable of reading the words and not having a passion for continuation for wanting to read, that's a strong reader. I always say that a a strong reader is someone who has the ability to have comprehension of what they're reading. Okay? So I hope when we are developing children, we find ways of having them enjoy reading to the point that they wanna do it independently, and that is a part of a requirement. Graduation rate. It is my goal that every child will I'm sorry. Every young person will graduate with the capacity of saying everything that I have done in my work has been at great level because that's not happening. When you give accomplishments like Rosedale, a good accomplishment of 25% of their graduation rate, it would help to understand how they got there, how they got there. And I know how they got there because I read this agenda, and I understand Ruggsdale has gotten a tremendous amount of support and investment related to resources and services, and that's good. That's good. And we gotta work to get the balance of everybody getting the same if we can, particularly my school, McClimans. Oakland Promise. I don't know how Oakland Promise works in this district. It's mentioned in your report. What do they do? They're supposed to be at McClimans. We don't know. They must be doing undercover work at McClimans. So please give us an opportunity to understand. They got a lot of money from that measure AA to invest in us. So let's make sure it's happening that they are truly investing in the, the career college readiness that they're supposed to be doing and the support after college that they're supposed to be doing, brilliant babies that they're supposed to be doing. Okay. My time's you gotta tell me when my time's up. I know. Let me finish your sentence. I'm sorry. That's okay. And I appreciate you allowing us to have ample time to talk tonight, giving us a 2 minutes. I appreciate you. And, I wish that you would do well with your leadership because you're trying to be fair and continue to do that with the community. Thank you. Are there any board comments on the superintendent's report? Yes. Director Thank you very much, president Prohard. Superintendent, thank you very kindly for your report. I always look for, bright lights in what you say, and there were so many bright lights, and I'm so excited about that. When you talked about, how, the SIPs mastery is is showing great promise for us, when you talked about the phonics and the decoding mastery, when you talked about the graduation rates, when you talked about the a to g rates, and I'm so excited to hear those kinds of things happening because now I'm putting my teacher hat on. As a teacher, I think, evidently, there must be some kind of communication and collaboration going on, which sort of leads to understanding vertical articulation for grades. And so thank you very much for allowing that to take place. I also want to mention that I really enjoyed the highlights of the success of our elementary and secondary schools. So I see a change, a turnaround in what's really happening. So thank you very much for that. And then what also makes me very happy is that, when I was reading through the report, I noticed that there are several schools who allow their students to participate in dual enrollment. All of us probably on DES, we know that dual enrollment is a big help because it actually cuts down on the amount of money that you have to spend to go to school to get a college degree if you can finish some of your work before you have to enter college. I just want to, just recount something that happened at a school where I was a principal. A kid graduated with his AA the day before he graduated with his high school diploma, and it was all because of dual enrollment. And I'm just thinking about how that's going to help that kid, but then also how all of our kids in OUSD, they'll actually benefit from those kinds of those kinds of services being provided. And the very, very last thing is the power of wraparound services in a school. Even though individuals might not articulate each one as a service, we understand that it's wraparound services that's helping not only the child him or herself, but the entire family and the community. Thank you for the highlights. I really appreciate your telling us about it. Thank you very much. You. Yeah. I really appreciate, your thorough report. I asked though that, your reports moving forward, include any enrollment updates that we have, as we are entering open enrollment, and we have seen the closure of, schools by both the county and our school district. And so it would be helpful to know, how much we're increasing in enrollment, possibly each month as a part of your report, and if there are any specific school sites that folks are choosing, so that we can, understand how that's gonna impact our budget, moving forward. Thank you for your report. I was particularly pleased to see some of the community partnerships. I think particularly one at Madison where the students are actually graduating with a early childhood credential. I mean, I think in terms of employment, I think in terms of being able to come into education and hopefully, stay and continue to work in it. I think that's a really great partnership. And I was also pleased, of course, with the middle school math. I think that was also important. I echo what, vice president Batchelor said. I think keeping up with our enrollment data as we go through this process. I think that was it. I think also the the partnership with Cypress Mandel. I think this really does give students, you know, chance to come out with careers and and to be ready to work with them. But I do wanna echo what you said about dual enrollment. I think that, to me, dual enrollment, I think for a number of reasons, I think, 1, students getting the experience of being in college, so that as they go into a 4 year college, they've also had that experience and that independence of managing and learning, you know, at a higher level. I would also like to see that same opportunity offered to our students at the young adult program, many of whom most of whom are are also dual enrolled at Laney. Thank you. With that, I'm not going to give a president's report because we're too much to report on tonight. I don't know if there are any regular if any board members have reports. K. Director of yeah. Go ahead. Just a quick report. I wanna make sure that folks know that, I'm still the facilities chair, and so our next facilities meeting will be on January 16th. And I welcome, our newest, board director on that committee, miss Berry or director Berry to that committee, and, director Thompson. So I look forward to having more conversations around our facilities. There is there are no new legislative introduction of legislative matters. And with that, our first meeting is adjourned.