School board meeting notes, summary, Dec. 20

Notes and summary by Liz Henry, lizhenry@gmail.com

Please feel free to add your comments.


***

Notes on School Board meeting Dec. 20 2006

Summary:

The School Board and District recognized the 12 years of service of Police Chief Bolanos.

Community contributions to the Taft Elementary community gardens were recognized, including generous donations by OSH, OK Lumber, and Lyngso.

School safety was brought up. Two incidents -the recent incident with the needles, and a substitute releasing K students too early at Henry Ford, unsupervised.

The PI (Program Improvement) Status Plan was discussed as follows:

Liz Wolfe explained the plan with a power point presentation will soon be available on the District web site, probably at http://rcsd.ca.campusgrid.net/home/Program+Improvement+Information.

The district was required in September to take various actions, including notifying parents we were in PI status and hiring an outside consultant or external evaluator to draft a plan. The district hired Networks for Success, represented here by Alexa Hauser.

The plan includes training and ongoing coaching for teachers. The Houghton Mifflin curriculum must be used at all district schools, starting in Feb. 2007, with 90-120 minutes of uninterrupted lanuage arts curriculum and 60-90 minutes of math curriculum. Full implementation of the curricular changes will happen in Phase II of the plan, next fall.

The school board members then asked a round of questions.

Then, community members, parents, and teachers, had an opportunity to speak for 3 minutes each. We heard from 12 people.

There was a short break, and then Board members and staff discussed the issues presented.

There will be 3 commuity meetings in January, and the PI Status plan will be on the agenda again at the January 10th school board meeting.

After this agenda item was discussed the bulk of the community / audience left.

Action/consent items were approved by the board. (I did not have the agenda so I don't know what those items were. - LizH.)

The board voted to approve funding for Garfield Charter school, to send their entire staff to AB 466 training and AB 430 training. They will hire a full time intervention teacher to work with students in small groups, 2 coaches for instructional strategy, and a parent outreach coordinator.

Nick (??) then reported on the RCSD financial situation, revenue, expenditures, and projected budget. The projected budget does not include salary increases. A 5% salary increase, for example, would add 9 million dollars to the projected expenditures - money that the district doesn't have.

Craig McBride reported on the G.I.R.L.S. group at Kennedy.
Jan reported on the W.O.W. press release and the RCEF.
Shelly Masur brought up the safety issues and substitute teacher training.

— Summary by LizHenry 12/21/2006



Here are some detailed, raw notes from the meeting:

School Board members:
(in order of seating left to right)
Dennis McBride, Maria Diaz-Slocum, Craig Baker, Shelly Masur, Patricia Wright. District Supervisor Jan Christiansen, Julie ??, John B, Liz Wolf, Rick

Pledge of Allegiance said
Chief Polanis recognized - retiring after 12 years as RWC Police Chief

Taft community gardens. Thanks to OSH, OK Lumber, Lyngso. Wonderful garden.

PI Status.
Jan C says a few words. Plan is not about teaching to the test or cookie cutter education.
Liz Wolfe gives a power point presentation. The slides will be on the district website tomorrow, in English and Spanish.

For 2 years we did not make our district AYP. We were notified this was happening 2 years ago. We did not take enough action to improvve YA{ in English Language arts. Therefore, now we have a very short timeline to improve students' achievements.

"unfortunately not enough action was taken"

Liz W explains AYP. What is AYP? What are subgroups? 2005 CST Data.


SED means, both parents didn't graduate HS or they are on free/reduced lunch.
EL - English Lanugage Learners
SWD - Special Ed


Alexa Hauser - Networks for Success, external evaluator.

Requirements?
- notify parents
- contract with external agency to write plan
- sent home letter
- Administer surveys,
- write PI plan by dec. 1st.

Sept - sent home letter
Oct - administered surveys to school leadership teams or liason sureys. Academic performance surveys.

