(uptempo music)
(gavel knocks)
- All right, good evening.
I'd like to call the March 26th 2020
Board of Education of the
Folsom Cordova Unified
School District meeting to order.
Superintendent role.
- Yes.
Board Member Reinking.
- Here.
Board member Hoover.
- Here.
- Board member Short.
- Here.
- Board member Clark.
- Here.
Board member Reid.
And student board member Kniznik.
- [Board Member Kniznik] Here.
- All right.
- All right.
- We'll start with the Pledge
of Allegiance, Mr. Hoover.
- [Mr. Hoover] Sure.
Ready, begin.
- [All] I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America.
(talking off mic)
- All right and reporting
out a closed session
in a unanimous vote, the
Governing Board voted to reject
the government claim of David M. Schmitt.
All right.
Adoption of agenda.
- [Mr Short] I'll move it.
- [Miss Reinking] Second.
- Moved by Mr. Short,
second by Miss Reinking.
All those in favor.
- [Man] Aye.
- Student board.
- [Board Member Kniznik] Aye.
- All right.
Just a side note, this
is a broadcast being made
at the direction of the
board and that the broadcast
may capture images and sounds
of those attending the meeting
since we are basically
virtual and we are recognizing
social distancing here,
so we're all good to go.
Public participation, time
will be given to speakers
at the discretion of
the board chairperson.
The law allows the public
to address the board
on any matter not on the agenda,
but the law prohibits action by the board
on non-agenda items.
If you'd like to submit a public comment,
it can be found under the title
of what you're viewing right now.
So let's go with it.
- So we have several public
comments on the same topic.
What I'll be doing is
reading all the names
of folks that have put those comments in
and then reading one of the comments
which summarizes what
everyone has put forward
and my apologies to anybody
whose name I mispronounced,
right off the bat.
So Randy Fine, James Fine, Andrea McNamee,
Alexis Godard, Kevin Godard, Anita Magnof,
Marc Shelton, Marc Ve Limel, Verona Gum,
Hilary Bates, Ginny Woo,
Kelly Kent, Kevin Kent,
John Cochran, Barbara Joy, Charles Joy,
Tanya Ellis, Michelle
Flores, Stacey Posie,
Natasha Shelton, Pam
Overstreet, Alyssa Johns,
Ella Hanson, Olivia
Millstone, Ellie Shelton,
Lisa Butterworth, Kyle
Kent, I'm sorry, Kylie Kent,
Holly Lam, Patricia Johnson, Elisa Martin.
So those are the folks
that all are commenting
on the one topic and so
I'll read that statement.
Dear members of Folsom
Cordova School Board.
I'm a parent of a seventh grade student
currently attending Sutter Middle School
as well as a fourth grader
who will be enrolled
at Sutter in 2021.
I've become aware that Folsom Cordova
Unified School District
intends to allow Verizon
to install 5G antennas at cell towers
at Sutter Middle School.
I am strongly opposed to
the installation of 5G
at Sutter Middle School.
Several organizations
including the California
Medical Association and
the California Department
of Public Health have
noted the association
between cell tower radiation
and adverse health
consequences including cancer,
headaches and difficulties
with learning, memory,
hearing, behavior and sleep.
Further, numerous scientists,
doctors and health officials
and agencies have concluded
that the FCC's safety
standards, regulations
regarding the radiation
from wireless communication
devices are outdated
and failed to fully
protect the public safety.
Given the newest 5G,
its health consequences
are not entirely known, but what is known
is that placing 5G cell
towers in our schools
will increase their exposure to harmful
radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.
To date, 319 scientists
and doctors have signed
on to the 5G appeal to the European Union
asking for a moratorium
on the rollout of 5G
until independent
scientists can fully assess
the health consequences
of 5G technologies.
Before moving forward with the plan
to install 5G antennas
at Sutter Middle School,
at minimum, school board
should direct the district
to prepare an environmental impact report
to assess the health risk to students
and should hold a public meeting
to get input from parents
after the coronavirus crisis so the public
can meaningfully participate.
To the extent that 5G
antennas are already in place,
they should either be removed
or put out of operation
until all such review can be undertaken
and the public had a
chance to offer input.
I understand the school district
receives monthly financial
compensation for Verizon.
We're allowing it to have a cell tower
at Sutter Middle School.
I ask you to place the
safety of our children
and all the children in the district
above profits from Verizon.
- All right, question on that
and then maybe the superintendent
can answer that for me.
Has there been an attempt
to have a EIR done?
- Can we ask Mr Washburn that question?
- No, the city has determined previously
when they replaced antennas
that is categorically exempt,
they have not moved
forward with a proposal
for us yet to put 5G.
They're waiting for us
to have some resolution
on some of these issues.
They currently have in the past asked
for any easements or right of ways
to a rezoning requirements to the city
in order to put the
antennas on our property
which we have brought forth before
but the (mumbles) requirements
have been met through
for categorical exemption.
- [Mr Clark] Got it.
Mr. Short?
- I believe there was a federal
act signed by the President
to streamline cell tower technology
and are we in compliance with that too?
- I'm not sure about that.
I know NEPA has some, doesn't
have any requirements.
Some cell towers follow through the NEPA
which is federal requirements.
- You can't hold it up, basically.
- I, you know, I can't say that for sure.
We've never had an issue in the past
of any of these ever going in.
There's a lot of data out
there one way or the other.
- Okay.
Any other?
Mr. Reid?
(talking off mic)
- The actual antennas
were on the light poles
on the athletic field.
That's where they are.
We have 'em on there and then there's,
right adjacent to the street there,
where Coloma comes into Bidwell,
right there is their little shack
where they have their equipment.
(talking off mic)
Yes, we reached out to the carriers
and 5G is pretty much everywhere.
You can notice it when
you look on your phone,
you see 5G out there.
This is just an extension of
what is already being placed
in the city and other locations.
- Okay, I mean I had another question,
and I understand that it's not
required to have an EIR done,
but what if we had one,
would that delay the process
of having it installed?
And if it did, how long would that be?
- A full-blown EIR is a lot.
It's very expensive.
A negative deck, an
initial study negative deck
would be a much simpler process.
It's not required.
I would probably want
to pursue legal counsel
to find out what our requirements are.
I mean, the city determines
categorical exempt
to replace the antennas on there.
Obviously, you can do a much
more greater sequel study.
Just give you an example, we
do initial study negative deck
when we do a new elementary school.
An EIR is a much larger project,
something there would
be much more exposure
and very expensive.
- Is this a topic the board
would want brought back
with more information?
- Yeah, I would feel more comfortable
if it was brought back
with more information on it
and I'm not sure if these folks
left any contact information
that we can kind of reach out to them.
There's not?
- If we're gonna add
information I want to know
about that federal act because I know that
from (mumbles) they passed
an act that you can't hold up
permitting on cell towers
and you have to meet
certain criteria.
That passed about two,
three, three, four years ago.
Three, four years ago.
And that's usually
probably at the city level
but permitting, that would
dictate a lot of things
what we're gonna do here.
- Okay, just one more note,
we do take through the
division state architect.
It is a requirement
whenever we add that to it
so that is a requirement that
we have that we work through
with all the carriers
when we're putting these
on our light poles.
- Okay, great.
Yeah, if we can have that brought back,
that'd be great.
Okay, thank you.
- [Mr. Hoover] Our next comment
comes from Robert Greene
and he has questions about
school closure updates.
- Dr. Hoover, that's actually
one of our agenda items
at the end of the agenda, so
we can actually address that
on the agenda item.
- [Mr. Hoover] Okay.
The next is from Denise,
she did not need leave her last name.
This is also school closure
updates referring to grading.
Want to wait for that one too?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- Same thing, the rest are all about
the school closures.
