Welcome to the January 14, regular Board Meeting of Board of Education. Mr. Seichau, can we have a roll call to establish Quorum? Yes. On the roll call to establish a quorum, student director Simmons, student director Smith, director Latta Present. Director Williams, Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Director Thompson? Present. Vice president Bachelor? Here. And president Brujahart? Here. Colonel present. Thank you. On the, cover page of property management. Mr. Hollis, can we or Mr. Stachak,
can we have an interpretation check, please? Yes. Moving to interpretation announcement. 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. Yes. Great. Thank you. Checking to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with Arabic interpretation. We'll next go to Cantonese. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Cantonese interpretation. Miss Ho, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Cantonese,
please. Great. Thank you, miss Ho. Check attendees to see if any hands are raised for Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with Cantonese interpretation. We'll next go to Spanish. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Miss, walk miss Walker Marquez, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Yes. Of course. The Spanish announcement is done. Great. Thank you, missus Walker Marquez. Checking attendees if any hands are raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we'll now start with any language interpretation,
and we'll check again later during the meeting. At this time, I turn it back to you, President Breaux Hart. Thank you. Tonight in closed session, we will discuss the following items: c one I'm sorry. D one, conference with labor negotiators, twenty five-eighteen sixty four. D2, 20 three-seventeen-44A, conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. D three, twenty five-seven ninety one, conference with legal counsel existing litigation. Under public employment, D four, 20 four-nineteen 67, Public Employment Superintendent of Schools.
Public Employee Discipline Dismissal Release, D5 twenty four-two thousand five hundred and fifty eight, Public Employee Discipline Dismissal or Release. Under D6, twenty four-two thousand nine hundred and twenty seven, Readmissions, Student J. D7, twenty five-four 15, Readmissions, Student N. D8 20 six-six, expulsion student II. D9 20 six-seven, expulsion student JJ. D10, 20 six-eight, admission, student KK. D11, 20 six-twenty seven, Expulsion Student,
LL. Under Real Property Matters, item D12, 20 five-three 67, Conference with Real Property Negotiators. D13 20 five-three 68, Conference with Real Property Negotiators. And we will reconvene at 6PM tonight. Is there public comment on closed session items? Yes, Madam President. We have one, Asana Olagbala. How much time would you like to allot for public comment? Two minutes. The property that is East Bay Innovation Academy is 3400 Malcolm Academy,
Malcolm Avenue, not 3500. The property that is identified is, 2035 40th Street. I don't know if you're referencing the early childhood center, Jefferson School. That's at 1975 40th Street. Going back to the expulsions, a part of the agenda, I continue to, ask this body to have a more transparent and open explanation of how we go through this process of after we expel students, how do they continue their education?
I looked into the Alameda County's, programs that they offer, and they either place students in Quest Academy in that seventh through twelfth grade. Opportunity Academy is for, parents, students who have children. I'm sorry. That's Berk Burkey. Opportunity Academy is for, students who have some workforce training. So I'm assuming that all of the students, are in seventh through twelfth grade. But if it happens that if a student is below seventh grade, what happens to them? I'm also concerned about the language of readmission.
And then for d 10, we have admission and some explanation of what does that is there a difference or that's that's just the way you wrote it. Lastly, I'm a go through this again. The the student, assignment center identifies that you are going through a process with Expel students that including that includes healing skills, behavior health services, counseling available, individualized of support, helping students with skill building, intervention strategies for students, and support for trauma with our expelled students.
I don't know if this is going on. And if it is, that's great. But I'm almost sure that we are falling behind and not actually working at our best in helping these expelled students. And you have an obligation to give them a give them the best opportunity to be back in the classroom and and be at their best, behavior and academically. And I don't believe that is happening. Thank you. Are there any online speakers? There are no further, no further public commenters for this item,
Chair. And with that, we will, convene to closed session and reconvene at 6PM. Welcome to the January 14, regular, school board meeting. Mr. Raichstra, can we have roll call to establish quorum, please? On the roll call to establish quorum, student director Simmons, student director Smith? Here. Director Latta? Present. Director Williams? Director Williams? Director Hutchinson? Director Hutchinson? Director Berry? Present. Director Thompson? Present. Vice president, bachelor? Here. President Brothard? Here. Form present. Thank you. Mister Satchout,
can we have an interpretation check, please? Yes. Moving to our second interpretation announcement for tonight's meeting, we have three languages for live interpretation. They are Arabic, Spanish and Cantonese. For in person, we have laptops, laptop in towards your left side of the room. There is 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 will lower Artillery's hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Mr. Turek,
if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Thank you. Arabic language interpretation Arabic Great. Thank you, mister Turek. Checking attendees to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Arabic interpretation. We'll next go to Cantonese. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Cantonese interpretation. Mr. Yuan, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Cantonese, please. Great. Thank you, mister Yuan. Chicken tenders, if any hands are raised for our Cantonese interpretation.
Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Cantonese interpretation. We will next call to Spanish. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Ms. Vargas, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Of course. Interpretation Spanish language interpretation Spanish. Thank you. Spanish announcement is done. Great. Thank you, miss Vargas. Check attendees to see if any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with any interpretation. And that concludes interpretation announcement and we'll check-in later in the meeting.
Turning back to you, President Bruhlhardt. Thank you. This time I'd like to report out, items that were taken up in closed session. Under labor matters on item D1, 20 five-eighteen 64, conference with labor negotiators, the Board discussed this matter. On item D2, number 20 three-seventeen 44 A, conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation, the Board gave direction on this matter. Motion by Director Latta, seconded by Director Thompson. Both six-zero and one abstention. On items D3, number 20 five-seven
91, conference with legal counsel existing litigation. The Board gave direction on this matter. Motion by President Brohard, seconded by Vice President Bachelor. Vote to approve, to approve, sorry, five to zero with two abstentions. Under public employment, on item D4, number 20 four-nineteen 67, superintendent of schools, the board did not discuss this matter. Public employee discipline, discipline removal and release. On item D5, number 20 five-two 558, public employee discipline, dismissal and release,
the board discussed this matter. On pupil matters, these will be discussed, voted on, on item k. Under real property matters, on item D12, number 20 five-three 67, conference with real estate property negotiators, property 3500 Malcolm Avenue. I believe that was corrected too, 3,400. The Board gave direction on this matter. Motion by President Brohard, seconded by Director Thompson, a vote in favour of six to zero with one abstention. On item D13, number 20 five-three 68,
conference with Real Property Negotiators, property 2,035, The Board gave direction on this matter. Motion by Vice President Bachelor, seconded by President Brohard for the vote in favor of four-three. And that ends our report out. Our next item on the agenda are modifications to the agenda. Are there any modifications? Thank you. I'd like to pull O-seventy one. And are there any other? I would like to, recommend, return to a committee to the teaching and learning, reassign to a teaching and learning committee with two items,
under, T. That's T2. T2, item twenty five one six five seven, which is board policy, instruction prioritizing student outcomes, Director Berry and Director Thompson. And, item t three, two five zero four zero three, Board of Education Resolution Number 2420Five-two08, Reallocating Funds for Restorative Justice Support, presented by myself and, Student Director Maximus Simmons. And these are being referred back for further consideration? Yes. They're being referred back to consideration to teaching and learning. Alright.
The next item on the agenda is item I which is pupil consent. Is there a motion to adopt? So moved. I second. Thank you. And we have, ten minutes of public comment. Are there any public comments on this item? Yes, Madam President. Lara Olugbala. Two minutes. Repeat Mhmm. What I said in closed session. It is not clear how we establish policy and procedures related to students who are expelled from OUSD. It is my understanding, and I don't know if this is what is actually happening,
that the Alameda County program with the juvenile justice system has a placement and a Quest Academy for our students who are expelled, grade seven through 12. What happens to students who are not in grades, below seventh grade? Then you have an opportunity academy that they run for students who are have received workforce training. Then you have another academy that's for students who are parents. Who is monitoring in the district what goes on with these students?
What happens if one of our students who has been expelled is a newcomer student? What happens if one of our students who is expelled is a link English language learner or a special ed student with specific needs related to their health. We do not have anything that we understand as community or parents related to the student assignment center. Pupil disciplinary hearing panel. It is said in your documentation when you talk when I go online that you
have the ability to deal with healing skills for these students who are expelled, behavior health services, counseling, individual support, skill building, intervention procedures, and support for trauma. Then you have to have a reentry plan for these students. This is unknown territory of what's happening with our expelled students. Thank you. Are there any speakers online? All nay all public members have been called for this item. Thank you. Next on the agenda is student report. And I believe we have a presentation from directors.
Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't write through it. On the roll call to adopt the people's discipline consent report, moved by director, Preisser as a bachelor's and seconded by director Thompson. Student directors are recused from action on this matter. Director Lauter? Yes. Director Williams? Director Hutchinson? Abstain. Okay. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice President Bachelor? Yes. And President Brothard? Yes. Motion is adopted. Thank you. Now we'll hear from our student report and Director, Smith. Good evening all. During our report tonight,
we will go over, ACC updates and upcoming community events. Okay. So before winter break started, ACC held a middle school meeting, I believe it was December 16, and it was at Claremont Middle. And we had nine attending schools, which were Claremont, Hillcrest, Melrose Leadership, Elmhurst, Urban Promise, Life Academy, Edna Brewer, West Oakland Middle, and Roosevelt. And at this meeting, they planned for the middle school ethnic studies conference by choosing the theme, which came out to be realize, realize, realize the youth is the future.
So, that's the theme for this year's conference. It's going to be held by all the middle schoolers, of course. Our MCs for this year were Drew and Megan from Brewer, Anya from Claremont, and Candace from Hillcrest. So, during the meeting, they got lots of reports from each school site and basically what was going on within the last few months, some improvements and concerns. At Elmhurst, they reported some improvements in their school lunch, and their leadership team is working on reducing bullying. But they do have some concerns regarding their bathrooms.
Now Roosevelt says that they had less hallway loitering and littering on their campus with decreased amounts of fighting. They do have some concerns around school cleanliness, which has become a grossing concern for many middle schoolers. But Roosevelt's leadership has been working on a community action project along with some hallway beautification. Now, West Oakland Middle reports some concerns with, Chromebook treatment and peer to peer issues that they've been facing. But they have shared some improvement in their physical spaces, how, like, just the scenery looks.
And, leadership has been working on school wide events like their Unity Day that took place January 7. Hillcrest has added a new water flow station and they have a new turf for students to enjoy their free times. Leadership is also working on community events. They're thinking some potlucks and bake sales, you know, fundraising. They said that they've had some concerns regarding the lunch options available and what their student bathroom population looks like because a lot of students a lot of, schools are locking the bathrooms because they want to decrease smoking or skipping.
But, students still have to use the bathroom and be in there, so it's really not helping. Melrose is concerned that their school lunch options are very, small. But they also have reported improvements of water fountains all over campus, and they say that leadership is working on some school wide events, and they wanna throw like a dance or a talent show. Urban Promise has faced improvements in their water fountains as well, and they're working on building cultural events in their classrooms. They said they worry about school lunch and the lack of bathroom resources and their
peer to peer relationships. They want to improve on their culture and climate. In this case they said that they've been hearing some racist languages used against each other. So we want to make sure that there's some community building going on to make sure that students are, you know, connecting and feeling good at school. Now, Life Academy says that the usage in the Yonder pouches for student phones has improved and students are actually using the pouches. Accessibility of water fountains has grown tremendously. They have some bathroom concerns like a lot of the other middle schools because they said they're facing renovations.
And of course, all students want to be kept in a loop. So all the adults that are in charge of these projects, please be transparent with our students on the school sites so they know what's going on. Brewer students say that they have some floor improvements and bathroom renovations, but they're having some concerns. But leadership is working on candy grams for Valentine and improving their school culture and climate, and they're also making a school site council team so to, like, to improve safety. Finally, at Clairemont, they have improved their school lunch along with their multipurpose room,
And they've named a role of a Safe School Ambassador who helps prevent fights and takes on student to student mistreatment cases. Their concerns are, student activities like the lack of support sporting equipment, electives, and student participation. But currently leadership is focusing on many things to support their peers. Now, oh, sorry guys, but the point of all of this report from the students to know whatever their good and bad experiences are is so that we can build a system that's stable
enough for our students to learn safely, comfortably, and be successful at the end of their OUSD career. ACC does not only focus on high school, but we do represent all students at OUSD. And our goal is to make sure that student voices are being heard in these meetings. So please, all the adult decision makers, I hope that you're hearing these student concerns because these are actual student feedback, so please listen. Now, moving on to community events. January 17, there will be another community workout being held. It starts at 11:30 in the morning,
and it's a fundraiser for helping our Oakland teachers. So please, if you're interested in helping or you just want to show up and show up for the community, please use this QR code so that they can get a head count. And, yeah, all the donations that will be made are going towards OUSD teachers. That concludes our report for tonight. Thank you all. Thank you. Are there any public comments? Yes Madam President. There are two. Sara Olavala and Ben Tapscott. Two minutes each. I just want to inform you so that you can possibly share with students that
there's something missing in this district that is common in other school districts. And that is programs that accommodate gifted students. And I came here from New Orleans very much aware that we had that resource services personnel to our gifted students to be, given every opportunity to expand whatever and that was in the arts, music, academics. We don't have it here. And when I inquired about it, it was because they didn't have the money. But they have the money to create other programs and that has never been brought
up by anybody. And so children who are gifted are not being given an opportunity to reach their full potential. The other thing I'm concerned about is the anti blackness, racism that exists in this school district. It's being implemented and dealt with. But have you as young people taken up the, discussion of what's going on, with racism and anti blackness? You have to take up that discussion. The the area that I find the most challenging in this, district is how we prioritize
to the level that we have fairness and equity related to services and resources programs. It appears to me that this district placed favoritism. And certain schools, certain individuals on staff get favoritism. And we that's not acceptable. Everybody has to be treated fairly and equally. Lastly, I'm concerned with the the policy that we don't have background checks on volunteers in this school district. And you guys are concerned about safety.
We have sexual predators. We have people who can take advantage of students if they don't have background checks. Thank you. I think I've asked, the students a couple of times about are you dealing with all the high schools or you're just selecting a few? And the inequities that exist when it comes to black students and curriculums in different schools needs somebody somebody up there needs to address the inequity. As far as the, black population, it is the second highest ADA
in this in the school district. It's Hispanics and black students, and black students are not being given the type of curriculum in certain schools that needs to be addressed. The fact that McClimans, Fremont, and Castlemont are primarily black, and you look at their curriculum, it it's short. It it misses the target. So I guess my question is, the students probably gonna have to bring forth the inequities that exist and the fact that certain schools I mean, we've got six high schools for an example.
