Welcome to school board meeting, 03/26/2025. We will get started, by calling roll call. Mister Se Chow, can you establish quorum, please? Yes. On the roll call to establish call first roll call to establish call for today's meeting as stated by vice president Bachelor, student director Simmons, student director Vasquez, director Lauder? Present. Director Williams? Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Present. And director Thompson? Present. Vice president Bachelor? Present. President Brujahard. Cole?
Present. So in closed session this evening, we're gonna, tackle d one twenty four dash one nine two six, which is conference with legal with labor negotiations, item d two twenty five dash zero eight three eight, which is conference with legal counsel on existing litigation. Item 20 item d three, twenty three dash seventeen forty four b, which is conference legal counsel on anticipated litigation. Item D4, twenty four dash nineteen sixty seven, pupil I'm I'm sorry.
Public employees, superintendent of schools. Item D525Dash07224, expulsion, student queue. Mister Saitraub, do we have any public comments on oh, and now we're gonna go to an interpretation check, our first of the evening. Yes. Thank you, vice president Bachelor. For tonight's meeting, we have three language two languages available. They are Arabic and Spanish. We also have a translation closed caption feature available on Zoom that you can use by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar.
With that, we will move to interpretations. I will lower all hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the languages being announced, which at this time is Arabic. And I will call to miss Abdi to do the interpretation announcement for Arabic. I will do it, mister, Alice, if you don't mind. Okay. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, miss Saleh. Checking the attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not start with Arabic interpretation at this time. Moving forward to Spanish,
I will lower all attendees' hands. Please only raise your hand if you need the language that's being announced at this time, which is Spanish, and I will call on mister Copenhagen to do the Spanish announcement for this announcement. Thank you. Thank you, mister Thank you, mister Copenhagen. Checking the attendees to see if we have any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. I'm sorry. For Spanish interpretation. My apologies. Seeing no hands, we will not start with any interpretation at this time. That is, that will conclude our first, translation announcement for this evening,
and I pass it back to you, madam president. Thank you. We will now take a public comment on closed session items. Mister Hollis, do we have anybody mister Seichau, do we have anybody, scheduled to provide public comment? There is no public comment on closed session. Okay. We will now recess to closed session to return sometime around 05:30 or so. I'd like to welcome everyone to the March 26 board meeting. Can we have a roll call to establish quorum, please?
Yes. On the second roll call to establish quorum for today's meeting, Student Director Simmons? Here. Student Director Vasquez? Director Latta? Present. Director Williams? Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Present. Director Thompson? Present. Vice president, bachelor? Present. President Brujah? Present. Koral, present. Thank you. And, mister Hollis, can we have a translation check, please? Yes, madam president. For tonight, we have two languages available for live interpretation. They are Arabic and Spanish. We also have a translation closed caption feature available on Zoom that you can use
by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. With that, we will roll into announcements of live interpretation. We will start with Arabic. I will lower all attendees' hands. Excuse me, hands. Please only raise your hand if you need, the language that's being announced, which is Arabic. And I will ask miss Abdi if she can come off mute and give the translation announcement for Arabic. Okay. Arabic interpretation is none. Thank you, miss Abdi. Checking attendees to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands,
we will not start with Arabic interpretation at this time. Moving forward to Spanish. I will lower all attendees' hands. Please only raise your hand if you need the language that's being announced at this time, which is Spanish. Also, if you are in the public and you need a translation laptop, you can see the tech support to your left underneath the basketball court for a translation laptop. With that, I will ask mister Dela Torre if he can come off mute and give the announcement for Spanish. Yes. Of course. Thank you. Thank you,
mister Dela Torre. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there's any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands, we will not start with any interpretation at this time. That concludes the second announcement for live interpretation, and I will pass it back to madam president. Thank you, mister Hollis. 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 experiences of our students, staff, families, and broader community.
It is critical that all of us up here, both on the dais and in the audience, model the respectful interactions that we would like to see our students have in their classrooms, athletic communicate, competitions. I'm now going to report back items for at several, meet times tonight, there are several allotted times where you may make public comments provided you preregister to speak online before or before the meeting started. Or if you filled out a comment card, which you can find on the table by the entrance, you can, submit those cards at any time. We will have public comments after special orders of the day, all non agenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the district,
adoption of the pupil discipline report, adoption of the general consent report, adoption of the general consent report facilities, student board members student board members' report, unfinished business items. There are two items, both with public comment, and new business items. There are also two comment two items under that. There will be public comment after the superintendent's report, and that is it. If we run out of time and we can't hear your comments, you can always email us at our OUSD accounts, firstnameperiod,lastname@ousd.org.
In closed sessions, on item d one, number 241,926, conference with labor negotiators, the board discussed this matter. On legal items, item d two, number two five dash zero six three eight, conference with legal counsel existing litigation. The board gave direction on this matter, motion by vice president Bachelor, second by director Thompson, and the vote was approval five to zero. Absent, director Hutchinson and director Williams. On d three, number twenty three one seven four four b, conference with legal counsel,
anticipated legal litigation, The board gave direction on this matter, motion by vice president Bachelor, second by director Thompson, the vote five to zero with director Hutchinson and director Williams absent. On the public employment matter, on item d four, number 24 dash one nine six seven, public employment, superintendent of schools, the board discussed this matter. Under pupil matters on items d five, the board heard this matter and will vote on the matter in public in section k on the agenda. This is the end of the closed session report. Tonight, we have several,
celebrations honoring our classified staff. But before we begin, I wanna ask if there are any modifications to the agenda. I have yours. So the ones I have so far, we will move the student report after k, and we will move items r one and r two after the student report. And we will pull, l four for discussion, when we get to the l section. Are there any other items that you wanna pull? That's yours. President? Yes. We'd also like to pull from staff's, from staff 2046.
Can you give me the number, the l what number? It's 250546. This is a consent calendar. Right? Consent items. I'm sorry. And seeing no further modifications yeah. Both ours. Okay. We are now gonna move to special orders of the day. Before we begin, tonight, we honor our classified staff, and that's always a great celebration this time of year. But I wanna take a moment before we do to honor two respected and loved OUSD staff who recently passed. Nathaniel Osborne, a paraprofessional at Castlemont High School,
and Azra Ralph, a TK direct teacher at Malcolm at Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School. Coach Nate, as I know him, was a highly respected educator at CasaMonte. And last week, I heard principal Blascher talk about the impact mister Osborne had on Castlemont Students and community. He had that same impact on the baseball field as a highly respected coach for many boys playing on his future stars baseball teams. Coach Nate, as I knew him, and he knew me as grandma, Kingston's grandma, will be missed by many youth whose lives he impacted. Rest in peace,
coach Nate. I wanna be the second one I'm This one right here. Okay. Azra Ralph was a vibrant and lively person who taught general and special education for over fifty years. She started her journey as a teacher at Martin Luther King Junior Elementary in the 1980s, and miss Ralph had two sons and two granddaughters. Her she loved her family dearly. Miss Ralph was loved and respected by many of her colleagues. She was remembered with for her kindness, hard work, and wisdom, and unique and cool perspective. She was a beautiful, wonderful soul. Miss Ralph passed away on Sunday,
March 23. Surrounded by her family and friends, rest in peace, Miss Ralph. So, again, our thoughts go out to the families of both, of FIGOESD staff. But now we get to celebrate our really honored classified staff, and I know miss Gard really puts a lot into this celebration. We wanna give as much time for people to celebrate with their families and their friends. This is a a great honor and, to our classified staff. Okay. Was I not talking into it clearly? Is that better? Sorry. I apologize. No. It's No?
Oh, there you go. Okay. You can hear me now? Yes. Okay. Good evening, superintendent, board, and community. I'm honored to recognize our twenty twenty four, 20 five classified school employees of the year. These are outstanding employees who play key roles in the creation and maintenance of school environments that promote student achievement, safety, health, and well-being. In order to be considered for recognition, employees are nominated by their supervisors and peers. They excel in work performance, school and community involvement, leadership and commitment,
going above and beyond as it relates to contributions towards schools, student success, and our district values. So today, we have eight wonderful employees that we are gonna recognize, and I'm gonna call each one up individually. And I'll also read to you what, what we learned about each of these employees from their peers and supervisors. So the first person I'm calling up is miss Elva Castillo. Elva? K. Elva is she has served as a paraeducator at Cleveland Elementary School for twenty eight
years and is being recognized in the paraprofessional category. And I wanna say, a little bit about what we heard about Elva. This is what was said about you. Our entire staff will attest that she is the most patient, kind, and joyful person on staff and is always there with a hug and a smile for every student and adult in the community. Her soft spoken nature obscures her incredible strength. She is astoundingly passionate on behalf of our most vulnerable students. And so with that,
we thank you for everything that you've done for our students. Thank you to the board of education. Thank you to the principal of Cleveland Elementary, mister Peter Van Tassel, for the nomination, and thank you for my family for being here tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next honoree is miss I I call her miss Ochoa. Amparo Ochoa. She's come on up, miss Ochoa. Alright. I say I call her miss Ochoa because we worked together in talent for, what, ten years? I wanna say about ten years or eleven years.
But now she is a program assistant one in Oakland adult and career education. She's been there at OUSD for seventeen years and is being recognized in the clerical and administrative services. And so that you oh, let me give you your sorry. Let me give you your welcome. And what is said about, Amparo Ochoa is many of our babysitters come to her directly because Amparo is known for her follow through. Her primary language is Spanish, and we have multiple languages,
but she manages workarounds. She figures things out to assist them in navigating the complicated systems of the district and beyond. Many of these staff members are limited in her speakers, and she helps them apply to jobs online. She always follows up, ensuring she's done what she said she was going to do. She wants to support the students and make sure that they're successful, and she truly goes beyond her job description to increase the chances of them accomplishing their goals. And so we thank you, miss Ophela. Thank you. I thank
everyone. Okay. Our next nominee is Jenny. I'll start talking about Jenny as she's walking up. So Jenny is a program assistant ten at the Central Kitchen. She's worked for OUSD for twenty four years, and she is being recognized in the food and nutrition services category. And, just a little bit about Jenny. Jenny represents the best and the brightest of the production team staff. You're welcome. She is a leader she is a leader for our on for our line personnel and is the go
to person a good deal of the time. Her presence represents an improved morale which leads to more consistent quality of the meals in our schools. If a machine has stopped in production, we're losing money. Two minutes saved is like an eternity in a production kitchen. Jenny represents our eyes and ears, ensuring services keep running smoothly. Wherever she's needed, Jenny is there almost without being asked. She is a watchful she is watchful and proactive. And we thank you,
Jenny, for everything that you Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Jenny. My English is German. Please forgive me if I cannot still yell. I have been work for the food production twenty four years. I'm very happy to receive it and your support. I will continue regarding my future. Thank you, and thank you for family support. Okay. Our next honoree is Beverly Phillips. Whoo. Beverly is the lead custodian for Burkhalter Elementary and has been with OUSD for eighteen
years. Beverly is being recognized in the custodial and maintenance services category. And I'm gonna I'm gonna share about Beverly. Beverly Phillips takes pride in our school. Every nook and cranny shines every day. Everything is ultra clean, whether with the sanitizing of the doors or cleaning of floors, classrooms, restrooms, or common areas. She holds to a high standard of cleanliness and oversees the quality of our site's maintenance, keeping a watchful eye on conditions. She is always there with very little direction needed,
and there is nothing she wouldn't do for the children in our school. She has a station that's set up to guide students in determining what goes into compost, recycling, or landfill. She helps them learn about reducing waste and conserving their resources while delivering so much warmth to them at the same time. And so we thank you. Okay. So the next person I'm calling up is Alfredo, mister Freddy. He's being recognized in the security services category. Alfredo I'm sorry. I did not say your last name.
