Maggie Nance left at 6:16 p.m.

No public comment.

Peter Garff: 

A lot of events coming up.

Women's Day on March 8th. Feminine products drive throughout March. Students asked to wear pink on March 8th. Women's panel at the end of the month.

March 17th - St. Patrick's Day, senior dating game.

ASB Elections on the last week of March, as well as a Spirit Week.

Battle of the Bands is coming in April.

We have some concerns from Pali Period days. 2:56 pm is too late as an ending time for the Wednesday Pali Periods days.

Saken Sherkhanov, Melissa Schilling, Monica Batts-King: Nothing to report at this time.

Andrew Paris: Nothing to report at this time.

Report stands as submitted with the below additions:

Lisa Saxon - The Leadership class's proposed revisions to the new school testing policy are not feasible. The state test is untimed, and students are provided with accommodations specified in their IEP.

Under Ed. Code, parents may opt students out of state testing. Students who opt out of state testing will take another assessment that, like the CAASPP, measures college and career readiness. The tests are the same length and assess the same skills.
 

Students will complete one of the two tests in their block schedule classes. Students who need extra time will be able to finish the test will be summoned from class and provided with as much time as they need to complete the task.
 

Students who are absent the day that their class is scheduled to test will take a make-up test.
 

The test window runs from March 6 until finals. Everyone should have plenty of time to participate. 

Let's work together to make sure that Pali meets the state requirement of testing 95 percent of eligible students. Failing to meet this benchmark will negatively impact the school's overall test score. Students are encouraged to do their best on the state test. The CSU system is asking that students voluntarily submit scores when filing an application. The scores are used for placement, not admissions.

Grant Smith - I am Grant Smith, the 504 Coordinator at Pali.  Before assuming the role as coordinator, I had served for 10+ years as a Special Education/Resource Specialist and Special Education Dept. Chair.  I worked closely with our admin and coordinator at the time to ensure timely compliance of legal special education issues.  I imparted to all of our staff that LAUSD is observing our work in Welligent and that issues with compliance can have significant consequences for any charter school.  I am therefore imploring our Board to immediately approve the position of Special Education Coordinator.  Right now, we have different teachers assisting with this role, and this takes time and energy away from their caseloads.  We need a dedicated individual in that position working with Admin and the Dept. Chair to ensure that our school meets state/federal timelines.  I know my old dept well and have been moved by the amount of heart, sweat, and soul my colleagues pour into our students with disabilities, but we need compliance support in the form of a coordinator immediately.  Thank You.

Martha Monahan: Report stands as submitted.

PCHS administration recommends approval of the Governance Board to reclassify an employee: Current Title: Instructional Assistant (Classified) Proposed Title: ELL Program Instructional Assistant (Classified) Reasoning: As the needs of the English Language Learner population at PCHS has changed, the duties and responsibilities of this instructional assistant have changed to include more administrative tasks relating to assessment and compliance.

Don Parcell: Report stands as submitted.

Brooke King: Report stands as submitted.

Sara Margiotta: I would like to thank Brooke King for the wonderful work done to complete the Emergency Operations Plan.

Michael Rawson: Report stands as submitted.

Juan Pablo Herrera: Report stands as submitted.

Dr. Pam Magee: Report stands as submitted.

We wanted to highlight our recent faculty meeting materials, so please check out the amazing work being done at Pali High. Congratulations to Kinema Ivra and BSU for their wonderful recent events and a wonderful Black History Month.

David Pickard IV: At our last AA meeting, the Social Science Department presented on the state of the department. The main topics covered and discussed were course offerings, new courses, college prep/honors grading scales, Ethnic Studies, the future of Sociology, professional development, field trips, and the department's Nation Board Certified teachers. Pali Period effectiveness was also discussed and the committee looks forward to continue to develop this intervention/prevention method at Pali.

Sara Margiotta: Minutes stand as submitted. We reviewed transportation funding/scholarships, which is later on the agenda tonight and will be discussed in further detail.

David Pickard IV: 2023-2024 BoT Election was discussed and candidate forms were reviewed. The committee agreed that the committee work and meeting schedule/times should be included in the BoT Roles and Responsibilities form.

BoT applications are due on March 17, 2023. Due diligence will take place between March 17 and April 7, 2023. The election will run concurrently with the ASB election from April 10-14, 2023.

Committee will work on community outreach via Patch, Palisadian Post, and school eblasts.

Proposed meeting schedule for the 2023-2024 election cycle is:

March 6, 2023

March 20, 2023

April 24, 2023

All meetings are held in F106.

Grade Appeal Committee - Sara Margiotta: The committee has not met and we have 13 grade appeals that need to be looked at. Dr. Lee is looking at potential meeting dates.

Survey Committee -  Sara Margiotta: College Center survey results are in and we are working with the College Center to bring results, updates, and action plan to the March BoT meeting.

Martha Monahan presented the Substitute Teacher Report, which can be found in the Board materials.

We have hired recently and work with two agencies to help cover teachers. Our teachers are asked to cover during their conference period and are paid at their professional hourly rate. We know how important this time is for teachers and want to respect their prep time. We want to review how we are attracting people to work at Pali. We have evaluated substitute pay rates from a variety of school districts. LAUSD has a significantly higher rate than ours. SMMUSD also has a higher rate and this is a school district that could potentially be pulling from our sub pool.

Dr. Pam Magee: This is the School Accountability Report Card and it contains information about the condition and performance of the school. Thank you Monica Iannessa and Ramona Bostic and the rest of the Academic Achievement team for putting this together.

Monica Iannessa: Some of the fields were left blank in fields that need to be filled in. You will see this in the HR category. We are also reporting the fitnessgram from P.E. classes and participation rates, which is new to the SARC.