There's one from no name.
Read that one since
there's not a name to it?
It was just questions about the time
of the board meeting tonight
and directing people to YouTube.
And then school closure
updates, that's it.
- So are we not hearing the one
about the time of the meeting?
Do we bypass that one or?
- Would you like me to read it?
- Yeah, I'd like to hear it.
- There's no name, it
says, I think the time
was not accurately published.
I attempted to watch at six
and they shut off the video
to do a closed session,
and then in quotations,
"to watch, tonight's
Board of Education meeting
"will be available through livestream
"on the district's YouTube channel."
- I think just for clarity purposes,
as we live stream, it's in two parts.
So part one is the part where we open up
for closed session at 5:00
p.m. which is on our agenda
and then open session, the public session
which we're in right now, is part two,
when you go to the YouTube link,
I'm actually watching it right now,
so we did start I think
just a couple minutes
after six for our public
part of the meeting.
- Okay, any other?
All right.
Reports of district organizations.
Student Advisory Board.
- [Board Member Kniznik]
No new report for tonight.
- Thank you, ma'am.
California School Employees Association.
- And I believe, Dr. Hoover,
are you reading this one?
(talking off mic)
Yeah, there is.
- [Mr. Hoover] Yay.
- Do you have the CSEA one?
- [Mr. Hoover] Oh no, I apologize, CSEA
did not have a statement this evening.
No report.
- We actually got it later in the day.
But go ahead and read FCEA's.
- [Mr. Hoover] From FCEA.
FCEA is grateful for the
virtual negotiation session
this week to draft an MOU
defining our work conditions
under the distance learning model.
We appreciate the efforts
of everyone and FCUSD family
who have pulled together to
take care of our students.
I am so proud of all of our educators
who are banding together
to support each other
and share ideas and resources
as we embark on this journey together.
From Angelica Miklos.
- All right.
Okay, Folsom Cordova
Leadership Association.
(talking off mic)
- Elena Cabrera, do you
have a report for us?
- Maybe we lost contact on her?
Let's just move on, well,
that would be Elena too.
(laughs)
- I don't think we have any reports
for District English
Learner Advisory Committee.
- All right, okay.
Let's move on to item
nine, agenda consent.
- [Mr. Hoover] I'd like to remove an item.
- Mr. Hoover?
- [Mr. Hoover] I would ask that we remove
agenda consent item 9A, considering adding
a Special Board Meeting April 14th 2020.
- All right.
- [Mr. Short] I'll second that. Second it.
All right, vote by Mr.
Hoover, second by Mr. Short.
All those in favor?
- [All] Aye.
- Student Board?
- [Board Member Kniznik] Aye.
- All right.
Okay.
Looks like that's all we have
on any other agenda consent
Okay.
Great, I'm going to go ahead
and close this open session
and go into public hearing. (gavel knocks)
Item 10A, public hearing
pursuant to Elections Code section 10010,
the public is invited to input
regarding the composition
of the districts and the
district intends to establish
for board member elections
before drawing a draft map
or maps of proposed
boundaries of the district.
Superintendent.
- Yes.
At the last board meeting, the
board approved a resolution
to move forward with the trustee
area process transitioning
from the at-large to trustee
areas and the next step
in the process is to hold a
series of four public hearings
as we determine criteria
for how we want to draw
the trustee area maps and
allowing the public participation
in this process as well.
But joining us in our
meeting virtually today,
we have our legal counsel, Mr. Paul Gant,
and our demographer Doug Johnson.
I'm going to turn it
over to Mr. Gant first
who will introduce this
item and give a little bit
more detail and then turn
it over to Mr. Johnson
who has a PowerPoint to share with us.
Paul?
Do we have Paul Gant?
- Paul.
Is Mr. Johnson available?
- [Mr. Johnson] Yes, I'm here.
- Okay.
- Okay, then why don't we start with--
- Yeah, we can go ahead
and start with Mr. Johnson.
- Okay.
So Doug Johnson, welcome.
- Yeah, so it's a pleasure to meet you.
(audio drops out)
Then we'll release the draft maps,
both at the NDC as your
(mumbles) will draw
and anything that you
receive from the public
where residents want to submit
a map for consideration.
And there'll be two hearings on those maps
after which the board will
choose its preferred map.
And then this is an
unusual process in that
that map then has to
go to County Committee
of the School District
Organization for approval.
So what we're really getting
now is just that first stage
of kind of informing
people of what's going on
and what the rules are for
how the lines get drawn.
So if we can advance to the second slide.
Here are the (mumbles) rules.
On the left, the federal
laws are the requirements.
So we have to have an equal population
and that's based on the total people
as counted by the census.
It's not registered voters.
It's not students, or anything like that.
It's human beings counted by the census.
And there's a very small margin
of flexibility around that.
Then we have to comply with
the Federal Voting Rights Act,
which essentially says
if there's a neighborhood
that's heavily made up by Asian-Americans,
African-Americans, or Latinos,
then that neighborhood
cannot be broken up in a way that dilutes
their voting strength.
But at the same time, no
racial gerrymandering.
So race can be a factor,
but it can't be the predominant factor.
And so, when I talk about the
Federal Voting Rights Act,
we're looking at neighborhoods
that are predominantly
one of those groups.
You'll see in a second that
I can put maps up showing
city block by city block, their
percentages in each block.
And we can't just put those colors up
and draw based on the colors.
We have to be focused on neighborhood.
So those are the requirements.
Then, the traditional
redistricting principles,
these are the kind of goal.
It's impossible to meet all of these.
So it'll be up to the public and the board
to choose which map they ultimately think
best balances these goals.
So, first of all, the
communities of interest,
and I'll talk about that more in a moment.
And then we want to address the
areas to the degree possible
to be compact, contiguous, and follow
visible, easily understood boundaries.
All three of those are
really for the voters.
So it's easier for them to know
which trustee area they're in.
If they want to go knock
on doors for candidate,
we want it to be easy to
know which door to knock on.
Then the (mumbles) has certainly affirmed
that we can try to
respect the voters choices
which means essentially trying to avoid
any effort with two
trustees in one trustee area
to the degree possible.
Not a requirement, it's a goal.
But that ensures that then
the voters get to choose
which board members
have earned re-election
rather than the lines dictating to them
that it doesn't matter where they think
someone's out of their seat.
So that's something we can consider
as one of the considerations.
And then planned future
growth, I mentioned
only because we're in a
little bit of a weird spot
where we're almost, the
census is underway right now.
So these lines actually have to be updated
next year after the 2020 election.
Those updated lines will
be in place for 10 years.
So at that point, we can
look at future growth.
At this point, we're not
really looking at growth
because this will only be
used for this year's election.
So if we go to the next slide.
There's a lot of data
involved in this process.
I'm not gonna go through all this data.
But it's just to show how
much we make available.
For every map, each
trustee area in that map
will be broken down by all these fields.
So if someone is hoping
to have a trustee area
that's heavily renters, they'll
be able to look at the data,
the housing stats in the bottom right,
and see if there's a trustee
area that's majority renters.
Same thing with language
fluency, age groups,
children at home, we have lots of data,
breaking down the different numbers.
The key number is that
total population number
in the top left.
It's based right now on the 2010 census.
And they're just over 115,000 people.
That means each of the five trustee areas
must have just over 23,000 residents.
We'll note that we have taken
out the prison population.
One thing that happens when
you have a large prison
like you do in this jurisdiction
that those numbers can
throw everything off.
And so the state allows us
to delete that population
and not count those towards your totals.
So on the next slide, at
the top you see Latinos
share full CVAP.
CVAP stands for citizen
voting age population.
This is as close to a measure
of eligible voters as we get.
The Census Bureau does something
called the American Community Survey.