De La Torre. He is noon supervisor at Manzanita Community School and has been there for seven years. And I'd like to share with you a little bit about mister Freddie. I had to check with him and make sure. So everybody calls him mister Freddie at school. Mister Freddie always comes to school with a smile and a positive energy. At recess, you will find him with our students, from playing and coaching soccer to helping solve problems to finding that one student who's maybe feeling sad or is just shy and making them feel included. Mister Freddie is someone whom the kids trust.
Mister Freddie is the person known for keeping students fully safe and cared for while they are in school. His attention is a % with the students. The kids know and love him. He not only keeps the kiddos physically safe, but equally as important, emotionally safe. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm honored I'm honored to be mentioned with everyone, all the nominees tonight. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Our next, nominee is Jaylee, Jayleeza. Sorry. Collins,
and she has served as a college and career readiness specialist at Fremont High School for seven years. Jayleeza cannot be here tonight, but her sister is. And her sister, Jakara, Colin oh. Uh-huh. There we go. So her sister is, accepting her war for her tonight. And I wanna let you know what they're talk what they've said about your sister. So Jalise's influence with and for students is phenomenal. Youth facing work is where she thrives. She stays fully connected to students to student interest and is always considering how to
make things happen for Fremont students that students at other schools have. Beyond the school walls, Jaleeza was a co presenter at the twenty twenty five educating for careers CTE conference, transforming academy culture, inspiring educators, honoring students, and creating routes to achievement. She opens the school on Saturdays, stays late on weekdays. She meets students where they are to make sure they get the support that they need for their future. Thank you. Thank you. K. Our next, nominee is Peter Buno,
student oh. Peter is, our student information specialist three in tech services. He's been there for nine years. He's being recognized in the technical services category. And what was said about Peter, started off in the summer of twenty twenty one. We were just coming back from COVID, and phone and email communications with home, was especially important. It was an incredibly heavy lift, but right away, Peter, along with operations and clerical staff, cleaned up thousands and thousands of contacts, something like 55,000
users. As of this morning, we're 99.7% contactability across the district. That means we're we have a valid email or phone number for almost all of our 35,000 students. Peter is the key person working with the network team as we've sought to streamline student email accounts, which not only get them into Aeries portals, but those accounts are used to log into Google Chromebooks, state testing, and EdTech applications. His role is critical to the student learning experience, and his influence on the Ares system is core to its proper functioning.
And so we thank you, Peter. I wanna thank God for all that he blesses me with. I'm very thankful to be named as, tech services employee of the year. It has a long history of very amazing technical minds. And to be named as employee of the year, I feel like I'm standing on the shoulders of Giants. It's really an amazing team. I'm thankful for Susan Belt for all that she has done to mentor me throughout the years. Very thankful to Kirsten and Chmedriksen who, or you may know know him as TJ. They did amazing support for the Parent Square system as well.
I work with an amazing team, and I'm very thankful for that. Thank you. And we have our final last but not least, nominee, which is Bobby Baton. Alright. Bobby Veyton. He has served as a carpenter with Buildings and Grounds for thirty four years. He's being recognized in the skills trades services category. And what's said about you is that Bobby is a great guy. Everyone likes to work with him, and it's not only because he's as knowledgeable as he is.
He's a true craftsman. Cabinet making is his specialty. Everyone in buildings and grounds and beyond also loves working with him because he brings so much joy and laughter to the workplace. Bobby is an avid boxer. Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, he's at the gym. Kids from our schools go down there too. So when they see Bobby in the ring, in his way, he's teaching students out of the box things like confidence, patience, and discipline. Then when he sees them at school, they know him, and they want to emulate him.
He's been part of this community for over forty years. Raised in Oakland, he went to Castlemont High School himself, so he's part of them too. And we thank you. Thank you. And thank you for this award. Thank Mark White for nominating me. My mother is a retired Oakland Unified School teacher, and my wife also taught for OUSD. I went to Webster Parker King Junior High and graduating from Castlemont. And so working at the school sites, it's a it's a personal project. It's not just a work order to be completed.
I appreciate this. I appreciate this award. Thank you very much. I just want to say a few words on behalf of my brother. First of all, I want to thank good evening to board and our superintendents and everybody here. We are gathered here to honor our own and acknowledge few of our best souls in OESD that have been giving % every day. They've been loyal to OESD and the kids that we serve for the number of years. I would like to thank you all of you, each personally from both of my heart, for hard work and dedication. But mainly,
I'm here to recognize my brother, Bobby Badom, and thank you, one of our BG, BTC brother. He's somebody that has been with OESD and BNG for thirty four years. He's someone that's hardworking brother, very loyal, great person to be around. I know him for fifteen years now, and he's someone with great work ethics, craftsmanship, and and knowledge. I just wanna say to Bobby, keep good at work and keep doing it. And this is the true meaning of sentence, we work for kids. And not just to say it, but also to live by it. We are all OUSD.
Thank you. Good evening, Board. My name is Phoebe Wen, SEIU Second Vice President and Occupational Therapist. SEIU proudly congratulates four of our distinguished members, Amparo Ochoa, program assistant, Peter Bugno. I hope I'm saying that right. Sorry. Student information specialist, Alfredo De La Torre, noon supervisor, and Jaleeza Collins, college and career readiness specialist. This recognition is a testament to your passion, dedication, and commitment to excellence. You embody OUSD's core values,
creating a positive and nurturing environment where students can thrive. Thank you for your dedication to Oakland Students and our school communities, representing s I SEIU Local ten to one with high regard. And with that, thank you, and I'll turn it to the board. I believe we're going to, give some presents, I guess, and, take a picture. So if all the honorees would come up to the steps there, we will give you your presence and take your picture. I I think you I am looking for come by and check out Oh, no. Jimmy's. Yeah. You too.
You so deserve it. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I ain't enough of this. Oh. Alright. Can we have a motion on the floor to adopt the recognition of the OUSD classified employees of the year? So moved. And second. And we have ten minutes of public comment. Is there a public comment on this item? Yes, chair. Two speaker has spoken, Phoebe and Beshia, but we have one additional, Ben Tapscott. Okay. And are there any on Zoom? No registered Zoom. Okay. Thank you. Two minutes, Faye. Checking to see if Ben Tapscott is present?
Okay. Mister Tapscott, do you wanna come to the, microphone, please? Mister Tapscott, you signed up to speak on this item? We have public comment now on the recognition of the employees of the year. Right. It's Go ahead. Go ahead. You have two minutes if you'd like to speak, mister Tepska. Oh, no? Okay. Mister, Sajak, can we have a roll call, please? Yes. On the roll call to adopt resolution number 2425Dash0076, recognition of twenty four twenty five classified school employees of the year.
Student director Simmons? Yes. Student direct excuse me. Student director Vasquez? Director Latta? Yes. Director Williams? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice president Bachelor? Yes. And president Brujahard? Yes. The motion is adopted. Thank you. We now have thirty minutes of public comment on non agenda items. Are there any speakers, mister Secho? Yes, we do. We have approximately 25 speakers. Sorry. Do we have any speakers on Zoom? We do not have any registered speakers on Zoom.
Okay. We'll give one minute each. First five speakers. First five speakers are Lorena Gonzalez, Sandra Ramos, Rocio Araujo, Ariel, and Cecilia Perez. Those are the first five speakers. And can you adjust the clock to one minute, please? Yes. Note it. Thank you. Yeah. I do see that Leticia is online. Yeah. Good evening. My name my my name is Lorena, and I'm here my name is Lorena, and I'm here because I want to advocate for my son. I'm happy to before that, Lorena said that she's happy to see Jennifer. It's nice to see that,
to see all of you again. And she said that the reason she's here is just to advocate for her herself. Her son is is is in special education, and it seems that they are going to, remove 200 feet from special education, and they need the space. That's why I understood 200 feet, and, and, they need the space to support the students. She's advocate she's advocating for her son and for all the students that need the space or they need the, education of quality TV for for everyone in the school. So that's the reason that she's here to support
that. Next speaker. Go ahead. Hi. My name is Cecilia Perez. I'm born and raised in Oakland. I went to school in a few different areas, including Downtown Oakland, the 3070, Sobrani Park, and now closed East Oakland Leadership Academy. I am SSC president at my daughter's school in the Sobrani Park area. I'm here because I believe every child needs to be individually assessed to receive the unique tools they need to learn at their own capability because not every child is the same and not every child learns the same. As a part of our campaign to advance black and brown students achievement,
families in action, parent and youth leaders have been meeting with different educational stakeholders to understand what opportunities exist so we could turn around the education crisis in Oakland. I'm here to report that so far we met with directors Cliff Thompson, Patrice Berry, Rachel Latta, OUSD's Monica Thomas, doctor Sabrina Moore, and ACOE trustee Ken Barrick. We plan on reaching out to all members to of this board to meet with our youth and families to make some academic progress in this district before more of our kids fall through the cracks. All of you come with such a wealth of knowledge and experience that we want
to learn about and build as we envision a better Oakland for our young people whose futures are in our hands. Thank you. Good evening, OSD board of directors. My name is Sandra Ramos, and I'm here with fellow LWL families to address your proposal to further reduce our Interior non teaching space. As a conversion charter, Prop 39 calculations allocate us 18,463 square feet for critical student interventions, yet we're already over 4,700 square feet short.
Your proposal to cut an additional 2,000 square feet next year will severely impact interventions like therapy, small group instruction, and sensory safety. My son, Christian Rivas, receives weekly therapy to develop social skills and daily academic intervention services made possible by dedicated professionals, including mister Luis, miss Edwards, mister Hall, and mister Lucas, and other LWL staff. Reducing this space threatens these essential supports and violates our students' rights. Displacement would disrupt specific services such as speech therapy,
sheltered English immersion, learning lab, Ignite Reading Services, IEP Thank you. Your time is up. Thank you. I'm sorry. We have to stick to the one minute. We have a lot of speakers tonight. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Santos. I'm the father of Rebecca Linda with, you know, she's with, Reading Without Limits. Previously, our school, which is conversion school, charter school, did not have enough room on teaching space to provide direct intervention services to students. As a result, our school had to convert two of our 19 classrooms for the purpose currently.
Rebecca Linda received speech therapy, reading, and writing support through Ignite classrooms that are that sorry about that. Which are carried out in the two classrooms you guys want to remove, wants to remove next year. And his in her previous school, she did not get enough, they didn't help her out enough. In this school, she has, you know, her sorry about that. You know damn it. In this school, she actually, you know, got the support she needs. She she got a bunch of improvement. And, well, yeah, that's sorry about that. I missed it.
Thank you. Next speaker, please. Next speaker, there was stated that they're online, but their hands are not up. So I would go to the next five speakers. Okay. So I see Ariel. Ariel, if you could unmute yourself to speak. Okay. Is it unmuted? I don't know if it is. You're fine. We can hear you. Okay. Okay. Good evening, OUSD board directors. My name is Ariel Palacios, and my daughter is Melody Lopez. She is a third grader at Learning Without Limits. I'm here with the other concerned parents whose children receive excellent services at LWL but are at risk if our non instructional space is reduced.
Melody gets speech and occupational therapy at LWL, and I have seen such a big change from first grade till now. Not only does Melody benefit from her services, but when when she gets overstimulated as she gets out of class to go to the learning lab, per her parents help her. They help her regroup and calm down. She could go back into class and feel comfortable. I used to have to go to Richmond, San Leandro, and Downtown Oakland to get the services she needed. It has been a blessing that she has all her services offered at her school where we as a family feel supported. Her district prop 39 calculations,
LWL should receive about 18,500 square feet of non teaching space. We currently have 5,000 square feet less than that, and taking away the additional spaces in your proposal would put this put us at 7,000 square feet deficient of non instructional interior space. Please consider this in your decision making. We would really appreciate it, and we trust you all want to to protect the well-being of our kids. Thank you, and have a good night. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Next registered registered speaker is Jackie Brooks. If you could unmute yourself. Hi. Good evening. My name is Jackie Brooks.
