##VIDEO ID:https://ousd.granicus.com/player/clip/2641?view_id=4&redirect=true## Hello. Welcome everybody to our January 2nd special meeting. If we could please have roll call to establish quorum. On the roll call to establish quorum, student director Simmons, student director Vasquez, director Brohard? Here. Director Williams? Here, sir. Director Lorimer? Presente. Director Bachelor? Here. Director Thompson? Present. Vice President Hutchinson? Present. President Davis, quorum present. Thank you. Just to, let the community and anyone watching know kind of the plan for today, we are going to get the meeting started now. We are then going to briefly recess to closed session. And then we were going to come back downstairs for open session and have, 3 public hearings scheduled for tonight. So the public hearings will go in the order that they're listed on the agenda, And we'll try to, meet the scheduled times as closely as we can, but we're it's just a little bit out of our control. So just to let everyone know, once we get started, we will be exiting and then coming back down to start open session. So can we please have interpretation check? Yes, Vice President Hutchinson. Moving to interpretation announcement. For tonight's meeting, we have 2 languages for live interpretation. They are Arabic and Spanish. For in person, we have laptops in the back of the room for interpretation. Please see Marissa. We will start with Arabic. I will lower all attendees' hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Ms. Le, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Of course. Thank you, miss Sule. Check attendees to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we'll not start Arabic interpretation. Next we'll go to Spanish. I will lower all Chinese hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Ms. Vargas, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Of course. Great. Thank you, Ms. Vargas. Now checking attendees to see if any hands are raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Spanish interpretation. And that concludes interpretation announcement, and we'll check again later in the meeting. Mister Rick Schrow, I'll turn it back to you. Yeah. Mister president? Thank you so much, and apologies for my lateness. I do see some hands in the audience. Is everybody getting the support that they need from the interpretation? This is for interpretation? Is it for interpretation? That's right. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. So we will start interpretation, miss, Burgess. Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you. And there are, So I think people are handing it out. Very good. With that, we will go to my disclosure of what will be discussed in closed session. So the only item in closed session is d 124-2020, which is conference with legal counsel on anticipated litigation. At this time, we'll take any public comment on closed session items. Mister Hollis, is there any public comment? Yes. There is one. Usada Olegbala. How much time time would you like to allot for public comment? Let's say 2 minutes, please. Alright. Intent and closed session is to discuss potential litigation. Potential litigation based on what's happening tonight could become an issue. You are having special meetings at an exceptional large number. A special meeting is supposed to be called when urgent matters that need to be dealt with before the next regular meeting. My question to you is, what is on the agenda tonight that could not be addressed at the regular meeting of January 14th? You have on the agenda tonight, on the consent calendar, h 1, h 2, and h 3. Those items are already in place. H one started August 28, 2024. H two started the contract October 2, 2024. H three, the contract started August 4, 2024. There's no need of an urgency to deal with these consent items because they've already started. As it relates to the minutes, there's no urgency to have the minutes approved to call a special meeting for that purpose. As it relates to the starting of the charter schools renewal, l 1, l 2, those renewals are not set to begin until July 1, 2025. There's no sense of urgency to have a meeting around l 1 and l 2. L 3, related to Bay Tech, the, the meet the the renewal of the need for space is not needed until February 3, 2025. The meeting on January 14th could could adequately deal with that issue. So the question is, what is your legal pursuant to law that call you to have a special to meeting? Do you realize that every time you have a special meeting, there is a cost factor, translation, utilities, staff has to be paid? Everything you do should take a fiscal consideration before you do it, and you didn't do it when you call a special meeting tonight. Thank you. And I will address the the reason behind the timing at the for each item at at the appropriate time. Is there any more public comment, mister Hollis? That was the last speaker for this item, mister president. Thank you. With that, we'll, recess for closed session, and we'll be back down as soon as we possibly can. We recognize there's a lot of people waiting for the, different items tonight. Paul, please reestablish quorum. Yes. On the quorum, roll call, Student Director Simmons, Student Director Vasquez, those are absent. Director Breaux Hart? Here. Director Williams? Here. Director Lerma? Presente. Joe Kadashler? Here. Director Thompson? Present. Vice President Hutchinson? President Davis? Here. Quorum present. Thank you so much. And, we'll now do the, second interpretation announcement. Yes, President Davis. Moving to a second interpretation announcement. For tonight's meeting, we have 2 languages for live interpretation. They are Arabic and Spanish. For in person, we have laptops in the back of the room for interpretation. Please see. There's also closed caption feature available on Zoom that you can use by clicking the closed caption icon on your Zoom taskbar. We'll start with Arabic. I will lower all Chinese hands. Please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Ms. Le, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Thank you, Ms. Saleh. Checking attendees to see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. If you need Arabic interpretation, now is the time to raise your hand. Seeing no hands raised, we will not start with Arabic interpretation. We will next go to Spanish. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. Ms. Vargas, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Thank you very much. Spanish announcement is done. Great. Thank you, Ms. Vargas. Anyone that needs Spanish interpretation, now is the time to raise your hand. And I also do see laptops that's out there, so we will continue the Spanish interpretation. And that will conclude the interpretation announcement for this evening, and we'll check again later. Mr. Rikschwager, turn it to you. Mr. President, the translation or interpretation availability announcement has been completed. MR. Thank you so much, and welcome, everybody. Happy New Year to us all. And I just want to appreciate my colleagues and also members of the public for coming out to an unusually calendared meeting. This is actually my last meeting as president of this board, and we unfortunately did have to calendar this because of the deadlines and legal requirements for some of the items that are that we're hearing tonight. So with that, I will move to item G, which is the statement of reportable action. So our only item was item C1-one hundred and twenty four 3165. I'm sorry, that's the incorrect one. Our only item was D1, 24 dash 2020, Conference of Legal Counsel, and the Board did discuss this item. And so with that, we will move to item h, which is adoption of the general consent report. Is there a motion? So moved. 2nd. You, Director Thompson. To Director Lerma, is there any comments, from my colleagues on this item? And I'll just note that, the minutes the reason we have the minutes on is, of course, we have new members joining on Monday, our board. They will be sworn in on Monday morning, and it wouldn't be appropriate for them to vote on meetings, the minutes of meetings where they were not present. So it's good to get this out of the way with our current board. And there are a couple grants which are also urgent in terms of deadlines for accepting the grants. Any other comment before we go to public comment? Mister House. Yes. Sorry. Did you have something, doctor Walker? Yeah. I just I'm thinking in the, coming year, something, doctor Walker? Yeah. I just I'm thinking in the, coming year and next next week that it would be really helpful to, again, have contracts, that we are approving that have not already started. These are grants. And some are grants. Yeah. Yeah. These are grants. So I think, I don't think we've actually I don't know if we've received the I think this approval of a grant. Mister Hoss. Yes. For this item, we have one, Assata Olegbala. Still 2 minutes. We'll have to go back to 1 minute now because we have a lot of, items tonight. Alright. I have clarification. Are you taking all of h in one minute? That's right. Yeah. Y'all a doozy. H 2 is, substance control for the central kitchen. Usually, when you have an arrangement to have environmental contamination issues dealt with, that is done before the project is put in place. You have a central kitchen that's been in place. Now you have contamination of the soil for for students, but 11,000 neighbors will also be covered with this grant. H 3, peer and peer youth mental health. How did you determine that Oakland Tech should be the mental health, peer pilot program? We have several high schools. Why was this high school determined to be the recipient? The other, item is h, I'm sorry. That's the only 2. So I I don't understand how we're doing things. There's no quantitative or qualitative demographic, data to support why Oakland Tech is receiving it, except that the board member has student there and, should have. And every time Oakland Tech comes up, you should have recused yourself. You have a personal insurance at Oakland Tech. Thank you. Yeah. My student graduated some time ago now. Very good. Can we take a vote, please, mister Rakestahl? On a roll call to adopt the general consent report as stated, the student directors are absent. Director Bachelor? Yes. Director Brohard? Yes. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Larimer? Yes. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice president Hutchinson? No. President Davis? Yes. Motion is adopted. Thank you. With that, we will move to our public hearings. And so the way these will work tonight is these are decision hearings. And so we will for each one, we will have a presentation from staff, then we will have a presentation from the charter school, then we will take public comment on that particular school, and then we will have board motion, discussion, and vote. And so we will I will now open the hearing for I 124-2355, which is the renewal application for Oakland Charter High School. And I'll welcome miss Craig Arnold and her staff up to make the staff presentation. Good evening. My name is Kelly Craig Arnold. I am the director of the OUSD Office of Charter Schools. Let's see if we can get this working. There is a non button. There we go. And I'm here with Madison Thomas, our deputy director. So we will be providing an overview of our staff report and recommendation for the renewal of Oakland Charter High School. As we have shared at the previous 7 renewals, this this year. Charter schools typically come up for charter schools typically come up for renewal every 5 years, although in the case of this batch of renewals, it has been 8 years since, OCHS' last renewal. The, renewal process is governed by education code, which mandates the 90 day timeline that you will see on the right side of this slide. Here are the 4 charter school renewal criteria. This is also how our staff org, staff reports are organized. So the first renewal criteria is has the, charter school presented a sound educational program? Is the school demonstrably newer feature of state law for charter renewal is the 3 tier system, which, these 3 tiers are determined by the California Department of Education, are now based on the state dashboard results, where callers are assigned to the school based on their performance relative to the rest of the state. Most charter schools fall into the medium tier or the middle tier by default, but they can be in the high or low tier if they meet certain dashboard criteria. And OCHS is in the middle tier, and I believe I am now turning over to miss Thomas. Thank you. So Oakland Charter High School or OCHS, is a high school within the A Method Public Schools Charter Management Organization, otherwise known as AMS, which has 6 total schools, 3 of which are in Oakland. As miss Craig Arnold mentioned, OCHS was placed in the middle tier by the state, which means there is no default recommendation on whether to deny or approve the renewal petition, but they are eligible for a 5 year renewal term if approved. So this slide goes through the general renewal timeline for OCHS. We won't go through all of this today, because it is a long night. But as you can see on the slide, the timeline does adhere to the 60, 90 day timeline required by California Education Code. On this slide, we have the California dashboard results for OCHS over the past 3 years. So as you can see, in 22, 23, the school did see a decrease in either color and or status for all of the indicators. This trend continued in 23, 24 with the exception of the ELA indicator, where the schools saw an increase of 25.2 points on their average distance, from standard. So the next section of slides will look at the school's educational program in accordance with criteria 1 of the renewal tier criterion. So here you will see the results for the, English S back, for both OCHS and for the average of the OUSD high schools. So you can see here that over the course of the charter term, OCH OCH's average proficiency rate did decline for most years, with the exception of 2324, where OCHS saw a, 12 percentage point increase in the average proficiency rate. While we did see a declining trend, we will note that OCHS did have proficiency rates, which was higher than the OUSD average for each year of the charter term. Similarly for math, we saw that OCHS did have a decrease in the average proficiency rate for each year of the charter term. However, again, OCHS's average proficiency rate was consistently higher than the OUSD average. This slide looks at both the 4 year graduation rate and the A to G rate for, 2324. So as you can see on the slide, both the 4 year graduation rate and the A to G rate for OCHS, was higher than the OUSD average for both, the school overall, and for student sub groups. And with that, I'll pass it back to miss Craig Arnold. Thank you. Alright. Criteria 2, is the charter school of the month really likely to be able to implement the proposed program? This, comprises the bulk of our staff report, and so I will go into greater detail on that in the coming slides. So as you can see, even though there has been a steep enrollment decline, the school's 24, 25 census, day enrollment of 331, still does make it sustainably sized. However, the school's budget projections, or multi year budget projections, do assume a fairly substantial increase in enrollment, to 42027, which we do think is likely unrealistic, given the years of declining enrollment. And then similarly, the previous 3 years of board approved budgets also over projected enrollment, which is a concerning trend. However, even if the budget is based on unrealistically high enrollment numbers, as you can see, their fund balance is extremely high. So they would be able to absorb, possible deficit spending. Additionally, I'll note that the 21, 22, and 23 22, 23 audits both identified material material weaknesses over financial reporting, in part because the CMO, required material audit adjustments to be made to the financial statements, and did not ensure accurate or reliable year end re accounting records. Earlier this year, my office did issue a notice of concern to AMPS regarding this repeated audit finding, as well as their multiple late audits. In 2022, their audit was 6 months late, and in 2023, the audit was 5 months late. The CMO has again missed the state's December 15th deadline, for the 23, 24 audit, so we don't have that yet to review. I'm