And they update those numbers every year.
And in maps array, unlike
in the decennial census,
and that's where they actually
ask, what's your ethnicity?
And then later on, they
ask, are you a citizen?
Yes or no?
And so this shows where those Latino
(mumbles) are concentrated.
You can see most of the district
is purple meaning less than 25%.
There are a couple of city blocks
that you can see that are light green,
or light blue that are around
half, but they're spread out
all over the school district.
There are a couple, if you notice,
if you spot them with a sharp eye,
you can see them
highlighted by the arrows,
a couple of red census
blocks where 75% or more
of the residents are Latino.
But in each of those census blocks,
there's four, and one of
them in two and the other.
So they're not going to
impact those demographics
of a 23,000-person trustee area.
So we're not really looking
at any neighborhoods
being heavily Latino
where we need to be sure
to keep that together
in order to (mumbles)
Latinos are, as you
probably are already aware,
are spread over the whole district.
On the next slide, African
Americans, we get the same thing.
Really couple of city
blocks over in the West End
that go up 25 to 35 instead of below 25%.
But again, there's no neighborhood
that is heavily African-American.
African-Americans live
all across the district.
It's a little bit different
story for Asian-Americans.
Again, we're not getting a heavily area
where Asian-Americans are
majority of the population.
But there are (coughs) excuse me,
there are two neighborhoods
where they're certainly more
concentrated than elsewhere.
You can see them
highlighted by the arrows.
In southeastern Folsom,
just above the freeway,
and then over in Rancho Cordova,
the part that's in the school district
but south of the freeway,
and you can see where
there's some blue and green.
So those two pockets we
want to try to keep together
and not divide them up because even though
they're not the majority areas,
we don't want to dilute
that voting strength.
But really in terms of (mumbles),
we don't have a lot of areas
that we have to really worry
about a potential violation.
So if we go to the next slide,
here's where we talk about definitions
in communities of interest.
So given we don't have
Voting Rights Act defined neighborhoods
that we have to be
particularly sensitive to,
now we're able to look at
whatever defines neighborhoods
as the people who live
in them think of them.
So, obviously, for school districts,
the most common consideration
is your school attendance areas.
Parents and kids often identify
with what school they go to,
but a neighborhood could be defined
by being between major
roads, around a park,
or shared demographic characteristics.
All those are legitimate.
There's no right or wrong answer
to what is a community of interest.
But for school districts, there's
a second question as well.
Which is when we look at
a community of interest
is it better off being
kept whole and intact
in one trustee area, which
maximizes the vote and the voice
in the election of that one person
who is gonna represent on the board?
Or is it better off having
multiple representatives?
Having two or even three board members
who represent parts of that
neighborhood or community
so that you give us a
sense of a board member
saying this is my school,
that's your school,
and then there's kind
of Balkanization effect.
There's no right or wrong answer to that.
It comes down neighborhood
by neighborhood.
Even within one school district,
opinions may differ between neighborhoods.
What we generally find is about two thirds
of school districts say
we want to make sure
that each school district
zone, to the degree possible,
has at least two board
members who represent it.
And similarly, we want to make
sure that each board member
represents multiple schools.
So we get a little bit less of that
kind of this is my school,
that's your school effect.
But again, there's no right
or wrong answer to that.
And that's part of what
we're hoping to hear
from the public and from the board
in these first two
hearings is any guidance
you wish to give on that question.
The next slide I just put in
the maps of attendance zones
again, these are the most
common communities referenced
but certainly not exclusive,
and really, these are here for reference
during the discussion as needed as well.
Just to give a kind of a visual example
of what I'm talking about
uniting a community of interest
or making sure it has
multiple representatives,
the next slide, slide nine, is entitled
Sample Compact Maps.
This shows two jurisdictions that chose
to really have neighborhood
focus trustee areas.
So Glendora on the left
and Glendale on the right,
you can see these are very compact,
very regionalized trustee areas
which helps to make them nice and compact.
If you go to the next slide,
Sample Multiple Representative Maps,
Redwood City and Central Unified
are two good examples of jurisdictions
that wanted to make sure
multiple board members
are represented in each attendance zone.
So you get some funny looking lines.
You can see them, especially
the pink in Redwood City,
and then each of the districts
reaching from the rural
areas into the urban area
in Central Unified, what
they're doing in each
of these maps is stretching
those trustee areas out
so that they have multiple schools
that each board member
represents instead of each school
has multiple board
members representing it.
So, these are just examples and again,
neither one of these sets
the maps as right or wrong.
These are just various
different policy approaches,
both of which are acceptable.
Just a quick spin through
how the lines are drawn
and what the rules are for them.
As I mentioned, we do
have to have this hearing
and one more of these kind
of informational sessions
to gather input from many
interested residents,
any direction the board wishes to give
and then we'll come back with a draft map
at the third hearing.
And that's our presentation
and happy to answer
any questions or to gain
direction you wish to give.
- [Mr Clark] All right.
I'll go ahead.
- This is Paul Gant.
- Oh!
- This is Paul Gant.
Can you hear me?
- [Mr Clark] We can hear you, Paul.
- [Mr. Gant] I apologize, I
seemed to have had just a slight
Zoom-related glitch.
At the outset, I did hear you invite me
to come in for a comment.
But I was a bit late and I didn't want
to interrupt Mr. Johnson.
I appreciate Mr. Johnson's comments
and presentation of the slide.
I think the only remark that
I would have at this point
is that it should be
pointed out to the public
and anyone who's either
watching or making comments
that there are materials,
in addition to the slides
that were presented by Mr. Johnson,
materials that are included in the agenda
that have also been provided
to the board members
for their consideration this evening.
- [Mr. Clark] Okay.
- [Mr. Gant] So I would just
invite the public to review
those materials as well as they wish
in connection with this process.
- [Mr. Gant] Okay.
Are there any questions from the public?
Questions from the board?
Anyone?
Comments?
(talking off mic)
- Approximately, a 1,000, give or take,
and I think it was over over 30
(audio drops out) compact district design,
we're already going to be picking up
multiple schools because we're so large.
Wouldn't that be the case
versus having if you're a smaller district
(audio drops out)
- [Mr. Clark] We'll treat it as well.
(laughs)
- [Mr. Johnson] This is Doug Johnson.
I can take a shot at that.
You're right, River City is
an elementary school district,
it's pretty small, but essentially Unified
is actually quite large,
has a good portion of Fresno in it.
But I think from your perspective,
I think you definitely
have the right idea,
which is your elementary
school attendance zones
are probably too small
to really be a big factor
in how these trustee areas
are gone or, you know,
a driving factor for that
kind of policy perspective.
When we're thinking about uniting,
keeping attendance zones together
in a trustee area or trying to have
multiple board members representing it,
we're probably thinking
more about the middle school
and high school boundaries,
which are closer in size
to a trustee area than, or much closer
in size to a trustee area
than an elementary school
attendance zone would be.
- Okay.
Any other questions,
comments from the board?
All right.
- [Man] I'll just real quickly,
I mean, I don't know
what my colleagues feel,
but it does seem like given the spread
of the ethnic makeup of the district
and that the attendance
boundaries do appear
to meet those all those requirements,
and so, it seems to me that
we could meet the intent
of the law and by sticking
somewhat close to those
as opposed to getting more creative
as some of these other districts did,
but that's just my initial view of it.
I'd have to give it some more thought.
- Right.
Okay.
(talking off mic)
All right.
Mr. Short?
- We have more high schools
up in the Folsom area
than we do in Rancho
but we do have planned
other high schools here in south of 50.
So, as growth happens,
then are we gonna be able
to change the boundaries as we go along?
