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Regular Board Meeting 05-27-25

Added May 30, 2025 •

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you look cute really all right everyone I would like colleagues uh I'd like to call the meeting back to back from Recess at 8:20 p.m. information items 9.2 backers for kids I'm not going to be able to see that yeah which 1 yeah yeah we just need to be able to see it down you think that's good and I on my phone too can you see on the side but it might be the angle is that better oh no that's too dark no I don't so we can see okay on my phone the same thing okay then I can just look at my notes on my phone oh yeah thank you as soon guidelines and I was going to wait for him to give us the green light thank you yeah I thought I saw it up there do you want me to connect I can see it on honey screen okay we'll just do it on our own yeah okay oh that's just asking are you good if it's not showing up there yes we can see it on Connie's computer so they're going to follow you on soon okay oh we should start okay I don't know if they were going to be some guidelines or something shared first all right um hello everyone again my name is Summer McBride and I am the President of the Culver City Council of ptas I'm also a board member for the Culver City Education Foundation and I'm joined by Connie Wong Who is the the incoming backpacks for kids chair uh through Culver City Council and of course you know Wendy Hamill who is the executive director of the Culver City Education Foundation um and I appreciate this opportunity to give you an update on the backpacks for kids program the last time we presented I think was fall 2023 there have some been some updates and so I'll just get right into it the backpacks for kids program as many of you know provide students in need with a backpack filled with non-perishable food and snacks each week to ensure that that every child can eat on the weekends yes all right and then um just to give you a little bit of history for those of you who are newer on the board or to the district um the backpack program just started way back in 2012 um with just a teachers who were just noticing that we had hungry kids and um because we wanted to make sure that kids when they didn't have the access to the school lunch um and breakfast had something to eat on the weekend so I started with the teachers and then grew with more people to lob Iona really serving 19 students and then in 2013 expanding to all the schools and CCMS just getting up to 50 students um up to 2017 which um is not on the timeline but is when I joined the program as a volunteer very important and I'm just kidding and um but that is what and um the program tripled to 150 students um through all the different schools in our district um 2018 is when the back program came under sort of the guidance or the sponsorship of the covers city council PTA um and um and then in 2020 of course was coid and we had to definitely change the way that we did things but we were able to support um support kids which really the need became much greater during that time and um we increased just um increased to to provide access to fresh produce and also some hot meals uh that were given out during that time because we allowed donators a lot of wonderful donors at that time um and then came back after Co numbers kind of uh went lower than Co but was higher than before for coid and have kept up and to this day um we are serving over 300 students um and that um we on a weekly basis you'll look at numbers more later but also in 2024 which was really exciting is that um CCS became the financial sponsor for the backpacks for kids program oh yeah I'm doing the all right so um backpack contents um so the goal is to provide shelf stable food um that is portable and also something that kids can take home without it being really obvious that they're bringing home a big bag of food um home and um and so we have to we try our best to be as nutritious as possible making sure that it does have to be shall stable and something that's not going to break in their backpacks and also something that they will eat so um so we have a bunch of foods you can see from the pictures um and the contents that are listed there are among the items that are most needed um the hardest for us to get um from donate or and or are the most popular um with the children so granola bars of course are a biggie um as well as the macaroni and cheese cups and um but we also like to provide things like the um uncooked of uncooked rice um and beans which are also very popular items and nutritious so the next slide is really about the need and understanding the need there's often a perception that we're Culver City or an affluent community so there may not be a need that we we may not have food insecure students who are actually residents while some of our students maybe students who are on interdisc permits some of our students live right here in Culver City and the reason we included this data is to really in a picture of what we're dealing with right now these numbers are actually from 2023 and with the changes in Cal Works CalFresh Medicaid requirements these numbers only stand get worse but in California 1 in 3 households do not have enough money to meet their basic needs in Los Angeles County about 40% of households are living at the real cost measure and I'll explain what that is in a moment and cobra City and our neighboring cities mourned oay in Westchester which is where some of our students come uh almost 20% of them are living below the real cost measure so the issue with the official poverty line measure is that it only measures the cost of food the real cost measure was created by the United ways of California to measure not only the cost of food but the cost of housing Child Care Transportation and anything else that's a basic need for a family and when you factor in all of those costs that go into each household this gives you a better idea of how much families actually are struggling and so it was important for us to include this information because we really want to paint this picture that we're meeting the needs of our local families and the student students who enter our schools are not students who are just coming out of the district some of these students live right here in our community and we want to make sure that all students are able to have their needs met um continue understanding the benefits on the next slide with providing supplemental food for the weekend for all students in need also leads to community building because it does take a village you're seeing part of our village right here the Ed Foundation cover city council PTA all of our site ptas many of our site staff and teachers the district were all playing a part in this and that brings and the the community Spirit aspect of it um the peer support many of our students our student leaders are the ones who physically pack those bags and doing that out of the kindness of their heart because they actually care about their peers in the community they're doing it without judgment they're doing it enthusiastically and it helps them see that they can be contributors to society in some really meaningful ways that don't cost them anything um and then finally it does there's there's data to support that providing males over the weekends to students actually improves academic outcomes and ELA test scores in particular we know that a student who's hungry can't concentrate they have lower cognitive function they have high stressors and so when we're able to make sure that they're not food insecure over the weekend they come ready to learn on Monday morning they come ready to focus instead of thinking about how they were hungry over the weekend so we're meeting a multitude of needs in our school community I'm going to turn it over to Tony again so this is just a table to show the numbers of uh in this uh this current school year of 2020 425 um at this time we have 185 preschool and elementary students registered for our program and uh 125 middle and high schoolers for a total of 310 students um and that number does increase um throughout the year so I bet if I go back home and take a look I may have another 1 that I have joined um even though it's already the end of the school year um when families are needing it um we are there it's on the school Family Support Services website uh for them to sign up um the average number of backpacks distributed weekly um you can see on the numbers on the right um they are lower than the ones on the left and that's just to note that um that not all kids need a backpack of food every week and so many of the families will just take a back of food when they need it so um so there are circumstances where where um we may have families where they are living in 2 homes and when 1 uh when they're living with 1 parent or Guardian they don't need the food bag but when they live with the other 1 um then they take it and so that's what the different numbers and sometimes things change throughout the year circumstances change and our families are very um um very and kids are very good about saying oh well we don't need 1 this week so we don't need to take it um or this week we really do and we try to also address if the kids um especially the ones um in our homeless population if they need extra snacks or something throughout longer weekends we try to pack a little bit more okay hi yes so um starting at the this school year uh the Culver City Education Foundation took over as the fiscal sponsor for the program uh and it's been just a wonderful partnership um as you saw from the slides it started it was such a Grassroots completely volunteer run program but as it grew and as the expenses grew and as the community support and donations grew there was a need for a little bit more of um infrastructure that the foundation was able to provide and it's just been I I can say it was a you know we piloted this year to see how it would work and um I I feel like it was a really strong partnership and we're able to provide that infrastructure in terms of um the donor stewardship and um also the you know accounting and expense reimbursement and all that side of it and that has freed up the tremendous Wonder full volunteers to really just focus on making the program as successful and meeting the needs as best as possible so um that's worked really well um as you can see um the this year we because of um the donations had had flowed I think pretty strongly during coid and then um had decreased um but the demand did not decrease and so there was a need to pull in a little bit on expenses and so there was a focus on um budgeting a little bit more um in in this year uh and so you can see the amount that has been brought in from our generous Community I just really want to thank the community for supporting this program um and and and what we're what it costs to run the program for the year we did a pretty good job of of making ends meet I can't tell you how happy I am to have at Foundation as our fiscal sponsor like you don't even know it's it it's formalization of a partnership that we really needed to provide sustainability for the program and speaking of sustainability the next slide cover City working together for students is really about the roles that the different organizations or entities play um as you know there is an mou that will be eventually presented to you all um to partner officially partner with Culver City Council of ptas um similar to the way we've partnered with the Ed Foundation this was a program that started over ten years ago really in good faith and kind of some handshakes but in order for it to be sustainable as Personnel changes at the district level at the site the board changes we want to make sure that students are protected no matter what that every we want to understand what this program is why it exists how it started and why we want to maintain it beyond all of us when all of us have moved on from Culver City we want to make sure that any food insecure students are still receiving the support that they need and so this this slide talks about the different roles so Culver City Council PTA um our volunteers and pro we manage the program operations that includes maintaining the pantry and food inventory recruiting volunteers organizing the food drives we partner with ccusd to identify I discreetly serve students through the uh pupil uh school and Family Support Services uh we also promote the program and ensure visibility for our fiscal sponsor the Ed Foundation overseeing the day-to-day Logistics recruiting volunteers um and conducting the Outreach that's needed and ensuring visibility for cc usd's role in the program through our mou with the Ed Foundation at the Ed Foundation provides fiscal sponsors sponsorship oversight and fundraising support that Foundation receives tracks and acknowledges all of our donations uh the F Foundation also manages the program's budget and accounting provides fiscal oversight and regular Financial reports and assist with donor Outreach and Grant applications the role that we would love for the cult over City Unified School District to play through that mou that will be presented for action is for you to just continue to provide what you're already providing the district Operational Support which means providing storage and SP Pantry space on campus um we know that we've been able to use the Pantry on the middle school campus but as things change as buildings are built up expanded torn down who knows we just want to make sure that the backpacks pantry has a home always um we also are requesting support formalizing the support that the School site uh staff offer in making sure that the backpacks are discreetly distributed to the students in need and making sure that we we couldn't do this without the secretaries and the site staff but it's not really something that they were told when they were hired this is your role and so as new staff are hired um volunteers kind of have to explain it to them and that's not really early appropriate this should be something that there's an agreement when there's a new staff at the site like this is something that we do we want you to be a part of it and this is how you can help also maintaining confidentiality via the school and Family Support Services and also assisting and Outreach and Grant support efforts um there may be funds that the district can tap into that the council PTA or even the Ed Foundation can't and so if there are Community School opportunities to get additional funding we would love to be able to formalize that agreement through an mou so when those opportunities arise the backpacks for kids program can be um top of mind and then thank you no thank you okay yes I'm going to thank everybody um so um definitely want to thank our current chair um Kathy vigil as our program chair for the last few years um and all the program chairs that came before um our grades starting with Lake Chipola and The Gardener and all those people to Jamie Wallace we've got some famous Culver City people that started out that helped with this helped originated this program definitely Wendy Hamill for CCF it's been great having her uh Dina Waller with Communications my ochre Community Jeff um with events um just me PTA people um um especially and then working with Kim and delicado Dr I um with the director a school that or School of virtue of pupil service School Family Support Services and and and her predecessor Veronica Montes um CMS um ASB has been great at packing it and notably the leadership of uh Miss vilman who we hope will keep uh helping us um lots of volunteers and of course our school secretaries our current ones are listed there um or have just been so great in helping to make sure the the bags get to where they need to go um and and also the teachers and staff um our current and past Community Partners are listed there so many and um we're happy to have so many Partnerships um and um and definitely keep bringing it on West Side uh food bank has been especially helpful with um their continued support and um and they've said that they're going to give us some more food too so all right and I I don't think we could actually even list all of our yes donors some of you many of you are donors and we have donors who donate monthly and it's not even something I think about it's on auto uh auto pay so we're really great grateful for our community that's made this possible and for people listening who want to know how they can help uh there are lots of ways to support the backpacks for kids program you can donate food items you can volunteer donate money and really just spread the word however you can spread the word social media tell a friend talk to your neighbors about it you can go to the website CC backpacks for kids.com and on the next slide uh how ccusd can help ensure sustainability of these critical programs of course we've talked about fundraising material support promotions and collaboration and strategic planning and again just to um reaffirm the importance of the mou that you're going to be presented with um because this is kind of making a case for that had the need for that mou that will bring together the 3 main entities Culver City Education Foundation Culver City Council of ptas and ccusd will provide stronger Financial sustainability through professional fiscal management and Grant support it'll be efficient and confidential in our operations which are embedded in the school infrastructure it will will have increased Community Trust and visibility through shared Outreach and recognition and will have expanded service capacity to meet growing student needs while maintaining dignity and discretion and that's the end of our presentation um I would love to take any questions thank you so much for the presentation colleagues do we have any comments um maybe just a few brief comments um I think you know your presentation actually answered a few of the questions that I had uh just regarding you know how we're meeting our students needs and it sounds like reasonably well which I'm really glad to hear um you know I just I just want to say thanks for doing all of this work and doing it in professional way and you know really trying to formalize the program which sounds like it started off like just really volunteer run and now it's it's becoming much more of a thing and you know I've been happy