Mr. Rakestra, can we have roll call to establish quorum please. Uh, calling to order the MAY 13th, uh, meeting of the Board of Education. MR. Rakestra, can we have roll call to establish Quorum. Yes. On the roll call to establish quorum student director Simmons, student director Smith. Director Lauder Director Williams. Present, sir. Director Hutchinson. Director Barry Director Thompson, uh, Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor. And PRESIDENT Brohar, form. Thank you and MR. Sechia, can we have an interpretation check, please? Yes, moving to interpretation announcement for tonight
s meeting, we have 3 languages for life interpretation. They are Arabic, Spanish, and Cantonese. For in person who have laptops for interpretation, please see us. We will start with Arabic Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. MISS Abdi, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. I aria Sheerkura via aria Sheerkura via alibi aria Sheerkura via. Ape construction is aria Sheerkura via Ape construction done. Great, thank you construction aria Sheerkura via Ape construction is done. Great, thank you, MS. Abdi. Check your 10 to see if any hands are raised for Arabic
interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, who will not start Arabic with Arabic interpretation. Next, we ll go to Cantonese again, please only raise your hand if you need Cantonese interpretation. MISTER Ewan, if he can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Cantonese, please. Oui gao wai yin we we you go to Sanu Yincheng you so you kong tong Wagapanji Cheng Lee Cheng Lehengte ye link to the busao tigerdino inhaoanche, you have a Ti leizhong yi lin Tongong Sheng Wei and I saoandu Kong tong magapandi. You got it so you go towaba panjing Penya huang yote kaoyingzhonggafuho you know Xinjia Kong tongwali a
hoyao tendou Guang to Magapanjic. You go to so you find it for more fa nu a qi and so Gonggapan. Kennedy s announcement is done, MR. Seal. Great, thank you, MR. Yuwen. Checking 10 to see if we need hands raised for Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands raised for Cantonese and interpretation, we will not start with any um interpretation for Cantonese. Next, we ll go to Spanish again, only please please only raise your hand if any Spanish interpretation. MISS Vargas, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish please. Of course, buenas Nochez Esa juntaba contarcon interpretation simultania el
espanol pero paralo necesita mosquenosa via servisio Paraviarnos pue de lear sumo siesta osteel recinto or levanta la virtualmente a travez de sum and la parti inferior desupan taya in cuentreel symbolo de race he es una manita. Er unavesque sisinasita servis por favor consultealguna de lossal personal paraquele proportionen on dispositivo. Er unavesque active servi por favor bus que el globo terracio the interpretation pulcelo is alexione es Spanish er unaves mas solos rear servisio si banta sumo inosa visa keloneita gracias. Thank you. Me Great, thank you, MS. Vargas, checking attendees is any hands
raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, will not start with Spanish interpretation, and that can include interpretation s announcement, and we ll check again later during the meeting, turning back to you, PRESIDENT Brohart. Thank you. Tonight in closed session, we will discuss the following items d125-1864 conference with labor negotiators. D2 conference with Legal counsel, existing litigation. D3 26-0703 conference with legal counsel, existing litigation. D426-0926 conference with legal counsel existing litigation. D 526-0946 conference with legal counsel, existing litigation.
D6 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. D726-1102 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. D 7 i m sorry, 8, 26-1138 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. D 926-1147 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. D 10 24-1967 public employment Superintendent of schools. Under pupil matters d 11:24-3059 readmission student k. D 12, 25-2515 readmission student x. D 1325-2636 readmission student z.
D 1425-2660 readmission student bb. D 1525-2925 readmission student hh. D 1626-1027 expulsion student vv. If we were reconvened to public session at 5:30. Uh, do we have, we have 10 minutes for public comment. Do we have public comment on on uh session items. Uh yes, MADAM PRESIDENT, we have 16 speakers in total, 7 students. If the students would come up first. Uh, so, to call those 7 students names. Ok. There are 7 students who ve submitted cards. Excuse me, um, first name Carter. Can t your Carter, would you
come up to the dais? Next is Nicole Bogar. Nicole come up next. Is Lucia Gramajo. Lucia, if you would come up, so it s Carter, Nicole, Lucia, uh, next is Ariana Austin. Next, Ariana. Yeah, Gianni Pettel Giannis. Ok, um, Aaron Austin. Aaron and Bella Gramajo and Bella Ramajo, if you did not hear your name called please have a seat ok, you excuse me, you have one minute each. You can see we have a lot of things to cover tonight. So I appreciate and I appreciate that you guys keep coming back in support of MS. Donna. I don t want to take
your time. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Carter, and I go to law schoollita Elementary, and I m here to talk about MISS Donna. MS. Donna should not leave because y all made some unresponsible decisions that you had to cut people all over the district. The people you have cut and taken out of their jobs did not deserve that. I really hope y all make better decisions and y all still have time to make this first one. My name is Nicolette and I go to law escallita Elementary. I m here because I want MISS Donna to stay because every
time. We get hurt, MISS Donna s always there for for us and every time I need things for resa, she always gets it from me. MISS Donna is my favorite supervisor, and she is always there when trouble is there. Thank you for your time. Hm. My name s Lisa and I go to law school leader Elementary. I m here because I want to speak up for MISS Donna because she is a wonderful person and I mean wonderful. She keeps ordering recess, and she actually cares and the fact that you want to take her away from us is not ok. You need to put a stop to this. My name is Ariana. My name is Ariana. I go to law Escalitta Elementary. I am here for MISS
Donna. She is a great person and a lot of people love her like me and the other people in. And the other people in here, you should not do this. A lot of people will MISS Her if you don t make the right decisions. It s not fair. We love her. If the adults could adjust the mic as the kids go up so we can hear them. That d be great. Hi, my name is Gianni and I m here to talk about the events happening with Donna Jackson. MISS Donna is loved by many and is like a second mom to a lot of kids. She know she donates clothes and shoes to families without and keeps her smile for the kids. When I go, when I feel sad, I go to her like many kids when I wake up, I know I will see her smile as the second sun. She is my adoptive mother, and
to hear that your mistakes are taking her from not only a school but her home. It pains me to see that your bad decisions are paying a bad price You take good people i wake up in fear she will not be there for us. MISS Donna will stay, and we will not let her go away. My name is Aaron and I go to Lasalita Elementary. I am here because I want to speak up for MS. Donna because she helps us in a lot of different ways and she give us sports equipment and whatever else we need or want. My name is Bella and I go to Las Cudita Elementary. I am
here because we want MISS Donna to stay every time we get hurt, MISS Donald s always there for us, and every kid can agree with me that when there is a problem MISS Donna s there and she always maintains taking care of us and you guys want to take away our pride and joy. And to be honest, she is always, she s the one that makes me laugh the most, so don t take our and when I mean hour I mean our pride and joy away. Hi, my name is Hi, my name is Sophia. I go to law schoolita and I m here because MISS Donna is an important part of Glagolita if you take away MISS Donna, nobody will forgive you. You
can ask anybody here how much they love MISS Donna, and they will all say that they love her more than anything. MISS Darna takes good care of us and we ll. Love to and we will love to be well Oh my gosh, i m really choosing. Ok. If you take him away, MISS Donna, it s like taking away a part of the school. Hi, my name is Maggie, and I go to law school to Elementary. I am here because MISS Donna deserves to stay. She s the one who helps all the kids, and she cares for us. She is the light to our school. She held my
siblings and still does. Guilt We can do the next 5 speakers at 1 minute. Yes, next 5 speakers are Gabriel Khan, Tanya Kapner. Della Morris Asada Olagbala. Kimberly Mayfield And are those speakers online Point of clarification before you start the time. Is it legally required that council be present? At this point ok I want to start off by saying I don t know if it s legal to have on the consent agenda 141 items for you to approve at one
time. I am concerned about d2 of Oakland Jewish Alliance suing you, the state of California has found you uh guilty of discrimination against Jews in this community. You were instructed to deal with that in some form. I m not sure. I think you need to go ahead and resolve that without this lawsuit. There are items on the consent agenda that I feel need at some point uh legal concerns could be a result of these items. 071, identify and interrupt racism. If you have racism going on in this school at some point it could result in some legal action. 060
fbi cords fingerprint service for volunteer clearance. Now you have a system where you do not require a background checks if the individual is volunteering with a teacher. You can t do that. At some point you re gonna have to deal with it. Uh, can I finish or do you want me to stop? I could. Ok, one more, uh, the health issues that identified last time you have many other, you have on Alexandra o I think it s 011 health issues, uh, at the central kitchen that could potentially result in some lawsuits if we don t rectify that. Thank you. The next, uh, public speaker who
s present. Good afternoon. I m Doctor Kimberly Mayfield, Education Policy advisor for Black women organized for Political Action incoming dean of the School of Education at Saint Mary s College, teacher, educator, and community activist. I m here to urge you to confirm Doctor Denise Sadler as the superintendent for the Oakland Unified School District. This academic year she has accomplished what many superintendents don t in years, kept every school open during a fiscal crisis, ratified agreements with oea and seiu delivered the district s first
enrollment increase in nearly a decade and verified 50% of unverified absences in 2 months through working with the community-based organization, Oakland Natives Give Back which directly strengthens ada funding with over 50 years in Bay Area education, including as oea PRESIDENT Doctor Sattler brings institutional knowledge, strong relationships with Mayor Lee and Alameda County leadership and deep community trust that no external hire can replicate. Please allow her to finish as superintendent not interim thank. Thank you. Uh, we have the first speaker on line please on Zoom. Uh yes, firsthand raise is Tanya Kapner.
Uh, one minute Yes, I m with the equal Opportunity now by any means necessary. Teachers caucus and I want to speak to two issues this evening. The first is I want to stand for the restitution of the full-time job of MISS Donna Jackson and oppose all the cuts and layoffs to our school sites. That s, it s, it must be reversed. The second thing I want to speak to is around the right wing lawsuits against this district that are attempting to ban academic freedom, to speak the truth against injustice in all forms, and this school board needs to stand up against that. It s not surprising in the Trump era with the attempts to rise fascism, to have these attempts at things like book banning and attacks on progressive curriculum, but Oakland
teachers are committed to the right of quality education for all students to develop critical thinking skills to make up their own mind about the world, and that means we stand up and tell the truth as we understand it, so stop attacking teachers who support equal rights for the Palestinian people and stop conflating. We do not conflate discussion or critiques of the Israeli government s policies with any kind of anti-Semitism. Teachers in Oakland are opposed to anti-Semitism, opposed to Islamophobia for religious freedom, for the right to not be religious, and we know that
genocide means the mur we look at the un definition of gen. Thank you, thank you. Uh, next speaker, please. There are no further hands raised on, oh, there we go, um. Uh Doctor Dela uh, oh, hold up, Dia. One minute please Good evening. Members of the board and superintendent Sadler. My name is Doctor Dela Morris, and I am speaking on behalf of the naacp Oakland Brand Education Committee regarding the items d2252682 and d3 260703. The naacp has always opposed hate, discrimination
and inequality in all forms. Every student, regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, identity or background deserves access to a safe, inclusive, and academically supportive learning environment. We are deeply concerned whenever allegations arise that students have been faced with hostility, exclusion, discrimination, or accountability issues within our public school system, anti-Semitism, racism, Isanaophobia and all forms of bias have no place in Oakland Unified School Distri c t schools. These issues highlight the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and real action. There should
be no more delays, evasions or excuses when addressing concerns that affect student safety, trust, and civil rights protections. The naacp Oakland branch advocates for educational environments where every child can learn free from fear, discrimination, or unfair treatment while promoting respectful dialogue, healing and unity across our school systems. Thank you. That s your time. Uh, speakers are Mark Ergood. Be Rudin, Kukayevvi. Uh Mimisto in Frasier Scurry Scott. Uh, one minute each. Yeah. Uh, Mark Egood, uh, equal Opportunity now by any means necessary. First off, I want to
say that Eon Bam stands absolutely with the the students and teachers fighting to bring MISS Donna back full time. You can see from the number of students who ve been coming out repeatedly to defend their education, their program, how much this means to the school, so do the right thing. Keep MS. Donna in place. Secondly, I ll just say on the other question, anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism to oppose the Zionist policy of slaughter of Palestinians of genocide in Palestine and Iran to oppose that is not anti-Semitism. So we stand for the freedom of
speech and right to academic freedom. Thank you, Nick Speaker Good afternoon, Great to see you again. Um, I m gonna talk a little bit about same people people mentioned, we need to reverse the cuts to and layoffs to this. Stuff that we have through oeas CIUFs me, bctc Teamsters, uaos, and everybody else. Uh, that infl actually uh our district really badly in every way possible that we can. Uh, so we need to talk about and do something about that. I also want to bring up the btc bargaining that is happening right now, uh, being presented for the, to the uh labor
relations in Jenine, uh, uh, one year extension because we see the district it s kind of in a deficit in need of the maybe restructuring. So we re thinking that one year extension for our contract in, uh, cost, cost of living assessments of 14%, so we can talk about our barga in ing next time, next year, so we present that two months ago, we re still waiting for an answer. Hopefully tomorrow we have a bargaining date that that s gonna happen. Uh, I want to also talk about, about safety throughout the district that we also have a new speeding cameras throughout that we need to talk about a little bit more with everybody else because uh uh we need to talk to Siri about it somehow
because most of my members and everybody through oesd keep getting these speeding tickets, so who s paying for it? Uh, is it the me that s driving the oesd vehicle because that s not mine, or it s somebody we need to figure that out somehow altogether. Uh, I also wanna give support to our dentist, Doctor Dennis Sadler about uh the work that she s been doing with bctc definitely supports her in greatly. I see somebody that they are taking the risk that nobody else did it before, uh, with you guys bored and asking the questions, the right questions, we can make this district better than how was it before. We can t blame you guys, you can t be blamed for everything that you guys. Inherit for all these years people didn
t do their jobs. So please look to extension or even make it permanently. I greatly support that and as well, you guys are doing a great job for the whatever you ve been doing right now. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening, board, or good afternoon. Thank you so much for all your care and consideration of students and families. My name is Mimi Stow, and I m a 4th grade teacher here at Lauita. I m super grateful to work in such a strong community of families and educators Our noon supervisor MS. Donna, is a very important part of our community here at La Escuelita. We count on her for 6 hours a
day every day. Her devotion goes way beyond lunch supervision. As students can attest to. Donna, Donna, MISS Donna, Donna, MISS Donna MISS Donna Donna, MISS Donna, Donna, MISS Donna MISS Donna Donna, MISS Donna,. She is a super vital part of the fabric of our community, forcing her to move to another site to keep her full hours in healthcare does not make sense. Students need stability, not a constant reinventing of the wheel, not a constant rebuilding of relationships. If you are not responding favorably to the advice of adults in this matter, please respect and
recognize the tremendous love and advocacy of students and the incredible negative aspect that losing MS. Donna will have at our school. Positive impacts of keeping MS. Donna here at La Esquilita include an important adult on the yard that students have learned to trust through experience over time, resulting in less conflict between students, less suspensions, higher academic engagements due to the social emotional support between classes and between teachers and what s happening outside of class. The way I see it is that the choice is yours to vote to allow MS. Donna to
stay at La Esquilita full time or allow a tearing of a very loving fabric of supervision that has been built carefully over time. Thank you so much for your consideration. And with that we were going to close session and reconvene at nature. Is the microphone coming on? It s on. Thank you. Not yet. Not yet They re not recording it ok, um on the roll call to re-establish Quorum. Director Lauder uh, she s absent, ok Director Williams
present, Director Hutchinson absent, Director Barry. Ok Director Thompson. Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor Yes Uh, and the two student board members are noted as absent, uh, PRESIDENT Berja. Yes. Quorums present. Go ahead, MS. Fraser. Good evening. I m Frasier Scurry Scott. I ve been a citizen of the city of Oakland for over 50 years. I have a 35 years of business experience. So when I heard that you were out looking for a new superintendent, which is costly. And that you also you have a
budget problem. It didn t make business sense to me. You have someone on board, Doctor Sadler, who has done a great job with Oakland Unified School District. Anyone who can make a avert a union strike has saved you a tremendous amount of money. That s number one You re gonna go out and look for someone who MAY or MAY not know the city, the Oakland Public School system. You already have someone who knows the Oakland Public school system. So why are you looking for another person? Extend her contract for 2 years so that she can continue to do what she s doing. She has local state, and national contacts which bring resources to our
school system. She s also has a family who has had a viable business in the city for over 2 generations. So she brings to you not only her expertise but she brings to you contacts and resources. I suggest you keep her on for as long as you possibly can as she continues to make Oakland Unified School District, a positive place for our students. Thank you. Thank you. And with that we will go into closed session and reconvene at to the dais, please. MR. Rakestra, can we have roll call to establish quorum, please. Yes, on the 2nd roll call, to establish Quorum, directors
Simmons. Here Director Smith here Director ladder Director uh Williams. Ok. Director Hutchinson. Director Barry present uh, director Thompson, present. Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor and PRESIDENT Perhar War present. Director Williams is now on the dias. Uh, MR. Sechu, can we have an interpretation check, please. Yes, moving to interpretation check. For tonight s meeting, we have 3 languages for life interpretation.
They are Arabic, Spanish, and Cantonese. For in person, we have laptops in the back of the room for interpretation. There s also translation closed captioning feature available on Zoom that you can use by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. We will start with Arabic I Lord Arch in his hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. MR. Tareq, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Thank you. Rafael Rafael Rafael Rafael Rafael Shashaarat interpretation. One local Arabic to control more Motaru language interpration
to Makarra announcement is over. Great, thank you, MR. Tarek Check in 10 to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, will not start with Arabic interpretation. We ll next go to Cantonese again, please don t raise your hand if you need Cantonese interpretation. MR. Ewan, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Cantonese, please. Oui wai yin yi you go to San Qu Yincheng. You so you kong tong wagapanjiting the kolai Tongahoo fang ding jia bosao tagadino in how country yi have a Ti it s a hoye Li Tongong Sheng Weizani haoandu Kong to mala panji. You got a, so you go to Magapanjin yang pingaohafong ko ying hong of uho, you know, Xinjha Gong tong
wai zhaohoo Yi Xaoten dou gong tong Wagapanji. You gou Guangdongwagapanleito and so you find the more Go Cantonese announcements is done, MR. Seiha. Thank you, MR. Yen. Check your attendees to see if any hands raised for Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, will not start with Cantonese interpretation. Next, we will go to Spanish again, please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. MS. Vargas, if you can come on mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Of course buenas nocheles demos davie Menida tenemos interpretation simultaneal espanol sine necesita servisio por favor ellevante la mano em personao
virtualmente teliando el symbolo de raise hand and suppantaya de sum. Sina says he tellservisio por favor avios er er provisosinos lorequere unaves active servisio por favor in la parte inferior de la ventana de sum pullse el simpolo de unglobo terracioque is interpretation. It express selectione Spanish. Sinoves the symbolobusquelos punto suspensibos demor pulcelos despo language interpretation if inalmente Spanish. Muchas gracias unavesmas sine necesital servisio avinos lebanando la mano persona oporumista persona el resinto lebana prover de on
dispositiva. Gracias. The Spanish announcement is done. Thank you. Great. Thank you, MS. Vargas. Cheng attendees if any hands are raised for a Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised for Spanish, we will not start with any interpretation and we ll check again later in the meeting. I to you, MR. Rickshaw. MADAM PRESIDENT, all of the, uh, the, the announcements for the availability of translation services at tonight s meeting has been completed. Thank you. Um Tonight in in closed session, we discussed the following items. Item d1, number 25-1864 conference with labor negotiators. The board discussed this matter.
Under legal matters under item d2, number 25-2682 conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, the board discussed this matter. Under item d3, number 26-0703 conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, the board discussed this matter. On item d4, number 28-0926 conference with legal counsel, existing litigation. The board approved a settlement in this matter, motioned by PRESIDENT Brohard, seconded by Director Thompson. Vote 6 to 0. PRESIDENT Bohart, yes, Vice PRESIDENT Bachelor, yes, Director Barry, yes, Director Hutchinson absent, Director Lauda, yes, Director Thompson,
yes, and director Williams, yes. On item d5, number 26-0946 conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, the board gave direction on this matter, motioned by PRESIDENT Brohart, seconded by Director Lauda. Uh, the yeses were President Brohart. Director Berry, Director Lauda Director Thompson, Director Williams, and a Vice PRESIDENT Bachelor voted no. On item d6, number 26-1101 conference with litigation, uh, with legal counsel, excuse me, anticipated litigation, the board approved a settlement in this matter. Motion by PRESIDENT Brohard, seconded by Director Thompson. The yeses where PRESIDENT Brohart, Vice PRESIDENT
Batchelor, Director Berry, Director Lata, director Thompson, Director Williams, and Director Hutchinson was absent. On item d7, number 28-1102 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation, motion by PRESIDENT Brohard, seconded by Director Latta. The yeses, PRESIDENT Brohard, Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor, Director Barry. Director Latta, Director Thompson. And Director Williams, Director Hutchinson was absent. On item d8, number 26-1138 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. The board approved a settlement in this matter, motioned by PRESIDENT Brohard, seconded by Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor. Yeses were PRESIDENT Brohard,
Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor, Director Berry. Director Latta, Director Thompson, Director Williams, and Director Hutchinson was absent. On item d9, number 26-1147 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. The board approved a settlement in this matter, motioned by PRESIDENT Brohart, seconded by Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor, was passed 6 to 0 with the yeses, PRESIDENT Brohard, Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor, Director Barry, Director Latta, Director Thompson, Director Williams, and Director Hutchinson was absent. On item d 10, number 26-1967, Superintendent of schools, the
board did not take up this matter. On items d11 through d16 pupil matters. The board heard these matters and will vote on the matters in public in Section 1 on the agenda. Uh, we will now begin. Are there any, um, modifications to the agenda? I would like to pool item 0122. Are there any other? And can I pull 121 and 0 123, please. Tonight we will hear, um, I m going to alter the order of this a bit, um, so that we can hear, I m going to move, um, item s unfinished business. To, um, after the
superintendent s report, so we ll go um in superintendents but report, and then, um, items s1. And we will then have our public hearing, and then we ll move into items o, p, q. T, and the rest of the agenda All right, with that we will celebrate our special orders of the day. We have several Um, i m going to hear, we re going to, um, hear the, um. Tributes to Maria Director Smith and Director Simmons. Together so there ll be a presentation we ll have 20 minutes of public comment. And then they ll be board
comment. Ok? So with that do we have the plaques for the directors. Yes And motion to approve Second. Ok, all right ok This is a tribute to Maximus Simmons, student board director, JULY 1st, 2024 through to 30th, 2026. Whereas for the second year in a row, Maximus Simmons has served as student board director this time as a senior at Oakland High School in the law and social justice pathway. And whereas Director Simmons
has been a delegate to all city council acc since middle school and joined the acc leadership team as a culture and climate director as a high school sophomore to help establish community within acc and whereas Director Simmons has devoted much of his spare time over the last 4 years in service of others by volunteering and teaching restorative justice, holding circles at two national restorative justice conferences, while also helping set up rj at Oakland High. And whereas director Simmons is also dedicated to helping lead Mayor Barbara Lee s Youth Advisory council and the work
it does in the community, including taking direct action to support ousd educators by holding regular fundraisers and school supply donation drives in the successful Help a Teacher Out campaign. And whereas director Simmons has dedicated himself to representing Oakland students and amplifying every student s experience, ensuring that the district provides the resources and support needed to drive all students to graduate, prepared for success. And whereas Director Simmons takes pride in his work with the Board of Education and especially in having secured Superintendent biweekly memos for student directors holding
fellow board directors accountable and keeping our community updated throughout the year and whereas Director Simmons will graduate from Oakland High and leave his position as student director on the board of Education this spring. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Oakland Unified School District, thanks Director Simmons for his dedicated service to the students, staff, and families of Oakland and commends him for the passion and commitment with which he gave a powerful voice to the 34,000 students of the district. Given under our hand in the in the district seal this 13th day of MAY 2026 in Oakland,
California. A. We, we do have time for, we re gonna do big pictures at the end here. Uh, Oakland, uh, Board of Education of the Oakland Unified School District resolution number 2526-0248. Tribute to Marianna Smith, student board director, JULY 1st, 2025 through JUNE 30th, 2026. Whereas Marianna Smith has served as student board director for her senior year at Oakland Technical High School and whereas Director Smith has served on the All-c City council, student union team for all 4 years of high school after becoming culture and climate director, a post she was elected to at the end of
middle school. During her sophomore year and junior years, she served as acc PRESIDENT. And whereas Director Smith is a passionate advocate for the power of restorative justice and the importance of listening to all sides of an issue, to understand the different perspectives. And whereas Director Smith is proud to have helped increase participation in acc high school meetings and events by creating more engaging agendas and actively creating a welcoming space for all students, especially those from underrepresented school sites. And where as Director Smith has regularly updated acc delegates
and its governing board with clear and accessible information about ongoing policy discussions on topics such as choosing a firm to recruit a new superintendent, union negotiations and sanctuary protocols. And whereas Director Smith takes pride in her work with the Board of Education, especially her communication of questions and concerns of students to the board when students believe the board failed to prioritize student participation and engagement processes, input on school safety and concerns around staffing cuts. And whereas Director Smith will graduate from Oakland Technical High and leave her position as
student director on the board of Education this spring. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Oakland Unified School District. Thanks Director Smith for her dedicated service to students, staff, and families of Oakland and commends her for her passionate commitment with which she gave a powerful voice to the 34,000 students of Oakland. Given under our hand and the district seal this 19th day of MAY 2026 in Oakland, California. Having a parliamentary conversation there. Uh, are there any public comments? Come on up.