I am a native of Deep East Oakland. I went to Cox Academy and graduated from Casa Motte. My family has been in the Deep East for generations. I first became involved with Families in Action because I am the primary caretaker of my granddaughter, who is a third grader in Oakland, and she is not reading on her grade level. And I wanted to learn how to support her in her reading. We know most most of our kids are left behind and cannot do read or do math on their grade level at Oakland. And our resolution to advance the black and brown student achievement that o USD board
members passed four to three last June, we outlined three goals, double reading and math proficiency, an increase in a to g completion from 80 to 50%. These goals are directly related to how the data looks now in Oakland. Black Students increased e l e ELA proficiency by 1.8, but overall, just 19% of black students are grade level. Latino student proficiency declined 23 to 22. Black students proficiency increased 1.2 in math, but Latino students declined negative five.
Eight to 90% of our students are getting left behind with no significant gains are being made in reading and math. My granddaughter is represented in these numbers. Actual families and students are left being left behind. At the current rate, we're not making progress toward our I'm sorry. Your time is up. Next speaker, please. Next five speakers are Andrea Dossett, Asala Lobala, Laura Nguyen, Tatiana Nova, and Gregory Nash. Good evening, board. And, I, wrote have written several emails to you about, the
1025 Second Avenue not moving forward in relation to the capital improvements program, the measure j, a, b, and j. And I'm asking you all to carefully reconsider the reallocation that was passed, prior to coming to the CBOC. And I'll say that, Andrew Butler from the chair of the has requested that we take a site visit to 1025 And Ralph Bunch, and we get all the information on those properties because they're liabilities right now,
not assets. There is parties going on across the street. They've run electrical from the building. I've visited six times now. I have lots of pictures. I'm gonna send you more. And I went to bunch, and it's a mess too. And so these properties are not assets right now. They're liabilities. Thank you. Next speaker, please. First, I would I I thank you all for honoring the work of the many people who make schools what they are. Moving on. Hello, OESD Ward. My name is Luan Nguyen. I'm a junior at OCH at Oakland Charter High School,
which is currently going through their renewal appeal. Today, I stand in front of you all to make a public comment on behalf of of families in action. I'm currently one of the their youth leaders going through an informative internship about the state of education in Oakland and how we can effectively address the situate this these disparities. Did you know that there it would take four generations for Oakland to supply black and brown students with quality education so they can achieve a % proficiency. In my first meeting with if I if I I learned this this statistic,
something that seems so unfathomable and so astounding that I was instantly outraged. We must act now. Many many families in Oakland cannot wait for generations. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. Good evening, board members. My name is Tatiana Novo, and I'm the student body president, Alaina Wilson, and I'm a youth leader with Families in Action. Thank you so much for the time. I wanna take the time to say thank you to board members Rachel Latta, Patrice Berry, and Cliff Thompson. Last month, we had we got a get together on the bus where we had many school leaders, board members, and community members to join both my school, Lionel Wilson,
and Oakland High School. This was a great opportunity to highlight some amazing growth within a through g outcomes for our Oakland Students. During our student panel portion at Oakland High, students representing both charter and district students acknowledge the growth a through g outcomes, but also stated that is not enough. We need to make sure a through g completion is a priority, and each of our students should be graduating with the choice to go to a four year college. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. Hello, board members, directors. My name is Gregory Nash. I'm a lay assigned family parent at Hoover. I'm 63 years old,
and my family graduated out of all West Oakland High Schools way back in the sixties or seventies. So I'm I'm here I'm up there at Hoover now with my grandson, Davontay, who's three third grade. His dad got killed in West Oakland, when he was eight months old, and I decided to turn back into a father. So you say that? I'm also a family liaison parent up at Hoover. And, there's been a struggle in West Oakland, you know, for for the kids up there. So, I think that it's very important that our children can read and write, and we're not really seeing a reality right now. And we're actually we're taking this to run and what actions are you guys taking
in the remaining months for our literacy and our math to produce in our schools? And, I want better for our black and brown students up there if I can say anything about it. But I'm really proud of you board members up there. You guys keep on doing the good work, and let's help our kids. Oh, well. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I'm concerned about your policy that relates to volunteers that come into the schools. They are supposed to go through a series of qualifications, and one of them is that they have to go through,
fingerprinting for background check. That's required by you, but it's also required by the state. For whatever reason, you gave a waiver to have the background check if the individual volunteering is under the supervision of an OUSD employee. I don't know how you can do that. That background check is being done to make sure that we don't have people among our children, particularly people who are engaging in sexual predator predators, child abusers. You're also,
required to take a course dealing with reporting of child abuse and child neglect. You have to take a look at why you have this policy and correct it. Last and correct it. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Yes. The next five registered speakers are Maria Santana, Joe Coronado, Alex Luna, Jack Nelson, and Ben Tapscott. Good evening, esteemed board members. My name is Maria Santana, and I am a proud mother of three Latitude students, two of whom have graduated and are attending four year universities and one currently a
freshman at Latitude. I also have three nieces at Latitude, one of whom has also graduated and is in college. I was involved in helping establish Latitude, fighting for a high school that would support students' growth and prepare them for college success. My children credit Latitude with building their confidence and ability to face challenges, which they believe have been key to their college achievements. One of those ways is by participating in presentation of learning, which is part of the Latitude platform. Latitude's hands on teaching style shows how they put practice what they learn what they
learn into practice, like the self driving car my daughter built as a freshman or the tiny homes my son helped build. I invite you to come and visit our school to learn about the many other things that Latitude has to offer its students and community. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Joel Coronado, and I am a senior at Latitude High School. I've grown up in the projects of Oakland taking care of my dad since I was little or, well, in kindergarten. And although the circumstances were really bad,
it also sparked an interest in the medical field for me. And thanks to Latitude, not only have I found a community in which I don't have to hide the hardships I've gone through, they've also helped me with not only my learning, but my interest in the medical field as well. It's also thanks to their partners and programs that I was able to join the CHAMPS internship, which allows, high schoolers like myself to work in the children's hospital and get the work experience necessary, which has been absolutely life changing for me. And with that being said, I would like to personally extend a welcome and a invitation to our fellow board
members to come and visit the school to see not only how it has changed my life, but others as well. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Alex Luna, and I'm a senior at Latitude High School. At Latitude, I get to participate in projects that aim to solve real problems. My project was our my favorite project was our tiny home project, where my class constructed a whole house for homeless youth in Oakland. Measuring wood, assembling walls, and seeing our work actually shelter people was fulfilling. I realized that I wanted to be an engineer because I love designing and building
solutions with my hands. What makes Latitude different is that every project connects to our community. The tiny house project wasn't just a school assignment. It gave housing to someone who really needed it. It was proof that students like me can make a real difference. In addition, this experience led me to an engineering company where I worked as an intern with an electrical engineer to make a wiring diagram for a cold fusion reactor. They They were trying to develop renewable energy technologies capable of powering a neighborhood with a glass of water. However, my experiences alone are not enough to understand what may are not enough to understand
what makes it special. The best way to understand is to visit our school and see our work firsthand. Thank you. Thank you. President, Brujah, we do have additional speaker that just turned in, but I believe Jack Nelson. I was at the facilities, meeting last week, and I didn't give a good answer, but here is, a good answer about the Fardella beam, situation. Here's the letter. My name is Casey Adams, and I am the athletic director at Skyline High. I'm trying to make a push to rename the athletic complex at Skyline after former icon coaches, John Beam and Tony Fardella.
They were key figures in helping make Skyline Athletics a recognizable national name with over 100 student athletes receiving scholarships during their tenure. We have the full backing of the Skyline administration, community and alumni and are asking your permission in making this happen. Due to a full spring game schedule, I am unable to attend the meeting in person. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at kuresh.adams@0usd.org. And he says thank you for your time. And the climate's icon is next.
And it's good to recognize people that are still alive. Thank you. I'm gonna keep asking the question, why is Preston Thomas still working for Oakland? He's lied to you. He's lied to the people in West Oakland. This school district has closed a total of seven schools in one part of the city. We do not have a full middle school that feeds into my climates. They have to go all the way across town because Preston lied about what he was gonna do. We put Ralph Bunch over there,
and now we want to leave Ralph Bunch on the campus. We dealt with Lafayette. We dealt with the other charter school. I don't understand what you people are doing. There's no system to what the destruction you're doing to West Oakland. We need a full we need two middle schools in Oakland for parents that are having to travel outside their district. And he lied to you about the boilers because we have no warm water. Thank you. Cares about it or doesn't do anything about it. President Bruja,
we have one additional speaker. Okay. We have time for one more speaker. And it is Leticia Arahu Perez. Okay. If you could unmute yourself to speak. Yes. Hi. Good evening. My name is Leticia Adel Hoperis. I'm a SAU member and the admin assistant at Prescott Elementary. My point in speaking tonight is simply to highlight classified staff in regards to proposed budget cuts. I do hope you will consider removing the fact from some of the roly poly central offs office salaries of individuals who choose not to answer their phones or respond to emails in a timely manner and or never respond at all to inquiries from
the community at large. At School Science, we're expected to provide exceptional customer service with fast turnarounds. Though I'm not advocating for a complete chop from the top, there do need to be some adjustments to Centro staff salaries. There are SEIU members who are working two to three jobs, barely making ends meet for their families. There are many SEIU members who are very concerned about their job stability for the summer and the new school year. In conclusion, I do hope you will consider equitable salary adjustments for our SAU members in your continued budget discussions.
Thank you. Thank you. And that concludes public comment on non agenda items. The next item on the agenda is the adoption of the, Kaye, the adoption of the pupil discipline consent report. Is there a motion to adopt? Yes. I move the adoption of the pupil consent report. Second. And we have ten minutes of public comment on this agenda item only. Yes. We have Asaul Balor and Ben Tapscott. K. One minute each. Try to stay on topic, but this is too important. Tomorrow, there's a statewide meeting of individuals around literacy,
and a contributor is gonna be Lakisha Young from Oakland REACH. And she's gonna be telling how she's been successful with literacy tutoring here in Oakland. So I did some work into what they're doing. So they are training parents and individuals with a five week training program two two times, Tuesdays and Thursday, and these people go out and tutor math and English. I'm sorry. Math and reading. And my question is, someone is gonna be speaking to all the success they're having tomorrow.
I'm a be in the meeting at 12:00 on Zoom. And I have seen no evidence from this district to support that, that we have, we have been able to train people to tutor in our schools, and they're saying they're in 30 something schools, 32 schools doing this. And if it's happening, that's good and it's successful. But can you demonstrate that what she's gonna be saying tomorrow is actually going on and being successful in the district? Thank you. Next speaker, please. So I'm not sure where we are on the lead problem. Are there new board members up there?
Preston Thomas found out I'm sorry. I'm gonna we're speaking on the consent report. Oh, the consent report? Oh, on the adoption. People discipline. Sorry. Okay. That's the people. That is 25% Can black black Okay. Go ahead. Sorry. Are you through? So I'm through getting interrupted. I made clear that I can speak now without being interrupted. This district has about 25% black students. Why are we suspending almost 55%? And no one looks into what is the sys statistics showing so you can then
have some type of system to maybe stop. There are other ways to a situation besides a fight. And now I was there eighteen years and never sent a student out of my classroom. Did we have issues? Yes. But I listened to my students and tried to help them. No one's gonna look at why 25% compose 55%. Eight thousand adult prisons in The United States. Fifty Five of 55% of those people in jail are black students that cannot
read. Thank you. I apologize for cutting you off, coach. Mister, mister Satchow. Yes. That concludes the registered speakers. Okay. Can we take a roll, please? Yes. On the roll call to adopt the Pupil Discipline Consent Report, student director Simmons are excused. Student director are excused recused. Excuse me. Director Lauter? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice President Bachelor? Yes. And President Brujahart? Yes. The motion is adopted.