to support the program and um I think that you know you all have done a very good job promoting it too and you know I think maybe all of us can kind of think about what we can do to try to you know make sure that the whole Community is aware that this exists um because I think it's a really great thing that we do in the district and the community and it can bring a lot of folks together like not just even in the schools that you know at the event you all through I saw a whole bunch of folks whose kids were long gone from the Culver City Schools enjoying tea and you know wearing hats and all that stuff and I think that event was particularly amazing and not just because I won the Girl Scout cookies there but but yeah but I think just thanks again for coming and presenting and you know happy to do whatever I can to help out thank you member of the Exchange Club I know they've in great supporters and what I love about not only the work you do in the community but that list is it's a cross-section of the community ideological and we don't see that very often um but in terms of the you know people who as you said who Improvement along through the school system and those who are new to it um and just appreciate the way that you know in this quiet way we can help every student make sure that you know they're able to uh have a you know a able to attend and participate in the schools without having to worry about where food is coming from food insecurity is quiet uh and so it's not something that's always evident and so thank you for your great work and every time when I'm coming in and out of the grocery store food drives as well or amazing I know I've seen several of you with that as well yeah no questions just appreciation for everything you do uh I want to thank you and all so I also want to thank you not just for you know the keeping this up but also for recognizing that our future needs to be sustainable and that you know just because there's a precedent of this program existing doesn't mean that it will exist in the future without these steps and so that's really what I'm I'm thankful for because we need to continue to address food insecurity and um so that our students can be the best that they um can be in school um even through that throughout the weekend so thank you I'll just join my colleagues in thanking you so much thanks all right thank you so much 9.3 English course of study thank you Mr a few board meetings ago we opened the discussion on ours English for both the board faculty and community members to provide some feedback and thoughts tonight we are recommending that AP seminar serve as an elective for the 2526 school year to provide an opportunity for advanced work in the 10th grade this decision is not as simple just bring honors English back and we believe making other major changes to the course of study at this time late in school year is extremely difficult and more time is required to develop courses and courses of study that work well for our students needs also with the transition and leadership in both the superintendent and assistant superintendent of ed services the conversation should continue with their voices since be their program they end up leading it is clear that the conversation on this issue is not complete and will continue in the next school year as highlighted in the information right up in the board agenda AP seminar would achieve an extra GPA point and possible college credit for success students the course has already been approved by the Board of Education and as such there's no formal action required by the board with that I opened it to you for comments and suggestions for the future work thank you okay um guess I'm going first again uh know it's both the pleasure and and a little bit of a challenge because I don't know what all my colleagues think about this um you know and I I have a few comments just on this issue generally and I think those I've talked both offline and online know that this is probably the 1 single issue that I've spent the most time um since I've been on the board on it's it's a bit disproportional frankly to a lot of the things that we've been handling but I definitely want to make sure that my positions known um and and have some things to say kind of after our last meeting as well um so first just kind of a preliminary comment to address a little bit of an elephant in the room um things were a little bit better well they were a lot better tonight than they were in the last meeting the last time this came up on the agenda I saw a lot of bad behavior um I just want to be really super clear I'm not going to tell anybody what they can and can't say as long as it's within the bounds of the First Amendment protections you're allowed to say it without interference from me or my colleagues um someone who experienced a violation of my own First Amendment rights and I am particularly sensitive to that as well um it's not to say however that words don't have consequences particularly as to people's reputations and their relationships um in addition to being immature and impolite snarky comments and name calling are likely to be really counterproductive to anybody's goals so I would just encourage folks to think about that a little bit before they start calling each other names or saying things that are particularly mean we all live here in this community together um and I think it's really important to respect each other even when and maybe especially when we disagree on particular issues most people in both sides of this honors debate have been respectful I don't think everybody has however and unfortunately those voices are the ones whose words tend to be remembered most clearly and get repeated back to me all the time um I unfortunately Mr Moore feddern is no longer here but um he spoke tonight regarding a suggestion to hear from students directly on this issue I think that's a really great idea those are the people that are most affected by these decisions and we haven't really heard from them which is really too bad um this is largely been discussion among adults so just speaking for myself I personally be very interested to hear from the graduating seniors as well as some of our current students regarding what they would like to be able to take uh and I also just um kind of as a finish of my comments on this issue before we have some questions just want to invoke 1 of my favorites of Steven cvy 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and that is to seek to understand first and then to be understood haven't seen a whole lot of seeking to understand going on around here and it's personally very disappointing to me and this conversation as Dr Lucas mentioned we'll continue past tonight I encourage everybody to approach it with kindness and a spirit of collaboration so just in light of that I have a few questions would you like me to ask my questions first okay um so I've asked District leadership a number of times sort of in conversations about this this issue whether this juncture if it's even possible to bring back an advanced option for English next year and just sort of for illustrative purposes hypothetically and honors course in addition to a standard option for example College Prep Plus honor uh for ninth and tenth grade English I've been told it's not really possible and I think Dr Lucas alluded to that tonight as well um could you just sort of confirm um here for the public and for those who are listening online and in the audience why that would be that we can't bring that back right now sure I'll start and then plz Dr Bax if you want to add anything but um basically uh because you know the point it was well received that the old uh honors English courses stale at this point right um it was last offered 4 years ago 3 years ago I'm sorry if I don't remember exactly but um and so you know that that would need to be revamped based on based on the the current coursework that we are offering in regards to college prep um and so the uh it's just that's what I alluded to it's not as simple as just bringing it back on as English because we got to take a look at what we're doing with college prep and then adding on to that college prep offering okay fantastic um I don't know if you have anything to add to that document that was well said okay and I believe it was 4 years ago that honors was offered it was my first year here as director okay all right appreciate that um and then just kind of a 3-part question if you miss any of it I'm happy to repeat it too but you know if you could please explain to this mom of an only child who's a first grader at this time 3 things regarding High School okay um what's the difference between making AP seminar account is an English course versus as an elective it's the first thing second thing can we at this time add it as an English course and not an elective and if and the third thing if we can add it as an English course right now why would you propose not to do that and instead add it as an elective uh so the the difference uh between the AP English first and elective is is simply that we have uh the course of study is established for honors English I'm sorry I'm sorry for for English 10 in the in the grade level already right and so we're not recommending a change to that course of study and because of that that maintains English as the college prep 10 as the course of study for 10th graders so bringing as an elective does offer an opportunity for students that wish to uh do a little something different or like dive in deeper into the area and to get their uh bonus bonus points and successful potential college application work um can we add it as an English course was your second part of the question I believe um you know and and in theory yes we could um uh but we are not recommending that at this point because we think that better been more indepth studies to the whole course of study need to be established so that this is uh kind of a first step along the ways of adding um and developing a more uh defined course of study for English 10 across the entire uh High School System okay um I think I understood most of that and I suppose my colleagues will probably have some other questions on that um I just you know nothing terrifying yeah no I mean it's it's definitely something that's a little bit um difficult to wrap my head around with respect to you know why it can't be sort of substitute so we can't substitute it in for what college prep exist as right now like for the students who want the more advanced option is what you're saying no I'm saying we're making the recommendations that we don't that's what I'm saying but but could we yes okay all right um so I guess I mean just you know my preference and be interested to hear what my colleagues think about it is that it would be my preference to see this course as an English course and not just an elective particularly because the students only have really 6 periods during their day plus you know the opportunity to do 0 and 7 but as we know that's that's a challenge for a number of different scheduling reasons but um again interested in what my colleagues have to say but I think that's it for me sure I'd like to just answer a little bit further um it would require um a commitment and also an unknown variable about how many teachers we could train in seminar for it to um be more widely offered and rather than just doing it as an elective so I I think that's just something that needs to be mentioned so before I going into my questions and uh I'll be happy since we're covering English that no math will be covered in any of this um but I I do want to point so in going into this I met with a number of parents I also took the opportunity to get to attend some in the English classes uh they did not ask me any questions which is good because it's a long time since I read Romeo and Juliet much less Color Purple um Animal Farm is different because my daughter did it for the book her book report this year uh for the sixth but um but I will say is it is a very different experience than what I remember in terms of classes uh you know for many of us here the classes we remember attending basically the teacher would talk to us right and ask us questions this was much more and this is where some of the Cross um you know having different levels is a good thing is that the students would analyze amongst each other and discuss topics and then discuss it in the group and that is something which is different and which plays to this particular approach um and it certainly let me to appreciate a little bit better that approach and why this was being put out there that being said um overall all uh I am still also maintaining the belief that um you know while this Critter could not work the way you do experiments uh is not necessarily to change everything at once and so I I will continue to be advocate for finding something that is recognized as an honor course for the 10th grade going forward um and for specific metrics for how we can measure whatever it is going forward as well because I've through the presentations for from 2021 I sat through the presentations and I read the presentations from Santa Monica which does this and is 1 of several school districts that does do it Oakland being another permanent Laos Mar Costa does it for certain classes in the high school which is um Manhattan Beach um and the you know the train amongst the higher-end school districts Sequoia Union up in San Francisco being another another example is that those which tend to be wealthier are looking at this kind of approach and those that tend to come from a more economically challenged profile are trying to add honors classes in so um you know I I I have a couple of questions here and following up but I didn't want to at least have that sort of preface out there about what I went through in trying to ask these questions and the information that I I put together so the first 1 Echo uh member Carlson saying that do other districts treat seminar as a non- alternative class in other words as an English class not as an elective and why couldn't we treat this as as an English class I was just the same response that I gave to miss Carlson right there yeah so which is that we're recommending it now as an elective as we provided the whole course of study across the English curriculum intent okay got it but it would still have the it would have the point benefit fits Etc of an additional grade point and and a bunch of other things um I know you know as you said it's a tight schedule for 10th grade coming up in the future we're going to have to offer uh also financial literacy as a class under state law as well going forward um you know 1 of the suggestions I heard out there from uh 1 parent was is that in the future not for this 1 because we've already kind of locked into what the curriculum is um is maybe even combining um English and ethnic studies so because we have a bunch of mandates coming from the state and only so many class periods to be able to do it and so offering options I'm not saying this is the only option but if we offer that plus ethnic studies as a standalone and English as a standalone we offer more options generally um uh and that's something I would like to put out there as something we may be able to consider in the future uh as another way that we can provide more options to our students um so um what programs will be in place to assist uh and um and assist those with economic challenges to assist with college prep and which ones are going to be so I I sat through the presentation these are the ones that were laid out in 2021 Centaur plus wraparound Wednesdays writing workshops also as we're looking at Saturday school and boot camps as well which of these are and maintain because if if this if we keep things as it is we have fallen woefully short on providing the support that we promise to the students as a part when we originally came into this and this is not the fault of the teachers we have to make budget decisions along the way but we our predecessors did not follow through in the way that I think we should have if we wanted to even try to make this approach to success yeah sure I can answer that for you all of those are intact with the except ception right now of the AP boot camps for this summer um also what was put in place that has we carefully monitor usage data and all of the things and we had the a through G Grant which also is part of why the boot camps are sun setting because the a3g grant has been expended it's outlived its time and its dollars where we had paper as a tutoring and online tutoring it to be a part of the writer's workshop model the usage was extremely low and the contract is Sunset and we are not renewing it it was quite expensive okay what other commitments will CC USD to make to recruit and encourage students of color to participate in the AP seminar and honors Santa Monica they were saying almost 60% of their students participate in what would be considered or work participating in the higher grades that would be considered an honors program I know that in the past we like Santa Monica we were disproportionate in terms of who in these classes uh and it just seems that uh as 1 of the goals that was set forth in 2021 um how can we commit to that to to doing better recruitment to encourage because remember I know we talked about tracking here but to be clear these classes are open to anybody who wants to put themselves out there and challenge themselves but we haven't I think we could improve in terms of our recruitment to to get that done and I know I sent these questions in advance so it's okay I I've I've responded I'll respond again no publicly so um in terms of each year the counselors go through and meet with different they meet with each class um you know I think they they take sorry they pick a period they meet with each class they talk about the different options they recruit they encourage the teachers recruit and encouraged there is you know student Choice student option so all of that um with the experience standard offering would need to be you know continued Outreach because that generally transpires in February when students then elect for you know their course of study for the following years so so continued continued 1 on 1 touch is that again counselors also have 1-on-1 meetings with students okay um so I I saw some I went set the presentation some of the metrics