On the March

Charles DiFazio
March 04, 2025

I hope everyone had a great Winter Break! With such a busy start to the year, it's felt like ages since my last newsletter, and consequently, there is much to discuss ahead of our first meeting in March.

As always, I hold weekly office hours on Fridays, so don't hesitate to book a slot if you'd like to meet! You can also send me an email at my official district address, [email protected]. I really appreciate hearing from people, since getting a broad, diverse set of viewpoints allows me to hear new perspectives, arguments, or details that I may not have thought of otherwise. Thank you to everyone who has reached out!

Staff Housing Oversight Committee

I attended my first Staff Housing Oversight committee meeting last week on Thursday, February 27.

We had two main orders of business. The first was electing the officers for the committee. Trustee Conley will be Chair of the committee, and I will be Vice Chair.

Next, we discussed the budget and potential move-in incentives for the project. During this discussion, I could really see the value of having members of the committee that were representatives from our important stakeholder groups. Having representatives for teachers and certificated staff allowed us to see the “on-the-ground” reality of how the program is working. I was really impressed by the courage these members had in describing their own experiences with the program.

As we administer this program, and provide the oversight necessary, these types of insights will be critical in making sure that we are providing an effective and efficient service. No doubt we will continue to iterate on this over time, and having as much information as possible makes that process work.

Board Policy Committee

At 1:00 PM on Wednesday, March 5, we will have our first meeting of the Board Policy Committee. Trustee Henry and I chose to be the first members serving on the committee, and we will have support from staff members. The purpose of the committee will be to look at new and revised policies in order to more deeply understand them and make appropriate recommendations.

Since this is a new committee for the district, one of the first items we will cover is planning how we structure the work of the committee. I look forward to building out this process so we can efficiently and effectively guide the policies that govern the district.

After that, we will discuss some new policies (BP 1240 Volunteer Assistance and BP 6144 Controversial Issues), along with proposed revisions to some of our existing policies. In addition to these updates, there will be another general policy update from the CSBA coming for March which we will take up in subsequent meetings.

There will be more to come once we have aligned on our structure for the committee, but I am glad that we are putting this process in place to allow for more effective board governance and policy-making.

Board Meeting

The Thursday, March 6 meeting begins at 4:30 PM with closed session until 6:00 PM. Here are some notable items on the agenda:

Staff Housing Document Summary and Review, Next Steps

One of the important workstreams that the Board has been working on is our Staff Housing at the Sevens. These two items will give us a nice checkpoint on the project.

The purpose of this Board item is to bring the Board's attention that all documents are now located in one place to provide simplified access for all stakeholders. The staff housing project has been an ongoing initiative spanning several years and multiple board compositions.

Item IX.A

While we have individually been reviewing the pieces of this project, and due to my service on the Staff Housing Oversight Committee I have become much closer to the details, this will provide a great opportunity for us and the public to have a single place to look back and look forward on the project.

Measure T Projects for Possible Pausing to Finance the Purchase of Land for Staff Housing

At the February 13 Board meeting, staff also heard strong support from the Board and community to maintain the Outdoor Learning Areas project. As a result, that project is not included in tonight’s discussion. The options presented for consideration this evening focus on projects that are either underway and could be paused or those that are in the early planning stages and may be reconsidered based on the district’s evolving priorities.

Item IX.C

This is a continuation of the Board’s discussion around funding options for a possible purchase of the land for the Staff Housing project. This discussion is important for the Board as we evaluate potential tradeoffs for using different sources of funding, in order to make the best decisions we can if we choose to purchase the land.

Outdoor Learning Update and Preliminary Designs

Carducci Associates met with each principal to review the comments and refined their designs to incorporate the feedback, including considerations for playground enhancements and other site-specific improvements.

[…]

The District and Carducci staff remain committed to an inclusive design process, ensuring that the final plans reflect the specific needs and aspirations of each school and our community’s dedication to providing students dynamic, comfortable spaces to learn, play and grow.

Item IX.D

We will be reviewing two initial example plans for the Outdoor Learning projects, Graham and Landels. There are upcoming listening sessions at the schools, including Graham and Landels, so if you are interested in these projects at your school, keep an eye out!

Volunteer Update / Vendor Selection Checklist

I want to quickly highlight these, as they are a continuing thread from previous meetings where staff is bringing back updates for these two programs. I'm encouraged to see us iterating on programs and processes to make sure they're meeting the needs of the district and our community.

Compensation of Future Superintendent

Briefly, we need to decide how much we will be proposing to pay our future Superintendent. Hiring a great Superintendent is going to be one of the more important decisions the Board will make in these early months of 2025. While pay is not everything a prospective Superintendent will be looking for, it's an important part of attracting the best talent we can.

Upcoming Events

As discussed above, there will be listening sessions at the schools for the Outdoor Learning plans. Not all have been scheduled yet, but the currently scheduled ones are:

Graham - March 7, 2025
Stevenson - March 17, 2025
Bubb - March 25, 2025
Landels - March 28, 2025

Our Congressional Representative, Sam Liccardo, is holding a Town Hall on from 2:00 PM to 3:30 Sunday, March 9, at the Mountain View High School Gymnasium. Space will be limited, so RSVP ahead if you wish to attend.

The Mountain View Teen Center has their Teen Week from March 17 - 21. There are some great events that I'm really looking forward to!