Okay. Next on the agenda, we have item n, which is student report, and we'll turn that over to our student board director. Good afternoon, community, parents, students, board, superintendent. In today's report, we're going to go over some student voice, student leadership, and student events. So first off, for student voice, I wasn't here last time to tell you guys about it. I think director Vasquez went over a little bit, but no one a b 68. A b 68 is an assembly bill that was proposed that will mandate at least
one armed police officer on every school campus in California. I'll be going to the capital on April 9 to speak against a b 68. In my opinion, we don't need we don't need guns and badges on our campuses right now. We need connection, and we need mentors, and we need mental health services. There's just a lot more we could be using with our funds than to get a gun and a badge on our campuses right now, especially in the time that we're in.
And as and we have a lot of students who are suffering who are suffering from mental health issues, and especially in underserved communities where these mental health issues are not being taken care of, or students are being falsely diagnosed. So with that being said, there's some ways you can support, on the slides, but if you can't see the slides, they're also on paper over there on the desk. So for some student leadership, me and director Vasquez went to the statewide conference,
Stand Up Speak Out. It was a conference held by a youth organization named the re the reclination project, if I remember correctly, which I'm good friends with the people who hosted the pro who hosted the conference. I spoke on a panel on Movement Builders Multicultural, Anti Carceral, and Insular and Solidarity Director Vasquez. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make her panel due to traffic, But it will her panel was youth power, young activists carrying the torch. I can speak from my panel.
Honestly, it was very empowering and very beautiful to see just a lot of youth come together as a collective to speak about the problems that or the issues that we're having in our communities and the way that we're solving them, and the way that we can solve them and are working to solve them. And it was also just a good time to get together with some people your age who are doing the same work that you're doing. It's, like I said, it's very empowering. And it's and it's one of those moments that keep you going.
You know, it's one of those moments where in your work that just keeps you going, and it's kind of why you do it. So it was a great conference. It had very good turnout and just kind of snaps to the people who the people who hosted it. But now to some student events, our high school committee, unfortunately I'm not in high school committee, I'm in middle school committee. So these are Director Vasquez words. Our high school committee met with Castlemont and Rosedale.
Rosedale students, and they worked on their public speaking skills with each other. Shout out to Caleb, our historian, and Stephanie, our secretary, for facilitating the day on their own. Students shared that vaping is a major issue in their schools, and they would like to have more college classes offered as well as a curriculum that is more rigorous. So students don't feel like classes are hard enough or we're or we're being challenged enough in our classes, which I can attest for. Classes are kind of easy and boring. And especially
when you're already not kind of interested in something. It being a challenge is something that is very important, especially for a lot of students who who feel like they need to be challenged to kinda be interested in something, which I also suffer from that. I'm I'm one of those people. And it's kind of disheartening when you're in class and you're already not interested in the subject, and the work is just very easy. It's like, well, why am I doing this? You know? I'm just not gonna do this. I'm not learning anything,
and it's not challenging me. And I'm not critically thinking. I'm not using my brain. So why even waste my time to do it? Students felt like many of their classes are too easy, and they don't need to attend class in order or pass in order to pass, which I can also attest for that. Just especially where everything is done on computers, it's very easy to not go to class and still turn your work in. A lot of teachers or staff or teachers use work that they can just look up on Google and find.
And if they can do it, we can do it. So it's real easy to find the cheat sheet or just something to fill out all your work. They also create a theme for the use for the youth action summit happening on April 18. And if you don't know what the youth act the youth action summit is, so if you're from PSAC or any other committees, the youth action summit is a time where youth get to it's hosted by all city council. Youth get together, and this is where we hold our all city council elections for coming up this
year. All city council is a team of 11 students. I'm a part of that team, two student directors, a president, vice president, all that good stuff. It is a team, and we basically serve we serve as the as a bridge between adult decision makers and youth decision makers, and we help out students. We look at this we look at students' needs, and we find out how can we how can we get students what they need? How can we get students what they need? And we do work surrounded by that all year long.
So if you have a kid in OUSD who might it's for high school students. But if you have a kid in OUSD that would like to join our city council and become a youth leader, then you should invite them to this event. At the next board meeting, I'll have the we'll have the poster for it so you can sign up for it if you would like to go or if you have any students that you know would like to go and get into a leadership position. And our theme is from we to we, we are stronger together, and we are taking power back.
And thank you. That concludes our report my our report. Mr. Satera, we have ten minutes for public comment. Yes. We have, excuse me, for public speakers. We have Asolo Lobala and Ben Tapscott. Thank you. Let's do one minute each. Just wanna give out a a shout out to, a school that's not a OUSD school. The school is Bishop O'Dow. Bishop O'Dow has a AP African American studies history program or course. And they were on channel two explaining why they have it,
and they invited me. I called them and invited me to their black history program. It was outstanding. And I'm very disappointed that we're not advocating for the return of African American studies or history. And my grandson is at a school, not in OUSD, but we, parents have been set out the curriculum for ethnic studies to review it. And they said the reason for ethnic studies is so we can have some, compassion or empathy for differences of people. And I agree that's very important. But you can't you can't have compassion for other people when you don't know who
you are, when you don't understand your history and your values and appreciate your culture. So to have the opportunity to learn about others and you don't know your stuff, it it just doesn't make any sense to me. But I appreciate Bishop O'Dow maintaining African American studies, AP African American studies. Well, that's kind of interesting because we pushed and wrote up a curriculum for black history students. And we said they could study the whole year on black history
and get an a at the end of the class. So they changed it to ethnic studies, but it still still was approved. And we ran that program for about three years before certain administrators chose to take it out. Three different types of people. Those that watch things happen, those that make things happen, and those that wonder what happened. Which one are you? The money that was being divided up was supposed to be Ralph Bunche was gonna
be remodeled. You see how quick they got coal up? So we have people going all the way across town for their child to be in a middle school. And we don't have the third boiler, which means we still don't have warm water. The only high school to accept my climate has warm water. Thank you. Are there any other comments? No. That could include public speakers. When I take board comments, we'll go through one round. And then if there are additional ones, we'll do a second round. Director Tom Williams. Sorry. Thompson. Sorry. Just wanna say that I certainly appreciated your update,
and what caught my attention is this bridge that you spoke of between adult decision makers and youth decision makers. And I think that's a very pivotal pivotal position that you take in order to make sure there is adequate communication between both groups of individuals. Thank you very much. Director Latta? Yes. I want to thank, Director Simmons for the report. I know Director Vasquez isn't here, but appreciate the work on the, high school meetings. I was able to attend,
for a bit the meeting at Castlemont. And so, probably everyone's getting ready for school tomorrow. But for the, students that I met there, just wanna appreciate the, the tough questions and I think the very clear vision for, what we could do better as a district. So, just, appreciate all the ACC students and all of our students out there and and your work to make it happen. Thanks. Yes. Echoing all that, great work. I wanted to respond directly to AB 68, and I'm wondering what we can do to support your advocacy on that front.
It sounds so bananas that I suspect that it won't go anywhere. But in this climate, you never know. So I I think Dexter's here. Is that Dexter? Maybe flag that for our policy team. But, also, it might be good to share that with city council just to get more eyes and ears on that. And then when you mentioned some of the feedback that you heard at your high school meeting, I'm wondering what your next step is and whether you all will sort of, like, engage in some ideation, some solution design around that because I think that would be helpful for leadership and
for the board to receive so that we have more guidance from you on how we might be able to address some of those concerns. Director Williams? Thank you, President Brohart. Just wanna thank, Director Simmons for sharing the feedback from other students throughout the district in regards to, the academics, that students are facing. I think that's a real serious problem. I think, we wanna make sure that, you're getting the best education possible. And so I think that we really have to take that,
information you've given us very seriously. And I look forward to having further discussions with you, with director, Barry, with director Brohart on the teaching and learning committee. That is something that, we really need to hear so we can actually start to, partner with, students to really understand what is going on and how we can make adjustments, in our committees and provide some policy and direction and support. I am really concerned about our students graduating,
in the, uncertain economic environment. We know that only a third of students who go to college actually complete college, and there's two thirds that do not. And we really need to make sure that, any choice that you make as you matriculate up out of OUSD, that you are well prepared to, have the analysis, to be able to read, and be able to engage, and be able to teach, and learn other people, on various topics.
And so if we're not doing that by the time you graduate, we, as board directors, as district staff, or and as educators, classifiers, we're not doing our job. So I I do take that very serious, and I look forward to having further discussions and challenging all my board members, district staff to really look at how we could do better as a district because, I I firmly believe that we have the capabilities of being a top tier district. We just have to get our foci right and really double down on our investment
and young folks, and our supports and services. Thank you very much, for sharing, and thank you, president Brohart. Director Badgley. Thank you. I appreciated, director Vasquez bringing this bringing AB 68 to our attention last time. I've now incorporated it into many of my lobby visits that I plan to do in Sacramento over the next few weeks. And I'm glad that you and others are also going up to Sacramento to advocate against this legislation because I do think in this moment, they need to legislators and, electives need to hear from us,
the people, as to what direction we, specifically in California, need to take around these issues, and not take anything for granted. So I appreciate that. I also just would like to say that, I I just got word that Skyline is going to be having an AP, African American studies program next year. So I'm really excited to, see what that looks like and see how we can expand something like that throughout the whole district, so that we can make sure that folks, are getting the information that they need and want to better, understand themselves and their community around them. So yes, thank you so much for your report.
I'm not gonna echo everything what people said already, but we have talked to our legislative analysts that we work with about AB 68, so they are that's on their radar. And, as soon as that goes is presented as a bill, then, I think that as a board, we should I would recommend that we take a letter, opposing that and, because I agree with you. It's a ridiculous waste of well, it's more than a waste, but, yeah. Go ahead. Thank you for all the comments. I just wanna kind of respond to director Williams,
and also just everybody else that a big part in classroom just a big part in try in begin to understand what students want to see in their classrooms is kinda getting out there and understanding the students and begin to understand the students, whether you're going out and kind of mentoring a student or just creating relationships with the students that you represent. Just kinda as an example,
I've been working with Coinbase. And if you don't know what Coinbase is, Coinbase is a cryptocurrency based out of originated in San Francisco, and they're also based out of San Francisco, but they're worldwide now. But I've been working with Coinbase to see how we can teach children about cryptocurrency because it is big right now, and a lot of students are very interested in it. But they're but they don't they only have really the Internet to learn about it.
And I've been working with Coinbase and seeing how can we teach students more about cryptocurrency and the effects it can have on the economy, good and bad, and stuff we could do with it and how it can influence our future because it is something that's very big and has been very big for the past decade. So I've been working with them. We plan to hold a workshop at Oakland High School, and if that goes well, seeing how we can maybe do it on a bigger scale in future school years. But I think just a big part of
if you wanna understand what students want to see in the classroom is getting out there and connecting with the students. Thank you. So good reminder. Director Hutchinson. Oh, thank you. And I'm sorry I had to step out for a little bit from the meeting. I just wanted to give you a a heads up that, today, I was, invited to attend the science classes, the seventh and eighth grade science classes at Hillcrest Middle School, because they've been doing a unit on lead in the water, and they've been doing their own investigation at their school site, have a whole map where they mapped out all the fixtures.