And Climates High School is the only school only high school that has had anything done. It's been lied to. The fact that they delayed it for two years. President Thomas is doing a terrible job and disorganized, and nobody says anything. So I'm jumping around a little bit, but we need to see if we can bring a little more equity into black schools when it comes to curriculum. And I haven't seen that happen yet. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any online speakers?
That concludes public speaking for this item. Put this on this item. Board comments? Director Berry? I always appreciate your updates. And one of the things I wanna shout out is how widespread your participation in your middle school meeting is. I think that's a really good sign of, like, the time that you all are investing. And of course, shout out to the District five, middle school students who participated from life and Oompa. I wanted to I make an observation. One is that students are clearly noticing the investments we're making in sight,
so we should pay attention to that. And it's also very clear that they're noticing the challenges. And there are two challenges in particular that I hear over and over again, the restrooms and school lunches. And so I'm wondering if it might be helpful to have a regular update from someone in facilities around those two issues so you can report back to other students. But maybe you're already having a regular meeting with someone in that department, but That was a good idea. Oh, yeah. Yes. But no. We don't actually have a system getting the information back to them.
Just us talking to them in the middle school meetings, and the high school meetings and just updating them every couple months is, like, really all that we can do right all that we've been doing right now. But I think that, I don't know, expanding on emails to the the students and the principals and all that, I think that that would be very helpful. And like you said, like, meeting with the facilities teams and getting that information and actually sharing that out student word-of-mouth, I think that's gonna be a game changer. Thank you. Director Thompson. Yes, first of all, I wanna thank you for your report.
Thank you very much. I do want to piggyback on what one of our public speakers, mentioned, miss Asada Olobala. I'm glad you brought up the gifted and talented. When I was in Open years ago, I actually taught in the Gifted and Talented program and and that was I think it was really great because I gave my kids above and beyond with French after the French language. And so that's what we did, but also music. So thank you very much for bringing that up. I wanna shout out also one of my schools because of the,
I think, superb participation, at the middle school level. So I'm really proud of Elmhurst and their participation. Maybe this might be just a matter of my not knowing and maybe you can help me, but I was sort of struck by the, title Real Eyes, Real Eyes, Real So, if you don't mind, but I'm done. If you could explain that to me because I think it might have some implications. And also, I wanna talk about something that I think is or give a suggestion that I think is really helpful in terms of actuating a response to some of the concerns.
Number one, is there an avenue to take their concerns to their local administration? And I too thought about lunches and also bathroom. Because if, I just want you to know that administrators do wanna hear from kids about any issue, but especially since you mentioned those two issues, please have the schools take it up with their administrator. Because if nothing else, we're following due process if there is a concern.
So you're actually voicing the concern with someone who can actually give you some support around that concern. Other than that, thank you very kindly. Can you explain that for me? Okay. So I am in the high school committee. So Maximus is in the middle school committee. So he could tell you better, but I have heard this slogan. It's definitely a social media slogan that's been around. It's kinda just like I don't know. The most I've seen it on is on, like, TikTok and just, you know, different forms of social media. To me, it's just a slogan,
but I really like the twist that they put on it, and it really just screams like you. Like, it definitely screams middle schoolers. So I definitely do appreciate this year's title. I'm pretty sure they worked in different groups, and then they came together and chose the title. So that's what happened. Thank you. Yeah, to Director Berry's point too, I hear, the both concerns and uplifting of facilities needs, and have taken note of that. Bathrooms have definitely been a top priority. I also, take into consideration too the hallway beautification on the floors. Because again,
like, it's really our environment that we're surrounding our students with. And those things may not be the ones that, like, get the love, but it is they are really important because we want to make sure our students are safe and they're also feeling like they're on a campus that is supporting them. I'm glad that the water stations are also, in places where students are being able to access them and that we are getting more. And, I do remember Director Brohard, had a conversation with the, food, services director at one of her schools, and so thinking about,
like, some of the next steps that I could have to support the work that you all are doing is seeing, how we can set up the similar conversation at MLA to see, what we can do about the school. Learning. And just to clarify, you all specifically talked to the middle school at MLA, not necessarily the elementary school. Is that correct? Okay, the middle school. Yes, the middle school. Okay, so yeah, I'll that'll be my on my to do list to follow-up with the principal to see when we can set that out to have a conversation. Director, our Vice President Bachelet took the words out of my mouth about meeting with,
the Central Kitchen, the nutrition services head. It was an amazing conversation and he was really open to even and he was really open to even coming and sharing food. They're going to have a meal together at the site. So again, he's amazing. I highly recommend if you need help getting in touch with him. But, I have to say I hope realize, realize, realize does not replace 67 because I might scream. But anyway, excellent report. Thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to, appreciate, you know, again, the report. And I think it's so important that you shared every middle school that was in attendance as specific feedback
because every middle school, while sharing some themes, obviously have really different on the ground, lived experiences. And I know that, one thing I've appreciated about when I've been, you know, able to participate in the ACC spaces is that there's a really intentional attempt to engage students from every single campus and to, I think acknowledge the ways in which those students' leadership is different at every school, and how I think everybody supports one another in, in a really great way.
And I think it's such a model for the rest of the district to have those spaces that are very, really just supporting relationships across campuses and helping people understand across difference that we just don't have as many of those opportunities and sometimes in our, very academic, you know, data driven conversations about student outcomes, we miss the work that, that you all hold and I think kind of maintain. So I just wanna appreciate that. And, you know, as a parent of a middle schooler, Director Thompson, it does sound very it's very gen alpha. I feel so I recognize that.
Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other further board comments? I see online here. Thank you very much for, again, another excellent report. Next up are, comments from Labour Partners. Do we have any present? I know we have labor present, but I'm not sure they're speaking. And do we have an online? I see no hands raised on Zoom. And with that, we will move on to the superintendent's report. Good evening, Board. Good evening, community. Pleased to give my report this evening and starting off with, some highlights. Several of our a large group of students from Edinburgh, visited Angel Island.
They learned a lot about history and spent time reflecting on and spent time reflecting on their, experience and their learnings in the classroom. They talked about immigration and actually got a chance to do a local made film. Local made film. Thank you. Then I wanted to also highlight, Eat, Learn, Play held over 47 book fairs in all of our schools. I had a chance to attend one at ICS TCN, where the students, TK class actually came in and how they set these book fairs up,
is Eat Learn Play provides all different kinds of books at different levels, readership levels. And they give actually when the students come in, they get what's called Curry dollars. They get $30 an actual dollar that has Steph Curry's picture on it and $30 And they're able to go, actually select four books, to take home for their own personal library. It's pretty exciting. The way they decorate the libraries is just awesome. There's snow, there was trees, it was just really exciting.
The kids came in just excited to be able to purchase their books. It was really a wonderful moment to participate in that. They also, at the conclusion of shopping for their books, their teachers made sure they had special bags to put their books in. Their teacher was acknowledged and given an actual bag of candy for them to take home during the holidays. But, it was really an exciting moment to see them excited about selecting their personal choices of books. They also had some books that were in Spanish and other languages available for students.
So, I'm really pleased that they completed over 47 book fairs. Just think about that. Many of our book fairs that we've had in the past, has been really challenging for our students because often our students don't have the money to purchase books. And, I'm really grateful grateful for the Eat Learn Play, actually Steph and Ayesha Curry, for focusing on literacy as well as play, as a part of their investment in the community. Then I want to just talk about, the Oakland Adult Career Program. They graduated over 171 students,
this first semester, with their high school diplomas and over 140 I mean 104 students passed their citizenship exam. Again, education is happening in Oakland Unified School District in a big way and that was really exciting. I excited. I, participated in one of the graduations and it was just amazing to see how excited these adults were about matriculating through a program and completing a program after having a variety of experiences in school and within the community.
Then I want to move on in talking about the other side of our work, which has to do with focusing on our middle school students, their achievement. And the goal that we had was that, 10%, that we'd have a 10% increase in math proficiency for our students from last year to this year. At this point, our students, are exceeding standards in the first interim math assessment, actually by two-three percent. Actually it decreased. But then our seventh grade students increased by 5%. So we're really excited about that,
but we've got more work to do. We still have another semester and I'm hoping that we will meet our goal for this year of ten percent, by the end of the semester. So I'll keep you updated. Then I also wanna highlight specifically some of our bright spots. At Elmhurst United, in grade six, sixty one percent of the students are meeting or exceeding standards. I'm really excited about that. They've moved up at least 26%. And at Frick United, in seventh grade 31% of our students are meeting and or exceeding standards.
They've moved up by 30%. And then at OOPA, 56% of the eighth graders are meeting or exceeding standards. And that's up by 25%. This is something I'm very excited about and as you know I've been pushing to make sure that we talk about at every board meeting how we're moving our academic achievement for our students. So again, it's on this semester and we are, looking daily at really where our students are, and we're excited about specific goals that we've set. We're also, looking at our graduation rate for our high schools and looking at A to G
completion. In some areas you'll see, in my report some specifics of, how we've grown at many of our sites. When we look back to 2023 to where we are now, we've seen significant growth at many of our sites. Again, we want this to be greater. We want all of our students to be complete our a to g and that's our goal. Again, I want to as we look at our statewide testing, our goal area in language arts and math, between 2325,
eleventh grade students district wide showed steady gains on their statewide testing with language proficiency climbing from 32% to 36.2%. And math is rising more sharply from 14 Point 1% to 19.6%. Again, we want to push the envelope there around this particular growth. Again, I want to highlight, seven high schools have shown year over year growth in English language arts and math and that's Fremont High,
Oakland High, Oakland International, Rosedale, and Skyline. So, congratulations to our students. We still have a lot more to do. In the area of chronic absenteeism, as you know, I am extremely concerned about students being in school on a regular basis. And, actually, this is an area that I'm working on personally, as your superintendent to take a close look at what we can do around attendance. We, are recently receiving a report from Oakland Natives Give Back to look at some incentives around chronic absenteeism.
We're looking actually at our program, what brings kids to school, what helps them stay in school, and we're monitoring on a day to day basis. We have a dashboard where we're looking at attendance. We know some of our absenteeism is related to, some of our families not feeling comfortable, having their kids come to school based on ICE and some of those challenges. So, we're looking at some creative ways that we can, support students when they are at home. We absolutely we've set up a way that we can document if a parent, family indicates a student is not attending school because they are scared of that particular
situation of ice or feeling safe coming to school. We note that, so we actually have data that shows, the differences in terms of students just not coming to school because they're just not coming and a situation of families feeling safe about arriving at school. So, we are currently on track to meet our reduction goal, but I have a bigger goal than that. We feel that we can significantly make a difference between now and the end of school. And actually,
the the reporting period is April 15. It's very significant around us, retrieving funds that we would get for the opening of school. So we have some special, programming that we're doing that focuses on our attendance rate. And I'll be reporting back to you on how we're doing school by school. And that includes some ideas that we have around acknowledging, our families that get the whole family, not just the student acknowledging the family about getting their kids to school. As you know,
elementary kids don't drive themselves to school. So we want to partner with our families, to acknowledge their participation. So that, is the conclusion of my superintendent's report. We'll be talking more about our suspension rates in future meetings. We'll be talking more specifically about other events and other initiatives that we're working on. Thank you very much. Just just in, we got an update, from Cliff Hong. We're really excited to announce that, information in terms of their students
at Brewer. Across the board, there's an update in middle school that in math, they are up 5.5%. There's an increase by 1.4% in sixth grade, increase in seventh grade by 2.4% increase. So that's exciting. I know Kliphong is looking at this on a daily basis like I am and so I'm pleased to get the latest information. Thank you for the breaking news. I appreciate that. Thank you. Are there any public comments on the superintendent's report? Yes, Madam President. We have Asada Olugbala and Bambolino.
Alright. Thank you. Two minutes each. I'm sorry. Public comment on superintendent's report. We have two speakers. Miss Assata and, mister Bolino. Points about your report. I've asked this before that the suspension and expulsion, numbers be given by race. I'm I'm looking at a report in this document that says that you are providing for anti black, training in the classroom. Well, in this district, it goes beyond the classroom. It's in the administrative staff when you have the facilities department doing what they're doing
to, acclimants, black students. And when I come to you and consistently talk about the needs of black kids and there's no response. That's considered, in my opinion, the possibility that you have a bias towards Black kids. So anti Blackness is broader than the classroom. I am concerned, superintendent, that we need to get a report on the standing of our kindergarten program. There's a national teaching survey that was just done of teachers throughout the country, and they are saying that our kindergarten students are lacking in social emotional skills,
sharing and listening in self regulation capacities. They're lacking in fine motor skills, controls, pencil grip, using scissors, written letters. They're lacking in self help skills, dressing, using the bathroom, opening lunch boxes, and academic skills, letter sounds, and counting largely due to the pandemic use of screen. And it has many other areas, superintendent, where our kindergarten students across the country, skills that they need are not there or are diminished. And so I wanna see if we're paying attention to where our kindergarten students are
with these, emotional skills, self help skills, with the academic skills that they're supposed to be able to have at the time that they move on from kindergarten. Next speaker is Dan Bellino. Okay. Got you. Two minutes. We actually publicized last year four out of ten seniors that graduated were the only ones over the fourth grade level. And they actually publicized that. A senior in our schools for six for twelve years and can't read above the fourth grade level, four out of four out of 10?
Do we still have six or seven executive directors making a 6 figure income? And teachers are saying we need help at the elementary level because we haven't been taught how to read. So if we still have those executive directors, we need to take that money and move it over to two special ed programs teaching teachers how to have those kids raise their reading level. Now, you know, I threw this one out before. If they don't read a certain level,
they don't go to the next grade. But then there's a lot of circumstances why they're not in school and why they're not reading at a higher level. But to say Oakland Public Schools, out of 10 students that graduated, only four can read above the fourth grade level after twelve years in our system. So I don't understand why we don't shift that money and put it someplace else. We have 5,000 inmates throughout The United States, And of the fifty five percent inmate,
twenty nine percent are making up fifty five percent when it looks at black students. And the other significant statistic, they can't read above the fourth grade level. And when they get out and they don't get help with their reading, they go back in. How does 29% black students make up 55% of incarceration? And I can remember if we didn't do thirty two hours in the morning, a period, senior seniors didn't graduate. Good evening, Board members and interim superintendent.
