Transcripts For SFGTV MTA Board Of Directors 20240713

Our Virtual Meeting is called to order. Before w we get started. I am gratified by the work that is being done throughout the district from our Virtual School at home to the admin working diligently, our teachers are amazing. Our families are teachers as well. The Leadership Team is amazing. These are unusual circumstances. It is a crisis and people are feeling it. I think our school board as well has risen to the challenge. We want to thank everybody and show our appreciation. With that. General information. Items of approval of board minutes of the regular meeting of april 14. So moved. Second. Any corrections . Roll call vote, please. Ms. Collins. Yes. Mr. Cook. Ms. Lam. Yes. Ms. Lopez. Yes. Mr. Sanchez. Yes. Thank you. Item 2. Is superintendents report. Thank you for the opening remarks. Tonight i want to highlight three of those areas that president sanchez was giving accolades to. I want the community to know the San Francisco School District resource link is a new service to navigate the resources during the Distance Learning. In the first week of launching, 251 tickets were created. 158 were by phone, 50 by email and 33 by web request. Of 251, 37 of those were related to Technology Support such as where do you pick up the device or how do you log on to google classroom. 20 of the tickets were from the families. Enrollment be and wellness support each received 8 of the tickets. There were requests for academic support and food and Nutrition Services. Big props to the team for developing this resource link. We know it is well used. We know that in these times and as we move forward with our Distance Learning, this will continue to be a used resource. We thank the team for all they are doing to make this happen. Beginning with monday, april 27, it will be limited to four bags per person to serve as many children as possible. We realize that this is another service that is provided. We want to make sure as many of our children that we can cover we get covered. There will be a limit of four bags per person. Adults are required to wear Face Covering when waiting in line or picking up bags. The location for the meals go to our website and we also have a link on the same website in the city to also get food resources. Also, you can call 311 for more information. We are excited to share the district is partnering to provide an hour Long Television episode every weekday, especially for pk through second great. It is sf learning. It will learn from 2 00 to 3 00 monday through friday. April 20th all through june 2nd. To watch you can check out any of the following. Broadcast channel. At t 1006. Comcast 64706. Direct channel 36, dish 36, wade is 92 or 201. Additionally, we will post elements of each episode after aired on youtube linked to the website. You can access from the website or the youtube channel. We hope this provides Emotional Learning and academic for the youngest students who have less access to technology than older students. Content is creep ated created by our educators and guests. Each episode has an opening, daily lessons, wiggles and dance, music and closing. Yesterday we had one of our board members, Vice President lopez, shared a wonderful story with us. It is an opportunity for the youngest students to have access to and and emotional. It will be in english with other languages. They will provide closed captions. As president sanchez opened, i am extremely proud of the work our district has done during these times to provide resources not only four or students but a resource provided by the entire bay area. I am thankful for our district. The employees of the district, Staff Members, administrator and board member for providing the leadership necessary to lead us through these difficult times. Thank you all. That concludes my report for this evening. I want to add to the appreciation our students. They are weathering this anniversarand areresilient. I am reading a book, too. It is. [ inaudible ] can i ask can you ask staff to follow up with me. I have been trying to see it. I dont have over the air television. I am not sure how to access it. You can access those on the website. I will ask that for you. I want to read a story, too. We will be in touch shortly. About the meal. I know there are families with more than four kids. I am wondering if there is accommodations or work arounds for those families . You can follow up with me later. We will be in touch. Good question. Hi everyone. We would like to announce that the 2020 Student Survey student delegatee election is live and will continue to may eighth. There is a video highlighting each candidate to campaign. We are happy to see Student Leadership continuing. Our goal is to encourage Student Leadership and engagement. The petition gives students a platform to advocate for concerns. Iit is an amazing opportunity we urge you all to vote for the student delegate. Thank you for creating the survey and supporting students. Good luck to the candidates. Title ix. Yesterday we learned about title ix and our rights when facing discrimination or harassment and how to handle the situations. Our goal is for more information check out the email and we also posted the presentation yesterday on the website. We would like to announce the office of equity is hosting a competition for students to create a design poster on sexual harassment. It is on the social media and there are prizes. We would like to thank the two for presenting. Grading policies. Discussion regarding grading policies. Our survey was successful. Our target goal over 5,000 students to communicate to the Leadership Team to the Advisory Council. 5461 students participated in the survey. After reviewing the data, our team conducted a focus group and emphasized the finding and concluded on recommendations. The overall consensus is to ensure there is priority for the courses they currently are enrolled in during difficult time. Our recommendation to the board would be to implement a pass or optional credit or no credit. So no students are punished. Students can fill out the option to raise the grade and have it reflected in the gpa and provide an incentive to work hard in classes. This would mean no students would be negatively affected or further disadvantaged. Students below 70 will not be required to cover the credits for graduation but would be given the recommendation every enrollment. It was the Wellness Center for students in need of council and support. At our meeting the Program Administrator for the School Health programs presented our team about the current efforts our wellness efforts are providing to the district. To provide feedback and recommendations for better outreach and we wil we will cono communicate to our peers that these are present. Thank you christine hardeman. We had the First Reading of the draft resolution. Our last meeting we read the draft resolution to reallocate education funds back. We will be having the second reading at the next meeting. We would like to thank the team for working hard on this resolution. Our next meeting will be on monday, may 4th at 3 00 p. M. Via zoom. Thank you. That concludes our report. Thank you very much student delegate. Item 4 recognitions and resolutions. National School Lunch Hero day and resolution of commendation for s. F. U. S. D. Student Nutrition Services dining staff for their dedicated service to students and families. Motion. We have a motion and second. Superintendent matthews. As you started this meeting with so much work being done, our school lunch nutritionists are heroes during this time. This afternoon we have mr. Keite to present this. It is my privilege to read this resolution for the incredible heroes to make it possible to serve 600,000 meals now since school closed. I will read this in recognition of School Lunch Hero day and student nutrition dining staff for dedicated service, whereas the dining staff of the Nutrition Services are committed to providing food healthy, diverse and affordable, sustainable and loved by student. The staff provides meals for the first week of school closure, since that dining staff consistently met the needs of the children. Whereas Nutritious School Meals enable healthy lives inside and outside the classroom. Over 200 dining staff are dedicated to serving students. 32 employees dedicated over 20 years of service and 25 dedicated over 30 years of service. One employee dedicated over 48 years of service. Whereas the dining staff have used their powers to serve more than 500,000 Meals Since School closure. The first friday in may is School Lunch Hero day. The superintendent and board of education recognize and commend 200 dining staff who work hard every day to provide a meal and support the mission to provide each and every student with equitable support required to thrive in 21st century. Thank you. Any Public Comments . Hello, linda. You have two minutes. I am doctor linda cutter. It is a pleasure to be here. Coucoupkudos to everyone. I am a fan of the First Amendment of the united states. I learned more about kalw. I am here to talk about kalw. My car heads there. I have visited quite a bit. We are taking Public Comment on this item. Sorry. We have open comments later in the meeting. Sorry, sorry. Any other people want to speak to this item of commendation, raise your hand. I am isabella. I am a student at the school of the arts in San Francisco. I am a junior. I just want to participate today to say how this whole process has been stressful on everybody, obviously, and in terms of the grading process and how that is going, it is very ify. From what i have been hearing from classmates how everybody is on the fence of the whole pass fail or just getting all as. Hold on. That item is coming up. We will have a robust discussion and vote. Right now we are asking for comments on the dining staff. I will come back later to you. So we are moving on. Board members any comments on this item . I dont see any. I have one comment. Commissioner collins hold on. Yes, yes, yes. I am field representative for sciu local 10 to one. Our members are the student Nutrition Services staff. I absolutely want to thank you so much for recognizing them. They are hard workers, determination, passion and compassion. To show up and serve hundreds of thousands of meals to families across this city. It is phenomenal. They do it over and over again. As their field repi cannot tell you i am floored by their capacity to do the work. They need to pack more bags. 100 more bags and go back out to the line to serve more meals. They are my heroes along with other members. You are giving the award to the Nutrition Service dining staff. Thank you, thank you for recognizing them. I appreciate that. I know they appreciate this. We can tie this beautiful package up with the differential they need. We will discuss that. I want to thank you to make sure that happens for them. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Collins. I want to reiterate. I have seen the work that everybody has been doing. It is a responsiveness of folks. It is overwhelming. The compassion to work through this stress by making them priority of our families to make sure they are fed. I want to say i am very, very grateful for their work and just, you know, we are not only serving sfusd families but families from throughout the city and providing a service nobody else is providing. Thank you again. Any other commissioners . Thanks for that familiar face for the students. Having grown up in this district and i remember getting to the school lunch. There were people that could get to us and talk. A lot of them have been committed over 20 years to these schools and these children. Thank you. Anybody else . I dont see any. I, too, want to add my thanks and admiration. These are Public Workers daily. They are serving our families, over 500,000 meals. I want to thank them. I admire them. I want to shout out to ms. Bee at cleveland for years. She would invite me behind the table to serve with her daily. She was the one who would manage. With that we are moving on. We are going to have a roll call vote, please. Ms. Collins. Yes. Mr. Cook. Yes. Ms. Lam. Yes. Ms. Lopez. Yes. Mr. Moliga. Yes. Ms. Norton. Yes. Mr. Sanchez. Yes. Thank you. Item 5 is bay area scores audio poem. Every year the San Francisco School District teams up with kalw Radio Station and one of our Great Community organizational partners, america scores to celebrate National Poetry month. We are grateful for the partnership to showcase talents of our students. Tonight we will play one of the poems aired this month. It is from redding elementary titled i am an art master. I am legend. I am an art master. I have nopa no patterns. On to the counters of the world. I can take paintbrushes chasing each other crushing the paper with my imagination. I can see the bright colors of every stroke. The colors bursting to the piece of art. I can see the checkered patterns oozing black and white and people sketching their patterns. I am an art master. I am from redding elementary. The title of my poem is i am an art master. For National Poetry month