now going to turn to the notice issued to OCHS by the OUSD board in November, November, including some of the legal background on this slide. Per education code, 47607 e, a charter school, and any renewal tier may be denied, due to being unlikely to successfully implement the proposed program, which you'll remember is renewal criteria 2, for either of the two reasons listed here, substantial physical or governance concerns, or the school is not serving all students who wish to attend. It's important to note that in order to deny for either of these reasons, the authorizer must give at least 30 days notice, and an opportunity for the school to cure the violations, with a corrective action plan. The authorizer can then only deny with either of the 2 follow the findings, at the bottom of the slide, which is the corrective action has been unsuccessful, or the violations are sufficiently severe and pervasive as to render a corrective action plan unviable. The OUSD board in November issued a 47607 E notice due to substantial fiscal and governance concerns at the CMO. This slide and the following slide provide a brief summary of the notice, and the full notice is linked in the agenda item. There is a much more detailed explanation, in the actual notice, but part of OUSD's concern about AMSIS governance, was due to the lack of the board's oversight in improving multiple contracts with clear conflicts of interest with top CMO leadership. A simplified version is kind of shown on the right side of the screen, of the concerning contracts highlighting the relationships between the board chair, AMP's leadership, and the leadership of the company whose contract the AMP's board approved, which was called ADNOVA. Which was called ADNOVA. And then, the 47607 e notice also highlighted fiscal concerns, in addition to the governance concerns in the previous slide. So there are a notice, or a variety of things in that notice, including, one regarding contracts that were approved and paid with little or no documentation of services being rendered. For example, and again, this is detailed in the notice, one contract was approved and paid almost $9,000 monthly, and yet, AMS cannot generate any evidence of the services provided. And another one was receiving $16,000 monthly for several months before the services even began. Additionally, the notice pointed out fiscal irregularities, such as large discrepancies in records, and other concerns, such as rehiring the former CEO into a different position, despite him holding other full times jobs, as well as inconsistent bookkeeping. In response to the notice, that the EEOC board sent to OCHS, the school submitted a corrective action plan on December 12, and I'm just gonna breeze through these real fast. The school itself is gonna talk a little bit more about their corrective action plan, and I don't want to speak too much for them. But we do have kind of a brief, summary of some of the highlights of it here on the left slot side of the slide, as well as in the next slide. And the full cap is included as an agenda item as well. We did come up with some supporting or guiding questions to support mo board members in evaluating the school's cap to determine if either of the denial standards apply, which we also used when we were creating our staff report. So some of these questions, not inclusive of all the questions, but some guiding questions. Does the cap adequately identify the root causes of the conflict of interest violations outlined in the notice, and propose effective solutions to address them? Does the cap hold accountable those individuals who committed the violations? Does the cap establish stronger governance procedures to, prevent future oversight failures? And are the violations sufficiently severe and pervasive as to render a cap unviable? Alright. This is a very similar slide. So again, on the left are some of the steps that, were outlined by the school in the cap, including forensic audit, contract review, new software, more training. I'll let them detail that, more. And then, also some some guiding questions that we used, in our staff report, and would encourage board members to reflect on too, as they're making a decision. Does the cap adequately identify the root causes of the fiscal mismanagement and the inconsistent bookkeeping outlined in the notice, and propose effective solutions to address them? Does the cap propose effective fiscal safeguards to prevent the misuse of public funds in the future? Does the cap establish monitoring systems so so we found that the school did meet both of these criteria. For the staff recommendation, so in the following slides, I'm gonna provide a review of our staff recommendation, but first, I do want to restate the findings that would be required if the board does vote to deny. So as I mentioned earlier, if the board does vote to deny on governance concerns, from the 47607 e notice, there must be either the finding that the corrective action proposed by the school has been unsuccessful, or the violations are sufficiently severe and pervasive as to render a corrective action plan unviable. That's all the findings that would be need would need to be made because OUSD did issue that 30 day notice. If the board votes to deny on any other reasons beyond the fiscal governance concerns highlighted in the notice, the findings in the right hand column, would need to be made, but again, you do not need to make these in order to deny for the fiscal or governance concerns from the notice. This is again, a very brief summary of our staff report. In terms of strengths, we noted their high proficiency rates in both math and ELA, as well as their high graduation rates, and high A through G completion rates. We additionally point out that the cap does identify many appropriate next steps in response to OUSD's notices, or notice. The challenges were generally not related to academics, although we did have concerns about the lack of a career pathway, and the fact that the percentage of ELs making progress has declined. But most concerns were regarding operations and governance, primarily at the CMO, not the school level. Some of the, fiscal challenges include the organization's recent financial audits, and find or audit findings. They're extremely late audit reports, and consistent over projection of enrollment in the, school's board approved budgets. Similarly, we highlight that their governing board does have significant room for improvement, as well as the fact that there has been very high leadership turnover rates at the CMO level. And then very governance of the CMO, as we pointed out this evening. However, it is our opinion that there is not sufficient evidence at this time to conclusively make either of the findings that are necessary for a non renewal pursuant to education code 47607 E. Pursuant to education code 47607 e. Therefore, we are recommending renewal, and only if the charter school commits to benchmarks outlined on this slide. The benchmarks would require written quarterly updates to my office the corrective action plan steps, as well as annual in person updates to the OUSD board. Would also require the school to share the results from the, audits, that they, discussed in their cap, as well as to add 2 additional board members to their board by the end of this current school year. Thank you, and that concludes our presentation. Thank you, and thanks for all your work. It's very thorough. We'll now hear from the, charter school itself. You have 10 minutes. Thank you. Can you please confirm the 10 minutes? I believe that presentation was closer to 20. Do we have 10 or 20? Take the time to your meeting. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Good evening, president Davis, vice president Hutchinson, and OUSD board of directors. Happy new year, and thank you for your time today. I'm Adrienne Barnes, chief operating officer and currently interim chief executive officer of A Method Public Schools. It's my pleasure to present with our team Oakland Charter High School to you tonight and our updates for you since the initial public hearing. We're proud of the work that has been done thus far and are committed to continuous improvement and seeing this work through for the benefit of our students. I'm going to hand it over to Mary Busby, our interim chief academic officer, who will begin our presentation with reviewing our responses to the board's questions. Good evening, Board of Directors. As miss Barnes stated, my name is Mary Busby, and I am the interim CAO with A Method Public Schools. We're excited about presenting, and the following slides are a follow-up to the OAS, OUSD board questions. As you know, enrollment and attendance are key. Currently, our daily attendance rate is 92.6%. We, however, continue to work to build out our MTSS systems and attendance procedures to better track attendance and provide targeted interventions when students are absent. Complaints. Having a caring inclusive community is our priority for OCHS. We value feedback and work hard to address and resolve complaints in a timely manner. We have policies and procedures in place to listen to concerns and provide training and support to site directors and staffs around these practices. At this time, we currently do not have any students who are considered to have extensive needs. The student population is considered mild to moderate that o u OCHS serves. They are fully included throughout the school day. We do have a robust team that works to support every student and as the student needs grow and adjust, the IEP team is meeting to adjust and meet to those needs. Transportation was the question, and so currently, we do not have any students with IEPs who have transportation on their IEP. We do have a solid procedure in place for IEP teams to review the need and determine if transportation is required as a related services outlined in FAPE, which is a fair appropriate education. Leadership. In the past 5 years, there have been 4 CAO's, including the current one, 4 site directors, including the current one who is on maternity leave, and 5 CEO's, including the current one on leave. We are committed to retaining a strong leadership and have worked hard to build a solid team. I will now turn it over to Adrienne Barnes to discuss our cap. Our corrective action plan addresses 3 main buckets, leadership adjustments, governance enhancements, and operational and fiscal enhancements. For our leadership adjustments, those began in mid-twenty 24 with the hiring of me as the chief operating officer and Maria Arechiga as our chief strategy and compliance officer, as the board and CEO understood the need to expand our understood the need to expand our depth in Charter experience and compliance. We've since added Kimberly Pelmore as our senior director of finance and administration as we understood the need to have an experienced leader in our finance department and to strengthen our procedures and our fiscal compliance. We take this seriously. The 3 of us are CBO trained and have been and have participated in the leadership training provided by CSDC, the Charter Schools Development Center. Additionally, miss Pellmore and I are both CBO trained and certified by CASBO, the California Association of School Business Officials. The AMPS Board is focused on investing in and retaining leaders with strength in charter business and compliance. Since the notice of concern, the board and administration have taken the following actions. I've been appointed as interim CEO with over a decade of experience in charter school business and a focus on compliance. I am determined to help bring AMPS to the spotlight for strength in operations with systems, processes, and procedures to ensure continuity of compliance moving us forward. We're also committed to finding a leadership coach and adviser or an executive administrator who will guide our CEO and our leadership team. We've already begun outreach and expect to retain someone sooner than the April 1st date in our cap, assuming the Office of Charter Schools will agree with our proposed coach. The board will conduct a nationwide CEO search to find a permanent CEO with a focus on strengthening governance and compliance, supporting the further success of our students and our staff. We've also already begun building the advisory committee, and are sourcing external members as well as internal in order to provide additional January 15th, our fiscal policies and procedures will require that all vendor contracts over $50,000 are board approved, as well as all employment agreements over $100,000 will be board approved. I'm committed to ensuring that happens effective immediately prior to January 15th. For our governance enhancements, as of December 11th, we've had a change in our board leadership as mister Gilbert Lopez stepped down as board chair, and mister Edgar Quiros stepped up as the board chair. Mister Quiros and I have been working together to work through various elements of our corrective action plan, and we will continue to do so through its completion. We're also committed to bringing on new board members and met with Board on track to finalize our board assessment. That assessment will be sent to our board this weekend and completed no later than January 31st. We will also work with Board On Track to enhance our board job description and recruitment process over the next few months as well as to gain assistance with securing a governance coach for our board and leadership. As part of our commitment to 2 new board members, As part of our commitment to 2 new Board members by June 30th, we welcome an appointee by OUSD to our Board. Lastly, we are scheduling a 2 day ethics training as well as the annual Brown Act and conflict of interest training for our board and our full administrative team. As for forwarding the slides. As for our operational and fiscal enhancements, we're commissioning a forensic audit to review conflicts of interest, familial control, and contractual oversight for the most recent 4 years, and we'll terminate any contracts that are found to violate AMP's policy, conflict laws, or any other law. This will be completed by June 30th. Additionally, the conflict of interest training that was mentioned on the previous slide will be completed by February 28th, And again, all of our Board members and our full leadership team will participate in that training. The fiscal guardrails that we've implemented includes scrutinizing of invoices by everyone from our AP Processor to our Senior Director of Finance and Administration to our back office provider. Checks do not go out until I've reviewed the invoice and the check register for final approval. We are checking for compliance with contracts to ensure that there is one in place, that we have the contract or the invoice properly approved according to our policy, that the goods or services were rendered, and that we are paying according to schedule. In the following slides, we'll also add more in about compliance with contractual agreements to ensure that we're documenting what it means to have services rendered. We've also already updated our fiscal policies and procedures in July August of 2024. We'll do so again January 15th, and then we'll do an annual update in June of this year. We're in the process of implementing Procurify, which is a procurement software, by April 1st, and that will automate most of our purchasing processes and will further enforce our approval policy in house. It will also help our finance department and purchasers with seeing their real time data to make better budgeting decisions. Ants previously had accounting and nearly all fiscal services in house. While this can be a good setup for organizations of our size, with the turnover, the previous turnover in staff and previous lack of training in house, the board hired a back office firm which started in July of 2024. We've also retained Christie White as our new auditor for 2023, 24, and we requested an audit extension on December 6th to the office of charter schools for an extension until February 28, 2025. We understand that that is late according to the deadline. However, it is significantly sooner than our past audits. As for policy updates, in addition to the fiscal policy updates, we are also revising our conflict of interest code and separating the nepotism policy no later than, March 1st, but likely next month. Our finance and compliance teams will work