And it was a really good talk with them today. And so when they asked me what I thought their next step should be, I suggested that they come and make their presentation here at the school board. And, I wanted to give you a heads up, and I'll recommend that they reach out to our student directors. But also just to give a general encouragement, that we should be and we can have more presentations, especially from students here, It can always be, either a part of the student director's report. I'm sure that president Brohard would be open to an item if there was something specific, or even just for public comment on non agenda items where students speak first.
And so it would be great to see if we can start having some more presentations from students or some more of that direct engagement here at the board. And so I'm gonna really push those students to to reach out and do that, but, you know, I would love to see that more of a a part of our board meetings going forward. Thanks. Yeah. I agree with you, and I would agendize it. I think there's an importance when it's agendized as opposed I know the last time was, kind of a last minute, and we had to fit students in on the the thirty minutes of comments. But I think,
if we're gonna take it seriously, it should be an agendized item. So I look forward to if you wanna let me know when they would like to do that. Thanks. Any other comments? Thank you, Director Simmons. Okay. Next on the agenda is, unfinished business. And the first item is R-one25Dash0118, services agreement twenty twenty four twenty five, Oakland Public Education Fund, Allendale Elementary School. And I'm not sure if there is a presentation on this or if we're just taking public comment and voting.
Presentation, madam president. Okay. Thank you. So we have ten minutes of public comment on this item. I move adoption or approval. I second. Thank you. For public speakers, we have Asawa Balha and Ben Tabzka. The only comment I I looked at what this, initiative is gonna be doing, and it looks like Oakland Education Fund does a lot of good things for this district. But I'm I'm confused about how they determine whatever they do. And, this item has a wanna find my notes on this item.
They're gonna be doing reading, writing, and math support. Individual and individual in small groups is excellent. Full time literacy support person. And, I just don't know if we are doing everything with Oakland Fund that gives everybody a chance to benefit from it. I've never seen them interact with my clients. So is there an opportunity to speak to them to to to find out how they're making decisions on what they do and how they do it? And I think my time's up.
Thank you. Next speaker, please. You know what? I keep wondering, is this board supposed to be working for us? I bring issues forward. Nobody says anything about it. I bring something else up. Nobody it's like it disappears. I come back and say the same thing. You guys meet twice a month. What do you do? The grand jury report, and I have a copy for you over here, it says the Oakland Unified School District consistently spends near or below the medium of the 37 school districts in our neighborhood on needs of students,
teachers' salaries, local administration, classroom support, books and materials, and public services. It spends above and sometimes far above the medium of districts close to us. What's gonna happen on that, Valerie? Thank you. Are there any board comments? And may can we take a vote, please? Yes. On the roll call to adopt RDET dash 125Dash0118. Student Director Simmons? Abstain. Student director, that's Grace Hafson. And director Latta?
Yes. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Thank you. Director Berry? Yes. Thanks. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice president Bachelor? Yes. And president Brujahir? Yes. The motion has adopted. The next item is r two twenty five dash zero four nine two, Board of Education directing alternative budget adjustments, fiscal years 2025 through 'twenty seven, introduced by, myself and vice president Bachelor. Is there a motion to adopt this? I move. I second.
Thank you. I do have an introduction to this, alternate, budget adjustment that I'd like to read, and then we'll take, public comments. We were elected to bring transparency and change to this district. A key part of change and transformation that needs to happen is fiscal responsibility, accountability, and shared governance that centers students and those staff who work directly with students. The currently proposed budget adjustments, including the position cuts that we voted on in February, does not necessarily center the needs of our students. Therefore, we are introducing additional adjustments to start the process of reprioritizing money towards our students.
This is one piece of making that happen, and we cannot wait until next year. We need to take immediate steps to refocus our spending towards students in our classrooms. For example, the amount budgeted for books and supplies has increased significantly post pandemic, and we seek to decrease and clarify spending in this category. While claiming to need to cut spending, the amount budgeted for and spent on services and other operating expenses, including consultants, has grown significantly each year since the pandemic. We understand from Ms. Grant Dawson that we are currently set to spend approximately $15,000,000
over the $125,000,000 cap on services and other, operating expenses for school year 2425. I really appreciated that miss Grant Dawson included a table of expenditures and available funds on page 18 of the of the fiscal impact memo, which is available. This information helped us to see where we could make cuts that would not affect site budgets for this year. I want to propose an amendment to this resolution, which I will read now and submit. The district is directed to cap the total expenditures on services and contracts at 125,000,000
with a priority placed on legally mandated services, necessary services, directly impacting school sites, and outside legal contracts for the school year 2526 and 2627. In order to curb spending on services for and contracts for six school year, excuse me, 2425, the district is directed to cap spending on object code fifty eight twenty five in unrestricted resources to 8,000,000. Is there a second to this amendment? This is a friendly amendment, so I don't believe there needs to be a second.
K. The number of confidential management central office staff continues to grow. We wanna see controls in these areas. Just as sites must show how positions increase student achievement, central office departments must do the same. By looking at attrition, including retirements as well as other possibilities, meeting this cap is possible. We've made it clear that we intend to cut expenditures, and the OUSD senior leadership team has communicated to us and to the public that as a district, they also want to cut spending. This resolution aims to do just that. We received the fiscal impact statement related to this resolution on Monday.
Therefore, we have met the requirement of Board Policy 9,322.1 for fiscal impact analysis, and tonight's vote will stand. Understanding that we may not get there in one budget, we owe it to our students to examine this area of spending and to do everything we can to put funding back into our schools. Look forward to more board discussions, both in our board meetings and in our committee meetings, to develop budgets that support our students and those who work with our students. Apologies, vice president. There's just, like, a bar right in front of the screen, and so we're trying to figure out how to take that off so folks can actually read it.
We have, ten minutes for public comment. Do we have public comments on this item? We have Asolo Ubala and Ben Tabzka. K. One minute each, please. I personally would like to hear, other members respond to what you're presenting. Especially, I'd like to hear from mister Hutchinson. Is it possible to have public comment after you hear positions of all board members on this, because I just heard what your your reasoning is. I'm sure there might be some other board members that have different, and I could support, not necessarily I might support yours,
but I might support somebody else's. Is that is that okay, chair? Does anyone have any objections to hearing board comments first? Okay. Thank you very much. We'll start with student director Simmons. And president, Brohar, just for point of clarification, was this, amendment accepted as prevalent by both? Seconder as well? Okay. That was director Thompson. Right? Oh, wait. K. Start with director Berry. Oh. I'd just like to ask for a point of clarification. So this is a resolution direct, written by director Burghardt and I, but it was moved forward by director Thompson and I.
So what you are trying to say, general counsel, is that director Thompson and I both need to present this as a friendly amendment, or else we need to take a vote of the board to, attach it to this, resolution. Is that correct? Ma'am. Okay. So director Thompson, do you perceive that as a friendly amendment? No. I don't. Not at this time. So I would like to call for a vote. And we can have board comment before the vote. Yes. So just for the members of the public. So, we, direct I'm sorry. Director Brohard is presenting an amendment to the resolution that is before us. I motioned the resolution to move forward.
Director Thompson seconded the motion. I perceive it as a friendly amendment. Director Thompson does not perceive it as a friendly amendment. So, ergo, we have to take a vote of the board in order to insert it into the resolution. And so, resolution. And so the one that was on the screen. Yes. Thank you. And then I just went ahead and asked for a roll call. We're putting it back on the screen. The vote was called. Can we take a roll call vote? No. We were waiting for board comment. So director Berry had a clarification there. I was waiting because we have comment before a vote. Alright. I send There needs to be an opportunity for board comment when the question is called.
Right now, I just called director Berry. The the only comment I wanna make on the amendment is I thought that the fiscal analysis says there was 15,000,000 remaining to spend for 2425. No. We would be over by 15,000,000. At this point, we would be over by 15,000,000. So what we did is look back at at the tables that miss Grant Dawson included in the, memo and looking at that line item, which is, I don't have the number for you. I read it differently. Okay. Is is Lisa Is is miss Grant Dawson oh,
your hand's up. Yeah. Go ahead, please, miss Grant Dawson. You're muted. Okay. Sorry. Good evening. That is incorrect. The orange column that's at the end of that section says there's 15,000,000 remaining with the cap in all of the 5,000 object codes with the cap that you've instituted in your resolution of a hundred and 25,000,000. There's 15,000,000 left. The math shows what the current budget is of 200,000,000. And then if you subtract hundred and 25, there's 75,000,000
then that you reduced it by. It shows how much we spent, and that's not including what's encumbered. And then it says that you would have 15,000,000 remaining, which is what we would have to keep the spending within. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry. I I read that wrong, so I appreciate your clarification. Thank you. So I got some further clarity. So you made an amendment but did not make a motion. Do you wish to make a motion to present that amendment that needs then a second? Yeah. I will then second the amendment. Because it is not a friendly amendment, there needs to be a motion to move it forward and a second,
which is just what happened. So as a seconder, I would like to make a motion to go ahead and take roll call on the amendment to the resolution to be added to the resolution. Ready for roll call? A roll a roll call on what? So we need to have board so then we need to have board comment before there's a vote on it. That's where we were at here. You can't just skip over board comment on the amendment. It was determined that it was unfriendly. Before a vote, there's board comment. So she just made a motion to adopt that, to vote on that that amendment. Exactly.
And there's board comment before a vote. Okay. Director Hutchinson, do you have board comment? So this is now our third board meeting in a row where we are introducing verbal amendments, and there's nothing in writing. That's not how we're supposed to do business. Everyone knew this was coming on the board today. So if there was an amendment, I don't understand why it wasn't included on the agenda. I don't understand why there wasn't a written copy introduced because that's actually the requirement. Nobody in the community has a copy. We none of us saw it ahead of time.
And already in the first statement out of the gate, I heard chief business officer Lisa Grant Dawson correct the numbers that were just said by board leadership. And so we're clear on this item that they're amending. This year, we budgeted $200,000,000 in this object code. And now at the end of the year, people wanna cap it at a hundred and 25. So what's going to happen and this little amendment here to try to change the numbers and the words, if anything, that invalidates the fiscal analysis. And these games are just it's wild.
So the board's been informed that if this resolution passes tonight, whether it's amended or not, as you just heard, we planned on spending more money this year than this cap would allow us to. So if this passes tonight, every school site in Oakland tomorrow is going to receive a letter telling them that their budgets are frozen. It's very true. The next thing that is going to happen is many of our outside providers who hold contracts with the district are going to be informed that we may not be able to honor those contracts. Because staff is going to have to figure out when we have all another $15,000,000
that we were planning on spending this year right off the top, and now it's been capped and we can't spend it. And the problem is this resolution is so poorly written that they included fiscal year twenty four twenty five. And so for the first time in my time on the board, we're actually engaged now in midyear budget cuts. And if you listen carefully in the introduction, I heard the goal was to cut spending. Well, Well, that's exactly what it's gonna do. It's gonna cut spending right this year. And because of this board action, every school site is gonna have their budgets frozen.
We're gonna have to reevaluate the one pagers for next year. And, again, we've spent six months now on doing a budget adjustment process. Nobody introduced any resolutions along that time. We have last minute amendments. No fiscal analysis unless you showed up in person and maybe get a physical copy. And we think finding a workaround to solving our budget issues is the way to go. I mean, I I've seen a lot here. I've never seen anything like this, and, unfortunately, people aren't learning. Thank you. Thank you. General counsel, can we just have the amendment just be up?
I'm definitely not gonna take my three minutes like some other board directors, but I do wanna have the amendment up for the public. So if you read it carefully, which I will, the amendment only makes any sort of changes for this school year to capping one resource, which is object code fifty eight twenty five, which is unrestricted resources. And that caps I'm sorry. That, directs a cap of $8,000,000. We have not spent up to that cap. So we would not be doing anything of what director Hutchinson mentioned.