Yes, MADAM PRESIDENT, so we have one Sheila Haynes, um, if you can raise your hand to be recognized on Zoom. If students wanted to speak and didn t come up, fill out a card, go ahead and fill one out and Madam PRESIDENT, how much time would you like to allot for public comment? Uh, 2 minutes We can do it and we ll, we ll take board comments first and then student comments. But go ahead, MS. Haines Is she there I see your hand Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Hello? Yeah, we can, we can hear you, MS. Haynes Hi. So I just, um, I wanted to
appreciate both of you student directors, just being the people that you are, the leading voices that our students need, are you, you give us, you give us hope that the next generation of our youth can continue with the love and respect that you guys give yourself and each other. Um, I m proud of you both for first just having that character of respect for yourselves and others, and more and more, I mean, it really starts with the character of a person like the characters that you guys possess. I appreciate you both for just being the leading example, you know, what it means to have respect for yourself and each
other. I mean, this truly uplifts our students, especially those who MAY have like an environment at home where they re not felt encouraged or maybe in an abusive environment. They, they look to the schools to be an uplifting place for them. So I, again, I m proud of the leaders you have been. I urge all students and families who MAY be listening to have that same character of respect cause more and more it really starts with having the res respect for yourself and each other, um, it s so much negativity that even happens with our music and the negative language too. I continue to
speak on. So thank you guys both so much. Um, I am hopeful and I hope the best for you guys in your future and just continue on being the great people that you are and the great adults that you are and um I know your parents are proud, proud of you guys both. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other speakers in public on this item? I have no registered speakers for this item? If students wanted to speak, do you want to fill out a card? Ok. Oh, is it over here It s come Thank you Yes, we have 2 speakers uh, Inara
uh last name starts with an s, and Sophia. Uh last name starts with an m. 2 minutes please acc with Mariana and Maximus, um, and I just wanted to come and speak to how how much I ve learned from these two, not just as. Student leaders and engaged community members, but as people um, I don t think I ve ever, I mean, I mean this about my whole board and all of the people that are graduating, but I ve never met two more or 11 more dedicated people that have so much sincerity and wanting to make a difference in their community and I m so lucky to
have gotten to be on a board with you guys not for multiple years, not just one, and I just, I don t, it s hard to imagine it without you, but you set such an amazing foundation for student engagement in this district, and I m very proud to have known you and thank you so much for everything. Hi everyone, um, I just wanted to come up to express how proud I am of both Mariana and Maximus. I have been, I ve had the pleasure of working and knowing and being friends with these two since the 6th grade, and I m just so proud of how much we ve all grown as a little trio and how we ve just come and um been able to express our
passion through the work we do, and I am so excited to see what you guys have, um, for the next chapter. To Marian, I can t wait to see you be such a strong advocate in whatever school you go to, and to really just be able to showcase your passion in the way that I know you love to do, which is by speaking up to Max, I can t wait to see you create more and just be the dedicated and heartful leader that you are. I love you both. Thank you. And are there any other speakers All public commentators names have been called. Ok. All students have spoken who want
to speak. Uh, board comments, raise your hand if you have a comment. Uh, Director Berry Hi Uh, I just wanted to use my time just to say thank you. Uh, growing up, my father talked a lot about servant leadership Um. People who lead to serve, right? It s, that is your uh contribution to community as the leadership and how you show up in community and you all embody all the things that I ve aspired to be. And then I m aspiring to be even as an adult, and I have asked my daughter to watch you all do the work
that you do because I hope that I m raising kids who show up the way that they do. I think you re amazing and I too am excited to see all that you will do. Grey Lana Um, I just wanted to also, um, appreciate you all for the work that you ve done. Um, I have been, um, had the opportunity to see you all in, not just here at culture of this district, um, and, um, I m, I m excited that you re on to, um, your next chapter, you know, we will really MISS You. Um, so thank you both. Um, I just want to say thank you. You guys are amazing. Um, I think at times you ask
questions that were hard. Um and they were questions I think that, uh, made all of us think and reflect on our actions. Um so I ve appreciated that Uh, I ve appreciated just seeing, you know, going to the mostly middle school, I think I remember seeing Maximus at a middle school. But I think the work that you ve done with students, the work that it s, um, across the district, it s it s been amazing. So, um, I really, I would say I would MISS You guys except I would be a little selfish, and I really look forward to hearing great things about you
and your future and um continuing I don t whatever colleges you re going to, whatever you re going to study, maybe you ll come back and be a history teacher in Oakland, who knows, but, um, you guys are amazing and I have really appreciated your work and working alongside you. Director Thompson like, um, my colleagues have mentioned. We appreciate really immensely what both of you have brought and, but both of you have given to the Oakland Unified School District, and especially sitting here on the board. Um, I m an individual that believes in allow me to just say it the way
I feel it. The Hermeneutic expression of how one actually does things. Um, my expertise is in Hermeneutics actually. And when I listened to what you guys say and how you say what you say. I interpret it based on what I call my prefiguration. In my prefiguration tells me that I m working with two individuals who really believe in what they re doing. Um, to individuals who would like to promulgate what they re doing, so that others can embrace it and then make this world a parenthetic, better
place. So I appreciate the work of both of you. I appreciate what you have brought to the board. I appreciate what you have brought to all of us, so that we can be introspective, take a look at ourselves and see if we are actually doing what we think is going to be most advantageous for those who are listening. So, thank you very kindly. I wish you the best, um, as you whatever your dream is for the future. I wish you the best in attaining that dream. Thank you very much Director Hutchinson Yes, thank you. And uh I m not gonna try to compete with Director Thompson s vocabulary
there. That was, that was impressive. Um so for, for both Director Smith and Director Simmons. Um, thank you. I, I hope you realize and can internalize how you are now a part of the legacy of student directors that we ve had here at ousd, which is really an amazing legacy, especially over the last decade, um. You know, and I m really excited for you two both very soon now to be joining another family of ousd graduates. And um I really hope that you re going to carry these experiences that you ve had here with you for the rest of your life. Um, hopefully your journey will
bring you back to Oakland at some point if you are going to leave, um, because we really need uh more people to come back home and really invest in our community and take everything that we ve learned over the years and really put it back into our, our family here that helped grow us. Um I also hope, especially over the summer and as you get a little separation, you ll be able to reflect on, uh, Director Smith the last year and Director Simmons the last two years of what s really happened here and an ousd, um, it s been some crazy times, and I hope really that you can draw lessons from that. That ll set you up and prepare you for wherever you re going to go.
Because remember, if you can handle business in Oakland, if you can handle business up on this dais, you can handle business any place that you go. So congratulations, thank you, and uh I look forward to welcoming, welcoming you to the family of ousd alumni going forward. Thanks. Director Williams Um yeah, yo, it s really I wanna say congratulations for real. I mean, it s a big accomplishment, you know, we did 12 years here you know, and as you are maturing into your next phase of life, right? You look back
on elementary, middle, high school, all the relationships. And it is really big, like, um, going forth now you have some core beliefs, core principles that you re gonna stand by. And not only just being a a leader at whatever next school you are. But you really are like an activist. You really are you can identify identify what needs to be changed, uh, what needs to be lifted up? What needs to be supported and I think that s really what makes, you know, Oakland really special, like we have a
a long history folks fighting for the right thing. Uh, social change. And, you know, it goes back to the Black Panthers, all the way back, but in between that, there s just been so many activists you can go through the streets of Oakland and and run into some folks who ve been doing work. It s good to see that you represent that. That you got it from the soil of Oakland. So I only wish you the best as you move forward, you take these lessons my mom used to tell me, uh, you know if you want friends, you gotta be a friend to somebody.
Who, you know, want a relationship, you gotta give that, you gotta give what you want from people. You know, you gotta show people what it is. And I think throughout this year, you ve shown everybody that you know, you stand firm for righteousness. You stand firm for inclusion. And I think that anyone who comes and rocks with you, will understand that, that that s what they need to be as well. So, um you know do the best you can, travel as much as you can, get those opportunities, get out there and see the world, uh, that will really help your perspective as you come back to Oakland. When you come back to
Oakland, you see how things are done elsewhere, and you can continue to lift up the work that needs to be done, because, uh, uh it s a lot of young folks doing a lot of great things, and I m glad that you re gonna enjoy that. That class of young folks for this particular year and do something. I only wish you the best. So, you know, keep it up and uh send you much love, much support. Uh, much activism, much energy, and just go conquer the world, be fearless as you move forth in the world. Go for it So, wish you all the best. Thank you. Um, with that, we ll move on for your last meeting and oh, we have to have a vote. I m
sorry The motion to formally adopt the resolutions recognized the tribute to the two students. Uh, student directors, I m gonna assume that you re gonna recuse yourself on your own vote, but vote for your colleague. Is that correct? Yes. Ok. On the roll call, it will be so recorded, the two students voted for each other, but not for themselves. Director lotta? Yes. Director Williams. Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Barry Director Thompson? Yes. Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor, and PRESIDENT Brohar. Uh, unanimously adopted. Yes.
Yes, this was a concurrent motion Is the board member of uh concur that this was a concurrent motion? I m sorry, Superintendent Sadler. I just wanted to just make a comment. It it s just been a gift to be able to sit next to the two of you. Um, I think it s pretty special. We have the same initials, so you were destined uh to be leaders and be together in this work. I also want to acknowledge something that was not mentioned in your work on youth vote. And I just you ve just been present everywhere, um, in the community as an advocate for you. An advocate for the schools
and education. I also want you to carry with you that you have people here who know you and who are here for you. So when there are times when you have questions or you need help and support. Please reach out, because life has a lot of twists and turns, and sometimes you just need to reach out to talk to someone. You have people who will answer your call at any time, and I m one of them. So I m just really feel privileged to sit next to you and get to know you as wonderful people. Congratulations, and I m excited about your next step. Um man I ve actually been waiting for this.
For like the past 2 years Um I really just I wanna say that I want to take this time to highlight Mariana, just because it s been a lot. It s, it s definitely been a lot. It is definitely been a lot um and I wanna apologize because I could have been there, I could have been there better for my 2nd year, just the, the glamour of student director and the the, the wow factor. Wasn
t there for me no more the second year and I had got a lot of a lot more responsibility on my back, and I wasn t able to let it be fun for you as it was for me my first year and it was, it was just serious, but but we did it. And and we did it together and a lot of, and none of y all know, Sophie might know. Sophie might not, but me and Mariana said that we were gonna be student directors together and and 8th grade. And and see we was really supposed to be singing directors together
for junior year and senior year, but some somebody backed out on me at the last minute, but but so this is something that that was planned and this was something that we thought about and we made the decision not, not individually but together to make sure that this came into fruition. At some point in time before we left here. And it was all in, in every single battle that we fought. And every single piece of change that I ve made over these past 5 years. Marianna has literally been
there for every single one of them. She has literally significantly been an ear and has lended advice and has landed a lot of unwarranted and unwanted opinions to a lot of stuff that that I got going on, and I appreciate every single one of those words and you know, if one, if one thing isn t, if nothing is true and everything is a lie. The one truth is that we have shown up for each other. Despite the the feelings or the spite the
ang or anger or anything like that, we continue to show up. And I appreciate you. So thank you Um, next we want to honor the, um, classified employees of the year. And is there a motion to adopt this resolution. So moved 2. Thank you. Um Taragar, I believe, has the presentation, correct? Ok waiting for uh superintendent. Thank you for having me here tonight and I wanna also thank Jeff Dillon. He s actually now the chief talent officer, but he s allowing me because I love this
award, particularly to do this tonight, um, and tonight we are here Thank you to present the classified employees of the year, and we have um categories of which people are honored. The paraprofessional, clerical and administrative services, food service, custodial and maintenance security services, health and student services, technical services, and skilled trades. And we are um honoring each person tonight, uh, everyone is not here tonight, but for those that are will come up. And I
m gonna first start um with Pompali Thai. I m not sure I don t think that she is here tonight, but I just want to make sure. Ok, so we re gonna just, I wanna, um, excuse me, name Pompali as in the paraprofessional. Um category. She s been with the district for 31 years as a library tech at Markham, and we honored her at honoring our own and um she has just uh wonderful employee, and you can see that she is known for building strong relationships at the school and fostering love of reading for our
students. So we thank her and we will move to Malaros Rodriguez, and I know that she is here. If you can come up please. Thank you. She is Malaris is the uh she s been here for 5 years as the attendant specialist and working at Esperanza. Thank you. And I wanna read, oh no, don t, don t go, don t go. MISS Malagras Milli, they call you Milly at school. Ok, demonstrates excellence in work performance through her unwavering dedication to students, families and staff serving as a trusted attendant specialist who builds strong
relationships, removes barriers to student success and consistently goes beyond her role to support the school community. MISS Rodriguez exemplifies leadership, commitment, and community connection through her bilingual support, deep relationships with families, and ongoing contributions as a mentor, problem solver, and advocate, fostering a culture of belonging and ensuring that all members of the school community feel welcome, supported and valued. And we thank you for your work every day. Thank you. Thank you ok, I, Cynthia Johnson from Food Service, she is not here tonight, um, but Cynthia s been
with us for 11 years as a food service assistant 3 at Redsdale. So we will shout her out as well. Thank you, Cynthia You, you feel lie is also not here, correct? Ok. And he has been a custodian for 8 years at Skyline, so if we could shut him out as well. Um. And we ll move to MR. Garrett Humphrey Garrett. He s been with us for 19 years, and I know he s here. Central culture ambassador at Marcus Foster Building. Ok MR. Humphrey Garrett uh, demonstrates excellence in
his work performance through his professionalism, reliability, and commitment to maintaining a safe and welcoming environment, consistently going above and beyond to support colleagues and the broader school community. MR. Garrett exemplifies leadership and community engagement through his proactive approach to safety, willingness to support school events beyond his assigned duties and positive attitude that fosters trust, collaboration, and a strong sense of security and belonging for staff, students and families. And we thank you, and he is going to say a few words. This Thank you. Uh, first give an
honor to GOD, the leader of my life, to my wife, to my pastor, to Doctor Sadler, to MISS Guard, to MISTER Dillon, to the board, to the student board to all my co-workers, to students, staff, parents, care providers and outside professionals and a special shout out to my children and my church family. You know, I m truly grateful and full of gratitude. You know, I pray daily to keep my patience and confidence in who I am. And remember my integrity and stability so that do not let people s first energy. In their heart, if it s anger fester in me. I bring
positivity every day, knowing what the chances are for people to show up with things going on in their own space. My wisdom and knowledge of people and my ability to de-escalate does not allow any angry energy to transfer into my spirit. I ve done this for 21 years on campus with our students and it s rewarding. The rewards is when students come back after graduating and going on to college and come back and they remember some of the positivity that you shared with them to assist them in navigating themselves in the directions of their achievements. So that,
that is some of the, uh, positivity, um. I have done, uh, uh, I ve been at Marcus foster Leadership Center with the adults for the last 14 months and I m sharing that same energy with them, and I m very proud of what I do and I love what I do. Ultimately, keeping the main thing, the main thing with joy, passion, commitment, and with gratitude while keeping it safe, welcoming professional, engaging environment for everyone. Thank you to everyone under the sound of my voice. Much love and much respect. And a special thank you to the people or the person who
selected me for this recognition. GOD bless. Thank you. Adrian, MISS Modi, is she here? MISS Mindy? Thank you ok, MISS Mondi has been with us for 44 years and is a special education instructional aid at Prescott. And I m gonna um yeah, let s honor that time with us. Thank you. And so MISS Modi demonstrates exceptional dedication, professionalism, and compassion through her decades of service, serving as a trusted and welcoming presence at Prescott Elementary School, where she builds
meaningful relationships with students, families and staff, and ensures that all who enter the school feel seen, supported and valued. MISS Maundy exemplifies leadership and commitment through her unwavering reliability strong advocacy for colleagues, and ability to foster positive and inclusive school culture. Using her deep knowledge and experience to support the school community, strengthen relationships, and ensure a welcoming and supportive environment for all. And we thank you Would you like to I wanna say thank you to my Prescott family and thank you to ao.
Ok, I wanna say thank you to my Prescott family for nominating me, and I want to say thank you to our children at Prescot. I consider them my children. When they come through the gate in the morning, I m the one who opened the gate and greet each child by their first name. We have 150 students present there plus our preschool. I know all their names. I let the kids know that I care about them. I work real hard with them. I mean, I m engaged with all the students and the students know that I love them and I wish them nothing but the best. Thank you all. Thank you. Our next, uh, classified employee under technical services, Sabrina you come up? Thank you
Hey Sabrina and I worked together in it for a little bit. Um, and she is wonderful. Thank you. And it s been with us now 35 years 35 years and is retiring, yes. And thank The Marina demonstrates excellence in work performance through her dedication as the primary point of contact for technology services support, providing responsive, thoughtful, and solutions-oriented assistance that ensures staff and students can effectively access critical systems and tools. Sabrina exemplifies leadership and commitment through her
ability to build strong relationships, improve systems and processes, and consistently go above and beyond to support colleagues across the district fostering efficiency, collaboration, and a positive experience for all of those she serves, and we thank you. Do you want to, I ll start crying. Thank you, sir And thank you, Serena. And our last, uh, sigy, a munch. I don t think that, yeah. Is our um iggy is our roofer at bng, and he s been with us for 13 years. He s not here tonight, but we will shout him out as well. And so
that is the end of our classified employees of the year. Thank you board for allowing us to bring them forward and honoring them tonight. MISS Starr, do you want to call them back up so we can give them their. Oh yes. We get the picture you talk or do you want them to? Ok. Yeah, we can talk first. Ok, it s Uh, are there public comments on this item? Uh, we have one. Kim Davis online, has a hand raised. I will allow them to speak. Good evening board. Um, thank you for the opportunity to
speak on this, um, wonderful honor and want to congratulate all of the winners, but, and I m sorry I m not there because I, I, uh, intended to be, excuse me but I just wanna give a particular gratitude and love and shout out to MISS Mundy from Prescott, who is absolutely, uh, the heart of, of Prescott for 44 years or actually, I guess she hasn t been in Prescott 44 years. She s either related or believes she s related to every child that s there. They get hugs in the morning. She is the, the center, the rock, the kids look for her if they
re, you know, having a moment and they need a little bit of of love and attention and a big hug, um, so well deserved to all of you, but MISS Mundy, we love you, I love you and congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. Are there any other public comments There are comments commenters for this item. Um I, I mean, I, so at first I just want to start by thanking and appreciating all of the classified staff who were honored, um, we have, you know, sometimes the things in the district can feel, uh, you know, especially if you re on the board a little
bit, um, intense and we re talking about very high level level things, but the people um who are working every day in our district, um, whether it s with staff or with our buildings and grounds or with our students, um, do, are one of the highlights for, I think many of us, um, who have our children here or who work here. I do want to take a minute though to particularly appreciate MISS Mundy. Um, I have had the privilege of having 3 kids, um, now no MISS Mundy, like an aunt, like part of their family who, um, and I can say that that not just them, but all of the students at Prescott really um really are, you hold the heart
of the whole school, um, when you re gone, which you deserve days off and you re sick and that s fine. But it is striking how many students are like, Where s MISS Mundy? Is she coming back? Is she ok? Should we call her? Should we bring her something? Um, and when you re there, you can, you know, to, to have the, you know, to see the light in students eyes, running for you for their morning hug. Students who come in crying, um, and they they know that they can turn to you, um, we have, I think we have a very, very wide open, um, yard area and somehow your ability to hold that, um, all of those students safe, um, and
having fun is um is I think such a I m just so glad that you re getting honored, um, and I hope that you feel honored by all of us who, um, get to, um, see you every day. Um, and I think on behalf of my three kids who love you so much, um, but all of their friends and and classmates and the staff at Prescott. I just thank you so much. DR. Smith I just want the con congratulate everyone that s being recognized tonight. You clearly are making a really, really big impact on ousd, not just the students, but the staff as well. I just hope that you continue to grow and, you
know, contribute to the students and I really hope that ousd contributes to you right back. DR. Simmons Congratulations to everybody who won, and I wanna I wanna shout out my og Ray here, my og right here, Humphrey, I meant. He, let me tell you, every time I walk in the office every single time I walk in the office. I m greeted with a smile I m greeted, I m greeted with a, with a warm hug. And I m greeted as a king, and I appreciate that. And it, it goes a long way and it means a lot to come from a, to come from a black man, it
means a lot. Specifically. So I appreciate you and I thank you. And congratulations Uh yes, MS. Modi, just, uh, it s always a blessing to see you on Wednesdays when I show up. Uh, but the community that s created with uh you coming out, uh, in front of the school and talking to each and every student. I, I m a witness to that. That is so beautiful. I ve never seen it before. Um, and I go to a lot of schools, but your love for our young folks um, and greeting them with love and care and nurturing. Even when it
s raining uh, you, it is amazing and so I feel so honored to be in your presence because I know the work that you have done. All these years. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Uh and, uh, MR. Garrett. Yo, man from the climate days, who, I appreciate you helping me figure out what s going on there as well. I mean, you re uh you re nurturing, uh, your guidance, your patience, uh, and just accept it. Who s this new guy walking around that is
willing to help me through the process and just uh be a guiding light. Uh for a climates. I mean, we MISS Your energy there. Trust me. Time and time again because you re an angel. You are an angel when you walk into a space, you radiate uh love, you radi radiate like, like you said, patience. Um, and you are a GOD s servant, 100%. So I am always blessed to be in your presence. Thank you, sir, for the work you ve done for the years you ve done. Uh, thank you, my man. Yeah I also want to give a shout out
to MR. Humphrey. I, when I walk in and the other day I was exhausted and I was in a bad mood, and I walked in and you were just like it was amazing. So I think for, you know, people coming into the, the foster center that you re the first person they see that just puts people at it was amazing. So I really appreciate the, the warmth and the, um, grace um, showing me how to use the card thing was very, I went down to knock on the door anymore, um, but I just appreciate the warmth of it, it s, it s just an amazing way to enter into that building. And then I also want to give a shout out to Milagros Ramirez because any school that has
pictures of you on their sign, that s a place I want to work. That is awesome. So congratulations to all our, our honorees tonight. And with that, if they would all come up to the stage with your certificate, your, your um facts, we will, we have some gifts and of course pictures. Vote first ok, uh, on the roll call, MR. Reekstra. On the roll call honoring, uh, the certificated Employees of the Year. Oh. Director summits student director Smith. Yes Grecola, Director Williams.
Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Director Berry Yes. Director Thompson. Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor. Yes, PRESIDENT Bhar motions and to be adopted. All right. Won t be Everybody right here, Wow good We wanna see your name They re personalized Yeah. One That s Jeff told me to wait one everybody s Thank you
give a clicker they I If board directors could return to the dais, please. Yeah No, I appreciate it All right. Um, moving on to item I, which we re going back to actually, which is pupil consent. Do we have a motion to adopt the pupil consent So moved I ll second it and MR. Rakestraw, can we have a roll call on the vote, please. Public comment. Uh, we have public comment on this? Uh, yes, MADAM PRESIDENT, we have one
Asada Olagba. Assolabama, do you want to come up and uh public comment on k, which is pupil consent. I. I, I continue to advocate for the students who have been in the expulsion process in this district. Right now you are going to approve, I think, 5 students to return and one student that will go into expulsion. I don t know how that works over the summer when school is out Does Alameda County still have opportunity for education opportunities during the summer. I don t know. I do know this that s the most children or young people with need.
Have to be put at the top I did find out that you have a lady named MISS Tate, who deals with the suspension students, so they get support that needs to be broadened to include the expo expelled students. And during the time that they have behavior issues that needs to be an assessment process to help them return to the normalcy of behavior that they can achieve. So, I do not think we are there. So I will continue to say students who are being expelled need support and if we, we should have kept our community school open to
give them our support. I don t know what s going on in Alameda County. But I do know we, we can do better than what we re having as far as how we handle our students who are being expelled. They have tremendous behavior needs. They might have personal needs their parents need to be involved in this process to help them get where they need to go in terms of knowing that they can do better. Who s given in that opportunity to say I will now return giving my best to graduate from this district. I hope you will take it under
serious consideration. And I ll be back to keep saying it. Thank you. Are there any other public speakers? There are no public speakers for this item, MADAM PRESIDENT. MR. Rakesar, can we have a roll call on the vote, please? Yes, on the motion to adopt the people discipline consent. Report Uh, student directors are recused Director Lauder. Director Thompson Yes Director Barry Yes Director Hutchinson ok Director, uh, Lauder, I mean
sorry, Director Williams. Yes, sir. Vice PRESIDENT Bachelor. Yes and PRESIDENT Brohar. Motions adopted. Uh, the next item on the agenda is item k, which is our student report. Good evening, board members, superintendents, students, parents, and community. Welcome to our last board report for the school year. We will invite our governing board members to join us and give the end of the year report where we will have an overview of All City council. Talk about key accomplishments for the school
year, General updates around our priorities, and we will be announcing our new governing board for the 26, 27th school year. Before we get started with our report, I would like to invite our All City council governing board. Members to, I would, I would like to announce, I would like to invite our ac council governing board members to come up and introduce theirselves. Um do we have the Oh we do. Yeah, we do. Hello everyone. My name is Ashley Chaim. I m a senior at Oakland Tech and I am the series PRESIDENT. Hello everyone, my name
s Anara Shafiq. I m a junior at Skyline, and I m acc s vice PRESIDENT. Hello everybody. My name is Lewis Allen. I m a senior at Oakland Tech and I m acc s historian. Hi everyone, my name s Nala Kaplan Rashid. I m a junior at Skyline High School and I m acc s secretary. Hi, I m Ian and I go to Mtwest High School and I m a senior. Hello everyone, my name is Sophie Mollette. I m a bulldog at Oakland Tech and I am a senior. Good good evening everybody. My name s Amina Tongun. I m acc s
media director and 11th grader at Oakland Tech. Hi everyone, I m Lena. I m a senior at Skyline and I m acc s lcap director. Hello everybody, um, next slide please. Um, for those who don t know what acc is, acc, which stands for all City council, is a student union that represents 30. 000 + students in the district. We are a bridge between students and adult decision makers and the governing board is an elected student body. That comes from different schools across the district, and we are a team that represents the voices of students in our district. Uh,
next slide please. Um, we organized together to address the needs of the students and encourage them to participate in leadership at their school sites and district levels and um. In the presentation, you can see some of our um visions um points and one of them is a strong inified All City council acc student union with open and constant communication with the student body that functions as a powerful student union and um we envisioned a district that leadership has a formal place during the school day as well as a multitude of quality after school and community-based programs for many students participate in improving their schools and communities. As for some of our key accomplishments this year. Um,
we ve met with 11 ousd departments over the year, some being the health and wellness, academics and innovation and special education, we ve collectively committed hundreds of hours within our roles as all city council governing board members, and we, we also have several members a part of committees and partnerships outside of acc such as ofcy clc oic, the student safety and Violence Prevention Committee, and Barbara Lee s youth advisory council. The Sierra High School meet our high school committee has had 4 general high school meetings with 13 high schools and 59
students in attendance. Some of the activities that these high school meetings included opportunities for student leaders to get to know other student leaders across ousd. Engagement with student uh students around ousd s initiatives and students around or and student priorities such as career exploration, inclusion, and nutrition. As well as leadership skill building training, public speaking, flip, smart goals, understanding the budget deficit, student power, etc. Along with that, we also had our 16th annual Youth Action summit held this year, um, which included 9 schools and a total of 55 schools or students engaged, um
and yeah, on the next slide we ll see the students from all the following schools that were represented at this youth summit. Yeah Um, much like the high school committee, we also have a middle school committee which focuses on the middle school students in our district, which I am a part of, um, and this year we, um, had 4 general middle school meetings with 15 middle schools being engaged with and 80 students in total, um. We basically follow the same, um, idea of the high school committee and we end off our year with the middle school ethnic studies conference, peer Resource and ethnic study conference, and this year we had 239 middle school students
in participants from 12 schools, 73 youth, um, and student workshop facilitators and 50 middle school rj circle keepers from Brewer, Roosevelt, Urban Promise, and on the next two slides you ll see middle schools that we have collaborated with. We had 3 priorities this year. Our first one was career exploration. We chose career exploration because we found that at our high school retreat, many of the high schoolers tt wengage with, um, spoke about how they didn t feel like they had the resources or the support within their schools to kinda um actualize or realize or um reach the goals and dreams that they had for themselves after they graduated high school. And so within our
priority this year, we did a lot of research surrounding the different resources and support and just to kind of um in reviewing a lot of s ur ve y s about how students felt like they were really being uplifted by their schools and through all of that we found that there s a big disconnect between the amount of students who say that they want to graduate and actually do in the amount of students who say that they want to, you know. Pursue a career or go to college after high school, but actually have the support to do that and so we do recommend that um that the school board looks into that and make ensures that there s a college and career center at every ousd high school.
