I'd like to welcome everyone to the January 26 school board meeting. Mister Raikstra, can we have a roll, roll call to establish quorum, please? On the roll call to establish quorum, student director Simmons, student director Smith, director Latta? Present. Director Williams? Present, sir. Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Present. Director Thompson? Vice President Bachelor? Here. President Brohard? Thank you. Here. Sorry. Quorum present. Thank you. If we can have the audience quiet, please, we're gonna do an interpretation check, please. Yes, madam president.
For tonight's meeting, we have three languages available for lab interpretation. They are Cantonese, Arabic, and Spanish. We also have a translation closed caption feature available on Zoom that you can use by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. With that, we will start with live interpretations. We will start with Cantonese. I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced, which at this time is Cantonese. And if you are in attendance and need a translation laptop,
you can see the you can see the tech underneath the basketball court to your left for a translation laptop. So I will ask miss Ho if she can come off the mute and give the interpretation announcement for Cantonese. The Cantonese announcement is done, mister Hollis. Thank you, miss Ho. Seeing that there is a hand raised on Zoom, we will start with Cantonese interpretation. So moving forward and I will turn on the interpretation, once the entire announcement is complete.
So moving forward to Arabic, I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language being announced, which at this time is Arabic. And I will ask mister Turek if he could come off of mute and give the interpretation announcement for Arabic. Thank you. Thank you, mister Turek. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there's any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Being no hands on Zoom, no hands in the room, we will not start with Arabic interpretation,
but we'll have Cantonese once the announcement is complete. So lowering all attendees' hands on Zoom. Onward to the next language, which is Spanish. I will lower all attendees' hands on Zoom. Please only raise your hand if you need the language that's being announced at this time, which is Spanish. And if you need a translation laptop, if you are in person, you can see the tech to your left underneath the basketball court for a translation laptop. I will ask miss Vargas if she can come up from you and give the interpretation announcement for Spanish. Of course.
Language interpretation language interpretation Spanish. Thank you. The Spanish announcement is done. Thank you, miss Vargas. Checking the attendees on Zoom to see if there's any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands on Zoom, no hands in the room currently, we will start with Cantonese interpretation at this time. And that concludes our interpretation announcement, and I will pass it back to you, Madam President. Thank you. Tonight on the agenda, we have two items. Item twenty five-three thousand and sixty five,
a method public schools downtown charter academy, charter material revision, change of enrollment preference and enrollment increase. The second item on the agenda is twenty five-three thousand and thirty two, Francophone Charter School of Oakland, Charter Material Revision, Change of Location and Enrollment Increase. I'm going to ask the audience tonight so that we can hear both of the presentations from both schools if we can hold our applause until the end. I know that a lot of you are going to be speaking, but if you could hold that applause until everyone is done.
But they're speaking so that we can also hear your presentations as well. Thank you. With that, we will open the hearing for A Method Public Schools, Downtown Charter Academy, Charter Material Revision, Change of Enrollment Preference, and Enrollment Increase. I understand there should be a presentation from A Method? And the presentation is fifteen minutes. Board of directors, superintendent Sadler, and staff, thank you for giving us an opportunity to present this material revision proposal for Downtown Charter Academy. My name is Adrienne Barnes, and I am the CEO of A Method Public Schools.
I've been in this role for over a year and started with A Method as COO eighteen months ago. Just to share a little bit about myself and my background, I come from a charter finance background, with seven years of experience in charter finance and operations, experience leading finance and operations in charter schools, and then another four years of experience as a fractional CFO with a back office provider for charter schools in Northern California. I was attracted to a method and have stayed here through the challenging times because
of our long history of impressive and outsized results for young people like me who have backgrounds like mine. We've sent over 80% of our students to college and four year colleges. And we have about the same persistence rate, which outpaces even schools in higher income areas. As a public school student who was born and raised in Oakland, I'm proud to lead this network of schools. We're here in front of you today because we've made the decision to consolidate our portfolio of schools. We're proposing the merger of Oakland Charter Academy and Downtown Charter Academy,
our two middle schools here in Oakland. This includes formally closing the charter for OCA and requesting this material revision for DCA. We're asking for a one year enrollment preference for OCA students applying to DCA and an increase in DCA's enrollment to ensure space for that increase in students. This request is just for the 2627 school year because DCA will be up for renewal again next year and will be submitting their renewal request this fall. The lottery preferences would be revised to give preference to the current OCA students and
increase enrollment by 95 accommodating those students. This merger addresses the challenges with declining student enrollment across middle schools and ensures that we have the economies of scale to provide a quality education to all of our students. Additionally, bringing OCA students to DCA will increase the student diversity at DCA and enable OCA students to benefit from an incredibly strong, stable, and high performing middle school at DCA. To share more about the strengths of the DCA program,
I'm honored to introduce miss Whitfield. Good evening. My name is Jill Whitfield, and I'm the proud principal of DCA. I joined DCA as a teacher in 2013 and taught primarily math and physical education. I became involved in school and district leadership as a math instructional coach, a dean of instruction, and I became principal of DCA last January. In my thirteen years at DCA, I've been very fortunate to work with and learn from educators dedicated to continual improvement for students. I'm deeply invested in the community that we've built here,
and I truly value our culture focused on growth and collaboration. The strength of this culture has resulted in remarkable team cohesion, high teacher retention, and most importantly, improved student outcomes. I'm incredibly honored to be the principal of this school and represent an amazing group of inspired educators, youth advocates, hardworking young people, and very invested families. Because of the hard work of our community and our unwavering dedication to our young people, DCA ranks in the top 10% of all middle schools in California, and scores 10 out of 10 on the Great Schools Index of School Quality.
