1-15-26: School Board Meeting Report

Here are the links to the agenda and the YouTube video of the meeting.  Times noted are time stamps from the video.  All of the powerpoints can be found in the agenda.

• [1:10] IVe.  Secondary Spotlight:  W. E. Mitchell Middle School:  The students made a wonderful presentation highlighting many aspects of Mitchell’s IB program both academically and socially, upcoming music and drama events, and highlighted recent facility improvements.   [ppt]

• [1:49] VIIr.  There was extensive discussion of Board Policy 6146.1 HS Graduation Requirements

  • The class of 2030 will be required to complete an Ethnic Studies course.  Currently this has been an unfunded mandate and until recently many districts  paused implementation.  Direction from SCOE and the state is to proceed under the assumption it will be funded.  FCUSD has been developing versions of this course.

  • There was also discussion about the requirement that the class of 2031 complete a Personal Finance Course.  Concern was shared that this might lead to the demise of our current Economics class.  There is much left to be determined, but it was pointed out that FCUSD’s graduation requirements can, and currently do, exceed state requirements and there are ways to teach both personal finance and the broader topic of economics within other courses in schools with limited access to electives - both topics are valuable and important for our students.

• [2:21] VIII.  Celebrating Student Athletic Accomplishments - Fall Sports  

  • 37% of secondary students participate in athletics

  • Congratulations to the FHS Varsity Football team-  the Sierra Foothill League (SFL) Champions, Sac-Joaquin Division I Section Champions, NorCal Division I Regional Champions, and CIF State Division I-AA Champions.

• IX.  Public Comment:

  • [2:28] Several speakers were from the Sacramento Literacy Foundation.   Included was an announcement that thanks to additional funding, Cordova Meadows students will become part of their program this spring that gives TK-5th grade students a bag with 5 culturally relevant books.

• [2:52] X. FCEA Report:  Jeannette Sansenbach addressed the roll out of the Studer 

survey results that included FCEA in the initial roll out.  She also thanked Jason Stricker for his collaborative efforts in a variety of areas and meetings on behalf of Special Education.

• XIIb.  Seniority List  [pdf included in the agenda]

• XIIe-h:  Formalizing, renaming or announcing names of various schools

  • CHS Stadium will formally be known as Lancer Stadium

  • Rename FHS stadium as Bulldog Stadium

  • Name for the new HS to be built-out on Prospect Park Drive:  Three Rivers Innovations Academy

  • New Elementary School in Folsom Ranch:  Granite Springs Elementary

  • New Middle School in Folsom Ranch:  Prairie City Middle School

  • New High School in Folsom Rancho:  Buffalo Creek High School

• [3:30] XIII.  Update presentation of mobile phones and board policy 5131.8.[4:27]   Based on student and staff feedback, the recommendation of staff is to keep the current board policy that requires MS students to put phones away for the entire school day while at the high schools the policy is to stow phones during class but allows them during passing or at lunch.  Board members had many concerns.  There is a future presentation about the usage of chromebooks - this was requested to come back with more information including (potentially) surveys of HS admin and staff. [ppt]

• [4:27] At the end of the meeting there was extended conversation regarding the potential renaming of Sutter Middle School and a previous request to modify the curriculum about the gold rush to include the full story.  This will be coming back on a future agenda if you are interested in giving input.