Um, another issue that ousd students that we worked with this year identified when we were choosing our priorities was both a lack of students that spend most of their time in special education classes and spaces in leadership spaces and boards like acc as well as just on varying school sites like a bit of a, a divide between students that spend most of their time in general education and students that spend most of their classes and students that spend most of their time in special education classes. Um, so we launched a couple different things in collaboration with other student leadership this year at
Skyline, particularly, um, in order to address and bridge the gap between students. One thing that was the idea of, um, Skyline leadership students was to have they started a chapter of an organization called Best Buddies that helps foster meaningful friendship and connection, um, between all kinds of different students on campus and that s been very effective at getting students students that spend most of their time in special education involved in our student leadership at Skyline, and I ve seen it happen and it s amazing. Um, and also we worked very closely with Aruna and Amanda
on the disability access team, um, in central office, and they ve given various different trainings to people at our, um, general high school and middle school meetings about just disability access education, yes. In the nutrition committee, our assessment has revealed significant concerns within our current school meal services, including age-appropriate food portions, delayed scheduling, food waste, and meals that don t reflect our communities culture, all of which contribute to student hunger and missed classroom time. In response, we posed a survey to students, um, we engaged over
30 students. Um, we also recommend that the nutri tion team, um, adopt a student-led task force, um, to inform so students can inform the meals that they re seeing on their plate, equitable portion sizes, local food sourcing and dedicated funding to improve the overall meal experience. The nutrition committee has um partnered with the nutrition department and they have been very open and willing to adopt these things, um, especially local food sourcing. I know that they already have done this thing, um, have already done this. And they are excited to learn more about it. Through collaboration with the nutrition services department. We hope to ensure that every
student feels nourished, represented, and ready to learn. Um, so another one of our accomplishments this year was getting the state of state sela civic engagement Act to a lot of different students this year, um, if you don t know what the state seal of Civic Engagement is. It s just a recognition from, um, the government that goes on your diploma that tells that shows that you have had some sort of impact on your community, um, so this information on the slide is wrong actually. It s been updated since we made the slides. 117 students received the Seal of of civic engagement from the following schools, ccpa, Fremont, um, Madison Park Academy, met West Oakland High
School, Oakland Tech, and Skyline. And 52% there s been a 52% increase in students receiving their sea this school year from last school year. So, yeah, it was awesome. Next we have our work within the Oakland Youth Vote. Within Oakland You Vote is the core leaders Committee, which is made up of about 20 different high schoolers across the Bay Area and we ve basically worked, well, we worked on Oakland Youth vote and right now, um, and we also gave you a presentation the other month and we re recommending a voter education week to, um, for the last two weeks of SEPTEMBER 2026, as well as, um, reminding you guys that school board
elections are in NOVEMBER 2026 for all even districts and so we wanna really make sure that we re spreading the word out about youth vote and institutionalizing it within our school district. Um, here are some highlights of what clc has accomplished this year, um, as you guys we re all here for, we finished and presented our evaluation report of, um, our key takeaways of how the 2024 election went pertaining to youth vote, um, we helped develop youth vote strategies for the NOVEMBER 2026 election, um, in partnership with the registrar s office and Alameda County Office of Education and
ousd. Um, we had a media committee training in media literacy and analytics and the civic engagement Committee is currently working on reviewing the oiv curriculum so that it can be distributed to schools during voter education weeks. Um, here s some, um, a highlight that I have done as in my role as the health and wellness director, um, at Oakland Technical High School, um. Me alongside, um, a lot of um student leaders on on Tech s campus have launched it s our very first wellness center in
peer wellness Ambassadors program. Um, we have trained 1012 peer leaders, um, in topics like mental health first aid, crisis response, cycles of abuse, restorative justice, addiction response, and many more. Um, the wellness center has provided um support to over 100 students weekly. This support looks like one on one wellness counseling referrals coming through the cost team, um, and self referral forms um weekly affinity restorative justice circles, such as black men s group and Black Girls circles, um, and lgbtq plus um circles, um, we have done a lot of tier
two, restorative justice circles, um, that is harm and conflict and we have done academic tutoring and many more services. This year, ecap directors attended 9 pesac meetings. During those meetings, we presented updates from both our high school and middle school engagements we shared data collected from students and made sure student voices were represented in conversations surrounding the district budget. We hope to work with pesac to make their meetings more student friendly. This year we encouraged some of our gb members to join the pesac meetings and give us feedback
for what pisa can look like next year. Next slide Um, future lcap directors should plan to conduct classroom visits alongside high school leadership teams to help students better understand the lcap process. The lcsf funding and how this district budget directly impacts the schools and daily experiences. Through these classroom visits they should collect more student feedback to bring back to pesac meetings and encourage greater student participation in district decision making processes. So how can the ousd district support all city council. First,
share more about what all city council is across the ousd. I think that what we have here is a great board of students, a great collection of students, but it s not totally representative of the entire ousd and part of that has to do with outreach and how, um, ousd markets, um, boards like these or groups like these. Next, you could provide more funding for student leadership and improvement projects and specifically for the school board, be present at our engagement, especially with schools in your district reach out to us, be proactive, um, we want to hear from you, so please make sure to reach out to us. Thank you to our All City
council governing board for serving your full term and representing your peers in ousd. This year we say see you soon to our graduating seniors, Ashley, Iman, Lena, Lewis, Mariana, Maximus, and Sophie. We also get to officially welcome the governing board for the 26, 27th school year. Now before I allow the new governing board of the 2026 to 2027 school year come up and introduce themselves. I would like to let it be known that we have two lcat positions that are not filled up. So students in the fall when they have their retreat, that s where special elections will be held. So again, llcap, both of the
positions are, are vacant, so please look into that. And now, can we please have our new gb step up and introduce themselves. Hi, my name s Amina Tongun. I m an 11th grader at Oakland Tech, and I will be one of next year s student directors. Hello, my name is Andrew Block, but you can call me Drew, and I m gonna be a freshman at Oakland High School next year, and I m gonna be, um, one of the student directors next year. Hello, my name is Anar Shafiq. I m an 11th grader at Skyline High School, and I m going to be the PRESIDENT For the 2026, 2027. Hi again, everyone, my name s Nola Kaplan Rashid, and I m
gonna be the vice PRESIDENT For the 2026, 27 school year. Thank you. Hello everyone, my name is Maria and I will be your acc secretary for the 2026 to 2027 school year. I m currently a junior and was recently elected as asb PRESIDENT For Fremont High School. Hi, my name is Quir. I m going to be the historian for next year s school year. Hi, my name is Tiffanie Buscos. I m gonna be the health and wellness director for next school year. Thank you so much, everyone. Before we conclude our report, me and Max would like to reflect on our experience in
governance and talk about what being student directors has taught us. So, over the years I have networked with people from ousd central office to the local and national government because of my ousd education and personal experiences. I m so grateful to look in my wallet every day and see all of the business cards from people all over the world. And something that I can say confidently is that a lot of them looked like me. And they looked like my classmates and people I saw walking down the street. I have learned that in this line of work, which is human services and helping people excel. We must not be afraid to listen to our hearts and allow
empathy to be expressed not only in our words, but MAY it reflect in our work as well. I have seen this board, political leaders, and even online personalities ignored the sole purpose of their positions, and MAY I remind you that you are here to help people excel by giving your furthest extension of power and influence to make sure our community stands strong and informed. As student director, I communicated the questions and concerns of students to the board members when they have failed to prioritize student participation and engagement processes, like the superintendent search committee
that I was a part of and didn t really get any updates on. But along with that, I also made sure to retain all student facing challenges and experience to guide my advocacy efforts throughout the year. I have time and time again communicated the questions and concerns of student board members, but as much as it hurts to say, none of it matters without your vote because student votes are not counted. The same people who decide how our school systems runs are the same people who have our district in shambles. The very people who say they do it for their community, but yet we sit here in debt with no plan and no unity to move us forward. I can sit up here and scold everyone, but I d rather give a
list of improvements. Number one, the board needs to be more proactive and face in student facing information in meetings that benefit us all. An example of this is the teaching and learning Committee. We need to advertise these meetings across ousd platforms and increase the number of times the committee meets each school semester. Number 2, the board should maintain a consistent and inclusive system that ensures students, families, and staff have a clear understanding of what adult decision makers are doing in our district to improve our sites and why these decisions are being made. Number 3, I expect the board to take consideration, take careful consideration of all
the possible options and solutions for our budget to keep the cuts as far away from our students as possible. And lastly, I expect updates about ongoing policy discussions such as the process for selecting a superintendent further union negotiations and safety protocols. I expect real transparency with every single one of you this year, you have failed, and every year before that, I can say confidently that the majority of the information and resources that I have is because I m a student director. And even when I was an acc governing board member. I was never this informed on what was going on in the district and I can confirm that many of our
students have no idea the district is struggling this hard to communicate with one another and make the necessary adjustments to adhere to all demographics. But also as a student, it s very important to learn and ask questions, especially when it s things that affect our community. I definitely love being student director, not because of the attention or even because of the networking, I m so thankful to have experience. But because it allows me to advocate for a large body of people who deserve a chance to dream big and have the available resources to support that dream. I appreciate my time on this dais and as student board member, and I will be sure to
continue to live my life as an advocate for my community. Thank you. All right, so I was told not to ramble. Um because I have a tendency to do that But I also just before I get started saying my little spill, I also want to say that. Every single position of leadership that youth holds, wherever, wherever it is in this, in this city and the city over and the state over and the country over. It the definition of what it means to be a youth leader. Is defined by those youth leaders.
We are set up in parameters. We re set up in a box and we re trying, we re we re trying to be controlled. And it s hard to show up. As a youth leader and a lot of spaces because you re shot down and you re undermined. And you re overlooked and you re young. And you don t have the experiences that those around you have. So you re put into a box But as student director over these past 2 years, um, and even more now as I, you
know, as I represent not only the youth and ousd, but all the youth in Oakland under 25, um, I ve learned unchecked and undefined, resilience. I ve learned what it means to chase for something that you ve yet to fully understand, but feel the uncontrollable and immense importance of I ve learned what it means to swim. Even if you re in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight. These past two years have been hard. And if I said anything else, I d be fibbing. Consistency consideration and confidence has been what I have attempted
to define myself by during my during my time served in this seat. I have learned how damaging expectations can be to oneself, seeing the effect of what thousands of expectations can do to someone who is yet to define themselves and who they are. In contrast to these hard lessons learned I have learned how to practice peace. Understanding emotions and controlling my own emotions. I have learned what unwavering support can mean to one person. And finally I ve learned what it means to love something so much
and so intensely that you re willing to give your entire self sacrificing everything you want and even some things you need. To search for an achievement of one goal that you will never benefit from. But many will prosper because. I understand what it means to journey through life with thousands, millions of people, knowing that we were all here with one another at this unique time, laying down those tiny pieces in a puzzle that we ll never see completed. Rolls like these roles that we sit in up here. They don t come with flowers They don t come with pats on
the back Neither do they come with grace or understanding. Roles such as these come with expectations. Criticism at every level of what you do, and many long nights where you feel your work isn t helping anyone. These roles are given to you already defined by countless people who has held them before you. These roles can make you feel like you re in a box to speak a certain way and to change up your way of communication, alter your style and even the people you associate with. I ve tried my hardest over these years to burst this bubble or break the box that
many people tried to trap me in. But the truth is that as a leader, you are defined by those who you by those who you represent. A mere vessel of the thousands or millions of people. You are the leader of this journey that I m speaking about Your actions define those expectations. Every action in every moment defines your style of leadership. Every single one of these moments. If you truly believe in the battle in which you re fighting for. Define who you are and define the type of leader
that you will be, and that you will grow into. And so, lastly I have learned that I did define those expectations. That were endowed to me and to my future student directors who are out there. I ask you will you allow them to define you? Wait, I m not done We would also like to thank everyone who has made our year in acc successful. Throughout the year, we collaborate with ousd student groups and many community-based organizations that specifically work with our ousd youth. Through our various
collaborations, we were able to mobilize more students and find areas to really uplift student voices and pers perspectives. We re housed under the Office of Equity. So we want to thank akael Hime Jerome Gordine Jamal Mohammad Oh Phyllis, that is Phyllis. I bet Phyllis delivers our food. I cannot forget Phyllis. I m sorry. Phyllis Copes. Arciela Gonzalez, Sabria Hassan Eve Eve Delphin. And the rest of the equity team for continuously showing up for
ousd students and taking the time to support, to support all of our events. Without all of our students. And their adult allies. None of our events will be possible. These adult allies not only make sure that students are brought to our events but also make the time during their classes to continue working on projects related to our work. And so, we want to thank everybody who has helped our city council be successful in this year. And in the year to come Because as I said unwavering support can make a true difference And we would specifically, wait,
wait one second. And specifically and especially we would like to thank our adult ally Adriana I don t know where she went, but she hears, she, oh, they stand up, stand up for them. Stand up for him. There you go. Adriana has been with us less than 2 years, and she has showed so much love and support to all of the students that she s worked with, not just with acc but all of ousd students and a lot of us wouldn t even be here without her. So thank you, Adjana, truly. And thank you. That concludes our report.
Public comment on the side Uh, yes, MADAM PRESIDENT, we have a total of 4 speakers with 2 student speakers. Uh, we ll take the two student speakers 1st and 2 minutes. Uh yes, uh 2 student speakers are uh Bella Richards. And Kaya Richards and the other two students here? Bella and Kaya, was that the other one? Ok. And if you could make sure to pull the mic down low enough so we can hear the speakers. Thank you for letting them speak. They
re speaking about the school stability. Ok, so. My name is Bella Reichert. I am a junior at Oakland High School and I. Have special education in elementary school. I didn t have special education and no one understood me, and I didn t know what was going on, and it was like. Hard and scary and confusing. And then I joined an sdc and my life really changed. And my teachers understood that too.
And supported me and they still do. And I don t think that I m the only one who wouldn t feel happy about if special education was taken away. Thank you. We still gonna bring this down ok it in front of you see. Just right on top of I and then read your paper. This is Kaya Reikert. She s in 2nd grade. At Joaquin Miller We re taking a lot of time, so go ahead and read exactly what it says. Yeah, hey, do you want? You did
this You re You can do this You you re just knowing Stop speaking the play That s different. No, it s exactly the same. No, it s not. Go wait it It s so much more powerful if you read it. Go for it. Ok, we re gonna let the board move on. Ok? They have lots of important work to do tonight. All you have to do is read the words My best friend isn t learning well enough in our school, and she needs to be in a special classroom, but right before I
started, you closed our special classroom at Woking Viller, so now she has to leave our school. That s scary for her. She and her mom have to start all over, but what if she does that? And next year you decide to take away. Special classes too Then she has to move again. How will she trust learning and making friends. My first two years in school, no one helped me learn well, but I got behind. I got in trouble a lot for just being me. It was awful but we got a new principal and a new teacher, and now i
m ahead of my class and I have friends. I m finally safe. You wouldn t come till just us autistic kids that we have. To leave our school with you. So why would you, if we were in a special class. Please let all of us feel safe where we are with friends and people who understand us. Uh, MADAM PRESIDENT, the other two speakers are Sheila Haines and Asada Olubala. Uh, we ll take Mr Asada in person and then we ll take MISS Haines. And with that thing. I will continue
to challenge these young people to do more and do better. And I ve come to you many times to say this is something you can take up. This is something you can help make a difference with. So I m gonna give you some more today. At City Hall on Tuesday, Carol Phife. Was asking me could I identify some young people to work with her. Because we had an incident uh first after first Friday. Where many young people engaged in a lot of violent activity and as a result of it uh, first Friday might be
canceled. And several business individuals in downtown Oakland say they re thinking about leaving. So they want to organize with the youth included. Of how we can dispense with a lot of the violence that s happening in the city of Oakland with our young people. So take that on Get in touch with Carol Phife. And see if you can resolve that. The second thing is the city council allocates money for summer youth employment. It s insulting because most of it is they have these young people picking up trash.
You want more susstenant youth employment. And they can do that by outreaching to some of these businesses. To have that happen So take that on and make your youth employment significant, not just going out there and picking up trash and getting paid for it. Thank you. Next up we ll have MR. Keys. Ah, yes, uh, Vice PRESIDENT, I will allow them to speak. Hello again. Can you hear me? Ok, thank you. So just um as I said, um, earlier, uh student directors, um, once again, um,
I do appreciate your ongoing strong leadership. Um, and with the priorities you have continued to advocate for. I m, I m hopeful that this work will continue, especially around student safety and more inclusive activities for our disabled students. Um, I wish there was a way our online students, that s been the most impacted with loss of services. I would really love to see like all services outlined in their IEPs to be fulfilled. There should be designated school sites where students who have been the most impacted through harm with lack of services, they should be able to receive consistency. I ve spoke out,
you know, ever since my resolution was introduced about the arts, and there s been music cuts and more funding cuts and staffing. But for our students who have disabilities, that s a lot, a lot of them, that s their only outlet to try to get better. Um, so I m not sure where we are with the finances. That s a whole another story, but, um, the arts support our students with disability and language is also very critical in keeping our students in a loving and respectable space with helping to reduce violence. So I can just only hope that with the uncertainty of the budget that more harm won t be caused. I m, I m praying that the ongoing priority, you know, despite
funding cuts to programs will continue to be student safety, and I just also wanna just appreciate you guys both again for just having that positive light. I mean, if only all students had the positivity and character that you both possess, there wouldn t be no violence. We, we have to get back to the culture of respect. So thanks for being a shining light for our youth and um just continue doing great things. Thank you guys. Thank you For colleagues, any uh comments? Doctor Berry Sorry, I m gonna steal Director Berry s comment.
Actually, no, please go first, please go first. I, we re still on the student report, correct? I just wanted to at some point, and part of me wants to have this discussion in public, but I think we should talk about the specific things that this board should do today to fully create the conditions necessary for the next two student board directors to be successful, and that s not just what uh the board should do, but also just do, do right now, but what we should do on an ongoing basis, and you, I outlined or I took notes on all the things that you said in your reflections, but I know there s a lot more
and I want to operationalize that and we have a board retreat coming up on JUNE 15th, and I feel like having them present for some or all of that should be one way that we should get this off to a good start. Um, even if you all aren t available to participate in that, knowing what s on the agenda and having all the materials for that and then be included in the briefing and the debriefing, but I feel like there s things that we need to do today. To make sure you all have a good experience moving forward. Director Smith I just wanted to speak directly to the two students who just came up here and were vulnerable with us and not only vulnerable, but they came up
here and advocated for their needs and the things that they, they deserve. They deserve this thing. I can definitely say in elementary school, you know, I have seen students who have got in trouble because they were quote unquote seen as different or they were just too hard to handle, but in reality, it was just the lack of understanding. And I really, really am proud to see how the district has, you know, helped them, but I hope that the services continue and you know the advanced for our students because nobody s different. We re all students and we all deserve the same level of education.
To help us thrive and achieve the dreams that we want to achieve. So thank you to you too for advocating for everyone. Directors, director Simmons, do you wanna go next? So. Since I m about to get out of here. I think this is, this is our last official report. Of the year. Do we, do, do we still present at other boards. I ve not. We do. I ve been here before. I know how this works I ve been here, um, I just wanna say you know, I ve been I ve been through a lot of ups and downs with y all over these past two years. Um. I
ve I ve been, yeah, I ve been through a lot of ups and downs over the past two years. I ve I ve been here for a completely different board. Not completely different, but for a a different board majority I ve seen two separate sides of the same coin, um. And you know, for, for all of the crazy and uncomfortable and hemming things that have happened over these past two years. I appreciate and I love
all of you guys dearly. Because you guys have taught me. An immense amount and you guys have deepened my understanding. Of what it means to lead, directly or indirectly. So. I appreciate and I love you all dearly. So thank you Thank you Um, Director Barry, did you want to finish your thoughts? Uh, Doctor Williams microphone. Yeah, thank you. Um, in my mind, I ve been thinking about this communication gap that we had this year.
Um, and just the relationship that needs to be built, you know. Um. I think, uh yes, I think we all can do better, for sure. We all can do better. Um, but I, and I wanna just piggyback off of uh Director Berry s idea. We ve just been talking to my colleagues and saying what we should have at the beginning of the year is orientation so all of us can get grounded. Right? Because I think there s an opportunity there s a a real good opportunity, which we didn t get at the beginning of this year, is actually to get to understand what, what is driving us and what our
expectations are. You know, uh, from the beginning of the year, the get-go, you start up, we come together, all of us, and we talk about how we can work together. I think what we ve noticed is that there s been this separation. You folks ain t doing right, and you re not communicating with us. I think we could have knocked that out at the beginning of the year, just really work on it each and every month. You know, about how we can actually bring you into the meetings, right? Like all of those conversations should happen at the beginning. And hopefully as the new board directors come in, that s a great opportunity to kind of get started, to begin the year
off. So, uh, we can align where our expectations are. Um, I really, really excited for you to, uh, Max, to bring in the restorative justice. Really want to see that continue to grow, you know, as you move forth, um, because that is oh yeah, well, you know, we go, we go find a way to get it funded and continue to support the program, right? But that essence of like all of us practicing it on a regular right? And that s how we try to intercede these feelings that were not being listened to as
having an opportunity to come together and work on a communication portal. That we all could say, ok, let s reset, let s see where we need to be. So, I ve learned a lot from both of you and uh really appreciate and seeing, seeing your growth as well. It hasn t been as easy as you like. But um I mean, the experience in itself only builds you up for the next one. So just really appreciate all that you all that you um have brought to this conversation. Let s take it capture it, bring the new folks
in, create a space so they can actually learn from it and build off that. Thank you. Director Latta Thompson Yes, and it won t take very much time at all, but um, I want to thank both of you for what you ve brought to the board um, and I just want to build on something that was stated earlier and an individual talked and I won t say the individual, but an individual talked about character that he or she might have. Um, I think understanding that character and accepting that character is one thing, but understanding that, uh, your character doesn
t have to alter, but you can embrace the bigness of the nudist that you ve received that you ve learned. In order to make whatever organization you re working in, more effective So, I appreciate that concept, and along with that, I appreciate the fact that you re both of you are very vocal, and you will actually state your opinion, and you don t regress from it. I appreciate that, um, someone alluded to something earlier. Um this evening, and that was how your example of your being will help others when someone talked about the crisis that we re having on Friday nights
And they talked about how your examples and your positiveness would help others to see how things could be done, and perhaps alter that negativity. So again, thank you very kindly for everything that you like. Both of you have, uh, offered to the board and to the entire school community of over 34,000 kids. Thank you very much Director Hutchinson Yes, thank you. Um I also don t want to say too much at this point. I, I really appreciate um the comments that both of you just made, uh, in framing up kind of what you ve learned and what your experiences have been, uh, as
student directors. Um I think it s really important that uh at the youngest age possible everyone learns how to speak up and advocate. Everyone learns how to speak up. And speak truth not even truth to power, but speak truth. And, you know, uh, Director Simmons in in your first year as a student director, uh, I will never forget when you and your fellow director, um, directly called out board leadership because they were lying to you. I ll never forget that. I ve seen a lot at board meetings. I
d never seen that before. You know, just like uh Director Smith even tonight. Again referencing how you all were asked to be a part of the superintendent search committee. And then not once did anyone reach out to you, talk to you, and here we are going to be tonight, extending the superintendent s contract when there wasn t even a search and not one meeting happened. So I m really kind of disappointed that I didn t have more opportunities to meet with all City council this year. Hopefully, one of the things you can spread uh to the all-city council and to your
adult allies is, uh, especially when we re talking about communication. You know, for me as a school board director, I don t have any staff Um, it is really hard for me to proactively set up those meetings and so I think one of the ways that we can build this in going forward is to have the all-city council be a little bit more aggressive in seeking meetings with school board directors. Um, but I appreciate you both. I look forward to running into you both in the next few months, when we re away from here, where we can all be a little bit freer with the language that we use to describe what s happened over the last year and the last 2 years. Um, but it s really, uh, I think empowering
for the community and it makes me feel good to see that as you are exiting out of this position. You re making sure that you are speaking the full truth. And leaving no rocks unturned. So thank you again, and I m gonna be sharing your speeches around later afterwards. Thank you. Yeah, I want to start off by thanking the young people that spoke today about the stability resolution, um, as a student, um, who, um, early in my career in my school career, um, had a teacher identify that I needed glasses, that I needed something to support me. I really appreciate that folks
are speaking up for themselves, but also seeking, um, to continue the resources that we have for our disabled students. And so I will be supporting the stabilization resolution that s coming up on the agenda later on today. Um, I also, uh, wanna uplift, uh, two of the priorities that you all mentioned. Um, I think inclusion is key to student experience at our school sites and I just really wanna appreciate the students from Skyline for continuing to uplift that as a, uh, goal, as a priority, uh, I was able to attend, um. A graduation ceremony last year that the student, um,
leadership had at Skyline for disabled students who were graduating and it was just such a wonderful experience to see students celebrating other students and putting the whole event together, um, we were, uh, able to get those students, um, some certificates to recognize their achievement, um, but I think that those are kind of ongoing things that I wanna see and I wanna figure out how we could do that across the district, uh, because it should be a practice that we have of inclusion everywhere. Um, and then recently, as of yesterday, Doctor Sadler, um, yes, last night, um, I attended the Oaktown Leaders, uh, Youth Apprenticeship graduation, um, at, um, a Berkeley City College
where um our young people who were graduating this year who also now have, they re either on the path to or currently will have as as graduating their associate s degrees in early childhood education and I wanna give a shout out to the 18 Skyline students and the 36 ccpa students who are part of that program. They re already gonna have the credentials that they need to to start their education career, uh, and one of those speakers already talked about how she s gonna come back to ousd to be a kindergarten teacher, and that just warms my heart because I m like, yes, we need you, yes, come back, um, and yes, Doctor Sadler and others specifically mentioned all of the openings
that we have in early childhood education, so, uh, really wanna make sure the career exploration is not only um taught at specific school sites or around specific programs but just as a really holistic way that we re supporting our students throughout the district and want to continue to strengthen programs like that, um, in other school sites as well. And thank you again for your service. Uh, it s been a pleasure getting to know all of you all. Max, for 2 years, uh, Director Smith for this year and uh again I really wanna commend you all on the work that you ve done and I can t wait to see where you all go from here. So thanks again, um, Director Brohard, I will hand it back over to you. Thank you both. I know you re heading out to study for finals.