they have partnered to bring the voices of young poets from different schools. To learn more about the Poetry Program click on the radio link kaow. Org. Thank you. Welldone. They meld poetry. We are moving on to protocol for Public Comment. Let me read the rules. Please note Public Comment is an opportunity for the board to hear from the community on matters within the board jurisdiction. Refrain from using names. If you have a complaint an employee submit it to the supervisor. Board rules in California Law do not allow us to attempt to answer questions during Public Comment. The superintendent will ask the staff to follow up. With that mr. Steel. You will all get two minutes. One quick question. Once again could we explain that processor how people can get access . I am Spanish English interpreter. You want to offer your services for translation . Then we have somebody from cantonese . Yes. [speaking cantonese jesu canton. ]. This is for items not on the agenda. Not about grading system or sheltering homeless. Thank you for the reminder. Raise your hand if you would like to speak in general Public Comment and i will call on you. Go ahead. You have two minutes. Thank you. I would like to continue about kalw. Thank you for what you are doing. The food thing and the fabulous food that is being served. It was a kalw announcer who noted the School District web and made an announcement. That is how it has been announced ever since. What i want to say the congrew l learning of the School District and kalw and the fabulous programs that bring the bay area together make the bridges and bring learning we want. Philosophy talks is national. It started at kalw about ethics and morals and disparities. Latino u. S. A. Is on kalw in San Francisco. Your legal rights is on kalw. People get free advice from a lawyer on the call a lawyer. Inflection is about women who are shaping our future. That was started at kalw. We are talking about creative responsive leadership to bring the bay area and world together. 1a is about policy and connections across the fishers in our world. The Audio Academy is fabulous. It offers free instruction and learning to people who are interested in audio journalism and education. It is uncuffed part of it which goes to prison. Prisoners are learning to have lives outside of prison. There was recently a program on exmarine prisoner dying of leukemia and was interviewed by a fellow prisoner. That is powerful journalism. There are also 10 music programs to lift our spirits to teach us about the world atlarge, help our brains, our souls and bring the communities together. The diversity and commitment and the excellence of the uncuffed program was named by New York Times as one of the pick of the podcasts people should listen to. Thank you. Hello. Just quickly i want to thank you for giving the award to the Nutrition Service workers. We have other workers working so hard and showing up on day one of the covid tricesis. Crisi. We want to make sure that you remember we want all of our unit members to be recognized. How you do that is how we compensate them during this terrible time of crisis when they are risking their lives. Please remember that when you think about our members. We want to recognize all units. All of our workers, warehouse workers, transportation, they are giving critical communication information during the crisis. Our warehouse workers are working diligently along with custodial and student nutrition. Please recognize us as we negotiate for a differential for members who have shown up every single time when the district called and to be of service to families and students in the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you. Rafael. I am 1021 president. I want to thank you all, commissioners, for gratitude and appreciation for student nutrition. I will touch on some of the stuff just mentioned. Essential workers all School District are essential workers. The ones coming to work, putting in the effort to keep the district running. We are constantly coming in every day, leaving our homes and putting ourselves at risk. That comes from klw, the warehouse workers, nutrition, custodial, transportation. Every day we come in and we expose ourselves if we touch a handrail in the building or speaking to coworkers or being part and trying to keep the district running. Kim mentioned we are in negotiation, and i would like to see across the board that each and every essential worker that has been reporting since day one of this crisis be treated fairly and appropriately and be paid fairly and appropriately during this crisis, whether hazardous pay or differential pay. Our members are dedicated to our district, and i would like to see them be paid properly and appropriately for the tire less effort they are out here doing their job. They work hard. Student nutrition i see first hand. At first they didnt have appropriate ppe. Now they have appropriate ppe. They are coming into place. This is all new to all of us and we are all learning as we go. There are people like myself and everybody else coming to work that just wants to be fairly treated by the district for the effort we are trying to make to keep the district running. Thank you. We appreciate you and love you all. Thank you. Hello. Good afternoon, commissioners and superintendent. I am jerry ross, lifetime Soccer Player working with america scores for 12 years. We offered Youth Development programs that combine soccer and poetry and Service Learning in the district since 2001. I want to jump in to say thank you to the essential workers and student nutrition workers. In the bay area i want to speak on behalf of aalw and the partnership we have. It is one of the most valued partnerships. Each april for the past seven years we have been working together to bring children from San Francisco School District Elementary Schools to the kalw studios for poetry months to deliver poems on the air. We celebrate the kids and their words and effort. It is an amazing experience for the youth by changing in some ways and inspirational for sure to continue their literacy pursuits. The result is phenomenal. Thanthank you for playing the pm tonight. Klw does this on a shoestring budget and raise their own funds to pay the producers and staff who are excellent. They make the broadcast studio accessible for the students to amplify voices. I know there are many student centered products to follow their mission guided by public interest. I requested to collaborate more with them they were enthusiastic even in this pandemic. We made it happen. Thank you so much, klw. Good evening. This is michelle. I am with the parent Advisory Council, cordnator. I want to shout out to the essential workers showing up every day. I have been at sites helping with distributions of laptops and learning materials and, of course, meals. I commend everyone for showing up doing above and beyond every time. I want to shout out to the equity studies Community Town hall meeting coming up. San Francisco Human Rights Commission are hosting the town hall virtual leo april 29th starting at 4 00 p. M. That is tomorrow at 4 00. If anyone is interested, i am sure the information is on the district website. People are welcome to email me a. Pac at s. F. U. S. D. Edu. I will forward that information to them if they are interested in participating in the zoom meeting. Thank you. Good afternoon. I am lisa. I have been teaching and been an educator for 21 years. I am a private citizen because i am concerned about the future every storetive practices Restorative Practices in board resolutions. It was the result of hard work and dedications from so Many Community members over a long time. It is essential for places of collaboration for all members of the community. In the last several years it is a struggle to keep the work alive. Now all coach positions have been removed from Pupil Services i am concerned the restorative work will continue in name only or be reduced from the core principal of moving power over to power with. We need to ask ourselves what can be done to ensure the Restorative Practices does not get lost in the original protocols and budget shortfalls . Thank you. This is alita fisher, past chair of Community Advisory committee for special education. I want be to thank deputy superintendent, the chief academic officer, jill our interim chief of special education. Directors of special education jenny and the president susie for participating in the chc Membership Meeting this past thursday night. We had 71 meeting attendees, that is a record hi, who participated in the zoom call. We offered breakout rooms for interpretation to spanish and chinese to make the meeting inclusive. We had robust feedback about Distance Learning and how that is going and great conversation. We would like to thank commissioner sanchez for joining us during the meeting. It is great to see how the district prioritized parent engagement and focused on including families of students requiring special ed services in the inclusion practices around equity. Thank you very much. There is ongoing work to do. The fact we are collaborating with families openly and honestly is much appreciated. Thank you very much. Thank you. This is julie. It is appropriate we just spoke about the translation in the pac meeting. I want to know what is happening in the Board Meetings if you need translation you can only get it of your public testimony since there is no way to raise your hand be to say i need translation of the Board Meeting. I would like to see the school board adapt that to continue with being inclusive to make sure every voice counts. Because i think our school and many schools are trying to figure that out ourselves. If the district can provide that for the School Board Meetings and share the protocol that will improve our ability to serve those families. I want to add my thanks to the nutrition workers feeding my family and many other families. They were the first people to show up when the schools were closed. We said we would offer food. Many of us were trying to figure out remote learning, and i was disappointed when i looked at the agendas. I would like to see that bargaining conclude positively to recognize the value of those workers to our family. It is great to hear the poem read. I was on a zoom call at the same time and her classmates were checking out and the checkout words for the student were sharing were sad, mad, confused. As we move to conversations about grading in the Board Meeting, i want to remind parents there are students losing Family Members right now and that grading is probably one of the least important things on our families minds. Hello. I am laura. A volunteer at klw working on funfundraising and awareness. I know you have heard about our station already in this meeting. I want to mention a couple of ways that we jumped in to serve families during the pandemic. One of those ways is to increase the frequency of regional newscasts from 4 00 to 9 00 since the shelterinplace took effect. We took Public Service notifications from streets closed to Distance Learning to where and how to find help and volunteer. We launched a podcast in march that i want everyone to know about. Sharing the perspective of teens and what it is like to have education interrupted as well as teens dealing with antiasian racism. You can find that at examined lw. It is tbr klw and they are teaching over 100 students. Finally, we are producing the quarantine diary series. We hear from essential service providers. A Grocery Store manager, teacher, high school student. It is intriguing. Klw is proud to run Public Service announcements and we are able to do more and looking to partner with the department of children, youth and families. We would love to do more with them and the San Francisco public library, department of Public Health and the other agencies that make San Francisco a great place to grow up. Thank you for your time and thank you for your consideration of the many strengths of klw. Thank you. My name is. [ inaudible ] it is wonderful to hear about klw. I have been part of the news since its inception in 2005. The daily news magazine airs at 5 00 monday through thursday on klw. It features news from around the bay, culture from around the bay area. I just want to tell you about the station. With minimal resources we are able to create a vibrant newsroom over the years to train dozens of radio journalists. The goal is to go behind the deadlines to dig into issues. We are living it in San Francisco. Housing, education, social justice. Art. We believe the mandate is Public Service. That is how we see ourselves in the news respect as Public Servants providing journalism to San Francisco and the bay area. Right now we are all covid all of the time in the reporting. We have quarantine diaries and essential workers. Also we heard about earlier in the other voices and calls today that we are going out safely, most of us not so. I am talking inside my closet. This is how we are reporting with our microphones to want to connect with followings being affected right now. These two series that we are doing are really encouraging