that were laid out in 2021 were a little on the vague or side right so Santa Monica set very specific goals that they had to have 25 to 27 students per class I did not see in the presentation those numbers and I would like to make sure that whatever we do going forward needs to have more specific metrics to measure success going forward those were not there the dnf issue I don't recall being in the presentation as well and we've kind of come back and saying well that's not what was 1 of our metrics I think this is a chance for them to really reset a little bit and determine what those are as long as we're bringing in honors option back so um I would put forward that you know going forward if we don't see those metrics then we're going to end up pushing much harder and examining what we can do to uh you know because we want to make sure that they are that that they're very clear as to what success is going forward because there's a lot of debate back and forth and we're not doing ourselves any favors if we don't have the hard numbers of this is the range of where we need to be so whether it's dnf list a overall enrollment AP languages which there have been improvements to be clear particularly in some of these areas but and drops off in others we need to have those hard metrics in order to move um forward the last question I have because I know this has been a long um is what steps we can take in order to look at dual enrollment also for 10th grade going forward as an additional option you know I'm not I don't think we need to do the IB programs there's just consider the top level that's actually in the listed of where things are going but if we want to have smaller class sizes and to be clear for our friends who are you know who are teachers here by law we cannot reduce our class our number of teachers if we offer dual enrollment but we can offer teachers wanted in which we have not been able to fulfill for them which is the smaller class sizes and the opportunity for our students either even on campus through a joint college and high school teacher program so that we can offer English and get English credits for students who want to take that sequence and that options as well so um I would ask that you would commit and I know we've discussed doing this as well uh beforehand and but to to really fully explore that option and see if we can offer that as well because again to these teachers if you want this if you want to be able to show the the the what was in place that when the places where this has worked you have to have smaller class sizes and it's good for for students who can't afford the AP programs to have the option to be able to get college credit for what they're you know uh for English as well going forward because it will save them money give more options to our students thank you Mr I just want to respond um and just you know some of the points you're bringing up that are taking notes on over here but that's exactly some of the reasons why we're not talking about just bringing back honors next fall that there's many considerations like how are we making sure the right kids are into those courses and how are we encouraging um you know all of our Learners to be in advanced courses no matter it being AP and our honors or whatever iteration of that of that is so um I'm just kind of re reinforcing that fact and I really appreciate the fact that our the teachers are willing to consider this that the administration is willing to refine this proposal so that we have the option of giving options to our students there are these supercharged students is what I call of those who were invested in environment where they're constantly being challenged and that's the 1 group of students that doesn't work well in this current environment and we're losing those families as a result because their kids don't feel that challenge so having that option for them while giving everyone else the opportunity to make this work is something which I think benefits everybody my my last thing I did forget to ask there are some people under the who think that we can just slot in a somebody else's um you know somebody else's curriculum and I think it's important to explain how this process works because it's not as easy as hey I'm going to grab this off the shelf somewhere and and throw this in there's there's a lot more planning that goes into building you know building a lesson and then than that and so you know I think it would be good perhaps uh Dr Baxter since you're probably on the front lines of this more than anyone explaining how that process works just generally in in terms of planning out how you do these classes going forward yes the Genesis in this District of course development it comes from the teachers and it comes from the needs based on students and what they have um requested and which would come from the spring prior so then courses are created ated and um courses are created then they're submitted through the Departments and and a variety of approvals and then they're brought to the board for info and then action okay sounds good and there are lots of great courses in the UC doorway that our good models for us okay thank you and I'm not necessarily against having this as an English class too but I'm open I want to make sure that we've got the full discussion on this thank you thank you um I also did uh a little bit of research on my own talking with a colleague who who's an English teacher in Santa Monica um and and heard many of the same things that that you did board member uh lachman about having not necessarily more reports because I think we have many of the supports but I don't know that they're nearly packaged as something that's that's to help um or it's not something we've heard about as being packaged in that particular way likewise uh my colleague mentioned uh class sizes and the smaller class sizes being essential ironically I looked at the class size numbers for 9th and 10th grade English n uh 10th grade English is a little bit below the the kind of norms for our classes but ninth grade English classes almost all of them are below 25 we haven't necessarily made a commitment that we will keep them that way it's kind of been to do what we can I mean so I think there's definitely some things that we could do however we move forward to bolster the supports and kind of make that more intentional and cohesive and make that commitment to keep the class sizes smaller so so students in their can get the attention likewise I do just want to plus 1 um what has been said about we've got to keep better data on this we've got to Define our metrics beforehand and and look at those same metrics throughout whether we go in this direction or that direction um the other 1 just a question and it's been the 1 that everybody's kind of asked about the AP seminar whether it counts as an English or as an elective class I believe 1 of the things that was shared was that it is already the course design has already been passed it's been approved by the board I if I recall correctly it was approved as I guess a non-english class it's kind of a multi-discipline class when we approved it originally correct it was approved as an English but if you have 2 courses in the same bucket so if you have College Prep 10 and that's our recommended course of study the second 1 that could fill the same bucket then counts as an elective so many and and you're exactly right many districts count it as an elective even though it's approved as an English when you go into the doorway the the um the thought lot is is that it's a great supplement and it's a great interdisciplinary research to that core English course which is our College Prep 10 now there are some that do it in lie of but not as many as we found widely that do it as an add-on because then you know it metrics through so it's seminar it's research is Capstone so that's kind of the thinking behind that so it's not designed in its current form to cover all the things that an English class might have it might not have all of the standards it's going to go deeper into some but not necessarily cover the the complete fraud okay and then I think there was also we had talked about before some stash thing and credentials because of the way it's we can't just slot necessarily the same kind of folks into it I mean I guess if it's an English class maybe we could but they still need the AP training which that's that's the issue okay all right thank you I just wanted to clarify that thank you uh I think what I'm hearing from us all but we haven't used this word these this phrase is that we'd like moving forward have smart goals or smarter goals because this this this wasn't the board that or or any of us like that that established those goals in the first place from what I understood and I know that this keeps on coming job is that you know somebody is very much saying that you know oh the idea behind this was to increase students of color in AP courses well that be like a good thing to do I don't think it it's not necessarily something that was said as being a a smart goal in the first place and I think that it also just it's the idea of of making sure that our folks are College and Career ready um overall like all of all of them and so I'm just going to reiterate also that um I have an outstanding requests um and it it didn't need to be delivered today rate about um how our English Learners our students with disabilities our students um who are unhoused Foster youth are um uh socioeconomically disadvantaged folks these folks that we do track in lcap and how are they doing in the uh English course um curriculum as we go through are we seeing uh advantage is to um to uh College Prep in terms of the interests that they may have in advanced course of study later on I do understand that AP seminar was first developed not buy 1 of our English teachers and I appreciate that now there's a recommendation in terms of making sure that we're just not somebody used the word plopping it in but like maybe making sure that we're just not saying oh this covers all the foundational elements in college prep 10 and therefore anybody who takes AP seminar which and it was supposed to be a very small subset because it they came from a social studies teacher in the first place um that it's more interdisciplinary so like I I appreciate that more thought needs to go into it um and as as we go through our transitions in both superintendent and our leader in ed services I think that it really needs a conversation with our experts who are in special education and also with um you know our DAC are elac and dacs because I have no idea right now about how those students are doing if this if College Prep is 9 and 10 it has help them in their um English course of study as they move through um and that's something that I'd like to see in the future but I understand that you know as we go along in terms of planning for our transitions this is something that we really need to hand off very tightly um to our next leader so um thank you for that thank you for discussion and staff for the recommendation um I too have some questions although I did just want to briefly talk about something that you mentioned I'm sorry to to to bring it up but it's my interpretation that it actually was said that this was going to bring more black and brown students specifically into apang I think it's actually in the the equity plan as an action actionable step in the smart goals um but I I do have a few questions about AP seminar and and how it relates to bigger um just a seminar in the elective is it an elective from 9th through 12th is it 10 11th it was 10 and 11 approved I'm sorry 10 and 11 it was 10 and 11 approved and so I I I I guess I see that the case that it would help maybe with the rigor in 10th Grade what about the rigor for students who are um in English 9 students for English 9 who were asking for more rigorous courses How would are you asking for an English 9th for English ninth who I was just saying like for students who are saying that feeling challenged in in ninth grade English how like are we also taking into consideration how we can make sure that we're challenging those students and those Learners as well well not for this particular course because approved for I mean for 10 to 11 as just stated but um I also think that you know this this particular course is designed for that play level of student and then you know it's our recommendation um and again perhaps this changes but it's our recommendation of keeping 9 College Prep 9 kind of a standard across across the uh across the school um it's a good foundational level course it's of course for kind of determining interests and providing different Avenues and directions for students I mean most certainly for next year because we're not making any changes to that um but that could be a question that's brought up in regards to the whole design of the program um but really working on Ninth Grade being like a foundational year getting getting started getting ready with your high school career so I appreciate my colleague uh Mr Lockton was saying about her Partnerships with the dual enrollment I think that's that's very important and I think that that may also be a a separate conversation um uh my second question is around being an elective uh for students who are choosing to take this course they would be taking 2 English courses but then does that mean that they wouldn't be able to take like yearbook or CTE I know we're offering photography like super very I think 1 class we're offering photography next year students were saying they want that and so we with this proposed plan with students have to have to give up I guess an electable they they couldn't take yearbook class would be taking APR it depends so it depends on the child's course of the student's course of study and it depends on what else is in their schedule so it's a that's a complicated question because it really depends on the students schedule it was like what first period of 6 period then then yes but if they're willing to do a 7:30 then maybe not okay um and then my last question in the staff report it on the um on the agenda it says that this may be eligible for some college credits depending on the the college um do we know which colleges so some students some colleges um accept AP coursework some do not so um we calculate the AP GPA um some do not some this would also be contingent on the student taking the AP exam and I I do want to say that um AP is not contingent on financial means we we have mechanisms to support students in that regard but it's all I'm sorry to give you the answer repeatedly that it depends but it just it just wherever the the student goes that's how it that's how it will calculate yeah yeah I get that and I and I appreciate our efforts always in making sure that we're streamlining access to taking AP tests I think it's very important um and it should have been a goal that we all I believe we all share um I I actually looked a little bit into which ones would would accept that is called Trader which comes with an I think I believe the CAL States um accept it I think the uc's don't with the exception of UC Santa Cruz maybe you see I think maybe you see Santa Cruz um I think USC go Trojans accepts it um but I think none of the Ivy Leagues um would accept it and so I get this the replacement or or maybe saying that it would be eligible for students who are in California going to CAL States but students who want to go to use these other than UC Santa Cruz students who want to go out of state I went out for my first year um I've called it was too cold but that's another thing but I did go out of state and I think there are a lot of Learners who went out of state and so again that this isn't a question that I'm expecting to have a response to but I think these are just questions that I have personally when I'm talking about um rigor course opportunities making sure that we're increasing access to uh College and Career Readiness for all students and Learners in this District these are just questions that I have when I'm proposed with this plan when proposed with any plan and so that's that's my question is colleagues I don't know do we know I just I just wanted to add a couple of comments because you know I wasn't necessarily talking towards the future but rather just the item on the agenda as it is and I think um you know board member lachman brought up a few things that you know I I didn't mention before but you know I think there's a lot of opportunity here and you know well I'm I'm sad to see the 2 of you go we are going to have new people in your positions relatively soon who presumably will come from other districts have their own opinions about this have their own experience experiences you know with their English courses study as well so I think you know we can certainly look at things um some of the points that were brought up with respect to making sure that our students um you know are getting encouraged to to enroll in the classes that are sort of appropriate for them and especially our students that may come from backgrounds where their parents don't have as much Social Capital for example um and I think also that idea of I had also read about the English 9 ethnic studies combination too which I think is a really intriguing option and I've kind of floated that by a number of folks in the community who also think that's pretty neat um and you know doing such a thing would potentially free the students up for another elective as well um you know and and give them more opportunities to do different things and so I just just wanted to say that portion of it even though my comments were focused on the agenda item that was before us today I think this conversation has to continue and I think there's a lot of good ideas from all my colleagues here and and we do want to make sure that all of our students are well taken care of um and I think that necessarily you know this conversation can't just end tonight and we have to keep it going along those lines extending we had a little discussions on Ninth Grade so as a parent of a sixth grader I can understand and appreciate 6 grade is an adjustment here you're learning how middle school and high school is different and you're adjusting to it uh is ninth grade sort of a similar thing where you're everyone is sort of learning how to adjust to the high school world as well in my