with legal to do a contract review no later than July 1st, and this is on top of the forensic audit, and it will review all of our current contracts. We're also in the midst of demos and talks with providers for our contract management software as a single repository for all of our contracts. This will manage and track our contracts for our schools and our home office, further enhancing our compliance and ensuring accuracy of our record keeping. In addition to or as a build out to that contract management system, we're working toward including the ability to also house and track all vendor deliverables. We will then create monitoring reminders, and when our finance team checks invoices to determine if services were rendered, All parties will be able to see the flow of documentation so that they see that those services were indeed rendered, and the approvals at each step. We're also working with legal to create a standard contract template to include the submission of a summary of work performed, as well as supporting materials on a set monthly schedule for all contracts. We'll also do periodic reviews with our admin team and legal to assess compliance with contract terms and continued alignment with our operations. Staff training on fiscal policies and procedures started in July, but we are adding a staff handbook and internal document to clearly outline process for our purchasers, which will be completed no later than February 28th. Staff training has been provided by me and is now being provided by miss Palmore, our senior director of finance and administration. Finally, we confirm that the LEAF contract has been terminated, and all work has ended. With regard to OUSD and the office of charter schools, we are absolutely committed to strengthening our fiscal operations at AMPS. We thank miss Kelly Craig Arnold and the OCS staff for their recommendation to renew OCHS for another 5 years. We agree with the benchmarks as set forth by their office. That includes providing quarterly updates to the office of charter schools and the OUSD board through the implementation of the cap. Thereafter, we'll deliver annual in person updates either to the OUSD board and or to the charter committee according to your preference. We'll share the results of both our forensic audit and our contract audits with the office of charter schools, and we are committed to expanding the AMPS board by adding 2 additional members by June 30, 2025. We do ask that OUSD adds another appointee to the AMPS board to help us meet that goal. We are committed to collaborating with the Office of Charter Schools and Oakland Unified School District in service of Oakland Charter High School and our students. Thank you. And I'll pass it on to miss Busby. OCHS is committed to providing a rigorous academic program for all of our scholars. We are committed to creating a community of lifelong learners in the college, career, and beyond. We proudly foster a supportive engaging school with a variety of student led clubs and empower and encourage our students to concurrently enroll in their local community colleges. We are WASC accredited. We are a recipient of an AP Honor Roll Award, as well as being nationally recognized high school for serving a diverse learner of community. I start that over. We are WASC accredited, a recipient of an AP honor roll, as well as being a nationally recognized high school for serving a diverse community of students of color. Yes. That's true. News and world reports have ranked us at the top 10% of the best high school. As a middle track school under AB 1505, Oakland Charter High meets the criteria for renewal and has the recommendation of the office of charter school. We ask you to grant our renewal and allow the dedicated work, continue in service of our students, and honor hard work. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. We will now move to public comments. We can take 15 minutes at 1 minute each. Mr. Hollis, how many speakers do we have? We have 7. Go ahead and read all 7 names. Yeah. Let's go ahead and if we just have 7, I think we could do up to 2 minutes each. You said 1 minute each. Correct? Oh, I see one more person waving from the audience. I think she wants to Okay. So do you The first seven first seven speakers, the first speaker, first name is Kaye. Last name Ganzong. Next, Asada Olegbala and Juanita Mesa Velasquez, Eliza Garcia, Douglas McLellan, Steven Liang, Luan Nguyen, and number 8 is Melanie Davis. Thank you. If your name was called, please come up, and you can have 2 minutes each. Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Good evening, school board directors. My name is Kusslyn Ganzorig, and I hope you had a good holiday season and happy New Years. My purpose this evening is to gain recognition for OCH's commitment to students' excellence. I'm proud to say that our school has an a through g, a completion rate at 97%, and has played a part in the success of our graduates, and have received throughout their entire college education. Not only have am I on track to meet the a through g completion rate, but but collectively, I have taken a total of 7 AP classes. We're also taking dual enrollment classes at various colleges under the pro at the district. Together, these academic programs are setting me up to excel when attending college, and I can't be more appreciative of this opportunity. With the path our school has set us up with, I'm excited to hear back from the 15 schools I've applied to. For these reasons, amongst many more, I'm asking the board to approve of our charter renewal. And the difference OCH has made for my family is true truly immense full. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. I hope you've been doing well this holiday season. My name is Alyssa Garcia. As you remember, I am a speaker from last time, and I'd like to restate why OCHS needs to stay open. As I said last time, the community at OCHS is unlike many other schools. The teachers promote equality and help however they can. And though community is a value that should be cherished in all schools, I'd really like to talk about the academics. Since being at OCHS, the teachers provide insight that I couldn't get at other schools. And they're able to take a hard concept and break it down into easier parts for all students to understand. My math teachers helped me achieve an NWA t math score of 271, which places me well above the state average. The support of multiple teachers allows me to learn and get better, and overall, the faculty staff members help me get the grades I need to prepare myself for a better future. Without this school, I lose my community in a place that doesn't value students and their academics. Additionally, OCHL helps with college preparation, giving us access to internships and helping us with dual enrollment. I urge you all to keep my school open. Thank you, and have a wonderful rest of the night. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello again, Board of Directors. If you remember, my name is Luan Nguyen. I was a speaker at the December renewal meeting. This evening, I would like to reiterate the necessity to keep OCHS open. I'm in my junior year at OCHS, and I felt nothing but love and care from both staff and students here. Choosing choosing to renew OCH choosing to renew this school means to protect and continue a legacy a legacy the legacy of many students and staff that have found a sense of community here. In this community, many many of our students take advanced courses by sophomore year. OCHS thoroughly prepares us for college and also provides us a clear pathway to complete our a to g requirements. Tonight, I implore you to renew OCHS. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Good evening, School Board directors. My name is Steven Liang, and it's so good to see you all again, and happy new years. Since the last meeting, I've been busier than ever with my college applications. Not just me, but also our college counselors and our family of staff. They've been busier than ever during this application season writing our recommendation letters, reviewing essays, and even ensuring our well-being, all while being concerned about our charter renewal and if they'll even have a job next year. They've gone the extra mile and have gone above and beyond, even spending their own holiday season, supporting students like me in our applications. I'm here today to make sure their hard work that's spent doesn't go unrecognized. With all the academic support and college support found here at Oakland Charter, we all ask that you please keep our school open. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Douglas McClellan. I'm a parent of an Oakland Charter senior and a member of the school site council. I school site council. I hope that the board has had a joyous, winter break, and wish you all the best for the new year. Because my son, Lachlan, who will graduate in May, I'm speaking tonight for Oakland Charter's juniors, sophomores, 1st years, and many of their younger brothers and sisters who hope to be able to attend Oakland Charter. At our last meeting, teacher Ben Hopkins spoke of an Oakland Charter graduate who later attended Tufts University. My son, Lachlan, who's applying to Tufts, contacted him. Lachlan got a lot of useful advice and information, which was freely and willingly given. This demonstrated to me that Oakland Charter is not just about the students of today, not just the students here tonight, but also the legacy of graduates who have left but remain connected, and the positive contribution they can provide to students who come after them. Wherever Laughlin winds up after graduation, I know that he would respond to the call of a future Oakland Charter senior in the same way. That's who he is, and that's who Oakland Charter has encouraged him to be. That's who he is and that's who Oakland Charter has encouraged them to be. I hope that there are lots of future Oakland Charter seniors for many years to come who might make that call. I, again, ask each of you to renew the OCHS charter. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Melody Davis, community activist, and I just came here on a whim, but here I am. All I got to say is that this is the charter school, and I heard about, academics and a to g and all that good stuff. Sounds pretty good. But my thing is what about the social skills, which includes bullying? I'm just wondering, and the charter school that I'm familiar with, they don't have no policy procedure for bullying. I'm very concerned about that because that makes a well rounded person who going off to a university or wherever with the a to g. Bullying people are killing the kids are killing themselves. You know, where's the policy procedure at? My experience with a charter school about bullying, they didn't have one. So I'm wondering, are you guys gonna include this? Because I was sure you guys gonna okay it. That's what y'all do. But, do you guys ever consider that now? So that's the number one thing of bullying, and, there's no procedure behind it, that's not good, but you do what you do. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. So what I'm hearing is a number of issues or challenges have been identified, and what you are gonna be agreeing to do is these issues, you're gonna allow them to fix them. So So what's gonna be fixed? English language, proficiency has declined. They're gonna fix that. The school is lagging and establishing career pathway opportunities for students. You allow them to fix that. The school site realize that there's, standardized intervention system is not working to support students. You're gonna allow them to fix that. OUSD board in November of 2024 Dan identified substantial grievance and fiscal concerns. You're gonna allow them to fix that. You have an audit that was done in 2021, 2022, 22, 23 that identified material weaknesses over financial reporting. You're gonna allow them to fix that. Yeah. There are there are projects projected financial realities are gonna be happening because they under, identified projected enrollment. They're gonna they have fiscal issues. You're gonna allow them to fix that. Enrollment demographics of key students, they say they have diversity. School is 88% Hispanic, 3% African American black, and 5% white. There is no diversity. But you're gonna allow them to fix that. You're also gonna allow them to look at the minimum number of students who will moderately serve with disabilities. You're gonna allow them to, deal with the 6 notice of concerns that came up. You're gonna allow them to fix the governing board that has low scores and and many competency issues. You're gonna allow them to, deal with the CEO issue. They said they're gonna be working doing a national search. Do you look at the volume of stuff that has to be fixed at this school? And you're gonna allow them to do it? I applaud you for allowing to do it. So when McClimans come up with any issue, you're gonna allow them to us to fix anything and everything at McClimans. Is that right? Thank you. I think there's one more speaker. Good evening, board members and all. My name is Juanita Mesa Velasquez. I'm a grandparent. My, my grandson oh, what's going on with the mic? My grandson is Giovanni Tiffany Clark Velasquez. Away from the mic. Okay. Sorry. Maybe give us a second. I think the volume is kind of high. Yeah. Maybe turn down the the volume a little bit. I can project. No. No. I think the I think the volume's too high. So yeah. Can we restart her time, please? Anyway, so Giovanni, my grandson, is there at this school. What I have heard as and what I've seen are really exemplary actions on behalf of the, parents, the students. And I like students when they get challenged because they do more. They produce more. And I see a 1 on 1 going on all the time with the with the teachers, and, you can't help but root for them. You know, I created a mentorship program. I mine was about the 4th in the country a long time ago. So I understand all of that and bringing industry, parents, I got people at IBM to work with cholos and be scared of them at that site. You know, but we did a lot of things. Right? A lot of experimenting, and it worked. And I like seeing the success rate. I like seeing that my my, my grandson is not a stellar student, but he's carrying a 4 point o. And he's, and I say he's the 1st in the whole family to really do that. So I applaud him. He's not a genius, but he works hard. And he's being challenged, and and he comes back glowing. He he made the varsity team, you know, with with basketball. And I see those coaches taking a little more time. I saw the principal step in when they lost, the someone, passed away, you know, that was, a teacher. And the principal was one of the first to step in and take on the role of coach. There was also the other coach that was coaching a girl's basketball team, and he then said, okay. I'll coach the guys too. And I saw him really struggling and and, like, right now we have a new coach. Right? And so he's new and bright, and he's really trying. And I see the output. I see the results. And I like it. Right? Now my daughter got educated within the Oakland Unified School System, from the Fruitvale area all the way to the hills. Yes. I was lucky to get her into some of those schools too. And she said, you know, systematically, she goes internally, this school has better mechanisms going for itself all the way around than the schools I've been at. And and that was a big compliment because I said, you've been at some of the best schools. I mean, we Joaquin Miller was a 10. Thank you. And so, I just wanna applaud the people that came out tonight. It's all people that stop. Okay. So everybody that's here from Oakland Charter High School, please stand up so they can see you. Gamers, parents, everybody, scholars, we're all here. Thank you. We want your yes vote. Thank you very much. Thank you. Are there any more public speakers at this time, mister Hulse? There are no further speakers for this item, mister president. Very good. Well, it's come time for our decision. I'm sorry to say I feel the need to move the denial resolution, and I'll give my reasons in a minute. But first, do I have a second? 