There would be no contracts that would need to be cut. There would be no, school sites that would be impacted by these cuts. This is just saying that we are capping it for this year at what we've already spent, that we cannot spend any further on this item. Now going into the next two school years, we are asking for a cap of the services and contracts at 125,000,000 for those two school years. So this will not have any sort of effect at school sites. This will bring budget savings that will hopefully bring back positions for,
those folks who have been affected, which again, I think is in all of our best interests because those are the folks that are most impacting of our students and their needs at the school site. So I wanna make sure that we're not misinforming anyone and we're not misunderstanding this amendment to this resolution. And so I just wanna make sure that that was just clear because we wanna make make sure that we're not, spreading misinformation, at this moment. I also wanna make it clear that this is in central o central office cuts, so this is not, a site cut. President Prohard, chief business officer,
Grant Dawson has her hand up. Go ahead, miss Dawson. Miss Grant Dawson, sir. Good evening again. So that statement would be untrue. And, again, I have provided information regarding where the expenditures sit or where they don't sit. You also in your resolution did not specifically say so when you say central office and you say unrestricted so let's clarify a few things. The unrestricted general fund, encompasses several resources. The local control funding formula and all of the resources that we utilize to specify
it, the base, supplemental concentration, as well as the additional resources that come in for transportation expense, for, TK additional spending, and for the, discretionary, $10,000,000 that comes in. All of that comes into the base, and it comes into unrestricted. The unrestricted general fund also includes other resources like lottery, in addition to, a few other district related unrestricted resources. So when your resolution as written does include school sites because you said the unrestricted general fund and to cap it
at 8,000,000, you've also stated in your clarification that we've not spent more than that. So in order for the board members to engage properly on what you're referring to, I would recommend that you either use the documentation that you've been provided because the fifty eight twenty five line shows cumulatively 23,400,000.0, and we've already spent 5.7. There's 3,800,000.0 encumbered and then 13,800,000.0
remaining. So when we say we haven't spent it, you're also not considering that we're in the either the process or as was stated, there are either contracts that are already in play intending to spend it. The invoices from those vendors and or, you know, the work, is in process. So when we're saying cap it at 8,000,000, we're we're capping something that is in motion. So just wanted to add that so that everybody is clear and if the authors could potentially point to what they're referring to so that the other board members, can see what they're referring to and have clarity,
because it would include the way you've written it, all departments and school sites. Lastly, the general fund, the base, again, is responsible for all other resources. So in the event that there is something that occurs in the vendor resource, as we said stated many times, can't pay for it. It is the unrestricted general fund's responsibility to cover that, that funding. So just wanna make sure that the re the resolution is clear, and what that means. And, you know, however the board continues to deliberate, I do wanna clarify that.
Miss Grant Dawson, can I ask you a quick question? So when I read that, I read the 13.8, in the consultants. That was the line item. Excuse me. So you're saying code that you've referenced in your resolution. The object code in that resolution is 5825. The resource code is not cited. So that's why I am communicating. There are multiple resource codes within the unrestricted general fund, which again is Okay. Also So so we we meant to look at the the item of consultants.
That's where that came up. So and I I guess, my other question is, in the spirit of trying to make these cuts, further cuts, Excuse me. Thank you. Yeah. I just lost my train of thought. It's I just, yeah. But I just don't I did wanna clarify that we did put it under that under consultants. Yeah. I I I am affirming that fifty eight twenty five is consultants, but it would require communication, as it was originally written to all sites and department and to vendors, as I shared with you, would have to happen, especially in 2425 and for 2526 as we've already,
you know, planned and built the budget. So now not all contract and other agreements, you may have also multiyear contract that would be impacted. But, I mean, it's clear that you know what you're doing and what you're seeking to do. That's that's what I'm wanting to make sure that you understand the way it is written. That is what this means. Because I don't want it to be, you know, confusing when there is communication that's sent out, but that's not what was meant. Okay. I know what my question was. So looking at at this particular item, it was under central office consultants.
And when I was looking at different contracts, again, this weekend, I noticed that some of the same contracts are also for cons that some of the consultant contracts are also central and site. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I I guess my question was, do sent how do central site central contracts affect the sites if the sites also have a contract with that same vendor? So it really depends on the scope of what the agreement is, and, you know, what, we'd have to pull or look at specific contracts. But, again,
the central office is supporting the sites and all the departments with whatever, you know, contract is is is being utilized. So, you know, with that being said, we'd have to look at specific and this is where the the resource code matters. Because the resource code, for instance, if it's a supplemental concentration resource code, then it's gonna be more specific to academic direct academic related activities. If it's in the base, then again, that is covering, again, from the district's local, you know, facility, interdepartment, MOUs with the county office or other governmental entities,
or other services, to include contracts with. We put, you know, for instance, our legal, activity and other, services and other object codes for distinction. But you'd have to go through all the object codes to make the distinction between if we reduce it to 8,000,000, then this is what, you know, would, you know, occur very specifically as far as this activity. So it's a it's a very it's a broad question, but, ultimately, again, the base is what covers and takes care of the entire district. Thank you. There any other board comments? Yolanda? I suppose my question is and maybe it's a follow-up to miss Grant Dawson,
which is the clearly, the intent of this is to using you know, kind of using the table that was given, reducing the, you know, I think identifying this the unencumbered and unbudgeted for money in what is listed under resource fifty eight twenty five for central consultants. So I think there is a like, I think in the spirit of the amendment, I agree and am wondering then in a,
you know, kind of whether it's a if we don't have you know, I think the question is if we get a maybe it's a report back, before any site based cuts, like, site based contracts are cut? Because I think that's the real, like, I think I see the point, but I also am like I do think that for, you know, again, hearing from people at sites who've had so much cut, I have to believe that that we see unencumbered money.
And so I think what the the what this is trying to do is free up the unencumbered money. And so my question is, what do you have a suggested amendment for a resource code, miss Grant Dawson, or a bring those back to the board? Yeah. That's my question is, you know, kind of how how we can achieve that. Yeah. I I absolutely don't. I mean, and I and I'm gonna just go back to how large this budget is And to to ask that question, not now, is is very challenging.
I I think I also wanna say I mean, it's not that it can't be done, but it's that we aren't engaging in a timely discussion for us to be clear, you know, and to be mindful about what, you know, that means. And so that being said, it's the second part, you know, as it relates to this is, you know, back to the goal of not impacting school sites versus that's the, you know, continued flavor of discussion that we, you know, want to to occur. And I'm hearing that,
but I don't think that I'm hearing that there's an understanding about the way the budget is already built and designed based on what you're seeking to to to do. I think that's the challenge. So, you know, with that being said, as it relates to making a reduction of $8,000,000 in a particular, you know, area, if we say, okay. You're taking 8,000,000 out of the base, then what does that mean? I still have to look at all of the things that are in consultants in the base to determine what that means. An example, we have, for instance, our our auditors that are paid for out of the base.
So in the event that you know, do we not pay that, or are we saying, you know, stop that activity? Because I think that some of this is about what activity we're gonna start stop or not do, and that is what's not being covered in the recommendations and resolutions. If the end of this resolution says and I'm paraphrasing, and, that the superintendent comes back with recommendations for ongoing reductions or if any ongoing money so that it can restore positions. That's what this also is intending to do is to restore positions.
And so when we're saying that schools were, you know, either cut in 2425, that's not the case in 2526. Yes. There were positions. But, again, you also saw in that same resolution, there are positions in multiple areas to include the central departments having do staffing that leaders already recommended. So, you know, that being said, that's also the confusion of what we're trying to solve with the way the resolution is, designed. Lastly, I'll just say, we only have with the spring break week coming up as far as even engaging
with sites in in any department, we only have three weeks max to get this done to be able to still try to get the LCAP and the budget for next year done. I think that's the other major angst with the changes and the timing of us being able to complete that. Because, again, we don't have an alternative deadline to submit those documentation those those documents. We just don't, especially not with us seeking to, you know, be in a position to show that we can continue to manage the district properly.
So, you know, again, however the board seeks to lead in moving in this area, an additional change after we've discussed it tonight is additionally challenging. Lastly, I don't know what that means. That is the 8,000,000 above the $1.25 cap or within the $1.25 cap. And I asked that question when we talked about the other areas. So I do think it's important for the board authors and amenders to also make sure that that is clear about what that means in perpetuity to the 01/25. And then that also helps us to know how to operationalize it.
Thank you. You. Director Simmons? I just kinda had a question. I know director Hutchinson is the chair for the finance committee. I just wanted to ask, did, vice president, bachelor, and as in madam president Brohard, did you guys work with or collaborate with director Hutchinson when making the resolution? Okay. I just wanna kind of take this time to kind of think proactively. If and I know you guys have whatever. I think this is a good time to
work with each other because as a district, we need to come to a consensus on how to fix this problem. And I've been listening to you guys this whole time. And director Hutchinson did say what I forget. I forget her. Miss Grand Dawson, he did say what she said or what she. He did say he did originally say what she said. And I just think it would be wise to work with director Hutchinson on the resolution.
Even though even if you guys don't like each other. Even if you guys have your differences. That's the y'all differences don't none of that matter. None of none of y'all differences matter. If y'all could just work with each other. Because director Hutchinson, he's a he's very intelligent and he knows what he's talking about when it comes to money. And I've seen that. And you guys you guys have your ideas and you you know what you want to do to and where you you know you know where you want your money, where you want the money to go, and you know where you wanna put it into.
So why not just work with each other to come up with a plan? Why is that so hard to do? As adults who are in a and who are in a position of leadership, it shouldn't be hard to it shouldn't be hard to put aside differences to come up with something to help thousands of people who you guys represented. Thank you for that, director Simmons. And as I said when I ran for vice president, I was willing to have conversations just about anything with anyone around the issues because I know how important this is to our students, and I know how important it is to our staff.
Just last month, I reached out to every single board director to schedule one on one meetings, and I have been able to to at least talk to director, Lotta. I've scheduled with director Thompson. Due to family issues, we couldn't make it. We just scheduled one on ones with director Patrice. But if I don't receive any information, if I don't actually get the response back, it's very difficult for me to continue to reach out and continue to support. And so I think that's what's made some things very challenging. But I do agree with you that we do need to come together, and we need to not silo things in committees and have a broader discussion.
Because I think this really brings up to me the bigger challenge of we don't have these discussions as a full board around the budget. And that means that our students don't get the things that they need, and our staff aren't supported in the ways that they need to to support our students. And so, again, I'm committed to trying to understand the budget as much as but I think those conversations are on the budget. I would like to see a shift from having a committee that's focused on this work to having it be a full board conversation if it needs to be at every single board meeting, if it needs to be at every other board meeting so that we can fully understand this budget so that we can best support our students and staff.