Peter Garff reviewed the recommended changes from students that are highlighted in the PCHS Testing Policy Feedback from ASB, which can be found in the Board materials.

Robert Rene: Thank you Peter for bringing this back and putting in this work. We must work to ensure that the high standards of Pali High are upheld. It is vital to the longevity of the school that students take the required tests.

Tami Wilson: We have medical notes coming in from students for 504 plans, numbering about 350. We would not meet the minimum 95% requirement.

Monica Iannessa: This is a policy that was drafted to ensure student's mental health is taken Into account, but this standardized test is extremely important for our charter renewal.

Dr. Pam Magee: Administration and dept. chairs are reviewing all of our policies through an equity lens. PLCs have been looking at Joe Feldman's Grading for Equity and what the next steps are to establish a school-wide grading policy.

Dr. Pam Magee: The math task force is meeting to take a look at these policies and we will have something to present at the March Board meeting.

Sara Margiotta: I have seen this a few times now and we need to put this policy in place asap so we can implement it by next year.

Dr. Pam Magee: March is our goal and April is an absolute deadline.

Tami Wilson presented the Student Support Services presentation, which can be found in the. Board materials.

Brian Banducci: We have our Deans with us tonight and I wanted to share a presentation that highlights our intervention data and professional development information in regards to behavior on campus at PCHS.

Behavior Intervention Presentation can be found in the Board materials.

Maggie Nance: What does going to detention mean?

Kelly Loftus: We run detention from 12:34 for about 15-20 minutes. Students are in detention depending on the infraction. They are in the detention room and can get work done.

Robert Rene: Thank you, Deans, for the work they did to report data. Can we get a data set to tell us how many students are consistently disruptive? Alternatively, can we hear more about the positive results of discipline that worked?

Brian Banducci: That is definitely useful information and something we can continue gathering as the school year continues. There have been 800 total referrals and about 20% of those are from about 3 teachers.

Sara Margiotta: I think the question of, "is detention working to improve student behavior?" is really important. Is 15-20 minutes at lunch enough?

Dr. Pam Magee: It is difficult to have kids in detention because so many travel after school.

Adam Licea: We are continuously talking with families and working to identify the underlying issues that students may be having.

Avi Massaband: Is there a legal limit to how many times a student can have detention consecutively?

Brian Banducci: The only individual is anyone with an IEP who's behavior is affected by their disability. We evaluate each student individually and work with stakeholders to ensure all parties are part of the behavioral solution.

Monica Batts-King: How is a student notified that a student has detention?

Adam Licea: We want to give the student accountability and only really reach out to families in larger cases.

Monica Batts-King: Families cannot help from home if they are not aware that there is an issue.

Dr. Pam Magee: Discipline has changed in Ed. code and expectations of schools has changed. The direction is heading in a way that we build connections with students and encourage them to take accountability for their actions. These are laws and we are bound by that. We are working to put structures in place to support all students and faculty.

Maggie Nance: Do you agree that many of the disciplinary issues comes from kid's inability to deal with their emotions?

Adam Licea: Yes, many of the issues come from a struggle to handle emotional distress.

Brian Banducci: Many teachers and students are working very well together and other students do not.

Sara Margiotta: We should always take into account the environment and the other students in the classroom. We should also take a look at the amount of students with IEPs and 504s in each class so that teachers do not become overwhelmed.

Dr. Pam Magee: This is something we can look at through the Counseling Office.

Don Parcell summarized and reported on the Transportation Pricing and Scholarship Funding for 2023-24. Scholarship Funding comes from the General Fund and contributes to PCHS’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion goals.

The Board discussed the plausibility of approving the PCHS Transportation Scholarship/Fees and chose to table the item so that more information can be presented so that Board members can make an educated decision on the matter.  

Juan Pablo Herrera presented the Budget vs Actuals Update Materials through 12/31/22, which can be found in the Board materials.

Juan Pablo Herrera and Vanessa Pineda (Christy White & Associates) presented the 2021-2022 Independent Audit report, which can be found in the Board materials.

Robert Rene: Well done to Juan Pablo Herrera and his team! The changes are remarkable.

Juan Pablo Herrera presented the 2021-2022 Audit Corrective Action Plan, which can be found in the Board materials.

Juan Pablo Herrera and presented the 2022-2023 Audit Engagement Letter, which can be found in the Board materials.

Charlie Shortt: Presentation on potential Meatless Mondays at PCHS. Presentation can be found in Board materials.

Sara Margiotta: In your survey, did you ask if students were currently eating in the cafeteria?

Charlie Shortt: I did not.

Robert Rene: Thank you for coming back with data from the student body and this is a great template for other issues we have before us.

Sara Margiotta: If you can bring a proposal from the cafeteria? We do need to keep an eye on revenue.

Juan Pablo Herrera: They are recommending a trial period. If you vote on it in March, we can implement it in April.

Sara Margiotta: We can try to rollout Meatless Mondays after Spring Break.

Maggie Nance: A PR campaign can be developed to get students to begin using the cafeteria more because of Meatless Mondays.

Melissa Schilling: Some educational materials and nutritional materials could be distributed to the student body and families. Way to go, Charlie!

Next board meeting is Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 5 p.m. in Gilbert Hall.

Entered closed session at 8:37 p.m.

Returned to Open Session at 9:02 pm.

In closed session, the Board took action to issue a notice of non-reelection to seven probationary certificated teachers, pursuant to Education Code section 44921.21, subdivision (b), effective at the end of the 2022-2023 school year and directed the Executive Director or designee to send out appropriate legal notices.  The roll call vote was as follows:  Ayes - 5, Nays - 0, Abstentions - 0.