2nd. Thank you, Director Bachelor. I just want to say I appreciate all the work by staff and by the, charter, organization on the on the report and the presentation. I've reviewed the staff report closely as well as the corrective action plan and the presentation from A Method Public Schools. I was very, concerned by the depth and the seriousness of the issues that staff outlined. And I think my experience as a board member here and in the nonprofit world may have given me some additional insight into board dynamics and what happens when a board is not able to rise to the challenge of the issues that it is facing. As the Oakland Board of Education, we have to take our responsibility for ensuring the proper use of public funds very seriously, and we must expect every charter school that we authorize to do the same. When we see a revolving door in the top leadership of an organization, it reveals grave and pervasive issues, as we've seen here at a method, public schools. Those become more concerning to me when when I see in the corrective action plan that the board has not acknowledged any issues exist and despite the advice from several different, people, has chosen not to significantly change the composition of the board, only shuffling the leadership and a promise to add 2 board members by June 30th, one of which was would be the board member that we as the authorizer are already legally allowed to appoint. A charter school cannot be run like a family business. It is responsible to the people of the state of California because that is who is providing the funding. Systems of transparency and accountability as required by law must be in place and enforced consistently according to best practices. From what I've read in the notice of concern and in the staff report, it's clear to me that not only is the corrective action plan incomplete, but the board is resisting accountability and oversight, and ignoring, serious warning signs, a lack of fiscal controls to the point that no corrective action plan is is viable due to the severity and pervasiveness of the issues at A Method Public Schools, including, among others, conflict of interest issues on the board, fiscal mismanagement, inconsistent bookkeeping, misuse of public funds, and inadequate monitoring and enforcement of contractual agreements. This is one of the very few moments when OUSD can intervene as authorizer to address these pervasive issues at A Method Public Schools, and so it's our responsibility at this time to deny renewal. I understand this is a very serious step to take. I don't take it lightly. I'm sorry to have to share the news, this news with the school community today. However, as a board, it is our legal responsibility to act when we see the concerns that we see today, Even though I understand it's very upsetting to the families and staff, reluctantly, I will be voting to deny. Thank you. Are there any other, board comments at this time? Go ahead. Yeah. Yes. The motion is on the floor. If not, then, mister Aik Stark, can you please take the roll call? On the adoption of the resolution that's in the packet that says, introduced by president Davis to deny renewal of the, Oakland Charter High School Charter on the roll call, on that motion. Student directors are absent, and and and and and And director Brohard? Yes. Director Williams? Yes. Director Lerma? No. Director Bachelor. Yes. Director Thompson. No. Vice President Hutchinson. Abstain. President Davis. Yes. The motion to deny is approved. Very good. I'm sorry to have had to give you that news today. Thank you for coming out. We'll take a 5 minute, I will now close the public hearing on this item, 24 dash 2,355, and we will take a 5 minute recess. Don't we have the ability to After reading all the correspondence and documentation that is available, after speaking to grandparents, families, parents, and students, I was in full I am in full support of approving the renewal request for the school. They have an outstanding academic success record and bring amazing resources to those students who wish to attend while addressing the many, issues of social injustice that exist in our community. Like all institutions, they have their challenges and struggles, but I want to be equitable. We in OUSD have a 125 years of trying to get it right, and we're still struggling with some of those issues. The school provides opportunities to some of the neediest students and families in the city. All working class, blue collar, service working parents. I may not always agree with the choice, that parents make, but they we have a system of choice. They have made a choice to go to the Oakland, Charter High School. And I support them in their choice whether I agree or disagree. And I think looking at the conditions in Oakland where families are fighting gentrification, job losses, an extraordinary amount of high rents, and that there is a community that's struggling to stay in Oakland. I believe there was a mistake to not, renew their request. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, director Thompson. Go ahead. Thank you, president Davis. I would like to separate my comments into 2 areas. 1, basically focusing on what the office of charter schools presented and then looking at what OCHS presented. 1st, I'm extremely excited to see that our students are defying what is going to be implemented something at the national level. And that is where the Department of Education might be dismantled and students might not have the opportunity to do what they think might be in their best interest. So I'm excited that we saw an increase in the graduation rate at, Oakland Charter High School, also the a to g requirements being met. And most of us sitting on this dais, I assume all of us, have college degrees. And we know that it's very important to make sure that you have met the a to g requirements or you'll end up taking, parenthetically, bonehead classes when you get to college if you're going to persist. Not only that, I dug deeper and saw that there was no deficit spending, which made me feel quite good, and no major audit findings. And I looked at their reserves, what was what was presented here, and the 3% reserve had been met and had been maintained. And as a result of that, the school decided that they would, take the recommendation from the o Oakland Charter Schools Office of, making sure that they meet all of the mid benchmarks that were set in place for them. Now going to the high school itself, I noticed that there was this constant acknowledgment of the responsibility to improve. And I think most of us look at ourselves and say, oh, how we're going to do better. And we never want anyone to put us down for not making the goal, but then put us down if we don't progress toward the goal. So I'm I'm extremely excited about that. I noticed that there were no complaints from the families that attended the school in 2,024. I think that's an awesome, piece of, of data for us to look at. And then also, the charter school itself wanted to always say that I'm going to work with Oakland, public schools in order to make sure that I better my, standing. If you look at board policy 6005, it says that Oakland does not approve any charter school except a public charter school. And so with OCHS wanting to work with OUSD in order to make sure they solidify the foundation of presenting a sound academic program that makes me feel as if board policy 6005 has been implemented or will be implemented successfully. Also, I noticed that there was this constant it just over reverberated over over again of willing to work with ousd in order to be the type of charter school that o e that OCHS is and can be. So I really appreciate that. And the last thing I will say is wanting to comply with all of the mandates that OUSD actually stipulates is something we want to see in all schools so that we can actually create a district where we're providing exemplary academic opportunities to all schools. So I take my hat off to you, OCHS. And I'm sorry, but I would have certainly, voted for your approval. Thank you very much, President Davis. Thank you. And I'm again sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the board did vote. The majority voted to deny the renewal, and so we will be in touch with our next steps. But that is the end of the hearing for tonight. That is, item l 124 dash 2355. So with that, we will take a 5 minute recess, and we will come back to do the can dart with a roll call to reestablish quorum. Mister Raikstra? On the on the roll call to establish quorum, city directors are absent. Director Lerma? Present. Director Thompson? Present. Director Bachelor? Present. Director, Williams? Present. Director Brohard? Here. Vice president, Hutchinson? Present. And president Davis? Here. Quorum, present. Thank you. Should we do another interpretation announcement at this time? Yes, President Davis. Moving on to interpretation announcement. We will start with Arabic. For this section, please only raise your hand if you need Arabic interpretation. Miss Abdi, if you can come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Arabic, please. Okay. I'm checking to see if any hands raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we will now start with Arabic interpretation. Next, we'll go to Spanish. Again, please only raise your hand if you need Spanish interpretation. And if you do, please come see me. Ms. Vargas, if you could come off mute and make the interpretation announcement for Spanish, please. Of course. Thank you. Thank you, miss Vargas. I do see hands, so we will continue with Spanish interpretation, and that include interpretation. Mister Wextra, turn to you. Mister President, the, interpretation and availability of, interpretation announcement has been completed. Thank you. So with that, we will move to our second public hearing of the evening, I 2 24 dash 2354, which is the renewal hearing for LPS Oakland. And, I want to open the hearing. And once again, we will go through the same steps. We have the staff report, the charter schools presentation, public comment, and then, discussion and vote by the board. So welcome back up, Ms. Craig Arnold. And thank you for your presentation. Thank you. We will go right through the beginning slides because they are identical to the previous ones. And and we're of 2 minds whether we want you to go slower, for the interpretation or quicker to get through the night even. No. In all seriousness, please, please do speak a little bit slower for our interpreters. Thank you. I'm sorry. That is my chronic problem. Alright. Renewal tiers, in this case, LPS is in the low renewal tier, which miss Thomas will be speaking about in, subsequent slides. And I believe I'm actually now turning it back over to you. Thank you. So LPS Oakland r and d is a high school in the Leadership Public Schools Charter Management Organization, which has 3 total schools. As miss Craig Arnold mentioned, LPS open r and d was placed in the low tier for this renewal cycle, meaning that they are a presumptive denial from the state. However, if they are approved, they are eligible for a 2 year renewal term. In a moment, we'll walk through how LPS Oakland r and d was placed in the low tier so that everyone is on the same page. This slide again shows the general renewal timeline for LPS Oakland r and d. Again, I won't go through all of this, but as you can see on the slide, it does adhere to the 60, 90 day timeline as required by California Education Code. So this slide again shows the results for LPS Oakland r and d on the California dashboard for the past 3 years. So as you can see for, the first three of the academic indicators, the ELA indicator, the math indicator, and the English learner progress indicator. LPS Oakland r and d saw a decrease each of the past 2 years. In 23/24, they received the red color on all three of those indicators, which is the lowest of the 5 colors in the California dashboard rating system. There was more variability in the suspension, college, career, and graduation rate indicators. And in 23, 24, LPS Oakland r and d did receive a green color for each of those indicators, which is the 2nd highest of the 5 colors. Back to how LPS Oakland r and d was placed in the low tier, the results from the 21, 22, and 22, 23, dashboard, are actually the first step in determining the renewal tier placement for a charter school. So as I've said at previous board meetings, if all of those squares had been red or orange, they would have automatically been placed in the low tier. If they had all been green or blue, they would automatically be placed in the high tier. Because we see a variety of colors, it does necessitate an evaluation of criterion 2, which is on this slide. So here, you will see, the school wide and student subgroup performance for the 4 academic indicators for both LPS Oakland r and d and the state average. As you can see, LPS Oakland r and d did perform lower than the state average for the vast majority of indicators, which is why they were placed in the low tier by the state. So there is specific education code for schools placed in the low tier when it comes to renewal. As we mentioned previously, the guidance is that an authorizer shall generally not renew. However, the, authorizer does have the option to renew for 2 years if they make 2 of the findings that are posted on this slide. So in order to have the option to renew, LPS open r and d as a low tier school must show that, 1, the charter school is taking meaningful steps to address the underlying causes of low performance through a performance improvement plan, and 2, there must be clear and convincing evidence demonstrated by verified data that either, 1, the school has achieved at least 1 year's progress academically, or 2, there are strong postsecondary outcomes as defined by college enrollment, college persistence, and college completion rates. So the rest of the slide deck will look specifically at these two criterion, and miss Craig Arnold will start with the first. As miss Thomas mentioned, low tier schools are a presumptive denial. Charter schools in the low tier may only be renewed if OUSD determines that the school is taking meaningful steps to address the underlying causes of the low performance, and so low tier schools must submit a performance improvement plan. LPS did submit a PIP, which is included as an item in the, in the agenda. And I'm sure LPS will speak more to their PIP during their presentation, but we will briefly go over their performance goals, right now. So their PIP itself has 5 goals and, 5 focal areas. And, though they're listed here, I I won't read them out. And then each, of the 5 goals has an associated action plan, and each of the focal areas have growth targets for the full school and for student groups. So in the next few slides, I'm not gonna speak specifically to the PIP so much, but I will provide some background data to give additional context to the performance goals, that LPS identifies in their PIP. So here you'll see the schools' ELA, proficiency rates in orange compared to the OUSD average in gray. You'll see that pre pandemic, the school outperformed the OUSD average and was on an upward trajectory. Post pandemic, they are below the OUSD average and declining year over year. In terms of core growth, core growth for ELA was in the 43rd percentile, with students growing 4 scales scale score points less than similar peers, which puts them in the average growth range. In terms of the math aspect, you'll again see the school in the colors. The school is in green, and they have been below the OUSD average in math for each year of the charter term. Although pre pandemic, they were, again, on upward trajectory, and post pandemic, they have decreased in proficiency each year of the charter term, with most recent year at 2% proficiency. And then core growth, the core growth percentile is in the 21st percentile, with students, growing 17 scale score points less than similar peers. In terms of the implications for the PIP, the PIP did outline a variety of performance growth targets. You'll see them very briefly summarized here, but there are more in the actual PIP itself. When LPS did submit their PIP, the 2024 CASP scores were public, but the 2024 dashboard had not yet been released. And so they use the 2023 dashboard as their baseline, which is on the far left in the 22, 23 column. We added the 23, 24 column in purple, just for additional you'll see that the school listed both proficiency and distance from standard DFS goals for both math and ELA. The full PIP also has goals by subgroups. So for example, if we look at ELA proficiency in 2023, 22% of all