Did you miss yesterday's MDUSD school board special budget meeting?

It was chock full of information and a road map for tough decision ahead.  Here's a summary with links to how you can get involved.

1. Schools & Communities First Initiative

2. Community Input on Budget - answer online survey this week

3. Fund Ed Now Week - post your story on social media 

4. Mt Diablo Community Against Vaping - join this new Facebook group

5. Superintendent letters & Next School Board meeting

School Board endorses Schools & Communities First ballot initiative

We began the meeting by unanimously passing a resolution endorsing Schools and Communities First Initiative, which is gathering signatures now for the November ballot. We join a long list of supporters including CTA, MDEA, and national PTA. Learn more & get involved at www.schoolsandcommunitiesfirst.org

Next, CBO Lisa Gonzales gave an in depth report of state impacts on our finances.

Community Input Plan for Budget Decisions

District staff then laid out a full plan for community input & engagement around tough budget decisions. See the new Budget Solutions district webpage at https://mdusd.org/budgetsolutions for details and please

This week is Fund Education Now Week!  Join parents, students, teachers, superintendents, school board members in Contra Costa and Alameda counties - the more voices the better - in contacting our state legislators and the governor.

Join us!

• Follow @CCCFundEd and @MtDiabloUSD on Twitter
• Visit www.cocoschools.org/cccfunded 
• --> Share your story about what education funding looks like in your classroom or school on any social media, and copy/paste these tags: @GavinNewsom @BauerKahan @AsmGrayson @Steve_Glazer @BillDoddCA @CCCFundEd #FundCAed

Read Superintendent Dr Martinez’s January 31st letter here. It includes resources to prevent Human Trafficking that you can bring to your school.

These are always posted at mdusd.org and on Facebook & Twitter.  To receive these as emails, send a message to [email protected] to request to be added to the Superintendent’s email list.

Next School Board meeting February 10th

District staff will present results of this week's budget survey.  Visit https://mdusd.org/agendasminutes to see the agenda when it is posted, and all meeting agendas & videos.

As always, share your ideas with our board via email or attend and speak at our board meetings.

Sincerely,

Community leaders & partners are so important in this work for our students!  

Here I am with my EmergeCA sister Tiffanee Jones, who shared her powerful story at the 32nd District PTA Gun Violence Prevention Forum.

And Antioch Council member Monica Wilson hosted #RedSandProjectAntioch to raise awareness for Human Trafficking. You can bring this hands on project to your school to protect even more kids.

Happy 2020!  Here are some highlights of the year so far:

1. School Board Passes Anti-Vaping Resolution

2. Fund Education Now Week Feb 3-7, 2020

3. EduTrack Foundation launch

4. Superintendent Friday Letters

School Board Passes Anti-Vaping Resolution

On January 13th, our first MDUSD school board meeting of 2020, we unanimously passed a resolution asking local cities to ban the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping devices.  

I encourage you to read the entire resolution and share it out far and wide.  Then please call or email your city council members in Concord, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Clayton, Pittsburg and Martinez to ask them to take action immediately.

As a school board member and parent, I've been hearing a lot about students in our high schools and middle schools that are vaping, that are addicted, and that are struggling to cope.  Contra Costa County Supervisors passed a similar resolution on November 12, 2019.  I joined MDUSD parents and students, along with TUPE and many community members at that meeting, to speak in favor of the resolution.  The stories the students told were heartbreaking, and the county found that the vast majority of students get vape devices from storefronts.  The county ban is only for unincorporated areas, so banning the sale within city limits would make a huge difference.

The FDA, CDC, and California Department of Public Health have issued health alerts urging everyone to quit vaping altogether, no matter the substance or source.

The popularity of electronic vaping devices has soared among youth, with a national increase of 135% within the past two years. According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, 1 in 20 middle school students, as well as 1 in 4 high school students are vaping. A 2016 survey showed that one in three 11th graders in Contra Costa admitted to having vaped.

We also passed a resolution recognizing Fund Education Now week, Feb 3-7, 2020, in which school districts throughout Alameda and Contra Costa will have actions each day to inform the community and state legislature of our dire need for education funding.The growing Coalition includes Contra Costa County students, teachers, staff, school board members, parents, and superintendents united to bring full and fair funding to California public education.

