USD Board Meeting Highlights

The Board and Dr. Andrews recognized 16 individuals for their commitment to students and families in their twenty years of service in the Union School District. Each spring, USD will honor years of service awardees at our annual Employee Recognition event but was unable to do so in-person last year. This year, USD will honor groups of employees for their years of service at each Board Meeting. Congratulations to this group of service award recipients for their dedication to our students, families and community at large!

From left to right: Karen deCastro, Teresa Codemo, Christina Olvera, Latifah Ensley, Mary Martin, Chris Kay and Dr. Carrie Andrews; Other awardees: Jeff Argabright, Christine Barbara, Carole Brasher, Joe Candeias, Mary Ann Meisenbach, Allison Risso, Vicki Saenz, Michele Sheikh, Sara Sink, Yuan Wang

Principal Mary Katayama shared a snapshot of Writing Workshop implementation at Carlton. Writing Workshop is a framework that provides explicit instruction and coaching to enable student writers to develop their skills and writing craft as they engage in the process of publishing meaningful pieces of writing. Mrs. Katayama shared how since 2019 teachers are provided resources, training, modeling and support to teach writing using the Lucy Calkins’ Writing Units of Study.

Catherine Almario, third grade teacher, explained how student choice in writing is key to help students love to write. Her students love doing “flash drafts” where they do open writing “fast and furiously” to get any and all thoughts down. Her students Carson and Silas both shared that they find writing very peaceful and read recent narrative writing assignments aloud to the Board.

Fourth grade teacher Lee Davis highlighted a key component of Writing Workshop in which she confers with students during the writing process, speaking with students one-on-one or in small groups in a student-led and targeted conversations. Editing and revising writing is also an important skill students learn. She also shared that with Writing Workshop, students really enjoy mini-lessons on single components of the revision process that allow students to revisit their writing multiple times.

Fourth grader Emiko shared her love of the drafting process and how students brainstorm to come up with a topic that is their own. She also shared how working with a partner is a great opportunity for students to get feedback on their stories and help with writers’ block. Fourth grader Terri shared how she loves Mrs. Davis’ whole class lessons on skills like writing details or writing hooks as well as conferencing with the teacher to get advice and ideas with her draft. Emiko and Terri both read excerpts of recent works of writing.

The Board complimented the students on their excellent writing skills, engaging stories and thanked Carlton teachers and students for sharing about Writing Workshop.

Associate Superintendent Sarah Jellin provided a review of the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) funding model and goals as well as a mid-year update report. The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) provides districts with base funding, supplemental funds based on unduplicated student populations (low income, English language learners, and foster youth) and concentration grants specifically for districts with greater than 55% unduplicated student counts. Union School District’s unduplicated student population is about 20%, which means USD does not qualify for additional concentration grants.

Under the funding formula, all districts must create a three year educational plan (LCAP) which includes eight state priority areas: Implementation of State Standards, Pupil Achievement, School Climate, Parent Involvement, Pupil engagement, Course Access, Basic Services and Other Pupil Outcomes. Learn more about USD’s LCAP here.

The Mid-Year Update Report outlines the progress made so far this year on the District’s goals. As Mrs. Jellin shared, while the continuing impacts of the pandemic, including hiring staff, implementing health and safety protocols, and addressing learning acceleration needs due to the impacts of distance learning have presented challenges, the District continues to make progress on providing necessary services to students and implementing LCAP goals.

Click here to view the full presentation.

Click here to view the 2021-22 LCAP Actions & Services Mid-Year Report.

On January 10, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom presented his proposal for the 2022-23 State Budget. Assistant Superintendent Business Services Rita Sohal presented highlights of the budget proposal and the potential impact to the District.

• Under the proposal, districts in CA would receive a base grant funding increase of 5.33% to reflect a Cost of Living Adjustment.

• There is no increase to Supplemental funds.

• STRS and PERS pension rates are increasing, but districts do not receive additional funding.

• Concentration funds are increased under the proposal. USD does not receive concentration funding as our unduplicated student count of 20% does not exceed the 55% requirement under this formula.

• The proposal provides a new option for districts to calculate Average Daily Attendance (ADA) designed to offset declining enrollment experienced by many districts. If enacted, school districts would be allowed to be funded based on ADA from the current year, previous year or Average ADA from the previous three years, whichever is greatest. As USD has seen enrollment decrease significantly (approximately 400 students), this would help prevent a significant funding drop based on that lower enrollment.

• Special education funding would increase approximately $550K for Union School District under the budget proposal.