'Cause you're saying
earlier than 2020 census,
so come in and then
we're able to adjust them
for population growth and
also new high schools.
So we should probably
plan ahead a little bit,
we already know where the
school sites are gonna go.
- I agree.
Mr. Johnson, I do have a
question, the census count,
so once that's completed,
are we going back
to making a new map for 2022?
Or how's that gonna work?
I mean, I know we're kind
of moving along for 2020.
But as far as 2022, are
you gonna have to go back
and put together another map or what?
How's that gonna work?
- [Mr. Johnson] Sure.
The first step when the
census data comes out,
likely next March, will be to look
at your existing trustee areas and see,
maybe we get lucky and
growth is even amongst them
and no change is needed.
That's extremely rare.
But it's a possibility.
But the nice thing is that
post-census redistricting
is a much simpler process.
There's no need for the
State Board of Ed waivers,
there's no need for the county
committee to be involved.
And there's no requirement
for five hearings.
It's just one or two hearings,
whatever the board wants to do.
So, we'll take a look and see.
If we get lucky, no changes necessary
or just small obvious
changes are necessary.
If something's really out of whack
and crosses very heavily
in one trustee area
and not the others, then you'd
have a much more elaborate
need to redraw the whole map.
- Okay.
- Okay thanks.
- [Mr. Clark] Miss Reinking?
- So my first inclination
was the second option
of the community of interest.
And I'm curious if those could possibly,
would they overlap
Folsom and Rancho Cordova
so that we could have
schools in both cities?
Do you see that being a
possibility with that option?
- [Mr. Johnson] It's a possibility.
One of the things we're happy
to do is when we prepare
those draft maps, we
never just prepare one.
We always try to release two
and usually three or four.
So we can certainly take a look at that.
And we're happy to put maps
up, even if once you see them
and say, oh, that didn't work.
But better to try it and
see what happens than to-
- To me that addresses.
(talking over each other)
that came up about understanding
both of the cities,
knowing the differences and the challenges
of both of those cities.
So that was my first
thought when I saw that.
So, but we still have
to hear from the public.
- Yep.
Is there anyone from the public
that would like to make a comment?
- And there are comments
that have been submitted.
So I'm gonna have Dr. Hoover read those.
- All right.
(talking off mic)
- Yeah, there's actually another one too.
It was Patricia Johnson who submitted.
- I'm looking for her.
Can you see the number
next to her by chance?
Oh!
Okay, from Patricia Johnson.
I am in strong support
of the district election
for the school board, not at large.
I spoke at the FCUSD
board meeting on 3/11/20.
As a former employee, as a school nurse,
I saw the huge difference
between the health services
of students in schools
in Cordova as in Folsom.
It not only impacted the
students but also the teachers.
It also impacted their academic learning.
I was the only school
nurse in the entire FCUSD
to do the dental program.
I attended the orientation on my own time.
I found the wonderful
volunteers, dentists and parents
and did dental screenings
on hundreds of children
at my elementary school
and the middle school.
I had to make friends of
the schools and the nurses
in order to get help doing the vision
and scoliosis screenings
because there was no team
coordination to do it.
The health records were erased every year
and I had to input again.
I also came in on off days.
As a monthly nursing meeting in Folsom,
the administrators suggested
we do CPR, get AEDs.
I volunteered and told them
that my teenage babysitter
had taken a class and she saved a life
using CPR on the street.
I thought it was a good idea.
The administrator didn't
want to spend the money.
I heard the next school year
a teacher was walking out
into the football fields,
had a heart attack and died.
No one there could help him.
I was no longer working there
as I returned to a previous employment.
I do not know if things have improved.
It was appalling that severe
disparity between the schools,
all children deserve to have
schools of excellent quality.
On 3/11/2020, the board voted unanimously
to go to by-district elections.
I hope this will be done in 2020.
- [Mr. Clark] Right.
Thank you.
- [Miss Reinking] Then there's
another one, number 44.
- From Rafferty.
Why is the presentation not
disclosed in the agenda packet?
What other materials is
Mr. Grant referring to?
When were they delivered?
- The items are attached
to the agenda item,
if you go to agenda online
through our district website.
- Mr. Gant, did you have
anything else to add
to that question from Mr. Rafferty?
- [Mr. Gant] No, no, I have nothing to add
to the comment made by the superintendent.
- All right, thank you.
Okay, back to the board.
I hear none.
We'll go ahead and close
this public hearing.
(gavel knocks)
And we'll open up our open session again.
So information item,
school closure update.
(talking off mic)
- [Man] Oh, okay.
- Yeah, actually we do need to
bring back consent item nine.
Is it nine A?
- Mm-hm.
- Yes.
- All right.
Bring that up.
Comments or questions from the board?
- Well, as many of us
know the governor put out
an executive order this week actually
about suspending public meetings
for district-based elections.
And I continue to have
concerns about that.
So I just wanted to
remove the item tonight
to kind of discuss that.
And, you know, I want
to continue to discuss
whether or not we should
move forward at this time
with these public hearings,
as much as you know,
we are doing the best
that we can here tonight,
given the circumstances in
the emergency situation,
I still think that there is a certain lack
to virtual hearings, and
I'm a little concerned
about the public's ability to
participate in these hearings
if we move forward at this time.
- So what you're asking is that we not do
a public hearing on the 14th?
- Well, I mean, I'm not making a motion,
but I am concerned about
the current recommendation.
- Okay, any other
questions from the board?
- I want to support Mr. Hoover's comments.
You can see that we've
had very few responses
to this meeting this evening.
So my concern moving
forward is making sure
that we get adequate public
participation in these hearings.
- President.
- [Mr. Clark] Mr. Short.
- I mean, when we first
brought this up last time,
we had little participation also,
but we did have a few people show up.
So that was before the state of emergency.
I think we just had the
first public hearing.
It does not make sense not
to have a second hearing.
So I think we need to keep this going
and continue with the course that we have.
And I think as it becomes
the second hearing,
we'll be able to have
better participation.
The technology we have here,
we already had some people talking,
the virtual people are doing it
all over the place successfully.
So, I think, at this point,
when we get into the mapping,
I think you're gonna get
a lot of participation.
Right now, it's really a little
too early to go with that.
So I think we need to continue
and not derail this endeavor.
- [Mr. Clark] Mr. Reid.
(talking off mic)
- [Mr. Reid] I mean, we're only two weeks
into this state of emergency. (buzzing)
- I happen to be in agreement
with both Mr. Short and Mr. Reid.
One question though.
What are our neighboring
school districts doing,
i.e., San Juan, Elk Grove?
Are they moving forward?
Are they postponing?
What are they doing?
- As far as I know, San
Juan is moving forward
with the public hearings.
Of course, that can continue to change
but that's my knowledge as of today.
- All right.
Yeah.
Right, I'll entertain a motion.
- Erm.
(talking off mic)
- I'll move it as submitted
for, to move it for the hearing
on the 14th.
- I just had one comment,
but it's, you know, if--
- No, it's your show.
- Oh, okay.
So I just, I appreciate the perspective
and I absolutely understand the reasons
why my colleagues think
we need to move forward.
I just, for the record,
want to kind of state
why I believe we need to press pause.
And so, I just wanted to quickly touch
on the governor's order
and it is an order.
He ordered this week that the timeframes
for conducting the hearings required
when a political subdivision changes
from an at-large method of election
to a district-based election are suspended
for any subdivision until such time
as neither state nor local
public health officials
recommended or impose
social distancing measures
in the relevant subdivision.
I mean, I get the nuances
and legal concerns here.
But I think it's pretty clear
what we've been asked
to do by the governor
and I think out of a bunch of caution,
we should consider that.
But that's my take.
- President, can I make a comment?
- Mr. Short.
- [Mr. Johnson] This is Doug.