Join us!

• Follow @CCCFundEd and @MtDiabloUSD on Twitter
• Visit www.cocoschools.org/cccfunded to see how you can participate in Fund Education Now Week.

EduTrack Foundation Launch

Dr Martinez often talks about the importance of student voice. Here's some news about students taking action right here in MDUSD!  Concord High graduate and former ASB President Aasim Yahya is now a university student at Cal, but he's still working on building up student leadership here in our high schools.  On Saturday he, sister Azeema, mom May, and a dedicated new team of Board members launched the nonprofit EduTrack - to provide scholarships as well as student-led college and career programs.

"We believe that students are the best individuals to educate and equip their own peers with college and career resources. That's why our high school programs provide students with the ability to empower their peers. All of our high school programs are led by high school students who use both the resources and guidance of our EduTrack staff and digital tool box to build their own on-campus programs. We are committed to creating our high school programs at sites that serve students who identify with primarily underrepresented or underprivileged communities." Interesting in bringing a program to your campus? Visit http://www.edutrackfoundation.org/get-involved2.html

Superintendent’s Friday Letter

Read Superintendent Dr Martinez’s January 10th and January 17th Friday letters. They include key information such as the newly elected DELAC leaders (District English Language Advisory Committee) and DVC's Diamonte Scholars (offering college credit during high school on a path to transfer & career for STEAM - science, tech, engineering, art, math).

These are always posted at mdusd.org and on Facebook & Twitter.  To receive these as emails, send a message to [email protected] to request to be added to the Superintendent’s email list.

Next School Board meeting January 27th

Here is the agenda.  Items include reports on Holbrook Dual Language expansion and Governor's budget, info/discussion of draft 2020-21 School calendars, and a resolution to support the Public Preschool, K-12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2020 that is on the March ballot.

Visit https://mdusd.org/agendasminutes to see all meeting agendas & videos.

As always, share your ideas with our board via email or attend and speak at our board meetings.

Sincerely,

It was great to see recent Concord High ASB President Hannah Jenevein at the EduTrack event!

Thank you East County NAACP for organizing another beautiful MLK Jr Day celebration!

Hi friends,

I hope you all have a restful and rejuvenating winter break!

A huge thank you to all of you who have engaged with our district.  Together we are making a difference - every one of you who donated to HOPE or MDUSD Education Foundation, taught students and are grading finals, led field trips, wrote school goals as a site council rep, coached a team, negotiated a contract, led a student or parent organization, drove a school bus, or much much more. We should all be #MDUSDProud.

The biggest #breakingnews this week is that MDUSD reached a Tentative Agreement with Mt Diablo Education Association (MDEA)!  This was made possible by many hours of negotiation by dedicated teams of teachers and administrators.  See details and quotes from MDEA president Anita Johnson and Superintendent Martinez here.

And here are a few key updates from this month:  

December 16 School Board mtg 

We held the last MDUSD school board meeting of the year this week on Monday. The agenda included:

• Organizational meeting - Congratulations to President Lawrence and Vice President Mason!  
• Review of SPSAs (single plans for student achievement) - Have you read your school plan? Find every school SPSA plan here on MDUSD website (under Parents/Reports&Plans).  Have ideas about how to improve it?  Contact your principal or site council reps.
• Review & approval of tentative agreement between CSEA & MDUSD for 2018-19 - Note that Contra Costa County sent MDUSD a letter in response to this, asking us to make $5 million in budget adjustments in order to stay fiscally solvent.  Truly, our state must do better to fully fund our schools.

Also at the meeting, President Lawrence encouraged people to donate to HOPE (homeless & foster youth in MDUSD - Venmo @MDUSDHOPE), and last I heard your donations surpassed $10,000!  Truly when we act as a community, we can all help take care of every student. Your generosity is deeply appreciated.

Threats

In two of our schools recently, as has happened at schools in nearby districts and nationally, students have made threats of harm.  In both cases, thankfully, the police investigated and found them to be non-viable. I think it’s important now to clarify our district policy for these types of instances, and also to remind everyone how each of us can “Say something” as Sandy Hook Promise encourages. 