The team at DCA relies heavily on data to drive our instruction, personalizing that instruction to the diverse needs of all of our students, and implementing a multi tiered system of supports to ensure see We used that data to focus our interventions. And you can see that, in 2024, we saw all blue scores. In 2025, we saw blue in ELA and math and suspension, but saw chronic absenteeism and ELPI drop. So, we've adjusted our priorities to ensure growth in those areas for this year. We use multiple forms of data to focus our resources and address any gaps.
And while we're always still a work in progress, we have been building and sustaining a focused and responsive and thoughtful program, instructional program, for the past thirteen years. While we may not be satisfied until we see all students performing at proficiency in ELA and math, we're proud to have made progress towards 73% proficiency in ELA and 72% in math. And quality and sustainability are not only about academic test scores. We're proud that we've been intentional about building out a robust MTSS system to support
all learners, and that we have strong ending reserves and a multiyear budget that projects ongoing financial sustainability. And we have a facility that we've worked to make safe, bright, warm, and inclusive. We would leverage all of these assets and resources to welcome our OCA families and students and to ensure their ongoing growth and success at DCA. Again, what attracted me to a method was our exceptional outcomes. And what has kept me here is my commitment to our students and staff and to correct the challenges they were facing with respect to financial oversight and governance.
Because of my background in charter finance, I saw the challenges with financial management systems and oversight as challenges that I could tackle and overcome. I'm proud to share that we've made extensive progress on the areas of concern named last year when I joined A Method. I lead a new finance team, which includes a consultant who is a seasoned former CFO from Summit Public Schools, a well regarded and successful multistate charter network who led an extensive forensic audit to clean up our past mistakes. We also have a back office provider with over fifteen years of experience supporting charter
schools with financial management. We've addressed the gaps in policies and systems. We've cleaned up our books and have greatly improved our financial reporting. We recently completed our twenty fourtwenty five audit in a timely manner with an unmodified opinion, no findings, and no material weaknesses, our first clean audit since 2021. We have a new chief of staff whose primary responsibility and goals are timely, accurate, and responsive reporting to our authorizers, auditors, board, and stakeholders. We are not done.
We're continuing to refine and improve. And we're coached by several seasoned advisors who've led highly successful charter CMOs, including Education for Change and Aspire Public Schools. Additionally, we've turned over 100% of our board since I last stood in front of some of you. And we've cleared the concern over governance issues. We've professionalized our board with members who have expertise and decades of experience in charter finance, CMO leadership, and school governance. As you can see, this board is a highly qualified group of individuals,
all who have either served on charter school boards or school district boards and or have led charter schools or charter management organizations. You'll meet some of them tonight through public comment. To ensure we don't repeat the challenges of the past, we're working with a governance coach and building systems to ensure that no matter who is on the board and who is in leadership, there are accountability structures that force monitoring and oversight. We've been thoughtful and intentional about this merger, conducting deep engagement with staff and leadership at both schools and partnering with PHEAA around
family engagement at the schools. We've identified teams who will oversee the operational details for both the OCA closure and the DCA expansion. And we'll continue to work with this team to ensure a smooth end to this year and start to next year. We share OUSD's vision and mission for Oakland's youth by supporting each other, connecting with community, and contributing to meaningful change in Oakland. This is important to every single one of us at AMPS. I believe DCA has demonstrated consistent excellence and that their commitment to serving our OCA
students is inspiring. I'm also proud that we at a method are consolidating our portfolio of schools to ensure high quality programming, both in service of our students and in service of the larger public school system we all serve. In summary, we ask the OUSD board to consider this material revision for DCA, a one year enrollment preference for OCA applicants and an enrollment increase of 95 students to accommodate this influx. We will formally close OCA, helping to right size the larger portfolio of schools in Oakland.
And we will leverage the exceptional instructional programming at DCA for our OCA students to ensure that those students have the option to go to a high performing school. We want to truly appreciate the office of charter schools for their ongoing partnership and guidance. And we thank you, the board, for your consideration for all that you do for Oakland's children. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, we'll take ten minutes of public comment. The 10 speakers are Dasha Pham, Ettura Tsou, Rame Vega,
Marge DeJourdio, Mara Germain, Davis Leon, Doctor. Ehlenberg, Kimi Ki, Minji Stebb and Stephanie Gonzalez. Those are 10 speakers. First speaker, please. Hello. Good evening. My name is Stephanie Gonzales, and I am in my fourth year teaching sixth grade science at Downtown Charter Academy. At DCA, our BRIC values, an acronym for bravery, respect, integrity, compassion, and kindness, guide our approach to student success. Our goal is for students to internalize and live them throughout their time at DCA and beyond.
DCA cultivates a growth mindset in our students. We teach them that mistakes are valuable learning opportunities. We provide comprehensive academic support, such as tutoring in ELA and math, an ELD specialist, and a SPED department serving students with IEPs and five zero fours. Students are provided extended learning opportunities, such as IXL to utilize at home. And I choose to remain at DCA because I truly believe in its mission and values. Our school develops both character and knowledge in our students, and I believe that DCA's supportive and collaborative environment creates a school where any student
can grow and thrive academically, emotionally, and socially. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Dasha Pham, and I'm a sixth grade student at DCA. The way that my school teaches the curriculum is understandable to me. They're always giving us more support and letting us come to their classes during lunch and after school. Also offering tutoring lessons. The school really shows that they care about their students. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Maya Germaine,
and I am currently a teacher at OCA and have been there since 2022, currently teaching sixth grade English. As teachers, we notice the good and the stress that impact our students. We see students who rely on consistency, relationships, and stability to succeed. Merging our site with another school within the organizations allows us to preserve what's working. A Method staff dedication, a rigorous education with excelling scores, and the trust we've built with our students. Students know they have a safe place at OCA, and that would be no different with the merger with Downtown Charter Academy.
