Tina Hernandez, Chief Academic Officer of Lighthouse Community Public Schools, led the board and staff in a land acknowledgment for the Ohlone people.

Hearing none and seeing none, public comment was closed.

Rich Harrison, Chief Executive Officer, presented his reflection and update for the Board. He discussed academic performance, student attendance, staff retention, and a quick update on finances. Rich also briefly discussed an event that acknowledged LCPS from Families in Action called "Raising the Bar" to the organization's continuous improvement on state assessments.

The board asked about the average length of retention for LCPS staff.

Anna Martin, Chief Operating Officer, responded that while the number shifts based on specific role needs and grants, the average staff member works with LCPS for roughly three years. Rich commented on possible future research on how we can lengthen staff retention.

Josh Weintraub, Director of College and Career Success, talked about LCPS's growth of college and career programming and the multiple sectors of the work. These programs include college access, dual enrollment, CTE pathways, work-based learning, and academic scheduling counseling & support. Josh spoke to the level of growth that has expanded for students in pursuing career training programs, college, or the career of their choice. 

Josh discussed grants that helped invest in programming and the teams that drive student success, then spoke further about the strengths and weaknesses of the College and Career program, with a specific strength being that Lighthouse students are trending upward in college enrollment. Josh mentioned a specific data trend around FAFSA, where applications are down around 40% nationally how students have to work around technical difficulties, and how that negatively impacts students choosing colleges based on FAFSA estimates.

The board asked how colleges are responding to the FASFA complications and Josh responded that he's unsure on how they are viewing and responding to the issue. The board commented on celebrating Lighthouse's CCI index results. The board asked about ensuring consistent quality for dual enrollment instructors. Josh responded that LCPS tries to cultivate the relationship with good professors and ensuring those relationships sustain while providing feedback to colleges about professors who had room to improve.

The board asked about feedback from graduates and whether they have expressed if this has helped them prepare for the college experience. Josh responded that the informal feedback has been positive, highlighting how it familiarizes students with expectations and college systems. 

Erin Wesseldine, Senior Director of Special Education and Specialized Programming, presented an executive summary, discussing strengths of academic and educational impact, continued strong demand for the program, strong staff retention of counselors, ed specialists, and student support aides, as well as improved 1:1 coaching and supervision.

Erin also discussed areas of growth, such as the cost of programs, designing and implementing a strong professional development scope and sequence for special education staff and general education teammates, as well as managing the budget in a tighter fiscal climate. 

Erin discussed enrollment patterns for special education and specialized programming, highlighting the percentages in which students qualify for students and how enrollment could drive qualifying services. Erin highlighted how LCPS schools have made improvements on disproportionately disciplining students with IEPs and that students with disabilities average daily attendance is similar to students without IEPs and how LCPS can improve on addressing chronically absent students who have IEPs.

Erin reviewed the school-based, brief model of counseling that LCPS uses and that while LCPS has seen success in connecting families and students to outside providers for services that LCPS does not provide at this time, building teacher capacity to discuss difficult conversations with students is an area of growth.

The Board asked is LCPS has looked into telehealth programming opportunities. Erin responded that telehealth still requires paying for a provider and a supervisor, but the waitlist has not warranted the service commitment. 

The board asked about the connection between chronic absenteeism, students with IEPs, and student experience in continuous attendance in Oakland and after the pandemic. Erin responded that her team has explored some of the root causes for chronic abseentism, which resulted in varied responses of transportation issues, families expressing personal hardships, and how her team has engaged in conversations to close the chronic absenteeism gap through incentives, family collaboration, and expanding possible future services. 

Megan Bacigalupi, Chief of Staff, talked about LCPS's strategic planning project relating to LCPS' LCAP. She reviewed the external partnership work that Bellwether is working on, their work with the advisory committee, and steering committee. Some areas of strength that have been identified were relationships, talent recruitment, and curriculum selection. Areas of growth are curriculum implementation and instruction because it varies across schools, professional development and coaching, as well as decision making and internal communication.

Megan also briefly touched upon LCPS's work with Community Schools Learning Exchange (CSLX) and the work that this partnership advises on how the organization can continuously improve. 

The board had no questions.

Linda Wu, Director of Finance, gave a finance update beginning with timeline overview for 23-24 and provided updates on areas that LCPS continues to monitor such as attendance and enrollment, cash flow vs bond covenants, the budget to date.

Rich Harrison, CEO, discussed the family intent to return updates and the data of families who are returning, those who are undecided, and those who have confirmed they are not returning, clarifying that families who are not returning are the majority moving out of the area. Rich also spoke to the lottery and enrollment process and how overall enrollment trends are projecting per grade and school. 

The board commended the work of the Operations team who manages the enrollment and student recruitment process. The board asked if LCPS may ever consider mixed grade classrooms. Rich responded that LCPS will mix TK and Kinder in the future, but it has not been discussed for other grades.

Linda Wu, Director of Finance, gave an update on the impact of the approved Material Revision on finances and identification of FTE reductions, consolidations for subsequent years, and the updated Teacher in Training model.

Rich Harrison, CEO, added comments on how LCPS has improved the Teacher in Training model but is awaiting a response from some key grants that fund these critical roles. 

Anna Martin, Chief Operating Officer, reviewed the proposal of partially outsourcing a custodial model and restructuring the internal staffing model to lower cost and increase quality, highlighting existing challenges of staff retention and opportunities for reduced pricing. Anna also discussed the proposal of a meal service contract vendor selection and the final contract that was produced from a process of multi-vendor selection. Additionally mentioned was the upcoming safety grant project RPFs for a visitor management system and a new camera system that remains compliant and low cost.

Anna Martin, Chief Operating Officer, provided an update on the Summer 2024 project work revolving around building work for Lodestar, such as timeline and overall process. Anna also discussed the Capital Improvement Project and funding updates such as the amount of total bond funds secured and how they have been allocated. 

The board had no questions.

The board discussed the closed session agenda item.