to people. It helps connect with San Francisco neighbors, helps you understand what everybody is going through and what is being done to help as well. One thing people might not know we are proudly housed in the back of burton high school. We wouldnt have it any other way. The High Schoolers are there. We share the hallway with them. They are part and parcel what we do, training High Schoolers in radio journalism, addieio academy, nine month radio training program, prison program. You need to wrap up. Your two minutes are up. Freddie . I am listening. I dont have any questions. If you raise your hand that means we will call upon you for Public Comment. Thank you. That concludes Public Comment. Thank you very much. Section d Advisory Committee reports. None tonight. E is consent calendar. We need a motion and second. So moved. Second. I wonder if there is Public Comment on this item . I havent seen any. Any items withdrawn or corrected by the superintendent or the board . No items. Any item severed by the board or superintendent tonight . All right. Roll call. I thought you wanted to severe item 14. Are we going to talk more about that . Thank you. I believe ms. O keefe wanted to make a few remarks. That item will sever or we can discuss it. That is in the next section, section f. We will call on the consent calendar minus that item. Ms. Collins. Yes. Mr. Cook. Yes. Ms. Lam. Yes. Ms. Lopez. Yes. Mr. Moliga. Yes. Ms. Norton. Yes. Mr. Sanchez. Yes. Seven ayes. Thank you. We will discuss and vote on item f. Superintendent matthews. So the item in question. Ms. Okeefe will speak to this item. Good afternoon. During School Closures we dont have a need for our yellow bus Transportation Services. We entered into this contract amendment with First Student to make it possible for them to continue to keep the drivers employed during School Closures. When we are ready to open up they will have staff ready to reconvene the services for students without interruption. During the time closed the amendment provides opportunity for us to give limited Transportation Services to staff. We are currently designing routes for custodians and kaftear use staff working at the 18 school sites distributing meals if they need transportation to get to and from the site. Students will help with limited delivery of goods and services between now and the end of july. Once the board approves this resolution or if they approve this amendment we will be able to launch those items. Can we quickly name which item on the consent item we are referring to . It is not under section f. It is consent calendar number 14. Thank you. Sorry for not pointing that out. The amendment does map out a lot of what i was describing including guarantees the drivers will continue to be employed and that throughout the duration of School Closures. The amount of contract represents less than we would normally be spending if school was in session and provides an opportunity to offer limited services for staff to get to and from the kaftear use of the schools distributing meals and help with distribution. If i may. Could i make one small correction . It appears to be item 15 on the consent calendar. It used to be 14. I am happy to answer any questions any of the commissioners may have about this item. Any questions . What was the original amount of the contract . The original amount is about 30 million. If we were going to be in session through the end of the school year, we spent about 23 million already on Transportation Services before school closed. There was a balance of 8. 9 million. I will bring out my spreadsheet for the exact numbers. We will have spent by the end of the year 2. 7 million less than we originally budgeted. Any other comments or questions . Seeing none. Roll call on this item. Go ahead. I just wanted to clarify. If they will be providing services we have delivered to homes at any point through our own transportation . A lot of that is volunteer based and teachers are taking it on. Is there an option . Absolutely. With this contract amendment we included the language. It was for transporting students. It could be delivery of devices, supplies and food and other key equipment that might be needed. It could be delivered to schools or students home addresses. Whatever we define as our needs they will help with. Thank you. Roll call on this item. Ms. Collins. Yes. Mr. Cook. Yes. Ms. Lopez. Yes. Mr. Moliga. Yes. Ms. Norton. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Sanchez. Yes. Thank you. Sext g is proposals for action. There are none tonight. Section h. Four memorandums of understanding for action. If i hear no objection for the board it will be taken in one motion. Superintendent matthew. Tonight we are reading into the record. This is daniel. I think while carmela was listening i am not sure he is on. Tonight we are asking that you adopt four them randoms of understanding with our bargaining unit all related to delivering instruction and services during covid1 covid1. What are the bargaining units . The first memorandum of understanding with united educators. Second is united educators specific to substitute pay an ongoing salary continuation. Third item is with local 21. Fourth item is local 39. Union of operating engineers. So we need a motion and second for all four m. O. U. S. Motion. Second. Thank you. We have any Public Comment on this item . Yes, we do. Hello, angel. [speaking spanish] who is our interpreter . It is louise. It is possible to talk offline . I dont know if we have capacity to talk offline. Louise, are you here . Can you put them in a breakout room . Sure. Can i help in this situation . [speaking spanish]. So my name is carmen. My question is how are we supporting students with emotional needs during this time because of everything we are going through . This is not the forum to discuss that. This is Public Comment on another item. [speaking spanish]. She would like to know the situation for students who are english language learners if the work is going to count or not count . And all of the work they have completed it would be unjust they dont get credit for the work. All right. Thank you. A little confusion about the item. Susan, president of united educators of San Francisco. I am speaking to urge the board to accept and approve the two m. O. U. S that are the Distance Learning and the m. O. U. For substitute teachers and paraeducators. It took a long time to where we needed to be. I think it is worth noting that the m. O. U. S stipulate that because of the fast changing landscape that we are in that if either party wishes to revisit any of the m. O. U. Or add anything we can do so. These will expire on june 30th unless we extend them. These are good road maps forgetting us through a very difficult time. Thank you very much for your consideration. That is the final public speaker on this item. Any comments or questions by the board . Roll call on all four items. Ms. Collins. Yes. Mr. Cook. Yes. Ms. Lopez. Yes. Mr. Molega. Yes. Mr. Sanchez. Yes. Ms. Norton. Yes. Thank you. Action item resolution and authorizing documents for the issuance and sale of not to exceed 200 million of the San Francisco unified School Districts general Obligation Refunding Bonds. We need a motion and second. So moved. Second. Thank you. Designee. So we will be doing numbers 5 and 6. This is our chief financial officer. Good afternoon. Today we request approval of two financing resolutions related to the general Obligation Bond program. First is issuance of not to exceed 200 million of general Obligation Refunding Bonds to allow the district to sell for purpose every financing existing bonds at lower Interest Rates to create a taxpayer savings. Second authorizes the issuance and sales of general Obligation Bonds in an amount not to exceed 280 million. This will allow the district to sell bonds already authorized by voters for projects throughout the district. To be clear, this district currently sends bond proceeds on ongoing basis. Over the past 10 years annual building funds one moment please. Pardon me. I am home schooling. So we do over the past 10 years our annual exec expenditures this is the second sale of the 2016 bonds to allow us to continue with current projects as well as pick up additional projects that are on our bond program schedule. We respectfully ask your approval for our official statement. We will be back to the board in may. We are striving to achieve a timeline of completing the bond sales midjune or latest in july. I am happy to answer questions. Thank you. We need to move and second the action item. Motion. Second. Any Public Comment on these two items . Seeing none. Any comments, commissioners . I have one question. The Economic Situation that we are heading into have any effect upon these bonds . We are working very closely with our Financial Adviser to make sure that we are preparing ourselves for the best situation. We are considering a negotiated sale to make things more predictable and manageable. I forgot to manage the School District just completed a sale of 900 million last week. There is activity in the market. Wwe are still seeing advantages for refinancing. We will make sure that if we do move forward with refinancing of the current bonds that we are achieving the savings metric. If conditions arent good for completing that transaction, we may delay and find a better point in time for the refunding transaction. Long and short there is activity in the market, we are advised that conditions are good enough, there are demands for municipal bonds. We are confident at this point we can move forward. Roll call on both items. Thank you. Ms. Collins. Yes. Mr. Cook ms. Lam. Yes. Ms. Lopez. Yes. Ms. Molega. Yes. Sanchez. Yes. Thank you. Section i discussion of educational issues. J discussion and vote on consent calendar items. None tonight. K introduction of proposals and assignment to committee. 1. Public and board comment on proposals. 2. Board policy 51117 inter district attendance. 420. 4 Charter School authorization. 420. 43, Charter School revocation and over site and 5142, safety. Do we need a motion and second. So moved. Second. Thank you. Public comment on any of these items . We have one. I am jan i am an employee or representative of local 21. I have a quick question. On the agenda sections e and f were they skipped . Did i miss something . We voted on the consent calendar and we had severed one item for discussion. We voted on that. Does that clarify it . I believe the speaker is asking about Public Comment on section b. Did i ask for Public Comment . Yes. Go ahead if you want to comment now. I just want to comment on i was curious about this proposal number 12. The mutual confidentiality agreement with quantiphi. I dont know what happened with that. That is on consent calendar that is a bunch of items together. Nobody wanted to sever that for discussion. We didnt discuss it. There was no board discussion on that item. It is just not to be discussed . Consent calendar is a bundling. Ones severed for discussion are voted on separately. We did that for items but not that item. Where would be the most important place if i want to comment on number 12 . I am getting your comment right now. We cant discuss it with you. You can make comments and we will move on. You have two minutes. I am president of local 21 in the district. We represent the Health Workers and technical staff. We are concerned about this for many reasons. We were only notified as a board agenda item. This is direct violation of the mou which mandates union notice and chance to meet with subcontract performed by unit matter s. The district is looking for work we perform as this threat sens our livelihoods. We have been instrumental in the technology rollout. At the work site and school site each day we ask the board to honor that. We fear the jobs will be pat atk without sourcing. This puts students and family data at risk as technology with the district ensures all data protected. Undertaking cloud projects with the legal obligations. We are concerned about these high standards. The Company Website shows they have not partner with educational institutions and have concerns about how privacy will be ensured. In conclusion we remind the district to notify us, local 21, of any subcontracting of our work. We ask the board to understand this is work our members do and to ensure our jobs are not jeopardized by automation. They will understand the data of our families will provide will be protected. Thank you for your time. Thank you. We have one more hand up. I am having issues with my computer and zoom. I am back. This next commenter is a spanish speaker. [speaking spanish]. I would like to these meetings translated into spanish so we can understand what is being discussed. There is all for now. I think we can say right now that we are looking into that possibility of having ongoing interpretation in future meeti meetings. We are getting confused. [speaking spanish]. Also, we do have in place a 72 hour request you will need translation that you can call and ask the board office and the number is on the website. The whole meeting will be