observation as a parent of a ninth grader yes okay okay um and that maybe another reason why it's good to have everyone together for ninth grade because it's you know the same way with with sixth grade my other questions I think we've kind of a lot of students have already registered for their classes right so just to be clear whatever we come out with with this AP seminar and however it goes it's kind of late in the process so in no way and I'm not going to say 1 another it's just my job to be paranoid for living this is what I do um is to at least be able to clear that no matter what the interest is 1 way or another it's not going to be reflective of an interest of what an honors program what it would look like because of how late it is in the process so um just to you know be clear um you know we don't know what the interest is going to be but it's good for us to have that option out there for students who may want to double up on that or if we can get it as an English class whichever way we want to take that so okay and you just for the regular you're nodding your head saying yes we've already gone through that but registration process is mostly over is we're very late in the registration process right the counselors launched that in February and students sign up for for courses and then so this would be an an additional opening so they're very good about sticking to their timeline colleagues any more discussion know all right thank you so much for 2024 20 sorry 20526 comprehensive school safety plans hello Board of Education this is me again as well so in partnership with the business services department and specifically um director Ron Ketty we have had we put together the comprehensive school safety plans as you see attached this is an info item for all of you tonight director Ron keti helps the different School site councils and their adjunct safety committees they put together calls and they put together their plans they go through School site Council approval so we work in tandem because we help with the compliance piece and the business office helps support the content and risk management of the school safety plans new to you this year and new to the state of California and 1 of the requirements is the learning continuity plan which is why you and I just I I do want to explain this just for a second because this is a big deal is that keeping learning management systems which are canvas and Google Classroom is going to help to make sure if there were some type of school closure for example most recent recently the Palisades in the eaten fire schools can gear up very quickly because they have online online learning platforms so this is why the learning continuity plan is in place it is an Uber morph and more current version of what we had during Co and it is by Statute shoot now to be approved with the school safety plans so this is just here for you as an info item and it's very standard calling do you have any questions I don't really have any specific questions on the plans um I think you know I went through this process once um 1 of my son was in TK I was on the site Council that over in Khan and you know kind of participated in in this process and I found it to be a little bit routine in the sense that you kind of just passed the same thing over and over again um so I just and and just to be quite Frank I have not really with all the other things that have been going on in the last 5 months or so that I've been on this board and sort of feeling like I'm drinking from a fire hose I've not gotten very much into the school safety issues but there have been a few community members that have come to me said we have some issues with respect to expired supplies and some plans that aren't really you know maybe fully baked um and you know those kinds of things it would be great to see and I think I talked about this with Dr Lucas when I first joined the board and then kind of abandoned again because of all the other things going on but maybe you know a district um kind of like safety advisory committee or you know some more involvement from community members that have some expertise in these areas to make sure that our campuses are as safe for our students as possible um and especially maybe maybe it's something also that um we can work with Miss Rajiv uh you know on some of the the plans to you know renovate and improve our schools as well to make sure that you know we're incorporating all of that that good information from folks that know their stuff on this that's it for me just Echo a lot of the points there just say that you know there's a couple folks I know who have made this their great Passion um and who have shared their expertise with us and you know I I'll look to them as well to see what other thoughts they may have uh as well um so that we're constantly updating and looking to add things like the supplies issue that was brought up amongst others thank you quick question um these documents tend to be 2 to 300 pages long um and are highly detailed kind of to board member costumes Point um I I am I know we've had examples of different School site councils in their safety committees making some changes and tailoring them they were essentially given kind of a template yes sorry I'm realizing my mic is not on yes that is correct and so it is a an director Ron caddy is online so they're given a template they insert their goals they would have their own individual School site metrics but um not that they're not all riveting but if you read 1 you would have the flow it's just like the school the School site plan of how they were organized okay um normally superintendent but also chair if we can like remember in the future that um we've had a good experience with um assigning uh a single School site to each 1 of the board members refers to um to review so that we're not reviewing all of them um and so that we could just be more mindful of because when we do all of them it weighs over so if we can think about um how we can organize ourselves better in the future whether it it's the uh school um safety plans or it's the sipsa um that would be really I think helpful for for us as a governing body to be healthier in our we can certainly do that fraction items this is information item from first introduction only so if if the board feels that we would like to do I'd be glad to assign that for the action item next that would be great thank you I have no questions thanks 9.5 first reading advice board bylaw 9270 complete of Interest thank you Mr dezodor this is the gamut up upgrade to reflect new laws which reflected in The Narrative of the board agenda new law SP uh 1181 and 20 uh and at 20 sorry and 1243 and this is the first read it'll be up the final read later colleagues discussion great well just 1 thing I think I'd suggested privately that it might be nice for us to have a non- Redline version of this policy as because I just had a really difficult time reading it so maybe when that comes back we could get that I think it's called 9.6 first reading of new certificated job description thank you this is a first read from the job description for an assisted technology facilitator that would be a certificated teacher position currently the district is Contracting out with an agency and we are recommending that this um service be provided by an in-house provider teacher poly so we have any discussion amen thank you have a question on this um I know we are undergoing a similar effort with our speech and language pathologist speech and language Pathologists were already existing bargaining unit members for CFT um and I know there was some negotiations about finding the right salary point and all that kind of thing is this a position that is already part of the the bargaining unit would it be part of the bargaining unit are you going to have to do similar negotiations around compensation on this 1 so this the credentials for this position are similar to a teacher position so this would be paid on the teacher salary scale and then um it will be we're actually going back to bargaining next we are this week actually um and it will be included in the recognition section as 1 of the positions iterate for our board and for the public that we used to have with new job descriptions a a practice of adding bilingual preferred um so I I still like to see that in the future for all of our job descriptions and and um I I think that there's just in general for this particular be because I'm on DAC like there's there's a particular um anxiety over this position and whether or not they'll be like it's a hard to fill a position and I'm hoping that um and so is there anything in this um I'm sorry that I didn't ask you this earlier but is there anything in here the job description that will that you hope will help you fill it like or or anything like that or like what's the um because this is a first read which means that you won't fly it until after it comes back or can you just talk a little bit about it please so um we do believe that we potentially could have internal candidates and some leads with this position so this requires a specific training and a certificate that they would need that um with the um aligned to assist of Technology um so the goal would be to get any feedback tonight on this 1 and then for us to be able to um to post it first internally to see if we have any candidates internally um and then we would not actually offer a position to anyone until um the board approves it at the next meeting so sort of to do all the back work on it and then as soon as the board approves it with the next meeting then we could make an offer to somebody if we have had anyone internal that was interested in it thank you okay thanks so much for calling 9.7 enrollment report so this report shows attachment shows TK to site enrollment by grade level on the last day of the 8th month which ended on the March 21st and comparing this to the 7th month enrollment report PC is slight decrease in our enrollment by 29 um students um I'm curious actually to where they where did they really go so we'll be doing a deep dive on um finding the reasons why and we did see some of the secondary students moving into a Academy so there was some addition over there so we are going to be looking the reasons why and where did they go and there is a slight gain for preschool and adult um school we don't have the numbers when we come back next time we will share that thank you items 13 12.1 oh sorry that was pulled 13.1 so this is a appropriation time for it this a year and a proper patient transfer what it means is um when we closed the book sometimes our budgets and actual expenditures may not be well within the budget actual expenditures may not be well within the budget so to make sure we are um we have um a flexibility to make sure make an adjustment to our budget that's why this appropriation allows the county offices to move within the it it shows in this um item how you can move the money for example in 1,000 certificated expenditures we budgeted a million dollar but our expenditure is 10,000 more than it allows us to move from 2,000 budget to 1,000 so basically it's interchange changing the money but as long as the total appropriation is the same and it just telling us what would be the order this is an it's a routine item that we do at the end of the year and this is Guided by the Education Code 42601 come with the item a second discussion call Ace call us in favor please say I 141 okay 14.1 is an annual item that um we forward for approval it's the Declaration of Need for fully qualified Educators for 2526 I just want to make clear that um we are not at this point saying that we are going to have to hire this many teachers on emergency type permits however the state of California will not allow us as a district to apply for anyone for a emergency permit um unless they have this on a file for next school year so as we're hiring teachers right now for example if someone comes in from out of state and they don't have a cloud credential we would have to apply to the state for that or um for example if we hired somebody who has a um a biology credential but they have a chemistry degree let's say and we need them to teach both classes we could apply to the state for a limited waivers so in order for us to do any of those applications this has to be approved by the board ahead of time the item discussion colleagues all those in favor please say I I 14 2 14.2 is the establishment of a committee on assignments um for this for the Culver City Unified School District this is not an item that we have ever done before for our committee on assignments um is the state of California will allow a school district to do a an assignment for a teacher outside of their credential area and an elective area so for example if you get a very Niche elective that someone has taken classes in or um has some type of experience in a committee is able to say that someone is appropriately uh credentialed for that assignment so this just gives us an an option as we are um hiring new teachers and the event that we need at anyone to teach elective classes this also keeps us from having this 1-off classes listed as Mis assignments for the district which we always try to do home of the item discussion colleagues I actually have a question yeah please go ahead so with this I I I thought we had done it here before but I certainly seen it done in other places is the local authorization by the board does this take place of that or is that is this a step that would happen before it comes to the board for so there's different types of local authorization so I believe that the board here has done some before where for example if somebody has 12 University credits or an upper unit classes and a in a um in a specific area the board can be it can be approved that way this really just gives a little bit more flexibility when you get into these 1-off electives again not even sure that we need this it's just not something that we have had um as an option here to be able to do this in the past so um we're just getting this in place in case we have any assignments over the summer um that would come up where we would need to to move a teacher into I mean only for elective classes I think it's an interesting option and it gives us increased flexibility I would like a heads up if this committee ever does start to meet just to let us know because it is kind of a novel approach for us so we can kind of keep an eye on it yeah so all of the ones I would definitely give a heads up all of the ones that are approved from the board are based in core content areas this can only be used specifically for electives the discussion colleagues nope all those in favor I I concerned I would like to move 152 through 1516 and 1519 and 20 oh excuse me sorry 15 I did that wrong I'm pulling 157 and 158 so um I would like to um move 152 to 15 6 and the 159 through 158 20 sorry is there a second second okay all those in favor say I I I buy 157 board member yeah so I I'm sorry for pulling this I it's the same thing that I was talking about earlier if we could please add bilingual preferred this does not exclude us from considering folks that who are not bilingual it's it's just a uh something that we'd like to strive for to consider thank you is that require a motion or second or we just uh I think we can move again with the amendment I believe if you'd like to make an amendment so I I uh move with the amendment as stated second yeah 7 n a are you moving both oh I can do both yeah I can move if I 157 and 158 as a as amended with bilingual preferred okay okay second okay all those in favor say I I I thank you colleagues um 161 I believe board corner maybe thank you to the retiring employees is it already in there I mean is it I don't know um I know I know uh the employees here and there I'm not sure about retiring employees honestly but we'll check it it cover price it's an information item but the uh presentation on backpacks for kids was nice yeah oh yeah yeah definitely yeah we'll talk about backpacks for kids and then maybe the next 1 can be about graduations or yeah that's a good idea we'll just like yeah um feature Jen items I know you I think you asked about the soft but yeah you were going to say that again yeah I'm going to bring back a really old 1 which is to ask Chief to come and deliver um I thought that we just put that on the back burner but now it's a new school year it it's worth bringing back in the summer time okay what is that yeah uh Chief Sims for to come and deliver a presentation on um the number of calls and students and um and SRO and besides in the future we'll have to because that mou is only 1 year at a time anyway too so that's in the future somewhere um I I believe we our our policies will already reflect it and so it may not be necessary but with respect to ab7 15 which we about in the past I think our policies may already our existing resolutions may already allow us to support this as we did with absb 169 of the the 1 that was being supported by laksa before so regarding School access for navigation I'm sorry I'm not calling ab7 15 is the new bill which allows for um making sure that all of our that our ethnic studies program is whole reflection uh across all groups reflects the guidelines and so we've already taken positions I believe to support this in itself but just in case I put that in as a placeholder in case we have to we're not we're not really supposed to have any substantive discussion on that which I'm I'm going to try to avoid but um I mean do we need to essentially consent to bring this up as an agenda item at Point um like okay yeah we just noted it and bring it when okay sure um first thing Brian yeah that's what I was actually going to check did you say that I had asked about cell phone policy yeah oh I just had heard softball because I wanted to kind of the softball yeah okay cell phone softball what softball okay I was interested in hearing more about the softball stuff okay last time you did say something today yeah you did but we can we can re-up that again I can that then just to be super you're saying the the ball field yeah you dead oh yeah oh yeah you did are we clear all right adrenaline memory of idli soever makes the German please so moved to German memory deadly I'll second that all those in favor say I thank you all okay everything all right everyone I would like colleagues uh I'd like to