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from the August 22, 2017 meeting
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Meeting closed in honor of MUSD alumnus Alyssa Almogela
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Board President Daniel Bobay closed Tuesday's meeting with a moment of silence in remembrance of MUSD alumnus Alyssa Almogela.
On Wednesday, August 9, Alyssa passed away. The family still doesn’t have a confirmation of the cause of death. Alyssa attended Zanker Elementary followed by Rancho Milpitas Middle School and MHS, where she graduated in 2015.
"I was taken by Francis' letter about Alyssa Almogela," Mr. Bobay said. He then read parts of MHS Principal Francis Rojas' staff email into the record.
"The Almogela Family has been a significant supporter of the MHS Athletics and Milpitas community, and although there are no direct family members who are currently students here are MHS, we know that their family and support reaches deep into our staff and student community," the letter reads. "We unite with them in their grief during this difficult time."
The letter also refers to a
Venmo account
, made in Alyssa's name, for donations. If you do not have a Venmo account or do not want to create a Venmo account to donate,
Marissa Canez
in the MHS College and Career Center will be collecting any donations and cards to the family personally.
The Almogela family run Kawailehula Hula Ohana (School). Many Milpitas students know the family as their children dance or danced with them.
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BAPS Charities walkathon benefits MUSD
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The Board recognized Ajay Patel, Shashi Patel, and Ashish Brahmbhatt on behalf of
BAPS Charities.
The organization
attracted more than 700 participants on May 27 to walk and raise awareness about BAPS Charities and its many community activities.
This year's walkathon at Ed Levin Park benefit Milpitas Unified School District, and also built off an existing relationship with The Nature Conservancy.
The $2,000 raised for MUSD will fund a portion of Love for Learning, a new program being implemented that focuses on the whole child by specifically looking at family and supporting kids from a young age, before they even come to school, according to Superintendent Cheryl Jordan. The program is scheduled to include six Saturday workshops for both parents and children.
"So Ashish, Shashi, and Ajay, we're very grateful for this," Superintendent Jordan said. "And as you can see, it's going to a good cause."
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MHS Varsity Baseball Coach Jesus "Chuy" Zamudio selected as CCS Honor Coach
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Trustees recognized
Milpitas High School Varsity Baseball Coach Jesus "Chuy" Zamudio, who was selected as last year's CCS Honor Coach in Baseball.
Chuy joins a list of distinguished MHS coaches who have received this honor. Chuy received his award at the CCS Baseball Championships May 27 at San Jose Municipal Stadium.
"It's an honor to be here," he said. "This is my 17th year here at Milpitas High and it's been home for me. I look forward to many years to come."
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Facilities Needs Planning Update
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Joe Flatley, Director of Facilities Modernization, presented an
updated facilities plan with a preliminary list of projects. In creating the list of potential bond work, Joe went out to nearly all of the sites and met with leadership there, staff was queried during leadership meetings,
ThoughtExchange data was gathered, online surveys were distributed, and outreach continued through public service announcements, town hall meetings, and service group discussions.
"There are some recurring themes that keep coming up with almost all my conversations with the sites," Joe said, referencing the desire for more security cameras, better perimeter fencing, and hydration stations.
The grand total of the "wish list" for all sites is more than $610 million, as shown in
slide nine of the report. The work was based on the
2012 master plan with updates from master planning work performed in 2015 and will include recent input from stakeholders and staff. Moving forward, updates will continue to be added to the
MUSD Facilities Assessment document
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Former Student Board Representative proposes free MUSD tutoring during report
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Alan Pham, who served as the Student Board Representative from 2015-2017, co-founded the free tutoring program
MATHeasy
with his older sister, Ivy.
The program, run completely by students, had tutoring sessions this summer at libraries in Milpitas and San Jose, including Milpitas High School.
Alan and Ivy
gave a presentation
highlighting the program and sharing a vision that school districts, starting with Milpitas Unified School District, set up their own free kindergarten- through 12th-grade tutoring in the future, so there is no need for MATHeasy to exist in the future.
"The program has been very successful," Alan said. "It has benefited over 5,000 tutors and students over 8 locations (since summer 2013), proving that tutoring is feasible and practical. This shows there is a great demand for tutoring from students, parents, tutors, teachers, principals, and librarians."
In addition, there has been an increasing amount of people who have wanted to tutor and learn as part of the program, but Alan said they have not been able to accept the students due to a shortage of resources, including staff and budget to fund the program.