translated. [speaking spanish]. We have one more. I heard the comment about translation. Could the chinese speaker say that to the audience as well . That you can get translation immediately if you need a translation. Call in before the Board Meeting to the board office and the number is on the website. Yes, we can do that right now. Are you there . Yes, i am. [speaking spanish]. Thank you. Since we are talking back and forth in the agenda, i want more clarity around the translation. I am just learning the 72 hour request. I wasnt made aware and many families werent. Could we reiterate the number and tell me a little more about the process because it seems like once that happens how are they going to get these services during the meeting . That is why we can discuss this during the review. I feel that i need to start the interpretation. It will take me a minute. [speaking spanish]. Thank you. Any board comment . We will move on. We have a number of items we will ask the board to suspend the rules to hear the item. First one a motion and second to suspension of the rules 20428sp1. Resolution to adopt an alternative grading system for grades tk12 for the spring 2020 spring semester. Moved. Second. Ms. Collins. Yes. Ms. Norton. Yes. Mr. Sanchez. Yes. Thank you. To the resolution itself i need a motion and second be for formal introduction. So moved. Second. Mr. Steel can you bring up the presentation . Good evening, board members. Tonight we would like to have a very brief presentation. We wanted to spend a little time going over how we got to this point. Then we want to tell you what is in the resolution. What we are resolving to do in the resolution. Are you getting it up . It is up. Can you not see it . We can see the agenda but not the presentation. Sorry about that. [please stand by] the next slide or scroll up, please. Thank you. Put so whats in this resolution, we talk about the things that we have done. During covid and the lessons we have learned and then we go into grading and we talk about the importance of grading and what other policies from other districts weve learned and finally, we go into the grading policy and then we resolve to make it an equitable grading policy for our students. Please scroll. At this point, im going to have norma ming are you there in. I am. At this part of the presentation, miss ming will talk to the next couple of slides and the next slides after that, we will speak with our chief of planning and assessment and then finally, our deputy superintendent of the construction will close out and then well read the resolution. Good afternoon. I work in the department of sf usd. As part of the investigation, we looked at some of the literature in grading and i think what this indicates is the tension that were facing here is the complicity of grades are used for multiple purposes and multiple audiences. So instructional guidance, students rely on the feedback that the students have made and then work opportunitie opportun. So this makes it exceedingly complex the same piece of information is used in all of these different ways which makes it harder to ensure that information is truly valid and bases all of the potential disagreements about what the information should be used for and how it should be determined. At the same time that we have this tension, we have the reality but from a review of 100 years of research, but grades do corcorrelate with other measuref success. Whats interesting is that they can be more predictive of the grades. And im sorry, they may be more predictive of students success in school than just the standardized test scores. And so, next slide, please. It is especially important we have Accurate Information and as i think many of us are aware, we do know that there is learning loss when students are out of school and whats been studied is the learning loss but there are other situations when students have interrupted education. So the slighted o slide comes f0 students taking the test and it shows the averages by grade level, grades 38. And what it shows is that the line, the dotted line there, a little bit smaller, that that dotted line is typically the last day before summer and what happens you see a slide and thats the solid line before students come back to school . September. So what this study did, these were projectin projecting. With schools closing midmarch, what will happen . Some will say it stays flat and others predict the learning will continue to decrease. You see the students have not had the chance to learn as much because school stopped in its traditional manner earlier and also allows more time to drop. We dont know exactly what will happen. And then on the right, what we see is, we have the risk that those gaps can widing didnt wi. On the left, thats an average but some students will have a grow and others may have a decline and this comes from a meametaanalysis as well as anor analysis that looks at a different grade level and so you see there that some students are learning more, the ones with higher socioeconomic status and others are showing a loss in their learn. Learning. This shows the growing inequities out of school and a learning loss and inequities will be greater due to the pandemic and we dont know how large the gaps will be or where they will be. So what all of this highlights is the increased need to have Accurate Information to ensure that students have the opportunities they deserve to continue to learn, not just during this challenging time, scores are physically closed but after that, and where students may end up, whether its the next grade level or postsecondary opportunities and so forth. Ill pass it on now to dr. Rijucana who will do the next two slides. Thank you, norma and good afternoon, commissioners, and members of the public. It seems good to connect with you even though its virtual, but just the connection seems so special. I will talk about the importance of information. They talk about this and they say that providing these narratives are powerful. This is something that we have recommended at the kindergarten through fifth grade levels, which is you know if you were to provide these narratives to discuss how they are progressing, what is the standard and that will be helpful and that is one of the recommendations in our policy. And the second part i want to talk about is selfassessment, where you know there was a suggestion made about students selfassessing and there are two recent studies to site on selfassessment and the first is done at an elementary and fifth graders witgraders where 932 ste studied didnt there was an a pt to overassess their skills or not have enough knowledge in how much time it would really take to learn or get to that skill. Again, twothirds underestimation of the learning time, as well as overestimation of the skill. And then there was also a study done with older students, with seniors and college students. It would show that some of our underserved populations tend to lure their gradings when talking about selflevel. Selfassessment is good, but as we give our students more practise to do so, it will get more realistic. Moving on to the next point, which is information that is assessed by others. When there is a lack of information or when there is no information given, then biased does tend to step in. So you know, your judgment, this is what we call the studiotype thread, when we do not provide any information to the next grade level or to colleges in the absence of their information and there is a tendency to fall back on biases. And that is when the equity gap even widens. So all of these differences do highlight the fact that in order to address equity, we must accurately communicate our narratives towards our standards and provide feedback to students in terms of their demonstration of the standards. Next slide, please. The next slide i want to do is a consultation with both the state department, as well as the su and cu admission systems. We did find out that looking at the 201819 year, we saw that approximately 40 , the actual numbers, 39 of our seniors go to csu system or uc system. And that is a large number, so since they were the main recipients of our seniors, we did reach out to them. They had not considered when writing their policy and i should reach out to the youth assistance. Our conversationin confusion, te things i would like to mention and the first was around misleading feedback to students. So there was this concern that students would have misleading feedback of what they know and do not know as the grade was not reflective of their learning. The second risk that was mentioned was around placement and so this university had concerns about the risks of providing automatic aid would have, especially when assigning them to a course in terms of placement, but also in terms of College Readiness and supports for them. Now many universities have also responded to this covid19 and are putting courses for support who have missed learning during this period. The last point im not goin goie is not about placement. They did mention that it could be a disadvantage relative to nonsf usc students because any kind of universal grade calls into the question the validity of the grade and the second thing they mentioned was that csu stated getting all as would lead to an inaccurate assessment of learning and would lead to grade inflation. Therefore, they suggest ed thisg credit, no credit would provide them with more accurate feedback and has been a recommendation during admission. Looking at the availability that does exist, most universities are going to ask for an actual description on the transcript itself so they can be equitable in their admissions process and they will be asking for the policy to be there on the transcript. Again, thank you for the chance to communicate and hopefully the information gathered has been hopeful to you and i will turn it now next to nikki, who will clarify our recommendation for the grading policy during the school closure. Thank you. Good evening, commissioners and meeting participants. Based on the information that was just shared, as well as considerations offered to the board a couple of weeks ago, the following recommendations are being made. For students with individualized education plans, projects will be reported in accordance with those plans. For students in grades k5, Classroom Teachers will provide feedback on progress and the commentsonly report form and no grade assigned, just feedback. For students in grades 612, assigned credit, no credit for each course and the students receive a no credit may receive credit if the student completes the required work by the following deadline. July 31st, 2020, graduating seniors, 2020 and the beginning of fall 2020 for all other students. Additionally, staff will continue to engage our students through Distance Learning. Our next slide, justin. So we will continue to engage our students through distance education. By the end of the school year, staff will report progress and learning during this distanced education and by the end of june, sf usc will develop a plan for the 20202021 school year and additional, the board of commissioners will partner in raising resources to address the learning loss. This is more detailed in our resolution and im going to pass it to dr. Matthews and we can read it back to you. So im going to read the resolution and im going to read the first part, which, as i said, which are the areas that we have done as a district and then, im going to turn it over, and they will read the impacts of grading. And then we will close out, just as we did in this presentation with anikia portell, reading into the record, not only what we resolve around grading but what we resolve as a district to combat the impacts of what covid19 has done. Whereas this is the 20428sp1 of the San Francisco unified School District to adopt an alternative grading system for grades tk12 for the 2020 spring semester, whereas on march 16, 2020, the San Francisco unified School District ceased facetoface instructions due to the covid19 pandemic and whereas the district is part of a regional Public Health approach to covid19 pandemic, which includes the disruption of the spread of covid19 virus to protect the health and safety of earn in the city and protect the health and safety of vulnerable populations and whereas, the district now engages in a Distance Learning model and continuing to focus on the core value of equity and access, recognising the importance of relationships and collaboration and elevates the components of our graduate profile that lends itself to this new context and whereas, the districts continuity of learning approaching the student current context and provides learning options via a digital distance approach or nondigital printbased approach as Student Resources and circumstances allow and whereas, district educators engage in wellness and capacity building, Strategic Planning of syncronys learning with peers and staff and providing grades 35 and more than 1500 hot spots and partnered with the philanthropists to expand Internet Access for students living in housing and resources for