Can I offer one thought on that?
- Yeah.
- Sure.
- [Mr. Johnson] Just
completely understand.
You're right, San Juan and
actually all of our clients
decided to continue going forward
because the governance order
didn't change the end deadline.
And we're hoping he will clarify that.
But right now, as it stands,
if the shelter-in-place orders
ends in mid-May, you
could very well be forced
to do this entire process in three weeks.
So, until we get clarification on that,
we do suggest continuing going forward
just because if that
shelter-in-place order
ends at the wrong time,
this can all get jammed
together into a really nasty
set of kind of crazy hearings.
- Thank you for that.
That was my concern.
- Right.
Anything else, Mr. Hoover?
- Nope.
- All right.
With that, I'll entertain a motion.
- I'll make--
- Hello, this is Paul.
Can you hear me?
- I remade the motion
and just need a second.
- Paul has--
- Paul again speaking.
- Yeah, Paul.
- [Mr. Gant] Oh, oh okay, thank you.
Appreciate it, Doug, comments.
The other thing I wanted weigh in on
is with regards to this agenda item,
I understand that it was simply an item
for setting a special meeting.
But it was not set with
the intention for the board
to consider whether to
change the schedule,
or whether to complete the overall process
within the time set forth by the CVRA.
Correct?
- Actually, the special
meeting was to hold
the second public hearing for this process
to keep us going forward so
we could complete the process
before the end of May.
- [Mr. Gant] Right.
But on the agenda, it
doesn't address any change
in the intent to complete
the overall set of hearings
within the 90-day framework.
That's not being considered
under this item, right?
- That's correct.
- Okay, I just wanted to clarify that
because it's possible
to change one meeting
and still be within the overall framework.
- Yeah.
- Although, it does present
some scheduling issues,
and therefore I think it's disfavored.
And what I'm hearing from Mr. Johnson is,
and I agree with the analysis,
that there's ambiguity
in the governor's emergency order,
in that it does not specifically
address the end date.
And therefore, the order itself
doesn't supersede at this point
the overall schedule that you have,
and nor does this agenda item invite you
to address that specifically,
it was only for the purpose
of whether to schedule one of the meetings
on a particular date.
Is that clear?
- Yeah.
All right.
- So I got the motion
and I concur with our
attorney and Doug's analysis
because we don't have
clarity on the order.
And I know the governor is
doing his best he can out there.
But his first order was unclear
and everybody was scrambling around
then we got clarity after
the second and third order.
So until we get clarification,
I think we need to move forward.
So my motion still on the table.
- Good move by Mr. Short,
second by Mr. Reid.
All those in favor.
- Aye.
- Aye.
All those opposed?
- [Man] No.
- Student board?
- [Board Member Kniznik] Aye.
- All right, motion carries.
All right.
(mumbles)
All right, information 11A,
school closure updates.
Superintendent?
- Yes, thank you very much.
I want to thank our
board for their support.
Thank you to all of our staff.
The work that they've done in
a very short amount of time
in these past two weeks, to carry out
the governor's executive
order and unprecedented time
in our history, and in public
education in closing schools.
This is really a first for me
in my 33 years career
in education as well.
But we follow the guidance
that are ascribed to us
by the governor and by
Sacramento County Public Health,
in how we're moving forward
with school closures.
The governor's executive
orders gave us three directives
that school districts must continue to do
during the time that schools are closed.
Those three items are to
continue to feed children
that are on our National
School Lunch Program,
which we have been doing,
and this is our second week,
just finishing our second
week of doing that.
We're averaging about 2000 meals a day.
And we plan to continue
that meal distribution
throughout the period of time
that we're under school closure.
And we're looking at offering
meals as a one-time pickup
for spring break as well.
The second part of the governor's order
was to continue instructing our students
through a distance learning medium.
And that can take many different shapes.
And you know that is probably
one of our largest lifts
for all school districts,
in how do we transition from face-to-face
direct instruction with our
students to an online platform,
and when we say online
and distance learning,
it doesn't necessarily
mean that our children
are gonna be in front of the computer
to replace the teacher
six or seven hours a day.
It means that our teachers
are going to be spending
some time each day with
instruction to their students.
But some of that instruction may be away
from the computer screen,
which we hope it is,
project-based learning, videos.
I mean, there will be a
whole variety of modalities
that our teachers are using
in the distance learning platform.
And our teachers are
doing a phenomenal job.
They're very creative.
First and foremost, they're
reaching out to our students.
They're saying that they
care, they miss them.
And we're going to continue instruction
to the best of our ability.
And that's what I
believe that the governor
and our State Superintendent
of Public Instruction,
Tony Thurmond, have asked us to do.
The third part of the governor's orders
that we continue to pay our
employees and we are doing that.
So we're in the process
of doing all three pieces
of what the governor has asked us to do.
As I said, some of these
parts of these orders
take longer to get into place.
I know there have been many
questions on a daily basis
from our employees, from our
students, from our families,
from our community, and
we have put out a daily
frequently asked question
list to keep our employees
and our students and
our families informed.
And knowing that this is
evolving from day to day
and the governor's orders
continue to evolve,
whether it's around school
closures, the period of time.
So we have to be nimble,
we have to be flexible.
So we're not claiming
to have all the answers,
but we're saying we are doing our best
with what we have been given.
And we are proceeding forward
with the distance learning piece
with making sure our students have access
to the technology they
need when they need it.
That means access to Chromebooks
or some kind of device,
hotspot if they don't have the ability
for WiFi and internet.
And I want to thank our
community partners as well
because they're working
very closely with us
to make those resources available.
And we're looking at the details
of what distance learning looks like
after we go through our
professional development
with our teachers, making
sure they have what they need
to be able to do the
work that they're doing.
So we're planning to roll out,
we're calling it kind of
a soft rollout next week
with our distance learning platform.
And I know there are questions
around when do we look
at that formalized
instruction with grading
like we used to have?
Well, I'll tell you, we're
not going to be exactly
like we used to be
because we're in a totally
different environment.
However, we realized
that the new instruction
that'll happen for the
last term will need to have
some form of accountability.
And it will, and I encourage
those that are wondering,
to continue to check our
frequently asked questions
to look at how we're
evolving on that front.
So I think those are the key pieces
of where we're at at this point in time.
So I would entertain any
questions from the board
that you might have at this point.
- [Mr. Clark] Okay.
Sure, Mr. Short,
- My question to Superintendent,
I know, we didn't want
the special education component
that we're doing a lot
and maybe if you can
share what we're doing
to reach out to that community
to make the same for
our special needs kids.
- [Superintendent] I'm sorry,
could you repeat your question, Mr. Short?
- For the special education program,
my question is, what are we doing
to outreach to them on the learning?
And I know we're engaging
them as much as possible.
So can you share with the public
what we're doing in that area?
- So the question is, what are we doing
to reach out to our special
education students as well,
and that is a requirement
that we continue to educate
all students, including
our special ed students.
The distance learning piece may
look a little bit different,
but it is moving forward as well.
Special ed staff are reaching
out to their students
just as our general ed staff are doing.
We're in the process
of looking at the IPs,
and how do we make those accommodations
in this new virtual environment.
So that is a work in progress.
But our special ed staff
is working diligently
in their professional learning communities
to make sure that they're reaching out
for the instructional piece,
for the related services piece.
And more information will be forthcoming
as well in our frequently asked questions.
- Any other questions from the board?
- Yeah, could you maybe give,
I know there's a lot of concerns
about high school seniors and graduations.
I was hoping that maybe
we could get an update
on what the thinking is for those students
and those ceremonies?
- So at this point in time,
not knowing what the duration
of this pandemic will be and
what the future has in store
by the time we get to the end of May
and my crystal ball is
kind of foggy right now,
I probably can't give a
sound answer to the question
to the graduation ceremonies.
