Thread by @berkeleyside

Coming up on tonight's #busdmtg school board meeting: a new block schedule at Berkeley High, two major budget drafts (next year's General Fund & 21-24 LCAP), a resolution in support of Latinx student achievement, changes to dual-language immersion program, and more. 🧵

Tonight's #busdmtg coverage is brought to you by Berkeleyside's education reporter @allymarkovich and fueled by a broccoli & tofu stir-fry, which said education reporter cooked up right before this. Cheers to those following along! We're in for a packed night.

Here comes the first public comment session, which has few enough contributors that folks are only limited to ~2 minutes~ instead of the usual 1 minute. End-of-the year fatigue could be responsible. #busdmtg

First up is Berkeley parent @LizaLutzker, concerned about swelling class sizes in the 4th grade at Sylvia Mendez elementary school. There are too few teachers for too many students, with class sizes of ~28 students next year. BSEP funds are supposed to keep sizes down to ~23.

"As a voter who supported the 2016 BSEP bond measure, I feel cheated. As a parent of a child with an IEP, I'm worried," says Sylvia Mendez parent Lucinda Bingham, who is also worried about the ballooning class sizes. #busdmtg

Other commenters weigh in on Berkeley High's new proposed block schedule. Devra Nelson's daughter, class of '23, says she doesn't want to lose instructional time with the block schedule, while Carol Lee, a BHS parent, says the schedule is better for her kids' mental health.

Sylvia Mendez parent Rachelle R. says she's considering pulling her kids from the district if they don't do something about the large class sizes. "I feel like this is really just setting them up for failure," Rachelle worries, particularly in a year after a pandemic. #busdmtg

Paz Melendez Canales, longtime Longfellow parent, says she supports the resolution on Latinx student achievement & the changes to the dual-language immersion program. "There's a significant gap" between Latino students, English learners, and their peers, she says. #busdmtg

Frank Hernandez, Berkeley Council of Classified Employees (BCCE), asks the district to recognize the special effort and sacrifices classified staff made for Berkeley schools to be able to reopen, from pivoting to new jobs, learning new skills, and working in person early.

Next, the co-chairs of English learner committee ask for $. "We feel strongly that funding key positions that have direct contact with multilingual learners and their families are key, especially when we recover from the learning loss during the pandemic," acc Patricia Rodriguez

It's budget season, which means a number of essential services are vying for more funding, or at the least, that money won't be cut. Ms. Harrison from Berkeley High's PTSA speaks in support of growing the Bridge program, which dozens of parents & students have spoken on behalf of

Currently, Bridge serves a small cohort of 25 students each year. Could we add another cohort, Harrison asks? Harrison said the PTSA supports adding instructional assistant staff and its own Bridge counselor to address "significant traumas that Bridge students have suffered."

This is student director Miles Miller's last school board meeting before he graduates. He gives a goodbye to all listening. His experience on the board "propelled me in just what I want to do in life because... I want to be a policymaker and I want to change things in schools."

All bittersweet smiles from the school board directors as they see Miles off to college. "I think you exemplify the best from our BUSD students. We want our students to be future leaders," says @Ana4SchoolBoard, who said she would try not to cry.

Vasudeo's parting compliment to Miles is that she can see him in Board President Ty Alper, literally. 😂 "You look like a mini version of President Alper," Vasudeo tells student director Miles Miller. "Looking at you guys on the screen, I could see you, future director."

Vasudeo also speaks to two resolutions she helped bring before the board: a resolution in honor of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and one prioritizing Latinx student achievement. "Tonight's resolution will help... close the opportunity gaps faced by Latin X students," @Ana4SchoolBoard said

Next, the superintendent's update. First, about fall reopening. "Just to reiterate," Brent Stephens said, "we look forward to seeing all of you back at our normal start time, on all of our campuses for a normal school day."

There could be changes to Berkeley's independent studies program. This is coming from state legislation, which says that schools should not offer distance learning in the fall but should offer independent study.

Independent Study is longstanding, but now it will have to serve students who would have opted for distance learning. Currently, independent study means having a "home teacher" (probably a parent) and "coach" from the school. Contact with the school is limited to 1-2x/week.