And so that is just my 2¢. I want to build bridges. I want to support us working better and more collaboratively, but there needs to be that reciprocation. But then there also needs to be ways in which we're bringing work out of committees into the light into ways that support us all understanding this this budget. And so those are just the things that I would add, to what your comments, to your comments. And, again, I'm committed to doing that work and trying to work together as a board. Thank you. And they're showing initiative, but and I'm not I'm not here to argue or
anything like that, but we see each other twice a month. If someone doesn't respond to an email, we see them when we could go up to them and say, we should meet. I did I've done that with every with everybody on the board. And it's little it's comments like that that divide us. It's little blends and and shots that we throw each other that we throw at each other just like that that divides us and keeps us from working together. And
you can acknowledge it or you don't have to. But we have to sit to understand each other, we have to sit back and think about ourselves. We heard the audience say it today, but we just all need to sit back and think. What have what have I what have I done personally that could have divided the board? And how can I move forward and move past that without holding anything else from the past? That's it. Thank you. Doctor Hutchinson? Yes. Thank you. And thank you for your your comments,
director Simmons. Some of this has gotten difficult as our meetings have moved into out of order conversations regularly. There's a lot of comments that are just thrown out there, and a lot of them just don't even have a basis of fact, and it makes things really difficult. So just to reset some things, as a board, we collectively voted on budget adjustments and everything we needed to do. Board leadership assigns members to the committees, and this is a part of our board system. So we do this work in committees. And, all directors have an opportunity to talk,
to send ideas to each other, to send amendments ahead of time and get feedback. And that used to be the normal practice of the board. And so it's really hard when those practices aren't supported anymore. And that's some of what we're facing now because in in a real sense, this issue was already decided months ago, but now it's being brought around. Then we have last minute wordsmithing, a lot of statements thrown out there, and it moves us farther away from the work and from consensus that we need. So I appreciate your comments. I wanna double down on what I mentioned before in the student director report.
I would love to see more students here and engaging directly. I think that's what we really need and especially more students doing what you just did to kind of reset the conversation and to hold people accountable for what they say up here and in other places. So thank you. I appreciate it, and I'm gonna follow-up with you on on some school board civic stuff, because I think that will that will help you as you're trying to push for things further too. But thank you for speaking up. I also wanna thank you for speaking up. I'm not gonna throw I don't I wanna say it. Maybe I think for me,
the working in this and I agree. I I think we should have ongoing discussions about this. And, I think in my role of this, you know, I feel a real urgency around protecting our staff and our students and the money that we spend that way. Some of that comes from being in the classroom for twenty seven years. Some of it comes from having you know, knowing my colleagues and that I've worked with and known. And I think in that urgency for me, I've I felt a need to really do this now.
I mean, as I thought about the budgets, I thought about the cuts, I spoke to people who, you know, received pink slips. You know, and I recognize you can't always act in that urgency. I think sometimes you have to reach out and and try and come up with another plan, and that's what this was an attempt to do. And I think, you know, really thinking about how do we have honest discussions with each other, and, you know, myself included. I'm not you know? But I think that, I think you're right as we have discuss decisions that that discussions that are hard in ways that we've done things in ways that I think all of us who've
sat on the board for, you know, more than a few meetings have different we all have different ideas about how to make that change. And I think each one of us feels that urgency in that change. And, like I said, I think sometimes that isn't always the best way to to to act. But, the intent of this, for me, the intent of this legislation was to, was to protect the jobs of people who who teach and work with our kids. I mean, we saw the classified people who came up tonight, everybody from the noon supervisors to, you know, program specialists to paraprofessionals.
And, while I did support and and and just you know, I I did vote in favor of the the, the budget adjustments. As I started to think about, really, and face the people who would be losing their jobs, That's where this urgency for me came here. I do think we need to have and and I think they will be difficult but meaningful discussions about, how do we move forward with the budget? How do we move forward is as, you know, is our our compass with the budget? I think as we have those discussions, we will all make some changes, and I think that will make us a stronger board.
But, I think we also have to have a grace in realizing that all of us are coming to this in different ways with different experiences, and different senses of of what's what's important, and I think that's what makes a strong board. But, anyway, that's all. I appreciate all the comments and the conversation. I think this is another good evidence of us, like, deeply engaging with one another, and it makes me feel hopeful. I think the conversation is also one of the major reasons why despite being 100% aligned with reining in contracts and spending,
reining in spending confidential employees, establishing stronger quality controls for all spending to make sure that any spending we do make wherever we make it, it yields greater outcomes for students. It's just to me, this is evidence that there's still more work to do. And I don't think I think right now we're speaking about this as if there is we either have to protect staff right now today in this particular way, or we have no other opportunity to do that.
And I think that we can still do that. I appreciate the urgency. We we can act urgently. And to use a word that director Simmons used, we can practice wisdom here, right, and do this right. And I think there's energy on the board to do that. And I think given some of the comments and the way that Lisa Grant Dawson leaned in on this call, there's a willingness to partner and to collaborate on all fronts to make it happen. We all want the same thing. I would agree with I do think there is an urgency in the jobs, though. I mean, that people I'm I'm agreeing with you.
Other board comments? I'd like to call the question. How many public speakers? Public speakers on the amendment? Yes. Oh, how many are there? Two speakers, Saola Balla and Ben Tabscott. Okay. We'll give, one minute each. You guys just spent an hour. There's no I n t. And that's the reason we're in such a mess is because we don't sit down and talk about stuff and come up with solutions and recommendations. What are you doing? I mean, you know, we got we got, Gary Yi on talking about black people and forgot to turn his mic off.
And it wasn't very polite, the things he was saying. We waste a lot of money and we waste a lot of time because we don't go to work and get stuff done in a timely manner. 1000 Broadway. We had property we could have been staying on. They lied about Lakeview. We had 18 executive directors doing what? Our seniors can't even read above the fourth grade level when twelfth grade level when they graduate. And we have six executive directors now Doing what? You guys need to get it together.
It's embarrassing, very disheartening that we can't get a group of adults together and sit in and take things to where they need to go and think about the best thing for the district. Thank you. It's embarrassing. Next speaker, please. Thank you for the opportunity to hear and get clear for me. I listened very closely, and I listened intently to miss Grand Dawson. And there's something she said that says that, there's some confusion on what we are trying to, resolve or solve. Then she said there needs to be a better understanding of how the budget is
built and designed. And she also said engaging in a timely discussion to be clear. And those statements tell me that you have good intentions, but to actually get where you need to get, that that you're not actually prepared to do it. And I'm you know disrespect. Okay? But that's what she was saying. And I I know it's the truth because I remember in the finance committee meeting, miss mister Hutchinson bought out the need for the fiscal impact. And when he said it, everybody completely ignored him, but it was a true statement.
So my position is I don't think from what she's trying to be very respectful, but she is saying things like the money, it can be spent. Even though you see it now on paper, it can be spent. And I I think that we're not ready to do exactly what you're saying. Good intentions. But, miss Grand Olsen is saying that, and she's trying to say it in a respectful way. Take the vote, Mr. Sencha. The motion to adopt the amendment. Sorry, Director Williams. Thank you, bachelor I mean, director Brohart. Thank you very much. I'm I'm really,
really hearing both sides of this situation. I think in just a short history, as this board has come on in 2025, we were faced with some, unimaginable cuts, faced with a $95,000,000 deficit. And the options that were provided were all that reduced reduced services, reduced employees, reduced our, supports to our kids. We had a director, Max, Maxwell, told us about
right now, today, our young folks are disengaged. Can you imagine what it's gonna look like after you cut the early literacy tutors, when you cut out the steps, when you cut out all the workers that are supposed to support our students, it will actually get it will deepen. And what we're trying to do is to look at it and say, there has to be another way. There has to be another way. And what we've been told by the CBO is, well, bring it bring your option.
If you think there's something else, bring your option, and we brought an option. We brought an alternative option, and it wasn't last week. It was actually over a month ago. And the CBO knew it a month ago. The superintendent knew it a month ago. The general counsel knew it a month ago. Everyone knew what the alternative budget was, and it sat. And the opportunity is that is the intent that there is alternative excessive spending, and our spending has went up over a hundred million dollars in four years.
This proposal is to reduce that and cap it. That should not be a bad thing that you want to actually reduce the spending. Our community has shown up meeting after meeting because they care deeply about these decisions. We owe them this real discussion today and a vote, not a delay, not more delays, not three weeks, and we have no more time left. It is our responsibility as duly elected school board directors to serve our community.
So, I mean, you can the thing that I always see here at the board is fear, uncertainty, and doubt. And every single time that is used to stop progress. It just really is sad to see that. So we have these meetings. We hear from the public. Now we're ready to make the decision and prioritize our students and family. Let's not let FUD alright. Oh, time to get off. Yeah. Oh, Oh, let's not let FUD get in the way. We need to move this forward. Thank you. Thank you, director Williams.
Roll call on the the the amendment. Yes. On the motion to adopt the amendment to incorporate into the main motion. Director Simmons? Repeat that? Yes. On the motion is to adopt the amendment as stated to incorporate into the main motion. So vascular is is absent. Doctor Lauter? Yes. Doctor Williams? Yes, sir. Doctor Hutchinson? No. Doctor Barry? No. Doctor Thompson? No. Vice president Bachelor? Yes. President Brujahard? Yes. The motion is adopted. We now have a motion to adopt the,
budget. Did we do that's it? Okay. Can we have a motion to adopt the, alternate budget with the amendment? So I moved it, and Director Thompson seconded it. So it's on the floor. Is that correct, Mr. Seachow? So do we have Is it public comment next? Do we have any public comments on this issue? Calling for the main motion to push the amendment. I have Assarol Ababa and Ben Tabzkar. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Are there any board comments? And we'll start. We'll make one round starting with Director Hutchinson. Thank you. You know, I I appreciate that. I now know that I'm not the only I'm not hearing things just by hearing
some of the comments from other folks, and, I really appreciate miss Grant Dawson's words. You know, I know what I was told. The other directors on the board were told as well. And so everyone's been informed that this involves sending letters to every school site informing them that their budgets are gonna be frozen. And miss Grant Dawson agreed with that. She just said it like miss Olobala said in maybe a nicer way than I said it. Again, we're doing amendments at the last minute, and people are framing that as this is some sort of engagement or conversation. When an amendment is introduced verbally at the last minute here on the dias,
that means the board hasn't engaged around it. But more importantly, that means the community hasn't engaged around it or didn't even have an opportunity to see it. It's the opposite of democracy. It's a couple of people unilaterally trying to work around the provisions of how we do things here at a school board. This was decided months ago because we have to do budget adjustments in time, so if necessary we can issue March 15 letters. And when we do budgeting, there's never a time when you would do a budget that you come up with an arbitrary number and say,
okay we're gonna cap it at this. If you read this resolution, what people need to realize is since this resolution was first introduced over a month ago, there's been no edits and no work done on this resolution. Nobody cleaned up the language. Nobody did any work. We didn't even get a fiscal impact analysis included on the agenda, and it's been the same five bullet points for a month. And what some of staff are too polite to say is the way it's written, it's not even workable. So you don't say we're gonna cap it at some arbitrary number without information of why that number was chosen or how much we've actually spent in the past.
People throw out wild statements around books and supplies and how the spending has gone up. That's not what the numbers show if you look at the unaudited actuals. And we already did this. And if we wind up in a situation in budget adoption where we find out we have more resources than we anticipated, then what we do as a district is we rely less on the one time dollars that we're relying on, and we further make these adjustments so we're solvent and we regain full local control. And I have to say with what's been going on, at a certain level, it's insulting that people don't listen to the professionals,
that people think they know better, and when they're given advice behind closed doors, they refuse to listen. And that's why we have these embarrassing meetings like we're having here tonight when this issue has already been decided and this resolution is not workable. So if it passes, everyone expect a letter to your school tomorrow informing them that their budgets are frozen until this gets figured out. That is not keeping it away from kids. That's more cuts directly on our kids. Thank you, director Hutchinson. Director Thompson? I actually debated in my mind before I would say anything.
And at first, I didn't I I decided I wouldn't, and then I said I have to say something. And my concern is that we have a professional who occupies the position as our CBO, who spends hours making certain that we keep this district afloat, and then offers options in how we can make things work in order to provide all of the services our kids need at their school sites, making sure that we are able to give raises to teachers,
making sure that we're able to give raises to other bargaining units, trying to eke out money wherever we can in order to make sure we satisfy the mandates that are that we're faced with. Many times, I've said that we don't have to be very, very transparent, those of us on the board, we don't have forty hours a week to figure out a budget. So you have to depend on the professional who knows it. And I say, and maybe I'm wrong in saying this,
we look at everything. We as board members looked at everything from 30, 3,000 feet in the air, and then we look to see if there are glaring holes in anything. If something doesn't make sense, then we ask questions for clarification. I kind of think my experience in the school, I mean, working the kinds of jobs that I have in the school district and for the length of time sort of helps me understand the importance of providing what kids need at school and then what we teachers need to do for the kids.