Good luck on your finals and uh. Look forward to hearing good things from you. I also want to give a shout out to the two students who spoke, but also to their mom who stood by them and I think again for our students, it s having our families and moms and dads and aunties and uncles and grandmas beside us, and I think that makes all the difference in the world. So a shout out to a very lovely family moment there. We can applaud for them Oops that s ok. Uh, next on the agenda, we do have our active parents. We have the peact report. Of continuing our supportive
families and parents and activists Yeah All right, good evening. Thank you all for, uh, allowing us to present, uh, representing the parent student advisory committee. Uh i am Damani Jackson. And my son goes to Reach Academy. He s a first grader. Yeah, he s in the back. Um, so first of all, we want to start off by uh introducing a new, uh, group, uh, the os, the ousd multi-stakeholder engagement Group. Um it s a group of volunteers
representing the various stakeholder groups of ousd with leadership from our advisory committees, including pisac. In collaboration with the ousd community. Our goal is to help shape how engagement and decision making should look to inform the future of our district. Um, there s been 3 meetings so far, uh one was in person and 2 were resume, uh, the last meeting was based upon a multilingual, um, participants in, uh, trying to get everyone s voice, and our next meeting is coming up, uh,
will be JUNE 1st. Everyone s welcome to come and join, uh, the meetings from 5:30 to 8 There s also a um qr code if anyone wants to. Stay informed and get involved, go ahead and uh snap that qr code and get involved Also, we want to invite everyone to come out to our next pesac meeting, which would be next Wednesday, MAY 20th, um, the public is welcome We, we love havin our school board members attend, uh, Superintendent Sadler has been there a lot, and we appreciate it. Um. Our next meeting will review planned revisions to the 25, 26
lcap for a student year, 2627, we will understand which actions will stay the same, change, and, or be added to the la. And um you can find a link at ousd.Org. And uh thank you. Oh, I m sorry, uh, next up is the, uh, foster youth advisory Committee. Thank you so much Um, I don t know if we ve been able to locate um Patty Jergens in the participants, so if she s not able to be um promoted I will fill in for her. Um, she was the person you saw with the triple stroller last time, so, um, she was having a hard time connecting, so I will
just um not read this but basically say what s included. Oh yes, and Tara usually um steps in but I can keep going. She is a member of the committee and a foster mother. So, um, you see the um enrollment of foster youth, um, from SEPTEMBER till now and the end of the year last year and it gives you a sense of the numbers and we always provide um suspension data because that is the focus of the foster youth advisory s work this year, so that shows you where we were last year and where we are now comparatively, um, then, um, there was a very special meeting on the twenty-eighth. Um, the committee met with Oak
Principal Nikki Williams and Misha Karegaha to discuss implementation of the foster youth suspension policy and if people are interested in the policy, there it is, and this conversation was very interactive and really gave insight into elementary level experience implementing this and there was, there were many specific um asks of the principal and everybody in collaboration, so it s for you to review. These are very specific actions that most happen to um interrupt the suspension of foster youth, some related to how notifications work on the ai system. What rj supports there can be in an elementary with that level of funding, um, a protected section in areas
that needs to exist, uh, as a site-based foster youth liaison at every school and um some very specific requests for presentations at the start of the school year. There is, um, some outreach actions that are very specific, um,elated to coordination of services teams and continuing the special education iep review meetings, um, expanding them beyond high school, which is their current focus, um, be aware that, um, from 40% foster youth have an IEPs. Now we re about 50%, so that s becoming a more um uh a larger area of work. So appreciation to the two staff, and that was the foster youth advisory s report. Uh, good evening. I am jd
Waashin. I am the co-chair of the cac, the Community Advisory Committee for Special Education. And, um, I m gonna go off script a little bit from this slides. Um, I ll start, um, with legislative day, uh, a couple members went to Sacramento last week to discuss legislative priorities to improve how school districts serve disabled students. Um, at the end of the cac um slides that covers some shout outs from our last couple meetings where we heard um about encouraging efforts that have been made towards increased um inclusion of
disabled students in both sports and community school communities that have been purposefully making changes for greater inclusivity. Um, and now I wanna talk about the belonging resolution because if we are ever going to achieve full inclusion of disabled students, we need to ensure their basic rights. For anyone who wants a more in-depth background, there s a tiny url on the previous slide, um, introducing this topic, um, um, but what I ll say about the history is that 3 years ago, the school district chose to save some money by closing and consolidating special education classrooms and moving the students still in those classrooms to different schools and you heard the impact of
that earlier from, um Taya um and um um, Children and youth experience these removals as outright exclusion and expulsion. And um back then the staff, uh, that wanted these changes justified these changes by saying special education is a placement, not a place. And this is language taken from the individuals with disabilities and Education Act and is meant to protect students from segregation, not to be used as an excuse to rip them away from their current communities. And this is a practice that is not allowed. For non-disabled students. If there s an underenrolled classroom of 20 non-disabled students and 4 other schools
had classrooms with rooms. The district would not take 5 and put them here and 5 there and 5 there and 5 there. It s not allowed. But the district has and will do this again to disabled students if we don t stop it. And that is the very basic definition of discrimination. We in the cac have worked very hard over the last 3 years and especially the last 3 months trying to create a resolution that will protect disabled students from this ablest practice. And I appreciate the staff who have helped us with this and also our board liaison, Rachel Latta, um, who met with me and Cynthia on Saturday morning to
craft a final version that incorporated the concerns of the cac in time for posting on the agenda, but what was posted is not what we agreed on. The posted version still includes the words, a special education program MAY not be relocated or closed in such a way that prevents students currently enrolled in the program from the choice of continuing to attend that school for their entirety of its grade span. Prior to the process requirements in this resolution being fulfilled. Prior to the process requirements. This resolution would actively give formal permission and a process to the school district
to discriminate. This is the opposite of what we ve been working towards. The district English Language Learner Subcommittee did not submit a report for tonight. Thank you Are there any board comments Barry? I just have a question to clarify what we just heard, because I m just talking to director a lotta here in the diet, so I ll just ask it. Are are you saying that the resolution that s on the agenda in the form that we downloaded to prepare for tonight s meeting is not the resolution that you all collaborated on. It s a version um that we collaborated on, but
it s not the final version that um would protect disabled students. Director Lata, I m sorry Um, I, I assume that we would, I, you know, just for the record, had assumed we might have this discussion when we got to the items. Um, but I will just say that, um, have been many attempts over the last couple of months, and even over the last few days to try to find a way to achieve, um, to end the practice of removing students with very little notice, um, just because they re in self-contained programs. Without incurring a fiscal impact,
because we, I think we all agree that we, um, don t, don t want to enact something right now that would have a fiscal impact, and the issue that we have continued to run up against is um finding a compromise amongst staff. That is also acceptable to cac. And I ll just say it s never ok to discriminate, even if it s going to save money. That s what i ll say So I have a question director Latta. Is what we re seeing tonight. Uh, we ll discuss it later.
Thanks, um, jd. Uh, any board comments on the pea? Ok All right There are no public comments Uh, do we have public comment on pc Uh, yes, we have two. That s uh Sara Olubala and Matt Glaser. If those two speakers would come to the daisis. Thank you for taking the taking the time here So, uh, we heard about the multi-stakeholder engagement group mseg, uh, during the pesac report. We ve had a few meetings and, uh, I ve just been reflecting, especially after hearing that very inspirational, those very inspirational comments by the
student directors. Uh, I ve been reflecting on some of the feedback we ve been getting, uh, at those meetings. They ve been very constructive uh, because we re hearing a lot of the same thing, which is. There s a ton of skepticism that anything is gonna come out of it. There s a ton of that. Uh, i ve had people tell me, uh, very respectfully that, uh, we re being pretty naive here. And that this is something that has been tried many times. Uh, here in ousd and yet some of the people involved in this group have been in this district for decades. And they see a real chance for the community to step up in a way that it needs to. The problems that we have here
at ousd. Or in ousd have been experienced by other school districts right here in the state with many of the same demographics, many of the same issues, many of the same restrictions that we find ourselves, uh, dealing with today. And we ve seen a few instances where they ve made it right over the years. They made it better. It s nothing s perfect, it s public education. The one common thread is community engagement in those places. And so do the people who think that this isn t going to work uh or that it isn t worth doing and we should tear everything down instead. I will say that that is
absolutely true if nobody shows up. If you don t show up you know what s gonna happen Absolutely nothing And we re gonna be right here every year doing the same thing. So please join me The url got obfuscated. It was ousd dash mseg.Org, and I hope to see you at our next meeting. Thank you. Thank you, MRS. I respect that. There are many issues in this district that get a lot of attention and they deserve the attention that they re getting. Particularly related to our special education students and
our foster students but I m here to advocate for African-American students. And uh I don t see outreach to deal with their needs. I know a large percentage of our special education students, the state has mandated that you look at the disproportionately high number of African American boys who are in special education that are getting suspended. That issue has been here a long time. It is still unresolved. I also know that we have a high number of foster students who are African Americans. High number of uh students who are homeless or African Americans. I, I have come to the
conclusion that this district is not a safe space for African American students and parents. I will continue to pursue the language that deals with that But the actions to make change is not gonna be happening. So I, I, I, I know that you, you understand this. I m not giving you anything that you haven t heard before. Uh, at another time, I m gonna talk about McClymons. That s I m gonna give that address, but I under I have know fully well and it s not just this district, it s all across this country. African American children are
not getting the same level of attention. And that s been a historical piece, but we, we will we will rise to do what we have to do. We come from a long line of people. We are progressing. I have two sons that have master s degrees. And we have in our household a dedication to education and that s a lot of African American people. The highest amount of degrees in this country come from black women. So you do what you do and we re gonna still be here. You not gonna get rid of us, no matter, we get the attention we need. Thank you. Are there any other
public speakers? Um, I signed up to speak during the selpa, but i m speaking about salpa report. MAY I? Do that now instead? Thank you. So I have the opportunity to attend the selpa legislative day last week with Ray Johnson and Cynthia, and it was really extraordinary. We, um, I found the legislator shockingly receptive to discussing changes to how funding is done, um, for education as well as just general interest in special education. Um, I m following up with all of them, and I just wanted to say if any of you are interested in participating in
those meetings or hearing more specifics about the nuances of the questions that they asked, which is particularly interesting as we need more money from the state, um, talk to me. We re doing that. Um also, I feel like I must say, um, thank you for having my kids speak here tonight. Um, it s really odd, I guess outrageous would be the word that we re even discussing whether or not to ensure school stability for disabled students. Um, we are in a budget crisis. This is not the area to act out of fear of cost costs related to keeping our children safely in their cohorts in their classrooms, and their schools with their siblings. Um, I think Kaya said you wouldn t walk into a den ed classroom and take all
the autistic kids out, say sorry, you have to leave this school, so why would you do that if they re in a special day class. It s the same thing. It s horrible. It s bizarre. It s traumatic. Um. And it s like an affront to our students, to us as parents, to their teachers, and to the advisory board who s been working so hard on this. So this feels like a really easy one. We ve worked so closely with our director of special ed on this for so many years, and theoretically in practice, it s actually already been going for 3 years. So it s very doable, and it s incredibly bizarre and, and
heinous, is that a word we use in this world right now. Um, not to, I can t figure it out. Anyway, thank you for all you do. Thank you for hearing my kids. Thank you and that concludes public comment. Public speakers names for this item have been called. Thank you. Uh, next on the agenda are labor partners. I don t know if they re labor partners present. Looks like. Uaos is coming up Uh, you have 5 minutes? Thank you, Bart. Uh, Carrie Kaufman, uh, PRESIDENT Of the United Administrators of Oakland Schools. I am coming to you just to, uh, talk about the
MARCH 15th and MAY 15th process. Um, there s been a lot of concerns brought to us by our members, um, both who have been noticed and who are supporting the process of notifying members. There are concerns that um around possible oea contract issues because the MAY 15th hasn t been updated in a timely manner. So some of the positions that need to be there, our administrators are having a hard time communicating with employees around that. We have also had around 4 or 5 of our members who are inappropriately noticed and did not follow the law, we have still not gotten a response on that, and we are very concerned about that. Um, so those were the concerns
that I did want to raise up. I m, I m hoping to speak and work to resolve them soon, and I thank you for your time. Thank you. Are there any labor partners online? Currently I see no hands raised for a collective bargaining units online. Uh, next on the agenda we have the superintendent s report. Good evening, PRESIDENT Brouhar, members of the board, staff, students, families, and members of our Oakland community. As we move toward the close of the 2025, 2026 school year. I am pleased to share updates this evening in 3 important areas that reflect both the heart and the responsibility of our work in the Oakland Unified
School District. First, um, I ll have highlights from across our schools and community, and second, a preview of our end of the year report on suspensions, expulsions, and the systems of support we continue to strengthen for our students, MISS Saaba. Um, and third, an update regarding the ousd s fiscal solvency and our accountability roadmap moving forward. Before turning to those reports, I wanna take a moment to acknowledge the incredible spirit, partnership and pride. That continues to define Oakland Unified.
Um. On APRIL 29th, I had the privilege of attending the official ribbon cutting for the new, um, fifa, um, soccer pitch at Montera Middle School. This beautiful new field represents what is possible when schools, community organizations and partners come together on behalf of young people. The project was made possible through a partnership between Montera Middle School. Fifa, us soccer, Oakland United, and Oakland Genesis is part of the celebration leading up to the upcoming World Cup. I also had a chance to see one
of my former students, uh, from Montclair, uh, as a part of the team that afternoon. It was truly an honor to stand alongside Principal Latoya Williams and Oakland native Olympic civil medalist and they fc co-founder Danielle Slaton to cut the ribbon. I also want to recognize Montera s 3 time oal champion girls soccer team whose presence and pride made the event even more special. Moments like these remind us that our schools are not only places of learning but centers of opportunity wellness, teamwork, and
community connection. In addition, on APRIL 23rd, thousands of students and families and educators and community members came together for our 3rd annual lit fest right here. Uh, it was a powerful celebration of literacy and the joy of reading. We launched the event with a news conference alongside PRESIDENT Brohard, Mayor Lee, the Oakland Literacy Coalition, the Eat, Learn, Play Foundation, many educators, families, and students, all united around a shared commitment to literacy and academic achievement. The event culminated in our end
of the year reading challenge encouraging students across Oakland to read at least 20 minutes each day through MAY 15th, that s this Friday, as a part of our ongoing effort to reinforce the message that Oakland is truly a reading town. I really want to sincerely thank our dedicated staff and partners for organizing such a well-attended and an inspiring event. From book giveaways to literacy activities, student exhibits, family engagement opportunities that day reflected the very best of Oakland Unified and our unwavering commitment to supporting every child as a
reader, thinker, and learner. These celebrations are important because they reflect the broader story of who we are as a district. Resilient and innovative. Student centered and deeply connected to community. Tonight s reports were continued that story as we discuss both our progress and responsibility to ensure safe, supported schools, and a fiscally stable future for the students and families we proudly serve. I next want to highlight, um, Oakland goes outdoors is celebrating their 1,000th trip. This is a phenomenal program
which takes students outdoors, um, most recently Frick United, uh, Academy of Language was the fou they had the 1,000th student trip um, that went outdoors, which this program was launched in 2018. The students went um to the Reinhart Redwood Regional Park in the Oakland Hills. They hiked around on a natural space, um, they were enable to experience um what it was like to um deal with the gear, hiking gear, um, and just, um, experience the beauty of the community at large. Many of our students have not been in our Oakland Hills to see some of our beautiful parks.
Many of the students have never camped overnight. Um, this is a phenomenal program. I, um, I had a chance to visit students um when upa was out, um, on a a trip. So I m really excited to acknowledge that particular program. Then another highlight I wanna uh mention is that um we had a chance, uh, the senior leadership team to visit and it s a part of a program I have now. The whole team goes out to schools to um visit sites, and we were uh able to visit our outstanding educators, um one at Castlemont High School, they were, um, who was
receiving uh uh Teacher of the Year, acknowledgment. We were able to um visit her classroom and observe her work with newcomer students. We also visited another, uh, engineering teacher, um, where they were going over their capstones and explaining um it was incredible. Their knowledge of their vocabulary, the, the understanding of many um many issues and challenges that we re facing in the city, and I can t wait to get our city administrator to come and see some of the ideas that our students have. So that, those are some of the highlights and there are many, many more that I ll be bringing to our next meeting, and now i
d like to move into the second area of my report, which has to do with expulsions. Suspensions, and our systems of support, and this is something that um I know MISS Asada has brought this up almost at every meeting, and I wanna make sure um everybody s real clear about the work that we do in this area Um, I m gonna ask Misha to join me. And I ll make this part of the presentation. Good evening, everyone. Oh, yes, if I can control it. Good evening, board directors, uh, Superintendent Sadler. My name is Misha Kariasha, and I m the director of student support and safety. Uh, this
presentation today will be specifically around the expulsion and suspended expulsions process and the data along with systems of support that we are implementing as well. And for your preview on that slide. So the dhp process and how, which is the discipline and hearing panel, which is the referral for expulsion process. First, a site administrator, uh, determines if the incident meets expulsion criteria that s based on the ousd discipline and intervention matrix. If according to our border proofd discipline and intervention matrix that the incident or the situation or behavior meets the criteria for an expulsion
referral, then the then the principal will notify our office and then also contact their network superintendent. No referral can be directly submitted to our office and let it is unless it is signed off by the network superintendent. So the network superintendent must also review it, agree that this is something that meets the criteria of our discipline and intervention matrix and if the network superintendent signs off on it or approves it, then it can go to the next step. There is one, there s a couple of protections that are also there, particularly for students with IEPs, so if a student is suspended and going to have a referral for expulsion and manifestation
determination must be held or 6010 for any student with an iep or a 504. In that meeting, it is determined by the group of teams that includes staff that includes parents, it is determined that the behavior is a result of the uh students uh disability and or a failure by the district or site to implement the iep then it is stopped at that moment and does not move forward. If all those things pass, then it comes to an expulsion hearing. An expulsion hearing is held by an ousd facilitator, either myself or mostly Renee Garcia who you all see a lot and along with two other panel members. We have a group of
about 6 or 7 panel members that are retired ousd administrators who always sit on the panel as well, and after the hearing is presented, the three people, the two panel members and the facilitator will make a determination, um. As to whether or not um the student is reinstated back to the school because it didn t meet the requirements of an expulsion or whether or not we recommend to the board um for an expulsion or suspended expulsion to the school board and so that is the process of how that the situation plays out. This slide is the current data numbers that we have for this school year up until I think
about uh what I have it till MAY 7th that there were initials of 76 referrals um that were communicated to us of possible expulsions that were gonna be from the school site. 23 of those 76 were stopped at the manifestation determination meeting and or was withdrawn from the school site based on other reasons. Out of those, uh, the remaining ones, they were 18, uh, of the uh of the cases of the hearings were found the student was not expelled or referred for expulsion was either reinstated back to the school site or the parent chose to go to a different school? 5 of those cases were uh uh were voted on to be a
suspended expulsion, which means the student is can is on basically a uh probation contract and is reinstated either back to their original school site or placed at a different school site and 19 of the total 76 ended in the actual expulsion where the student was assigned to um Alameda County Office Education s Quest program either in Oakland or in or in Hayward. This is the same data over the last 5 years or 5 years, um, again, the total number of referrals on the left, the
blues are ones that were dismissed or withdrawn due to either uh manifestation meeting and or withdrawn by the site and then those that were resulted in a suspended expulsion and or expulsion along with readmissions and admissions and so this data is over the last 5 years. This number is based on kids who are on suspended expulsion again these are kids that are kind of put on a behavior contract. We are still allowing them to attend our ousd schools, um, either at their original school site or at another one and this basically is to look at the repeat um looking at disciplinary actions are they showing an increase in disciplinary actions when we do these suspended expulsions and for the most part they are not,
um, students are being either back to their school site or to another one and very few are continuing to repeat behaviors um at their new sites. About a year or in the middle of last year, uh, we did finally get a case manager that was specifically we could use for supporting students in this process, especially of transitioning from one school to another, whether they were expelled to the county school or they were being on a suspended expulsion and place at a different school. Um, in the past a lot of these students would just show up the next day at their placement place they show up in the office. I m here. The school s looking at them like I m not
ready for you. The parents are mad because there wasn t any what we like to believe in the best practices reentries uh welcome circles and so our case manager has been heavily focused on this that any student through the disciplinary process if they are changing schools either to the county or from the county coming back to us or going to a different school, um, our case manager is facilit ating and organizing a reentry circle at the new place and what this instills is that she is meeting and coordinating with the family first to see who do they need at the school site to be at this meeting? Is the kid interested in sports, music, uh, therapist, and making sure that who the family
needs to be at this initial meeting then she organizes for the staff and administrator, whoever the other folks that community school matters that might need to be there and so it s a place if it s an organized welcome place where a plan can be put in place from day one and it s not a kid just happened to I was struggling at this school and I m showing up here and the new staff is like I m not even sure what I need to have an information for that and so that has been in place over the last um school year which has been very helpful, um, and it also helps this process should actually be done for any new kid whether it s foster youth, whether it s uh McKenny Vento any student moving from place
to place and so ideas to help grow this and I know uh the work that Hattie Tate does with jjc students as well as doing this, but how do we incorporate these reentry circles for all of our students who are really also struggling and moving from place to place. And then again students these are kind of the supports that they receive through the uh reentry circle and what things are determined, the different types of tier one services type tier 2 services, or type 3, not every student needs all of these or at these levels, but at the reentry circle when you have all the right people there, including the family these things can be discussed and serviced and um assigned or supported for those students.
And. That is it for me Thank you very much, Misha. I really wanted to make sure the community and the board had the latest information. I know that you normally have a final report at the end of the year culminating all the data for the, the total school year, but I appreciate you bringing this, um, information to the community, so we re aware of what happens when we take these actions, what actually happens and what s behind the work. Um, I believe Hattie Tate is in the audience and I want to acknowledge her service continued service, and, uh, she is retiring this year, but she
has been one of the people who has been in the forefront fighting to make sure that our students receive the appropriate supports when they return. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. You So, so now I m gonna ask uh Tara Gar to come forward to give an update, um, to the board and the community on our fiscal solvency, accountability roadmap. Thank you Kira Thank you. Good evening. Superintendent, board. I appreciate you And I am here tonight in
TaraGard, uh. Deputy Superintendent Business and operations, and I am here with our chief financial officer and is he pulled up on the Ryan Nguyen. He s on the Zoom and then also we have our support from hya, so Doctor Ruben Fructos. Each of us will take a minute or two to walk through where we are today. Uh, I wanted to just start off with the context and um, and just name that we have since DECEMBER of 2025, um, we ve been talking and working through a structural deficit of
over 100 million. And we have done our best as a team. We have a, a great team of people who are behind the scenes that are working to help us through the deficit that we were facing as a district. Um, we focused on fiscal stabilization and long-term sustainability. That s been our focus. We ve worked to improve our cash flow and we are going to talk about the implementation progress that we ve made so far. Um, and just to talk back again about DECEMBER and as we talk as a team where we saw, um,
there was a choice that we had to make. We had 22 roads we can go down. One was the first to take another loan. And the other was to work towards a different plan. Because at the time, our previous staff had recommended that we certify negative. Had we certified negative, I m sorry, I am presenting, but I m not sure Director Hutchinson, where were you talking to me? Ok, where you re talking, so I wasn t quite sure. No, you were just, you were interrupting my presentation. I m sorry, I didn t know. Ok, I, I hear you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Nobody had chatted and I was just ok, um, no, it s ok. It
s ok. I asked a question because you seemed like you had something to say to me, and I will hear it ok, thank you. Thank you very much. So, we had two paths to go One was a state loan, or the other was to work through a plan. And, um, what the board enacted and approved, was to move forward with a plan. And so that s what we ve been doing Talking about plans, there s been a lot of uh information going around about, do we have a plan? Do we not have a plan? Uh, one thing that I do, I would hope that the community can hear, we re not the only district that is struggling.
There are a lot of districts in California and surrounding us that are struggling with their budgets. If you go and you look at what are the things that they re trying to do to solve it. Mostly it s all the things that we re talking about. Um and it s, it s actually been what s been in many of our plans in the last, I would say, 8 years. We ve had the blueprint plan, we ve had the 3 r s. We ve had the fiscal sustainability plan, we ve had the fiscal vitality plan. We ve had attachment a, we ve
had attachment b, we ve had attachment c. And I m not saying that to minimize the need of a plan. But we ve got to be real with ourselves. That we keep coming forward with plans and we re still pretty much in the same place So for our team, we re talking about the plan that we re working through, but also the execution and then the follow-up and then continuing to bring things forward to the board. That s what we re working towards. So progress to date, uh, sinces time, and you can
see here, we ve reduced the structural deficit by more than 65 million. Um, and we ve implemented expenditure controls. Which have come to the board already in, in you, uh, or whereabout? We ve worked through workforce, so you ve already voted and approved reductions to our workforce, which is what has helped um with our progress for our budget. And we ve also looked at how we re spending our restricted dollars. And we are doing that compliantly. We re working with our auditor. We re going through what
can we and how can we use our restricted dollars. So that we re not just going to general funds first, because we have to really be careful with our general funds. And so here we are talking about our qualified certification. On our 2nd interim, and many people already know, are we certified qualified. One thing that I m not sure if our community knows, and I was looking back at the last 25 years. And in our last 20 years, our second interim, we ve certified
qualified. In the last 20 years, except for one year, I believe it was 2015, it was positive. So again, it s how are we going to bring ourselves out of the repeat and the repeat and the repeat. Um, what does it mean to have a qualified budget? Qualified means that we re, we believe we re going to remain solvent but there is concern and um and so we re working through that in our county office has named it. We understand, we ve heard it um, but we re working through
our budget. Every day, and that s what it s going to take is the discipline to do that. And so now I am going to turn it over to Doctor Fructos, and then I ll be back. Thank you. Good evening, board of directors. Um. I m very pleased to bring to you some uh new work that the district is doing so as we do budget development and, and you know that we finished 2nd interim, we re working on 3rd interim. We re also working on the ab 1200 for our oea settlement, but budget development is very important because it s going to take us through the next 3 years, so budget development will be
focused on 4 major areas. Uh, we wanna ground ourselves in reality. I m a little bit sad that we re presenting to you today because tomorrow is the MAY revision, so if we had this meeting tomorrow night, you would have different numbers, which is the premise of this presentation we it s ok, it s ok. You re, you re right, it would be, it would be hopefully better, but one of the reasons why, why it s good that we present today is that today you will see a new format for how we re doing budget development. So grounded in reality, definitely multi-year focus. Uh, because we wanna make sure that the decisions have an
impact, uh, that the board decides for multiple years. Cash flow driven, you, you ll hear us talk a lot about cash flows today and there s a reason we wanna make sure that we can meet our obligations now and in the subsequent two years and that separation between restricted and unrestricted that we ve been telling the board about since JANUARY where we noticed that the unrestricted side of our budget was depleted and the restricted site was not. So what does that mean? As we present this series of slides today s you will see us ask you what do you think about this concept? There are two concepts that we re bringing forward to you today when our cfo presents,
you will see a chart that shows cash flows over time. Now this is the beginning of what we hope to present to the board all the time beginning ideas this is where you can say that makes absolutely no sense. It looks erroneous. It s a beginning idea what we notice is a sequence that at certain times of the year almost every year. We are in a difficult situation cash flow. You need to see that because that will allow us to better manage our cash through the year and whether it s a little bit more or a little bit less, it ll change as of tomorrow. You need to see that there are times of the year when we have a challenge, so it s, it, it allows us to begin
to think there s another slide where you will see ranges. Some points when we were talking to you in the past, you said, well, sometimes you come at the very end with numbers, and these numbers we didn t know where they re coming from. Well, now you get to see where they re coming from as we are doing budget development, you get to see a range and you get to say and criticize and shake your head that perhaps the number is, is, is wrong. It s an estimate. But you are seeing budget development weeks before we come to you with our report and as we mentioned that range will change even tomorrow. So this is something where you can begin to see what the district is thinking about for
budget development and you get to see numbers that eventually will turn into the budget. Next slide please. So. What is the criteria for budget development? Oh, so I wanted to mention there is a slide there one of the things that you notice is what are the major impacts in the budget, and there are 4 categories that we will be focusing on as we do budget development and financial reporting for you on a regular basis. Staffing costs, of course. We re a staffing type of entity. Our contracts, and I wanna thank our labor partners when we have been working with them and I
ve had the pleasure of being at some of the meetings when they re talking about the budget contracts is something that they have brought to our attention. uh, attendance, obviously we ve discussed that the difference between attendance and enrollment and operational costs. So what is our strategy that we will be recommending to the board, especially after tomorrow that if there is a settled up delay that 5.X 5.6 billion that the governor might be delaying that we wait to see when they ll repay it and you see that in our charts you ll see that when we were doing a cash flow analysis presented to
the county office before we had information it was a very steady amount when you see our line charts, you see that there s the potential if that money is held that at the beginning of the year will be depleted and 2nd semester it ll come up so we want you to see the thinking that we have as we do budget development. We wanna treat discretionary grants as one time money, one of the challenges is when a discretionary comes, it won t necessarily come in the future. Any, uh, solvency plans, uh, require that we show you the information well in advance and no speculation. Um for our budget solutions for next year we believe that there
s an upside to the budget depending on again what the news are tomorrow of around $30 million which is good news for us. One of the messages that is very important is although we think the budget as as. Presented tomorrow and is adopted at the state level will be good for us. It is not the complete solution for our structural deficits. We need to continue the rigorous plan that the board has had since DECEMBER, and I will echo what the deputy superintendent said there is a plan, and you ve been directing us to do it. And that it continues that we look at the cola as a benefit that we look at the grants as benefits, but that we continue
looking at our budget on a regular basis to make sure that we are addressing all the concerns and that stems from the fact again that the board has said we we don t want to see numbers just at the end we want to see numbers as things are being developed and that s what we re bringing to you for the for the first time today. Why is cash flow so important? Well, there s a little box on the right side. As we were looking at how our cash flow has been for many years in the past and how it is right now at times of the year, even in between uh the time when we come to you, let s say with an interim report and we come with an adoption that can be a fluctuation of millions of dollars. Why is that? Well, I
was talking to our fiscal team and we all agreed there s no way for any of you or any of us to predict exactly when the state is gonna send us the money. And you know that the property taxes come around DECEMBER, but notice we always say around. So for us if we have a circumstance where we are having a cash flow issue being precise is. Almost impossible because we are, you know, depending on, on the revenue, but we can manage when we pay how we do contracts, how we manage our expenditures, how we obligate ourselves. That takes us to where we are today. One of the challenges that we have had, and I know Doctor Sadler has been guiding us very well through this because she
even told you at one meeting that she s been watching our expenditures and for a while it was being done on a daily basis is that we sometimes spend even near the end of the year, which creates that potential situation of of our money. So you are hearing what we re thinking about. That s something that we need to correct. We need to begin to pare down the expenditures a bit earlier in the year so that when year end comes, we, we are better prepared for budget development and for cash flow analysis. So again, giving you a preview of what will happen throughout the budget development in next year. And now i m, we re gonna turn
it over, Cara, to our cfo who will. Hi there, I m on Zoom ok. Uh, they are Thank you. Uh, good evening, board of directors and um uh superintendent. Uh, I ll be speaking uh about the uh fiscal uh solvency of our district. Uh, this question if it will be insolvent in 25, 26, 26, 27, and 27, 28. Um, as a, as a MR. Ruben has mentioned, historically, seasonality is clear. Oud experiences large negative cash movement early in the year. Strong revenue receipts around DECEMBER, JANUARY, and spring property tax periods, and heavy JUNE disbursement and accrual
activities. The 26, 27 state budget assumptions improve the outlook, especially the 2.4% Kola. Insolvency under the uh known conditions, but uh projected uh usable liquidity can become constrained if the ongoing fiscal stability plan does not continue to improve district solvency. Uh, I ve been managing cash flow for our district for the last, uh, I would say uh 1015 years and so, uh, um, we managed it on a, on a monthly basis and we work closely with the uh the uh the uh the county as well. Um, but that, uh we ll go to the next slide.