A merger keeps students connected to educators who know them while still meeting organizational needs. I strongly urge you to consider merging because our students deserve continuity. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, school board members. My name is Renesme Vega. I am a student at Oakland Charter Academy. I'm here to talk about the DCA expansion. My mom chose DCA because she thinks it was the best option. She liked the learning experiences that they offer. I think I'm mostly excited about the opportunities I'll get and all the new people I can interact with. All my sisters went to OCA.
I think that's another reason why I'm going. I think OCA shutting down is very unfortunate. I feel like a lot of us have already made connections with other students, teachers, and admins. I know that I have made a lot of new friends that are not going to the same school as me. Although, the expansion could be an advantage. There will be more diversity, new people, and it keeps the OCA spirit going. I think I could get used to the campus fast. I'm willing to learn about different cultures and tell others about my own. Thank you for your time. I hope you'll consider the DCA expansion. Thank you. Next week. Hello. Good evening, board.
I'm pleased to be here in support of the material revision as submitted by the A Method team. My name is Margie DeGiorgio. I currently hold a seat on the A Method board of directors. I've served in the world of education for nearly thirty years in both traditional district and charter schools, site based program, independent study, classroom teacher, charter, cofounder, site administration, sat on a few boards. No secret, a method has had some challenges in the past, but when I learned that Adrienne Barnes had taken a seat as COO, I knew the organization would be headed in the right direction. She approaches her work with a meticulous eye,
unwavering integrity, and always, always, always puts students at the center of the decision making process. I took a seat on this board in May, and I can honestly say I'm proud to sit with this new cohort of board members. Their breadth and wealth of knowledge is outstanding, and we stand united in our commitment to holding the leadership stand united in our commitment to holding the leadership accountable so they can provide the best learning opportunities for students to the community. Respectfully ask that you approve the material revision. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, board members. My name is doctor Mengstav Gabor Xavier. I'm a father of a sixth grade at TCA.
My daughter initially was not interested to move to this school, but the school show us the school the classes. They gave us a private tour. My daughter interest was switched. Now she is so interested every time she come to the school. The next evening, I'm getting a lesson of every lesson she learns every day. This is a testimony. My daughter is so interested. The school brings a lot of enthusiasm to my daughter, and I want other families to enjoy whatever as a
whatever decision that I I have made here. I wanna see other family see that light. This is a very good school, and I hope to see other, OCA families enjoy the school as well. So I urge you to expand, yeah, to to allow the application to be approved for the school. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, school board members. My name is Yudhara, and I'm a seventh grade parent at Downtown Charter Academy. I first learned about DCEA through referrals from friends, and what immediately stood out to me was the high academy expectations the school holds
for its students. One thing I love about DCA is the attention to their students and making sure that each child is truly seen and supported. My daughter loves DCA because of the teachers and the supportive culture they've created. She's actually excited to go to school each day with good grades and perfect attendance can join the nine night events. She's super excited about joining the quarterly appreciation party. DCA has been transformative for our family, and I want to help ensure that OCA families can benefit from the same caring, rigorous educational environment.
That's why I'm committed to get getting involved in the expansion. I want to serve as a bridge between the schools and families, helping new parents navigate the transition and ensuring all students feel included and supported. Having been through transition ourselves, I understand how important it is for families to feel connected and informed. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, school board members. My name is doctor Ellenberg, and I am the principal at Oakland Charter Academy. I've been with AMPS for the past eight years acting as principal for six of
those years and one year as director of expanded learning. I'm excited for the expansion of DCA to continue the spirit of our flagship school. I think it's great that our families will be able to continue to be with AMPS. DCA is able to offer a long term, and stable program for our families at AMPS and has the space to be able to provide more activities for our students to continue growing and flourishing. I really wanna see my students benefit from the high performance and high quality that
DCA is able to offer. And I believe our students will excel and deserve the opportunity DCA has. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, OSU directors. My name is Davis Leon. To introduce myself, I'm an ex CPA that has worked at Deloitte. I run the downtown Oakland YMCA, and I run for profit companies ranging from land management to technology start ups. In my volunteer life, I've been actively involved in churches, the YMCA,
and I've served as board chair for Urban Monetary Charter School, and I've been on the board of director of AMPS for the past seven months. I've also take recently taken on the finance committee chair for AMPS. In that brief time, I've seen AMPS consistently approve its processes, specifically as it pertains to financial management. School management and the board have taken on hard questions and have endeavored to do the right things for the children of Oakland. Because of that, I urge the board to approve AMSA's petition to merge DCA and OCA and to expand DCA for the benefit of the children of Oakland.
Thank you. Good evening, Board of Directors. I'm Kimmy Keane, proud to be an OUSD alumnus with twenty six years serving in Oakland Public Education. Downtown Charter Academy has been a real beacon of light in our Oakland community. Strong teacher retention and ownership, a co teaching model, incredible systems of academic support, and a vibrant school community, including passionate parents, are some of what makes them one of Oakland's highest performing public schools. They've engaged their educators, parents, and built impressive support for a large amount of change. DCA has hosted open houses and field trips for OCA students to begin to build
a bridge to a unified schooled community. And we all know change is not easy, but it's often required when we're seeking to serve our students to the best of our ability. Expanding DCA, one of three high track charter schools in Oakland, and allowing OCA to merge has tremendous benefit for our students. In addition to stewarding the needed improvements in their organization's fiscal and governance, I salute the A Method team for thinking differently and creatively about how they sustainably serve Oakland students now and in the future. Operating two small middle schools is not optimal.
And as difficult as it is to consider, we need less schools in Oakland. I applaud them for thinking about their footprint and how they can best leverage resources and build on the tremendous strengths of DCA for more Oakland students. Thank you so much for your consideration. Thank you. At this time, are there any Board comments? Yes. I have a couple of questions, for, maybe the principal and, thank you, miss Barnes. Thank you. So nice to see you both. I know, when we when I came to tour, we talked a little bit about kind of what you were doing to help, merge the two, different communities.