Working on our student,
our high school students' transcripts,
especially our seniors, is
a priority for us right now.
Our counselors, our administrators,
are looking at that as
we speak and have been
for the past several days to
make sure that our students,
our seniors, are on track for graduation.
So there's a lot of
details that go into that.
But that is a priority
as far as making sure
our seniors have what
they need to graduate.
As far as the formal ceremonies
or virtual ceremonies,
whatever it may be, that's
still up in the air.
- All right.
Any other questions from the board?
Mr. Reid?
- Super (audio drops out)
The state and where they are.
We are not where we should
be at this point in time.
- Actually, I'm very pleased to see
where we are as Folsom Cordova Unified
in rolling out our distance learning
and I have regular
phone, virtual meetings,
with the other 12 districts
in Sacramento County,
and we are all rolling
out formal instruction
through distance learning,
but at little bit different paces.
And the reason being
is first and foremost,
we have to make sure, and
everybody in the region
has to make sure students
have access to technology.
We're very blessed and
thankful to have the hardware
and our staff and our ETIS department
have done a phenomenal
job getting the devices
out to students.
So we're actually ahead
as far as the deployment
of the Chromebooks and making
sure students have hotspots
if they don't have that
yet, and then rolling out
with our new learning management
system platform next Monday
is actually ahead of our
neighboring districts,
although we're all planning to have that
formalized instruction
in the next few weeks,
but we'll be one of those first ones.
- All right.
Entertain questions from
the public, or comments.
- So from Robert Greene, can you explain
our district's online school
compared to Placer County?
Why is it that other districts
have moved much faster than FCUSD?
I'm speaking relation
to high school students.
I have friends that are
going to Granite Bay,
Del Oro and Placer and
all state their kids
have been getting
instructional assignments
for over a week now.
Also, why is spring break
still on the calendar?
Kids can't go anywhere
as well as teachers and administrators.
Seems like we've lost a lot of time
in the delayed rollout
of the online education
and we need to catch up.
From Denise and there's no last name,
when can teachers resume
teaching new material
and start grading students?
From Joshua Pipkens, I think
it should be mentioned earlier
if school is going to reopen or not,
so we can have adequate time to prepare.
Matthew Cathinger.
Hello, school board.
Thank you for doing this broadcast.
I was wondering what this
means for the class of 2020.
Is there anything about graduation
that we need to know about?
It would be nice to know if
I'm having graduation or not?
I should have said that
was from a student.
There's two comments from
employees but names aren't given.
The first comment is why are teachers
and parents receiving the same updates?
The bulletin goes to
parents before teachers,
you're just broadsided that parents
can get on Schoology on Saturday.
The next one is will Schoology
be purchased for the fall
since teachers are now
being required to use it?
From Teresa Keller, how
do I turn in my receipts
for reimbursement?
I'm not getting clear answers
other than that we are closed,
but I find many managers are working.
I would like to be contacted.
This reimbursement is important
to me and my household.
And then finally, a
comment with no, oh wait,
we've got a couple more, sorry.
This is from a parent
guardian, but no name.
What's with schooling?
Why are you adding something
new to learn during a crisis?
Are you doing this because
my kids need to know
how to do this or for the fall?
Last one from a parent, Zenata Askue.
I need a Chromebook and
schoolwork for my daughter
and the check from her
principals to replace her
hydro flask and accessories.
She gives her phone number
The school has been closed
at Mitchell since March 16th
and I was not able to get her
work for an independent study.
- All right, a lot of questions.
And I'm assuming that the
superintendent and staff
will take the time to
answer those questions
I guess in the form of email,
or if they left their email
address or a phone call,
or I mean, I don't know how
we're gonna get the information
out to these parents if
they didn't leave anything
or if they're unknown.
- There's a couple that did.
- Okay.
- [Mr. Hoover] Some of the questions
the superintendent has answered,
but definitely more information
is gonna be coming daily
as we go through this whole process.
- Okay.
- And for those specific ones,
the one that the parent had
and the employee had, we'll
make sure that we reach out
to them to answer their
questions specifically.
- Perfect.
All right.
No other comments or
questions from the public.
I'll bring it back to the board.
Anybody?
- So, I guess my question is just how
are we following up with these?
I kind of thought we were
gonna go through them.
But I know some of the
really specific ones
can be just followed up on
but I think some of them
are general and relatively,
you know, they're good questions.
- I can address the one
about the learning management
system, the Schoology one.
It's actually, we got it at no cost,
and it's just minimal cost
for training our teachers
and we only have it for three months
till the end of the school year.
Well, it's premature to say if closures
are gonna be beyond the
summer, but right now,
we're only looking at that
for no more than three months.
- All right.
I did have just a couple of questions.
I know that the high
schoolers are more concerned,
well, not more concerned,
I know our priority
is to make sure that they
get their transcripts
and their credit and everything
so they can graduate.
We don't know if we're gonna
return to school, correct?
- Well, we haven't been
given that directive yet.
But we heard the governor
say that he's told
his own children plan not to come back
until the end of the year, but
we'll see what the governor
or Sac county public health
officials give us for guidance.
- Okay.
So let's say they come back,
I don't know, May 4th.
As far as Cordova, Folsom, Vista,
and their senior activities,
will they be able to resume
those senior activities?
I don't know what they have survival week
or whatever they have out there.
Are they going to be able to resume that
and get back on schedule,
or is that gonna be
a based by site decision?
- I think we're gonna have
to look at that site by site
and to see, first and
foremost, do our seniors
have what they need
academically to graduate
and then what activities can be resumed?
I would say it's probably not gonna look
exactly like it did before
we went on the emergency
school closure with the pandemic.
- Sure.
- But I think
each school will take it
and see what they can do with that.
I don't want to make any
guarantees or promises
of what it could look like
until we get to that point.
- All right, thank you.
Any other comments,
questions from the board?
Mr. Hoover.
- So I'm hearing that
there's some inconsistency
in how assignments are being
rolled out by teachers.
So I guess I was just wondering
what the direction is?
I know this is a really
complicated thing to organize.
But some students are being told
they have assignments due
right away, some aren't.
And so I just want to see
how those are being treated
or how the direction is
being given on those issues.
- I'm gonna ask Dr. Huber to
talk a little bit about that.
He's been working alongside Curtis Wilson,
Kathryn Allaman and our principals.
- Yeah, so we have kind
of two components to that.
And some of those fall
into the assignments
that were assigned before we left.
And so teachers did ask, you know,
I assigned an assignment
and kids got material.
And it was due, let's say
on Thursday or Friday,
or the Monday that we would have returned.
And so a lot of the teachers
are taking those assignments
and grading them if you
will, because they were kind
of in real time when we went to closure.
The other piece is that some teachers
are a lot more comfortable
with the rollout
of online learning, distance
learning than other teachers.
And so we have to allow for
some time for the teachers
who are not so comfortable with technology
to get comfortable.
So officially, the soft rollout
as we call it starts Monday.
And the whole week that's coming up
is basically to help teachers
and students reconnect for sure.
And then try some things on
in terms of an assignment.
The students responds in some way
to whatever that assignment is,
the teacher might give
some very simple feedback.
And that way the student can
see that their assignment
was received and the
teacher has commented on it.
But this week and the week
following, when we come back
from spring break, there's only four days,
it's going to be that kind of modality.
We do see with further guidance coming,
I believe, from the
state, some sort of shift
into actual graded work as we
go further on down the road,
especially if we were to be
out for the rest of the year.
But it can be different
depending on the grade level,
especially elementary school,
compared to secondary.
So this really is fluid.