families and facilitated virtual, professional learning for more than 3,000 educators and staff to help manage the shift to digital Distance Learning and distributed over 11,000 learning kits and 33,000 books to students in pk to second grade. Whereas, major predictable learning challenges have emerge asked wilemergedand will remain. This is not limited to students, families and educators struggling to balance their own reality and circumstances while still attending to their respective roles in moving forward. In the absence of consistent facetoface learning and access to learning materials and supplies, generally placed in many of the marginalized students at a disadvantage in having basic learning needs met and balancing the need for limitations, privacy, security, change management with urgency to deliver solutions and there is little or no parenttoparent interaction for students and now ill turn it over to chief kahna. This is used for audiences, including guidance for teachers, students and families and placement decisions for post secondary institutions and potential employers and whereas, inequities grow in the absents e of inAccurate Information grows overestimating their skills. Where others affected by stereotype thread, underestimating their skills and adults show more biased in judging others qualifications when performance information is removed. And whereas, the university of california and California State University systems have provided coordinated guidance around acceptable grading policies, emphasizing the need for accurate assessment, information for the benefits of students and remain astutely attentive to the opportunity gap for marginalized students including africanamericans and Pacific Islander students, homeless students, those living in poverty, English Learners and students with ieps and the potential for the widening of that gap. And im going to turn this over to nikki. Therefore, be it resolved the district will implement this for the spring 2020 firm. With students with individualized education plans, progress will be reported in accordance with those plans. For pk5, class are room teachers provide feedback in the commentsonly report forms and for students in grades 612, assigned credit, to credit for each course and students who receive no credit for the deadline. , for the graduating students and for the 2020 semester for all students. The district Student Engagement during Distance Learning will comply with educators and four hours of engamement pe engagemed projects, et cetera, and flexibility in their daily schedules. And be it further resolved, no later than may 27th, 2020, staff will report to the District Board of education on the distant learning progress, the distribution progress, the Vice Distribution progress and Student Wellness progress and be it further resolved that by junt will develop a plan for the 20202021 Academic Year to obsess and intervene on Students Learning loss, including more support for populations and be it further resolved that due to the increased revenue and resource needs in all areas, because of the learning loss as a result of the covid19 pandemic, San Francisco unified School District members resolve to lobby at the local, state and National Levels to acquire the revenue needed toe to ensure eah and every student will receive the equitable materials supplied in the 21st century. So that is the resolution and now we would open it up to questions. Before we do that, lets have Public Comment. There feel. Yes. Latoya, you have two minutes. Go ahead. Im a parent, a leader with the apex and i wanted to ask while considering the grading policy, that you also consider the federal recovery option to make sure it is to all students and if you know the letter grades. Currently its not offered or consistently. And im not sure in all cases that you just realize the impact, which is what i have on the rest of the students slides. It would be nice to also consider grades or making up failed classes, doing something that reflects their hard work and im not sure a pass or no pass would do it justice. Being assessed on their ability to deliver doesnt learning or education. Its they have never done before or a significant plan to do wouldnt be fair so i think students should be given the same consideration. And which students will have access to the technology or the internet or experiencing housing or any other type of adverse childhood experiences. So make the dis wit decision wih compassion and a safe place to learn could be taken from them in the blink of an eye. But the students who cant consistently engage in the process for whatever those reasons may be, they shouldnt be graded as hard as the other students because theyre trying and they dont have the tools or the ability to do so, so grading them on the assignments they submit and not just anything. Thank you. I believe its dorsen. Hello, are you there. Yes. Thank you. I was just curious to how this will affect our kids gpas overall. I think its a good idea that theyre not going to have the asymptoms, not a fair way to assess their abilities, but overall, how that affects their grade point for the entire year. Ok, thank you. Hello, concern. Kevin. Yes, thank you so much. I appreciate to have a harms free way for students to kind of survive through this traumatic time. My question is, what are the safeguards for students that need a lot of Additional Support . I do like following through with learning plans but i dont see the capability of making that a reality, when a lot of parents are forced to be a paraprofessional teacher at the same time as working with their kids. I wanted to hear how the administration hopes to address those issues and makes sure people have the opportunity to get access to education at this moment, even if its not the same high quality education in the classroom. Thank you. Hello, susan. Hello. Thank you for this presentation. I wanted to say that the last time i represented an sf recommendation, all as and that was really still are, but just thinking about the crisis and the trauma our students are experiencing. After that meeting, we will usf formally considered a policy recommendation and as some people may know, we were remming an a to c grading policy. We recommended what the districts concerns perform most of our recommendations, to me, one of the more significant pieces of it was not the grading but any grading policy must come for a strong commitment to how students will be supported how students are closed, not just academically but in every other way, too. This plan should be a top priority and implemented quick quickly. And so some that, we need to know and to Work Together to develop that plan, what is going to happen. I do want to mention that one of the points in the presentation seemed to be dichotomy of which is grade versus standardized test scores. I would submit that neither within of those helped to complete stories, either together or apart. Were long overdue for this discussion with grading and im so sorry it had to happen under such terrible circumstances, but im glad its happening. And finally, i want to say two more things. One is i appreciate the recognition that teachers do have a right to grade students and charged now at the national level. We do not want to take rights away from teacher. And finally, i want to say that, please dont forget united education of San Francisco, American Federation of teachers and National Education association, California Federation of teachers and California Teachers Association when were talking about resources. I was just on another phone call about what aft is proposing for reopening schools. Also, in terms of lobbying for funding, that is our baliwick and we are always concerned about full funding for public education. We are ready to work with the School District on that lobbying effort, as well as our community, family and education partners. Thank you. Thank you. Miss marshall . Here, thank you. You have two minutes. Thank you. To president sanchez, Vice President lopez, the Commission Commissioners and the executive team and union itself, on behalf of the San Francisco alliance of black school educators, we were torn between what to do. Our mo mantra is always do no hm and that the class teacher is the only educator who has a Legal Authority to change grades and we were concerned initially with the board policy. Initially, we support the union, a, b, c grade and we learned the ucs would not accept an a, b or c but had to be a, b, c or f. We believe no student should fail during this pandemic. And we had an overnight forum this past sunday with 26 people in the zoom call, including educators and community members. And we want to hear from our parents and students. Overwhelmly, when we got ready to vote, 18 parents and students said that we do not want to worry about our grades. We will go with a pass or fail. Five educators, including me voted for the grade. Two people left the call and one parent said she could not make up her mind. So were going to support our students and go with a pass fail only for this semester. We believe in going back to the historical reference, that going back to the fall of 20202021, we should go back to the a, bwc, def grade. During this pandemic, struggling families have to worry about what to eat, wha where to sleepb exposjobs and they dont have to worry about this issue. Im so sorry it came up during this pandemic. We support our historic educator and we support what she said about this issue and we want to thank the board commissioners for their support and for the many phone calls and the union sf. We also support the naacp policy that every Student Needs to earn their own grade. Thank you for listening. Thank you, miss marshall. Uhhuh. Hello, caller, are you there . Yes, i am and this is kevin robinson. Im a parent and educator and a member of the apac and San Francisco unified. inaudible . Mr. Robinson, its very windy and were having a hard time seeing you. Go ahead. inaudible . Hello, julian. I want to be clear im speaking as a parent and in no other capacity. Im disappointed in this resolution. My nephew who is a senior at Lincoln High School has been working very hard since school has closed to Distance Learning and before the schools closed, he was getting straight as and to take that away, i dont understand why the district would do that. I know all of the usd passed a model a policy so the idea they wont accept that is ridiculous because the largest asked in our state, so why cant we do the same policy that usf has which is ac and i hope that you do right by our seniors and by our students. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, michelle. Hi, im here. Thank you. I just wanted to make a couple of quick comments again. Im with the Advisory Council and im not speaking on behalf of the council but for myself and being involved with this work. I wanted to just really appreciate the thoughtfulness and fairness thats going into this conversation and the research to try to figure out what is really the best option for the majority of our students and i know its a stuff situation. And i really appreciate the focus on holding our students harmless, especially considering the current circumstances and i think one of the reasons i want to say that i support the resolution that the board has come up with is because the student Advisory Council supports it and i want to hold up and honor the students and their voice and i appreciate what i heard the appec leaders saying about that, as well. As weve heard before from another speaker and as many of us know, the magic is in the implementation and our students do need to make up some classes and credits. And i want to encourage you to include parents as your partners when figuring out how to best do that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hello, alida. Hello, again. Thank you, mr. Steel. Im alida fisher, past chair for special education and i appreciate the thoughtful work thats gone into this resolution. Part of the resolution that i wanted to comment about is the part that states that progress reported in accordance with iup plans is how our students with iups will be graded. And i wanted to make sure everyone was aware that just this week, that the department of ed has issued guidance to congress, recommending that special education supports and Services Still be upheld and required during this time. Everybody was holding their breath about whether or not the department of ed would provide waivers and they have not. So our responsibilities to provide education, supports and services to students with ieps is still the law of the land and what needs to be done. Having said that, what has been offered to students with iups right now is Distance Learning plans and we still have so many questions about their implementation that multiple speakers have already said and we dont know how to implement parent supporto implementpara so many things not worked how with paras, how they will receive an education during Distance Learning and i do not think this resolution goes far enough in addressing their needs and leaves more questions unanswered. I think the district is wanting to focus on equity and it needs to put a lot of thoughtful intention behind making sure these students have access to their education. I would hold up the Credit Recovery questions that miss latoya posed earlier and those are huge and echo everything that mr. Kevin bogus said as well, so thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, chris . Hi. My name is chris and im a parent of two High Schoolers i n the San Francisco School District and i was wondering if there was any way to give a kids between the choice expect grade they had march 13th, when school closed. The school had been in school for two and a half months at that point and i know a lot of them would like to keep their grades ahead. I think give them a choice, passed out or the grade they had on that date. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, aaron. Hi, there. Im a teacher at sf unified and i appreciate the acknowledgement of student and family challenges. As a teacher, im curious about the option for credit if work is completed by fall of 2020 and how that would work as the teacher Contract Period end for this year prior to that date. I wonder about teachers who may be retiring and expectations of teachers requesting grading and teachers bac back to school ovee summer. Thank you. Thank you. It looks like galaxy. Hello, are you there. . It says galaxy j2 on the name handle. Can you hear me . Yes, yes. Could you state your full name . Yes, my name is la albuquerque itquita cohenand i, Matthew Cohen and a 13yearold entering the sf usd school year for 2021. The two main concerns thatvy as a parent is number one, i totally do not agree on just giving the kids just all a letter grades because it will give them an unprecedented expectation that you dont have to work for anything, even when a crisis strikes. And i know im on the low end of that, but its still hollow. I feel helping my friends creating hard work and good values, but on the flip side, mf this and i was thinking, ok, so what are the other states going to do . Because i had several daughters who went on to college, San Francisco state universities, North Carolina and universities and, ok, like, when our kids go to college and especially our seniors, i feel the juniors have an opportunity to get things back on track and things of that nature. But the seniors, theyre at an imposition because when youre going to off to a university of whatever nature, i dont care if its a Community College or whatever well Community College is different because all you have to do is take a test, but theyre pretty much looking at who is this person . What kind of character does this person have . And it stems from the letter grade. When youre looking at a letter grade, im putting myself in the shoes of the teenager itself. So i worked my butt off for three and a half years and i am ready to just jump in there and just go on to adulthood and learn more to work towards my degree. Sadly enough, the world comes to a stop and, you know, where do i go and what d do i do . Were depending on everyone else in the world that paid a lot of money to make decisions that affect all aspects of everyones life, whether it be a student were going to need you to wrap it up because two minutes has passed. I dont want to be cut off and i apologize for going over, but ill sum it up in 60 seconds, if i may. You dont have 60 seconds, sorry. Thank you. This is lislyn. Im th inaudible . I work with communitybased organizations that work with children and youth and families. I want to highlight when these decisions are made, i understand these are challenging times, but we want to be working in partnership with our ceos, not on the backend but frontend and working to support our students during these times of Distance Learning and their programs are also shipping and pivoting when sf usd are making these decisions. Please consider whether its those in the beacon programs or childcare decisions so they can be incorporated in the wellbeing of our students. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, alison . Yes, hi. Im alison bravman. Im a parent of a middlecooler and i have listened to all of these conversations, all of the the meetings and i want to express my appreciation to the board and the staff for all of the thoughtfulness youve put into creating this policy. My one concern, i just wanted to express, was the emphasis on how much, say, uc has gotten into this and, perhaps, thats always been the case in our grading policy, but it just feels like this one College System is to have a lot of say in how we grade our students and it does not allow for flexibility in our district in the best way for us to grade our students. And as we also add more option for vocational education, that maybe we need to consider how heavily we really weigh ucs opinion. So just going forward, i hope that the board and the administration will consider just how important ucs voice really is. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, maurica. Can you hear me . Yes, we can. I wear many hats and i need to say that im a black parent in the district and i sit on the black American Advisory Team and i have a senior a high school veteransenior, freshman and a kindergartener and i work for the district. So i am just calling today to speak on behalf of black families and as an apec Family Member and leader. Weve had the opportunity to be involved in several conversations and we have done or research to be informed about this new policy that might be vote on tonight and we are thankful for those that contributed to our conversations and informed us on the information and for also our members to bring their own thoughts and foresite into the conversation. We want to mention that our families are actively engaged in distant learning and they want to continue Distance Learning and learning through that. There are some barriers to that. But the thoughts around the grading policy, there are thoughts that saying students have no control over the things that are happening right now and that we should be acting with the students best intentions in mind and not to cause harm. And its also not fair to families to have a subject system of the a, b and c imposed upon the students. As we know, theres issues with that and again, like the union said, thats a discussion that needs to be had at a later date, but we feel that, also, some families feel that a pass, nopass option ensures that most of our families needs are being met and that our students have achievement and success during this time and the opportunity to make up things that they cannot accomplish during this time. We also want to note while these conversations are happening, there are school sites where the majority of families not participating in Distance Learning or hearing about these decisions have not been reached out to and we would like that to be more proactive, that africanamerican familys voices are heard. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, lyla. Can you hear me . Yes, state your full name, please. Lyla nelson. Im a parent leader with the africanamerican parent advisory coin critical. And i have a fourth grader and i first want to start off by applauding everyone who has stepped up and done so much to keep the focus on sf usd families during this crazy time. But i have to be honest. Im frustrated. Im frustrated as a parent watching my daughter and how what i perceive as a lack of instruction affects her. Normally, she is an overachiever, but the lack of, like, virtual interaction is taking a toll. Im seeing her lose the motivates to wanmotivation to d. Although my child is only receiving feedback as a grade, its stressful and i can only imagine what ourmonthold our l and High School Families are feeling. And not getting into class when its scheduled. By the time we get in the class, the class is over. Im asking for the board to provide more support with some sort of professional development surrounding the zoom and google classrooms and requiring more structure surrounding that students student is student teacher interaction. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, linda. My name is linda and im very irritated and frustrated because i feel like db i have a 12th 12th grader and a Junior High School student. He is having a breakdown and in a state of depression because due to the fact that everybody will be graduating and, unfortunately, ive had about over ten people graduating and he be the only one that didnt get to graduate. My concern is that what is youre plan with the kids that is under depression and going through what theyre going through . Another thing, quickly, is to ask about these computers that you all gave to these kids . Because,ism, unfortunately, ia daughter that is in 4a, and i do not want this to come back and bite her. If she uses this computer or breaks this computer and i have a lot going on in my mind and im so depressed. Im stressed out and its horrible. Its horrible. My son is crying and im crying. And hes, like, give it up. Hes if the 12th grade and dont give a damn no more. I dont know how to help my son or what feedback to give him because everybody in my house has graduated and he will be the only one, the only one that do not get to see his prom or graduation. And that was a big part of his life. He had his tuck se tuck tuxedo. Im at a breakdown point now and its horrible. This is a lie and a hoax because they all of this stuff is a hoax. The teacher got to come back and teach her 101 because she cant get through i mean, its horrible and its at a point where im trying to be so helpful to my kids but im breaking down now, im breaking down. Dr. Matthews, the phone number for the resource line . Do you have it . So this mother can call. I dont have it in front of me right now. Can you hang on and ill say it after the next caller and ill give the number. Hang on linda and well get you that number. Thank you so much. Were going to go to the next speaker. Reverend brown, are you there . I can hear you. You can go ahead. Thank you very much foun. Mr. Superintendent, president of our board, mr. Sanchez, board members. First of all, i want to applaud the two contenders and the board for having this crisis and to the other side of success. I am just pledging here with the nacp, about this church, the africanamerican faith community, to make sure that we stand in the gap collectively and as a community, to work with the superintendent to make sure black and marginalized children excel and be safe in spite of this pandemic. I would next like to stay that i hope this board, the administration will use this black resource community. We have people with skills who can stand there help this parent that i just heard that is frustrated. I would say, hold on. During the civil rights movement, when he did not finish Moorehouse College on time. He was supposed to finish in 1963. That there wahe was out in the. Everybody just wanted to give him that degree. It was not until 1972, that he got a degree from herehouse college and i think we should lovingly connect with these parents and with the children and tell them that others have had their time and there have been pandemics of slavery. They learned how to read and they read and they struggled and excelled anyhow and we should give them a sense of history. Thank you, pastor brown. Thank you so much. Were with you. Before you call the next speaker, i wanted to give the number for linda who had called. That number for our resource line is 415 3401716 and once again thats 415 3401716. And staff will answer phones between 9 00 and 1 00 and if you get a voicemail, they will call you back. 416 3401716. Thank you, dr. Muse. Matthews. Are you there . Can you hear me. I am a teacher at the high school in the district and i appreciate the time that youre giving this. And i would just like before you take a vote to make clear to all of the teachers the process by which we will change no path to paths, given that those deadlines occur midjuly and before school starts. And thats all. Thank you. Miss marshall, are you there . Yes, i just want to make sure that reverend brown was on the call because he had some comments, so thank you so much. Great, thank you. Hello, caller, are you there . 