Studied research - why do some schools do better?
School Instructional Program coherence: Fred Newmann, Consortium on Chicago School Research. ***** California recommendations for effective practices.

writing plan draft. site meetings, district leadership team, meeting with district administrators. modify and adjust, timeline.

what instructional needs does the plan address?
- curriculum materials from state.
- stick to recommendations for "instructional minutes"
- training on materials on how to implement
- use data to monitor student progress
- ongoing support "context experts and coaches" for teachers
- MOnthly teacher collaboration by grade level and dept
- lesson and course pacing schdule and sufficient intervention courses

Phase I feb-june 2007
- begin currciulum change
- daily eld instruction
- teacher/principal treaining
- PI coaching (????)
- teacher/principal collaboration
- pacing guidance

"unfortunately ELD daily work is not complied with across all schools."

Phase 2
- Full implemenation of HM curriculum. (what does this mean?)
- daily eld instruciton + tig time
- training
- curriculum embedded assessments
- pi coaching
- collaboration
- paching

Phase 3
- same as phase 2
more focused training on eld
-

Goals: meet ayp targets, in 2008, 11% increase each year

- better meet educational needs of rcsd students.

do we feel this plan will work?

New speaker - from the outside agency.
Fed. law requires us to implement a research based curriculum.
benchmarking. comparative data of student performance.
in past 3 weeks, looked at 20 districts in bay area.
sample of other districts. santa clara shares diversity, languages, socioeconomic status. How do we look compared to evergreen elementary and oak grove?

Craig - Is this our only opportunity to discuss this? Because that changes what I want to ask tonight.

Dennis - Why can't we put it on the jan 10th agenda?
Jan - We have a regular meeting with regular agenda on it that night. But we *could*.
Shelly- For tonight we could have some clarifying. What is our vision as a district. I want to ask clarifying questions about the plan? then have a discussion then talk about what we want as a district.
Patricia - I am hoping we delve into this as a district.
Craig - Can you walk me through the process by which every site was Involved in developing this? Was it representational, a couple of people from each site in the district?
Liz W - the principals were invited to bring leadership teams to the district office. 3 days. a day for k-5, a day for k-8, a day for 6-8. we ranged from 2-10 people [[[ per site? or per day?]] All schools were not pi and did not stay all day. They just stayed in the morning, and took it back to their staff. And then they had a timeline to submit their completed survey. Then that info was compiled by networks for success agency and brough back to district leadership team.

Maria - I look at this as an opportunity. look at what's happening in our district. try and figure out how to help all our students. Help the high achievers move even further. Not enough attention has been paid to this issue. questions about the plan and teacher training.

Liz W - The teacher training has an option for 5 days, or, 5 on Saturdays so they don't miss class.

Dennis: thanks to everyone for all the work. We met 35 out of 37 AYP criteria. What are the 37 criteria? Also, do we have a sense of what percent of teachers and principals have been trained?

*laughter from audience*

Liz W: Very few. Some from Taft. Principals in training now. A couple of weeks ago there were 3 days of training. Then there is a Jan/Feb class. Right now it is volunteer only.

Dennis: So when will we have full 100% training?

Liz W: In 2 years. The first 40 hours is on the state curriculum. The other 80 hours will look different. In the reauthorization of this funding and training there are components to look at the needs of english learners.

Dennis: Disabilities. What are we going to do?

Liz W: Current authorizations of special ed teachers. Who needs additional support and training?

Patricia : Important for everyone to understand there are 5 levels of grading. Of proficiency levels for determining AYP. Proficient and advanced mean at grade level or above. Question on slide on page 11. Timeline with 3 phases. Use of curriculum embedded assessment. What is that?

Liz W: That means that there will be tests every 6-8 weeks on the curriculum to see if students have learned what was being taught.

Craig: Questions about reclassification of EL students. Also, what are we doing... unclear... for students with disabilities.

Liz W: How are special ed students being delivered at the school sites? Raise grade level of instruction for students? it's not clear...

Dennis I'm uncomfortable because it's a high level presentation for people who haven't been involved. There is not enough detail. For example, what about the 2 years to train? Why 2 years? How? What are the limitations? Can we make that better? I'd like to see each board member come up with questions after we go through the 40 page document and do that at a special meeting jan 10 or before that.