Can someone for uh the next slide. Thanks, thanks. Ok. But your cost criteria, uh, osb, uh, oea settlement cost analysis. Uh, we completed this, uh, and we re finalizing and we re, we re getting ready for uh to report to the uh county. With the settlement with oea, the board accomplished the continu either of uh instructional programs by averting a strike and a two-year contract that will preserve academic stability until the end of 2627. Uh, the cost was significant a part of the board directed plan for fiscal actions that seek to protect programs through budget reductions, enabling def uh deficit containment.
The current, uh, district fiscal projections allow for the payment of the settlement obligations, assuming that the established fiscal solvency measure continue in their outgo um outgoing years. Um, so we have 25, 26, which is in the current year. Then we have 26, 27 next year, and then uh 20 728. Um, 13 million, uh, that uh were uh were projected to be paid out uh this year uh or, or next year, but definitely recorded uh to expenditure. And then uh next year, about 32.8 million. And then in the final year, about 62.2 million. With that uh I return uh back to uh Tarra.
Oh slide back up We just need the slide back up Thank you Um wanted to just make note and reiterate that we re going to have to need an ongoing fiscal discipline, so we just we re in a place, um, that is difficult, and no one has said anything other than that. We are on the edge. And we ve been working hard to make sure that this district remains solvent. And so we have to prioritize some of the things that we re
doing. We re looking at enrollment um, enrollment-based staffing, alignment. Or central office overhead. So we ve already done central office, uh, reductions, but we ll continue to have to look at that going forward. There s a district-wide, right size, right sizing analysis, so we know what that is, and we ve talked about it. We have to look also at our special education program. And the, um, cost that has increased. And that s not to say that we shouldn t invest in in special education. It s being disciplined about looking at why the costs are increasing
the way they are. Um, and also to our labor negotiations to just be really grounded in where we re at, when we re at the table. And to make the right decisions and work with our unions on that. So, we ll continue to prioritize the work that we re doing. And all we could do at this point is to show you. And what I mean by that is we re getting close to the 3rd interim. Getting close to um. Closing our, our books. You ll see the ab 1200 that will go to the county. And you ll see where we re at Um
we, again, we qualified, we certified, qualified for first interim and 2nd interim, and that was accepted both times by the county, but in that second interim, there was not the oea agreement. And that was because of the dates of which you do the 2nd interim. It wasn t because we were holding anything back. Because those are the dates that you do it, and it will be in the 3rd. Um, here is just very quickly, um, just what we wanted to say here is we re ahead of the MAY revise. So what we re trying to do is give ranges of where we re planning, just like if you re planning your own budgets and you
re trying to see what we think could have. So this is the numbers that we ve had from projected for 25, 26, and the next two years. And we need to work on our path forward. So again, that structural alignment cost containment, revenue, integrity, cash and fiscal discipline, and I ll say it again. These items that I ve talked about, if you go back and you look at other districts that are facing the same issues you re going to see the same strategies. It s just a matter of doing it. Being disciplined, being honest,
working through it together. And looking at every single dollar that we have and how we re using it. Um, and I wanted it to end here where we are and I m gonna read these because for us as a team, it s important, and we ve been um talking about it a lot. And that this district is not ignoring its fiscal challenges. We are not ignoring our fiscal challenges. We re not trying to make anyone believe that we don t have a challenge. We ve said it clearly that we do. And we re working through them We are actively addressing them. We
re meeting its we as a district are meeting its financial obligations. We are protecting student programs, and we were able to avert a strike, and that does mean something and it is important for our students to avert strikes. We ll continue our plan of implementation. We as a district will maintain its fiscal solvency efforts. And we are on a path towards long-term solvency, because that s where we have to be. There s no other option for us. Cause the other options would mean that we re not making our own decisions. And everything that as long as I
ve been working in Oakland and everything that we are about should be that we re working together. Board, community, students. Employees, all of us working together even if we disagree talking about it. And one other thing that I want to name that uh we as a team in our budget and and operations team. We re talking about is that we have to improve our communication Um, there s been a lot of communication that goes out about our budget and we re working really hard to get in the numbers, to get things closed out, to to do the work.
And we have not been well and good at communicating ourselves so that people really understand where we see ourselves at. So you will see some improvements. We re going to hold ourselves accountable to putting our budget reports up on our website to providing more uh financial information, and we ll do that as soon as we have the MAY revised, which hopefully tomorrow. And we can be able to come back here to the board and give you an update of where we are once we have those new MAY revised numbers. So I thank you for your time and this was our calendar Um Just lastly, the calendar just kind of just walk through what
s gonna This is the calendar coming forward again, MAY revise is we re hoping we should hear it tomorrow. Uh, in MAY, that will help us to finish out our multi-year budgeting, planning, um, we will be doing, providing the ab 1200 and the third interim to the county. Coming up here in MAY In JUNE, we ll have the board approve 3rd interim. Um, which is due or reconcile our cash flow. And we will adopt our budget
JUNE by JUNE 30th. Um, you ll also be looking at the lcap, which actually will be in our next board meeting coming up in MAY. We ll close out the books, JULY and AUGUST, we re going to be doing the unauit actuals, um, we ll be monitoring our payroll costs. And we ll be back at it again in SEPTEMBER, and when we come back in SEPTEMBER, we re going to be hitting our budgets hard um, and working with our sites and principles. On um information that they should get earlier in the year, so that they can do their planning as well. You re welcome. You want, let s see this work will require
continued discipline. I want to underscore that. Partnership, transparency, and we will continue to seek support and work with acoe. We have been all along. We will provide regular updates regarding fiscal efforts and results and make the decisions necessary to ensure long-term stability. I want to thank, um, our staff for their um ongoing work and dedication in this area, and for other partners around their oversight and collaboration. And I wanna thank the board for your leadership in this area. We re not finished
but we re making real measurable pro progress and we are moving in the right direction. And it s gonna take everybody focused in order to accomplish that goal. Thank you very much Thank you. We ll take board comments first and then public comments after that. Gerlata Director Hutchinson Yes, thank you. So I m actually surprised that there s any mention of the finances and budget on the agenda tonight because this is the first time that it s happened since MARCH. And it s really disappointing that instead of the board PRESIDENT Agendizing a business
item so we could have a full discussion that this was buried in the superintendent s report. Now, I have a real problem seeing the community get lied to. So the description of this DECEMBER meeting that I read in here, is not accurate at all When the first interim came forward with a recommendation of a negative certification, that recommendation came from the superintendent. Whose staff helped develop it. So to say that other staff recommended it. It s just not true. Also in DECEMBER, we were not presented with a choice of take out a loan and go into
receivership, or do something else. That wasn t what the presentation was. And lastly, when scenario 3 was adopted by the board, Superintendent Sadler said more than once a scenario is not a plan. This is not a plan. Now all of a sudden they want to call it a plan. Unfortunately, though, that s not the worst part here. Also, I hope people were listening as we hear language about, we re still working on costing out the oea tentative agreement and we are still planning on sending it to the county means that in 2.5 months that work hasn t been done.
2.5 months But more than anything else, the issue I have, and what I want clarification on, are these numbers in here about our cash flow? And the projected budget are different than the numbers that were just submitted to the county. On APRIL 30th in response to our notice of going concern. On that document that was submitted to the county. On the 30th. It said our ending cash fund balance. In JUNE of 27 would be $16 million. That s what the document shows. I have the photo of it right here in my phone. On this document, it says the
ending cash balance is a range of 150 to 180 million. Where did that number come from? Because it s not the same that was just submitted to the county. And I sent this question out to everyone and got no answer. Then the other thing is what was submitted to the county on that same cash flow analysis projected expenditures for next year at a billion dollars. On here it says a range of 900 to 940 million. How did these numbers change? Why is there a discrepancy between numbers that are only weeks apart. Why did you submit realer numbers to the county than you re presenting here to the
community. Now I think we should really have another round, because this is the most important thing that we need to talk about. But the numbers don t add up to the numbers that were just submitted. By MISS Guard to the county on APRIL 30th. So what changed these numbers? What are the real numbers? And if our cash flow balance is really going to end next year at 16 million. That shows we will not be able to make it through the next school year. Lastly, when we are operating the right way as a district in MAY, we get a draft budget for the following year. That s the timeline that we
used to always work on. Now we hear people talking about they re still working on developing it. This is scandalous, and I want an explanation about how the numbers changed. Because I can show you the numbers that were submitted to the county, and they re not the same as these numbers. So what happened and what happened to the non-compensation items that we agreed to in oea s tentative agreement that are not accounted for here at all. What is going on? Because this isn t a small difference. We re talking about a difference of tens of millions of dollars, and in the ending cash balance, we re talking about a
difference of almost $150 million. This is not small and so I want an explanation from somebody, because as a board, we re supposed to be in charge of the finances. We re supposed to vote to direct these things. So what s happening Or is this this a result of forcing out our cbo hiring outside consultants and instead of taking free help from the county. And rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic by appointing somebody else in charge of the financial department internally. So what are the real numbers and who can certify those for me, please. MISS Garre, do you want to
answer that, MR. Doctor Fructos? I m, I m happy to I m answer it. You know, it, it is, it is um. I think it is useful to us for a board directors to challenge what we are presenting to you and one of the reasons is that a range is something very clear that everyone can understand. This is our thinking. We believe our balance will start at 250 to 270 million. I couldn t find a MAY, uh, budget development document from last year, so I will look for it because that will be something that I m sure you re used to and, uh, and, and what we were trying to do is actually give
you something similar to say this is where we are today prior to MAY revision, this is what we re thinking. The numbers have to be different. We presented numbers in JANUARY and now we re presenting numbers from APRIL. I m speaking specifically about the numbers that were submitted to the county on APRIL 30th on a document by MISS Gard. So I don t know why you re presenting and talking about JANUARY. That wasn t my question, and I don t want to go back and forth le the last time that he tried to do. So I would like an answer from MS. Gard, who s supposed to be in charge and who signed her name to the other numbers and now made the presentation on these
numbers. Why are they different? I m answering that, Director Hutchinson. Uh, we had a series of numbers that we presented in JANUARY as of JANUARY without some of the settlements then in APRIL we presented numbers that were current then. We are bringing down numbers that are going to be current as of ab 123 interim. So why did the cash flow, uh, amount ending balance go up by $150 million in two weeks, and it s not true if you added in contracts, that doesn t make the cash flow and the ending balance go up. That would make it decrease. And again, I don t want a
consultant who has an awful reputation answering these questions when we have district staff here, Superintendent Sadler, and I would like the staff whose name was on the documents I m referring to to answer the question, because what he just said is just not true at all. That s just not accurate. I m going to remind us, I think it s one thing to ask critical questions. I think it s one thing to ask them. You know, in, in a heated way. I think it is not ok to insult people. So I would like an answer to the question. We have responsibility over a billion dollars a year. So if I can t get an answer to a question to be able to, uh, solidly fulfill my fiduciary responsibility, that s a real problem. And what
I was asking is not crazy. I sent it to MS. Gar ahead of time. People were aware that I was going to be asking this. I ve been asking it. So I want an explanation of the difference between those numbers. Why did the cash flow balance go from 16 million on what was submitted on the 30th, to now this range of 150 to 180 million. That s not a small change. Can you, can you let the two representatives answer the question, please. That we are presenting is the latest information we have from the financial system now before we get into an argument, board members, we are getting close
to having an audited actuals. That will be the number that s audited, so there will be no back and forth or challenges unaudited actuals don t come out until the fall, and that s not the question that I m asking. No, I, I ve asked a real specific question. And so the fact that people are avoiding it is really, really a problem. Because the cash flow balance, the cash fund is the combination between our restricted and unrestricted dollars. There is nothing that s happened in the district. Nothing explained here to say why it s gone up now. In a positive of 150 million in two weeks. Director Hutchins said, I m going to let him answer the question so that
others can also, excuse me. Let others ask their questions as well, but like Doctor Fructos finish his answer, please. Cash flow report that we will continue to provide and there ll be an update is based on the latest information we have from the financial system. Uh, Director Williams. I m sorry, Director Thompson. Thank you very much. I want to go back to the beginning of your report, because it really meant a lot to be can see there, sir. Um, um, but, um, you talked about the lip vet and what means a lot to me is, excuse me, the reading of children and research has proven that if children read
for 20 minutes a day only. And if they do that for the entire year, they re exposed to 1,800,000 words. And so I want to appreciate you for actually helping to promote the idea that children are supposed to read, and you, uh, you specifically identified 20 minutes a day. So I really, really appreciate that. Thank you very kindly. But I, I wanted to ask a question, now going to the budget side, ok, I want to ask a question, but I think um Director Hutchinson was alluding to what I was gonna ask and then I think you responded, so I m gonna just
say it anyway. You don t have to respond to it, but I m really wondering about the specific items that we re going to actually include in our ab 1200, because I know that s something that I m sure most of us, if not all of us, are really concerned about when we re looking at this looming deficit that we have, and then we have this, um possible ta that that it s supposed to take place, but we want to make sure that we have adequate funds. And so, I, but I totally understand the idea of if your bank, you know, your bank book is not balancing. You have to figure out things so
that next month, you can meet the obligations. I m speaking of our personal accounts now, but I know we re looking at a big account here because we re looking at almost a billion dollars. And so we want to make certain that we are actually, um, we re ae to pay for the things that we re, um, we ve sort of signed on the contract to do. So, I m not sure if you want to deal with that now. You don t have to if you don t want to, because I think that s gonna, that like I said, it has come up tangentially in what Director Huygen presented, and I m kind of concerned about it, and I m sure others are
concerned about it also. You know Director Thompson, the, the questions that director Hutchinson asked our very similar so let me answer it in the way we have been uh working in our process, um, a few weeks ago as we were looking at the contract, there were some particulars that were difficult to calculate. Uh, the contract includes some elements that were approved where certain positions if they have specializations, for example, we ll get an additional compensation. The challenge is to look at every individual and see if they qualify or not So what we did and uh I wanna thank Janine and Tara and everyone that partic we went
line by line through the contract to see what impact does it have, who does it impact and try to figure out, will this person qualify? It it was it was a task, but I, I can tell you that allowed the team to feel comfortable with the amount that they presented today. It was a little more uh more work that when you say when you have a percentage increase for a particular number of people let s say, so what you will see in the ab 12 00 is the actual number that adds every component that was approved in the ta with oea. And they re aware that that was done, that it was, it was to that level. Now. Just a word of caution as we go
into next year if we hire individuals that fit into that criteria that have those specializations in common to the district. Those numbers will continue to fluctuate because every individual that comes in or that goes and gets that certification and gets hired into a position that qualifies will have an increased cost. So as we all look at things, one of the things to remember is that we have a live document that will continue to evolve, but what is real right now is that we believe we have a costing item that allows us to pay it this year and keep moving forward with the increases for the subsequent years. Does, does that answer it? Oh, ok.
Yeah, I mean, I, um, so I, I appreciate this presentation, um, and I think for me the thing that, um, I would also like to appreciate is that I ve often, um, you know, I, you know, I do think that there is concern in the community because people, you know, there was talk of taking a loan in the fall and whether we would be insolvent and whether we would run out of money. And so I just want to appreciate, um, uh, Ryan Wynn for putting up that cash flow graph, but then also being transparent about the times of the year. We know that this is a, you know, something that has come up for years and years that I think even, even, I don t even know how recently we would take like a bridge loan
from the county when we would have these cash flow crunches. And so I appreciate that there is transparency around when times are lean and what are the proactive things that we re doing to address that because I do think that um the dedication that I have seen to maintaining local control even when it has meant that we ve made from pretty difficult decisions, I think I just want to commend the people up here who have made some of those very hard votes and the things that I I think a lot of people have sacrificed, um, and I do want to kind of ask though we, you mentioned executing on things that we have agreed to
because um we have seen many concepts come up over and over and over again in our district. Can you explain what are the can you give an example of some of the practes that you re putting in place now, and it s probably to you, um, MISS Guard, to ensure that we are implementing these. Um components with fidelity and that we re not backsliding, um, or, you know, letting things, you know, kind of the I always use the copier contract. It s like been on the thing for a million years and we never do it. So, um, that I think that would be helpful. Sure. Along the lines of contracts. Um, we do have the outsourcing
committee. I did meet with them and heard. Um their recommendations and there are, there s work in the procurement office that they ve been doing. We ve been looking at we have so many contracts, but we re looking at aligning those um reducing down the number of contracts that. companies MAY have with different schools, different departments, maybe they have. 20 different contracts you ll find where we need a master contract. So we re trying to address that Um, we re looking at um we re looking at our position control again. We did when, uh, our former cbo was here. She did great work.
She and I did together on systems for the position control. But what s happened after we ve gotten our position control together, meaning everybody who is an employee has a number, their position is following them. But after we do, what we see is. Sites and departments changing positions quickly right after we do our budget development process, and it does cause um some fluctuations that we weren t expecting some um some changes to the budget that we re having to work through. It shouldn
t be that way. When we re, we ve gone through our budget process. It shouldn t be then a month later or less. you re having to change many different roles. So, and that, um, actually wasn t coming to board as much as it, it really should have. So we re going to be bringing that to the board so that you re more made aware and ratifying or approving, um, some of those changes that it hadn t been coming in the past. So right now what I m saying might seem like what? But it is something that we need to address. So those are some things I can keep talking about them, but, no, no,
I think, I think that s helpful as examples. Thank you. Doctor Williams Uh, just want to thank you for, um, coming up and being transparent about the budget. I think that uh it s easy to uh you know, always move this. This fear, uncertainty, doubt, this level of of dread or financial collapse, but what actually you ve done is, you know, how does a straightforward conversation. You talked about financial controls in place. Uh those controls weren t in place previously, or we
wouldn t be in this position. There were if they were actually in place previously, we wouldn t even be talking about this. We actually, this board actually came in and inherited a bad budget previously. So I, I think we kind of, it s easy to deflect. Let me deflect what is happened in the past and talk about today and then say how y all are not doing the job. But if the job was done properly before we would not actually be in this position right now. Thank you. Also, I want to appreciate you for implementing structural, uh, corrective actions. It shows
that we are taking this serious. We ve made it very clear that things need to change. A culture of accountability needs to be implemented, and we re doing that and moving it forward. I want to thank you again for being a full compliance with the state. Thank you very much. We hit our deadlines, and we don t know with more conversation will happen tomorrow after the revised budget, but also what we know that an ousd every single year are unaudited actuals are way higher than the projections. Uh, let s be really clear. We
re talking about projections. We re projecting. We re not, it s not the actual actuals, the actuals come this summer, and the actuals actually in will show where the revenue is. So, folks are arguing back and forth over projections. And those projections have ranges, and they re up and down. We don t get them right every single time, but they re projections, and now as we re moving towards the end, if you, if you happen to look at our budget
every single year we ve had an actual revenue. Uh, revenue that comes in at higher than projections. So, let s, let s work through this process. We re open to work through with the community, and I just appreciate that um you know, you are making, and and I see that you re con your projections are conservative as well. So I really wanna thank you for bringing that experience in and having a conversation with us. Thank you. DR. Berry So first, uh, I do want to appreciate that I did ask for a budget to be on the agenda and it is on
the agenda. I didn t expect it to be folded into the superintendent s report, which is not a problem inherently. Uh, I think it s relevant for you to put it on the agenda from your perch. But I do think it s hard for a community to detect that it s on the agenda when it s in the a deck, uh labeled Superintendent s reports. I think that s the only thing. So when we talk about this next week, it would be nice if it was its own. I don t think it would be nice. I m asking for it to be. It s a separate agenda item because I think it ll allow community to prepare. More fully Um, I do want to go back to the cash flow question because I
had it as well. Um, and the question is really about what s, because I hear you. Things changing, that s a message that you ve you ve, you ve been communicating constantly. So my question is what did change? If if the situation upon which the numbers are based today is different. What is the situation? Describe that. And then I do have more, but you can take that that just happened this morning, um, that really describes what changes in our, in our, in our financial system. This morning we were trying to capture everything that we could in anticipation of the MAY revision and as I
communicated with Terra after meeting with the financial team, we had looked at a couple of accounts that we thought we were gonna be very helpful for our end balance. And the team to come back and they revised them and they noticed that the way they had been posted months ago. Didn t allow us to save as much as we we thought and it was a few million dollars. I got very frustrated and I said, how, how can that be? But once I looked at the documentation, we began to think that in the future we are going to be a little bus a little bit less data driven and a little bit more fiscal driven. A lot of our information comes from a lot of our different programs and it
s spreadsheets. And that s fine, but we need to make sure that we are looking at accounting information that is real, like our, our actuals. I, I really appreciate what you said because it s the reality of a budget, and then what gets audited is the actual number. We need to get closer to reviewing actuals on a more regular basis, director, and that changed today happens regularly. The second piece is even more important in, in my, my recommendation to the team is that a little bit earlier in the year we sunset most of the procurement so that the balances that we bring to you. Are more realistic. We bring you a balance in MARCH or APRIL and then there s a slew of
expenditures and the number is depleted. And you say, how, how come this change? Well, because a lot went through, so we did, we do need to change our practices and that is part of how the fiscal team as MS. Gar was was mentioning we, we need to improve some of our practice, but that is something that we, we just need to work on for next year. For this year, our hope is to finish as quickly as possible, make sure that these are numbers that we can come and defend to you. That s why we presented to you ideas as to how we re looking at ranges and to bring you an update after MAY revision. And so just to make sure I heard you correctly, it sounds like it s one thing that has changed is probably a longer list than two things. It s
accounting. And then also sunsetting procurement. And then next question. So, to Director Latta s question about your implementing what we agreed to, is that what we should interpret to be the plan. So like the set of strategies that was voted on in DECEMBER that you ve been implementing. Is that the plan and does that, for example, um, is that what you re referring to when you say the fiscal solvency measures on slide 28, when you re talking about we have what we need and resources to finance the oeata assuming that fiscal solvency measures are continued to be implemented?
Is that the plan? I, I ll start and, and I ll turn it over, but I, I, I came to you in JANUARY. That was my first session where I came to you and said we think we can do some some work and, and these are some of our ideas, uh, at the time, nobody gave me a label. What I was told is that the board had identified uh deficiency of up to $104 million. And that you had all agreed that this was a problem and that it needed to be addressed. Uh I don t mean to be offensive, but I didn t have a label for it, a strategy, a plan, an idea. All I know is that the board had identified a number and there was an interest from
the board to take action. That stops being a plan starts becoming action. What do you do? If you remember the first thing that we brought to your attention is that we saw a discrepancy between unrestricted and restricted. That was the first notion that has become the cornerstone of almost every solution. Because that discrepancy as we re finding has multiple legs. One of them is the use of the unrestricted fund to make expenditures that should have been done through other funds and we re talking to the auditor about that right now. So in a way there s been not only a plan but there s been one big solution that has
morphed into us trying to bring you a positive budget. One of you, I, I, I think, I think it was you director said if you had done this before, you wouldn t be in this situation today. In a way is, is a little bit bigger than that, but I think ultimately as we go into next year and you have a budget that s a little more stable it will be that simple had we looked at the budget differently and it s not the blame of the board or the administration it s, it s a holistic approach where we were trying to protect all these mini budgets throughout the district and therefore the
programs they represent, but I think we forgot that the general fund unrestricted if it s depleted. We lose control So now the question is how much do we take from all these mini budgets to make sure that the unrestricted side of the budget remains solvent. We cannot take it all because you want to protect programs, you want to avert strikes, you want to continue providing wonderful services, but the fact of the matter is that that that one budget if it goes under. Then all these other controls also go away. So in a way my job has been fairly simplistic because we go back to the original thing that we identified the challenge has been implementation, because I told you, one of the recommendations that I wouldn t bring to you is to do a
wholesale cut that would have been very easy. It s just cut 11% from every budget. We re done. Thank you very much and, and goodbye. Instead, we ve looked at a lot of budgets the board gave us also this notion of averting a strike. Well that was costly and we told you it was, we, we, we presented plans that were less costly, but, but the board so now it, it bifurcated our interest into stabilization and deficit reduction and the payable of the obligation that was created. It has been an evolving plan. Back in JANUARY and FEBRUARY, we had one goal stabilize the budget, do deficit reduction. Now we have two goals stabilize the budget deficit reduction and make sure that we pay the
obligation that we have by JUNE 30 with a stable budget, so I, I, I m sorry if we sound simplistic sometimes. The detail is less simple, simple, but the idea has been there since the board directed us to look for a way to get us out of that large deficit that we were on, and we haven t finished. Because by creating the obligation as we mentioned to you, we stopped for a little while focusing exclusively on the deficit, which we need to continue in the budget year and the subsequent year. But I think for this year what we are looking at right now is being able to finish the year, pay the obligation, continue
with a budget that s stable and continue working in future years to make sure that we have a a solvent plan. Whatever label you put on it, it is a plan and it s being implemented through a lot of actions behind the scenes while trying to protect all our programs, fully knowing that you know that some programs are heavily impacting the budget. We need to, we don t even need to mention them. You already know we ve talked about it, so I, I hope that answers kind of. I have 3 things, so I m just and I feel like if you timed my questions, I m still not at 2 minutes, but I m allowing the questions to be individually. On the plan, I, I m not trying to play, I
m not trying to be nitpicky or to play a game of semantics. It is, if we are measuring and tracking a plan, and that is part of our accountability system and part of our way of ensuring transparency and communication. I just think that the plan, whatever it is should be clear, even if it is evolving. So if it changes, then those updates are presented and we had an opportunity to discuss it, so I just wanna make sure that when you say plan and there is a plan that we re talking about the same thing. Yes. So, excuse me Yes, and um, are you asking, would it
be supportive of us to bring back the what we re working from Is that, is that what s needed there s a slide. I don t know who created it, but there s a slide in this presentation that says a plan has at least 4 components, and I think the 3 main ones is that it measures, uh, gaps in expend, you know, the gap, right? And then it has a plan of action, right? The different tactics, and then who s responsible for what? Like, even that, if we just use the model you presented, I think would be helpful, uh, for the board and for community. If you bring that forward Director Lauda, she s not on
here. Uh, she had asked if we could also look back at the multitudes of plans that we ve. Said we re doing over these course of the year so that we can see where they line up to what we re doing now and are we missing anything? So working on that as well. So we could bring that all forward. Thank you. And then these should be quicker, um but on in it s a structural deficit vision and the next steps. These are the areas. So on the structural piece, it s unclear to me what we re doing, what among what we
re implementing today is helping us address the structural deficit, um, and it would be helpful to see that clearly, because there is the way that I read um what s in the presentation is that there s language that suggests that the a lot of the structural work, particularly around redesign, won t, is being pushed to 26, 27, and that concerns me for a few reasons, but just on process, I do believe that there are things that we could be doing and should be doing at this moment. Community engagement and other things that could plant the seeds and prepare us for the deeper structural work that needs to happen, but I don t, we shouldn t be waiting
to do that. And I think it s disruptive to the system at every level, programmatically, staffing. If we re not considering which of these practices are practices we we intend to maintain, like this shift to pushing things into supplemental and concentration and which are things we re just implemented because we need to balance today s budget. Does that make sense? It does make sense. Thank you. Yes. And related there are, uh, like I m looking at slide 29. These priority actions and the structural reform. One big question I have is a line to what vision are we implementing it? Because again, if it s just about the budget,
I feel like the afterthought is teaching and learning and what we re trying to do, um, for students, and I think that should actually be in the driver s seat of some of these decisions as opposed to an afterthought. I don t want to make an assumption that it is, but it s not clear here how um the visioning part is is playing into this. Thank you for that, because that, that also goes along with uh our llcap. Right? And so we re working on and I don t, the immediate what I consider immediate crisis, right? What are we doing right now to stay solvent this year. And then how are we what are we
going to be doing to plan around what is working for our students, what isn t working? What are those measurable goals and outcomes that we need to know, because we cannot continue to do everything. We just cannot continue to do everything, but what is working, that we are going to have to do together. And some of that, I believe was coming through the teaching and learning Committee. From what I understand um, and I could be corrected, but in looking for as far as the academics, I believe you re looking at what s working. Um that s also looking at the
measures in the llcap and it all ties back together to what we re prioritizing in our budgets. And this is the last thing I promise. This is it. Uh, what you just said also speaks to the other things that I think should be part of the plan, which is like how these budget decisions trickle down to the programmatic changes, the experience that educators MAY have in their classroom, the the the culture of the organization as a system. And so it would be good to hear how you all are tackling some of those, you know, inevitable challenges. That you re experiencing today and anticipate later on. Um, so
that even the board can be helpful in managing some of the change that we re experiencing today. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Vice PRESIDENT Thatcher. Thank you and thank you all for your presentation. Um, I m proud of my board colleagues who have voted to shift our budget to support fully funded schools and stabilize our district to support our com to ensure that our communities have education hubs that they can rely on. As a school board candidate and then as a school board director, um, I heard time and time again from families how instability in our budget and school closures harmed our students and families. So i m glad that as a board leader, I
ve helped us move towards investing in fully funded schools and a histo through a historic investment in our staff with the latest contracts with sciu and oea. And I m excited to move forward in this commitment to support our students. Last week I was proud to stand alongside our labor partners from across ousd Superintendent Sadler, Board PRESIDENT Brohart, and our colleagues in Los Angeles to advocate in Sacramento for fully funding proposition, um, and protecting the promise of stable, reliable funding for public education. As vice PRESIDENT, um, I also spoke about the investment that we can make when we stabilize our schools instead of
destabilizing them. I spoke of the groundbreaking program that we have at Oakland International where students from around the world are supported, welcomed, and prepared to thrive. Um, I spoke about the urgency that we need to, that we have around paying educators, um, and school staff, a dignified wage so that we can recruit and retain incredible people to support our students. I also shared how ousd has increased enrollment for the first time in years and proof that a district, um, that when a district stops closing
schools and starts investing in communities, families respond. Um, this week I was reminded once again why this fight matters and why this is so important. It s really about our brilliant scholars. I had the honor of attending multiple honor rolls, celebrations, as well as the Oakland leaders graduation where I saw firsthand the brilliance, leadership, and resilience of our young people. With stable, fully funded schools we can create more opportunities for our students to be successful, to lead and feel connected to our school communities. Our students are worth the
investment. Our staff are worth the investment. Oakland is worth the investment. I am confident in the direction of our district is headed and of the leadership of the superintendent, our deputy superintendent, our cfo and our hya team. I look forward to seeing the governor s revise tomorrow and we ll keep on fighting if needed to make sure that we get every cent we are owed from Prop98 funds. Thank you. I do want to thank our staff, board colleagues, our labor partners, our family, students, and our community for engaging with us through a very difficult process and for the
opportunity to continue the fiscal work together. I appreciate the presentations. I appreciate the um, nuances of the budget that have been explained to us. Um, I appreciate the work that s been done. I had a whole lot of other stuff I was gonna say, but I think really what strikes me the most about our budget. Is that most importantly, every single number that we discuss ultimately comes back to the 34,000 ousd students who deserve a stable and well-governed school district. That fiscal stability, sustainability is not the goal itself, but it is what allows us to provide students with the quality they deserve.