As you know, my name is Dan Bellino. I most recently served as OUSD Chief of Staff, and I was released from employment last month under deeply concerning circumstances. You might think I have some resentment or anger toward those who played a role in that. You might think I'm here tonight to put some people on blast. And that is there is a very human part of me that would like to. But I'm not. I am here tonight to remind you that leadership actions and behaviors impact our school cultures. Culture drives outcomes. For safety. For learning. Sometimes when things get difficult we lose sight of the most basic things,
like how we treat each other. And being honest. Always being honest. Oakland needs leaders who model integrity, especially when it's uncomfortable. I hope we choose to be those leaders going forward. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any online comments? All public speakers less signed up for this item have been called. Thank you. Board comments? Director Thompson? Thank you very much President Brothard. Thank you superintendent for the report and especially the highlights. I really, really enjoyed that. Just thinking about, how the kids went in to select books that directly relates to literacy and something
is going to be come coming forward later on in reference to that. I'm so excited that Eat, Learn, and Play actually, helped to facilitate 47 of those, book exchanges. And so thank you very kindly for that. Thank you for the update on data. I've always been a proponent of receiving data even if it's the smallest increment, whether it's up or down. Having data, I think it helps us to make decisions that will, actually help us formulate our decision making process.
So thank you very much for that. But I have a question. And that is, you talked about the math scores, going up, but I didn't know what measurement we used, what what tool we used to measure that. And so I was concerned about that. I wanna know if it's, a formative measurement, if it's something like a benchmark measurement, or I I don't think it's SBAC because SBAC hasn't come out yet. And so, I I was just curious about that. And also, I wanna thank you for the report on a to g requirements that our,
that our students, are ex are are given a chance to be exposed to. Coach Tapscott mentioned, some of our kids, you know, and whether or not they have the prowess to do whatever they're doing academically. I think by having us really look at the a to g requirement, it really addresses that that concern. Because, and as I've said before, if one wants to go to a CSU or UC, a person has to have a to g requirement. To many of us, probably well, I speak for myself.
I didn't think about whether my classes were a to g or not, but they were all a to g and I didn't know it. You know? But many of our kids don't get that opportunity. So I'm I'm glad that you were really intentional on saying, let's look at what these students are getting in reference to a to g and seeing if they are actually meeting those criteria so that we can make sure that our students are ready for CSU or UC entry. So thank you very much. I'm gonna change up a little bit.
I think miss Hayes was online. Miss Hayes. And, I'm gonna if you don't mind, I'm gonna let her speak. Yes. One moment. Okay. Thanks. I see Sheila Haines, the name, and I'm going to allow that one to speak. Hi. Can you hear me okay? Yes. We can hear you. Hi. So I just wanted to speak on the superintendent report. I appreciate the commitment around Joyful Schools. I'm very happy about the ongoing anti black conversations around hate speech, because it's critical that hate speech be addressed,
not just with Oakland Schools, but nationwide. No child should have to go to school and hear racist and derogatory attacks. Also did research most recently and learned that a fatality recently in Oakland started with verbal abuse. And so, I just ask you guys to hopefully please make that official official ban. With the arts funding, please prioritize funding as well because our students deserve an alternative way of learning with the pathway for SPED students to gain other skills. But again, I am very happy that the ongoing initiative around hate speech is happening.
I also hope that the district is working on a way to avoid state receivership. And I just have to end off by saying this last meeting was very hard to watch, as a black mother born and raised in Oakland with disabled black students being the highest suspended, they should be able to look up to the board and be encouraged with our black leaders respecting each other. So I would really love to see all of you give equal respect to each other because our youth are watching. So thank you for your time. Thank you, miss Haines. Director Latta? Yes. Thank you for, the report, Doctor Sadler.
I have, a couple of things I just want to raise. I think the first is that, the middle school math improvements, that, you know, Cliff Hong shared with us are really great. I noticed in your presentation that you note, that the schools that have shown growth have a site based math coach and, several other things that I won't repeat. And I just want to understand, kind of, if those are I'm assuming those are then the bright spots, then what is, kind of seeing the through line for how we're planning for that in our budget to maintain those,
as I believe some of that work is funded through Salesforce, but not at every school. So I do think, you know, when we see things that are working, we should, call it out and and make sure that we're showing the public why we're continuing to find that work. I also just wanted I mean, I want to specifically you know, the high school scores are also great with graduation rates and post secondary readiness. I also want to say that Oakland International, being one of the highlights for ELA growth, is particularly impressive given that that's a newcomer school.
And so I just want to, you know, shine a little bit on that school, for the amazing work that they're doing. And we have one of our OUSD Teachers of the Year as one of their, English teachers as well. And then the last thing I'll say is just around the suspension and chronic absenteeism. I do think that the, you know, to director Thompson's point, that even small improvements are are amazing. However, I would urge us to, disaggregate that data based on student subgroups. I think our, LCAP advisory committees are always doing that, And I think that when
we show data at a very high level, what we we can sometimes obscure the different experiences that different student groups are having within that number. So, you know, for example, I have a wondering it's probably not 1% reduction across the board. And in fact, I would hope that, you know, maybe that 1% is driven more by some of our, you know, to miss Haines' point, our black disabled students are some of the most suspended in our district. Are they having a proportional, like a larger decrease, or is it driven by other students, which has happened in other years?
So I would just urge that we, at least report out the disaggregated data to push ourselves to, make sure that we're doing the work with the groups that are most impacted. Doctor. Barron? Thank you. Once again, thank you for just the emphasis on highlighting student data as you talk about some of the bright spots and the challenges. I wanna just put a spotlight on that 25 jump that we experienced at OOPA. I think that's incredible, especially because it's one of my schools.
I just was thinking immediately, how are they doing that? I know you caught out a few things. I had a similar curiosity. How much does that cost? How are we resourcing it? What are others what of the programming happening at Oompa are is being replicated at other sites? And if they are having similar success, is there an opportunity for us to do something at a system level to make sure that we're truly investing in it? And if they're not seeing similar success, do we understand why? And I know that different sites have unique needs,
and so I'm sure there's lots of learning that we can generate if we just ask those questions. So I'm excited to dig deeper. I'm very sad. I'm not on teaching any more and that I have to dial in or show up at another meeting in order to have some of those conversations, but I'm eager to get to that, especially on this. And Cliff Hong, if you're watching, I will be reaching out to you. And then I also had a comment about disaggregating the data because I got schooled today by someone, a PSAC leader, and I appreciate you. Thank you. Because I do think it's important.
And so one of the questions I was asking immediately, especially for the growth and some of the declines, like who are those students? Are they our foster youth? How How do we cut that data by race and ethnicity, by IEP status, by eligibility? I'm just thinking about all of that because as Director Latta said, I'm sure that we can that will signal what some of the action we need to take, might be. Director Hutchinson. Yes. Thank you. I am, deeply troubled, very frustrated, and extremely disappointed. I fully support mister Bellino and the comments that he made tonight,
and I fully support our former chief business officer, Lisa Grant Dawson, and the quotes that she made to the media. Superintendent Sadler, I have to say, this isn't good enough with the crisis we're currently facing as a school district. We are in an extreme financial crisis. To date, there has been no plan presented for how we're going to address it. We lost our CBO and our chief of staff. And if we don't vote on a comprehensive list of the staffing changes we're going to make for next school year by the February,
our staffing will be locked in for 2627, and we will not be able to pass a balanced budget, which means that'll be an automatic trigger for the state to step in and take us over. The first thing they'll do is fire the superintendent, and the second thing they'll do is dictate to the community how they're going to impose the changes that we need to be making. It's not good enough that the board has refused to take action. It is the superintendent's job to put a comprehensive plan before the board so we least have an opportunity to vote on it no matter what the board majority does.
So the community can at least see that we know what we're doing, and there is a plan someplace. But instead, we've moved backwards over the last six months. And I'm now forced to say explicitly, at the June, under Doctor. Kyla Johnson Trammell, with the support of Lisa Grant Dawson, we left state receivership after twenty two years. In a little more than six months since, we're facing a crisis because we're overspending and we refuse to address the budgetary issues we're facing for next year. This is on your watch. And to have a superintendent's report that didn't mention the budget nor the finances one
time is unacceptable. The clock is ticking. We have six weeks to adopt a plan, and nobody on board to even direct that work. We need more. It's not acceptable, and I can no longer be quiet about what's going on. Please, community, we need to show up because it should be clear to everyone. If we don't save us, nobody will. Thank you. Director Smith. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to thank you for your report, and I wanted to highlight the eat, learn, play book fair. That was really just a highlight for me because I remember going to the book fairs in elementary school, and it was like,
I could literally only buy, like, a pen because they're, like, $2. And that was, like, all I had as an elementary schooler, so my mom wasn't sending me to school, like, heck of money for a book fair. And books are pretty expensive. So the fact that they were able to choose out just so many books and it's in the reading level and just different just so many different genres, that's just really amazing. And after seeing the highlighted math scores, I do believe that we're gonna be able to reach our 10% goal increase. So I'm very much looking forward to that. Doctor. Bechamel. Yeah. Thank you. I won't reiterate the amazing work that you've done, and my colleagues have done a better job than I would have of highlighting that.
I will just say, what's come to mind for me is, the way that you, and your staff have really shown up for our students, as in as in as the way that they relate to the current, terror that they find themselves in, with ICE activity, at different school sites. What's come to what's in my heart right now is really, the challenges that our Minneapolis families are facing. I don't know if most folks know, but in Minneapolis, students, as of the shooting of Renee Goode, have now had to move to all, Zoom learning for the rest of the month because of just the horror of the
3,000 ICE agents that are patrolling the streets, picking up people as they're crashing into their cars and pulling them out of their vehicles. Again, we are not suffering through that, but I think it really makes it clear that we need to be building systems now if that ever were to happen to make sure that our students are successful, and that they're supported. And I will be glad to say that, like, again, we have folks that are volunteering to patrol our schools every single day. I actually ran into one of those volunteers at OOPA when I was dropping students
off after a lobby day, and it's so wonderful to see how our community here in Oakland is stepping up for our students, and we also are stepping up in different ways as well. So, again, I just hold them in my heart right now as they're facing some really terrible challenges. But again, we are doing our job, the community is doing their job, so our students can be here here and that they can learn. Thank you. Thank you. I want to give a shout out to my schools also. I want to give a shout out to, Ashley McBride for a great article on that list so people can check that out. Today, I joined Superintendent Sadler,
students and alumni, current and former Open High coaches, OAL representatives, and Open High student athletes, both past and present, as Pam Moy cut the ribbon on the new Oakland High field. Student athletes from football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, women athletes and men athletes fill the stands to celebrate the opening of a space that will support generations of students to come. But as I listened to the speakers, I reflected on the role that athletics played in my own high school years as a swimmer and a shot putter and on the vital role sports play for so
many of our students today. For some young people, athletics are the reason they come to school. For many, a coach who believes in them, both on the field and in the classroom, can make a lasting difference in their academic success and sense of belonging. But at the same time, I found myself thinking about the current case before the United States Supreme Court and how deeply wrong it is to deny transgender athletes the opportunity to participate in high school and collegiate sports. For many of us, past and present, sports shaped our lives. And to deny any student the chance to be a part of a team,
to compete, and to experience the joy and connection of athletics is wrong. In Oakland, we continue to affirm and protect the rights of our transgendered student athletes to participate fully and safely in school sports. I appreciate the work of OIL Director Frankie Navarro and others who work in that department to ensure that every student can deserve gets the opportunity to belong, to compete, and to thrive. Thank you. President Blueheart. Director Sam. President Blueheart and President Blumhardt, I just wanted to add one more thing that,
today I had an opportunity to participate in the professional development of our science and math STEM, professional development of our science teachers today. And at the end of that, professional development, they announced a STEM fair that's going to be held. In the past, the science fair was held at the Chabot Science Center and that was a major event that we held. On May 6, this is gonna be a major, major STEM fair will be held at the Coliseum and it's supported by several different
sponsors, Salesforce, Roots, just several organizations we'll be supporting. I'll give you more updates on that, but we are really excited about the commitment to, support our students participating in what we're calling the STEM fair. So I wanted to, to remind everybody that's coming and students are preparing for that competition on May 6, May 6, at the Oakland Coliseum. And lastly, I wanted to mention that, two of our employees, that I know have passed away, and I I respectfully ask that we close the meeting in memory of Stephanie Bryan
who was, her last assignment was secretary at Oakland Tech. She worked in student services at Skyline. Many people remember her. And also, I heard recently that Joanna Lugin, who was, served as a, executive director of UALS, but also, had a long, history as principal at Madison, and was a special ed teacher and administrator. So I just, respectfully ask that we close the meeting in their memory. Thank you. Next on the agenda are the consent agenda items minus,
71. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Minus o 71. Public comment on this agenda item? Yes. Vice president, there is one, Osada Olupala. Go ahead, miss Sada. You got two minutes. So if you look at o one, it is a comprehensive maintenance plan that you're gonna hire somebody to help you to do that, dollars 112,000. You need help with that. You also have o two, of an enrollment, initiative, and you need help with that, especially when you were denying, enrollment at McClimans High School.
If you look at the item that's identified under, O 36, that's for McClimans, dollars 44,000. But it's only for mentoring, not helping the students, but then they help other students. O forty two is racial healing based on anti blackness issues. You gotta broaden that scope of work to include yourself and your staff. The next one is, grants that are awarded, to one, two, three, four, five schools, high schools, but, none of them went to McClimans. O 70, again,
is for Ruggsdale. You're constantly giving help to Ruggsdale for support for newcomers and refugees. 072 which one y'all pulled? 072? 71. Okay. I'll come back to that one. 072 seeking fiscal expert staffing advice. You had it with miss Grand Dawson, but you're gonna pay $415,000 to get expert advice on fiscal matters. I object to '78 Sam Davis, being on the committee. He manipulated the Piedmont Library initiative instead of allowing
that site to be used for our childhood development programs. He does favoritism. And I think that's it. I'll come back to the one you just pulled. Thank you. Any board comments? Director Berry? My only comment, just in case the public experiences, I asked a question about to what extent the items on the GIN consent agenda impact our current and future deficits and I have received enough information that makes me
confident that the expenses being considered for tonight were already factored into the financials that we're considering, and so I just wanted to share that with the public. Great. Director Williams? Okay. Director Latta? Director Thompson? Director Hutchinson? Yes, thank you. So again, I'm going to continue what I started in April by not voting for the consent report. And, you know, whether, these, contracts were figured into any plans or not is really beyond the point. We're in financial crisis and we still don't have a plan to address how we're
going to go about that. So to be encumbering any new contracts at this point, especially on an agenda that has no agendized item talking about the budget situation nor the finances. Everyone just has their heads buried in the sand. So the first thing you do if you're in crisis is you stop spending. The second thing that you do is you develop a plan to how to address the crisis. And the third thing you do is you implement that plan. It's not rocket science y'all. And originally we were told on October 8 by Superintendent Sadler that we needed to
provide directions for how we were going to address the financial and budgetary shortfall in both 2526 and 2627. That directive came from Superintendent Sadler. And here we are, mid January, and that still hasn't been done. And instead, people are still willing to vote for millions of dollars in new spending. I mean, it's good that resolution, about restorative justice was taken off the agenda, but why are we talking about expanding programs and spending more when we all know we're in crisis? And we all know that first we have to address the budgetary shortfall next year
before we can address bargaining with our labor partners. So instead of taking any actions, we're literally doing nothing tonight. And my understanding is the agenda is made by the board president in consultation with the superintendent. So the people I hold accountable for presenting an agenda that doesn't address the only key issue we're facing are those same two people. Y'all can't ignore this problem any longer. It's all coming to a head. If we cannot pass a balanced budget in June, we will automatically be taken over. That is state law.