*spontaneous burst of applause from large part of audience.*


Audience statements

Karen Sparks
from John Gill. Site Council president I have some comments on liz wolfe's ending statement about focus coherency with plan and how it's being directed. I have concerns with the process. What Dennis said just now. My concern about how process has been handled from the very beginning. Now this is in a modified schedule of community comment and community input. My concern is, are we going to actually get that? I found out about this at the school site meeting last week, we need to disseminate the info to the school sites, in a much better fashion. It's very difficult to comment on something if you don't have info. Really get it out there, not talking about getting it there, but GETTING it there for ALL of the school sites. Particularly since plan and scores concern spanish speakers, get the information to them, to schools like Taft. But the taft meeting is the last one to happen. 2nd concern has to do with coherenece of the plan and its schedule.

Heather Washington

Thanks for all the work. Easy for us to criticize, we really appreciate your hard work. But. I'm representing a group of parents from John Gill. Please stand (a large portion of audience stands.) 90 people signed this letter from John Gill. Multiage, performance art program, k-2, 3-5. 2/3 classes are multiage. Currently we spend 200 minutes on multi-age for 3 grades together. This will be cut to 45 minutes under the plan. Give us more flexibility so we can comply while maintaning the integrity of our program. Phase in the plan. Implement phase 1 elements more slowly. Nothing in state requirements that says all schools must implement at same time on same schedule.

Diane Kissler Director of support systems ... Structure needed for alignment. Basic guidelines for all professionals. I like knowing that the doctor I go to has specific AMA approved knowledge. I like it that there are regulations for construction. Buildings need blueprints. You need to get the foundation in place. Once the foundations are in place the walls can be painted. Everyone should be treated equally, consistently. The pi plan as developed will ensure that all students wil receive equal and consistent support. Equal opportunity for each individual child.

Ellen Specter - Orion teacher and former orion parent
We understand the district must comply with a plan. However, we are philosophically opposed to the proposed LEA plan. Here are some excerpts from our mission statement. Flexible classroom structure, self motivation, self discipline, address the needs of whole child, physical, cognitive, emotional, sharing of skills ... cross age ... classrooms are democratic. class meetings and conflict resolutions. These programs are at risk due to the proposed educational plan: student of the week. gardening, music, chorus, pe, thematic learning, cross age interaction, meeting with big buddies, libraries, science, class meetings, conflict resolutions. All our students will be in for a rude surprise in February. The time invested in class community and routines now no longer relevent. All starting over. This is hard for our upper grade combination classes. Most of their time will now be spent away from their classroom homes. Their days will be like middle school; they are not developmentally ready. Orion is a special place, family. Working together. Environment feeding the mind and soul and heart of our children.

2 kids and Orion parent Diane Friedlander

Miles: I'm in 2dn grade. I go to orion elementary school. I got this idea of this letter because the school district's plan is not really going to be happening to the grownups, it's going to be happening to the kids like me and the other students. um. and. um. I'm going to read this part. We the students of Orion Elementary School in RWC district in California have signed this letter. 44 students at Orion have signed this letter. We learn best when we get to choose the books we read. We study about big ideas at orion for example in 2nd grade we learned about rocks, bats, and families. We get to read about these things and do other activities. Our class thinks this is a lot of fun because our teacher turns borng stuff into fun stuff.
*audience laughter*

Hi my name is Zachary Kliman and I go to orion and I'm in 2nd grade and miles and me are twins. And we signed this letter, and I'll read you the rest of it. And then, here I go. Our teachers turn stuff we don't understand into a game so we can understand it. We don't have to read a book that is too hard for us or a book that is too easy. We read a book at our level which we get to choose. The school district's plan does not help us learn in the ways we just described.

Diane. I'm the mother of those children and i did not put them up to it. I was in the car talking about it and they said they wanted to write a letter. It comes completely from them. I'm an educational researcher from Stanford. My voice represents many voices from Orion. Everyone from Orion please stand up. (Half the audience stands up.) Silence is not consent. The most creative teachers will leave the district, as will parents who have that option. This will hurt the district. Please be courageous and creative in your response. We're excited about Shelly Masur's trip to dc to lobby about NCLB. The battle is larger and we want to support that battle.

Claudio Ortega, a parent at Orion. Trust. Who are we going to trust. 2 positions. Do we trust what is in the books or do we trust what is in the minds of the teachers? The teachers know how to do their jobs. At orion we have fantastic staff of people. One example, one data point, my example. 7 years ago a kid came from another country. He was Spanish speaking. He came here, and did not know how to speak English. His parents were advised not to put him at Orion but they did anyways because the principal said yes, this kid is going to work here. He went out from orion with honors and is at 7th grade at Kennedy with honors. And that kid is my kid. Thank you.