415 caller . Hello, cap yo can, can you h . Im a junior at the high school and i just wanted to comment on the grading policy from the Student Perspective. I think its really important to keep in mind all of the work that students have done so far this semester. So for me personally, i would like to advocate for the optional path, optional af because students can choose to say, hey, i want to keep working and i want to keep doing all of the things that ive done this semester, to keep up my grades and then the students that either dont want to do that, dont have the access, dont have the time because theyre working can choose to go and say, i want to get pass, no pass, credit, no credit, so that its equitable for all students in all situations. And students that ar have the opportunities can get what they need and students that dont are not punished for the things they dont have. So i think you need to take the Student Perspective and think about what will benefit all students the most and thank you for your time. Caller, are you there . My daughter would like to speak. Two minutes. My name is teresa heinz and im a junior at Abraham Lincoln and i just wanted you to consider that through this pandemic, like, the students themselves, thre that they have Family Members that are dying and this will not be the first things on their minds. And teachers are giving way more work than they would in school. And that we all dont really have the same resources, so youre trying to put this all on the same plate when its not equal, you know. Thank you. And i just wanted to add, if i have more time, im her mom. That i dont hear anyone talking about the traumas that is inflicted on students of colour, especially africanamerican. And i do know that something mentioned it, but now the opportunity to make some things right and do some concessions. Thank you. Pass, no pass. Thank you. President sanchez, that completes Public Comment. Thank you. Thank you to the public for sharing your thoughts and its heartbreaking whats happening out there. So board members, team delegates, we are going to discuss this and i want to make sure that our student delegates get the words in. Im a parent and somehow i got promoted to a panelist. I think i might have been the last commenter. So here i am. I just wanted to advocate for grades. My son is a junior at Abraham Lincoln. So i think it should be optional, give them the choice of p4 or passfail, the students option. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to first thank all of the parents and all of the students, especially who have come to this Board Meeting, to give comment and i want to reiterate our findings regarding our Student Survey. This pertains to grades this semester. So we conducted a survey which had about 5,443 responses last time i checked. From these responses, we narrowed down the data, sinthy synthesized the info and we brought our findings and points back to our cabinet team, in which we were creating recommendations for the board. And so we want to bring up three main points. First, let me say the grading policy, our recommendation, and that is to have an optional af or pass. Grading policy. With this policy, it really covers three main points in which we saw represen repetitior peers and one point is that no one should be punished during this pandemic and this happened to everybody and its unfair to expect students to perform at a student level when its that way. Its important to maintain doesnt learning and grades in a sense, provide that incentive to come to attend classes, right . So if we do a nopass or pass, i dont see how students wont be motivated to work harder. And so this policy would give the option to students who want to continue to work hard and then the third point is that its important to, once again, highlight the hard work. please stand by . School is challenging. Students face barriers through Financial Hardship or housing situations. I do want to make sure the decision we make reflects on students accomplishments and they are able to if they want to put their grades on their final grading system. My biggest concern is the harm that this has on our newly coming students and this is like our refuge students, students escaping countries with. Reporter s. I want to strongly narrate this because this distance learns is not effective. They escaped wars. For us to put them where they have to show up to class and they dont know how to use technology and say i have to go to this class and i dont know how to use zoom and that has an effect on their grade. Of these are seniors. This will have an effect on their grade. I personally dont want anyone to fail even if they are not moimotivated. It is not fair during this time that anybody fails during this time. I dont think we should revolve around this. I know the majority of students decide to follow this College Career but we dont have to be like other School Districts. What makes San Francisco unique is that we are a unique School District and unique city. I think it should be our own decision and not what everybody else is doing. Feel freel to jump back in the situation, student delegates. Commissioners. Thank you for this presentation and for the comments from both staff and from the public and also i really appreciate conversations i have had with parents. I had a conversation with the career and College Counselor at galileo, high schoolteachers, students and student leaders and also the alliance of black educators and the Union Teachers union. I appreciate just the thoughtfulness of folks and trying to figure out the situation. I have some specific questions. I wanted to introduce an amendment to this resolution. I am going to ask these questions first to help clarify. The first question is there was data presented in the presentation and referenced in this presentation in the proposal that states that grades are an indicator for evaluating learning, and i wanted to know if there is any data that shows grades as a valid measurement of Student Learning during a pandemic. That is a question to staff. Is there any data showing that grades are an effective measurement of Student Learning during a pandemic . I dont have anything. Did you guys look at any research that indicates how Distance Learning or National Emergencies or grief and loss impact a students ability to demonstrate learning . This has been one of the first pandemics we have had in a while, and, you know, we dont have any research on this. I will definitely look for it and get back to you. I guess that is one of the concerns. In the resolution they mentioned how grades are ava are indicatef Student Learning. Nobody knows what is going on with grades. Everybody is having questions. We need to people wanted grades to mean something right now. As far as i am aware and i am interested in your thoughts as well. They are not really. I dont know how anybody could use grades at this point to indicate something during this pandemic. Do you have any in terms of measuring learning or based on standards when students have been out of School Across the country at varying levels . You know just a thought that has come across. The student delegates mention we do consider the same policy of a and f and giving pass. We went back to look at the grades. At the last marking period. I want to say this slowly. They agreed at the last grade periods how much would it add to your consume lahim gpa for 80 of the students it would add less than. 1 to their overall existing cumulative gpa. 80 of the students it would add less than. 1 increase in their gpa. So the question then came up that, yes, 20 it will impact, right . You know, we tried to see it across middle schools and high schools. Yes, we did go by look aning at the grades. When we looked at the break down there was a lot of consistency. Whatever the cumulative gpa has been at the end of the fall semester. It is not really significant enough. What i am saying you are looking at past data without a pandemic. What i am saying at this time we dont have any data how shelterinplace or Distance Learning during a pandemic. We dont have any data how that impacts students gradings and academic performance . No, we dont have data on it. It shows when kids are out of school they lose, we have data showing im assuming when parents or grand parents diane they experience grief and loss it impacts ability to learn. We could find data there are some kids that learn differently at home. Some learn better and some dont learn as well. A lot of teachers feel like they dont teach as well in Distance Learning environment . There is research that shows how learning loss can get magnified for special populations. Special populations it is magnified, the learning. So if we are grading based on what kids learn and certain populations experience the magnified learning loss, that is not their fault. I want to say that. If we were grading them on something that is not their fault because they are not in school and school cant remediate some of the things they do during the school day they provide services to students they dont have at home, it would be unfair to provide a transcript that would impair their ability to apply for college based on this national emergency. I guess the question then for daniel. I want to clarify for the public the state tell me if i am incorrect. The cde said we could use a variety pass fail, credit no credit and regular grades or a through c or a through d. Those were all suggested by the state, is that correct . Those were options. The state cannot represent those were vetted and approved by universities. I want to be clear at leadership level they have created a lot of confusion. That is for me and that is my statement. It is not necessarily a fact. They basically listed options and then didnt clarify whether they would be accepted by uc or not . They gave us options and a number of considerations for each option that we should look at. They didnt make any representations about how our universities would treat them. I want to be clear that at a state level the cde provided options that are contradicted in some cases by the uc and csu system, is that correct . That is based on our information, that is correct. I would definitely say no. I wrote that down many times. They are saying that whether you provide the grades or whether you provide that. You have to state it within your transcript what you are using. What i want to clarify is that they the uc stated they will not accept a through c and a through d only, which was listed as a potential option by the state. If you give a through c only, the question becomes how will they judge and validate your student . You will fall into that in your local context how you have graded and based on your policy they will then validate or look at it. It puts grades at risk if we choose a through c option. That is why we are told not to consider a through c because i want to make a statement. The state provided some potential options that are not vetted by the uc system, and the uc system says we will give you flexibility. If you decide to do one of the options the state lists a through c we may not take your grade . Yes, thats correct. I just want everybody to understand basically the uc system is preventing boards across the country from doing all of the options that were provided as possibilities by the state. We are all making different decisions which i think is lack of leadership at the state level. It means kicking the can down to the districts. As we see every district is doing a different thing. If we look at grades as measure of Student Learning different districts are using different measures and that is a mess. As far as students go this is the asterisk semester but credit does matter. The only question i have is specific to the presentation that says that seniors are a real serious issue. We want to make sure they graduate and they are held harmless. My question as far as it says they have up to july 31st to make up a credit. As teachers have noted, they are not all working through the summer and then i guess another concern that came up in speaking with a high school College Counselor, she said if a kid doesnt get credit by the end of the school year it doesnt count towards college. I looked at the csu and uc site they want the credits sent to uv by july 1st. , not july 31st. I guess my question is what about seniors who have no credit by july 1st . Does this policy potentially put them at risk because they wont have time to based on the resolution they have until the 31st. But the ucs want all credits due by the first. I think the u uc have a document. I need to study that to see if they have provided guidance in terms of they could submit the credit by the end of july 31st as one of the flexibilities. They have confirmed they will accept . They have not confirmed that. We are looking at theflexibility in detail. Is a serious concern. The credit and no credit option seems more compassionate. It allows students to make up credits. It may not be compassionate for seniors who need the credits to graduate. Superintendent do you have anything . I want to add to the point that the doctor made. You are right that typically we send the initial transcripts by the july 1st deadline. I did check with our High School Leadership and what they report is that typically for seniors when the student is in Summer School we update after the july 1st date. U c has mentioned they will be more flexible. Prepandemic we have been able to update transcripts in students in Credit Recovery. We can go back to make sure that is accurate. I would like to introduce an amendment to the policy and i want to include some of the things that were mentioned in Public Comment. I can send a typed version to staff. It includes Credit Recovery we ensure so they can make it up. We are not committing to make sure that Credit Recovery is available to all students. People have talked about safeguards. The student delegate spoke about they could