And in order to address that budgetary shortfall, we have to approve massive staffing changes for next year by March 15. There is no other way. And we must do all of that before we can make an offer that includes more funding or more money to any of our labor partners. I know for the fact that the Board has been told this since at least May. And again, here we are. The Board leadership just voted themselves leadership again, and the pattern continues. But what are we going to do? And why are you so insistent on continuing to spend money we don't have?
Thank you. Thank you. Regent, if you'd like to respond or I can keep going. So I have two contracts that I'd like to just uplift, what is it? O11 and O10, which are new fields and new play spaces for our students, via our community partners. These fields will be at Burkhalter Elementary in Monterra. These are free. We are not going to be charged a dime for these, so these are going to, again, save us dollars, and support our elementary and middle school students, in getting outdoors and getting out there.
I do acknowledge that there are a lot of contracts on this list, and I have a question about some of the literacy contracts. But I will also say that there were at least two items on here, that are not specific contracts, but they are budget reductions via noticing of staff, potential reduction in force and layoffs. And those groupings of staff have not I don't think we've done that kind of noticing in the past. So I appreciate that as a budget, as we move forward through the budget solutions, that we have in scenario three. So my initial questions are around,
again, just the different literacy contracts. You know, why so many different small contracts around literacy and how are we ensuring that these contracts do not displace positions represented by our labor union? Director, Vice President of Bachelor. The contracts that you see, we are in the process of, putting together contracts that are more master contracts that address specific funds that support students around their literacy. Funding for these particular contracts were,
in process prior to the freeze that we just, you know, we just had a freeze and we lifted it and we reviewed, all of those contracts were previously encumbered and the money was there for those contracts to implement. And so these the, the implementation will occur continue to occur this semester, and to the end of the year the school year. So that's the focus on those particular contracts. So, you know, I wanna make sure everybody understands. We reset by, after we the scenario three was voted in,
immediately asked for a freeze of all contracts and procurement to take a look at where we are. And we did an assessment of contracts that were in place, contracts where there was we looked at the funding, and then we lifted the freeze actually yesterday for those outstanding contracts that could be processed. So these these were already in queue. We identified that the money was there for those particular contracts and that has to do with our literacy plan and the staff that we currently have in place.
You also mentioned, the information there relative to it's a standard that we acknowledge that there's a process for noticing staff that we should take there's nobody's been identified that would come to the board, but that's a standard, process that happens annually. Okay. And I had another question about, O 54. It's a half $1,000,000 contract to a private school, Tilden Preparatory Academy, for special education services. Can you tell us, maybe in a subsequent meeting, because I wanna make sure we have accurate information,
How many students will be served by this contract and what the range of services are that are gonna be offered? I have some knowledge of Tilden Prep, and I that is not the first organization in my mind that I would go to for special education services. So it would be helpful to get that information next time. I would be pleased to bring that back to you, but it is a non public school, contract. So but I can get you more specific information Yeah, and again I don't believe that they're a non public school exclusively. So again, just would wanna just understand that contract a little bit more.
Thank you so much. Okay, great. That's it for that. Can we go ahead and take a look on the items? On the roll call to approve the general consent report minus item zero, I mean, o dash 71. Student directors are absent. Director Lauter? Yes. Director Williams? Director Hutchinson? Abstain. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice President Bauschner? Yes. And President Brolhardt? Motion's adopted. Alright. Moving on to the facilities consent. No. No. Zero O. O 71. Yes.
And I believe staff we're gonna go ahead and pull that as well. Is that right? Okay. So let's go ahead and take public comment on, O-seventy one. That is the AI policy. I think this is Just to be clear, we like to pull it from the agenda. Yes, pull it from the agenda from staff. You just had about any item that has already been implemented. Many of these items have already been implemented or ending some started in November 2025 and are ending either in June I'm sorry.
May or March. How can you and the one you just called out, I don't think you said 065, o 0 whatever. 054. O fifty four. Because when I looked at that, the one you, thought was o sixty whatever, that's completely over with. Completely over with. You guys have got to stop having contracts brought to you that are already in place or completely ended. You can't do that. You can't legally do that. And you owe you you acted as if you're having some comment about a contract,
but it's over with. Now the one that you this this particular one that you just pulled is extremely important. How do you throw this? You need to have consent and nonconsent. Items for which you need to have a discussion before you approve them and items for which the discussion is not needed. This item needs to have a detailed discussion, a policy where you just and if you wouldn't have pulled it, you just would have rubber stamped it without any this any investigation of what we're going into. But, I continue to challenge you to do better Because what we're doing,
we can't fake it. We gotta be real. We are presently not engaging in a process that has the opportunity to be vetted. Thank you, miss Assata. Coach, would you like to speak on this item as well? Come on out. I don't know what you guys are doing. I come to these meetings. You sit down. You don't solve any problems. We're at a crisis level now. It's not business as usual, and I'm tired of watching the game. If my vote is yes, four or five of you vote no. If you vote no, he votes yes. You you need to get the group together,
go in a room, and stay there until you come up with a solution. If it takes all night, it takes all night. This dog and pony show that we're looking at is not gonna work. If you can't get this done and you have been told there's an urgency, it doesn't make sense we're playing this game and we're gonna lose our control because you don't solve problems when you're sitting in here. And you need to come together, find a medium middle, and vote and get it done. Not have these little meetings every every two weeks,
and we don't get anything done. And here we are now, suspend he told you stop spending money. So what are you doing? Maybe we need to recall some of you. And it's this little program that's going on. Oh, he said no. So let's all of us say yes. We don't have time for that. And the superintendent needs to do what she needs to do. We need to get stay in the room until we solve the problem. Come up with a plan. Well, I don't like that. Well, let's take this one out. Until you budget balance the budget.
What are you what are you doing every two weeks? Thank you. Any other speakers on item o 71? I don't see anybody else online. I mean, in person, do I see anybody online raising their hand? No hands raised on the Zoom, vice president. Great. Thank you. It's been both. It's withdrawn. It's withdrawn. That's what it is. Staff withdrew it after it was pulled. Okay. Now we're at P for Facilities Consent Items. Is there a motion? Yes. I motion the adoption I move the adoption of the general consent report, general obligation bonds,
measure B, J, and Y. Second. Thank you. Public comment on this agenda item? Asada Olupala. Two minutes, miss Asada. Unreal. So p one, you are reducing the ventilation and plumbing at McClimans. The funds that were available for ventilation and plumbing at McClimans. And I don't know why we got Ralph Bunch on here. But from this facilities department, I'm not surprised. And p two, you're doing something to deal with lead and water, which is appropriate. P three, Maxwell Park, you're testing for soil, identifying hazardous soil materials,
which is appropriate, but you're not gonna are you gonna do anything like McLean's? You know there's lead in the soil. You're not doing anything. Cole data center is appropriate. You need a generator. That data material is extremely important. That's 205. Whenever Cole needs anything, you get right on top of it, but not at my clients. P six, col Coliseum College prep is ridiculous. You're adding classrooms at that school. No school should be adding classrooms. We got too many empty classrooms in the district, but you're doing it here. So now this school has soil,
ground water. Very serious looks like a serious sir circumstances, but you're gonna deal with it. But you're not gonna deal with the soil issue and contamination at McClements. That's a bias and a prejudice. P seven inspection of quality of materials at Fremont modernization. Adding more classrooms at Fremont was not necessary, but but that's what you're doing? Why? Well, I don't know. But you have to deal with spending more money. Every time we come, we spend more money at Fremont. P ten is bunch maintenance, hazardous materials. How long are we gonna wait till we actually deal with the hazardous
situation at Bunch? It is contaminated air and contaminated soil. And we got a we got a library and a playground facility across the street. I I just can't imagine what is going on that I cannot see. You are being prejudiced towards McClimans. You're dealing with all kind of hazardous contamination at other schools, but you won't do it at McClimans. You want a notice of exemption from the state not to deal with the hazardous contamination at McClimans. Thank you.
Seeing as how that was the only public comment made. Coach, did you also wanna make a public comment on this item? Yes? No? Every high school Okay. In Oakland has had some remodeling of their athletic field. We can't even get the scoreboard to work. It's called discrimination. Fremont, right over there and take a look at Fremont. They've been over there four or five times. Every high school in this city has been remodeled and upgraded except one. It's called discrimination. And what you're doing to those black students is shameful.
I don't understand it. Go go over there now and look. They've got this big thing in the hallway blocked off by the principal's office. It's been there ever since school started, and there's nothing going on. We can't get our field done. You know when I first asked about remodeling? 2016. And then Preston Thomas lied. He put us on a two year delay. We haven't put any other program on delay except this one that happens to be a black school. I don't what are you people doing?
You don't have to be in that district to say this is not right. Some of these schools, high school, every high school has had some upgrading done except this one. Oh, well, well, coach, it's a money problem. Oh, really? Over $1,000,000,000? A money problem? We have a discrimination problem. Those kids couldn't even keep the I went to a game. Five minutes after game started, the clock stopped. We've asked people to come out and get things done. We still have lead in the water.
We still don't have warm water, and they took a boiler away from us. And you set up you don't have to be in West Oakland to do what's right. Thank you, coach. I respectfully like to ask everybody who wants to make public comment to fill out a public comment card for the section that they would like to fill out a comment card for. Thought I heard something behind me. Now we go to board comments. Director Hutchinson? Hi. Yes. Thank you. You know, to coach Tapscott and sister Assata, I I think it was kind of telling the board president's comments about her attendance
at the groundbreaking at the new field at Oakland High. The sad truth is not only was that Oakland High field supposed to be done in the summer, so was McClyman's. And we see now Oakland High's work is done. I know the work at the Cesar Chavez campus is done. And still nothing for McCliman's. And really what's going on in the facilities now is indicative of the larger problems we have with this financial crisis. You know, we have a, long standing policy in OUSD to reduce the amount of portables on our campus. We have a portable reduction strategy. So I don't know why there's ever a time to now purchase more portables to
put on campuses when our strategy is to fully occupy our main buildings across the district. At the last board meeting, there was an emergency resolution this board voted on to, use $7,000,000 to demolish 2nd Avenue. Now I'm hearing that we need a new refrigeration system in our central kitchen that's gonna cost $4,000,000 Now, that's money we don't have in our facilities, so there's talk of taking it from the Nutrition Fund. And this is, madness all over the place. You know, we can see the cost of our,
long term head of facilities quitting back in March because of some of the things they saw going on. Not only were we supposed to have a plan for lead remediation in the spring, our five year master's facilities plan was due in 2025. And we still haven't seen it. But instead, this board keeps on approving projects, approving spending that they have no idea about. Not only is there no fiscal responsibility, it's obvious that people don't care the damage that they're doing to our district. So again, I won't be voting for this,
but we need the community to get involved. Our budget and our finances are being mismanaged. That includes our facilities bond. These are the same problems that have plagued the District 2016 and before. And over the last six months, they've become a real issue. This is what happens when you force out your superintendent, your chief business officer, your head of facilities, and your chief of staff. So, we should not be voting for anything now. There's no way any of my colleagues on the Board can have any security that these monies are being spent the right way. And it's Really frustrating that I have to go to these lanes just to try to get
people to do the right thing. Thank you. Director Thompson? Director Latta? Director Williams? Okay. Director Berry? I would like to just uplift, P3, P11, P6, P10, and P22. I I mean, sorry, P2. These are the MLA projects, CCPA, Bunch, and the water quality. I think, again, we're, using our bond dollars to make sure that our needed the campuses, that we have, major projects and are moving forward, that we are actually demolishing buildings that are crumbling and that are, hazards in our community, and that we're also mitigating, or we're supporting water quality throughout the district.
I I think, again, these are the goals that we all have as school board directors. This was the goal of the bond. And so, again, using those dollars to shore up those projects and make sure that those projects are moving forward is extremely helpful and important. I know Director Brohard, you just got back. Did you have any comments to add to this? Okay. Thank you. With that, let's go ahead and go on a, vote. On the roll call to approve the general consent report for general obligation bonds as stated, student directors are absent. Director Williams,
Director Thompson? Yes. Director Barry? Yes. Director Hutchinson? Abstain. Director Latta? Yes. Vice President Bachelor? Yes. And President Brothard? Yes. Motions adopted. Next on the agenda is Q, which is public comment on, non agenda items. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Can we do interpretation check? Thank you. Yes. Moving to interpretation announcement, we'll start with Arabic. Again, 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. Great. Thank you,
miss Abdi. Checking attendees if many hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with we will not start with Arabic interpretation. Next, we'll go to Cantonese. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Cantonese interpretation. Ms. Ho, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Cantonese, please. The Cantonese announcement is done, mister. Great. Thank you, miss Ho. I'm checking attendees if you need hands raised for Cantonese interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Cantonese interpretation. Next, we'll go to Spanish. Again,
please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Miss Walker Marquez, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Yes. Of course. Spanish Spanish Spanish interpretation announcement. Great. Thank you, Ms. Walker Marquez. I'm checking to introduce to see if any hands raised for Spanish interpretation. I see no hands raised. That concludes our interpretation announcement and I'll turn it back to President Bruhlhardt. Thank you. We're now moving to Item Q, which is public comment on all non agenda items within the subject matter jurisdiction of
the Board. Do we have any public comment? Yes, Madam President. We have three: Susada Olegbala, Jack Nelson, and Ben Tapscott. And do we have any online? None that have signed up to speak. Okay. Thank you. Ten minutes each. So I happen to hear a conversation at a meeting with a parent from Skyline thanking you for allowing bus 39 to be returned for service at Skyline and allowing the conversion of a bathroom for the bus driver to be able to go into and that this would be decided finally at a
ACT meeting. And I'm asking, how all of this has happened? And then we're thanking the facilities director, the facilities department, miss Vanessa, the principal at McClimans for how they collaborate to get this done. And this is gonna cost money. So this is what y'all do. You got things going on that never come to board. Then let's go over this again. In June 2025, a document was handed out that showed all of the summer work that was gonna be going on. And for McClimans, the modernization of the school started supposedly in June 2025.
And to facilitate that, they cleared the building, a porch half of the building of its contents and moved the office over to us one side of the building. And then school started, and to this point, nothing has happened related to the modernization of the school. We also were scheduled to get our turf replaced. That didn't happen. In 11/13/2025, your facilities department applied for a notice of exemption. Now you gotta ask them what that's about.