Richard Blanton. John Gill parent. 2 areas to address. 1) there may be a part of this plan that I haven't learned about. Here's a question I have. Why will the district's resources be scattered over all students in all schools to address problem with EL students? Why not target them instead of all our students being put in this program no matter what their level? 2) lack of communications from district. We got a letter in September. From that time till last week we had no communication from the district. That was the first most of us heard about it. We were told at that time there would be no discussion. I quote ms wolf, "there will be no discussion, this is the plan, there will be no change in it." This shows an arrogance... puts in my mind a lack of trust of the actual agenda that this district may have. It makes me seriously question where the creativity has been. Where, what, is the overall agenda of this district. This plan seems to have been rushed, put together easiest possible way without truly considering all the students including ones doing well.

Lupe Torres Calil
Teacher at Taft Elementary. I came here to this district because they had an alternative program which i believe strongly in. We have been in pi for many years. I say that without any shame or reservation. We have focused in on strengthening our school. We come from other languages, countries, with different experiences and motivation, and those things are not tested every year. We have the challenge of taking what they come with and translating to a language the mainstream culture can understand. To compete in the real world and to be effective productive citizens in our world, i mean that globally not just in the U.S. The PI situation has forced us to deal with it. Now our district is in PI. What is it about our instruciton, our curriculum, that is not working. Unfortunately we do have to look at that. When we were first told HM was the curiculum and we were not excited about that either. I hear JG and Orion students lose programs at their schools. Everyone should have that opportunity. at taft we have lost that already. We aren't happy with it. At least I'm not, it's not a remedial program. You do have to be a creative teacher. I go beyond the call of duty to motivate students to learn the content. It is grade level. it isn't dumbing down the curriculum. it's asking students to do quite a bit.

*some parents clap and some actually boo.*

Patricia Wright: That was rude. Do not boo.

Julie Brody I am concerned classrooms will be less creative and project based. I worked in the textbook industry for 10 years. Both small innovative companies i worked for were acquired by large textbook companies. All was developed with money in mind. Not with needs of students and teachers in mind. Curriculum is checklist oriented. They look at standards and find ways to check them off and say they have covered them. As opposed to teaching children how to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers. They ignore what is best for individual students. Teachers can identify things that are relevent to their students. Teach in interdisciplinary manner. This cannot be achieved by using only one textbook. When I was in school I learned about whales and their habitats for science and social studies, wrote letters to congtress (language arts) about whaling; we made sure the letters were perfect because we cared about the whales. We drew whales in scale on the playground and were amazed everyone in our class could fit in the picture. Math, language arts, for fundraisers to raise money to save the whales. I remember it all very well. But I can't say I remember a single textbook lessson i ever had in school. Flexibility and creativity are key.

Julie Guaspari
(written statement) (Which I missed taking notes on because i was thinking)

Liz Henry
Why are so many of us here from JG and orion? Not because we think we're so special, or that our schools are better. It is because we heard some details of the plan. We were told by our principals and we spread the info very quickly, because we have email networks developed. We have the capability to respond with speed and to mobilize and organize. Other schools are still not aware of the details. I talked to a teacher the other day at North Star who was at the Site Council meeting and who did not know about this at all. Adelante doesn't know. They know a little and think it won't apply to them and they can get around it. That's why they're not here. I'd like to hear from parents and teachers at all schools, and they need to be informed - in Spanish too. I also appreciate the district's hard work and the difficulty and I want to move forward constructively. But. Philosophically. Do I trust the NCLB to fix our problems? No. Do I trust this plan will work, this data? No. I trust our teachers. We do need improvement, but this is not the way to do it. Support our teachers. Give them resources, raises, and respect. Give more help, staff, training, for English language learners that schools can opt into. Meanwhile, fight NCLB at the state and federal levels, write and call Congress. I hope that parents at all schools will develop networks and will communicate between schools. We have to organize. Thank you.