In that line, I am extremely proud of the fact that we have, uh, maintained local control that we did not go down that path. I know that s been a lot of talk in the community about it. But I really want to respect our superintendent, uh, our deputy superintendent, uh, Ryan Wynn, our cfo for honoring the direction of the board. I think that we made that very clear that we did not want to go down the road of, of, of local of losing local control. I think like our director said next a minute ago that, you know, there s been a lot of of stability and progress in our district. Our enrollment has increased for the first time in
8 years, and it is huge that we successfully reached labor agreements with oea and seiu without a strike. It s also just as huge that we worked with our unions to negotiate fair contracts that result again in a stable workforce and is essential to student success, and I think all of these things go back to what are 34,000 ousd students deserve. They deserve a teacher in every classroom. That teacher deserves to be fairly compensated. They deserve a library tech in every school library, that library tech deserves to be fairly compensated. They deserve food services. Uh, the nutrition services
workers who, who serve them every day. These are the people our kids know, and they deserve to be fairly compensated. So I feel that in looking at changing the direction of our budget. While it feels a little nuanced, I ll say right now. I feel that we are moving in the right direction to compensate the people who directly serve our students every single day so that our 34,000 students can be successful. Think like you talked about MS. Gard, we are looking at teaching and learning at every single program we have. We know that there are many programs in our district. We know that many of them are not used. We know that there are lots of discussions,
I mean, we ve heard a lot about I Ready There s been a lot that that teachers are raising. And again as a district leadership. We need to look at these programs. Do they serve our 34,000 students, and are they fiscally sustainable, but I just want to go back to every single number in our budget. Is what allows us to provide our students with the quality education they deserve. Uh, are there any public comments on this issue? Uh, excuse me, uh, yes, MADAM PRESIDENT, there are a total of 18 speakers with 1 student speaker. If we could have the student speaker first. Um, still 2 minutes? Uh yeah Yes, that student speaker is Rosa Fernandez Parker. That s me. Hello, my name is Rosa Fernandez Parker, and I m a 10th grade student at Skyline High School. Both my parents are public school teachers and my dad s side of my family is Jewish. As an Oakland student, I have been taught to recognize apartheid and genocide and what Israel is doing is both. The the the false conflation of Judaism with Israel is a dangerous inaccuracy that pushes students to reco that recognize Israel s disgusting genocide to misdirect their blame When ousd interrogates its teachers on false and bad faith claims of anti-Semitism, all it all it accomplishes is intimidating teachers that have proven their determination in educating and defending their students and showing students what the censorship that we see in our books looks like in real time. With the internet and social media, students are more and more exposed to global conflict, however, this also means dangerous levels of misinformation, leaving students out of these conversations is no longer an option, but educating them is sorry, but educating them on these topics, but banning these topics in schools leads does not protect students from these conversations.
And instead leads to uneducated discussion and heightens the risk of actual anti-Semitism. Stop attacking our teachers and stop under educating our students. Thank you Speaker, please? 5 speakers are Gabriel Khan, Jonathan Mas Muin, Muche, Sheila Haines. Musa Tareq and Susan Shaw If you heard your name called, could you please come to the dice? Most people have left just so you know, we had a very big group here and most people have left. Yeah Oh boy maybe you could wait till we re done and you could be at the
very end. That would be fun. Yeah. To talk to? Ok, um, MR. Munchin, can you go ahead? I don t wanna be on camera. Yeah, you need to turn off his camera. You can t, you can t video him. I mean like ridiculous. Every meeting. All right, continue, please. First of all, my name is jt Mas Motion. I don t appreciate that all these people are standing here talking on an item for the superintendent s report that I would like to speak about the superintendent s report about what she talked about, about the budget, about what DR. Fructos talked about and
TaraGard and this is not um an item for that topic. Um that s number one And then if you could ask these people to sit down, otherwise I ll just end my comment right there. Thank you. Uh, next speaker, please. I don t yeah. I think that you should not interact with the person in the, the audience. I think you should ask these people to sit down. They. Thank you for letting me speak. Um, I appreciate your statements, Doctor Sadler, um, but I think it
s clear from what other people have said that I, I just don t have a lot of faith that where this budget is going is like student centered and that we re doing what s best for our kids, um. I have talked i read the slides. I, um, look at the, the information and um, you know, you ve said many times that um there s a plan, but I really don t see the plan. I don t get the plan, and I think that, um, the students would be better served by um really looking into what, uh, smaller district would look like, and I know we ve talked about it before that, you know, maybe my
school that I love and my kids went to might be the one that s the appropriate 1da closed, and I, and I know that if we do the appropriate, um, uh, process that that will happen, but we re not even doing the process and I don t understand. We ve been like I ve been coming to these meetings for I think about 2 years now, and there was a process and then the process was gone and now we were talking about a process and it s not coming and just when is it gonna come? Because we need to figure out it, it s structural like the I m not believing data when it goes from, uh, you know, that, you know, we have money in the, at
the, we don t have money at the beginning of year we have money at the end of the year it feels more like a a Ponzi scheme. I don t mean any offense by saying that, but like I get it. Sometimes you have money, sometimes we don t, but seeing it go throughout the year, ultimately we need to have money at the beginning of the year, and we need to have money at the end of the year, and that s not what we re seeing right now. Thank you, next speaker, please Can you call the names again? I m sorry, MR. Hollis. Uh, yes, I ll call in the next 5 speakers. Uh Judy Greenspan. Sada Olugbala Julia Fernandez. Cynthia Kaufman
and first name m, last name Shane. Go ahead please ok. Hi, my name is Judy Greenspan. I use the them pronouns, and I m speaking today as a proud Jewish educator, retired from ousd and now a substitute teacher. I chair the oea Substitute Caucus, and I am on the oea executive board. I and many other Jews do not accept the criticism of U.S.Israeli genocide as being anti-Semitic. We do not accept the phony conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. As a Jew, I will not be quiet
about the Holocaust suffered by the Palestinian people. I was surprised by Doctor Denise Sadler s announcement uh, on Parents Square, claiming that anti-Semitism is one of the biggest problems in ousd, and that s why we re presenting this now in the in the uh superintendent s report. As an ousd Jewish teacher who has fought injustice my entire life in all forms What I see on the rise is Ila Islamophobia and attacks on our Muslim and Arab American students. An increase of anti-black racism against both African American students and teachers, the growing fear of our
immigrant families faced with ice raids and possible deportation and the continued gentrification of our city leading to the homelessness of our ousd families. Ousd is now being sued by the Brandeis Center. A Zionist institution and the California Department of Education, but we don t think you need to react the way you are reacting. I challenge the board and the district to stand up for what is right. I and other teachers are currently under investigation for anti-Semitism based on teaching and speaking out
against the us-backed Israeli war against Palestine. As a Jew, I am both angered and offended by all of these investigations, and I demand that you drop them now. It is time for ousd to embrace its historical mission. Of fighting for justice and disrupting inequities for all. Thank you. Next speaker, please Hello, I m Julia Fernandez. I m a parent in Skyline, um, so I wanna start by thanking educators who teach about what s happening in Palestine. To me they are the conscious voice of ousd, and they are the ones carrying the legacy of people like Martin Luther King, the genocide that is being
carried out by the Israeli government is being financed by the us government. This means that all of us who pay taxes are paying for this genocide. This is so crushing This means that people that live in this country have more of a responsibility to oppose this genocide, so I don t want the schools to pretend the genocide is not happening. Teachers have a huge responsibility to give formation to the new generations. Um, how can they be intimidated to stay quiet about this atrocity also. These same teachers that are being pre uh persecuted are the same who bring Black Lives Matter to the uh, into their
classrooms and who are now actively resisting ice rates, and I m sure that if somehow they were transported through time to World War ii, they would also be denouncing and fighting the Holocaust. Thank you teachers for making your classrooms a place where fascism does not go unchallenged. Next speaker please Hi, my name is Cynthia Kaufman and I am an active member of Jewish Voice for Peace, retired Community College faculty and a uh Oakland community member. I want to just thank you all for the work that you do for our students, and I know that it MAY seem, you know, you re all up where you are because you care about the children of
Oakland and you re dedicating your time and I really appreciate the work that you do. Um, and unfortunately, you re also in the crosshairs of history, you know, that right now we are in a really difficult situation in this country where the country is supporting a massacre and a genocide in Gaza and there s a a tremendous amount of political pressure being given to to silence people who are opposed to that genocide, and I think it s, I m so sorry that you re being sued by the Brandeis um institution and by the Department of
Education. I think that s horrific that they re doing that to you. And then the question is, what are you going to do about that situation. Uh, are you going to stand up for the teachers, or are you going to bow to that pressure. One of my favorite books right now is by Timothy Snyder, who s a, um, a scholar of the Holocaust. He has a great book called On Tyranny 20 lessons from the 20th century, and the first thing he says is the first lesson he has from the, the horrific things that happened in the 20th century. Is that we need to not obey in advance. In other words, we see it all over this country that people are institutions are either buckling to the pressure
or they re standing up to the pressure, and I just want to encourage each of you to take your historic responsibility at this moment to stand strongly, to stand firmly on the side of justice and what s right and not to give in to the pressure. Thank you. MADAM PRESIDENT, if I MAY, Sheila Haines is online to speak? Ok, do I go ahead with Sheila Haines Upper. Ok. Hi, can you hear me ok? Yes, we can hear you. Ok, thank you. Uh, thank you, Superintendent, uh, Sadler for the report and just for your ongoing commitment to trying to piece everything together. I know it
s a, a huge task that you re dealing with and with the uncertainty of the finances is concerning, of course, but I, i have hoped that despite the issues that you will continue to prioritize student safety. Um, although I had hoped that there would be more movement towards music. Part of my resolution also is around mandating love and respect. And so I m hoping that the district is moving closer to a culture of um practice, district-wide. We need that daily reinforcement that, you know, our students have to be in a loving space, and I hope
that um the district will continue to expand violence prevention in ways that will um truly change the culture of our youth to be in the most loving space, um, these violent attacks and fatalities are being triggered by verbal altercations, so I, I just hope that we can continue on with um finding a way to help with violence prevention, and I m no really sure about the city s funding. I heard that there was some violence prevention money, but it had ran out. So I just hope that you can find a way to move forward with everything and not cause more harm with these cuts that are gonna happen, but to keep our
students in a respectable place. Thank you. Uh, this is Sada. I want to thank you for the opportunity to address something that s very important to me with the expulsions. I, I justx on page 12, if you could break down the race demographics of the numbers that are there on that page. Uh, I am trying to pursue if what I don t really know about the uh impact of expulsions on our African-American community. I am very pleased to have the honor of being in the room with MISS Hattie Tate. Somebody, I don t know where it came from, sent me a description of her work in the district and uh I m, I
m sorry she s retiring, but I hope she will be replaced with someone who contin continue her work. As you were as you were talking on the budget, I m taking notes because you re helping me to understand the budget. Unfortunately, what I, I, I just took notes from Hutchinson and MISS Berry. Because uh I ll be at the meeting tomorrow to try to understand the budget from your perspective because you re gonna be making those decisions, ok? And lastly I have the honor of being able to observe other people s struggles. As an African American,
sometimes I become so consumed what s happening with me and my people. And I don t take the time to realize that other people are dealing with things similar to what I m dealing with. And I wanna be respectful of not taking a position because that s not my place to do it. But it is good that we as a a a whole people. Realize that it s not always about you. And so that s what I m observing tonight and trying to be respectful and to all sides because it s not my place to, to judge what s going on. But to respect it.
Is something I need to do because I be. Everything is black, black, black, black, and that s not the real world. You have to learn how to understand other people s struggles and what they are going through as well. And if you don t become involved at least understand it. And that s what I m doing. I m listening. And trying to understand what s going on with this situation. Thank you. Uh, next 5 speakers Uh, yes, MADAM PRESIDENT. Next 5 speakers are Sarah Koch, Alison Grill. Mark Dudley Nate Landry. And
Alina Paulina, last name starts with an s. Thank you. Teacher Shane Uh, Michael Shane, I m a district parent as well as a social studies and ethnic studies teacher. Uh I think, you know, like, it kind of seeing, you know, everything that s happened. Uh with this district and this board since OCTOBER 7, 2023, uh, it was very disappointing to come to the meeting that was shut down by Director Hutchinson, um, because of some disruptions. I was here, it did not seem like there were many disruptions. In fact, Director Hutchson, you
used to shut, disrupt these meetings by yourself sometimes much more than the Arab Muslim community did. They came here. To uh, address the heinous attacks against Arab Palestinians and we re looking for you all to make a motion. That suggests you are supportive of your Arab-Muslim community, of which at my site, we have, you know, I, it MAY be a plurality of Arab families. So it was again, and then obviously I I heard Sam Davis prevented uh a motion that was to be brought, uh, but obviously the, that motion has not been brought back since, as
far as I understand it, uh, but. It s not too late Obviously, you can still pass a motion and support of people whose lives are being torn apart. With the help of our tax dollars, cause that s my thing is like, where do we go to prevent our tax dollars if, you know, your, your school board doesn t do it. And the last thing I ll say is, now we have teachers being investigated by Zionist attorneys. So is there ever going to be a time when you support us as teachers. To teach about, you know, these important topics to our students because, you know, just to kind of comment on uh MISS Olegbala, we this year,
uh, recently we did, uh, a lesson about solidarity between black people and Palestinians. And then we looked at parallels between Zionist apartheid and Jim Crow apartheid. And many of the students appreciated those lessons, and it d be a real shame not to continue teaching those lessons in the future, because again, you also didn t take a stand against ab 715, and now the, you know, designists are, you know, like being allowed to investigate our teachers, what s next? You re gonna allow maga attorneys in here to prevent us from teaching about Jim Crow and all the heinous atrocities committed against black people in this country
and the heinous atrocities being committed right now in the Caribbean. It s just wanton murder. So this is the thing. And the last thing I ll say, sorry to take up too much time, but I recently read a book called Someday, Everyone will have always been against this. By Omar Akad, and I really hope that you guys aren t part of those someone someday, everyone. Thank you for your time Thank you. Next speaker, please. Um, hello, I m Sarah Koch. I m a teacher at Bridges, um, I teach resource, um, to our wonderful students. And I m actually gonna read a comment on behalf of a parent who wasn t able to be here
tonight. Um, and I m also Jewish um, as is this parent. My name is Sarah Norr. I m the mom of Rowan, a 3rd grader at Manzanita Seed. Our family is Jewish, and every year since Rowan was in kindergarten, I ve shared Hanukkah or Passover with her classes. I make the kids special foods. Teach them songs, read stories and light candles. There are very few Jewish families at our school, but we ve always been warmly received. Kids come up to me on the playground and ask when I m making them latkes again. I want all children to feel as welcomed as we have. I want
Palestinian and Middle Eastern kids to see their cultures celebrated and their histories and perspectives taught. I don t want teachers punished for sharing Palestinian voices, teaching about Palestine is not a threat to me or my child. It is a way to build a more inclusive community that benefits us all. Um so that was Sarah Norris s comment, and now I want to speak a little bit to um. The impact of seeing the way that anti-Semitism has been defined in our district on many Jewish faculty, um, has been, it s been really
frustrating. It s been, um, to, to hear that there are trainings being, um, done with our school leaders with our secondary teachers that are really confusing anti-Semitism and criticism is Israel and our students do not need that and nor do our teachers. I think it s a lack of respect of our students ability to discern and learn about the true history and the true current events to oversimplify
in a really, um, hateful way. So, um, thanks for the all you do. I mean, the opportunity to speak. There Hello Hey, I ll be quick. Uh, hello, Oakland, Oakland School Board District. My name is Mark Dudley. I m here as a tech worker and as a member of Bay Area Labor for Palestine. I m here to speak out against the targeting of ousd teachers with lawsuits that wrongfully complain anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Not only is calling the teachers in question anti-Semitic absurd. But I m worried about the knock-on effects of teaching such lazy conflation? Do we really want our students to
think in terms of such broad generalization by conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, you are necessarily shrinking the rich fabric of all Jews into the smaller box that is Zionism, not to mention the message that this sends to your Muslim students. Is this the kind of thinking that we should be encouraging in our students. I should hope not and call upon the board to resist the framing presented by the Brandeis Center and s ta nd with your teachers instead. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, everybody Nate Landry, middle school parent here in ousd. um continuing on this theme. I ve
been thinking about the things. Ever since this, uh, lawsuit investigations were announced, um, what, what they re asking us to do. I know what they re asking ousd to do, but what are they asking? Those of us, uh, who are here speaking now to do and are those things, should those things be possible for us to do? Uh, it ought to be impossible for us to ignore the tens of thousands of dead in Palestine, in Lebanon, and in Iran as a result of us-backed Israeli attacks, but this is what the California Department of Education. Brandeis Center recent communication from Superintendent Sadler and school site leadership are demanding that we do. It ought to be impossible for us to ignore the insistence of
our Jewish friends, family, and neighbors that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism and that the two must not be conflated in order to stifle criticism of a nation state engaged in genocide, but this is what is demanded of us. It ought to be impossible for us to ignore the McCarthyist attacks on educators for their teaching and their consciences, it ought to be impossible to ignore how this serves a de facto censorship regime regime when it comes to discussions of Israel and American society ought to be impossible to ignore how ousd is undermi ning academic freedom in thrall to political actors making excuses for genocide, but this is what is being demanded of us. We reject statements and press
releases from district leadership that elaborately avoid engagement with reality in favor of propaganda. We reject again the conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, and we reject the district s complicity in all but criminalizing the teaching of Palestine at the behest of apologists, and we invite the leadership of this district to correct course and as has been said, to it need, it need not be this way, and we would ask you to strongly consider the type of district we will have at the end of this process if it continues the way that it has. Thank you. We are going to in public
comment on this issue, uh, we do have to, we, I m sorry. One more person All right, one more, well, I mean, we, we have a number of things we have to address tonight. So 11 minute, thank you, appreciate that. My name s Craig Gordon. I ve been a um substitute teacher in this district, uh, for some years, but I was, uh, retired, uh, secondary, uh, high school, middle school teacher, um, social studies for, for many years since for been in the district for 35 years and, and I, you know, as we re listening to the budget discussion. It does, I do wonder, and if I had a question, it would be how much are we spending? How much
is the district spending on investigating educators, uh, for you know, teaching about Palestine, teaching honestly and critically about Palestine. Um, before I was a Jewish teacher, um, I was a Jewish student in the 1950s and mostly 1960s, um. And there are very few Jews in my community, lots of, um, anti-Semitism in the community. I was called a dirty Jew. I killed Jesus, uh. But my public, you know at my public elementary school and, and, uh, junior high, um any mention of Israel was all positive, um, it was a mighty little nation standing up for Jewish people and everywhere
and fighting for democracy just as the us was fighting for democracy in Vietnam and Southeast Asia as we were slaughtering you know, 2 million human beings there, um, that we were the, uh, benevolent policemen of the world. Um, in my Saturday school, my reform synagogue, we learned the racist myth that it s settlers had made the desert blue. I had no clue because I was never told about the nakpa violent expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their land, homes and communities. And now we re witnessing an ongoing genocide. Uh, a new ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the United States and Israel, and I cannot believe that a school district in Oakland with its proud
radical tradition of fighting for social justice and against oppression and racism isn t going to knuckle under to pressure from Zionists, republicans, and Democrats and who demand that we educators uh remain silent and keep our students ignorant as we were in my school decades ago. So I m calling on ousd leaders to find the courage to stand up with the support of so many people in our community, including the many Jewish educators and students and family members who ve signed a letter that you ve received now a few weeks ago asking you to meet with us, and we still would like to meet with you. We re calling on you to um
we believe that teaching about Palestine and opposing genocide is not anti-Semitism, and we all know this, so we re just calling on you to stand up for that truth and for our students right to critical, honest education that they need and deserve. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda is item s1, which is the um stab stab stability and belonging for, uh, a disabled students resolution. I m not sure how it s, I think. I ll motion to approve it We are on item a. S1 Oh I ll second a public comment on this
Uh can I, can I make a, um, a request, um, can we take public speakers for s1 and s2. And, and maybe we need to make a motion to consider them together, but they re related and. Um, I, I guess like this is where I do want some clarity on this director, Lana, is I, is there a new resolution coming forward? Are are there amendments to? No. So s1 is standing what I, well, I mean what I would say is that people have, would like to I assume, speak on both s1 and s2 because it s related. I, I also understand from my
communications with members of the cac right before this meeting started that they re not in support of s2 and um but I think because they are the same topic that if we take them up together so that people can comment on both. MADAM There s a second to the the motion that s been made, that s s2. It s in and direct lots contending that there s a related subject matter. People can, when they speak on the item just before the board, they can express their opinion one way or the other. Either in favor of the other item or not, in favor of the item. And, uh, you don t have to do 2 or 3 rounds
of uh comments here. So, so, so, so at this point, we re not taking them, you re not taking them together. The only item that s on the floor is the motion that s moved. People MAY say what they please about the item. I think Director Laudta MAY be amending that motion. Yeah, I d like to but there s no amendment on the floor at the moment. Well, I would like to change the motion if it s friendly to consider items s1 and s2 together. Ok Well, I suppose we can just stick with s1 and, and then if
you are you are going to do s1 and you wt to amend s1. You put s1 on the floor, and then somebody makes a motion to amend s1. I m not making just for for point of clarification, um, MR. Rickshaw, I am not planning to make amendments to either s1 or s2. I simply would like to allow the people who have signed up for s1 and s2 to speak on um, the school stability resolution. MADAM PRESIDENT, on the item that s on the floor. I, I have a procedural question. I m not sure general counsel, if this is you as well. Um
if we vote on s1. And we approve s1, and then we vote on s2. You could nullify Yes, yeah, yeah cause I think yeah, that yeah, intent of having them both on the agenda was that one would be a substitute for the other, um, as to, namely being a substitute for s1 was the intent. So if we re looking at s2 which is not really written as a reso in a resolution format. It s, it s a list of things. It s got a But if you make a motion on s2, that is the only, that is the only item that s on the floor
for you to consider at that particular point. If it get amended in some manner, it might alter the original, uh, uh. So, so, um, director Lada, what was the intent? Was it s1 you were moving? I m, I, my main intent was that people have signed up for s1 and s2, and I would like to make sure that everyone who signed up for s1 and s2 can speak. And I, in one go ok. Thank you. PRESIDENT Brohar, you can, um, move forward with s1 and take speakers. Ok, I ll move forward with s1 If people are speaking to to s1 in support of it, you could.
Include your position to s2. I don t know. Uh, we have public comment on this issue on this item. Um, so public comment on s1. That s uh one is Carol Delton. Jonathan Masutcheon. Alan Purcell jd Woloshin Matt Glaser, and Asada Olugbala. Can we take the online speakers first. I believe that s, um, Alan Purcell. Carol Delton Currently with their hands raised, I see Carol Delton. I will allow them to speak. And all these speakers signed up.