call the meeting back to order back from Recess at 8:20 p.m. information items 9.2 backers for kids just using the phone yeah which 1 yeah no 1's looking there yeah we just need to be able to see it down this 1 I think that's good is that it's just we can and I and I have it on my phone too but it might be that angle is that better oh no that's too dark I don't remember so on my phone I did the same thing okay then I can just look at my notes on my phone oh yeah thank you as soon t away from the okay give us the green light know yeah all right what's up there do you want yeah I thought I saw it up there do you want me to connect you I can see it on honey screen okay we'll just do it okay oh that's what she was asking are you good if it's not showing up there yes we can see it on Connie's computer so they're going to follow you on soon okay oh we should start okay I don't know if they going to be some guidelines or something shared for us all right um hello everyone again my name is Summer McBride and I am the President of the Culver City Council of ptas I'm also a board member for the Culver City Education Foundation and I'm joined by Connie Wong who is the incoming backpacks for kids chair uh through Culver City Council and of course you know Wendy Hamill who is the executive director of the Culver City Education Foundation um and I appreciate this opportunity to give you an update on the back ask for kids program the last time we presented I think was fall 2023 there have some been some updates and so I'll just get right into it the backpacks for kids program as many of you know provide students in need with a backpack filled with non-perishable food and snack each week to ensure that every child can eat on the weekends all right and then um just to give you a little bit of history for those of you who are newer on the board or to the district um the backpacks program does started way back in 2012 um with just a teachers who were just noticing that we had hungry kids and um because we wanted to make sure that kids when they didn't have the access to the school lunch um and breakfast had something to eat on the weekend so it started with the teachers and then grew with more people to lob Iona really serving 19 students and then in 2013 expanding to all this schools and CCMS getting up to 50 students um up to 2017 which um is not on the timeline but it is when I joined the program as a volunteer very important and I'm just kidding and um but that is when um the program tripled to 150 students um through all the different schools in our district um 2018 is when the backpack program came under sort of the guidance or the sponsorship of the covers city council PTA um and um and then in 2020 of course was coid and we had to definitely change the way that we did things but we were able to support report uh support kids which really the need became much greater during that time and um we increased just um increased to to provide access to Fresh Produce and also some hot meals uh that were given out during that time because we allow donators a lot of wonderful donors at that time um and then came back after Co numbers kind of uh went lower than Co but was higher than before Co and have kept up and to this day um we are serving over 300 students um and that um we on a weekly basis you'll look at numbers more later but also in 2024 which is really exciting is that um CCS became the financial sponsor for the backpacks for kids program oh yeah I'm doing the next slide too all right so um backpack contents um so the goal is to provide shelf stable food um that is portable and also something that kids can take home without it being really obvious that they're bringing home a big bag of food um home and um and so we have to we try our best to be as nutritious as possible making sure that it does have to be shelf stable and something that's not going to break in their backpacks and also something that they will eat so um so we have a bunch of foods you can see from the pictures um and the contents that are listed there are among the items that are most needed um the hardest for us to get um from donations or and or are the most popular um with the children so granola bars of course are a biggie um as well as the macaroni and cheese cups and um but we also like to provide things like the um uncooked bags of uncooked rice um and beans which are also very popular items and nutritious so the next slide is really about the need and understanding the need there's often a misperception that we're Culver City or an affluent community so there may not be a need that we we may not have food insecure students who are actually residents while some of our students maybe students who are on inter District permits some of our students live right here in Culver City and the reason we included this data is to really you know picture of what we're dealing with right now these numbers are actually from 2023 and with the changes in Cal Works CalFresh Medicaid requirements numbers only stand to get worse but in California 1 and 3 households do not have enough money to meet their basic needs in Los Angeles County about 40% of households are living at the real cost measure and I'll explain what that is in a moment in Culver City and our neighboring cities mnet or in Westchester which is where some of our students come uh almost 20% of them are living below the real cost measure so the issue with the official poverty line measure is that it only measures the cost of food the real cost measure was created by the United ways of California to measure not only the cost of food but the cost of housing Child Care Transportation and anything else that's a basic need for a family and when you factor in all all of those costs that go into each household this gives you a better idea of how much families actually are struggling and so it was important for us to include this information because we really want to paint this picture that we're meeting the needs of our local families and the students who enter our schools are not students who are just coming out of the district some of these students live right here in our community and we want to make sure that all students are able to have their needs met um continue understanding that benefits on the next slide providing supplemental food for the weekend for all students in need also leads to community building because it does take a village you're seeing part of our village right here the Ed Foundation cover city council PTA all of our site ptas many of our site staff and teachers the district were all playing a part in this and that brings in the the community Spirit aspect of it um the peer support many of our students our student leaders are the ones who physically pack those bags and they're doing that out of the kindness of their heart because they actually care about their peers in the community they're doing it without judgment they're doing it enthusiastically and it helps them see that they can be contributors to society in some really meaningful ways that don't cost them anything um and then finally it does there's there's data to support that providing males over the weekends to students actually improves academic outcomes and ELA test scores in particular we know that a student who's hungry can't concentrate trade they have lower cognitive function they have high stressors and so when we're able to make sure that they're not food insecure over the weekend they come ready to learn on Monday morning they come ready to focus instead of thinking about how they were hungry over the weekend so we're meeting a multitude of needs in our school community I'm going to turn it over to Penny again so this is just a table to show the numbers of uh in this uh this current School full year of 2024 25 um at this time we have 185 preschool and elementary students registered for our program and uh 125 middle and high schoolers for a total of 310 students um and that number does increase um throughout the year so I bet if I go back home and take a look I may have another 1 that have joined um even though it's already the end of the school year um when families are needing it um we are there it's on the school Family Support Services website uh for them to sign up um the average number of backpacks distributed weekly um you can see on the numbers on the right um they are lower than the ones on the left and that's just to note that um that not all kids need a back pack of food every week and so many of the families will just take a back of food when they need it so um so there are circumstances where um we may have families where they are living in 2 homes and when 1 uh when they're living with 1 parent or Guardian they don't need the food bag but when they live with the other 1 um that they take it and so that's what the different numbers and sometimes things change throughout the year circumstances change and our families are very um um very and kids are very good about saying oh well we don't need 1 this week so we don't need to take it um or this week we really do and we try to also address if the kids um especially the ones um in our homeless population if they need extra snacks or something throughout longer weekends we try get back a little bit more doing those times okay hi yes so um starting at the this school year uh the Culver City Education Foundation took over as the fisc sponsor for the program uh and it's been just a wonderful partnership um as you saw from the slides it started it was such a Grassroots completely volunteer run program but as it grew and as the expenses grew and as the community support and donations grew there was a need for a little bit more of um infrastructure that the foundation was able to provide and it's just been I I can say it was a you know we piloted this year to see how it would work and um I I feel like it was a really strong partnership and we're able to provide that infrastructure in terms of um the donor stewardship and um also the you know accounting and expense reimbursement and all that side of it and that has freed up the tremendous wonderful volunteers to really just focus on making the program as successful and meeting the needs as best as possible so um that's worked really well um as you can see um the this year we be because of um the donations had had flowed I think pretty strongly during coid and then um had decreased um but the demand did not decrease and so there was a need to pull in a little bit on expenses and so there was a focus on um budgeting a little bit more um in in this year uh and so you can see the amount that has been brought in from our generous Community I just really want to thank the community for supporting this program um um and and and what we're what it costs to run the program for the year we did a pretty good job of of making ends meet can't tell you how happy I am to have at Foundation as our fiscal sponsor like you don't even know it's it's it's a formalization of a partnership that we really needed to provide sustainability for the program and speaking of sustainability the next slide cover City working together for students is really about the roles that the different organizations or entities play um as you know there is an mou that will be eventually presented to you all um to partner officially partner with Culver City Council of ptas um similar to the way we've partnered with the Ed Foundation this was a program that started over 10 years ago really in good faith and kind of some handshakes but in order for it to be sustainable as Personnel changes at the district level at the site the board changes we want to make sure that students are protected no matter what that everyone understands what this program is why it exists how it started and why we want to maintain it beyond all of us when all of us have moved on from Culver City we want to make sure that any food insecure students are still receiving the support that they need and so this slide talks about the different roles so Culver City Council PTA um our volunteers and pro we manage the program operations that includes maintaining the pantry and food inventory recruiting volunteers organizing the food drives we partner with CC USD to identify discreetly served students through the uh pupil uh school and Family Support Services uh we also promote the program and ensure visibility for our fiscal sponsor the Ed Foundation overseeing the day-to-day Logistics recruiting volunteers um and conducting the Outreach that's needed and ensuring visibility for cc usd's role in the program through our mou with the at Foundation at the Ed Foundation provides fiscal sponsors sponsorship oversight and fundraising support the head Foundation receives tracks and acknowledges all of our donations uh the F Foundation also manages the program's budget and accounting provides fiscal oversight and regular Financial reports and assists with donor Outreach and Grant applications the role that we will love for the Culver City Unified School District to play through that mou that will be presented for action is for you to just continue to provide what you're already providing the district Operational Support which means providing storage and SP pantry space on campus um we know that we've been able to use the Pantry on the middle school campus but as things change as buildings are built up expanded torn down who knows we just want to make sure that the backpacks Pantry has a home always um we also are requesting support formalizing the support that the School site uh staff offer in making sure that the backpacks are discreetly distributed to the students in need and making sure that we we couldn't do this without the secretaries and the site staff but it's not really something that they were told when they were hired this is your role and so as new staff for hired um volunteers kind of have to explain it to them and and that's not really appropriate this should be something that there's an agreement when there is a new staff at the site like this is something that we do we want you to be a part of it and this is how you can help also maintaining confidentiality via the school and Family Support Services and also assisting Us in Outreach and Grant support efforts um there may be funds that the district can tap into that the council PTA or even the Ed Foundation can't and so if there are Community School opportunities to get additional funding we would love to be able to for normalize that agreement through an mou so when those opportunities arise the backpacks for kids program can be um top of mind and then during the thank you no thank you okay yes I think everybody um so um definitely want to thank our current chair um Kathy vigil or as our program chair for the last few years um and all the program chairs that came before um our grades starting with like Chapola and Leslie Gardner and all those people to Jamie Wallace we've got some famous Culver City people that started out that helped with this helped originated this program definitely Wendy Hamill for CCF it's been great having her uh do you know Waller with Communications my ochre Community Jeff um with events um just me PTA people um um especially and then working with Kim and delicado Dr I um with the director of school that or School of virtue of pupil service School Family Support Services and and and her predecessor Veronica Montes um cacm um ASB has been great at packing it and the leadership of uh Miss vilman who we hope will keep uh helping us um lots of volunteers and of course our school secretaries our current ones are listed there um or have just been so great in helping to make sure the the banks get to where they need to go um and and also the teachers and staff um my current and past Community Partners are listed there so many and um we're happy to have so many Partnerships um and and um and definitely keep bringing it on Westside uh food bank has been especially helpful with um their continued support and um and they've said that they're going to give us some more food too so all right and I I don't think we could actually even list all of our yes donors some of you many of you are donors and we have donors who donate monthly and it's not even something I think about it's on auto uh auto pay so we're really grateful for our community that's made this possible and for people listening who want to know how they can help uh there are lots of ways to support the backpacks for kids program you can donate food items you can volunteer donate money and really just spread the word however you can spread the word social media tell a friend talk to your neighbors about it you can go to the website CC backpacks for kids.com and on the next slide uh how ccusd can help ensure sustainability of these critical programs of course we've talked about fundraising material support promotions and collaboration and strategic planning and again just to um reaffirm the importance of the mou that you're going to be presented with um because this is kind of making a case for that the need for that mou that will bring together the 3 main entities Culver City Education Foundation Culver City Council of ptas and ccusd will provide stronger Financial sustainability through professional fiscal management and grants support it'll help us be efficient and confidential in our operations which are embedded in the school infrastructure it will will have increased Community Trust and visibility through shared Outreach and recognition and will have expanded service capacity to meet growing student needs while maintaining dignity and discretion and that's the end of our presentation um I would love to take any questions thank you so much for the presentation colleagues do we have any comments uh maybe just a few brief comments um I think you know your presentation actually answered a few of the questions that I had uh just regarding you know how we're meeting our students needs and it sounds like reasonably well which I'm really glad to hear um you know I just I just want to say thanks for doing all of this work and doing it in such a professional way and you know really trying to formalize the program which sounds like it started off like just really volunteer run and now it's it's becoming much more of a thing and you know I've been happy to support the program and um I think that you know you all have done a very good job promoting it too and you know I think maybe all of us can kind of think