students were proficient, and they establish a goal for the 2026 dashboard of 27% of students being proficient in ELA for growth of 5% over the 2023 dashboard. And then given that the proficiency rate actually declined for the 2024 dashboard, we do think that these annual, 5% growth to 27% and another 5% growth, to 32% are probably sufficiently ambitious, for the school. Likewise for math, given that proficiency declined from 3.7% in 2023 to 2.0% in the 20 3, 24 dashboard. The goals for 26 and 27 of 9% and 14% do seem to be appropriate. Again, if the board does wish to, renew, they must make a finding that the school is taking meaningful steps to address the underlying causes of low performance. Overall, we do think that the PIP that LPS submitted addresses most of the necessary performance indicators. There are 5 goals, and each have clear action plans, and then the 5 focal areas with clear growth targets. And these growth targets are, for the most part, realistic but ambitious. However, some of the action plans outside of the academic ones do lack measurable baseline data and growth targets. And most importantly, the PIP does not address the organizational and governance challenges, such as leadership instability and teacher turnover, that were very likely part of the underlying causes of low performance. Lastly, I'll note that due to state testing, CDE temporarily implemented indicators in place of dashboard colors, as folks probably know. And as such, level and color are typically used interchangeably when referring to post COVID dashboard results. For example, CDE used very low instead of red in the 2022 dashboard, which we explained further in the appendix of our staff report. LPS did actually tell me today that this is not what they intended by their use of levels in their PIPs, so I do want to make sure to note that, as I'm sure the school will as well. Regardless, our analysis looked at proficiency in DFS, and is thus unchanged. And I believe I'm turning it back to you. Okay. So as mentioned before, the second criterion involves verified data. So the school must provide clear and convincing evidence that, either, a, the school has achieved at least 1 year's progress academically, or, b, there are strong post secondary outcomes as defined by college enrollment, persistence, and completion rates. So LPS Oakland r and d did submit verified data for both of these indicators. So the next group of slides will go through that verified data. So for the academic progress indicator, LPS Oakland r and d submitted results from NWA map. For those who are not aware, NWA map measures growth, by comparing student test scores from a pre assessment in the fall with a post assessment in the spring. NWA map, calls their growth metric the conditional growth index or the CGI, and they have, released guidance that says that a CGI above negative 0.2, is considered approximately 1 year's growth. So the graph on the left here shows the CGI values for the school, broken down by both grade and student subgroup. As you can see, there is a lot of variation here, but if we look at just the results for the, school wide, results, you see that in math, students at LPS had a CGI value of negative 0.15, and in reading, the CGI value was negative 0.12, which is just above the threshold for 1 year's growth. In the second graph, which is a little bit easier to digest, we showed the percentage of students who hit that growth target at LPS. So you can see that approximately 50% of LPS Oakland r and d students hit that 1 year growth target, in math, and about 55% hit it in reading. The next group of slides has to do with the postsecondary, criterion. So as a reminder, this criterion is split up into, college enrollment, college persistence, and college completion. So the next, couple slides are broken down into those 3 categories. So to start with postsecondary enrollment, LPS Oakland r and d submitted data from the National Student Clearing House, that shows on the left, the percentage of students enrolling in college the 1st fall after high school, and on the right, the percentage of students who enrolled in college at any time after, the 1st year after high school. So as you can see on the slide on both graphs, LPS Oakland r and d had a, college enrollment rate, which was approximately on par with the nearby Oakland, OUSD high schools, and was approximately on par with the, high poverty school average, which is an average produced by the National Clearing House, National Student Clearing House. In addition to that data, LPS Oakland R and D also submitted data from the CDE, which is the CDE College going data. So as you can see on this slide, the CDE College going data shows college going rates, over an 8 year period from 20 14 15 to 21, 22. So when looking at just LPS Oakland r and d's results, which is that top blue bar, you can see that they had approximately a 25 percentage point decrease over that 8 year period. So as an example, in 27/18, 2017/18, which was the 1st year of the charter school term, LPS Oakland r and d had a college going rate of approximately 74%, which was higher than all schools, all nearby comparison schools except for 1. In 21, 22, the college going rate was 50%, which was only higher than 3 of the comparison schools. This slide is similar to the previous slide, although it breaks down the, college going rates by student subgroups, and we see a similar pattern, where the student subgroup college going rates decreased over the course of that 8 year period, and by 21, 22 was lower than the, comparison school average, which is represented by the black vertical lines. Moving on to, postsecondary persistence, LPS Oakland R and D submitted data from National Student Clearing House, which shows the freshman to sophomore year persistent rates of their students at college. So here you can see that in there is some variation across, the years that we were, the data was given. But in 2021, LPS Oakland r and d did have a, post secondary persistence rate, which was higher than the nearby Oakland Schools and the high poverty school average. Finally, for post secondary completion, we have the 6 year college completion rates, for the class of 2016 and the class of 2017. Both classes at LPS had, post secondary completion rates that were higher than the high poverty school average given by National Student Clearing House. So this slide is just a summary of what you saw on the previous slides, as there were a lot of graphs. But as a reminder, the renewal standard is that there must be clear and convincing evidence, that there was either 1 year's growth, or strong post secondary outcomes. So I won't go through all of this table because I just did, but it is there for folks to refer to if needed. With that, I will pass it back to miss Craig Arnold. As a low tier school, LPS is a presumptive denial, although an authorizer may choose to make findings and issue a 2 year renewal. However, we do not think that LPS meets either of the two criteria required for a 2 year renewal, as we've discussed tonight. Overall, while the school does have high graduation rates and a to g completion rates, academic performance continues to decline, and VERIFI data, does not indicate 1 year's progress or strong post secondary outcomes. The PIP does identify or address most of the performance indicators and includes action steps, but we are concerned that it does appear to overlook the underlying organizational causes of the low performance and declining enrollment. Furthermore, we found that LPS does not meet renewal criteria 1, which is has the school presented a sound educational program? This is a criteria that even middle school tier or middle tier schools must meet. As such, we are recommending non renewal of LPS's charter renewal petition. This is now the second time that we've made a recommendation for non renewal, and this is not a recommendation that we make lightly. I know that LPS's closure would have a profound impact on their students and families. However, the staff recommendation is based on an extensive data driven legal analysis and is rooted in our commitment to ensuring that all students in Oakland have access to an equitable and high quality education. Thank you. And president Davis, I believe you are gonna be turning it over to LPS for the equivalent time. That's right. So I believe that's 17 minutes, but, yeah, take the time that you need. Mr. Daniels, welcome out to the podium. Just want to make sure I can operate this. Okay. Good evening, USD board. My name is doctor Daniels, the superintendent of LPS. This evening, I wanna present to you, about LPS Oakland, and how we're a school that's achieving, the middle performance tier based on the 2024 dashboard that was presented tonight. It's very important for the board to know that the charter expires in June 30, 2025, and per ed code, you look at the 2023 and 24 dashboard, which was not acknowledged tonight by the office of charter schools. In the presentation, we'll have information on how LPS advanced performance tier under AB 1505, and insights to support a 5 year renewal. LPS renewal status, as stated earlier, under ed code based on the 2024 dashboard, LPS will move into the middle performance tier before our charter expires in June 30 2025. Per air code, LPS Oakland does not qualify as a low category school based on the 2023 and 2024 dashboards. Per ed code, school boards are to consider the 2 dashboards prior to the expiration of the charter, which would be the 23 and 24 dashboards. Why is LPS moving to the middle performance tier? It's based on significant progress on the 2024 college and career indicator as you can see. And these are comparisons across the state. LPS has outperformed the state for all students in subgroups indicating significant progress towards standards. And closure is not in the best interest of students. As you can see, for all students, English language learners, Hispanic, and socially, a volunteer disadvantage, that LPS is well above the state, which is an attribute for our students. As we look at the middle tier criterion, LPS has made significant progress towards standards, which I'll outline this evening, based on academic performance, and also, renewing LPS Oakland R and D is in the best interest of students. Therefore, OUSD should not deny our charter. It's important to note that looking at the state averages, it compares the average for grades 3 through 8, in grade 11. Again, it compares grades 3 through 8 through 11. So when you're looking at LPS open r and d, which is a high school, in the analysis that you see, when you look at the average of OUSD high schools, and look at similar schools, these similar schools are pretty were based on, an SES level of around 80%, and equal e l, numbers in enrollment around 500, students. But the takeaway is that LPS is outperforming OUSD OUSD when it comes to LP over the last 2 years on the dashboard, as well as summer schools for 1 year, and in 2023, at 39.8%, it surpasses all the schools. So when you're looking at apples for apples and you're comparing high school to high school based on the dashboard, you can see that LPS is has a service to students. The key point is that LPS outperformed LSG High Schools over the past 2 years and has the highest LP rate compared to similar schools. The school is making progress towards standards. This is a diagram that's looking at the CGI that was mentioned earlier, and it's grouped in a way that I hope is easy to digest for the board. This is showing reading, and as you can see, in 2023 and 2024, the CGI is in green, meaning that it's equal to or greater than negative 0.2. So where you see green, that's where students are making progress per ed code. Again, under MAP, in a CGI of over negative 0.2, means 1 year's growth. So the school witnessed 1 year's growth for all of our sub groups, except for students with disabilities, in 2024. A key point, again, is that LPS is making progress towards standards for reading. If we look at math, acknowledge that on our CAS test, which is a test that's taken on a singular day for different subgroups, that our scores have have are dropped. However, if you look at the map, which is a nationally normed test, you'll see a similar pattern to where, for all grade levels, social and non disadvantaged students, English learners, you're seeing a year's progress in terms of students' progress in math. In addition to that, we are collaborating with our other schools that have great gains in math, in collaborating and implementing new programs to support our students. The next slide that I'm showing you, is around the distance from standard. And distance from standard measures the distance from proficiency as a school average. So it looks at all students and their Ritz scores and their average. In this analysis, what you can see is that, over the past 2 years, LPS has outperformed OUSD high schools as well as similar schools, except for in 2024. Again, we take math very seriously. We're implementing, illustrative math, which is a, problem based math for the areas of algebra, geometry, algebra 2. There are other 2 high schools we've seen great gains, with the implementation of that curriculum, as well as providing coaching for our teachers. I spoke to this earlier, but this is the college and career indicator, looking at the school compared to the state. And if you look, at this the LPS Oakland r and d compared to the district, in 2023, we were below the district, you know, only 2% above the state. What we did over this past year, we implemented a robust pathway program for our students in the area of design, where students are taking courses at the local community college, as well as courses on-site, or through the community college and on-site. And through that program, you can see, you can see great gains. The 2024 school year, the school is 24% above the district and it looks at, similar High schools, 46%. So again, the key point is that the school, has made steps to improve our academic program as witnessed on the 2024 dashboard. Regarding our post secondary outcomes, there is a definition that's used, under echoed, and it is for strong post secondary outcome is defined as equal to similar peers. It's defined as equal to similar peers. And so if you look at the diagram here for enrollment years after high school for graduation, LPS Oakland r and d has surpassed high poverty high school since 2016 to present. That's every single year since 2016. In addition, in the Oakland Charter Schools report, they themselves acknowledge that LPS Oakland surpassed all comparison high schools as well as, the high poverty high schools. What's interesting to note is that LPS Oakland is a 9 through 12 school. The comparison schools that were used were 6 through 12, in the Oakland of charter schools report. If you eliminate those schools, you can see by the nearby school, LPS Oakland r and d outperformed the nearby school every single year since 2016 in high poverty high school's 3 out of 6 years, which is similar to equal pea or similar to peers. Excuse me. Yeah, equal to similar peers, excuse me. And looking at the completion rate, over 6 years, LPS Oakland R and D, outperformed all comparison schools in high poverty schools in both years, except for one school. And, excuse me, excuse me, except for one school, CCPA in 2016. So the key point is that based on strong post secondary outcome measures, renewing LPS Oakland is in the best interest of students when it comes to enrollment, persistence, and completion. LPS Oakland also has strong, high school graduation rates and a to g rates, nearing, 90%. As stated earlier, we've had some staff turnover, we've been able to correct that, that's why it was not in the PIP. In this last year, we had 70% of our teachers return, a 70% retention rate. In addition to that, for teachers that were not brought back, it wasn't a choice of, students, them leaving, but a choice of what's best for students, and what do we need to do to improve our our academic program. As a result of the turnover, we did have some under reporting for our a to g in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, there was an issue with our CALPAS reporting, which we remedied the following year with our a to g at 99%. In this past year, there was a drop. However, I wanna report to the board that we had students that we, remediated courses to become a to g eligible, and they weren't included in that number. So