I was curious, you called out in your presentation, some demographics differences, but I did notice that two groups that were missing were black students and also disabled students. What are the differences between, the demographics between OCA and DCA in those two groups? And then if you could also let me know about the specifically kind of how you're bridging. So, you know, we talked a little bit about the special education program at DCA. I'm wondering about the staffing and programming for the disabled students merging between those two
schools. Okay. What I can say on behalf of DCA is that this year, we have a eleven point nine percent black and African American demographic, and about eight percent of students with disabilities. Our current program, we have an education specialist, who provides push in and pull out services, and additionally, a paraprofessional who, supports with those, those services. And also additional things. I think miss Busby could speak more on that. Good evening, board of directors. My name is Mary Busby, and I'm the senior director of student services in special education. So currently at both sites,
the special ed model runs very similar. It's an inclusion model. They're about 8% at both of the school sites, so it would be a merger. It's a like, what Phil or what Phil said, is a a matter of push in and pull out support with a robust five zero four system and MTSS. And so the bridging is actually quite easy because the services are very similar. And do you have an ed specialist and a para, like, you know, one position each at, OCA as well? Correct. Okay. And then what is the per you you mentioned the the, percent of black and African American students at at,
DCA. But what is it at OCA? If you'll give me one moment, I can find that information for you. If not, we can provide it for you after in an email. Okay. Yeah. You can if you would send it to the board staff, then it can be added to the minutes. Absolutely. Alright. Thank you. All my questions. Director Williams? Please come back to me. Doctor. Berry? Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I just have a few questions. I first want to appreciate how thoughtful you're being about footprint. It's something that OUSD needs and is doing broadly.
But one thing that I have been sharing on this end, about how folks approach consolidations is that it should really be about your vision for education, and not just a budget adjustment or development solution. So I'm curious. My first question is how a merger serves your vision for education and for the students in the community that you intend to serve. And then my second question is, I think it's exciting that through a merger,
you would have a more diverse school and family population. But curious if you could be more explicit about the shifts in diversity and demographics that you anticipate, and then related to that, how you plan to staff that. Having a more diverse campus requires more resources, and it probably, would indicate a need for shifts in programs and services. So just thinking about how you plan to make some of those adjustments. So I believe the first question was, how are we approaching the shift in looking at serving both populations in terms of
DCA is our longest standing with our highest returning teachers in a well established program, which really is based on the intervention. They do six week cycles of this is actually you. Six week cycles of, inquiry where they're actually looking at data and students and pulling out small groups. And so when we look at our OCA campus where we see students that are tend to be struggling and are not necessarily getting that individual support with high staff turnover, it allows us to merge those programs to provide that service to students who really
need it. The second question, I think we'll have to get back to you all. One of the things that I can, add to that is that we've really prioritized adding additional staffing in terms of instructional assistance at DCA. And this has allowed us to provide additional, push in and pull out support in English and in math, for all students, regardless of disability status or, other support needs. And I think that that is an opportunity for us to continue to push in that area, to increase our instructional assistance, and to keep that on the forefront of what we're doing,
as we try to, as we try to, thoughtfully thoughtfully merge. Yeah. Sorry. Vice President Batchelor. Thank you for the presentation. One thing that I also was looking at within your petition is the, number of unhoused and foster students that are served by both school sites. Can you, tell us how many of those students, so unhoused students and foster students, that are served by both? Let me get back to you on that. Okay. Well, the numbers that I have are very low. So I guess, can you talk to me a little bit about what your plan is to attract
those vulnerable students? We actually added a preference. I'm sorry. I don't have it in front of me. But we added a preference for unhoused students and or increased it and added it in our, updated preferences in our petition to you. So in slide number four that you showed us, I think the preference for McKinney Vento students is number four or five, while other preferences are above that. Would you be willing to commit today to moving that preference to number one so that you can, start, supporting unhoused and foster youth students?
Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. The next question I have is, about, one of the things one of your teachers mentioned at OHS. So, what is your retention plan when you're merging two sites or two faculties, two staff? So what is the plan to merge those without having too much overhead? Mhmm. Well, the increase in enrollment in DCA will naturally open up additional positions at DCA. And what we did last year with the closure of another one of our schools was we made sure that every single one of our staff members that wanted to
stay with us had a position within the AMPS network. So if that's not DCA, then it's somewhere else in our network. We're committed to keeping all of our staff. Okay. Thank you. And then, the space that you all have, you all are thinking about, around about 30% increase of students. What have you done to ensure that the space is adequate enough to fit all of those students? There's actually a significant space in our building right now that we're not using at all and have never used. So we're going to take over that space and turn that into usable educational space
and then also expand some of our outdoor spaces. And then also expand some of our outdoor space as well. So, essentially, using our full facility. So it sounds like a lot of your plans predicate on the fact that you will be absorbing a a large percentage of students from OHA. What if that doesn't pan out? What is your plan b? It would be to accept the students that have registered or, applied and expand as allows with that amount of enrollment. Thank you. I did have some further questions about your special education. So,
and I know Mary and I have talked a lot about this. So I'm curious to know what things you offer for disabled students and how will those two programs from OCA and DCA merge, again, space wise as well? And then I guess my next question is what kinds of disabilities do you, serve at at both schools, and how will they be integrated in a merger? In terms of programming, like I said, we have an educational specialist, who provides push in and pull out supports, and also a paraprofessional who,
assists in, in providing services along with counseling, occupational therapy, speech, and all of the other services. Currently, we have all most of our students are on the mild moderate, and so majority of our students are SLD or OHI, which is really under, ADHD. And so the demographics or the disabilities are very similar at both school sites and have similar needs. And so merging the two allows us to add a broader program, actually, because DCA also has significant amount of instructional assistance that provide gen ed support in
the classroom. So they have a wealth. So it's not just the special ed para who's providing the support with small group instruction. They have a large group of tutors that provide that throughout the day. So I guess that was one question. I have two more questions on this. One, what you mentioned that you have one ed specialist at DCA? Correct. And one at OCA? Correct. So there'll be two? There would be two. Okay. Most of your students are mild, moderate? Correct. Okay. And then you also mentioned, and I think one of you, I don't remember who mentioned this before, in your presentation or your conversation here, that you have IAs that serve all students?