Families opting for remote in the fall for personal reasons would definitely join Independent Study. A 2nd option for families who have a documented medical reason (can't be vaccinated/ at higher risk even after vaccine) would be a BIS Virtual Academy, more similar to current DL

When can folks expect to learn more about remote learning options next fall? Superintendent Stephens says it all hinges on the state law passing at the end of June, which will dictate what the district can or cannot provide in terms of distance learning.

Next, the district will discuss changes to the bell schedule for the upcoming school year. Berkeley High teacher Amanda Toporek says the schedule will mean: longer class periods, fewer classes at a time, more academic & emotional support embedded into the school day.

Why the sudden change to the bell schedule? BHS principal said "we can't go back to normal, because normal was working for so many of our students, and it wasn't sustainable for so many of our educators"

The model was created by a working group of 20 teachers and shaped by student feedback: students with IEPs said classes felt rushed; all students want longer passing periods; students want Flex (advisory) in middle of the day to help them get caught up.

Sorry, this was my misquote. Raygoza said "normal wasn't* working for so many of our students"

Here's the new BHS schedule, which has alternating A/B block days with 100 minute classes and a 50-minute Flex class for academic and emotional support four days a week. Wednesdays will be a shortened day with all 6 classes and 40 minute classes.

This isn't 100% finalized, Raygoza said. They need to confirm that the schedule meets instructional time requirements for the state of California. Then, there's still kinks to work out, including getting a survey with community feedback & figuring out the curriculum for Flex.

Miles Miller says a lot of students are wary of the new schedule. First, this is a huge change in a time when students are yearning for consistency. "Students feel that they just want to go to the Berkeley high they know next year," Miller said.

Maybe this is a change that the district could implement in later years? Miller asks. And there's issues with the schedule itself: the classes are too long, the A/B schedule means inconsistency, and students are worried about the lost instructional time (30 min per class/week)

Director Laura Babitt asks what kind of research the district did around student outcomes associated with the different bell schedules. Raygoza responded that this is exactly what the district didn't have time to do in the month-long planning process

Raygoza said the district did look at El Cerrito High, which has a 4-period block schedule with a homeroom in between, which is quite similar to the schedule proposed for Berkeley High.

Director Ka'Dijah Brown asks about the placement of the advisory schedule in the middle of the day. She says there's research that shows that advisory is most effective at the beginning or end of the day. Students did personally advocate for a middle-day flex period.

Raygoza says the hope is that the longer classes will allow more project-based, student-centered learning that prioritizes 'learning by doing.' But there's the concern that desire is aspirational without sufficient time to prepare curriculum to fit the new schedule.

Onto the next agenda item, in which SAHA/Abode Communities will share their update on the teacher workforce housing project, which you can learn more about here:
berkeleyside.org/2021/02/22/ber…

In designing affordable BUSD housing, Lara Regus from SAHA/Abode Communities said the design will prioritize a wide range of factors including community input, affordability, fitting into the neighborhood fabric, etc.

Not too many questions on the workforce housing project coming along. Next is the LCAP draft budget update (a 67-page document), which would impact the 21-23 school years. This provides some budgeting on the LCAP goal of providing instruction & closing opportunity gaps.

Under the general budget, the district is proposing 3 new Office of Family Equity and Engagement positions: director, Spanish-language liaison, and another family liaison. This would be an ongoing budget expense, costing the district $340k each year.

Included in the general fund is $167k devoted to low-performing students, which means a reading recovery teacher and other math, literacy coaches. There's also expenses for special education, a counselor and another B-Tech administrator, and more.

There's plans for new BSEP spending, too: a computer technician, music coach stipends for BHS equity program, equity-focused events, BHS math support, etc.

So here's the rub: "The wishlist is larger than our spending capacity," said Superintendent Brent Stephens. The district is deficit spending. He said there's room for 750k of the $1.4 million that's proposed here, and he hopes the board can help the district prioritize.