The biggest thing is that
students are to be held,
you know, in no harm and
so that we want to proceed
in such a way that kids are not penalized
for being in the online
environment that we're in.
Also, we want our teachers to understand,
we are going to give you
the time to figure out
how to make this really work.
And so it does vary
depending on the teacher
and their comfort level.
- Mr Short.
- I just have a quick question.
As we roll this out,
I know as far as tracking attendance
and tracking that how
are we gonna do that?
- So right now, that's
not really a requirement
from the state, but we're
not a 100% clear or sure
that that's going to remain the same
for the rest of this school year.
And so that is the reason
that we went with Schoology
in terms of the online platform.
A lot of our teachers, for instance,
have been using Google Classroom.
And so we don't want to
take that away from teachers
if that's what they're
really comfortable with.
But what we're asking is that the link
to their Google Classroom
is placed in Schoology.
Because that way, if a student accesses
that Google Classroom through Schoology,
we can track that they
went into the classroom.
We can track that as an attendance,
if that down the road becomes a need,
or if we have to show what kind
of participation rate
we've had, et cetera.
So that was the whole
reason for the Schoology
is it gives the district
a solid way to track
that if it's necessary, it also plugs
directly into PowerSchool.
So that also was a hope
that it might make things
a little easier for teachers
in terms of grading.
- Because we're not
tracking, we're not looking
at the instructional minutes.
We're not gonna be held
accountable for all that
at this point.
- At this time.
- At this point, right.
- Yep.
- 'Cause they're just not logging on,
and we're counting the minutes,
'cause that's not what
we're gonna do so, okay.
So we're a little flexible on that.
- Jim, how are the teachers
acclimating to school,
school, Schoology, can't
say it, Schoology so far?
- I always mispronounce it too.
Again, there really is
a comfort level here.
We have had teachers that
have already this week,
really been reaching out
and starting activities,
just to try to connect with kids.
We have other teachers who are
at the very beginning stages
of anything online.
It's also particularly
problematic, obviously,
for our TK through like first
or second grade students
who know the electronic
modalities not exactly perfect,
are really helpful.
So there's a lot of different
levels of comfort there,
if you will.
So that's why we really
have been stressing
there's a lot of resources,
we're providing a lot of resources.
In fact, we didn't
provide a resource today
because we're starting to feel
like maybe we're overwhelming, folks.
But there's a lot out there
and we're just asking
teachers take it step by step,
try things on, experiment
what this is like with kids,
because it's, especially
over the next two weeks,
the week before spring break
and the week after spring break,
that's really what it's about.
And then probably things might,
depending on directions,
might look a little different
after that, depending on what
was required by the state.
- Can we answer that
question from the public
about spring break?
I know what the initial
reason was, in fact,
(mumbles) even brought it
back because folks got upset
when it was canceled.
But why are we continuing to cancel that?
I think that may be a
very good thing to do.
I just, I'm sorry.
Why are we continuing
to keep spring break?
I think I know there's some
good reasons to do that.
But I just wondered what
the thinking is behind that
and how that compares
maybe to other districts
and what they're doing as well.
- As far as I know, other
districts in our county,
Sac County are keeping
their spring breaks.
Matter of fact, we were
all asked to place them
at the same place in our calendars
because not all districts
do their spring break before Easter.
Some do it afterwards.
But we have consistency
that we all have spring
break before Easter.
And as far as I know, all the districts
are continuing to observe it.
When we look at the number of
instructional days in a year,
we also take into account
how many days are actual
non-student days, vacation days.
And right now, the state
has given us leniency
on the number of
instructional days and minutes
through the waiver process.
So we are not looking to
change our spring break
at this point in time, unless
we're given other guidance
to look at that as a whole region
that we were staying consistent
with other districts at this point.
- And my last question was,
I know the governor's order
also talked about paying
contractors during this time,
are we continuing to pay contractors
with the school district at this time?
- Yes, I'm gonna have Mr.
Washburn address that.
- [Mr. Washburn] Yes, we are.
We've actually looked, at
first, the county order
and then the governor's order
to clarify that we are
gonna keep construction.
We've been confirmation
with our legal counsel
and we are continuing with construction,
we're continuing to pay,
recognizing they're maintaining
their social distancing as they can
and there could be some
delays from vendors,
material supplies and all that.
And we are looking at any force majeure
or anything that might
happen along the way
and compensable or
non-compensable delay claims,
but we're working through that
and construction is continuing.
- Does that include the
non-construction folks,
do we contract with
any for social services
and speech and all that,
does that include those folks as well?
I'm not sure exactly what
the governor's order asks,
but I think I'd just use
the term contractors,
- Are we talking like
related service providers?
- Right, service providers.
- As long as they're
continuing to provide services
for our students, and
it's kind of in transition
at this point in time,
I believe they will.
We can ask Miss Betty Jo Wessinger
to talk specific to that.
Betty Jo, can you join
us on the call please?
- [Betty Jo] Yes, I'm here.
(talking off mic)
their distance learning
through the non-public.
And the reason that we
wanted them to do that
is because of the
relationships and the work
that they're already
doing with the students.
We didn't feel it would be appropriate
to take our students back and put them
on another teacher's
caseload who doesn't know
the student and know the needs.
And when school is open
again, the student will return
to the non-public school.
So we wanted to maintain that continuity,
but we also, CDE was pretty
clear in the directive
that they wanted us to
pay the non-public schools
and the non-public agencies.
And it's really important
to their viability
as part of our continuum of services.
In addition to that,
our non-public agencies
we contract for some of our
speech and language services,
and a few other services,
such as OT and music therapy,
and we have asked them to
continue to provide services
for our students during this time,
and that will be in their
distance learning format.
- Thank you.
Okay.
Any other questions?
All right.
Thank you so much for the
update, Superintendent,
greatly appreciate it.
Reports to the Board of Education.
Superintendent.
- Thank you.
I know during the reports
earlier from our associations,
we didn't have CSEA's report
but I did have it here,
so I wanted to lead off
with what our president
of CSEA stated that he wanted read.
And this is on behalf of CSEA.
And this is from Rob Thomas.
In this time of uncertainty,
your classified employees
take comfort in knowing you're concerned
about our safety and welfare.
We are all working together to resolve
our current challenges
as well as those ahead.
We remain committed to
serving our students,
families and community.
And I think Rob for that comment,
that is really the sentiment
throughout our whole organization
that we have over 2000
employees who are rallying
in this time of uncertainty
and putting our students first
in every way that we can and
really my message of thanks
and gratitude and working together,
we have to work together collaboratively,
partnering with our local
communities, the resources,
the faith-based organizations,
the nonprofit's.
Again, school districts
can't do this alone.
We have to do it in
conjunction with the support
of our communities and we
have amazing communities
and they're stepping up to say,
how can we help and
it's brought us together
in ways that who would have imagined.
But I heard a saying the other day,
there are a lot of challenges
and issues that we're facing,
but look there are new opportunities too
and we're looking for those
opportunities on a daily basis.
So I want to thank our
employees and our community,
our board, our associations, FCEA, CSEA,
our management team.
They're all doing a phenomenal
job working around the clock
to make sure we're still delivering
quality instruction to our students.
And then lastly, I want
to make this announcement,
even though it really is bittersweet
to share this announcement,
but this is Daniel Thigpen's last meeting
as our director of communications
because he has been recruited to work
in the State Superintendent
of Public Instruction's Office
in a very prestigious position
and he starts that position
right after spring break.
So Mr. Thigpen we thank you
from the bottom of our heart,
as a school district, for
everything you've done
to help guide our communication
and community engagement strategies.
You have just been an amazing catalyst
in our district in so many ways
and I know these few
words can't sum it all up,
but thank you.
- All right, reports from the board.