But what I read was a part of it had to do with them not being required to remove the toxic soil from McClimans. So here we sit today, and in that document, it said that they would start the work on McClymonds in February. Now y'all sitting there talking about, I wanna uplift how we moving forward with the modernization process, completely eliminating that nothing's going on at McLean. Madam president, there was an additional speaker added, Oliver Brennan.
Thank you. Still two minutes. Okay. Got some things going on at Skyline, and I'm gonna quickly go through this. December 8, we had the Skyline alumni, coaches, John Beam classic basketball game. We raised $2,350, and 1,300 of that went for the mitigation of the buses that came up the day of the shooting there at Skyline. Frankie asked for that, so I wish I could've waved my magic wand and done 6,000, but 13 a start.
We had a half court shoot contest and I brought that over from my days in San Leandro and it was good, it was good. We had a kid win $20 a girl and a boy win $50 and $20 So they'll be talking about that for next year. Let's see. Yes. Okay. We are set to do it again next year on November 6. You're all invited. And the good news that I did most of the fundraising, eight out of 10, I I pretty much counted, Montclair workers, business owners, and such. I went there mainly to get the money.
They knew about John Beam, and and they were very, very gracious about that. So that was really neat. And then the eleventh and twelfth was the Skyline dance program. That was great. The kids are doing fantastic and, boy, miss James, I hear I'm hearing that she's not coming back. She'll retire and that's gonna be a deep loss. Tomorrow, I'm gonna be, well, about tomorrow. I visited Tech in August '25, and they were mostly dressed for PE. All schools should should be dressed for PE because that's gonna then you're gonna be
able to discriminate who's a visitor and who's not or an unwanted visitor. Right? I'll finish real quick here. I worked on a little deal, and I got a 150 shirts to start at Skyline Physical Ed. I'll be delivering those tomorrow, and, we're excited about that. We're hoping we could expand that. I'd like to see all the schools dressed for PE again. Last great icon behind me here, Ben Tapscott will be honored with his banner will go up January 24 at McClimans,
and you're all invited. And, that'll be a great day. That banner will go up into McClymonds gym. Thank you. Can I ask you a quick question to the time of the, honoring of coach Dafsner? 06:30 or something like that. Okay. Thanks. I went by the school today. Superintendent, you need to go over there tomorrow and get that stuff out of the hallway. They got kids crumped up in rooms because there's nothing going on there. And every time we find try to get an answer for something that make any sense, it doesn't happen. So you need to go over there. They were told the staff
to put everything in a box because we're moving out of the principal's office. You guys gonna talk or you're gonna listen to me. It's rude when somebody's talking and you're up there talking, and it's not very polite. So the staff did all these boxes and everything. High street streets supposed to be coming over. They're gonna take everything away. They never they never picked up the boxes. All the clerks over there are upset. Many of our campuses at the high school level has had two and three different visits to improve their campus,
and we get lied to. Preston Thomas is a liar. Two year delay? Name me one other project that has two year delay. Name me one. Every high school in the city has been had remodeling done at their school except one. And you guys sit up there like I mean, anybody gonna say we need to ask the question, why not? I don't know where, the person for that district is. It's like, oh, it's not my district. I'm not gonna worry about it. Those kids deserve better. And they're saying we kept waiting for people to come coach and pick up all
these boxes and everything. The boxes are still there, and we're halfway through the year. I don't I don't I don't under I don't get it. I don't like it. He should be fired. He's discriminating against the school, and you people sit up there and let it keep continuing. Good evening, board. Oliver Brennan, parent of two students in OUSD. I was zoomed into this meeting at home and I had no intention of coming in tonight, but I felt compelled to actually come in and just say to you how bizarre this situation is right now.
Behind me, there are four community members in attendance, including myself, three staff members, two labor union members, one member of the press, one new chief of staff, and one old chief of staff that just got fired a few days before the end of his probation. But there's a massive elephant in the room. We have a 100 plus million dollars adjustment to make to next year's budget. We have approximately $20,000,000 to do to this year's budget. When are we going to agendize this? Like, there's a rumor about a special meeting happening next Tuesday,
January 20, but it hasn't been announced. It hasn't been announced to the community. This is really bizarre. I listened to the interim superintendent's report, and there's no mention of a budget crisis. But the most likely outcome for this district in the coming months is we are going to go into receivership because I and a lot of the community I talk to, more of them of late, have no faith that we can make that massive adjustment. But not communicating with us is not helping.
There are a lot of people in the community even there are not here tonight really concerned about this. And on behalf of the community, I stepped, I was at this podium at at the interim report in December thanking Lisa Grant Dawson for her her her her great interim report again, and two days later, she was gone. So I just like to say on behalf of the community to Lisa Grant Dawson, thank you very much for your service. Her legacy is leading us out of receivership last June. What's your legacy gonna be? Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other public comments?
All public commenters for this item have been called. Thank you. Moving on to Item S, Unfinished Business, S125-thirteen141. Director Brohard? Yes. I know that they didn't sign up. I do see two hands raised and I believe they also made e comments. So can you just make a quick call on them? Yeah. That's I I didn't see Okay. I will call the first hand. It's Liana Riosetti. Allow them to speak. Point point of order, president Brohard. If you're just gonna allow people to speak, then, it should at least be opened up to anyone who might be on Zoom or
someplace else. But it's very inappropriate at the end to just decide, oh, yeah. Let's just let two people speak that we see there. That's why we have a set process, and the lesson time be available to everyone. I highly recommend that this is not the way to go about running a meeting. I just wanna say I know that some people did have issues in trying to sign up. Thank you. I will take those two speakers. You can make up whatever you want, but thank you. And I encourage everyone on Zoom to then make it be known that you would also like to speak if that's what you wanna do. You can't just make up the rules as you go along and say,
well, I know that there's been problems. So if there have been problems with people signing up online, please make this available for everyone who's online because you know that they also had problems signing up, not just let two people you see in the crowd speak. Thank you. Should I go ahead and speak? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Good evening. My name is Leanna Rosetti, and I'm a parent of two children at Melrose Leadership Academy. And I'm aware of California's Phone Free School Act, which requires school districts in California to adopt a policy limiting or prohibiting the use
of smartphones by 07/01/2026. So a fellow parent, Lara Klayman, and I have repeatedly been emailing, both our district board representatives, superintendent. We did get one response from John Sasaki, but we haven't gotten answers to our question, which is what will the process of establishing this policy be? And also, what type of policy is Oakland leaning towards? We have also we're trying to figure out if we can get this agenda on the agenda,
and we can't figure out what the process is for getting it on the agenda. I'm hoping you can answer that. We personally are advocating for a fully phone free campus. This is termed bell to bell, as it's proven to be the most beneficial for students both academically, socially, and emotionally. 16 states have actually already instituted this. The main difference is the students cannot take out their phones for the entire school day, including, you know, lunch periods, times when they should be socializing in between classes.
So, it's it's in our interest to know, where OUSD stands, if you're leaning towards that or towards just a more lenient policy. And if, you know, we need to advocate for what we're asking for, we absolutely will. We're just not really sure because we're not really sure where you stand and would like to get an answer on that if we possibly could. Thank you. Next speaker is Laura Klayman. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. We did have a hard time, signing up. As Liana said,
we're advocating for a belt eval policy that gives students seven hours a day free from the distractions of smartphones and to protect them from the very real harms of being plugged in 20 fourseven. Simply put, there's little educational benefit to students having smartphones during the school day. According to the NEA, over 70% of teachers say cell phones are a major distraction in the classroom, and 83% support an all day phone free policy. Students with smartphones receive hundreds of notifications a day,
many of those during school hours, and this consistent interruption makes sustained attention and learning nearly impossible. Cell phones also are experience blockers. They interfere with in person connection. Student loneliness has doubled since 2012. Teens are more anxious and depressed than ever. That is directly connected to the rise of cell phones. Cyberbullying, which occurs during the school day, is linked to a fourfold increase in suicidal ideation. And alarmingly, one third of teens report being exposed to pornography at school.
Phones also compromise safety by spreading misinformation and distracting board to successfully and can advise on implementation. I encourage the board to join the many districts across California, including San Francisco Unified and LA Unified, and states across the country that have already adopted strong, consistent cell phone policies. We respectfully ask that the board place a district wide cell phone policy on next month's agenda and let us know what you have in mind at this point. We welcome the opportunity to meet and support this work in any way that's helpful.
Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to unfinished business S-one hundred and forty five-thirteen thousand one hundred and forty one, declaring the need for emergency construction services for the repair of dangerous conditions, Ralph J. Bunch Academy via demolition of existing structures continues to exist as modified. Are there any public comments on this issue? Oh, I need a motion. Sorry. Move to approve. Second. Thank you. And are there any public comments on this? Yes, madam president. This is Asada Olugbala. Two minutes. So let's go through this again.
Bunch was identified by the facilities department as having some maintenance issues that needed to be addressed. They moved the student population to Martin Luther King in order supposedly to take care of that. They did nothing. The building became blighted property because it was ignored by the facilities department to handle the issues that were going on at that facility. So now we have to demolish the site because of neglect by the facilities department.
Not only that, we have contamination to deal with, and it should have been dealt with. Besides that, the insanity of considering a feasibility plan that you've already put money in to decide what you're gonna do with Bunch. You should clear that site to make sure it has been relieved of all contamination before you do a feasibility study. But what you really did was throw Bunch into the mix because all you wanna really do is get that building across the street demolished so you can turn it into apartments for your constituents that you have.
And I go back to this point. You have to stop having your particular needs and concerns and priorities put ahead of what has to be the higher priority of consideration of the total district. I'm gonna continue to say, we should not be looking at a feasibility study and demolishing that building. That building is secured right now. That is not a priority. But that's what you do, and I'm a call you out for that. You engage in putting things that are your stuff ahead of the the higher concern
of the students and the district. And that's what's represented by that demolition and feasibility study, $400,000 that could be used for lead remediation that we don't have enough money to cover at this point. Are there any other public comments? All public comments just for this item have been called. Thank you. Are there any board comments? Did you want go ahead, mister Jones. Good evening, board, superintendent. I would like to invite, Selene Nadal Hayes, who's the executive director of planning and construction, who's gonna provide an update on the Ralph Blanche, project.
And so if you could remote her, that would be great because there's been some significant advancement. K. I'll turn it over to Selye. Thank you, Preston. Good evening, board members and community members. I'm Selye Nadelhays. I'm the executive director of construction, and I'm pleased to share an update with you all on, the demolition of the Ralph Bunch the former Ralph Bunch campus. As a long time a lifelong community member and a frequent visitor to the neighborhood around Budge, it's very exciting for me to be able to professionally,
share this part of of my work, that impacts the the community that I live in as well. After significant delays, including the federal shutdown that limited our access to the UDS CPA and, multiple subsequent arson incidents, we have finally completed the testing and containerization of all fire related debris on the former Bunch campus. All of the contaminated materials, the PCB contaminated materials, are currently fully contained and ready for off-site disposal. There are 14 sealed containers that are holding the regulated waste that will be transported
to a licensed facility in Nevada as soon as their capacity frees up, for us to transport the materials there. At no point in the, in the process of of managing the hazards, there, has the the have we had, any of the contaminants, be at risk to the surrounding community. They've been contained, in different forms on district property and are are now in these sealed containers, and and certainly at no risk to the community today. What this also means is that the demolition of the non PCB impact impacted portions
of the site is actively underway. And the final limited testing near the West Oakland library will occur once the containers are removed and the EPA, approves the sampling plan there. So I I wanna just take a moment as a community member who visits the park, who visits the library, on a regular basis with my two year old daughter who's ready for bed now, and waiting for me, that that the site is safe. There are no public hazards, health hazards at this time that we, that that we are aware of and that and that,
anyone should be concerned with. We have stabilized the site, from the frequent security issues. There have been no recent intrusions on the site. So the next steps here are that we will, be continuing to follow-up with the, the facility that will receive the waste in Nevada, and schedule the removal of the containers and disposing them properly. We will complete the final adjacent area testing, pending approval from the US EPA and, complete the demolition of the non PCB waste, components of the site and close out the site.
Thank you for the opportunity to share this this, really tremendous update. It represents, the support of the board to be able to continue to take, quick action to to protect the community, and to ensure that the site is, is well prepared for what comes next, which we're excited to, work with the community to determine what that and the board to determine what that will be. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. That is, good news. Are there any other board comments or questions for, missus Dale Hayes? Rachel? Yeah. I'll just make,
a short comment. I just wanna, you know, appreciate, miss, Nadelle Hayes for the the work. I, me and my kids are also frequenters of that area, and my littlest, my five year old, had a field trip to the West Oakland Library with his class, which all there's a program to get all students and preschoolers to the West Oakland Library. And he actually came back and asked me about all of the big green boxes. And so even, I think our youngest kids who are in that area have noticed that there's been, some significant,
containerization. Know? And so I appreciate the specificity though because I when people have asked me, like, and my, you know, my kids have asked me, I haven't been able to give such a clear answer. I would if it's possible to get, any of this information in writing because I think it is pretty specific and detailed. And as a nonexpert myself, I would love to be able to share some of these specifics and timelines with the community. So, I think, respectfully, if if, the facilities department is able to provide that to the board and potentially also the community, I think that would be very welcome. Thanks again. Thank you. Thank you.
And we will be posting this update on our website in the morning. Any other board comments? Oh, thank you. Director Hutchinson? Yes. Thank you. I just have to say first, I'm very uncomfortable with staff making a presentation without their camera on, especially a new staff member. So, Superintendent Sadler, I would respectfully request that you ensure that staff, if they're not gonna be present in person and they're going to present, that at least their cameras are on. You know, this is this project now is very indicative of what's going on in the district.
I approved this the first time it came forward to the board. That was in June. We were told as a board that it needed to be an emergency resolution so work could commence immediately over the summer. Now here we are six months later and it's still being brought forward every board meeting as an emergency. Clearly something that's taken six months and there's still further approval needed was not an emergency. And the reason why, this has been presented as an emergency resolution is to allow people to go outside of the normal legal bidding process.