that number actually, is closer to the 90 percentile. The biggest point for high schools, when you look at high schools and what high schools are supposed to do, you're looking at a sky a high school that has a high college and career indicator compared to the state, you're looking at a high school that has high a to g rate, and a high school that has a high graduation rate. In my my opinion, that's schools you want for students. In closing the school with those attributes is not a benefit for students. With the advent of our, pathway program, we've seen other gains in other areas where LPS r and d is leading up to its name in terms of research and development. As you can see, for 11th grade and 12th grade students, over 75% of students have completed at least one college course this last year, and 50% of our seniors have 3 2 to 3 college courses. So in looking at the big picture around college and career indicator, a to g, graduation rate, giving access to students at the community college level, this is a benefit for the community. And yes, we want to work proactively with the office of charter schools and with OUSD, to learn from OUSD of what's working with your instructional program, and equally for us to share what's working in our program. In closing, LPS Oakland R and D has consistently progressed in academics, college and career readiness, and dual enrollment, and graduation rates. Renewal ensures continued success in college and courageous for our students in the city of Oakland. Renewing LPS local r and d charter aligns with AB 1505, which is also an obligation of the OUS board as you know. And, renewing serves the best interest of students and the community. As stated earlier in the PIP report, the for public record, the Office of Charter Schools, named that the California dashboard and how, colors are determined in their appendix b. It was an antiquated measure. The office doesn't reference the 5 by 5 measure, in the opinion speed which LPS use for our program improvement plan, and that is how the state determines the colors. Thank you for your consideration, and I appreciate you listening to me this evening. Thank you. We'll now move on to public comment. We have, 15 minutes for public comment. Mister Hollis, can you say how many how many speakers do we have signed up? Currently, we have 27. Okay. Well, let's do 1 minute each, and we'll go as long as we can. I'll just I'll check-in with the board. Let's do the first 15, and then we'll check-in with our my colleagues and see if we can extend the time. Alright. See the first let's just say the first 10 speakers. Faster. Asanta Ologbala, Shirley Herrera, Valeria Aurel Aurelo Aureloa, Ernesto Alvarado, Adriana Maximo, Arterial Vargas, Matia Hernandez, first name e, last name Chavez, Jesus Valdez, and Jose Gonzalez. Great. If your name was called, please come up and speak, and you have one minute each. Hello. My name is Shirley, and I am a freshman at LPS Oakland. One of the things I've noticed during my time here is how much this school focuses on building a strong welcoming culture. Before the school year started, the freshman class went on a retreat to UC Santa Cruz. We spent 3 days touring UCSC and Cabrillo College, sleeping in dorms, eating in the dining halls, and exploring Santa Cruz. It was a great chance to get to know our our advisors, meet new friends that couldn't help with the admin. By the time school started, I already felt more comfortable because I knew who to talk to and where to go for support. Even though I've only been here for a few months, it's clear that LPS values student relationships and helps us feel at home while also giving us early exposure to college life. I am excited to be here, and I hope to graduate from LPS so I so I ask you to keep our school open. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Valeria Arriola, and I'm a freshman at LPS Oakland. Before I applied to LPS, I was nervous because I had heard it was in a dangerous neighborhood and had issues with bad behavior and not enough teachers. But when I got here, I realized none of that was true. Our campus feels safe, thanks to the security team and ID, who work hard to make sure we feel welcome and protected. We also have teachers for all of our classes, which helps us stay focused on learning. Fighting and skipping classes aren't a big problem here. I've also talked to upperclassmen, and they say our school has improved a lot in the last 2 years. I'm really proud to be at LPS, and I hope you keep our school open so more students can experience how great it is. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Ernesto, and I'm a 9th grader at LPS. And I'm here to speak about why you should keep LPS leadership public school open. When I first started high school, I struggled with adjusting, but LPS helped me a lot. They encouraged me and my parents to get involved and support my education, which made a big difference. LPS provides a great education, and it's a college prep school that helps students succeed in high school and beyond. It prepares us for the future whether that that's getting into a good college or starting a successful career. The school helps us get set goals and achieve high GPAs and become the best version of ourselves. LPAs values the involvement of students, families, which support our succeed. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Arturo Vargas. I am a student of LPS Oakland. I am proud to be here with you all representing LPS. What I love about this school is the community. From the moment you step foot in this school, you're welcomed with open arms by both student and staff. The teachers and staff will always want the best for you in your academics and safety. Your peers will always make you feel like you're with family. During my time at OPS, I've learned that the people there don't just care about your grades, but about your well-being and future. A person that comes to mind is my English teacher, mister Zapita. Although it isn't required of him, he always checks in with students and gives them a piece of advice that really helps them out. The point I'm trying to make is that LPS should stay open, not only for the material they teach, but for the students and staff that make the community special. In my 10 years in my 10 years of learning, I never found a school that really shows that they care for the students just as much as OPS does. And if they close it, I don't think nobody will. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Eddie Chavez. I am an 11th grader, Leadership Public School. I believe LPS has stayed open because it's been a safe place for me to learn, grow, and prepare for my future. Since my freshman year, I've met great people and had the chance to play soccer for Kesemont, connecting with students from other schools. As a member of the Kesemont soccer team, I get to enjoy being part of a team, engage in sports, and have the fun things that come along with being part of a public school While still being able to go back to my own school and be provided with more individual small school classroom environment, LPS has also helped me get ahead with college classes. The opportunity to take college level, courses has prepared me for what, to expect in higher education. And it and it's helped, it it helps me stay focused on my on the career I want to pursue. The education, I'm getting here isn't just about, passing classes. It's about gaining the skills and knowledge to succeed in college and beyond. LPS just isn't just a school. It's a place for us to prepare for the next step in life. Without it, many students will lose this will lose the chance to get ahead in their education and career path. Thank you, LPS. Stay open. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Jose Gonzalez. I am an 11th grader here at LPS Oakland. I'm here I'm here to speak to you today about I want our oak our school to stay open. I transferred to LPS Oakland just a few months ago, and since I began here, all of my grades have been a major improvement. I went from failing f have failing classes, having all f's and c's in Oklahoma high, and now I'm averaging a 3 point o GPA and doing well in my AP classes and college classes. The small setting of our school helped me stay in class more frequently and improve my behavior, which made me engage in school. I needed to be in a smaller setting to be successful and being here did that. Not only have I turned around how I engage with schools, but they helped me come up with a plan to recover credits I did not get from my last 2 years. Due to them helping me, I and giving me the individual support I needed, I should be able to graduate next year with the class of 2026. However, that's only if LPS Oakland remains open. So I ask you that you give us 2 more years to make it happen. Thank you. Next speaker, please. So in 23, 24, this school had 7 African American students. In 24, 25, they had 6. The school is 97%, one group, Hispanic. When you look at the data, there's no data on how these African American students are doing. All the data is related to special ed, Hispanics, and, I forget the other data, but nothing. We don't know what's happening with those African American kids. The the school has 3 board members. Three board members. A vice chair and two members. One of them is a doctor from Oakland. Another one is a San Francisco librarian. And the third one is an African American who is an East Palo charter school member. Do we have any any guidelines for requirement of board members? You have requirements. You have to live in your district. What are the requirements for charter school members? They're not elected by the parents. How are they put on this? They make crucial decisions, but there are some deficiencies. Proficiency rate decline for l e l a. Math proficiency decline. And the biggest one is decline in graduation from 99% to 80 68.7%. There's some concerns. Thank you. The the presentation didn't address the concerns from the school itself. But African Americans, no data? You don't have a right to have a presentation where you don't give data on my people. Thank you. I'm sorry. We have student there. You gotta tell me how that African American child is doing. We have 18 more speakers waiting. Next speaker, please. And that's in the community that's 40% African American. Sorry. Was your name called yet, or should I get the next next names called? Oh, go ahead and call the why don't you call the next, five names. Oh, okay. What's what's your name? Alright. Good evening. My name is Zach Zagenhorn. I'm currently hold the position of social science teacher at LPS Oakland r and d. Tonight, I wanna speak on behalf of LPS Oakland because it is working on giving English learners the accommodations they need to improve in all subjects. In my classes, students get translated instructions and tests. LPS Oakland has also invested in a staff member to help English learners who are struggling in classes. These accommodations are a key part of our school community and are one of the myriad of reasons the school should stay open. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Mister Hollis, can you call the next five names, please? Yes, mister president. Next five speakers are Martin Cooper, Eugene Porter, Rashima Sun Sun, Joe Chin, Emmy Abeniz. Thank you. If your name was called, please come up. Thank you for your time. My name is Martin Cooper. I teach biology and design thinking and Berkeley City College's graphic visualization class here at LPS Oakland. I've been here for 3 years, and over these 3 years I've seen LPS strive to close gaps in students' understanding and performance in math and reading, and I've seen them make good progress. With targeting targeted instruction using My Path, they're steady steadily being brought closer to grade level. Last year, we saw a significant increase in our 9th grade students' math performance. We're committed to the well-being and achievement of our black and Latino students. Our Black Student Union post tours of HBCUs, and the business and design college classes we offer here at LPS have made our students stronger thinkers, more skilled writers, and more prepared to make their families proud as 1st generation graduates of college. Our efforts are bearing fruit. To halt our progress now would be a mistake. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, board. I'm Eugene Porter, and I I teach math at LPS. And I wanted you to know after looking looking over the report that I am fully credentialed. I've been teaching math for 10 years. It's my 1st year at the school. I'm very excited to be there, and I feel like it's a really unique, group of people. The students are great, and the staff members, All of the teachers, have been there the whole year, that I've been there. And I also wanted to let you know that I feel like I get a lot of support. Having taught math for 10 years, this at this school, I've gotten more support than I think I have at any other school. And what I mean by that is I have a every week, I meet with a, a math coach who helps me, work on developing curriculum, planning the curriculum. We're using illustrative mathematics, which I don't know if you're familiar with them or not, but you should be. They they provide excellent curriculum, where students get to, do routines, and they're it's it's a very rigorous curriculum, and it's it's very good. And I would expect the math scores to be increasing. Especially thinking back over the pandemic and what the students had to work with, I think it's it's really not not not in the best interest of the students to judge them based on their pandemic scores, but to judge them based on what's happening now. And that's why I wish you could see. I hope you keep the school open. There's a lot of good things going on there. So Thank you. Please keep the school open. Thank you. Next speaker, please. This is a segregated school. Good evening. My name is Rasheema Sontin, and I'm a CTE teacher and dual enrollment facilitator at LPS Oakland. For the past 2 years, I supported the design and multimedia arts pathway, and I'm here to emphasize the importance of renewing the school's charter. LPS is one of the few schools in Oakland offering unique programs that prepare students for college and career success. Through internships, apprenticeships, and on-site work based learning, students begin building resumes and gaining skills to compete for meaningful opportunities. This is one of the reasons I continue to teach at LPS. It truly equips students for the future. Many of my students are 11th grader 11th and 12th graders actively benefiting from our pathway program. What's even more exciting is that our 9th and 10th graders are eagerly looking forward to the next phase in this program. This enthusiasm reflects the growth and consistency happening at LPS, not just in the stability of our teaching staff, but also in the remarkable 46% increase, which is of 69% in our CCI score, which is higher than the state's average of 45.3%. I urge you to approve the charter renewal for LPS so that we can continue this positive momentum and ensure that more students have access to these invaluable opportunities. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Joseph Chen. I'm a previous employee for LPS. I was let go last year, unfortunately, due to financial constraints. They had to pick and choose who was most qualified at their school. Right? So I was the least qualified. I was, like, 1st year out of college, I came from bioengineering, and I decided to do education due to the systematic problems in bioengineering. And, you know, as a new educator, I don't know if you guys already made a decision about this school in here, but now that I work as an 8th grade science teacher in a different school, and some students have given up on STEM completely. They haven't had a consistent science teacher that's lasted a full semester for the last 3 years. It's been rotating subs and people who've been quitting. And, you know, I'm sad to say that's not the first time in this new school that I've seen. I've seen it here at LPS with their previous, you know, turnover rates and I see that same thing. And I know it's how hard it is to convince young people in here that they can still do it even with all these problems that they can't control. Right? And I think the students deserve a stable and consistent academic environment. And if I look behind me, I see all the same faces people that I've seen last year. And I really hope that you guys pass. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Emily Vanez. I am the family and community engagement liaison at LPS Oakland R&D. In my 2 years here, I've witnessed incredible growth and deep commitment to individualize and accountability for students and families. We hold monthly parent garden associations, meetings averaging 15 attendees and providing not only academic support, but also personal growth, such as free computer classes for families. Through this program, we gifted 15 refurbished computers, even including some community members from Castlemont High School. With parents' suggestions, we have also, appointed a bilingual academic support coordinator to assist our ESL students in their subjects and learning the English language. These efforts reflect our heart of the mission, building relationships, overcoming obstacles, and remaining steadfast in our dedication to this community. It would be a shame to deny these students and families the safety and support offered with our continued presence. As we know, great things don't happen overnight, but they do happen through daily choices. So I urge you to choose what's best for these students and families by renewing our charter. Thank you. Thank you. Are people okay with hearing the remaining dozen or so speakers? I think there's 12 more. Can you read the next, 5, mister Hollis, please? Yes, mister president. Next 5 speakers are Maki Cook, Jimenez Ping, last name p, Marceli Rocha, Ernesto Vite, David Cash. Thank you. Please go ahead if your name was called. Greetings. My name is Mafi Cook, and I serve as link learning lead facilitator and CTE pathway architect and implementation strategist for LPS Oakland R&D, where I've been proud to work for 2 years. I'm committed to this community and plan to return next year, continuing for multiple years to build on the progress we've made together. This year, we've made significant strides that are propelling LPS Oakland R and D to the middle tier for 2025. First, we've expanded dual enrollment opportunities, doubling student pass rates and ensuring access to college credits and certifications. 2nd, our work based learning continuum has provided students with real world experiences, bridging the gap between education and career readiness. Finally, through Linked Learning and PBL initiatives, students are engaging in meaningful interdisciplinary projects that integrate academic and technical skills, prepare preparing them for college and career success. These efforts have resulted in our students' overperforming state averages for all students and key subgroups. I respectfully ask the board to remove renew LPS Oakland R and D so we can continue leading this impactful work and provide our students with the opportunities they deserve. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, board members. My name is Marceli Rocha, and I proudly serve as the Dean of Students at LPS Oakland. Since joining fall 2023, our admin team and I have implemented significant structural changes to improve student outcomes. We've strengthened academic support systems, reduced suspension rates through restorative practices, improved teacher retention by fostering collaboration and support and revitalize student culture and climate to create a safe and inclusive community. These efforts have already yielded measurable progress, including our movement to middle tier in 2025, and the 20% increase in key performance area, such as culture, school climate, and student engagement based on our panorama results. This progress isn't just reflected in data. It's visible in the classroom, in the relationships between students and staff. You can see it in all of the speeches you heard today and the one last month. We have a renewed sense of pride within our school. LPS Oakland is a lifeline for many students who who thrive in smaller and more personalized environments. Denying our renewal would dismantle a community that is clearly on the rise. I urge you to support our students and their futures by allowing us to continue this important work. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Dear OUSD board, my name is Pengpeng Jiang, principal at Leadership Public School Oakland. I commit to leading the school for a long term to support our students. Over the past 2 years, I will focus on creating stability and belonging for our student who have faced instability. Many arrive hesitant, often in fight or flight mode. But we've transformed the school culture into a safe support community where they can grow and thrive, a place they can truly call home. As a national board certified teacher and a UC Berkeley principal leadership institution graduate, I've led in blue ribbon schools, but I choose to stay here because because I refuse to let our student feel abandoned. This is their final stop before before adulthood. Closing school will disrupt their journey, and they deserve to graduate from the school that won't give up on them. L LPS Oakland has a rich legacy, and together, we are working to make it shine again. I request to renew our charter so that we can move to the mid performance year by 2025. And I'm ready to lead this transformation for many years to come with my amazing team. Thank you. Thank you. Mister Hollis, can you read the remaining names? Yes, mister president. Remaining speakers are Maria Barragan, Jose Caffona, Stacy Smith, Janelle Ruili, Melody Davis, Brianna Brianna Brianna who? Thank you. If any of those, names, folks are still here, I know it's gotten late, but if you're still here, please come up and speak. Good evening. My name is Maria Barragan and I am the motor of a student at OPS. His name is Jesus Valdez and, one reason why I wish this school remains open is because my son came to this school from another school and in that other school his grades were okay or you know more or less, good and more or less. But now that he is at this new school he I have seen, I have witnessed a lot of progress academically. He's also more responsible. I am very proud and very happy about having made this change. Everyone and this is all thanks to the team at this school from the secretary, the teachers, everybody is very respectful. I also have another 2 students that I wish I can transfer them to this school too because this is a very good option. I have witnessed as I mentioned a lot of progress, a lot of growth in my student in this past year. So I wish this school remains open because it's an excellent choice. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Brianna Luna. I'm a current junior at LPS Oakland. LPS Oakland as a school has welcomed me and so many other students different opportunities that I didn't know that I didn't know were possible. This year, I will be starting my very first internship at Highland Hospital, thanks to the support and encouragement of the staff and teachers at LPS Oakland. These opportunities that I've been opened up to and encouraged to take have caused me in my life very good impacts, including with classes and with classes, AP courses, college courses, and extracurriculars such as sports, robotics, gardening. My current class is graphic visualize visualization, including other courses such as business courses in a variety of APs. The staff, teachers, and communities of LPS have impact me as an individual and have taught me the lessons that I will bring to me to everywhere I go in life. As a student who never believed have had a voice in public speaking or had a chance in taking steps in exploring the world of the world of health care, LPS Oakland helped me, encouraged me to apply those opportunities in my life. I believe I wouldn't have found it I would have founded those same opportunities at a different school. Please renew LPS Oakland. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, board members, and happy New Year. My name is Janelle Ruley. I'm an attorney with the Law Offices of Young, Minnie, and Corp, proudly here tonight in support of LPS Oakland R and D, urging you to approve the renewal of this Charter petition. Most urgently, it's crucially important that you recognize that LPS is now a middle performing charter school. It's entitled to a default renewal standard. The 2024 dashboard brought LPS up out of low performing. We we can't pretend that's not true. District staff appeared to have ignored that. The board can't also ignore it. As a middle performing charter school, the the LPS can only be denied by making one of 3 findings. One of which is that closure is in the best interest of students. You've just seen a bunch of data that showed that closure is not in the best interest of these students. That threshold finding has not been made. Denial, therefore, would be an abuse of discretion subject to being overturned by the state. We urge you not to commit to con not to commit this grave error. Thank you. That's a segregated school. Thank you. Next speaker, please. It's a segregated school. Hi. Good evening. My name is Ernesto. I train this I'm I'm sorry. If if there's a side conversation happening, can can it happen at a quiet volume? Thank you. I'm sorry. Please restart his time. Okay. Hi, my name is Ernesto and I'm here to support APS Oakland. I have 3 students at this school currently 2 of them graduated already. So I'm here to support and I would be, I would be very thankful if you consider continue to keep this school open. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Davis. Yes. Hello. My name is Melody Davis, a community activist of East, West, and North Oakland. I am truly puzzled with this. Truly, truly puzzled. Those women who gave their report, it kinda reminds me of a a case that I had, the federal court against governor Brown trying to close something down and do it did not do it properly. And his attorneys was dressed similar with Brook Brothers shoes on and Brook Brothers suits on. So sometime it doesn't matter what kind of clothing you wear. It has something to do with the words and the truth. So it says this I I'm with this lady behind me, but, you know, the diversity of the people. I know the school is the side of a practically all black school, so I'm I'm just really puzzled and all the minuses and stuff like that. I I I don't even I don't know what to think. I'm just really, really puzzled and just so reminds me of somebody blowing air as the people from the Brook Brothers. Because of all these people here where I just I don't I don't get it. I I kinda feel sorry for the school because it may be doing good work. But, by us, OESD being, deficiency in money, are we keeping the school? And what advantage are we keeping the school also, when they sit inside of a school? Thank you. I don't get that. But, anyway, y'all gonna do what you wanna do, but they already got school in Richmond and Hayward. So I don't understand why they wanna come to Oakland mess us up. Thank you. Well, that, concludes public comment on this item. We'll now move to board, discussion and vote. I'd I'd like to move that we deny the renewal petition for LPS Oakland r and d. I President Hutchinson, seconded by Director Brohard. Is there any, discussion or questions or comments from the board? Seeing none, I would just, thank the staff for the very complete report. It is always a a very painful decision to close any school, especially one with the history that LPS has in our community. But there are very clear guidelines established by AB 1505 that prioritize academic outcomes and the ability of the school to achieve academic standards. And so, given the very thorough staff report, I agree with the findings laid out in the resolution, including that the school is not presenting a sound educational program. And, as much as I know this is difficult for families and staff, this is the decision that is in the best interest of students. With that, if there's no further comment, mister Rakestraw, can you take the role, please? Yes. On the motion to adopt resolution 2425hyphen 0192 denying renewal of LPS, charter. Student directors are absent. Director Brohard. Yes. Director Williams. Yes. Director Lerma. No. Director Bachelor. Yes. Director Thompson? No. Vice President Hutchinson? Yes. President Davis? Yes. The motion is adopted. The renewal is denied. Very good. Well, I'm I'm sorry to, again, be the bearer of bad news tonight, but the petition has been denied. And so the, the Charter School Organization should be in touch with our office about next steps. With that, we will I will close the public hearing, 24-2826, and we'll take a brief 5 minute recess before we do the 3rd hearing of the evening. Thank you. Thank you. Mister Rakestar, can you take a roll call to reestablish form? Yes. Roll roll call to reestablish form. Student directors are absent. Director Burghard? Here. Director Williams? Present, sir. K. Director Laram? Present. Director Bachelor? Here. Director Thompson? Present. Vice President Hutchinson? Present. And President Davis? Present. Quorum? Present. Thank you. Let's do one last, interpretation announcement before our 3rd public hearing. Yes. Moving on to the last interpretation check as stated by President Davis. Ms. Abdi, if you can come off mute and make the announcement to announce for our airbag, please. Thank you. Great. Thanks, Mr. Abdi. Checking attendees, see if any hands are raised for Arabic interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we'll now start with Arabic interpretation. Next, we'll go to Spanish. Ms. Vargas, if you can come off mute and make the intermittent announcement for Spanish, please. Thank you very much. Sorry about that. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Vargas. Changitaine, D. C, if any hands are raised for Spanish interpretation. Seeing no hands raised, we'll now start with Spanish interpretation. And that concludes interpretation announcement for this evening. Turn it back to mister Rick Schrow. Mister vice president, the translation check has been made. Great. Thank you. So with that, I will open our final public hearing for tonight, I324-2826, which is a petition and request for a charter material revision, change of facility location for Bay Tech or Bay Area Technology Charter School grades 6 through 12. And so we're going to have the same format that we had for the previous 2 public hearings. And so, first if staff, if you would like to, make your presentation for this material revision. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Tim Morris. Just just hold on one minute. We need but keep testing because eventually the mic's up There we go. We're there. Cool. Alright. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Tim Morris, and I'm a policy specialist with the Office of Charter Schools. I'll introduce the OCS, material revision policy analysis right now. Alright. We'll start with a quick overview of just the general material revision process here. So well, Baytex proposal to relocate from their current location at King Estates, 8251 Fontaine Street to the Palace Theatre at 1445 23rd Avenue constitutes a material change to their charter. Thus, Baytex submitted a material revision petition for OUSD to evaluate. When evaluating a material revision to a charter petition as it relates to the material revision, the evaluation considers if the charter school presents a strong educational program, if the charter school is demonstrably likely to implement the proposed program, and if the proposed petition is reasonably comprehensive. Criterions 45 commonly referred to as community impact and fiscal impact are not included in today's analysis as a relocation is not considered an expansion per education code. I'll now introduce the OCS analysis of the material revision. Currently serving 254 students in grades 6 through 12, Baytech is located in board district 6 within the Frick Middle School and Castlemont CCPA Madison High School attendance area. Their proposed relocation is to board district 2 and the Roosevelt Middle School and Oakland High High School attendance areas. Following the Baytech material revision submission on November 4th, the OUSD board held an initial public hearing on December 9th and today's board meeting serves as the opportunity for the OUSD board to vote on Baytex petition. The proposed material revision would not impact the educational program of the school. And thus, a full analysis of the school's academic performance is not included today. For context, we have included the dashboard results below in the slide that you can see and further academic indicators in the appendix. PayTech is up for renewal next fall, which is when the OUSD board will have an opportunity to evaluate their performance. I'm now going to turn it over to my colleague, miss Craig Arnold, to go over some fiscal analysis and our recommendation. Thank you. We'll now turn to re, to not renewal criteria, material revision criteria. 