Did you know our County Office of Education houses a full time coordinator for Sandy Hook Promise, and a team of fully certified trainers who will implement the SHP Know the Signs programs in every high school and middle school in Contra Costa County?  These programs include:

• Signs of Suicide,
• Threat Assessments,
• Say Something, and
• Say Hello. 

Find descriptions & contact information on the CCCOE website.  Ask your principal if this has begun yet at your school. 

There’s also a volunteer group that speaks to parent groups about Be SMART – BeSMARTforKids.org that reduces child gun deaths by encouraging responsible storage of guns and providing free gun locks.

• Secure all guns
• Model responsible behavior around guns
• Ask about presence of unsecured guns in other homes
• Recognize the risks of teen suicide
• Tell your peers to be SMART

We all can help ensure that every student feels valued and included, in a safe and welcoming school environment.

Budget

Many parents, teachers and community came to ask our school board to increase salary, lower class sizes, and add more nurses, librarians and counselors.  I hope that all of you will campaign for and vote for the needed revenue to make that possible. Right now the revenue we receive from the state has not kept up with expenses, and so districts across CA are deficit spending and making major cuts.

One source of revenue that we can act on is the Schools & Communities First measure, gathering signatures now for the Nov 2020 ballot.  This initiative would be a start, but still not nearly enough for what we need, and IF it passes it won’t go into effect until 2022.  Out of the $11 billion it expects to raise, just $4 billion would go to schools statewide. 

That sounds like a lot, until you realize the Stanford Getting Down to Facts II study found that our state needs $25 billion in education funding just to reach national average. The study has a calculator where you can enter a school district and it will estimate needed dollars based on demographics. It says MDUSD would need: $5,067 more per student = approx. $150 million more per year.

This is why other school districts are exploring or placing parcel taxes on the 2020 ballot.  We can’t wait for 2022 and we are all facing major cuts right now.  Local taxes might be the only thing that can avoid massive cuts.

Save the date for a week of action called Fund Education Now, Feb 3-7, 2020, in which school districts throughout Alameda and Contra Costa will have actions each day to inform the community and state legislature of our dire need for education funding.

Superintendent’s Friday Letter

Read Superintendent Dr Martinez’s December 20th letter here.  These are always posted at mdusd.org and on facebook & twitter.  To receive these as emails, send a message to [email protected] to request to be added to the Superintendent’s email list.

Happy Holidays and Winter Break!

Hi everyone,

Our MDUSD school board meeting for November is tonight, 7pm at Dent Center at 1936 Carlotta Drive, Concord.  See agenda here. You can attend in person, or to watch from home go to https://mdusd.org/agendasminutes to watch the video of any meeting live or recorded.

Board Policy for Emergency planning 

As mentioned, we are analyzing and updating Board policies related to Emergency management.   See tonight's agenda item 19.2 - where information and sample policy will be provided. Your feedback and ideas are welcome!

You can also share your ideas on your local school safety plan anytime, directly with your Site Council or Principal.  Each school Site Council approves and submits one for their school for district approval by March 1^st of each year, and all are listed on the district website here: District list of school safety plans

Presentation of Mt. Diablo Unified School District's Enrollment Data for the 2019-2020 School Year

This is item 16.1 on tonight's agenda.  The District carefully reviews attendance each year in order to ensure that services provided to students at each school site are responsive to the needs of the students attending our schools. This presentation will provide data on the overall enrollment of the District and schools based on California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS) data that is certified each year.

The variance from the 2018-2019 and the 2019-2020 school years will be reviewed, and the District will share enrollment data for each District school. Further, staff will share information regarding some of the steps that will be used to project enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year.

Superintendent’s Friday Letter

Read Superintendent Dr Martinez’s Nov 15th letter here, including student safety, special ed resources and more.  These are always posted at mdusd.org and on facebook & twitter.  To receive these as emails, send a message to [email protected] to request to be added to the Superintendent’s email list.

See you tonight!

p.s. I got to meet my idol, Dolores Huerta, this weekend!  Si se puede!