Correct. How are how do you ensure, I guess, that your disabled students receive that targeted, intervention well, it's not intervention, into you know, targeted support from the IAs, maybe that's my question. So the IAs are pushing into general education, pulling out small groups of students, while the paraprofessional provides that targeted instruction with the special ed students. Ed specialist will either be pushed in or pulled out in providing those direct specialized services, but there's support in the classroom throughout the day for everybody. Thank you. Those are all my questions. Director Williams, did you have questions? No. I'll pass.
With that, we close the public meeting or public hearing, sorry, on, the merger between OCA and DCA. And with that, can we have a roll call and vote, please? Well, that's right. Sorry about that. I mean, whoops, sorry. Is, the next item is 25 Dash three zero three two, which is Francophone Charter School of Oakland, charter material revision, change of location and enrollment increase, charter school's office. And I really wanna thank the A Method audience for clapping at the appropriate time so we could hear all of your presentations. So Francophone families, if we could do the same,
that way we can hear our families as well. Oh, it won't take about five minutes here to get everybody out. Sorry about that. Thank you. Okay. I'll see you. A method families, we'd like to start the Francophone hearing. You're more than welcome to stay, but we need it quiet so we can hear them. Appreciate it. Alright. The public hearing for Francophone Charter School of Oakland. Charter material revision, change of location, and enrollment increase is now open. And you have fifteen minutes for your presentation, and we'll have, ten minutes of public comment after that. Thank you.
Good evening, miss Breaux Hart, miss Berry, miss Latta, mister Thompson, miss Bachelor, and mister Williams. We are really grateful for the opportunity to present our petition to unify our school in one campus. We my name is Claudia Lee, and I am the executive director at Francophone. The click and the next one. One more. Thank you. We are extremely proud to be the only public school in the, Bay Area that offers free French immersion program for the families and the one of
the few in California and in the country. We are well established in the Fruitvale community. And we, since we opened the lower school in 2020 and are thrilled that the new campus is still in the same neighborhood, only, like, a few blocks down the road. Our mission is to provide dual immersion curriculum to a diverse community, And our goal is to develop bilingual and biliterate global citizens who are open minded and value intellect intellectual curiosity,
personal integrity, and creativity. Good evening, all bonsoir board members. My name is Dauda Tin, and I'm a, first grade teacher at Francophone. Our school serves French speaking immigrant families and staff from over 16 countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, and The Americas. We make a strong intentional effort to build a school community that reflects our city and our shared values of equity and inclusion. Over the past five years, the number of families qualifying for free and reduced meals has steadily increased. In response,
we actively visit Head Start programs, partner with neighborhood organizations, and participate in city events to ensure that all Auckland families know a free Friends immersion program is available to them. We are highly qualified teachers in our home countries and are working toward California credentials as well. We are grateful that Francophone sponsors credentials programs allowing our qualifications to be recognized in California. For many of our students, English is a second or third language,
yet Frankfurt students consistently score above most Oakland and California schools on SPAC assessment in mathematics and English, an impressive achievement given that they learn in France and take tests in English. With 70% of families not speaking France at home, we are proud to offer students the opportunity to learn a new language and we also provide online friends lessons for parents and staff. Merci. Thank you. Hi. My name is Angeline, and I'm in seventh grade. Our school has some of the highest performing black and African American students in the
city. We have small classes and work on a law of science, writing, and social studies project in small groups. The middle schoolers are trained in restorative justice and are the school ambassadors for bullying prevention and social skills. Our extracurricular activities include robotic, web design, and performing arts. We are also in the Oakland Athletic League with students from OUSD. In many ways, we feel a part of Oakland School District because Francophone prepares us for OUSD high schools. Many of us go to high school at Oakland Tech,
Casa Ma, or Skyline. Thank you. Hi. My name is Mimi, and I'm in sixth grade. In In a small school like ours, we get to work on special initiatives. This year, I started a lending library with two friends. We do all the organization and logistics by ourselves and open it four days a month. We collected 185 books for the library already. We call it books on wheels because we don't have enough space for a library on our current campus, so we put all the books on the cart. We're very excited about having a library space at the new campus next year. Thank you. Hi. My name is Brooklyn. I'm in fourth grade at the new campus. Little kids will be on one side of the street,
and older kids will be on the other. We are happy our parents can drop off and pick up kids in one place. Good evening. My name is Claire Hamard. I teach middle school French and science, and it's my second year at Francophone. Restorative justice practices, attendance incentives and family support have helped us make great progress in our school culture, as you can see on that slide. Additionally, for the first time this year,
we are offering an international exchange program and taking the students and middle schoolers to France where they're going to stay with French families and discover a middle school there. We hope it's going to help us, discover new opportunities for their future. So they're going there for twelve days in March. And next week, we're going to receive 28 French students at our school. Hopefully, with the new campus, we can, make sure that this program
keeps happening. Regarding the enrollments, the interest in our school is growing. About 25% of our students come from other school districts in the area and mainly from immigrant families in the Bay Area who want to offer their kids French as a second or third language. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kevin Pawn, and I'm a parent of a kindergartner and a member of the Facilities Committee. This location change was a deliberative community process aligned with our multiyear strategic vision.