Mr. Short.
- I also want to kind of echo
what the Superintendent said.
I just can't believe
how staff and everybody
is coming together in a collaborative
and making a lot of sacrifices.
You know, this change came upon us.
This is a war against
something that's invisible.
We're gonna beat this thing
and we're gonna come out of this
and I think even stronger
because of what we're learning
through this process.
It's, like I said, tough times don't last,
but tough people do and
I think this district
and collectively in this
region and the state,
you see people coming
together towards a common goal
to beat this and, it will happen.
We're not seeing the light
at the end of the tunnel,
but it's gonna be soon.
With that said, Daniel, I congratulate you
on your new mission and I
just wanted to thank you
for all the great things
you've done as a PIO
and chief information officer now--
(yelling)
What was that?
(laughing)
Okay, so I remember back
when we had the district,
we didn't have a PIO and, at the time,
it was a lot of chaos when we had complex
and different issues or emergencies.
We didn't really have a
central information to go out
and give a unified voice
and, a lot of times,
the media, even before social media,
we had the media call you up, a newspaper,
and then called board
members at their home.
We all said different things
and it was taken out of context
and we had a lot of
different problems with that
'cause that undermined
sometimes the superintendent
and the board's unified
voice but today with the PIO
and our communication plans
and everything in place,
I think it's just exemplary,
and what we done over the
years with that communication
and we want to continue that
and I know we're gonna
continue that exemplary work
of how we communicate to the public
and our kids and our
parents and also the board
is gonna have strong
leadership in that area
during these tough times.
So I want to thank the
board for coming together
on these tough decisions too.
It's not easy but we're
gonna continue move forward.
It's a fluid situation but we're ready
to make those hard decisions
and continue to look optimistic
and look forward to coming
out of this stronger.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
Board member Scarlet, I
totally forgot about you, kiddo
Did you have a comment?
- [Board Member Kniznik] Yeah, thank you.
So I just wanted to quickly say thanks
and all teachers and school administration
who are working really hard to figure out
how to work through what is
most important for all students
and faculty during this
unprecedented time.
Also, congratulations to Mr. Thigpen
on his new position and I
look forward to coming back
and seeing you all as soon as possible.
- All right, thank you.
Miss Reinking.
- I'm gonna echo all
the thank-yous and kudos
for all the hard work
that's been going on.
I think the board
understands the logistics
of what needs to be done to
make what is happening happen,
but I also want to thank
our community members
and the parents out there who have been
rational about this
and showed common sense
and realized that a lot
of people are working hard
behind the scenes to make this happen
and I hope some of the parents
that are a little anxious,
I hope some of your concerns
are addressed tonight.
I know there were a lot of
concerns about our seniors
and I think it's been clearly stated
that they are foremost in our minds
and that we will make
sure their needs are met.
I want to thank staff for working closely
with our employee groups and finding a way
to utilize Google
Classroom within Schoology.
I think the partnerships
and the communication
and how well we have worked together
over the last couple of years
is really paying off right now.
So we appreciate the partnerships
and work and achievements
we have managed to make because of that
and if there's anything positive
about this distant learning,
I think in the long run,
the skills that these
students are gonna receive
in working through this platform,
especially our high school students,
I think it'll serve them well
as they enter the workforce
and they go on to college.
And even our younger students,
I think this interaction
will be a long-term benefit for them
and I appreciate our
teachers who are finding
this a little outside
of their comfort zone.
I appreciate how they're
willing to work through this
and make this happen.
So thank you.
And Daniel, we were so lucky
to have you as long as we did.
You've just been a wonderful
asset to this district
and I know you're gonna do great things
for our whole state, so good luck.
I'm sure we'll be hearing
things from you at least.
That's it.
- All right.
Mr. Reid?
- I've choked him up.
Those comments were like too much.
- Yeah, I just want to echo.
(talking off mic)
- Mr. Hoover.
- Yeah, well, first
off, thank you, Daniel,
for everything you've
done for this district
and we wish you the very best,
and really sad that we had
to send you out this way,
but, hopefully, we'll get
to see you again soon.
And I just want to thank all the hard work
that's going on behind the scenes,
from everyone on the staff
at the district level,
and thank you to all of our teachers
who are just working so hard right now
to learn a new platform.
I mean, I understand
how difficult that is,
how difficult that must be
to have to learn something this quickly.
So thank you for your
ongoing attention to that
and just your commitment to our students.
And also, thank you to the administrators
and the counselors that are not
only managing this situation
but also, I mean, I've
heard so many great stories
of principals personally
delivering Chromebooks
or all of these great
stories that are coming out.
I mean, this is a time
when one of the things,
it's just showing how much
we're able to come together
and help each other.
So it's really great to see
and I appreciate anything
that the administrators and
the counselors are doing
to help our seniors because I
know there's a lot of concerns
out there with that and I know
that we're gonna do the best,
the absolutely best we can
and everyone's gonna get
through this together.
And thanks to the parents
for your patience.
I know this is a really difficult time.
I mean, as a parent myself,
I absolutely get it.
I'm excited to see, you
know, one of my kids
has a Zoom conference with
his teacher coming up soon
and I'm really excited to see
that getting rolling and underway,
but I'm trying to keep
things in perspective
as we go through this because I think
that this is a very unique situation
that we're never gonna
see again, hopefully,
but I truly believe we're
gonna get through it together.
So thank you to everyone
for all your work.
- All right, thank you, and in closing,
Scarlet are you still out there?
- [Board Member Kniznik]
Yes, I'm still here.
- I wanted to commend you on
the video that you posted.
It was very inspiring to
not only our students,
but I believe our parents as well.
You spoke from the heart
and I just appreciate
the words that you had for our district.
Daniel, you have been
our, I want to call it
our word master, and you made everything
sound so good for us and
you made us look good
and I just thank you for the work
that you did for our district
and I wish you nothing but the best.
Make us proud, sir, make us proud.
I want to thank the superintendent
and their administration
for putting all this together
and I know it's rough
and I know that you guys
are under a timeline
and you're getting pressure
from us board members
and in questions from us board members
as well as the community asking questions,
but you guys are able to
just crank out the answers
and give us those daily updates
and we're able to share it
the best way that we can.
My suggestion moving forward
is that whoever fills
the big shoes that Daniel has left,
that they reach out to those parents
and those Facebook groups.
I know there's probably
about 12 of them out there
that we need to be responsible
for and to reach out
and to give them information,
those that follow those pages,
but I just want us to be
cognizant that we need
to get that information
out there to everybody
and I don't want parents to feel
like their child is being left behind.
That is not the case.
We, as a board, we care about all,
like David said, 22,000 kids
and we want to make sure
that we're giving them
the quality education that they deserve
and we're also concerned about
their health and well-being.
So, with that being said, I just hope
that parents that you're patient.
We're gonna get everything together
and I think everything's gonna work okay,
like I said before, I'll say it again,
I'm an optimist and I just think
that everything will be fine.
Last but not least, I wanted to thank
those staff members and
volunteers that have gone out
and made sure that our students
who aren't able to have food are fed.
It means a lot.
I know Mr. Reid has been out.
I've been out to a couple of schools
and the parents are so thankful
and I know that we're working
with other community partners
to make sure that they're
not only being fed
during the week, but
they're fed on the weekend.
So, again, I just want to thank the staff
for making sure that our kids are fed.
And also, Martha, I want to thank you
and the superintendent
for giving this set up.
We are practicing social distancing here
and I had some member of
the community get on me
about not practicing social distancing,
but here we are, we're six feet apart,
and we haven't been in contact.
So, in closing, I wish
all of you well, be safe,
and just know that we're here for you.
With that being said, meeting adjourned.
(gavel knocks)
(uptempo music)