Yeah, online, right Um, hello Uh, I do not see a clock. If you re hearing me, how long do I have? Hello? You have 2 minutes. Thank you. Um, I am very concerned because I actually wanted to address the fiscal items in the superintendent s report, and I was not called on, although I had my hand up. Um, so I will stick to the agenda item now, and I hope that I ll have additional time at non-Agenda speaking to address my concerns. Um,
regarding this particular um agenda item. I, I am utterly confused because um the list of various fiscal impacts seems to conflate a number of things that were never called for by the original stability and belonging resolution. And say that those were fiscal impacts, and those include things like maintaining empty classrooms. Um, like, uh, reducing number of classrooms when there are students for one classroom. And the idea was not stability of program, but stability of students. I don
t know why after 2 years of being told this would not have a fiscal impact because essentially it codifies what is current district practice, these concerns were brought up, but I m hoping that the superintendent can look at the actual intent of the resolution and find that it can be implemented and students can stay at their sites. They can no longer be moved wholesale as was done several years ago with minimal or no fiscal impact. Thank you. Up. And speak on this item. There s no more. There s just
one. So if your name was called, we can call those names again so that folks can hear them again. And we re speaking on s1, which is the item on the floor. You can share any opinion you have um when you re in public comment. Give me one second. Can you just say those names again, Corey? Right. That s Jonathan makes must, Jonathan Mas Muchen, Allan Purcell, jd Waloshian, Matt Glazer. And Losada Olugbala. Carol Delton just spoke ok, thank you. Go ahead. All right, so I m jd Waashian and um so, ok, a little bit about the history of these newer
resolutions, so the, the s1 was the one that came up that we really didn t like. And the s2 is the one that we were working on and we came up early Saturday morning with, uh, one that we liked, um, but that one wasn t the one, the final, that was like the draft version that got posted for tonight. The final version is not, is not up. So that s the one that needs to come at some time with the appropriate amendments. But look, ok, so the reasons though that um the resolution had to be rewritten. Um, Carol Denton Dalton spoke to it, um, is because there was a fiscal impact statement that was made
based on a misinterpretation of the original. We re trying to get rid of the misinterpretations. And I mean personally, I don t care how much fiscal impact it takes to not discriminate against students. You shouldn t discriminate against students even if it save s you money, um, but here s a fiscal impact statement of my own. $85,000 a year, not accounting for annual raises. Add in full medical benefits for my family, um, for me and my family and contributions to my pension plan, and that is the fiscal impact on my family when I had to retire from my ups driver job 13 years before I had planned in order to
become a full-time caregiver to my disabled child. And after being asked to move schools, a second time by 3rd grade, he was so traumatized by all the changes, instability, and lack of relational safety that he no longer sees school as a safe place to be. He s in 7th grade now and still struggles to attend. And we re just one of the many families that this happens to, and I consider myself lucky because I have a wife that can still work, but there are single parents out here, full-time caregiving, educating their kids while piecing together an income to support their family. And so the school district MAY be able to save some money by moving these classrooms, but the
families you discriminate against have to pick up the bill. And so we re never gonna get to every student thrives if we can t even come to an agreement that we re not gonna actively traumatize our students. Thank you Hi JTmates motion. I am in support of jd over there, um, and I just want to say that when I go to Skyland High School and I see, um, the programs for children with special needs. I am, I, um, go to track meets and the kids are, um, running with the kid, the other kids, and if that, um, just disappears like, you know, sometimes other programs, they
just disappear. I, I can t imagine what impact that would have on kids. So let s try to get this right, and I appreciate, um the all the work that people have been doing, um, for children that, that deserve it. Thank you. Next speaker I think I stopped teaching 25 years ago. And the reason why I stopped because I had a lot of more energy to keep teaching, but special education students weren t getting. What they needed and I worked with a severe, profound children. And people will come in and say the same thing, parents,
advocating. And here it is almost 25 years later and we still don t have special education students. Getting what they need in terms of resources and anything else. But I couldn t stand it I could, I, I did not like that this population was being ignored. and not getting what they really needed and deserved. And being respected. It just, it almost felt like they had to have them in the school district. But there wasn t any passion for them being there. And appreciation for them being there.
So, it would be nice before I take my final rest. If I can see something happening for this group of individuals. Uh. And I love the way these parents and these advocates stay on board with this issue. And I think based on what they re trying to do right now, they re saying that this is not the way they wanted it. They re saying they, they want more, or it wasn t done the way and I think somebody needs to speak up and say, look, we need to readdress this so it s done right according to what the parents and the advocates have
identified. Thank you, our last speaker Hi everybody. I had the good fortune of being present for uh some of the really constructive dialogue that happened around this resolution, uh, and at that time I learned that it had been uh tabled for several years, well, I guess 3 years, 2 or 3 years, and just hasn t been agenized until recently. And I took a step back and thought how indicative it is of all the problems that we face that we are having this much trouble. Putting together a simple. Effort to stabilize
the experience of our most vulnerable students. And that said, it was great to see the conversations happen. Uh, I m not sure what is, uh, up for a vote right now, but what I looked at originally actually was responsible in that it didn t forbid forbid ever saving money by making changes to these things. What it did was require planning in advance in a way that didn t disrupt the lives of these kids, which is what would be happening, and so I think uh it s well past time to get this done. Thank you very much. Thank you colleagues Doctor Thompson
Director Latta Um, so I m, uh, I, I, what I would say is that I think that um having been a part of, um, trying to support bringing this, you know, resolution forward with ultimately the goal of treating students in self-contained programs and students with IEPs the same way we would treat general education students that we would never move students because their classroom was not full and scatter them to various schools if they were in 2nd grade or 3rd grade, we know, I think many of us parents have experienced combo classes and um, we ve also experienced classes where maybe the 5th
grade has 33 students and the fourth grade has 22, and we don t ever, um close those programs with basically no notice, because I think the thing that it s we of course, students moving every year is horribly traumatic. You would never want that for your own child. You would never pick it, but we, as a district made decisions f students that it was more convenient for us to move them around like chess pieces, and that should never be ok. And the thing that I find really disappointing and all of this is that this isn t something that was just thrown together one night and like plopped on
the agenda. This is year s worth of work. And I think the thing that I m struggling with, um, is that I don t understand why we don t, and this is, this is bigger than this resolution, but we don t have a culture of yes in this district, right? We have a culture of not my problem, actually talk to somebody else. This is too complicated and here s why it s gonna cost money and that should never be acceptable, because what happens is that this resolution, which shouldn t be necessary because we should absolutely not be moving students around, particularly every year, particularly our most vulnerable students, but what we definitely shouldn t do is blame it on Oh, I can t figure out how to
make it free, or we thought it was what we were doing, but we re actually, you know, I just, I think what I have experienced and I think the people in cac and the parents of disabled students, I would think have a similar experience, which is that there is not a culture of doing what s right for students and figuring out how to make it work. It s a culture of we we make students and families fit into our system. And if you don t fit, then too bad. And so what I would just hope from, um, whether it s the leadership of
the district, the leadership and special education that, um, I don t think we should pass either of these resolutions tonight. I think we need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to turn this resolution into a reality, and we should do it very quickly. Thank you. Director Brohart Um, I I agree. I mean, I think this, you know, uh, director Batchelor and I started this resolution when we first joined the board. And um I ve always been not confused, but really angry at why
why this resolution has taken so much fine tuning. I mean, again, like people have said over and over again, we don t do this to students who are not disabled, you know, we consolidate a classroom, but the students stay at the same school. Um, we don t, you know, again, I m, I m a former special education teacher, and I know there were years when I would have more students in my class and there were years when I had less students in my class, and we, the, the, our students are not our disabled students are not numbers that we move around from classroom to classroom
where we move from program to, you know, again, it takes it is a lot for our disabled students to become part of the school community. It is a lot for their parents to become part of the school community. And every student deserves to be part of the school community. Every parent deserves to be able to go to school events and know the parents that are there These this is when we talk about school community. It, it is the belonging of our students and our, our, our parents. Every teacher deserves our, our, our special education teachers. Are moved around. I was moved around one year, the last 3
weeks of school. I was moved from one school to another. I thought it was my assignment for the next year. I moved that Monday to a different school. And again, part, a big part of school. Is belonging and for all of the fiscal problems that have been brought up, they re, they re resolvable and they re not resolvable on the backs of students. They re resolvable at the sight. Um, and it, it is a, a, a culture of saying yeah we can do that, you know, it might take a little bit of thinking to do it, but we can do that
because we do that. For students who are not in special education. We do combination classes. We do all kinds of things to keep students at their school site with their friends as much as possible, even when you, you know, consolidate a class, you think about the kids that are going to the two new classes. um I, I m really frustrated at how many obstacles have been thrown up in this resolution again, it s been 4 years. You know, I, I, I, I can t think of any other resolution that s taken 4 years to pass. And I feel like we
re on the cusp of it and now there are, and, and it s important to have these, these issues resolved. I mean, parents have fought to, to write this. Cac has been, you know, the backbone of writing this, and I think. You know, I, I would agree with Director Latta that we need to look at the, the third version. And really work through that now and get it posted, get it to. Our staff immediately, not, not, not just before the next meeting, but I think again we owe this to our students, our families.
And to our educators who work with disabled students. I d like to call a question on this item. Except I had my opportunity to make a comment. Were here earlier. So Director Hutchinson, go ahead right now. Thank you very much. So, you know a lot of the things going on in this district really fall under kind of the same umbrellas. And um it s really indicative of the major problems that we have. This is really the wrong approach to making policy, in my opinion, and it s why we ve had so many problems. Uh, this is one of the issues, like many other issues, that
was supposed to be addressed under the three r s when we are supposed to look at restructuring, redesigning our schools and re-envisioning our footprint. And of course, within that, we would have been discussing our special education programs along with other programs. But this board has dismissed that. Now things have gotten much more difficult because now we re in financial crisis. So now everything that comes forward with a cost. It has a lot more impact, and people need to think about it a lot more. But again, it s indicative of the dysfunction going on with this board.
And so we have to remember this is the same board that last year ignored the advice of general counsel. On a number of issues, on a number of items, including their uh alternative budget solutions. Which general counsel advised against the cbo advised against, and they voted for it anyway. And so it s really interesting how at certain points, they claim, oh, we re being told we can t do this when that hasn t stopped them before. And again, as a unified school district. Until we are to the point where as a community we are sitting down and having a unified discussion that encompasses
everything. And move away from these random one-off ad hoc decisions were not going to get where we need to go. Because this resolution has implications in a lot of other areas. And so we have to be able to address this altogether. This should have been addressed if this is what the PRESIDENT Wanted. This should have been on the docket at the start of the school year. Then it could have been an undone in time before the options process, before there was any discussion for what changes might be happening next year. But to throw this in now in MAY, and now it was just brought forward at the last board meeting, they had to pull it
back because it wasn t a fiscal impact analysis. Now it s being brought forward again, and it s still not together. And it s really frustrating It creates this hope in the community that then goes unfulfilled. And again as a unified school district, we have to make unified decisions. We have to have unified policies. We have to address the financial crisis in order to be able to fund whatever we want to do. And we have to have real leadership in place with the superintendent and under the superintendent, otherwise nothing will be able to be moved forward. I m really disturbed with what I ve seen tonight already, and
I think this just falls into that pattern. It s really frustrating because again, we can t even discuss the issue that I know the community has been bringing forward over and over. And I hope people will start to realize some of the directors who have promised you these things, obviously haven t been able to deliver. That comment, um, let s go ahead and take a roll call on this item. On the motion on the, on the motion pending before the board, which is s.1. The student directors are absent Director Lauder No.
Director Williams Director Williams Director Hutchinson abstain All right, Director Williams. Director Thompson Abstain Director Barry No. Director Williams No. Vice PRESIDENT Bachelor? No. PRESIDENT Brohar. No Motion s not agreed to s2. Is there a motion to approve? Sorry, I pushed the wrong button, seeing no motion, we
will move on. Um, right now I m going to recess this meeting. We have an open the public hearing for the selpa plan. No recess the book. Ok, I m sorry. Uh, no recess. I ll turn off the, um, I m gonna open the public hearing for the sapa plan. I believe Jen Blake, Ray Wilson has that? In it Just a point of clarification before this starts. So when are we gonna go back to o or or not uh public comment on non-aggenda items, and the items that were skipped over. So are we going back to those
after s or cause I thought you said we were just doing s1 and then going back to the order. And there was no second on this too, so there was not, it was not dealt with, uh, we are going to, uh, the public hearing right now and then we ll go into opqt. And finishing up the agenda That was, that was not the adjustment that you read out at the start of the meeting. It was s and then or. Yes, it was You have already opened the public hearing. We need to proceed with the public hearing. And then you can address any future issue after this. To our superintendent, board, community. Thank you for having
us tonight. Um, it is the season for us to bring the special education local plan area, annual service and budget plan before you for approval. Uh, we also will share some updates about the district s special education program, some areas of growth, some areas for continued focus and improvement in the coming years. I m Jen Blake. I am the, uh, executive director for special education and health services. And I m Rayne Johnson. I m the selpa director in the special education department. Me. I thought it was down here. Apologies for that. Oh there we go. Ok. Uh, so our ask
of the board, um, is that you please approve, um, our 2627, uh, annual Service and budget plan so we can move it to county approval and eventually state approval. All right, I will try and make this quick because I think most of you know this. What is a sepa? A selpa is an administrative unit set up by the state of California to help distribute, um, special education funds and programming throughout the state of California. Oakland is large enough to be its own sepa, so there s only the dis uh, the only. District in the Selfa is Oakland Unified. And what that means is that our school board, you guys are also our self aboard leaders. We are here to talk about our local plan. Um, we go through a
3 year cycle for this plan. Uh, the first year is a bigger application in the following two years are just kind of recertifications. All we do during those last two years is submit our annual budget plan and our annual service plan. So that is what we re doing this year. Next year we will submit the full plan. Uh oh, so our timeline is usually we bring this to you in APRIL this year we re here in MAY. Usually in MAY, then we do have to turn it into the county Office of Education for approval, and then we submit it to the state of California. It must be in there before the end of JUNE for their approval as well. And starting with the annual
budget plan. This plan outlines a few different things. It identifies our special education resources. It also delineates how we re going to be spending those resources across the year. It explains the process for allocating our funds across LEAs in our situation, it is just Oakland Unified and it also sets forth the cost of our special education program. This is a quick overview of our resources. So we have approximately $48 million coming in. Um, the largest bulk of our funding comes in through our 602 grant, which is about $28 million. We are hoping for a slight increase in that
funding for next year, but this year it is about, um, $28 million. Our other revenue is several smaller grants that are usually very program specific. For example, um, an early childhood training program that is a very small grant and other funding from grants. This is our expenses for this year, so, um, about 56% of our expenses are for our salaries and our benefits for our staff, our 5,000s cover a lot of our other expenses, which includes our contracted staff as well as all of our professional services and work such as the system we use to hold our IEPs and other, other department necessities. Um, our staff this year has, um, our staff for next year is
gonna remain fairly stable. There s only a few additions, um, one teacher as well as a few different, um, related service providers and a small handful, 9 paraprofessionals. And then just looking at this slide, it delineates where their money is coming from. So we have a small percentage, only about 4% of our funding comes from federal funding. This is very similar to what we see in our neighboring sofas. They re at around 5% as well. And then we have state revenue of about 20% of our budget in our local contribution accounts for about 75% of that funding. We have a couple of quick highlights. We have low incidence funding. We serve students who are blind,
visually impaired, or who have orthopedic impairment, impairments, and so we have a little under a million dollars to, uh, provide specialized services for those students. We also are always very proud of our transition program. We have a grant that s about $360,000 and we have increased the number of students we are able to serve with this grant this year to include, um, a lot of middle school students and additional high school students. Um, our disability access funds are s un s et ting this year with the um end of the board resolution 20210159. Um, this program previously supported a lot of programs for our students with disabilities, such as, um, expanding learning, Saturday
inclusive play activities are yes sports program, um, some fun lunch programs, um, we will be, uh, continuing on with our staff who have been working on this program through our expanded learning program. So they will still be around helping out, doing some of this work. Our annual service plan, um, our annual service plan, we re required to fill it out. It basically just lists all the services that we provide in Oakland Unified. It identifies which schools they re available at and then provides the state, uh, state applied definition for those services. Um, this is a very tiny print of what it looks like when we
submit it to the state. At least each lists each campus on, um, in our district and says, for example, is there an early childhood program in that school and are those services are available. So we have services, um, our 200s are early childhood, our 300s, our, our academic programs and our 4 through 600s are our other related services. Right. Um, and so I ll be sharing a little bit of data about our enrollment in some of our areas of focus and initiatives as a department. Um, the first thing that is important, um, for us to touch on is our overall enrollment of students who receive special education services pursuant to an individualized education
program or iep. That number is continuing to climb. Um, the numbers that we have, um, submitted here, um, for the board presentation are a few weeks old, given the, um, deadlines to submit. We have continued to increase our number of eligible students as we approach the end of the school year and are now just under 7700 eligible students, that is 20% of the ousd population. Um, our, uh, enrollment trends are listed on this slide as well. Um, the areas that we are monitoring in terms of particular eligibility areas are autism, which continues to climb. It is our highest incidence disability across the
district and ohi, which is largely but not exclusively, uh, due to adhd, um, and that is another area where we are in disproportionality and our, uh, monitoring closely the annual increase in that particular eligibility area. In terms of, you know, services by incidence rate. One of the things that is um something that s important for us to understand as a district is that as the population of our students changes, the services we offer and the incidence rate for those services are also changing. Students with autism spectrum disorders and other types of communication, uh, related disorders also need
additional related services in order to complete their educational program. We re not able to just provide specialized academic instruction. We have to provide speech and language services, occupational therapy, behavioral support services, and so the numbers of students receiving each of those services is included on this slide. Speech and language being our fastest growing related service. Um, in terms of looking at some areas where we have student level impact. Um, we wanted to particularly highlight behavioral supports, which is an area where we ve had increased investment over the last two years, and we have some good, um, data in terms of impact, showing that once a
bcba or a board certified behavior analyst is supporting a student that is at high risk for suspension and who has an iep in the 90 days after they become involved in the case, we see a significant decrease in their risk of future suspension. We also have a number of professional learning investments. We are particularly happy that we have continued our 2nd year this year of, um, being able to focus on, uh, higher our training our newly hired support staff. We ve received very positive responses from those folks. We trained 105 support staff this year, um, through a series of 8 different monthly week-long sessions. Our new teachers are also reporting high satisfaction, um,
and, uh, the new teacher support and development survey, um, showed that the vast majority of teachers who are new in special ed, all but two had indicated their intent to return to ousd. These are some other areas where we have shown some growth, more students participating in summer internships, more young adults receiving paid employment through our pip with the regional Center, um, and, uh, more students that are participating in work-based learning activities embedded in their high schools, as well as an increase in a tog graduation rates. Uh, our rup quality investments, um, we ll just touch on briefly given that we know we re short on time, um, but we have seen an increase in teacher use of
the training and support that we are providing, 40% more folks came to our drop in hours this week or this year and our team is also audited every single iep or every single teacher s, um, IEPs at least once this year. Um, we will skip over those and kind of move into, um, some focal areas where we need to continue to improve as we wrap up the presentation. We are seeing increases in the number of past due IEPs and need to continue to focus on that. That is an Oakland-specific challenge. Our neighbors are not experiencing the same challenges. Um, we will continue to provide updates to the board about our comprehensive coordinated early intervening services as necessary, um, because we are
continuing to be in significant disproportionality, um, particularly due to discipline. And so, um, in conclusion, um, our ask of the board is that you please approve our annual budget and service plan, so we can submit it for county and state review, and we d be happy to take any questions or comment. Are there any public comments on this issue? MADAM PRESIDENT, we have two Carol Delton and and uh Relani. Um, I do see Carol Delton online. Um, we re going to give one minute each. We are in pretty tight on time right now. So one minute. D. Um, thank you so much. I wanted
to just quickly uh lift up some pieces of information that are perhaps implied, but not explicit in this plan that I think the board in its role as a self a board needs to recognize. So first of all if special students with IEPs are 20% of the students in ousd They also generate 20% of the ada, and many of them also generate supplemental and concentration funding. Um, and while, uh, we often lift up the contribution that is required for the extensive programming. We don t often lift up the contribution that these students make to the general fund. Um, Second, I wanted to lift up
the very broad and extensive list of services that the sepa plan, uh, reviews. I would like to note that none of the charter schools in our area provide this kind of differentiated support and these kinds of varied services. It s one of the reasons that ousd has such a large population of students with IEPs and especially uh of students with more extensive needs. Thank you. Thank you. Another speaker Um, all public speakers have been called. Are there any board comments
Uh, Director Hutchinson. Yes, thank you. Um, thank you for the presentation. Um it would be helpful for for me at least to have a a document someplace that has more of the year to year changes, and maybe even going back a couple of years. So it s just easier to identify trends and kind of which direction things might be moving, and I would also, uh request that their there could even be a narrative included in that, um, to help explain the reasons why some of those changes are happening, um, instead of just a one-off, it s just really hard to tell sometimes in isolation. Um, the,
the other question I had is on here it says uh almost $150 million for a local contribution? Could you explain more what, what actually is the local contribution, uh, the, the state and the federal I think is really clear, but, uh, is that a separate fund? Is that coming from the general fund? What kind of makes up or, or where, where do we find the local contribution. Sure, yeah, thank you for those, um, questions and comments. We do have more of a longitudinal look at, um, both the cost piece and, um, fte or full-time equivalents, um, that go into the program that we can share, um, and in the, uh, 2 by 2 deck, we also had a little bit of that, uh, historical
information, um, in terms of the question about the local contribution, some, uh, local municipalities have special education specific taxes or bond measures that go into local revenue in our district, um, in our area, we do not. And so, um, when we re talking about a local contribution, we re talking about the contribution from the district s general fund. Right And thank you and thank you for declaring that also publicly and, and this also just ties into some of my concerns about the the budget at large. And so, um, I m not gonna ask you the question directly. I just want to kind of put it out there. This is another one of the areas that I m really concerned
about, as we have a projected budget deficit for next year. And for these programs in particular, we, we have to provide these services. We are mandated by law. And how is this interplay going to happen if there still needs to be, um, reductions in spending and does that mean, uh, are we not going to be able to touch this pot at all? Does that mean there s gonna be a proportional thrown in some place, and again, I m not asking you directly, but I, I want to put this out because this is, to me, one of the through lines for tonight, as we re in real financial trouble, and we know we have
this uh $150 million contribution that we need to make for special education, how does that interplay work when we, um, according to the numbers I ve seen, we re looking at a $50 million deficit for next year, which could grow to 100 million if the oea contract is ratified. So, uh, like I ve been telling everyone, please uh please be prepared and organized, and I m gonna be, I m really curious, curious isn t the right word. It s late. But I, I want to know how these can can interplay with each other, and is this really a, a, a lockbox that we need to know as a district that we can t touch going forward because these are mandated services. Thank you.
Thank you Uh, MR. Rijkstra, do you have a question? Yeah. Um, the only question I have is a ok, uh, I ll ask it. You don t have to answer it. The question I have is around, and I m just thinking about the policy advocacy implications because uh, I m wondering, given the sepa advocacy that we heard about earlier today, what the pattern or trend is across the state and how Oakland is comparing to that and one question in particular, i m curious about is whether the proportion of the local
contribution, the state contribution is changing over time. Like, has it? The, has the state contributions shrink in proportion, um, in particular is a Yeah, um, it s actually really timely that you ask that question, Director Berry, because we just got some good information from the coalition for adequate Funding for Special Education, cafsi, um, and they re one of the sources that provides us with good fiscal information about what s happening across the region and the state. Over the last 10 years, districts have had an over 10% increase on average in the local contribution to special education. During that time, the federal contribution
has shrunk from about 11% of the overall state budgets, just 6. 6 % of the overall state budgets. And so even in lower cost of living areas or areas that are considered small and sparse, where there are fewer students with disabilities. We are still very closely aligned with the statewide averages in terms of the way our funding breaks down. Similarly, CAFi looked at, um, from 2004 to the present, so about a 20-year, um, period of time, um, how are trends in the overall breakdown of funding, um, and, uh, what s the rate of change year over year. And we re seeing that while the per pupil spending across the board in California for all students is increasing, and part of that was by design with the local control funding
formula. And after covid-19, those one-time investments, special education s graph is increasing at a faster rate, and so it s now showing a gap between the rate of increase of the general population and the rate of increase of students with IEPs. Thank you. I m gonna close the public hearing. And is there a motion to adopt the selpa plan? So moved I ll second it MR. Rakestra, can we have a, a roll call on the vote, please. On the motion to adopt the cell for uh plans, service, and, uh budget for next school year. Uh, the student directors are absent.
Director lotta Yes. Director Williams. Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson. Yes. Director Perry Yes. Director Thompson. Vice PRESIDENT Of bachelor Uh, PRESIDENT Rohart. Yes. Motions adopted. Thank you, Andy. With that, we re going to move on to a motion a motion to extend. Oh, yes, we have a motion to extend the motion to extend the meeting to 11:45. And we have a roll call on the vote, please. The motion to extend the meeting to 11:45, uh, student
directors are absent. Uh, director, uh, Barry. Yes Director Thompson. Yes. Director Hutchinson. No Director Williams. Yes, sir. Recolata. Yes. Uh, Vice PRESIDENT Baselor. Yes. PRESIDENT Brohart. Yes Meetings extended to 11:45. Next we re going to take items, uh, agenda items o and p together and wrote it out separately with the exception of uh items 0121, 122, and 123. Is there a motion to adopt 2. Uh, do we have public comment on this?
Either of these items? Uh, yes, for oh we have Carol Delton, Boykin Portilla, Portilla Boykin. Daniel Alvarado. Sada Olubala. And for p we have Sada Olubala We ll give each speaker one minute and it s, uh, MISS Asada, you can take 2 minutes, 1 on 0 and 1 on p. Go ahead please Hello, I m Daniel Alvarado. Good evening. Uh, PRESIDENT And members of the board, uh, again,
my name is Daniel Alvarado, and i serve as a student assignment counselor at the Student assignment Center under Kilian Bellac. I am also a proud ousd alum alumni. And uh and a graduate of Castlemont High School. I m here to speak on a position to board agenda item 26-1148 governing board adoption, uh, administrative law judge proposed decision classified layoff. I m asking you tonight to reject the proposed decision of the Office of Administrative Hearings and both knowing my individual layoff, uh, for the first time in 8 years, Oyo ouz enrollment has increased. This growth is the direct result of the work I do in the
student assignment Center. Uh, we are revenue generators for the district. Uh, every family we successfully enroll represents the vital ada funding our schools depend on. We aren t just administrative costs. I am on the, I am one of the frontline employees of the district s financial recovery, uh, uh, ok, um, just one thing, um, I m asking you tonight to reject the proposed decision of the Office Administrative hearings and both on this layoff. Uh, and I urge you to reverse the decision and maintain the, uh, my role, uh, which is really vital for, uh, revenue generating. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, just a point of clarification. Uh, the
speaker was speaking on item 0121, which is one of the items that I pulled from the consent report, so it ll be voted on separately after this. Thank you. Ok, I m gonna try to do this in one minute, 141 items. So I tried to prioritize the ones that I wish more detailed discussion would be held on them. Uh, there are 3 items that deal with the disposal of asbestos in different schools. Uh, you have an item that is in, that has to deal with improving the air quality at the central kitchen. You do have summer academic and enrichment services at 15 schools. Uh, I, I don t know if this is
adequate enough because that summer enrichment is very important You do have an important item on human trafficking prevention. You have an item that calls for the fbi background check. For volunteers at schools, and I continue to remind you, your volunteer, uh, background check is not sufficient. You have an item that principal, a principal will be able to identify and interrupt racism. That s important. You have a suspension and expulsion training. Very appreciative that you re doing that. That s important.