One of our greatest strengths at Frankfort is the commitment of our community, and we are grateful for the collaborative effort from parents and staff members to make this unified move happen. Securing a long term facility will bring stability to our school. The board of directors established the facilities committee composed of parents, experts in finance and real estate. Together, we visited many sites and considered dozens of options, renting, buying, renovating or buying. We identified the Coolidge campus as an ideal place for one unified campus based on
budget, location, size, condition, and timeline. We are thrilled to move this summer with your approval and are excited to continue serving the Fruitvale community. Thank you. Hey. What's going on, everybody? I'm Big Al. What's up, Rachel? I appreciate you coming by earlier. Van Cedric, Therese, Valerie, Jennifer, appreciate you. Alright, so my name's Big Al and I'm on the board at Francophone Charter School of Oakland. I'm also the ad honor room CFO. So, we're happy to have found a campus that can facilitate our growth and expansion and everything that we have going on. Oh,
I forgot to mention. That baby girl, that's my baby girl, Brooklyn. I got a fourth grader and a first grader London right over here too. So, but yeah, we're happy to found a campus so that we don't have to drive to to different parts of the city to, drop off our students and because it provides so much more spaces for our, administrators and our teachers. It has a teacher's room. It'll have a bigger cafeteria. It'll have a place for the parents and so forth. Also, I wanted to mention that, we won't be using Prop 39 funding, which might be a good thing for everybody.
And, and that also it's gonna prepare for us to do more things for the children. So I've got two young ladies coming up, and then I'll say one last thing. Hi. My name is Zoya. I'm a second grade. We will be happy to have a school with space for a side slab, a nice cafeteria, and a library. Hi. My name is Margaret, and I'm in second grade. We are happy to be be learning French at francophone. We are like a big family of francophone. Many parents work with the school to make it better. Yeah. Thanks. So we stress tested the financials with,
the finance committee, outside finance coordinator, and myself. I didn't know if I mentioned this, but I'm a business owner here, a local business owner. We run a tax and business advisory firm in downtown. So, we looked over all the models, and we made a very conservative financial projection over the next seven years for with a maximum of maximum of 420 students at just a 94% ADA. This year, I think we've already gotten, like, 95 or higher. So, we wanted to be conservative with our approach just to make sure that the numbers
worked out. And, we hope that this new facility will help us retain students for the middle school, but we do not anticipate a huge increase in enrollment in the near future. However, this location will accommodate us if we eventually grow to the authorized enrollment numbers. So thanks for your support. Cheers. Thank you. We now have ten minutes for public speaking. How many speakers do we have? Alright. We have eight speakers. K. Let's give them one minute each, please. Okay. Eight registered speakers are Noah Johnson, Nipher KilaKila, Christina Kim,
Nee Chan Yin, Meredith Ann Baldwin, Mindy Glenn, Joycelyn Mitchessen, and Stephanie Loetha. Those are the eight registered speakers. Hi. My name is Noah Johnson, and, I'm the PTA president, actually. I got involved because I really believe in the school. I think it's an incredible opportunity for kids. My daughter goes to school with a group of kids that are so much more ethnically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse than where I went to school growing up in, Silicon Valley. It's more diverse, I think, than Montclair Elementary, which is the school down the street from us. I just can't believe the kind of people that she's meeting and the things that
she's learning, not just from the teachers who do a great job and the administrators who do this great planning, but just from the other kids in her class and just being exposed to a different way of life. So I just think that this new campus will help the school survive and thrive moving forward, and I hope that you guys will accept our proposal because I really wanna see this school continue to provide more opportunities to kids like my daughter and to all the other kids who go to our school. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, board members. Wait a second. No. They're I'm sorry.
Good evening, board members. I'm Nifra Kila Kila, and I am a parent of a kindergartner and a second grader who spoke today. I'm really excited about the possibility of being on a new campus because right now, our children take their recess, 200 feet from the 58080 Freeway, and our children spend the recess on oil stained asphalt, to the constant soundtrack of the freeway about them. We can't put out a garden box for science lessons due to leasing restrictions
at our current place. And it isn't a this isn't just a space issue. It's a quality of life issue. The proposed campus changes everything. It offers greenery filled environment where our entire school can finally be together. It's a four minute walk from the historic Peralta Hacienda Park and, giving our kids the chance to trade freeway noise for birdsong and asphalt for grass. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Christina Kim.
I live in Oakland, and I have twin girls in first grade at Francophone. No one in my family speaks French. We have no French background, but we have found a home and a community, and we love the school. My kids are receiving the highest level of education, which is evident in the data. But what I really love about the school is the community that is, as you've heard, is so diverse, is so inclusive. And the core values that we promote in our kids is to to be filled with joy, to appreciate diversity, to learn from each other, to be humble, to be curious,
to be creative, and to grow up to be global citizens who will go out and make a difference, and being proud of who they are and appreciating the differences that other people bring. We it's an incredibly diverse, rich, loving community. And I hope that my kids in the new campus and my kids as well as all the other kids run around, have trees, have birds, have a playground, have a garden, and, yes. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Stephanie Lowenthal Savvy. I am an educator. I also taught in OUSD for a few years.
So I am speaking with you today, from the perspective of an educator and a parent at this school. I deliberately chose this school for my child because of the instruction. It's incredible. The instructional staff is so talented that I feel, lucky that students in Oakland get to have access to their instruction. And the beyond that, my family is French, and so the ability to provide my child with the skills necessary to be able to communicate with her family in another language is truly a gift that wouldn't be
possible for my family if it weren't for this school. In terms of the unified campus, I'm I can, attest to the fact that I was part of the team crunching the numbers. We can afford it in the short term and the long term, and it'll help us grow so that our kids can thrive and ultimately grow, to great heights. Thanks so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name my name is Meredith Ann. I'm the school counselor. I just started this year, and, I've really been loving it there. It is a really special place. The community is so supportive.