about what we can do to try to you know make sure that the whole Community is aware that this exists um because I think it's a really great thing that we do in the district and the community and it can bring a lot of folks together like not just even in the schools that you know event that you all through I saw a whole bunch of folks whose kids were long gone from the Culver City Schools enjoying tea and you know wearing hats and all that stuff and I think that event was particularly amazing and not just because I won the Girl Scout cookies there but but yeah but I think just thanks again for coming and presenting and you know happy to do whatever I can to help out thank you a lot of for comments is a member of the Exchange Club I know they've been great supporters and what I love about not only the work you do in the community but that list is it's a cross-section of the community ideological and we don't see that very often um but in terms of the you know said who who've been long through the school system and those who are new to it um and just appreciate the way that you know in this quiet way we can help every student make sure that you know they're able to uh have a you know able to tendon participate in the schools without having to worry about where food is coming from food insecurity is quiet yeah uh and so it's not something that's always evident and so thank you for your great work and every time when I'm coming in and out the grocery store your food drives as well are amazing I know I've seen several of you with that as well yeah no questions just appreciation for everything you do uh I want to thank thank you and also I also want to thank you not just for you know the keeping this up but also for recognizing that our future needs to be sustainable and that you know just because there's a precedent of this program existing doesn't mean that it will exist in the future without these steps and so that's really what I'm I'm thankful for because we need to continue to address food insecurity and um so that our students can be the best that they um can be in school um even through that throughout the weekend so thank you I'll just join my colleagues in thanking you so much thanks all right thank you so much 9.3 English course of study thank you Mr a few board meetings ago we opened the discussion on hours English for both the board faculty and community members to provide some feedback and thoughts tonight we are recommending that AP seminar serve as an elective for the 2526 school year to provide an opportunity for advanced work in the 10th grade this decision is not as simple just bring honors English back and we believe making other major changes to the course of at this time late in the school year is an extremely difficult and more time is required to develop courses and courses of study that work well for our students needs also with the transition and leadership in both the superintendent and assistant superintendent of ed services the conversation should continue with their voices since they'll be their program they end up leading it is clear that the conversation on this issue is not complete and will continue in the next school year as highlighted in the information right up in the board agenda AP seminar would achieve an extra GPA point and possible college credit for successful students the course has already been approved by the Board of Education and is such there's no formal action required by the board with that I opened it to you for comments and suggestions for the future work thank you discussion okay um guess I'm going first again uh no it's about the pleasure and and a little bit of a challenge because I don't know what all my colleagues think about this um you know and I I have a few comments just on this issue generally and and I think those I've talked to both offline and online know that this is probably the 1 Singapore um since I've been on the board on it's it's a bit disproportional frankly to a lot of the things that we've been handling but I definitely want to make sure that my position known um and and have some things to say kind of after our last meeting as well um so first just kind of a preliminary comment to address a little bit of an elephant in the room um things were a little bit better well they were a lot better tonight than they were in the last meeting the last time this came up on the agenda a lot of bad behavior occur um I just want to be really super clear I'm not going to tell anybody what they can and can't say as long as it's within the bounds of the First Amendment protections you're allowed to say it without interference from me or my colleagues um someone who experienced a ation of my own First Amendment rights and I am particularly sensitive to that as well um it's not to say however that words don't have consequences particularly as to people's reputations and their relationships um in addition to being immature and impolite snarky comments the name calling are likely to be really counterproductive to anybody's goals so I would just encourage folks to think about that a little bit before they start calling each other names or saying things that are particularly mean we all live here in this community together um and I think it's really important to respect each other even when and maybe especially when we disagree on particular issues most people in both sides of this honors debate have been respectful I don't think everybody has however and unfortunately those voices are the ones whose words tend to be remembered most clearly and get repeated back to me all the time um I unfortunately Mr Moore feddern is no longer here but um he spoke tonight regarding a suggestion to hear from students directly on this issue I think that's a really great idea those are the people that are most affected by these decisions and we haven't really heard from them which is really too bad um this is largely been a discussion among adults so just speaking for myself I personally be very interested to hear from the graduating seniors as well as some of our current students regarding what they would like to be able to take uh and I also just um kind of as a finish of my cam on this issue before I have some questions just want to invoke 1 of my favorites of Steven cvy 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and that is to seek to understand first and then to be understood haven't seen a whole lot of seeking to understand going on around here and it's personally very disappointing to me and this conversation as Dr Lucas mentioned we'll continue past tonight I encourage everybody to approach it with kindness and a spirit of collaboration so just in light of that I have a few questions would you like me to ask my questions first okay um so I've asked District leadership a number of sort of in conversations about this this issue whether at this juncture if it's even possible to bring back an advanced option for English next year and just sort of for illustrative purposes hypothetically and honors course in addition to a standard option for example College Prep Plus honors uh for ninth and tenth grade English I've been told it's not really possible and I think Dr Lucas alluded to that tonight as well um could you just sort of confirm um here for the public and for those who are listening online and in the audience why that would be that we can't bring that back right now sure I'll start and then plz Dr Bax if you want to add in anything but um basically uh because you know the point that was well received that the old uh honors English courses stale at this point right um it his last offered 4 years ago 3 years ago I'm sorry if I don't remember exactly but um and so you know that that would need to be revamped based on based on the the current coursework that we are offering in regards to college prep um and so the uh it's just that's what I alluded to it's not as simple as just bringing it back on as English because we got to take a look at what we're doing with college prep and then adding on to that college prep offering okay fantastic um I don't know if you have anything to add to that as okay and I believe it was 4 years ago that honors was offered it was my first year here as director okay all right appreciate that um and then just kind of a 3-part question if you miss any of it I'm happy to repeat it too but you know if you explain to this mom of an only child who's a first grader at this time 3 things regarding High School okay um what's the difference between making AP seminar or account is an English course versus as an elective it's the first thing second thing can we at this time add it as an English course and not an elective and if and the third thing if we can add it as an English course right now why would you propose not to do that and instead add it as an elective uh so the the different uh between the AP English first and elective is is simply that we have uh the course of study is established for honors English I'm sorry I'm sorry for for English 10 in the in the grade level already right and so we're not recommending changed to that course of study and because of that that maintains English as the college prep 10 as the course of study for 10th graders so bringing this elective does offer an opportunity for students that wish to uh do a little something different or like dive in deeper into the area and to get their uh bonus bonus points and successful potential college application work um can we add it as an English course was your second part of the question I believe um you know and and in in theory yes we could um uh but we are not recommending that at this point because we think that better been more in-depth studies to the whole course of study need to be established so that this is uh kind of a first up along the ways of adding um and developing a more uh defined course of study for English 10 across the entire uh High School System okay um I think I understood most of that and I suppose my colleagues will probably have some other questions on that um I just you know terrified yeah no I mean it's it's definitely something that's a little bit um difficult to wrap my head around with respect to you know why it can't be sort of substitute so we can't substitute it in for what College Prep exists as right now like for the students who want the more advanced option is what you're saying so I'm saying we're making the recommendations that we don't that's what I'm saying but but could we yes okay all right um so I guess I mean just you know my preference and be interested to hear what my colleagues think about it is that it would be my preference to see this course as an English course and not just an elective particularly because the students only have really 6 periods during their day plus you know the opportunity to do 0 and 7 but as we know that's that's a challenge for a number of different schedules reasons but um again interested in what my colleagues have to say but I think that's it for me sure I'd like to just answer a little bit further um it would require um a commitment and also an unknown variable about how many teachers we could train in seminar for it to um be more widely offered and rather than just doing it as an elective so I I think that's just something that needs to be mentioned so before going into my questions and uh I'll be happy since recovering English that no math will be covered in any of this um but I I do want to point so in going into this I met with a number of parents I also took the opportunity to get to attend some of the English classes uh they did not ask me any questions which is good because it's a long time since I read Romeo and Juliet much less Color Purple um Animal Farm is different because my daughter did it for the book her book report this year uh for the sixth grade but um but I will say is it is a very different experience than what I remember in terms of classes uh you know for many of us here the classes we remember attending basically the teacher would talk to us right and ask us questions this was much more and this is where some of the Cross um you know having different levels is a good thing is that the students would analyze amongst each other and discuss topics and then discuss it in the group and that is something which is different and which plays to this particular approach um and it certainly let me to appreciate a little bit better that approach and why this was being put out there that being said um overall uh I am still also maintaining the belief that um you know while this Critter could not work the way you do experiments uh is not necessarily to change everything at once and so I I will continue to be an advocate for finding something that is recognized as an honor course for the 10th grade going forward um and for specific metrics for how we can measure whatever it is going forward as well I've sat through the presentations for from 2021 I sat through the presentations and I went read the presentations from Santa Monica which does this and is 1 of several school districts that does do it Oakland being another Islam in LAUSD MiraCosta does it for certain classes in the high school which is um Manhattan Beach um and the you know the trend amongst the higher-end school districts Sequoia Union up in being another example is that those which tend to be wealthier are looking at this kind of approach and those that tend to come from a more economically challenged profile are trying to add honors classes in so um you know I I I have a couple of questions here and following up but I didn't want to at least have that sort of preface out there about what I went through in trying to ask these questions and the information that I I put together so the first 1 Echo uh member Carlson saying that do other districts treat AP seminar as a non- alternative class in other words as an English class not as an elective and why couldn't we treat this as as an English class um I was this is the same response that gave to miss Carlson right that yeah so which is that we're recommending it now as an elective as we revised the whole course of study across the English curriculum and 10 okay got it but it would still have the it would the point benefits Etc of an additional grade point and and a bunch of other things um I know you know as you said it's a tight schedule for 10th grade coming up in the future we're going to have to offer uh also financial literacy as a class under state law as well going forward um you know 1 of the suggestions I heard out there from uh 1 parent was is that in the future not for this 1 because we've already kind of locked into what the curriculum is um is Maybe combining uh English and ethnic studies so because we have a bunch of mandates coming from the state and only so many class periods to be able to do it and so offering options I'm not saying this is the only option but if we offer that plus ethnic studies as a standalone and English as a standalone we offer more options generally um uh and that's something I would like to put out there as something we may be able to consider in the future uh as another way that we can provide more options to our students um so um what programs will be in place to assist uh and um and assist those with economic challenges to assist with college prep and which ones are going to be cut uh so uh I I sat to the presentation these are the ones that were laid out in 2021 Centaur plus wraparound Wednesdays writing workshops also as we're looking at Saturday school and boot camps as well which of these are we going to maintain because if if this if we keep things as it is we have fallen woefully short on providing the support that we promised to the students as a part when we originally came into this and this is not the fault of features we had to make budget decisions along the way but we our predecessors did not follow through in the way that I think we should have if we wanted to even try to make this approach to success yeah sure I can answer that for you all of those intact with the exception right now of the AP boot camps for this summer um also what was put in place that has we carefully monitor usage data and all of the things and we had the a through G Grant which also was part of why the boot camps are sun setting because the a3g grant has been expended it's outlived its time and its dollars but we had paper as a tutoring and online tutoring to be a part of the writer workshop model the usage was extremely low and the contract is Sunset and we are not renewing it it was quite expensive okay what other commitments will CC USD to make to recruit and encourage students of color to participate in the AP seminar and honors Santa Monica they were saying almost 60% of their students participate in what would be considered or work participating in the higher grades that would be considered an honors program I know that in the past we like Santa Monica we were disproportionate in terms of who was in these classes uh and it just seems that uh as 1 of the goals that was set forth in 2021 um how can we commit to that to to doing better recruitment to encourage because remember I know we talked talked about tracking here but to be clear these classes are open to anybody who wants to put themselves out there and challenge themselves but we haven't I think we could improve in terms of our recruitment to to get that done and I know I sent you these questions in advance so okay I I've I've responded I'll respond again no publicly so um in terms of each year the counselors go through and meet with different they meet with each class um you know they think that they take sorry they pick a period they meet with each class they talk about the different options they recruit they encourage the teachers recruit and encouraged there is you know student Choice student option so all of that um with the expanded offering would need to be you know continued Outreach because that generally transpires in February when students then elect for you know their course of study for the following years so so continue continued 1-on-1 touches that again counselors also have 1-on-1 meetings with students okay um so I I saw some I went set the presentation some of the metrics that were laid out in 2021 were a little on the vague or side right so Santa Monica set very specific goals that they had to have 25 to 27 students per class I did not see in the presentation those numbers and I would like to make