So I think I lost track. This is probably at least the tenth time an emergency resolution like this has been approved. It's highly highly inappropriate and it shows how everything has been imploding basically, over the last calendar year especially when it comes to the mismanagement of our facilities and the mismanagement of our finances. And although most of this board was not on the board at the time, the timeline that Sister Assata gave is exactly what happened. Five years ago this was a facility in use by students and now it's been
laid into disrepair with ongoing resolutions to approve it and no end in sight. We have to be able to do better. Thank you. Are there any other board comments? I just want to thank the Distillery. Do you want to add something? I think this report was really good news. I think it's, a really thorough report, and I appreciate the work of the facilities department. With that, mister Raikstra, can we Alright. Miss miss Breaux Hart. Yeah. President Breaux Hart Van Sedgwick. Oh, I'm sorry to hear you. Thank you. First, I do wanna thank,
Saleh. Thank you very much for the report. I really appreciate it. It counters this negative, critique that is going on. I think what we wanna be really clear with again is that, the challenges that happen a bunch happened right out of COVID, five years ago. The property has been sitting vacant for quite a while. The previous board chose not to deal with it at all. The previous board leadership chose not to deal with it, or it would have been dealt with. So, again, we're at a place where we're trying to fix the problems that were created by
the previous board directors. And those who speak so loud and their critique are the ones who were actually were leading the district at the time that this Butch, campus was closed. And they did absolutely nothing. So I I just that narrative that the board is not actually, that's created this problem, we did not create it. We're actually trying to fix it. And, the building was abandoned or been closed for multiple years. And we don't have no control over an arsonist coming to,
to burn buildings. Yeah. We have no control, but we did the right thing. We did the emergency to get the protection around the burnt buildings that were toxic. We did every step that was necessary. So I just wanna be clear to those who want to use every little item and critique the district. This and and and we can go receipts by receipts and tell you when this building was closed and who was there on the votes that did nothing about it. So I I just wanna thank Celie for,
Celie for actually being a part of the community, understanding how important it is because those who are not a part of the community are easy to critique it and call it down. When you actually have to be a part of the community to understand the effects and that Sele has taken time out to explain everybody, we've done step by step that was necessary, and we will continue to protect that property and get it taken care of. We were are trying to move forward. And we're not we're trying to solve the problems that actually were created several years
ago, just like this budget. We're trying to solve it. So I just wanna thank you again. Look forward to if if anyone has a concern and would like to meet, I am open to meeting with you. I will even reach out to Sele, and we can actually I'm already adding you onto that. But we can actually have the conversation. Let's meet at the tennis park. Let's meet at the infirmary and have this conversation. And let's take a look at what we've actually done to show that we actually are very intentional in protecting and loving our own community.
It's easy to criticize when you're outside the district and and sitting up in the hills. I'm talking about living in the community. Let's meet, please. Thank you very much. Thank you, director Williams. Director Williams forgets he's been on the board just as long as me. You're speaking No. I don't forget at all, but I know you were board president when all this was happening. When you're the director that provokes that district, so this is your job. And you keep reflecting what if you got You and your cronies were crony lead. Yes. Alright. All your board members. Wait. You're a CTA regional director,
and you're at their con Thank you. Mister Raichstra, can we call the call vote, please? You're at their conference in Burlingame. There's no conference. On the roll call to adopt the resolution as stated, This resolution requires a four fifth vote, which means five members of the board are required to adopt it. If not, it fails. On the roll call, student directors are absent. Director Latta? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Hutchinson? No. Director Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice president Bachelor?
Yes. President Brohard? Yes. Motion's adopted. Thank you. With that, we will move to new business, item t one, enrollment, and I believe, Bailash has a presentation. Good evening, doctor Sadler, board of directors. Thank you for the opportunity to come here tonight and talk about enrollment. My name is Killian Betlak. I'm the executive director of enrollment. Just to kinda ground us in why we're here, it's a best practice and something I'd hope to implement annually for us to come and do a kind of retrospective, update on what the district's enrollment is after we pass census day,
which is the first Wednesday in October, solidify our enrollment, and get an update on where we are. That report is probably best happening in late November, early December. This board and our district was deeply engaged in very critical work at that time, so we've we've we're here now. I hope that this becomes an annual, practice that is then paired with the enrollment stabilization, report that is maybe later in the spring that is very focused on the enrollment marketing team and the work of implementing board policy fifty one fifteen. So with that, I always start when we talk about enrollment with what our department calls Oakland's HomeCourt
Advantage, the things that we believe families are seeking in our schools and finding and finding joy and happiness in. Our diverse and inclusive programs, quality early literacy instructions, ever expanding after school opportunities, a ton of enrichment, particularly in our middle school and just simply world class college and career pathways in our high schools. So let's talk as we start with how we did against our enrollment projections. It's helpful to just kinda ground ourselves in the fact that our office every year creates and,
distributes enrollment projections for the district, for each school, and indeed for each grade in each school that are then turned into to budget and staffing across the district. We do this not, by magic or soothsaying, but through math. And we base that math on these factors that you see here in the report. They're driven largely by birth rates. And, we have to to know who's going to be in school in TK and K, we go back and we base that on how many, young how many babies were born in Oakland that then become TK and K eligible.
Right? So director Hutchinson, congratulations on the new addition to your family and thank you for doing your part for increasing enrollment in Oakland. We also have, we also look at cohort progression, which is about who's staying in our schools. Right? And who's continuing and at what rates from what grade to the next. Right? And then we also it's it's a best practice to look at housing and where housing is built. And this is actually something that's kind of unique to Oakland, where we can't always rely on new housing that's being built as a driver of
new enrollment. It's it's a it's a little bit of a unique factor for us because the types of housing that's being built is not aligning with folks that are choosing our schools. And so when we think about where some of these big, apartment buildings are going up, they're often offering market rate or high income apartments, and the folks that are going into those are not, they don't either don't have kids or they're having kids and not sending them to our schools. Right? And so sometimes even and that's even driving gentrification, which is then having a negative impact on our loan.
Right? So just to name that. So when we produce those projections, we then have to track our enrollment against those because those projections become budget. So how do we do against them? So you saw this, you saw versions of this in in previous superintendents reports. And then on the census day, which is the first Wednesday in October, we certify our enrollment and we say whether we exceeded our projection, met our projection, or had more kids. And if you look at this chart, which is inclusive of, SEP students, students in self contained programs at each grade span, we exceeded our enrollment at each grade or exceeded our projection at each grade span
by a pretty significant number. Most significantly at elementary school, the elementary grades by 264 students, but also at middle school, 65, high school by 204, a total, of 533 students. And so just to name, right, like, I I am not a CBO. I have not been CBO certified. I've not I don't intend to. I was a philosophy major. But if we do some some back of the envelope math, and just very kind of generalize that, that's additional additional realized ADA that we didn't plan for,
that wasn't in our budget in excess of $7,000,000. That's that's in normal course of events, like, a lot of money. And it's also worth naming that that is more than the sum total of all of the investments under Board Policy fifty one fifteen enrollment stabilization in one year. And so all of those that have been made collectively and cumulatively over the many years were realized back just this year. So good news story. If we look historically, enrollment against projections,
they're in 2021, '21, '22. We're having a hard time meeting those projections. And so when those numbers are in the red, what that means is that when, you know, the revenue comes back from the state on census day, the district has to find a way to fill a gap because we're not getting all of the revenue that we planned for. It's worth naming that once the enrollment stabilization investments began, the story looks a little different. And we started we stopped the pattern of failing to meet our enrollment projections, which again are mathematically driven,
and instead exceeding them and bringing in additional revenue. At a school level, provided you with some analysis of how, because this is something we track as well, how different schools, fared against their individual projections. So at a school level, we had three schools who missed their projections by more than 5%. They're listed here in order of, of size. We had three schools that missed their projections between three and five percent and five schools that missed their projections by less than 3%. In some cases, that's a a pretty small number of kids.
The the black vertical bar in these charts is the projection. Right? So if you're that's that's where they were trying to get to, and the horizontal bar is where the enrollment was on Census then. We had a number of schools that, 12 schools exceeded their projections between 13%. 10 school or 12 schools 10 schools exceeded their projections between 35%. 42 schools exceeded their projections by more than 5%, including Skyline, Elmhurst, Joaquin Miller, La Escobita, and many,
many more. So in terms of what that looked like at a high level and in terms of trends, this is it's helpful to name that we've over the course of time, ten years, our district has lost 3,500 students. That's a lot. That's, the tol equivalent to Oakland High and Oakland Tech's total enrollment combined. All of the elementary schools in D 6, it's a lot of kids. However, in '24 and '25, for the fir or for going into the 2526 school year for the first time,
we realized not just exceeding our projections, but actually growing enrollment year over year. That had not happened in eight years. So the last time we saw that kind of growth was from the 1617 to 1718 school years, and we actually increased our enrollment by 79 students. So pretty significant, outcome. We saw, you know, kind of at the same time in the news, there are reports of, you know, East Bay Districts, that normally are, you know, having enrollment going up for the first time seeing declining enrollment. You know, this is something that's that's a national and a regional story.
And so for Oakland Unified to not only not be declining, but actually growing in a in a single year, while one year of data is not yet a trend is is significant and something that we should take pride in. What that looked like at each grade level, what you're seeing here is, TK enrollment during that same time period, kinder enrollment, sixth grade enrollment, and ninth grade enrollment. Those secondary grades actually declined a little bit. We'll talk about why later. The kinder and TK grew, and that's significant. Right? And I think it's also significant to name that it was TK and K,
not just TK. Right? A 172 students in TK and 46 in K, growth. Thinking about who's in our district, this is an analysis of of who the student population is by race, ethnicity. It's helpful or or not gonna read every number in this slide, but I think in terms if you look at trend lines going back to 1516, the the African American student population in our district continues to decline considerably, which is part of both a citywide trend, but also black students in in OUSD are underrepresented
to upper underrepresented relative to Black students in the city as a whole, school age Black. So, we've seen the, Latino percentage of students represented grow as well as multiethnic, multiracial students in that time. Another significant demographic trend is the increase in low income students, a 7.2% percentage points increase in in ten years, bringing our district above 81 80%, Title one qualifying, a euphemism for low income, that's high. And it should be concerning to us because I think in that time,
very few people would would think of Oakland as a city where wealth was flowing out. On the contrary, it's a place where wealth was flowing into our city. And so if our school district is not representing that trend, we're not serving the entirety of the city, and that should be a point of inquiry. In that same vein, when we look at what our TK grade looks like by itself, it's very different. Significantly different, which suggests that there are some choices being made through the course of of young people and the course of a family's educational journey that causes them to to maybe,
choose our district for a short period of time, but not for the entirety of their child educational journey, which again should be a point of inquiry for us to understand what we need to do. So that if 68% of our district is is is, low income at Teekay, why can't the whole district look like that? Right? Why can't and that's important for a couple of reasons. One, a unified school district in a city should serve its whole city, and we should be filling our schools with as as close as possible,
with opportunities for socioeconomic integration and as many opportunities as possible to create low income opportunities for low income peers to learn from from those who are more affluent and those who may not need the same levels of support. Newcomers continue to be a trend that we watch in the district, in my office and and and and similar offices, we have now the smallest number of newcomers since 02/1516. You see in there a less sharp decline going to this year than we saw two years ago,
where we had a very sharp decline. Some of that is because we actually have we we have some, more newcomers in the very early elementary grades, but the secondary newcomer population continues to shrink disproportionately to other other grades. It's also really helpful to get into this level of detail. Some of you have this kind of at your fingertips, but I wanna name that inside of the newcomer population, we talk about and educators talk about n ones, n twos, n threes, the three years that newcomers are in the system. That should be evenly distributed.
Right? Like a third, a third, a third. Right now, we have a very small percentage of n ones, new newcomers. Right? It's 15%. So what that means is that as the newcomers who are n threes next year, they will age out of being newcomers and there's no one to replace them. So we have kind of a newcomer cliff where that number is gonna shrink even more and even more rapidly. We have about two classes of fifth grade newcomers ready to rise into sixth grade. Two in the whole district.
That is very small. And that chart that I provided gives you a sense of how of the the rapidity of the decline of new newcomer enrollment. October is a regular month, going from one seventy seven in '23, a 177 new newcomer enrollment, down to 71, and then this year, 22. That's a precipitous decline. We know it's driven by by, politics and by, you know, a a sense of of unwelcome that comes from the federal government and it's impacting our and our community. So I wanna I wanna conclude and then and certainly take questions as the board
has them with some drivers of enrollment change as our office sees them and as we see them in the data. The first, and it's often discussed, is TK expansion. Right? TK enrollment increased almost 200 students. As has been mentioned in in a number of spaces, our TK demand, particularly in Districts 12, And 4, exceeded our capacity last year where we had wait list at or above a 100 students, for TK in in many schools. We currently, in 2627,
have four new classrooms for TK in our projections. That will not fully meet that demand, and we will and unless there are other plans brought to bear, we will again experience that same level of unmet need. And so our ability to continue to be in that place where we're not continuing to expand unless we'll slow and stagnate unless we're able to make other, decisions with our facilities. It is worth naming that we have the largest number of TK students enrolled in Alameda Alameda County, 400 more than the next closest district,
which is Fremont and more than a thousand more than districts like San Leandro, Alameda, Berkeley. So this is a place where we've really invested, but also should continue to do so. Second key invite, driver of enrollment change is increased student, retention. If you recall in enrollment projections, we talked about kids going from one grade level to the next. Like, that's how we, like, track. And this exceeded some of our models because we saw some things that that that we're not we were not able to model. So TK, retention in the kindergarten grew four percentage points to the highest level that we've seen
since we tracked the number. So going back ten, fifteen years, super positive number. We saw middle school, decline, the the retention decline slam on the brakes, and we were stagnant. We'll take stagnant if if it's stagnant, it's better than decline, and now we'll work on the opposite. And we saw high school have really, really, really, really, really strong retention from nine to ten and ten to 11. And I was talking to a lot of my high school principal colleagues, and they're like, our tenth grade and eleventh grade are really, really full. What's going on? I was like, nobody left? And, okay. Okay. Okay. We'll make schedules. And I was like, great.
Because nobody left. So we gotta figure it out. That's a positive because that's a driver of or an indicator of families being very happy with what they're getting from their schools. The decline in newcomer enrollment in the other direction though is something that's driving our Change. Yes, our enrollment went up in the face of hundreds and hundreds fewer newcomers, right, is is significant, particularly in the secondary level. This is disproportionately impacting secondary schools. It also has an impact on all of our k eight dual enrollment schools, which rely on newcomers, particularly in grades two and above,
because those schools have entrance requirements that have to do with language and literacy, and newcomers have supported them. Without that newcomer enrollment, those schools' enrollment becomes more fragile and something we're very concerned about. And then increased enrollment from charters. We, realized increased enrollment coming in from charters, particularly those that self closed or, or agreed to murders or had charters, not renewed. And that was at a much higher rate than we previously saw. I both for those individual,
charter schools, those CMOs that are under them, and for similar and like schools in in the past. It has not always been a given that because an individual charter closes, that those students will then choose OUSD. Last year, they did in high numbers. And I think if you see, in particular, the Urban Montessori example, where greater than 50% of those students enrolled in in in our district, in large part due to the merger with Brookfield, that may provide a model, a blueprint, if you will, for future board decisions, future actions, in this way. And that is,
oh, looking ahead. Yes. I have a couple more. So it's also enrollment season now, and so it's important that everyone who, is looking for a new school, look, coming into our district is aware of the February 8 deadline, which is coming up soon, and that's the deadline for on time enrollment. Of course, folks can apply after, but we want people to hit that deadline. We are currently, 649 applications ahead of last year's pace. It's something we're really proud of, particularly because last year's pace was ahead of the year before, which was ahead of the year before.