be held harmless for this situation. If we dont have safeguards in place, i think we are not holding students harmless if we require them to do work and have an option they might not pass. I wanted to ask president sanchez what your recommendation is in order to make the amendment . You want to make two amendments . I can read it. There is basically three. Safeguard. Go ahead. I am wondering, and i am completely open to the amendment. It is not the substance. I am wondering if we could complete board questions before amendmentses. Some of the questions or issues might evolve. I am fine with that. I am open to process. Thank you, commissioner norton. Commissioner collins maybe you could type them out and send them to staff and the board. I will send them right now and we can continue discussion. Also, send them to the student delegates if you can. I will rely on justice to help me with that. Commissioner norton, do you want to add on . Yes, thank you. I have a similar question about Credit Recovery and access to Credit Recovery. I was concerned by the question that the comment error the idea we are not allowing Credit Recovery we would normally allow under normal circumstances. I would like clarification on that. Maybe could we that is my first question. Do you want to take that now, staff . Actually we did look at whether uc will extend the transcript deadline beyond july 1. Students will not have the offer admission resended. They will request it by july 1. If your school or college is unable or unsure about issuing the. Reporter s by this dat. [ ina] that they are expected. My question is and that is helpful but my question is broader than just for graduating seniors. It is for everybody and Credit Recovery for any student that gets i believe a d or f or maybe just an f in any course. I am wondering have we changed the policy because of the pandemic . What steps are we taking to make sure students are not denied an opportunity they would otherwise have to make up a credit. No, we have not changed the policy because of the pandemic. We have been having conversations around the summer programming. Definitely thinking about decisions made around this resolution and opportunities to make up a no credit will influence the number of students we serve in the program. We are in those conversations prepared to support students with Credit Recovery in the summer. What you have heard consistently from every member of the board is that we certainty dont want to make it more difficult on students to get their needs met and get the credits they need to graduate because of the pandemic. I want to make sure that if families are under the impression or being told that their students cant make up those credits, lets disspell that quickly and make sure we give students every option to make up work. We lated is my next question. In the m. O. U. That we passed previously tonight, it says that teachers will hold students harmless based on what grade they were receiving as of march 13th in the m. O. U. To me, that is i wonder how we are interpreting that in context of the grading discussion. To me that seems powerful as a way to say students will not get anything less than what they had on march 13th of this year, which is, i think, something we have heard from a number of members of the public. Am i interpreting that correctly . That is correct interpretation. On behalf of the members they agreed no student will receive anything less than what they were graded on before the shelterinplace occurred . Yes. Does that have the force then to i am searchin searching fe right word. Is it enforceable so every teacher would not be able to issue a student a lower grade than they were getting on march 13th. Does that agreement have that power . I see carmela may have joined our meeting. Maybe not. Carmela if you can chime in, great. I will tell you what i think our intertration of staff is. Uesf negotiated around grades but recognizes in the m. O. U. This is the boards determination. If the board passes a policy, i think that supersedes what is in the m. O. U. I interpret more around grades as principals and statements around belief, but negotiations with uesf cannot bind the boards as to how to issue grades for students. That is the board decision. I have been told by teachers in the last two weeks that it is their right to determine what grade a student receives except for in the very, very narrow circumstances where a grade could be appealed and overturned successfully. That applies to the individual teacher of record. It is the individual teacher of record decision. Their union cannot us u rp their judgment and right. A student was receiving a c in a course as of march 13th. For whatever reason at the end of the semester the teacher wanted to grade that student an f. That mou would provide no protection to that student against receiving that lower grade . Carmela joined us. My interpretation that is right. It doesnt bind the teacher to prevent the teacher from grading as they see fit. That is where the historically contested grades happen with students or families coming to say why did i end up with a c in this course when i was earning an a for the entire semester . The power sits with the teacher, but with all grades they can beacon tested. When it going to being contested the superintendent intervenes and there is a process to that. That board sets grading the overall grading structure that we use like if we were to completely convert to credit and no credit district that would be your call. The teachers impliment the actual grading within that umbrella. In other words, i think what i hear from commissioner collins and a number of commissioners as part of the whole debate is that we dont want students these are extreme circumstances that could be affecting students performance in any number of ways. We dont want the extreme circumstances to affect their futures or their record in any undue way. What you are saying to me is that we cant that we are not able to control that if we also want to make sure that our students have maximum opportunity from the two biggest public University Systems of the state . Yes, we cant control that. I truly believe the union and the teachers i have talked to are in total support of coming from a place of no harm and working with students. I do not believe we are going to there is always, you know, someone can deviate from the general norm. I would have to hold there has been a lot of compassion from the teachers in terms what we can do for the kids and do right by them. I 100 agree from what i have heard i completely agree. I dont want anyone to think i am saying teachers are going to be mean. One last point. I would add that if you had a teacher who acted in disregard for the Union Statement and sort of went rogue, if you will, a student could challenge their grade. It was given to them in bad faith. That would be a board decision. There are some avenues for challenge if yo you had a studet in extreme circumstances treated unfairly. That process still maintains. Thank you, president sanchez. Rather than hearing the Union Position it might be helpful to hear from the union. My understanding for mou it says some of this will be determined by the boards determination. Additional details about grading are pending a policy decisio dey ththe board of education. It says additional details. The wording mentioned was students will be held harmless and not receive a lesser grade than the grade after mar13, 2020 as a result of Distance Learning. This aligns with the states recent statement that assessment is a summit of measure but formative measure for areas where students need support following guidance from the governor the parties will meet again to determine additional options for grading. Then there is another statement about the district shall establish the grading policies to recognize the different needs answer challenges with issuing grades for all grade levels. I think that is really important. We are mainly talking about the impact on High School Juniors and seniors. Not solely but mostly. Uesf and district shall establish a committee during the emergency closure. That is not done yet formally. I want to mention in one of the hypotheticals reference by the general counsel that if something about if a teacher goes against the union. The m. O. U. Is not the unions statement. We make statements about things all of the time. The m. O. U. Is a jointly agreed upon memorandum of understanding. The board just voted on it. It was negotiated by the union and the School District. I just want to make sure that is all clear. We also recognize the union that we do have an impact and a role in all of this ultimately, yes, it is the boards decision. We do hope the other stakeholders who have spoken this afternoon what educators are saying is having an impact and it does sound like it is. Thank you. I thank you, ms. Soloman. It is not one size fits all. There is no perfect solution to meet everybodys needs. It seems to me that the credit no credit solution is the one that is going to be most straightforward to administer and is potentially the least harmful for students. That would be what i would support. Thank you. Any other commissioners . Commissioner lam, then commissioner coal lynns. Thanthank you for the presentation and engagement of our union and labor partners and the testimony. After our last Board Meeting and intensive discussion i talked directly with parents, with counselors, educators, parents, and i think ultimately as i expressed before as a board and as a body we expressed just how important it is to keep our students at the center and any policy decisions and really holding our students harmless during this very challenging time. Similar to commissioner collins anortonand and commissioner , i want to understand dual enrollment and what that means to support that moving forward through the summer and into the fall with learning loss. I want to acknowledge not only are High School Students going through a challenging time. It is any student but students just starting high school career. Having a tenth grader and her peers expressed the difficult time. Where do they fit in with the academics and learning . I want to name that it is very confusing for the state guidelines to not necessarily matchup with cfu and uc requirements. I have always said i lead with not only studentcentered policies but we support excellence and equity for all students. For me each and every student shall get that access to Higher Education depending upon they decide right after high school or 10 years or 15 years down the line depending on their personal journey and experience. I support policies within the uc guide leans. Do i believe there needs to be Stronger Partnership collaboration to evolve the engagement of our Higher Education institutions . Absolutely. For this decision and this spring for covid19 i support a policy to meet those guidelines. I think it is too important in showing our students have access to higher ed. Thank you. Commissioner coa collins. I sent out to justin the amendments that capture the comments commissioner norton and commissioner lam had made. Is it okay to read that now or more discussion before i read the amendment . Commissioners cook or lopez do you want to chime in . Commissioner cook . A quick general statement. I really appreciate commissioner collins. She pointed out the confusion that the state has created and i appreciate the delegate with the emphasis that we should be concerned about our students and not allowing the system to dictate the decisions we make. Thank you both for stating that, and all of the people that have reached out to me personally, i have listened and i appreciate your input to guide us through this decision. I am interested in the revised proposal. Thank you. Commissioner lopez. Also, looking forward to the amendment so we can further the discussion. I wanted to hear more about in the resolve section regarding the two to three contacts per week with educators and how that is looking now with the grading. If we could clarify or talk briefly about that. I do absolutely see the value of that. I think that is the best way to inform us how a student is doing in their particular household during this pandemic and how that would affect learning and the grades they will get. But if we are emphasizing it i want to hear that is clear or what the thinking and it is. I will start. Then Staff Members can. The way the resolution is written is basically these are the things we have done and even with all we have done, the last whereas it talks about even though through implementation we are seeing promising results, there are major challenges. We know the gaps that are in place that have been in place even with what we are doing the challenges are showing that these gaps may be getting larger. With that in mind, it is important that everything we do be around reducing those gaps. One big piece of that is the importance of us continuing to have contact with students, reaching out with them. You heard a couple of people, one of the callers earlier, linda, about her frustrations and it