*break*

[*i missed 5 minutes*]

Jan Christiansen - What flexibility can be allowed?
Site modifications to the LEA plan.
ELD at sites.
We cannot use the word "waiver" or the word "exemption".
You can have no schools in district in pi status but you can still have a district in pi status. We have 8 schools in pi status. If we fail as a district for the next 2 years then we go into corrective action. What we do now will have a impact at how the state will look at that if we DO go into corrective action. If we ignore nclb, take a strong proactive approach, we have to face consequences down the road.

[Such as the state firing the district staff.]


Liz Wolfe - state adopted curriculum. must be researched based proven curriculum. (fed guidelines) state approved hm and open court.

Dennis McBride - in 2008 we have to fix where we are, below today's target, in 2 years the number jumps 11 %

Maria - In your opinion, is our plan in the middle, extreme, or what...

Liz Wolf: our goal of course is to meet the target!

Maria - 2nd question, we have some schools doing work in this curriculum. How many of them have not implemented the curriculum of the current pi schools. ?

Liz w: Taft was encouraged to implement HM when their had their first pi plan written by Gibson and Associates. Fair oaks has been using success for all, recommended by their external provider. We have been working with Fair Oaks to see how we can merge to use more HM text. Pay attention to how students are placed in grade level. That is not as it should be. Different reading comprehension skills in HM. So that there's more of a match to what they're doing to HM texts.

Maria.... (I missed her question)

Liz W: at some grade levels at some school it was implemented but not at others. there is not a consistent answer to that question.

Craig Baker: the point of the reality of PI. Over the last week I heard great reasonableness from everyone about the reality of doing something about PI status. We are not doing right by EL learners and we have to change that. That said, my biggest issue I want to raise is we haven't had a strategic plan process. From my point of view is a very low standard for where we want to be. It should be the other way around. we are stuck with a very difficult situation. It raises a lot of question about how we look at data. Do we still end up with choice? The reality is that the way we have schools of choice has an impact on our scores. This plan does not take the needs of students working at a very high level into account, creativity and problem solving. the pi plan does not do that. at the same time i am fully aware that there are schools where implementing this plan will be great. maybe it will be great for the students. but it has become the tail wagging the dog. and that is my quandry.

Jan: I'd like to respond because I agree to what you've been saying. we had planned to come up with a 5 year strategic plan in the beginning. but we had to stop that process because of finding out we were in PI status. I would not have advocated the process we had to go through in the last 60-90 days. We were forced by the state. that really was a mandate. we were forced to their timeline and their external provider.

Craig Baker: I have to believe we can do both of these things. I have to believe we can meet with the mandate, use our flexible options and do whatever we can to have a good PI plan in place.

Shelly Masur: I do want to reiterate i am really grateful to all of you for talking and giving us your feedback. and i recognize this is a really really bad process. I don't think there is anyone , as i've written you, that doesn't believe this is a terrible process. This guy told me...for your PI plan... you need to base this plan on your vision and goals as a district. I laughed at him and said, that's what we *were* doing but now we can't. We have not been able to because we are working to develop goals for something that we may not all buy into as a premise. BUT. I will say, and what i've said to some of you, though I don't agree with NCLB, it's my responsibility to make sure the district follows the law set by the state, as someone you've elected, and doesn't completely thumb our nose at the state and what we are required to do. Hopefully we can revise the plan, to be what we want for our children, which is not an entire day of two subjects. This is what I've been struggling with. How to educate our children *and* comply with the law. Do I have another second to ask a question? Each board member has met with the staff to ask questions about the info, which obviuosly none of us was privy to. We had been talking about implementing Differentiated Instruction. Can you talk about how we might still be able to do some Differentiated Instruction?

Liz Wolf: We're not following the state guidelines as rigidly as we could. the state recommends 2.5 hours, we're recommenting 90 minutes to 120, plus 60-90 in math. Plus, let's use the 30 minutes of TIG time for differentiated instruction. We're leaving that choice open to schools for gardens or science and all the things that people are afraid will be going away. that can happen during TIG time, along with ELD. There is the opportunity for students to be grouped at different levels, magnet programs, etc. still left.

Shelly: Are we a district that offers schools of choice? I think we are. I'm hearing what you're saying, that some of the time that looks like it's not flexible time, it, the TIG time, to my mind was more language arts for everybody? Are you saying that that's not necessarily the case?