The last thing I wanna say is I think it even addresses a more depthful, problem that is making sure that we adults are able to reach back and pull up those kids who have been traditionally marginalized so that they have the option to participate in what we call the good life. Thank you very much. Thank you. Director Latta? Yeah. I have you know, I I think for me, I you know, and I think I will try to limit my comments,
is that I do feel, and I said before that compelled that, you know, you know, kind of respectfully that I wasn't on the board that adopted the the prior attachment c and the budget, the prior budget cuts and, want to ensure that I'm here with my principles and, and doing what I can to respond to the concerns that I've heard. Work with in the SPED population, and they've had to cancel IEP meetings because the translation is not relevant to education language, and that's highly concerning.
So I would imagine, you know, the families that make the time to attend those IEP meetings, it's a burden already to do that being that, you know, most of these are working class families who are struggling to get to these meetings, who have transportation barriers, who have obviously language barriers. And it's just super frustrating to hear that, you know, we're depending on services in really, vulnerable spaces that's not even adequate to service our families and our students, and we have this work in house.
Yes. We only have one position in this area, but if there's a need, hire more. Right? Post the position. Make it lucrative for someone want to want to take that position here in Oakland Unified as opposed to Santa Clara, Castro Valley, Fremont, for example. Our one service agreement through the Oakland Public Education Fund at Allendale Elementary School, this service agreement is the work of our SEIU early literacy reading tutors, not to mention many of those very same positions just received layoff notices,
and we still have current vacancies, quite a few of them posted on the OUSD website. So where are our priorities? I don't know. I will say this. We hope the district will rely or will reply sorry. I'm tired. Will reply to our offered impact bargaining dates in effort to mitigate any financial impact to our members' livelihoods with the recent layoffs and reductions passed. And again, congratulations to all of the classified employees of the year. Thank you. Mister Seichau, are there any other bargaining units online?
Vice president, there is none. Alright. Seeing none here in this room, we will move on to s, which is the new business. So there's, s one, is our motion to adopt this item. So moved. Is there a second? I second. Great. Any public comment on this agenda item, mister Hollis? Mister Sachell? No public comment. Any board comments? No one go towards our microphone. After director Barry, your mic is on. Is there great. Missus Stitchoff, can you go ahead and take, roll call for adoption?
Yes. On the motion to adopt twenty five dash zero five five four, students directors are absent. Director Latta? Yes. Director Williams? Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Director Williams? Vice president, Bachelor? Yes. President Brujahard? The motion is adopted. Wonderful. Now we're on to s two, which is the application of variable term program waivers, CBESS and BCLAD. Is there a motion to, adopt this item? A motion. Is there a second? Second. Second. Director Williams, thank you for being here.
Okay. So we have a first we have a motion. And second, is there any, public comment on this agenda item, mister Seachow? No public comment. Any board comments on this agenda item? Director Williams, is there anything you wanna add? No, vice chair. K. I apologize for missing you on the last one. Okay. Seeing no other comments, that folks wanna make, can we take a roll call to adopt this item? Yes. On the roll call to adopt 25Dash0557. Student Directors are absent. Director Latta? Yes. And director Berry? Yes.
And director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Thompson? Vice president Bachelor? Yes. President Breuer, the motion is adopted. Thank you. Now moving on to the superintendent's report. Is the superintendent online, mister Sechow? Checking to see if superintendent is online or not. Vice president, I do not see a soup superintendent online. Vice president, bachelor. I'm sorry. Doctor Moore, are you gonna present anything for the superintendent's report in her absence? Okay. Seeing no one, is there any public comment on this agenda item?
Yes. We have Asawa Lobawa and Ben Tapscott. Are they online by any chance? They are not online. K. Don't see them in the room, so we will move on to comments from board directors. Mhmm. Director Hutchinson. Yes. Thank you. No. It's not a good thing. This is now the, second meeting in a row that the superintendent hasn't been in attendance, and this is not something that we've experienced in the past as a board, especially since the superintendent's not out of town or otherwise engaged. And,
this should be a signal to everyone about some of the real issues we have going on here now with the board and with the school district. I support the superintendent for not being here. If I was her, I would have gone home also after what had happened. But the community needs to hear and understand very clearly that there are serious issues going on, and those issues have now arisen to the point where the superintendent, now two meetings in a row, hasn't been here in attendance. And so, again, this is a result of what's been going on,
and it should send off red flags to everyone. It does to me, especially dovetailed in with the treatment that the superintendent and senior staff have been receiving from school board directors. So this issue isn't gonna go away, but this is really, really serious. And I think tonight's meeting, for the people who were watching, I think it highlighted just how problematic things are right now for us. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. So I think, I would encourage folks who are interested to look at her, presentation. And, I think one of the I mean, there's some really amazing stuff,
including miss Adana Anderson from Claremont, showing kind of one of the absenteeism videos, which, I just wanna really appreciate, all of the folks at school sites who have done such amazing work getting. And I also say also the folks at KDOL and youth beat for these amazing videos around the show up, our attendance initiatives. We've we're at 92% for the year, which is well over, our budget in the multi year projection, which was 89%. And, and I think one thing that's just interesting to highlight, for people who are interested is that every 1% in attendance increase is another at
least 4,500,000 per year for the district. So pretty, amazing work, and very impactful for our students. And I think the other thing I'll just mention is there is also some pretty concerning disproportionality in terms of chronic absenteeism and attendance with with, our, between by ethnicity, disabled students. So I also just think, still some areas that we could, continue to work on and, look forward to partnering with district staff on that. Thank you. I just wanted to echo some of what director Lotta said around attendance. I would like I'm I'm wondering if in a future teaching and learning committee meeting,
we can take up some of the questions that I had around attendance. And then I wanted to give a shout out to OOPA and to Fremont for being featured in the superintendent's report. OOPA for the $178,000 gift they received to fund the new smart lab and Fremont for their participation in the robotics competition. Really great news on all fronts. Alright. Next item is president's report. I actually have one tonight. First off, I wanna congratulate miss Moctus Sembrani and the entire amazing Lincoln Elementary Staff and students
on being named a California distinguished school for 2025. Lincoln is one of our larger elementary schools serving a diverse population. This is a well deserved honor, and I encourage anyone to go visit Lincoln. It's an amazing school, and Mukta Samrani is an amazing principal. I also had the opportunity to visit Castlemont High School to hear about their achievements from principal Joseph Blasher. Representative Latifa Simon, her staff, high school network superintendent Vanessa Cifuentes, and I had the opportunity to talk about ways representative Simon could support OUSDs OUSD
schools. Sorry. We then visited miss Jackson's pathway class and saw this amazing, beautiful media center at the site where students were actually from different schools were practicing their elevator pitches for for, scholarships. So on the hall, it was a it was a great day. I also have the honor of attending the twenty fifth, Latino, student honor roll celebration, and student board director Michelle Vasquez was a featured speaker, gave a very good speech. And then the, founders of the the Latino, student honor roll, were honored for their participation as well.
And they added one thing this year where they the students have stoles, and they walk down the aisle. And to see all the parents walking you know, taking pictures of their kids walking down the aisle and then back up to the stage to make a, group picture, it was it was very cool. So, yeah, I look forward to visiting more schools and having more celebrations after the spring break. I know it's honor roll season, and those are always amazing celebrations to go to. Thank you. Board reports. Thank you. Just a quick board report. I visited Oakland International High School recently and was just so in awe of not
only the dedication of those faculty, but also just the joyful experience the students had after school. They had, they were cooking, in the courtyard, and I had some really delicious food from all over the world. They were sharing what ingredients they brought. They were sharing kind of like where these recipes came from. Many of these students still were trying to figure out like, you know, what their next step was gonna be and this like kind of social activity just really was was exciting to see. I was also able to tour, their library, which is kind of like a now open space,
which is really beautiful. They have these modular, furniture that they can shift and change to, like, have study sessions, have, like, movie night, have, like, you know, different types of activities going on in the library, which is wonderful. And then their wellness center was also such a beautiful welcoming space because it was a very calming space. You Folks talked about how sometimes students just come here to just, like, grab some tea and just to, like, recenter themselves. I think all of us as adults need that space for ourselves. But I'm so glad that our students are getting that space. But then, you know,
after two or three times coming there, they then really, like, talk about the other things that they need and other supports that would be helpful for them. And so I think having those spaces where students, feel safe, feel valued, feel seen, and can kind of self regulate, is really important even at the high school level. Lastly, I went to their, college and career center and, again, saw just a beautiful display of all the different universities that folks can get into and different ways in which they can ask access that support. And then they also had career day where it was,
like, 40 different types of careers were showcased. They had tattoo artists come in, you know, physicians come in, nurses, you know, all kinds of different positions so that folks can really see the breadth and depth of the, jobs out there. And, and, yeah, I just I I it was just a really wonderful space, and I thank Susan and the folks, at Oakland International for inviting me. Doctor. Berry? I just want to give a shout out to TCN for inviting me to meet
their fifth grade students, as they explored leadership. And it was just really awesome to experience all their curiosity and their excitement, and all the questions that they raised that day. So thank you. And more of that, please. And then I also just wanna give a shout out to all the students who were recognized at the Latino honor roll that was hosted at Fremont High School over the weekend. And I wasn't able to join, but if not for my health, I would have been there. And y'all all deserve all the accolade today and forever for the hard work that
you did to earn such honor. Director Latta? Yeah. Just two quick, updates. One is that, people may have seen that the Charter Matters Committee was canceled for tomorrow night. So, all of the all of the content, that the folks have been, checking the work plan will be covered and in our April meeting. Also just an announcement that tomorrow evening will be the first meeting of the task force to control outsourcing, with almost every group that was named in the, but but one group, represented, tomorrow.
So I just wanna send appreciations out to all of the community members that are joining, with such a short notice, all of the staff who, helped put together a couple of the reports, and looking forward to bringing some information back to the board soon. Thank you. Director Thompson. Yes. Thank you very much. Just maybe just three things here. I have the opportunity to attend a science fair at Baytech, and it was really, really nice because all of the students had to actually create a science project. And they were really,
they were done very well because, you know, and I had a chance to ask kids some pretty hard questions because, I'm a science teacher myself, and so I asked some pretty detailed questions. And then also I know a lot about research, so I wanted to see exactly how the project was done, if there was validity in it. Also, there's gonna be an a to g celebration soon, and I'm really excited because it includes not only the charter schools, it includes all of the schools in our district. And And I'm sure you probably remember me reporting,
several meetings back, we had, an a g well, an on the bus tour in, Pam Moy, I think, the principal at Oakland High, she actually spoke. And as a matter of fact, she ended up being, I think, on the news, on several channels. She did a great job. The last thing is, I am the liaison to the g one committee, and, Terrence Riley is now the new vice, vice chair or vice president of that committee. But unfortunately, Christian Martinez had to, drop off, And so there is an availability.
So I did tell them that I would let the board know, let my board president know that, that it needs to be filled. So if we can get someone to actually fill that position, it'd be absolutely wonderful. So if board directors can go out and ask people in your districts if they'd be interested in that, is it it's one just one Yes. It's just one position. Okay. Meeting is adjourned. What? Oh. A second. There is no there are no Are they? There are no introductions. There is no introduction of a new matter.
Verb and noun agreement is essential.