Board of Education, August 8, 2023
Agenda http://go.boarddocs.com/ca/sfusd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CSZTGU7759F5
Readback from closed session:
The board voted to approve paying the stipulated amount for six lawsuits against the district including four brought by students.
Public comment under item F for agenda and non agenda items. Comm. Fisher objects to having all comments at the start of the meeting, as opposed to after the items are discussed. (We agree.) President Boggess welcomes feedback on the public comment format.
Superintendent’s report:
Reiterates 5 year goals: test scores. Mentions interim goals but not part of presentation.
Mentions efforts to be more accessible to parents and the community. The website now has a department directory and an org chart (!). Says there will be someone there to answer the phones.
Summer programs. Wayne shows photos of the Black Star Rising program that was featured in the Chronicle last week. Mentions the Summer Academy for Integrated Language Learning.
Wayne introduces new student delegates for this year. Megan (GW HS) and Lenani (RASOTA) introduce themselves. Applications for Student Advisory Council available at SFUSD SAC on Instagram.
Payroll State of Emergency report:
A few Key Performance Indicators for the past 90 days have been missed. Cases over the summer were very complex.
Only 28 of 45 Empower staff positions have been filled.
Will not present next 90 day KPIs until they figure out how to accomplish them.
When he came to SFUSD he was used to exception based pay in Hayward and other districts. He said it was a priority when he started but there were too many Empower issues. Shares screenshot of a memo showing exception based pay started for
General public comment:
Rex Ridgeway: mentions rising star, thinks it’s a great program. Lists inventions made by African Americans. Our kids can do Algebra 1.
Selena Chu: Wants to advocate for parents who want the Zoom option to continue for Board meetings.
Supriya Ray: Advocates for early public comment time. Concerned about a memo about hiring communication
Comm. Fisher asks Boggess if there is any plan to not have Zoom? He says no, but other school districts have discussed not having Zoom.
Remote general comment:
Charles S: There is money in the budget for teacher raises. Refers the public to Paul Gardiner’s SFed up website. And the audit by BOS analyst requested by Sup Ronen that compares SFUSD to similar districts.
Remote comment for agenda items:
Charles S: Comment about SIPSA. High Schools are being short changed by $1,200 per student. Refers to a Paul Gardiner post on the subject.
Consent Calendar:
Wayne gets into an explanation of the Consent Agenda. Previously the list of contracts to be approved were all listed together, which he heard comments that this seemed deliberately confusing. Now they will be organized into groups of similar contracts.
There will now be a Professional Services Report listing services contracts.
Each school presents an SPSA plan for the Consent Agenda. This is routine but there are a lot of schools and board members don’t have time to read all of them. This year schools will present how they are meeting the Goals and Guardrails. There will be universal goals with individualized SPSAs are routine.
Comm. Motamedi appreciates the standardization and engaging with School Site Councils in the Fall instead of waiting until March.
Student delegate appreciates new structure.
Boggess recuses himself from item 75 on the consent calendar.
The consent calendar is approved by unanimous vote.
Comm Fisher asked to handle a consent item separately as a separate agenda item: an agreement with Platinum Teletherapy. Wants to make sure this is used only for students that are not in school. It’s important (and part of Ed Code) that assessments be conducted in person. Sup Wayne says everything is in order. “No ambiguity”
Commissioners Reports/Appointments:
Sanchez appoints Sarah Brant to Peef CAC
Motamedi appoints Carol Kocivar to PEEF CAC
Fisher appoints Rori Abernethy to PEEF CAC.
An informational item that was not discussed was the quarterly Williams Complaint report. One of the complaints in this report regards conditions at Malcolm X Academy, detailed in a recent article in the BayView Newspaper.
Meeting adjourned at 7:30