• The Universal Meals Program would be continued through the 2022-23 school year, providing two free meals to students regardless of free or reduced meal eligibility.

• Transitional Kindergarten (TK) is expanding through the 2025-26 school year, with age ranges expanding each year. While additional TK enrollment would mean additional funding for districts, the expansion of TK programs would need to take into account facility needs, staffing and other factors when hosting additional classrooms and students.

• Minimum wage increases per January 1, 2022 ($16 in the City of San Jose) are aligned with various District positions.

The Governor’s Budget Proposal for 2022-23 will go through committee hearings in the spring then brought forward to the State legislature by June 15th. You can learn more about California’s budget process here.

We are hopeful that the Governor’s Budget Proposal will get approved as it would certainly be a benefit to USD given declining enrollment, which is a statewide K-12 issue that directly impacts general funding.

Mrs. Sohal will present the current school year’s Second Interim Budget in March and USD’s General Fund Revenue and Expenditures Assumptions in April.

Click here to view the full presentation.

At the December 13, 2021 Board meeting, the Board of Trustees approved Resolution 21-22-06, adopting the Public Agency Retirement Services (PARS) Supplementary Retirement Plan (SRP). The SRP was designed as a retirement incentive program that may encourage eligible employees to retire early. The goal of the program was to generate savings, or at a minimum create no cost to the District by increasing the number of retirements in the 2021-22 school year.

The District offered a retirement incentive benefit equal to 60% of Final pay for Certificated Non-Management, Certificated Management, Classified Non-Management and Classified Management employees. Twelve eligible employees (certificated/classified) elected to participate in the PARS. Based on the enrollment of the 12 employees with PARS and the approval of the Board, the financial benefit to USD is estimated at approximately $450K over five years. The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the PARS Supplementary Retirement, which will be a benefit to the employees and District due to overall fiscal savings.

At the January 10, 2022 Board of Trustees meeting, Scott Sheldon from Terra Realty Advisors, Inc. presented an update to their December 10, 2020 report on the District's properties and potential revenue opportunities. After a general discussion of the report findings the Board authorized pursuing further analysis of long term revenue options, which meant moving into the next phase of specific land redevelopment options. The ultimate reason for moving forward is to determine additional revenue sources or potential areas in the district that could support ongoing funding for programs and people in USD. The Terra Realty Advisors, Inc. Phase II proposal outlines an updated scope of services to the October 10, 2020 prime agreement between Union School District and Terra Realty Advisors, Inc (TRA).

The Board unanimously approved the Phase II contract, in which TRA will continue to explore the development of options for identified potential District properties. In 90 days Terra Realty Advisors would present further information for the Board to consider.

The current 2019-22 Collective Bargaining Agreement between Union District Educators Association (UDEA) and Union School District (USD) contains a reopener to negotiate salary and benefits for the 2021-22 school year.

Click here to view the sunshine statement from UDEA.

Click here to view the sunshine statement from USD.

The Board held two public hearings and unanimously approved the acceptance of the UDEA and USD reopeners as it relates to compensation (Article 9).

California Education Code 32281 requires the development, annual review, and update of each school’s Comprehensive School Safety Plan (CSSP). In the plan, schools identify local goals as part of conducting a safety assessment and annually evaluate progress towards implementing those goals. Each site’s School Site Council and School Safety Planning Committee review their plan annually. The plans are also reviewed by our local emergency services agencies and ICS4Schools, the district safety consultants. The California Education Code then requires that the local governing board annually approve the revised Comprehensive School Safety Plan for each school.

The Board of Trustees approved the 2021-22 Comprehensive School Safety Plans for all USD schools. The full plans are available to view at your school’s front office.

The 2020-21 School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs) for Union School District were approved by the Board of Trustees. Public schools are required to annually prepare and publish SARCs which provide information to the community to allow public comparison of schools for student achievement, environment, resources, and demographics.

The SARCs are available to view on the District website or on sarconline.org.

Please join us for our next regular Board of Trustees Meeting on March 14, 2022. The meeting will be held at the USD District Office Board Room at 5175 Union Ave. Visit the Board of Trustees page for virtual meeting access and information on future meetings.

Board of Trustees

Sheila Billings

Vickie Brown

Doug Evans

Jennifer Petroff

Thomas E. Rossmeissl

Superintendent

Dr. Carrie Andrews

Website: www.unionsd.org
Location: 5175 Union Avenue, San Jose, CA, USA
Phone: 408-377-8010
Facebook: facebook.com/unionschooldistrict
Twitter: @USDUpdates