Liz W : we're recommending... we're not mandating... that ELD take place and then something else take place for other students. It can be enrichment time, singing, some of the things that were mentioned. it's up to the schools to use that time.

Patricia Wright: Both times I ran for school board in my campaign lit i said that it's clear we as a district know how to educate our english only students. But we need to improve things for english learners. we need to close the acheivement gap. but when i look at the data presented, i was quite surprised how low our english only students are doing. they too are contributing to our district being in PI status. can you talk about that?

Liz W: right now there's about 3 out of 4 students proficient who are white.

Patricia wright: english only , english first lang. i'm classified as latina but my kids learned english as their first language.

Liz W: district wide, looking at diff groups of students, making sure we do different kinds of practices based on... in fact there was a difference... we stand more firmly behind our plan... schools who were implementing significant language arts instruction... we were seeing an increase for students across the board.


Liz W: with a standard people don't have to make up their curriculum every day. we will give it to them and support them and it will have an impact as it has in other districts on how well the students have done.


Dennis: Going to Washington. My concern: we've used up 25% of our time. we're talking about finishing our training at the time we're being evaluated. how do we do it faster? not playing tiddlywinks while watching a video, it's got to be quality training. it's going ot be a self fulfiling prophecy... i'm struggling... i started out here a couple of weeks ago , it's the law we ahve to do it, but now, with all the emails from parents, i see we have to address this flexibility and buy as much as we can get. and then two, do as much of a quality job, fast, as we can with the training.

Maria: i heard several comments that this is a bad process. but i don't like the feeling of beating up the staff. we've made changes on the district levle. Liz w , her first day on the job was the day they announced that we were in PI. I was upset that some site councils did not know about the plan. For some schools not to know... if you know of a school where this happened then please drop me a line.

Craig: when we looked for a superintendent Jan said, in future RWC schools are going to be a model for other districts. i want to reiterate the greatness of redwood city. all the children are our children. i'm going to push for our sights to be set much higher than this.

Shelly: I have a question. How some sites can submit modifications to the plan. what would our timeline be?

Jan: it would have to be by the end of january. the state made it very clear we have to implement the plan by feb first.
*mixed reaction from audience*

Jan: I heard the testimony tonight... i've talked to principals at other sites... who are happy that there will be consistency in the district finally. If we're going to do that... sites need to work on what the modifications we are proposing. hypothetically modifications are allowed, but you have to justify it and be accountable for it. site council, principal, etc.

Shelly: that's why I'm asking the question. we need to know, since people are asking for that flexibility, how they can do that.
I don't mean to reflect badly on the staff. It is my personal feelings about the badness about that law and the state and federal level.

Patricia: Some of you are new and very often one of the board members will ask about a particular question on an agenda. and sometimes the staff answers and finally it dawns on them that it's a law and it doesn't make any sesne. and that's the law we are dealing with, with this. It is what it is. I agree with Craig it is not the end of the line,, it is the beginning, to make sure we still ahve science and PE and art. and make sure we do not graduate highly tested students but well rounded educated citizens. i encourage all of you to participate in the process of making this strategic plan.

Dennis: Sequoia HS district came out of PI in 2 years. They could carve out the children who needed extra work and give them help. We don't have that luxury. We're set up here. It feels like we're set up here. They tell us in September we're a PI school and being asked to make a lot of changes in 2 years Has any elementary school come out of PI?

Jan: not in our district. but in others. we can do some more research.

Dennis: I don't want you to have to do more work

Jan: IN anchorage we did have a lot of schools come out of PI. We were notified a year ago and this process should have happened a year ago. It didn't for a variety of reasons

Dennis: We've really focused on EL students. we're not talking about students with disablities. Is this an impossible task? on the math side we're pretty close. where are we in math?

Liz W we're very concerned about math in middle school. in the primary grades we're much stronger. math is certainly in the plan. because of the new adoption that's coming up we're waiting for the adoption process which will begin next year for materieals and training.

Jan: we could take training....

Shelly: listening to Dennis talk about the teacher training issue. 2 part question: we have talked about how HM can be used creatively . I'm asking that we really put some effort into focusing some of our training on how to be creative and how to integrate some of the subjects that are being lost. We do lose as you well know, time for science, social studies, art. I believe it can be integrated. we can support teachers on how to bring that stuff into the classroom.