2, is the school demonstrably likely to implement the proposed educational program? And again, we're only really looking at the impact of the material revision. Renewal is the time at which you would evaluate the entire school. I'm I'm sorry. An another request to please slow down a little bit. Yes. One day, I will speak And it didn't come from me because because you know. I know. I'm I'm so sorry to the poor kid's leaders. So the school has seen declining enrollment over the last several years, with their 2425 enrollment over the last several years, with their 2425 enrollment dropping to 254. As I will talk about shortly, this loss of ADA does present a significant concern, particularly in light of the expenditures that are directly related to this material revision. Specifically, the school has had very small incoming cohorts of students. Even if future cohorts of students are larger, it is difficult to backfill non transition year grades. So it will be difficult for the school to expand to their previous size. However, as you could see here and further detailed in the staff report, during the course of this charter term, the school's finances have been stable with a healthy reserve and no audit findings. Baytex submitted a 3 year budget as part of the material revision, although did not include any information or narrative about the fiscal impact of the new building, on the school beyond the budget. The budget does show that the school is able to absorb, at least for the 3 years in the budget, the significant costs associated with the new building. But we do have significant concerns about the under the underlying assumptions, from the budget and the enrollment projections on which the budget is faced based. This is detailed again in a greater extent to in our staff report. But in short, there is a concerning lack of alignment, between the enrollment projections on which the budget is based and the enrollment projections that Bay Tech has provided elsewhere, and what we would consider to be more realistic enrollment projections, given the school's current enrollment. By using, more realistic enrollment projections, we estimate that the school's budget is over projected by at least $1,000,000 in each of the next 3 years. Unless the school rapidly recovers additional ADA, we do think that it's very likely that there could be significant deficit spending in the coming years as a result of the new building, potentially even depleting the school's fund balance. In terms of the remaining documentation for the material revision for the new building, OUSD will need to complete a walk through of the building once it's complete. And Baytech will need to submit a fire inspection report as well as a certificate of occupancy before they can move if the material revision is approved. Criteria 3, this was met. In terms of our staff recommendation, we are recommending approval of the material revision. The building is almost complete, and this would allow Baytac to move off of the OUSD King Estates campus, where they are currently collocated with Rudsdale High School. While we are recommending approval of the interior vision, we do have concerns about the impact of the construction cost on the school's finances. And so that we are recommending that the OUSD board verbally request several benchmarks from the school as well, which are detailed here, on in the bottom portion of the slide. So we recommend that the board ask Baytech to provide the district with copies of all documents reflecting the financing, obtained by the school in connection with the site, as well as provide a long term schedule of their financial obligations, and an updated multi year budget and projections, in the term in the event of the terms of the facility's financing change. I believe that is all we have. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. And, now we have I'll I'll round up. 7 minutes, for the presentation from Baytech on the material revision. Thank you, our USD board. Thanks for hanging in with us. I know it's a little bit late. My name is Caitlin Emmick. I am the chief of staff at Bay Area Technology School. I've been with the school for about 5 years now. On Zoom, we do have doctor Seth Feldman who just had surgery, but he is zooming in from his room. So he will be able to answer any questions as well. And I'll let Mr. Kavanaugh introduce himself. Hi. Corey Kavanaugh, back office provider with Baytech. I've been their back office provider since the 2018 2019 fiscal year. We are BeyTek. We are assistive technology. We are personalized learning. We are college and career ready. We are community. We are champions. We are Thank you, sir. So just a quick little overview from some of our students, we wanted to make sure that they were able to be a part of the presentation as well. They also presented at our last meeting. We're gonna go ahead and just show again, as this is kind of a review of the information, the layout that we have proposed and are currently building. So we are gonna be having a 3 story building that will have outside space for students to eat and play, as well as parking for the staff. The 1st floor is gonna have a full size gym that is regulation, so we will be able to host all of our games in our gym, which our students are very excited about. It's also gonna include a conference space and a brand new science area that is gonna have an interactive science table that students are actually gonna be able to dissect things virtually on the table and use. Our teacher is very excited about it. The 2nd floor is gonna be open to the gym, but it'll also have some classrooms in that front area as well as some offices with the top floor being our main classroom space that will house the majority of our classes. I'm gonna go ahead and pass it off to mister Kavanaugh to go over a little bit of the finance. Yeah. Just a brief overview here. I know there's some questions from the last, presentation that Baytech gave, and we just wanted to provide a couple of clarifying notes here. Baytech Technology School owns a 100% of the LLC. The LLC that was established was created simply for SP 740 reimbursement pro purposes, but in the way that it works through our new market tax credit, Baytech is actually the owner of that LLC, which again was set up for SB 740 reasons. And again, kind of just the last slide there. No individuals have an ownership stake in the building nor receive any compensation as a result of the lease or Baytex. So just, again, reiterating back on the LLC, established solely for SB 740 reimbursement purposes. And then in the new market tax structure model, Baytech, the school, is actually the owner of the LLC itself. So we just wanna provide a a clarification note there, and I think that's all we have there. Yeah. So that wraps up our presentation. I don't know if doctor Feldman has anything to add or if he's able to via Zoom, but otherwise, we will yield our time. Thank you. I'm I'm checking on my neighbor's screen, and I don't think I see a hand. Vice president, we just promoted him to panels. Okay. Don't worry. I'll be demoted soon. There there you go. Go go ahead. We we still got 2 minutes left, if you would if you would like to chime in, mister Feldman. We do wanna say one thing. I I we, are appreciative of having the opportunity to speak with you all today. One of the items that hasn't come up, from our end, and we didn't really want to put this so much in writing, is that we can't afford this building. Remember, we were at 350 kids. Then the incident took place, and we were at 300 kids. And our numbers for students who were with us pre incident are very strong. The numbers that are weak are the post incident numbers. And we know, currently, people are waiting when we announce that we can we're moving. We know that our numbers will dramatically increase. And given the unfortunate state of what's happened with some charter schools in the last 2 weeks, I also know that there are students that will need to be placed in in in schools. So we are less worried about our finances than than others. And frankly, the most expensive part of the new market tax credit deal is the 1st few years. And after that, our 40% reduction in principle allows the building to be very affordable. And I'll yield whatever time we have left. Great. Thank you. So that'll that'll conclude the presentation from Vatech for the material revision. Did we have any public comments signed up for our 3rd public hearing? We do have one. It's Sara Olakbala. K. This process is absurd. You don't have them go build a remodel a building already done, and then they come to you to get approval to to build remodel the building. It's done deal. And now you wanna say we have potential financial issues based on it. It's done. It should have been that once they decided they wanted to do this, first, you have to go to the board, present the plan, how you would fiscally be responsible to be able to implement the plan. You get approval, and then you move on. Process out of place. Don't forget, this school had to move based on the fact that you were given evidence that Ruggsdale school was having problems with fights, with knives, with guns. And they had to move because you didn't do anything, and somebody died. I came to the meeting and told you, Bay Tech is having issues with Russdale. Nobody did anything. Somebody died because you didn't do anything. This school has to move. Okay? What are we gonna do with that space now that's vacant? We got Ruggsdale with over 300 students. We're gonna let them stay there, or we're gonna move them to the international school. What are we gonna do? That's the fiscal responsibility for the maintenance of the school once they leave. Somebody come up with that solution of what we gonna do with the remaining site that was occupied by Bay Tech. Bay Tech heads to leave. You don't have no choice because you didn't do anything about Ruggsdale's violence that was going on over there. Thank you. And so that was that was our one public comment for this item. Yes, vice president. Great. Now it is is back to us as a board. But before I I ask for a motion, I just wanna I just wanna clarify. I know in the language in the documents, there was a request for a conditional approval, and there were some questions about some benchmarks. So, I'm I'm looking to ahead tonight. Should should I address those questions from here now? Okay. Sorry. Just had to clear that up. So, we are looking at a conditional approval tonight on receipt of the, I'm I'm sorry. Didn't have it right up in front of me. Do do do do. On the receipt of the certificate of occupancy, fire safety inspection, and the OUSD walk through checklist. There is also a request, for a commitment, tonight of 3 benchmarks that we are actively looking, to have implemented, with the approval of the material revision. And those 3 benchmarks were provide the district with copies of all documents reflecting financing obtained by the charter school in connection with the site. The second one, provide the district with a long term schedule of the charter school's financial obligations with respect to the financing, including but not limited to principal and insurance payments and fees. And the third one, provide the district with an updated multiyear budget projections in the event that the terms of the facilities financing change. And so please correct me if I'm wrong. We are we are asking for a a verbal commitment tonight on those benchmarks. And so I don't know if, mister Feldman, you are willing or able to do that, if you'd like to weigh in, please. Well, I think it's only common sense that we weigh in on the items regarding, fire and safety and OUSD, walk through. I think that is that is a no brainer, and I think that should definitely 100% be in there. I'm not sure I really understand what the office of charters is asking for as we have given that information already. It seems like they are asking for information they already have. So I don't know how you would like to go forward with that. Miss Craig, would would you like to I'm sorry. I just feel like I'm the I'm the middle person in the conversation here. Would you like to comment on that, or could you please comment on that, please? Yes. We have some, but not all of the documents that are requested in the benchmarks. Some of them have not occurred yet, so we cannot possibly have them and are anticipated in the future. So this is just a verbal commitment from the school to provide them as detailed in the staff report that was published 15 days prior. Did did that clarification help a little, mister Feldman? Sort of. We are we are good partners. We'll give the office of charters what they want. I mean, it's not we're unlike maybe some other schools. If they want stuff, we'll give it to them. I I got the thumbs up from miss Craig Arnold for for that answer there. So I I I think we have satisfied what, what I was asked to ask for. And so, again and I just wanna clarify because, the motion, I'm pretty sure, is going to be a conditional approval just of those walk throughs of those three technical items that were listed and that were mentioned here. But we will verbally commit to the other things that you are. I I heard that, and we got a thumbs up for that. I I appreciate. I just wanted to clarify, and it sounds like, we have heard the, verbal agreement that we were looking for, and there's a clear understanding kind of that we're we're working from the same page. So with that, is there a board member that would like to make a motion? Or I Yes. I will make the the motion that we, approve the material revision that has been presented by Batech. Second. That is with the condition of the support the port supporting documents submitted. Great. So thank you, director Thomas. I heard a second, I think, and seconded by director Lerma Station. Oh, director, Tom. Thank you. I know we were not speaking necessarily about the educational or the academic program, but it would be remiss of me not to highlight the fact that there's a strong educational program at Bay Tech, and I really appreciate that. And then, also, I think it's part of my fiduciary responsibility to acknowledge that there were no audit findings, that we necessarily, pinpointed, and, also, that pinpointed, and also that Big Tech is operating with a very healthy reserve, and I'm really excited about that. And there's no need for me to, even articulate this last thing, but I will say that the documents that were asked, they were verbally, acknowledged, and so the documents will be sent to our to our office. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. Any other board comment? Seeing none, I think we're ready to call the question. Okay. Student directors are absent. Director, Lerma. Yes. Yes. This is on the motion to approve with the the, material revisions, with the conditions attached. Director Williams? Yes, sir. Director Breulhart? Yes. Director Bachelor? Abstain. Director Thompson? Yes. Vice President Hutchinson? Yes. And President Davis? Yes. Motions adopted. Thank you all. Thank you all for, for coming out tonight and for bearing with our process and for your verbal commitment to transparency and, flexibility with our charter office. We really appreciate the partnership. We just want to end on our appreciation of the Charter office and being good, good colleagues and friends in working through issues with us. I appreciate that. Yeah. No. And likewise and and really appreciate our charter office for their flexibility. We had some timelines which were very challenging as a result of just when all of these different petitions were submitted and then our discovery that the inauguration date was different than what we thought it was, and so everything had to be moved. And so I apologize for anybody's holidays that were cut short, including my colleagues. But we have managed to get done by 9:37. So with that, we will adjourn. Thank you all, and see you on Monday at the inauguration.