The the the headlines haven't always been, like, super positive. And so the fact that that those applications are are up means that families are hearing great things about schools through other networks, and that's great. We have a huge innovation and reform underway that we're really excited about. We have been working for literally three years to incorporate after school applications in the core enrollment application. Huge shout out to, Martha Pena and Expanded Learning Team, who's been, the enrollment, team and my my partner on this, as well as all of our partners in expanded learning work.
I won't get them all, but, like, you know, the BACI and DACR and Girls Inc and Safe Passage who are also pushing and changing, in ways that, you know, maybe they're not always super thrilled with, but they're doing the right thing for our kids and community. And so families being able to put those applications in at the same time as enrollment means they're going to get notified of their after school applications months ahead of when they normally would, which means they're able to make better informed decisions. We stand to lose fewer families to this, like, mystery of when after school is coming in, and we have a cleaner and more unified system.
Right? Really, really positive. And then enrollment stabilization, which is not the point of this of this, presentation, but just to name, is a driver of some of these positive news and its funding is is is uncertain. It was largely funded, in fact, almost almost entirely funded this year with carryover, so no new money. And that money that carryover is will be gone. And so that means that a lot of that work is set to be done on June 30 year. I know we're in complex and difficult times but it's important also that,
you should name. So, really appreciate your time and would love to answer any questions you have. Board members, I'd just like to make a comment. I want to thank you, Killian for this excellent report. I have heard nothing but, excellent reviews from parents who I've run into that are so excited about, particularly about the connection of the after school piece to the selection of their site. This is a major, major, major innovation and I just really want to thank you for all the detailed work in terms of making that happen. It's been a long time coming.
But, many of our parents have to make their decision based on I mean, like it's absolutely critical. And, and quality programs which we're running. So, I just want to let you know, people are feeling very positive about that. And the other thing I wanted to acknowledge is the work that you've done around aligning, the Choice system, aligning, the after school program with many of our families that are special needs families. And so there's been really thoughtful work within your department to help make this happen,
to communicate, to advertise it, to be really clear about what the procedures are. So I just wanted to uplift all the the pre work that's been done to have a high quality process for our families. So thank you. You're totally kind. Thank you. Are there any public comments? Yes, Madam President. There are two. Assata Olufala and Mario Capitelli. Two minutes each. So here's the good news for you. Black students are declining and will continue to decline, so you won't have to be worried about us being a pain in your behind
and not serving us because we are leaving the district, not by choice. So the population of, Oakland went down. In 2005, it was 33%. In 2025, it's 19%. Gentrification and sanctuary city status has resulted in African Americans leaving, with the jobs unavailable going to people here illegally and housing be being pushed out with displacement. So we we are going out, and that's a good thing because when you're in a district where people don't wanna
accommodate you, it's best that you're not here. So I'll decline, and I'm encouraging you to close my Climmons because, you sit here and act like you wanna brag on your children going to the West Oakland Library and not acknowledging the extreme amount of contamination that your child was exposed to being in that area. The other thing is you got a decline in your newcomer enrollment, so maybe you need to reconsider the 20 administrators you have on staff And and the schools that you have just for newcomers,
not accommodating black kids, but you do accommodate very well newcomer students. You have a population of white stew whites of 28% in Oakland and only 12%, come to into your schools. Whites don't come into this district. And if they do, they only go to particular schools where they have other white people. So you have to work on that. Skyline's enrollment is not anything increasing. It's not anything to brag on. You have some serious safety issues at, Skyline. You haven't dealt with. You you have the school cannot be fenced in.
You cannot evacuate those children in case of an emergency. Like, today, they had to evacuate children because of a gas leak in Alameda the city of Alameda. You can't do that at Skyline. No evacuation plan whatsoever. Thank you. Next speaker? Good evening, board. Doctor Sadler. I stand in support of investing in enrollment stabilization. I stand in this in support of sustainable investments made in the communications department to do enrollment and attendance marketing. I stand in support of all employees working within their job descriptions. I stand in support of creative media makers working collaboratively in an environment that fosters
professional development through inter through iteration, data analysis, and the sharing of best practices. I stand in support of PEG funds being leveraged to ensure those creatives have the tools they need at no cost to the general fund. I stand in support of leveraging the partnership between KDOL and YouthBeat to leverage hundreds of thousands of dollars of external funds to recruit, stipend, train, coordinate the most talented student content creators from across our high schools to promote the
enrollment and attendance to their peers and prospective middle and elementary school students. I stand in support of us not repeating the mistakes of the past and instead doing this the right way efficiently, collaboratively, effectively, and above all, sustainable for years to come. Thank you. Are there any more public comments? Madam President, all public comments as for this item have been called. Thank you. Are there board comments? Doctor. Beres? Always appreciate the enrollment updates and I have so many questions. But one that's top of mind for me because I'm just trying to wrap my
head around the enrollment decline part and wonder if there are any lessons to learn we can learn from students who are no longer in our system because they chose to leave our system. And I'm thinking in particular about the proportion of title one families reflected in students and families who exit the system and whether the proportions match. Right? Or do they leave at a faster or slower rate? And I think the you brought up a few reasons why paying attention to that
is important. But one of the other reasons why I think it's important is because the higher the proportion of title one families we have, it signals the kind of resources we need to run a high quality system. And so, we have to pay attention to that in budget development. So I just wanted to flag that, and thank you for for calling it out. I also have a question about the newcomer student, pattern. And I'm wondering are like, whether there's a conversation with the city,
because I know tracking is different at that level. But are there fewer families in open period? Or are we still a home to newcomer students and families, but they're not choosing within their student or anywhere at all. And so wondering what the conversation might be between OUSD and other systems and then between OUSD and the city on that. And then I fully support I actually didn't see the last slide of this presentation when I was prepping for the board meeting, so I chuckled a little to myself that this is a shameful plug that you
need resources to do this work. Like, I appreciate it because I think you more than paid for, you know, earned the right to keep this work. And I think we should seriously consider what kind of investment we need to do. We've been working in non profit for a very long time if we don't invest in generating revenue highly unlikely that you you get it and maintain the level. So I definitely support, and advocate for that. Thank you. K. Any other board comments? Do you wanna address those? I'm sorry. Just very quickly, director Berry, on the on thank you for your last comment.
On the first two, in fall twenty three, we did some public interest polling of our community, and got some really, really interesting data from, out of that. Survey 1,200 families across, grade, language, ability, socioeconomic status. And and but now that data is a little old. Right? And so we'd love to go back to that to that, kind of process again with some new questions, and and that type of question that you posed would be really key. We also did some focal group work out of that,
and and we have some some lessons learned from there. And I can share with you, what we did in those focal groups, and and we specifically talked to folks who received their first choice offer and didn't enroll with us. So a little bit different than what you just named, but, some really fascinating things, came out of that. Very briefly on your second on your second question, I I don't I I don't have connections with the city around that data. I will say, and this is an incomplete an an incomplete answer, the type of newcomer in particular that we've seen, really decrease in this this is a sub popular subgroup inside of a subgroup is
the older unaccompanied minor. Right? And that's why the secondary numbers in particular have have been hit. And if we just think about kind of, like, the the the value proposition of a family saying this is a good place to send, you know, a 13 year old and a 15 year old brother on their own, That that's we're we're not there anymore. And I think there's some of the some of the domestic issues in other countries that maybe necessitated or drove that have have shifted somewhat. But but so that's some of the answer to that latter.
Yeah, well, I am a huge booster for enrollment and the work that you all do, so just appreciation as always. I have a couple of comments and a couple of questions. The first, I'll just, plus one to what Doctor. Sadler shared about afterschool enrollment being part of the enrollment process generally. I do, I just think the ways in which parents having certainty about whether their child can have a place in after school when they get an offer at a school,
and actually and then seeing schools that they're on the wait list for, they would have a spot at you know, like that people maybe are going to be considering their choices not just on the school, but also on whether their student can get into after school. And to see the number, I think, is so huge because if you're one on the list or five, you might be like, Okay, I'll risk it. But if you're a 100, then, you know, it will help people make more informed decisions. So, also just the inclusion of, students' IEPs or 504s is just a big benefit for, our parents of disabled students and also for our, after school providers to be able to plan for those students.
So I just, again, I just want to make like, lift that up. And also parents, just everyone, families enroll in after care, even if you're not changing schools because that's, coming. I think you sent that out. Two questions. The TK Hubs, you mentioned a number. Was that number prior to the adoption of scenario three which directed the inclusion? So, have you, I assume, have done some modeling and seeing the enrollment numbers? What additional number of students do you think that would bring to the district with scenario three implementation? I think so, yes.
We had so that number does not has nothing is is was, created prior to, scenario three because that was just kind of the enrollment timeline we were on. I conservatively, scenario three could bring could result in the creation of eight additional PK classes, and so then it's eight times 24. I can get my phone out and do it, but, it's late at night. So, yeah, that's that's the and and and there are versions where maybe 12, maybe 10. Right? And so a lot of that depends on on some other factors and and kind
of there's moving pieces there. And what I would say is that the the the if that is a road that, you know, we choose to go down in terms of implementation, the sooner those decisions are made, the more flexibility we have to be more assertive in our choices. Mhmm. As we get closer to where the on time enrollment window closes and and we start making offers and things like that, it we start to constrain ourselves. And also, when we start getting to places where where school one pagers are created,
that also starts to to lock us in. Right? Mhmm. And director, Thompson helpfully did some math. It's a 192. Really appreciate that, Director Thompson. Yeah, thanks for that. I would also so I think I here also, I would just add that in terms of then, again, I think we, had already adopted scenario three, so I don't think we need additional votes, but I think we should have maybe it's the twentieth, maybe it's, some other time just clarity about when that report would come back if there was a decision point. I also would just say I'll just again, to Director Berry's point,
I also think we should continue the work. Also, to Mr. Cappitelli's point, we should continue the work, and do it even more broadly. So, I think in scenario one, it included continuing enrollment stabilization, so I would just raise my voice. Even though I know that you have some discretion on that. I would just really think that this investment is worth it. And then the last thing I would just say you know, we talk a lot about choice and schools and enrollment. You know, we have a choice system, an open enrollment system, where people can apply to any school in the district.
And, but all schools are supposed to have an underlying neighborhood that supports the enrollment, that makes the programmatic work more stable. And And so I'm just curious, when was the last time we did an overall boundary update? I think it's been some time. Some of them maybe 50? It's been a while. There some of them are very old and they and many of them do not reflect a lot of the the changes in shifting demographics that that certainly have happened in over the last ten, twenty years. Yeah, probably not even the last eighty years.
I guess I'm curious, you know, the in terms of just that how you thought about in, you know, that that additional policy around neighborhood boundaries. And that'll be my last question. Yep. So I think you're right. The there we while we do have a choice system, the choice has, really emphasizes neighborhood boundaries in in the process, in the algorithm, and how families still think about that. And so it would be a valuable exercise, and process and predictable process to have some some board policy language directing
staff to maintain up to date, attendance boundaries. And so I think that that would that would make a lot of sense. And it would also there's a prob there's also some kind of missteps in some of those that that maybe can be corrected. And we would also benefit from having some statements of value and and and guidance as to what is important in our attendance boundaries. We have some that are that are next door to each other that are that are three times the size. Right? I I would just name Fremont's attendance boundary has a number of students three times
the size that Fremont could enroll. Right? We don't worry about it because of our the the definition of our system and some of these things are are not are are somewhat asymmetric and incongruous. So that would be that would be good, that would be welcomed board action, and I think that would be a, that would strengthen our work generally as a district. Any other board comments? I just wanna say again, thank you. I really the after school thing is huge. As someone who's, spent years trying to get my kids in after school programs and watching my own kids try to get their kids in after school programs, so I think, that is a really relief to have that whole day taken care of when you
enroll your student. I'm also pretty pleased to see the enrollment from charter schools. I think that, again, I think that shows that, even though parents may have chosen another school before choosing Oakland, that they chose to come back. And I think that says a lot to our work. I would also like to echo, Mario's thing about, like, kind of a consistent, communications. You know, our our video I think I always watch those videos and things like that come out, interviewing principals and things. But I also feel like having students be able to address to talk about their schools and directing that the communications piece of it,
I think, would also be really, really valuable. I did have one question. I didn't quite understand this. The comment you made about wealth flowing into Oakland, wealth going out and its connection to Title one. If you could explain Sure. I I just our city's been getting richer. And so it seems it seems odd that our that it it seems incongruous that our district would would have a higher Title one population given how much wealth has come into our city over the last couple years. And so just we we as a we have not captured, as a school district, the a kind of representation of of of the entirety of our city.
Okay. Thanks. Sorry for not being Oh, it's okay. It's my own clarity too, so I appreciate that. Thank you. And with that, Director Tops is oh, Hutchinson. Sorry. I can't see your screen here. I'm sorry. I'll go to Director Hutchinson. Thank you. Just for the record, yes, we have redone our school boundaries sometime in the last eighty years, Director Latta. It's really frustrating even the conversation that happens sometimes because it's just so non reflective of the history tradition and and even community, of OUSD. And, to now even just in this conversation to hear talk of changing school boundaries and
things like that when, the conversation makes me think that people don't even understand our enrollment policy as it is. And that, neighborhood that you live in is one of the top preferences when we do an enrollment process. You know, I would like to see, I think with page 23 when we're talking about enrollment increase to charters, Killian. To me, it doesn't matter, how much enrollment a non closed charter has. I think the number that we we need to always track actually, there's two numbers that we always need to track is, total enrollment of,
students in OUSD versus enrollment in charter schools and that expressed as a percentage. Because what we've seen over time, especially over the last six years, is a growth or a a decrease in charter saturation and OUSD being able to capture a bigger and bigger piece of the pie. And I think that's the important number to track. And the other thing I just wanna say out there is we need to, be careful when we are chasing TK enrollment, because there's a lot of, it's not as simple as it might appear. Not only do TK students have the generally the lowest attendance,
which means it might not always be a moneymaker. Even with that, we need to be very focused on our capture rate. And I think as we're going forward and trying to, maximize our district, we need to look at how we utilize our schools and, how we organize cohorts across the district. Lastly, I'm just really troubled by the conversation tonight. I wanna repeat what, Superintendent Sadler said at the last regular board meeting. She stressed that the scenarios are not a plan. That a scenario is not a plan. So for anyone to ask a question based off a scenario that had no details
at all, is not only unfair to the staff members that you ask the question of, it shows a real lack of understanding of what the board even approved. And so the board has not approved any plan that looks at any details. The plan the board approves scenarios that then two days later led to the firing of the chief of staff and the resignation of the chief business officer. There has been no work done to develop a plan and that's the whole problem. And instead of talking about enrollment and all these other issues tonight, this should have been solely about, bringing forward a fully developed plan that lists out individual FTEs so we can make
decisions on how to keep the district solvent. And people can ignore the problem for six more weeks but once March 15 passes, the game's over. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other board comments? Thank you, Killian. That was an excellent report. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, okay. Vincent, director Williams. President Brehart, thank you. Sorry for catching on a little late. Just wanna thank Killian for the work he's done, not only throughout our district to increase enrollment, but really to increase enrollment in district three. Every single school in district three has seen an uptick,
in enrollment, which is fantastic. Prescott up in enrollment. And and, actually, the the great thing about Prescott is a lot of the neighborhood, the new residents that have moved into West Oakland are bringing their students to Prescott, which has just been fantastic to see. You can always meet us every Wednesday morning out greeting parents, greeting students, welcoming. And, you'll see the diversity of Prescott, which is really, uplifting to see how strong after over a hundred and fifty years it's been there, and it's and it's just as vibrant as ever.
