There were no public comments concerning items on the closed session agenda.

Members of the audience who wish to address the Board are asked to complete the yellow card available at the entrance and submit it to the Board's Administrative Assistant. Speakers who have completed the card will be called when the item is reached on the agenda or, for non-agenda items, during the Public Testimony. Cards are to be turned in before the item is reached on the agenda. Please note that the meeting is being recorded. State law prohibits the Board of Education from taking any action on or discussing items that are not on the posted agenda except to A) briefly respond to statements made or questions posed by the public in attendance; B) ask questions for clarification; C) provide a reference to a staff member or other resource for factual information in response to the inquiry; or D) ask a staff member to report back on the matter at the next meeting and/or put it on a future agenda. (Government Code 54954.2(a))

These items are submitted for advance planning and to assist the Board in establishing future agenda items.  The Board may, however, take action on the following:

Superintendent Cathey recapped the District process for establishing District goals, stating that the Board provided input to her at the Board meeting on September 7, 2011, and that the suggested changes were incorporated into the revised draft of the goals as noted in italics. Upon adoption, the goals will become public, and the Superintendent, along with staff will identify specific action steps, with measurable outcomes, to be implemented throughout the school year. The actions steps will support the Superintendent and staff in meeting the Board goals and priorities.

The draft 2011-2012 Board goals were distributed and the Board further discussed and refined the goals. Noted changes are in bold and italicized:  

• Guiding Principals
  • Bullet #3, "Maintain a focus on equity and closing the achievement gaps: racial, English learners, socioeconomic, special needs, and gender
• Goal #1 - Educate the Whole Student: Ensure the academic, physical, social and emotional well-being of every student
  • #2 - Focus on educational equity...
• Goal #2 - Ensure the Financial Stability and  Efficiency of the District
  • #1 - Maintain the fiscal solvency of the district and align all fiscal decisions with our budget incorporating new and changing information
  • #6 - Add San Leandro Scholarship Foundation
  • #7 - Remove the word "systematically" and add "operational" in front of coherence to goal reads: Continue to identify operational issues that are fragmented and inefficient and develop and implement new protocols to create operational coherence across the District
  • #8 - Change to read: "Continue to monitor and improve upon Risk Management for the District"
• Goal #3 - Provide Effective and Timely Communication and Community Engagement
  • #2 - Change "Focus on" to "Strengthen" customer service at the District Office and at all school sites"
  • #5 - Change "Develop and implement" to "Enhance our" communication plan to regularly promote positive information and activities about the schools and the District
• Goal #4 - Human Resources - Recruit and Support Outstanding Employees
  • #2 - Change "Focus on" to "Strengthen" practices that support hiring staff that are reflective of the diversity of our students and families
  • #6 - Remove "...of the District and responsive to new and timely fiscal information," so sentence reads: "Work with all bargaining groups to make decisions that are in the overall best interest of students.
• Goal #5 - Ensure Safe and Well Maintained Facilities
  • #2 and #3 - Change "Fully" to "Continue to efficiently"......
  • #4 - Change sentence from "Explore energy conservation measures" to "Implement environmentally sustainability measures"
  • #6 - Change sentence from "Develop a community-based system in response to emergency preparedness efforts" to "Develop a districtwide emergency preparedness response system in coordination with the greater community"
• Goal #6 - Board Governance
  • #1 - Change "Establish" to "Continue to implement a" ......
  • #3 - Remove the word "members" for consistency

At the end of the discussion the Board agreed on the changes and adopted the 2011-2012 Board Goals, as amended, by the following vote:

On an annual basis the Board of Education discusses their priorities and the needs of the District around which they establish District goals for the current school year. For the 2010-2011 school year, the Board identified five major areas of focus; Those areas included: 

1. Educate the Whole Child: Ensuring the academic, physical, social and emotional well-being of every student emotional 
2. Financial Stability: Ensure the fiscal solvency of the District
3. Communication and Community Engagement: Ensure ease of access to accurate and timely information 
4. Human Resources: Attract and retain high quality teachers, administrators, and classified staff E
5. Ensure Safe and Well Maintained Facilities: Maintain and improve our existing facilities 

It is recommended that the Board maintain these five overarching goals as the District goals for the 2011-2012 school year and add Goal #6: Board Governance. For each overarching goal, there are subgoals which further delineate the areas of focus and provide direction to staff. 

The Board provided input to the Superintendent at the Board meeting on September 7, 2011.  The suggested changes have been incorporated into the revised draft of the goals.  The draft 2011-2012 District goals and sub-goals will be available at the meeting.

The Board will further discuss, refine and possibly adopt the goals for implementation during the 2011-2012 school year. Upon adoption, the Superintendent along with staff will identify specific action steps, with measurable outcomes, to be implemented throughout the school year. These action steps will support the Superintendent and staff in meeting the Board goals and priorities. 

Trustee Mack-Rose noted that Superintendent Cathey would be facilitating the discussion of the 2011-2012 Board of Education Self-Evaluation Survey Summary results. 

Superintendent Cathey explained that this process would provide the Board an opportunity to officially review and discuss the survey summary (including ratings and comments) as it relates to the components of the goals, and to identify areas of strength, suggesting that the Board identify no more than two areas of focus or growth (one in each part) for 2011-2012.

The Board discussed and reviewed the survey results by following the same strategy that the District teaches our students called "Talk to the Text" whereby the Board will look at the two parts -  Part 1 - Governance Responsibilities and Part 2 - Effective Board Operations, and consider their top-two specific areas of focus within those parts. 

Following the discussion, the Board identified their two top areas of focus:

Part 1: Governance Responsibilities:

• Inform the community of district needs and opportunities for involvement

Part 2: Effective Board Operations:

• Combine into one focus area: Effectively orient new members and review its written agreements for board operations whenever there is a change on the governance team

Professional Governance Standards as adopted by the California School Boards Association (CBSA) are used by local governing boards to help increase board effectiveness and raise public awareness of the role of governing boards. It is common for boards to complete a self-evaluation survey as one way to assess their effectiveness and to identify areas of growth and next steps. One component on the self-evaluation survey is Governance Responsibilities which includes: Setting Direction, Establishing Structure, Providing Support, Ensuring Accountability, and Community Leadership. A second component of the survey is Effective Board Operations which includes: Board Unity, Board Role, Board Culture, Board Structure, Preparing for Meetings, Conducting Meetings, and Managing Transitions. The San Leandro Board of Education, in keeping CSBA recommended effective governance structures, completed the survey and will review and discuss the survey summary. The summary information will be used to identify areas of strength and areas of growth for the Board as a whole for the 2011-2012 school year. The Self-Evaluation Survey is attached.

Trustee Katz commented that the Social Justice Academy's annual open mic show, "One Love, One Mic," is this Thursday, October 27, at the Arts Education Center.

Trustee James commented that he attended the Drive One 4UR School event at the high school; however he was unable to test drive a vehicle because the event closed one hour early, due to the dwindling crowd.