No changes needed.

Sarah and Krishna shared that they would like to use future Board meetings to take one or two agreements at a time and discuss together how they can and should show up specifically at our public board meetings.

No public comments on this item.

Greg appreciated Alana for stepping up to help with UMCS T Shirts.

Daniel appreciated Alana also for traffic volunteering, and the other traffic volunteers and staff. Sarah echoed that appreciation. Krishna echoed that appreciation.

Sarah appreciated staff for a great start to the school year.

Greg appreciated the staff members who have stepped into new roles this school year.

Krishna appreciated the newest members of the Admin Team.

Ann appreciated Ms. Isa and to Krishna and Daniel for supporting Sequoia and for a smooth transition into CA Poppy.

Sarah appreciated Ms. Melody for all she does and having aftercare on Day One.

Daniel appreciated Kevin, Mariah, and Steven who are day time staff also helping afterschool.

None.

No public comments on items not on the agenda.

Krishna shared her Head of School Report which is attached to this meeting in BoardOnTrack. She shared recent and upcoming events, including Back to School on Sept 6, Fall NWEA testing, and initial ELPAC assessment. Daniel shared that the second summer of the Oakland Montessori Training. Expanded Learning program during the summer painted classroom name murals, and ran all the way to July 31. Summer PD was nine days, lots of community building, preparing classrooms, Support Teacher Montessori Training, Orton Gillingham training, developing the Site Leadership Team, and more.

Krishna shared that the school continues to add students each day, launching enrollment tours for this school year. Kindergarten has a long waitlist, but other grades may have room. A bus ad is coming soon to the 880 corridor area. Kara asked about data on how applicants learn about the school and Krishna shared that the school can collect that information during tour sign ups. Sarah asked and Krishna shared that she and Buck hold the enrollment marketing work. Sarah offered a resource of an online course on digital marketing around school enrollment. Staff and student attendance are both above 96%. Greg commented that it was great seeing positive messages coming from the school on ParentSquare regarding attendance.

Krishna shared that Lead and Support teacher positions are all filled. Still hiring for Student Support Assistants and Aftercare Program Leaders.

Greg asked and Krishna shared a brief overview of the Orton Gillingham training. Parent Deb commented "thumbs up orton gillingham".

No other public comments on this item.

Kara shared the FAC report. FAC met with Krishna and Daniel at the beginning and end of summer, including yearlong event planning, which has all been shared on ParentSquare. First Morning Coffee is currently Sept 1, but that may move to Sept 8th. Sept 20th will be the first FAC meeting.

No public comments on this item.

The Board briefly organized who's bringing dinner through the end of 2023. Greg shared about a process for moving from being a professionally functioning school board to being an effective professional functioning school board, and one that is greatly focused on the outcomes of students. This is not about reimagining the school, or its processes, pedagogies, but instead about helping the Board be clear in its role, and then if there are changes that cascade down, then those are very likely to do so because they are desired at other levels of the organization. Getting started includes more time reading some resources, including learning the language of the Effective School Board (ESB) framework, including what's the work of the board and what's the work of the Head of School. The board then listens to community and (re)codifies the vision and values. From there, a few student outcomes goals are prioritized, along with guardrails that protect the community's values. Then interim goals and interim guardrails are created, along with an adopted calendar for when progress will be monitored throughout the year during public board meetings. Effective school boards spend at least 50% of their public meeting time monitoring the goals and guardrails. As part of this, most effective boards go through both policy diet and committee diet processes, and use a General Consent Report even more. The Board discussed shrinking Finance Committee report outs at future Board meetings and leveraging the General Consent Report more.

Sarah asked what it looks like, and Greg shared about the board receiving outcome data reports (per an adopted calendar) and then engaging in questions about the report and hearing more from Staff on their analysis of the data. Board members shall refrain from offering advice or suggestions on what staff should do, and instead listen for staff's analysis and own plan moving forward and how it aligns to the goals and guardrails. Listening for the vision and values is a multi-pronged process, including starting with the current words, using survey information, asking students, families, and staff. Krishna shared that this sounded like a long process and what first steps might look like and Greg shared that he would offer additional readings for now and helping the Finance Committee diet. Krishna shared that it will be important to organize and plan communications from the school so that posts aren't lost and families aren't inundated.

Additionally, Greg shared about future Board Brown Act and Secretary training opportunities.

Greg shared a BoardOnTrack training with Board Candidate Amy.

Kara clarified that her FAC Board seat ends in October and is seeking a replacement and would consider general board membership, too.

No public comments on this item.

No changes needed. No public comments on this item.

Greg shared that dyslexia screening is now law in California, and OUSD's Superintendent shared enrollment information for OUSD which showed more students in their Student Information System (SIS) than their budget projects and also fewer students on their in-real-life Day 10 count than in their SIS. The Great School Choices blog has been posted lists of charter-run schools with spaces available -- schools all around the City are actively seeking additional enrollment. Greg asked and Krishna shared that the UMCS is currently enrolling more students than it did last year, per our enrollment plan, and bucking this overall enrollment trend. Greg shared that the D5 OUSD board election had an error in candidates qualifying for the ballot, but it was resolved, and that OUSD is seeking volunteers for its various oversight committees.

No public comments on this item.

None at this time.

Sarah reflected that we navigated and accepted non-closure tonight on potential improvements to how the board operates. No public comments on this item.

At 6:53pm, Sarah announced that the Board would go into Closed Session on Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Head of School.

No public comments on this item. 

At 6:58pm, the Board returned to open session. No actions were taken.