sure that whatever we do going forward needs to have more specific metrics to measure success going forward because those were not there the dnf issue I don't recall being in the presentation as well and we've kind of come back and saying well that's not I was 1 of our metrics I think this is a chance for them to really reset a little bit and determine what those are as long as for bringing in honors option back so um I would put forward that you know going forward if we don't see those metrics then we're going to end up pushing much harder and examining what we can do to uh you know because we want to make sure there that they're very clear as to what success is going forward because there's a lot of debate back and forth and we're not doing ourselves any favors if we don't have the hard numbers of this is the range of where we need to be so whether it's dnf list a the overall enrollment AP languages which there have been improvements to be clear particularly in some of these areas but and drops off in others we need to have those hard metrics in order to move um forward the last question I have because you know this has been a long um is what steps we can take in order to look at dual enrollment also for 10th grade going forward as an additional option you know I'm not I don't think we need to do the IB programs there's just consider the top level that's actually in the opposite of where things are going but if we want to have smaller class sizes and to be clear for our friends who are you know who are teachers here by law we cannot reduce our class our number of teachers if we offer dual enrollment but we can't offer something that the teachers want it in which we have not been able to fulfill for them which is the smaller class sizes and the opportunity for our students either even on campus through a joint college and high school teacher program so that we can offer English and get English credits for students who want to take that sequence and that options uh a as well so um I would ask that you would commit and I know we've discussed doing this as beforehand but to to really fully explore that option and see if we can offer that as well because again to these teachers if you want this if you want to be able to show the the the what was in place that when the places where this has work have called smaller class sizes and it's good for for students who can't afford the AP programs to have the option to be able to get college credit for what they're you know uh for English as well going forward because it will um money and give more options to our students thank you Mr I just want to respond um and just just some of the points you're bringing up they're taking notes on over here but that's exactly some of the reasons why we're not talking about just bringing back honors next fall that there's many considerations like how are we making sure the right kids are into those courses and how are we encouraging um you know all of our Learners to be an advanced courses no matter it being apt or whatever iteration of that of that is so I'm just kind of re reinforcing that fact and I really appreciate the fact that our the teachers are willing to consider this that the administration is willing to refine this proposal so that we have the option of giving options to our students there are these supercharged students is what I call them those who work best in an environment where they're constantly being challenged and that's the 1 group of students that doesn't work well in this current environment and we're losing those families as a result because their kids don't feel that challenge so having that option for them while giving everyone else the opportunity to make this work is something which I think benefits everybody my my last thing I did forget to ask there are some people under the who think that we can just slot in a somebody else's um you know somebody else's curriculum and I think it's important to explain how this process works because it's not as easy as hey I'm going to grab this off the shelf somewhere and and throw this in there's there's a lot more planning that goes into building you know a building a lesson plan than that and so you know I think it would be good perhaps uh Dr Baxter since you're probably on the front lines of this more than anyone explaining how that process works just generally in terms of planning out how you do the is going forward yes the Genesis in this District of course development it comes from the teachers and it comes from the needs based on students and what they have um requested and which would come from this spring prior so then courses are created and um courses are created then they're submitted through the Departments and and a variety of approvals and then they're brought to the board for info and then action okay sounds good and there are lots of great courses in the do you see doorway that are a good models for us okay thank you and I'm not necessarily against having this as an English class too but I'm open I want to make sure that we've got the full discussion on this thank you thank you um I also did uh a little bit of research on my own talking with a colleague who who's an English teacher in Santa Monica um and and heard many of the same things that that you did board member uh lachman about having not necessarily more supports because I think we have many of the supports but I don't know that they're nearly packaged as something that's that's to help um or it's not something we've heard about as being packaged in that particular way likewise uh my colleague mentioned uh sizes and the smaller class sizes being essential ironically I looked at the class size numbers for 9th and 10th grade English n uh 10th grade English is a little bit below the the kind of norms for our classes but ninth grade English classes almost all of are below 25 we haven't necessarily made a commitment that we will keep them that way it's kind of been to do what we can I mean so I think there's definitely some things that we can do however we move forward to bolster the supports and kind of make more intentional and cohesive and make that commitment to keep the class sizes smaller so so students in their can get the attention likewise I do just want to plus 1 um what has been said about we've got to keep better data on this we've got to their metrics beforehand and and look at those same metrics throughout whether we go in this direction or that direction um the other 1 just a question and it's been the 1 that everybody's kind of asked about the AP seminar whether it counts as an English or or as an elective class I believe 1 of the things that was shared was that it is already the course design has already been passed it's been approved by the board I if I recall correctly it was approved as I guess a non-english classes kind of a multi-disciplinary class when we approved it originally correct it was approved as an English but if you have 2 courses in the same bucket so if you have College Prep 10 and that's our recommended course of study the second 1 that could fill the same bucket then counts as an elective so many and and you're exactly right many districts count it as an elective even though it's approved as an English when you go into the doorway the the um the thought is is that it's a great supplement and it's a great interdisciplinary research to that core English course which is our College Prep 10 now there are some that do it in lieu of but not as many as we found wide that do it as an add-on because then you know it metrics through so it's seminar it's research is Capstone so that's kind of the thinking behind that so it's not designed in its current form to cover all the things that an English class might have it might not have all of the standards it's going to go deeper into some but not necessarily cover the the complete broad okay and then I think there was also we had talked about before some stash thing and credentials because of the way it's we can't just slot necessarily the same kind of folks into it but I guess if it's an English class maybe we could but they still need the AP training which that's that's the issue okay all right thank you I just wanted to clarify that thank you uh I think what I'm hearing from us all but we haven't used this word these this phrase is that we'd like moving forward have smart goals or smarter goals because this this this wasn't the board that or or any of us like that that establish those goals in the first place from what I understood and I know that this keeps on coming up is that you know somebody is very much saying that you know oh the idea behind this was to increase students of color in AP courses well that may be like a good thing to do I don't think it it's not necessarily something that was said as being a a smart goal in the first place and I think that it also just it the idea of making sure that our folks are College and Career ready um overall like all all of them and so I'm just going to reiterate also that um I have an outstanding requests um and it it didn't need to be delivered today right about um how our English Learners our students with disabilities our students um who are unhoused Foster youth are um uh socioeconomic directly disadvantaged folks these folks that we do track in lcap and how are they doing in the uh English course um curriculum as we go through are we seeing uh advantages to um to uh College Prep in terms of the interests that they may have in advanced course of study later on I do understand that AP SE are was first developed not by 1 of our English teachers and I appreciate that now there's a recommendation in terms of making sure that we're just not somebody used the word plopping it in but like making sure that we're just not saying oh this covers all the foundational elements in college prep 10 and therefore anybody who takes AP seminar which and it was supposed to be a very small upset because they came from a social studies teacher in the first place um that it's more interdisciplinary so like I I appreciate that more thought needs to go into it um and and as we go through our transitions in both superintendent and our leader in ed services I think that it really needs a conversation with our experts who are in Special Ed education and also with um you know our DAC our elac and deacs because I have no idea right now about how those students are doing if this if College Prep is 9 and 10 it has helped them in their um English course of study as they move through um and that's something that I'd like to see in the future but I understand that you know as we go along in terms of planning for our transitions this is something that we really need to hand off very tightly um to our next leader so um thank you for that thank you so much for calling for discussion and staff for the recommendation um I too have some questions although I did just want to briefly talk about something that you mentioned I'm sorry to to to bring it up but it's my interpretation that that actually was said that this was going to bring more black and brown students specifically into apang I think it's actually in the the equity plan as an action actionable step in the smart goals um but I I do have a few questions about AP seminar and and how it relates to bigger um just a seminar in the elective is it an elective from 9th through 12th is it 10 1112 it was 10 and 11 approved I'm sorry 10 and 11 it was 10 and 11 approved and so I I I I guess I see that the case that it would help maybe with the rigor and 10th grade what about the rigor for students who are um in English 9 students or English 9 who were asking for more rigorous courses How would are you asking for an English 9th for an English ninth well I was just saying like for students who was saying that they're that they are feeling challenged in in ninth grade English how like are we also taking into consideration how we can make sure that we're challenging those students and those Learners as well well not for this particular course because approved for I mean 10 to 11 as just stated but um I also think that you know this this particular course is designed for that play level of student and then you know it's our recommendation um and again perhaps this changes but our recommendation of keeping 9 College Prep 9 kind of a stand entered across across the uh across the school um it's a good foundational level course it's of course for kind of determining interests and providing different Avenues and directions for students I mean most certainly for next year because we're not making any changes to that um but that could be a question that's brought up in regards to the whole design of the program um but really working on Ninth Grade being like a foundational year getting getting started getting ready with your high school career so um I appreciate my colleague uh Mr locking was saying about our Partnerships with the dual enrollment I think that's that's very important and I think that that may also be a a separate conversation um uh my second question is a around this being an elective uh for students who are choosing to take this course they would be taking 2 English courses but then does that mean that they wouldn't be able to take like yearbook or CTE I know we're offering photography Phoenix is very exciting I think 1 class we're offering photography next year as soon as we're saying they want that and so are we with this proposed plan with students have to have to give up I guess an electable they couldn't take a yearbook class they would be taking APR it depends so it depends on the child's course of the student's course of study and it depends on what else is in their schedule so it's a that's a complicated question because it really depends on the student to me it was like what first year of sixth period then then yes but if they're willing to give a 7th or zero then maybe not okay um and then my last question in the staff report it on the um on the agenda it's says that this may be eligible for some college credits depending on the the college um do we know which colleges so some students some colleges um accept AP course work some do not some recalculate the AP GPA um some do not some this would also be contingent on the student taking the AP exam and I I do want to say that um AP is not contingent on financial means we we have mechanisms to support students in that regard but it's all I'm sorry to give you the answer repeatedly that it depends but it just it just wherever the the student goes that's how it that's how will calculate yeah yeah I get that and I and I appreciate our efforts always in making sure that we're streamlining access to taking AP tests I think it's a very important um and it should have been a goal that we all I believe we all share um I I actually looked a little bit into which would would accept this call Credit which ones would and I think I believe the CAL States um accept it I think the UCS don't with the exception of UC Santa Cruz maybe you see I think maybe you see Santa Cruz um I think USC go Trojans accepts it um but I think none of the Ivy Leagues um would accept it and so I get this the replacement or or maybe saying that it would be eligible for students who are in California going to CAL States but students who want to go to UC Southern UC Santa Cruz students who want to go stay I went out of state for my first year um I've called it was too cold but that's another thing but I did go out of state and I think there are a lot of Learners who went out of state and so again that this isn't a question that I'm expecting to have a response to but I think these are just questions that that I have personally when I'm talking about um rigor course opportunities making sure that we're increasing access to uh College and Career Readiness for all students and Learners in this District these are just questions that I have when I'm proposed with because of any plans and so that's that's my question is calling I don't know do we know I just I just wanted to add a couple of comments because you know I wasn't necessarily talking towards the future but rather just the item on the agenda as it is and I think um you no more of a lachman brought up a few things that you know I I didn't mention before but you know I think there's a lot of opportunity here and you know well I'm I'm sad to see the 2 of you go we are going to have new people in your positions relatively soon who presumably will come from other districts have their own opinions about them this have their own experiences you know with their English course of study as well so I think you know we can certainly look at things um some of the points that were brought up with respect to making sure that our students um you know are getting encouraged to to enroll in the classes that are sort of appropriate for them and especially our students that may come from backgrounds where their parents don't have as much Social Capital for example um and I think also that idea of I had also read about the English 9 ethnic studies combination too which I think is a really intriguing option and I've kind of floated that by a number of folks in the community who also think that's pretty neat um and you know doing such a thing would potentially free the students up for another elective as well um you know and and give them more opportunities to do different things and so I just I just wanted to say that portion of it even though my comments were focused on the agenda item that was before us today I think this conversation has to continue and I think there's a lot of good ideas from all my colleagues here and and we do want to make sure that all of our students are well taken care of um and I think you know this conversation can't just end tonight and we have to keep it going along those lines just saying we had a little discussions on Ninth Grade so as a parent of a sixth grader I can understand and appreciate 6 grade an adjustment here you're learning how middle school and high school is different and you're adjusting to it uh is ninth grade sort of a similar thing where you're everyone is sort of learning how to adjust to the high school world as well in my observation as a parent of a ninth grader yes okay that's okay um and that maybe another reason why it's good to have everyone together for 9th grade just because it's you know the same way with sixth grade my other question I think we've already kind of a lot of students