Uh, layoffs due to uh work uh, lack of funds, is that 121? I m gonna hold up on that one. I d like to come back and address it. Uh, district Protective appeal to the state. Is that your other item I m going to hold up on that one? And then lastly, uh, district, uh, salary schedule. Tentative agreement. I wish I could have better understanding of that one. Ok, going to um items on p uh p2 door entry system. That s very important that we have that kind of security and for the entire year at McClymon s we had no entry system because you moved the children to the
other side of the uh school where that system was not available. Uh, item p3 turf field at Cesar Chavez. Uh, you need additional geotechnical, uh, consulting services to deal with unforeseen sight conditions. And that s appropriate. You need to do the same thing at McClymon s and lastly, Oakland High Turffield replacing project, you re coming back to the and that s good. Do whatever you have to do related to turf fields, but when are you gonna do McClymon s field. I, I, I overspent my 32 minutes. Sorry about that. No, no, you re fine. You re fine. Thank
you. Carol Delton s online. I ll, I ll speak. Uh, one minute. Um, I will, uh, wait until item 0122. Thank you. Um ok Um, are there any board comments? Director Hutchinson Yes, thank you. Um, I, I could never have imagined when I stopped voting for consent reports in APRIL of 25 that over a year later, um, I d still have the same concerns. And so as we ve seen tonight, I don t think that most of the items on the consent report
have been thoroughly vetted, um, or have a thorough fiscal impact analysis. Um, I don t think there s really policies in place anymore, guiding most of these decisions, and when I ve tried to ask questions of the super in t end ent and senior staff, I ve received no answers. And so, for example, my list of 17 questions that I asked six weeks ago over, which was about some of the decisions going on. I ve still received no response. And so, um, again, I ll be abstaining from these and until I can feel secure that both the superintendent and the board president are asking, are acting in a way where they
re showing sound fiscal management and governance. I can t trust what s being put on the consent reports. Thank you. Thank you, uh, MR. Rakestra, can we? Um, what I should have asked this in advance, so I apologize for not including this in my questions, but I m just curious if we ve encumbered expenses why we have what? Uh why we have a gen consent. Report of 100+ items. Related to spending We have to approve and ratify the contracts. And these are all the end of the year is what we re talking about, yeah
Um MR. Rakestra, can we have a roll call on the vote, please? Yes. On the motion to adopt uh uh items on the on items on the p, which are the general consent report minus the items that were pulled off, and p, which is a general obligation facilities, bonds, uh, measures. Student directors are absent. Director Williams. Yes. Ok. Director uh Thompson. Director Hutchinson, abstain. Uh director Lauder. Yes. Uh.
Director, uh, Thompson. Yeah, you said yes ok Uh. Let s see, 12, 300 something. Director Williams, did you vote? Ok. And director vice PRESIDENT Bachelor. And PRESIDENT Rouhar. Yes. Ok, I get everybody? Ok, all right. It s, uh, Barry Oh Yes I m sorry, what did you say? Ok, all right. That s Lois, yes, I ve heard yet. Ok, the motions adopted. All right. The next item on the agenda that we will take up is item 0121. Which is the governing board adoption and Administrative Law Judge proposed decision classified layoffs 2026, 27. Is there a motion to approve?
So moved. I ll second it. And do we have public comment on this, um? Moved and Hard to hear back here There s no public comment is open to the public. Open to public members to speak ok. Can I, can I give my board comment first since I was the one who pulled it? Uh, sure, Thank you. So I pulled this item, um, which we saw MR. Alvarado speak on before. Um, I pulled this item so I could vote no. And I agree with much of MR. Alvarado s comments that he made here tonight.
This goes back to the layoff lists, the reduction in force lists that this board voted on. On FEBRUARY 22nd at that vote, I voted against those layoffs because they weren t costed out. We ve had no description of what savings they would achieve or from what funds. There was no policy backing it. And I even went so far as to introduce a resolution to try to bring some clarity. And so many of the jobs that we um voted on for that reduction in force are key jobs, at least they used to be. Uh attendance specialists, literacy coaches
teachers on special assignment providing key roles. A number of jobs and all of those jobs that weren t central jobs I only saw that layoff list 72 hours before the vote. So there was no board discussion We didn t weigh in at all. And I really wish more people would have taken the opportunity that MR. Alvarado did and would have really pressed the cases more. Because it might be true that we need to make reductions in our staffing and we couldn t afford all of the positions, but it s never acceptable to just do it in a random ad hoc way without discussion and without a policy backing it. And so I will be voting no on this, just like I voted no on
FEBRUARY 22nd on the original reduction in force. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any public comments on this item? Public comment is open to the public. Since this was known as a, a, a a, a a, a pre pre-poll it uh it s, it s open. I m gonna be very brief I think layoffs uh is a very heavy topic in terms of these are people s jobs. Uh, this is gonna have an impact on their livelihoods. To be able to take care of themselves and their families. And when you look at it from
the perspective that the item is put in is item 121 of 141 items. With no discussion We just laying off due to a lack of work or lack of funds. And maybe it might have been a little bit more appropriate to say this item needs to be explained in detail, so we can respect people understanding why we have to be in this arena doing this. And and it just doesn t seem the right way to do it. And I, I hope that at some point, whatever you do when you re talking about your
employees, the people who serve our children. We can do it in a better way than this way. Thank you. Are there any more speakers on this side? Uh, MR. Rasar, can we have a roll call on the vote, please? Yes, on the motion to adopt uh o.121. Uh, student directors are absent, Director lotta. Yes Director Williams. Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? No. Director Barry Yes Sorry, I didn t hear you Yes. Ok Director Thompson? Yes Director, vice as a bachelor. And PRESIDENT Berhar. Motions
adopted. The next time on the agenda is item 0122. Which is the District appeal, California Superintendent of Public Construction, acoe s APRIL 16th, 2026 designation of district as going concern. Director Hutchinson, would you like to speak to this? Oh, I have the motion, sorry. So moved 2nd Director Hutchinson. I actually pulled this item, yeah. And I pulled it because I think we should discuss it. And uh I think I would have appreciated, and I think this is my first concern that it would have been on the agenda anyway, and even the conversation we were just having around the layoffs is
like one of the reasons. Like we laid off hundreds of people. And so every decision related to our fiscal stabilization. I think we need to honor all the lives affected, the seriousness of the issue by seriously engaging with every decision, um, and this being one of them. So my own opinion about the appeal is I don t share sort of the um the notion that ACOEs uh interpretation of our status is undue alarm. Um, I think, and we ve heard it several times. You, you know, have mentioned it, uh, our own staff that there is a cause for concern, um, and two things can
be true, calls for concern, and we feel confident about what s happening, but I think when we re given an opportunity to level up by taking even more precaution, especially because of all the lives that have already been impacted, that we should take advantage of those. So that s one of the reasons why I wanted to discuss it. I m not necessarily saying I m committed to opposing, but I do not understand, um the rationale. Right now And then the one question that I have related to this is what we hope to accomplish, uh, in our relationship with acoa um by this appeal
Like what is the outcome? Is it just not having this documented or is there, what am I missing Director Berry, I m going to ask our chief counsel, um, Janine Lindsay to respond to the question and give you more detail. Thank you, Superintendent. Um, so I think your question, uh are important and you are trying to understand what um is the rationale. First, I just want to share that we have as was um explained earlier today, we have had a qualified status in previous interim reports. And we have had a lack of going
concern in 2017. Um, and I think that was MAY have been right before we ended up doing mid-year reductions. Um, we have had a qualified budget and we did at the request of the county provide our deputy superintendent at the request of the county, provided additional information. By APRIL 30th and um that additional information we believe materially alters and should be reviewed before issuing a logoing concern. So that s the reason why the appeal is uh agendaized here for your ratification. One thing that I want to flag is like inconsistency because I remember.
When 2nd interim was submitted. The oeata had already been, we, we explored that and already had made a decision regarding that, but it wasn t, um, that those actions took place after the 2nd interim deadline. So similarly, there s a point in time here being applied, but we re not. We re not applying that same approach in this instance. Well, it was at the request of the county. So what was it, what, what s the the county requested additional information by APRIL 30th. That was provided by APRIL 30th
I think one other question that, um, Doctor Berry MAY be asking is, was there a specific timeline in which we need to respond. To either to the entity around it, and is that potentially why it was sent before now? That wasn t her question. She s right, if I could just finish speaking. Um You can shrug me off all you want. It was out of order. So are we going to board comment in now? She is asking a clarifying question, so I m gonna that s not what she said. She said she was asking uh I m uh I m not wasting time uh I m uh I m not wasting time. I m not wasting time either. Um, so I believe, um, there was a potentially a timeline. For when we needed to respond with such a letter. Yes, the
law says 5 days. I believe she s asking the general counsel. We can move along and just ask the question. Yes, I do believe you were asking me. So the deadline that the county provided was APRIL 30th. To supplement the, the um second interim. And we provided a deadline 5 days. There was also a deadline, I believe, for a response. Around the growing concern that needed a response before this board meeting so that s why it s on the board agenda for us to adopt it. It s on the board s agenda for you to ratify it because we did already. We submitted to the state
Mhm. Uh, is there a public comment on this? Uh, excuse me, I d like my turn to speak then too, since we ve moved on to board comments just want to make sure you know people in the audience, if people would like I would like the opportunity to speak before that and if Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor is allowed to speak, then we re into board comment and we all have to you. So I am now going to let you speak. You have now used the bully pulpit to get this done. Thank you. So we have a lot of problems here. And um just very quickly, i want to bring everyone back to the last time we got a notice of going concern.
Which was late in 2021. And what we did as a board actually Shanta Gonzalez was board PRESIDENT At that time. We had an emergency special meeting. So the board could gather and the board voted to file an appeal. Then at the next board meeting, we all as a board discussed why we were filing that appeal. So I don t know why this wasn t on the board agenda at the last meeting. This is the first public acknowledgment that we even received a notice of going concern. And I don t know how anyone uh superintendent general counsel could file an appeal on MAY 4th
when the board didn t authorize it in the first place. You re not allowed to file an appeal unless the board votes for it. And the idea that this was to meet some deadline. No, we received a notice of going concern from the county on APRIL 16th. So we were already past the deadline anyway. So why was an appeal filed without first having a board vote. Then if you actually read the appeal to me it read kind of whiny. Oh, we couldn t do our required work for the county and submitted by the 30th and do an appeal at the same time. So now we re doing an appeal. That
s just not how it works There s a statutory deadline in the ed code. Of 5 days that you have to file an appeal. A board PRESIDENT Could have scheduled a special meeting and met that five-day requirement. Then authorized general counsel to file an appeal, but the superintendent and the general council do not have the authority to file an appeal without their first being a school board vote. And I find it really interesting when I hear Superintendent Sadler talk about how she s working closely with the county. This sure doesn
t look like it especially if you look at the tone of this. So I really want to know under what authority was an appeal filed without the board first voting. I want to know why we didn t, uh, file then that appeal within the five-day statutory requirement, and why we re doing it now. And lastly, what I really want to know is why is this buried in the consent report. All of those are very important things. If we don t follow the law, if we don t follow our own board bylaws, which require school board votes. Then I don t know what we re
doing So again, how was this filed without a board vote? Why did we wait until after the five-day deadline. And what is actually even happening now. So I would really like, uh, general counsel Lindsay, like I informed you, I would like a legal opinion on why you felt it was appropriate to file an appeal without a board vote and also ignore the five days statutory requirement. So I would like an answer and a ruling on that. Yes, I got it. I got it. Thank you for breaking that down, um, and repeating your, your questions. So, um, just so that we re clear, the applicable e code
does not explicitly require a pre-submission vote. And that is 421-27.9. And generally, and generally in California, a ratification of action taken on behalf of a board is, is valid. So um but our bylaws. I m not I m talking I m about I m e. Edco doesn t address where the vote comes from the answer. No, excuse me. You ve asked a question. Excuse me, so i m asking a clarifying question on the response that I m receiving. So, so the eel is here before the board as a ratification, and if the board opts to not move forward with the
ratification, the pill can be withdrawn or in fact, it is not even need to be withdrawn. It s void because you have acted today through this ratification. But it was submitted MAY 4th. So it s already been submitted without a board vote. Ok. Correct. And it s here before you for ratification. Is any public comment. Then we have to have public comment Is there any public process because I was able to explain why I put it, uh, I pulled it. And, uh, general counsel did respond to that, but I had a question that I do think is important because we re about to take a vote, which is like I m trying to understand what we
re hoping to accomplish here. I, I think I explained it earlier, I ll just repeat it one more time. I do believe that there was a request from the county, uh, for a submission, which our deputy superintendent did provide by APRIL 30th, we believe that that materially changes and should be reviewed as a part of this discussion. And so our appeal is either for the superintendent of public instruction to reverse the going concern or to remand back to the county to ask for reconsideration, considering the material information that was provided. And that s important because the interpretation of the going concern means what?
To us? I m, I m, I m not going into that piece on the dais because that would lead into some legal advice that should be um attorney client privilege. MR. Rakestraw, can we have a roll call on the vote, please. Is there a public comment? Um, yes, MADAM PRESIDENT, there is a Carol Delton has her hand raised for public comment. One minute Uh oh. Is she there? No Thank you. Yes, I am here. Um, I understand the procedural concerns, and I also very much
appreciate overall the superintendent s responses to the county, uh, and, uh, to the narrative that the county um has been promulgating and uh another narrative that takes into account uh ongoing changes and work on the ousd budget. I think everyone knows that there are statutory deadlines that do not favor a clear progress in the district budget and changing those would be hugely helpful, but it is important that, that, uh, the county acknowledge what the district is doing on the other hand, I would like to see much
more explicit explanation to the community with more explicit numbers with variance reports between numerical reporting, and with a tracker for each budget item. Thank you. Uh, MS. Berry, I want to thank you for pulling this item because when I read it, I did not understand. What it was intended and even what it meant. And having said that at some point the structure of how you consider contracts or vote on items cannot continue to be the way it is now. The city of Oakland has two
ways to deal with items consent and non-consent. Items that are considered of concern or controversy going on non-consent. To have everything, no matter what it is. All voted on, all at once. And at least what they do is the clerk reads the item. This process is not what I call the I m gonna be fair, the best way to do it. And I appreciate that I m gonna say this again When some of you take the time to pull the item to not for yourself, for us. A part of your responsibility
is that the community has to understand what is going on. It s not that you just take a vote We have to be able to understand that you are doing the job in the best interests of children. And the staff that you also support. Thank you, MR. Rasar, can we have a roll call on the vote, please? Yes, on the motion to ratify the appeal filed by staff with the, uh, California spi, uh, on the matter discussed. Uh, director, uh student directors are absence Director Lauder. Director Williams. Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson. No Director Berry
No. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor. Yes PRESIDENT Brohart motions adopted. Thank you. Uh, next item is item 123. Which I believe is uh director Hutchinson was one that you pulled. District salary schedules moved well, moved to adopt o. 123. 2nd. Thank you. Um, I pulled this because I have just again questions about the numbers that are listed in this document. So we received a set of numbers through the ab uh 1200 process, uh, that costed
out the seiu contract. And now there s different numbers in this document. So my question is, are these numbers in addition to what we thought the cost of the contract were are these separate? How do these numbers that um if I remember off the top of my head, were a little bit more than a million dollars each year. How does that relate to what was already uh approved in the seiu contract. So are these additional dollars that we didn t cost out the right way, or where are these numbers coming from? The two sets of numbers that you re you re referencing. It s gonna be difficult to answer that question, so I mean I can read off one set and the other sets. The other set s on there,
but you have been non-responsive to me. And so I can read off to what the old set of numbers were, and you can look in this, you can look in this item 0123 and see what numbers are there. So that the idea of you don t know cause you don t have the numbers, that s not good enough now. So or let everyone just go ahead and vote on it, and they don t know what these numbers even are. And it s just more millions out the door. Is there a public comment on this item? Carol Delton with her hand raised. Allowed to go first ok, so I, I did write down the
numbers and the total cost for uh prior to the proposed uh uh. Agreement you had a number, then for 25, 26, the new number is 6.3 million. But 2627 4.3 million. And for 2728, 1.1 million. And the only question I have is what s the source of funding? And if that, I didn t know anything about that they were different numbers, but those are the numbers and my question is, are these the correct numbers? That s in the agenda tonight. Or were the other numbers and we re seeing different numbers according to what he s saying,
MR. Hutchinson is saying. So, where is this money source of funding coming from is, is what I would be concerned about. And general counsel Lindsay, I just sent you a text with the numbers that came from the county, which showed year one was 9,917,000, year 2, 13 million,651,000 and year 3, 15,343,000. So that was the costing out of the contract like MISS Olibola just read off, these are very different numbers. So are these numbers in addition to what cost it out in the ab 1200? Or what are these numbers representing? What you re referencing, but if
you send that over to us and I just texted it to you and I m referencing the Alameda County Office of Education. Spreadsheet on the ab 1200 for the recently ratified seiu contract because I keep screenshots in my phone, just for these moments so I don t check my phone on the dais, um, so, but if you send those things over, it s really, I just read out the numbers. So how about this? Can somebody explain what numbers these are then in 0 123. What do these numbers represent? That s a simple question. Or if there s not an answer, that also proves my point. We ll send this to you. Um, are
there any other public comments? Uh, Carol Delton, I believe it s online, right? I ll allow them to one minute Um, I m, I m fine. I put my hand down. Thanks. Thanks. Uh, MR. Rakestra, can we have a roll call on the vote, please? Yes, on the motion to adopt, uh, o.123. Uh Director Lara Student board members are absent. Uh Director Williams. Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson No Director Barry Yes Richard Thompson abstain. Ok Director of Vice PRESIDENT Batchelor. Yes. And PRESIDENT Brohar. Yes.
I MISS Anybody ok, all right. Uh, it motions adopted. I m going to move item t1, the superintendent s contract next, and then we ll follow that with public comment. Is there a motion to adopt the superintendent s contract. So moved Second is there public comment One moment ok, we have for t1, Carol Delton, Jonathan Masutchen, Avi Ringer, and Matt Glaser. The people who are in person first and then we ll take Carol. If your name was called, please come on up.
One minute We have a timeline that we have to end it by 11:45. 1 minute, one minute. You re using your time right now. You use your one minute. I m not going to extend that time one minute and the reason we have a statutory time that we must end by 11:45. 1 minute. Thank you. Can you start the clock one minute? That s correct. Thank you. I would urge you to vote no on this contract extension. It saddens me to say so, but DR. Sadler is too compromised to stay in this job, frankly, for even one day longer. Unless I m misrepresenting something, please let me know if I am. i m gonna skip ahead here. Um through the fall, we held out hope that she was straight shooter. We know she was
working diligently with her senior staff to develop a plan for budget deficit reduction. But then the day came when she was to submit to the board the fruits of this effort on the night of DECEMBER 7th, the plan that became scenario 3. And she d worked with her most senior staff. Her chief business officer, chief academic Officer, chief of staff, pulling twelve-hour days all weekend to finalize this, but once it was submitted on Sunday in the dark of night, she switched it with another memo, developed with a whole different group. Ok And when the senior staff came to her and asked her about this. She said, no one inside the
district had helped her. Will that lie came out a couple days later when those inside the district acknowledged their involvement. Then the public caught wind of all this. When two senior staff quit and we began asking questions on two occasions I asked who had helped her prepare this report? Why had shen t gone against the recommendations of our most senior staff. Doctor Sadler sat up there on this dire stone faced answering nothing. Then came the second lie, this one in full view of the public. Thank you. Your time is up. Well, actually, earlier a speaker spoke for 40 seconds, without you stopping them. So I would hope that I would have at least that amount of time. Ok, so the second lie came in her
APRIL 28th letter to the county superintendent when she wrote in bold font, the district has operated with full transparency before its community and this sport after she had refused to acknowledge anything about that meeting, so that was a second lie. So if she ll lie to her senior staff, and she ll lie through the county superintendent, which you lie to principals, which you lie to teachers, parents, students. We have to believe she would. You see you see how untenable this is. You can t have someone who s lying as a superintendent. Particularly where you have Doctor Aguilera, perfectly capable. Next speaker please I mean come on, you re gonna speak for one minute. Next, bleaker please
Who is the next speaker I just want to tell a very short story that uh just happened tonight. Um there s a lot of people, uh, that want to demonize. Uh folks who have spent their entire lives in, and careers in public service. I ve had the opportunity of working with Doctor Sadler directly. And while there s plenty of room for critique on anybody who is doing a very, very difficult job under a difficult time. What I saw tonight was one of the members of the community shivering because these fans were on. And the only person that
noticed on the day the daiss. Was superintendent Sadler, and she asked somebody to go offer her a blanket. This is the person you re demonizing She s kind She s a kind person. And kindness is what we need more than anything So thank you I support you Thank you Next speaker, please David is going to speak on my behalf. Jonathan MAY s motion. Is that ok? No, we don t do that, so. But you can submit. Good evening. Uh, I m speaking on behalf of Doctor Delamore. I m speaking on behalf of the naacp Oakland. Branch Education Committee. I
want to address item t1 concerning the board s decision to end the search, uh, for a permanent superintendent and potentially extend Doctor Sadler s contract through 27 This is not personal towards Doctor Sadler. Uh, this is about governance, transparency, accountability, and rebuilding public trust in Oakland Unified. The community was originally promised an inclusive superintendent search process involving parents, educators, students, administrators, stakeholders instead, the public is now witnessing decisions that seem rushed lack community engagement and our inconsistent with the board s commitment previously made to this board. Additionally changing from
interim to superintendent while extending the contract through JUNE 27 is misleading the public. One-year extension does not significantly. Uh, signify permanent leadership stability. There s more that will, um, submit in writing. That s the naacp Oakland branch talking. So thank you. Are there any other public speakers? Carol Delson s hand raised. One Um, hello I was at several meetings back in DECEMBER. And I watched uh senior staff, the previous, uh, Chief Business Officer come to meetings without submitting
plans. I watched the superintendent of academics come to meetings without submitting plans. I m grateful that Doctor Sadler. Sought to put a plan together and work toward bringing the district into fiscal stability. That said, I hope the district will have a robust search next year, starting with community input for long-term superintendent after the end of 2027. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, their board comments on this. Director Hutchinson. Yes, thank you Um like I let everyone know at the
last board meeting. Uh, at the last board meeting, the board voted to suspend or pause the superintendent s search and extend Denis Sadler s contract for one more year. Now that vote happened the day after the superintendent using her district email, had sent out an advocacy plan to all the board directors a clear violation of the Brown Act. And then a few days after that, after I notified General Counsel Lindsay of that email, the email has disappeared from my list of received emails, but thankfully I learned a long time ago to always take screenshots and always save files. Now, you can t really pause the superintendent search that you
never really engaged in. And again, I went back and looked at the original contract with the search firm. That said, they were owed a $50,000 payment upon approval of that contract. And then somebody had to tell them afterwards to stop doing the search, and we still don t know who that was. Now there s been no board discussion over what the terms of the contract should be. So I don t know how we wound up with these terms, including a $10,000 raise because there was no board discussion nor board vote. Superintendent Sadler never had a work plan this year. And failed to deliver a fiscal
solvency plan by FEBRUARY 22nd, like she publicly promised. But I have another real concern as well. I want to know who negotiated this contract. With Superintendent Sadler as it would be illegal for General Counsel Lindsay to engage in those negotiations since she reports directly to Superintendent Sadler. And as far as I know, there hasn t been an outside firm hired to engage in those negotiations over the last 3 weeks. So how did we get this here? What happened to the email that I was sent? Cause I have the screenshots to prove it. Who negotiated this contract? Who
decided a $10,000 raise. And what s really going on here? Especially since the search firm that we hired now is the same firm that we re using to provide financial advice. Through MR. Fructos, who we saw here today. It sure doesn t pass the smell test, but I want to know, and I d like an opinion on who engaged in negotiations for this contract on behalf of the school board. And where is the school board authorization for the terms that we re going to be included. I want to address something here, and I think there s a lot of innuendo I kind of wanted, I
wanted, excuse me, Lindsay to provide a ruling on it because I want to know who negotiated this. So I m asking a direct question of general counsel. You can try to talk over me all you want and go to the next thing. But when we have potentially illegal activity. And collusion among the senior staff in the board in order to extend a contract that s valued just in compensation at $367,000. I think I have a right to have my questions answered. I m going to go elementary teaching on here. One mic, one voice, and I m gonna call on, on general counsel Lindsay right now. Thank you, PRESIDENT Brohart.
Um, so I just want, in terms of answering the question as to who negotiated the contract with the superintendent, the board did. And the board discussed this matter. Via government code 54957 in closed session at which time the board discussed and decided upon terms. Which the superintendent has accepted and now is the time when the board will vote on that in open session so that it s a final agreement. I hope there s a record of it There is There is. You were there. You were there. I was there. That s not discussed. It was just a
vote to extend it one year, so I was shocked to see that there was a $10,000 raise. Violate the brown neck any further. Billy, you d like to hear from, uh, Director Berry? Yes, uh, and I hate that I have to say, say. Explain my vote, but I think the energy in the room is just a little whack for lack of a better word, and I think we all need to do better because I don t, I don t even like the way I was treated tonight on the dais, um. Doctor Sadler, I ve told you this directly, and I talk about this publicly. And privately that I like what you contribute, and I like what you re bringing to
the table. Um, this contract might issue with it. Is that is the shift from interim superintendent to superintendent. Which I do think is something we have to take seriously because of what it communicates to the public and how I do think it undermines the commitment that we made this time last year about process. And so yes, the contract extension. And I would like us to consider bringing this contract back so that at the very least we re not in trying to engage community at 11:45 P.M. Around something that is it
s not just a contract extension if we re changing the title. Um, not in what it means and not you know, uh, and what it signals. And so I think to honor the process and our own commitment, due diligence is to reconsider that particular aspect. Of the contract Question MR. Rakesar, can we have a roll call on the vote? Not yet, MADAM PRESIDENT. Can you note for the record as required by the statute, the fringe benefit note that s under the item. It s to be verbally read into the record before a vote is taken. Uh, can I do it on your behalf? Can you delegate it to me? I ll
read it. It s to be noted, $13,800 in addition to the superintendent will receive the contract is approved $130,800 in additional pay. These are eligible stipends and $88,655.32 and projected district paid benefits, including health, vision, and, uh, dental insurance, long-term disability insurance, life insurance, membership and professional associations stras s stirs, State Teachers retirement, uh, system. Insurance, life insurance, membership and professional association. I, I, I read that. I m sorry, repeating. Uh, and, uh, workers compensation and Medicare. The foregoing disclosures made
pursuant to government code section 54953, uh, subsection d. a Thank you. Yeah Uh, candy, we have a roll call on the vote, please? Yes Studio directors are absent Uh, director Lauder. Director Williams. Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson. No. Director Berry. No. Uh, Director Thompson? Vice PRESIDENT Bachelor? Yes and PRESIDENT Brohar. Motions adopted. Uh, we now have, uh, public comment. We have, 03 minutes for public comment.
No agenda items On non agenda items comment Um, we have, uh, I believe it s 18 speakers, you just want me to read off the names? Uh, call the 1st 3 ok, uh, Cynthia Kaufman, uh m Shane and Michael The Watcher. Was that? Craig Gordon, Jack Nelson, Anna Rollini. David Bloom, Paulina uh last name starts with an s, Musa Tariq. Judy Greenspan Israel Barney, Asada Olugbala. Go ahead please Well, changing plan, that s all
I need, changing plans, uh, uh, nothing but good news. I went to tech on the 30th to Radium Girls, The True Story of women that died of, uh, radio, and I will tell you the two main actors, Sasha and, uh, Griffin. Uh, they re better than Tom Hanks right now. They re that good I mean, you should be proud of it. Uh, looking, moving ahead to today, I ran at Skyline, and they had the special ed basketball game was gonna occur in some special ed kids are on the track team doing real well, and I ran around and they ran by me, of course, because I m 1000 years old, but you know that
s the way it goes. Uh, next. Um I spoke to Valerie in the hallway, and tomorrow and Friday are the um, is the, uh, dance recital and MISS James s last concerts, MISS Jane, oh boy, give me 10 more seconds, MISS. James is, uh, outstanding educator and of course she s your teacher of the year. Uh ok, I m sorry, we need to adjourn and uh feel free to email us. I do respond, um, I m really sorry we got a packed agenda tonight. Ok, thank you