Earlier in the meeting, the district shared that it signed a tentative agreement with BFT approving a one-time 3.5% salary increase for teachers working during COVID-19: berkeleyteachers.org/sites/default/…

School board director Laura Babitt wonders whether that 3.5% increase is finalized. "Is that already a done deal or is there a way we can think about that?" Babitt asks, because that's eating up a lot of our one-time funds that could otherwise go to students.

Julie Sinai says our LCAP needs to be more focused on our goals. We want to reduce the number of Fs our Black students have. Currently, almost half of Black students have an F. We want to drop that to 25%. We want more students to meet A-G requirements for UC schools.

"My stomach is turning, because I'm feeling like I'm not
getting the strategy that's going to have the impact on data that's remained fairly stagnant, year after year after year," Julie Sinai said. What we have now with the LCAP feels like a 'laundry list' of programs, she said.

With the current proposals, are we funding an additional cohort of Bridge students? Julie Sinai tries to clarify. "I think we've crossed some wires. We clearly need to go back and just do some homework. That is where we are not clear on this," Superintendent Stephens replies 🤷‍♀️

"Our families have been struggling this year and they have said to us repeatedly, we need more direct services to our children," Laura Babitt said. "We are not providing that. These recommendations do not provide that," Babitt said, speaking passionately.

If we have not signed on the dotted line on that 3.5% one-time bonus for teacher pay, Babitt said, we need rethink. Because if we approve that bonus, "it is not going to help us get a BSEP" measure passed in Berkeley again, Babitt said.

Tension flared between Babitt and Vasudeo on where money and support should be targeted. There are already four (maybe 5?) Office of Family Engagement and Equity staff members who speak Spanish, and most of our Latino families are multilingual and speak English, Babitt said.

Vasudeo said that she "cannot ignore" the recommendations from, for instance, the committee on English learners who are asking for more Spanish-speakers employed by the district in offices like OFEE.

When Vasudeo starts speaking and Babitt continues, Vasudeo asks if she can finish. "Go ahead, if it's is gonna be something new," Babitt says. "You can anyway but I'm pretty sure we know what you're going to say, and I want to finish my evening."

Sinai centers on shared priorities as the tension dissipates: "We don't want to pit our students against each other or our staff or our colleagues against each other... We have a targeted group of Afr. Amer, Latinx, English language learners, special ed that we have to serve."

Without making decisions on the budget--either the general budget or the LCAP-- the board admits that they can add additional meetings in June to get the budget sorted before the end fo the month is up. It's something they've done before when the timeline has been tight.

Next @Ana4SchoolBoard introduces the resolution in "Support of the Achievement and Success of All Latinx Students," which was described as a complement to the Black Lives Matter Resolution last summer. It's an effort to address the opportunity gap for Latinx students.

After a tense exchange earlier in the evening, board members (including Babitt) shower praise on Vasudeo for crafting this resolution, which Vasudeo has been talking about since being elected to the board last year. (My recorder stopped working so I lack direct quotes, sorry!)

Ka'Dijah Brown asks, "How we can ensure that the things mentioned and outlined in this resolution actually happen?" Vasudeo responds that "accountability will come from reporting back to the community... and building out some of the programs that we said we were going to fund."

The board unanimously approves the resolution for Latinx support and achievement! We need to make sure "we're pushing ourselves to really hold ourselves accountable for closing the opportunity gaps for our most vulnerable students," Vasudeo said. 🎉

Finally, public comment will close out the meeting. Parent Lindsay Nofelt thanks Babitt for addressing the "elephant in the room": why is the district approving a $5 mill teacher bonus using COVID funds, when that money should be reserved for students? Nofelt asks.

Former board member Martha Acevedo recommends that the school board consider moving the budget conversations up toward the beginning of the meeting, so "we're all still awake" when they come up. (Here here!)

In the last public comment of the night, parent Olivia Lim asks the district to please consider how families in the dual language immersion program opting for distance learning/ independent study next year will be served next year, and "not as an afterthought," Lim said.

That's a wrap, folks! To close, some apt words from Martha Acevedo: "The Berkeley way is that no one stays behind. And at at one point, one particular student. At another point, another kind of student is in need." It's hard, she suggests, to help everyone, but Berkeley's trying.