I I watch so I go to both campuses because I work with all of the students. And so I I get the chance to see all of the teachers in different capacities, and what I see are really dedicated educators. And the thing I also love is that we we get together every month and have meetings to discuss the students and their needs and how we can better support them. And it's a very collaborative environment with a lot of caring adults that show up
and support each other. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi there. My name is Minda Glenn, and I'm a staff member, director of student support. I wanna share with you something that I love about Francophone. You've heard a little bit about it. It's that there's this incredible international diversity in the families and in the teachers that combines with the neighborhood kids coming, and it's really lovely to watch how they collaborate and grow, learn from one another, and change by being part of this community.
I feel really lucky to be part of it. It's really fun to walk into a little kindergarten class the beginning of the year and hear them struggling with French. And then a couple of months later, they've knocked my Duolingo out of the water. They, are pretty fantastic. Selfishly, one reason that a move to a new campus would be great is because I wouldn't have to take meetings in my car because space is really limited where we are. And I see families struggling not struggling I mean, struggling to drop off kids at two campuses, pick up from two campuses. It'd be great to see them not have to deal with that.
Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, board members. Thank you for your time tonight. My name is Jocelyn Michaelson, and I'm a proud Oakland District 6 resident and parent of two students at Francophone. I wanted to take a moment to speak to the amazing resource that is Francophone and to the benefit that the move to a single campus will bring. The diversity, academic rigor and strong sense of community are what brought my family to Francophone. We found a thriving school where my children are flourishing and enjoying an educational and cultural richness that we couldn't find anywhere else. The move from two campuses to a single campus will allow even more Oaklanders to
enroll and experience this unique school and its community. I respectfully urge you to vote to approve the petition to locate at one facility. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening. My name is Nisha Najarian, and I'm a parent of a student at Francophone Charter School. I'm here to strongly support the school's proposed move. As a parent I care about two things: stability and quality education. The francophone charter school has consistently delivered both. My child is thriving academically, socially and culturally.
This is not just a good school. It's an exceptional one of one that fills a real need in Auckland. The proposed move is not about expansion for expansion's sake. It is about securing a facility that actually fits the school's needs and allows and allows it to operate safely, efficiently and sustainably. The current space limits programs and basic functionality. The new site solves those problems. Approving this move gives Oakland children continued access to high quality multilingual culturally rich public
education that aligns perfectly with the district's mission. Please support this request. It's good for families, good for students and good for Oakland. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any speakers on that? No pressure. That concludes public speaker. That concludes public speaking. Are there any board comments? Director Latta? Yes. Thank you for your, presentation, and thank thank you for hosting me, at the, upper campus today. I have, two main questions, I think and and maybe one comment. So my first, I'll just leave with the comment, which is that, I noticed in your presentation and when we spoke that you've made an effort to
increase your enrollment of students from socially, or from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and I think you attributed that partially to the work you've done outreaching at Head Start. So, I think I would encourage you to to continue that, and I think I see that as part of your enrollment. My two questions are, one, your petition includes that you haven't had any suspensions or expulsions in the last two years, and I'd love to hear more about how you've, done that. And then my second question is about your percentage of students, with IEPs or five zero fours and what your staffing model is to support those students and how,
you know, in a in a French immersion setting, how you're able to support those students, with language acquisition. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks so much for the for your visit. Really appreciate your commitment. I was really moved to see you coming to the school on holding the coaches, and and it's really amazing. I really truly appreciate that and so all of us. The first question is the suspension rate is 0%. We have we have trained all the teachers, all the staff, and all the middle school students into restorative justice practices.
So they are they call themselves ambassadors of, how do you call yourselves, Mimi? Ambassadors of what? Just Just restorative justice ambassadors. And they are state school ambassadors. And they are the students who help us reduce the bullying. They are trained to talk to students and to recognize when it's happening. So I think it is supporting. And also, we have incentives. We have the PBIS program that is probably all of you are probably familiar with. But in addition,
we have a school store. And we have the school has six values, and we award prizes to students that demonstrate those values. The values are excellence, belonging, respect, joie de vivre, and integrity. And so that is with suspensions with students with IEPs. We are yes, we recognize that our numbers of students with IEPs have historically been lower than the neighborhood schools. We have this year, we have 13.6%,
last year, 14.1%. We think that the contributing factors for this are that some parents decide to opt out of a transformation program for obvious reasons. They don't want perhaps to add yet another layer of challenge to the kids who are already challenged with some disabilities. So some parents don't. However, we always encourage them to come. And we for example, if they are applying for higher grades,
we made all the accommodations possible so that the kids can take the test and pass the test. It it is important to us. So we don't discourage anyone for applying to our school. Then we also have a very strong student support team, and we catch many kids in the tier two and support them. So we catch them before they are referred for an IEP. We also have kids exiting IEPs, which people sometimes think that an IEP is for life. Actually, the goal is that they walk out of the IP,
that they don't receive the services anymore, and, that happens often in our school. You said, but we I think that one of the biggest priorities we have is to serve the most vulnerable students. Our department is really, robust. We have five full time staff members serving our students. We have the director of special education. We have another special education teacher. We have also a full time speech pathologist, and we have two staff members that work under their supervision.
