“Tonight, you're going to hear the board goals, including significant input that we just heard tonight. Detailed changes are going to be processed and shared in August before we start the school year. And part of the reason that we can't share those tonight is we need to meet with all of our teachers and specifically talk about, you know, related to technology. What are the things that we absolutely have to have and what are all the areas that we can eliminate technology and go back to paper and pencil?”

“And indeed like they've like the the all of the the work about experiential learning and the goals around the intentionality of technology. Those are new since we first pulled these together back in November and they have changed a lot. And um you know as a parent like I share a lot of the same concerns of the parents that were speaking in the room tonight. Not all of them but a lot of them. And I can see in our board goals where we have the room to address those and where we can prioritize them and how we can do that.”

“What I can't commit to is a promise of hasty change. Whatever changes we do make, and I've not heard a single district employee or board member say that there shouldn't be any changes. But I think those changes should be intentional, systematic, based on best practice and expert guidance. And in the interest of all almost 12,000ish of our students... Any change we make has repercussions.”

“The first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, if approved, will be observed on January 26th... I also just want to mention again that we'll be updating the assessment calendar that we post online um to avoid any huge projects, testing, assessments on those days. And we also provide a comprehensive list of observances just so that our educators in our communities are aware.”

“The committee consists of 27 members, 20 district employees, four high school students and three parents. This the final vote was 16 in favor of adding Chinese Lunar New Year and 11 opposed... My broader question right now is how the district will respond consistently if add additional cultural holidays are brought forward in the future as requests for non-instructional days. What transparent and equitable process will we use to guide these decisions and how will we communicate them clearly?”

“But um I don't think uh uh for for me a hypothetical about how we might evaluate something in the future doesn't diminish the cultural value of this holiday in the present. and I don't doubt that our calendar committee is capable of crossing those other bridges if we ever cross them.”