Liz W: filming teachers who are doing very successful creative things with HM including at Orion to give materials to our coaches.

Shelly: science textbook adoption: are we going to be able to use it?

Liz W: diff schools ahve different numbers of instructional minutes.

Shelly: what is the range of instructional minutes

Liz W: 30 minutes

Shelly: 300 minutes and 320 minutes. The 2nd part of my question: you said you want schools to desnign what they will do ... enrichment....

*** PI Status bit of the meeting now over; most of the audience leavesl***

Maria - change to the agenda please put Garfield's item up next. motion.
dennis: second

consent items:
motion to approve consent items... motion passes.

Now, Garfield.

Jan: Introduce Cynthia and Alex. Admiration for them , working very hard on grant applicaiton, met with our staff, suggestions from staff, to get approval from state. Team spirit at Garfield.

Cynthia: pleased to be here. Thanks to the district and their participation. Our goals and facts for you to consider:

Jan: board members, any specific questions?

Cynthia: I had understood that I was to do a 2 minute ...

Jan: that's fine, i'm looking at the clock

Cynthia: Garfield has improved its AYP and API and we are in year 5. we need to deepen our school reform. improvement process in several key areas. funds will enable garfield to send entire staff to AB 466 traiing and AB 430 training in english language arts. hire a full time intervention teacher to work with sutdents in small groups. 2 coaches to ensure instructional strategies are met Parent outreach coordinator. strengthen partnerships with parents.

Shelly: I'm trying to understand why we as a board have to approve Garfield's high priority grant thing when they have their own board.

Jan: that's another oe of those laws. we have to be involved at many levles.

Dennis: thanks to Cynthia. really honest. really put it out there, great to do list, increased assessments, 3 times a year, progress and feedback, i was really pleased.

Is there a motion to approve ? yes - motion is passed.

Cynthia: thank you very much for all of your support.


*** i step out for a bit***

Report on RCSD revenue, grants, .
changes in revenue 8,105K.
changes in expenditures $7284K.

projected enrollment 7982.
COLA. ADA. State and Federal Categorical Funds. Mandated Cost and MAA.
Transfer from Fund 25 for Deferred Maintenance. Staffing is the same.
utilitie cost - increase of 5% per year.
These numbers are all with no salary increases.
deficit projected. but then surplus the next year.
salary and benefit increase in 06-07>? 1% impact. 5% is like 8million. 6% 9 million. balance in 07-08 is only 6 million.

Dennis: i want to emphasize these numbers are without salary or benefit increases. we are spending more than we are taking in.
Each board member thanks the team for their work...
motion passes to accept the report.

Patricia: Short and sweet and pithy...
Craig: went to presentation for G.I.R.L.S. group at Kennedy and I promised I would report. Their research skills v. inspiring. Body image, gossip, drug and alcohol abuse. We broke up into groups. A group wants to create a middle school elective, curricullum to help girls with these issues, a girls only exploratory and research class.

Dennis: a lot of events that happen that are pretty cool that we don't hear about. the kennedy students who were lawyers for a day. What has broken down that we don't hear about it?

Jan: we're not hearing about it...we need to remind principals again and again. we need to have a calendar... principals are feeling overwhelmed. our new communication director, we'll be able to do a better job for that.

Jan: the W.O.W. - news - press release - RCEF was fantastic, naomi... q and a on the web site.

Dennis: we filed our audited financial statements were filed without us having seen them.

Patricia: is this a suggested item for future agendas?

Dennis: yes... we usually hear about this before it goes to the state.

Patricia: would a report back from a memo be.... and then you can figure out if you can bring it to the board?

Dennis: I'm a little confused, my memory is that in the past we had it as an action item. Or was it just for information?

Patricia: we have a very long list of action items. sometimes we think it will take 15 minutes and it takes 2 weeks. Agenda item? memo? what response?

Shelly: Henry Ford: subs. what are we doing? a memo? these 2 bad incidents.. to makes sure we are doing something

Craig: do we do an attional PI conversation. will that be on the jan 10 agenda.

Patricial: we .... (???) resolve this right now.

motion to adjourn.