have already registered for their classes right so just to be clear whatever we come out with with this AP seminar and however it goes it's kind of late in the process so in no way and I'm not say 1 another it's just my job to be paranoid for living this is what I do um is to at least be able to clear that no matter what the interest is 1 way or another it's not going to be reflective of an interest of what an honors program what it would look like because of how late it is in the process so um just to you know be clear um you know we don't know what the interest is going to be but it's good for us to have that option out there for students who may want to double up on that or if we can get it whichever way we want to take that so okay and you just for the right you're nodding your head saying yes we've already gone through the registration process is mostly over is very very late in the registration process right the counselors launched that in February and students sign up for for courses and then so this would be an an additional opening so they're very good about sticking to their timeline colleagues any more discussion no all right thank you so much for 2024 sorry 2526 comprehensive school safety plans hello Board of Education this is me again as well so in partnership with the business services department and specifically um director Ron caddy we have had we put together the comprehensive school safety plans as you see attached this is an info item for all of you tonight director Ron keti helps the different School site councils and their adjuncts safety committees as they put together calls and they put together their plans they go through School site Council approval so we work in tandem because we help with the compliance piece and the business office helps support the content and risk management of the school safety plans new to you this year and new to the state of California and 1 of the requirements is the learning continuity plan which is why you and I just I I do want to explain this just for a second because this is a big deal is that keeping Learning Management Systems which are canvas and Google Classroom is going to help to make sure if there were some type of school closure for example most recent recently the Palisades in the Eaton fire schools can gear up very because they have online learning platforms so this is why the learning continuity plan is in place it is an Uber morph and more current version of what we had during Co and it is by Statute now to be approved with the school safety plans so this is just here for you as an info item and it's very standard calling do you have any questions I don't really have any specific questions on the plan um I think you know I went through this process once um when my son was in TK I was on the site council at over in Khan and you know kind of participated in in this process and I found it to be a little bit routine in the sense that you kind of just passed the same thing over and over again um so I just and and just to be quite Frank I have not really with all the other things that have been going on in the last 5 months or so that I've been on this board and sort of feeling like I'm drinking from a fire hose I've not gotten very much into the school safety issues but there have been a few communities members that have come to me and said we have some issues with respect to expired supplies and some plans that aren't really you know maybe fully baked um and you know those kinds of things it would be great to see and I think I talked about this with Dr Lucas when I first joined the board and then kind of abandoned again as well the other thing is going on but maybe you know a district um kind of like safety advisory committee or you know some more involvement from community members that have some expertise in these areas to make sure that our campuses are as safe for our students as possible um and especially maybe maybe it's also that um we can work with Miss Rajiv uh you know on some of the the plans to you know renovate and improve our schools as well to make sure that you know we're incorporating all of that that good information from folks that know their stuff on this that's it for me um just echoing a lot of the points there just say that you know there's a couple folks I know who have made this their great Passion um and who have shared their expertise with us and you know I I'll look to them as well to see what other thoughts they may have uh as well um so that we're constantly updating and looking to add things like the supplies issue that was brought up amongst others thank you quick question um these documents tend to be 2 to 300 pages long that are highly detailed kind of to board member Carson's Point um I I am I know we've had examples of different School site councils in their safety committees making some changes and tailoring them they were essentially given kind of a template yes sorry I'm realizing my mic is not on yes that is correct and so it is a an director Ron caddy is online so they're giving a template they insert their goals they would have their own individual School site metrics but um not that they're not all riveting but if you read 1 you would have the flow it's just like the school the School site plan of how they were organized okay thank you I'm just going to ask um normally superintendent but also chair if we can like remember in the future that um we've had a good experience with um signing uh a single School site to each 1 of the the board members to um to review so that we're not reviewing all of them um and so that we could just be more mindful of because when we do all of them it we kind of glaze over so if we can think think about um how we can organize ourselves better in the future whether it it's the uh school um safety plans or it's the sipsa um that would be really I think helpful for for us as a governing body to be healthier in our eyesight we can certainly do that fraction items this is information item from first introduction only so if if the board feels that we would like to do I'd be glad to assign that for the action item next that would be great thank you I have no questions thanks 9.5 first reading and revised board bylaw 9270 complete of Interest thank you Mr dezodor this is the gamut up upgrade uh to reflect new laws which will reflected in The Narrative of the board agenda a new law SP uh 1181 and 20 uh and 20 sorry and 1243 and this is the first read it'll be up the final read later colleague discussion great well just 1 thing I think I'd suggested privately that it might be nice for us to have a non Redline version of this policy as well because I just had a really difficult time reading it so maybe when that comes back we could get that thanks call 9.6 first reading of new certificated job description thank you this is a first read from the job description for an assistant technology facilitator that would be a certificated teacher position currently the district is Contracting out with an agency and we are recommending that this um service be provided by an in-house provider teacher police we have any discussion amen thank you have a question on this um I know we are undergoing a similar effort with our speech and language pathologist speech and language Pathologists were already existing bargaining unit members for ccft um and I know there was some negotiations about finding the right salary point and all that kind of thing is this a position that is already part of the the bargaining unit would it be part of the bargaining unit are you going to have to do similar negotiations around compensation on this 1 so this the credentials for this position are similar to a teacher position so this would be paid on the teacher salary scale and then um it will be we're actually going to bargaining next week this week actually um and it will be included in the recognition section that's 1 of the positions to uh iterate for our and for the public that we used to have with new job descriptions a a practice of adding bilingual preferred um so I I still like to see that in the future for all of our job descriptions and um I I think that there's just in general for this particular because I'm on DAC like there's there's a particular um anxiety over this position addition and whether or not they'll be like it's a hard to fill a position and I'm hoping that um and so is there anything in this um I'm sorry that I didn't ask you this earlier but is there anything in here in the job description that will that you hope will help you fill it like or or anything like that or like what's the um because this is a first read which means that you won't fly it until after it comes back or can you just talk a little bit about it please so um we do believe that we potentially could have internal candidates and some leads with this position so this requires a specific training and a certificate that would need that um would be um aligned to assist of Technology um so the goal would be to get any feedback tonight on this 1 and then for us to be able to um to post it first internally to see if we have any candidates internally um and then we would not actually offer a position to anyone until um the board approves it at the next meeting so sort of to do all the back work on it and then as soon as the board approves it at the next meeting then we could make an offer to somebody if we had anyone internal that was interested in it thank you so much call 9.7 enrollment report so this report shows attachment shows TK to 12 site enrollment by grade level on the last day of the 8th month which ended on the March 21st and comparing this to the seventh month enrollment report PC is slight decrease in our enrollment by 29 um students um I'm curious actually to where they where did they really go so we'll be doing a deep dive on um finding the reasons why and we did see some of the secondary students moving into a Academy so there was some addition over there so we are going to be looking at the reasons why and where did they go and there is a slight gain for preschool and adult um school we don't have the numbers when we come back next time we will share that this discussion action items 13 12.1 oh sorry that was Paul 13.1 so this is a appropriation plan for it this is the year-end appropriation transfer what it means is um when we close the books sometimes our budgets and actual expenditures may not be well within the budget actual expenditures may not be well within the budget so to make sure we are uh we have um a flexibility to make sure make an adjustment to our budget that's why this appropriation allows the county offices to move within the it it shows in this um item how you can move the money for example in 1,000 certificated expenditures we budgeted a million dollar but our expenditure is 1 million and 10,000 more then it allows us to move from 2,000 budget to 1,000 so basically it's interchanging the money but as long as the total appropriation is the same and it just telling us what would be the order this is an it's a routine item that we do at the end of the year and this is Guided by the Education Code 42601 I'll move the item 1 second discussion colleagues call us in favor please say I 141 okay 14.1 is an annual item that um we bring forward for approval it's the Declaration of Need for fully qualified Educators for 2526 I just want to make clear that um we are not at this point saying that we are going to have to hire this many teachers on emergency type permits how however the state of California will not allow us as a district to apply for anyone for a emergency permit um unless they have this on a file for next school year so as we're hiring teachers right now for example if someone comes in from out State and they don't have a cloud credential we would have to apply to the state for that or um for example if we hired somebody who has a um a biology credential but they have a chemistry degree let's say and we need them to teach both classes we could apply to the state for limited waivers so in order for us to do any of those applications this has to be approved by the board ahead of time the item discussion call 6 all those in favor please say I I 14 2 14.2 is the establishment of a committee on assignments um for this for the Culver City Unified School District this is not an item that you have ever done before a committee on assignments um is the state of California will allow a school district to do a an assignment for a teacher outside of their credential area and an elective area so for example if you get a very neat elective that someone has taken classes in or um has some type of experience in a committee is able to say that someone is appropriately uh credentialed for that assignment so this just gives us an an option as we are um um hiring new teachers and the event that we need anyone to teach elective classes this also keeps us from having this 1-off classes listed as Mis assignments for the district which we always try to do I'll move the item discussion colleagues I actually have a question do you have please go ahead so with this I I I thought we had done it here before but I certainly seen it done in other places is the local authorization by the board does this take place of that or is that is this a step that would happen before it comes to the board for so there's different types of local authorization so I believe that the board here has done some before where for example if somebody has 12 Universal credits or an upper unit classes in a in a um in a specific area the board can be it can be approved that way this really just gives a little bit more flexibility when you get into these 1-off electives again not even sure that we need this it's just not something that we have had um as an option here to be able to do this in the past so um we're just getting this in place in case we have any assignments over the summer um that would come up where we would need to to move a teacher into a different class okay I mean I think only for elective classes I think it's an interesting option and it gives us increased flexibility I would like a heads up if this committee ever does start to meet just to let us know because it is kind of a novel approach for us so we kind of keep an eye on it yeah so all of the ones I would definitely give a heads up all of the ones that are approved from the board are based in core content areas this can only be used specifically for electives the discussion colleagues nope all those in favor say I I consent I would like to move 15 to through 1516 and 1519 and 20 excuse me sorry 15 I did that wrong I'm calling 157 and 158 so um I would like to um move 152 to to 156 and the 159 through 158 20 sorry there a second second okay all in favor say I I I buy 157 board member yeah so I I'm sorry for pulling this I it's the same thing that I was talking about earlier if we could please add bilingual preferred this does not exclude us from considering folks that who are not bilingual it's it's just a uh something that we'd like to strive for to consider thank you does that require a motion or second or we just uh I think you have to move it again with the amendment I believe if you'd like to make an amendment so I I uh move with the amendment as stated second yeah 7 n a are you moving both oh I can do both yeah I can move if I 197 and 158 as a as amended with bilingual preferred okay okay second okay all those in favor say I I I thank you colleagues um 161 I believe board corner maybe thank you to retiring employees is it already in there I mean is it I don't know um I noticed I know uh the the employees of the year in there I'm not sure about retiring employees honestly but we'll check it it cover probably yeah yeah it's an information item but the uh presentation on backpacks for kids was nice yeah oh yeah yeah definitely that's cool yeah we'll talk thanks for cats um and then maybe the next 1 can be about graduations or yeah that's a good idea we'll just like that yeah I know you I think you asked about the soft but yeah you were going to say that again yeah I'm going to bring back a really old 1 which is to ask Chief to come and deliver um I thought that we just put that on the back burner but now it's a new school year it it's worth bringing back in the summertime okay what is that yeah uh Chief Sims for to come and deliver a presentation on um the number of calls and students and um and SRO and besides in the future we'll have to because that mou is only 1 year at a time anyway too so that's in teacher somewhere yeah um I I believe we our policies will already reflected so it may not be necessary but with respect to ab7 15 which we about in the past I think our policies may already our existing resolutions may already allow us to support this as we did with absb 169 of the the 1 that was being supported by laksa before so regarding suicide access for the immigration I'm sorry I'm not sort of calling ab7 15 is the new bill which allows for um making sure that all of our that our ethics studies program is a whole reflects uh across all groups reflects the guidelines and so we've already taken positions I believe to support this in itself but just in case I put that in as a placeholder in case we have to we're we're not really supposed to have any substantive discussion on that which I'm I'm going to try to avoid but um I mean do we need to essentially consent to bring this up as an agenda item at this point um I guess no okay okay we just noted it and bring it in okay sure um you missed what was the first thing Brian yeah that's what I was actually going to check did you say that I had asked about cell phone policy yeah oh I had heard softball because I wanted to kind of on the softball yeah okay cell phone softball what softball okay I was interested in hearing more about the softball stuff okay last time he did say something did I yes you did but we can re we can re-up that again I can that then just to be super you're saying the the ball field yeah oh yeah oh yeah you did you didn't take based on her right well I'm saying no about the cell phone policy are we clear all right government colleagues can we please return the memory of edley so whoever makes the germant please so moved to Germany medley I'll second that all those in favor say I to us thank you thank you

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Regular Board Meeting 05-27-25

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