Second, just wanna thank for us. I mean, Jillian again on, Hoover increase at Hoover. Thank you, Preston, for the the facilities work. Martin Luther King, we are busting at the seams of Martin Luther King and really appreciate that, as well as our middle schools. I just wanna say the the marketing that we've done for our schools have been has been very successful, Being on the billboards, in the neighborhood, being, on electronic billboards on a freeway. Just really and really running the Oakland in the middle, story, just just to share all the great things that are going on in Oakland.
You know, there are so many folks that want to pull Oakland down, but it it it is hard to do that when we are moving up. Our story is real. It's true. And it's really highlighting some of the great things that are going on. And I just really, again, say to the district team, yes. We do have our challenges, but we are moving in the right direction. And lastly, I do wanna lift up, doctor, director, Valerie Bachelor because, her idea, to, refresh the sanctuary policy to make sure our families and all families of every single
student is safe in our schools, has, I think, continued to, keep our schools at at its at its best. And so I just wanna thank, for your vision to definitely continue to support our students, and we do have work to do and look forward to continuing to do that work. I think we're in a right place to actually move forward and grow after two consecutive years of growth. It didn't happen in the last five. It happened in the last two, and I just really wanna thank the intention of continuing to support the enrollment stable
stabilization. Thank you again. Appreciate it. Thank you. And with that, we will move on to item t four, twenty five dash three zero eight six, application for provisional internship permit, California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, named employees for school year twenty twenty five-twenty six, and the Talent in Human Resources. Is there a motion to adopt it? Yes. I move the adoption of T, dot dash four. Second. And is there public comment? Yes, madam president. Asala Olugbala. Two minutes. I I don't foresee how this is gonna work based on the fact that I
looked at your consent agenda. And you have add items on the consent agenda dealing with, academic tutoring, fun increasing fundamental reading skills, improving ninth graders moving to the next grade level, tutoring for students with IEPs and five zero four, reading support, one on one reading support, tutoring program, lesson preparation for teachers, math instruction support, career training program, and, diagnostic reading component. Now you just rubber stamped all of that.
So if you're gonna rubber stamp the programs that have to do with teaching and learning, how is this gonna work that you're gonna have an opportunity to have, intervention and the possibility of weighing in when you're doing this kind of, legislative approval and you're not you're not weighing in. Plus, most of these were already in place, some of them almost finished when you come when it comes to you for approval. So how will it work?
This system you currently have, the component of programs and opportunities where teaching and learning is impacted in your agenda under consent, you have no ability to to say before it happens, I don't see this. I don't agree with this. I think this needs to be added. You're rubber stamping. I I I just don't see it's a good idea. And if you're gonna have a discussion, how you will implement the ability to have a voice in the teaching and learning of these students is absolutely necessary.
How will you do it? It's not working with this agenda you have here. Thank you. Are there any other, public speakers? All public commenters for this item have been called. Thank you. Are there any board comment? Mr. Raichstra, can we have a roll call vote, please? On the roll call to adopt the motion as stated, Director, Berry? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Director Latta? Yes. Director Williams? Yes. Director Hutchinson? Director Hutchinson? Vice President Bachelor? Yes. And President Brothard? Yes. Motion is adopted. Thank you. And with that, we move into the, excuse me, President's Report and following Board,
Members' Reports. Many were wondering tonight why there was no budget item on tonight's agenda, and I want to acknowledge this. When the Superintendent, Board, and District leadership began the work of making the necessary budget adjustments to avoid a loan and the risk of state takeover. We knew that we first needed to be clearer and more accurate, have a more accurate understanding of where the district dollars were spent and have those expenditures aligned with the needs of our students. To that end, the superintendent took a bold step of engaging consultants to consult excuse me, to conduct a deep and comprehensive analysis of our budget.
To avoid state takeover and to make responsible adjustments for the twenty twenty six-twenty seven school year and beyond, all of us Board members, staff, labor partners, families, students, and the broader community must understand how we arrived at this point and how we reset our budget development process. Our goal is to build a sustainable budget that does not result in massive cuts year after year. Ongoing financial instability undermines staff retention, family confidence and future enrollment and we must break that cycle. While we do not have all the answers at tonight's meetings,
budget progress will be presented at Special Budget Meeting on January 20 and further discussed at the regular Board meeting on January 28. I know there is a strong desire for answers now and I share that urgency. At the same time, I support the Superintendent in taking the time necessary to conduct a thorough analysis so that the Board can make clear, informed, and sound decisions for the coming year. I want to thank Superintendent Sadler, the members of the senior leadership team, and the finance team led by Ryan Lent for their work.
I also want to acknowledge and appreciate the patience of our labor partners, site staff, administrators, families, and community as we do the hard but necessary work now to secure a stable and sustainable future for Oakland Unified School District. And are there any board reports? Director Berry? I just wanted to shout out the parents, guardians, caregivers, advocates I met with the first week of Jan I don't know. I think it was the January 9. Thank you to you all for your candor, your vulnerability, your ideas,
your goodwill, collaboration. Thank you, President Brillhart, for joining me, in District 5 for that. And I want to continue having those conversations. That conversation focused on the budget. We unpacked scenario three. And I have my office hours this Saturday at 10AM. And so I hope that folks show up to that, share coffee tea with me. We can talk budget. We can talk the student outcomes, prioritizing student outcomes policy that was originally on tonight's agenda, but will be on a future agenda,
and any and all other things that you all want to take up. And then I also wanted to let everyone know, because I have not sent out a newsletter with an update about this yet, that I am now, no longer on Teaching and Learning Committee. But I am on Budget and Finance now, so my committee assignments are Facilities, Budget and Finance, and I remain staffing education partnership. So, I still, am happy to receive all the teaching and learning committee related feedback that community members
send me, but I'm no longer, attending those meetings regularly. And I think that's my only other update. Vice President Batchelor. Just the EV committee. Thank you, Director Brohard. I, had the pleasure of attending Lobby Day yesterday, sorry, on Monday, with 14 Oakland students, from Urban Promise Academy, Oakland, High School, and Unity High School. They were amazing at sharing their stories around why lowering the rent is going to support their family, their learning, and their community.
Students not only prepared for lobby visits with elders and other folks in the group, they shared their stories, took notes, and were excited to continue to advocate and are signed up already to join us in another, lobby day in April, where we're gonna, again, focus around housing and environmental justice issues. We have many community meetings set up for Skyline. I want to thank, Councilmember, Jenkins for inviting me to participate in the conversation with Skyline parents. Superintendent Sadler was able to be there as well as, Chief of Staff, McElhaney.
And we were able to hear their concerns and also share some of our, some of the things that we have been doing on campus. And we have a true advocate in council member Jenkins, for Skyline. We are also then meeting with the PTSA on, January 22. That will be myself, the superintendent, and President Brohart will be in that conversation. And then there's a town hall that I just heard about that was set for the twenty ninth as well, at Skyline, to discuss, again, the ongoing safety, at the school site. I look forward to having those engagements and making sure that we incorporate student feedback,
parent feedback, as well as staff feedback on what we could be doing at that campus. I will also be attending the Career Day at Resdale, where I'll be sharing a little bit about how I got to where I'm at so that students can see what their future could look like. So very excited to do that on January 22. And then I will also be at, Monk Elementary for their, MLK oratoricals on the thirtieth. If folks haven't done this before, it is one of the most wonderful experiences to see our young people not only take quotes,
poems, you know, create their own art and showcase it around, social justice issues, but also just that confidence that they feel in being able to be on stage and having, you know, have their voices heard. And again, our littlest ones usually do some songs together, which is really beautiful. So I encourage you to contact your school sites to see, when those events are happening and attend as well. Thank you. And are there any other board reports? With that, I'm sorry, I'm gonna check the online Director Hutchinson. Yes, thank you. I've also been meeting with Skyline parents,
my alma mater, so I'm glad that vice president Bachelor finally responded to them. You know, it's it's interesting in hearing the president's report. All of a sudden, consultants are now good to this board majority. I've heard people railing against consultants for the last twelve months. And now, we force out our CBO who we're still gonna have to pay out and we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants who don't know us. And we think now when there's no plan available for anyone to see that on January 20, there's gonna be a fully developed plan done by outside consultants.
What makes an outside consultant any better than the state coming in and doing this? Who had any involvement in selecting these outside consultants? And again, not only was there never a rationale given when Doctor. Johnson Trammell was forced out as superintendent, there's been no rationale given for why our Chief Business Officer Lisa Grant Dawson suddenly resigned. And some of us know it's because she was so, personally and professionally disrespected when her work and senior leadership's work was pulled from scenario three and other work
was substituted and put there. Since October 8, we've heard that there's going to be a plan. We're going to decide this. We're going to talk about it. And now hear the board president say that we're gonna do work now to learn about the problem? To act like we don't know? I was on the budget and finance committee with President Brohard for the last two years. I know for a fact at every committee meeting we went over our financial situation. It was discussed not only our situation, but the actions we were taking to move forward.
And Director Williams loves to talk about how things didn't happen the last five years, but only in the last two years. He always seems to forget that he's been on the board for five years. And everything that's happened in district five is on his watch and his responsibility. And so when community members complain about the deterioration of their resources, that's on us as a school board. That's what we were elected to do. We're elected to manage the people's finances, the people's dollars to ensure the best outcomes that we can for our students. And so for tonight's meeting,
which we can see by the time being very early now at 09:30, there could have easily been time to schedule a real thorough conversation about the budget crisis and our finances. But the problem is in order to have that conversation, we need people who are prepared and who have developed a plan. And so again, we're not arguing about what's the best thing to do. We're still at the point where the board majority refuses to do anything. And now, unfortunately, the interim superintendent is working with them. Thank you. Director Williams? Thank you, president Brohart. And, first, I just want to say a happy new year to the board,
to the community as well. Twenty twenty six is gonna be definitely a challenging year, but, you know, I move in, with optimism, and just really want to, you know, continue to build partnerships in the community. I'm really proud of District 3. I'm really proud of investments we've done for, West Oakland Middle School, for Westlake, for Martin Luther King, Prescott. Really proud of all those schools, and so I will stand, to anybody who actually has something to say. We're we're working with my climate.
Yes. We continue to move it forward, and I have a strong belief that we will do right. But first, I just wanna say thank you, president Brohart, for reading, your letter in regards to the budget. I feel pretty confident. This board actually cut a $100,000,000 in March. We did something that other folks who talk about it never did. And we did approve a proposal, and we directed the superintendent to actually look at the finances and start to actually, bring us a much more solid plan.
And I appreciate superintendent Sadler for doing just that. Sometimes the folks who created the problem may not actually be the one who should be fixing the problem at times. So I appreciate that doctor Sattler is bringing in some new ideas and new thinking to this to to come up with some solutions. Lastly, I just wanna say, I just wanna shout out McClements as well. McClements does have a high graduation rate and sending kids to universities, and I'm really happy about that. Just last week,
just on the twelfth, I had HBCU, panel at Mac, college t shirt day, Westlake visit, you know, McClymit's. So there's a lot of good things going on. Our kids are going to UC Santa Cruz. And I just really wanna shout out, Colleen Piper and, particular staff at McClimate. We also have a mentoring in medicine that is happening as internship, science in action, Girls Who Code, Pathways. We have a Martin Luther King day of service, January 19, STEM night, volunteering OUSD to facilitate.
There's a lot of good things that are happening in my climates. I'm really sad that there are individuals that wanna tear my climates down and close my climates. I'm not gonna let that happen. I'm gonna fight to keep my climates open. I'm gonna fight to actually get it refurbished and refreshed the way we promised it. It has been over fourteen years and two other bill measures that used the climates to get money, and they did nothing at all. Now we actually are moving the climates forward. There has been a few things that have slowed it down,
but it's going to happen. And so I will stand with that. I just wanna say to everybody. When things get bleak, please find something positive and optimistic to look for. If it's not only your family, your love for your family, love for your school, love for your community, love will win overall. So all the negativity in 2026, drop it and pick up love in your heart and be, a partner to people, to work with people, to get stuff done, then actually tear them down. Thank you very much.
Thank you, director Williams. Director Latta? Yeah. I just wanna I'll I'll really quick, announcement, is that the, I know we're having the special meeting on budget issues coming up this Tuesday, the twentieth, at six, but also just wanna lift up that the, PSAC, the parent student advisory committee to the LCAP regular meeting, is the following night, the twenty first, 05:30 to 08:30. And I know, they'll be actually doing a, session on what are our OUSD general fund investments for school budgets. And it's, I think a lot of people got a lot out of the unpacking our centralized
budget that, happened in the fall. And so this is a bit of a compliment to that to unpack what goes in how do we build our school site budgets and then, of course, how, those investments are funding, what are funded, what the funding sources are, and then what, the budget balancing measures that we'll be potentially taking, will impact, schools. So, that invite or the Zoom link is on the OUSD calendar. Director Yolanda. Any other further? Alright. Moving on, we have, introduction of new legislative matters, w 01/1932,
Francophone Charter School of Oakland, charter material revision, change of location, and enrollment increase from Charter Schools office. There will be a public hearing of this set for, 07:15 on January 26. And the next one is w 02/1965, a method public schools, downtown charter academy, charter material revision, Change of Enrollment Preference and Enrollment Increase, Charter Schools Office. And again, on January 26 at 07:00, there will be a public hearing where this matter will be discussed.
And with that, we yeah, that's right. I wanna close in memory of our two Oakland colleagues, Stephanie Brock. Okay. I would like to close in memory of Stephanie Bryant and Joanna Lubin.