And two of them are here, one, a full time counselor. So we feel really equipped, and we welcome we are prepared and welcome, all the students. Great. Thank you very much. Also, yeah, we we do okay. Director Williams? Thank you very much for the report. Just want to know what was your selection process in bringing students to the school when you admit students? What is your selection process? Oh, it's it's the lottery. Oakland enrolls, parents go, and we have the priorities. One of the priorities are students in the neighborhood in the Fruitvale area,
and, also, siblings is a priority, and siblings and the children of, founders. And I think that's about it. Those are our priorities. It's a public lower lottery, and we have lots of tours, and we visit. We purposely visit some, head start and day cares, because we want to increase the number of families that qualify for free and reduced meals. Thank you. Yeah. I just want to see if you were also expanding around the community
to bring student to diversify the school. Absolutely, yes. We make efforts to do that. And we also participate, for example, in the International Francophone Countries Association, and they referred us as students as well. There are many immigrant families from African countries that come, and they would like to keep the education for the kids, and they refer students to us. But everyone enters the lottery. They enroll in the Oakland enrolls and enter a public lottery. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. Doctor. Berry? Yes. Thank you to all the speakers. I really appreciate the presentation. I think, and I shared this with you all before, that this is more straightforward to me than a lot of the material revisions because no significant change to program or vision or anything like that. I do have one small question about something small, and I'm not sure if it's a discrepancy. But in one place in the materials, it spoke to a 15% increase enrollment over two years,
and in another place, it said 25% over two years. I'm just wondering if it's 15 or 25 because of the implications. Thank you. We made the projection to, for the next seven years to grow up to four twenty, students. We are authorized for five twenty, students, but the projection is for four twenty. We all know that enrollment is a challenge in Oakland. And it's, it is not for us in in a way that we have many parents that want to enter the lower grades.
But I think we are expecting to grow maybe four twenty, and we're preparing we grow to all just four twenty. Next year, we will have about four zero five students in the projection, and the following year will be for 20. And then that's about it. I don't think we want to have our feet on the ground and know that you know, enrollment is an issue, but it's not a big expansion for our school. I think it's moderate. As you saw perhaps in the presentation, we have grown in enrollment slowly but steadily.
We do have parents in the waiting list for TK a lot, and we refer them to other schools. Yeah. Thank you. Vice President Bednar. Thank you. And I appreciate you putting together a facilities committee to really be thinking through this. And I know the chair is here tonight, so I appreciate that. As someone who chairs the facilities committee, I know how difficult it is to make some of those decisions. I guess to piggyback on director Berry's, converse or, question, so the affordability of the new location, it's based on the assumption that you all will get to the four twenty enrollment
for the following school year. Is that correct? Right. Okay. Yes. For the seven this next seven years. The next seven years. Yes. Yes. And we are already this year at $3.70. $3.70. Okay. How much do you rely on, enrollment with immigrant families? I think we're just a city school. There's many we they are drawn to us because of the language. Mhmm. So I think we don't rely. We just have, like, partnerships with some of the day cares and head stars, and we reach out to all the community.
I will say, I don't have a number like a percentage of how many immigrant parents, but many are, but not necessarily from French or Francophone backgrounds, from all the different backgrounds. Thank you. And I guess my next questions are around vulnerable students. As you mentioned, but, I don't see that you're serving unhoused students and foster youth as much as, us as a district are in other schools. Can you talk a little bit about your plan to specifically try to target and enroll some of those students knowing how difficult it can be?
But I know that you all wanna serve as vulnerable populations. Yeah. Absolutely. We we do I I think the effort that we're making now in visiting several Head Start programs, is that reaching out to these families. And we just work with some organizations. We are moving to our landlord. They have it's an evangelical church, and they work with some communities. And they are, you know, passing the, the word that we exist. We also go to events. We make sure we are present in all events in Oakland, like,
I forgot the names of the events, but we are we always have a table. We go with families in action. We join that table and sometimes we have our own table. We are planning to go and I don't ask me about the event, but two events this month, this weekend actually. Yeah. Great. Thank you. And I know that you all are up for renewal as well in two years Yes. I'm guessing. Yeah. In two years. Again, I'm gonna be really looking at those numbers of vulnerable populations because, again, we have to be able to serve all students here in Oakland. Thank you so much. Thank you. I have a couple of similar questions.
I wanted to know what your percentage of students were with, IEPs. They are this year, 13.6. 7.613. One three. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. A couple of things that you said tonight that made me think. I'm wondering in a dual immersion school, I mean, I taught in a dual immersion, how are your students served, your disabled students who are have come to not English speaking? I I don't know if you have any, you know, French speaking students who come, but with your students who are, multilingual, how are the students served in their home language,
or are they served in English? They we have one of the, special education teachers is from Haiti. Okay. The other teachers speak English, depends on what the kids need. Okay. So you would offer both for Yes. Your Haitian students. Okay. And then my last question, there is a process for leaving when a student who a student has an IUP, there's a monitoring time. Do you offer that as well? Or how what is your process for students who no longer qualify for services?
The director of special education is here. We'll keep them, you know, for a year for monitoring to make sure that we're you know, that they're thriving. Usually before we get to that point, we've put a lot of steps into place to help them grow in independence, autonomy, you know, how to self advocate. So it's not sort of like, okay, off you go. But yes, absolutely. And it, you know, it's never too late to come back if needed. Thank you. I have one last question. You probably are the person to answer as well. What types of disabilities do do you serve at your school, and what what does your staffing look like?
Yeah. So we, have a pretty broad range of mild, moderate. We have tell you a few specific numbers. We have 19 students who received specialized academic instruction, 19 students who received speech and language. Of course, there's some doubling up, so it's going to seem like big numbers. Nine students receive occupational therapy. Six receive educationally related mental health services. One with behavior intervention support. One with specialized vision instruction, and one with orientation and mobility. Those numbers are actually a little higher because we've just found a couple of students
eligible. So, the IRMS and behavior intervention and a couple others have gone up. But anyways, our services, we have a really fantastic team, that works really collaboratively together at both sites. So we have on staff, I think you mentioned already, a special education teacher and two paras who work, sort of under her supervision, also providing behavior intervention and specialized support in the classroom. We have our fantastic school counselor and a speech therapist that we're lucky enough to have on staff. We contract out for an occupational therapist for the psychologist who does cognitive evals and
is really involved with our school and knows our families. And, oh, right, and specialized in structure for visual impairment, orientation and mobility, and then FBA's functional behavior assessments when we need them. We have to contract out for that as well. And which cell phone do you belong to? El Dorado. El Dorado, okay. Thank you. I think there are no more questions. With that, the public hearing is closed. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. And we are adjourned.