"One of the reasons that we wanted to continue doing this is to improve our Milpitas community so that our MUSD schools can get better ratings too," Ivy said. "...I couldn't have made it without the wonderful education I got from MUSD."
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Summer School 2017 Report
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Milpitas Unified School District continued to expand summer educational options for students during the summer.
"Like I said before, the summer was buzzing with a lot of students learning," Norma Rodriguez, Assistant Superintendent of Learning and Development, said in opening a Summer School presentation. "The team will be presenting a detailed report on all of the programs that we had to serve all of our students here in Milpitas."
She invited
Gregory Barnes, Director of Secondary Education, and Summer School staff to lead the report. He began the report with Giuliana Brahim, principal of Milpitas Adult Education, which led the
Summer Enrichment Program
. Joining Giuliana was Thao Nguyen, who coordinated the program, and two of the 26 volunteers that participated.
"We focused a lot on individualized learning and exploration," Thao said of the program that served 219 students in first through eighth grade. "...For some students, it was their first time in America so we started building cognitive skills. We also built social skills for them."
Following Giuliana and Thao, Nichol Klein, principal of Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School, spoke about her experience job sharing with Amanda Gross, Milpitas High School Assistant Principal, as the secondary summer school program held at the high school this year while Nicole King and Kelly Bing shared their experience with the summer reading program and Sandra Quintana, program specialist for Special Education, discussed the Extended School Year program. Their information and data was captured in a general
Summer School 2017 report.
"Before we get into some of the specifics of each of the programs we afforded our students this year, I want to go back in time and start with some of the progress we've made over the last couple of summers," Gregory said. "...So you can see that in 2016, we added four new elements to our summer program. Moving ahead to 2017, we added three additional elements, doubling the total number of programs that we've had in our summer school the last couple of years."
Over the last two summers, MUSD has added SEAL Summer Bridge, early elementary reading intervention, Summit extended learning, elevate math and math Valdez programs to its traditional offerings of elementary enrichment, extended school year, ELS and middle and high school offerings. These additions have resulted in nine separate programs for nearly 1,000 students meeting a wide range of student educational needs.
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New Teacher on Special Assignment - Student Engagement Specialist approved
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"This is a really exciting position that we're putting forward for your approval," Sid Haro, Assistant Superintendent of Human Relations, said in opening the item. "Running an effective high school is a lot like running a small city. Like a city, there are so many differentiated needs of the students and the staff."
Sid alongside new Principal Francis Rojas;
Diana Orlando, Milpitas Teachers Association President; and Superintendent Cheryl Jordan "have really thought very strategically in terms of meeting the needs of students, particularly students who may be struggling or have needs that aren't necessarily being met on a particular day or week," he said.
Sid added: "It's often easy to respond within a deficit model, like punish them, and that really doesn't help the child move forward, either academically or within a social emotional context. So rather than think in terms of adding an administrative position, which is focused on negative consequences, we were thinking in terms of a student engagement specialist that really took a look at the whole child's needs based on that time and looking forward, really within the context of a case manager."
Under the direction of Principal Rojas, the TOSA will provide support to students and staff by identifying at-risk students struggling with discipline and attendance; developing, implementing, and assessing intervention plans for individual and groups of students; and monitoring progress through case management. They will also collaborate with administrators, teachers, staff, and parents to develop and utilize strategies to maintain and improve student attendance, behavior, the learning environment, and overall school climate.
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Board approves Social Emotional Supports proposal, which will build internal capacity
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Milpitas Unified School District has contracted with Counseling and Support Services for Youth (CASSY) since the 2012-13 academic year. During the 2016-17 school year, the District's Student Services department conducted extensive data analysis to determine program scope and effectiveness.
Carla Crenshaw, Director of Student Services, gave a
presentation of recommendations based on the data.
The elements of this proposal include a reduced CASSY contract, restructuring of an existing position, and an interagency collaborative to establish a District internship program. The Board of Education approved the proposal as presented in the report. In its first year, the change will bring a net savings of $105,000.
"Bottom line when we look at this proposal, it seems like a win-win situation in a number of ways," Carla said. "First of all and most importantly, our student needs get met. Secondly, it allows us to build leadership from within the school district, which is something that I know we're all committed to, and it allows us to create our in-house program."
She added: "In these times, when we really have to look at budget, it maximizes our resources."
The approved proposal will allow the District to continue to bring quality social emotional supports to students by expanding service to MUSD programs and reducing reliance on outside agencies over times. Among the changes are the addition of a Program Manager with a mental health emphasis.
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